"Mr. Beilschmidt, we are very happy to have you here today."

Ludwig smiled nervously at the instructor, rubbing the back of his neck with his palm. The institute had called him yesterday, asking him to volunteer for an experiment they were running. "What was it I signed up to do today?"

"You'll find out soon." The man gestured for Ludwig to follow him, down a long gleaming corridor.

"I'm Vash Zwingli, you can call me Vash." The man said solemnly, "I'm glad that you signed up for this, we don't usually get volunteers these days."

"Anything for science." Ludwig sighed. "Where are we going?"

"Just a testing area." Vash made a right turn and unlocked one of the many doors spanning the hallway. "Here we go."

Ludwig entered the room, examining what lay within. A large desk, topped with a strange box of sorts. Another desk, with the same box, pushed to the back of the room. A piece of paper on the first table. A large glass window, revealing another room.

"Sit down here, please." Vash pulled out a chair for him, his eyes cold. Ludwig carefully sat down, watching the strange box intently. Vash pushed the paper on the desk towards him, pulling a pen from his pocket. "Sign this, please. Just a temporary precaution, you know, it's required." Ludwig scribbled his signature on the paper in a loopy scrawl. Vash tucked it away in another pocket and gestured to the strange box.

"This is a machine that controls a direct electric current." Vash pointed to a row of knobs and buttons. "These buttons increase the current by fifteen volts." Ludwig nodded.

"We're going to bring in a volunteer. He'll have to answer 30 questions that we're going to ask him. Every time he answers a question wrong, you'll press this button here to administer an electric shock. Here, put this on your finger."

Vash strapped a small electrode to Ludwig's finger and pressed a red button. A powerful shock pulsed through his body, causing him to emit a (extremely manly) shriek. "That is the weakest setting. The highest setting is 450 volts."

Ludwig was starting to have second thoughts about this, for something about the procedure seemed vaguely familiar, but he thought it would be fine. These scientists knew what they were doing, right?

"Understand?" "Yes, I do." Vash smiled, a small smirk, and rapped on the glass window a few times. "You can come in now."

A young man with bouncy brown hair and warm, honey gold eyes skipped into the room, smiling brightly. "Oh, Luddy! Hello!"

"F-Feli?" Ludwig's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. He was supposed to forcibly give electric shocks to his...well, his silly schoolgirl crush? His eyes slid over towards the door, wondering if he could make a break for it. Vash saw him, however, and went to lock the door.

"Let us begin."

Ludwig, sensing malicious intentions, sighed, and watched as Feli strapped several electrodes to his fingers. He smiled, and mentioned for Luddy to go on. "I'll be fine!"

Ludwig coughed. "Question one: five plus five."

"Ten!"

Ludwig smiled. "Good job. Question two: ten plus thirty."

"Forty!"

Things continued well until the tenth question. "Question ten: Four hundred and fifty divided by three."

"U-uh..." Feli chewed on his lip, thinking. "Two hundred?"

Luddy looked at the answer sheet and winced. "No. One hundred and fifty" Feli's face fell. For the first time, Ludwig noticed how tired he looked. There were bags under his eyes, and his cheeks were slightly hollowed.

"Go ahead, Luddy. I know." Ludwig pressed the button, watching Feliciano's face contort into an expression of pain, but then jolt back into his tired smile. "Hopefully that will be the last one, si?"

Sadly, Feli's prediction was incorrect. He messed up more and more often as the questions got harder and harder, and before long they had reached the second to last setting, Feli getting more and more frazzled as electricity starting to break his psyche little by little.

Especially when the questions started to change.

"How many living relatives do you have that you know of?"

"One brother. I don't r-really know of anybody else. Lovi's boyfriend is kind of like a big brother to me, and Luddy's really nice!"

A blush formed on his cheek, and Vash didn't make any moves of dissent, so Ludwig assumed this question was correct. However, when he saw the next question, he wanted to melt into a puddle right there.

"What are your feelings for Ludwig Beilschmidt?" Feliciano's cheeks blossomed into two pink peaches, his fingers twitching. "U-um, I really like him. A-a lot." He gritted his teeth. "Like, boyfriend like."

Ludwig swallowed heavily. Vash smirked in the background, but made no move to say to shock him.

"How do you know these answers are true?"

"Low-level polygraph in the electrodes. Keep going."

"I don't want to." Ludwig stood up, letting the questions drift to the floor. Vash cocked an eyebrow. "You must. You signed up for this. So did Feli. He knew the risks."

"Can you at least take control of the electricity? I don't want my bias to ruin the experiment." Ludwig picked up the question sheet and sat back down. Vash nodded, turning to the box. "Keep going."

Ludwig looked at Feli. His eyes were watering, but he nodded.

"Did you volunteer for this?"

"No."

"Did they take your brother before this?"

"Yes." Feli winced, tears rolling down his cheeks. Ludwig wanted to go to him, to wipe his tears and tell him it would all be okay. Instead, he looked down at the paper, studying the last question.

"Is Ludwig going to have to do this?"

"N-no."

Zap.

Feli's body slumped, his eyes glazed over. A small smile graced his lips, one of sadness and pity. Eyelids lowered, electrodes still strapped to his fingers. Ludwig thought he looked like a doll, a beautiful wilted flower.

"This is the time where you tell me it was all an act, right?" Ludwig seethed, suddenly remembering how this seemed familiar. "He's just pretending."

"Ah, I see you've heard of the Milgram experiment." Vash smiled, pulling a drawer open from the desk he was sitting at. "Yes, normally it would only be an act. However, this was to test a different outcome."

Vash stood, snapping a pair of iron handcuffs open. "This was to test how far people would go to save a loved one. So far, nobody has taken the extra distance." Ludwig stood up, backing up against the desk. Vash just continued to approach, clicking the handcuffs back and forth between his palms. "Y-you can't do this."

"Technically, you agreed to volunteer for this experiment. This is a part of the experiment. You cannot refuse." Vash pulled out the carefully folded paper and showed it coldly to Ludwig. "This puts you under our complete control."

Ludwig realized he was right, and held out his wrists helplessly. I'm going to die.

"Don't be so scared." Vash snapped the cuffs around his wrists. "It's for science. This way please."

Feli's half lidded, doll eyes watched Ludwig as he was led away from the dreaded room. A single tear glistened on his lifeless cheek, still unabsorbed by the cold skin and glinting like a diamond.

...

"Okay, you can come in now."

Roderich watched as Ludwig walked slowly into the room and sat down, smiling a tired smile. He attached the electrodes to his fingers silently and stared with an empty smile into the window.

"Let us begin."

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