"This is fucked."

"Right? This is totally fucked..."

"I feel like we're saying that a lot this week."

"Yeah, well, that's because this is fucked."

While it was nice to have a group consensus, Kate rather wished the conversation could be just a hair more stimulating. Granted, everyone was still very much confused and on-edge. Chloe was still coming to grips with her lycanthropy, Victoria was totally glossing over her vampirism (though she did find she enjoyed the excuse to cart around her lace parasol), and Rachel was trying her hardest to act human despite the fact she could fly and move through walls and was, in the strictest and loosest terms, dead.

It was a rough time all around and everyone really wanted to just be okay. There were two major road blocks to that particular scenario, and they were presently discovering the first. It wasn't just that Jefferson was a kidnapper or a killer or straight-up creepy, weird, and wrong. He was a madman. An old-school madman from a pulp novel.

The barn was easy enough to locate, and between the five of them they were able to rip open the trap door, discovering the sketchy hallway and making their way inside the bunker. But it was difficult to be prepared for what was inside. It was neat and tidy and included far too much... 'stuff'. There were portraits of unsettling subjects, food and water rations, one entire area dedicated solely to some kind of med lab, and a photography studio.

And the jail cell. Well, it was more of a large cage set into the wall. Kate was the first to notice the whimpering, realizing it was occupied. "Stella?" Not thinking, she rushed to the bars and pressed up against them. Whoever was inside immediately recoiled and tried to hide in the shadows. Things were not getting better. "Hey, come on. It's okay, we're here to rescue you, and then we're gonna trash this place and get the hell out. A-And we're gonna make Jefferson pay. We're all friends here..."

"Yeah, among other things," Chloe quipped, but a glare from everyone else shut her up quickly.

"N-not..." came the voice from the cage, and it was shockingly soft and sweet, beautiful even. It wasn't Stella's voice to Kate's dismay. They were too late. But they could still save this girl, couldn't they? "Not Stella. Not Rachel. No one."

"...That's... That's okay. You are someone. That's all that matters. We can still help you." Kate pressed more against the bars, trying to see who the poor girl was. Surely another Blackwell student. But no one else was thought to be missing yet. So who were they talking to?

"He wanted me perfect. He... I-I failed. He will destroy me. He should. I am horrible." Kate could feel her heart breaking, and it seemed she wasn't the only one. Everyone was feeling the crushing weight of the moment – here in this place of abominations, hearing this single flower growing out of the shitheap talk about herself like she was just a thing.

Chloe was the first to take more dramatic action, of course. "Fuck that..." In a state of intense grumpiness and exhaustion, she ripped the door away from the cage like it was nothing and urged the girl within to come out into the light. She was able to put up a decent amount of resistance, but there was only so much struggling before Chloe succeeded and leading her out to join the others.

There was not so much a chorus of gasps as a large space where sound probably should have been, a collective void.

Quite literally, every part of her was beautiful. She had been stitched together from all of Jefferson's victims. There was no way of telling yet just how many that included, but it was a lot. The trouble was that there was no cohesive wholeness, and the stitching was amateur. Skin tones varied, and it seemed there were two entirely separate eyes occupying each socket. She was beautiful, but disquieting.

"My wrists..." Rachel was so horrified, and yet she approached closer still. The patchwork girl began to back away, but even in her phantom state, Rachel's charisma won out. "You poor girl. You didn't ask for this. Please, I..." A pale hand pressed to her chest, drawing attention to a simple sheet being her only choice of clothing at the moment. "Even with a mind as sharp as Stella's, it does you no good in that shell. He couldn't give you a soul. But I can..."

"Rach'!" Chloe tried to stop her, as if such a thing were possible, but Rachel was already phased into other girl, possessing and inhabiting her. "Shit shit shit... Did it work? Are you... you?"

There was a noticeable change in posture, a slight glimmer in the eyes that wasn't there just a moment before. Her hip cocked and she reached up to run her fingers through her red locks. "Like a charm. Little loud though, but I'm sure we'll work that out..."

"Loud? We?" The witch was the first to catch on, and now that she had, she did notice a slight echo in her voice, wondering if anyone else could hear it. Perhaps it was just another Thing now. "Please tell me we don't have to call you Legion..." You could take the girl out of church, but you couldn't always take the church out of the girl.

"Mmm, I believe it was Jefferson's intention to call us Eve, had this whole thing worked out. But since we seem to be a reject, maybe Lilith would be more appropriate?" She gave an appealing little stretch, and no one in that bunker was wholly able to look away. "We're... Shit, sorry, I'm not just Rachel. Stella's in here too, and let me tell you, her little doped up brain works fast, even without the drugs. There are others too, going back to the eighties." Another pause, as 'Lilith' let herself adjust to... something. "No... No fucking way... U-Um... It's the ankles. They were... Rebekah Weinstein's. From New York. Some time in the eighteen-eighties."

As she continued to test-drive her new body, she showed them back toward the med lab area and started motioning to a few things. "I don't have specific answers or anything, but here. The stuff that's kept this body going, and kept Jefferson on his feet long enough to be older than Jesus is in here..."

"Actually, Jesus was only in his early thirties, I think you meant to say older than Mo-" Kate was shushed by her vampiric girlfriend before she could go on any longer. For someone who so despised the religion she grew up with, it still surprised her how much stuck in her mind.

"So we're dealing with a combination Frankenstein-Hyde?" This had become headache-inducing, and the exhaustion was evident in Max's voice. "What are we even supposed to do against someone like that? Can anything be done?"

Lilith shrugged, which wasn't the kind of gesture that inspired much confidence in the other troops. "I would imagine if you chopped off the bastard's head that would stop him pretty quick. Draw and quarter the fucker and then bury his pieces across the country. Burn him down and scatter his ashes to the four winds. He's sturdy, not invincible. Of course, there's still that whole storm thing, maybe just let the one cancel the other out, hm?"

Kate shook her head, not ready to let a bit of weather wreck her home and friends. She still had her back-up plan after all. "One thing at a time. First, we trash this place and leave him a message."

Everyone looked at her curiously. Max finally raised a hand as if she was talking in class. "I would think wrecking his shop of horrors would be enough of a message, Kate."

"Perhaps, but we need some time to make everything work. Smash everything to bits, but leave one camera and tripod intact." Kate was grinning now, slightly manic, and it was as infectious as it was frightening.

Mark Jefferson entered his refuge with an exhausted sigh. He managed to make it a few steps before it occurred to him that something was seriously wrong. It didn't take long to sort out, mostly because the entire place had been turned into a garbage heap. His sanctuary, his private chambers, his Eden - found and destroyed. The defective creature couldn't have done it, she was too dim. And there seemed to be a lot of traffic, suggesting multiple assailants.

This also made it much easier to notice that there was still one precious camera untouched. On it was an instant photo of... "Max Caulfield. Shame, you were going to be my first choice for the new Eve. Perhaps you still could be." There was another girl, someone he vaguely recalled as a friend of Rachel Amber. Ah, now there was a tragedy.

"So you left me one camera. I have to assume..." Yes, everything deleted except a video file. He started it up and watched with growing fascination.

The video was clearly taken post-destruction because both girls were breathless and cheerful. How droll. "Jeffershit!" cried the blue-haired one. "This is our gift to you! A new beginning. We even took your beautiful model off your hands. Can't have you getting your hands dirty. Well, dirtier, you naughty boy..." She winked, and Jefferson immediately rolled his eyes in disgust.

Max was giggling and stepped a bit closer to the camera, tilting her head and looking overly-adorable. Those eyes, they would have been perfect. Now, he would be content just to... Well, no sense spoiling the surprise for himself. He would wait for inspiration to strike. "But we are generous gift-givers. Backsies are totally allowed. You've got a big day of teaching classes and committing borderline pedophilic murder in the afternoon, but if you're interested in showing us your appreciation, just come on by American rust tomorrow night."

"But Max!" Now Chloe was busting out all of her infomercial acting chops. "Isn't tomorrow the big Vortex Club party?"

Mimicking the style, Max nodded dramatically, looking faux-sad. The longer this went on, the more Jefferson was ready to smash the camera before they could finish. "It is, Chloe! So I guess you've got a pretty big decision to make. Play the teacher and attend the party to give the big Everyday Heroes Contest news..." The girl saluted here, and Chloe had to stifle a laugh. "Or! Come to the junkyard and teach us a lesson."

"And remember, Jeffersonovabitch... This action will have consequences."

The video ended, and he crushed the camera between his hands like it was constructed from cheap balsa wood. "I'm so sick of this fucking town."

[A/N: This chapter is dedicated to everyone. We made it y'all, and this is my treat to you. I promise you, this story will have a good ending. No grimdark here 3]