Emiya Shirou sat in his workshop surrounded by the empty vessels fixed to the world. Creations made in imitation of purpose, and yet hollow to the touch and incomplete in his mind.
Each one a failure, to mark his status as untalented at magic.
And in the face of countless defeats, in the face of a road where he would never know victory, he prepared himself to begin again at the very first step.
Fire poured down his spine as he began, the act felt like inserting a rod of molten metal into his spine as he built a circuit to allow the magic to flow. Step by step as he built the image from illusion into reality in pursuit of his dream.
Walking on the precipice of death as he drew it on. It ran loose from his control, fire roaring forth into an inferno as it poured free of his control. Every sense burning alive as he exhaled and forced it free as fire raced down his arm and seared itself into his flesh.
Blood flowing freely from a scar in his hand. Another failure as the failed magic touched the world and light erupted in the room, the floor itself seeming to come to life around him. His entire circuit collapsing as it was drained out into the world as he exhaled.
Caught in the light the world flickered away as a glimpse of something stared back across the divide, an eye peering into his mind as a stream of pages flowed out into the world.
She stepped forward, an almost doll like girl as fragile as could be looking up as he passed out.
She lounged amidst the austere, her own perfection only highlighted by her drab surroundings. The perfect seductive smile, a tempting gaze.
Neither of them acknowledged it. Her charms wasted on them even amidst the gloom. Even as her new master stood over the girl who might have been hers once and tore off her arm.
It was a shame almost; she'd been such a precious girl when she'd summoned her. A warm smile and hope cast into relief as she'd stepped forth, only to watch as it turned to horror and disgust as she'd given her name.
The feeling still left tingles down her spine, revulsion toying with her feelings such that she might even have loved her once. But then there were always other lovers to take, she preened emphasising her breasts and rose to stare into his eyes.
Cold and unfeeling eyes as he broke the heart of someone who had once considered him a teacher. It had such a beautiful note to it, a perfect story enough to make her heart swoon. She wanted to be part of it, to intrude on that perfect moment even as her old master gazed at her with something like fear, she smiled back. A hand extending as she played with the blood pooling along the floor as she drew a rune into the world.
To the man who ignored her every move, she smiled enchantingly. "To think my beauty was so great that you had no choice but to want me for your own. Ah men can be such weak creatures in the end don't you think master?"
Bazett continued to bleed in pain even as the rune froze her in place preventing her death. Silence carved onto the world as she was stuck unable to speak.
"Perhaps it is human nature to be weak and falter." The priest turned towards her finally and she preened under his gaze. "But it is your strength that I require rather than beauty. I wish to take part in this war, so perhaps I would have you go out and meet your fellow servants."
She nodded along. "What a good idea I always wanted a chance to get acquainted with so many dashing young men. But you know they'll fall for me, so you have to promise not to get jealous won't you." Coyly she gently tapped a single finger against his chest, peeking at his expression as he remained a visage of stone.
She poked harder, until he was almost thrown from his feet and revelled in the way he pushed back. Even if only human there was strength there.
"Do not kill any of the other servants in your first fight." A command seal burned away and she felt it like a restraint.
And then felt it fall away. "On the first date? Everyone needs some foreplay before they get to the main course, you don't understand a woman's heart at all."
He laughed and she laughed alongside him. "I am poorly suited to it you'll find, and the war seems much more likely to be able to hold my attention for the foreseeable future. Do you have confidence in being able to partake of it?"
"What would a kind and innocent girl like me know of war?" If not for the blood she would be the perfect picture of innocence and because of it, she was ravishing. Smearing it across her lips to improve their colour. "But the rules seem simple enough and anyway."
"I know how to enjoy myself."
At the end of the street stood a man, apart from the world even as he took place in it. Golden hair and an athletic build but more than either, he stood resolute and unbowed to the world around him.
A king. A victor without equal.
Dissatisfied with the shape of the world and the way it had changed in his absence.
He stepped forward regardless for he had always been a disappointment, an afterthought fated to die and spat upon in shame compared to his brothers. He had proven himself their equal regardless, risen to legend enough to match them at the end.
Spear crashing down as he announced himself and greeted the King of Heroes.
Gilgamesh smiled back. "Finally, someone worthy arrives. The humans of this era are so small and insignificant and so it does well to meet those who might have been my equals."
Before the king was it not true that all people exist to be discarded? "Even so they struggle to live on so I shall honour them in my own way."
Gilgamesh laughed and smiled at the words. "You would speak of their worth while burning away their lives. To not recognise the difference between them and us is foolishness when we are both so much more."
"They have honoured me and shown me respect in a way my own people did not. I will give them their due." He considered his words carefully. "Today I have no right to face you. For I am a challenger and you are already victorious." The difference in their status was too high.
"So I will come again having become victorious in my own right, when that time comes I will have you take back those words."
"I will be waiting."
He heard the call.
Death steeped in the walls and the floors as a writhing mass of decay bubbled up around the room. The scent of one long past his time, a broken soul caught in the cycle of samsara and shedding only misery upon those around him.
He would not answer, would not lend his aid to such a cause.
The room moved, and he saw her. Broken and shamed, defiled by a the acts of a monster. A sacrifice offered in a place so steeped in power that it qualified as a shrine to his presence. Tugging at his existence even as he could know only disgust for it.
He stepped forward incarnating himself upon the world. Almost mortal flesh coming into being as he became himself once more. The stains of the mortal world encroaching on his senses easily as he stepped forward and helped the young lady up, even as she resisted. "Come cover yourself with this, I will be done shortly."
At the far end of the room the Preta stood. A glimpse of a marionette pulled around by its true form watching him expectantly. Hunger and greed intwined in its eyes as the full weight of its corpse extended throughout the room.
It mattered not for he saw through both the pain and the suffering, through to the end.
A single finger flashed forward, piercing the last vital point.
The cracks in its existence widening as the gate opened and he was done.
"You will be safe now, for I have ended his torment." He turned once more to the girl who was his Master and smiled gently. "I will take you to rest so you only need concern yourself with your own health. I will take care of the rest."
She stepped into the world once more on the ruined remains, the echo of a myth pervading this place as power poured in from the world around her. In the next moment it coalesced as her spear returned to her hand thrumming with power as they became one once more.
"Wouldn't you have tried to summon Rider instead." The man before her was older, wizened by the years and yet he was still Waver Velvet who had served his king in the last war.
"You remember?" He scoffed as he looked away. "If there was any way to change the summoning of course I would have brought back my liege. And yet it is not my will that binds you and so there would be no point in even trying for a catalyst." He lit a cigar. "A shame really."
"So, this is the legendary first member of the harem that Grey is replacing." A girl with purple hair glowed even as something behind her eyepatch glowed, a failed incantation washing itself away against her presence.
"Well, he is Professor Ancient Spirit Husband after all." Another boy amidst the crowd smiled and waved at her.
Before her eyes Waver seemed to grow a decade older as his brows furrowed at the words. Like a weight crashing down around him. Each of those gathered possessing a fragment of a connection of power with her as she felt mana pour forth through the servant bond.
Yet none were the one who called her.
Hidden within a cloak almost enough to hide from the world itself she stood. Covering her face and looking anywhere but at her. Still even then their contract did not lie, and she felt the trail between the two of them and stepped forward. "You are my master then?"
The girl seemed resigned as she composed herself, struggling with the moment. Before turning back and meeting her eyes. "If it will help Sir bring this war to an end, I have called you forth."
As though looking into a mirror she faced herself.
In the doubt that consumed them both.
Saber had already been summoned. She accepted it and moved on because even if it was the best class she was the best mage and that could make all the difference.
Five other classes had already been filled, and she was left with only one. The price of putting it off longer than she should have. It just meant that she knew everything she needed, taking the field from every possible class she could summon and narrowing it down to the best possible Archer.
She left Fuyuki, for even if the grail was strongest in this place, fame was what made them a true Heroic Spirit. Even without a catalyst, Japan itself stood carved in legends enough to make the world turn.
She entered the shrine by night, command seals coming to life as they reacted to it, as the magic of this place rose unbidden to her purpose in recognition of what was about to happen. For it was his legend and all of Japan had been marked by his passing.
She began and the temple blazed fire streaking out around her as she called, the first fragments of a myth brought into reality once more. And amidst the burning ruin her Servant appeared.
The man… girl was short as she descended untouched by the flames. "So this is the modern era, and yet this temple still looks just the same. Shouldn't you have at least updated it once in all this time rather than leaving it to rot."
No this was still within her expectations, it didn't matter what she looked like. "I have summoned you forth."
"Ah well at least I have a cute master, come the guided tour awaits. I want to see all of this new technology, how well has the future progressed in all these years. Do the old farts still linger or have you finally been rid of them all?"
"Oh and of course, what kind of guns do they have nowadays anyway?"
AN: It goes forth, with an introduction to servant and master pairs.
Yeah this one is going to follow Shirou much more closely than my last fate one. Well we'll see how it goes.