Preemptive Strike

As the bright red light of the summoning circles illuminates the night, it enshroudes six standing figures that were previously not there. As the light diminishes and the figures can now be seen clearly, one steps forward and speaks.

"Saber Jason,-" speaks a man with blond hair and green eyes. "-captain of the Argonauts has arrived according to your summoning."

The man wears one of the most flamboyant and revealing outfits that Darnic has ever seen in his long life. He has the appearance of a young man with blond hair, he stands at five feet nine inches tall and has green eyes. He wears a black chest piece that leaves his chiseled abdomen open to see and also covers his crotch, golden pauldrons on his shoulders, a golden necklace along with golden earrings. On his arms he has one golden band wrapped around each bicep, golden vambraces that cover his forearm with black fingerless gloves under that also cover his entire forearm. On his legs he wears a green cloth around his waist that covers the back of his thighs and is being held up by a black and gold belt. Under he wears white pants that do not even cover his inner thigh and crotch, and are tucked into golden knee high boots that are reminiscent of pirate boots. All in all, Darnic would not find it hard to believe if someone had told him that Jason is a flamboyant male escort. Honestly, what self respecting person dresses in such a way, and why would Gordes choose to summon him of all people?

"Gordes,-" speaks Darnic. "-your choice in servants is quite questionable."

Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia, is the head of the Yggdmillennia family and leader of the Black Faction. He stands at five feet nine inches, possesses blue hair tied into a ponytail, grey eyes, and a handsome face. He wears a white button up jacket with gold accents reminiscent of a military uniform, black trousers and shoes, and a white cape with gold accents draped over his shoulders.

Although he is 97 years old, he looks like a man in his late twenties, not showing a single wrinkle. It seems as if time has stopped for him since stealing the Grail. It is common knowledge among the Clock Tower however, that he fused his soul with an infant's to acquire longevity.

The man that he addresses is Gordes Musik Yggdmillennia. Gordes is a member of the Musik family, a family that once boasted a skill with alchemy which rivaled the Einzberns. Their thaumaturgical blood had eventually decayed enough that they were forced to fold themselves into the ranks of Yggdmillennia. Although they were forced into such a shameful situation, Gordes' mother and father told him of their legacy as alchemists from his youth. Unfortunately, this caused Gordes to be extremely proud of his family and make him unable to separate dream from reality.

Gordes is a five feet five inches tall heavyweight man with blond hair and mustache reminiscent of Hitler's. He wears the same clothes as Darnic, With his shoes and pants being white as the only difference.

"I-I-I-It wasn't supposed to be him." stutters Gordes as he turns towards Darnic to explain himself. "T-t-the relic wasn't greek. It was Germanic. I was supposed to summon Siegfried, n-n-not this excuse of a hero."

"Oi! Are you looking down on me, the great commander of the Argonauts?!" exclaims Jason with a frown.

"YOU, SHUT UP!" screams Gordes as he points towards Jason. "I didn't give you permission to speak."

"EH?!" replies Jason in shock. "You think you can order me around?"

"Of course I can." replies Gordes confidently as he regains his posture. "I'm the master and you're the servant. Remember, servants are only tools to be used by their masters."

Gordes' words draw a few frowns from some of the servants. One however, unseen by all, simply looks on in amusement with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't kid yourself." answers Jason with a mocking tone. "Master and servant? I'm of a lower rank than you? What a funny joke. Truly you fulfill your duties as a jester beyond everyone's expectations."

Jason's answer easily angers Gordes, tempting him to use a command seal. Before he can however, a boisterous laugh rings out in the chamber as one servant lets go of his previously controlled laughter.

"Oh man, that was a good one." says the man with green hair as he attempts to control his laughter to speak. "My father always told me that you could be funny."

"Do I know you?" asks a puzzled Jason.

"Ah, sorry about that. I forgot to introduce myself." answers the man as he stops laughing. "I am Achilles, son of Peleus, and my class is Rider. My master is that lad over there."

Simply from the man's appearance, one can see that he is a great hero, one who would be admired by any man or woman, young or old. While his face is pleasing to the eyes, he has the eyes of a raptor, a strong and firm build, and the lack of any appearance of crudeness. Rider has spiky green hair that stands up except for a single bang that hangs over the left side of his face, wears a chest piece of silver armor that features a bird, and orange cloth is wrapped loosely around his body. On the lower half of his body he wears black trousers, and knee length armored boots.

The person that he points to is Caules, the eldest son of the Forvedge family. He was born as a spare successor for the family and as a caretaker to his older sister, Fiore. Although Caules is eighteen, he has a childish, freckled face that does not match his age, brown hair, and stands at five feet six inches tall. He wears the standard Yggdmillennia uniform consisting of a white jacket with gold accents and black pants. He also wears black glasses.

"Uh. So you're Peleus' son. I hope that you can use that spear as well as your father can." answers Jason as he points towards the spear that rests on Achilles' shoulder.

Achilles merely gives him a wolfish grin in response.

"Are you ignoring me?!" calls out Gordes.

"Enough." orders Darnic in exasperation. "Now the rest of you introduce yourselves."

The first servant to speak up is a man with pale skin, long messy white hair that is nearly translucent, and teal eyes that gives piercing glares. He wears body armor and earrings that are a brilliant gold. The rest of his outfit is form fitting black material. His outfit also includes a spiked choker, red gem on his chest inlaid in a golden circle, shoulder armor with long spikes, a revealing of his chest which has a red gem and gold stones that are inlaid, and a flaming cape.

He walks up to a 19 years old girl that has brunette wavy hair, clear blue eyes and a gentle smile, with a body that appears fragile. She is Fiore, is a young woman who was born into the Forvedge family, another magus family that merged with the Yggdmillennia, and the older sister of Caules. .Due to a magic circuit malfunction during her birth, she became crippled and wheelchair-bound.

"Servant, Lancer. True name, Karna." introduces the man with a bow of his head. "Nice to meet you, master."

"Nice to meet you Karna." answers Fiore with her soft and clear voice.

Before the introductions can continue however, a homunculus walks into the chamber with a package in her hand. Darnic makes to reprimand the homunculus, but immediately notices something wrong with her. Unlike the clear red eyes that homunculi possess, the girl's eyes are clouded and hold a tint of purple in them.

"A package for you sir." speaks the homunculus as she reaches Darnic and hands him the package.

Darnic glances down at the package and inspects it. Using his magecraft he scans it for any possible involvement of magecraft, only to find nothing. Ripping the brown paper off the small rectangular package, Darnic finds a simple metallic box under. Before he can attempt to open it however, runes appear on the box and a projection of Ambrosius Malphas forms over the box.

"Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia. Head of the Yggdmillennia family, and perhaps the most unintelligent patriarch to come from such a dimwitted bloodline." speaks the voice of the current head of Malphas family, the most powerful family in the world.

"Did you honestly believe that you would manage to accomplish your foolish goal without consequence? Do not bother to answer for this is a pre-recorded message, and no amount of babbling will relay your answer to me. The purpose of this message is twofold. The first, is to warn you. To warn you of your upcoming doom at my hands for none have ever survived the wrath of a Malphas, ask Crimson Moon."

As the message continues to play the eyebrows on a certain golden Archer's face furrows before his eyes widen and he immediately astralises. While none of the masters noticed the Archer's actions, the servants did and quickly raced towards their respective masters.

"The second purpose i--" speaks Ambrosius before his voice is drowned out by a woman's.

"YOU FOOL! MO-" screams a female voice, only to be interrupted as the box in Darnic's hands glows red and explodes from an overload of magical energy.

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Kiritsugu Emiya, that is his name. He is an enforcer, not for the Clock Tower. Rather he works for the Malphas family to hunt down rogue magus and anything from the supernatural world that threatens mankind. He can't exactly say that he expected his life to end up this way, sneaking into a hotel to commit an assassination, nor can he say that he is disappointed since he never had a goal in life to begin with.

It all started when he and his father settled on Alimango Island. There he met his first friend and crush, Shirley, and life was enjoyable. Looking back at things now, he can't believe that he was ever that naive. His father had told him that the experiment would save the world by making sure that humans never got sick or aged, it worked on plants therefore it should eventually work on humans.So imagine his surprise when he stumbled upon Shirley on the cusp of turning into a vampire.

She had begged to be killed, but he couldn't bring himself to commit the act. Now if she did ask, he would do it with a heavy heart, if to at least save her from her suffering. It was on that day that he met Natalia Kaminski, a freelance and part-time enforcer who came with the Executors from the church and Enforcers of the Clock Tower.

Returning to the hidden Emiya residence, Kiritsugu confronted his father on his research and Shirley's death. His father explained that he wanted to become a Dead Apostle to continue with his research on Magecraft longer. As his father began to plan their escape, Kiritsugu stabbed him with the dagger he received from Shirley and then shot his father to death with a pistol that Kiritsugu found in Norikata's drawer. It was this scene that Natalia stumbled upon that allowed her to figure that the only person who could prevent Noritaka from escaping and ensuring his death was his own son. In the end she wound up taking Kiritsugu with her.

After that event, Kiritsugu had been on a downward spiral to save the world. He had realized that the tragedies he saw in his childhood were common occurrences in the world, the teenage Kiritsugu became a freelancer like Natalia to hunt down heretical magi around the world. Natalia trained him not only in Magecraft, but in tracking, assassination, and all types of weaponry. At first, he only got in Natalia's way, but he eventually became her partner and equal.

Then the mission came, the one where he met Ambrosius Malphas, head of the Malphas family, and the most dangerous man Kiritsugu has ever met in his life.

He and Natalia were hunting down the last Zepter head Heinrich Zepter, who was a magus who mastered the revival of dead flesh. After tracking Zepter to an American village called "Present Mountain", Kiritsugu and Natalia discovered all two thousand members of the community were extensions of Zepter's body. However, they were not the first ones to arrive. There in the middle of all two thousand undead was Ambrosius Malphas. At first he and Natalia assumed that he was in danger, however as they got closer they noticed the man wielding a red barbed spear in his hands as he slaughtered his way through the horde. They could only watch as the man single handedly wiped out two thousand Dead Apostles with minimal effort.

After he had finished wiping out the horde, the man had proceeded to simply study him and Natalia for a few seconds before speaking. "To save the world, such a foolish endeavor to embark upon." Kiritsugu still doesn't know how he was able to tell that his goal was to save the world and end all suffering. At the time he had been angry that this stranger would spit on his dream like that and immediately asked what made the dream foolish. The answer is something that he will remember to his dying breath.

Ambrosius had simply stared into his eyes before speaking. "Suffering is caused by conflict. Conflict is caused due to people disagreeing with one another. Human beings disagree with one another for we possess free will. To end suffering is to end free will. One could argue that not all suffering comes from free will, and I will agree for that is in fact correct. Many suffer simply due to natural causes, such as illnesses. Or I could disagree, for it is my prerogative as a human being possessing free will to do so. Me disagreeing with that statement causes conflict between the speaker and I. That conflict could cause countless to suffer. After all, wars have been started for less, and war is the biggest contributor to the people's suffering."

It was that speech that made him realise that while he was wrong, he was also right. He was wrong because to end suffering is impossible without stripping humanity of its free will in some way, shape, or form. He was correct because there is nothing wrong with saving those that he can. After many sleepless nights thinking, it was with a heavy heart that Kiritsugu gave up his dream of saving the world, instead focusing on those that he can. It also made him realise that he was ill equipped for completing those types of assignments without resorting to collateral damage. In hindsight, had he continued on his path he would have eventually adopted a mindset of completing the mission no matter what, with the excuse that the lives of the many outweigh the lives of the few to stop his guilt from overwhelming him.

After that mission he had sought out Ambrosius in the hopes of receiving training to better equip him for those missions. The training had been extremely difficult, yet worth it, with the only requirement being that he works exclusively for the Malphas family.

It was that training that allowed him to save Natalia from an infested plane instead of resorting to shooting it down. Ever since then he has been hunting down anything that is a threat to humanity, from Dead Apostles to rogue magus.

Arriving in front of his target's, Kiritsugu erects a bounded field to keep noises from leaving, and to persuade anyone not of the supernatural world to stay away. Then he places his gloved palm on the door and activates the analytical runes inscribed on the palms of his gloves. Immediately the runes do their job and scans the room before sending the information to him. From what he can tell his target is in the process of summoning his servant and is about to use a civilian as a sacrifice.

Without wasting a second Kiritsugu breaks down the door and rushes into the room. Before his target can even turn, he grabs him by the back of his neck and snaps it. Unfortunately he was a second too late and the summoning circle glows brightly as it activates.

Once the light dies down Kiritsugu is faced with a strange sight. It is a white-haired girl with green-yellow eyes, with stitched-up scars on her face. Her upper body is that of an adolescent, while her lower body is more mature like that of an adult, creating an odd juxtaposition to her appearance. She dons a black vest, black panties and black stockings with pink shoes. Both her arms are bandaged but only her left hand wears a glove. She has a purple oval-shaped 'O' on each of her shoulders. At the small of her back she carries a number of sheathes that holds her knives.

"Did you just try to hurt mommy?" asks the child as she makes ready to launch herself at him.

Without wasting another second, the child races towards him with her knives at the ready. It's only years of training with a madman, experience, and enchanted clothes that save Kiritsugu. Activating the body enhancing runes on his suit and trench coat, Kiritsugu dodges the child's first few slashes before grabbing her outstretched arm while she is in midair and throwing her away from him.

"Wait!" exclaims the civilian before the child can attack him again. "He saved me."

"You saved mommy?" asks the child as she tilts her head.. "Does that make you my daddy?"

Kiritsugu can only blink owlishly as he wonders how best to answer her question, especially considering the fact that she can gut him if she is displeased by his answer.

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In the ritual room of her manor, one Rin Tohsaka can barely contain her excitement as she reads the letter she received earlier that day. It had arrived earlier in the day while she was in school. The letter is written by Ambrosius Malphas III himself to her. It took all her self control not to squeal like the fangirl she is for receiving a letter from him of all people. He is what she aspires to be as a magus. Smart, powerful, knowledgeable, and respected by all. His ancestor also helped Zelretch himself tutor her ancestor, Nagato Tohsaka.

Her first encounter with his name was when she was a ten year old child reading her father's copy of the Clock Tower's monthly newsletter. A magazine of sorts that goes out to all registered magus detailing everything that happened in the past month from magecraft research discoveries to who is married to whom. There on the front page was a picture of him and a paragraph detailing a successful Dead Apostle hunt along with his possible discovery of a cure for some forms of vampirism. She had been intrigued about him, and ever since then has read every article on him.

Now he is inviting her to join his team for the Great Holy Grail War, and he even provided a relic to summon her servant. When her command seals had arrived, she hadn't been sure whether or not she would participate. Especially since she had no idea where it would be held. Now she not only knows where it is being held, but she also has a relic for her summoning.

Calming herself down, Rin makes her way to the summoning circle and begins to chant the incantation.

Let silver and steel be the essence.

Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.

Let red be the color I pay tribute to.

Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall.

Let the four cardinal gates close.

Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate.

Let it be declared now; your flesh shall serve under me, and my fate shall be with your sword.

Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail.

Answer, if you would submit to this will and this truth.

An oath shall be sworn here.

I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven;

I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell.

From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power,

come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the holy balance!

As the light of her summoning circle dies down, her servant steps forward and introduces himself.

"Servant, Archer. My name is Arjuna. Master, please utilize me to my fullest."