If a planet could have a soul, it would be Gaia. After all, a literal river of life flowed through it and around it, unseen or felt. While it was passive, it did have it's own "feelings"...as much as a planet could have.

So when the Calamity that had harmed it greatly was found and the humans began tapping into that vital stream of life for energy to make their own mindless lives better...well, Gaia didn't particularly appreciate it.

Still, it could have tolerated it for humanity was young and foolish...if it hadn't given the Calamity a new host to possess and almost wiped out the shamans that acted as It's voice among the creatures living on It.

Gaia could tolerate many things, but that was not one of them. Especially as the planet could also see the past, the 'present' and the future all at once.

Under normal circumstances, it would have summoned it's Weapons and wiped out the problem and be done with it.

Except the Weapons were all tired, old and unlikely to solve the main issue before being taken out by the rather resilent species that was humanity. They were unlikely to learn from their mistakes before everything went to hell and Gaia was inadvertantly 'killed', and them along with it.

A champion could be called, as they had in the past...but the one best suited for it was still but a child and too weak to fulfill that duty before he was killed off.

Which was why unusual measures would have to be taken. An outside force, preferably one that wasn't as damaging as the Calamity had been and was already well suited to being the "hero" would have to be summoned.

Fortunately there was a precedent...and a summoning spell...already perfect for such a monumental job, even if Gaia itself would be weakened for a time until the Calamity was dealt with.

The souls of those already dead and those about to be born would have to be sacrifices in order to summon the great force to fix the problem. What happened to the hero after the fact was not Gaia's problem...they could live out their lives however they wished so long as they fixed this.

And so the die was cast. Gaia gathered it's strength, confusing the last "voice" of the planet and the others who acted as observers of the Lifestream, and called.

The hero had only one thing to say once he awakened in a freezing mountain range, as close to it's first potential ally as it could get without alarming Chaos...

"I don't know how or why, but I blame the Root and Zelretch for this," he muttered, shivering.

Archer had been through many summonings, but he could honestly admit this was a first.

Usually when he was summoned as a Counter Guardian, there was an enemy or force he had to take out before being killed off and sent back to the Throne of Heroes. It was something that was as straightforward as it was depressing.

The usual information dump told him all the facts he needed to know, even if the one doing the summoning confused him greatly until a little while later when he realized he wasn't even on his planet anymore.

He had been summoned to stop a Calamity from regaining a foothold on the planet, preferably by killing off all the ones that were openly helping it and by taking out the cancerous growths that were sucking the literal life out of the planet in order to create electricity of all things.

The problem? He had been summoned in the general area of the Calamity's main body (which was dormant), but taking it out wasn't going to solve the actual issue, as there was one force that would actively attempt to create a new, living host the second it found out the original body was destroyed.

At least whatever force had summoned him had been nice enough to bring him close to not only a major headache later, but also a potential ally if he followed the nudge to the source.

Archer EMIYA decided to follow the nudge first. If only for some actual information about this place and what sort of headaches he could avoid later.

The mountain range he was stuck walking through was unusually cold and he had to wonder at the placement of some of the bridges he saw.

He had to quit asking "how" or more importantly "why" after the second one...just trying to think of the logistics and effort someone went through to make those rickety things made his head hurt.

It was with some relief that he found something close to a habitable lodging, even if the place looked deserted.

Not five minutes after going in, his headache became twice as strong. The monsters were weak, but it was what they left behind that made him question his limited sanity.

Why in the names of all things holy did the monsters disappear into green sparkles and then leave what looked like cash behind? Hell, one of them dropped some sort of item.

For the love of all things sane, why?

Archer's irritation about the matter didn't get any better as the night progressed. On the plus side, he cleared the place of the monsters and even picked up a weird code after finding a note on the ground. Considering he saw a safe on the second floor, he can only assume it was the combination to it.

After a long and tiring day, however, he just wanted to sleep.

The next morning, his migraine was back at full force and he knew for a fact someone or something was screwing with him. Likely Zelretch...this sort of nonsense was practically his bread and butter and just the sort of thing that would amuse him to no end.

The massive creature that came out of the safe pissed him off greatly and the odd red bauble he found was confusing but it was giving off enough magic that he took it anyone to find out what the hell it was later. He swiped the key and went to the library...he was sure he saw something off about one of the shelves.

What sort of amateur moron placed a hidden passage where it was damn near obvious to anyone with a brain?

Archer wasn't going to question it. At this point he just wanted to get drunk off his ass for a night and hopefully find out why the hell he had been summoned.

Third POV

Vincent heard someone systematically clearing out the upper mansion. Whoever was doing it wasn't being quiet about it at all.

So he wasn't that surprised when someone came into the crypt and figured out which coffin he was in.

The coffin slid open, and Vincent felt a 'nudge' of sorts from Chaos. Whoever was planning to wake him had Chaos openly cackling and that was never a good sign for his mellow.

"I know you're still alive. I've been around enough people trying to fake being dead to know the difference," said the voice with an irritated tone.

Vincent opened his eyes and the man was distinctly unimpressed with how he practically flowed out of the coffin.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Call me Shirou," said the white haired man. Whoever he was, he was strong and had all the feel of a tired warrior who would love nothing more than to rest, but acknowledged the fact he wasn't likely to get it any time soon.

"Vincent," he replied back. "Why did you waken me?"

"I need information, and whoever brought me here didn't give me more than the bare bones and a nudge towards someone who could be 'helpful' long term," he replied.

Vincent could tell right away he wasn't lying, but he was leaving far too much out.

Either way, Vincent had the strangest feeling this "Shirou" was a kindred spirit.

"What do you want to know?"

Shirou had a tired smirk on his face.

Vincent wanted to call bullshit on the fact Shirou claimed he wasn't from Gaia...except he had never seen anyone create a sword and bow out of nothing, much less alter it on the spot into a more aerodynamic shape and launch it at a dragon, killing it instantly.

Shirou claimed he was something called a "Servant" and that as far as he could tell, the planet had summoned him for reasons he hadn't been able to fully understand outside of the fact that the creatures it would normally call upon to deal with the issue would be killed off before they could deal with the actual problem, and the one that could have been chosen as Gaia's champion was too young and too weak to be useful until it was too late.

On the plus side, Shirou could now spam his stronger attacks without too much worry and his projections would likely be stronger considering it was Gaia who was acting as his master.

On the down side, Shirou had no idea who he was supposed to take out or how to clean up the mess made when the Calamity was unearthed and experimented on.

At least Vincent, or more specifically Chaos, was able to give him a much better idea of what to look for. What the planet called the "Calamity", Chaos knew as "Jenova". A fossil from the time of the Ancients when something fell from the sky and a disease almost wiped out the Cetra, which as far as Shirou could tell were some sort of Shaman that acted as the Voice of Gaia.

In reality it was an alien parasite that had taken over one of the Ancients and nearly drove them to extinction before the host was killed and buried. The scientists that dug it up mistook it for a Cetra and because their employer was a greedy idiot, attempted to recreate the race in order to find something called the Promised Land...which was supposedly filled with endless Mako, a byproduct of the Lifestream.

Shirou honestly couldn't understand why anyone would mess with the stuff, particularly since part of the info dump he got told him exactly what the Lifestream was.

"So just to be clear, these reactors are being powered by Mako...which is liquified souls?" he said disturbed.

Vincent blinked.

"What?"

"The lifestream is a river of souls, right? Which means these reactors are being powered by the essence of dead people," Shirou clarified.

Vincent started to look a bit disturbed himself.

"You know I never actually thought of it that way, but when you say it out loud it sounds incredibly disturbing," he admitted.

He rather liked talking with Shirou. The man had a sarcastic wit and sharp tongue, but he was also ruthlessly pragmatic and all too happy to help Vincent fulfill his long time desire to brutally murder Hojo for what he did. In fact Shirou was even 'nice' enough to give him ideas based on some of the atrocities he had to clean up once or twice.

The idea of someone having to clean up after some of the things Shirou had seen was highly disturbing, but it made Chaos and Vincent happy imagining them happening to Hojo so it evened out.

Either way Shirou and Vincent had entirely too much fun setting the main body of Jenova on fire and thoroughly insuring the Calamity couldn't directly influence others.

Shirou had read the files on Sephiroth. It didn't take a genius that what Hojo was doing to the man opened him up for a spiritaul and psychic possession the second the man got near Jenova. In fact Hojo was eagerly counting on it, speaking vividly of something he called "Reunion" which meant he was openly trying to insure it happened.

It made Shirou highly sympathetic for the guy, but he also wouldn't hesitate to put Sephiroth out of his misery if it came down to it.

He walked the Path of Asura. If ending the problem required he brutally murdered Sephiroth and then made sure the man couldn't come back, he'd do it without hesitation.

He should have known. He really should have, especially when Vincent told him the bauble he found was how the people on Gaia used magic and that the one he had was used to summon a higher being. Specifically Odin, in the case of the one Shirou acquired.

It wasn't until he saw the Chocobo that Shirou realized why the entire thing seemed familiar, and it only made his desire to strangle Zelretch grow.

Chocobos were a common creature in the Final Fantasy series and were used instead of horses.

He didn't know how or why, but he just knew it was Zelretch's fault that the planet was able to summon him. Putting Archer in a world that was straight out of a popular video game with limited to no information was exactly the sort of shit he'd pull for a good laugh.

About the only good thing out of this annoying scenario was the fact that if Archer did this right, then he could legitimately call himself a "hero" without having to slaughter countless people for a cause he didn't care about or believe in.

It might even be possible for him to break the contract he was under with Alaya and finally be free of the hell he was trapped in.

For that sort of prize, EMIYA would literally walk into hell and back, buck naked and unarmed. He would even skip the entire time if he had to, if it meant being freed from his status as Counter Guardian.

At least he wasn't alone in fixing this mess. After a long, pointed talk with Vincent, the former Turk had agreed to join forces with him...if only so he had a chance to brutally murder Hojo.

The two of them were odd kindred spirits, though the thing Vincent appreciated the most was the fact that the voices in his head were rather quiet around Shirou. Well, except for Chaos but it was content to leave Vincent be so long as the man let him join in on the utter anarchy Shirou was going to cause, simply by being himself.

"So what are your plans to infiltrate the company?" asked Vincent.

Shirou had a rather...odd...smirk on his face. Vincent brought his guard up, without understanding why.

"That's actually the easy part."

"Why are you smiling like that? What sort of wicked scheme do you have planned?" said Vincent suspiciously. He narrowed his crimson eyes at Shirou. "You aren't going to try and join SOLDIER, are you?"

Shirou scoffed.

"As fun as that might be, I have no interest in becoming the attack dog of that fat pig. Nor am I going to bother with the Turks. As for what position I'm going to apply to, well, you'll have to find out for yourself once I'm in."

(To this day Vincent still had no clue how the hell Shirou managed to cause that much chaos and trouble as a mere janitor of all things. Or why he would apply for such a boring job in the first place.)