The dark BMW pulled to a stop in front of the apartment complex that was owned by SZ, Schwarz's current home. Brad sighed lightly and glanced at the building he'd left hours ago to go visit Schuldich's grave as he often did. After leaving the cemetery he'd driven to a park nearby and just sat on the snow-covered fountain, the water from it drained for the winter season. He needed time to think, peace and quiet to properly focus on the vision to get more information about it and filter and control his gift. He needed all of this so that he would properly be able to carry out actions to not have that vision of the future come to be present.
He knew what he had to do. He wasn't quite sure why or how these events came to be, but perhaps all would be explained soon enough.
Shutting off the car the tall dark haired man got out, closing the door behind him as he headed off for the elevator to go to the small suite that Schwarz had to fit all their needs. Punching in the security code, he entered the apartment and just heard... silence. Honestly a very rare thing in the Schwarz household, even with Schuldich's idle chatter no longer plaguing them. Far too silent.
"Nagi! Farfarello! Crocifisso!" he called out, shutting the door behind him, though he figured they were all already aware he had returned.
The slight form of Nagi Naoe came down the hallway, the sound of clacking keys still coming from his room even though he wasn't in there. The boy really used his powers too much but had such careful precision with them, Crawford had no room for complaint. "Farfarello is in his cell... sedated."
Sighing softly, strong fingers came up to pinch on the bridge of his nose before coming down, taking his glasses off. "Another one?" he simply asked in cold monotone, polishing the lenses with slow circles using the cloth he pulled from his pocket.
Ever since Schuldich died twenty months ago, the man had been even more unstable than before. And instead of time mending his wounds, they just seemed to make things worse. The addition of Crocifisso to the team hadn't really helped, either. The one time Crawford had suggested that Farfarello attempt to befriend the telepath as he had their old telepath since Crocifisso was quite the mind game player, the American had received a look from the single gold eye as if he were the crazy one. The Irishman was only good on missions where there could be a mass of blood shed. Unfortunately all other times, he was just a ticking time bomb that had to be kept mildly drugged or fully sedated to keep him under control. The leader of Schwarz greatly disliked having to treat him so, like some sort of animal, but he had no other choice. When he wasn't slowed by drugs, they were constantly on the defense. All of Schwarz had been lunged at on a time or two. Brad because he should have seen Schuldich's death coming, Crocifisso for calling himself Mastermind, even Nagi because he was paired with Schuldich on that ill fated mission and should have been able to stop the events. Farfarello always had a twisted way of blaming events on persons.
Farfarello was just a very unhappy individual with a lot of anger. Well. That was always true. Only now, he was a very unhappy individual with a lot of anger and no true way to calm and focus it. And sometimes it seemed Brad was up there with God on his hate list because he hadn't stopped the White from taking the Guilty One from the Black.
Sigh. They'd all taken the telepath's death badly and hadn't really gotten over it, even a few months short of two years after. Farfarello was just the most obvious of all of that.
"Hai," Nagi said with a soft shrug, leaning against the doorframe to the living room. The sound of the clacking keys finally fell silent. "He discovered where you had gone and got... annoyed. Some upset that Schuldich's few remains are buried in grounds blessed by the Liar."
"I see." Putting his glasses back on, Brad ran his fingers through his hair and glanced at his watch. "Where is Crocifisso. We have somewhere to go."
"Now?" Nagi blinked, eyeing the time. "But it's past midnight."
"Now."
Hair pulled up in a lazy ponytail with long tendrils falling about his feminine features, Crocifisso ambled slowly from his room, clad in designer pajamas with the top fully unbuttoned. He looked ready for bed. "I'm right here, O Fearless Leader." The blonde tilted his head quizzically to the side and regarded the precog, making no point in disguising the fact he was trying to read him. Oh he knew full well he couldn't but it was so interesting making it obvious that he was trying to butt in where he wasn't wanted.
Spend enough time with someone and you learn about the things they hide, by the way they hide it. And the Italian had been with them long enough to figure out when Brad had something up his sleeve and when he'd had a vision. ~/Catch any interesting sneak previews lately, Crawfie?/~
Glancing over at the telepath and knowing full well he was attempting to read him, Crawford just smirked faintly to the man. He didn't even bother telling him not to call him that, it seemed all telepaths had a penchant for giving him ridiculous nicknames and types of abbreviations of his surname. ~/The future is often granting me with 'sneak previews', Crocifisso. The only interesting ones are visions which I can make use of. But in that definition, yes, I have./~
Telling the man nothing else as was his habit, his ice blue gaze wandered over the two to take in their garments. Both were in their pajamas, Nagi wearing flannel ones fully buttoned up but pajamas the same. It really didn't matter, they weren't going somewhere where they had to worry much about appearances for once. "Get dressed or at least get jackets and shoes," he said simply. "It's cold out."
A part of him was wondering why he was in such a rush to go. Though the vision hadn't been all too clear on just when it would happen, the room had been bright with sunlight, not the deep reds of the sunset that had been on his face when it had passed over his mind's eye. All details of the vision had been pondered on and evaluated, one thing he had done while he'd been at the deserted park. He just wanted to see to this long before daybreak so as few as possible complications could occur. And possibly he was eager to see what would could of this... so he wouldn't falsely get his hopes up. Another reason he told Nagi at least so little, not wanting to get the boy's hopes up in case this proved futile and though interesting, little use to Schwarz.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he concentrated on Schwarz, hoping to filter the visions that continually flickered across his mind's eye, watching for one that would be of use. "Nagi. How sedated was Farfarello, how long ago?"
Pausing in going back to his room to get changed as requested, the boy glanced over his shoulder. "Just a half hour ago, and with one of our best."
Touching a finger to his chin, Crawford nodded to himself. "Very well."
Farfarello would have to stay here... hopefully the man would not unstrap himself from the straight jacket and create a havoc, not with one of their strongest sedatives coursing through him. Still he focused carefully for any incoming visions about Farfarello and any dangers leaving him alone could bring, but none came. Visions concerning Schwarz were always his strongest because those were ones he sorted through the mass of future images, ones that mattered to him. But unfortunately, his power didn't show him all that would occur within Schwarz, such as Siberian's final dealings with Schuldich, as well as Schuldich disappearing for days. Those unfortunate incidents he had not been 'blessed' to see. Though he wasn't sure which would be worse... not having seen it, or getting a vision of it all happening in great detail and being too late to stop it.
Precognition was a blessing and a curse sometimes... especially when it didn't work as he wished it to sometimes. He still didn't know why he hadn't foreseen such a major event as Siberian killing Mastermind and thus starting a downfall of Schwarz. He should have seen it, he'd seen similar scaled things before, so why not that...
Pale grey eyes raked over his own form with a sigh. Gods he was sexy. Smirking softly he turned, returning to his room without a word. Right like he was going to rumple his five hundred dollar pajamas by throwing a coat over it. He changed relatively quickly, picking up that the former SZ golden boy was in a hurry. He still took enough time to be impeccably dressed though. His ego demanded it. Pleased with the way his lilac Versace suit draped perfectly over his form and how his flaxen hair seemed to gleam just right and ecstatic with the way the color of the suit heightened the color of his usually dull eyes, he felt ready to be seen in public. Even if that public was just Crawford and Naoe.
Emerging from his room several minutes later, Crocifisso flipped the long curtain of hair back from his shoulder then adjusted his cuff. "Ready when you are, Capo."
~ ~ ~
The ride to the hospital was quiet, the American not saying much despite any questions that came his way from the two. It was clear that he was not going to give any details or let anything slip past his mental shields despite any and all prodding. Nagi just sat in the backseat in silence, watching the other cars go by, curious about where they were headed but he knew from long years of experience with Crawford that any questions would be answered with silence. So rather than waste his breath, he just waited to see.
And blinked in actual shock for a moment when they pulled up to Magic Bus Hospital. The rare emotion visible on his face soon faded and he just waited as the car drove into the parking garage.
It was surprising easy to sneak into the hospital, even for them, and within a matter of minutes they'd made their way through the hallways to wherever they were going. Finding a room, Brad glanced at the name and specifics about the patient on the doorway before nodding and leading them in. Stepping into the room, seeming to blend into the shadows with his dark hair and the dark suit he still wore, Brad just stared down at the dark haired male lying motionless on the bed.
...they came to see some damn man in a coma?! Nagi sighed faintly and stepped into the room and over to the bed next to his leader, His arms crossed over his chest, fingers lightly tugging at the dark gray sweater he'd changed into after taking off his pajamas. It was hardly as flashy and fashionable as Crocifisso's... designer lavender suit... but it was presentable. He didn't like flashy and things that made him stand out anyway.
Staring at the sleeping form, Nagi turned midnight blue eyes up to Brad, completely perplexed as to why they'd come out all this way at nearly two am to come see some comatose man. Maybe Crawford somehow had a Fujimiya complex of some sort.
"I saw a vision of this man dying tomorrow, when they pull the plug on him. He's been in a coma for two years and hasn't shown any brain activity in that time, other than a large jump that had the doctors excited about his chances of recovery twenty months ago. Nothing since then. Knowing that information," he continued, glancing up from staring at the patient's face over to the two he'd brought with him, "anyone care to wager a guess on why we are here, before all support to this vessel is cut?"
A sudden whispered laugh broke out in the quiet of the room. Elbowing past the two other Schwarz members, Crocifisso flomped on the bed and grinned. "Santa Maria en il cielo! I should have known." Lounging back on the bed the telepath looked deep in a highly ironic conversation. He interjected a few phrases some in Italian others... in German. "Ja Braddums, I know." The blonde grinned wickedly using a much-loved phrase that truly annoyed the precog. Yes he knew and he simply loved the irony.
Brad's amber eyes just flickered to the Italian and then back to the still form on the bed, not really as annoyed with that phrase as one would think. At least now he knew that he was right... if he'd dragged Schwarz all the way here in the middle of the night and had been wrong, he was sure Crocifisso would have gladly and quickly made him aware of that. His hand rose to lightly brush his fingers down the man's cheek, wanting to see some sort of reaction from the patient as well as fully let them know they were there. He wanted to see what had startled him in the vision, what had led him here and not dismissed it all as something trivial and unrelated to Schwarz that trickled through his filters.
The low steady beep of the machines monitoring the man filled the room, changing as brain signals shifted to show slight activity and the man's heartbeat increased. "Crawford, we are going to have to hurry before that draws the attention of the nurses," Nagi said softly as he glanced at the monitors in the room but got no answer from the American. "Crawford?" Turning back to look at the man he followed his gaze and just froze.
Pale eyelids that had been closed were now opened, irises of a brilliant green staring up at the ceiling before looking over to the original two members of Schwarz. Though eyes of that color hadn't been seen for nearly two years, they were unmistakable, especially with the sparkle of mischief in the otherwise dulled green gaze. He could practically see a light smirk ghosting over the man's lips. A faint gasp touched over Nagi's lips and he took a step back from the bed, attempting to not just fall over. "Schuldich... but how?"
"I honestly don't know," Brad said but fell silent as he felt a familiar touch curl about his mind, trying to sneak into that silence. His eyes behind the thin wire frames softened faintly, allowing the telepathic touch of his German team member long thought to be dead.
//Brad... Get me out of this godforsaken place. I was starting to give up on you ever finding me.// The man's eyes blinked owlishly at the American, his telepathy sounding tired and strained for reasons that Brad would have to have explained to him later. Traces of the German's thoughts half not believing they were actually there, seeing where he'd been since Ken made a valiant effort to kill him.
Sensing the need for urgency in the three minds present about him, Crocifisso moved silently and quickly to action. He made quick work to remove anything metal from his body, which was little more than a few rings, his watch, and a thin gold chain. From there he removed two of the four electrodes from the man's head and placed them on his own while rearranging the others. "There's no mind here to speak of. Something most likely the brutality of his death caused him to leap his entire consciousness out of his body. With no body to return to since Siberian mangled the hell out of it. He went to the next available one. This one. He's been in a vegetative state and quite dead for some time now. All these machines are just keeping the body functioning. Perfect for a mind with no body. The downside of this was that while the body was fine, the mind had no means of making the necessary connections and synapses to send out any telepathic signals. In short, the mind he jumped into wasn't built for telepathy. The only reason it works now is because I'm channeling my abilities into him so he can talk to you."
Crocifisso moved about the machines quickly setting dials and whatnot into proper order. "This is going to hurt. What I'm going to do is zap enough juice into this brain, to shock Schuldich out. If it works he's got a live conduit to me. So essentially... I've got a new roommate. Now all I need now Crawfie. Is your permission."
//Points for the man in the smashing lilac suit,// came the German's mental voice again with the same tired tone and after Crocifisso's explanation, Brad understood. Having jumped to a plain ordinary body, Schuldich may have just been able to hear the press of minds around him, but he'd never been able to do one of the more useful things with his telepathy and actually send out thoughts and messages. It was a voice he hadn't used for twenty months.
"Telepaths can do that?" Nagi asked softly, watching as the Italian prepared himself for a way to get Schuldich back out of the nearly dead mind and body. Dark shaded eyes glanced at the blond Schwarz member. Perhaps for the only time actually considering him a Schwarz member and not just a replacement, SZ suck up since he was now preparing to 'donate' some of his own mind space to Schuldich so they didn't have to lose him all over again.
//It's not something that's often done but ja, we can.// The deep green eyes blinked and glanced over to watch as Crocifisso finished with the preparations, still slightly confused since the comatose body's sensory receptors were half not cooperating and all of the people's minds were guarded from training. He got bits and pieces of the conversation going on around him, mainly from Crocifisso channeling his own telepathy to him to give him ability to speak, working more as a buffer between receiving Schu's thoughts and sending them to the others. Nagi's question was clear in his thoughts as well as the fact that the blond Italian explained it perfectly. Who he was, he wasn't honestly sure yet. He didn't really care. They could all play catch up later. //A bit of a last resort thing though, it's just a higher level of mind possession and control. In my rush to leave my body I really didn't have time to be picky about whose mind I invaded. Anything would be better than staying where I was. I needed a new body that wouldn't put up much of a fight since I didn't have time to fight a mental battle for who had rights to the mind. This fit the bill perfectly... until I realized I couldn't get back out and couldn't contact you. By then I was in... and it was like a crab trap. Can get in easily. Not out.//
"Yes you have my permission, Crocifisso," Brad said with a faint nod as he dropped his hand onto Nagi's shoulder to pull him from the bed so he wouldn't somehow be harmed by the electric shock.
The blonde reached over and grabbed the crash cart and set it on the maximum setting. It wouldn't be doing any harm to the original inhabitant of the body as it had vacated it many several years ago. And even if there had been any lingering presence within the host body, Crocifisso had little respect for life in general unless it served his purpose, and this one had already served its.
Rubbing the paddles together, Crocifisso busied himself mentally with shuffling about his own mental facilities to make room for the new presence and stretching out his abilities further toward the nurses at the nurses station to ignore the erratic bleeping and lights on the monitors. Without another word he placed the paddles and shocked the shit out of the body.
As the electric shock jolted through the body it lurched off of the bed, every single EEG, EKG, and all other monitors in the room screaming and beeping with the actions. The patient's form fell back onto the bed and fell still, the eyes that were open moments ago having fallen shut once more, and forever.
The two non-telepathic Schwarz members moved in easy synchronization as they glanced about the room from the bed to one another and then finally to the golden haired telepath.
The man's delicate hand brushed off the soft colored designer suit, faint murmurs under his breath about how that was definitely the last time he was ever doing that because mind-body jumping felt no real better the second time around than the first. Though it was Crocifisso's voice speaking, the Italian accent was gone, the deep tones instead tinged with Schuldich's own inflections and the thick German accent in his word when he was annoyed.
"Schuldich?" Brad asked softly, ignoring the body on the bed as he heard the man utter a faint curse in German with that sarcastic edge none could match. Pausing in slowly taking off the electrodes, the man glanced up, the grey-blue eyes set on the Italian's delicate features fringed green around the edges, showing that though the jump was successful, Crocifisso was still mostly in control of the body and could take control back at any time. Schuldich was just in the forefront right now enough to get settled into his new shared vessel comfortably, just needing enough control right now so his full consciousness wouldn't be expelled though there was no place for him to go.
The man's full lips pulled into a light smirk. Schuldich's smirk. "Ja Brad?" Dropping an eye into a wink, he finished gently taking off the electrodes and smoothed the waves of golden hair into place. Blinking as he touched over the blond silk that were a different texture than what he was used to, he ran his finger through the tresses again and brought the tips in front of his face as if for inspection. Finding them utterly perfectly trimmed and split end free, he turned his head to glance in the mirror near the small washroom in the hospital room. "Scheiße. I'm... He's... Tsk. We're, ja, that works, quite lovely indeed."
"Baka..." Nagi whispered and shook his head lightly, watching the man. Figures that one of the first things Schuldich would do after being given life after being dead for nearly two years is inspect the prettiness factor of his new 'living quarters'. But even as he referred to the man as his usual nickname in his insolent teen way, he couldn't keep the faint bit of shakiness from touching his somber tones.
The jolt had sent the Italian into the recesses of his own mind as he let Schuldich's consciousness expand and fill up and all in all get used to its new surroundings. He was mentally exhausted from the ordeal of all the mental shifting and occupying the nurses. He felt his own hold on them weaken as further exhaustion crept in on him. ~/You've got 24 hours Schuldich. Then we talk ground rules and I let you know what you can and cannot do. Oh. And no sex just yet. We had some earlier./~ With a lazy smirk he let that little scene play. It was a bit weak and staticy but he left the memory of it open for Schuldich to replay for himself if he so desired. ~/Let Capo know we've got about five minutes or so before I lose the connection with the nurses so we'd best be getting out of here. You've got all motor control right now so you'd be the best judge right now as to if we can walk out of here or if we need Capo. Oh and you owe me./~As Crocifisso fully retreated and allowed Schuldich control for a bit so the Italian could rest his mind, the icy gray blue irises of the now shared body faded to allow spring green to blossom fully. Glancing at the room he had never actually seen but been trapped in for two years, Schuldich nodded faintly to the voice in his head. He hated being indebted to people, but it was far better than what he had endured for so many months. //Ja, so I do. You rest, I'll behave myself. I doubt Braddles is going to let me out of his sight for awhile. Danke...//
Starting to take a step to leave, he wavered faintly, feeling the effects of the large electric shock on the form. Before he could even blink, he glanced over to see the American already at his side to give him aid. Accepting it with a faint smile, he looped his arm about Brad's trim waist and glanced over at him, scrunching his nose lightly as he adjusted to the new height difference and the new body he was now generously sharing. "We need to leave now. Crocifisso only has about five minutes remaining that he can keep a hold on the nurses before they actually become aware of their surroundings and come inspect that," he said with a nod to the bleeping monitors that were making their discontent about the patient's state very known and very loudly.
"Of course. Come along Nagi," the American said with a nod to the youngest member and the three headed out without a single backwards glance to the still form which had kept Schuldich safe though trapped for so long. Walking out into the hallway, amber eyes glanced down at the nurses' station and then turned left to leave through a stairway, not risking being in the hospital employees' line of sight so close to when the telepathic hold on them would drop.
They easily made it to the car and started for home, the returned German telepath oddly quiet as Brad drove and Nagi just glanced over at him every so often. Emerald hued eyes continued glancing over his new form, inspecting Crocifisso's perfect manicure as well as glancing in the vanity mirror on the passenger visor to see the fair features of the man. It did seem incredibly superficial to be so fascinated with his new form, but he was a man who had been trapped in a limbo of utter darkness, in a body but unable to use it or leave it, never truly expecting to leave it.
Leaning back in the car seat with a faint sigh he smirked, opening up that memory that the Italian had shown him. If he couldn't try out the body in everything it could do, he could at least try to visualize. Not bad... Ah it had been so long since he'd had sex, not since-- With a light frown as he remembered his last interrupted session he crossed his legs instinctively and defensively, ending the memory with a faint scowl. He'd still been in his rightful body when -that- happened. In fact it was after that and when he saw the dangerous glint in Ken's eyes that caused him to leave and rip his conscious self from his body fast. Even if it didn't work, it was better than being slaughtered worse than a pig at Weiß's hands.
The scowl turned to a dark smirk and Schuldich flipped up the visor even after seeing the dark mirth glint through his irises. Maybe it was time he contacted the very ones who made him leave his own form...
//Schuldich, no.//
Blinking as the strong voice of his leader rang through his mind even before he could start reaching a thread out to try to find the Weiß kittens, Schuldig glanced over and started creating a mental barrier in his own mind so the conversation wouldn't disturb Crocifisso. This was a bit odd... in his training he'd learned how to create all sorts of mental blocks, trying to find a way to gain silence, but never had he tried to barricade from basically his own mind. //What?//
//I know how you work. I saw that glint in your eye. Don't you dare go search out Abyssinian or Siberian, Schuldich. Don't go stir up trouble to make up for lost time.// Brad glanced over at the man for a long meaningful moment before looking back to the road. Some things never changed, it seemed.
Frowning lightly, slim fingers lifted to twirl a blond strand of hair about his fingers, Schuldich's green eyes staring at it. It was going to take awhile to get used to being blond. //Excuse me? Since when has it ever been our way to just sit back and let someone who wronged us live out their lives in peace? I've really had nothing to think about but that for a damn long time.//
//Schuldich--//
//Don't 'Schuldich' me. I want revenge, Brad. We're the villains. It's our job to get petty bitter revenge and forgive me if I'm a bit bitter because I nearly was killed by a jealous lover.//
Pulling the car to a stop at a light, Brad closed his eyes and released a faint sigh, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. //The kittens are hardly my favorite group of people either, Schuldich, but I too have had many long months to think about what they did. But more importantly, the implications that brought as well as the new situation your absence put Schwarz into.//
Releasing the strand of hair, he smoothed it back into place and glanced over. //Implications, situation? Care to share? I still can't read you.//
The light changing reflected on his glasses lenses before the car started moving again in a direction that Schuldich wasn't really familiar with. Not unexpected since people like them couldn't live in the same place for more than six months usually, and he'd been gone for twenty. //That day Weiß accomplished something that no one ever has been able to up until then. A number of things really. Not even the SZ Elders were able to do what they did. Firstly, they took something of mine and I never thought I would be able to regain it. They went up against Schwarz... and even with all of our powers and all of our resources... they won. And proved we weren't as immortal and unstoppable as we thought.//
Frowning once more, Schuldich glanced over to the man, pushing back strands of gold from his face. This didn't sound like the Brad he knew... since when did he ever tell him not to try to play with Weiß? Of course the last time he had attempted that it didn't turn out so well...
//But they didn't win anything other than they bought themselves time. Why do you sound like you're giving up? They didn't take anything. They tried to kill me, ja, and everyone thought they succeeded but they didn't.//
Sighing, Brad pushed his foot down onto the pedal as they hit a flat straight stretch of road, wind blowing through his hair from the partly opened window. He didn't expect Schuldich to exactly understand. It had been a realization it had taken him a long time to come to. //Schuldich, simple fact is. We underestimated them: their loyalties to one another as well as their power as a team.//
//Please. They're just Weiß. We're Schwarz and--//
//And you have to realize Schuldich we are not the Schwarz you once knew. A lot has changed over the past year and two-thirds, Schuldich. We aren't even in the same station of life that we once were. I had to do a lot to keep us afloat. And the gain was much, even more than I originally thought. But the cost was great as well...//
//You can't mean...// he said softly, glancing down at the floorboard as buildings passed by them unnoticed by him.
//Where do you think the new telepath I got for Schwarz came from. Picking up telepaths from the cold streets of Berlin is not a common habit of mine. He came from SZ. Very high in SZ at that. But we're back under their thumb in return for that. Very securely under their thumb at that. He's been with us for the past year and a half.//
Schuldich stared at his reflection, noting with irony the only part of that reflection he even recognized were the twinkling emerald irises that he imagined would fade back to their original color whenever Crocifisso took main control again. How in the world that was even physically possible, he didn't ask. The fact that he was alive went against all possibilities, so why couldn't his iris color change as well. //So... where do we go from here...?//
//I don't know yet,// Brad replied, simply and honestly. Schuldich being the only person who would ever get such a straightforward answer from him. //Right now no one knows you're alive but Schwarz. No one expects you to be alive but Schwarz. Let's keep that a fact for awhile.//
//What about Weiß?//
//What about them. We have not really encountered them since the last time I saw you, Schu. They are neither our friends nor or enemies now. Let us keep that a fact as well, for awhile. Who knows. They may prove useful to us if we play our cards right.//
Crooking up an eyebrow, the telepath glanced back over once more. //Do you -know- that or is that common sense?//
Looking back over at him with his usual smirk in place, Brad turned another corner on the way to their current residence. //What do you think.//
//I don't know. I never could tell.//
Without another word, the car continued to drive towards the Schwarz residence. Nagi fast asleep in the backseat, Brad paying attention to the road with occasional side glances at Schuldich, and Schuldich staring at the reflection that was to be his which he didn't recognize.
~ ~ ~
To be continued
~ ~ ~