See? What'd I say! New chapter up in less than a week! Yeah baby! (Does happy-puppy mambo)

Glyph- I need to find a new writer.

Disclaimer- I don't own Weiss Kreuz.

Chapter Three

The Elders

Danny awoke to strange noises. It had been a long night, but finally, Schuldig and Robin had been properly cleaned and dressed and put to bed in their predecessor's old room. The room had been stripped before hand to keep Robin from reading any of the objects, and Herne didn't use the apartment enough for anything to be imprinted on the walls.

It took him a moment to remember that he'd been channel surfing on the TV when he'd fallen asleep. But he'd been watching one of the international stations, so why…?

"/Why is there a giant bear doing a jig on the telly/"

'Samson does the mambo, silly.'

"Huh?"

He pulled himself up on the couch, looking down to see Schuldig and Robin staring back at him. They were almost unrecognizable compared to the night before.

With all the knots, filth, and bugs in their hair, Fatima had decided to simply cut it. Both children's heads were now covered in short, uneven locks, Schuldig's being flaming orange, and Robin's dark brown. They wore oversized, but clean tee shirts that the commander had acquired for sleeping. And an enormous amount of Band-Aids had been used to deal with most of the scrapes and cuts the two were covered in. It had been shocking to see how many of the dark stains on their skin had actually been blood, or worse, someone else's blood.

"What are you watching?"

'Sesamstrasse. Don't you know anything?'

Danny groaned. Somehow, they'd figured out how to work the TV, and had found the children's programming, and were now seated on the floor to watch, rat and all.

"So you're awake, eh Danny?"

Rutger walked out of the kitchen with a tray.

"That better be coffee."

"It is," Rutger said with a smile, "but not for you. Frau LeRay will be here any moment."

Not wanting to be called on his foul language for the hundredth time by the children, Danny kept his mouth shut.

'You said a bad word.'

"What the? Oi, you're not supposed to be reading my thoughts you!" He shouted at Schuldig.

'Then don't think so loud.' The boy replied.

"He's got you there Danny."

Commander Matheson emerged from his room. "I could hear that as well. You need to work on your shielding."

"/I can't win./"

"Ah, she's here."

Rutger put the tray down on the dining table and went to answer the door.

"One of these days you should let me knock first, Herr Johansson."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"Frau LeRay," Matheson said, coming to greet her, "Thank you for coming."

Frau LeRay was one of SZ's best healers, and it was very difficult to get a private meeting with her. The small Haitian woman usually tended to only the most powerful and valuable of talents, but there were those who she would willingly do favors, and out of kindness of all things.

"I only wish I could have come last night," she said in her deep purring voice, "Now, let's get to work shall we?"

Curiosity peaked by the new person; Robin peered around the couch to get a good look. Schuldig was still occupied with the television. A quick scan from Matheson revealed that Schuldig was more interested in the fact that the show was in color, something that he was apparently unused to, than with the show itself.

"Ah," LeRay placed her hands on her knees, "There's one of the little dears. My, aren't you pretty."

"Robin's German is limited," Matheson explained when the girl didn't respond. "She's American."

"Mmm. /What's your name sweetheart/" LeRay asked in English.

Robin grinned, "/My name is Robin. What's yours/"

"/That's a very nice name. You can call me Ms. LeRay. I'm a doctor./"

"/Doctor? Are we getting shots/"

"/Maybe, but right now I'm just here to do a checkup./"

"/Do we get candy if we get shots/"

LeRay laughed at that. Matheson sighed. Of course, she couldn't remember her real name, but she could remember that her old doctor gave out candy.

"I have some Frau LeRay, don't worry," Rutger whispered in the woman's ear.

She nodded, "/Yes Robin. Now, may I meet your friend/"

"Schuldig," Matheson leaned over the couch, "Come meet Frau LeRay."

LeRay shot Matheson a shocked look upon hearing the name. Matheson merely shrugged. 'He named himself.'

Schuldig got up and walked over to Robin's side.

"Oh my," LeRay whispered. Without the layers of dirt or hair to cover it, the reason for Schuldig's reluctance to speak aloud was made quite evident. The side and front of his neck were one giant bruise.

"That must hurt dear. Would you like me to make it better?"

The children looked at each other, communicating silently. It had become as natural as breathing for them. Matheson had realized the previous night that he could not properly 'eavesdrop' on their mental conversations, it was so deeply ingrained that it was more like one mind talking to itself.

The moment was over almost immediately. Robin approached LeRay cautiously, and placed a hand on the woman's waist. More specifically, on the skirt she wore.

"Robin!" Matheson snapped.

"No, no, it's alright Herr Woden. She's just making sure it's safe. You can't blame them for being cautious," LeRay said. "An object reader, eh? So, do I pass?" She asked the girl.

Robin nodded and waved for Schuldig to come.

Apparently liking whatever memories Robin had read on Frau LeRay's skirt, Schuldig allowed himself to be picked up and seated on the dining room table, Robin curled up at his side with the rat in her lap.

"Now then, let me get a look at this."

Carefully, LeRay tilted Schuldig's head to the side to examine his throat more closely.

"This is the work of a telekinetic." She said after a few moments, frowning. "A trained one. The larynx is partially crushed."

"Can you fix it?" Matheson asked.

"A moment," she took a sip of the coffee Rutger had prepared.

"Now, I need you to hold still dear. This is going to sting for a moment, but then your neck will feel better." LeRay gently placed the fingers of one hand on the center of the bruise and let her eyes drift shut. For a moment, it was as if the air around them had thickened. Then, the bruising started to turn yellow, fading around the edges.

Schuldig blinked in confusion.

"I'm a healer, dear. That's my power," LeRay said softly. "I want him on soft foods only for the next few days. He should be fully healed by the end of the week." She added to Matheson.

After that, she turned to examining the two children properly.

In the midst of flashing penlights in eyes, listening to heartbeats, and checking reflexes, LeRay began using one of her other skills. She was one of the few non-telepaths in Rosenkreuz's employ able to have two completely different conversations, one mental, one verbal, simultaneously. This time she used it to keep Schuldig and Robin occupied while she interrogated Matheson.

'Woden. What on EARTH happened to these children?'

"Yes dear, she's a very nice rat."

'They were locked in isolation in the crèche for three weeks or so. I can't get an exact time. The caretakers apparently expected them to starve to death. Instead, they began working together to survive.'

'Those bastards. Treating children so cruelly. What did they do that deemed such a punishment?'

"Say 'aah'."

'Murder. From what I've gathered, Robin beat one of the guards to death with a piece of mortar.'

'And the boy?' LeRay was not happy that a child would call himself 'Guilty'.

"My, my, those are some fast reflexes."

'He killed Herr Grigori.'

'Grigori! Now he definitely had it coming. And it also explains something else.' There were few people in this world that could earn Frau LeRay's hatred, and Grigori, overseer of the crèche, was one of them

'Eh?'

'I received a message from the Elders as I was leaving my quarters. They want to meet with you and the children as soon as I'm done with my examination.'

'Do you know why?' A meeting with the Elder's so soon. This did not bode well.

'No. I assume they wish to evaluate the children's powers. See what you've managed gotten your hands on.'

'They said nothing of this when I first got permission.'

'They probably only just decided. Change is in the wind this morning, and not just for your hunters.'

'What happened?' Rosenkreuz and SZ had been around for over a hundred years. Change was something they did not take lightly.

'There was an incident in the seer's dormitory at the school. Some sort of group-dream-vision. Something so terrible it caused half to wake up screaming, and the half that couldn't awaken to go into convulsions. One child nearly swallowed her own tongue, another two are still comatose.' LeRay sighed wearily.

'Do you know what caused it?' This was big, something very big indeed. For something to be able to shake the seers…

'No, though we should have, pardon the expression, seen it coming. There have been five cases of sleep walking in the last week, at least that the students reported. You know how they keep that sort of thing to themselves. And before you ask, I don't know what they Saw. None of the students I spoke to could remember anything other than pain and terror.'

"Okay Robin dear, now hold out your arm for me."

'You're worried Frau,' Matheson thought. 'Worried about the children. I could never understand how someone who's served the Elders for nearly five decades could be capable of compassion.'

'Some things, Woden, aren't meant to be understood.'

Schuldig tugged at the collar of his shirt impatiently. Woden was up to something, but he couldn't read the man's thoughts. He couldn't quite decide what was more annoying, being given a second (though thankfully shorter) bath after Frau LeRay finished her check-up, or that there were people who could shut him out of their heads.

After that, they'd been dressed in clean clothing, and taken to a big castle building that he'd remembered being able to see from the second floor window in… that place.

'Worry? Thinking of the bad place? Why?' Robin asked. Holding his hand, she could feel his frustration easily.

'The grown-ups are keeping something from me/us.'

Matheson had even made sure to wear gloves that Robin couldn't read memories from when she held his hand.

'Grown-ups keep secrets. Maybe ask?'

'Maybe.' Matheson was trying not to take them through hallways that had people, but there were a few surface thoughts that he'd been able to snatch, and Robin's fingers managed to glance the wall a few times. But none of it was enough.

'Then I will.' Robin said.

"Where we go?" She asked in her halting German.

"We are going to see the Elders," Matheson replied.

"Who 'Elders'?" she asked again after Schuldig translated.

"They are our masters."

'Your masters,' Schuldig glared at the man.

"No, ours. Yours, mine, Frau LeRay's, Frauline Ilsa's, and all who live in this place. They own us all."

Pause as the two digested this.

They walked in silence for a bit, the only sounds the soft thuds of their feet on the floor, and an occasional squeak from the rat perched on Schuldig's shoulder.

"We're here.

They stood before a large pair of double doors. Matheson raised his fist to knock, but stopped as the doors opened on their own.

A thin man in a butler's uniform stood at the doorway.

"Herr Commander Matheson," he said, bowing slightly, "The Elders have requested that they be able to speak with the children in private."

"But-" the telepath started, but decided against voicing any complaint. Instead he turned to Schuldig and Robin.

"Go on. I'll be right here. You two remember what I said. Your behavior reflects upon me."

Schuldig just barely caught the desperate thought that followed as they went through the doors.

'Please God don't screw up and get yourselves killed.'

"You shall be called upon when the Elders are finished."

The butler directed them though an ornate living room, and out onto a balcony.

Two old men and an old woman sat around a table drinking tea. If not for his powers, Schuldig might have thought they were someone's grandparents. But someone's grandparents would not be able to hide their thoughts from him so well that it was almost as if they weren't really there.

"Sirs, Madam," said the butler, "The two children Commander Matheson appropriated from the crèche."

"Ah yes. Thank you Rolf," the bald man said, waving the butler off, "We shall take thing from here."

When the butler was gone, the bald man spoke again.

"So you are the ones Woden chose. Don't look like very much do you?"

"But that's only to the naked eye," the other man continued. "I can feel the power rolling off of you, and the determination."

"Now, now, little ones," said the woman, "Don't stand there gawking. Come, sit."

She motioned to a bench along the side of the balcony, positioned so that the three could watch whoever sat there without moving their chairs.

Robin was careful not to let her bare hands touch the bench. Schuldig couldn't blame her. Closer to the Elders, he could hear a faint buzzing coming from them that made his toenails curl.

"What are your names?"

"I'm Robin. This is Schuldig," Robin said.

The woman laughed, "Don't use the poor girl as a puppet, 'Schuldig'. Speak in the way you feel most comfortable."

Schuldig and Robin stared at each other. How had she known that Schuldig was telling Robin what to say?

"We know quite a bit. We know that you are more than you seem," said the second man. "We also know that you know more than you've been letting on. How much do you really know about this place Schuldig? You may speak with your thoughts."

'This is the Rose Cross school. . Everyone has special powers here. When people finish school, they work here, or they work for SZ. This is where they take the kids who are bigger or stronger.'

"/But we aren't going to school here./" Robin added, "/We're going straight to SZ. Because we're really strong./"

"And do you know what SZ is?"

They shook their heads.

The woman laughed again. "You are smart children. You shall figure it out by yourselves."

"Tell me boy," asked the bald man, "Do you enjoy being able to read thoughts?"

'What do you mean?'

"Does it feel good to hear thoughts that don't belong to you? Does it feel good to drink the information swimming in people's heads? I could feel you, trying to flit through Rolf's mind. You were not searching for anything in specific."

The red-haired boy thought about it for a moment.

'Honey. It feels like honey.'

"Like honey eh?" The bald man chuckled. "/And you girl./" he said in English, "/You enjoy a different type of honey, don't you/"

Robin had started sucking on her knuckle when they'd sat down. Now she had nearly her whole hand in her mouth, the other curled on her neck.

"/Blood tastes sweet on your tongue doesn't it/"

She looked away, but Schuldig already knew that it was true.

This time all three laughed.

"Such interesting children. And such interesting names you've chosen," the second man said, "So deceptively obvious in their reasoning. Red robin, with its blood stained breast. But tell me 'Schuldig', what is it that you are guilty of?"

Schuldig said nothing, but thought of the girl he'd seen Matheson watching.

"Certainly not something so simple as that," the bald man said, "Someone such as you would not feel guilt for something out of your control. What is you think you are guilty of?"

Schuldig clutched the rat, memories of older brother and the white rat skittering through his head.

"Could it be that you are guilty of forgetting?" the woman grinned. "Or could it be something else? Guilty of murder in cold blood? Guilty of betraying a trust? Guilty of… lying to someone who saved your life? Of using others for your own gain?"

Schuldig's heart skipped a beat. Where were they going with this?

"As I said, we know quite a bit," the second man laughed, "As powerful as you are, you are not trained. You cannot hide your thoughts from us."

Next to him, Robin's thoughts were whirling. Schuldig had stopped telling her what was going on. He was scared. She did not like it when he was scared.

"You cannot possible expect your plan to work Guilty One," the woman's smile grew bigger.

For the first time in what seemed like ages, Schuldig's power failed him. He could only make a choked whimper, as he stared at the three Elder's in terror.

From the moment he'd become aware of the goings on outside his dark prison, he'd been planning. The man who'd come to the crèche would take them outside, past the brick walls, past the fences, past the guards. He would wait until his strength was back, then he'd leave. He'd take Robin of course, because she was useful, and he'd grown so used to her presence. He'd find home. He'd find the older brother with the white rat. He'd find the small little home with the black and white television. He'd find what the walls and the dark room had made him forget.

"Many have tried to escape us," the woman said, "But there is only one way to escape. Death."

'We will not die!'

Schuldig leapt from his seat, Robin close behind.

"Foolish child."

The two children suddenly found themselves unable to move their legs, an unseen force keeping them rooted to the floor. Schuldig recognized this sensation from when his throat had nearly been crushed. They had that power too?

"That and more," the woman got up from her seat.

The woman Elder walked around the table to where they stood. Even though she was frozen to the spot, Robin somehow managed to get her upper body between the woman and Schuldig, snarling at her. Schuldig hissed, clutching the rat with one hand and Robin's shoulder with the other.

"Look how protective of each other you are," the woman said softly. "Such violent thoughts in your heads. You feel each other's minds as if they were your own don't you? Such an interesting bond you've developed."

She placed a hand on each child's cheek.

It took all Matheson's will not to sigh relief when he'd been ushered onto the Elder's balcony. Schuldig and Robin sat side by side on a bench, heads down, and looking even more sullen than when he'd left them, but to all appearances unharmed. Only one of the Elders was present. The woman known as Tiamat

"Herr Woden," Tiamat said, smiling. "I would like to congratulate you on picking such fine talents for Herne."

Matheson bowed deeply. "Thank you, Madam Tiamat."

"We have evaluated their powers. Young Robin shows great potential as a Blood Tracker. And dear little Schuldig is the most skilled Manipulator I have seen in several years. Yes, they are destined for greatness."

Matheson's one eye stayed rooted to the floor the entire time, "Thank you again Madam Tiamat," he said.

"We have also taken the liberty of giving them an SZ name. Since they are taking the place of one agent, they shall be considered as one," Tiamat continued. "They shall be known as… Loki."

He was sure he'd kept his reaction to the name inside, but Tiamat laughed anyways.

"You have one month's leave to train Loki as you see fit. Dismissed Woden."

Schuldig and Robin, the newly dubbed 'Loki', didn't even bother to hide their eagerness to leave, scampering out of the room with Matheson striding behind them

Tiamat watched them go, and laughed again.

"Worry not Woden. Our dear 'Loki' shows great promise indeed. One day far from now, you must choose one to keep, and one to let go. It is then they will show even more promise. When you are split in half, will you show your true power? Will you have the ability to survive separate from one another, to become your true selves? Then, and only then will you be worthy of the true names we gave you this day. Only then will you become Bloody Mary… and Mastermind…."

Author's Notes:

1-Sesamstrasse: German version of 'Sesame Street', first aired in the 70's. The main character is Samson the Bear, and yes, he does dance the mambo.

2-Loki: Norse trickster god, attributed to having red hair. His exploits include scalping Thor's wife in her sleep, getting his mouth sewn shut by an angry dwarf he'd conned, and being the father of the wolf Fenrir who is fated to kill Odin at the end of days. After orchestrating the murder of the god of beauty, he was imprisoned under the earth by the gods. His escape signals the end of the world

3- Tiamat: Mesopotamian goddess representing primordial salt water. Mother of the Elder gods. She was sliced in half by Marduk, who then made heaven and earth from the two pieces.

Ouch, 12 pages. Now imagine if I'd kept this as part of chapter 2 like it was supposed to be.

Also, check my author page for a sketch of Schuldig and Robin as they appeared in chapter 2.

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