What now?

"Not telling the others?" he chuckled. "I suppose I'm okay with that. But I'm a little worried about what Lancer and Rider are going to do now. They both seem like poor losers."

"Okay. It seemed like you wanted this on the down low but if you want to tell them you can."

He chuckled. "I'm not going to tell them we're joining Lazarus. Just that we're leaving. And I'd like to get an idea of what those two might be up to in case they want to come after Lazarus."

Aaron nodded, "Good call." He followed A-san back upstairs.

He came upstairs to find that the bickering was only just starting to wind down. They paused as the duo entered the room, and to A-san's relief, Ozymandias was the first to speak.

"So... thanks to those bastards, all our efforts went to waste. What shall we do now?"

"What do we do now?" A-san echoed. "We're going home."

Lancer narrowed his eyes. "Just like that?"

"The Grail's gone. There's literally nothing we can do."

"And yet we Heroic Spirits still remain in the world," said Ozymandias. "And I am unfulfilled!"

"Oh? What's your big plan?"

Ozymandias hesitated. "Well... I haven't come up with an idea yet."

"I have," Lancer interrupted, drawing all eyes to him. "I wanted the Grail for one reason. To reclaim my honor. If I cannot do so through the Grail, I shall do it the hard way." Behind him, Israfil giggled. "I am returning to my home country."

"...Ah. Which one is that?"

Lancer laughed, but didn't answer. A-san figured it was too much to ask.

"Ah!" Ozymandias shouted. "That sounds like fun. I'm in need of things to do. Perhaps a visit to my home country is called for as well!"

Oh shit. This didn't bode well. A-san looked nervously at Aaron.

"Okay, look you idiots. The other team got the grail. What do you think they wished for? It clearly wasn't world peace or you'd be gone, so it must be something to do with power. Do you honestly think that you'd be stronger than whatever the grail granted them? Do you really wanna go start some shit? Because I'm pretty sure they're goody two-shoes enough to come and put you back in your place. Just fucking appreciate that you didn't die and do something useful for the human race you insurmountable assholes." Aaron glared at the servants, his fist clenching. It was turning out to be a rather emotional day.

Ozymandias raised an eyebrow. "Who says I wouldn't be doing something good for the human race? Besides, I'm not going to live in fear of the ones who won the Grail. They certainly didn't seem interested in taking us down in the Grail War itself, so they can keep minding their own business."

Lancer grimaced at Ozymandias ego. "I only wish to return to the place of my birth and redeem my name. It is my purpose as a Heroic Spirit."

"Right..." A-san said. This wasn't a fight he wanted to wage now. If it were to come to blows, he'd rather wait until he had Lazarus at his side, all Grail-ified. "Have fun with that."

"Oh? Don't tell me Caster has no plans of his own?"

Caster was as stoic as always. "Grail or no, I am just a Servant. My purpose is to follow my Master."

"Well said."

"Have fun dying later, I guess..." Aaron gave a half hearted wave to the other masters and left.

A-san turned to leave with him, but a voice called out to stop him.

"Wait." Ozymandias' tone was serious.

A-san stopped, wondering if perhaps he was onto them.

"We all split up to find Saber in the first place. I'm just curious. Do you know what happened to her?"

"Oh."

A-san breathed an internal sigh of relief. Still, this was a difficult question to answer. He wasn't sure how they would react if they knew Artoria had defected. Perhaps he was better off telling them she had died.

As he stood there, weighing the options in his mind, another voice called out to him.

"Yeah. What did happen to Saber?"

Manaka's voice made a chill run up his spine. He tried to run, but his feet were stuck to the floor. He looked down to see pools of shadows forming under his feet, which quickly sprouted tendrils that wrapped up around his torso.

Two of them formed into human arms, and a moment later, Manaka was standing there, arms wrapped around A-san's torso, holding him fast.

"I looked everywhere for her. But she's gone. You know what happened to her, don't you?"

A-san was paralyzed, held fast by Manaka's shadowy grip. He made a few choking sounds, but couldn't get any words out.

Aaron turned around, dropping his luggage, and fired an air bullet (A-rank) at Manaka, using extra mana to set the spell of immediately. He hoped it would hit her, it was meant to target specific people, so in theory, it wouldn't hit A-san, but the little girl seemed to laugh at theory. At the same time, he growled Berserker's name, assuming he'd get the hint.

Manaka laughed, twisting the space between her and Aaron. The air bullet curved to the side and speared straight through A-san's stomach.

Despite that, A-san didn't even cry out in pain. He nodded at Berserker as he appeared. "Go ahead. Caster, get Aaron out of here."

Manaka seemed confused that A-san didn't seem to be in pain, despite the blood dripping down his front. Nevertheless, as Berserker charged forward, she swung around to put A-san's body in the way of his axe chop.

Caster swept up next to Aaron, levitating his luggage. "Don't worry. He'll be fine." As he said that, Aaron watched Berserker's axe smash A-san's body to the floor, pinning a surprised and enraged Manaka to the floor.

"Where's my Sabeeeer?!"

Slightly in shock, he followed Caster out of the building, "What the fuck?" he asked the servant.

The two swept along, and Caster couldn't help but smile a little in self-satisfaction. "That wasn't my Master. My Master was controlling my familiar remotely. A little insurance in case things went wrong."

Aaron laughed as he followed caster, "That is brilliant! I need to learn how to do that shit." He hoped Darius would be okay. He kept an eye on his command seals. If they were still there after about five minutes, he'd will his servant back.

Caster led Aaron to the east and out of Shinto, well out of sensing range of the Servant at the theater. Berserker came back alive and well several minutes later, having driven Manaka off.

As they rounded a corner, a black Cadillac pulled up alongside them and rolled a window down. Inside was a man with familiar messy red hair, though he now had sunglasses and a face mask in lieu of his fancier full mask.

"Hop on in!"

Aaron gladly hopped into the back seat, giving the front to Caster if he wanted it. He requested Darius return to spirit form as he wasn't sure he'd fit in the car, but with a quip gave him the option of riding on top as if he were a parade float.

[[fuckin lmao]]

Berserker managed to attach himself to the top of the car in Spirit Form so as to not weigh them down.

A-san pulled his face mask down. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you back there. But, we're home free anyway. I'll set us up with a nice hotel in the next town until I can get a hold of Lazarus."

"Thanks," he said with a charming wink. He pulled out his phone to update Julian. He seemed nervous in the rear view mirror for a few moments, but eventually relaxed and smiled. It seemed his husband had bought the exscuse. He put his phone away and leaned on the back of A-San's seat, "Nice glasses. It's nice to see your face...well part of it."

A-san chuckled. "Yeah, I prefer my anonymity. I'm gonna miss that mask though. Maybe if I'm lucky, Caster can sneak in and grab it later, but I might be better of just making a new one."

"I can make you ninja hood out of a t-shirt if you have one," Aaron offered jokingly.

"Haha, no that's alright."

"Master, did you forget?" Caster waved his hand in the air and instantly created a mask identical to his old one.

"Oh yeah," said A-san. "Item Creation."

They drove for an hour, quickly leaving Fuyuki City and heading to the neighboring town. A-san phoned ahead to reserve a room in one of the nicer hotels, so it was all ready for them when they arrived.

Their temporary abode was further inland, so it didn't have a view of the ocean, but they still got a room near the top of a tall hotel, overlooking the forests between them and Fuyuki.

"Make yourself at home," said A-san. "I've got some stuff to arrange, but hopefully we can relax here for a few days first."

Aaron flopped onto the bed. He meant to close his eyes briefly, but ended up falling asleep again in short order.

Per Avalon's request, A-san bought a burner phone and called Avalon.

"It's A-san. Me and one of my teammates managed to get free and we're ready to join up with you."

"Okay cool! I'm gonna have to turn my phone off after this call. We're heading to Hawaii. Specifically the island of Kauai. There's a safehouse outside of Hanalei. When you get there call me and someone will come and get you and show you where it is. Bring your swimsuit!" she said goodbye and hung up. She was worried about fucking with the plane, but this was rather important.

Mari put down the cup of ginger ale she had been sipping from and peered over the rim of her sunglasses. "Everybody good to go?"