Through a Board Director's Eyes: A tale beyond the RDNA-verse.

Or, a snapshot from within the Agency.

Chapter 4 - Heir to Dust

It had been weeks since Logan Herz returned from his last "undertaker" mission with the young boy. The aging Agent had barely been able to get much sleep, spending the past days trying to focus on the piles of data that he was able to gather from the now dead world. And on his true origins, he thought wearily while glancing about his old-fashioned, carpet-covered office. His mind, however remained on Jonatan. He knew that Catherine would take great care of the kid's health. But there's more to it than just that. Much more.

"Severe malnutrition and starvation. Severe scarring over 70% of his body. Signs of physical abuse, torture and extermination," the British woman sighed across from him as she read through her findings from a data tablet. "His genetics have altered so much from their original make up that the poor child's no longer considered as a normal human being per se, Logan."

The Agent sighed as he leaned on his seat. "What about his mental state?"

He received a frown from his long-time colleague. "I was afraid you'd bloody say that, love. He is severely traumatised, both mentally and emotionally. One of the worst ones I've seen. God forbid, it could be permanent." She shook her head. "I don't know, Logan. Whatever happened to the young lad, I doubt he will ever have something, anything of a normal life."

Deep down, Logan long resigned himself to the notion that Jonatan would never have one. But he would be damned if he couldn't give him something approaching it. His parents would have died for nothing if that were true.

Catherine sighed as she put her tablet on sleep mode and leaned on the wood-paneled table. "The poor boy's been suffering from nightmares these past few nights. Pale as a ghost. He won't let anyone come near him, including myself. He hasn't been eating either. And honestly, it's very worrying to say the least, especially as a mother."

"His real mother is rotting away somewhere, sometime," Logan sighed. "What little's left of her anyway."

The British woman frowned as she leaned closer to her old Austrian friend. "I still don't believe that theory of yours on this personification bollocks. But perhaps you can help the lad better than I could. After all, you were the one who brought him here."

Logan smiled wryly at that, "Ja, I have been thinking about that. Do you really think so?"

"If I dare to hope," she sighed as she returned the favor.

-0-

Looking through the doorway, Logan found Jonatan sitting up on the medical bed, staring out the wide window to the gardens surrounding the Medical Centre and the alien galactic sky soaring above this strange land. Must be quite a sight for him. Just like my first time here. Even now, it still astounded the jaded man.

His mind however remained haunted by the revelation he gained upon going through every single piece of data he had. In particular, the realization that his original suspicions about the child's true parents were entirely correct. Mein Gott, all of it! It was clear that the strangeness of the kid's condition was not entirely from whatever experiments were done on him, and much more to do with his heritage. Which like the photograph of the boy's long-dead family, only opened more questions than answers.

Still, Logan took a deep breath as he entered the room. Besides the few essential medical equipment and seats with the odd desk here and there, the white medical room was largely empty but just large enough to avoid feeling like a cage. And in the middle was the child himself, now wearing the white hospital garments they give to patients here. Here it goes.

"Jonatan?" he asked softly in German.

The boy turned, startled for a moment before sliding into an unreadable frown. "J-Ja?"

The Austrian gave a soft smile to the young boy as he grabbed an empty chair to sit on. "Wie geht es dir? I heard that you've been having bad nightmares, kid."

He could see the boy's body tensing up a bit. Still, Jonatan tried to shrug. "T-They keep happening. But I can manage, Herr..."

"Logan. Logan Herz," the aging Agent replied. His hand slipped into the pockets of his inner jacket and brought out a small, brown paper bag. Inside, freshly baked apple strudel. "Here, my granddaughter made this."

The child was hesitant at first, reluctant before he eventually took the pastry after his nose caught its sweet smell.

Logan silently chuckled as he watched Jonatan pick and examine a piece of the apple strudel. "Go on, bitte. you must be very hungry."

The kid perked his head up to the Agent before tilting his head back to the pastry in his hand. After a sniff, he put the whole piece into his mouth. A few bites and chews later, Logan could see his face lighten up and a smile starting to creep across his pale face.

"Well, do you like it?" The Austrian asked him. "My little sprout's quite the cook."

Jonatan nodded warmly after swallowing. "I-I never had anything like this before, Herr Herz!"

"Bitte, call me Logan. No need for formalities here, kid!" the older man insisted, happy to see the young boy enjoying himself with the pastry. His smile however turned to a frown when his attention shifted to the scars marking the boy's skin. On one of the boy's arms was a tattoo, the numbers '005' painfully stenciled with crude black ink. Along with everything he discovered in that world's dying moments and the child's nigh-skeletal body, he could still only imagine what Jonatan had to go through. "Gott, what happened to you back in that hellhole?"

Jonatan stopped for a moment before turning his head away. There was a sigh, a very heavy and strained one. "Y-You wouldn't want to know," he answered. His body grew even more tense than before, as if he was trying to hold back something horrible from his mind.

Logan noted this instantly. He softly sighed as he reached out to the boy's hand, "It's alright. Those sons of bitches won't get you here. You're safe now."

Jonatan glanced up to the old man. And for a moment Logan saw a shade of violet glimmer in the boy's unnaturally dark blue eyes. The boy then glanced over to the window, the wide greenery gardens and the galactic sky above. "So many stars. This, this isn't a d-dream. Right?"

The old man wearily smiled. "It's not. And if it is so, then I won't let you wake up. Not while I'm alive."

Jonatan nodded. His head looking down to his scarred arms. "Then is, nem, was my world, those horrible people, m-my parents..." He began sobbing again. "Are they a dream too?!"

Logan was taken aback by this. It suddenly became very hard to answer back.Then again, even my old home never got as bad as yours. "Es tut mir leid," he replied solemnly. "Like I said, kid. We can no longer go back. Your world's gone. Just like mine."

There was an uneasy silence from the boy before he nodded as a tear rolled down his cheek. "Ja."

Logan remained by Jonatan's bedside as evening fell over the Hub Sanctuary, as the Agency's domain was often called. There were even more stars glittering above in the strange night sky. The young boy had fallen asleep over a hour ago. Sighing gently as he glanced over to the sleeping child, he ruffled the kid's hair a bit. The rest of his duty and report can wait for now. He had decided almost from the beginning that he would take him in.

For his sake. And theirs. He had never forgotten the sight that greeted him when he first found that child in those wastes. Two rapidly decaying bodies, the rotting remnants of their clothes and hair the only trace of their former identities: a bespectacled, noble man of Austria, and a spirited yet affectionate Magyar woman. Two people he had seen in myriad forms and in various other worlds.Alive. But not this time. He had known all along.

"Frau und Herr Edelstein-Hedervary," he murmured to no one in particular. "I can never replace you. But I'll look after him, I promise."

Soon, he saw Jonatan suddenly tensed up in his sleep. His body arching on itself and limbs began to twitch, "Nein, bitte/i stop," the child muttered painfully in his slumber. Experiencing another terrible nightmare.

"Verdammt!" he swore to himself. The kid's body begun to shake as Logan tried to somehow calm the young boy before it could get any worse.

Suddenly, the child's eyes snapped wide open and let out a sharp, painful gasp. He was pale once again and covered in cold sweat. The boy glanced up to the startled Austrian man, panting heavily as his heart and lungs pounded against his chest.

"Look at me," the Agent snapped. "Just look at me, kid! No one's gonna hurt you."

Jonatan stared into Logan's own weary grey eyes. A look of terror fading as tears started forming. "I-I miss them. Mama. Papa..."

The Austrian scooped the boy into comforting hug, soothing the boy's back as he cried on his shoulder. "Don't worry," he whispered. 'You'll be fine, kid."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm very certain, Jonatan. I made a promise."

The child paused before returning the hug, clinging onto the old man and continued sobbing quietly on his shoulder. It would be a long night.

For some added information:

Es tut mir leid - "I'm sorry." (German)