Meh, might as well.

The silence that filled her room felt deafening.

She was sitting, not that she had much of a choice in that, next to a legendary hero of lore and all she could do was sip her tea quietly, too nervous to actually talk to the admittedly very handsome man. She knew who he was, thanks to Caules. Her younger brother proved to be surprisingly ingenious for choosing interesting servants.

The boy had told her that his servant was Penthesilea, he'd even told her that he was planning to have her summon Penthesilea instead but that their uncle had intervened. She would not have minded having the Amazon Queen as her servant, but the Count of Monte Cristo proved to be very interesting.

She had noticed him eyeing her strangely earlier. Now, she was no stranger to people looking at her, be it in pity, in lust or ridicule, but the way he looked at her gave her goosebumps. It wasn't because of anything bad, it was simply because she could see that for once in her life, someone had no expectations from her. She was normally confident enough, but in the face of someone like Edmond Dantes, she felt like her troubles were insignificant. She was scared to even know what he would think of her wish.

"Hmm, you do realize that you have been staring at me for the last five minutes?"

The Avenger cut in on her train of thought suddenly, causing her to perk up in shock. She took a moment to take in his features, noticing his eery yellow eyes that hid an untold amount of hatred for the very nature of humanity and his greyish-white hair that she theorized might be due to Marie Antoinette Syndrome. The Chateau d'If was described as a living hell on Earth and it had probably stressed the man out of his mind when he had first been thrown in there.

"You are...quite distracted, aren't you?" Avenger snickered slightly at her as she fell back into a daze while looking at him. "I hope that this will not happen during a battle, Master." He mocked, an amused smirk stretching his face.

A scowl made its way onto Fiore's usually gentle features as her servant mocked one of the skills she was most proud of. "I can assure you that I am one of the best fighters, if not the best, on our side." A small glance at Avenger's slowly quirking lips quickly made her correct herself. "Apart from servants, of course."

Her only answer was the French man taking a slow sip of his tea.

This was going to be hard.

-:- Page Break -:-

"How magnificent! For the mighty Heracles, humanity's paragon of heroism. to join this cesspool of clashing desires! This piece will surely be my greatest masterpiece yet, not that any of my music isn't a masterpiece of course, but this one might just take the cake!"

Shirou smiled wryly at Mozart, not sharing his joy of having such a powerful as an enemy. He had had enough of Heracles for one lifetime thank you very much. The last time he had had to fight the man in his Berserker class container and he had to join forces with the Saber and Archer of the last war while empowering them with Command Seals.

The priest grimaced as he remembered what he had to say was one of the only times he could admit he was truly afraid. It wasn't for his own life, he had long since given up any feelings of fear for his own life. If the Lord deemed that his time on this Earth was done, then so be it. What he had feared for was the life of his master.

A small, almost forgotten, sting of pain filled his heart as he thought back to the homunculus woman he had failed to save. Her death had only solidified his desire for peace. The hidden servant had been sad that he had been unable to keep his promise of showing her Japan in its entirety.

A frown appeared on Shirou's face as he shook his head to try and put the memories to the side. He had no desire to forget his time with the Von Einzbern woman that had been so kind to him, but it would only distract him if he kept them at the forefront of his mind.

He had more important matters to attend to, like getting more information on Heracles' strengths and weaknesses. It seemed as if God was smiling down upon him as he had a prime source of information on his side. A small smirk wormed its way onto his face as he turned towards his servant, the beautiful queen that always seemed to try and find a way to make him squirm. "Assassin." He called out to her, causing her to slowly shift her attention to him with a raised eyebrow. "Please call for our resident Berserker."

-:- Page Break -:-

"Now, stop me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing that you're excited at the prospect of fighting this Karna?" The sheer dryness of his master's tone flew right over Arjuna's head, his excitement causing him to lose some of his focus.

"Indeed! My summoning in this Grail War must be the gods smiling down upon me!" Arjuna confirmed shamelessly, clenching his fists to stop them from shaking.

"Do try not to get the rest of us killed from any recklessness that may be born from your need to fight this Lancer character." A sharp voice remarked coldly from behind the two.

Caster stood behind them, his head tilted down and giving off the impression of a glare. "Do not run off on your own and bring the Red Faction's attention to us. We must rid ourselves of this third faction before moving on to the Red Faction."

The Endowed Hero glowered at the magus angrily for a moment, dark thoughts whirling through his mind on how to remove the obstacle between him and his enemy, before he calmed and gave a small smile. "Of course not. I shall remove any that would dare to place themselves between Karna and me before facing him."

"Good." The Caster finished the conversation curtly, turning on his heels and heading back to his workshop.

Rin sighed heavily, running a hand through her brown hair. "Please, don't antagonize the other servants in our faction, we need their trust for the time being." She demanded plainly.

Arjuna tilted his head and offered an amused smile. "I know not of what you speak of, master, I am a perfectly well-mannered prince."

The disguised master snorted in a very unladylike manner, patting him on the back. "Yeah, sure." A pinched look took over her face. "Now, come on, Darnic ordered us to go look for Assassin and their master. That incompetent pile of garbage is late enough as is, we don't need him antagonizing the Red Faction as well."

Arjuna nodded as they headed for the exit.