May I say that this was probably the hardest thing I've ever written.
Writer's block is a bitch. I also sat down and did some research for this
chapter and it turned into research for, like, the rest of the fic and it
kind of got out of hand and before I relized it, 2 weeks slipped by, and
now I'm babbling, so I'll shut-up. But, in the end, I believe it turned
out well.at least I hope -.-* I want to thank Katashi Usagi for helping
me immensely on this chapter. The usual disclaimers and shtuffage, so
without further delay.....
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Fräulein Menschenfeind hurried to her office. She had just had a precognition of Estes' leaders paying a visit to there school. They, of course, would come to her first. She hurried through the hallways toward the other end of the school.
Menschenfeind swung the door to her office open and was greeted by the images of three very old figures sitting on the chairs that her office provided. They didn't acknowledge her as she walked in.
She closed the door and approached them. "Leaders," she said as she bowed. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"
The old woman spoke first. "We have come to observe a few of the students that are attending this facility."
"This is highly irregular, but, as always, this school is your school. Would you like me to gather the students that you have in mind?"
"No," the one balding old man said. "We would like to observe them as they go about their daily routines. Eventually we will observe them individually and test their abilities."
The three of them smiled. "There is, though," the other man spoke up, "One specific student we have in mind; the one telepath that you've been trying to obtain for some time now. I believe his name is now Schuldig. Is that correct?"
Fräulein Menschenfeind spoke up, "Yes, we have obtained him this year."
The old woman spoke, "It is our understanding that he was difficult to get a hold of. How were you able to tame him?"
"One of our other students, a precog like myself, was able to.tame.him."
Simultaneously, the three old leaders raised an eyebrow. "A precog?" the balding man said. "We will observe him too. What is his name?"
"He is called Crawford."
*************************
Crawford and Schuldig sat opposite each other in the mess hall. Both of them were forcing down what was being served that day. They sat in the back corner of the room as far away from everybody as possible. Luckily, this day, there were very few people eating at this time.
"I think it moved."
Crawford looked up at his companion. "I've been eating here for two years and it has always moved."
Schuldig held up a forkful of the substance level with his face and stared at it. "You know, if these people are smart enough and devious enough to bring back some extinct existence or whatever they want to do, you'd think they would have thought of knocking off a couple of millionaires, take their money and get us, their followers, some decent food. Ah hell, some decent food service. You know, that one cook is a real bitch."
Crawford slightly chuckled at Schu's comment.
As Crawford was amusing Schuldig at the small display of emotion, he noticed three really old figures walk into the mess hall. They seemed to be observing everyone; looking around as if trying to find some one. "Who are those three? I've never seen them before."
Crawford turned around to see whom Schu was asking about. "Oh, those three? They are the elitists of Este. As far as I can tell," he pointed his finger to the ceiling and twirled it around, "This is all there doing."
Schu's eyebrows perked up. "Those are the three?! They started this whole thing?"
"That's what I have gathered. I could be wrong. But, they are the leaders of the entire organization."
"Oh okay, so it's actually three really old farts who want to take over the world. Mmm-hmm, right."
"I think they too have very powerful mental abilities."
Schuldig followed them with his eyes. "So those are the three? You know, I've heard some of the higher-ups think that we, as in you and I, are almost to, if not on, the same level as them."
Brad perked an eyebrow.
"Which means," Schuldig continued, "That we are more fit to rule the world than they are, cause we'll live to see it."
Brad cut in, "Actually, they aren't going to rule. They're waiting for some leader to do it for them."
Schu's mouth dropped. "Well, that's dumb! They should just do it themselves. Why wait for someone that may not even be a good leader in the first place? If they were as smart and as powerful as they're supposed to be, then they would have already killed everyone below them and taken over. That's what I would do. Everybody who never paid me any mind would be dead and all of us mental people would be in control."
Brad stared at him.
Schu lifted his glass into the air. "In the end, the freaks shall inherit the Earth."
"You know, sometimes I think you are the Devil himself."
"Danke. To chaos and us ruling the world," he said with his glass still in the air.
Crawford raised his own glass, "Ja, to ruling the world." Crawford took a sip of the liquid. "And now, my German friend," he said as he set his glass down, "Clear your mind cause they are coming over this way."
"Huh?" Schuldig looked over to where they were standing. "No, they aren." The three of them seemed to notice their presence at the same time and started to walk over toward him and Crawford. "Okay, so they are coming this way."
"Told you. Who can see the future here? You just sit in your little dark cloud of the present and let me tell you what's going to happen."
Schuldig stuck his tongue out at Crawford.
The three Este elites stopped to the side of the table. Crawford and Schuldig looked over at the three of them. Nobody said anything, all of them looking at each other, but mostly at Schu.
The old woman stared at Schuldig. //You do seem to be a strong telepath, don't you?\\
Schuldig could feel her age and her power in her thoughts. It was almost.humbling. But the more he felt her, the more she seemed like himself. Hmm.interesting. //I have been told so,\\ he said back to her.
//I can tell already that you will be of great help to us.\\ She smiled at him.
Schuldig attempted to smile back.
Crawford, of course, didn't hear any of the conversation between the old woman and Schu. To him, it just looked like three of them standing there watching Schuldig. Then, all three of them turned their heads and looked at Crawford.
The balding man spoke to him. "You have quite some impressive abilities young man, especially for one who is supposed to only have the powers of perception."
"Yes Sir, I suppose." Wait, what was this? It felt as if his mind was being clawed at. He recognized the feeling from the few times Schuldig had tried to get at his core. But this was slightly different. There was more power behind the assault. It definitely wasn't Schuldig.
Crawford strengthened his mental blocks as much as he could while trying to look like he wasn't straining himself. The old woman was staring intensely at him. It was her, wasn't it? Yes, it was her. He stared back at her, almost daring her with his eyes to break into his mind. She stopped after deciding that she wasn't going to get far.
The balding man continued on. "You have made quite a name for yourself, Crawford, was it?"
Crawford nodded.
They then turned back to Schuldig. The third man spoke. "We would like to test your abilities."
Schu blinked. You want to do what?
"We want to know the extent of your capabilities."
"We want to see what you can do," the old woman broke in.
"We want to feel your desire to serve Este." The bald man interrupted. "We know about your life and know that you would love to see a reformed world. We want to know how bad you want it."
Schuldig was silent. Crawford spoke up, "How do you intend to test him?"
The three of them looked at him. "All in good time young man," the third man said to him and then back to Schu. "We will be calling upon you in the near future. Prepare yourself."
And with that, the three of them turned and walked away. Schuldig followed them with his eyes until they exited the mess hall. He looked back to Crawford who was finishing his food.
"I don't know about you, but they give me the creeps. How can you be so calm? Now they have their eyes on both of us and that old lady has got some mental powers in her."
Crawford swallowed. "I can be so calm because I've no reason to panic. And I know she has telepathic powers, but I am able to resist her, so you needn't worry about me, not that you do in the first place. Besides, it's you they want to dissect, not me. Most people are interested in the lion, not the lion tamer."
Schuldig set his arms upright on the table, folding his hands and leaned his chin on his fingers. He flashed his most flirting smile at Crawford. "Who ever said you tamed me Bradley?"
Crawford finished the last forkful of food. "I have work to do. You can go find something to amuse yourself before this evening."
Schuldig was still smiling at him.
"By yourself, I mean." He rose up and walked away.
Schu watched him. "I do hope he's there whenever they decide to do this. I don't want to be with those three by myself." He shivered. Creepy, creepy, creepy.
****************
Schu laid on his bad staring at the ceiling. He was listening to the conversations running around his head. Anything to keep him occupied. Nothing too interesting was happening now: A couple of people working on paperwork, someone reading a book, two of the instructors talking about certain things he probably shouldn't be knowing about, and a plethora of just other conversations in general.
Boring. Schuldig let out a sigh. He really needed something to do right now. Listening to the thoughts in his head kept him occupied, especially if their was something interesting going on, but they kept his interest for only so long. And besides, sometimes if he listened to everyone too intensely, he ended up with a headache. And he most definitely didn't feel like one right now.not that he ever did.
"Okay, I need something to do," he said aloud to no one. "Something to do, something to do, something to do." Then a sly smile came to his face. "I wonder what Bradley is doing right now?"
He sat up and swung his legs to the floor. As he was putting his shoes on, someone started to knock at the door.
Schuldig looked up at the door and dug for the minds of his visitors. He frowned. After Schu finished putting his shoes on, he went to the door and opened it.
He was greeted by two figures, both in dark colored suits, standing stalk still outside the room. Schuldig recognized the two men immediately. They were two of the guards that seemed to be everywhere at the same time. The two of them also seemed to like to follow Schuldig, constantly watching him if he stepped out for a smoke or a walk. They were quite the nuisances.
Schu leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms. //So, to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?\\ he questioned the two men.
The one tilted his head slightly at the sudden voice coming from a mouth that didn't move. They both then turned and looked at each other.
Schuldig looked at them with amusement written all over his face. He wondered if he should play with their minds like he always did since he was looking for something to do. But he decided to see why they were paying him a personal visit this time.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" He still leaned comfortably in the doorway as he waited for a response.
The man to left spoke, "We are here, Herr Schuldig, to escort you down to one of the meeting rooms. If you will please come with us."
Schu shifted his weight slightly. "First off, please don't call me 'Herr'. Schuldig will do fine. Second, is this about those Este people testing me?"
The two of them stared at him. Then the other one spoke up. "Her.err.Schuldig, then.if you will please come with us."
"Jeez, even an 'I don't know' would suffice." He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and started walking down the hall. "You know, the more you two try to seem and look intimidating, the more dorkier you two get."
The two guards looked at each other, and then proceeded to follow Schuldig down the hallway. As Schu walked, he let out a yawn and stretched. Digging through those twos' minds was really boring.not much in there. And they didn't know anything about what was going to happen him. Completely useless.
"Herr Schuldig," one of them called out. Schu stopped and turned to see which one of them the voice came from. Both men were stopped by one of the doors in the hall a few paces from where Schu was at that moment. He walked over to them to see why they had stopped.
"We need to go down this way," the one said pointing to the door.
Schuldig looked at it. The door had one of those 'Achtung!' signs on it because no one was supposed to go in there. He didn't even know what was beyond the door and the more he thought about it, the more he didn't want to know.
The one guard pulled out a key and opened the door. The three of them walked in. Schu walked in, and to his surprise, what was beyond the door was an elevator. The door closed, sounding like it automatically locked itself. The other guard opened the doors to the elevator, the three of them stepped in, and down they went.
Down indeed.
Either the elevator was going really, really slow or it was descending very deep into the ground. There was no indicator in the enclosure that said what floor they were at, but Schuldig could have sworn that they had descended about 5 or 6 floors, and they started out on the 3rd floor.
Schuldig was growing somewhat nervous, not knowing what was going to happen and such. These two lent no help. He figured that where he was going was down to be mentally dissected by those three old coots. Maybe if he put himself into one of his little coma-like-states, they'd go away and not touch him; but they most likely wouldn't. They would most likely just dig into his mind anyway and he didn't know if he had any of his own mental blocks up when he was unconscious.
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened to a long hallway that was poorly lit. Single florescent light bulbs lined the center of the ceiling as far down as the hall went. Schu thought he saw a couple of doors scattered alone down the walls, but wasn't quite sure.
The two guards stepped out and started to walk down the passageway. Schuldig followed a couple of paces behind them, glancing around at his surroundings: brick and stone mostly, with a couple of cockroaches here and there. He was correct; there were a couple of door scattered along the corridor. They weren't marked at all, so he had no clue as to what was beyond them.
They got to the end and turned a corner to the left. Schuldig looked back to where they had come from, the elevator but a speck at the end of the hallway. He turned his head back and had to stop before tripping over one of the men. They had stopped and opened the first door on the right.
"If you will please step inside," the one motioned. Both of them had stepped to the sides of the doorway to make a path for Schuldig to walk through into the room. He peeked in before entering, but didn't really see anything. The room seemed to be more dimly lit than the corridor.
He stepped through the doorway. Schu was able to see better once in the room. The room wasn't very big at all. There was a table with three chairs and a couple of other chairs to the side. Opposite the table was another chair, but this one looked different. It had arms and a high back to it. It also looked like there were.straps? Straps on a chair? Why would there be straps on a chair unless you were going to tie something to it.or someone.
Schuldig started to back up slowly. "Umm, guys, are you two sure we're in the right room?" Just then, he felt something strong grab him. Not his arms or his shoulders, just him, his entire self. It felt like, a force field of sorts went up and seize him.
He struggled. Schu fought at the field with all he had. "Let go!" he yelled out. He then saw the two guards walk around into his view. "Please stay calm Herr Schuldig."
Schu reached out with his mind to fight them. He felt their hold get weaker but it wasn't enough to break through. They dragged him over to the chair, Schuldig struggling the whole time. They were very quick about it, throwing him in the chair. The longer they waited, the more Schu was in there minds. The telepathic net held tight as they manually tied the straps and such around him; his legs, his arms, his torso, his head. Even after the force field was removed, Schu still struggled, but to no avail.
No escape.
Figures appeared in the doorway. Schu moved his eyes to see who was coming through the door. Those three Este creeps, then the dean, and then Crawford. Schuldig followed Crawford with his eyes, which in turn was watching him as he sat down in one of the chairs on the side of the room.
He said nothing.
Schu looked at everybody looking at him.very nerve-racking. //What the hell is this?!\\ he called out to the one old lady.
//You are a mental creature child, so you will defend yourself mentally. No physical help. This is to make sure of that.\\
//You call this a test?\\
//Yes, we do.\\
The other two thought out loud so Schuldig would hear them, "I think he will fail this." "He will serve us and our leader well, if he has the power they say he does." "This is a waist of our time." "I think this will be interesting, seeing him get his brain fried."
All this was not comforting to Schuldig. He felt the old woman slipping into his mind, picking at everything in there. What would she do if she realized he thought they were full of shit? Mutilate his mind? Kill him? Brainwash him from the inside out? He couldn't let her get any farther than she already was.
Granted, with the amount of consciousnesses surging through his head, he has learned not to be susceptible to too many thoughts and ideas, but this was different. He was most likely going to have certain thought processes implanted into his brain manually. He needed some way to stop this old chick from doing this. He didn't want to know the outcome of her doing this.
She was strong, and brutal. To Schu, it felt like her hands were strangling his mind; strangling and ripping it. He actually felt physical pain because of her. His entire head hurt, not just his mind, his face, his ears, his skull, everything.
He needed her out of there. He had to make her think he was nothing compared to her and that he was a good little Este follower. That's what she wanted. He sensed that's what she wanted. She dug for it.a mental ax; that's what she was.
Schuldig went through his own mind and found as many other minds as he could. They were still there, other's minds in the back of his. He grabbed them, all of them and threw them at her. He pushed the strongest mind in there up to the front of his own mind.
The old bag sensed something going on. She attacked even more furiously. Schuldig let out a scream. He tried to move around, but the straps holding him to the chair held tight. He needed out of there. Schu flung his stream of consciousness behind all of the other minds. When he did so, her hold seemed to loosen, but not enough.
Let go, let go, let go.
He was trying so hard; Schu's body began to shake. All of his energy was going into keeping other minds out in front of his own in order to fool her. It was becoming harder and harder to do so. What mental barriers he had to keep his own consciousness in check were starting to fall. He didn't know how much longer he could hang on. You know, if he really wanted to kill himself, he could think of easier and less painful ways of doing so.
The three Este elites rose up from their seats. Crawford tore his eyes away from the shivering figure of Schuldig to look at them. They walked around the table and proceeded out of the room.
"Aren't you going to release your hold on him?" he questioned after them.
They stopped and turned. "Our hold is no longer on him. He is on his own now, Mr. Crawford." They turned and continued on their way. Fräulein Menschenfeind stepped into the hallway and watched them start to walk away.
Crawford went over to Schuldig, who was still shaking, although it seemed more violent now. He grabbed his shoulders. "Schuldig. Schuldig! Snap out of it." Schu continued to shake.
Schuldig's mind seemed so far away from his physical body. It floated in a space between the physical and death. He needed to get back; he needed to be pulled back.
Crawford yelled at him again. "Schuldig, wake up!" Then he punched him.
Schuldig's mind came screaming back to his brain; still holding onto that one last barrier he had.
He stopped shaking and slowly opened his eyes. A blurry figure stood in front of him.
"Schuldig?" Crawford looked at him. Schu's eyes then rolled into the back of his head and his body went limp.
******************
"Fräulein," came a voice from down the hall. The dean speed-walked down the hall to where the voice had come from.
"Yes, ma'am. What is it?"
"We have decided that he will be a valuable addition to our family. See that he is cared for."
"Yes, of course, ma'am." She stopped and went back to the room.
Crawford undid the straps that were holding the unconscious figure to the chair. He started with his feet and proceeded up to his head. As he was undoing the head strap, Fräulein Menschenfeind stopped at the doorway.
"They want him. Get him up to the infirmary." With that she left.
"And how do you expect me to do that?" he mumbled to himself. He finished undoing the head strap. When he did, the limp body of Schuldig fell off of the chair and into Crawford, who caught him.
"I wish I could have warned you, not that it would have helped any. They still would have fried your brain." Crawford sat there on the ground holding the comatose telepath in his arms. "Oh, Schuldig..."
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Fräulein Menschenfeind hurried to her office. She had just had a precognition of Estes' leaders paying a visit to there school. They, of course, would come to her first. She hurried through the hallways toward the other end of the school.
Menschenfeind swung the door to her office open and was greeted by the images of three very old figures sitting on the chairs that her office provided. They didn't acknowledge her as she walked in.
She closed the door and approached them. "Leaders," she said as she bowed. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"
The old woman spoke first. "We have come to observe a few of the students that are attending this facility."
"This is highly irregular, but, as always, this school is your school. Would you like me to gather the students that you have in mind?"
"No," the one balding old man said. "We would like to observe them as they go about their daily routines. Eventually we will observe them individually and test their abilities."
The three of them smiled. "There is, though," the other man spoke up, "One specific student we have in mind; the one telepath that you've been trying to obtain for some time now. I believe his name is now Schuldig. Is that correct?"
Fräulein Menschenfeind spoke up, "Yes, we have obtained him this year."
The old woman spoke, "It is our understanding that he was difficult to get a hold of. How were you able to tame him?"
"One of our other students, a precog like myself, was able to.tame.him."
Simultaneously, the three old leaders raised an eyebrow. "A precog?" the balding man said. "We will observe him too. What is his name?"
"He is called Crawford."
*************************
Crawford and Schuldig sat opposite each other in the mess hall. Both of them were forcing down what was being served that day. They sat in the back corner of the room as far away from everybody as possible. Luckily, this day, there were very few people eating at this time.
"I think it moved."
Crawford looked up at his companion. "I've been eating here for two years and it has always moved."
Schuldig held up a forkful of the substance level with his face and stared at it. "You know, if these people are smart enough and devious enough to bring back some extinct existence or whatever they want to do, you'd think they would have thought of knocking off a couple of millionaires, take their money and get us, their followers, some decent food. Ah hell, some decent food service. You know, that one cook is a real bitch."
Crawford slightly chuckled at Schu's comment.
As Crawford was amusing Schuldig at the small display of emotion, he noticed three really old figures walk into the mess hall. They seemed to be observing everyone; looking around as if trying to find some one. "Who are those three? I've never seen them before."
Crawford turned around to see whom Schu was asking about. "Oh, those three? They are the elitists of Este. As far as I can tell," he pointed his finger to the ceiling and twirled it around, "This is all there doing."
Schu's eyebrows perked up. "Those are the three?! They started this whole thing?"
"That's what I have gathered. I could be wrong. But, they are the leaders of the entire organization."
"Oh okay, so it's actually three really old farts who want to take over the world. Mmm-hmm, right."
"I think they too have very powerful mental abilities."
Schuldig followed them with his eyes. "So those are the three? You know, I've heard some of the higher-ups think that we, as in you and I, are almost to, if not on, the same level as them."
Brad perked an eyebrow.
"Which means," Schuldig continued, "That we are more fit to rule the world than they are, cause we'll live to see it."
Brad cut in, "Actually, they aren't going to rule. They're waiting for some leader to do it for them."
Schu's mouth dropped. "Well, that's dumb! They should just do it themselves. Why wait for someone that may not even be a good leader in the first place? If they were as smart and as powerful as they're supposed to be, then they would have already killed everyone below them and taken over. That's what I would do. Everybody who never paid me any mind would be dead and all of us mental people would be in control."
Brad stared at him.
Schu lifted his glass into the air. "In the end, the freaks shall inherit the Earth."
"You know, sometimes I think you are the Devil himself."
"Danke. To chaos and us ruling the world," he said with his glass still in the air.
Crawford raised his own glass, "Ja, to ruling the world." Crawford took a sip of the liquid. "And now, my German friend," he said as he set his glass down, "Clear your mind cause they are coming over this way."
"Huh?" Schuldig looked over to where they were standing. "No, they aren." The three of them seemed to notice their presence at the same time and started to walk over toward him and Crawford. "Okay, so they are coming this way."
"Told you. Who can see the future here? You just sit in your little dark cloud of the present and let me tell you what's going to happen."
Schuldig stuck his tongue out at Crawford.
The three Este elites stopped to the side of the table. Crawford and Schuldig looked over at the three of them. Nobody said anything, all of them looking at each other, but mostly at Schu.
The old woman stared at Schuldig. //You do seem to be a strong telepath, don't you?\\
Schuldig could feel her age and her power in her thoughts. It was almost.humbling. But the more he felt her, the more she seemed like himself. Hmm.interesting. //I have been told so,\\ he said back to her.
//I can tell already that you will be of great help to us.\\ She smiled at him.
Schuldig attempted to smile back.
Crawford, of course, didn't hear any of the conversation between the old woman and Schu. To him, it just looked like three of them standing there watching Schuldig. Then, all three of them turned their heads and looked at Crawford.
The balding man spoke to him. "You have quite some impressive abilities young man, especially for one who is supposed to only have the powers of perception."
"Yes Sir, I suppose." Wait, what was this? It felt as if his mind was being clawed at. He recognized the feeling from the few times Schuldig had tried to get at his core. But this was slightly different. There was more power behind the assault. It definitely wasn't Schuldig.
Crawford strengthened his mental blocks as much as he could while trying to look like he wasn't straining himself. The old woman was staring intensely at him. It was her, wasn't it? Yes, it was her. He stared back at her, almost daring her with his eyes to break into his mind. She stopped after deciding that she wasn't going to get far.
The balding man continued on. "You have made quite a name for yourself, Crawford, was it?"
Crawford nodded.
They then turned back to Schuldig. The third man spoke. "We would like to test your abilities."
Schu blinked. You want to do what?
"We want to know the extent of your capabilities."
"We want to see what you can do," the old woman broke in.
"We want to feel your desire to serve Este." The bald man interrupted. "We know about your life and know that you would love to see a reformed world. We want to know how bad you want it."
Schuldig was silent. Crawford spoke up, "How do you intend to test him?"
The three of them looked at him. "All in good time young man," the third man said to him and then back to Schu. "We will be calling upon you in the near future. Prepare yourself."
And with that, the three of them turned and walked away. Schuldig followed them with his eyes until they exited the mess hall. He looked back to Crawford who was finishing his food.
"I don't know about you, but they give me the creeps. How can you be so calm? Now they have their eyes on both of us and that old lady has got some mental powers in her."
Crawford swallowed. "I can be so calm because I've no reason to panic. And I know she has telepathic powers, but I am able to resist her, so you needn't worry about me, not that you do in the first place. Besides, it's you they want to dissect, not me. Most people are interested in the lion, not the lion tamer."
Schuldig set his arms upright on the table, folding his hands and leaned his chin on his fingers. He flashed his most flirting smile at Crawford. "Who ever said you tamed me Bradley?"
Crawford finished the last forkful of food. "I have work to do. You can go find something to amuse yourself before this evening."
Schuldig was still smiling at him.
"By yourself, I mean." He rose up and walked away.
Schu watched him. "I do hope he's there whenever they decide to do this. I don't want to be with those three by myself." He shivered. Creepy, creepy, creepy.
****************
Schu laid on his bad staring at the ceiling. He was listening to the conversations running around his head. Anything to keep him occupied. Nothing too interesting was happening now: A couple of people working on paperwork, someone reading a book, two of the instructors talking about certain things he probably shouldn't be knowing about, and a plethora of just other conversations in general.
Boring. Schuldig let out a sigh. He really needed something to do right now. Listening to the thoughts in his head kept him occupied, especially if their was something interesting going on, but they kept his interest for only so long. And besides, sometimes if he listened to everyone too intensely, he ended up with a headache. And he most definitely didn't feel like one right now.not that he ever did.
"Okay, I need something to do," he said aloud to no one. "Something to do, something to do, something to do." Then a sly smile came to his face. "I wonder what Bradley is doing right now?"
He sat up and swung his legs to the floor. As he was putting his shoes on, someone started to knock at the door.
Schuldig looked up at the door and dug for the minds of his visitors. He frowned. After Schu finished putting his shoes on, he went to the door and opened it.
He was greeted by two figures, both in dark colored suits, standing stalk still outside the room. Schuldig recognized the two men immediately. They were two of the guards that seemed to be everywhere at the same time. The two of them also seemed to like to follow Schuldig, constantly watching him if he stepped out for a smoke or a walk. They were quite the nuisances.
Schu leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms. //So, to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?\\ he questioned the two men.
The one tilted his head slightly at the sudden voice coming from a mouth that didn't move. They both then turned and looked at each other.
Schuldig looked at them with amusement written all over his face. He wondered if he should play with their minds like he always did since he was looking for something to do. But he decided to see why they were paying him a personal visit this time.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" He still leaned comfortably in the doorway as he waited for a response.
The man to left spoke, "We are here, Herr Schuldig, to escort you down to one of the meeting rooms. If you will please come with us."
Schu shifted his weight slightly. "First off, please don't call me 'Herr'. Schuldig will do fine. Second, is this about those Este people testing me?"
The two of them stared at him. Then the other one spoke up. "Her.err.Schuldig, then.if you will please come with us."
"Jeez, even an 'I don't know' would suffice." He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and started walking down the hall. "You know, the more you two try to seem and look intimidating, the more dorkier you two get."
The two guards looked at each other, and then proceeded to follow Schuldig down the hallway. As Schu walked, he let out a yawn and stretched. Digging through those twos' minds was really boring.not much in there. And they didn't know anything about what was going to happen him. Completely useless.
"Herr Schuldig," one of them called out. Schu stopped and turned to see which one of them the voice came from. Both men were stopped by one of the doors in the hall a few paces from where Schu was at that moment. He walked over to them to see why they had stopped.
"We need to go down this way," the one said pointing to the door.
Schuldig looked at it. The door had one of those 'Achtung!' signs on it because no one was supposed to go in there. He didn't even know what was beyond the door and the more he thought about it, the more he didn't want to know.
The one guard pulled out a key and opened the door. The three of them walked in. Schu walked in, and to his surprise, what was beyond the door was an elevator. The door closed, sounding like it automatically locked itself. The other guard opened the doors to the elevator, the three of them stepped in, and down they went.
Down indeed.
Either the elevator was going really, really slow or it was descending very deep into the ground. There was no indicator in the enclosure that said what floor they were at, but Schuldig could have sworn that they had descended about 5 or 6 floors, and they started out on the 3rd floor.
Schuldig was growing somewhat nervous, not knowing what was going to happen and such. These two lent no help. He figured that where he was going was down to be mentally dissected by those three old coots. Maybe if he put himself into one of his little coma-like-states, they'd go away and not touch him; but they most likely wouldn't. They would most likely just dig into his mind anyway and he didn't know if he had any of his own mental blocks up when he was unconscious.
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened to a long hallway that was poorly lit. Single florescent light bulbs lined the center of the ceiling as far down as the hall went. Schu thought he saw a couple of doors scattered alone down the walls, but wasn't quite sure.
The two guards stepped out and started to walk down the passageway. Schuldig followed a couple of paces behind them, glancing around at his surroundings: brick and stone mostly, with a couple of cockroaches here and there. He was correct; there were a couple of door scattered along the corridor. They weren't marked at all, so he had no clue as to what was beyond them.
They got to the end and turned a corner to the left. Schuldig looked back to where they had come from, the elevator but a speck at the end of the hallway. He turned his head back and had to stop before tripping over one of the men. They had stopped and opened the first door on the right.
"If you will please step inside," the one motioned. Both of them had stepped to the sides of the doorway to make a path for Schuldig to walk through into the room. He peeked in before entering, but didn't really see anything. The room seemed to be more dimly lit than the corridor.
He stepped through the doorway. Schu was able to see better once in the room. The room wasn't very big at all. There was a table with three chairs and a couple of other chairs to the side. Opposite the table was another chair, but this one looked different. It had arms and a high back to it. It also looked like there were.straps? Straps on a chair? Why would there be straps on a chair unless you were going to tie something to it.or someone.
Schuldig started to back up slowly. "Umm, guys, are you two sure we're in the right room?" Just then, he felt something strong grab him. Not his arms or his shoulders, just him, his entire self. It felt like, a force field of sorts went up and seize him.
He struggled. Schu fought at the field with all he had. "Let go!" he yelled out. He then saw the two guards walk around into his view. "Please stay calm Herr Schuldig."
Schu reached out with his mind to fight them. He felt their hold get weaker but it wasn't enough to break through. They dragged him over to the chair, Schuldig struggling the whole time. They were very quick about it, throwing him in the chair. The longer they waited, the more Schu was in there minds. The telepathic net held tight as they manually tied the straps and such around him; his legs, his arms, his torso, his head. Even after the force field was removed, Schu still struggled, but to no avail.
No escape.
Figures appeared in the doorway. Schu moved his eyes to see who was coming through the door. Those three Este creeps, then the dean, and then Crawford. Schuldig followed Crawford with his eyes, which in turn was watching him as he sat down in one of the chairs on the side of the room.
He said nothing.
Schu looked at everybody looking at him.very nerve-racking. //What the hell is this?!\\ he called out to the one old lady.
//You are a mental creature child, so you will defend yourself mentally. No physical help. This is to make sure of that.\\
//You call this a test?\\
//Yes, we do.\\
The other two thought out loud so Schuldig would hear them, "I think he will fail this." "He will serve us and our leader well, if he has the power they say he does." "This is a waist of our time." "I think this will be interesting, seeing him get his brain fried."
All this was not comforting to Schuldig. He felt the old woman slipping into his mind, picking at everything in there. What would she do if she realized he thought they were full of shit? Mutilate his mind? Kill him? Brainwash him from the inside out? He couldn't let her get any farther than she already was.
Granted, with the amount of consciousnesses surging through his head, he has learned not to be susceptible to too many thoughts and ideas, but this was different. He was most likely going to have certain thought processes implanted into his brain manually. He needed some way to stop this old chick from doing this. He didn't want to know the outcome of her doing this.
She was strong, and brutal. To Schu, it felt like her hands were strangling his mind; strangling and ripping it. He actually felt physical pain because of her. His entire head hurt, not just his mind, his face, his ears, his skull, everything.
He needed her out of there. He had to make her think he was nothing compared to her and that he was a good little Este follower. That's what she wanted. He sensed that's what she wanted. She dug for it.a mental ax; that's what she was.
Schuldig went through his own mind and found as many other minds as he could. They were still there, other's minds in the back of his. He grabbed them, all of them and threw them at her. He pushed the strongest mind in there up to the front of his own mind.
The old bag sensed something going on. She attacked even more furiously. Schuldig let out a scream. He tried to move around, but the straps holding him to the chair held tight. He needed out of there. Schu flung his stream of consciousness behind all of the other minds. When he did so, her hold seemed to loosen, but not enough.
Let go, let go, let go.
He was trying so hard; Schu's body began to shake. All of his energy was going into keeping other minds out in front of his own in order to fool her. It was becoming harder and harder to do so. What mental barriers he had to keep his own consciousness in check were starting to fall. He didn't know how much longer he could hang on. You know, if he really wanted to kill himself, he could think of easier and less painful ways of doing so.
The three Este elites rose up from their seats. Crawford tore his eyes away from the shivering figure of Schuldig to look at them. They walked around the table and proceeded out of the room.
"Aren't you going to release your hold on him?" he questioned after them.
They stopped and turned. "Our hold is no longer on him. He is on his own now, Mr. Crawford." They turned and continued on their way. Fräulein Menschenfeind stepped into the hallway and watched them start to walk away.
Crawford went over to Schuldig, who was still shaking, although it seemed more violent now. He grabbed his shoulders. "Schuldig. Schuldig! Snap out of it." Schu continued to shake.
Schuldig's mind seemed so far away from his physical body. It floated in a space between the physical and death. He needed to get back; he needed to be pulled back.
Crawford yelled at him again. "Schuldig, wake up!" Then he punched him.
Schuldig's mind came screaming back to his brain; still holding onto that one last barrier he had.
He stopped shaking and slowly opened his eyes. A blurry figure stood in front of him.
"Schuldig?" Crawford looked at him. Schu's eyes then rolled into the back of his head and his body went limp.
******************
"Fräulein," came a voice from down the hall. The dean speed-walked down the hall to where the voice had come from.
"Yes, ma'am. What is it?"
"We have decided that he will be a valuable addition to our family. See that he is cared for."
"Yes, of course, ma'am." She stopped and went back to the room.
Crawford undid the straps that were holding the unconscious figure to the chair. He started with his feet and proceeded up to his head. As he was undoing the head strap, Fräulein Menschenfeind stopped at the doorway.
"They want him. Get him up to the infirmary." With that she left.
"And how do you expect me to do that?" he mumbled to himself. He finished undoing the head strap. When he did, the limp body of Schuldig fell off of the chair and into Crawford, who caught him.
"I wish I could have warned you, not that it would have helped any. They still would have fried your brain." Crawford sat there on the ground holding the comatose telepath in his arms. "Oh, Schuldig..."