Title: Into the Light

Author: Malenkaya

Rating: R for violence and swearing

Summary: (RE movie fanfic, 2nd in trilogy): What began as a mindless effort to survive has developed into a race against time to stop Matt's sudden mutation as Alice, Rain, Michael, Matt and J.D. re-enter the Hive in search of a cure.

Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or its characters.

Feedback: Please! I live and breathe reviews! Flames, as long as their explanatory, are fine.

Author's Notes: A thousand thanks to rain1657, Gabzilla, Faded Writer, Jesse Burnside, Enchanted Dreamer1, and Me an RE Fan for your reviews! 

"Y" is again for spaces.

Thanks again, enjoy the fic!

Into the Light

Chapter Three: Infiltration

The five of them were running before the dragon even entered the room, splitting up into different directions and racing for the cover of the boxes.

Rain could hear the dragon stomping through the station ahead of her as she hurried behind a tall row of steel boxes, keeping her gun in front of her, ears strained for the sound of the dragon—

And threw herself to the ground as the dragon screamed and the boxes she was crouched behind became a massive wall of flames.

She crawled forward, trying to get out of the way before it could see her, and realized with a sudden thud of exasperation that the dragon could probably either hear or smell all of them anyways, so the game of fucking hide and seek they were playing was pretty much pointless.

Clambering to her feet, she ran for the end of the boxes—

And swerved out of the way, ducking around the corner to avoid the dragon as it leapt around the corner, landing gracefully in front of her.

She would have crashed into J.D, standing on the other side of the metal canister, if he hadn't dodged out of the way and caught her shoulders to stop her from falling. He smirked at her, and Rain glared at him, infuriated as his smirk became a mocking grin—

And then they were both running in opposite directions as the dragon flew around the corner, screaming.

It chose to chase her, for some unfathomable reason, and as Rain ran, her heart pounding in her chest, her breaths coming in short gasps, she realized she wouldn't be able to outrun it for much longer.

She could feel it gaining on her now, could feel it breathing down her neck, as she rounded another corner—

And stopped short before she crashed into the wall. Reacting instantly, she threw herself aside as the dragon roared, letting loose a torrent of flames which destroyed the wall inches from where her head had been moments earlier, the concrete sliding off in burned clumps as she watched, stunned.

It turned to look at her then, it's red eyes twinkling maliciously, and opened it's mouth hungrily, bounding forward to meet her.

She remembered then the sub-machine gun she still clutched in her hands. Flicking the safety off she turned to face the dragon, still crouched on the ground, and squeezed the trigger.

The dragon reared back, screaming in fury as the bullets pounded into it, and then ran for her, any semblance of harmlessness gone. Rain let go of the trigger and stumbled to her feet, looking to make a run for it—

Which, she realized, with a sickening thud of disbelief, was utterly impossible. A mess of metal and fire blocked her path to the left, and her only other option- straight in front of her- was blocked.

She braced herself as the dragon ran for her, seeking a way past it—

And then the metal canisters beside them exploded and Rain could feel herself flying over them, soaring through the air before coming to a painful landing a hundred meters away.

A sickening thud was the only indication she'd landed besides the blinding pain and Rain winced, rolling to her stomach and crawling to her feet slowly.

She was barely aware of Matt as he ran to her, lifting her and pulling her out of the way, ignoring her shout of pained protest as the dragon came stumbling around the corner.

It looked much worse for wear- escape from the explosion had obviously been impossible for it. Black holes seared the stretchy skin covering it's right wing, rendering it utterly incapable, and it's body was covered in burnt patches and glistening skin.

Rain only pondered the source of the fluid covering the monster for a moment before the smell hit her nose and she grimaced.

Gasoline.

Matt grabbed her around the stomach, yanking her to her feet, shouting in her ear, "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine," she shouted back at him, trying to be heard above the dragon's screams of fury. Her back, her entire body still ached, but it was nothing that wouldn't mend in a few minutes time. Nothing was broken, anyway.

She heard the dragon shambling around the corner, braced herself to run—

And then Michael tore past them, rounding the corner as the dragon, catching sight of him, began to bound after him.

Running straight for the row of canisters lining the back wall.

The canisters marked, "Caution: Extremely Flammable".

Injured as it was, Michael was able to beat the dragon to the end of the corridor, turning the corner and running off the other way as the dragon, unable to stop, smashed into the wall.

It's claws, outstretched in a vain attempt to skid to a halt, embedded themselves in the tanks, a fine spray of whatever was inside splashing out as it tried, in vain, to extract itself from the metal prison—

And then Alice stepped out from behind the next row of metal boxes, pulling the pin on the grenade she held and launching it at the chaotic scene.

She turned to run as the dragon let out another shout of fury, as if aware of it's impending fate—

And then the world exploded.

Rain threw herself to the ground, Matt following suit, as the station was filled with flames and black smoke, the incandescent heat washing over them. The noise was deafening, and Rain wondered if the rest of them had been able to get out of the way in time.

The thoughts were shoved from her head as the rumbling died down and the dragon began to scream.

Rain crawled to her knees, risking a glance around the corner.

The dragon was a literal fireball now, a mess of bubbling black skin and glowing flames as it twisted in obvious pain, shrieking and screaming and beating it's wings uselessly against the wall as it tried to free itself.

With one last tug, it managed to rip open the canister, pulling it's claws free—

And then screamed in pain again as the liquid washed over him, fueling the flames.

Rain turned away, feeling sick, seeing the same expression echoed on Matt's face. His hands were over his ears, obviously trying to block out the sound—

Which had begun to change, it's bestial wails changing tone, sounding almost—

Human.

Rain turned towards it again, unable to help it—

And realized, with shock, that it was no longer a dragon burning, but a human being.

She could hear Alice shouting for someone to put the fire out as she ran towards it, could see J.D and Michael both running forward to join her. Matt tore past her as well, and Rain clambered to her feet and followed.

J.D had pulled the sleeping bag from his bag and thrown it over the person as he continued to twitch in pain, the screams dying from his lips.

Two minutes seemed an eternity as J.D continued to stomp out the fire before yanking the sleeping bag away and staring down at the dragon-turned-man.

For him, salvation had come to late. He was charred black already, his clothes burned off, his body a crispy black The skin had melted off his face, and he stared up at them, empty sockets and incinerated mouth grinning grotesquely.

The only thing that had remained undamaged was the Umbrella badge which lay beside him.

Rain looked away.

Michael threw up behind her, and she could hear J.D drop the sleeping bag by the body, knowing the horrified look she wore must have been echoed on his face.

Looking up, she saw Alice staring, frozen in horror as she stared down at the body.

"How could they do this?" she asked, her voice ragged. "How could Umbrella—"

She broke off, and Matt was at her side in an instant, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her away from the scene.

The flames were sputtering out now, their source diminished, the floor under them burned black.

In the ceiling, a light burned out and exploded.

y

They had been walking in silence for over an hour now.

Michael walked in the middle of their group, Rain and J.D behind him, Matt and Alice ahead. All five were quiet, utterly emotionless, as if determined not to mention the events that had just occurred.

The only sound made, as they walked through the deserted subway tunnel, was their footsteps over the rocky ground.

The tunnel was dark, and as a result, both Alice and Rain walked with flashlights, Alice shining hers straight ahead while Rain's bobbed over the station as she toyed with it, obviously bored.

Matt and J.D both carried assault rifles, and Rain's machine gun had been handed, somewhat reluctantly, over to him. He was grateful for it's security, though he wasn't sure exactly how well he'd be able to use it- he'd never shot anything other than a pistol or a rifle.

Still, it felt good that they trusted him with it, trusted his ability to defend them. Thankfully, he hadn't had to yet. Oddly enough, nothing had either caught up to them or met up with them in the dark tunnels yet- Matt had predicted, rather darkly, that whatever Umbrella had to throw at them was probably inside the Hive.

None of them believed the dragon's impeccable timing had anything to do with coincidence, and now Michael couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.

Rain, to the surprise of no one, was the first to finally break the silence.

"Are we there yet?"

He heard J.D snort behind him. "Yes, Rain, that's why we're still walking."

By the wild swipe of her flashlight, Michael could only predict that she had attempted to use it as a weapon against J.D. He could hear them both snickering, and smiled despite himself, grateful for their presence.

J.D and Rain could both be irritating, true, but they were probably the only two people ever capable of breaking the moody silence that sometimes threatened to consume him- and not just him, but the whole group as a whole.

Rain's sigh broke his train of thought, and he looked over his shoulder as she spoke again. "Seriously, though, how much longer do we have to walk?"

Alice turned back, a small smile on her face. "What's wrong, Rain, tired?"

Her teasing question was met by a snort from Rain as she answered, somewhat defensively, "No. This is fucking boring though."

Alice laughed, then stopped suddenly as Matt said edgily, "Would you guys please keep it down?"

Watching closely, Michael saw Matt's shoulders loosen slightly as Alice edged forward, reaching for and grabbing his hand in reassurance.

He wondered briefly if Matt was suffering from the same side effects as earlier, and dismissed the thought as quickly as it'd come. He couldn't be. The virus's effects were strengthening every day, he knew that- but it'd taken them three weeks to manifest the first time, and while it was regular for the time needed to lessen gradually, there was no way the change in time could be this drastic.

Matt was probably just tired, and edgy.

They continued walking on in silence.

It took another hour to reach the entrance to the Hive.

As the five of them wandered in slowly, warily, Michael stared up in awe at the train station above them.

It was huge, at least three times as big as the embarking one had been, and filled with a somehow menacingly sterile atmosphere.

J.D was the first to clamber onto the level floor, the others following suit as they pulled themselves out of the tunnel.

Michael reached up, gripping the first surface he grasped, and pulled himself up as well, noting, with some disgust, the stickiness of the apparently clean floor as he did—

The source of which became sickeningly clear to him as he crawled onto the floor.

It was blood, splashed over the linoleum floor as if someone- or something- bleeding had slithered across it, ending in a dark splatter near the tunnel.

Michael shoved himself to his feet and hurriedly backed away from it.

"Spence," Alice said curtly, looking down at the stain. "That was..."

She turned abruptly, her words trailing off. "Let's go." She took off at a quick pace down the maze between plastic and steel dividers and columns, and Michael hurried to follow, pulling another weapon out of his knapsack as he did- Rain had already reclaimed her machine gun.

After a few twists and turns, they reached a staircase.

It was huge, easily three times the size of a regular staircase, and would have been beautiful had the whole thing not been made of a mix of stone and concrete.

They all raced up the stairs, a couple flights of them, ending in a small chamber of walls and flooring in the same concrete. Lights flickered dimly in the ceiling as Alice pulled a switch next to the top of the staircase.

What had once been an obviously heavy steel door had been torn open, giving way to a yawning hole of blackness.

They'd reached the Hive.

y

Alice had managed to find a way to restart the lighting, so even though they had no idea where they were going, at least they weren't wandering around in darkness anymore. In the Hive, darkness could be not only distressing but, eventually, fatal.

It didn't help that even with the light, Umbrella's monsters could probably see better than they could.

The video cameras blinked as they walked past them and Matt realized, with start of exasperation, that they were still working. He supposed he should have expected it, but after Alice's destruction of the computer monitor last time, he'd figured they probably would be on hiatus still.

Umbrella had probably fixed them.

And Umbrella was probably watching them too.

Rain, walking next to him, seemed to catch his expression as he stared at the cameras passing them by.

"Do you think they're watching us?" she asked casually, staring up at them.

He shrugged. "Probably," he admitted.

She grinned at him, and then, lifting both hands to the camera, made a rude gesture. Matt rolled his eyes, but couldn't help but laugh as J.D followed suit, both of them waving sardonically at the camera as they passed by.

"Good job down there," she added, glancing at him. "With the grenade and shit. Did you guys plan that?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Mostly Alice." He could feel himself blush as he said her name, and waited patiently for the teasing comments from Rain he knew he'd be forced to endure until the end of time. But Rain was concerned with other things.

"So how come I didn't know?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow.

He shrugged. "It sort of occurred to us as we were running," he admitted. "And we figured the dragon would eventually corner someone, so..."

Rain nodded in response, then stopped as she suddenly realized what he meant by the statement. "I was bait?" She asked incredulously. "Me?"

Matt couldn't stop the grin that spread over his face at her obvious distaste with the word. "In a manner of speaking, yeah."

"You guys made me the bait?" she echoed dumbly.

Behind them, Matt heard J.D laugh. "You deaf or something, Rain? You've said that like five times already."

Rain shook her head in response. "I can't believe you guys made me the bait," she complained, turning to glare at J.D—

And then a scream filled the corridor.

All three of them automatically glanced towards Alice and Michael, who led the group. They stared back at them, the confusion echoed on their faces—

And the source of the scream declared itself as the woman ran around the corner, stumbling forward to meet them, her face panicked.

"Thank God you guys are here," she sobbed. "These things, they're chasing me—"

And shrieked, ducking behind J.D as they slunk into the corridor.

Two black panthers, one absolutely massive, the other only slightly smaller, both with their faces torn open to reveal surgically enhanced rows of needle sharp teeth and forked green tongues.

Matt couldn't help but feel a surge of relief looking at the two.

After the dragon they'd just faced, this was nothing.

He stepped up next to Alice, feeling Rain and Michael fall into place on either side of them, taking aim as the first panther leapt—

And was bulleted by gunfire as all four of them fired simultaneously, Rain's machine gun doing the most damage, tearing off an ear, an eyeball exploding in it's skull.

It was dead before it fell to the ground inches in front of them, dead nearly before it had even leapt for them.

They raised their eyes to the second panther as it stared at them, almost lazily, it's tail swishing from side to side. It's eyes seemed to contemplate the situation for a moment, and then, as if a decision had been made, it turned abruptly and ambled back where it had came from.

Rain lifted her gun as if to fire again, but Alice turned to her, shaking her head. "No," she said quietly, "It's leaving."

"It might come back," Rain countered. "When we're not so well prepared."

Alice shrugged. "Umbrella has much worse than that," she pointed out. "Why waste our ammunition?"

Rain, for once, had no arguments for the statement, and lowered her gun as the panther slinked out of sight. "I'll guard."

Matt rolled his eyes, smiling despite himself at Rain's stubborn nature as he loosened his grip on his gun, holding it by his side as he hurried over to where J.D sat with the obviously distraught woman.

Reaching them, Alice asked quietly, "Are you hurt?"

The woman shook her head. "No," she said shakily. "I'm sorry I- panicked."

Matt nodded. "It's understandable," he said softly.

"Why are you here?" J.D asked bluntly.

Alice looked at him reproachfully, but as the woman shifted, the badge on her dirty lab coat caught the light, revealing the cause for J.D's hostility.

"You're from Umbrella," Matt commented. "Aren't you?"

She nodded. "Yes. I'm Olivia Alderic." Her voice was hesitant as she spoke, looking around at them as if she expected them to defy her statement. "I- me and my team were sent down here. To find out what happened with the Hive- we were sent here by my employer, William Archangelo."

Alice phrased the next question simply, her voice soft. "What happened?"

Olivia answered the question with a bitter laugh. "We found out these... monsters had gotten loose, and Archangelo locked us down here to prevent them from escaping. We got trapped inside one of the rooms, and I managed to escape." She shrugged, looking down at her hands as she added quietly, "I think I'm the only survivor."

J.D snorted, and she glared at him, her expression identical to Alice's. "What?"

"It's your creations that killed them," he pointed out. "You know that, don't you?"

Matt looked at her, curious despite himself to what her answer would be.

"Yes," she said simply. "Of course. Umbrella-" she hesitated. "I always justified what we were doing," she said softly. "I thought that, in the end, it would better humanity- but I've realized since that Archangelo doesn't give a damn about the human race."

Alice nodded, looking satisfied with the answer, and though J.D raised an eyebrow, he too seemed to accept her statement.

"Why are you here?" Olivia asked. "Did Umbrella send you?"

Alice hesitated, glancing at Matt; then, seemingly deciding what she wanted to say was safe, she said, "We're looking for—"

"Survivors," Rain interrupted. They all turned to look at her, Matt taking in the shrewd look on her face as he did.

"Survivors?" Olivia echoed, disbelief written over her face.

Rain smiled, undaunted. "Guess it's your lucky day."

J.D turned to look at her then, and a look passed between the two, a look of distrust Matt couldn't completely shake himself.

Olivia turned to Alice, as if looking for verification. Alice just smiled at her and said, "You'd better stick with us."

Glancing around the group, Matt took in the opinions written over their faces. Both Michael and Alice seemed wary, but convinced she was pretty much harmless- whereas J.D and Rain watched her as if expecting her to attack at any given moment.

And, as Matt pulled a pistol out of his bag, handing it to Olivia for self-defense purposes, he couldn't help but wonder if J.D and Rain might be right.

y

William Archangelo was not having a good day.

True, good days were rare in his business. No matter how well business was, there was always some incident waiting just around the corner to fuck up his day.

But this- this was unbelievable. Not only had they dispatched his dragon, his pride and joy, in under ten minutes, but so far all five of them had managed to avoid death or even injury of some sort.

Anderson had been sent out of the room ages ago for William's own personal sanity, but he found himself missing his presence now. He needed an outlet for his anger, and a shot of vodka wouldn't have hurt either.

Instead he stared at the monitor, his hands clenched into fists, distaste written over his face as he watched the second panther, the one he'd hand-picked to guard the Hive, slink away from the hamsters.

They all crowded around Alderic then, listening to the pathetic medic's sob story with understanding faces as William snorted in distaste. Damn that women. He should have dispatched her as he'd done the others; quick, simple deaths in the halon-pumped elevators.

Instead he'd left her, figuring on her eventual demise, and now she'd met up with his bloody nemesis. The thorn in his side, the nagging idiots that had been foremost on his mind ever since the first incident back in October.

Well, perhaps the hamsters would decide to take the elevator.

But, then, William couldn't count on that. Despite their lacking mental tendencies, even the hamsters weren't that stupidly reckless.

He supposed he'd just have to wait for one of his other creations to find them—

Or perhaps wait for them to wander into the room he had created specifically for observation purposes. The room with no less than six locks, steel doors and walls, virtually no way out- with a grand array of over ten cameras so he could watch their satisfyingly slow deaths with absolutely no complications.

But the room was far down below the Hive, nearly on it's bottom level, and almost impossible to access unless one knew particularly the right path to take to it.

But, then- Alderic knew the way there, didn't she? All Umbrella's employees knew.

William smiled, gazing at the screen.

Maybe this could work to his advantage after all.