68 Prelude to Battle

"Ahhh." sighs Mordred in happiness as we walk out of one of my many private jets. "We're finally out of that miserable death box. Why do you even have this thing? It's a safety hazard, especially since you can't even control it."

It has been three days since the summoning, and today we find ourselves in Wallachia for the war via a private jet.

"Truly I must agree with the child." replies Ozymandias as he places his hands in the pockets of his suit. "While the mount is certainly most impressive, should the machine malfunction then you shall surely plummet to your death."

"While an airplane certainly has its risks,-" I answer as I lead us from the runway towards customs in the airport. "-the amount of deaths per plane is undeniably less compared to cars, and I do not see any of you complaining about cars."

"Why would you even compare a car to a plane?" asks Mordred as she imitates Ozymandias and I by putting her hands in her suit pants pockets. "With a car you can go as fast as you, feel the wonderful wind on your face, and still have absolute control over it. With a plane you can't even feel the wind, and if you do then that means that you're about to crash."

"Well put little one." replies Ozymandias with a smile. "With a controlled mount one can enjoy the ride as the sun blesses them with its warmth and the wind gently blows on their face. With a plane, one cannot experience such luxuries."

Instead of answering with words I simply raise my eyebrow at him and Mordred. Considering their character, it very much still baffles me how they are able to get along so well. Mordred is a proud knight who has only given her full respect to Artoria, Morgan, Scathach and I during her life. Not even Lancelot, whom I very much respect due to his achievement of mushin, the state of mind that Ultra Instinct is based on, has fully earned her respect. While she respects his mastery over that state of mind, it is the first of two things that she respects about him, with his loyalty to Artoria coming in second.

As for Ozymandias, he is perhaps the only person tied with Gilgamesh himself when it comes to arrogance. He expects to be respected no matter what, and commands respect from anyone whom he comes in contact with. Which is why seeing him and Mordred getting along surprises me.

Looking towards Morgan behind me, I give an inquisitive nod towards the unlikely duo in the hopes that she will know how this came to be. In response Morgan simply shrugs and shakes her head to inform me that she does not know.

Once past customs, we make our way outside where we find Kiritsugu leaning on a limousine and smoking a cigarette while a woman stands a few feet away.

The woman appears to be 23 years old. She is an alluring woman who stands at five feet three inches with long greyish-green hair with looks that would drive many men mad with a single expression of melancholy. She wears a very form fitting green dress that ends just below her butt. It has no shoulder straps and easily accentuates her breasts. Over the dress she wears a long sleeve brown jacket, a necklace around her neck, and black high heels boots that reach up to her thighs. She is Reika Rikudou, an unfortunate prostitute who was brought into the supernatural world to be sacrificed by Assassin's master in an attempt to summon Jack the Ripper. His efforts in canon resulted in him being slaughtered by the very same servant he attempted to summon. In the end she became Jack's master.

Noticing our approach, Kiritsugu extinguishes his cigarette and stands up straight.

"Kiritsugu." I greet him with a nod. "It is good to see you in good health. Although it will not remain that way unless you cease to smoke those cancer sticks."

"It's good to see you too." he replies. "I see that your group's size increased."

"Allow me to introduce you to Ozymandias." I say as I gesture towards the pharaoh. "The young lady next to him is Mordred."

"Mordred?" asks Kiritsugu with a raised eyebrow. "One of the greatest knights and warriors in history?"

"Do you know anyone better?" counters Mordred confrontationally.

"Of course not." replies Kiritsugu with a placating wave of his hand before gesturing towards his companion. "This is Reika Rikudou, civilian, and master of Assassin of Black, Jack the Ripper."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." says the woman with a bow of her head.

"Likewise." I reply as I get into the limousine. "We can discuss everything in the car."

Once everyone is situated inside, Kiritsugu gently knocks on the window that separates us from the driver, and the car begins to move.

"How are Natalia and Maiya?" asks Scathach.

"They're doing well." he replies. "They love the island and are really enjoying retirement."

"And the children?" answers Scathach. "The last time you mentioned them, Shirou expressed interest in your line of work, and Sigma also seemed to have a growing intrigue towards it."

Kiritsugu's children, Shirou and Sigma, and both children that Kiritsugu ended up adopting. Similar to his canon counterpart, Emiya Shirou was found by Kiritsugu in Fuyuki city while there on an assignment. Unlike in Zero however, Kiritsugu was not there to participate in a Grail War. Rather he was there hunting down Ryuunosuke Uryuu, a mortal serial killer who would go on to summon caster for the Grail War in Fate/Zero in an attempt to summon demons. With no Grail War to draw his attention, Ryuunosuke went on to continue his spree of murders in Fuyuki. No one in the supernatural world paid him heed considering the fact that he did not even possess any active magic circuits to properly initiate the summon, and, as far as I know, the police does in fact capture him in the Fate/Apocrypha timeline.

Therefore, one can imagine my surprise when the Clock Tower received reports of suspicious activities in Fuyuki city. At the time Tokiomi and his family were out of the country for unknown reasons, thereby leaving the city unprotected. As a result Kiritsugu was sent in to investigate. What he found was a vampiric Ryuunosuke on the verge of losing complete control of himself due to the fool deciding to experiment with recipes found in his grimoire since the summoning refused to work. Shirou's family had been the lunatic's last victims with Kiritsugu and Natalia adopting the child as their own.

"Shirou is stubborn about joining, so Natalia has been training him in the basics before she decides to send him to the Fraga's for more advanced training." replies Kiritsugu. "As for Sigma, well the situation is pretty much the same."

Sigma is the child of Maiya Hisau. The result of an unknown soldier raping the woman. In canon he would be kidnapped soon after his birth and drafted into a special division of an unknown governernment that trained soldiers to wield magecraft. Knowing the amount of issues that they can possibly cause in the future by attempting to recreate a Holy Grail War, I made sure that they were shut down with Sigma being rescued as a result. Now he, Shirou, Maiya, and Natalia live on an uncharted island owned by the Malphas family.

"While I can see that your assignment was a success,-" I say, bringing everyone's attention to me. "-clearly there were complications. What happened?"

"I made it just as the target was attempting to kill Reika as a sacrifice for his summoning." answers Kiritsugu. "While I was able to terminate him, the summoning was still successful with Reika being Jack the Ripper's master."

"Is she not a civilian?" asks Ozymandias with a raised eyebrow. "I am intrigued to know how she is able to sustain her servant."

"Morgan, Azula, and Sakura arrived in time two days ago to set up the system of homunculi to feed magical energy to the servants." answers Kiritsugu.

"I see." replies Ozymandias as he turns to look at Reika. "Tell me woman, why have you chosen to participate in this War in which you are almost guaranteed to perish? Do you perhaps have a wish to see fulfilled?"

Hearing Ozymandias' question, the occupants of the car turn to the only civilian. Surprisingly Reika manages to keep calm even with countless eyes surveying her.

"Jack needs her mother." replies the woman with a calm and serene voice.

"You see yourself as her mother?" asks Ozymandias with a raised eyebrow.

"I am her mother." replies Reika.

Surprisingly Jack has not shown herself throughout this entire exchange, even when Ozymandias mentioned the possibility of Reika dying. The only explanation that I can reasonably think of is that Reaika is keeping her in check.

Before any more questions can be asked, the limousine arrives at our destination, a luxurious hotel owned by the Clock Tower, Olympia. It acts as a safehouse for magus in the county. Similar to the Continental Hotel in John Wick, the Clock Tower possesses a chain of safehouses for magus everywhere in the world. Similar to the Clock Tower, every Olympia has countless defenses against both the supernatural and the mundane.

Walking into the hotel, I showcase my identification card to the clerk, and he hands me the key to my personal floor, the twelfth floor.

"Has my guest arrived yet?" I ask the clerk.

"Yes sir. She arrived a day earlier." answers the man.

With a nod I turn and walk towards the elevator. We make our way there in silence as Mordred looks at the building in awe while Ozymandias simply gives it an appreciative nod. Once on the twelfth floor we file out of the elevator and lead the group into the living room space where I find my guest, Rin Tohsaka, sitting on a couch reading a tome.

"Miss Tohsaka,-" I say, bringing her out of her tome and causing her servant to deastralize and ready to protect her. "-it is good to see that you have arrived. I trust that your flight over was pleasant?"

"It was pleasant Lord Malphas." she says with a bow that would make the noble's of the Clock Tower proud. "Thank you for this opportunity."

"There is no need to stand on ceremony with me. We are after all comrades in this Holy Grail War." I reply with a smile. "As for this 'opportunity', think nothing of it. As a descendant of Nagato, I do believe that you deserve the chance to participate. Now why don't you introduce your servant."

"Right, this is Arjuna of the Archer class." introduces Rin as she gestures towards said servant.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." politely says the servant with a slight bend of the waist.

"This is Ozymandias of the Rider class." I introduce as I point towards him before pointing to Mordred. "And the young lady behind him is Mordred Pendragon of the Saber class."

Not wanting to be seen as anything less than the knight her legends paint her as, Mordred puts on her stoic face and simply nods towards Rin and Arjuna while Ozymandias simply regards her with a look as she attempts not to stare between him and I.

"Do not avert your eyes." says Ozymandias to her. "Rather you would do well to look closely, for my brilliance outshines even the Sun, and I shall grant you the honour of gazing upon this exalted form."

Ozymandias' words cause Rin to blush as she stutters in an attempt to answer. The situation is so ridiculous that Bazett does not even bother to hide her amusement and laughs unrestrained along with Setanta. Scathach, taking pity on the girl, smacks the back of Ozymandias' head and fixes him a glare.

"We already had this conversation before Ozymandias." says Scathach with a sickeningly sweet smile. "Unless you wish to become my new sparring partner, then you will keep that ego in check."

Ozymandias frowns yet remains quiet even as Setanta laughs at him behind us. The last time Ozymandias disobeyed her, she proceeded to kick him up and down the training field, stopping only when he became close to dying, and nothing he did could stop her. Even his reality marble was useless against her. Ever since then he has tried to keep his arrogance in check with various degrees of success.

Before Ozymandias can respond, Morgan walks in from an adjacent room followed by Sakura, Medea, and Azula.

"Good, you're all here." says Morgan as she settles down on a couch. "All of the preparations are ready."

"Do we know who Ruler is?" I ask her.

"Unfortunately no. While we have been able to locate Ruler, we have not been able to ascertain their identity." she replies.

"It is fine, their identity is not a priority as we do not plan on violating any rules." I reassure her. "Do we know what the result of our bombing is?"

"Yes." replies Azula. "While the plan to use a primary bomb as a distraction while a second one explodes in their homunculi chamber did not eliminate all of their magical energy supply, it still did enough damage for their Berserker to be absorbed by the Grail due to a lack of magical energy. Meanwhile in an attempt to save her master, Circe died and was absorbed by the Grail."

"Good." I answer. "Now everyone sit, it is time to lay out our plan of engagement."

As everyone takes a seat, the servants who were astralised materialise themselves and take various positions near their master, with Jack sitting herself on Reika's lap.

"As of now, we know the identities of the enemy servants as well as their masters." I say as I begin explaining. "Saber is Jason, Lancer is Karna, Archer is Gilgamesh, and Rider is Achilles."

"What about Berserker, Caster, and Assassin?" asks Rin.

"Berserker and Caster are no longer a concern as they were turned into magical energy for the Grail." answers Morgan. "As for Assassin, she has chosen to join our faction."

"That leaves Jason, Karna, Gilgamesh, and Achilles." I answer before turning to Setanta and Bazett. "You two will be in charge of defeating Achilles. Setanta ought to be able to win the battle should he take it seriously. Although you will not be in shape to fight any more afterwards. Bazett, your assignment is to isolate their battle from everyone, especially Jason."

"Is Jason really that powerful?" asks Rin.

"No." replies Medea. "He is not dangerous due to his prowess in battle, rather it is his skills as a commander that are dangerous. He turned the Argonauts from a group of strangers into a well oiled fighting machine. He can take a group of strangers and use them as effectively as possible, even if the strangers despise one another."

"What makes this situation so precarious is the fact that the heroes on his side are equal to ours in terms of skills and power with some being even more powerful." I explain to Bazett. "Which is why isolating him is of the utmost importance."

"While Achilles is being taken care of by Setanta,-" I say as I turn to Rin. "Arjuna and Mordred shall be facing Karna with Li Shuwen remaining in the background to take any opportunity he sees to defeat Karna. Like Bazett, your assignment as masters will be to isolate them from Jason."

"Meanwhile, Kiritsugu and Jack will infiltrate the Yggdmillennia castle to eliminate the masters and the remaining homunculi that provide the servants with magical energy." I tell Kiritsugu who nods in understanding. "This will effectively stop the masters from being able to use the command seals to perform tasks such as boosting their servant's noble phantasms or teleportation."

"That leaves Ozymandias and Caligula to face Gilgamesh together while Medea and Sakura face Jason." I say as I finish my explanation. "Are there any questions?"

'A sound plan worthy of Roma.' says Romulus with pride

'You have been oddly silent the past few days.' I reply.

'The merger is almost complete. As such my consciousness is becoming weaker and soon it will completely fade.' answers Romulus. 'Besides, you do not require my aid, and everything that needed to be said has already been said. As such I am proud of you, my child.'

"That will not be necessary." says Ozymandias, bringing me out of my head before I can reply. "I alone will be enough to defeat the King of Heroes."

"Perhaps you will, and perhaps you will not." I say as I channel Lupa and send him a wolf glare. "Regardless, Caligula will be there to assist you should it be necessary, and that is final."

"Very well." answers Ozymandias in resignation after a few seconds of contemplation. "I shall defer to you as the pharaoh of these times, and of this team."

"Good. Are there any questions?" I ask the room's occupants.

Seeing as no one has any questions, I nod and declare the meeting adjourned.