Chapter 10
Brad stood up slowly and Nagi watched him silently, feeling torn between obedience and a nagging sensation at the back of his head that told him to stay or to flee, but that he absolutely could not, should not go. When Schuldig stood and fell into step with him, like a quiet funeral march instead of a simple walk to the door, he stood automatically. He had long ago gave up on controlling his own destiny and that put it into the hands of these two men, his friends, his family. No matter how much it went against his own feelings and ideals, he would follow them to the ends of the Earth and back again. It was the closest thing he had ever felt to love to another being. That could not be denied.
Their footsteps seemed to echo in the empty hall, foreshadowing something horrible and indescribable that was lurking somewhere ahead, unseen. There were few things that moved Nagi, very few, indeed, for emotions had only caused him trouble in the past and were generally useless things. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, it took him several moments to categorize the emotion that had overcome him, but when he had he realized it was something like fear. Not overwhelming, exactly, but more of a, "I've got a bad feeling about this" Star Warsian type deal. (1)
"We should check on Farfello." He didn't know where the thought had come from, but it had struck him suddenly and he could not allow it to go unvoiced. Brad turned slightly to gaze back at him, murmuring something like "There's no time."
Schuldig flashed him a glance that almost made him shiver; it was as if he had felt it to. They continued on quietly, until they had reached the same area as before, the one with the frightening machines and other devices that none of them particularly wanted to look upon. Still, they followed their leader.
"It's so nice to see you back again. Do sit down." One of the members of Rosenkruez directed them to three contraptions. There was nothing else that they could be called, for they made his blood run cold, though they should have; they were rather similar to the other devices they had been hooked up to earlier. He was still uncertain what they really wanted the data on them for. It was true they had never tested him before, but they had tested Brad and Schuldig, so why make them do it again?
They sat. Nagi folded his hands on his lap, unwilling to rest them near the arm rests that had metal restraints on them.
The woman smiled pleasantly at them and though nothing was readily apparent as to why it was so, it still seemed a decidedly malicious smile. "This will be just like the previous tests any nothing altogether complicated about it." She continued rambling on for a moment, when suddenly he saw movement from the corner of his eye that caught his attention.
Before he could do anything, however, he felt a sharp prick as a needle imbedded itself in his skin and something was injected into him. Both Brad and Schuldig shouted their protests, but several large men had been prepared for that moment - no wonder those bastards had been hovering around - and they found themselves trapped in their seats, metal restraints about their arms. Schuldig was shaking, he could see that through the haze that was slowly over coming him and for some reason he knew it was rage that caused his response and not fear. Oh, he was afraid, yes, but he was also extremely protective of him and no one was allowed to hurt their Nagi!
"What the hell did you do to him?!" The red head was struggling against his restraints, useless as it was for they were quite well made.
The woman giggled; her smile was quite evil now, having nothing further to hide from them. "Oh, just something to make him a bit pliant." Nagi felt his arms steered into the restraints and snapped in. He could not protest, for he could barely move, could barely lift his head. He felt as weak and helpless as an infant and the room around him had become a bit foggy and indistinct as it he had just consumed a great deal of alcohol. Or as if he had just been drugged.
"You see," another voice began, a voice they all recognized as the Rosenkreuz leader, the one whom they all had despised from the moment they had set eyes upon him. "He was the only one we couldn't control. Which is rather a shame since he is the most dangerous of you. We knew what would cause Schuldig to lose touch with his powers - we've been putting that substance into you for some time now so that you wouldn't be able to prove a thing."
Schuldig had gone quiet and appeared almost relaxed, though he was far from it. "How did you manage to do that?"
"It was amazingly easy. We contaminated your food, drinks, anything we could get our hands on. We didn't want you dead, of course, and it can't kill you, but it can stifle your abilities which is exactly what we wanted."
There was a heavy silence that surrounded them as the implication of this slowly sank in. "That what you did to me, too, isn't it?" Brad asked after a while. He, too, had passed into a state of utter calm, his eyes cool and defiant even as he remained helpless before them. They had never broken him and they never would.
The laughter was that of the purest form of evil. Schwartz had never considered themselves evil, for they were rather self-serving in a capitalist sort of way and capitalists weren't considered evil, exactly. These people, though, the ones that worked so closely with the heads of Esset, they were certainly not good. "Ah, I knew you would figure it out eventually, but a bit late don't you think? We've tried to do the same to your little Nagi, as well, but his powers we don't fully understand and still don't. It was a bit of a problem, you see, and we couldn't have him hurting anyone."
Nagi's head had rolled back against the headrest, for he was unable to hold it up. His body was tingling with whatever they had pumped into him and resisting was completely out of the question, but he listened. That was about the only thing he was capable of at the moment. If he could have mustered the strength, he would have blasted them all to an early grave.
The situation seemed quite hopeless to him, all of them disabled in one way or another and at the mercy of these vicious creatures. It was hard to say exactly what was going to happen to them.
That's when they heard it - a familiar howl of rage. Nagi forced his body into motion, lulling his head to the other side so that he could he and then he wished he hadn't. Poor Farfello, the misunderstood being that he was, was shackled and being dragged in before them, though apparently he too had been drugged for he did not struggle overly much.
"The beast, the wretched creature," the man mumbled, a smirk decorating his face, "He was really of no use to us, as I'm sure you have gathered. While it would be useful to have beings that could not feel pain, he is far too insane to get any conclusive data on. Besides, pain is a useful thing - it helps you to control others and also allows them to survive. If he had to keep tending stupid creatures like him because they kept sticking their hands in fire or cutting themselves with knives, well, that would be a waste of our precious time!"
It wasn't true, they knew. Farfello, for all his faults, for all of his momentary rages had never been a waste of time. He was human underneath it all and he had helped them countless times in the past. It was true that sometimes he did not understand limitations and had to be stopped, but he was and had been part of their family.
Rosenkreuz, however, could not or would not see that.
"Then let him go if he is no use to you," Schuldig challenged, a dark threatening growl in his voice; he was certainly worried about what they would do to him. Then again, what were they going to do to all of them?
"Oh, but we can't do that. I know full well where his loyalties lie for though he is crazy he also knows who has been giving him doses of drugs that further agitate him."
It dawned on them all of a sudden and Farfello's recent behavior suddenly made perfect sense. They had wanted to separate them and by playing on one of his normal rages they had been able to do that, for who would want to listen to howls through shockingly thin walls that had been between them? Then they could freely drug him without their noticing; not that they had noticed that they had been drugged the entire time, either.
Farfello was weakly struggling on the floor, his voice weakening as time passed by, unable to gather the strength to pull against the chains that bound him. It was horrifying to see. There had been countless times when they had chained him up when he was in one of his incoherent rages, but there had been a spark in his eyes and he always seemed to have the strength and the will to fight. He should not be in that state, unable to defend himself. No one should.
"He is really quite useless to us and we can't do anything with useless things, now can we?" There was something dark and calculating in his eyes as he surveyed the pathetic form in front of him, idly, as if sizing him up.
Nagi opened his mouth, wanting to stall him, to stall for time. It was partly his fault, he knew, for not seeing, for not suspecting what they had been doing to him and he couldn't allow them to harm his friend! No words came out; his voice and lips would not obey him. What did come out was a soft murmuring sound that no one should have heard, but someone did. He saw Schuldig's head turn toward him, as if he had been listening to see if he was still alive, though no one else would have noticed the motion or thought anything of it.
But Schuldig understood. "What exactly is it that you wanted from us anyway? Why did you bring us here to gather data on us? What purpose can that serve?"
Turning from their fallen, chained friend, another cruel smile curling his lips, he responded, "We are creating the perfect humans, beings that are far superior to any others in strength, speed, and in skill. They have all turned out wonderfully and are indeed the best of their kind and with them we could control everything we want to. It's not enough, though. They need more than those qualities - we want beings with abilities that far exceed the normal limits, we want beings with special abilities that can do our bidding."
"And you've never been able to control us," Brad noted dryly.
"Exactly. With these beings, we can program their thoughts and feelings so that they will be absolutely loyal to us and willing to carry our any and every order that we give them. We obviously weren't able to do that with you, for all that we tried. What he really wanted were the boy's abilities, which was why it didn't bother us that much that we didn't know how to stifle his abilities. Otherwise, how could we have tested them?" He was absolutely gleeful about this whole sick idea, this creating of perfect beings that were able to think for themselves and yet utterly mindless for their obedience. How could they even be considered human if they didn't have the basic right to choose or not to choose to do something? No, they weren't human at all.
They were, he thought, more like machines. Even then that was a doubtful comparison because there were even machines that were more intelligence and had more free will than he suggested that their created "humans" had.
"What do you plan on doing with us?" was the next, obvious question. And one they were all wondering.
(1) Couldn't help it. It just popped up and it has been ages seen I've read/seen anything Star Wars, either (unless it counts that I was flipping channels and recognized Episode One and /quickly/ changed the channel, then it was last week).