41

After making sure everyone was aware of Jessica's imminent arrival as well as what their personal tasks were to be, I made my way to my 'command center'. One could call it a safe room, but I was leery to do so, since it wasn't truly sealed and there was a real safe room still being installed in the basement. Still, the room was reinforced, should technically be impenetrable and had visual and audio on every room of the mansion.

I didn't want to be in a sealed room anyways right now. I needed my virus to continue circulating through the place if I wanted to give a try towards controlling Jessica. I knew my power was far beyond what Kilgrave in canon had managed, my skin color was proof enough of that and even still he'd been able to control an entire hospital from the security room through use of intercoms. The parallels between that and this were not lost on me, though I felt like I had a few more tricks up my sleeve than he had at the time.

My range was beyond the grounds of my current home at this point, and the duration of my control was measured in days now, not hours. My skin was steadily turning a darker purple even as I looked into ways to conceal or reverse that. Yet all I could think was whether or not it would be enough at this juncture. Looking at the screen that showed Jessica standing outside the fence, I had to admit that I'd be finding out soon.

She may have had a better chance of sneaking in if I hadn't known she was already on her way, but alas, Malcolm had proved the perfect little spy. Directing Trish towards the room that she landed outside was simple enough given Trish was already in that hallway. I had Luke, her, and Hope patrolling the mansion so that Jessica would run into one of them, while everyone else lay low.

Listening to their conversation, I raised an eyebrow as Trish went on a tangent about marrying me, before directing Luke and Hope to the room Trish had been instructed to lead Jessica to. Hm, I really should get used to calling Hope by her new name, Faith. I'd killed Hope Schlottman after all and it was a disservice to Faith Rottshaw to continue seeing her as a dead girl.

Such musings were interrupted by Jessica finally revealing her gun, pulling it out and pointing it at Trish's head. I watched in silence as she threatened and Trish laughed it off, but when she put both hands on the gun, I knew Jessica was close enough to the edge that she just might do it, so I finally keyed the mike.

"Stop Jessica!"

She freezes up, but I force myself to remember how she did the same to convince Kilgrave before snapping his neck. Letting out a shuddering breath, I give the next order.

"Point your gun at the ceiling."

She does so and I have to stifle the desire to jump up and do a victory dance. There's still every possibility that she's playing me.

"Jessica, stand perfectly still and let Luke take the gun out of your hands."

This also goes off without a hitch, so after a deep breath, I step out of the command center and down the hall to enter the room where she and the rest are located. I only move a few feet into the room, content to keep everyone in between us so that if she makes any sudden moves, I can throw them at her and escape.

She doesn't though, and I take that as a good sign but not as gospel that this is working. Still, time to implement the next step, "Hello Jessica, it's good to see you. I'm sure you're happy to see me too. You know just how sick in the head you are, this fantasy you've constructed around the idea of KIlgrave. My name is James Rottshaw and I'm going to help you. You want me to help you."