Fate On(e) Savior

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

A/N: Thank you for your review, coronadomontes.

Guest (27.04.2018): It says a lot about your personality if your first reaction to something not to your liking are insults and curses instead of rereading the passage to make sure you understood it right. Also, while it is possible for me to misunderstand the scope or even nature of a character's power, in the case of Berserker I did so on purpose. That is, because Berserker wasn't summoned as a Heroic Spirit, but as a Servant in a Servant-Container. And while Servant-Containers can increase the power of a character, they also have an upper limit to how much power you can put into them. Which means that if someone as powerful as Berserker is summoned, him not being as powerful as his canon self is the natural conclusion.

Chapter 9: Demons

"Actually, he is right. I am not human. I may be summoned as a Heroic Spirit, but no matter how you look at it, I am not a human. My name is Merry Nightmare and I am a dream demon!"

Tokiomi couldn't believe his ears. Demon. The sixth imaginary element. Beings born out of the wishes of humans and given form. They respond to the wishes of human and in exchange took their pain. The Holy Church dispatches Exorcists to deal with them, since a demon would disrupt the natural flow, possess humans and, when they fully matured, distort the outer world. But once that happened, there was no helping the human in question anymore. No Exorcist could banish a fully matured demon, so the Executors had to destroy both the demon and the host together.

Archer didn't seemed to be faced by this revelation in the slightest.

"A demon, huh? Great. After angels it's now fucking demons. What's next? Aliens?! But you don't look like a demon, not from the knowledge, the freaking Grail put inside of me."

"Yes, I am kind of a special case… Wait! You've met angels?!"

Tokiomi didn't think that was something special. For a normal human maybe, but there were a lot legends about heroes meeting and receiving gifts from angels or other Divine Spirits. Some of them were even children of gods! So for a Heroic Spirit that was not that much. Especially since Archer had no Divinity or Divine Protection. If you looked at his skill Actions against the Church it was more likely that he wasn't on their good side. It could even be the reason how he got killed in the first place. Volquart apparently didn't think that as something remarkable, too.

"I would prefer to know, what do you mean, with being a special case", he demanded. Understandable, as finding out that your Servant actually isn't a human spirit but a demon does induce a great shock.

"Well", she tried to explain. "I don't know what happened, but someday I was in the real world without any memories of my previous life or knowledge on how to get back. All that's left were my hat, my clothes and the unquenchable desire to go home. Opposite to all other dream demons I was incarnated with my body, not within a vessel or my garden." What? A named demon with no vessel and… what was the last one? Garden?

"With garden… do you mean 'Reality Marble'", Volquart wanted to know and Merry pondered about it.

"Yes", she finally said, "they are nearly the same."

A Reality Marble. Materializing one's inner world and projecting it onto reality following the 'World Egg theory'. Only a handful humans are said to have achieved this in the whole history of mankind. But that was different for demons. Together with their 'alien common sense of demons' a Reality Marble was supposed to be the natural ability of demons. For a demon to not have one… it was unthinkable! Yet again, if you didn't know it, you wouldn't think of Avenger as a demon at all. She was after all human enough to be summoned as a Heroic Spirit, even if it was an irregular one. Now thinking about it…

"…I never asked you what you wanted to wish from the Holy Grail." That's right. What would someone, whose role was it to fulfill wishes, want from a wish-granting device?

"I want to go back home!", she answered truthfully. "Since that fateful day I had done nothing else than trying to go back home. But it's something that no one can help me with. The Holy Grail is my last hope!" Volquart patted her on top of the head.

"Don't worry", he told her. "We are going to get the Holy Grail!"

"Tch. Don't think for a moment that we will just stand around and let you freaking have it!", Archer proclaimed. "Once we defeated all the others, we are going to fight for it!"

"Thank you", Avenger sniffed. Tohsaka tried hard to keep an emotionless expression. This scene in front of him reminded him of his daughters… no daughter! You gave Sakura away! You only have one daughter anymore! It is for the best! Even though he had told that to himself again and again, until he himself believed it, a small spark of uncertainty started to build up inside of him.

"Where am I?" Kariya slowly woke up. He didn't knew what happened. The last thing he remembered was Berserker beating Archer and then… black.

"You alright, uncle?" Kariya looked to his side. There stood a Japanese teenager, looking a little bit concerned. "You look worse than I and I've been the one fighting. Or rather, it had been 'him'."

"Him?"

"My inner Hollow. He doesn't have a name. He just keeps doing what he wants to." Hollow? Empty. Nothingness. Hole. Berserker?!"

"You are Berserker?!"

"I guess, but seriously. Accepting something like that Holy Grail War out of the blue…"

"Don't you have any interest in the Grail?"

"No. Not really. I mean, nearly everybody has some things they wish for. A happy life. Money. Fame. Resurrection of your loved ones. Something like that. But I'm not someone to lament about the past. Sure, I'd like to have my mother back, but I don't think the Holy Grail is the answer. And destroying six – no twelve wishes, just to get my own? Isn't that a little selfish? What makes you participate in this war?"

"I am going to save Sakura!"

"Sakura? I see. You want to save someone you hold dear, even in such a state. We sure have a lot in common, don't we? If that's the case, I don't really have a choice, don't I? Alright! I promise you to get you the Holy Grail, so you can save that person."

"Thank you. I am Matou Kariya. What's your name?

"Kurosaki Ichigo, Substitute Shinigami." So, Kurosaki… Ichigo... that didn't tell him anything. Wait! Death God?!

"Saver?!"

Waver Velvet couldn't believe his eyes. First he had seen Berserker with some ridiculous high stats, capable of dealing with two Servants at once. Well, considering the parameters of them it was actually more surprising that these two were capable of standing up against him. And none of them looked like an Archer. What's more, as Berserker was fighting two Servants at once, it increased the sum of all Servants to eight! And then the mysterious priest revealed the secret: He was a freaking Saver! Not one of the seven original classes, but one extra! According to him, his only purpose was, to make it more difficult to finish the Heaven's Feel. A rather doubtful explanation. But maybe he didn't want any wish and was just fighting in the Holy Grail War just for fun. It wasn't impossible. Some might just want to fight against the strongest heroes, they didn't got the chance in real life, because they lived too far apart or in different ages.

What was more concerning was that there was an eight Servant where their only should have been seven. Furthermore the other fact about Saver that came to light: He was a collector! Usually one Heroic Spirit had one Noble Phantasm, a symbol of their legend. And Noble Phantasm were so powerful, because they indeed were crystallized legends, gaining power over the course of time. Someone like him could have an infinite number of them, making it not just nearly impossible to identify him, but also someone, who might have a Noble Phantasm for every single opponent and situation! He was capable of breaking the Mad Enhancement for god's sake!

The only ray of hope was that he apparently could only collect books. Still, two of the books he displayed were the exact counters for two of Rider's abilities. Adding an unlimited number of other books, he probably would have to team up with someone, if he wanted to defeat Saver. His old teacher was out of question, Tohsaka already had a partner and the Matou… were not to find. That left the Einzbern. But that still meant he had to figure out, how to approach them. It might be a good move for two Master to team up and defeat a stronger opponent, but helping an opponent Master defeat a Servant who worked especially good against that Master's Servant? Not likely! So, even though he would have to get rid of Saver, there was nothing he could do at the moment. He could only hope, he wouldn't encounter the irregular Servant on the opposite site on the battlefield any time soon.

Saber was having the most difficult fight since he was summoned into this Holy Grail War. His opponent was a white-haired women in Chinese clothes wielding a long naginata. And she was skilled, scarily skilled. A thrust here, a swipe there, Saber had to use all of his skills and tricks to evade her onslaught. Suddenly, he landed a little bit to close and with one swift movement she impaled him on her spear-like weapon. Saber shattered in a million pieces and in bright red letters appeared: YOU LOST

"I lost again!", Saber lamented and put away his game console. "But you sure are good with this, aunt Irisviel! You sure you have never played this before?!" The wife of his Master chuckled.

"It's like I am a natural!", she claimed. After the revelation the night before, they did what every strategically competent Master would do in this situation: Nothing! The fact that an eight Servant appeared was certainly big news, especially a collector whose whereabouts and motives were unknown. So it was better to wait for others to make a move. But that left them with a lot of free time. And since Irisviel had never played video games that's what they did right now.

"But where is Kiritsugu? Does he really have to do that much?"

"It's… not like that." Her face took on a sad smile. Saber felt her discomfort and decided to drop the topic.

"You don't need to tell me, if you don't want to", he told her, but she just shook her head.

"It's okay", she told him. "It's just, for Kiritsugu is a person for whom happiness is pain." Saber pondered about that? A person for whom happiness is pain? Someone who can't stand to be happy?! Saber tried to imagine, why a person would feel this way. The only answer he could think of, were memories. If he remembered something painful every time he was happy, then he couldn't be truly happy. And if you add that to his wish "world peace"… Did he killed some innocent people and was now regretting it? Nevertheless, he could tell that at his core, his Master was not a bad person. And if he used to be a bad guy that wanted to repent for his sins… he wouldn't deny him this chance. And that's why he looked her into the eye and firmly stated:

"Let's work hard and fulfill Kiritsugu's wish!"

Akage sighed. He had to buy so many things that it was already getting dark. It had been lunchtime, when he finally woke up – the long nights were too much for his young body to handle – and when he asked, if they could continue with their training, Saver told him that he had to rest, because he used up too much power. (Actually he told him, he didn't wanted to fight without rest until his mana was completely depleted, but that quickly changed in Akage's memory.) The boy had decided to use this opportunity to restock their food and went on a shopping trip. But Saver allowed him to go only if he fulfilled a certain condition: If you got into trouble use a Command Seal to call me to your side. But it had to be really bad trouble. Apparently Saver wanted him to keep the Command Seals in reserve for as long as possible and even promised him to do everything he asked of him, if he would never waste a Command Seal like that.

That was the first time Akage heard, what power the Command Seals actually had over the Servant. Every command, really every command had to be followed. If you used one of those no Servant could withstand your order. But that had uses for the Servant, too. An order, done with the consent of the Servant could power them up incredibly. So a command to appear could even rip through space to make the Servant comply to that wish. So Akage promised, to not to use them lightly.

He stopped in his musings, when he noticed a girl his age with black twin tails and a vermilion jacket looking around as if she was searching for something. Being part of a secret war Akage knew, how dangerous it was for a small child to be outside in Fuyuki at night and so he made his way over towards her and hopefully help her find home.

Now someone could argue that Akage wasn't exactly older and that the people working at the mail should be sent to prison, for letting someone so young do the groceries so late at night without calling the authorities, but thanks to Saver's El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha (These Are no Windmills), he now had the appearance of a grown-up. To be precise, he had black hair green eyes, glasses and a doctor uniform, containing a black collar long sleeves white shirt with black, gray, and light blue tie and gray sweater vest, white lab coat, black gloves, black pants with gray lines, and black shoes. Why Saver had to suppress a chuckle while he was in this form was beyond him.

"Hello", he greeted the girl. "Do you maybe need some help? I am Akaji Akage." At once she turned around and took some steps back, bringing distance between.

"What do you want", she demanded to know, eyeing him warily. He himself took a step lifted his hands in a protective gesture.

"Wait, wait! I just wanted to help! You know it's not safe out here at night! That's why I thought, I should help you find your way home…" She narrowed her eyes.

"Oh? And who tells me that you aren't the reason that it's dangerous out at night?!" He gasped in shock as he tried to find an answer.

"Good point", he said after some reflections, "but I can't let a girl stay that late at night out all alone…"

'Hey, Saver! Wake up! There is a girl here all alone and I don't know what to do! Can you please come?' Akage tried to contact his Servant over their mental link.

'Oh, a girl? Wow Shirou, you are working quick!'

'I told you I am not Shirou! And what do you mean?'

'Damn Shirou, you are dense. Wait, I come over. Have you asked for her name?' Akage turned his attention back towards her and saw her staring at some golden compass in disbelief. The top of the needle was lighting up red and pointing towards him.

"Oh, what's that?", he asked curious. "And why is it pointing towards me?" He took some steps to the side and the needle was following him.

"Cool!", he exclaimed. "But what is it exactly showing?" The girl in front of him pondered for a moment.

"Nothing much", she then said. "It just points towards any pedophile near by!"

'Hey Saver.'

'What is it, I told you I am coming.'

'What's a pedophile?' Akage winced, when suddenly Saver burst out into laughter.

"What are you laughing about?!"

'A pedophile is an old man who likes small children more than he should!'

"Wa? But I am not an old man?!"

'No, but you look like one.'

"Is that why you laughed, when you activated... how did you called it again? Something with Mecha?"

"Who are you talking too?" As he heard the question from the girl he knew, he had spoken aloud.

"Well, you see…" Her face was suddenly filled with rage.

"I knew it!", she exclaimed. "You are the one who kidnapped all this children! You are a Master!"

"Wait, wait! Yes, I am a Master, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I kidnapped any children! How do you even now things like Master?!"

"That doesn't matter!", she said, taking out a small jewel. "I am going to make you give them back!"

Both, Akage and the girl froze in shock, when the compass suddenly started to raise into the air, spinning violently while it produced red sparks until it abruptly pointed into one direction and broke down.

"Oh really? I want to see that", a voice came from the direction the compass had pointed to and soon they could see a small girl wearing a black hood with snake-like appendages slowly moving towards them. Behind her walked a young man with orange hair and a purple overcoat. With a sinister smile on her face the hooded girl addressed them again:

"But do you plan on rescuing all the children I kidnapped or only those I recently kidnapped? If it's the former I actually really want to see that. I mean, you don't get to see the third Magic at work every day."

Slowly she moved closer, step by step, while the two children were too terrified to move.

"But then again, you don't look like an Einzbern. More like a Tohsaka."

Akage knew. The pain appearing in his hand proved, these two were Master and Servant.

"Run!", he screamed and waved his hand, before grabbing her and pulling her with him. Caster was preparing to run after them, when suddenly a hail of knifes and forks went down on them. The girl, identified as Tohsaka, saw this display while they were running and turned towards Akage.

"Did you just threw cutlery at a Servant?!"

"Well, sorry for not being able to do much more else!"

"You are going to be sorry!"

Caster who suddenly appeared in front of them, pointed with her hands at them and out of her sleeves leaped black arrows, impaling Akage's chest. Or rather the chest of his illusion. Caster's eyes widened, when instead of the adult a kid appeared, already his hands hold out towards her. She jumped back as a set of meat knifes flew out of the palms on his hands. Black arrows appeared out of her back and destroyed all the knives, while simultaneously making their way towards the two children. But before they hit a red fabric that suddenly appeared in front of them, effectively blocking all the arrows.

"I told you to use a Command Seal, if it was serious, Shirou!", Saver lectured his Master.

"Sorry, I forgot", he answered sheepishly, before becoming disgruntled. "I told you, my name is Akage!"

"Whatever. Don't we have an enemy to fight?" He turned towards Caster. "Now that's interesting. I thought I knew all the Servants, so why is their suddenly a ninth one?" Tohsaka gasped. Nine Servants?! That shouldn't be possible. There were only seven classes, after all. And not only one but two Servants more…unthinkable! Without knowing of the girl's inner shock he continued:

"But please don't tell me you are Archer. You being an Archer just because you happen to have some 'arrows' would be a real bad cosmic joke." She smiled at him.

"Why you are perceptive. I am indeed Archer."

"Ars Generalis Ultima (The Great Universal Art of Finding Truth)."

Saver looked at a book in his hand, before exhaling relieved.

"GLaD that's a cake, Caster", he said, before putting his book away. "So, now that we both know our opponents titles, why don't we cut right to the fun part where we try to kill each other?" Between the fingers of his left hand appeared three black blades with red cross-shaped hilts. They were called "Black Keys" and were Conceptual Weapons used by the Church.

"Now, now, do you really going to attack me, while I am inside this boy? He is really frightened, right now. I mean, wouldn't you, when the only people capable of saving you, are trying to kill you?" Saver narrowed his eyes.

"Ars Generalis Ultima (The Great Universal Art of Finding Truth)."

What he found in the book didn't seem to please him. He turned towards Caster.

"Body Possession? Seriously?! What are you? A demon?!"

She just smiled and Saver let out a sigh.

"She is telling the truth", he told Akage. "We can't kill her without killing the person she's inside. However…" His eyes began to gleam. "…that's not true for her Master. Master! Let it rain!" Without questioning him, just like they agreed beforehand, Akage hold out his hand and again cutlery shot towards Caster's Master, or rather way above him.

"Looks like your little Master still needs some training for his aim", Caster laughed.

"Liber de Lumine (The Golden Book of Light)!" …when suddenly all the forks and knifes turned into liquid gold, raining down on Ryuunosuke.

"Cooooool", he shouted thrilled, when in a flash a black and yellow snake shot out from the mouth of Caster and flew right under the golden rain. Then a bulge appeared and a sphere covered in gold shot skywards. Then like an explosion the gold on the sphere sprayed to all sides, showing an adult Caster surrounded by her black arrows. Saver raised an eyebrow.

"Interesting", he commented. "So a Servant with Body Possession can even possess his own Master? I must say, neat trick. Gotta remember that one. You, however, made a little mistake." He grinned and jumped in front of the boy who had his original appearance back. "You have no hostage anymore!" Suddenly the boy started screaming and trashing. Saver understandably was a little bit startled and jumped away.

"And what did you did now?", he wanted to know from Caster, his voice clearly showing his annoyance.

"Why? I just planted one of my snake familiars inside of him." She snapped with her fingers and the boy calmed down. "If you let me go now, everything's going to be fine, but if you don't…" She snapped again and Tohsaka and Akage looked horrified as the boy started screaming again. Saver turned towards Caster.

"So, that is your plan?" Caster smiled.

"My earlier statement still stands." Caster wasn't the only one, who was surprised. Both children blinked at the Servant in confusion. Saver then decided to elaborate his statement:

"We both seem to have different meanings for the word 'hostage'!"

With three of the swords in each hand he jumped towards Caster. Caster was too surprised to react at first and she only managed to use her arrows to block just in time. The swords in his left hand vanished and instead a book appeared.

"Als ich ein kleiner Junge war (Not Everything Seen by Children Should Be Told to Children)."

Wide-eyed she saw the arrows getting absorbed by the book, nothing left to block the swords in his right hand from cutting her."

"Saver…", Akage shouted, Saver at once stopped and like lightning returned to Akage's side.

"…stop", his Master finished lamely and the mana that had built up inside his left hand disappeared.

"You idiot!", shouted Saver and used his hands as screws for Akage's head. While the boy let out screams of agony Saver continued:

"I told you to not waste a Command Seal for something like that!"

"B-b-but if you kill Caster, he is going to die."

Caster just looked bewildered at the scene that was happening. Then she smiled a very sinister smile.

"Well, looks like your Master and I do share the same definition of 'hostage', right?" Saver looked at her as if he possessed Mystic Eyes able to kill and then looked back towards Akage.

"Listen, Master", he told him. "If we don't kill her now, she is going to kill a lot more people later. Do you think you can take responsibility for that?" He started to cry.

"B-but I don't want to let someone die r-right in front of my eyes!" Saver sighed. Akage was way too small to already have to make such decisions. With poison in his eyes he turned towards Caster.

"If it weren't for the Command Seals I would have killed you", he declared and Caster smiled. "You are lucky my Master is such a goody two-shoes!"

"My, my, I really like the way you think. I must say, you are turning me on a little." Saver shuddered.

"Please", he demanded, "don't say such things while you're inside a man!" Caster laughed.

"Interesting phrasing", she commented. "See you later, honey!" The boy stopped screaming and without haste she turned around and walked away. Saver himself turned to address his Master.

"So, Shirou. What are we going to do with the boy? He still has the familiar inside of him." Akage shrugged. "I don't know. Don't you have some books that could help?"

"It's a familiar. The only book that would work, before it noticed that we are trying to get rid of it is Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum (Ninety-five Theses) and that would made the familiar get out and attack its former Master at the fastest way possible, probably killing the boy in the process. Artifitium electionis personarum (Tracts on Election Procedures) is another such case. It makes the familiar independent, but as long as he is inside of him, it just could decide to wreak havoc. And Huangdi neijing (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon) tells you only how to heal someone, usually with materials that are no longer available thanks to the emigration of all Phantasmal Species. Healing magecraft always had been a most difficult branch of thaumaturgy and only someone with a special element and origin like Grigori could excel in that. Such a pity he didn't write a book."

"I might know someone", Tohsaka butted in for the first time. At once she had the attention of both male. The third one was still unconscious. Saver urged her to go on. "Well, father said, the fake priest has a unique origin that makes him perfect for spiritual surgery. He might be able to do something."

"What's his name", Akage wanted to now.

"Kotomine Kirei."

A/N:

Hi guys and gals.

So, for everybody who didn't notice, Avenger's true identity is actually Merry Nightmare from Yumekui Merry. And she is a demon, another terminology of the nasuverse. Has anybody noticed how much dream demons of that anime/manga are like the nasuverse's demons? That could be a crossover itself! They possess human and have a Reality Marble-like Dream World. That really screams demon, doesn't it?

I also tried including a more mundane scene, but it's rather difficult for me to pull something like that off. But I didn't cut it out, because I wanted to show you that even though they are in a war, they still have some everyday-life-like moments (besides shopping and eating).

We also have the first confrontation with Caster, but we can't actually call it a fight. But Akage still has seen her and so, you get her parameter chart, after the author notes. And speaking of Akage, I actually planned that the possessed boy would be saved. But now that I think about it, doesn't that sounds kind of familiar?

Gashadokuro Amanojaku

CLASS: Caster

Master:

True Name:

Sex: female

Strength: D

Endurance: C

Agility: C

Mana: B

Luck: D

Noble Phantasm:

Class Abilities

Territory Creation: A

is the skill to build a special terrain that is advantageous to oneself as a magus.

Creation of a "Temple", which is superior to a "Workshop", becomes possible.

Item Creation: A

Is the skill to manufacture magical items.

Capable of making healing potions that grant limited immortality.

Skills

Disengage: D

Is the ability to break away from combat.

Running away from a fight becomes rather easy.

Body Possession:

Is a skill that allows to possess other beings, making use of some of their power.

Vector Magic: A+

A thaumaturgy branch that utilizes arrows and directions in a fight.

Caster can produce thousands of arrows and controlling them at once.

Noble Phantasm