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: Consider the lacking amount of people using the characters out there, I should own them. But I don't. So don't sue :)

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

Author's Notes: Firstly, congratulate me, I'm a star:) Really, though, I just got a part in the Cinderella musical my school is doing (wicked stepsister, for those who wonder!), so that means I'm going to be incredibly busy for the next little while, although I promise to work as hard as is humanly possible to continue with on-time updates.

Secondly, I'm really sorry for the lack of thank-you notes this chapter. I've been really busy with a lot of other things, chapters ten and eleven among them, but promise to start sending notes again with this chapter.

Thirdly (And really, most importantly :)) Thanks again to those who have reviewed Into the Light thus far, particularly for chapter nine: Jen Drake, The Seventh Angel, masked-in-your-shadows, Kagii, rain1657, kk, XMaster, and Faded Writer. Please again remember to leave your emails with your reviews so I can thank you for them and answer any questions you have. Thanks goes out also to all those who read and don't review, even though I beg you—continuously—to do so. It's still very appreciated.

Also, just to let you all know my plans for this fic: there's about six or seven chapter left of "Into the Light", and after that will probably be a two week/one month break before the third part. If you'd like an update when I finally do post it, just let me know—I'll post another reminder with the next chapter :)

Thanks again, enjoy the fic!

Into the Light

Chapter Ten: Broken

The blue grey cement walls and pale tiling on the floors of the corridors seemed familiar to Alice the first time the group entered the third floor.

Five minutes later, as they passed by a series of windowed, shattered labs, she had already known what they would find in the next corridors over.

And ten minutes later, when they came into one of the work labs, complete with a ring of desks and office spaces, Alice knew.

She'd been here before.

Her and Matt had, after the first zombie attack. The one that had left J.D dead and the group shattered, half running for an adjacent room while she and Matt had ended up in here. Where Lisa had worked.

She moved closer to him unconsciously, touching his hand gently as they moved around the glass cylinder, fully aware that he was staring inside, looking for—something. Lisa's workplace, Lisa herself, Alice didn't know. She didn't even know what happened to zombies once they were ultimately dead—whether Lisa would even still be here.

He clasped her hand tightly in his, and she squeezed back, feeling a strange mix of love and sympathy wash over her. She wondered if Matt was imagining himself in Lisa's place, picturing his friends' reaction to his own mutation.

It doesn't matter, she told herself firmly.

Matt's going to be fine.

She doubted the Red Queen's word. She would have to be blind, deaf, and criminally insane not to. But it was a pre-recorded copy of the program they were dealing with this time, and somehow that made it seem safer. The program had already been installed into the room before the Hive first fell, and she had no reason to believe Umbrella would be idiotic enough to plant false programs in their database.

She shook the thoughts away before squeezing Matt's hand tightly once more, then dropping it, moving slightly forward to lead the group as they turned another corner, entering a new corridor and leaving the previous room behind.

They were almost there now. Two more corridors and they would reach the lab the Red Queen had directed them to.

Two more corridors and they would have the anti-virus.

Alice smiled slightly, feeling like a small child waiting for Christmas morning. Everything had been falling apart for God knew how long—their repeated searches had been useless, Matt's mutations continued to increase in strength and occurrence, and now there was tension in the group due to the whole J.D/Olivia question.

But still, they had managed to find a cure—and now, suddenly, things were looking up.

She smiled ruefully. It was strange, but at times Alice felt as if she wanted the cure far more badly than Matt ever could. It would his life at stake, and yet Alice felt she would ultimately lose far more by losing him than he ever could simply by dying.

She stopped suddenly, bringing the entire group to a halt as she stared at the steel numbers over the frosted glass doorway.

Laboratory B18.

They were here.

The door opened easily—the Red Queen had held her end of the bargain about that, at least—and the group of six slipped in quietly, the door closing behind them with a soft 'whoosh'.

"Wow," Michael breathed quietly.

They were in a room which, undoubtedly, served as the highest security containment center of the Hive. Smoky blue glass made up the walls of the room, the floors and the ceiling both covered in a shiny, black paneling.

The only sound in the room emanated from the tall blue screen in front of them, miles away in the massive room, standing surrounded by a convey of lights and buttons and roofing a single security console.

Two plush grey chairs sat in front of the media screen, almost as if they'd been waiting for them.

Past that, the room was empty. Steel drawers, like the ones found in a morgue, covered the adjacent walls top to bottom, no doubt housing the Hive's most secure viral development.

"Technology at its best," Michael mused quietly as Alice moved forward, hovering over the control console. She heard Rain snicker as Matt came up to lean gently behind her, Olivia taking the seat to her right.

"Techie geek," she scoffed.

"Ungrateful," Michael returned easily, and Alice was struck by the reduced shyness in his tone. Rain, with her blunt and outgoing nature, was obviously a perfect catalyst to Michael's—often concealed—wry sense of humor.

Please Enter The Code.

The words flashed suddenly across the screen, and Alice glanced at Olivia, who shrugged. "Most of the programs are time-programmed relative of the sensory controls on the door. If the door opens, the program starts up. It's protocol; I doubt anything to worry about."

Alice moved her hands to the keyboard to type in the code—

And then suddenly hesitated, her earlier distrust of the Red Queen overtaking her optimism once again. She had no idea if the program was even being honest with her, if the code would work.

For all she knew, the smoky glass would shatter, more of the spider monkey mutants would come bounding through, and Matt—

Matt would mutate again.

Matt's presence was warm, solid and comforting behind her as he whispered, "Go ahead."

She entered in the code.

There was a slight beep, and the screen flashed to black, low blue lights relighting the suddenly dark room as words scrolled across the screen, the Red Queen's voice accompanying them.

"Thank you for entering your code. Anti-virus AV04 will be released following a complete clearance and bypassing of all security systems."

She continued, her voice droll, "Security system bypass will continue through twenty four hours time. The doors will be locked for this time."

"Twenty four hours begins now."

The screen flashed to black again, and the room was filled in a sudden silence as it's occupants stared at one another.

The only sound in the room was Rain's voice as she broke the thundering silence.

"You gotta be kidding me."

xxxxx

Three hours had passed since her initial comment, and now Rain lay on the ground, a pad of paper in front of her and a pen clutched firmly in her hand as she pounded numbers into the calculator beside her.

She was attempting—rather badly—to equate a complicated Physics theorem regarding acceleration, gravity, and displacement, among other things.

It hadn't exactly been her idea.. When Michael—lying beside her now, diligently marking her other equations—had offered to teach her some of the "mathematical shit" he loved and she hated enough to refer to it as such, she had adamantly refused.

But then she'd watched as Matt and Alice, and J.D and Olivia, had slunk away to the dark corners of the room to do God knows what, leaving her and Michael alone in the middle of the room, and realized she might as well try it. It's not like she had anything else to do.

Besides, it might be interesting to actually try out the shit that always got Michael so hyped up.

"So how am I doing?" she asked offhandedly.

He grimaced, and she turned to grin at him. "What?"

"Not that well," he admitted. "Your equations are right, but—"

"Yeah, whatever," she cut him off, returning to the page in front of her. "Dude, I failed grade eleven math and dropped out of school a month later. I'm not exactly a friggin' mathematic genius."

He rolled his eyes. "Look, you're doing this right. You're obviously fairly smart—I'm willing to bet anything you were the type of student who skipped class to smoke pot all the time and blamed your failure on the teachers."

She snorted. "Yeah, well, I'm willing to bet you were the type of student who carried six calculators, spent your weekends studying, and glared at me when you passed me in the hallway," she returned, her voice free of any real malice.

He shrugged. "Two, not six," he admitted, and she laughed as he rolled his eyes again. "Seriously, though. You're just having problems with relative distance and reference points."

She stared, and then she laughed. "What?"

Smiling slightly, he reached out and ripped off her equations page to reveal a new one, ignoring her protests. "Look. A person is in a car, throwing apples—" he ignored her snort of laughter—"At someone ahead of the car, at a velocity of 5.6 m/s, if he's acting as the reference point. To the person ahead of him, though, you have to add the speed of the car to that velocity. Do you understand?"

She scowled at him. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

He sighed, pulling out another piece of paper, and she was both amused and exasperated by his persistence.

"Okay, we'll use something you can relate to." He drew a small line, saying, "This is a conveyer belt." A small stick figure appeared on it, and he added, "This is Olivia."

She raised an eyebrow at him and he ignored it, saying, "She's just standing there. The escalator is moving at 5 m/s."

Another stick figure joined the diagram. "This is you, standing here. How fast is Olivia moving?"

"She's not."

He smiled at her, looking like a patient teacher trying to console an irritable child. "Not walking, Rain, moving."

She shrugged. "5 m/s."

He nodded. "Right. And then a zombie starts chasing her—" A small, misshapen stick figure landed on the line behind Olivia, and Rain laughed. "So she starts running at 3 m/s," he finished. "How fast is she going?"

"8 m/s," she said promptly.

"And from the zombie's point of view?"

Another slight snicker. "Not fast enough." Michael rolled his eyes at her and she relented, if only slightly. "3 m/s."

He smiled at her. "That's relative distance."

She scowled at him. "So what happens next?"

He stared at her. "What?"

"To Olivia," she clarified. "Does the zombie catch up to her? Do I watch and cackle as she dies a slow and painful death?"

Michael laughed despite himself and she grinned, knowing that, after all this time, some part of him still had to wonder whether or not she was serious.

She wasn't, obviously. She didn't particularly like Olivia, but if she was being chased by a zombie, Rain was sure she'd step in at some point and rectify the situation.

Probably.

"Uh, that's up to you, I guess," he said finally, and she grinned.

"I'm more creative than that," she said, insulted. He ignored her, but she could see the corners of his mouth turning up slightly and grinned.

She returned to her equations, shifting slightly to grab her pen again.

Physics was boring. And yet, lying here, working and talking about little other than the subject, Rain was far more comfortable than she'd been since she'd arrived inside the Hive.

xxxxx

For what seemed the first time since she'd arrived inside the Hive, Alice felt safe.

She was leaning up against Matt's chest, his arms wrapped around her stomach and her head against his shoulder, tracing lazy butterfly formations on his jeans with her hands. She could feel his heartbeat behind her, frighteningly fast with the strains of the virus on his system—but still comfortably solid, comfortably Matt.

He was tracing his own patterns over her shoulder, and she shivered slightly at the sensation.

"So what are we going to do when we get out of here?"

She straightened slightly at the question. "What?"

She felt him shrug behind her as he answered softly, "When all this shit with Umbrella is finished. When I have the anti-virus, when we take down Umbrella and make them pay for what they did to Lisa and everyone else around them… what then?"

Alice answered with her own shrug, pausing before answering softly, "What do you want to do?"

His answer was firm and unhesitating. "Be with you."

She smiled a sleepy smile, leaning further into him as she whispered, "Me too."

She craned her neck to kiss his hand, still traveling gently over her shoulder, before pulling away from him to stand abruptly and sending him an embarrassed smile. "Sorry. I just—I can't sit any longer."

He stayed where he was, reaching up to clasp one of her hands in his. "We'll find the anti-virus," he said gently, reassuringly. "It'll be fine."

She wondered uselessly how he knew how worried she was. How he always knew what she was feeling, before she had said a word.

Pushing aside the rhetorical thoughts, she answered, her voice flat. "Yeah. Assuming the Red Queen actually keeps her word."

He tugged on her hand, and she sighed, rolling her eyes and smiling wryly at him before dropping to her knees next to him. "What?"

"Stop worrying," he said quietly. "We've gotten this far. If it doesn't work, we still have four days left."

"Three," she corrected. "After these twenty-four hours are up."

He shrugged. "Whatever," he said with a small smile. He squeezed her hand, still clasped in his, tightly before leaning forward and dropping a quick kiss on her forehead. "It'll be fine," he whispered, moving onto her mouth.

He wrapped his free arm around her waist, feeling her fingers combing through his hair as he pulled her forward.

She took the initiative, deepening the kiss, and he leaned back so she was pulled practically onto his lap before pulling back slightly.

They were inches apart now, their breaths harsh and commingled, and he rested his forehead against hers, allowing himself to lose himself in the vibrant blue of her eyes as he whispered, "I promise."

xxxxx

He'd finally gotten it. J.D had finally found not one, but twenty four hours to talk to both Rain and Olivia and clear the air slightly.

Unfortunately, there was only an hour left now, and instead of dreading an end to the twenty four hours, he was impatiently awaiting it.

Nothing had exactly worked out the way he'd planned. Besides a classic check-up from Alice, her and Matt had been gone all day, and when he'd first considered talking to Rain she'd been halfway across the room, looking so comfortable he hadn't wanted to disturb her. She hadn't been moody for once, and so it had been easier to pretend for the moment that things were still okay between them.

And besides, at the time J.D had seen it as an opportunity to spend some quality time with Olivia. Not only for the obvious physical benefits, but because Olivia had seemed upset about the fight yesterday and he'd been worried about her. She'd waved him off the night before, but he knew she had to have felt at least somewhat guilty about freezing up and had hoped that here, in a quieter, atmosphere, she'd be more willing to talk about it.

Unfortunately, he'd been completely and horribly wrong. Olivia had blown up instantly when he'd brought up the subject and only toned down slightly when she'd noticed, her face reflecting embarrassment, that the entire group was staring at her. While Michael and Rain's expressions had showed surprise and slight amusement, Alice's had been worried and Matt's only slightly baffled.

J.D had taken advantage of her momentary distraction to apologize, explaining that he hadn't meant to accuse her and had only been worried about her. Olivia had then burst into tears, resulting in minute which felt like hours as he stared at her in horrified silence, wondering what the fuck he was supposed to do. The only girl he'd ever been close enough to worry about these situations with was Rain, and she'd never allowed herself to cry in front of him.

Finally, belatedly, he'd reached out to her and she'd shoved him away, moving to the far side of the room where she'd laid down and slept as he watched, torn between anger, worry, and complete bewilderment.

Eventually, they'd all gone to sleep. Rain had stayed up—again—to guard with Alice, and J.D had argued with her until she'd finally agreed to trade off with someone later on so she could actually get some sleep for once.

She hadn't seem pissed off at his protectiveness, as she generally would have, but tired, confused, and wary. He had no idea whether that was an improvement or not.

The first decent night for sleep, everyone had ended up unconscious for at least fourteen hours. Rain, curled up into the middle of the floor, was still asleep. Michael, Matt, and Alice sat a few feet away from her, talking quietly, looking cheerful and even carefree.

J.D envied them. Less than a week ago, he would have been there too, discussing topics of little relevance to the situation at hand and poking at Rain whenever they ran out of things to say.

And now… now he was sitting in front of the computer console, laid back in his chair, pretending not to see as Olivia tossed him uncertain glances and silently counting down the remaining thirty minutes. It was childish, yeah, but he had no fucking idea what he was supposed to do if he locked eyes with her. If he walked over, he risked another confrontation. If he ignored her, he was an insensitive bastard.

It was all fucking stupid.

He felt Olivia's presence before he heard her. "J.D, can I talk to you?"

Her voice was soft and hesitant now. He turned to look at her and immediately wished he hadn't, because her eyes were red and his anger disappeared instantly, leaving only worry behind.

"Yeah," he said softly, gesturing at the empty seat in front of him. "Go ahead and sit down."

She did, gazing at him hesitantly before the words came rushing out. "I'm sorry I was such a bitch yesterday."

Again, he wasn't sure how to respond. Reason and social niceties told him to lie and say she hadn't been, but another part—a much bigger part—waited first for her to finish.

"I was tired, and nervous—and I did feel guilty about freezing. I didn't want to blow up at you, but I was already upset and I just—overreacted. I'm really sorry."

J.D sighed, wishing he felt something other than pure exhaustion. "That's okay, Olivia, we've all been there before," he said automatically.

She shook her head. "No, it's not," she said emphatically. "And I'll make it up to you."

"I promise."

J.D looked at her and couldn't help but smile at the earnest expression on her face. Unsure of what to say, he finally settled on a teasing, "You'd better."

She smiled then, leaning closer to ask softly, "So we're okay?"

He nodded, leaning forward to kiss her gently. "Yeah. We're good."

She moved slightly so that their noses bumped, turning her face up to his, expression content—

And then the beeping started.

They drew apart instantly, looking around as the others roused as well, Michael moving to shake Rain awake.

"Security System Bypass will conclude within sixty seconds."

The Red Queen's voice was oddly formal and cold over the soft, almost melodic beeping as they all moved into the middle of the room, drawing together unconsciously.

"Draw your weapons," Alice said quietly. "Just in case."

They did.

Time went by slowly, the remaining forty seconds stretching out to what felt like forty minutes—

Before a single, high pitched bell sounded and the beeping stopped.

"Security Systems Bypass has ended," the Red Queen said unnecessarily. "Systems opened."

A dull clanging sounded as one of the metal doors unlocked. Seconds later, a red light flashed, identifying the door as one three feet away from the entrance.

Matt moved forward, holstering his gun, and the rest of them stood back and watched as he grabbed the handle of the door and pulled.

A silvery case, identical to the one which had held the first anti-virus, was revealed, smoking and glimmering in the hazy light.

The room held it's breath as Matt lifted it down to the ground, kneeling in front of it. He slid his fingertips under the top, pulling slightly.

The case opened easily, revealing—

The glimmering tops of eight capsules inside.

J.D felt a rush of sudden euphoria fly over him, watching with a stupid smile identical to everyone else's as Alice kneeled next to him, pulling the syringe from the case.

"We should do this now," she said with a small smile, obviously trying to hold back her emotion. "Before it's too late."

Matt nodded his assent, holding out his arm as Alice handed the syringe to Michael, who prepped it quickly and efficiently.

"Grab one of the capsules, please, Alice," he said softly, readying the syringe over Matt's forearm.

She grabbed one, yanking it out hurriedly, clear glass hitting the light and shimmering—

It was empty.

Alice dropped it, grabbing another instead, her face strained and afraid.

Empty.

She threw it this time, grabbing another. It was empty, and she hurled it across the room before lifting the case itself, bringing it crashing down to the ground.

Five empty capsules spilled out over the floor, the shattered glass hitting the light and twinkling obscenely, as if to rub in the fact that they were all empty, completely useless—

"God damn it!" Alice shouted, her voice breaking. "God damn it, I knew we couldn't trust the Red Queen—"

Matt stayed where he was, his pale face showing only mild shock and exhaustion as Olivia stepped forward, saying tentatively, "I don't think the Red Queen could have done this. With the Hive's security systems, those capsules would've had to be full when they were put there." She paused, her voice trailing off slightly as she added, horribly unnecessarily, "It was all a decoy."

"I don't care." Alice's voice was strained to the breaking point, a sound eerily reminiscent to glass cracking and shattering. "I don't fucking care why it's gone, okay?"

She looked ready to burst into tears, J.D noted, a sickening sense of dread settling into the pit of his stomach. They were all standing back, all too aware of how easily a simple gesture could set her off now—

"I suppose you're fucking happy, huh, J.D?" Rain asked lowly, her voice edgy and dark.

He turned to glare at her, wondering what the fuck she was playing at. With Alice's state, even he knew better than to be starting shit like this now.

He opened his mouth to tell her exactly that—

And then stopped when he met her eyes, full of exhaustion, pain—and a twinkling sense of conspiracy.

He understood, suddenly, what she meant to do; he could already see Alice glancing up worriedly, her mothering instincts taking over her own pain.

A slight, conspirational nod passed between them—

And then J.D was answering, his voice as dark as Rain's, "And what the fuck is that supposed to mean, Rain?"

She scowled, and suddenly he glimpsed a note of seriousness in her eyes as she said, "What, you don't remember who's fucking girlfriend chose this whole idea? The one who knew all these codes? It wasn't Alice."

A seed of doubt twisted painfully in his stomach as he thought over the words, realizing the truth of them—

And then Olivia's face, tired and guilt-stricken, flashed in front of his eyes, and before he knew it he was on his feet, yelling at Rain as she shouted back unhesitatingly, and he understood then, suddenly, that they weren't just playing now.

xxxxx

The proceedings taking place in front of him were dark and over-dramatized, miserable and angry in a way that would have been funny if Michael weren't here, right in the middle of it.

Rain and J.D had both moved to screaming at one another senselessly, and while Michael was glad Rain was finally getting all of the words she'd bottled up out of her, he knew that there was no way this was the time or place for it. Alice had already given up on them and was slumped against the wall, her face pale and drawn. She didn't seem to care about the glass surrounding her, and as Matt sat down next to her, taking her hands in his, Michael realized they were bleeding.

Olivia was in the corner, looking shaky and exhausted, and while Michael couldn't blame her for it, he hated being what felt like the only sane person here.

"Guys," he started, his face lost in the noise. "Rain. J.D."

He might as well have been in the argument himself, for all the good his words did; neither of them even looked at him. Nobody did.

He tried again, his voice louder. Nothing.

Finally, the stress of the situation came crashing down over him and before he knew it he was shouting, the words tumbling out of his awestruck mouth, "Both of you shut the fuck up!"

Sudden silence.

He had the attention of everyone in the room now—they were all staring at him, shock clear on their faces, and he shook his head.

"Enough," he said quietly, and it was all he needed to say, but he continued anyways. "Let's go. The anti-virus isn't here, and we're wasting the three days we have left by staying."

He turned to Alice, saying quietly, "We still have three days to infiltrate the other labs."

"It'll be okay."

He said the words smoothly and confidently, accentuating them with a nod.

But as the five of them stood and left the room like a group of POWs, Matt and Alice leaning upon each other as if on life support, Rain and J.D as far apart as was humanly possible, and Olivia trailing behind like a complete outsider, Michael watched them go and realized, with a sickening sense of dread, that everything had already gone wrong—and even he didn't believe his own words anymore.