He sat silently—per normal—on the sidelines of some kind of competition between Tucker and Sam. There was this pad-like thing on the ground with different colored squares on it. On this pad-like thing there were little figurines. Each of them rested on a different square and from what he'd observed so far, each little figurine had a certain pattern it could move. Sometimes one of them would flick a figurine of the opposite color—apparently one color, the black one, belonged to Sam while the other color, white, belonged to Tucker—off the pad-like thing.

He saw Sam smile slyly as she picked up one of her figurines and moved it up to one of Tucker's squares. That particular square already had a white figurine on it. She knocked it over and took over the square. Now Tucker's little white figurine was off of the pad-like thing. It wouldn't get back on it.

"Boom," she said. "Your last pawn. You can't get any pieces back now."

He groaned in response. "You set me up! I had no choice but to get out of check!"

"Which left a nice little opening for pawn annihilation."

"Well don't think you've won just yet. Tables can turn with the way your own pieces are set up. As is proven if I do this..."

Tucker took a medium-sized figurine and moved it diagonally across the pad-like thing. This time it was his turn to overthrow one of Sam's squares.

"Check," he said, smirking and casting her a triumphant glance.

She sighed heavily. "I hate you..."

Before she could take her turn, he reached over and grabbed the figurine that could move in an "L" shape in his mouth and conquered the figurine threatening her important figurine—the one that seemed to be most crucial to this competition. In turn, this made a new threat to one of Tucker's figurines. It was the one that seemed to be extremely valuable and could move in all different directions, however many squares it wanted.

Both their jaws dropped and Sam stared at him.

"Daniel knows how to play chess?" she mumbled, most likely to Tucker.

Tucker merely shrugged and replied, "I didn't think he did... It's the first time he's ever watched us play..."

"How...? We've barely started—which is really sad since I already took out all your pawns—and he learned it straight off the bat."

"And chess is probably the hardest strategy game in existence," he added. "There's no way anyone can learn it that fast."

"He has to already know how to play. I mean...it's just not possible to look at the first ten moves and know the game enough to play a single piece as well as he just did."

She typed on her computer—which she now carried with her all the time just in case she needed to talk to him—and asked, "Daniel, kiom da tempo vi scias kiel ludi ŝakon?"

Ŝako? What was that?

"Wait, that wasn't a yes-or-no question..." she mumbled, typing again. "Okay... Daniel, ĉu vi scias kiel ludi ĉi ludon?"

So this wasn't a competition?

"Daniel?" she repeated.

There was very little doubt now that they had changed it from Eksperimento 428 to Daniel. That was what he was called now, which was a little strange considering the lengths the other English-speakers had gone to make him seem less human. "Daniel" sounded much more like an actual name, whereas "Eksperimento 428" sounded much more like a label.

"Daniel, ĉu vi komprenas kion mi diras?" she asked.

Of course he could but...he didn't know what she meant here. He just sort of figured it out on his own, he never really knew it. It sounded like she was implying that he even knew what ŝako was. If she meant the pad-like thing or the way they moved their figurines, then no, he had no idea how to do that when he first saw it. It wasn't that hard though; why was she freaking out? All she had to do was move that one little figurine to corner Tucker. And Tucker could escape that by moving the second most precious figurine three squares to the left. And if he did that, then Sam could get closer to his most important figurine. At that point Tucker would have two choices—move it diagonally to the right or use a sacrificial figurine to block her attempt at stealing it. It was so easy, which made learning it a cinch. Once he learned how the figurines moved, he had already started forming plans in his head. It didn't take very long either.

...Why weren't they able to figure it out?

He nodded to show her that he did understand her last question.

She shook her head and pointed to one of the figurines.

"This is the king. A few squares over is my queen," she began, pointing to each respective figurine as she said their names. "These are pawns. These are bishops. These are castles. And the piece you just moved is called a knight."

Then the king was the most important piece that had to be protected at all costs. However, it seemed as though if the king couldn't move anywhere and if no other piece could help, ŝako was over and the winner would, he assumed, be the person who cornered their opponent's king.

So did this make it a different kind of competition or...?

Well Tucker would need help considering he hadn't taken his turn yet.

He moved for Tucker, using the escape method he'd already had in mind. But after he did, he expected the both of them to continue competing. They didn't. All they did was stare at him. It was strange because he had just taken two turns, one belonging to each of them, but they refused to take any more turns.

"Hey," Tucker said. "Tell him to keep playing the game. Both of those moves were moves we would never have thought of. I want to see just how smart he really is."

Sam quickly nodded in agreement and typed on her computer.

"Daniel, moviĝadi por ni."

Oh, he got it now. This was a test, an observation of how he used the figurines in ŝako. For once it was harmless. That was...new. Although by now he had come to expect little or no pain from them. The only time they ever hurt him was when he hurt his hands or feet. Sam would take care of that for him but it did hurt. But aside from medical treatment, they acted like he was just another English-speaker in the world—one that happened to speak Esperanto. He would definitely choose them over the facility any day.

He immediately started putting his ŝako plan to work and moved figurine after figurine, taking split seconds to decide the next move. It earned him more gapes from Tucker and Sam. It was also the first time he saw them give each other mind-blown looks.

"Okay. Either he's a former chess champ with amnesia, or he's some kind of superhuman," Sam said as he cornered Tucker's king. No way to escape this time. Tucker lost the competition. "How many moves did he just use to checkmate you?"

"He was moving so fast I lost count. I couldn't even keep up with what he was doing."

"And he wasn't setting it up so one side would win, either. He was actually trying to beat himself."

"Hey, ask him how he did that," Tucker suggested.

"Don't bother saying the magic word on my account..." she grumbled.

Typing...typing...typing.

"Kiel vi faris tion?" she asked, turning to look at him.

He just shrugged in return. It wasn't really that hard. All he needed to do was find an opening and go for it unless there was a figurine blocking it, or if that opening was dangerous. It was just that simple but they were acting like it was the hardest thing in the world. How was it so hard?! It was hard at first but once he figured out how the pieces moved, everything just fell into place. They had been playing even before he had.

"Tucker, I get the feeling there's a lot more to him than we know," the girl said.

A/N

I'm sorry, I know this is short but this chess scene is actually very important. I wanted to put more in but do you know how hard it is to write this story?

Any ideas you have would be welcome, but there's no guarantee they'll be in the story. This thing had barely any elbow room so I have to be strict about where it goes...

And, guys, please, I'm begging you, think about your comments on this story. :( Or at least pay more attention to what you read. Some of you make no sense with what you're saying. But for those of you who watch the story progress, thank you so much for your support! Encouragement is what I move best on. :) Encouragement and ideas! Fire away, everyone!

Those of you who think Tucker and Sam are too oblivious, please think about that for a moment. If you were in the same situation, with him being unable to tell them what's happened, who he is, why he acts the way he does, why he only speaks Esperanto, or why he looks different, do you honestly think the first thing to come to your mind would be government conspiracy? Human experimentation? No, they're currently thinking more along the lines of abuse, which is actually correct, but a different form. Why? A) It's a little more realistic; and b) the scars have in fact healed and you'll find out why the brand mark hasn't. Human experimentation is overused in media so yeah, they aren't thinking something like that...but as of now, they're getting a little more curious about him. Just keep in mind how frustrating the gap in communication is for Danny. He's trying but he doesn't understand what's happening or even why he's able to trust them.

And...bolt cutters? Really? The rings are too close to his skin and he's made it clear how sensitive he is to them. He doesn't like people getting too close to them. So bolt cutters? Even if they had one, do you REALLY think he'd let them get close enough with it? He's SCARED of pretty much EVERYTHING. He has no understanding of the outside world so again...bolt cutters?

A last note, I'm not trying to "drag this out", I just have writer's block a lot. AND BEFORE YOU SAY OTHERWISE, BEFORE YOU SCOFF AND SAY IT'S IMPOSSIBLE, I HAVE A MEDICAL CONDITION AND I HAVE TO TAKE SO MUCH MEDICINE THAT IT ACTUALLY SUPPRESSES BRAIN ACTIVITY, MAKING IT VERY EASY FOR ME TO GET STUCK ON SOMETHING, FORGET, OR EVEN FOLLOW A CONVERSATION. THIS HAS BEEN PROVEN BY MY DOCTOR. You know who you are that this is directed at. And if you don't like this story, stop reading it. My "pathetic update speed" is due to my medicine, medical condition itself, and a little thing called "life". I've been very busy lately and this story, sadly, does not take priority over some of my others. Short chapters are due to the same things, but also because I beat myself up over my "pathetic update speed". So next time, think about what might be going on in someone else's life because I can't make everything convenient for everyone!