Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Arrival

Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill!

Repeat five times.

But when each is filled, destroy it.

Heed my words.

My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny.

If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason,

Then answer me!

I hereby swear…

That I shall be all the good in the world.

That I shall defeat all the evil in the world.

You, Seven Heavens, shrouded by the three great words of power,

Come forth from the circle of the inhibition…

Guardian of the Scales!

Massive amount of energy billowed forth and swivelled around as words full of power, belief, and desperation were uttered. Stale air was kicked around furiously and menacingly, threatening to throw the occupants of the dark and dank basement. And all the while, the circle of magic used to enact the mystery glowed brightly in a vibrant display of multi-coloured light, its intensity growing with each passing second.

'This… I wasn't expecting this!' the oldest one in the basement, a decrepit, seemingly frail old man thought, not paying attention to the wind screaming at his face. He looked on as the energy building up upon the magic circle continued to skyrocket. 'Unexpected, yet not unwelcomed. A servant requiring this much prana to get summoned will most likely be one of the most powerful. Although…' his eyes narrowed down at his granddaughter. It looked like her body was convulsing from the strain of releasing this much prana at once. Any further observation was cut off though, when there was a massive spike of magic and in a blinding flash of light, a figure emerged.

'What a frightening aura!' Zouken's mind was reeling. 'He is certainly not Medusa,' he thought as he took in the distinctly male figure of the summoned Servant. From the cloud of dust and smoke lingering around the newly summoned servant, the only things he could make out was golden blonde hair, and crimson trench coat. Unfortunately, the servant was not facing towards him, so he couldn't see more.

"Servant Rider, I've come in response to your summons. I ask of you, are you my master?"

He heard the servant ask his granddaughter. However, before Sakura could answer, he decided to cut in, so that he can tweak the Servant-Master bond as he had planned, so that his grandson Shinji, the snivelling boy cowering behind him could take position as an acting Master.

"Rider," he called out, and in the next moment, tried his best to not flinch as the attention of the Servant was laid upon him. Despite his age, and the vast experience that came with it to stand up against all sorts of adverse situation, he couldn't help but shudder when he saw those baleful cerulean blue eyes. 'What sort of monstrosity has Sakura summoned?' he couldn't help but wonder. The power lurking behind those blue orbs, it was most disconcerting.

Composing his thoughts, he said, "Although my granddaughter will provide you prana, your master will be my grandson, Shinji." With this said, he yanked his failed legacy by the scruff of his neck and placed him in front of the servant.

Sakura looked on resignedly as the servant she had just summoned a few moments ago scrutinise her brother, all the while trying to stay on her feet. Summoning him had easily been her toughest ordeal till date. Nothing came close. Not even her first acclimatisation with Makiri family magic. It felt like her body was getting stabbed from hot knives inside out. Her nerves felt like they were on fire.

And yet, she stood. Enduring it all, not because she desired to get stronger with diligence, but because her grandfather had told her to do so.

"I refuse." She heard the Servant say. In normal circumstances, she might have been shocked by witnessing someone not complying with her grandfather's wish. However, her mind was too numb to respond to anything truly. So instead, she took in the appearance of the Servant she had summoned.

He was a tall male, wearing some kind of crimson trench coat that was concealing most of his body. However, she could still make out a black and orange jacket and matching orange pants beneath the coat. On top, his head was adorned by sun-kissed golden blonde hair, however it was not the thing that registered most in her mind. For some strange reason, she was seeing three whisker like marks on each of his cheeks. 'How can a person have those? Am I hallucinating?' she pondered.

"It was not a request, Servant," Zouken tersely said.

"Whatever it was, you don't possess any authority over me. You're not my master," was the flippant remark.

The former Tohsaka felt the Makiri crest worm in her heart twist around in agitation. Her grandfather was not in a good mood. "I don't have time for this. Sakura!" he barked, "Give your command seals to Shi-

But he couldn't complete his sentence, courtesy of his false body getting ripped apart to millions of pieces, courtesy of a furious ball of energy and wind spinning fiercely upon where he stood. Two sets of wide eyes watched in astonishment as their grandfather was literally torn out from existence, one with barely suppressed hope, and other with abject horror.

"I didn't like the emotions coming from you," the Servant remarked impassively, when the hurricane of wind of energy died down. Then he turned his attention towards the quaking blue haired boy, who promptly fled, screaming his head off all the way.

"So, Sakura was it?" Rider asked the only human left in the dank basement.

She, instead of acknowledging his question, trudged tiredly towards him and weakly caressed his cheeks. "It's real," she said, wonder shining in her eyes.

A/N: First thing, I know it's short. But don't worry, this was just a prologue. Regular chapters will be of 4k-5k word length in average. Sometimes more, if the situation demands it.

Another thing is, although I've thought of how I want to progress my story, I still want to know about how powerful Rider should feasibly be in comparison to Servants, especially Arturia and Gilgamesh. And on that topic, those of you, who hasn't figured out who Rider is, STOP, this story is not for you.

Just to make my case clear, Rider is from the end of the canon, and thus, he is considerably powerful, capable of kicking some major asses. However, Nasu characters also kick ass on regular basis. Therefore, I want your opinion on this.

Notice: Beta needed.