Resident Evil 9: Return

Chapter Six: Unexpected

The large castle loomed in the distance, and Kai could hear a bell ring from up above. He remained hidden in the passage, not sure what to do next. He was waiting to see what Lady Dimitrescu was going to do.

As the Lady walked through the dead grass and past some of the world's creepiest scarecrows, Kai noticed a large cavern to the woman's left, as if the earth had split in two and left a deep scar.

Not too far away, Kai watched Lady Dimitrescu hoist the rude man into the air, her back to Kai.

"Could you find the girl?" She demanded of the man. Kai felt his heart sink. If the man said yes, Kai didn't know if anyone would be able to stop him. If Kai himself would have time to warn Averie.

However, the man shook his head, and spit on the ground.

"You helped bring us here. You're to blame for the others' deaths. I will not help you ruin more lives."

"Well then, you can join them and rot in hell." Before Kai could contemplate what happened next, the Lady stretched out her free hand, where claws that were almost as long as Carson was tall protruded from her fingers. With no hesitation, the Lady slashed at the man's torso, racking her claws across his body. His blood soaked the dirt under the Lady's feet as she dropped him to the ground. Lady Dimitrescu clucked her tongue as she walked away from the man, not realizing that he was still breathing.

By some miracle, Averie and Carson were able to drag Arcane out of the spare room, and then into the passageway and out the same way Kai and Carson had entered. Averie hoped that Kai was alright, but knew that she couldn't go back and check to make sure he was safe. She had to protect Carson, and at the moment also protect Arcane, who couldn't walk a couple of steps on his own without crashing to the ground.

"Alright Arcane, you might not be able to walk, but I suggest that you start talking." Averie demanded. She could hear Arcane mutter something under his breath, but he obliged.

"My group and I came to this village ten years ago, on a rescue mission. Our leader, Chris Redfield, gave the order to find and retrieve Rosemary Winters and her father, Ethan Winters. Rosemary was kidnapped by Mother Miranda, to be used in a ceremony to bring back her long dead daughter, Eva."

"How could she use Rosemary?" Carson asked innocently. Before Averie could intervene, having a feeling that this story didn't have a happy ending, Arcane explained.

"By resurrecting Rosemary after having her killed, and hoping that Eva will have returned, hence the ceremony." Carson's face went pale, and he asked no more questions.

"You see, Rosemary was a special baby. Her father wasn't…normal, therefore her genetics were exactly what Mother Miranda thought she had needed. Ethan was infected with mold, something that also ran rampant in this village."

"In the end, we were able to save Rosemary and reunite her with her mother, but Ethan sacrificed himself so everyone could get away. The village was destroyed, and everything inside it."

Averie looked around, seeing a village densely populated with healthy trees, grass, and filled to the brim with villagers.

"Yeah something about that doesn't add up."

"We weren't expecting this, Averie."

"Where does my dad tie into all of this?" Averie demanded. Arcane sighed.

"I knew this would come up. Your dad grew up in this village, born and raised here almost fifty years ago. We found out about your father's existence through written transcripts and documents that Chris Redfield had found in Mother Mirandas' lab. She had a record of all the villagers, all now in the past, that had been born in that village. Your father was the only one who had a record that was still living."

"Why did Miranda keep all those records? Especially of those who were deceased?" Averie asked.

"She was a scientist, and the people of this village were her subjects. Some were even experimented on. The reason we know your dad is the only one still alive from those records is because of what happened here ten years ago. Mother Miranda had everyone in the village killed, needing the corpses for the regeneration ceremony for Rose Winters."

"I think I'm gonna puke." Carson commented, releasing Arcane for a moment, and running into the woods nearby. Averie gave Arcane a pointed look.

"Seriously, did you have to be so gory with the details?"

"You asked for answers." Arcane defended.

"Anyway, when Chris had us go over the records a few months after we had gotten back from the village and killed Miranda, we came across your father's record, and saw that Miranda had noted him as 'Missing'. Every other villager was noted as 'Deceased'. We knew that we had to get a hold of your dad, to determine that he wasn't a threat in any way."

Averie laughed at the man, remembering how gentle and quiet her father was. She also felt guilt tighten her throat when she realized why her father was so quiet, having to live with the memories of his upbringing.

"So, you're telling me my dad is the only original villager left?" Averie asked. Arcane nodded, giving Averie a sympathetic grimace.

"I'm sorry, Averie. Besides these new villagers, no one else that was here when your father was around is alive today."

Carson came back from the woods, and the trio headed off once more.

Once back in the village, Kaya tended to Arcane's wounds, and rolled her eyes at Averie, regarding her wounded arm.

"I just tended to this arm." She sighed, smiling at Averie.

While Carson and Taylor talked about everything that had happened while the other was gone, Averie looked through her father's scrapbook, noticing all the other people in the pictures of the old village.

"They're all dead." Averie said quietly.

"Does that make your dad an orphan too?" Averie looked up and saw Carson sitting beside her.

"Carson, that's a terrible thing to ask!" Taylor reprimanded.

"Terrible, but true." Averie said. "I guess so." Carson leaned against Averie.

Taylor sighed, sitting across the room from Averie and Carson. She leaned forward on the chair, holding her head in her hands, and Averie could see her shoulders shake.

"We just lost dad, and now….all of this." Taylor said, lifting her head to look at the other two.

"Orphaned but at going to live in a place that we recognized. Now, we've been kidnapped, flown to another country, escaped a burning vehicle, been held at gunpoint, watched someone have their head ripped off of their body and now this?" She yelled, clenching her fists.

"I wish I could say I want to go home, but I don't even want that. I want this all to end! I want to feel safe, to know I am going to be okay, and not have to be scared every morning when I wake up, cause I don't have a mom and dad to love me!"

Averie stood up and pulled Taylor up from her chair by her hands, pulling the girl into a tight embrace. Taylor sobbed in Averie's shoulder, as Carson, not knowing what to do, quietly left the room.

Both Kaya and Arcane looked up as Carson walked into the other room, hearing Taylor loud and clear as she cried. The sobbing died down as Carson closed the door, and sat beside Arcane as his arm was being stitched up.

"Were you scared of the Four Lords when you were captured?" Carson asked curiously, not able to take his eyes off of the large cuts Arcane bore on his torso.

Arcane shrugged.

"A little, I suppose. More surprised than anything, I wasn't expecting to see them."

"Cause you didn't know they were in the village?" Carson asked.

"No, cause they were supposed to be dead."

"Dead?" Kaya dropped the towel she had in her hand, the one she used to keep pressure on the wounds.

"How could you say that? They are very much alive and well!"
"I wouldn't say that." Arcane sighed, shifting his weight to ease the pain he felt in his torso.

He looked down at Carson, who now was able to look away from the man's wounds and up into his eyes, which were a dark green.

"Remember that man I told you about, Ethan Winters?" Carson nodded, remembering how that man had sacrificed himself to save everyone else.

"He was a hero, like my dad." Arcane smiled at the thought.

"Yeah, he was. Anyway, Ethan wasn't able to find Rose and rescue her right away. He had to deal with the Four Lords, and defeated all four of them. But he had killed them, and anything remaining of the lords was dust…."

"So then how come they came back?" Carson asked as Arcane pulled out a small phone from his pocket. Carson hoped he had some games on the phone, but had a feeling Arcane wouldn't let him play any.

Instead, Arcane scrolled through photos, his fingers rapidly typing in different words and phrases until he found the corresponding photo.

"Alright, not everything about the lords turned to dust." Arcane held out the phone, so that both Carson and Kaya could see. On the screen, Carson saw large crystals of different shapes, and was confused.

"These are the crystalized remains of the Four Lords, left after Ethan had killed them." Arcane explained.

"Apparently, Ethan didn't hold onto these remains, giving them to someone who was considered higher than the others in the village. He went by the name Duke."

"Oh yes, we know of the Duke." Kaya said, still startled by the accusations Arcane had proclaimed.

"He lives in the higher area of the village, closest to Lady Beneviento's house. He doesn't like to be disturbed."

"That's too bad, considering that I'll need to disturb him." Arcane stood up, wincing at the pain in his torso. He looked down at Carson, who had also stood up and mimicked the man's posture.

"The four of us can't stay here, we need somewhere to hide, so I can get a hold of my commander. Grab your things and tell the others we're moving."

Lady Dimitrescu had disappeared up the hill and around the corner, leaving the rude man to die alone. Except that Kai refused to leave the man's side, running up to him when he knew the coast was clear.

"I didn't want someone else to die." The rude man explained, holding onto Kai's hand. Kai held on tight, looking at the wound in the man's torso. The gashes left from the Lady's claws went deeper than anything Kai had ever heard of, and he swore that he could see clear to the ground underneath the man's body. Blood pooled around the man's torso and soaked the knees of Kai's jeans. The man's voice became guttural as he struggled to breathe, his words hard to understand, but Kai could just make out what he was saying.

"If you see Delinor…give her my apologies…and if you ever run into that woman again…"

He pulled Kai closer to himself.

"Spit in her eyes for me."

He then cried out in pain as the blood streamed more quickly from his wounds, causing the man to thrash and convulse. Then as quickly as the thrashing came it stopped, for the man was dead.

The trek back to the village was quicker than Kai had originally planned. But after seeing what had happened to the rude man, he didn't want to be outside on his own any longer and ended up running halfway home.

He went straight to Kaya's house and saw Arcane with Carson. Carson ran up to Kai and clobbered him in a hug, then noticed the blood on his jeans and part of his jacket.

"Are you okay?" Carson asked, but at that moment Kai ignored him. He kept his eyes on Arcane.

"All of them are dead. Anyone who went into the forest didn't survive."

"How did you find out?"

"The rude man, who accused Averie earlier of having something to do with all of this…

I just watched him die. That tall woman killed him."

Arcane looked away from the boys, still holding onto his phone.

"Kaya, we are going to leave your house immediately. We don't want you to be put into anymore danger than you already are."

Kaya nodded, in both relief and understanding. She went into the other room to speak with the girls, and Carson decided to follow.

Inside the other room, Averie was able to calm Taylor down, and helped the girl put on her backpack. Carson mimicked his older sister and followed Averie's lead. He didn't know what else he was supposed to do, and besides, everyone else was older than he was. They had to know better, right?

Screaming was heard outside of Kaya's house. Peeking out the window, Carson could see horses running down the main road, with golden gears weaved into their manes.

"The horses of Lord Heisenberg. He's looking for something." Kaya explained. She gently pulled Carson away from the window.

"What could he want now? He towed away half of our male travelers to work in his factory." Kai complained, but Kaya shook her head.

"You know nothing of what he does there." She said quietly, holding onto Carson's shoulders.

"But what he searches for right now is beyond me. All I know is that in every group of new arrivals, he searches among the men, as Lady Dimitrescu searches among the women. Lady Beneviento and Lord Moreau are quieter in their searching, not as obvious and upfront, but they look among the villagers, even the children, as if one of us holds the key to what they need."

Arcane excused himself into the side room, locking the door behind him. Averie and Kai immediately pressed themselves against the door to hear what the man was doing.

"Chris? It's Arcane."

The pair could hear another man in the room and knew Arcane was making a phone call. The other man's voice was deep, and full of relief to hear Arcane's voice.

"Arcane, thank God. We hadn't heard from you for several hours and were going to assume the worst. You must have gotten preoccupied-"

"They're alive, Chris. All four of them. I don't fully know how, but I have an idea…"

"I saw the crystals, Arc. Ethan killed them himself."

"But the remains were intact, you know all the experiments that went on in this village, at this point we can assume something brought them back!"

Chris sighed on the other end of the phone.

"So you saw the Four Lords?"

"My group was kidnapped by several lycans and dragged before them. This was after our bus caught fire, a woman had her head ripped off after she almost killed a child, and we met the villagers here."

Chris went silent on the other end.

"It was a setup, Redfield. This was planned, our bus driver drove us through the woods and threw us out in front of the village."

"Arcane-"

"You said the village was empty, no one left alive except for Delinor!" Averie could hear Arcane's voice shake.

"That's the information we had, we didn't know anything else-"

"I don't believe you." Arcane spat, causing Chris to go silent.

"You didn't tell Ethan everything that was going on ten years ago, and look what happened to him. I'm not dying for this mission, Chris."

"Arcane, we need to find Delinor. If what we know is true-"

"You need to get the team down here to rescue these people, forget about Delinor!" Arcane almost shouted, and Averie felt tears in her eyes.

Arcane's voice was quieter.

"Come find us. Before we end up like Ethan, too."

Arcane turned off the communicator, and threw it onto the ground. He didn't break the phone, as it had a GPS signal that would lead his team to where he was. But he wasn't taking the phone with him. It would stay in Kaya's house, and the team would be able to find the villagers from there. Clenching his fists, Arcane took a deep breath and left the room.

"We need to move out, and find the others." Arcane said to the group.

Averie wanted to comment on the call she had just heard, but hesitated. She didn't want to be on Arcane's bad side right now. Instead, she nodded, but asked where they would begin.

Arcane started to explain his plan when Taylor remembered she had left her jacket in the other room. Heading into the room, Taylor reached down for her jacket, when she felt something wrap around her waist. Looking down, Taylor could see Carson's curly hair poke out from around her waist as he hugged her, small tears running down his cheeks. Taylor shifted around and returned the hug, sliding her jacket aside with her foot so she could stand up properly.

"Are we going to be okay, Tay?" Carson asked. Taylor nodded, stroking her brother's hair.

"I promise we will. We might not have dad now, but we have each other. And Averie. She promised that she would look out for us." Carson paused for a moment.

"Does this mean I now have two big sisters?" Taylor laughed, and nodded. Carson smiled and ran out of the room, leaving Taylor to bundle up her jacket and stick it in her backpack, having accidentally grabbed Arcane's communicator as well and taking it with her.