A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.

Steadily, like a bubbling brook, the words sank in. Ether's lips twitched up into a menacing grin. His teeth, too much like a human's, revealed themselves. Nearly white locks cast shadows over his very pale blue optics, and nothing but pure anger radiated from his eyes. "Don't you dare say that I'm like him." Low chuckles, restraining growing bloodlust, echoed in the room. Her father almost froze and released him, but he forced himself to stay in place against his better judgment. (F/n) almost collapsed to her knees. There was a heavy chill in the air, and it caused her limbs to tremble.

She parted her lips to try and say something as horrible images flashed through her mind. Swiftly, Ether removed her father's hand from him, only to grab her father and bring him back close with his right hand. All of his left nails rubbed against each other, and he looked ready to skewer her father. (F/n) couldn't move, however; she was paralyzed to her present spot.

"At my core, I'm very different. The fact that you're not dead right now is proof of that." Her father was about to argue, but Ether beat him to it. "And, yes, I'm fully aware that I probably would've killed (f/n) had she not escaped Cankerfell that evening. I've already discussed that with her, and we've settled that issue." Nearly, (d/n) peered back as if to ask his daughter if that was true. "Call that an excuse if you will, but unlike you, your daughter understands the changes I've made and she has accepted them."

Roughly, he tossed her father to the ground before he seated himself on the chair again. Picking himself up on his elbows, (d/n) finally stared back to his daughter, who finally moved a little from her spot. "We have talked about a lot of things," (f/n) muttered, and she wanted to avert her (e/c) eyes from her father's own (e/c) eyes, but she held his gaze. Otherwise, Ether might've lost his temper again, though; admittedly, her father was the one who acted out more for once. "And, I agree that right now we need to focus on mom and my sibling."

On her lips, a small smile did form to reassure her father that she was alright. "Thank you for defending me, dad, but Ether and I ..." Her eyes briefly fell on him, and he locked his gaze with hers until she diverted her optics back to her father. "We've reached an agreement for the time being."

Slowly, (d/n) picked himself up from the ground while (f/n) cautiously went in between the two males. She seated herself on the bed and tried not to shake; however, Ether noticed her action. He released a sigh, but he didn't comment on it. Frankly, Ether would love to butcher her father. His nails were desiring to rip into his flesh and pull him apart, but he was resisting even if his anger wasn't subsiding.

"Fine." Her father clenched his fists. "We do have to worry about that other creature. Should I go get the others?"

"That'd probably be best. We'll wait here," Ether answered, a dark frown still painted on his lips. Her father didn't wait around. Instead, he left the room and, purposefully, didn't close the door behind him. Ether's left nails almost stabbed into his hand. "He's lucky that he's your father." (F/n) stared to her lap. Her own hands clenched, but she couldn't find the words to respond back. "If that had been Nick or even any of the others, I probably wouldn't have been able to resist killing them."

"He's just ..."

Cutting her off, he answered, "Emotional? Stressed? A series of other annoying internal matters?" She nodded. "Yeah, well, all of us are." Her eyes glanced over to his. Ether raised a brow. "Are you mad at me, my little helper?" He leaned forward and grinned a bit, though; it wasn't a friendly one, and she leaned back on the bed by a little bit. "Well, you shouldn't be. Your father's still alive."

"I'm not mad at you." Ether paused as soon as those words left her lips. "I'm mad at myself." She stared to her lap. "If that had happened in the past, I would've yelled at you. Maybe, I would've tried to punch you, or push you two away from each other. But, I only stood and watched." An irritated scowl fell on her lips. "But now, I just ... It's like ... It's like I couldn't agree with what my father was saying."

Meeting his eyes once more, she frowned from the frustrating aspect of it all. "We already had discussed your actions in the past, and we had come to accept them like you had told my father. I didn't want him being foolish to bring up issues that weren't really problems anymore. Sure, he hadn't known entirely about our talks, but I ..." She groaned and fell back on the bed. Her hands ran over her face and through her (h/c) locks.

Momentarily, she closed her eyes. A horrid image of that other creature appeared in her mind. A dreadful shiver snaked up her spine, and she couldn't help but roll onto her right side and curl up into a ball somewhat. She opened her eyes again and focused on the pillows on the bed. "But, you're not like him at all. Maybe in the past, you two were more similar, but not now. Now ..."

"You don't have to tell me. I understand what you're trying to say. We've been over this before; you don't need to go through it all again." Slightly, his anger at her father's words decreased. "You're not your father. You've come to accept what I've done even if you don't forgive me for my actions. And, I accept all of your decisions that you've made."

Upon her lips, an almost invisible, appreciative smile formed. It vanished within a second, however, when she heard footsteps down the hall. Ether didn't say another word either. When her father entered the room, he cast a scowl over to Ether, who happily returned it. Behind him were Deidre and Nick. A sadistic grin fell on Ether's lips when he saw Nick, who was glad to have (f/n)'s father blocking him from Ether's view a little bit.

(D/n)'s fight with Ether had been heard throughout the house, and Nick felt a little safer since there was someone else, who Ether seemed to hate more at the moment. Unfortunately, it was (f/n)'s father, and he almost scolded himself for using the older man as an unintentional shield. Soon enough, (d/n) headed over to the table in the room and sat on the remaining chair. Nick followed after him and leaned against the nearby wall to create distance between Ether and him. (F/n)'s father would've stayed closer to his daughter, but he had a feeling that the conversation wouldn't be productive that way. Regardless of his daughter's words, he still felt like beating Ether to a bloody mess on the floor even if that desire probably would be highly impossible to fulfill.

Coming into the room next were Ren and Chris. Chris seated herself on the floor by the door since she didn't want to stand on her foot for too long since it had no boot on it anymore. Ren stood next to her on her right and crossed his arms over his chest. No one spoke at first, and there was a terrible tension in the air. (F/n) did sit up on the bed, though, before she leaned against the headboard so that she could see everyone better.

"This factory that's outside Dunnuuna," Deidre started, her focus landing on Ether, "can you tell us more about it. We can form a plan better from there." Clearly, Deidre was nervous about the whole thing, and her voice almost stuttered a few times. Like Deidre, the other paranormal investigators didn't have any good feelings about the rescue mission. None of them complained, however, since Ether, essentially, had been acting as a deterrence against Callest for the last two months. If they didn't help, they would be left as sitting ducks until Callest was dead. Not only that but also Ether might come back and kill them himself if something happened during the rescue attempt. Not one of them wanted to risk that even if the rescue attempt itself was highly dangerous.

Nodding, Ether made himself more comfortable on the chair. "Like I've mentioned to (f/n), it's surrounded by a large clearing. Around the clearing are tons of pine trees. There is a road into it, obviously, but I don't know how bad of shape it's in." Ether shrugged. "It's likely that it's been overgrown and is covered in snow."

Not appreciating his shrug, (d/n) almost growled out, "Well, do you know how to get to the factory still?"

"I should, but it's not like I went there that much. In fact, I only was there once and that had been soon after I had killed my grandfather. I think that it just had shut down or something." Again, Ether shrugged, and he could feel the glare from his partner at his behavior, but he didn't care presently. Her father could take it.

"But, we do have the old blueprints," Chris mentioned as she glanced a little over to Ether. She leaned against Ren's left leg and tried to seem confident in her voice, but after Ether's fight with (f/n)'s father, she didn't want to set him off again. Her eyes moved over to (d/n). "Ren and I found them while we were waiting for your arrival, (d/n)."

Coming forward, Ren placed the printed out blueprints on the end of the bed before he returned to his spot by Chris. "They weren't easy to find, but it turns out that the town had paid for the building, so there were some old blueprints buried in the county's online records of the abandoned town."

Before her father could look at them, Ether snatched them and returned to his seat. He scanned through the several sheets of paper. "This does match up with my memory of the place when I had visited it. Though, the fact that it has three floors doesn't sit well with me." A frown appeared on his lips. "I think that all of you can imagine why."