A/N: By popular demand, the Singularities will be posted in a separate story. The events that take place are canon and will affect the story. Singularity F and France do not affect the story proper, since they happen 'before' the first chapter, but future entries will be marked.

As always, I hope you enjoy this story.

What happened at the beginning? Well, I'll tell you. I could start with orientation at Chaldea - I'm sure you've heard the stories already - but instead I'll tell you about...

Singularity F - Fuyuki City

2004, The Fifth Holy Grail War (?)

It's hot. Everything is hot and grimy and prickly around him. It stinks of corruption and ruin and hot ash, hot enough to burn his lungs and dense enough to choke him. He feels the hate, the horror, the death of the world. He doesn't want to wake up. Wherever this is, whatever this is, he does not want to deal with it. He wants to hide until it goes away or he goes away, whichever comes first.

Ritsuka Tohsaka, the 47th Master of Chaldea, opens his eyes and leaps to his feet, landing on his feet right before a purple-haired girl clad in armor. He blinks, holding his breath as he starts to recognise her - only because the air is disgusting and he doesn't want to take a breath, not because he's surprised she's alive. Though, he is.

He doesn't want to believe it. The last thing he saw of her was a lot of blood, and the lower half of her body crushed under a massive block of concrete.

"S-Senpai?" The girl looks up at him, her eyes wide open, clear with recognition even though she isn't wearing her glasses. "Y-You're up!"

But it is her. She is alive. Ritsuka, despite himself, despite all the social training, can't help but cry out in joy. "Mashu, you're alive!"

"Yes," she nods, her expression more serious. Mashu looks about and brings about a massive shield, a round buckler more than half her height topped with a gigantic cross that is actually taller than her - and just as tall as Ritsuka himself. "I'll explain later, Ritsuka-senpai. I'm sensing danger."

He starts to ask for something to work with, but they run out of time. There is the rattle of bone and deep, hollow clicking. A horde of skeletons, wielding rusted weapons and ruined firearms, crawl out of the burning rubble and ruins, shambling right towards them. Their eye sockets are hollow, devoid of all light and life. These dead things wish to drag the two of them down with them.

"Orders, Master!"

"Master?" He looks at his hands. Sure enough, there is a pattern in red on the back of his right hand, three intricate tattoos that seem to pulse with incredible, inexorable energy. Ritsuka nods, a sigh passing his lips. So he's in this sort of situation now. "Quickly, Mashu. Class and Parameters."

"Yes! Shielder Class Servant, with high defensive parameters! My agility is not great, however!"

"Your Noble Phantasm? Nevermind," Ritsuka says as he pulls a green gemstone from his pocket, held in the knuckles of one hand. "We won't need it for these small fry. Destroy them, Mashu. I'll support you where I can."

"Yes, senpai!"

A pair of skeletal spearmen come forward first, wielding repurposed stop signs and streetlights, their metal edges rusted but savage. Mashu catches them in the center of her shield and shoves back just as quickly. Their spears split open like the petals of a flower, before the young Shielder smashes them to pieces against the face of that same shield. She spins, shield parallel to the ground, and shatters another two skeletons in the blink of an eye.

The monsters howl, their bestial calls hollow and chittering. Where a dozen had emerged from the dead city, after less than five seconds there were only eight. Three of them, wielding ramshackle handguns, snarl as they point their guns at Ritsuka. Mashu realises too late, but two sets of sword force her to stand her ground, forcing them back, for one second too long.

They open fire, three loud bangs cutting through the crackling, burning night. Though they are dead creatures animated by spite and magic, their aim is true. Two bullets fly right at Ritsuka's head, and the third at his chest. He takes a breath and sees the hammer striking a seven-petal shield. Don't screw it up, he thinks, as mana burns in his veins, Or you'll die.

He raises his shoulders and dumps mana into his clothes like it was natural. Low caliber rounds thump softly against his reinforced sleeves, then clatter off the ground. He exhales and points his hand at the enemy, all fingers straightened. Red-black bolts of energy blow their heads apart and leav decapitated skeletons clattering to the ground. No sense wasting mana on trash.

Mashu returns to him a few moments later at full sprint, twitching and fidgeting around out of worry rather than exertion. That exchange was hardly ten seconds and they've already killed a dozen familiars. Despite having 'not great' agility, the girl is still incredibly fast. As expected of a Servant. "I'm so sorry, senpai!" She wails. "I didn't prioritise their ranged combatants! It was my mistake!"

Ritsuka shakes his head. "Don't worry about that, the most that would have happened is that I get knocked over. As for you..." He looks off down the street, just burning buildings and broken roads. It is painfully familiar. This might be Old Man Shirazu's teashop. His mouth curls; his Aunt liked the tea. "...We'll find cover first. Then I need to know why you aren't dead."

She nods. "Yes, Ritsuka-senpa-" She looks off into the distance, one exposed eye open. "I feel more of them. They're concentrating around someone else."

"Another survivor who made the shift?" The Tohsaka nods. "Lead the way. We have to save her."

"Her, senpai?"

"Who else but Kana? Come on!"

When they arrive, they find a woman in Chaldea's uniform standing atop a hill of stone and asphalt ringed by dusty bones, her shoulder-length red hair tied into a loose sidetail. One hand rests on her side, while the other is resting upon the hilt of a sword that is already disintegrating into mana. The bones look like they've been smashed to bits in rough melee fighting, and those further away have been decapitated, their skulls powder; Gandr, most likely.

The girl, Kana Tohsaka, looks at Ritsuka and exhales hard. She tosses her hair and crosses her arms at him. "You're late, Guda."

"I got here as soon as I could, Kana. It's only been five minutes."

"Yeah, and I already killed them all. Try to keep up, bro." She gestures for them to join her, and both Ritsuka and Mashu dash up the hill quickly, before more of the walking dead notice them. They pass the lip and spot Director Olga-Marie laid on the ground, clutching at her head. She looks up, and her eyes narrow.

"You as well, I see," she says bitterly. "Of course it couldn't be someone I actually trusted. Had to be the half-trained clowns I threw out of the briefing."

"Only because someone fell asleep," Ritsuka grumbles.

"Only because someone refused to help me," Kana says dryly.

"I'm your brother, not your caretaker." Ritsuka looks at the Director, his face a mask of hard determination. "Director Animusphere, we need to find cover while we plan our next move. Can Chaldea extract us?"

"Of course!" She tosses her hair and stands up, hands on her waist. She glances briefly at Mashu but says nothing, turning back to the two siblings. "Our priority is finding a leyline. Get to it, both of you."

"That's not very nice, considering I just saved your life," Kana says bitterly.

"You did your job. I won't thank you for that." Olga-Marie looks firmly at her. "You're my soldiers in this war, remember? So follow my orders, or I can't guarantee you'll survive."

Kana, to her credit, does not escalate. She just salutes sloppily, right hand to her forehead. "Aye-aye, Director. One leyline, coming right up."

"...By the way." Ritsuka turns to his sister. "Kana, what's on your right hand?"

"Hm?" She holds it up, the red tattoos on the back of it clear for them to see. "Right, by the way, I have Command Seals. No Servant, though."

"...Of course not. You're registered under FATE but you haven't summoned them yet." Olga-Marie looks at Mashu now, the Shielder looking out into the street. She turns back, head tilted. "But perhaps your seals should apply to her."

"Ah." Kana frowns. "Wait, what? But Mashu isn't a Servant. Otherwise she wouldn't have gotten crushed by the ceiling!"

"That's what I want to know," Ritsuka adds, glancing at the girl. "I won't ask for the full details, Mashu, but I do want to know the gist of it. What happened to you?"

"...He saved me, and gave me his power," is all she says. "I inherited that Heroic Spirit's powers, his armor and his shield. That is all."

Kana nods. Ritsuka frowns, sucking on his teeth. Mashu Kyrielight is more of a miracle than he thought, then. Just a girl blessed by circumstance? Or an artificial vessel? Questions for later. "A true Demi-Servant, then… Do you know who he was?" He asks.

Mashu shakes her head.

Needs must, and Ritsuka knows this part of town better, so they make their way through the dead streets of Fuyuki towards the nearest Leyline. Ritsuka and Mashu lead from the front while Kana watches their rear. They don't run into anymore skeletons on the way.

Small mercies. This way they get to see the city burn.

Olga-Marie breaks the silence first, her expression softened but still disdainful. "Do you know this place?" She asks the two of them.

Ritsuka nods, while Kana says nothing. "We grew up in this city," he explains. "Our version of it, at least. This isn't our Fuyuki City... but it's still hard to look at."

Olga-Marie nods and is quiet for a few moments. "My sympathies," she says softly, the first vaguely-positive thing she has said since she was rescued. She thinks some more, her brow knitted. "So, that's how you know of the original Holy Grail Wars. You... or your parents, I suppose, were involved in the last."

"They were," Kana says. "Dad was the Master of Saber, and mom of Archer. They went to school together, but the War was how they met."

"Is that so... But the Master of Archer was..."

"We're here," Ritsuka says from the front. They look up at the still-standing husk of a western mansion, windows shattered and walls charred black. It still emanates an uncomfortable amount of heat, but it is where a leyline sits. The perfect place to set up camp. And proof that fate enjoys suffering far too much.

"...You're Tohsakas," Olga-Marie says with a small amount of shock. "You are heirs of the Holy Grail War."

Ritsuka nods, as does Kana. "Didn't want to come home like this," he says sadly.

"I guess we're finally cleaning up the place like mom wanted," Kana tries to say lightly. But it comes out more as guilty regret.

"...Snap out of it," Olga-Marie says, but more gently than before, "We have a job to do. The sooner we make contact with Chaldea, the sooner we can leave. And then you'll tell me how you got here."

They link up to the leyline quickly, and with access to the mana of the land they quickly make contact with Chaldea. Standing in the former living room of their mother's home, the first sign they see of Chaldea is a man with light orange hair, his face lightly covered in soot. "Thank goodness you are alright-Wait!" Dr. Romani Archaman says, the relief on his gentle features mixed with shock. "D-Director?! You're in Singularity F?!"

Olga-Marie snaps at him immediately. "Romani what in the hell are you doing in that chair?! Where's Lev?"

Roman's expression rapidly becomes grave, and he tents his fingers before his face. "...Lev's dead, Director. He was right next to you when the bomb went off. FATE is offline, and we're trying to get LAPLACE and TRIMEGISTUS stable right now. We've... lost 90% of the staff, and all of the Master-candidates are in cryostasis." He looks at Ritsuka and Kana, their faces serious but unhurt. "Almost all of them. Thank goodness you two are alright."

"...N-No, Lev..."Olga-Marie shakes her head, turning despair into anger. "Very good, Romani. Keep them stable. Keep SHEBA on the Singularity. We'll report back when we have results. Call us only if something goes wrong!"

"Director, what are you saying? You don't have any Servants, and A-Team is down! We can't possibly-"

"If we come back without anything to show, then Chaldea is as good as dead. We need something to show for it. Besides," she adds, an angry grimace on her lips, "We have a Servant. A Demi-Servant."

Roman looks at her, aghast. "You mean... The project was a success?" The screen turns to Mashu, the Demi-Servant looking nervously out into the burning city, her thoughts far away. Seeing this, Roman's expression is conflicted too. "Well... That's something. We'll deploy supplies shortly, Director."

"Good. Now don't bother me until something actually happens."

Romani nods and the screen winks out. Olga-Marie covers her face and sighs, chest heaving. She looks up, hands balled into fists. "We move out after we restock. You two, do you know where the Greater Grail is?"

Kana shakes her head. Ritsuka nods. "Mount Enzou," he says flatly to her. "But to destroy it, we'll need an Anti-Fortress Noble Phantasm."

"We're not destroying it, we're taking it. That should sever manaflow to the Singularity and resolve this incident." Olga-Marie smirks. "We'll even have a trophy to celebrate."

Ritsuka nods. If that's what she wants, he won't dispute it. Clocktower Lord families are weird. "Alright then."

A few moments pass silently, just waiting for the dispatch and catching their breath. "Well-" Kana starts to say, when Mashu turns around abruptly.

"Masters! A Servant is approaching at high speed! Be careful!"

"Director!" Ritsuka cries out. "Get to cover! We'll-"

The wall explodes. His blood freezes. It becomes solid and lumpy, like cement. Kana shoves him behind the couch before the shrapnel can hit, while Mashu rushes to the breach. A shapely woman with long purple hair, wielding a hooked spear, dashes right through the smoke and debris, her spear aimed right at the Shielder's neck. Mashu blocks it deftly, drawing on dormant instincts, and slams one end of her shield's cross into the woman's head. Lancer's head snaps back, but the Servant lands on her feet easily and smiles viciously, her pale yellow-grey eyes glistening in the pyrelight in contrast to her ashen skin. As Ritsuka crawls to his feet, he can feel the sensation leaving his extremities, his body turning heavy like his breathing.

No, that's not fatigue or terror in his chest. He is literally turning to stone from the feet up.

"It seems there are three more still alive in the city," the Lancer says sultrily, a predator playing with her prey. "Consider this a mercy. No one else would let you live forever as stone."

Ritsuka glares at her while he tries to control his breathing. Petrification is supposed to be rare, and not this effective. Think, damn it, think! Which Heroic Spirits can turn people to stone?!

In the Fifth War, from the few stories his parents told, there was only one.

He gasps, looking at her in shock. "You... are not... supposed to be Lancer...!"

"Ho?" She twirls her hooked spear. "But this is a lance, isn't it?"

The ceiling comes apart abruptly and Kana falls through, screaming as she swings a projected longsword at the gorgon. Lancer effortlessly raises her spear and parries. Weapons locked, she pushes, her arm writhing like coiling snakes. Kana grunts and returns in kind when Lancer steps aside and twists her spear to smack Kana into the ground. She stays there, trembling, as grey stone creeps up her limbs like poison through her veins. "Brave, but futile. A sword cannot defeat a lance."

"Dammit!" Kana grunts. Her longsword disintegrates, leaving her stony hands empty.

"It's always the unruly ones that start the most trouble," Lancer says, and raises her spear over Kana. "No matter. I'll just play with you first!"

Mashu cries out and swings her shield at the sultry Lancer, who grabs the spear with one hand that bulges with unnatural coiled power. His Shielder grunts as she musters all the power she can. "Stay away from her!" She shouts. "Your opponent... Is me!"

"Mashu..." Ritsuka gasps. He can hardly breathe. The stone is creeping towards his lungs. He's going to die soon. Dammit. Dammit! He looks at her back, her small body forging ahead regardless of what lies beyond.

Something crumbles in him, but it's not his lungs. Its his doubt.

He can't just stay here. He has to help her. He has to be her Master and support her.

"By... my command seal... Mashu... WIN...!"

He feels it, a flash of red, a power unleashed. Authority fills the Demi-Servant. She lets loose a battlecry and steps forward. The world before her crumbles before such power. Lancer grunts, suddenly pushed back by her renewed strength. Another shout and Mashu pushes again, until Lancer drops her spear. She raises a fist and punches the gorgon, square in the face.

The world warps. The wall shatters again. There is a bang as the wind rushes to fill the gap.

Lancer flies and hits the mansion's cast iron gate. Ritsuka feels the pressure let up and leaps to his feet, hands reaching into his pockets. Kana joins him, a ball of black-red burning on her fingers. When they reach the gaping hole in the wall, Lancer is on her feet again, the hole Mashu punched into her head already all but healed, bent down on all fours like an animal about to charge. Her eyes are wide open. Kana's spell fizzles. Ritsuka feels the pressure again, but he has time now. He holds the gem in his palm, an incantation on his lips. Lancers have natural Magic Resistance, so he is going to have to make this count. He murmurs german, word after word, syllable after syllable, calling for fire to-

He bites his tongue. He draws blood. Ritsuka loses focus and the mana dissipates in a wave of force amidst a storm of swearwords. He tries to cover his mouth, but his fingers are already stone. And he wasted one of his gems for this.

God dammit, Ritsuka, now you're going to die.

"God dammit, Rits, now we're going to die!"

"thuk yhou, ith strethful!"

Lancer smirks and starts to charge, death in her impossibly-beautiful eyes. It's over.

"Lancer! Eyes on your opponent! Otherwise, this might happen!"

Then she hits the ground.

A dome of force crushes her further in, forcing her arms and legs into the concrete. A man with blue hair and red eyes, shoulders draped with a cloak, lands over her and draws a series of runes into the air. They converge into a spear of light that pierces Lancer in the back of neck. She dies wordlessly and soundlessly, only going limp like a sack of potatoes.

The battle ends, basically as it starts. Lancer disintegrates into light and mana, leaving not a trace but destruction behind. Ritsuka rises to his feet, a wordless healing cantrip mending his tongue. Kana looks at the mysterious man as he walks towards the gaping hole that used to have a door, wearing a cocky smile on his face. Mashu looks at him warily, shield still aimed at him.

"Yo, strange people," the man says. "I'm Caster. What are you doing in this fine hellhole today?"

Ritsuka sighs. "It's a long story. Would you like to come in?"

"Master?" Mashu asks, shocked.

"He's not hostile, or we'd be dead already." He looks over at Kana. "Right?"

"Hm?" She blinks, looking back at her brother. "What was that?"

He rolls his eyes. She was probably enjoying the eye candy. "Come in, Caster."