Fate/False Order

Walking into the house Mom has claimed for herself, I quickly made my way into the living room, causing me to see Mom, Sakura, Waver and Rider sitting by the coffee table.

As I entered, Mom gave me a surprisingly tired look. "Come sit down, Alistair," she said while gesturing to the spot next to Sakura, who practically clung onto Mom.

Rider and Waver turned their heads to look at me, both giving me a different reaction. Rider Gave a wide smile, along with a wave, while Waver looked somewhat nervous.

"Greetings, vanquisher of Lancer! Surprised to see us so soon?" Rider greeted me warmly, causing me to raise a brow.

It would seem he's rather worried about Angra Mainyu, why else would he give me such a 'prestigious' title, rather than the 'Saber's descendant' he called me yesterday.

"Pleasantly surprised at the very least," I replied with a slight smile as I moved towards the couch Mom and Sakura were sitting on. 

Rider's smile faltered slightly, and she imperceptibly shook his head. "A shame that I bring unpleasant news then," he said gravely, as I sat down next to Sakura.

At his words, I subtly glanced at Mom, who was giving me a similar look, before the two of us fixed our gaze on Rider.

"Would you care to enlighten us then?" I asked with a hint of interest, causing the large man to nod his head.

Picking up his teacup, that looked comically small in his hand, Rider downed it in one gulp, and placed it roughly on the table. "My Master and I stumbled upon Caster's workshop earlier today," he explained with a hint of seriousness.

"There we discovered discarded documents of her creation, filled with her own conjectures and theories," he explained like some shady businessman trying to convince someone of their products' importance.

"And that is important, why?" Mom asked in an unamused tone, clearly thinking along the same lines as me. 

This time, Rider leaned forward, looking extra serious. "Because something is wrong with the Grail War," he said in all seriousness. Only to receive blank stares from both me and Mom.

"And?" Mom asked in an unamused tone, causing Rider to blink in surprise. "You knew?" He asked cautiously, causing Mom to snort.

"Please, this ritual is running on hopes and dreams at this point," she said with mild amusement. "In the last war, they didn't even have a Berserker, instead having some 'Extra-Class' Servant," Mom said snidely. "And the less said about the first two Wars, the better."

Subtly glancing at Mom, I focused on Rider. "What Mom is trying to say," I interjected, causing Rider to focus on me. "Is that there has never 'not' been something wrong with the Grail War," I explained patiently. "So neither of us is surprised at there being an 'issue' this time around, which is partly the reason so few bother to participate."

Rider looked somewhat miffed at my explanation, causing Waver to finally speak up, "We think the Extra-Class Servant from the last War managed to 'infect' and ruin the Grail System!"

At his words Mom and I looked at Waver with confusion. "How so? I seem to recall that he was incredibly weak, and he was even the first to die," I asked neutrally.

At this, Rider spoke up. "Indeed, but according to Caster's notes, this Servant was none other than the Zoroastrian god of darkness, Angra Mainyu. He who bears All the World's Evils," he said gravely. "And Caster seems to fear that what Angra Mainyu carried now resides in the Grail, and after reading her theories, I too hold some of the same reservations."

Mom suddenly leaned backwards, allowing her to sink into the couch, while gaining a somewhat worried look on her face. "Do you have any proof of your claims?" She asked wearily, causing Rider to look at Waver.

Waver quickly scrambled to pull up a backpack, and hurriedly threw out a stack of thick parchment. Quickly, he placed them on the table, between himself and my Mother.

"Here are the notes we found in Caster's workshop," he explained with seriousness.

 Mom only raised a brow, and picked up a single piece of parchment, while idly giving it a once over.

"I can't read this…" she commented dryly, while shooting the Master and Servant duo an equally dry look.

Rider looked a bit sheepish, and scratched the back of his head, while Waver gave himself a facepalm.

"Would you take my word for my claims of the document's content?" Rider asked with a hint of humor.

Mom only slowly blinked at him. "For all I know, this is an old rendition of the legend of the Argonauts, or some altered version that makes Jason seem more incompetent for Medeas amusement."

Snatching the parchment out from Mom's hand, I gave it a cursory look. "Nope, can't read it either," I commented unhelpfully, causing Rider to somewhat slump forward. "But I know someone who might be able to translate it."

Rider now looked reinvigorated at my comment, and I pulled out a phone while flashing him a smile. Tapping the buttons, I gave Vivian a call. Covering the receiver, I looked at Rider. "What language is it written in?" I probed. "Ancient Greek," he said seriously.

As the call connected, I removed the hand from the receiver, and placed it up to my ear. "Do you have your translation device?" I asked calmly.

"Not even a hello?" Came the response from the other side, but it was distinctively Morgan's voice causing my brow to twitch. Rider was here, and I was unsure if he could hear the conversation if he wanted to, so it was rather risky.

"Hello my dear, do you happen to have that translation device?" I asked dryly, causing Morgan to give an amused hum.

"I believe you know I do," she said in an uncaring tone, causing me to sigh. "And would you happen to have your ancient languages capsules? We have a set of important documents that need to be translated from Ancient Greek."

"Hmmhmm, I believe I forgot to bring most of them, but the Ancient Greek one is a favorite of mine, so I just so happen to have it on hand," she said with clear mischief. 

She was enjoying this far too much.

"A happy coincidence, would you be a dear and bring your equipment over?" I requested kindly, earning a hum of agreement from her. "Anything for you dear," she flirted, before she ended the call.

Why was Morgan suddenly so bold over the phone? Well, bold is still quite the exaggeration for what that was, but it was still rather forward for her. Whatever, I'll deal with it later.

Slipping the phone into my pocket, I gave a slight nod. "Vivian will be coming over with one of her Mystic Codes," I explained, causing Mom to give a hum of contentment, while Rider raised a lone brow at my words.

Luckily, Mom spoke up before Rider could ask any questions. "Well, for now, let us assume that your claims are true," she said while gesturing towards them. "What is it you wish from us?" She questioned with a raised brow.

At her words, Rider straightened up. "We wish for your aid, along with you being the point of contact for us and Saber. As if Caster's claims are true, we'll need to claim the Grail as quickly as possible, and see if it can be fixed," he explained easily.

Mom's eyes seemed to sharpen at his request. "You do realize that Artoria was left rather upset and displeased with yourself after your last meeting," she said in a calm tone of voice.

Sighing, Rider looked at her pointedly, and crossed his arms. "I do not regret my words, and if you know of them, you should know that I am right. Yet I can see how my words might strain this alliance."

Mom fixed him with a look, before sighing. "You weren't completely wrong, that's for sure, but you did not even try to see things from her perspective, so I hesitate in telling you that you were completely right either," she explained, earning an interesting hum from Rider.

"Do tell," he said while gesturing for her to continue.

Nodding, Mom gestured towards Rider. "Tell me, what were your last memories before being summoned?" She questioned causing Rider to raise a brow.

Looking upwards, he smiled somewhat wistfully. "My last memory was lying in a bed being surrounded by all my men, my brothers in arms, while giving my dying words. 'Leave everything to the strongest'. Then everything went dark, and I was suddenly summoned by my Master," he explained with a hint of fondness.

Mom flashed a slight smile at that, before sighing, becoming a lot more stern. "Artoria was summoned right after a battle, where she watched her men killing one another, where she killed those she once fought alongside, where she killed her own child, someone she once considered one of her most loyal knights," she said calmly.

"Tell me, King of Conquerors, can you, who died among friends and loved ones, truly judge someone who died among the corpses of her friends and loved ones, who's blood she feels is on her own hands alone, and condemn her for regretting how her reign ended?" She asked pointedly.

Rider could only release a long sigh at Mom's question. "I will not take back my words," he prefaced with a raised finger. "However, I will concede that it might have been rather harsh given her situation."

Mom gave him a look, before nodding with a smile. "Good, as I agree with you that her wish was rather foolish, but I will give her a pass, as I too would probably have come up with something equally foolish if I were in such a terrible state of mind. And it certainly does not hurt that she is considering a new wish."

Rider let out a deep bellow of laughter at Mother's words, slapping his leg with an arm. "Very good, at least you have some reason, it would seem that I was fretting for naught!"

Mom only gave a slight shrug and smile at his 'praise'. "I do try," she said offhandedly.

Before anything could continue, the living room door burst open, revealing Vivian holding a large box. "Coming through," she groaned, as she hurriedly waddled over to the table.

Reaching it, she unceremoniously dropped the box on the table, causing an audible bang, and the coffee table to shake.

Dusting her hands off, she gave me a radiant smile. "I assume you'd like me to get started immediately?" she probed casually, causing me to shrug. "It would be much appreciated at the very least," I said with a smile.

As Vivian opened the box, and pulled out various small trinkets, Rider opted to greet her.

"Ah, you must be our translator. I am Iskandar, this," he said while gesturing towards Waver. "Is my Master, Waver Velvet," Waver gave a small wave at the introduction.

Vivian only gave them a passing glance, while giving a small smile. "I am Vivian Animusphere, hopefully Pendragon soon, pleasure to be making your acquaintance," she said with a wink.

Rider gave a slight chuckle at the comment, and gestured towards what she was assembling. "So how long will the translations take?" He asked with interest.

Vivian merely shifted around with the device, which had a lot in common with one of those overhead projectors that you'd find in a school.

Slotting a small circular crystal into where the mirror would be located in a school projector, she placed a mat next to the stand while putting a piece of paper atop it. Tapping her chin, she placed something that looked like a black rolling pin, just without the handles, at the top of the page. 

"Ok, first page," she said while looking at Rider, while extending a hand. Rider quickly picked up the top parchment on the stack, and handed it to Vivian.

Placing it under 'projector head', she placed a finger where she had placed the circle crystal, causing it to glow.

Light spewed forth from the crystal, and it started to scan the parchment. At the same time, the 'rolling pin' on the blank piece of paper started to roll down the page, causing text to appear on the parts that had been rolled over.

"That's quite impressive," Waver commented while his eyes eagerly looked over the Mystic Code with obvious interest.

Vivian flashed him a smile. "I took inspiration from modern-day printers, it's rather easy to create, as long as you are creative with your runes. The translation crystal is the only irritating thing to make," Vivian commented easily, causing Waver to look up at her.

"Did you use intent-related mysteries?" He probed, causing Vivian to nod. "That and a few information storing and sorting ones, as the crystal is basically a high-end 'hard drive', if you know what those are," she said with a shrug. "Its only real limitation is that it is only capable of translating into English."

{Nerd.} I helpfully commented to Morgan, earning a huff in response.

Before Waver and Vivian could geek out anymore, there was a snapping sound from the 'pin roll', causing us to look at it.

Impressive enough, it had only taken twenty seconds to complete a page, causing Vivian to give an appreciative hum, and flip both the translate page and the parchment over, while placing the 'pin roll' back to its start position.

As the process repeated, Vivian turned to look at Mom. "I believe I was interrupting something as I burst into the room, please continue, this will take a few minutes," she said, causing Mom to nod.

"Right…" Mom said with a sigh, while glancing at Rider. "Seeing as you aren't panicking that we have a method to translate your 'evidence'," she said that part in a somewhat dubious tone, as for all she knew Rider could have written it. "We can come to a few agreements."

Rider clapped his hands together. "Perfect!" He said ecstatically, before raising three fingers. "As I said earlier, I'd like for you to become my point of contact with Saber, ideally to convince her to help us. The other is to join us when attacking Caster for the Grail. Lastly, I'd like it if you three have a look at the Grail."

Crossing his arms he glanced at his Master, before looking at us. "From what my Master has told me, older families have a greater grasp on magic than newer ones, so he suggested we ask for your help on the matter."

At the list of requests, Mom could only purse her lips. "You do realize that you are asking a lot, especially the second one. Especially with little in return," Mom asserted, causing Rider to nod. "While true, we would not meet with you if it wasn't a matter of grave importance. So while it sounds like this is for my Master and I's advantage, this is more so for the safety of all those participating, and for the potential innocents that would be caught up in this."

Mom only raised a lone brow at his comment, causing Rider to give a lopsided smile. "I suppose pandering to your sense of justice was not enough?"

"Understand this, Alistair and I are the last of our family, so if we die, 1500 years of history is ruined, and my country will be in turmoil, as the vultures we call politicians try to claim all the power they can from the power vacuum that would occur if we died," she explained patiently.

"So no, I am not willing to risk my son and country in an alliance where we get nothing in return," she explained harshly.

Rider sighed at the answer, and gave a somewhat pained look. "Fine, how about that once we kill Caster and later find the Grail, you two get to study the Grail, and based on your conclusions, we'll listen to your thoughts on what to do with it," he proposed.

"If it is beyond repair, we'll destroy it," as Rider's words dropped, Waver gave Rider a disbelieving look. "If you are unsure, you can call the magic police, or whatever you call them," he said with a wave. "And if you give us the all-clear, you can hold onto it and study it until the victor of the war is decided."

Mom turned to look at me and raised a brow. It was certainly better than what he had offered before, and seeing as we were going to help Artoria anyway, this was basically a steal. Mom had done a good job in getting some benefits for something we were planning to do anyways. Probably something she picked up through all her politicking.

Nodding, Mom flashed me a smile, and looked at Rider. "I'll need a geass with your Master's signature for good measure, but other than that," Mom said while extending a hand across the table. "We have a deal."

Rider glanced at his Master, who gave a begrudging nod, causing Rider to smile and grab Mom's hand. "Perfect! This shall be a glorious alliance," he said as he vigorously shook my Mother's hand.

Mom looked visibly uncomfortable as the handshaking continued, and the second Rider's grip loosened, she took her chance, and retracted her arm, while giving Rider a strained smile.

"I am glad that you seem so happy," she said pointedly, while Rider only nodded.

Ignoring the two, I gave Waver a look. "While Mother sets up the geass, could you write down your number? Or do you have some other form of medium we can use to contact you?" I questioned, causing Waver to look a bit meek.

"I– I don't have a phone…"

Sighing, I raised a hand to massage the side of my face. "Then are you comfortable with me using a familiar as a means for us to keep contact?" I probed, causing him to nod. "Yeah, we live up in Ryuudou Temple, in the main building, you can just send one by when you have information," he proposed, causing me to nod.

Mom clapped her hands, causing us to look at her. "Great, then I'll draw up a geass for you to sign, and then you two can be on your merry way, and Alistair will inform you when we get Artoria's agreement," she said happily.

Looking at Waver, I pointed at the small stack of translated copies of the paper Vivian had made. "Do you wish to keep the original, or would you like the translated copy? We'll be needing one of them to convince Artoria," I explained, causing Waver to nod, before looking up at Rider.

Rider looked at the device and shrugged. "You may keep the original, we trust that your translations are sufficient," Rider said, earning a nod from Vivian.

Mom flashed a smile, and picked up her no longer steaming teacup, and raised it like a toast. "Then to a fruitful cooperation."

~~Fate/False Order~~

"The Grail might be cursed?" Saber asked in a despondent tone, causing me to sigh.

"According to Caster's notes, maybe," Mom explained while tapping said documents.

Vivian silently sipped her tea, before speaking up. "It's very much a maybe. Rider either didn't think or consider the fact that for this Angra Mainyu to be summoned, the Grail had to be already capable of summoning Anti-Heroes with some tweaking. Meaning that Medea's summoning might just be possible due to the Einzberns messing up the summoning criteria for everyone thanks to what they did," she explained, before taking another sip.

"But her papers are concerning enough to the point where we have to take them seriously, as Medea, who should be considered first rate among Casters even when including the Age of the Gods, theorizes that something is wrong, is far too concerning to ignore it," I added, causing Artoria to look at me with a serious look.

"Do you believe the Grail is cursed?" She asked in a neutral tone, causing me to shrug. "I don't have enough information to make an educated guess, but if Caster believes that the Grail has been infected with All the World's Evil, then I'd rather be cautious," I explained tiredly.

I could practically hear Artoria clenching her fist under the table, despite her outwardly neutral look she wore.

Seeing this, Mom gave Artoria a slight smile. "Well, there is some good news in all of this," she interjected, causing the Saber-Class Servant to raise a brow. "If Caster fears what may be wrong with the Grail, odds are that she is treating Irisviel like glass, or at least I would, as I'd rather not find out what a faulty Grail full of curses would do if broken."

Artoria gave a small smile at her words, and nodded. "That is good news," she said almost absentmindedly.

Tapping the table, Vivian glanced at all of its occupants. "The question is, how will we work with Rider?" She mused aloud. "Caster would not be out in the open, so I fail to see how Rider could operate at his fullest," she further explained.

At this, Saber raised a hand. "Rider's Noble Phantasm is a Reality Marble, it allowed him to summon his former soldiers in a giant desert," she explained.

The reactions around the table were varied, I naturally only widened my eyes, as I found it difficult to fake astonishment, while Mom and Vivian looked a whole lot more shocked.

Vivian quickly pulled out a notepad and pen, and stared at Artoria. "How long was his aria? How strong were his 'summons'? Did you notice any 'gimmick' that only existed there? How long do you think he could keep it up?"

Artoria looked a bit taken aback at all the questions, before quickly answering them. "I did not know what was coming, so I did not pay enough attention, but I believe his aria was short. His summons felt like bonafide Heroic Spirits, so that is rather worrying, but I did not notice any other gimmick."

Vivian nodded along while furiously scribbling in her notepad. "It makes sense that there was no other noticeable gimmick if you felt that his summons were as strong as a Heroic Spirit," Vivian idly commented, before looking up from the notepad.

"But how long did it last? And do you have any idea of how long it could last?" She probed.

Saber raised a hand under her chin, and looked at Vivian seriously. "It only lasted a minute, but that was more than enough time for his summons to kill dozens of Assassins… but I do not think his Master can supply enough for more than three minutes worth of activation," she added on the last part absentmindedly.

Vivian looked mollified, and looked back down at her writing pad. "In conclusion, Rider is really scary," she said casually.

"Quite," I added, earning a nod from Vivian.

At that, Mom interjected herself into our conversation. "Thanks for the information, but could you give your Master a copy of this," she said while sliding over the translated notes of Caster.

"They should have more information on the Servant the Einzbern summoned in the Third War, so they should be able to check if the claims have any legs to stand on," she explained, causing Artoria to look a bit hesitant, while glancing at Vivian before answering.

"I had actually planned to train Alistair for the rest of the day, as I feel that he'll need it, if he's to be your and Rider's Master's 'guard', for our assault on Caster," she said with a bit of hesitance.

Vivian waved her hand, and fixed Artoria with a serious look. "It should be fine, as long as you come back immediately, then all should be forgiven," she offered in a casual tone, earning a curt nod from Saber.

Grabbing the papers and standing up, she fixed me with a look. "Get changed, I shall return within thirty minutes. By then I expect you to be clothed in proper training attire, and ready to spar with me in your house's dojo," she said sternly, causing me to give a low goan.

I don't know whether to hate Morgan, or thank her for blackmailing her sister to train me for the rest of the day, and probably parts of tomorrow morning. As God knows it's useful, but I was still sore from the beating she gave me yesterday, so I was not looking forward to it.

"Yes Ma'am!" I said while giving an unenthusiastic salute.

She fixed me with a look, before smiling and nodding in appreciation.

"I look forward to your progress."

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42 Hours, 55 Minutes And 32 Seconds Until Zero 

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A/N

Welcome back, my reader Overlords, please add this to your library and give me some comments, stones and reviews, as it would be much appreciated.

Ok, not the most exciting chapter, I know, but it is important in the grand scheme of things, as without it, there is no cooperation, nor is there anything to ground the future activities.

The next chapter, I will only give the tail end of Alistair's workout, as that is a whole lot of nothing to put it mildly, other than him improving at a terrifying rate.

So we'll get to move onto a few things, and then we'll be entering the last day.

Btw, I have made a Discord server for the fic, come on and chat with me!

https://discord.gg/xrHvkpjG

Now I'm tired as it is 12PM! So have a nice day, and send me some stones or some shit, as I need motivation, since I am losing too much sleep!