1 Day Ago: The Hero of Wrought Iron

The bounded field surrounding the Tohsaka mansion had two purposes: prevent access from those with malicious intent, and if unsuccessful, allow Rin to continuously locate the enemy as long as they remained in the mansion. Needless to say, the field is extremely high level thaumaturgy and has served its purpose without fail until now. To think that someone would be able to eradicate the field, trace it to her, and attack her using this link—as much as she doesn't want to admit it, Rin was facing a superior Magus.

But having to fight such an enemy wasn't beyond her expectations; Rin had always known that there will be Masters who completely outclass her. When that time comes, she can only put her faith in her Servant's abilities and trust him to bring her victory.

And Archer could definitely be trusted. The concerned look in his eyes reassured her of that.

For his part, Archer was fully prepared to deal with the incoming enemy, but his success would require his Master's cooperation, something that's probably harder to secure than victory itself. A little persuasion would be in order.

"Rin…I'll need you—"

Seeing Archer take on an uncomforting tone, Rin couldn't help but smile to herself. In a quiet voice, she cut him off, "Yes. I understand Archer—in my present condition, I would only be in the way. You don't have to worry about anything; this is the Tohsaka mansion after all. I'll find a suitable place to hide, so you can engage the enemy at full power."

Nodding once at his Master's words, Archer placed her gently on a nearby sofa and turned to leave. However, as he opened the door to the next room, Rin's worried voice rang out once more.

"Archer…this…this will be your first battle. That's why you better not die and disappoint your Master!"

Even though his back was turned, Archer could easily imagine the blush that was surely adorning Rin's face at the moment. His lips curving into a smirk, he replied with words full of confidence. "I will have no problem obeying that order, Master."

Closing the door behind him, Archer's expression immediately changed to that of a deep frown. His words were only meant to comfort Rin and couldn't be farther from reality. While he wasn't exactly a stellar Magus, Archer could tell that his Master was defeated in a battle of Magecraft. Furthermore, the strength of the Servant is often reflected in the strength of their Master; if these assumptions were anything to go by, Archer actually had no guarantees that he would get out of this fight unscathed.

Despite this apprehension, there was no way that he would back down; logically speaking, a brief skirmish now would be the perfect opportunity to gauge his opponent's skill. The intruder wasn't very hard to find either; Archer easily sensed the Servant's presence and it doesn't seem to be moving at all.

"A challenge? It's probably either a Saber or Lancer in that case."

With that thought in mind, he shifted into astral form and quickly approached his target's location in the mansion's garden. Arriving a second later, Archer got his first good look at the intruder.

The Heroic Spirit was a man of about six feet. Dressed in a blue skin-tight suit and leaving his dark blue hair tied in a ponytail, his crimson eyes and unnaturally large canines emitted a feral sense of power. While his left hand was fiddling with a hydrangea, the two-meter long, demonic lance he carried on his right made it clear that he was a Lancer Servant.

Sensing Archer's arrival, Lancer straightened up from his initial crouching position, and proceeded to shift his lance into a ready to thrust posture. In a casual voice, he asked, "Yo! Pretty nice garden you got here. Your Master must be a real cutie to grow all these; care to introduce me sometime?"

Having materialized a few seconds before, Archer could only sigh at his words. If this was Lancer's idea of "small talk", then this battle would indeed be very vulgar. His lips pulled into a tight grimace, Archer replied, "I'm sorry, but my Master wouldn't be interested in meeting a soon to be corpse."

Hearing Archer's bold declaration, Lancer's face contorted into a wild smile and the demonic lance held across his body took on a reddish glow as his prana surged through it. His voice filled with murderous intent, Lancer shouted out, "Ha! I like your confidence. I like it so much that I can't hold myself back any longer; nameless Servant, here I come!"

Lancer covered the distance between them in less than a second. Stopping two meters in front of Archer, he mercilessly thrust out with his blood red weapon. The tendons in the left and right shoulders—two strikes, one after the other, but seemingly simultaneously—Lancer was aiming to incapacitate Archer and end the battle with the first assault.

Yet the thrusts, thrown at a speed surpassing thought, did not reach their targets. With a single leap, Lancer returned to his original position, and a flash of annoyance crossed his face. Focusing his eyes on Archer's figure, he observed the twin swords that had been materialized to block his technique.

The blades, one black, one white, were of Chinese make and were identical in every other regard. Much like the Heroic Spirit that wielded them, they were nothing spectacular; indeed, while they were divine mysteries that transcend space-time, the two had no spirit, no conscience to speak of. Whereas his lance exuded a demonic presence and an almost overwhelming blood thirst, Archer's blades contained neither the desire to be famous, nor the faith to accomplish great deeds. The blades themselves were without a purpose, and that infuriated Lancer.

Shifting his posture, Lancer addressed his opponent in a disappointed tone.

"Che. Normally I would be happy to have a nice long brawl with a fellow Servant, win or lose." Lancer's eyes narrowed and anger colored his voice before he continued, "But fighting someone who has forgotten his pride as a Heroic Spirit is meaningless. Man, I was really looking forward to having a little fun before killing you, but you irritate me so much that I just have to pierce that empty heart of yours."

Remaining expressionless and silent despite Lancer's words, Archer crossed his twin blades in front of his body in preparation for a new wave of assault from the enemy. But the anticipated attack did not come. Instead, Lancer's form sank lower and lower, with his spearhead pointing towards the ground.

A second passed. Two seconds passed.

Normally, Archer would've treated an opponent's inactivity as a sign of vulnerability, but his instincts told him this was anything but a normal moment. Call it a premonition if you will, but a bead of sweat formed on his brow as Archer realized that he would die if he moved even a step closer to Lancer.

No. That's inaccurate. From the moment Lancer adopted that posture, he was already dead.

The prana in the air froze as the demonic lance pulsated with a deep crimson glow, almost as if it was anticipating the moment when its true name would be called, the moment when it would be released as a Noble Phantasm to take the life of the nameless Servant foolish enough to stand before it.

Another second passed. The time has finally come. Lancer's lips eased open to utter the two syllables that would ensure death.

"Gae —"

"Please stop."

A feminine voice interrupted Lancer's chant and the murderous intent in the air immediately dissipated. Seemingly displeased at having a kill denied, the lance throbbed once before ceasing its glow as well. On the contrary, Lancer lips curved into a smirk, and looked quite pleased to hear the voice.

"Your wish is my command, Bazett."

Hearing his words, Archer glanced around to locate the source of the voice; his efforts were awarded when, a moment later, a very serious looking woman stepped out from the shrubs surrounding the garden. Primly walking over to stand beside her Servant, the woman proceeded to scrutinize Archer. Needless to say, Archer gave her a quick look over as well.

A woman of about five foot six. Magenta hair cut at neck-level, wearing a typical Western getup consisting of a suit, tie and dress pants. She was also wearing gloves, so her Command Mantra's could not be seen but her status as Lancer's Master has pretty much been confirmed.

Not caring about the atmosphere at all, Lancer addressed his Master in a sulking voice, "Actually, strike that. My lance here was cheated out of a kill and I'm pretty unhappy at the moment. But y'know, you can totally make that up to me with a small smooch on the cheek? Come on, cheer your Servant up."

Under different circumstances, Bazett would've been more than happy to oblige. As it was, she flushed a very deep red but nevertheless ignored her Servant. Turning to address Archer, she said, "It seems like I was mistaken. My informant told me that Tohsaka Rin had summoned an Archer, but judging from your Noble Phantasm back there, you must be a Saber?"

Still expressionless, Archer replied, "You shouldn't be so quick to doubt your informant. My class is Archer."

Looking quite taken aback at the notion of an Archer wielding swords, Bazett's eyes widened slightly. Her lapse, however, lasted less than a second, and she continued, "Oh okay. In that case, Archer, I'll get to the point. It might surprise you, but we didn't actually come here today for a fight. I only wanted to speak to Ms. Tohsaka about a pressing matter, but it seems like we overdid it."

Archer's reply was quick and forceful. "You destroyed the mansion's bounded field and attacked Rin. Your Servant was just about to kill me. I've already considered you as an enemy."

Not fazed in the least, Bazett said, "But I stopped him, didn't I? And as for Ms. Tohsaka, it seems like I overestimated her. As the supervisor of Fuyuki city and an Average One, she has quite the reputation back at the Clock Tower. I didn't expect her to be hurt so easily."

A look of disdain flashed across her face for a second, but was quickly hidden once more.

"Nevertheless, I apologize for today's intrusion. It doesn't seem like I'll get to talk to Ms. Tohsaka so we'll leave for now."

Bazett removed a card from her breast pocket and flicked it at Archer before continuing, "Give that to your Master. I'll let her use today to regain her strength, so we'll meet tomorrow at the time and place written on that card. Tell her that it's a direct order from the Clock Tower, so she better show up."

Her business finished, Bazett turned to leave the mansion, with Lancer following her in astral form. The duo disappeared a moment later.

A/N: Hi there! First of all, I would like to thank everyone for reading this far into the fanfic, and rest assured, the action will start soon, so stay tuned for more!

Secondly, I'm writing this fanfiction because I love F/SN, and also because I really want to improve my abilities as a writer, so constructive criticism will always be appreciated. Of course, if you like how the story is progressing so far, please do tell me as well! Reviews really keep me motivated and in-tune with my readers.

Finally, I would just like to make it clear that I have not created any OC's or new concepts in this fic. I try to describe anything that might be beyond the scope of F/SN within the story to the best of my ability but if you want to know more, a quick search on the Type-Moon wiki will clarify everything. If there are still things that are confusing, feel free to leave me a message and I'll try my best to explain the lore behind Nasuverse. A quick thank you to Green Phire for bringing up this point~