Next time I see you, you're dead! You understand now?!

Zach's words… his anger… I just couldn't get them out of my head. Why couldn't he understand that we were just as in the dark as he was? That we didn't betray him? That we don't want to kill him?!

Why won't you let us go back to how things were, Zach?

"You did all that you could, master. There isn't anything more you could have done."

"Isn't there…" I muttered.

"It is not possible for everyone to walk the same path, no matter how much we may desire it so."

"Then why are we fighting, Saber?"

"…I stand corrected. It is not possible-"

The sounds of shouting from inside the house seemed to silence Saber. Initially, I was worried; thought something terrible was happening inside. But a moment later I realized this wasn't Sortiara shouting from pain, or fear, or anything else to would indicate she was in battle. No, this was just her usual shouting, by the sound of things, which could only mean...

"Suppose Nathan would be here by now" I laughed slightly as I reached the main door.

"What could those two possibly be..."

"Nothing good, that's for sure" I sighed. "On to the next mess, it seems…"

Pushing open the door and stepping inside, the unintelligible tone gave way to actual words.

"-ot damn terrorists!"

…Damn terrorists? What the hell did I miss?!

"Oh please" Nathan's voice rang out in response. "It'll be a hinderance for a couple of days, at most! Besides, how else are we supposed to get the police out of the way?!"

Get the police… Wait, what?!

"Master, I suggest you go get involved in what they're discussing, rather than just stand in the doorway."

Saber's voice pulled the world back into focus. Of course, he was right; better to get involved in the discussion, rather than just listen in from here.

"Stay in spirit form for now" I ordered through the mental link.

"As you wish, master."

"Ok, what in the hell is-" I began to say as I caught a brief lull in the conversation as I entered the room.

"Ugh, now you show up" Sortiara steamed, standing at the far end of the coffee table, across from Nathan. "Here, you tell Nathan why we can't just go and blow up the powerlines in the city!"

What she said took me so off guard I had to blink a couple of times, just to give myself the moment I needed to make sure I'd heard her correctly. Apparently, I had, for neither she nor Nathan attempted to correct it.

"Why are we blowing up powerlines now" I turned to ask Nathan, completely dumbfounded.

"Because" Nathan groaned, as if it should have been obvious to me as to why we now needed to blow up powerlines. "Anything we do now is either going to get the police already here swarming all over us, thus getting in the way, or get the feds involved. By taking down the city's power, we hopefully get the emergency line flooded with calls, thus distracting the police. It will also serve, hopefully, as a means to keep civilians indoors and out of the way."

"Out of the way of what though? I don't get the plan here…"

"Oh, the plan is simple" Nathan grinned.

That grin sent a chill coursing through me. Judging by the more… guarded… state of mind Saber took as well, he too had a bad feeling about where this was all going.

"As I told Sortiara, in a couple of days from now, a storm is going to sweep through the city during the night. That is the night we'll make our move. First, we take out the powerlines, ideally keeping both the police out of the way and civilians indoors. Then, we find Berserker and get him to start rampaging through the city. Now, I'm sure he'll start to cause damage and draw the attention of law enforcement, but by then the hope is that both the priest and Archer's master step in to confront the now rampaging Berserker. They lock down the area, eliminate Berserker and his master for us, and, ideally, Berserker takes out one or both of them as well, leaving the only opposition we all face outside of this alliance as Assassin and his master! All the while, we get to sit back, monitor the situation, and enjoy the show that is our opponents beating each other senseless! Or kill each other; really, either way is fine."

"No! None of that is fine at all!"

The suggestion had me horrified, and I was starting to sense a steady build up of anger in Saber as well through the link.

"We're not running such a huge risk" I continued to protest as Nathan just started at me with a blank expression. "Before even getting to the powerlines bit, setting Berserker off on a rampage?! Are you insane?!"

"Thank you" Sortiara shouted. "Finally, someone with sense, besides me!"

"What's the issue then" Nathan asked. "Sure, they'll probably kill Berserker's master. Archer's master and the priest, that is. I get he was your friend and all, but that's the thing: he was your friend. Judging from the fact he didn't come back here with you, that's still no longer the case. It's going to be you two or him eventually; deal with it now, I say."

"That's- Do you have any idea how many people could die from Berserker going off on a mindless rampage?! There's no guarantee Zach could stop something like that once it's started, even with command spells!"

"I mean, that's sort of the point" Nathan laughed slightly, as if I'd just said something incredibly stupid. "Also, if these command spell things can't stop Berserker once he gets going, then its clear that these things have rather… mortal limits. Would be good to see just what those limits are, under certain conditions. More information, you see? Think of it as… yes, think of it as limit testing!"

"Limit testing" now I was starting to get angry. "We're not playing games with innocent people's lives!"

"Fuck you aren't" Nathan snarled, raising the count of angry people shouting to three. "You numb nuts started a war, in a city! It's literally in the name: Holy Grail War! Name me a single war in the modern day that has been fought with no collateral! Hell, name me a single Holy Grail War that has been fought with no collateral! This isn't paintballing; a jolly old shoot-up between friends! This. Is. A. War! Shit. Happens. In. War! If y'all didn't want people dying, then why the fuck did you start a war?!"

"We're not actively putting people in harm's way!"

"No, I'm not actively putting people in harm's way! I'm the one who comes up with the plans! I'm the one who picks the battlefields; keeps this shit out of sight as much as possible! The hell have you two done to keep people safe?! That's right: fuck all!"

"Master-"

"Saber, no."

"He-"

"Saber-"

"Of course, Saber's here in spirit form" Nathan spat. "Can't even keep the conversation going to not make it obvious. Gods, you kids are hopeless… Well, Saber, you might as well come on out; say your piece! Not like Lancer hasn't voiced his opinion on the matter already!"

In an instant, Saber appeared. I could still feel the anger building up inside him, and judging by the look of things, so could Sortiara. Only Nathan didn't seem to back down in the slightest, staring right back at Saber. Either he didn't notice, or just didn't care, and knowing him, it was the latter rather than the former.

"…There is nothing to be said to one such as yourself" was all Saber spoke.

"…That's fine. Within the silence lies the answer."

With that, Saber turned back into spirit form.

"I leave the decision to you. I trust you will make the right choice."

"O-Ok… But Saber, what-"

"To talk with Lancer. You deal with things here."

An uncomfortable silence set in the room, the three of us just staring or glaring at one another. No one seemed set to budge from their position, or make the next move. Though, after what felt like years, Nathan did break the silence.

"And to think Saber- Bah, no matter. Look, none of you can argue against me that this isn't just, factually, the best course of action."

"Says the guy who was all about avoiding Berserker before" Sortiara immediately countered.

"We still would be, damn it girl! We aren't the ones who are going to be doing the fighting; just the baiting!"

"Why do we even need to get Berserker involved in the first place though" I asked.

"Do you think we can win a rematch against Rider as it? Let alone against both Rider and Archer?!"

"W-Well..."

"Do you think you can convince either Caster, Assassin, or Berserker to work with us?!"

"I-I-I-"

"Why don't you go and get your damn servant to do his job then" Sortiara countered.

"Because unlike you, girl, I'm not insane and I don't have a death wish! You go and try giving Caster orders if you think you can get away with it!"

"Sounds to me like you're just a shit master!"

"No fucking shit Sherlock! I'm not a mage! I've also never even tried to pretend to be a good master either, so what's even your point?!"

"Why don't we just let Berserker die off, like you were suggesting earlier" I pointed out.

"Because then we're still screwed when it comes to Archer and Rider" Nathan groaned. "Like, duh, I know we can do that! Berserker literally can't win at this point; game was hyper accelerated! But why not take advantage of this otherwise useless piece while it still has some sense of presence on the damn board?! Even if Berserker goes out in the most depressing whimper ever, it's still a win for us and a loss for Archer and Rider, because they have to expend energy to take him out and clean up his mess! Hell, we might be able to gank and deal with them that very same night!"

"I'm not going to risk the lives of countless people just to take out the other masters" Sortiara shouted. "That would make us no better than the other magi!"

"News flash girl" Nathan's face was turning red at this point. "You're already no better than all these other supposed evil magi! Or what, do you think Berserker couldn't have gone off on a rampage and killed some poor civilian earlier in the war?!"

"Of course not! I'm not stupid!"

"Yet you seem perfectly fine with that happening! Yet their death would still be your fault; their blood still on your hands!"

"That's not fair" I interjected.

"Bullshit it's not fair! You people are responsible for all of this in the first place! Who else's fault could it ultimately be?!"

"T-That..."

"T-There's..."

Both Sortiara and I started to speak, but we were both stuttering. Unable to come up with a satisfactory answer, or at least I wasn't. So Nathan pressed again.

"Who's?!"

"…"

"…"

"…That's what I thought."

…Nathan wasn't shouting anymore. All the red drained from his face as he shook his head, looking down at the ground. Then, he started laughing. Quietly, at first, but it continued to grow in volume.

"Bunch of fucking hypocrites, you kids are" he continued to laugh. "You don't care about people dying. Not really. No, what you two care about is avoiding the burden of the guilt that comes with people dying! Everything's fine, so long as you can create your cognitive distance and avoid taking responsibility for people losing their lives over this game! So long as you can pretend it's not your fault; that it couldn't possibly be your fault! No, it has to be the fault of the evil magi from the Association!"

"Y-You… You don't know what you're talking about" Sortiara shouted.

"Then prove it" Nathan showed of a wide, wicked grin. "You say you don't want the blood of innocent people on your hands? You say that their deaths wouldn't be your fault? Then. Prove. It."

"And how would you like us to do that?!"

"Simple, really. Drop out of the war. Right here. Right now."

"…"

"…"

"…What?!"

"You heard me. You kids started this thing, but no one has died yet. You say you aren't ok with people dying? Then help end this thing, as quick as you can. Winning, losing… none of that matters, so long as innocent people don't die, right?"

"W-Wait a-"

"It's not like you can't do that either! Just use up your command spells, get rid of your Heroic Spirits… should all be rather simple for competent masters like yourselves! Because sure, you kids started this thing, but if you exit the war, step aside in an effort to end it as quickly as possible, because you realized your mistake, then you can't be faulted for innocent people dying later on. After all, can't blame people who aren't participating, right? So go on, step aside, and let the adults who can accept facts and reality play the game, ok?"

The grin never left Nathan's face as he spoke. Neither Sortiara nor I could muster up anything to say in response, for our defense. Yes, we were shocked; taken off guard by the sudden turn in the conversation. …Much as I didn't want to admit it, we were also outmatched when it came to words and arguments.

But… at least for me, I couldn't muster a response in part… in part…

…What if he's… right…?

"Seem ok with risking the lives of innocent people now, eh" Nathan eventually spoke up again, breaking the building silence. "Can't give up your shot at the cup, can you? So don't try to take the moral high ground over me, you brats. You both are just as ok with the risks as I am. You just can't deal with the fact your actions could have unfixable consequences. You're cowards. You're running away from your responsibilities. That's what you two really are, and that's what you two are really doing."


A/N

First main chapters being shorter than some fragments, then a long fragment bit? Whack, I tell ya, and I do hope I'm not boring you all to tears at this point. If I had more time to write posts that were 6k + words, I'd love do, but I don't sadly, and I don't want to break routine any more than I sorta already have, so... xD

Anyways, what do y'all think? Nathan insane? The kids cowards? Maybe both?

Do they even agree to Nathan's attempt to strong arm them into this plan of his? What does Nathan do if they don't o.O

Find out on the next episode of- Wait, wrong thing ;)

As always, thanks to everyone who makes it this far \o/