Author's Note: Assume Rider and Waver's friendship developed fully as it did originally, just a bit faster. This is important since another canon event is about to happen. Mostly brushed aside, but assume minimal changes to the clash other than anything mentioned.

Chapter Sixteen: Berserker

"Maiya, hang on! Saber will be back in a moment with Marrok, he can heal you."

Maiya coughed up a bit of blood, but smiled, "I am fine Kiritsugu."

"Your heart's missing! Dear god..."

She chuckled, "Not from a silver or holy weapon though. He did that bare-handed. The monster. The stupid, stupid monster. He didn't know."

"Maiya, it's not night yet. It's still another twenty minutes before the full moon."

"Kiri, don't be mad, but it turns out this was a lucky break. Marrok... Marrok can see and awaken origins."

"He what?"

"Turns out mine is wolf."

Kiri looked at the wound again, her heart had just finished regenerating, "You're already a werewolf?"

"I asked him to wake it up. I wanted to start being me. Might have saved me just now."

"But the Mages' Association won't let you live in peace like this!"

"Was I living peacefully anyway?"

"I'm so sorry, Maiya. I brought you into this.'

"Don't be. I'm happy. Almost as happy as the first time you kissed me. Even though I knew you were doing it because you were in pain... I was useful to someone as great as you."

"I'm not great. I kept you as a tool and used you like that to punish myself."

"Kiri..." Maiya winced as the wound kept healing, "You've changed... even more than when you left to be with Irisviel. All your intentions getting derailed, forcing you to be with the rest of us in this weird family of ours... it's changed you. Once I wished for you to return to the assassin you once were, so I could keep you to myself, but not anymore. This Kiri, this one is the one you were supposed to be. I know what Marrok meant now."

"What do you mean?"

Artoria burst into the room, "Marrok is gone. I think he went after Archer to confront Kariya."

"Kariya?"

"He betrayed Marrok while you were away."

"Dammit I leave for a little while and everything starts falling apart."

Maiya took a long look at Saber and smiled, "I see."

Kiritsugu looked at Maiya and noticed her wound was abruptly closing, healing faster than it had been, "Maiya, do you have Avalon?"

She nodded, "Iri gave it to me earlier today when she realized her time would be up soon. Told me to give it back to you. Take it. I'm fine without it."

Kiritsugu started waving the magics to take it out of Maiya, while turning to Saber, "How is Marrok still around without a Master?"

Saber explained, "We did a ritual to try and get him into a pact with Irisviel using that spare command seal you gave her."

"Irisviel's a master now? I don't feel any extra drain, so he's not mine... just hers. That means she can just call him to her with that if she gets the chance."

"I don't think she would, she probably wouldn't want to risk Marrok's wounded state."

Kiri sighed, "You're right."

Maiya grabbed Kiri's hand, "I can track them, just give me a few more moments."

"Now that I think about it, there's no need. We know where he's headed. The civic center where the grail is to be held. Let's go. Maiya, you can lay down in the back of the car and rest."

Kiri started to pick her up, but Maiya would not release his hand, "A moment. Marrok told me something I need to mention to you. He told me to bring it up if he didn't get the chance before you needed to go into a definitive conflict. It's about your origin. He told me all about it, and he taught me how to awaken it."

"Then go ahead, we need everything we can get."

Maiya shook her head, "I awaken it right now and I doom you. If you become the embodiment of severing and binding as it is, you'll break everything and restore it in a mess. Including yourself."

"That's all it's good for, that's all I've ever done."

"You're wrong. What kind of origin is that for a boy who grew up wanting to be a hero of justice? The man that does everything he can to save people? The one who saved me and gave me a place, that gave everything he knew up to save a homunculus and start a family? A man that dies a little inside every time he has to hurt someone?"

Kiri had to admit, there was some sense in that.

"Your origin has two parts; sever and bind. Your teacher saw the simple weapon-like part of that, twisted by something. But the context is complex. You're conflicted because your origin has another nature to it. Your original nature: severing and binding... can also be used to cut bindings and unite." Maiya smiled, "Your origin's positive side is liberate and unite. The origin of a hero of justice."

"Maiya..."

"If I awaken that, Marrok doubts your Origin Rounds will be useful against regular mages anymore. In fact, they won't be very good weapons at all in most cases. Marrok called it ironic."

"I have to lose a weapon for the power of what I wanted to use that weapon to be."

"He said to let you choose. The weapon, throwing your dream away completely to charge headlong for the grail, or the dream, the harder path to the same end."

Saber put a hand on her master's shoulder, "I walked a path of self-sacrifice, not realizing fully that I wasn't alone the entire time. Believe me Kiritsugu, the direct path of self-destruction to get the job done is not that right one. I don't know what the latter will enable you to do, but trust that you don't need a weapon."

Kiri absorbed the words, and smiled for the first time in a long time, "I have a Saber after all."

Maiya sat up, "And a werewolf."

He nodded, "Do it, Maiya. It's time for us to be heroes of justice."

Shortly after nightfall, a certain rider had noticed a man fleeing with Irisviel and pursued. That path took him into a fateful confrontation. Archer stood at the very center of the bridge that man had taken, his gaze fixated on Rider, clearly challenging him. If that weren't made clear with just the gaze, it was by Archer shooting the chariot down with his Noble Phantasm.

Rider was of course out of the loop and was confused as to why Kariya was standing beside Archer, but assumed treason correctly. There was plenty of time to correct that crime though. With his master's blessing, he mounted his loyal horse and unleashed his true Noble Phantasm. A reality marble containing all of his retainers, an entire army of heroic spirits.

Kariya facepalmed, "Seriously, how many servants in this war have armies? Kill him Archer."

Gilgamesh crossed his arms, "No."

Kariya's gaze snapped to him, "What?"

"What a cur. He needs other's to fight for him? Hardly a fitting use of my time."

"This is war, Archer! One you agreed to fight in!"

"I'll just let Saber kill him. I'm actually looking forward to playing with her. Her anguished expression reminds me of the virgins that showered me in rose petals in my bedchambers."

Kariya fought my back the urge to quip 'If they looked so anguished in your bedchambers no wonder they were virgins.' and instead said, "He's charging us right now! He's going to kill us both if we don't kill him or leave! Pick one!"

"I leave when I please."

"Then fight him!"

"I fight when I please."

"Archer!"

Iskandar barreled ever closer, within striking distance if he leaped his horse at them. Just a moment or two later and his army would catch up to him and run them over.

"Archer by the power of my command seal I order you to kill him!"

Chains immediately erupted and caught the King of Conquerors in mid-air. Gilgamesh drew a strange lance-like sword from an portal and pointed it behind Iskandar firing a single beam that struck the floor of the reality marble and shattered it, slaying it and his entire army in one shot.

Gilgamesh smiled and walked closer to the King of Conquerors, "Truly a Noble Phantasm befitting the King of Conquerors. If we ever meet again, feel free to challenge me as many times as you want. It won't be boring for you."

On that note, Gilgamesh stabbed him through the heart, killing Rider instantly as if it were nothing. Meanwhile, as Archer dismissed Rider's master as a threat and allowed him to live, Kariya looked at his hand... his hand devoid of command seals. Along that same highway, with the death of another servant, Irisviel's life began to be driven out by the intrusion of the Grail.

"Kariya!"

His gaze shot upwards at a familiar voice, "Marrok?"

Sure enough, the knight was standing there right at the end of the bridge, walking up it. He looked weak, but not wounded.

Kariya waited for the servant to get to where Waver was standing, then asked, "How are you... still alive?"

Marrok didn't seem angry, but he did look sad. He wanted to trust Kariya, "Answer me first. Did you only agree to take Archer on as a servant because you thought my death was certain? Or was that battle a set-up to begin with?"

Kariya gritted his teeth, "I gave you a chance! I even gave you a command seal boost. You couldn't even touch him!"

"From the sound of it, you wanted me to fight him one on one. We could have teamed up with Saber against him!"

"So you could give her the Grail? So Sakura could turn into a monster tonight and be hunted forever thanks to you? You ruined everything! Now she's probably turned now. And are you there helping her with that? NO! You're here! Why didn't you just die instead of leaving more messes for me to clean up!"

Archer strolled over to his master and clapped a hand on his shoulder, a grin on his face, "There you have it. That's the true nature of your master. I found it interesting that he summoned a knight so noble as you, Mongrel."

Marrok growled, "You polluted his mind against me, Archer! What did you promise him?"

"What you promised your king. He needs the grail to fix his life you intend to leave a shambles."

"I saved him! I saved Sakura!"
"You painted me as a mass murderer and turned her into a monster!" Kariya shouted back whipping his hand at Marrok to accent the point.

"Kariya... no..., don't you realize what he's doing? What he's done? Assassin's master was working with Tokiomi!" Marrok motioned at the hand, "Where are you command seals?"

Kariya clenched his fist, part of him putting the pieces together.

Archer lifted his hand from his shoulder, "The answer to your question, Master. How is Marrok alive?"

Kariya felt a great and sudden pain enter his back and looked down to see a spear impaling him through the chest.

"I let him live intentionally."

Gilgamesh grinned ear to ear as he tossed Kariya from his spear and down the slight slope of the bridge to Marrok, who met his former master half way. The King of Heroes didn't attack, he wanted the situation to stew a bit longer. He watched with great anticipation as Marrok desperately tried to heal him.

"Why... why isn't this working?"

Archer elaborated, putting the spear back in his treasury, "All Noble Phantasms descend from weapons in my treasury, including Lancer's cursed spear. Ironic that it would end your master is it not?"

"Archer!" Marrok snarled.

Kariya started coughing up blood, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I... just wanted to protect Sakura,I just wanted a normal life... I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have done this."

"Don't speak master," Marrok started to glow with the activation of his second Noble Phantasm, "I'll just bite you, that lifts curses. Then you'll heal."

He bit his former master with grown fangs waited a moment, and resumed trying to heal him... nothing. The curse was still in effect.

"It's not working?!"

Kariya struggled to breathe, "Lunar cycle... legend says the bite turns on the next full moon... maybe that's too far away to give me your origin?"

"DAMMIT!" Marrok started weeping. Archer started laughing.

Fur was starting to appear all other Marrok's body, bursting out of his armor. His fangs grew longer. There was an unidentifiable creaking noise as well. Where that was coming from was uncertain, but it sounded like something that should never be able to break being wrenched to the breaking point.

"You twisted his mind, broke our partnership, made him betray me, just so you could murder him in front of me... just so you could make me suffer!"

"Yes. Exactly that." Gilgamesh smiled.

Kariya grabbed Marrok's hands has they tried to hold in the blood, "Marrok, please... I'm going to die... but don't let... him win. You have to protect Sakura. Promise me you will."

"I... will."

"Promise me..." Kariya fought against the blood filling his lungs, "promi...se that you won't let him ruin you. D-don't lose yourself. Please... don't let my mistake make you betray yourself."

"Master... I would never have betrayed you!"

"I k..ow. So... promise me..."

"I promise." the knight contorted more.

Kariya wept, looking to Archer as his life ebbed away, "You bastard... you made him lie to me."

There was silence. So quiet that no one's breathing could be heard. Though Kariya was the only one not holding it in from the sudden tension. That creaking sound grew louder, more unholy. Like a cruise liner had been dragged beneath the waves and was being folded in half. Every fiber of Waver Velvet's being cried out for him to run. So terrible was the sensation that Waver was certain that at every point before or since that he ever shuddered for no reason or felt a chill run up his back was in truth just this feeling from this moment ripping through time and space. Waver, though with no rights as a master, could now see the rank of Madness Enhancement that had formerly been concealed. He had never run so fast in his entire life.

Many blocks away, on their way to the church, the trio of Kiritsugu, Maiya, and Saber stopped their car abruptly when several sections of Saber's armor blew off and she doubled over, spasming and screaming out in pain.

"Saber! What's wrong?"

Saber shuddered, managing words while trying not to vomit, "Something's not... right... feels like part of me is... getting eaten alive."

Maiya rubbed her arms, the hairs there standing on end, "Marrok."

The full moon in the sky over the bridge almost seemed to push every cloud that would block it away, the moonlight seemed to drive all sound from the area. The wolf could feel no mana from his temporary master... and he was certain she was gone... part of the grail or sacrificed to it by now. Before him lay the corpse of his first master, and his vision flashed back to his son, to Mordred, to Artoria, to Irisviel, to each of the Knights of the Round that met an untimely end that he could not save. Logic would dictate that he had no mana to avenge his master.

Logic did not apply. Both he had Kariya had wondered what would happen if his origin required him to lose his mind to rage. The otherworldly creaking became cracking, as if chains of unimaginable size where being ripped to pieces. Finally, the mana of the world around them for several blocks simply imploded and was extinguished, consumed in an instant. Thousands of windows shattered, glass flying out and as far as it could towards Marrok. Hundreds of car alarms started going off at once Standing there so close to the epicenter, the pressure of such unfathomable anger was impressive to even Gilgamesh as he watched the form of a wolf butcher its way out of what remained of the human Marrok. Then a larger wolf butcher its way out of that. Again and again has he grew and grew. The creaking from some place beyond the living world began to tear into reality, cracking the bridge they were on.

Archer understood... this was no simple rage. Marrok's very nature demanded this of him... the very nature of what Marrok was: nobility, was warping and twisting. This was not a raging berserker. This had nothing at all to do with the moon or werewolf legends anymore. This was rage. If any master were looking up the servant at that moment, they would see his servant profile being torn to pieces from within by some unspeakable force. He was coming apart at the seams, unmaking as his very origin died and raged back into existence. The rank he bore of Madness Enhancement EX did not even matter anymore. As the wolf reached several stories tall Gilgamesh noticed the runes forming on its body.

"I see. The knight is dead! Finally, Mongrel,your true nature is revealed! You are nothing but a phantasmal beast! One the likes of which this world has not seen in centuries! I've waited for so long... so long! COME, BERSERKER!"

As the rending of his very existence tore Marrok down to his very core... the false Fenris wolf in the core of his being stood up, snapping the last of its chains as if they were nothing.

Bizuneh, the wolf once Marrok, let out an ungodly howl, the cables holding the bridge breaking and flying outwards as if trying to flee as the form of the beast grew so large that its body forced apart the main tower structure of the bridge, collapsing it outwards. So heavy that the bridge itself fell, wolf and all into the river. The howl so massive that Archer went flying back into a parking garage on the other side of the bridge just from the sheer force of it.

"ARCHEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Looking outwards, he expected the beast to have gone underwater without the bridge, but no... the wolf was so massive the river barely reached its underbelly.

"Yes! Yes! YES!" Gilgamesh rejoiced as he stood up. Finally a challenge!

Then he noticed one of the massive halves of the bridge's tower sailing through the air straight for him.

"No! No! NO!" Archer dove backwards out of the way as the enormous pillar sheered through the parking garage and it began to fall in the direction of the bridge, the few cars remaining parked pouring down out of the tiers of the building. Archer was given no respite however as Berserker crashed through the ceilings and floors of the building as it fell, fangs aiming to end him.

He laughed quickly darting back and running up the side of the next building, intercepting two thrown cars with swords but a third sending him flying towards an office building.

Inside, a certain foreigner was alone, pulling a very late shift at his desk again, though he was taking a break, jamming out to Jennifer Lopez's "Waiting for Tonight". His peace was disrupted by a car flying through the window and over his head, so close to it that it knocked off his headphones. He screamed, hitting the floor as a giant wolf careened through after it, collapsing not only the floor he was on, but the five floors above it with its sheer size.

Climbing out of the rubble, clutching a broken arm and trying to walk on what was certainly a broken leg, the man surveyed what remained of his place of work.

"I'M FREE! HAHAHAHA! I'M FREE!"

Outside, Gilgamesh blasted the car aside and fired a flurry of twenty swords at the charging wolf, "You dare hit me with a common sedan!"

It was like fighting an elephant by throwing a box of toothpicks at it. Some found purchase, some even blew holes in Berserker. It wasn't enough. Archer scrambled up the side of the next building as Berserker destroyed his way up it, reaching the top fast enough for the beast to flip a portion of the roof at him. Which he bisected with a blade he drew to his hand. He drew another to his other hand, readying another storm to launch.

However Berserker came barreling out of the debris, ramming into Gilgamesh as he barely managed to block. Regardless he was still driven through floor after floor of the building from the sheer mass of Berserker. Archer stabbed the beast's maw over and over, launching what swords he could focus on enough to launch as he was sent crashing down through every one of the twenty one floors of the building.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" the King of Heroes bellowed like a madman.

On the bottom floor, Berserker clawed at the falling remains of the building, yanking them towards Archer in an attempt to bury the still yelling man, only for the Archer to blast away it all in turn and send the impossible wolf flying into another smaller building.

Gil noticed his breastplate torn and dented, so he ripped it off, going shirtless and revealing the runic tattoos all over his upper body. He started laughing like a lunatic, "COME ON, BERSERKER! COME OOOOOOON! YOU'VE FINALLY MANAGED TO TOUCH ME! DON'T FAIL ME NOW!"

The now falling smaller building came at Archer, but it was promptly blown to smithereens and when Berserker charged through the wreckage he was met with a slash from a mighty sword that floored him as Gilgamesh invoked its name, long forgotten by the common masses. Archer struck him again with his other sword, invoking it. He uttered true name after true name, sending Berserker crashing back down the highway and then rushing to pursue his victory.

"HA! HA! HahaHAHAHA!" he reached the street and was caught b surprised by berserker having already recovered and erupting from the dust cloud.

Archer's arm was snared in the fangs of the beast, who ran back towards the river, driving Gilgamesh into the ground and using his body to cut through the highway like a plow. At least until the servant's arm came off. Then he began to lunge again, but faltered and stumbled to the ground, golden particles starting to very slowly drift off of him. He was losing his ability to stay in physical form... some remaining fragment of his mind realized that that meant someone important was dead... but the only important person he could remember was...

"ARTORIAAAAAA!"

Archer stood, screaming in pain,"MONGREL!"

Berserker was blasted back by another phantasm, and Archer summoned a key into his remaining hand.

"You have been entertaining! But now let's see how you handle this!" Gilgamesh, for the first time in the battle, invoked the True Name of his own Noble Phantasm, "GATE OF BABYLON!"

Not far away, Artoria had managed to regain herself and the group had moments ago reached the collapsed bridge. After noting the scene and the destruction on the other side, and Kiri remarking that the Apocalypse had come to Fuyuki City, Artoria promptly carried Kiritsugu across the river thanks to her ability to walk over water, though she wasn't able to manage two people with the pain she was in.

"Get to the church, I'll catch up to you."

Kiritsugu tapped Secace on his belt, "Alright, take out Archer if you can, we don't need him getting in our way at the grail."

Saber nodded and bolted as fast as she could towards where she could sense Marrok was. The battle seemed to be over, and it felt like he was alive... if barely. When she came upon the wreckage of a city block however, she found him on top of what was left of a small store. Whatever had empowered him was gone. He'd simply begun falling apart even more, his very spiritual core unraveling, the wolf subconsciously trying to hold on by shrinking. He was impaled by many swords, but Archer was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that Saber could see was a veritable ocean of weapons with blood on them.

Marrok whined, "Artoria... Artoria... I failed again... she's gone... she's gone."

Artoria knelt beside him weeping, too distressed to wonder why she could understand him in his wolf form, "No, no I'm not I'm right here! It's okay I'm here with you... I won't leave you!"

"Artoria... you're okay... what... I can't feel anything... I can't see you... why can't I see you?"

His eyes were I no condition to see.

"I won't leave you. I'm here. I'm here."

"I want to see you again... I should have gone with you. I should have gone with you."

"Marrok, I'm right here! You're delusional. This isn't Camelot!"

"It isn't? Artoria... I'm sorry. I should have protected Camelot better. I'm dying... she killed me."

"Marrok, Archer did this! This isn't Camlann!"

Marrok was starting to disappear, so Artoria slit her wrist again and forced the blood into his mouth. He fought at first, not wanted to eat Artoria, but she forced it.

"Don't die! Please don't die! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I should... I should have stayed with you! Don't leave me, Marrok! Please! Don't do this! Stay with me!"

In her despair she didn't notice her own form destabilize as Marrok was dying.

"HahahahAHAHA!" a few dozen yards away, Archer climbed from some rubble, "That was the most fun I have had in decades!"

Artoria looked at the man, or what was left of him, "You're not dead?"

Archer, missing half of his face, chuckled, Dead? I've never felt more ALIVE!"

With his free hand, Archer summoned a flask, downing it in one shot. Almost unfairly quickly, his wounds closed, his face regenerated, and his arm grew back. The only thing that wasn't completely undone was the damage to his armor.

"Scrape him off the ground! I want another round of playing with the dog."

"No." Arthur gawked, "That's not fair... all he did to you and you just..."

"Oh, any great king should have a few elixirs of life. Come now!"

Artoria rested her head on Marrok, "Don't go Marrok... I refuse to let you die like this... please."

Marrok raised his head weakly, "I'm sorry... I never got to ask you what I wanted. I should have... I should have saved you... should have told you long ago. Swept you off your feet and asked you to be my bride. I love you, my Queen. Please... please stay with me... please marry me. Let's start a family."

"Yes. If you stay with me, then yes." Artoria squeezed him tightly, I order you to stay with me! I ORDER YOU TO MARRY ME!"

Somewhere, within the grail... a certain someone shipped it. From within the grail a command seal was spent. Empowered by the grail, the command seal surged through the wonky contract Irisviel had forced them both onto and into both servants, pushing their destabilization further and faster but held them in the world.

Archer cold tell no difference and felt such a scene had soured his fun, he conjured five blades and prepared to launch them, "If you want to bed your hounds it is no concern of mine!"

The blades flew and detonated the area in a storm of mana, if both servants hadn't flown into pieces, their Saint Graphs in splinters, before that strike they would surely have died. Within the dust cloud though the shards combined and merged, forming into a new card, the most powerful card... one that could never be drawn. When the dust cleared, Artoria sat astride a Marrok's wolf form, which was equal in size to a horse. Both clad in plate armor grander and stronger than they had ever worn in life. A furred blue cape flowed in the wind behind Artoria, a grand crown sat comfortably atop her head. Marrok was unscathed, the red runes of command seals strangely adorning both his shoulders and Artoria's hands. At Artoria's hip was Excalibur, in her hand her lance that had been forbidden to her in the Saber class, Rhongomyniad. For some reason they did not know, both off them could see Archer's class and True Name, as if looking at a servant profile. As if they were masters.

Archer turned, sensing a sudden surge of power behind him, at the strange sight of both his foes fine... and only sensing one servant in front of him, he was dumbstruck, "What in the world?"

Artoria leveled her lance at him, "I do not know, but I do know that we're not finished with you yet!"

Next Chapter: Ruler, Artoria Pendragon

Author's Note: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! YEAH! I'VE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR THIS TO FINALLY HAPPEN IN THE STORY YEAH! YES! FREAKIN' WOOOOO!

Sorry I kinda off-screened Iris becoming the Grail, but I couldn't slip it in smoothly. I am writing this kinda casually, but WOO! To clarify a bit, the attempt to save Marrok kinda forced the into the same contract, and messed up the thing keeping them in the world. They were already a little merged. This is clarified later, but Iris reached out with what will she could hold onto from inside the grail and used a command seal and her currently being part of the grail to command them to merge the rest of the way, the result of that being the class that is the servant of the grail itself: RULER! In this continuity, this is actually the creation of the card itself, as Rulers don't exist in main timeline Fate. They are now two servants on one Saint Graph like some servants in Fate; Grand Order.

Look up Lancer Artoria's first ascension art from Fate: Grand Order for a better idea of what her armor looks like now, but incorporate the crown and cape from the third ascension art. Also she is still younger Artoria, not that busty older form. Marrok is also similarly styled with his new fancy wolf-form armor.

Also WOOOOOOooo! I need a little break, but expect the next chapter within a few days. Also, probably the end of the war in two-ish chapters. Maybe three. Then we'll have some aftermath stuff for a chapter or two.