AN- life sucks. Real Life, doubly so. Because its the same thing. Shit though- farewell free time, I barely knew thee.

Chapter 16

"So, these are your other Servants?" Scathach asked aloud, scrutinising the other heroes of legend loitering about in the warehouse. She didn't exactly look impressed, but she also didn't seem to dislike them either.

"Yup! Hi, I'm Caster! Welcome to the Team!" Medea called out happily but offered no more greeting than that before turning back to her work. The elf-like girl was still hard at work- she'd been really set back in terms of her utility. It was kinda cute just how engrossed she was getting in her present project though- focused to the point of turning out the entire world around her.

She still hadn't noticed the 'Pull my adorable little cheeks' sign stuck to her back courtesy of our friendly neighbourhood Assassin.

"It shall be nice to have another of the Knight Classes to assist me." Saber greeted the Lancer, tipping their hat to her. Clearly, they felt a certain level of kinship with the other Servant. "It shall be an honour to serve besides another Queen."

"Fufufu- did you forget that I too am a Queen, Saber?" Rider reminder them teasingly.

"Yes, but you hardly act like it most of the time, whereas Lancer practically emits grace." Lily countered, pointing at the ever aloof Scathach taking our antics with the patience it definitively requires.

Lancer looked vaguely bemused, if anything, by the banter. "Either way, it will be a pleasure to work with the two of you too. I do hope you have less… neurosis… than what your Master and the other Servant seems to show."

By now, there were only two Servants that had yet to introduce themselves to Scathach. The first was Assassin- her absence was natural though. She'd been sent out to scout. I was really eager to find out more about the Red Team. The other Servant though…

"Ah! My Anchin!" Kiyohime cried out from the floor, hands clawing out in heartwrenching panic. "Another woman? Am I not enough for you!? Do your deviant tastes know no bounds!? If it was skin-tight clothing you wanted, why didn't you tell me!?"

By now, my palm is a frequent flier to the forehead. "Berserker, can you please get off the floor and introduce yourself?"

Like a snake, Kiyohime reared up, on her feet in an instance and hissing. If she were an animal, I'd say that she would be like a bear- raising her arms outwards to make herself look larger and more threatening… but from the short statured woman, she instead came across as endearing. "I am Servant Berserker! And I am the only one required to please my Anchin! There's no more room in his bed for you, as it's already far too cramped! You and your big… udders… can go elsewhere!"

"That's a little hypocritical considering you're just as stacked, you know…" grumbled Medea, somehow utilising her miraculous womanly intuition to know when people far more endowed than herself were needlessly complaining.

"Yes, but I carry them more tastefully." Kiyohime huffed, sticking out her kimono-clad chest defiantly.

"So you do have that kind of relationship! A womaniser too, like him, I see?" Lancer asked me, Not Amused.

I paled at that. "Scathach, if I knew what I was doing to summon all these women, then I'd immediately stop doing it."

Really, is it too much to ask for another guy with a dick about? (No- Saber still doesn't count! Probably)

"Enough of her and her admittedly appealing bust, my Anchin! While she may be beautiful enough that even I can acknowledge it, the fact remains that her devotion to you pales before my own. Focus only upon me!"

"… Berserker, please let go of my arm, you're crushing me."

And once more, Saber rescues me from her clutches by literally picking the writhing kitten up by the scruff of her neck. Truly, Saber was not the Bro I wanted, but was also the one I deserved?

"So yeah, this is the rest of the Grey Team." I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. "Technically we're missing two people. Assassin is out scouting for me, while Archer has yet to be summoned. Still, these are the majority of the people that you'll be working with in the future."

"I see." Scathach clapped her hands together and nodded her head. She'd finished her appraisal, it seemed, and was willing to give her opinion. "My first opinion is that you all need a lot of work. Really, you seem more dysfunctional than anything, but until I see you in combat I shall hold off on any true criticism."

Rider looked just about ready to interrupt and tell Lancer where she could shove her critique, when Lancer suddenly blinked and took a step back. "… though, I'm not your teacher, so of course you have no obligation to listen."

Lily sighed a little at that. "I can't quite say that you are wrong. As far as Servants go, we are all rather flawed. However, I don't much like hearing you look down upon our actions and abilities. We have worked well together since this War has begun, and we are still Heroic Spirits, worthy of respect."

The immortal woman shrugged her shoulders a little and bowed her head a little. She could agree with that much, it seemed.

"What!?" Medea suddenly snapped to attention. She looked around frantically for a moment, before her cute features scrunched up intently as she focused.

"Hey Medea, what's up?" Rider approached her.

"A Master and Servant are approaching!" Medea exclaimed. At that, everyone except Lancer tensed up. We could all remember the last night well. Who was it? Was Alba back? Was he coming to try and bring us down low again?

"Who is it?" Saber asked, bringing voice to the queries I had.

"There's only two of them- a Servant and a Master. They're definitely here for us- I can sense them heading straight for us."

Welp, only one thing for it. "Prepare for battle then." I suggested- no, ordered. "They damn well burned down our last place. I'm not letting them do it again. We're rested and ready. Let's fuck them up."

"N-not necessarily!" Medea said hastily, waving her arms about in objection. "They're doing nothing to hide their presence! And they're walking."

My eyes narrowed at that. "If they're here to attack, and so casually at that, then either they are ridiculously competent or have no actual intention of attacking. Plus, they're ALONE. This is an Apocrypha. If one of the teams wanted to attack, surely they know better than to send only a single person up against a group?"

Then again, this could very easily be Ilya and Berserker here to finish us off, or Older Medea and Kuzuki, or a Red Team Master with an equally ridiculous Servant. Either option was terrible. I was fairly sure that Lancer would have the oomph to actually pierce Hercules' defences, while Kiyohime could go all 'raargh, dragon!' on them, but that didn't mean I was in a hurry to face those monsters. And if it was Gilgamesh instead…

"Orders?" Saber pressed me.

"That's right. I'm the Master, am I not?" It's sometimes hard to remember that, considering how I often felt like I was just fumbling about most of the time.

"Let's go out to meet them." I decided. "I don't want them to breach our defences and gain any information about our protections, so let's intersect them. We'll leave, say… one Servant here, just in case an Assassin is trying to do something sneaky or shit while we're gone, and then I'll take the others with me and see what the Master wants. If they want a fight, we wreck them. They want to talk? Well, then we'll have more leverage in negotiations."

Yes- that seemed like a reasonable idea. I didn't want to underestimate the enemy- that one Servant could very likely be good enough to match us, so I wanted to field everyone I could. But on the other hand, a pre-emptive attack would put a stop to any chance of negotiations, if their intent wasn't harmful. Plus, while Assassin of Blue was dead, the Red Team still had theirs in play. This could very easily be a gambit to draw me out so they could trap my homebase or something, so keeping some level of defence there was a must.

I blinked, suddenly realising something. Lancer hadn't sprung to my side like the others had at my words. She wasn't following me, as I turned to go. "Would you rather stay here or come with me?" I asked her.

"I'm glad you asked." She replied. "This is a partnership, albeit temporary. I'm not willing to leap to do your bidding at only your words. I am no attack hound."

"I am aware of that." And I was. "You aren't an attack dog, so I'm sorry if you'd think I would consider you otherwise. Even so, all my other Servants I'd summoned had been mostly content to leave planning and so such to me, so I expected you'd be the same."

"I am Scathach." She said, as if that was an answer in of itself.

"Look, do what you want." I finally spoke. There was no time at the moment to properly argue over it or come to an agreement. She'd only been summoned recently, and an enemy was literally knocking at my door. "I would prefer it if you could help me out, since we've had no time yet to properly hash out the details of our 'partnership'. But if you don't want to come, then I won't waste time or a Command Seal to make you. Just… protect the base or something."

"I'll come." She instead said, a crimson lance appearing in her hands. "I can see the logic in your words. You spoke in haste, and we can talk later. For now, I shall follow your lead, as I lack the knowledge necessary to properly manage the upcoming situation. I shall have to trust your judgement."

I smiled a little at that. "Thank you for the courtesy. Okay then. Medea, guard the base, and be watchful of intruders. Everyone else, let's go. No chariot this time. It's daytime, so a little bit of subtlety is necessary, mayhaps. On that note, mortal attire, everyone."

Ten minutes of walking amongst the docks later, and we finally caught up to the enemy Master. Clearly, they had noticed us leaving the base, and stopped walking towards us. Instead, they did a full 90 degrees turn and went towards the beachfront. Here was where we found the Master, sitting on a bench overlooking the sands, while the Servant stood behind them- between us.

"Hello, Tohsaka Rin. Glad to see you aren't dead." I finally greeted her, semi-warmly. I made no move to approach her, though, and kept my Servants close by. Saber in particular was as close to me as I could manage- close enough that I could feel their sword hilt digging into me. "Wow. That came out way worse than I expected."

"Good morning, James. And the same to you." She replied as she stood up and turned to me, equally cheery, fully in her façade.

From here, I wasn't quite sure what to say. Of all the Masters' I expected that I might see, I hadn't considered that it would have been Tohsaka Rin that sought to meet me. Especially since I considered her too smart to walk meaninglessly into the range of an enemy Master with multiple Servants and only one visible protector.

"What do you want?" Time to cut to the chase. I wasn't going to needlessly extend this matter- I wanted to get to the heart of the matter, as soon as we could.

Her smile flickered a little. "Not even going for pleasantries, this time?"

I rolled my eyes. "The time for masks is over. We're both enemy Masters, and you came to me, alone and without your team's approval. What do you want?"

"Well, there is no easy way to say this." Rin began. "Plain and simple, I didn't come here without my teams' approval."

At this, we tensed up, fully expecting that to be the cue to herald the sudden springing of a trap, or perhaps the appearance of an ambush we had been unable to detect.

However, no attacks appeared, and Archer of Blue made no motion to draw a blade either. Instead, Rin reached into her pocket and drew what seemed to be a large conch shell of coral. She placed it on the bench next to her and stepped away.

"Greetings, Master of Grey." A familiar voice emerged from it. "I chose to talk to you this way, as I assumed a Familiar would be killed on sight."

Almost immediately, I knew who was speaking. The voice was familiar because it sounded just like someone whom I spoke to every day now- it was Medea's, albeit a little deeper and more-sultry.

Rin wasn't here by herself in her capacity as a Master.

She was here in her capacity as a Master of Blue.

"Hello, Caster." I said clearly. "Can I assume that the Blue Team as a whole wishes to speak to me, and that Tohsaka Rin is merely the 'messenger girl', as it were?"

"You would be correct." A male voice took over. "We would be rather appreciative if you do not harm her across the course of this negotiation."

I let out a little snort. "It's funny to hear such things from a man like you, Kirei."

Even Rin had to smile a little at that too- trouble in paradise for the Blue Team, it seemed.

"At the present moment, I'll make no move to attack her, if she doesn't first." I reaffirmed, meaning my word. I would make no move to attack, but I said nothing of my Servants. They were here for negotiations? Fine. I would play along. But if this was a trap for something, or if negotiations broke down, I had every intention to order my Servants to strike first.

I really wanted Archer of Blue to stay alive so that there was a reliable weapon against Gilgamesh. But on the other hand, Archer of Blue is fucking ridiculous, and it would be silly to not remove him off the board if I had the chance.

"That will have to do." Rin sighed a little. "I came here in good faith, I really did. I'm not stupid enough to want to put my life in danger like this, but I chose to come anyway in order to reaffirm our Team's intentions."

"Intentions? For what?" I pressed.

Here, Older!Medea took over. "As much as we hate to admit it… we need help."

Rin took a deep breath. "The Blue Team formally seeks an alliance with the Greys."