Fate/Roots
A Fate/Stay Night x Fate/Zero xover
This is a fanfiction that generates 0 revenews, it is a work of art and I claim 0 authorship of anything other than the story, all characters belong to Type-moon sensei.
Also I am a Vtuber (Twitch and YouTube), look me up as Tsuki Haseo. I stream almost daily, leave a comment or interact on chat when I am live! I also locationally do fanfiction readings XD.
I also do Collabs.
Chapter 1: 2 for the price of 1
Emiya Kiritsugu, a man who seemed devoid of compassion, was on an altar, on it laid a perfect item for what he needed.
Summoning of a servant.
His wife, Irisviel laid by his side, she was the Einzberns doll, the vessel of the holy grail, AKA the lesser grail, but more important, she was his wife and mother of their daughter, Irisviel.
The reason he was doing a servant summoning? To enact his heartfelt wish, a wish that destroyed him little by little due to the impossibility born from his own limitations as a mere mortal.
A world where no one has to suffer.
An irony that a man who is so bloodstained had such a pure wish.
But it is BECAUSE of it that he understands the NECESSITY of his wish.
He became as he is BECAUSE he wanted to save people. But he understood that you couldn't save everyone and you had, therefore, to pick and choose whom you would save.
And so, he prepared to make sure that in this holy grail war it would be the very last bloodshed that humanity had to witness or shed.
He was not sure about, however, whom they would be summoning.
"Old man Acht, should we summon King Arthur, it is quite likely that my methods would clash with his, I think I would be more suited to the Assassin or Caster servant class, even the Archer one if push comes to shove, as the knight classes would probably have a 'warrior's pride' and object with my tactics" Kiritsugu said.
The old man nodded, as he brought a fair point, however… "in the end, the saber class is the most outstanding, specially if we summon him, afterall, we would have "The Sword of Promised Victory" on our side, not to mention the fame bonus he would receive as there are none who don't know his legend, boosting his parameters, it is also as to why we have the existence of command seals"
The item on the altar was nothing less than a relic, yet it looked brand new, as if time had no meaning to it. It was something fit for a king.
Which in context it really was.
The scabbard of Excalibur… Avalon. A conceptual armament of the defensive type, its user would know not of death, save for decapitation.
It is believed that if Arthur had the sheath back on his fight against his son, he would not have died. But her sister's machinations made it so she managed to steal it from him.
"The King of knights uh? There will be much friction in this relationship" Kiritsugu muttered.
"Yes, however victory will be mostly assured with it" his wife said with a smile as she caressed the sheath.
Kiritsugu began to run ideas on HOW to use the King of Knights effectively and went for it.
However things went awry.
As he finished chanting his wife then was branded by a set of command seals as well.
2 magic circles appeared, and from them…
"Servant of the Sword, Saber, has answered your call, are you my master?"
"My, this is certainly a novel way of summoning, I am the servant of the bow, Archer, I ask, are you my master?"
It was then when both servants noticed what had happened and prepared to fight, when both Kiritsugu and Irisviel called out to them.
*A short while later*
"I see, so I was not actually called purposely, it seems as well that I am not the ONLY Archer servant on this war, this is troubling" Archer said scratching the back of his head.
The man was tall, he had dark skin and white hair and silver eyes, his outfit was very… modest, he had a breastplate with silver accents and cloak made from a holy shroud from what Kiritsugu could tell, Archer was, very functional.
However, what angered him most was the truth revealed to him.
'King' Arthur was in fact a young girl… a girl forced to carry the weight of a nation and its future all due to some prophecy. And that angered him.
Due to knowing WHO Saber was (as much of a shock as it was to the married couple) they had no idea who this Archer was.
"I do apologize but due to the manner that I was summoned it left me with no memories of my name" he said as he bowed in apology.
"That is okay, you were not planned, however your help is still highly valued, thanks to this… my husband's wish might come true"
"That is no problem, because since you were my summoner I cannot be nothing but the best," Archer said with a bow.
"Oh my, you shouldn't flatter a married woman like that Archer" Irisviel said with a blush.
Internally Archer was about to have a heart attack.
He was used to being summoned to the past, as he was a servant of (a possible) future, but he was mostly summoned either to the 5th Grail war, or to the Grand Order.
He was summoned to the past, but WAY back, to where his father was on his "prime", before he succumbed to the curses of the grail.
In front of him was his father, the one who also cursed him to become a counter guardian due to the irrational wish he had inherited from him.
To become a hero of justice.
However, he held no anger nor resentment.
How could he when the man never meant to?
How could he when the wish, albeit impossible, was beautiful?
He had long since accepted who he was, after his fight against his past self, showed him that even if it wasn't what he wanted, he still was saving people. His ideals were not wrong, he only went around it badly.
He did everything alone, because he did not want anyone to suffer.
And thus, he alone suffered.
However, due to what he knew of this war… how would he stop the disaster that was the corrupted grail?
If he did stop it… will he also disappear as there would be no "Fuyuki Great Fire"?
Archer EMIYA was in a unique position as a servant that did not covet the Grail (due to knowing that it had become nothing more than a nuclear powered monkey's paw)
He was sure Saber would not believe him, neither would his father or his wife (?)
He was not sure if he should let things play out as they did… however with him on board, his option to do nothing was no longer an option, specially due to his personality.
"How irritating, it seems I might erase myself without no longer wanting to… and I just came to terms with my role, it seems the universe has a sense of humor, or is it irony?" Archer thought.
He lied when he said he didn't remember his name. However, he also knew that his lie would be undone sooner rather than later so he also was working against an unknown amount of time.
He also had to restrain his facial expressions when he saw his father AND Saber. He looked NOTHING like he was when he was a child, guess this was Kiritsugu BEFORE the war. Before he was broken.
So, his first priority would be the utter destruction of the Greater Grail, but also to secure the daughter of his father and Irisviel should plan A fail. He also had plans on how to save Irisviel from her fate as the Lesser Grail, but for that he would need to contact a certain annoying puppet master, sister of The Blue.
If things went well, she could create a new puppet body for Irisviel to inhabit that would be indiscernible from her original one, without the lesser grail trait, granting her even a human lifespan, if what he knew of iLya held true,.then she also would have a human lifespan, considering she is a lifeform made from a human and a homunculus, that is if they don't implant the lesser grail traits and play merry hell with her magic circuits to make her into a perfect magic vessel.
Touko Aozaki was good like that. It is why she held a sealing designation.
Archer also had MANY advantages in this war, one of them being that his master this time had WAY more power than Rin, increasing his parameters and ability to use his skills at higher degree without fear of draining his master, the second one is that he knew who was the worst servant in this war, the original war's Archer Gilgamesh. Not only that, but due to his unique way of fighting he was also Gilgamesh's natural counter.
"So Archer… may I know what you wish from the Grail?" Irisviel asked him.
"To be honest? I don't really have a wish, so I have no need for it" Archer said, making both Irisviel and Saber (and to a lesser extent Kiritsugu) do a double take.
"That would be impossible. All servants summoned have to have a wish otherwise they wouldn't accept the call" Irisviel said.
"But, to every rule there is also a few outliers, the only wish I could possibly want is one that I myself robbed me from, however I long since moved on and accepted things as they are, there is no use on crying on 'what-ifs', at least that's what I believe" Archer said.
Kiritsugu blew some air from his nose, appreciating Archer's pragmatism, he would have made a good match for himself, however things don't always go as one wishes, as he was an accidental summoning.
He was a secret ace, as he asked Irisviel about their Archer.
"He is not registering on the grail, while summoned via the grail he is not connected to it to power the ritual" she said.
In other words, the church would not know about this extra servant. So they did the old switcheroo.
To begin the war Kiritsugu and Maiya, along with Archer, would fly to Fuyuki first, to prepare for the upcoming battles and investigate more about their opponents and prepare potential places to make ambushes or counter ambush attacks, as well as making safe houses should the need arise.
They would be expecting the Einzberns to be the master of the war, which to be fair she was, but she was an anomalous master, with an anomalous servant, which is why she would go with Saber, to sell the deception.
It's no use to let them know of their own Archer.
However EMIYA also wondered something.
How was he summoned? The only catalyst they used was Avalon (which Saber had no clue to as to the moment)
It was when it hit him.
He himself ALSO carried IT.
It wasn't a case of accidental summoning, it was an actual double summon!
They got two servants for the prize of one.
EMIYA smirked as he sat on the plane route to his hometown…
Towards the 4th grail war.
*Fuyuki Church*
There was a certain elder priest who had a son, this elder priest… Kotomine Risei, was this war's intermediary, he was to be impartial and offer sanctuary to defeated masters, he was to make sure the masters obeyed the rules and did not expose the Moonlit world to others, as well as cover any… incidents due to this battle royale.
However it was not meant to be.
His own son, Kotomone Kirei, was also a master in this war, with his servant Hassan (one of the).
The reason for the 'one of the' is due to Hassan's own legend where they take the mantle of Hassan-i-sabbah and continue the legacy each with their unique specialization.
Kotomine father AND son had allied themselves to the Tohsaka patriarch, who was an old friend AND fellow christian, they knew of his one and only wish, And due to Kotomine senior knowing of the character of Tohsaka, he decided to help him win the war, as his wish was the most decent one.
A path to the Root.
A wish all magus held, with the grail, however, a shortcut would be created and one would access the neigh infinite repository of magical knowledge of past, present and future.
It was due to this reason Kirei was trained under Tohsaka so he could open and use magic circuits and be much more useful in the war, Kotomine's job in this war was to be a spy and gather information using Assassin, and if possible, to kill enemy masters.
It was due to this that they hatched a plan to make Kirei into a perfect secret master.
Assassin's ability was to create bodies of himself, copies with different characteristics of the specializations that he held. Said copy was asked to infiltrate Tohsaka's domain.
"You have nothing to fear" Kirei told this aspect of the Assassin, who then broke into the house, disabling all the bounded fields with ease as he slowly destroyed the gems powering it.
As he got near his body tensed and looked up. Standing on the roof of the abode of the Master of Archer was a golden servant.
"Who gave you pathetic worm permission to gaze upon my glory? Begone with you and serve as food for the land" he said imperiously as golden portals appeared.
Hundreds of weapons that could only be classified as TREASURES shot out as if it was raining.
Assassin now understood what his master meant.
Yes, after all what good is fear when your opponent has this much power at his disposal. There was never any need to fear as he would die in an instant.
And so, Assassin was the first (?) casualty of the war before it even began in earnest.
Elsewhere
A young boy looked at the image feed via his link to his familiar.
The boy was Waver Velvet, a young magus who in a fit of rage decided to throw his hat into the Holy Grail to make people respect him, as he was tired of kowtowing to people who believed that ancestry triumphed over hard work in magecraft.
He made a theory that, any magus could become quite competent if they practiced hard enough and managed to get nuances off their magecraft and polish it, rather than waste time trying and researching new things. They could, in theory, evolve their own craft into something more.
This went against the teachings of blood, as magecraft was a succession that was passed to the heir in order to accumulate the wealth that was the magic crest.
It was this that his professor tore his theory paper and mocked him in front of the class.
So now, he was here in a deadly game with his own servant that he managed to "steal" from his teacher, the heroic spirit of the Rider class.
He was a tall muscle bound type of man, with red hair, he always looked joyous and held an insatiable appetite towards conquest.
His wish was to be reborn once more so he could start to quest the world.
He was to be Lord Elmellio's servant, however in a fit of rebellion due to being hurt at having his paper torn in half and humiliated in front of his class he decided to steal his teacher's catalyst.
And now he was in Fuyuki in a deadly battle for a neigh infinite power wish granting device which is the Holy Grail.
Rider decided to go towards the great red bridge to see. Taking Waver with him he rode his chariot pulled by heavenly bulls.
Waver was freaking out, but after a while they saw someone else on the bridge.
It was a man dressed in rather fashionable clothes, a dress shirt, dress pants and slacks as he viewed towards the sea. Rider and Waver were sure he was not there before.
The man had dark skin and white hair. At first Waver thought that he was a victim of Japanese overwork and was thinking of ending it all.
"You must be a heroic spirit… Rider I presume?" EMIYA asked.
"Oh? Are you perhaps a servant?" Rider asked, while EMIYA had a feel of a servant, but he didn't recognize it as one for some reason. "Are you perhaps Assassin? No, it couldn't be, as we saw it meet its end against the golden servant" Rider said.
"I am just a spectator, nothing more at the moment" EMIYA said. "The breeze from here is quite relaxing, don't you agree? King of Conquerors Iskandar?"
This put Waver on the back foot, and Izkander gave an appreciative whistle "How did you figure my name?"
The chariot you came, it was pulled day divine bulls, I would have thought of sumerian mythos due to Gugulana but it was not high enough divinity ranking, then I saw the electric currents that they generated, the most common god associated with lightning and thunder would be Thor, but he is associated with RAMS, and then Zeus… then is the chariot and also the iconographic of a entangled ball of rope, the only thing in mythos that could have all those things together would result on none other than the one who "solved" the Gordian Knot… or did I deduce things wrongly?" EMIYA asked.
Rider laughed, and it was a hearty boisterous laughter at that.
"See that boy? This type of man would have been one I would have killed to have in my army back then, using such small clues that many would not be able to piece together and create the result like this? Tell me, where are you a great advisor?" Izkander asked.
"Nothing of the sort, I am but just a Nameless wanderer with a foolish ideal, one that I moved on after I saw the results of it" EMIYA said.
Izkander felt troubled, could this man be the missing Caster? Or perhaps a Saber?
It was then where's little blue light lit up on his ear.
"Sorry, it's my boss, it seems they need me at the office, it has been nice to meet you two" EMIYA said as he climbed himself down.
"I am confused… Was that guy a servant or what? He seemed to know WHAT you were and more importantly WHO you are" Waver said.
"He felt as if he was a servant, but I could NOT recognize him as one. Perhaps he is someone who had the CAPACITY to become a hero in this new age? THAT WOULD BE A SIGHT TO SEE BOY! Imagine a human of this modern time, able to rise up to a level of legends of yore! Doesn't that excite you boy?" Izkander asked.
"Not particularly, if he became a master it would be quite troublesome… if he is as good as you believe him to be, a servant summoned by a person who has the approval of one such as you…" Waver said feeling like he was losing confidence.
"It would be a glorious battle, that is for sure," Izkander said, imagining a battle with such a worthy foe.
As EMIYA made his way to Kiritsugu he went to his spiritual form and communicated with Kiritsugu "so, I gathered some information, the big burly servant is Izkander, the king of Conquerors, his master is a rather young magus, seems like a first generation one by the feel I got. I will position myself on the pier near the south-south west area, there is an antenna, which should give me the best vantage point from there." EMIYA said.
Down below on the beach Saber and Irisviel were enjoying their time by the beach, as Irisviel was enjoying the brand new sights of the world, she confessed that she had NEVER stepped out of the Einzberns domain, and thus was naive to the world. This was her first ever excursion and thus Saber did her best to escort her as they also probed around for enemy masters and servants. It wasn't until much later when their probing would get a hit.
Pier at night
They were by a shipdock where the first fight began. A man with two bundles jumped down, he had a toned but light body, and was wearing leather armor, dark hair and a beauty mark on his face.
Irisviel had to actively wash some sort of compulsion effect with her prana, thankfully due to her constitution she had more mana than normal mages, making this while a bit tedious, easy to do. Saber also felt SOMETHING brush at her, but her innate Magic Resistance made it negligible to her.
With but a thought her work clothes vanished to let her don her armor.
The being in front of her was a servant.
"Servant Lancer, let us fight honorably, may I know what servant I am addressing to?"
"Servant Saber, you… is that a compulsion I feel?"
"I am sorry, blame my birth or blame the fact you were born a woman, what I have is a curse that I cannot control" Lancer said.
"Please, don't underestimate the Magic Resistance of the Saber Class" Saber said, feeling a mite offended.
"That is good news, I would feel my honor tarnished if I killed a defenseless woman" Lancer said.
"Then, shall I show you the folly of such thoughts against me?" Saber replied as she shot off.
Blade against red spear the second battle of the Grail War had begun.
Servant of the spear Lancer vs Servant of the sword Saber.
With an unspoken starting signal, both jumped at each other starting the second battle of the Holy Grail War!
Not far away, Assassin laid there hidden away looking at the enemies to obtain any information.
Only for a projectile to imbed itself on its head, killing this Assassin.
"Kiritsugi, I just took down an Assassin," EMIYA said.
"Did one of the other competitors hire a mercenary?" He asked via their Bluetooth earphones.
"Negative, I meant Assassin, as a name, the servant of murder, it seems they played a con game here, making us think Assassin had died.
"But we saw the Assassin get killed by that servant" Maiya added her two cents.
"Indeed, and that's just it, what if Assassin's personal skill or Noble Phantasm is the ability to create body doubles? It would make for a great deception, make them think Assassin died, while secretly still alive and I'm the shadows, ready to kill any master" EMIYA said.
"That is something I would do, yes, it makes sense, if this Assassin does have any such thing, until proven otherwise we shall operate under the assumption that they do" Kiritsugu said.
Another Assassin was promptly dispatched, unable to see his assailant, and thus leaving the main body with no information, as the attack was from a range too far for Assassin's double to locate and too fast to react to.
Chapter end.