Ian had a hard time sleeping that night. The way that Archer died to Maria the Ripper pleased him. The way that Assassin killed several criminals to restore her prana after using her Noble Phantasms drained it pleased him. He took pleasure from seeing others hurt and die. And he hated it.

He didn't want to talk about it with anyone. First of all, the Holy Grail War was supposed to be a secret. And secondly, who would accept him? Marcus would reject him, Leeroy would reject him, and Lily would reject him. Only Assassin would accept, but she was too young to understand why killing people was a bad thing?

Why was it even a bad thing?

But, Lily… It was at that moment that Ian realized that he loved her. But he didn't want to tell her. If he did, she would inevitably find out that he was a psychopath and hate him.

"Because as Christians, we are God's children. Gods Children do not hurt innocent creatures for fun. Much less enjoy seeing harm done to innocent creatures. And your mother wouldn't be happy with you."

Ian then smiled when he remembered that. He had figured something out…


Fate/new dawn
Chapter 26: Psychopaths


Ian and Lily ran into each other before school. Lily seemed incredibly sad, so Ian asked what troubled her, wanting to comfort her.

"Ian…" Lily said sadly. "You heard the news, right? Wesley…"

"…I know," Ian then whispered to Lily. "Assassin and Saber were fighting Archer of Omega while Berserker of Alpha and Berserker of Omega were nearby. Berserker of Alpha suddenly died in front of Assassin. I assumed that something had happened to Wesley."

"I see…"

"He was a good man… Even if he was motivated by greed, I could tell he still had a good heart," Caster said.

"And Saber died too, didn't she?" Lily's question earned a solemn nod from Ian.

"We'll have to make do with what we have," the boy stated.

"So, how're you two doing?" Leeroy said as he walked up, surprising Ian and Lily.

"We're doing alright, Leeroy," Ian responded.

"So, how's the you-know-what going?" he said quietly.

"We're in the end game," Ian whispered.

"Unfortunately, we lost Wesley, Berserker, and Saber," Lily added.

"Geez," Leeroy said. "Well, good luck to both of you."


When night fell, Ian and Assassin went on the hunt. But they were not hunting for Masters this time; they were hunting for criminals. They ended up finding a small group of thugs gathered in an alleyway and decided to target them. But the Mist was not used this time. Ian wanted to be able to find other gang operations and kill the gangsters present at those. The city would get cleaner and have less criminals, Ian would be able to enjoy killing people, and Assassin would have more prana.

The thug they decided to capture was knocked out and tied to a chair in an abandoned building. He slowly woke up and panicked when he found out that he was bound to a chair.

"Comfortable?"

The thug turned his head to see Ian and Assassin, who was wearing a black cloak to cover her revealing clothes, walking towards him from the shadows.

"Who are you?" the thug questioned. "What do you want from me?"

"Information," Ian said straightforwardly. "When and where are your gang's operations happening? Where are their bases? That kinda stuff."

"I ain't tellin' you nothin'."

"Wrong answer," Ian smiled. "Assassin."

The chair that Ian selected for this was an arm chair. It was chosen specifically so that if the captured thug refused to talk, Assassin could cut his fingers off one at a time until he talked. And that was exactly what she did. The knife was brought down on one of the thug's fingers.

"Now, do you want to talk?"

"I ain't gonna- AGH!" yet another finger was gone.

"By all means, keep resisting; that just makes it more enjoyable."

"You're crazy!" the thug screamed when Assassin cut off a third finger.

"I'm not gonna-" a fourth finger was chopped off. "Let me go, psychos!"

He screamed yet again and there were now no fingers on that hand.

"Okay, okay. I'll talk. I'll talk!"

The thug then gave up the details on his gang's bases and some of the things they were planning.

"Now will you let me go?"

"Now, where's the fun in that?" Ian grinned psychotically. "Have fun, Assassin."

"Why? What did I do to you?" the thug screamed.

"Nothing. This is just fun," Ian answered.

Assassin then began to tear the thug apart, causing him to scream in agony as the knives tore into his skin. Ian watched the scene unfold, smiling at it all the while. When Assassin was finished, she ripped the thug's heart out and ate it to consume the magical energy in him.

"C'mon, Assassin. Let's go kill some more guys," Ian motioned for the small Servant to follow him.

"Okay, daddy!" Assassin said cheerfully, as if Ian said they were going to a playground.


Frederick was not happy with the stunt that Jeffrey had pulled the night before. The Committee had called him to demand that Jeffrey be punished for attacking Ruler and blowing up an apartment complex. And that was exactly what he was going to do. Frederick knew that Nicholas was Archer of Omega's Master and the fact that Nicholas was dead yet Archer was aiding Berserker of Omega, Jeffrey's Servant, in attacking Ruler meant one thing; Jeffrey killed Nicholas and took the boy's Command Seals.

"He's too eager to kill people. He'll likely turn on us before Alpha's out of the ring. Plus, I've seen lots of people like him in Vegas. Always got a knife hidden on them and are just eager for you to turn their back on them."

Frederick silently cursed himself for not paying as close attention to Jeffrey as he should have. And a young boy had to pay for it.

So, he was going to rectify his mistake. He knew where Jeffrey lived and had sent Assassin of Omega to kill him. That psycho was going to pay, and Frederick was going to make certain of that.

Assassin burst through the window of Jeffrey's apartment and shot him before Berserker could materialize. Jeffrey stumbled back before Assassin shot him again, hitting his heart and killing him. The orange-haired boy fell to the floor limp and dead.

"It's finished, Master," Assassin said telepathically to Frederick.

"Good."

Assassin activated his Presence Concealment as he turned to leave through the way he came.

But what he didn't know was that an ethereal aura appeared around Jeffrey's corpse and it began to twitch. The corpse then slowly began to rise to its feet before leaning against a couch to stabilize itself. It then looked at its hand to see that the Command Seals were still there, and it smiled in response.

"Heh…" a young girl's voice came out of the corpse's mouth. "You will not stop with something as…simple as bullets."

"Unless you can exorcize me like that d*** holy woman, no matter what you do, I will still be here."

Kylie's vessel then began to shamble on out of the apartment. It would now simply walk the streets until the War was over and the Grail was now in Kylie's possession.


"Gentlemen," Frederick said. "Jeffrey Stanford is now dead."

"Mr. James, I am afraid that you might be mistaken," Payne stated. "Shortly after you reported Jeffrey's infraction to us, Ruler brought some…troubling information to our attention."

"Ruler was rescued by Archer of Alpha and led to his Master, Marcus Wilkins," Madison said. "Wilkins claims that Stanford is haunted by a malevolent spirit and responsible for the disaster that occurred at the end of the previous Holy Grail War."

Frederick grit his teeth in response. "Why was I not informed of this?"

"We do apologize for not keeping you properly informed of this, but we figured that it would work better for you to not be." Madison said.

"This is the perfect opportunity to test the validity of Wilkins' claims," Hamilton spoke. "If this spirit is still using Jeffrey's body as a host, then his corpse is likely still walking around."

"If that is the case, then we will have our FBI agents stationed in the city keep a watch for Stanford," Madison said. "If they do find him, we will have Ruler track him down and exorcize the spirit, if it does exist."

"This meeting is adjourned."


The remaining Masters of Alpha were called to Caster's base for a meeting. There was a solemn atmosphere among those gathered there, having just lost three of their comrades the night before. Ian had Assassin clean herself up before they went to the base, wanting to make sure no one knew what they were doing before then.

Marcus then disclosed the details of what occurred at the end of the last War, excluding the fact that Jenny and Berserker had gone on several rampages during the war. The others were shocked that one of their enemies was the vessel for a malevolent spirit and that killing Jeffrey likely wouldn't take that spirit out for good.

"However," Marcus said. "I have spoken with Ruler, and she has agreed to exorcize Kylie."

"Thank God for that," Ada said. "We don't need an evil ghost walking around, especially not one that wants to kill all humans…"

"But, that aside…" Marcus the sighed. "I have found where the leader of the Omega faction has based himself."

Marcus then laid a map down with a red dot on one area before putting down some pictures of the exterior of Frederick's mansion.

"The estate of Frederick James. He's the head of a large business and an up-and-coming politician. He planning to run for the Senate."

"I'm going to give you all till Friday to get all your affairs in order. Then, we're raiding the estate."

"Hold on," Ada said. "You want use to attack the property of some really important guy, which might possibly end up killing him."

"We're in a war, Ada," Ian said. "We gotta do what we gotta do."

"We'll discuss strategy the day that we carry the attack out," Marcus then said.


The next day, Marcus had decided that he was going to make Harry meet Ian. Even if it very well could end up being a poor decision. The boy still did deserve to meet his father at least once and remember it, even if said father was a piece of trash. He waited by the bar that Harry often frequented and, sure enough, the deadbeat showed up.

"Oh God…" Harry groaned.

"I've made a decision. You are coming with me, s***bag." Marcus stated.

"Lancer…"

"We're in public, so I can't just appear out of nowhere. Sorry, Master, but you don't seem to have much of a choice in this."

"…S***."


So, Ian's starting to go off the deep end and Marcus is about to take a gamble that could go very wrong. That aside, the next chapter or two will be filler-ish, though it will conclude Ian's struggles with his psychotic tendencies. And after that, we'll have the grand finale, which I might make into a single long chapter. I'm not gonna say much on what's gonna happen, but I have a special surprise in store for that one.

Now for reviews.

KnightOfZaku: I'll decline to comment on most of that, but as for the last part, you're fine. You review when you have time to. And I've heard that Octopath Traveler is a good game. Too bad that I don't have a Switch. (cries)

ZenoZen: Yes, the end is in sight and coming up fast.

Devin sands: Thanks. As for the Servants in the prequel, only Saber, Rider, Caster, and Berserker's identities are set in stone right now. Saber is a japanese legend and a Saberface, Caster was mentioned during the Morgan arc, and Berserker is Jackie. Rider on the other hand, will be essential to the establishment of Operation Holy Grail.

Leave a review. Constructive criticism will be accepted. Flames will be used to make s'mores. Jyaa-nee!