Ettore | ✔️

𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒚-𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆

"It feels so good, baby
Coming back to life
And it feels so good, lately
Coming back to life"

-Mystery Skulls, Back To Life

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𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍

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VINDICATIO watched as Ambrosia screamed on the floor, her eyes flashing golden.

"What do you mean not compatible!" She spat.

"You're much too self-serving for his life force."

"That's ridiculous!" She screamed before hacking up more blood as she coughed.

"Accept it, Ambrosia," Vindicatio stated flatly. Ambrosia let out a whimper before she fell limp, her head turning towards him. He felt a shiver run up his causing his hair to stand on end as her lifeless eyes stared at him. He turned away and sat against the wall near the back corner of the cell.

He didn't feel right. He felt... almost... sad. He realized at that moment that Ettore was now dead and he would no longer be able to search the back of his mind and feel him lingering there. He felt empty.

He came out of the battle victorious, save for his current situation, but he didn't feel happy nor ecstatic that when he'd leave this cell he'd soon be returning to his family. Because at this moment, he realized something. Something that he had realized months prior. He realized how his selfishness not only affects him personally but others around him as well. Ettore was a prime example.

Vindicatio began to blink quickly as he felt the prickling sting of salty tears. He wouldn't cry. He couldn't. He bit his lip as a single tear escaped the corner of his eye and trailed down his sculpted face. He quickly wiped it away with his hand before leaning his head back and resting it against the wall. How couldn't he cry when he had just lost the person that possibly meant the most to him? He hadn't realized until now just how important Ettore was. He was the one that taught him everything he knows, in the human world anyway. He was there since day one. He was always there. And once Vindicatio got in control, he was too self-centered to notice.

"Fucking hell," he muttered under his breath. "FUCKING HELL!" He shouted, slamming his fist against the stone wall causing it to crack and crumble around the indentation he made. "Idiot."

"It's good to let out your emotions," he turned his head and watched as a group of women scaled down a set of stairs that led to the 'cellar', they were all dressed in a mesh-like, white material and all had pale and long white hair like Ambrosia. They were the White Rogues. Their eyes were a bright, icy shade of blue.

Two grabbed Ambrosia by the wrists and legs and took her back up the stairs. One walked over and unlocked the cell door.

"You may exit now," she stated, her voice was dull.

Vindicatio eyed her warily as he stepped passed, the other women gestured for him to lead the way up the stairs. Once he was back in the cave he could see the yellow glow of a fire. He followed it like a moth to a literal flame.

There were men that resembled the women, tossing wood into the already large bonfire. Talking in a language Vindicatio didn't recognize.

They all stopped and stared at him like he was the strange one. And he supposed he was in this situation. His dark hair and tanned, olive skin struck a stark difference with their albino appearance.

The two women tossed Ambrosia's body into the flames, cheering in their language. The other women that had been following him up the stairs rushed past and joined them, intertwining hands as the formed a circle around the fire, skipping around it.

They looked as though they were celebrating.

"Your second life force helped free us. We were stuck following Ambrosia's every command, she made us eat other werewolves, it was torture under her spell. But we did it to survive, we had no other food sources otherwise." He heard the voice of the woman that had released him from the cell come up from behind him. "So we're going to try to free him too."

"Free him?"

"Yes, send him to the heavens otherwise he'll be stuck in purgatory. Would you like to join?"

"I'll watch," he stated, not that interested in skipping around a burning body and singing kumbaya.

"Very well," she nodded and joined the women. They picked up their pace, chanting louder, the few men all closed their eyes and joined in on the chant as well. The chanting lasted a couple of hours but felt like an eternity to Vindicatio. He lost interest until he watched the orange flames burst into a bright blue, dancing up towards the sky before plummeting back to the earth and striking a patch of dead trees.

He was stunned as he watched the trees get engulfed in blue flames before they combusted leaving a tall form. A man. The group of White Rogues rushed over, staring in awe.

"What the fuck..." Vindicatio breathed out as he watched the figure walked out from the flames. "I thought you said you were sending him to the heavens," he managed to spit out from his gaping mouth as the figure stepped closer.

"The heavens had other intentions," the woman stated. Vindicatio took a step forward, his eyes locked with the figure.

Tanned skin. Tall stature with a brawny physique. Broad shoulders. A handsome face covered with a five o'clock shadow. Wavy, dark blonde, shoulder-length hair swaying in the light breeze. And piercing silver eyes.

"Ettore."

Vindicatio couldn't believe his eyes. Standing in front of him was the vessel, the man, he had been trapped inside. Ettore had been granted a second chance at life for his selflessness and misfortune for gaining life originally out of such negative and self-serving circumstances by Queen Analyn.

The only thing that really stuck out to Vindicatio, appearance-wise, was that Ettore didn't have the same neck scar that he had. Instead, there was what looked like almost translucent, blue swirls winding around his entire left side resembling the flames he had been forged from.

"Vindicatio," Ettore spoke his first word since becoming his own being. "We finally meet face to face."

END OF PART ONE