HaloHazard

by Hyperwryter88

John-117, Cortana, Thel Vadam, UNSC marines, Elites and Brutes crash land on 20th century Earth in Raccoon City and deal with the 1998 T-virus outbreak until they can return to the 26th century. Halo and Resident Evil xover. Language and violence. BACK IN PRODUCTION AND WORKING ON NEW CHAPTER NOW. BE PATIENT.

14. Reunion

It's finally time for the RE3 side to be written.

Sorry this took so long to upload. Life and work were responsible for the delay. If I were unable to work a job ever again by means of winning a big-ass lottery prize that would set me up for life or becoming disabled from injury (not that I support that last one), I'd stay at my computer and write all day every day and get this story finished faster.

*glares at blunt object sitting next to me*

I wonder . . .

*scary music playing in the background as an idea forms in my head*

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UNSC/ELITE SIDE AT NIGHT . . .

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Minutes after their victory over Wolfpack and the Tyrants, the ship crew and the Echo Six team began to converse.

"So what are you guys doing in town? We don't remember calling for any backup." said Harley, thinking them to be with their Spec Ops unit.

"We're our own military unit and we're just scavenging for supplies to get us by during our stay and finding anyone that may still be alive." Jamie told the biker.

During the chatter, Tweed and Party Girl glared at the two Sangheilis and both women wondered what the deal was with their appearances.

"Excuse me, but who are those two?" Tweed asked the group while pointing to the armored aliens.

Everyone eyed Kh'rue and Ha'mak. The two didn't quite know how to properly explain themselves to the Echo Six team.

"Oh, they don't talk much, but they're pretty handy to have around at a time like this and what they did to the giants as you've seen earlier is evidence enough." Kristine cut in, helping to maintain the aliens' identities.

The Elites caught on to what she was doing and remained quiet.

"Fair enough." Party Girl said.

"Can we be of some assistance to your reason for being here?" Raymond offered.

"Nah. We can handle ourselves from here. We've been doing it all night." Dee-Ay declined respectfully.

"Bummer." Alex muttered.

"By the way," Shona began to say. "have any of you seen two people named Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveria?"

"Why yes we have. We found them not too long ago. They're holed up in a chapel right now." Raymond answered.

"Is Jill alright? She hasn't . . . turned, has she? I say this because she became infected with the virus that ruined this city when we last saw her." Willow questioned with worry.

"Nah, she'll be fine. We found and gave her a vaccine for her virus problem in the city's hospital, which is now in rubble due to a fire outbreak. She won't be turning into a walking corpse thanks to us. As for that Carlos guy, he stayed in the chapel and watched over Jill while we fetched vaccine and he's still doing it." Alex explained.

"Oh, that's good to hear. 'Cause when we last saw them, we bought Carlos enough time to escape with Jill after she was KO'd by this enormous monstrosity that's been trying to kill her all night while we dealt with the creature in their place. It wasn't easy taking the freak on despite it being six of us and one of him. That thing is also the one who infected Valentine moments before we found him attacking her and Carlos just after he blew her only helicopter ride right out of the sky with a big ol' rocket launcher." Party Girl said.

"We saw that exact same helicopter explode too after a short run-in with some Umbrella soldiers and rushed right over to investigate. But by the time we got there, the fight was already done and Jill and Carlos had sought shelter in the chapel building by then while the monster was nowhere to be found. We also found some used bullets and shell casings everywhere on the ground. We assume they were yours." Kristine said.

"Yeah, that was us along with Carlos, Jill and Stitch-Face. He was armed with a big-ass gatling gun and the fucker sure knew how to use it as he shot at us while we lured him away from the clock tower grounds. We eventually battled him again in some factory and killed him there. Too bad you guys weren't there to get a piece of the action. We would have whooped his ass faster together." Harley said.

The UNSC members knew that the Echo Six team were wrong about the Nemesis being dead thanks to Alex's knowledge.

"You wish he were dead, dude." Alex said bluntly right after Harley spoke.

"Pardon?" the biker asked him.

"That creature you're talking about ain't dead. He's still very much alive and right now, the big guy's still out there rebuilding his strength to plot his next move which will be invasion of the chapel later."

Echo Six were confused by these words.

"What are you talking about? We saw him get boiled to death in molten metal which we caused." Harley said.

"Well frankly, it wasn't enough because he survived that due to his ability to heal at a rapid pace. I'm telling you, he's gonna be back deadlier than before." said Alex.

"How can you know that?" Harley asked.

"We know more than that, bikeboy. We also know how this outbreak thing began, from who started it to what's gonna happen later on." Alex said, unwittingly giving away details about the future.

"Are you people employed by Umbrella?" Tweed questioned with suspicion in her voice.

"Hell no, chicky-poo. If we were, why would we have killed some of their soldiers, aided you in your little battle with Wolfpack and be here right now warning you of the Nemesis' eventual comeback?" Alex asked the British woman.

"Wolfpack and Nemesis?" Dee-Ay asked. He and Echo Six were confused by these names and Alex had to explain.

"Wolfpack is the group that we fought with a while ago and Nemesis is the monster that's been chasing Jill Valentine all night long. You know, the stitch-faced, one-eyed giant with the black coat, chaingun and bazooka."

"Oh." said the Echo Six leader.

"You named the monster chasing Miss Valentine?" Shona asked bewildered.

"No, that's what Umbrella calls him. He was created with the purpose of hunting and killing anybody who was in the S.T.A.R.S. unit that went into that zombie-ridden mansion up on the mountains two months before all this happened. He's Umbrella's way of shutting them up about their work as they see S.T.A.R.S. as a pain in their asses. The Nemesis will also attack anyone else outside of S.T.A.R.S. who threatens him, which he obviously did to you and those Wolfpack guys hours before you two met here." Alex said.

"You know, for a group who says they have nothing to do with Umbrella, you guys sure do know some stuff about them. Of course, we do too, but not as much as what you've just told us." Harley said. Now it was his turn to be suspicious after Tweed.

"Okay, calm down everyone. We're all just having a very rough night, that's all." Willow said. She was right on that one as she and her teammates were growing exhausted after running around fighting off B.O.W.s all night long and people always say that working without a break can cause a person to enter a state of irritability.

"Anything else you want to tell us since you claim to know what else is going to go down?" Dee-Ay asked the group.

After hearing his question, the team was wondering if they really should inform Echo Six of certain things like what was going to happen on the morning hours of October 1st. They weren't sure if they would be believed for telling them something like that and looked at each other and gave each other a look that said, "what the hell". It was going to come out sometime and it might as well be now than never.

"Actually, there is." Jamie said. "Because this T-virus thing is spreading uncontrollably and has consumed all of Raccoon City, in a couple of days from now, this entire town, all of it, will be gone."

"That virus has already spread and destroyed Raccoon City. This place has been just about gone for days. What more can happen beyond that?" Willow said.

"Yeah, but I didn't mean it like that. When I said Raccoon City would be gone . . . how can I put this? You know how the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki went in the final days of World War II?" Jamie said, giving away a hint of Raccoon's fate and Echo Six gave yes answers, then fearfully knew what she meant by her little riddle.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are . . . are you saying that this whole city is gonna be fuckin' nuked?!" Harley questioned with such fear in his voice.

"'Fraid so." Jamie confirmed.

Now Echo Six were more nervous than when they dealt with monsters.

"This is . . . this is . . . big! Surely you can't be right." Party Girl said.

"We wish we weren't. We don't like it either. But yeah, it's gonna happen." Alex said.

"But how? How can Umbrella nuke Raccoon City? Their experiments are one thing, but how in god's name can those guys have the means to do something like that?" Party Girl asked.

"Oh, it's not Umbrella that will be doing it. The United States government will by order of the President. Because the monster population is rapidly spreading and can't be contained by anyone, bombing Raccoon City will be their way of destroying the T-virus as a last resort." Kristine said.

Dee-Ay then switched on his radio.

"Command, this is Echo Six. I'm calling to report we have recently survived a short battle with a small Umbrella group similar to us and we have also found another military unit different from us who aided us in the fight. They claim that the creature that's after Jill Valentine who we supposedly killed is still alive and will seek her out again and they said they saved her from becoming a zombie after she contracted the T-virus by means of an anti-virus vaccination."

"That's great to hear about Jill Valentine's recovery, but who are these people you speak of?" their boss asked.

"They didn't tell us. They're not with our unit, but they say they're not with Umbrella either. And above all, they just delivered to us some unbelievable news: they're saying that a nuclear weapon, sent by the U.S. government, will be fired to eradicate Raccoon City as a means of destroying the epidemic completely."

"What? Are you certain you heard them correctly?"

"Crystal clear, sir. But I'm still uncertain, as the others, if these people are telling the truth or not, but they appeared to be dead serious of this claim. If they're right about their nuke warning, should we abandon the mission and leave now?"

"Well, if Raccoon City really is going to face a nuclear demise, then you must get out of there while you still can. But before you do, there are a couple of tasks you must complete. They were on your mission list anyway, so hop to it, Echo Six."

"As you wish, sir." Dee-Ay said and put away his radio.

"Well, do you believe us or do you prefer to wait until the strike happens?" Kristine asked.

"We don't know, but with these creatures spiraling out of control, they'll likely dominate the town and spread their mayhem to other civilizations. Come to think of it, if I were in charge of the government and country, I'd probably do the same thing to stop the spread of infection." Dee-Ay said. His statement left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"So when's this bombing thing gonna happen? Tonight?" Harley asked.

"No. It's scheduled to happen on the morning of October 1st. We, and the people in the chapel, all have until that day to get outta this zombie-infested dump." Alex answered, stretching his right arm out of weariness.

Although they wanted to learn about each other, they had their own tasks to see to.

"Well, we should be getting back to the chapel. Carlos may be wondering about us." Raymond said.

"Alright. Well, good luck getting out of town." said Shona.

"You too." said Raymond.

"Remember, October 1st is when the strike will happen. So do whatever you're gonna do fast and run for your lives." Kristine reminded them.

"We'll remember that. Thanks." Tweed said back and the two teams bid each other farewell and Echo Six left.

The FOREVER crew were alone again, as if that was new.

Raymond directed the team to start walking back to their hidden vehicles to return to the chapel. They felt that E'mal, Carlos and Tyrell may be wondering about them.

Then Jamie got an idea.

"Hey, can you two call E'mal? We need to know if things are going smoothly in the chapel." she asked the aliens.

They complied and Ha'mak initiated his helmet radio while Kh'rue watched.

"Come in, E'mal." Ha'mak said in his radio. He muted himself from the others to fully focus on what he had to say.

"This is E'mal speaking." said E'mal through the radio.

"What has become of the humans with you?"

"They are well. The female human is resting still and one of the male humans is closely observing her while having words with an unseen being of some sort that I am guessing is a religious activity for humans. To avoid disturbing his speech, I muted our radio conversation." he said. In other words, the chapel's occupants couldn't hear a word the two Elites were saying to one another.

"I see. Has the being known as 'Nemesis' been detected anywhere near your location?"

"Negative. All is peaceful here."

"Well, be on your guard until we return. Remember, we were told that the beast hunting the female will be back to claim her two Earth nights from now and they must be closely guarded just to be sure.

"I know. I shall continue my duty."

The call ended.

"Well?" Jamie asked.

"E'mal says the other humans are still safe. He says the female is still unresponsive and one of the human males is performing a religious speech. I instructed E'mal to remain vigilant for that Nemesis creature hunting them." Ha'mak said.

"Good, then let's hurry back. We don't have much to do here anyway." said Raymond.

"Except maybe get some grub first." Alex noted as his stomach rumbled.

The other marines felt their own hunger too. They had forgotten that they hadn't had a bite to eat since their first meeting with the U.S.S.

With no one around this time, and with Jill safe until tomorrow night, they figured they might as well finish eating their MRE's in a safe, quiet spot before heading back.

They happened upon a small book store and settled there after scouting the place for monsters, enemy agents and security cameras in case the company was spying on them.

Each member took out their rations, which didn't get squashed from their battles lucky for them, prepared them again and ate in peace with no interruptions this time.

"Oh, fuck yes!" Alex thought as he stuffed his mouth with his ration, relishing in the taste of his meal. His teammates ignored him as they too consumed their MRE's. All of them were flameless ration heaters which was useful to them now since cooking tools were out of the question anyway.

Alex's ration contained meatloaf with barbecue sauce, mac and cheese, a carton of grape soda and a double fudge brownie.

Jamie's meal was completely vegetarian since she was one herself and had a small canteen filled with vegetable juice.

Kristine's ration consisted of beef teriyaki with teriyaki sauce, noodles and a canteen of diet soda and Raymond's ration was Mexican food such as a meat, bean and cheese burrito.

With no cameras and nobody else besides their UNSC teammates, Kh'rue and Ha'mak were finally able to remove their helmets so they can eat their own MRE's without scaring off anyone. Their rations differed from the food the marines were eating. It was inhuman which was the only way non-human food like theirs could be described.

Without their helmets, Kh'rue was red skinned and had a medium gash streak across his right temple and a small one underneath his left eye, both marks earned from an incident from his childhood days from a few conflicts with Brutes and Storm Sangheilis. It was something he did not like to speak about whenever someone asked how he got the scars.

Ha'mak's appearance was dark-blue skin and, like his comrade Kh'rue, he too carried a pained marking on a part of his face; a black right eye. But unlike Kh'rue's which formed a long time ago, Ha'mak's feature was fresh as it was from a result of being struck there by a few human marines who were engaged in the sport known as football, not the soccer type. It was unintentional.

This event took place seven hours before FOREVER was invaded by the Brutes and it happened in a recreational room. It sounded pretty embarrassing to some. Ha'mak was passing by that room to reach an intended destination of his because it was a shortcut there and as he was walking quietly, one of the marines threw a football at his direction by mistake, not knowing he was there at first. But it was too late as the ball in question slammed into his eye, causing him to bellow greatly in pain. The human who hurt him quickly and deeply apologized for the incident and Ha'mak, despite the pain he endured, dismissed it by stating it was his own fault for not watching where he was going more carefully, which was true. If Ha'mak were a Storm member, he would have most definitely disemboweled the human right there.

"Hey Alex." Kristine said. "What happened back there?"

"What to you mean?" he asked her.

"During our little fight with those Wolfpack guys, I noticed that you hesitated when you held one of them at gunpoint. Why'd that happen?" Kristine asked.

The other marines were itching to know that too and they all glued their eyes at Alex. The Elite duo didn't witness this during the fight and yet they wanted to know what the fuss was about.

Alex had a blank look on his face and figured he might as well spill the beans.

He swallowed whatever food was in his mouth and glared back at them.

"You mean when I went one on one with that Beltway guy? Well, after I reclaimed my gun and aimed it at him, he was goading me into shooting him, which I was about to do. But then, something occurred to me, something that I didn't realize and the thought made me stop myself from killing the guy."

"And that would be?" Jamie asked, drinking a canteen of water.

"How can I put this? We're in the past, right?"

They nodded.

"Well, since we're here, we now have to be extremely careful about how we handle things in this time period."

Everyone was silently puzzled by his statement, but he would let them know in a minute.

"Do you ever watch movies or read books based on time travel?" Alex asked the crew.

The marines nodded and so did Ha'mak. He viewed one film of that topic back on the ship, but he didn't quite understand what he saw. This happened before his "football incident".

"In time travel stories, there's a little theme that goes on in 'em. I can't quite remember what they call it. It's called . . . uh, crap, what's it called? It starts with a 'P', a . . . a paradox." He snapped his fingers after remembering. "Yeah, that's it. In time travel, there's the risk of creating a paradox which only happens if something in the past is changed and it does something different to the future."

"You mean that thing where if a time traveler goes back in time and alters even one, teeny tiny thing in the past, it could cause a big screw-up in the future and possibly destroy the universe in many ways?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah, that. I'm beginning to think that whatever we do here in this point in time could have a major effect on us and maybe anyone else who was supposed to survive this event. It's like that classic film from the 1980's decade. I forgot what it's called, but it's about this teenager dude who travels back to the 1950's by accident and nearly erases himself from existence by interfering with his younger parents' intended meeting. The character did this more than once during his adventures and his actions nearly screwed himself over many times."

"I think I'm starting to get you, but what does any of this have to do with that Beltway person?" Kristine asked.

"I'm getting to that. Even though he's with Umbrella and an enemy of Echo Six . . . and us now, I didn't kill him because I was thinking, and it will sound kinda stupid, what if those U.S.S. people are our ancestors? Hell, what if any of us are direct descendants of anybody else who's with or against Umbrella like Echo Six or Wolfpack? For all we know, Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveria, Elza Walker Tyrell Patrick could be related to us. Maybe even Albert Wesker, his son Jake, the Redfield siblings, William Birkin's daughter, that cop who will deal with the Las Plagas and C-virus problems or perhaps even those other U.S.S. soldiers we killed earlier. Oh, crap! I think we may have serious altered our existences in the fuckin' timeline by doing that last part!"

Alex was beginning to panic while the rest of the team silently considered their teammate's theory. Until now, none of them had ever thought this over. The odds of them being blood relatives of anybody living in the years before, during and after Umbrella's eventual demise were extremely high, but it was possible.

"Wow. I seriously didn't consider that." Jamie exclaimed and felt a little worried over the possibility of them shattering their existence or something important in the timeline.

"I highly doubt that we have any biological links with Umbrella's allies and enemies. Besides, if that were true, then we'd probably be fading away right now until we disappear completely or something." Raymond exclaimed.

Realizing he may be right, Alex tried to calm himself down. But the thought still lingered in his mind.

"Besides, there's worse places to be stuck in than a zombie-infested city." Jamie said.

"Yeah? Where?" Alex asked her with light sarcasm in his voice.

"Well, we could have ended up in the Dark Ages where the people there would try to have us burned at the stake as heretics, evil demons or something like that." she told him, both as a joke to lighten the mood a bit and quite possibly as the truth. The two Elites had no idea what she was talking about so far and dismissed it.

After finishing their meals and disposing of their used materials, the team got ready to move out again. Kh'rue and Ha'mak placed their helmets back on before stepping outside.

They walked around for a few minutes, looking out for monsters or people, excluding any U.S.S. soldiers who are now declared dangerous.

They found a large supermarket building and realized that although they had no reason to eat for another day, Jill, Carlos and Tyrell probably have had nothing to eat or drink since coming to town and were going to need food and water and Jill would definitely be hungry and thirsty when she wakes up and not for human flesh and brains.

As they approached the store, the aliens stared with puzzled looks at the building.

"What is this place?" Kh'rue questioned.

"It's a grocery store. It's where humans go to acquire food, water and other items needed to get by in life. We're going to get some things from here for the survivors to have the chapel." Alex answered as if he were talking to a stupid person even though that was not his intent.

They neared the glass doors of the giant shopping center and expected the doors to slide open, but that didn't happen because the power was unavailable in the building, or anywhere else at all. The whole store was pitch black inside. So it seemed the only option of getting inside was the old breaking and entering act. As bad as it sounded, it was a good thing there were nobody around to see this or they'd be in deep shit right now.

The marines tried prying the doors open at first, but they didn't budge.

"Guys, a little help please? But open it carefully." Jamie called to Ha'mak and Kh'rue who complied by stepping forward and slicing the doors open with their swords. If they had rammed themselves through instead, the sound of breaking glass would have surely attracted more B.O.W.s to their position. There may also be some monsters crawling around inside but that was yet to be seen.

The team entered the store and glanced around. The interior was so dark and ambitious-looking that the marines had to resort to using their weapons' flashlights while the Elites simply engaged their helmets' thermal vision modes.

"You two detect any monsters in this scary place?" Alex asked the aliens.

Ha'mak and Kh'rue scanned the store and found nothing.

"Negative." Kh'rue said.

"What about Umbrella agents?" Raymond asked.

They conducted another scan and the results were the same.

"Nothing."

"Everyone, try not to make any sudden noises or movements while we're here. If you see any creatures, dispose of them as quietly as possible to avoid alerting more to our presence. Only yell or shoot if absolutely necessary." Raymond ordered in a hushed tone.

"What if the monsters are something besides zombies like dogs or those skinless, tongue things?" Kristine asked. She shivered at the thought of the Lickers with their slimy tongues, skinless forms, bulging hearts and exposed brains.

"Like I said, shout or open fire if you have no choice. Now spread out and seek anything still edible." Raymond said and everyone began to walk in different directions.

The Elites were going to follow, but they were asked to remain on guard for enemies that may approach the store and they agreed. The marines were sometimes uncomfortable of having them perform bodyguard work all the time, but they were physically stronger and powerful than any human or B.O.W. in their group and with the horrors the marines have seen and fought, it was one of their best chances of survival. Plus, the Sangheilis didn't mind and understood their important roles on the team: keeping the marines and the other survivors safe from all threats in town.

Later, after taking whatever they could find to suit their needs, they regrouped at the main entrance and were ready to go. All they took were canned and bottled goods. It occurred to them that any other foods that were not packaged like that were wildly vulnerable to the T-virus and could have been tainted with the deadly substance and eating and drinking infected food and drinks would be very unpleasant in the sense of the word, so items that were sealed tightly inside metal or plastic were sure to avoid contamination. This is what Jamie did back at that liquor store

"Any monster encounters?" Raymond asked and everyone shook their heads. "Me either."

"Well," Alex began. "looks like we got everything to last the chapel people and ourselves until 'Judgement Day', so let's he-".

His speech was interrupted by something unexpected. It was the sound of a gunshot going off in the distance, causing the team to spin and stare around looking for whoever fired that shot. It sounded like a shotgun blast. It had to be somebody wielding a shotgun weapon.

"It wasn't me, I swear." Alex said and was hushed by Kristine.

Several more shots rang out, but they sounded like machine gun fire this time. Whoever was shooting sounded like they were coming closer to the store from another direction.

Could it be more survivors or more U.S.S. members? Spec Ops perhaps?

Ha'mak and Kh'rue turned their heads as they scanned the entire store's walls and closed off spaces with their Promethean vision to identify the shooters while the marines dropped their stuff and prepared for battle.

"You see anything, alien dudes?" Alex asked Ha'mak and Kh'rue.

Kh'rue and Ha'mak were both able to spot something moving with their helmet visions. What they were seeing was an unidentified human female being chased by five other humans the two aliens recognized were from that U.S.S. force. The woman was holding a shotgun weapon as guessed and she turned around to fire it at the pursuing soldiers while still moving. The soldiers returned fire with their own weapons, missing their target.

"Affirmative. It is a human female and more enemy humans are pursuing her in an attempt on her life." Kh'rue answered.

"More Umbrella guys, what a surprise." Kristine said, rolling her eyes.

"She is approaching this place through the back with the hostile humans following. Should we take them out?" Ha'mak asked.

"Just the Umbrella troops if you must, but do not harm the woman. If she tries to resist, just either restrain her or render her unconscious so we may safely take her back to the chapel for debriefing." Raymond said.

Alex, nervous due to his own paradox story, didn't know whether or not to engage the upcoming Umbrella people. He was at war with himself over what decision to confirm with.

Jamie noticed this and knew what he was thinking. "Quit worrying, Alex. You're not related to them and neither are we. Nothing bad's gonna happen to you or us." she assured him.

Alex looked at her and thought her words over quickly. When he read that document, he didn't remembering seeing any mentions of U.S.S. casualties from the missile strike. He had joined in killing some of them and realized that, hypothetically, if he or them were related to these doomed bastards or to the ones they already killed, he or his teammates would not even exist right now or in their own time period.

The group immediately thought up a way to stop the Umbrella agents and save the woman running from them.

The Elites led the group to a part of the store that was the main butcher's room where meat was once cut and prepared for selling and the aliens cloaked themselves and propped themselves high up above the doors like spiders, ready to pounce the moment the enemy soldiers were seen while the marines took cover behind some store objects and counters. Their little trap was now set.

It was at that moment that the room's doors burst open and out stepped the woman the Elites described. She didn't see them or the marines, but as she turned a corner, she slipped on something wet and fell down. The marines failed to notice any liquids on the floor before and felt her fall was their fault.

She cried out as she plunged onto the hard floor. Her shotgun weapon slipped away from her hands during the impact and slid across the floor out of her reach. She turned her head and faced her enemies who were following her inside.

Her pursuers, the U.S.S. troops, appeared and were about to execute the woman as she lay sprawled and defenseless on the floor when Kh'rue and Ha'mak suddenly took action and slew the Umbrella agents in a hurry with their energy weapons. The agents had very little time to realize they were being attacked until it was too little too late.

The woman gave off a high pitched shriek after seeing her attackers getting slaughtered by the two unseen beings and before she could say or do anything else, she was being engulfed in bright beams of light from all over.

"Don't shoot!" she yelled in a panic, shielding her face with her hands.

"We're not going to hurt you. You're safe now." Raymond said to her. They lowered their lights so she can see them better.

The woman looked at them and was starting to get up. She looked to be somewhere in her late teens or early 20's. She was wearing a red and white motorcycle uniform with "Raccoon University" written on the front, had blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail and had blue eyes.

This new survivor was not with any military unit, just a civilian who was in town at the wrong time and was most likely seeking a way out.

With just them in the whole store now, the group decided to have a little chat with this new survivor.

"Who are you people?" she asked them.

"We're a military unit trying to extract survivors from this city." Raymond answered.

"Is there anyone else you're with?" Kristine asked.

"No, just me." she answered.

"What is your name?"

"Elza Walker."

"What brought you into Raccoon City?"

"Well, I came looking to recruit other people to form a racing team. But now I see it was a huge mistake. I also attend the city's university, Raccoon University, or at least I used to until all this happened. I was being chased by those hellish creatures plaguing the whole city. I killed a few of them and sometime later when I thought I was in the clear from any more monsters, those soldiers in black saw me. I thought they were here to save people at first, but my mind was changed when they started shooting at me and chasing me, calling me a witness and giving orders to have me killed like they were mobsters or something. I ran endlessly until I saw this place and figured I could lose them here until they decided to give up looking for me. Well, they won't be chasing me anymore considering what just happened to them." she pointed to the dead soldiers.

"I know you have answered this already and all, but how exactly did you come here?" Elza asked.

"We came hours ago and our means of transportation . . . broke down on us during a slight mishap. It's not broken despite how I just said it, it's just disabled until three days from tonight. So until our ride is ready for extraction, we're pretty much stranded in town. We were gathering some supplies to last us during our unpleasant stay here and were about to leave when we heard all that gunfire from outside and took care of the problem as you've just seen." Jamie explained.

Elza glared at them. She wasn't sure if she can trust these people after being chased and shot at by ruthless, paramilitary troops just because she was a civilian. They were military too of course, but something told her that these new people were different in many ways.

"Are there any more monsters or those soldiers around?" Elza asked and they told her no.

"Do you have anywhere to go, Miss Walker?" Raymond asked the young teen.

"With the whole town now having gone absolutely bonkers, the only place I want to go is out of Raccoon City pronto. My motorcycle which I rode in on was trashed by the creature things and most of the vehicles I've seen are totaled and useless, so I can't use them to drive my way out." said Elza.

The crew decided to invite this person back to the chapel with them as per their mission.

"We have a hideout with three other survivors we were fortunate to find. Why don't you come with us for protection? Going out there solo will most likely decrease your chances of leaving town alive." Kristine said.

Elza gave it a quick thought and, despite just having met them, she knew they were right about her getting killed faster if she left on her own with the B.O.W.s and now the U.S.S. hunting living people. She accepted their offer of joining them.

"I might as well. Sure beats being by myself all night with monsters and killer agents hot on my trail." she replied.

With that said and done, Elza Walker was added to the group and they fetched for their things and left the super market.

"Wait, where's my gun at?" Elza asked after remembering she dropped it.

"I'll get it." Alex offered and went to retrieve the racer's weapon and gave it back to her.

"Thanks." she said.

"No problemo." said Alex.

As they walked, Elza wanted to know more about them and she was told that she'd have her questions answered when they returned to the chapel.

During this moment, Alex was gathering up some quick, mental research about the survivor they saved.

Elza Walker. I remember some things about her from that document, but nothing else beyond. It never said if she dies or escapes alive. With us by her side, she's bound to survive Raccoon regardless of her original, unknown fate. Plus, I also remember reading something about a werewolf-related incident that happened at that Raccoon University school of hers a few weeks before the ill-fated mansion disaster and S.T.A.R.S.' involvement with that case.

Kh'rue and Ha'mak decloaked while nobody was looking.

Elza heard their decloak sounds and turned her head and was about to scream in terror after seeing them until Raymond stopped her.

"Oh, no need to be scared of them, Miss Walker. Those two are with us."

"Who are they?" Elza asked. She was gripping her shotgun out of instinct.

"They're our teammates. Don't worry, they don't bite unlike the B.O.W.'s." Alex said to her.

Elza looked at the goofy marine with a puzzled look. "B.O. what?" She was unaware of the technical term for the monsters.

"Nevermind." he said, realizing she had no clue of the monsters' origins.

They reached their vehicles and marched toward their own. Their appearances baffled Elza. To her, they resembled sci-fi props.

"What are those?" she asked.

"Our means of transportation around town." Jamie answered.

"I thought you said they were disabled and couldn't be used." Elza said.

"We weren't talking about these. We were referring to another ride of ours that brought us and these into the city. Once it's fully functional again, we're heading to it and getting out of here. Think of it as a carrier ship." Jamie said. She just could not say it was a spaceship yet otherwise she believed describing the downed FOREVER ship may freak the survivor further than she already was after dealing with killer monsters and murderous black ops soldiers. She guessed Elza and the others were going to lack the ability to rest tonight after they hear their story.

Everyone climbed aboard their vehicles.

Elza didn't know whom to ride with until Alex offered and led her and himself to his Mongoose.

Alex hopped into the driver seat and turned to face Elza and patted his gloved hand on the vehicle's passenger seat.

"I won't bite either." he joked.

Elza glared at the Mongoose. It was just a modified ATV and she'd seen some of them. But this one was different.

She approached the Mongoose, slung her shotgun behind her back by the strap and slowly sat on the extra seat. She noticed that the vehicle lacked seatbelt fasteners of any sort on the seat and the only attachment that would hold her on was a single, black metal bar on the front of her seat and she gripped it as tight as she can, fearing the drive would be fast which was something she should be used to since she drove similarly like this before the outbreak.

Suddenly, she realized something and had a look of alarm on her face.

"Wait, I don't have my helmet!" she exclaimed. She did wear a motorcycle helmet when she rode into Raccoon, but she lost it sometime during her encounter with the city's creatures.

"Well, we won't be driving very fast like it's the freakin' Grand Prix if that's what you're worried about. There's too many totaled vehicles around anyway, so we'll probably be going real smooth-like." Alex said to calm her. Though in all seriousness, if he were to crash again like last time, that would be a big problem for both riders.

The group activated their vehicles and were off. Despite the drive being smooth as Alex stated, Elza held onto the Mongoose's handlebar for dear life as if she were riding at top speed in another one of her cycle races.

Great. I just had to participate in a street race around the same time zombies and freaky creatures pop up and lay waste to the city! Now I'm riding with a bunch of people with weird weapons and weird vehicles on my first night of hell on earth. Am I missing anything else? Elza thought to herself.

They finally made it back to the chapel gardens and moved their way back to the chapel building where Carlos, Tyrell, E'mal, and the still unconscious Jill remained.

"Hey, it's about time you guys got back." Carlos said. He then noticed Elza with them.

"Who's the chick in the sports uniform?" he asked.

Elza, though somewhat miffed at what the mercenary addressed her as, had to let it slide since he was right based on her clothing and style and felt she earned that remark.

"This is Elza Walker. We found her in an abandoned grocery store after some Umbrella soldiers tried to kill her and we had to bring her along with us." Jamie explained.

Elza glared all over the tiny chapel. She noticed E'mal and figured he was with the team. Like the other survivors, she was unaware that she was standing in a room with three aliens from another planet and time period.

"Who are you two?" Elza asked Carlos and Tyrell and they gave their names to her. She asked who the unmoving woman in the front was and they told her, much to her shock.

"Jill Valentine? As in the Jill Valentine from the S.T.A.R.S. group who was ridiculed for sharing that story about a haunted mansion filled with these same zombie monsters back in July?" Elza questioned.

"Yeah, that's her." Carlos stated.

Elza, like many others, had heard about the S.T.A.R.S. team's exploits during their mission in the Arklay Mountains two months before the Raccoon outbreak. She heard about how Jill and her teammates tried to tell their twisted tale of the Spencer mansion's horrors and Umbrella's involvement with what went on there, but the public didn't take them seriously and the surviving members faced immediate dismissal from the police force.

"I've heard about that. Many thought they were nuts. Even I thought so too. I mean, come on, a fancy-looking house in the middle of the woods being occupied by flesh-eating monsters doesn't exactly sound believable if you think about it, more like the ravings of a lunatic. But now, after all this, I really regret not believing them and I feel kinda stupid for it. I can't exactly say the same for everyone else who's either dead or undead as they're now bloodthirsty mutants that wanna eat us and spit out our bones." Elza said.

"Well, what's done is done unfortunately. But, rest assured, like the virus that ruined Raccoon City, word of Umbrella's wretched deeds will spread. No pun intended." said Kristine.

Elza sure hoped her statement was correct. Leaving Raccoon City in one piece was easier said than done. She wondered if the outbreak would affect her college grade point average in the future. Hell, she wasn't sure if she would return to schooling if she ever escaped the city. The horrors of the city would foil her focus ability and after the events of tonight, she was probably going to have a lot of nightmares and PTSD-like symptoms for who knows how long.

Elza was asked if she had any family or friends in town and she shook her head. Her family did not live in Raccoon City and whatever friends she had before were probably dead, out of town, or limping around looking for a late-night meal.

"What happened to her?" she asked after noticing Jill's arm wound.

"A giant freak did that to her after it tried to kill her and me." Carlos said.

This worried Elza. From what she learned from watching zombie-themed films, she guessed that Jill was infected and assumed she was going to become one of the undead at any, given moment.

"How long until she turns into a zombie?" Elza wanted to know.

"She won't. Jill received treatment for her infection a while ago. She's not turning anytime soon." Carlos told her.

Elza breathed a sigh of relief. She was surprised that there was a means of curing virus infectees.

"Wait, there's a cure for zombie infections?" she asked.

"Not anymore. What we gave to Jill was also the last antido-."

He suddenly stopped after instantly remembering something that would make him retract his own statement.

"Actually, I think there are other anti-virus serums out there." Alex said. He recalled hearing about other cures for the T-virus aside from what they injected Jill Valentine with.

There were three of these, in fact. One antidote was codenamed "Daylight", another was called "AT1521", both within Raccoon City territory, and the final one, simply codenamed "T-vaccine", wouldn't exist until sometime during the T-virus outbreaks in the Earth nation of India and in Harvardville in the United States, both set to occur in 2005. He also knew that the orchestrator of the aforementioned future outbreak attacks was a man named Frederic Downing, who, ironically, would also be responsible for the T-vaccine's creation and knew his reason for starting those disasters would be out of means of demonstrating the vaccine's power to potential buyers on the black market and rake in big bucks.

"Really? Where?" Elza asked and Alex mentioned only two of the first ones. He left out the T-vaccine as he didn't exactly know how to explain that one to her. He didn't wish to get her hopes up over a vaccine that wasn't around yet.

All these thoughts and talk about viruses and antidotes was starting to give him a headache and he just wanted to drop it until another time.

Once everyone was settled in, they all took a load off on the chapel's seats and scattered around their bags to inspect them.

"What did you bring with you?" Tyrell asked after noticing the bags of food.

"Snacks and drinks from a supermarket we broke into. We figured you guys had nothing to drink or eat for a while and could use something. We already ate out there as we had rations equipped on us, which were also our last, so we're good for tonight. Feel free to dig in if you want." Alex said.

Hearing that his Sangheili teammates have already eaten their rations, E'mal walked to the doors and stepped outside in the main lobby for a moment to consume his own ration alone. It was also to avoid taking his helmet off in front of them. He scanned around for security cameras to ensure total privacy and detected none.

"Where's he going?" Tyrell asked.

"Probably to eat his own ration since he didn't have his yet. He did eat while we were gone, right?" Jamie asked.

"No. He just stood watching in silence." Carlos answered.

The two U.B.C.S. men scavenged the food supplies to see what was there. Elza was feeling hungry too. She never ate anything since before she drove to Raccoon City and asked if she can have something too and was allowed.

After getting what items they desired, the mercenaries and the motorcycle racer gave in to their hunger while the marines grabbed perhaps a few drinks. They were mostly sodas and other beverages like juice and water bottles. No alcoholic drinks were brought. Intoxication was one of many hazards that these survivors couldn't afford at this time. A drunk person was a dead person out there.

After they had finished eating, Carlos and Tyrell took this time to introduce themselves to Elza Walker since they never did when they first met. She and they each explained their reasons for being here.

Elza was shocked when Tyrell and Carlos admitted to working for Umbrella after Elza learned why Raccoon City was the way it was and they solely swore that they were unaware that Umbrella did this to the city and that they not with the U.S.S., the same group who tried to kill Elza.

Soon, E'mal returned after he had finished with his ration meal and took a seat next to Kh'rue and Ha'mak.

For a while after swapping words with one another, everybody in the chapel decided to call it a night and prepared for rest. After all they've been through, sleep began to overpower them. Even the Elites were feeling drowsy.

The chapel's lights were switched off and everybody slept on either the floor or on the benches. Carlos remained by Jill's side, unafraid of being near her. He was certain the vaccine would work and would not mutate her while he slept.

Despite meeting these people mere minutes ago, Elza was starting to feel them to be trustworthy and remained in the building with them. There was no way in hell she was going back out there and she didn't want to, aside from doing so in order to escape Raccoon City when the opportunity presented itself.

Hours later, day had surfaced and everybody woke up feeling refreshed. Well, almost everyone. Jill Valentine was still the same: unmutated and unconscious.

Everyone stretched and stood up except for Alex who was still sleeping and mumbling something about having butter with an English muffin. He suddenly rolled himself off his bench and hit the floor with a thud and a high-pitched shriek.

Elza, Jamie and Carlos couldn't help but snicker.

"I'm ok!" Alex said after hurriedly standing up like some kind of superhero who had just embarrassed himself in public.

"Anybody know the time?" Tyrell asked while yawning.

Carlos checked his wristwatch. "It's 10:50 AM."

The group turned to the food bags for a bite to eat.

While everyone was eating their fill, the Sangheilis gathered whatever they could from the food cashe and stepped outside the room to eat out of the same reason E'mal did the previous night. While they only had human food to eat now after consuming their special rations, they didn't care. They had tried human food before, so they weren't strangers to it.

"Hey, how come those guys won't eat with us?" Elza asked. Tyrell and Carlos wondered the same thing she did.

"They're private and not very social. They take great care not to reveal their faces. Hope you don't mind." Kristine answered with a little deception in her words.

"Oh, I guess I can respect that." said Elza.

After having their fill, Carlos went to check on Jill. Her wound on her arm was beginning to heal and there was no doubt that a scar would eventually form there.

The serum must be working its magic. Carlos thought, but he still refused to let his guard down just because no mutation has happened yet.

"How is she?" Raymond asked.

"I think she's doing fine. She still looks human and that nasty slash on her arm appears to be healing. I hope that's a good thing" Carlos responded.

"Of course it's a good thing. She should be up and back to her old self in no time." Alex assured.

"You think so?" Carlos asked.

"Yep." the marine guaranteed. Jill would snap out of her little coma by the night of October 1st, maybe even early due to how fast she received treatment which would be a good thing because at the crack of dawn on said day, Raccoon City would be toast. Their time in town was like a fuse, short and burning fast and nuclear Armageddon was drawing near.

The marines began to brainstorm on what action to take today.

"So, what do we do today?" Elza wanted to know. Despite her question, she really didn't want to do anything outside the chapel's sanctuary except stay inside where it was safe.

"Perhaps we'll be heading out to explore more of the city for extra survivors. If we found you, then there's bound to be more out there. You, on the other hand, should stay here with Carlos, Tyrell and Jill while's we're gone. Keeping you guys safe is our main goal aside from escaping this zombified town." said Jamie.

Elza was glad to hear she was not needed for anything and was open to staying inside. It sounded lazy, but with zombies around, it was a must.

The Elites returned after having their meal and they were informed of today's activity and they agreed to take part.

Asking who's turn was it to guard the chapel from invaders, Kh'rue volunteered to take the job. With his killing skills, he was the perfect bodyguard.

"We'll be back, you guys. Help yourselves to some more food and drinks if you need to. If Jill wakes up early while we're gone, keep her in here until we return." Alex said.

The three humans agreed and the crew made for the exit and were gone, leaving the survivors in the building with yet another Elite protecting them.

Carlos went for three soda cans, all of them root beers.

"Want one?" he asked Elza and Tyrell.

They nodded and Carlos tossed them their drinks although he immediately regretted that since he just remembered what happens when a soda can was shaken before being served.

"How about you, big guy? Thirsty too?" Carlos asked Kh'rue and he silently declined by shaking his head.

Carlos opened his drink as did the other two with foamy results and drank their beverages.

Elza stared at Kh'rue while drinking her soda. Even though he was paired with them and the marines, his appearance gave her the creeps. She wondered why he, Ha'mak and E'mal wore heavy armor while the marines didn't.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

Kh'rue didn't answer her question.

"You don't talk much, do you?" she asked him.

Kh'rue glared at her, but said nothing back. Until the time came where they would confess who they really were came, the alien simply kept to himself in the humans' presence.

"His name's Kh'rue . . . something. His last name's tough to pronounce. I think he and his large buddies are from another country since they also have difficult-sounding surnames. But who the hell am I to complain?" Carlos explained to the racing woman.

Elza decided to let their otherworldly bodyguard be himself for the moment.

---

Outside, the ship crew decided to explore on foot rather than by vehicle to avoid any crashing into any piled cars. Now that the sun was out, Raccoon City was much easier to navigate through. But that didn't mean the B.O.W.'s would stay off the streets. They weren't like vampires.

A small tremor suddenly happened and ended a few seconds later and the team stopped for a brief moment to process what happened.

"Holy crap! Any of you guys feel that?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, an earthquake perhaps. It shouldn't worry us, though." Raymond said.

The other agreed and pressed on.

After a while of walking, they stumbled onto the grounds of the city's main zoo. It looked like a haunted park that an animal attraction.

"A zoo?" Kristine asked herself. She wondered what or who they could possibly find here aside from zombies.

"What is a zoo?" E'mal questioned.

"A zoo is a place where some Earth animal species reside and are shown to the public as tourist attractions. Some zoo animals are wild creatures captured from their natural habitats and brought in and some are born and raised in captivity when their biological parents are either dead, missing or reluctant to keep their young." Kristine explained.

"If that T-virus thing can infect dogs and crows, I can't imagine what other animals might look like mutated." Jamie said. The sheer thought gave her the creeps.

"Anyone thinking about checkin' this place out?" Alex asked.

The marines hesitated for a moment due to Jamie's comment about the zoo's population succumbing to the virus and being reborn as hungry, ugly creatures. But then again, they had to explore the zoo as part of their search for other people.

So they went in, but they had to be on special alert in case they ran into any zombified animals. Big cats and large primates were their biggest worries. They were seen by society as dangerous enough when normal and because of the virus, the animals might have gotten even more dangerous than ever.

"Funny. I haven't been to a zoo since I was a child." Kristine said.

"Great. Now we may die in one as adults." Alex said.

In the search, the entire zoo looked as if a fucking twister had hit just like the rest of Raccoon City. Animal and zombie corpses were seen sprawled all over. Some even looked as if someone or something else had come and killed them all in a frenzy.

They passed a snack bar, a giant water tank that may have contained a large animal like a whale, a shark or some other animal of gargantuan size. The tank had shattered glass from one end where the body of a dead alligator was present.

"Good god!" Alex yelped.

The dead alligator's appearance was . . . rather unsightly. Aside from its abnormal size, it looked as if it had been beaten to a complete pulp. Its head was smashed in and its brain and skull bits were showing all over its disfigured head.

"What could have done this?" Raymond questioned.

"Well, it could have been Wolfpack, Echo Six, another Tyrant, or perhaps that William Birkin guy with him being mutated into a big-ass G-virus beast and all. I believe the document said he roamed this place, killing and infecting the animals in this zoo during his search for his kid." Alex said, giving his list of possible killers.

They studied the gator's remains for a moment and walked away further into the zoo.

They discovered mutilated animals and zombies, all dead in a way similar to how the alligator was killed. Their teammate Kh'rue was the only one among them that usually performed kills like this, but he was with them all along last night. So who or what was responsible? As scary as the scene looked to them, they felt that whoever killed the B.O.W.s did them a favor and that it was great that there were no monsters to get in their way for once.

Then suddenly, as they turned another corner from a line of abandoned and torn out cages meant to store big cats, the crew stopped dead in their tracks after making a discovery which, to them, was utterly horrifying than B.O.W.s.

It was something they thought they would never see in Raccoon City.

"Dude! What . . . the . . . fucking fuck!?" Alex exclaimed.

"How did . . . how could . . . !?" Jamie uttered.

"Impossible!" said Ha'mak.

"It cannot be . . . it simply cannot be true!" E'mal said.

What they were all looking at were vehicles that were built and normally operated by the dreaded Jiralhanae. The sight of the machines had most definitely jolted the team with fright and surprise. The marines were the most frightened and surprised while the Elites were plain surprised, but not terrified. All six members, Kh'rue included who was not with them at this time, had believed to be away from the Brutes when they time traveled into the 20th century. But it may not be the case after all.

"What are those fucking kongs doing here!? I thought they died in the crash!" Jamie said explicitly. What she said was partly true about the invading Brutes dying during the slipspace jump and crash landing. What none of them knew the whole time was that not all of the Jiralhanae soldiers were dead which meant that the ones who survived are now roaming the dying city doing who knows what.

Ha'mak and E'mal immediately snapped out of their trance and quickly started scouting their surroundings to find their sworn enemies. No Brutes were around, but that was still a bad sign and Alex was about to explain why.

"We're in real deep shit, you guys!" Alex said. He felt his heart racing madly in his chest and wished he had a paper bag to breathe in right now.

"What do you mean?" Jamie asked him.

"Think about it. With those big-ass chimps running free in Raccoon City, they could run into and kill and maim whoever's supposed to escape alive and not give a crap about what their actions could do to the timeline! They could even find our hideout and slaughter Carlos, Jill, Tyrell and Elza! I don't know about Elza and Tyrell, but Carlos and Jill are meant to survive and shut Umbrella down and those people wouldn't stand a fuckin' chance against the Brutes! Fighting monsters is hard enough, but our enemies are totally different. You know what can possibly happen if they perish too early? You remember what I said about the troubles time travel can bring if used irresponsibly? If the Brutes accomplish changing anything important from this point in time, we and the entire human race,and possibly other worlds and beings, will be completely screwed for sure! Even worse, let's say the Brutes do make it out before 'nuke day' comes and Umbrella, the government, Tricell, or some other organization in the world captures them and perform freaky-deaky experiments on them and harness their technology. They could make themselves even more powerful and dangerous than they already are and could be unstoppable!"

Alex began to greatly panic after giving his hypothetical theory of future alterations. His words made the rest of the team ponder the possibilities of what life can be like if their and the Jiralhanae's tech and weapons were to be confiscated by any global organization. If the Brutes were in Raccoon City, then they had to be stopped at all costs before they got the chance to end the lives of those who were destined to combat Umbrella and their bio weapons.

"What are we gonna do!? What are we gonna do!? We're screwed, man! We're fucking screwed, I tell ya! That's it! Game over, game over, man!" Alex babbled hysterically while pacing back and forth. He was acting like a lunatic as he spoke and moved about.

Being in Raccoon City during its final days was one thing. But with the knowledge of the Brutes being in the same location and year as the FOREVER crew and the timestream being further at risk was starting to get to Alex's nerves really bad. So bad that as of current, he was no longer his goofy, slacker self. He was losing his grip on reality.

"Calm down, Alex!" Jamie said to him.

"Don't tell me to be calm, woman! I don't fuckin' kn-!" he began to say until Jamie cut him off with a quick, hard slap to his face. Not only did she do that to snap him out of his mental state, she also did it out of retaliation for his 'woman' remark which she and Kristine both found insulting.

Raymond and the Elites looked in awe.

Rather than complain about being slapped so suddenly, Alex said to Jamie "Do it again!" and she complied with a second slap. Where he was struck was a shade of red now.

"Thanks." he said and Jamie just rubbed the palm of her gloved hand to soothe it. He was back to normal.

"Can I try?" Kristine jokingly asked and Alex told her twice was enough, much to her playful disappointment.

"Lost my cool there." said Alex.

"Can't lose what you never had." Kristine whispered, earning her a glare of resent from her teammate.

"Ok. We just need to think this through without losing our heads. Perhaps the Brutes won't get out of the city in time for the destruction event because they don't know about it except us. Well, us and Echo Six since we already let them in on the missile strike. Despite their physical power and technology, there's a slight chance they'll probably wind up dead by the fallout or by the hands of the city's monster population. In a non-supportive manner of speaking, by bombing Raccoon City, Umbrella and the American government would kinda be doing us a huge favor, don't you think? The Brutes can't fracture the timeline if they're dead, right?" Jamie said. Her speech was meant to boost morale into the group and it worked to her liking.

After making her speech, the team saw where she was going with this.

"At least we know what killed off the zoo's inhabitants which was them." Raymond said.

"One thing I don't get. If the Brutes aren't in this zoo anymore, why'd they leave their vehicles behind?" Kristine asked.

"Perhaps they have forgotten all about their means of transportation when they made their first contact with the horrific creatures plaguing the city." E'mal said.

Before they can further investigate the Brute vehicles, a group of vicious, mutated zoo animals appeared from out of nowhere. They were two tigers and lions, two panda bears, one zebra and one very large elephant. All looked very horrible as if they've rotted for years even though the epidemic happened a few days ago.

"Guess our furry friends forgot to kill these furry fiends." Alex said.

The marines cocked their weapons and the Elites readied their energy swords and daggers.

The big cats were faster, even in their undead state, than the other animals and were the first to face automatic gunfire and plasma stabbings.

E'mal grabbed an approaching tiger by the throat with his left hand and activated the dagger in that same hand, embedding the tiger's neck and veins fatally.

The cat was tossed aside where it bled to death.

Ha'mak encountered one of the panda animals where he sliced the head off one panda with his sword, kicked the headless body away and slammed his elbow into the approaching second panda's snout to stun it long enough for him to plunge his plasma blade into the panda's chest and thrusted the weapon upwards, severing some bones and organs and killing it.

The lions and second tiger were gunned down by the marines' weapons. They weren't easy to take down as they resisted a little until they could take no more.

Soon, it was all down to the infected elephant which was roaring madly and getting ready to stampede toward the group.

"No peanuts for you, Dumbo!" Alex yelped and everyone opened fire on the heavy animal.

The zombie elephant charged at its attackers and missed and slammed headfirst into one of the big cat cages.

Rather than shoot at it, E'mal and Ha'mak challenged the elephant themselves in hopes of ending the fight faster.

The duo leaped onto the elephant's back and the animal tried to shake them off with its large trunk. But its facial appendage was simply sliced off in an instant, leaving behind a blood-soaked stump. The elephant began bellowing and thrashing around like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum and swayed itself in all directions.

The Elites raised their swords together and brought them down into the back of the elephant's neck in a sawing, circular motion.

The marines watched as the elephant's head plopped on the ground and Ha'mak and E'mal hovered above in time to watch the now-headless elephant plop over on its side. The ground quaked during the fall due to the animal's weight and body mass.

The aliens landed in front of the marines.

"Shall we continue?" Ha'mak said as he and E'mal put their swords hilts away after deactivating them.

The sun beat down on the crew as they infiltrated the zoo grounds, looking for hints as to where the Brutes may have gone, but found nothing but more corpses of zombies and animals and they felt they were wasting time here and decided to hightail it.

"Hey, Alex." Raymond said.

"Yeah?" Alex responded.

"Were there any other survivors in town?"

Well, as a matter of fact, there are. I believe they already passed this dead zoo a day or two ago, I'm not sure which day is was, but they did. I really hope they weren't here when the furry bastards were." he said.

"How many are there and what are their names?"

"Six, no eight. There's eight others out there fighting for their lives and, oh boy, their list of names is a long one." he said as he forced himself to remember who else survived the outbreak.

"Their names are . . . Kevin Ryman . . . Mark Wilkins . . . let's see, uhh . . . Jim Chapman . . . George Hamilton . . . David King . . . Alyssa Ashcroft who, by the way, has no relation to those other Ashcrofts from the island prison outbreak . . . Yoko Suzuki and Cindy . . . Larynx, whoop, I mean Lennox! Whew!" he finished. He felt like his brain was going to burst like a bomb from all that thinking.

"Did that document say where they were when the outbreak first began?" Kristine asked.

"Last I checked, they had their experience of the zombie apocalypse at a bar. I forgot what it was called, but they were all gathered at that bar when everything went nuts. They were unaware of the problem until one zombie literally crashed their party and since then, they've been working together to extend their stay in life. That's all I can remember about them." he said.

"Can you remember where these people will be heading to next if they're not here?" Jamie asked.

Alex rubbed his temples with both hands as he struggled with his memories.

"Well . . ."

He was suddenly cut off by the sound of the Elites' helmet radios and everyone stared at them. They pretty much knew who was calling.

Ha'mak spoke up.

"What news do you have, Kh'rue?" he asked.

"I am calling because two additional visitors have just arrived within the confines of the religious hideout." said Kh'rue.

"What? Who could have found their way there? Are They hostile like those other humans dressed in black?"

"No and not at the moment. But one of them is dressed similarly to our kind and the other has the appearance of a human Spartan."

Now Ha'mak grew confused from his comrade's statement.

"How can that be? There were none like that on board."

"Well, I am looking at one as I speak these words. Would you like to rendezvous back or carry on with your objective?"

"E'mal and I will leave the decision up to the human troops. Just try to stall whoever is with you until we get back." Ha'mak said and ended the radio chatter.

E'mal heard everything too as was just as stunned by Kh'rue's news as his Sangheili brothers.

"What was that about?" Raymond questioned.

"Kh'rue has informed me that there are two other beings with him and those other humans. He said one of them is a close resemblance of us," he gestured to E'mal and himself. "and the other is what you humans call a Spartan."

The marines gasped and were wide-eyed from hearing the startling news.

"What!?" said Jamie.

"Heh!?" said Alex.

"He can't be serious!" Kristine said.

"Are you sure you heard him correctly?" Raymond asked.

"Of course I have. He requests that we return and observe for ourselves this instant." said Ha'mak.

"Well, what are we standing around here roasting in the sun for? Let's get over there, PDQ, whatever that stands for!" Alex said and they started running back to where they came and were on their way. They wished they brought their vehicles with them as the trip back would take longer.

About some time later, the group returned to the chapel building and when they entered, low and behold, they discovered for themselves the two individuals who, according to Kh'rue and Ha'mak, really did look similar to the Sangheili trio and one of them was an actual Spartan super soldier from their era.

The latter really shocked the minds of the marine group.

---

JOHN AND THEL'S SIDE DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS AFTER HELPING CLAIRE, SHERRY AND LEON ESCAPE . . .

---

John-117 and his partner Thel 'Vadam had made it back into Raccoon City not too long ago after climbing and trekking the mountain cliffs. Their jet packs sped up the time it took for the duo to return.

With Claire Redfield, Sherry Birkin and Leon Kennedy safely out of the city, their new objective was to locate anyone that fit Wolfpack's description of additional Sangheilis being around in modern times and lead them away from the town before the missile strike's arrival.

Being in Raccoon City on their own felt kind of odd to them. Then again, that's how they came here before meeting Leon, Sherry and Claire. They had only themselves to look out for again until they found Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveria and those other Elites.

John and Cortana hoped that their predictions to the previous band of city survivors would keep them safe from the plague-like dangers they would face in the future and be of very much help in erasing Umbrella and their outbreak criminal acts from history, another thing in which they were thinking about doing themselves should this type of objective be too much for Claire and Leon to handle without their assistance.

Changing timeline events was the one thing nobody in the entire universe has ever accomplished before. This was the very, very first time the futuristic, otherworldly trio have traveled back or, hopefully forward, in time and there's a slight chance that they may never get the chance to again. All they can hope for was that their deeds and words back there would save as many lives as possible.

Raccoon City looked just as chaotic in daylight hours as it did at night as they walked about, keeping a sharp eye out for any monsters and U.S.S. soldiers that they may encounter again. Just as they exited the city, going back in looked as if they were inmates breaking into a prison after busting out.

Neither person had the slightest idea where to begin looking. The other band of Elites could be anywhere and Thel, Cortana and John figured that, like they were, the Sangheilis were probably lost and confused as them last night.

Thel mostly guessed that, like him, they too were unaware that the locals in town were mutated, hungry creatures out for blood and possible mistook them for Flood infectees instead of zombies.

As for Jill Valentine, her current whereabouts were not hard to figure out thanks to Cortana's knowledge. She told John that Jill was hidden away in a chapel located inside a clock tower after her scuffle with the Nemesis hunting her. Armed with this new info, the Elite and Spartan chose to head there first.

Cortana also informed them that Carlos should also be there guarding her while she lay unconscious after her being infected with the T-virus. The A.I. was certain Carlos had already gotten hold of the vaccination meant to prevent Jill from ever turning. If not, then he has yet to find it for her. Either way, Jill Valentine would live to see many more days after Raccoon's elimination from the world.

A group of wandering Crimson Head zombies showed themselves from a discount store. The creature spotted the two and made the mistake of attacking them. Each zombie was killed by their targets in under a minute.

The stranded soldiers found a sea of totaled cars and bikes up ahead when they made a right turn. Several of these wrecked and abandoned vehicles contained bloodied and disfigured corpses of drivers and passengers sticking out of the windows and doors.

Rather than walk across the cars, they decided to hover up to the building rooftops instead. It would save them the hassle of searching from the ground.

All was eerie and quiet with the exception of of their own movements and a light wind that whistled through the air. At least the light silence made hearing anything else like monsters easier.

Speaking of silence, it paid off when, while leaping from building to building, they heard something. It sounded like footsteps and they were coming from a smoke shop.

The two above hid themselves and observed as they saw not a zombie or other B.O.W., but a lone person was wearing clothing that greatly resembled the Wolfpack and U.S.S. soldiers from the lab's train station. This person was carrying nothing but a military-issue assault rifle in his left hand. There appeared to be blood stains on the weapon as well as on the uniform of its owner.

Not only was this new person alive, he or she(the mask and heavy vest made it difficult to identify the person as a man or a woman) was also another goon of Umbrella's, a U.S.S. agent. John and Thel didn't know if this lone soldier was still working for Umbrella or if he or she was another defect like the Wolfpack members. What they did know was that if they were to find Thel's brethren in town, then perhaps this newcomer may have seen them before and, as harsh as it sounded, an interrogation was in order.

The Umbrella soldier was rubbing the back of his/her head, indicating that the person had probably suffered a head injury and/or was knocked unconscious during whatever scuffle happened earlier.

Suddenly, the U.S.S. soldier turned around after sensing something. At first, John and Thel thought they had been seen, but it turned out the person saw three zombie dogs headed right for the lone trooper and they were all hungry as hell.

John and Thel opened fire on the dogs with their weapons and killed them all, giving their position away. They needed the person alive.

The Umbrella soldier looked up after becoming startled by the sudden gunfire that saved him or her and saw the two up on the roof. Not caring that they had just gotten rid of the canines, the soldier began to flee.

Thel and John acted quickly and and gave chase by running across, and hopping off of, the rooftops. The Spartan left his bag behind and made a self-reminder to fetch it later.

The U.S.S. soldier turned around and looked upward to open fire at them with his/her assault rifle. The bullets from the gun only bounced off their armor and shields and some hit the buildings rather than them.

The unnamed soldier was so busy shooting that he/she didn't see a dent on the street while running and suddenly tripped and fell after stepping over it, breaking one of his/her legs and allowing the two to capture the target.

The Umbrella agent screamed so much from the unbearable pain. From the way the screaming sounded, it was clear that this person was male.

If John and Thel had not needed the trooper alive, they would have snapped his neck to regain silence from that infernal screaming.

The agent was kept pinned down by John. He avoided pinning his injured leg to keep from inflicting further pain and producing from the agent louder screams than there already were while Thel removed the human gunman's rifle and various other weapons and equipment from his fallen form.

"Get off me!" the agent yelled.

"Have you seen anyone in this city that looks like him?" John questioned the soldier and pointed to Thel with one hand. Thel stood by silently observing the conversation.

"Fuck off, assholes!" The man groaned harshly, mostly because of his fracture.

"Answer me." John demanded.

"What's it to you? I haven't seen anybody like your douchebag friend or you for that matter, so you two can go fuck yourselves for all I care!" said the crippled agent.

It was very unwise to address a deadly Spartan or Elite in such a manner, especially when one such as the U.S.S. agent was pinned down and being interrogated after suffering a severe limb injury. But even in the face of danger, this guy still had the balls to provoke his captors.

Before the agent could be questioned further, he started acting very strange. He began to gargle and make convulsive movements uncontrollably as if he were experiencing a seizure.

John immediately dropped the agent and he and Thel stepped back with their weapons pointed at him, believing him to be a T-virus infectee and undergoing mutation.

After the agent finished flopping on the ground like a fish, he laid on his back and lifted his head to view his captors. With a weak, gurgled tone, he said to them something that sounded like, "Hail . . . Umbrella!" and then he dropped his head back on the street and was unmoving.

When all seemed clear, John approached the back ops agent first and gave him a light tap on his broken leg and nothing happened.

He was dead.

John tore the agent's mask off and made a startling discovery.

The unnamed Umbrella soldier had a mixture of white foam and blood coming from his mouth. John assumed the agent must have choked to death from this. He looked closer to find what caused the foam to form and realized that the foam was actually cyanide, a fast-acting poison, from a capsule which the agent had kept hidden inside his mouth and intentionally chewed to release the substance inside him.

Now the facts were perfectly apparent: the U.S.S. agent was never infected with the T-virus. He had recently committed suicide to escape his situation with the Master Chief and the Arbiter since he was metaphorically boxed in with nowhere to go. This kind of technique was very common for military people who were seriously-dedicated to their jobs and this guy was one of them. His final words seconds before expiring was an obvious clue.

Now John and Thel 'Vadam did not have any leads that would aid them in finding the Elites and all they could do now was leave and continue searching the town.

Thel looked back at the corpse after remembering something. Now aware of what can happen to a body, alive or dead, and after learning about the effects of the T-virus from the laboratory with Claire, he reached for his energy sword and cut the head clean off.

John turned around after hearing the commotion and saw what the alien just did.

Cortana got the hint and told John about it. It was in case any monsters come and feast on the corpse. At least it would not turn anymore.

Remembering his bag, John hovered back, scooped it up and met back with 'Vadam below.

Later, the team came across a STAGLA gas station. It was an absolute mess. The three guess some kind of brawl or other unpleasant gathering took place here.

Fires were everywhere. Charred remains of bodies, used bullets, building debris and rubble were everywhere. Almost all of the corpses were Umbrella Security Service members as well as bodies of people dressed in different uniforms, suggesting that they may have come from some other military unit.

The three did some thorough investigating to piece together what really went on here. The dead in white and green uniforms were discovered to be from a group opposite of the U.S.S.

Cortana identified that particular faction to be the Spec Ops Field Unit, a team sent into Raccoon City to counter Umbrella's reason for being in town.

"Any ideas on what happened here, Cortana?" John asked. The only thing he did know, which was not too hard to figure out, was that these two teams fought each other to the death here. Other than that, he wanted to know more.

"Well John, My information states that, aside what you see around you, there was a confrontation between not just the U.S.S. and the Spec Ops unit, but also the Nemesis and the Spec Ops-affiliated team Echo Six, Wolfpack's counterpart. I also know that this Echo Six squadron defeated the Nemesis and took off. But the Nemesis creature survived its first fight with them and kept up its hunt for Jill Valentine and probably them for injuring it. The Nemesis overpowered a few Spec Ops soldiers ad we can both see and-"

The A.I. was cut off suddenly by the roaring sound of a Hunter that emerged from out of a nearby alley. It was dark-skinned and glowing red streaks dashed along its body. None of them had seen this type of creature before and they figured it was some kind of new, upgraded version of the Hunter species, similar to how Crimson Heads were to regular zombies.

The red Hunter stumbled over something unseen on the side of a blue bug car and it tripped. Its giant claws scratched against the car's surface when it tried to regain balance and the vehicle's alarm started to blare loudly. Whoever owned the vehicle last seemed to have forgotten to set its alarm on.

"Uh-oh." Cortana said.

Soon, the new Hunter was accompanied by several of its kind from all around the gas station plaza. About ten Hunters, the new one included, surrounded the Elite and Spartan with looks of death and destruction written on their faces.

All ten Hunter creatures charged at their targets at the same time.

Rather than standing there, Thel and John both activated their jet packs and launched themselves into the night air and the charging Hunters failed to stop in time and collided with each other. Most of them groaned in pain from the collision.

The red Hunter looked up to eye the two floating above and gave a heavy, angry shriek at them.

John and Thel each took out their own grenades and let them fall into the Hunter crowd below. Thel's plasma grenade stole the creatures' interest more than John's grenade and then both grenades created a supercombined explosion, sending the Hunters flying in all directions.

Some died from the combined blast and those that survived with burns and injuries were quickly dealt with by the future militants. All were either stabbed, dismembered or decapitated.

The car alarm was still active and John tossed another grenade at the vehicle and the resulting explosion silenced it forever.

"That's . . . one way to silence an alarm." Cortana said humorously and resumed with the analysis she tried to give earlier.

"So this Echo Six team was partly responsible for the destruction around us?" John asked.

"Yep. One of the members used explosives as a means of weakening the Nemesis. The blast is what brought that gas station you see right on top of the B.O.W. Unfortunately, it was able to survive that due to its enhanced biology from the virus. It will get to Jill Valentine somewhere around tomorrow night, so it's important that we find Jill's current location and get her out of there before it reaches her."

"If the other Sangheilis are here, do you believe they could have stopped this Nemesis being early?" Thel asked.

"I'm not sure on that. It's possible I suppose. It depends on how well trained they are in combat though. They could be veterans of the Human-Covenant War and be ready for whatever happens or they could be recruits in your people's military and be unable to handle things like this. The way Sangheilis train their soldiers is very different from how human train theirs." Cortana said.

Thel didn't know how to properly respond to that comment although she was right about one thing. He recalled what the human called Vector said prior to their leaving the underground lab about how his encounter with one of them went and how that unnamed Elite sliced one of Vector's weapons in half like butter, meaning that Elite had to have used a plasma blade like a sword or dagger. That was yet to be seen when they find them.

When discussions were done, the group set out to continue their quest. John asked Cortana for directions to Jill Valentine's hideout and she gladly told him and led the way.

A bisected Crimson Head zombie was spotted crawling at them, desperate to have a bite at them and John killed it with one, swift stomp with his foot to its head, ending its savage hunger.

A store filled with televisions was seen with most of its merchandise in ruin. One body had a TV set smashed on top of its head. Human or zombie, Thel sliced the corpse(and television set) in two.

Except for Cortana giving directions, no further dialog was given between the three during the journey.

Half an hour and several dead monsters later, John, Cortana and Thel came across a small courtyard and a building that was once a clock tower. It looked like a pigsty and for obvious reasons.

"Is this the place?" John asked Cortana.

"Yes. Inside should be the chapel where Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveria are at. But when we find them, don't expect a warm greeting by them because they will probably be terrified of you and 'Vadam at first like Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield and Sherry Birkin were last night when they met us, so be patient with these people and they'll warm up to us eventually like the aforementioned people did." Cortana said.

Cortana was right and Thel and John remembered Claire, Leon and Sherry's reactions to them immediately after meeting them the previous night. They were going to have to earn Jill and Carlos' trust just like they did with the other survivors.

"Let's go." John said to Thel and they marched toward the tower building.

Inside was the same as outside: wreckage, dead zombies and a lot of bullet casings.

Their radars began picking up unidentified signals and they guessed they were closeby. But as they ventured further, a couple more signals appeared on their radars, signifying three more people, making it a total of five. Cortana was baffled by this as she was certain before that Carlos and Jill were the only two survivors in the entire complex.

"That's odd. Bot of your radars say there are more people hiding out in here. I thought Carlos and Jill were alone in this building aside from us right now. Who else could be with them?" Cortana said. Her data on Raccoon City's survivors said nothing about anybody helping Jill and Carlos. Then she remembered there was Mikhail Victor, a U.B.C.S. member who aided Jill and Carlos against the undead and there was Barry Burton, another former S.T.A.R.S. member who survived the horrors of the Spencer mansion alongside Jill. But, from what she knew about them, Mikhail was dead after he performed a heroic sacrifice to help stop the Nemesis from killing Jill and Barry would not show up until the day of the missile strike to evacuate the two from Raccoon City.

"Do you believe they could be the lost Sangheilis?" Thel questioned.

"Maybe, but we can't get our hopes up yet until we see for ourselves. We should approach the chapel carefully in case it turns out to be a trap or something like that." said Cortana.

When they walked up to the chapel entrance/exit, Thel and John got out their weapons just in case whoever was with Jill and Carlos were very hostile. Maybe the extras were Thel's kind or maybe they were more Umbrella soldiers possibly taking them hostage or perhaps Spec Ops guys.

There was only one way to find out and that was by going in.

When they opened that door, what the three discovered was as they predicted occupied the chapel: a man in a U.B.C.S. uniform and an unconscious woman wearing regular, civilian clothes. It was Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service member Carlos Oliveria and former S.T.A.R.S. member and Spencer mansion survivor Jill Valentine. While John and Cortana were sure that those two were whom they sought out after returning to the city, there were three additional people residing with them as their radars sensed.

In the chapel was another man wearing the same uniform as Carlos, a blonde woman wearing a rad and white racing uniform and, for some explainable reason and to the shock of the three, standing right in front of their eyes and in the eyes of the other survivors except Valentine, was a being donned in Sangheili battle armor.

They could not believe that the Wolfpack soldiers were right. There really was another of Thel 'Vadam's race in Raccoon City. How this one got here would be explained much later, but for now, the three stared at the unidentified Elite and the alien, along with the two men and woman stared right back. All of them were very much surprised to see each other despite not knowing who each person was.

"Whoa! There's more like you, big guy." Carlos said to the other Elite who was too stunned to speak. The Elite was completely unaware that the new Sangheili warrior was Thel 'Vadam, the co-founder of the Covenant Separatists and that the man in green armor was the one the humans called the Master Chief, the very two figures the crew of the FOREVER ship were sent to search for back in the 26th century and they were finally here.

That human was right. There is another like myself in this human-built civilization. Thel thought. He then noticed something amiss here. But wait. The human mercenary said there were more of me around. Why is there only one present?

"Who are they?" the woman asked the alien, assuming he had the answer to which he did not have himself and said nothing.

Cortana instantly recognized the injured woman and the Umbrella mercenary standing next to her, but she was unfamiliar with the other three with them.

"That's them, John. That injured woman and that man next to her are Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveria. However, I don't seem to recognize the other man, woman and . . . I wonder who that could be." Cortana said. She was careful not to allow herself to be heard by the other survivors to avoid frightening them further than she assumed they already were. From what she knew about the Sangheili race, the Elite aside Thel 'Vadam was supposed to be fearless.

Thel and the other Elite just kept staring at each other, not sure what to say or who was to speak first. Thel was unaware that the second Elite warrior was secretly activating his helmet radio to contact someone outside the chapel.

While under the belief that the unnamed Elite's communication signal was private, little did he know that the Master Chief and the Arbiter were able to hear whatever was said as their radio signals were linked due to their common technology.

"What news do you have, Kh'rue?" said a voice that sounded deep and masculine. Thel, John and Cortana guessed the other alien was speaking to another Sangheili, voiding Thel's thought about the Elite being the only one all throughout Raccoon City.

"I am calling because two additional visitors have just arrived within the confines of the religious construct."

"What? Who could have possibly found there way there? Are they hostile like those other humans dressed in black?" the voice asked.

"No and not at the moment, but one of them is dressed similarly to our kind and the other has the appearance of a human Spartan."

"How can that be? There were none like that on board."

"Well, I am looking at one as I speak these words. Would you like to rendezvous back or carry on with your objective?"

"E'mal and I will leave the decision up to the human troops. Just try to stall whoever is with you until we get back."

The line ended.

Now John, Thel and Cortana knew the new alien's name. They wondered who this fellow was with and who he spoke to just now.

This city just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Carlos thought.

"Who are you guys?" Carlos asked them.

John was about to answer him when he and Thel noticed Kh'rue approaching them.

Everyone watched, unsure of what he had in mind.

John, Thel and Kh'rue stood right in front of each other, staring at each other silently. It was like a western standoff from cowboy films.

Carlos, Elza and Tyrell assumed that some sort of physical confrontation was going to happen due to the way they stood there glaring at one another as if they were rivals. Thel felt he should handle this and approached Kh'rue, Elite to Elite.

John remained where he was to allow the two to deal with each other without interference.

To keep their conversation discreet until his crew returned, Kh'rue muted his helmet and informed Thel in Sangheili that they communicate in their native language and to mute their communications from all ears in the chapel to which Thel agreed.

Both switched their radios to mute and they began their private discussion.

"What is your business of being here?" Kh'rue asked in Sangheili.

"Are they gonna chat or just stand there having a staring contest?" Elza whispered to Tyrell and Carlos. They had no answer to give and looked on.

Because neither alien even made any body language movements to hint what they were telling each other in private, the humans were unaware that they were talking at all. Their muting functions prevented them from hearing a word they were saying, making the humans inside think they were just staring at each other.

"We are seeking out any living humans who need help in surviving this apocalyptic tragedy and it appears we have. How exactly did you come to be here?" Thel asked in the same way.

"I came by unintentional means. These humans here are under my protection until further notice."

"How did you and whomever you are with come here to this period of Earth's past?"

"We were brought here by means of slipspace jumping. I, and several humans and Sangheilis were sent to the depths of space together to locate three individuals who have been missing since the end of the Human-Covenant War. Unfortunately, during our intergalactic quest we were attacked by several members of the Jiralhanae race who were out to avenge their loss in the war and somewhere during the skirmish, someone on board had initiated the ship's slipspace jump capability and the jump sent us backwards to this moment in time and we crash landed somewhere outside of this human city. We have been here since the previous night combating the city's wicked monstrosities and keeping the humans you see here safe from not only the creatures, but also from corrupted humans who wish to bring harm to them and to whomever else still lives among the hungry creatures."

Thel knew Kh'rue was talking about the Umbrella Security Service agents in town when he said 'corrupted humans' as he and John met and dealt with a few of them hours ago.

"Aside from you, who else had survived this attack?" Thel asked.

"Only seven. No other soul on the ship, including the invading Jiralhanae, made it as they perished from either the fight aboard or from the impact. The ones who are still alive from our arrival are two of our kind and three human troops and they have sent themselves out to seek out more living humans mere minutes ago before you made yourself present."

"The people whom you say went missing after the war between humankind and the Covenant, what were their names?" Thel asked. He was getting suspicious as to who Kh'rue was referring to, but he needed to be sure his hunch was correct.

"You do not know who I am speaking of? Surely, this must be some kind of trick question you are asking." Kh'rue said. He said this because where he was from, all within the Covenant, both Separatist and Remnant, knew who Thel 'Vadam and John-117 were. The Separatists hailed them as legendary heroes and martyrs while those aligned with the Storm faction spited them with every fiber of their being and cringed whenever their names were mentioned.

"No, I am being serious. Who were you and your group sent to find back in whatever time you hail from?" Thel questioned.

His unhinging tone told Kh'rue he was being truthful.

"Their names were Thel 'Vadam, a human Spartan called John or 'Master Chief' as most humans address him as, and a human-built artificial female construct that usually spent most of its time with the Spartan during the war called 'Cortana'." said Kh'rue.

After hearing those names along with his own, Thel knew he had to identify himself in front of Kh'rue.

"Well, you may now declare your search to be officially over, for we are the ones you seek." he announced.

"Whatever do you mean?" Kh'rue questioned.

"I am Thel 'Vadam. The Spartan behind me is the Master Chief and the female construct Cortana is with him right now."

Kh'rue's eyes went wide behind his helmet. Thel didn't know what Kh'rue's reaction was going to be for another five seconds.

"What did you just say?" Kh'rue asked.

"I said the three of us standing before you are the ones you seek." Thel repeated.

Kh'rue was unsure if he should believe that and Thel was catching on to Kh'rue's disbelief so he tried another way to prove himself. Removing his helmet was out of the question because, like with Leon, Sherry and Claire, he did not wish to disturb the other humans in the chapel with his physical appearance, providing that Kh'rue did not already show his physical form to them first which the latter didn't yet.

He had an idea.

"To prove my honesty, you may switch your communications link to the Spartan. His technology can adapt to ours."

To put Thel's words to the test, Kh'rue did just that.

"Spartan, I am allowing this Sangheili to speak to you. Will you allow it?" Thel said to John.

"Yes, I'm fine with that. Put him on my radio link." John said.

Within two seconds, both John, Cortana and Kh'rue were now able to speak freely to each other. Thel kept his link with Kh'rue in case the latter had questions to ask that John cannot answer.

"Can you hear me whomever you are?" Kh'rue asked John in English.

"Yes. May I ask for your name?" said John. Both comms were still silent outside.

"I am Kh'rue."

"What did my partner tell you?" John asked.

"He claims that you and him are the long-lost Spartan and Arbiter from the Human-Covenant War. I told him that I embarked on a search mission with several others to locate and retrieve them. Is he telling the truth about you and him being those we sought after?" Kh'rue said.

"Yes he is. I am John-117, also known to my people as the Master Chief. I fought in the Human-Covenant War alongside him and your people in the late half of that conflict."

Kh'rue was stunned from hearing that.

"If you are who you say you are, what about the human creation called 'Cortana'?"

"I'm right here. Both John and Thel 'Vadam are really telling the truth." said Cortana through John's radio.

Kh'rue unconsciously took a step backwards. He was now all too shocked from the revelation.

Just as he was about to say something else to them, the doors swung open instantly and in stepped more people who suddenly had the same expressions as everybody else in that crowded chapel did.

John, Cortana and Thel were looking at two additional Elites dressed in different armor uniforms and with them were three humans, two men and two women, who were dressed as UNSC marines.

---

Together . . .

---

When the marines saw John and Thel standing there, they did the same thing the other survivors did: gawk at them with much anticipated awe.

Alex slapped himself hard in the face, opposite of where Jamie slapped him, to make sure that he was fully awake. The pain on his face told him he was.

None of them could believe that they were standing face to face with two others from their time period, and one of them was a Spartan which they didn't recall traveling with on FOREVER.

The Spartan appeared to be holding a bag of modern weapons and ammo in his hand.

"It's a. . . Spartan?" Raymond said, bewildered despite his mature-like view of the world.

John nodded.

"Not just any Spartan. It's the . . . the . . . the . . ." Alex stuttered, too shocked to finish his sentence. He knew exactly who the Spartan in green armor was, but just could not say his name or title clearly.

"I am John-117, Master Chief of the UNSC." John introduced, finishing for him.

"Wait. You're John-117? As in the same 117 who went missing right after the Covenant war?" Jamie questioned.

"Yes, that is me."

The what war? Carlos thought. after hearing Jamie's statement.

Alex fainted all of a sudden and he was tended to by Kristine. The reality of being in the same place as the legendary Master Chief was too much for him. He practically idolized the unbeatable Spartan like a big name entertainer ever since he first learned of his exploits as a child. The man was a legendary hero to all mankind. All of John's accomplishments he read about made him like a futuristic version of Alexander The Great.

"Whoa! Is he alright?" Elza asked them.

"Yeah, he'll be fine. He just fainted from too much excitement, that's all." Kristine answered.

"Okay, can anybody please for the love of life tell us what this whole thing's about? I know we agreed to wait until Jill woke up from her coma, but the wait and suspense is killing me." Carlos demanded. He didn't mean to sound pushy, but, as he just pointed out, he was desperate for information on the two strange groups.

"Yeah, me too. Like what war are you talking about?" Elza asked.

While the FOREVER team held onto their agreement to wait for Jill to come to, they wanted answers from the Master Chief and the Arbiter such as how they arrived in Raccoon City and the two wanted to know the same from them.

"So, you're the Master Chief guy from the war?" Jamie asked.

John nodded.

Everyone looked at Thel, confused as to who he was. If Alex were conscious, he'd probably guess his identify out for everyone to hear and make a verbal list of everything he knew about both warriors.

"And just who are you?" Jamie asked the new alien.

Thel deactivated his helmet's muting so he can speak freely.

"I am Thel 'Vadam, founder of the Swords of Sanghelios." he said. "Swords of Sanghelios" was another term for the Covenant Separatist faction.

The Elites stepped back. This additional Sangheili was the one of whom his followers admired for decades after the war.

"Wait. If you're the Arbiter from the war, then what's with the suit? I thought you wore different armor as depicted in old photographs and memorial holograms." Kristine asked after she laid Alex down on the floor rather than on the seats to keep him from falling over like before.

"I switched my armor to this uniform after finding it to better my chances of exploring this civilization and fighting the creatures with ease." Thel explained.

"He's right." John said, backing his claim.

"Hey, do you have that Cortana construct with you? It was said that you traveled everywhere with her during the war." Raymond asked John.

"He does." said Cortana from John's suit.

"Who said that?" Jamie asked.

"I did." Cortana said.

To show them, John removed Cortana's chip from his helmet and presented her to them in her holographic form.

"Hello everyone. I am Cortana." she said to the crew.

The marines were amazed at seeing her. Ha'mak, E'mal and Kh'rue simply stared and Carlos, Elza and Tyrell were utterly shocked at the sight of the A.I.'s appearance. Never had they seen anything like that before.

"What the heck is that!?" Elza questioned after seeing Cortana.

"You really have the Cortana A.I. It is you!" Jamie said happily. The marines and Covenant Separatists have finally found the Master Chief and the Arbiter. They were relieved at last to have accomplished their mission.

While basking in the glory of their success, their excitement was short lived upon remembering that they were still stranded five hundred years in the past and had to get back to the future and fast before the bomb arrived.

"Well, it's great that we found you guys at long last, but there's still the matter of getting out of this city before we all die here." Jamie exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" Tyrell asked.

The marines looked at Tyrell and remembered that they never told him, along with Elza and Carlos, of "Project XX".

"Oh, that's right. We didn't tell you guys yet." Jamie said.

"Tell us what?" Carlos asked.

"Even though Jill is still out, I think now's the time to tell you guys about ourselves and the reason for our need to leave." Jamie said.

Tyrell and Elza sat while Carlos was already sitting the whole time.

"Hey, does anyone here have a recording device on them? Since Jill isn't awake yet and you people said your story was a long one, I think we should record everything said in here so we can play it back for her later when she's up again and wants to know too." Carlos advised.

John, Thel and the other Elites carried recording capabilities in their helmets, but Cortana agreed to record every word spoken.

The marines felt a tad bit stupid. They could have recorded their tale for Jill to hear before the whole time, but they were too caught up in surviving the night to realize that.

"I will be the one to explain and record it all for Ms. Valentine to hear when she regains consciousness. But I must advise that nobody interrupt me while I speaking as I am going to tell our origins this one, final time. I have already explained it twice before and, sorry if I sound abrasive, but I do not wish to repeat myself later on as it is bothersome to explain something as long as my story repeatedly. If you have any questions at all about what you are going to hear, you must wait until I am finished. Do we have an agreement?" Cortana said, giving out her personal rules. She was not mad, she was just getting tired of having to explain who they were and what the future held for Earth and beyond from start to finish as she said she had done twice. It was a mouthful. The first time was with John back at the laboratory and the second time was with Claire, Leon and Sherry. She regretted not recording her story before when she told it.

She was given answers of "yeah, sure, whatever you say.", meaning everybody had agreed to keep shut until the very end.

With that quickly established, Cortana took a deep breath and everybody except Jill and Alex gathered around to hear the A.I.'s story.

Some of the survivors grabbed for more snacks and drinks as Cortana began. It was like a campfire meeting, minus the firepit, tents and sounds of wildlife in the woods like real camp events.

Thel and John helped themselves to some seats. John placed his bag of guns and ammo down next to him.

---

I finally did it. Another long awaited chapter is here at long last!

("Hallelujah" theme plays in background as bright light shines on my computer)

So, as I said at the beginning, sorry I took so frickin' long in sending this chapter out for the world to read. After I post this, I'm taking the next week or two off until I can think up more ideas for this story so . . . hope ya liked it.