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. Except Michael, and Olivia, and William, and this plot. I own a few things, anyway. Just not the baseline :)

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

Author's Notes: Again, a thousand thanks to all those who have reviewed and commented upon "Into the Light" thus far! Particularly for chapter five: Valerie, Gabzilla, Serpentia, rain1657, Usagi Jokasami, Faded Writer, and Mathews89; I am eternally grateful, please continue!:) And again: please feel free to critique, I'm completely open to comments and suggestions. Also, please leave your email with your review, I like writing back and commenting! :)

Also, exciting news: I went to a police station tour yesterday as part of my Forensics unit in class, and now actually know something about guns! Be prepared for realism in the next few chapters, lol. Very excited about it.

Thanks to a tip from Valerie, I'm trying for real spaces this time, lol. Wish me luck!

(Minutes later) Did not work. I honestly think I'm cursed. Loads of thanks to Valerie for the suggestion! Back to "y" again :)

Thanks again, enjoy the fic!

Into the Light

Chapter Five: Closing Your Eyes

Eight days.

The words seemed imbedded into Alice's brain, shifting in fear and turmoil as she accepted the words and tried to be positive, think of a solution; and then denied them in the next moment, unable to believe in a fate so seemingly hopeless.

However, as she stood in the middle of the tiny room, watching as the others, already seated on previously unrolled sleeping bags, spoke quietly amongst themselves, one thing stayed the same.

She wished she'd never found the files.

She made her way over to Matt, where he sat on their sleeping bag, still facing the wall.

They only had four now. J.D's had been left at the train station, and with the extra addition of Olivia, that meant two sleeping bags had to be shared. Her and Matt had chosen one, and she assumed J.D and Rain would bunk up as well.

Matt hadn't said a word since Olivia had read out the last of the files, and Alice hadn't pressed the issue. She knew he'd talk to her when he needed to.

But then, he probably wouldn't get a better chance than now. J.D and Rain were both in the glassed in room next door and Michael and Olivia, where they sat by the door, were completely absorbed in conversation regarding the chemical tendencies of most of Umbrella's viral weaponry.

So she made her way over to Matt and sat down beside him, placing a tentative hand on his shoulder. "Matt?" she asked softly, praying to whatever god was listening that he wouldn't be crying.

She couldn't stand to see him cry. Matt was the strongest, the most reliable person in the world to her, and when he broke down, it was like he was a different person. Stripped of his confidence, he was scared and at times almost needy, a heartbreaking sight to see.

When he turned to her, however, his face was blank. He wasn't crying, and yet somehow the blankness was a hundred times worse to her.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly. No response. She took a breath, tried again. "Matt?"

His face was still a mask of indifference, and she blinked back tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "Matt," she started, aware of how ragged her voice had become, "Matt, I'm sorry."

The words brought him out of his reverie, and he turned to face her finally, a look of startled bemusement crossing his features. "What?"

Alice closed her eyes, feeling a tear snake down her cheek and hating herself for it, wanting to be stronger. For Matt. She should be comforting him, it shouldn't be the other way around. "I'm sorry."

Matt smiled, a gentle smile, and wiped away her tear with his hand, the touch soft on her cheek. "Why?"

She forced herself to smile. "I just wish I hadn't found the file," she admitted.

He looked surprised, and then amused, and then suddenly saddened, the expressions flitting over his face like summer fading into winter. "It's not your fault," he told her. "We would have found out eventually anyway, and it's better we know now. It gives us more time to fight."

She nodded, and leaned into him. He pulled her close to him, and then, lifting her chin gently, told her softly, "I love you."

She smiled up at him, touched at the way Matt seemed to have a sort of inbred need to express his emotions. She knew he loved her, just as he knew she loved him- they didn't need to say anything.

But then, sometimes words were so much comforting than simple knowledge.

"I love you too," she whispered, and then kissed him softly, reveling in an embrace she knew the poignancy of all too well.

They still had eight days. Eight days to find the anti-virus- AV04, to be exact- and distribute it to Matt. Eight days to save his life, to deal an incidental blow to Umbrella with the loss of a new highly-hoped for "specimen".

Eight days wasn't a lot of time. But she loved Matt. They all did. Even J.D, so prominently against his presence in the beginning, had grown not only to accept, but welcome his presence in the group.

In eight days time they would fight Umbrella's creations, they would make their way through the labs- they would find the cure.

Eight days was all they needed.

y

The room was glaringly white and shockingly sterile, and with the bright floodlights fixated in the corners of the ceiling, Rain felt surprisingly like a rat in a cage. Especially with the fact that the room they were in was encased entirely in two-way mirrors, with the exception of one actual window.

Even though she knew the only people on the other side of the wall were Matt, Alice, Michael and Olivia, it was still fucking creepy to be staring at her and J.D's reflection and knowing someone could be staring in at her.

J.D was somewhat quiet, staring at the mirrors with a perplexed expression on his face. Rain waited patiently for a moment before asking, "What are you doing?"

He snorted. "Staring at the wall, is that okay with you, Rain?" he replied, no particular rancor in his tone.

"You're quiet, though," she observed, completely unfazed by his answer. "Are you okay?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I'm fine. Being in here, though- it reminds me of being in the hospital in Raccoon."

Rain pondered that for a moment, wishing she had something to say besides the candid comment that first popped into her head: "Oh. That sucks."

But the truth was, she had no idea what it would be like to be trapped inside here, waiting anxiously for Umbrella to come and experiment on you, use you for whatever sick purpose they'd brought you in here for. When she'd woken up, it had only been for a moment before she'd passed out again, and she'd woken up to see Matt and J.D watching over her. Still half asleep and suffering the side effects of massive blood extractions and all the shit Umbrella had drugged her with, none of the situation had even particularly registered to her until she was safely away from it.

With J.D, though, it'd been different. She couldn't even imagine what J.D's last moments had been like- hadn't even asked him. She didn't want to.

Because no matter the rationality behind it, she still felt guilty for letting go of his hand. She hadn't meant to- with fucking Spence and Kaplan trying to pull her away, she hadn't exactly had a choice. But she wondered, still, what it would have been like had it been her in that situation instead of J.D. How she would have felt when J.D dropped her hand, leaving her to the inevitable consequences.

At least he didn't remember most of it. That's what he had told her, anyway. That he hadn't been able to remember a lot of the things he'd done when he was dead, and that when he'd first woken up, it'd been like being born again. He hadn't remembered anything until nearly an hour later.

God, that must have been fucking terrifying.

Rain looked at him again, sitting and still staring into the mirror. She looked at the mirror too, flicking her eyes from her reflection to his, and making eye contact with him through their reflections. He quirked an eyebrow, both curious and amused, and she gave a small smile in return, still trying to figure out a way to phrase what she wanted to say.

In the end she didn't need to, because just then the door opened and Olivia walked in with her stupid, hesitant smile. "Hi. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Rain ignored her, and felt J.D poke her in the back as a result. She turned to glare at him as he said, "You're not interrupting."

Olivia smiled. "Good. I was actually hoping to talk to you for a minute." She paused. "Alone. If that's okay."

This led to both of them staring at Rain as if waiting for a verdict to the question. Instead of answering, she simply stood and walked out of the room, leaving them to their conversation.

Maybe she shouldn't dislike Olivia. She barely knew the girl anyways. But she was boring, for chrissake, and- shifty, somehow. Like she was hiding something.

Pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind, she skipped past Matt and Alice, who seemed to be sharing a close moment on their sleeping bag, and moved onto Michael instead, who sat near the door, paging through the file.

She dropped down next to him, and he looked up at her with a faintly amused smile. "Hey, Rain."

She smiled back at him. "Hey," she greeted him easily. Michael could be boring sometimes too, but he was a nice guy, and had a good head on his shoulders. "What are you working on?"

"I'm just paging through these," Michael said, gesturing to the papers on the ground with the ones in his head. "Olivia taught me some of the abbreviations, and the rest were easy to figure out."

She nodded. "Anything interesting?"

"Yeah," he replied. Looking up at her, he continued, "Over the next eight days, Matt's going to be way more volatile than he was before. The time between dosages of the anti-virus is going to decrease, and—"

"How long until he needs another dosage?" Rain interrupted him.

He shrugged. "Probably about a day," he said honestly. "Stress, of course, will make it worse. Any anger, any fear- pretty much any emotion should be avoided over the next few days. The AV04 is in one of the labs, according to this, so as soon as we find out which one and where it is, it'll be that much easier."

She quirked an eyebrow. "And how many are there, exactly?"

Michael smiled, an almost sheepish grin, and admitted. "Close to twenty."

She laughed. "And what, are we just going to sweep through the whole thing 'till we figure out which one it is?"

Michael shrugged. "A lot of the labs are used for different things. It's possible Umbrella could have put the anti-virus in either of them simply to throw us off, but it's most likely in one of the labs used to store viral development."

"And how many of those are there?"

"Only four."

"Oh," Rain paused. "That's not bad, actually."

Michael smiled. "Not really, no. Especially considering three of them are on the same floor."

"So which one do you think it is?"

Michael pointed to a location on the map he'd found in the files. "Here. This one's nearly on the bottom level, has six locks, steel walls, a lot of security overall. I'm guessing that if Umbrella planned to keep anything guarded, that's where it would be."

"Unless it's a decoy," Rain said darkly. "You never know with Umbrella."

Michael shrugged. "Maybe Olivia knows. And anyway, the important thing right now is that we make sure nothing upsets Matt, or stresses him out."

"We're in the Hive, that's going to be sort of hard to manage," Rain pointed out.

Michael smiled. "I know. But everyone in the group- especially you, Rain- has to be careful around him. Try not to upset him in any way, and if he starts getting edgy, get me or Alice." He peered at her, as if trying to make sure she understood. "So no fighting?"

She laughed. "Of course not. What, you think I'm an idiot or something?"

He grinned. "Well, there is a reason Alice insisted I make sure to let you know all this information."

Rain had to laugh. Insulting as the prospect seemed, it was true. She loved Matt like a brother, and she was sure he loved her too.

But that didn't stop them from butting heads every five minutes, either.

y

The door closed behind Rain and Olivia stood in front of it, looking like a little kid ready to present her first book report. Her hands were clasped in front of her, and her expression was hesitant as J.D gazed at her expectantly.

Finally, he gestured at the wall with his shoulder and suggested, "Why don't you sit down or something?"

She did, sitting down in front of him without a word- and then burst into speech immediately. "Look, R.D, I just wanted to say—"

She broke off suddenly, staring at him with a perplexed look. Whether she'd simply forgotten what she was going to say or had just lost her resolve, J.D didn't know.

Of course, his laughter could have had something to do with it too.

"What?"

J.D snickered. "It's J.D, not R.D. Olivia."

"Oh," she said, looking only slightly embarrassed. "Sorry. But anyway, J.D—"

He couldn't help but laugh again at the emphasis she put on his name and she paused again, looking exasperated. "What?"

J.D waved at her. "Nothing. Keep going."

"Okay," she said, casting him a suspicious look, as if expecting him to start laughing again at any given moment. "Fine. I just wanted to say thank you."

J.D look at her, surprised. "For what?"

She smiled. "Just- for being there. Everyone else has pretty much ignored me, and I doubt anyone here trusts me. But you're- different. You've actually treated me like a person."

The confession startled him even more, and he wondered what she wanted him to say. Lie to her, and say they did? Defend Alice and Matt, who'd actually been nice to her as well? Or just act like she hadn't said anything out of the ordinary?

Finally he settled on a median. "Nobody hates you," he pointed out.

She laughed. "She does," she said wryly, nodding outside the singular windowed panel behind J.D.

J.D turned and looked, seeing Rain where she sat looking over documents with Michael. "No she doesn't," he lied easily.

As if she could hear them talking about her, Rain turned to look at them. When she took in their faces, both staring out at her, she fixed them both with a stony glare before returning her attention back to Michael.

Olivia stared at him, and J.D grinned. "Rain just has to get used to you."

She nodded, a small smile on her face. "That might take awhile."

He shrugged, looking at Rain. Olivia's silence finally registered to him and he turned to look at her.

She was quiet and still, gazing at him with her huge blue eyes, her mouth slightly parted. As he stared back at her, his thoughts seeming to vanish only to be replaced by those eyes, his body reacting as if by impulse as he leaned forward, realizing as he did how close she was—

And captured her mouth in a kiss, feeling her respond with a thrilling jolt, losing himself in her—

And pulled back suddenly, flushed, and glanced, almost automatically, through the window behind him.

Matt and Alice were still absorbed in their conversation, and Rain still flipped through the file, a bored look on her face.

Looking slightly past her to check on Michael, J.D was shocked to see him staring back at him, an undecipherable look on his face.

"J.D, what's wrong?"

Tearing his gaze from Michael's, J.D looked back at Olivia. She stared at him, her expression confused, and he shrugged. "Nothing."

He pulled back when she leaned forward to kiss him again though, and she stopped, a hurt expression crossing her face. "Do you not want to—"

"No," J.D said, shaking his head vehemently. "No, Olivia, I do. It's just-" he paused, praying she wouldn't take it the wrong way- "Maybe we should keep it quiet."

She looked guarded. "Why?"

He shrugged. "With everything going on right now, maybe it's best we don't fuck with the whole group relationship," he said bluntly.

The words were harsh, and though he felt guilty for the look of hurt that crossed Olivia's face, he was glad the words were out there.

He cared about Olivia, yeah. Given time, he'd probably even love her.

But Rain, Matt, Alice and Michael- they came first to him, and if their relationship was going to affect them in any way, there wasn't going to be a relationship.

Olivia's voice, when she answered, was short. "So we're just going to hide it from everyone?"

"For eight days," J.D reminded her. "I just don't want anything to get in the way of what we're here to do."

She looked tired. "And what is that exactly?"

J.D blinked. "What?"

She shrugged. "You guys are obviously looking for the anti-virus," she added, not as a question but as a comment. "So who's infected?"

J.D sighed. "Look, like Alice said, Olivia, we're not telling you.

"Actually, what she told me was to mind my own goddamn business," Olivia pointed out. "After Rain already had, of course."

A hot flash of anger erupted inside J.D, and he fought to ignore it. "Look, Olivia, it's not my secret to keep, all right?"

She seemed to sense that she was pushing the limits with him, because she faltered, and then relented. "Fine."

He nodded. "Good."

"And I'll keep it a secret."

He nodded again. Looking at her expression, an equal mix of annoyance and grudging trust, his anger evaporated instantly. He felt bad asking her to keep their relationship, or whatever it was, a secret, like he was ashamed of it or something- but there was no way around it. Rain would be pissed if she knew- he'd lied before when he'd told Olivia she trusted her. The truth was that Rain didn't trust Olivia any further than she could throw her.

Which, being Rain, might actually be a considerable distance.

But the point was, she'd freak if she found out he actually planned to get closer to Olivia than he had to. She wouldn't trust him anymore- none of them would. And trust was the very thing their entire group relationship was based upon.

Refocusing on Olivia, J.D smiled at her. "Thank you," he said softly. "I'm going to go talk to Michael about it, okay?"

He couldn't kiss her, and so he reached forward and grabbed her hand, clasping it in his own. She smiled ruefully at her, and he felt a brilliant wave of appreciation for her understanding nature as he squeezed her hand once; and then relinquished it, and left the room.

y

Michael was quite possibly the only one who'd been suspicious of the interaction taking place between J.D and Olivia when she'd walked into the room and closed the door behind her. J.D and Rain had closed the door as well; but then, those two always had the doors closed if one of them wanted to talk about something personal.

And if anyone else closed the door while walking in, J.D was always more on guard than usual- particularly with people he didn't know as well.

Like Olivia.

But this time he'd only glanced out the solitary window once- almost as if to make sure no one was watching them- and then turned back to Olivia.

And then there'd been the kiss, which had ended with another guilty scan for viewers by J.D.

This time he'd seen Michael watching, and unfortunately, would probably want to talk about it later.

Not a prospect Michael looked forward to. Olivia was a nice enough woman, but J.D barely knew her. None of them did. And then getting together could only bring about more conflict.

Unfortunately, he doubted J.D would be willing to listen to any of this.

In any case, he'd find out soon- because at that moment, the door opened again and J.D walked out, looking pleased, but with undercurrents of worry as well.

He nodded at Matt and Alice, punched Rain playfully on the shoulder, and headed straight for Michael, who raised an eyebrow at him as he sat down and leaned forward.

"Look, Michael," he began. "About me and Olivia—"

"It's not going to work," Michael interrupted, looking at him sympathetically. "I mean, J.D, look- it's good that you and Olivia get along, but think of how the group would react to it. Nobody trusts her already- they'd think she was getting close to you just to get information. And who knows? She might be. And then with Matt and everything- maybe you guys should wait."

J.D nodded. "You're right."

Michael blinked. "Oh," he said, surprised. "Well. Good."

"And that's why we're keeping it secret," J.D continued.

"What?" Michael asked. "J.D, are you insane?"

He sighed. "Look, I know it's fucked up," he said. "But could you just- please- keep it quiet? Just for eight days."

Michael shook his head. "J.D, I'm sorry, but this plan has way too many flaws and I just don't think—"

"What are you guys doing?" Rain asked cheerfully.

Both men jumped, and then J.D grinned at her. "We're talking about science, Rain. People of intelligence only."

She snorted. "I guess that excludes you, doesn't it, J.D?"

"At least I finished high school," he shot back at her, grinning.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up," she said with a laugh. "J.D, you fucking retard."

He grinned. "So why are you here, anyway?"

"Matt and I are guarding tonight," she said promptly. "So you guys should probably get some sleep, so you'll guard properly tomorrow and nothing will sneak in and kill us all while we sleep."

She stood and wandered across the room, answering J.D's shout of "Goodnight Rainy!" with a physical expression of her annoyance at the term.

J.D looked back at Michael, his smile gone. "Look, just- please don't say anything," he pleaded.

Michael stared at him hard, then nodded. "Fine."

J.D smiled, looking relieved. "Thanks, Michael," he said quietly. Michael shrugged, and J.D took the opportunity to hurry off to his knapsack, where he began to rummage through it for something as Michael watched him silently.

J.D and Olivia were both behaving like idiots, and this plan was risky at best. Michael understood that finding someone, particularly in their situation, was near impossible- but it wasn't worth sacrificing the bond of trust the group shared.

But then, it's not as if saying anything to everyone would help either. It was J.D's business, not his. And it was only for eight days. Maybe it could work.

But if a more likely outcome occurred, and the whole thing blew up in their faces, it was J.D's job to pick up the pieces.

y

J.D didn't look happy.

Olivia had been watching him, her face pressed up against the window, for ten minutes now. It wasn't exactly beneficial to her and J.D's "cover-up", but it's not as if anyone was paying attention to her.

She hated this whole situation, and yet she loved it too. Keeping their newly formed relationship secret was stupid, and childish as well. But if nothing had happened to keep secret, Olivia never would have had the chance to get closer to J.D.

She did love him. She barely knew him, but he was the only one out of the entire group who seemed even to care about her fate.

J.D finished talking to Michael and walked over to his knapsack. Looking up, he flashed her a brief smile before unzipping the pack and rummaging through it.

That was the signal that Olivia could leave the room now. By the fact that the relief in his smile was real, though tinged with slight worry, Olivia guessed Michael had agreed to keep their relationship a secret.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that. Relief, absolutely; if Michael hadn't agreed, Olivia had no doubts J.D would have called the whole thing off. He cared too much about his friends to risk tension in the group.

It was that sort of caring that made Olivia intensely jealous. J.D had known some of them for years, and lying to them like this was undoubtedly hard for him. And despite guild, she couldn't help but feel a sort of proud superiority because he was making this sacrifice for her.

But she felt guilty, too, because despite her occasional isolation, a lot of people in the small group had been kind to her- even after they'd found out she worked for Umbrella. Particularly Matt and Alice. And they hadn't had to.

Olivia sighed.

It didn't matter. Everyone would find out eventually, and until then, hopefully everything would be okay.

Olivia stood and reached for the door—

And jumped nearly a foot in the air when her cell phone began to shrill loudly, vibrating against her hip where she had shoved it into her coat pocket. Pulling it out hastily, she flipped it open, looking at the caller I.D.

It read first "Umbrella"- the phone was designed only for the use of employers- and then "Private Number".

Olivia frowned. It couldn't be Crawford, or Archangelo, or any other corporation leaders- their names would have been displayed.

And the cell phone had been nearly out of batteries.

It shouldn't have rang at all.

Feeling a slight chill, Olivia lifted the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

Looking up, through the window, she saw that all activity had ceased; everyone was staring at her.

They must have heard the phone ring.

Alice looked curious, Matt thoughtful; Rain and Michael both stared at her with open suspicion.

The voice on the other end, as the caller answered, pushed all thoughts from her mind.

"Hello, Ms. Alderic," he said silkily.

Archangelo.

End

A/N: Normally my updates are every second Friday... but withthe next update daybeing Christmas Eve, I'm going to be in Lake Louise, so I won't be updating until the week after that, on December 31st.

Anyways, thanks for reading, please review, and have a lovely Christmastime (or whatever it is you celebrate)!