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: After seeing all those clever disclaimers out there, I wish I had one. Any suggestions? I own nothing here but my own ideas.

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

Author's Notes:

Thanks goes out of course to all my fantastic reviewers, particularly for chapter fifteen: masked-in-your-shadows, rain1657, Tashmal, WilliamsXEv, SangoLancer200, XMaster, Kagii and VaderX.

Thanks also goes out, par usual, to those who read and don't review—I appreciate it, though I beg you to review at least occasionally as well :)

As you can see, I'm going to be able to manage putting up a chapter every week for the last few, as I love writing endings… especially this one, which I've had planned out since forever :)

I've been writing a lot actually. I wrote all of chapter sixteen, pretty much non-stop, on Sunday; then all of seventeen, again pretty much non-stop, Monday. You'd think I'd be sick of it, but… no :)

There is, however, one condition for the more frequent updates—I think that part of the reason I get reviews is that I leave so much time in between chapters; I think it gives people more of a chance to get the time to review. Thus, if I start getting less reviews with this chapter, Chapter Seventeen won't be up for another two weeks, simply because I'm a writer and I positively adore reviews; they make my day. Don't take that away from me:)

Also… any CSI fans here? What'd you think of the finale? I thought it was fairly good, but Sara and Greg got no screen time whatsoever! Rather frustrating, considering they're far closer to Nick than Catherine is! Plus, I love Sara. So yes, I'm fairly bitter right now :)

On the bright side, the Alias season finale is on next week. And Lost! Michelle Rodriguez is on Lost right now, by the way, in case anyone wanted to know :)

Anyways. Onto the actual fanfiction now.

Still hate fanfiction (dot) net, for those wondering.

Thanks again, enjoy the fic!

Into the Light

Chapter Sixteen: Dissolution

Her eyes were wide, fringed in long lashes, and a beautiful, clear shade of blue; awashed in tears, Alice Parks possessed a truly dramatic sort of beauty as she whispered, "Happy birthday, Matt."

Her expression was echoed by everyone's around her. J.D Salinas and Matt Addison, for all their ostensible 'manliness', looked prepared to burst into tears. Michael Cahill's hair stood on end and his face was pale, partially from the night's events, no doubt; but then, being electrocuted earlier had probably helped as well.

Rain Ocampo was the only one who didn't look like she was about to cry; instead, she looked exhausted. He figured she probably had about eight hours or so left without an anti-virus.

William laughed. He couldn't help it. Parks, Addison, all of them—looked so sad. Even Olivia, sitting in the corner, looked upset, like Addison had actually meant something to her.

He felt pity for them, sure. But that pity was drastically reduced by the knowledge that they should have expected this conclusion by now. From the beginning there'd been no hope, and now still, in the end, there was no hope—nothing had changed.

Still, it was really too bad Addison was just going to die down there like a caged rat. Umbrella had wanted to monitor him, find out what the viral effects on his system were going to be, and now it looked like they weren't going to get that chance.

Raccoon was being detonated. It was unfortunate, but what other choices did they have? With all the virus carriers and mutated life forms stumbling around in the streets, it was a small miracle word hadn't yet gotten out to the rest of the world. And it was nothing less than exceptionally lucky that Umbrella hadn't yet been linked to the crime.

Not officially, anyway. There were, of course, little suffragette groups like the hamsters down in the Hive well aware of what was going on. People of no consequence, in short.

Especially the hamsters, who, by tomorrow, were going to be dead. Whether Addison, something else in the Hive, or the bomb's nuclear effects reached them first, William didn't particularly care—just so long as they were eliminated.

There was a knock at the door, and William turned to it with a scowl, barking out a short, "What?"

James Anderson entered, looking shy and nervous, a stupid smile on his face as he said, "Sir, your limo's arrived."

William glared at him; and then stopped, stared at him carefully, amazed at the little effect this had on Anderson today; the man was acting like a three year old, bouncing around and giddy.

He was happy to be leaving Raccoon. All of them were.

And William was in a good mood today. He was ready to go, and in a matter of hours he'd have his daughter with him as well, ready to start a new life someplace far, far away from here. The ex-SWAT team in the Hive was screwed, and by tomorrow they'd be dead.

In short, William Archangelo was having an exceptionally good day so far.

And so he smiled at Anderson instead of rebuking him, a gesture that had quite the opposite effect on Anderson; the boy paled, looking nervous, as William said, "I'll be down in twenty minutes."

"I'll tell them, sir," Anderson stammered, before backing out of the room with a short, awkward little half-bow.

William watched him go, surprised at his inability to muster up any anger over the man's ineptitude; on the contrary, his pathetic display was almost amusing.

Looking back at the screen, William sighed. It was really too bad about Alderic. She could have been a valuable asset to his team if he'd had more time to work with her.

Right now the lab tech was staring at J.D Salinas, looking lovesick and ridiculously melancholy considering the circumstances; as if she hadn't been given the chance to escape it all, to leave the Hive and everything inside behind already…

But then, the girl was obsessed with J.D Salinas. He was the deciding vote, the key to her entire decision—

William sat upright, almost toppling himself out of his chair as the full meaning of those words finally sunk in, running through them in his head—

And then he was lifting his phone to call again.

Leaving a message couldn't hurt.

xxxxx

It was Day Eight.

Matt wasn't sure what he'd expected to happen when midnight came. If he would mutate fully and immediately, move on to attack his friends, or change slowly, gradually throughout the day, turning fully only when he least expected it. If the Red Queen would return again to taunt him, if he'd start hallucinating, thinking he was still human when all his humanity had already dissipated.

Maybe he was already hallucinating.

Either way, what he hadn't expected was the sudden, stifling silence that had settled over the room. No one was speaking; no one seemed even to be breathing anymore. There were no tears, no words of sorrow—

Everyone was just sitting there, waiting for his life to end.

Matt shivered slightly, and Alice was there immediately, face pale and set, pulling him close to her; but he could see the tears frozen on her face, the brightness of her beautiful eyes before they vanished from view.

Like a spell had been broken, the others started moving again, coming back to life. Alice pulled back from Matt, grasping his hand in hers and reaching out with her other, finding J.D's in the room; he in turn grabbed Michael's, who linked hands with Rain, who reached out and clasped Matt's other hand tightly, completing the chain.

And it was corny, and stupid, and a part of Matt felt like he was seven years old again, sitting around a campfire with his Scouts group, making smores and telling ghost stories. Ghost stories that he'd always been afraid of, but never understood; he'd always sympathized with the ghosts, being forced to live longer because their lives were still incomplete.

And now he was that ghost, balancing on the brink of life and death, and as silly as their circle felt, it was what was tying him to life still. They were all connected, for the first time in days; sick and healthy, strong and weak, and nothing could shatter that, nothing.

And then the phone started to ring, and Matt realized Olivia was still outside the circle.

xxxxx

Olivia murmured a nearly unintelligible apology and stood, hurrying out of the room with her hands clasped over the ringing phone, not wanting to shatter the peaceful silence that had descended upon the room—

The silence that had been created in a circle she still was not a part of.

Not that she deserved to be. Not anymore. After all that had happened, it wasn't fair that she was even still with these people.

By the time she slid into the small room next door, the ringing had stopped; flipping it over and glancing at the ID suspiciously, Olivia was not at all surprised to see Archangelo had called again.

What she was surprised to see was that he'd left a message.

Archangelo generally seemed to get off on tormenting people over the phone; on guilting them into doing things they didn't want to do, on scaring them away from what they did want. Leaving a message seemed oddly flat for him.

Olivia wasn't sure whether it was a good sign or not. Part of her still wanted to scream at him, to blame him for everything that had gone wrong in the last few days; but every day she went further and further into a haze of guilt and frustration, and she wondered if there would have been any point to it anymore anyways.

Flipping the phone open and putting it to her ear, Olivia listened.

At first, it seemed like a repeat of the same messages she'd heard before. "Betray the group and escape!" propaganda.

But halfway through the message, something changed. Something was different this time.

There was another room downstairs, one they hadn't yet checked. The one Umbrella kept under careful lock and key, careful observation.

The room that would be a perfect place to store the anti-virus.

And Archangelo was unlocking the doors. The anti-virus was there; all they had to do was find it, and he would let them go.

Olivia didn't believe him. There had to be a trap in there somewhere; there had to be something missing, and she waited patiently, smiling when she heard him explain the rest.

That the doors in the room would lock when they found their way inside. That only Olivia would be able to escape, on her own, bringing a sample of one of the other viruses contained there for Umbrella's 'study' purposes.

Olivia stopped the message there, wanting to process what she'd heard before.

So far, it seemed solid. The room was there—and despite Olivia's not wanting to betray the group, she knew the anti-virus had to be there; it had to be somewhere down in the Hive, and that room was the only logical option. Most importantly, going there would prove beneficial to Archangelo as well; he needed the virus she was supposed to bring out of the Hive, and knowing that, oddly enough, made her trust his plan all the more. Archangelo was an asshole, but he was a self-serving one—and if he needed the virus that badly, he'd let them in the room, give them a fighting chance at saving Matt, to accomplish that goal.

The only problem was that Olivia knew that, besides she herself leaving with the anti-virus, the group wasn't going to be able to leave that room. Archangelo would have control over all the locks—Olivia had no idea what any of the codes were—and there was no way in hell he'd be letting any of them escape.

But Olivia figured she'd deal with that later. Right now what mattered was saving Matt. As long as he had a fighting chance, they'd work through whatever was thrown at them when the time came for it.

Olivia smiled, lifting the phone to her ear and listening to the rest of the message as it played through. Most of it was instructions, detailed maps showing a path through the corridor she could take 'when' she brought the virus and escaped.

And Olivia listened to it halfheartedly, finger posed over the 'erase' button, knowing the directions made no difference to her whatsoever.

She had already betrayed the group once, and there was no way she planned to do it again.

Good or bad, she was in this now until the end.

And then Archangelo's last words came over the line and she paused, finger shaking over the button as she froze, listening silently.

The message ended, and she hesitated, drifting over the buttons nervously. She should delete the message. She had too—the directions made no difference, what Archangelo had just said made no difference—J.D would never agree to it.

But the words were still playing in her head, and that strange part of human nature, that last desire to protect oneself was what moved her hand from where it hovered over the phone, firmly closing it instead.

It was what made her shake her head in relentless denial, telling herself she was saving the message 'just in case'. Just in case they needed a way out of the Hive. Just in case she needed directions to betray the group.

Just in case their situation came to life-or-death, and Olivia Alderic decided that, despite all her self-righteous talk, all of her high moralistic codes, she still wanted to survive this Hell—with or without the rest of the team.

xxxxx

Sitting in a circle like this, J.D was oddly comfortable. Michael's hand was hot and sweaty, Alice's cool and dry, and somehow J.D was hyper alert of everything—of all that had happened in the past few months, of everything that was still happening now. And yet he still couldn't shake that same familiar feeling, those opening bars of a strangely familiar song—

"Kumbay-fucking-a," Rain said flatly.

"Rain," Alice admonished her, looking up at the brunette, her face surprised; though why, J.D couldn't imagine. It was exactly the sort of thing Rain would say to break the silence, no matter what the mood was.

And then, in the middle of both girls Matt let out a snort of laughter; and then they were all snickering slightly as Matt admitted, "We used to sing that at my Club Scout camping trips."

"My mom sings that at Christmas," Michael volunteered, and Rain snickered at that; he grinned at her across the circle.

Sneaking a glance at Alice, J.D was glad to see that she looked slightly cheered; tired, but inspired.

She hadn't given up. It was Day Eight already, and she still hadn't given up.

None of them had.

Hope was often strained, and yet was always there, in the strangest of places. In a way, J.D didn't like to hope. All it did, in the end, was set you up for failure; to J.D, it was roughly akin to believing in fucking fairy dust or stupid shit like that.

But Alice… Alice always hoped. And it had rubbed off on them; there was always a light inside the group when Alice was there.

"J.D."

Olivia's voice interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up to see her standing in the doorway, looking timid but somehow excited. "Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah," he said automatically.

And it was strange, somehow, how odd it felt to pull his hands from Michael's and Alice's and follow Olivia into the next room, where she shut the door behind them and they both fell into familiar sitting positions across from each other.

She cleared her throat. "Archangelo just called."

A wave of distaste surged through J.D, and he struggled to keep it from showing on his face; with all the backlash Olivia had already gotten from Rain, she didn't deserve the same treatment from him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she confirmed, her voice almost breathy with barely concealed excitement as she added, "J.D, he knows where the anti-virus is; he says he'll lead us to it."

The instant wave of hope and joy that washed through J.D at those words almost instantly diminished, replaced instead by an all too familiar suspicion. "Why?"

"Umbrella is keeping a virus in there," she said. "Top secret, very high profile to the top members of Umbrella; Archangelo says that if I can get it out to him, he'll give Matt the anti-virus."

J.D paused in answering for a moment, wanting a chance to think about this; to think about what it meant. He trusted Olivia, with his life. She was a good person at heart, and he knew she'd never betray them, would never leave them in this godforsaken place to die.

And she knew Archangelo. Olivia had worked with him for years; she had to have some idea of the way his mind worked, of how far he'd go to attain what he wanted—even if it meant compromising his plans for their team.

But that still left the question of their getting out.

"Okay," he said simply. "Good. But Olivia—after we get the anti-virus. What then?"

She shrugged. "I'm supposed to take the virus out to him," she admitted. "I think he's going to put the whole room into lock-down mode, and leave us down there."

Part of J.D was pleased to register the "us" rather than "you" Olivia had used, and that she had told him the complete details of the plan. Despite what Rain so obviously believed—that J.D only trusted Olivia because love, in her words, "fucked with your head"—the only reason J.D could logically trust Olivia was because she was so completely honest with him. He knew she kept secrets from the group, and he couldn't blame her for that; if he, or Rain, were in that position, he knew they'd be lying with every fucking word if it ensured their survival.

But Olivia was still innocent in a way him and Rain weren't, despite working in Umbrella's labs. She had never learnt the same incredible effect a simple lie could have on a person; the way a simple twist of the truth could bring another person's life crashing down and leave you sitting on top of the ruble, still building your own empire.

Unfortunately, J.D had been forced to learn that skill working with Umbrella. Without it, he wouldn't have survived; none of them would.

Which was, probably, part of the reason Alice had turned against Umbrella; had started working against them, even more so than her distaste of the experimentation they did. Alice was the sort of person too morally correct to lie, too empathetic to willingly hurt another person to advance herself.

And while Olivia obviously wasn't quite that self-sacrificial, she wasn't on J.D's level either. Not yet, at least.

Olivia finally broke the quiet, adding hesitantly, "I know that doesn't leave us with the best options, but… Matt will have the anti-virus, at least. We can cure Rain then, too, and at least it'll buy us some time to work out a solution."

"No," he said, shaking his head and smiling broadly at her. "No, Olivia, it's perfect. That's the best option we've had since we started this whole goddamn mission."

She smiled, looking tired but pleased, and asked, "Do you think Alice and Matt will agree to it?"

J.D couldn't help but laugh at how quickly she'd picked up on their team dynamics; that Alice and Matt were already the unspoken leaders, that J.D was the general strategist when it was needed, that Michael was the unofficial source of information, and Rain was the almost psychotic fucking daredevil of the team.

"Yeah," he told a bemused Olivia. "Definitely. This is—this is the closest we've been, this whole fucking time."

"For once, we might actually be getting out of here today."

xxxxx

Despite the time frame Olivia had given them, and the carefully coded map Archangelo had sent her over her cell, it took the team over an hour to find their way into the corridor leading to the staircase Archangelo had indicated.

It didn't help that the corridors were flooded by now, and they were all half-swimming through the chest high water.

Alice's leg was throbbing with pain by now, and she was beginning to worry that it had become infected. She knew the sharks hadn't been a result of the T-virus—if they were bleeding, they were still alive.

But down here, in the Hive, viruses existed everywhere. And walking through dirty, possibly disease-ridden water with an open wound on her thigh was not her idea of a good prevention action.

Unfortunately, they didn't have a choice.

On the bright side, nothing had attacked so far. When Olivia had first explained to them what Archangelo had told them, Alice had half expected to be attacked as soon as they opened the doors. That Archangelo had gotten bored with the whole sad saga and decided to finish them all of quickly instead.

But of course that wasn't the case; Alice barely even knew anything about Archangelo, but she could already tell the man was one of the types who got off on other people's suffering. Somewhere above ground, in a padded office chair, William Archangelo was probably chortling with maniacal glee while watching their recent disasters.

When Alice got out of here, with Matt and Rain cured and everything back to normal again, Archangelo was going to pay for this. Of this Alice was sure; she'd find a way.

But for now she wandered a dank and dark corridor underground, Matt slightly ahead of her and the others trailing behind.

Rain at least was doing slightly better; after what had happened earlier, she seemed determined not to show any weakness. Despite being worried about her, for once Alice was glad for her headstrongness; it made the hours pass by much more quickly when she could close her eyes to everything and pretend everything was going to turn out okay.

And Matt… Matt was starting to look scared, something that terrified Alice even more than his hopeless depression had earlier. Matt had never looked scared, and despite his still remaining physical strength, Alice knew that something was going on inside him now—that his thoughts, emotions were changing rapidly and unexpectedly.

Alice wondered how much time they had left.

"Stairs," Matt called back over his shoulder slightly, and Alice hurried forward, asking, "Is the door unlocked?"

"Archangelo said the doors would open at two am exactly," Olivia said tiredly, Matt turning back to look at her as Alice checked her watch.

One fifty-eight—they had two more minutes.

"Christ, Rain."

Matt's voice brought her attention back to the room, and she followed his gaze to Rain, staring at her for the first time since they'd left the room.

The brunette looked terrible. Her eyes were ringed in black, skin pale and sweaty, and Alice flashed back to their last time in the Hive and the way Rain had looked in the final hours.

Exactly the way she did now.

She was leaning heavily on the wall, had obviously been for some time now, and was at least five paces behind the group. Alice wondered, with a flash of guilt, how she had managed not to notice it; how wrapped up she'd been in finding the anti-virus for Matt.

J.D and Matt were hurrying over to her now, and Rain looked annoyed at the interruption. "Fuck off, I'm fine."

Matt gave her a slight look off annoyance. "Rain, you're not fine."

"Yes," she said shortly. "I am. Let's go."

"Step away from the wall, then," J.D challenged her.

Rain sent him a venomous look before turning the same look on the rest of the group, obviously not happy to be the center of attention at the moment, and then sighed in irritation. "Fine."

Slowly, as if the effort required all her endurance, she straightened; and then, pulling her hand from the wall, stood erect, taking a step away from the wall and staring at J.D in open defiance. "You happy now?"

And for a moment, even Alice believed that Rain was fine; that the brunette was tired, but she'd be okay. That she'd make it through the next couple of hours until they could get the next dosage of the anti-virus to her.

Then, with a chiming sound of announcement, the doorway to the stairs swung open slowly.

And Rain went completely white and collapsed.

xxxxx

With J.D carrying Rain, and the rest of them forming a protective circle around the two in the event something actually attacked in this godforsaken basement, it took them another hour and a half to reach the basement room.

As soon as he saw it, Matt felt a sudden hope rush inside of him, re-energizing him despite all his attempts to stop it; he didn't want to hope anymore. Every time he'd allowed himself to hope in the last two weeks, he'd been inevitably crushed when it didn't pan out the way they'd all been expecting it to.

But this room… it looked like something where Archangelo would keep an anti-virus. Where anyone in Umbrella would keep viruses, if security meant anything to them.

The room was complete steel, gleaming in the darkness lit only by their flashlights. Though windows framed most of the room, they were obviously not ones easily broken; easily five or six panes thick, at least—

And heavy bars covered each window both inside and outside.

The door itself was an electrical marvel—the same stainless steel, covered in a massive array of neon-colored buttons, switches, and computer panels.

"Now what?" Alice asked, her voice edgy with suspicion and barely concealed hope, and Olivia looked at her watch.

"He said he'll send the code to get in through the cell phone."

J.D snorted. "That sounds promising."

But the phone was already beeping, and Olivia glanced at it once before handing it to him.

His expression must have been confused as he accepted it from her, looking at the code, because she offered a small smile and said, "You should do it."

Words that, once, would have made him incredibly suspicious now only made him smile in return, grateful for her unexpected insight as he turned to the panel, reading the code once and typing it into the monitor.

And then the door was swinging open and he was hurrying in, an action he'd realize the stupidity of later—

And the lights were flashing up, revealing white, fluorescent walls and a ceiling and floor of the same material—

And the silver case, glinting in the light, situated in the middle of the floor.

Matt stopped breathing when he saw it; beside him, he could feel Alice grab his hand, her voice hushed as she whispered, "Open it."

He did, dropping to his knees, releasing the lock on the case and allowing it to open, revealing—

Nothing.

Not a fucking thing. No empty capsules, no decoys, nothing but a fucking empty silver case.

And part of him wanted to scream, and swear, and turn around and strangle Olivia, because she had led them here, and strangle Rain, because she had slowed them down, and fucking strangle Alice, because she had made him hope when he knew he shouldn't have—

And then the other part of him, the part that had known all along that he was doomed, did nothing. Just made him sit there and stare at the empty case, all too aware of the presence of the others behind him as they stared at him nervously, depression settling heavily into the room again.

All too aware of the door slamming shut behind them and locking, closing them into this Hellish eternity.

xxxxx

"Daddy!"

In all his years, William had never thought that a simple word could mean so much. That the image of his daughter, dark curls in disarray and face red and strained with her sobbing words, could ever be so beautiful to her.

Lea tore away from the guards holding her—Daddy's girl, definitely—and ran over to him, William barking out a harsh command to the guards as they made to follow her.

And then his beautiful daughter was in his arms again, and he was hugging her tightly, whispering, "Shhh, Lea, it's okay."

Scared, but amazingly resilient for a four year old, the girl's tears died down instantly and she pulled back to look at him, asked wobbly, "Where's mommy?"

He smiled at her. "We'll find her," he promised carelessly. Her mother was probably dead, but William had no intentions of spending his precious time trying to find out for sure.

But Lea, of course, was just a child. There was no use in telling her that.

"Sir."

William looked up at the speaker, one of the Umbrella S.W.A.T. members Umbrella had hired to replace the last one, and snarled, "What?"

"We need to leave," the man said simply, obviously not intimidated by his anger, and William glanced around him to see that the virus-carriers—zombies, some idiot along the way had taken to calling them—were shambling along towards them, obviously having taken notice of the fresh meat.

He glanced back up at the man. "Fine," he said with a careless wave of his hand. "Alert my pilot we're making our way to the Hive now."

"Yes, sir," the S.W.A.T. member clipped out. William practically expected a salute; instead, the man just turned sharply on his heal and left to carry out the instructions.

William smiled back down at his daughter, pleasantly happy with the way things were running. Lea was safe now, and things were still running perfectly on schedule.

"Would you like to go on a train ride with Daddy, Lea?"

The little girl grinned eagerly, one of her front teeth only half grown in so far, and nodded.

"Archangelo, Sir."

This time it was Anderson, still standing next to him unnoticed, and William stifled an annoyed curse, not wanting to alarm Lea.

He had to set a good example for his daughter, after all.

"What, Anderson?"

The man wrung his hands nervously as he asked, "Is that really the best idea? Ms. Alderic hasn't even agreed yet to the plan—"

William smiled, allowing one of the female S.W.A.T. members to take his daughter by the hand and lead her to the plane as he followed along in step with Anderson. "She will, Anderson."

"Yeah. Umm—but like you said, she's close to Mr. Salinas. How do you know she won't—"

"Betray him?" William interrupted him.

He stopped in his tracks, and glanced at the world around him. At a sun just barely beginning to rise, at skies of blue and pink, at fresh green grasses; at a world splattered with blood and gore and death.

A world of beauty, tainted by humanity.

"Because they always do in the end, Anderson," he drawled slowly, confidently. "They always do."

xxxxx

They'd been sitting here for four hours now.

The door had slammed and locked four hours ago, and somehow that had triggered something in Matt; he'd begun to scream, to smash the case against the wall, breaking the metal into shards of metallic paints and metal alloys, as Olivia had pressed herself into the back wall of the room, terrified that he would turn on her—that he would blame her for what had happened.

J.D had pulled back with her, placing a protective arm across her shoulders, and even Michael had looked scared, backing away and rummaging hurriedly in his knapsack for a syringe and the anti-virus, because at the time things had looked really bad—they were here, in this tiny room, and Matt was going to mutate if he kept this up.

And Alice had just burst into tears, begun to sob in hopeless desperation.

And somehow, that had pulled Matt out of his rage; somehow he'd stopped, chest heaving, and dropped the case on the ground, turning to pull Alice to him as both collapsed to their knees on the ground.

Matt had never cried. He'd only held Alice close to him, stroking her hair and murmuring words of comfort to her, an almost funny picture under the circumstances; that after all that had happened, it was still him offering comfort to those around him.

But Matt… had seemed beyond crying. Even when his expression was so scared, so worried—not for him, but for Alice—he himself had seemed frozen, a martyr to the fate that so obviously awaited him.

And the two were still together, and Rain had fallen asleep on J.D's shoulder, and Michael had moved closer too, putting his own head on Rain's shoulder—everyone finding comfort in the human contact.

And Olivia still stood here, still not a part of that human contact; still an outsider in this group.

And despite her best efforts, Archangelo's words kept repeating in her head, their spoken message so seductive to her terrified thoughts.

All of them were so worried about Matt, but no one had stopped to consider the fate inevitable to all of them. No one had stopped to consider what would happen when Matt finally did mutate.

That they'd all be helpless in here. No weapons could stop Nemesis, Olivia was sure of that. Once he mutated, they'd all be helpless, waiting, terrified, in this tiny enclosed space for him to attack, rip them all too shreds—

But that didn't have to happen to her. It didn't.

She had the virus. She had found it, hidden cleverly in the wiring of the door; in plain site, when one wasn't looking only at the code, at entering it in.

It was in her pocket now. She hadn't told the others about it; at the time, she'd seen no need to. She wasn't going to betray these people—she couldn't.

But how could she just sit in here, staring, waiting for that inevitable fate? She wasn't a part of this group, she never would be. She couldn't be. She had already fucked up her chances, Rain was dying because of her—

Matt was still dying because of her. Because she'd believed Archangelo, walked right into this fucking trap, and now she was screwed. The group wouldn't trust her now, they couldn't. She'd be the first one Matt would go for, and nobody here would lift a finger to stop him—

Except for J.D.

She paused, drawing in a shaky breath. J.D was still, was always, the exception to the rule. He still cared about her, he still protected her—he still loved her.

She couldn't betray him.

"And Ms. Alderic? Mr. J.D Salinas, of course, will be permitted to accompany you."

She wouldn't have to.

And before she knew what she was doing, she was drawing her gun out, unlocking the safety.

Like a bomb going off in the silent room, everyone turned to stare at her as she shoved the barrel of it into Michael's forehead, gripping the back of his shirt in her fist and pulling him to his feet.

He was heavy, but with a gun pointed at his head, he moved fairly easily.

"I can't," she broke the silence, her hand shaking, finger posed above the trigger. "I'm sorry. Michael, I won't hurt you. I just—I can't stay here."

And she looked at Alice, and for a moment, wanted to take back the words. The blonde's eyes were wide not in anger or hatred, but in simple worry, and she suddenly felt tremendous guilt over what she was going to do.

But then she made the mistake at looking at Rain, at seeing the blunt, unadulterated hatred—and worst of all, confirmation—written across her face, and realized she was making the right choice.

She couldn't be a part of this anymore.

She was back by the door now, Michael still in front of her. None of the group had even moved for their weapons. Maybe they were afraid it would set her off; maybe they thought she couldn't shoot him.

Maybe they knew it was already too late to care anymore.

"Archangelo's offered me a deal," she babbled. "And I didn't want to take it. And I really, really didn't mean to bring you all here, I swear. I thought I was doing the right thing—I thought I was finally going to fix everything I'd done wrong here."

She realized that she was crying, the tears making thin trails down her cheeks as she waited for them to respond.

Nobody did. Even Rain, still sitting by the wall, was silent.

"But I'm allowed to take someone with me," she announced, her voice tinny in the suddenly cavernous room. "J.D—"

She wasn't sure what kind of expression she'd expected from him when she'd said the words, but it wasn't the pure and utter shock she saw on his face when he turned to look fully at her.

Obviously realizing she was waiting for an answer, J.D cleared his throat and said slowly, "You want me to leave with you."

She nodded. "Yeah," she said quietly. "I couldn't just leave without trying to save you too, J.D. You don't have to, I'll understand if you don't. It's just—"

She paused, suddenly feeling stupid and tiny as she repeated, "I can't stay here."

And then the room was silent as everyone stared at J.D, obviously waiting for an answer from him.

He was silent, still staring at her. His eyes were dark, and for the first time, Olivia had no idea what he was thinking.

Staring at those eyes, she felt her last hopes begin to deflate. He wasn't going to leave with her, he couldn't. J.D wasn't a coward, not like her—he wouldn't just leave his team to survive—

"Yeah."

J.D's voice, raspy and tired, broke the silence as he stood. "Yeah, I'll come with you."

Olivia felt bad for the smile that spread over her face at his words—despite her words, she couldn't leave him, still couldn't betray him.

J.D took a quick glance around the room before looking at Rain, obviously realizing that she was the only one he really needed to say anything to. "Rain, I'm—"

"Fuck off, J.D," she said, and the funny thing was that she didn't even look angry anymore; only exhausted, only miserable, as she added, "Just fuck off."

A flash of guilt spread across J.D's features; and then it vanished as quickly as it had come, and he was walking over, taking her hand.

She pulled her gun away from Michael's head, whispering, "Sorry", as he hurried away.

And then the door was swinging open, and they were hurrying through it together, making their way back through a water-logged corridor to salvation.

The door slammed shut behind them.