Chapter Six

Ten years ago in a galaxy far far away:

I will say that being a padawan learner at the age of seven is extremely rare, especially for a human, but we were in a war back then and needed more Jedi on the field of battle, so a lot of traditional rules were overlooked. The council thought I have learned as much as I could from my youngling clan and allowed me to take the next step in my training. My master was a Jedi Knight named Rissa, who had her eyes on me to become her padawan for many years already. She was the closest thing I would consider to be a mother and she had the personality like one as well. She was a Nautolan, an aquatic squid-like alien race with big black eyes and tendrils for hair and a nice blue-green skin color. Master Rissa was the general of the 873rd Walker Battalion, they had a reddish-brown color scheme, and were led by Commander Casey. The clones all treated me as their younger brother and with Master Rissa's personality, it made us feel almost like a family. However, that all would change one dreadful day on our Venator class Star Destroyer..

I was running down the hall when I heard a voice call out, "Hey what's the rush little brother?"

I stopped and turned to the voice, "Oh hi Commander Casey! I'm terribly late for training and you know how Master Rissa is like when people keep her waiting."

The clone commander shook his head, "Oh boy do you have some trouble coming your way. What's your excuse this time?"

"I… ah…" I wondered.

He sighed, "Alright I'll walk you down and take the fall this time, but you owe me."

"You will?! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I'll make sure to pay you back somehow." I promised.

He grabbed me by the shoulder and walked me down to the training room, "I'll look forward to it. Although this is the tenth favor you owe me now."

I shook my head, "Nah ah! It's the Ninth time. That thing in the trash compactor doesn't count. You only made it worse!"

Casey laughed, "Okay then ninth time."

We arrived at the training room with the ever-so-disappointed look of Master Rissa.

"And what kept you gone so long this time Mason Shan?" She asked with her arms crossed.

"Oh no, she used your full name. I think I might take back what I said," Casey whispered to me with a sly look on his face.

I didn't realize he was teasing me, "What? But you said-"

He just smiled and put a hand over my mouth, "Sorry about that General Rissa. I had Mason here busy with marksman training that I didn't realize you already had planned for him to be training something else."

Master Rissa just sighed and shook her head, "Honestly while I'm glad Mason is expanding his skills, he is first and foremost a Jedi Padawan. So any Jedi training will trump any other training." She lifted her head and gave us a stern look, "Do I make myself clear boys?" Everyone in the room and passing in the halls instinctively nodded. She then adopts a smile, "Good! Now step forward my very young apprentice." I did and she tossed me her lightsaber and turned on a couple of sparring droids. "You should already know the exercise by now so show me how far you've come so I can know what to improve you on."

I flicked the ignition on the saber creating a green blade. The droids grabbed their electro staffs and made their attack. I quickly shifted into the Soresu stance and started blocking their attacks. At first it seemed like I had it handled, but they eventually wore me down until they disarmed me. Master Rissa stopped the fight there and pulled the lightsaber to her.

"You lasted longer than I expected, but there were tons of areas of weakness on your side. There were a lot of times where the droid's had openings but you failed to either take advantage or you tried but the attempt was so bad that you'd be better off not even attempting it." She sighed. "I don't know why but going on the offense seems to be your biggest weakness."

"But Master Kenobi uses Soresu and he is always on the forefront of the war with Knight Skywalker." I told her.

"There's a difference between the Jedi you idolize and you. While Master Windu has named Master Kenobi THE Master of Soresu, he doesn't solely rely on it. Remember that he trained in Ataru while he was still a padawan and uses it once his enemies make a mistake. A shield is nothing if you don't have a sword to fight back with. It's one of the reasons he and Skywalker are almost always paired together during the most dangerous parts of this war. Skywalker is an aggressive powerhouse and coupled with Master Kenobi's Soresu, there is little they can't overcome." My master lectured to me.

"Well if he is needing to work on his offense then marksman training seems to be a good way to make up for it," Master Rissa gave Casey a look making him back track, "Well that is until he improves his skills with a lightsaber. Why not give him a chance to show you what he can do with it?"

She looked back down to me, "Alright. Let's see it then." She handed me back her lightsaber along with Casey giving me his blaster pistol.

I took one with each hand, lightsaber on my right with the blaster on my left. The droids came back online and I started again. While a bit awkward at first, I eventually managed to block their attacks with the saber and shoot at their vulnerability. After the spar, Master Rissa was looking shocked while Casey had nothing but pride on his face.

"That's my little brother!" He said when he slapped my back with a couple of other clones nodding in agreement.

"I'll admit I wasn't expecting much, but you did better than I thought," My master said. "But those were droids programmed to train young Jedi to fight with a lightsaber; they have no program for anything to do with a blaster. That is a tacit that would be seen as dishonorable and wouldn't work on the more experienced fighters."

I looked down, "So I shouldn't use the two even if it works?"

"That's not what I am saying. It's obvious you just started trying to fight like that and anyone with a little knowhow to fight could exploit the various openings you leave yourself trying to step up those 'easy kill shot' you did. You focus too much on that setup instead of actually fighting. With Soresu, those setups will come naturally and you could have been using your blaster to keep your enemy distracted making it easier for you to get a hit in with your own lightsaber. What I'm saying is be mindful and not let your vision be so clouded." She then patted my cheek and took her saber back. "Training to fight with both a lightsaber and a blaster at the same time. It's not what I expected when I took you on."

"I always wondered, why did you want me as your apprentice?" I asked.

"Well I saw a potential in you to become one of the best of us, if not better. You carry the legacy of many great Jedi Masters such as Bastila Shan and Setele Shan, the latter who was the Jedi Grandmaster."

"I know that, but my ancestry is what kept the other Jedi from not wanting to train me." I told her.

She arches her brow, "Oh? And why might that be?"

"Like you don't know. You can't talk about the legacy I carry without mentioning the other half of it. Bastila married Raven and Setele's son, Theron, fell in love with a Sith."

Master Rissa scoffed, "Such trivial reasons. That only proves that the Force is strong in your blood. Having a couple of Sith in there does not make you a Sith. Raven of which found a way to stay within the light side while using the dark side because of Bastila. Finding a balance in the Force if you find yourself in the dark is the legacy I am mentioning." She then decided to change the conversation. "You know for once I'd like to personally test you on your swordsmanship instead of sharing a saber for your training. And since you became my apprentice before you could take part in the Gathering, how about after we get done with our mission to investigate the black hole we take a trip to Ilum to finally get you a kyber crystal?"

I beamed with happiness over finally having my own lightsaber. I always dreamed of having one growing up in the temple and I immediately started wondering what color I would have. But like all good things, it must come to an end. Sadly the end of my Jedi life started with three simple words I will never forget.

"Execute Order Sixty-six," A blue hooded man said on Casey's holocom.

"It will be done my Lord," The clone commander said. He turned to us with sadness in his eyes as he along with the other clones lifted their blaster rifles at my master and I.

Master Rissa stood right in front of me shielding me from the clones, "What are you doing Casey?"

With a tear in his eye and a shaky arm he spoke to us one last time as the older brother I knew, "I'm sorry General. I can't stop myself. Please take Mason and run. Run. Run!"

Blaster fire started raining down at us as Rissa blocked the bolts away. I stood there shocked, unable to move. Why, why were the people I come to love trying to hurt us? What did that hooded man do to turn the clones against us? Why- My master took me out of my thoughts as she grabbed me and started running out of the room. I saw bodies of clones on the floor along with Casey's with a face of satisfaction as if he was happy to see us leave even though he tried to kill us before succumbing to his wounds.

The entire ship was put on high alert as we ran through the halls. We managed to make it to our rooms on the ship without much trouble. She sat me down and started rummaging through her shelves and placing items into a bag. She then handed me the bag and knelt to my level.

"We have to get out of here. I don't know what is happening but the Force feels entirely unstable right now. I don't believe this betrayal is only happening here. We need to get in touch with the council and make our next move there." The Nautolan Jedi said.

"Okay, what's in the bag?" I asked.

"It's a few holocrons I keep with me. Most is just training holocrons, but one is a secret coded message for us Jedi in case of times like these when normal means of communications cannot be used. We'll take a look at it once we are out of here. All you have to do is channel the Force into a holocron to reveal the information inside. We can talk more later." She then grabs my hand and leads me back in the hallways.

Whenever we came across any clones, Master Rissa made sure to deal with them and kept me hidden. The clones then started blocking our path to the landing bay and we eventually started to get cornered. She had me crawl into the air vents to escape while she drew the clones' attention. It was fairly cramped in there, but I was small enough to make my way through. I eventually found a way out and climbed out when I felt a rumble throughout the ship. Unsure what it was, I picked up my pace to the escape pods. However I ran into my master in a firefight on my way.

"Mason?!" She shouted after noticing me. Her distracted attention caused her to receive a few bolts to hit her in the arm. "Keep going to the escape pods!"

"But Master!" I cried out.

She looked like she wanted to say something, but a thermal detonator landed in front of us. She quickly Force pushed me away as I saw the detonator go off. When everything settled and my vision came back, I could only see the top half of her sticking out of a pile of debris. I quickly ran to her and tried to pull her out. She just coughed in pain and looked at me.

"Listen to me," She said. "I sabotage the engine room and this ship will blow up. You have to make it out of here and leave me here. As long as you are alive, that's all that matters to me."

"I'm not about to leave you here. I've got to save you!" I started trying to remove some of the debris without much success.

She grabbed me and pulled me close, "It is too late to help me. You cannot save me. Go now!" I just stood there for a moment until she pushed me away again. "I said go!" I flew backwards and a piece of metal sticking out of the wall sliced the right side of my face. I went into shock at the fact that my master told me I couldn't save her and ended up taking my right eye. I ran with tears in my remaining eye and blood from the other away from the person I once considered my mother. "May the Force keep you safe Mason Shan, son I could only hope for..." I thought I heard her voice, but an explosion drowned her out.

Sadly misery loves company because I ended up running into a squad of clone troopers. They began firing at me without hesitation and I quickly used all my strength to rush as far as I could. I could hear them behind me as I dodged as many blaster blots as I could. I managed to seal them behind a blast door. It gave me enough time to get into an escape pod and shoot off into space. I saw the entire ship blow into pieces and blow me off course from any close by planet. Instead it shot me into a black hole along with some wreckage.

Present Day

"The next memory I had was waking up in a hospital room with Shirou with the bag on a chair next to me. I ended up in a whole different galaxy and on a planet I've never heard of. I do not know what happened to the escape pod or anything else that came with me in the black hole." Mason explains and then pulls out a cube from his pocket. "But I did what my master told me and looked at the message stored in the holocron."

The cubed holocron begins shifting around in his hands and pieces start hovering with a blue circle in the center. A man in blue appears from it and begins talking, "This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi. Trust in the Force. Do not return to the Temple. That time has passed, and our future is uncertain. We will each be challenged. Our trust... our faith... our friendships. But we must persevere, and in time, a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you always." The man disappears and the holocron goes back into its cubed shape. Mason puts it back away.

"After that, Kiritsugu offered to adopt the two of us. I decided that being a Jedi is a path I can no longer take. So I cast aside my Jedi name and became Mason Emiya." He finishes with an exhale. The explanation lasted so long that it is now night out. Mason sheepishly looks at Sakura, nervous about her reaction.

Sakura is very overwhelmed by the information she just heard. Spaceships, lightsabers, blasters, the Force, aliens, black holes? This all sounds like something out of a fantasy and very hard to believe, and she's in a world of magus who can summon heroes from the past to fight for a magical cup that can grant wishes!

Okay deep breath Sakura. She does and feels a bit calmer. How can someone go through all of that and still be sane? Hell I have been violated by crest worms and raped by my 'family' over that last ten years to the point where I lost my sense of self until I met Senpai. I should totally kill them all for that by the way. What? No, I am not focusing on that right now. I didn't hear myself say no… Hush! This is about Mason right now. Indeed, I should really snatch him up before- SHUT UP! … Good. Well I don't know anything about that Jedi stuff, but he does seem to have a bit of a dark history and seems to be doing pretty well for himself. I have one as well, but my life isn't as good as he is doing. Senpai is great, but somehow it's easier to connect with Mason. We both were betrayed by the people we once called a family and lost a part of ourselves for it. I don't fully understand this feeling yet, but I do! Shush! I will not entertain myself at the moment. Oh, but I will later? Anyways! Mason has somehow managed to get himself close enough to me to care about him, and I accept him as he is.

"Well…" Sakura begins. "It's all a big shock to me, that doesn't change who you are now. You are still Senpai's brother and my friend. Although I wanted to know why you told me all of a sudden."

Mason's expression goes from happy to serious. Caster you can come back now. The rest will be easier to explain with you here. The Greek witch materializes next to him causing Sakura to be in shock. "Well that leads up to last night. After I got you out, the fight got out of hand. A Sith, a rival of the Jedi, appeared and incapacitated Caster. Souichirou-sensei died and I got her out of there while the cult was busy with some monstrous Shadow, so I ended up becoming her new Master."

"You mean you entered the Holy Grail War? What about Shirou safety?" She asks.

"Well I told everything to Shirou and he agreed with me about entering the War. We cannot allow people like the cult to get the Grail-" Mason does a double take. "Wait, you know about the Holy Grail War?!" This gets Caster's interest as well. Although Sakura was present last night, she assumed she was just a simple girl with a magus boyfriend.

Sakura covers her mouth. Damn a slip of the tongue. How could I be so stupid? Well they don't know I summoned Rider or know my brother is currently her Master. I could just tell them about the Matou family's involvement in it. "Well if you didn't know, the Matou, Tohsaka, and Einzbern families were the ones who started the Holy Grail War. They are called the Founding Families, but the Matou's magical bloodline died off a while ago. I know about it because of our grandfather telling us."

Caster and Mason share a look and Caster spoke for them, "Well if she is a master then she would have probably called her servant after meeting me last night to protect herself. That or she is incredibly dumb for standing infront of an enemy servant. So I'd say she's probably telling the truth about her reasoning for knowing."

Mason nods in agreement, "Yeah sounds reasonable." He turns back to Sakura, "Well that simplifies things then. Shirou and I wish for you to keep away for a bit until the War is over for your own safety."

Sakura goes wide-eyed at the statement, "What?!"

"I know it sounds harsh, but I'd rather not see yourself get hur-" Mason pauses and his face goes flush.

Caster immediately goes alert and concerned. "Master, what is it?"

He snaps out of it and gets worried. "It's Shirou. I saw a vision of him getting impaled by a spear just now."

"A spear? That's an odd weapon to attack someone with this day in age…" Caster connects the dots. "Wait, did the attacker have a red spear and blue armor?"

"Yes, how did you guess?"

"It's got to be Lancer then. I saw him by the temple a few days ago and he had the presence of a servant." She answered.

"Then we have to go now! Shirou might have Avalon, but it would keep him from dying without the servant to go with it. Come on Caster, we have to hurry!" He starts running and turns back to Sakura, "Sakura, please get home to safety. I don't want you getting hurt on my account!" He takes off back to his house with Caster.

Sakura just stands there for a moment and her mind begins to wonder. So that's how it is. I know I'm weak, but keeping me away for my own safety isn't going to work. I'm already involved in this War whether he wants me to be or not. Well if I want, I can provide myself with a way to get stronger. What? I can? Yes, after all that old man did implant me with fragments of the last Grail. I have power and with it, I can turn the table and protect him instead. But that's dangerous. Would that really be a good idea? Of course, although feeding will be necessary. Feeding? Yes, just like the dream I had last night. Those sweet candy I had was delicious. All I have to do is sleep and let myself dream to feed more. Well…

Shirou stumbles over a rock, but stops himself from falling. He keeps up his run from the school back home. What the hell is happening?! First he gets called to fix something, then once he is done, he goes out to the baseball field after hearing a commotion and finds a battle between two servants! That wasn't the worst part though. The worst was getting implied by one of them! He was sure he was dead, but somehow he was fine. The only weird part is finding a heart shaped jewel next to him after waking up. Well he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he trucked it out of there and headed home. Sure Shirou has gotten better at fighting over the years, but this is a servant. The only option here is to go home and hope Mason is there with Caster.

He turns the street that leads to his house. DAMN! The house's lights are off. The best he can do is barricade himself inside and try to hold off his attacker until Mason makes it back home. Shirou runs inside and locks the door. He takes a tube and uses his strengthening magic on it. It's not much, but there's not much else to use. The sword he got last night is still broken and he hates guns too much to bother using them. He feels the shift of the barrier around the house to notice the servant is nearby. After a few bangs, the door flies open to a man in blue armor.

"You know when I kill someone, I expect them to be dead. How you survived I'm not sure, but I hope you don't take it personally if I come back to finish the job." The servant says with an Irish accent.

He points his red spear at Shirou as the redhead holds up the tube. A gab goes towards him as he blocks it. It happens again and again and Shirou blocks it as much as he can. The strengthened tube starts to bend with each hit. Damnit Mason, where are you? The servant swings his spear and sends Shirou flying in the backyard. The tube managed to block the hit, but broke on impact and flew out of his hand. He is now defenseless and the servant takes notice of it.

"Not bad kid. I admit I was holding back, but you still managed to defend yourself fairly well. I'll do you a favor for it by granting you a quick death." He readies his spear.

Shirou, desperate for a weapon, visualizes the cortosis blade with all the pieces put together. He traced it before and knows the makeup of the blade fairly well despite only having it for a day. His magical circuits come to life and the blade appears in his hands.

"Oh I already figured you for a magus with what you did to that tube, but I'm afraid projections will not save you here. They have no physical form and can't stop my spear!" The servant swings his weapon, but is surprised that the projection sword stopped it.

"Well perhaps you shouldn't underestimate someone you don't know." Shirou barks back.

Shirou pushes the spear away and takes a swing at him. The servant easily blocks the attack and goes back on the offensive. Shirou does what he can to block, but he notices the projection blade is getting chipped away with each hit. They keep at it until the sword is barely a skeleton of its former self.

"You surprise me kid," The blue haired lancer tells him. "But you must know you are out of your league here. I was hoping that a magus like you would lead me to a servant, but it seems like I was wrong."

"Well perhaps I can give you the fight you wish for!" A woman's voice shouts as fireballs shoot towards the man.

He evades the incoming attack only to find an orange blade in his path. Lancer parries the blade away and jumps back. He sees a silver haired boy with an eye patch alongside a hooded woman with blue-purple hair with a staff. He smirks, "So Caster, I see you found yourself a new master again. Was the last one too old for you?"

Caster clicks her tongue, "You will not speak about my beloved like that."

Mason looks over to Shirou, "Sorry we're late. There was a roadblock and we had to take the long way around."

Shirou waves him off, "Not at all. Just glad you're here."

"That I am." Mason confirms. "We should be able to take him with all of us here. You have some arrows in the shed right? Well I can probably keep him busy with Soresu while Caster supports with magic and you with your arrows. Sounds good?" The two with him nod and get to work.

Mason rushes Lancer to get his attention, which Lancer gladly gives. The former Jedi immediately goes on the defensive as the servant unleashes waves of attacks. What surprises Mason is that this lightsaber is not cutting through the spear. He knows that there shouldn't be metal here resistant to a lightsaber. Well now is not the time to dwell on it. He feels so much lighter and freer fighting with a lightsaber than the swords he has been using. Must be because of how connected a saber is to the Force.

Lancer just laughs, "I thought the other kid had skills, but the fight you're putting up with that weird weapon of yours is on a different level! Your defense is almost impossible to get through. But even with your skills, you are not close enough to take on a servant alone. Your stamina will give out long before mine will."

"Did you think I'd show up with a servant and not use her?" Mason questions.

Mason jumps back as the spells from Caster bombard the spot he was just fighting. Lancer quickly moves to evade it and makes it out. He lands next to Shirou and flings the redhead out of his way. Shirou uses his magica to strengthen himself before he hits the floor. He lands on the floor of the shed with minimal injury, but is shocked at what is going on around him. Shirou sees what appears to be a summoning circle sound him lighting up from his magic. He backs away for a moment waiting to see what happens. Suddenly, yellow sparks of magic appear in the air and circle around until it is blown to reveal a woman standing there. She has blonde hair in a bun, blue and silver armor, and appears to be gripping something invisible. She turns to look at the teenage boy next to her and asks eight simple words.

"I ask of you. Are you my master?"

Author's Note:

Well here I am again with another chapter that didn't take a month to get out to you guys. So first, something about continuity to address. The thing about Theron falling in love with a Sith is not confirmed I know that. But since SWTOR is still an updated game, I decided to take some creative liberties to do so. Regardless of what class you start out as, your character will end up as the Alliance commander. So I just decided to use a female Sith to fill that spot. Hope that clears any confusion about that. Speaking of the flashback, I had a lot of fun writing it. Perhaps I should just go ahead and write a pure Star Wars fanfic in the future. I'm also fairly happy about the rest of the chapter. About the lightsaber not cutting through Gae Bolg, I decided that servant's Noble Phantasm weapons have a natural resistance to it. Can't be nerfing them by servants getting their trump cards destroyed so easily. The Holy Grail War is now in full effect with the recent addition of everyone's favorite saber, Mordred! (Wait that's the wrong saber, Mo-san my favorite.) I mean Artoria! The saberface clones could almost give the clone troopers a run for their money... Anyways bad jokes aside, I have another review to address.

Keybladelight: Glad you're enjoying the story so far! I admit I took some inspiration from reading Neoalfa's Path to the King for Caster. (Btw great Shirou/Caster fanfic, if anyone is reading this comment then please give it read if you haven't yet.) Rider is currently with Shinji, so that's why she hasn't made an appearance yet. Though Archer's reaction to Mason will definitely be a total shock to him. As for Mason purifying a red kyber crystal, well he doesn't have one to purify. The lightsaber he stole from Skoor was the orange one. Also I made Mason have a Rebel Alliance symbol since he has stated to have turned away from the Jedi after his ordeal with Order 66. It'd be an ugly reminder of it and he still has nightmares about it as shown in chapter two. As for the rest of your review, I won't say much more to avoid possibly spoiling it.

Well thanks for reading and I'll talk at y'all next time!