AN: This new installment in my ongoing Oblivion story will be a flashback episode. Some unexplained details from Episode 1, "The New Kid," will be explained, but the connections will not be obvious to those who have not read Episode 1. Therefore, reading my first two stories in order is not required - although I do recommend it.

Enjoy.

Episode 2 - Both Sides of the Story

Chapter 1

Braig Bidos stopped rifling through the kitchen cabinets in his fruitless search for edibles. He was hungry, and being locked underground for five days with a very limited food supply had not helped matters at all. He would have kept going if not for the fact that his phone was ringing. So he answered it.

"Mr. Nemo? Is that you?" Braig's voice was gravelly, due to an industrial accident almost twenty years earlier.

"Braig." Ansem was short and to the point. "The police came looking for you. They had evidence."

"Well, why worry, Ansem? They'll never find me, or make any connection between you and my disappearance."

"You never know," Ansem said. "They almost undid everything with this one. Someone gave them a picture of you and me getting out of the car together...six days ago. You know what that could mean."

"Hey, relax," Braig said. "It's me they want, not you. I'm the one who has to be careful here. All you have to do is buy the police and you're golden. But for me...it'll be a miracle if they stop looking."

Braig could sense Ansem smiling to himself in his office. "I can most certainly arrange that," Ansem said.

"Thanks a lot," Braig replied.

Braig was about to hang up when Ansem spoke up again. "Wait a minute. Braig...how did you get this call? Where are you?"

"I'm sorry!" Braig cried. "I know you told me to stay in the lab, but your crazy wife hasn't gotten the food yet, and I was getting hungry."

"Just get back underground," Ansem grumbled. "Don't come out again until I say it's safe. I'm pretty sure you don't want to be caught." He hung up, leaving Braig looking at the phone with some apprehension. Hurriedly, he shut the cabinet doors, then closed his eyes. When he re-opened them, he was inside the small break-room type space next to Ansem's underground lab. But no food. Dammit. He kicked the chair in frustration.

-September 1977-

-Summerside, California-

Braig Bidos, age nine, gazed fearfully at the front entrance to Chapman Elementary, where his mother had just dropped him off for his first day in a new school. He walked up to the door, which was pushed open right in his face by a pair of rude bullyboys trying to make themselves look tough with big red jackets and blue jeans, like mini-James Deans.

"Aww yeah, buddy, look at the fresh meat!" yelled one, knocking Braig to the ground.

"Not much meat there, actually," said the other. "I guess we could feast on the bones, though."

Braig wriggled helplessly under the two boys' arms, until another voice, not nearly as deep as those of the bullies, rang out from the door: "Hey! Leave him alone! What'd he do to you, huh?"

The two boys backed away. "All right, wizard-nerd," said the first one. "Don't put a spell on us."

"Yeah," said his friend. "Pick on someone your own size!" They left, and the third boy - a short, bespectacled silver-blond one - walked out and offered his hand to Braig, who took it and pulled himself up.

"Sorry about that," he said. "Those guys'll pick on anyone new."

Braig sighed. "Guess every school has some of those."

"Tell me about it," said the boy, whose eyes - Braig had just noticed - were piercingly dark red. Like he was an albino or something. "Hey, whose class are you in?"

Braig looked at the card his mother had put in his pocket. "Uh...Mrs. Simon's class."

The boy smiled. "Great! That's my class too, she's one of the best teachers in the school. Come on, you're gonna have a lot more fun now the bullies are out of the way."

Braig hurried in after the boy, who stopped, turned to him, and said, "By the way, what's your name?"

"Braig. Braig Bidos."

The boy said, "You'll have to write that down for me, 'cause there's no way I can possibly spell that."

"How 'bout your name?" asked Braig.

The boy paused before answering, "Ansem Nemo."

Braig smiled and shook Ansem's hand. "A name I can actually spell. Lucky you." They walked into the building together, the glass door shutting with a surprisingly loud bang.