Chapter Summary: The final chapter of A Greater Showman than God. Ethan and Karl make their final stand against Miranda. A bonus chapter has been uploaded as well.
X
Ethan threw his leg over the seat of the vehicle and gave the key a violent twist. The engine gave a guttural growl that was bound to catch Redfield's attention. But he planned to be long gone before Chris - or Heisenberg, wherever his sorry ass had ended up - came down to investigate the noise.
The crinkled metal gate squealed tenuously as it unfolded before him, and it took less than a few seconds to clear the garage completely. He slid in a precarious zig-zag across the rain-slickened factory ground before finding his balance and righting the machine. He had spent many hours studying the maps that he had purchased from the Duke and thus knew the exact direction that he needed to take to find the Ceremony Site. There would be no more asking for help from others or setting up alliances with those who claimed to be on his side. No one could be trusted and too much time had been wasted dragging himself through the village at the heels of men who swore that Rose's safety was their priority. They could not lay claim to being her true father and so what the hell had he been thinking in trusting them?
The rain slashed across his face hard enough to blind him. His clothes became sodden and clung to his body as he gunned Heisenberg's machine and tore through the village at a dizzying pace. He was no longer aware of the time that had passed nor what wrathful risks he would incur by acting so brazenly. There was only one thing high on his list of priorities: intercept Miranda by any means necessary. A confrontation was necessary for him to retrieve the secret of his daughter's reanimation. He would make Miranda talk and then gut her before she could do any more harm.
A soft golden light pulsed from within the ring of mountains standing before him. It wriggled beneath the onslaught of rain as he turned the key in the ignition and swung himself off of the vehicle. At the center of the ring stood a raised stone pedestal surrounded by a circular staircase. He could see Miranda's silhouette standing upon the topmost stair. She raised her head and watched in silence as he approached. Her pale hands remained clasped before her as if she was a parent waiting to greet a child who had returned home far after curfew. The rain dwindled to a chilly mist that wafted around them. The ground began to shiver and he stumbled back in alarm as bulbous tree branches erupted from the soil and twisted over the path that he had traveled, blocking him in. Creaking echoed through the night as the branches squirmed around him, their ancient wooden tendrils wriggling like crooked fingers.
"Ah! Ethan Winters!" Miranda called joyously. "I am quite proud of you. You did exactly what I intended for you to do!"
"Save the cordiality for your grave," he said. "I didn't come here to play nice."
"Oh, but you have! You came all this way to deliver me your daughter's flasks." She gave a tinkling laugh. "And I didn't even have to say please!"
"If you knew that I had my daughter's flask, why didn't you just kill me at your laboratory and take them?"
She did not flinch as he raised his rifle and aimed for her head. Her expression was blank with disinterest as he nestled the rifle's stock against his cheek and climbed the staircase. Her face hovered mere inches away from the muzzle. It would take more than a well-aimed shot to end her life, but he was willing to start anywhere. The feathers along her shawl writhed in the wind as she shrugged and placed her finger upon the muzzle, gently pushing it away.
"It felt rather biblical," she finally said. "Just as religious fanatics of the new world like to kneel and give offerings to their chosen gods, I assumed it would be much more appropriate if you were the one to lay the flasks at my feet. Tell me, now, where is Heisenberg? Hiding around a corner and awaiting your signal like a good boy, I'd assume?"
"I'm not as obsessed with him as you are. I couldn't give a shit less where he is." Ethan's finger circled the trigger. "I have a few questions, Miranda-"
"Questions!?" She repeated in jubilation. His front sight followed her ascent as she rose in the air and flushed her black wings around her. "I am sure that you do! But I was instructed not to be cordial. Very well - I shall answer your most pressing and prominent question in the manner that I see fit!"
The echo of her words bounced around the mountains surrounding the Ceremony Site. He had blinked and she had disappeared completely. He lowered his rifle and cast his gaze around suspiciously. He could feel the pulsations of her wicked presence in the air but he could not see her. The branches that had erupted from the ground had grown in number. They slid around him like snakes and coiled along his ankles until he was forced to shake them away.
"E-than," someone sang. It was not Miranda's voice but the voice of a young woman. It took him a moment to place where he had heard it before. The young woman called his name again and realization struck him at once.
"You're so dumb!"
"Eveline?" He asked fearfully. It felt as if his body had frozen completely. He sank to his knees and wrapped his quaking arms around his chest. The voice moved around him and yet the speaker remained invisible.
"You're dead," Eveline chirped. Was it his imagination or was there a shadow of a young girl rocking back and forth upon the stone steps?
"W-what-" Ethan whined as he pressed his nose against his shoulder. It was so cold. He could no longer move. It felt as if his words belonged to someone else. He struggled to speak past the stutters and lump rising in his throat. "What is this? Did Miranda kill me already?"
"Wrong!" Eveline cried. He shut his eyes against a rake of lightning that cracked through the sky. "It wasn't Miranda. You were always dead! You didn't think it was weird - no matter how much you got hurt - you always survived. Remember? Three years ago, the Baker house. You were murdered by Jack! You died there…three years ago."
"That's impossible," he growled. "No way-"
"You shouldn't even be able to walk around," Eveline continued in her sing-song voice. "You. Shouldn't. Be. Walking." Eveline giggled. "Do you get it, Ethan? Your whole body is nothing but mold! Moldy, moldy mold! You're already dead!"
Ethan's eyes flew open. Eveline's disembodied laughter resounded around him as he raised his hand to his face. There was no doubt about it, and he could not attribute the transformation to a trick of the shadows: his hand had turned pitch black and wet. It festered and oozed upon his wrist, drawing curlicues of viscous blackness along his arm. He felt within himself an odd sense of heaviness. It pushed along the boundaries of his skin and made his eyes fill with tears. It was not a human feeling but something else: something unearthly, wet, and ancient as if every organ in his body had collapsed and was melting along his limbs. But according to Eveline, he didn't even have real organs. His body had only ever been a fleshy encasement for a cesspit of fungus.
Dead already.
Miranda's laughter clarified in his ears as simultaneously the golden luminosity exploded in intensity. He braced his hand across his eyes and looked up in time to see Miranda pressing the final flask into a hole in the stone table. He cursed his inattentiveness. While he had been hesitating at the sound of Eveline's voice, Miranda had retrieved the flasks from his bag and carried them to her table. He tried to rear up but a coiling branch shot along his ankles and dragged him back to the icy ground. Smoke and black liquid rolled from the table and spilled along the staircase, surrounding him in a puddle that clung to his clothes and held him as if glued to place. High ringing filled his ears as he watched Miranda lower her hands into the smoke and retrieve a pink-swaddled bundle that he knew so well.
"Ah! Little Eva. My beautiful daughter! Oh, how I have missed you!" The black fluid dripped from her gold-bejeweled talons and fell away from Rose's jacket as Miranda raised her to the sky. Blaring white light cracked across the Ceremony Site once more, illuminating the black tears running from Miranda's face and the slumbering countenance of his baby girl. Though Rose remained still, Ethan knew that she was finally alive. He had spent hours staring at her severed limbs suspended in yellow fluid. He could scarcely believe that she was there, alive, and within his reach.
But he could not get to her. He strained and thrashed against the branches holding him but he could not break free. Miranda spun around in circles with Rose raised high in her arms as Ethan fought with all of the strength left within him. If he could just separate Miranda and Rose, put a distance between them just long enough for him to break free-
"Miranda!" He howled. "You call yourself a mother!? And yet you turn around and steal a child from their very own parents - parents who love her and will do anything for her-!"
"SILENCE!" Miranda cried but Ethan continued. Sweat streamed down his cheeks as he screamed at her. It wasn't just about Rose or Miranda or even Mia: years of repressed rage and self-flagellating disappointment had finally boiled over. He was screaming for his life, for every loss that he had experienced, for the revelation of his own mutated state. A tree branch wriggled along his mouth but he loosened it with a wild shake of his head.
"You're not a mother! You're a thief! You are sick and obsessed with your power! Your daughter is dead, Miranda. If you truly consider yourself a mother, you would know in your heart that it's wrong to sacrifice the life of one child for another! Everything that Rosemary was - everything that she is will be killed off to save Eva. Will you really do that, Miranda? Will you kill my innocent baby girl to save yours!?"
"Will you?!" Miranda hissed back. She placed Rosemary on the table and stormed down the staircase to face Ethan. He sputtered as she grabbed him by the collar and violently lifted him away from the ground. Her blue eyes quivered and bounced as she stared at Ethan with a face contorted by rage and cascading tears.
"You lost your daughter due to your own inattentiveness as a husband and pathetic attempts at being a father. I lost my daughter to a cruel hand of fate. Who do you think truly deserves to live? You do not deserve Rose but I - I, who has suffered and fought and clawed my way through the unholiness of my vengeance - I deserve to have Eva by my side once again! You are but a fool, Ethan, and your plight to atone bears no redemption. I-"
She fell silent at the look in his eye and quickly glanced over her shoulder. They had both felt it: the creeping and crawling aura, the magnetic intensity that raised their hackles from a distance, the particular and deafening silence of -
"Heisenberg!" Ethan and Miranda called at the same time. Heisenberg looked away from the baby nestled within his strong arms and stared back at them with a gaze that Ethan could not read. The rain had picked up once again and was drawing glistening tracks that disappeared beneath Heisenberg's lenses. Rose appeared so fragile and small in Heisenberg's arms and yet Ethan could not help but feel that there was nowhere safer in the world for her to be at that moment.
Miranda shoved him back by his neck and he fell breathless to the ground. The splattering of raindrops against the stone stage punctuated the silence that had taken over the three of them. Heisenberg did not speak. He watched with a blank expression as Miranda climbed the staircase towards him. She was whispering, drawing the village lord into a trance, and Ethan struggled to hear what she was saying.
"My son, keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. My son, do not forget my teaching but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Heisenberg, my son, give me the child."
Heisenberg's grip tightened upon Rose as he took a step back. Once again, he had become unpredictable. Neither Ethan nor Miranda knew what he would do next. Ethan called his name but his voice was lost beneath the thunder that rumbles across the land.
"Heisenberg!" Ethan cried with all of his might. "Heisenberg, fucking look at me! Look at me right now! Don't listen to her!"
Suddenly there was no one but Ethan and Heisenberg upon the Ceremony Site. Miranda had disappeared - gone with a sudden gust of wind. Heisenberg's silence was unnerving. Ethan had precious few moments to convince him to deliver Rose into his arms. But he faltered, for he did not know what to say. Heisenberg seemed to have suddenly withdrawn himself, his intentions veiled behind his foggy lenses. He took a step forward and Ethan smiled in relief.
"Keep walking towards me," Ethan called to him as the branches grew tight along his limbs. "Just keep walking, Karl. I'm right here. Rose will be safe if you give her to me. No-!" Ethan yelled as Heisenberg fell still again. "Just keep walking. You know in your heart that she belongs with her father. I trust you to do the right thing. Do you hear me, Karl? I trust you! I trust you!"
"I trust you, I trust you. Blah, blah, blah."
Ethan did not recognize this voice. Heisenberg roused himself with a shiver and spun around to face the woman approaching him. There was something familiar to her that Ethan could not place. His eyes traveled along her high boots and snug riding pants, and then the sheer blouse hanging loose against her small frame. He had seen her dead gray eyes and her stark-narrow nose in the picture frame sitting beside Heisenberg on the night of their rooftop soirée.
A friend of yours?
Closest I ever got to a Mrs. Heisenberg.
"Everybody is okay with the burden of trust so long as they don't have to carry that burden. Right? Don't be more of a rat bastard than is strictly necessary." The strange woman wrung her thin arms around Heisenberg's neck and pressed a lingering kiss against his lips. "I missed you."
"Lubirea mea," Heisenberg said. His voice carried across the Ceremony Site and Ethan winced at its soft longing.
Her arms slunk away from Heisenberg's neck and they both turned to look at Ethan with flashing eyes. The woman took the staircase two-by-two and then sauntered towards Ethan with her hands high upon her narrow hips. Though it could not be denied that she was pretty in a subtle way, there was a creepiness to her person that had not been fully captured in the picture. It was the way that she was looking at him: unabashed and void of emotion, much like the way that Heisenberg had looked upon him on the rooftop.
"Is this the one who's taken my place in your factory?" She asked Heisenberg before tilting her chin towards Ethan. "You were never very good at sleeping alone nor pretending like you have discretion when it comes to satisfying your needs."
"What are you doing here, Marianne?" Heisenberg interrupted her. "You died sixty years ago."
"Nothing ever truly dies in this village. You know that. The ground is so seeped through with mold that all who are buried here are bound to rise again. Isn't that right, Ethan?" She pet Ethan's head with enough force to make him sneer and then winked at him before turning away. "Karl, baby. We have a long walk ahead of us."
"W-what do you mean?"
"I mean we're still going to America, right? You promised to come back with me. And now that you have Rose we can be a family. A real family. Nothing like your ugly mutant siblings or bastard brother. The Lone Ranger rides again," she cried as she threw her arms out wide and lifted her face towards the heavens. "This is what you wanted, right? This is what you deserve. Take your hammer and let's roll, handsome."
Heisenberg had been convinced. Ethan was too weak to understand the deception happening before him. All that he could focus on was Rose still nestled in the crook of Heisenberg's arm. Ethan roared and struck out at the ground as Heisenberg cast him a glance over his shoulder and turned as if to follow Marianne. But instead of walking he stuck his arm out and grabbed her by the elbow.
"L-look," Ethan heard him say as he pulled Marianne towards him. "I just have one question for you, doll. One question and that's it. When you were pregnant with our son, you said you wanted to name him Charles. Even then I thought that was an ugly-ass name-"
"I'd rather we talk about this on the shag rug of our American townhouse."
Heisenberg silenced her by placing his hands upon her cheeks and lifting her face into the moonlight. He kissed her briefly and then pushed her wispy hair away from her cheeks. "No. Just listen. You wanted to name our son Charles. And you argued with me to hell and back when I said no, Marianne! So I want to know - of all the names on this here God's green earth - why Charles? It's almost as bad as the name Ethan!"
"Hey fuck you, Heisenberg!" Ethan called but was promptly silenced by a wave of Heisenberg's hand.
"Oh, I don't know," Marianne said with a full-bodied sigh. "I just thought it sounded nice. Charles. It has a rather royal ring to it, don't you think? Well, never mind. You and I rarely saw eye-to-eye, I know that."
"But you did want to name him Charles?" Heisenberg asked. Ethan's ears pricked at the sudden change in his voice. "Right? It was your idea, Marianne."
"No shit it was," she said as she crooked her pinky finger at him. "Are you going to stand here being a dumbass until we both drown or what's the holdup?"
"Dumbass," Heisenberg repeated with a chuckle. He bounced Rose along his arm as he reached out with his free hand and wiped the water away from Marianne's face. "Look here, doll. I'm not the dumbass. The dumbass is the one who thought that they could stand here and lie to me, thinking that I wouldn't notice after years of being lied to already. Ha!" Marianne's eyes widened as Karl dug his fingers into her upper arms. "When Marianne became pregnant with my child, she swore that she was going to give birth to a baby girl! And she definitely wasn't going to name it an ugly ass name like Charles. It never even crossed her mind! In fact, she knew how much I wanted to name my girl Miriam. You could say that it just clicked for both of us! The real Marianne would have known that but you…you're not the real Marianne at all, are you?"
"You little bastard swine-son-"
Heisenberg kept a tight hold on Rose as he lifted Marianne by the throat and then slammed her down on the steps. The gray stone cracked beneath the sudden force and Marianne's body shifted to reveal Miranda lying contorted in a pool of feathers and black blood.
"Don't ever think about taking on the face of my woman again!" Heisenberg yelled at her before leaping over her body and running towards Ethan. The branches binding him slackened for a brief moment and he reached his arms out just in time for Heisenberg to push Rose against his chest. The sky darkened as if a thousand black clouds had unfurled across the land. Miranda rose to her feet, her growling loud as the thunder as she grew taller and taller. Her body collapsed and then morphed into an ethereal smoke that shot through the air toward them. Heisenberg thrust his hand out and swiped his hammer from the air, giving it a dramatic spin before slinging his body around. The hammer collided with Miranda's body right as she materialized and she flew backward through the air. Her head bounced upon the stone pedestal with a thud and she crumpled to the ground with a moan.
"What did I tell you, Ethan?" Heisenberg said. He moved quickly as he unloosened the golden cross necklace from his neck and fished around in his pocket until he retrieved his recorder. "You Americans ain't good for shit! I thought I'd come here and find Miranda dead."
"Sorry to disappoint you," Ethan said scathingly. And then, "what are you doing!?"
Heisenberg had tucked the recorder and gold necklace beneath the flap of Rose's sweater. He smiled as he ruffled his broad hand against her scalp and then pressed a swift kiss to her brow.
"Something to remember me by," he said in his rolling baritone. He pushed his lenses higher upon his nose and turned away from Ethan. Miranda had risen to her feet once again. The black tears had completely covered her face, leaving nothing visible but her wild eyes. Ethan looked back up at Heisenberg and realized that the village lord was using his body as a shield between him and Miranda. The hammer made an awful scraping sound as Heisenberg dragged it toward the pedestal.
"You can't do this alone!" Ethan cried. But Heisenberg was no longer listening. Pieces of metal had begun to rise in the air. Ethan curled his body over Rose as they flew towards him. But Heisenberg had not been intending to kill him. The metal plates formed a barrier around Ethan and Rose. Ethan placed Rose on the ground and attempted to tear them away. But it was no use. They remained stuck together by a magnetic force that was much stronger than him. He was panting as he pressed his eye against a small crack and watched Heisenberg approach Miranda. The woman had grown to a terrible height. Electric blue light flashed all around her and the branches had twisted and contorted to create a barrier of their own. Heisenberg looked so small in comparison. The village lord crooked his head over his shoulder and tipped his tattered hat at Ethan.
"Oh, don't worry," he said in a voice now tinged with an inhuman mechanical whine. "I'll make this quick."
X
Heisenberg.
Now that Ethan and Rose had been stowed away safely, Karl could finally focus on what he had come to do. He had followed Ethan to the Ceremony Site and watched from the shadows as Miranda toyed with his mind. He had wanted to give Ethan a chance to carry out his fatherly duty unaided. After all, it would have made a great story for Rose when she grew up. But Ethan had not been strong enough. All it had taken was a little trickery on Miranda's part to incapacitate the American.
Truly, truly a shame.
Heisenberg had no choice but to interfere to save Ethan's ass and lay claim to the final blow that would put Miranda out of her misery.
"Well, well, well!" Heisenberg called up to Miranda as he sauntered along the stone steps. "So you've finally revealed your true form. Bit of a disappointment, if I may say so myself."
This was not true. Miranda's final mutated state was a thing of beauty, though he missed her pretty scowl and bright blue eyes. The Mutated Miranda glared down at him with golden eyes but did not speak. Her fingers had elongated to wicked gray talons and her skin had shriveled along her bones. The many black wings flushed around her, holding her in the air above him. He pulled his lenses down and let his gaze shamelessly roll along the bubbling scars crossing her breasts.
"I'll admit that you almost got me with that whole Marianne debacle. I truly applaud your attempt. But as they say out in America: fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice-"
He ducked behind the pedestal as Miranda's talons slashed through the air. It had been close, close enough to swipe his hat from his head. "Took over a hundred years for you to decide to finally put your hands on me," he called around the edge of the pedestal. "But not in the way that we both want. Eh, doll?"
Her claws swiped through the air and he ducked again. He was intentionally nettling her. He had spent a lifetime waiting for this moment. He swore to himself and the good lord above that he would have fun with it. His eyes wandered over to the makeshift metal barrier that he had built around Ethan and Rose. The effort of holding it together was draining some of his power but not enough to hinder him. Whatever happened, he would keep that barrier standing.
Two pistols were hanging beneath his coat. Their combined force would not be enough to kill Miranda but he needed a temporary distraction. The chill built up along his teeth as he closed his eyes and focused on the land surrounding them. He could feel the presence of every metallic object moving towards him. Pain pulsed along the inner walls of his skull as they dragged nearer to him. So adept had he become at honing in his power that he could attract metallic objects all the way from his factory.
And that was exactly what he did.
He grunted and shoved his knuckle against his jaw as one of his teeth exploded beneath the icy pressure growing along his gums. But there was no time to mourn the desecration of his aesthetics. He leaped over the pedestal and fired both pistols at Miranda. Her body jolted with each shot and for a moment she was too distracted by the bullets whizzing her way. A moment was all that he needed.
He crooked his arms back and leaped as high in the air as he could. A metal grate caught him before he could fall back to the ground and he levitated, higher and higher as Miranda writhed. Another tooth exploded as large pieces of metal began to surround him and then clamp tight to his body. Heavier and heavier he grew beneath the weight of the metal. Holding it all in place required an exertion that pushed him against his boundaries. To distract himself, he focused on the wavelengths wriggling like heat waves in his head. They were always with him, present as an invisible spiderweb wrapped tight and vibrating across his brain. He could faintly hear a radio station playing heavy metal music and he focused on it as he transitioned into his final mutated form.
Heisenberg had become the Machine.
He opened his eyes but could not see past the metal pieces clobbered across his face. But he knew where he was. Despite his towering and tottering height, he was able to orient himself by feeling every inch of metal lying buried in the world around him: the low concentration of metal in the rocks that made up the mountains below him, negligible vapors and particles of metal riding the air, metal in Ethan's watch and Miranda's body. This last source of metal he did not understand. It was too strong to be considered natural or even a composition of whatever jewelry had remained upon Miranda's mutated form.
He had no time to think about it, for a growing force was traveling through the land, heading straight for him. It was with no small degree of effort that he raised his mutated arm and snatched the spinning blade out of the air. Sparks exploded all along the Ceremony Site as he drew the spinning blade closer. The volume of the music in his head increased with such intensity that he was deafened by it. Within the Great Machine that he had become, he smiled. The timing of the particular song was perfect.
"Welcome to the jungle, bitch!" He screamed at Miranda, his voice a mix between grating metal and crinkling static. He raised the spinning blade high above his head and brought it down upon Miranda. The Mutated Woman dodged it just in time and reappeared on his left. He did not hesitate. He swung the spinning blade around and dragged it along the face of the mountains, causing loosened soil and shards of rock to erupt all around them. The lightning crackling around him was not coming from the sky: it was coming from Miranda. It glowed along her elongated arms and then exploded from her palms in electric balls of white and blue. He grunted as he was hit by several at once but was quick to right himself before he could tip over.
"You naughty boy," Miranda said. Her voice was no longer outside of him: it had traveled within and filled every space of his skull, drowning out the music. "You sly, silly, impotent little man. How dare you rebel against your mother?"
Where was she?
The mysterious source of metal had traveled around from his left. It was rising quickly against the front of the Machine. Miranda's voice had fractaled and scattered throughout his head as if many versions of her were speaking to him at once. Her interruption of his rock 'n roll symphony pissed him off severely. Moved by intuition, he folded the arms of the Machine against its core and squeezed tight. He heard her give a strained yelp as she was crushed and impaled by the metallic pieces crumpling around her. His actions would damage the Machine - already, several fortifying pieces had fallen away beneath his crushing hold. But if he had to damage himself to strangle the life out of her, he would do it.
"God will not forgive you! And neither will I!" Miranda wailed deliriously. Her wings thrashed against his metallic suit and her talons scraped uselessly against the barrier built across his face. Several more of his teeth exploded and impaled his cheeks as he struggled to maintain the several facets of his power working in tandem: crushing Miranda, maintaining the barrier guarding Ethan and Rose, maintaining the structure of his machine-
But he was winning. Miranda's voice fell away to a wet gargle as she was crushed against the chest of his Machine. He could feel the life force pouring out of her, the odd metal essence built within her body draining and ebbing away. White light pulsed all around him like fireworks in the sky. He tightened the arms of his Machine and felt her body snapping like twigs beneath them.
Such a shame. He did not have to speak the words. He knew that they would infiltrate her mind as she had infiltrated his. La reverdere, Miranda-
Something was wrong.
One of his Machine's arms fell limp by his side. The magnetism that had been holding it together dissipated and it began to fall apart. He had scarcely time to question what had happened before the second arm broke apart, showering the Ceremony Site with heavy scraps of metal. His bond with his metallic fortifications was quickly weakening in the face of another, much stronger bond. The metal was no longer under his control - somebody else was controlling it and tearing it away from him. He struggled to maintain his balance as the scrap metal dislodged itself from his Machine and fell away from him. Gone was his spinning blade, gone was the helmet of metal protecting his upper body, and gone were the metallic legs that had once clung to his limbs. Somebody was tearing away at his Machine and casting its pieces all along the Ceremony Site. Soon there would be nothing left to protect him.
The last pieces of metal slid from beneath his feet and he fell through the air. He landed with a thud upon the pedestal and sputtered as the air was knocked out of him. Through his wavering vision, he could see the pieces of metal scattered around the Ceremony Site.
His Machine had been destroyed. He was no longer in his mutated state.
Karl Heisenberg had been left vulnerable.
Tinkling laughter wafted around him as he rolled around to face Miranda. She had abandoned her mutated state as well and stood hunched upon herself with her arm clasped along her belly. Blood bloomed along her Ceremony attire and dripped to the ground beneath her shuffling feet. She was still giggling and swaying side to side as she approached him, dragging his hammer along in her other hand.
"So you say that I am not your mother," she said as she paused to rest upon the pedestal. "And yet you and I share core traits. It is almost genetic, one may say."
"What happened?" He roared. "What the fuck did you do to my Machine?"
"Every mother passes along facets of herself to her offspring." Miranda briefly closed her eyes and exhaled heavily. She had been terribly wounded as well. She straightened her back and continued her slow walk towards him, dragging his hammer all the way. "And thus the mold within you carries within it my essence - an essence which has given you your particular power. During our…scuffle…you noticed an odd source of magnetic energy radiating from within me, did you not?"
"Miranda-!"
"I am the sum of all parts that I have welded together, Heisenberg. Therefore, I bear the powers that I had bestowed upon each of my children. Salvatore's burning excretions, Donna's hallucinogenic capabilities, Alcina's advanced strength and…your magnetic command over metal." Miranda chuckled tiredly. "I tore down your Machine with the very same power that you attempted to wield against me, my chosen son. How else did you think I was able to lift your hammer when no one else could?"
As if to prove her point, Miranda lifted Guglielmo's hammer high above her head with both of her hands. Karl followed its trajectory through the moonlight and had a feeling that he knew what would come next. A single tear dislodged from his lashes and rolled across his cheek as he forced himself to look back at her face.
"No," he whispered. "Don't-"
"You must undertstand. I am doing this because I still love you. Truly, you are my son."
She brought the hammer down upon his chest, shattering his ribs and watching with a smile as his own blood splattered across his face.
X
Beep. Beep. Beep.
"What we are seeing here is a myriad of complications as a result of sudden blunt force trauma to the patient's chest. Uh, pulmonary contusion may be considered…lacerations upon the liver and, uh, fractured ribs of course."
Beep. Beep. Beep.
"Tracheal deviation has also been noted, as well as severe fractures upon the sternum….observations upon the internal organs have come to a standstill. The, uh, mold coating the patient's organs will have to be scraped away to make closer observation possible."
"Where…" Karl groaned. The broken ridges along his throat poked at his skin as he attempted to swallow. "Salvatore?"
"Heart rate is terribly subdued." Salvatore's voice oscillated between a low muffle and piercing intensity that rolled around Heisenberg's head. "No more than, uh, ten to fifteen beats per minute. Breathing rate is much the same though this is to be expected of the patient's rather peculiar disposition. One may hear the rattling of the patient's breath - as such. Bradypnea may also be considered but, uh, again: this is normal for a man whose body has given way to a fungal invasion that has all but taken over his regulatory bodily functions."
Beep. BEEP! BEEP!
Karl tore the oxygen mask away from his face and reared up. He was in a room that he just faintly remembered: it was the single room in Salvatore's makeshift clinic upon the dock. He turned his head and found Salvatore leaning against the wall with his bloodied hands clasped neatly before him. Somewhere, a woman was singing a high operatic tune. The sound of it calmed him before he realized that it was Alcina's voice.
"M-mea Tormenta," he stuttered around a dry tongue. Heisenberg was much more well-versed in Latin than anyone could have ever imagined. He recognized the haunting lyrics immediately. The broken ribs beneath his chest shifted nauseatingly against each other as he sat up. Salvatore smiled and nodded.
"The lament of Saint Peter upon the cross," Salvatore said dreamily before singing along with Alcina in a low voice. "Mea tormenta, properate! Ubi sunt flagella et caedes? Crucem quaero, crucem date: ubi sunt flagella et caedes? Volo mori, o Deus in te-"
"My torments, hurry," Heisenberg croaked dutifully along with him. "Where are the scourges and their lacerating teeth? I want to be crucified. I want to die - oh, God, in you I want to die."
"Yes," Salvatore said, his voice full of so much pride that it almost brought a tear to Heisenberg's eye. "You remember our Latin lessons well, m'boy! I am proud of you."
"Her voice sounds like shit," Heisenberg said in reference to Alcina's singing.
"Do you think so? Then perhaps I have mistaken that glint of mesmerization in those unholy green eyes of yours. Her recital of such a morbid lamentation following an untimely death is, uh, rather fitting. Don't you think?"
"Why would it be?"
"Because, Karl, you are dying."
Karl froze. He saw his hands shaking but felt as if they were no longer attached to him. He drew his gaze up to Salvatore's. The man had appeared just as beautiful and stately as he had been many years before his succumbing to his mutation. His long blue-black hair streamed along his shoulders and the grizzle that surrounded his tanned cheeks wizened him with a grace common to the Moreau line. Karl felt mesmerized as he looked into the face of his old friend. A sense of nostalgia bubbled up within him and he held his hand out to the physician. Salvatore's warm palm descended upon his and Heisenberg smiled.
"This is it, huh? Shit," he said as he wiped the tears away with the backs of his hand. "So that ol' bitch finally did me in."
Salvatore chuckled good-naturedly. "You did put up one hell of a fight! If a part of you still seeks validation from your father, then I think I would be right in saying that he would be proud of you as well."
"Why am I here?"
"Well," Salvatore scratched distractedly at the sparse hairs lining his chin. "I supposed you could call this the waiting room. The, uh, empty space where we all congregate as God makes his final decision as to where we'd end up."
"I get that," Heisenberg growled. "But why am I here?"
"Ah! Well! I'd reckon that this is the only place where you ever felt safe and truly loved." Salvatore stood up and stretched his arms high above his head. His pristine white medical coat flushed around his legs as he toyed with the machinery standing beside the operating table. Finally, the incessant beeping had stopped. "When you were a child, you came to me and I treated you like my very own son. You felt worthy because I treated you as such. I educated you and bonded with you and shared in your suffering. You loved me more than you had ever loved Marianne or Ken or even Miranda! Come, look, I'd like to show you something."
Karl winced as he slid off of the operating table and followed Salvatore. The dimensions of his world began to shift. The dingy cabin walls melted away to reveal crystalline infrastructure wrought in stone and painted over white. Spires rose all around him as church pews unfurled from the ground like flowery buds. The sun cast its light along the stained glass window above a serene altar bearing a single casket decorated with white Carnations. He was no longer in Salvatore's clinic but a church beset by the glow of the many crystals lining the window sills and heavy goblets of wine surrounded by thin wafer cookies.
Alcina stood upon the red velvet stairs with her hand pressed against her chest, her golden eyes ceiling bound as she serenaded a group of factory men with the lamentation of Saint Peter. Everyone was there: Salvatore leading him along the plush carpet sprawled before the casket, Donna cradling Angie as she watched Ken play a game of dominoes with his father, Marianne bouncing Miriam against her knee as she stared out the window. He would have rushed to embrace her had not Salvatore placed a hand upon his chest. The sunlight cast from beyond the stained window coated them all in heavenly hues of blue and white.
"You, uh, know what this is," Salvatore whispered. Ken gave a raucous laugh and pumped his fists in the air as Jedediah looked on mournfully. Angie chittered in excitement over the revelry of the factory men as Marianne lifted her face to the light and closed her eyes.
"Purgatory," Karl whispered.
"It's more than that. It's the place where you may finally find your rest, m'boy. You are tired - so very tired. Lay your head within that casket there and find your peace in limbo."
"Miriam-"
"Ah, yes." Salvatore turned and set a twinkling eye upon Marianne and the baby cradled in her arms. "All who died before you exist within this realm. This, uh, this is the only opportunity that you may have to be with her. To be her father, like you've always wanted. Stay with us, Karl," Salvatore said as he placed his hand on his wrist. "Rest and rejoice in your final liberation."
It was a nice idea. He walked as if in a trance along the carpet. The factory men spotted him and raised their mugs in his honor. Alcina paused long enough to take a breath and dazzle him with a ruby-red smile before clasping her daughters in her arms. They had appeared as lively, blushing versions of themselves - finally liberated from their mutated binds and free to light the room with their untrammeled elation. It was enough to bring a smile to his lips. He tipped his hat at Daniela and then froze with his foot on the staircase. Someone was calling his name. Their voice was faint and distant, and yet he could still hear the desperation in it.
His eyes were drawn to a window to his left. Beyond it, he could see heavy storm clouds spidered through with flashes of white lightning. The clouds were moving at an unusually fast pace, drenching the outside world in shadows. The sounds of the church fell away to a muffle as he closed his eyes and focused on the voice calling him.
It was Ethan
"Fuck," he whispered. He opened his eyes again and looked back at Salvatore. A crease had appeared between the physician's brows as they listened to the terror rising in Ethan's voice. "They're still out there, aren't they? Ethan and Rose?"
Salvatore nodded. "Remember what I said, Karl? You are dying but you are not yet fully dead. That there, what you see-" Salvatore tilted his chin at the window. "That is what you will be leaving behind if you stay here. Or what you may return to if you so please."
"Just what the hell are you talking about?"
"Listen," Salvatore urged him. "Right now you are lying upon the steps of the Ceremony Site. Your body has been crushed by your own hammer. Despite your particular regenerative capabilities, the wounds dealt to you by Miranda are severe. You have but a mustard seed's-worth of strength left within you, do you understand? You can claw your way back to the world of the living. Or you can relinquish your strength now and remain here with us in this realm between heaven and hell. Karl," Salvatore grabbed his face and forced Karl to look at him. "Only you can decide if you live or die now. You - not God. Not I. Not Miranda. So what will you do, m'boy? Will you return and make a final stand against Miranda for Ethan's honor? Or will you take your rest here and now?"
Karl's eyes wandered over to Marianne. She had lifted their daughter into the light of the sun. Miriam squirmed in her hands and grew red in the face as she began to wail. Ken and Jedediah had paused their game to stare back at him. The factory men had fallen silent and Alcina watched him with her hands wrung around her daughters' shoulders. Behind her stood the casket, furnished with white pillows and garlands of flowers. He was so very tired. All that he wanted to do was climb the stairs and close his eyes one last time. Ethan's desperate cries echoed from beyond the window as rain slashed across the land. Faintly, he could hear Miranda's laughter.
He didn't have it in him.
He could not fight any longer.
"Copil drag," Salvatore said in Romanian, the language that Karl had long since abandoned. "You do understand, do you not, that if you choose to live you may never return to this place? You will not see your daughter nor Marianne ever again."
Karl closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. His broken ribs shifted along his chest as he filled his lacerated lungs to capacity. He held Miriam's face in his mind as he turned away and shoved his fist against the window, shattering it.
"Ah yes, of course." He heard Salvatore say as the glass shards slowed to a halt around them. "I would have expected no less. Goodbye, Karl."
X
He woke upon the Ceremony Site once more. The drenched soil squelched against his boots as he pushed himself up and glanced at Ethan's barrier. Somehow it had remained intact despite his incapacitation. But it wouldn't remain that way for long. He was using the very last of his strength to magnetically hold it together. So weak had he become that he no longer possessed the ability to mutate into a Machine. Whatever battle that was to follow would have to be fought in his current human state. He checked for his pistols: both had been broken when Miranda had smashed him with his hammer.
Fuck.
He forced himself to stand and then teetered disjointedly upon his heels. His shirt and coat had been drenched with blood and his chest had collapsed completely. For the first time in a long time, he felt completely overtaken by searing and pulsing pain. He wound his arm across his abdomen and felt the jarring displacement of his desecrated innards. He understood at that moment that the facsimile of immortality that had kept him alive for so long had been destroyed. He had reverted to a mortal with limited mortal capabilities once again.
Miranda sat with her back against the raised pedestal, black blood pouring from her neck and chest. She coughed as she pushed herself up and then reeled dazedly upon her bare feet. Her battle with his Machine seemed to have greatly depleted her of her powers as well. Even the branches that had surrounded them had fallen subdued, wriggling desperately along the ground as she swayed upon the platform. Their eyes met and she tossed the bloodied hammer away before lowering herself to a crouch. They both knew what was coming, there was no use in hiding it. They had been on the verge of this moment for their entire lives.
His jaw strained as he unleashed a roar so loud and long that it reverberated along the mountains and deafened everybody at the Ceremony Site. Then he barreled straight at her. She caught him in her arms and steadied herself as he threw his weight against her, attempting to topple her. She howled in rage as she slung him away and then shoved her fist against the underside of his chin. White light exploded across his vision as he stumbled around in a momentary fit of disorientation before yanking his head back down and charging for her again. Despite her weakened state, she was faster than him: she caught every punch that he threw at her in the crook of her palms.
But she wasn't fast enough. He side-stepped her and swung himself around, encircling her neck with his arms and strangling her from behind. She choked and clawed at his forearms with her nails but he did not relinquish his hold. Tighter and tighter he squeezed until his arms began to ache with the exertion. There was a thrill to strangling somebody - after all, he had done it many times before. It was feral and arousing and irrefutably intimate. He felt every contour of her body against his broken chest, the rattling of her throat decompressing against his wrists, the quivering tension in her arms as she attempted to free herself of his hold. He screamed as he gave his arms a jolt that made her head snap back towards the sky. Grey veins crept along her waxen cheeks as her eyes began to roll back. Her movements became frantic and then gradually began to slow as her cheek bulged against his neck. He smiled as he tightened his grip and held her frightened gaze.
"As I was saying," he croaked. "La revedere, bitch-"
Her pale hand flashed in the moonlight. He howled in pain as she jabbed her fingers into his eyes and then pushed herself away from the loosened hold. The pain was unbearable. He clawed at his cheeks and then suddenly curled upon himself as she shoved her foot against his chest, sending him toppling backward.
"Pathetic," she screamed deliriously before kicking him viciously between his legs. He gasped and rolled over just in time for her to slam her foot into his nose, breaking it immediately. "Despicable! Traitorous, lying, sickening excuse for a man! Hell is too good for you - do you hear me, Heisenberg? DO YOU HEAR ME!?"
She slammed her heel against his wrist, shattering it. He curled into himself with his forearms braced around his head as she kicked him relentlessly.
"You thought that you could overpower me!?" She howled. She turned him around, lifted him by his shoulders, and then slammed him back against the stone. "That you could get between me and Eva!? I will teach you to fear me-"
"Hey, Miranda!"
Miranda's body gave a sudden jolt. Karl squirmed around and attempted to make sense of what he was seeing. Ethan had broken free of his barrier and was running toward them with both guns drawn. Miranda wailed in surprise as she was shot again and again.
"Damnit, Ethan!" Karl cried nasally as Miranda tumbled away from him. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Picking up where you left off!" Ethan ran up the steps and placed a pistol in Karl's hand. "Gotta say, I'm disappointed in you. I expected more from my colleague. You Romanians ain't good for shit!"
The two men clasped hands and Ethan pulled Karl to his feet. Dizziness overtook the village lord but he forced himself to raise his weapon steady and fire at Miranda. She thrashed, howled, and writhed beneath the onslaught of bullets as the pouring rain washed the black blood along the stone steps. By chance, Karl looked up at the mountains. He thought that he had seen someone there: a man with much more advanced weaponry aiming at Miranda. Then the man ducked and disappeared from sight.
"Friend of yours!?" Karl called over the rain. Ethan snickered as he raised a rifle along his cheek. Karl wondered just where the hell he had pulled it from.
"Don't insult me. Ah, shit," Ethan crooked the rifle by his head and checked for bullets: empty, as were Karl's firearms. The two men sighed as Miranda pushed herself away from the ground. A quick glance was shared before Karl lifted his fists before his chest and fell to crouch.
"One more round," he said tiredly as blood streamed from his eyes. "What say you and I tag-team this one, eh, partner?"
"Won't be necessary. You're shit at hand-to-hand combat. Hey, do me a favor, Heisenberg?" Ethan chuckled as he began to walk toward Miranda. Karl watched in surprise and then called his name in a curt voice. Miranda had disappeared, only to be replaced by a pulsating mass of growing tree branches and fleshy globules unfurling like many bulbous petals. This was her final form: an unfathomable creature formed of mold and ancient bark rising from the earth. Ethan looked so small in comparison to the monster that she had become. The tendrils of her being eclipsed the sky and swirled around them, trapping them in her hold. Ethan retrieved a small device from his pocket and held it high.
"Tell Mia I love her when you see her, alright?"
"You knew?" Karl called before turning away from the sudden gust of wind that blasted across the Ceremony Site.
"I guess you can say that I figured it out when I saw Miranda take on the face of your woman." Ethan turned around and held his arms out wide. "Heisenberg. Take Rose and run. NOW! I trust you, Heisenberg. Do you hear me? I trust you!"
Karl pushed himself to his knees and sprang across the platform. He could still hear Ethan's words ringing in his ears as he swept Rose into his arms and began to run. The icy wind blasted across his face and he was blinded by the rain as he limped as fast as his broken body could carry him. He threw one last glance over his shoulders. Miranda's branches had completely enshrouded the Ceremony Site and Ethan had been obstructed from view. He thought that he caught a quick glimpse of the man standing with his arm raised defiantly against the beast that Miranda had become. Then he whipped his head away and spurred his body forward. Keep running, keep running, you rat bastard, he thought to himself as Rose began to cry in his arms. He tutted at her and sucked his teeth. Several voices rose in his head, reminding him that he had been bred since birth to turn tail and run away.
A group of boulders stood only a few paces away. He hefted Rose higher in his arms and threw himself behind them just as the explosion rang out. Heat seared his cheeks and he bent his body over Rose as a violent wind tore through the land, ripping away branches and slinging shards of rocks like shrapnel with no discretion. His ears began to ring as he gritted his broken teeth at the heat that had enveloped him. It could burn him to his bones, he no longer cared anymore. All that mattered was preserving Rose's life-
And then it was over.
His breath tumbled out of him in a strained wheeze as he lifted his head. The storm seemed to have suddenly broken as if the explosion from the Ceremony Site had torn a hole straight through the clouds. Spears of sunlight burned the cuts along his cheek as he raised his head higher and forced himself to breathe in deeper and deeper until he could breathe in no more. The mold in his lungs had long ago hindered his respiratory functions. He had forgotten how vivifying a breath of fresh air could be.
There was a soft wriggling along his arms followed by a hiccough. He looked down into Rose's reddened face and smiled. Dried blood crackled along his fingers as he adjusted the flaps of her coat over his recorder and pendant. He did not want to look back at the Ceremony Site. Too much had been lost upon its weeping stone steps.
Ethan…
"Aw, fuck," he said and then quickly shoved the side of his fist against his cracked lips. Rose opened her eyes and squinted at him as if in reproach. In response, he chuckled and muttered 'sorry about that' under his breath. The vehicle that he had used to get to the Ceremony Site wasn't far away. He could see its rusted metal glinting along the horizon.
He pressed a quivering hand upon the ground and attempted to push himself up but he was too weak. Everything hurt, from his torn limbs to his punctured organs to the cracks along his skull. He attempted to push himself once more and then sprawled across the wet dirt. He was quick to catch himself upon his arm before he could crush Rose but the effort of doing so made his head pulse with a severity that blinded him.
"With his faithful Indian companion…Tonto…the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early western United States." He grunted as he dug his nails into the dirt and pulled himself forward. The vehicle was only a few feet away. He would mount it and ride with Rose to safety. He just had to make it there. He spat away the soil lining his broken teeth and dragged himself forward. "Nowhere in the….pay-jess of history can one find a greater….champion of…."
His fingers curled around the handlebars and he hefted himself up. What words came next? He could no longer remember. Sweat rolled along his face as he fell limp against the vehicle. But never once did he relinquish his protective hold upon Rose. The sunlight was burning him and his wounds throbbed incessantly.
"A greater champion of…" he said as he rested his head upon the faux leather seat. Rose cooed softly and he pulled his lips into a quivering smile. "The Lone Ranger rides agai-"
Snick.
He froze. Someone was standing behind him. And they had just cocked their gun.
Heisenberg briefly rested his head against the engine of his vehicle and then slowly turned around. He was greeted by the sight of a Colt Army revolver leveraged at his forehead. He wondered if the choice of such an antiquated gun was meant to be ironic, considering his age. He couldn't help but chuckle at this.
"And they all converged upon a field of red," he croaked. Chris's eyes remained trained upon him. His face revealed nothing. Even Rose had fallen silent as if intimated by the man's towering presence. Heisenberg shielded his face from the sunlight and glared back at Chris, wondering if the man had the balls to make the first move.
Eyes still trained on him, Chris lifted the flap of his coat and spoke several rapid words into a wire. There was a thumping in the distance that was growing louder by the second. A helicopter was approaching.
Chris lowered his collar and then gestured for Heisenberg to hand him Rose. Karl hesitated for a moment and then, seeing no other choice, allowed Rose to be lifted from his arms. Chris glanced into her face and then looked back down at him. His finger was slowly compressing the trigger. The revolver would fire at any second.
Heisenberg chuckled in disbelief. A single tear rolled along his cheek and splattered between his splayed legs. "This can't be the end for me," he whispered. "After all that I've done. I gave my all to save her. Why-?"
"Do you know what keeps this world safe, Heisenberg?" Chris asked him. "Manufactured order. And that manufactured order was broken when Miranda brought her mold into the world. Ethan died to make sure that that mold can no longer hurt anyone again. And since you were created by that very same mold," Chris paused. "I cannot justify keeping you alive."
"I am more than the mold inside of me," Karl said. He no longer cared about preserving his life. With his dying breath, he would proclaim his right as a man worth more than what had been forced upon him. He was not a mutant, an experiment, or Miranda's little plaything. He was Karl Heisenberg: the last remaining lord of the land. "But I can see in your eyes you'll have no qualms about killing me. Don't go thinking that I will beg for my life." Karl reached into his pocket and found one crumpled cigar left. He raised it to his lips and then realized that he had nothing to light it with. Damn.
"When I was fighting Miranda, I thought I saw someone hovering around the mountains. It was you, wasn't it? You knew that I would fight Miranda to the death to save Ethan and Rose. That's why you fired those shots to distract her and give me the-" Karl coughed around a clod of black blood. "Upper hand. I applaud your cut-throat shift in loyalties."
The helicopter appeared above them. A rope ladder unfurled from its belly as the rotating blades kicked up a vortex of dirt around them. Redfield's team called down to them but the man seemed not to hear. The revolver floated in and out of Karl's vision. He could no longer stand it. He closed his eyes with a sigh and let his head fall back against his machine. The cigar rolled between his cracked teeth, filling his mouth with bits of paper and tobacco. He held Marianne in his face as he readied himself for the shot. He was so tired…so very tired….
Snick.
The cigar hissed as its end was lit. He opened his eyes wearily in time to see Chris pocket a small lighter. The gun had been sheathed in its holster. Karl pulled the cigar away from his lips and exhaled a stream of smoke in Chris's direction. The man grabbed onto the ladder and gave a signal to his crew. Karl thought he saw Mia hovering along the door of the helicopter, watching him.
"I'll spare you one last time," Chris called as he was lifted into the air. "But only on the condition that you disappear. Don't cause any trouble, Heisenberg. If I see you again….I will kill you."
The helicopter lifted away and gave a precarious tilt. Karl watched its trajectory as it shot along the sky. He attempted to lift the cigar to his lips but his hand was shaking too violently for him to hold it any longer. It rolled along the ground as Karl coughed and then collapsed upon his side. The cherry of the cigar fizzled out upon the blood-slickened soil inches away from his finger, never to be lit again.
X
Author's Note: So. I have the first two chapters of the sequel based on the DLC already written, just for fun. I'll post a teaser in the next few weeks. If you'd like me to post the sequel to this story, drop a comment on one of my other fics and let me know! If not, then consider this the end of Karl's Heisenberg's origin story.
La revedere!
-DDD