A/N: So, in light of all the other stories I'm writing at the moment, I am going to abridge the rest of this fic. What this means is I'll do the scenes I've planned while throwing in ideas I had thought of while skipping a good deal of the narrative. It will feel disjoined and incomplete, and for that I apologize. However, I only have so much time to write, and so many things to write about. Right now, I want to give Troper the end he deserves.

"Ok, don't panic," Troper said as he treaded water next to me. "I'm pretty sure we can swim to shore before any of the heavily armed patrol boats notice us."

"I hate you."

**Several hours earlier**

"Alright, I see the target now," I said into the walkie-talkie while peering through the binoculars in my other hand. "Matsu, you're sure this is the right one?"

"Of course, Shirou-tan!" replied the hacker's voice over the radio. "Without the No. 22, Higa-tan has no hopes of hiding anything from me, especially since he didn't think to get a new phone."

I gave a small grunt of acknowledgment as I eyed the ambulance turning around a corner from my vantage point several buildings away. It had taken less time than I had thought for Matsu to catch a break as to the whereabouts of Higa, even though all she had was a cell phone. Still, even though we had his location, we couldn't be sure he was in the same place as both Uzume and Chiho, the real reasons why we were going after him in the first place.

Which is why when we picked up a conversation on said phone that was about moving Chiho to a new location, we decided that this was the best time to act. Higa's possession of Uzume's Ashikabi was only thing keeping her in his service, so we were going to hijack the vehicle mid-transit. Of course, it wouldn't be as simple as that given that Higa would undoubtedly be watching, so a slightly more elaborate plan than smash and grab was in order.

"Are you sure your plan will work?" I asked, turning to look at Troper who was standing next to me as an additional spotter.

"Why wouldn't it?" He replied. "My plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity."

I gave a frown. "Are we thinking of the same plan? Because I think your confusing simplicity for complexity addiction."

"Quiet you. Besides, are you sure that your plan will work?"

"Well, Avalon worked before when I used it to heal Miya, so I don't see why it wouldn't work on Chiho." I raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't see why you would doubt it. You've got on of your own after all."

Troper glanced down at himself and twisted his mouth slightly, as if he was looking through his body at his own Avalon. He then shook his head and looked back at the street. "It's almost time, keep your eyes open."

I followed his gaze and watched as the ambulance got closer and closer to a particular pair of alleyways across the street from one another. Moments before it reached it, I shouted into my walkie "Now!"

From their position in the alleys, Homura and Tsukiumi unleashed a blast of their respective elements angled upward, the two attacks meeting about the middle of the street. A huge eruption of steam expanded and obscured the vehicle along with a good portion of the road. Then, coming from both ends of the street were another four ambulances of similar make which drove straight into the cloud.

"How did you get those anyway?" I asked my counterpart.

"A combination of bribery, fast talking, and five finger discounts." He replied nonchalantly, not taking his eyes off the cloud.

I frowned at him. "I don't think I like how casually you seem about breaking the law like this. Besides, what if people need those ambulances?"

He had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Sorry. It's sort of a side effect of traveling the multiverse with Zelretch for long enough. You just start seeing yourself as… outside of things. And don't worry, we're giving them back as soon as possible."

It wasn't ideal, but now wasn't exactly the time to do something about it. Most of my Sekirei, along with Rin, Saber, and oddly enough Hakura and his Sekirei were in those vehicles. This part of the plan was fairly simple: under the cover of the steam, we would swoop in and take out anyone who might resist, then all five would drive out in different directions. That would cause enough of a diversion to split up whatever forces Higa might have watching, which we would thin pick off one by one.

We also had to find Uzume at some point in this nonsense and tell her what was going on, but I wasn't sure how receptive she would be to a conversation. She had already given some thought to my magical healing abilities and had decided that it wouldn't be worth the risk. I hoped that I would be able to convince her otherwise.

A few dozen seconds later, a new voice crackled over the channel. "Everything's secure" Homura said. "We have her."

"Good. Let's scatter." Troper responded, and the vehicles rolled out of the rapidly disappearing mist and in different directions. Now it was my and Troper's job to keep watch on everything. Matsu would help from her control center in her room, but she couldn't see everything. And besides, the two of us would be needed to fight off any response that Higa's Sekirei would most assuredly give.

"Shirou-tan!" Matsu suddenly said on the coms. "I've got some people closing in on your position!"

There we go, I thought to myself. "So, how many of Higa's remaining Sekirei are we talking?"

"It's not them!" She exclaimed, casing me to feel confused. "It's the Disciplinary Squad! I'm getting reports from MBI that they're in the area and headed straight for you!"

I groaned out loud. "Great. Let's just hope that this is the only thing that goes wrong." I said in response to the Spanner in the Works.

This, of course, prompted Troper to turn toward me and gape. "You have got to be kidding me! Do you realize you've just doomed the mission?!"

I gave him a flat look. "I'm pretty sure that only applied to you. Besides, this probably is the worst thing that could happen."

"Oh really?! What if even more Ashikabi and Sekirei get involved?! What if you suddenly had an aneurysm?! What if the Blue suddenly shows up?!" He replied, going through increasingly improbably scenarios.

Being unable to take him seriously at this point, I remarked with some mirth "What if that girl with the blue hair shows up and starts becoming friends with your Rin?"

Troper froze and went completely pale. He then began to shake in terror. "They must never be allowed to meet!" he said with no small amount of fear.

"Because she'll find out you're a ruined man?"

"Worse! She might give Rin… ideas."

The way he sad that last word sent shivers down my spine for some reason. Maybe I shouldn't be making light of it…

Troper remained panicked for a few moments longer before he took a few deep breaths to calm himself. "Ok… no more thinking about that. Back to panicking about… what was I panicking about again?"

"About me, I should think." Karasuba said.

"Yes, thank you Karasuba. As I was saying, what if Kara-" Troper stopped mid-sentence and froze. The both us then slowly turned to the side and was greeted by the sight of the Black Sekirei standing near us, who we had completely missed while arguing with each other.

She looked back and forth between the two of us, and blush forming on her face as a rather unsettling smile crossed her lips. "Two Shiroui-chans…" she panted out, looking more excited with each second. I was pretty sure that she was the first female who, upon seeing the two of us, had that reaction imaging something other that me and my counterpart having intercourse. Of course, considering what the Blood Knight was probably thinking about instead, it really wasn't any better. "Oh, I don't know what's going on, but this is going to be the most fun I've had in ages!" She drew her blade in anticipation.

Troper gave a grimace as he pulled his pistols from his coat. "For the record, I'm blaming this on you."

I pulled my blades from my back. "Oh, bite me."

*Many shenanigans later*

"Well, that turned out as well as could be expected…" Troper said slowly as he pulled himself up on to the dock.

"Yes, except for the fact that we have no idea how everyone else did." I grumbled as I pulled myself up behind him. "We lost the walkie-talkies in the fight with Karasuba."

"Well, we'll just have to have faith in them." He replied, though his tone did note some concern. For a moment the two of us simply stood there, letting the water drip off of us.

The moment of respite did not last long though, as soon an ambulance was seen going around the bend of a nearby warehouse. We glanced at each other for a moment and eyed the vehicle warily, not sure if it was one of ours.

Fortunately, this turned out to be the case, as it stopped a short distance away from us and we were greeted by the sight of Rin, and (again) oddly enough Haruka and Kuno. "I knew it was a mistake to let you go off on your own." Rin said crossly as she approached us. "Letting one of you go unsupervised always caused trouble, I should have known that two of you would make it worse!"

"And I'm glad that you're fine as well…" I replied dryly. "How did it go, and why isn't Saber with you? Is Chiho-"

"She's fine." The magus waved off. "There was a great deal of confusion after the two of you became… preoccupied, but we still managed. Saber had to take care of Uzume when she showed up to keep the other woman from doing anything rash. Their probably back at the inn now."

"Yeah, it was pretty amazing!" Hakura added. "I didn't even know she was a Sekirei!"

The rest of us aside from his Sekirei exchanged glances before I turned to him. "You know, I'm actually pretty impressed that you decided to join in on this one."

"Yeah well…" he said, looked a little sheepish. "I got kinda tired of running. You were a bit… hard about it, but I can see why you want to fight and change things." He puffed up his chest a little. "Well, I'm going to do that from now o-"

The only warning I got was the scent a flare of magic power before I saw the bolt of light pierce through the young man's chest. There was a small splatter of blood before he crumpled to the ground. His Sekirei didn't even get to call out his name before there was a flash of light from her back and she fell as well, his death resulting in her termination.

The rest of us looked around in alarm and found a number of figures dropped down from the tops of nearby shipping container towers. I could tell from their scents that they were magi, and I could tell from their clothes that they were Enforcers. There were about 8 of them total, and two of them were holding someone in chains etched with symbols. That person was unmistakable Rin Tohsaka.

"Well, this is all very touching, but we have to get a move on." Said a new mage, who calmly walked out from behind the Enforcers. "Honestly, it seems like a waste to kill a potential specimen like that, but I'm sure that it will be enough trouble taking in you four alive." The man was of the unremarkable sort, with brown hair and plain if finely made clothing.

Troper's eyes widened at this sight before his face twisted into one of hate. "You!" he seethed out through his teeth. It was like he knew the man from somewhere, but I didn't understand how.

The man arched an eyebrow at this. "Oh? I did not know that you knew of Johan Einzbern." Shit. I was not on good terms with that family, considering I was at least partially responsible for the dismantling of the Grail system. If one of them had come to Shin Tokyo…

Regardless of my own thoughts, the man continued. "Then again, I did not expect to find… copies of yourself." He looked at the lot of us with a frown. "I wonder if this is due that annoying Wizard Marshall of ours." He gave a shrug. "Well, no matter. As you can see, we have your traitorous master already, and you are out numbered by a significant margin, so I would suggest that you give up now. I would give a more reasons as to why it is hopeless to resist, but there is a lot to be done in regards to that wretched company that's been giving us so much trouble, and less time to do it than I would like."

This was bad. There was no way we could handle this many magi. And with Troper's Rin held hostage, there wasn't much we could do before she was killed. I saw my Rin glance at her hand at the Command Spells tattooed there. She could summon Saber, but not before her counterpart suffered for it.

Ttoper's rage at the situation then abated, and he simply looked at the ground with a hard look on his face.

"Well?" Einzbern asked, impatience in his voice. "Are you going to give in to the inevitable or not? You have-"

"Thirty seconds." Troper interrupted, bringing his head up to look up at the other man.

Einzbern sneered at him. "Do you really think you are in a position to barter for time?"

Troper slowly stripped off his longcoat and tossed it to the ground. "You misunderstand. In thirty seconds, one of us will be dead." He then began to walk forward.

Rin, his Rin, seemed to know what he was doing, and started to thrash in her restraints. "Shirou, no! You can't do that again! You'll die!"

Troper did not respond to her, instead incanting "My existence…"

Einzbern gave a bored look. "You know what? We one need one. Kill him."

As a rush of flame came to meet the man, I barely heard Troper finish saying "… is one of Tropes."