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This started because I was rewatching 'Judas Chalice' (it's my favourite of the movies) and I noticed that the Large Collections Annex contains what honestly looks for all the world like a flying saucer, which seemed a little odd given Jenkins' flat refusal to believe they existed. (It also contains the Trojan Horse, something that looks exactly like the movie version of Well's Time Machine, a giant submarine, and quite a few other interesting looking things). So I figured there was a story behind that, and Judson was almost certainly part of it, and here we are.
Title: Conspiracy Central
Rating: PG
Fandom: The Librarians (2014), The Librarian Movies, Conspiracy Theories
Characters/Pairings: Flynn, Eve, Ezekiel, Jenkins, Judson, Cassandra & Jake, with mention of Charlene. Flynn/Eve, team, Jenkins & Ezekiel, Jenkins & Cass, Flynn & Judson
Summary: Ezekiel stumbles across a flying saucer in the Library's Large Collections Annex, and the Librarians consequently get a crash course in, among other things, how to build a family, Nazi occultism, ufology, and the fact that the Library is now and always has been conspiracy central. It's been an informative day.
Wordcount: 8418
Warnings/Notes: Um. To warn you in advance, this one is all over the shop, because I got lost in the deep end of occult Nazi UFO conspiracy theories on Wikipedia, and I think I came out not precisely sane. This is not a good fic. This is crazytown with some interpersonal interactions thrown on top. My apologies in advance.
Disclaimer: Not mine
Title: Conspiracy Central
Rating: PG
Fandom: The Librarians (2014), The Librarian Movies, Conspiracy Theories
Characters/Pairings: Flynn, Eve, Ezekiel, Jenkins, Judson, Cassandra & Jake, with mention of Charlene. Flynn/Eve, team, Jenkins & Ezekiel, Jenkins & Cass, Flynn & Judson
Summary: Ezekiel stumbles across a flying saucer in the Library's Large Collections Annex, and the Librarians consequently get a crash course in, among other things, how to build a family, Nazi occultism, ufology, and the fact that the Library is now and always has been conspiracy central. It's been an informative day.
Wordcount: 8418
Warnings/Notes: Um. To warn you in advance, this one is all over the shop, because I got lost in the deep end of occult Nazi UFO conspiracy theories on Wikipedia, and I think I came out not precisely sane. This is not a good fic. This is crazytown with some interpersonal interactions thrown on top. My apologies in advance.
Disclaimer: Not mine
Conspiracy Central
"You know, this is why I miss New York," Flynn grumbled, making up a ham sandwich from scratch in the little Annex kitchenette. "Pop across the street, half a block, there was this great deli. Great coffee, really excellent sandwiches. Right next door. No need for grocery shopping, no need for manual labour. All taken care of. How does Jenkins live like this? It's practically a hermitage."
"I think that was the point," Eve noted, reaching around him to steal a slice of ham before heading over to the kettle. "Plenty of open space, no annoying deliveries, empty woods within easy driving distance. As close as you can come to isolation while still within walking distance of civilisation. I'm pretty sure he liked it that way."
Flynn considered that, cutting his sandwich in half with an easy stroke. "Huh," he mused. "Then we must really be annoying him, I guess. Is that why he hides in the workroom every time I show up?"
Eve smiled at him, pushing a mug of tea his way as he sat down. "I think that's just you," she said, propping her chin in her hand. "He was fine with the rest of us. Only hid every other Tuesday. You are apparently a different story."
He blinked at her, mildly offended by that. "Really," he said, squinting suspiciously at her and waving his sandwich in the air. "And what's wrong with me that's not wrong with the rest of you, hmm? Why am I the annoying trespasser and you all are ..."
"The annoying family members that he spent months trying to get rid of until he had to give up and at least partially accept us?" Eve finished, raising a pointed eyebrow at him. She had lovely eyebrows, he noted absently. Lovely eyes, too.
Not the point. Yes. Where were they?
"So, you're saying I haven't been here long enough for him to get used to me?" he asked, taking a mouthful of tea and then coughing as the taste hit him. He swallowed, grimacing, and stared at the mug. "Is this jasmine? Why is it jasmine? Is there no ... why is the tea jasmine?"
She laughed at him. Not a big laugh, just this little snort-type thing, turning her head to try and hide it. She had little laugh lines around her eyes - they creased happily at him. Flynn felt his heart do that funny thing in his chest. It had been a while, but he still recognised it. It felt rather wonderful.
"Jenkins likes jasmine," she managed at last, reaching out to take the mug away from him. He didn't let go, curling his fingers around hers and following the mug as she drew it towards her. She stopped, looking at him in amused askance, and he didn't even bother dissembling. He stared happily back, perfectly content to let his hand just sit there, in midair, under hers. She shook her head, exhaling in amused exasperation, and tugged the mug down onto the table with his hand still very much attached. "And yes, I'm saying that if you want Jenkins to get used to you, you probably should come here more often. The Library's anchored here now. It wouldn't hurt you to spend some time out here in between missions. We've kind of ... We've gotten used to it, you know? If the Library is your home, the Annex is kind of ours."
Flynn dipped his head at that, looking away. He pulled his fingers gently out from under hers, pulling them back to rub absently at the edge of the table. "I, ah," he started, tapping an anxious tattoo on the table. "I'm not so good at staying places. That aren't the Library, I mean. I want to. I do. It's just ..."
She grabbed his hand, stilling it, and he looked up at her. Her expression was soft, understanding. She didn't look mad at him, at least.
"It's just that you've just gotten the Library back, and you're scared to lose it again if you leave it too long," she completed, turning his hand in hers to hold it properly. He stared at it, swallowing a little. She squeezed his palm comfortingly. "I get that, Flynn. Trust me, I do. I'm not saying you need to leave the Library. I'm just saying that the Library and the Annex are connected now. You could come visit. You know? More than once a month? And not just for apocalypses? That sort of thing."
He breathed, a half sort of grin creeping onto his face. It was a mask, mostly. She probably knew that. But it was a little bit real as well.
"And, ah. That will make Jenkins like me, will it?" he asked, looking back up at her, waving his free hand in the air. "That'll mean there'll be real tea?"
She grinned, slow and dazzling. "I wouldn't go that far," she said, but he mostly didn't hear it. His brain had gotten a little stuck on the smile, and was missing most of the words. "I'm not sure he even likes me, sometimes. But he might be less inclined to hide--"
The door slammed open. Ezekiel bounced into the room like his hair was on fire, glaring around at kitchen in search of something and then honing in on them like they were a very, very poor substitute. Flynn blinked at him, mouth open, and Eve didn't exactly respond much better. Her mouth clicked shut, and her eyebrow took a brief and eloquent hike into her hairline.
"... Ezekiel?" she prompted, slowly and rather dangerously. She pulled her hand out of Flynn's, which he wasn't sure he was happy about, but the thief barely even glanced at it. He was bouncing in place, barely able to keep himself in the same spot. Flynn wasn't sure if he'd ever seen him so impatient.
"Where's Jenkins?" Ezekiel demanded. "I need Jenkins. Now. Do you know where he is?"
Eve blinked, taken aback. "He's ... I think he's in the workroom with Cassandra? He was doing something with that sphere thingy we picked up in Sweden last week."
"Armillary sphere," Flynn put in. Helpfully, he thought, though where either of the others did was debatable. "Belonged to Tycho Brahe. It's an astrological instrument used to plot celestial positions. Or, in this case, create a sufficiently accurate magical echo of them that you can use it to power celestially-based magic in the off-season." He paused, considering that. "What's he doing with it, by the way? Because that's not necessarily the sort of thing you should be poking at, and the armillary is kind of delicate ..."
"I'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing, Flynn," Eve started, maybe a little grumpily, and then promptly cut off again as Ezekiel spun around and left again, slamming the door for the second time. And really, why was Jenkins annoyed at him when he'd apparently already gotten used to this lot? Did that make sense? He couldn't be worse than they were.
"We should ... we should probably follow him?" he suggested, slightly cautiously, because she did look annoyed now. "Find out what he needs Jenkins for? I mean, it looked urgent ..."
"It looked like trouble," Eve growled, pushing herself up out of her seat and stalking towards the door in one smooth movement. Flynn, rather less gracefully, tumbled off his chair and followed her. "Ezekiel wasn't on a mission. That means this is a personal project, and if there's one thing Ezekiel's personal projects usually are, it's ..."
"Trouble?" Flynn finished brightly, catching up with her. "In his defence, it's kind of a Librarian thing. I haven't gone on a successful vacation in ..." He paused, waved that off. "Actually, I haven't gone on vacation in about eight years full stop, and that one ended up involving the KGB and a plot to resurrect Dracula and take over Europe with his vampire armies."
She actually paused at that, turning to glance at him. "The KGB has been defunct since '91," she pointed out, and Flynn nodded in easy agreement, taking the opportunity to rub his bruised shin.
"I know. I think Kubichek mostly wanted to fix that, actually," he said, shrugging. She stared, and he remembered abruptly that she'd been in NATO counter terrorism when they met. That name probably meant something to her.
"Kubichek was involved with Dracula?" she asked, slowly and carefully, as if to check her sanity. Or possibly his. "He vanished off our radar around ..."
"Eight years ago, yes," Flynn nodded. "Dracula killed him, I killed Dracula, Ivan blew the house sky high before the vampires could get out. It was all very dramatic. Good vacation, though. I got to see New Orleans, date a vampire, find Lafitte's treasure, save the world ..."
Eve shook her head. She opened her mouth, changed her mind, closed it again. She turned around and started walking away, presumably still in searching of Ezekiel and Jenkins. He trailed after her, wondering mildly what he'd said wrong this time.
"Every time," she muttered to herself. "Every time I think this job can't get any weirder. Every time I think the world works as it should be working. No. Apparently, there is now vampire terrorism. Apparently there was always vampire terrorism. That is good to know. Thank you."
"Hey, at least I fixed it?" he tried, hurrying after her. "Librarian, yes? We fix that sort of thing. And, hey, you're the Guardian now. You can fix it next time. Perks of the job?"
"Oh, I'm going to fix something," she growled, yanking open the doors to the main room and storming inside. "I'll start with Ezekiel. Where the hell--"
"Coming through!" Ezekiel interrupted, barreling past Flynn, who didn't quite manage to clear the door in time, and dragging an extremely reluctant and loudly protesting Jenkins behind him. Cassandra and Jake followed them at a slightly more sedate pace, looking amused and annoyed, respectively. "Don't touch that door, Colonel Baird! I need that. I'm using it."
"You most certainly are not!" Jenkins snapped, digging his heels in at last and physically dragging the younger man to a stop. Flynn hurriedly hid a smile, trying to banish the image of a Great Dane being led around by a terrier until he finally got fed up. "Or rather, you can use it all you like, but I will not be setting one foot through it until you explain yourself!"
Ezekiel let go of him, bouncing back a step and spinning to face him. "I told you," he said impatiently. "You have got to see this. You were wrong and I was right, and I can prove it. You've got to come. Right now."
"Hang on a second," Flynn said, as something odd about the doorway caught his eye. "Isn't that ... That's the door to the Library. You've been-- What were you doing in my Library, Jones? And who the hell let you in there unattended? Charlene wouldn't--"
"Charlene was busy," Ezekiel answered blithely, waving the question away. "She probably still is. Don't ask me with what, I didn't really see her. And, you know, I am a Librarian too. Why shouldn't I get to explore the Library sometimes?"
"Wait," Jenkins exclaimed, suddenly looking about as alarmed as Flynn felt. "You were in the Library? Alone? With the ... Where were you? What did you touch? Did anything change? What did you do?"
Ezekiel blinked at them, amused. "Wow," he said. "You guys really don't trust me, do you? I'm not stupid, you know. I've seen Indiana Jones. I'm not going to open the Ark of the Covenant or anything. I do have some self-preservation instincts."
"... Good?" Flynn tried, but it wasn't exactly convincing. He was still running down a mental list of all the things floating around in the Library that Ezekiel Jones should not be anywhere remotely near. Starting with the Philosophers Stone and working right the way on up. "Don't poke things. Don't touch things. Definitely don't take things out. Actually just ... Oh god. What did you do? Charlene will kill me when she finds out."
"... Really feeling the love right now," Ezekiel noted, looking from Flynn's darting hands as he ran a frantic mental inventory to Jenkins' pale face as he probably did the same. "You guys are very paranoid, you know that? You should get out more. Take a holiday, learn to relax?"
"Apparently that doesn't work so well for Librarians," Eve commented, finally getting back into the conversation. She looked at Flynn, a wry expression on her face. "They go on vacation, apparently vampire terrorists happen."
Jake blinked. "The Dracula thing?" he asked. "That was you on vacation? Wow. And I thought we were bad."
"Not the point right now," Flynn sang, moving up beside Ezekiel and grabbing his shoulder. Ezekiel looked down at his hand in mild alarm, but didn't bother moving it. "You. You show me where you were. If we fix it before Charlene gets back, maybe she won't notice anything, and I won't have to move into the Annex for the foreseeable future for my own protection."
"You are not moving here!" Jenkins disagreed, moving up beside them and grabbing Ezekiel's other arm. "With Charlene hunting you? You are not moving anywhere remotely near the vicinity of me or my work. You keep your disagreements in the main Library where they belong, thank you very much."
Flynn stared at him, a little wounded. "You wouldn't even offer sanctuary?" he asked. "That seems a little harsh. Isn't this supposed to be a haven?"
"Gentlemen!" Eve cut in, moving in front of them and pointing at Ezekiel. "Easy way to fix this? We follow Ezekiel while he shows us what he touched, we fix whatever it was he touched, nobody has to move anywhere. Simple, don't you think?"
"Yeah," Ezekiel agreed, pulling his arms out of their grasp and moving huffily to her side. He folded his arms grumpily. "I was going to do that anyway. I came here to get you, remember?"
"To get Jenkins," Flynn corrected, and oh, okay. Apparently he was a little upset about that. Not the ... He wasn't jealous, as such. It was just that Jones had been in his Library, and then he'd come flying out to get Jenkins, and if Flynn couldn't be in Jenkins' Annex then why should Jenkins get to be in Flynn's Library and ...
He was jealous, wasn't he? He actually was. That was odd. He shouldn't be. He had the Library, he had Judson and Charlene, and Eve most of the time, and Jenkins actually did let him into the Annex, and was usually quite helpful, it was just ...
He'd been away, he'd been trying to find the Library, and they'd become this thing in the meantime, this family, and then they'd brought the Library back and suddenly he was torn between the two places. Between the two families. The Library was linked through the Annex now, but they hadn't really ... integrated the two places yet. Librarians worked alone. They always had. He'd changed that, the Library had changed that, but they were still ... working out the kinks a little bit. Which was, apparently, worrying him. Making him a little bit jealous, a little bit nervous, a little bit uneasy. He wasn't good at this sort of thing. He tended to find a groove and stay in it. The University, then the Library. He liked continuity, was the point. Change wasn't his best subject.
Which, from all evidence, was probably something he and Jenkins actually had in common. Among other things. So maybe ... Maybe Eve was right. Maybe he should start coming here more often. And maybe even ... letting them around the Library more often too. Even Jenkins. Maybe especially Jenkins.
If nothing else, at least Jenkins knew which artefacts absolutely should not be touched, and seemed to have trained the LITs not to touch his ones reasonably well.
Ugh. Why was this stuff always so difficult? People stuff. Why did it always have to be so awkward and annoying and hard.
"... Yes," Ezekiel said slowly, and Flynn came back to the present with a bump to find them all looking at him rather strangely. "I came to get Jenkins, because Jenkins is the one who doesn't believe in UFOs, and Jenkins is the one I can finally, finally prove wrong. Well. Either wrong or a liar, I'm not actually sure. It depends on if he knew about this or not."
There was a brief pause, in which Flynn thought several people were very confused, and then Jenkins stirred in that slow, careful way people had when they were about to be very, very annoyed at someone.
"Excuse me?" Jenkins asked, very politely. "What, exactly, is that supposed to mean?"
Ezekiel flashed him a smile, one hundred percent challenge and with quite a lot of smugness to go with it. Privately, Flynn credited his courage. Given Jenkins' tone, he wasn't sure he would have been quite that blasé.
"Come and see," the thief said, sticking his thumb at the door behind him, bouncing eagerly on his feet. "And be prepared to eat your words, because you're not going to explain this one away unless you come up with something really, really good."
... Oh. Oh, wait a minute. UFOs. Flynn did remember ... He actually did have an idea what this was about, now. Well, not why it was such a sore spot between Ezekiel and Jenkins, but he thought he knew what Ezekiel had been poking around with, at least. God. Charlene really was going to kill him. How the hell had Jones even managed to find the Large Collections Annex so soon? It had taken Flynn three years and Judson's help to get that far. That was ... actually rather annoying.
"I think I know what he's talking about," he managed absently. "If I'm right ... we're going to need Judson. That was always his area. He'll be able to tell us for sure, I think. Let me just ... I'll grab a mirror. Jenkins? Something portable, but not too small. He gets tetchy about surface area sometimes."
Jenkins blinked at him. "Judson," he said, slowly. And then, as realisation dawned: "Large Collections. He always was possessive of that section. I'm right, aren't I? I knew that ... You ask to take apart one little time machine, everyone gets upset. That place is better shielded than anywhere else in the Library, even if it had gone wrong we'd still have been fine. No reason whatsoever to kick me out ..."
He wandered off, muttering violently to himself while he rummaged around in drawers, and Flynn stared after him. He glanced over at the others, just to see if this was normal, but they were looking about as bemused and slightly alarmed as he was. So. Okay. Jenkins was having a small psychotic break even for him. Good to know.
"... Time machine?" Eve asked, after a moment. Her hand was hovering beside her hip, as if she'd instinctively reached for a weapon that wasn't there. "You have a time machine? Jenkins tried to take apart a time machine?"
"I actually don't know," Flynn admitted. "I think that was probably before my time, and Jenkins is right, Judson really was kind of possessive about that section. I didn't even see it until I'd been the Librarian for three years. There's ... a lot of Library I still don't know about, and even Charlene's been all squirrelly about it lately. I think something happened when they sealed the Library. I think they're still fixing it, which is why we haven't really been seeing that much of them lately."
That, and there was something weird between Charlene and Judson themselves. They were all ... secretive. Furtive, sometimes. They'd always had a bit of that, trying to protect him, or to judge when he was ready to know certain things. He'd learned more than any other Librarian short of Judson himself, Flynn thought, simply by virtue of having lasted long enough, but he always got the sense that the Library still kept a lot of itself back. The Librarians were its frontline soldiers, in charge of the outside world and the parts of it that needed to be brought into the Library. For the things further back, the things that made up the Library itself, it needed something different. People like Judson or Charlene, maybe even Jenkins. People who knew things that even the Librarians didn't, and could go rummaging about in the Library's depths while trusting the Librarians to keep the world in one piece until they got back.
Flynn had been the first Librarian to last this long in a very long time. The situation after the Library was sealed was, as far as he knew, unique in the Library's history. It seemed to be taking advantage of that. Judson seemed to be taking advantage of that.
And on the one hand, it was nice to be able to provide that for them. It felt good to be the Librarian they could trust that much. On the other, though, he was really starting to miss them a bit. He missed the way things used to be.
Like he said. He wasn't the best at personal change, alright?
"Here we go," Jenkins said triumphantly, coming back across the room with a very nice portrait-sized French mirror that he'd pulled from god-only-knew-where. "Why he can't just make do with a hand-mirror, I'll never know. It's not like we need to see more than his face."
Eve snorted. "Says the man who uses a full length mirror just to talk to us on the phone," she pointed out, and Jenkins flapped his free hand at her.
"That's different," he said. "Interfacing with mobile technology is an entirely different venture to manifesting a non-corporeal representation. The full mirror is much better aligned, and gets much better picture quality."
"Yes," Eve said patiently, while herding the lot of them through the door and into the Library in the process. "But while you could just use a phone to call, you know, our phones, Judson is an actual ghost. I think that gives him a much better excuse for how he choose to manifest, don't you?"
"Thank you, Colonel Baird," the mirror said, still tucked under Jenkins' arm, and Jenkins jerked sideways instinctively before he caught up. He snarled under his breath, and shoved the mirror pointedly at Flynn, who caught it before anything unfortunate could happen.
"... Judson?" he tried, holding the mirror in both hands and looking down at his mentor's currently rather mischievous face. "That was fast. I thought we'd have to go through the Library mirror to contact you first."
Judson shrugged, his shoulders just visible with the length of the mirror. "My ears were burning," he noted, squinting at the rest of them around the frame. "I thought I'd come and see why. Quite the party you have here, Flynn. Was there something you wanted?"
"Yes!" Ezekiel piped up, leaning over Flynn's arm to draw Judson's attention. "Hi there, uh. Ghost Librarian? How did that happen?" Judson opened his mouth, a little bewildered, but Ezekiel steamed across him. "Never mind. We need to get to the Large Collections Annex, and you need to explain to Jenkins why you have a flying saucer."
Judson blinked. "Why we have a what now?" he started, but Jenkins cut in from his other side.
"For the last time, Ezekiel," he grumbled. "UFOs do not exist. I don't know what they might have lying around down there, but whatever it is, I promise you that it is not the result of aliens!"
"It's a flying saucer," Ezekiel shot back, pointedly, and Flynn had to nod agreement there.
"Uh, I'm kind of with Ezekiel on this one," he said, hefting Judson's mirror to draw their attention. "I mean, I never asked about it, I was usually distracted at the time. But it does look pretty much exactly like a flying saucer. I ... I would have thought aliens too. Gonna admit that straight out."
"Oh, blast," Judson muttered. "You're talking about the Groom Lake reconstruction, aren't you? I knew that would come back to bite me."
Ezekiel made a noise like a kettle boiling over, and Flynn was pretty sure he wasn't the only one staring at the kid. "Groom Lake?" the thief repeated, waving his hands. "Did he say Groom Lake? Groom Lake as in Area 51?" He reared back, pointing a triumphant finger at Jenkins. "Aliens! I told you. Aliens are real, and the Library has proof! Oh my god." He slowed, his brain catching up with his mouth. "It's a flying saucer. The Library has a flying saucer. The Library is Area 51."
"Wow," Cassandra murmured quietly, looking at Jake beside her. "He really is into this, isn't he? It's kind of adorable."
"It's kind of something, alright," Jake grumbled in agreement.
"The Library is not Area 51," Jenkins growled, rubbing his temple in exasperation. "Area 51 is an experimental Air Force base, and what the hell were you doing there, Judson? When were you there, and what exactly did you pull out of it?"
"Good question," Eve cut in, looking between the rest of them like they were the biggest collection of crazy people she'd ever met in her life. Flynn would argue with that, but ... well, given the current conversation, she might have a point. "I'm actually kind of curious now myself. KGB vampires, Area 51, flying saucers? Colour me curious. Alarmed, but curious."
Judson sighed heavily. "It's not, ah. It's not that interesting a story. But, if you're all determined, I suppose we can ... Well. I suppose I can manage a little show and tell. Though, to warn the rather excitable little fellow? I'm afraid I have to agree with Jenkins here. It's not an alien spacecraft. There were no aliens involved."
"Hah!" Jenkins exclaimed, folding his arms and looking smugly in Ezekiel's direction. "I told you it wasn't. I knew Judson would back me up."
"... I work with three year olds," Eve muttered. Mostly to herself. "I don't know why this keeps surprising me. You'd think I'd have gotten used to it by now."
"Hey, I'm mature," Flynn protested, gesturing at her with the mirror and then stopping hurriedly when Judson made mildly seasick noises. "Okay. Maybe not mature. But can we at least credit me with high school rather than kindergarten, here? The thief and the thousand year old knight are the ones having a playground fight, not me. I'm just here to humour them."
"Hey!" Ezekiel and Jenkins said, in perfect and mildly eerie unison. Not proving anyone's points at all, of course not. They were kind of adorable, Flynn thought, and retained sense enough to realise he probably shouldn't say so out loud.
"... Fascinating as this discussion is," Judson started slowly, squinting out at the lot of them. "Charlene and I were somewhat in the middle of something. I'll, ah. I'll have to get back to her shortly. Do you think we could walk and talk?"
"I thought you'd never ask," Eve said, straightening the vertebrae in her neck with a click before striding forward to pluck the mirror pointedly out of Flynn's hands. "You're with me, Ghost Librarian. Flynn? Large Collections Annex, if you wouldn't mind. Anyone else who wants explanations, get in line and keep up. We're not spending all day on this."
There was a brief pause, while everyone blinked at her in mild shock and she stared back with one eyebrow raised and a 'hurry up' sort of expression on her face, and then Judson beamed brightly up at her from the mirror and said:
"I like this one, Flynn. She's definitely Guardian material."
"Thank you," Eve replied, equally bright. "Charlene said something similar. Can we go now? It's just that Jones is started to vibrate again."
"... I love you," Flynn said, without any thought at all. He raised a hand, pointing out into the depths of the Library as he set off beside her. "Large Collections, right? Walk and talk. Got it."
"Do they have to flirt in front of us?" Cassandra whispered, as the others fell into step behind him. "I mean, it's cute. He's all googly eyed. It feels kind of like watching your parents flirting, though."
"... Not where my mind was going," Jake said, sounding rather pained. "Thanks, Cassandra. Needed that image."
"What is the matter with you people?" Ezekiel cut in. He shoved ahead of them, Jenkins right behind him, and practically perched himself beside Eve's shoulder. "You've all got skewed priorities, you know that? What about the UFO? I'm going to need an explanation like, now."
"Seconded," Jenkins agreed, taking advantage of his height to glare down at Judson without crowding up against Eve quite so much. "Librarians rooting around in Groom Lake is definitely something I'd like an explanation for as well. What on Earth did they get themselves into?"
Judson grimaced faintly. "It was the 60s," he said, as if it should stand as an explanation on its own. Judging by Jenkins' expression, maybe it did.
Flynn still looked questioningly down at him anyway. Not everyone had been knocking around the Library for centuries, and people had a tendency not to answer questions around here either. If Judson was in a talkative mood, Flynn was not at all averse to taking advantage.
"The Second World War was a bad time for us," Judson explained carefully, catching the look. "It took us a while to recover afterwards. Between the Thule Gesellschaft for the Germans, the American, British and Soviet countermeasures, and a whole lot of other world powers looking for every advantage they could get, we were losing Librarians like ... Well. We, ah, we lost quite a few. More pertinently to the current conversation, we lost a lot of artefacts too, and we just didn't have the people to go and get them back. We prevented the worst of it. Put Timur's remains back where they belonged, kept the Spear of Destiny out of the wrong hands, the big things. But a lot of the smaller, less apocalyptic items, we simply had to let them go. We were dying too fast to stop them."
"It was a bad time," Jenkins agreed quietly. "Even I was getting sent out semi-regularly. For a while there, we didn't really have a Librarian, as such. We just piggy-backed missions with various militaries in the bad spots, and sent out half-way knowledgeable candidates to guide them through the worst of it. We still went through potentials like tissue paper. We had trouble hiring Guardians. Everyone remotely combat capable was usually ... otherwise engaged."
Flynn grimaced, something heavy settling in his stomach. He caught Eve's eye, something grim and quiet in her expression as well. Neither of them looked back. They carefully didn't turn to look at the three young people behind them, exactly the kind who would have gotten sent out into those bad spots, unprepared and undefended, drafted on the quick because there was no other choice. Dying. Dying by the handful. No. Neither Flynn nor Eve could manage looking back at them right now.
"... I guess that made a bit of a mess," Cassandra essayed quietly. Jenkins' expression was an eloquent response, Flynn thought. The LITs seemed to flinch a little bit, though whether in sympathy or from a sense of 'there but for the grace of god', Flynn wasn't quite sure.
"You could say that," the caretaker said shortly, but not ungently. "It only took a few decades to fix. More or less. To be honest, we're still tracking down a lot of what went missing back then."
"The Opal of Samara," Eve realised, slightly startled. "Nazi demonologists. How much stuff did they get? And why are we still here, if they had that kind of firepower?"
"Through the sacrifice of a lot of young people," Judson said, with grim dignity. "And, perhaps, the foolishness of our enemies. Many of them didn't know what they were handling, or how to deal with it. We were fortunate in many cases. In others, not so much."
There was a bit of silence after that. There kind of had to be, Flynn supposed. It was a bit of a conversational switch, after all. One moment, UFOs and dating Librarians, the next a world war and the deaths of dozens of Librarians in succession. That was a conversational swerve that took a second to bounce back from.
Though you got used to them, to an extent. The apocalypse happened every other week around here. Live it long enough, it only took you a second or two to make the curve.
"... So what did the Americans get?" Ezekiel asked. Proving Flynn's point yet again, or maybe just sticking to his own priorities with blithe determination. "What was it you were looking for in Area 51, then?"
Judson blinked, startled out of remembrance in his turn, but before he could do more than open his mouth in answer, the corridor they were taking opened up around them, and Eve, Jake and Cassandra stopped dead in their tracks. Judson closed his mouth again, smiling faintly, and Flynn reached out to gently pluck his mirror from Eve's suddenly numb hands.
They'd arrived, apparently. And Large Collections took a second to take in, even for the most jaded of Librarians.
"Is that ... is that Noah's Ark?" Eve asked, staring up at it in awe. Flynn started to answer, grinning faintly to himself, when the others cut across him in their turn.
"Are those Da Vinci's Diaries!?" Jake demanded, his eyes zeroing in on the case beside them.
"Is that a time machine?" Cassandra squeaked, staring at one of the rotating platforms in the vast cavern ahead of them. The one, incidentally, right beside the platform with what looked most definitely like a flying saucer.
Flynn blinked, but went with it gamely. "Yes to Noah's Ark," he said, smiling at Eve. "That's the first thing I noticed too. Yes to the diaries, I brought those in myself. The time machine I'm actually not sure on--"
"Yes, it is," Jenkins commented, slightly repressively, and oh. Right, yes. Flynn remembered that conversation now. So did Cassandra, apparently. She turned to look at the caretaker with wide eyes.
"That's Wells' time machine?" she asked again. "You got to examine a real time machine? Did you manage to isolate any of the principles ...?"
"No, he did not," Judson cut in grumpily. He was glaring at Jenkins, Flynn noticed. Apparently that hadn't been the only part of the conversation with merit. "We caught him in time, fortunately. And he'll be keeping his hands to himself this time, too. Charlene and I have only just locked this Library back in its right dimension, thank you. A temporal implosion in Large Collections will not be happening any time soon."
Jake blinked at him. Then he turned around, and blinked at Jenkins instead. "... You took apart a time machine," he said slowly. "I was right? You got ditched from the head office for experimenting on a time machine?" He paused, tilting his head. "Huh. That's actually kind of impressive. In a crazy sort of way."
"I didn't get ditched from the Library," Jenkins grumbled defensively. "I already had the Annex. I just wasn't allowed back into Large Collections, that's all."
"That's kind of mean," Cassandra said, looking disapprovingly at Judson. "I mean, I understand, safety first, but science is all about controlled experimentation, you know. For the chance to isolate a mechanism for time travel ... I think most scientists would be at least tempted. Don't you think banning him just for trying was a little harsh?"
Jenkins blinked at her. His expression did something complicated, something shy and startled and amazed, and then he smiled. He folded his arms across his chest, and looked back at Judson with a defiant sort of happiness about him.
"I like her," he said, blandly. "These Librarians. I like them. They have some scientific spirit about them that I think the Library has been sorely lacking these last few decades."
There was a slight pause, and then Judson looked determinedly and slightly desperately towards Flynn. Flynn blinked down at him, taken aback.
"Flynn, you understand why we don't poke the artefacts, don't you?" Judson prompted hopefully. "I understand that we need the extra support at the moment, but, ah. We do need the Library in one piece, as well. You can't ... I mean, experimentation is all very well, but ..."
He trailed off, and Flynn stared at him. At Judson, who looked tired and slightly panicked, then at Jenkins, who looked defiant and slightly guilty, and then at Eve, just because he always looked at Eve. She was looking a little defiant too, he noted. She was looking between Judson and Jenkins as well, as if she'd have to take a side, as if she would take a side if it came to it. Not just between those two, maybe. Between the Library and the Annex. Family. Two families, that they still hadn't glued together very well yet. Flynn looked at her, and realised that was a decision he really didn't want any of them to have to make.
"... I think we can trust him not to blow us up," he said at last, looking back down at Judson carefully, avoiding looking at the rest of them. "He's helped us put time itself back together not so long ago, you know? I think he can probably be trusted not to cause a temporal implosion."
His mentor raised an eyebrow. At the tone, maybe. Too serious for the issue at hand. Or at Flynn's expression, which he was guessing was more readable than he'd like it to be at the minute. Judson saw something in it. Flynn saw it happen. And then Judson, slowly and very tiredly, smiled at him.
"... You're the Librarian, Flynn," was all he said, soft and gentle. "If you want to authorise an experiment, you can. Though, ah. You can also be the one to inform Charlene about it. I reserve the right to be determinedly incorporeal at the time."
"Ah," Jenkins said. His expression was still doing that complicated thing when Flynn looked up at him, directed at Flynn himself now instead of just Cassandra, but healthy caution was beginning to edge it out. "Perhaps we should ... Ms Cillian and I already have a project at present. Perhaps we should wait for a more opportune moment before taking on a new one?"
Cassandra grimaced, and nodded hurriedly. She was a little afraid of Charlene since they'd gotten the Library back. Charlene had opinions about letting someone who'd helped the Serpent Brotherhood back into the Library, and she hadn't really gotten the chance to know Cassandra well enough to forgive her yet. She'd gone with it on Flynn's recommendation, since Flynn had been the one who'd gotten stabbed at the time, and the one Cassandra had accepted a death sentence to heal, but things ... were a bit uncomfortable between Charlene and Cassandra still. Or a lot uncomfortable.
In hindsight, possibly there was a reason that Ezekiel had been the first of them to really brave the Library solo. People. People were always so difficult. Books, even artefacts, were a thousand times easier.
And, speaking of Ezekiel ...
"Okay!" the thief exclaimed, elbowing his way pointedly back into the centre of their little circle. He moved so that Jenkins and Cassandra were at his back, Flynn noted idly. He stole attention away from them rather neatly, and perhaps more than a little protectively. "So the time machine is scheduled for the second date. Can we please get back to the flying saucer now? You know, that one right over there? Because I still haven't heard an explanation, and if Area 51 is involved then I really, really want one. Sometime today?"
Thank you, Ezekiel Jones, Flynn thought, with real fondness. If there was anyone to cut through awkward personal moments, it was Jones.
"... Ahem. Yes. Ah, certainly?" Judson managed, and Flynn was beginning to think that Judson wasn't very used to all these people at once any more. One or two at a time, maybe even three. A Librarian, a Guardian and Charlene. But six at once? Probably more than he'd had to handle for a while, and it was showing a bit. "Where did I leave you?"
"World War II," Cassandra prompted shyly. She'd shrunk a little bit, and moved closer to Jenkins. She hadn't given up, though. "You lost a lot artefacts, you were saying, and the Americans had gotten some of them?"
"Yes," Judson sighed, looking tired and very rumpled. His reflection shrank a little in its turn. "We spent a lot of the 40s and 50s trying to clean up after the war, and trying to steal back a lot of what had ended up in the hands of various militaries. I had some connections from the war itself--" He'd been a marine at some point, Flynn remembered abruptly. Or pretended to be one. Or just said he'd been one. Maybe this was why. "I got word that someone out at Groom Lake had been continuing work on Vril superweapons. Apparently they'd managed to keep a copy of Johannes Täufer's unedited text, and notes from the examination of one of the Foo Fighters the RAF shot down ..."
"Foo fighters?" Eve interrupted incredulously. "Like the rock band? Okay, I'm getting better at the kind of sentences you have to say in this job, but 'foo fighters' can not be a real word. Nope. Not happening."
"They were a type of UFO seen during WWII," Ezekiel explained, eyeing Judson avidly. "Mostly over Germany, some over the Pacific. They were thought to be a German superweapon, or a Japanese one, or someone's superweapon. Which, apparently, might not be far wrong?"
"They were early attempts at using Vril energy to power machines, yes," Judson agreed. "They were mostly the efforts of one of the smaller occult societies, the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft, and they didn't work very well. They flew, and some of them managed to hit things, but that was about it. Fortunately for everyone. Vril energy, when actually harnessed correctly, can be ..."
"Anywhere between city and continent destroying," Flynn finished grimly. "The Vril-ya were the ones who sank Atlantis, weren't they? Their weapons were a match for Atlantean superscience. Someone got hold of that?"
"The beginnings of it," Judson said, only slightly more cheerfully. "Only the beginnings, though. Tapping Vril energy is one of the trickier interdimensional feats, and while we were worried about the success of the Foo Fighters, they weren't effective enough for either the Library or any of the major powers to focus on them during the war. There were a lot of faster and equally powerful artefacts that could be gotten hold of. Waiting for human scientists to translate scattered texts and one or two Vril-ya artefacts into something useful wasn't a priority for anyone. At least, we thought so. Then, after the war, the UFO sightings started happening ..."
"You know," Ezekiel said, sort of dreamily, "I can't decide if this is the best thing I've ever heard, or if I'm crushed right now. You need to explain. Who are Vril-ya, and why are they different from aliens? How did you steal a UFO? You did steal it, right? You went into Area 51 and stole a UFO. That's what this is leading up to, isn't it?"
"... The Vril-ya were one of the original races," Jenkins said, while Judson mostly blinked at Ezekiel in bemusement. "Like the fae, or the dragons. They were thought to be a subterranean race, but really it was that the gateways to their realm were underground. Vril energy is ... There are actually a number of theories on that. A lot of people think that it's an extra-dimensional echo of our magic, its mirror image in another realm. It's considered that they may have held their grudge against the Atlanteans because of that. Atlantis was one of the first technological cities to tap into the ley lines, disrupting the flow of magic across the world. It's thought the Vril-ya may have objected to that. Very strongly."
"Understatement," Jake commented. "As objections go, wiping an entire island nation and its population off the map is a bit ... I'm not sure strong is the word, here."
"Wait," Cassandra murmured. "But the disruption of the ley lines and the diminishing of magic has been happening for centuries now, hasn't it? If they objected to that, why didn't they ...?"
"Come back and do an Atlantis on the rest of the world?" Jenkins asked. Rather mildly, really. The man could be alarmingly cheerful about those sorts of questions. "If the Vril energy was diminished at a pace with our magic, it's possible that they simply couldn't. They have to pull the energy into our dimension in the first place, which automatically weakens it. Atlantis was overwhelmed by a single unexpected attack, which had probably been prepared for for some time. A second feat would take time to build up, and if the magic and the Vril energy were depleting all the time, they probably just didn't have both the time and the force simultaneously."
"Which," Ezekiel started slowly. "Which would be why humans releasing a bunch of magic back into the system with an occult arms race and then mucking around with Vril energy at the same time might not be a good idea ...?"
"We did have that thought too," Judson agreed, about as mild as Jenkins was. "Mostly we just didn't want people opening gates into the Vril-ya realms trying to tap the energy, and we also didn't want them channelling the energy into superweapons to restart the wars in our realm either. Which was why I went to investigate Groom Lake when several colleagues involved in Projects Sign and Blue Book contacted me in '61."
"... Am I dreaming?" Ezekiel asked, semi-seriously. "The Foo Fighters were real, the Americans tried reconstructing them after the war, the Library has one, which you stole from Area 51, and now you're telling me you were involved with Blue Book as well? You know you're every ufologist's dream, right? Or nightmare. I'm still not sure. Who are you, and how the hell are you still a secret?"
Flynn and Judson looked at each other. Flynn felt his mouth twitch, and saw his mentor's doing the same. Because there was only one answer to that, wasn't there? And the rest of them really should have realised it by now ...
"Librarians," they said, brightly and simultaneously, and Flynn grinned happily down at the mirror in the process. God, he'd missed Judson. He'd missed him so much.
"The Library does rather specialise in powerful secrets that could potentially destroy the world," Jenkins pointed out amiably. "Sooner or later we tend to end up involved in most strange occurrences. Individual Librarians may only encounter a fraction of it, but the Library itself remembers a lot more. Something you might remember, the next time you decide to wander around unsupervised, hmm?"
"... This has been an informative day," Colonel Baird said softly, from where she'd been standing on the sidelines. And it was Colonel Baird, Flynn realised distantly, turning to look at her. It was the Colonel more than Eve. She was shaking her head, that same expression on her face that had been there when he'd fallen out of a sewer in Berlin and started babbling about Teutonic Knights and zombie armies, all those months ago. Distant, incredulous disbelief, and the beginnings of a rueful acceptance behind it.
The Library never stopped hitting you like that. Even eleven years on, it was hitting Flynn like that. Eve and the LITs were way, waaay behind him there.
"Colonel Baird?" Jenkins asked, somewhat cautiously. She shook her head, smiling faintly at him. That didn't seem to reassure him much.
"Nothing," she said, reaching up to grip her chin in her head, like she wanted to crack her neck again. "It's nothing. This day started with Flynn complaining about Portland, you know? And then KGB vampires and Nazi UFOs happened. With some time machines thrown in for good measure. It's been an informative day, that's all. Very ... Very informative."
There was a little silence after that, while various people shuffled uneasily and avoided looking at each other, and then Cassandra piped up, entirely earnestly and a little bit out of the blue:
"What's wrong with Portland?"
Flynn blinked at her for a second. He looked over at Eve, who looked back with the same blank, startled expression, and then with a smile, small and secret and vague. Something bubbled up in Flynn's chest. That strange feeling, that he just about remembered.
"... Nothing," he said, still watching Eve. "Actually, I was thinking I should start spending more time there. On days when there's nothing apocalyptic happening, maybe? It'd only be fair, if Ezekiel's going to be raiding my Library for UFOs, or Jenkins and Cassandra are going to be taking time machines apart in Large Collections." He looked down at Judson, blinking up at him from the silvered glass between his hands. "You and Charlene could come by too, Judson. You could do that creepy possession thing you do sometimes, get out and enjoy some fresh air?"
"... Possession?" Ezekiel asked, looking more than a little alarmed. "Ghost Librarian possesses people now?"
"Flynn, I'm not certain that ..." Judson tried, and then apparently gave up. He shrugged, still with only his head and shoulders visible in the mirror, and tried a small smile. "Well. Maybe Charlene could ... Maybe she could use some company that isn't dead, yes. Using the hall of doors to access her apartment isn't the same, now that you're all in Portland. And maybe, once we get things stabilised a little more, I might have the energy for a temporary manifestation or two. Maybe. We'll, ah. We'll think about it, alright?"
Flynn looked around him. Five faces, with expressions ranging from the bemused to the long-suffering to the curious to the warm, and the face in the mirror between his hands, tired and rumpled and familiar. Families. Families worth keeping, and families worth putting together, and people worth putting a little effort into, no matter how difficult that turned out to be. He looked around, and then he smiled, wry and happy.
"Sounds good to me, Judson," he said softly. "Sounds like a plan."
A/N: Just for reference, if anyone else wants to end up not precisely sane, here are some Wikipedia links:
UFOs & WWII: Foo Fighters, Vril Energy, Project Sign, Project Blue Book, Groom Lake, Thule Gesellschaft, the curse of Timur's tomb, Otto Rahn (I didn't use him in the story, but he's a WWII Grail Hunter reluctantly working for Heinrich Himmler - I was wondering about Jenkins in WWII).
Random extras: armillary spheres, Tycho Brahe. Judson claiming to have been a marine is from 'Quest for the Spear', and Atlantean superscience is mentioned in the second episode when Flynn pulls out Isaac Newton's text in the Annex. I just randomly smushed that together with the Vril-ya from the Nazi occult UFOs, because at this point why not? Heh.
You can tell why Librarians is my kind of show, can't you? *grins sheepishly*
"You know, this is why I miss New York," Flynn grumbled, making up a ham sandwich from scratch in the little Annex kitchenette. "Pop across the street, half a block, there was this great deli. Great coffee, really excellent sandwiches. Right next door. No need for grocery shopping, no need for manual labour. All taken care of. How does Jenkins live like this? It's practically a hermitage."
"I think that was the point," Eve noted, reaching around him to steal a slice of ham before heading over to the kettle. "Plenty of open space, no annoying deliveries, empty woods within easy driving distance. As close as you can come to isolation while still within walking distance of civilisation. I'm pretty sure he liked it that way."
Flynn considered that, cutting his sandwich in half with an easy stroke. "Huh," he mused. "Then we must really be annoying him, I guess. Is that why he hides in the workroom every time I show up?"
Eve smiled at him, pushing a mug of tea his way as he sat down. "I think that's just you," she said, propping her chin in her hand. "He was fine with the rest of us. Only hid every other Tuesday. You are apparently a different story."
He blinked at her, mildly offended by that. "Really," he said, squinting suspiciously at her and waving his sandwich in the air. "And what's wrong with me that's not wrong with the rest of you, hmm? Why am I the annoying trespasser and you all are ..."
"The annoying family members that he spent months trying to get rid of until he had to give up and at least partially accept us?" Eve finished, raising a pointed eyebrow at him. She had lovely eyebrows, he noted absently. Lovely eyes, too.
Not the point. Yes. Where were they?
"So, you're saying I haven't been here long enough for him to get used to me?" he asked, taking a mouthful of tea and then coughing as the taste hit him. He swallowed, grimacing, and stared at the mug. "Is this jasmine? Why is it jasmine? Is there no ... why is the tea jasmine?"
She laughed at him. Not a big laugh, just this little snort-type thing, turning her head to try and hide it. She had little laugh lines around her eyes - they creased happily at him. Flynn felt his heart do that funny thing in his chest. It had been a while, but he still recognised it. It felt rather wonderful.
"Jenkins likes jasmine," she managed at last, reaching out to take the mug away from him. He didn't let go, curling his fingers around hers and following the mug as she drew it towards her. She stopped, looking at him in amused askance, and he didn't even bother dissembling. He stared happily back, perfectly content to let his hand just sit there, in midair, under hers. She shook her head, exhaling in amused exasperation, and tugged the mug down onto the table with his hand still very much attached. "And yes, I'm saying that if you want Jenkins to get used to you, you probably should come here more often. The Library's anchored here now. It wouldn't hurt you to spend some time out here in between missions. We've kind of ... We've gotten used to it, you know? If the Library is your home, the Annex is kind of ours."
Flynn dipped his head at that, looking away. He pulled his fingers gently out from under hers, pulling them back to rub absently at the edge of the table. "I, ah," he started, tapping an anxious tattoo on the table. "I'm not so good at staying places. That aren't the Library, I mean. I want to. I do. It's just ..."
She grabbed his hand, stilling it, and he looked up at her. Her expression was soft, understanding. She didn't look mad at him, at least.
"It's just that you've just gotten the Library back, and you're scared to lose it again if you leave it too long," she completed, turning his hand in hers to hold it properly. He stared at it, swallowing a little. She squeezed his palm comfortingly. "I get that, Flynn. Trust me, I do. I'm not saying you need to leave the Library. I'm just saying that the Library and the Annex are connected now. You could come visit. You know? More than once a month? And not just for apocalypses? That sort of thing."
He breathed, a half sort of grin creeping onto his face. It was a mask, mostly. She probably knew that. But it was a little bit real as well.
"And, ah. That will make Jenkins like me, will it?" he asked, looking back up at her, waving his free hand in the air. "That'll mean there'll be real tea?"
She grinned, slow and dazzling. "I wouldn't go that far," she said, but he mostly didn't hear it. His brain had gotten a little stuck on the smile, and was missing most of the words. "I'm not sure he even likes me, sometimes. But he might be less inclined to hide--"
The door slammed open. Ezekiel bounced into the room like his hair was on fire, glaring around at kitchen in search of something and then honing in on them like they were a very, very poor substitute. Flynn blinked at him, mouth open, and Eve didn't exactly respond much better. Her mouth clicked shut, and her eyebrow took a brief and eloquent hike into her hairline.
"... Ezekiel?" she prompted, slowly and rather dangerously. She pulled her hand out of Flynn's, which he wasn't sure he was happy about, but the thief barely even glanced at it. He was bouncing in place, barely able to keep himself in the same spot. Flynn wasn't sure if he'd ever seen him so impatient.
"Where's Jenkins?" Ezekiel demanded. "I need Jenkins. Now. Do you know where he is?"
Eve blinked, taken aback. "He's ... I think he's in the workroom with Cassandra? He was doing something with that sphere thingy we picked up in Sweden last week."
"Armillary sphere," Flynn put in. Helpfully, he thought, though where either of the others did was debatable. "Belonged to Tycho Brahe. It's an astrological instrument used to plot celestial positions. Or, in this case, create a sufficiently accurate magical echo of them that you can use it to power celestially-based magic in the off-season." He paused, considering that. "What's he doing with it, by the way? Because that's not necessarily the sort of thing you should be poking at, and the armillary is kind of delicate ..."
"I'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing, Flynn," Eve started, maybe a little grumpily, and then promptly cut off again as Ezekiel spun around and left again, slamming the door for the second time. And really, why was Jenkins annoyed at him when he'd apparently already gotten used to this lot? Did that make sense? He couldn't be worse than they were.
"We should ... we should probably follow him?" he suggested, slightly cautiously, because she did look annoyed now. "Find out what he needs Jenkins for? I mean, it looked urgent ..."
"It looked like trouble," Eve growled, pushing herself up out of her seat and stalking towards the door in one smooth movement. Flynn, rather less gracefully, tumbled off his chair and followed her. "Ezekiel wasn't on a mission. That means this is a personal project, and if there's one thing Ezekiel's personal projects usually are, it's ..."
"Trouble?" Flynn finished brightly, catching up with her. "In his defence, it's kind of a Librarian thing. I haven't gone on a successful vacation in ..." He paused, waved that off. "Actually, I haven't gone on vacation in about eight years full stop, and that one ended up involving the KGB and a plot to resurrect Dracula and take over Europe with his vampire armies."
She actually paused at that, turning to glance at him. "The KGB has been defunct since '91," she pointed out, and Flynn nodded in easy agreement, taking the opportunity to rub his bruised shin.
"I know. I think Kubichek mostly wanted to fix that, actually," he said, shrugging. She stared, and he remembered abruptly that she'd been in NATO counter terrorism when they met. That name probably meant something to her.
"Kubichek was involved with Dracula?" she asked, slowly and carefully, as if to check her sanity. Or possibly his. "He vanished off our radar around ..."
"Eight years ago, yes," Flynn nodded. "Dracula killed him, I killed Dracula, Ivan blew the house sky high before the vampires could get out. It was all very dramatic. Good vacation, though. I got to see New Orleans, date a vampire, find Lafitte's treasure, save the world ..."
Eve shook her head. She opened her mouth, changed her mind, closed it again. She turned around and started walking away, presumably still in searching of Ezekiel and Jenkins. He trailed after her, wondering mildly what he'd said wrong this time.
"Every time," she muttered to herself. "Every time I think this job can't get any weirder. Every time I think the world works as it should be working. No. Apparently, there is now vampire terrorism. Apparently there was always vampire terrorism. That is good to know. Thank you."
"Hey, at least I fixed it?" he tried, hurrying after her. "Librarian, yes? We fix that sort of thing. And, hey, you're the Guardian now. You can fix it next time. Perks of the job?"
"Oh, I'm going to fix something," she growled, yanking open the doors to the main room and storming inside. "I'll start with Ezekiel. Where the hell--"
"Coming through!" Ezekiel interrupted, barreling past Flynn, who didn't quite manage to clear the door in time, and dragging an extremely reluctant and loudly protesting Jenkins behind him. Cassandra and Jake followed them at a slightly more sedate pace, looking amused and annoyed, respectively. "Don't touch that door, Colonel Baird! I need that. I'm using it."
"You most certainly are not!" Jenkins snapped, digging his heels in at last and physically dragging the younger man to a stop. Flynn hurriedly hid a smile, trying to banish the image of a Great Dane being led around by a terrier until he finally got fed up. "Or rather, you can use it all you like, but I will not be setting one foot through it until you explain yourself!"
Ezekiel let go of him, bouncing back a step and spinning to face him. "I told you," he said impatiently. "You have got to see this. You were wrong and I was right, and I can prove it. You've got to come. Right now."
"Hang on a second," Flynn said, as something odd about the doorway caught his eye. "Isn't that ... That's the door to the Library. You've been-- What were you doing in my Library, Jones? And who the hell let you in there unattended? Charlene wouldn't--"
"Charlene was busy," Ezekiel answered blithely, waving the question away. "She probably still is. Don't ask me with what, I didn't really see her. And, you know, I am a Librarian too. Why shouldn't I get to explore the Library sometimes?"
"Wait," Jenkins exclaimed, suddenly looking about as alarmed as Flynn felt. "You were in the Library? Alone? With the ... Where were you? What did you touch? Did anything change? What did you do?"
Ezekiel blinked at them, amused. "Wow," he said. "You guys really don't trust me, do you? I'm not stupid, you know. I've seen Indiana Jones. I'm not going to open the Ark of the Covenant or anything. I do have some self-preservation instincts."
"... Good?" Flynn tried, but it wasn't exactly convincing. He was still running down a mental list of all the things floating around in the Library that Ezekiel Jones should not be anywhere remotely near. Starting with the Philosophers Stone and working right the way on up. "Don't poke things. Don't touch things. Definitely don't take things out. Actually just ... Oh god. What did you do? Charlene will kill me when she finds out."
"... Really feeling the love right now," Ezekiel noted, looking from Flynn's darting hands as he ran a frantic mental inventory to Jenkins' pale face as he probably did the same. "You guys are very paranoid, you know that? You should get out more. Take a holiday, learn to relax?"
"Apparently that doesn't work so well for Librarians," Eve commented, finally getting back into the conversation. She looked at Flynn, a wry expression on her face. "They go on vacation, apparently vampire terrorists happen."
Jake blinked. "The Dracula thing?" he asked. "That was you on vacation? Wow. And I thought we were bad."
"Not the point right now," Flynn sang, moving up beside Ezekiel and grabbing his shoulder. Ezekiel looked down at his hand in mild alarm, but didn't bother moving it. "You. You show me where you were. If we fix it before Charlene gets back, maybe she won't notice anything, and I won't have to move into the Annex for the foreseeable future for my own protection."
"You are not moving here!" Jenkins disagreed, moving up beside them and grabbing Ezekiel's other arm. "With Charlene hunting you? You are not moving anywhere remotely near the vicinity of me or my work. You keep your disagreements in the main Library where they belong, thank you very much."
Flynn stared at him, a little wounded. "You wouldn't even offer sanctuary?" he asked. "That seems a little harsh. Isn't this supposed to be a haven?"
"Gentlemen!" Eve cut in, moving in front of them and pointing at Ezekiel. "Easy way to fix this? We follow Ezekiel while he shows us what he touched, we fix whatever it was he touched, nobody has to move anywhere. Simple, don't you think?"
"Yeah," Ezekiel agreed, pulling his arms out of their grasp and moving huffily to her side. He folded his arms grumpily. "I was going to do that anyway. I came here to get you, remember?"
"To get Jenkins," Flynn corrected, and oh, okay. Apparently he was a little upset about that. Not the ... He wasn't jealous, as such. It was just that Jones had been in his Library, and then he'd come flying out to get Jenkins, and if Flynn couldn't be in Jenkins' Annex then why should Jenkins get to be in Flynn's Library and ...
He was jealous, wasn't he? He actually was. That was odd. He shouldn't be. He had the Library, he had Judson and Charlene, and Eve most of the time, and Jenkins actually did let him into the Annex, and was usually quite helpful, it was just ...
He'd been away, he'd been trying to find the Library, and they'd become this thing in the meantime, this family, and then they'd brought the Library back and suddenly he was torn between the two places. Between the two families. The Library was linked through the Annex now, but they hadn't really ... integrated the two places yet. Librarians worked alone. They always had. He'd changed that, the Library had changed that, but they were still ... working out the kinks a little bit. Which was, apparently, worrying him. Making him a little bit jealous, a little bit nervous, a little bit uneasy. He wasn't good at this sort of thing. He tended to find a groove and stay in it. The University, then the Library. He liked continuity, was the point. Change wasn't his best subject.
Which, from all evidence, was probably something he and Jenkins actually had in common. Among other things. So maybe ... Maybe Eve was right. Maybe he should start coming here more often. And maybe even ... letting them around the Library more often too. Even Jenkins. Maybe especially Jenkins.
If nothing else, at least Jenkins knew which artefacts absolutely should not be touched, and seemed to have trained the LITs not to touch his ones reasonably well.
Ugh. Why was this stuff always so difficult? People stuff. Why did it always have to be so awkward and annoying and hard.
"... Yes," Ezekiel said slowly, and Flynn came back to the present with a bump to find them all looking at him rather strangely. "I came to get Jenkins, because Jenkins is the one who doesn't believe in UFOs, and Jenkins is the one I can finally, finally prove wrong. Well. Either wrong or a liar, I'm not actually sure. It depends on if he knew about this or not."
There was a brief pause, in which Flynn thought several people were very confused, and then Jenkins stirred in that slow, careful way people had when they were about to be very, very annoyed at someone.
"Excuse me?" Jenkins asked, very politely. "What, exactly, is that supposed to mean?"
Ezekiel flashed him a smile, one hundred percent challenge and with quite a lot of smugness to go with it. Privately, Flynn credited his courage. Given Jenkins' tone, he wasn't sure he would have been quite that blasé.
"Come and see," the thief said, sticking his thumb at the door behind him, bouncing eagerly on his feet. "And be prepared to eat your words, because you're not going to explain this one away unless you come up with something really, really good."
... Oh. Oh, wait a minute. UFOs. Flynn did remember ... He actually did have an idea what this was about, now. Well, not why it was such a sore spot between Ezekiel and Jenkins, but he thought he knew what Ezekiel had been poking around with, at least. God. Charlene really was going to kill him. How the hell had Jones even managed to find the Large Collections Annex so soon? It had taken Flynn three years and Judson's help to get that far. That was ... actually rather annoying.
"I think I know what he's talking about," he managed absently. "If I'm right ... we're going to need Judson. That was always his area. He'll be able to tell us for sure, I think. Let me just ... I'll grab a mirror. Jenkins? Something portable, but not too small. He gets tetchy about surface area sometimes."
Jenkins blinked at him. "Judson," he said, slowly. And then, as realisation dawned: "Large Collections. He always was possessive of that section. I'm right, aren't I? I knew that ... You ask to take apart one little time machine, everyone gets upset. That place is better shielded than anywhere else in the Library, even if it had gone wrong we'd still have been fine. No reason whatsoever to kick me out ..."
He wandered off, muttering violently to himself while he rummaged around in drawers, and Flynn stared after him. He glanced over at the others, just to see if this was normal, but they were looking about as bemused and slightly alarmed as he was. So. Okay. Jenkins was having a small psychotic break even for him. Good to know.
"... Time machine?" Eve asked, after a moment. Her hand was hovering beside her hip, as if she'd instinctively reached for a weapon that wasn't there. "You have a time machine? Jenkins tried to take apart a time machine?"
"I actually don't know," Flynn admitted. "I think that was probably before my time, and Jenkins is right, Judson really was kind of possessive about that section. I didn't even see it until I'd been the Librarian for three years. There's ... a lot of Library I still don't know about, and even Charlene's been all squirrelly about it lately. I think something happened when they sealed the Library. I think they're still fixing it, which is why we haven't really been seeing that much of them lately."
That, and there was something weird between Charlene and Judson themselves. They were all ... secretive. Furtive, sometimes. They'd always had a bit of that, trying to protect him, or to judge when he was ready to know certain things. He'd learned more than any other Librarian short of Judson himself, Flynn thought, simply by virtue of having lasted long enough, but he always got the sense that the Library still kept a lot of itself back. The Librarians were its frontline soldiers, in charge of the outside world and the parts of it that needed to be brought into the Library. For the things further back, the things that made up the Library itself, it needed something different. People like Judson or Charlene, maybe even Jenkins. People who knew things that even the Librarians didn't, and could go rummaging about in the Library's depths while trusting the Librarians to keep the world in one piece until they got back.
Flynn had been the first Librarian to last this long in a very long time. The situation after the Library was sealed was, as far as he knew, unique in the Library's history. It seemed to be taking advantage of that. Judson seemed to be taking advantage of that.
And on the one hand, it was nice to be able to provide that for them. It felt good to be the Librarian they could trust that much. On the other, though, he was really starting to miss them a bit. He missed the way things used to be.
Like he said. He wasn't the best at personal change, alright?
"Here we go," Jenkins said triumphantly, coming back across the room with a very nice portrait-sized French mirror that he'd pulled from god-only-knew-where. "Why he can't just make do with a hand-mirror, I'll never know. It's not like we need to see more than his face."
Eve snorted. "Says the man who uses a full length mirror just to talk to us on the phone," she pointed out, and Jenkins flapped his free hand at her.
"That's different," he said. "Interfacing with mobile technology is an entirely different venture to manifesting a non-corporeal representation. The full mirror is much better aligned, and gets much better picture quality."
"Yes," Eve said patiently, while herding the lot of them through the door and into the Library in the process. "But while you could just use a phone to call, you know, our phones, Judson is an actual ghost. I think that gives him a much better excuse for how he choose to manifest, don't you?"
"Thank you, Colonel Baird," the mirror said, still tucked under Jenkins' arm, and Jenkins jerked sideways instinctively before he caught up. He snarled under his breath, and shoved the mirror pointedly at Flynn, who caught it before anything unfortunate could happen.
"... Judson?" he tried, holding the mirror in both hands and looking down at his mentor's currently rather mischievous face. "That was fast. I thought we'd have to go through the Library mirror to contact you first."
Judson shrugged, his shoulders just visible with the length of the mirror. "My ears were burning," he noted, squinting at the rest of them around the frame. "I thought I'd come and see why. Quite the party you have here, Flynn. Was there something you wanted?"
"Yes!" Ezekiel piped up, leaning over Flynn's arm to draw Judson's attention. "Hi there, uh. Ghost Librarian? How did that happen?" Judson opened his mouth, a little bewildered, but Ezekiel steamed across him. "Never mind. We need to get to the Large Collections Annex, and you need to explain to Jenkins why you have a flying saucer."
Judson blinked. "Why we have a what now?" he started, but Jenkins cut in from his other side.
"For the last time, Ezekiel," he grumbled. "UFOs do not exist. I don't know what they might have lying around down there, but whatever it is, I promise you that it is not the result of aliens!"
"It's a flying saucer," Ezekiel shot back, pointedly, and Flynn had to nod agreement there.
"Uh, I'm kind of with Ezekiel on this one," he said, hefting Judson's mirror to draw their attention. "I mean, I never asked about it, I was usually distracted at the time. But it does look pretty much exactly like a flying saucer. I ... I would have thought aliens too. Gonna admit that straight out."
"Oh, blast," Judson muttered. "You're talking about the Groom Lake reconstruction, aren't you? I knew that would come back to bite me."
Ezekiel made a noise like a kettle boiling over, and Flynn was pretty sure he wasn't the only one staring at the kid. "Groom Lake?" the thief repeated, waving his hands. "Did he say Groom Lake? Groom Lake as in Area 51?" He reared back, pointing a triumphant finger at Jenkins. "Aliens! I told you. Aliens are real, and the Library has proof! Oh my god." He slowed, his brain catching up with his mouth. "It's a flying saucer. The Library has a flying saucer. The Library is Area 51."
"Wow," Cassandra murmured quietly, looking at Jake beside her. "He really is into this, isn't he? It's kind of adorable."
"It's kind of something, alright," Jake grumbled in agreement.
"The Library is not Area 51," Jenkins growled, rubbing his temple in exasperation. "Area 51 is an experimental Air Force base, and what the hell were you doing there, Judson? When were you there, and what exactly did you pull out of it?"
"Good question," Eve cut in, looking between the rest of them like they were the biggest collection of crazy people she'd ever met in her life. Flynn would argue with that, but ... well, given the current conversation, she might have a point. "I'm actually kind of curious now myself. KGB vampires, Area 51, flying saucers? Colour me curious. Alarmed, but curious."
Judson sighed heavily. "It's not, ah. It's not that interesting a story. But, if you're all determined, I suppose we can ... Well. I suppose I can manage a little show and tell. Though, to warn the rather excitable little fellow? I'm afraid I have to agree with Jenkins here. It's not an alien spacecraft. There were no aliens involved."
"Hah!" Jenkins exclaimed, folding his arms and looking smugly in Ezekiel's direction. "I told you it wasn't. I knew Judson would back me up."
"... I work with three year olds," Eve muttered. Mostly to herself. "I don't know why this keeps surprising me. You'd think I'd have gotten used to it by now."
"Hey, I'm mature," Flynn protested, gesturing at her with the mirror and then stopping hurriedly when Judson made mildly seasick noises. "Okay. Maybe not mature. But can we at least credit me with high school rather than kindergarten, here? The thief and the thousand year old knight are the ones having a playground fight, not me. I'm just here to humour them."
"Hey!" Ezekiel and Jenkins said, in perfect and mildly eerie unison. Not proving anyone's points at all, of course not. They were kind of adorable, Flynn thought, and retained sense enough to realise he probably shouldn't say so out loud.
"... Fascinating as this discussion is," Judson started slowly, squinting out at the lot of them. "Charlene and I were somewhat in the middle of something. I'll, ah. I'll have to get back to her shortly. Do you think we could walk and talk?"
"I thought you'd never ask," Eve said, straightening the vertebrae in her neck with a click before striding forward to pluck the mirror pointedly out of Flynn's hands. "You're with me, Ghost Librarian. Flynn? Large Collections Annex, if you wouldn't mind. Anyone else who wants explanations, get in line and keep up. We're not spending all day on this."
There was a brief pause, while everyone blinked at her in mild shock and she stared back with one eyebrow raised and a 'hurry up' sort of expression on her face, and then Judson beamed brightly up at her from the mirror and said:
"I like this one, Flynn. She's definitely Guardian material."
"Thank you," Eve replied, equally bright. "Charlene said something similar. Can we go now? It's just that Jones is started to vibrate again."
"... I love you," Flynn said, without any thought at all. He raised a hand, pointing out into the depths of the Library as he set off beside her. "Large Collections, right? Walk and talk. Got it."
"Do they have to flirt in front of us?" Cassandra whispered, as the others fell into step behind him. "I mean, it's cute. He's all googly eyed. It feels kind of like watching your parents flirting, though."
"... Not where my mind was going," Jake said, sounding rather pained. "Thanks, Cassandra. Needed that image."
"What is the matter with you people?" Ezekiel cut in. He shoved ahead of them, Jenkins right behind him, and practically perched himself beside Eve's shoulder. "You've all got skewed priorities, you know that? What about the UFO? I'm going to need an explanation like, now."
"Seconded," Jenkins agreed, taking advantage of his height to glare down at Judson without crowding up against Eve quite so much. "Librarians rooting around in Groom Lake is definitely something I'd like an explanation for as well. What on Earth did they get themselves into?"
Judson grimaced faintly. "It was the 60s," he said, as if it should stand as an explanation on its own. Judging by Jenkins' expression, maybe it did.
Flynn still looked questioningly down at him anyway. Not everyone had been knocking around the Library for centuries, and people had a tendency not to answer questions around here either. If Judson was in a talkative mood, Flynn was not at all averse to taking advantage.
"The Second World War was a bad time for us," Judson explained carefully, catching the look. "It took us a while to recover afterwards. Between the Thule Gesellschaft for the Germans, the American, British and Soviet countermeasures, and a whole lot of other world powers looking for every advantage they could get, we were losing Librarians like ... Well. We, ah, we lost quite a few. More pertinently to the current conversation, we lost a lot of artefacts too, and we just didn't have the people to go and get them back. We prevented the worst of it. Put Timur's remains back where they belonged, kept the Spear of Destiny out of the wrong hands, the big things. But a lot of the smaller, less apocalyptic items, we simply had to let them go. We were dying too fast to stop them."
"It was a bad time," Jenkins agreed quietly. "Even I was getting sent out semi-regularly. For a while there, we didn't really have a Librarian, as such. We just piggy-backed missions with various militaries in the bad spots, and sent out half-way knowledgeable candidates to guide them through the worst of it. We still went through potentials like tissue paper. We had trouble hiring Guardians. Everyone remotely combat capable was usually ... otherwise engaged."
Flynn grimaced, something heavy settling in his stomach. He caught Eve's eye, something grim and quiet in her expression as well. Neither of them looked back. They carefully didn't turn to look at the three young people behind them, exactly the kind who would have gotten sent out into those bad spots, unprepared and undefended, drafted on the quick because there was no other choice. Dying. Dying by the handful. No. Neither Flynn nor Eve could manage looking back at them right now.
"... I guess that made a bit of a mess," Cassandra essayed quietly. Jenkins' expression was an eloquent response, Flynn thought. The LITs seemed to flinch a little bit, though whether in sympathy or from a sense of 'there but for the grace of god', Flynn wasn't quite sure.
"You could say that," the caretaker said shortly, but not ungently. "It only took a few decades to fix. More or less. To be honest, we're still tracking down a lot of what went missing back then."
"The Opal of Samara," Eve realised, slightly startled. "Nazi demonologists. How much stuff did they get? And why are we still here, if they had that kind of firepower?"
"Through the sacrifice of a lot of young people," Judson said, with grim dignity. "And, perhaps, the foolishness of our enemies. Many of them didn't know what they were handling, or how to deal with it. We were fortunate in many cases. In others, not so much."
There was a bit of silence after that. There kind of had to be, Flynn supposed. It was a bit of a conversational switch, after all. One moment, UFOs and dating Librarians, the next a world war and the deaths of dozens of Librarians in succession. That was a conversational swerve that took a second to bounce back from.
Though you got used to them, to an extent. The apocalypse happened every other week around here. Live it long enough, it only took you a second or two to make the curve.
"... So what did the Americans get?" Ezekiel asked. Proving Flynn's point yet again, or maybe just sticking to his own priorities with blithe determination. "What was it you were looking for in Area 51, then?"
Judson blinked, startled out of remembrance in his turn, but before he could do more than open his mouth in answer, the corridor they were taking opened up around them, and Eve, Jake and Cassandra stopped dead in their tracks. Judson closed his mouth again, smiling faintly, and Flynn reached out to gently pluck his mirror from Eve's suddenly numb hands.
They'd arrived, apparently. And Large Collections took a second to take in, even for the most jaded of Librarians.
"Is that ... is that Noah's Ark?" Eve asked, staring up at it in awe. Flynn started to answer, grinning faintly to himself, when the others cut across him in their turn.
"Are those Da Vinci's Diaries!?" Jake demanded, his eyes zeroing in on the case beside them.
"Is that a time machine?" Cassandra squeaked, staring at one of the rotating platforms in the vast cavern ahead of them. The one, incidentally, right beside the platform with what looked most definitely like a flying saucer.
Flynn blinked, but went with it gamely. "Yes to Noah's Ark," he said, smiling at Eve. "That's the first thing I noticed too. Yes to the diaries, I brought those in myself. The time machine I'm actually not sure on--"
"Yes, it is," Jenkins commented, slightly repressively, and oh. Right, yes. Flynn remembered that conversation now. So did Cassandra, apparently. She turned to look at the caretaker with wide eyes.
"That's Wells' time machine?" she asked again. "You got to examine a real time machine? Did you manage to isolate any of the principles ...?"
"No, he did not," Judson cut in grumpily. He was glaring at Jenkins, Flynn noticed. Apparently that hadn't been the only part of the conversation with merit. "We caught him in time, fortunately. And he'll be keeping his hands to himself this time, too. Charlene and I have only just locked this Library back in its right dimension, thank you. A temporal implosion in Large Collections will not be happening any time soon."
Jake blinked at him. Then he turned around, and blinked at Jenkins instead. "... You took apart a time machine," he said slowly. "I was right? You got ditched from the head office for experimenting on a time machine?" He paused, tilting his head. "Huh. That's actually kind of impressive. In a crazy sort of way."
"I didn't get ditched from the Library," Jenkins grumbled defensively. "I already had the Annex. I just wasn't allowed back into Large Collections, that's all."
"That's kind of mean," Cassandra said, looking disapprovingly at Judson. "I mean, I understand, safety first, but science is all about controlled experimentation, you know. For the chance to isolate a mechanism for time travel ... I think most scientists would be at least tempted. Don't you think banning him just for trying was a little harsh?"
Jenkins blinked at her. His expression did something complicated, something shy and startled and amazed, and then he smiled. He folded his arms across his chest, and looked back at Judson with a defiant sort of happiness about him.
"I like her," he said, blandly. "These Librarians. I like them. They have some scientific spirit about them that I think the Library has been sorely lacking these last few decades."
There was a slight pause, and then Judson looked determinedly and slightly desperately towards Flynn. Flynn blinked down at him, taken aback.
"Flynn, you understand why we don't poke the artefacts, don't you?" Judson prompted hopefully. "I understand that we need the extra support at the moment, but, ah. We do need the Library in one piece, as well. You can't ... I mean, experimentation is all very well, but ..."
He trailed off, and Flynn stared at him. At Judson, who looked tired and slightly panicked, then at Jenkins, who looked defiant and slightly guilty, and then at Eve, just because he always looked at Eve. She was looking a little defiant too, he noted. She was looking between Judson and Jenkins as well, as if she'd have to take a side, as if she would take a side if it came to it. Not just between those two, maybe. Between the Library and the Annex. Family. Two families, that they still hadn't glued together very well yet. Flynn looked at her, and realised that was a decision he really didn't want any of them to have to make.
"... I think we can trust him not to blow us up," he said at last, looking back down at Judson carefully, avoiding looking at the rest of them. "He's helped us put time itself back together not so long ago, you know? I think he can probably be trusted not to cause a temporal implosion."
His mentor raised an eyebrow. At the tone, maybe. Too serious for the issue at hand. Or at Flynn's expression, which he was guessing was more readable than he'd like it to be at the minute. Judson saw something in it. Flynn saw it happen. And then Judson, slowly and very tiredly, smiled at him.
"... You're the Librarian, Flynn," was all he said, soft and gentle. "If you want to authorise an experiment, you can. Though, ah. You can also be the one to inform Charlene about it. I reserve the right to be determinedly incorporeal at the time."
"Ah," Jenkins said. His expression was still doing that complicated thing when Flynn looked up at him, directed at Flynn himself now instead of just Cassandra, but healthy caution was beginning to edge it out. "Perhaps we should ... Ms Cillian and I already have a project at present. Perhaps we should wait for a more opportune moment before taking on a new one?"
Cassandra grimaced, and nodded hurriedly. She was a little afraid of Charlene since they'd gotten the Library back. Charlene had opinions about letting someone who'd helped the Serpent Brotherhood back into the Library, and she hadn't really gotten the chance to know Cassandra well enough to forgive her yet. She'd gone with it on Flynn's recommendation, since Flynn had been the one who'd gotten stabbed at the time, and the one Cassandra had accepted a death sentence to heal, but things ... were a bit uncomfortable between Charlene and Cassandra still. Or a lot uncomfortable.
In hindsight, possibly there was a reason that Ezekiel had been the first of them to really brave the Library solo. People. People were always so difficult. Books, even artefacts, were a thousand times easier.
And, speaking of Ezekiel ...
"Okay!" the thief exclaimed, elbowing his way pointedly back into the centre of their little circle. He moved so that Jenkins and Cassandra were at his back, Flynn noted idly. He stole attention away from them rather neatly, and perhaps more than a little protectively. "So the time machine is scheduled for the second date. Can we please get back to the flying saucer now? You know, that one right over there? Because I still haven't heard an explanation, and if Area 51 is involved then I really, really want one. Sometime today?"
Thank you, Ezekiel Jones, Flynn thought, with real fondness. If there was anyone to cut through awkward personal moments, it was Jones.
"... Ahem. Yes. Ah, certainly?" Judson managed, and Flynn was beginning to think that Judson wasn't very used to all these people at once any more. One or two at a time, maybe even three. A Librarian, a Guardian and Charlene. But six at once? Probably more than he'd had to handle for a while, and it was showing a bit. "Where did I leave you?"
"World War II," Cassandra prompted shyly. She'd shrunk a little bit, and moved closer to Jenkins. She hadn't given up, though. "You lost a lot artefacts, you were saying, and the Americans had gotten some of them?"
"Yes," Judson sighed, looking tired and very rumpled. His reflection shrank a little in its turn. "We spent a lot of the 40s and 50s trying to clean up after the war, and trying to steal back a lot of what had ended up in the hands of various militaries. I had some connections from the war itself--" He'd been a marine at some point, Flynn remembered abruptly. Or pretended to be one. Or just said he'd been one. Maybe this was why. "I got word that someone out at Groom Lake had been continuing work on Vril superweapons. Apparently they'd managed to keep a copy of Johannes Täufer's unedited text, and notes from the examination of one of the Foo Fighters the RAF shot down ..."
"Foo fighters?" Eve interrupted incredulously. "Like the rock band? Okay, I'm getting better at the kind of sentences you have to say in this job, but 'foo fighters' can not be a real word. Nope. Not happening."
"They were a type of UFO seen during WWII," Ezekiel explained, eyeing Judson avidly. "Mostly over Germany, some over the Pacific. They were thought to be a German superweapon, or a Japanese one, or someone's superweapon. Which, apparently, might not be far wrong?"
"They were early attempts at using Vril energy to power machines, yes," Judson agreed. "They were mostly the efforts of one of the smaller occult societies, the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft, and they didn't work very well. They flew, and some of them managed to hit things, but that was about it. Fortunately for everyone. Vril energy, when actually harnessed correctly, can be ..."
"Anywhere between city and continent destroying," Flynn finished grimly. "The Vril-ya were the ones who sank Atlantis, weren't they? Their weapons were a match for Atlantean superscience. Someone got hold of that?"
"The beginnings of it," Judson said, only slightly more cheerfully. "Only the beginnings, though. Tapping Vril energy is one of the trickier interdimensional feats, and while we were worried about the success of the Foo Fighters, they weren't effective enough for either the Library or any of the major powers to focus on them during the war. There were a lot of faster and equally powerful artefacts that could be gotten hold of. Waiting for human scientists to translate scattered texts and one or two Vril-ya artefacts into something useful wasn't a priority for anyone. At least, we thought so. Then, after the war, the UFO sightings started happening ..."
"You know," Ezekiel said, sort of dreamily, "I can't decide if this is the best thing I've ever heard, or if I'm crushed right now. You need to explain. Who are Vril-ya, and why are they different from aliens? How did you steal a UFO? You did steal it, right? You went into Area 51 and stole a UFO. That's what this is leading up to, isn't it?"
"... The Vril-ya were one of the original races," Jenkins said, while Judson mostly blinked at Ezekiel in bemusement. "Like the fae, or the dragons. They were thought to be a subterranean race, but really it was that the gateways to their realm were underground. Vril energy is ... There are actually a number of theories on that. A lot of people think that it's an extra-dimensional echo of our magic, its mirror image in another realm. It's considered that they may have held their grudge against the Atlanteans because of that. Atlantis was one of the first technological cities to tap into the ley lines, disrupting the flow of magic across the world. It's thought the Vril-ya may have objected to that. Very strongly."
"Understatement," Jake commented. "As objections go, wiping an entire island nation and its population off the map is a bit ... I'm not sure strong is the word, here."
"Wait," Cassandra murmured. "But the disruption of the ley lines and the diminishing of magic has been happening for centuries now, hasn't it? If they objected to that, why didn't they ...?"
"Come back and do an Atlantis on the rest of the world?" Jenkins asked. Rather mildly, really. The man could be alarmingly cheerful about those sorts of questions. "If the Vril energy was diminished at a pace with our magic, it's possible that they simply couldn't. They have to pull the energy into our dimension in the first place, which automatically weakens it. Atlantis was overwhelmed by a single unexpected attack, which had probably been prepared for for some time. A second feat would take time to build up, and if the magic and the Vril energy were depleting all the time, they probably just didn't have both the time and the force simultaneously."
"Which," Ezekiel started slowly. "Which would be why humans releasing a bunch of magic back into the system with an occult arms race and then mucking around with Vril energy at the same time might not be a good idea ...?"
"We did have that thought too," Judson agreed, about as mild as Jenkins was. "Mostly we just didn't want people opening gates into the Vril-ya realms trying to tap the energy, and we also didn't want them channelling the energy into superweapons to restart the wars in our realm either. Which was why I went to investigate Groom Lake when several colleagues involved in Projects Sign and Blue Book contacted me in '61."
"... Am I dreaming?" Ezekiel asked, semi-seriously. "The Foo Fighters were real, the Americans tried reconstructing them after the war, the Library has one, which you stole from Area 51, and now you're telling me you were involved with Blue Book as well? You know you're every ufologist's dream, right? Or nightmare. I'm still not sure. Who are you, and how the hell are you still a secret?"
Flynn and Judson looked at each other. Flynn felt his mouth twitch, and saw his mentor's doing the same. Because there was only one answer to that, wasn't there? And the rest of them really should have realised it by now ...
"Librarians," they said, brightly and simultaneously, and Flynn grinned happily down at the mirror in the process. God, he'd missed Judson. He'd missed him so much.
"The Library does rather specialise in powerful secrets that could potentially destroy the world," Jenkins pointed out amiably. "Sooner or later we tend to end up involved in most strange occurrences. Individual Librarians may only encounter a fraction of it, but the Library itself remembers a lot more. Something you might remember, the next time you decide to wander around unsupervised, hmm?"
"... This has been an informative day," Colonel Baird said softly, from where she'd been standing on the sidelines. And it was Colonel Baird, Flynn realised distantly, turning to look at her. It was the Colonel more than Eve. She was shaking her head, that same expression on her face that had been there when he'd fallen out of a sewer in Berlin and started babbling about Teutonic Knights and zombie armies, all those months ago. Distant, incredulous disbelief, and the beginnings of a rueful acceptance behind it.
The Library never stopped hitting you like that. Even eleven years on, it was hitting Flynn like that. Eve and the LITs were way, waaay behind him there.
"Colonel Baird?" Jenkins asked, somewhat cautiously. She shook her head, smiling faintly at him. That didn't seem to reassure him much.
"Nothing," she said, reaching up to grip her chin in her head, like she wanted to crack her neck again. "It's nothing. This day started with Flynn complaining about Portland, you know? And then KGB vampires and Nazi UFOs happened. With some time machines thrown in for good measure. It's been an informative day, that's all. Very ... Very informative."
There was a little silence after that, while various people shuffled uneasily and avoided looking at each other, and then Cassandra piped up, entirely earnestly and a little bit out of the blue:
"What's wrong with Portland?"
Flynn blinked at her for a second. He looked over at Eve, who looked back with the same blank, startled expression, and then with a smile, small and secret and vague. Something bubbled up in Flynn's chest. That strange feeling, that he just about remembered.
"... Nothing," he said, still watching Eve. "Actually, I was thinking I should start spending more time there. On days when there's nothing apocalyptic happening, maybe? It'd only be fair, if Ezekiel's going to be raiding my Library for UFOs, or Jenkins and Cassandra are going to be taking time machines apart in Large Collections." He looked down at Judson, blinking up at him from the silvered glass between his hands. "You and Charlene could come by too, Judson. You could do that creepy possession thing you do sometimes, get out and enjoy some fresh air?"
"... Possession?" Ezekiel asked, looking more than a little alarmed. "Ghost Librarian possesses people now?"
"Flynn, I'm not certain that ..." Judson tried, and then apparently gave up. He shrugged, still with only his head and shoulders visible in the mirror, and tried a small smile. "Well. Maybe Charlene could ... Maybe she could use some company that isn't dead, yes. Using the hall of doors to access her apartment isn't the same, now that you're all in Portland. And maybe, once we get things stabilised a little more, I might have the energy for a temporary manifestation or two. Maybe. We'll, ah. We'll think about it, alright?"
Flynn looked around him. Five faces, with expressions ranging from the bemused to the long-suffering to the curious to the warm, and the face in the mirror between his hands, tired and rumpled and familiar. Families. Families worth keeping, and families worth putting together, and people worth putting a little effort into, no matter how difficult that turned out to be. He looked around, and then he smiled, wry and happy.
"Sounds good to me, Judson," he said softly. "Sounds like a plan."
A/N: Just for reference, if anyone else wants to end up not precisely sane, here are some Wikipedia links:
UFOs & WWII: Foo Fighters, Vril Energy, Project Sign, Project Blue Book, Groom Lake, Thule Gesellschaft, the curse of Timur's tomb, Otto Rahn (I didn't use him in the story, but he's a WWII Grail Hunter reluctantly working for Heinrich Himmler - I was wondering about Jenkins in WWII).
Random extras: armillary spheres, Tycho Brahe. Judson claiming to have been a marine is from 'Quest for the Spear', and Atlantean superscience is mentioned in the second episode when Flynn pulls out Isaac Newton's text in the Annex. I just randomly smushed that together with the Vril-ya from the Nazi occult UFOs, because at this point why not? Heh.
You can tell why Librarians is my kind of show, can't you? *grins sheepishly*
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