Chapter 1: Introductions
"Romani!" Olga-Marie yelled as she saw the doctor running towards her. They met in front of the door to the control room, and took a moment to look each other up and down.
"What happened? I heard an explosion," Dr. Roman asked.
"There was. Everything's a mess, all the Masters are in critical condition, and I heard another boom in the control room. I came up here to see what the situation was. Though I'd be a lot worse off if it wasn't for this," Olga-Marie pulled out a faded gemstone pendant. "I took it off one of the Masters, she was playing with it and distracting people. Said it was a protective spell. I think it's the only reason I'm still alive,"
"Wow. We'll have to thank her, if she makes it. But later," Dr. Roman punched open the door, and beheld the ruined command room and the corpses of many of its inhabitants. "Well, crap. I'm going to call Da Vinci. She's the only one who can put this in anything close to working order. She's going to be so grumpy about it, too," he added, already pulling out his phone.
Before Olga-Marie could respond, the computer droned, "Rayshift starting in 3, 2, 1. All procedures clear. First Order, commencing operation."
"What? Rayshift? All the masters are in critical condition! Who could possibly be Rayshifting?" Olga-Marie demanded, even as they both hastened to the most intact of the control panels.
"No one stopped the program, and apparently three Masters were in good enough condition that the system automatically locked onto them."
". . Who?"
X
Nikki forced herself to her feet, looking around, and started, seeing three people lying nearby. "Tyler? Era? M-Mash?"
Tyler started and immediately leapt to his feet. "I'm awake, professor! Is it my turn to . . uh . ." He looked around in confusion. "Where am I?"
"If I don't miss my guess, Fuyuki. In the year 2004," Nikki offered, crouching over Mash and breathing a sigh of relief at the fact that she could feel a heartbeat. That was more or less the end of the good news, unfortunately; her legs looked like a crushed mess. "Hey, the Chaldea uniform Mystic Code has a First Aid spell built into it. Use yours on her too, it might help. First Aid," Nikki chanted, green light suffusing the assistant's body. Tyler followed suit, and a moment later Mash stirred.
"Owwwww," she let out a low hiss, looking up with a force of will. "S . . senpai?"
"Sorry, what?" Nikki blinked.
"Oh. N-nothing. I . . where are we?"
"I think we Rayshifted into the Fuyuki Singularity. Beats me how that happened when the equipment was all so badly damaged but we're here, so," Nikki shrugged. "Tyler, go take a look around. See if you can find a wheelchair or something,"
"A wheelchair? Here?"
"This was a city," Nikki pointed out. "Just take a look, even a skateboard would be better than trying to carry her - and she definitely can't walk,"
"Right, on it. Bloody hell, what happened to this place?"
"Fire. Lots and lots of fire," Everyone turned to look at Era, who'd sat up at some point.
". . Well, that was obvious," Tyler pointed out, obligingly trotting off.
X
"Director, I've found the files. Let's see who we're working with." It took a minute, but Dr. Roman had three files in his hands and spread them out, each bearing a photo of one of the three Masters currently in Singularity F.
"First up is Candidate #9. Era Sutsuki. The third child of a prominent line of Magi dating back several centuries."
"Oh, I remember this one. She's the one who was only here because her father wanted to deniably kill her off, right?" Olga-Marie pinched her nose in dismay.
"Yes. While she has quite impressive potential as a magus, her temperament is ill-suited to the world of mages. Despite being the most talented of his children, her father seems to have decided her older sister would make a better heir and packed her off here with a note to us about how he'd be grateful if we could arrange an 'accident' for her." Romani's lips twisted in disgust.
Olga-Marie just sighed. "Out of all the candidates to survive the explosion, it's the only one whom we wouldn't get into any trouble for allowing to die. Well if that isn't just my luck,"
"I do have other concerns about Era. She's the youngest of all the forty-eight Masters, and, to be blunt . . she's eleven."
After a long moment, the Director slammed her forehead onto the nearest hard surface. "Oh, god damn . . tell me some good news about the other two?"
"Yes Director. Candidate #28. Nikki Aiadon. She's competent, intelligent, decently talented with magecraft -"
"I sense a 'but',"
"She's only a second-generation Magus. Her Crest is raw and weak compared to what we're used to," Romani summarised. "It's not ideal, but it's enough for her to support a Servant contract or two with Chaldea's system providing the power. And she tested high in leadership and tactical ability. Less so in improvising and abysmal in navigation, but no one's perfect."
"Good enough, I suppose. And the third?" Olga-Marie asked.
Dr. Roman shuffled his notes. "Tyler Coren. He has almost perfect Rayshift compatibility, seems to be naturally talented with Ghost Liners, and . ."
"You skipped his Candidate number."
After a long, drawn-out "Ummmm," Romani sighed. "#47,"
". . Weren't #47 and #48 the non-Magus Masters we selected just in case there were Servants who flatly refused to contract with a Magus for some personal reason?"
"That's correct, Director."
Dr. Roman made a mental note to redact the subsequent string of expletives from the official record of this conversation.
X
"Will a shopping trolley do?" Tyler called, dragging the trolley down the cracked road towards the three girls.
"Good enough. Help me lift her, we need to get moving," Nikki commanded.
"Where are we going?" Era asked as the two older Masters lifted a limp Mash into the trolley. A strangled squeak abruptly died as she passed out for a second time.
"According to the mission plan, our first priority is to find a ley line. Doing so should enable us to tap into the FATE system via our Mystic Codes and summon Servants for ourselves, like the A Team were supposed to in our place," the blue-haired woman summarised.
"How do you know that?" Tyler raised an eyebrow.
"I read the pre-briefing pamphlet. What, didn't you?"
"I never got a pamphlet . ."
"Only question is, how can we find a ley line?"
"Follow me!" Era cheerfully put forward, already starting down the street.
Nikki looked askance at her. "Why, you have an idea?"
"The ley line's this way. Can't you tell? It's really obvious,"
The two older Masters exchanged a look. Tyler shrugged.
"Well, I guess we don't have any better plans," Nikki sighed and started dragging the trolley after the child.
X
"How long will getting communication back online take?" Olga-Marie impatiently asked.
"Hold on, hold on," Da Vinci cajoled her. "Actually, Director, why don't you go help Dr. Roman and the reserve staff with the wounded?"
"I need to be here to direct the mission! There's not a single qualified Magus among that lot, they're all rank amateurs! If they get themselves killed then . . then," Olga-Marie faltered.
"I see. You're worried about them,"
"I most certainly am not! Who cares if they die, we'll just recruit more Master candidates or heal the ones we have and send them in. I trust you can fix the Rayshift coffins?"
"Eh, probably. Maybe. Fine, Director, whatever you need to tell yourself doesn't matter to me much. The fact remains you can't really help here. It'll probably be a bit, though, so no sense in standing around here tapping your foot,"
"Hmph,"
X
"We're here!" Era beamed as they reached a chunk of road overlooking the river that ran through Fuyuki. She turned, prepared to bask in praise, only to notice she'd lost a couple of followers along the way. "Uh, mister Taylor? Where're Miss Nikki and Mash?"
X
Nikki grunted as she heaved the shopping cart with Mash inside it along. "I! Was! Just! Following them! How! Did! I! Get! Lost?!"
"Senpai?" Mash slurred, her head lolling upwards. "What's wrong?"
". . I'm lost again," Nikki groaned.
"Oh. Um," Mash furiously thought, trying to block out the pain of her crushed legs. "Sorry, I . . don't think I can help,"
"Perhaps I might be of assistance?" A figure leapt down from a building in front of them, a man with a skull mask over his face and a grotesquely elongated right arm.
"Hello . . there," Nikki drew up, cautious. "Do you know where our friends are?"
"Mm, no, I don't. But that doesn't matter. I'll still happily give you directions . . to the next life! Hahaha, die!" the enemy shrieked and charged in, bringing his arm back for a crushing blow.
Nikki back-pedalled, dragging the cart with her in a frantic but futile attempt at self-defence. She wasn't the man's target though, as Mash raised her arms and tucked her head in, hoping desperately to protect herself from a deadly blow.
Everyone was surprised when the strike bounced off with a sound of ringing metal.
Nikki and Mash stared, stunned, at a giant, cross-shaped shield that had appeared in Mash's arms, hanging over the front of the trolley.
"What?" the man growled, then danced to the side and looked at Mash again. "A Demi-Servant. Hm. No matter, you obviously can't put up much of a fight. Struggle all you want, cripple, it just makes this more fun! After all you'll never best a real Servant!"
"Emergency Evasion!" Nikki cast, the hem of her sleeve lighting up purple.
"Senpai, no! I can't move with my legs like this!" Mash protested, moving the shield as best she could to further defend against the Servant's attacks.
"That's why I'm not using it on you!" Nikki barked, and slapped her hand on the trolley.
Assassin's eyes went wide as the shopping cart took off like a rocket, Nikki clinging on as her feet left the ground. Shifting her body weight, the magic-propelled cart whizzed around a corner and barely avoided overbalancing, barrelling onto a wide road.
Digging her heels in, the Master dragged them both behind a ruined car just as Assassin rounded the corner in pursuit of them. "Where are yooooou?"
"Senpai -" Mash hissed, only for Nikki to cover her mouth with a 'ssh!' as Assassin stalked closer.
"Senpai, Servants can -" Nikki shushed her again as the foe stalked down the road, approaching their position.
"Servants can sense other Servants' magical signatures! Hiding is useless, he can track me!"
"What?!" Nikki yelped and span around - finding herself staring into the empty eye sockets of Assassin's bone mask, only an inch away from her face.
A scream split the cloudy sky.
The Servant only laughed as Nikki scrambled away, dragging Mash's cart with her as the Demi-Servant dragged the shield into place between them. "Ahh, you guys are a riot! Pity I can't play with you any more, or else someone else might steal my kill. Sleep well, kiddies. Uncle Cursed-Arm's gonna take reeeeeal good care of -"
The murderous monologue was cut short as a giant flaming foot crushed him where he stood.
After a second of shocked silence, Nikki and Mash screamed, taking in the flaming colossus that had replaced the Assassin as the most immediate threat to their lives.
"Oi, settle down, you two! You'll get Rider or Lancer's attention. Or worse, Berserker's," A man in a hooded robe appeared as the giant faded, looking them up and down. "Damn, thought there weren't any humans left alive around here. And a Demi-Servant, too? Where'd you come from?"
Mash lunged forwards as best she could and whacked the intruder with her shield.
"Wha - Oi! Oi! Stop that! I'm on your side! Hey! Stop!" Amidst rapid bonking, the man finally grabbed the shield and pushed it aside. "Normally I'd take offence, but under the circumstances that instinct will probably keep you alive. But let's just establish that I could kill you if I wanted to, so the fact you're still alive proves you're in no danger from me, okay?"
"What horrible logic!" Nikki yelled.
"Ugh, sheesh. I'm Cu Chulainn, Caster class Servant, and only survivor of the Holy Grail War here. Well, besides Saber, but I suspect she'd rather be dead than in her current condition. You're a Master, right? You know what happens to Servants who go too long without a Master supplying them with mana? I've been running out my internal clock since my old Master died, but now that you're here I can contract with you and sustain myself that way. So even if I wanted to, I can't kill you without dooming myself,"
Nikki took a breath. "That . . okay. I can believe that. But Mash, if he tries anything funny, start hitting him again."
"Yes, Senpai!"
"Okay, I have a lot of questions, but first we need to meet up with our friends. We got separated,"
"B-by the Rayshift!" Mash added.
"Uh, yeah sure. That's what happened. Not my fault at all,"
"We're supposed to meet at a ley line site though. Do you know where the closest one is?"
"Sure. I can guide you there, follow me. And if it's all the same to you, I'll save explanations until everyone's here to hear them, kay?"
"Suppose that's fair," Nikki nodded.
X
"Nikki! Mash! You're okay!" Tyler grinned, waving as they approach. "Wait, who's that guy?"
"Cu Chulainn, or so he says. Remember there was a Grail War on? He's the last man standing. Apparently," Nikki shouted back as they crossed the distance.
"Wow, that shield is cool!" Era grinned at Mash, who weakly smiled back.
Serendipitously, at that moment holograms flickered for life on each of the three Masters' wrists. "Testing, testing. Hello, everybody!" Da Vinci waved through the projection.
Everyone stared at one of the three holo-Vincis. "Who are you?" Tyler asked.
"Ah, right, you haven't met me. In summary, I'm Chaldea's chief of tech support. The wonderful and marvellous Leonardo Da Vinci-chan, at your service!" she declared, stroking a pose with a cheery smile and wink.
Nikki was unimpressed.
Tyler was unimpressed.
Mash was unimpressed, though that may have been the pain talking.
Era beamed and struck a matching pose. "Nice to meet you, Vinci-chan!"
"Hold on. Leonardo Da Vinci was a man . . right?"
"Originally, yes, but why should the perfect mind settle for anything less than the perfect body?"
No one had a good answer to that, so Da Vinci forged on regardless. "Well, I see you've already found a ley line and established a local contact! Good work, everyone! The Director's going to be so impressed!"
"Yeah, we have no idea what's going on or what happened," Nikki admitted. "This is the Singularity in 2004, right? What happened at Chaldea?"
"All I remember was a lot of fire and then everyone failing to save Mash," Era unhelpfully added.
"It's on? Good!" Da Vinci was shoved out of the way, replaced by Olga-Marie's nose and nostril hair. "How does this work? Can you see me?"
". . Director, you're too close to the camera," Nikki offered,
"Right. Is this better?" Olga-Marie leant back, bringing her whole face into view.
"I'm afraid we don't have time for troubleshooting. I'm detecting approaching magical signatures. Quite a lot of them!"
"What? How many?" Nikki pressed.
"Crap, that'll be Lancer and her undead horde, I'm sure of it," Cu Chulainn cursed. "I'm not gonna be able to hold her off on my own."
"Sounds like you need to get to summoning more Servants!" Da Vinci chimed in.
"Yes, the pamphlet said something about a catalyst. I don't have anything like that. Do any of you?" Nikki asked, to a round of shaken heads.
"Unfortunately, you were all sent to the Singularity without the equipment to establish a Summoning circle the way we'd intended to. But it does seem like Mashu-chan there can provide a better option! So it'll be fine! That said, I need all of you to follow my instructions exactly!"
"Got it, what do we need to do?" Nikki asked.
"Draw three of these!" The holoprojector suddenly showed an incredibly complicated magical circle. "In blood, ideally. Though that might be a problem . ."
"Don't worry. I can do runecraft. I'll handle it," Cu declared, already crouching and beginning to etch lines into the ground underfoot with his staff.
"Perfect! Wow, things are really coming together. Do them in a triangle, please, we'll need to place that shield Mash has got so it's touching all three of them. You're all going to need to use the same catalyst, since we only have the one."
"Hold on, how is that shield going to be a catalyst? I don't know much, but I thought to summon Heroic Spirits you needed something related to them?" Tyler frowned.
"It's a Noble Phantasm, it serves as a direct connection to the Throne of Heroes. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing."
"How does Mash have a Noble Phantasm anyway? Assassin called you a Demi-Servant, what's that about?" Nikki asked.
"In summary, she's the result of a failed experiment to fuse a Heroic Spirit with a human embryo," Da Vinci answered in the seconds it took Mash to swallow her fluster enough to speak. "She's never actually been able to tap her Servant abilities before now, though, so we all wrote it off as a failure. It looks like it worked better than anyone realised, though,"
"Can we have plot exposition later? This isn't a video game where the enemies will wait around for us to finish talking before attacking, I can see them and they're getting closer!" Tyler yelled, waving at a mob that was distantly visible down the riverside road.
"Summoning circle's ready," Cu reported, standing up and stepping back.
"Catalyst is ready!" Mash, for want of locomotion, tossed her shield into the middle of the circle.
"Good. Everyone, stand over one of the circles," Da Vinci instructed. "Director, get ready to patch through Chaldea's reserve power cells!"
"How do I do that?"
"Press the big red button when they say the word 'destiny'!"
"I marked out the places for you to stand," Cy offered gesturing to a trio of X-es, forming a triangle around the three circles.
"Convenient. We're ready!"
"Right! Now, read out the words I'm putting on your screen!"
The three Masters spoke in unison; "Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation. Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall. Let the four cardinal gates close. Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate. Let it be filled. Again. Again. Again. Again,"
"Huh?" Era tilted her head in confusion. "Era, focus!" Olga-Marie snapped.
"Let it be filled fivefold for every turn, simply breaking asunder with every filling. My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. If you submit to this will and reason, then answer! Seventh heaven clad in the great words of power! Come forth from the circle of binding, guardian of the scales!"
The circle in front of Era immediately lit up with bright light, followed quickly by the one before Nikki. A few seconds later, Tyler's own circle shone with blinding white energy.
Surprisingly, Nikki's circle was the first to blink out, revealing a young knight in armour, with bright pink hair. "Servant, Rider. Hiya, Master!" The Servant sprung to his feet, before immediately saluting with a playful smile. "The name's Astolfo! Nice to meetcha!"
"Ooh, you're gonna be fun, I just know it," Nikki grinned. "Ah, ahem, not the time. I assume you've accepted the contract?"
"Yup! Long as I'm here, I'll be your Servant. I'm counting on you to take care of me!" Astolfo beamed.
Their eyes were promptly drawn by the circle to Nikki's left fading, as a lithe woman in what Nikki could only describe as a scandalous outfit manifested, red hair like flames hanging to her hips in twin ponytails, held in place by a crimson headdress. "Servant, Archer. My name is Sita. Hello, child. Are you my Master?"
"Yep! Hi!" Era smiled up at her.
Sita nodded, taking in the setting and people around her. "This is . . an unorthodox situation. I'm not getting any information about the sort of Grail War I've been summoned to like I normally would, either."
"Yep, same here. Does it really matter though? They're our Masters, so we're gonna protect them. All the rest is just window dressing," Astolfo pointed out, sidling over to the Archer.
Sita allowed herself a small smile. "True enough, very well then."
Nikki interjected. "Sorry to rush you two, but we've got at least one enemy Servant and an army of what I assume are minions bearing down on us. I do like four to one odds, but depending on how strong the minions are it could be more like four to one hundred. And we still need to summon our third Servant, too," Everyone looked at Tyler, who was noticeably struggling to stay on his feet as the summoning proceeded.
"Da Vinci? Is there a problem?" Nikki asked.
"Maybe? Whatever Spirit Origin he's locked onto, it's powerful. Absurdly powerful. He might not have the strength to manifest it!"
"What do you mean, he doesn't have the strength to - he's draining our energy reserves! Goddamn! Call it off! Two Servants is enough! We can't sustain this!" Olga-Marie's shrill voice echoed through the comms.
"Can we help?" Era asked, already hastening to his side.
"I don't think so. It's all up to him and the generators now. Spirit Origin is 65% manifested. 73% . . 80?" Da Vinci narrated as Tyler winced, energy spilling out of the circle only to be sucked right back in.
Suddenly everything went white, and they had barely enough time to hear Director Olga-Marie scream "Oh no-" before the feed was replaced with static. Tyler screamed in shock and pain as the circle went dark, leaving a half-formed shape of light floating in the air.
Before their eyes, the partially manifested Servant fully resolved into a slim, short human figure, clad in a white dress with black highlights, short blonde hair spilling out from her head. She fell to the ground and immediately stumbled, dropping to hands and knees just as Tyler looked up.
"Servant, Saber," the girl introduced herself. "I ask of you, are you my Master?"
"Uh. Yeah. I think I am," Tyler nodded, staring for a moment. "What's your True Name?"
"Are you certain I should reveal that in front of these others?" the young girl questioned, casting a glance at the other Masters and their Servants.
"Yeah, it's fine. They're our allies, and we aren't in a proper Grail War, so no battle royale stuff here,"
"Very well. My name is Artoria Pendragon."
Tyler's jaw hit the floor.
Nikki's eyes shot wide open.
Era spluttered in disbelief.
Da Vinci, who had restored a one-way audio feed just in time to hear that, chuckled.
Director Olga-Marie Animusphere all but screamed; "WHAT THE F#$%!"
After a moment of no response, Artoria added, "Oh, but, since I am still in training, please call me Saber Lily. I look forward to working with you in the years to come,"
A/N
A/N
What? He summoned 80% of Saber before the system went bust. 80% of five stars is four stars. That's maths.