A/N: We're getting down to the wire, the finally for the RE0 arc of the story is drawing closer and the danger is going to be going to get higher the further they go along. And Ethan's going to find that being prepared can only get you so far in a world like this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil.

Chapter 10:

"One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!" -Winston Churchill

This wasn't going to do.

In his hiding place, the young man clenched his fists in fury. The children attempted to sooth his rage but he merely brushed them away and ignored their attempts.

How dare that unimportant piece of trash address him through the many in such a way. Who was he to threaten those who could easily crush his existence with but a whisper? The murderer would come to regret his words.

His rage bloomed higher as he watched Ethan going through Dr. Marcus' personal notes. His companions using the charm to open the secret door leading into Dr. Marcus' inner sanctum. All they had to do was get to the cable car, perhaps pick a lock or two and they would be on their way. But it seemed that they would not leave the doctor's memory alone, violating what few privacies he had left behind.

"Not if we stop them." the young man said to the leeches around him. It had been a very amusing diversion watching these three moving about the facility. But it was over now, the world would have to learn the truth about Umbrella without them.

It was time to send the children out to play.

X

As they had suspected, the dead-end shrine was in fact a door. And the tiny leech statue that Ethan had found fit into the door's 'lock' perfectly. A soft click was heard when it was put in place before the door unlatched.

Billy and Rebecca stepped through the secret doorway and scanned for any movement in the room beyond. Nothing. Lowering their weapons they stepped farther inside.

"Wow..." Rebecca said hushed as they saw the place. It was an office, large, expensively fitted with built in shelves and cabinets on one side, all with dark, polished wood and beveled glass with a ornate fireplace opposite. The antique wood furniture, low tables, chairs, and a big desk. All beautiful and complete with a plush carpet that silenced their steps as they moved about.

Behind the desk they saw another door, both mentally crossed their fingers in the hope that it would turn out to be their way out of this place.

Most of the room's light came from a huge aquarium that dominated the Northeast corner near where they had been standing. There wasn't any fish in it from what they could see, not even rocks or plants. But there were a number of things floating on the surface. Grotesque things that also appeared to be pieces of human flesh, only shapeless, boneless and deformed.

The duo turned away, Rebecca covering her mouth in disgust as they moved on. An open cabinet on the wall stood open and they approached it. Finding an ancient photo album on one of the shelfs.

Billy picked it up and flipped it open, the photos within were yellow and curled from age but still very visible. Turning a couple of pages, one of the pictures slipped out and fell to the floor. The medic at his side stooped down and picked it up to get a better look.

The picture itself wasn't that interesting, a trio of young men from the thirties or forties all looking clean-cut and well dressed were smiling at the photographer. On the back of it, someone had written; 'To James, To commemorate your graduation. 1939.'

After studying the photo for a few moments, Rebecca gasped when she focused on the man standing in the middle of the trio. "That's him." she said pointing at the individual, "That looks exactly like the one we saw singing to the leeches outside the train before."

The soldier took a closer look and nodded, "He does. He could be Marcus' son, or grandson. I doubt the doc is still alive considering what you showed us in his journal. If Spencer was gunning for him, I can see how a relative would want revenge on the ones that killed him."

"This could also explain the viral leak." said the medic. "The one controlling the leeches could have done it as a way to strike back against the ones that harmed his family."

The facts were all good...but it wasn't helping their current situation. Putting the album back, they began going through the room. Checking the desk and shelves for keys or additional maps that could be useful and came up with nothing. Turning to the door behind the large desk, and thankfully finding it open, they found themselves stepping into an art storage room.

Paintings stacked against the walls, a couple of statues draped with sagging dropcloths. One statue was uncovered, a white marble piece that looked like one of those old Roman gods, seated against one flocked wall, its dusty gaze uplifted with a hand cupped near its belly where something green was clasped within it.

Billy walked over and took the small object from the statues fingers and discovering that it was a 'leech-key' similar to the cobalt-blue one that Ethan had given them. "This might be helpful." he said showing the green stone to Rebecca who smiled.

"That might lead somewhere out of here, now we just need to regroup with Ethan and-" she was cut off by loud gunshots followed by shrieking howls that sounded anything but human.

They were moving as the last shot faded, going through the office and back out into the corridor only to slide to a stop when they saw something blocking their path. A very inhuman something.

It was reptilian in nature, humanoid in shape with huge muscles under pebbled dark-noxious green skin. Its arms were so long that its half-foot long claws almost scraped the floor. Its skull was sloped, eyes small and flat with a yellowish glow to them that practically screamed malevolence.

Opening its mouth that was filled with razor sharp teeth, it let out a horrifying screech that knocked the two out of their thoughts long enough to raise their weapons. The creature lowered its head and charged for them as they opened fire, the rounds striking the things hide, spilling blood with each hit but not hindering its movement in the slightest.

"Rebecca move!" Billy shouted. They dove in opposite directions when the monster finished closing the gap, swiping one of its massive claws and taking the head off of Marcus' bust as though it were cutting through paper.

The ex-Lieutenant rolled into a crouching position and fired the second round in his shotgun right into the thing's stomach. Punching a good-sized hole into it and spilling more dark blood on the cracked marble floor under it before switching to his pistol since he didn't have the time to reload.

Rebecca held the trigger down on her MP5, spraying the oversized reptile with bullets until the clip ran empty. The creature turned toward her, growling menacingly and taking a step toward her while she scrambled to fish out another clip.

Bam!Bam!Bam! Billy fired round after round as quickly as he could right into the creature's back. It stopped advancing on the terrified medic and turned its head toward him. It let out a howling-shriek before leaping the small gap between them.

Thinking fast, the soldier grabbed his shotgun and dove out of the way as the large claws aimed for his head burrowed into the wall where he had been.

Getting back to his feet, he broke the shotgun open and ejected the spent shells, pulling out two new ones and slamming them home before resealing the weapon. Rebecca fled from her spot and stood next to him, finishing her own reload and aiming at their attacker as it pulled its claw from the wall, taking a chunk of stone with it.

Billy raised the shotgun and took careful aim, firing the first shot and nailing the thing right in the chest and knocking it back against the destroyed bust. Gritting his teeth, he aimed for the slanted head and fired again.

The creature's skull exploded in a fountain of blood and bone, covering the door, statues and wall as the body slumped lifeless to the floor.

Everything went still. The duo breathed heavily as the adrenaline started to wear off. Billy lowered the still smoking double-barrel and nudged the reptile with the end of his boot to make sure it really was down. "What the fuck are these people growing in this place?" he wondered out loud as he looked at the deadly claws that could have taken them both out easily.

Breath hitching, Rebecca spun around and looked back toward where the gunshots and howling had come from. "We need to find Ethan! There could be more of them!" she shouted before running in that direction. Billy on her heels as they headed toward the room with the hole in the ceiling.

Praying that they weren't too late.

X With Ethan - Minutes Earlier X

After going through the various files and reports laid out on the desks about the experiments done in this place. Ethan gathered up a small handful of them with useful information, folded them and stuck them in a spare pocket for safe keeping before heading toward the only door in the lab.

Revolver at the ready, he opened the door slowly and made his way into the short corridor on the other side. There was a door on his right which was locked, a right turn followed with another door on the right that showed a large, empty room with a small office set off to the side with not much else.

The sound of his boots on the floor echoed off the walls as he approached the door at the far end of the corridor. Grabbing the knob, and pulling it open he found a second door only a meter in front of him. To the left the room opened up to a lab similar to the one he had just been in.

Movement in the darkness had his weapon up, near one of the tables close to a connecting wall was an infected. Male, gaunt and sallow with blank eyes that slowly turned his way. Mouth open and letting out a hungry groan as he shuffled toward the teen.

Not wanting to waste ammo or make noise, Ethan pulled out his knife and waited for the anorexic-looking zombie to get close enough before attacking. Using his right forearm to pin the undead to the wall, clamping its jaw shut so it couldn't bite him and drove his knife into its temple.

The T-carrier went still almost instantly. The traveler pulled his blade free, shaking the blood and grey matter from it before sheathing it again while the body collapsed to the floor without a fight.

'Alright.' he thought looking at the door across from the one he had come through. 'The operating room is through there, but without the green leech key I can't get into the morgue. Guess I gotta wait until Billy and Rebecca find it in Marcus' office.' Turning toward the lab the zombie had been walking around, he headed farther in and began searching for more evidence against Umbrella.

Setting his revolver down, he started going through one of the desks and paused, on a stack of papers was an MO disk. "This could be something." he said out loud picking it up and looking it over. The label on the disk read; 'T-Virus Study and Capabilities' 'The brains behind this place must have left this stuff behind when the virus was released.'

Pocketing the disk in the same place as the papers he'd found, Ethan continued rifling through the rest of the desk and moving on to the next one.

A crash was heard from the corridor he'd passed through making him spin around. The metal door he'd passed through was now wide open and had four gaping slashes through it. But it wasn't the door that had his attention, it was the one standing in the threshold.

Hunched over, dark-green skin barely visible in the low light of the lab with long arms tipped with large, sharp claws that was quite obviously the cause behind the slashes in the door. A sloped head with glowing yellow eyes looked straight across the room as deep, grunts hissed through its teeth.

"Hunter..." Ethan breathed out, fear gripping his heart knowing what these things were capable of and that he was as good as dead if it got within striking distance. Slowly reaching back as to not agitate the reptilian predator, he grabbed ahold of his magnum and brought it forward.

The Hunter growled deep in its throat and stalked a few steps forward. More movement at the door revealed a second Hunter , identical to the first and just as deadly. They moved into the room and began to slowly creep in opposite directions, their glowing eyes not leaving the profiler as he watched them both as best he could.

'Their circling...working out an attack pattern like two predators do while stalking their prey. Blocking any other chance of escape while preparing to strike.' His body felt frozen, but his mind was working hard to figure out a way to get out of this without becoming bloody ribbons on the floor.

His eyes scanned the room while making sure to keep the Hunters in his field of vision. Taking in the tables, the empty specimen tubes and other equipment in the lab to look for an advantage against the two dangerous creatures. 'Running straight would be a death sentence. Shooting one would cause the other to attack. Their hides are too strong for 9mm rounds to cause enough damage, the magnum's my only chance, but with only six shots I better make them count.'

The Hunters were drawing closer, his time was running out and he needed to make a decision fast. His gaze locked on to the desk in front of the Hunter on his left, the open space beneath it just big enough for him to move through if he were crouched low enough. 'It could work, but any chance is better than the alternative.'

Ethan waited, making sure that the bi-pedal reptiles were within range before taking action.

Time slowed down around him from the surge of adrenaline as he shot toward the left side of the room. The Hunters screeched and went on the attack, but the traveler was ready for it. Raising the revolver and firing right into the chest of the one before him as it leapt over the desk at him. The heavy slug punching through its hardened hide and knocking it back mid-leap as he dropped to the floor, sliding across the surface and through the opening in the desk just as the second Hunter launched itself at him.

He passed under the desk, the creature pursuing smashed into it. Its weight crunching the metal and stunning it long enough for the teen to get back to his feet. Spinning on his heel and firing a second shot into the first Hunter as it attempted to stand, the slug missed its head and dented the wall behind it. But the third went through its right eye and splattered it's brains on the lab equipment that had been behind it.

A shrieking-howl reminded Ethan of the second threat in the room. The second Hunter threw the mangled heap of a desk aside before charging him with its right claw raised to cleave him in half.

With no other options, the profiler threw himself back. Both hands steadying the magnum as he took aim and fired, hitting the creature's shoulder and making it stagger. The yellow eyes blazed with animalistic fury as it bent on its hunches and leapt.

Ethan's back hit the floor and he rolled right, and kept rolling after he heard the sound of claws slicing into the floor where he had landed a moment ago. He got to his feet and felt his blood freeze when he saw the Hunter right on top of him, forgetting for that moment that the reptilian BOWs were fast considering their size.

The creature cocked its arm back and slashed with its claws outstretched. He had all of a second to think before dropping to the floor, the sharpened talons going over his head, but the smallest one managed to scrape along his scalp. Slicing a small cut into the top of his skin easily because of his shaved head.

Lashing out, the teen punched the BOW hard in the face. Its hardened scales making it feel like he was punching a solid wall as its head snapped back and his knuckles bruised. The Hunter whipped its head back around and hissed like an angry serpent, swinging one of its long arms with a hard backhand that connected with Ethan's stomach and launched him into one of the specimen tanks. The glass cracked and spider-webbed from the impact but not shattering as the teen hit the ground feeling as though he'd been clubbed by Babe Ruth.

The magnum clattered to the floor a few feet away as the traveler tried to get his baring back after the attack. The Hunter screeched and charged again, arm cocked back as it went in for the kill.

"FUCK!" Headache and bruised midsection forgotten, Ethan leapt to the side as the claws that had been aimed for his throat crashed through the weakened glass of the tank. Grabbing the revolver, he got back to his feet and spun to take aim-

-But the Hunter was already there again, this time he couldn't avoid the claws as they slashed at him. Carving four deep scratches in his right bicep and spilling blood down his arm. The sudden attack causing him to pull the trigger, blowing a hole through the side of the Hunter's neck in the process.

A gurgling that mixed with its howl told him that the slug clipped something vital as the BOW was knocked on to its back from the force of the shot. Ethan bit through the pain pulsing along his arm, gritting his teeth while blood dripped from the wounds on to the dirty floor. He staggered forward, the Hunter struggled to get up but was stopped when the profiler shoved the barrel of the magnum into its mouth and as far down its throat as it would go.

"Fuck you, you walking handbag." he hissed pulling the trigger.

Bang! The back of the BOW's head exploded, creating a crown of blood and brains behind it on the floor that steadily started expanding the more it flowed out the gaping hole that had been made. The creature's yellow eyes faded and it went still on the floor with no chances of ever getting up again.

Ethan sagged, the remaining adrenaline draining out of him as the pain he'd been feeling started to take over. Stumbling away from the body of the dead Hunter and collapsing against a nearby desk, left hand clamped tightly over his still bleeding arm while the revolver slipped out of his fingers on to the floor.

"Shit...Shit, shit, shit, shit." he muttered looking at his injury. The four cuts made by the creature's claws were deep, not enough to cause permanent damage but the bleeding was a problem if he didn't stop it. He could also feel blood dripping down from the cut on the top of his head, but the arm was a definite cause for concern.

Tearing off what remained of the sleeve on his right arm, the profiler wrapped the cloth around his injury and tying it off the best he could with only his left hand. The loss of blood making him a bit dizzy but he managed regardless as he tried to fish out the can of first aid spray on his belt.

His concentration was broken by running footsteps out in the hall. A moment later Rebecca and Billy came into the room guns ready and looking for anything deadly. When the young medic's eyes found her fellow rookie they widened with horror. "Oh my god, Ethan!" She was at his side in moments, as he sat slumped against the desk.

"It's..not as bad as it looks." he said trying to sound as casual as he could, but the paleness of is face and the blood still running down his arm wasn't fooling anyone. Rebecca removed the makeshift bandage and her mouth dropped.

The wounds sliced clean into the muscle of his arm. The damage wasn't too serious and there wasn't any tendon damage either, meaning they would heal with no problems. But it worried her that there could be the possibility of infection, the creature's claws obviously weren't clean and that could also could be a problem.

Shaking herself, she let her skills as a medic take over as she fished out the supplies she needed from her pack and got to work. Cleaning the wounds with antiseptic until she was sure that they were clean, then she took out the red/green herb mixture she had made before. "This is going to hurt like a bitch." She warned.

Ethan nodded and gnashed his teeth as she began spraying the concoction on to the wounds. The burning feeling that followed could have been described as someone jamming a fire-poker into the cuts and twisting it.

Finished with applying the herb solution. Rebecca took out gauze and a roll of medical tape and began wrapping the profiler's bicep up. When it was all done she made quick work of the cut on his head before holding his face in her hands. "Are you okay? Nothing else hurt?" she asked with concern clear in her voice and eyes.

"I'm fine. The damn thing clawed me, it didn't bite." he said motioning to the dead Hunter. "His pal is over by the computers in the back, tried to take me out as a team."

Billy knelt down and examined the creature closely, "We ran into one downstairs. Christ, they look like the creature from the black lagoon on steroids. How the hell did Umbrella come up with something like this?"

Reaching into his vest, Ethan produced the files he had located. "From what I could gather up here, the T-Virus is a mutagenic, recombinant virus that has an array of effects on different forms of living tissue. Destroying the higher brain functions in the process and making the host feral as the body begins to change. As a side effect, it's able to reanimate dead cells and bring the dead back to life with only the most basic of needs. Everything we've run into has been made by the T-Virus, and James Marcus was the one that helped to create it on behalf of Umbrella."

"And they were planning on selling this to people?" Rebecca asked looking over the files and feeling sick.

The older rookie took the papers back and stuffed them into his vest. "Not if we get out of here and expose these assholes for everything that they have done." he went to move but stumbled. Forcing Rebecca to catch him before he toppled over.

"You're still pretty weak from blood loss. Take it easy for a while and then we'll get moving again." she said gently setting him in a nearby chair.

Knowing he wasn't going to get out of it, he looked at his companions while he caught his second wind. "Find anything down where you guys were?" Billy grinned and produced the green 'Leech-key' that they needed. "There's another bust of Marcus in the operating room, might be something in there we need." said the profiler pointing to the door next to the dead zombie from before.

The soldier nodded and headed to the operating room, leaving the two STARS members on their own for the time being. Ethan leaned his head back on the chair and let out a slow breath, he could feel his fellow rookie's gaze on him even without looking. "I'm okay, Becs. Really. Nothing to worry about." he said looking back at her.

Rebecca sighed, "You say that, but each time you seem to comeback more and more beat up." her eyes went to his bandaged arm before going back to his face. "How can I not worry when you're so willing to throw yourself in harms way like that? I mean, you could have died just now, and then what?"

In honesty, Ethan never once thought about what would happen if he died here. He already knew that this was real life and not a game anymore, so if he bit the dust it would be permanent.

Trying to play it off, he shrugged his shoulders. "If I die, I go down swinging. As long as it saved those that I'm close to." he admitted.

The girl before him didn't look impressed, "Ethan, after everything that's happened tonight...I just, I can't even think about the idea of something happening to you. After everything we've gone through, I don't ever want to lose you."

Ethan reached out and grasped her hand, "I feel the same way, Becs. That's why I did half the shit I've done. If I can't make it out of this hell hole, then I'm going to make damn sure that you do. Consequences be damned, that's just how I feel about that."

Squeezing the hand holding hers, Rebecca stepped forward until she was standing in front of his seated form. "I've...been thinking a lot too. Since the start of all this." she said biting her lip.

"About what?" asked the traveler curious.

"About, you know, us." she managed to get out feeling her face heat up. Ethan leaned back in the chair, hand still holding on to hers as he gave her his complete and undivided attention. "Ethan, I think-" she was cut off when Billy came back into the room with a key in his hand.

"Found this in the morgue, probably goes to one of the locked doors we passed. " he looked at the scene before him and felt like he was intruding on something. "Am I interrupting?" he asked looking between them.

Ethan stood up and shook his head, "Everything's good, man. Let's get back to finding a way out of here." Billy took the hint and smirked at the younger male before heading back the way he and Rebecca had come. The profiler turned his attention to the medic, whose hand he hadn't released, as she looked off to the side.

His hand held her chin and turned her head to look at him. "We'll talk more later, deal?" he asked with a disarming smile. Rebecca couldn't help but smile back and nod in confirmation as they followed after the ex-Lieutenant.

As it turned out, the key wasn't needed. The three Hunters that had been locked within an animal storage room that was behind the first door in the hallway between labs had been released when something tripped the lock from the inside.

When Ethan saw the translucent slime on the inside door lock he knew who had been behind it instantly.

The room was U-shaped, split down the middle with shelves. They moved around, fighting down their gag reflexes as they were blasted with the rank odor of animals, shit and dried blood. In the far corner was a pile of torn fur and gnawed bones, the remains of a couple of infected apes most likely.

They stepped away from one another as they over looked the kennels more closely. Ethan moved from cage to cage, looking around the dark corners for the thing that would help them get out of this section of the complex. Moving around a few restraints that were mounted in the cages.

Billy had found the files talking about the Pregenitor virus scattered across the table top in the back. Rebecca was going through the cages on the opposite side of the room as they continued searching for anything that could help them.

Ethan moved to the last cage and grinned when he saw the glint of something inside. "Here we go." he said reaching in and drawing the looks of the other two as he held up the dial that went to the combination door back on the bottom level.

"Looks like it goes to that door we saw on the bottom floor. But do we know the combination?" asked Rebecca.

"4-8-6-3." the profiler said from memory. "It was in one of the files I'd been going through. Hidden within a bunch of leech-growth reports."

Billy shrugged, "Well, let's go see if it works."

Heading back down to the bottom floor again, they put the dial into the door and used the code Ethan had picked up from one of the files he had read. Putting in the combination and unlocking the door for them. Preparing themselves for what might be coming next, they stepped inside.

X

He watched the young trio as they left the labs and make their way through the combination door. He had expected them to break the lock, but the murderer seemed to have figured out the code through the files he'd been snooping through.

It was a nice surprise to see that three Hunters were no match for them. Especially the wretch who had managed to take down two of them on his own and walking away with only a cut up arm. They possessed some animal cleverness, these three souls. How sad for the world they had to be destroyed.

The young man smiled. Humanity would recover from the loss, in ample time to effect Umbrella's crucifixion. Besides, the children were already in place.

Billy pushed the door open to the cable car hanger open, the three of them smiling when they 'discovered' their means of escaping the lab. The cable car was operational, although they wouldn't be operating it, their lives were mere seconds from ending.

The children watched from the shadows beneath the car, from the sewer grates, all gathering together into two collectives that waited to be unleashed upon their prey. With but a thought they had been released.

From his position, the murderer tensed. Turning around and seeing the collectives coming and alerting his companions who all readied their weapons. The two false men had just made it over the railing when the two males opened fire with their shotguns. He watched in horror as the twin blasts hit the two collectives at the same time with clear shots.

The young man felt the many screaming, felt the hive diminish from the hits and his fury intensified. He was fraught with anguish as the men fired again, Rebecca joining them with her submachine gun. In a matter of seconds, one of the collectives collapsed to the ground, effectively destroyed.

"No!" he shouted to the room. The many had never faced such weapons before, he had no idea that they could be so easily injured by them. But he couldn't retreat now, not in mid-attack. He ordered the survivors of the first false man to join the others in the second.

The trio aimed for the second collective and prepared to fire when an Eliminator appeared. Dropping down from one of the scaffoldings above and latching on to Billy's back. The man attempted to fight the primate off as it racked its claws on his arms and back, stumbling backwards as they grappled before they both tumbled over the railing behind them and disappearing into the sewers below with a mighty splash.

Ethan and Rebecca shouted after him, allowing the remaining collective to go on the offensive. One of its arms lashing out and knocking the two teens off their feet as it began to advance on them. Filling the young man with blissful satisfaction as he thought of how to finish them-

-But they rolled back to their feet, simultaneously as though they were in sync with one another as they faced the false man with rage seen clearly in their eyes. Weapons raised as they began firing on the collective once more but with more ferocity. Rounds tearing through it quickly and making the connection with them difficult to maintain.

His vision through their eyes becoming murky and water-like as it started to darken. Pain gripping his heart knowing that his children were in such duress by these insects.

With one final shot, the murderer and his female finished off the false man. The body collapsing as the collective died under the barrage. The last image he could make out was that of Ethan looking down at their handiwork, raising his booted foot and bringing it down on the few remaining children. Silencing them forever and cutting the link completely.

All around him, the many wept, their salt tears blending into their tracks, the sorrowful smell of ocean rising up from their despairing mass. The young man closed his eyes, weeping with them, but not for long. His anger was far to great and it would not be denied.

The murdering wretch, his girlfriend, and their accomplice if he were still alive would pay dearly for what they have done to his children. But he didn't dare risk the lives of anymore, no, he had something else in mind just for them.

Turning his vision to a lone screen that illuminated a tall, deadly being in suspended animation within a specimen tube somewhere deep in the facility. His smile was filled with righteous fury and wrath that would be carried out by this; his trump card, his king in this game of chess.

The Tyrant.

A/N: The reanimated Marcus is done playing around, and is about to send his deadliest backup plan against them. Ethan barely survived confronting two Hunters, how will he handle the Prototype-Tyrant? Will update soon, a computer virus damaged my other files and with them chapters for my other fics, so my other updates have been postponed until I can get what I lost back in order again.