I do not own Re:Zero or any of the characters.
Welcome Home
Ian frowned as he watched the inn shrinking in the distance behind them. He didn't feel right leaving Subaru behind, and he knew how poorly Subaru was going to take it, but they had agreed it would be better to handle whatever the problem was before he got there so that he'd be able to apologize to Emilia properly.
Rem had healed Subaru's Gate a bit while reassuring him that Emilia would forgive him as long as he was honest and explained himself clearly. Then, once Subaru had fallen asleep from the treatment, Rem and Ian had left him the supplies and a note, explaining they left him behind to protect him so that he could apologize to Emilia without being covered in blood. Ian had left a post script offering him a viable and potentially safe way to explain his power to Emilia without setting the curse off so that he could explain why he acted the way he did. then, they'd put the note with the supplies and left it with the inn keeper before taking the Carriage and heading out.
"Subaru's going to be very angry with us, isn't he?" Rem asked.
"Oh yeah," Ian nodded. "He's going to assume we think he's useless and left him behind so he wouldn't get in our way. He'll find his own ride home. However, we can't worry about that right now. We need to focus on our priorities."
Rem nodded. They rode in silence for hours, until after dark the next night, before Rem yanked on the reins, eyes wide. Ian opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, just as a crawling sensation traveled up his spine, spreading the entire length of it, before the cold feeling of his curse swelled, as though readying itself, or reacting to something.
"Witch Miasma," Ian growled, near-silently.
Rem nodded. "We need to hurry." She flicked the reins again, but the dragon didn't move.
"How far?" Ian asked.
"A couple hours on foot," Rem said. "We're almost to the village whose children we rescued."
Ian nodded, leaning forward to the dragon, bracing himself on its back to get as close to its head as he could. "Whatever danger is here, you're faster. And if it can keep up, we'll protect you. But our friends are at the mansion up ahead. We need you to be brave."
The dragon looked back at him and he sat back beside Rem, drawing his sword. The dragon stared at it for a moment, then surged forward, faster than before. Rem switched sides with Ian, allowing him to hold the reins in his free hand as she summoned her flail. A few minutes later, however, they slowed to a stop as they reached the village. It was chaos. A massive group of people were slaughtering the villagers, the group wearing black robes with pointed hoods, eyes cut out then fitted with a red lense, a red eye-shaped emblem on the forehead, and a medallion around their necks with a pair of crossed swords in a gold circle with a red background.
"The Witch's Cult!" Rem snarled.
"Get the children!" Ian said, passing her the reins and leaping off.
He landed in a role and two members charged, both wielding identical daggers with diamond-shaped blades, and red cross-guards. Ian moved to meet them and one of them slashed at him. He deflected the blade and split the person's side open as he passed, then slashed the other diagonally up across the chest before he could strike. He turned, carefully activating his magic and shot across the village square and tore into the next group as they were chasing a group of women and the village elder. He slaughtered them in seconds, but just as he finished and turned toward the group he'd rescued, another group of cultists dropped from a roof, slaughtering the villagers. Ian shouted in annoyance and rage, streaking forward as a gash opened in his left shoulder. He tore into the cultists, slaughtering four of the five before the fifth slashed his throat.
Ian shouted in annoyance and rage, streaking forward as a gash opened in his left shoulder. He grabbed a knife off of the ground, then tore into the cultists. As he slashed the first, he hurled the dagger into the fifth, then spun, stepping into the middle of the other three and slashed them all across the chest.
"Ian!" Rem shouted from the carriage as he sped along the road toward the mansion. "I've got them! Let's go!"
She swung her flail, slamming it into a cultist that tried to intercept them hard enough to blast him in half. Ian shot across the village, slashing any cultists that got into his way before leaping onto the front of the carriage with Rem, deactivating his magic and glancing down at the various scratches and cuts covering him. Nothing severe, but all painful.
"Mommy!" Petra was sobbing, Dyne and Cain trying to comfort her.
"It's going to be okay, Petra," Ian said. "Once we make it to the mansion, it'll be okay."
Petra continued to sob, and they rode in silence, Ian looking around carefully for anything to try and attack them. As the mansion began to come into view, the tingling along his spine suddenly spiked sharply and his head instinctively snapped to the right.
"Jump!" Ian shouted, grabbing Petra and Cain, leaping to the left.
Rem followed with Lucas and Mild. However, just as Dine was about to jump, the carriage suddenly lurched and was yanked upward. Dine shouted in surprise and shoved Meina out of the carriage a second before the entirety of the carriage was crushed into a small ball, Dine in the middle of it and the Earth Dragon landing on its feet and streaking toward the mansion. Cain and Petra both shouted in fear and dismay, struggling to get to the carriage, but Ian lifted them and sprinted toward the mansion, Rem scooping up Meina and following. Ian looked back, but there was no sign of anyone around them.
"I don't suppose there's a type of Mabeast that can turn invisible?" Ian asked.
"None that I know of," Rem said.
"I was afraid you'd say that," Ian said. "Run faster."
Rem nodded, both sprinting as fast as they could, just as cultists began to flood out of the trees. Both dropped the children instantly, readying their weapons, Ian activating his magic.
"Run for the mansion!" Ian shouted, the children complying instantly.
Ian ducked as Rem's flail swung over him, mowing down the first wave of cultists. Three charged after the children, but Ian shot forward, ignoring his calves splitting open, and slashed his way through the three cultists, bisecting all three. One hurled his dagger after the children, catching Meina in the back.
Ian shot forward, ignoring his calves splitting open, and slashed his way through the three cultists, bisecting all three. One hurled his dagger after the children, but Ian spun, catching the dagger and hurling it back, the blade driving itself into the cultist's face. Rem spun, her flail mowing down cultists behind them, buying them a few seconds to run. Finally, they passed through the mansion's front gate, only to find cultist bodies littering the ground, all of them dismembered by Ram's magic, burned by Roswaal's, or impaled by ice spikes. They could hear shouts from inside and Ian moved to enter, only to leap backward as the remains of the carriage suddenly crashed to the ground ahead of him. He spun, staring at the cultists swarming toward them, and the man walking at the center of the group. He wore a full-length black coat with green up the center where the coat ended in front at his waist, black pants, black shoes, a black cape with a high collar and maroon inside, had pale green skin, dark green hair, and a wide, psychotic grin stretched across his face, and wide, crazed eyes. The moment Ian looked at him, the crawling sensation up his back spiked again, as it had before the carriage was crushed.
"Rem, protect the children," Ian said, readying himself to use everything he had against the freak. "I'll handle the green freak."
"We'll face him together," Rem said. "Dine, get the others into that shack behind us."
Dine nodded and sprinted toward it with the other children. As the cultists swarmed after them, Rem stepped forward, mowing them down with her flail, her horn extending. For a moment, her face gained its usual crazed grin, but when Ian rested his hand on the back of her right hand, she took a deep breath, calming.
"Let's go," Rem said.
Ian nodded, and they both shot forward. However, just as Ian moved to attack the first cultist to step into his way, the feeling spiked again as the freak's grin grew before a hole suddenly exploded into existence in his gut. He stared at it, seeing a slight distortion around it. Then, he focused and skipped backward. They both shot forward, and when the freak's grin grew, Ian spun to the side, feeling a breeze beside him as a bit of his coat was torn free, then killed the cultists and launched himself at the freak. The freak's grin grew again, and suddenly, what felt like half a dozen solid objects as big around as a mallet exploded into his back, shattering his bones and sending him exploding into the ground. A moment later, he was charging the freak again. However, this time, he saw something behind the man and extending up into the air over him. A distortion. A slight blur in the air. He launched himself to the side as the blur exploded to the ground and the freak let out a high, excited laugh, one eyebrow rising. Two cultists stepped up behind Ian and Ian spun, slashing both just before the blur exploded into his gut, ripping him in half instantly.
Two cultists stepped up behind Ian and Ian spun, slashing both as he leapt into the air. Except, it wasn't a blur that passed under him and blasted three more cultists into several pieces. It was hands. Hands formed from darkness. Ian's eyes widened and he looked over at the freak, seeing the hands were extended from his back, seven in all. Rem's flail swung around at the freak, mowing down cultists all the way there, but one hand suddenly retracted enough to get in the flail's way, catching the ball. Rem's eyes widened before Ian shot forward, stepping around and between the hands as he approached, resetting twice when he was too slow, then slashed at the freak, forcing him to leap backward, all seven hands vanishing as he did, allowing Rem to spin the other way, her flail mowing down more cultists.
"Rem, leave hi to me," Ian said. "Focus on the cultists." He glanced at the shack seeing several cultists running toward it. "Behind you!"
She spun, sending her flail streaking toward them and blasted one cultist's torso into paste before flicking the handle and sending the chain crashing into the other two's throats, killing them. She retreated closer to the shed, and readied herself for the cultists. Ian turned back to the freak in time for a hand to drive itself through his gut. He skipped backward and dodged around the hand, launching himself at the freak. The freak avoided his strike again, but he continued his pursuit. A hand flashed out of the freak's back, slamming into Ian's shoulder and grabbing it, ripping his arm off. Ian reset and leaned out of the way of the strike, slashing at the freak. The freak spun out of the way, but Ian's sword slashed a gash into his cape. The freak spun, an arm ripping a chunk from the ground and hurling it into Ian's gut, shattering his ribs and launching him. Ian reset, dropping into a slide under the stone, then slid to his feet and lunged toward the freak, only for four of the hands to catch his limbs, two of them driving their fingers into his gut. Ian reset instantly, sliding under the rock before leaping backward, narrowly escaping the hands meant to catch him. The other two stabbed at him regardless but he leapt into the air, his magic launching them over him and at the freak. He slashed downward at the freak as he fell, only for the seventh hand to catch his blade before four sets of fingers drove themselves completely through his torso from behind. He skipped backward and leap backward from the hands meant to catch him, grabbing a cultist's corpse as he leapt over the next two. He slung the body around behind himself, then leapt off of it, the body blocking the other four hands as Ian slipped past the seventh hand, slashing at the freak. The freak leapt backward, but Ian's sword tore down his front, splitting his torso open shallowly, his coat hanging off of him loosely.
Ian prepared to charge again just as Rem screamed. He spun, seeing her staggering backward, holding a hand to her forehead as blood flooded down her face, her horn spinning into the air. She turned to retreat back to the shed, which she'd been lured away from, but before she could, a cultist all but hurled himself at her, tackling her to the ground and driving his dagger into her back, plunging it into her heart.
"Rem!" Ian shrieked.
A hand grabbed the top of his head and he focused. Then, he was floating in a void of darkness. He looked around, seeing nothing.
"Too late, huh?" he sighed.
"That's right," a soft feminine voice said. "Just by a second. I must say, you've adapted to your curse well. You utilize it exceptionally."
"Well, if I'm dead, and there's a female talking about my curse, that must make you Satella," Ian said.
"Very good," Satella's voice commended. "You can't see me yet, and I don't expect you to be able to. Truthfully, I didn't expect us to meet at all. If you hadn't been in the process of making use of your curse when you died, you wouldn't have come here at all."
"Well, while we've got time, and since I assume Subaru's going to end up dying and reset everything anyway, feel like explaining why you gave me this specific curse?" Ian asked. "It'll help pass the time while I wait to forget everything."
"Oh, you won't forget," Satella said. "Since you're hear, the connection to your curse will allow you to remember just like the last time. But sure, I don't mind explaining to you. You're interesting. You're not my beloved, but you're interesting. The curse was simply meant to bring you here and grant you an advantage. The specifics of the advantage adapted to the individual's experiences. Whatever you're familiar with."
"I see," Ian said. "So for a guy like Subaru, who does nothing but play video games where you reset every time you die, it creates a respawn effect. Where as I used to write fanfictions a lot and watch anime along with it to use the specific events and conversations, leaving me to have to skip back a few seconds at a time constantly to make sure I get it right. So from my experiences, it was more fitting to be the ability to skip backward a few seconds at a time."
"And for the third, he's able to create pockets of time distortion to manipulate," Satella said.
"The third?" Ian asked.
"I think he goes by Al now," Satella said.
"And what, exactly, do you get out of bringing us here and giving us these curses?" Ian asked. "I assume it has to do with freeing yourself. Are you planning to possess us? Turn us into your servants? Do the curses weaken the seal each time they're used?"
Satella laughed. "You're much sharper than Subaru. However, I'm not going to tell you everything just for the asking. And besides, our time here is up."
Ian opened his mouth to ask what she meant just in time to stagger backward, Rem catching him instantly, looking worried, but wincing at the smell of the Miasma he was no doubt still soaked in.
"What happened?" Rem asked.
Ian stared at her, eyes widening, then threw his arms around her neck, struggling not to sob. She held him tightly, despite being thoroughly confused, for a long few moments before he managed to calm himself, pulling back from her.
"Ian, tell me what happened," Rem said.
"Not here," Ian said. "Not now. Has Emilia had her meeting yet?"
Just then, Subaru fell to his knees.
"Subaru!" Rem gasped, hurrying over, only for him to suddenly hug himself to her stomach, crying but laughing weakly. "Subaru, what's wrong?"
Ian frowned, kneeling and prying him off of Rem, the lost, broken expression on his face remaining unchanged. "We need to get him to Felix."
Rem nodded and Ian pulled him up onto his back, following Rem back to Crusch's mansion, then ran to get Felix. As Felix was tending to Subaru's minor injuries, Rem told Ian what had happened recently. It was after their duel with Julius, and after Emilia had left. Ian nodded as Felix reported that there was nothing he could do for Subaru's mental state. They thanked him and he and Crusch left. Ian sat beside Rem, swallowing hard, and glanced at Rem, seeing her being stabbed again before his mind returned to the present, rather than the future that was his past.
"What happened?" Rem asked.
"We were attacked by the Witch's Cult," Ian said, Rem tensing instantly. "They were attacking the mansion and slaughtering Irlam Village."
"Tell me everything," Rem said.
Ian nodded and explained everything as best he could without setting off his curse. When he was finished, Rem stared at the ground in silence for a long while before nodding.
"We need to leave early to warn everyone," Rem said.
Ian nodded, glancing at Subaru. "We'll need to leave today, to be safe."
Rem nodded and left to get ready to leave. As she did, Ian found Crusch and Felix, explaining they had to leave immediately and apologizing for their abrupt departure. Crusch lent them a carriage, wishing them luck with whatever they needed to take care of, and Ian headed back to Subaru, pulling him up and leading him out to the carriage, Subaru walking on his own but doing nothing but following. After a few minutes, of waiting, Rem arrived with her things and they left quickly. They didn't stop for the night, but just as they reached halfway, early in the morning, Rem suddenly narrowed her eyes. Ian gripped the hilt of his sword just as the same feeling as the last time he'd been around the freak shot along his spine. He grabbed Rem and Subaru and leapt off of the cart just as one of the the freak's darkness hands shot out of the trees, ripping the dragon's head off entirely, allowing the carriage to crash. Ian pushed himself up, drawing his sword as Rem summoned her flail.
"Looks like it's not going to be that easy," Ian said. "They're already here."
"I don't think they've attacked the village or the mansion yet," Rem said. "But with our dragon dead, we can't realistically expect to make it to the mansion without killing them all first."
"Agreed," Ian nodded. "The freak's mine. Handle the cultists as best you can, but do not be afraid to retreat if you need to."
"I'm not leaving you," Rem said.
"I can survive against him until you bring Roswaal to save me," Ian said. "But you need to keep yourself and Subaru alive until then."
Rem hesitated before nodding. However, just as her horn extended from her head, a fireball as big around as Ian's head raced out of the trees toward Subaru. She stepped into the way instantly, holding her right arm out, her left bracing it at the bicep. "Huma!"
A barrier appeared around her, but the fireball blasted through anyway, burning her arm all the way to the elbow. Tears rolled down Rem's face, but she grit her teeth.
"Damn Witch Cultists!" Rem snarled.
A pair of the freak's arms shot out of the trees, racing through the air toward them, but Ian tackled them both out of the way. They both stood and Rem frowned.
"What was it?" Rem asked.
"The freak," Ian said. "I can see the attack, but you won't be able to. That's why I said to leave him to me."
Rem nodded, summoning her flail and standing. "Where are they?"
"This is an interesting development," an unsettling voice hissed as the freak stepped out of the trees, surrounded by more than a dozen cultists, all of whom had a fireball hovering over their hands, which were held above their heads. "You can see my Unseen Hands. You're interesting. Tell me, are you the one known as Pride?"
"My name is Ian, and I'm going to cut your freak head off for attacking the people I care about," Ian said.
The freak hummed thoughtfully. "Prideful, but not Pride. I see. Then you'll have to be killed. Get them."
cultists swarmed out of the trees behind them suddenly. Ian and Rem spun, Rem's flail mowing down the first line, but as they tore into the cultists, another group charged from the other side. Ian reset countless times. Once from a slashed throat, one from a knife to the back, four from Rem being killed, two from being stabbed in the gut. Finally, he ducked, Rem spinning and slaughtering the last of the group in time for them to see one of the cultists running away with Subaru over his shoulder. They stepped toward him just as all of the cultists who had been holding a fireball sent it speeding toward them.
"Huma!" Rem shrieked, forming a barrier around them both, for what little good it would do.
"Fura!" Ian shouted, praying he got it right for a change.
Unlike when he normally used the chant to try and control his magic, the normal result being his body being shredded, this time, a massive dome of spiraling, green-tinted wind, much like his normal use of his magic, appeared just inside of Rem's barrier. When the fireballs hit, they blasted straight through both, however, sending Ian and Rem sailing backward into a pair of trees. Rem was knocked unconscious, but Ian staggered to his feet. He looked around for his sword, but when he saw it, it was streaking through the air toward him, clutched in one of the freak's Unseeing Hands.
Agony seared through Ian's brain as his legs gave out, Rem gasping and barely catching him, the basket of appas she had been holding spilling across the ground.
"Ian!" Rem gasped. "What happened? Are you alright?" She looked around worriedly, but Ian simply pulled her into a hug.
"Later," Ian said. "Not now."
Rem hesitated before hugging him back. "Okay." She looked up at Subaru, who was staring at the fruit in the stand before him. "Subaru? What's the matter?"
"Rem-Rem," Subaru breathed, before his eyes slid to Ian. "Ian. You're...You're both..."
Ian swallowed hard. "How many times?"
"Two," Subaru said. "Do you remember?"
"One," Ian said, closing his eyes, his conversation with Satella returning to him. "You and I have a lot to discuss. Come on. We should get back."
Subaru nodded and Ian helped Rem pick up her appas before they headed back, no one speaking. As they reached the mansion, however, there was a blonde man there, identifying himself as Russell Fellow, a treasurer in the capital. The thing that caught Ian off guard was that he knew Subaru by name. Ian narrowed his eyes as Russell rode away in his carriage before turning to Wilhelm.
"We might need to talk to you in a little while," Ian said. "For now, though, Subaru and I need to have a chat."
Wilhelm nodded. "I will be inside if you need me."
"Rem, can you get me some water?" Ian asked. "I'll be in to drink it in a bit."
Rem nodded and Ian kissed her forehead before letting her walk away. He led Subaru to where they usually trained with Wilhelm before either of them began their side of the conversation.
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