Freed Violently

(Einzbern Castle, gatehouse)

(Illya)

"You're back," Leysritt said with a little more emotion than usual as Sella promptly expanded for her. "We were not sure what to you when you did not return. Where is Berserker?"

"It's a bad idea to keep him in physical form when allied Servants are around," I reply smoothly while motioning to the two with me. "Are the others inside?"

"Of course, everything is in perfect order. We were-" she was interrupted as Archer and Saber pounced on the two homunculus maids and restrained them with ease. I make apologetic sounds while kneeling next to Kuro who has Sella under control, before laying a hand on her head, "This won't take too long," I mutter while concentrating my magical energy and putting it to work.

While the Einzbern have various ways to control their homunculi, it is harder the finer control one needs, and also the more complex the specific homunculus is. As I had mentioned earlier to the others, I had been able to quietly experiment on these two particular maids and confirmed the existence of several dormant control systems. I had strongly expected to find such things present, after the fiasco of the previous War. Also, the fact that they decided at the last moment to add an extra four maids to these two excellent ones was telling.

Put simply, it was most likely for a contingency which involved the magical or mundane equivalent of a knife in the back. Perhaps they anticipated I would find out, certainly that I would suspect, but expected correctly that I wouldn't be able to manipulate said control systems to subvert their programming.

Instead, I simply erased all of it.

(A while ago, on the way to the castle)

"They're probably too used to the idea that a homunculus needs their commands to function. Well maybe not needs, let's say by design we're not generally supposed to be capable of full independence," I explained to Saber. "However, the Einzbern homunculi, while not generally at my, or Mother's, level, can have more sapience and intelligence than they know. And I do mean the majority.

Kuro nodded in understanding. "Honestly it sounds like the old 'machine rebellion' trope..."

"Unfortunately for them, it's basically that. Especially given my target list only has humans, though not all of them. But it does feel like the sort of solution Father and Artoria would have come up with."

"Turning their strengths against them?" Saber was already considering the longer-term goal. He would probably share those thoughts with Shirou and Caster before me, though.

"That too, but though it sounds cynical, based on my experiences back in Germany, most of the homunculi who have enough will to make their own decisions absent Einzbern control will probably follow me rather than serve them."

"What about the others?" Kuro frowned, not sure what it meant for them.

I don't really know how to think about those who are actually more like organic robots. They might be able to grow and learn, but homunculi maturation makes that rather unlikely. At the same time, it's not hard to realize that they would lose out either way, unfortunately. Those of us able to develop and go beyond, and all the future generations, will have to make it up for them.

"There should also be the option to form a contract. Anyone with even a little will could freely refuse it, but those who really lack ego would likely accept the first contract offered to them. Unfortunately that would be much like life support. But it would save on having to kill or disable them and either way, if the Einzbern lose control over enough of the most important homunculi, they will be crippled."

"Hmph," Kuro snorted. "They deserve it, for trying to do that to Father's name. Serves them right." Though she ticked me off when we first met, Tohsaka's Archer seems to be a reliable ally, at least in this respect. I do wish Gilgamesh had mentioned something about her though, he had to have known and just been laughing about the whole link between us.

My earlier strategy had been to help Shirou 'disappear so that the Einzbern wouldn't make attempts on his life. Similar cover for myself, but then using Berserker and any homunculi following me to try and take out various Einzbern operations in order to inflict some damage on them while growing our strength, before the final show-down. The main issue with such a slow build up is that the main family would probably realize the threat, if not the exact extent, and begin turning out a large number of combat-ready homunculi. And time wouldn't be on my side either, though they might not know it was me, to take advantage of that.

I made a loose fist. With the support of four Servants, we could take a more direct route with a small but overwhelming surprise attack on the homunculi production facilities. Caster could probably do an even better job than I, magecraft-wise but also tactically. In fact, it feels almost too convenient. Then again Father did say most magi tended to leave themselves open, only that other magi didn't catch on for the same reasons.

"Do you think Caster will have any objections?" I asked Saber directly. He seemed like a straight-shooter, almost like Father (when they speak, anyway) and it was probably safer to be open about it than try to be sneaky and get caught.

"Given the current alliance with Matou, you should expect some serious but non-onerous demands," he answered vaguely.

"Most likely information-sharing and leyline access," Kuro suggested. "The first might go both ways though, and it's possible we can't make use of leylines here and Germany. In which case, I think the Fuyuki ones, or all of Japan or more perhaps, depending on magi territorial rights, would be her first choice anyway."

Saber frowned as though that had been giving away too much information. Or not, since he clarified, "Caster's alliances are always two-way, otherwise it wouldn't be an alliance. Just be aware that you have fairly little given that this many Servants could simply seize anything the Einzbern had directly anyway. Which would include the full documentation on whatever they have."

"..." Caster might be a problem.

l

(Walking back to Fuyuki)

(Gilgamesh)

"I see, so he deliberately picked a fight with the Mitsrite gods." It's not really news to me that gods go to war with one another. What's more interesting is that their equivalent of the Age of Gods didn't end so much as go low-visibility. Oddly like magecraft in the modern world, come to think of it.

"Well, they weren't the only nation or pantheon that he stomped over in history. After our, er, independence, we ran over a few more before settling down. On some other people's territory, obviously. But we also collapsed a few times and he also takes credit for that... you can guess it's pretty complicated."

"Going back to the progenitor of your people, it sounds like, from the geographic location and name, he would be a descendant of one of Uruk's inhabitants."

"It's very likely," she agrees cheerfully. "But as far as I know there's no one like you on our side."

"That's oddly convenient for you." Although, given they didn't seem to have a Throne of Heroes, such a person wouldn't have, say, the Gate of Babylon via being early enough to own claims on everything.

"We're not bound to the one planet anymore. But everything was taken over long ago, so no one will be coming around to reclaim anything without being shot or burned. Besides, a nation of nearly a trillion Servant-level or such people isn't trivial on its own."

I can't help but chuckle at that. "You say 'on its own' but it seems to me if anything you lacked precisely someone like me to get you started on real independence."

Sasaku immediately catches on. "You would say that, wouldn't you? And while it also jives with the current age, we only see it as failed attempts recorded in ancient history, which does include a few who tried coup, or rebellion, or separatism, whatever you want to call it. They're mostly burning though." She shrugs away the issue. "But I do understand your desire to find and exploit any cracks when they get here. Original-me was worried about the possibility of degradation, but she was happy to be essentially proven wrong centuries ago."

I glance at Caster who, externally at least, appears neutral on the subject, though that seems highly unlikely. "You're not going to convince me that all one trillion of you will make the journey here, because that would be ludicrous.

She nodded without a hint of dissent. "Maybe a 'mere' billion. Depending on travel times though, arrving might be ten, oh a hundred times that at the end of a massive highway and tail of colonies leading back." Sasaku smiles benevolently at the thought. "I didn't get to see the takeover of the world I lived in, because when I came back, thanks to human progress, it was a different one which we rolled over."

"How did you die, actually? You already know about me just by reading."

"That's quite a thing to ask." Obviously, for most Servants where it counts, that information would constitute a major vulnerability. Then again, she's a bit odd in having lived much longer after her death before becoming a Servant, which makes me wonder how that works out.

Ironically though, this is mere curiosity since she is, after all, amazingly weak when it comes to it.

"Short version: I was shot."

"Sorry to hear it," I respond perfunctorily, which she takes in the same spirit. "Firing squad."

This was clearly prompting me to ask more. "You didn't strike me as the type." That confirms she lived in relatively modern times, not earlier from what one might guess from using Roman republic era weapons. Caster shrugs, her death or theirs being rather unimportant outside of the 'long version' story. "They were rebels, and when I came back it was their grandchildren or great-grandchildren who were flattened."

Flattened. I snort at the thought. "You're not nearly naive enough to think this World is without its defenses."

"We could discuss this until they arrive, but it wouldn't change anything. I mean, the people who shot me were pretty sure I was totally wrong and one of them knows I was right since I met her. As for the others..." she left off at that point. "Now if you're are implying that all the planets and especially stars in this galaxy and the other galaxies humans can currently see are all in some sort of alliance, that would definitely raise the bar an interesting amount."

"There's the Throne of Heroes," I point out. "And I'm given to understand that Servant vessels are not the most powerful ones available for contingencies such as you describe."

"About one hundred billion humans have ever lived to this date, right? How many are in the Throne? Do aliens get in or have their own?"

"..." I simply shake my head in amusement. That was a rather transparent ploy. "Giving away those answers would be telling."

"What?" She fingered the simple necklace I had pressed on her earlier in our journey together, a drawn-out loop of silver, simply worked, that carried a golden replica of a beast fang. "You haven't collared me yet? Obviously you'd try to use me to fight them, am I right?"

I look at her skeptically. Not because she can pull off saying absurd lines in a demure tone, but rather, "You have a killswitch in you." Caster arches an eyebrow at this assertion but adds like a minor detail, "And several that I don't even know about."

It's decision time. Either Caster or leaving everything to rot since likely anyone who could deal with the Grail wouldn't do it. Though perhaps if it was someone besides me, they might be able to convince the new El-Melloi to help.

"Let me tell you something interesting that some of us with (Clairvoyance) discovered about human history and the Grail." This caught her attention immediately. Which for her means excitedly... keeping quiet. She's different, I'll give her that.

"Usually, my older self gets summoned in the previous War and proceeds to make a mess of it. This time though..."

l

Notes:
Though Sasaku mentioned population numbers (1 trillion, or 10^12) and timelines (1000 years, which she's been there for the entirety of), she didn't give the population at year 0 where we could read it. Generation zero is 100 million (10^8).

Growth-wise this roughly works to about 0.925 percent growth per year, which is exactly the birth rate since no one dies of old age. So out of approximately 1000 people (say 500 couples) there are 9 children in a given year. As a result, 10 times is 250 years, and a hundred would be 500.

Meanwhile her quoted figure of a billion people departing on an expeditionary journey means one in a thousand. However, she is assuming there is no "other place" people might go which is very likely wrong given that the evidence of being in one should greatly increase the Bayesian posterior probability that multiple, or even many, exist.