"Are you-"

"Absolutely not!"

Lancer was even faster than me when it came to voicing objection.

"You can't seriously expect me to go along and support whatever that man has thought up" Lancer continued. "After everything he's done?! After everything he's shown himself to be?! This is as likely to be a trap as it is to be genuine, if nothing else!"

"If it were a trap, why would he freely give us the identity of Caster" Johnathan countered. "Especially considering that Caster is freaking Daedalus himself! Any trap would involve the labyrinth, for sure, and it's a lot harder to get trapped somewhere when you can see the trap coming from a mile away!"

"You don't even know he's telling you the truth" I protested. "You're just assuming things based off some crazed notion that you understand him! But guess what? You don't understand him! No one understands him! He's fucked in the head!"

"All magi are fucked in the head!"

"What kind of a defense is that supposed to be?!"

"It's not a defense, but you sure seem convinced you can understand and hunt down the other masters in this war! But guess what? By your own reasoning, you can't!"

"…What's that supposed to mean" now I was getting pissed.

"Face reality, Sortiara! In the past two weeks, we've achieved fuck all! Before we first met Nathan, what did we achieve in this war?! That's right: nothing! The one time a servant was eliminated, it was because of who's plan?! That's right: Nathan's!"

"As if that justifies anything?! How many innocent people died for that plan of his?! How close was magecraft to getting revealed to the whole world due to his actions?! You face reality, Johnathan! No matter what you may say out loud, you're stoked that you got to meet your stupid online idol, and that he came to you for help! That's all this is! Get it through your head; he doesn't give a shit about you!"

"That has nothing to do with this, and you know it!"

"It has everything to do with it, and you know it!"

…Why?

…Why were you so insistent on this, of all thing?

…Why were you trying to push this course of action, over everything…?

"This…" Johnathan stopped himself for a moment, as if he couldn't believe what he was about to say. "This war was a mistake, Sortiara."

"…What do you mean, this war was a mistake?!"

"Our parents fucked it. From the very beginning, our parented fucked it. And because we weren't ready to deal with something like this, they fucked us in the process."

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

"You're the one who doesn't know what they're talking about. I can't fault you for that, because I was the say way, in the beginning."

"You're delusional! Saber, talk some sense into him" I shifted my focus from Johnathan to his servant.

If I couldn't talk sense into him, then surely… Saber could? Please…

"If anything, I'm finally seeing clearly" Johnathan countered. "I'm finally beginning to understand how to play this game."

"Not you too! Not like this! This isn't a game, Johnathan! This is a war!"

"It is a game, Sortiara. It has always been a game. To the Tohsakas. To the Makiri. To the Einzberns. From the very first Holy Grail War, it was always a game. A means to their desired ends, sure, but that doesn't change the nature of what it was. What it still is."

"You can't be-"

"Serious? I assure you; I've never been more serious."

"…"

"We're losing this game to an outsider, because of course we would. Our whole lives were dedicated to the preservation of a dying craft out of desperation, due to our parents. His whole life, however, was dedicated to understanding how games work; how to optimize playing them. Of course he would crush us."

"…You've lost your mind" I shook my head, unable to believe what I was hearing.

"You never found yours."

"How dare-"

"Saber. How much longer do you have?"

The room went deathly silent. In Johnathan's eyes… I could see flames dancing.

"…Master, that not something-" Saber began to speak.

"Saber" Johnathan cut Saber off, raising his hand.

His command spells.

Both a warning, and a threat.

"How much longer. Do you have?"

"…"

"…"

"…If this were to continue as is, a week, at the most."

"Thank you, Saber" Johnathan lowered his hand. "Do you get it now, Sortiara?"

"Get what? There was nothing to get there?!"

"As I have been saying, you don't understand. Saber has a week left, at most. Lancer, presumably, has roughly the same about of time remaining."

"You don't know that!"

"As I said, presumably. Point being, that's why no one is coming out to face us."

"…What?"

"What did Nathan teach us about dealing with Berserker?"

"…"

"Well?"

"…Berserker runs out of magical energy the fastest, so there's no point in trying to fight him. Just let him fade away on his own, and avoid him."

"And with Berserker gone, who do you think is the next to fade away?"

"…"

"…"

"…You don't know that it's us" I protested, seeing what Johnathan was trying to get at. "That's just your assumption!"

"That's everyone's assumption, Sortiara! Forget Nathan! Forget the Executor! Why do you think even the magi from the Clock Tower aren't trying to force a fight?! The police presence makes it hard, yes, but not impossible! Yet for the past two weeks, nothing has happened! Because they don't need anything to happen! We're the next ones to lose by default! The onus is on us to force the fights, not them!"

"They could all be wrong though!"

"That doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, now does it?! Unless they all fade away before Saber and Lancer do, we still lose, and that's all that matters, isn't it?!"

"That's-"

"Isn't it?!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…That's what I thought."

"You're sounding like the magi from the Association" I could feel the tears starting to form, despite me trying to hold them back. "What's gotten into you?!"

"Perhaps I am. It doesn't matter what you believe, though. I know I don't support Nathan's methods. I know this isn't just because I found out he's me idol. If anything, that fact disgust me. But what has happened, has happened. The lives lost will never come back. Refusing this offer out of some form of protest will not help those people; won't bring them back. All we can do for them now is to do our best to win this war; make sure they didn't die for nothing. If that means working with Nathan, then so be it."

Johnathan stared accusingly at me and Lancer before continuing.

"You do what you wish, but I'm making that call. If that means I'm fighting Archer on my own, then so be it. I refuse to just sit around for another week doing nothing."

With that, Johnathan stormed out of the room, right past even Saber.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…What the hell" I muttered, feeling defeated. "Johnathan… why…?"

"You better go and stop your master from doing something stupid, Saber" Lancer wared as Saber turned to take his leave as well.

"…Watch yourself, Lancer" Saber spoke in a steely calm tone, not even bothering to turn and face Lancer. "You are not someone who gets to give me orders."

With that, Saber, too, was gone from the room.

…Just… What the fuck…?