Everything hurt.

He could barely breathe, gusts of sand and microshards of glass filling his still-bleeding lungs as he lay collapsed on burning sands. He looked up into the sky, watching purple misshapen blots hover over the sand-filled sky through blurring vision.

His body was one giant wound, filled to the brim with stabs and cuts and burns and every other horrible infliction that could be wrought upon flesh.

Spent bullet shells surrounded him, still hot from leaving their muzzles. Slight sizzling crept through the man's ears as blood soaked itself into the casings nearby. Empty guns lay somewhere in the distance as he then had to rely on his own bare hands. The metallic exterior around his gauntlets had worn away during the onslaught of aliens that threatened to flood his vision, his knuckles and elbows frayed down to the bones, stripped of flesh as he continued to fight like a cornered animal, wild and unrelenting.

The Spartan couldn't breathe, couldn't lift a finger, his vision was already fading fast much as his strength did already. Pain wouldn't even begin to describe the feelings he felt in that moment, not just in body, but in soul and mind.

It all started with war. Everything starts with conflict, regardless of the motivation. Foreign creatures from beyond the stars that waged war against humanity for simply existing.

"Your destruction is the will of the gods… and we are their instrument," those words were the first that humanity had heard from them. Noble Six remembered when they played the recording, showing he and the rest of Beta Company what they would eventually fight against. It demoralized many and, in turn, weeded out the cowardly.

Endless training culminated into a single goal, to stand up against those that sought unrelenting destruction against humanity and all the colonies they lived upon.

It just so happened that Reach was one of their main targets. It started off small, infighting between humanity as rebels were still a thorn in the UNSC's side during that time. That was what Noble Six, Spartan-B312 at the time, was assigned to take care of before then.

Insurrectionists disappeared overnight without a single trace of conflict, and the third-generation Spartan was held on a tight leash during that time until he was assigned to Noble Team.

The dying Spartan would admit that he wasn't much of a team player, but something of an unbreakable bond was forged between them, however short it may have been. He was meant to be a replacement for a martyr and yet here he was in the same position he started in.

Alone, once again surrounded by enemies.

But he would do it all over again, he had no regrets for what he gave that resulted in his death. His corpse, guts, and blood strewn upon the land of an extraterrestrial world among many others as if a sacrifice to a hungry god.

His brothers and sisters in arms were merely meant to slow down the coming tide that would eventually crush them all… but that was life, wasn't it? Maybe if the Covenant didn't exist, so many more lives would have been spared. So many men, women, and children wouldn't have died.

Before long, the Spartan closed his eyes, never to open again as he breathed his last.

Despite that, the spirit of mankind itself had recognized him for his deeds. Despite never even seeing Earth, nor the people of that little blue planet ever hearing of his name or legend, the world recognized his strength and willpower, and most importantly, his wish.

Another hero was marked for endless battle in a mere concept of recordings known as the Throne of Heroes.

Fill.

Noble Six found himself in an endless sea, one with it: shapeless, colorless, merely a blip in a ocean of nothing until something invaded that space.

Fill

It spoke with feeling instead of words, sharing that same feeling of envelopment alongside him in the eternal void. It asked him questions, and he answered in return. Six wasn't exactly a religious man, but he knew this thing was otherworldly, perhaps even divine.

Fill

It spoke of his achievements throughout life, the sacrifices and commitments that he had taken up in order to preserve the balance of life. He felt nothing of it, it was merely a duty, nothing to take pride in.

Fill

It told him of his regrets that came out of those sacrifices, the would-have-beens that occur in every man's life. But they were all inevitabilities that were out of his control, and even then he would do them all again for the safety of humanity.

Fill

From his answer, it asked if he would do it even now.

Upon each fill shalt it be destroyed.

A switch flipped inside the machinations of his soul and his mind opened outwards for the spirit to bear upon him. Whispers of power and secrets and magic. Secret societies beget in the olden ways that thrived up until this point.

Heed my Words. My Will creates your body, and your sword creates my Destiny.

A container was placed before him, the closest it could to match his own specialty. Among him lay six others.

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

Sword, spear, bow, steed, rod, madness.

I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world.

And what lay before him was a dagger. Simple steel, nothing out of the ordinary and flawless. The spirit that previously enveloped him granted him flesh, blood, bone, all of which a vessel to house that great spirit it beheld.

That I shall defeat all the evil in the world.

A battle taking place in Japan, the dusk of the 20th century in the city of Fuyuki. There would he fight once more, against several other spirits bearing similar powers. And he would be bound to a Master in order to attain this wish.

Seven Heavens, clad in the three great words of power.

Six looked down at the dagger, taking it in his hands as his body began to glow. There, the information he had seen began to pour into him, taking it as his own as the world began to glow in a brilliant white luminescence.

Come forth from the circle of binding.

From then on, he would answer to his Master to achieve the Holy Grail. A Servant cloaked in the presence concealing crafts that had been gifted to him. Henceforth, he shall cast aside his True Name and answer to a title befitting him for the Holy Grail War of Fuyuki:

Guardian of the Scales!

Assassin.

The light died down and Six, the core of his soul encased in the vessel of a Servant, rose to his feet. His body was encased in a black lightweight, liquid nanocrystal-layered mesh suit and a slim helmet that obscured his face.

The Spartan turned to see an asian man with short brown hair and a muscled build hidden underneath priestly garbs. In his right hand was a set of command seals.

"You," he tilted his head, testing his voice as though it had not been used for an eternity, "Are you my master?"

-oOo-

His name was Kirei Kotomine, a priest whose father would be serving as the Overseer of the 4th Holy Grail War of Fuyuki. Taken in as the apprentice of Tokiomi Tohsaka after the discovery of his Command Seals, learning the basics and workarounds of magecraft.

That was all the information that Assassin had been provided, nothing really mattered to him before that. His master was a fighter, and a tactful one at that.

A Master would rarely ever have the chance to exceed the abilities of a Servant, but comparable to any other normal man and Kirei was on a league of his own. Assassin recognized a killer when he saw one, and his Master was no exception.

The Spartan could feel the prana from Kirei flowing into him, and even though he hadn't even considered the possibility of magecraft even existing up until his summoning, he considered the link perfectly stable and of adequate quantity.

"Assassin," the baritone voice of his Master seemed to boom throughout the room as the three men stood in silence, "I would prefer if you'd leave us for now, I must speak with my mentor."

Six merely nodded and dispersed into spirit form, leaving the priest and the magus to themselves.

Tokiomi turned to his apprentice with an interested glint in his eye, "My, it appears you've summoned quite an interesting Servant, Kirei."

"It would appear so," the priest said as the clicker-clacker of what could only be described as a magus' fax machine began to type up another paper for the Tohsaka patriarch, "Any more news from that fiendish machine of yours?"

Tokiomi merely chuckled to himself and deftly sliced the paper at the ends, eyes running through the runic texts as he began to translate it, "Merely more information on Masters partaking in the war."

Kirei nodded at the information, having been unsatisfied by the questions that the very existence that was Kiritsugu Emiya had formed for him, "Anything in particular?"

He shook his head, "It's merely a compiled summary of what we'll be dealing with in the coming war. Damned fools, they send me all the information I require before they send me the cliff notes?"

Tokiomi turned back to Kirei after muttering his curses, "What about you, Kirei? Tell me about your Servant."

"What would you like to know?"

"What do you have to tell me?" Tokiomi questioned back, "You know how the plan will be. Regardless of what happens, Assassin will die in the coming war to further along our goal."

Kirei hummed to himself, leaning on the back wall with his arms crossed before looking back up, "He said he was a Spartan."

"A Spartan? Are you sure that was what he said?"

"He insisted that I would refer to him as such if Assassin did not suffice," Kirei answered.

That was news to the magus, not outright concerning news, but still news nonetheless. This wasn't Hassan-i-Sabbah, which created a whole new set of considerations to factor in. And there weren't many notable Laconians during the battle of Thermopylae, narrowing the 300 down to specifically King Leonidas.

However… why not name themselves as such if that were the case? Aside from that was the class he had been summoned into. Tokiomi would've expected the Lancer class to have been a more suitable contender for him, or perhaps even the theoretical Shielder class that existed within the scripts of the Holy Grail War's first conception.

Spartan or not, Assassin or not, it mattered little. So long as everything went according to plan. And with the catalyst at hand, victory was assured.

"There's no cause for concern, Kirei," Tokiomi placed the parchment back on the table, "As long as Assassin can fulfill his end of the plan, I can assure you the failure to summon Hassan will mean little."

Whether or not that was meant to ease any of Kirei's discomforts, the stoic priest didn't show it. He turned back to his mentor, "And what if my Servant possessed a power that could go beyond your plans?"

Tokiomi looked back at Kirei with that same curious glint in his eye, the telling of a magi on the verge of discovering something unknown, "Oh? Is there something you're not telling me?"

Kirei shook his head, "No, merely weighing whether or not this information would be relevant to the plans, but it can achieve both methods of eliminating any suspicions of us keeping an alliance and continue to have a Servant to keep watch of any… opposing parties."

"In that case, my apprentice, do tell."

And so he did.

-oOo-

Shortly after, Kirei emerged to see Tokiomi's daughter, Rin if he remembered correctly, hefting what appeared to be a heavy set of luggage. Deciding to speak with her, their conversation was brief, though the words of the priest would change the way Rin would later see him. Short and to the point, their exchange would mark a turning point.

Nevertheless, the young mage had more important things to worry about.

"Hrrrr…!" Rin grunted, trying to pull the luggage out of the house and into their car. The little girl pushed the words of that dumb priest out of her head and focused on the priorities at hand, 'Stupid adolescent muscles can't even lift this damn suitcase!'

Minutes passed and after the struggle she had put into to reach the car…

She finally made it out of the house.

"Gah!" Rin growled and slumped over onto the porch. Despite her adolescent age, she knew full well that she was rightfully pissed off, but more-so worried for her father than he was for her. They'd be safe with relatives and yet he had to stay here with some total stranger.

"Hey, you need help with that?" another deep voice, but this one sounded strangely foreign. The little girl turned around to see a giant towering over her.

The giant dressed up like Kirei sans the cross around his neck, but the clothes he wore seemed a bit too… tight on him. Maybe this was an associate of his that her father had omitted to tell her for reasons that she would've trusted him with anyway.

Rin's face soured into a scowl at the revelation of another damn priest in her presence before turning away, "I can do this on my own, I don't need your help."

Seconds passed before she heard the door behind her finally close, it was obvious that even as a child, her prestige as a Magus was something to be highly respecte-

"Woah!" Rin yelped, landing on her rear as she felt her luggage be pulled out from behind her, the loss of her makeshift stand causing gravity to grab hold of her once more and claim yet another victim.

Finding herself seated on the steps still, she shook her head to see that same giant of a man with her own luggage slung over his shoulder. Of course, she gave chase to the thief that had taken what was rightfully hers, "Hey, let go of that right now!"

"You're not strong enough," without missing a beat, the giant turned back to her as he continued his way forward and out of the manor. Rin gave chase to the giant lumbering towards the car to find him placing her suitcase into the trunk.

Rin stopped running as she caught up to the man, steps faltering to simple walking as she watched this mysterious man approach her mother. She turned to look at the car to see her luggage neatly placed among the rest going with them.

The man glanced out the corner of his eye just to see Rin look away from him with a pouty look on her face, he paid her no mind and turned back towards the house.

"Oh, hello there," a soft voice spoke to his left. A dark-haired young woman appeared from his peripheral vision, "Have we met before?"

He turned to face her, getting better look before shaking his head. The man strode closer to her, closing the trunk next to her as they began to converse, "I'm afraid not, miss. I'm merely helping out your husband and Kirei for the rest of the Grail War."

She tilted her head slightly, "Oh? Tokiomi didn't tell me about you."

"I'm a… recent addition," twelve hours recent, to be exact.

She seemed to catch on to the nature of his appearance, nodding as she now spoke in a hushed tone, "Ah, so you're Assassin?"

Assassin nodded, "And you must be Tokiomi's wife, Aoi Tohsaka, if I remember correctly," he held out his hand, to which she took.

"That would be correct. I... " her voice faltered, "I hope you keep my husband safe."

Assassin frowned and considered this for a moment, looking down and pondering the thought before slowly nodding to her, "I will do my best to keep my Master and your husband out of harm's way, ma'am."

The wife of Tokiomi bowed her head with a smile, thanking him and wishing him good luck during the Holy Grail War as she and Rin finally got into the car and drove off.

The third-gen Spartan slowly raised an arm and waved, half hoping that the woman would see him in the rearview mirror, despite his face ever unchanging however. As soon as they disappeared from sight, he did as well, taking to his spirit form and following after his Master. It didn't take him long to find the man with Tokiomi once more, this time the two looking over the fossilized skin of what appeared to be a snake.

They spoke of it as a catalyst to summon a Servant that was sure to bring them victory alongside the peculiarity that was himself, the two planning their use for this future Servant and the presently summoned Assassin.

Assassin merely listened for only a brief moment before leaving, letting the two have their conversation in private and instead continued to keep watch over the manor. It was not his place to know their plan without their consent. Although, Tokiomi seemed… frustrated.

In the meantime, however, the Servant continued his watch, keeping his wish for the Holy Grail at the back of his mind until the time being. Until then, he had a job to do, one that he could not afford to fail.

-oOo-

Well this was quite a… roundabout development. Tokiomi sat back in his chair as he pondered the circumstances of his Servant's summoning.

Perhaps there was an error in the catalyst. It was said to summon the most powerful hero in history, the relation coming from the shed skin of a snake.

He had meant to summon Gilgamesh, but he had failed… yet at the same time this was a development that the magus couldn't exactly be disappointed by.

Archer stood beside him as the battle against Assassin had come to a grisly conclusion, his body strewn about the garden as he finally faded away. The battlefield, however small it may have been, was littered to the brim with craters. As though Assassin had picked a fight with the sky itself and had died to the lightning it responded with.

Knowing the Heroic Spirit that was Archer, this wasn't too far off.

Anyone else watching this development would've come to the conclusion that Assassin was eliminated from the war. It would've been natural to assume so as the familiars that watched the manor witnessed the Servant of shadows fade away into nothingness.

"The deed is done, Master," Archer said, lowering the bow in his hands and letting it disperse in a haze of prana.

"Excellent work, Archer," the magus nodded dully, looking at the glass of wine in his hand, "One of the most important steps has finally been fulfilled."

Archer knew full well that his Master had not intended on summoning him, their interactions together had told him all he needed to know. But that didn't stop him from taking arms for his new Master, who laid out the plans carefully before him.

"Master," he began, the gargantuan man staring down at his much frailer and much shorter contractor, "I understand why yourself and this allied Master are working together, but was this part of the plan truly necessary?"

This snapped Tokiomi out of his thoughts as he stared back up at Archer, his size reminding him of the summoning, seeing that the Servant was far taller than anything he expected to call forth.

Luckily, the magus had the funds to fix the basement ceiling, and he could easily hypnotize any workers to forget the witnessing of his workshop.

Nevertheless, Tokiomi Tohsaka closed his eyes, "It was necessary to show our foes that the Servant of the Tohsaka family is not something to be taken lightly, Assassin merely obeyed the whims of his Master, my apprentice, to carry out my assassination."

"So it would've appeared disingenuous if Assassin had been ordered to fake an assassination and allow me to simply let him go," Archer caught on, crossing his arms and closing his eyes in contemplation, "I do admit the commitment is admirable, my lord, but I must ask once more if his death was absolutely necessary?"

Tokiomi rose from his seat, "Do not be fooled by the presence concealing skills of the Assassin class, Archer. Your ally still lives, if only for a temporary time until the end of the Grail War."

"Temporary ally?" the low and gravelly voice of the Bow Servant merely shook his head in amusement, "My Master, are you suggesting that you would have me work with that man?"

Assassin was an oddity even by the standards of every other Servant summoned in past Grail Wars, if the records are anything to go by. From what Kirei was able to tell him, the Servant was well-suited for close combat just as much as they are for shadowy silent murders.

"Kirei would keep him in line with Command Seals if absolutely necessary," Tokiomi answered, "Would this bother you?"

Archer merely looked out the window at the crater where Assassin's corpse had once lied in, "I have worked with many men over the years of my life, I've sailed with cutthroats and killers that served alongside me as loyally as any other friend would. Working alongside Assassin will be of no trouble to me, but I will admit it would pain me to fight against him should it ever happen."

"I see…" Tokiomi whispered to himself before looking back up to his Servant, "And what will you do now?"

The giant turned his head, eyes glazing over as though looking off into the distance, "I sense a battle taking place in the distance. Perhaps there's a Servant brazen enough to challenge the might of their rivals."

He looked back at his Master, a sly smile strangely befitting the Servant's face, "I will return soon, Master. Use a Command seal if there's any issue."

With that, the muscled Archer disappeared, leaving Tokiomi all by his lonesome. The magus sighed to himself as he pushed his glass away, looking out into the courtyard in thought.

He failed to summon the King of Heroes, and better yet summoned a Heroic Spirit with the highest potential of independence even from their own contract. Still, this complication could still work in his favor despite the obvious identity of his own Servant.

Wishing for a specific Servant seemed so much more simple on paper, but apparently the magus in red got more than he bargained for. Tokiomi wanted to be disappointed by the results he had gotten, but for some strange reason he couldn't help but not.

How could he? No other Servant can stand up against the most renowned hero in all of myth.

-oOo-

Kirei Kotomine returned to the Church, gaining admission after the defeat of his Servant. Such were the rules of the Holy Grail War, the grounds of neutral territory were resolute as the men and women that held domain over its security.

The younger man sat down on a nearby pew as the older man, his father Risei Kotomine, left. Silently muttering an Our Father, he contemplated the circumstances of the first official battle of the Holy Grail War. The explosive sounds of mana infused arrows rending the flesh and bone from the Servant's body as he died in a hail of primitive ammunition still fresh on his mind.

There it was, that strange urge in the back of his head again. Kirei grimaced at the satisfaction that he felt from it. Forcing down the feeling, he listed off the next part of the plans in his head...

And how he'll have to continue carrying out Tokiomi's orders in secrecy.

"Assassin, you can come out now," said the Executor. In a haze of grey, the taller man reappeared before him, not a single scratch on his body and still in the same condition as the day he was summoned.

"What? Not even a 'Sorry?'," Assassin's composure was relaxed, perhaps a bit irritated from the circumstances that had afflicted him prior, "I understand the nature of the plan now, sir, but was the use of my Noble Phantasm really that necessary for this?"

The man watched as Assassin tossed aside the fake skull mask of the traditional Hassan-i-Sabbah. The hard ceramic clattering across the room as the Servant looked down at his Master.

"It was imperative that you carry out the order without hesitation or deviation. Tokiomi was aware of the situation and acted accordingly to any threats carried out, ruse or not," Kirei explained, rising from his seat and meeting the man eye to eye, "I apologize for the act, but this will allow us more secrecy and erase any notions of the alliance myself, Tokiomi, and my father share."

Seconds passed and Assassin didn't move from his spot, merely staring at Kirei as though contemplating the answer given to him. Before Kirei would voice any more concern, however, he watched as the Servant reached his hands up and grasped at the edges of his helmet.

Kirei watched as his Servant was unmasked before him, the first thing he noticed was the eyes, cold and distant orbs hidden behind a mask of dark irises. His face was neutral yet hardened like any other soldier, if his claims of being a Spartan are to be believed. Nevertheless, his face matched the rest of his build: the apex of physicality and fortitude.

He spoke, this time his voice much more clear without that helmet blaring that slightly static tone, his tone was concise and without inflection, speaking his next words as the absolute truth, "The next time you sic another demigod on me will be your last, Master."

With that being said, the air between them seemed to suddenly clear. Placing the helmet back over his head, Assassin slowly nodded and turned back, "I sense something going on in the distance."

"Something?"

Assassin turned back to Kirei as though nothing between them had happened. Perhaps the Servant didn't make a habit of taking things personally.

"A sort of beckoning presence, it's definitely a Servant," perhaps a challenge then? "Your orders?"

"Gather as much information as you can on this Servant," Kirei's eyes narrowed as he lowered his head in thought, "As well as any other Servants that so happen to accept their 'invitation'. Fight only if absolutely necessary."

"What about Archer?" Assassin queried, "It's likely he'll want to fight as well."

"Merely observe," the Executor reaffirmed his orders, "Archer is under Tokiomi's jurisdiction, any issues and he'll use a Command Seal."

Kirei was met with silence once more before Assassin disappeared. The Executor and Master of the Holy Grail War sat down once more onto the pew before the altar. His mind void of a prayer as the thoughts of battle ran through his head.

The Fourth Holy Grail War has finally begun.