Fate On(e) Savior

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

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

For those who have read Chapter 9 earlier then the others, I've changed the name of the Noble Phantasm Don Quixote into El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha and will in future appearances within the story use this name, too.

Chapter 11: Alliance

"So", asked Saver, "what happened in the meantime?"

"There were all kinds of animals…"

"…mostly mammals and birds, though…"

"…and bats!"

"Bats are mammals, idiot!"

"What did you call me, sewer pee?!"

"What?! Take that back, birdbrain!"

"Fat chance, fatty!"

"I am not fat!" Saver sighed.

"Guys", he tried to placate them, "stop trading insults in front of a child. Can't we concentrate on what's actually important right now? I did promise you something, right?"

"That's right!", the rat and crow both stopped both with their bickering and concentrated on Saver again.

Akage was sitting beside them with his eyes wide open as he followed everything these two animals said. It had been one of his childhood fantasies – childhood meaning the time before he had met Saver – to speak to animals and now there were two talking animals right in front of him! He already met those two the day before when they had been found by Saver and called into service by the irregular Servant, but it did not make the experience loose any of its magic.

Unlike Saver who completely disregarded any mystical elements of the situation and just took out a coin, showing it to the animals.

"One of you has to go first", he declared. "We let luck decide, which one. When the coin lands, it will show either heads or tails. If it shows heads, Cooro is going first, if it shows tails Yuki. Acceptable?"

Originally these two didn't have any names, but Saver had called the rat "Yuki" and the crow "Cooro", to make it easier for him to address them.

"Yes!", Yuki shouted, but Cooro only stared mesmerized at the coin.

"Is something the matter?", Akage asked concerned.

"Shiny…", was the only word coming out of his mouth. Saver sighed.

"Looks like Yuki can start first", he established. That seemed to be enough to get the attention of the daydreamer as he jerked his head and shouted:

"What? No, no, I'm alright. Keep going."

Saver tossed the coin into the air, caught it, and then looked at it.

"Well, looks like it's heads. By the way, luck isn't a reason to gloat." Cooro, who was just about to say something to Yuki, stopped in his tracks. "Now, could you please tell me, what happened?"

"Well", the crow began, "there was only this one human. And all around him were animals. Then this human began to say something about a magician doing some bad stuff and that he had to be punished and whoever punishes him gets his arm…"

"…not his arm", Yuki interrupted, "just the scribbles on his arm."

"It's my turn, right now!", Cooro shouted infuriated and Akage had to admit that it was true.

"You can talk later", he promised the rat. "For now we just listen to Cooro, alright?"

Yuki kept quiet and Cooro continued:

"So, where was I… ah, yes! Whoever punishes him gets the scribbles on his arm. Then he said something about him being rather jumpy and something with snakes… do I get the treat now?"

"We wait for Yuki to tell his observations, right?" Yuki cleared his throat – an animal clearing its throat?! – and then started to speak:

"Also, there were one human and a bunch of animals. But the animals didn't seem like usual, as if something was controlling their actions. Then he talked about Caster killing too much and that they should stop fighting and kill Caster first. He promised the one who would manage it the scribbles on his arm and then gave some information about Caster. First: It's a she. Second: She likes snakes. Third: She can jump between bodies. And then our little airhead here decided to make his presence known. Loudly!"

"It's not my fault! He was mocking us!"

"He didn't expect an answer! Just because you can speak human language right now doesn't mean that every human is going to expect that! Besides, he told us to stay quiet the whole time!"

"Yuki is right, Cooro", Saver interrupted them. "I did ask of you not to say a single word outside this house." Ashamed the crow hang its head.

"I'm sorry. Does that mean I won't get the treat?"

"Well, luckily for you everybody there already knew about the supernatural, so there won't be any further complications. Just remember not to say anything next time, just in case, there are some unknowing people there."

"Okay!", Cooro replied and eagerly accepted the cheese that Saver hold out towards him. Yuki did the same, just a little more reserved.

"Alright", Saver settled, "thank you for your hard work. If I need you in the future, I am going to call upon you."

"Yes!" He closed the book next to him and both animals made off with their loot. Then he turned towards his Master.

"You know what we are going to do now?", he asked just to make sure.

"Yes", confirmed Akage. "Going to the Tohsaka residence so that I can learn how to create a familiar, right?"

"Right. Let's get you a new home again."

"Hi! We're there!", Saver shouted in front of the Tohsaka mansion. Just as with Volquart the owner came out to greet them.

"I hope the stay will prove satisfactory for you", he finished and showed them in, to meet up with the remaining residents.

"Good evening, Tohsaka", Akage greeted the girl his age. "I thought you would return to your mother?"

"That was the original plan, but I managed to convince my father that if he had time to train another magus, he had time to train his own daughter." On the other side of the room, Avenger had decide to properly introduce herself to Saver.

"Hi, I am Avenger!", she greeted, "last time you had vanished so quickly, we couldn't really talk about each other, but now that different! First: This in my Master."

"Good evening, Saver", the magus greeted, "I've heard you caused quite the commotion the first time, you made your presence known."

"Well, I do, what I can. I guess you've already heard of my Master, little Shirou here?"

"It's Akage!"

"Whatever."

"Speaking of little", the girl looked critically over the boy. "Is it my imagination or did you grew an inch from yesterday?" Now everybody looked closer as the youngest Master, who started shifting uncomfortably as he became the centre of attention.

"You are right", Rin's father confirmed. He certainly was at last one inch, maybe even two, taller than yesterday. Something like that wasn't possible with the natural growth of a human child. He turned to face Saver.

"What did you do?", he demanded an explanation from the Servant, who shrugged.

"Well, when did you think, was the first time, he practiced magecraft?", he answered with a question. Tokiomi pondered about that.

"From his physical build he couldn't have more than four years… No." Suddenly he realized it. He turned towards Saver. "You either are capable of creating a bounded field that speeds up time for everybody inside or a book that can accomplish the same effect." Saver smiled gleefully.

"Ding-ding-ding. The candidate receives ninety-nine points. Shirou never once practiced magecraft before summoning me, so to get him up to speed I had to train him faster than humanly possible. Without this technique, he probably would have died already."

"But that's impossible", claimed Rin. "If he really hadn't been using magecraft before at all, he wouldn't be able to support a Servant on his own!"

"Usually you would be right", Saver admitted. "It's all thanks to my personal Skill Human Body. In exchange for not being able to enter spirit form, I get a higher prana regeneration than usual. Allowing me to exist on my own reserves for a while, until Shirou here was able to supply me with mana."

"My name is Akage, not Shirou!"

"But that doesn't explain, how the hell he had the fucking knowledge to summon you", Archer, who had entered the room just now, decided to throw in.

"Archer!", Avenger shouted exited. "I thought you would stay in the room all day! What made you come out?"

"Tch. I just wanted to get a closer look at this Saver. So? How about it?"

"Is it really that unbelievable for him to stumble across some magic book and try out the things inside?"

"Yes. He is way to shy to go to a secluded place, kill some animals and draw a symbol on the floor with the blood on his own accord."

He looked towards Akage for an answer. The Master in question shifted uncomfortably.

"You see… that is…", he tried to explain himself, but didn't know what to say. Saver sighed.

"Can't you cut him some slack, Archer?"

"No. I won't. Please, Akage, tell me how some small boy like you came to do something like entering the fucking Holy Grail War?!"

The boy became smaller and smaller under the stern gaze.

"Well, I-I-I… I had a dream!"

The last thing he nearly shouted, before shutting up quickly, surprising everyone, while Saver burst out laughing.

"'I had a dream', he says, 'I had a dream'! I just know it, he's going to be an activist someday!"

"Shut it", Archer bellowed irritated at Saver, while Rin confused repeated:

"A dream?"

"Y-yes!", Akage confirmed, clearly thinking that this sounded ridiculous. "There was this guy, telling me that Fuyuki City would be destroyed if I didn't did what was written in that book…" Archer clicked his tongue and rubbed his temple with the hand that didn't hold the cane.

"Great. 'Counter Force'."

"Counter Force?!", echoed trough the building, puzzling Akage.

"Ehm, what's Counter Force?", he wanted to know and Saver started to explain:

"The Counter Force is made out of two parts: Gaia, the will of the world and Alaya, the will of mankind. They have only one goal: Survival. Depending of which one you are talking it's either the survival of the world or the survival of humanity. If something's happening that's threatening either, they will deal with it. But only as much, as necessary. Their influence ranges from manipulating coincidences and people to destroying continents. Your dream about the destruction of Fuyuki most likely belongs to the first one."

"It's a little bit more complicated than that, but for now it will suffice", Tokiomi said.

"But if he is influenced by the Counter Force", Archer deliberated, "does that make you a 'Counter Guardian', Saver?"

"Counter Guardian?", Akage looked expectant towards his Servant.

"Counter Guardian are people who pledged their loyalty towards Alaya in exchange for services while they had been alive. They belong to the second category." He turned towards Archer.

"But even if I were to be a Counter Guardian, it wouldn't matter for the duration of the Heaven's Feel", he told the Knight of the Bow. "Servants don't get a power-up from the will of humanity and if somehow the services of a Counter Guardian are needed, Alaya could easily summon one, without the need for some ritual like the Holy Grail War."

"I guess", Archer said, having lost interest in further conversation. "I'm in my room if you need me." But Tokiomi wasn't reassured, yet. Even the smallest interference of the Counter Force meant that there could be something threatening to destroy the world. Why would a champion of the Counter Force participate in the Holy Grail War?!

"Good", exclaimed Saver and turned to the owner of the residence. "Now that that's clarified, why don't you start with his training? In this war every minute counts!"

Ah, that has to be it! Akage never would have received the training, he now had, without participating in the Holy Grail War and summoning this particular Servant. That meant that within the next sixty years something of great magnitude would happen within Fuyuki City, or wherever he would be at that moment. He would have to keep his eye open, for he was sure that if his daughter would become more involved with him, it was more likely for her to be influenced by the Counter Force, too. She was, after all, a prodigy, an Average One, capable of learning all five standard elements!

"Can't you just use your time-book and speed things up?", Avenger wondered. "I mean, you've already done it before, why not again?"

"Because I've done it before. Think about it! What happens if you accelerate the time of one person, but all around him, you don't?!"

"Ageing", answered Volquart the question. "If you create a bounded field with accelerated speed inside, you are effectively making the person older. It's like one of those stories, just in reverse. A man is invited by a mystical woman and spends a year at her house, but when he gets back, nobody even remembered his name, as he in reality he has spend a thousand years with her. Training Akage with that method too often, and he will be dying of old age, earlier than I will."

"That's right", confirmed Saver. "It was excusable, as this time around it was, so that he could survive, but using it more than I already have, will result in getting all his family members and friends get suspicious when he gets back."

"So, his family doesn't know, what he is doing?", Volquart asked Saver and he denied. "But we left with a rather good explanation. As long as the Heaven's Feel doesn't take more than eight months – seriously, what are the chances? – or he is recognized by someone, the secret of thaumaturgy will not be exposed." His face took on a serious expression. "Even if we both were to die!"

"Alright, that was the last of them!", Waver exclaimed and bottled up the last test tube, marked with an X. He was kneeling beside the Mion River, which cut Fuyuki City in half. Rider was sitting in her wheelchair up at the sidewalk and curiously looked down at him. He put the test tube in a sport bag, shouldered it and walked back up to Rider. That had been the twentieth time, he had gathered water from the river. And the whole time Rider, like usual, hadn't said anything, but silently followed him around. Though it was interesting to note that Rider didn't cling to his side this time, but was consent with keeping him on visual contact.

"I have everything I need", Waver told Rider. "Let's go home and get started."

After the battle at the docks it had become no secret that even though Rider had an advantage over Lancer, she was a really bad match-up against Saver. He was easily capable of dealing with two of Rider's abilities and might have some more dangerous books up his sleeve. He was a collector, after all. Alone Rider would most likely not be able to defeat him. The most logical solution to the dilemma was to team up with someone.

There was only one problem: Why should one of his enemies help defeat his worst enemy? It was more likely that they would ignore Saver if it appeared that their own Servant had troubles with Rider. At last if he didn't have negotiating material.

That was why, as soon as they had returned home, he had lined up the samples of water he gathered in some racks. Every test tube had a letter from A to X drawn onto them that corresponded with a specific place on the map, the place where he had retrieved it. In a measuring cup he mixed a faint green solution and then used a chemical dropper to drop one drip of the liquid into the water. At once the clear river water took on a light red color. Amazed Rider watched him including one drop in every test tube by alphabet. The further he went, the deeper became the color. But as he reached the letter Q, the water didn't changed its color anymore.

"I guess, that's what you would call a 'jackpot'."

It seemed as if he had found Caster's hideaway. And so quick. He actually had thought, he would have to try reading the wind movements and earth pulses to find traces of magecraft, but this time he really got lucky. Furthermore, he remembered the big drainage trench, he had seen between the points P and Q that was were Caster was located. Now he could use this information to possibly make on the other Masters help him defeat Saver. But only, because there was a bounty on Caster's head that his potential partner would like to get.

Now the question was only, which Master to ask first. Well, to be precise, just like before there was only one Master, he could ask. The Tohsaka Master had teamed up with the one Servant, to which defeat he wanted to team up with someone in the first place, the Matou Master was nowhere to be found, Assassin was already defeated and el-Melloi… the less said about his chances with him the better.

Yes, the only one left was the Einzbern Master, with the Saber that had an Assassin-like Noble Phantasm. So, the next step would be sending a familiar with a message towards them and then wait for their, hopefully positive, reply.

Just as he was about to do so, he noticed Rider who had token the chemical dropper and the test tube marked with the letter X and was letting more than just one drop of the reagent fall into the test tube. What's more, she looked disappointed when the color didn't change and turned her gaze accusing towards him, as if it was his fault. He sighed.

"The color shows that someone had been using thaumaturgy near the river", he explained to his Servant. Since this tube has water from upstream of the river in it, there won't be any reaction to spell casting residue."

But Rider looked at him with a puzzled expression, all the technical terms going straight over her head. Waver sighed again.

"Look."

He took out a small pebble. He concentrated for a moment and strengthened it with the smallest amount of od.

"Now I've used magecraft on it. If we drip it into the water now…"

He followed through with his talk and once the pebble touched the water it became ink black, opposite to the strong red of tube P. Rider looked at the test tube with big eyes and shook it, making the pebble inside tinkle against the class. Then she robbed over to the remaining tubes and switched out X with W. Then she hold out her hand and looked expectant towards her Master. He sweet-dropped.

"Do you want to try it, too?", he asked her and she nodded eagerly. He sighed again and took out another pebble. Luckily these were the ones he picked up by the river and not the expensive kind.

"Here. Now, fill the pebble with the tiniest bit of mana that you can muster and…"

BOOOOM!

"Kiritsugu?"

"Yes, Maiya?"

"We have a message from Rider's Master. He wants to propose an alliance."

Kiritsugu looked at the piece of paper his assistant had brought him. Rider's Master, Waver Velvet didn't say it, but it was clear to him that his desire to fight against Saver with someone else steamed from the fact, how badly Saver made his Servant look at their first meeting.

But even without the location of Caster, Kiritsugu wouldn't be that averse to an alliance. And just like with Waver, the reason was Saver. In his line of work, he had to fight and kill a lot of different people. And Saver belonged to the most dangerous. He never revealed his motives, swooped into a fight and vanished afterwards, with no way to locate him. Saver had more similarities with him than he was comfortable with.

It didn't help that he apparently had uncountable trump cards up his sleeve. And now he even had teamed up with Tohsaka Tokiomi, Kotomine Kirei and Volquart Weissbach, as his contacts had identified the additional Master. No, Waver's proposal was actually a blessing. He would be a fool to disregard this chance.

"So, Rider and her Master want to fight together with us?", Saber asked.

He was in his Standard-Form and leaning over Kiritsugu's shoulder to read the letter. Which was actually a little difficult for him, thanks to the reduced size of his Standard-Form.

"I don't mind. I really can't forgive Caster!"

After finding out, just what the Servant did in her spare time, Saber had been very agitated. It looked like he really didn't like involving bystanders.

"I don't mind either", Irisviel confirmed. "Then I am going to have someone else to play with!"

"Yeah, then there is someone else that gets defeated all the time! You are having way too much fun beating me up."

"Oh, Saber, why would you say that?"

"Call it a hunch."

Kiritsugu shook his head. For a legendary hero his Servant was rather carefree.

"Eh?! You are Saber?!" Waver couldn't believe his eyes. After he had tidied up the mess Rider did – luckily nobody noticed anything since he had out of habit protected his room against load noise and explosions – he had sent the letter to Kiritsugu. Soon he received on in return with a positive answer. Now he was within their castle, but you couldn't quite grasp the fact that this boy was the Knight of the Sword with the cursed blade.

"Yeah", he answered sheepishly, "I have the skill Double identity. It allows me to take on two forms, one suited for combat and one suited for staying. The letter being close enough to humans that I can pass as one."

"I see. That sure is a useful ability, isn't it?" Saber scratched the back of his head.

"Not really", he replied, "it only allows me to walk around without wasting mana. It doesn't do anything fancy like hide my presence or so."

"Don't sell yourself short", Irisviel told him, "I really like that ability of yours!" Saber sweet-dropped.

"Isn't it just because this way you can take me shopping?", he accused and Waver sweet-dropped, too. A Master in the Holy Grail War taking his Servants out for shopping? That was… exactly what he did. Not exactly shopping, but he took her out to familiar herself with the area. And if Rider wanted to go shopping, he doubted, he would be able to dissuade her.

"Waver Velvet?" Waver stiffened when he heard that cold, emotionless voice. He turned around to see a middle-aged man and on his hand… Command Seals?

"B-but I thought…", he turned back towards Irisviel. Her hands were clear. This whole time he had been deceived. It hadn't been the Einzbern homunculus that had been the Master. No, the true Master was the man who stood beside her. Hiding in the shadows like an Assassin.

"I have to admit, you managed to delude me", he told them, trying to sound professional, "but you showing yourself does mean, you are sure about our alliance."

"Yes, I am." Kiritsugu hold out a bunch of scrolls of paper towards him. Self-Geis Scrolls. A contract written on a piece of parchment, infused with prana and signed in blood. It was binding magecraft on the highest order, enslaving the person even after their death. The procedure was fairly simple. One wrote an oath on the parchment, followed by a set of conditions. When the conditions are met, the signer can no longer execute the actions, mentioned on the Geis Scroll. It is, in the full sense of the word, giving up part of one's own free will and no method could free you from this oath. It was excessively necessary in a world were magi betrayed each other in a heartbeat. And the Einzbern Master, called Emiya Kiritsugu, brought them here, one for each participant in the Grail War. With this everyone, even Maiya, proclaimed that they would not attack each other until both Saver and Caster had been dealt. Of course, they used more complex words than that, but that was the gist of it.

At first Kiritsugu had wanted to exclude his assistant from the group of the people signing the scrolls, but Saber had asked, if he really hadn't had that much faith in his own Servant, to have to resort to shady tactics. The reason for not concealing her wasn't the acknowledgement of his words. He just couldn't run danger that Saber let something slip. Even though he seemed to have been a Yakuza in his life and was able to make himself invisible, he still had a big chivalry code, as apparent in his stopping Rider from fighting against Lancer, because they had yet to finish their fight. He only didn't jumped in, after Lancer's Master insulted Rider's and even then he only stood there, not attacking the defenseless magus. No, even though he originally had thought, they would fit quite well with each other that had been a misapprehension. He clearly was better suited of walking alongside his wife, while he would walk in the shadows.

"Great!", Irisviel exclaimed happily, after they had all signing the scrolls. "Now that that's finished, how about we all play the new game, which order arrived just today!" She was exited about getting a new play mate. If Waver didn't knew better, he would say, she didn't care about the Heaven's Feel.

"If it wouldn't be a bother I would rather rest, before we take on Caster tonight", he reasoned. She looked disappointed.

"Oh, well, I guess it can't be helped. Please, allow me to bring you to your rooms." Rider again snatched Waver's arm and refused to let go. Waver sighed.

"Please, Miss Einzbern. If it isn't too much trouble, could we get only one room?"

"Oh, my, Mister Velvet. Are you by any chance a pervert?!" Her voice was sweet, but Waver couldn't help to feel scared for his life. Even thought they just had signed Geis Scrolls, he had no doubt in his mind that this woman would find away around them, if he didn't answered fast.

"That's not it", he protested, "it's all her! She refuses to leave my side, no matter what happened!"

"Really I find that hard to believe, especially after her display at the docks!" Yes, that was right. There she had left him all alone among the enemies.

"T-that is just a result of her having Mental Pollution!"

"Mental Pollution?" Now her voice had shifted to honest surprise.

"Y-yes. It makes it really hard to control her actions." Normally he wouldn't dare to show such weakness in front on an enemy Master, but right now that looked definitely better than the alternative. "And it's stated that the rank can increase under certain circumstances…" That was one of the reason's why he didn't used a Command Seal to deal with her, afterwards, she could be even worse.

"Oh, I see. In this case, I think it is okay for you to share a room", she stated, "but only after we declared some ground rules!"

"If you can convince her then I have no objections!"

A/N:

Hi guys and gals.

This chapter is pretty straight-forward, not much to say about it. The only thing worth mentioning would be Waver's reasoning about teaming up with Kiritsugu. I had already written it before, but decided to throw it in again, because it had been so long.

Once again I remind you, please review, especially if you detect some big logical contradictions or me getting some terms of the nasuverse wrong, disagree with the stats or have some questions.

Gashadokuro Amanojaku