54: There's never enough to go around.

We survived. No, more than that, it was an absolute victory. That piece of shit, Edmond Dantes, has been crushed, without any loss on our part. Gareth's injuries are nothing with her level of Battle Continuation, and the single spell I spent healing her has already almost recharged.

Well, I say that, but the truth is, I made one huge mistake. Indeed, even though we all survived, there are some fates worse than death.

"-God, why did it have to you!? Give me Wodime, I take back everything bad I said about him-!" Olga Marie shouts, fingers frantically messing up her hair, just barely avoiding tearing it out by the fistful.

Frankly speaking, being eaten alive is one of my least favorite ways to die, so this chewing out, nonlethal though it may be, is something I'm not a fan of.

...No, that joke wasn't even funny in my head. I feel like I'm about to puke.

"-Even Beryl would be better, if you're going to treat me like that, you damn third rate!" She continues to rave, until finally Romani taps her shoulder.

"Director, Subaru-kun looks pretty pale, so I think he's gotten the message." He says with a strained smile. "Any more is excessive, and we can't really waste time right now."

His second sentence sends a small chill down my spine. "What do you mean, we can't waste any time?" We dealt with Avenger, and it ought to be a bit before anyone can catch up with us…

"Well, the problem is…" He gives a nervous chuckle. "Basically, we're gonna run out of power in around two hours, at the current rate. You did it again, Subaru-kun."

Wait, what did I… oh. "Crap, you mean Gareth is also…?"

"I'm afraid so. Even if she is less well known than Mordred, a Knight of the Round Table is a Knight of the Round Table. There's no way the current generator can handle manifesting both of them at the same time." He sighs. "So considering the circumstances…"

"Yeah, I get it, I get it. I'll tag out." Mordred waves her hand in the air. "Between this eye and the damage to my sword, I'm half useless anyway."

"Ehhhh!? No way!" Gareth shouts, suddenly zipping over to us in the blink of an eye- that's A-Rank agility for you, huh? "We were just reunited, and we won't even be able to fight alongside each other? That's not fair!"

"Don't whine so much. We've got another six singularities after this one, and once we grab the Grail from here, it should be possible for both of us to manifest at the same time." Mordred says. "Just don't get yourself killed doing some dumb shit this time, and we'll have a chance to fight together later."

"Sure, that's… wait, what do you mean 'dumb'!?" Gareth growls.

"Oh come on, you showed up to guard duty without armor on! What did you think would happen, you idiot?"

"The one who calls other people idiots is the idiot, idiot!"

Sparks fly from the two siblings' eyes as their foreheads press together in anger. A second later they both jump backwards drawing weapons in perfect sync with one another.

"Hey, one of us just needs to go, right? Then it's fine if I beat this idiot up and send her back to the throne, right!?" Mordred shouts, red lightning crackling forth from the [Azoth Longsword].

"Oho?~ So you think to joust with me, Sir Mordred? Shouldn't you know by now that you're a thousand years too early to face me?" Gareth boasts as her [Gunlance] starts to spark.

Oi, oi, are they seriously doing this? Even after hearing about the generator situation? And here I am with no command spells-!

"Come on, then! [Azoth-!" Mordred roars.

"-Rayshift preparations complete. Beginning unsummon process." Doctor Roman deadpans, and Mordred vanishes in a cloud of golden dust. Through the comm unit, I can hear a small explosion in the distance.

"Is that gonna be okay?" I can't help but ask. Are they going to be able to calm her down?

"Da Vinci already set up a bounded field in the rayshift room when it looked like they were going to get violent." He says. "More importantly, though… Subaru-kun, you shouldn't have just let them fight like that."

"Ah, right…" What was I supposed to do, though? Just throw myself in between them?

"You look like you don't believe me… Look, Subaru-kun. At the end of the day, you're a Master, and they're your Servants. They'll listen to your advice." The Doctor says with a small smile.

Is that really true? Gareth, at least for now, is just some girl I've never met before, who's a thousand times more powerful than I am. And sure, Mordred gave a knightly oath or whatever, but in the first place, she's famous for-

"What the hell am I thinking?" I mutter, scratching a bit at my arm reflexively. What a cruel thing to think about a friend. Just when the hell did I get so cynical? I learned this lesson before, right?

"-Is it truly so strange to help a friend?"

I didn't forget it, while I was still in Lugnica. It stayed in my mind, and ever so often, when I felt like a fake, Otto's voice would ring in my head.

But the truth is, it's been a long time since that conversation with Otto in the Sanctuary. And so, so very much of that time has been spent dealing with people who make Roswaal look trustworthy. Aozaki in Japan, The Spiral Manor in China, Afanas and the Burial Agency in Russia, Von Krudik and all the other scheming mages in London… The people in Atlas weren't that bad, but meeting fucking Quasar there made up for that.

Betrayal, everywhere, from all angles. Not a single trustworthy person aside from those I had power over. Sure, Flat-senpai was friendly enough, but there's no way I could trust him, crazy as he was. Professor Velvet was reliable, but I couldn't ever forget that his loyalties were to Lady El-Melloi. And, of course, old man Zelretch was ultimately an inhuman creature to whom I was just another chess piece, albeit a valuable one.

How depressing. I told Zelretch that I didn't want to become someone Emilia wouldn't recognize, but that's already happened, hasn't it?

"Subaru-kun?" Roman asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry, I got lost in thought." I give him a smile. "Thanks, Doctor, you've given me a lot to think about. But all of that aside, that should fix the generator problem, right? Considering we've got a couple of new faces, and haven't had that much of a chance to yet, I guess the right move here is to get everyone up to date so we can start planning our next move."

And with that, the inevitable infodump begins.

"-And that's everything so far," I conclude, scanning everyone's reactions. The doctor has his eyes closed as he strokes his chin in thought. Prelati is listening intently. Mash's eyes are flicking from person to person, trying to gauge the proper response. Marie is chatting with Jeanne, and Mozart is doodling on a piece of paper. And Gareth is-

"Homu homu, I see. So that's how things stand right now." Gareth nods. "With that in mind, the next action is to kill Prelati, right?"

"Eh!? Hang on, isn't that a bit extreme? I haven't even betrayed you yet!" The boy shouts in an insincere-sounding protest.

"What do you mean, 'yet'?" I sigh.

"It's no fun if you're not all the way at the top of the slippery slope when I kick you off!~" He admits easily.

"Okay, can I stab him?" The Lancer repeats.

"...No, he's still useful for now. We'll deal with his sudden but inevitable betrayal when it comes." I explain. "I'll see it coming, so don't worry about it too much."

"Hmmm? Come to think of it, just what kind of seer are you, huh?~ Artist, poet, prophet?" Prelati grins. "Time traveler?"

My muscles spasm at his accusation - swiftly, I cover it up by grabbing at my injured arm and feigning pain. My eyes flick towards the grinning alchemist.

…Does he know? There's no way he could, right?

"Mash and I are both time travelers, remember?" I joke.

"Ahaha, that's right, that's right!" The boy laughs.

"All jokes aside, what exactly is our plan right now?" Mozart finally interrupts. "With this, Berserk Avenger and Berserk Assassin have both been eliminated, but I'm certain we won't be able to fight the rest all at once. The Tarrasque alone would take all we have, and we're still no closer to learning the identity of that Black Knight."

"Right, about that… Gareth, it's a Servant that can hide his Identity, wield anything as a weapon, has some special 'Overload' attack, and keeps screaming Arthur's name. Got any clues?" I ask the Knight.

"Ah… I should know this. W-why can't I remember?" She clutches her head and grinds her teeth in pain. "It's missing. There's something, something so very important, completely missing!"

"...Don't push yourself too much, Sir Gareth." Mash says, patting her shoulder. "Sorry, Senpai, I think it's just no good. We won't figure him out until he drops his disguise."

"And then there's Dracula. Maybe Guillotine Breaker will wipe out enough of him at once to put him down for good, but…" I don't bother to say the rest - if we screw it up, we won't have an escape route available. We'll die for sure if it doesn't kill him.

"About that one, I think I can handle him with the right preparations." Mozart pipes up.

"So much for just being a normal magus who plays music!" I yell.

"I'm just a normal magus who plays magical music!" He says with a laugh. "I'll need to have territory set up to manage it, though… and it'll have to be in a church, probably."

...Ah, so that's how it is.

"Alright, that leaves… Berserk Archer, Caster, and Saber, right?" I ask. "Do we have any clue who they are?"

"Oh, Caster's just Gilles. He's useless though - I borrowed his Noble Phantasm before I switched sides." Prelati says with a laugh, producing a menacing tome from seemingly nowhere. "Well, it was mine to begin with, so when you think about it, it's definitely not theft!"

"Hm? Does that mean you can actually use the thing?" Mozart asks, eyebrows raised.

"Yup! Normally Servants can't use each other's Noble Phantasms, but I can use my own spellbook for sure! Hey, Master, how'd you like me to end this whole singularity right here and now?" The boy says, waving the book - which, looking closely, seems to be bound in human skin - back and forth. "I can do it! Without a doubt, we can win right now!"

"And the catch is?" I ask, already more or less knowing the answer.

"There's none! Absolutely no price to be paid!" He laughs and throws his arms wide open, and then leans forward to whisper conspiratorially. "After all, it's a singularity - even if a few thousand children are sacrificed to the [Evil God of the Abyss]... it'll be undone, right? So it's not even a real price, right? Humanity would get a full refund, after everything is said and done!~"

…

How gross. I want to puke.

"Gareth, next time he offers something like that, go ahead and kill him." I say, turning away from the Evil Alchemist.

"Roger!"

I want to puke. I'm going to be sick.

Because… for just a moment. For a fraction of a second.

I almost agreed with him.

"Ahaha! Well, I guess that makes sense! Just remember, the offer's always open!~" Prelati laughs easily, utterly unfazed by my threat. "Anyway, if that way's no good, maybe we should go to Lyon and pick up the Dragonslayer, Siegfried. He'd probably be pretty useful!"

"Why didn't you start with that, you piece of shit!?"

A/N:

And with that, Mordred hits the bench. Sorry folks, but the party size needs limits, and benching the injured tomboy is one one way to deal with cast bloat.

Prelati is bound to get yeeted at some point too, let's be honest.

Mo-San will be back, I promise. Cu too, eventually.

Now, because I like to keep track of these things - Afnas and Von Krudik are OCs that Subaru met in the past loops, and are not important to the story. Whether Quasar counts as a "character" is up for debate, but it was also made up for the purposes of this story.

The Spiral Manor, the Burial Agency, and Aozaki are all canon, the latter two more obviously than the former, as the Spiral Manor only came into play in the recent Case Files storyline.