Number four was hugging the coffin. He was desperate to get it open. They would not burn her, he would keep her, feed her body and he would find a way to get her back. He looked into the past. He wanted to see what had happened. She was his, his baby.
He saw Mimi writing those letters, her fingers clumsy, her eyes getting more and more vacant, and then she finally slumped against the table. He saw Magnum coming over, placing her into the coffin that he had brought. Magnum was crying and cursing. Mimi had told him what to do. No, he must look further into the past.
He saw Mimi running into the woods, naked, desperate, back more, Mimi being made into a breeding machine. Rage bubbled up in him. He used Salvatore Rage the same way as Mimi used her, as power source. That rage brought a power in his mind. He could see more clearly into the past by himself. No one had an idea what he was actually doing. Rage strengthened him.
He could see Mimi was strapped onto the table, with her belly swollen grotesquely, by jelly, hormones, and drugs. Angelus and Nick talking. When one looks at the past, it is more of a collection of pictures, and only by focusing, you can put those pictures moving, seeing people moving. But there is no feeling there. He used his rage, to listen to that conversation. He made the picture become a movie, with sound on. Normally only number one could do this, with the help of Mimosa and Mariella, but now, he could.
Angelus said, "She is filled now, for three days, max pressure and then she will be ready for breeding. We will take tests once we start to let jelly melt, and drugs absorb. Her mind will be done by that. I have the five strongest fear demons guaranteeing that job for you. Per your request, she will be a vegetable with no mind. "
Nick smiled and said, "My friend, you see, this is my plan. Let me explain to you. Mind is like a ball made out of glass, it can shatter and it can repaired, but if that glass is broken down into sand, no one can make that ball into something again, sand can be molded, and she can recover but very slowly. Those tiny bits of her mind would eventually start to drift and combine, and her mind would heal, but it would take several centuries and it would not be guaranteed that she would be the same. It could be almost millennia before was would intact. But I, the original, have my skills and I can manipulate that mass of her mind, to make her mine, give her the ability to talk, feel and love me, be pregnant by me. I can conjure memories in her mind, get those memories live in her mind, she might remember something in her old life in some point, but by then, she would have been my wife for centuries and made a hell of the big army for me. And what is best? She will be believable enough for Salvatore to believe that she had fallen for me and dumped him. She will be my puppet."
Number four saw how Mimi kept her hormones down, how she was not fertile, and how Nick had been furious. He saw how she made fabric, a tight net from her rage, to keep her mind intact until she would be free. How she refused to stop existing in their hands. She knew she was doomed, but she wanted to go out on her own terms and have time for her goodbyes, too. Number four felt his heart broken even more.
What Nick had said, gave him the idea. Mimi was there, but in so tiny fragments that she was impossible to feel. He would get her back, he would make her whole again. Memories, he needed them. But how? He was desperate. He did not budge when other salvatores came one by one, leaving a single rose by her coffin. None of them had dry eyes, and he could feel their pain brushing his mind. He would not accept that she was lost.
Finally, numbers ten and nine dragged him to sit. He was thinking. Crying and missing her, but one part of his mind was thinking about what Nick said. Time lost its meaning when he sat, looking at her, tears now a long time dried up, but ache and pain in his soul had not dissipated.
When number one came to sit next to him, looking at him puzzled, he said nothing. He had an idea. He just had to think like a doctor, and medicine had always given him the answer.
He said to number one. "I need all the memories from Mimi and those stones, too. I get her back. I have a plan."
Number one was silent. His pain burned in all the salvatores hive mind.
Mariella walked up to sit other side of number four, and asked, "What plan? Maybe we can help."
Number four said, "Look into the past, the conversation between Nick and Angelus when Mimi was filled up. "
Mariella and Number One looked into the past, they were quite surprised at how in hell's name this one could have seen this when this took their combined efforts to do this. But then again, love was the strongest force in the universe, and by the power of that powerful love, one can do miracles. They watched the conversation, not getting his idea, though.
Number one said, "Well, burning her body might not be wise if there is a chance of recovery, but I am not letting you turn her into the puppet. If she does not exist in centuries, then we wait. "
Number four said, "No, I need those memories and those stones. Think now about how you can grow tissue, just by using scaffolding made of cells, and the right cells will drift into that scaffolding and grow. I will make a kind of scaffolding from those memories, helping her mind to start to combine. When I get a few full memories, it will speed things along. That was Nick's plan, to put a few good memories of him in her mind, so she would remember only what he wanted her to remember first. "
Number one was quiet, he was thinking it through, Mariella asked Mimosa to come by, she told her in her mind about the number four plan and Mimosa used that as a guide when she looked into the future, but no, number four would not be strong enough, he would actually end up into Mimi's mind, and not getting out of there, making Mimi into a new combined creature, now living with Damon in her mind and with rage, it would not be feasible. Mimosa saw an opportunity. She tried to see if anyone could do it.
Number one said, "This is my doing, my freaking fault to react all wrong once again, so this is my thing to get her back. I will get the baby back. Whatever it takes. I will learn from this and once I get her back, I will keep her safe, not letting her do anything like this ever again."
Mariella talked to Mimosa, to ask could number one do it, but Mimosa could not give a straight answer as there were too many possibilities with equal chances, so many things could go wrong and really wrong but it was probably only chance unless they would wait for centuries to see if Mimi would be even functional. Number one was adamant. His biggest mistake had brought this on Mimi, and he was willing to do anything.
He said, "I need all of those stones, and then I need to link up with salvatores to get as many memories as possible. The more I can make, the faster this will be."
Charles nodded, and Wulfe smiled. His unicorn had now a chance and by god, he really hoped that Salvatore could pull it off. It would be a genuine miracle, but that was needed here.
They would move Mimi to a location that number one would then choose and it would take a few days, maybe a week, until he would be loaded with memories, making that scaffolding, and the spell too. He would do a calling spell and cast it into Mimi's mind, to call upon those fragments of those memories.
This means he would have several spells same time, and each of them would require his concentration and focus fully. He would test his limits here. How many spells he could keep going same time? So there would not be room for distraction at all. Mariella would have to keep everyone calm and collected, not let anyone mess up things and she would also keep herself under control too. Now, getting Mimi back was everything that there was.
She had her work cut out of herself. Boys were still too distressed, not wanting to change back to humans, and wolves did not want to change either. They found solace in their animal forms more than human form, then there were nine salvatores. Adam and Charles, and from those salvatores, number four was an actual question mark, as he was not the same as he had been before. He had changed, but into what?
No would not be time for jealousy or clinginess of any kind. It could be possible that this would take time, and Damon needed his full focus on Mimi. Mariella knew that this would be a hard time for all of them and she really hoped that Damon could pull it off. She could not think any other way. How she could stop him if there was no hope? Or no progress, if his spell would not work, or if he would burn his magic.
Too many maybes and frightening possibilities for her to think of. Damon would be in a very delicate state, meaning everyone would have to control their mind, as he would not control his telepathy when his focus and mental power would be up keeping those spells.
And then what would come afterward, when Mimi would be back? There would be a backlash, and a bad one, because Mimi's recklessness had led to this, and Mariella knew Damon well enough that he would react. He might even cut her straps, imprison her in his mind for a while as punishment, or something else.
And then Mariella knew she would need to get Damon to unload all of this shit and she would need him too. How could she make all of these months if this would take long, without him near her, fucking her? But he would be with Mimi. Jealousy was not an option here and Mariella did not permit herself to go through those thoughts. Now her mission would be to support Damon, try to help him to do the impossible, and bring Mimi back. And then they could see what would be done next.
First, they went to the oldest castle in Italy. There would be the linking, and Damon would scan everyone's minds, snapping as many memories as possible in order to get as much scaffolding done. He needed everyone to be very relaxed mood, so he ordered an entire pack to drink, strong booze so they would be drunk as a skunk, and he would have better access to everyone's minds. Boys were unwilling and wolves had to be persuaded, but he gave boys some very strong catnip and got them drunk on that too.
He sat on a chair, while the rest of the pack was having a drinking contest, he would say when they would be drunk enough, he took the memorial stone in his hands, letting those bittersweet memories flood in his mind, a special place that he had created in there, he took all the memories sucked them out from the stones, in his mind as they needed to be strong as possible. He had placed there those memories that Mimi had given to him, from the start too.
When the pack member was drunk enough, Damon went to their mind and started pulling memories there, they were about Mimi and this person being drunk enough, and Mimi being lost, tears were shed more than once but Damon kept his tears away not yet was the time him to broke. Maybe then, when he would get her in his lap, and try to mend what he had broken, maybe he could permit those stinging tears to come.
One by one, pack members were allowed to pass out after Damon had done his digging, and memories grew in his mind. He could not think this did not work. These memories would then be all that he would have left of her. He could not wait for centuries for her to possibly wake up. This had to work. He was willing to do anything in order to get her well.
He was sitting in the dark room, focusing fully, building up that scaffolding, putting memories, and feelings and connecting them, he had taken a lot of feelings that he put into those memories, and then when his scaffolding was ready, he would put inside Mimi's mind and put up spell on each memory. One by one, as many same times as he could.
Memories looked like pictures now, but when those tiny fragments of Mimi would go in place, that picture would become a movie, and then he would notice that memory was ready and it could be let go to be in her mind, and move on, feelings would be attached into each memory and those feelings would help Mimi's mind to combine faster.
This took time and effort for him to make this ready, and he had no choice but to press on. No time to waste. The space where Mimi's mind fragments were scattered would be huge and every minute those fragments would drift further away from each other, making this harder. Slower. Damon knew he was impatient as he was, but not now. Now was not the time to lose one's nerve. This required patience and perseverance. Mimi was his only focus, his only choice, no matter how much Mariella would need him.