Chapter Two: Reunion

Disclaimer: As always, Don't own Resident Evil.. Just own the games...

The large metal door before Dusty flies open to reveal the most ironic reunion ever: The meeting of a Fallen Angel and a Demon.

Thomas smirks and uncrosses his knees, "Welcome to my humble abode Mr. Stracener..."

The brunette spits in his face and retorts, "Do not act like you know me..."

Thomas holds his heart and replies, while he slowly swipes the bile and saliva from his face, "Aw, come on now.. Do not act like our experiences in Riley and Isle Eras mean nothing to you... We bonded, you and I did.. We share a common bond... A blood bond if you will..." he holds up his left palm, revealing a scar.

Dusty holds up his own left palm and stares at the similar scar in disgust, the same scar they both suffered from the final battle between them in Riley, "I am nothing like you... Just because we share a scar does not mean I owe you anything..."

The mutant before him smirks, "Nor do I... We also share one more item in common.. Well, more of a person..."

Brown eyes flash, and Dusty reaches for the grenade in his pocket, but a blade is pressed against his throat, "Reach for it again, and Irand will take your life in a mere second..."

Dusty growls and knocks the blade away, "I swear, if you touch her in any way, I will blow this entire ship to kingdom come and back..."

Thomas nods and stands up, taking a few smooth steps toward the, after a slight struggle, unarmed man, "That, my friend, is why we are leaving this ship to sink to the black depths... We are heading back to a place I know you are fond of..."

Dusty frowns and replies, "Isle Eras?" and slowly taps his left foot against his right ankle.

Thomas's ears perk at the near silent beep and he dives away from the three soldiers behind his rival, Dusty doing the same. Beeping fills the small room as the soldiers start tearing off their armor and tossing their weapons aside.

That is not gonna help you...

"My god," gasps the black soldier, "Irand, it is you..."

Irand looks down at himself as the other two slowly back away, "Help me..." then his entire left side blows off, his right half slapping the metal floor mutely.

Dusty rolls around and holds his ears, "Ah, damn ringing..."

Thomas slowly stands up and shoves a finger into each ear, popping them, "Boy, that was one hell of a trick Dusty..."

The brunette stands up and his hands are quickly bound, as are his legs, by the remaining two soldiers.

Thomas walks up to him and nudges his face aside with his boot, "Throw him in the boat.. Put him with his bitch..."

Dusty growls and tries to snap at Thomas's ankle, but fails, "I will kill you!!!"

11

Emerald eyes flash open as a loud bang shakes her dream away, "What the hell?"

Aya slowly crawls toward the bound human before her and turns him to face her, "Dusty?!"

Dusty laughs and smirks, "Good to see you Aya... Sorry I wasn't able to pick you up from the airport..."

The redhead laughs to herself and works on breaking the straps on his arms and legs, but he wiggles away from her, "Nah, leave me.. It'll only cause us more problems if I'm untied... Just help me get my arms in front of me."

Aya nods and struggles to work her 'savior's' arms under his legs. After a short struggle, the two manage to somewhat free his arms. Bones crack as Dusty leans back, a sigh escaping his lips.

"Better?" asks the woman.

The brunette nods and leans back against the wall, "Yeah, thanks Aya. You know where we're headed?"

She shakes her head, so her friend responds, "Isle Eras.."

The shock is evident in her expression, "But we destroyed the place! There was nothing left but a crater filling with water!"

Being ever-calm in the presence of danger, Aya wipes the sweat from her face frantically, "This can't be happening.. Thomas was killed by that snake... The facility exploded... I. I... I..."

Her brunette counterpart scoots closer to her and looks into her eyes, "Hey.. Aya.. AYA! Calm down... We're gonna get out of here alive and well... Trust me..."

The redhead looks down at him and smiles, "Why is it, that whenever you say that, I can't help but laugh?"

Dusty shrugs and leans back, "I do not know.. Could be that the last time I said that, we were nearly blown to pieces..."

They both laugh lightly, but it quickly fades as they hear Thomas barking orders like a deranged Doberman. The metal shutter above the two hostages flies open and a rope is dropped down in front of them. Cloth meeting twine echoes around the room as Thomas slides down, a sinister grin accentuating his teeth, a few of which Dusty has knocked out in the past. His black combat boots slap the metal floor hard and their captor squats down in front of them.

The nightshade-haired male snorts and frowns, "Well, look at what we have here... Two lovebirds trapped in their cage... So.. Why don't we skip the pleasantries and get right down to business... I want you both dead, and you both want me dead..."

Dusty laughs loudly and glares into his black eyes, "Wrong. I want to see you melting into a puddle of Freshly-Squeezed-Thomas... But, seeing you just dead is enough for me..."

Thomas's frown quavers into a snarl, giving a slight warning to the punch that slams across his rival's face. Blood spatters across the wall from his mouth as Dusty's head snaps to the right. Thomas cracks his knuckles and slowly stands up, then proceeds to kick his head against the wall one time.

"Mouth off to me and I will skin you alive and make this bitch wear the skin..." spurts the mutant as he clambers back up the twine.

Dusty slowly brings his head around and coughs, crimson plasma slowly covering his jean shorts and legs. Aya tears off a piece of her lab coat and wipes his mouth clean, all the while cursing that Philippine monster. Dusty groans and licks the tear in his top lip, which, despite Aya's frantic cleaning, is still coating his mouth and chin in blood.

"Don't bother.. It will stop.. Not the first time my lip has been busted..." he breathes in and then gasps in pain, "Ow.. Guess I deserved that hit.."

Aya sighs in exasperation and drops the bloodied cloth, "You will never change, will you?"

The brunette looks at her and smiles, the blood kind of offsetting his appearance, "Not as long as I can still talk and walk!"

Aya gasps and tumbles over Dusty as the small boat they are in shifts speed and begins to slow down.

Aya sits up and swishes the hair from her face, "Son of a bitch... You could be a LITTLE easier on the DAMN brakes!!"

She turns, her jade eyes lying on Dusty's cinnamon, and the slick look to his face, "You are a little feisty today.. Anything particularly bothering you Aya?"

She shrugs and stands up, "No, just the fact I was abducted from the airport in YOUR car, brought to a freighter, faced with a monster from our past, and nearly killed on two accounts... Nothing is bothering me, no..."

The brunette tilts his head and replies, a slight hint of sarcasm evident, "Sorry I asked..." a light scours down on them from above, "we are here..."

Four men drop down on nylon harnesses and grab Dusty and Aya, neither fighting back from the magnums and shotguns trained on them. Being blown to pieces would do neither of them any good at this point.

"Welcome to Isle New Eras. Completely rebuilt from the crater you left me..."

Dusty and Aya both look through the glass window at what should not be, the island almost exactly as it was those long, drawn out years ago.

Eight years to be exact... thinks the redhead as the two are pushed off the boat and into the water.

Thomas tosses a float-ring and calls down, "You better swim and fast... The Betas still remember what you did to their home!"

Dusty and Aya bob in the water as the boat slowly moves toward the island, nearly four hundred meters out. The male punches the water and screams, but reluctantly begins to trudge through the waist-deep water to the wooded-island.

His friend paddles past him and turns to her back, lightly backstroking, "Better swim if you want to get to the island before THEY get to us..."

Brown eyes widen as Dusty dives into the clear water, four dark smudges crawling over the crystal liquid. The male's legs close in to his body as four razor-sharp claws separate the water like Moses parting the Red Sea. They crash down, nearly snagging his flipping left leg. The male is pulled to the shore by the female just as the four Beta-Hunters slam into the muddy bank, sending the two hostages up into the air.

11

"Heh.. They survived the Betas.. For now..."

A large, burly soldier steps up next to Thomas, sharing his view of the ocean from the fifth floor of the rebuilt Host Mansion, "Shall I go take care of them..."

Black eyes close momentarily, then a sly smile breaks his humble appearance, "Quite the contrary, Lobo... I want you to grab a few guns, and meet them.. Put on a wonderful show and gain their trust... Then, when the time is right, take care of them... But do it quietly.. I got members of Umbrella's Executive Board arriving to discuss the selling of Isle New Eras..."

Major Chang Lobo smiles, revealing the several missing teeth that dot his mouth, and laughs heartily, "No problem sir.. Want me to grab anything in particular for our guests?"

Thomas smirks and hands him a list, the white piece of paper folded as to hide the contents from the world. Lobo gracefully opens the list, surprising for a man of his size and stature, and frowns at the list.

"Something wrong Chang?"

"Um," he stumbles to find the right words, "you sure you want to..."

He can't finish as his superior by two ranks jams his fist into Lobo's sternum, cracking it in two places. Lobo doubles over and coughs, the sound ragged and disgust-filled.

"Question me again and you won't get the chance to stumble back... That wound will not hinder your abilities... Much..."

Lobo hacks up some phlegm and slowly crawls to his oversized feet, the boots thudding the ground as he does so. The Chinese mercenary growls and slowly walks out, a hand placed directly over his sternum, the pain slight and annoying. He walks past one of the few men directly under him and jams the list into his chest.

"What is...?"

"Do not ask.. Just get me those damn guns.. I will be in the foyer awaiting them... If I do not get them in fifteen minutes, it will be your head..."

The soldier nods and salutes, then quickly runs out to the armory, grabbing a bag before opening the large metal retaining doors.

If those doors weren't there, everything would be so simple.. But Weidick is so damn secretive... Better keep my mind on the mission at hand.. From what he's told me, this Dusty can read people... Was it through their eyes or their voice? Better wear sunglasses anyway...

Lobo snaps on a pair of Special Ops sunglasses, the kind with the digital HUD, and turns them on, a few meters and such rising up the sides and across the top and bottom. As he reaches the staircase, a cold chill runs down his spine, a sudden realization that makes his blood boil.

"I am his damn sacrificial lamb... He knows I will be dead half an hour after I meet them... Why is he sending me off to die?"

A slight breeze blows past him, signaling that someone has appeared behind him, but the voice is not one he expects, "Because... You are no longer of any use to me..."

For the first time in his thirty-seven years, the Chinese soldier is struck with disbelief, "What do you mean sir?"

11

Thomas laughs inwardly at the evident shock and fear in his voice, "Oh my dear Lobo... You did not really believe that I would leave you to die without a gift that might guarantee your safety, did you?"

He feels Chang relax, a big mistake, as the mutant drives his foot into the back of Lobo's left knee, sending the larger man into the wall. Thomas then grabs the man's neck and pulls him back, bending the man backwards while he just squats. Before the Major can blink, Thomas has a large combat knife dredged across his left cheek.

Chang gasps as his air is cut of, but Thomas releases his grip only slightly, "My gift is no weapon, no keen words of advice, not even a damn piece of body armor... What I am going to give you is a piece of reasonable doubt to place in Dusty's mind about your true connection to us..."

Thomas growls and drives the blade home, forming a two inch gash across his left cheek and jaw. He drops the wounded man to the ground and drives the blade down, slicing the skin on his arm to the point of constant bleeding..

"Tell them," rasps Thomas between blood-lust gasps, "that you were wounded trying to escape... Do not mention me... Now, get out of my sight before I kill you where you stand..."

11

"Dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun, JAWS!!!" screams Dusty as he and his partner stare down at the four Betas still trying to get at them, their voiceless howls causing bubbles to permeate the surface, breaking up the perfect view of their mutated faces.

Aya places a hand on her face and sighs into it, "You will never change..."

Dusty screams like a little girl as one of the blue behemoths jumps from the water, the salt-scent heavy on its scaled form. It slashes at him, but the female behind him pulls his form back, a few brown strands separating solemnly.

"That bastard cut my hair!" whines the brunette as they both slowly walk toward the mansion still in its same spot right in the middle of the island.

Red hair flies into the air as Aya huffs, "Quit whining... You sound like me.. And that is scary..."

Dusty, either delusional, or reverting into one of his good moods, looks at her with the best puppy-dog eyes he can manage, then sneers, "They say married couples start to look and act alike..."

Aya stops dead in her tracks, "You promising me something?"

Her friend just smirks and continues walking, seemingly oblivious to the sundry eyes staring at them, and the light growls and moans that are spilling from the forestry around them like a plague sent by the Devil himself.

"Hey Aya," murmurs Dusty over the rustling leaves.

She looks at him, "Yeah?"

Without moving or blinking, the male slowly responds, "Get down.."

Aya drops without question, her body lying as flat as possible against the cold dirt. A hot body is flying over her one second, then a wet coolness is slapping against her back. Dusty shouts something, but it's lost over the sizzling of her lab coat.

Another spitting creature.. Not an ivy... is all that runs through her mind as she stands and tears her coat off.

Her emerald green eyes widen as she sees a.. A... A.. A monkey-like animal, big enough to be a furry car, jumps toward her, a large red bulb of skin growing with the sound of a cat coughing up a hairball. Aya spins around, and drives her acid-covered coat across its face, the clothing wrapping around its mutated and deformed face. The monkey-thing howls in pain and runs back into the forest, smoke billowing in its wake from its sizzling face.

A warm arm is wrapped around her shoulders, "Well, babe, you are one hell of a fighter.. Never would have thought of that..."

Aya smirks and pushes his arm off her, "If you do not want to end up like Monkey, then I suggest you do not call me babe..."

The brunette laughs coolly and holds up his arms in mock-surrender, "Okay, fine, have it your way..."

Aya smiles and looks at the man she's come to know as slightly bi-polar, "Hey, doesn't this remind you of our first date?"

Dusty looks back at her and smirks, "If you are joking, that is cruel. If you are being sarcastic, that is even worse."

The redhead just smiles and keeps on walking, jabbing a finger or two in Dusty's side every now and then, "Doesn't it bother you that we are stuck on an island, destined to die, and we are happy?"

It was Dusty who asked the question, but both of them shake their heads, "Nah..."

Another chapter down the drain, almost a page longer than I anticipated.. But had to get them to meet their first new enemy before I get to chapter 3... Chapter 3: Grief and Relief.