Fate: All Riders.
Chapter 3: Shout for change.
"EIJI!" A voice rang out.
Something in Saber's mind clicked into place. A practiced action he had performed and perfected over many battles that had gone beyond a conscious level. Acting on a combination of instinct and reflex he listened and using the empowered sight his hawk eyes gave caught the flying medals that flew across his vision.
Three medals, all blue. He was then pulled into the depths of the water.
"Shachi-Unagi-Tako-Sha Sha Shauta Sha Sha Shauta!"
No really why did it keep singing?
ooooooooooooooooo
"Hey Caster what is it?" His new friend had paused, the guy really liked killing and was picking apart a particularly beautiful women making her insides bend in such a way that her blood would flow in a specific pattern.
"Hmm?" It seemed that caster was distracted, looking over into the distance. "Oh it's just that there's a fight going on." Sounded fun.
"So why don't we join in? We can murder a lot of people that way!" Shaking his head as much as Caster liked that idea he simply didn't have the prana to do it yet.
"Nah, let's just keep finding people, I wonder if there's a school nearby." Any women or children would go towards art while men that they would find went straight to Caster's giant snake, or Rhino, or Manta ray. Caster was sure a nice person to have so many pets. Grabbing a map Uryuu found that he couldn't make sense of the directions. Applying the palm of his hand to his face he laughed.
"Oh right, we're in the mirror world everything is backwards here! Hey Caster let's go back I think this portrait is done for now." Nodding Caster grabbed his master before jumping out into a well-lit apartment that looked completely normal except for the mirror and what was in it. The dwellers of this place all laid inside in various poses and states of dismemberment.
"Man having a demon for a friend is useful, to think my art would have a literal frame that you can hang up." Nodding Caster appreciated his master's work. He had never considered using his powers like this in life, he was too preoccupied trying to kill people and escape police.
However soon the corpses began to dissolve, things not of that world could last long within it.
"Shame that it's not permanent huh? Let's go to the next room Caster." Nodding the servant wondered what kind of victims he'd find asleep next. He tried to puzzle out what their faces would look like, what their screams of pain would sound like, how much blood they would spill.
"I'm vexed." He said in anticipation.
ooooooooooooooooo
Kayneth smiled, everything was going according to plan.
Saber was soon dragged into the water by his own Servant Lancer, the fool Einzbern homunculus did nothing but cower. Not realizing the hypocrisy Kayneth simply smirked at his own perceived superiority. He had seen the flash of blue light beneath the surface of water but thought nothing of it, clearly it was another energy ball from that Mysterious Servant. It was somewhat troubling not know the identity of the Heroic spirit and even more unsettling since Kayneth could not identify the Gunman's class but for the time being it mattered not.
Oh he heard the synthesized voice shout 'Rider Shooting!' earlier but there was already a rider in this war. Specifically the rider was Kamen Rider Stronger, the one that his student had summoned, the one that he should have possessed. As Waver Velvet's mentor he mentally gave himself a note to reprimand the boy when he could but revealing himself when Assassin was still in the war was foolish.
Not only that but Assassin's master, Kotomine Kirei had six command seals to burn, if spotted he could simply command his servant to instantly teleport and kill him. It was best to remain in the shadows for now. Lancer's performance for the moment was satisfactory, his professionalism however still needed work, if he wanted the honour as being known as the Servant of Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald he'd have to work much, much harder.
ooooooooooooooooo
The idea of fighting an enemy with someone else flanking and distracting them was appealing to Lancer. It wasn't honourable but who cared about honour when you could obtain victory? However despite his views on such things this battle was leaving a bad taste in his mouth. Fighting alongside someone who had attacked you earlier was simply bad luck. How would he know that the Dragonfly would keep fighting Saber and not turn on him?
If it was up to Lancer he would've let the two of them fight each other and finish off the weakened victor but as it stood it was an unfair fight that would leave the Gunman with the advantage. Already injured from the earlier energy blast he doubted his own chances for victory. Even more so when Saber decided to have his belt sing again.
"Shachi-Unagi-Tako-Sha Sha Shauta Sha Sha Shauta!" Turning completely blue, his features had changed. If Lancer was to hazard a guess then he'd figure that the servant had just equipped himself for aquatic combat.
Grabbing the Servants leg Lancer had managed to drag him back into the water. Holding him from behind the command seal urged him to assist the mysterious Gunman. Aiming his weapon at Saber he began to pull the trigger as Lancer held him still. Before the attack could find its mark Lancer soon found Saber turning to liquid leaving himself peppered with bullets.
"Ow! You're a slippery one aren't you? Looks like I've lost my catch." Swirling around with his new found agility Saber managed to dodge the Gunman again and again. Lancer tried to help but was useless in that regard. He was good in the water but Saber, it was as if he was the water! It seemed that the traffic light hero was much more interesting then he gave him credit for.
'Rider Shooting!' The gun had once more announced it's coming attack, the energy ball began to build up.
'Scanning Charge!' retaliating it seemed that Saber was going to match it with his own power.
The ball of energy flew towards the servant of the sword whose legs split revealing a multitude of tentacles that rotated around his waist like a drill. Saber then immediately dropped deep into the sea avoiding the attack all together before coming right back up penetrating the shocked Servant.
"SEEIYYYAAA!" An explosive shockwave threw Lancer backwards, he felt the need to fight simply disappear.
"Hmmm that's right." He thought swimming away to safety. "Master only commanded me to help the new servant fight Saber, he should've been a bit more specific." Now that said Servant was dead he wasn't compelled to fight anymore. His mood drastically improved as he made his way quickly onto land before Saber could notice. However it seemed another Servant had taken an interest in him.
"YOU THERE LANCER!" Rider announced pointing his hand in his direction. "My name is Shigeru Jo! So just call me Shigeru or just Mr Jo!" Waver Velvet decided that the best course of action involved groaning and applying both hands to his face.
"Oh what a polite man you are Mr Jo to introduce yourself so." Lancer replied. Rider nodded in approval. "I'm afraid I'm quite hurt, if possible I'd like to retreat for now, I don't suppose you could just let me go?" If Lancer was any judge of character he hoped that he was right about this Rider. He hoped that this kind of man was the kind that really would let him go if asked.
"I don't know, you took on another hero in an unfair fight, I should at least beat you for such a travesty." Putting his hands to his face Waver Velvet began to softly sob.
"To be fair my Master used a command seal on me. Honestly I'm insulted that my duel with Saber was interrupted by an intruder!" It was quite the lie but hopefully his status as a Heroic spirit along with his title of being a lancer of the knight class would reinforce his words. Jumping out of the water Saber soon followed. Limping over it seemed that the injuries he had suffered earlier were catching up to him.
"You can trust him Rider, he could've attacked my back after I beat the other servant." And the lie continues to be reinforced! Nodding Stronger accepted what he thought to be fact.
"Very well I shall allow both heroes in front of me to rest and to become STRONGER! Next I see you we shall battle!" Getting back on his bike he grabbed his master before setting off. No grand explosion, no flash of lightning just him and his bike moving off into the distance and out of view. Both remaining heroic spirits were quite shocked.
Throughout this entire encounter Lancer continued to ignore a certain voice in his head.
ooooooooooooooooo
Gritting his teeth he kept sending the same mental commands to his Servant. "Lancer! Get SABER! KILL HIM!" He wouldn't use another Command seal, to use two so early in the war was reckless even for him. "Damnit Lancer listen to me!" His servant was chatting with Saber now CHATTING! "I know you can hear me Lancer, stop ignoring me!" Waving good bye the two servants left on seemingly good if strained terms promising to fight seriously if they ever met again.
Kayneth was furious, words would be said and discipline would be distributed.
ooooooooooooooooo
Iri slumped to the ground in exhaustion, she worried for Saber but it seemed he was alright in the end. Tilting his belt back to the upright position the servant reverted back to his old form. "Iri!" he yelled supporting her. "Are you alright?" Nodding she put some power into her legs before standing up albeit somewhat unsteadily.
"Saber, I'm glad you're alright, where did those blue medals come from?" Said blue medals were being held in his hands. Picking them up she examined them closer, they were quite beautiful.
"Oh they're mine, you can return them now." A floating red hand materialized in front of her. Eyes widening in shock she screamed in surprise.
Throwing the medals at the monster it shouted a profanity before grabbing mid-flight.
"Damnit Eiji, what kind of crazy master summoned you!?" The thing could speak! A hand speaking, how did that even work?
"Ankh? You're alive?" Hope flared in his voice.
"No more then you are." The red hand replied.
ooooooooooooooooo
The hide out was a large castle, not very subtle but at least it was comfortable. The amount of living space was something that the Greed was not used to honestly and he would've preferred something more enclosed.
"So how are you here?" Eiji asked. The greed wasn't going to tell him of course, to tell him would be to admit that he saw the guy as his best friend and that just wouldn't do.
When he died he had actually died. As an artificial construct he shouldn't have a soul yet when he perished it proved that he did. But instead of getting thrown back into the cycle his unique spirit decided to attach itself to Eiji. When the idiot finally expired and had his soul sent to the Throne of heroes Ankh simply followed. Not that he had a choice really, his soul was bound to his at that point.
So when Eiji was summoned as Saber he came along for the ride. However the ritual that was summoned only had enough juice to get one servant, Ankh was a tag along so he had to stay in spirit form and sleep for a while feeding off what prana he could before he could properly wake up and materialize.
"Ankh, stop ignoring me!" Damn he forgot how persistent the guy could be.
Twisting around he then retaliated. "You still owe me some ice sticks you know?" That changed Eiji's mood completely.
"Oh uhh Iri can I borrow some money…. I mean ANKH!" Turning back to his friend it seemed he was getting somewhat more annoyed.
"I don't know how this Grail stuff works." He lied. "Ask your master or something." Turning to Iri she scratched the back of her head.
"Well uhh Mr Ankh isn't really human so I guess maybe the grail saw him as a familiar? I mean it summons the mount of Rider servants so this isn't such a far stretch." She herself wasn't sure but for the time being it had satisfied the hobo.
"Well I guess we'll have to tell Emiya about you." If he had a face he'd raise an eye brow. But he didn't so he compensated by twisting his hand slightly in confusion urging Eiji to elaborate.
"Oh Kiritsugu Emiya is my real master, Iri here is just a decoy of sorts." He was impressed, to think Eiji would come up with such a devious plan.
"I don't really like it but she insisted." Nope he was still the same old idiot.
ooooooooooooooooo
Sipping his wine he listened to Kotomine's report of the situation. The silver drake like warrior was obviously a servant of Gilgamesh, he had not expected or planned for the king to intervene in the fight but he was glad that he did. Without the Gunman's interrupted Assassin would never have been able to see Saber's transformation, it appeared that the little swordsman was slightly more flexible then he first seemed.
"Thank you for that Son." Risei was visiting the Tosaka estates. Officially it was to make sure that the now surrendered Master was indeed protected and harmless. Off the papers it was ruse to further their plans.
"As you requested I've attached one Assassin to Archer, your servant was pleased to have another follower but soon asked him to keep his distance, your servant apparently has a noble phantasm that render's himself invisible." Nodding it seemed that Archer kept many tricks up his sleeve.
"Is there anything else you'd like to add Kotomine?" Tokiomi asked. There was a slight pause on the other end and a cough.
"It's not important." But it was something he wanted to say. Patiently waiting Tosaka was rewarded with Kirei's voice. "Caster's movements are hard to detect as if he can disappear through mirrors." That was an interesting piece of news. "But Berserker, I believe he will be great deal more threatening than any other servant." Raising his eye brow Risei wasn't sure what to think. The idea that the servant of Matou was a threat was laughable. The man couldn't even call himself a magus never mind a Master.
"It's as if he has presence concealment, my Assassins simply cannot track the servant, they tell me it's as if he doesn't exists, just imagine a Heroic spirit with both brute force and the subtlety for stealth!" Sipping his wine Tosaka dismissed his student's worry.
"No matter how extraordinary a servant may be, in the hands of an inept master his odds of victory are zero. It's like having King Arthur being summoned by a boy with no clue about the war!" Tosaka sure liked comparing things using King Arthur.
Then the wall above Tosaka exploded killing the man instantly. Confused and panicked Risei had fallen off his chair unsure what was going on. Were they under attack? If so why didn't the bounded fields work? Before visiting Tokiomi he had had shown him how all his defences worked but as far as he could tell right now none of them worked. It was as if they didn't exist. In fact now that he had time to think and get a better sense for his surroundings he realized that the defences were no longer there.
It wasn't as if they were tripped or destroyed, it was as if they were never there to begin with. Two figures stepped into view, a Greyish white fog with green eyes that flashed through the shroud and behind him the broken form of his master.
"Kariya Matou, this is neutral ground you cannot do this!" He spat, blood pouring from his mouth.
Frowning the Master of Berserker hesitated, he didn't expect the priest to be here.
"Kill the witness, we don't want anyone to know that we've been here." Roaring Berserker complied grabbing the man by the throat he squeezed the life out of him. Raising his fist he got ready to destroy the rest of the body.
"Wait…. What's that?" Through his struggles the priest's arm was revealed, upon it rested numerous red markings. Kariya for the first time since before the war smiled.
Thus all witnesses that were at the Tosaka estates were destroyed. No one had seen what had transpired inside, the Magus killer had surveillance set up outside but all it saw was a dishevelled Master entering and leaving. No one had seen what had transpired inside but someone had heard everything.
Kotomine's expression did not change.
ooooooooooooooooo
"It seems your master is dead." Pausing for a moment Archer regarded Assassin's words for a moment.
"Damn who am I going to steal wine from now?" The comment didn't seem to faze Assassin at all.
"I don't suppose the priest would be willing to have another servant? I mean I am pretty strong." And somewhat low on prana.
"He has extended the offer to have you as a Servant yes." Smiling beneath his helmet he wondered what kind of treasure the priest had.
"On the condition you tell him your real identity." Freezing for a moment it seemed that the jig was up. Then again the priest always suspected him of foul play. Scratching the back of his head nervously he tried to haggle.
"Tell him that I'm willing to tell him I'm not Gilgamesh and leave it at that okay?"
"You've just told me and by extension him, that and he never believed you to be Gilgamesh in the first place." Wondering how he could get around this inspiration soon struck.
"I can tell him the identities of all the servants I've seen tonight, we'll except Saber, I've known a lot of heroes when I was alive, you included even if you don't remember me." Pulling out a card he presented it to Assassin. His image was printed on and the words 'IXA Safe mode' was visible.
There was a long pause but eventually it was broken by Assassin.
"He wants you to find out Berserker's identity, if you can promise to do that he'll make a contract with you and provide you with Prana."
Archer didn't even have to think twice. "Deal." Self-preservation was one of his top priorities after all.
ooooooooooooooooo
"LANCER!" Slamming his hand against the table Kayneth was quite obviously furious. His servant however looked as if he didn't care. "Your actions tonight were unacceptable! Do you understand how you made me look?"
"Like a eel who likes to hide in the shadows?" He replied without skipping a beat.
"LANCER! Don't you understand? Have I not said that your actions reflect mine?" Nodding the servant wanted to see where this was headed. "Not only that but my actions reflect the rest of my family the proud El-Melloi line!"
"So you're saying that everyone now thinks they're eels?" He asked once more. Gritting his teeth once more Kayneth tried to remain composed. Sola on the other hand tried to hide her laughter, the Servant was getting the better of his Master quite easily. She didn't know who Lancer was but he certainly liked to talk back.
"Lancer, be aware that I can use my command seal to have you commit suicide."
"And leave yourself without a servant? Of course, I had no idea you wanted to lose the war so quickly master, you should've told me earlier I would've gotten your lovely fiancé to make a contract with me, why I'd be inside her so quick-"
"LANCER SHE'S RIGHT THERE!" Pausing for a moment to gauge his master's anger he considered the following action to be risky but fun enough to outweigh the negatives.
"And she doesn't seem to mind me at all." Sola simply blushed, taken aback by his bold statement. The silence that followed told Lancer that he had gone slightly too far.
Clearing his throat he tried to make amends with Lord El-Melloi "Well if you want I can be inside you first-"
"LANCER!" This time it was Sola who shouted, she had no idea that her fiancé's servant had swung that way and the repercussions swirled in her head.
Both men stared at the women unsure of what to say. The awkward silence luckily was soon interrupted by an alarm bell and a phone call. Glad for the distraction Sola quickly picked it up and listened to whoever had called.
After a moment she thanked the person on the other line and put the phone down.
"It seems there's a fire on the lower floors." She spoke confused. "Apparently it's arson."
Smirking Kayneth explained. "It's clearly a ploy to vacate the place." Lancer quickly caught on.
No stranger to deception and feints within battle he came to the correct conclusion. "An attack then? But by who….."
"Hmm, I'm not sure but I doubt it's Saber's master, his servant is still quite injured despite his earlier victory, a man like that wouldn't risk another confrontation so soon."
"You sure know a lot about this Master Milord." Lancer commented.
"He's known as the Magus killer, a man barely fit to be called a Mage." He joked.
"Why would a man barely fit to be called a Mage be called Magus Killer?" That sounded strange to him indeed.
"I forget that you don't have much experience in magic, well allow me to elaborate, I don't say he's not fit to be a mage because he's inept, I say it because he has no honour and that he fights like no mage ever would." Lancer seemed to understand. It was like saying that a killer no matter how effective could not be called a knight unless he behaved the correct way.
"How does he fight then?" Lancer was starting to get nervous, though for what reason he was unsure.
"He uses modern day weaponry the fool probably thinks that a gun can defeat a servant." Laughing again at his own joke he smirked.
"Here it comes." Sola thought. "He's going to start bragging about his defences again."
"No, this is certainly not Emiya, he would not be so fool as to face me now!" Sola groaned internally, he really was going to start monologuing.
"What guests we receive will enjoy the magical atelier of Kayneth El-Melloi." He began raising his hands. "A perfect atelier spanning an entire floor. Twenty four field layers. Three mana-"
And then the building shook and exploded.
If Kayneth didn't have to explain the Magus Killer to Lancer perhaps he would've been able to finish his speech, but for the moment he didn't.
The ones who had planted the bombs made their escape without harassment.
ooooooooooooooooo
"I accept your contract you fake priest." Said the Archer to his new master.
"Please do not call me that." He replied stone faced.
"Doesn't feel nice now that the shoe is on the other foot does it? Calling me a fake king and all."
Assassin replied. "But you are a fake."
"Details, details, lighten up would you? Or did Vampires eat your babies?"
Assassin really wanted to punch the smug bastard right now, insulting a man of the cloth and his Master at that was unforgivable.
Omake:
A what if story of Crack proportions?
"So what seems to be the problem?" The relationship therapist asked. The balding man had a pen at the ready with a clipboard in his hands.
Uryuu Ryuunosuke glared at Caster who looked away. "He keeps having his SNAKE-!"
"It's a cobra!" Shouted Caster.
"Now now, let's just let Ryuunosuke finish his side of the story first." He said neutrally. "Continue."
"Well he keeps having cooOOobra eat all my pieces of art!"
"Are you sure it's intentional? Perhaps you're making your art out of something the animal would find appetising."
"Well I make it out of fresh human corpses that we kill ourselves."
"Excuse me?"
"I want to make art out of people, he just wants to throw them to his animals!"
"I need PRANA DAMNIT!"
"I don't even know what that is!"
The therapist was quite terrified and was silently pressing the panic button.
"Look kid, I admit your stuff looks real nice but my familiars have got to eat."
"You think my art is nice? Really?"
"Well yeah, especially the children, never thought a bladder was so pretty."
The Therapist kept on pressing that button wondering where security was.
"Wow I didn't…. tell you what, from now on I'll let you have all the men okay?" Pausing for a moment Caster soon nodded.
"Alright, you get the women and children and I get the men sounds good." The pair turned towards the Therapist.
He went straight to the Cobra.