You never thought you'd see the day where you're choosing to walk into a Lord's office willingly instead of putting it off for as long as humanly possible, but between your need for answers and the fact that you've got something even worse to look forward to, you find yourself walking towards Director Animusphere's office, right beside the command center. Fou's still wrapped around your shoulders, though the tired sigh he gave and the tiniest little snores you've ever heard in your life by your ear suggests he's fallen asleep, and you're loath to wake the little guy. Unfortunately, that means that you have to draw closer and closer to the epicenter of the disaster without any moral support.
It's not the first cleanup operation after something tragic you've walked through. More than once you've had to stick around after something like a War or a particularly destructive tantrum from magi who thought themselves untouchable. Chaldea's by no means the worst, though it's impossible not to see the scars. Melted steel, sparking circuitry, and every so often a bloodstain. Staff crowd around you as the cleanup continues, but every so often you see them glance up and double-take, whispering and smiling. Once, you even get a wave. It's strange, but...well, not unpleasant.
Out of the corner of your eye, you spot someone struggling with a door, wedging his fingers into the small crack between the wall and the door before cursing under his breath as they slip free and he shakes them off, glaring at the doors as they stubbornly refuse to budge. Damaged wiring, probably. Without thinking, you move towards it and slide your fingers where his had been a few moments ago, the uniformed man stepping back and giving you a look.
"Wait, hang on, be careful-" He starts to speak, English with maybe a little hint of a German accent beneath it, but you shake your head and cut him off.
"It's fine, I got it." With a deep breath, you get ready to put your back into it, before the sensible part of your mind reminds you that you're a Demi-Servant now. Giving it all you have might have worked normally before, but doing it now would probably end in you bending it totally out of shape, if not tearing it right out of the frame. So, with a more sensible estimation of how much force you'll need, you start to pull...and yelp as you nearly trip over your own feet, the door moving far more easily than you'd imagined. It slams into the slot for it on the other side of the wall, and you manage to avoid falling, though as soon as you stabilize yourself you feel a fuzzy paw bat at your ear, before hearing an indignant cry of "Fou!"
"(sorry, sorry, go back to sleep, sorry...)" you mumble under your breath, before turning back to the man and stepping aside. From a quick glance into the room, it's full of a lot of machines that you can't identify, with plenty of beeping, flashing lights, and pulsing screens telling you you're out of your depth. You're hardly tech illiterate, but even you have limits. "There. Something important inside?"
"Ah...just some servers and machines we use for calculations during Rayshifts." He's looking at you like you're ten feet tall, and before you can try maneuver yourself out of the awkward conversation he breaks into a wide smile, holding out his hand. "Oh, hey, you're okay! I saw you come back from Fuyuki but you were unconscious, I was a little worried something had gone wrong, but...well, I guess everything worked out, huh?"
"Uh, right. I think I collapsed from other things, not the Rayshift." It's bizarre having someone look at you, know you, and start smiling. You take his hand and give it a shake, all the while trying to figure out what's going on with him. Is he a mundane or a magus? He's a little bit on the shorter side compared to you, maybe five-seven, five-eight, a little heavier than average, with a mop of curly blond hair, light blue eyes, and a boyish smile you can't help but find a bit cute. You definitely haven't ever seen him before, but apparently after a day word's traveled enough for people to not treat you too weirdly for being a miracle of magecraft that probably shouldn't be possible.
"Well, now that that door's open we can make sure it stays that way, heh. I'm Stefan. And you're Edward, right?" Still not a hint of worry or anything beyond friendliness. It's a little odd, and you're not really equipped to deal with it, not with the meetings you've got coming up. Still, you suppose it's better than him being too afraid to look at you, or too up his own ass that he can only look down on you, for that matter.
"Mhm, that's me." And you really need to get going. "Sorry, I have a meeting with the Director..."
"Oh, right. Thanks for the help, Edward!" Fortunately, that's enough to fend him off, though you're left with a little bit of a strange feeling of dissatisfaction. Maybe just because there's something worse waiting for you doesn't mean you can resist trying to put off meeting Olgamarie Aniumsphere just a little bit. With a sigh, you keep walking as Stefan disappears into the room full of beeping machines, and before too much longer you're by the Director's office.
It's immaculate, compared to everywhere else. Repair efforts must have been concentrated around here, which makes sense. The doors to the Rayshifting chamber and the giant globe of CHALDEAS are wide open, people moving in and out every so often, taking away chunks of rubble and debris. Even if they work fast and have magecraft, the destruction in there was too much for just a day's work to clear away. With thoughts of using your newfound strength to maybe help once all your obligations are dealt with, you square yourself in front of Olga's door and rap on it sharply.
You're only halfway through your second knock before the light on the door's panel flashes from red to green and you hear a familiar, curt voice.
"Come in, Dempsey."
A quick glance above and you notice the tiny black lens of a camera at the top of the door frame, so you know Olga can see it when you sigh. Three words in and you're already wishing you could just turn around and leave, but indulging in your grudge against her kind can come later, once you actually understand what the hell is going on. As the door hisses open, Fou gives a squeak and leaps down, raising a single paw and...waving? It distracts you so much as you watch the little guy take off and start scampering his way down the hall that you miss what's inside Olga's office for just a moment, at least until you turn back again.
It's barren, almost. Oh, her desk is absolutely packed, holographic displays, monitors, keyboards, paper files, and ancient-looking tomes covering every square inch in the kind of barely-constrained chaotic organization you'd expect Olga and and basically no one else to be able to really work with. But everywhere else? There's two bookshelves, neatly separated on either side of the room, and a small chest of drawers with a kettle and a tea set on top of it. It's functional, not ostentatious, and that alone makes it bizarre.
Chaldea's Director looks at you sharply, and you think that if you didn't know what had happened with Flauros and Bael, you'd never have known she just lost the two people she'd told you specifically to bring back. No signs of tears, no tantrum marks on the walls, not even a single pale hair out of place. The picture of professional, not even reacting to the sight of you in your armor.
"We have much to discuss. Have a seat." She gestures towards the chair opposite her, and you kind of appreciate how direct she's being. Sooner you're done, the better. "Your Servants filled me in, but I want to hear it from you. Lev Lainur and Romani Archaman were demons from the Ars Goetia, who were both trying to sabotage Chaldea?"
"That's what Bael said. They weren't working together, they were competing. Bael planned on freezing everyone to death in the Klein Coffins, Flauros..." You trail off, giving an awkward shrug. She knows what Flauros did. "Bael took over Romani two years ago, according to him. He didn't mention how long it had been since Flauros did the same to Lev."
"I see." She flinched at that, just the tiniest, smallest amount, and it's not hard to see why. How long has she known the man? How many years would she have to look over and review to see if she could find any hint at when she lost Lev to a demon? You don't like her, but you're not heartless.
"...I'm sorry." The words slip out before you can stop them, and you regret it almost immediately as she gives you a sharp glance, but after a moment she just sighs.
"I appreciate it, Dempsey." There's a beat of awkward silence between you two. She sighs, leans back, and snaps her fingers. The back wall of her office fades into transparency as she turns her chair toward it, giving you both a view into the Rayshifting chamber. CHALDEAS floats in the centre, slowly revolving untouched by the bombs and the devastation they left in their wake, still being cleaned by the workers scuttling around beneath. Here and there you see the reinforced metal tubes you remember from your last time in the chamber, the glass panels completely blacked out and a thin layer of frost covering most of them.
"Twelve died. There was nothing we could do about them." She starts to speak, and you grimace as she does. It might have been a pipe dream, but you really had hoped that Flauros had screwed up too badly to cause deaths. Still, if only twelve died, the rest were in a better state, right? "Thirty-four are in cryogenic suspension, and they're going to stay that way until we can safely revive them. Typical estimates are about a year from now. Even our damn golden boy Wodime is frozen." For a moment, there's a flash of...something on her face. Wodime is a name that tickles the back of your memory, but it slips out of your grasp before you can figure out why you know it.
"It's just you and Niamh, and Niamh's already tried summoning Servants, it just doesn't work." For a moment she stays there, looking out over CHALDEAS as she bites her lip, before turning to give you a hard stare. "I don't know what on earth happened to you, Dempsey. Chaldea made incursions into Demi-Servant research before I was Director, but we abandoned it a long time ago with no success. Half of me still thinks that this is some kind of horrible nightmare. But you're a Demi-Servant, and you're the only one who can summon Servants anymore, Archer makes that clear enough."
"Goemon too." You cut in almost without thinking, and Olga frowns. "I, ah, summoned him accidentally when I stored the Grail. I don't know how, but-"
"Mmh. Power surge flowing to the FATE system most likely. Since everything seems to be funneled through you now, I suppose it makes sense." You don't know why it was your shield specifically, but if Olga is satisfied with the explanation then that's fine by you. "Keep Goemon under control, we'll give him pick of a room in the Servant wing once we're done here. But my point, Dempsey, is that this operation was meant to involve nearly fifty Masters, all covering a wide variety of competencies and skills, all working together. And now it's just you and Niamh."
It's a struggle not to react to that. A beep on one of her screens distracts her for a moment and she starts to type something out, leaving you to sit there and stew on what she's just said. You've gone from a cog in the machine to the most vital component, and the only backup you have is Niamh. With whatever she was dealing with resolved, Olga turns back to you and starts speaking like she'd never stopped.
"This isn't a situation where we can afford a failure. I dearly wish that I could sugarcoat this for you, but I can't. If we mess this up, then humanity is over. Gone. Destroyed." Her gaze turns hard, and she leans over her desk, both her palms flat against it. "I'm well aware you don't like me, Dempsey. You're obvious about it, and frankly? I don't like you either. But until everything is over, I'm ordering you to put up with it, because I would very much like to have a world in which we could both continue to dislike each other. Does that seem fair?"
There's a stupid, irrational urge to lash out at her for acting like you're the difficult one when she's been sitting on her ass in Chaldea and only listening to stories about you fighting for your life, but you force that down. She's right, and just because she's being a bitch about it doesn't mean she hasn't been dealing with her own issues. Frankly, you'd prefer to set on her with enough verbal barbs to make Gae Bolg seem tame, but you can do that once history is back to normal. Being reminded so clearly of the stakes is making your stomach churn a bit.
"Fair." She gives a nod at that, before sitting back down and folding her arms. She's giving you most of her attention, but now and then you see her eyes flick around at her desk. Just how much is she overseeing after what happened yesterday?
"Alright. You and Niamh will be going into the next seven Singularities as we calculate Rayshifting co-ordinates. I don't care what problems you have with her, deal with them, this is bigger than them." Expected, but god, you hate the idea. "While you're in the field, rules of engagement are up to you. While you're in Chaldea, keep yourselves prepared and keep your Servants under control. All the FATE system contracts use mana funneled from Chaldea through the Master, so you should be able to support a very decent amount of Servants. If you get more when you install a Grail, excellent, if not, try recruiting. Any questions?"
"How did you know there would be seven more?" Chaldea was prepared for eight Singularities from the very beginning, and it has to have been years since that inner chamber was constructed. How long have the Singularities been common knowledge for them? "And how do you supply that much mana? That sounds impossible."
"Classified information." Her eyes flicker with something like anger that that's what you picked up on, but with a tight scowl she moves on swiftly. "And also classified information. I meant about your mission, not things you don't need to be worrying-"
"I want to know, Olga." She seems taken aback that you're using her first name for a moment, before that surprise shifts to a lot more anger. "This isn't how things were meant to be, I get it. But we need to work with each other, and I want to know what's going on behind the scenes instead of worrying. That's fair, isn't it?"
For a moment, her mouth hangs open and moves as if she's trying to make sounds but can't, before she grimaces again, seeming even more annoyed than when you spoke. Finally, she gives a groan and speaks, though there's a strange quality to it, like she's trying to speak with an iron band around her neck.
"...Da Vinci was not the first Servant Chaldea summoned, and we have an arrangement. I can't tell you any more." The look in her eyes makes you hesitate. Can't? If she'd been placed under a geis or something similar...
Maybe she hadn't really been angry at you when you brought it up.
"Fine. One last question then. Where the hell are we? How do we know we aren't going to be attacked again?"
She gives a mirthless grin, before pulling up something on her desk and spinning it so you can see. It takes you a moment to recognise Chaldea in the center, then the mountains ranging out from it, then...
Nothing.
"Chaldea, and everthing within two kilometer radius, has been temporally and spatially unstuck. The Wizard Marshall offered us his help a year ago, and after the attack, I made the decision. We're in the Kaleidoscope now, our own mini-Singularity. Impossible to find, detect, or trace. With human history being incinerated from the foundations up, it's best we remain unattached. It wouldn't help our mission if we ended up burning up with the rest of the world."
You look at her like she's grown another head, and you don't think many people would blame you. Zelretch himself had helped her with this insane maneuver, and...and everyone was going along with it. You've seen enough of it now to imagine that doing it secretly wasn't Olga's style, but it means that there's no going back. She's burned the ships, now. None of you can go home until you've finished your work or you're dead.
Well, you never had much of a home to go to anyway. Is it really all that bad for you?
"I...see. That's everything, then." She gives you a nod, before waving her hand at the door as she starts tapping away at her keyboard.
"Then that'll be all for now, Dempsey. Keep Goemon under control. You're free until we calculate the coordinates for the next Singularity."
You're dismissed as if she hadn't just dropped a bombshell on you, and when you walk out the door you distinctly feel like you're in some kind of daze. It's one thing to volunteer to live in Chaldea for a year or so with no chance of leaving or going back. It's another to have that choice made so clearly and firmly fixed, with no way to go back on it even if you wanted to, to have it made clear that this was something most people had been aware of but you.
Stupid Animusphere. You half wish it could have escalated into a shouting match just to blow off some steam, but it is what it is. You need to keep moving.
You miss Fou a little.
[ ] The cafeteria. Your stomach is growling at you more, and you're starting to wonder how much longer you can continue to ignore it before it starts getting uncomfortable. Plus, even if you meet Da Vinci again, you might be more comfortable around her with all your newfound power.
[ ] The medical ward. Matthew's a pillar of sanity and stability in a mountaintop complex that seems to have totally run out of both after everything you just heard. Going back to get tested will give you a little more knowledge about what's happened to you, and it also means spending more time with him. Selfish, maybe, and definitely a bad idea to get too close to him, but a little bit can't hurt.
[ ] Niamh's room. You can't avoid it forever, and you don't now what mood she'll be in if you put it off as long as possible. Even just the thought of it makes your body feel cold and your skin feel clammy, but you need to rip the bandage off and just get it over with. If you can just bear with it for a little while, everything will be fine.
/s
