Gazing through the haze of gunpowder smoke, Bela did not hesitate in discarding her rifle once it clicked empty. As she did so, she took a moment to admire the damage she had managed to inflict upon her foes; a scowl was quick to appear on her grime-covered face once the results became apparent.
Mia and the kid stood to the side of the corridor, unharmed - but she never bothered to aim at them in the first place; if Ethan's wife would not yield, Bela was prepared to strangle the traitorous woman with her bare hands, however. Nevertheless, her primary target - that vile man who sought to threaten her mother - was not as much as scratched, with his enhanced bodyguard soaking every bullet meant for him.
The sight of the Replica Bodyguard collapsing in a heap against the wall - now smeared with his dark red blood - was a minor consolidation; at least she didn't have to contend with another superhuman freak.
That small comfort turned out to be a short-lived one as well, once Fettel's face contorted into a grimace of rage. Seems like his mask of arrogance and self-assurance has finally cracked, giving way to unbridled fury.
"I've had ENOUGH of your kind!"
Understandably wary, as she still had little clue about the enigmatic man's combat capabilities, Bela, nevertheless, started to approach them; her keen eyes taking on every detail, meanwhile. She was not going to get caught off-guard again. Not with the stakes that high, not when her mother counted on her to prevail.
Still, despite her caution, Bela was not prepared when Fettel leveled a petrifying glare her way.
The sheer intensity of his gaze froze her dead in her tracks. Neither Miranda's nor Alcina's anger-fueled glares could even compare to it. It felt like she stared into the depth of the void itself, with his unnatural black irises being portals into it. An entire reality, seemingly made out of nothing but malice and hatred was open to her - and it was not a pleasant experience.
Unable to tear her gaze away - indeed, unable to move at all - Bela could not resist the raw malice that was seemingly channeled right into her being.
The dark, unspeakable and unfathomable energy filled her entire essence, only to spill into the material realm once there was no space left within her soul for its overwhelming darkness.
Reality itself faded and Bela found herself surrounded by a seemingly infinite void. The umbral environment was perfectly reflected by a mind-boggling haze that settled over her mind, making Bela struggle to recollect where exactly she had been or what she was doing before ending up in this dark space.
All alone in the dark, the woman did not get the chance to wallow in her loneliness or a sudden onset of amnesia, as a circle of faint light appeared right next to her.
A person, with their hooded head held downcast, stood in that circle. But even without being able to fully see the person's face, Bela knew their identity intimately. A sickle clutched in a gloved hand, a black hooded dress over an hourglass figure; long, wavy locks of blonde hair; bloody smears around smirking dark lips. Without a shadow of a doubt, Bela was staring at herself.
Or… at least the version of her that could've been, Bela realized as soon as the figure finally raised her head to stare with her baleful yellow eyes; not a speck of compassion or kindness in them.
The figure was a dark, twisted reflection of Bela - the one that had embraced her monstrous nature fully and reveled in the slaughter she committed. Mercy was a foreign concept to this cruel being; no callous atrocity or foul deed was beneath her; humans - the lesser beings that they were - existed only to satiate her hunger or stave off her boredom.
This was Bela that could've been.
The dark reflection smirked, and Bela suddenly noted that she stood in dark red liquid up to her ankles. Innocent blood, she had spilt so freely. Before long, she also became aware of all the shadowy silhouettes that surrounded their little circle of light.
Disembodied ghosts, drifting in from every direction, hundreds of them; their twisted visages frozen in perpetual agony. Their precise count was beyond Bela's ability to calculate from sight alone, but not beyond her knowledge of her own deeds. Two hundred and sixty four. Every soul I've consigned to oblivion with my own hands.
Confronted by her victims, the weight of her crimes became crushingly heavy on Bela's soul, but her twisted reflection merely grinned in cruel mockery. She was ready to slay that number all over again.
I won't let you.
Trying to take a step forward to confront her evil doppelganger, to her horror, Bela found out that she couldn't - for just like the ghosts all around her, she was a mere disembodied spark.
All too aware of Bela's conundrum, her evil dark sent a nasty leer her way, before letting out a chuckle.
"I am the real Bela. You're just a minute lapse of judgment - a fake that got too attached to her food."
It's like her world suddenly turned inside out and Bela could do nothing but silently cry out against her fate. Am I… a fake? What… is real?
"Embrace oblivion… and fade away…"
Surrounded by nothing but the lucid reminders of her innumerable sins; with benevolent memories that has tethered Bela to the realm of the living being shrouded by the veil of haze - fading away did not sound too bad, actually. All the blood she had spilled; all the misery she caused; all the families torn apart. Oblivion beckoned and Bela found herself not that opposed to heeding its call.
Before she could close her non-existent eyes in resignation, however, another shadow silhouette appeared out of the crowd of ghosts - this one an eerily familiar masculine shape, exuding bright, blinding light. Not missing a beat, the newcomer rushed right at Bela's twisted reflection, only to plunge an ethereal dagger into her blackened heart.
The mortal wound caused the dark doppelganger to scream in agony, with hoarfrost swiftly covering her black dress and pale skin alike. Falling to her knees, she desperately tried to stem the bleeding with both gloved hands, but the blackish liquid trickled freely through her fingers, proving her efforts to be in vain. In turn, as if not having any time to waste on her, the blinding figure departed the circle of light, vanishing as swiftly as he came. Even though her own grim fate soon regained her full attention, Bela couldn't help but note that the assembled ghosts momentarily parted to allow for his unimpeded departure.
Forgetting about the mysterious stranger and disembodied as she was, Bela had no choice but to witness the last, agonized moments of her own self.
Kneeling in a pool of blood and surrounded by her numerous victims, crying in a guttural tone of hatred and misery, Bela Dimitrescu stiffened as she crystallized, before shattering into countless fragments, which soon vanished under the surface of the bloody pool. Nobody was there to save her. Nobody was there to mourn her.
This is my fate. To die alone and forgotten. To fade away.
The intrusive thoughts did not feel like her own, but Bela was past caring. Exhausted by dark visions, she was ready to embrace the oblivion and the solace it offered.
"Fade away…"
The ghosts murmured their uncompromising demand in perfect unison. How could Bela possibly refuse her victims' combined desire for her final demise? Especially when the prospect of eternal rest appeared so tempting to her addled mind…
Fully at peace with the prospect of eternal oblivion, Bela felt her remaining essence starting to dissipate.
It's for the best…
Burdened by decades of sin, Bela's soul did not resist the ethereal currents that would soon grind her into nothingness.
It's a trick - don't give in! It's all just a trick - wake up!
The echoing voice resonated all across this twisted dimension. Bela could not put a name to the voice, even if it did appear eerily familiar, but that didn't even matter to her. What mattered was the fact that the resolve in that voice somehow dispelled the mind-numbing veil that Bela only now realized was hanging over her all this time in this accursed mindscape.
In an instant, Bela was able to remember that she was about to confront Mia and her mysterious handler before finding herself lost in the darkness. Moreover, she recalled poor Anna - the Duke's steward who got possessed by a man with unnatural powers over the mind. Connecting two and two in a heartbeat, she realized that Fettel was that man, and now he was trying to do the same with her. With the aid of his psionic powers, he likely aimed to either possess her body or perhaps even to obliterate her mind utterly - leaving just an empty husk that could not hope to oppose his wicked plans.
WAKE UP!
Somehow feeling whole once again and opening her eyes, Bela spotted a previously unseen path that led to a door of light. The ghosts still crowded around, preventing access to it, however, but Bela would not let this chance to escape this nightmare pass. Now that she remembered all the people that cared about her; all the people she herself loved, the offered oblivion did not seem even remotely tempting.
"I am sorry… but you're in the way!"
Barreling right through the specters with her suddenly tangible body, Bela reached the door in seconds and the moment she did, the twisted dimension of darkness dissipated.
Bela's heart beat like mad in her chest, but that only made the woman aware of how alive she was. Letting out a gasp as if emerging from a pond after holding her breath for minutes, Bela found herself back in realspace - back in that corridor, with her feet firmly pressing against the moth-eaten carpet and her nemesis standing right where he was; Mia and the kid behind him.
Even if she were to survive this ordeal, Bela was sure that today's unnatural events would haunt her for the years to come. Still, showcasing her formidable mental resilience, it took the blonde a mere second to regain her wit and become fully aware of her surroundings, once again.
Fettel was clearly not happy about the fact that Bela managed to break through his psionic illusion, and perhaps even suffered from some kind of neural feedback, caused by her unexpected resistance, since a thin line of blood was now trailing from his left nostril. Growling in anger, the man swiped the blood away with two fingers, before refocusing his efforts.
Another trick?!
To her chagrin, before she could do anything with her freshly-liberated body, Bela found herself at the mercy of his unnatural powers once again. This time, however, there were no dark visions and grim landscapes, but a torrent of raw power that flooded her system. So strong was the intangible force that streamed into her, that Bela sensed her every nerve on fire - locking her muscles and constricting airways.
The internal pressure kept on rising and like some kind of sorcerer out of myth, Fettel, with but a jerk of his head, was able to redirect the stream of energy upwards - right into her own head. The frighteningly material power soon became too much for her poor cranium as it desperately sought a way to escape its prison of flesh and bone, and Bela - even in throes of agony - was quick to realize what exactly was going to happen next, for she saw plenty of headless corpses on her way up here.
That was not to be her fate, however, and if this vile man thought to best her that easily, he was in for a surprise.
With but a thought from her, human flesh and bone that made up Bela's head had morphed into black blowflies and the unnatural force that threatened to annihilate her, instead harmlessly dispersed into the ambient air.
Instead of a shower of gore and viscera from her pulped cranium - like he had expected - Fettel was greeted by a swarm of insects rushing in every direction to go along with the flow of invisible force; slowly returning back to their host body as the psionic shockwave dissipated.
Shockingly to everyone who was unfortunate enough to bear witness to this otherworldly scene, Bela's headless body still stood perfectly straight, as it continued to receive direction from the larger hivemind that oversaw the superorganism that was Bela Dimitrescu.
Even as swarming insects started to rearrange themselves into a familiar pattern overhead, the body took a step forward. In turn, Fettel took a single, tentative step backwards. More out of desire to reassure herself than to assert dominance - though that played a part as well - Bela directed her right, clenched hand to lift straight forward, before raising her middle finger in a universal gesture of 'fuck you'.
Unfortunately, without her human eyes, she could not truly behold his reaction in all its delicious details, but his jerky movement backwards implied enough. Even this blood-soaked killer had finally found himself outside of his comfort zone and, perhaps, was even afraid of her.
The notion that this fearsome mastermind could be just another cowardly little man-thing, once bereft of his army of obedient Replica and with his unnatural powers proven ineffective against her, was empowering for Bela. The fear from experiencing these unnatural events and living through his mind-addling tricks gave way to surety of purpose and unyielding resolve.
With her composure regained, the swarming insects once again melded together before connecting to her stump of a neck and reforming her head.
"That's gonna give me a headache."
Perhaps a bit overly dramatic, Bela stretched her neck. Psychological warfare was just as important as physical violence and the elder sibling would not miss this opportunity to unnerve her foe by her theatrical bravado.
In turn, Fettel took another tentative step backward and Bela's eyes did not miss the way his hand brushed over his pistol holster, before returning back to his side, as its owner no doubt realized how futile that act of aggression would've been against her. The uncertainty in his posture and movements did nothing but fuel Bela's own resolve and she did not hesitate to showcase her pearly white teeth in a wicked grin.
"So thirsty…"
That was not a lie or melodramatics - all the draining activity left the vampiric progeny quite hungry for some fresh man-blood. His would suffice - not that Bela believed in forcefully extracting vital fluid from unwilling donors at this point in her long journey in regaining her humanity, but he was going to die anyway… no reason to waste the precious sanguine ichor.
Another step forward was succeeded by several more - which were mirrored by the man as he took them backwards. It was more than a little amusing to Bela to see the previously domineering male ending up behind Mia - almost as if using her as an impromptu obstruction in the vampire's impending advance. Mia herself, however, appeared as composed as ever and merely observed the blonde with her arms folded.
Suddenly, a device of some kind emitted a noisy ping from Mia's gray coat, causing her to immediately lose her composure and screech, "They are getting away, Fettel!"
The implication that her loved ones found a way to safety was like a soothing balm upon Bela's weary heart. Predictably, Fettel was not as content with the news, if his roar of fury, followed by a hatefully spluttered command, was any indication.
"You and the brat can handle the bug-bitch! I'll follow our prize!"
Mia's features hardened. "What?! That was not the deal! My daughter…"
Fettel did not miss a beat as he made his way into the apartment, to both Bela's and Mia's chagrin, "Will be just fine as she waits for her mommy to finish off this whore and rejoin me at our extraction point!"
Without a further word, Fettel vanished into the apartment, but Bela was not about to just let him go to imperil her family. Not wasting any time herself, the blonde daughter proceeded to swiftly assume her full swarm form - intent on rushing right past Mia and the kid and engulfing this vile man in a sea of ravenous chitin.
A death by her flesh-eating swarm was an excruciatingly painful demise that Bela normally would not employ to end any living being. But this scumbag? He deserved to suffer. Not only for hounding her family across the continents - though that alone deserved an inglorious end in Bela's eyes - but also for unleashing this viral calamity upon this human megalopolis in the pursuit of his wicked goals. How many innocents had perished today, all for his selfish ambitions? Bela was not conceited enough to fancy herself a righteous avenger, not after her own vile deeds, but she would lie if she claimed that she would take no satisfaction from enacting retribution on behalf of all the people who were so grievously wronged today.
Mia had other plans, however.
Once Bela's swarm was about half-way to her, the traitorous wife sprung her trap.
"Haru, NOW!"
As prepared Bela was and as cautiously she approached her foes, she could never have even imagined what came next. How wrong she was to assume that the paranormal festival of today was over after Fettel's mind tricks.
A wave of bone-chilling cold - seemingly exuded by the small child at Mia's side - washed over her swarm and lowered the ambient temperature in the corridor far beyond what the fragile insects could tolerate.
In response, more out of instinctual desire to survive than out of rational thought, every single member of her swarm dashed to clump together, desperate to preserve the vital heat by combining their biomass. Not missing a beat and knowing well that her human form was far more resilient to such low temperatures than her flies, Bela had no choice but to immediately shapeshift back. As a single organism, her biomass could handle this kind of temperature without suffering a lethal outcome, at least for a while; though it was hardly comfortable by any stretch of the word.
"Mold is truly a wonder. So many possibilities…" Mia had obvious pride in her tone, as she motioned at the child at her side - who now adopted a particularly tense posture, with his fists clenched and black veins clearly visible through his pale skin. Somehow, the mold within his tiny body was able to affect the ambient temperature, and if this situation was anything else, Bela could even imagine herself sharing in Mia's wonder - for all the misery it brought into the world, Mold was a fascinating substance. Of course, things being as they were, all the elder Dimitrescu daughter desired was to get Mia and the brat out of her way and her fangs buried deep in Fettel's throat.
Fine. If that bitch wants to be brushed aside first, so be it.
With clattering teeth but burning resolve, Bela marched right forward, fully intent on wringing Mia's neck with her own two hands.
In turn, upon seeing that Bela was hardly crippled by the biting cold as she likely expected her to be, Mia's smug expression was replaced by a tense one, and the Winters matriarch took a step backward, while fishing in her coat pocket for something - Bela would have none of it, however, and covering the distance between them in a blink of an eye, shoulder-slammed right into the smaller woman. Noting that she knocked the breath out of Mia's lungs, Bela swiftly rearranged them both in a way that saw Mia pinned to the corridor's wall, while taking hold of Mia's right wrist with her left hand, and her right forearm pressing hard against Mia's throat.
Amber eyes glared into brown, and the intensity in latter ones caused Bela to pause in her planned execution. Such defiance in the face of overwhelming power was not a common sight, after all.
"So…" It was quite hard for Mia to talk with Bela's forearm all but crushing her windpipe, but the smaller woman managed to gurgle out some syllables, nevertheless, "stole… Ethan… steal… Rose?"
Astounded, Bela could not help but ease on her grip, as she protested the sentiment most vehemently, "I stole Ethan? You've abandoned him! You've abandoned Rose!"
Bela realized her mistake too late, and Mia did not hesitate to use the opportunity to wriggle out of the vampire's grip, with an instantaneous and shockingly agile follow-up that saw Bela's forehead slammed into the wall. Not wasting a single precious moment, Mia's hand - that was previously fishing in her coat's pocket - finally produced an item it was searching for - a syringe - only to jab it straight into the blonde's neck.
"I had no choice!"
Recovering from the dazing impact against the concrete barrier, Bela was unable to prevent the mysterious injection from gaining access to her veins, though a half-hearted backhand from her was enough to send Mia knocked down on her rear, some feet away from Bela. Hissing in pain as whatever vile mixture now coursed through her bloodstream, the vampire was swift in pulling the needle out of her neck and smashing it against the wall; the remaining greenish substance in it harmlessly spilling onto the moth-eaten carpet.
"Do you think I wanted to leave Ethan and Rose behind?!" Standing back up to her feet, Mia leveled a scalding glare against the vampire - who struggled to remain upright as a sudden and overpowering vertigo made it hard to retain balance. "I had no choice!" she repeated, even as Bela had no choice herself but to lean against the wall.
"They watched our every single move! Had I refused them, we would all be killed right there in London!" Mia continued her surprisingly passionate tirade, while reaching into her pants backpocket - or, at least, Bela thought she did, since it was quite hard to tell for sure, with her vision doubling. One Mia was already too much… two of them? Ugh…
"I have sacrificed everything for my family! Just so you could traipse all over the world with them?!"
Huffing in feverish effort as the unknown substance ravaged her system, Bela managed to somewhat stabilize herself through the sheer force of will. "What… have you done to me..?"
An evil smirk graced Mia's lips, as she happily responded, "You wanted to be human, didn't you?" Her hand revealed itself - a familiar outline of a handgun clutched in it. "You should be grateful then - Nikolai's Mold Suppressant will help you at least die a human. Or as close to human as you've ever been."
Bela never felt as weak as she did now. Every single muscle cried out in exhaustion; every nerve was seemingly on fire. She never expected to die at Ethan's wife's hands, but it seems like that cunning woman managed to once again get one over on her and Ethan was not around to bail her out this time.
Still… even with her body crippled both by the aforementioned mold suppressant and the kid's persisting chilling aura, Bela's urge to survive was strong. Stronger yet, was her desire to see her family safe and secure. Even if it meant tearing her way through Ethan's wife.
Letting out a guttural roar, Bela leapt at Mia just as the latter brought her gun up.
Bang
Her last-second maneuver of desperation was enough to disrupt Mia's aim, and the bullet meant for her head struck her shoulder instead. Bela's vulnerable human flesh, bereft of its shape shifting capabilities, was no match against the supersonic projectile and the blonde cried out in pain as the round tore its way through and out of her body. Thankfully, while painful, the glancing hit was not immediately crippling, and - moreover, shockingly - the opposite. Perhaps the wound stimulated the production of adrenaline in Bela's body, which allowed her not only to ignore pain from the injury itself, but to shrug off the debilitating effects of the serum - at least partially.
While far from being at her prime, Bela felt herself strong enough to fight back, and with a ferocity that surprised both of the combatants, slugged Mia right across her jaw. Enfeebled as Bela were, a strike that should've dislocated, or even outright shattered Mia's jaw, instead merely caused the smaller woman to jerk backwards, nevertheless allowing Bela the opportunity to grab for her gun.
Mia would have none of that, however, and after swiftly recovering from Bela's blow - too swiftly for Bela's liking - returned the favor by smashing her left fist into Bela's abdomen, causing the blonde to double over in pain, but not let go of the gun.
"Let go, you bitch!" A hissed out demand was followed by a brutal elbow bash against Bela's back, forcing her to fall on her knees, while still gripping the pistol with both hands. Neither of them was about to relent.
"Are you that determined to take everything that is mine?!" Mia's screech was accompanied by a savage knee slam, right into Bela's face.
The impact produced a gruesome snapping sound, with piercing pain to go along with - implying that her nose was broken, but Bela still held onto that singular lifeline - that simple human sidearm that could decide the victor of their little duel.
"Ethan is mine! Rose is mine!"
The loaded statements which Bela wanted to defy with every fiber of her being, combined with the taste of her own blood, however, was enough to awaken the predator that would no longer hold back.
Even with her unnatural powers suppressed and without any implements of death at her disposal, Bela was hardly unarmed - indeed, her mouth was an entire arsenal of deadly weaponry. An arsenal she promptly put to use by biting deep into Mia's hand - right under the thumb.
As her nemesis' sharp teeth ravaged the flesh of her hand, Mia could not suppress a scream of pain; with her grip on the pistol slackening, Bela was quick to take possession of it, though the sudden lack of resistance caused her to tumble to the floor with her prize.
Displaying her lethal intent, the blonde vampire did not hesitate in turning the weapon on its rightful owner, but Mia was hardly out of the fight. Ethan was not the only one who got through months of grueling self-defense training with Redfield. A swift but accurate kick against Bela's wrist followed and the pistol flew out of her feeble grasp - out of reach, for both of them.
Mia's opponent was just as deadly, if not more so - even in her weakened state, however. Bela might not have approached her training regimen with the same vigor as Cassandra, but that hardly meant that the elder sister was unprepared for the brutality of melee combat. Not missing a beat and having had enough of Mia, Bela leapt right from her spot at the floor, tackling Mia down and ending up on top of her.
"You've lost the right to claim Ethan as your own the moment you've betrayed him, you bitch!"
Full of indignity, Bela did not hesitate in smashing her fist against Mia's face. The force of the blow caused her own limb to cry out in protest, but both the adrenaline and the fury was enough to mask it, allowing the daughter to pull her arm for the next strike.
"You could've trusted him! You could've worked together!" Another blow landed, accompanied by a snapping noise, and Bela could see the disorientation taking hold in Mia's eyes. "Instead, you've left in the night with nary a word! And when you had the opportunity to beg him for forgiveness, you set loose your attack dogs on him!" And another pulverizing punch; with a tooth flying out - Mia was barely holding onto consciousness at this point, but Bela was not yet done - with neither vehement words nor punishing actions.
"But this is not even about Ethan for me…" Bela pulled her bloodied arm back, readying for a particularly vicious punch. Her face was locked into a visage of fearsome determination as she hissed out, "What you did to my mother… is unforgivable."
Even with Mia's face as messed up as it was, the disbelieving sneer made itself plain on it. "As if… you… would've done… any different in my shoes… how many lives…have you ruined… for your family?"
The truthfulness of that statement caused Bela to pause. And once again, a pause was all Mia needed to regain her bearing and kick Bela off of her, only to start crawling towards the discarded firearm.
"Everything I've done was for my family! For my Rose! You're the last obstacle that stands between me and a fresh start I was promised!" Almost touching the gun, Mia was disheartened to feel the vampiric bitch who had stolen her husband grab her by the legs.
With the extra weight, she could crawl forward no longer and the pistol remained tantalizingly just out of reach, no matter how hard she tried to reach for it.
"Then you should understand that I do this for my family." Bela's resolute voice was followed by an excruciating pain, as the bug-whore chomped deep into her calf, tearing through thin clothing fabric and fragile skin with ease.
More than just biting, Bela eagerly dug into the tender flesh, tearing chunks of it out, only to swallow them whole, not even bothering to chew. The agonized cries Mia let loose as the vampire engorged herself upon her leg did not add to her appetite, but neither did they cause her to stop. The short conversation - if it even could be called that - allowed Bela to realize that she was just like Mia, in the end. Just like Alcina has been; perhaps just like Miranda herself. For their respective families, they were ready to set the world itself on fire. No atrocity has been callous enough to stop them, not when their loved ones were threatened. Therefore, she did not relish the fact that she had to win.
"Stop hurting mommy!"
With how close and personal this encounter has been so far, Bela had all but forgotten about the little boy - who was now pointing the gun right at her head, as she brought her blood-soaked visage up to gaze at the newest threat.
"Do it, Haru! Shoot her!"
Likewise, Mia swiftly attempted to grab onto this newest lifeline the fate has bestowed upon her, eager to goad an innocent child into murdering for her sake.
To Bela's surprise, however, the child hesitated. His whole form trembled, as unsteady hands gripped the implement of death; the black, moldy veins still criss crossed his skin - producing that aura of chill.
"Just stop… please… both of you…"
The innocence of his plea was truly shocking. Somehow, Bela felt ashamed. Could they have truly found no common ground with words alone? Mia was not a cold-blooded murderer who reveled in wanton slaughter - Bela knew that much.
"Just give me the gun, Haru! So we can save your two sisters and start anew! Just the four of us!"
Bela felt bile coming up to her throat. To think that Mia had brainwashed this poor child into believing that he was part of her family - alongside the other E-002 prototype and Rose herself. Was that truly how she felt, or was it merely just another act? Simply one more body to pile upon the altar of blood ties. Just how much horror can one justify in the name of family, Bela couldn't help but wonder, as she gazed upon the child who now held her fate in his tiny hands.
Blind to Bela's grim musings, but overwhelmed by his own, Haru was a sad sight. Snot and tears dripped freely down his tiny face, but the child did as told and slowly, with obvious remorse, passed the gun into Mia's waiting hands.
Frozen in the moment of morbid revelation and with her reservoir of strength exhausted, Bela did nothing as Mia rotated her torso around, with the cold steel of the gun barrel pointing her way in the next second. All things considered, if Bela were to die, she couldn't think of a better executioner than Mia Winters. In a way, they both fought for the same thing, with the same bitter intensity and same callous disregard for anything in their way. It was fated that the stronger of their wills prevailed…
Therefore, the elder daughter merely stared past the gunbarrel, into Mia's brown eyes. She did not see a callous monster there, only a mother, ready to enact unspeakable violence for her beloved child. An intimately familiar sight, considering all the times she gazed into Alcina's amber orbs over the decades.
"Your child is his prize, Ms. Winters."
Nobody expected to hear that voice again. The gruff, mask-muffled voice of a Replica Clone - identical among all of them. Only two Replica were present in the building - as far as Bela knew. First one she had slain down in the parking lot, and no way that headless corpse would be doing any talking in this plane of existence. The second one, however…
With an expression of disbelief, Bela struggled to turn her weary head towards the source of the masculine voice. Just like she thought, it was the Replica Elite she previously thought dispatched. The sitting soldier was leaning against the wall, though even that seemed a struggle for his ruined frame. While more alive than Bela had expected him to be, his condition was far from enviable - with his battle-armor penetrated in multiple places and the carpet underneath him drenched red from all the soaked blood. It was a miracle that he was still breathing… and a bigger miracle yet that he chose to speak against his master.
Turning her gaze from the Replica back towards Mia, Bela was treated to a maelstrom of emotions rampaging across the desperate mother's bruised face. Shock, outrage, despair and soon after - resignation. Despite their close proximity, Bela had to struggle to decipher the pitiful whisper that left Mia's blackened lips.
"But… we had a deal…"
As if a missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle finally put in its place, the Replica's singular sentence shattered the fragile illusion Mia had built. The buzzing in the back of her brain that kept screaming at her that it made no sense for Fettel to be that interested in Alcina's drained husk took full dominion of her thought processes. The gun fell from her hands, cluttering to the floor - forgotten.
In turn, all the rage and hatred Bela felt towards this woman retreated to the back of her mind in an instant, replaced by pity, instead. "He left you here… not to only get rid of me… but to also get him rid of you…"
"...I've served my purpose." Mia finished Bela's thought with nothing but resignation in her tone. Again, brown eyes met amber ones, but this time, it was not shared enmity that connected them. Instead, a certain bond of comradery was born in that moment, as these two women, who were so different, yet somehow also so similar now had a common cause… and a common enemy. Neither of them would be quick to forgive the other's transgression, but perhaps they could be temporarily forgotten - for as long as it would take them to take vengeance on one man who had wronged them both…
…not that either of them were in any condition to take the fight to that formidable psionic commander after the beating they inflicted upon each other. It seemed that Fettel's plan had worked splendidly, after all.
Finally taking her hands off Mia's legs, Bela took a moment to inspect her own condition. Everything hurt - the blonde became aware of that unfortunate fact quick enough, as excess adrenaline started departing her system, now that she was no longer locked in a life-or-death struggle. Her shoulder felt as if on fire - the bullet must've scraped the bone on its way through her tender flesh. Her nose cried out in protest, rueful about the treatment it received from Mia's knee. Even Bela's back felt as if it was hit by a sledgehammer - Mia was certainly not a pushover when it came to physical fitness, it seemed.
Beyond the obvious physical damage to her frame, however, there was a deeper, more insidious kind of harm she had to overcome if she wanted to protect Alcina and Rose from that vile man. While the preternatural chill faded away - as Haru stopped producing his chilling mold even without Mia's direction to do so - the so-called Mold Suppressant would be harder to get rid off, considering that it was inside of her. Bela had no idea how long it would take for its effects to wear off and if her body was even capable of metabolizing it in the first place. What she did know was that it affected her in a very obvious and a very debilitating way. Even without its initial disorienting effects, the mold suppressant lived up to its name and the mold-enhanced strength and resilience Bela lived her whole life with, and, indeed - taken for granted - was gone, as was her capacity to shapeshift. She felt weak…fragile… human…?
With too much effort for her liking, Bela got back to her feet, struggling to ignore her sore muscles that protested the simple motion.
Of course, the elder Dimitrescu gave as good as she got in the fateful encounter with Ethan's wife. Glancing down at Mia, Bela wanted to both grin at the amount of damage she had inflicted upon her bitter nemesis, as well as to wince at the unenviable state of the enemy of her enemy. Doing neither, she merely appraised Mia's condition with a surgeon's detachment.
The Winters matriarch's prone body did not appear too dissimilar to how a bear mauling victim looked, when Bela had stumbled upon him, all the way back in the Carpathian mountains, decades ago. Indeed, Mia's left calf muscle was utterly savaged, as if a wild beast was set upon it. The vicious bite mark on her right hand - right under the thumb - was a comparatively tame one, though Bela had no doubt that it hurt immensely, nevertheless. Finally, Mia's once beautiful face was now a bloodied mess - with one blackened eye closed completely; a single front tooth gone and her nose arranged into an unnatural angle. Even bereft of her vampiric power, Bela was a force to be reckoned with, unfortunately for Mia.
Still, even though she was no doubt in throes of agony, Mia hardly let out any sound escape her bloodied lips. With the horror of their situation fully revealed, her open eye positively radiated despair - despair powerful enough to relegate even such potent physical pain to irrelevancy, it seemed.
Staring down at her once hated nemesis with nothing but pity, Bela did something she never expected to a person who had subjected her dear mother to the vile experiments that left her a mere shadow of her former self. Instead of ending Alcina's tormentor right then and there - in her moment of vulnerability - Bela offered her right hand.
For a couple of seconds, there was a distinct lack of understanding in Mia's gaze, as she glared at the offered limb.
Seeing her conundrum, Bela decided to compound her gesture with spoken word, though not before wiping her bloodied lips with her left hand's sleeve - quite aware that her next words would be received better without her mouth being smeared in Mia's blood.
"Perhaps… a truce is in an order?"
Bela's own voice betrayed her anxiety about the very notion. It's understandably not that easy to propose an offer of peace to a person you've pictured mutilating for many a night, after all. Moreover, the daughter wisely chose not to mention that the aforementioned truce will not exactly clear all the bad blood between the two of them… nor would it guarantee Mia protection from Cassandra - the middle Dimitrescu sibling was most vocal and vehement in her desire to tear that 'traitorous wench' to pieces. But Rose's and Alcina's safety was paramount right now, and if Mia felt the same - at least about the former, then they could have this temporary accord.
"For Rose. For my baby."
The newfound tone of determination in Mia's voice was enough to put a restrained smile on Bela's own face.
Accepting Bela's offered hand, Mia still struggled to get back on her feet. The horrific wound on her lower leg - courtesy of the blonde vampire's sharp teeth - meant that she would not be running marathons any time soon, if ever. Luckily, she could still stand, if barely.
Once again, surprising Bela with her physical resilience and mental fortitude alike, Mia locked her one open eye with Bela's own, tired ones - the previous hints of despair in it were replaced by newfound resolve.
The universal gesture of offering a helping hand, as well as of accepting it, was not lost on either woman. It held more than just a momentary cessation of conflict - a grain of potential was also there - potential to overcome the chains of sin that had bound them both for so long. To finally break this seemingly endless cycle of violence. To start anew.
"For Rose."
Bela's voice had just as much determination. Rosemary Winters might not have been her own child, but she was a precious person to her just the same and she would not hesitate to risk her own life for Ethan's daughter's well-being.
Possibly seeing that very notion in Bela's gaze or hearing it in her voice, Mia had allowed her broken lips to relax into a slight smile of her own. Regardless of anything else, there is nothing more precious to a mother than the life of her child. Perhaps together, they could still save her.
Author's note:
So sorry for such a lengthy delay... and such a short chapter! But I did feel like the occasion in it was monumental enough that any other segments would've diluted it. Still, I am already writing the next one, so hopefully, the next update will come swifter than this one :D
I hope this chapter was an enjoyable read and its resolution was not a disappointing one. I admit I am sorta proud of how it came together, but I'd love to hear what you guys have to think about it!
Also, I do have one issue I'd like your opinion on, my dear readers. Since we are VERY close to the end now, I've been struggling with deciding whether I want the epilogue (which will be a lengthy, multi-chapter piece with several timeskips) as just several more chapters in this story, or whether I should make a new story just for it (Like An Act of Kindness or Haunted by the Past). If its the former, it will be tidy up this whole series quite nicely, but if it will be the latter, I might take my time with it, make it a bit longer and more open-ended.
Anyway, thanks for bearing with my shitty update schedule and thanks for reading! If you have any questions, ideas or thoughts, feel free to share!