The Ten Servants of the Fourth Holy Grail War*
Fate:Zero Submission is a Fate/Zero multi-crossover fanfiction by Evowizard25,
in which, due to outside interference from the (incredibly bored) Greek goddess Eris, various beings from multiple franchises are summoned as Servants for the Fourth Grail War, with only Saber's identity remaining unchanged. Their identities are as follows:Saber - Arturia Pendragon
Archer - Altair
Lancer - Chen Stormstout
Assassin - Zoroark
Rider - Eragon Bromsson
Berserker - Queek Headtaker
Caster - Queen Chrysalis
Beast - Holo
Avenger - Lelouch vi Britannia
Ruler - Robert E. Lee
Throw in a few more Masters with personal scores to settle, and you have a much more chaotic Grail War.
It can be read, completed, here. A sequel, Fate: Stay in the Fight, can be read here, though it is currently on hiatus.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Caster is an unrepentant monster who committed horrible crimes to achieve her goals, but her rejection of things like love and friendship comes from a combination of pride and lack of understanding their benefits. It's not until Ryuunosuke dies that she finally understands what it feels like to truly care about someone else, and it drives her into a frenzy.
- Anti-Magic: Caster's throne can negate magic, even Noble Phantasms.
- Asshole Victim: Archer kills Zouken, with even Berserker laughing at the old man's fate.
- Ax-Crazy: Berserker is paranoid, bloodthirsty schizophrenic who's always twitching and looking for something (or someone) to kill. Ironically, he's probably the least evil of the less moral Servants.
- Bash Brothers: Berserker and his right-claw, Ska Bloodtail. Berserker may insult him, and Ska isn't exempt from his boss's anger, but ultimately, they have one another's backs.
- Berserker Tears: Caster sheds these as she attempts to avenge Ryuunosuke's death.
- Be Yourself: A villainous example, in that Caster slowly convinces Kirei to drop his pretensions of being morally upstanding and embrace his inner sadism.
- Big Bad: Avenger, who orchestrates Ruler's demise, an alliance with Caster, and is the final Servant standing in Saber's way to destroying the Grail.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: We get several, helped in no small part by the fact that at least three Servants can summon armies to fight for them.
- Big Damn Hero: Assassin saves a bunch of kidnapped people from being tortured and killed by Caster.
- Big Fun: Lancer is an incredibly friendly panda who'd rather make friends and drink with them than fight a war.
- Bittersweet Ending: On the bitter part, a lot of people died over a prize that ultimately got destroyed in the end, Waver loses his girlfriend, and Aoi and Rin are being led down the path of villainy by Kirei Kotomine; on the sweet side, Sakura has a loving family and pieces of her two friends to keep her company, Waver manages to keep his sanity with the help of Joseph Fields, and Shirou and Illya get adopted by Saber and Assassin.
- Blood Knight: Berserker's goal is to keep fighting strong opponents and collect their heads as trophies.
- Break the Cutie: Defied. Sakura is devastated by the deaths of her friends Berserker and Archer, but each one left something behind for her that allows a portion of them to live on so she's not entirely lonely.
- The Corruptor:
- Caster manages to bring out Kirei's inner monster.
- Kirei himself manages to turn Aoi into his accomplice.
- Crazy-Prepared: Rider entrusts Saphira's eldunari to Waver in the event of his death, though Waver doesn't find out until after Rider is killed.
- Darker and Edgier: Caster was certainly insidious in her home series, but she gets to commit multiple acts of child murder here.
- Dark Is Evil: Caster and Avenger have black skin and clothes, respectively, and both are quite insidious.
- Death by Adaptation: Kiritsugu dies during the final battle with Avenger.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- Kirei, goaded by Caster, eventually gets fed up with Tokiomi and kills him.
- Assassin eventually turns on Kirei.
- Drives Like Crazy: Irisviel is terrible behind the wheel.
- Dying Alone: Archer suffers this fate, all while screaming and whimpering that they don't want to.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Caster hates the concept of friendship, even brushing aside Ryuunosuke's attempts to bond with her. It's not until his death that she understands it, and it drives her into a frenzy.
- Evil Is Hammy: Caster and Berserker love their bacon.
- Failure Hero: Saber sees herself as this, though she does find one success in the end by rescuing and adopting Shirou and Illya.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Saber and Assassin bond as the war gets uglier.
- Friendly Enemy: Saber, Archer (to an extent), Assassin, Rider, Lancer, and Beast are technically rivals, but they frequently team up against other Servants and are downright friendly towards one another.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Caster is a queen, and a malevolent one, at that.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: The first major meeting between the Servants ends with them sitting down, sharing drinks, and swapping stories and dreams. Minus Caster, who ambushes them.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Late in the story, Archer tries to avoid further carnage by having the Grail grant everybody a wish. It backfires horribly as the Grail drives her insane and she goes on a rampage, killing Beast and Rider before being forced to kill herself by Aoi after Kiritsugu takes Rin hostage.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Eris, the Greek goddess of discord, causes the shake-up to the plot for gits and shiggles—and faces no punishment for it, to boot.
- Happily Adopted: Shirou and Illya are taken in by Saber and Assassin at the end of the story.
- Hero Worship: Ruler admits that Saber is his idol, much to her surprise.
- Hope Spot: Keyneth actually manages to get Sola-Ui to realize that he sincerely loves her, and she begins to reciprocate. And then Avenger Geasses her into killing Keyneth before committing suicide.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: Berserker can be quite vicious even towards his Only Friend Ska Bloodtail, but he will fly into a rage if someone else injures him. During one such incident, Irisviel is able to calm him down by tending to Ska's wounds.
- I Know Your True Name: Rider invokes this as a technique to defeat Archer after she kills Saphira. Astonishingly, it fails and she kills him.
- I'll Kill You!: Rider flies into a rage when Archer kills Saphira and tries to kill her by invoking her true name and telling her to die in the Ancient Language. It doesn't work.
- It Only Works Once: Avenger's Geass functions on this trope.
- It's Personal: Saber, Assassin, Rider, and Archer bear a grudge against Avenger for killing Ruler.
- Kill the God: Archer kills Beast, a wolf goddess.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Berserker is insane and can be just as vicious as Caster, but he's more capable of displays of loyalty and friendship, even developing a fondness for Sakura and, albeit indirectly, getting her a decent stepmother.
- Martial Pacifist: Lancer doesn't like violence has a rather idealistic dream, and admits that he hates the Grail War, but he's no pushover.
- A Match Made in Stockholm: Berserker abducts a nurse named Himari and forces her to treat Kariya's worm infection. She ends up staying at the Matou household, grows fond of Kariya and Sakura, and ultimately marries the former.
- Mirror Match: Caster takes on Saber's appearance during their final confrontation just to mock her.
- Mythology Gag:
- Archer can shoot projectile swords.
- Rider is killed by Archer, just like in canon.
- No Macguffin No Winner: Downplayed. The corrupted Grail is destroyed, thus nobody gets a wish, but Saber and Assassin obtain physical bodies from the Grail's essence.
- No-Sell:
- Ruler attempts to use one of his Command Seals to kill Caster, but to his surprise, it doesn't work.
- Thanks to the spirits of his trophies, Berserker is immune to Avenger's Geass, to the latter's astonishment.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Whenever Berserker is in a foul mood, his troops quickly make a dash for it.
- Waver runs for his life after waking up in bed with Archer.
- Original Character: Joseph Fields, an American farmer and Master of Beast.
- Pet the Dog: Berserker develops a fondness for Sakura, even gifting her one of his trophies. It later gives her the power to summon and control his army after he dies.
- Physical God: Beast is a wolf goddess.
- The Power of Friendship: Rin invokes this against Caster, to the latter's fury.
- Power Trio: Saber, Lancer, and Beast form an alliance, though their respective masters see it more as a coalition. Rider is on friendly terms with them, but still sees them as rivals.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Assassin serves Kirei Kotomine, who's an antagonist, but is so friendly that she's hard to see as a villain. Her Heel–Face Turn is, therefore, unsurprising.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Ruler is very civil and, due to his experiences in war, tries to minimize the carnage. He even gathers other Servants together to dispose of Caster after tiring of her crimes. Unfortunately, Avenger is working with her.
- Sacrificial Lion: Ruler is set up as the story's Big Good, but he is killed early in the war by Avenger via backstabbing.
- Self-Made Orphan: Kirei kills his father, fully cementing his villain status.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Beast is the most cheerful and friendly Servant in the story sans Lancer. Their respective deaths darken the tone.
- Smarter Than You Look: Ska Bloodtail seems like a dumb sycophant at first glance, and Berserker frequently calls him stupid, but as shown by his conversations with Kariya, he's quite eloquent. Notably, Ska doesn't engage in the typical Skaven Verbal Tic nearly as often as Berserker does.
- Sycophantic Servant:
- Ska Bloodtail is this towards Berserker, mostly out of fear, though Kariya deduces that they actually care for one another to an extent, much to Ska's bewilderment.
- Subverted with Ryuunosuke, whose flattering words towards Caster are completely sincere.
- Tempting Fate: When a group of Skaven try to assault the Tohsaka home, Tokiomi scoffs at the idea that they'll even be able to get in. And then Berserker, who dug under the manor, shows up right behind him, ready and eager to kill him.
- Tsundere: Archer towards Waver Velvet. She flip-flops between threatening him with violence and being sincerely touched by his demeanor.
- Vain Sorceress: Caster thinks highly of herself, even having Ryuunosuke brush her mane from time to time.
- Villainous Crush: Caster takes a liking to Ruler's war horse, Traveler. Nothing comes of it, though.
- Villainous Friendship: Caster and Ryuunosuke grow genuinely fond of one another, with the former utterly snapping after the latter's death.
- Villainous Valour: Berserker may be batshit insane, but he's no coward, ironic considering that he's a Skaven.
- Was It All a Lie?: Archer tries to use the Grail to make everyone happy, only to discover that things are a lot more complicated than she thought. The corrupted Grail overtakes her, causing her to go on a rampage.
- We Have Reserves: Caster's favorite strategy is to have her Changelings swarm her enemies in the hopes that they will succumb to exhaustion. Unfortunately for her, Berserker is well-versed in swarming tactics.
- Worthy Opponent: Saber acknowledges Berserker as one, and he returns the sentiment.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Ryuunosuke and Caster are serial killers, and their preferred victims are children.
- Kiritsugu takes Rin hostage and forces her mother to kill Archer with her last Command Seal in exchange for the girl's safety.
- You Killed My Father: Irina Spalko's grudge against Kiritsugu is based on this trope.
