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The entire Circus was quiet.
Then Edik cried out, "My son did nothing of the sort! He's been here the whole time. Razputin's a good kid-"
Sasha held up a hand. "If you do not release him to us, we will take him by force and you will be arrested as well."
"Darling," Milla said softly, "I'm sure this is all a mix-up. But we can't get it cleared up if we have to add fleeing the scene to his charges, because then he really would be a criminal no matter what."
Edik looked at Raz, then at the two of them. "Let me talk to him for a moment."
Sasha shook his head and told him coldly it was not allowed, then advanced toward Raz, who was shaking slightly. A little focus on Sasha's part, and glowing, electric blue handcuffs attached themselves to Raz's hands, which were suddenly pinned behind his back. A similar device was now locking his knees in position. Milla carefully used telekinesis to place a helmet on his head like the one Dr. Loboto had put on Lili. Raz was then painfully aware of all the eyes of the Circus people on him as he was floated quickly via TK into the jet. This couldn't be happening! This wasn't happening. Forget treason and terrorism. Lili was his soulmate. He would never have done anything to hurt her, ever. He'd rather face a thousand death tanks. How could anyone ever believe, ever even consider… Raz took a deep breath.
Then suddenly he heard it. A second set of breathing, ragged and suffocated, taking one breath for every four of his own. As soon as he gasped in shock, however, it stopped suddenly. Feeling sick to his stomach, he was barely aware of Milla telekinetically pushing him into a cage-like holding area of some sort. Then he looked over at her. She gave him a look that stated clearly she didn't believe for a damm second he'd done it. And he could breathe again. Because someone had some faith in him. Milla had been kind to him and everyone else at camp; surely she'd get him out of this.
"Don't look at him," Sasha scolded darkly. "We have orders to follow, Agent Vodello." Milla sighed and went to join him where he sat in the cockpit. Putting the plane on autopilot, he said to Raz without looking at him, "Razputin, you are hereby stripped of your rank as a member of the Psychonauts. If you are found innocent, your rank will be restored. If not, you will be dismissed without honors or medals of any kind. Also, if you do not forfeit the mental doorway you stole from my lab, I will be forced to add theft of Psychonauts property to your charges."
Raz sighed. "It's in my backpack. Sasha, what's going on here?"
Sasha ignored him and pulled the portal out of Raz's backpack with his mind. Sasha wasn't being cruel; it was orders. And he had to obey them, lest he go to jail too and not be able to help Raz out in any way. Also, it pained him to know that twelve feet behind him sat the very child he'd put so much faith in, arrested and going to be tried for driving someone insane. It went against all logic. So all Sasha could do was hunch forward and pray. Milla started tapping her foot, and stole nervous glances at Raz. She was at her wits end as well. Anxiously she wrapped her arms around herself.
Finally she turned around and asked, "Darling, did you do it?"
"No!" Raz replied truthfully. "I haven't even been IN the Mental World in a week! I promise!"
"Then," Sasha said softly, in a tone of voice he'd never used before, "Let us hope you can reverse the effects upon young Miss Zanotto's mind."
"Come again?" Raz asked, arching an eyebrow.
"You see," Milla told him nervously, "If you can get into Lili's mind and make her sane again, we can drop the charges." Milla turned around in her seat and started raking her hands through her hair nervously. "I'm sorry, but if I said anymore, I'd be hurting more than helping, darling."
Raz felt sick to his stomach. Later, he found out it was only a five hour flight. At the time, it seemed to go on forever, like some endless hell from which there was no escape. He kept thinking that this was just some awful nightmare, that any moment now he'd wake up and this would be a dream. It couldn't be real. Nothing this awful happened in real life. He'd heard that his life would flash before his eyes when he died. No. Instead, it flashed before his eyes as it was being ruined. The first time he'd seen Lili, the events at the asylum, the way Lili smiled at him, the mission to save her father… everything.
Raz stared at Milla and Sasha. How could they do this to him? Surely they knew he'd never hurt anyone just for the heck of it! This couldn't be happening…
Yet it was.
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Raz stared out his window in fascination. It wasn't possible. It couldn't even begin to register in his dream- was this a dream?
"Sasha, is that-?"
"Thornley Towers Home for the Disturbed, back from it's fiery grave," Sasha replied solemnly. "Miss Zanotto is somewhere inside."
Milla turned around and said uncertainly, "Darling, we can't communicate with her. She kept screaming your name over the telepathic airwaves. So this is where we're dropping you off."
The shackles that held Raz down disappeared, and the helmet fell off. Raz rubbed his head tenderly, noting how it was night out now and it all seemed to look just like when he saved Lili two years ago. Sasha handed him something via TK. It was a small mental door, pure white in color, and made out of plastic. Raz stowed it away in his head for future use.
"That is a one way pass into Miss Zanotto's mind," Sasha informed him. "After one use, it will be broken. At that time, it will give off an alarm at HQ that will tell us to pick you up. If you've succeeded, your name will be cleared. If not, I personally suggest you head for the hills. Also, do not throw it away and just leave. It will also generate an alarmed when it leaves your hand but is not in physical use or else touches the ground for more than sixty seconds."
Raz nodded numbly and stared at the ground, looking sick.
"Oh," Milla said gently, "And we'll also need your backpack and every item you have. I'm sorry, darling, but it's the rules."
Raz's head glowed for a second, and out came a list of very incriminating things. A pair of scissors that had a little dried blood on them, a jet black psycho portal with orange spots on it, and a orange orb of some kind that had been glowing previously, but stopped once it left Raz's head. A yard flamingo, Raz's old clothes, the cobweb duster, and everything he'd acquired at Whispering Rock came tumbling out.
Sasha looked at the scissors, psycho portal, and orb. He gave Raz an unreadable look, then went back to piloting. Milla stared at Raz, but managed to smile.
"Well, darling," Milla whispered, "Good luck. I trust you can levitate down?"
He nodded, and, as he approached the opened door to jump, turned and hugged her. Milla patted him on the back and wished him good luck before he jumped out of the plane and onward to the hell that was Thornley Towers Home for the Disturbed.
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I got this idea after watching the National Geographic Channel's one hour special on Atlantis. Isn't that funky?
Anyway, three more reviews and I'll update. I love you people… you're the only people who care about me (besides my mom).