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.