Hiya~ Merlin here! As promised, the long awaited rewrite of Jeanne's Faction! Please, sit\lay down relax and hopefully enjoy the fruit of my labour! I worked hard for this, got it to 2k words and that is my goal for each chapter. And also, for each chapter, the review that I appreciate the most will be granted an omake request! So be sure to leave a nice...long...juicy...review!

"Why? A kind person. A gentle master. If you treasure me this much. Yet if you are this kind, I..."

- ?(Cookie to whoever guesses who this is)

Jeanne walked down the road, wandering deeper into the dark forest. She was incredibly confused, it hadn't even been an hour since her summoning and the Grail was already giving her instructions. She wasn't even in Romania yet!

After a long hour of walking in the calm forest, she emerged into a large clearing with three summoning circles drawn perfectly on the ground.

The Ruler's eyes widened as she realized what the Grail intended for her to do. While it would reduce her trustworthiness towards the competitors of this Grail War, three servants to help her enforce order would be especially valuable.

She approached the circles cautiously, not certain if the servants would just appear or if she would have to summon them herself.

The instant she arrived in front of the first circle, it started to glow with an arcane light that she hoped nobody would notice. She knew that she was very deep in the forest but one could not be too cautious.

The light shined brightly, blinding her for a moment. When her eyes cleared, she was greeted by a friendly grin on the face of a truly beautiful silver-haired woman wearing traditional Japanese clothing with four katana sheathed at her waist.

"Shinmen Musashi-no-Kami Fujiwara no Harunobu! Such is my name!"

Jeanne looked at her servant blankly for a long moment, this caused her summoned servant to sweat and look around in nervousness.

"Sorry, let's do that over! Servant Saber, Musashi Miyamoto has arrived! Show me something fun and interesting, Master!"

Jeanne snapped out of her slight daze and smiled apologetically at her servant.

"Ah, pardon me! I did not mean to stare, I just didn't expect to get such a famous and powerful hero on the first summon."

Musashi tilted her head to the side in confusion and scratched the back of her head.

"Eeeh? I'm famous?!"

Jeanne giggled gently at her servant's cluelessness.

"You were not aware of your own fame? How peculiar, Saber."

The Saber servant pouted childishly at her master for a moment before smirking mischievously.

"Master! As consolation for you mocking my knowledge, you owe me two free servings of Udon!"

Ruler's eyes widened in surprise before softening at Saber's playfulness. It seems as though they will get along just fine.

"Very well, Saber. I will get you two servings of Udon when we have the chance."

Musashi grinned victoriously at her triumph.

"I'll hold you to that, Master! But first, don't you need to summon the other servants?"

Saber reminded her master of the other servants she would have to summon.

"Ah yes!"

Jeanne moved towards the second summoning circle which immediately activated at her proximity.

The process repeated itself, blinding her for a moment.

The first thing she noticed was not the oversized heart-shaped spear. It wasn't the sailor girl uniform either. The first thing she noticed was her expression. A sad melancholic smile that spoke of suffering and hardship.

The woman was inhumanly beautiful, divine even. Her long white hair
bobbed as she bowed her head in subservience.

"Brynhildr. My class is...Lancer. Please do not be kind to me...master."

Jeanne's slight smile slowly dipped into a frown at Brynhildr's words. How broken was she?

"Please, stand up, Lancer. No need to be so formal with me. I would prefer we be friends."

The Valkyrie froze at the word friend. She was slightly shaken at hearing those words from a complete stranger. The only one to offer her any sort of meaningful relationship was Sigurd...Oh, Sigurd...

Lancer's thoughts were interrupted by the boisterous laugh of Saber. Who then proceeded to pull both her and Jeanne into her arms.

"Shehehehehe! Well said, Master! We shall be...what do they call it these days? Ah yes. We shall be BFFs! All that's left is to summon the last servant to have them join our BFF group!"

Jeanne chuckled warmly at the Saber's affections. She was startled to hear a slight giggle coming from the Norse warrior resting in Saber's other arm.

"While I agree with you, Musashi, I need you to let go if you want me to summon the last servant."

Musashi laughed sheepishly and let them both go. Jeanne spared a glance at her Lancer, who she could've sworn looked disappointed for half a second there. She decided to let it go and just continue on with the summonings.

She neared the last circle with a confident step. No matter who would be summoned, she was sure she could handle them.

The same blinding light appeared once more.

"Cú Chulainn. Answering your summons, I've arrived."

A tall man dressed in the most intimidating set of armour she had ever seen. It was full of spikes and skull motifs, it was almost enough for her to consider it nightmare fuel. His intimidating appearance was only enhanced by the blood red spear in his hand, Gáe Bolg, that radiated bloodlust.

"It will be an honour to fight alongside you, Child of Light."

The Berserker gazed impassively at her form, before grunting in a sign of acceptance.

"It seems as if you won't get in the way. All you need to do is point out who is the enemy and I'll rip them apart."

All of this was said with the same indifferent tone of voice he used to introduce himself. The man was more of a machine than anything else now.

It would be a challenge to befriend him, but with Musashi's and Brynhildr's help, it didn't seem all that impossible as a task.

"Man...you're a real scary dude, you know."

It seems as if Musashi couldn't stop herself from commenting on his appearance.

A slight smirk, fake as it was, appeared on his face.

"I can look even worse if you'd like."

As soon as he finished his sentence, the smirk disappeared to be replaced with an annoyed scowl.

He started muttering something about a 'foul woman and her damn influence' or something.

Jeanne turned to check on Brynhildr only to find her eying Berserker with a weird look in her eyes. She was also gripping her spear very very tightly as if she was trying to stop herself from doing something. She started biting her lip nervously and tried to move her attention away from the sole male's presence.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, Jeanne had had enough and decided that she would not ignore her new friend just for the sake of politeness. She stopped walking and turned to question the beautiful white-haired woman, but then said white-haired woman burst into action and tried to stab Berserker straight in the chest.

Of course, the man deflected the attack with contemptuous ease and looked down at Brynhildr with an emotionless gaze. He was not the least bit surprised to see her attacking him, he had felt her bloodlust from the moment she had laid eyes on him.

His spear lashed slashing at her stomach and causing a slight rip in her shirt. Brynhildr was not deterred and started striking him with her spear, each attack came from a different direction. She started with an overhead strike which Berserker easily batted away with his bare hands. He immediately went to retaliate, but the woman regained her footing quite fast and resumed her attack by igniting the tip of her spear and going to sweep his feet, to which he jumped over the attack and stuck his own spear into one of the holes in the blade of her spear, causing her to abandon the spear and strike Ireland's Child of Light straight in the face and continuing her attack with a series of punches and kicks which left bruises on the man's body. They were all healed up by his runes in a matter of seconds.

She had sent one last kick that threw him away from both of their weapons. Brynhildr took the opportunity and took both weapons, one in each hand. She struck with Gáe Bolg first going to stab him in the stomach, but he caught the spear by the handle before it could so much as scratch him.

He was surprised to see his aggressor unhand the weapon and jump away from him but understood once he saw the glowing runes on the shaft of the spear in the familiar array to perform a moderately-sized explosion.

Cu reacted quickly and threw the spear straight towards the Lancer causing her to twirl her spear to create a wall of fire with a defensive rune array popping up as a last line of defence.

This was the moment the two other servants that were present decided to wake up from their surprised states. Musashi dashing as fast as she could and kicking the spear far off into the sky, causing it to explode far away from anyone.

Jeanne had also reacted using two command seals, one for each fighter telling them not to attack each other anymore.

Jeanne sighed in relief as she noticed her two violent servants relaxing their stances. She approached Brynhildr to check on her condition. The woman had collapsed onto her knees and was now shaking in fear of the judgement that would surely be brought on her.

She looked down at her knees as Jeanne approached her calmly. The blond kneeled down next to her and did something that truly surprised her. It was something not a lot of people had done for her. She could count all those people on one hand. Mother Freya, Musashi, and her love Sigurd. Now, she could add one more to that list.

"I am truly sorry, Master... I did not mean for this to happen, I resisted all I could but that curse is etched into my very Saint Graph."

Jeanne hushed her and signalled for her to just relax.

"I am not angry at you, Brynhildr. I am just confused about what transpired. Why did you attack Berserker?"

Brynhildr sniffed slightly before replying to her master.

"It is a curse etched into my very being. Because of my legend, I am cursed to kill all men who fit my view of a hero. Not only that but this curse also forces me to kill my beloved, Sigurd, were we to ever be summoned in the same Grail War."

Jeanne frowned sadly at her servant's explanation, what a sad existence. She could not let this pass.

Hmm, she has a few command seals to spare.

"Brynhildr. Stand."

Brynhildr immediately followed the order and stood up straight.

"With this command spell, I order you erase that curse from you very being!"

Brynhildr granted a small sad smile to Jeanne at her kindness.

"Master you have no need to use your command seals on a lost cause like me."

"With this second command spell, I reinforce that order!"

Tears started gathering in the corner of her eyes at her master's actions.

"Master, please, there is no need to do this!"

"With this third command spell, I, once more, reinforce that order!"

The tears started to fall in streams.

"Why? A kind person. A gentle master. If you treasure me this much. Yet if you are this kind, I..."

"With this fourth command seal, I order you to fully erase that curse from your being!"

Brynhildr started screaming in pain as her very core was twisted so as to erase that damned curse. Her screams of agony would forever remain etched into Jeanne's memory.

The pain was indescribable but in the end. It was worth it.

When Brynhildr next laid her eyes on Berserker, there was no hidden bloodlust. None whatsoever...the curse was gone.

This was the moment that they would all cherish, even the mostly emotionless Berserker, no matter how much he would deny it. The day that the melancholic Valkyrie showed her truest happiest smile in a long while.

This day also marked the start of the battle to claim the Great Holy Grail.

The start of the battle of swords, ideals, and most importantly: dreams.

And here begins the Greatest Holy Grail War...buckle up, cus' this'll be a wild ride, boys and girl.