No One's PoV

All was quiet throughout The House, except for the soft, familiar tune of Samantha's music box that played as a haunting memory of her former, darker life. For Samantha, it was the only way that got her to sleep well.

Even Dr. Monty found himself asleep, which was most likely the cause of Dr. Maxis' persistent pleas for the British man to get some well-needed rest. Monty couldn't disagree, even if the fate of his perfect world and the fate of his makeshift team would haunt him in his dreams. All he remembered was scooting every file of his task force to the other side of his bed, before plopping down on the vacant space of the soft mattress, falling into a deep sleep.

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No one's PoV

In one quick transition from the facility to The House, the Shadowman appeared in the bedroom of Dr. Monty. He mentally chuckled to himself as he towered over Monty's sleeping, defenseless, foolish form. He looked at his old friend's calm, peaceful face as he snored quietly.

A being that claimed that he was an omnipotent god would certainly think that protection would be needed when something as vulnerable as sleeping would occur. What a foolish mistake.

Such a fool indeed.

"Sleep well, old friend.", The Shadowman mumbled quietly.

The harbinger for the Apothicons had no desire to end his former friend's life, especially when he was powerless against him. Monty had the Summoning Key, the most powerful artifact in any universe.

The Shadowman only had his manipulation. The odds of Dr. Monty showing mercy to him was very low at this point.

He needed the help of the Summoning Key and his chosen apprentice to truly be a powerful entity once more.

At that moment, the Shadowman spotted the Summoning Key in Dr. Monty's pocket, which was glowing a golden mist. The Shadowman smirked as he slowly reached out to grab it.

Just a little further...

A small, red light began to light up rapidly when his hand was a mere inch near the artifact. He drew his hand away quickly, causing the blinking light to cease. He narrowed his brown eyes at this.

Somehow, that sly Dr. Monty was able to lace the artifact with an explosive that, from the looks of it now, seemed far more advanced than the explosives used in the war years ago.

His old friend wasn't just foolish; he now seemed suicidal.

The Shadowman was displeased.

If he truly desired to have his powers back, he would end up as ashes with Dr. Monty. He backed away from Monty's sleeping form, calculating his next move.

"Master...", a raspy, all-too familiar voice whispered near him. He slowly turned his head, spotting a shelf with interesting antiques that he didn't pay much attention to when he got here. Now as he looked at the collection, a small smile appeared on his lips.

The glory days.

Survivors of different backgrounds and from different time periods teamed up against the undead, causing years of an unending, delightful war for survival. They listened to him or the others who posed as gods in order to return to their original lives. However, unknown to them, they were helping whoever was playing 'god' to gain full control over the dead. 

The hardest revelation for all of them wasn't the fact that they were somewhat responsible for what unfolded; the hardest revelation was the fact that they would never go back to there original lives. They were lied to.

It was at that point in time, survivors began to realize that the only way to survive was to rebel against higher beings. Mere mortals harnessed the element that destroyed their way of life to their advantage and they did so with great ferocity against the ever-growing undead.

First, it was little Samantha Maxis, who wanted vengeance on Group 935 and Richtofen for taking her father and life away. Then, under his influence, Edward Richtofen took control to rule the dead. Years of war between Richtofen and Maxis for control took place, taking the lives of countless survivors that inhabited the destroyed Earth. In the end, Maxis won and everything was lost.

That is, until little Samantha played with time carelessly. The Shadowman remembered that day in Northern France.

When the dead broke free from Excavation 64, the younger versions of Edward Richtofen, Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki were guided by her in order to escape. They had freed her from The Aether and she found her way back to The House. In return, she granted them their freedom.

And during their time, the Shadowman had never seen such great strength and courage; not since the early war against Primis. In some deranged, unexplainable way, he was impressed. But as impressive as they were, along with the past survivors that were guided by other beings, they still had to die.

However, a small group, which he considered them as 'Hidden Gems', managed to survive and were transferred to Wunderbarer Traum for the crimes that they had committed after the ordeal. Such a nuisance that was, but he digressed.

Now, the Shadowman found himself mentally chuckling at the collection, which consisted of the Monkey Bomb, a small dragon wing, the golden spork, a small replica painting of the Wolf King, a piece of fruit that didn't look good to eat, a disc from the Thundergun, a faded green hat, and a piece of Element 115. At the end, Dr. Monty could only scavenge so little to remember.

Then, standing farther away from the others was a jar. The Shadowman smiled at this, knowing what kind of chaos it contained. Bingo!

Quickly, he grabbed the jar off the shelf and held it tight in his gloved, sleek hands. Now, his apprentice needed a host to truly be useful in his plan.

At that moment, he heard a door open from somewhere in The House.

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Samantha's PoV

"Eddie, where are you going?", I asked, worriness in my voice.

It was happening again. He was having another relapse.

"Leave me alone, Sam.", Eddie grumbled quietly, picking up his pace. Nein, not this time.

"Eddie, please." At that moment, I grabbed his arm and pulled him back to me. He abruptly stopped and jerked his head quickly at me, showcasing his angry eyes.

"Are you blind, Sam?", he replied in a dark tone. At that moment, he pulled his arm away from my grasp roughly. "I always wished that the heroes from our stories were real!"

"And they are," I reasoned softly.

 "They're criminals that killed people for pathetic reasons!", Eddie snapped. "They are better off in their cages!"

 At that moment, he buried his face in his trembling hands. I looked at him, astonished at his outburst.

There were times when Eddie became distraught, but I couldn't think of a time when he trembled like a leaf to a violent storm.

I reached out for him again. "Eddie..."

He pulled away from me. "Oh Sam. If only you could see our memories," He lifted his tear-stained face at me. "I'm just like them, like my other versions, a bad guy." He continued to rant and I listened; waiting for him to finish.

"I may be here with you in this world, doing nothing but play with figurines of bad people doing good things and we act like everything that happened in the past is okay. Sam, should't we be killing each other at this moment? You suffered because versions of me no longer cared about a little girl who thought life was still good, even if her mom died."

I narrowed my eyes at him before quickly stepping towards him. His eyes grew a bit wide at my speed, but I ignored them as I quickly wrapped my arms around his waist. I pulled him close to me as I rested my head on his chest. He stood very still as I closed my eyes.

"Can you even remember the times we tried to destroy each other?", I asked, feeling cold on the inside. He said nothing. I continued.

"Remember the times when you experimented on me, even when I begged you to stop?"

Again, no answer.

"Remember the time when you locked me and my father in that teleporter with a demonic Fluffy?"

He pushed me away, gripping my shoulders. He looked at me sternly; there was no sign of tenderness anywhere. "Why are you torturing me with things that we committed?"

"Because none of it was your fault, at all.", I simply replied. I looked at him with my own cold eyes. "I was hurt, betrayed, lied to, and even tricked because of versions of you. That's true, but I can't recall a time that you ever hurt me. Why must you include yourself with them?"

A flicker of emotions were apparent in his eyes, but just as they had appeared, they were gone in a second. He stepped closer to me, towering over my small height. Even if he was younger, he still looked like a giant.

"Oh, Sam, I'm trying.", he finally sighed, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. I nodded, smiling faintly at him. "Good, Eddie." I reached out and hugged him, smiling even a bit more when I felt his arms around me.

"So touching..."

The second I heard his voice was the moment that Eddie wished that he didn't wake me up so that I could follow him. That was apparent by his firm grip around me when he faced the owner of that familiar, terrifying voice.

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No one's PoV

The scream of his daughter woke up not only Dr. Maxis, but all the other residents of The House. Monty was the first to respond as he quickly opened his door, listening for the direction of Samantha's scream. The fact that she was no longer screaming sent a chill down Maxis' spine as he could have sworn that her music box began to play louder. "Maxis!", the young Tank Dempsey cried out as he and the younger versions of his comrades nearly ran into a mess of glass and droplets of blood all over the red carpet. Monty was the first to reach the children, but his eyes were on the glass shards that laid before him, oblivious to the small stains setting in. "Bloody Hell.", Monty could only mutter out as he stood there. Maxis finally made it to the scene, but the sight before him took the words out of him. He scanned his eyes around the hallway, hoping to see his little girl safe from harm. 

There was no sign of Samantha and the realization hit him in the chest hard. So hard, that he gripped his chest tightly as he fell down on one knee. 

"I'm too old to suffer another loss.", he muttered to himself. He looked around again, realizing that little Eddie was nowhere to be seen. "Where is that boy?", he asked as the young Takeo helped him to his feet. 

"He's gone. She's gone.", Monty bluntly replied, still looking at the glass shards. "Even worse, he's gone."

"You do not think that the Shadowman had anything to do with this?", Maxis asked, widening his eyes. Just then, Monty received an incoming call on his earpiece. He took a deep breath before pushing the small button on the earpiece to answer. "The magician's gone, Monty! The Shadowfuck's gone", an angered Tank Dempsey barked from the other side. Monty, unfazed, simply closed his eyes. He took a steady breath, slightly biting the inside of his cheek. "Thank you for confirming our great fear, Dempsey." He opened his eyes again, narrowing them slightly. "Now, assemble the Suicide Squad while you're at it." With that, he hung up quickly as the last few seconds of Samantha's lullaby played in his ears, a painful realization that she wouldn't sleep at all tonight.

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If you're wondering which Samantha's Lullaby is being played, just look up the Der Eisendrache version. I feel like that version fits well with this chapter.