A/N: Hello all. So the time has finally come to see more of Ellie's backstory. I've seen a few comments saying they can't wait to see the witcher's reactions to it, so I give you all a Summer gift. Two chapters for the price of one. I am far enough ahead to do this, but we'll be going back to one chapter a week next week. I found these next instalments super hard to write as they are mainly my own original content, so please let me know what you think. I'll leave you all nervously to read, review and hopefully...enjoy! :)

Chapter 16

It had been quite a while since Ellie had last had a dream, but she imagined they felt a lot like this. She was aware of her surroundings but felt disjointed from them, as if she were viewing everything from a distance. Outside looking in. She was floating in a void of faint blue fog. No smells or sounds to pinpoint where or what it was exactly. She tried to turn but her movements were delayed, like walking through swamp mud.

Her head still hummed from the painful ringing that had filled it right before she had blacked out. Where had she been? Strapped to a torture device in the middle of a hall full of strangers. Great going Eleanor. Top notch decision making yet again.

'I swear kid, you always rush in with no regard for where you're headed.'

The achingly familiar voice snapped her to attention. Out of the fog, shadows began to loom. She tensed momentarily, startled by the unfamiliar sensation of the shifting dreamlike way she could move. As she did, a brief flash of pain shot down her spine, and she grimaced against it. What had the red head said? Don't struggle. Relaxing her muscles, Ellie watched as the shadows became clearer. Coalescing into basic shapes, then gradually defined objects and figures.

The most recognisable of these was a tall, broad shouldered individual, wearing a long coat. His back was to her as she drifted towards him, her legs moving but not actually connecting with the ground. Even from this angle, the tousled, shoulder length hair and towering demeanour of her old mentor made her chest constrict tightly. He was standing over a much smaller figure on the ground, who was looking up at him with large, tear filled blue eyes. Her soft round face totally unmarred by any scars.

As soon as Ellie laid eyes on her younger self, she felt a sharp tug on her ethereal form and in the blink of an eye she was sat on the hard-stone floor, looking up at Solomon. She felt a crushing wave of sorrow consume her as she stared up into his age lined but handsome face. The impressive curved horns sprouting from his forehead emitting a pale blue glow as he looked back sternly. She had thought about him a lot over the years, but those had been weak reflections of the demon he had been. This, although it felt like a dream, was more real than any of the memories she had let herself indulge in. She felt her eyes prick with the threat of tears, then baulked at the odd sensation of her body moving without her control.

She stood, still only chest height to her mentor, her face tilted up to see him properly. Unable to command her own limbs, Ellie realised she was merely a spectator to the past. The memory she was witnessing playing out in front of her as she, and apparently the rest of the people gathered back in Kaer Morhen, watched passively.

'I wasn't rushing.' Her younger self said. Her voice tinged with defiance.

Solomon raised an eyebrow, his mouth which had so often smiled at her, thinning into a disapproving line. 'You rushed, so ended up on your ass. Now come at me again and take your time. Choose your moment.'

It felt bizarre and kind of unnerving to feel her body move without her saying so. Younger Ellie backed up and lowered herself into a basic fighting stance. Her legs apart, her knees bent. Her hands raised in front of her holding a training staff. Now she was further back from the imposing Shedu, she recognised the surroundings. They were in the large training room of the barracks; a circular stone construction, the curving walls covered in carvings and murals. The centre of the room consisted of a raised stone dais, it was here she found herself. Confronted by her old mentor and surrounded by a few other sparing pairs.

Solomon lowered himself into a fighting stance. Sweeping his tan duster out to the sides, momentarily exposing his torso and legs, his infamous six shooters holstered at his hip. Between his legs Ellie saw a flash of his ox like tail swishing from side to side, the only other giveaway of his lineage, along with his horns.

'Why do I even have to learn this? Can't you just teach me to shoot?' Internal Ellie cringed at her younger self's petulant tone. Solomon's eyes darkened at her request, his mouth thinning even more.

'No. You need to learn the basics. When you have proven yourself, then you'll be given your demonite weapons. Waste of time me teaching you to shoot if you don't end up with a ranged one.' He raised his hands in front of him and motioned for her to get on with it.

Ellie's grip tightened on her wooden training staff as she focused on her opponent. Last time she had come at him head on and he had knocked her down instantly. What had he said? Choose your moment. Trying to block out the other fighting trainees around her, that were doing a damn sight better by the sounds of it, and also ignoring the dull ache in her rear end where she had landed, Ellie began to circle slowly around Solomon.

His grey eyes followed her, his feet shifting to keep her in front of him. She watched his footwork, watched the small delay between him registering her new position and changing his own. She waited until she could count the duration exactly in her head, two seconds. Two seconds where his balance was off, two seconds where he was concentrating on moving his own body and not focusing completely on hers. Two seconds.

Adjusting the staff as she circled Ellie waited until she had almost done a complete rotation around her surly mentor. She watched as his feet shifted in that familiar pattern as he turned to face her and she launched herself towards him. Dodging to the side, she swept her staff underneath his feet, attempting to hook one as it repositioned taking his balance completely. Her staff connected with Solomon's foot and she felt the shift in weight as she lifted it up, but right at the point where he should have fallen backwards he planted his other foot and twisted free of her staff. Glancing round in frustration she tried to see what had happened, but her vision was abruptly blurred as he landed a painful blow to the side of her head.

Once again, she found herself on her backside staring up at her mentor. Chagrin burning across her face. 'Better, but still too slow.'

'I thought I was quick.' She muttered, glaring down at the training staff held uselessly in her hand.

'Not quick enough kid.' Solomon said, holding out a hand to help her up. Not wanting to lose what little face she had in front of the other trainees, Ellie got to her feet without his aid. Looking back now, from within her own body, she wondered why she had been so determined to appear tough. Now it seemed like a waste of the little time she'd had with him.

Solomon grunted at her stubbornness and withdrew his hand. He resumed his starting position. 'Again.' He commanded, lowering into a fighting stance once more. Before Ellie could ready herself, an approaching figure made them both turn. It was another Shedu, a young male, his curved horns significantly smaller than Solomon's. He carried himself with an arrogant swagger, his own dark furred tail tipped with jet black hair swaying in time with his steps. He arched a fine black eyebrow as he looked at the older Shedu.

'I see you're still wasting your time on this abomination.' He drawled, his handsome features twisting with disdain as he glanced at Ellie. Even viewing this as a memory, the Ellie trapped inside her younger self rankled with loathing as she looked upon the face of her constant rival and harasser, Talus. His tone was disrespectful for a trainee addressing a senior member of the ranks, but it was downright blasphemous considering he was talking to the leader of the Gatekeepers himself.

Solomon let out a low huff, stepping up to the younger Shedu. 'Watch your words boy. Or I'll waste some of my time teaching you manners.' Talus sneered at Solomon, but Ellie was satisfied to see a glint of fear in those storm grey eyes. He took a step back, putting some distance between himself and the now, very imposing Shedu.

'Oi, Talus. I didn't say you could take a break.' A copper skinned Ifirit called out to him in a heavy accent. He was stood at the other end of the training hall, a large, wicked looking scimitar in his hand. His body covered with the tattoos of the Ifirit tribe, his crimson eyes locked onto the trainee he was meant to be sparring. Ellie wasn't sure she recognised him. Talus gave Ellie an affronted look, as if it were her fault he had gotten scolded by his two seniors. He retreated back to his trainer, Solomon watching him with narrowed dark eyes. Ellie continued to stare after the younger demon, his disgusted expression and hate filled insult still ringing in her ears. As Solomon continued his lesson she found her gaze drifting to the Ifirit now tutoring Talus again. His red eyes flashed to hers and she recoiled instinctually at the hatred burning in them.

That was the first time she had felt the alienation and discrimination being the only half-human in the demon's realm would bring her. The memory still hurt and she remembered how that encounter had crystallised her determination to prove them all wrong.

The scene before her faded into blue fog. The figure of her old mentor dissolving into shadow. Looking down at herself she saw no body, only more mist. She was weightless, floating in a void once more. The remnants of the previous vision were still etched into her mind's eye, and as if she had willed it into being another room from the vault of her memory materialised around her.

This time she was standing in what looked like a dark wood, but on closer inspection was actually a tightly knit collection of tall, wooden buildings and intricate structures that resembled trees. The sky above was the perpetual light encrusted dark that defined Purgatory and the buildings and tree sculptures were a glow with faint, twinkling blue lights. This strange dreamscape of light and shadows was the Shedu settlement on the western edge of the city.

Judging by the demons gathered with her, one of which was the ever-watchful eye of her mentor off to one side, Ellie quickly realised where her memories had deposited her this time. This was her initiation trial. For each type of demon the trial was a little different, for a Shedu, which had become her adopted tribe, it was a test of ones affinity with the elements. A race to the sacred circle on the very edge of the city using whatever powers you had developed during your training. As a storm demon, a Shedu could be gifted in summoning rain, or a raging tornado, or a freezing blizzard. Some could even call down lightning, or harness the raw power of rolling thunder.

Next to her were two other trainees, a plain looking female that she struggled to recall and the tall, handsome figure of Talus. The latter was giving her a venomous look and Ellie noted how the gap between herself and the other two was comically large. Solomon took a step forward, out of the watching crowd. He eyed each of them critically, lingering on her the longest. Then, raising his hand, he held one of his six shooters aloft.

'May the wind carry and guide your path. May the rain and snow part before you, and may you find strength in the storm that lives within you.' His voice seemed to echo loudly, despite him not shouting.

All three of the hopeful trainees assumed a crouched position, as if lining up on the starting blocks. Out of the corner of her eye Ellie saw Talus' tail flicking in agitated excitement. A cold shot of adrenaline suddenly flooded through her system as the anticipation for the gun shot began to build. She tried to remember all he had taught her in his months of training. She had one shot, and if she blew it…the other demons had made it perfectly clear there was no place for her here. She had to win.

A thunderous boom ricocheted off the surrounding buildings as Solomon's gun went off. The sound of it as deafening as a thunder storm directly above them. Before she could react the other two Shedu had already taken off. The unknown female racing ahead, her feet hardly touching the ground as if the wind itself were carrying her. Talus was only a little behind her and gaining, his long strides connecting with the earth with deep, thunderous booms.

Panicking slightly, Ellie tried to clear her mind. Her fingers pressing into the ground, drawing on the power Solomon had told her to. There was a brief moment where she thought nothing would happen. Then the air around her began to crackle with energy and she could feel the tingling power seeping up into her finger and through her skin from the very air. Forcing the lightning to her legs, and then further down to her feet, Ellie kept her eyes shut. Concentrating with all her will power. When it felt like her muscles would burst with the pent-up energy, she loosened her hold on the power, letting it snap through her like a taught elastic band.

There was a flash and an exhilarating burst of movement. The wind rushed passed her ears and she was unaware her limbs were even moving. Keeping her eyes shut she focused on her goal. The sacred circle. Her nose was filled with the metallic, burning smell of electricity. Her ears with the high-pitched whistling as she flew through the air. Then she felt the hard impact of ground, and the breath was knocked out of her lungs.

Gingerly she opened her eyes and above her was the towering stone monoliths that made up the most sacred place for Shedu. Gathered around her in a ring, their surfaces were lined with pulsating, blue lines. The smell of lightning faded from her senses and she became aware that she was the only one of the trainees there. There were some of the older members of the tribe watching her with appraising, if not slightly bemused expressions. A few moments passed before Talus appeared panting in the circle. His eyes flashed with deadly fire as he registered his loss. Then from out of the shadows behind him Solomon appeared, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

Pushing past the outraged Talus, he moved towards her and held out a hand. Grinning up at him, the addictive power of the lightning still buzzing through her blood she took it, letting him pull her to her feet.

'So, was that quick enough?' She asked. Her eyes alight as it slowly dawned on her that she had done it. She was now a member of the Gatekeepers.

Solomon grunted, his mouth twitching at the corners as he ran a hand through her frazzled, static shocked hair. 'Not bad at all kid.'

The blue fog ate up the vision. Ellie watched as the figures faded from view. The urge to reach out and grab them, stop the progression of time, overwhelming her. However, the moment she tried to command the memory to stay, a hot lance of pain shot down her spine again. Forcing her to follow the flow and let the fog take her ever onwards. There was a brief flash of burning pain in her wrist as she glanced down and saw the brand of the Gatekeepers glowing there. Freshly burnt into her flesh. Her fate sealed to them for as long as she existed.

She let the fog carry her on until the pale blue turned into a harsh, white light. The mists clearing to reveal the clinical linoleum and fluorescent lighting of a human supermarket. The air smelt strongly of disinfectant, frozen food and blood. So much blood. Glancing around Ellie saw a vivid red trail marking the white tiled floor of the store. It disappeared around a corner where the unnerving sound of slurping and crunching could be heard. As the rest of the supermarket started to appear around her the younger Ellie walked slowly towards the sounds, following the trail of blood.

Trapped in her own body, the other Ellie felt her chest constrict in anticipation for what she was about to find around that corner. She had experienced a lot in her time as a Gatekeeper, much that would drive a normal human mad. Despite this she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in tandem with the body that was now cresting the edge of the aisle. The hairs on younger Ellie's arm stood to attention, the first sigh that another demon was nearby.

The slurping and crunching grew in volume, until it was almost obscene. The blood trail led down the main central aisle and became a puddle, and then a lake as she saw several bodies of what had once been humans, but were now mutilated and half eaten beyond recognition. They were lying on the floor and splayed across half collapsed shelves. The food that had been stored there now scattered across the floor. Slumped in the middle of the gruesome scene was a large, boar like creature. Its heaving, fleshy mass of a body shuddering as it kept its snout to the ground, gorging on something Ellie could not see. The boar was as tall as the four-tiered food shelves on either side of it even sat down. It's face a deformed mess of tusks and human looking teeth in a mouth filled with gore. Its eyes were large globes of blood red and black, glazed over with the blank stare of a dumb beast, but Ellie knew that this monstrosity hadn't always been so.

This was a Mammon. A greed demon. Usually they were small, shuffling, pig-headed denizens of Purgatory. In charge of the trade and commerce of the city. They were weak, cowardly, frail little things, only concerned with making deals. This was a Mammon, but a rabid one. A demon that had lost all intelligence and restraint. Returning to its basest nature. An undeniable monster. Ellie remembered this moment well, it was the first assignment her and Solomon had been given as partners, and it was the first time she had seen a rabid demon face to face.

The monstrous boar lifted its oversized head. Its swirling red and black eyes rolling in their sockets. In its mouth, what remained of the head and shoulders of a young woman. Her face frozen in an expression of horror in her last moments. The Mammon rotated its jaw, crunching down on its meal, sucking the corpse in a few more inches.

Bile rose in Ellie's throat, hot and acidic, as she began to back away. All her training coming to naught when confronted with the monster. Rabid demons were dangerous and unstoppable to most, and when unleashed on the human world, like this one, they left a trail of death in their wake. It was the Gatekeepers job to stop them. It was her job. The Mammon took a deliberate step towards her, then let out a guttural roar. The dead woman falling from its jaws. The lower half of her body was gone, swallowed by the beast, and Ellie felt a heady mixture of fear and revulsion as the boar began to charge.

Reaching behind her, she fumbled for her daggers, but terror had made her fingers clumsy and she felt like she was moving through treacle. The Mammon bore down on her, snorting through its snout, blood dripping from its mouth. Ellie's eyes widened in an expression of terror. Just as the beast was about to collide with her, a thunderous boom rang out. She flinched instinctually, expecting the feeling of pain to incapacitate her. Instead, the massive demon collapsed onto the blood-soaked linoleum, sliding to a stop in front of her. A perfect hole in its grotesque skull.

Whipping round Ellie watched as Solomon stepped out from between the fallen shelves into the aisle, a thin trail of smoke drifting from one of his six shooters. Readjusting his wide brimmed hat which he wore to cover his horns in the human world, he gave Ellie a reproachful look.

'Nice distracting kid. Although you probably should've moved as soon as he starting charging you.'

'I…I…you shot him.' Was all she could manage. Solomon looked at her properly then, taking in her pale face.

'Yeah, I know. The first one is always the worst. It gets easier, believe me.'

'Does it?' Ellie said, turning to look down at the corpse of the Mammon. Its frame seemed to be shrinking, the flesh dissolving off its bones as she watched. 'What happened to him?'

Solomon sighed, moving round Ellie to crouch down by the monster. His long coat dipped into the blood now congealing on the floor, staining the edge a deep crimson. He dug two fingers into the hole he had made, pushing against the rapidly shrivelling flesh. With a sucking pop he pulled his hand out, a copper coloured bullet held between his thumb and forefinger.

'No one knows for sure why demons turn rabid, some think it has to do with our ancestors, some think it's a disease. All I know, is that I feel damn sorry for all the poor soulless bastards it happens to. No one wants to become a monster.'

Ellie took in the half-eaten corpses strewn around the now deflated Mammon. Its skin resting on its skeleton like a canvas stretched across an easel. 'So, I couldn't go rabid…because I'm a human.'

Solomon looked up at her from under the brim of his hat. 'Half human.' He straightened up, his expression grave. 'And everyone has the capacity to become a monster kid. Even you. If you remember anything, remember that.'

He pocketed the bullet and surveyed the scene. 'Come on. Let's clean this up before any other humans show up.'

As the fog began to consume her once more, Ellie kept her gaze fixed on the dead eyed stare of the Mammon. Solomon's bullet hole acting like a third eye in the centre of its head.

Now she was growing accustomed to the ritual, she let the current move her along. The next few memories flashed past with barely more than a glance. Ellie's first demon kill; a rabid Jinn that had started biting humans in some European city. Turning them into Vampires. The time she had saved a human, a sad eyed, handsome man who had the Seer gift. She had helped him use it to talk to the souls that couldn't move on to Purgatory. She watched with an aching heart as their relationship grew, knowing how it was destined to end.

It was only when the fog began to clear on a dark basement, that she suddenly didn't want to watch anymore. A standoff between four figures. Her and Solomon on one side, the Seer man and a wild-eyed succubus on the other. She had one hand wrapped around the man's throat, the other was holding one of Solomon's guns that she had managed to get off of him.

Ellie was stood in between the two most important people in her life; a choice to make. She had seen it happen before and had no desire to stand by again as it played out like some nightmarish pantomime. Pushing against the flow of the ritual, she tried desperately to dispel the scene in front of her. The lance of pain that had been a warning to her before now turned into a searing agony, her every nerve screaming in horror as she fought against the spell.

'No. Stop.' She said. Although no sound came out as she had no control over her own mouth. The words echoed inside her head and she had no idea if anyone heard her plea, but the fog refused to reappear and she watched in helpless pain as Solomon moved towards the succubus at a run. She couldn't stop him, she could do nothing as the hybrid sank her teeth into the man's neck and in the same instance fired the thunderous six shooter straight at her charging mentor.

Both version of her screamed out in unison as Solomon collapsed in a crumpled heap and the succubus dragged away the choking Seer. She knew the chain of events that followed, regardless Ellie still winced internally as she felt the sharp sting of pain of the succubus' extended claws raking over her left eye as she rushed to retrieve her soulmate. But far worse than seeing him vanish, her bleeding, un-healing wound obscuring her vision, was the cold terror as she returned to her felled mentor's side.

The old Shedu looked up at her with clouded grey eyes, his hat knocked off, the blue glow of his horns flickering like a candle flame in the wind. She pressed her hands into the fabric of his long coat, balling the lapels of it into her fists as she felt the first tears slide from her eyes. There was an open ugly wound on his torso, his waistcoat ruined.

'Get up Sol. Come on, we have to get him back.' She begged, but the hardy demon, the leader of the Gatekeepers and her beloved teacher merely smiled up at her, his eyes growing dimmer.

'It's okay kid. It's the way things go.' He murmured before his eyes dimmed, the life gone from within them. Ellie howled in her grief, the tears and blood mixing together to make it hard to see, but she didn't want to. She knew what happened to demons that passed, they had no souls to continue on, they simply ceased to be. Their flesh withering, their form collapsing in on itself like the Mammon they had killed together all those years ago.

The pain of resisting the ritual suddenly dulled in comparison to the knife of loss now lodged in her chest, as fresh as the moment she had lived it. The blue fog began to creep in, consuming Solomon's dead body, still clutched in his partner's hands.

'You happy now. Did you need to see that?' Ellie screamed into the void; but the void did not respond. Instead the mists shifted around her formless body revealing her stood on the steps of the Manor of Souls, the central point within the city of Purgatory. Above the endless night sky, the multi-coloured lights of millions of souls covering the inky blackness. Before her, a sea of upturned faces looking at her as Mortimer, mayor of the demons announced she was Solomon's successor, the new leader of the Gatekeepers. As the gathered crowd applauded, some less enthusiastically than others, a line of demons in the front row held up their left hands, wrists facing her, the brand of the Gatekeepers displayed in a salute. Talus was amongst them, his face twisted into a grimace of hatred as he saluted her with the rest of his comrades. She watched him as he mouthed something, too quiet to hear over the applause but unmistakable to her.

'Filthy half breed.' She turned away, her expression stony. She had heard enough to no longer react, but inside the knife in her chest pushed in deeper. Her thoughts drifted to a more recent memory and as if on command the blue fog swirled in, morphing the upturned faces of the demons into the angry, shouting faces of village peasants.

They were screaming insults and throwing things, but not at her. Next to her stood a familiar figure, his amber eyes blazing as he faced his abusers.

'Freak.'

'Mutant.'

'Witcher scum.'

Ellie felt the place where her heart was, constrict in empathy for the man. How long had she felt unwanted and pushed aside in a world that hadn't given her any options? She saw on his face the same stony expression she had worn that day on the manor steps, and so many others days like it. Even as she thought this he looked down at her, the dead look in his beautiful topaz eyes too much for her to bare. Turning on the peasants shouting at him she felt her powers flow through her, and a feral snarl ripped from her throat. She would show them who the real monster was here. The burly peasant man that had been charging towards Lambert staggered back in fright and she roared her defiance at him.

In that moment his face became the sneering face of Talus, and she let out all her anger and frustration on the man cowering before her in the dirt. A cold line swiped its way across her stomach before she felt the blood flow from her. As she collapsed in the dirt, she looked up and saw from the corner of her eye Lambert stood over her, his silver sword covered in her blood, a shocked expression on his face. The peasants around him ceased their mob like attack and instead cheered the witcher. She felt her mouth pull up in the smallest of smiles as the blackness closed in, although not before she saw the look of raw worry the witcher gave her, lying in the mud.

The fog snapped back. Closing off the strange detour. Ellie realised with a pang that Lambert would have seen all that. What must he think of her? Chagrin flooded her system, long enough to distract from where the ritual was taking her next.

She was still thinking about the village and what she had done as the mists cleared once more revealing a dark wood. The distant twinkling lights of a town peeking through the shadowy trunks. She was in a much smaller body. Her legs and arms gangly with the awkwardness of youth. Her legs bare to the night chill as her nightdress fluttered around as she ran. A small hand held firmly in her own as she dragged someone behind her. The someone let out a cry. They stumbled, a small voice reaching her over the desperate panting of her own lungs.

'Ellie, slow down. I can't keep up.' The voice was high and childlike. The tremoring tenor of a young, frightened boy.

'Not this.' The Ellie trapped within her teenage body said. Horror sweeping through her as she realised where the ritual had taken her. 'Not this.' She said, louder this time. Although the words were only in her head.

When the expected pain swept through her nerves she braced against it. Fighting through the burning sensation in her blood, the feeling of being pulled apart at the seams. She was in agony, but it was better than having to live this moment again. Anything but this.

She pulled and she pulled. The pain increasing with every attempt to break the spell. But the fog did not come. Instead, her younger self continued running, as if her life depended on it through the dark woods, a crying, pleading little boy stumbling along behind her. And in the distance, the distinctive sound of heavy footsteps, coming closer, pursuing them through the trees.