Chapter 32: Revelations

I don't own anything. Resident Evil belongs to Capcom and Tomb Raider belongs to Core Design, Crystal Dynamics, and I think Square Enix. The only thing I own is the changes made to the stories of the Tomb Raider games/comics and Resident Evil games/comics/CG movies, the Government branch S.P.E.L.L., the person that has taken over Kathrine Warren's life, and Rose Warren. This story also will be bloody, violent, and have cursing. It's rated T for Teen.

Country: Russia, State: Siberia, City: Siberian Wilderness, Place: Near Kitezh, Area: Wicked Vale, Month: November, Day: Wednesday 29th, Year: 2000, Time: 04:12 KRAT…

Lara coughed up water as she pulled herself onto some rocks. The haze of the hallucinogen's effect washed away by the river. She looked to the side and saw Leon pulling an unconscious Kat onto the rocks, he was coughing up water too, but was more concerned about Kat. Hell, so was Lara.

"Lara? Leon? Kat?" Nadia's panicked voice called out as Lara stood and watched with wide eyes as Leon rested his ear to Kat's chest. "Guys! Can you hear me? Are you there!?"

Leon cursed loudly and held two fingers to her pulse in her neck. Nothing. He laced his fingers together before beginning chest compressions. Kat had blacked out before hitting the water fully. So, Leon could only hope she didn't get any water in her lungs. She had no heartbeat he could hear and wasn't breathing from what he could tell. He kept his elbows straight as he pumped Kat's chest. 30 compressions then doing so again. He had remembered Kat saying that breathing into someone for CPR didn't do crap as your blowing Carbon Monoxide into their lungs rather than Oxygen that they need. So, he wasn't breaking to breath into Kat.

Lara stumbled and leaned on a rock for a moment as she watched Leon's movements. She pulled her radio. "I'm here…I think…" Lara breathed as she watched Leon's frantic CPR. "Leon's doing CPR on Kat."

"Come on, Kitty Kat." Leon hissed in between compressions. "Don't die on me. Don't die on the girls. Fight for them."

"What?! What happened?" Naida asked concerned. "You three started coughing, said something about flowers and pollen…" She took a shaky breath. "and then nothing. I thought the witch killed you all…"

"I think we were hallucinating." Lara breathed as she rubbed her head. "God, I hope we were. Kat seemed to have it worse. I think her heart stopped."

Kat sucked in air suddenly then she was coughing. Leon quickly rolled her onto her side and ran his hand up and down Kat's back as he covered his face with his other hand, whipping away the tears he found there. Or was it water? He wasn't sure, he then placed a hand on his own heart, willing it to slow down now that she was ok. "You're okay. Just breath." He told her as Kat shuddered and coughed up water.

Lara sighed closing her eyes a moment in relief.

"Hallucinating…there…" Naida paused for a moment while Lara sighed with relief that Kat was alive. "There is a flower in the valley that can bring on visions…but the effects are too weak." She explained unsure what flower they'd encountered.

"Leon's resuscitated Kat." Lara took a breath looking around at the old, rusted pipes and water ducts. "Any idea what this place is?" She asked Naida.

"Where…?" Kat rasped as she shook in Leon's arms.

"Not sure…are you okay?" Leon asked.

"I see…" Lara looked around. "ducts and pipes. Soviet, from the looks of it."

"My…whole body hurts…my chest and arm the most." Kat hissed as she rolled back onto her back.

"I just did CPR on you, so that's the chest pain I'd guess." Leon explained as he took her right arm and saw something that made him pale. "Kat, did…were you really bitten by a…"

"It has to be the outpost the Soviets built, to study the ruins." Naida said as Kat looked at her ripped up coat that had faded blood stains and could see the torn puncture marks in her skin. "My grandmother was a scholar, and they brought her there to help with their research, but…" She explained as Leon pushed Kat's sleeve up to see the lupine bite mark. "That was the last time Grandpa ever saw her. There was only one survivor, an officer who stumbled out a few weeks later…" She explained as Leon looked at Kat with fear as his heart dropped into his stomach. "He said the Witch…made them do things."

"Kat…please, tell me this isn't a zombie wolf bite." Leon begged his voice shaking a bit.

Kat was, at first, shocked at the bite being real. Then she looked quickly at Leon. "Zombie wolf? It was a hellhound."

Lara looked over, confused. "Wait, Zombie wolf? Hellhound? It was a demonic wolf, but it looked more like Black Dogs."

Leon felt hope. "So…we saw them as different wolves…but they were real?"

"Looks like it." Lara said as she walked over and pulled her pack off. "I heard your scream…so somethings that happened were real but just not in the form we saw them as?" She partly asked as she got out a first aid kit. "Fuck, these need stiches."

"My spear's still in a tree there then…" Kat shuttered as she said the word.

"What did you see?" Leon asked looking to Lara first.

Lara paused for a moment as she cleaned Kat's wound, making Kat let out a yell from the disinfectant. "My dad. What I thought was his suicide or murder. It wasn't clear." She admitted as she cracked open a surgical needle and thread packet. "What about you? What did you see?" She asked Leon as she took Kat's forearm and got to work on the bite wound.

Leon swallowed. "Marvin. And…and the RPD."

Kat looked at Leon sharply in shock. "Really?"

He nodded taking a deep breath before letting it out. "Yeah. You didn't? Not Raccoon or Yamatai?"

Kat looked down, trying not to squirm at the needle poking in and the tugging of the thread. "No…it was…my…" She swallowed as her body shook from the phantom pains of the gut stab and arrows. "My death…the first one…"

Lara paused her stich work and Leon looked at Kat in worry.

"Are you okay?" They both asked.

Kat swallowed. "I died, stopping…stopping my sister from dying, but she also guaranteed my death…" She closed her eyes tightly. "I…I threw myself onto her spear, I knew it would kill me…but I did it anyway."

"The nightmare the other night…and your reaction to the spikes." Leon remembered. "That's why you looked so weak back there…you thought you were dying again."

Kat nodded as Lara took out another needle and thread for the other half of the bite wound. "The only thing that hurt more, was the wolf attack…likely because it was real."

"Was that why we heard you scream before?" Lara asked. "I know we heard you scream."

Leon nodded. "The spear wasn't it, was it?"

Kat nodded, and when she spoke, her voice was in her Norse accent. "A volley of arrows. Not enough to make the sky black…the army wasn't that big. But it was enough that it could hurt Valkyries and Gods." She looked at her bleeding arm from the needle's work and the closing wounds. "Valkyries can die if enough is done to them. The combination of the arrows…and my sister's spear, it killed me." Kat closed her eyes and shook her head. "It was better to die by my sister's blade, then by the blade of one of the archer's lucky arrows."

Leon tipped Kat's head to look at him. "And you thought you were dying that way again?" He asked, wanting to see her eyes.

Kat nodded. "I could feel the arrows in my back…the blood in my mouth, the blood soaking my shirt from the spear."

Leon felt his jaw go tight. He didn't like hearing that. Someone having that kind of memory or re-experiencing it. He could also see something in Kat's eyes. There was regret, shame, and fear in them. What was the shame for? Regret was obvious to him. She regretted dying that way, despite her words. It seemed likely she had wanted to die gloriously, fighting some big strong opponent. The fear was expected for his reaction, Lara's reaction, and going through that memory again. But what did Kat have to be ashamed of?

Kat was having a similar moment as she stared into his eyes. His were filled with concern, regret, little fear, and something Kat couldn't quiet identify. She didn't know what that last one was. She was sure the regret was for a lot of things. For the officers that died and were re-killed in Raccoon, for people on his missions he couldn't help, for the people he'd killed here and on passed missions. She knew that kind of weight would only grow over time and hoped she could help him ease it. The fear had to be for what he'd seen in his hallucination. The concern had to have been for her at the moment with what she'd just told him. But what was that last emotion she could see?

Lara watched the two. She could see them leaning closer. She kept quiet this time. She wasn't gonna mess with this. She finished sowing Kat's wounds anyway. She just had the herbs from Arklay to apply and to bandage it. She looked up again and saw that Leon and Kat were breathing in sink, their eyes locked in a mix of uncertainty. She smiled lightly as they both continued to lean into each other.

'God, I know we just went through a bad trip, but please, just fucking kiss already!' She thought as she started to apply the herb mix.

As if Kat had heard Lara's thoughts, she blinked and pulled away from Leon looking down. Leon looked unsure what was about to happen and pulled away too. Lara internally was screaming in frustration. What the hell was holding Kat back? It couldn't…

"Did you all hear…bad things said to you?" Lara asked, she didn't like thinking about what Leon had said in her hallucination, but this could help with what Kat heard.

Leon nodded as he took the bandages from Lara and started wrapping Kat's arm. "Yeah. You said…Well I thought you said…" He paused wrapping Kat's arm for a moment, he looked at Kat's face for a moment then looked back down and continued wrapping her arm. "Lara, you said it was my fault." He said, his voice faltering for a second. "About failing my fellow officers…and Kat's trauma."

Kat's eyes snapped to look at him. "What? But you're not. Leon, you didn't do anything to me."

He nodded. "But…I think I blame myself a little." He tied off the bandage. "And…"

"Leon…if you arrived in Raccoon on time or later, you'd either be dead or as broken as I am." Kat told him grabbing his hand that was pulling away from her arm. "Nothing in Raccoon or in the RPD was your fault."

Leon looked to her hand on his arm. "Doesn't lift the guilt though."

Kat nodded slowly. "But talking about it and accepting…can make it lighter."

Lara nodded. "Talking about…what happened to mum, and dad…it messed with how I preserved the Hallucination."

Leon and Kat looked at her.

"I heard Leon say that it'd be my fault if Kat and you died like my mother and father. But I know my father was murdered." She looked at the pair. "Because I know that…my hallucination broke a bit. It seemed to glitch when…when he shot himself. But it would show me someone next to him pulling the trigger."

Kat's eyes widened. "Really?"

Lara nodded. "Yeah. It…it doesn't make it better, but it made the impact of what Leon's fake self was saying hurt less."

Leon swallowed looking down then he realized it. "Kat…you never said anything. I just saw you looking weak and injured."

Lara realized it too. "You didn't speak for me either."

Kat swallowed as she closed her eyes. "You wouldn't have. I…I couldn't speak."

"The blood?" Leon asked gently.

Kat nodded. "But you two spoke to me. Te-telling me…" She hesitated.

"Kat…" Both Leon and Lara said slowly, encouragingly.

Kat looked up at Leon.

"I don't care what you heard. Whatever it was, it wasn't real, neither I nor Lara think that way. Okay?" Leon reassured.

Kat swallowed. "You both told me I keep dying. That I should stay-stay that way." She wanted to look away from Leon, so badly but couldn't look away. His eyes were reassuring and comforting, made her heart slowdown from the panic of the hallucination's memory. "That…That you're better off with Ada…" She whispered. "You said you—"

"No." Leon said firmly glaring at the ground.

Kat look at Lara then back at Leon. "But—"

"No. I kissed her once. I liked her for a bit. Might have thought I loved her. But not now. Not after four months of nothing from her. Not after her likely being the one that put Rose in danger, got Sherry kidnapped." Leon said looking at Kat with the most hateful expression she's seen him have in a very long time. "I have zero feelings for Ada other than hate. I hope one day I feel nothing for her at all, but for now, it's hate."

Kat looked at Lara in shock. She had doubted Lara's observations before. Thought Lara was just trying to make her smile or be happy. But seeing just how angry Leon was about the mention of Ada, she had to wonder as she looked to him again. He now had a look of determination.

"Whatever you heard wasn't real. I never said it, neither did Lara. I need you to remember this, I fucking hate Ada and wouldn't ever want to be with some who could put your girls in danger." He told Kat in a calmer tone, deciding that after this whole thing was over, he'd shoot his shot, tell her how he felt about her.

Kat had to feel the same as he did. If hallucinating about something like that had her this hesitant. The only thing that bugged him now was why she would even think he liked Ada in the first place. Lara understood now too.

"Okay…" Kat nodded.

"Let's get moving." Lara said as she checked her watch and then jumped to her feet. "Holy crap."

Leon and Kat looked up at her. "What?"

"We missed a whole day. It's the 29th." She said as she looked around and pulled her axes.

Leon jumped to his feet and reached out to help Kat up. They all hurried over to the rock wall with their axes out. They carefully climbed up the stone walls with their axes. Kat had more trouble than Leon or Lara. Moving slower from the pain in her arm and chest. At the top of the rock wall, Lara jumped to the next one, sinking her axes into its pebbly texture. One by one they continued, going up the sides of the waterfalls.

They eventually made it to the top. Finding that there were three levels of structures here. The first one was the old ruins from the days of the Prophet, the next was the rusted metal from the Soviets, and the last one looked newer. Likely the bravo team from Trinity.

Lara pulled her radio. "Someone's been here…recently."

"Building on top of the old ruins." Kat reported to Nadia as well.

"What do you see?" Nadia asked.

Looking around it was weird, Leon put his radio to his mouth. "Looks like some sort of factory…like where you make chemicals or alcoholic drinks."

"A distillery." Lara clarified as she smelled the air. "Smells like flowers…" She gasped as she looked at a confused Leon and Kat. "Shit…of course!" She said. "She's refining the pollen." She stressed getting Leon's eyes to widen and Kat to close her eyes and relax in relief.

"She's weaponizing it." Leon nodded looking to the vat like thing that gave off the floral fumes that had a yellow tint to it. "Kat was right, Nadia. This isn't mystical."

"Just someone very clever." Lara agreed as they looked to the gates behind them that had the Slavic witch aesthetic décor.

"Wait, but…" Nadia gasped in confusion and a touch of hope. "If it is just a person, wouldn't the pollen affect her too?"

"She could've developed an immunity to it over time. Carefully dosing herself until she became immune." Kat voiced. "Or she's found a way to resist it another way."

"If she can, so can we." Leon nodded, not wanting to go through the Hallucinations again, once was enough.

Kat sank her axe into the winch and pulled hard, breaking its lock. The winch unrolled and a hanging weight came down. It was made of wood, metal, and rope. Seeing it Lara dashed to a turning winch by the distillery vat. She drew a rope arrow and drew back. She loosed it at the weight Kat had lowered.

Leon took the rope length and tied it to the turning winch, seeing what the pair were seeing and thinking the same thing. They all waited for the winch to pull the weight up high enough until it was even with the iron doors. At the right height, Leon cut the rope with his knife. It swung and bounced off the iron gates.

"Damn…" Leon sighed as he looked around them. "We have to give it more force somehow."

"Yeah." Lara nodded as Kat and she looked around them.

Kat pulled the lever by the distillery vat. Turned out it wasn't what they thought. It was the furnace for the distillery. The moment she pulled the lever, a shock wave and fire blasted out from the two open doors. Kat closed the leaver quickly, closing the doors.

"That was hot." Leon hissed pulling on his coat to get some air flow.

"And it was a powerful blast." Lara noted.

"It could make the weight fly higher up and thus gain more speed and momentum to break or snap the doors open." Kat voiced. "It's either that or we find a tree and make a battering ram. Doing this though will be faster and not to mention easier on our combined sore bodies."

"God damn, I need a message and hot tub after this whole thing." Leon sighed as he rolled his shoulders and held the new rope Lara handed him. "Um…?"

"Your turn to fire the arrow. It's a big target." Kat said nodding at it. "And you've been getting better at the bow."

Leon pulled an arrow and attached the rope to it. He then drew his bow and notched the arrow. He took a breath and drew back. As he did, he could still hear Kat's softened voice giving him instructions in his mind. He looked down the arrow and tipped his torso up a bit. He let out a breath and let his hand fall back.

The arrow flew and sank into the rope and wood. Leon beamed as he gave the rope a tug. "Feels secure." He said and looked at Kat and Lara. "Maybe I should start aiming for center mass."

"If they aren't wearing armor yeah." Kat agreed as she tied the rope to the turning winch.

Lara gripped the lever and they waited. Watching the weight as it was pulled like before. The moment it was tight and over the fence, Lara pulled the lever sharply. The furnace doors snapped open, and a blast of hot air pressure and fire flashed out and up at the weight. The three shielded themselves from the blast.

But they watched as the weight flew at the iron gate doors. They shattered from the hit as the weight was propelled through them. They stood from their spots as Lara closed the furnace again. They all walked through the now open doors and into another decorated room. Torches in various sconces along the walls, illuminated most of the room. They saw a small table that held several candles, that sat in pools of their own wax, and an open diary, as if someone was reading it recently.

Lara walked over and leafed through it before staying on the page it had been left open on. "Let me read this out loud."

It's been weeks since these bastards dragged me from the Gulag, from Ivan and my daughter, to this strange Vale. They have tasked me with finding some way of counteracting the unusual effects of the pollen that hangs in the air.

Now, I believe I have a formula that may work:

-An extract from the seed pods of the plant

-The liver of animals that consume the flowers and have metabolized the toxins

-A Phenothiazine derivative

The last ingredient is a risk. They have it in large quantities around the Gulag, where it is used as an insecticide. It may also act as a rudimentary antipsychotic, bearing a chemical similar to other compounds I have studied. Or it may be poisonous.

I will try the mixture on myself, tonight.

"What the hell? Is that…?" Leon asked as he walked over, looking at the writing as if he could read the words though he knew he couldn't.

"I think it's Nadia's grandmother." Kat spoke. "Do you guys have any idea how happy I am right now that 17-year-old me was right about Baba Yaga not being real?"

"I'm both happy about that and saddened." Lara said as she put the journal down. "She was a political prisoner. Then she met Nadia's grandfather, he was a soldier for the Soviets. They fell in love, and she ended up pregnant." Lara sighed. "They let her have the baby, but then took the baby from her and her lover. They then took her on this team here in the Vale. She knew herbs and things, so she was the best one for the job." She looked at Kat, who held her abdomen in empathy for the woman who'd become a witch. "She heard about the revolt and assumed everyone was killed. Including her lover and daughter. She made the pollen stronger and became Baba Yaga."

Leon blew out a heavy breath. "So, all these years, she's been alive and believing her family's dead?"

Lara nodded. "That's what her journal indicates. She has a posable reversal for the pollen's effects. A sort of Vaccine it seems."

"Great." Kat sighed as she looked at the page, pulling her radio. "Nadia, we found something. It's notes of a formula. It could counteract the effects of the pollen and allow Leon, Lara, and I to move through the vale unaffected."

"It has to be my grandmother's notes!" Nadia called out. "The witch killed her, and now she's going to help save grandpa! Just like in one of his stories!"

Lara swallowed as she pulled her radio. "Nadia…" But couldn't bring herself to tell the girl of her grandmother's true fate. Not yet at least.

Leon and Kat couldn't do it either. Nadia was just so young and naive that they found it hard.

"Have faith, Guys. Hop back to the Soviet Installation, where we met." Nadia insisted. "I'll help you three find out what you need."

After that the radios stopped buzzing.

"We have to tell her." Kat sighed.

"I know, but it doesn't feel right over the radio." Leon said as Lara looked to the way out.

"That's true. It'd be like breaking up over text." Kat sighed.

"People do that?" Leon asked, sounding disgusted.

"Yeah. A lot." Kat sighed as Lara pulled a rope arrow and drew back. "It's extremely cowardly to me. But sometimes it's safer if the person you're breaking up with is dangerous."

Leon nodded. "Yeah, I can see that other side. But being to chicken shit to face the person if nothing's wrong with them? That's just wrong."

Lara loosed her arrow at the wood blocking their exit and pulled the anchored rope so it ripped apart the wood to open the path out.