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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Then There Will Be

Category: F/F

Fandom: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)

Relationship: Mother Miranda/Mia Winters

Characters: Mother Miranda (Resident Evil) Mia Winters The Four Lords (Resident Evil)

The cold white tiles and harsh lights of The Connections' lab stung Miranda’s eyes. As she was led to the lab by a staff member, she wasn’t really paying attention to his introduction of the organization. Her mind was solely focused on getting to the lab and conducting her research to bring back her true daughter.

The staff led Miranda to the end of the hallway, where she recorded her fingerprint on a scanner by the lab door to unlock it, as instructed. The new lab was several times larger than the basement she had in the village, equipped with dedicated rooms for chemicals, samples, and various precision instruments.

Miranda looked the lab equipment with approval. Then she turned to the staff and asked, "Is there anything else I need to know? Other than the documentation and samples you'll provide me with shortly?"

The staff member found it difficult to understand why this taciturn scientist had such an intense presence. "Yes, we’ve arranged for a researcher to assist you with your experiments."

Miranda raised an eyebrow. "Does this researcher understand what my research’s about? I consider it a very... personal matter." She bent down, carefully observing the activity of a mold sample.

"Rest assured, besides our boss, only she and Dr. Droney know the details of your project." The staff member said, glancing toward the door where a figure stood. He then addressed Miranda, "Dr. Miranda, she’s here."

Miranda straightened up and looked at the doorway. A woman stood there, her hair a similar color to Miranda's past self and the present scientist Miranda, perhaps a slightly lighter shade of black, with shoulder-length curls that fell over her chest. She was shorter and slimmer than Miranda, but with her sharp judgment, Miranda could tell that the woman wasn’t as fragile as she appeared.

The researcher walked directly into Miranda's lab and reached out her right hand. "Mia Winters, a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Miranda."

“Greetings, Mia,” said Miranda, just two words. After five seconds, the strange silence in the air finally caught her attention. She realized she should shake the new researcher's hand with her hand. Feeling uncomfortable with the gesture, Miranda quickly pulled her hand back afterward, without really thinking about what she'd done.

Mia hesitated briefly, surprised by Miranda’s odd behavior, but quickly recovered and continued her greeting, "I'll be working with you for a while. I'm not an expert in biochemistry, but I can assist you, and... handle some unnecessary trouble."

"Unnecessary trouble?" Miranda asked, puzzled.

"You know, sometimes test subjects have issues. I'm quite good at preventing those things from happening." Mia hinted.

Miranda's instinct was correct. Mia Winters did indeed have the capability to deal with failed test subjects. Though Miranda herself could easily handle such matters without breaking a sweat, she was not in her village. So, she smiled and said, "Welcome to my lab, Mia."

---

Miranda accepted the coffee Mia handed her. Having another assistant by her side was something she was certainly not used to. She remembered how, fifty or sixty years ago, her student Spencer left Romania because of their ideological differences. Since then, she hadn’t taken on another assistant. Few people truly understood her ultimate goal. Perhaps Alcina did, but she had her three daughters, through whom she found a connection. Miranda, however, never felt the same bond with any of her "children" as she did with Eva. Miranda convinced herself that they were merely vessels, but she couldn’t ignore the glimpses of her own life with her daughter that she saw in the Dimitrescu family. Those fragments pieced together the warmth of the days from nearly a century ago.

"Dr. Miranda? Miranda?" A gentle voice called her back from her memories.

"Hmm?"

"The sample you put in the centrifuge is ready. You can check it now."

"Alright." Miranda tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"You always seem to drift into deep thought." Mia remarked as she watched Miranda walk into the equipment room.

"It's nothing. I just like to think about things while working. It helps me focus." Miranda replied, opening the lid of the centrifuge.

"I feel the same sometimes. When you're doing something you love, your mind tends to wander, doesn’t it?" Mia said, leaning against the doorframe and watching Miranda carefully take out the centrifuge tubes.

"Maybe." Miranda replied. She wasn't sure whether she truly enjoyed these tedious experiments, but they were too meaningful to ignore, demanding a century of her time without pause.

---

Eleven at night, Mia handed Miranda the organized data. Watching Miranda intently review the figure, Mia quietly asked, “Miranda, don’t you need to take a break? Every morning when I arrive, you're already here, and every night when I leave, you're still here. Have you even been home?”

Miranda turned and sat at the lab stool, picking up a pen and scribbling notes on the documents, vaguely responding to Mia’s concern. "Hmm? Home? Of course, I've been home. My Lords and villagers all know I’ll be away for a while."

“Not your village, I mean your apartment here. Wow, the way you talk about your hometown makes it sound like you’re not that close to your neighbors.” Mia remarked, once again finding Miranda rather strange. Perhaps she’d been overworking.

It wasn’t until then that Miranda realized what she had just said. A thin layer of sweat formed on her forehead, but since her back was turned to Mia, she had enough time to calm her rising panic. She followed, “Yes, I’m not particularly close with them.” That much wasn’t a lie. “Mia, it’s late. You should head home. You must have noticed you're spending more and more time in the lab each day.”

“Long enough to realize you never take a proper rest.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Miranda set her pen down and swiveled on the stool to face Mia. “Even though this experiment is important to me, there’s no need for you to stay here so long on my account.”

“I know about Eva,” Mia said softly, lowering her head as she looked sadly at Miranda, whose blue eyes quickly filled with grief. “I’m so sorry, Miranda. I’ve never mentioned it before because I didn’t want to bring up painful memories, but I know you’ve never really moved on. I’ve heard you were absorbed in trying to bring Eva back even before you came to The Connections. And now that you’ve found new hope here, your dedication has only intensified. I can’t imagine how you maintain that drive, I can’t fully understand it, but I urge you to think about yourself for once. Maybe go to your apartment and get some sleep, or return to your village. Even if you’re not close to your neighbors, the mountain air would do you some good. If not, there’s actually a rest area behind the equipment room with a small bed. I guess you’ve forgotten it.”

Mia left the lab. Miranda stood from her stool and walked toward the equipment room. Sure enough, there was a door in the corner. Miranda must have opened it when she first arrived at the lab, but she’d quickly forgotten about it, as its contents hadn’t interested her at the time.

Miranda opened the door for the second time, and inside was indeed a small bed. There wasn’t any dust on it, indicating that Mia often rested there. A small porcelain pot sat on the windowsill, holding a plump lithops plant that was clearly well cared for.

On the nightstand, there were two glasses, one of them labeled “Mia”.

Miranda took off her lab coat and poured herself a cup of water with the other glass. She didn’t need sleep, so she simply lay on the bed, quietly reflecting. Her thoughts went first to Eva. There wasn’t a moment she didn’t think of her daughter. She recalled how earlier that day, she had smiled to herself, thinking of Eva, and wondered if Mia had noticed from the other end of the lab. It was a memory of five-year-old Eva mimicking the sounds of various animals, from chickens to pigs to goats and even crows, each imitation spot-on. Miranda had laughed as she scooped little Eva into her arms and set her on her lap, encouraging her to continue recounting her exciting adventures of the day.

Miranda tried to blur the memories of the Spanish flu outbreak, but it was clear she could never escape those dark days. One by one, her neighbors had died, and then misfortune had struck the only person she held dear. But the misfortune never came for her, nor did fortune, not until the day she buried Eva.

After that, she became the center of power. The faces of the villagers flashed through her mind like a carousel, along with the series of failed vessels. Then there was this white laboratory, and Mia.

Miranda told herself it was merely because Mia didn’t know about her status in the village and viewed her as an ordinary person which Miranda found novel. It wasn’t because Mia held any special significance to her.

---

Miranda told Mia that she planned to return to her hometown for a week of rest. Upon hearing the news, Mia could barely contain her excitement, she nearly hugged Miranda, though she stopped when Miranda stiffened in place.

Miranda changed back into her black robe. She descended to the basement and switched on the lights. The dim laboratory momentarily disoriented her. Ancient books lay scattered across the table, and the Cadou pulsed rhythmically inside its container. Everything on the shelves was arranged just as before, and the photo of her and Eva remained in its place, slowly fading with time.

Miranda pulled out a new photo and placed it on the shelf. It was a group photo with The Connections team, a symbol of her new hope. Strangely, the photo was in black and white, though Miranda didn’t pay attention to that oddity. What she did notice, however, was Mia smiling in the picture.

After filing away the data she had brought from The Connections lab, Miranda didn’t stand at her bench as she usually would. Instead, she sat on her bed and opened her diary.

May 9, 2010

Mia Winters suggested I take some time to rest at home, and I followed her advice. I rarely allow anyone this close to me, but she hasn’t made me uncomfortable. In fact, she’s been a great help with my research.

I hope we can bring Eva back.

Wait, did she just write "we"?

The villagers noticed that Mother Miranda was less strict when conveying the Black God's will in the church. When they shared the current situation in the village with her, she seemed absent-minded.

The Lords picked up on this during their meeting as well. She didn’t admonish Heisenberg when he called her "Miranda" directly without using her title, until Alcina criticized him, causing tensions to escalate between the two. It was only when Angie chimed in with a sharp "fight, fight" that Miranda snapped back to reality, reminded of her current predicament.

---

A week later, Miranda returned to The Connections lab. Mia handed her a cup of coffee, looking cheerful as usual. “Welcome back, Miranda. Good morning.”

“Good morning, Mia.” Miranda said with a smile as she took the cup.

“It’s clear that the week off did you good. You probably won’t accidentally drink the nutrient solution from the beaker as water again.” Mia teased, giving Miranda a playful grin, to which Miranda could only chuckle helplessly.

“Speaking of which, the mold colony report from the week you were gone is ready.” Mia led Miranda to the computer and opened the monitoring system, showing her the recent research on the E-type mold. “Out of two hundred samples, one hundred in the control group without Cadou did not produce any fully formed organisms. They remain in loose colony forms within the culture medium. Five of them exhibited some human traits, like sample 23, which developed humanoid palms, and sample 57, which produced teeth, but with sharp dentalcrowns, resembling a beast rather than a human arc.”

“In the experimental group with Cadou, all one hundred samples were more active than the control group. You can see them pulsing rhythmically, similar to human blood flowing through the colonies. Seventeen of the samples have developed mostly humanoid structures, though they are still covered in thick mold.”

Miranda pointed to one of the samples. “Sample 119 looks more active than the others, the mold is moving across it more quickly.”

“Exactly. It should be the most successful one. I examined its physical structure and found that its limbs are slenderer and its mouth is smaller, with a hyoid bone appearing in the throat.” Mia explained.

Miranda felt a surge of excitement and instinctively placed her hand on Mia’s shoulder. “Do you think sample 119 could be...”

“Are you thinking of sequencing its DNA?” Mia anticipated Miranda's thoughts.

Miranda nodded.

Mia skillfully assisted Miranda in extracting the “blood” sample, placing the processed samples into the expensive instrument.

“We just need to wait a day.” Mia said.

“Thank you, Mia.” Miranda offered Mia a warm smile.

The lab felt particularly warm that day, perhaps summer was approaching. Miranda sat on the bed in the small room, spending the hour before the results were due, contemplating every possibility.

Mia appeared in the doorway, leaning against the frame. “You don’t need to be so nervous. We all saw how successful it was, the compatibility must be high.”

“I know, I know, Mia.” Miranda lowered her hand, which had been anxiously touching her cheeks, and looked up at Mia. “I’m glad everything is progressing positively, I’m just worrying about the future.”

“Worrying about the future? You just said the experiment will go well.” Mia asked, puzzled.

“It’s not about the experiment. I’m worried about life after all this ends,” Miranda sighed. “You know my life has revolved solely around Eva. I rarely pay attention to the trivialities of my life and other matters.”

“You’re worried that after everything succeeds, you won’t be able to adjust to that kind of life?” Mia walked in and sat down beside Miranda.

“Yes, my life has changed so much compared to years ago. I’m concerned I won’t be able to return to a normal routine with Eva. I don’t know what path to choose.”

“Do you want to take her back to your village?” Mia asked gently.

“I don’t know. That would bring about significant changes. Everything in the village would be very... different.” Miranda thought about the order she had worked hard to establish nearly a century ago. Would it all crumble with Eva’s return?

Mia was unaware of Miranda’s true background, she could only assume that the villagers would view a person’s resurrection as a miracle, which would undoubtedly shock them. In fact, it just required advanced scientific technology and relentless effort. “I think they will gradually come to understand everything. Many unusual events happen in our world, but everything calms down over time.” Mia placed her hand gently on Miranda’s back. “Eva’s mother is a powerful woman. I can’t believe she has such strong willpower to face all of this.”

Miranda turned to look into Mia’s eyes and, for the first time, noticed that her eyes weren’t entirely brown, they had a ring of deep green around the edges. “And you’ve been here with me through all of this.”

“You just need someone by your side.” Mia said, sensing the warmth emanating from Miranda, subtle yet noticeable only up close.

“And that someone is you.” Miranda reached out and took her hand, her thumb lightly resting on the back of Mia’s hand.

“Miranda, are you shaking my hand?” Mia suddenly laughed.

“Hmm? No, how come?”

“When we first met, you shook my hand like this. If you hadn’t done it so forcefully and quickly, and hadn’t bent down, I might have thought you were going to kiss my hand like those gentlemen of old.” Mia teased.

A blush crept up Miranda’s pale ears, as she completely forgot those details.

“To save you from this embarrassment, we can check the results now.” Mia said, pulling Miranda to her feet.

“Match compatibility with Eva's DNA reaches 93.87%. Miranda, you did it!” Mia leaned down and hugged Miranda, who was sitting in front of the screen.

Miranda reached out and hugged Mia back. “Yes, we did it.”

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