I don't own Fate. Fate is the property of Type-Moon, and no financial gain is made from this or is sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

Guardian of Zero

Chapter 11

"Lady Sola…" Lancer began. "…are you certain?"

"Not completely, no." Sola replied. "But all indications point to it. Berserker's Master has probably gathered vast amounts of prana by this point, and will soon drive Berserker into a fury to draw out all the remaining Servants. In that time he or she will most likely attempt to eliminate as many of the exposed Masters as possible."

"Divide-and-conquer…?"

Sola nodded in agreement. "This strategy is quite fitting for the Matou." She continued. "Their magic is supposed to be focused on familiars, in combat allowing them to strike multiple targets across large areas."

"But surely the Masters won't be…no…"

"Most of the Masters will probably be able to fight off Matou if he or she spreads out his or her combat strength too much…" Sola agreed grimly. "…but if he focuses on any single one of them, I doubt even the Magus Killer will stand. But there are two Masters who will be utterly helpless in either situation, given that Rider will not standby and allow Berserker to rampage through the streets and harm innocent bystanders, nor will he allow his ally Caster to do so."

"…bastard…" Lancer ground out. "…Matou not only will allow his Servant to harm the innocent, he will also personally assault children? I will kill that knave myself with my own hands before I let it happen."

Sola smiled inwardly; on one hand she cared little for the Velvet boy and the Tohsaka girl, but dangling their safety to draw out Lancer's chivalric side and take advantage of it was another matter entirely. "No doubt, Saber will intervene against Berserker." She said. "However given our past encounters, she will not be able to use her full strength. Fear not though, Caster and Rider will be there, and Archer will probably not pass up a chance to finish the job."

"And in the meantime we'll wait for Matou in ambush…?" Lancer said, and she smiled at him.

"I already have the location of Caster and Rider's hideout." Sola told him. "When he attempts to take advantage of their Masters' weakness, we'll end him."

Lancer nodded in agreement, and Sola opened her mouth to say some more when they both heard a wheelchair driving down the rough hallway and entering the room. "Impressive detective work, Sola…" Kayneth congratulated the horrified woman. "…however don't you think that you're being too sentimental? This is an excellent opportunity to eliminate two Masters and thus undermine two Servants"

"Kayneth...!" she hissed. "How…?"

The man smiled. "I'm not nearly as helpless as you think I am." He said. "Even without magic I still have considerable assets to my name, and while it was a bit difficult I managed to contact a puppet master and it was quite easy for him to return to me a degree of mobility. All at a fair price of course."

The last bit was delivered with a certain degree of contempt, but Sola and Lancer didn't notice it. The former was thinking hard on how to keep Lancer by her side, while the latter sank to his knees before his former Master. "My lord…" he said with his head bowed. "…it is good to see you recovered to an extent."

Kayneth shot him a disdainful glance but said nothing. "As I was saying…" he continued, redirecting his attention back to Sola. "…there should be no need for us to intervene against Matou's onslaught against Caster and Rider's Masters. It will undermine both their Servants, making them easy prey for us and the others, bringing us a few steps closer to the Grail."

Lancer's head shot up, his expression shocked at Kayneth's callous willingness to allow children to be harmed when they could do something to prevent it, the children being Masters aside. Sola smiled inwardly again, thankful for the man's arrogance giving her a chance to further prove her worth to Lancer. "A fair point Kayneth…" she said. "…but you are not Lancer's Master. I am. And I will not allow children to come to harm, even if those same children are technically enemies. Their blood will drip from my hands if I let it happen, and it will haunt my descendants for eternity."

A bit thick, she had to admit, but there was a slight glint of approval in Lancer's eyes so it wasn't all bad. "Rest assured…" she said while holding up her hands in a placating fashion. "…I will use the Grail to restore your magic when this war is over, but without magic circuits I cannot and will not allow you to become Lancer's Master lest you undermine him as you intend to undermine Caster and Rider."

"Sola…!" Kayneth exploded. "Must you be so sentimental? This is…!"

"Lady Sola is correct." Lancer interrupted. "Forgive my interruption my lord, but right now you are in no condition to be a Master. Furthermore…"

"Be silent, Servant!" Kayneth roared. "I have not…!"

"Kayneth…" Sola said flintily and with prana flowing through her voice. "…sleep."

Kayneth's eyes barely had time to widen before her command was imposed onto him, and his head fell back in sleep. Lancer looked at Sola with an unhappy expression, and she cringed back. "Sorry Lancer…" she said apologetically and with a bow. "…but knowing Kayneth we'd argue about it for hours and get nothing done otherwise."

"…I see…" Lancer said with a nod as Sola began to push Kayneth's wheelchair back to his makeshift room. "…my lady, I will expect you to uphold your word."

Inwardly, Sola groaned but didn't let any sign of it show. "I intend to keep it, I assure you." she said instead.

Lancer nodded. "With that said…" he began. "…thank you I suppose."

Sola blinked as she tried to get Kayneth back on his gurney and after a moment Lancer chuckled before helping her. "For what?" she asked.

"For doing the right thing…" he answered. "…Lord Kayneth's plan while dishonorable was sound, and for a moment I feared that you would give in to the temptation."

Sola blushed, and she fidgeted before giving an answer. "Well I…" she blurted out. "…anyway, I understand you might be a little uncomfortable still being my Servant now that Kayneth is up and about – to an extent – so I have a little compromise in mind. Once Berserker begins his rampage, you should go and intercept his Master at Rider and Caster's hideout. I will stay here with Kayneth."

Lancer's eyes widened with alarm. "My lady…" he began. "…this is extremely dangerous…"

"So long as Matou does not focus all his efforts against me…" she interrupted him. "…I should be able to hold him off. And if I cannot, well I still have two command spells with me. One is more than sufficient."

For a moment Master and Servant stared at each other in silence, and finally Lancer smiled. "…a sound plan my lady." He conceded. "It seems that you have some steel in you after all, so I apologize for underestimating you."

Sola blushed again and looked away. "Flatterer…" she muttered, and despite himself Lancer laughed at the sight.

"In any case my lady…" he said while beginning to leave the room. "…there are still a few hours left until nightfall, and that assumes Berserker will attack tonight. I will stand watch."

Sola nodded, and the Servant left…and missed out on her impromptu victory dance.

It was just another ordinary night in Fuyuki City, and in the nature of things such an ordinary night never ended in an ordinary way. In one universe the mundane course of things ended with the appearance of a Great Old One, a True Demon from a nightmare dimension.

In one variant of that timeline, the True Demon was banished by a holy sword.

In another variant, the holy sword was not available, and the golden king personally wiped it from the face of the planet – along with the entire city – after it offended him by daring to defile his sky-throne.

In one other variant none of the Servants present could banish it, resulting in a nightmarish chain reaction of events resulting in mass hysteria and dementia gripping the mundane population across the globe before the Counter Force intervened and wiped East Asia and the West Pacific – by then reduced to a hellish domain of slime and rot overrun by cephalopod abominations – from the face of the planet. The fact that Human civilization would regress to a pre-Medieval state as a result of its belated intervention didn't even register with Alaya. Humanity lived, and that was all that mattered.

In this iteration of the timeline, the mundane course of things was broken by a massive explosion of flame and debris that lit up the night sky as the city's primary fuel storage and distribution facilities went up in fire. Silhouetted against the flames was a red-eyed giant in black armor, which roared as it grabbed massive, truck-sized chunks of debris and hurled them as unstable, prana-infused projectiles against the distant bridge.

By the time the emergency teams arrived at the blazing ruins of the fuel facility, the bridge has since been blown into two, and the giant was venting its rage by hurling even more projectiles across the city to devastating effect. The emergency teams gaped with a mix of shock and terror as the giant picked up a twisted, red-hot beam of metal, the metal blackening inexplicably before the giant roared and threw itself at them.

And then the screaming started.

Saber jumped over buildings as she raced to what Kiritsugu called 'ground zero', which was also from where Berserker was hurling explosive projectiles across the city. Kiritsugu himself was keeping an eye on the other Masters, and Saber ground her teeth as to why none of the other Servants had responded to this...madness.

"Calm yourself Saber…" Kiritsugu's thoughts slid smoothly into her head. "…there's more to this than meets the eyes, and knowing who Rider is it's unlikely he and Caster would just jump into this blindly. I'm not surprised neither Archer nor Lancer are over there, considering who their Masters are."

"So you're sending me to spring the trap?" she asked back.

"Sometimes you have to spring the trap before you can counter." The answer ghosted back. "No doubt Matou intends to use Berserker as a distraction to draw out as many Servants as possible and then take out their Masters in one fell swoop."

Saber snorted contemptuously, knowing full well what would happen to any idiot magus who tried to pull that off against Kiritsugu. "This will also be an excellent opportunity for us." Kiritsugu continued, and Saber rolled her eyes.

"I'm not surprised." She commented dryly. "You're going to take advantage of this just as much as Matou is, aren't you?"

"Clever girl…" Kiritsugu began, only for the rest of his thoughts to be blotted from her mind when Saber was thrown back by a blackened husk of what looked like a police car. She smashed it back with her sword, using the force to simultaneously arrest her forward movement and somersault back to land gracefully on her feet.

With a deranged roar Berserker charged her, carrying prana-infused beams of metal blackened and shot-through with red in both hands. Saber staggered back as the black knight hammered away at her with both makeshift weapons, the blonde grinding her teeth as the lingering pain from Gae Buidhe prevented her using her full strength against the madman before her.

Seemingly-out of patience, the black knight struck down with both weapons at once, both pseudo-Noble Phantasms exploding as they struck Invisible Air's edge. The explosion was intense, and being lighter Saber was sent flying back. Unfortunately for her, Berserker was much heavier and while he was staggered he managed to remain on his feet.

With a triumphant roar Berserker grabbed Saber by the leg and with a roar of triumph threw her through several buildings. He then ripped out a lamppost and jumped after her, moving surprisingly fast for his size. Saber had barely gotten to her feet when he was on her, pummeling away, and it wasn't long before he managed to force open her guard and struck her down with a black-armored fist.

Saber went down stunned, and with another triumphant roar Berserker raised his weapon high and brought it down two-handed.

Is this the end?

Saber's question was answered in the following instant as Gae Dearg deflected Berserker's blow to the side, while Gae Buidhe lanced towards the black knight's face. Berserker gave way, and Lancer guarded Saber as the blonde got to her feet. "Lancer…" she managed. "…thank you…I believe those are the right words to say."

Lancer smiled and charged in to attack, his lances flashing as he wove through Berserker's furious swipes and trailed sparks through the air whenever each of his counterattacks were turned aside by Berserker's armor. The Knight of Fianna danced back with a curse, and Berserker moved to counterattack with a roar, only to be driven back by a surprise attack from Saber.

"I was just passing through." Lancer quipped as he and Saber took turns attacking Berserker from two sides. He would strike fast and hard, gouging trenches and gashes across Berserker's armor before dancing back once the momentum of his attack was spent and Berserker had adapted to his lightning-quick strikes. Then Saber would charge in, stopping Berserker's counterattack cold before it could gain steam, only for her to withdraw once his attention was again focused on her and allowing Lancer to launch a fresh attack.

"Saber…" Lancer began. "…I'm sure that your Master has already seen through this. This is a distraction."

"Indeed…" Saber said as she avoided a blow from Berserker that would have taken her head off, and sprang back as Lancer covered her retreat with a stabbing slash that left a clear mark across Berserker's abused armor. "…he intends to take advantage of the situation as much as Berserker's Master does. Despite it being rather dishonorable for a knight to speak ill of his or her lord, Kiritsugu shames himself."

Lancer laughed despite the situation, the two knights leaping back a good distance immediately afterwards as Berserker roared and smashed the road around him to bits. Apparently the black knight took their laughter and relatively light-hearted conversation as insulting, and began hurling prana-infused debris at them. "Saber…" Lancer began as he sheathed Gae Dearg and used Gae Buidhe to parry the debris he couldn't dodge. "…I wasn't lying when I said earlier that I was just passing through."

"What do you mean?"

"Lady Sola believes that Matou may attempt to target the weakest Masters first, distracted as their Servants are by the carnage across the city, and then work his or her way up from there."

"Bastard…!"

Lancer chuckled again. "No doubt she's only trying to impress me…" he said ruefully. "…but her faux concern for others is not completely unappreciated, as even if they are enemy Masters they are still children. As a knight I cannot and will not tolerate the deliberate targeting of children!"

"Go…" Saber urged him. "…I can take care of this."

"Are you sure?"

Saber smiled grimly. "It seems that I have an opportunity to prove to the King of Conquerors that despite my other flaws I am in fact, a hero."

Without another word Saber charged Berserker head-on, her sheer fury allowing her to keep up with the black knight despite Gae Buidhe's effects. Her first two blows managed to stagger Berserker, but the third was solidly-blocked, and a riposte sent her stumbling back a few steps. A two-handed blow exploded in her face, and again the blonde was sent flying. With another roar Berserker ripped out a rather large pipe from the ruined road, and charged.

"Not so fast, madman!" Lancer hissed as he intercepted Berserker, Gae Buidhe flashing as it deflected the prana-infused pipe Berserker was using, and then Lancer danced in close, briefly surprising Berserker and allowing Lancer to kick him back while using the kickback to land between him and Saber. Prana erupted around the Knight of the Lance, and Gae Buidhe glowed bright in his hands.

"Lancer…" Saber shouted behind him. "…what are you doing?"

"No disrespect intended Saber…" he answered. "…but the way you are now you can't stand against Berserker."

"But…!"

"But I cannot switch places with you, for I do not trust Kiritsugu Emiya with the location of Waver Velvet and Sakura Tohsaka. And it seems that this black knight has something of a grudge against you."

"Lancer…" Saber whispered in disbelief. He smiled at her, and then he hurled Gae Buidhe as a javelin at Berserker. He caught it, but the Broken Phantasm exploded with enough force to level entire districts of the manufacturing and industrial zones behind the black knight.

"I doubt that will be enough to put him down." Lancer said, already turning away from the battlefield. "But that should even the odds between the two of you. Live King of Knights, and let us meet again and settle the score between us!"

"…but your lance…"

Lancer smiled as he jumped up back to the rooftops. "I was always better with Gae Dearg anyway." He said. "I daresay even without Gae Buidhe I can match you at full strength with just Gae Dearg."

Saber smiled after a moment and through a salute after him. "...I look forward to settling the score between us then." She said, and then turned back to the battlefield. Already she could hear the sound of heavy, armored feet crushing stones underfoot beyond the crackling and popping of flame and the sound of collapsing stonework.

It was time she stopped holding back. This…madman has caused too much damage to the hapless city, and has caused too many unnecessary deaths. He may not necessarily be in his right mind, but his Master is, and from the look of things he was not worthy of the privileges of participating in the war.

Powerful gusts of wind erupted around her as she dispelled Invisible Air, blowing back flames and smoke and causing already weakened stonework to collapse. Prana erupted in brilliant light as Excalibur emerged in all its glory, held two-handed and point-upwards before her. "I am Altria Pendragon…" Saber proclaimed as Berserker slowly walked through the ruins. "…the King of Britain, the Lord of Camelot, and the Protector of the British…"

Her words trailed off and her eyes widened in horror as Excalibur wavered, its light fading as its wielder's resolve crumbled like a sand castle before the waves. She staggered back, shaking her head in denial. "…no…" she whispered in shock and horror. "…no…no…it can't be you…not you…NOT YOU…!"

"I…I have always known…" Berserker stammered out in response, a hand clutching at his exposed face, his armor broken and battered but the knight within unharmed for all that. A sword was sheathed at his side, and his mournful eyes flickered with the light of insanity as Lancelot of the Lake teetered on the brink. "…from the moment…I first saw you in this strange time and age…I remember…"

"Lancelot…" Saber whispered mournfully, and the fallen knight locked eyes with her. For a moment there was silence, Lancelot's hand falling away from his face…and then the madness returned. Saber looked away, tears spilling from her eyes as her greatest failure screamed in rage and insanity before ripping out the blackened and defiled form of Arondight from its sheath.

"...ARTHUR!"

"Are you sure about this?" Rider asked Caster as they rode across the skies to where Berserker had kicked off his rampage. "Leaving Waver and Sakura alone like that?"

"My bounded fields are first-class!" Caster responded with a note of offense in her voice. "I may not be an Aozaki, but there are still no magi in this city which can break through all the layers of protection I've placed around the house! Oh they probably will break through the first two…but that's where it gets interesting."

Rider laughed with amused approval, and then cast his eyes towards the battlefield. "What can you tell me about what's happening over there?" he asked.

"Nothing…" Caster replied unhappily. "…Berserker's devastating rampage has torn through my sensor nets in the area and I don't dare send familiars in. Saber probably was there though, judging from that flash of light from earlier."

"You've seen it before then?" Rider asked. "Excalibur that is…?"

Caster nodded. "Once, during my world's Fifth Holy Grail War." She replied. Okay, perhaps that was a half-truth, but Caster didn't think the blackened Saber's 'Excalibur' still counted as the real thing.

Rider made to say something, but closed his mouth instead as he spotted something flying in the distance. He flew closer instead, ignoring Caster's queries as to why he'd gone off-course, and then she too fell silent once she noticed what she was staring at. She slapped her forehead. "Is that a Vimana?" she asked in awe.

Rider however had eyes only for Archer, who was enthroned atop the golden craft. About the same time the King of Heroes noticed his rival, and two pairs of crimson eyes met each other. Words were redundant, and at the same time the lips of both kings widened with vicious smiles.

"Caster…" Rider told his passenger, who by this point was staring murderously at Archer's passenger.

"Tokiomi…" Archer told his stowaway who was dispassionately gazing at his daughter.

"…this is no longer a battle of heroes." Rider continued. "This is now a battle of kings. Sorry to say, but you don't have a place in it. And from the look of things, you have a score to settle."

"…your business is with your daughter." Archer said coldly. "Get off. And do try not to get yourself killed too fast. Your daughter has a rather large axe to grind, though I don't blame her."

"Try not to lose yourself." Rider advised Caster as the woman turned to leap off of the chariot. "Revenge is a tricky thing."

"Revenge…?" Caster echoed. "I am not after revenge. I am after justice!"

"So long as we're clear then..." Rider said, and Caster jumped, her red cloak billowing behind her. Rider glanced at Archer's Vimana, and it appeared that Tokiomi had done the same as his daughter. The eyes of the two kings met, and Rider grinned before goading his bulls onwards, building up speed as he climbed higher into the sky.

Archer cackled with delight at Rider's challenge. At a gesture the wings of his Vimana spread out for maximum speed, and another gesture had it lancing forward with matching speed and peerless elegance. "Now this is the way it should be!" he said in glee, leaning back on his throne.

The game was on.

A/N

Sola forgot 'bout Kiritsugu…the question is: will it bite her in the ass?

Now then, I'm really starting to veer off of canon here, and this is probably going to be one of the more complex sections of the fic with multiple overlapping matches…the question is: am I doing it right? As I said this is my first work, and while I'm grateful that my earlier chapters work out fine, I'm worried that I might slip up. Everyone and everything in this chapter has been rather difficult to write.

Constructive comments and criticism guided by my questions in the A/N will be appreciated.