A/N: Because I haven't seen any novelizations of RE: Revelations, here's mine. Extra character because I felt some things needed to change, romance only if you squint hard. I've gone through and rewritten a great deal because quite frankly this was a mess when I published it originally. In my defense I wrote this whole fic in a week with very little sleep.

Updated 2/1/2017

Allure and Darkness

Prologue

Dedicated to women of every race, creed, birth, orientation and designation. You are beauty, and grace envisioned. Don't ever let anyone make you believe otherwise.

Prologue

There's a girl at the beginning

of every story

and she's all wide-eyes-and-innocence,

truth in a glass cage,

a diamond before the pressure is applied…

-Allure of Darkness

The ship was a real tip, I'll tell you that much- not that I've been on many cruise liners in my day, but the Queen Zenobia? She was a tip. Oh she still had some of the luster and shine of her old days, but the weather hadn't been too kind to her that was for damn sure- I didn't even know what the hell I was doing here to be honest; the agency didn't generally get called out to cruise ships, and the men on the ship were looking at both me and my partner as if we were two headed goats or something.

I was a paper pusher I wasn't even suppose to be here, and yet here I was on this old decrepit ship set to search the rust bucket for violations, and then we could go home. In theory anyways, this was really suppose to be someone else's job- but I could really be suckered into anything. Amanda was totally getting me coffee for a week over this; I was fairly certain this was violating some law somewhere- but then the ship had been the one to violate marine space of the Mediterranean, we were just here for… Well inspecting? I wasn't sure I was okay with this, but getting fired over not doing something seemed rather silly. Our agency was in charge of maritime environmental inspection, not a riveting job to be sure- our agency usually just checked to make sure the hull of a ship wasn't leaking anything toxic before giving it a good pat and a go- but the Queen Zinobia... That was a lot of hull.

The Queen Zenobia for anyone who didn't know, was a full sized cruise liner formerly of the Paraguas Line company- designed after ships like the Queen Mary. Vast, luxurious and somewhat intimidating, the ship had been sold not long after the Paraguas Line shuttered its doors for good because Raccoon city panic. Not many people realized that Paraguas and Umbrella where the same company really; either way the current owner of the vessel had chosen not to declare that he did in fact exist, or that this ship had any of the proper documentation for travel.

As such our agency was contacted by the maritime law keepers of the nearest country, and we'd had been dispatched because we were really the only people available. We were to search for any obvious flaws in the ship's facilities, demand paperwork from the men aboard the ship and when all was said and done leave. No doubt our bosses were going to push for a fine on the ship's owner, if the man existed- and that would be it. It wasn't unusual really, but the men on the ship were making me a bit jumpy. I was welcomed aboard with my partner, and senior officer Hank by a well dressed man named Royce; and Royce was giving me the creeps if I were really being honest.

No one was happy to get inspected by the high seas health inspectors, but he merely smiled and played along, showing me the paperwork for the men aboard their destination and their cargo manifests, barely batting a pretty blond eyelash at my request for environmental analysis reports. With the fall of Umbrella, people became much more interested in the safety of themselves and their environment, going so far as to create several new agencies, and international laws with those in mind.

My agency was one of them- I was generally placid in nature, and rarely spoke above a low murmur even in pleasant company; a chronic problem that meant I was unsuited to the more excitable careers offered by the BSAA or the FBC. So I'd joined up with MEPA without blinking because barring pirates, I was unlikely be required to learn anything more exciting than scuba diving. Which I could do to be entirely honest, and scuba diving in its own right was pretty exciting- Look the point was that I didn't belong here, because I might have been one of the meanest paper pushers south of the border, but I was not a field agent. I shouldn't even be asking the questions, but Hank was a muscle guy, more prone to a good mean cop impression then a decent bureaucrat.

Shaking my head to clear away the lingering annoyance, and focus my thoughts on the now- and by now I meant the rusted deck of the Queen Zenobia with Royce who was all too quick to answer our questions. It was highly suspect, but I also had a bullshit meter that was great at detecting slippery bastards. It was great for my job actually, you would not believe the lengths some people would go to to slip out of writing up reports. But barring anything major, I couldn't find any obvious holes in this man's explanations.

"You said you have the paperwork I requested?" I asked the man after a brief set of questions, pen moving frantically across the yellow legal pad I'd brought with me. I was making notes about the man's answers in the margins as I doodled, so good at my job, so interested, someone should give me a medal.

"Yes ma'am," He said handing over a manila folder, and I took it opening to the first page; eyeing the blond out of the corner of my eye as I did this, and I caught sight of a man approaching from behind him. He was dressed in a crew outfit and after a few moments of low murmuring in Royce's ear the blond man decided something- from the look in his eye abruptly and approached me again with a smile.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but my men tell me that there may be a storm approaching. If you would like, we can finish up the inspection inside- I'm sure water won't do any of us a favor." Taking a moment to consider this before looking to my escort with a raised skeptical eyebrow, "Well, I'm sure we can schedule this another time if needs be." I said closing the folder- my superiors wouldn't like it, but it would get me out of here and give someone who actually knew what they were doing a chance to handle this.

"No, no, that is not necessary- please." The blond said this time a bit more strained, and his smile turned somewhat sharp at this. "We have a lounge and food available- I am sure you're hungry? Come now, right this way."

Hank and I shared another look as we were ushered into the bridge, and then off down a hallway and towards a brightly polished door. The wood of it was bright and cheerful, oak maybe? The door swung open revealing a nicely furnished room, I took a seat but Hank chose to stand and I let out a half worried hum as the blond man stepped out for a moment to bark orders at a member of the crew. I didn't like this, it smacked of ambush or trouble in general- it certainly wasn't normal, but there was very little I could do at this point. It made no sense to ambush us, neither of us were well known enough to have enemies, something like that wouldn't really benefit anyone.

Perhaps I was just being paranoid- I put it from my mind for the moment, carefully looking over the documents before a sound broke my concentration, loud enough and startling enough to cause us all to jump. I looked to Hank making a gesture before standing, we were leaving.

"I'm sorry but I feel it is in our best interests to cut this short," I said closing the file and setting it down, I pulled a card from my waterproof pouch presenting it to the man. "I will have to ask you to set up a further appointment with our agency at a later date."

"Please, don't let these noises disturb you. It's only construction-" The blond said trying to halt our forward motion toward the door.

"My partner said we were done here." Hank stated, giving the blond an intimidating look. He was a mid-30's ex army lieutenant who before becoming a member of the MEPA spent his time as a private contractor, and his ability to intimidate could be rather impressive. The look proved to be enough to shut the blond up for a moment as we made our way out the door and down the corridor. But when we made our way to the helm room, I paused at the door. I heard shouting, and for a moment I paused trying to identify what or where it might be coming from, pressing my ear to the door I waited. The sudden explosion of sound from the other side made me step back abruptly, the door jolted open, and that momentary hesitation proved to save me from a stray bullet that ricocheted off the heavy metal walls.

Chaos reigned within as the crew seemed to be be fighting with some form of white fleshy creatures- no doubt B.O.W.'s and then I was dragged back by a hand on my wetsuit, as Hank pulled my before slamming the door shut. The blond haired man paled, and looked at us with wide eyes even as my partner turned to him with a nasty look- I was always one more for thought than action, and I had been too busy taking in the details to realize I should have stepped back.

"Is there another way out of here?" Hank asked the blond, but the man seemed for a moment to be in shock. I jumped as something heavy hit the door echoing through the corridor, "IS there another way to the deck!" he barked out grabbing the blond man's lapels and shaking him.

"Yes… yes we can take the back elevator down to the first passenger deck and pass through the hallways and back up-" The blond man said, snapping back to reality finally shaking out of his shell shocked state, "Here, this way."

We followed him at a run straight back to a double doored elevator, waiting anxiously for it to arrive- it of course was an elevator and did not care how anxiously we waited and I jumped slightly when it did surprised by the happy ping it made. Both Hank and I had been in bio-hazard zones before- separately never together, so we knew what to expect. But there was unexpected, and then there was 'one of those days' and this was looking to be exactly that- I should have figured that something like this was going to happen it was a Tuesday, I never could get a hang of Tuesdays.

"Do you have any idea where those things might have come from?" I asked the blond man as the elevator began its descent, but he only gave me a shake of his head. "No strange crates or odd passenger manifests?"

"I'm only a liaison, I've never seen anything like that." He said simply stress warring on his face with uncertainty and worry as he loosened his tie nervously.

"What do you think," I asked hesitantly, looking to Hank- He was my partner for a reason, I mean we did do a very nice good cop bad cop impression, but he was my partner because I despite my previous experiences, was without any really combat ability- unless I had a blunt object, nevermind that I had a gun proficiency because we both preferred that I never have to use it, but this whole thing had gone south fast, and from a completely unexpected quarter.

"Head for the boat, take the stiff and get a hold of HQ." He said nodding at the blond and the man's face held a bit of relief, as if we would leave anyone behind if we could help it. "Don't stop moving until we hit the boat, I've seen B.O.W.s but none like that before. Not eager to find out what they can do."

"Roger that." I said pulling out my sidearm, it was only a small pistol but it would have to do in a pinch- This was why I was a paper pusher man. The elevator pulled to a stop, and the doors opened to reveal a wood paneled well lit hallway. The only really off-putting portion of it would have to be the streak of deep red down the center of the hardwood floor, I threw a worried look at Hank as he stepped out of the elevator ahead of me. A look he either missed or ignored, I wasn't sure which- he was a hard read sometimes.

"No chatter, if we run into someone else we tell them to bunker down- once we get a hold of HQ they can save the survivors." He said finally, "And Red?"

"Yeah?" I answered back, Red as it were was my nickname- and the name I preferred to go by among friends, you would too if your name was an old lady name. Not that there was anything really wrong with it, but getting called Miss-Priss on a regular basis was a little daunting. Besides, my hair was red- it was some long time tradition for redheads to be called red at least once, although he definitely wasn't the first man to do so.

"If you have to make a choice, head for the boat- That's an order." He said pacing down the hallway, and I moved to keep up the blond falling in behind us.

"Head for the boat?" Royce inquired and I looked back over my shoulder, it was clear that he'd never been in this kind of situation before and I let out a sigh.

"If we get separated, we head for the boat-" I said gripping my gun. "We radio HQ regardless- stopping this outbreak takes precedent." It was hard to explain to someone who hadn't been there, hadn't seen what a breakdown in communication cost- what it would cost others if we screwed up.

"Cut the chatter-" Hank said as we rounded a corner, we passed down one hallway opening the door to the next. "Stiff, where exactly are we going?" He asked as we moved through a doorway and into another hall.

"This way, there should be a way through if we pass through the pool deck." He said before adding. "The pool deck has a doorway to the outer decks, and it's closed for maintenance- so we should be able to pass through it without an issue."

The next door opened to a room that overlooked a library, and the first fleshy white creature we couldn't simply dodge. I lurched towards us, face full of long mutated teeth and Hank took a shot at it hitting it in the chest. It barely stumbled, and he kicked it over the railing with a grunt. The sound of splintering wood and breaking bones is not a pleasant one, but I was glad our first encounter at least was over.

The blond directed us towards a door on one side, and we all jumped as the screams of a man rent the air, rushing through the next two hallways as the sound of breaking glass punctuated the eerie silence- sadly in the next room there was nothing but a pool of blood, and what was was left of a man on the floor white creature towering over him. I lifted my gun, and took a shot at it, catching it in the shoulder, and it turned towards me- Hank took shot catching it in the head and the thing finally bowed over into the glass case behind it, destroying a display behind it with a cacophony of shattered glass.

"That's going to draw someone's attention." I said quietly and we hustled across the room into the hallway beyond- only it turned out to not be a hallway at all, as the room opened up into a well lit fancy dining area. It was set as if ready for people to arrive for dinner, but not a person was in sight. Food sat steaming in trays to one end, and there was even a cooked turkey on one table. It was an eerie sight, but I'd seen stranger- and the blond urged us towards a strange door with a handle that resembled a ship's helm on it, into what appeared to be a small anti-chamber and then another door with the same handle design; It took forever to open- for dramatic effect or because the locking mechanism was crap I didn't know.

When this door finally opened I took a moment to observe and appreciate the room beyond, although we moved too quickly to take in all the details. It was a grand ballroom style hall, with a sweeping staircase, and a giant clock set into the far wall. We ignored this however in favor of taking a back staircase up to the third tier of the ballroom, it seemed as though any door leading out of the ballroom held the same helm motif, and we exited the ballroom again into a tiled hallway. We moved across the tiled floor, towards a door set in the wall not far from the diving board, and I paused for a moment to look at the pool proper itself.

Some sort of growth was forming over the edge of the pool, crusting it and creeping along the closest tiles. It didn't look like a normal barnacle formation- or rather, it looked like barnacles on steroids. I nudge Hank and gestured at the pool as the blond fidgeted with the lock on the pool deck door, he was sorting through a ring of keys- not as many as you would expect it seems, as they all appeared to be skeleton keys of some sort. I looked back to the pool and felt my frown deepen; the barnacles seemed to be- for lack of a better term expanding as we watched. I was suddenly keen on not being here for very much longer, because something was definitely not right about this.

"Aha!" Royce said opening the door at last and we moved out the door closing it behind us. He pressed his keys into his breast pocket as we moved along the rusted deck towards the stern, our small boat was hitched there. There were life boats hitched up every couple of yards, above the deck and the outer deck itself was unobstructed all the way to our boat. The rope ladder down sat swaying gently, and a noise made me pause- a very familiar trill that had me dodging even before I realized fully why. A large green mass shot passed me, barreling into the blond man and a resounding snap sounded as the man hit the deck, the hunter began tearing into Royce savagely as both I and Hank opened fire.

It had to be fucking Hunters didn't it- Why was it always Hunters? The lizard like beast collapsed, and I shared a look with Hank before moving out of my shooters stance to check on the him. Checking his pulse, I frowned and shook my head at Hank- the man had been dead the moment the Hunter hit him, perhaps a kinder death then the gaping wounds that his back sustained. I moved to shut his eyes and said a low prayer- it was the only thing I could do for now. After a moment's hesitation I grabbed his keys, they'd fallen out of his pocket- we might find we needed these later, and I looked back up to my partner.

"Behind you!" Hank shouted and I did the stupid thing of course, looking over my shoulder instead of moving and another Hunter barely missing taking a chunk out of me, instead hitting me face first in the shoulder. I went flying over the body towards the stern of the ship, landing with a resounding pop and I let out a shriek. A pain radiated from my shoulder, drowning out the frantic shots taken by Hank or the Hunters squeals as the world seemed to dip and sway around me. The sound of my heart beating overlapped anything else, and for a long long moment all I could do was watch as Hank downed the Hunter. I tried to push myself up, but my arm wouldn't move properly and I awkwardly shoved myself up as another Hunter came into sight.

They were hopping down from above- how they got there I could only guess so. My gun had been knocked from my grip in the attack, the key's too and I tried to reach for my gun with numb fingers but again my arm wouldn't move properly. I dove for my gun with my other hand picking it up in my clumsy and taking aim, one was down but another two were harassing Hank. I pulled the trigger, killing one but the other tripped Hank and my gun clicked empty. Another trill from behind me sounded, and I ducked allowing this one to sail over me. A cry of pain had me looking back towards Hank, and my heart stopped at the sight that met my eyes.

God help me, because no one else could.