Fanfic / The Third Faction

They already survived one Grail War right, so how bad could another one be? Oh wait, there are twice as many Servants? There's a Ruler? There's another weird priest? And their faction is called the — Oh boy, if Shirou and Rin survive this, they'll be having words (and swords and curses and explosions) with Zelretch.

The Third Faction is a Fate/stay night fanfic by TheMaster4444 set after the events of the Unlimited Blade Works route that follows Shirou and Rin navigating the events of Fate/Apocrypha after being reunited with Saber as the third faction in the Great Holy Grail War.

They thought they couldn't be surprised anymore, but as it turns out Fate has a way throwing more curveballs at you.

And Shirou and Rin should know by now, that nothing is what it seems in a Holy Grail War.

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Tropes found in The Third Faction:

• Adaptational Romance Downgrade: The author has confirmed that Sieg & Jeanne are not going to become a couple in this story.
  Their relationship is easily the weakest either of them possess, the amount of focus and narrative weight that is given to it only hurts both their characters and the story as a whole.
• Adaptational Villainy: Canonically, Darnic's actions in the Third Holy Grail War only incidentally result in the death of Zouken Matou. In the reality Shirou and Rin are dumped in, Darnic purposely murdered the Tohsaka and Einzbern families alongside Zouken.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Jack's death is given quite a bit of sympathy by the Blue Faction in spite of the terrible things they've done since ultimately Jack is merely a conglomeration of children who died unloved and never even given the chance to really live. Ultimately the best that Saber can do is give them a quick death with Excaliber's holy light to show them that hope exists and they die content even if they believe that hope is an impossible dream for them.
• Alternate Universe: The Fate/Apocrypha world is one to the Fate/stay night world. Zelretch sends Shirou and Rin there to spice things up.
• Anyone Can Die: Given that this is a Grail War, there is little doubt that a lot of Servants will die, and some of the Masters will undoubtedly kick the bucket too.
• Archenemy: Shakespeare wants Shirou to be this for Shirou Amakusa.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Rin's answer to Fiore's question of why Rin doesn't kill her after defeating her.
    Rin: "What have I ever done that makes you think I need a reason not to kill someone?"
  • Kiritsugu asks this regarding Shirou's path of becoming a Hero of Justice different from his & EMIYA's.
    Archer: "Your path is not wrong. But you're a fool if you think it's different from ours."
    Shirou: "It will be! I will make it different!"
    Kiritsugu: "How?"
  • Young Shirou asks this question to his older self.
    Shirou: "No! I kill when I have to! No more than that! If I can save someone, then I will!"
    Young Shirou: "Then why didn't you save me?"
• Artistic License – History: Applies in this story as parts of the Servants myths are written as part of their characterisations. Though as they say, history is written by the victors.
• Asshole Victim: Given her personality & the horrible things she did in canon & what she tries to do in the story, Celenike definitely qualifies for this.
• Attempted Rape: In Jack's simulation of old London, Fiore sees a man trying to rape a woman. She tries to stop him, only to find she's lost her powers. The man then tries to rape her, but she manages to call Chiron to her side with a Command Spell, and he kills the man.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Astolfo manages to hit a new level of this when he's distracted from his own Command-Seal-induced agony to admire how Sieg can really transform into Siegfried before he starts screaming again.
• Batman Gambit: Sisigou pulls one off in chapter 13 by casually dropping Mordred's true age in front of Atalanta so that she will become protective of Mordred and agree to continue helping them once they chase after the Blue Faction.
• Beam-O-War: The Hanging Gardens attack (powered via Command Seal) vs. the combined might of Excalibur & Balmung. Also counts as a Moment of Awesome.
• Berserk Button: Though they are Servants, they are still people & thus can get rather angry.
  • Mordred has two: Do not ever call her a girl in any way & don't dismiss her as unworthy, which she, correctly, took Astolfo's comment to mean.
  • For Atalanta, do not hurt children in any way for form.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted. Upon hearing Darnic & Caster's plans for Fiore, Caules will not hesitate in having them both killed if it means protecting his big sister.
  • He has this again regarding Rin, as he would've killed her if she harmed Fiore even if it would have resulted in his own death.
• Big Brother Mentor: Shirou to Sieg: Though Shirou doesn't believe he makes a good role model for Sieg due to his own mental issues. Nonetheless, Shirou is happy to help the homunculus however he can and even teaches him cooking which Sieg picks at an extremely quick pace.
• Blood Knight: This being the Great Holy Grail War, you can imagine there will be a number of individuals longing for a good fight.
• Cassandra Truth: Shirou denies vehemently that Kiritsugu was the infamous Magus Killer when told so by Sisigou who worked with him once. Shirou only believes it once he meets Archer again and asks him point blank if its true. Needless to say Shirou isn't happy to learn how similar his father and his alternative timeline counterpart are.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Saber of all people very transparently uses the nearby explosion of Karna attacking Jeanne as an excuse to put off talking about Mordred with Rin and Shirou. Rin immediately calls her out on it.
• Comically Missing the Point: Shirou and Karna obviously have no concept of what an Inherently Funny Word is, because they do not get what's so funny or weird about the third faction being called "periwinkle". Shirou states several times that he doesn't get it (in response to Gordes laughing his head off and Rin despairing), while Karna straight up states that it's a perfectly fine colour and they should take pride in it.
• Conveniently Timed Distraction: Saber uses Karna's attack on Jeanne as an excuse to end her conversation with Rin and Shirou about Mordred.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Gordes is the definition of Small Name, Big Ego, but Rin and Shirou acknowledge that his mastery of alchemy combined with hand-to-hand does make him a decent threat, and he even catches Rin off-guard by turning his pectoral muscles into metal to stop a Reinforced kick from her, a feat she notes is incredibly dangerous since messing that up would have turned his lungs into metal.
• Cuteness Proximity: Cats to Mordred as per usual unfortunately for her she gets paired up with Atalanta who not only causes all of the cats to flock to her instead but also refuses to allow Mordred to touch her lion ears. What ultimately causes Mordred to agree to team up with Atalanta to battle the Blue Faction is the latter letting her pet her lion ears.
• Death by Adaptation: Word of God confirms that Darnic wiped out the Tohsaka, Makiri (Matou), and Einzbern families in this version of the Apocrypha universe. Canonically, only the Makiri line died out, due to Zouken being killed when Darnic stole the grail.
• Death Glare: Darnic gives one to Fiore after she informs the Black Faction of the deaths of Assassin and Archer which unnerves everyone in attendance.
• Determinator: Fate, the Grail War, & any number of Servants is not going to stop Mordred from her duel of destiny with her father.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Nobody expected a third faction to show up in the Great Grail War.
  • Saber is left completely floored when she sees her estranged son Mordred as the Saber of Red for the war.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation
  • Jack and Chiron are killed during Jack's initial debut, where canonically, no Servant or Master died during that confrontation. Chiron's death, in particular, is very notable since he didn't die until the Final Battle with the Red Faction in the canon timeline as opposed to his very early death here.
  • Celenike is killed by an explosion Rin sets off during their fight, where canonically, she uses two Command Spells to try and make Astolfo kill Sieg & Mordred decapitates her without fanfare.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Mordred gets rather angry when Atalanta compares their upbringings and tells her that the two are nothing alike and that she doesn't want her pity.
• The Dreaded: Shirou is this to Sisigou and Amakusa, though less because of his own abilities and moreso due to his connection to Kiritsugu, the Magus Killer. Sisigou, in particular, doesn't want anything to do with Kiritsugu after a joint mission with him left Sisigou so terrified of the Magus Killer that he kept tabs on his fellow mercenary just be sure he could be as far away from him as possible.
• Embarrassing Nickname: This sums up Rin's feelings about the color that their faction of herself, Shirou, and Saber are given by Zelretch. Luckily, Ruler fixes that little pickle by formally dubbing them the Blue Faction in honor of Saber's signature look. Unfortunately, everyone else in the war hasn't been made aware of this, so they still refer to their faction by their initial color designation: The Periwinkle Faction.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Due to their prior experiences with the grail, Shirou and Rin initially assume that the grail is corrupted with the spirit of Angra Mainyu, unaware that, due to Darnic's actions and the Einzberns summoning Ruler Amakusa instead of Avenger, the grail was never corrupted. Ruler eventually straightens them out in this regard.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: An unusual & interesting case of this & it's inversion. It's actually Good Cannot Comprehend Good. Fiore hardly has a bad bone in her body but she was raised as a magus, and thus cannot understand why Rin would choose to spare her after their fight.
• For Want Of A Nail: In canon, Jack managed to erode Atalanta's defenses, so she saw them as innocent children (which they are, technically) and flew into a blind rage when they were killed. Here, since more people get sucked into Jack's world, Jack can't spare as much focus on Atalanta, and she has only some minor guilt over Jack being killed.
• Friend to All Children: Atalanta much like in canon is very protective of children and her wish is to ensure that no child will ever have to grow up without love. As such, once she finds out Mordred's true age, she becomes very protective of her and decides to help her and Sisigou out a little longer.
• Hidden Depths: Neither are outright cruel, but Siegfried shows a strategic side that a knight of his caliber who has fought in the constant wars of the Middle Ages would possess, given his manipulation of Achilles to fight Arturia and Fiore surprises herself with how she is willing to twist Spartacus' beliefs to get him on her side, though she is very unsettled by her actions.
• Honour Before Reason: Arturia, remembering how Diarmuid met his end, chooses not to allow Siegfried to fall without a proper fight and so gives him Avalon to regenerate his missing heart even though it is a huge loss in a war against so many Servants.
  • Achilles had the grand opportunity to possible eliminate both Saber of Blue & Black but decided not to do so due to his warrior's vow.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Mordred falls into this hard. She is constantly bragging about how she is the only fighter to surpass her father, King Arthur, even though Mordred never actually beat Arturia. She also claims credit for the defeat of enemies that were either killed by others, aren't actually dead, or she needed help to beat (though to her credit, she does believe she killed them all herself). Its clear this is all due to her desperate need to prove herself to her father and gain Arturia's acknowledgment. When Astolfo calls Mordred out of this she flips out and nearly kills Astolfo right then and there.
• In Spite of a Nail: Sieg still ends up as Astolfo's Master.
• Internal Reveal: Shirou finally finds out the truth of Kiritsugu's past in the UBW timeline thanks to Sisigou. Needless to say, he isn't happy to find out his father was the Magus Killer and doesn't believe Kairi at first. It's only after he sees Archer (EMIYA) again within his Unlimited Blade Works mindscape and gets confirmation from him that Shirou accepts the truth about his father.
• It Amused Me: The apparent reason why Zelretch sends Shirou and Rin to the world of Fate/Apocrypha since he found how the war played out to be rather dull and felt they could spice things up. Whether this is true or if Zelretch has some alternative agenda is yet to be revealed. Archer (EMIYA) hints to Shirou in a dream that Zelretch may have ulterior motives beyond alleviating his boredom.
• Locked Out of the Loop: It turns out Shirou had no idea about any of his father Kiritsugu's past, so he is utterly shocked when Kairi Sisigou calls him the Magus Killer, one of the most infamous mage assassins in the world.
• Mama Bear: If any one touches a hair on Mordred's head, you can bet Atalanta will tear out their throats! As she so aptly put it.
• Man of Kryptonite: Shirou is this to a few Servants. Since his Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works, is a separate world, Vlad loses his Home Field Advantage of Romania. Since Unlimited Blade Works is always daytime, Jack's Maria the Ripper finisher, which only works at night, is neutralized. Since he can Trace the history of weapons, he can quickly identify their owners and weaknesses. For example, as soon as he meets Siegfried, he informs Saber of his Achilles' Heel that a spot on his back is not invulnerable.
• Mêlée à Trois: Thanks to the Blue Faction's involvement in protecting Ruler, the first battle of the Great Holy Grail War in this universe is between Siegfried, Karna, and Arturia, representing the three factions of the war.
• Namedar: Thanks to Shirou's ability to Trace the history of weapons, he can very quickly identify Servants if he can see their weapons.
• Mind Rape: What Shakespeare does to Shirou. Its not quite as effective as it is on Berserker and Ruler in canon but it still leaves him severely rattled.
• Mirror Match: Excluding Astolfo, this is what Siegfried vs. Sieg is.
• Mutual Disadvantage: Siegfried's brief battles with Achilles, Siegfried is unable to injure his foe thanks to lacking the Divinity necessary to injure Achilles, but Achilles is unable to injure him thanks to his normal attacks not possessing the necessary strength to pierce the Armor of Fafnir, creating an impasse.
• Odd Friendship: Mordred and Atalanta. They don't have any significant interactions in canon and their personalities are as different as night and day but in this fic they end up spending time together due to the Blue Factions presence. Mordred actually refers to Atalanta as "her cat" due to her lion ears and Atalanta identifies with the Knight of Treachery due to both of them being rejected by their fathers. After finding out Mordred's true age Atalanta becomes very protective of her and gives her copious amounts of encouragement, a sentiment only her Master Sisigou did previously, thus making their bond stronger.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Siegfried returns Avalon to Arturia offscreen after they fended off the Hanging Gardens.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Shirou gets very angry with Shakespeare & attempts to kill him after the latter pushes him too far.
  • Saber's issues with Mordred are such that her attempt to Change the Uncomfortable Subject are hilariously inept, something Rin and Shirou notice. A rare moment where this trope is treated seriously and still Played for Laughs.
• Quality over Quantity: Rin ends up facing off against three of the Black factions mages on her own. While she does take some hits and uses a fair number of gems by the end of the fight she is the victor. Thanks to her natural talent as a mage, her years of training, and experience fighting in fifth Holy Grail War Rin ends up killing Celenike and putting Fiore and Gordes down for the count.
• Running Gag: Played for Laughs. Despite being formerly dubbed the Blue Faction, the Red & Black Factions still believe them to be the Periwinkle Faction.
• Slasher Smile: Vlad gives a bloodthirsty one during his battle with Karna.
• Smug Snake: Just about everyone considers Celenike one, but especially Rin during their fight. Rin mocks her for her lack of Magecraft skill as well as emotional control and strategy in combat, especially since the last two mess up Fiore's and Gordes' own attempts to take Rin down. Not surprisingly, Celenike doesn't survive.
• Spared By Adaptation:
  • Unlike in canon, where he died after giving his heart to a dying Sieg, here Siegfried survives his attempted Heroic Sacrifice thanks to Arturia giving him Avalon to regenerate his missing heart.
  • Reika Rikudo, Jack the Ripper's Master, canonically died trying to protect Jack from Atalanta. Since she isn't present when Jack is killed this time, and more importantly the heroes don't know who or where she is, Reika survives the Grail War this time.
• Stunned Silence: Mordred has this reaction when she sees Arturia, her father, on a motorcycle.
• Supreme Chef: Shirou as per always. He also passes down some of his skills to Sieg who picks them up extremely quickly.
• Thwarted Coup de Grâce: Rin manages to make her way into Yggdmillennia Castle and ends up battling three of the Black factions mages on her own. Each time she gets close to killing one her attempt is interrupted or blocked by one of the others. She is naturally frustrated by this and ends up just blowing up the room killing one and stunning the other two.
• Tsundere: This is probably the closest approximation to the way Mordred feels about her father. She holds a respect for Artoria that borders on hero worship, and goes into a rage when anyone, even Artoria herself, suggests she wasn't perfect. At the same, Mordred still hates her father and will fiercely deny any positive feelings towards her, even as she continues to sing her father's praises.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • Furious with her recent failures & shortcomings, Darnic now has no qualms of sacrificing Fiore, his own heir to further his plans. While this is perceived as cruel, Darnic is not entirely wrong in his reasoning as Fiore is indeed too kind & soft hearted to be a proper Magus, much less a Master & her initial attempts in taming Spartacus have not been successful.
  • Shakespeare brings Shirou's conflict of achieving his dream of becoming a Hero of Justice to the forefront and attacks it head-on with his Noble Phantasm. He examines and takes apart Shirou's life with many points to make him Amakusa's perfect foe. A number of which Shirou denies but others he struggles to argue against. But it's this observation that perfectly sums up Shirou's mindset.
    Shakespeare: "Incapable of moderation, he cannot be a sword unless he gives up being a man, and he cannot be a man without giving up his devotion."
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Underneath all of Mordred's mess of confused feelings, she ultimately just wants approval from her father, even if she doesn't realize it.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Atalanta most certainly wouldn't, particularly when it comes to Mordred.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Saber, Siegfried, and Karna all view each other as this after their three-way duel.
  • Vlad actually gains a significant measure of respect for Rin after she unflinchingly stands up to him and successfully convinces the Black Faction to stand down to allow her and her allies to leave.
  • Shakespeare believes that Shirou can be this seeing him as the perfect antagonist for his protagonist Shirou Amakusa.