JP - The Kids are Plotting

Going over to Ami, Cody picked her up and hugged her close. “It’s gonna be okay, sis…”

“I thought Frisk would… help her more.” Ami sobbed.

“It’s not easy.” Cody explained. “These things take time.”

“It’s been so many years.” Ami sniffled. “It happened before I had even met her.”

“Yes, I know, but sometimes these things can follow a person all their life. The trauma is just…it can be a heavy weight on a person, Ami.” He tried to explain. “It’s like how I feel if I can’t save someone with my skills or my power.”

“Does that mean she’s never going to get better?” Ami asked.

“Yes and no,” Cody replied. “It’s very complicated. She’ll have good days and she’ll have bad days, but she’s slowly learning to cope a lot better. Tzeitel has come a long way in six years from what Klaire has told me and what I’ve seen.”

Ami sat quietly for a few minutes. “I hate what he did to her.” She said in a low, angry voice.

“I do too…” Cody let out a heavy sigh, a finger scratching at a loose thread at the knee of his jeans. “We’ll keep her safe.”

“I wish I could hurt him for hurting her.” Ami continued in the same low, angry voice.

“I know…how to make…poisons.” Cody admitted.

“We should poison him!” Ami said in an excited whisper.

“What was that?” Klaire suddenly asked from beside them both.

Cody yelled out in shock and fell to the floor.

Ami squeaked and guiltily looked at the floor. She and Cody had been talking about something they should not know about, were starting to plan on poisoning him, and Klaire had caught the red handed. WIth how her hearing was she had probably heard the whole thing. “He hurt Tzeitel, Klaire!”

“Do you both realize that Tzeitel would go crazy if you two were ever near that sick monster?” Klaire inquired, crossing her arms. “She would rather be running from him forever than risk you two being around him.”

Ami slumped her shoulders, feeling guilty. “I just want to help her.”

***

Leimomi had told Tzeitel to look at her MegaCorp file, not the hard parts, not the part about Canestone, but just the first few pages. It did not take long for Tzeitel to realize why Leimomi wanted her to look at it. Her intake photo, she was the same age as Ami is now when it was taken, and Ami looks exactly like Tzeitel did at that age. Only without the bruises or scared look. Tzeitel looked at her old photo, working it out for herself. She had been on the edge even before getting the news about Canestone being cloned. Because it was not just about Canestone, though of course he was a huge part of it, it was the whole path she was set on when she was taken into MegaCorp. Tzeitel’s life had never been easy, her parents abused her too, but her life had definitely taken a turn for the worst when they sold her to MegaCorp. It kind of made sense that Tzeitel had been struggling and relapsing while seeing Ami at the same age she was when it started, looking so much like herself.

Tzeitel could hear Cody make a startled yell, then Ami and Klaire speaking, Ami sounding upset. Tzeitel closed her file, leaving the photo of her eleven-year-old self out. She set the photo on top of her file, tucked it under her arm and headed over to Cody’s room. She looked at Klaire and her kids.

“What’s going on?” Tzeitel asked.

“They are talking about poisoning Canestone and I’m warning them that you would lose your shit if they even were around him.” Klaire explained, quickly dropping a dollar in the mostly full swear jar. “We’re gonna need to get the box again for that.”

“We just want to help!” Cody blurted, pulling Ami into a brotherly hug. “We hate seeing you so upset, mom!”

Tzeitel sat down hard on the edge of Cody's bed. "Don't ever go anywhere near that sick twisted fucker." She said in a firm, choked voice. The thought of what Canestone or his clone would do to her son or Ami scared Tzeitel even more than knowing what he would do to her. "Stay away from him!" She trembled slightly as she set her file with her photo still on top on Cody's bed. She watched her kids, feeling like a failure for letting them see how deeply she was wounded causing them to feel like they had to take on her enemy. "The box… those special tranquilizers Colt had?"

Ami hugged Cody back.

“What about them?” Klaire inquired with a frown.

“We ran out of them…” Cody replied, doing his best to comfort Ami. “We want to help!”