All according to plan

In the middle of Ryuudou temple grounds, the white haired protagonist's body was restrained by magical threads and seals.

Examining him was the Caster of the war, Medea. She didn't expect a random master to just decide to come by himself and challenge a servant to a fight. How idiotic would someone have to be for that? She never understood battle maniacs.

Originally she was planning on hypnotizing the Master of Saber into coming here, so she could steal Saber from him to deal with Berserker. But she changed plans when a free Master without his servant walked right into her territory.

"What's this?" As she examined him, she noticed multiple layers of magical defenses within his body. A series of magical barriers sprang forth from his body when she had tried to attempt more invasive procedures.

It wasn't any sort of magecraft she was familiar with, in fact she was very interested in studying it. Unfortunately she decided against it as her familiar had informed her that the Master of Saber was moving directly to the temple.

"Well it can wait." A wicked smile graced her lips. If she played her cards right, then she would be getting 2 servants under her command tonight.

A jagged dagger appeared in her hand. Slowly she moved it towards the defensive barriers, shattering them one by one. Slowly but surely, Medea inched closer to his command seals.

'Hey, weren't we supposed to wake him up when this happened?' Albion asked his rival as they watched the spectacle of the witch destroying Zieg's defenses.

'Oi, wake up!' Draig began to shout inside Zieg's mind.

'Have you tried shouting louder?'

'Of course I did!'

'Here let me try, WAKE UP!'

"..Ahh..." Zieg let out a low gutteral groan. His eyes cracked open, to see Medea with a jagged knife. 'All according to plan.' He would smirk evilly but he was too tired for it. His eyes scanned over the Noble Phantasm known as Rule Breaker and added it to his arsenal.

'Magic circuits restrained, flow of magical energy trapped in temporal stasis.' His mind began to quickly assess his situation.

He had a side plan of getting captured by Medea after his duel with Kojiro had ended. However he didn't realize she would interrupt the duel itself, he was kind of annoyed at that.

'Well shit' Rule breaker got closer as he realized he would be unable to break out of his restraints in time.

"BEGONE WITCH!" A deep voice roared out. A blue blade swatted the jagged knife away as Medea teleported a few meters into the air.

"What?!" Medea shouted out in surprise.

Standing in front of Zieg was an armored bipedal lizard. It's scales were blue and it's knight-esque armor white.

"Who the hell are you?!" She was confused as there was no indication of his presence before. The only way for someone to get to the temple was through the gate, and that was guarded by Sasaki Kojiro.

"Who am I? I am Slane! The Dragon Knight!" He declared proudly. He was indeed the Winter Dragon from Rivellon. His true identity was the last Dragon Knight of his race.

This entire time, all he had done the last few months was read Zieg's collection of manga and anime related merch. There wasn't much else to do, so that was how he spent his time.

"And I am here to save my Lord from the clutches of a witch!" He was still traumatized after his experience with the Witch Radeka. "Now begone thot!" He opened his maw and a torrential burst of frost engulfed the skies.

∞

Three figures were heading up the steps leading to the temple grounds. Shirou and Saber had followed Serenity when they had heard Zieg was in trouble.

"Well, this has been quite the eventful night." The trio stopped at the sight of a man at the top of the steps.

"And you are?" Shirou asked out loud.

"Just a simple guard." Kojiro responded lightly.

"So we just have to cut you down to proceed." Saber took out her invisible blade.

"We don't have time to waste." Shirou brought out a couple of magical blades.

"Indeed you don't. But my job is only to guard this gate. How unfortunate that I only have one blade, while there are three of you." He hummed.

"What are you saying?"

"I am saying, that I can only block 1 of you. It would be impossible for me to stop all 3." The samurai smiled, as if he was in quite the predicament.

Shirou narrowed his eyes in thought. "Saber, can we leave him to you?" He looked over to her.

"I will settle this quickly." She nodded.

Sasaki Kojiro didn't move as the other two ran right past him.

"I didn't expect this, you have my thanks." Saber thanked the man.

"Why I don't know what you're speaking of." He shook his head. "I was tasked with guarding this gate, and that is what I am doing. It isn't my fault that I only have 1 blade, is it?" He smiled, to which Saber returned it with her own.

"No, I suppose it isn't. Very well, defend yourself!" Saber kicked off the ground, flying towards him in a quick burst of mana.

The long nodachi met the invisible blade.

∞

"Did you think that you could escape in the sky?!" Slane had returned to his dragon form. His wings covering the moon, maw descending towards the Caster.

Medea disappeared from her position and reappeared elsewhere and fired off beams from her cloak. "Dragon or not, you're in my territory. With all the mana gathered here, you won't out last me." Her confident voice echoed through the air. However her usual smile was gone.

The temple grounds along with the major buildings were frozen solid. Zieg had his eyes closed, focusing on releasing himself from his restraints.

The winter dragon took a dip and torpedoed towards her at blinding speed.

"Damn you!" Blood shot out as one of caster's arm had been ripped from her. Magical energy swelled at the wound and her arm regrew.

"Regeneration?" Slane was momentarily surprised. "No matter, I'll just freeze you in place!"

A wellspring of power converged at the winter dragon's maw. Space reverberated, and the concentrated power grew.

"I don't think so!" Two binding circles appeared from above and below Slane's massive body, his concentration broke. Sparks of purple lightning assaulted him, paralyzing his movements.

"Hahahaha!" Medea cackled loudly as Slane was sandwiched between the two massive circles. "I told you! With all the mana gathered here, a dragon makes no difference!" Her wicked smile returned.

*CLANG sfx* A blue sword was swatted by Medea's staff. Her attention turned towards the ground.

"Ara, if it isn't the Master of Saber. You're a little late don't you think, boy?" She was ecstatic, now both Masters were here and inside her territory. "What was that supposed to be? Did you think a little sword could kill me?"

"No." Shirou shook his head. "But it wasn't to kill you."

"Oh, and what was it for then?"

"A distraction."

Suddenly, Medea felt undescribable danger. She turned towards where the blade had been smacked, but immediately felt her face gently grabbed.

Serenity stood on the floating blade, her mask removed and her lips ready.

"Zabaniya..." Soft lips met her own, and Zieg immediately opened his eyes to burn the image of Medea and Serenity making out in the sky.

"That's hot." He muttered out loud.

∞

"Well so this is how it feels to be a damsel in distress." Zieg nodded his head, and spread his arms out as if trying to take in the moment. "It's a different feeling." he hummed.

"Zieg-san I really didn't expect that you of all people would get caught." Shirou said a bit tiredly. He had rushed out here, despite still being injured from the day.

"Ah, but I knew I would get caught! So it was on purpose! All according to plan!" Zieg smirked with his hands on his hips. As if it was never a concern for him.

"Master, you are alright..." Serenity moved closer, her face calm.

"Oh Serenity, good job. That was pretty hot." He gave a thumbs up. "Though I didn't expect you to come here with help, didn't I give you a task to do?" He raised a brow. He didn't expect to get extra help, it wasn't part of the plan.

"Oi Zieg-san, she came to us and was worried about you." Shirou defended her. However he stopped when Serenity kneeled.

"My apologies, Master. I disobeyed your orders." She had disobeyed her original orders and went to save him. Even if he said that there was nothing to worry about.

"It's fine. I'm not that mad, we'll talk about this later. For now let's go home." He sighed and waved it off without much thought. "Let's go, I'm starving."

∞

The group had returned back to Emiya's house and I took the time to fill my stomach. After a bit of questioning on what I was thinking or doing, Shirou retired to rest.

I walked out onto the deck and looked up at the night sky again. This being that's been watching me, I think I'm beginning to get an idea on what it is.

I don't think it's an outer god, but it might be a Great Old One instead. Which isn't much better, not sure which one it is. At least I've narrowed it down. I don't know much about lovecraftian lore, so I'm unsure of which one it is that keeps watching me.

So far it seems passive however, I just know that I need to end this war soon. The longer I stay in this reality, the higher chance of it deciding to do something.

My starry eyes began to heat up all of a sudden, as if it were on fire. I closed my eyes and removed my sights from the thing. "Ow!" I cried out loud, hands over my eyelids.

Did that thing just burn my vision for a moment there? It never did this before, or maybe it's because it knew my current thoughts.

"Master..." I turned to Serenity. She looked worried about my small outburst there, but seemed cautious. She probably thinks I'm mad at her about disobeying orders.

"Serenity, you don't have to worry. I don't hold it against you." I told her again. I gave her a task to do regarding the Matou estate, but I didn't need it to be done right away. I just liked being prepared, sooner rather than later. "I don't think I could be mad at you anyway."

I held out my hand towards her.

"Oh... You... still want to touch me? Thank you, so very much... Master..." She took my hand again, moving closer to me. Practically snuggling up to me.

"Like I said, I don't mind. I'll be fine no matter how long I remain in contact with you." I said gently, reassuring her.

We sat there in silence, my eyes were still closed and healing from the burn.

"...Everything. I have killed everything that has come my way. But... somewhere along the way I have come to think that... I no longer want to kill..." She broke the silence after a bit.

"That's fine with me. I never required for you to kill on my behalf anyway." To begin with, I chose to summon as an experiment on whether Medea could still mess with the grail or not.

"No... I can do nothing but kill... If that is enough to serve you, I can think of no greater joy." She spoke so sincerely that I opened my eyes to look at her. Her deep purple eyes, were mesmerizing. "I am here to serve you, Master. You are my Master. My everything."

She leaned in closer, our lips met. A sweet sensation filled my mouth. Our lips remained that way for a short while before parting.

"Meeting you... has made me happy. You, who lives despite my touch. You, who still desires to stay close to me. I would serve you... for all eternity, Master." My heart began to beat faster, ah shit not this again. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

I struggled to say anything as I pushed her down.

Before this, I had refused many others before her.

I can't tell her, that I had no time for love.

But at least for tonight, I could just selfishly indulge in these feelings for a bit.

It wasn't only her lips that were sweet to me that night.