Cainen awoke with a start, sitting straight up with his heart pounding. He looked around, but all he could see was an infinite void, the darkness stretching out before him, never ending in its vastness. He shot to his feet and began looking around frantically, extremely confused.

"What the fuck is this?" He asked nothing and everything, his voice echoing through the inky blackness. He looked down, and even though there was nothing, he could feel he was standing on something. He was still dressed in his regular clothes, but his gauntlets were gone, bloody scars covering his forearms where they once rested. He began to walk through the empty place, his footsteps echoing in the same manner as his voice.

He felt an intense shiver slide up his spine, and he whirled around, expecting to see some sort of threat. Instead, he saw her. His blood froze as he saw the woman he hadn't seen in so many years. The woman that had been the barrier that could've prevented him from becoming this monster, but was taken from him. His love.

"Nora?" He asked, his voice filled with disbelief. She stood there, only a few inches from him, dressed in the same clothes she'd been wearing on that fateful day. That damned day. She grasped his calloused hand gently, her touch warm and comforting, before leading him somewhere.

"How? I saw you die, Kellog killed you!" He started shouting, but she stopped him with a finger to the lips, filling him with a strange calm. He looked to where they were going and saw a bright red door, the same door his house had once had. They reached it and entered, and everything changed.

They were back in his old home. Codsworth was cooking up breakfast in the kitchen, the television was on, playing some Sugar Bombs comercial, and his old husky, Wrench, that'd run away shortly before the bombs dropped, was sleeping peacefully on the couch.

Before he could question what was happening, he heard crying coming down the hall. A baby's crying. Nora moved to the side and beckoned for him to go down the hall. He did so, a feeling of anticipation welling up in his chest. He got to the baby room, and there he was. Shaun, all swaddled in a blanket and crying in his crib.

He entered the room, closing the door behind him, and looked over and into the crib. Immediately upon seeing his father, Shaun stopped crying and began laughing while reaching up to him. Cainen felt a genuine smile, one he hadn't felt in far too long, spread across his face. He reached into the crib and began playing with Shaun, the small baby boy latching onto his fingers and laughing even more, when he heard the door behind him open.

"Hey hun, you here to see Shaun?" Cainen asked Nora as he turned, but his smile faltered upon seeing nobody there. He turned back to Shaun, only to realize he had disappeared as well.

"What?" He muttered, but suddenly fell to his knees and clutched his head as hundreds of pained screams began resounding through his skull. He recognized a few as the last sounds from some of his victims, but the rest seemed to blend into each other. He started breathing heavily as he slowly rose his head and opened his eyes. He was met with the image of millions of giant flaming orbs he thought were eyes filling the once empty space, all staring directly at him and nearly blinding him with their brilliance.

YOUR TIME DRAWS NEAR

He heard each of the voices roar at once, and the eyes began to morph into faces, each one belonging to someone he'd killed, chief among them being Nora herself to signify his failure. And for the first time since he was a child afraid of the dark, Cainen's mouth opened and he let out a scream of raw fear.

X

Cainen sprang out of bed, soaked in sweat and breathing harder than he'd ever before. He looked around frantically to confirm where he was, and calmed down slightly when he saw he was in his room. He leapt out of bed and went to the bathroom, whereupon he vomited into the toilet, the stress and panic finally getting to him. He couldn't stop the images of Nora's death from constantly replaying in his mind, even as he fell back from the toilet and his back hit the wall. His hands went to his face and he bunched them into fists, pressing them against his forehead in a feeble attempt to stop the visions.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't stop them, I couldn't save you, I couldn't protect you, I'm sorry." He continued like that, sitting on the bathroom floor, even as his fingernails began scratching so hard into his face they drew blood. But even as all this happened, as all the grief pent up and squashed down over so long finally exploded in him, one thing prevailed. One thought.

He needed to get the Relics, no matter the cost.

X

Sam and Raven walked through the Mistralean forest towards their destination. It'd been almost a year since they'd grouped up, but a month or so ago, Sam had found a small handwritten note placed upon a rock, though by who he didn't know. The note had told him and Raven about a group in Mistral calling themselves the Chimera Resistance, a group dedicated to weakening the iron grip of the Warborn on the Kingdom. They hadn't been too successful so far, but they had potential, they only needed more members. The author had signed the note as "a friend" and told them to seek out Chimera and aid them. And so, over the past few weeks, they'd travelled to Mistral by stowing away on a Warborn supply Bullhead and travelling from village to village, being careful not to get caught and asking around about Chimera. And now they had a solid destination, an old bunker built during the Faunus Rights Revolution.

But, over the time since they'd begun travelling together, one thing slowly became clear to Sam about Raven. She was undoubtedly pregnant. His suspicions had first truly started when the small bump began forming in her belly, and they both confirmed it when she'd caved and asked him to see if he could use the lifesign scanner in his head to scan her for a baby. And after a quick once over, he confirmed that he could detect two heartbeats inside of her, her own and that of the baby. That seemed to shatter any deniability she had, and she accepted the fact that she'd been impregnated by that bastard, Cainen. That was when she'd told Sam about what he'd done to her while she was imprisoned, but Sam wasn't surprised. It sounded like something he'd do.

They neared the place where Chimera was reportedly hiding, though the information was sketchy, so they didn't have their hopes up. But, as they got closer, Raven's face went pale and she clutched her belly before falling to her knees.

"Oh shit, not now!" Sam said, immediately knowing what was happening. She was going into labor, so now they were really banking on Chimera being here. He quickly scooped her up in his arms and ran to the bunker entrance as fast as he could. It was a concrete and metal door built into the side of a large cliff. It was very well hidden, so he was glad the info was legit. He set Raven down while supporting her enough for her to stand, and banged furiously on the door.

"Open up! I know you Chimera guys are in there, and I've got a pregnant woman who's going into labour!" He yelled. After ten seconds of silence he was about to set Raven, who was now beginning to scream in pain, down so he could shoulder charge the door open, but someone opened it ast the last second. He was wearing a tanktop, jeans, a bulletproof vest and a gasmak with a hood. He looked at them suspiciously, but his eyes widened when he saw Raven.

"Oh shit, get her inside." He said as he stepped aside. "To get to Medical, head down the hall and take the last door on the left. The doctors will take care of her from there." He quickly said, Sam nodding appreciatively as he passed. He heard the fighter close and lock the door behind them as he descended down the stairs deeper underground. He came out into a very long hallway lit by light fixtures along the walls. He sprinted down, ignoring anyone peeking their heads out of the other doors and focusing solely on the door with the all too recognizable red cross sign over it.

He entered the area and found himself in another long-ass hallway, but this time he was able to catch one of the doctors as they walked to another room.

"Hey! We need help here!" He yelled to her, and she looked over to them. Her eyes widened when she saw them, Raven's cries intensifying, and she yelled for them to follow her. She quickly led them to a room he assumed was meant for labor. Why an old military bunker had a room for giving birth he didn't know, but he was damn grateful for it.

The doctor ordered him to lay Raven on the medical bed before shooing him out, a number of other doctors rushing in after having heard the commotion. Sam stood outside the closed door for a moment, strangely breathless despite his lack of lungs, when someone cleared their throat next to him. He looked over and saw the guy who opened the door.

"This probably doesn't come as much of a surprise, but the commanders wanna have a chat with you about why a heavily armed man and a heavily pregnant and infamous bandit leader suddenly burst into the base. I wasn't supposed to let you in, so it's kinda my ass if you don't have a good reason." The man said, but not with any kind of hostility.

"Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for opening the door." Sam thanked him, but the man just brushed it off.

"The name's Victor, and I wouldn't have been able to sleep knowing I left a pregnant woman outside when she needed help. That and I could see you were about to bash the door open, so I went with the peaceful option." He chuckled nervously, but stopped when an alert went through the small device on his wrist. Sam hadn't noticed before, and it resembled a watch but not quite.

"Oh shit, my CO is gonna skin me alive for this. Uh, guess I'll see you later. I hope anyway." With that he ran out of the medical wing and Sam was left alone once again. He left the medical wing and knocked on the large door marked "Command Center" at the very end of the hall. After a few seconds the door opened, and he saw two people who he assumed were the leaders of the Resistance flanking a large table with a detailed map of Mistral spread atop it. The woman on the left was dressed in regular clothing similar to that of Victor's minus the military equipment but clipped to her chest was a radio and she had a bullet sash across her torso from her shoulder to her opposite hip. Her hair was red and flowed down her back.

Alternatively, the man on the right across from her had a grey t-shirt with camo pants. Atop that, he had the same kind of vest as Victor but with a red symbol painted over the front, a circle with eight points and a rose blooming from the center. His hair was balck and shoulder-length, with dense stubble on the lower half of his face.

"You have thirty seconds to explain why you and the bandit are here before I boot you both out." The man said, clearly hostile. The woman pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration as her partner threatened Sam.

"Dammit Stone, just calm down for a second. For all we know they're here to help us." The woman said, Stone only scowling.

"And why the hell would that murdering bitch want to help us at all, Mercy? She's a fucking bandit leader, she should be shot for everything she's done." Mercy slammed her hand on the table, making Stone shut up.

"She stays here." She said sternly. "At least until S… he gets back from his mission." She caught herself from slipping up and giving away the name of the third member of their little council.

"Fine, but I know he'll see reason and probably kill her himself." Stone said before leaving, not even looking at Sam as he passed.

"Sorry for his hostility, we're all very on edge since we lost someone a while ago. As you heard, I'm Mercy and that was Stone. You'll meet the last of us when he gets back from his mission soon." She sat down at the table before bringing out a recorder and setting it on the table, pressing the record button.

"Now, explain why you and Branwen are here, and if you're here to help us?" Sam leaned against the wall and prepared for a long explanation.

Lads, I think someone pissed off Skaði, it's fucking -40 out for the week and I can't go to work. Send help.

MemeMasterAssBlaster: It's where I got the inspiration.

Enigma42: Maybe, maybe not, you'll just have to wait and see.

djpj7652: I'm very open about the fact that the vast majority of my stuff is edgy bullshit I just write for fun, but I do try and avoid the cringe as much as possible. Glad you enjoy it though.

Wolf: By Odin, please use punctuation, this was difficult to read. But I'm glad you enjoyed it nonetheless.

Guest: And thus, it is written in canon. Let's hope I can pull it off well enough.

Thank you all for reading, if indeed you still are, and have a good night.

Muna andlát, muna ӕvi.

-Bile