After having tried to pry the doors open, with no avail, the girls chose to take a quick breather before giving it another go. That was, until a screen in their room flickered to life, revealing the ashen haired boy in an arena with Carol. The two had yet to start, but if they did, no doubt the witch would not go easy on him, Maggie knew better than anyone. Which is what drove her to forgo rest and attempt once more to pry the doors open. And when she couldn't, she resulted to pounding against the steel door, knowing full well she couldn't break it down. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to at least try. In the end, she ended up slamming against the door too hard, hissing in pain she slid down, her head hung low as she could now only hear the exchange between Carol and Lincoln.

'Now then, show me what you can do, Lincy~.' She heard from the screen. Her teeth grit tightly, Carol always did that, act happy and cheerful, friendly one could even say, but it was all a facade. She remembered the spars she had to go through with the witch, the wounds she would inflict just to see her healing abilities work to their fullest extent. As she nursed her bruised shoulder, which would heal within a few seconds, she also glanced to her burned arm. The burning sensation she felt, the lingering pain that came with these scars; she wondered how much time had passed. How long did she have these scars? How long was she missing? Did her parents still care at this point? She had yet to come to terms with how she looked, even glancing at her reflection made her break down in tears. And now, as if to further torture the girls, they had to watch one of their own, one of the few of the witch's successful experiments, prepare for a torture they knew all too well.

Knowing Carol, she wouldn't stop until she broke the ashen boy if he didn't meet her expectations. The worst of all of this; if he was deemed a defect, there wasn't exactly a good track record with the witch and her temper towards failed Ghoul subjects. Those still alive were only breathing because...and it was at this point that the girls were beginning to wonder why it was they were left alive.

All the while, the six-armed Ghoul began to awaken, with Jordan trying to ease her back to sleep, only for Carol's giggling to snap the little one wide awake. Her head rose up without missing a heartbeat, her eyes focused on the screen where her 'leader' was apparently about to go toe to toe against the witch. Like the others, she knew what would come of this; the boy would be screaming, writhing in pain as the witch would twist and break him both physically and mentally.

"Layla..."the six-armed Ghoul turned to Jordan, who was now kneeling beside her, her arms wrapped around the young ghouling whilst trying to keep her attention away from the screen. "Don't look sweetie." Jordan's tone towards the little one was that of caring, maternal one could say. But, even with her head turned, Layla stilled kept an eye on the screen. Getting a better look at the team leader, she noticed something of an odd coincidence; Lincoln looked almost like a younger version of her parents. In a sense, she assumed the white hair was due to his transformation, but even then, she couldn't help but feel reminded of her father and mother when she saw him. In a way, it made her worry for him, more so that she couldn't bear to see a Ghoul go insane. Again.

-Training Arena-

Carol made no stance, she just stood there smiling, unnerving Lincoln to a great degree. He wasn't any different, but to his credit, he at least positioned himself to dodge any oncoming attack. Given his little scuffles with his sisters, a hand-to-hand approach would be well for him. He could take a punch, but knowing Carol, he'd be receiving more than just a punch. And so, he kept himself at a distance, at the ready, waiting for-

"Too slow~" And Without even getting a chance to blink an eye, Carol had appeared next to him, side-kicking him hard enough that he crashed against the metal walls, visibly denting the damned things, all the while coughing up blood. Only this time, he found the color to be a darkish red, similar to the one that infected him. This caught the witch's attention, her smile wavering as she remembered the still human-like blood he displayed when his jock of a sister punched him. This little detail would've been documented and further studied, if she had more time. But, that was a luxury at this point. "You can attack now, Lincy." She called out, but the boy was too busy gathering himself. Staggering as he attempted to stand, she took great pleasure in watching Lincoln stumble. The force of the attack was enough to kill a human, the boy assumed, considering her could've sworn he felt more than a couple of bones dislodge and crack. Luckily enough, his enhanced healing fixed those little dents right up. Although, given what occurred with Maggie, Carol would push him to the point that she'd eventually leave a mark on him. One even his natural body couldn't heal. And so, he took the initiative this time. Taking a sharpened piece of metal plating, he jogged a few steps before turning to an all-out sprint. Though, before being able to land a single punch, Carol dodged his feeble attempt at an attack, kicking him to the side instead, watching his body roll across the floor was anything but pleasing to her. Though, she didn't show it immediately, after all, this was simply a practice match. Given the boy had no training in terms of combat; she didn't expect him to beat her, or even come close. Granted, only one of Corduroy's Ghouls was with training, but she highly doubted the woman would send a soldier on a scout mission. So, that left the newly acquired Ghoul, with a small team of defects, on a capture run. Still, it didn't mean she couldn't have Lincoln prepared for whatever came his way.

Case in point, she used this moment not only to discover what his powers were, but to as well have him ready for the inevitable. The primordial wasn't going to allow her, or any of her experiments off with another warning.

Although, Lincoln wasn't exactly making this easy. His attacks were predictable, slow, with little or no effort. In other words; she was fighting a human. And it irritated her. He was supposed to have tapped into his abilities as a Ghoul. She knew he could sprint faster, his strength would've been abnormal for one as small as him, and his ferocity should've at least matched that of primal beast. And yet, he held back. This would only further infuriate her as he made no effort to use his newfound instincts. In his next attack, where he attempted to side kick her, she caught his foot with little effort. Holding him in place, her smile faded, replaced with a mild show of irritation, causing the boy's blood to run cold. She raised her free arm up, and brought it down on his leg, dislocating the bones from the knee. The sound of cracking bone and ripping flesh, from the pieces of bone piercing through his skin, echoed in the hollowed arena.

His screams of pain caused the ghoulings to wince; Nikki flinched for a moment, turning away from the screen before eventually finding the courage to gaze again. Jordan had covered Layla's eyes just before Carol delivered her crippling blow, and with her added appendages she was also able to cover the little one's ears. Though, she could only shut her eyes and listen to Lincoln's blood curdling screams. And Maggie...she refused to watch. With tears streaming down her cheeks and an already bruised shoulder she still attempted to either break down the door, or at the very least pry it open. Sadly, her attempts were all in vain. But her eyes remained anywhere but to the screen. She couldn't look. She wouldn't. But she wouldn't sit idly by and let it happen without trying to stop it.

All the while, Carol lifted the boy by his injured leg, and tossed him aside, sending him sliding across the floors, painting the metal with his blood, and stoping only when his body slammed against the wall.

The overwhelming pain and fatigue had started to settle in, Lincoln's entire body begged him to lay limp, but he could feel his leg already beginning to heal itself. The witch wouldn't wait for him to fully recover, and his injured limb wouldn't fully heal for quite some time either. Instead, Lincoln tried sitting up, only to have the witch grab his arm and pull him up, violently. Carol's grin had completely vanished, replaced by an expression one could only assume was one of an unimpressed mother.

"Why are you making this difficult, Lincy?" And yet, she still sounded so sincere. "I need my favorite to be at his best." She proclaimed with the tightening of her grip on his wrist. "Was I wrong, are you also a defect?" Her tone shifted, as if daring him to respond. Though, with little care as to whether or not her actions were fair, she tightened her grip once more, eventually, and swiftly, fixed a combination of crush and twist to her hold. Crushing Lincoln's bones to the point of splintering them, whilst twisting the resulting injury to further amplify the 'lesson'.

Once more, Lincoln's cries echoed in the arena, with Carol to wonder for a brief moment if she had made a mistake with this one. She intended to use them, the defects and her successful experiments; this child was to be the precursor for whatever Ghoul was to come next. However, even she had begun having doubts.

"That's quite a shame. I had high hopes for you…" She leaned over, uncomfortably close to Lincoln's face. "Can you keep going?" her grin had returned. She was in no way actually going to relinquish the plans she had for him; the question was simply a means to give the ghoul a sense of comfort, believing he would be able to stop the pain.

Lincoln's cries had become raspy, as he had been writhing in agony for far longer than expected. His eyes were near rolling back, foam began forming from his mouth. From the look of things, it almost seemed as if he was near fainting. However, it didn't appear as if the witch was ready to let up. She rose up her hand, reforming it into a mantis-like pincer, gazing down upon Lincoln with a mildly disappointed expression. "Hmm, maybe Leni will give a better result. That or she'll just be a tasty snack." However, as the pincer came down, Carol felt an ominous aura emit from the boy. Her pincer stopped dead in its tracks, her hands trembled. She saw nothing change, the boy made no abnormal sound, but all of her instincts were screaming at her to gain distance.

But she didn't. And for that, she was treated to hearing a faint, feminine giggle, just before Lincoln's body charged at her again, this time, it moved faster and with much more ferocity. There was only one strike, but it was more than enough to send Carol across the arena, stopping herself just before being embedded into the wall. As she shifted her attention back to Lincoln, she noticed him no longer a few feet away, but rather mere inches from her face as he grabbed her head, and violently slammed her repeatedly against the iron walls. With each bang, Carol's face was creating deeper dents, and the injuries she sustained were becoming worrisome as the Ghoul's flesh was stripped to the bone, and Lincoln had no intention of stopping. Each time he swung a fist, the onlookers would assume Carol would block it, she did not. His strikes were barbaric, desperate even. Lincoln was desperate to survive this ordeal, and should he actually kill the witch at this moment, he'd be saving more than just his own life.

Although, judging from the look on her face; she was enjoying it. Perhaps not how she was currently being battered, but rather, her attempt to push the boy was only done by a meager amount of torture. With this little revelation, a faint grin broke across her lips.

"The fuck are you smiling for?" Carol's head snapped to Lincoln, her grin had disappeared at the sight of the young ghoul. The boy's voice had shifted completely to that of a girl's, and when he spoke it was followed by an eerie echo. The physical change appeared to be his eyes as they both had shifted to a black sclera, and amber pupils. His teeth had sharpened, grinning widely, pupils in different sizes as there was a mere moment of hysteric laughter from the changing ghoul.

Lincoln hunched over, slithering lumps appeared on his back, the sounds of shifting flesh and twisting bones, sounds associated with a ghoul's transformation. Though, rather than the boy's body reshaping, from his back burst forth six tentacles. The two lower tendrils slammed against the floor, lifting the boy's body from the ground. The tips of the other four split to reveal jagged teeth from within, possibly acting as extended mouths to the ashen-haired boy.

"Finally…I get my day in the sun…" That voice, the one that not only frightened those who heard it, but caused shivers to roll up her spine as Carol watched what she believed was Lincoln fading into something else. And where some would see this as troubling or worrisome, she was grinning with glee. This form of ghoul infection was nothing like what she was accustomed to seeing. She had essentially, and unintentionally, created something new. Oh how she couldn't wait to study him in the days to come. Though, upon noticing her ecstatic expression, what few assumed was Lincoln, grinned right back at her. "And why are you smiling?" It was then that the feminine voice was no longer accompanied by an echo. "Lincy might not be willing to go all out…but I will."

Carol's spine shivered with anticipation, so many assumptions and questions arose from the way this thing separated itself from the ashen-haired boy. Almost as if by some circumstance there were now two sentient minds within the boy's head; Lincoln himself, and a new being possibly conjured up by the infection. Or, and this was perhaps her favorite of the numerous hypothesis she came up with; this was but a fragment. The boy's mental statement had been pushed to the point that it fragmented to protect itself. However, this particular theory came with a rather irritating question; what caused Lincoln's mind to fragment, if this was the case?

"Oh, is that so?" Carol remarked, a glint of eagerness could be seen on her face. "And who might you be?" she decided to play along.

Though, this newcomer seemed less eager to speak as one of her tentacles wrapped around Carol's leg, swung the witch in circles just before slamming her body repeatedly against the metal floor and ceiling. After a rather long and rage induced fit, another tentacle wrapped around the witch's torso, and with one sickly twisting motion; it tore the ghoul in half. Deep blackish crimson blood stained the ground, as well as the apparent entrails seeping unto the floor.

"Who cares?" it muttered.

From within the dorm room, the girls watched in horror as the boy had ripped apart the cause of their fear, however, it was also a cause for concern as the young ghoul was reverting into something akin to a feral, and yet with a modicum of intelligence. Jordan couldn't believe what she'd been seeing, her classmate had, within seconds, tore the witch in half without even breaking a sweat. But, what bothered both her and Nikki was Carol's lack of response to the boy's shifting attitude. Maggie, on the other hand, recognized this little scenario. This wasn't over, far from it. And yet, all she could do now was to wait and hope that Lincoln, or whatever the hell was in control at the moment, would hold out for however long Carol deemed necessary. Speaking of which…

While the ghouling relished in its premature victory, it failed to notice the bits of gore and blood receding, reforming back into the witch's body, silently. It only took a few seconds before Carol was back on her own two feet. All the while, she grinned widely at Lincoln; he wasn't a defect after all, but rather, an anomaly she could work off of. "Impressive." She commented, earning a momentary surprised look from the ghouling before it took another battle-ready stance. "This was genuinely an interesting turn of events. However, my main interest at the moment is with Lincy, whoever you are, be gone from my sight."

The ghouling growled at the witch's request, a hissing sound was emitted from her tendrils as well as they too bared their jagged teeth at Carol. "That's not happening."

Almost with much greater speed than shown prior, Carol disappeared from sight, only to reappear not half a second later, mere inches away from the ghouling's face. "Did I stutter?" Carol asked, piercing the ghoul's stomach, hoisting it in the air for a moment before tossing it violently aside. Lincoln's body slammed against another wall, nothing too hard to kill him, but with just enough force to cause him to cough up blood. As the unknown ghoul attempted to regain their bearings, Carol griped the ghoulings head, and repeatedly slammed it against the floor, with each impact the ground began to crack, as did the boy's skull. One of the tentacles managed to shoot out and drive off the witch, which succeeded, if only momentarily. "You're stubborn, I'll give you that." she smirked. "But that only makes the idea of breaking you all the more fun. However…" again, without warning, Carol disappeared, only to reappear behind the boy. With a vice grip on his head, she leaned him back and placed her palm against his forehead. A faint glow denied any form of response from Lincoln, effectively knocking him out and allowing the witch to claim the victory. "I'm satisfied with what I've seen so far."

She spoke too soon.

With an almost eerily undetectably swift motion, Lincoln's arm had pierced her stomach. He stared blankly at her confused expression before muttering. "I'm not." It was still the known ghouling's voice. She jumped away, genuinely surprised and irritated it was taking longer to put down this subject. And without showing it, she was also rowing a tangent of fear of being outdone by this ghoul's power. As of this moment, she had tried to mimic what she assumed was his abilities, however, the tentacles appeared to be part of his anatomy. That was easy to understand, but this second mindset, this seemingly 'two souls stuck in one body' scenario was not something she was prepared for. It was fun at first, but it soon became apparent that, without some form of leverage Carol would have no way of keeping this thing under her thumb. And she knew for a fact that this ghoul fighting her wasn't Lincoln, the aura was all wrong. It was more twisted than the average ghoul, it felt primal, similarly to those of the ferals, and yet this one regained its consciousness.

The unknown began to giggle, tauntingly, just before being risen by her tentacles. "You've got some nerve…" her tone, she was taunting the witch. Carol could no longer hide her annoyance at this sudden turn of events. "He might be willing to submit to you, but I'm not that easy, honey." This act of defiance, it was getting to her, more that this ghoul's wounds had already healed, adding to it, it almost appeared as if they'd grown in height, their frames slimmer than normal. On top of Lincoln's body reshaping itself, his face shifted, resembling that of a mannequin, similar to Europa, however, this one had nothing to show, not eye socket, mouth slit, nostrils, ears…nothing. It was a completely blank slate, and yet she spoke so clearly.

Carol needed an angle, something to hold over this one like she had over Lincoln. "I'm assuming Lincoln no longer has a say in this? That you are in control?"

The ghoul's lightened expression soured as it leaned forward. "That's right."

Carol grinned. "If that's the case, I'm sure you won't mind me going back up top and having my fun with Lincoln's family then?"

"I don't care." With that hastily declared statement, both Carol, and the ghoulings watching were surprised. The ghoul creeped closer, their glare fixed solely on the witch. "That family is nothing more than a burden, Lincy is too attached. By killing them, you'd be doing be a favor. And even if you don't, if they get in my way, or threaten my existence I won't hesitate to put them all done like dogs. I fight for me, and no one else."

If there was one thing Carol couldn't deny, it was how much she agreed with this ghouling. The Loud family was a burden, holding back Lincoln's progress, and it didn't help that even after the way they treated him, he still chooses to protect them; placing them above his own wellbeing. Still, she preferred the pacified Lincoln, the one she could control. This one, she knew next to nothing about, and was sure would not submit to her anytime soon.

There was a fair moment of silence before the unknown began giggling again, tilting her head as the other tentacles hissed at Carol. "Well, doesn't matter anyway. Cause after I'm through with you here I'm going to-"

'Disappear'

The silence returned, if only momentary for what was to occur. Without warning, the ghouling dropped to her knees, clutching where her left eye should be. Carol could feel her aura spiking alongside another, as if two ghouls were fighting each other for dominance. And for all she knew, that just might be what was happening considering the sudden exchange she was having with herself.

"W-what…what are you doing? Can't you see I'm winning…?!" she flailed her arms and tendrils around, swatting at something, but at the same time at nothing. The echo in her voice had returned, and little by little the tentacles began to dissolve. "You idiot…you're gonna get us both killed!" She shouted again, following which was a blood curdling screech as the tint of black in her sclera had receded, and with it, Lincoln fell backwards not too long after her screaming came to a sudden halt. His body landed roughly against the hardened metal floor, his aura and smell both returned to normal, giving the witch, for the first time in a while, a chance to sigh in relief. This ghoul was far from winning if she thought all she needed to do to kill a ghoul was hack and slash enough times. But, Carol couldn't deny, she felt herself on edge for most of the time. She genuinely couldn't keep up for bits of the fight, and that ghoul meant her words when she disregarded Lincoln's family.

As she approached the seemingly passed out body, she was quick to examine the boy, the tension eased when she felt a pulse. For this one moment, she allowed herself to slump down beside him, her hand gently caressed his hair as a bountiful of scenarios and plans began formulating in her head. Two ghouls trapped in one body, now there was an experiment worth venturing into. And unbeknownst to Lincoln, she had plans for his family, or rather, a select few.

As for the call signs for this little batch of ghouls, while she had nothing for the ones still locked in their dorm, she had an interesting idea for Lincoln's rather 'unique' anatomical frame. Thinking on it, Carol grinned widely. Already imagining her little experiment wandering about Royal Woods, she couldn't help but feel giddy.

"Now…I just need a tux."