Triple Point

Chapter 80: Murderer

Content Warning (see in-line comments for details)

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Camilla

The next time Camilla awoke, she found herself already lying on the table in the second room. After slowly glancing around the room, she found that she was the only one in there, and she had been left strapped to the table with various wires and tubes attached to her body. For a moment, Camilla tensed as she imagined what would be in store for her, but she relaxed when she realized that she didn't care. What did it matter anymore?

After a few minutes of nothing but silence, the door to the room opened, and Camilla couldn't help but tense up again at the sight of the man who entered.

"I would call you a fool," the man said in place of a greeting. "But that would imply that I am unhappy about the outcome."

Camilla felt herself pull at her restraints, and when they didn't budge, she clenched her teeth in fury. Even though she hadn't seen Doctor Stein since the Academy, since he gave her random tests to ensure she was taking the drugs that he prescribed for her, Camilla would never forget his face.

"What are you talking about?" Camilla ground out through her teeth.

"The medicine I prescribed to you," Stein said as if it was obvious, as if it was a surprise that Camilla didn't know what he was talking about. "I gave it to you for a reason and one reason only. No, it wasn't because of your bad attitude and mommy issues, though those did need some work. It was because I owed a debt to your father, and nothing more. In fact, if I didn't have a conscience, I would never have given you those drugs, and you would've wound up in here much, much sooner."

Camilla couldn't help her confusion from showing clearly on her face. What did her dad have anything to do with this? How did Stein know him, and why did he bring him up now?

At her confusion, Stein merely scoffed.

"You don't know what your father did all those years, did you?" Stein continued, looking at Camilla like she was a naive child. "He worked for the Organization."

"No, he was a scientist," Camilla blurted out. She didn't want to show Stein that she was actively listening, but Camilla couldn't help it when the man was trying to smear her dad's memory. "He did research for Zenipro."

Stein sighed, frustrated. "Which is part of the Organization. Not officially, of course. Doctor Kenichi Tanoue did meta research as an employee of Zenipro, but he knew his findings would go directly to his benefactor, the Organization. And it was because of that research, because of his intelligence, that he knew you were going to grow up to become much too powerful for your own good."

Camilla felt her breath catch in her chest. How could he have known? He had died years before Camilla had even tested positive for the meta gene, long before Camilla's abilities even revealed themselves. There was no way her dad would have even imagined her to be a meta, much less a powerful one.

"Ken made that drug for you, you know that?" Stein continued. "He knew you would be powerful, so he derived a drug from your genetics to keep your abilities in check. He did it to contain you. You, and your powers.

"It had some unintended side effects towards your personality, yes, but that wasn't much of a surprise. From what I understand, his formula worked by forcing you to redirect energy from your abilities to absolutely anything else, and that something else just happened to be your terrible personality. Such a simple idea, really, but it was the execution that was genius, and it was something only Ken could accomplish."