Genoa, 1154

The door to a rarely-used room in the city's palace creaked open. Inside sat Pope Gregory, tied to a chair and looking thoroughly uncomfortable. He turned his head at this new development in what had otherwise been quite a boring day. In strode Kaiser Heinrich, dressed modestly and holding a sword in hand. Gregory chuckled.

"Ah, Heinrich, have you come to make me a martyr?"

The Kaiser kept a stern look on his face. "You delude yourself, Hildebrand," he said, using the Pope's given name. "Once I destroy you, Catholic Europe will be released from your spell and they will beg me for forgiveness, saying how right I was all these years."

The Pope seemed to ignore everything Heinrich had said, instead focusing on the first part. "As my Papal name is Gregory, you will address me as such, Kaiser. It is a part of my title."

Heinrich just sighed. "First of all, this is turning into a meta-argument. Since I did not approve of your appointment you have no right to declare your new name as part of your title. Since this past argument has led to my victory and your capture, it has already been determined that your Papacy was an illegitimate one. Second of all, that aside, you are in no position to request or demand how I am to address you."

The Pope said nothing, so the Kaiser continued.

"Now that we have settled this matter, Hildebrand, let us move on to other issues. You have put my Empire in grave danger numerous times over the course of your Papacy and flouted my authority an equal amount of those times. I do not appreciate this."

"Ha!" Gregory spat at the Kaiser, being able to do little else. "I was just reclaiming a right that you had taken away from us many years ago. Why should someone not associated with the church appoint its highest officials?"

"This was not a religious move; this was a political move and we both know it."

"It does not lessen the question. Answer it please."

The Kaiser whacked Gregory over the head with the flat edge of his sword at this last comment. The Pope, screaming in pain, fell over along with the chair he was still tied to.

"Apparently we are getting nowhere here," said Heinrich smartly. He took out a piece of brown material and after examining it, threw it at his helpless prisoner. "This is the same hairshirt that I wore to Canossa begging for your forgiveness all of these years ago. Put it on, please."

Gregory stared at it for a second and laughed. "You have got to be joking."

The Kaiser's expression was similar to that of stone. "If you do not put it on, I will give the order to execute the several hundred prisoners captured in the battle."

Gregory did a double-take (as much as it would allow while being tied-up and on one's side) at this last comment. "Surely you would not escalate this vendetta of yours to the point that when I did not obey you hundreds of lives would be lost."

"Nobody thought I'd restart this conflict and attack Rome either. Put it on. I'll untie you."

After Heinrich untied his prisoner (although cutting the ropes with his sword was more like it) he watched Gregory change, giving the man no privacy. The sight of Gregory's body, the slowness at which he changed, and the paleness of his skin with no clothes to hide it struck Heinrich. The Pope looked incredibly weak.

When Gregory was dressed, Heinrich grabbed his shoulder and dragged him out of the room into the palace corridor. Gregory was expecting to have to beg for the Kaiser's forgiveness, but Heinrich seemed to be leading him to a specific location. He vaguely paid attention to the journey, but he saw that there were lots of turns and lots of downstairs flights.

Gradually the light got darker and darker, until finally, when Heinrich opened another door, it seemed like night. Evidently they were in the city's catacombs. A horrible odor had permeated the air, and Gregory, wearing nothing but his captor's old hairshirt, quickly got chilly.

The Kaiser, noticing Gregory's uncomfortableness with the temperature, turned. "Enjoy the chill while you can, Hildebrand. It's going to get a lot hotter for you very soon."

The putrid, cool, damp air was doing more damage to Gregory's fragile system than any physical harm. He began to bend over, coughing. Meanwhile, Heinrich continued to lead him down, deeper into the city's catacombs.

"You know, I've been thinking," he said as he walked, speaking over Gregory's occasional coughing and now, sneezing, "What would be more satisfying for me personally? The prospect of killing my greatest enemy and thus fully redeeming myself for my foolish early actions, or keeping him alive and making him my puppet, thus allowing him to unfortunately witness my triumph?"

Finally, they stopped walking. Gregory was barely able to talk now. The air was so foul, he didn't understand how Heinrich could bear it. To their side was what seemed to be a river of sludge. Was it the city's sewer system, perhaps?

"I'd appreciate some input, Hildebrand."

The next thing Gregory knew, his head was being forced into the sludge. Gasping in shock and surprise, he swallowed a mouthful of God knows what. It tasted as bad as it smelt. He couldn't see, his nose, throat, eyes, and stomach were all screaming at him to stop the pain, but no respite came...

...finally, his head was pulled back up out of the sewer. His face was a mess, his long white hair now dirty and tangled. He gasped for breath, and his ears vaguely heard a "well?" before he was forced back into the muck.

The second time was as bad as the first. If this were water it wouldn't be so bad, but this was not water. He was suffocating, drowning in other people's trash, urine, excrement, and who knows what else.

He was pulled back out of the sewer once again, this time allowed to catch his breath.

"I want an answer, Hildebrand."

Gregory, sputtering, trying to clear his mouth of the toxic mixture that it had been subjected to, could only manage a "puh-puh-please..." before he was dunked again.

The third time was worse than the other two, due to the sheer longetivity that he was down. He was still fully aware of himself, and thinking clearly, but he knew that if he didn't get air, blessed air, even the pungent aroma of these catacombs, he would die soon.

When next allowed to rise out of the sludge, Gregory swallowed his pride (along with various other substances), and begged for it to stop.

"Puh-please, don't... please don't keep this up... I'll do anything... I'm sorry..."

"What was that?"

"I'm sorry... just please don't kill me... I'll do anything you ask... just don't..."

Heinrich grinned menacingly.

"Do you agree that you were wrong all these years, that I have the power of Investiture and that you unrightfully took it away from me?"

"Yes, yes! Just get me out of here!"

"Do you agree that I have the sole power of Investiture?!"

"YES! Please don't hurt me anymore..."

Heinrich ignored the final plea.

"Then, by the power vested in me as Holy Roman Emperor, I hereby depose you as Pope."

He dunked Hildebrand, for that was truly his name now, into the sewer for the final time, this time not letting up until Hildebrand had finished screaming and shaking his arms madly. Kaiser Heinrich, power asserted once and for all, turned away from the lifeless, stinking body of his tormentor and exited the catacombs without looking back.