Hollow satisfaction filled Hansel as he watched his troop, his family, disappear down the road and out of his life. It was the right thing for everyone. He didn't have a desire to die alone, hell, despite what his lifestyle would suggest, he didn't want to die, but he wasn't going to be the cause of everyone that mattered to him being slaughtered at his hand or because of him. He was selfish enough to desperately want them around him, to feel the safety and security they would offer even in this hopeless time but he couldn't let himself be selfish enough to have them share his sentence. Not giving into that need would be the one thing he could do for them, to repay them for all that they had unknowingly given him. Hansel would self-destruct alone.

"You were supposed to go with them," he scolded, hiding his desperate need to have the one soul that truly understood him stay close by. He hated himself for needing Gretel so badly, for not fighting harder to get her to leave with the others.

"Your smelly feet and pigheadedness haven't driven me away yet, what makes you think this is going to be the thing that pushes me away?" teased Gretel, trying to inject some levity to mask the growing terror plaguing her.

Hansel turned and grasped her hand in his, preventing her from packing their things and taking away the constant motion that she had been using to delay the inevitable realization of the situation they were currently in. "Gretel," he forced out from around the burning lump in his throat. The other words weren't as easy to force out, bunching in his chest and threatening to consume his very being with their animalistic need to escape his lips.

Gently she cupped his face in her hand, her gut clenching in protectiveness as he leaned into the small comfort. "We'll find someone who knows exactly what's going on," Gretel offered.

"Oh yeah? Where are we going to do that?" snarled Hansel. In all their years as hunters they had never crossed paths with anything like this. It was safe to say that Edward had a fair understanding of supernatural things and the most he could offer was whoever they were after was a walking dead man. Even if it was some sort of mistake and these things thought he was a witch, Hansel doubted they could be convinced they were wrong. The troll had been afraid, knew they wouldn't stop until they claimed their prize; anything they did now was going to be delaying the inevitable.

Worse yet, there was a dark voice that whispered in the back of the hunter's head that the Lamiae were right, he was destined to become the very thing he swore to eradicate. Witches were evil, they did evil things. White witches, that was something Hansel was still trying to wrap his head around, but something he wasn't faced with everyday. He could deny them, make his world right again by putting them all back into the one category that had ruled his life; maintain the black and white of it all. Gretel was a little harder to reconcile with his world view but the unspoken understanding to keep that part of her, that part of their past out of the forefront of their daily lives allowed him to live the lie, that it wasn't who she was. How could he look himself in the mirror if this was true?

He didn't want this for Gretel and he certainly didn't want this for himself. The low-lying anger Hansel felt for their mother simmered within. At first it had been based solely on the siblings' abandonment; what kind of person left their children alone to face the big bad world like that? Harsh reality and resentment turned those initial feelings into self doubt and hatred. What had she seen within Hansel that made her throw him away like that? Later it had turned into hate and fear that she had passed on an evil that would haunt and consume them for all their days; now, those feelings were morphing in a realization that the evil was within.

Hansel had felt something stir in him the moment the creature sunk its teeth into him. It wasn't fear, concern or even acceptance; it had just felt right, almost destined. Like always, Gretel was there waiting to put up a fight for him when things would be so much better for her if she just left him to his fate. It was one more burden the young man wasn't sure he could carry anymore. Without him, she could settle down, live like normal people. In the beginning it would seem like it was forced upon her, like the lack of a hunting partner prevented her from waging war on the unholy, but after she found someone to love all the little things about her that someone should, after she had a family to give all the love she mistakenly wasted on Hansel, she would be happy.

Gretel tipped Hansel's chin up gently, pulling him from whatever thoughts were plaguing him. Her voice was sweet and coated with familiar casualness as she explained, "If these things seek out witches, we'll find a coven. They'll have to know something, some way to stop them, otherwise there wouldn't be any witches."

Pulling away Hansel jumped to his feet and began pacing back and forth. "Male witches, they go after the males. That makes sense, cause when was the last time you ran into witch that wasn't female? And which coven are we going to go to? We don't exactly make friends with witches. The whole hunting and killing them puts a damper on that," snapped Hansel.

Gretel let out a sigh. Her brother was angry at the situation, at yet another curve ball life felt compelled to burden them with, not her. Swallowing her frustration down, she tried to bury it and keep the focus on the problem and not her brother's attitude, no matter how much it stung her or how much the situation called for it.

"There's never been a shortage of evil witches, I imagine there isn't a shortage of good ones. We've just never bothered to look before," she countered.

"Good, bad, I don't think it matters. I'm dangerous!"

"Hansel," Gretel called, causing him to pause in his frantic pacing, "I don't think our mother would have risked everything for us if there was no hope, if we weren't worth saving."

A myriad of emotions flashed across the hunter's face at the mention of their mother, all of them breaking Gretel's heart as she stood there helpless against her brother's turmoil.

"I'm not a witch, I can't be," whispered Hansel. Defeat swept through him sapping all his energy until he had to focus on taking his next breath.

Part of her wanted to let Hansel live in his denial. Learning the truth had filled her with peace, while getting a handle on the magic within made her fell complete. Hansel just seemed to become more conflicted as their heritage became clearer and clearer. "Our mother was one, that means a part of you…."

Hansel's hands curled into tight balls of rage. "No. I'm not a witch! Witches are hags not men." What if their mother knew exactly what she was doing when she sent them out into the woods; two birds, one stone. Gretel would have been safe from Muriel and Hansel would have been left to the tender mercies of whatever creatures saw fit to prey upon him in all his unnaturalness, wiping clean the burden of dispatching him from his mother's hands.

Gretel frowned at the unintended dig against her.

"You know what I mean," he corrected, before letting his shoulders slump in defeat. He could pretend and deny all he wanted but at the end of the day it was still going to be true; the only monster in the family was him. Sounding more broken than Gretel could ever recall hearing he whispered, "I can't be this Gretel, I can't."

Without thought, she found herself suddenly next to her brother, wrapping her arms tightly around him and whispering soothing sentiments in his ear while she tried to ignore the silent tears rolling down his cheeks.

"You should leave," he reminded her.

"You didn't abandon me to Muriel and you stuck by me despite how you felt about magic. Do you really think I wouldn't do the same for you, you're my brother."

"No, I'm some sort of freak that's going to doom us all." Gretel had always had an optimism and strength that he envied. Despite their abandonment, she had always held out hope that their parents were going to swoop in, confess their mistake and take them home and in the absences of that dream, that they would find some happiness and turn their horrid lot in life into something special. She had had the strength to deal with the witchcraft that lurked within; Hansel didn't think he had any more fight left to deal with what he was destined to become.

"We're going to find a solution to this, get those Lamiae of your back and then meet up with Edward and Ben, just like I promised them," Gretel assured him, her voice full of authority and determination. Hansel opened his mouth to refute her claims but Gretel continued, "We'll get through this, even if I have to carry you to the finish line kicking and scream. I promise."