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"So," Leon says, bumping his elbow against Ethan's, "what's been on your mind?"
"Hm?"
Leon chuckles. "You know, the thing that's had you staring at the grass like it holds all the secrets of the universe since we got out here."
Ethan rubs the back of his neck, a sheepish smile crossing his face. "Sorry, didn't realize I was staring."
"It's okay. At first I just thought you were looking out for that stick Rose keeps tossing around."
"No, that's over on the other side between the two trees that sort of look like they're about to fall over." At Leon's impressed silence, he shrugs. "Dad thing."
"Dad thing. Sure."
They walk in silence for a little longer. The breeze ripples across the grass, creating waves of green and white as the small flowers poke above the thick bladed carpet. The weather is just beginning to turn, the air growing slightly colder, slightly drier. In the distance, they've started to see the barest hint of smoke from their distant neighbors. He pulls his jacket a little more around his shoulders.
"You're staring again," comes the quiet voice, "are you okay?"
He sighs. "I'm not sure there's an easy answer to that question."
"Not really expecting there to be."
He glances over. Leon watches him with a careful expression. Not unkind, not wary the way the scientists and guards will look at him, but…careful.
"Ethan?"
"Why'd you agree?"
"Huh?"
"To this." He gestures behind him at the house. "Why'd you agree to coming and living with two bioweapons instead of doing, I don't know, what you're supposed to be doing?"
"And what's that?"
"I don't know, man," he says, already regretting asking as he sees Leon's expression get more guarded, "you just don't seem like the babysitting type."
Leon hums, still looking at him. "What type do I seem like, then?"
"The type that would rather eliminate a threat before it has a chance to do anything bad to anyone else."
That makes Leon stop. Ethan stops with him, turning to face him properly. Now this, this sort of expression he's used to. The slightly pinched brows, the drawn mouth, the narrowed eyes. Distantly, part of him—not Eveline, she's been on board with this line of questioning for a while—registers that pissing off one of the only people able to keep him and his baby girl safe is not the best choice of action, but, well…
"Do you think Rose is a threat?"
"What?"
"You said I'm the type to eliminate threats. Do you think Rose is a threat?"
"To you?"
"To anyone."
"No! She's—she's got powers, sure, but she's not—she's a good kid, she's not—she wouldn't hurt anyone without a damn good reason."
"And what about you? Are you a threat?"
"Not unless someone takes away my daughter."
To his surprise, Leon's expression softens and he reaches out to put a hand on Ethan's shoulder. "So someone trying to take away your daughter, that's a threat to you and her which means that you might become a threat to them, yeah?"
"Yes? I suppose? Where are you going with this?"
"Ethan," Leon says with a softness that Ethan did not earn and is very confused by, "I'm stopping the threat to you and Rose by being here. In order for Chris's plan to keep you both out of BSAA's clutches as much as possible, we both need to be here. That keeps her safe, that keeps you safe, okay?"
Ethan just stares at him for a long moment. The warmth of Leon's hand seeps through the fabric of his coat, resting there like the late afternoon sun. That softness is still in Leon's voice as he says something else but Ethan can't hear it, not over the rush of blood in his ears.
"Ethan? Ethan, hey, talk to me, buddy."
"Sorry," he croaks, "I, uh, thank you."
Leon chuckles, squeezing his shoulder. "You're welcome. Believe me, this is far from the worst assignment I've ever had."
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
"Either that or a disparaging account of how much shit I've been thrown into."
"Hear, hear."
Leon chuckles. They keep walking. Beneath his skin, Eveline twists, curling around his heart. He holds a hand to his chest for a moment and feels her relax.
"Was that what was bugging you?"
"Partly." He gets a gentle prompting nudge and sighs. "I've been worried about Rose's nightmares."
"Have they gotten bad again?"
"Not necessarily, I just…it's the content of them that's worrying me. And no," he says before Leon can say anything, "I'm not gonna tell you about them. That's Rose's choice to make."
Leon raises his hands placatingly, letting them drop as they round the corner of the backyard. "Is she talking to Dr. O'Shaugnessy about them?"
"I don't know."
"Yeah, you do."
"Yeah, alright, I do. No, she isn't."
"I won't ask you to tell me, but…do you know why?"
"Yeah." Leon waits a few seconds to see if he'll elaborate, and when he doesn't, just shrugs. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize for prioritizing your daughter's privacy."
The breeze ruffles Ethan's hair. A bird lands in a nearby tree and calls to its neighbor.
"Tell me about the show."
"You know, you're welcome to watch it with us."
"Apparently I'm bad at watching things. I have too many questions."
"Oh, are you the type of person that asks questions the show's about to answer in like, three seconds?"
"How am I supposed to know they'll be answered?"
"Because that's how shows work! You watch them and they'll give you information!"
"Another one?"
Rose nods, her shoulders barely above the bubbles. His hands work the conditioner through her hair, careful to keep the strands out of the water as he twists it up and grabs the clip to hold it in place. Rose toys with a mountain of bubbles, poking holes in it here and there.
"Do you want to tell me about it?"
"He just keeps showing up," she mumbles, "it's like—it's like he's in them. Not like, the way anyone is normally in a dream, but like—like—"
"Like the real person is somehow affecting your dreams?"
"Yeah. But it's not—" she sighs in frustration, blowing bubbles across the tub. "I suck at explaining things."
"We're mold people, sweetie, no one's ever had to vocabulary for explaining our crazy stuff."
"Well, yeah, but I just meant—okay, so it's like—you know when you're hiding around the corner from someone and you can hear them but they're not, like, actually talking to you?"
"Yeah."
"And then there's—there's like, there's the person that told you they were over there talking?"
"Sure."
"That's what it feels like. Sort of. It feels like my dreams are me overhearing something that's going on and they're trying to tell me what's going on, but it's not—I'm not doing it consciously."
"What was that about not being good at explaining things?" He tickles her ribs until she twists away with a yelp. "That makes sense, Rosie, so you think…you think maybe it's the mold trying to show you something?"
"Well, the last time something like this happened it was Miranda trying to lure me into the Megamycete—"
"And we know it's not that this time because you beat her," Ethan says firmly. Rose looks up and covers his hand with hers.
"We beat her."
He smiles and kisses her forehead. "My brave girl."
"But this doesn't feel like her. It feels…I don't know, like it's older, somehow? Less, like, intentional? Miranda sort of felt like she was pulling me towards her, this feels less like that."
In his chest, Eveline shifts again, giving him a nudge. He frowns. She nudges him again, more purposeful this time.
"Dad?"
"Sorry, sweetie, just thinking."
She narrows her eyes at him like she can tell he's hiding something—is his poker face really that bad or does he just have the awful misfortune of being surrounded by people who can read him like a book?—so he nudges her back into the water so he can rinse out the conditioner. Her eyes fall closed as he runs the showerhead carefully over her scalp.
"They're worried about me too," Rose mumbles, "aren't they?"
He blows out a breath. "Yeah, sweetie, they are."
"I don't want to tell them."
"I know."
"I don't want them to put me away again."
"I won't let that happen."
"You might not have a choice," she says, opening her eyes to stare up at him. "They…they're not just something we can fight, Dad, you know they're not. And if Chris can't stop them—"
"Don't talk like that, baby, please," he begs, putting the showerhead back and cupping her face in his hands. "I just got you back, Rosie, I'm not gonna lose you again."
"You think I want this to happen? Dad—"
"No, I know, baby, I'm sorry." He kisses her forehead, hard. "I just can't bear the thought of something trying to take you away from me. We don't have to tell them anything, okay? I swear."
Rose is quiet for a long moment. "What if they keep asking me? I don't want to lie to them."
"You don't have to lie. You're having nightmares of weird shit happening to you. That's not unexpected. They'll understand."
"Will they?"
"Can you look me in the eye and tell me you think Chris would be mad at you for having nightmares?"
But Rose doesn't meet his gaze. She looks at the water and clenches her jaw. He frowns, running a hand through her hair.
"Rosie?"
"Have you noticed that Chris is acting weird lately?"
"How so?"
"He…he keeps looking at me or you when he thinks we're not paying attention. And he keeps finding excuses not to be with us while we're doing stuff. And there are these phone calls that he takes at night—"
"Are you spying on Chris, sweetie?"
"It's not my fault if I get thirsty in the middle of the night and I see him out on the porch on his phone." She swishes her hand through the water. "I'm just saying, he's being weird."
Ethan sighs. Truly he's not the person to ask about this where Chris Redfield is concerned. If anything, Chris is being almost aggressively normal towards him, making gruff small talk about how his new remote security job is going, asking him what he wants from the grocery store, swapping stories about Rose growing up—those give them both little chest pangs, though, so they don't do that very often unless they're both in really good moods—and sitting next to him on the couch while he reads and Chris does some paperwork.
The only time he can name something that seemed weird to him was a few days ago, when Chris and Rose were leaving so Rose could spend time with Mia. They hadn't gotten to the stage where Ethan was allowed to go with them, nor was Mia cleared to come visit in person. So, every week, Chris and Rose would spend the day with Mia, and Ethan tried not to feel like the family dog waiting by the window for Chris's truck to come back.
He'd given Rose a big hug and a kiss, giving her the Tupperware of leftovers from last night—Mia's favorite, at least he hopes it still is.
(He can't help but love her, even after everything. Eveline sits right under his hands, clutching the plastic until Rose takes it.)
He'd stood on the porch, watching Rose and Chris walk towards the truck. Rose had said something to make Chris laugh as she went to the passenger side and as Chris opened the door, he caught sight of a smile. A real smile, a fond smile, the type he knows he has when he looks at Rose too. And then Chris's eyes had flickered up and seen Ethan and he'd tried to smile back, he did, but Chris's face had fallen already and he'd quickly got in the truck.
Ethan had stood there until Leon came and found him and asked what was wrong.
"Yeah," he sighs, reaching for the washcloth, "I guess Chris has been a little different lately."
"He's sort of being like the way he was at first."
"Yeah?"
Rose shrugs. "Sort of feels like he's avoiding me."
"Avoiding you? How? This house is tiny."
"Not like, literally avoiding me, although sometimes it feels like that, but I mean—" she sighs— "we used to, I dunno, talk about stuff. Stuff that wasn't just training or school or my nightmares and stuff. And now it's like he doesn't know how to talk to me anymore. Like he's just doing the bare minimum because he has to."
There's a current of anger in Rose's voice. Ethan leans down and cups the back of her neck, rubbing the point that always gets sore. Instead of relaxing, however, Rose just tenses up. "What's wrong, sweetie?"
"Do you think Chris is trying to leave us?"
Ethan blinks. And blinks again. "What?"
"I mean, he got us this house away from base so we didn't have to be there anymore, sure, but he still has to be on base a whole lot. And he gets us Leon, who stays with us all the time, and he's taking more and more phone calls all the time—"
"You're really hung up on these calls."
"Well, when have you ever known Chris to willingly talk about something?" Rose scowls. "He's pulling away, Dad, you know he is."
"Why does that upset you?"
"What the fuck do you mean, why? Chris is leaving, Dad! He's—"
"Rose, look at me." He takes her shoulders and gives her a gentle shake. "Look at me."
Rose bites her lip, eyes wide and wet with unshed tears but she looks at him. He lifts his hand to thumb away a falling tear and shakes his head.
"Chris isn't the type of person to leave something he thinks is worth doing," he says firmly, "you know that."
"But what if he doesn't want to be doing this anymore? What if he thinks that now that you're back, he doesn't need to be here?"
An all-too familiar pain lances through Ethan's chest and suddenly he's the one struggling to meet Rose's eyes. Memories of arriving at that too-cold house in Romania and Chris leaving them on the front stoop with nothing but brand new coats and boxes of household items. Memories of Mia leaving the house as he cradled baby Rose to his chest, feeling the emptiness of the walls. Memories of shoving Rose into Chris's arms as he—he—
"I'm sorry," Rose whispers, her hands coming up to his face, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I—"
"Shh, baby," he warbles, covering her hands and leaning so their foreheads rest together, "I know, I know you didn't mean to. It's my turn to have big emotions, that's all."
Rose sniffles, tears plip-plopping into the bathwater. "It was so hard to lose you and Mom, I can't—Chris sucked so much when I was growing up and when you came back it was so nice to have my dad again but Chris—"
"Chris is your dad too," he whispers, breaking both of their hearts in different ways.
"I don't want to lose him, Dad."
"I know, baby, I know."
I don't either rests on the tip of his tongue, but he knows Chris hasn't been his to lose for a very long time now, if he ever was.
"You should talk to him, Rosie."
"You want me to talk about feelings with Chris?"
"Yeah, baby, I do. You know he loves you—shh, no, don't argue with me, he does, baby. He did all of this for you, he loves you—"
"He did it for you. He didn't do any of this until you got back."
There's the anger again. He pulls back enough to watch Rose scrub a hand roughly under her nose. "There's more to this than you being afraid he's going to leave, isn't there?"
Her mouth forms a guilty line.
"Why are you mad at Chris, Rosie?"
"Because he always thinks he knows best! He doesn't actually talk to me until I've fucked up or he's fucked up but he never notices he's fucking up until after and then he apologizes sometimes but he acts like that just makes up for everything and then he fucks up again in the same way and nothing ever changes and he acts like I'm this thing he has to take care of but then he's nice to me and then he isn't and he just—ugh!"
He can feel Rose's frustration bubbling and boiling like an upset tea kettle in his stomach. He reaches out through the network, carefully trying to pull it apart, soothe its frantic tangles, try to get to the root of the issue. He doesn't blame her for being frustrated—God knows he could never blame anyone for being frustrated with Chris—but this doesn't seem as though it's a new frustration.
"Sweetie, how long have you been mad at Chris?" She looks down and mumbles something. "What?"
"…a while."
"Is this why you don't want to tell him about your nightmares?"
"Maybe."
He takes a deep breath. "Are you mad at Chris now because I'm back?"
Rose's head jerks up, water sloshing around her. "What? What does that mean? I'm not mad at Chris because you're back!"
"But before I was here, he was sort of all you had," he says slowly, gently, "and so it was hard to be mad at him because you had to rely on him for so much. And now that I'm here, you don't have to lean on him for everything, you have me. So the things you were mad about—and are still mad about, now you can be mad at him without being scared that you're going to lose him for it."
Rose stares at him. Her mouth opens and closes a few times. "H-how did you—"
"Mold dad cheat," he says, patting her chest just between her collarbones, "and, well, let's just say that I may have some experience with that."
Rose looks away again, gnawing on her lip. "I don't know what I want anymore."
"I think you do, baby, I just think you need to talk with Chris about it."
"He's not gonna listen to me."
"Why not, sweetie?"
"Did he listen to you?"
"Do as I say," he says weakly, "not as I do?"
"Uh huh."
There's a knock on the door. "Uh, hey, there's hot chocolate if you guys want some."
Chris's voice startles them both. They stare at the door for long seconds until heavy footsteps move away. Then they look back at each other.
"Do you want hot chocolate?"
"I do want hot chocolate."
"Hey, Dad?"
"Yeah, Rosie?"
"Will you come braid my hair?"
He puts his book down, getting up from the couch. "Sure, sweetie."
He's sure Chris and Leon know by now that that's the phrase they use when they want to talk about something without them. Judging by the looks they get at they go upstairs, they're just waiting for one of them to admit it. Still, it's as much for the microphones as it is for them, and at least they've all got the common sense to not throw each other under the bus.
He flicks on the fan and grabs the comb, beginning to brush out Rose's hair. "What's up, sweetie?"
She shrugs. "Felt like you had something you wanted to talk about."
"Right." He puts the comb down and makes eye contact with her in the mirror. "What happens in here stays in here, okay?"
"I remember, Dad."
"I know." He takes a deep breath. "How much do you remember about Eveline?"
Rose frowns. "She was the kid from the Baker Estate, right? The one who held Mom there for three years and, um, was responsible for the other stuff?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"She was in my dreams for a while too."
"I know, sweetie."
"You—wait, how do you know? Were—is this another mold dad thing?"
"Sort of." He glances at the door, even though he knows there's no one outside it. "When I was…dead, after we fought Miranda, I ended up on the same level of the Megamycete as Eveline."
"You were trapped there with her?"
"Yeah."
"Are you okay? Did she do something to you? What happened?"
"Easy, nothing happened. Well—"
"Dad!"
"Sorry, sorry." He pinches the bridge of his nose. Eveline does the mental mold equivalent of smacking him upside the head. "I know, I know, I'm getting there."
"Getting where? Where are you going with this?"
"Eveline's the one who helped me figure out how to talk with you outside the Megamycete, Rosie."
Rose's mouth drops open. "She what?"
"She knew more about the mold than I did—knows more than I do. She's the one who taught me how to use it. She's—she's the one who helped me come back."
The bathroom is quiet for a few moments. The fan clicks and whirs. He picks up the comb again and works at a tangle at the end of Rose's hair.
"…is she still there? Trapped in the Megamycete?"
He blows out another breath. "No."
"Where is she?" He meets her eyes in the mirror and sees the moment it clicks. "She's—she's with you?"
"Not completely," he says, voice quiet, "but yeah, she's…she's with me. I'm—the way she put it, it's my mold that allowed her to appear in the Megamycete, and so she's…a part of me."
"Can she—can I feel her too?"
"Well, you said she was in your dreams, right?"
"Yeah, but not—wait—" she whips around to stare at him— "do you think she's the one giving me nightmares about him?"
"No, that's not her. If it was, I'd be able to see it too."
"Well, then what is giving me those? Does she know?"
Eveline shifts under his skin, restless like an animal pacing the bars of its cage when it knows there's food just out of sight. He sighs, reaching out to rest his hands on her shoulders. "You gotta give me a minute to say everything, Rosie, okay?"
"Right. Sorry."
"It's okay. I had a bunch of questions too." He rubs her arms, just to feel the soft fabric of her shirt. "Right. So. Eveline knows a lot of stuff about the mold. How it works, how you and I are connected, how it stores information and…people, for lack of a better term."
"Like Miranda."
"Like Miranda, yes, and like Eveline and me."
"You?"
He smiles weakly. "I was dead, Rosie, I died in 2017. There's no way that I should have been able to come back the first time, let alone all the other times. The mold remembered me, stored me, so that I could come back with my body, my memories, all of me. And because the mold that made me the first time was Eveline's mold…"
"She's part of you know, as far as the mold is concerned." Rose chews on her lip. "Okay. What does this have to do with my nightmares?"
He opens his mouth to explain when he feels Eveline slosh around again. He chuckles. "I think she'd be upset if she didn't get to tell you herself."
"She wants to talk to me?"
"Apparently the two of you have bonded already."
"The last dream," Rose mumbles, "I found her on these big flat plains…she was so cold…that was—she remembers that?"
"She carried that blanket around for ages, Rosie, until we left. Yeah, she remembers."
Rose looks down, toying with a loose thread at the end of her shirt. "How do I talk with her? Do I just—like, reach out and try to find her?"
"I think so? I'm not sure."
"Is she telling you how to do it?"
"Uh…" He reaches for Eveline and feels her thud against his ribs. "I think she's mad that I don't know how to do it."
"How can you tell?"
"Well, it's sort of hard to describe what she feels like, but—okay, okay," he mumbles when it thuds against him again, "she's…just unhappy with me."
"Maybe when we go to sleep tonight, she can show us?"
"That certainly makes sense. Ow."
"Is she hurting you?"
"I think it's more psychosomatic, but there's definitely something happening to my chest right now, yeah."
Rose glares at Ethan's sternum and pokes it with her finger. "Stop hurting Dad. We'll listen to you, okay?"
He feels Eveline pout and can't help but chuckle.
"Everything okay?" Leon asks as they come back downstairs, Rose's hair in a neat braid. "You guys were up there for a second."
"Dad's not as good as Chris is, that's all."
"Hey!"
Chris chuckles from the couch. Leon just rolls his eyes and keeps stirring the pasta sauce. "You decide what it is you wanna do tonight, Rose?"
Rose shrugs, wandering over to the small shelf near the TV. Ethan sits back down on the couch, watching, until he's startled by a nudge of Chris's knee against his. He glances over and Chris's brows twitch in a silent question. He thinks he might hesitate a bit too long before he nods back, but Chris just nods and follows his gaze to Rose.
"What about this game?" She holds up a box with the word 'Abducktion' written on it. "I think we got it in that mystery bag from the thrift store when we went with Mom."
"Why is there a duck being sucked into a UFO?"
"I think that's why it's spelled like that, see? Ab-duck-tion?"
"Ah. You and Leon are gonna love this game, then."
"I think the point is we work for a company that abducts ducks and we have to abduct them in really specific orders?"
"What sort of company abducts ducks?"
"This one, apparently." Rose carries the box over to the coffee table and plops down, pulling the top off and reading the instructions. "Yep, apparently the ducks enjoy being abducted so it's not a bad thing."
"That's very convenient for the company that abducts the ducks to say," Leon remarks as he carries over plates of pasta. Ethan murmurs a thanks as Leon sits in the nearby chair. "Do we just, like, keep the ducks after we abduct them?"
"Uh…" Rose flips pages. "It looks like the point is to get these specific formations of ducks from the pond for…some reason? And then the ducks just hang out in the UFO until they're put back in the pond to be abducted again."
"The UFO?" Rose holds up a bright green rubber saucer. "Oh. Ah. The UFO."
"And then we get points for how complicated the formations are and we have cards that help us move the ducks around our ponds to get them in the right formations."
Chris takes a bite of pasta. "Is this the sort of game where we can fight against each other or are we all competing separately?"
"Uh…"
"Don't mind him," Leon says with a wink, "he's just worried about us teaming up again."
"Asking a question about how the game works is reasonable!"
"I'm sure there's no equivalent of a Draw 4 card, don't worry."
"It looks like we're all competing to try and get the same formations cards but we have our own individual boards that we try and make them on," Rose says, "and it looks like there are some actions that let us mess with each other's boards but not a lot?"
"This sounds like an after-dinner game, but I'm intrigued by the prospect of duck abduction."
"You mean abduck—oh, that's why it's called that!"
Chris just groans as Rose giggles. She pushes the box aside and pulls her pasta towards her, leaning on the coffee table to avoid getting sauce everywhere. Ethan just settles in to eat, listening to Chris and Leon talk about something as Rose pokes at her phone. Eveline curls just under his stomach and he finds himself resting a hand there, as if to say soon.
When they've cleaned up dinner and set up the game, Rose explains the rules. There's something very funny about watching Chris and Leon squint at brightly colored, little plastic ducks with the same intensity as official mission business. They play a few rounds before Rose starts squinting at the bottom of some of the cards.
"What is it?"
"Did you notice that the cards have like, little notes on them?"
"Huh?" Leon looks at his cards. "Where?"
"On the formation cards, at the bottom. This one says that Dave's denying my request for a raise but that we can go 'raise the roof' anytime."
Ethan battles the simultaneous cringe at a phrase that even he won't touch with a twelve-foot pole and the reflexive get the fuck away from my daughter impulse. Judging by the twin looks of disgust on Leon and Chris's faces, they're doing something similar. "Are those on all of the cards?"
"Yeah. This one—ew, this one talks about him sending me an email about the project, this one—oh my God, he's such an asshole."
"'It would be nice to see that level of productivity again?' Who is this, my fucking supervisor?" Leon throws the card down. "Fucking Dave."
"If you think you've got such a good idea for this project, why don't you get your ass down here and do it?" Chris growls.
"Fucking Dave."
"Fucking Dave."
"Do I have to keep getting formation cards if it means I have to read more of Dave's notes?"
"Unfortunately, that is how you win."
"Damn."
Dave's notes, to no one's surprise, do not improve by and large as the game goes on. Chris ends up winning by a total of 8 points, which surprises none of them after how quickly he got the hang of it, but the face he makes at how many notes from Dave he has in front of him makes the rest of them winners too.
"Are you sure about this?"
Rose tucks herself into his arms, snuggled under the covers. "No, but I don't really wanna have any more of these nightmares either, so…"
Ethan sighs, kissing her forehead. Beneath his skin, Eveline shifts. He squeezes Rose closer and closes his eyes. "I'll be right here the whole time, okay? I promise."
"I love you, Dad."
"I love you too, sweetie."
The white noise machine hums in the background. The humidifier burbles in the corner. Rose's breathing slowly grows deeper, more gradual, her heartbeat settling against his ribs as they both drift slowly off to sleep…
"Dad?"
He opens his eyes. He's back on the vast flat plains of mold. Rose stands next to him, just like she looked in the Megamycete. Cap on, his coat draped over her shoulders. He can't resist the urge to pull her in for a hug, kissing her cheek. She clings back, voice muffled in his shoulder.
"Where are we?"
"We're in the mold, I think." He lets go but keeps one arm around her shoulders. "This is where I was when I was not-dead."
"This is where I saw Eveline. Well, sort of. There was—there were two houses, and you—you were there? Sort of? And then the Bakers were over there—" she points in one direction— "and then way in the distance over there was the big castle."
"Castle Dimitrescu."
"Is that what it's called?"
He nods, tightening his grip. "That's where one of the four Lords lived. Where you and I first talked."
"Where are they now?"
"The mold's not trying to remember them."
Eveline's voice makes them jump. Ethan turns around to see her standing there, still in her little dress and tall boots. His heart warms when he sees the gloves on her hands and the blanket over her shoulders. Next to him, he feels Rose reach out slowly.
"Hi, Eveline."
"Hi." She peers at Rose's hand like it's some horrible thing. "What are you doing?"
"I, uh, wanted to say hi?"
"You did say hi. Why is your hand out?" Ethan holds out an arm too, beckoning her closer. Something flickers over Eveline's expression before she scowls and folds her arms. "Are you going to listen to me or not?"
"Yes, we'll listen."
"Good." She whirls around and starts stomping across the plains. Rose glances at him and he shrugs. They start to follow her. "Keep up."
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see! God, you're so impatient."
"Well, if you were having terrible nightmares all the time and someone told you they knew what was going on and then made you wait to hear it, you'd be impatient too."
"Hmph." Eveline glances over her shoulder. "We're not going far. I made the thing over here."
"What did you make?"
"You'll see! What did I just say?"
Rose scoffs, making a face. Despite everything, Ethan can't help but suppress a snort. The two of them already bicker like sisters.
As if she can hear his thought, Eveline shoots him a glare over her shoulder. "It's right here, okay? I'll tell you everything inside."
Out of the fog, a large structure looms. Ethan's heart stutters and his footsteps come to a stop. Rose catches his arm, stepping closer.
"Dad? What's wrong? What is that place?"
He swallows. "That's Heisenberg's factory. He…he was the fourth Lord."
"Why are we going in there?"
"He's not here," Eveline says, illuminated by the eerie shadows from the torches perched just above the door, "he's not strong enough to have a form in here. The mold doesn't care about him."
"I think he would hate that," Ethan says faintly.
"It's the mold's memory of the room, that's where we're going. It has all the stuff we need. Or, that you need. I don't need anything," Eveline says quickly, turning around and going inside.
"Are you sure about this?" Rose clutches his sleeve. "We don't have to go in there."
"No, we do. Eveline's right. Heisenberg isn't here." He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Just…stay close to me, okay, sweetie?"
"I'm not going anywhere."
Walking into the factory is just as nerve wracking as it was before. Every creak, every faraway clank, every hitch of Rose's breath sends jolts through him. He's not holding a gun this time, but his daughter's hand. His daughter, the one who isn't split apart into flasks, the one who's here, with him, whole, alive, wonderful. His Rose. His baby Rose who isn't a baby anymore, who got to grow up and still be as amazing as she always was.
He can do this.
They reach the room where he'd spoken with Heisenberg. Eveline is waiting by the wall of photos. He hears Rose gasp and squeezes her hand.
"That's…that's me. And mom. And Chris. And…who is that? Is that Miranda?" She points to the large photo in the center, Heisenberg's scrawl of 'Mother' still underneath. "Who are these people?"
"The other lords." He swallows around the lump in his throat. "Donna, Moreau, Dimitrecsu. Heisenberg viewed them all as some fucked up family—well, they were a fucked up family. He said that everything that happened was some…test."
Rose's face screws up. "That is really fucked up. And what, was I like…the—"
"Please," he croaks, "can we not right now, Rosie? I—I—"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." She wraps her arms around him and he pulls her closer, his eyes trained on the picture of her as a baby, still all soft eyes and big chubby cheeks. His poor baby… "I'm here. I'm okay. We're not there anymore."
"Right." He takes a deep breath and looks back at Eveline. "What did you want to show us?"
Eveline, who'd been strangely quiet and not making fun of him for having emotions, just points silently up at one of the pictures attached to Chris. Sure enough, it's the one she'd shown him briefly before, of the man in the sunglasses. Rose follows her finger and steps closer, looking up at him.
"Who's that?"
"That's Albert Wesker."
"Who? Another bioweapon?"
"Yeah. He—the scientists compare his stuff with mine while they run tests on me."
"Why? Is he another mold person?"
"No," Eveline answers this time, "he isn't. The only reason he's here is because Heisenberg knew about him."
"Why was Heisenberg looking into something that wasn't related to the mold?" Ethan steps up too. "What does he have to do with this?"
"He's related to Chris, duh. That's why he's on there."
"Yeah, I got that part," Rose says, "but why is he—what made him get on here? Leon's not on here, and Leon's related to Chris. There's not anyone else on here, just him."
"I've heard Chris mention him before, not often, just in passing, and then…" His gaze flicks over to Eveline. She looks at the ground and kicks a small rock. "The, um, the weapon used to…"
"Just say it, okay?"
"Eveline."
"The weapon Ethan used to kill me was named the Albert. There, I said it, okay?"
Rose looks over, taking in Eveline's hunched shoulders. She walks over and wraps her arms around Eveline and Eveline yowls like a stray cat.
"What are you doing?"
"Hugging you."
"Why? What are you doing? Why are you hugging me?" Rose just stays quiet and Eveline glares at Ethan like it's his fault Rose is hugging her. "Do something!"
And, well, Ethan can't help himself. He walks over and wraps his arms around both of them. Eveline makes another noise of protest, wriggling around, until he rests his chin on top of her head and focuses on the warmth of holding her, holding Rose, holding both of them, and Eveline stills. They stand there like that for long, long seconds.
"I think he's the person in your nightmares," Eveline whispers eventually, "the Black God's trying to show him to you."
"The Black God? Who's that?"
"The thing in the Megamycete?"
"Oh, the one who controls everything?"
"Yeah. It's in Ethan."
Rose pulls back, eyes wide. "It's what?"
Eveline shrugs. "The Black God wants to live. For a long time, it was Miranda keeping it alive. Now it's Ethan."
"Does, uh, does anyone else know about that?"
"No," Ethan says quickly, "and I don't plan on telling anyone any time soon."
Rose narrows her eyes. "So with me, it's all 'you should tell Chris this, you should tell Chris that,' but you don't have to?"
"Do as I say, remember, not as I do."
"He's annoying," Eveline says, fiddling with the blanket.
"Yeah, he is."
"Okay, you two, team up on me when we're not worried about a mysterious bioweapon no one wants to talk to us about." He puts his hands on his hips, looking back at the wall. "Why do we think the Black God is showing us him?"
"I don't know, that's your problem," Eveline harrumphs.
"He's always trying to take something from me," Rose mumbles in a quiet voice. "Like…like he's trying to use me for something."
Without looking, Ethan pulls Rose back into his arms. Eveline presses up against her too, sort of like a penguin trying to huddle for warmth. "He's not gonna get you, Rose."
"He seems stupid."
"Eveline!" Ethan scolds as Rose lets out a shocked laugh. "That's not nice!"
"He's being mean to Rose in her dreams and he doesn't even do anything in them. Plus, his sunglasses look dumb."
"His sunglasses do look dumb, Dad."
Ethan also agrees that the sunglasses look dumb. "Look, I don't know where we go from here, but I think we are going to have to talk to Chris about it sooner rather than later."
"That means you have to tell him about the Black God stuff."
"Now, hold on—"
"The Black God is the one showing me this Wesker person, it's the reason the mold is being the way it's being right now, and it's about you, which means we have to tell them about new stuff we notice."
"Rose is smarter than you," Eveline says helpfully and Ethan sighs.
"Okay. We'll talk to him about it."
"Will you tell him about me?" He glances over and sees Eveline fiddling with the blanket. "I'm…I'm new too, aren't I?"
"Technically, you've been with me the whole time, that doesn't make you new," he says gently, "do you want us to tell Chris about you?"
"What if he tries to make me go away? I don't want to come back here. I don't want to go out there but it's—I hate it here."
He feels more than sees Rose swallow at that, and reaches out to ruffle Eveline's hair. "You're not going anywhere, Eveline. You're part of me, remember?"
"Part of us," Rose agrees, and he's never seen Eveline look so hopeful before.
"Really?"
"Yeah, Eveline."
"Oh." Eveline shuffles a little. "You can…you can say I'm here. But I don't want to talk to him."
"That's okay. You don't have to."
"And I don't want to talk to the other guy either."
"You know his name, Eveline."
"Fine, I don't want to talk to Leon either."
"That's okay too." Eveline shoots a glance at Rose and looks down again. "Do you want to be able to talk to Rose sometimes, though?"
"…maybe."
"You can talk to Rose, Eveline, as long as Rose is okay with it."
"Would it be like the dreams?" Eveline shakes her head. "Then yeah, we can talk sometimes. I'm okay with that."
"Fine."
"Okay."
Ethan ruffles their hair and chuckles at the twin yelps. "You two'll be just fine."
"Shut up!"
"Oh my God, Dad—"
"You're so annoying!"
"You're right, Eveline, he is annoying."
"See?"
"That's me, I'm annoying." He tries to ignore the brief pain thudding against the back of his ribs but Eveline's eyes narrow, like she's about to call him out on it. "Is there anything else you wanted to show us, Eveline?"
"No. You guys should go."
"Wow, tired of us already?"
Eveline glares but there's no heat in it. "You're supposed to be asleep. This isn't sleeping. You should go."
"How do we go? Just, like, try to wake up?"
"Yeah, basically."
"C'mere," Ethan says softly, pulling Eveline close for another hug. "Thank you for your help."
"Come back," Eveline says, "it's boring without you here."
"We'll come back," Rose says, "we'll bring Uno or something next time."
"Good. You guys play it wrong."
"Okay," Ethan says before they can devolve into that argument, God knows he learned his lesson about that last time, "Rose, let's try and go, okay?"
"Bye, Eveline."
"Bye."
Eveline watches them from under the blanket as the two of them close their eyes, beginning to rise up through the strata, back out through the fog of sleep, up to—
"—than! Ethan! Ethan, wake up!"
Ethan jolts awake to Chris's hands on his shoulders, Chris's face inches from his. He opens his mouth to ask why the fuck Chris is shaking him awake when he catches sight of Chris's expression.
Chris looks terrified.
"What—"
"Oh, thank God." Chris lets him go, collapsing onto the bed, his head in his hands. "What the fuck was that?"
"What are you talking about? What's going on?" He glances over to see Rose in a similar state of confusion, Leon's hands on her shoulders with an equally grim expression on his face. "What happened?"
"What happened," Leon says with a sort of forced calm, "is you and Rose went to bed three days ago and didn't wake up."
"What?"
"That's not true, it's—" Rose fumbles for her phone and stares at the screen— "Dad, it's been three days."
"But that's impossible, we were only there for—"
"Only where?" Chris's head jerks up. "Only where, Ethan?"
"Don't talk to him like that," Rose barks, "leave him alone!"
"The two of you were unconscious for three days straight, Rose, the time for being polite is over, now where were you?"
Ethan swallows. "In the mold."
"What?"
"We were in the mold, Chris. We shared a dream and we were in the mold. I didn't know what was going to happen, we didn't mean to stay asleep for so long, I'm sorry, but that's where we were."
Chris's expression does a few complicated things before he pinches the bridge of his nose. "Is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine," Rose says, a little mulishly, "no one's hurt, nothing's trying to get us, well, not from inside the mold—"
"Sweetie," Ethan says weakly but it's too late, heads have already snapped in her direction.
"What do you mean, from inside the mold? What's happening?"
"Does this have anything to do with your nightmares?" Leon's grip has gentled on Rose's arms, but he hasn't let go. "Is that why you went into the mold?"
Rose shoots a panicked look at Ethan. He feels Eveline shift uneasily. He takes a deep breath and reaches out. "Please let go of my daughter."
Leon lets Rose go, albeit reluctantly. He pulls her close and lets her cling onto him for a moment. A shuddering breath meets the thin skin of his throat and he pushes encouragement into her chest. His fingers glow slightly and hers do too.
"What are you doing?"
"Comforting my baby," he says, voice a bit sharper than he intends, "give us a moment."
He feels a slight pang of regret as Chris immediately clams up, but Rose relaxes just the smallest amount into his arms and he lets her sit there for as long as she needs. When there's another shaking breath, he sits back and lets her curl one hand into the fabric of his shirt.
"The first one, the night when Dad first gave me a bubble bath," she says, staring at a spot on the covers between Chris and Leon, "it was—there was this black stuff that was trying to take me over and a voice that was sort of controlling it."
Chris inhales sharply. Leon shoots him a glance but doesn't say anything.
"They keep happening. It's always the same voice, the same weird black stuff. It—sometimes it kills Dad, sometimes it kills you, Chris—" Chris reaches out and puts a hand on her ankle— "and it—it hurts. Like it's alive but it's not and it—I just hate it, okay?"
"Understandable," Leon says quietly.
"So I—I told Dad about it and he—um—"
Ethan blows out a breath. "The way Rose described it, it seemed like something was giving her the nightmares on purpose to show her something."
"Like what?"
He glances at Chris. "How much do you know about the Megamycete? What…what's in it?"
Chris frowns. "I know it stores the memories and information from people or things in close proximity to it when they die. It has echoes of—is Miranda back? Do we need to—?"
"Not Miranda. Miranda's gone." Rose chews on her lip. "But, um, Eveline's in there."
"Eveline?" The darkness in Chris's voice has Eveline wrapping herself tightly around Ethan's heart. "What the hell is she—"
"She's just there, Chris," Ethan says quickly, "she's not hurting anyone, she's not trying to get out, she's—her mold and my mold are kind of the same, okay? When I was dead—" the room flinches— "and the mold was…holding onto me, I guess, Eveline showed up. She's a part of me."
"Like, now?" Leon asks. "Is she here now?"
"Sort of. I can feel her. Not like…physically, but she's…she's here. She can't really do anything, and I can't feel her all the time, she's just sometimes there."
Chris looks like he's about two seconds from throwing up but he just nods. "Okay…okay…Eveline's not really dead, she's in the mold, she's in you, is she what was giving you nightmares?"
"No. That was the Black God."
"The what?"
"The thing that is actually controlling the Megamycete. Its consciousness, the thing that actually makes it alive. It's called the Black God, at least that's the name they gave it."
"Okay," Leon says quietly, rubbing his forehead, "so the Black God was giving you nightmares about this black stuff? Is the Black God the thing in your nightmares?"
"No. Eveline figured out who it was, though, so we went—"
"You went?"
"I told you we were in the mold," Ethan says. "Time passes differently in there. We went into the mold and Eveline took us to the mold's memory of that wall in Heisenberg's office, the one will all the pictures on it."
Here, Chris sits up a little more. "What office?"
"Did you never go up there? It was a wall that had the other Lords on it, Miranda, and…and Rose, and Mia, and you."
He blinks. "Me?"
"Yeah. He knew who you were, who the BSAA were. He had a whole map that had 'BSAA come' written on it."
"O…kay?"
"And he called you a boulder-punching asshole when you blew up his factory."
Leon snorts, turning to try and disguise it with a cough. Rose just laughs shamelessly as Chris buries his face in his hand again. "Why did Eveline take you there?"
The humor leaves in an instant. "Because there was another photo on the wall connected to yours."
"Whose?"
Both he and Rose are quiet for a moment, long enough for Leon to frown and Chris to lean forward.
"Who was in the photo?"
"Chris," Rose asks, her voice small, "who is Albert Wesker?"
Ethan watches Chris freeze.
It takes a lot to phase a man like Chris Redfield, Ethan has learned. And he's had a feeling that this was going to get messy real fast, but to see Chris look like he's simultaneously seen a ghost and is speed-running the five stages of grief?
Whoever this is, this is bad.
"Albert Wesker was a bioterrorist," Leon says when Chris doesn't immediately respond, "he worked for Umbrella, the company behind the Arklay Mountain case and the Raccoon City disaster, and then later tried to take over the world—or end the world—he tried to become a god, basically."
"Ew."
"Yeah, very much so." Leon glances at Chris, who still hasn't moved. "You said you were seeing black stuff?"
"Yeah, like these weird tentacle things."
"That sounds like Uroboros."
"Uro—what?"
"A virus," Chris rasps, "a—a bioweapon he was going to use to bring about 'the next stage of evolution.'"
"Dramatic."
A wet laugh. "Yeah, very."
A swallow.
"I thought he was dead," Leon says quietly.
"Yeah, me too."
"What happened?"
"I killed him."
"Oh." Rose shifts. "Uh, good job?"
Another hoarse laugh as Chris scrubs a hand over his face. "Don't know how good of a job it was if he's still alive."
"Well," Ethan says carefully, "things around here are kind of bad at that."
Finally, finally Chris looks at him. The sight almost makes Ethan reach out for him. There's a deep pain there, one that Ethan doesn't want to crack open, but Chris shifts his gaze away before he can say anything.
"Why is the Black God showing you him?"
"I don't know."
"What does the Black God want?"
"To live," Ethan says simply and all eyes turn to him. "It wants to live."
"How do you know that?"
He winces. "Because it's…me? Sort of?"
Silence. Again.
"Eveline explained it like this: the Black God is gonna latch onto whatever energy keeps it alive, basically, which is why it ate everyone in the village, and why Miranda had so much power for so long, but after Miranda died…"
"It latched onto Dad," Rose says quietly, "because Dad was the strongest thing in there. And Dad wants to live."
Chris looks back and forth between the two of them a few times. "So the Black God—you, or, not really you but sort of you, is showing Rose Wesker because…it wants to live?"
"Well, he's always using me to do something," Rose mumbles, "like…like I'm disposable, so—"
"You're not disposable," Chris says sharply, squeezing her ankle.
"If the Black God wants to live, it can't let you or Ethan be destroyed," Leon says, "so that's why it's warning you about Wesker. Wesker wants to use the mold to do…something, and the mold doesn't want that."
"Basically, yeah."
Chris opens his mouth to say something but two twin gurgling stomachs cut him off. He manages a weak chuckle and ruffles Rose's hair. "Let's get some food into you two, you've been asleep for three days after all."
"I'm sorry, Chris, I didn't mean to—"
"I know you didn't, Rose, it's okay. Just…warn me next time you guys are gonna go into the mold? You scared me half to death."
"Eveline wants us to play Uno with her."
"Oh, great."
"Does she agree with me about stacking Draw 2's?"
"Nope," Chris says firmly, "we are going downstairs to order pizza and watch something that has nothing to do with Uno and talk about literally anything else for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we will start worrying about things, understood?"
"I love that Uno rules rank alongside Albert Wesker as things to worry about for you."
"Kennedy, so help me, I will tell them about Monopoly night."
"Hey! You said you'd never bring that up again!"
"Wait, what happened on Monopoly night? Who'd you play Monopoly with?"
"Nope, Chris is right. Pizza time." Leon takes Rose by the shoulders and marches her out of the room.
"Hey," Ethan says, quickly catching Chris by the wrist as they move to follow, "I am sorry. I didn't mean to—"
"You have nothing to apologize for, Ethan," Chris interrupts, gentle, yes, but not meeting his gaze, "it's…we'll figure it out, yeah?"
Ethan swallows the rest of his questions and nods. "Yeah. Tomorrow."
"Tomorrow. Now let's get downstairs before they order something gross like anchovies and pineapple."
"Ugh, don't have to tell me twice."