The Purple Man's Mark

The Purple Man.

The information associated with the name came up: Zebediah Killgrave, a criminal with mind-control abilities. Deceased.

But his mind control had left a permanent "mark" in Jessica's brain—a stretch of code forcibly written into it that triggered nightmares and emotional breakdowns from time to time.

It wasn't an injury. It was a foreign object lodged in the deepest part of her brain.

Even harder to deal with than the Vibranium bullet inside Luke.

"You're the doctor who can tell what's wrong just by looking?" Jessica set her whiskey bottle on the reception desk, pulled over a chair, and sat down with her feet up on the table.

"Luke sent you?"

"He nagged me all night. Kept saying you could cure anyone. I don't believe him, but he wouldn't let me sleep, so here I am."

"What do you think you need checked?"

"I don't know. You're the doctor. You tell me."

Lynn studied her.

He picked up several additional signals. The smell of alcohol on her wasn't just coming from the whiskey bottle in her hand; the sweat seeping from her skin was also full of alcohol metabolites.

Her liver was working overtime, processing alcohol around the clock.

There was another scent, faint and almost completely masked by the alcohol. There were traces of ink under her fingernails.

Ink from a photo printer.

She had been printing a lot of photos lately.

Tracking and investigating.

Occupational habits of a private investigator.

And a way to avoid her nightmares: not sleeping, working until dawn.

"Your liver isn't doing too well," Lynn said. "You drink too much."

"That's all you figured out?" Jessica's tone was hard to read. She could have been disappointed or relieved.

"There's something else." Lynn considered his wording. "There's something in your brain that doesn't belong to you. Like a stretch of code someone left in your head. Someone put it there. It didn't grow there on its own."

Jessica's hand stopped as she held the whiskey bottle.

Lynn heard her heartbeat jump from seventy-two to ninety-six beats per minute in just 0.3 seconds.

Her expression didn't change.

But her body's reactions couldn't fool him.

"How do you know that?" Her voice dropped a register.

"I can see it."

"You can see it." Jessica repeated the words.

"You took one look and knew there was something in my brain—"

She didn't finish the sentence.

But Lynn heard the name she swallowed.

Him. The Purple Man. Kilgrave.

"I can help clear some of it out," Lynn said. "I can't guarantee I'll remove it completely. It's embedded deep, and getting rid of it entirely will take more time and more sessions. But I can weaken it to the point where it no longer affects your daily life."

Jessica said nothing.

She stared at Lynn for about ten seconds.

His Super Senses registered every change in her body during those ten seconds: her heart rate fluctuated, her breathing deepened, and her grip on the bottle first tightened, then loosened.

She was making a very difficult decision.

It wasn't a question of whether she trusted him.

It was a question of whether she dared.

Letting a stranger work on her brain.

After being mind-controlled, the very idea of letting anyone near her brain was a nightmare.

"You're not going to do any of the things... the things he did to me, are you?" Jessica's voice was steady.

But when she said the word "he," her vocal cords vibrated abnormally.

"I'm a doctor," Lynn said. "I remove things that don't belong to you."

Jessica fell silent again for five seconds.

"Do it."

The treatment had two steps.

The first was physical: treating her liver.

Following the plan All-Things Diagnosis provided, Lynn prepared a set of liver-protective medications and gave her dietary advice.

An advertisement asking, "Are you a real person?" showed up. Ignore it and close it. Do not scan the QR code or send a text message!

"Starting today, no more than two drinks a day. Not two bottles. Two drinks."

"Can't do it."

"Then three. But no hard liquor. Switch to red wine."

Jessica rolled her eyes.

The second step was psychological: weakening the Purple Man's mark.

This step was much more complicated.

Lynn had no supernatural mental powers to use.

But he had All-Things Diagnosis and Super Intelligence.

All-Things Diagnosis could pinpoint the location of that "code" in her brain. It was embedded deep in Jessica's limbic system, primarily affecting the neural pathways between her amygdala and hippocampus.

Whenever she encountered certain triggers—specific tones of voice, colors, or words—the code activated, hijacked her normal neural signals, and provoked fear, helplessness, and the urge to obey.

The solution he came up with was to use Transcranial Microcurrent Stimulation to selectively "weaken" the hijacked neural pathway without damaging the surrounding healthy tissue.

Not delete it. With current technology, complete deletion was impossible.

But he could reduce its signal strength from 23% to below 5%, so it would no longer cause any significant interference.

Lynn completed the procedure in an hour and a half.

The microcurrent electrodes were placed on either side of Jessica's temples. Each stimulation lasted two hundred milliseconds at a voltage of 0.3 volts.

He applied a total of 147 stimulations.

Jessica kept her eyes closed the entire time.

After the final stimulation, she remained silent for a long while.

"How do you feel?" Lynn removed the electrodes.

Jessica didn't answer.

She sat there, eyes closed, perfectly still.

Lynn's Super Senses monitored her vital signs. Her heart rate was dropping, gradually falling from over ninety beats per minute to below seventy.

Her breathing grew slower and deeper.

"It's quiet now," she finally said. Her voice was very soft.

"What's quiet?"

"My head." Jessica opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling. "There used to be a voice buzzing in there all the time. Not his voice. It was more like... the feeling that someone was about to talk to you at any moment. You wait for it to happen. It never does, but you know it's there."

"Now it's gone."

She was quiet for a few seconds.

"Two years," she said. "It's been there for two years."

Lynn didn't reply.

He was waiting for the system's feedback.

[Ding! Treatment complete! Evaluation: A · Excellent!]

[Saintly Hands Copy activated... Scanning target's ability library...]

[Core talent detected: Superhuman Strength (A-Grade)]

[Based on treatment contribution (Grade A), automatically copying—]

[Copy progress: 12%... 38%... 55%... 100%!]

[Ding! Copy complete! Acquired A-Grade talent: Superhuman Strength (Weakened Version · 55%)!]

[Ability details: Strength increased to superhuman levels, approximately 55% of the target's peak. Can exert several hundred pounds of force, but still far below S-grade strength-based heroes.]

Jessica stood up and picked up the whiskey bottle. She paused at the door.

"How much do I owe you?"

"Luke paid."

"He paid for himself. I should pay for my own."

"Then we'll talk about it next time." Lynn leaned back in his chair. "Go home and get some sleep. It might be the best night's sleep you've had in two years."

Jessica's lips twitched.

It wasn't quite a smile, but it was headed in the right direction.

"Thanks, four-eyes."

She pushed open the door and left.

Frank looked up at her from the folding chair by the entrance.

Jessica gave the whiskey bottle a little shake and walked off without looking back.

[Reputation Points change: +60 (Jessica Jones cured · Superhero-level treatment). Current Reputation Points: 410.]