DISCLAIMER: Parasite Eve II and its characters belong to the formerly-known Squaresoft Entertainment. Resident Evil belongs to Capcom Entertainment.
Author's Note: This is a rather unusual crossover between Parasite Eve II and Resident Evil, seeing as it's always fun to write something that a person may not expect. For that reason, I believe that it would be better to leave the readers to their own speculations on the aspects of this story.
CODE: EVE by Caffeine Productions
To Aya, the water had seemed safest… at least, up until that moment when she lost track of where she was. Up to her chest in the dark-blue lake, she stared around blankly. Bridge on one side, castle-palace-type deal on the other… The GPS was only giving vague hints of which direction to take, and that wasn't good. Advanced mitochondria or not, no one, not even Aya, would be able to hide in the water forever.
Wait, what was that noise?…
Crackling in the distance? Of fire?
Aya froze, icy water dripping from her bright-blonde hair. It seemed louder than it should have, like a direct calling card to her position.
Then, even before the creature had made itself fully visible, soaring over the castle, its loud, shrieking roar shook the world around it. Aya flinched automatically, shivering, unable to do much more than watch as the enormous dragon landed on the bridge and let out another angry roar. Smoke issued from its mouth and nostrils. Light from the full moon reflected off of its green-and-gold scales, giving an impression of silky texture… not that Aya would have dared test that theory.
As the creature's golden eyes fell upon Aya, a hiss left its mouth. More smoke came from its nose, a second sputtering hiss from the throat to follow, and Aya had her head below water before her brain had even finished telling her what was about to happen. A bit of the lake entered the air as steam, boiled from the dragon's breath. Aya held oxygen in her lungs, trying to think fast, but there was no option other than to head in the direction opposite the reptile. She swam, trying to make every stroke count. By the time she had reached the shore and the looming castle, she was exhausted.
The dragon had left its perch. Aya turned to look for it, keeping her guard up, but the bridge was deserted. The late night was left undisturbed.
If it was possible for Aya to lose more energy than she already had, she couldn't see it… Her eyelids wanted to droop, and they weren't the only thing: her legs were sore, her arms felt just the same, and she would very likely collapse and shatter if she didn't sit down.
Along the castle, once the length of that side was crossed, the grass gave way to a gravel road that ran parallel to the water. It separated the castle's land from the forest that stretched deeply opposite the castle itself. It was thick and silent, but still such a discomfort in the dark, especially when the mystery of what creatures could be lurking in there always remained. That hardly mattered, though; a road meant more humans… and more humans could mean backup. Hell, Aya probably would have been happy even to see an ANMC by then.
She sat down in the grass and leaned back against the stone wall. Her body immediately slumped in weak agreement; her head tilted back; just like that, with cover hardly provided by the trees on one side and the castle behind her, she dozed, not waking again until the hot sunlight had reached its noontime place high up in the sky.
Those first waking moments felt like they could only have been a dream. Her eyes, aching a bit from grogginess, were greeted by the sight of a red SUV—a Jeep, it looked like.
"Pierce?…" she wondered aloud. But, no, she knew that that couldn't be true—Pierce was still in Dryfield, maybe back at MIST headquarters if he had decided to take Aya's advice. She wanted to stand up and greet this stranger with full strength and awareness, but her body had yet to awaken completely. Every part of her was achy and stiff from sleeping in such a way all night.
The vehicle stopped right there, just beside where Aya sat. With no sign of precaution whatsoever, the door flew open… and Aya gasped. She nearly choked, as a matter of fact, but there could be no doubt as to why.
Not really aiming to get out of his Jeep, but rather just to hang off of the door and lean out, was a man that could have been around Aya's age. Or so one could only guess… He did, after all, have characteristics that made it tough to tell for sure.
Short, golden-blonde hair stuck out from beneath his black-with-red-flames baseball cap, worn slightly turned to the side. A tight, black T-shirt was worn under a rather "street"-looking red dress-shirt, tucked in while the long-sleeved garment hung around his baggy, dark jeans. He wore what were undoubtedly skater shoes, Vans, Adio, or even DC brand, colored in black and red as well. There was black liner around his ocean-blue eyes, the perfect finish to his look.
"Oh… my…" were the first words to leave Aya's mouth. She had a mystified tiredness in her own light-blue eyes. She could've believed herself to still be dreaming, but she knew through instinct that she wasn't. "But I… I thought you were… dead…"
He finally hopped down from the door of his Jeep, smiling with flawless cheerfulness. Aya might not have been able to believe that it was for him if not for the sniper rifle that she noticed slung carefully over his shoulder. That, and his beautiful eye color, of course, now combined so attractively with the black eyeliner.
"Yeah, I've been getting that a lot lately," he told her, not at all fazed by the comment. "I hear that you're having dragon trouble," he added. "I came here to help."
"But… how? How could you have known that?" Aya asked him.
Alfred Ashford pointed a finger back at his Jeep. Right then, the door to the passenger side opened… and out stepped the little girl that could have so easily been Aya's twin, if not for her being so incredibly young.
Aya herself, surely, had already had enough of a shock, but here was another to put right on top of it.
"Oh, thank God she's okay!" Aya exclaimed. "I thought the GOLEM soldiers still had her… or worse… that damn dragon…"
Aya's new friend carefully unstrapped his rifle from his back, a look of determination creating such a face on him that Aya had never seen.
She liked it, though, and as he said, "Time to get rid of this dragon for good," she found herself feeling ready for anything.