John's Big Secret

Brady Black sits sipping a tropical drink on a secluded beach.
A waiter walks up to him with a note on a small silver tray. Brady reads it and sighs.

"Thank you Evan," Brady says to the waiter "I'll deal with this."

"Yes sir" Evan says "But the caller did say it was urgent"

"I know, Evan , I know all too well" Brady answers

Evan walks away and Brady stares into the ocean. After a few moments he picks up his cell phone from the table next to his chair and dials a number.

A voice answers.

"Get the plane ready, I need to take a trip" Brady hangs up the phone and finishes his drink.

Several hours later, Brady arrives at the Dimera mansion. He lets himself in with a key and goes to the lab. He goes directly to the file cabinet and takes out a small envelope. He reaches in and pulls out a disc labeled John Black, memories.

He pockets the disc and leaves. Not long afterwards he arrives at Marlena's penthouse. Before he can ring the bell, John opens the door.

"Hurry up, before someone sees you" John says

"Okay, I'm here, now what?" Brady says

"Did you get the disc?" John asks

"Yes, I did, but if you've been faking all this, why do you need it?" Brady says

"That's my secret" John gives Brady his new improved "anti-squint" which consists of that creepy smile he has now and a raised eyebrow.

John walks into the next room where Belle is tied up in a chair with those Star Trek Jordie glasses on.

John walks over to the wall and opens a panel revealing a video screen and a bunch of electronic boxes. He opens one and inserts his disk, then takes another disc and puts it into the box next to it.

"What's going on?" Brady asks "What are you going to do to Belle?"

John goes to a computer terminal and starts typing. "Your sister is the key to my master plan." he explains as he types "Marlena succeeded in turning my brother Stefano into a vegetable, just like I planned. She's so easy to manipulate, it's almost pathetic. Now that he's out of the way, I can finally take over the Dimera dynasty, just like our father always planned. Stefano always liked to call me 'the Pawn' when in reality HE was the one who was the pawn all these years.
Our father knew Stefano would seek revenge for his death. But what he didn't count on was my mother knowing every move he made and planning for it."

"So all these years, Grandma Colleen has been behind all those times Stefano's plans failed" Brady asks

"Yep" John says "And now it's time for me to take over."

"What does Belle have to do with all this?" Brady asks

"She will take all my memories. She will know everything I knew. And once she does she will be able to use my memories to find the real Marlena."

"The REAL Marlena?" Brady asks "What are you talking about? She's my step- mother, don't you think I'd know my own step-mother?"

"Nope" John finishes his typing "The woman you think is your step-mother is actually one of 5 clones, Stefano made years ago. They have been switching back and forth over the years. Haven't you ever wondered why your step-mother was an intelligent sane woman one minute, a raving shrew the next, and a freaky sex maniac the next? Well not that the sex maniac one wasn't fun..." John gets a little grin on his face "...but the point is, they were all different clones."

Brady struggles to keep from gagging at the mention of his mom being a sex freak, but manages to keep it under control. "So you know where my real step-mother is?"

"Nope, but it's buried somewhere in my memory" John adjusts the glasses on Belle "And once I download them all into your sister, she will remember and we can go rescue her."

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Brady asks

"Well, first we have to empty Belle of all the memories she has now. Then download all mine. We can't take the chance that her memories might mix with mine and change them somehow. Ok, this is ready."

John pushes the button on the box to start the video, and hits enter on the computer to start the program.

Belle sits in the chair giggling, "Ohh bunnies! I like bunnies. Aww, and kitties, so cute. I want to pet the kitty!!"

"What is she watching?" Brady asks

"I don't know" John looks concerned "Those aren't the images associated with this program."

John goes to the computer and checks it, suddenly an alarm sounds. The monitor screen goes red and the word FATAL ERROR comes up, flashing.

"What the Hell?" John works frantically to find out what the problem is.

"OH puppies!!" Belle gushes "puppies on fluffy white clouds, and look theres a unicorn!! And all the rainbows are so pretty!!"

"Whats wrong!! What's going on?" Brady starts to freak

"It's the program," John says "It's supposed to remove thoughts and memories from her brain, but it's saying there's nothing there. In fact it's a VACUUM!! A Void!! It's sucking out the computer's memory."

"What? I don't understand?" Brady says

"A vacuum!" John yells as sparks start to shoot out of the boxes "Like a black hole. So empty it's drawing in everything around it. An emptiness so vast nothing can ever fill it!!"

"You're saying Belle's brain is so empty...it's a black hole!?" Brady gasps

"Yes!" John frantically tries to shut down the system, as smoke starts to pour out of the computer "Her brain is pulling the entire contents of the computer's hard drive into itself and ....and .....destroying it. Making it not exist! Making it just GONE!"

John grabs Belle out of the chair ripping the glasses off her. "RUN! IT'S GOING TO BLOW!!" He yells.

Brady starts to leave, then remember the disc with John's memories, "DAD! What about your memories?"

"Leave them! I can make another copy off the hard drive of Stefano's computer! NOW RUN!"

They make it out of the penthouse just in time. The explosion rocks the entire building. Brady, John and Belle sit in the hallway, panting.

"That was fun Daddy!! Can we do it again?" Belle chirps

"No tink" John says, "Not today, not ever"