"So, how're we looking?" Gudao asked Chloe casually while the other Chaldeans joined their downed Ruler and her guardian of the moment in the middle of the battlefield.

"I think she's going to live," Ruby reported. "But I don't know if we can handle something like the reverse Rayshift back."

"Given that she's carrying the precious thing right now, that would be troublesome," Gudako said while noticing the remaining Celts walking up to them. Of the six that Chloe had originally met up with during the battle, it seemed only three were left.

"Ok, that was definitely one hell of a fight," Caster Cú spoke up first. "If these are the enemies who've picked a fight with the Human Order, I should consider getting summoned over on your side for the War."

"If you do, I'm sure we can find more Demon God Pillars somewhere," Gudako quipped. "I hear they just respawn back at their base whenever you kill them."

"Oh that they definitely do," the Caster replied. "Sadly you can't just gank them one at a time, or well five- six? at a time and work through the lot."

"Seven if you count the first one a day back," Martha added. "That one was mostly Okita's kill, though not in a direct battle."

"You've certainly got your work cut out for you," Sétanta observed. "Well, you seem good for it."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Elizabeth beamed. "Not that we'd accept defeat short of uh, actual defeat though."

"Right, right. Well we're off to get wasted on the remaining supplies," Caster Cú shrugged, though he cast a meaningful look at the unconscious Sasaku. "We'd invite you to the drinks, but it seems you have your own matters to see to first." Nodding in agreement, Sétanta followed his fellow as they departed the field.

"So, how've you fared?" Gudao asked the remaining Bazette, eyeing her missing hand.

"This?" The Alter Ego raised her arm. "Ah, don't worry about it. Even in this form, it's a prosthetic. Didn't even really feel it, losing it."

"Have we met before, by any chance?" Chloe asked Bazette while shouldering her charge.

"Well perhaps people like me have met people like you," Bazette replied. "But not the two of us directly, I don't think. But we do have a connection, if not for the most positive reason. I'm told you killed Kotomine Kirei."

"That was some time ago," the Archer agreed. "Acquaintance of yours?"

"You could say that. I lost a hand, the original one that is, and a Servant to his games, so I'm glad it didn't end up enabling him too much."

"I see."

"Hmm, well anyway I wanted to make it clear that we do know what's going on here," Bazette switched to the main item at hand. "Not that you were remotely subtle about it." She indicated Sasaku at that point.

"We were up against those Pillars, after all." Looking askance at Bazette, Kiyohime subtly moved to put herself between the two Servants.

"That you were," Bazette replied simply. "In any case, the whole United Queendom's potential went with Medb. Oh, it was Nightingale doing a lot of the heavy lifting back on the Home Front, but without Medb's many proxies, there's no way to sustain let alone repeat the Queendom's current efforts."

"Is this about your comrades' honor or something?" Jeanne asked abruptly. "For not fighting for it at the end?"

"I wouldn't call it a matter of honor," Bazette shook her head. "There's various considerations, but like I said after Medb all we could have otherwise accomplished was doing the Pillars' work for them."

"Well thank you for not just shrugging at the circumstances and going on a warpath anyway," Gudao added. "I'm sure some people would."

"With a different set of actors... Medb could certainly have assembled herself a roster of hardliners," Bazette agreed. "But that clearly didn't happen, so the revenge spree wasn't ever a possibility."

"Yes, it seems unlikely that a cast with multiple versions of Cú Chulainn would feel a great need to avenge Medb's downfall," Gudako agreed.

"Speaking of him, I think I'll get back to them before they somehow clear all the drinks. Besides, it looks like another of your friends is here to offer some congratulations." Bazette directed the group's attention to Helena in the distance running towards them.

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"There's been a change," Helena quickly opened when she arrived. "The Dictator figures that you have the Grail and the Senate have decided to move to seize it."

"What, did you tell him that?" Understandably, Martha was not the only one eye her with skepticism.

"The moment you started using it, the readings of a number of energy sensors went off the literal scales. So they could guess the winners had a, if probably drained, Grail. And obviously given that I returned, it couldn't be the Celts or Pillars. As it was they were going to arrest me since the Senate didn't trust me very much in the first place."

"Uh... huh." Gudao shared a few looks with the other Chaldeans. "So what, they're marching everyone here?"

"No, they thought ahead and are probably going for your base since they know where it is."

"They're out of luck then," Jeanne spoke up. "We don't need Leyline access since this Singularity will dissolve once we properly secure the Grail. Perhaps they didn't know that, or they imagine our next steps will be to try and charge it on the sly."

"About that." Gudako motioned to their unconscious Ruler. "Since everything's still here, I assume that means she needs to do something extra for that."

"Well, yes. Not only is it not isolated, as you noticed, but without safeguards, transitioning through Void Space back to Chaldea with it as-is might mean the Grail ends up 'falling out' into the void which is as terrible as it sounds. With minimal energy signature we wouldn't be able to detect it, and the thing would float around until eventually it precipitated a new Singularity," Martha explained.

"And this is a pretty high-spec specimen, at that. Can you do something like yank it out of her?" Gudao asked directly.

Jeanne and Martha conferred for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "She'd die." Jeanne summarized for them.

Kiyohime frowned, about to say something in response. "The situation isn't that critical," Elizabeth forestalled her. "We just need to disappear into the wilderness for a while. Until Sasaku is back to form, upon which we finish up the Singularity and go back home."

"Do we have enough energy for that?" Chloe asked the Masters. "Hey Ruby, I thought you had access to limitless mana, some of that would be useful. Like anytime really."

"Well unfortunately as part of a Servant I can only use that for magical girl-specific things. Which she's clearly not doing any of."

"You can get some from me," Jeanne volunteered after a second's thought. "I didn't use up my reserves in the previous battle."

"Ah right. That would then seem like a safer bet than trying to chew though whatever is doubtless waiting for us at the leyline base," Gudako summed up the situation. "Will you come with us?"

"Me?" Helena was surprised. "No, I'd just be a burden as my own connections to the Washington leyline source are broken. Plus it's possible they might be able to track me to you. We had better go different ways."

"So we're just going to walk across America until Sasaku comes to, and then we'll have it all wrapped up at one go, right?" Chloe looked around for agreement.

"I should think so," Gudako agreed with the Archer. "They might be able to send riders faster than we move, but no force of significance. Once we get into rougher terrain they'll straight up lose us in the weeds, so to speak."

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Notes:

Remember the general rule is three Servants per Master (so six for two) is sustainable. Rogue Servants don't count as they are using their own energy supply, but if they use Noble Phantasms then they will not be able to freely recharge. Leyline access can allow maybe one more, but they're going to be stuck to the leyline point. Of course there's other important things from leyline access, easy swaps to/from Chaldea and reliable communication.

Nothing like a "walking across America Singularity" moment.