Author's Note: Alright, so.. its been years, huh? The real Author's note is gonna be at the bottom, cuz its pretty long, and I know how we all hate long ANs at the top of the chapter. I'm a bit rusty.

Epic Of Remnant

Chapter One: Vintage Misery

Everything was agony.

Even if that wasn't the right way to say it, well, that didn't matter. Everything hurt. Every moment in existence was nothing but pure suffering.

She couldn't breathe. She couldn't see. She couldn't hear, or smell, or taste, or feel.

Yet at the same time, she could, but it was pure, burning pain.

She should've prepared more. She shouldn't have messed around. Because of her, they were in this mess.

And Chaldea was now down to a single Master.

Darkness, writhing and furious, coiled around her, filling her body and mind. Devouring her. Her Servants, wherever they were in conjunction to her, were most likely suffering the same way. Maybe worse, maybe less so.

Wasting her Command Seals to let her Servants spam their Noble Phantasms was a mistake, now she didn't have enough to save them all. Only a single one left. She was worthless.

"C'mon Master, you don't really think that, right? I mean, I'm probably worth way less than you, and I'm a Servant!"

A voice. Youthful, cocky, and relaxed. Unbelievably relaxed considering the situation.

"This is nothin', sure, it hurts like hell.. but I've felt worse, and then some. Dunno how long I'll last though. But you could help me save everyone, right? C'mon babe, you're way tougher than this."

The nickname made her twitch, feeling nostalgic. Fond. Affectionate. And yet also a tad bit annoyed.

But she couldn't do anything. She was useless. She was weak. Lost amidst the sea of primordial darkness, the dark oceans of Tiamat, her body was being twisted and consumed, slowly.

"Oi oi, best make up your mind now Master. If you're gone, I won't be able to hold on much longer. You want to save everyone, right? I'll save everyone for you Master. Just wish for it. I told you I'd give you as many as you want, no matter what, right?"

...

Slowly, her consciousness stirred. Something in her shifted. Her body, broken and slowly merging with the eldritch sea of voices and darkness, began to move as she weakly raised her right arm, or what was left of it, towards the sky, wherever it was. Though her body had become a twisted, horrifying mess, her single remaining Command Seal remained a bright and vibrant red.

She remembered faces. A boy with black hair and teal eyes with a calm smile. A girl with pale lavender hair and eyes, bashful and sweet. So many other faces of varying races, origins and ages.

A black skinned man wearing a skull mask who always helped her with a fatherly patience.

A howling armored figure she always tried to soothe and calm down.

A scowling white haired man she always wrote about so he wouldn't forget anything.

...a dark skinned and tattooed youth she felt unbearably close to, his cocky grin and self-depreciative attitude always getting a rise out of her.

"...b-by.. t-the power of my Command Seal... I-I order you.. Avenger.. please.."

Teary and unfocused orange eyes slowly sharpened as Chaldea's second Master forced herself to speak through the agony.

"Save us."

And suddenly, everything was darkness, cold, empty..

..and she felt familiar arms embrace her from behind.

"I gotcha Master. Your wish has been received."

And with that, she let go.

Cold, yellow eyes slowly opened, and were greeted by darkness. Had he gone blind?

No, he hadn't, he soon discovered as he lifted an arm up and saw his hand move into his field of vision. His dark skin, the same shade as ashes, and the black material of his sleeves.

Slowly, he sat up, raising a hand up to his head and began to feel for the buzz cut style of his snowy white hair. Odd, his hair seemed to have gotten a bit longer. Not much, but enough that it was noticeable. His eyes narrowed as he took in the rest of his appearance. His clothes were intact. Scratch that, his body was intact, but he felt thinner, smaller even, that wasn't right. The last thing he remembered.. which is something he fails to even attempt at unless it was a combat situation.. was...

-he launched off the side of the Underworld's cliffs as he reached out to an orange haired girl, her eyes wide and horrified as something from the depths of the writhing sea grabbed her, three figures following behind him-

That. Right. Tiamat snagged his Master and then in a panic, him and three others dived in after her. And then it was.. what? What happened after that?

Slowly, the man once known as Emiya Shirou, now simply an alternate, or perhaps inevitable version of the Counter Guardian EMIYA, shut his eyes. His mind felt oddly clear even though he also felt sluggish, and sore, like something took him apart and put him back together again.

"So you have awoken."

The familiarity of that voice, which once again was something he wasn't used to, was the only thing that kept him from tracing his modified Kanshou and plugging a bullet in the source. Slowly, Emiya turned to his left, and found one of the few Servants he worked best with.

One of the Old Men of the Mountain, the Hassan I' Sabbah who bore the Cursed Arm of Shaytan.

He looked different. Not too much, but enough to be noticeable. He was shorter, not by much but noticeably so, which was saying something considering the fact that the Cursed Arm Hassan stood at a rather imposing height of 7 feet when he was upright. Which was rare, he always preferred to be hunched over.

Still, he was shorter by at least a few centimeters, but still taller than Emiya himself for sure.

That wasn't what drew his attention though. The Hashashin's muscle mass seemed to have changed as well. He wasn't as.. emaciated looking as before. He was a bit more filled out. His body actually resembled a living person's for once. His limbs were still much longer than average, but he looked less twisted in a way. His mask, as usual, was still that grinning skull mask that somehow changed expressions depending on how he tilted his head. And his right arm was still covered completely in the black wrappings to keep Shaytan's arm at bay.

Even Emiya had to admit that in the pitch black darkness of this world, the Hassan looked rather intimidating, especially since that with how dark the tone of his skin and clothes were, his mask was the only thing completely visible, like a grinning reaper.

"Cursed Arm. What happened?"

"I do not know myself, Emiya Shirou. We appear to be in a realm of nothingness, perhaps a form of Neraka for people such as ourselves. I have attempted wandering away from this spot, yet my feet always find themselves wandering back here without my notice." The black skinned Assassin tilted his head down, the eye sockets of his mark forming narrowed slits from his positioning. "All I can tell is that whatever this place is, it is the work of a Servant. Almost like.. a Reality Marble."

"A Reality Marble? This?" Emiya's lips thinned, ignoring how the Assassin said his full name. His old name. He was just an Archer now, but people usually respected that he didn't like being called it due to how different he was from who he used to be. So they usually just called him either Archer or Emiya. Never Shirou. Of course, some insisted on calling him his full name, either out of some strange form of respect, or just to mess with him. Whichever way this Hassan was using it, he had no idea.

"Indeed. The.. make up of the Prana in the air suggests it is one, from what little I have seen of other Reality Marbles. Specifically the King of Conqueror's. Yours is projected differently, so I could not analyze that. But I am not a Caster, I am not well-versed in studying these sorts of magic. All I have are assumptions."

"So who's is it then is the question." The white haired gunslinger sighed as he looked around the world of darkness. There really was nothing here. Just vast shadows, a void of sound and sight, a crumpled armored form, and no horizon in the-wait.

His head snaps further to his right to find a familiar dark purple, almost bordering on black, armored figure crumpled on the inky black floor, his body still.

Even in this darkness, that dark armor was far too distinct and unique to mistaken for anyone else.

The Berserker who was once the greatest knight of the Round Table, Lancelot of the Lake.

The red glow that was always visible in the slit of his helm was gone, and the wispy violet horsetail that protruded from the back of his helmet was slack, flattened on the ground.

'So that's who the second person that jumped in after us was..' Emiya narrowed his eyes. He was familiar with working with the Berserker as well. While he worked well with the Cursed Arm Hassan especially well due to their shared methodology of quickly and efficiently taking out threats, he also worked surprisingly well with this utterly insane Berserker. He was a good meat shield, and with his Eternal Arms Mastery, Emiya was able to supply Lancelot with his own uniquely modified Noble Phantasms to give the Berserker a greater edge in battle.

"So how long's he been out like a light?"

"Ever since I awoke myself. I am not sure how long ago that was. Time seems to have no meaning here. I have yet to see his awakeni-ah."

As if on cue, the armored form of Lancelot began to shift and stir. Immediately, the other two Servants tensed up, the Hassan drawing out a dagger as he shifted his previously sitting stance into a low crouch, while Emiya quickly traced his modified Kanshou and Bakuya, training them onto the Berserker's form. With the explosive fury of the Knight of the Lake, one couldn't be too careful.

One of the black knight's clawed gauntlets slowly began to scratch and grab at the ground, trying to find purchase as the other hand pressed itself flat to the floor, slowly pushing himself up. His helmet clad head slowly bobbed and stirred as he began to look around, groaning. "G-grr... ngah... where.. where am I..?"

Emiya's fingers tensed up on the triggers of his firearms, Cursed Arm slowly shifting his stance beside him. That wasn't right. Lancelot wasn't capable of proper speech, he was so embroiled in his Madness Enhancement that the most he could do was let out single words, most of which was mixed into his screaming.

The dark armored knight slowly got onto his hands and knees, before managing to prop one knee up and pushing himself into a standing position, his armor rattling as he groaned and stretched. The right light of his helmet's visor was still eerily absent.

There was already something utterly 'wrong' about this entire scenario, and now a strangely lucid Lancelot was adding to that feeling.

As if realizing something wasn't quite right with himself, Lancelot suddenly began to paw at his helmet, his posture stiffening. "Wait.. no.. what have I..? Why am I wearing.."

Simple patting and feeling for his helm turned into scrambled scratching and grasping as he struggled to remove his helmet. Emiya almost felt the need to remind the Berserker that he could just dematerialize the helm since they were Servants, but by the time he decided to actually vocalize his idea, the frantic man had already managed to pull off his helmet and toss it to the ground.

The face that greeted the other two Servants was strangely familiar.

It was a youthful one. An eerily young face, with dark violet hair that was combed back into some sort of spiked mullet, pale blue eyes staring out at the world. He was handsome for sure, despite the dark rings under his eyelids and the somber expression on his face, so it wasn't a surprise that Lancelot was known to be quite the successful womanizer back when he was still sane, before he met King Arthur, and subsequently, Queen Guenevere.

The problem was that THIS particular face wasn't meant to be the one under the helm. By this point in life, Lancelot had grown his hair out into long wild locks, and his face was marred with worry lines. He would know, he was one of the ones who had to force that helmet off so that Nightingale could forcefully administer medication in an attempt to try and stabilize or reduce the level of his Madness Enhancement. It obviously didn't work. The fact Emiya even remembered that was also rather alarming since these days anything beyond yesterday was a mere blur to him.

Regardless, this wasn't the face that Lancelot was meant to have. This one was far more similar to the one his Saber equivalent had back in the Camelot Singularity.

As if finally noticing the other two combat ready Servants for the first time, Lancelot's eyes narrowed in confusion as he turned towards them. "...you two are.. Emiya Shirou.. and.. one of the Hashashin.. are you not? What is.. going on?"

The man, or youth's voice was rather scratchy and raspy, perhaps a side effect of how normally, he was screaming his lungs out. Emiya sighed and slowly lowered his guns as Cursed Arm stored away his dagger, finding no threat here. "Yeah, that's us. And you're Lancelot. You're oddly sane for someone who's usually growling and howling."

A twitch of a finger and tick in one of Lancelot's eyelids was the only indication Emiya got that the knight felt any sort of offense from that statement. "Yes.. I am not sure what's happened.. it is.. like a haze was over me, like I have been half asleep and dreaming for a long time.. and then suddenly everything is clear.. what happened? Where are we?"

"To put it bluntly, our Master got too close to the edge of the cliff when we battle Tiamat, and something from within the Goddess' sea of darkness managed to grab her and drag her off." The ebony skinned Assassin began to explain as he slowly sat down again, lightly adjusting his bandaged arm. "Emiya leaped in after her, and then I did, and I remember hearing you screaming as you jumped after us. In hindsight, it was a foolish endeavor for us to jump in after her without any sort of plan, but here we are. All I know is there was a fourth Servant that jumped in after us, but whoever it was is not here."

Lancelot's lips slowly fell into a frown as his brow furrowed. "So that means the Servant either perished.."

"Or managed to find a way out of here." Emiya finished as he dismissed his weapons and slowly crossed his arms. "Not only that, our Master isn't here either. And yet.."

"You can still feel the connection." Cursed Arm tilted his head, receiving a slow nod from Emiya. "I can as well. It seems she is still alive. Whatever her condition is however, I do not know. The connection is faint, but still there."

The three Servants slowly fell into a lull of silence after that, before Lancelot began to look around and shift awkwardly, prompting a dry look from Emiya.

"Don't tell me you have to go to the bathroom or something."

"What? No, of course not, why would you think that?"

"You're shifting like a student busting to empty his bladder. Look the part too if it weren't for the armor."

"What are you talking about?"

Emiya sighed and traced Bakuya. Not exactly a mirror, but its gleaming polished surface would work well enough as he stood up and walked towards Lancelot, before all but shoving the flat end of the gun's blade close to the knight's face. "See? You.. look.."

While Lancelot's eyes widened as he took in his own appearance through the reflection on the blade, Emiya's jaw threatened to drop as he finally stared at his own. The face that greeted him in the blade's mirror-like surface was the last thing he expected, nor wanted, to see.

His hair was messy and spiked, but still cut short enough that none of the bangs entered his field of vision. His face wasn't as defined and squared as before. His eyes were still yellow, and his skin still dark, but the structure of his face was one he hadn't seen in a long, long time.

The Altered Counter Guardian EMIYA stared into his reflection, and the youthful visage of Emiya Shirou stared back.

In a rare moment of shock and comraderie, the two stunned Servants stared at their reflections and slowly uttered to themselves.

"Son of a bitch.

"Good lord in heaven."

Time slowly passed. It could have been hours, or mere minutes, it was hard to tell.

After the shocking revelation that the three Servants had somehow reverted to a younger age, Emiya dryly turned to his Assassin companion and asked the tall Servant why he hadn't said anything. Of course an Assassin had to answer pragmatically.

"Our appearances are far younger than before, however I have seen no difference in our actual Prana levels or any other changes besides our ages. Therefore I did not think it prudent to inform you on this odd detail. It is most likely a side effect from this Reality Marble, or from surviving Tiamat's Ether."

Emiya didn't like that answer, but to be honest, he probably would have done the same thing. Their appearances were not important, though Lancelot seemed to think otherwise since the dark knight was clearly still stunned and occasionally ran his armored hand through his purple hair with a wistful and nostalgic expression.

So here they sat in a circle, wondering, and waiting.

"Whoo, man, talk about a workout!"

The sudden exclamation had them all leaping to their feet, Emiya drawing out Kanshou and Bakuya, Cursed Arm flipping out a dagger, and Lancelot pulling out... his mini-gun.

"Whoa whoa whoa, chill!" The source of the voice yelped out from several feet off to the right side of where Cursed Arm was sitting, a pitch black figure of shadows with wide eyes and black pupils standing there. Slowly, the shadows receded to reveal the heavily tattooed form of the Servant closest to their Master, and the one she always took into battle without exception despite his protests.

The first Avenger, Angra Mainyu.

Seeing the familiar figure, Emiya sighed as he once again dismissed Kanshou and Bakuya, muttering to himself about wasting energy, before he turned to look at Lancelot with a deadpan expression as he gestured towards the knight's mini-gun.

"Isn't that overkill?"

"I-I apologize, I am feeling very out of sorts and jumpy." The suddenly bashful Berserker chuckled nervously as he dismissed his choice of weapon when going all out.

"I'll say, jeez." Angra Mainyu smirked as he walked closer. "Alright, good to see you're all awake, I was coming to get you guys anyway!"

"Considering you appeared from nowhere, I'm guessing you know the way out of here?" Cursed Arm tilted his head, receiving a grin and a cheery thumbs up from the Avenger.

"Of course I do, I made this place!"

"Didn't know you had the power to do that." Emiya narrowed his eyes.

"Well, Command Seals do funky things when you take advantage of what you've got."

The differing levels of stunned expressions the other three Servants developed just made Angra Mainyu's grin widen. "Oh yeah, its all thanks to Master that I managed to make this place. I'm still connected to the Fuyuki Grail, no matter what timeline we're in, but I can't exactly abuse it without enough power. Thanks to Master's last Command Seal though, I managed to force the connection to funnel some power through, and bam! I transported us out of Tiamat's weirdly enticing embrace using an 'On-The-Spot' modified version of my own Reality Marble, and into somewhere.. else."

So that explains the complete darkness, was the collective thought the other three had. Emiya's lips thinned as he suddenly felt foolish. Of course. The only other Servant Gudako had with a Reality Marble was Angra Mainyu. He didn't think to draw that conclusion because the Avenger was both ridiculously weak, and he could only access his main Noble Phantasm, Verg Avesta, when he fought for Chaldea. The Reality Marble he used was another story entirely, something he only ever used and maintained once in another "Sixth" Holy Grail War of Fuyuki, to cause a temporal loop on the city in response to one Bazett Fraga McRemitz' dying wish.

The last part of his explanation drew some concern though.

"What do you mean somewhere 'else'?"

"Wellll.. here's the Good News and Bad News. The Good News is that our lovely Master is safe, and she's being healed and cared for!" The tattooed Servant replied with a toothy grin, before his face slowly fell into a rather sheepish grimace. "The Bad News is that we gotta enroll in this crazy school that teaches kids how to kill monsters for the next few years."

The collective stare of both disdain and confusion from the other three made him fidget, as they all somehow managed to utter one word in complete sync.

"What."

"Look I swear it'll make sense in just a moment."

So... I haven't updated any of my stories in years and then suddenly hey, I'm back, with a new story! I'm sure whoever follows me must be confused. Well, to answer where I've been, I've still been around, if anyone noticed my list of favorite stories slowly growing in size. I have also been more active in my Deviantart account, though I haven't gotten on that in a long while either.

Life has been.. weird, ever since highschool ended. Its tough trying to keep it together when your closest friends, the only ones that actually really motivated you to get through school, all split off to different corners of the country, or even the oceanic region, to chase their dreams and ambitions. Now, being someone with NO ambition to speak of myself, I felt rather listless. I tried enrolling in an art university for a few years, recently dropped out of that a few months ago though due to falling sick too many times in a row and missing certain classes. So, I've found myself completely, and utterly without purpose or drive. I lost the will to mess around on MikuMikuDance or reply to the Digimon roleplay group I've been a part of since highschool, and I essentially became stricken with Apathy Syndrome I guess.

But as I mused and thought to myself and tried to figure out what I wanted, I remembered, well, fanfiction, and that made me think of something I enjoyed more than just making pictures. I loved to make stories. I like writing, and creating characters of my own, in worlds of their own, with their own personalities, dreams, flaws and social networks.

So! I decided to try my hand at becoming an amateur novelist. I'm still in the process of writing the first chapter of my own book, a fantasy themed one following the tale of a young boy living in a world where most of the landmass has devolved into archipelagos and smatterings of small continents, full of fantastical sea creatures and of course, giant monsters. Its only my first novel, so I feel like starting off simple. Starting off with a child friendly story about friendship, overcoming your fears, and seeing the world.

Ahem, in any case, I'm still working on that, and I felt like giving this fanfic idea a try. I'm sure its nothing new. (X) characters from (X) world somehow get transported to Remnant, they join Beacon, etc etc. Its not a new formula and sometimes they all end up the same. I'm probably going to vaguely follow the trend, but hopefully, with my own key uniqueness.

So yeah, as for my reasoning for picking these four Servants specifically, its cuz I rarely see them get proper love in Fate. At first, the original concept of this Fanfic was going to be one where ALL the Hashashin get sent into Remnant with Gudako. Yeah, all of them. Including King Hassan. But then I thought about how difficult it would be for Hundred Face, Cursed Arm and Serenity to blend in right. Cursed Arm especially without the Deus Ex Machina I used in this. Plus, with the Great Founder being there too, they'd be a bit more paranoid at the risk of losing their heads (literally) for indulging in blending in too much. I dunno how accurate I would've been able to portray King Hassan, even with Gudako softening his personality up a bit, but everyone needs to remember that King Hassan is usually merciless and cold. That and there's the whole difficulty with portraying the Hashashin all together in Remnant in the first place due to their Religion and their beliefs, cuz in case nobody realized, they're all Muslim. Not just Muslim, but the ancient kind, back in the age where every major Religion today (Except Buddhists and Hindus, they're cool) believed that their belief was the only true one and any non-believers had to be slain. There's a bit of a problem in writing those kinds of characters in a (for the most part) Godless world. I 'could' just ignore the Religious problems entirely but I LOVE the Hashashin Servants, so I'd want to do them justice. So, I decided to change that idea and just use one Hassan in this. My favorite specifically. I can handle one of them, I believe that much. Hopefully without offending anyone.

As for the other three, I chose Angra Mainyu because he's the Deus Ex Machina on how this fanfic gets started in the first place, and he's one of my favorite characters in all of Type/Moon and I've loved his design ever since I read Hollow Ataraxia. Tattoos man, just... wow.

As for EMIYA Alter, or "Bobmiya" as some like to call him, well, it should be no surprise to people who've seen my list of favorite stories that I love Emiya Shirou's character. Thing is, Emiya Shirou himself is a pretty complex character to write sometimes, and hilariously, his older versions are surprisingly less complex since they've hit the end of their roads, where as Shirou's has just begun, so he has much room to grow. I didn't pick everyone's favorite snarky Archer because.. well, that's predictable. Too predictable. And after what I've learnt about EMIYA Alter, specifically that he's LOST his fucking sense of taste, and has developed a short term memory, he's become one of my favorite characters in Fate/Grand Order simply because of how tragic he is. I've always had a soft spot for Alter Servants.

As for how Gudako could have summoned him when she's still clearly in the Babylon arc, remember, Fate/Grand Order DOES have special gachas that rate up certain Servants, and Bobmiya has gotten several within the past few months, so you can assume that this is a special exception. If you're wondering why I don't just make the threat something from the later arcs instead of Tiamat to make Bobmiya's presence more likely then well.. I haven't actually cleared Camelot's arc yet, but I know enough about Tiamat and the Babylon arc to make references to it. I'd rather not write about future threats that I haven't gotten to. But I DO know Emiya, in all his forms, so I know enough about him and have listened to enough of his voice lines and interactions to get a good feel of how he talks and acts. He might be a teensy bit different than what you're used to in the story (or whatever translated parts exist) but hey, assume its from Chaldea softening him up. You can't always write certain characters completely accurately.

And finally, as for Lancelot, well, c'mon. I'm sure most of you can agree with me that when you saw this guy appear in the Fate/Zero anime and began to scream and roar as he fought Gilgamesh and then proceeded to go ballistic on Arturia, that you all collectively shat your pants. He's cool. He's strong. He's bloody intimidating when he goes berserk. He was also my first interaction with the world of Type/Moon. Years ago, back in the start of highschool, I hadn't heard of Fate/Stay Night or anything. Never even read a Visual Novel. And then in Japanese language class, this one substitute teacher who happened to be an otaku, he had a Fate/Zero wallpaper on his laptop, and the first thing that caught my eye was the image of this black knight decked in some of the coolest armor ever. Lancelot was literally the first thing I noticed, and when I asked who that character was, he just said 'Sir Lancelot'.

After a while, I forgot about the cool knight and the interesting and unique title of Fate/Zero, until my friend convinced me to read a Visual Novel cuz he said I'd like this one. And I saw the title of Fate/Stay Night, and though 'Huh, that sounds very familiar'. So I read it, and fell in love with the characters, and I finished every single route. And then I hungered for MORE. Then eventually, he gave me a copy of the Fate/Zero anime's episodes, and the instant I saw Lancelot, I felt like someone dumped cold water down my back. Just, a full body shudder as I saw that knight, rendered in beautiful Ufotable animation. It was awesome.

Alright, that's enough rambling for now. Hopefully I keep myself consistent with this fanfic. I dunno how long it'll take for me to start updating my other ones (Zero Perfection especially, don't worry guys, I haven't forgotten in, and I still have it all planned out. Just need more motivation to write it. Maybe I should play some Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 when I have free time to get into the mood.), but I will update them eventually, when I'm not writing my novel.

I'm back baby!

...the saddest part about this is that I never actually managed to summon Emiya Alter or Lancelot. All my attempts landed me with other 4 Stars I never wanted like Gawain and Siegfried, or just Craft Essences.

I DO have Angra Mainyu and Cursed Arm though, hell, Cursed Arm was my first Grailed Servant, standing at a whopping level 79 right now, soon to be 80. Angra will be my next Servant to undergo Palingenesis, once I manage to actually get six more of those damn Spriggan seeds to ascend him to his 4th stage. I don't care if he's ridiculously weak, I am determined to max him out completely. I was denied Salieri and Jeanne Alter, I refuse to let Angra remain at such a low level.