Disclaimer: These are works of purely speculative fiction. It is not intended to infringe on any rights by any of the companies and/or individuals involved in the production of any series mentioned here. Fate Grand Order and all the franchises and series associated with it, are owned by Kinoko Nasu, Notes Co., Ltd. and their affiliates. Similarly, Fire Emblem Heroes is owned by Nintendo Co., Ltd. and their affiliates.

I DO NOT OWN THESE FRANCHISES.

What is a hero?

To Anna, a hero is a being who performs impossible deeds, saves damsels in distress from beasts, and stands in defense of the common folk without any ulterior motives.

Don't get her wrong, while she loved the idea of idealistic heroes like those told in epic tales, she held no illusions that suggested the legendary heroes spoken of in said tales were portrayed differently than how they were in real life.

Historians and scribes who record such events were guaranteed to always miss, omit or forget details of what actually happened when they put pen to paper. Small but critical details that would have made the difference between real and fiction are seen as 'inconvenient' for the message the storyteller is trying to push and thus not included in the story.

That or the storyteller is a liar.

She always wondered how many legends actually happened and how a small deed became a tall tale in a matter of days. Someone could tell a story about killing a bunny on a green field and by the end of the week, the bunny has inexplicably morphed into a carnivorous, man-eating beast with glowing red eyes and an insatiable desire to consume any flesh that it can get its claws on.

That is the reason why despite loving them, she always kept a skeptical mind whenever she read myths and legends like those of the Hero King Marth or the Fell Dragon Grima. Sure, they are historical texts and there is proof that shows their existence but her family wouldn't be master merchants if they didn't know how to spot a liar selling a load of bull dung to gullible saps.

Annas are conditioned from a young age to never accept anything at face value. They were told to instead question its origins, check the condition, materials used to make the item, and its craftsmanship, then haggle for it, regardless of its assumed value.

Separating fact and fiction from legends is usually up to the scholars to decide but merchants like her family still find it a valuable skill to have, especially when dealing with relics and priceless artifacts. The current status quo dictates the supply and demand of these artifacts and the fluctuating prices all stem from what agenda is currently being pushed.

If a supposed legendary teapot of some divine manakete is up for sale at 500 gold, it is because it is a sacred relic of a holy icon. If the teapot was appraised and found to have actually belonged to an individual of the past that the crown, the Church, or the common people disapprove of or some nobody, then it suddenly drops from its initial market value to 50 gold.

Reality can be disappointing after all, and that is reflected in an item's price.

So it should not come as a surprise that when you have a summoning method that allows the people of the present to summon heroes of the past or even the present era, the mythical and legendary figures that one grew up to admire and at times worship will more often than not end up being someone completely different than the stories tell.

"Pew. Pew. Pew."

'Speaking of disappointing,' Anna looked towards the source of not only her disappointment but also her agonizing increase in paperwork. An insufferable girl that she is thankful she met yet at the same time loathes whenever Anna is caught in her shenanigans.

Ritsu Fujimaru or Gudako as she preferred to be called, sported short red hair much like herself but in a much lighter shade. She seemed unfazed by the climb up the steep rocky path they were on, which made sense due to those special soft boots of hers. Then there's the fact that she is wearing the most heavily enchanted hooded robe that she's ever laid her eyes on.

It was woven with real and synthetic fabric and enchanted with special magics to keep the wearer comfortable. It even came preloaded with engraved spells that can be used even by those who had no talent for magic according to what that woman Da Vinci told her. The gods damned freezing mountain winds were no match for such an innovative and revolutionary outfit.

It was also why Gudako was so carefree making the trip up to the summoning altar, given how she smoothly twirled the legendary ancient relic of her homeland around her thumb without so much as a hint of a cold shiver.

"Senpai. I do not think it's a good idea to treat a sacred relic like a toy." A dependable and cute lavender-haired girl said while frowning at the red menace next to her.

Mash Kiryelight was a strange girl with a strange name but she was a good kid, if a bit on the shy side, especially on matters of romance and sex. Which makes it all the more perplexing that she doesn't bat an eye when the topic of her scandalous outfit is brought up. When they first met, she was wearing a modest outfit that looked like a fusion between a tunic and a hood. At first, Anna believed she was one of the modest dressers in her organization.

The Anna of the past was a fool.

While Mash's outfit isn't as... risque as some of the other heroes of Chaldea, modesty is the last word she would use to describe her current battle attire. Her taste in clothing aside, the girl was still a sweetheart, one that was easy to tease and whom she would protect with her life. Now if only she could spread her wholesomeness to that gremlin next to her.

"Mashu, you've been hanging around Emiya too much, don't turn into a stick in the mud like he is. It's not like it's loaded- whoops!" The girl taunted the world and the world responded back by making the priceless artifact she had in her hands fall to the ground. Luckily, she managed to catch the artifact before it hit the ground and fall over the edge of the steep hill they were climbing up, using up all the precious luck the red girl had left to pull off that maneuver.

"..."

Anna exchanged a look with the lilac-haired girl before they both turned back to turn their attention back to the redhead, who was currently facing away from them, likely embarrassed by the fumble she just performed.

The girl coughed into her fist and continued to speak. "Well, that was exciting, anyway as I was saying, life is not worth living without risks to spice up your life."

"... Even so, Archer may be a bowman who uses swords as arrows, but even he knows you are supposed to treat all guns as if they are loaded." Gudako waved her hand dismissively at Mash, still holding the very much loaded 'gun' around like it was a fan.

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say my cute little kohai."

"C-C-C-Cute?! I'm not cute." Mashu fidgeted, caught off guard by the flirtatious comment made by the girl who could pass off as a long-lost bastard of House Gautier[1].

Anna instinctively tuned out there flirting, as much as she likes to tease people, especially Mash, even Anna had her limits. Instead, she focused on the growing uncomfort in her lower back.

"Hmmmmm..."

A few satisfying pops came from her weary bones and released her pent-up tension. After Chaldea formed an alliance with The Order of Heroes, Alphonse doubled both her paperwork and her pay. Being paid at twice the going rate for commanders was amazing but it came at the cost of being hunched over a desk for hours writing reports in meticulous detail without rest and it was taking a toll on her back and shoulders.

"Senpai, you really need to take this situation more seriously, can't you see you are making Ms. Anna more anxious with your irresponsible behavior?"

Anna focused back on reality when she heard her name being called. Giving them her best, albeit strained customer service smile. It nearly cracked when Gudako shrugged her shoulders at her.

"Eh, aside from the fact that she just looks like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed, she seems fine with it. Now come on you two! It's not much farther till we reach the altar... and I can start summoning again."

Gudako started drooling.

Anna has never met anyone so obsessed with summoning people before. Granted, she hasn't met any summoners before Gudako.

She knew Gudako wasn't the thee-and-thou type but she never expected her to be... this.

Just goes to show that first impressions aren't everything.

After a few more minutes of walking and... whatever it was that Gudako was doing, the party had reached the altar.

While Mashu and Gudako prepared the necessary materials for the summoning, Anna stood to the side and watched since she was of no help here until the heroes arrived.

Seeing Gudako stare at the orb she is holding near her face like a maniac gave Anna some pause.

'Why do I fear this girl again?[2]'

She recalled the first time she summoned Gudako and as soon as she did, a phantom sensation tickled her throat. Anna's hand had unconsciously moved towards her neck as she remembered the sensation that was now forever engraved into her heart.

Her vision blurred the longer she remembered that day. Those impassive pale blue eyes, judging the worthiness of her existence, still haunted her dreams.

Taking a deep, uneasy breath, she calmed herself, and her vision returned to reality.

How could she forget such a pivotal moment in her life? Behind the crazed look of this young girl, stood the might of a behemoth. A behemoth that had been benevolent enough to lend its aid to Askr despite the transgressions it had done to it.

She vividly remembered the day Gudako was summoned. After hearing their plight, the girl had promised she would end the war with Embla in a mere week.

"'A week,' she said. " Anna parroted the cocky tone of the summoner's voice.

What a liar.

Chaldea ended the war with Embla in a day.

Embla was effectively crippled, their royals captured and defeated, the land scarred and their invasion stopped in its tracks in a mere day.

It was comical at best and insulting at worst. The Order of Heroes had been at war for months before the summoning, yet, it took a mere day for a small band of strangers to topple an entire country.

And now the Order of Heroes, nay the entire Kingdom of Askr, were at the mercy of this girl.

Prince Alphonse didn't seem to care as he was getting powerful allies for a small price and wholeheartedly agreed to aid Chaldea in their noble endeavors.

The king of Askr however, once learning of this alliance, initially refused to acknowledge it but after speaking to a representative of another organization that helped fund Chaldea that called themselves the Clocktower, he was quickly... 'persuaded'.

She suspected magic but she had no proof of that accusation, that or the king was smart enough to understand just how powerful their new allies were that crossing them would prove to be a horrible idea. One of their summoned heroes toppled a kingdom that was superior to them in numbers and coffer capacity in a single swoop. How were they going to fare any better against such a force?

Even in the scenario where Chaldea respected the wishes of the kingdom and left, should they fail their mission, they too are at risk of being on Solomon's next target. And that's in addition to the possibility that Chaldea's actions in Askr were rendered null after their failure. If such a thing happened, it would force The Order of Heroes to fight the war without a summoner, and seeing as how the only humans left to call upon are at Chaldea... Yeah, no offense to the king, but screw him and his pride, lives are at stake!

After the matter was resolved, it was agreed that the barracks of the Order of Heroes will serve as Chaldea's barracks for the duration of their mission. Although the worst part about this entire deal is that she can't sell them anything.

All the food supplies provided are being paid for by the crown of Askr rather than through her family. Anna and her sisters have also been forbidden from charging the heroes who took down Embla.

At least this alliance didn't come without some silver linings.

She saw their technology, wisdom, and opportunities. She will be the first Anna in her family to gain access to creating advanced technologies that were either completely new or lost to time.

And all they have to do is take a momentary loss of business and provide a glorified rest area for Chaldea's heroes.

Sure she was worried about the cataclysmic events that happened in their world. Apart from Askr, no other country has access to Gudako's world, not even Embla. Due to the nature of the Breideblik, it pinpointed Chaldea's location outside space/time and brought Gudako to them.

So the likelihood of an enemy nation summoning servants or the so-called Beasts of Calamity was minuscule. Though the possibility always existed.

High risk, high reward, but hey, that's never stopped her family from earning a profit!

[1] House Gautier is a noble house from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It is the house of Silvain Gautier, a noble playboy who is infamous for flirting and asking girls to spend time with him. Both Silvain and Miklain, his late brother, are redheads but Silvain's fooling around ends up making the Gautier name as a synonym for playboys, homewreckers and flirts. You guys can understand why Anna made the comparison.

[2] Gudako obsessing over orb: copy and paste this after the end of the dot com of deviantart /ihev9sun/art/Gudako-gushes-over-Orb-938140141

Authors Note: This has been sitting in my phone for years, and while I have over 20 chapters planned, only a handful of those chapters are written, the rest are still in their idea phase. No one has done a fanfic like this, and for a good reason, because it's a clusterfuck. The characters, the lore, the magical mechanics and all the nuances between relationships is daunting at best and horrifying at worst. Despite all of that, the possibilities are just too tantalizing to ignore.

That being said, I am not a best selling author and I am doing this merely for fun but that doesn't mean I will deliberately ignore lore or perpetuate fanon. So that means NO ONE is going to be swearing by the root in this story... unless it's in a non-canon omake.

I have spent too much time researching characters that I had gotten burned out and put this story away. I always told myself I was going to publish this 'one day' even if only a few chapters for fun, just so that a fanfic exists. After twiddling my thumbs and reading, writing, and listening to text-to-speech audio for the hundredth time, I finally just decided to post this.

I haven't played past the first mission of the 5th singularity, so that is where I will place this story but I have watched Babylonia and OtakuDaikun's lore videos so I am not going in blind. This decision is due to the massive amount of characters on both sides, so I will use it as a way to cut back on certain servants but I reserve the right to use any servant should they have a potential interesting interaction. On the Fire emblem side of things, I started with Awakening and I have not played any games before that aside from FE Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, so don't expect many characters from those games, with the main characters as exceptions, unless I find one that has an interesting backstory that would lead to a fun support with a servant.

My upload schedule is undetermined but I hope to post at least one chapter a week or more at the start depending on reception, but this by no means that it will be that way forever since chapters require a shit tonne of research... plus the images take a while to edit.