The group had dispensed with the pleasantries of maintaining any form of a masquerade. Cipher was flying on a staff with Emiya while everyone else was riding brooms. Everyone except Jason, who was riding the wind on an Flying V. They were heading towards a small town hidden in the mountains, far from the prying eyes of mere mortals.

"We'll have to land and navigate the fog on foot while Niven deactivates the barriers that protect the gateport from outsiders. It only activates once a day, and by the time we get there it'll be too late. Gonna have to camp out for the night." Said Emiya in a conciliatory tone.
"Oh, we'll make it time." Said Niven
"How the hell so?" Said Inari, pointing to Niven's watch.

"Haven't you all noticed it by now?" Asked Niven, only to draw a dumbfounded looks from his audience. He sighed, "Cipher's ability obviously has an area of effect. If you get close enough to him, you feel weird. Yet so long as you feel that way, you'll have the same immunity he has. No illusion, no mind affecting spell will be able to touch you. We're pretty high up, if you get close enough to him, you'll see the gateport just as Emiya and Cipher do. We just land right inside the fog line and walk straight forward a few paces."

"Does that mean we'll get the same headaches he does?" Asked Ffion.
"Probably, but it shouldn't be too bad. The protections are subtle, and most of the fog is real, though conjured. As we're not dealing with very powerful illusions and compulsion spells, the pain should be minimal."
"Sure would be nice, but I don't see the..." he looked ahead and felt a slight pain well up in his left eyebrow, "Wha...that's not...how?"

They all gathered around Cipher, and all likewise incurred a slight headache. A stone spire and circles of stonehenges suddenly appeared in the middle of the sea of ultra-dense fog. They needed only dive down just behind 'the eye of the storm' to seem as though they had passed through the maze that ought to have bared their path. They landed at the fog's edge and walked into the middle of the formation.

Jason slammed into the ground and rolled to a stop "Ha! Made it with time to spare! I love that ability of yours errr..."
"Alex. Hopefully that's easy enough for you to remember."
"Right, right. Hey listen, will you be my wingman sometime? Lots of ladies like to use illusion magic to pretty themselves up."
Alex put his hand to his head and shook it, "Friggin' libertine bastard. I'll pass."
"Damn straight!" He produced a 40 of malt liquor and started chugging. "Still, if you ever change your mind, I'll give ya first pick!"
He walked off and draped his arms around an obliging elderly woman. He was beyond his AoE, so she probably looked young and buxom in his eyes. He decided he wouldn't interfere. Age is made more apparent in speech and mannerisms than in physical appearance nowadays. If he was too tanked to notice these things, he deserved what he got.

"You know, Variens thinks it's all a big conspiracy." Emiya whispered into his ear.
"A conspiracy?" Asked Alex.
"He thinks the Megalomesembrian Senate wants to run both the old and magical world from the shadows."
"No surprises there, but I doubt they can. Our bastards are more devious than yours. Plus, we got nukes, and I assume they don't."
"Treachery, propaganda, and half-truths are far more effective than bullets and bombs when it comes to subjugating a population." He said in an intellectual tone
"That's sadly true. So I take it you magic users aren't all knights of purity and justice."
"No. There are evil people on both sides." He said sorrowfully.
"Oh swell, nothing ever changes. No matter what, people never fail to live down to my expectations." He thought to himself in a condescending tone.

"Who's this Variens you speak of?" Alex said in hopes of changing the subject, "You called me 'Aleph' before, but you know that's not my name."
"I like to amalgamate first and last names, it makes people sound more unique 3." Emiya said cheerfully.

They all conversed with themselves for the next 15 minutes. It had been some time since they were all in the same place, and they wanted to catch up. It was obvious that these people were very close to each other, that they had known each other for a very long time. What was freaky was that they spoke to Alexander in the same way, as though he was an old friend whom they'd wanted to see for so long, but just couldn't. He didn't expect this. He was supposed to be an outsider, yet they spoke to him like they had known him all their life. It was...strange, and good. Nobody except Scott and Niven ever spoke to him like that, not even the people that claimed to like him.

"One minute till it goes off!" Yelled Jason drunkenly, tossing an empty 40 to his side, "Awww yeah, back home to my Mesembrian hell-hole!" He threw his hands to his waist, his palms facing upwards.
"You friggin'drunkie! Can't you restrain yourself even a little bit!" Yelled Inari.
"I can, I just don't wana. Besides, Niven and Newbie are drunks too, why not yell at them a little?"
"I heard that!" Yelled Alex and Niven in unison.
"I meant it as a compliment. I respect *hic* people who can hold their liquor, and from what I heard, you two can put it away with the best of em'!"
"And just how functional are you when inebriated?" asked Cipher.
"Perfectly. In fact, booze actsually seems to make me better at whatevers it is I'm doing. I love booze!"
"*sigh* That's just not right." He responded
"10 Seconds,Wooooh!" Yelled Jason. People were starting to look, but once they saw the bottle in his hand, they stopped caring.

A series of enormous magical circles appeared above their heads, hexagrams and octagrams that were surrounded by several concentric circles containing the alphabets of long forgotten languages. A pillar of light not dissimilar from the one that engulfed Alex when he was almost disintegrated formed around them. Soon their vision was consumed, transfigured into pure white. They felt as though they were falling, but the sensation lasted only for a moment. The sea of white cleared, revealing a gigantic room of which the Stonehenge they were standing in comprised but a small part.