What now?

A-san noticed Artoria receive a magical letter, return it, and get a second one. He was curious, but not alarmed until she cracked the seal in the second letter. With a loud snapping sound, space twisted around her, and she was fine.

"Oh dear." A-san leapt to his feet, and ran downstairs to wake Aaron. After shaking him awake, he quickly explained. "Saber just disappeared. She was teleported away... seemingly against her will."

Aaron came to conciousness a little slowly, at first smiling dreamily at A-san, but then the words sank in. He shot upright, "Shit!" the american cursed as he leapt out of bed in search of some clothes. Teleportation was not an easy thing to achieve, especially when you weren't in direct contact with the person you were teleporting. He located some jeans and a tank top. More revealing than he usually preferred, it made people ask far too many questions that he had to roll his eyes at, but he didn't have time to worry about that at the moment. "Show me where she was. Maybe we can pick up some sort of trace?"

A-san led him over to the place where Artoria had been standing. "Right here. Whatever it was, it must have been powerful. I thought it might have been Manaka, but somehow I doubt it. She received two letters from someone, though she didn't say who."

Caster stood to the side with another disc-like viewing screen. "I'm looking all over the city. No sign of her yet."

"Damn. Okay." after not getting any useful energy readings he thought for a moment. "Alright let's check buildings on the leylines...well what used to be the leylines. Their home got blown up, so they must have gone to a back up base and I bet it was on a leyline before they got sapped."

A-san thought and nodded to Caster. "The Church and the Temple. Check those."

Caster bent over his disc again and scanned those areas. After another minute, he shook his head in frustration. "The Church is empty. I see no one at the Temple besides the priests."

"Damn it," A-san swore under his breath. "There must be other places in this city to hide. The sewers, perhaps? Or the forest?" He grumbled under his breath.

"Alright looks like we'll be doing this on fucking foot then. I'll check the forest. If anyone wants to come with me feel free but whoever doesn't should comb the city and the sewers while caster keeps searching." he grabbed a messenger bag and headed outside, texting Julian on the way.

"We should still search the temple," Caster suggested. "The Bounded Field around it limits how much I can see. We may benefit from searching on foot."

A-san nodded at Arnaud and Israfil. "I'll head toward the temple, then. Israfil, why don't you take the sewers? Mr. uh... Rider's Master... head east, I suppose. That's the only direction left. If you find something, send up a signal and we'll reconvene here."

A-san waited until the group was well out of range before he turned and shot a large firework up into the sky above Fuyuki. He then rushed back to the theater. When he got there just after Israfil and white-hair. He could feel Berserker approaching; Aaron would be here in a few moments.

Someone else was also waiting there by the time they got back; Ozymandias. The Servant looked fully healed by now, but infinitely cross.

True to form, Aaron rushed in the door, "What'd you find?" he asked expectantly.

A-san sighed. "You're not going to like it. But it's the truth. The enemy team just sacrificed all their Servants to the fill the Grail, and then claimed it. The War is over."

Aaron was absolutely silent. Instinctively he took out his phone and began a text, but deleted it, began again, and deleted it before putting his phone away sporting a thousand yard stare.

Israfil leapt to her feet. "What? What do you mean it's over?! We barely even started!"

Lancer gritted his teeth, his eyes burning. "They sacrificed their own team to win? They mock us."

Ozymandias looked as though he might simply explode on the spot. A million curses ran through his head, but he simply couldn't choose one to say aloud. "Where are they?! I should grind them into dust for daring to steal our prize with such an underhanded ploy!"

"They're gone. They left the city."

"Left the city?" Ozymandias narrowed his eyes at the Master. "So, you met with them. Tell us where they went."

"They didn't tell me where they went."

"And you simply let them go? You didn't follow them?!"

"What's the point?" Arnaud cut in. "We lost. Going after them isn't going to solve anything."

Aaron began to attempt deep breathing, but in short order began to pace, trying to think of a way to remedy his failure. He was aware of the raised voiced but they didn't penetrate the noise of his own thoughts.

As the other four began bickering, A-san looked at Aaron with worry. He came over, but refrained from touching him. "Hey. Can we talk in private?"

"Sure," he replied, immediately heading to the basement. He began to collect his things, not sure where he would be going exactly, but knowing only that he needed to be leaving soon.

"Listen," A-san started uncertainly. He made sure Caster put up a spell to prevent eavesdropping. "I don't know you well. But, you may be the only decent person on this team. The guy who took the Grail, Lazarus, said that we could join him. I've decided to go with him, and want to offer the same to you."

"Fuck...I don't know..." genuinely conflicted, he plopped onto the bed. "My husband will be expecting me home, or at the least an update. I can't lie to him..."

A-san looked him over with interest. "You don't have to answer this question. But, why did you seek the Grail?"

"Well...I got the command spells but I didn't really have any pressing wishes so, I'm sort of submitting for Julian I guess...he's kind of a hardass. I don't think he'll be happy about my failing. I was supposed to get to the grail and then let him know. He would come to Japan and tell me what his wish was or, if possible, use the grail himself. "

"You were getting it for someone else?" You could almost hear A-san frowning under his mask. "I can't say... I don't understand how you feel. But it's sad. It doesn't sound like this Julian... is a very good person. Ah, that makes me sound like a hypocrite, though. We all joined this War with the goal of killing others."

"Oh! I mean, he's very sweet too. Everyone has things about their personality that aren't the best. It happens. He just doesn't deal with failure well, is all. Just one of those really anal people I guess. And like I said I don't really want anything. I'm happy, so I don't mind letting him have the grail. I just...aside from knowing he'll be angry, I feel bad. I promised I'd get it for him..."

"Doesn't deal well with failure. And... what does he do when he gets angry at you?"

"Honestly, I don't know what he would do in this case. I've never fucked up this badly before..." he absently rubbed at the bruises on his upper arms. He really wasn't sure what Julian would do. Getting the rose put in was horrible, but what if he took it out? What if he did something else? The flower had been a punishment when Aaron had cheated on him previously, even though he hadn't meant to. And in any case, the rose was pretty beneficial. The process may have been scary, but overall it was a positive, and honestly a pretty nice thing for Julian to give him.

A-san stared down at him with concern. "The way you talk... You sound like a prisoner. Whatever good you might see in him, you don't have to take that shit. If you're really concerned about what he might do to you, don't forget you've got an 11-foot tall bodyguard."

He chuckled, "Well thanks." he thought for a few moments, "Okay, I think I know how I can spin this. I'm going to tell him that I'm working with you guys to get information. Which is technically true. And maybe I can find something to bring him so he doesn't try to do some more freaky surgeries." he grabbed his packed suitcase, "Well that's unfair to say really. The anesthesia didn't work properly that's not his fault..." he asked Darius to go into spirit form. "Let's blow this popsicle stand. There's a fire exit that leads out of here we can use. "