A/N: This chapter introduces the canonical characters Luviagelita Edelfelt (the Fateseries) and Soya Muto (Buso Renkin), along with three original characters who will be the only "main" original characters I plan to incorporate. Thanks for reading, and extra thanks for people who have added me to story alerts and who submit reviews!

Chapter 1: Edelfelt and Einzbern

Luvia entered an empty workspace in the Clock Tower and set down the small, heavy chest that Kischur Zeltretch Schweinorg had given her. Being approached by Rin's master had been completely unexpected, but even more unexpected was the story he told her about parallel worlds and the Holy Grail.

Locking the door behind her, the head of the Edelfelt family sat down in front of the small chest and unhooked the clasp holding it closed with deft fingers. Lifting the lid revealed a rough, spherical stone, light in color, and notable for having no notable qualities whatsoever. Frowning, Luvia lifted the stone from the cushioned inside of the box and looked it over, searching for any distinguishing marks, cracks, or other signs of significance. She found nothing. She lifted it close to her ear and shook it, but nothing seemed to rattle inside. Judging by the weight and texture of the stone, it was solid throughout.

"I wonder…" She sat back in the chair and attempted to recall tales she'd heard of heroes and round stones like this one. There were tales of magic rocks, boulders, and pebbles, and then there were tales of various crystal, jewel, or metal spheres. But spheres of plain stone? Nothing came to mind.

She sighed and retuned the stone to its chest, closing the lid and securing the clasp with a click. "Not that it matters." She had the artifact, and even knew the type of Servant she could use it to summon. It wasn't the most elegant of the seven classes, but she suspected that it would give her an edge: after all, no other spirit had the sheer physical power of Berserker.

Standing up, Luvia headed towards a bookshelf at the back of the room. There was a mirror on the wall between her and the shelf, and she stopped for a moment to look in it. Her blue dress was clean and unwrinkled, her orange-blonde hair was curled into perfect, stylish ringlets and, to her surprise, her fair, unblemished face was flushed. She hadn't realized how much the encounter with Zeltretch affected her composure.

Taking a deep breath, she passed the mirror and continued to the bookshelf, from which she pulled an atlas and a leather-bound volume whose title was stamped in Kanji. She returned to the desk on which Zeltretch's chest sat and settled back into her chair, taking up the atlas and flipping through until she found a section highlighting Japan. From there she turned some more pages until she located a map of a particular area within the country. One of the cities on the page was labeled "Fuyuki."

"I'll be sure to join you shortly, Rin," Luviagelita whispered, setting the open atlas aside and turning her attention to the leather-bound book, instead.

Elsewhere, in one of the dormitories used by students of the Clock Tower, Alex Scott finished reading a letter. He returned the expensive, heavy paper to its equally expensive envelope and tossed it into the fireplace. After watching it crumple, blacken, and burn up in the flames, he returned to his desk and picked up a second, unopened letter. This one was addressed to him from a certain Anthony Scott in the United States.

Taking up a letter opener, the young man slit open the envelope and removed the contents: a piece of lined notebook paper filled front and back with the familiar handwriting of his younger brother. They weren't related by blood, but Alex felt closer to his brother than to anyone else he knew.

He settled down at the desk and began to read, a sentimental smile coming to his face as his red eyes scanned the page. He twirled a lock of hair around his finger absentmindedly. He needed to get it cut, but he always hated how barbers reacted to its naturally white color.

He heard the door to his room open and close behind him but didn't bother to stop reading. It was obvious who it would be. Seconds later, his suspicions were confirmed when a pair of arms settled across his shoulders and the back of his neck while a chin came to rest on top of his head.

"Your brother, huh?" the person mused.

"Hey, Jay."

"That's niiice. I wish my brother would write me."

"It might help if your brother knew where to write to."

Jackson took his chin off of Alex's head and reached around to snatch up the letter.

"Jay!" Alex tried to snatch it back, but his friend danced away from the desk and out of reach. Now that Alex got a good look, he could tell that Jackson wasn't quite steady on his feet. "You're drunk."

"You shoulda joined us." Jackson waved the letter tauntingly. "It was a lot more fun than sitting around studying."

"Speaking of which," Alex stood up from the desk, "I've got everything ready for when you're sober. Think you'll be clear-headed by midnight?"

Jackson blinked, then nodded. "Yeah. Sorry."

"Whatever." Alex held out a hand to Jackson, who returned the letter with an appropriately penitent expression. Alex folded it carefully and went to place it in one of the desk's drawers. "I'm going out for a bit. Should I put out the fire or would you like to make yourself at home?"

Jackson shrugged. "I won't be using it."

With a wave of his hand, Alex dismissed the flames. It was as simple as snuffing out a candle. He opened the door and held it open for Jackson to depart through first. He exited too, pulled out a small key, twisted it in the lock, and addressed his friend one more time.

"Midnight, then?"

"Yes. Sure."

"Alright. Then I'll see you later tonight." Alex turned away and headed for the nearest staircase, eventually making his way outside. Within half an hour, he had departed the vicinity of the Clock Tower and found his way into an area frequented by people who had never dreamed that magic could be real. Because of his unusual hair color, he got many strange looks, but it wasn't as bad as it used to be. Young people were dying their hair outrageous colors all the time nowadays… the main thing was avoiding letting anyone notice his eyes. Consequently, he kept his head bowed until he reached a small, out-of-the-way café and stepped into an environment where none of the patrons particularly cared about any of the other patrons. The only ones to look up when he stepped inside were two servers standing behind the counter.

"Medium black," he told them, passing by the counter and heading towards one of the more isolated tables in a back corner of the shop. He sat down, and not long after one of the servers came with a cup of black coffee. She set it down, took the money he gave her, and whisked away without comment.

He sipped on his coffee and waited, keeping his eyes down on the table and resisting the urge to look around for the person he was supposed to be meeting. The letter he'd burned had specified that the person would find him; not the other way around. And so he waited, not looking up even when he heard the café door open and close.

"Alexander Scott?"

The person who eventually came up to his table did not sit down, forcing Alex to look up at him. To Alex's surprise, it was an Asian male, looking to be in his late teens or early twenties—much like Alex and Jackson. The man sported a stylish white jacket over a blue t-shirt, complimented by a long orange scarf wrapped about his neck.

"Yes?"

The man turned and nodded, and Alex saw a petite figure walk across the room to join them. Unusually, she was wearing a cloak with the hood up. When she sat across from Alex he had to do a double-take. Beneath the hood he saw that the woman had features just like his, from the pale skin and hair to the ruby-colored eyes.

"My name is Aryasviel von Einbern. This is my bodyguard, Soya Muto." She gestured to the Asian man, who nodded. "It's wonderful to finally meet you, brother."

The next day, Jackson Johns finally awoke around noon. The previous night had drained him, both physically and mentally, but the results had been well worth it. In spite of seeming a bit distracted, Alex had pulled through on his promise of getting all the preparations for their experiment taken care of. They were able to combine their magic—Alex's alchemy and Jackson's more unique brand of sorcery—in order to create the object that now hung on a necklace around Jackson's neck. They called it the Genome Pendant.

As far as Jackson was concerned, the little drill-shaped object was a success. It was made of a virtually indestructible alchemic alloy, and the shape and magic it had been infused with allowed Jackson to channel prana through it and manipulate the environment around him in a very particular way. Jackson's origin, the spiral, had been a subject of study for him and Alex since before they'd been extended an invitation to the Clock Tower. Alex's research into using spirals in magic circles in order to amplify their effects had proven fruitful, and the Genome Pendant was the amalgamation of their work thus far. It was still just a prototype and would need extensive testing, but Jackson was optimistic for what it would be able to do.

He crawled out of bed, went to the bathroom to wash his face, threw on a shirt, and stepped across the hall to Alex's room. Finding the door locked he knocked on it softly, and when that failed to get a response he pulled the new pendant over his head and held the little drill up next to the lock. The lock clicked when he gave the drill a twist, making Jackson smile. It was a trivial test, but it still felt good to see some results.

He found Alex's room like it usually was, slightly messy but with the bed made for once. It seemed Alex had gone out.

He walked to the desk and saw a short message addressed to him, written on a notepad.

Jay,

I'm afraid I probably won't be seeing you for a few weeks. The Einzberns have a project for me that I couldn't really say "no" to.

I'm glad the pendant came out well. See what you can do with it! I'm not going to leave you any contact information just yet, but I'll write to you when the chance comes up. Take care of yourself… don't do anything stupid, okay?

Love,

Alex

"A few weeks and he doesn't even say where he's going?" Jackson ripped the message out of the notepad and crumpled it up, tossing it at the wastebasket. To his irritation, it bounced of the wastebasket's rim and onto the floor. Grumbling, he stooped to pick it up… and that's when another piece of paper that was already in the basket caught his eye. He threw Alex's note away but pulled this piece of paper out instead, smoothing it out on the desk.

Alex had a tendency to do a lot of scratch-work when writing out alchemical equations and drawing diagrams for things like magic circles. Jackson had seen part of a magic circle on this piece of paper and had half-expected it to be the circle they'd used for making the Genome Pendant, but it wasn't. It was large and intricate, and calculations crowded the margins of the paper where Alex had attempted to figure out how to adjust the magic circle so as to incorporate a spiral. Below the circle was a hastily scrawled incantation, and below that the name "Fuyuki."

"You're pretty careless sometimes," Jackson said, rolling up the paper and taking it with him as he returned to the hallway.

By afternoon of the next day, he was on an airplane heading to Japan.