C99: End to it all Pt6, Great Rescue of a Dream Within a Dream.
Its here, 2 days as promised. another step closer to overtaking my currently available chapters again b/c im lazy. I need to get back into the zone like I was in the recent battle. if yall have anything that inspires you like a song or something and believe it could help me then hit me with it. ill take a look and we get to chat too. 2 for one special.
9/9/26
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(unknown POV)
It was a strange darkness, an unknown shadow-styled zone where only her own body could walk about. Her voice reached no one until out of nowhere she saw scenes of the dream as well as scenes that made her think back on the Hunter.
After some time, the darkness around her began to shift as scenes made their appearance around her. They first showed me and the hunter working together to slay a vast assortment of beasts in various missions given to us by the council of Yharnam which is essentially the senior most folk of the city. According to the hunter, a gathering of old ass bastards like his adoptive father, Gehreman, led the city to ruin.
Other times we get missions to hunt from the healing church after they messed up something else or warned early that someone was close to transforming.
The final scenario that we spent together was in the hunters workshop modifying our gear to be better, stronger, and more personalized. I never saw the need for it at first but I grew to get a sense of endearment whenever we spent time together like this. Such simple actions, random chatter or hearing the hunter rant about certain pieces of engineering and how they should be more widespread to make life, in general, more convenient.
I can't help but reflect on the fact that if the Hunter hadn't met Gehreman, he might have been adopted by a random Yharnam family and became a genius Engineer who would throw the city into a technological revolution.
The scenes soon shifted as the duo grew younger, more impressionable, weaker, less set in our ways as we studied the various beasts. How Gehreman looked at her in a peculiar way which always made Hunter fight his foster father, acting as a distraction so that she could escape out of sight.
The scenes come to a close as they stop at their first meeting. I was introduced to Hunter, though much younger and more cocky, I guess. He would calmly interact with me yet a subtle sense of superiority as the senior hunter. He believed that I was a fledgling who had to be protected until I could stand on my own. While he that strange cockiness, i could occasionally see wisps of trauma that I learned later were from seeing his various brothers and sister die due to a variety of reasons that he patiently goes over to avoid.
We would butt heads over a variety of reasons until he was certain I could hold my own. Somehow, me beating him up in our meeting did not dissuade him from these teachings as strength was one thing and strategy was another. Looking back, these hints and simple strategies have long been left unused as a simple result of growth in physique and power. Yet they are still incomparably precious.
These memories come to an end and I am about to sit then when they shift once again yet remain partially unrecognizable as I see something that bears my resemblance yet not.
In these scenes, I see reminiscences on all the serene moments where she and the Hunter spent together. Him randomly talking about things he encountered while resting his head on her lap or simply lying down beside her. She would respond from moment to moment, a simple action as she was not too learned on how to properly respond in these situations.
I wish I could ask a question on what all this is as she sees the hunter come and go, his behavior still as eccentric as ever but never this focused on his duties. Even the fact that tools of the workshop were missing never would have deterred him from remaking them himself as he has in the past when an experiment of his with black powder would blow up in his face.
It is only after some time in these scenes that she sees the shade of Hunter's soul that tells her that 'he' was no longer the same person as he was before. Whatever entity or person that took over his body was ignorant of the original's thoughts and personality. His body shifting and mutating time and time again. She could only silently support him whenever he needed it.
Over time, the new soul would grow stronger and absorb the original, its own personality shifting in certain sections such as the intrigue to craft various tools or weapons at their limit. The new hunter even utilizes some strategy in his actions against the variety of beasts.
In the end, the original Hunter was left with only a small shard of the original, a small shard with a final will, a final desire to see me. A final will that wanted to be with her. This will was certainly orchestrated by the curse to find the ring and then reach her in the Clocktower. Yet the first half of these desires call to her heart. But the end results wrenched her heart out.
The scenes disappeared for her as she remained in the darkness. An eternal darkness composed of this pathetic dream, sobs covered her face as she remained alone.
At least until the scenes reappeared, showing the hunters dream once more. She bore witness to an army of messengers bustling around as they used a rope to pull 'something' out from underneath a lamp. She had rarely ever seen them but Hunter always seemed to see them and regularly chatted with them back throughout their life together.
She considered him insane for quite some time, acting all cutesy about something she couldn't see, until he spoke to them about a favor.
"Can you help me prank her? She doesnt think you all even exist. Something harmless, like a misplaced item, pull at her leg or take her food right in front of her." He jokingly said.
The following days have been a nightmare for her. First, a few items had been moved elsewhere, causing her massive delays in everything she did. Then when she was wiping herself down after a grizzly beast's death caused it to spray blood all over her. She has partially stripped to wipe down her clothes one at a time. But she then found them hanging on nearby trees.
She was forced to beg Hunter for mercy. He chuckled as he looked down at the floor and with a cheeky smile he looked at her.
"Huh, alright kiddos. Give her back the blade. She can't very well be a hunter without those. And what have I said about waving around sharp items? I don't want you all to get cut." He suddenly said with a half mocking half worrying tone that he only gives them. At the time, I had panicked thinking they somehow took my Rikuyo but it was still there.
Moments later, I saw black mist swirling around until a knife appeared. Around that knife, I saw wisps of creepy pale creatures releasing distorted gurgling laughter and groans. One even waved at her, though it was hard to tell at the time. But when I saw the knife they handed over, I knew now that I had to properly submit.
Afterall, the knife in question was one she always kept beside herself at all times. The same knife she had stuffed into her boot less than a minute ago.
Now, in the scene before her, though limited in her sight. She can clearly see hundreds of these 'cuties' working together as they pull and pull on this rope. Something heavy. Something they refuse to let go of. Even the 'thing' that looks like her approaches them and pulls on the back end of the rope in curiosity rather than desperation. Though that quickly changes.
At first, it was just a hat. A standard issue hunter hat, yet as it clutters to the side due to the angle the 'being' it rests upon shifting every second. The head of black hair is seen next and that gives way to a face, chiseled, marred in several scars from years of hunter work. Scars gained by burning all the wounds to prevent the spread of the beastly plague.
Scars that can now be seen upon an Imperfect vessel.
The Doll of me works harder now pulling at the rope until his body is fully out of the dream mire that the messengers call home. Yet on his frail, unconscious self, the greatest markers of his end have been turned into scabbed coated nothings. His eyes hang open in his deathly state.
The child, Cherry, stays off to the side as actually seeing so many Messengers has genuinely freaked her out. She is used to them around the graves, the fountains or near the steps of the workshop and/or garden. But never this many, never seen them this panicked, this anxious, nor her foster mother, the Doll.
Doll drags the Hunter inside the workshop with the messengers helping her do so while others swarm all over the simple hut, their eyes all following his body. The Replica works tirelessly to examine his whole body to check for any physical injuries and during this time. She also checks his eyes and finds that they have changed shades. One has turned from dark brown to a deep purple while the other has turned ashen gray.
After some time, the doll seems to let out a sigh of relief and nods with a smile on her face which causes the children to scamper away in cheers as the Doll remains seated on the floor, caressing the black hair of Hunter.
Cherry stares from a bit of distance away to not interrupt her. Though she does at least do her duties as a 'diligent' child by approaching the lower fountain and asking if she could have some water to give them. The swarm of messengers stare at her as if facing a rival. The messengers don't bear any hate for Cherry but they do have some doubts about her as she came out of nowhere and just so happens to bear the same blood as their own dear 'father'.
They would never refrain from her request for water, so some of them get the idea of charging her a high price but are quieted down by one simple fact.
She's broke.
Some of the messengers chuckle at the insinuation as thus the plan of overcharging Cherry was scrapped and a new tease was settled upon.
The messengers at the forefront of the fountain nod in accepting the request before picking up a small bottle of water, equal to 100ml of water or 3.4 fluid oz. Cherry is confused why they don't just pour the water into her bowl like they did all other times but shrugs and bends over to pick up the small bottle.
clink Clink clink clinkclink
"Ow" Cherry shuffles back after 3, 16.9 fluid oz/500ml glass bottles fall on her head as she grabs the tiny one. With a frown on her face, she sets down her bowl and the tiny bottle before rushing back and getting the new three and stuffing them under her armpit before grabbing the small bottle and bowl and moving back up the stairs. She notices one of the bottles is cracked and leaking which gets her gown wet but she can't just drop it here. Thus she hurries into the workshop and gently sets the bottles and bowl down as she looks over at how the Doll and her 'uncle' rest.
The scene could have been doubly as serene were it not for all the scars on his body, yet neither seems to mind it. It was a tranquil moment until both beings saw each other, in the mirror that is.
Doll's caressing motions slowed to a crawl as she took in the 'human' state of herself caressing the hunter. The majority remains the same yet the outfit and general body shape stand out by quite a bit.
One wears the signature hunter outfit but personalized while the other wears a humble Doll dress. Their faces and various other features such as how pale they look could detail them as twins yet one has segmented digits of their hands set up to appear human-like rather than actually human while the other has actual human hands that can provide warmth. Hands where one of which bears a simple but warm ring that belies its natural properties of being metal.
One stares at the other, their right hands never leaving from stroking the unconscious hunter's hair. Their left hands moving towards each other until….they touch, the sensation soft as their feelings merge in that moment. The words of their lives, of their time with the Hunter, of their current desires.
They both pull their hands apart as they cradle said hands against their chests, where their hearts are. No words are needed between them as the mirror soon shifts back to normal, showing only the Doll.
["I'll leave him to you now. Thank you"-Maria]
After some time, Doll opens her hand where a ring is now inlaid against her own ring finger and in the palm of her hand rests a new item not there before. Doll knows instinctively what it is and how it works.
[Crystallized Ashes of an Old One.]
As Doll stores the crystal away, the hunter's body jerks as his pupils dilate to the point where recognition returns to his body and he sits up from the lap pillow he rightfully deserved. It takes him some time to get his bearings that he was back at the hunter dream workshop.
His right hand, scarred from injuries and burns, moves to his throat where he too feels the scabbed injury. He then rolls up his sleeves where those injuries that continuously bled him out were scabbed over too. He was no longer simply dying due to time anymore. He confirms this by peeling some of the scab off to reveal scarred but not bloody and bleeding cuts.
A whimsy smile appears on his face as he looks up at Doll behind him as he waves at her.
"Im back"
"Welcome back, Dear hunter" She rises and curtsys in return.
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Word Count = 2464