Day 2: 10:54 - London, England: Mage's Association Vehicle en route to the Clocktower

Shirou squirmed a little. The back section of the sedan they were in was beyond crowded. Archer, Saber, and Shirou were wedged together with barely any wiggle room. They hit a bump in the road and Archer's head slammed into the roof. He growled and clenched his fists. Directing a glare to the front he angrily asked, "Rin, why on earth am I stuck back here? I barely fit with these two. Wouldn't it have made more sense for you and your dainty figure to sit back here? Then maybe all of us could find some semblance of comfort."

Rin turned in the passenger seat and smiled, "Displeased with the accommodations, Archer? Well, as I explained before, when we reach the security entrance at the Clocktower, an official member of the association will have to be visible with I.D."

"You could do that from back here," Archer grumbled as he shifted rather aggressively knocking Saber into Shirou, "I still don't understand why we couldn't just travel immaterial. You had no issue with it on the plane ride over."

Rolling her eyes and facing forward again, Rin replied, "That was because you and Saber had to focus on replenishing your mana. Well that and the Association doesn't allow for any familiars to enter the compound incorporeal. They like to know who and what enters their facilities."

Archer opened his mouth to give a retort, but received a swift blow to the ribs from Saber's elbow. Looking rather irritated herself, she said, "Perhaps we should cease this line of conversation and accept the situation. It seems to be doing nothing but riling everyone up. Rin, could you please turn on the radio?"

As Archer shot an unwamused look at the knight, Rin nodded, "Of course."

She clicked the radio on and a reporter's voice filled the car, "That's right Jim. But on to World Wide News. Reports are still coming in from the city of Fuyuki, Japan. Last night at approximately 8:50 PM, a subterranean caldera erupted violently roughly 45 miles outside of the city proper. Damage was extensive, but fortunately casualty counts are relatively low. Relief efforts from a variety of different organizations have swiftly moved in to help rebuild to city from the ruins of the second natural disaster to have plagued it in a single decade. The numerous injured are being evac-"

Rin cut it off before the reported got any further. Shirou felt all eyes on him and quickly said dismissively, "I'm fine. The news report said it's not as bad as it looked."

Shirou knew the second he said it that his attempt at playing off his feelings had failed. He just couldn't suppress his worry. Saber confirmed that he hadn't succeeded when she moved her hand over to his. She gave it a firm squeeze. Shirou glanced at her and saw her smiling at him reassuringly. He and Saber hadn't talked barely at all since her return. Between her recovering on the flight over and Shirou resting himself, not even small talk had been had. Despite that, she seemed to effortlessly alleviate some of his tension with only simple gestures. He let out a sigh as he squeezed back and tried to change the topic, "So Tohsaka, how far out are we from the Clocktower?"

Rin rolled with it, "Not far now. It actually should just be a couple of minutes."

True to her estimate, barely five minutes had passed before they were driving alongside a long section of building. In the far corner sat a massive clock tower called Big Ben by the locals. That's where they were heading. The car turned into an archway located in a break in the building and rolled to a stop next to a guard station. The driver rolled down the window and a well built security officer moved up to it. He bent down and looked over the passengers as he asked, "Identification and reason for arrival?"

Rin swiftly retrieved an I.D. badge from her jacket pocket and handed to him as she said, "Rin Tohsaka, Probationary Council Member. I'm returning from field duty per order of Lord El-Melloi II."

The guard paused for a moment, scrutinizing the identification before finally returning it to her and saying, "Have a good day, ma'am."

Rin gave a nod and then returned to facing forward. As they pulled forward Shirou thought he saw Rin smile. Archer apparently saw the same thing as he said, "Don't say a word…"

Rin simply gave a small giggle, remaining silent.

The car angled slightly as they began their descent into an underground garage. The driver found a parking spot and took it. Rin instructed him to stay nearby should they have to leave early for some reason. After that, everyone got out of the car. Archer did so hastily and immediately straightened out his jacket. Shirou and Saber exited much more calmly. As she found her footing, Saber also took a moment to reorient her clothing. On the plane she had made the decision to change into a more casual outfit. She'd decided on the clothing Rin had provided for her when she'd been summoned last. It was simple, a white blouse tucked loosely into a flowing blue skirt. Shirou had never said it outloud, but even in it's simplicity, the outfit did nothing but compliment Saber's appearance.

When everyone was settled, Rin said, "Follow me. It's not too far."

And they were off. It was just the four of them to start, but their solitude didn't last long. As they entered into the main complex they were funneled into a slightly narrow hallway packed with people. Students, teachers, and other faculty busily hurried about trying not to be late to their destination. It became very apparent to Rin and Shirou that Archer and Saber were drawing loads of attention; Saber in part due to her attractive features, Archer more because of his highly imposing figure. This made Rin pick up her pace as she didn't want to have to deal with too many questions from curious peers. After a few minutes of traversing the hallways, Rin finally saw their destination. A small door in the distance was branded "Faculty Meeting Chambers". While she wasn't a true member of the faculty, she knew that her professor would be in there.

As they closed in on the room, the crowd began parting. The group only managed to catch a glimpse of snow white hair before something plowed into Shirou, knocking the wind out of him.

"Brother!"

Shirou sucked in some air sharply, trying to adjust for the new weight on top of him. As he settled his breathing, he focused on what had hit him. He blinked in surprise and said, "Illya?!"

The young Einzbern repositioned herself so she was sitting on his chest and nodded, "Yep!"

Shirou saw an agitated Rin walk over to them. She grabbed Illya and lifted her to her feet. Saber moved to Shirou and helped him up. When he was standing he asked, "Illya, why are you here? Wasn't your coronation yesterday?"

Illya nodded, "Mhmm. But I ran into an old friend and was invited here."

"Old friend?" Shirou inquired.

Illya gave a smile and snapped her fingers. The air behind her and Rin suddenly rippled. It bent and weaved and quickly took the form of a massive man. Easily ten feet tall, his thick black hair was scraping the ceiling. He wore nothing on his extremely well built body save for a long, charcoal loincloth that was a few shades lighter than his skin. The gasps from the hallway denizens alerted Rin and she jumped forward, turning to face the man. A look of horror overtook her face as she registered who it was. Berserker. A Servant so powerful it had taken everything she and Shirou could muster between them to defeat him and even then it was only by a hair that they achieved victory. Light flashed next to Shirou as Saber materialized her combat gear. Both she and Archer moved in between the Masters and the gigantic Servant, weapons ready.

Rin cursed; this was bad. Ignoring all of the gawking students, if a three way battle erupted here between these Servants the results would be catastrophic. She looked at Archer and order, "Archer, stand down."

"Saber, you too," Shirou quickly copied.

Saber hesitated, clearly believing it to be the wrong course of action, but she slowly and reluctantly began lowering the streaming wind in her hands. Archer on the other hand scoffed and growled, "I don't think so. I lost to him once already and I'm not one who likes to repeat history."

"Archer!" Rin snapped.

Despite the obvious irritation in her voice, Archer refused to yield and gripped his dual weapons tighter. Shirou looked at Illya who had a highly amused expression on her face. She noticed Shirou looking at her and turned to face him. He looked between Archer and Berserker and made his worry and fear at the situation very clear on his face. Illya immediately understood and began pouting. Letting out a sigh she said, disheartenedly, "Fine…...Berserker."

Berserker glanced at her and grunted. Her let out a snort of what Shirou assumed was disappointment before relaxing his posture. As the young mage saw Archer slowly do the same, he too relaxed. Big mistake. A figure came charging out of the meeting chambers they were heading to and came to a skidding halt in the middle of the group making Shirou nearly jump out of his skin. He was almost as big as Berserker, but had tan skin and flaming red hair. He let out a hearty laugh and bellowed, outstretching his hands to the air, "Fellow Servants, hear me now! Let us not resort to fighting amongst ourselves! We should pool our talents and unite under the banner of Iskander, King of Conquerors! Together we will be able to achieve anything! In lieu of what lies ahead this seems like it would be the best course of action! What say you all?!"

Silence followed. No one could muster a proper response. Eventually Saber managed to find some words as she said, "Rider….?"

The large man looked at her and a look of joy filled his face, "King of Knights! Saber! You are certainly a welcomed sight! To be in the presence of someone familiar is fantastic! Have you reached an answer to my proposal?"

Shirou saw Saber sigh before she answered politely, "I am afraid my answer will be the same as last time you asked. As a king myself, I cannot resign my mantle and serve another in any sort of inferior capacity."

Rider looked visibly disappointed and said, "That is most unfortunate."

He paused for a brief second before suddenly shouting, "But there are others here! What say you?!"

The speed of his switch from being despondent to being excited gave Shirou whiplash. Shirou saw Archer open his mouth, but the Servant didn't get a chance to say anything as an angry voice exploded from down the hall, "Rider! What did I tell you?! Stay. In. The room! You had one job!"

Students scattered. Shirou had never seen such an exodus. The spectacle of the four odd individuals in the hall was apparently not enough to keep any of them near the source of the voice. Shirou looked down the now clear hall and saw an angry looking man with long, straight black hair storming toward the group. He moved up to Rider and growled, "What are you doing out here?"

"Waver! These fellow Servants were in the midst of a heated dispute and, as a king, it is my duty to defuse situations such as this so obviously I made my way here to-"

"Rider, go back to the room. Now."

Rider frowned, clearly disheartened, and began making his way back down the hall. The man named Waver then turned on the group, "And you! You should know better than making such a spectacle in front of people who aren't involved! Especially you Ms. Tohsaka! I am very disappointed at your inability to keep your Servant leashed in."

Archer forcibly interjected into the conversation, "Hey, it's not her-"

"Silence," Waver snapped, "All of you proceed to the meeting hall now. We don't have anymore time to waste. Go!"

Without allowing anyone else to speak, he turned on a dime and marched toward the room, quickly catching up to and overtaking the sulking Rider. The group didn't waste any time following after him. As the made their way down, Shirou leaned over to Saber, "Saber, do you know those two?"

Saber slowly nodded, "Indeed. The large man is the Rider class Servant Iskander. The other was, I believe, Rider's old master Waver Velvet. They opposed your father and I in the Fourth Holy Grail War."

"Was Waver like this back then too?"

Saber shook her head, "No. My first impression of him back then was that he was timid and lacking in confidence. I surmised his time with Rider taught him a lot when I saw him in the latter half of the war because he was much more confident, but he was nowhere near this stern. This is new to me."

"What about Rider?"

This earned a small grimace from Saber, "Rider is virtually the same. He was always loud."

Something that came to her mind made her chuckled and she followed up with, "But he is a good man and a respectable warrior of great power."

Shirou nodded and turned his attention to Rin who was very obviously lost in thought, "Hey Tohsaka."

She jumped a little and glanced at him, "What is it Shirou?"

"Do you know that Waver guy?"

Taking a deep breath, Rin answered, "Yes. But he goes by Lord El-Melloi II now. I'm studying under him."

"I see."

Shirou had a few more questions, but the were going to have to wait. They arrived at the threshold and made their way inside. Entering in revealed the room to be much larger than one would think. It was a large circular room with dozens of rows of chairs situated in a raised position around a large round table on the floor. Rider and Waver were near the front of the table, clearly arguing. Shirou also noticed two more people in the back of the room; one was a tall man with brown hair who was dressed in jeans and a zipped up aviator jacket and the other was a young girl in tattered clothing. Shirou didn't recognize them. As he and his friends reached the table, Waver ceased conversation with Rider and said, "Well now that we're all here, we need to begin."

He motioned for the other two to come forward. As the did so, he said, "I believe introductions should be made now to avoid any delays later."

Instead of allowing everyone to introduce themselves, he simply pointed to everyone and said their names starting with Illya, "Illyasviel von Einzbern and her Berserker class Servant, Hercules. Shirou Emiya and his Saber class Servant, King Arthur. Rin Tohsaka and her Archer class Servant. And finally Eralyn Shaw and her Lancer class Servant, Michael Inlustrem. Questions?"

Illya spoke up immediately, "Did you say Lancer class Servant?'"

Waver nodded, "Is that a problem?"

"I don't know," Illya frowned, "It's just that just prior to Berserker being summoned, I was attacked by a master and his Servant. That Servant identified as a Lancer class Servant as well. I didn't think that more than one Servant could be summoned up in the same class."

"Normally this is true," Waver started, "But things are different now. It'll be elaborated on in a moment. Any other questions?"

When no one spoke up, he continued, "While I'd prefer to be the one to personally debrief you, I don't have a firm grasp on the requisite knowledge. As such I'll turn you over to Rider. Rider."

The Servant nodded and his normally enthusiastic demeanor shifted into a much more serious one. He looked over the small group and began, "Now I'm sure you're all curious as to why you all have been gathered. Unfortunately it is not under good circumstances. I am not sure about the other Servants, but in addition to the basic knowledge we are all imparted with upon our summoning I was also granted a mass of information in regards to the reason for our summons. It seems the Holy Grail destroyed by Shirou and Saber in the last war has summoned us in attempt to combat some force of evil that threatens the world. I regret that I do not know what that force is, but I do know that it is seeking sources of strong magical energy to gain power."

"The ley lines…." Rin breathed.

Rider nodded, "Exactly. In addition to those ley lines, it also seeks the remaining pieces of the Grail. Despite being destroyed it still holds a magnificent amount of magical power. I feel we must find these pieces of the Grail and safeguard them from the enemy. If any should come against us, we shall crush them!"

He emphasized the last part by flexing his muscles in a show strength. Waver rolled his eyes. While Rider was still flexing, Shirou asked, "So wait. The Grail summoned the Servants to fight off evil? I thought the Grail was evil."

It was Waver's turn to talk. He shook his head, "That's not entirely true. The Fuyuki Grail was not always full of malice. I didn't come into this information until my follow up investigation of the Fifth Holy Grail War, but according to notes left behind by Kirei Kotomine, an entity known as Angra Mainyu was absorbed by the Grail. That is what corrupted it; it turned it into a vessel for all the world's evil. That caused the Grail to answer any wish made upon it in the most malicious way possible as well as allowed it to summon evil aligned heroic spirits. When you and Saber destroyed it at the climax of the last war, Shirou, you not only fragmented it, but purified it of Angra Mainyu as well. It still has the capacity for evil in the wrong hands, but I'm almost positive that it will no longer inherently act in a malevolent fashion on it's own."

Shirou nodded, absorbing the information. When he had finished, he followed up with, "So if we broke it, how is it still functioning?"

"You have to understand," Waver answered, "the Grail is a massively powerful magical construct. Simply breaking its physical form will diminish its capabilities, but powerful magics are required to fully dissolve it."

Shirou hesitated before asking his next question and Rin took the opportunity to ask one of her own, "So if the Grail summoned Servants to protect it, why did one attack Illya?"

"Ah," Waver began, "And there's the disturbing question. Now Rider and I have yet to confirm it, but we theorize that whatever is threatening the world is capable of summoning its own Servants. It would explain the apparent presence of evil aligned heroic spirits and the existence of two Servants of the same class at the same time. So we should take caution as we proceed. It is highly likely the enemy has a team of its own masters and Servants."

Shirou managed to get his next question out before Rin did, "So we're going to have to find the Holy Grail pieces, right? If they're scattered around the world, how exactly are we supposed to locate them?"

Waver began to speak, but Rider cut him off by slamming his hand hard on the round table, "With this marvelous piece of technology!"

"Not if you break it! Be careful," Waver snapped.

"Apologies Waver! My excitement got the better of me!"

"What is that?"

The soft voice reminded Shirou that there was a fifth person present. Not having spoken a word prior and having faded into the background, Eralyn now had all eyes on her. The young girl instinctively responded to the attention by sliding slightly behind her Servant. Waver looked at her a moment before explaining, "This, Ms. Shaw, is a Thaumaturgical Energy Analyzer. It's how we've been tracking the different leylines that are in danger of detonating. It's connected to several natural magic circuits located under this tower which are in turn part of a planet wide subsystem of non-physical magical channels. We can pinpoint sources of heavy magical energy via this and monitor them with great detail. We pair the magical results with satellite footage to give us real time, three dimensional surveillance of any area we wish to scrutinize."

He held his hand out and everyone felt a surge of magic pulse into the table. It immediately lit up. The center came to life with a scaled, topographical model of what looked to be the area in and around the Clock Tower. Below the structure was a pulsating purple ball with hundreds of threads stretching off until the reached the edge of the table. Waver pointed to the ball and said, "That is the leyline this table is connected to."

The mage waved his hand and the scene immediately expanded to form a detailed globe with a plethora of purple spots; a number of black spots were also present.

"These are the locations of every single ley line on the planet. The black spots are ley lines that presently have no magical energy at all and are considered dead. In addition to showing the ley lines, a number of my peers have worked to enhance the senses. Utilizing samples the Association has kept on record of different magical wavelengths, we've been able to adjust the table's parameters so that we can locate the impressive magical energies of Servants as well as the energies of the Holy Grail."

His fingers danced in the air and a cluster of green spots appeared in England and six gold spots appeared in numerous places around the globe. Pointing to the green dots he explained, "These are our Servants. When each Servant was summoned we were able to locate and message all of you all to bring you together. Unfortunately the enemy Servants seem to be shielded. We haven't been able to pinpoint them."

"And the gold spots are Grail fragments, I assume?" chimed Illya.

"Correct," Waver acknowledged, "For some reason we've only found six of the suspected seven pieces."

"Seven?" questioned Rin, "How can you be sure of such a specific number?"

Waver sighed, "As I said, it's only a guess, but we're assuming a fragment exists for each Servant summoned."

"But there are only five summoned Servants," Shirou pointed out.

"Five presently summoned Servants," Waver corrected, "We believe that at least two more Grail allied Servants will be summoned. As a matter of fact, we know the location of the next summoning."

"What?" Rin said, obviously shocked.

Her teacher flicked his fingers and the world began to spin. It stopped when Japan was in the forefront and then quickly zoomed into the area around Osaka.

"Here. Osaka, Japan. A mixture of Grail and Servant energy is pooling within the city which leads us to believe that another Servant is being prepared for summoning."

Shirou and Rin both exclaimed, "Osaka?!"

Waver raised an eyebrow, "Yes. Is that significant?"

"Well yeah!" Shirou said, "That's where a friend of ours is attending university. Sakura Matou."

Rin quickly added, "And based on who is presently here, it's safe to assume that she's going to be the chosen master. The Grail seems to have made it its preference to first chose people from previous Grail wars and Sakura, while not a master in the last war, was the conduit for which the last Rider was summoned. It can't be a coincidence that the next Servant is going to be summoned in the same city Sakura is in. We need to hurry up and get there."

Nodding, Waver said, "So be it. You and Mr. Emiya can go and collect the master and Servant in Osaka. Once you have them, return to the Clock Tower."

Turning to Illya and Eralyn, he followed up with, "Ms. Shaw, Ms. Einzbern, I'm sending you to Burma. There's a monk settlement in the mountains near Myitkyina where a fragment of the Holy Grail is present. I'm tasking you with retrieving it. Like Mr. Emiya and Ms. Tohsaka, return to the Clock Tower when you've completed your task."

Illya nodded, obviously happy about finally getting to do something exciting; Eralyn seemed noticeably less thrilled. Noticing everyone else had their own tasks, Rider looked at Waver and inquired, "And what of us? What shall we do in this new quest of ours?"

"We're heading to France, Rider. A colleague of mine and his associates have quarantined a piece of the Grail. We're going to pick it up."

Rider slammed his fist into the palm of his other hand and said, "Fantastic!"

Waver did his best to restrain an eye roll as he looked at everyone. After a brief pause he said, "If there are no more questions, everyone is dismissed."