Work Text:
Kaiser wakes up to the alarm on his phone blaring in one ear. He pulls his pillow over his head for three minutes - it does not help - before giving up.
He fumbles with it a bit, rubbing at one eye until the screen makes sense.
8am?
Why is his alarm set so early? Doesn't he usually do the afternoon shift?
He scrabbles at his desk - one every morning affair is easier to remember than a schedule - as his eyes start to agree to work.
"Arthur and Ivete in Rome" the alarm reads.
Which... okay, okay, Kaiser can work with that.
Timezones. He needs to be working when Arthur is. Right.
His scrabbling hand finds the bowl of rubber bands. He takes one in red, looping it a few times around his left pinky to denote important information.
Five black bands on his ring finger - three meals and two sets of tooth brushing - four on the middle for his medication. He swaps which hand is holding his phone; Arthur has sent him a photo of him and Agatha and a bowl of pasta and meatballs, so he snaps a photo of his own exhausted self, and returns the favour.
Okay. Rome is further than usual, but with Arthur on a mission Kaiser should wait at the base as support - he starts adding elastic bands to his right hand now. At the base...
Kaiser flips into his notes app, certain he had something else to do at the base.
There.
It seems he updated CRIS, and needs to test it. That should keep him occupied, waiting for a call that will not come. Joui might ring him, but Joui has been avoiding him for some time now. Kaiser does not really remember when it started, only that he has been weird ever since Liz vanished.
And Liz...
He does not like thinking about Liz, and his memories of her are blurry at best; his therapist says not to force the memories, and the warning in his gut agrees that, in this one instance, it is probably for the best.
3 meals, 4 doses of medication, be on standby for Arthur and run system tests on CRIS.
That is enough for one day, and the only chore on his list is laundry; he loops another band around another finger, and figures he'll get to it sometime today.
What first?
Teeth.
And then, once he is in the bathroom, following through into a shower does not need a reminder.
From there breakfast and book an Uber - remembering the Uber definitely needs a band - then throw some nachos in his bag to call lunch later. He could always steal Samuel's again, but he would rather not annoy one friend when another is in mortal peril.
Well, maybe not just yet, but over breakfast Kaiser reviews his notes, and... And the reason Ivete left as well is horrific.
Something ugly stirs with the knowledge that he is unable to go.
Something uglier still is gladder to never touch field work again.
The Uber arrives, and Kaiser has the driver drop him in a shopping district just a few streets from the base. He wanders it a little before heading over, keeping moving until the eyes scratch off his back.
From the bar to the stairs to the base, waving a hand as he passes the threadbare team left behind.
In the research room... Only Letícia is here, swapping between her computer and phone as she tries to look something up.
"Is Samuel overnight? Kaiser asks.
"No, that's you," at this point, she barely even blinks at the question. "He's in Rome. With the others."
Samuel also went to Rome.
Right. Right .
He grabs his phone, and pulls open a voice note. Letícia leans over, making sure she can be heard by the microphone.
"Who went to Rome?"
"Arthur, Dante, and their team." She lists, pausing for a moment so that Kaiser can also scrawl out a paper list. "Clarissa went out with them early yesterday. The people they were supposed to meet were dead on arrival, so Veríssimo, Ivete, Samuel, Agatha, and Renan flew out as support. Most of the visitors we had went over, too, one of the other teams. Samuel is responsible for them."
Kaiser knows why he was left behind, but with Arthur, Ivete, and Dante gone...
"When will they be back?"
"We're not sure yet; Samuel will internet call with more information when they have it, but the teams will contact with him to save on international calling fees."
"Alright," he stops the recording, and saves it. He prefers voice reminders for things like this, the reassurance of someone else being alive to have said it. Still, he runs it through speech-to-text, fixes the transcript, and also saves that to his written notes.
More notes is always better.
"I want to finish updating CRIS," he turns to the relevant computer, and starts checking over the processes he left running overnight. Everything seems in order, but he knows better than to ever trust the first running of new code. "What else?"
"I've split Samuel's agents between us," she is back at her desk, nails clicking sharply on her keyboard. "None I gave you are complicated. I already pulled up their files for you. Veríssimo also asked for us to check the base for security flaws."
"Sure."
CRIS is behind itself, so Kaiser pulls out another laptop, wires it into the intranet, and starts a scan of the computer systems. He loops bands around his fingers as reminders to check those scans later, then grabs a toolkit and sets about searching the room for bugs.
He will need to do the entire base, and Ivete's bar above, but he needs to start somewhere.
As he works the bands on his fingers rub against each other and his skin, a constant reminder of all the jobs he needs to do. He swaps between sweeping and answering the phone, keeping his thumb pressed to the relevant bands even as he provides information for the Order's people. Puts a band away when he grabs some lunch - for the best he did not rely on stealing Samuel's food, given the man is gone today - continues his work...
It is early afternoon when he feels... There's something in his stomach, something uncomfortable. It...
"Letícia?" he asks.
"What now ?" her tone is sharper, having just got off the phone herself.
"Watch the computer a second?"
He does not wait for a reply before pressing a hand to a scar on his shoulder, and focusing.
He does not know if he has done it before, he does not remember what it does, but something in his soul...
One moment there is nothing and the next... Everything is shadow, and panic is overwhelming, and fear builds up - there are pillars, and broken stones, yellow and he is surrounded by corpses. Kaiser cannot move, but there is one hand crossed over his chest, touching at the marked shoulder all the same.
"I'm at the Colosseum," a familiar voice whispers with a tongue that probably isn't his own. "Come pick me up."
Joui?
For a few moments he watches further, body moving anxiously around, looking for danger, glancing over the bodies-
A scream of agony, of some deep seated pain, and-
Kaiser pulls himself from the ritual, and scrambles for his phone. Whatever mission Joui is on, whatever he has been doing instead of speaking to Kaiser...
It's been over a year since Joui spoke to him, and Kaiser cannot quite grasp why, but Joui is in pain and scared and-
And Kaiser cannot get to the Colosseum, but he knows who can.
Dialing Arthur's number is as easy as breathing, even on the other side of the world.
It takes three tries before Arthur picks up, but Kaiser cannot leave this to voicemail. Eventually, eventually Arthur does answer and "Kaiser? Is something wrong?"
"You need to get to the Colosseum," Kaiser does not bother with pleasantries. "Immediately."
"What- Why? We're in a debrief right now, let me put you on speaker."
"No time," Kaiser tells him, but he isn't sure he'll have attention paid to him. Whatever, they will all know soon. "You need to go. Now. Joui- Joui's there. And he's hurt."
"Joui?" It's Dante who speaks. "Kaiser, what are you talking about?"
"The seeing ritual," Kaiser says. "He used it to call me. He's in the Colosseum, he's scared, and I can't get to him but you can. He's been fighting people, but I didn't get a good look at the bodies."
There's a sigh, and then Veríssimo is the one to speak, "perhaps, then, this evening would be the better choice?"
"We're going," Arthur promises. "I'll text you once we get there, and ring you when there's news."
"Okay," and Kaiser doesn't know what's going on, or even what went on; his work phone starts to vibrate. "I need to answer another team. Just, please-"
"We'll do it, I promise," Arthur tells him. "We'll bring Joui home."
There are other voices and other discussions, but Kaiser does not care. He hangs up, grips his phone in his fist, and answers the work call.
"What do you need?"
He can only pray it is a simple request, the sort Letícia loathes; this is too much for elastics, the vision consuming his mind and the phone hot against his skin. The edge of Joui's fear clings to him as he works, shaking from his own anxiety amplified by another's. The phone is the only comfort, the only thing holding him to earth even as the elastics fade from perception.
The phone will ring again soon.
It has to.
Arthur promised.