Bazett dreams.

Well, technically she feels more like being dunked into a raging river of memories, a caleidoscopic whirlwind of images, thoughts and emotions that race by her too fast to grasp anything but mere impressions and fractured shards.

Spending countless hours meddling into exogenetics, studying various races, learning how best to put them down. Developing plans for a continued genocide. Fight countless skirmishes when putting that plan into effect, all in the name of ensuring the old enemies, the single largest mistake of Mordin's race does not become a threat, ever again. Defending his comrades and their mission with everything at hand, including putting an ordinary farm implement straight through the eyes and brain of a berserk krogan. Facing the guilt and doubt of his own actions, deciding to atone by offering cure and salvation to the downtrodden in the galaxy's ugliest hellhole.

That's when the red-haired woman sweeps into his clinic, her green eyes blazing with unquenchable determination, her offer a valid alternative for making amends. She encourages and assists him in rectifying his mistake, along with saving his wayward student - and his barbaric, yet necessary work, which then becomes the nucleus of the cure for the ancient wrong. Together, they do everything in their power to save a condemned, dying race of warriors from themselves - and with help, they succeed.

Bazett awakes with a gasp, her eyes blinking at Mordin, their bond thrumming with images of an exploding atmospheric processor, the heat of flames, a feeling of serenity as the motes of light scatter across the planet's atmosphere, reforging a dying species, providing salvation for a haunted scientist.

"Had to be me." The salarian flashes a grin at her. "Even she might have gotten it wrong."

After the comparatively peaceful negotiations of the previous night, morning was a tense affair in the Emiya stronghold.

"So, care to explain how we have another Servant running around?" Rin's voice dripped with saccharine politeness. "Especially one belonging to a Class not seen since the Third War, where it did so much good for your family, Einzbern."

Two pairs of red eyes focused on her, one glaring without much heat or effect, the other with a measure of indulgent respect.

"Calm down, Tohsaka." Shirou cut in, attempting to defuse the conversational landmine while he proceeded to serve the breakfast to the humans and aliens present. "You are forgetting that while Ilya is, like you, a member of the Founding Families, there is another, much more obvious culprit for such meddling."

"Sakura would never..." Her voice died in her throat, as her eyes widened.

"I guess my brother does not mean the youngest Matou." Ilya's voice was distant, as she focused inwards, delving into her memories for information on the sole surviving founder of the Holy Grail War who was currently present in Fuyuki. "I will admit to knowing precious little of Zouken, but I do not think it was him personally who pulled off the summoning of Ruler. That would have been too straightforward and bold for him."

Ilya did not notice Shirou's expression, or how the three Servants shared a brief look, as well as Rin's glower at her own Servant.

"At any rate, the situation's different from the Third War, as far as I understand it." Shirou's voice was calm and controlled - yet his eyes blazed with the effort of maintaining that control. "Zouken did not summon Ruler in place of a regular Servant, did he?"

"No, he did not. It does not make sense, unless..."

"... unless he is trying for a Great War!" Rin and Ilya looked at each other with surprise and irritation, as they spoke in unison, then both glared at their respective Servants, who started snickering, as Saber rolled her eyes.

"Care to enlighten the third-rate novice here?"

"Go ahead." Ilya's gesture and voice perfectly conveyed her magnanimity towards a talented underling. Rin huffed indignantly before she assumed her usual lecturing pose, and Shirou barely suppressed a grin at the byplay.

"The Great War is just thought to be a theoretical scenario and safety measure for when the Grail selects too many possible Masters. In such case, the Masters are sorted in two factions, which then battle for supremacy. The winning faction's surviving Masters then fight amongst each other until only one Master/Servant pair remains, just like in a normal Grail War." She frowned, then went on. "The Ruler-class Servant is supposed to be an impartial arbiter of such a conflict, summoned by the Grail itself, and imbued with a number of Command Seals to enforce its edicts on the participants." She flashed a smug grin at the pouting Ilya. "Did I leave out anything important?"

Ilya opened her mouth, eyes flashing, then she shrieked indignantly when her Servant's plated paw ruffled her hair.

"Don't be petty now." Wrex's cheerful grin turned remarkably sharklike, his crimson gaze boring into Shirou and Shepard, while he still spoke to Ilya. "We can't afford much dissension now." He barked a short laugh. "Do you see it yet?"

Shirou frowned, then his eyes widened.

"Zouken would not care to involve an impartial observer who could potentially turn the Matou Servant against him." He considered for a moment, then nodded. "He is trying to build a faction and gather allies,true, but he would be insane to turn it all into a Great War."

Rin chuckled bitterly.

"When was that old abomination ever sane?"

"Still, Tohsaka, my idiotic brother's right." Ilya's posture and voice both projected a far more mature air than her childlike appearance would have suggested. "Zouken's arguably insane by human standards, but he's a bitter, obsessed, ancient Magus as well. He would not empower rivals to his quest for the Grail. In my opinion, it's far more likely that he somehow ensured that both his children receive Servants..."

Ilya's voice died as she noted the horrified expression of both Rin and Shirou, the latter's face morphing into a steely mask, a bitter grimace of a smile on his lips.

"So that would mean he made Sakura a Master as well..."

"Emiya-kun, don't be ridiculous. Sakura cannot be a Master." Rin's voice was sharp, brittle. "She can't be."

"I'm sorry, Tohsaka, but it is almost certain she is." He chuckled with grim humor. "And she's a marvelous actress; I never suspected..."

The young Emiya trailed off when he noticed the glares from both female Masters.

"I would advise you to retract that part, Emiya-kun." Rin smiled sweetly, without a trace of bitterness.

"Do you think I would enjoy having to fight her?" Shirou grated. "Or you? Or my own sister?" His eyes burned with something Rin could not describe, or look away from. "But if what we suspect is right, and she is indeed a Master enthralled by Zouken, then I will do what I can to save her - one way or another."

Rin's answer was a brief, minuscule, jerky nod. If Ilya or Shirou wanted to remark on how her eyes shone, or why, well, both had the sense to remain silent - or were advised so by their Servants.

"We've got incoming." Garrus' flanging voice sounded calm, but Rin narrowed her eyes at him. There was something under that calm, something she couldn't place - or rather, an emotion she would not associate with an inhuman spiritual construct. The other two Servants both seemed to sense it as well, as both glared at the turian with barely-disguised impatience. Garrus chuckled. "Trust me, you'll love this. Especially you, Shepard." He gestured with his omnitool, sending the image transmitted by his surveillance gear to the other Servants.

"What else did you expect?" Wrex barked a short laugh as he watched the Servant on screen. "After all, no matter what Class she was summoned under, she's still a quarter krogan."

Sakura's screams of pain, denial and ecstasy echoed in the worm pit beneath the Matou manor, as the agitated Crest Worms within her body lashed out in response to their creator's cold anger at her defiance.

"One would think you have learnt the price of disobedience." The ancient magus' voice was a sibilant whisper seemingly coming from everywhere. "I wonder what prompted this bout of rebelliousness. It's not as if you'd never experienced a mana transfer ritual before."

On the landing above, a glassy-eyed Shinji looked on without seeing, while Ruler sauntered towards the piedestal in the center of the floor, even the mindless worms withdrawing from her path, albeit with some reluctance.

"If you want, I could assist you in breaking her defenses." The Servant purred, her smile eager, hungry. "I would enjoy it so much, and all four of us would get what we want."

Zouken twitched for a moment, then turned towards Ruler with deliberate slowness.

"I am not in the habit of sacrificing useful tools for a momentary whim or pleasure." The twisted expression on his visage could only technically be called a smile. "Also, do not waste your energies on trying to influence my mind."

The asari pouted, her fingers caressing the outline of the writhing teenager, her void-black, swirling eyes boring into Zouken's night-dark pupils.

"Think, magus - it would be so much easier for you if you could but gain a backdoor, or even an understanding of why you have to struggle against the mental fortress of your tool." She flashed Zouken a sharp, predatory smile full of promise. "You don't understand fully, right? For years, you battered and beaten down on her walls, worn them down, forming her into an obedient little tool - then something happened to renew her resistance, and the defenses you tore down were suddenly there again, stronger and much more durable than ever before."

She circled to Sakura's left, her eyes never breaking contact with Zouken, not even when the teenager convulsed in the throes of blissful agony, a word torn from her unwilling lips, and the elder magus' gaze flickered with cold, calculating fury and gleeful, merciless understanding. At his unspoken command, the worms within and without renewed their assault, the old monster's magic pressed down on his tool's mind, weaving through the minuscule gaps the insight opened. A gesture from him, and the undulating carpet of worms formed two distinct arcane shapes, one around Sakura, the other a little off to one side - and its sight made Morinth flash an appreciative smile full of predatory lust at Zouken. The cavernous, insectile mouth of the elder Matou spat words of power from the ancient incantation, drawing deep from the imaginary well of prana that was the unborn Shadow bound to the teenager's body and soul.

Blood dribbled from Sakura's mouth as she bit down on another scream of ecstatic agony, her eyes widening in horrific realization about what her "grandfather" deduced from her own moment of weakness - and what his current summoning would likely mean for her senpai. Lifeless purple eyes flared with incandescent hate, shame and desire, her teeth cracking as she flung her will against the chains worming around her thoughts and circuits, struggling to hold back or redirect the energies of the wellspring within. She would not, could not fail in this - she could not endanger senpai any further than she already has… and she would not allow any more of her few happy moments with him be consumed by the dark vortex that swirled at the edge of her senses.

"Mmm, yessss" Morinth's voice purred, her half-lidded eyes shining with dark mirth. "So delicious, so needy… so futile." Her lips twisted into a smile of gleeful hunger, as she drank deep from the sensations, sparing a part of her concentration to admire Zouken's spellwork.

The summoning array lit up with eerie blue light, the cold, damp breath from the pelagic depths beyond time and stars acting as the precursor of the foreign power drawing ever closer in response to Zouken's chanting.

Sakura renewed her frantic struggles, hurling herself against the chains of compulsion woven into her being during the past decade - yet she knew, deep down that she was not strong enough. Here and now, she was alone, neither senpai nor nee-san would hear her plea for help, not that she could survive either of them seeing her like this. As always, she was alone in the struggle, and she could feel her resolve waver.

Morinth's smile widened in answer as she savored her despair. Zouken's voice echoed in the cavernous depths, the waves of ancient, foreign power lapping around them, their vortex spiralling towards the centre of the summoning array.

Despair threatened to drown Sakura, calling her back to the apathetic, borderline-catatonic state that was her default being before…

An image flashed in her mind, a boy relentlessly attempting a task beyond his abilities again and again, never surrendering, never faltering.

Pain exploded in her mind as her teeth cracked, biting back a scream of forced ecstasy. Her writhing hand found purchase beneath the layer of worms undulating in, on, and around her, the greenish stone a steady presence under her fingers - and she realized what happened; she could even guess how they did it. Not that it mattered. She could feel his twisted smile and satisfaction across their bond. Her eyes shone with the same greenish-white fire that her Servant seemed to favor in her visions, and her voice rose in triumph, as the armored form of Rider materialized.

Zouken's glare intensified, yet they all knew he could not intervene - not if he wanted to finish the summoning successfully. Morinth threw her head back, her laughter ringing with pitiless cruelty.

"You are late, relic of a bygone age." The hissing, venomous voice purred. "Do not attempt to interfere now, or I will burn your Master's mind to an empty husk."

Javik sneered, his eyes and posture radiating boundless contempt. Locking gazes with Ruler, his right fist came up, wreathed in green-white fire - and as the he snapped his fingers.

Sakura's shrill scream of pain was joined by the enraged howl of the injured Zouken, as Rider's power reached within his Master, raced along the physical and spiritual paths mapped since their first meeting - and crushed the crest worms in unrelenting microsingularities of immense gravity. Sakura choked, vomited blood, mucus, and liquified remnants of the beings that were implanted to control her so long ago.

Zouken's chanting faltered for a few moments, as even his inhuman concentration could not compensate for a significant part of his awareness being snuffed out - which, more importantly, also deprived him of his most promising tool. His eyes burned with black hatred at the sneering Servant, as he nodded towards Ruler, before refocusing on finishing the summoning.

Morinth's mocking laughter filled the chamber as she stared down the other Servant. Beneath her skintight armor, a complex array of Command Seals lit up with a sullen red glare, and her hand snapped up, pointing at Rider, her voice a clarion call of authority.

"By this Command Seal, I order you, Servant Rider, to cease interfering and submit to my will."

A brief flash of bloodred light, and a twitch from Javik. Morinth sneered, and power laced her words as she spoke again.

"By my second Command Seal, I bind you, Servant Rider, to submit to my will."

She shuddered in wicked delight as she felt the power of her compulsion rush towards the other Servant, her savage grin anticipating the crumbling of resistance - after all, no mere Servant could stand against an order backed by the power of two Command Seals. She barely got a fraction of a moment as a warning.

The worm-infested cavern lit up with green-white fire that scorched away all worms and insects around Rider and its Master. The armored Servant's voice was full of contempt as he glared at the other sentients.

"You forget you place, broken asari." Javik spared a glance for his Master, motioning her to rise, and as the girl struggled to obey, he went on. "Your Class might give you the illusion of control over other Servants, but I am not like them." Dark mirth crept into his voice, along with an echo of power. "I am not merely the Rider of this War; I never was a simple Heroic Servant." Shinji fell, unconscious, the pressure of Rider's presence overwhelming his broken mind. Morinth snarled, fighting to lift her hand to fling her power against the other Servant. "I am the voice of a dead people, the wielder of their boundless wrath, the avatar of their vengeance." His smile turned colder and more feral. "And companion to the one who put you down like the rabid animal you are."

Ruler howled, flinging warpfire at Rider, who dissipated it with a casual flick of his hand. The second wave of coruscating power was swallowed by a miniature, yawning black hole, the wave of insects burned away by a sweeping aura of sickly green fire. Morinth's renewed inhuman screeching contained a stream of words barely recognizable - yet the flash of another expended Command Seal, along with Zouken's triumphant shout, was more than enough indication as to her intent.

In the middle of the summoning array, a human woman stood, radiating the cold distance of aeons past, her clothes the dark of interstellar void and the blue of the pelagic depths. She opened her eyes, and spoke with the voice of primordial tides.

"YOU, WHO HAVE BREACHED THE DARKNESS - ARE YOU MY MASTER?"

Zouken's confusion morphed into a savage grin, as the Command Seals on his hand flared to life like the tentacles of some monstrous dweller of the deep.

"Yes, I am." Dark satisfaction laced his voice. "Now Foreigner - show me your might, and devour Rider!"

Sakura barely had time to draw breath to scream her command to her Servant, before Javik laughed, and spoke a name, a call, an activation of a Noble Phantasm, an integral part of his own legend - and the reason he heeded the call as Rider, not as Avenger.

And as his call was answered, every seismograph in and around Fuyuki City went berserk.