47

A week passes by as Jessica's indoctrination continues at an excellent pace. Of course, just going off of my power, she's completely mine, completely under my control. But I don't want to rely on my power for this, especially not in Jessica's case. I want her mentally and physically conditioned to love James Rottshaw with every fiber of her being even if the mind control wears off. If she ever becomes immune again, I want there to not even be a noticeable difference between her following my orders with or without my control backing them up.

I doubt we'll arrive at that point quickly, but I've certainly already made steps in that direction by 'fixing' her memories in my favor. Even if my control fell off of her at this point, she'd not remember anything but coming to me for help, though I wasn't entirely sure she'd follow all of my orders without question quite yet. We'd get there soon enough.

Now however, I was meeting with my scientists, who told me they had some very early theories regarding Jessica's immunity. Raising an eyebrow at the two of them, I gestured impatiently, "Well? What do you think you know?"

Albert clears his throat, taking control of the conversation, "Right, well as we've discovered and as you and Jessica have confirmed, we know that she heals much faster than baseline humans. Things that might take weeks of convalescence take a good night's rest, and injuries that would require months of rest take days."

He takes a moment to glance at Louise, supposedly for support before continuing, "So that said, combined with some of our findings regarding your new pigment, we've developed a working theory, but one that still requires quite a bit of testing."

I roll my eyes and roll my hand through the air as if to say 'Get on with it'. Albert gets the message and does so, "In essence, we believe Jessica's immune system is much stronger than a normal human's and because of this, constant exposure to you slowly conferred immunity to your virus and thus your control."

Blinking, I think that over. It sounds almost reasonable? I'm not much of a scientist though, so I wouldn't really know. Still, a question does come to mind, "Does that imply that spending enough time around normal humans will eventually lead to their immune systems fighting off my virus as well?"

Albert grimaces at that before nodding, "The short answer is that it's possible. In reality, we don't really know. Given the information we have on Jessica's healing ability, it might not ever be possible for normal immune systems to overcome you, or it might take as long as decades of constant exposure."

Pursing my lips together I slowly breathe out before nodding, "Alright, fine. You'll continue your research and we'll cross bridges as we come to them. Which brings us back to Jessica. You mentioned my new skin color is somehow connected? How?"

"Well that's where things get interesting. As far as we can tell, your pigment changed because the virus you produce has mutated due to the constant stream of injections. It would seem that that's also why Jessica is no longer immune. In layman's terms it's sort of like an arms race where your biology is currently ahead of hers and beyond her body's ability to combat for the time being."

That… also makes sense to my admittedly uneducated brain, "So I can expect her immune system to continue trying to fight off my control every few months or so? That's perfectly fine, I'm not relying on total control forever anyways. Instead, let's focus on the mutations you're talking about. Are they potentially harmful to me?"

"So far, they don't seem to be. The effects have been beneficial or cosmetic in nature, the increase in your powers and the change in your skin color is all you seem to have experienced so far. It's possible that could change down the line, but that is why you have us here. To monitor the situation and help you in any way we can."

I smile thinly, "Yes, I suppose it is isn't it? Very well, let's get the morning injection done with. Keep up the good work. I'm very happy with your progress, and you're very happy that you've made me happy."

I ignore the large smiles that spread across my scientists' faces, and get ready for the needle to slide into my neck, my mind already moving on to other things.