The Seven Deadly Sins Affair- Envy

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Envy from Latin invidia, is an emotion which "occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it."

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Napoleon headed back up to medical and as he stepped off the elevator he heard it. Illya was screaming at the top of his lungs like a madman.

He was begging for food, insisting that he was starving to death.

As he rushed into Kuryakin's room, Illya was still restrained in his bed but his eyes were wide with panic.

"Napoleon, please help me?" Illya repeated himself, this time in Russian, his voice filled with desperation, "Pomogi mne, pozhaluysta?"

"Illya, take it easy. It'll be all right." Napoleon looked to Doctor Greene.

"I have to sedate him again, nothing to knock him out, just to calm him down. This has to be psychological. I'm going to have someone from Psych come here rather than taking a chance on moving him."

"No no, please?"Illya began to beg."No sedative. I will...I will behave, you have my word. Please I am so hungry, I need something to eat. Napoleon please get me some food."

The doctor raised the syringe, getting Kuryakin to focus on it.

"Sorry Doctor. I will be calm, I promise, but I really am hungry."

"I'm afraid I can't give you anything to eat. You're going to kill yourself eating anymore calories. You gained an unhealthy amount of weight in a short time. You'll give yourself a heart attack if your eating isn't curbed. I'm bringing in Doctor Collins to examine you. What's going on with you, it's inexplicable as all of your tests have come back as normal. There's no chemicals in your system, so it has to be in your head."

"Please no," Illya's voice raised, but he instantly lowered it, trying to calm himself. "I can not abide psychiatrists...what they did to me back in Soviet Union, it was like torture. Please not again."

"Illya, no one is going to torture you. You're safe here in headquarters. Doctor Collins is one of the good guys," Napoleon insisted.

Greene motioned for Napoleon to join him out in the hallway, but this time they closed the door to Kuryakin's room.

"If we can't figure out what's wrong with him, I'm going to have to send him up to the UNCLE sanitarium in New York state. He's a danger to himself and possibly others."

Napoleon wasn't happy hearing that. The only thing he could do was hope that Doctor Collins could figure out what, if anything, was going wrong in Illya's stubborn head.

The doctor arrived and after speaking with Napoleon and Doctor Greene, he entered Illya's room.

"Hello Agent Kuryakin." They grey haired man pulled up a chair beside the bed. He wasn't wearing a white coat, and wore a cardigan sweater instead of a suit jacket. He looked like someone's grandfather. "I'm Doctor Collins."

Illya immediately rolled his eyes.

"Now now, I won't disrespect you if you don't disrespect me."

If Illya's arms were free, he would have crossed them defiantly in front of his chest. "I know who you are. You are here because they think I am crazy."

"I would't call it that.I'm here to help you."

"Fine, do your worst," The Russian sneered at him.

"There's no need to be on the defensive Illya...if I may call you that? I'm here to try to find out what's going on with you."

"There is nothing going on with me that a little food would not solve. They have been starving me here.Since when does UNCLE starve its operatives? This is not Soviet Union."

"No one is starvig you. Food has become part of your problem; you've become obsessed about it. You lust after it, one might say you're greedy for it from what I understand. According to your partner, you've become secretive about your eating, hoarding food and become rather slothful. If I didn't know better, I'd say your behavior is mimicking a number of the seven deadly sins. At least wrath hasn't become involved yet, no violence on your part.

"Let me loose and you will see just how wrathful I can be,"Illya snarled. "You are just jealous of me, you envy me because I am one of the best field agents the UNCLE has ever had. And now you want to punish me for what? What did I do?"

"On the contrary Illya, you're not being punished. You are admired and well respected. Until recently you were fit, and on your game better than anyone else."

"I could still run rings around you. You are nothing but a pencil pushing shrink who likes to meddle with people's minds!"

Doctor Collins canted his head to the side as what Illya had just said made the proverbial light bulb go off in his own mind.

He called Napoleon and Doctor Green into the room and after a very quiet discussion, George Dennell was sent for.

He brought with him a device used to deprogram agents, a simple machine that gave the illusion of a black swirling line in motion against a white background. It had a powerful hypnotic effect on the subject, wiping their memories of the Command, if that was what they were told.

"I think Illya has been given hypnotic suggestions, powerful ones. There are defenses to prevent him from revealing what he's been told. Most defenses are formulated unconsciously, and can sometimes be contacted through the unconscious. Often, the victim will not even know the existence of the defenses, much less what thoughts or decisions they are constructed from. This may or may not not work."

They set up the machine on the bed table in front of Kuryakin and George turned on the switch.

"Illya look at the spiral, watch it spin. Watch closely and relax, relax. You'll hear nothing but the sound of my voice." Doctor Collins gently spoke.

He watched as Illya's facial expression went blank as he fell into a trance.

"Now tell me about Rome...what happened to you there?" Collins asked.

There was a slight hesitation before Illya answered.

"After leaving the restaurant I thought I was being followed. It was an old woman. I let my guard down and she jabbed me in the leg with the tip of her cane. When I awoke I...I was...was..." He seemed to be having difficulty speaking.

"Don't fight it Illya. Tell me what happened when you woke up."

He grimaced, squirming against his restraints.

"I...I was strapped into a chair. A woman held a sparkling pendant in front of me."

"Was it the old woman?

"No."

"Did you know who she was?"

"Yes, no..."

"Who was it?"

Illya became agitated now, struggling to free himself, but not just from the straps that held his body. He was fighting against himself, unable to reveal the woman's identity.

Collins changed his line of questioning. "What were you instructed to do?"

"Hungry, always hungry. Eat eat, but never enough. Food, need food all the time. She said I was a pig, a lazy pig so I should behave like one."

"Did she tell you to do anything else?"

"Yes," Illya pulled against the restraints; he was still fighting it.

"On Halloween I am to go into Commissary at eight o'clock. During party and I am kill guests and then I am to shoot myself in the head."

Napoleon pursed his lips as he listened. There was only one other time he could recall that Illya had been hypnotized and ordered to kill his partner; that was during the THRUSH Roulette Affair. After a prolonged battle between the two of them Illya thankfully came to his senses. This time someone had really gotten to his partner.

"Illya concentrate on my voice," Collins continued." You are going to ignore the commands you were given by this woman. I have a new commands for you, you are to go back to your normal eating habits, you are going to work out in the gym while on leave to shed unwanted weight, and most importantly you will not harm anyone, including yourself, on Halloween. Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Tell me your new instructions."

Illya repeated them back verbatim.

"Now I want you to close your eyes. On the count of three I will snap my fingers; you will wake feeling refreshed, and be your old self again. One-two-three."

Snap.

Illya opened his eyes and looked first at the doctor and then the others.

"Why am I here? What happened?"

"Long story tovarisch. I'll fill you in, but in the meantime it's good to have you back," Napoleon smiled.

"Where did I go?"

"All in due time Mister Kuryakin," Doctor Greene said."Now you need to rest."

"Illya, are you hungry?" Doctor Collins asked.

"No, not at all."

Comments

[jantojones.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Something tells me that it isn't quite as over as they think.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thanks cuz! And I would say that's a good guess! "D