The room was rather silent for this time of the morning. Normally, there'd be people cluttering the whole place.

Chelsea had taken to making it a habit to stop by the 5 Adelaide Street Starbucks joint every time she commuted to the Knightscorp HQ in Admiralty Arch. While she did have a suite for herself as did all British Sovereigns, she still preferred her cozy Kensington Home to the overly lavish, blinding luxury of the Lancaster Suites.

There were other reasons for the peculiar commute today though.

To the: Mistress-Sovereign of the British Cruciators

Chelsea Elizabeth Vance Cameron.

1 National Mall to Trafalgar Square, Greater London Metropolitan Area, England, United Kingdom

From: Lord-Sovereign of the Continental Cruciators (Trastamara-Central Madrid HQ)

Amaranth Fernando Graves Rose.

Madrid, Autonomous Community of Madrid, Kingdom of Spain

Dear Chelsea.

It is with great pleasure that I have received the news you've dispatched, —in close cooperation with Mr Alexander Gascoigne's Royal Arsenal— the fact that we have been made aware of such a danger, however, has caused concern among the rank and file members of the Directory. Moreover, we have decided to dispatch an small elite team, and to make myself your acquaintance in private for the first time, when we visit London tomorrow.

However, due to the circumstances, I must ask that you send someone to scout the field ahead. This I ask not as head of the Western Cruciators, but as a fellow teen and liberal arts student and younger brother: we've received reports of the potential whereabouts of Syrus Mercer and we implore you to find as much as you can on whether the sightings have been trustworthy. Also, we are well aware of the existence of infiltrates within the Clock Tower and wish for them to be made aware of the demobilization of the organization so they may transfer to one of the authorized supernatural organization or one of our own groups. Especially poignant given we have two Cruciators serving in the Clock Tower Organization as well.

Thanks for reading Chelsea.

~Amaranth.

So... that left her in a really annoying spot. It was also the reason for her commute.

As she closed the letter (which had thankfully been e-mailed to her phone —written letters were for the retarded magi who had no clue as to how technology worked nor wished anything to do with it), she sighed and looked down at her near empty Chai Latte and the half eaten egg and ham bagel on her plastic tray, grabbing them and sliding them off the table and into the tray that was conveniently next to her table without standing up. Bringing up Telegram, she texted a message so fast it must've seemed like the swiping of a lockscreen.

"Sonia, I need you to come here now." the message read.

Message sent, Chelsea swiped the app aside and opening Safari, perused through the RT News feed on her iPhone's screen again, narrowing her eyes at the recent headlines:

Japanese Urbanists still baffled at Tokyo Tower collapse. European power grid blackout "instant solution" source still unknown. Large-scale heatwave hitting California ends abruptly. Pillar of Fire at Valle de Los Caidos — sign of the End Times? Roscosmos intercepts transmission from Outer Earth orbit... and it's not from us.

To say problems assailed them all now was an understatement.

She was taken off her phone by the sound of tapping from the wood of her own table. Sonica was here.

"You called?"

Chelsea did not waste any time.

"Forge me a guest pass for today's CT lectures."

Sonica blinked in confusion, sitting down on the spare chair. "What? Miss, I am not sure that's-"

"Sonia, your job is to do what I say not question my decisions." Chelsea answered nonchalantly, eyes still adhered to the screen of her phone.

At this, the new arrival nodded in acknowledgement as she looked outside. Even though she couldn't see the figures clearly, she was well aware of who they might be.

"Miss Chelsea, I think we should move." Sonia urged, pulling on her hat as if trying to hide under it "Those people are with the Association..."

Chelsea sighed as she put her phone back into the small purse she was wearing and stood up.

"Fine then..." she said as she turned towards the window, glaring at the two figures lurking outside. The last thing she needed was to make herself a potential target. "One question though..."

"Yes?" Sonica asked, standing up as she fidgeted with her pendant. Chelsea stopped right in front of the exit, holding the pommel tightly as it began to glow.

"Do you know any place to have lunch close to the British Museum?"

Sonica sighed, relieved the question was far less serious. "There's a Five Guys two blocks away from there."

Chelsea smirked in response, prompting Sonica to do the same in return. The two held hands briefly as the taller girl led the hatted blonde through the door as she opened it.

When they slammed the glass shut from the other side, the glass blurred, and soon their blurred bodies vanished from view. There was no sign of either girl on the street.

Clock Tower Department of Modern Magecraft, British Museum — Fields of Albion, London

Waver Velvet was lost right now. If lost even started to describe the feeling he was having right now.

After spending a whole night at the Director's flat (and still reeling from the fact he had met the Director) and being made acquaintances with Jose Francisco Valuay, Waver and Jose had both been given a series of files on "The Secrets of the Association itself" by the Director. Now his world view was literally being demolished with a wrecking ball and being rebuilt sideways.

The cosmological model they'd been using... the Circuits they used for Magecraft (no wonder the guys at Atlas now thought they were idiots), The Wandering Sea's True Purpose (and why they didn't give one iota about what happened everywhere else), the changes the world would go... The second El Melloi was having trouble digesting all this info. Valuay himself was apparently aware of some of this but never shared anything with him because it didn't make any sense. Of course, when the Director told them to tell each other what they'd been looking for, something had clicked simultaneously in their heads.

They had been kept separate. The reason was this. They would be able to find out things they weren't supposed to know.

So all along, the divisions that were known for being like night and day were kept from meeting each other lest things go downhill fast. The idea was that if the two met, then this would happen and they would have a really big issue in their hands.

Then there was the other detail — Shirou Emiya.

Now, Waver wasn't the kind of person to do CSI or even genealogy work, but what he had been told to do by the Director meant he had little choice. Eventually, he came to a conclusion that scared the living hell out of him, one tied to his recent world in Magical Cosmology. The shock had been bad enough to get him to fetch Emiya's Mentor, Rin Tohsaka, and tell her about it since he was afraid of what would happen if the red headed boy learned that his family was alive and well and actively looking for him.

The bad thing was that if they found him, Shirou could bid farewell to his time in the Clock Tower or the Mages Association as a whole. His recent life would become zero aside as he took from where he left off nearly 11 years before.

He didn't want the secret hidden forever, but knew young Tohsaka was a lot closer to him than the stoic mage himself was. The girl would probably tell him... in due time. After all, if something bad happened, he could always just go and tell the young man himself, but he wanted to believe he wouldn't have to resort to this.

He just hoped he wouldn't have to.

Shirou had been sleeping a little more recently.

It had been a week since his latest findings on his... old genealogical links. Ever since he found out about the woman who he might have called, at some point, a mother —he had no way to be certain she was related to him after all— the unease of the initial discovery had surprisingly subsided. He had been attending his usual lectures, remedial lessons with Lord El-Melloi and some extra stuff from Rin. Saber, however... seemed unusually somber ever since her fight with the blonde swordsman she had met in Hyde Park. She had been eating less, speaking even less than she normally did and insisted on staying in the flat most of the time. It worried him and Rin greatly, especially when they realized Saber was somehow taking in less than her usual mana allowance. When addressed, she'd answer with her head —a nod or otherwise for yes and no questions— or short, often one word answers. The boy didn't think Servants could undergo depression, but it sure seemed to be the case.

After cooking breakfast and packing his stuff up, both Shirou and Rin left together for the complex. The Underground ride was usually a chatty one, but now that they were there, they couldn't help but notice that they hadn't said anything to each other up until then. This really annoyed Shirou on the inside. He didn't like feeling like he was back to his pre Grail War days. However, when he turned to address Rin, he noticed she was looking at the roof of the carriage as if it would suddenly buckle and fall on their heads. It wasn't a very 'Tohsaka' thing to do as far as Shirou was concerned.

"Something wrong with the train?" he asked.

For her part, she didn't respond. Instead, he found her focusing more intently on the ground all of a sudden. However, he did hear her mumble some things.

"Hmm... If I... No, too risky... Maybe find them and... yeah, that sounds like it!" Rin didn't seem bothered by the fact her mumbling had grown to the level of normal speech. Instead, she suddenly turned to look at him with a wide smile on her face "Sorry, Shirou-kun. Anything you wished to tell me?"

"Rin... why were you spacing out? Is something the matter?" he started "I noticed you were silent this morning as well. What's bothering you?"

Rin blinked a couple times before laughing hysterically. A sign she's hiding something. The red-headed boy thought.

After two more stops, the two finally arrived at the British Museum, where they took the basement lift down to what was known as 'V level'. When the lift's door opened, they arrived at what the Association had dubbed the 'Spirit Field of Albion', the name given to the gargantuan underground cavern which housed the Clock Tower's office complex.

The whole place was the size of Heathrow Airport. The cavern was home to the corpse (or more accurately, the remains) of an ancient dragon that had been here for 1700 years. Apparently, it had gnawed trying to get to the 'Reverse Side of the World' as magi called it. To Shirou, the idea that myths existed in something like a parallel dimension struck him as awkward, but not as much the fact a dragon the size of the Houses of Parliament had tried to gnaw its way there by digging this place.

The complex itself was comparable to a business park in scope, featuring offices, boarding houses and the main buildings of each research branch. An small square was lined with shops selling magical wares and minor things like food, groceries and —miraculously in Shirou's opinion— an ATM machine. Most people who were a part of Clock Tower stayed within the confines of the complex instead of commuting. They were the exception to the norm.

"What's going on?" Rin asked no one in particular as she took off towards the Central Square, prompting a very confused Shirou to run after her.

"Wait, Tohsaka... what are... you..." the novice magus trailed off as he closed in on her and noticed the source of the commotion; a very large crowd had gathered around one of the message boards in the square and were looking at a brightly colored, large poster. The splash of color was so full of life it felt idiotically out of place in the dank, mostly quiet atmosphere of the place. Rin, however, elbowed her way in towards the poster and through the gathering of mostly young magi to make way and reach the poster closer so she could read it. Shirou trailed right behind her when he took in the description.

Guest Lecturer Chelsea Cameron and her lecture on: Alternate Cosmological Models and Magical Cosmology; How Our Age and World Could Surprise Us and the Future. Today on the Main Exhibitions Hall of the Division of Modern Magecraft from 11:00 to 12:05. 'Come and learn why the world might be more wondrous than previously thought.'

Though Shirou couldn't help but think about what the poster might have been trying to say —and the crowd didn't seem to find it strange as they discussed in hushed tones just who they were dealing with—, Rin had a far more conspicuous reaction.

Conspicuous being, she literally burst in hysterical laughter and pointed straight at the poster.

"...goodie! How could they?! This is the best joke in a while!" the Japanese girl laughed as she, clutching her side with her other arm, headed back towards the young Emiya, wiping a tear from her eye after she had calmed down a bit "Seriously, they even nailed it with the word 'wondrous'! They sounded like Mary Poppins!"

"Rin, I think that sign's for real..." Shirou said as he looked at the crowd, who seemed to now be looking for partners to go to the lecture. "There are plenty of people who apparently want to attend. Just look!" he continued, pointing at the still large gathering where the poster had been.

For her part, the Tohsaka heir didn't seem to take kindly to his assertion.

"Please... a 'Guest Lecturer' wants to lecture us on the cosmology of the world? The world we've been studying before science became commonplace? What are they going to say? What will she mention that we haven't heard before?"

"I am just saying that..."

"Tsk!" the jewel magus silenced him right there. "No more talk of this. We have lectures, real lectures, to attend to. I will be off to mine. Seriously, don't think about going to that... thing. Just go to your remedial lessons with Lord El-Melloi and we'll meet at lunchtime."

The girl for her part, did not wait for his response. She simply sighed as she walked away, leaving the redhead to his own devices.

Royal Palace of Madrid - Pelagius Wing.

"Ready sir! The self piloting system should take you there in under an hour." a Guardia Civil soldier said as he prepared the airstair leading into the modified Jump Jet.

"Thanks, we should be back soon. I will send for reinforcements if needed!" the tall, auburn haired boy —and leader of the Cruciators— yelled over the sound of the Harrier Jump Jet's idling engines as he tossed a laptop bag into the front cockpit, where the seat actually reclined backwards, leading to the cockpit becoming a two person cabin and space dedicated to copilot electronics instead having a foldable tray separating the two. "Where's Queen?"

As he boarded, his question was answered by a redhead dressed in a white banged up top and low rise jeans leaving one of the doors that emptied into the open courtyard. She was hauling a black satchel by the handle and had a tablet on her other arm. Instead of using the stairs, she gracefully leaped straight into the cabin, pressing a button next to her shoulder as the lid closed over their heads.

"Sorry for being late. I had to pick something from Selene before I left." the girl said as she held out her tablet and showed it to the guy. "See, this is the complexes' layout. It's the underground cavern where Albion was interred... or well, where his corpse was laid to waste after God decided to wring him and Ddraig dry after their little dispute went a little too far. Charlie's probably over here," the redhead continued as she pointed at an small square in the full screen sized floor plan of the underground complex. "This is the Director of Clock Tower's Office. Once we arrive, we go there, have a soiree with Charles and then convince him to send an evac order. The Director is very recluse in their eyes, so if he addresses Clock Tower's magi, then he'll probably have the complex vacated. Then we can just set off the Logical Warhead and they'll go the way of Atlas..."

The auburn haired boy let everything sink in as he noticed the jet starting to take off —completely vertically at first— before it started to move forward and soar over the skies of the capital of Spain.

"Queen... we aren't sure if we have to..."

"Amaranth, trust me. These guys are not like us. They don't play nice. They don't care about mankind's future! The moment they learn our mission involves undoing everything they've been perfecting for years, they will pounce... 'sides, they tried to attack the Crown City! That's not something we can just forgive, can we?"

At this, Amaranth sighed, fishing a Chupa Chups lolipop out of his baggy cargo pants and unwrapping the foil to stuff the thing in his mouth. He looked outside the window at the city from above. It was rapidly fading from view as they headed further north, and he couldn't help but have a bad feeling in his gut regarding what they were about to do. A month ago, I was an Opera student in a field trip to Madrid. Now I am trying to save the world. Great...

He took the lolipop out of his mouth and sighed. "Alright, I will help you with this. However, I will only do so if the British Cruciators don't mind. The last thing we need is an schism between Cruciator branches. Also... what about your brother?"

The redhead took her turn gazing downwards. The countryside underneath was full of peaks and valleys, —which made sense, since they were probably in Euskadi right now— which reflected her emotional state very well.

"I really hope he's alright. If he's truly in the Association, then each passing minute in that hell feeds off whatever lingering hope he must have left."

"To be a magus is to walk with death... so goes their saying, doesn't he..." Amaranth replied as he joined his partner and girlfriend in looking at the countryside as the mountains gave way to the Bay of Biscay and then open sea, "I really hope he hasn't completely been convinced by that. If a part of him still believes that magic can be beautiful and not just mean death, pain and decay, then we can rescue him."

The auburn haired youth's words gave the redhead hope, echoing in her ears. She looked up at him and couldn't help but smile when two pairs of eyes met —both the same cerulean shade, as blue as the ice of Antarctica— and the boy smiled back as the boy turned the tablet off and Queen stretched her hands over the table, sneaking them under his.

"As long as we're together..." the girl said, looking down at their hands, "We can save not just a few..."

"...and not just many" the boy offered in response, grinning.

"Together..." Queen said at last, "We can save..."

"Everyone..." both said, speaking in unison.