9. Season In The Sun.

I was in my office to check on the lead on Sark and how in hell's name they had gotten to me. I needed to see if there was anything I might have missed to check out or if should I relocate fully. Was it safe for me to be here or had it just been one Sark checking things out? Then Thomas knocked on my door as to say there would be six release gigs, and I thought I'd have to go then as so many had been found.

These were just my jobs. I didn't let anyone else do them. I started pulling my gear on and grabbed one bag. My car was fully equipped, but I always took the supplies with me. I got everything that I needed, including my implant gun, hoping that these would be strangers, not someone that had I once known. 

It was time to kill once again and stop being a healer. Well, I got to be some. Time to do my duty again. Balance of this fucking thing. Time to kill, have mercy more or less, but what cost? My soul, if I had any left.

Mimi had left the hospital somewhere, and Damon took Mariella to the house, where they started fucking furiously and unloading all over the place. They had a lot to unload, and the pack had heard what had happened and everyone was making sure that Mimi would be as safe as possible.

Those few bits and pieces of Mimi being opened like fish or being tortured that Damon had gotten from Sark's mind needed some unloading and even if it was not so glorious as it had once been, raw animalistic sex helped Damon. He did not share them with Mariella; she did not have to know. 

He was furious to himself, to the world. Somehow it would have been easier if Mimi had been okay. That she would have been happy. Of course, it had been hard for him to let go of her, but at least she would have been happy. He had kind of believed in a fantasy that she was happy, in good shape, healthy, and moved on. Not that. 

But that shell of a woman who had once bared her soul to him had been hard to see, knowing that Mimi's state, her thinness, paleness, was all because of him. He had seen little of her body because those scrubs and gown had covered her, but the gauntness of her face had said it all. There was nothing that Mariella could have said to him to convince him otherwise. It had been just the truth. His fault. He hoped that one day he might get some connection with that creature and then he would have so enormous debt to be paid. 

Time went on again. They had Christmas, and then they spent another New Year's Eve at the Christmas mansion for a little longer before leaving again for the Azores. Mariella reckoned it had been way over five years, and she was now beginning to see that Damon had turned in the right direction and was going where he was supposed to be going.

Upstairs, it had been said that this was their growth and development both as a pack and as individuals, and also a bitter lesson. Mariella felt that if Mimi ever came back, everything would be so changed that Mimi might not feel at home, and she didn't know if Mimi already had someone else, even Magnum.

Mariella couldn't imagine being without Damon for years, but Mimi had no choice. But maybe someday, Mimi will experience happiness. Mariella knew every Salvatore would miss Mimi, and so would the foursome. Adam and Charles were no longer so close to the wolves. It had gone by pretty quickly on both sides.

Damon was curious. He wanted to see Mimi as the Flea. What kind of mission she did do? Did she save a lot of humans and others or were there losses too? Colin and Alaric had been quite quiet and did not tell him much about anything that Mimi did. Alaric had told him that most of their mission info is secret and it is not common knowledge, a polite way to say that this is not your business. 

Colin would not give him any medical info on Mimi, as he was her doctor, and patient confidentiality meant to him a lot. Damon was just an ex who had no right to that information. Damon had understood this. But between the lines, Mimi was far from okay. She was not thriving as Damon had hoped. She survived, not even lived. Colin had always been there for Mimi, and Damon did not know if Colin had been with Mimi, or Magnum been with her, or someone else. 

I jumped in the car and set the GPS. I sighed and ran my hands wearily through my hair. Why does this have to be so fucking hard, always the same thing? But I steeled myself and went for a drive. My job, this was my fault mostly that these were in this condition and I had to remind myself that this was a good thing to do. Not a bad thing, but a good thing. I would help, give them relief. They would not feel much, only the pain stopping.

I didn't teleport when I had time and driving got my mind back on track. I arrived at the first facility three hours later and secured my back. Magnum was on watch, and I saw a flash in the woods, Murdock. He was the second backup and hard at work, enjoying killing every Sark he could get his hands on.

I thought maybe it would be good to snatch a few Sarks again and get an idea of what they had planned, but my life being busy, I suspected I hadn't time for torturing my enemies. Wulfe was with Dresden as they had tried to come up to curse the Sarks, so far as best they had done, was given every naughty Sark a mustache, so they had been easy to kill as those had been linked by magic. 

I walked into the facility and already knew how to take out the explosives. I went back to the hidden door, set the explosives, and blew the door open. I walked down the corridor into the great hall. My initial calculations were that there were about 40 victims, and I started going through them. 

I went to the first bed. My heart broke. I just could not believe it. It was Hugh, my doctor, my helper. He had been once been as skillful to tend me as Colin was nowadays. He was supposed to be in retirement in Aruba with his family. Not in this state. He was thin as a rail. Pale, his breathing was no good. He smelled drugs. I touched him on the ear, and Hugh opened his eyes. He looked at me like he would not believe I was there. He blinked a few times. I took his hand and squeezed it. Pain that tore through my soul, made my eyes wet and I needed to get a grip. 

He said, " Hello, little one. I would have hoped to see to in a better place but I am glad you are here. That I get to see you one more time. Mimi, you help us out then; I know what the situation is; it's hopeless, and I'm glad to get out. There are only half of us left. Krycheck's poisons are killing, and we're next in line. Oh yeah, flea, I hate that man. I want you to do it. Let me go. I know it is hard for you, but it is a blessing for me. I am still me when I get away. I know you will care for my family. "

I wiped my eyes and smiled, said, " So do I, believe it or not? I'll be back. I'll just go through everything."

Hugh said, " Don't bother. Just let me go. You and no one can help us. I have been programmed too, or at least tried to be, and I don't know when it will sink in: my limbs have been replaced with some kind of prosthetic legs, and I have ghost pains all the time. You know I know what I'm talking about. I'm a doctor. There's only one option. I have neural implants in my brain. They are not perfect so I get nerve pain all over me when they fire randomly. They are trying to build a cyborg. Believe it or not. We are testing subjects. They want to try to embed these chips where they could put magic. I have no idea what the result would be. Human, or cyborg, partially magical, monster. It must be stopped."

I sighed and said, "It won't hurt, and I'll make sure you're left in peace and that they don't pull you back. I have a protocol for that, too. Can you believe it? Chaos has a plan."

Hugh laughed and grimaced in pain. I could smell his pain, all of it. The sickness, the drugs, and I knew what had to be done. I put my hand behind his neck, told him to close his eyes, one twist and my dear friend was out of his terrible pain. I wiped my eyes again. This was so fucking unfair. 

Everyone, 40 old friends and allies, got relief from my hand. I kept my cool, helped them one last time, and even though it was brutal, I destroyed their brains so no one could save them. They did not feel it anymore. This would guarantee that their peace would last if they were in peace or doing something else. 

It was easy. After the kill, I shot two implants in their brain and then took out quite a thin, sharp stick and turned their head sideways so I could thrust my spike in one brutal blow through their ear into their brain so acid-melted tissue would leak out.

It is good to be a doctor, so I knew what I was doing. Neurosurgeon, making sure that no one can torture them anymore. I knew that if I had any soul left; it had taken yet another hard blow. Maybe someday I would be strong enough to let myself feel something. Not sure when it would be.

Mariella had noticed that Damon had the guts to monitor Mimi. He had this expression, almost fully expressionless on his face, like he would not be in his body. He had done this here and there after that hospital time. Mariella did not know what he had witnessed. 

Damon said to Mariela, " Darling, do you want to see what Mimi has to do? I have the magic, or ability, to go to the astral plane. I contacted Mimi, but she couldn't see us. It's not nice to watch."

Mariella sighed and said, " Of course, we need to see, understand, and learn. What happens to Mimi? What happens to us? I am ready."

Damon said, " Close your eyes. I'll say yes when you open them."

Mariella closed her eyes and felt Damon's magic around her like a comforting blanket. It was around her, protecting, sheltering, helping. It was all around her. And it made somehow this feel like this was some sort of dream. They could not smell anything, everything was like looking through the haze, Like there was this fog in the air. Making all seemed so surreal. 

Damon said gently, like a summer evening breeze, to Mariella, " Open your eyes and look."

Mariella opened her eyes. She looked around. They were in a large hall, and there were dozens of patients. Mariella saw their pain, suffering, and agony and knew what she was witnessing, but this was the growth of the pack, her growth, too, and she could no longer be the protected, pampered little princess when someone else had to do the dirty work. This was not to save these, but to let them go. Mimi had done this sort of gig before, too. She had been one of these gigs too, but Damon had let people go. 

The door opened, and they watched as Mimi walked in, assessing the whole situation, and went to talk to the first victim. Mimi knew this. Mimi wiped her eyes. Mariella could hear emotions in Mimi's voice. Her pain. It was very rare for to Mimi cry. Extremely rare.

They chatted for a while, and Mimi reassured the victim. His name was Hugh. Damon whispered, " One of the best doctors who helped Mimi a lot during his time. A very dear friend of Mimi. Almost as good to treat her as Colin was, and not scared of her rage. He was suppose been retired decades ago."

The man was pale, and Mariella could see terrible energies in the air. Her rescue radar was silent as this was not her save. This was all Mimi's responsibility. Another one is fleas. Mimi put her hand behind Hugh's neck and told him to close his eyes. And she then twisted, once quickly and efficiently. The sound was audible, and Mariella knew she would remember it for the rest of her life.

Mimi turned the now dead man on his side for a moment so that his neck was exposed. She took an implant gun from her jacket pocket, which Damon had never seen, inserted the long tip through the neck into the brain, and fired twice.

Then she pulled the gun away, left the body on its back, dug a remote control from her pocket, and pressed twice. She then took a long sharp thing object from one pocket of her pants and thrust that into the dead man's ear, through it, into his brain. Mariella struggled to understand why, but she was not asking questions.

Mimi kept on going. She moved on to the next victim: the same thing, talk of reassurance, termination, implants, and a spike in the brain through the ear. They knew Mimi had known each of these. She had just killed 40 people who had once worked with her, being her friend or doctor.

One had been that man who had been on base back then when Mariella had gone there. Taylor, who had looked like Kevin Costner. He had been a good man. Mariella felt pain. It was so freaking wrong for men like him to end up place like this. She remembered how strong that man had been, professional and now in bed, dying, and Mimi had to let him go.

Damon saw a moment later, as he walked over to the victim, that bloody fluid was oozing from his ears, meaning that Mimi's implants had annihilated his brain. That hole through the ear ensured that tissue leaked out, so there would be nothing to save. 

Eventually, all the victims were treated, and Damon could see directly from the look on Mimi's face how hard this was on her soul. He wanted Mimi back, wanted to marry her so that she would be just a bride, and he could have his wedding night again, his flank wedding. He wanted to help; he wanted to control her; he wanted her back, so badly that it hurt his soul. 

Mimi set the explosives and turned each victim's head sideways so that the bloody liquid would now flow out properly. She even lowered the head of the beds so that all the liquid would flow out.

Mimi then walked out. Damon and Mariela followed as Magnum came up, watching for danger, and Mimi waved her hand toward the forest. Damon spotted Murdock there.

Mimi was so miserably thin and hardened, and Damon wanted to help, teach Mimi to love, marry her, and try to fix the biggest mistake of his life. Mimi went to her car, checked her implant gun, and loaded more implants into it. Damon and Mariella realized Mimi had more than one job with the same pattern.

Mariella wrapped herself around Damon as they watched Mimi drive away.

" How do you put up with that, darling? How can we help? That's terrible, even if it's a mercy for them, for Mimi." Mariella asked Damon.

Damon let go of the spell, and they returned to their bodies back to their room.

He said, " Mimi is Mimi. I don't know if there's anything we can do to help. The way she did, it said so fucking clearly what that poor girl had been going through all these years. And we've been living in a mansion, a sheltered life, and we dare to whine that we can't reproduce. I want her back, but same time, I question myself do I have a right? Haven't I destroyed her fully already? She is a mere shell of the woman who showed me love. And I know that is not nice for you to hear, but that her love. When a creature like Mimi loves, it is something that I cannot put into words. And I was a fool. Got scared, and wounded her badly, maybe too badly. I have always called her a creature, just as she is so much more than a woman or even a female. She is the force of nature and I broke her spark. I destroyed her love."

Damon was desperate. He wanted to help Mimi, to take away all that horror, to make it all right again, but at the same time, he realized what a big job it was.

Mariella said, " What if we go to the next place together, just physically, and you can..."

Damon sighed and said, "Believe me, I want to, but she won't let me do it. We're not anymore, and she doesn't want to feel anything for me anymore."