"What's going to happen to my parents?" Otto asked Detective Koi in the van. They had been driving for quite a while in silence. Otto didn't know where they were going. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to think about anything, really. He had ruined everything in one day. And over what? A sneeze and a loud noise in the bathroom. He still wasn't clear on what had happened in the bathroom.

"They will be where we're going. I understand your father is a rogue anomaly as well." Detective Koi didn't sound mad or patronizing. She spoke as if she was trying to comfort Otto.

"What about my mom?"

"She's a frivolous. Did you know about your father, Otto?"

"Yes." Otto wasn't sure if he should have lied about that or not, but something told him he wouldn't have gotten away with a lie.

The van pulled up to a building and stopped. Escher opened the back door, jumped out, and moved to the side for Rembrandt and Otto to follow after. There were two law-enforcement officers waiting to help escort Otto into the building. Each took hold of one of his arms.

Otto was brought into a windowless room. There was a camera on the wall and a voice recorder on the table. Detective Koi and her partner came in behind him. "I'm going to warn you now that if you touch your nose casing, it will end very badly for you. So keep your hands away from your face." Then she walked behind Otto, undid the straps of his straightjacket and gently pulled the jacket off him before telling him to take a seat. "I need you to push Rembrandt's nose-button. Then I can get started with my questions."

Otto hesitated. "What will it do to me?"

"It ensures that you tell the truth."

"Okay..." Otto reached across the table and pushed Rembrandt's button. He didn't feel any different.

Detective Koi pressed the record button on the voice recorder."Otto, what does your nose-button do?" She had a form on the table and a pen in her hand, poised to write down whatever he said.

Otto glanced from the camera on the wall to the voice recorder and then to Detective Koi. He had never told anyone what his nose-button did. He'd never even said the words to his mirror. His parents had told him what it did when he was in kindergarten. From the age of five, it had been his secret to keep. And for twelve years, he had kept it well. Never giving himself away. Now he had no choice but to tell the Chief Detective of law-enforcement. And apparently, he was incapable of lying.

Otto swallowed hard. He looked down at the table and started rubbing the lines in the surface with his thumb. Then he looked up at Detective Koi and over at Rembrandt. They were waiting patiently. They were a lot nicer than Otto imagined. He always thought that this situation would involve a lot of physical abuse and torment. He didn't even see a gun on Detective Koi. That seemed odd. She must have a nose-button that acted as her weapon. That's why they called them weaponized buttons, anyway.

"What does your nose-button do?" He asked, trying to kill time before having to give himself up completely.

Detective Koi smiled slyly. "Tell you what," she said, "I'll tell you what mine does after you tell me what yours does."

That answer didn't satisfy Otto. He frowned.

"Otto, killing my time isn't going to help you any. You're going to have to answer the question eventually. You might as well get it over with now."

"How long does this truth button last?"

"About twenty minutes each time." Detective Koi looked at her watch, "You've got seventeen more to go. Then we have you push it again."

"It destroys the world," Otto blurted out. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He felt somehow empty inside, as if he had just given away a part of himself.

"What do you mean by that?" Detective Koi knitted her eyebrows together.

"Just that," Otto said. "It destroys the world."

"How?" Koi asked.

Otto shrugged. "How does any button do anything?"

"No, I mean... what sort of apocalypse does it bring?"

"Oh, I think it makes the earth explode from within. At least, that's how I understood it to be. But I'm not sure. All I know is that it destroys the world."

"I see," Koi scribbled something down on the form.

"Have you ever heard of a nose-button that could destroy the world?" Otto was hoping that he wasn't the only one with such a terrible curse—even though more buttons like his meant a higher probability of doom for the planet.

"No, I haven't. But there's a first for everything." Koi was nonplussed about it. She took a moment to stare at the form before continuing on in her questioning. The easiest question she asked was his age. After that, came, "Do you know any other rogue anomalies?"

Otto tried not to answer. Giving himself up was one thing, but pulling anyone else down with him was just terrible. He shook his head—surprised that he could lie with body language. It didn't fool the detective, though.

"I'm going to need a verbal answer from you, Otto. Do you know any other rogue anomalies?"

Otto began to cry. "Don't ask me this, please."

"I'm sorry, Otto, but this is important. Rogue anomalies are a danger to us all." She paused and waited for him to look up at her. He didn't. She continued, "I'm not trying to hurt anyone, Otto. I'm here to help people. I'm here to protect people."

"But if I tell you, then they go to prison," Otto couldn't stop his crying. He needed to take his nose casing off, but he was afraid of what they'd do if he did. So he gasped for air between sobs and sniffed hard to keep his nose from running.

"I'm not taking you to prison, Otto."

"You're not?"

"No. You didn't make the decision to be a rogue. You were raised as one. No one can hold that against you."

"But my parents--"

"They broke the law, Otto. They knew what they were doing and they did it anyway. That has to be punished."

"Even my mom?"

Detective Koi nodded sadly. "I'm sorry. That part is out of my hands. I don't make laws, I just make sure that people obey them—for the safety of everyone."

Otto continued to cry. Detective Koi put her pen down and went to comfort Otto. She stood next to him and put her arm across his shoulders. "Rembrandt, go get some tissues, will you?" She said gently. "Otto, would you like to take your nose casing off? I don't think we're going to have any trouble with you pushing your button."

Rembrandt came back quickly with a box of tissue. It took several minutes for Otto to calm himself down. He dabbed his nose-button carefully with the tissue. His green paint flaked off each time, which gave him a greater sense of hopelessness and made him sob more. Detective Koi and Rembrandt sat patiently without saying another word until he ran out of strength to cry anymore. With a few more sniffles, he used what was left of his strength to compose himself, but his body still shook.

"Otto, I know this is hard for you, but tell me who else is a rogue anomaly," Escher said as she checked her watch.

Otto took a deep breath in before saying the name, "Clara Vickers."

Detective Koi wrote the name down quickly. "Anyone else?"

Otto shook his head.

"I'm going to need a verbal answer, Otto. Is there anyone else?"

"Claude Monet. Mr. Detroy. That's all."

"Thank you."

Otto felt defeated. Everything he had been taught to keep hidden had been drawn out of him in less than 20 minutes.

"Alright, Otto. I think you need some rest. Rembrandt is going to walk you down the hall for a quick blood test and then he'll take you to another facility where you will be well taken care of."

"Blood test? Wait! What about my parents? Can't I see them? Will I ever see them again?"

"At this point, you may not see them. They are still in questioning. But I will make sure that you see them again soon. I promise." Detective Koi gave Otto a reassuring smile. Then picked up his straightjacket and handed it to Rembrandt along with his nose casing. She motioned towards the door. Otto got up shakily and walked out the door with Rembrandt guiding him down the hall.

A gruff looking man was waiting for Otto in a white lab room. Even though he wasn't wearing scrubs, Otto recognized him as a medic by his nose-button painted alarm red. He took Otto's blood in a few swift movements and dismissed him.

Rembrandt handed Otto his nose casing to put on, then helped him into the straightjacket before escorting him back to the van. They drove only a short distance before arriving at another building. Otto couldn't see anything until he was allowed out of the van. In front of him stood a large, white building with high arches across the entrance.

Inside, Otto was taken past several security check points into a hallway that had windows lining an inner courtyard. Rembrandt led him to a large, comfortable room facing the back lawn. It was set up like a studio apartment with areas furnished as a living room, bedroom and attached bathroom. There was no kitchen. The room was painted white with white trim and white detailing. The furniture was all a matching shade of white. If it wasn't for shadows, Otto would never be able to tell the furniture from the floor and wall.

In the middle of the living room, however, there was a large pile of color. On closer inspection, Otto realized that the pile was a neatly packed stack of all his belongings. Even the posters from his wall had been taken down and placed on the white coffee table under a suitcase of his clothes.

Rembrandt took off Otto's straightjacket and stood back as if he had just released a wild animal. "Someone will be stopping by soon to see you and help you get settled. Other then that, the door will remain locked. Do you have any questions?"

"How long am I staying here?"

"I don't know that. A judge has to decide what to do with you."

"Is there food?" Otto realized that he hadn't eaten at all since he woke up in the padded room.

"You will be taken to the dining hall at dinner time."

"Nothing until then?" Otto winced at the thought.

Rembrandt thought for a moment. "I'll see what I can do." Then he walked out of the room, shutting and locking the door behind him.

Otto sat down, exhausted, on the white couch and began opening bags of his things. He felt empty and lonely. The whiteness of the room made it feel as barren as a desert. Everything he was allowed to take with him from his old life was stacked neatly in front of him in a pile that seemed to look smaller the longer he stared at it.

He wanted to cry, but he had nothing left to cry out. He laid down on the couch and started imagining where his foster parents were. Detective Koi said that he couldn't be blamed for being a rogue, but his foster parent's could be held responsible. Otto wasn't sure what the punishment was for kidnapping and raising a rogue anomaly.

"Otto?" a familiar woman's voice was calling to him.

Otto straightened up quickly and looked towards the door. It was still closed. No one was there.

"Otto, it's me." Clara Vickers walked over to Otto from where his bed was by the back facing window. She looked frazzled. Her hair was not its normal, immaculate self; she had dark circles around her eyes and a worn out look. Her nose-button was its natural white color.

Otto stared at her wide-eyed. "You just came in through the window?"

Nurse Vickers smiled weakly. "No. These windows don't open. I teleport. That's how I stole you from the hospital, you know."

Otto didn't know if he should be astonished, mad, scared, or happy to see someone who was on his side. He hoped she was on his side. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I came to find out what happened. I don't have much time." Nurse Vickers looked up at the door as if it was going to open at any moment. Then she sat down on the couch next to Otto and took a long look at him. "What happened, Otto? Are you okay?"

Otto shook his head. "I don't know," he groaned.

Nurse Vickers nodded as if she understood. "I haven't been able to see your parents yet, but when I do, I'll let them know where you are."

"Do you know where they are?"

"Not exactly. Not enough to get into the right room. But I'll find out."

"How did you find me?"

"I saw you through the window," she said as if it was obvious.

Otto looked out the large window at the extensive lawn lined with trees and shrubs. "Oh," he said. "Are you going to get me out of here?"

"Not just yet."

"Why not?"

"You're not in any danger right now. In fact, you might be safer here than you were at school. I heard you had bully troubles."

"What? How did you know?"

"You're not the only rogue anomaly in your school, Otto," she smiled broadly.

"But..." Otto's head hurt trying to sort this out. He was tired and hungry and dehydrated.

"Don't worry about it. I'm going to sort this out," Nurse Vickers patted Otto on the back.

"But they know about you. I had to tell them. They have this guy that makes you tell the truth--"

"I know. You're not the first person to give me up. Detroy told them about me, too. But they'll never catch me. That's why I'm the only rogue that you're allowed to know about."

"But...But didn't Mr. Detroy know about me? Did he give me up, too?"

"Obviously not. If he had given you up, you would have been here a week ago."

"But how? I thought he knew I was an anomaly. The painting and the speech he gave..."

"I don't know, Otto. I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. They've been keeping him under close watch."

There was a sound at the door. Nurse Vickers stood up to go.

"Wait!" Otto said a little too loudly. "They aren't hurting my parents, are they?"

Nurse Vickers smiled at his lack of the word 'foster.' "No, they're not going to hurt your parents." Then she pushed her nose-button and was gone.

At the same moment the door opened and in walked a man dressed in a t-shirt and jeans dyed every color of the rainbow. He was a solidly built man with broad shoulders and looked to be in his early twenties. His golden brown hair was speckled with various primary colors, as was his nose-button. It was hard to tell what his natural nose-button color was. He carried a tray of food in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.

"That was Clara Vickers, wasn't it," he said without surprise.

"How did you know?"

"She visits all the rogue anomalies we take in. We haven't found a way to stop her yet. But, I hear she's been put off by some of our new security." He set the tray down on the edge of the coffee table and began clearing a space for Otto to eat. "My name is Ellsworth. I'm here to help you decorate. But I'm told you haven't eaten lunch, so I brought you something."

"Help me decorate?"

"Yup. We find that it's an important part of a person's mental health."

"Mental health? Do you think I'm insane?"

"Insane? No. Stressed perhaps. Maybe a case of social anxiety. I'm not a doctor, honestly, but the doctors here already have a rather extensive file on your behavioral history. A robbery and bullying doesn't really help either."

"Does everyone know about that?"

"It was on the news."

"No, the bullying."

"Oh. I don't know how they know that."

"How do you know that?"

"From the doctors."

"No, but... do they just tell you everything?"

Ellsworth smiled and sat down on the couch where Clara Vickers had been a minute ago. "I know who to ask."

Otto sighed heavily and took a long drink of water. Then he took off his nose casing and began shoveling food in his mouth. "So you're just here to help me hang posters?" He said between bites of meatloaf. It was the best meatloaf he'd ever had. There was a certain flavor hidden in it that he couldn't name, but that gave it a nice kick.

"Do you have any?" Ellsworth perked up and looked over at the pile of personal items. He spotted the posters on the bottom.

"Uh, yeah, but I think I can manage them on my own.

"If you say so."

"So, what are you supposed to help me with?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but the whiteness in this room is killing me. Tell me what color you want and I can help you color your walls, floors, furniture, you name it."

"Oh. So you color things. Is that all you do around here?"

"No, not all. But it is my talent and my hobby. Helps me get to know the newcomers, too." He gave Otto a friendly push in the shoulder.

Otto tried to smile back at him, but he wasn't feeling as happy as Ellsworth. The whole idea of settling down in this place made him feel sick. He was still hoping that someone would come in to say, "We made a mistake, we're taking you home now." Or maybe Clara Vickers would appear again to teleport him out of there. He didn't want this to be his new home.

Ellsworth read the despair in Otto's face. His mouth drooped into a sympathetic frown and his energy faded. "I know this is hard for you. You probably just want to be left alone. But getting rid of some of this white will help. Honestly, I can't imagine you getting any sleep with your room like this. So how about if we do a little color changing and then I'll leave you be?"

Otto heaved a sigh and sat back on the couch. He had scraped his tray clean and was now mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. "Make it whatever colors you want. I don't care."

"Hmm," Ellsworth stood up and walked over to Otto's personal effects. "Do you mind if I look at some of your things for inspiration?"

"Knock yourself out."

Otto watched as Ellsworth opened up a bag, pulling out a few items, respectfully replacing anything he moved. He took his time and worked quietly, not wanting to upset Otto. After looking through Otto's clothes, books, and posters, Ellsworth went to work adding color to the room. He held down his nose-button and dragged his finger across the walls. A deep ocean blue spread out from where he touched to cover the surface. He added a shade of warm brown to the trim around the room and turned Otto's furniture a comforting green—like the color Otto used to paint his nose-button. Finally, he bent down and turned the white tile floor a brown to match the trim. When he was done he stood in the center of the room and turned around slowly to look over his work. "There," he said, "I think that about does it. Do you like it?"

Otto did. The blue took away all his anxious thoughts and the green made him feel safe. Even the brown added a touch of stability to his senses. Ellsworth was right—decorating was good for mental health. Otto nodded his approval.

"Good. Then I'll get going. I'll come get you when dinner is ready. Until then, I think you earned a nap." He gave Otto a wink and turned to walk out the door, locking it behind him.