Chronal Disassociation Ch. 56 (Patreon)

“Forgive this old man, Mr. Emiya.” The scientist took a small sip of his most likely cold tea, “I find myself quite starved of conversation partners, so much so that I seem to have gone and rambled for quite a while.”

“Don’t be,” Emiya held up a hand, “It was an enlightening experience, all things considered.”

“You say that, but I’m afraid I’ve only answered one question of yours!”

“To be fair, it was a loaded question.” The Counter Guardian couldn’t help but smirk as the old man laughed merrily, if a bit morbidly.

“True, true! At any rate, I feel that it is only right that I continue to answer, now that my story has been told.” De Kuiper gestured with his hand while crossing one leg over, “Though, I admittedly have less experience in the mystical than the scientific parts of the world than you.”

Emiya took a moment to drink his own tea, pondering quietly. He wasn’t lying when he said the conversation was enlightening. It at least gave some credible reason as to why foreign entities were starting to look in their general vicinity, even if that ‘general’ just meant their plane of existence. And unfortunately, the Counter Guardian had no means to deal with it, not in his usual methods.

While he had dealt with Outer Gods before his time with Chaldea, he usually only had to deal with cultists attempting to summon one, or possessed by one. In those instances, they were easy enough to stop, since he had complete access to the Counter Force and his targets were still nominally mortal.

That would not be the case with de Kuiper. He had absolutely nothing in his arsenal that could deal with this, if not even the Wizard Marshal could do so.

Speaking of whom, “Then let me ask, would you know where Zelretch is? I’ve a feeling that I’m going to need his insight sooner rather than later.”

As expected, de Kuiper shook his head in negative, “Unfortunately, Kischur’s whereabouts are as much a mystery to me as they are to you. What I can tell you is that his last visit here was around…why, it’s been three months already!”

The Archer hummed. It wasn’t so surprising that the Apostle was missing. Not once had he appeared during his time in Chaldea, despite the many times that he could have helped them. In fact, he was almost certain that there were moments where coincidences were just slightly too convenient to be anything other than the nudgings of the Kaleidoscope. Not that he could ever prove them.

Regardless, the fact that he missed meeting the vampire despite his continued presence in the world implied that there was an active effort to avoid him, for whatever reason. Or maybe not, since it was becoming more and more obvious that the Dead Apostle currently had his hands full putting out fires.

Emiya had to sigh in frustration. He did indeed get some answers from de Kuiper, but they were answers to questions that he didn’t even have prior to coming here. Though, his sigh seemed to have elicited a different response from the scientist.

“I assume that my answers aren’t as helpful as expected?” With a low, self-deprecating chuckle, the taller man floated his cup to the sink. There was an undercurrent of resignation in de Kuiper’s voice as he continued, “Such is the folly of man, I suppose, that I attempted to reach for the stars, only to come crashing down as my wax wings melted.”

“I won’t sugarcoat things.” Emiya nodded with a frown, “I’ve seen a lot of accidental fuck ups, whatever you did is close to the top.”

And it was. A lot of what he had dealt with were usually deliberate, carefully manipulated plans over the course of years. In only a handful of times had there been accidents that could have the consequences to damn the entire world, much less the insertion of whatever cosmic horrors that had peered through the veil.

“Be that as it may, making any amends beyond my imprisonment here is quite a difficult task. I only hope that Chaldea’s assistance is swift, once they arrive.” Not if they arrive, Emiya noted. The sheer confidence that de Kuiper had was not unfounded, in Emiya’s opinion. Misplaced, maybe, since he hadn’t even known about them before Zelretch, but not unfounded.

Chaldea held more expertise than just about any other organization out there - any other mystical organization that he knew still existed, that is, the jury was still out on the Wandering Sea. Not just the human magi, but through the existence of a certain Universal Genius, he was almost as certain as de Kuiper that Chaldea had the means of helping him, if not on hand, then shortly after Da Vinci figured something out.

However, that posed the issue of which Chaldea was being referred to.

Chaldea was, first and foremost, an organization that didn’t exist anymore. All signs he had found was that the organization had been dissolved, and all files - on physical paper at that - had been heavily redacted to the point of ridiculousness. Even the idea of dissolution was more of a conjecture that he had come to due to the lack of action when in regards to the mass disappearance of magi and other mystics.

So, which Chaldea was Zelretch referring to when he told de Kuiper about them? Was he only referring to Emiya, as a representative? The remnants of Chaldea of old that had been silent this whole time? A new Chaldea that would be reinstated by the UN?

Or, the option that he could only hope for, the Chaldea that he had once belonged to? He certainly wouldn’t put it past Chaldea to find themselves flung into the future due to some outside force.

Emiya brought his focus back to the present. The scientist was quietly watching him, seemingly content to allow his guest a moment of silent rumination.

"Assuming Chaldea does arrive," Emiya started, setting his empty teacup onto the saucer with a soft clink, "We still have the immediate problem of your current residence. You are in a heavily guarded black site. Does anyone else in this facility - or the organizations running it - know what you truly are?"

De Kuiper shook his head slowly, "To them, I am simply a tragic accident. A physicist who unlocked the secrets of gravity, only to lose his mind in the process. As far as my wardens are concerned, the elaborate defenses and isolation are merely to protect the outside world from me and nothing else."

That made sense, Emiya reasoned. If the world's governments knew that this man's death would unleash cosmic horrors that could spell the end of the world, this place would be buried under the most extreme, impenetrable fortress known to man. The fact that the relay station disguise was so easily decipherable as a black site to someone with Emiya's expertise  proved they drastically underestimated the scale of the threat.

"Which means if a hostile group were to discover this location and attempt an extraction, they might inadvertently trigger the exact scenario we are trying to avoid." Emiya pointed out grimly. Shit. He needed to get Sombra to up the defenses of this place. Null Sector and Talon were the top problems that he needed to hide this place from, as soon as possible. If need be, he'd even go and tell Morrison and Reyes.

Unlike Null Sector, whose goals he still didn't quite understand, Talon under Ogundimu would possibly see de Kuiper as a method to 'cull out the weak'. Nevermind that they already had someone that willingly dealt with an Outer God in the form of O'Deorain. The scientist in front of him was a prime target for them, should they learn of his true existence.

Emiya pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache building that had nothing to do with magical exhaustion. The floor of the antechamber outside was literally rigged with several kilograms of explosives. If a strike team from Talon breached this facility and tripped those wires, the explosion would kill the doctor. The very fail-safes designed to prevent his escape or neutralize him were the exact things that could doom the planet.

"Doctor." Emiya finally said, his voice carrying the hardened edge of a veteran commander, "The barrier outside your cell. The bounded field prevented even Servants from easily crossing. I assume that was Zelretch's handiwork?"  

"Ah, yes." de Kuiper nodded, his gaze drifting toward the thick, reinforced airlock door, "Kischur wove it specifically to keep out those who might inadvertently cause a...catastrophic premature end to my residency here. He assured me it was quite robust."

"Did he mention anything about it preventing those empowered by Klironomia from breaching through?"

“...I’m afraid not.” The old man’s eyebrows had raised higher, a look of worry now on his features, “Indeed, this is the first time I’ve heard of that term. Klironomia, was it? I’ll note it and ask Kischur the next time he comes to visit.”

“I appreciate it.” Well, there was another question he didn’t need to ask. No such luck on that end, then. Not that Emiya expected anything, much as he had hoped that he would, seeing as Klironomia was more part of a Lostbelt than Proper Human History. Better to ask Zelretch himself for insights.

With all that said, might as well ask the other question he had, Emiya figured, “I do want to ask, however, if you would know anything about the disappearance of magi around the world?”

…

De Kuiper did not, sadly. It was a long shot that he would know, as it would have happened quite a bit of time ago, when the scientist would have been just growing out of his teenage years. Quite a long shot, if he were honest, but one that he was still willing to try.

Now, with most of his questions answered, albeit with even more questions to seek answers for, Emiya conversed with the old man a lot more casually. The door to the cell wouldn’t open till the food trays were to be switched out, so Emiya wouldn’t have been able to leave even if he wanted to. De Kuiper had practically beamed when the Counter Guardian had mentioned Ziegler in passing, as the man had apparently been one of the medic’s professors at one point in Zurich. 

In fact, as de Kuiper would tell, the Overwatch medic had apparently submitted an early blueprint of the winged Valkyrie suit that she would eventually wear as a capstone project, using de Kuiper’s mag-lev technology to provide a boost and allow the user to fly.

Needless to say, de Kuiper was quite interested, and had personally worked with Ziegler to make that a reality.

And throughout it all, Emiya talked and listened. He told himself that it was to determine the doctor’s current mental faculties. That what he was doing was nothing more than being certain that the social isolation wasn’t causing even more issues to the bomb that could go off at any moment. He knew just how much isolation like that could break a human’s psyche, after all.

In the deeper parts of himself, though, Emiya knew that he was doing it for another reason.

Somehow, the Counter Guardian found a kindred soul in de Kuiper. Both of them were monsters of different breeds, brought upon the follies of their actions in the pursuit of a greater good. Both of them were unable to escape from said hellhole they found themselves in. Both of them, hoping against all odds that something could break through the impossibility of reality and save them.

Maybe that was why, when the image of Raiga, Taiga, Kiritsugu and himself overlapped with the present, talking about something inane around a small table, he could only smile in nostalgia.

…

His guest had left not an hour ago. Siebren gave a small sigh of disappointment. While he was no stranger to being alone, even he had his limits. Being confined, self imposed and honestly luxurious it may be, was still stifling and unwanted.

Regardless, it was his penance for his actions, and he would take it with his head held up high.

Still, his little trip down memory lane, regaling the red-clad man with the history of his imprisonment, had brought up a single question that he had still not found an answer for, all these years. He had asked Kischur about it once, but the old fox had only frowned in response, not giving him a proper answer. Maybe even he didn’t know, Siebren thought with a chuckle.

No, the most likely answer was one that Siebren would not have wanted to hear. Curious he may have been, the result of his curiosity had led to the scientist being here in the first place. He had not asked that question ever since.

It was for the best, perhaps, that not even Mr. Emiya had thought to ask why there had been a facility like this already prepared even before Siebren’s accident.

…