There's been several takes on this scene. Two that I've liked are: Not Defined by a Memory by DarkGidora and The Distance by Saeto. This fanfic has been influenced by those, except I took a step back and another path. A longer one into the dark.
Bella Donna
"I know." Cruel and playful, that hint of amusement at getting its way.
Breath caught in her throat for a fraction of a second as her mind spun uncontrollably. All the details around her sharpened, the red glow of emergency lights pooling at the corners of her sight as her vision narrowed and greyed, the creaks of an overloaded elevator teetering mockingly. The sensuous brush of breath against the shell of her ear, inhuman body heat closing in along with a citrous smell which underlined the slightly sweet rot that Zeus gave off whenever it changed skins. Radiated heat that reminded her of an overworked laptop, feverish with data computation. Or was that her prejudice, since she knew what it had taken up as a hobby? Tracking down old colleagues till there was only one left. She shut her eyes, head tilted down and to the side as redness threatened to turn to tears. Her voice, whisper thin and wavery, exhaled denial. "...no..."
"Yes." She wondered if Zeus knew that it exhaled when it spoke, but only inhaled as an emotional response, that it no longer acted human by habit. As hands gripped her shoulders she could tell they were Mercer's ones. Long fingers that pressed too hard at the tips, the palm unforgivingly flat as it bruised her skin against bone.
As her adrenaline spike ebbed down, too worn down to put up with survival, she croaked out a small plea. "Not as Alex. Please. Not as him."
"You know." Curious, but not surprised. A statement seeking confirmation.
She had to swallow to speak, force air into her lungs and the panic out. "Always did. Since I hugged you that first time. He wouldn't have put up with that."
Zeus' hands wavered at the memory. She idly wondered if that was the only embrace it's ever received as its voice softened. "He's the part of me that wants to kill you the most."
Emboldened by the moment's change, she turned around as hands let go of her. "And? By now, all the people you've...consumed... I read the list. By now, you must know that it wasn't by my own volition. That I never revealed Alex to them. He was caught on his own." She tried to look into its face, but couldn't get past the chin as her body shuddered uncontrollably.
When it lowered its face to meet hers Karen choked on her scream. "Lied to my face. I trusted you and you set me up. You betrayed..."
"No!" Voice unrecognizable as it growled out, vicious and aggressive. A flare of defiance as hope died in her chest. "I was never on your side. You've never been more than what you are to me. Just Blacklight in Alex's shell. He was a great man..."
Black tendrils burst from the leather jacket, hands morphing into bladed monstrosities, as her body instinctually backed away, slamming against a wall less than a foot away. The claws pierced the thin shell of metal that surrounded them; the thumbs which crisscrossed in front of her neck, impromptu scissors as the remaining blades cut through the wall easily till she was forced to hug herself smaller. "You don't know anything. He's a monster."
The burst of courage sputtered out as she whimpered and cried out, her tears free-flowing as her bladder let go. "Why am I alive?"
The claws shifted back to hands as Zeus leaned into her face, its fists slamming against the shredded walls. "He was a monster, I'm...I..." Zeus faltered, whatever logic it was following had left it astray.
It could have been seconds, minutes or hours; Karen couldn't tell as she coughed out sobs under an unending gaze. Finally, her head started to rock a little as her grip unclenched and she could breath again. She wiped at her eyes, sniffling as her throat worked out words in a slow stream. A final confession, maybe. Or an accusation. She didn't know.
"You see, I loved Alex, despite his inability to reciprocate. He was the brightest, most driven man I've ever met. Nothing would hold him back from his goals, nothing could quench his curiosity." Ache in her heart for the memory. "Then you show up, emotionally meek and unsure, relying on me to study samples you dragged in from hell."
A heartbeat of stillness, expectation of another nightmarish outburst unraveled as she rattled on.
"This was Mercer's field, if he had been alive, he would have noticed what it was I was brewing. All those little fetch quests for DNA? Simply time-wasters to prepare a cancer shot against you, get you accustomed to following my directions blindly so that it was easy to lead you into a trap. Did you not see the rigging and spotlights? Notice the lack of guards around the Hive?" Teeth gritted as she met his cold eyes, her tongue sharp as she spat out her judgment. "You have his knowledge, but not his intelligence, not his instincts or intuition."
Karen studied Zeus, the eyes had an odd glow to them but that wasn't it. Blacklight wasn't just looking at her, it was considering her as well. She didn't expect the set of questions that followed.
"Loved him? Why didn't you try to run away with him? He told you he was running." Sour look, eyes seeking answers as they pinned her still. "Never even tried to contact Dana, yet you? He had a fight right outside Gentek, a yell away from showing his hand too early."
She could have laughed. She wouldn't as she could sense hysteria building up inside her, but it wasn't impossible. A virus wanted to understand her. Wanted to understand love, understand the complexities of a relationship that most would deem toxic at best.
"I have family." She paused, judging how much to divulge. "I'm up to date on them now, since my interrogators showed me the file. I couldn't break those ties like Alex, couldn't disappear when I knew where they'd look."
A moment of silence grew between them. She could see that Zeus actually understood her more than Alex had, empathy clouding its judgment.
Karen felt a wisp of a plan form as the slight weight in her labcoat pocket rested against her hip. She had been on the payroll after all. Research hadn't stopped with the cancer shot.
"It was an off-and-on thing with us. Sometimes I couldn't take his distance, he grew tired of my affection, never really a break up. Just a break. For all the parties or award ceremonies, though." She bit her lip, worrying it as her head pulsed. "In the apartment, did you see our pictures framed on the wall?"
Zeus clutched its head, eyes squeezed shut as stolen memories flashed. "The fall leaves...a black dress."
"Yes! The one that showed off my back and legs. He liked that one. As long as I was smart and pretty, he was pleased." Her hands shook as she reached out and gripped the lapels of the leather jacket. "He was a hard man to please, but this jacket. I bought this for him. He was vain and never appreciated anything he could have easily have gotten for himself."
The fabric was feverishly warm; as her fingertips rubbed small circles she could feel it thrum underneath. She almost threw up then but her stomach was empty. Bile burned the back of her throat as she leaned in closer. "This jacket, this he liked. It played to his ego and tastes. The only time he ever thanked me." She let go, an unnerved hand caressed a cheek that leaned into the touch as her other reached into a pocket unnoticed. "Do you remember feeling human, the feel of our skin together?" Her lips beckoned Zeus closer as she felt its skin slacken, less armored now.
Its forehead pressed against hers, fingers tracing the curve of her chin, eyes closed as tension slipped out of its body. She hesitated as she pulled out a reinforced hypodermic needle. After everything, Blacklight was more affectionate than Alex had ever been. But that didn't quiet the screams in her mind and the queasy disgust broiling in her stomach. For what it's worth, she was sorry that things had come to this as well.
She never wanted to see Alex Mercer be so pathetically gullible.
Karen Parker put everything into that jab, her whole body moving in a swing as she plunged the needle into unsuspecting mass, the concoction inside spreading throughout Zeus' midsection.
She stepped back, hand throbbing as small bones protested, herself surprised to be in one piece. Zeus groaned, its face a mask of pained betrayal mixed in with deprecating acceptance. No surprise, what else could it have expected? The biomass started to writhe as calm numbed her, her voice chipper as she sing-songed the last bit of sanity away.
"Despite popular belief, Alex did have a nickname for me. Bella donna, beautiful lady. It's a pun, you see. He thought it was funny, considering its history and mine." A throaty giggle, sexy in spite of her. "Should have known better, Zeus. Nobody works for Gentek long without fitting a certain psych profile."
It started to scream then. Or should it be they started to scream? Faces sprouted, disjointed eyes, tufts of hair, teeth that snapped. "Don't remember what it was called, the drug in the needle." A shoot of biomass pierced upwards, crushing an emergency light. The little deathtrap grew more claustrophobic as shadows rushed in. "My specialty is genotyping, my area is in bioweapon neutralization. Ying to Alex's Yang. The drug is from another department, working on Alzheimer's."
A large pupil, must have been a foot long, bulged in undulations till it burst. Squirming tongues underneath led screams out of disembodied mouths as rims of teeth peaked through thin membranes. She could barely hear the wet squelches as voices started to recite ghostly conversations amidst the pleas.
"A little too effective, test subjects suffered from total recall, which burned the synapses as their lives figuratively flashed before their eyes. It turns on all the lights, Zeus. All those people you ate, their brain matter, all those memories! Enjoy the show!" The stench was unbearable as she gagged at the sights, recognizable faces popping into view.
A rapid drop made her weightless enough to crumble to her knees a second later, the emergency brakes struggling with their duty as Zeus's mass crashed about. The bolt of pain from her wounded hand sharpened her wits enough to crawl to a corner. It was getting hard to breath as air rushed out, Blacklight's body no longer contained in a human form. Turning away from the sight, Karen stood, covered her ears and pressed her face against a jagged slash made earlier by the claws.
The little air in the shaft between elevator and wall was musty with lack of circulation, but it was sweet in comparison to the inferno she was in. Her skin prickled as beads of sweat rolled down her back, her body more optimistic about its survival than her. No soon after she felt hot flesh press against her, teeth grazing the back of her bare legs as eyelashes fluttered against her neck.
Maybe this was a mistake.
Despite her mortal fear, she laughed, her lungs emptying as her body was pressed against the unyielding wall. Even as she gasped; air unable to reach past her throat, the sharp snap of a rib followed by the sharper stab of pain; she wondered if it was ironic that she'd die because Alex had smothered her or just funny.
Oxygen deprivation kept her giddy enough to ignore her last desperate attempts to breath in, tears mixed in sweat as her skull felt like it was about to split from the pressure, vision black as sound hollowed out. Then suddenly free fall. Was this feeling death?
Karen fell backwards for time unmeasurable until she collided against a warm chest. After her lungs rushed in air, she gazed upwards, the watery sight of her lover above, his proud face smooth and scowling. Voice cracked in happy reply as her addled mind believed in the afterlife after all. "Alex."
She reached up to touch him when her hand was seized, the wounded one hurt once more. "No, never will be."
A small cry escaped past chapped lips as her chest compressed in grief. She shut her eyes as it spoke, admonishing her daring. "Your wonder drug didn't work." Zeus let her hand go as it embraced her into a slow sway . "Just externalized what goes on inside. Used to it by now." Back and forth, her body limp, will broken. "Took me seconds to burn it out, then everything back to normal."
Thoughts dimmed in a fog as its voice grew distant. "I don't keep Mercer's...identity because I want to. I just need it to be in control; till I learn myself, end an existential crisis that comes with what I've done. Not to atone, because nothing can." She felt a face press against hers, hot breath warming her drying tears. "I don't know why I care about you. Or Dana. But I do. Maybe because you're the only anchors I have left. My ties to humanity." Zeus said something else, but it was lost to her as she hid herself in the dark, shock slipping her away.
Air crisp and chilly, with enough bite in it to cause shivers down her spine. She enjoyed the quiet company as they walked, golden leaves crunching below their feet as a soft breeze rustled the brittle ones still clinging to their branches. An earthy smell mixing in with the maples and cedars, the taste of good wine still on her tongue. Pleasantly content in her affluent moment.
Unlike the tourist traps elsewhere, this patch of woods was on private land with adequate fencing and security to keep out the rudely self-entitled. Owned by an acquaintance of Alex, repaying a favor by letting them spend the day. They had talked sparingly, but one thing Alex had admitted was that he wanted to own land like this. Once he'd retired from Gentek, which he'd do young with all the progress he'd made in such a short time. His genius obtaining what was owed to him for so long.
Karen asked the right questions and prodded when he wished, fostering his good mood as much as she could.
The crunch and rattle of a rake broke into the silence, a groundskeeper at his chores. She slid a glance at Alex, his body stiff at the intrusion, then looser as he walked towards the man, a wave of his fingers signaling her to follow.
It surprised her to see Alex give the man his camera, obvious instructions on how to use it doled out sharply. She checked her makeup in a small mirror as Alex approached, but he took it out of her hand, turned her toward the camera and hugged from behind. She felt breathless at the affection as he instructed her to smile. At her coy disbelief, he whispered in her ear. "It's been a good day. A damn good day. Not enough of those. I want to remember it."
The day wasn't so cold anymore as warmth spread throughout her body, the momentous occasion of Alex truly smiling; it was special, unique and it was all hers.
She glanced back at the groundskeeper, her grin freezing in place as the camera lens glowed green. A sharp caw forced her eyes upward, the sky reddening as a murder of crows flew in circle above them. Trees creaked and split as they deformed; the auburn-yellow leaves rotting into red-black tendrils that plopped to the ground. As the smell of blood and offal assaulted her senses she could see tall buildings shimmer at the edge of the woods. No longer upstate, they were in Central Park, smack-dabbed in Manhattan. The rustle of leaves replaced with inhuman roars and screaming mobs in the distance.
She tightened her grip on Alex's arms, looking at him as a whimper died on the tip of her tongue. He was grotesque; tumors bulging out of his face, eyes red little marbles that squeezed out of their sockets as clumps of hair peeled off his scalp, a scattering of pustules about to pop as spittle dripped out from folds of skin with bits of teeth stuck in it. Hands all the worse, with gangrenous fingers pressing into her leaving smears of blood and rot on her clothes as bone started to show, the tightness of the embrace nothing more than rigor mortis.
A gruff voice, filtered through a gasmask, ordered her to say cheese as she looked down the barrel of a rifle, the groundskeeper distorted into every single Blackwatch soldier she'd ever seen. She swallowed then, the hellscape eating at her happy little moment, and leaned into Alex, willing herself to hear a heartbeat in the lumpy chest. She smiled as best she could, trying to recapture the picture in her mind's eye, and with a grief-stricken sob she pressed into the corpse and whispered a broken "I miss you."
Karen woke up with a start, her abrupt wails deafening as they echoed off walls. Her body ached, bruises and scrapes, a shard of pain with every deep breath, right hand swollen and useless. She wiped the crust from her eyes, her sinuses stuffy, head pulsing to irregular beats. She didn't remember anything except for the nightmare. Then reality rushed in and it was worse as she relived the horror a second time.
She screamed then, cursing everything and everyone as she wore herself out.
Throat raw, nagging thirst tickling the base of her skull as she slumped in a corner. She thought of nothing that was not contempt for Blacklight. She'd would have been happier dead. Since she's not actively suicidal, a death wish would do.
Shrill whistles from her phone barely roused her attention as she pulled it out of a back pocket. A reminder to eat. It had gone unheeded several times before, so she didn't know when last she had a meal. Stale coffee had become the only staple in her diet lately; so many documents to read, the entirety of Gentek's workload falling on her as researchers dropped like flies. Scouring all the projects for a magic bullet, thought she found one. It needed work.
Her phone had a panic button. Nothing more than a quick dial that alerted Blackwatch, more to let them know who's dead rather than a call for help. She held down the 4 key on the touchscreen till 'dialing' popped up. As she pressed it to her ear it rang once, then a callous - "We know."- followed as the person on the other end hung up.
Karen started to shake, disturbed by the quick dismissal. 'Know' what? Had she even made a call? She missed the old landlines, the ones that rang different after a call. Instead she had to find her recent calls and look at the time stamp. Apparently she had. The pit in her stomach made her wish she hadn't.
After hours waiting, the glow from the cellphone her only company as she deleted the numbers of dead colleagues, she felt a clanging that shook her makeshift tomb. She shuffled away from the doors as pincers punched through, spreading the sliding doors enough for hands to finish the job.
The gloom outside matched the shadows in the elevator as floating green orbs moved closer. "Clear." A flash of light blinded her as she was roughly hauled out, her groaning protests ignored. The elevator had settled mid-floor, so the sudden drop took her by surprise as her knees collided on old linoleum.
A bloom of panic awoke survival instincts as she coiled into a ball. Head low on the floor and submissive.
"Well well well, who's a dirty little girl?" Steel boots entered her limited field of vision, a familiar scuff mark alerting her to who it was. Blackwatch tried to squelch identifying differences in their troops, even before Zeus preyed on officers. No matter, she had spent hours on her knees staring at those particular boots, an odd scuff like a cat's head on the top corner of the left shoe.
Recognition made her tremble as she bit her tongue.
"Dr. Karen Parker, aren't you a sight? At Zeus' mercy, I see. We all saw, of course. Cameras in every room, even in there." Deliberate steps as he walked left and right, every time he trailed out of her sight she braced for a blow that never came. "Needed time to review the footage, make sure that the target hadn't set a trap, running low on reserves as we are. You understand, right?"
He stopped in front of her and crouched down. Just low enough to let her see his hands. "After your little stunt with the needle -gotta tell us what was in it, by the way- camera got destroyed, and poof there goes your alibi." She could hear the creak of leather as fists tightened menacingly, the silence stretching till she realized he was waiting for her to speak.
"Alibi?"
"Yes, you see the other cameras, the audio still worked. So we heard plenty and then-" A snap of fingers "- silence and a little after that Zeus is leaving the building. And you-" The gloved hand grabbed hair, whipping her head back as the other pulled her to feet. "- are still alive. Now why is that?"
Karen didn't struggle. Any defiance would be dealt with harshly, but her mind was blank as she couldn't think of what to say.
"Me and the guys, we have a little bet. They think you're another Dana. Somebody with a place in Blacklight's heart. You know how we laughed at that little show, right?" Bitter cold raced up her spine as she recalled the videos. Surveillance footage of that mutated beast carrying Alex's shrieking sister, Zeus desperately struggling to keep up, each shouting for the other. One creative soldier had edited it to inappropriate music, a morale booster they called it. When intel said it had recovered Dana, bragging matches had cropped up about what they'd do if they found her.
A favorite was to skin her alive and toss the little bitch back to her 'brother'. Zeus wanted to kill them all anyway, why not make it work for it? When nothing hurts an enemy, you hurt what you can.
Denial shook her head as her mouth worked to form the words. "N-no. Zeus left me to die. Left me in the dark. Death too good, so it let me live knowing it could get me anytime, anyone. Never safe..." She stopped her babbling, it was beneath her. She closed her eyes, took a moment to steady herself, then opened them. "No proof either way, right?"
A bark of laughter as an arm draped over her shoulders, keeping her upright as it led her towards a doorway. "You have some big ol' brass ones, don't ya? Let's get you cleaned up, girl. You smell like piss."
A bloodtox shower, de-contamination room, a quick check-up to reset bones and treat wounds, pain blockers that dulled the hurt, yet not her wits. At the end of it, she was alone in a room with Mr. Puss-in-Boots as she had no other name for him.
"So here we are, Dr. Parker. What am I to do with you?" He offered her a cup of coffee and a bowl with energy bars.
She accepted it, but didn't drink it yet. "I'm prey to your whims? Enough officers dead that you're finally in charge?"
"Now Karen. Blackwatch is much larger than one tiny operation in little ol' New York. Entrenched deep in the government and more countries than the good old U. S. of A. Zeus has to kill six billion people before it gets the last of us."
"So says the propaganda. What then?" She breathed in deep, hoping that the caffeinated vapors would loosen her sinuses. A chemical tang stung her instead. She tried not to let it show.
It was hard to read Mr. Puss, but she guess that he was thinking under the mask. "I'm going to let you in a little secret. You know how it works. Either you keep it a secret or I do. Am I clear?"
A memory tugged at her; McMullen, trying his hardest to sound sincere as he blackmailed her into compliance. "Agree or die. Crystal. Already been through the talk."
"Good." Several straps were undone as skin tight head gear was peeled off to reveal a a short cropped black woman, coal black eyes above scarred cheeks, her wide grin reminiscent of the Cheshire cat. "Surprise." The tone and inflection was unmistakable, that playful lilt that chilled her, but what was once gravelly and deep now had a musicality to it. Smooth and quick like a blade. "You didn't believe that every one of us was a 30-something white man, did ya? My womanly curves are hidden underneath all this padding. A bit of movie magic."
"Why?"
"Plausible deniability. Can't file a complaint if you can't pinpoint which one of the black clad soldiers kicked in your teeth. Makes it easier to get dirty deeds done when fingers can't point. All part of the training too. We are Blackwatch! Burn our own and all. Love the Red Line. No identity outside of this." She patted the mask on the table.
"Now in case you're wondering what this has to do with anything, I'm just setting the groundwork. So do try to keep up. I have three strikes against me. One, I'm not a legacy so I didn't get all the brainwashing in my formative years like some of the newer recruits. Two, my skin has a lot of melanin in it, which the old guard does not approve, but times are a-changing. Three, I'm a woman and it's not a sexist thing. A man gets infected, he turns into a big ol' monster. A woman does and she might go all tumorous. Or she might become a runner. Can't have that."
Karen put down the coffee, afraid that she might drop it as she tried to take it in. "Then why be part of all this?"
"Because it's fun! I can do things here that got me court-martialed in the Gulf and get recommendations out of it!" She smirked as she shook her head, as though it was as clear as day.
"What does this have to do with me?" Karen pinched the bridge of her nose, a migraine threatened to move in.
"Think about it, girl. I got this far with all that baggage. I've been in the middle of a bloodbath and I'm still alive. That makes me one mean motherfucker and I'm not happy yet. I want to be the next Cross, without the MIA of course. Don't wanna be a suit, don't wanna be a Randall or a Taggart." She spat at the last name. "On the field, with the specialist toys, with recognition and a face. No one is ever gonna handpick me so I need to carve out my path."
"That's where I come in." She responded mechanically, could recognize the script of a monologue when she saw it.
"Yes, my little scientist, you're my McMullen." Fingers pointed at her, dual pistols as Ms. Puss sat back. "Gentek is dead, we have headhunters doing some hostile takeovers of other companies to re-stock the R&D departments. Scouting talent from several universities to pluck them away from their comfortable lives. Even though we salvaged the databases and tons of live experiments it will take time for the new lab bunnies to catch up to the work."
"Except for me." Her mouth tasted sour as ideas popped in her head.
"Got it in one. You know most of the truth, some personal experience and unlike some prior undisclosed incidents, Zeus is world-wide news and Youtube makes a media blackout unfeasible." Shoulders shrugged, whachugonnado?
"And the bomb." Stomach roiled and she wished for an antacid.
"That reminds me. Have you taken your rad meds? Looking a bit green there." A quick nod was answer enough. "So the guys on the top of Blackwatch's food chain are in a bit of a bind. And desperation makes for hasty decisions. Blacklight is a public menace, they want a public face that keeps the watchdogs off their backs." Ms. Puss, still no real name, walked around the table to Karen's side.
"We give them that face, all PC and media friendly. And if that isn't to their liking..." She grabbed a remote, a screen flickered on, the video of Karen jabbing a needle into Zeus side, the transformation in full view till a barrage of flesh shot straight into the camera. "We give them results."
She rubbed at her face, eyes felt sunken, skin dry. "If that's all, what do I need you for?"
"To stay alive, of course." A side hug, a threat hidden in camaraderie. "My motives are simple and clear. Better the devil you know." A tight squeeze of the back of her neck, the submission hold used as barrages of questions rained on her.
Karen picked up the still steaming cup, felt the heft of the ceramic and let Ms. Puss see it loom closer. "You put some drugs in my coffee."
"Caught red handed." A good-natured chuckle as her neck was released, cup taken from her hands and liquid tossed out. "Just a little something to calm you down, nothing new. Must have put in too much."
karen fixated on the last words. "How long has my coffee been tainted?"
"Does it matter?" Eyes glanced back, amused.
A fight brewed in her throat, but she swallowed back pride and softened her tone. "What does it do?"
One of the dozens of pockets was velcro-ed open, a small bottle tossed her way. "Just suppresses those pesky panic feelings in your head, keeps you focused and on the job."
Karen read it, the jargon of chemical compounds almost losing her till she noticed a pattern, a report she had looked into. Neurotransmitter inhibitors that altered brain chemistry, simulated a particular mental disorder. "Not only panic. It's sociopathy-in-a-pill, I've felt so numb about everything, till the elevator..."
As Karen faltered, Ms. Puss patted her shoulder with a tut-tut. "Imagine if you didn't have it soothing the fear away." Trying to sound sweet, only managed condescension.
The details of the drug eluded her, lost in the shuffle of new knowledge that she'd picked up."What are the side-effects?"
"Just the best one. Eventually, you don't need it anymore." She was honest about it, her cheer true.
She closed her eyes, trying to recapture Alex in her mind. All she could imagine was Zeus and the bloated corpse from that nightmare. Her love was dead and gone. What was the point of caring anymore? "I'll take it willingly, so stop drugging me." She opened the bottle and shook it, two red capsules resting on her bandaged hand.
"Fine by me, now how about you tell me a good spiel for a video conference I have in a few hours." A water bottle pulled from an economy pack tucked away in a corner, cap removed in a show, opened bottle offered freely. No tricks this time.
"We've been fighting the wrong war. Conventional warfare is meant to be used against man, Zeus is not. Trying to keep up in a genetic arms race will cost billions and leave us wanting in the end. Blacklight is a disease and we must treat it as such." She knocked back the pills and chugged the water, the bitter aftertaste still stuck on her tongue. "Pharmaceuticals are the way to go."
They smiled at each other, a quaint beginning for the terrible things to come.
A/N:
First an announcement: Search for "Murder your maker" on youtube for a five second teaser trailer. :) I never use smileys and I smiley'd for this.
For the Belladonna reference, you can wikipedia atropa_belladonna. In short: It has a long history of use as a medicine, cosmetic, and poison.
This story went through a lot of versions before I settled for this one, first idea was that Karen was more scared of real!Alex than virus!Alex, but that made no sense in context. Then it morphed several more times with Karen being a sympathetic character, then I did a 180 and she was an angry one with only contempt for Zeus to the point of gratuitous hilarity.
Then I read some fics, the ones mentioned at the start and found a happy medium. Karen is not a happy camper, but she's one nonetheless.