"That's not possible." Those were the words that Morrison spoke when Lena and the others entered the room. The man was standing near a window, peering through it. The light coming through the dusty pane was warm, a dissonant piece when you looked at the practically ancient furniture.
"Hm?" Archer hummed, a single eyebrow raised as he continued to sit.
"This view, at this angle. The only place you would see this is from the top of PCH."
As Lena approached, she could see what the commander was saying. The Palace of Westminster, in all its glory. The clock tower proudly ticking away. They were looking at it from the north side, which meant that they would have to have been in Portcullis House, an old, mostly there-for-historical-preservation, office building.
They hadn't been anywhere close to the palace. They hadn't even climbed any stairs, or had a notable incline.
How the hell were they here?
They had been near the streets of the British Museum! She would've noticed if they had walked the bloody kilometers it would've taken to reach here!
"Told you, didn't I? Magecraft." All the while, Archer shrugged, "Right now, we're surrounded by a bounded field that makes it so that we're in the folds of space. Technically, the Department of Policies is located where PCH is at the same moment in space-time."
Morrison didn't seem to believe it, opening a window. Lena watched as he grabbed a piece of something from his pocket, before chucking it as hard as he could. It was hard enough that Lena could feel the wind as he did so.
The commander's visor lit up, no doubt tracking the thing he threw. Whatever he saw, he certainly didn't like it, going by his frown. He turned on his communicator, glaring at Archer as he did, "This is 76, I need sights on PCH, over."
Lena couldn't hear what was spoken back, but she could take a guess, with how Morrison continued to glare at Archer.
The red-clad man didn't seem to care all too much, finally getting up from his seat.
"Well, now that that's done with, you're probably waiting for some explanations." Archer waved his hand, and suddenly, a few seats appeared. Two of which looked sturdy enough to reasonably carry both Reinhardt and Winston.
With just the briefest hesitation, and more than one person checking whether the chair really was there or not, they sat down.
"Right now, we're in the London Clock Tower, the foremost institution for most of Europe's, and the world's, magecraft. It's divided into several departments, similar to a college, and right now, we're sitting in the Department of Policies, the department tasked with keeping the rules in place, so to speak.
"At least, that's what it used to be." Archer gestured to the dusty interior, "As you can see, it's been abandoned. Or something happened to its inhabitants, a far more likely scenario, really. For the past however long I've been here, I've been trying to piece out just what exactly happened, and I've finally hit a roadblock."
'Is this what you've been working on?' The epiphany at the job that Archer had been doing came as a surprise.
"Yes." The answer was an honest, if grim, confirmation. The Spirit had been working at finding a reason for the disappearance of a near two thousand year old institution of magi this entire time.
Whatever it was, Lena wasn't sure she wanted an answer to that.
"Which, yes, that means that the reason why I've brought you here is to help me do just that."
"I'm sorry," Winston spoke up, his eyes flitting around the room in a badly hidden desire to just poke around, "But I don't think we'd be of much help in that regard, if what you've been saying is true. At least, I can say that I don't know how I would be of much help."
"That's fine." Archer shrugged, "Mostly, the reason why I brought you here is an exchange of trust. You're free to explore the Clock Tower - I've already dismantled the dangerous parts - to see if you can find something that interests you. Moreover, as previously stated, I'll help you with your fight against Null Sector. The only thing I need is from you, Commander Morrison."
"And that is?" Morrison raised an eyebrow.
"Dr. Seibren de Kuiper." The name was unfamiliar to Lena. To the commander, Angela and Winston, she could see it wasn't, "I need to talk to him."
"Dr. de Kuiper?" Angela said with furrowed eyebrows, "Did he not get into an accident years ago? A shame, truly - he was such a brilliant mind."
"Yes, I remember that." Winston rubbed the back of his head with an air of remorse, "I was still on Horizon when it happened. It…wasn't pretty."
"Since then, the man hasn't been seen publicly. Most assume he died after his accident. He didn't, did he?" Archer directed the question to Morrison and Reyes, who both sported stone cold poker faces, "He's being held somewhere in New Mexico, if I recall. Apparently, the accident gave him some sort of 'power', strong enough that the governments of the world were afraid of him."
The silence of the two Overwatch superiors told them the truth.
That silence was confirmation enough for everyone in the room. Lena could see the realization dawning on the faces of her comrades. Morrison and Reyes exchanged a brief glance, a silent conversation passing between them.
"Commander, how could you!" Angela was the first to break the silence, "To keep such a secret! Dr. de Kuiper...alive? What kind of accident was this?"
Morrison sighed, his expression weary. "It was classified, Angela. The fewer people knew, the safer it was for everyone. De Kuiper's accident involved experimental technology, the details of which even I'm not fully privy to. But the aftermath was clear - he gained abilities that we couldn't fully understand or control."
Reyes added, his voice grim, "His mind was affected too. He wasn't the same man he used to be. That's why he was moved to a secure facility. Not just for our safety, but for his own."
"The accident itself is why I need to talk to him." Archer butted in before Angela could continue, her face already sporting dark blotches of red in anger. He pulled out a phone from behind him, fiddling with it for a moment, before placing it on the table, "Here, take a listen. This was recorded minutes after the accident."
From the phone, they could hear ominous whirring. The sound of which she couldn't quite place. Eerie, oppressive. Just the recording of whatever it was was enough to send shivers down her spine for reasons Lena couldn't tell.
Shouts of alarm, multiple people. Emergency alarms blaring in the background. Automated messages saying that the lunar colony was being put on lockdown.
A voice. Clearly heard over the chaos.
An older man, from the sound of it.
And yet, it was tinged with something else.
Insanity. Madness. Knowing.
"Stars, cosmos, gods! Animus, antrum, universe! AH! They all sing to me!"
An explosion.
Then nothing but static.
Reyes slammed his fist down onto the table, "How the hell did you get this? This is classified information!"
"How do you think? I broke into your servers."
"Son of a-" Reyes was already pulling out his gun when Morrison clasped a hand on his shoulder. Reluctantly, the man relaxed.
"To you, these words may just be the ramblings of a man that's gone insane. To me, these words are much, much more than that. To try and explain right now would take too long, but to put it shortly, they're part of a multi-line chant for the Department of Astrology. That the man spoke of these words either means he was part of the department, or that something else happened.
"Right now, he's my only lead, and the only thing stopping me is your permission. Who knows, we might also be able to find a cure for his condition."
As a group, they traversed the empty Clock Tower. It felt a lot like a college, as Archer had said. Classrooms, lecture halls, the whole shebang. All that was left were the students, and going by the various bits and pieces scattered on the floor, Lena was beginning to think that they didn't exactly leave of their own volition.
Or, she would've, were she not having another conversation in her head.
'Satan.'
"I'm not."
'Considering the deal you just made? I'm more inclined to think you really are the devil.'
Morrison had accepted the deal, as lopsided as it was to Archer's favor. In fact, Morrison and Reyes were in no position to deny it either. Should they do so, then Angela and Winston would most likely spill the beans to the public.
With Angela being as widely favored by the scientific community as she was, her word would at least be taken seriously.
That it also involved a scientist as famous as Dr. de Kuiper would only mean more publicity.
It had only taken a moment of searching to realize how fucked the situation was. The doctor that Overwatch allegedly had in custody was responsible for the maglev tech that their transports relied on. Which meant that, for all intents and purposes, the man was responsible for the technological Renaissance that happened alongside the advent of the Omnics.
And Archer just secured a way to talk to him with no repercussions.
'What's the point of even bringing us here if you were just going to do that, anyway?'
"Trust, Oxton. I can tell that they don't trust me, which is fair, I must admit. I can't make them trust me, so instead, I've given them a 'scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' deal."
'Yeah, but you were going to help anyway, since I'm part of bloody Overwatch!'
"Of course. They don't know that though."
She groaned, 'Couldn't you have left me out of this and just done your own thing?' She hated politics, and this was looking more and more like it would blow up into an even worse situation than that.
"I could've. Though, I've specifically brought you all here for a reason, you know."
There was a brief bit of silence as they continued to walk through the dusty hallways.
'...Fine, I'll bite, what were the reasons?'
"I'm glad you asked." She wanted to smack him, "Morrison and Reyes are a given. I needed their permission in the first place. Ziegler and Winston were there because of their connections to de Kuiper – mind you, Overwatch keeps very stringent records for persons of interest. With them as witnesses and their personalities, had Morrison denied my access, they likely would have sided with me on the matter.
"Wilhelm was there to keep the peace should something happen. The man is way too honorable, and I suspect he would've also sided with Ziegler should it have been needed. I needed you there since it gives you a reason to join me when I meet de Kuiper."
'I'm sorry, what?'
"Remember, we're still in a contract. I can't separate too far from you or you might start disassociating as well. But they don't know that, so now, this gives me a reason to have you as my 'escort' when I need one."
'Evil mastermind bullshit, that's what you're talking about, I swear.'
"I blame Moriarty."
'Who?'
"...You're British and you don't know who Moriarity is?"
'Should I?'
The look he gave her was telling.
'Bah!' She gave the mental image of her blowing a raspberry, 'How about Genji then, what's he got to do with all this?'
"Oh, you'll see. I suspect even he's been trying to find the right way to ask for a while."
They continued the little 'tour'. Classrooms, department front desks, offices. Lavish living quarters seemingly untouched save for a fine layer of dust.
They all looked like something from a film back in the early 2000's. It felt like this was itself a museum piece, though with some obvious parts missing.
Some pieces of furniture around the place were obviously missing, with Archer explaining that he had moved those to more secure locations, since they were more or less deterrents against any foreign interventions.
Which, from the implications that she could glean, meant that they were very, very lethal.
The further they traveled from the Department of Policies, the older the structures became. Just from the look alone, Lena could tell that the hallways, the paths, the buildings themselves, were made centuries before.
That they were still standing, with no maintenance for however long the Clock Tower was empty, was a testament to either magecraft and magic, or the strength of the buildings themselves.
The sound of a jet flying above them.
"You should give up before you waste too much jet fuel." Archer offhandedly commented, "I already told you that this place is in between the folds of space-time. You won't find it by conventional means."
"I still don't believe you." Reyes didn't even try to deny it, his hand still on the earpiece, "This must be some sort of trick, and I'll be damned if I fall for it."
"The only one tricking anyone is you." At this point, Archer looked thoroughly annoyed, "What more proof, other than an entire section of London that's been hidden for nearly two thousand years, do you want?"
Reyes didn't respond, only scoffing and turning away.
Reinhardt, having been quiet for a while, laughed out loud, only slightly forced, "Come now, my friend, you must admit it is difficult to wrap your head around magic of all things."
"Hah. I suppose it's only fair."
"I-" The atmosphere, slowly going back to more relaxed, was interrupted by Genji. Lena hadn't been paying too much attention to the cyborg, having been too focused on everything else.
Now that she took a look at him, he looked distinctly uncomfortable. He had his arms crossed, and looked almost glassy-eyed.
As everyone turned to him, Genji stared at Archer, who nodded in understanding, "The dragon spirit, I'm guessing?"
"Yes, it's…I feel it trying to tell me something. It has been trying ever since I entered this place. Now, it's become ever stronger."
"It should, since we're near the Department of Spiritual Evocation."
"And that, Oxton, is why I brought Shimada with us." There was a smirk thrown in there, Lena was sure of it, "My backup in case everything else failed. If I couldn't talk to de Kuiper, then maybe a spirit dragon would do just as well."
A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.
Thanks to my newest patrons: Barion WIlls, and Isak.
And a special thanks to: FireRogueWolf25, brutalcrab and Tassimo.