Akira-Hayama: I definitely like delving into the POV's head, expanding on them, their knowledge and personality, and will do more so now that I narrow down to one POV at a time. Carlos's perspective on what is happening and the others is quite important, even if he is sort of the third wheel lol.

Thank you kindly, I try to implement the puzzles where I can, them being canon, or bypass them if possible for story reasons. I like to play with them a bit, at least acknowledge them and do story and character things with them. Part of what I enjoy doing, playing with canon and interpreting it another way, I love working within lore and toying with it. That said I couldn't come up with an original puzzle in writing if my life depended on it xD so kudos to the creativity of the original RE game writers for doing so. Though they never quite explained why the hell the citizens of Raccoon City love their damn puzzles do much lol.

Carlos is the most level headed and realistic about the situation, as the outsider watching them. He's a good guy, but he knows trouble in the making when he sees it. No fool. HUNK and Jill know it too, deep down, but are trying to ignore it.

Leon and company already took out the Giant Alligator, so as much as I love it I couldn't disrupt canon by bringing it into play lol. Doesn't mean there won't be a giant monster at some point, of course ;).

I definitely try to keep it as grounded and realistic as possible, maintain atmosphere and realism, even in a situation like this one. HUNK is definitely the best trained of them, experienced, but even he has his limits and wear and tear, he isn't an actual super powered super soldier, as difficult as it is to believe watching the 4th Survivor lol. It's still a struggle to him, as it is to all of them, didn't want anyone breezing through it... they won't develop or grow without challenges to surmount. And of course they have the plot armor of survival, not writing this story to make shocking twists, it's about the journey and effect on the characters. The point is they don't know they are going to survive, in the situation they are in, even if we the audience do. Understandable plot armor, since "The Death cannot die..." lol.

I wanted to show off that HUNK isn't all brawn, he's got brains and cunning when need be. You don't live in a corporation like Umbrella as long as he has in his various positions and not learn from it. He has been taught a great many lessons by many different teachers, most of all War. And of course there will always be some Dredd to HUNK lol a favorite character of mine, and it works well for HUNK's character, their similarities and uptightness.

nliochristou: The only known bit of post Umbrella collapse HUNK is that he survived the collapse of Umbrella and at some point ended up a mercenary, who developed fighting styles against the infected and B.O.W.'s. Other than that Capcom hasn't touched the poor man outside of retellings of Resident Evil 2 and Mercenaries Mode in the different games. His potential is being wasted, like most of the Resident Evil universe at this point, really.

evolution-500: I can understand the Chris/Jill ship, it is the classic one, the two original protagonists. Personally I think they work better and make more sense as partners and friends, not every pair of partners have to be romantically involved, though they would make a stable, safe relationship. Nothing wrong with a simple, good relationship, straight forward without drama, but the Jill and HUNK dynamic leaves much more creativity and ideas to explore, their characters and psyches. It challenges both of them to their cores and leads to character development, the old star crossed lovers thing. HUNK and Jill both have past baggage Chris doesn't seem to, and Jill canonically wasn't able to admit to her past even to him, despite her trust for him, likely because they can't relate on that level. As HUNK opens up and she opens up, they will finally be able to talk about themselves, where they came from, for the first time in their lives. They're both learning and growing from their time together, coming to terms with themselves and their struggles. So to me the Chris/Jill ship or Jill/Carlos would be much healthier, the sane options, as HUNK pointed out, while the Jill/HUNK ship is much more interesting lol. I appreciate that on the cemetery zombies, it seemed like the most sane explanation for that bit in the games, so I went with it. I'm all about depth, universe expanding and their banter as well, vital components to this story. I wanted to tell the definitive HUNK story, time will tell if I succeed.

Rock992: There is definitely an Order vs Chaos dynamic I wanted between HUNK and Carlos and will continue to explore, but despite his stealthiness I'd say HUNK is much more Judge Dredd than Batman lol though the Joker comparison to Nikolai is a bit closer to the mark. But a more focused Joker, who can be more cold and calculating, purposeful, rather than randomly killing everyone. He's the wildcard of the situation for sure. Oh... and, this isn't yet the final encounter for them ;) don't count your chickens before they're hatched. Stay tuned.

Guest: Much appreciated my Spanish friend, I hope you continue to enjoy the story :).

Guest: Carlos is definitely intended to be the most relatable and 'normal' character, with the best head on his shoulders so to speak, despite or because of his youth. He isn't troubled like Jill or especially HUNK... he certainly has his past and troubles but has coped with them much better. He doesn't have their experience, but he is solid and reliable and has his own skills. The sane man of the story, so to speak, surrounded by insanity, learning to cope. I added him having faith in part because of this, a belief in something more, something of substance, where Jill is mostly focused on her anger towards Umbrella and weariness, pursuit of truth and justice and inner conflict over HUNK, while HUNK is focused on his missions for Umbrella and the cold orderly distance his experiences taught him clashing with his developing feelings, regret and humanity. Jill and HUNK are tormented by their pasts, Carlos is not. He lives in the present, which is something the other two need to learn. He is the most stable and healthiest. All three come from much different worlds and personalities, and I try to present such accordingly. Glad to hear you're enjoying this story.

Nightroad816: All your hopes will be answered in due time ;) never fear. Not exactly how you describe, but you'll see.

Arkham Knight: This is the first time in HUNK's life that he is speaking of his secrets openly, telling the truth about what he knows. Previously he could only ever talk with Bella about such things, privately, but she's been gone for years leaving him alone and unable to communicate really on a deep emotional level with others. It ties into his character development since arriving in Raccoon City, as he figures out who he is, his life altering experiences. He has the freedom in Raccoon City with Jill and Carlos to spill Umbrella's secrets unbeknownst to the company, as he doesn't anywhere else at any other time. Part of the identity crisis and inner conflict I have him going through. Even in the middle of that hell, it gives him freedom to be himself, the man he buried away from his traumas, the man Jill is helping let out, coaxing back to life. I think he wants someone to know his story, and Jill is that person he is realizing, coming to trust. Who better for that person to be than the enemy and victim of Umbrella, their antithesis? He is tiring of Umbrella, hates it deep down, his loyalty is waning and he is questioning it, even while he has an image at the company as the ultimate loyal poster boy. He too is a victim of Umbrella, even if he is also a perpetrator on their behalf. They indoctrinated him young, and now the illusions are really coming apart. More info reveals to come ;) especially on HUNK personally and his origin story. Thank you kindly, stay tuned.

117: No idea how Jake would feel about it. I don't know or care for his character lol I'm sure you could figure that out better than me.

Jinero: Good theory, you'll find out in due time if that is the case or not. All depends on the kind of person HUNK is by the end, and what decision he makes.

bakaultima: I suppose you'll just have to stay tuned and find out ;).

Echo Five: I don't think Jill is that petty, even towards Wesker. She just hates him and wants him dead for his betrayal, thinks he is dead though when this story is set. I doubt anyone having been an experiment and being raised to be a weapon like a slave by Umbrella would amuse Jill. Wouldn't be enough for her to think Wesker is just a victim and write off his villainous actions, but she'd take no satisfaction from hearing it, would feel a pang of sympathy. She hates Spencer as much or more than Wesker anyways, Spencer is the bigger overarching villain, set everything into motion. Especially given what she is learning about HUNK's backstory, how she's growing and developing. Part of the ethical challenge HUNK brings to her is someone deep within Umbrella, this global organization she rightly despises employing someone who is as much a victim as a perpetrator of their will. This faceless tool of their agenda, their most useful asset, and the humanity she realizes he still has buried away, and her attempts to bring it forth. Gaining feelings for a man like this who she should, under sane circumstances, hate as much as Wesker. It throws a wrench into things for her, makes her life and beliefs more challenging and complicated, as it does for HUNK. Both are receiving the consequences of it, going through character development they would not have otherwise. It comes down to a person's choices and actions she will judge, not just their past, though she understands what it is to have a troubled past and secrets. HUNK is proving there's something more to him, that he isn't a supervillain like Wesker, but a complicated, troubled Anti Villain going through an identity crisis. Wesker by contrast has always been a more straight forward supervillain, even if he has some shades of sympathy with the Wesker Project revelations, it isn't enough to turn him down a good path or make good choices, he is quite simply an evil man, out for himself in the end, despite all the layers of character. Just like most of the other Umbrella villains and villains of the series. HUNK as I see him, depict him, has not reached that point... was getting close and might still become that, but Jill's intervention in his life will be an important factor for him, deciding and figuring out who he is. I have a sort of timeline in my head for what HUNK was like over his life up to Raccoon City, will share it eventually, probably in the notes after this story is over, but you'll probably get the idea before then. Basically though, Jill crossed his path at just the right time. It's all part of the contrasting character dynamics I'm trying to establish between HUNK and the other Umbrella Villains of the story. Similarities and differences. HUNK has not yet fallen into the abyss of irredeemable villain like the others. Has come damn close though. Right now though his dark mirrors in the story are Nikolai and the Nemesis, instead of Wesker.

Thank you all for the reviews, I appreciate them as ever. When we last left off our heroes, the conflict had begun to escalate:


October 1st, 1998, 2:12AM

Cemetery Cabin, Raccoon Park, Northern Raccoon City

"Remain where you are, Officer Valentine. Put the pistols on the floor, and slide them out of your reach. Do it now."

Jill glared silently ahead for a long moment, feeling the silencer press harder against her temple... and at last obeyed his command reluctantly, pressing the Beretta and Stechkin to the floor, and with a push she slid them away. She remained where she was, perfectly still. She knew the drill. The sooner he got it over with, the better. She was tired of it all already... and she knew he was just getting started here. He wanted to humiliate her in the process. Shame her. Her jaw tightened. She would not allow him that satisfaction.

"Good. At my instruction you will climb out of the fireplace and step over closer to me.", The deep Russian accented voice ordered her firmly, with just a hint of amused malice at the situation. Drawn no doubt from her compliance and his leverage over her. His voice moved away from her, and addressed Carlos and HUNK, still out of sight inside the Monitor outpost, speaking up a bit to them. "And to the gentlemen with you... they are to climb through as well, once you are beside me. I will even be so generous as to allow them to keep their weapons. They will make no difference. One wrong move on anyone's part, however, and her brains will provide a portrait upon the wall, ceiling and floor. If there remains a wall, ceiling or floor after, of course. Now, Officer, will you be so kind as to look at me and then assure your companions that I am serious?"

The silencer of the SIG Pro pressed into her temple again... and she already did not doubt the voice meant the words it said. Nevertheless, she looked up, and at once her insides froze within her. She studied the tall figure's armored vest and backpack, to find each strapped with a number of explosive devices. Live, primed, glowing C4 charges. In the hand not pressing a gun into her head, he held a dark detonator, his thumb hovering over the red activation button. The Monitor's rugged, clean shaven, rain soaked features calmly looked back down at her, his expression possessing an expectant, knowing smile. Almost as if the silver haired Russian Sergeant stood in a doorway, opening it in welcome to a neighbor. The water still dripping from his hair and off his face, boots and green and black U.B.C.S. uniform and well built form, his rifle slung securely. His icy blue eyes glinting victoriously in the cabin light. He looked as though he were having the time of his life, in the middle of all this, wearing those bombs... and that was probably the truth. Only in that moment did she realize how much she understood everything HUNK had told her about him. And how foolish she now felt underestimating him. Pitying him, when she'd thought him dead. Her tone, low and cold spoke again, unwavering at the gun pressed into her head, and the explosives danced in her vision.

"He was right about you all along, wasn't he?"

"Whom? Your Grim Reaper cowering back there? He does know me as well as I do him. What did he say of me?"

"I thought you were just another bully, opportunistic... and you are that. I even felt sorry for you, when I thought you died in that Umbrella office. Even after you murdered Private Seeker, hiding behind the excuse of him being infected. Even when HUNK told me I shouldn't feel sorry for you, and I knew I shouldn't. I still did. I thought you were just a brute, but one nevertheless that had helped hold that train station, protected Captain Mikhail and did your best to survive with your men. Hardened by circumstance. I don't feel sorry for you anymore. I've seen a lot of good people dying lately... and I haven't wished death on many people in my life... but you... I could make another exception for you. You really are crazy, aren't you?"

"Like a wolf. Go on, girl. Call to them."

"HUNK, Carlos."

Jill's lowered, contorted voice muttered to them at last with grim reluctance. She felt the fear, terror... not of him... but the explosives... how quickly they could end everything... but she would not allow him of all people to see it. He was unmoved by her words, unashamed, devoid of any remorse. He gained pleasure from this. Pleasure from having power over another this way. It made him stronger. Something she didn't know for sure their Pursuer... their Nemesis, did. He was a human monster... a fact in its own way, more frightening than any creature she had fought. Wesker had taught her that. The lows a person could sink to. The man in front of her had an imagination... a sick, sadistic one, but an imagination nonetheless. Creativity. And he couldn't be predicted by her... she didn't know him. Even hearing he had been bombing buildings, she hadn't thought for a second he would resort to something like this. Something this suicidal. When she spoke up again, it was a bit louder, more clearly.

"He's covered himself in primed explosive devices. A shit ton of C4. He's holding the detonator. He means it."

"Yes, I do. Very good, now does everybody here understand the conditions I have placed upon you? The gravity of the situation? Sound off like good little soldiers, or the first round goes into her abdomen."

"Yeah.", Spat Carlos's heated, angry tone from beyond the wall, spitting out the word. He sounded more furious than she'd heard him before. What had happened between them at the hospital still weighed heavily on the young man. "I understand, you dirty son of a bitch."

"Perfectly clear. Nikolai."

Answered HUNK's low, muffled... unnaturally cold and collected voice. It was the voice of the man she had met in the police department. The same steely one that had crept into her life, placed the glinting blade to her heart, and had changed everything for her. The one that had coldly almost put a round through Marvin's head at the station. The man who had instructed her to leave Sherry behind to an unknown, grisly fate she must have suffered by now. And had discouraged her from going back for Mr Rosso, going out of her way to look for or help any survivors. The ice was there... but so was the strength in it that had bound her to him against all odds. Under better circumstances, she knew he would snap Nikolai in two withing batting an eye. Unfortunately... those were not their circumstances.

"Yes.", Jill assured him coolly last, looking past the cold metal of the pistol, staring up into his eyes unblinkingly. "You manipulative bastard. You're going to get what's coming to you. More than that. Mark my words."

"Mmm. That's more like it. Now... get to it. All of you. Out here, where we might discuss this politely."

Slowly, carefully Jill stepped out of the fireplace and into the cabin, rising to her feet wearily. Nikolai waved her forward with his sidearm, retracting it from her temple, but keeping it close as she moved over to his side, to the space between the cabin's table and the fireplace. A glowing red laser sight like HUNK's was connected to the silenced pistol, its light shining now upon her heart. Jill stared hard with burning contempt back at the Russian, who looked quite comfortable as he was, before looking back ahead to the fireplace. Her heart continued to race in her chest... but it had less to do with the pistol aimed at her, and more to do with his explosives. With the threat he posed to them all, not to her. All it would take was one press of the detonator, and it would all have been for nothing... every struggle between them. Carlos knelt and climbed out first, spitefully kicking aside a brick and immediately bringing his rifle up at the ready, aiming it at Nikolai and peering down the scope. Jill felt gratitude at the gesture... and even more of it when HUNK's dark grey, battered armored form emerged, the light catching the intact and cracked red lenses of the gas mask and glinting off the battle scarred helmet. The telltale red laser sight of his own rose and settled itself upon the center of Nikolai's forehead. It was almost enough to make her smile. Almost. But it did bizarrely make Nikolai's smile deepen, studying the modified submachine gun with interest instead of alarm. He had to be insane, if he thought he was getting away with any of this. He had another thing coming. But she couldn't smile... because from the moment she'd seen the explosives on him, she'd known he couldn't be predicted. She had trusted HUNK's words and assessment about the man... but she had still underestimated him.

She wouldn't make that mistake again, one way or the other.

"Are you ok, Valentine?"

"Yes I am. He won't be."

"No. He won't."

"There now. Reunited at long last.", Nikolai's silky tone interrupted them, cold eyes looking between her, the Corporal and the U.S.S. Agent. His thumb continued to move back and forth over the detonator's trigger, as if in consideration... before pausing. Smile remaining imprinted on his icy features. "Isn't it nice for all of us to be standing together once more? More comfortable, no? Almost seems like old times. All that's missing is a mission to recover train parts... and a decrepit, useless old Captain, among other things. Tell me... what happened to him? How did you cut loose his dead weight?"

"He died on the train, on the way over here. Slowing down our Pursuer.", Jill replied spitefully, daring him in her hard stare to talk badly about Mikhail's courage. Her gloved hand curling into a tightened fist down at her side. The burned flesh beneath it throbbing painfully... giving her focus and clarity. Memory flashed, of the battle aboard the train... the struggle, her attempt and failure to save the Captain. "He died a hero, sacrificing himself. While you fled like a rat. He saved our lives."

"Our Pursuer? Or yours, Officer Valentine? Would he have had to perform an oh so noble sacrifice... if not for you? Death it seems travels close wherever you go. You are contaminated in more ways than one, now."

The words cut into her like a blade. She almost recoiled from the truth in them, the feelings they elicited. Almost... they made her angrier than anything else. The reminder of her guilt. The Captain was only dead because of her. Because of the thing following her... just like the others had nearly been killed more than once by virtue of proximity. But what made her even angrier was knowing that he knew she felt this way, like a marked woman, with a judgement placed on her head. She knew what he was trying to do... it left her incensed... but she did not play all the way into his hand, as she might have ordinarily. Didn't let her anger overtake her. She glanced at HUNK, who shook his head almost imperceptibly... willing her not to take the bait. It hadn't been her fault. She needed to remember that, remind herself, in spite of the voice in the back of her head. It was something he was exploiting. Looking back to Nikolai slowly, eyes narrowing, she knew damn well whose fault it was.

"Umbrella is responsible for his death. Not me. Just like it was responsible for everything bad that has been happening since the Arklay Mountains. Before then. Responsible for the Spencer Mansion, the outbreak, the B.O.W.'s, mutants, infected and Tyrants. Responsible for sending the U.B.C.S. in to be butchered for the data you're profiting off of. Responsible for someone like you being here making everything worse. It always comes back to Umbrella, doesn't it? Mikhail, he chose to sacrifice himself. I tried to stop him. It was his choice to make, not mine. He chose to sacrifice his life to fight that thing. Did his duty. Something you wouldn't understand. You only know how to steal, lie and murder."

"Yes... it is Umbrella's responsibility, isn't it?", Nikolai replied slowly, ignoring most of her words, turning his gaze to follow where Jill's eyes had traveled. To her surprise, he did not continue to mock her as she expected. Instead he offered the U.S.S. Agent a knowing smile as if the other two in the room did not exist, before turning back to her. "He was a foolish, brave old man. He fought well at the barricades, and during Operation: Mad Jackal. In spite of his inconvenient wound. A pity."

"Yeah, like you give a shit about what happened to him. Like you do about the other Monitors you've taken out. Or Murphy. Bard and Tyrell. Or anyone else you've murdered since coming here." Carlos finally spoke up angrily, visibly forcing himself not to advance on the Sergeant. Holding his rifle in a death grip as he spoke. Demanded answers of him. "What the hell do you want, Nikolai? Wasn't blowing up a damn hospital and a college already enough? Why the fuck couldn't you just leave?"

"Temper, temper, Corporal. You are still speaking to a superior officer, boy.", Nikolai smiled more deeply, waving the detonator slowly back and forth as a warning. Jill watched Carlos's angry eyes watching it, with just a hint of unease. He was afraid too, but angrier than he was scared. Like her, he wanted to give Nikolai no satisfaction from their position, a task that appeared almost impossible. He looked increasingly like the cat that ate the canary. "But what do I want? Your attention. For starters. You three are unfinished business. As Officer Valentine was kind enough to mention, I have gathered a great deal of data... combat information upon various B.O.W.'s. Umbrella files, documents, photos, even biological samples of the abominations out there. Data on how the U.B.C.S. performed these last days. Much of it I collected myself. Some of it I claimed from my fellow Supervisors, along with their lives. Both of you were witness to that."

"I remember T blowing you out of that goddamn window. Four stories at least. How the hell did you survive?"

"I have always been lucky when it came to killing folks. As your team's Grim Reaper can attest, and certainly relate to himself. I was at the hospital in search of a far greater prize... but you both interrupted me, and stole it. I can hardly be bitter about that, I have been doing that for much of my career with Umbrella. I try to be consistent, at least. I could ask where it is... what you did with it. But... well. I see a bandaged young woman before me, previously badly injured. A woman who was not with the two of you at the time of your interruption. I also take into account that the prize in question was an extraordinarily valuable one that I was after, as you were. A vaccination for the T-Virus. Even without my sources, I needn't be a genius to put it all together, and realize that the cure in question is beyond even my reach now."

"Yes."

"Or is it? Now... I admit I can be something of a poor sport at times. I reacted a little... harshly... to your little unexpected interference."

"You wired the hospital to blow up you demented bastard! With us almost caught in the middle of it! You swarmed the horde around the entrance so we couldn't get out!"

"I did. And I would have done it whether you were present or not. And I could have given you far less time to escape than I allowed you. Would have, had it been you alone, Corporal. Nevertheless, you are still standing here, quite alive, thanks only to my generosity. You should be thanking me."

"This fucking guy...", Carlos spat out with contempt, finger hovering over the trigger, his eyes narrowing further down the scope. Glancing over to the U.S.S. Agent also aiming his weapon at the Monitor. "If we shoot him at the same time, HUNK, he won't be able to press the button. You blow his brains out, I'll gladly shoot off his goddamn hand. He's gotta pay for Murph and T. Just say the word and I'll do it."

"Corporal. That's enough."

"Listen to him, Corporal... if you want to leave here alive. At least until morning."

"You lay this trap for us. The Supervisors bodies on the forest path to the Dead Factory. The key. The letter. You knew where we were going, so you prepared for us. For me."

"Yes... one of my more inventive ideas. Of which I've had to come up with many these past days. I knew you couldn't pass up an opportunity like that. To try and corner me at last... to steal more data to build your defense case, upon returning to the Leviathan... and see how quickly the hunter becomes the prey. However, I was not planning on your own clever move with the call from Monitor Command, gathering the extra information that you did. I was listening in."

"I bet you were. Does the Colonel know you killed everyone else involved in his operation, yet? Your command doesn't."

"Who do you think ordered me to do it? It was up to me to tie up loose ends, and I followed his instructions to the letter. Regardless, I plan on being far away by the time the dust settles. Before the Board of Directors starts asking questions. I will be the last person on Umbrella's list to search for. They shall have bigger problems on their hands, and in mere hours. There are two further matters we must attend to first, before then. Before the grand finale."

"The first?"

"Valentine here is coming with me. There is a substantial bounty placed upon her head... upon confirmation of the body. Umbrella's reward for a corpse is impressive... in all my time working for them, I have never seen them go to such lengths to kill someone as they have with you.", Nikolai informed her, with a generous, respectful nod. Again he turned back to HUNK, icy eyes glinting as he continued. "Yet, my employer offers a far greater reward if I bring her back alive. Her now unique genetic structure has biological potential for experimentation... between the mutations of the Nemesis Parasite's T-Virus strain and Bard's vaccine. I will kill her if I must, but only if I must. Alive she will be one of the crown jewels of the data I return to present to my employer. Rest assured."

"I'm not going anywhere with you.", Jill promised him contemptuously, speaking again at last. Her tone was cold as ice, her pale, bruised, serious face not flinching in the least. Now more than ever she wanted to laugh mocking laughter, right in his face. Laugh at how deluded he was to think that scenario was possible. But all she felt was contempt. No amusement. Not even fear at the revelation of the walking biological weapons commodity she had become. At least not yet. And she felt the desire to scoop up Matilda off the floor and empty all thirty rounds into his face. "And if you try to take me anywhere, I will put my knife through your skull. Or think up something worse, just for you."

"Spirited too. Do you think me such a fool as you allow you the opportunity? Why do you think I am wearing... assurances to guarantee otherwise? You think me crazy, but I rather see myself as doing what is required for cooperation... or is it coercion? It doesn't matter. The difference is trivial. You would be the crazy one, to even think of attacking me now. You each still live due only to my mercy. You will come with me, or a simple press of a button can settle matters. These two can die with us, and it will be on your head."

"You sick son of a...-"

"Carlos, don't.", Jill ordered sharply, shooting him a commanding look that stopped him in his tracks. The Corporal had been about to move forward, and rush unthinkingly at the Monitor. With obvious difficulty, and murder burning in his eyes, the young man forced himself to remain frozen, looking back at Jill with the rifle still trained on Nikolai. Her eyes grew more dangerous as they moved back to the quietly gloating Monitor. "It's ok. Let him talk. He's just digging his own grave deeper."

"Am I now?", Nikolai inquired silkily, sounding very much like a predator toying with his prey. Or someone he thought his prey. "Am I really?"

"That's not going to happen, Nikolai.", HUNK's low, unamused tone assured him at once. Jill felt reassurance herself... deep trust and appreciation. When HUNK said something, he meant it. She was under his protection, as he was under hers. She would be doing just as he was now, if the situation were reversed. It heartened her for him to declare it aloud more than she could say. But if they survived this, she intended to show him. "What is the second thing you want that you aren't going to get?"

"So sure of yourself. Stubborn to a fault. The other Monitors didn't know what you were doing here, in the city. The U.B.C.S. doesn't know. The U.S. Military and Government doesn't know. Your faithful companions here don't even know.", Nikolai replied in turn without missing a beat, inclining his head to Jill and Carlos. Both of whom watched him with deepening confusion at his words. What he was getting at. "But the right individuals do know. Umbrella Security Service does. T-00 did. Birkin did. Your Comtesse, Christine Henri, does. Spencer does. My employer and his other new, valuable asset searching for it know. Most importantly of all, you and I know."

"What the hell is he talking about? Speak some sense, asshole."

"Ah, so I was correct. Another secret, closely guarded, and for so long. You are becoming predictable. Shall I inform the curious Corporal what you have been keeping from him and Officer Valentine here? Or would you like the opportunity to come clean with your sins? Confess?"

"You're going to do it anyways, Nikolai."

HUNK replied tonelessly without hesitation. Although Jill couldn't see his eyes, she knew they flickered over to hers. She peered back into them, the sinking feeling of guilt moving through her as she realized what the Sergeant was getting at. Using against them... what he... no, they had done. She was complicit in her knowledge, and inaction. Her guilt returned with a vengeance, so deeply she had to close her eyes for a second to steady herself, before looking back contemptuously at Nikolai. As much as she hated him, wanted to blame it all on him... this wasn't his fault. He would just be the messenger. On this, anyways. By now she found she had every other reason to despise him. But on this she was powerless to stop him.

"Not playing along. Get it over with."

"Always the stiff upper lip, even in the face of inevitable consequences, Death. I admire that about you. Your mistress trained her obedient, stray, American dog well in her upper class British ways."

"You won't live long enough to enjoy this. I promise."

"Perhaps. But if it comes to that... neither shall you. Now... where was I? Ah yes... secrets. You and I have so many of them... it's practically apart of the resume, for men like us in Umbrella. All useful employees have them. Information is currency... and more than that, it is power, life and death. It takes all manner of forms... whether we gather it following orders, as you prefer, or prefer to gather it outside of our orders, as I do. We do the same thing differently, in the end."

"What the fuck are you babbling about, man?", Carlos shot back, interrupting the Supervisor brusquely. Looking as genuinely bewildered as his tone sounded. "What is this, Bond villain monologue hour?"

"I am babbling, Corporal, about something Death here has been wisely withholding. Quite understandably not trusting an insignificant little mongrel such as yourself.", Nikolai spoke with the first hint of mixed cold amusement and anger at the quip. The pistol moved closer to Jill's face threateningly, and his thumb closer to the detonator. Carlos held his tongue quickly at the two threatening gestures. When Nikolai was assured of his attention, he continued on as though he hadn't been interrupted. "Something you were probably too foolish to even ask him. Or dumb enough to forget. Why is he standing here in the first place? Why did Umbrella Security Service dispatch a team to Raccoon City, when the U.B.C.S. platoons were supposed to be the only active Umbrella units in the area? If they were here all along, why weren't they helping combat the outbreak? Did you not once wonder that, in the time you worked side by side with this faceless man you don't even know? Or believe that you do? I know him far better than you ever will."

That was enough to bring Carlos and the room into stony silence. Save the steady muffled sounds of rain splashing over the cabin. The distant muffled moans from beyond the park and the woods. All eyes were focused intently on the Sergeant... who by now looked more pleased with himself. Jill didn't even blink. She wanted to look over to HUNK again, wanted to say something to Carlos... but she couldn't find her voice. All she could do was look past the barrel, and wait for him to get on with it. To speak the damning truth.

"I am speaking about the fact that on September 20th, Death and his team infiltrated Raccoon City's sewer system. Two days later they gained access to the NEST, Doctor William Birkin's laboratory... and on orders from Spencer, they retrieved the samples of a new virus he had created. That he had been planning to sell to the U.S. Government. The G-Virus. Golgotha. You haven't heard of that little wonder yet, have you? Merely the T-Virus. During this mission, there was some... mishap, and the good doctor was shot by one of Death's men. But he did not die. Upon their departure, he injected himself with a sample of his own formula, and became an abomination. An abomination that began to hunt down the Grim Reaper and his team. Killing them one after another. In the battles that took place in the days that followed, Birkin unleashed his B.O.W.'s and experiments, infecting the facility's staff... T-Virus samples were shattered and infected numerous rats in the sewers... and leaked into the city's drinking water, contaminating it. Spreading it. I am saying that the man beside you is at the very least the one responsible for this outbreak you were sent in to clean up, and for stealing a virus sample that will one day lead to the next Raccoon City... or something far worse. And I am saying that he still has this sample on him right now. And that he was never planning on telling you... either of you. That he was using you to accomplish his mission, and return it to his masters."

The silence returned and overtook the cabin again in the wake of the bombshell. The rain outside never more audible from the muteness within. Jill felt her pulse quickening, as she fought to keep it all beneath the surface. HUNK was as still as a statue once more. But Carlos lowered his eyes from the scope of the rifle, nonetheless pointing it in his direction. At last, Jill did look over to him... looking back at the stunned expression on his face. He looked as though he had taken a sudden and sharp blow... a little dazed, disbelieving... but alarmed. Finally, clearing his throat, he spoke again assertively... but less certain than he had been before.

"You're full of shit. The contamination spill... we were briefed on it, on the Leviathan. Before we were sent in. The spill was accidental. A leak in a laboratory that escaped... not a purposeful outbreak."

"And it was an accident. Death here did not mean to do it. He was supposed to retrieve the samples, take Birkin alive and return to Loire Village. Likely he was as surprised by the unexpected turn of events that played out as the rest of us. There are even reasons to suspect other methods by which the T-Virus entered the city besides Death's blunder alone. Yet he is the only surviving responsible party for what took place down there, and what happened there did without the slightest doubt spread most of the T-Virus through this city. Particularly as the team leader he holds the responsibility. He stood at ground zero, issued orders, caused the outbreak and kept it to himself. Now he holds the key that may be used to create another."

"You're lying. Lied since Central Street Station. From the start. I have no reason to believe you."

"No lie, Corporal. I may have lied to you before and often, but I had something to gain for said lies. Just as I have something to gain now by telling you the truth. I am not lying... at least on this topic. And he knows that too.", Nikolai replied calmly, gesturing with his pistol in HUNK's direction before moving it back to Jill. Going on with that same unshakable smile, deepening if anything. "If you don't trust me, that's ok. Death keeps secrets... but his lies are merely those of omission, not verbal. He is honorable, in his own dishonorable way. Cannot lie quite so easily as his Comtesse. He won't deny it if asked. Go ahead and do so... he's waiting."

All eyes finally swiveled back in HUNK's direction, putting the spotlight on the masked man. Jill had no idea which he looked to first... but she had to imagine he hadn't taken his eyes off the satisfied Sergeant. The laser sight remained hovering over the Monitor's head... and at any moment, Jill half expected him to blow the poisonous Supervisor's brains out. Set him on fire. But he didn't. Of course he wouldn't... risking detonating the bombs. Maybe it was just her wishful thinking. He remained as he was, just as Nikolai had said, silently awaiting his judgement. Prepared to face the consequences of his secrets and lies... as she was.

"HUNK...", Carlos's low tone spoke up at last, hollow and empty of emotion. His attention entirely resting upon the agent as though the two others didn't exist. Beseeching him. "Why the hell are you even in Raccoon City?"

HUNK did not answer his question. He didn't even look over at the Corporal, merely continued looking through his scope, aiming at Nikolai's smiling face. He didn't need to answer. His stony silence already did. Carlos's disheveled features twisted into a mask of horror and grief. Revulsion. Realizing the kind of person he'd been fighting beside all along, the man he'd retrieved the T-Virus vaccine with had been holding a bioweapon all along. As she had back at the apartment when she had first found out, accidentally. She wondered how things would have gone between them if she had never had. If the U.S.S. Agent would have cut them loose, instead of remaining with them. So many 'ifs'... so many possibilities, each more troubling than the last. The pain in Carlos's face were as if he took a blow to the stomach. His accented voice low and hollow, stunned... and above all, dismayed.

"You did it. You really did it... he's telling the truth, isn't he? Oh my God... all of this... this is your fault..."

"Carlos...", Jill murmured slowly at last, her heart racing in her ears. The guilt... slow building and potent like a poison, her own guilt, began to consume her. She swallowed heavily, turning her eyes back to the confused, horrified young man, attempting to allay his fear. "It's... it's complicated. Don't do this... not here, and now. We need to deal with him first."

"Do what? Demand the truth? The truth we deserve? The truth that got everyone killed? Ask why... why he's been lying to us from the start? It isn't complicated at all!"

"Nikolai is trying to turn you against us... make us all start fighting each other, and not him or those things out there like we should be... don't you see? Who do you think is benefiting here?"

"I see that both of them, standing there, benefiting from all this. HUNK and Nikolai are the same thing.", Carlos declared with sudden deepening undeniable anger. Contempt and fury overtook the horror in an instant. Looking between all three of them with a furrowed brow. He gripped the rifle more tightly, as though holding on to it for dear life. "Exactly the type of liars and murderers that Umbrella happily rewards, holding secrets over the rest of us. Using us like tools. Creating messes the rest of us have to deal with. We've been had, Jill. He was playing us from the start, he probably would have killed us when we were useless, just like Nikolai. Shot us dead as soon as we reached the helipad."

"I don't believe that for a second, Carlos. And neither do you."

"Well get with the goddamn program then, sister, because it's clearly the truth! Take the rose colored glasses off a minute! Do you have any idea what else this guy has done? Here's a hint, this ain't his first fucking rodeo! You haven't heard the stories about him, I have! You gave me shit when we met about Umbrella, like I was part of all this... and now that HUNK's been exposed, only now you hesitate? Now you're ready to be fair and reasonable? You were ready to hang me without a trial! Umbrella destroyed your home and killed damn near everyone in it, killed everyone you knew here, my friends and yours, and now you want to play Gandhi over their poster boy?!"

"If you need to be angry at anyone... Carlos... over HUNK's secrets... his lies... then you shouldn't be angry at him..."

"What, were you a cop or are you this criminal's lawyer?! Why the fuck not?!"

"Because you should be angry at both of us."

"What are you...?", The Corporal started at her confession... his words and anger dying in his throat and disheveled features for an instant. He stared back at her blankly, dumbfounded... using all the effort he could to keep talking. Every trace of exhaustion gone from him. Jill's throat had gone instantly dry as the atmosphere of the room shifted again. Even Nikolai, the bastard, looked startled for a flash of an instant, and then it was gone... looking quite pleased with himself, the cold smile only deepening at the revelation. Looking between her and the silent U.S.S. Agent again with intrigue, pistol's laser sight remaining upon her, like the one on his head. "Jill... did you...? Tell me... tell me you didn't know. Look me in the eyes and tell me this is the first time you're hearing this."

Jill obeyed that much at least... looking him in the eyes. She said nothing for the moment. There was nothing to say. Her eyes told him everything. Told the truth her tongue had neglected to. Had been unable to. She watched Carlos recoil as through struck across the face again in realization. Visibly trying to silently comprehend it, mouth opening and closing.

"Oh... but this is touching, Death. This night just keeps getting better. You already told her. Entrusted an outsider with your mission... broke your oath of secrecy. And she of all people kept your dirty little secret.", Nikolai murmured with great interest, looking away from her and back to HUNK at the fireplace. He looked as though Christmas had come early, pure glee in his eyes. Unable to resist a deep laugh that echoed through the cabin. "Now it's my turn to be surprised again, as I was when you brought her along, Death. Touche. I'm sure you were more surprised than I. The young woman with a bounty on her head from Umbrella who murdered her friends and her hopes. A young woman with death pursuing her... keeping Umbrella's and Death's secrets. Sitting upon the most awful of truths. For you. Now why might that be?"

"I can't. It would be a lie. Another one."

Jill answered Carlos at last truthfully, determinedly ignoring Nikolai, the shame coursing through her veins. She felt her face flushed... wanted to look away, but she didn't. She owed him that, as she owed him so much more, including her life. Everything he had gone through for her, and she had betrayed him, his trust. She had never thought she would be able to trust him, from the moment they had met. She hadn't been expecting the reverse to come to pass. The guilt to grow. Even as she had known she was damned for keeping HUNK's secret... that the consequences would come back to haunt her. She hadn't thought they would reach her so soon. But then, it was nothing less than it should be, to hit her at the worst possible time. Considering the lives that would likely be lost from her decision.

"I'm so sorry, Carlos. We should have told you the truth. There have been enough lies... we added to them... I can't do that anymore..."

Carlos looked back into Jill's eyes, angry expression sinking into shock and disbelief. Betrayal. The words torn out of his lungs. He looked as though he wanted to and was trying to speak. To say something. Anything. But he couldn't. She may as well have stuck her dagger knife into his stomach. The Corporal deflated like a balloon. Slowly, very slowly he lowered his assault rifle off Nikolai as though the rifle suddenly weighed a ton, pointing it at the floor at his side in one hand instead. The young man looking between all three of them as though they were all alien to him. Things he had nothing less than contempt for and wanted nothing more to do with. But things he didn't know how to deal with any longer. Like he wanted to walk away, but was frozen to the floor. Silent hatred for all three of them was etched into every bit of his features. But he had been stunned into inaction. Hate wasn't enough for him, he drew no satisfaction from it. He merely shook his head, retreating within himself, averting his eyes from them. Any trace of humor that he had seemed to carry around in him all the time died away in front of her.

"It must feel good to finally have the burden of truth off your chests, doesn't it?", Nikolai spoke to her and HUNK, gesturing his detonator in Carlos's direction. Slowly, still smiling, he looked back in the disheveled Corporal's direction. "You would be better off anyways, pointing that rifle at the man standing beside you, Corporal. I imagine he's earned that much."

"That 's enough, Nikolai. He gets the point.", HUNK's cold voice spoke again purposefully, redrawing all the attention in the room... including Carlos's dark, flickering eyes. HUNK remained where he was on the spot, grip tightening on his submachine gun. And Jill knew how much he wanted to empty the magazine of armor piercing incendiaries into the Russian... but still he resisted. "We all lied to him. You tried to kill him. You have no moral high ground. I've had quite enough with the theatrics. We have no time for this. Get on with it."

"Perhaps... but I was not the one here to gain his trust as deeply and then break it. The cruelty of that sin weighs far more heavily upon each of you than I. My attempt to kill him, both of you, was strictly business. Nothing personal."

"Bullshit."

"This time here has weighed heavily on you, it seems. You are rarely so crude... forgetting your lady's etiquette lessons already? Very well then, have it your way. I shall return us to the matter at hand. We are at something of a crossroads now. I am generous... so I will give you choices. Give me the G-Virus sample, Death. Then you and the Corporal can walk away, go your separate ways, and find some other manner of escape. You are resourceful, you'll find a way. I'm certain NIGHTHAWK will violate his orders to come pull your boots out of the fire, again. Or you can come with myself and Valentine and leave the Corporal to his fate. The helicopter at the Dead Factory is already quite reserved for two... but we might make it three. My employer has a high opinion of you... and hopes you will accept an arrangement with us, as I did. I assure you, Valentine will be taken care of. My employer doesn't want her harmed. She is talented, to have survived all she has, like you. Her blood also contains the T-Virus vaccination and NE-α Type now... all the more reason to keep her alive. She might make a remarkable guinea pig. Perhaps for the sample you will generously provide. Who knows? It won't be any concern of either of ours. She's just another expendable asset to you after all, is she not? Like all the others?"

Rage replaced the guilt in Jill's veins at the ultimatum he offered HUNK, the cruel choice, if it could be called one How he wrote her off as no more than a sample herself, no different from the container HUNK carried. She wanted to shut him up, whether or not that meant him setting off the explosives. Maybe they were duds, and he was tricking them again. Was he insane enough to be a suicide bomber? He was a sociopath, only cared for himself... why would he endanger himself? She didn't even care. She took a step closer to Carlos, the red light of the laser sight remaining perfectly on her heart, tracking her step, and letting him see the anger burning in her eyes. Not the fear he enjoyed... though to be sure, he also liked her anger... but the sheer desire to kill him where he stood. She would have attacked him too, would have been willing to take a bullet in the head... were it not for HUNK's slow shake of his scarred, dented helmet... and the sensation of his eyes upon her. He spoke in his silent language to her. Told her that he would take care of it. That she she didn't need to worry. He warned her that Nikolai's words were merely that... words, and that her life wasn't worth throwing away over pride and provocation. Jill froze, and began to collect herself... at last nodding back her understanding reluctantly to the agent. Who returned his attention to the pleased Supervisor.

"Your employer. He isn't Colonel Vladimir any longer. The Colonel doesn't even know that yet. He still thinks you're his man. You spoke of what we both know. Secrets. And we both know who your real employer is now, don't we?"

"Yes. He gave me a substantially better offer. One only a madman would refuse.", Nikolai admitted freely, even a bit proudly. Jill's expression contorted with interest. She didn't know who the hell they were even talking about now. What they were talking about. This was more stuff between them, their feud, the inner politics of Umbrella... and this time, instead of HUNK she got to step again into the role of outsider. Eyes moving rapidly between them. "And you will receive one too. You need only accept the terms."

"I'll execute you. Both of you. Track him down wherever he hides. Each of his assets. Purge Umbrella of traitors. Drag you all before Lord Spencer myself."

"No... you won't. You can't. And I can't kill you. Yet. It's too early in the night anyways. He wants you alive as well, safely in his employ. He's putting a team together... an Inner Circle of his own. The best of the best. Raccoon City is the start of a change. Things will not be the same after today, one way or another. Umbrella will fold in time, there is nothing your feeble Lord can do about that. The old ways are becoming obsolete, like him... the growing red tape and backroom politics. All eyes will turn upon Umbrella and descend upon it, come Raccoon City's end. Umbrella Security Service will fold as well, and you will be out of a job. In a world those holding your leash, passing it from hand to hand, did not prepare you to live in. But you can break free of them. We can decide together at this crossroad whether we all die here in a standoff when the missile arrives, or walk away to an uncertain, but perhaps bright future. You can either die, go back to Umbrella empty handed and live long enough to witness its destruction... or join me willingly in his employment. And have a role in the future. A place. Opportunities like this present themselves only once in a lifetime. Talents like ours are a precious commodity, talents he will require to bring about his vision. A commodity that will be all the more valuable, in the years to come. Adapt or die. We've adapted this long to change, Death... why should we choose to die now of all times and places, when we can finally come to an understanding?"

"You sound just like your new master. Like Marcus and Birkin were. Another fanatic. No different than Vladimir as well. All three of you... obsessed with your own power. Gaining more of it. It'll never be enough. No wonder they both hired you."

"A generous compliment to them, to be sure... comparing them to I.", Nikolai inclined his silver head respectfully with a pleased look. Entirely unperturbed by the retort. Reveling in it. "Yet who is it for Death to judge others in matters of guilt? Your hands are now bloody with a hundred thousand more lives, all out there in the streets. All of them waiting to die again. Your hands were dirty with the blood of the innocent and the guilty indiscriminately long before that. Since Marcus. Every order you have followed, like your name, has meant death. Death and suffering, you wear it like a cloak... I have long admired that. All on the behalf of people no better, or far worse, than my own employers. Worse than I could ever dream of being. You have served the global interests of megalomaniac aristocrats all your life... from the proud and haughty inbred Spencers, to the deranged golubój Ashford, and now to your little frog Comtesse... ever the pale imitation of your lady. What have you within that makes you any better?"

"Loyalty."

"Loyalty to those who have used you, and would feed you to the wolves, when you are no longer useful. A willing stupidity, if you call that loyalty. Your mistress is long gone, abandoned you... and still you cling to her. To the memory of her. Of what was. Chained to her... and your own lack of ambition. And you have betrayed them anyways, broken your oath for some girl. Still... you are indeed loyal. In your way. I need only look at your present company here to see it.", Nikolai's deep voice observed, his cold unblinking eyes turning back her way for a moment, something predatory flashing there. Then they resettled on the agent. Something both amused and irritated touching his cold, rain soaked features. "You are undeniably loyal to the girl, are you not? Fond as well. Remarkably so, to share with her the secret you did. How that must conflict with what Umbrella would have you be. She is not at all like your lady... perhaps that was the appeal. Accept his offer, and you will not be separated from one another... as you will inevitably be otherwise. If not for yourself, do it for her. Be the loyal soldier... the illusion you cling to... and choose your loyalty. To her, or to Umbrella. The girl, or the mission. You know you can only decide upon one, in the end. Which will it be?"

Jill slowly turned, away from the silencer aimed at her, and to HUNK. At all costs she looked back at him in the silence that returned... at the ultimatum he had been handed. In spite of her anger, and fear... she felt some strange compulsion to know, just what he would do. What he would say. What he would choose. She wasn't going with Nikolai to his mysterious employer, wouldn't become a human guinea pig, no matter what... but she wanted HUNK to turn the odds around. Again. To surprise them all, and get them out of the mess. Like he always seemed to. He always found a way for them... she'd seen it time and again when things seemed at their worst. She knew what she meant to him, what they meant to each other. She was ready to die with him to stop Nikolai, if that were his choice. She placed her life in his hands willingly. As she had before. She slowly nodded at him... and a touch of a smile finally rose to her lips. But she didn't get his answer to Nikolai, or response.

It came for them again.

Deep in the earth, somewhere far below... under their feet, and far away. Reverberating. Expanding. Overtaking the sounds of the storm outside. It was a storm in and of itself. It started as a low rumbling... and echo... then it became vibrations, that began to move objects in the cabin. Jill uttered a shocked, audible noise at its suddenness... to say nothing of Carlos's cursing, stumbling back against the fireplace. Tools and books fell off their racks. One of the cabinets toppled over with a mighty crash. Chairs fell aside and plates that had been on the dining table fell off and shattered all over the floorboards. It was an earthquake... every bit like that she had felt in the sewers below the train station. And the drainage sewer. Yet more powerful than before. The floorboards creaked and moaned. Dust rained from the ceiling at various points around the old cabin... and in that moment she was half convinced the whole cabin was going to shake to pieces, as the four of them reacted to the earthquake. The lights flared and flickered, casting their shadows all about the walls, and it felt as though the entire cabin and forest around it might collapse on top of them.

"Another mutant!", Nikolai spoke loudly with genuine alarm, taking his attention off them. His grip on the gun and the detonator slackened, as his eyes shot up to the shaking ceiling, pistol lowered a ways from Jill's heart. The laser sight settling on the floor. "Seismic activity! It could only be the...-"

In the midst of the sudden chaos, Jill, on a pure surge of adrenaline, seized her dagger knife from its sheath. Seized her lone opportunity. She lunged forward, lashing out the glinting steel blade and aiming for Nikolai's face. As she had countless creatures within Raccoon City and the Spencer Mansion... as she had their Pursuer. It all came to her in a single, mad moment, the idea of turning the tables on him. Her other hand went to seize the detonator from his slackened grip. The opportunity presented itself, and she took it with all she had left.

It was not to be.

Nikolai responded with startling speed for a man his size, even in the midst of the rumbling. Raising both arms, he dodged to the side and moved forward, locked the one holding the detonator around the arm she held the knife with, freezing the blade inches from his left eye socket. She struggled with all she had in vain to reach him, to pierce his eye, but once he locked her arm painfully into place with ease, he pressed the pistol's silencer underneath her jaw, forcing her to look up at him. She waited for him to coat the ceiling with her brains, at her fatal error... but the darkness didn't come. Locking eyes with him, still she tried to stab him... but she didn't manage it. Yet, she had gotten something that she would remember, and take with her that had made it worthwhile. For a moment... a mere instant, fear had flashed visibly in Nikolai's eyes. Giving it away. It was just as she expected. He was a sociopath, just as HUNK had told her at the train station. The only fear or care he felt was probably in regards to his own life. The only thing that mattered to people like him. She had almost killed him where he stood and everyone in the room knew it. It had to be a bluff... the bombs he wore. It had to be. The point of the blade continued to squirm... even when she knew it was in vain. He was much stronger than her, especially in her current state. Where she was exhausted and pained, he didn't have a scratch on him, and seemed well rested. Though very much awake... especially now.

The Sergeant was silent, for a time, finger over the detonator once more. HUNK's red laser sight had moved to the side of his head... and the rumbling of the earth's seismic activity began to die down, fading away as quickly as it had come. The floor and the ceiling stopped creaking... and when the silence around them returned, both HUNK and Carlos aiming their weapons at him, Nikolai broke it again.

"Too slow. But I am impressed by how quick you are. Taking advantage of a distraction... even with all those injuries. Not half bad.", The Monitor spoke softly, his eyes darkening with malice despite the praise. Real venom lined his cold voice now, perhaps himself realizing how close it had been, and fear he had felt. He looked around at them. All of them, stopping upon HUNK... daring him with his eyes to pull the trigger. For a few moments, he seemed to consider the situation carefully, weighing his options. Glancing at his watch, and coming to a decision. "One good turn deserves another. I will let you off with a warning... just this once. Consider my offer, Death. Think it over. This is neither the time nor the place, with an unwelcome guest so near. We shall resume our parley and palaver elsewhere. I will be ready and waiting for you at the Dead Factory, when you decide. Waiting for all of you."

His icy eyes returned to Jill... and she numbly recognized in the glare he gave her that she was going to pay dearly for her attempt. Lowering the pistol slowly from beneath her chin, drawing back his head, with a deep grunt he rushed it forward and slammed it sharply into the bridge of her nose before she could react. There was a sickening crunch, and Jill dropped her dagger knife at once and saw dancing lights, the world exploding in a flash of red agony. She fell back against the table, her vision blurred and wild, her head screaming and pulsating. Warm liquid poured down her mouth, running freely over her face, smearing. She felt herself impact roughly again with the floor, and found herself looking up, the entire room spinning and her ears ringing unceasingly. She heard voices, far away, muffled and incensed, coming down a corridor above. In the sudden and wild haze she saw images... distorted flashes. One of HUNK bursting forward and putting himself between Jill and Nikolai, the laser sight remaining focused on the Supervisor. She blinked, and saw Carlos raise his rifle again instinctively at the sudden hit, raising it to his shoulder and aiming at Nikolai's head from down the scope. His expression was grim and bitter... but there was real anger in his eyes on her behalf, and for the moment he ignored his anger at the two of them, directing it at the Sergeant.

Blinking, she saw the Monitor raising the detonator again in warning at the Corporal and U.S.S. Agent, keeping his SIG Pro risen and aimed at each of them, the red laser sight passing between them. Backing up to the doorway with the detonator held up in front of him, thumb no more than an inch over the button. Shaking the detonator back and forth tauntingly. He was informing them of the range of the explosives he wore, and reminding them they had bigger problems to contend with just now. Neither man cut him down with gunfire... but kept their weapons trained on the Monitor. Blinking again, she saw him grasp the door handle, opening it, stepping back out the door into the rain... flashing her another cold, self satisfied smile where she lie, droplets of her blood staining his forehead and running down the length of his pleased face. Then, with another blink, he was gone, the cabin door slamming shut on them. Her head fell back down, against the floorboards, against her will. She tasted warm copper on her tongue... spitting the red out all over her top... and felt a looming darkness, the heavy movement of boots on the floorboards and gloved hands upon her. Somewhere above, a dark, inhuman face with glowing red eyes hovered over her, speaking to her. The voice alien and familiar at the same time. She couldn't make out the words, even in the least. It was distant, fading in and out like the rest of the world... even knowing as she did how close it was. Her heart pounded in her ears... it was all she could clearly hear, but still she struggled her way through the haze, struggled to listen... fought to reach the surface again.

Fighting against a current.

"HUNK... is that...-"

"Valentine... keep still. Just breath through your mouth. You're going to be ok."

"It's... it's bad... isn't it?"

"Yes."

"I hurt... everywhere..."

"I know. So do I. But we need to keep going. It's not over yet. Breath for me. Slowly."

"I... I can't, he...-"

"Yes, you can. Through your mouth. Slowly. Focus on me. Nothing else. You are panicking."

"He broke...-"

"Yes. There is damage... and will be painful bruising. Breath. Your mind is tricking you into suffocation. Your lungs are intact. Use them. Like this."

Slowly his low, muffled breaths echoed overhead. She studied his mask, focusing on it. What he was doing. Jill at last obeyed the strength of that voice, following the calm rhythm of his mask. Slowly and carefully, she began to breath, in and out, while he tended to her. She heard him opening pockets on his body suit. Somewhere about, Carlos had found a cloth, and HUNK began to use it to clean up her face and nose. The pain swelled at the touch of it, and she lay back helplessly, tears welling and pouring down her face, mingling with the blood. She had no control over it... she knew she wasn't weeping emotionally... she had gotten those tears out... she just couldn't help it. The stinging was too much. She saw a blurred haze of faces she knew that weren't even present... Chris and the others... and she saw memories of the days, weeks, months and years past, out of her reach. Still, it all threatened to come back. The horrors she'd survived. As she had waking up from her last black out, she resisted them, their control and power over her. Fought her fear. Tried to focus on those breaths above her, and to breath as he did... while they worked. Carlos joined HUNK, both leaning over her, but Carlos remaining off to the side as he helped. Jill felt a sudden cold sting covering her nose and spreading, and she uttered a loud moan of pain. She knew it had come from a bottle... she knew what that spray was only too well. It shocked her senses back into sharper focus, her eyes clearing slightly, but not altogether yet.

"Oh... God..."

"Good... just keep breathing... that's it."

The process was slow and excruciating, but she did as she was bid. She began to cough, but the coughing fit gradually subsided. When it had, she watched, dimly, as Carlos handed off to HUNK a small handful of mixed red and green herbs he had recovered at some point. HUNK began to sprinkle the ground up herbal leaves over her nose... and there was another stinging as the First Aid Spray mixed with the mixed herbs. She groaned helplessly as it burned... but gradually it died down... but the pain remained. She watched as HUNK retracted the cloth and began to roll it up tightly. When he had finished, the agent slipped off each of his gloves, revealing a pair of large, strong, roughened, pale, long fingered hands beneath. They were well used, from what she could see... calloused... hands that did violence... even if there was another dream in his heart. There were a few telltale scars and burns on them. A few of many on his body, perhaps, the wild thought occurred to her. What did he look like, not just out of the mask and helmet... but the bodysuit and vest? What else had he survived, before her? Before Raccoon City? How many wars had he fought? Wondering about him distracted her from the pain, for a moment. Made her fall back into investigation mode. Curiosity... it kept coming back, with him. Then his low tone broke over the silence again for her. Bringing her out of her stream of contemplation, and giving her the cool, calm clarity she had come to expect from him. As unpleasant as the hard truth so often was to her.

"Jill... there's one more thing I need to do before you can get up and move. It won't heal right otherwise. You know what it is."

"Yes... I do..."

"Bite down on the cloth. Focus only upon that. Redirect your pain. I'll only do it when you are ready."

"She was smart... she left... I was stupid, I stayed behind..."

"Who left?"

"Rebecca. I'm... glad she got out... glad she left... didn't have to go through all this... but I almost still wish she was here now..."

"Your team's medic, right? Yes. So do I. My hands weren't made to heal."

Jill's gloved hand instinctively moved out to one of his exposed one, feeling it. Feeling him. The impression of him through the material, at least. She was too weak and pained to tear off her own glove, as she desperately wanted to. How nice it would feel. Instead she pressed his hand to her cheek, feeling those strong fingers there... his touch. The warmth to it against her cold flesh. He stroked her cheek with tenderness, slowly and gently. Soothing her. Her fingers intertwined through his, then. And she didn't feel afraid anymore. She was ready to do what needed to be done. She looked back at the cracked and intact red lenses, her pained, bruised, blood stained features in them... and somehow, she felt her mouth form into a smile. One she couldn't repress.

"You... underestimate yourself. They already have... healed. It's fine... she isn't here... I have you..."

"Yes... you do. Not going anywhere. Not yet. Trust me."

"I have since the apartment..."

Jill retracted her fingers with reluctance, after a few moments, freeing up his hands. She watched as he placed the cloth into her mouth, and she pressed her teeth into it. Peering up into his eyes beyond the lenses, she held the gaze as he leaned closer over her. He pressed a pair of firm, cold hands to her face... the flesh meeting hers once more. One hand rested on each sides of her face, with his thumbs closest on either side of her broken nose. Her face was covered up by the large hands almost entirely, but her eyes peeked out visibly. She felt his great strength again, as she had at the R.P.D., and understood why he didn't fear the Tyrant. Why he had grabbed it by the throat with his arm. She felt one of his thumbs slowly caress over her lips, with something like affection... as he had in the courtyard, and she kissed his fingertips back lightly. There was no point with the typical countdown, for him. She wanted it over with, done in an instant, the idea of it being even drawn out three seconds longer than it should be was not an appealing one. She did not want the fear to have a chance to return, as it surely would. Instead she simply nodded her affirmation. And her vision exploded red all over again. The faces above disappeared. She uttered a muffled scream of pain, low and instinctive in her throat, a howl carrying through the cabin... and she bit down harder on the cloth as more blood trickled freely from her nostrils. She forced her blurry, tear filled blinking eyes open as she bit down with all she had, through the haze noting how bloody his hands were. Bloody as his lenses.

She screamed and she swore and he kept her pinned firmly to the floor, not letting her move too much, until the powerful rush of pain was over, replaced by an unending stinging, burning, and ringing in her ears. Managing to fall silent, save her gasping breaths. He sprayed her reset nose again with some of the First Aid Spray, and added some more herbs. The cold sting hurting further. After, Carlos handed him off some bandages and she could feel him bandaging the bridge of her nose tightly, securing it into place to staunch the bleeding. She closed her eyes again throughout, staying in the darkness, away from the pain of the world... but she forced herself not to black out altogether, as she nearly had again before. Another bandage, another scar... among the many others she had collected on her patchwork of a body. A walking hospital patient, at this point. She didn't want to think about it... about how many scars and burns she would have in the months that followed, and beyond. Permanent reminders every time she looked in a mirror.

"It's ok... Jill. It's done. Now you can heal..."

His muffled murmur assured her. Yes... they would heal. Leaving physical reminders she would carry in case the mental ones were not enough. Just like the Spencer Mansion. The bruising and swelling on her face was going to get worse before long. Yet another thing she had to look forward to. Finally, when his hold retracted, she slowly opened her eyes, to find him sliding his gloves back over those strong hands soaked and stained with her blood. Then he took one of her hands into his, placed the other beneath her back... and at another nod of consent from her, he pulled and lifted her up off the floor with ease. The world moved around her, and refused to stay still. The only constant that held her up, that kept her from collapsing again was the strength holding her body in place... his arms... so her mind could catch up. Breathing more rapidly, she shut her eyes tightly and waited for her head to stop spinning. Standing up too quickly under ordinary circumstances was nothing compared to what she felt in the present.

But still, he held her up... adjusting the strap of her Mine Thrower for her, and she leaned into his embrace, her arms wrapping instinctively around his armored body with familiarity. Relaxing as best she could against him. Listening to his muffled breaths... her own... and the rain beyond the world of the cabin. Murmuring so quietly it might as well have been a thought.

"Thank you... both of you..."

Neither man spoke in return. Instead the three of them stood like that together for a time... before finally the spinning, hazy world she was in settled down, as it had after the earthquake. Slowly she opened her eyes again... to find the cabin in disarray around them... she opened them, to find Carlos's grim face peering into her eyes. He stood near them with his rifle slung and hands out, silently offering her back her dagger knife, her Samurai Edge and Matilda. She rose her hands, and enclosed her fingers around the handles of each, feeling the weight and power again. Resheathing her knife in its holster, she looked down the front of her blue tube top, to the fresh blood stains all over it, along with over the pale flesh of her collar. Then she looked back up, over her shoulder into HUNK's mask, his lenses reflecting her messy, bloody appearance. She could only laugh sadly... smiling, in spite of the stony silence around them. She was a complete mess. They all were, really... but she displayed it the most. All the same... somehow she was still alive... and in her mind's eye she saw a helicopter. She saw escape, by any means possible and necessary. And she understood. It wasn't over for them. Not by a long shot. Not while they still drew breath. Conflict among them or no conflict. None of them wanted to die, she was certain. At last, she finally rose all the way, HUNK remaining behind her with a hand on her unmarred shoulder, helping keep her steady. Her breathing gradually balanced out, and she stepped forward, moving between the agent and Corporal, looking at each of them. Carlos's concern was gone, replaced by mistrust, and an evident reluctance to even be present. Jill took the reins, taking charge of the situation, in spite of it. Her pained voice rose over the grim silence, breaking it... a voice she barely recognized escaping from her own lips.

"Something just happened here... that has changed everything. We can all agree on that. We can also argue about it now, waste precious time... or we can keep working like a team and catch up with that sick bastard before he steals our helicopter. We can live. Escape. And deal with... this... when we cross that bridge. Are we all agreed on that?"

Neither one of them replied. It was a sentiment reflected in Carlos's contemptuous stare, and HUNK's stiff body language, as he unslung his submachine gun once more. HUNK slowly inclined his head to Jill at last, before looking back over to Carlos for his answer. Carlos unslung and readied his rifle, looking between the two of them, his expression and manner noncommittal. At least until the righteous fury in him sparked again within moments, and poured freely, unrestrained.

"To hell with the both of you. And your precious G-Virus. You're not a cop. Didn't deserve that badge. You're a goddamn hypocrite, protecting a murderer's secret. Just because you want to fuck him.", Carlos's embittered, accented voice returned quietly at last, brown eyes hard and angry. Staring daggers at her and the agent, grip tightening on his rifle. Gradually finding his words... his tone growing cold and dead, as opposed to the heated anger of before. "When this is over, I never want to hear from either of you again. You two can ride off into the sunset together and have your romantic drivel. Never should have let you have that vaccine. The world you were ready to sacrifice for this bastard's affection deserved it. You didn't. You're as bad as him. Deserve each other, alright."

"Carlos... please... I didn't mean...-"

On that note, the Corporal spat contemptuously on the floor of the cabin at their boots, then stepped backwards before she could reply... and any reply faltered, died in her throat. The silent mercenary Corporal, now entirely humorless, aged, turned away from them abruptly and took the lead to the door, stomping to and barging through it loudly and marching outside into the rain storm alone. Without the slightest hint of looking back or a second's hesitation. The cold air rushing within the cabin. Jill winced, in a way that had nothing to do with the stinging, unceasing pain. Another sort of pain hurt her now... one she had especially earned, deserved. He was angry with them, and would likely continue to be regardless of what transpired. He would stay with them... but there was going to be a price to pay for what they had done. Already they were paying it. The trust between them had withered and died, thanks to their lie. She couldn't blame him... only herself. But if she focused on blaming herself right now, sabotaging herself, they would never escape. Survival was all that mattered now. She could atone for her mistakes in time if she survived. At least... she hoped as much.

Yet an understanding seemed to drape itself over the air for the moment. That in the here and the now none of the three would speak of what had happened... what they had kept from him. But she knew him well enough... Carlos was fuming inside. Angry enough to no longer know what to do with himself, and with them. He needed time on his own to think. To figure things out. It would make itself clear and they would have to have it all out eventually. But that would be then. The previously muffled sounds of the rain grew powerful, mighty as the nature that spawned it. She looked over to the agent again for a moment, and released a low sigh, nodding, before turning back ahead, readying her pistols. HUNK helped her move over to the open door, helped her get reacquainted with her feet... arm wrapped around her waist. He released her when they reached the door together, letting her limp through and get her bearings on her own. The cold air and water washed over her at once as she emerged from the cabin, with him close behind. She drew in another breath... the cold air almost rejuvenating against her heated flesh... but she couldn't smell a damn thing. She couldn't smell the world, nature... purity of the rainfall, she felt only a near blinding pain when she tried... so she stopped bothering. The rain soaked blood on her front dripped and ran, stains spreading as she looked ahead.

Carlos was standing a ways ahead down the cemetery path... rifle risen and scanning for hostiles, remaining within sight, by no means wishing to be closer to them than he had to be. But waiting on them all the same. Jill quickly withdrew her canteen with a pale, shaky hand, unscrewing and taking a deep sip from it. Drawing a low breath, she savored it, before swallowing the water and screwing it back up, tucking it away again. HUNK moved to her side as she did so, keeping his eyes on her, keeping close... and together when she was ready they started after Carlos at last. It felt good to feel the earth under her boots again, the soil, in spite of everything. To be underway again. It was something, however small, despite the stinging, burning agony, and the deep throbbing. She was alive... somehow, after all that had happened... she was still walking. The city kept throwing monster after monster at them... or Umbrella threw them their way... but still they had managed. How long... she wasn't certain, but she knew the longer they stayed in one place, the likelier she was to find out that grim answer. Keeping that in mind, she continued forward.

She and HUNK had only made it down the path about half way from the cabin, Carlos standing at the end... when it came for them again. The earth rumbled and shook in the next moment, where before it had been peaceful. Seismic activity... around and beneath them. The sheer force of it nearly made Jill fall over, and she looked around the graveyard wildly, from HUNK who remained near at her side, his stance changed to a protective one, and Carlos, who ahead of them had stopped on the path and was struggling not to fall as well. All around them tomb stones of various sizes tall marble monuments and crosses shook back and forth in the earth, along with the cast iron light posts around the spacious graveyard. Gates and fences around the graveyard and the main one on the perimeter around them began to creak and groan audibly. Some of the tomb stones began to break altogether as the rumbling intensified, with seemingly no end in sight. Ahead she heard Carlos cursing in alarm, struggling to stay upright during the seismic activity.

The rumble became such that, in spite of the rain falling on her flesh, she ceased to hear it or anything else in the night. For all they had already gone through, dealt with, despite all their capabilities, the survivors were rendered helpless as one against the force of something very nearly like an earthquake. The fear finally broke through Jill, fear she had been keeping as tightly in check as possible, and fear that radiated outward none the less. It may as well have been an earthquake, the effect was the same... though the sources couldn't be further apart. The earth rose up underneath Jill and HUNK's boots, raising them several feet up in the air on a great mound of dirt. The ground, stretching out along the path ahead began to break apart and ripple, the earth splitting apart and dividing. Jill uttered a shout of surprise into the night as she struggled to keep her balance, wrapping her arms instinctively around HUNK's midsection and holding on against the sea of soil as though clinging to a life preserver. She felt his own powerful grip encircling her, keeping her close, as the other swept the area with the submachine gun and his legs tried to keep them standing. She could hear him talking loudly to her, saying something... and she could still hear Carlos swearing his head off ahead of them, shouting down in their direction.

But neither HUNK's nor Carlos's words could be made out over the chaos unfolding.

Jill looked ahead to Carlos's position... he was still there, trying to balance... but in the next minute he and everything above vanished out of sight. The earth gave way beneath their feet, and Jill screamed again as she and HUNK hurtled, were effortlessly thrown down into the depths of the graveyard. They tumbled down the falling hill of dirt, sliding down it and far below. For one mad moment, Jill didn't think they would stop falling, in her panic. Yet they hit the ground together heavily in the next instant, still holding one another and their weapons tightly, covered in dirt from their near premature burial. Jill groaned painfully and began to have another coughing fit, and shook out her hair of the dust and dirt. Mud joining the stains on her figure. She groggily sat up, the world spinning around her with her vision all over again. She saw the stormy, dark skies above... felt the cold rain running down her features, gradually cleaning her, and the sensation shocked her back into alertness. She forced herself through it, focusing, and looking down at once to HUNK.

"HUNK!"

She shouted at the sight that greeted her, heart racing faster still than it already had been. The U.S.S. Agent lay back against the muddy embankment that had formed, amid the broken tomb stones and rock, stunned from the force he had dropped with. He stirred slightly where he lay as she hovered over his form, but he didn't rise up, as though he were still trying to get his bearings. Trying to draw himself out of a deep sleep. She tucked away their sidearms into each of the respective holsters and draped herself over top of him, peering down into his lenses worriedly, pressing a gloved hand to his rain and dirt coated, soaked mask. Despite the shock, by now she knew the source of their near burial. The danger to the three of them, tunneling somewhere below the earth. Beneath the graveyard. Her desperate, panicked voice called down to him, her hands shaking him roughly.

"HUNK! Get up! Wake up, soldier! We need to get the hell out of here! HUNK! It's coming for us!"


The Wildcard Nikolai out Wildcarded by a Worm. And the cat (G-Virus) is out of the bag. I know, I know. I'm terrible to Jill, HUNK and Carlos lol. Much more of it to come, though, so you better brace yourselves. Going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Consequences. You might even say... their graves are being dug ;). Until next time.