The wave of flames engulfed Troper, completely obscuring him from view. The fire pooled around the spot he was standing, making a makeshift pyre on the dock. I could feel the heat of the flames from where I was standing, and felt shock at how Troper just… let it happen. I though that he was going to do something!

"Hmp. Well, that was simple." Einzbern said. "Well, if that's all for this foolishness-"

"Uh, Sir?" The Enforcer who was responsible for the conflagration spoke up. "That spell isn't supposed to be behaving like that. It should have dissipated by now."

"What? Who cares? It's not like that-"

Whatever the man was about to say was cut off, as he was greeted by the sight of Troper walking calmly Out of the Inferno with not a mark on him.

In hindsight, probably should have seen that one coming.

"What?! Kill him! Kill him now!" Einzbern yelled.

Troper was already moving before the words left the other man's mouth, sprinting at top speed towards the magus. The Enforcer standing by his side had quick reflexes though, and stepped in front of Johan, swiftly muttering an incantation before a bolt of lightning lashed out. When it reached Troper, rather than frying him or even knocking him back, it simply… flowed around him like water, reforming on the other side of his body. It was incredibly strange to watch, and I had no idea how he was accomplishing it.

The Enforcer didn't have time to react either, as just as he registered what happened, Troper had reached him and stretched out his hand towards the other man's face. Rather than striking or grasping however, the hand simply slid into the man's skull as if it were a mirage that wasn't truly there.

It still seemed to be quite really to the Enforcer however, as the moment it happened he let out a blood curdling scream and collapsed to the ground, blood leaking from his ears and nose.

One of the two men close to his Rin yelled out. "Stop! Or I'll k-!" that was as far as he got before the chained woman smashed her manacled hands into his face, causing him to stumble back. Me and my Rin took this as a cue to stop standing around and do something, as I quickly breathed out "I am the bone of my sword," and launched a traced sword at the other man near the captive before he could make due on the other man's threat. It pierced through his neck the same moment Rin tossed out a gem that burst into a gust of razor wind, knocking the first man back lacerating him.

The sudden burst of motion and attacks had surprised the magi, but as they were accustomed to combat (save Einzbern), they quickly regrouped. Normally we wouldn't have stood a chance against them, but Troper seemed to be, for lack of a better term, untouchable. Any spells that came his way went through or bent around him, and physical attacks faired no better. Anyone that tried to touch him would end up having some kind of seizure before collapsing. I started to wonder why he had never done whatever it was he was doing now when I noticed something… off. It had only been a dozen or so seconds since he had started his attack, but his body was moving in strange jerking motions. There were blurs and after images around his person, and they seemed to be getting worse.

Still, I didn't have time to dwell on that at the moment. "Iron is my blood, and glass is my heart," I ground out while forming a wall of blades in front of me, slowing a man who came at me with mystic code hammer. The situation was tenuous at best, as we were still out numbered, and my Rin was trying to protect Troper's Rin while she searched one of her fallen guards for some reason or another.

Einzbern had tried to run soon after the fighting started, but Troper had gone after him and cut him off at every turn. It was a fairly easy task when he didn't have to worry about all of the spells being thrown his way trying to stop him. His target tried as well, throwing out several metallic spheres which glowed and moved at high speeds and strange trajectories which would have perforated a normal person. In Troper's current state though, he didn't even seem to notice them.

Soon Troper got close enough to strike at the man, but Einzbern had seen what his touch had done to the others and threw himself to the ground before the limb could connect. It didn't do him too much good though, as it left him sprawled on the ground and Troper standing over him. My counterpart's condition was looking worse, as it started to become difficult to make out his individual features. Still, this did not stop him, and he drew his fist back to strike at the man beneath him. "Promise made…"

"Stop him!" Einzbern screamed to his companions. "Stop him you incompetent fools!"

Three broke off from trying to kill the rest of us, diving at Troper in an attempt to stop him. They wouldn't make it in time, and it probably wouldn't matter if they did. His fist came down-

Suddenly I heard a voice call out "Strike Air!" A massive torrent of wind swept down from above and knocked the Enforcers closing in on the two of them away. I looked up to see Saber dropping down from the sky and landing next to my counterpart. Had Rin summoned her? Or did had she come back to find us? I wasn't sure, but I was certainly grateful for her presence. Though Troper might not have needed the help, the rest of us certainly did.

She turned to my counterpart and gave him a strange look. He himself had frozen mid punch and turned to look at her, a glazed, far away expression on what I could make out of his face. There was a moment where all was still, and I once again tried to figure out what was going on with him. With the way Troper had been interacting with thing, it was like his body wasn't really there. Or like it wasn't physical, or made out of-

My eyes widened as the realization hit me. The one line aria he had said, it was different from his original invocation of his Reality Marble. However, the structure of the line compared to one of my own made me realize what it was. It was his invocation to internal deploy it. Right now, whatever that meant, his existence was made of tropes.

And by the way he suddenly twitched after seeing Saber, it was consuming him.

Troper's hands came to his head, he let out a scream, and he… twisted was the only word I could use to describe it. I was reminded of nothing so much as that picture of a vase and two faces as I watched the blurs around him take shape, and he was simultaneously on his knees screaming, laughing madly at the heavens, weeping as he held his face in his hands and numerous other expressions.

Einzbern crawled away in terror and ran, but he did not get far before what ever it was that was affecting Troper spread outwards. Saber's superior speed allowed her to jump back before it reached her, but the other man was not so lucky. The ground beneath him warped and twisted and sent him tumbling to the ground. When he made to stand, the magus found that the part of dock he was standing on had been changed, and he was standing what looked to be a small patch of rocky desert. His attire had also changed, and he was now sporting black pants with a red long sleeve shirt. He looked down on himself in confusion, but it didn't last longs as a moment later a monster that looked like it wandered off a TV set appeared from behind on of the rocks and pounced on him.

I'm sure that Einzbern wouldn't have appreciated being cast as a Red Shirt if he knew what that meant, but it didn't matter in any case as while the monster looked cheesy, its claws were still quite effective.

The rest of the area around Troper was patchwork, shifting rapidly from different terrains and settings and even sometimes being several at once, in the center of which the man stood/knelt/cried/laughed/suffered/existed. While most of my attention was forced on the spectacle before me, I did notice the remaining Enforcers retreating. It seemed that they decided that with the addition of Saber and whatever it was around Troper coming into existence, things had become too much for them to handle.

Myself, Saber, and the two Rins had backed up some ways, though his Rin was the most frantic. "Saber! Get these off of me now!" she said, holding her manacled hands out to her. Saber obliged with a quick swipe of her sword, shattering the chain and the enchantment, causing the metal to fall to the ground. Rin then quickly turned back to the man she was searching earlier and found what she was looking for: a glove that was covered in a variety of different gems. She quickly slipped it on before turning and running towards the increasingly erratic maelstrom.

Saber however did not let her and swiftly moved behind and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Stop! You saw what happened to that man. The same could happen to you."

"I have to get to him!" Rin yelled, trying to squirm out the other woman's grasp but to no avail. "He's going to tear himself to pieces and dissolve if I can't stabilize him soon!"

"It's his Reality Marble, isn't it?" I asked. "He's lost control of it."

"Yes! It's going to consume him if you don't let me go!"

"You can't just going running into that-" my Rin gestured "like an idiot! You'll just get yourself killed!"

"If I don't, Shirou will die!" her counterpart spat back.

My mind raced to find a solution. How do you stop someone's Reality Marble? How do you stop someone from expressing their soul on the reality around them-

I straighten as I realized what I had to do. "I can suppress it." I said.

"How?" both Rins asked simultaneously.

"With my Reality Marble. It's never been done before, but I'm pretty sure you can't have two existing in the same area at the same time."

My Rin gave a start. "Shirou, you've never been able to successfully manifest since the War. What makes you think you can do so now?"

"I have to try." I said, and before she could say anything else I turned away and walked towards my counterpart. I had already started the first part of my aria at the beginning of the battle. I just had to do the rest now.

And hope that I didn't kill myself in the process.

"I have created over a thousand blades," I said as I walked closer to the edge of the madness. "Unaware of loss, Nor aware of gain," I had to be as close I a possibly could so that I could try to bring Troper in.

"I have withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one's arrival," My teeth clenched at I felt pain through my circuits and my temperature begin to rise. In truth, this was the farthest I have ever come, and any other time I would have wondered why that was the case. However, I was now starting to feel the strain. Still, I was close. I had to press on.

Sucking in a pained breath, I stopped at the edge. "I have no regrets. This is my path." The heat increased and it felt like my body was on fire. I could do this. I had to.

With all the will I had, I shouted the last line. "My whole life has been… Unlimited Blade Works!"

Cold fire erupted from my body, and spread outward from me. It didn't travel far before it encountered the zone around Troper and things got a little... weird. As the edge of my field moved into his, it started to twist and distort like everything else, but not completely. I could make out the details of my Reality Marble, but it was like looking through a lens. In addition to the normal strain I expected from Gaia, there was another presence that was resisting my soul's realization.

Pain, hate… loss

It was more than that, though. I could feel it on my mind as well. It was similar to when I first saw Troper's Reality Marble, but it was more disjointed and erratic. It felt less like tropes and more like memories. I grimaced as the cold fire moved forward slowly, pushing as much of my prana I dared into it to keep it moving forward. I just had to get it to reach his person. Just a little more...

The edge touched Troper-

"Strike Air!" Saber yelled as she swept out her blade, knocking away the closest Enforcers. You would think they would have realized that it was pointless to attack a Servant by this point, but apparently you'd be wrong. Of course, they really were just trying to keep her occupied.

"I believe that is quite enough out of you." Johan Einzbern said from his position off to the side. He made no movements other than to smile smugly at her.

Saber turned to face him, bringing her invisible sword to bear against him. "Magus! You will explain this assault at once!"

"Oh it is quite simple really," he replied. "You are a Servant."

Saber flinched slightly at this declaration. She had managed to keep it a secret from the Clock Tower for the past 5 years. How had they found out? "And what of it?"

"The Grail was corrupted, a fact which was so... helpfully provided by your master." Einzbern said with only the slightest twitch if his face. As a member of one of the three families who founded the Ritual, it had come to a serious blow to their pride when Rin had conclusively proved that thing had been corrupted for about seventy years without them noticing. "And yet in spite of all of her effort to dismantle the Heaven's Feel, she still decided to keep you around. Rather hypocritical all things considered. After all, there's no telling what the Grail's corruption has done to you."

The blonde woman scowled at him. "I am not corrupted! None of the Servants save the one from the previous war had any direct contact with the Grail, and he was destroyed!"

"Please forgive me if I do not take your word for it." Einzbern remarked, his smug sneer returning. "I am afraid we simply can't take that chance, so you will have to be destroyed."

It was all just a flimsy pretense of course. Though I'm sure that personal revenge for his family's humiliation played a part in it, the real reason (and the reason why the Clock Tower had approved) was that Saber represented a significant threat. It gave Rin, who was mostly considered a low level player in the politics of the tower, a substantial amount of weight if it came down to actual confrontation. Those already entrenched within the Clock Tower did not like the idea that they could be so easily sweep aside by someone so insignificant if push came to shove. So it came as little surprise that they decided to remove the problem as soon as they found out about it.

Of course, Saber had no intention of that happening. Wind began to pick up around her as her stance deepened. "You shall find that task far more difficult that you seem to think. It does not matter how many of you come at me, I will strike them all down."

Einzbern's expression did not waver. "Oh of course you would. As an Einzbern, I am well aware of how far beyond us you are in terms of raw power. Which is why I have brought something to ensure your cooperation."

He made a gesture, and a pair of rough hands grabbed me and pulled me forward, bringing me past the circle of men and women that surrounded the Servant. A rustling beside me showed that they did the same with Rin as well. Saber's eyes widened at the sight of us, injured and chained in magical bindings which prevented us from using our magecraft. Our captor continued. "You seem to be one of those honorable types of heroes that serve your master faithfully, so this should be quite simple for you. Either submit, or I will kill your master and her apprentice."

Saber's gaze rounded on the man, her eyes filled with fury. "Magus! How dare you use them like this?! I swear that I will kill-!"

"I think not." He cut her off before an orange glow came from his hand, a similar light coming from the metal collars that had been put around mine and Rin's neck. "If you kill me now, my spell will release and those two will find themselves without their heads. And you wouldn't want that, would you?" Saber froze in place, her teeth grinding as she stared at the man in hatred. Einzbern did not notice or did not care as he continued talking. "You see it would be simple to get rid of you by just killing your master now, but as she has been uncooperative in telling us just which Heroic Spirit you are, we don't know if you have Independent Action. Even if you didn't, you could likely do a fair amount of damage to this institution out of spite before you fade from existence. However, I promise that if you let us destroy you without incident, no harm will come to these two."

"Don't even think abo-!" That was as far as I got before a fist connected with my skull, dazing me and causing my neck to go limp. As my head rolled I caught a glimpse of Rin, who was in a worse state than I was. They had been quite forceful in trying to get her to tell them Saber's identity, and now she was barely conscious.

While I could only look at the ground, I could hear Saber say "How can I trust you? Nothing you have shown me thus far makes me believe that you have any honor!"

Even though I wasn't looking at him, I could somehow tell that Einzbern had put on a mock expression of hurt. "Madam, you wound me. I give you my word as a member of the most Noble House of Einzbern. And besides, you're not in a position to have much of a choice."

I managed to crane my neck up to look at the woman I had summoned all those years ago. She was looking back and forth between him, me and Rin. There just had to be a way out of this one. I sure as hell didn't survive all of that bullshit in the Grail War just to have my story end like this.

Then Saber straightened. Ah, she looked like she has an idea. I ready myself for her to give me some kind of clue as to what she had planned.

Still, I at least shared a little surprise with the Enforcers around me when she began to draw her sword.

Einzbern took on a panicked look as wind once again whipped around her and a golden light emerged from her hands. "W-what are you doing? Do you think I won't-" he cut himself off as she finished, now beholding the glory that was Excalibur.

The circle of magi was silent but tense. No one was sure what she would do next. However, rather than attack or speak to Einzbern again, she instead turned to Rin and I. "Shirou, Rin," she said. "When I came into this world 5 years ago, I thought that there was no humanity left in me. That I was not meant to know happiness."

I blinked in confusion. I didn't get it. Was she trying to tell me the plan in code or something?

She then gave us a smile. "You proved me wrong. My time with you have been the happiest in my existence. You have given me love, and let me know what it is to love in return. I will never forget what you have done for me."

This… wasn't a plan. This sounded like-

Saber's smile became sad, and tears trailed down her face. "I love you."

She then took her blade, turned it around in her hands and drove it through her heart.

I felt own heart stop, and everything seemed to fall still. There was an instant of silence before a scream tore its way out of my throat. "NO!" I could hear Rin screaming alongside me as well. I couldn't control myself. I surged forward, and maybe it was the surprise of what Saber just did, or maybe the man holding me hadn't expected me to move, but I wasn't stopped from rushing to her side. She had slumped down onto her knees, and she started to fall back before I caught her. It was difficult with my hands bound like they were, but I wasn't going to let her go.

"Saber! Just hold on!" I screamed as I reflexively tried to pull Avalon out of my body, only to be greeted with the sensation of pain lacing through me just as my circuits activated. The damn enchantments on the bindings wouldn't even let me do that! Come on, think! There had to be something, anything to save her!

"Shirou," she managed to say through her blood stained lips. "It's alright…"

"No it not!" I yelled through my own tears. "It's not supposed to end this way! You're supposed to get your happily ever after! You deserve it more than anyone!" I began to sob. "This isn't… it's not…"

She reached up to touch my face. "You were my happily ever after…" she whispered, her body already starting to dissolve into golden motes. "You and Rin were more than I ever hoped for…"

She shouldn't have been content with this. It wasn't right. I wanted to tell her as much, but I found I couldn't in the face of the smile she was giving me. There was only one thing I could say to that face. "I-I love you."

"Thank you… my… beloveds." She said as she closed her eyes, and then she simply faded and slipped through my hands.

She was gone. The woman who started everything for me was gone. Only emptiness remained.

I'm not sure how long I knelt there staring at my empty hands. All I knew was that eventually I heard Einzbern bark out a laugh. "Really? The reason you kept a Servant alive on your own power for all these years was for such a trite reason as love? Oh that is truly pathetic."

Every nerve in my body turned to ice at the sentence, and the hole in my chest filled with a rage that I had never felt before. There was only one thing I could do now. Only one way for this to play out. Every circuit in my body flared as I said "My existence," and the pain returned even greater this time. The bindings were meant to fry me from the inside out if I tried to use magic. As so, with all of my circuits at maximum, I died.

It did not stop me.

"-is one of Tropes!"

Reality slammed back into me with a jolt and I stumbled, losing my balance and falling to the ground. I felt absolutely terrible, and the patches of numbness all over my body told me that I had over extended myself again. What happened? I thought to myself. Did I give myself a stroke again? I had the weirdest vision of Saber being found out by the Clock Tower…

As I shakily tilted my head back up, I was greeted with the odd sight of myself lying on the ground a dozen or so feet away, and the situation came back to me in a rush. Right, I was trying to suppress Shirou's- Troper's Reality Marble. It looked like I succeeded, though he still didn't look good.

I saw Rin run up to the man, pressing her gloved hand to his chest and a glow started to emanate from it. A moment later I felt someone pick me up and found it to be Saber. At the sight of her, I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion and kissed her, my eyes watering with tears of joy at her presence. Naturally she was very confused, but she didn't immediately pull back. I managed to get myself under control, reminding myself that what I had seen hadn't happened to me. It was difficult.

Sparing an embarrassed look at the woman who was holding me up, I turned to the Rin, who was kneeling over Troper. "Will he be alright?"

"I don't know yet." She snapped. "This takes time."

"Well can you hold off on it for a while?" My Rin asked. "We need to get out of here. Those Enforcers are going to be back with reinforcements."

"If I stop for too long, he'll die!" The other one snapped back. "We can't make it back to the Inn. If we have to hide, we have to do it nearby."

I gave a grimace, but I looked around. "How about over there?" I pointed to a mess of warehouses a good ways down the dock. "We can probably hide in one of those. And if we're lucky, they will think we were smarter than sticking around the place they last saw us."

The females present gave me an annoyed look for my snark, but they didn't have any better suggestions. Rin stopped her work on the other man so that Saber could pick him up in a fireman carry with her other arm and the lot of us ran down the pier. I could still see Troper give the occasion twitch and mutter.

I wish I didn't know why.