Category: Resident Evil Village

Rating: M

Couples: -

Warnings: AU, mention of torture, Blood

Chapter: 46

Copyright: Characters & places © By Capcom, Plot & OC´s © by me

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Below her, she could hear rending metal and breaking stone. If what the older Nymph had said was true, it was disturbing that the sounds reached all the way up here.

Rushing through the corridors, Mother Miranda flinched at every roar that echoed along the hallways. Honestly, she probably should have expected something like this was going to happen. She had just hoped that she'd be there instead of having to re-enact her frantic dash across half the valley so soon after the first time.

Somehow, Frederika kept up easily, despite being barely half her height. Up ahead, the other Nymph had bloated to fill the entire open area in front of the cell, shrinking when she apparently noticed the new arrival.

"Alcina...?" Stopping in front of the door-opening, her wings tightened around her body. What a sight...

The taller woman wheeled around, white dress nearly completely red from blood and viscera. Ten long claws scratched against the stone, sparking lightly.

"Draga mea..." She tried to see around the large form to look for the prisoner, even if she doubted there was much left. Beside her, the older Nymph scooped up her sibling and headed elsewhere.

"What?" Alcina snarled, eyes bloodshot and skin looking like it was cracking.

"Are... are you alright?" The Priestess asked, worrying whether her eldest living child was close to transforming. It would be a given that a small cell in the dungeon could not accomodate that form at all.

"Should I be!?" Finishing her turn, the elder Dimitrescu rose to her full height, framed by long claws. "Why should you care?"

"You are my daughter." She stamped down her annoyed disbelief. Figuring the other was just lashing out, she did nothing against the clear challenge.

"That clearly did not mean anything beforehand." Looming overhead, the large form trembled. "Would you be so concerned about my well-being if I had not been taken!?"

"I..." Honesty meant she'd have to admit that she would not, but admitting that out loud... "Alcina..."

"Answer me!" The stones shook, some dust raining down on them. It had to be a striking sight, the trembling, blood-coated giant facing the small, evenly faced priestess.

"Alcina." She reached for her child, only to have to retract her hand quickly before it got cut off by a wild swing. "Please. We can talk about this all you want, but not here... not like this."

"And what if I don't want to talk?" The snarl was so severe that the words were barely understandable. "Perhaps I am sick and tired of you all of a suddenly caring!?"

"You will have to deal with it." Narrowing her eyes, she stepped into the cell, heart clenching when that made her daughter back up sharply. The long claws twitched as if contemplating adding some more blood to the walls. "I was not the best mother, but I am trying to be better. Let me be better."

Instead of answering, the eldest Dimitrescu jerked around, retreating deeper into the cell, away from her.

"Alcina..." This had to be the first time in a good while that she pleaded with someone. "Fiica mea. Please."

"Why... why did you not care?" Alcina did not look at her, staring at some undetermined spot of the torn wall. "I..."

"Draga mea..." One hand hung down, claws unsheeted, so she moved slowly, lifting her hand to the trembling back. Somehow, even the back of the once white dress had not escaped the bloodsplatters. "Can we move this talk to... anywhere else?"

The backhand threw her against the wall, stone cracking against her back. At least, she hoped it was the stone and not any of her bones, that would be a problem in the long run. A small part of her was glad that Alcina had moved in such a way as to backhand her, rather than slice her with those long claws.

"Why!?" The remnants of the room's furniture fared less well, some outright breaking upon impact. "I screamed for you! Pleaded for you! And only now you care!?"

"Yes!" She countered sharply, wings spreading wide in counter of the other's rage. "And I will never be able to forgive myself for that, Alcina! I will never be able to make up for that!" Would things have gone better had she cared? Would she have been able to keep her daughter safe twice over? Miranda did not want to consider it, afraid of the realization that it indeed would have made all the difference in the world. "Fiica mea, let me be your mother now."

"You... always were..." Face turned away, she could not see the golden eyes. "But I was never your daughter..."

"You were." She headed over, tugging on the wrists she barely could grip. "You all always were... And I am sorry it took me until this to realize."

The Priestess had intended to pull her daughter out of the cell, but instead Alcina collapsed beside her. Catching the tall form with her arms and wings, she broke her fall before the weight send her to the ground as well.

"I screamed for you... and they laughed at me..." The large face burrowed into her shoulder. "They mocked me for calling for my mother like a small child... They... defiled me..."

"I am sorry..." She whispered, caressing the black locks beside her head. "I am so sorry it took me so long..." To think that had she been just a few hours earlier, it would have made everything end up very differently.