Been a little while, hasn't it? Unfortunately, real life takes priority over fanfiction, and I've had a pretty busy year thus far. That being said, I'm hoping to have a bit more time to write in the near future. I guess we'll see.

This chapter is a little less epic than the previous chapter, and a little shorter, but it's important nonetheless. I will probably be losing some readers after the second half, but hopefully people will have some small amount of faith. I'm going to give something resembling an explanation at the end, since I don't want to spoil it at the beginning.

No flashback this chapter, since it isn't about Harry. It takes place at approximately the same time as the last chapter.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Rin bit her lip as she stared down at the map. It really was a masterpiece. It could only center on a small area, but it could show Servants in that area. The location showed by the map could be changed by use of the gem she'd enchanted. The moment the gem touched the document, it would draw out the last location a Servant had been summoned and monitor there instead.

Though she could see four Servant signatures on the map, she couldn't see the fight itself, so she could only imagine how it was going, and she guessed that it wasn't going well. Saber was very strong, there was no question about that, and her Noble Phantasm was, quite possibly empowered by the most famous legend of their time. Still, three Servants?

She clenched her hands into fists. Her friend, her one and only friend, might very well die today. She didn't even know how three Servants could be summoned all at once. She wished she had more information on the War. Unfortunately, her father had complied with the Mage's Association's command and sealed everything related to the Grail War, even for her.

She glanced at a table near the door for the tenth time. An innocent blue box sat atop it. It was small, no larger than her palm. Her troll of a teacher had dropped it off just an hour before Harry had showed up. Generally, his 'gifts' tended to blow up in her face. Last time she'd opened one, it had turned her skin blue for a week. Still, maybe…

She glanced back at the map, before firming her resolve. Saber would be pissed with her, but there really wasn't any other options. She stood and made her way to the small box. She closed her eyes and, with a prayer that it wasn't just another prank by her teacher, pulled it open. When nothing seemed to go wrong, she hesitantly opened her eyes. Inside the box was a single hair.

She smiled faintly. "Thank you." She murmured before she reached out with a shaky hand and picked up the hair. She gasped as blood suddenly leaked from the back of her hand, command seals carving themselves into her flesh. Her prana poured out from her circuits unbidden, mixing with foreign energies to coalesce into an intricate circle before her.

An explosion of power shook the room and filled it with smoke. The gem in her pocket chimed, though she couldn't hear it over the summoning. The cloud lingered for a moment as Rin recovered from the burst of energy that had thrown her to the ground. As the veil of smoke began to clear, a powerful voice spoke.

"Oh, this little girl is to be my Master? Haha! Yet another challenge the gods have placed before me! Very well, I am Servant Saber, and we shall win this glorious battle together!"

Rin clenched her fist at the insult. She'd been about to shout at her new Servant, regardless of his size, when he spoke his Class.

"Servant Saber? No, that can't be!"

"You question me?" The hulking man demanded, obviously quick to anger. He was clad in lion fur, and stood taller and broader than any man Rin had ever seen before, over eight feet in height. He had enormous muscles, showing his obviously immense strength.

"Would you just shut up for a second?" She snapped as she retrieved the map from where it had been blown by the summoning. Sure enough, only three figures glowed upon the map. She paled as she saw it. Was Saber really gone? Was Harry gone as well?

"Girl, though you may have summoned me, you had best tread more carefully." The man glared at her. "You might be my Master, but I will not tolerate such disrespect!"

Rin whirled on him. She raised her arm, command seals glowing, before she lowered it and exhaled deeply to release her stress. Wasting a command seal on this little argument would be pointless, and it would only infuriate the Servant even more.

"I'm sorry." She sighed. "It's just that my friend summoned Saber before, and now I'm worried that he might be dead."

The Heroic Spirit frowned down at her for a moment before nodding. "Out of concern for your comrade, I will ignore your insult just this once." He paused. "Why would you bother allying with another Master? There is no being who can stand against my power! We do not need lesser allies to claim this Grail!"

Rin felt her anger rise, before forcing herself to calm. "It's more complicated than that. The Grail is corrupted. This whole war is wrong, and if anyone wins, the result will be catastrophic. The whole world could be destroyed. My friend's been trying to stop it for a long time, but he's in over his head this time. We have to help hi…"

Rin's voice trailed off as she felt the gem ring once more. She reached for the gem in her pocket, as she glanced down at the map. The Servants were still there. What's more, there was a fourth Servant now. Moments later, she was stunned as two more images appeared. These were much duller than the bright lights that normal Servants had on the map.

"What the hell is going on?" She wondered aloud. "Never mind." She shook her head and looked up at the famous hero before her. "I need to get to Stonehenge as fast as possible. Can you help me?"

The demigod looked down at the little girl who had summoned him with an appraising eye. She did not look like much, true, but perhaps she could surprise him. The fire in her eyes earlier suggested that she might have some potential as a Master.

"Very well." He easily lifted her and shot out the door, ignoring her screams as he crashed through the wall with barely a blink, racing towards the stone circle.

As they grew closer to their destination, they saw what looked, from a distance, to be glowing rain. It wasn't long before Rin made out what they really were. Small bolts of lightning raining down from the clear sky. One of the Servants apparently possessed a very powerful Noble Phantasm.

Rin shivered slightly at the sight. Really, she was in no way prepared for this War. Her Servant chuckled aloud.

"Worry not, my tiny Master. No harm shall come to you while I am your Servant." He boasted.

But before Rin could reply, a blinding flash split the sky, shearing away the darkness with its golden brilliance. Only one weapon she'd ever seen possessed such pure majesty.

"Thanks." She sighed, a smile upon her lips. "But you can slow down now. My friend is fine, apparently."

"Oh? Such a powerful Noble Phantasm." The man said, clearly interested. He had stopped to observe the light. "Your friend must be strong to possess such a powerful Servant."

"Yeah, he is. And he's got some explaining to do." Rin decided as her eyes settled upon the visage of her friends.

Thousands of miles away

Brown eyes glared hatefully at the open doors to the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Their possessor scowled as she limped past them, ignoring the happy occupants. Of course, no one noticed her absence. They never had. She scowled at the memories that plagued her constantly.

Hermione Granger had not had a pleasant four years at Hogwarts. It had all gone wrong during her very first week. She'd failed to make any friends, her knowledge too intimidating for any of the imbeciles in Gryffindor. Her books had made it out to be a house of heroes, but it was more of a box of ignorant buffoons.

She'd been a complete outcast from the beginning, and that was before Quirrell had decided to take advantage of her loneliness. Oh, he hadn't been interested in her personally. No, he'd just needed a researcher that wouldn't be missed. She was a muggleborn student without a single friend. He'd cast a curse upon her that stripped her of her free will. It had been called the Imperius, she'd learned later, and casting it earned an immediate lifetime imprisonment.

Apparently, a powerful artifact had been hidden within the school this year, and Quirrell had wanted it. He'd given her an invisibility cloak and ordered her to figure out how to get past the defenses. She didn't have the necessary knowledge to study what he needed, so he'd forced the memories into her mind. Apparently, if her mind had been any less naturally organized, it probably would have broken her completely, but he hadn't cared. He'd outright told her that she was just an experiment for him. She'd been lucky enough to survive it and immediately went to work as his curse compelled her.

Her immature mind had… fractured under the strain. The Imperius alone would have caused severe damage, but the memories on top of it had very nearly destroyed her. She was mentally unstable, prone to periods of getting lost in her own head. Still, the curse had control over her, and she'd done her job.

The entrance to the forbidden corridor had been locked by a highly advanced sealing spell. It had actually been an amalgamation of several runic designs, expertly tuned to fit together perfectly. She'd managed to figure out a solution with her fractured, yet still brilliant, mind that stepped outside the designs. Only an equally insane mind could have figured out her solution.

There was a silent alarm built into the door, and it was only her invisibility cloak that had saved her. Even the vaunted Albus Dumbledore had been unable to detect her while she was wearing it. She'd managed to figure out how to circumvent that as well, but only after Quirrell had punished her for being caught. That Cruciatus curse was the most painful thing she'd ever experienced.

The hellhound that guarded the trapdoor was naturally almost immune to magic, and was difficult to get past by most means. The room itself was enchanted to be silent, making the beasts' usual weakness useless. It required a specially enchanted instrument to bypass, one that would be at a frequency that the dog could hear, but that the wards would not suppress. She'd nearly lost her leg to the beast. She still limped from the wound, and probably would for the rest of her life.

Anyone who merely jumped down the trapdoor while unprepared was doomed to death. The especially violent crossbreed of Devil's Snare and a plant called the Dragonbreath weed could smother a human in seconds, and occupied almost ten cubic feet at the bottom of the pit. Any light in the room would cause the evil plant to catch fire, incinerating the victim. The plant would grow back in seconds. It required a correctly timed burst of light to burn the plant and pass by it without being caught by the rapidly regrowing plant. The wards only allowed for a single spell every minute, granting only a single chance to get through. They would also nullify any long lasting spells or enchantments. Of course, a broom allowed her the time to understand the timing right.

The next room had been no challenge at all. The room had effectively been enchanted to have no gravity, the walls, ceiling, and floor replaced with a three dimensional illusion of outer space, filled with winged keys. There had been compulsions woven in to distract, dissuade, or even knock her unconscious. However, her mental damage was so great that she completely ignored them. She simply selected the correct key to the door onwards and left, ignoring the keys that attempted to perforate her. It had been interesting enough, but bringing a broom was hardly a challenge.

The next room was simply annoying. She had to play fifteen games of Wizard's Chess, collecting a surviving piece each time. Then she had to play a life sized game, with herself as the sixteenth piece. If she lost a single game, or was unable to select enough pieces to have a proper collection of chess pieces, then every single piece would come to life, grow to life size, and attack her at once. Hermione had never possessed any particular chess skills, but after a week of nonstop studying, she easily completed the test. It was quite fortunate that the rules for passing on were engraved on one of the walls. While it might have been easier to move on without completing the test, they had employed a Geas on the doorway. To move onward, one must have completed the final chess game.

The next room was filled with monsters of every kind, but her invisibility cloak allowed her to sneak past them. Apparently, it had also been designed to suppress her scent.

The next room was filled with potions. Flames filled the doorway both onward and backward, blocking her passage. Another geas was on this room, guaranteeing that the way out was in the room, in exchange from preventing anyone from entering or exiting in any other manner. There was a difficult riddle that allowed the reader to discern the identities of each potion. It had taken a four foodless and sleepless days of studying the potion texts she'd stolen from the Forbidden Section, but she'd managed to figure out that by mixing specific amounts of five of the thirteen potions, it would make a special flame freezing potion.

She'd been ordered to leave the last room to Quirrell, so she'd left, giving him all of the info she'd discovered. He'd laughed, a high cold sound that sent shivers down her spine. He said that no one would even notice her absence, but that he'd allow her to live for her service. True enough, no one had even noticed that she hadn't been there. They only paid attention to her while she was there. If she happened not to attend class, the teachers wouldn't even notice.

So she stopped. Her one goal was discarded in favor of scouring the Library for further dark magic. She had been hooked, and there was no way she was giving it up. Furthermore, she'd grown to hate everyone she'd come in contact with. Maybe she hadn't made any close friends, but to not notice her being gone for months?

The dark magic fueled her emotions, just as her emotions fueled the magic. It wasn't until the end of the school year, when she slipped out with the rest of the students. The time with her loving parents seemed to wash away the hate. Oh, it didn't do a thing to fix her, but it certainly made her feel better.

Year after year, everything went the same. She delved deeper into magic at school, reveling in her access to the Forbidden Section by way of her invisibility cloak. Her hate only intensified as everyone completely ignored her. When she did show herself, she suffered only disdain as the other students looked down upon her for not interacting like everyone else.

Her parents were the only bright spots in her life. That is, until last year…

Hermione bit back a sob, her nails drawing blood as they dug into her palms. She limped to the seventh floor. One of the house elves had shown her the Room of Requirement when she had gone down to the kitchens for a meal. When she laid waste to the whole society, she'd definitely kill them last.

As she paced back and forth in front of the empty wall, she thought about the events earlier in the week. One of the foreign students had summoned a powerful wizard. Then that boy had appeared. Harry Potter, the so-called hero, who had supposedly gone missing years ago. He'd had magnificent power. She didn't know if, even with all her studies, she could have damaged Hogwarts itself with such ease.

Oh, she could take down the castle easily enough. Her preferred spell would probably be the tunnel-breaker, a long forbidden spell that had once ended a goblin revolution. And killed an entire goblin city, but that was besides the point. The spell would collapse the dungeons beneath the ancient structure, destroying the foundations it stood upon. Less flashy, perhaps, but still quite destructive. Regardless, her point was that summoning someone as powerful as that man and woman would be quite useful.

As she mused on the subject, her normal thoughts began to creep up. Thoughts of destruction and annihilation. Thoughts of making everyone just as miserable as she was herself. It wasn't long before the door materialized.

The Room was in a configuration she'd seen several times. After all, rituals were much easier to perform in a prepared room, and the Room of Requirement was perfect. An unfamiliar magic circle was drawn in blood on the ground. There was a pedestal with instructions for the ritual.

The glanced at the papers on the stand, telling her how to perform a summoning ritual. Sitting on an altar just on the other side of the circle was an aged tome, possibly the oldest she'd ever seen. It had the word Aeaea emblazoned across the ancient cover.

She glanced at the instructions again, before throwing caution to the winds. What did she have to lose?

Hermione memorized the ten long lines on the page before her, before stepping forward. She extended her wand towards the circle and poured magic through it as she recited the chant. Light radiated from the circle, becoming almost blinding in intensity as she finished the ritual. A sharp pain carved itself into the back of her hand.

There was an explosion of power and smoke obscured her vision for a moment. Hermione, thrown back by the blast but unshaken, waved her wand and it vanished instantly. Standing in the middle of the circle was a tall woman. She had unearthly beauty, and wore rather unusual clothing. She tapped a wand against her thigh as she examined Hermione.

"So, you're my summoner?" The woman looked the young witch over with a haughty eye. "I suppose you'll do."

Hermione grinned wickedly. This was perfect. She threw her head back and let out a mad cackle. She could feel the strength of this woman's magic. She'd be perfect. The fools of the Wizarding World would regret the day they ignored Hermione Granger!

Well, if anyone is still reading, they probably hate me for doing this to Hermione. Despite what it seems, I'm actually a big fan of her. She will be pretty awesome here. She'll also be more than a little insane. In FSN terms, she basically has Mental Pollution D+. Possibly more. Voldemort did quite a bit of harm to her, more than is listed here. More on that will come during her next segment.

For any questions that you might have, such as why the Stone's defenses were much more dangerous, and why no one noticed Hermione's absence, remember that this whole segment was from her POV. More will come later. Voldemort's reasons will be explained later as well.

As for the new characters introduced here, I'm curious to see what people think. There should be enough clues to figure out their identities. If anyone asks, I'll tell them outright, it's not exactly a secret. I'm doing what I can to pick insanely strong Servants. If anyone has stat sheet or Noble Phantasm suggestions for the two Servants here, feel free to let me know. Also, if anyone would like to suggest a powerful Assassin class Servant, please do, since that's the only one that I'm not entirely satisfied with my current selection for.

Next time will be some actual explanations.

Please review! I was surprised how little feedback I got about the last chapter. Any suggestions on abilities for Arturia's Knights would be appreciated.