There they sat upon tiles of gold and black. Seven figures in all, formed from purest of silver and shining like stars in the perpetual darkness that surrounded them. Each piece was a representation of a distinctive Class of Servant, the primary seven that were supposed to be summoned in every Holy Grail War.

Saber… Masters of swords whose own legends often surpassed beyond they who wielded them.

Lancer… Wielders of spears, lances, any and all weapons that provided the extra reach that made striking them down all but impossible.

Archer… The true masters of the long-range weaponry who possessed such incredible strength of will that they virtually became their own Masters if they desired so.

Rider… They who had mastered their mounts to such a degree that even upon their own feet, they were a passing blur to untrained eyes.

Caster… Mages, sorcerers, crafters, they who were the artisans of their arts, purveyors of practices and connoisseurs of the crafts, which were unable to be easily replicated.

Berserker… The mad dogs of war whose sheer physical might were rivaled only by their inhumane madness…

Assassin… The shadow walkers who moved silent and unseen by their victims until their blades were buried to the hilt in their heart.

Fourteen combatants in all, the seven Masters and the seven Servants whom they call forth from the Throne of Heroes to fight and kill to attain that which was named as the Holy Grail, that their wishes may be granted, one to the living and one to the dead. An absolute balance, a perfected measure of control… but a war is a war, and like all rules that have come before and like so many that will follow, they are broken.

Right in the very First... then the Second that followed... And then the disaster of the Third...

From that travesty, a new Class was unveiled, existing but initially cast aside.

Avenger… they whose lives were spent in the name of vengeance be it for themselves or others… It was not a true class, a substitute and nothing more. It was never meant to be used for few heroes of the past could fill the standard, and rare was it that the gifts of being an Avenger were welcomed. Summoned from frustration and slaughtered before the folly could be discovered, that which whom was called as Avenger was he who had, in life, been a sacrifice against all that is sin, all that is evil, all that is abhorrent of mankind. In his demise as a Servant, he had done what he had in life and so it was not the soul of an innocent, a soul of an avenging hero that was swept into the Holy Grail.

No...

It was no mere Servant that had overridden the Holy Grail.

It was Sin.

It was Darkness.

It was All of the World's Evil.

And with it's presence, the rules upon the board were twisted beyond limit, widening the scale of reach.

There was plenty of space upon the opened board and the prize at the opposite end. From the blackness, a hand reached out…

And grabbed hold of a scarred prince.

For all intents, he rarely saw himself as a heroic person or a role model, putting most of his focus first into his honor, then his duty.

But when destiny called, even he knew that one either answered it... or suffered the consequences.

~.:The Avatar Tracker:.~

Waver expected quite a bit of a lightshow when he finished the Summoning Chant. What he didn't expect was the massive tornado of multicolored fire, reaching up to the sky along with the sound of a massive beast roaring.

In spite of himself, Waver took a wary step back, only to blink at the sight of a teenager standing before him. Sure he had a nasty burn scar over his face and was dressed in armor, but that did little to change the fact that he looked just a bit older than Waver. "Are you... my Servant?"

"Apparently so... Servant Rider... Well, it's better than Assassin, at least." Rider huffed before crossing his arms. "So, before we get started, I want to know what you're gonna do with something like the Grail. What's your wish?"

"I... I want to be treated fairly!" Waver answered as he looked away, wondering the weird sense of ease he felt at admitting it. "The people at the Clock Tower don't acknowledge my talents and hard work and I want to change that!"

Rider stared at him blankly before sighing. "That's rough, buddy. Look, I get it. I really do know what it's like to be ignored by those who value talent. But take from me when I tell you this: The approval of people like that is ultimately meaningless."

"M-Meaningless?!" Waver squawked.

"Yes." Rider nodded firmly. "I had a person like for a father, who not only messed me up because I was lucky to be born, but also gave me this before banishing me."

Waver flinched when Rider thumbed at his scar. "Y-Your father did that?!"

"With zero regret." Rider nodded. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but the ones you're seeking approval from. Are they also the kind to inflict both physical and mental trauma on those they consider beneath them without the slightest bit of hesitation?"

Waver only needed a second to confirm Rider's words. Now that his mind had latched on to it, he couldn't stop replaying Lord El-Melloi's probable reaction to having his relic stolen. "I'm dead. So dead, so dead-"

"Hey." Rider snapped his fingers before his Master's face, snapping him out of it. "It looks like I'm right, huh. Well, it's still a long while before you have to make a better choice for your wish. But for now..."

Waver gawked as Rider put his hands forward into a Asian-like salute and bowed slightly. "I have now acknowledged you as my Master and hereby swear to pave a path to our victory."

Standing back to his full height, Rider idly cracked his neck. "Now that that's over with... Let's go deal with another war."

Lancer didn't resist the urge to chuckle as Rider proved himself to be a dual wielder on par with him. Dao swords clashed skillfully against his spears, their dance a lethal one of flying sparks.

It proved even better when Lancer had aimed for a supposed weak spot on the side of his opponent's burned and possibly blind eye, only to be nearly lose his arm for the trouble. "It seems that you're not as handicapped as I misbelieved."

"I really am partially blind on my left side." Rider easily admitted. "But one of my friends was handicapped even worse than I was, and that never stopped her from becoming the greatest of her kind. She even thought it'd be cool to help invent a Firebending version of her Seismic Sense. But enough talk."

Rider raised up one of his blades towards Lancer, the gold of his eyes prominent even as the temperature spiked up. "I came here to kill you and your Master, after all."

"Lancer, be done with him already! Use your Noble Phantasms!"

As the wrappings fell of his spears, Rider apparently sensed the danger and got rid of his swords, performing a swift movement that fired a surprising bolt of lightning too fast to dodge.

And thus, Lancer learned almost too late that it was a horrible idea to try and defend yourself from a thunderbolt with what were essentially metal poles in your hands instead of dodging.

Thank Lugh for his A+ Agility. "You shall not find my speed easy to beat, Rider!"

"I don't have to beat it." Rider replied as the orange flames around them suddenly flared with multiple colors. "I just need to take away your ability to move."

And then, Lancer suddenly noticed that as the multicolored flames rose, the temperature paradoxically dropped just as swiftly.

"Let's see how well you move with a body unaccustomed to the cold of the North Pole."

"Rider...?"

Irisviel joined Waver in staring at Rider after he'd warned them both to steer clear of the river as Caster's monster rampaged nearby.

"Is he...?" Irisviel's words trailed off as Rider entered an intricate dance, multicolored flames rising around him with each kata until he finished and shot up the flames into the sky.

Once the most colorful explosion Irisviel had ever seen occurred, the air was rendered apart by a roar with the force of hurricanes behind it. Slamming down at Rider's side, a massive reptilian beast prowled forward with primordial grace, moving with the air of something who was well aware of it's high position on the food chain.

"A dragon." Waver weakly muttered, a barely surprised look on his face now. "My Servant's Mount is a dragon."

"[Druk]." Rider smiled fondly as he brushed his had against the crimson scales, his affection reciprocal as the steed lowered his head for Rider to climb atop. Together, they glared at the monstrosity blaspheming the river with just it's presence. "Burn it down."

At his command, the dragon roared as it took to the skies, a gargantuan wave of flames pouring out from it's jaws that incinerated all it touched, with even the river water evaporating almost immediately.

The monstrosity, along with Caster within, screamed as it was cremated alive, quickly being felled while Rider turned his gaze to the other Servant currently in the air.

"Mongrel." Archer growled, his golden armor reflecting the flickering flames below them. "As fine as your beast is, your head is too high."

"If you have a problem with the Fire Lord's head being too high." Rider held up his swords as Druk growling in support. "That sounds like a problem you'll have to deal with."

Stats

Class: Rider

Alternate Classes: Saber, Assassin(Blue Spirit persona)

Alias(es): Zuzu, The Banished Prince, The Avatar Hunter, The Blue Spirit, Lee, Fire Lord

True Name: Zuko

Alignment: Neutral Good

Sex: Male

Strength: B

Endurance: A

Agility: A

Mana: A+

Luck: E

NP: A+

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Class Skills

Magic Resistance (Rank A): The Skill to be protected against magical effects. After being blessed by the Dragons Ran and Shaw, Rider is able to ignore almost all magical attacks unless they are either dragon-based or anti-dragon based.

Riding (Rank A): Having lived a life journeying across his world on all sorts of beasts and vehicles almost like a hobby, Rider is capable of operating almost any beast or vehicle regardless of era or difficulty. "Can't be harder than taming Druk, right?"

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Personal Skills

Double Summon (Rank B): To be granted the Class Skills of both the Rider and Saber classes. With both Classes possessing the same Skills, their qualities within Rider have been multiplied.

Charisma (Rank A): As a benevolent Fire Lord who promoted peace and stability after a century of corrupt Fire Lords and officials during the Hundred Year War, Rider was extremely popular to those under his command(except those who profited from his predecessor's reign). Under his command, every fire-aligned Servant will get a boost in their abilities.

Expert of Many Specializations (Rank A): Apart from his Firebending and swordsmanship, Rider has learned many other skills from his travels all over the world and has incorporated them into his own, from differing Bending styles, to unarmed combat, incredible acrobatics, infiltration arts, tracking and strategy proficiency, etc..

Imperial Privilege (Rank A): Rider's identity is strongly tied to being a royal, so of course he will always have this. Unless he ever got summoned as an Assassin.

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Noble Phantasm(s)

Firebending - Bending Art of the Sun (Rank B++: Pro-Self): This is a conceptual Noble Phantasm that represents the power that Rider, along with a special subset of his people, are born with. This grants him the pyrokinetic ability to create and control fire, as well as heat, lightning and smoke. It can be used for both offense and defense, as well as being mixed with his swordsmanship, but it's high rank is especially poignant as due to being blessed by dragons, who were supernaturally superior in terms of being aligned to fire.

Dragon Firebending - Supreme Bending Art of the Sun Dragons (Rank A++: Pro-Self): Similar to Firebending but superior, this Noble Phantasm allows Rider to substitute his Firebending for Dragon Firebending, which possesses special properties not found in regular fire such as freezing instead of burning, creating constructs or directly sharing memories.

Druk - The Fire Lord's Beastly Companion (Rank A+: Anti-Army): Being a draconic companion of Rider after he had revoked the law that made it legal to hunt down dragons for sport, Druk is a companion that can be summoned in his entirety. As befitting his race, Druk is impervious against the strongest of modern and ancient magic. Only weapons with a long history of dragon slaying are capable of injuring him.