September 1928
The wind was cool against Brigitte's face as she leaned out of her window. Kroenen had been making her use her powers to his own purpose, for example, keeping a cat with clockwork heart alive with her mind. It was poor cat never lasted more than a few minutes and then…well it's hard to keep your mind on a cat constantly. It had made Brigitte cry every time a new dead cat would be placed in front of her.
Kroenen didn't get mad with her like she thought he would have the first time she had lost concentration. He just kept her trying, making her use all her energy until she collapsed.
What really upset Brigitte was that he didn't even care if she was to exhausted. It just kept going and she couldn't do anything about was excellent at working out what he could use against her especially her uncle. Kroenen kept them at bay as long as she helped him.
"Are you ready Brigitte?" Kroenen said impassively from the doorway.
Brigitte wiped her eyes quickly and turned around happily to her 'Guardian'.
"Yes Kroenen." She said energetically.
She had learnt very quickly to seem enthusiastic in Kroenen's experiments.
"Come." He muttered darkly.
Kroenen over the past few months wanted an assistant to help with his experiments. She was perfect for it, if a little unwilling. He had to admit her constant …distractions and attachments to the experiments were irritating. But oddly he didn't notice or didn't want to notice her lack of enthusiasm sometimes.
Brigitte hated Kroenen's ability to make everything seem less important then his work, but she was also in awe of him on days they weren't arguing. But his lack of empathy and humanity made her frightened of him. Sometimes he scared her so much she'd lock herself in her room all night.
They sat in the study reading about the occult and talking about how to keep a cat alive for longer. For sometime they were both lost in conversation. She found it oddly strange how much they could talk about the occult.
"Let me show you something." Kroenen stood and walked to a thing covered in purple velvet cloth.
He pulled the cloth off revealing a tiny clockwork nightingale. It was a real nightingale's body fused with metal. It was so small and yet it had the most normal body and yet half was still metal, even one of it's eyes was a metal orb.
" Fusing the body with metal creates perfection." He said proudly winding it up. " This is my early work."
Brigitte looked up at him and was sure that behind that mask he was smiling. The bird came to life and started to sing. It was lovely, and Brigitte was sure she it was singing a tune made by humans.
"Wagner." Kroenen answered as if knowing her question. " He can sing a only one Wagner piece perfectly, and only for a few moments. I am trying to perfect it though."
He threw the cloth back over the cage and sat down opposite her.
"What do you think?" Kroenen asked forcefully.
"It was…lovely." Brigitte said amazed. "Tristan und Isolde?"
Kroenen nodded his masked head slightly.
" That is incredible…how?" Brigitte said in awe.
" Mechanics, metal but I still need to make it perfect. To have clockwork that doesn't need winding up." He replied looking through a book. "I just can't do it without …something. I don't know what it is yet!"
Suddenly he flung the book across the room and buried his masked face into his hands. Brigitte shivered and looked away. He could change his temperament in a matter of seconds it unnerved her.
" I don't know, I just want things to be perfect." He muttered.
"Kroenen?" Brigitte reached to touch his hand.
"Don't. Touch me." He hissed grabbing her left wrist tightly.
"I …" Brigitte tried to pull free of his vice like grip. " Let go of me."
He tightened his grip even more.
"Ouch! stop it." Brigitte said angrily.
He tightened his grip even harder that she felt like her wrist was going to snap.
Her eyes began to water and she felt the rage build up in side her. A silver letter opener suddenly flew into her right hand.
"Let go!" she cried plunging the letter opener into his arm.
He hissed but it was more in pleasure than in pain.
Brigitte looked at him in bafflement as he pulled the blade out of his arm. He held it for a moment stroking it gently. Then turned to Brigitte.
"Excellent." He moaned gently. "Your turn."
He grabbed her arm, more gently than before, and ran it sharply across the top of her wrist.
She cried out in pain, tears trickled down her face.
"There, there." He whispered wiping her cheek delicately. "You'll learn to enjoy it."
Brigitte stared at him in confusion tearing her arm away from him. Gently she rolled down her the sleeve of her cream dress to cover the cut. She turned about to rush from the room when he grabbed her wrist again suddenly.
"You're here to help me, Brigitte, like an assistant, you will always be at my side but you will never be more or less than a tool to me." Kroenen stood up. "That's enough for today."
Brusquely he left the room leaving Brigitte to hold onto her arm. Blood seeped through her sleeve, leaving a stain of red on the cream cloth. Moving to the window she sat in Kroenen's chair, watching people on the street go by and cried silently.
AN: Sorry it's taken me ages to write again. I can't explain how the bird can sing Wagner, obviously not sing but chirp, but hey why not. I am also trying to keep Kroenen as balanced as possible between a deadly masochistic assassin and an educated cultural man, a balance between film and comic although leaning more towards the film. Hope you enjoy and I promise not to take so long next time haha. Thanks for reading.