Whoooooooooosssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!

One… to grab their attention…

Whoooooooooosssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!

Two… to get them moving…

Whoooooooooosssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!

Three…

"Let the show… begin!"

I couldn't stop the grin from erupting on my face as I pushed the button on the detonator. Immediately, the surrounding area plunged into total darkness. Street lights, traffic lights, the light seeping through the blinds of nearby houses… all out. Across the majority of the city, the dark now reigned supreme over the light.

Beautiful… Simply… beautiful…

Of course, everything up to this point going according to plan didn't mean I could stop running and enjoy the view in tranquility. The pieces were moving, converging… I still needed to get them to their proper positions. Thankfully, I already had my route planned out. All I had to do was keep moving. Keep running.

Whoooooooooosssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!

Weaving down side streets, the false wind magic from Caster's devices whipping overhead, the sound of the horns from the cars still on the streets, honking and blaring into the otherwise silent night. The feeling of the rain pelting down upon me... heart pumping, ragged breathing… It has been too long, far too long, since I've felt this way. This… alive…

"Time for number five…"

Whoooooooooosssss- BOOM!

The ground beneath my feet shook, and a sound even louder than Caster's device reached my ears. That wasn't thunder, and if it wasn't thunder, then it could only be-

"You… But what- Berserker, smash him to a pulp!"

Berserker… Well, they showed up earlier than expected. Either I misjudged where their starting location would be, or I misjudged just how fast Berserker could move through the city. Either way, it wasn't the start to this I was looking for.

With a mighty roar, Berserker took a few bounds forward, and leaped into the air. He was going to land right on top of me; squish me under his heel like a bug. …Provided he landed, that is. However, despite their earlier than anticipated arrival, so long as the rest of the movements were in line with what I expected, then-

Right on cue, multiple streaks of red light slammed into Berserker. Well, to be fair to Berserker, he blocked most of them with his shield. But one did land a solid hit on him, and that hit was enough to send him crashing back down to the ground. I only had the briefest of moments to catch the look of shock and anger on Zach's face before the dust cloud obscured my view.

"Damn you Archer" I heard him shout out into the night as I dipped down a walking path between a couple of houses.

"Here kid, catch" I shouted back at him as I tossed one of the devices over my shoulder in his general direction.

Whoooooooooosssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!

"So it's coming from you! After him, Berserker! Don't let him get away!"

Another roar from Berserker informed me he was more or less back on his feet. Judging from the continuous streaks of red light raining down from the sky though, Archer had no intention of letting him get me quite so easily. Despite the growing distance, the sound of concrete being smashed and scattered about was dominating the night. Even louder than the storm, which could draw some unwanted attention… Ah well, leave that to the actual magi to deal with.

The cacophony of sounds drowning one another out in the night. The thrill of the hunt. The euphoria of a plan coming together… Oh, it was simply too much fun!

And thank you, Archer, for playing your part beautifully!

Whoooooooooosssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!

The sound of police sirens joined the madness of noise. It was faint, but detectible. Good. Very good… The police were on the move, but not in the general area I wanted to operate in. Exactly as I designed and desired…

Whoooooooooosssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!

The ground began to shake again beneath my feet. Daring a look behind me, I noticed Zach at the intersection of the current road and the little walking path I'd dipped down. He was smiling, but it was just him, so-

Wait, just him? Where- oh fu-

BOOM!

The sound of splintering wood and shattering glass exploded to life as I dropped to the ground as fast as I could. Not a moment too soon either, as something went sailing overhead. Fast.

BOOM!

More things breaking; glass and God knows what else. No idea what Berserker had just smashed, or thrown, or what, but whatever he'd just done, it demolished multiple houses, and likely would have decapitated me in the process.

…Scratch the likely; would have definitely decapitated me…

But the fact he missed didn't matter. I'd killed my momentum. I was now an easy target, and I couldn't even see where Berserker was! Which meant-

"Shit!"

More arrows went after Berserker, trying to swat him out of the air again, but this time he sure was ready for them. May have been mad, but he still knew how to use a shield. Not a single one hit their mark, Berserker stayed on his desired course, and he was coming down from above fast. Right on top of me.

Out of pure instinct, I pushed off the ground hard as I could, diving forward.

…So, good news was that it was enough to save my life; Berserker landed where I had been, and not on top of me. Bad news was that I sure as shit didn't clear the vicinity of the landing zone anywhere near enough to avoid the aftershocks knocking me skyward.

I couldn't even scream as the feeling of weightlessness came over me, and my vision spun out of control; body tumbling through the air in what would be lethal impact with the ground. Or crippling impact with the ground, followed by lethal impact wither Berserker's club. Or fist. Or foot. …Take your pick, really.

Still running off of instinct and reflexes, I tossed a final device.

Whoooooooooosssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh!

Not sure what that was supposed to do; it wasn't real wind magic, after all. Certainly, wasn't going to create a platform for me to fall onto, or even slow my fall. It was just color and noise.

Damnit… if only the kids-

Clang!

…Well, I hit something hard. But it wasn't pavement. No… it was metal. Hurt like a bitch, but not lethal, or even crippling. It was, by most accounts, a miracle.

Or, by my account, calculated.

Feeling myself come to a sudden stop, my vision blacked out. Violently. But only for a moment. Once the black spots cleared from my eyes, I saw I was up on the roof of one of the houses nearby, held up by red arms.

"Thank you, Lancer. Just saved my life" I grinned, trying to twist myself in his arms so I could look him in the face.

"Nathan, what-"

Whatever it was Lancer wanted to say to me, it got cut off by another one of Berserker's roars. Holding a massive slab of concrete in his hands, he twisted his massive frame back and hurled it right at us. It sailed through the air fast. Impossibly fast! The I-couldn't-even-make-it-out-it-was-a-blur-in-flight fast! Had I not seen it before it was in motion, I wouldn't have been able to identify what it was Berserker was even throwing!

…Was that what he'd thrown at me the first time?! And it plowed right through multiple houses?! Jesus, that just wasn't right!

Fortunately for both Lancer and myself, Lancer was on guard, and agile. My vision blurred again for the briefest of moments, and when it returned to normal, I was looking down at Berserker from the top of a new house roof.

Berserker wasn't letting up the assault though. At this point he was just ripping the road apart, hurling slab after slab at Lancer and I. Lancer took evasive maneuvers, running and jumping along the rooftops of the houses, beginning his retreat.

…This was good. It meant that the kids were now in place. Now all that was missing was Rider and the priest. But they'd come. They'd absolutely come. Just a bit longer…

"What are you doing Berserker! Stop screwing around and kill them already!"

Zach's shouting was responded to by Berserker with a roar of his own. I wondered what was happening to the slabs he'd thrown earlier; they'd demolish their impact zone when they fell, after all. Be bad for it to crash right through someone's bedroom, you know? As it turned out though, Archer had it covered. Looking up, streaks of red lights intercepted each slab as they sailed over the head of Lancer, disintegrating them to dust.

Now that Lancer had me, made sense Archer would switch priority to keeping the collateral to a minimum. Good. Just as I expected.

A couple of streets later, Lancer jumped down from the rooftops to the ground below. Waiting for us was Sortiara, looking slightly winded, but certainly better than how I looked, I bet.

"Hey, glad you made it" I wheezed as Lancer put me down.

"Nathan, what the hell is going on here" Sortiara was shouting, glaring right at me.

"Hell if I-" I huffed, acting confused as I turned to look at Johnathan.

…Only to find that I was just Sortiara, Lancer, and myself.

"Wait, where's Johnathan" I countered with a question of my own, now genuinely confused.

"He should be close behind us... Why? What's- Oh, forget it with you! Lancer, what's-"

"There's no getting away, you pathetic excuse of a mast- No… Sortiara! Finally, I've got you! Berserker, change of plans! Wipe the floor with her and her miserable servant!"

"Oh well, it'll have to do" I smirked as I took off running again, down the way Sortiara had indicated Johnathan was coming from.

"Nathan! Where are you-"

"I leave Berserker to you two! Good luck!"

I heard Sortiara rage in frustration as Berserker and Zach rapidly closed in on her and Lancer.

"What?! Damnit! Lancer! Put a stop to that rampaging lunatic!"

"As you command, master!"

…Oddly enough, the sounds of fighting got fainter as I continued running down the street. Was she not going to fall back? …Was she actually going to have Lancer fight Berserker?! Why would you do that, you dumb, dumb bitch… The whole point was for you to bait him till Rider- oh, fuck it! Sure, we'll go with plan S, as in stupid, now! Not like it's a big loss for me if Lancer kicks the bucket tonight…

About a block or two away I finally ran into Johnathan. The guy was huffing and puffing real fierce, and Saber was nowhere to be seen. He came to a stop when he spotted me, eyes wide with confusion and relief, from what I could tell.

"Nathan, oh thank God… Where's Sortiara?! She rushed off ahead of me, and-"

"Last I saw, she was just about to engage Berserker. A couple more blocks back the way I came" I pointed behind me.

"Why is she fighting Berserker?! Hell, what are you even doing out here?! It's the middle of the night, and the entire city just got hit by a massive-"

"Hey now-"

"Nathan, what have you done?!"

"Look here man! I didn't want her to go and actually fight Berserker! It's stupid; she doesn't need to fight Berserker! None of us need to actually fight Berserker! The point was to have Berserker chase you two around for a bit, then offload Berserker onto Rider once he showed up!"

"Your plan from before?!"

"No, my plan from before was far more organized than this! Unfortunately, neither of you wished to cooperate, so I had to find workarounds! This is what I expected, more or less; the movements and sequence of arrivals is correct, just that the timing is all out of whack!"

"But why?! How?! The blackout over the city; how did you do it?! Why did you do it?! Why did you set Berserker off in the middle of a residential area?!"

"Because I had to be close by to you two! I only knew for certain where you two would be, and likely where Archer would be, for starting positions!"

"Starting positions?!"

"Not that I could fully rely on Archer bailing me out if something fucked up; the master could have decided its more trouble keeping me alive than the file getting out, and there goes any cover fire from Archer! Also, if you two don't show up and force Berserker to tango and risk exposing magic society, there's no guarantee Rider bothers showing himself! If that scenario plays out, Berserker would squish me! Hell, he already almost did; showed up way earlier than I expected! Thank fuck Sortiara and Lancer know how to actually move their asses, man…"

"This isn't a game, Nathan! Do you know how many people could die tonight if Berserker-"

"That's what the blackout is for, remember?! I went through this-"

"What good does that do if they can watch the fighting from inside their house?! What happens if Berserker plows right though, or caves a roof down on them?!"

"That…" I thought back to mere moments ago, when Berserker threw something that sailed through multiple houses. "We might already have some issues there, but-"

"We?! What we?! There is no we here!"

"But the priest or Archer's master should be covering for that" I was growing tired of this pointless shouting match with the kid. "The ownness is on them for keeping all this magic shit secret. There must be some contingency for you magi folk if-"

"Yeah, they kill the witnesses!"

"There, problem solved" I exclaimed.

"That-… There's no covering up something of this scale!"

"Like hell there isn't! I told you a storm was coming! Why do you think I'm doing this tonight?! It's the perfect cover for a citywide blackout and damaged houses!"

"That… You-"

"More importantly, where the hell is Saber?!"

"I-I... Saber is-"

"How do you not know where Saber is?! Rider should be-"

"Should be dealing with Saber as we speak."

…Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao appears…

The sound of a third voice not belonging to either of us seemed to snap Johnathan out of whatever feeble mind state he'd fallen into during his pointless questioning. Before I even knew it, multiple talismans were floating in the air around the two of us.

"All this needless destruction… All this needles death…" the priest was approaching us head on, arms behind his back and, seemingly, defenseless. "The Lord weeps for his children over the pain you have wrought."

"Always a fuckin preacher…" I sighed. "You know everything happens according to God's plan, right? Why would he weep over something he himself devised?"

"You would dare insinuate the Lord willed this" the priest spread his arms out wide, as if to gesture at the blackout and the cacophony of sirens and other noise ringing out in the night.

"I wouldn't, but your own religion would" I smirked.

"The Lord has not willed your sin, child, but he has willed it's cleansing by my hand."

"Must be nice to be able to cherry-pick your own belief system. But to have to do such a thing, almost like it's flawed; manmade…"

I let that last word linger in the air as the showdown set in. Neither of us were moving; waiting on what the other wo say, or do. Anticipating the first move, preparing to counter.

The defensive. The stall, rather than the kill. This was my specialty. I will not lose here to you, priest.

…Now, if only a certain someone could lead Berserker here already! What the actual fuck was she doing?!

"Go."

That single word was all that was spoken to break the silence setting in between the three of us. Johnathan had been silent since the priest had revealed himself, so it surprised me that he was actually the one to break the silence, and in such a confusing manner.

…Must have been communicating with Saber during the silence, I guess…

"Go" I questioned, not taking my eyes off the priest as I spoke.

"Yes. Go" Johnathan was steely calm as he spoke, which might have very well been a first for me to witness. "Get out of here. Find Saber. Help him deal with Rider."

"How, exactly?"

"Your plan is already playing out, isn't it? Ensure the rest of it goes off as intended."

I raised an eyebrow.

"You're cool with that now, all of a sudden?"

"This… isn't over" Johnathan let out a deep breath. "I hate this, but I know enough to recognize I can't do anything to stop it…"

"…And?"

"…And at this point, in this moment, the war comes first."

"…Hmm, so you do understand the importance of following the shot caller" I couldn't help but laugh a little. "Now, if only we could have gone with my original plan-"

"Get out of here already…" Johnathan growled.

"Sure, but uh… which way?"

A single, outstretched arm in silence was my only indication. But it was enough.

"Good luck" I smirked as I took off running yet again into the night.

"You will not escape me again!"

The priest lunged at me with the inhuman speed of that body reinforcing magic. In the darkness of the blacked-out city, the blue lines visible along the exposed parts of his body seemed to shine even brighter than before. Despite it not being as fast as the movement I've seen in Heroic Spirits like Lancer and Berserker earlier tonight, in my worn-out state, there was no avoiding this; I would be grabbed, and most like immolated. Again.

…Were it not for a ring of talismans shooting forward and intercepting him at equally, blindingly fast speed…

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the outstretched fist of the priest slam into something in midair, bringing his entire being to a halt. A flash of light indicated the fist had slammed into a barrier of some kind. Or at least, I presumed as much. I wasn't going to stick around to try and figure it out.

As I ran past, I heard the priest snarl as he threw out a punch, only for another flash of light to light up the night sky.

"You're not going anywhere, Executor" I heard Johnathan declare, before the distance between us grew too great and his voice was drowned out by the symphony of other noise ringing out throughout the city.

Damn, we really were on plan S now, weren't we? Fine then, if the pieces were so unwilling to cooperate on their own accord…

…Then let's give the strings a greater tug, shall we…?


A/N (Delirious ravings of an exhausted madman - not important)

Glad to finally be starting the... let's call it the next fun bit of this story ;)

This actually was suppose to have gone out... two nights ago now, but I got distracted by LB 5.1 releasing in FGO NA, something I completely forgot was going to happen between my writing, schoolwork, SMT V and FF 14 Endwalker release just around the corner.

…If you've read my other author notes, or if you're sharp enough to glimpse it through my writing, it's probably not a big secret that, overall, I'm not really a fan of the FATE IP. Now, don't get me wrong, I think the underlying, root premise (mages summoning heroes from history and legend to fight in a battle royale type thing) is brilliant. But, by and large, that's where its brilliance ends, in my opinion.

I've read all three routes of the original FATE visual novel, seeing every possible ending, the goods and the bads, and seen all their anime adaptations; hated all three. I watched the FATE/Apocrypha anime; thought it was trash on so many accounts. I've seen 100% walkthroughs of every FATE Extella/C.C.C/whatever the fuck they're all called games; could not find any semblance of brilliance within their writings.

Indeed, it is entirely fair to say I hate 95... maybe even more like 98% of all things FATE. So, why do I still keep an eye on this IP? Its a question that not only others have asked me, but that I've been asking myself the more I write this... fanfic (still feel like vomiting at the mentioning of 'fanfic' xD)… trying to make sense of it's convoluted systems and rules.

So, why am I still poking around the FATE IP, and why is this post two nights later than what I wanted?

Because I play FGO NA; have for... coming on four years now. I just finished LB 5.1 less than one hour ago as of typing all of this. And it made me remember.

Why I love FATE, as rare as that sentiment is from me.

I first felt it right at the beginning, when I watched FATE Zero for the first time. I felt it again in Babylonia. In the Temple of Time. In Shinjuku. And now, just an hour ago, I felt it again, come the end of Atlantis.

To me, far more often than not, FATE is a brilliant root premise, mired in a swamp of shit. But when that brilliance is allowed to shine, it shines so brightly that... that it transcends brilliance.

…I suppose what I'm trying to say is... The beauty of humanity lies in its creations and destructions, and for all the shit that comes out of this IP, and for all the squandering I think Nasu and Type-Moon do with the brilliance of the core premise, playing through Atlantis reminded me of the undeniable...

FATE... is beautiful... and no matter how much shit I have to wade through to see it, I will not drop this IP.

…For I wish to see all the beauty it has to offer...