Maybe twenty or so minutes later, Kat was riding an elevator. Up to an apartment to a girl that she'd never met, and talked to on the phone once. And here she was, standing in front of the apartment, pressing the buzzer in front and watching the door nervously.

"Yeah?" came the voice on the other side of the door, muffled by the wood.

"Escher? It's Kat." She looked down at her fingernails a little nervously and gave herself a quick look-over in the dirty mirror. Bleach-blond bun, still in standard working clothes. She might as well have been a door-to-door salesman or something.

The buzzer grille crackled like a bad megaphone as it delivered Escher's reply. "Hiya. Push the door, watch out for the boxes." There was the click of a bolt.

Kat slid open the door and peeked inside at the pseudo-mess that looked like it had tried to be cleaned but didn't. She stepped inside and closed said door behind her, eyeing Escher silently. As Kat took her first look at Escher, the younger girl was likewise busy sizing up Kat. One hand crept to the other, apparently automatically, wrapping around a finger and clicking it. "...Hi."

"It's nice to meet you," Kat said smoothly, recovering. "I... am speaking to Escher Griffin, right? I'm not making a complete idiot of myself, yet, anyway?" Another eyeing took place. "..You have purple paint on your nose."

At this Escher smiled, a shade less nervously. "I know... it won't shift. Yeah. I'm Escher. Welcome to my apartment... it's quite safe, as long as you don't touch anything, I can guarantee nothing will collapse on you."

"A pleasure, I'm Kat. Sorry about the hanging up in the middle of your question... I barely missed the traffic."

The art student held out a hand that was very nearly clean and now only slightly red-spotted, and they shook.

Kat stepped a little further in and glanced around, a smirk faintly appearing on her lips. "Well, your organization is uh... really organized. The entire piles of crap scattered everywhere thing looks very, very neat."

"It's a system," said Escher, on the defensive.

"I'm sure it is," replied Kat, checking to make sure her hand displayed no red paint itself. "It must be an artist thing. I know other people who're artists, and they all have the most impressive organizational methods."

Escher padded off through the wreckage of what underneath, was probably a very spacious realtor's dream, a hand wavering over various piles in search of the right one. "Yeah, us right-brainers are all alike... case in point... here.'

She picked up a piece of paper and held it out. "Will this do, do you think?"

Kat eyed the picture thoughtfully. "Not a bad drawing, you must be a pretty decent artist... as for the rest of the wording... I'm sure that has some significance to him from you..."

Escher grinned again. "It was how he found out where I lived, I think. As for the actual sketch, it never got finished... I was about halfway through THAT particular piece of life drawing before... something grabbed my attention."

Kat lifted an eyebrow at the artist. "Really, what was that?"

"A certain really, really angry doctor," said Escher. She looked perfectly happy at the recollection, and Kat realised that this girl was naturally optimistic enough to have partially blanked most of the bad news. To emphasize this, her next question was; "Anyway, how come you decided to come over now? Is he better?"

The psychologist turned and smiled a too-sweet smile at Escher. "No..." she started, "But he IS on twelve untested and unsanctioned medications." Her voice dripped sarcasm. "Isn't that just GREAT?"

This time, she got to see Escher's shocked-fish yawp first hand. The younger girl's hands flicked together, and the snapping restarted, putting Kat's teeth on edge. "...He's... WHAT?" she said, faintly, eventually, "But... surely... isn't that, like... illegal?"

Another sarcastic smile and layer upon layer of cynicism emanated from Kat, "Yes, as a matter of fact, it is. As is embezzlement and funding under-the-table. And taking three hour lunch breaks. And... there's more then that, but I'm not going to bother to rattle it off."

Escher, as per usual, was now completely confused, and the thing known as the clue' and she were now so completely separated that there were clear grounds for divorce. She shoofed a bunch of cartridge paper off the just-visible couch and sat down, heavily. "I... ah... oh."

A pause, and then she looked up. "Three hour lunch breaks?"

"...yeah. My boss is really not a nice guy, I've discovered. See..." She tossed the briefcase to the spot on the couch next to Escher and unlocked it. "That pile of papers is all illegal drug testing, embezzlement, illegal funds or all three put together."

Escher picked up the top piece of paper and looked at it, holding it gingerly as if it might suddenly turn into a frog. "Wait... so... your boss is breaking a bunch of laws...and Doctor Octavius is involved how?"

"See..." Kat tapped her lip contemplatively. "Are you one of those people who are against drug testing on animals or whatnot?"

"Definitely," said Escher, immediately and with passion.

"Well, my lawbreaking boss is breaking laws on a certain Octopus."

After a moment, Kat became aware of a silence on the other side of the sheet of paper. A hot, powder-keg sort of silence. She lowered the paper. Comprehension had landed. Escher now looked primed and ready to explode. And her first words echoed Kat's first thoughts when she had seen Otto Octavius in that room, "We have to get him OUT of there."

Placing the paper down upon the stack, Kat looked up at Escher, her expression falling slightly. "Yes but, wait."

Escher was fuming, her thin artists' fingers balling up the hem of her stripy sweater. "Wait? Wait? I thought you said this guy's using...Otto...like some kind of lab monkey. We have to get him OUT. The sooner the better..."

She looked up at Kat. "...right?"

Kat eyed Escher professionally. "Sit down, and let me finish my damn story. college students..." She rolled her eyes. "Always jumping to conclusions."

The girl with the purple hair gave Kat a half-hearted attempt at a glare, but sat down nevertheless.

"That's what I thought." The psychologist eyed the college student before sitting down next to her. "I was about your age when I met Otto, y'know. Good times."

She leaned back on the couch and tapped the scar above her eye. "Yes, yes, good times."

Escher gave her a sharp look. "Did they give you that?" She said they' automatically, Kat noticed, not he'.

"Oh, no," she replied automatically, casually, as if talking about this certain them was nothing out of the ordinary. "I got it from hitting my head on the corner of a hospital table, saving them." After a moment, she felt she needed to add for the sake of said them; "They did, however, sew it up for me."

The girl nodded, then laughed suddenly. "You know, you're the only other person I've ever met...apart from Spiderman... who I've ever been able to talk like this to. It... takes a bit of adjustment, I can tell you."

"Yeah, It's a little creepy for me too, but it's my job to talk creepy, so, I do a better job of disguising it."

Escher gave her another scalpel look, which announced pointedly that Mr. Impatience was still in the house. "Which is why I'm actually about to listen to you when you tell me why we aren't currently MOUNTING UP."

With a sigh, Kat cocked her head to the side. "Did you ever stop to consider perhaps he belongs there?" she asked, her voice quiet again.

"Of course not," said Escher, too quickly. Kat, who had seen the flicker in her eyes before she had spoken, waited.

"...He's sane. You know he's sane." Another pause. Then, as Kat expected, the girl dealt with the nasty nag of uncertainty she was feeling by getting annoyed. "Well, what do YOU think, Miss Psychologist?"

Kat crossed her arms over her chest, and gave the art student a sideways glance. "Don't tell me you never thought he was a bit off in the head. Because if you do, you're lying to me and I know it. Because even I did, at some points. And even if he wasn't, you knew his connection with the tentacles, isn't it possible..." and she pulled the hair tie out of her bun and twirled a ringlet, then looked up at Escher and narrowed her eyes, "that something could have happened to them, and affected him secondly?"

Escher shrugged. "When someone is yelling at you about how things like conscience and emotions are, ummm, glorified diseases', it's easy to think that they might be a bit off in the head'."

"Never heard that one before. But regardless, if he is insane, then it's probably possible to get Mereii arrested, but leave Otto in there, which, as much as it pains me to say and think, is where he may belong."

"But, surely... it's these weird drug things, isn't it?" The girl blinked, recalling her own experiences with medication, all of which had involved mild soporific sedatives. "I mean, is he like, all drowsy?"

"Drowsy wouldn't begin to describe it, Escher. I've taken him off all his medications, so tomorrow, if he's sane, we'll know."

Escher's next question surprised her. "...Is that safe?"

Kat looked thoughtful for a moment. "No less dangerous then testing drugs on him, I'd think." She looked at the artist for a moment of silent observation. "I don't think you're understanding the difference between catatonic and drowsy. I'm not talking about sleepy here, Escher, I'm talking about one step next to a coma, or the same." A pause. "The reason I think it's the medication is that had it been a catatonic state, he would not have such spasms."

Escher's expression was one of someone who badly needs a dictionary, preferably a medical one. "Catatonic. Spasm."

"Catatonic, it's when you become a vegetable. I hope you know what a coma victim looks like?"

"Yes...like in Psycho."

Kat opened her mouth to reply, and stopped as something furry brushed against her leg. "No, you idiot," she grumbled, clearly not used of talking to people who did not speak her language. "A coma is- I didn't know you had a cat."

"Mrrrrr."

"Mrrrrr to you too." She patted the feline's head briefly, then back to Escher. "It's when you stare at the wall and think nothing, sort of like..." She stopped talking, her hands dropped to her side in a moment of complete, total stillness and silence, to the extent of creepy.

Escher watched her, wide-eyed. "Doctor Octavius...like that?" she said, eventually. "I...well, I'd like to say I can't imagine it. But I've got kind of a vivid imagination." She shuddered. "And please stop that, you look dead."

Snapping out of it, Kat nodded. "Yeah, just like that. Tentacles too, and that's the point. He looks just like that. except more so."

Another shudder. "It HAS to be the stuff he's on," said the younger girl, apparently to convince herself. "It HAS to be."

"There's a good chance it is. More then half, I'd say, but again, we can't be sure."

"Well..." Escher shook her head, fingers once again twisting at the hem of her sweater. "Whatever it is...however bad it is... if it's like you say..."

"Just keep thinking worse, you'll get the idea." Kat forced a smile, then looked away, the muscles in her face twitching back to a frown, "I hope it's the medication" she said softly, worry finally seeping into her voice. "I really, really do," She bit her lip for a moment and blinked, then shook her head. "Gah...I'm getting sappy."

Escher gave her a timorous smile. "Well, look at it like this... whatever it is... if he's as far out of it as you say, at least he's not suffering or anything, right?"

"I have no idea."

One

after three?

The green and yellow machine of doom and hell screeched it's call at 7:00, as per usual. This time, however, Kat was smarter with it and gave it a well-aimed smack, hitting a conveniently spaced snooze button. Ten more minutes of respite for her.

Upon reflection, the girl noticed that ten minutes was not as much as she'd like. The obnoxious mechanical shouting of the alarm clock was nothing like the cool and complex scritching the actuators spoke with.

Oh yeah.she thought to herself, finally sitting up, Picking up Escher today to see Otto.

With a few muttered curses and another few meek prayers, Kat stepped into the shower and let the hot water hit her body as she leaned against the tile. It was strikingly cold against her bare skin coated with hot water. "Please, let this work" she pleaded to whatever would listen, "Please"

She turned the shower off and glanced at the clock, and of course, was horrifically late. The neon-red letters gleamed at her unhappily, bearing an uncomfortable 9:30.

"Yeahhail the lateness" she muttered, changing and fixing herself up as she grabbed the keys and strolled down the hall, heading to her call. Luckily, she was late and the traffic was minimal by New York City standards. Stopping down at Escher's complex, she took the elevator and stairs to the top floor and knocked on the door. The door creaked open, revealing Escher Griffin in all her purple-haired and stripy-coated glory.

"C'mon. I know it's early. Let's just go before something horrible happens, like traffic starts again."

Escher just glared up at her, the lines of sleep clearly showing on her face. However much the girl had got, it was clearly not enough. Rolling her eyes, Kat ushered the girl down and to her car, in which Escher finally looked up again.

"Not bad."

"My mom bought it for me when I got my bachelor's. Nice thing, but can't say I wouldn't go for a BMW."

The two of them slid into the seats, Kat's eyes on the road. In the eerie silence, Katarina heard a strange noise; a sort of noise that she sure hoped wasn't her car.

Snap. Crik. Snap. Crackle.

At the red light, Kat turned to look at Escher, then down at her twitchy hands. "Quit cracking the knuckles."

"Nervous habit."

Kat rolled her eyes and turned back on the road,

Snap. Crick. Snap.

"ESCHER!"

She nearly missed the curb as she pulled in to the spot in front of the building as she shouted at the other girl. With a set of jerky and irritated movements, she opened the door and got out, motioning for the artist to as well.

"Just play along with whatever happens. And remember, Otto is not a good guy."

Rolling her eyes, Escher nodded. "I know all about it."

The clock ticked loudly in the silence of John Mereii's office. The doctor himself was seated behind his desk, immersed in the Bugle's morning crossword. Tick, scribble, tick, scribble, cross out, frown, tick.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

The door opened silently well-oiled hinges. The stark light was interrupted by one figure, trailed close being by a smaller one.

"Dr. Mereii? I just wanted to let you know that I considered your thoughts a little more last night and I was thinking that maybe you had the correct thinking and not me, I guess I think too much of myself... ...so, on that note, I just wanted to check and make sure you knew I was bringing another person to look at Mr. Octavius, she might have an impact upon him or him upon her..."

Mereii blinked and put the paper down. "Kat. Good morning. Well, I'm glad you've decided to fix your attitude." He shifted his bespectacled gaze from Kat's bright smile to the girl at her side.

"And this is...?"

"This is Escher Griffin, John, who was abducted by Mr. Octavius earlier, I was thinking she would help me today," Kat gave Escher a shut up and smile' poke in the back.

Dr. Mereii gave the stripy-sweatered Exhibit A a long look. "And exactly how do you theorize that this young lady is going to help you achieve progress, hm?"

"Well, she had more experience with him then I did," lied Kat smoothly. "So I thought she could maybe translate some of the behaviour he's displayed lately, better then I."

"Hn," Mereii commented, eyeing Escher through his wire-rimmed glasses. He eyed the artist for a long moment before finally saying, rather then asking, "You were the one who was kidnapped about five years ago."

Escher nodded, "Yes, sir."

Finally standing up and pushing his chair out, he walked around the desk in a series of fluid movements similar to a panther and looked down at her from an angle that made him seem a hell of a lot taller to the college student, "Aren't you afraid to see your captor again?"

Escher looked up at Mereii, and to Kat's surprise she did look afraid... very. She dry-swallowed and her nervy fingers promised to do some damage to her sweater hem. "... Um... well... yes, Dr. Mereii... I suppose you could say I'm pretty much terrified. But from what Kat tells me, I think I might be able to help her find out what she needs to know from that..." her voice shook slightly, "freak... so I'm ready to do my best. Sir."

Mereii smiled down at Escher, the first real genuine smile that Kat had seen on him since they'd first met. "You could learn a thing or two from her, Katarina. Anyway..." the man continued, turning back and sitting back down at his Italian leather chair. "Here's a card..." He opened a drawer and held a key-card out to Escher. "To get in."

Escher took it, her own smile small and full of trauma. "Thank you, Doctor."

"You're quite welcome. Katarina," He looked up at the fake-blond, who flashed her own smile and lifted an eyebrow, "You can go."

Kat nodded briefly and ushered Escher out, closing the door. The two of them began a brisk pace down the hallway as Kat looked down at Escher, "Are you really that scared, or were you just doing a really good job bullshitting?"

The younger girl's expression was twitching, as if she was trying not to laugh. "Kat, I have had to play along with more analysts than that creep had diplomas on his walls. What do you think?"

"Ah, good, you even got me worried for a moment, and I've had eight and a half years of schooling to figure out people," she replied. "You're very, very good at it."

Escher grinned, dryly. "Thank you, ma'am. Besides, I'm kind of a little insulted that you'd believe for a second that I could use that word to describe Doctor Octavius and mean it."

"Yeah, that's why I doubted. If you haven't used something like that," She pressed the seventh floor button as the elevator began to climb, "you would have seriously gotten me."

As the car rose, Escher leaned against the wall and examined the card Mereii had given her. "So, according to this, my name is "Natalie Roper" and I'm a "sanitization engineer". I take it the security in this place doesn't allow for guest passes."

"Oh yes," Kat replied as the elevator opened with a ding as the two of them stepped out, "You know, the criminally insane patients get visitors all the time."

She stopped for a moment in front of 708. "Do you mind seeing my other two crazies?"

"No..." said Escher, still reading her pass, "In fact, it'd probably serve as a good tutorial."

"Hardly, because the three of them I deal with are radically different." She zipped her card through the slot and opened the door, steeping in softly."Star?"

The dirty-blond mop near the back-right corner of the room lifted a little and turned, showing one jaded blue eye. "Hihi, Kitty!"

Kat took a couple of steps inside the room, a move which gave Escher the option of following her, or having the weighted door slam in her face. She chose the former, and that was how the trouble started.

"Hey, Star," replied Kat, moving over to him and sitting down. "How are you?"

Star scooted himself to face Kat. "Like I am always, I miss them so much and I want them back," he replied, frowning a little more. His eyes refocused on Escher, who was almost directly behind the psychologist. They then shifted to the spot next to her. At first, his expression remained the same, but his weary baby-blues blinked and he scowled, an expression which didn't seem to fit his mellow face.

"Stealer!" he shouted, now definitely glaring at Escher, or perhaps more appropriately, the space next to her.

"Huh?" said Escher, taking a step back.

Kat frowned in response, also taking a step back. "What are you talking about, Star? She's not a Stealer."

"She's a stealer, Kitty!" the boy responded vehemently. "She has a shadow and I hate it and I can see it even though she thinks she can hide it from me and them! She told me that I don't need them and she's listening to it and that's bad and I want her to get out of here! Make her get out of here, Kitty! It's right there!" He pointed to right next to her. Kat suddenly realized why he was classified with schizophrenia. "Right there! Too close to me! If it gets any closer it could hurt me and them and take them away even worse then it has now!" He was trying to shift himself to either attack her or scoot away from her, but Kat couldn't tell which it was.

"I'm gone," said the girl, hurriedly, pushing on the door. "But I'm not a...whatever!" she shot, as it closed behind her.

Star glared at the door and looked over at Kat, "She had a stealer" He muttered darkly.

"She's not a stealer, Star;" she responded again, still frowning. "What makes her a stealer?"

"She had a stealer with her, so she's a stealer too," Star told her, as if this was a well known fact. "If you have a stealer then you are a stealer. But you're not a stealer, Kitty. You don't have one, not like her. You actually have one of them following you. You're so lucky."

Whatever was following her could wait, as there were other issues at the moment. Star, she knew, wasn't changing anytime soon. "StarI'm going to see what I can do about getting her away from you, okay?"

He nodded, beaming again, "Thank you, kitty, you're the best best thingy besides them!"

Internally awwww'-ing, Kat stood up and ruffled his hair, then stepped out, shutting the door behind her, "Well, I've never seen him do that before."

Meanwhile, Escher leaned on the sterile white of the corridor wall, breathing out heavily. Her first encounter with a truly insane person, and it had not gone well. Walking a little way down the corridor, she looked at her own reflection in the glass observation panel of cell 709 and tried to work out what exactly the man with the blue eyes had seen that had made him hate her on instinct. She couldn't see anything herself, but then, her eyes weren't insane. Just mildly neurotic.

Then she focused again, and suddenly found herself staring right through the glass and into the room beyond.

Kat looked around. Escher was standing a little way away, staring through the window of cell 709. From as much of her expression as Kat could make out, she looked as if she wanted to turn away but couldn't quite do so, "Kat..." she murmured, "who's that?"

Striding over to Escher, Kat placed a hand on her shoulder, replying nonchalantly, "That's Chet. He sees the future."

"It looks like he's seeing right through my head and out the other side," said Escher, faintly.

"It looks a lot creepier when you're not looking through a thick bazillion-times reinforced glass."

She slid her card through the door and stepped in, beckoning in Escher.

"Hello, Katarina. Hello, Escher."

This time, the younger girl looked like she definitely wanted to stay outside. "Um...hi...Chet...how exactly did-"

"I know your name?" Kat noted dully that he was standing this time, and from the marks on the floor, he had been pacing before Escher had arrived, "Why, you told me, of course."

Escher looked at Kat imploringly, as if praying for a thread to grab on to. "He can see the future?"

Kat nodded, "Apparently, considering every prediction he's made since I've known him has been correct, and that's what he says. I can't think of any other explanation."

Karos, however, strode up to Escher and looked down at her, giving her a faint smile that had more then faint creepiness, "Your name is Escher Griffin, and you're going to help save Otto Octavius along with Katarina," He said calmly, turning away and striding to the end of the room, "Well," He started again, hooking Escher's eyes for the second time, "I wouldn't want to keep you waiting."

Escher looked at him, carefully. "Yes. I suppose I tell you that, too?"

"Escher-" started Kat, warningly, but Karos merely returned the stare, leaning slightly against the padded wall.

"That's right."

"So..." continued the girl, slowly, as if working it out in her own head as she spoke, "what happens...if I don't?"

The other girl bit her lip, "Escher, that's probably not the smartest question to ask..."

She trailed off, as the silence stretched out to an unbearable length. Kat saw that the tall man's eyes had narrowed to dark, predatory slits. Finally, he shifted slightly; a movement that made both Kat and Escher take a step back, and repeated, slowly and deliberately:

"I WOULDN'T want to keep you WAITING."

Every syllable was emphasised, each sound hit with almost painful precision. The words were sharp, as if each letter were filled with a dozen little razor-blades that shot out as he spoke. Kat watched Karos evenly, fear curling in her stomach. She had learned a few things about Chet Karos, and one of them was that this man did not scream when he was angry. And she could tell right now that he was furious.

And as crazy as it sounded, she was scared of him at the moment, the two unnaturally-brilliant green lines that peered out from under thick eyelids, the familiar cocky and creepy smirk replaced by a flat line, a line that looked as if it were going to open and reveal a viper's fangs.

"I think we're going to leave now." Escher said, carefully, and did so. Without turning around.

"That sounds like a good idea, Escher," agreed Kat, who walked backwards and only turned at the last moment to open the door and close it behind them as they exited.

"Well..." She started with a long sigh of a breath she didn't know she was holding, "Are you trying to get all my psychos rallied up?"

"I'm sorry!" Escher's voice had gone up an octave, and it took her a sentence to get it back under control. "I...he...just got to me! I'm not exactly used to this kind of thing..."

"Its fine, I'm sure you didn't mean to be a stealer, but as far as asking Chet that, well you could have heeded my WARNING."

She eyed Escher with a bit of a frown as they stopped in front of 712, "Well," Kat started with a bit of a sigh, "Are you ready to see Otto?"

Escher gave herself a mental shake, trying to dislodge the residual effects of Star's dislike and Chet's creepiness. She dug into the inside pocket of her sweater, her hand coming back with a crumpled, many-times-folded piece of paper, which she held like it was some kind of talisman, "As I ever will be."

Kat took a deep breath and slid her card through the slot, opening the reinforced door with a little bit of effort. She stepped inside and stepped smoothly over to Otto. Escher couldn't see her emotion as the psychologist sat down next to her old friend, "Otto?"

To her unease, there was very little response. Possibly the head moved slightly, but it didn't lift, and there was no other sign that he'd even heard her. This was a long way from the recovery Kat had been hoping that the removal of the illicit medications would produce. In fact, this was very possibly the worst she'd seen him as yet, "Otto?" She asked again, quietly, placing a soft hand on his shoulder, "Otto, are you there?"

At her touch, the shoulder tensed, and the head lifted, with all the speed of a glacier. The eyes this action brought up to hers were even cloudier than before, and Kat got the impression that, whatever he was looking at, it sure as hell wasn't her.

Behind her, she heard Escher breathe out gently, volume and emotion of any kind slammed out of her voice by shock, leaving a dry whisper. "Oh...oh god...oh god... Oh god oh god. Christ." she added, evidently going for variety.

Whatever professionalism eight and a half years of schooling had gotten Kat, it might have been nothing, for at that moment, Kat just fell backwards onto her rear and ran a hand over her face. Her expression was haunted, devastated, even.

"Did I..." She asked in a soft whisper to the doctor quietly, her breath coming in shallow, silent whispers, "Do the...right thing for you, Otto?"

At first she thought the sound was her imagination, a faint stutter of a noise just above her hearing threshold. She sat up, sharply, just in time to hear the stutter become a halting sentence, of sorts.

"Thhhhhhhh...the...r-right...thing?"

The hand over the woman's face relocated to her hair, running through the bleached curls. She hid her head behind the arm attached to the hand that was currently in her hair, whatever expression she bore hidden.

Her voice was muffled but understandable, "The right thing...did I...did I help you?"

The gaze dropped. "...help..."

"I'm trying...I...am...I really...I don't know...I..." Her voice broke off, whatever energy she had had to use it apparently sapped.

"Kat," said Escher, urgently

With a deep sigh, Kat looked back up at the other girl's voice, her expression one of failure, "What is it, Escher?" she asked, the spunk that the artist had gotten to know her by gone.

"Is there any point...I mean...can I try?"

"Sure," she replied, standing and moving over, leaning on the wall.

The younger girl padded forwards over the uneven floor and stopped, uncertainly, in front of the man who had once saved her life. She unfolded the sketch carefully between her hands and held it out.

"Doctor Octavius...do you remember me? Do you remember this?"

Kat's focus fell off Otto and Escher and came upon a lifeless tentacle next to her, and for a moment, whatever she felt for Otto funnelled into to rage at the small, friendly blue diode on the actuator. For another four moments, the shock of pressing it is seemed well worth the revival of the tentacle, but seeing Otto like this reminded her why she shouldn't.

He looked up again, at the fragile paper and the pale, expectant face behind it. For a moment, his oblivious expression seemed to flicker. "...Diff...er...ent...?"

Meanwhile, the psychologist eyed the dead actuator next to her, flashing back to the time when they'd destroyed two spoons for being tapped, and poked the cord tediously. It moved a bit, but only from the force of Kat's hand. Also, she noted it felt strangely light; the metal and mechanics in the tentacle had been terribly heavy when they'd been alive, another thing about them that terrified her, strangely enough. Are they in pain? she wondered vaguely What are they like now? Are they like him?

Escher nodded, enthusiastically jumping at the opening, "Yeah, I guess I do look different..." the artist rambled on, hopefully. "My hair wasn't this colour last time, huh? And I had braces, thank God they're gone... and I was shorter...though not much shorter, apparently it's genetic...and...I...um...hello? Doctor Octavius?" She looked up at Kat, imploringly. "Kat? I think he's gone cata...thingie. Please say I didn't do that."

"Catatonic," Kat corrected automatically, "No, you probably didn't." She looked at the covered tentacle thoughtfully for a moment, pressing her lips together, "Maybe...maybe..." She pushed herself off the wall and looked down at Otto, sitting next to Escher and looked the doctor, speaking clearly.

She wasn't quite sure where her newest idea came from, but it was one of those things that simply popped into her mind as she was online and printing out TS Eliot's Burnt Norton. If knew it, maybe she could help him learn more, maybe more could go into more of what he was, so then she was memorizing it.and...it came to this.

"Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present, all time is unredeemable."

It was as though, after so long shouting futilely from the far distance, she had suddenly picked up a hotline phone and spoken straight into Otto's ear. He gasped, body jolting forwards as if someone had shoved him from behind, and looked straight into Kat's face, and then from Kat to Escher. Seeing, yet somehow still blind to what he saw, he blinked suddenly-living eyes and said; "Footfalls echo in the memory down...the...passage that we did not take towards the door we never opened into the rose garden..." There was a short silence, while the armies of confusion and memory fought for control.

"The...rose..." he said again, but now there was a sense of slippage, of something falling away behind his eyes. Both Kat and Escher returned the stare, silently willing him on.

"The rose garden..." Kat edged, watching Otto intently. Her fingers flicked for something her pocket, pulling out the picture of her, Kat, and Halley and showing it to the doctor. Otto stared at the photo, and then at the sketch, with the convoluted expression of a frustrated child who is trying to fit a spherical block into a square hole. Then...

"...Rosie?"

"Yes! Ros——"

hisssssss...

The door opened behind them both, "Katarina? Miss Griffin?"

"SHIT!" Kat swore out loud, turning on the spot and opening her mouth for another spray of expletives, but at the sight of her boss, her mouth merely opened and closed, gaping, "Doctor Mereii, I uh...uhhh..."

Escher moved surprisingly fast, swiftly docking between Mereii and the momentarily floundering Kat. "Dr. Mereii? I think there might be something wrong with this card you gave me. Kat had to use hers to get me in." She smiled, sweetly, flicking the card under her hand to hold it out to him, and incidentally giving the magnetic strip an invisible but rather nasty scratch with her nail as she did so.

John smiled down at Escher, taking the card, "Sorry about that, I'll go get you a new one..." A faint glance up at Otto smoothed his expression over, "How is he? No problems or anything, I hope?" He looked at Kat for a half-second, then down to Escher, clearly trusting the artist's answer more so then the psychologist's, probably for the sheer point of Escher was "traumatized" by Otto, and Kat was his friend.

The older girl took the opportunity to recover from this, "No problems at all, John."

Taking her cue, Escher gave Kat's boss a convincingly baffled back-up nod. "Yeah, Kat's just been trying to get him to talk to me...he's all kind of spacey though."

"That would explain the expletive..." Mereii replied, still a bit dubious. "You can finish the explanation after I get you a new pass. I'll be back in about five minutes."

With this, he flashed a short smile to both girls and opened the door, letting it close behind him. Kat leaned against the wall, "BASTARD!"

"That was either really really bad timing or scarily on-purpose good timing." said Escher, likewise leaning wearily on a wall, "and either way it sucked."

"We were THIS CLOSE, Escher, this close." Kat squeezed her thumb and forefinger together, then looked down at Otto.

The younger girl shook her head, refolding and unfolding the sketch between antsy fingers. "He's gone again, hasn't he?"

She nodded, "Yeah, for the time being. But...I don't think he's really catatonic, what about you?" Kat looked up at the artist, folding the picture of the three of them away.

The attempt at origami apparently not being stress-relieving enough, Escher's hands returned to their perpetual standby pastime. "I...I don't know. He said "Rosie", didn't he?" Snap click. "That definitely wasn't catatonic."

"and if you KEEP CRACKING your KNUCKLES," Kat began vehemently glaring, "I will KICK your ARTSY ASS," Her sudden burst of expression made Escher's eyebrows lift and her hands hide in her pockets, away from each other. But as soon as this happened, Kat returned to her former slightly-defeated state, "No..." she finally agreed, still giving the girl a death gaze, "I think it's probably the isolation...lack of tentacles...medication...that's sent him like this...and our prodding has begin to awaken it.."

Escher frowned. She was having to pick up the rudiments of psychology from scratch, and the effort was evidently making her overtaxed brain squeak. "So...what was all that poetry about?"

"I have no idea, but he recalled it extensively the first time I saw him. I suppose it means something to him, something important...something...really important." She frowned. "And I don't know if it will work again, either."

"Why not?" said the younger girl, now fiddling with the torn edge of the paper in her hand. "I mean, compared to before, that was an amazing response. Why wouldn't it work again?"

"I think this is the worse I've ever seen him remiss. It would take nothing short of a tentacle to wake him up from this."

She could have predicted what would happen. Escher's eyes flicked instantly to the nearest tentacle, to the sickly-friendly blue light on its collar. "We could maybe-"

"Are you crazy! All we need is four tentacles, alive and well, being as they are, here, with just us two, alone, and him." She shook her head and eyed the diode herself, nevertheless.

Anger, again, frustrated at that. "Well, what CAN we do, then?"

"I don't KNOW, Escher!" Kat growled back, "I have NO idea. I have to do my bullshit report for John, either way, so unless we think of something now, I have towell...do it."

Escher squinched the bridge of her nose, glancing back at the drifting and unreachable doctor with an agitated sigh. "Right now, the only thing I want to do is run over there and yell and shake him out of it."

"Go ahead."

Escher looked up, exasperated. "I was speaking hypothetically. It wouldn't work, would it?"

"If it would have worked," replied her companion, "he would be making another fusion reactor already."

"Assuming...assuming he wants to wake up..."

Kat shook her head over at Escher, "Why...wouldn't he? He...can't be happy like this...can he?"

"I'm not the psychologist." she replied. "I mean, I'm assuming Dr. Scary back there has been doing the same kind of stuff you've been doing with him, right?"

Kat smirked faintly, "I have no idea. The illegal drug testing told me whatever it is, it's not good. And to be quite honest, I probably don't even want to know."

Escher shuddered. "Neither do I."

Standing up, the psychologist looked around, "I better get to that stupid goddamn report. I'll see you Saturday, alright? More studying for me on Friday, plus night courses and whatnot happens then too. C'mon, Escher."

With a final glance behind her, Escher followed Kat from the room. After a silent walk and elevator ride, Kat stuck her head in Mereii's office, "Doctor Mereii? I'm going to get some lunch and drop Escher at home. I'll have the report for you a little later tonight, alright?"

The rapid takatak of some document being hastily quitted on the computer screen that hid her employer's head made her grin, a singsong starting up unbidden in her mind. I-know what-you're up-to...

"Fine, Katarina," Mereii said, from behind his screen. Then he leaned sideways into view and gave her a carcinogenic smile. "I'm sure it'll make...interesting reading."

"I'm sure it will," She forced the smile off her face as she said; "I look forward to your feedback."

Kat smiled again and bowed her head before stepping out and closing the door, "Jerk..." she mumbled, stalking down the hallways with Escher in tow, pulling in the Focus out of the parking spot and down the city traffic.