"Husband." The word is a whisper on Annette's lips as the man concludes his descent into the lab.

His gait is far more controlled, more elegant than Jill has ever seen it. As a whole, he lacks his quintessential twitching features and even the tired hunch in his shoulders has gone from his bones. This man, this Dr. Birkin, is a stronghold of a human being, and this thought makes Jill think he has lost some part of his humanity.

His stature is so jarringly different from his typical appearance Jill nearly misses the finer details of his presence. Things such as the long curved surgical blade held delicately in one hand, and the small body of his daughter clinging to his other.

"And what have we here? Hm? An entourage who will bear witness to our marital quarrels, how dreadful. Don't you agree?" He swings the blade between his fingers as he speaks.

His eyes flick to Annette, whilst she sputters silently in shock he allows the faintest ghost of a smile to find a home on his features. It's truly a chilling sight that has Jill's mind staggering to a halt.

"I asked you a question, Annette." Dr. Birkin steps closer to his bride and slowly places the edge of his blade to her ear.

Mrs. Birkin's response is lilted and soft in a way Jill has never believed her to be capable of. "William, please don't-"

Before she can finish the sentiment, the doctor slices her skin open as if breaking the seal of a letter. Annette cries out, clutching her face to hold in the already gushing blood. She falters towards the nearby desk and grips the edge as soon as she's near enough, there's a truly primal fear in her eyes as she and Jill meet the other's gaze.

"Mother!" Sherrie gasps in horror at the sight, yet Dr. Birkin is quick in his response.

"Hush, little one. Your mother has been very bad as of late, she deserves to be punished. Afterall, look what she did to your friend." Dr. Birkin directs his daughter towards the remains of Zoe Birkin.

The little girl screams at the scene presented to her before turning towards her father. Sherrie cries furiously into his pant leg, for half a second Jill feels the pull of remembrance in her breast.

She sees her own father gently patting her curls as she cries into him, desperately hoping that he will make every last one of the world's ills fall into nothing. It's all too easy to forget that this man helped develop the disease that causes such destruction. Jill feels very much the bystander that he had proclaimed her to be as he continues to speak.

"Don't you see what you've done, Annette? You have hurt our daughter greatly." He taunts, gently albeit with a wicked bite.

"Sherrie, you need to run, now." Annette manages to speak despite the gaping wound crippling her words.

"And where to? The streets are overrun with the horde, the only safe place in the world is right here." He responds smoothly.

"No." Mia whispers devastation sweeping her features.

"Yes, Mrs. Winters, it seems you've run out of time playing this little game of yours." With his daughter lifted into his arms, he somehow looks even more intimidating. As if he truly believes he's the one protecting the little girl from such evils as the undead and her own mother.

"But-" Jill swallows harshly before she can allow her thoughts to be vocalized.

"What was that Miss Valentine? I seem to have missed your statement, please speak up."

"You said Annette did too well a job. Presumably you meant the vaccine." Jill speaks but only focuses her attention on Sherrie Birkin.

The pit in her stomach attempts to reason scenarios on how exactly to get the little one away from the impending chaos. Dr. Birkin once again distracts Jill from her pressing thoughts.

"And indeed, she has." He states, "His Righteousness is truly displeased at such a turn of events. Because of you three, he has ushered in the end of days."

"You expect me to believe he would not have done so otherwise?" Jill asks, her arms crossing defensively over her chest. One hand creeping up her arm and towards the knife concealed at her shoulder.

"Not so soon perhaps, he wanted everything to be perfect before he was to usher in a new era." Dr. Birkin inches yet closer to the young miss. "Instead, you women rushed Him, and now it is as the holy text predicted."

In an instant he's hardly an inch from her face, hand firmly grasping the dagger she'd yet to unsheathe.

He removes the blade slowly, as he speaks a soft recitation. "People will seek death but will not find it; They will long to die, but death will elude them. Revelations 9:6, you shall become quite familiar with this particular fate, Miss Valentine."

He turns then and throws the dagger with incredible accuracy, pinning Mia's shoulder to the nearby wall.

"Stop it!" Annette stumbles towards her husband hand still firmly clasped over her cheek. "Your quarrel is with me!"

"And what do you know about my quarrel? You seem to have turned a blind eye to your family as of late."

"I have been trying to save us, Will! I've been trying to fix this mess."

"And yet, look at us now." Dr. Birkin adjusts his hold on his daughter as he speaks. "His Righteousness demands penance for what you have done here. I have already given such atonement."

Annette looks as though she would scream if she were capable, instead she allows tears to slip down her cheeks. "No, please, no."

Jill watches is petrified horror as Dr. Birkin brushes his daughter's hair back, exposing the fair skin on her shoulder. As realization hits Jill like a storm touches land, he bites his daughter in an almost loving fashion.

Mia screams while Jill can only manage to continuing gawking at the man.

"Let us see how much faith you ladies have in your own creations. Lord knows I do." Dr. Birkin sits his daughter on the nearest bench.

The little girl looks baffled as her father pulls away, she seems to be stuck in herself much as Jill feels in that same moment.

"You monster!" Annette lashes out, managing to claw her husbands face and splattering him with her very own blood before he catches her.

One hand grips her neck and the other poises his weapon towards her middle. As cool and calculated as before her plunges the weapon into her abdomen, eliciting a gurgling cry from the woman he calls wife.

Jill's begins to fumble with her gun, the first weapon she thought to pull out after coming to, and as she does Dr. Birkin thrusts his wife off of his blade. With an unceremonious thud, Annette sinks into the floor a groan of pain falling out of her body in the process.

"We could have had a place in our new world, but you have doomed us to be separate. Either Sherrie and I will live on without you, or I alone will endure."

Before he can speak further on the subject, Mia sets an assault upon him. Jumping onto his back she buries the knife previously in her own shoulder into his, then she attempts to snap his neck with only her hands.

Jill too is caught off guard by the action and all but drops her pistol as she views the brawl before her. Frankly, she hadn't given much thought to Mia as a warrior and now she sees the woman's skill is closer to that of a wild beast. Mia manages to stab the Doctor once more before she is thrown from his figure. The knife sticks out of his chest awkwardly but he pays it no mind as he approaches Mia's scrambling figure.

Wordlessly he pulls her to her feet before he stabs Mia's leg. The woman emits a trembling scream in the first few moments of contact; which only grows louder as Dr. Birkin drags the blade to hook through her leg. He releases his hold on the blade and grips at her waist before tossing her into a nearby cabinet.

When Mia's body collides with the glass and wood, the eruption of sound breaks something within Jill. Whatever strange possession held her back dissipates as Mia falls to the ground. Sputtering breaths from Mia and Annette on opposite ends of the room, combined with Sherrie's crying fill the young women with an unparalleled rage.

She is finally more furious than she is shocked and manages to fire two bullets in the man's back before her can face her.

"Oh no, don't do that, you know as well as I that guns are a coward's weapon." He laughs then, a cruel inhuman laugh that Jill nearly cannot respond to.

But she is not the one responding, a ferociously determined Annette makes one last attempt to reason with the monster before them.

"Please, Will! Please don't do this. You know… You know what we are doing here is right, this is what we have been working for!"

"You fought for the wrong side. Those who choose poorly, die."

"I chose this side because I love you." Annette's broken voice wavers with the confession, "I know that I married the man who could save the world."

Dr. Birkin approaches his wife, lifts her just the slightest bit from the ground and caresses her face.

"My darling, loyal wife. I am saving the world, by riding it of you." With those final words he takes one hand and rips the wound in her gut yet more.

To add to his cruelty, he pulls out her insides until the light leaves her eyes and her blood soaks the floor through.

Jill seizes the opportunity to attack, while his back is turned she unsheathes her sword and lunges at him.

He whips around, dropping the corpse of his wife to catch the blade, although it merely slices through his palm and leaves him with three less fingers.

"Oh Miss Valentine, so brazen in your assault, don't you wish to know more about your role to play in His future?"

"I care not for any plans other than my own!" She proclaims thrusting her sword forward.

The Doctor manages to avoid such an attack. "Pity that, it is such a high honor he has bestowed upon you, I thought you might wish to be prepared before he calls you to the palace."

Jill once again thrusts her sword forward, "Stop. Talking."

She grits her teeth and makes a bold step forward, slashing as she goes. She watches in horror and in sick satisfaction as her blade cuts through his skull in a diagonal line down to his jaw. His body falls limp before her, blood gushing like a river soaking her dress and sticking to her shoes.

Slowly after her pounding heartbeat and stuttering breath calms, Jill tunes back into the world. Sherrie still sits by sobbing, while Mia finally manages to sit up.

Jill rushes to her friend's side, speaking to fill the otherwise harrowing silence. "The blade is still stuck, but for now I believe it's helping the bleed."

Truly, her skills as a nurse are rudimentary at best, but she works diligently to avoid whatever must come next. Grabbing bandages and alcohol to cleanse the wound, Jill attempts to work on the worst of Mia's injuries.

However, the older woman grips Jill's wrists. "You must go, now."

"Sit back and let me-"

"Jillian Valentine listen to me!" Mia scolds firmly before taking Jill's face in her hands. "The apocalypse is here, you heard the Doctor. You are our only hope of keeping whatever madness lies outside this room as a mere battle instead of the true end of time."

"You're hurt."

"And you cannot help that!" Mia snaps, "You are a warrior, your skills are needed elsewhere."

"I cannot leave you."

"You must."

"Mia-"

"This is not a request, you have an obligation to fulfill."

Jill is startled by what Mia is implying but can only shake her head. "You don't mean that, are you even hearing yourself? You sound delusional."

"And perhaps I am, but times such as these require a bit of madness if we've any hope of survival. His Righteousness may have chosen you for some strange purpose, but he unknowingly chose the woman to end him." Mia's gaze is dark despite the pain hanging blatantly within

"You think I can?"

"I think you have no choice."

Jill and Mia sit in relative silence, the only sounds truly come from poor Sherrie weeping, before either can gather the courage to speak. The young woman looks towards the little girl in question only to see her wailing over the corpses of her mother and father.

Jill hurries to her side attempting to coax her away from such an awful site. Something warm and mournful blooms in Jill's breast as she holds onto Sherrie. The wetness of tears against Jill's hip makes her all the more protective.

"I will go only if I can be reassured of your safety." Jill says, her voice shaking profoundly in her chest.

"And how will you do that?" Mia asks.

Jill ponders the question as she begins leading Sherrie to Mia. Wherein, the little girl collapses to the floor and into the breast of Mia. Mrs. Winters takes up the task of comforting the young one, soft hushing and lilted voice murmuring encouragement.

"Rebecca." Jill says suddenly. "She worked closely with Annette, perhaps she knows more than she let on about the vaccine. And she's quite skilled in medicinal arts… I'll find her and bring her here."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Mia asks.

"Be honest with me, Mia. Do you believe this task is feasible? Do you really think I can stop the end of time?" Jill feels positively barren before her friend, and it leaves her feeling nervous.

"I do, absolutely." Mia sighs, "I would be remiss to doubt your abilities… and Annette's. God rest her soul."

Jill looks back towards the mangled corpse of Annette. The smallest part of Jill wishes for the same fate, for all of this to end swiftly, even at the hands of a mad man.

"God rest her soul indeed." Jill says with a sigh and then, before she can stop herself, she adds. "I'm afraid."

Mia takes a moment to look at Jill kindly, such tender gentility passes between them in that time. They allow vulnerability, fear, anguish, grief, and anger to be shared between them. Never before has Jill felt so understood as she does in this moment.

"You have more courage than any single person should possibly be allowed. It is healthy to have fear, my friend." Mia assures her, placing one hand on Jill's cheek. "You're in London for one reason and one reason alone. To save the world."

Jill hesitates, shaking her head at such a notion.

"You will deliver us, because God put you here to do so. Perhaps the Anti-Christ has singled you out because he knows the truth of your power. Perhaps we have our savior before us now."

"He chose his killer." Jill reiterates.

"Whether he knew so or not." Mia affirms. "I believe in you."

Jill nods, "Find Rebecca, send her here."

"Yes. Then kill His Righteous ass." Mia pats Jill's arm to spur her movements.

Jill rises to her feet, "Take care Mia."

"You too, Jill. You're a victor, not a martyr. Remember that."

"Yes, ma'am." Jill manages a laugh before racing up the stairs. Uncertain what exactly awaits her but knowing well enough that this is a final confrontation. One way or another.