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Fate taken as something that is "meant" to be is absolute nonsense.
Fate taken as natural law and possibly chance, on the other hand, is a simple fact.
Things either happen because of natural law or in some cases - if you follow some branchers of quantum theory - by pure random chance.
Human behaviour is a meta-pattern of physical interactions. The mental supervenes upon the physical, with the structures formed by the interactions of physical objects possessing new qualities that are intrinsically inherent to the structures, but not to the separate physical objects they consist of. (much like the separate components of a car taken individually do not possess the qualities of their combination - the car as a whole)
There is only the physical (matter, energy, dimensions), the interactions of which not just determine but actually are everything.
The experience of free will is merely consciousness, a meta-structure of the physical, experiencing and reflecting on its own workings, while providing feedback as a factor of influence on those workings at the same time. (much like a computer program which monitors not just external input, but also its own state, which it then feeds back into the monitoring system as a source of input, the state of the program meanwhile changing because of the combined input it receives)
A specific person in a specific state and given a specific situation, however, is not able to act in any other way than he actually does. For a different outcome to occur, one of the variables would need to be different - meaning that either the person would have to be a different one, or the context. Otherwise, the law of cause and effect, chained, will ensure exactly the same outcome.
The only viable alternative to this would be the existence of actual true randomness, ungoverned by any natural law. In that case, there is an additional influence - random chance. This would, of course, still exclude the possibility of anything resembling traditional notions of a free will.
Either way, humans are as free as a conscious billiard ball which gets hit by another ball and thinks "And now, I shall freely choose to move!"
One is free to do what one decides to do, but not free to decide what one decides to do. (paraphrased from a philosopher whose name won't come to mind right now)
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