Louise walked down the Cell block, finding it to be actually surprisingly short, to a door of dark metal that much to her surprise opened up. Further surprising her was the fact that on the other side of the door, the walls were not so dark, instead made of a bright, almost whitish blue looking metal it was illuminated by strange glowing discs in the ceiling, and halfway down the hall stood another of the monsters, raising an arm and seemingly pointing into an open doorway to its right, and Louise's left. She could feel the gaze of the one standing behind her and walked forward and stoically as she could, a difficult challenge considering the situation, and found herself by the doorway looking into the room.

She immediately wished she hadn't.

The room was large and circular with a metal slab sitting directly in the middle like an altar. Above it was a giant squashed sphere of metal with lines all over it, and across the walls were shelves of containers filled with Brimir knew what, as well as constructs of metal, many covered in sharp protrusions like knives and needles.

Considering the screams the first boy had let out when dragged off, it was clear to Louise this was not an alter, but some sort of medical table.

"Wait, why would you-, ugh" Louise suddenly felt lethargic as she spoke, like a wave of weakness passed over her whole body making it impossible to stand up or see straight. She couldn't say when she fell to the floor, but she felt her limp body being lifted up and placed on the table, its cold metal surface making her shiver. She could hear whirring noises, the sound of steam, and could faintly see the bulbous mass of metal above break open to reveal arms and limbs of steel with needles and blades on the ends. Before she could scream however she felt a prick on both of her wrists, and then everything went dark.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Louise opened her eyes to find herself staring up at a dark ceiling. It took her a second to realize it was the cell again, but once she did she slowly sat up and realized two things. She was completely naked, and she was in the same cell as Montmorency, who was sitting against the cells opposite back wall in the corner, legs curled up against her body.

"What, did they do to us?" Louise asked slowly, unsure if Montmorency knew she had woken up, or was awake herself.

"I saw a creepy room, like a surgeons, but worse," Montmorency said without looking at Louise. "They stabbed me with something, and took our clothes, but that is all I recall."

"How lucky that you girls didn't get tortured!" came the first boys voice from nearby, though Louise could not see him in the Cell across from her and Montmorency's.

"I didn't get tortured," Malicorne spoke up in an odd, conflicted tone. "All I recall was feeling woozy when entering that creepy altar room, then I woke up here."

"They must not have been able to torture you through all that fat then!" the boy angrily snapped before almost sobbing. "They, stabbed me with needles, cut my skin. I had to watch as all those instruments of torture moved closer and closer to me, and – Damn it! Brimir damn it and Brimir damn you Zero for putting us through this!"

"This isn't my fault, or anyone's fault," Louise said in a very obviously annoyed tone.

"Of course it is your fault! You're the Zero, you can't do anything, and this has to be your fault because it can't be ours! We are proper nobles who can use magic after all!" The boy snapped angrily before sobbing. "Dammit, if only I had my wand I could . . . . damn it what did I do to deserve this?!"

"We didn't do anything to deserve this, most of us have been faithful to the founder," Malicorne stated with a sigh. "I'm sure the professors and our classmates will be able to save us soon, they have to be able to!"

"We're not getting saved," Montmorency said in despair as she clutched her legs tighter. "Everything is over."

"Nothing is over, we can get through this as long as we keep living," Louise said quietly in return. "We just have to keep pushing."

"Why, do you think that?"

"I can't think anything else at this point," L:ouise admitted before letting out a short laugh. "Its funny isn't it?"

"What?" Montmorency asked as she lifted her head to look at Louise.

"I can't use magic. Its been known for years that I can't, but my family and private tutors simply told me to try harder, that I wasn't trying hard enough. Even at the academy I couldn't despite all the professors attempts, and they quickly gave up on me, acting as if it wasn't worth the effort despite how hard I was trying. I studied, more, longer, harder than anyone else. My grades are only beaten by Tabitha and yet I still can't do magic, yet I keep trying. You would think I would have given up already, that I would have accepted that I am nothing, just a zero like everyone calls me. But I can't. I can't stop moving forward, I can't stop thinking about how to keep trying and moving forward because its all I've been able to do for years but . . . I think, if I stop, I might never move again."

"No!"

Louise looked up to find Montmorency lunging at, and the Hug her tightly, tears forming around her eyes. "What?"

"Don't say that, not again, I can't, I don't want to see it happen again!" Montmorency cried. " I don't, want to see someone I know just go away again, not like that!"

Louise looked down at Montmorency in surprise and shock as she was tightly hugged as if it was the last thing that she could do. It made her recall a time when they both were young. "You, mean your grandmother?"

Montmorency nodded. "I, she was reading me a book when I was young. She, she finished the book and closed it and looked at me. Told me how there were many things she regretted not doing, told me to always move forward. She, she said it was time she stopped moving forward and she just . . .stopped, right beside my bed."

"M-Montmorency, I wasn't meaning-"

"I- I can't watch someone I know go away like that! Not again! I just, I can't see it again!" Montmorency screamed as she tightened her grip around Louise to a point that was almost painful. "Please, don't, don't stop moving. Please don't go way like that!"

"I wont," Louise said seriously. "I won't just lay down and-"

Both girls flinched as a loud screech echoed in the cellblock, puling their eyes to a section of the floor that lifted up, revealing a cubby of some kind with a bowl in it. The bowl was pushed out of the cubby by some sort of lever, then as quickly as it had appeared, the cubby slipped back down into the floor, leaving not even a single line on the floor to prove it had been there.

"Wh-what is it?" Montmorency asked in fear.

The answer came a moment later when Malicorne spoke up from his cell. "It's some kind of . . . .food, I think. Its like, really lumpy oatmeal."

"Disgusting, there is no way that Nobles like us can eat such gruel!"

"Thomas, its food and we'll need to keep your strength up,"Malicorne said.

"Then you eat to keep your fat up," the boy, apparently named Thomas said angrily.

Louise however looked at Montmorency and forced a smile before peeling herself away, and crawled over to the bowl to look inside of it. Instead of some lumpy bowl of oatmeal though, it appeared to be something akin to small balls of bread, though the grey color was very off-putting.

Louise looked at it for a moment before grabbing one of the buns and biting into it tasting . . . nothing. It was utterly tasteless, which was almost worse than if it tasted bad. With a scowl she grabbed the bowl and moved back over to the wall beside Montmorency. "It doesn't taste like much, but we should still eat."

Montmorency merely mumbled in reply as she took one of the buns and bit into it, gagging a bit as she did. "It, tastes like nothing."

"Yeah."