Chapter Text
Merlot led them to a pleasantly decorated tea room which, upon examination, appeared to have a beetle-shaped floor plan. The next time Boris complained about the time needed to add Wulfenbach castles to everything, Klaus was going to remind him of this. He was absolutely reasonable by comparison.
Merlot ordered tea, and the girl (who still sounded overwhelmed) agreed to the jägers that weren’t present continuing to follow Klaus’s orders at least until additional Wulfenbach forces could arrive, since neither of them wanted the city to break into chaos. (The ones that were present revolved around her; two just behind her chair, eight more in pairs that formed a rough ring against the walls and nearby corners, and Jorgi by the door at the far end.) With that done Boris departed (with only minor frowning) to oversee reorganizing the present Wulfenbach forces and jägers in light of Beetle’s escape and calling in replacements for the jägers, and the rest of the room settled into a calming, thoughtful silence.
The jägers had glared Glassvitch away from the only chair within arm's reach of Agatha, although not claimed it for themselves, so Glassvitch and Merlot sat on a (beetle-patterned) sofa to one side, both tense. They were also both shooting Agatha quick glances, but very different ones; Glassvitch's were concerned, and Merlot's seemed to be some sort of warning. Agatha stared at where she'd folded her hands in her lap, oblivious to both. Gilgamesh sat on the other side (having moved a chair over for himself—the room was quite inconveniently shaped), eyebrows halfway pinched together in thought and eyes flicking between Agatha, Klaus, Glassvitch and Merlot. Klaus sat across from Agatha, and directed the soldier clanks in a fan behind himself and Gilgamesh. He doubted they'd have time to respond to any attack before the jägers finished it, but they needed to go somewhere.
The tea arrived, carried by two women who were both curtly dismissed by Merlot as soon as they finished serving it. They seemed glad enough to escape the eleven suspicious and threatening glares the jägers had been directing at them, and the room became quiet for the next few minutes.
Having been given the time to think, Klaus felt slightly more in control of himself. The storm of emotions hadn’t calmed much, but he believed he could at least resist acting on them immediately. That was important, since his present inclination was to simply take the girl up to the school, and sort out where she’d come from and what to do with her after she was safe.
He might do that anyway, of course, but for the moment she didn’t seem to be in immediate danger. It could cause problems if he did that without getting the jägers’ (which really meant the girl’s) agreement first, and ideally he should learn who to inform of her whereabouts once he did bring her to the school.
There could—there could be a whole Heterodyne family, now that he thought of it. She had to have a parent that was a Heterodyne, and she hadn’t mentioned being orphaned. Perhaps even a grandparent, though it was rare for sparks to live that long. She could easily have siblings, a fiancé… if so, the man had best be able to stand up to a very thorough investigation.
Now, how best to start? No one else was breaking the silence, which Klaus was grateful for. He’d needed the time to think. That he’d missed the girl’s presence implied a family….
Well, enough stalling. He set the teacup (still mostly full) down, and was immediately the center of everyone’s attention, with the exception of the girl. She was biting her lip, staring into her own tea as if she didn’t see it. That probably did not indicate thoughts she would do better for continuing. “Miss….” He couldn’t bring himself to call her Clay. Well, he could, but he didn’t want to. She didn’t seem like she’d be comfortable with the Heterodyne name yet, but Klaus supposed she would do better to get used to it in his presence than someone else’s. He wouldn’t use the confusion against her. “Heterodyne. Your name?”
She jumped, but at least didn’t spill the tea. Instead she set it down with exaggerated care as she answered. “Ah—Agatha, Herr Baron. Agatha—um. Clay. Or I was.”
Klaus attempted to smile reassuringly. He must have succeeded, because she gave him a smile that was only somewhat hesitant in return. (He didn’t make comparisons. He couldn’t remember Bill, Barry or Lucrezia ever smiling hesitantly anyway.) “I suggest that you make an effort to become used to the name Heterodyne. It is quite clearly yours. Unless you have older siblings?” That would by no means prevent her from using the name Heterodyne, but would give her the chance to refuse it. A very slim chance, Klaus suspected, if the jägers had anything to say about it.
“Ah—no, Herr Baron. I don’t have any siblings, as far as I know.” She bit her lip. “I’m, ah, realizing that might not mean very much right now.”
Klaus felt his eyebrows rise. “Is there a reason you might not know of siblings?”
“Well, I didn’t know about—this.” She gestured around the room. Klaus had to admit that discovering one was a Heterodyne might undermine some of one’s certainty about the rest of one’s life. Rather similar to discovering one had somehow befriended a pair of Heterodynes, that way. “And my parents—er, my adopted parents,” she corrected, “haven’t told me very much about my, uh, birth parents.” She frowned thoughtfully. “And I don’t remember them. My uncle and I traveled a lot before we started living with Adam and Lilith.”
That was disappointing news, but not the tragedy it could have been. Klaus tried not to look amused as the jägers collectively attempted to subtly edge closer to Agatha, with the exception of Jorgi, who slid over to lean against the door. Being jägers, their attempt at subtlety actually made it more obvious. “What does your uncle do?” Spark work, perhaps? It sounded as if he might well have known Agatha was a Heterodyne, if not been one himself.
“Oh.” Agatha looked sad and worried. “He’s missing. We haven’t seen him in—ah—eleven years, now. He was only supposed to be gone for a few months….” She bit her lip again as she trailed off.
“I see.” Klaus tried not to sigh. “That is a very old trail to follow, but I’d be happy to send some of my people to search for him, if you’d like.” And if she wouldn’t like, for that matter, but then he’d be more discreet about it. It sounded like this uncle might have some very useful information.
She lit up. “Really? Thank you! Oh, but I don’t want to put you to any extra trouble….”
“Agatha.” Klaus leaned forward, trying to catch her eyes. She looked a bit startled, but at least not afraid. “Bill and Barry—the Heterodyne boys—were the best friends I ever had. I wasn’t able to save them—” He pushed the bitterness of the thought aside with the efficiency of practice. “but you are their family and their heir, and I intend to help you.”
“Oh.” She looked startled. Klaus supposed a ruler one had never previously met declaring their intent to help one wasn’t quite an everyday experience for most people. “I—thank you, Herr Baron. I—I think I’m going to need a lot of help, really.”
Klaus smiled. In the corner of his eye, Merlot's expression became even more bitter before smoothing back out. All the more reason to get the girl away from this school and into his as soon as possible. “You will. That you recognize you will is a good sign.” He could bring up the school; it would be the best way for her to quickly learn what she still needed to, as well as being a more welcoming alternative than this seemed to be. But the jägers might still object to anything that wasn’t getting her to Mechanicsburg immediately; best to mention that first in as private a setting as possible.
“Thank you,” Agatha said.
There was a pause before Klaus settled on another topic. “You are a student here?”
“I—well, yes. Mostly.”
Klaus raised an eyebrow. “Mostly?”
Agatha dropped her head and seemed to curl in on herself. One of the jägers standing behind her chair moved halfway as if she was going to rest a hand on the girl's shoulder, and then dropped it back to her side, looking unsure. “I—I can’t think very well, every time I feel like everything makes sense I get these headaches and I can’t think and—um.” Thankfully, she broke off before she could truly begin either ranting or sobbing. “Well, I attend classes, but I’m not allowed to take any tests. I, ah, passed out the first time I tried….”
That could be a problem. Mechanicsburg would welcome back a Heterodyne, but Klaus wasn’t sure how they’d respond to a Heterodyne that wasn’t a spark. He was sure how the other great houses would respond, and it wouldn’t be good for Agatha. “And you’ve tried medicine?”
“Mostly teas.” Agatha uncurled a little, enough to watch Klaus from under her lashes, as if she wanted to see his reaction but didn’t quite dare let him know that. “They helped a little, but then I was sleepy instead so I was always late.”
“I see. You might try Heterodyning, too. I don’t know that it will help, but it shouldn’t hurt.” If the headaches really were the problem, perhaps they could be cured. If not, having Sun look at her couldn’t do any harm; with luck, he’d be able to pinpoint the issue, and if there wasn’t a cure for it, invent one. “But I think our first priority should be to take you to the doctor. Fortunately,” Klaus did not smile at the jägers, “the best hospital in Europa is also in Mechanicsburg.”
“Oh.” Agatha uncurled a bit more. “I… hadn’t thought of that. They’re just headaches, really….”
“Not if they prevent you from working.” Klaus had to resist the urge to question her for more details on the headaches; she obviously didn’t like the subject, and he was trying to reassure her. He could always question her later, or get the information from Sun.
The door opened an inch, and was immediately the focus of every jäger in the room as Jorgi sniffed, then stepped aside. Klaus turned in time to see Boris open the door wide enough to step in, and fix the jägers with an unimpressed look as he closed the door firmly behind himself. He turned to Klaus. “The city has been secured. The Tyrant was located in an old basement laboratory, and is now being transported to—”
“Oh!” Agatha jumped up from her chair, taking a step toward Boris and the door before stopping and turning to Klaus. “Please, Herr Baron, don’t hurt him! We need him!”
Damn Beetle. Klaus sighed. This was the last thing he needed right now—hah. As if this hadn’t been the reason he came here in the first place. Well, all he could do now was deal with it. He tried to sound as gentle as he could. “Miss Heterodyne, I assure you I do not want to harm him. But I must know why he hid a hive engine from me—in the middle of a city full of innocent civilians—before I can determine what I must do. Do you understand?”
“I—” She bit her lip, looking torn, then retreated to her seat. She was obviously unhappy, but at least Klaus couldn’t see any signs of rebellion or distrust. “I don’t like it, but I do.” She glared down at her tea, hands fisting in her skirt. “I don’t know why he would keep a hive engine! It’s so stupid!”
“That,” Klaus said, “I agree with.” He turned away from her startled look back to Boris. “You were saying?”
Boris was saying that the takeover of the city was complete, Beetle unconscious from C-gas and on the way to imprisonment on one of Castle Wulfenbach’s auxiliary prison ships, and no pockets of rebellion were yet evident. Quite the smoothest takeover Klaus had had in years, if he ignored the discovery of a Heterodyne in the midst of it all. Not that she’d been especially involved—if this was any indication, she could well be the least chaotic Heterodyne in history. What an odd thought.
There would be more work to do, of course; there always was. The first days after a takeover were critical to its stability, even if Klaus had in practical terms taken over this particular city years ago. The populace had for the most part not thought of it that way, and that was what mattered to their potential to rebel.
…Klaus honestly didn’t care at the moment. It was one city. They weren’t currently rebelling, and didn’t have the capacity to cause real trouble; things would work themselves out even if he didn’t bother with politics today. He waited through Boris’s explanation only because he knew he ought to, and Boris would likely find some way to trap him into listening to a much more detailed and longer report later if he didn’t now. “Thank you, Boris. Please inform me if any sign of rebellion becomes evident.”
“Herr Baron—”
“Boris.”
Boris sighed. “Very good, Herr Baron.” He left, without even giving the jägers another irritated look. Most likely because none of them had paid him a bit of attention beyond making sure he didn’t get too close to the Heterodyne. Jorgi settled back against the door.
Klaus turned back to Agatha. “Miss Heterodyne. Perhaps we should go speak to… Adam and Lilith, I believe you said?”
“Oh. Yes.” Agatha looked relieved, for possibly the first time since he’d seen her. “Yes, they’ll want to know about… all this. I’d like to talk to them.”
Good. Klaus hadn’t been especially worried that Agatha’s family might be mistreating her, there was no indication that they did, but it was always a possibility. The more Agatha talked about them however, the less likely it seemed. Most likely her insecurity came entirely from the impact of the headaches, Merlot, and anyone else of his ilk in the school. It would still make things difficult for her, and being the Heterodyne never would have been easy to start with, but a supportive family would help.
Klaus was more concerned by how Agatha seemed to never think things through. She recognized and agreed to good suggestions, but never made suggestions herself, as if she never bothered to think about what to do and relied on others to tell her. She consistently seemed surprised by suggestions, too, so it wasn’t that she was simply keeping quiet in the presence of a political superior. Perhaps, if thinking hard triggered headaches, she’d simply gotten out of the habit of it. If so it was a habit she would need to change, and quickly.
But not now. For now Klaus was able to guide her, and she was under enough stress without adding that criticism. It was also possible that she was more thoughtful when not so stressed; it would be best for Klaus to observe her when she was calmer before bringing the topic up. Fortunately, her parents seemed likely to help with that.
Klaus stood. Merlot and Glassvitch jumped to their feet; Gilgamesh and Agatha followed a little more slowly, Agatha brushing her skirts off. Nothing had gotten on them, so Klaus guessed it was a nervous habit. He turned to Merlot. “Doctor Merlot. Is there anything you will require to run the university in the immediate future?”
Merlot blinked, a stunned expression overcoming the small scowl that had been on his face. “Er—no, Herr Baron.” He cleared his throat. “I would need to look over the reports from each department to be sure, but I do not believe we require anything at the present time.”
“Very well then, I leave you in charge.” Hopefully the taste of power would either appease Merlot, or discourage him from wanting it. And if Beetle could not be saved, there was always the chance that Merlot would adapt well enough to be put permanently in charge of the University, small though it seemed. “If you do require anything, send word and I will see that it is provided. Doctor Glassvitch,” he turned to the other man, who had continued shooting Agatha concerned and thoughtful glances throughout the conversation. He would certainly need to get Glassvitch’s report on Agatha, but not when the girl was present. “Thank you for your time. I hope we have not greatly disrupted your day.” He even managed to say it with a straight face. Politics was worse than acting, really.
Glassvitch bowed politely, with an equally serious expression. “Not at all, Herr Baron. It’s been an honor to meet you.”
They left Merlot and Glassvitch at the University, Merlot stalking off presumably to begin searching Beetle’s notes, hopefully for information on how to run the place, and Glassvitch looking thoughtful as he waved to Agatha. Agatha waved back from inside her circle of jägers. It was a shame Klaus would likely have a difficult time getting Glassvitch away from his job at the University; bringing someone else Agatha seemed to trust onto the Castle with her would have been useful. But Klaus had enough researchers already, and couldn’t offer the freedom to experiment or the respect that Glassvitch likely had.
So Klaus would need to convince her parents to follow her. That shouldn’t be too difficult; most parents would, and he could find jobs on the Castle for them, whatever it was they did. So long as they weren’t violently opposed to constructs—and Agatha’s behavior toward the jägers, while nervous, didn’t seem to indicate any great prejudice—it should work.