"What could you possibly have been thinking?" Janette exploded.
Shortly after the sun had begun to set, LaCroix had gone to Janette, telling her about the previous night's... interesting turn of events. She was not very pleased.
"I warned you about getting too attached to her," Janette said, a smug, I-Told-You-So tone in her voice. "Do you even realize what you've done? Nicolas will never forgive either of us!"
"He doesn't have to know about it, ma cherie," LaCroix soothed. This elicited another explosion from Janette.
"What do you mean, he doesn't have to know? How are we supposed to hide from him the fact that his mortal girl friend has become *your* lover?"
LaCroix sighed. "I can hypnotize her to bring her memories back. Then everything will be fine."
Janette eyed him doubtfully. "We've discussed this before, but you haven't done a thing so far," she accused.
Taking a deep breath, LaCroix said, "I saw something in her blood when I tasted her... something I never expected to see." The seriousness in his tone held Janette in check, and she waited for him to continue. "I saw... no, *felt*... Natalie Lambert in Natasha's blood."
"They're the *same* person!" Janette shouted at him.
"No, they're not... technically. From what I could tell, the person we call Natasha comes from Natalie's subconscious. Now, it is Natalie, as we knew her, who is in the subconscious. I felt her *watching* me, Janette. I believe that she *knows* what Natasha has been doing here. What is more, I got the feeling she's waiting to see what happens."
"That's impossible!"
"Is it? I know it sounds bizarre, but I know what I felt. There were two sets of awareness within her... I was overwhelmed by it," LaCroix told her.
"What do we do now?" asked Janette. "If what you say is true, how can we hypnotize her? Natalie is resistor."
"I'm not so sure that Natasha is, as well," LaCroix said. "Since Natasha is the exact opposite of Natalie, she may not be immune to mind control."
"Then, you'll try it this time?" Janette asked.
After an uncomfortably long silence, LaCroix nodded,
indicating that he would indeed begin their experiment.
LaCroix faced Natasha, looking deep into her eyes. There was a blank, unreadable expression upon her face. The experiment had been a success-- thus far. He should have felt some sense of accomplishment, but instead he was miserable. He hadn't wanted this to work.
Now he began speaking to her in the low, resonating voice associated with whammy mode. He asked her to tell him how she lost her memory. In a compliant, hesitating voice, Natasha told the brief tale of a mugger in the dark. Satisfied, LaCroix asked her to tell him about her nightmares.
It was here that the experiment went bad. Rather than answering the question with the same obedience, Natasha's eyes glazed over, blinking twice. Eye contact broken, LaCroix's hypnotic control over her was shattered, leaving her disoriented.
When LaCroix was certain that she remembered nothing of what he had done, he resolved to try again soon. Perhaps, rather than demanding that *she* tell him what the problem was, he could just as easily help her to remember her past by planting the memories in her mind?
After seeing her to her apartment, LaCroix fled to his
rooms, isolating himself from everyone. He did not want to do this. He
did not wish to give up the woman he was fast falling in love with...
After LaCroix began his experiment, Natasha's nightmares came more frequently. Often, Jasmine would wake to find her screaming in her sleep, clutching her pillow in a death grip.
One evening, Jasmine found her huddled in a corner of her bedroom, whimpering in fear. She hadn't gotten any sleep... and wouldn't for many days to come.
In desperation, Jasmine and Rock went to LaCroix and Janette. Both were worried about Natasha's health and depleting sanity.
"We want to you stop hurting Tasha," Rock told LaCroix boldly. "She can't handle what you're doing to her."
LaCroix's eyes narrowed at the insolence in Rock's voice. The whelp was jealous of him, *that* was obvious. However, Rock concern was touching.
It was Janette who spoke up. "We'd love to ease her pain, mes amis, but we cannot. LaCroix stopped interfering with her mind days ago, when it became clear to us that it was doing more damage than good. I'm afraid... there is nothing we can do to help her."
"What do you mean, nothing?" Jasmine asked.
"Just that," answered LaCroix. "Natasha's nightmares
are so traumatic for her because her memory is returning. The only thing
left for us to do is wait."