I came to in what appeared to be some sort of dungeon. To my mild surprise, I was dangling from the ceiling by my wrists, as were Izak and Snell.
"He's awake," said Izak. I suddenly noticed that neither of them had wings. Evidently the manacles were doing more than just suspending us. Experimentally I tried to shapeshift my hand, but it wasn't happening.
"Anyone remember how we got here?" I asked.
"Not really. Someone stunned us in the forest, I guess."
"Tell me, Snell," I said, "Do your talents extend to breaking out of enchanted manacles while suspended from the ceiling?"
"No," he admitted.
"Would you care to elaborate on what you can do? I mean it's not like we're exactly pressed for time," I said.
"As I was saying, I realised about halfway through my course at the Academy that I could make my fortune by turning to a life of crime. The Beings never stood a chance."
"So you took to burglary?"
"Yep. I can pick the locks, or failing that stretch myself into something that will fit through the letterbox. I can make myself partly invisible, or make people forget they've seen me."
"Plateau Eyes?" I said wonderingly.
"Whatever. I can break in at 3AM while the Beings are asleep, and ensure they don't wake up while I'm robbing them. Or I can make them sleep if they aren't," he added.
"Sounds cushy," I said. "What, would you say, was your worst mistake?"
"Hmmm... Oh! That would have to be the time I accidentally robbed a succubus," he said, chuckling at the memory. "She was living wingless with someone, pretending to be a Being. In the commotion her husband woke up and saw her with her headwings... ooh, that was messy. We both had to erase parts of his short-term memory. Last I heard he wrote it off as a nightmare, but... Hey! I may have agreed to let you interview me, but I can think of a more comfortable setting."
"Just a moment," said Izak. "I don't think they've locked this manacle properly."
He swung around, throwing his entire weight onto one arm, and with the faint sound of metal tearing, the lock broke open leaving him suddenly suspended by the other arm. He gave a brief cry of pain, but losing the manacle had restored access to some of his powers, and after a few minutes of concentrating upon his other wrist, the lock snapped open of its own accord and he fell three feet to the ground.
"I'm bored now," said Snell. "How about we get out of here?"
Our suspension was not the only obstacle, however. There was also a heavy steel door, which was firmly locked. Izak and I both tried a variety of spells but they had shielded the lock too well for us to penetrate.
I began to rifle through my bag, looking for the set of jewellers screwdrivers which I always brought with me for calibration purposes.
"They seem to have taken my Nagra," I said angrily.
"I'll do it," said Snell, and placed a tentacle against the lock. He closed his eyes and the tentacle seemed to vibrate as he morphed it into the guts of the lock. Exactly two seconds later the latch clicked open. I stared at him enviously.
About ten minutes later we found ourselves walking through a darkened room in what appeared to be an office. Thoroughly lost, I tried to work out which way North was while Izak and Snell began to argue about which floor we were on.
"I've been expecting you," said a voice from behind us, making my blood freeze. The lights came on to reveal a giant rat sitting behind a desk. He spoke in a soft, cultured voice and was stroking a snow-white feral cat. Izak stared at me in horror as I made a series of strange noises, trying desperately not to burst out laughing.
"You will be laughing on the other side of your face soon enough, Mr. Cross," he said, a sour expression crossing his features.
"Dammit," I snapped. "How did you know that? It's supposed to be secret."
"I know many things," he said enigmatically, and began to smile again. Izak was looking at me as though we'd never met before. His expression was not calm.
"YOU...?" he said, in disbelief, "You're Johan Cross?"
I covered my eyes with my hands for a moment but quickly snapped out of it because he was rapidly losing control.
"Silence!" snapped the rat. "You have caused me a great deal of trouble with that little incident in Sandiria," he continued in his soft, purring voice.
"You have killed a number of my minions, and I shall have to punish you severely..." He broke off when he realised that no-one was listening to him.
"I TRUSTED YOU!" Izak was screaming. "All the films we've made, all the time we've spent together... it was all a lie, wasn't it! I was actually being manipulated by one of the most notorious soul-murdering psychopaths this side of Zinvth! MY OWN BROTHER! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!"
"I-" Before I could reply, Izak had hurled himself at me.
"You killed cities!" he yelled, "You murdered thousands of innocent Beings! You gave them the True Death and you even had a Being for a mother! How did it feel eating all those souls?! Did you get a kick out of it, eh? Perhaps you got a kick when you imagined you were eating her soul!" he shrieked.
"You leave our mother out of this, you little shit!" I snarled murderously and punched him in the stomach. "You didn't even stay to help her! You ran off and almost got yourself killed taking some stupid course that you didn't even finish!" Snell rushed to separate us, but Izak dealt him a swift left hook under the chin.
A brawl erupted, little tufts of fur going everywhere. The rat stood up and stared at us with a look of bewilderment, uncertain what to do. His grand evil speech was not supposed to have gone down quite like this.
What he didn't know was that I had lowered my mind-shield so that Izak and Snell could hear my thoughts.
They did likewise and we had a silent, yet urgent argument that the rat was not privy to. While Izak didn't believe I was innocent, we were able to get him to agree - if reluctantly - that we would have to settle this later. There was a momentary lull in the fighting, but our captor didn't seem to realise that we had switched from actual fighting to horseplay.
Reaching a decision, the rat pressed a button and a handful of guards rushed in. Their uniform was strangely familiar, but they were still only Beings. Snell broke into their minds and they fell asleep even as they ran. Another followed, but as soon as he looked into the leopard's face, his eyes went funny and he wandered back out again in a state of confusion. I'll have to learn that, I thought.
In the meantime we had edged closer and closer to the rat's desk. He was about to hit the panic button when a tentacle streaked out towards him. Moments later something small and white was struggling ferociously in my grasp as I began to throttle it. Snell did not look very pleased.
"Let us go or kitty gets it," I said, smiling my Johan Cross smile. The cat made a peculiar choking sound as I jerked my tentacles tighter around his throat for a moment and the rat stepped backwards in alarm.
Something very strange had happened to him... a pair of feathered wings. It seemed that his cat had somehow been made into a patch. No wonder he was always holding them.
"I'm sure we can come to some kind of... agreement..." he said nervously. Then someone shot us from behind.
When I came to, we were lying side by side on the floor, enchanted bracers constricting our powers once again. I glanced muzzily up at the rat who was tucking into some sandwiches. Apparently it was his lunch break.
"Are you really Johan Cross?" Izak whispered feebly.
"Not anymore," I replied. "I'm sorry... I should have said... but I was too ashamed to admit it..."
"Should have realised... your absence from SAIA matched his reign... There are 'Cubi at the Academy who worship you..." he croaked and I grimaced. "...Aspiring to eat as many souls as you did... Why did you do it...?"
"I didn't," I whispered back. "I went crazy for a bit when Page died, killed a couple of people who deserved it and banished loads of people who probably didn't, but I never ate anyone. It's all rumours, and they've grown since I left. When we get back to SAIA I'll have to try and squash these cults..."
Izak smiled weakly. Maybe it was because he was less combat-trained than Snell or myself, but the Stun spell had affected him a lot worse than us. I glanced back at the rat, and saw that he was finishing up. With some effort, I stood up and eased my brother onto his unsteady feet.
"Now they shall pay, Tiddles!" our captor said, nursing the slightly-strangled cat on his desk. "Oh yes, they shall pay!"
He looked up to face us again. "As I was saying, you have killed a number of my minions and I shall have to punish you severely..."
"How do you know it was us?" I asked.
"The recording you had," he smiled. "My technicians have played it back and given me a precise report of all your evil deeds. Deeds that were indeed worthy of Johan Cross."
"Get bent, demon," said Izak. The rat looked extremely angry.
"Oh, but it is you who shall get bent, Mr. Pettersohn!" he replied with an expression of evil glee. "Many of my people died when the Hovel was destroyed. I lost valuable allies and agents. It is only by good fortune that I managed to intercept you before you could reach Mundas and destroy yet more lives and property... my property..."
"What makes you think we were headed there?" Izak asked. He looked puzzled.
"Do you think I look like a fool?" snapped the rat, his fur puffing up in anger. "Mundas is the nearest branch in the area after Sandiria."
"Branch?" said Snell blankly.
"Pizza Hovel," I said, suddenly realising who the rat was. "Olivias Sadmann, I presume?"
"Have you only just realised?" he sneered.
"Never heard of you," Snell retorted. "Then again I don't know many demons, let alone scum like you and the other ones who attacked us." The rat looked like he was about to hit Snell. Indeed, he probably would have done if it had not meant releasing his firm grip upon Tiddles.
"He's not one of them," I said. "Sadmann is the president of the Pizza Hovel corporation and it seems he has a very odd way of thanking the people who risked their lives trying to save Sandiria. But then I couldn't expect much more from someone with such close ties to the Burning Feather. Funny that he happens to be a demon himself, isn't it?"
"Save...?" said the rat. He glanced at a display on his desk, and then rubbed the screen. His attitude changed abruptly. "Oh dear. I'm very, very sorry," he said. "I seem to have misread the report."