xxxiv. LIKE MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER

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"CARTER!"

     "Carter, you better not be dead or I'm going to kill you."

     A thud and a groan. "Shut up, Logan. You're not helping."

     "I'm trying to get her attention, you didn't need to kick me."

     Carter's vision was clouded as she whirled into consciousness. She was still strapped down to the metal table, now sticky with her blood. To her right she could vaguely make out two figures sprawled across the floor—blinking rapidly, she tried to clear her vision, but it was difficult.

     She may not have been able to see them, but she recognized the voices.

     Logan and Liam were still alive—though they sounded distressed but that's better than being dead.

     "A-Are you guys alright?" Carter croaked out, her throat dry and sore from all the screaming.

     She was not sure how long she had been unconscious for—the minutes seemed to pass by like hours. The only thing she knew was that she was glad that Raeven hadn't hurt the brothers any further and her entire body ached. It hurt—everything hurt, and she just wanted to close her eyes and cry, but she couldn't even muster up anymore tears.

     The blurry image of Logan stretched forward. "Don't worry about us, Car. We're more concerned about you and where they took Hayden."

     The door connecting the two rooms was abruptly slammed shut and the Surgeon emerged from the shadows, his cane pounding down onto the concrete as he moved forward—the metal torture cart in tow. He stood beside her, the cart positioned to his left.

     Carter didn't know how much more of this torture she could take. She began to think that she would never make it off that table alive, especially when she barely managed to escape them the first time. That has to be it, Carter thought, they're drawling it out because I managed to evade them for so long...not long enough.

     Carter was going to die—and unlike last time—it wouldn't be on her own terms. She would die without having her last goodbyes to anyone other than her conscience inside. Everything that she had done to survive up until that point would all be for granted. She would die without finding out how to stop The Dread Doctors or how to put an end to Raeven's scheming.

     How did she get here?

     She tried to recall all the bad decisions in her life that would have led her to this point. You don't want to open that door, Carter chided to herself. This is going to end bad enough without you needing to feel guilty about all the stupid things you've done.

     "What do you want from me?" Carter choked, tears pinching at the back of her eyes. "Do you want me to beg for my life? I'll do whatever you want...just please stop. I don't think I can take anymore"

     "Do not fret, Caterina," the Surgeon spoke, fiddling with a curved tool. "She is the key to this, she will take care of you. Your condition is extremely promising."

     "Nothing about this is promising...my heart feel like it's trying to crawl out of my chest."

     The Surgeon seemed oddly perplexed by her words, his headed tilted to look at her abdomen before he peered over his shoulder at a table up against the wall. He stared for a long while and Carter took notice of this. She tried to crane her neck in different angles in an attempt to see what was so important on that table, at the same time, she racked her brain for a reason why her words affected him so much.

     When the Surgeon turned back to face her, his coat tails swung out and she manage to catch an extremely brief glimpse of the table. It was so brief that if she had blink, she would've missed it entirely—her eyes barely having enough time to focus on it.

     As soon as she realized what was on the table, a deep cold settled into her bones and she immediately started struggling against the restraints. She thrashed so violently she thought the table might tip over. Her head started to pound and she felt a foreign movement in her chest—felt blood that didn't belong to her swirling through her veins and for a brief second, she thought she had recognized the smell.

     The Surgeon grabbed the table and held it down with unbelievable strength.

     "You're changing, Caterina." He said. "You will finally be able to reach your full potential."

     "Please, don't do this!" Carter cried and watched as he pulled out another syringe, the needle larger and longer than before—at least a foot in length.

     But instead of injecting it into her gums like before, he jammed the needle deep into her chest—piercing her heart. The familiar burn scorched through her body and she cried out in agony. The feeling of torture continued long after he retracked the needle from her chest. The burning was everywhere—in her chest down to her toes and up to her eyes—she was consumed by the pain.

     "Why me?" Carter managed to pant out in between labored breaths.

     "Because Raeven was the first and last failure," The Surgeon didn't bother to look at her as he spoke, too busy sharpening the same curved tool from earlier.

     Raeven. Carter never should've let her guard down and allow herself to trust her. Raeven has caused Carter nothing but pain and suffering since the day they met. Carter allowed her hate toward Raeven dissipate for a moment and tried to riddle out what the Surgeon meant about Raeven being the first failure.

     "Are you trying to do to me what you did to her?" Carter pried. She needed answers, despite the pain in her body and the strong desire to fall asleep that was building behind her eyes.

     He didn't answer, instead he wheeled over a large glass IV system filled with the same black liquid they were pumping into Logan and Liam.

     His silence fueled Carter's curiosity.

     "You're doing it to me because it didn't work on Raeven." Carter started to speculate, trying to bide her time before he forced her into unconsciousness. "And it didn't work because her father sacrificed her to the Nematon and it turned her into something else—something evil. My friends are going to find me."

     "Your friends are the ones holding you back and do not concern yourself with Raeven, Caterina." The Surgeon hummed, fitting the curved tool on the end of a tube connected to the large glass container. "She was a failure and you are not."

     Carter couldn't resist the temptation to ask more questions. She needed to know what they were doing to her—needed to know why her own heart was lying across the room but she still felt a rhythmic beating in her chest.

     "Why was she a failure?"

     And to her surprise, the Surgeon stopped fiddling with the machine and locked eyes with her.

    "Because she was greedy, all she wanted from us was more power." He stated simply. "More power than she could handle."

      Carter furrowed her brows. "Are you saying that she wasn't strong enough?"

     "Raeven was strong, but corrupted." He said before pushing a couple buttons on the machine without looking. "Pheanixs are inherently powerful, each generation taking the memories and the powers of its predecessor. Raeven chose to repel her gifts and in turn, nature repelled against her. But you, Caterina, have much more power than you could possibly understand."

     "But I died, just like Raeven did. I'm not at strong as I was before—I'm not even a werewolf anymore."

     The Surgeon slammed a hand on the metal table and that caused Carter to squeal out in fright.

     He took a step toward her. "Stop comparing yourself to Raeven, Caterina. You didn't need to be a werewolf to be strong. Your mother always told you that you had a great future ahead of you."

     Carter was taken aback. "My mother? H-How do you know that? No one outside my family knows about that."

     A dark and terrifying thought struck Carter—the smell she almost recognized...it couldn't be. There wasn't anything left after the fire...just her claws...impossible...

     "I told you not to fret, Caterina."

     Without another thought, he dug the curved tool into her side and twisted. The flash of hot searing pain pulled Carter away from her horrifying thoughts. He flipped a switch and the thick ebony liquid began to pump inside her body.

     She immediately felt the effects and tried to fight against the sleepiness building in her head. The room was starting to come in and out of her vision—she felt like she was barely breathing.

     With only a trace of consciousness left in her mind, the Surgeon's words swirled around her mind.

     She is the key to this, she will take care of you.

     Carter thought he meant Raeven, but not she started to think differently.

     She is the key to this, she will take care of you.

     Take cake of her like a mother would a daughter.

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not edited

ohmygosh i sincerely apologize for this extremely late update...i have been thinking about this story nonstop for the past several months but every time i finally had time to write, as soon as i sat down I front of my laptop...words just escaped me, but here it is FINALLY! i also apologize for how short this chapter is but i thought that was a good place to end it off

let me know what you thought of this chapter!