Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The year 3030, or so.

The Ministry has held its hand over an entire continent for over a century now, and anyone who was around when it first came to be was now long gone. Their rule over the country, which was formerly assumed to be Europe, wasn’t exactly pleasant.

But, that had happened almost a century ago at this point. The Ministry’s rule was now the new norm.

Many high ranking scientists worked for the Ministry, working with the ability to manage time and space as they pleased. Those who ranked closer to the founding level trusted with information of the past, present, and foreseeable future. Including a well kept prophecy on how the Ministry would form and what unfortunate things it would bring to humanity. Only a few were to be trusted with said prophecy…

...Well, Dr. Svengali wasn’t yet one of those few, sadly. But, against his own better judgement, was about to be. He is a scientist under the Ministry’s thumb, two ranks below the founders, and wears that title with no pride.

As the day went on, the normally silent lab Svengali worked in was suddenly interrupted with noise as a fellow scientist was shoving a familiar face into the room.

Dr. Aiten Knox and Wilhelm Fink. Two people who Svengali knew far too well for different reasons.

Wilhelm, well, he wasn’t exactly sure how they met. It had been a long time, that was for sure. But, neither of them could exactly pinpoint a coherent reason. Though, he was certain they met at a bar somewhere downtown.

Dr. Aiten was a different story. They were co-workers, technically. The Ministry hired in waves, usually once a year. To keep a long story short, they were both hired at the same time and placed into the same field. The two had known each other ever since, and Aiten was supposedly the only employee Svengali even trusted.

“This is certainly a scene.” Svengali spoke, arms crossed. giving the two a look of annoyance, mostly directed at Fink.

“Aw, thanks.” The shorter grinned, his tone ever so slightly sarcastic. “We have something I think you’d be very interested in.”

Svengali narrowed his eyes. “...You know him?” He asked, locking eyes with the other scientist in the room.

“For a while now, actually. Don’t ask.” The doctor responded, passing something in his hands over to Wilhelm.

A book.

Great. Whatever this was about to be was going to be something interesting, highly destructive, or both. The front of the book had the Ministry’s three square one triangle logo plastered to the front, text above and below it in a language that he didn’t recognize.

“Guess what this is.” Fink started, holding it up in front of him.

“I don’t think I want to know.”

“What a shame, I’m telling you anyway.” Fink continued, his voice carrying that annoyingly smug tone he always had when speaking to him. “Ever hear Aiten or, well, anyone up above really, mention a ‘prophecy’ on how this whole place was started?”

Svengali nodded, hesitant.

“Great, well, as it turns out, there’s more to it. According to this, er, thing, this place wasn’t exactly supposed to exist in the first place. Crazy, right?”

Well.
That certainly took a dive towards hell real fast.

“Apparently, a group of seven or so people were supposed to issue two warnings throughout twenty years about the Ministry, supposedly. But, that group never ended up coming through back then.”

The room was now filled with uncomfortable tension. Svengali… Didn’t exactly know how to respond. Though, things about this place did make a bit more sense now.

“...And now we’re here, and everything sucks because of that.” Aiten laughed, attempting to lighten the mood any way he could.

“You tell me.” Svengali sighed, positioning himself to lean against the table behind him. “...Wilhelm, tell me about the supposed ‘group of people’ that were supposed to come through.”

Fink grinned, flipping through the book to the two pages that made up the middle. The pages were old and torn, any writing was worn down and hardly eligible. Though, Fink was able to read through the book with ease.

“It says…” Fink spoke, dragging out the two words as he re-read the page. “Those who can bring the end to tyranny if they so please… blah blah blah… Here, ‘a devil, a scientist, a fanatic, a liar, a madman, a traveller, and a stranger.” Fink brought his gaze up to the doctor in front of him. “We already got the ‘devil’ checked out.” He grinned, taking one hand off the page and gesturing to his horns.

“Whoever wrote that... certainly didn’t want to make our job easy.” Svengali laughed. “A stranger? Really, and there’s nothing else on the page?”

“Nope. See? That’s what’ll make this fun.”

‘Fun’ was an overstatement. “And, a scientist? So, me or Aiten then?”

“Sure. Could be either of ‘ya. You two can make that choice yourselves.” Fink continued, flipping through the pages of the book. The thing certainly looked long, it’d probably take a few hours to go through the entire thing.

“I’m just here for moral support.” Aiten shrugged. “And uh, book handling, I suppose.”

“Your presence is much appreciated, Aiten.” That solved itself quickly. Svengali was now, albeit unwillingly, unofficially a part of this ‘team.’

“Euh, this is getting boring.” Fink suddenly spoke, his extremely small attention span appeared to have been lost to the book. He practically threw the book back into Aiten’s hands.
“How ‘bout I leave you two to look through this thing, maybe I can go run around and look for our, er, prophecy contenders, eh?” He practically appeared back in the doorway after that, seemingly answering his own question for himself.

Both Svengali and Aiten knew that Fink wouldn’t be getting anything productive done at this hour, especially so late in the day. He’d probably end up stopping at the bar downtown before making it halfway through the city.

“...Sure Fink, go ahead.” Aiten responded. “I’m sure we can take it from here, right?”

Svengali paused for a moment, eventually nodding. Sure, this wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle, it was actually one of the easier things he’s done in his time at the Ministry. It was just... working against them felt wrong in a way. One wrong move and they’d be busted.

But with Aiten’s permission, Fink took off down the hall with speed, leaving the two alone in the lab.

“Well, he sure took off fast. You think he got sick of me?” Svengali joked, moving to close the door that Fink graciously left open for them.

Aiten smiled, reopening the book for what felt like the 20th time. “This is gonna take a while.”

“Nothing I’m not up to.” Svengali shrugged. “At least I’m not doing it completely alone?”

“That’s a plus.”

Svengali sat down next to the doctor, readying himself for the many hours of work ahead of the two. He gestured for Aiten to place the book in front of them.
“Shall we?”

--

Within the quiet outskirts of the city, there stood a wandering Fink outside a bar. To his own surprise, he had no luck recruiting anyone for his prophecy mission. The last place he’d stop before eventually heading home was a bar he had visited quite often.

The bar had its usual steady traffic for a late night. Loud drunk people exiting the bar with slightly more sober people guiding them, along with the just completely sober people coming in for some kind of kick.

Among the small crowd of people was Fink himself, sticking out more than usual due to his, well, not-exactly-human features and bright red getup. He didn’t exactly try to hide his tail or horns, he took some pride in them actually.

He slid himself onto a seat at the front counter, asking the bartender for whatever their strongest cocktail is.

The room was loud, conversation coming from every direction. It felt like everyone was talking… except for one man in the room, who sat next to Fink.

He wore dark, rounded glasses, what looked to be a black trench coat, and a white dress shirt underneath. From what Fink could see, there appeared to be a larger scar across his nose. He was seemingly reserved, every once in a while taking a sip of what seemed to be the same drink Fink had ordered.

“Nice glasses.” Fink spoke suddenly, immediately getting the attention of the man next to him. Were there better things to be complimented? Sure, but that’s all Fink thought of at the time, and he craved any kind of interaction that wasn’t some bartender or two ridiculously eccentric scientists.

“Thanks.” He sounded sincere enough, though it looked like he noticed Fink’s tail, which was swinging from side to side, immediately. This queued him to look up at Fink’s face, now noticing the pair of horns that added to his appearance. “Nice horns.”

Fink grinned. Was this the first time one of his not-so-human components had been complimented? Sure, sure. Did that mean a lot to him? Maybe, but he wasn’t about to get into that right now.

Now that the two were facing each other, this prompted Fink to get a better look at him. And with closer examination, the shirt he was wearing underneath the coat, which was unbuttoned twice, appeared to have the Ministry’s logo imprinted onto it.

“Oh, you work there?” Fink asked, pointing to the logo on his shirt.

“Yeah, actually. I have for a few years now.”

“Damn, you must be pretty smart then. What level do you work on?” Fink continued, leaning his head against his hand.

“Uhh, 5. I manage tech n’ stuff.”

“Oh, awesome. I haven’t met anyone who works at that level, actually.”

At this point, Fink’s drink had been passed to him. He didn’t want the conversation between the two to die, so he quickly paid with whatever money he had in his wallet, which wasn’t much to begin with.

“You know someone else who works there?” The man next to him continued, seemingly not letting the conversation die either.

“Two people, actually. They’re both closer to the top, level 7 and 8.” Fink responded, narrowing his eyes as he tried to remember their exact levels.

“Damn, you were really able to befriend people up there? Half the time those guys are drier than rocks.” He joked, now repositioning himself so he was fully facing Fink. It appeared he was more interested than before.

“Somehow, yeah! They aren’t rock dry, I swear…” Fink trailed off before finishing his sentence, unconsciously leaning slightly closer to him. “...I think I’ve seen you around there before, actually.”

He wasn’t lying, either. Fink could’ve sworn he saw someone that fit the description of him back when Aiten was escorting him to the upper floors, making a more specific note of the scar over his nose. It seemed the person he was talking to now was the same as the one back at the Ministry.

“You look familiar, too.” He paused. “It’s not exactly easy to miss someone as, er, brightly dressed as you in such a bland room.”

Fink smiled once again. Finally, someone was acknowledging his peak fashion sense. “Thanks, uhh…” Fink trailed off, trying to remember if they ever exchanged names. “...I never told you my name, did I?”

“Right, neither of us did.” It seemed he was going through the conversation once again in his head. “You can call me Van.”

“Van.” Fink repeated, most likely out of habit. “Cool name.”

“And you?”

“Right! Right,” Fink snapped, having forgotten his part of this exchange. “Fink.”

“Interesting.” Van paused. “Sorry, I just haven’t heard that name before.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I get that a lot.” Fink replied, his tone genuine.

Conversation between the two didn’t seem to slow after that. After a while, Fink had found out that Van was quite a traveller. He was one of the few people Fink had met that have been outside of the country, since leaving wasn’t exactly easy.

He’d told Fink about the few neighboring countries that he’s visited, how different they were, how freeing it was to be in a country where it didn’t feel like he was being watched over at all times…
Fink already knew the Ministry was far from great, he became desensitized to their, well, horribleness, but these stories from his new acquaintance only solidified his hatred further.

Only then he reminded himself about the Prophecy. Reminded himself how, maybe, if everything falls into place, they could keep the Ministry from ever forming.

Fink thought for a moment of faster ways to take the company down. Attack the higher-ups with his bare hands? ...Well, maybe he shouldn’t be resorting to physical violence right away, but no matter. The Ministry has to be taken down somehow. How exactly? No one was sure yet.

Fink swore to himself, their reign would be brought to an end, no matter what.

Chapter Text

The night before was a blur.

The last thing Fink remembered before things got obscured in his mind was being with Van, at the bar… But now, he was back in his apartment, laying in bed. How he got there, well, of course he had no idea. All he knew was his head was pounding, Van was nowhere in his limited line of sight, thankfully... and his goddamn phone was ringing, making a grating noise that was only making his headache worse.

He sat up, obviously annoyed by being awakened so.. Unpleasantly. He blindly grabbed his phone, adjusting his eyes to see who the hell was bothering him this early.
From what Fink could see, it turned out to be Dr. Aiten, and Fink’s annoyance only grew. He groaned, unwillingly pressing the bright green button to answer.

“Aiten. It’s 6:30 in the goddamn morning. What the fuck do you want?”

“Took you long enough!” Aiten responded, his voice having a tone of slight annoyance.

“I was sleeping, asshole.” Fink rolled his eyes, it's far too early for this.

He could hear Aiten sigh from the other end of the phone. “I’m well aware, Fink. Anywho, we need you at the Ministry as soon as you can get here. There’s barely anyone here, come to my lab.”

Fink didn’t respond for a moment, rubbing his eyes with his free hand as he processed the request. “..Are you kidding?”

“Why would I be?” Aiten replied plainly, albeit maintaining a slightly serious tone.

Once again, Fink took a few moments before replying. “Is it important?”

“It’s about the Prophecy, if that helps.”

“Great.” He groaned. “Give me 20 minutes.” He continued, before hanging up immediately. There’s no way in hell he was gonna let him continue. It wasn’t that he had some kind of distaste for Aiten, hell, he wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for him, but his nagging demands this early in the day were a point of high annoyance for Fink.
While ignoring him and going back to sleep was the more ideal option, he wouldn’t want to piss Aiten off. Might as well go and get this over with.

--

Fink arrived at the Ministry not too long after the call, the large corporation seeming surprisingly barren this early in the morning. It was more intimidating than usual.

“...Aiten’s lab, huh.” He thought to himself, mentally going over the numbered labs on level 8. From what he remembered… he should be 8-37.

On the other hand, in his overly dramatic mind, he couldn’t believe Aiten would make him walk up that many stairs so early in the morning. With a hangover, no less! The absolute and utter disrespect he felt was unmeasurable. ...But was he now ascending the first pair of stairs that occupied the inside of the Ministry? Yes, yes he was.

The silence in the rooms he was passing was almost disturbing. The few times he had been inside the building, he was used to at least some conversation between employees in the halls. The only things he could hear were his own thoughts and the steps he was taking.

After reaching the 8th floor, he quickly made his way to one of the last doors in the hall, 8-37. He knocked on the door twice, waiting half a second for a response, before abruptly opening the door and entering.

Well, the two people he expected to be there were present. Svengali and Aiten, who appeared to have been talking before Fink’s entrance, were now facing him.

“Don’t you look a mess.” Svengali laughed, eyeing Fink up and down.

“You’re one to talk.” Fink remarked. “You two sleep much?”

“No, actually. Not last night anyway.” Aiten responded, keeping his gaze directed at Fink.

Fink eyed the two, sure enough, they looked exhausted. He had guessed they had been up the night before going over the book, or something along those lines. Who knows what else they had been doing last night, but that wasn’t his place to speculate.

“At least you were productive, I hope.” Fink shrugged. “Anyway, you said this was important, right?”

Aiten nodded, dismissing whatever he thought the “I hope” part of his sentence meant. He quickly glanced at the doctor beside him before looking back to Fink. “We felt it’d be important to discuss the, er, recruitment that’s needed.” He continued, with Fink realizing Aiten was once again handling the book. It was like that damn thing was attached to him.

“Recruitment?” Fink spoke, barely legible. He had nearly forgotten what he had read in the book the day before. “...Right, that.”

“Mhm. Sven has, thankfully, already found someone needed.” He continued, turning his head to face him.

“Is it me? You already have me here.” Fink joked, tilting his head to look at the two.

“Very funny, Fink.” Aiten replied in the most monotone voice Fink had ever heard. His humor was beyond their minds, and he knew it.

“I know, I know.” He paused, looking around, seeing nobody but him, Aiten, and Svengali in the room. “So, where is this mystery man you want me to meet?”

“I called him shortly after Aiten called you.” Svengali answered.

“So, he’ll be here soon then? Great.” He finished, slumping back into a chair behind him. His head was still pounding. As established, he wasn’t one to get incoherently drunk easily. The hangovers were the part that hit him hard.

Before long, he heard a click from the door behind him. Fink’s head shot over to the door, locking eyes with whoever had entered. It took him a moment, but the person quickly registered in Fink’s mind as someone he had met so recently…

“Wait a minute,” He started, slightly tilting his head. “Van?”

“Fink.” Van replied, sounding mildly surprised himself. He quickly looked to the two scientists in the room, both of them looking slightly confused as well, then back to Fink. “These are the two you said you knew?”

Fink nodded. “You know them too?”

“Well,” Van paused, moving his gaze to Svengali, hand pointing in his direction. “I know him.”

That made some sense. The only thing that didn’t click in his head was Svengali never having mentioned Van before. Maybe he did, not by name, either way he couldn’t recall.

“Hm, good to know you two appear to already be friends…” Aiten spoke, slightly confused.

“We only met last night, actually.” Van corrected him, looking the doctor up and down. The two had never met before, this being their first interaction.
Fink couldn’t tell what either thought of each other yet, Van’s almost-constant blank expression not conveying much at all, and Aiten’s current dazed and tired look not doing much either.

“Yeah, at the bar downtown. Where me and Sven met, actually…” Fink added.

“Good times…” Van continued, closing the door behind him. “You said this was important, wasn’t it?”

“Indeed… As to hopefully lessen your confusion, we can explain everything quickly. Then we can move onto the first issue at hand.”

“Okay… Great.” Van said, taking a seat next to Fink. “Much better than whatever I was gonna do today.”

The fact that Van was most likely being recruited as a part of this team was slowly setting in on Fink’s mind. Was it a coincidence that he had only met him a night before? Probably, but it was still strange.
That being said, Fink didn’t mind Van’s company during whatever-they-were-getting-themselves-into at all. From what he recalled, he was a very likeable person to be around, his more quiet and kind demeanor having been enjoyable for him. He wished he could have remembered more from last night, anything past the point of 11 PM, anything Van had said to him after that, but to no avail. Maybe today he would have a better chance at befriending him, and actually remembering…

…Right, he should be paying attention to Aiten, not going on about this man in his head…

He snapped himself back to reality, quickly realizing he had been zoning out, staring at Van while Aiten was explaining the clusterfuck known as the Prophecy to him. Fink quickly diverted his attention over to the two scientists, seeing Aiten with the book in hand, Svengali leaning himself on Aiten’s shoulder to see what was being read, going over the Prophecy again for Van’s sake.

Fink could hear Aiten speaking, and the words were making sense to him, they just weren’t processing as information in his mind. This wasn’t anything new, he knew he had some kind of selective hearing or whatever, but didn’t care enough to look into it further. About 5 minutes after, Aiten appeared to be done, turning to Fink.

“I assume you caught all of that, too?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” He replied, waving his hand in the air. He didn’t catch any of that, at all. Oh well, it was already stuff he had read through the day before.

“Wonderful, now that we’re all caught up.. We currently have only 3 out of 7 recruitments. Which is a problem, since the book wasn’t exactly descriptive…”

“Some of the information seems to be, well, distorted?” Svengali pointed out, moving his hand to one of the pages in the book. As it turns out, the little information that was given under two of the characters, the Liar and the Stranger, had been garbled beyond comprehension.

“Shit, you’re right,” Aiten mumbled, attempting to get a better look at the two descriptions. “Great, we have another problem now…” He flipped the book in the direction of Van and Fink.

Fink leaned closer, trying his hardest to make sense of the words below the strange distortion covering them. “Damn, I can’t even read that.” He said bluntly, Van nodding in agreement. “Was that there yesterday?”

“They very well could’ve been… We were more focused on the rest of the book last night.” Aiten replied, regretfully. “I apologize, I think my oversight will make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

“Or easier.” Van chimed in.

“Easier... How?” Fink asked, slightly tilting his head.

“Well… the stranger, just from the name I’d assume it needs to be someone we don’t know. We just need to find someone bored enough to come along…” He paused, thinking for a moment. “And I suppose the liar could be, well… obviously, anyone who’s told a lie? Or a compulsive liar, pick your poison.”

“The first one sounds easier.” Fink replied, surprisingly dismissive of the first option. “I guess we just shoot our shots randomly for those two.” Van’s suggestions certainly would make their job easier, it seems.

“I call dibs on running around town for our stranger.” Fink joked, his comment somehow getting a barely audible laugh out of Van.

“...One question, Dr. Aiten.” Van said, looking up at the man in front of him. “Besides the stranger, it can be anyone we know, correct?”

“Anyone that fits their description, yes. Why?”

Van leaned back further into the chair he was sitting in. “Er, I used to know someone who could fit the summary of the fanatic. He used to work here a while back, lowest level, no idea how he ended up with a position here.”

“What happened to him?” Fink asked, leaning forward to get a better look of Van.

“He didn’t last a week.” Van sighed. “As far as I know, they tried erasing any record of him ever working here.”

“Interesting… I don’t even remember hearing about that, so I suppose the elites did their job right for once.” Svengali commented, rolling his eyes at his own mention of the higher-ups.

“Right… and, last I heard, he’s living in a dumpster somewhere in town…”

Van continued on about this mystery ‘failure in the eyes of the Ministry’ person, while Fink had grabbed his phone and was lazily scrolling through the contacts in his phone hoping to find anyone he could drag into this mess. While he did find it intriguing that the Ministry could hire such a fuckup, even if for a short amount of time, it was still 7 in the morning and he wanted to keep this as short as possible.

He eventually came across someone who he hadn’t talked to in a few days at this point. They had gone to the same college, and from what Fink recalled about him, he seemed ever so slightly… unhinged? He was an inventor of sorts, if you could even call him that, nothing he ever came up with ever worked. Even if it did, it was a rarity for it to not explode in his face. Maybe he would possibly work as the Madman…

Fink quickly shot a text to him, something along the lines of “hey can you do me a favor, it’ll be worth it i promise.”

Only a few moments later, Fink got a response. “of course, I owe you one. what am I getting myself into?”

‘’Its complicated, can i come and pick you up and explain’’

‘’Sure’’

He couldn’t remember what he exactly owed him for, but no matter. He had recruited someone, on his own! What an achievement.

The sound of Van talking had ceased at this point. “Hey you three,” Fink said, catching the attention of the others in the room. “I got ourselves a madman.”

“That quick?” Van questioned, quickly turning back to face him. “More importantly… How’d you get them to agree?”

“I just asked him to do me a favor.” Fink shrugged. “Maybe I can get him to bring along someone else to fill another slot…”

“Shoot your shot.” Aiten encouraged him. “Then we just need a stranger… right?” He continued, turning to Svengali for some kind of confirmation. Svengali nodded, prompting the two to turn their gaze back to their already present recruits.

Fink was back on his phone already, appearing to be texting their new madman once again. “I asked him to bring along anyone who’s lied to him before.” He said bluntly, not looking up from his device. “Not a compulsive liar, though. I don’t think any of us have the energy for that.” He clarified.

“Amazing,” Aiten replied, his voice finally having some kind of hope to it. “Well, I guess you two can pick up your recruits, right?”

Van and Fink nodded, Fink finally setting down his phone. “I guess we’re going dumpster diving first, eh Van?”

“You might. I’m not getting too close to any of those things.”

Well, that’s fair. “Mhm… Should we get going then?”

“Sooner than later.” Aiten answered for them. “I’d say you should leave now.”

“Oh c’mon, right away?” Fink complained. Truth being, he did want to leave as soon as possible, he was just stubborn and didn’t enjoy being told what to do. Especially not by someone with as much authority as Aiten had.

“Yes, right away.” He replied sternly. Aiten appeared to have remembered at that moment he was also handling the book as well. “I need to put this thing back, too.”

“...Put it back?” Van asked.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, blankly staring at Van and then to Fink. “Oh, right. We have our hands on this thing illegally.”

“You… You stole it?”

Aiten simply nods. “It’s technically not stealing if you put it back afterwards, eh?”

Van didn’t have a response for that one. He probably should have expected some kind of illegal activity to be involved in getting a prophecy like that.

“Anyways, enough about my crimes. You two should get going.” Aiten continues, suddenly appearing near Van and Fink, pulling them up by the back necks of their clothes in some attempt to get them to stand, which surprisingly did work. He dragged the two to the door, Fink trying, and failing, to have Aiten let go of him, Van simply accepting defeat and letting it happen.

“Let us know when you find your people!” Aiten continued, practically throwing the two out of the lab and shutting the door behind them immediately.

Fink and Van sat in silence for a moment. “What a lovely first impression of Dr. Aiten, eh?” He joked.

“Is he always like that?”

Fink shrugged. “80 percent of the time. You’ll get used to it.”

After Aiten’s dismissal, Van found himself escorting Fink out of the Ministry himself. The place itself wasn’t too filled up yet, Only lower levels who could care less about Van’s presence were only occasionally seen.

“I’m hoping you drove here, right?” Fink asked, peering forward slightly to view Van.

“Thankfully.”

He followed Van a little while longer, eventually to his car, which was fittingly… a van.

“Spacious in here, eh?” Fink spoke, entering the car and positioning himself in the passenger seat.

“6 people can fit in the back, at least.” Van confirmed. “Convenient, hm?”

“Very.” The back itself, well, it wasn’t exactly safe looking. Sure, it had seats, that was good enough, but the back part was nonexistent. In its place was the walls of the van. Looks like they’d be relying on Van hopefully being a half decent driver if they wanted to keep their lives.

Well, the two were alone now, driving through the city to whatever destination their fanatic was in. Afterwards, Fink would give directions to Van to collect their madman, and hopefully their liar. Van informed him the ride would take a while, at least another 10 minutes from where they were now.

As the ride went on, Fink found himself staring out the window watching the city above him speed by. He had never noticed before how the city practically got brighter the further they got from the Ministry. It could’ve been his imagination, considering how he had heard in passing that the outskirts of the city got worse and more dangerous the deeper you went. Although that talk was from the higher ups and those associated with the Ministry itself, what did they know?

The two hadn’t said a word to each other since Van began driving, which had bothered Fink quite a bit. So, he eventually decided to make some conversation.

“Do you remember anything from last night?” Yes, he was still hung up on this, it hadn’t left his head since he saw Van this morning.

“After we met?” Van asked, keeping his eyes focused on the road.

“Yeah… I can’t for the life of me remember anything after 11.”

“Hm.. understandable.” He paused. “Nothing eventful, from what I recall. You did get very talkative.”

“Aw, shit.” Fink laughed. “Good job for being able to sit through that.”

“Don’t apologize!” He said, raising his voice slightly, though his tone was genuine. “I enjoyed listening to you talk.”

“Eh?” Fink managed to choke out. Van’s response was straightforward, which he did like, but it certainly did catch him off guard.

“I think you’re a very interesting person.” Van confirmed, taking a moment before adding onto his sentence. “As normal as that sounds.” He said sarcastically.

“No, no, you're fine… I am the most interesting person I know, anyway.” Fink replied, half joking.“You seem like an interesting character yourself.” He continued, not giving Van any chance at responding before resuming. “...anyways, are we getting any closer?” He continued, trying to change the subject as fast as he could.

“Five minutes, probably less now that I’m thinking about it.”

Great. He won’t be alone with him for too much longer now. Hell, he was thinking about opening the passenger door and rolling out of the car then and there.

“Er, I don’t mean to pry…” Fink started, regaining his composure and sitting up. “But, I noticed your hands-” He tried to say, before Van abruptly cut him off before finishing.

“Frostbite.”

“Huh?”

“Frostbite.” He repeated, plainly.

…Well. That certainly wasn’t what Fink was expecting. That’s what he gets for asking.

“Sorry, I’m not trying to be rude,” Fink clarified.

“It’s okay. I didn’t think you were anyway.”

Again, he sounded genuine. That wasn’t going to keep Fink from believing he had already fucked something up with that one question.

The last part of the ride only took about 4 minutes, thank god, though it felt much longer in Fink’s head. The car came to a stop, parking along a sidewalk that occupied many tall buildings, separated by narrow alleyways.

Fink thankfully got to carry out his plan of practically rolling out of the car once they finally stopped, almost tripping into oncoming traffic in the process.

“Do you hear that?” Fink said, head peering into the closest alleyway. He was right in that there was some sound coming from a dumpster in the alley. “Is that our guy?”

“It could be.” Van leaned around the corner further than Fink, taking his own look at the dark alley in front of them. “Or, it could just be a raccoon, and I got our destination wrong.” He shrugged.

"I can take any raccoon in a fight!" Fink said confidently, puffing out his chest in an attempt to be intimidating, or something. Van rolled his eyes knowing Fink is a bit too confident. "I'll go investigate."

"Be careful, don't die!" Van called out playfully as he watched as Fink walked into the alleyway. The idea of Fink losing a fight to a family of raccoons sounded amusing, but having to deal with Fink getting rabies from a rabid raccoon sounded like a more than mild inconvenience that he was not willing to deal with.

He eventually decided to follow behind Fink into the narrow space between buildings, approaching the blue dumpster along with Fink. Van stopped a safe distance away from it, Fink taking the liberty to fully approach with full intentions of looking in. It really did sound like something, or someone, was in it.

“Helloooo?” Fink calls out, looking around his surroundings and eventually into the dumpster. Suddenly, right as he looked into the trash, a hand shot out from the dumpster. Fink screamed, jumping back and falling into Van almost knocking him out as well. Van had thankfully caught him and was holding him up for support.

The arm, covered in ripped fishnet, grabbed the side of the dumpster and pulled up the body it was attached to out of the trash. “Hi there!" The trash man spoke, smiling as he looked around, a look of confusion crossed his face. "I swear I heard someone." He frowned. "But nobody’s here."

“Wait!” Fink called, regaining his composure, breaking away from Van. Fink wasn’t scared of the man, of course, the arm just startled him.

“Oh!” The trash man turned to them. “Someone is here!” He grinned, climbing out of the dumpster to greet them. “I’m Snoo! I live in there.” He knocked his head in the direction of the dumpster. “How can I help ‘ya?” He appeared to have a lot of enthusiasm for someone who was just covered in garbage.

"Wow, that's a.. very bright get up you have on." Van said, in shock simply because he wasn't expecting so many reds, blues and yellows. “Brighter than yours from yesterday.” He continued in a quieter voice, speaking more directly at Fink.
Snoo himself looked like a mess, his brown hair was crazy and all over the place sticking up in awkward angles and what not. It was obvious he cut it himself without a mirror. His blue eyes stared at them with a glint in it that screamed mischief, intimidating both Van and Fink in a mild way.

“Thanks!” He grinned, pausing. He squinted his eyes as he got a better look at Van. “...Do I know you?”

“You might.” Van stepped in front of Fink to better greet the man. “Name’s Van.”

“Van… Van Gough?” Snoo questioned, going over the Vans he knew in his head.

“Mhm. You remember me?”

“Eh. Kinda.” Snoo shrugged. “I haven’t thought about that place in a looonng time.” He took a better look at Van, leaning closer just enough to make him uncomfortable. “I do remember your whole…” He gestured to his own nose. “...Thing going on there.”

“...Right. Thanks.”

“Anyways!” Fink interrupted, sliding in front of him to divert Snoo’s attention. “You hate your old job, eh?”

“Not really, I-”

“Oh. Well that’s too bad, we need you, yes you, dumpster man, to come with us and take down that goddamn corporation. Somehow.”

“Hmmm.” he stopped for a moment, thinking. “Nope. I don’t think so.”

“Huh?”

“You heard me!” Snoo began walking back to his dumpster. “I don’t interfere with them anymore.” Damn it, at least they tried…

"...Then again," He stopped, he was almost halfway back into the dumpster at this point, falling back out onto the ground. "This could be my chance to prove to them, to prove to all of them." He frowned. "But what if they don't believe me," His face lit up once again, talk about easily persuaded. "But what if they do!"

He sprung back up, immediately walking past the other two with speed. "Aren’t you guys coming? I can't waltz up to the ministry alone!" Van and Fink stare dumbfounded, both mildly confused by the display they had just witnessed.

“..Yeah, yeah. We’re coming.”

Now they were 1 step closer to whatever this plan is fully coming together. Maybe Fink’s idea of going for the founder head-on wasn’t so absurd now that they had Snoo…

Maybe not. They’re only two people, Fink had never even seen the founder in person, and he was hoping to not have that change anytime soon. He wasn’t afraid, definitely not. What's so different about this person than anyone else that works at the Ministry, nothing... right?

Chapter Text

The insignificance of man, cannot be overstated…
And when the things he deems important vanish before his very eyes…
And vanity comes face to face with mortality.
Those who do not evolve will find
Themselves disconnected from The Network.
So in the year of Money Money 2020
As mach two approaches
Remember one thing…

“...And, the rest is.. Distorted.” Dr. Aiten sighed. “Not like this can get any easier, right?” He said sarcastically.

“No matter, we can worry about that later.” Svengali said. “First thing’s first… The Network? That’s the group we’re collecting here?”

“It appears so.” He shrugged. “Though, uh, most of it just seems like fancy words being used to seem threatening.”

Well, that seemed to check out. But one thing stood out to him that wouldn’t leave his mind. Money Money 2020.
2020 was decades ago, why did that bare any importance now?

“Er, do you think Van and Fink have had any luck?” Aiten asked.

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Fink would’ve let me know by now, probably.” He paused for a moment. “That… fanatic, of theirs, he used to work here?”

“Still hung up on that?”

“Well, yeah? Aren’t you?”

“Not really. I mean, they’re short on employees in that department. Always have been.”

“...I know I shouldn't be surprised, but they just.. Hired random people?”

Aiten nods, plainly.

“God. It’s like they don't even care about their image anymore.” Svengali groaned.

“They only care about people on our level, usually.” He continued, closing the book in front of them, placing it into one of his coat pockets. “The founder… really cares. You know they really don’t like you, right?”

“Good! I hope they don’t, maybe they’ll finally take initiative and fire me.” Svengali said, almost laughing. “The only enjoyment I get out of this job anymore is seeing you.”

“...Oh. Uh, I appreciate that.” Aiten tried to say, very obviously flustered. “Yes. Thank you.” he continued, trying not to trip over his words more than he already was. “Anyway! We have something we should be doing, right?” He said, pausing for a moment thinking of what they actually had to do now. “We need a stranger, don’t we?”

“We never told them to look for one… did we.” Svengali thought for a moment, hanging his head once he realized his error.

“Nope!” Aiten said, not the slightest bit enthused. “We should go look for them, it’s not like we have much more to look over, right?”

“I suppose. Then, let's get this over with, hm?” Svengali offered, which Aiten quickly accepted.

–

As if the ride couldn’t have gotten worse for Fink from there, the new addition of Snoo in the backseat certainly wasn’t helping anything. In one attempt Fink made to converse with him, he had casually asked if Fink and Van were an item, to Fink’s dismay.

In the same conversation, Fink had also learned Snoo was an unironic believer of the earth being flat, along with many other miscellaneous conspiracies… also lizard people. Maybe that one wasn’t so farfetched. No wonder he had gotten fired from the Ministry so quickly.

“Are we there yet? I hate sitting still for this long.” Snoo complained, fidgeting with his seat belt which wasn't buckled.

“Yeah, ‘should be almost there I think…” Fink said, rolling down the window and poking his head out. “...Oh, we’re here! Van, can you-”

Before Fink could finish, Van quickly brought the vehicle to a complete stop, making Snoo jerk forward in return. Fink turned his head to Van, who simply gave him a thumbs-up in response. Thanks, Van.

“I’ll go up and grab him, give me a minute?”

“Sounds good!” Snoo grinned, repositioning himself. Van didn’t have any response, but he seemed content enough to let Fink leave.

He quickly piled out of the front seat, quickly making his way to the apartment complex in front of him.

“So…” Snoo said, awkwardly. “Wanna hear about how the government is a sham and how there’s a whole secret society of shape shifting lizard people?”

Van sighed, he had almost forgotten about him in the backseats. He was no longer content to have let Fink leave. For the sake of his own sanity, do this quickly, Fink…

…Meanwhile, Fink was wondering what was up with him having to navigate so many stairs today. This was the second time today, for god’s sake. At least this time he was going to collect someone that wasn’t going to kick them out after 5 minutes.

He hadn’t visited this building in quite some time. Their madman, Carmen, resided in one of these rooms in the complex. He hadn’t seen Carmen in a while, he’d actually forgotten which apartment he lived in.

At some point Fink thought he had overshot his destination, although he definitely didn’t know what floor he already was on. He pulled out his phone to contact Carmen about his whereabouts, though that soon proved useless, as he quickly ran directly into Carmen, almost knocking the two over.

“Shit, I’m sorry about that. That was, uh, not how I meant to greet you.” Fink apologized, genuinely. He quickly glanced over to the person he was with, trying to get a profile of his face. Surprisingly, he didn’t register as someone Fink knew before. He wore a beanie, his hair being long enough to poke out from the ends. He stood slightly taller than both Carmen and himself, but not enough to even slightly intimidate Fink… Although, Fink could’ve been in over his head.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it!” He grinned. “It’s nice to see you again, Fink.”

“You too. And… Your friend?” Fink asked, tilting his head.

“Oh, right!” He realized, looking behind him to view who he was with. “This is Z. Z, this is Fink.”

“Hi.” He waved, or at least, he tried to. His hand barely moved.

“Just Z?” Fink replied, tilting his head. “Er, nice to meet you, though.”

“I’ve been told my full name is too hard to pronounce.” Z said, nudging Carmen with his arm. “So, I just tell people to call me Z.”

“Oh, okay. Fair enough.” Fink shrugged. “Anyway, you two ready to get going, again?” He continued, barely waiting for a response before grabbing their hands and dragging them away back to the van. That was one thing about Fink, once he had his mind set on something, he would try his damndest to execute it the way he wanted to. Was that a bad thing? Probably, but that wasn’t anything to worry about now. Maybe his stubbornness would prove a problem later in this whole… event.

-

“...And that’s why the moon landing was faked.” Snoo said, his voice full of confidence. Van had been left to the mercy of Snoo’s attention span, which was apparently longer than he expected.

“...Are you done?” Van asked, flipping his glasses up and rubbing his eyes.

“I think so.” Snoo said happily.

“Thank god.” He muttered, leaning forward to look out the passenger window. Still no sign of Fink, yet. He certainly wasn’t beginning to miss Fink’s company, definitely not, the only thing he had learned from this experience was that he never wanted to be alone with Snoo again.

After a few more moments of silence passed, Fink quickly emerged out of the building with Z and Carmen not far behind.

“Oh, look at that, your boyfriend’s back!” Snoo grinned, leaning forward in an attempt to look out the window.

What he said didn’t exactly process for Van at first, but when it did he was very close to resorting to violence. He wasn't offended, but the fact Snoo had the balls to say that to him was mildly irritating.

“You really have no filter, don’t you?” Van said, his voice carrying a highly annoyed tone.

“Uhh. Not really.”

Van didn’t know why he asked, of course he didn’t. Fink brought the two new recruits to the back of the van and shoved them inside, the two taking the liberty to sit as far away from Snoo as possible. Fink suddenly reappeared back in the passenger seat next to Van.

“Well, that was fast.” Van commented, turning his head to look back at their new recruits.

“Mhm! We ran into each other in the hallway, actually.” Fink said, almost sounding proud of himself. “...Wasn’t there something else we had to do?”

“Well, do these two know what they’re here for?”

Fink narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment, before eventually coming to the simple conclusion of “No.”

“You fill them in, then. You know more about this than I do.”

Fink smiled, gladly taking the liberty to hop into the back of the van to retell his own version of this madness.

There was in fact something else that had to be done, Van had remembered that there was a 6th person to be picked up… A stranger. Neither Svengali or Aiten had directly confirmed that he and Fink were to recruit their stranger. He might as well ask if they were even supposed to.

He quickly dialed Svengali’s number, not taking long for him to pick up. “Hey,” Van greeted, plainly. “We have… 3 people now.”

“That fast? I’m impressed.”

“You should be.” Van joked. “Er, you never told us to find a fourth person.”

“Right! We’re ahead of you on that, actually.”

Van paused for a second. “You.. you found someone already?”

“Yes we did.” Svengali said, confidently. “Well, Dr. Aiten did most of the work.

“...Who are they?”

“He introduced himself as Bal.” Svengali turned back, his view going from Bal to Aiten rather quickly. Point of view change! Bal seemed kind enough, it took some persuasion from Aiten’s part but eventually he agreed. Svengali had stepped away to answer Van’s call; last he heard was that Aiten was answering any questions Bal had about this mess. Which, to be fair, he was in his every right to be confused.

He could’ve sworn he heard Bal ask, “I’m not being arrested, am I?” to which Aiten quickly clarified that he was nowhere near being arrested, quote, “As long as you don’t give me a reason to.” Or something along those lines. Since when did they have the power to arrest people?

“That’s it? None of us know him?” Van asked, slightly annoyed at the lack of more context.

“I mean, he is supposed to be our stranger.”

“...Touche.” Van knew that was a dumb question, though didn’t stop him from asking it. He humored the idea for a moment that Bal’s name was all Svengali knew about him, but that thought quickly disappeared.

“How’s everything on your end?” Svengali asked. “From what I can hear… Your recruits seem to be arguing.”

“Eh?” Van snapped his head back to the backseat. They weren’t arguing, but Carmen and Snoo had gotten into some kind of debate. Something about the Earth being cube shaped, or flat, whatever it was Van couldn’t care less. “Right. I should probably take care of that, hm?”

“Yeah, that’d be for the best.” He replied, somewhat snarky. “Before you go… Where are we supposed to meet?”

Oh, right. None of them had figured that out yet. “...Fink’s apartment. That's the closest, if I recall.” He blurted out. They obviously couldn’t meet at the Ministry, there were far too many people to drag around without seeming suspicious. Sure, they could’ve just met up at Carmen’s place, but there wasn’t any way in hell he was staying at the apartment of someone he hadn’t met until 2 minutes ago.

“Good enough. I suppose we’ll see you there.”

“Mhm. You too.” Van said, hanging up moments after.

Svengali was pleased to know everything was going smoothly, seemingly a bit too well for how high stakes this seemed to be. The biggest surprise to him was how many people who had nothing else to do to get involved in this, maybe Bal’s situation could be considered intimidation from their end… He didn’t want to think too hard about that.

Almost immediately after Svengali hung up, Aiten appeared by his side once again. “Sven, hey, can I talk to you for a second?”

Svengali nods, the two making their way a good distance away from Bal.

He could tell Aiten was more on edge than usual, he couldn’t remember any mistakes he had made during this process of recruiting Bal, unless, it was something much more consequential.

“...I fucked up.” Aiten said bluntly.

Svengali sighed. “I’m sure you haven’t.” He tried to reassure him, though it only seemed to agitate him further.

“No, I have.” Aiten stated, more firmly than before. He quickly reached into his coat pocket, pulling out none other than the book with the Ministry’s logo printed on front up in front of him.

It took him a moment to realize exactly why Aiten was so panicked, he always had the book on him throughout the 24 hours he had known of it, surely it wasn’t a problem now that they had left the Ministry-

And then it hit him, the book wasn’t supposed to leave the Ministry.

“Oh.” was all Svengali could respond with, neither of them knew what to do.

“I’m a fucking idiot.” Aiten said, shoving the book back into his pocket, he had never seen him this visibly upset before now. “This is all going to go to hell because of me.”

“Look, Aiten, calm down.” Svengali said, Aiten finally listening and looking directly to him. “We’ll be fine. After we meet with Van and Fink, we’ll head directly back.”

Aiten certainly wasn’t any closer to being at ease with their situation, but Svengali’s words were enough to somewhat calm him down. “I suppose you’re right.” He admitted.

“I always am.” Svengali remarked, albeit sarcastically. It was enough to make Aiten smile, at least. “I want to come with you, at least.” He offered.

“...Can I ask, why?”

“If something goes wrong… I’d rather be there.” He shrugged.

Fair enough. Aiten would want the same if the roles were reversed, anyway.

“We should get going,” He said, leaning his head to the side to check if Bal was still there. “I’m surprised Bal hasn’t run away yet.”

Aiten nodded in agreement, Svengali taking the liberty to grab his hand and drag him back to Bal.

With Aiten, Svengali, and Bal on their way to meet with Van and Fink, it almost felt as if things weren’t going as bad as originally thought. They had a team, and although one mishap with the book,

Things were going smoothly.

Chapter Text

“So this is your place?” 

Snoo asked, looking around the fairly small apartment Fink had guided them to. 

“No, I just took you to a stranger’s apartment.” Fink said sarcastically. “I don’t know who lives here.” 

“Cool!” Was all Snoo had in response, falling back onto the couch in the middle of the room. Fink made a mental note to replace that couch after they had left.

“So… We’re just waiting on, who now?” Z piped up, sitting up against the wall with Carmen beside him. “Those… Doctors?”

“Scientists, technically.” Van corrected him. “They have the last piece to our puzzle.”

“Yeah… They’ll be here at some point.” Fink said, apparently not realizing how many people would be piling into his small apartment, there was barely enough room for the 5 of them, let alone an addition of 3 more people. 

“Why do they call them ‘doctors’ if they’re scientists?” Snoo asked, fully serious. “I never understood that. Even when I worked there.”

“...You what?” Carmen said, exasperated.

“I what?"  Snoo repeated. "My question? I’m serious-”

“No, no. You worked there?” He interrupted.

“Yeah! …But, I got fired within the first week.”

“I’m not surprised.” Carmen sighed. 

Snoo didn’t seem to care about or notice his reply. Instead he just went back to looking around Fink’s apartment. “Your place is really small.” He pointed out, immediately changing the subject. 

“Didn’t they find you in a dumpster?” Carmen asked. 

“Are you insulting it?” Snoo replied, slightly aggressive but more so dramatic.

“What? No, I’m just asking a-”

“Don’t you dare speak about my dumpster like that.” He said dramatically. Walking over to Carmen pointing an aggressive finger at him. “That place is like a 6 star hotel!”

Carmen simply rolled his eyes. “Like you know what that’s like.” He muttered. He and Snoo hadn’t exactly gotten along in the short amount of time they’d been around each other. Between “The Earth is obviously flat!” “Then where does all the water go, dimwit?!” debate in the van, combined with Snoo’s overall obnoxiousness, Carmen didn’t like him much. 

Van and Fink both shared a look of mutual discomfort on their faces, Van wanting to avoid any kind of conflict and Fink simply not wanting to have to break up a fight.

“Any minute now, you said?” Van asked, uncomfortably leaning against the wall behind him.

“Yep, annyy minute now.” He confirmed, dragging his words out slightly. “...Uh, aren’t we missing someone? A stranger, or something?”

Van looked confused for a moment. “...Dr. Svengali said he had found someone, I don’t recall if I told you or not.”

“I don’t think you did, It’s fine though.” He paused for a moment. “I’m sort of excited to see whoever it is, is that weird?”

“Probably.” Van shrugged. “...I could go without the multitude of people.” 

“That’s understandable. If all goes well you won’t be staying much longer.”

That relieved Van to some extent, social situations were not exactly his forte. Slow conversation continued from there between the recruits, Carmen trying his hardest to not interact with Snoo and keep his focus on Z. Apparently, Z had ended up as their Liar because he’d forged prescriptions for testosterone a few years back. Nobody really seemed to rag on him for that, not even Snoo. At least he wasn’t lying about killing someone?

After around 10 minutes of uncomfortable small talk, there was a knock on the door and was quickly opened by Fink, the 2 scientists stride in with a tall man who looks incredibly drab. 

"Thank fuck, they made it." Fink muttered. "Welcome, you two!" He continued, waving to the two, thankful they finally arrived after what felt like years. Svengali smiled and gave Fink a head nod in greeting.

"Everyone, this is Bal. He’s going to act as the Stranger in our…" Svengali pauses, searching for the right word. "...Crew?" He said, looking to Aiten for some kind of confirmation, who simply shrugged and muttered “Good enough.”

Most eyes were on Bal as he wordlessly waves and makes his way into the room, heading over to the corner where nobody would look to at first glance. Almost everyone in the room quickly realized that socializing isn't his forte. Luckily everyone's attention went back to Aiten who had fully entered the small apartment clearing his throat. 

“Hello… all.” He said, eyes going from person to person in the room. “Good to see gathering you all wasn’t a total bust.” He muttered.

Most eyes were on him as well, but Snoo was especially fixated on the Ministry’s logo imprinted on the two’s lab coats. It appeared he hadn’t processed he’d be in compliance with more of the Ministry’s workers, to his own dismay.

“Er, can I speak to you two for a moment?” Aiten asked, looking over to Van and Fink. “...out there?”

“Why out there? What are you trying to hide from us?” Snoo said, narrowing his eyes and obnoxiously pointing directly at the scientist. 

“...Nothing? Why would you even think that-” 

“Cause’ I don’t trust people who work with the government. Plain as that.” He said simply, shrugging. 

No one in the room seemed to acknowledge Snoo’s statement, the most response he got was a glare from Svengali and an embarrassed look on Carmen’s face. All Aiten did was try to awkwardly laugh it off and get back on track.

“...Okay. Anyways,” He gestured to the door. “Please?”

“Yes. Of course. I’d love to leave the room right now.” Van said, completely serious. He grabbed Fink’s arm and quickly dragged him outside, with Aiten quickly following behind them.

“What did I do?” Snoo asked, exasperated. He was certainly leaving quite a good first impression on everyone, especially Dr. Svengali, who had never even seen him beforehand. ‘Insulting’ one of the few people Svengali actually cared about was probably the worst way anyone could’ve started off with him.

“Are you always like that with authoritative figures?” Z asked, nervously looking from Snoo to the doctor in the room, still glaring at Snoo and very clearly irritated.

“Of course. They did me wrong personally so I’m gonna make it everyone’s problem.”

It quickly became apparent what kind of person the group would be dealing with from now on… Bal didn’t have a reaction, Carmen was still trying to hide his face out of second-hand embarrassment, Z still looking from the doctor to the fanatic in hopes he wouldn’t have to break up a fight between two people he barely knew.

Meanwhile…

“I’m sorry, we have to do what?! ” Fink asked, exasperated. 

“I second that.” Van said, crossing his arms.

“I just want the two of you to watch and, well, live with your new…" Aiten paused. "...Recruits.”

"That wasn't part of the plan. You said we go find them, and we found them, that’s it. I didn't anticipate living with them." Fink flung his arms in the air angrily. 

"Agreed," Van added. "I don't… live, with people. I don’t like people." 

Relatability of Van’s last statement aside, this was going slightly worse than Aiten had expected. At least Fink hadn’t started yelling at him, yet. “...Well, we never had a set plan, now did we?” Aiten replied, an annoyingly smug tone in his voice. 

"That's one smart ass way of doing it, no wonder we’re always short on employees." Van said, pushing his glasses up back to the bridge of his nose.

“Look.” Aiten started, firmly. “I know this isn’t convenient for any of us. But, this probably won’t last any more than a week, can you / please/ put up with it for now?”

Fink slumped further back to the wall. Aiten did have a point, sadly. His apartment could barely fit the 6 people now. It would be uncomfortable, but they'd have to make it work until the scientists come up with some solution.

“Plus… It’s more efficient than having to pick everyone up again, everytime we need to do something.”

Fink sighed. “Fine, they can stay with me, I guess.” He paused. “No promises that I'm gonna make them sleep on the curb.” He said smugly. 

“If we want to keep these people with us, I don’t think treating them like animals will help much, Wil’.” Van replied, seemingly having calmed down. He was either ignoring the fact he’d have to stay with Fink for longer or he simply hadn’t processed it yet. “... I’m glad that resolved itself quickly. And I didn’t even have to give up my flat.”

“That solves one thing, at least.” Fink muttered, fixing his posture and turning his attention to Aiten. “...What now?”

“Well, that’s left to me and Sven now.” Aiten replied, discreetly feeling around his left coat pocket to make sure the book was still there. He was hoping that accidentally bringing the book was just some product of his heavily sleep deprived mind, sadly, it wasn’t. The damned thing was still there. “We need to head back to the Ministry, I messed up and we need to fix it.”

“Ah… That at least gives us time to get to know whats-his-face in there.” 

“Bal?” Van asked, tilting his head. 

“Yeah, Bald.” 

“His name is Bal, Fink.” Aiten rolled his eyes. “I’ll leave you two to sort that out…” He said, reaching for the doorknob. “We need to get going.” 

“Oh. You’re… Not staying?” Fink asked, hanging his head to the side.

“...Well, no. We’ll be gone momentarily, if all goes well.” 

“Why are you being so weirdly cryptic. Are all you scientists like that? Is that just a normal thing for you all?” Fink teased, though he was curious what the hell he actually meant.

“It just happens naturally, I think.” Aiten replied, neither of the two being able to tell if he was serious or not. “Anywho…”

Aiten opened the door, being greeted by a surprisingly uneventful scene in the living room. It appeared one of the recruits had found some sort of card game, with the four of them gathered in a circle on the floor playing it. Svengali simply observing from an albeit small distance. 

Fink leaned his head over to see into the building. “Glad to see you’re all getting along…?” 

“I think that’s a better way to guarantee they hate each other later. They’re playing Uno.” Van pointed out.

“Snoo is winning, somehow.” Carmen muttered, frivolously looking through his cards.

“Hell yeah I am!” Snoo replied, setting down another card onto the smaller deck. Fink and Van re-entered the room, Aiten staying in the hallway and quietly gesturing for Svengali to come with him. 

“Are we sure you’re all going to be… Alive, when we return?” Svengali asked, turning his head to them.

“No promises. If I lose to you again one more time ….” Carmen said, glaring at Snoo. The two had only been separated by Z, sitting between them to avoid any conflict.

“Good enough.” Svengali shrugged, fully exiting the apartment. 

“We’ll be back eventually.” Aiten said, shutting the door. 

“Which one of us wants to bet everything will have gone to shit by the time we get back?” Svengali said, knocking his head to the side. 

“I know you’re joking, but that doesn’t seem too far-fetched.” He replied, thinking for a moment. “€20, by the way.” 

“I’m holding you to that.” He teased. They both began their descent back downstairs and to the Ministry… so far so good, though that was most definitely going to change as soon as they arrived.

-

It didn’t take long for the pair to arrive at the Ministry once more, only about 20 or so minutes since they had departed the apartment.

The two could barely enter the building before a concerned looking employee immediately ran up to them. “There you two are. Finally!” That, of course, wasn’t a good sign. “I need you both to come with me, it’s urgent.” …A horrible, horrible sign.

The two obliged, of course. What else were they to do? Say “No,” and try to walk away? It sounds more like a death sentence than anything. Though, that wasn’t to say Svengali wasn’t thinking of doing just that.

“...The founder’s pissed, if that helps?” The employee tried to say, possibly trying to contextualize why this was happening, or maybe it was some kind of reassurance, either way it clearly didn’t work on either of them.

Neither of the two had any kind of response, only a shared glance at each other with a “God damn it” look on both of their faces.

After finally arriving at the top floor, it didn’t take long for the employee to wordlessly dismiss herself from the scene. The two scientists however, were greeted by what was thankfully the least interesting thing they’d seen that day, a door. It held a symbol near the top, what seemed to be a baphomet, with an L imprinted into its head instead of a pentagram or what have you.

Svengali held back a groan. “So. Who wants to do the honors and allow our presence to be known?” He said dramatically, doing a half-assed bow and gesturing to the door.

“That will not be necessary.” A voice that belonged to neither of the two said from behind them, scaring the ever-living hell out of them in the process. 

They had a feeling on who’d suddenly appeared behind them before even seeing their face,  Dr. Valkolv, ‘founder’ of the Ministry, the person who had manipulated their way to the top and made the corporation into the very thing that it is today. 

“Dr. Svengali, Dr. Knox. What a pleasure to have to be bothered by you again.” They started, walking in front of the two to the door.

“We’re just as happy to see you, too.” Svengali remarked.

“...Now, I’m sure you both know why you’re here.” They said, narrowing their eyes and looking down on the two.

Neither responded, instead quietly sitting down in the two chairs presented in front of them, Svengali crossing his arms and Aiten practically staring right through them.

“No need to answer.” They spoke again, frowning. Now taking the liberty to lean down closer to the two. “The Prophecy is missing. You two were missing at the same time, care to explain..?”

“I’m not the only one who can get up there.” Aiten said, appearing to have only now realized that was a point he could argue.. “Have you even.. Questioned anyone else?”

“Mm, I have not.” They admitted. “But I simply don’t trust him , not enough to believe he isn’t hiding any mal intentions.” They said, gesturing their hand in Svengali’s direction. “And you, Aiten, are practically attached to him for God’s sake. If it is needed, the others will be questioned later.”

The doctors kept their silence. Neither of them wanting to speak unless necessary, Svengali trying to come up with some sort of bullshit excuse that’d be believable enough to save at least one of their positions, preferably Aiten’s in this specific case..

The founder sighed. “I would rather keep this short, I’m a busy person you know.” They started once again, now standing up straight. “If neither of you confess I might as well just terminate both of your positions now.”

That was enough to get one of them to finally react. “..I may have an explanation to offer.” Svengali spoke, now looking directly to them.

“Took you long enough. You may speak.”

Those few moments certainly weren’t enough to come up with an explanation that made sense in his mind, but at this point he had no other choice.

“Well… As you would’ve expected, I have my many qualms with this company.” He stated, plainly. ”Of course, the only way I could’ve possibly dealt with these issues was by asking my dear colleague Aiten to commit a crime, simply because he has access to what I wanted and I didn’t.” He continued, pausing for a moment. 

“But, from what I know of you, this would’ve ticked you off enough, even if I didn’t have a set plan to act on. In other words… Aiten has done less in this situation than I have. If you want to get rid of one of us, get rid of me.” He finished, sighing. 

Dr. Valkolv stared at the doctor, who was only looking back with a blank expression. Then to Aiten, who was looking on in what seemed to be a mix of confusion and dread. 

“Your explanation will suffice.” 

That at least relieved Svengali to some extent. Aiten’s position wasn’t completely gone, yet. Maybe they still had some hope in salvaging this thing. However, it certainly had the opposite effect on Aiten, horrified that he had thrown his job in the gutter all for him.

“And with that…” Dr. Valkolv started once again. “Dr. Svengali, due to a major violation of the Ministry’s privacy policy, your job position will have been terminated as soon as I finish this sentence. More severe consequences will be decided at a later time, and your ‘colleague’ will be questioned later as well.” They paused. 

“Your compliance has been appreciated.”