Sasha came back several hours later. In the meantime, Fred and Crispin hadn't spoken to each other since the window. Crispin went back to his seat and back to his own little world, whatever that consisted of. Fred lay back down on the cot and tried to remember if anything had happened between the time of his escape and his waking up in the church. He had a vague recollection now of being patched up by someone he didn't know, and of throwing up the water he drank all over Sasha's front.

When Sasha returned he had a few bags from a deli up the street. He'd gotten a container of soup for Fred, which Fred was thankful for. It would be so easy on his stomach, having not eaten in however long. He tried not to eat fast, but it was hard. It tasted so good, and as soon as it hit his tongue he realized just how famished he'd been.

"Easy now," said Sasha. "You're going to make yourself sick again."

Fred's face flushed as he remembered throwing up on Sasha. "Sorry," he said.

Sasha waved his hand dismissively. Then he pulled out his cigarette pack and a cigarette from it, pyrokinetically lit it, and started smoking right there in the church basement.

Crispin wrinkled his nose. "Really now, can't you take that outside?"

"I'm keeping a close watch on you," replied Sasha. He took a long drag on his cigarette, then blew the smoke to the other side of the room. As he tapped the ashes out in an ashtray he'd brought with him, he asked idly, "How old are you?"

"Thirty... uh... thirty two," replied Fred lamely. "Or thirty-four."

"The doctor thinks so, too." He gestured to Fred's stomach. "You needed stitches."

"Ninety-two," said Crispin.

Fred gave him a weird look. "Ninety-two?"

"By my reckoning."

"What year do you think it is?" asked Sasha.

"Nineteen- nineteen, uh... 2006," said Fred.

"Go ahead, General, what were you going to say?" asked Crispin. "Nineteen forty-five, perhaps?"

Fred shook his head. "No, of course not. That's crazy."

"You were born in the 1970s, then?"

"Y- uh, yeah."

Sasha took another puff. "I still need to go to Thorney Towers."

"Oh. Um, can I come?"

Sasha shook his head. "I wouldn't recommend it."

"Oh." He looked down.

Crispin nudged him and gave him a pointed look. Fred blurted out, "I know it's risky, but I need to come. It's... it's just something I gotta do, okay?"

Sasha seemed mildly surprised, which Fred by now realized meant that he was actually very surprised if he was showing it externally. "I cannot protect you from the effects of the psitanium. Because of your previous exposure, it might not take very long at all for you to feel its effects again."

"I don't care," said Fred. "I need to. I really do."

"I also think I should go," said Crispin.

Sasha didn't answer. Fred sort of hunched down and sat on the ground, finishing his soup. Sasha stood up and moved to the back of the room, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

"Smooth," said Crispin when Sasha was out of earshot. "Why do you want to go to Thorney Towers, anyway?"

Fred shrugged. "I don't know. Why do you want to go?"

"Moral support," said Crispin.

"Yeah, right." Fred scoffed.

"I'm serious."

Fred gave Crispin a sideways look. He remembered talking to Crispin back at Shady Pines, and earlier that day, and a strange thought crossed his mind. "Uh, Crispin...?"

"Yes, Bonaparte?"

"Why are you being...?" Nice wasn't exactly the word, but Fred couldn't really think of one that fit his behavior. "Friendly," he decided on.

"You could use one right about now," said Crispin.

Fred frowned. "That doesn't really answer my question."

"You know, I never hated you. I just hated how pathetic you were."

"That's, uh, kind of rude."

"It's very rude, Bonaparte, why don't you bother standing up for yourself once in a while?"

"I do," said Fred.

"So do it. Call me out like you did back at the asylum."

"After, uh, our altercation-"

"You mean after you beat the stuffing out of me?"

"Uh, yeah, that. I'm actually sorry about-"

"Don't be. We're even."

"Oh." Fred tilted his head. "You seem... different."

"So do you."

"I guess it's just good to be out of that asylum and away from all that craziness."

While Fred and Crispin were talking, Sasha's phone rang. He answered it. "Agent Nein speaking."

"Sasha? It's Milla, darling."

"Hello, Milla. Have you spoken to Clarence Thorney?"

"Actually, I'm calling about that. I arrived here and went straight to his office on campus..."

"Yes?"

"And he ran away."

Sasha paused a moment. "What?"

"He ran away. The office receptionist called him and told him who it was, and he said he would meet me in a moment. Ten minutes must have passed without him coming out, and when we went to the office to see what was keeping him, his window was open and he was nowhere to be found."

"He does know something."

"I think that cryptic polaroid might have been right. You know, I've never been lied to by a picture before."

"I'll meet you at the office," said Sasha. "We're going to the asylum as soon as you get back."

"Did you manage to get Boyd somewhere safe?"

"Yes. He's in lockdown at the office. Raz is keeping an eye on him. Boyd trusts Raz the most, now that he's away from the psitanium."

"I'll be back as soon as I can. Love you, darling."

"Goodbye." He hung up the phone and turned to Fred and Crispin, who had just finished up their own conversation. "Do you feel well enough to move? We're going back to the office."

"Yeah," said Fred. "Actually, why aren't we there in the first place? I thought it was kinda strange we're in a church basement..."

"This church is just down the road from Shady Pines. I couldn't risk moving Crispin through a more populated area without more preparations, and the priest was more than willing to accommodate the psychonauts. I brought you here simply because it was the closest place we had already established a base of operations, and I wanted someone to tend to you as soon as possible."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense."

"Crispin, I'm going to lead you out to the car. Please take my arm."

"No need, Nein," said Crispin. "Just let me follow on your heels and I'll be fine."

"It would be better if you didn't rely on your newly discovered psychic powers in such an urgent and uncertain situation. Please take my arm."

Crispin sneered, but he did as he was told. Fred could tell, knowing Crispin as long as he had, that Crispin was at least a little grateful that Sasha wasn't forcibly guiding him but rather giving him agency in the decision, which made him slightly more willing to do as he was told. Had Sasha physically laid hands on him, Crispin would have been much more resentful and, as a result, difficult.

Fred followed behind them, banging his head on the low church doorway on their way out.

It was almost nine o'clock at Dr. Jonathan Kai's dental office. His little assistant was straightening the waiting room and putting the computer into idle mode for the night while he put away the last of his dental tools. He stayed open late many nights to accommodate certain patients who couldn't make it during regular office hours, and it was one of the jobs little pleasures for him.

Ego poked her head into the exam room. "Everything's put to bed, sir."

"Good. Now, you ought to get home. Your mom wants you home for bed, too."

"But it's not a school night," she protested.

Dr. Kai rubbed her hair. "I know, kiddo, but your mom makes the rules for you. I can't override them." He cupped her cheeks in his hands and smooshed her face against his at the forehead and nose. "Mwah!" Then he let her go. "Love you."

"Love you more," she said.

"Not possible."

She picked up her backpack and started to go. Then she turned around, gave him one last hug, then left, locking the door behind her.

It was quiet. Dr. Kai sighed and flopped down on the waiting room couch. Since he and his wife split up, he'd been living here. Until he got a real place of his own, he couldn't get partial custody of his daughters, and Ego was the only one who was really keeping him company.

He was just about to doze off when he remembered to get up and hang his lab coat so it wouldn't get wrinkled. Because he was so sleepy, he thought it was a dream when he opened the closet door and saw two glowing lights floating in the darkness. He blinked. Red and green? Did he have Christmas decorations here?

A metal claw lunged out from the darkness, a body behind it, and pinned him against the nearest wall by the throat.

"Remember me?" Dr. Loboto cackled.

"Vaguely," said Dr. Kai. "Shouldn't you be in an asylum somewhere? Locked up away from the rest of us normal people?" He struggled against the mad doctor's grip.

"Oh, come now, you never were a 'normal people,'" Loboto said with great amusement. He had Dr. Kai completely at his mercy, struggling or not. "You were always like me. A dreamer with a vision too big for man to understand."

"Hey, my dreams don't involve mass suffering and military takeovers. I mean, not the goal dreams. The REM sleep dreams, well, from time to time. I don't really have control over that. But that's neither here nor there! Why did you come back? I don't like you!"

"Where are the discs?"

"What?"

"The discs, man, the discs! The ones you stole from me before I had to go back!"

"... This is the first I'm hearing of you having discs."

"You have them!" Loboto shrieked. "I told you every detail of our plans and now you have the information on the discs in your moist little brain!"

"Hey. I tuned you out, like, 80% of the time. And I forgot the rest."

"Don't play coy with me. You loved everything I said. Soaked it up like an old rag in a bottle of chloroform."

"... Why is that the first place your mind goes?"

"You can't turn your back on us and expect to live."

"Wait!" Dr. Kai shouted, even though Loboto wasn't doing anything at that moment. "There's no us. It's just you being crazy!"

"Not at all!" Loboto cackled. "Don't you know who I'm working for? Of course you do. You've met him!"

"... Satan?" Dr. Kai guessed.

"No, of course not- wait, you've met Satan?"

"One time, at the park in spring," Dr. Kai admitted. "Cordial enough fellow, if you can get past the evil."

Loboto gave Dr. Kai's throat a squeeze. "The disks, now. All of the information."

Dr. Kai wheezed a bit, and Loboto loosed his grip slightly. "The computer... the computer's over there," he said, gesturing with his whole arm.

Loboto dropped Dr. Kai, who fell immediately to his knees clutching his throat, and went over to the computer. He pressed a few buttons to get it up and running, and started pawing through the surrounding drawers while he was waiting.

As soon as Loboto was sufficiently distracted, Dr. Kai got up and crept slowly to the door without being spotted. He let himself out as silently as possible, and as soon as he got out of the building he grabbed the payphone that lingered unused outside the building and dialed 911.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"I've got an escaped mental patient in my dentist office," said Dr. Kai. "514 Industrial Park West, Suite 26. I'm pretty sure the Psychonauts are looking for him."

"I'm dispatching a unit right away. Can you stay on the phone and tell me when you see them?"

"Sure can," said Dr. Kai.

The police arrived shortly, but when they got to Dr. Kai's office, Loboto was gone. He had smashed the computer irreparably, but nothing was missing. The police notified the Psychonauts immediately.

I really don't know about Crispin, to tell you the truth. I have about a million different interpretations of him based on how he acted in the game and what his role was. This one works best for the story, the version where he's always an icy, arrogant jerk but was made worse by the psitanium.