He only remembered waking once and only because his mouth was dry, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and his throat feeling like it was on fire. In that brief moment of consciousness he was aware his hands and feet had gone numb and he could hear the soft whirring of a mechanical nature underneath him - he was bent at the waist with something hard digging into his gut and the blood had rushed to his head as well.

Engineer wasn't certain at what point he'd blacked out again after that but when he came to he was sitting upright in a plush desk chair, a loose cord looped under his arms and across his chest holding him mostly upright. As he slowly lifted his head off his own shoulder, blinking blearily, he realized his goggles and hat were gone and so was his glove, belt, and the knee guards he typically wore; he was down to just his overalls, boots, and shirt, and left sitting tied to a chair in an empty room.

Where the heck was he? And more importantly, where was the damn robot that'd brought him here?

He went to lift a hand to his face and found he was tied at the wrists to the arms of the chair - tied far tighter than the loop holding him upright - and an experimental shifting of his legs revealed his ankles were similarly bound.

The room he was in was almost entirely empty, the floor beneath his feet bare concrete and the walls paneled in old dingy gray particle board. Above his head hanging from short lengths of slender chains screwed to the ceiling were shop lights, the kind with the bulbs the length of your arm, their harsh white light giving his surroundings a fairly dismal look - he had the strangest impression of one of those interrogation rooms one saw in B-rated cop movies.

With a grunt Engineer sat up a bit straighter to get a look behind him; on the wall directly behind him was the door and this room had no windows, and aside from him and the chair there wasn't another damn thing in here.

His mouth was still horribly dry and swallowing hurt but he kept working his tongue, trying to coax some saliva production and get some moisture in his mouth as he shifted to look forward again.

There was no telling where he was or how long he'd been out, and he knew the odds of help coming was stupidly slim...the fact that he'd awakened at all was very surprising and he felt he should be trying to prepare for whatever was about to come next, even if he had no idea how he could prepare for anything in the state he was in.

Behind him he heard the click of a lock turning, then heard the door open as well as two sets of footsteps approaching.

"Ah, Mr. Conagher, it is good to see you've awakened. Do pardon the state of the room - this is not where I instructed my creation to place you."

Again he twisted to look behind him, his mouth going slightly agape as he took in the man walking toward him.

He was of average height, with black hair cut short and neatly combed and held in place with some sort of hair product that made his hair gleam under the lighting. His beard was groomed and shined much like his hair did; a large nose sat above a wide mouth, the jaw was squared, and the eyes were set a tad too far apart in relation to the rest of his features.

The man had been older looking the last time Engineer had seen him but more importantly he had been dead, his body vivisected, one of his eyes punctured and leaking - he could almost superimpose the image of the corpse over that of the man as he approached.

Zane smiled as he came around the chair, Engineer turning his head to warily track the man's movement. "You look as though you've seen a ghost, Mr. Conagher."

"I think I just have," Engineer replied after a moment. "I'm pretty damn sure I saw what was left of you burnt to a crisp and thrown in a ditch."

God damn...he knew he'd seen Zane dead, he knew it. He'd watched with a great deal of satisfaction as their Pyros had lit the man's remains up like a bonfire. How the hell...

...the machine...

The realization must have shown on his face as Zane flashed him a knowing smile.

"Yes, I was quite dead...and now I am not, and we both know why if I'm not mistaken."

"How? I saw your damn research, I saw your notes and schematics. That thing ain't possible."

Zane tapped a finger against his temple. "You saw only what I had written down, and admittedly I was not the soundest of mind when I did so. The key to most of my creations is still here...excuse me, where are my manners."

Engineer stiffened as the man reached into his suit jacket and removed a simple pocket knife, prying the blade out from the handle and bending to neatly saw through the cord around Engineer's left wrist. A moment later and Engineer's right wrist was freed as well, and he found himself staring silently up at Zane as the man offered him the pocket knife handle-first.

"I think it would be easier if you got your own ankles," Zane said, smiling.

Engineer carefully closed fingers around the knife, then glanced behind him; the chrome-trimmed robot that had ambushed him at the base was standing still and silent behind the chair, its hands clasped behind its back.

"I hope this show of trust is not misplaced. I wish to keep this friendly, Mr. Conagher, but do not doubt my dear creation here shall move to stop you should you think to harm me with that little blade," Zane said into the pause.

Engineer chose not to comment and bent to free his ankles, sitting up to see Zane holding out a hand patiently for the knife; he flipped the blade back into the handle and handed it over, Zane slipping it back into whatever pocket he'd removed it from.

"Now, I believe formal introductions are in order. My name is Ebenniah Zane, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"You seem to already know my name," Engineer said, glancing between the man's face and the hand that was thrust at him. "And, sorry, but I'm not exactly willing to shake hands."

Zane nodded. "Yes, understandable, considering our history. Please, if you would follow me, let us move to more comfortable surroundings. Again I apologize, I instructed my Elite here to place you somewhere safe and secure." The man paused, looking over Engineer's head to the robot with a frown. "It seems it took the 'secure' part a bit too literally. Come this way, if you would."

Engineer stayed where he was as Zane stepped around him and began striding back the way he'd come, pausing at the door and looking back expectantly at him. Seeing no other option at the current Engineer stood and followed, pausing when the Spybot did not move to follow the man; they stared one another down for several silent minutes, until Engineer grit his teeth and stepped through the door, the Spybot falling in behind him.

He kept glancing over his shoulder to the Spybot at his back. "What are you playing at here, exactly?"

"I will discuss my business with you when we are both comfortably seated. Rest assured, I intend for you to walk away from this alive."

The hall wasn't long; they passed four closed doors, two on each side, before Zane pushed open a fifth and stepped aside, gesturing for Engineer to enter. "Please, seat yourself. Do you require anything to drink?"

"...water," Engineer said quietly. "Seems being throttled works up a thirst."

"Yes, I can imagine. Bring our guest some water," Zane added, looking at the Spybot. The robot nodded and stepped out of Engineer's line of sight as he stepped into the room.

This room wasn't as bare bones as the one they'd just left but it wasn't much more either - a plain desk, two chairs, no windows, a thin brown carpet under their feet, and the same style of shop light fixture in the middle of the ceiling.

Engineer pointedly pulled his shoulder away as Zane clapped a hand on it; the man sniffed at that but stepped around him, moving to sit down behind the desk. "Please. We have much to discuss."

"Unless we're discussing putting you back into a grave, I don't think we've got much to talk about."

Zane offered him a thin smile. "On the contrary, Mr. Conagher, I believe you'll find our discussion to be one of great interest. Please, sit."

Those last few words were delivered with the weight of a polite order; Engineer glanced behind him as the door shut - likely the Spybot's doing - and then, not seeing much else he could do, stomped over to drop into the chair across from the man. "Let's get right to the point then. I don't like wasting time."

"And I'd believe it," Zane chuckled. He leaned back in his chair, his elbows resting on the chair's arms, his fingertips pressed together and held just beneath his chin. "I have done my research on your family, Mr. Conagher - you come from a long and proud line of intellectuals."

Engineer's eyes narrowed slightly. "Yes, I do. And you'd better stay away from them if you have any sense."

Zane patted the air, clucking his tongue. "Your hostility is misplaced, I have no desire to hurt your family - or you, for that matter. My interest in you is part personal, as one scientific man to another, and partly an unfortunate situation."

Engineer crossed his arms and leaned into the chair's back. "I'm hearing nothing but a dang fool circling a point."

Zane's expression very briefly showed a flicker of annoyance before he recovered. "It is quite simple, Mr. Conagher - I have a history with your employer, one full of deceit, betrayal, and personal tragedy. All I'm wanting is you and your team out of my way."

"Out of your way."

"Yes, out of my way - safely out of my way, in fact. I do not intend to kill any of you if I can help it. I understand I was quite a bit brutal before regaining my sanity...I do not intend to use such tactics again, or harm you and your fellows unless I am forced to defend myself. Do you understand?"

"So you kidnapped me to keep me from emptying a clip in your head."

Zane frowned. "A barbaric way of putting it but yes, and also with an aim to enlist your help in convincing your team to stand down. I want to make it very clear: I do not want to kill you. My target is Helen, your Administrator. I mean to strip away her defenses and put the miserable old hag out of my misery."

Engineer snorted. "Not buying it, sorry."

"Come now, surely you can see the gain in all of this - simply agree to step aside, convince your team to do the same, and you all walk away alive, free to direct your lives as you wish. You cannot tell me the thought doesn't appeal to you - you're an intelligent man, after all. And, to that end..."

Zane combed fingers through his beard, pausing to stare up toward the light above them. Engineer stayed staring straight ahead at him; was this guy serious? After everything he'd done, he honestly thought-

"Imagine, if you would, what your intellect combined with mine could achieve."

Coupled with the absurdity of the situation that comment had Engineer bursting into laughter. "You're seriously - you nab me off my base, feed me a line of bullshit, and then want me to, what, work for you? That's where this conversation's going? For someone claiming to have re-acquired their sanity you're sure spouting some crazy nonsense, boy."

Zane smiled at him, one that was thin-lipped and didn't quite reach his eyes. "Really, Mr. Conagher, let's not resort to schoolyard insults."

"How about this: you want to let me out of here alive? Fine, let me walk - you've got nothing I want, nothing I really want to hear, and since you're not among the dearly departed anymore it seems like I've got a job to finish at some point in the near future."

Zane's expression steadily soured as Engineer spoke, until the man was frowning heavily and staring a hole through the desk in front of him. "I was hoping to come to an agreement. Our combined ingenuity could revolutionize the world and all you need do to realize that reality is to silently step aside and not interfere." His gaze flicked up to meet Engineer's after a moment's pause. "If that is to be your answer, then I'm sure you won't mind an extended stay as my guest - unharmed, of course, and not to be released until my business with Helen is concluded. You are, of course, welcome to change your mind at any time."

"Yeah, well, surely a man as smart as you understands it ain't right to break a contract early. Honest men do honest business."

"Indeed," Zane said, voice hardly louder than a murmur. "Since a resounding 'no thank you' is currently your answer, then that is that. There is just one small bit of business left to attend to this evening." His gaze briefly rose to glance over Engineer's head as he nodded.

Engineer grunted and tried to flinch away as he felt a pinch and a sudden stinging in his right shoulder; he glanced up sharply to see the Spybot standing over him, an empty syringe in hand.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but honest men are not ones prone to thievery, are they?"

Shit, he hadn't even heard the thing come back in to the room.

Zane was smirking when Engineer looked back to him, teeth gritted; he went to rise from his chair but instead found himself falling back against the chair's back as the room began to spin.

Damn it, god damn it...

"Mr. Conagher, are you aware of what they used to do to thieves in ancient times?"


The dam was strangely deserted.

Supposedly when they had left this place a year ago the Administrator had sent in a work crew to clean up the robot remains and to repair and maintain the power plant, as well as dismantle what the mercenaries hadn't carried off themselves. There should have been a crew of at least twenty men left here to replace those that had been butchered by Zane when he'd moved in...and there wasn't a living soul to be found.

Pauling hadn't been forthcoming on why they were here, only that they needed to check the dam; Sniper wandered the halls alone with his rifle in hand, senses alert for anything out of the ordinary. So far all he'd found was dust - he was leaving a faint trail of footprints behind him as he walked, and he hadn't heard anything but the very soft hum of far-off machinery.

The missing crew had at least been here long enough to clean up all trace of their little adventure; the collapsed hallway ceiling was repaired, everything was freshly painted, floors were redone, and even the offices had been returned to a sense of normalcy with all the furniture moved back into place.

He kept wandering until he'd covered every foot of the upstairs area, checking every room, nook, and cranny...there was no sign of anyone up here, and when he'd returned to the main room he found that only Pauling, Demoman, and Scout had returned from their own searches.

"Nothing?"

Demoman shook his head. "Not a bloody thing. It's like everyone vanished into thin air."

"Yeah, ain't nothing in the side buildings either," Scout added. "I helped Soldier canvas the place, it's just as dusty and empty as everything else. You sure there were supposed to be workers here? Because I ain't seeing any."

"I'm positive, Scout," Miss Pauling answered, crossing her arms and lightly chewing on her bottom lip. "I saw the paperwork myself. A crew was moved in a week after you guys vacated - they were supposed to fix the place up then it was business as usual."

"Business as usual?" Sniper repeated.

"Um, shorthand for 'pretend to be a civilian.' Not everyone the Administrator employs are assassins - some are on payroll to keep up appearances where needed."

Scout sighed and moved over to slide down the nearest wall until he was sitting with his legs stretched out. "Then where are these guys? Did they get reassigned without you being told?"

"That's...possible I guess, but-"

"Miss Pauling, has the Administrator gone quiet again?" Sniper interrupted.

Pauling shook her head. "I spoke to her before we left for here, she didn't say anything about reassigning the workers here and even if she did I don't see why she wouldn't mention it. I'm as in the dark as the rest of you but I can't say I've got a good feeling for what we might find, IF we find anything."

"Right...well, you lot stay here, I'm going back outside," Sniper said after a moment's pause. "There's something we have to be missing, and I don't just mean the men that should be here."

With that Sniper left, disappearing into the miniature maze of hallways that would lead to a side door; Scout, Demoman, and Pauling were left to look at one another in silence, each to their own thoughts, until minutes later when Heavy stepped into view, framed in the doorway across the room.

"Miss Pauling?"

"Did you find something?" Pauling asked, already striding toward him, Demoman and Scout trailing along behind her.

The large man's expression was unreadable and he also did not reply, merely turning to go back the way he'd come with the three of them following after him. He led them through halls as dusty as the others they'd searched through elsewhere in the facility, heading back into areas of the plant they hadn't entered or touched the last time they were here; this section of the building smelled musty, stuffy, the sort of smell that clung to the nose and back of the throat. The further they walked the worse the smell became, but also a secondary smell began to become more apparent - one of rot and decay, and spoiled meat.

They came around a corner and standing at the first doorway visible was Medic, a handkerchief held over his nose and the smell of decomposing flesh almost overwhelming.

"We found the men," was all Heavy said.

Pauling wrinkled her nose and stepped forward to look; Medic stepped away to allow her to stand in the doorway of what turned out to be a storage room. There were free-standing shelves in here, their previous contents swept into the floor and sodden with the various fluids and juices of the dead men tossed onto and around the shelves.

"Can you tell what killed them? Or how long they've been dead?"

Medic sneezed loudly into the cloth pressed to his nose. "Nein. Too badly rotted to tell at a glance, there is a leak in the ceiling and this room positioned as it is down here created a bit of an airflow problem - we did not even smell the bodies until Heavy opened the door." He sneezed again. "Excuse me."

Scout snorted. "Don't tell me you've got the sniffles from a bit of corpse juice, doc."

"I have an allergy to mold, not to gore," Medic replied dryly. "I have been sneezing since we stepped down here. This part of the building does not seem to see much use."

"And we didn't come down here the last time besides," Pauling added. She rested her hands on the door frame and leaned into the room; it was hot and dank, and looking up she could see a tile from the ceiling had rotted and fallen in, with a large water stain on the linoleum under it. There was mold on the rest of the tiles as well and after a moment she moved to close the door. "Well, finding the bodies is helpful, now if we could find a sign of who killed them."

She almost collided with Heavy as she turned around, looking up at him.

"Where are the others? Has anything else been found?" he asked quietly.

"We didn't find a thing on the main floor," Demoman answered instead. "Sniper said he didn't find anything either on the top floors."

Medic sneezed again and wiped his nose. "Unless our murderers can fly there should be some sign of their passing somewhere. This dust is as thick as snow in some places."

"Clearly you ain't seen a Boston snow storm then," Scout quipped, grinning. "This ain't nothing. Anyway, we gotta stand around down here? Stinks, man - hey, you ain't planning on having us carry them out of here are you?" He looked to Pauling, a look of cautious hope on his face.

She shook her head. "I'll handle it."

Heavy raised an eyebrow at that. "By yourself?"

"That IS part of my job, Heavy, these guys are just a bit riper than normal. Anyway, let's get back to the others and see if anyone else has found something - we don't have a lot of time to spend here."

Scout fell in beside her as they began walked back the way they'd come. "Hey, yeah, did Spy ever say why we had to go running to meet him after this?"

"He said he saw a ghost and didn't have time to elaborate. I don't know exactly what he might have seen but he seems to think he knows where Engineer will turn up."

"Not a literal ghost then," Heavy said quietly, Scout's mouth opening then shutting abruptly as the man gave the younger male a warning look. "That could refer to someone from the past."

Pauling nodded. "It could, and God knows TFI and the Administrator have collected a rogue's gallery of enemies over the years."

"It begs the question of why Spy was not more specific," Medic sniffed, wiping his nose again; when they were out of the musty hallway he finally folded the handkerchief and slipped it back into a pocket. "If he knows where Engineer is being taken, what reason does he have to withhold that? He has always been one to lord information over us but never when lives were at stake."

"No, I agree," Pauling sighed. "I'm just hoping whatever he saw doesn't prompt him to do something reckless."

Heavy let out a quiet hmmph at that. "He is a cautious man. I do not think we need worry for him." After a few steps he looked down at her again. "Unless you believe we should be."

"At this point I don't know what he's planning, what he saw, or what we should expect," Pauling replied. "Let's just round everyone back up and see where we're at."

A half hour later everyone but Sniper had gathered in the main room of the power plant, all with similar reports of having found little more than dust and empty hallways.

"Aside from repairs made and furniture moved about - as well as a lack of robot remains and the machinery that assembled them - everything is as we left it, Miss Pauling," Gunther said quietly from where he leaned against the wall. "I am uncertain what we should have found here."

"We did find the workers that should have been here," Pauling said, beginning to pace. "They were stacked in a room with a water leak however so it won't be exactly a walk in the park to determine what killed them and when." She looked around at them, mouth closing as she took a quick headcount, only just noticing that Sniper was not with them. "We're missing one."

"He's probably up a tree somewhere outside," Demoman snorted.

Pauling nodded and began walking toward the door, gesturing for them to follow. "You guys get ready to leave, I'll go find him. I want you all to head to Las Vegas and find somewhere outside of city limits to wait - I'll contact you with an address once I've touched base with Spy and the Administrator."

Pauling had her hand on the door when, echoing up to them from somewhere within the building, came a loud thumping followed by a grinding, along with the floor vibrating beneath their feet.

Scout put a hand to the wall. "...the hell is that?"

Gunther, at the back of the group, simply turned and jogged away; as he moved he pulled a pistol from within his coat and held it in a two-handed grip, the gun pointed at the ground and held off to his side as he ran. The others weren't far behind him and Soldier actually slammed into the medic's back as Gunther came up short, stopping at a hallway that branched to the left and right.

After recovering from the collision from behind, Gunther looked up and down the hallway, frowning. "The vibration stopped..."

"Go left," Heavy said, shouldering through the group. "There is one thing here that could make such noise."

The vibration as well as the grinding noise had stopped; they moved together down the hallway, Gunther and Heavy at the lead, until they were standing at the top of a flight of stairs. Down below them was the thick, reinforced door that they hadn't been able to open.

It was open.