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Chapter Text

As he was doing laps in the Harvard pool he thought, ‘This is sort of like flying’. After all, there is a slight weightless feeling as you glide through the water turning gracefully when you’ve reached the end of the lane.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he looked to the side and saw a man walk by with a briefcase with a Vatican symbol on the clasp.

He watched the end of the lane and broke the surface with a gasp of air. “Shouldn’t you be at the Vatican?” He asked as soon as he got his breath back. “Excuse me?” The man asked with a smooth Italian accent. “The Vatican. The symbol of cross keys on the clasp of your briefcase, it’s the symbol for the Vatican.” “Very good professor.” He said, “The reason I am here is because I need you to come with me to the Vatican.”

“Excuse me? I was expecting another letter if anything.” Robert replied. “I’m sorry?” The man asked. “A letter. In response to my request for access to your archives. I've been denied all seven times I've asked." Robert told him. "Oh, ah. Well, that is not why I'm here. I was in New York and I got a call to 'Find Robert Langdon'. I was told to show you this. They said you would know what this is." He said this while taking out a piece of paper out of his briefcase. As Robert got out of the pool, he was handed the paper and when he looked down he was shocked. "This... this is the sign of the Illuminati," he said. "Where did you get this?" he asked.

"That was document was sent to the Vatican a little while ago, Mr. Langdon, along with a threat to the very church itself. I was told to find you so you could help us discover what is happening . With the pope newly dead and the Vatican being filled with people because of Conclave, we can barely keep track of who is coming in and out. We need your help, Mr. Langdon. Will you come?" the Italian man asked.

"Yes, yes I will," Robert answered. "If you'll allow me, we can go back to my house, I need to pack a bag and get a few things squared away before I go."

"Of course, I have a car. I can take you." The man said.

They arrived at his house shortly, it being only fifteen minutes away from the campus. Roberts let them both into the house, and told the man, who's name he learned was Claudio Vincenzi, to make himself at home. He made his way into his bedroom and paused, 'Please Mother, please tell me what I am doing is right.' Robert prayed. 'I know you decreed non-interference, but I cannot help but be pulled towards this. Forgive me, Mother.'

But as usual, there was no answer, only silence.

He sighed. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting. A sign maybe, that this was the right course of action. But there had been none. There had been no signs at all since the Great Falling. No one had heard anything from Her since the Great Fall. No orders, no miracles. Nothing. He could not help but feel disheartened. He was not sure that he should carry on. But he had given his word, and so he must. He finished packing, called his boss and told him that he was taking leave, and then called his neighbor, Professor Allen Dennings, who taught anthropology a few doors down from him, to ask if he could feed his cat, Egeria, while he was gone. 

Once that had all been sorted out, he went to join Vincenzi in the living room with his case in hand. 

"I've got everything sorted and a someone to feed my cat while I'm gone. If you'll give me a moment to say goodbye, we can be on our way." he said, putting his case down and bending over to say goodbye to his cat.

"Of course, Professor." Vincenzi responded.

After giving his cat a bit more love and a big goodbye kiss, Roberts grabbed his case and started towards the door.

"We can go. Thank you for waiting." he told the Italian.

"Of course."

And with that, they left. The quiet click of the door the only signal of their absence.

Chapter Text

'Well,' he thought, 'This could be much worse.'

And it truly could be worse.

After all, he shouldn't technically be standing in the walls of Vatican City, let alone the Basilica. Though, he shouldn't be quite so surprised. He was cosmically more powerful than the force that had forced him out of the city. It was really only his respect for the man's decision that had kept him away much longer than the spell had actually worked. Although he did go to the man's funeral. They had been friends. In the beginning anyway.

He stared, at what had once been a temple to his very being in shock.

Physically it looked the same, but he could feel the darkness that had swept in and made a home in his absence. It filled all the dark corners and the nook and crannies where the lights never went.

He quickly hid his shock at what had become of his once glorious temple and resolved to fix this once the disaster that was happening was over.

He was quickly led to the Swiss guard offices where he was introduced to Commander Richter.

He wasn't impressed.

Richter was competent and good at what he did, but he could tell that if given the chance, Richter wouldn't hesitate to run him through with one of the swords held in the armory. He was almost tempted to show himself as his truest form. Just so he could see the look on Richter's face. He wouldn't, though. He had more self control than that.

After a very tense conversation, in which the idea of an 'Antimatter' bomb was brought up and just as quickly pushed away, Robert and the woman that had been there before he arrived, Vittoria, he thinks her name is, were taken to meet the Camerlengo and discuss further what is going on.

When he is led into the Papal office, his former office, he pauses momentarily. Taking in the feeling of generations of imprints left by Popes. Then he noticed the overlaying feeling of mourning.

He knew that feeling well.

He looked over towards the source of the feeling and was shocked. There was the most handsome man he had ever seen before. Even with the weariness in the man's eyes and weight on his shoulders, he was still a sight to behold.

When the man looked up and caught Robert's eye, he paused, and his eyes got just the slightest bit brighter, though neither of them knew why.

They didn't know each other, had never met before this, but there was a familiarity shining in those eyes. As if they had known each other their whole lives.

Then the moment was broken, by Commander Richter and the others that had accompanied them here.

As the conversation wore on, and after several failed attempts at speech where he just stuttered or stared at the Camerlengo, who’s name he learned to be Patrick, he was really cute could you blame him, he learned two things, he blocked out everything else.

1. There was an Anti-Matter bomb, big enough to blow up all of Vatican city to less than ashes
2. Silvano Bentivoglio was dead

The first point was very very concerning. You see, Robert had been around for a very long time and had, rather recently, gotten a PhD in Physics. Admittedly when he said recently, he meant more than fifty years ago. But he kept himself up to date with journals and papers, and every couple of years he would take a refresher class. But just after getting his degree, he went to work for the Swiss government, because that was where he had been living at the time, and a few years after that, he started working at CERN, specializing on the breakdown of particles under radioactive pressure.

Which brought him to his next point.

Silvano Bentivoglio was dead.

While he was working at CERN he had taken a new scientist under his wing, so to speak. The scientists' name had been Silvano Bentivoglio. He had been new and ambitious, with dreams that he might somehow be able to scientifically prove that god really existed. 

Silvano had known better than to outright say that. He was a priest as well as a scientist, he didn't want to break the fragile trust some of the other scientist had put in him. But he and Silvan had slowly gotten closer and Silvano had slowly opened up about what he wanted to prove.

In return for this trust and a little more over the years. He had slowly opened up about himself and when he was finally ready, told Silvano about his true self. The scientist that had slowly become a son to him had just shaken his head and told him that he had already suspected something like this, because, in his words, 'there was just something too odd for this world'. That had shocked him and their bond had only grown stronger.

Then he had had to leave.

After a while it would slowly become obvious that Robert wasn't aging like normal. When he had started at CERN, he should have been in his mid forties. By the time he left, he would have been around seventy-eight. So Robert had to leave before that happened so people wouldn't get suspicious of him. 

He didn't have a retirement party, but he and Silvano had sat on the roof and watched the stars, talking and living in the moment. He had promised to call whenever he could, he had promised. He had pro missed to watch over his son, to make sure he was safe. He had promised.

And he broke that promise.

It didn't matter that it wasn't his fault, that even though he was an Angel he could be everywhere or keep track of everything. What mattered was that his son was dead. What mattered was that his son died alone, after Roberts had promised to keep him safe, promised to watch over him.

But that promise didn't matter anymore. 

And as that thought, sunk into Robert Langdon, the Archangel Raphael, the Angel of healers and travelers mind, he found that he couldn't process it. 

Millenia he had been alive. He had seen some of the worst things in human history, he had fought in some of their worst wars, and here he was. Unable to process the death of one man. Never mind that that man had been all but his son, he should be able to move on. He had seen countless die, had held many in his arms as they died.

He couldn't hear anything, he realized, as he watched them all continue their conversation around him. All he could hear was a ringing. Like church bells in a cathedral. 

He wanted to scream.

He wanted to cry, wanted to rage against the world for taking his son, for making his son die scared and alone.

But all he could do was stand, silently, and pray and plead for his son's forgiveness.