Chapter 04: Remove

“What do you mean you can’t go to pick her up?”

I’m not going to drive through Mexico, Myriam. I do a lot, and there’s a lot that doesn’t frighten me, but even I have my limits. I’m not going to cross into Maria’s territory for some girl.”

“I’m going to withhold your payment,” Myriam replied angrily. “Who’s going to get her?”

It was quiet on the other end of the line. “I haven’t seen any of your team. Emmett drove through Mexico to Nicaragua and is going to take her back by plane. He truly is fearless.”

“That’s not saving the girl!”

My apologies. I’ll do what I can when they get back.”

“You’ve never disappointed me, Mr. Whitlock. And now you do just that when it truly matters.”

For what it’s worth, she’s the princess; I doubt they’ll hurt her much upon her return.”

Frustrated, Myriam hung up the phone and downed her glass of wine. “We had her, and now we don’t.”

“Since when do you work with a Cold One anyway?” Klaus had been surprised when listening to the phone call. “Since when are they trustworthy?”

“This one is, Klaus,” she snapped at him, refilling her glass but with something stronger. “I recruited him specifically for something like this, and he works well within the limitations he’s been given in his situation. His pretend girlfriend is a seer and all.”

Klaus was slightly amused by the short fuse his love had been gifted with. “You never told me you had someone on the inside.”

“Because you don’t need to know everything, Klaus.”

“Can’t he tell us where they’ll be taking her so we can intercept them?”

Myriam let out a sigh. “Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. And calling the service to request her won’t work either, they’re smart.”

“This is unacceptable, Myriam!” Klaus shot at her as he grabbed his phone. “I’m going to call Kol to see if he can do something about it because frankly, your team and now your mole, has failed us a lot since Katherine took Calypso away from here!”

“Klaus!” Myriam snatched his phone out of his hands. “As much as I applaud your tenacity in saving this girl, perhaps we aren’t meant to.”

“Nonsense! I never figured you for a quitter, Myriam,” he growled as he tried to get his phone back. “I made that girl a promise.”

“And it’s likely that once we do find her again that she won’t remember,” she said sadly. “Maybe we should let this one go; we can’t win all the time. We did what we could. We should focus on what we can do, and that’s making sure that New Orleans will be yours again. We still have girls inside this building that require our help as much as Calypso.”

“I made that girl a promise, Myriam. I never break my word!”

“Liar,” she spat at him. “How many times had we planned on meeting up somewhere safe and you canceled at the last minute?”

“You’re my lover; you don’t count.”

“The hell I do!” Myriam said as she smacked him, hard. “I should matter more than a promise you’ve made to some random girl! So if you can break a promise with me, then you can do it for her too! She won’t remember, I do!”

“If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Exactly!”

Klaus growled. “I do not tolerate this kind of behavior, Myriam.”

“You know where the door is, but don’t be surprised I’m not letting you in again!”

He kissed her, hard, before exiting her office and headed towards the back door. He was going to have to spend the night in the mansion with Kol, give them both a chance to simmer down and look at the situation with fresh eyes. Klaus knew that Myriam was just as frustrated as he was when it came to this girl, despite her obvious programming, Calypso was something special. He saw it, Myriam saw it, and hell, even Kol was fascinated with her once he got passed her influence.

This wasn’t the first time that he and Myriam had a spat like this. Things would turn out alright in the end. Sometimes two similar personalities would collide. They were probably both being very infantile right now. Tomorrow they’d kiss and makeup.

~o.O.o~

“Hello, princess, welcome home,” Edward greeted her as he helped her out of the car and put an arm around her. “Quite the adventure you’ve had.”

Emmett had lied and that made her angry. She was hurt. The only person she could trust was dead and now she was back at the Cullens. She was going to be hurt even more. Perhaps she could pretend everything was alright so they wouldn’t hurt her and put her back to work? She smiled up at him, the brightest smile she could think of, her influence showing nothing but love and affection to him, it was something that Edward liked. “Katherine broke her contract.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Edward smiled at her and planted a kiss on top of her head. “It’ll be good to have you home for a little while. To have you all to me while we find you a new handler. Or perhaps you’d like to stay here? Where it’s safe and no one can hurt you?”

“I’d like that very much, thank you, Edward.” The idea repulsed her. The pain from her memories resurfaced again, and she tried hard not to throw up. She needed to swallow it.

Edward eyed her curiously, noticing the subtle changes in his pet. “Emmett said you were damaged, is that true?” He kept his arm firmly around her as he lead her through the building. “What did they do?”

“I’m fine, Edward,” she smiled at him. “There was a witch who tried to hurt my head, and it didn’t work. What would you like me to do for you?”

“I want you to stop lying,” he bit at her. “You’re not fine. I can hear it in your voice.” He stopped them then, in the middle of the hallway where all the employees could see them. Edward firmly grabbed her arms and narrowed his eyes on her. “Tell me the truth. Are you damaged?”

She could feel the water burn behind her eyes. “Please don’t take me to Dr. Cullen,” she whispered as she looked at him. “Please.”

“You’re pathetic,” he spat as he threw her to the floor and grabbed her hair to drag her to Carlisle. “You’re broken and miserable. I don’t like that. I’m very disappointed in you, slave,” he looked down on her as he dragged her along. “Until you’re fixed, you’re nothing but a slave to me.”

“Please!”

“Shut up!” Edward kicked her in her side before he dragged her into Carlisle’s laboratory and nearly flung her into his sire’s arms. “She’s broken!”

Carlisle blinked as he helped the girl to her feet and looked at his son. “That’s unfortunate, Edward,” he said calmly. “I’m going to assess the damage and see what I can do.” He then turned his attention to the girl and gently smoothed her hair. “Don’t you worry, dear, you’re going to be alright, no matter how long it takes.”

“I don’t-”

“Now, now,” he soothed her as he directed her to the assessment chair. “Don’t talk back, princess, that’s very unbecoming, and I do not tolerate that. It’s up to you if I’m going to be nice about it or not.”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Cullen,” she replied softly as she got out of her clothes and quietly crawled into the chair. She could feel her heart rate increase; a knot was forming in her stomach, and she was close to tears. Resisting him would only result in pain. More pain. She wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore. She felt so confused. But she shouldn’t be. She was home. This is what she’d known for so long, and these were the people she could trust. “Katherine’s dead.”

“How unfortunate,” Carlisle replied as he started to put electrodes all over her body. “How does that make you feel?”

“Sad. I cried when Emmett took me to the car; I didn’t want to leave her on the beach. I didn’t want her to die.”

“You shouldn’t feel anything about her,” he replied gently. “As I’ve told you many times over; your handlers are supposed to take care of you and do what you want within the usual perimeters. You shouldn’t feel anything outside of what you’ve been hired to do.”

“She took me away, and that’s bad.”

“Exactly, good girl.”

She beamed at him then, that funny feeling of him being proud of her warming her body. “Are you going to hurt me?”

Carlisle let out a breath and nodded. “Unfortunately I have to; I suspect that whoever damaged you hit your emotions and your sense of self-preservation, although it’s not that bad in your case, we don’t have to start from scratch.” He was looking at a monitor for a very long time, and she kept quiet. Absolutely quiet, knowing that he hated it if she moved. “Tell me, do you still have Katherine’s blood in your system?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Of course not,” he sighed and caressed her hair, not looking at her but at the monitors instead. “The results I’m getting are confusing,” Carlisle said as he kept brushing her hair; she liked that. “I’ll have to dig a little deeper than just using these machines.”

He wasn’t hurting her, yet, and he had said that it was going to hurt. She knew that he was going to get to the truth eventually and as he turned to walk away from her, she grabbed his wrist tightly. “I know what you’ve done to me.” What the hell was she doing? Was this some misguided bravery? What purpose did it serve only for her to be in more pain than anticipated? Surely he was going to hurt her over and over again. Fry her brains into submission again.

She was stupid.

“I never made you forget, princess; it’s you who compartmentalized it inside your head, blocking it out.” He didn’t seem surprised or hurt or offended by her actions.

“What do you mean?”

“Your brain works different from others, this is why you’re our best entertainer,” he grabbed a chair and sat down next to her, holding her hand in his. “I’m not going to defend myself and tell you that I’ve never hurt you as I worked with you because I have and in all honesty, I loved every moment of it. It was when you stopped reacting to me that I decided to take it a step further, push you harder, hurt you more. It’s almost as if the immortality I gifted you with has made your mind a fortress.”

It made sense. Somewhat. She was appalled by his blatant admission of severely hurting her.

“I won’t get mad, princess, I know it wasn’t your decision to run away with Katherine and that she took you away instead. But what happened? Where did you go and who damaged you?”

“She calls herself Circe.”

“Damn,” he cursed and let go of her hand, pushing himself away from her. “I know enough,” Carlisle’s voice was hard, then. No kindness in his voice anymore. “She broke into your fortress and opened it slightly, didn’t she? The agony you must be in. I’m so sorry, princess, but it’s only going to get worse from now. I’m going to have to flush your system from your gifts. You’re still going to be immortal, but everything else that makes you so special is going away. And then…”

She felt how her face drained from all of her blood at the realization of what his words and his actions meant. “You’re going to reboot me.”

~o.O.o~

She had lost count by day five after Dr. Cullen had moved her to a dark room with no windows and no sources of light. The compound that he had used to flush her system and rid it of the gifts he had given her had hurt. It had gone everywhere. Her veins. Her kidneys. Her heart. Her brain. Her eyes. Even now, she could still feel the after ache in the hair follicles on top of her head. Her long hair weighing down, pulling on the follicles and her head. It was maddening.

She knew that Dr. Cullen was going to start retraining her soon; it worked best without her unique gifts, and he had explained that it was in her best interests. She had to mend the crack in her mind fortress to be whole again. What had happened to her was not her fault, but he wasn’t happy with her at all. She wasn’t perfect anymore. She wouldn’t ever be perfect again because he simply couldn’t use the same serums on her that he previously had; her body would reject them now.

Her immortality didn’t come with pain suppression. Dr. Cullen had explained that it was mostly her handiwork, but that he had given her something to make it easier to deal with. This caused her to be asked to go over to the places of brutes; she wouldn’t feel a thing; she’d just laugh it off when needed. He wasn’t going to be able to return that to her.

The way she could tap into someone’s essence, their energy, to figure out what they wanted, what they needed, and then to manipulate it so that they would forgo on their principles was not going to be returned, either. She felt sad about it, because she was certain that it would have been a great gift with helping people in need. As with this gift; her strength was gone too.

For the last 30 years, she had loved it to have Katherine as her handler because Katherine was strong and she tapped into that when she needed to get the upper hand over one of her clients. No more. Katherine was no more. Calypso was now at the mercy of whomever she was going to be handed to.

With the loss of this gift, to manipulate other people’s thoughts and feelings, the ability to tap into their brain to change their perception of her had changed as well. Who knew that so many people liked brunettes? She was a natural blonde, how was that going to work?

Dr. Cullen had explained why. She was the oldest of his creations; created by the means he had available to him back in the day. Her gifts were made out of serums. They’d stick, as long as she wouldn’t be treated with the compound used to flush her system. However, the compound would latch onto individual molecules in her body and stay there for at least a hundred years, preventing him from returning her gifts if he wanted her to go back to work soon.

However, science was far more advanced these days – something he had had a hand in advancing – and he had asked her permission to try something he hadn’t tried before because he knew that she was the only one who would be able to handle it. She made him proud, so proud. She didn’t have a choice in the matter to give her permission; she was at his mercy, but it was sweet of him to ask.

The dark room was nice. She couldn’t hear anything and couldn’t see anything. It was peaceful. She liked it there. Still, the memories that Circe had unlocked inside of her plagued her. Dr. Cullen had only done that to help her, which he explained. There was no doubt that he had asked her for permission for that aswell, so what had gone wrong? Why did it feel so bad?

The door opened, and she could see Edward’s features in the light. Immediately she put her head down and shifted, so she was in his favorite position, ready for him to use her if he wanted, but all he did was spit on her and leave again. It made her feel unwanted. Broken. Sad. She was defective. His brief visit left her with a sour taste in her mouth. He didn’t like her anymore.

~o.O.o~

Alina and her team had brought what had remained of Katherine home. While Myriam hadn’t liked the woman because of what she had done to Klaus in the past, the loss of someone who was in trouble still hit her. She could see the same with Klaus; there was a hint of grief and anger on his face, and he was quietly seething in his chair with a larger glass of bourbon. They were going to burn her remains in the Bayou later that night.

After returning Katherine’s body, Alina and her team went out to act upon a hunch of a possible location for the Cullen’s Escort Service. They also informed Myriam that the trip could be costly, Mainly because if they weren’t successful, the team was going to try to set a trap by hiring a Cullen whore, pretend it’s real and have sex and whatever, before they’d follow the car back. By doing this away from New Orleans, they hoped that whoever was on the other end of the call wouldn’t know it was a trap.

Myriam had only agreed to it because not Klaus, but something else had changed her mind to rescue the girl, if only to satisfy her own curiosity. She looked up from her computer to her lover and smiled. “Can I borrow your magnificent mind for a moment?”

He got up and stood behind her before wrapping his arms around her. “What is it, love?”

Myriam pointed to her screen where there was a screenshot of Calypso from one of her security cameras from a couple of days ago. “What do you see?”

“I see our girl.”

“I know, what does she look like?”

He didn’t know what Myriam was aiming for. “Security cameras can’t be influenced by her gift, what we’re seeing is her true self. The girl that I’ve seen before. Blonde, looking incredibly young. Perhaps too young to be immortalized. Much like Rebekah. Should this girl ever return to a healthy sense of self, or at least a little bit, I’m afraid we’ll going to have to deal with a stroppy teenager, much like my sister.”

Myriam let out a snort. “I doubt that.”

“Why are you asking me?” He put his head on her shoulder as he kept looking at the screen. “Even if she’s 17 years old, she’s been that way for at least 150 years.”

“I’m asking because now I want you to look at something else,” she changed the picture of that of her inside man. “He was 19 years old when he was turned. He spent a few years here in the club as part of my security team while he tried to get his life back on track, around the same time I learned of an escort service with extraordinary whores. He offered to go in to keep an eye on things. Big heart. Empath. Remind you of someone?”

He blinked when he saw the resemblance with Calypso. “You think they’re related?”

“Either that or one of them is a doppelganger gone wrong. I’ve instructed Alina to take everything with her should they find the headquarters. I want to know for sure.”

nextalph

2 Comments:

  1. Bella will be fine. Eventually… *grins*

  2. Wow, that’s interesting. So they think Jasper is related to Bella? Very interesting indeed. I hate that Bella is back with the Cullen’s and I hope Klaus and Kol tare them apart…great update hon. I love it and can’t wait to read more…thanks, huggs. Peggy

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