Do I exist? Where am I? At least not hurt. Now I can rest. "When Mimi came to Charles' head in the middle of the night and he heard those delicate thoughts, Charles felt his heart break. He put Mimi to rest, a place in his head he had made when it had become clear that Mimi never went to the gigs and then when Salvatore could not be contacted.

It was again not difficult to work out what had happened. The more time passed the more certain Charles was of the outcome, and he had, with God's help, made a recovery nest for Mimi in his head.

Salvatore announced the next morning that Mimi would be found in the Italian castle. Charles and Adam went to fetch Mimi. Together with Colin and Mirella, they would again have to put Mimi in shape. it took them a month to get Mimi into her own body and still Mimi weighed a pitiful 22 kilos.

The body weighed 14 kilos. It had been mutilated, stuffed with metals so they had to clean it over and over and over again. It had an infection and there was nothing they could do about it yet, they would just have to deal with it when the time came. 22 kilos, Charles thought as Mimi opened her eyes.

The light was bright but not blinding. I felt weak and tired but I was miraculously not in pain. Charles sat next to me, looking very, terribly worn out. I smiled weakly and tried to speak " Hey" Charles smiled with relief. "Hey yourself. Don't try to talk, here let me moisten your mouth a bit." I suck on a sponge to get some water. I tried to tongue my teeth, but the metals were still there. "Charles..." I tried to say. "Hush, it's not an emergency..." I concentrated and opened my mouth so that the metals flashed.

Charles looked " Hey, what's going on? Hang on a minute Mimi I'll get some equipment." I knew there were four metals in my teeth, Damon had bragged about how they would last me for a year. "Four metals, inside, take them out." But Charles had already moved away and didn't hear.

He picked up the dentist's mirror and scraper. "Remove the teeth. Iridium..." My voice couldn't take it and all that came out of my mouth was a puff. Charles looked at me and said, " Did you say iridium?" I nodded. "I'll take x-rays of your teeth so I can see better, if there are any of those metals they will be easy to identify, yes," Charles said and stood up to pull the dental x-ray closer. He put it near my head and helped my head into alignment.

Then he took the images. Adam was already looking at the pictures when Charles took the machine away. The pictures weren't pretty. The metal had spilled all over the jawbone and fused into the jawbone itself. Charles said quietly. " Salvatore must have put in more than once because there's so much of that."

Adam said, "Not necessarily, look at these spots here, the metal is pulling the metal and how damn much of it has been sticking into Mimi, some of it has accumulated in the jawbone pulled by this metal."

" This means surgery for Mimi," Charles said. Adam went to ask Mimosa because they would be taking bone grafts from Mimosa for Mim's jaw. Charles went to pull the anesthetic already in place so he could get started.

I watched as Charles and Adam furrowed their brows at the images. Obviously nothing good, then Adam strode out of the medbay and Charles went to the medicine cabinet. And I didn't think he'd take aspirin from there.

Charles came back with the syringe and sat down next to my bed. "The metals have leaked into your jawbone, then whatever metals Salvatore has been pushing in have also accumulated. So we need to operate and we need to take a bone from Mimosa because we have to remove quite a lot, we'll keep you asleep long enough for your jaw to start to ossify. Besides, you weigh 22 kilos at the moment, so you have to sleep. "

Wow 22 kilos, I can't remember when I was this light and awake. It's a miracle they've got me back in my body. I nodded. Charles brushed the hair from my forehead and I winced. " What's honey? "nothing. Damon just..." Charles' expression darkened " Oh he did that?" I nodded. Charles put the syringe in my IV and pressed the plunger "Don't worry, everything will be fine."

Damon couldn't understand himself. Why does he always do that? 26 weeks? How did he feel, when part of the time he'd be watching like an outsider, like he had nothing to say? A volcano, it must be a volcano. That's why.

Damon knew there was only one way to stop him or Volcano from ever hurting Mimi again. He knew he couldn't get himself killed, the volcano wouldn't let him, he'd tried, but he could get both weakened. everything had been tried before. Her head had been blown off, three times, and with no help, he had tried to put himself together, to find the pieces that weren't him. It didn't help.

He'd been gone and then the heat of time brought them together for such a wonderful time and then this. For the first couple of weeks, after he'd left Mimi's body in the Italian castle, he'd been in a state of euphoria. But now he'd realized it was more the volcano that was content and happy than him. The fact that his stabbing and calming no longer gave him strength, he knew that was it.

And then there's always the collapse. Depression. Now he had a steely determination to end it all once and for all. Damon sought out a certain witch and paid her a large sum of money. He asked one of his few credit friends or acquaintances, then to carry out the plan to completion because he would not be able to.

Charles and Adam had cut Mimi's jaw a few days ago and she would soon wake up. Charles furrowed his brows as he read the email. What new animal had arrived at their zoo? Then he looked at his next messages. One was from Damon. he opened it.

Charles.

I have now done what I can to prevent anything like this from ever happening to Mimi again. I'm the new animal at the zoo. I am now in tick form and have been instructed to be given a drop of blood every six months. This is the only way to keep me and the volcano, which I suspect is behind all the evil, weak. What the volcano is, I don't know but it has somehow become more different from me since those explosions and I don't want it any other way. I know I will never deserve your, Adam's, or Mimi's forgiveness, but I would hope that you would keep my fate hidden from others, especially Mimi for as long as possible. I'll leave all my money in your custody and all my credentials.

Damon

Charles read the message three times, then downloaded the credentials to a computer where no one would find them and deleted the message. He was left to wonder if, when the time came, Damon had that much courage. He sent a message to the zoo about the new acquisition and added instructions on how to keep an eye on Damon to make sure he didn't grow up. How to reduce or dilute the amount of blood.

I woke up again, I was groggy and my mouth was dry. Charles was at it again, and once he wet my mouth. "hey, your jaw is fine now and the infection is gone, you've slept for a month in total. Yay, here comes another recovery time, I thought.

Charles said, "You're already 39 kilos so it's worth the sleep." I shifted in bed for a moment and Charles put the side down and said "Let's go to the bathroom, you can walk around a bit."

He helped me out of bed and supported me all the way to the toilet. My legs were shaking from the strain, but I managed to get my business done and made it back with some difficulty. Charles helped me into bed and lifted me up and got a tray from the other table which he placed on the table in front of me.

I started to eat. and then I was tired again, so I slept, and ate, went to the toilet, and slowly but surely got stronger so that within a week I could walk without support.

God sat on the rainbow islands and sighed. "it wasn't supposed to be like this." he was sad. The chaos kitty walked up beside him and asked " What's wrong, why aren't you eating shrimp?" The God looked at his friend for a moment " Why does free will distort everything?"

The chaos cat sat silently for a moment and said mysteriously "It is not distorted, what is distorted can be corrected. "

The god was tired of the chaos cat's riddles, he said " Why does Damon Salvatore first do a shed session, kill Mimi and then make such an ultimate sacrifice and make himself a tick and give treatment instructions to starve to death and die permanently in six months?"

The chaos cat looked at god for a second and said "Why don't you ask Damon himself?"

The god then decided to do just that. He reached into the zoo with his paw and picked up a tick from the enclosure that was pale, weak, and almost lifeless. Salvatore had apparently drained himself of blood before casting the spell. God knew Damon wouldn't last more than a couple of weeks at most. He transformed Damon into human form when he returned to the rainbow islands.

Damon sighed and went to sit on the beach. There was peace here, the volcano that had been roaring inside him seemed to be silent and hidden. This was good. This was where he wanted to be. The God padded over to sit next to Damon.

"Why?" he asked. Damon said quietly "I don't know, I could blame the volcano or even the position of the stars, but I guess the truth is that I am evil, twisted. I tried to be good, I tried to keep it in check, but it's getting a hold of that too now and turning everything wrong. "

The cat asked, " Do you feel bad?" Damon shook his head, well he didn't know if anyone felt bad, did they know they were bad? He just wished he could be here for a while before he went to hell.

The cat beckoned with his paw, suddenly there was a shed of equipment on the beach. "'Make me a shed session.'" Damon said, "No I won't." The cat said " I am God and I am in charge here. Do it"

Damon tied the cat to a stabber and crushed its ribs, peeling the skin. He knew how every device worked but this one felt so different. He could actually feel the button of the device under his finger. He did this, not someone else. And he didn't enjoy it at all. when the cat was released, he said " See you don't like it, it's just some part of you that wants to do them." Damon nodded.

Then he stood up and coldly picked up the chaos cat and set it down and started fucking it. God let Damon unload on himself by fucking everything he could catch. There were quite a few girl animals available.

Then he said "Now I'm going to return you to human form, and you're going to make things right. Remember this feeling. You don't enjoy it you don't want to do it. "

Damon said, "If I do it one more time I swear I can't take it, I just can't take it anymore, this guilt is too much."

God said " Let's see it then. Now you just have to endure. I know there's a solution but it's not quite time yet. But Damon, the time will come. When everything is much better." Then he restored Damon back. God told Charles that he had saved Damon. Damon had been very close to dying and that should not be allowed to happen.

Chaoscat asked God " Don't we have enough already, is that now..." God said "There is not yet all they need, you know that. Only then will we get it done? The time is not yet ripe. " Then God said to the chaos cat "Let's go play a game of chess. The winner gets fucked. " Chaos Cat sighed. God always cheated.

My recovery was going well. Adam and Charles were busy with the Lord knows what and I wasn't in such bad shape that I needed bed rest. Magnum came back to act as a physiotherapist and oh how I was sloppy and slow and clumsy and all that again.

The zip ties just kept singing. After I'd been back for three months I started to hit my stride and Magnum went on his gigs. And then Mimosa got the heat. For the next 12 weeks, I toured America because I wanted a bit of freedom. I heard that Salvatore had come back to take care of the heat and was like a new man. Charles had told me how Damon had tried to kill himself. So he really did repent. That's weird.