A/N: Bit shorter than I'd like, but here we are.
Figured I'd go around and update the crazy version of this, too.
To be clear, "Not My Lady" is ending soon, with its all manner of madness.
Whereas "Love Bites" promises to be a much longer tale, all things considered.
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this story...and others. If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular? POOF! Gone. Completely. I'm working two jobs with ever-increasing hours so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy. So by all means, speak up! Your voice matter! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustains me. Without them, I cannot write a single word. Simple as that.
As ever I own no references, quotes, memes or themes. Not a wit or one!
Really, that's bloody obvious by now. So here goes nothing.
Its been a wild ride; we're nearly there, now!
"You wanna know what I do when I'm sad? Or scared? I laugh. And laugh.
Aaaand laugh. Even when I don't have a reason to.
Madness eats misery for breakfast~!"
~The Future.
Not My Grandma
Two immortals stared one another down in the rain.
One was a woman grown, ageless and nigh-on-immortal.
The other seemed to be but a child; hers a different sort of power...yet no less lethal.
Mother Miranda was no fool; she knew this "Eveline" was more than she seemed. Strength thrummed through her tiny form, ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice. She marshalled her own in preparation to meet it. She would not be taken unawares. She would be prepared. She had not lived this long by making mistakes. Every action she took was calculated. Precise. Targeted. All for the sake of returning her beloved daughter -her precious Eva- to this world. Some might call her cruel. Perhaps she was. But she was also a mother. And if a few dozen, hundred, thousand souls had for the sake of her child...then so be it.
It no longer mattered. The hour was nearly nigh.
Her "children" had scarpered off to heaven knew where, but she cared not.
They would be dealt with in time. She had but to sweep this churl aside and wait for dawn.
"Meddling girl." Miranda's lip curled in mild derision as she gazed upon the whelp stood before her. "This village is mine. Begone."
"Is it, though?" Eveline tilted her head, a cherubic smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Is it really?"
Miranda went left. The failure went right. They began to circle one another, never leaving one another's side. Despite her best efforts to restrain herself, a slight sneer touched her lips. It had been so long since she'd found herself face with an actual challenge. Still, if this whelp thought herself strong...well. She would take pleasure in bringing her low.
"Your power over the mold means nothing." she hummed "Rose is your successor. No...Rose is your true, complete form."
Eveline tittered a little. "Is she now...?"
"Indeed she is." her sneer grew as she saw the glimpse of uncertainty in her eyes. "Rose will grow to fully control the masses...and I shall have her. With, or without, your interference. She is stronger than you could ever be-
Eveline surged forward with a snarl, and Miranda dissolved into a storm of crows.
It was only as she rematerialized that she recognized the feint.
Damn her smile. She'd made her flinch.
"Calm yourself." schooling her face into a mask of calm, she dared to approach the impudent child. "Rose will be saved. The Megamycete catalogs all of us. However, she will be reborn as my daughter. And whatever wild machinations you and your fool of a "Father" are contemplating...will die. Here. With you."
Eveline lifted her chin, still smiling. "You can try.
"Dear girl, I have succeeded."
Miranda slammed a hand into her chest and tore out her heart in a single seamless movement. The girl balked at her, eyes wide. A thin sliver of blood ran down her lips; though her mouth moved, no sound emerged. She pitched forward with barely a sound and expired in the mud. Pity. She'd hoped for something more.
No matter. With the daughter dead, her so-called father would soon follow. Moreau remained an adequate distraction in the meantime
"I've learned all I can from you." Miranda held her heart aloft and crushed it in her fist, reveling in her victory. "Your worth as a lab rat has run out.
"..."
"Don't worry, little one." she crooned. "Your death will come quick. You will join the Megamycete's records. Once dawn breaks, the ceremony will be complete, and I will become her true mother. Bound for eternity in blood." a pang of excitement coursed through her at the thought as she turned to face the horizon. "I've waited so long for this-
Pale fingers closed around her ankles. "So have I."
.
..
...Miranda frowned into the wet soil. She'd blacked out for a moment there. Why was she on the ground? Had she fallen...?
A bare foot stomped down on her head, grinding her nose into the mud.
"What's wrong?" an all too familiar voice cooed in her ear, a sibilant hiss bordering on outright mania, "You were talking a good game earlier. Then I ripped your legs off."
'My legs...?"
Golden eyes looked down. Beheld the ruined stubs of ankles. Widened now, as realization dawned.
"What's wrong, grandma~?" Eveline sang again, heedless of the hole in her chest. "Grow back your legs." she stomped down, stunning her. "Summon up your monsters." another stomp, grinding her into the dirt. "Hit me! Fight me!"
Miranda grit her teeth, finger scrabbling in the mud for purchase and finding none. "How are you alive...?"
The young girl only grinned and stomped again, cracking her skull. "What can I say? I'm heartless."
She could have finished her there. They both knew it. But she didn't. Instead, she let her go.
Miranda thrashed upright,
You will not deny me! I will see my true child again!
...about that." She wasn't prepared for her smile. "I don't mind being broken. But you don't talk about my Papa like that. Just for that, this village is mine now." she spread her arms wide, casting her leg aside. "All of this is mine. None of this is yours. I think I'd like being a big sister, though. Thanks for the idea!"
"Enough."
A hand shot out, striking her stomach, hurtling her back.
She climbed to her feet. Dark raven wings bloomed from her spine. "You would fight me, child?"
"Fight you?" Evelin tilted her head. "No. I'm gonna kill you." She paused, then considering her own words. "That, or convert you." a pale finger touched her chin. "Haven't decided yet."
She raised her arms and the earth trembled.
"Now, as daddy likes to say...get wrecked, birdy bitch."
A thousand roots forged from hardened mold smashed into Miranda.
(.0.0.0.)
"ETHAN WINTERS!"
Funny how your own name can make you jump.
Most of all when it comes right behind a man in the dead of night.
Almost sent him leaping clear off the dock and into the water; despite knowing what lurked there.
Speaking of which, where was that fish freak? He'd stopped chasing him a few minutes back, but now this...?
"C'mon now," a hand clamped down on his shoulder, holding him fast...preventing him from turning around. "Don't be so skittish." that same hand frog-marched him forward, despite his utmost effort to dig both heels into the crumbling dock underfoot. "I've been looking all over for you. You're a hard man to find.
...you have? I am?"
"Yup." he heard his captor laugh behind him. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were avoiding me...
.
..
...why did he have a bad feeling about this?
"But enough about that." he stumbled as that guided hand steered him up and over some flotsam and onto semi-solid-ground, "I'm gonna let you go now, you're gonna turn around, and we're gonna have a nice, civilized discussion about this. Savvy?"
...and if I say no?"
"Then I believe Dimitrescu wants a word with you. Donna, too."
Dread dawned in his heart. "Bullshit. They're dead. I killed those psychos...!"
"You did, yes." his warden tutted. "Unfortunately for you, they lived. I had to give them quite the bribe to keep 'em from hunting ya. Now, then...
With a less-than-gentle shove, his adversary propelled him forward. He nearly pitched into the murky depths; it was only razor sharp self preservation that saved him. Even as he fell he was moving, bringing his pistol to bear on the being before him. Whoever this sicko was, he'd die just like all the others. He had to get past him, had to save Rose-
"Fall."
The word hit him like a physical force, driving him to the floor. Against his better judgement, he raised his gaze.
Now to be fair, Ethan had seem some shit. A lot of it really. But this? This took the cake.
The man before him looked almost human...if one were to ignore the horns. And what kind of outfit was that? Looked like he'd tumbled out of a washing machine. What was he? Another one of Miranda's mad monstrosities or something worse...
"Who in the blue hell're you?"
"Lots of things. Wandering god, peerless prankster, proud papa. Just like you. But you can call me Naruto. And I believe," a clawed hand rose. "That you're looking for this?"
Looking for...?! His eyes widened as he beheld the item clutched against his palm. The flask! "Give that back, you bastard!"
"Oh, I will, I will." much to his chagrin, the blond sat down on the crumbling dock. "From one father to another, I understand what you're doing. I'd go to hell and back for my kid." those keen azure orbs held his for a raw moment, and he thought he glimpsed a glimmer of understanding within. "After all, the things we do for our families. Or in my case, Eveline.
Ethan's blood ran cold. "Eveline...?"
"Yeah-huh." the blond's head bobbed. "Little sweetheart. She's over the moon to have a family, and for that, you have my thanks. Never woulda happened without you."
Ethan tried to speak; but his brain fizzled.
Eveline. That mold monster. The one responsible for the sheer, bloody hell he'd gone through in the first place. She couldn't be here. Not again...
"But...but she's dead...!"
"Here's the thing, son. Multiverse theory's a bitch." he held up a finger. "Fact is, you, or at least another you, never met Eveline in a different timeline." A second joined it. "I got her off that ship, Mira found her way back to you; ya got married, Rose grew up as a normal child and Miranda never took notice of either of you." Three fingers now. "Congrats. That version of "you" won the jackpot. Ya passed with Mia at the ripe old age of one hundred, surrounded by you children, grandchildren, and great-grandhchildren.
A lone tear rolled out Ethan's eye. It almost sounded too good to be true. A world where Mia lived. Where they didn't suffer...
"But that wasn't the main timeline; and likewise that wasn't you. You see, I'm here...
His heart sank." Because of me."
...because of you." came Naruto's nod. "Your misadventures, really. Spoilers. You're wife's alive. And you?" he checked his watch and grimaced. "Well, according to the game-
"What game?!"
-you're supposed to die in a few hours. Might wanna do something about that. But first," the thumped the flask down on the deck, "I believe the three of us need to have a chat."
"Three?" was he blind as well as insane? "We're the only ones here-
A low tremor shook the water.
"Aha, right on schedule." Naruto's smile was just the wrong shade of smug as he stood. "There's the guest of the hour...was wondering if he'd wake up after the beating I'd handed him."
Salvatore Moreau -rather, the monster he'd become- crashed out of the depths with a wordless roar. Bleeding from a dozen wounds, jaws gaping wide, he lunged.
Ethan flung himself backward, fearing the worst. "Shit!"
That fetid mouth snapped well short of his ankles as something dragged him back. A hard yank hauled him away; another cast him onto land entirely. Even then the beast didn't give up. Moreau lunged again-straight into clenched knuckles. A hard cuff to his jaw put paid to his efforts and knocked him down once more. His tormentor shambled after him, shaking their head from side to side as his prey tried to crawl away.
"Poor, poor Moreau...look what has become of you...haven't you learned your lesson?"
"Stay away!"
Acid spat forth. It splashed against an upturned palm. Sizzled there, burning a hole through the blond's palm.
"I will not, dear boy." Naruto made a fist with it and climbed to his feet. "Its high time someone helped ya. Now hold still and let me fix your everything!"
He got ahold of Moreau's vast, bloated bulk and wrestled him down. Tan palms glowed gold.
Ethan averted his eyes to the what followed. Wise of him. He couldn't quite close his ears to them, however. No matter how hard he closed his eyes, nor clamped his hands down over his head, he couldn't drown out the awful noises that followed.
The horrors he heard would haunt him for the rest of his days.
Bones popped. Muscle tore. Flesh writhed.
Moreau wailed like a baby.
A/N: And there we go. One, maybe two chapters left.
Remember we're sticking with the tried and true "Embers" Rule for this story.
If folks don't like it, it'll be deleted. Poof! Gone to the void. So speak up! Make yourself heard! Your voice matters!
Had to cut the Chris bit for later. I'm still quite cross with what the game did to him. He could have avoided a LOT of trouble if he just talked to Ethan but noooo "There wasn't enough time!' Phooey on that I say! Bullshit! Still not dealing with that giant baby hallucination, no matter how many ask. Nope, nope, nope! Its definitely a hallucination. Ain't no free-freakin' way that thing is real. Lalala! Can't ehar you!
So In the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review, Would You Kindly?
No previews. So tired...
...no, I have to try!
(Preview)
"One last obstacle. Ready for the endgame?"
Alcina all but pinned him to the wall with one hand. The stone cracked behind his back.
"Heh." Naruto grinned at her. "Miss me-mmph?!"
She muffled his mouth with hers.
...is this what it feels like to be normal? Moreau straightened his back with a pop, admiring his well-defined chest and arms. "It feels...it feels nice...
"Well, I pretty much made you an amped-up aquaman, so you're welcome...and don't call me Father! Feels weird, ya know!"
Moreau grunted, stretched again, then pivoted in place. "Which reminds me...
Heisenberg raised his hands. "Let bygones be bygones...?
He offered a hand. "Truce?"
"You have a choice to make, Miranda. Let it be the right one."
Her eyes flicked to his hand. "I will never give up on my daughter. Do not ask me to."
"Blow that place sky-high!"
"Walk away, Chris."
R&R~!