CHAPTER 24:

THE TRUTH ABOUT KOS

Harry acted quickly. As Maria reached for her weapon, what had to be the Rakuyo, he sent an Incarcerous at her, like he did to Gascoigne. The spell surprised her, and she fell to the ground, wrapped in chains, with an undignified squawk.

"For fuck's sake!" Harry snapped. "Why is it that, even when they're sane, they want to fight?!" Harry hauled her off the ground, and placed her back in her chair. "I just want answers."

"You won't get them," Maria said, glowering at him.

"I know about Kos," Harry said, and was gratified to see her eyes widening in shock. "Yes, I did, from the lips of your former colleagues. Rom and Gehrman. They said this Hunter's Nightmare was created by the dying curse of Kos after you killed her, as well as the villagers she transformed into monsters under her control."

"Gehrman said that? He's still alive?"

"Bound to the Hunter's Dream as its caretaker," Harry said. "Oh, and he was a touch obsessed with you. He created a doll in your image, only…something put Kos into it. But I've got the feeling that isn't the whole story."

Maria was staring at him in horror, before she shook her head. "No. It isn't. But…if you find out…even if I cannot stop you, the Church will. They planted an assassin here, Brador."

Simon frowned. "Brador? That was the man who wouldn't come out of his cell."

"He's my gaoler, and to any who get too close to learning the secrets of this place, their executioner." Maria looked up at them, her expression softening. Now he could understand why she was thought of as compassionate by many. "If you can, leave this place. I deserve this punishment for what I did, but…"

"Do you?"

The voice was unexpected, as were the footsteps. Harry watched in shock as the Doll…no, Kos walked over to Maria, and then knelt in front of her. "I don't know anymore. I…have flashes of memory. I want to deny that I was Kos, and yet…it feels like I have truly learned my name for the first time. So, if you must confess, if you must seek absolution…then perhaps you should do so from your victim?"

Maria stared at her doppelganger. "You…you look just like me. This one…he said Gehrman created you in my image."

"Indeed. He was most meticulous."

"Except I would never be caught dead wearing a bonnet and a shawl like that!" Maria protested. "What the hell was wrong with him?"

"He was smitten with you, but never plucked up the courage to ask you to enter a relationship with him."

"And I would have said no. He was like a father to me, I…I…gods, are you really Kos?"

"I think so. Ebrietas believed me to be, and Gehrman's words confirmed it," Kos said. "But please…tell me…what actually happened?"

Maria seemed to debate with herself, before she nodded. "Very well. When we first heard of your presence at the Fishing Hamlet, Rom and a couple of others were sent. She sent a messenger back with a troubling piece of news. You were pregnant. When we got there, however, Rom was transformed, and the others had been killed."

The recitation had the air of a confession. Harry had a bad feeling about this. "And then what happened?"

Maria scoffed. "Willem declared those people to be under the control of Kos. He ordered them to be put to death as a mercy, and their bodies examined for information, dissected in the field. Especially the skulls, for he wanted to see if there were eyes on the inside of their brains, due to their contact with a Great One. In truth…most of the townsfolk, while malformed, hideous things, more fish than man, were far from belligerent until we provoked them, and we butchered them, defiled their bodies in the name of knowledge. By the time I realised that, it was too late. Rakuyo had feasted on innocent blood, something I had vowed not to do when I fled Cainhurst."

Harry stared at her in horror. While he couldn't be sure that Maria was telling the truth, it felt like it made more sense. Maria had nothing to gain by accusing herself while blackening Gehrman and the other Hunter's misdeeds, not if she was a prisoner here too. "And then what?"

"We confronted Kos, after securing Rom. Kos attacked us. So many of my comrades fell to lightning that day, summoned by Kos…but then, she began to go into labour, halting her attack. While she was vulnerable, we tried to obtain the infant…but it was powerful from birth. Even as Kos began to die, her Orphan slaughtered many of us. We prevailed, but at a high cost. And that was before we heard a surviving priest of the village curse us. I was disgusted at myself, and had a confrontation with Gehrman and Willem, before I threw Rakuyo into a well in the Fishing Hamlet. I vowed not to Hunt again, but I maintained links with Laurence, who despised the massacre too. It was part of that that led him to part ways with Willem…though he too has blood on his hands, especially later, as his obsession with the Old Blood overtook him. Losing his mother and sister to the Bestial Scourge after he had cured them of their original ailments pushed him over the edge into madness. As for me…I tried to salve my conscience with my work in the Research Hall, hoping that my helping the patients here would ease my own suffering. But it did not. I eventually took my own life, drinking an overdose of anaesthetic…but I woke up here, to a Church representative, chiding me for my cowardice. I was bound here, to act as a watchdog, the Church using Kos' curse as a prison for many undesirables."

"Why tell us this?" Simon asked. "You seemed recalcitrant before."

Maria turned to look at Kos. "Because the author of my torment is here. I beg of you…I have had enough. I truly and deeply regret what I did to you, to your child, to those villagers. I just…want the release of death. Whether there is a true Hell, or whether there is a Heaven willing to allow even a bloodstained sinner into their ranks, or even just oblivion, I just want to be freed from this place. And even if you refuse me, then at least allow the Hunters whose only crime was to be Hunters to be freed from this place. I deserve this, but…they do not."

Kos looked startled at the begging, quiet and dignified-sounding as Maria's tone was. Eventually, she said, "…I don't know how. I…I only have the merest fragments of my time as Kos. And if what you say is true…even if you truly regret what you did…you took my child away from me. You murdered my followers. And for what? To advance Willem's ambitions and hunger for knowledge?"

Maria looked at Kos, before she looked down at the floor. "I know. I was little different from the very nobles I fled from at Cainhurst that day. I am a base hypocrite."

"…Perhaps," Kos said quietly. "…But you're right about one thing. I do not know whether I caused the curse to afflict all Hunters in my wrath…or whether something twisted my desires out of shape. Even now, it feels almost like a dream I scarcely remember. But the sins of the parents should not fall upon their children. Maria…if you truly wish for absolution…then help us find the source of the Hunter's Nightmare. Help us end it. Help me end it. If I have truly done this, then I have done wrong myself, a grave wrong against the Hunters. Harry…release her."

Harry hesitated, before removing the chains. Maria got to her feet a little shakily. And while the contrasts were striking, the similarities were too, and not just in terms of appearance. Indeed, she said, "I've been killing too long to truly expect absolution."

"Haven't we all?" Simon asked. "It's an honour to fight alongside you, Lady Maria, despite what we just heard. But what should we do about Brador?"

"I can unlock doors if we need to. I hope," Harry said. "I mean, Brador will be a danger, won't he?"

"Of course he will," Maria said. "We'd better head back, then."

"Actually, that reminds me," Harry said, turning to the Doll…no, Kos, he needed to think of her as Kos. And he needed to clear the air. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I don't know whether I am deserving of it yet."

"Who's protecting Oedon Chapel?"

"Sirius Black is doing so. Eileen went out on patrol just before I left, and your mother…she said she was going on a walk to Yahar'gul."

Maybe she'll deal with Rookwood while she's at it, Harry thought darkly. He was feeling a lot calmer now. He didn't quite know the truth, but Maria's words had helped reassure him that the Doll was still on his side, that whatever she did as Kos, she was trying to make up for it. But he needed more of the story first before he could pass final judgement.

Still, for the Hunters from Byrgenwerth to murder these people in cold blood, as well as to try and attack Kos' newborn child…that was nasty. Abominable. Monstrous. If Maria was trying to incriminate Gehrman and the others, she would have stated her innocence. Instead, she admitted to having blood on her hands.

"Your mother?" Maria asked, breaking Harry from his reverie.

"Yes. Just to let you know, my mother is Ebrietas."

Maria looked shocked. "Oh. Well…that's…interesting. But what does she mean by a walk?"

"The sort that ends in carnage and chaos, presumably," Harry said.

Yamamura nodded. "My kind of walk…"

"The streets are alive, with the sound of screeeamiiiing!"

This macabre perversion of a famous song from a famous film came from Lily's lips as she danced along the burning streets of Yahar'gul. It may not have been Julie Andrews dancing on an Austrian mountain, but there was still something fitting about the scene, even as jets of light from A Call Beyond smacked into the surrounding enemies. Lily then sped towards one, a woman holding a bell who had been summoning and controlling some. "Hey, I want to ask you a question, real quick. How do I get to Micolash?"

"Micolash resides within the Nightmare of Mensis. You can't reach him."

"Can't? Try me, bitch. Or aren't the smoking remains of the Choir good enough reason for you? Speaking of smoking, what are you having, because that's some pretty strong shit to think that you have a chance in…"

There was a wet, meaty noise that accompanied a sword sliding in between her breasts. To a human, it would have been fatal, unless one was a Hunter bound to the Dream. For the avatar of a Great One, it was an annoyance, evidenced by Lily's irritated sigh. She poked the tip, and grimaced, before wheeling on her adversary, one of the infected townspeople summoned by the bell-wielding hag. "It's rusty, you idiot! That makes a sword dull. What did you think, that you'd give me tetanus or something?! Besides, don't you know how rude it is to stick things inside me?"

"…Uh, mistakes have been made," said the man.

"Yes, and they were yours," Lily sneered. She merely touched him with a fingertip gently on the forehead. "Boop."

"Boop?" the man asked, before his head bulged, and exploded, gore and bone spraying everywhere.

"Boop," Lily said, before turning back to the bell-wielding woman…who was currently fleeing for her life. She sighed, before summoning a Blacksky Eye meteor that punched a rather large hole in the woman. "Idiot. Where's a sane person who wants to defect and swear undying fealty to me?"

Watching on from a balcony, Rookwood nodded. "…Well," he said to himself. "There goes the neighbourhood. Real estate prices go right down when Great Ones move in. I hope I can find the library before she burns it down, at least…"

Finding Brador was easy. Getting to him was a mite trickier. Somehow, despite Simon saying he was confined to a cell, a red-tinged projection of the man attacked them, no easy feat when they numbered five in their party, and they were in a narrow corridor. Luring this projection out to the chamber where they fought Ludwig helped, but even then, Brador was no easy opponent.

After the phantom faded, thanks to Kos' lightning, Harry asked, "What the actual fuck was that?"

Simon scoffed. "A Sinister Resonant Bell. A rare Pthumerian artifact. Those using them can project their form into other locations, so they may attack with impunity and without any real harm to themselves. The Pthumerians had a lot of bells with strange powers."

"Rom was obsessed with the ones we found within the Pthumerian Labyrinth before she was transformed," Maria remarked. "It seems Brador knows that we're coming. Let's get to him. The Bell takes some time before it can be used again. It's taxing on the body and mind."

They hurried back to the cell, with Harry using Alohamora on it. The cell door opened, and they found Brador, an older man dressed in a bizarre outfit that included what looked like the pelt of a Cleric Beast draped over his head. The man looked annoyed, but resigned. "Well, look who's here. Welcome to my humble abode. Forgive the mess, as I've never entertained guests in my quarters before."

"Dispense with the false pleasantries, Brador," Maria said, stepping forward. "You know why I am here."

"To kill me? As if to wash away your wrongs? You'll never wash them away, Maria. Your sins stain your hands as deeply as the depravities of those monsters you claimed to leave behind at Cainhurst. You should have remained where you were, guarding the secrets of the Church."

"This isn't a debate, Brador," Simon said. "You're as much a prisoner of this place as we are, and yet, you adhere to the Church still?"

"I willingly came here, so I could kill feckless, hypocritical fools like you, Harrowed One," Brador retorted. "All of you…you have as much blood on your hands as I."

"In other words," Harry said in disgust, "you allowed yourself to be trapped here because you enjoy the killing, and with that huge spear that makes it clear you're compensating for something. I don't enjoy killing people." He readied Ludwig's Moonlight Greatsword. "But you, I'll make one of the exceptions."

Before he could attack Brador, though, Kos gently touched his shoulder, halting him. Then, she moved over to Brador. "Do you know who I am?"

"Should I? I mean, you look like Maria, but any Vileblood tart looks the same to me."

Kos' eyes narrowed. "I only look like Maria because of Gehrman's obsession, and I am not a tart. I once thought myself a Doll, made to serve Hunters. But I have learned something about myself. I am Kos, or some say Kosm. I am the architect of this Nightmare, though I remember little of creating it, or indeed my life as Kos. If what Maria told me is true, then I created this world as a curse against those who harmed me and mine…and yet, you have the gall to make it worse? All for a Church that cares little for its flock or its acolytes? You disgust me. Hunters must fight to retain their humanity, and fight against the monsters within and without. But you embrace the monster within."

Brador's eyes widened. "You can't be Kos…you just can't be! And even if you were…this place is your fault, you hypocritical whore!"

"Indeed. And I intend to put an end to it." She leaned down towards his face, confrontationally close. "You seem to think no human can judge you. Then it is a good thing Harry and I are not human. It is one thing to kill to survive, to protect others. It's another to do so for power, ambition, or pleasure. And you enjoy your work too much, don't you?" She turned, and looked at the others, though she peered over her shoulder. "Incidentally, I am not a whore either, you rude little man."

"You sure dress like one!" Brador sneered, before Harry lunged, pinning him to the floor with Ludwig's sword through his guts.

"Shut up," Harry said coldly. "This sword belonged to a better man than you, and while he looked like a monster, he at least tried to be better towards the end. But you…you like being a monster. So die a monster, and if there's a Hell other than this place, then go there, and stay there."

Brador coughed up a gout of blood, hands scrabbling at the blade, before he finally went limp. Harry took the sword out, and then stabbed him through the head to be sure. He then flicked the blood off the blade.

Maria grimaced. "I'd hoped to question him…but I doubt he was in the mood for talking. At least this way, he can't use that bell to attack us. But that's only part of the danger dealt with. Once we go through the Astral Clocktower…we'll be dealing with the Fishing Hamlet. I don't know whether Kos' presence will allow the inhabitants to have us pass through, if they can sense who she was…but if not, we're in for a tough fight. Not only were they powerful in reality, but we are embarking on a journey to the heart of the Hunter's Nightmare, where the curse originates. It's like they used to put on the old maps: Here there be dragons."

Kos stepped forward. "But we need to go, regardless. It's not only your redemption we seek, but my own."

"Then let's get going," Harry said decisively. "This may not end tonight's Hunt, but maybe we can do some good regardless…"

CHAPTER 24 ANNOTATIONS:

So, there you have it. The long-awaited meeting between the Doll and Maria. Plus, why Harry, despite being a teenaged wizard without full training is still better than the average Hunter at times. Because magic.

Anyway, as you may have noticed, from now on, the Doll will be mostly referred to as Kos.

Maria may seem like she is OOC, begging Kos, but keep in mind, we don't see much of her character. In the interactions we have with her in person, she's trying to kill you. But the patients in the Research Hall clearly think highly of her, falsely or not, and her abandoning Rakuyo in the well at the Fishing Hamlet heavily implies remorse for her actions there, so I decided to show her more vulnerable side, to give her the nuances needed to compare and contrast her with the Doll/Kos. They're more alike than you'd think, and not just in terms of appearance. I also took cues from her portrayal in Oneuponalime226's excellent Maria-centric fic Red Yharnam.

Now, this is going to be the last chapter for a while. The next one is mostly written, and I know I've said this before, but…I've burnt myself out on this fic, at least for now. Hope you've enjoyed it so far.

Review-answering time! jgkitarel: Exactly. He's upset, and needs time to sort things out. The Doll, well, Kos followed him at a discreet distance, and showed up in time to begin coaxing the truth out of Maria. It's not like his trust in the Doll has been destroyed, but it got shaken, and on top of everything else that happened earlier during the Hunt (nearly dying, getting attacked by Death Eaters, finding out he's part-Great One and his mother may still be alive, encountering Dumbledore and Snape), well, he's in a fairly bad way. Add to this that he had to kill good men turned into monsters, namely Gascoigne and Ludwig, and it's not helping. I considered an outright row, but it felt too OOC, at least with how this fic has been going.

Zathol: I'd like to think that just enough of Umbridge was left inside her brain to know what is going on, even if she was just screaming to be let out. But about 99% of her is Rom…well, was.

ZLC genesmith: Well, you got the first part of the fight right. More or less, anyway.

Olivium: Uhh, what? No, Umbridge is dead. I have written part of the next chapter, and it opens with Lily being annoyed because her avatar body got killed by The One Reborn. Long story short, she got too cocky and confident, and ended up having acid vomited all over her. Her avatar is durable, but far from indestructible, and she's still getting used to fighting in a human body again.

Yorae Rasantae: Actually, GLaDOS is a lot more immoral than Rookwood. Rookwood is closer to amoral and detached. As discussed in correspondence with DaSalvatore, Rookwood had elements of Qyburn from Game of Thrones, Dr Kano from Tokyo Ghoul, and the Rani (particularly in her first appearance) from Doctor Who. In other words, an amoral scientist who cares more about gaining knowledge and experimentation than morals. They may have an end goal, but they're not truly sadistic, but utterly dispassionate and without morals, though they are also focused on getting something useful.

Pinkypi: Actually, you raise a good point. Harry does have a habit of running away from certain problems as much as he does confronting them at times, and I mean more metaphorically. He's very much damaged goods anyway.

FirstSilverKing: Thank you. DZ2 is one of my favourite authors, and I frequently post challenges on their forums. As for Bloodborne's lore and story, a good place to look, aside from wikis and TV Tropes, is VaatiVidya's channel on Youtube. There's two lore videos, one about ten minutes long, the other half an hour, which summarise the backstory of Bloodborne, or at least one interpretation of it. VaatiVidya also has a number of videos focusing on specific characters, known as Prepare to Cry. He also has lore videos on the rest of the Soulsborne franchise (Demon's Souls, Sekiro, and the Dark Souls trilogy), and a lot are worth checking out if you're interested in them. The games are hard as hell, though, so don't play them unless you're prepared to get your arse kicked. A lot.

No numbered annotations this time.