Chapter Text
After a decent flight back into Romania, a three-and-a-half hour carriage ride to the middle of nowhere really wasn't your definition of a rousing afternoon, but it wasn't like you could pick up the village and just move it somewhere else. Pulling out your cellphone, you desperately tried to find something to pass the time, only to be shattered by the lack of cellular reception this deep into the mountains. You sighed and leaned your cheek on the cool glass of the carriage, watching the dull and monotonous trees slowly pass you by.
It was nearly unheard of for the standard person to leave the Romanian village that you called home, but then again, you were anything but standard. The simple-minded devotees of Mother Miranda might have called what you had a gift, but working under her gave you a more clear picture of the truth. You were a bioweapon, her bioweapon. When Mother Miranda injected you with the Cadou, she honestly expected you to mutate into a mindless, flesh-eating Lycan, so imagine her surprise when you actually managed to survive with what she referred to as "favorable mutations".
Nowadays, you were her tracker, her closer, her "iron fist" as some of the villagers put it. That last part wasn't too literal, but the title came when she had tasked you to quash a rising insurrection. On this day, you were returning from a mission that Mother Miranda had sent you on to investigate the remains of a certain city in America that had been the epicenter of an "outbreak" as she called it. You never really argued with the tasks she sent you on, as you quite enjoyed the outside world. Living for as long as you had, you had seen the world advance culturally and technologically, which made it all the more mind-numbing when you returned to the village that seemed irreparably stuck in the past.
Speaking of which, after being lost in your thoughts for a while, the carriage came to a sudden stop as you arrived at your destination.
You were home.
Stepping out of the carriage and onto the snow-covered ground, you let out a slight shiver as the wind bit through your clearly ineffective sweater. You had almost forgotten how cold it was here in the month that you had been gone. America was certainly warmer, that was for sure. Flicking a gold coin to the carriage's driver, you trekked into the woods to get to where you needed to go.
The village was just the same as you left it, still gloomy and still depressing. When its residents saw you saunter into the town square, they murmured for each other and gave you a wide berth, causing you to roll your eyes and sigh. Your spirits were almost immediately raised again when you saw a particular merchant dealing his wares off to the side.
"Duke!" you laughed loudly as you ran over to his carriage-turned-stall.
"Oho! If it isn't my most eccentric customer!"
The Duke, a larger than life yet slightly mysterious man, was one of those bright spots in your life where you could confidently speak without either having to mince your words or hold your tongue. As you approached, he pulled out two glasses followed by a bottle of whiskey that he saved just for you.
"Back so soon?" The Duke smiled, pouring a glass for you, "Where have you gone and disappeared to this time?"
"America," you sighed, knocking back the glass.
The alcohol burned your throat in the best of ways.
"Ah, America," The Duke mused, "I haven't been out there myself in quite some time, you know?"
"You've been there?"
You shouldn't have been surprised. A guy like The Duke always seemed to know something about anything, so it should come as no surprise that he would get around to anywhere and everywhere.
"Yes indeed, my friend. Although, it's been maybe... 40 years since I last found myself out there?" he mused, rubbing his chin and throwing down another drink, "How are things there?"
"Loud, smelly, but neat," you chuckled, "Things have certainly changed since the last time you've been there. Words alone aren't enough to describe the experience."
"Well then, perhaps I might just find my way over there!" The Duke laughed.
The two of you shared conversation for just a bit more before you excused yourself to return to your estate. 'Estate' was a generous word, really. It wasn't like the mansions of Dimitrescu or Beneviento, but just a slightly bigger house than the usual ones in the village. With two floors and a basement, it was just enough for you and a singular maid who watched over the house in your absence.
A small pace away from the rest of the village was your home. There was a certain sense of relief when you laid eyes on it, eager to just slide into bed and sleep for three days straight. Throwing open the front door, you shouted into the well-kept house.
"Elena! I'm home!"
Dressed in formal wear came a young woman with dark hair. Your maid, if you could even really call her that, came forward to greet you.
"Welcome home!" she said with a small curtsy.
"Ah, quit all that," you smiled, "You know I hate all that formal shit."
When you had hired Elena to care for your estate, she seemed so scared at first. To be fair, the only other people who hired help were The Four Lords of the Village, and they had some less-than-stellar reputations. From Castle Dimitrescu's bloodlusted cannibalism to Heisenberg's machine experiments, you couldn't really blame Elena for being terrified of you at first. With enough time, however, you two essentially became roommates. When you were here, all you asked her to do was just to tidy things up, as you would worry with things like cooking and laundry. Your maid insisted on doing these minor things for you, but the thought of someone doing your menial tasks for you just didn't sit right. You imagined that she felt relief in the ensuing years knowing that you weren't as cruel or uncaring as the Four Lords.
"How was your trip?" Elena asked hopefully.
"It went about as well as you expected," you groaned, pinching the bridge of your nose as you lazily walked towards your room, "More dead ends, more disappointing news to deliver to Mother Miranda."
"Speaking of Mother Miranda..."
"Oh, no... Please don't tell me..."
"I received a call from her earlier this morning. She wants you to sit in on her meeting with the Four Lords to give her a report personally."
"Damn it!" You swore, letting out a dramatic sigh as you entered your room and collapsed onto your bed, "It's bad enough that I have to give her bad news, but now I have to endure all their snide comments!"
"It may not be all that bad!" Elena said, trying to reassure her employer, "At least, you'll be able to see Lady Beneviento again!"
Lady Beneviento... What could be said about her that you haven't already said already? Unlike the rest of her siblings, she always treated you nicely, or at least what you interpreted as nice. She never emoted much behind that veil of hers, but you like to imagine that her not turning you away at her front door was a good sign.
"Mmmm... I suppose your right," you hummed, "It'll be nice to see her again..."
...
The next day came and you found yourself outside of Mother Miranda's private hostel, a gathering place for her and The Four Lords to converse. You had actually sat in for these meetings before, but not even Lady Beneviento's presence could completely alleviate the absolute headache that was the entire spectacle. Alcina and Karl's incessant bickering was bad enough, but Angie egging the two of them on only made it worse.
Angie was, of course, Lady Beneviento's most prized doll, so prized in fact that it was given the gifts of speech. And Angie most certainly spoke, fit with what you initially perceived as a grating voice and even harsher personality. Although, as time went on, she honestly grew on you. You figured that for all her bravado, she was lonely and just wanted someone to be around.
That was such a familiar feeling.
You pushed that thought out of your mind as you cautiously entered the hostel. Alcina and Karl were already verbally sparring while Angie giggled and laughed at the antics on Lady Beneviento's lap. The dollmaker herself was sat in a chair to the side with her usual veil over her face, silently observing the sibling bickering. The ever-devout Moreau was hobbled over what seemed to be a pile of rocks that he had fished out of the reservoir, though he spared a glance or two to his idol, Mother Miranda, who was stood to his right.
As you entered, all eyes briefly centered on you before they all went back to whatever it was they were doing before you arrived. Although you weren't considered one of the Four Lords, your attendance here didn't seem to be much of a surprise.
Now that you were here, Mother Miranda simply held a hand up and all voices fell silent.
"I'd like to hear your report," she said in a calm, yet still commanding tone as you took your place to her right.
"It should come as no surprise, but any trace of the Tyrant or Golgotha virus went up in flames when Raccoon City was destroyed in 1998," you sighed, shaking your head, "I even went as far as trying to find a sample of the Progenitor Virus, but it seemed whatever hold Umbrella Pharmaceuticals had is long gone. We're about 20 years late to the game."
"How unfortunate," Mother Miranda said curtly.
You were never too thrilled about chasing ghosts, but if you were being honest with yourself, the concept of rampaging viruses and dropping nukes on cities was a pretty exciting concept to you. Even if Mother Miranda saw your investigation as a complete failure, you certainly got a kick out of playing detective to a bio-terrorism incident.
"Although, there is one thing I did notice," you resumed, "The Raccoon City Incident was like opening Pandora's Box. Ever since then, there have been an uptick in biohazardous events and individuals in the world. Spain, Africa, New York, China, these things are just common now to the outside world."
"What exactly are you trying to suggest here?" Miranda asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The rest of the world's caught up with us in the bio-weapon department. The Cadou no longer holds the monopoly on... mutative power."
"I see. You've certainly given me much to think about. Now, with that out of the way, I'd like to touch on-"
You tuned out whatever Mother Miranda had to say concerning the affairs of the Four Lords. They're problems weren't your own. You had said you peace. Huffing out lightly, you only really caught every other sentence or so. Mother Miranda was speaking on something concerning experiments, and Karl must have said some snide remark because he and Alcina were back at each other's throats in an instant.
As the two bickered yet again, your eyes slowly trailed over to Donna, who was unmoving and unspeaking as usual. Once your eyes laid to rest on her, you could see her head turn slightly to meet your gaze from under her veil. You noticed her shift in her seat slightly, as if even eye contact with her was enough to make her shy.
She was adorable.
A small smile spread across the corners of your lips as you offered her a small wave from across the room. A silent gesture to tell her that you saw her.
"Fucking hell, this again?" Heisenberg coughed out with a layer of disgust.
He noticed your gesture to Donna and was quick to rag on you for it.
"Excuse me?" you asked, your head snapping to him, "You have something to say?"
"Oh, yeah," he guffawed, "Maybe ol' Donna linking up with someone like you would improve the quality of her work."
"Lady Beneviento's quality is more than enough," you growled, causing Heisenberg to audibly groan.
"Thank goodness for her knight in shining armor," he spat sarcastically, "She could definitely use one."
"How's about I shove that hammer so far up your ass that you see stars?!" you barked out, earning a hearty laugh from Alcina.
Now it was your turn to get into a shouting match with Karl, which the two of you did for about a minute until Mother Miranda finally had enough of the senseless bickering.
"Silence!" she shouted, causing everyone to shrink back into their seats.
Needless to say, the rest of the meeting went on without interruption.
...
Later that night, after all the festivities were done for the day and everyone was back at their respective homes, Donna decided to pour herself a cup of her favorite tea. Per the norm, she sat alone in her dining room. It was nowhere near the size of Alcina's but it was certainly nothing to scoff at either. With a lengthy sigh, she pulled back her veil and brought the delicate porcelain to her lips, feeling her shoulders soften as the soothing liquid coursed through her system.
She shivered slightly when the neutral air brushed over the fleshy mass over her right eye. Wearing her veil for most of the day hid her face from the elements, so it was always slightly jarring when it was exposed to anything else but cloth at the end of the day. Angie floated into the dining room and sat across from her on the table, giggling slightly at the words she was about to say.
"You certainly seemed to enjoy them standing up for you today."
Donna nearly choked on her tea, letting out a sparce cough as she set the teacup down.
"Angie..."
"What? I know you enjoyed it! You can't really hide these things from me, can you now? It certainly was a sweet gesture!"
Angie clasped her wooden hands together and wistfully looked up, doing her best to impersonate a lovestruck maiden.
"I know that you would certainly love to-!"
"Angie!"
Donna called out the name of her doll again, much more forcefully but laced with embarrassment yet again.
"Please..." she sighed, "You're overthinking things."
"Uh huh," Angie huffed, stamping a foot on the table, "Well, you know my opinion on things. Honesty is the best policy!"
Donna groaned as she hid her face in her hands, the thought of you coming in and out of her mind.