Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Never before had he felt such bone-deep exhaustion overtaking his senses, considering that his body was quite literally falling apart this wasn't a surprise. The toll of uninterrupted trudging, running and upkeep his body had to endure proved itself to be too much.

Made of mold he may be, but he was never quite as strong or capable as the other infected mutants and his advanced healing could not keep him from death forever.

Distantly he wondered if he would calcify into a strange crystalline form as the other beasts did or if he would simply turn to dust to be swept away by the wind.

In the end, it did not matter though, his daughter was safe and that was all he could have ever really hoped for.

The last thing Ethan ever saw was Chris carrying his little girl to safety, putting as much distance between them and the massive growth that consumed the area around them as well as Ethan himself who let the thick vines take a hold of him and drag him towards the centre before finally pressing down on the trigger with what little strength he had left.

As the explosion consumed everything around him, his vision faded and the ringing in his ears mercifully stops.

On a cold winter's eve, Ethan Winters body was consumed by flames and rubble and he knew no more.

---------------------------------------------

The first sense that reaches him in awareness was sound. Distantly he could hear the fierce breeze knocking tree branches aside and snow being swept away with the blow. The sound was muted as if he heard it from inside of a well-padded room.

The second sense was feeling, he became aware of a cold ground under him and the previously mentioned breeze brushing snow dust over his face as the freezing air seeped through his thin, for the weather ill-equipped, clothes.

Briefly, he wondered if perhaps he had somehow survived the explosion and his body had somehow stitched itself back together.

The very thought made him want to cry.

He tried his hardest to move and regain the strength in his limbs but realized soon, with no small amount of panic, that it accomplished the exact opposite of what he wanted.

The feeling of cold air on his skin, that would have made him shiver by now, disappeared completely and the only thing that he could still feel was the wind hitting him in the face once more, this time without the accompanying trace of biting cold that made up the current season.

Slightly hysterically, he couldn’t help but wonder if his nerves hadn't given up for good, the explosion robbing him of the sensation for good as his body struggled to retain basic bodily functions.

And speaking of bodily functions, Ethan also became aware of the fact that he wasn't breathing and combined with the lack of response in his limbs he couldn't help but think that he was dying.

That somehow the explosion had knocked him away from the growth and into unconsciousness up until the point where his mold-induced healing finally kicked in just long enough for him to regain consciousness and bear witness as his body shut down for the final time.

Maybe this was what people meant when they said that the brain was still active for a certain amount of time after death? After all, the hearing sense went last and although he couldn’t breathe or move, he could still hear just fine.

It would be just his luck that the mold decided to screw him over one last time before finally letting him die.

However, the darkness did not take over and he continued to lie there for a little while longer while he tried to calm himself down from his self-induced panic attack.

Once more, he tried his hardest to move his limbs which only resulted in a full-body twitch this time before his body finally caught up with the fact that his brain was still very much functioning, even though he should have been long dead by now, and kickstarted his lungs with a rattling inhale of air.

This, however, made things somehow worse as all of Ethan's limbs decided to stiffen up and he was forced to expel that same air almost immediately.

He must have made a pathetic sight, flopping about like a fish with a seizure as he greedily tried to suck in air and get his lungs to function properly.

After a short eternity, he managed to even out his breathing, taking care to take deep even breaths and relax his body as much as was currently possible.

Eventually, his arms and legs were no longer locked up in their rigor mortis like hold and Ethan was left panting against the hard snow-covered ground. His breath disturbed the powdery snow underneath, hitting him in the face and making him cough before he managed to get himself under control once more.

With great effort, he managed to open his eyes and raise himself up on his elbows with his shaking arms and legs and weakly raise his head high enough to see straight in front of him.

He felt as if he had been rolled over by a truck and simultaneously slept for more than a day.

Which was impossible but was the only description he had for his aching body and poor cognitive function at the moment.

All in all, it left him in a pretty confused and fuzzy state as he tried to make sense of his environment.

Squinting through his eyelids, he managed to make out snow-covered ground, with dark tree lines surrounding him and sunlight struggling to reach through the thick leafless canopy. It was deadly silent as well and Ethan could not help but want to get away as quickly as was humanly possible.

Silence never meant anything good. Especially not in the woods where anything could hide.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Ethan tried his hardest to figure out what time it was and how much time had passed since the explosion.

It was impossible to see through the falling snow all around and make sense of where he was, as it was, it could have been either late evening or early morning.

Struggling to adjust his vision, since it kept appearing to him blurred and oddly enough in grayscale, he was able to weakly look around.

The blast must have thrown him further away than he thought because the only light source he could discern came from behind him, shining through some spare shrubbery.

Ethan was by now coming to terms with the fact that he could not feel the cold anymore and although that was usually a sign of late stages of hypothermia, he desperately hoped that it wasn't too late to catch up with Chris and his daughter.

He carefully got one arm under himself and slowly pushed himself into a sitting position to get a better look at the wooden area he was in.

On close inspection he could see a slight trail behind the spot where he had picked himself up and the realization that his body had somehow managed to crawl away from the danger without him being conscious for it would have shaken him pretty badly, had he not known that the mold was capable to operate a body even when the host was long gone.

Shivering despite his body's inability to process temperature, Ethan was grimly reminded of the Baker family and how many hits they could take before finally staying dead for good and decided to stop thinking about it at once.

With further struggle on his part and no small amount of wheezing, he eventually managed to stand by leaning against one of the trees near him and make his way through the woods, following his own trail left behind by his mold-controlled body as it dragged itself through the snow, and towards the light source.

Perhaps it was a stupid idea in hindsight, but it was his only lead towards civilization and he was feeling way too weakened to continue on without a clear path in mind.

Of course, that also made him easy prey for any stray lycans but he desperately hoped that they all died in the explosion. They also probably would not be smart enough to produce a fire or handle electricity in the first place.

…

Probably,

Though now that he was getting closer to the source, he realized that it must have been an electric light and as he emerged from the tree line, hugging his arms around himself in a poor attempt at stability and comfort, he had to shield his eyes from the onslaught of brightness hitting him in the face.

Blinking wildly, he did manage to shake off the blurriness that clung to his vision, yet the light was still unnaturally bright. He decided to pull up the hood of his jacket in an attempt to escape the onslaught somewhat and continued on.

As he tried his best to squint through his fingers, he noticed that it wasn't a flashlight or even a house with lit windows, no, it was an overturned BSAA truck lying on a snow-covered road.

He continued blinking, slowly making his way around the other side of the truck where the headlights of it didn’t overwhelm his vision and made his way to the back.

Technically it made sense that some of the reinforcements from Chris would end up as lycan food and that not everyone would make it back alive.

Though as he reached the back and saw the ripped down doors of the car and the body lying on the ground, searching for a phone or some other communication device to contact Chris with, he couldn't help but feel an odd sense of DeJa'Vu.

The scene looked so eerily similar to the one he woke up to after being knocked out by Chris that it honest to god creeped him out a little.

It might have even been the same one if the blood and body weren't looking so fresh.

With shaking hands, Ethan began reaching out towards a phone he had spotted next to the dead soldier before stilling.

He noticed with a start that he still had all of his fingers on his hand and that it was utterly devoid of scars. Surely the mold didn't heal him up that well, did it?

Suddenly, the phone started ringing and as he tried his hardest to make sense of the short conversation that followed he couldn't help but feel, with a sinking feeling in his gut and a racing heart, that it seemed awfully familiar.

"About time, what's the status? Is the package secured?", the person on the line asked.

"Well fuck", Ethan said and dropped the phone.

Chapter Text

Ethan had no clue how long he had been kneeling in the snow for because at some point he must have dropped to his knees in shock.

There was static buzzing through his mind, and he felt as if his soul had physically left his body. Like the strain of the last couple of days had finally been too much to handle and his mind had said 'screw it' and checked out of reality.

A part of him could not help but wonder if he wasn't starting to go crazy. If this was not some extremely fucked up hallucination his mind had conjured for him to torment him as if the general shit show that had been his life so far was not enough.

Perhaps he was simply laying in a hospital bed somewhere, recovering from his injuries and trapped in a coma where his nightmares continued to taunt him, unable to wake up.

The idea of Rose having to see him like that made bile rise in his stomach.

Rose.

If his little girl was still out there somewhere, he had to find her.

Nightmare or not but if Ethan was known for anything then it was keeping his family safe. Or as safe as they could be in any case, he never found out if being magically quartered by Miranda had not left Rose with some invisible damage he couldn't fix.

He did not register the tears until they were dropping on the palms of his hands.

Oh fuck, his hands.

If Ethan hadn't been crying already, he sure as hell would have started now.

His hands were perfectly intact, he did not know he had missed the feeling of having his limbs whole as much as he did.

Yet there they were, all fingers unharmed on his left hand and no scar on his right wrist where his hand had been sliced clean off by one of the lords.

In hindsight, sticking his hand back on with nothing but some alcohol mixed with herbs he found around the province was incredibly odd.

Back then he had written it off as more mold-induced horror and technically he hadn't been wrong, had he?

A short hysterical laugh escaped him, because of course the mold was responsible, why wouldn't it be?

He glanced at the phone he had dropped on the ground and carefully picked it up, there on the display, the very same date was displayed when he and Rose were taken away by Chris.

The phone's battery died shortly after and the screen went dark.

It took Ethan a while to get himself under control, sitting on the ground for so long had made his legs go numb and standing back up took more out of him than he thought.

Right, somehow, he was back at the beginning, he was relatively unharmed (except for the staples still present on his left wrist from the Baker house but those were old news by now), his nerves couldn't process cold correctly and somehow, probably through the influence of the mold, he ended up travelling back in time.

Because of course he did, of course his life could not just be easy for once and let him have a break, no not even dying allowed him to get some rest.

Ethan was so very very tired of having to deal with any of this shit.

However, his mental breakdown had to wait just a little while longer, Rose was, and will always be, his main priority.

And now he had to save her all over again.

Goddamit.

God fucking dammit.

There was no way Ethan would ever leave his daughter behind but for a hot second, he contemplated letting his anger get the better of him, track down Chris and rip him a new one for letting this shit happen in the first place.

He never found out exactly how long Miranda had been masquerading as his wife (and didn't that make him want to vomit all over again) or how she had even found them.

The BSAA was not exactly known for leaking their information, for fucks sake even Heisenberg had gotten his hands on files and pictures of them for his weird little revenge pinboard or whatever.

His body had started shaking from rage by now and his vision momentarily blacked out.

It took him a good while to get to his feet again, his vision was back to its odd greyscale view of the world around him, where the light was much brighter and the shadows appeared darker than ever, and he secretly hoped he would not go blind as a result.

He looked back to the overturned vehicle and searched around until he found a pen. The driver in the front of it had his head brutally bashed in and judging by the look of the unharmed windshield it wasn't from the impact of the crash.

It was a bit concerning how desensitized he had become to the sight of corpses of gore by now but there was no time to dwell on that.

He wrote a quick note about how he had woken up without Rose there and how he'd go look for her to Chris, knowing the other would eventually track down this vehicle by the lack of response, and that he couldn't wait for them to show up as he had decided to look for his daughter in the village.

He carefully slipped it in between the destroyed doors, just visible enough to draw attention and continued to look around for anything else that might be useful.

He noted that the corpse on the ground had leather gloves and although looting from corpses made him sick on principle, a little protection would go a long way for what was yet to come.

It wouldn't stop him from losing his fingers but it would be enough against some bruises.

He briefly considered stripping the corpse for the armed bodysuit as well but looking into the glazed unmoving eyes of the body made him more and more uneasy by the second.

Instead, he pulled on the black gloves, pocketed the phone and pen just in case (he dimly remembered stumbling upon a laptop from the BSAA somewhere) and pulled his hood further into his face to escape the bright headlights.

The longer he was out in the open the easier prey he would become.

Also his body had started to feel extremely uneasy all over as if his limbs were made of lead and heavier than usual.

He desperately hoped it was the exhaustion and not some more mold-induced body modification taking place and changing him from within.

There was no time to waste though, he had to go and get Rose and maybe this time he could do it without being blown to pieces at the end.

Ethan braced himself and started on the path towards the village, following the trail of bloody crows hanging from the tree branches.

He had to wonder if this wasn't the village's creepy attempt at keeping away outsiders or if this was part of some sort of ritualistic worship for Miranda.

Come to think of it, the village also had goat heads hanging from the trees and the villagers did sacrifice goats to her so who knew.

Maybe it was just accepted to hang decapitated animal heads from the trees, cults tended to do stuff like that after all.

The mental image of villagers attending to their business with animal heads dripping overhead as people sold produce on the market made a slight smile appear on his face.

God, he had really gone around the bend with his humor, hadn't he?

Either way, he really needed to focus, he might have a massive advantage with his knowledge but that didn't make the task ahead of him any less dangerous.

Already, he could hear the lycans sniffing around the woods and it made him wonder if they weren't there to purposefully lead him to where Miranda wanted him to be.

He could not believe she actually thought that he would join her messed-up family after all she had done but one couldn't argue with crazy people.

Ethan managed to walk quietly through the wooden area, subconsciously slipping from shadow to shadow to avoid the beasts around him and judging by the confused noises one of them made as it walked right past the tree he was hiding behind it seemed to be working.

He had even walked around the crow that had screamed in alarm when he had approached it the first time he had to do this and avoided notifying the lycans to his location.

It had scared the crap out of him back then but thinking about it now, it must have been a rather effective alarm system for the beasts.

Though a part of him thought it odd they didn't seem to notice him, surely they could pick up his scent?

There was no point dwelling on it though, he needed to get to a house and plan his next move from there.

Breaking through the tree line and skidding down the small hill, he had to shield his face once more from the bright light that illuminated the valley and the castle looming ominously in the castle.

For the life of him, he couldn't remember it being this bright before but the sudden sensitivity to light was the least of his problems right now.

He could already see the first house in front of him and quickly made his way inside, keeping his eyes from the reflective snow-covered ground and locked onto the dark dilapidated building before him.

Maybe he could steal a pair of sunglasses somewhere?

The thought made him chuckle under his breath as if he didn't look suspicious enough already.

He carefully avoided the bloody horse carcass, ignoring how it made his stomach twinge oddly and stepped through the house full of occult symbols drawn in salt.

Seeing the village again was utterly surreal though and scurrying from dark corner to dark corner didn't help his nerves any at all.

He was extremely careful to walk as quickly and quietly as possible, knowing that being caught unaware right now would not end well for him.

He could see some lycans sniffing around the place, some looking confused as they stood on the top of the roofs and scenting the air while others were slowly converging on the house he had just walked through.

One even found the skid mark he had left on the hillside and was curiously pressing his nose to it and he silently thanked his foresight to stick to the frozen dirt that made up the road rather than leaving footprints in the snow.

It quickly let out a howl, drawing the attention of other lycans as a couple emerged from the forest and others jumped down from the rooftops to join in.

It all rather looked like a pack of dogs had found an animal's trail in the woods and it made him tense.

Suddenly 2 of them decided to set off in the direction of the castle, while the remaining 3 split up to search the house, giving him an opening to slip deeper into the village.

He had found some metal scraps and a lockpick, all while carefully ignoring the blood splatters inside, and carefully stuffed them inside of his pocket, consciously ignoring the fact that it didn't seem to weigh anything to him at all and snuck into the next house.

His vision was still doing that odd thing again, switching colors on and off and he noticed that it even seemed to help him somewhat when it came to spotting the beasts as they roamed around.

He supposed that seeing things in grayscale made it easier for his brain to pick up on movement around him, almost like looking through night-vision goggles to spot an animal in the woods.

It also made him see the spots that were shrouded in darkness the most, almost as if he was hiding in the shadows themselves, he mused.

Darting from one shadow to the other while continuing to crouch wasn't doing his knees any favors though.

Either way, it was a great way to avoid detection, defenceless as he was.

Maybe he should check on the duke first, he had picked up a bag of Lei in one of the houses and hopefully it was enough for a gun.

He continued down the path, passing below the hanging goat heads and ignoring the locked gates of the areas around him, knowing that he'd stumble upon the keys for them eventually.

He stepped into the next house and it didn't dawn on him that his mind found it eerily familiar as he stumbled inside.

He wisely didn't break the yellow painted crate inside to avoid loud noise. And while he was at it why where the crates painted anyway?

Up until he had spotted the knife of course, then it hit him like a truck. There was a lit lantern inside and a closed curtain where his ears could distinctly pick up on laboured breathing once he stilled to listen in the eerie silence.

This was where the old man had fired off a shotgun and alerted the lycans to their location. This was also where he lost his hand and discovered the mountain of corpses that had been stored under the floorboards of the building.

He had to think quickly here, surely the man had picked up on the opening of the door and had hidden as a result by now and Ethan really didn't want to lose his fingers again.

The leather gloves wouldn't do shit against a bite from one of the beasts roaming the village.

He carefully returned to the door, keeping his eyes on the twitching curtain, and closed it silently behind him.

He didn't lower his hood, as much as he wanted to, the light from inside was still wreaking havoc on his eyes.

He did however speak up quietly as to not startle the man whose breathing had sped up in a panic.

"If anyone's there, please be quiet, some of them are still roaming outside. I mean you no harm."

There was a tense silence for a moment before the other man spoke up.

"Who-Who are you? What do you want?"

"I'm looking for someone, can you stay quiet and not panic? I'll move the dresser next to the door in front of it and barricade us in."

He didn't wait for a reply and turned towards the entryway to do just that. Dragging the thing little by little made sweat break out on his brow when his nerves got the better of him but he eventually managed to block the door.

"Can you close the other window? I'll pull the curtains close on the side of the kitchen."

He didn't try to convince the other to come out, scared people rarely listened anyway.

Eventually, he did hear the sound of a curtain being pulled open and saw the old man frantically look around before spotting him in the entryway.

Ethan hesitantly raised a hand in greeting before lowering it once more as it made the other man tense the grip on his gun. The old man relaxed as he met Ethan's eyes and seeing that he wasn't one of the monsters outside.

"Are there any outside right now?", he whispered.

"I don't know, but we should be careful to avoid being spotted, get the other window, we'll be safer if they can't see us."

The old man nodded after a quick moment and both he and Ethan were careful to stay close to the ground as they pulled the curtains close.

"There, safe for now", he let out a sigh of relief and slid to the floor next to the small oven, finally lowering his hood now that the light was dimmed and to show the other he was human. On the outside at least.

The old man eyed him warily, sticking close to the curtain he had emerged from before also sitting down on the cot inside the small crawl space.

"Who are you?", he asked Ethan warily, "you're not from the village."

"Ethan Winters", Ethan quietly introduced himself, "there was a car crash a ways off and I stumbled upon this place on my way to find help."

"Help here?", the man whispered incredulously, "were the ones who need the help! Ever since Mother Miranda abandoned us things have been going downhill!"

"If it makes you feel any better, the government is on its way and monitoring the situation", Ethan whispered back, stunning the old man into silence, "some of them are sneaking through the village in hopes of finding a way to get rid of the beasts roaming around."

Now that wasn’t entirely true but it seemed to calm the man down somewhat.

"Is… Is there anyone else alive?", the man asked with a desperate tone.

Ethan hesitated for a moment, before choosing to reveal some information to help ease the other's mind a little.

The other looked way too freaked out right now, Ethan had been too, when he had stepped foot into the village the first time around.

"I saw some people sneak into the big house and barricade themselves inside, there are also 2 people injured in a house somewhere that I didn't manage to reach just yet, the older man was bitten by one of the beasts."

The old man went pale at that, "Lycans. If that's true there isn't much time for him left. He'll turn into one of them soon. Oh, why has Mother Miranda abandoned us in our time of need?"

"How long has she been gone?", Ethan asked, not bothering to ask about who she was since he already knew.

"2 months", the old man replied sadly, "we thought we had displeased her with our offerings and then she wasn't seen on the holy ground in a while and before long the lycans started tearing our animals."

2 months.

2 fucking months in which she had played house with Ethan. He was going to kill Chris.

"Holy grounds?", he asked quietly.

"Tunnels that span through the area, only a chosen few get to enter them and serve her directly", the man said reverently, "but they haven't been seen for a while either. Maybe she took them with her on a pilgrimage."

"I see", Ethan decided to reply because he most certainly knew those people were by now definitely dead for sure, but he wasn't going to upset the man by saying anything.

"Do you want me to help you to the big house? I could probably-"

He was cut off by a scrambling noise from the roof. Ethan and the old man locked eyes and went both quiet.

Ethan carefully shook his head as the old man made to get up to look out the window and pressed a finger to his lips.

He himself got up, the knife sliding into his hand like it would do anything, and carefully watched the roof.

Ethan silently made a decision, there was no way the old man would survive an attack from this thing.

But he would.

He met the other's eyes once more, and loudly stomped down on the floor where he was standing.

The shuffling stopped and Ethan struck upwards at the exact same time as the lycan slammed its fist through the thin wooden roof and the horrified eyes of the old man were the last thing he saw before he was pulled upwards into the small attic.

The fucker had somehow chewed through the roof into the small space and Ethan wasted no time to kick the bastard backwards as it reared back from the knife sticking out of its neck.

It barely hesitated as it lunged forward once more and Ethan was already lamenting the fact that the universe just didn't want him to have fingers as his vision went colourless once more.

Before the thing could tear flesh though, his left hand turned black, shadowy mist shifting it into a giant sharp curved blade the size of his entire right arm and stabbing the thing straight through the roof of its mouth and out through the top of its skull.

Though of course, that wasn't enough to kill it, oh no, it continued to claw at the air and tried its hardest to chomp down on the blade that made up Ethan's hand in an attempt to cause as much harm as possible.

Almost immediately, to his great horror, the shadows of the attic mobilized against it and twisted its head around with a sickening crunch.

Finally, it went still, which left Ethan with another big problem.

His hand was a goddamn blade on which he now had a dead body impaled.

Before he had time to seriously freak out about it though, it shifted back to normal with a 'shlink' and the corpse fell backwards through the hole the lycan had previously pulled him through.

Mercifully, his left hand still had all his fingers though and although the gloves looked darker than normal he was relatively unharmed. The attic was silent once more.

At that point Ethan's mind, however, apparently decided to check itself out of the building and he fainted into unconsciousness.

Chapter Text

Karl was having a pretty shit day so far.

Not only had the bitch that called herself their mother returned from wherever she had fucked off too, but she had also called in a family meeting. Which meant having to smile and pretend he didn't want to throttle her with his bare hands.

When he was a younger man, these meetings would usually result in fights between him and his 'siblings'.

He couldn't control his temper as well as he did now and although he couldn't strike the bitch directly (which she knew, having beaten and tortured it out of him from a young age with that parasite she called a gift that blundering cunt) it usually led to an all-out brawl between Alcina and himself.

The other two cowards weren't much for physical confrontations, Donna too weak and Moreau weak and stumbling above water, so it usually resulted in Karl clawing the ever-loving hell out of Alcina's new dresses, strikes to her skin healed too quickly to do anything, and her trying to chase him around in murderous rage all while unable to really run since it was 'unbecoming of a lady'.

When Karl mentioned that he would remember that next time he saw one she dropped all pretences and sprinted at him with the speed and ferocity of a damn elephant.

They ended up in one of the side caverns beating the shit out of each other and it took the others several hours to drag them apart and by then Karl usually felt as if he had been run over by an actual elephant.

No matter how often they fought, crawled apart and licked their wounds before starting all over again in the next meeting Miranda couldn't be bothered to intervene since it was necessary to establish a pecking order or some shit at that.

All excuses, of course, the bitch just couldn't be bothered to lift a finger unless they were in danger of actually killing each other for once.

He hadn't been able to help himself at the time, being the youngest of them all meant he was less used to their nonsense and so naturally any time Alcina brought up how she was the favourite, how  'mother' clearly cared more, giving her a castle and vineyard and all these servants, to make the others jealous, Karl usually lost his shit the fastest.

He didn't give a fuck about Miranda's favour, or her blessing or whatever but any bragging would usually lead to the others to try harder out of jealousy and made him want to kill something.

How they would bluster and stumble over their feet to impress her and make her love them as if any semblance of motherly affection had actually existed once, well it was enough for Karl to start throwing things.

Usually, Alcina's things because she held these stupid meetings in her parlour where 'civilised people kept guests and of course there would be wine and music and-

Ugh.

The point was they were way too complacent and eager to serve her while Karl just wanted to get out. To get away from this stupid village and explore the outside world and all it had to offer.

Preferably in one of his tanks because one couldn't be careful enough out there. And maybe also to destroy something but that was for him to know.

He had gotten his wish, somewhat.

Once he had been given the factory, and employed by their self-proclaimed saviour and god to experiment with the cadou, he was allowed certain privileges that the others didn't have.

He would be allowed to drive out with the lycans and gather supplies and fresh corpses for the tests (the village wasn't exactly large for what he had in mind and killing too many was not allowed lest they lose their servants ugh)  all the while secretly squirrelling away bits and pieces of technology himself.

He had once found books on engineering and communication systems in some old guys home that had recently passed away, which had made him giddy as if Christmas had come early or something.

It took weeks for him to figure out how to implement them but Karl was always quick on the uptake and eventually got it right.

It was torture to be allowed out yet having to return and Miranda probably knew it too.

Alcina lost any semblance of politeness quickly after that, he was now the one with special privileges and successful land, he was the one allowed to go outside, sometimes with Miranda herself when she felt like the village needed new people to freshen up the gene pool, and it developed into even more resentment after that.

None of the other 3 were stable enough to be out and about and Karl still looked normal enough to pass as human so they were never allowed to accompany them.

Karl loved to watch them writhe in jealousy and hated that feeling at the same time.

There was once a time when they got along, Alcina too busy with wine to focus on teasing them, Donna still somewhat sociable once she had warmed up to him and Moreau taking him fishing on his boat that Karl occasionally helped repair once he figured out how the use the correct tools.

That time was now gone, any pity he once had towards them and the side effects they were inflicted with from the cadou was gone with the wind.

It was easier to focus on his own goals in the factory and ignore the rest of the world while he kept on working on his plans.

Now he just wanted out, away from Miranda and his brainwashed 'siblings' no matter the cost.

Which actually led him into the current predicament.

Miranda was back and had a baby with her, which granted was weird enough because it has been only 2 months and therefore not nearly enough time for her to have carried it which meant she had stolen a child from somewhere, which somehow took 2 months in the first place, and was now going to use it for a ritual of some kind.

Granted he had hoped she wouldn't come back, he had purposefully neglected reigning in the lycans once she was away, knowing that since Salvatore had made them he would technically be responsible even though they were under Miranda's command yet respected Karl more which led to even more jealousy from the other and-

He was getting off-topic again.

The point was, Miranda had apparently been playing house with some guy, in an attempt to convince him to give her the kid or move into the village or something (???) and got discovered by the BSAA and decided to just take the kid and bolt afterwards.

The problem was that that kid was the child of Mia and Ethan Winters, the former whom she had kidnapped before she left and held in a basement to experiment on later.

She said it with a perfectly straight face too as if that was perfectly normal for her to do and not at all absolutely baffling to hear. He wasn't the only one confused though, the look on his siblings' faces was almost enough for him to crack up.

The Winters family had been a topic of discussion for the last one and a half years or so. Miranda had tasked him with finding out about the incident in Louisiana after she had heard about it.

How she had heard about it, spending most of her time with the megamycete and in her lab nearby was another mystery.

Ever since then they didn't have a lick of peace, Ethan Winters this, Ethan Winters that and 'oh what else have you found about Ethan Winters Karl, surely there must be something?

He had felt like a damn secretary most days.

Miranda had managed to gain access to the wife's records, probably by impersonating some schmuck again, but the father's records were non-existent.

On paper, the man was nothing more than any other regular guy, which Miranda agreed to wholeheartedly (getting that odd glint in her eye that showed she was lying and made Karl weary).

They couldn't get anything but the most basic of information like occupation and place of birth but that didn't stop Miranda from trying.

The man was a goddamn ghost, apparently working in software whatever the hell that meant.

They had gotten sick of hearing about him, Miranda bringing it up obsessively every time they had their 'family dinner', and when the others couldn't contribute anything to the search, stuck as they were in the village, it had all come to a head when Donna had asked if Miranda planned to invite this Ethan into the family.

Miranda had gotten quiet then, staring at her plate for a moment before giving the others a beaming smile that had sent shivers down his spine.

"Maybe", she had said, though Karl was inclined to believe that that maybe would turn into a yes soon enough.

And now they watched as she magically quartered said guy's child. It took the better part of a whole day too, the body needed time to crystalize properly.

She must have tracked his address down after they searched through the wife's post. Apparently, she had kept up with her previous job in secret, fooling the BSAA and that boulder punching asshole that squirrelled them away after Louisiana, and Miranda was quick to send him on the job when he tracked her through the communications.

How the hell Winters stayed with her when she was technically responsible for their hiding (in Romania no less, Redfield must have air for brains for fucks sake) was a goddamn mystery.

The stupidity of the whole thing left him irritated and exhausted (and maybe just a little curious about the man himself) and Karl was glad to wash his hands of the whole affair.

Once Miranda had plucked the woman from what was basically their front porch (barely an hour's drive away like how stupid can you be) she had thrown her into a cell and fucked off for two whole months.

And now she was back and putting pieces of the child's body in jars as if it was goddamn candy.

Karl kept his face carefully blank as each one of them got a jar for safekeeping.

Alcina was doing a good job keeping her face neutral, as a mother herself that must not have been easy to watch, even when she quite literally made it her business to torture people.

He didn't know why Miranda wanted them to keep the jars safe until the ceremony when it would be easier to keep the child at her lab, maybe she wanted to weaken her 'powers' or whatever, either way, he was sick of having to deal with it.

What exactly those powers were she didn't share with them either.

She had also told them that the results of the blood test from the mother of the child were inconclusive, yet they knew she had received an antidote at some point which meant she could still be the source of the child's abilities.

Either that or the father was the one they should be looking for.

He didn't say that though, he had a feeling that the whole thing was just a game for her. A test for him and his siblings to prove themselves to her once more but also for Winters' guy himself.

He needed to do more research, especially after his own surveillance system had picked up on people sneaking about the place, Miranda didn't need to know that though. It had been hard enough to keep it secret when he installed it to keep tabs on her.

As much as he was sick of hearing about the man anymore he sincerely hoped he wisened up and didn't follow his wife a second time.

He wouldn't wish his so-called family on anyone.

Right as Karl was ready to head back to the factory, ignoring the others who asked their 'mother' where the best hiding place for their piece was, two lycans bust through the doors of the castle.

That brought a smile to his face as he watched them drag mud and dirt over Alcina's fancy carpets and quickly stifled a cackle before she noticed him.

Communication with the beast wasn't ideal, but he was slightly better equipped at dealing with them than the others.

"Reign in your mutts!", Alcina screeched at him like a banshee and drawing attention to them.

Karl didn't even bother to hide the grin on his face.

"What is it now boys?", he asked them, watching gleefully as one shook himself free from the snow clinging to its shaggy fur and splattering the wall and furniture with blood.

Alcina looked close to an aneurism.

The next couple of minutes were filled with grunts and growls and poorly pronounced short words.

"Huh"

According to the lycans someone had entered the village, getting past the woods and the lycans patrolling within. This wasn't all that surprising, Miranda had mentioned Winters might be coming for his kid and to be on the lookout.

What was surprising, is that none of them could smell anyone there.

Some footprints were found in the snow-covered woods, randomly disappearing before picking up a little further off than where they started as if someone just disappeared from the spot before showing up again.

They also didn't see anyone further in the village and were still trying to figure out if anyone made it inside or not.

"What is it my son", asked Miranda, watching the display with a furrowed brow.

Karl grit his teeth before plastering a pleasant expression on his face and turning around.

"Someone got into the village, an outsider most likely. They made it through the woods and the lycans are trying to sniff them out.", he answered with a bored yawn, "whoever's mad enough to come in probably won't last long."

Miranda appeared to be please by this, "I see, do not worry. I'm sure they'll find him eventually.", she waved him off before turning back to her conversation.

How she knew the person was male wasn't all that difficult to figure out.

She didn't tell them how she retrieved the child after being discovered and based on the restless research they had to do on the Winters family it was easy to put two and two together and derive that Papa bear must want his stolen child back.

Lucky brat, his parents had been dead by the time Miranda had snatched him up and cut him open like a fish.

He kept his mouth shut though, the others didn't need to know that the newcomer was Winters. Maybe if he was quick enough he could snatch him up and see what he was made out of himself.

Or maybe the fool would change his mind, there was no way any sane person that took one look at the village would want to stay.

Karl shouldered his hammer and began making his way towards the exit.

He'd find out soon enough, Miranda wasn't the only one with eyes everywhere.

----------------------------------

Ethan woke up to the feeling of dust tickling his face. He sneezed and wearily looked around the small room.

He was still in the attic, the hole in the ceiling showing the bright sky and he quickly looked away. His whole body was sore and his mouth was dry, the sun above blinding him and making his eyes water didn't help matters any either.

Simply put, he felt like literal garbage.

He still needed to get up though, hoping silently the old man didn't have a heart attack when the lycan fell through the hole into the house below.

Ethan carefully got to his knees, ignoring the looping vision and nausea churning his stomach, and carefully looked down through the opening.

The body must have impacted on the floor pretty hard, because there was a second hole right underneath the one he was looking through where someone propped up a ladder to descend into the cellar below.

He could pick up on sobbing, quietly emanating from the cellar and it took his fuzzy brain a while to figure out why.

Then it hit him, the last time he had been thrown straight through the floor, he was met with a pile of corpses where the lycans had been storing the bodies of the villagers they had killed to munch on for later.

Which meant the old man probably had just figured out where his neighbours ended up.

Well shit.

He did feel kind of bad about that but there was nothing he could do about it now. His eyes fell on the shotgun carefully placed on the table and he had a small debate before deciding on a course of action.

There was no way the man would believe him that he somehow survived an attack completely unharmed, at best he'd shoot him to prevent Ethan from turning into a lycan.

He eyed the kitchen, deducing that the man would be able to survive for a couple of days with the food left in the house and stretched his arm towards the kitchen table. He still had the small handgun as well so he wasn't entirely unprotected.

His hand turned into a giant clawed hand and pinched the shotgun between two sharp nails before zooming back towards him, depositing the gun on the floor with a clang and changing back to normal.

Right.

That's a thing he could do now apparently.

Ethan silently eyed his left hand, before stretching out the other in front of him as well as he continued to kneel on the attic floor.

He probably should be more concerned by this but right now the novelty of feeling his body parts stretch and shape themselves anew hasn’t worn off yet.

He watched as they both changed into giant fists the size of his torso, to claws and finally to the giant sickle curved blades he had used before to take care of the lycan. His skin gave off little black shadowy whisps whenever he changed his form and it was mesmerizing to watch.

A small part of him urged him to feel concerned about this new development but he ignored it.

He needed to survive and life had given him a second chance and he didn't plan on wasting it.

Ethan willed his hands back to normal and grabbed the shotgun next to him and rose to his feet.

He hesitated for a moment, picking up on the sobs from the cellar with his improved hearing, and spoke up one last time.

"I'll go get some help, don't leave the house and close up the roof. Wait for someone to retrieve you."

The sobs abruptly stopped, a panicked silence filled the house and Ethan took one last moment to focus on the man's panicked heartbeat through the floor before he stuck his head out of the hole in the ceiling and, once affirming no beast was watching him, slipped outside.

The castle was the closest nearby and he needed to visit the duke for bullets as well. He had an advantage should he lose the gun but it was better to be prepared.

Rose needed him but she wouldn't get hurt while stuck as a crystal, which gave him some peace of mind.

Ethan silently continued slipping from shadow to shadow, ignoring his worryingly louder growling stomach and snuck towards the merchant's wagon.

Imagining the look on Heisenberg's face when he tried to ambush him again and Ethan clawing his heart out as result put a small smile on his face.

Chapter Text

Ethan continued sneaking around the village, keeping to the shadows and marvelling at his new abilities.

He figured out pretty quickly that he could somehow camouflage himself within any dark area and going by the confused looks of the roaming beasts in the village, it must also cover his scent as well.

Several times now a lycan had followed one of his scent trails just to end up confused as it walked right past him, unable to see nor smell him behind the tarp he had hidden himself in.

Now that Ethan had quite a bit of experience from the first time he had to deal with the village he could stop and analyze smaller details he had missed the first time around.

The lycans didn't just hang around random areas but were patrolling the grounds diligently, picking up in numbers the more of them ended up in dead ends when they lost his trail once again.

He had even spotted the big wolflike giant with the bushy beard and giant axe that had sicked the rest of his entourage on him and had growled in his face as one of them had shot an arrow though his knee before being chased off by the sound of the bell.

The big guy seemed to be in charge, which made sense as he was the tallest and most likely strongest of the bunch, and was directing the others to prowl though the streets and perch themselves on rooftops to keep a lookout.

Now that he knew that they were actively looking for him, it made things a bit more difficult to deal with.

He had a close call where one of the scythe-wielding bastards spotted him and began lunging towards him and he didn't have a dark corner to hide in, trapped against the side of the house with no opening, and Ethan just… melded with the wall.

Or rather he didn't so much as merge with it or anything like that, it had felt as if he was merely pressed tightly against it. Only when the thing began making confused noises did Ethan notice that his vision had once again returned to its black and white state, the light once again becoming unbearable and making him hide under the thin roof overhang with a pained hiss.

Apparently, his new body wasn't the biggest fan of sunlight anymore, good to know.

It didn't exactly feel like his normal state of self felt, but apparently, he had managed to squeeze his form into something small enough to fit under the narrow overhang of the building.

Ethan watched with interest as a pair of lycans came trotting to the scythe-wielding corpse thing and he watched as they sniffed around the area with ever-growing agitation while the smaller thing kept ambling around and swinging his weapon, unable to communicate what happened for which Ethan was rather grateful for.

Being discovered now would just ruin the fun.

Once they left, Ethan slipped inside the house through a small hole the size of an apple in the window and just… hovered around the house for a bit.

He noticed a mirror hanging above a sink and watched with no small amount of fascination as thick black smoke was reflected back. Eventually, he felt himself shift once more and watched as his body rematerialized itself right in front of his eyes.

It was by far the strangest feeling he has ever experienced and yet after a couple of moments where he practised to shift his entire body, as well as his limbs separately, into dark smoke it had become second nature to him.

He was forced to keel over as his stomach gave a loud grumble, hunger gnawing at him insistingly and it took a good couple of minutes where he had to heave on the floor and get himself under control again.

If Ethan didn't have a kid to save and the adrenaline wasn't still coursing through his system he surely would have lost it at this point.

The BSAA could never find out about this or he would become mincemeat.

He carefully ignored how his hands were shaking as he shouldered the shotgun, how his face was completely shrouded in shadows while he had the hood up and scrounged around the house for more useful things he could sell to Duke later on.

He still had to make it to the castle but the moment he was ready to sneak out once more, he heard a scream outside.

Swearing under his breath Ethan quickly changed course and ran outside towards the shed where the scream had come from. Now that he saw the outside he recognized the area where he had found Elena and her father and mentally kicked himself for forgetting about them.

Last time he had stumbled upon them much earlier, being unable to progress further through the village as the roads were blocked off and Ethan didn't have the advantage of mold powers to break through many of the locks along the way.

The father must be turning already.

Ethan quickened his step, if the rest of the lycans had heard the scream they wouldn't be too far behind.

What followed next was nothing short of hectic.

Ethan burst through the door, took one look at the screaming woman desperately holding the door closed as her father tried his hardest to break it down and devour her as his midday snack and immediately rushed forward to grab her by the arm and away from the rabid man.

This of course only made Elena scream harder and he was left with no other choice but to bodily drag her out of the shed they were hiding in and throw the both of them on a hay wagon nearby before quickly reaching around and covering them with a tarp that was hanging on by the threads.

Ethan pressed one of his hands against her mouth to prevent her from giving away their location and held a finger against his mouth to indicate they should be silent right now. The hay was digging uncomfortably into his body but Ethan ignored it as he carefully lifted up the tarp with his other hand to peek outside.

The panic in Elena's eyes receded somewhat once she saw he wasn't one of the lycans running around but Ethan didn't risk lowering his hand as not a second later several beasts came charging towards the house with ear piercing howls and Elena's breath quickened up in a panic.

He desperately hoped the shadows would be enough to hide them from the entourage and they both watched with bated breaths as Elena's father was dragged outside, being sniffed by the newcomers before apparently being deemed acceptable company and dragged back to where Ethan had seen the big guy with the axe giving orders.

Elena had tears streaming down her cheeks and Ethan hesitated for a couple of seconds more before lowering his hand from her face.

"Don't worry about him, they won't hurt one of their kind.", he tried to reassure her.

"Who are you?", she whispered back, eyes darting around the open area as if waiting for one of the beasts to come charging towards her.

Her fear wasn't entirely unfounded and Ethan felt a little sorry for her.

"Ethan Winters", he whispered back, "I'm looking from someone, our car crashed near the village and I've been making my way through the streets. We don't have much time, I can bring you to the big house where other survivors are but you'll have to be quiet alright?"

Elena hesitated for a second before nodding softly, "Alright, my name is Elena. The big house belongs to Luisa if anyone's still alive they'll probably be there."

Ethan nodded and took one last look to check the outside before carefully climbing out of the wagon and helping Elena stand as well.

The wind had picked up more and although Ethan wasn't affected by the temperature anymore Elena was softly shivering beneath her shawl.

"I'll be quick, you just have to be quiet", he whispered to her.

He waited until she nodded once more, finishing wiping the tears of her cheeks, and Ethan carefully took her hand and began leading her towards the house.

They had to avoid the tall wheat stalks and Ethan had to drag the both of them into more and more shadowed corners, confident in his cloaking abilities to hide the both of them, as Elena clamped both of her hands in front of her mouth to quiet herself whenever a lycan walked by.

They got closer to the village centre and Ethan didn't hesitate to physically lift the smaller woman up by her waist, ignoring the small squeak she made at the action, and throwing her over the brick wall.

He proceeded to turn one of his hands into claws, hoisting himself up as well before changing it back to normal, and dropping down next to her. The snow softened their fall but Elena didn't hesitate to glare at him.

"A little warning next time", she whispered at him, red in the cheeks.

"It's not like we have time to search for the key", he hissed back quietly, "come on we should hurry, the beasts are distracted for now but we shouldn't risk it"

She picked herself up from the ground, brushing the snow off her dress and followed him to the door. Once he saw she made it to the entrance safely he turned around to scan the roads in front of the house.

"Aren't you going to come in as well? ", she asked him, "surely it's safer inside than out there."

"I can't", he whispered back, "I have to keep moving, they're patrolling the whole place and it's getting more difficult to squeeze by", in human form anyway, "tell the others to stay inside and be quiet, help is on the way, the government has sent troops and will collect you eventually."

She seemed surprised by this but eventually nodded in agreement before knocking on the door.

"Stay safe then", she said and Ethan sank back behind a crate as he watched the same kid with a gun open the door, exchange a quiet conversation and ushering Elena inside. She looked back one more time but as she couldn't see him she followed the other inside.

Once the door closed he quickly shifted into a mist and began ascending over the gate, the light was rather annoying but he found that staying close to the tree crowns was easier as it gave him both a vintage point of the town but also plenty of cover from the grating sun.

He figured that a meeting with Duke was in order first and he'd continue on from there.

As he more or less misted his way across the village he saw more and more lycans running around the place and going by the frantic gesturing of the big guy their little search party wasn't going well.

He paused at one of the tree branches above the little gathering and observed as axe guy seemed to lay into the other beasts for something or other and it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were looking for him.

What caught him completely by surprise, however, was the presence of the weird old woman standing nearby with a frown on her face. The look in her eyes was too calculating and the fact that every other being in the clearing stayed as far away from her as was possible made alarm bells ring in his mind.

He decided to continue on with his path, mentally noting to stay away from her the next time he saw her, and eventually came upon the altar place where the Duke resided.

The carriage doors were closed and there wasn't a single monster in the clearing so Ethan quickly descended behind one of the trees before shifting back into his human form (as he began calling it) and made his presence known with crunching footsteps.

His stomach gave yet another uncomfortable twinge, making him feel hollow and having him swallow down saliva gathering in his mouth, but he ignored it once more.

There was no time to waste.

It didn't take long to spot the entrance to castle Dimistrescu and just when he was ready to lower the drawbridge, the doors of the wagon opened and out came the Duke.

Figures everything in this place had a sense for dramatics.

"I've been waiting for you mister Winters", the jolly merchant said.

"Hello Duke", Ethan said with a small smile.

The Duke quirked an eyebrow, "I see we're both familiar with each other then."

Ethan hummed, "something like that."

The merchant regarded him for a moment but chose not to comment on it, "anything I can offer you mister Winters? For someone as famous as yourself I'll even throw in a special package free of charge."

Ethan chuckled at that, "I wouldn't say famous per se, but sure I'd like to see what you have on offer."

Duke handed him the familiar booklet with his services displayed on it with fancy lettering, "Oh I would disagree, you're quite the talk of the town right now. Certain persons are just dying to meet you."

Ethan smiled at that, of course, those people would also prefer for him to die as well, "what can I say I'm not a fan of strangers."

"Ah it pays to be wary", Duke nodded in agreement, "have you found what you're looking for?"

Ethan nodded before selecting one of the bags to throw around his shoulder, the weight in his pockets didn't bother him as much (in fact it felt entirely weightless) but having more space would be useful. He handed over the lei he had scrounged up around the village.

"You wouldn't happen to have any sunglasses would you?", he asked. His eyes felt dry and he was sure his newfound sensitivity to light was to blame.

"I'm afraid not", the Duke shook his head sadly, "come by a little while later I'll have new things on offer."

Ethan nodded, not bothering to question the merchant who had helped him out in a different lifetime and gave his goodbyes before setting off to the entrance of the looming castle in front.

The sun was beginning to set and he was more than looking forward to smashing every single piece of furniture in that blasted castle to pieces.