Title: Final Illuminations
Author: Malenkaya
Rating: R for violence and swearing
Summary: RE movie fanfiction. In this sequel to "Fading Away" and "Into the Light", Alice, Michael, Rain and J.D continue in their efforts to defeat Umbrella, finding along the way new allies, new enemies—and new hope for Matthew Addison.
Disclaimer: Due to the fact that nobody out there seems to be using it, I now own Resident Evil and all it's franchise:) I expect to become very, very rich over the next few days.
I am, of course, just kidding:) 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:
Firstly, I'd like to thank the following for their wonderful reviews: DarkPrincessPyro99, XMaster, Gabzilla, rain1657, sarahvspsycheotic, masked-in-your-shadows, Violet Eternity, and Kim Hughes; I really appreciate it.
To all of those who read and don't review—please review. Honestly, it makes my day.
Once again, I apologize for the long wait:) On the bright side… updates will now continue on their regular basis of every second Friday, meaning chapter three will be posted on October 14th.
Chapter Two: From the Ashes
It was a dark night in the small city of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Lightening crashed, lighting up the sky, and thunder shook the ground beneath them; rainwater poured down like hail, drenching all those brave enough to venture out of their homes during one of the rare, tyrannical Vegas storms.
In true Vegas fashion, the city was still alive with lights and vibrancies as people poured into the strip clubs, theatres and casinos to place a last bet, view one last show—or just get out of the rain.
Michael wished he was one of them.
Instead he was barely within the city limits, far away enough from the Strip to know it wasn't an option tonight, but too close to drag his eyes away from it.
Rain let out a heavy sigh in front of him, and he turned to look at her.
It was freezing cold, and dressed only in a pair of black pants and a matching tank top, Rain was soaked. Her hand rested casually on the gun within it's grasp, and her expression was bored as she took in the sights below them.
"Been there, done that," she announced. "Let's get going."
Michael let out a snort at the comment—with Rain and J.D's activities as of late, he was surprised they hadn't both tried to single-handedly take on the betting world within their first few days in Vegas.
But Rain was moving again, and so he forced himself to stand and follow, hating the weather as he did so.
From the statistics he'd found in the gift shop tourist novels, Las Vegas only experienced four inches of precipitation a year.
Michael was willing to bet he'd seen at least that, if not more, over the past two days.
He shivered; he was wearing a heavy black coat, gloves, and fuzzy hat, and he was still freezing cold.
Rain, on the other hand, looked completely in her element; cheerful, vivacious, and very much alive.
In a way, it was a relief to see her back to her former persona. It had been over a month since the Hive, but Michael still couldn't completely push that image of Rain out of his head: lost, scared, sickly and weak.
In these four weeks, she had changed, grown stronger than he had ever expected her to.
They all had.
They'd had to.
J.D had become almost reckless in some ways, far more mature and thoughtful than before in others. Him and Rain both had; while they still willingly partook in frivolous activities such as bar-hopping and casino nights when the stress here became too much for them, they had both settled so much in regards to battle. Both of them listened to him now; something he'd previously given up on as impossible.
And Alice had stepped into the role of leader once again.
There had been a time, less than a week ago, when he had thought that possibility was even less likely than that of Umbrella surrendering, no questions asked, or Matt's return from the dead; when he'd not only thought, but known, that Alice was gone from them.
For awhile after finding Alexei, after escaping from Hades, things had still been okay. Matt's death had changed Alice, there was no arguing that; but while often melancholy and withdrawn, she had always carried that strength, that beautiful shield of armor which comes from knowing the innocence of love; even that already lost. She had still known what she was doing, still watched out for them all; made sure their plans were solid, kept them all safe.
She'd still been Alice.
And then something in her had snapped. Michael didn't know what it was—none of them did—but one day, Alice had demanded, seemingly out of the blue, a gravestone for Matt.
She'd never given a reason, and none of them had asked. At the time, it had seemed like a good thing—one of the first steps towards acceptance.
So despite the difficulties of arranging a quiet and almost secretive meeting with the professionals hired to do the job, and the unspoken breach in security imprinting Matt's name on a headstone, in Umbrella's headquarters, where anyone could see it, they went ahead with it.
It was chosen. It was paid for, using a combination of their resources and cash on hand. It had arrived, and been placed in the graveyard that very night.
Alice never went to visit.
They all had, one time or another. Rain in particular went there practically every few nights with J.D, who oftentimes only waited outside. Despite having had over six months to get to know Matt, the experiences him, Rain and Alice had shared down in the Hive for the first time had created a bond between them none of the others could hope to surpass.
Even Michael would go once in awhile, and stand there, not knowing what to say; he'd never really gotten to know Matt, had always been shy against the strong, steady force that was Matthew Addison.
Part of him wanted to tell Matt the truth about the situation here; break down and admit that he didn't know what to do. Admit that Alice wasn't safe, wasn't okay like Matt would have hoped she would be; that she spent most nights alone, resurfacing in the morning with red-rimmed eyes and an exhausted, almost beaten look.
Admit that Alice had given up, and they were lost.
But he never did. Something in him couldn't allow that, and so he told Matt lies, told him that things were great and Alice was going to be okay.
Sometimes he wondered if Matt, wherever he was, knew that they were all lies.
Most of the time, he just wondered how the hell he was supposed to fix all this.
Then, as if from Matt himself, he'd found the answer.
He wasn't proud of what he'd done. His plan relied on three things: Alexei's silence, Alice's uncompromised trust, and a complete disregard of his own morals.
But in the end, it was worth it. Because Alice was back, was leading again; there was a light in her eyes that hadn't been there in weeks.
That was all that mattered.
"Michael."
Rain's voice cut abruptly into his thoughts, and when he turned to look at her, she was glaring at him.
He offered her a small smile. "Sorry. What was that?"
"I'm bored," she said bluntly, looking tired and irritable. "You want to head in?"
Michael looked at his watch; two hours had passed.
Generally, when they'd started these patrols, venturing out past the Vegas limits every night to search for evidence of Umbrella activity, they'd agreed they would be at least four hour shifts, if not more.
He thought about that, and then he looked at the sky.
While the rain had stopped for the time being, it was heavy and black, looking like it was ready to pour forth again at any given moment.
He nodded, a sudden exhaustion overtaking his body with the motion, and Rain changed her direction slightly, veering off the main roads and entering the residential zones instead.
When they'd agreed on the necessity to patrol, all five of them had figured on more attacks from Hades, if nothing else; they'd thought these patrols would be necessary.
Hades hadn't shown up again, not even once, and while normally Michael would have been worried about what this meant, at the time being he was too tired to care.
They were entering Umbrella tomorrow, beginning a final battle.
Hades could wait.
A baby was crying in the night, and Michael could hear a woman and a man screaming at each other, something about a love affair or betrayal of some sort.
"Home sweet home," Rain muttered ironically, and Michael stole a glance at her.
The brunette looked tired now, frustrated with the useless, slow path these nights were ambling along at—when she'd signed up for patrolling five nights a week, she obviously hadn't anticipated the calm, eventless strolls which had been taking place over the last three weeks.
Her grip on her gun was tight, and Michael mimicked her, flicking the safety off his own as they headed into the slum they called home these days.
Set into what would crudely be called the ghetto area of Las Vegas, Princeton Avenue matched neither it's name nor the idealistic description Michael's out-of-date traveling books had given it.
Their apartment, their so-called safehouse, was the epitome of that graceless setting of life.
A two story high building, Vegas Apartments was a nightmare of chipped, peeling pink paint; creaking, dirty floorboards and utterly destroyed windows and doorways. Besides providing shelter for their small group, it also played house for a slew of miscreants, including crack addicts, dealers, pimps and prostitutes, rapists and the odd psychotic serial killer.
In the short time they'd been here, they'd already had to deal with countless break-ins and attempts at assaults, over twenty drug-busts, and one guy with a chainsaw called "Mickey".
All in all, it was not an easy place to live inside.
Nor was it someplace Umbrella would immediately, if at all, think to look for them.
Rain threw open the door, barging inside, and Michael followed, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the hazy, shadowy light the hallways had to offer.
He followed Rain's lead as she stalked through the corridors, ignoring the various catcalls and death threats as she reached the stairs, pounding up them, gun in her hand as if to send out the universal message not to fuck with her.
Michael raised his own gun, trying to convey the same image, and couldn't help but give a small smile at her headstrong attitude.
Despite worrying about her and Alice when they'd first arrived, almost to the point of insisting they have one of the guys escort them everywhere they went, Michael had soon learnt Rain was far more capable of taking care of herself than he probably would have been.
They reached the top of the stairway, and Michael allowed himself to relax slightly.
Beside him, Rain slowed slightly, still tense; part of him wanted to say something that would alleviate her frustration, but another part of him realized it would be useless. He had done this with Rain before, enough times to realize a simple fact: Rain would either stay quiet and explode later, or she would explode now.
Either way, talking would only further piss her off.
"I'm fucking starving," she said.
Her voice was tired rather than angry, and he fought the urge to smile sympathetically, knowing she would find it condescending.
"Who's making dinner tonight?" he asked curiously.
"J.D and Alexei," she answered, and her voice was taut again, expression dark; and looking closely at her, Michael realized it wasn't patrolling she was upset about, but coming home again.
For some reason, Rain and Alexei had gotten close in the past three weeks. To the surprise of no one at all, J.D hated him.
Unfortunately for Rain, it left her in a fairly awkward—and exhausting—position.
In the shadows, a man glared at Rain; Michael shifted his gun onto him, recognizing him instantly as he turned to stare at him instead.
He'd drawn a gun on Rain three days ago, tried to force her into his apartment.
Rain had broken his nose and arm, stolen all the money in his pockets, and walked calmly away.
The hatred in the man's eyes now spoke volumes. So did the fear.
They reached the door without further incident, and Rain stood by patiently— or as patiently as she was capable of, anyway— as Michael stepped up to perform the secret knock they'd all agreed on.
He tapped it three times, knocked slowly five times, turned his palm to hit it again four more times—
And the door was yanked open, revealing J.D, who stood there, face glowering, and barked, "What?"
Michael stared. Dressed in a frilly pink apron, waving a spatula around, face red and twisted into an unmistakable expression of rage, J.D looked slightly maniacal.
"Uh," he said, and couldn't think of anything else to say. Rain laughed, and at the bright sound, uncommon from her these days, Michael couldn't help but grin slightly as well.
"J.D, what the hell are you wearing?"
He looked down at himself, his face reflecting surprise as if he'd forgotten; and then, ripping the apron off angrily, he spat, "Talk to Alexei," before storming out of the dingy kitchen.
They continued around the corner to the living room, where the object of J.D's ire was finally revealed in one of the ratty armchairs, a bored expression bordering only slightly on arrogance plastered over his face as he watched television.
"Hey," he said casually, as if the entire scene hadn't just taken place.
Rain looked exasperated. "Alexei, get your ass off the couch and get started. I'm hungry."
Demitrov looked exceptionally wounded, and Michael noticed, not without some amusement, that Rain was the only person he seemed to make even the slightest of effort with.
From the start, he'd seemed to mark Alice as an equal, Michael as slightly less so, and Rain and J.D as somewhat oversized children. Alice and Michael had never particularly needed to tell Demitrov what to do— whenever Alice was around especially, he was always on top form, two steps ahead of them and well aware of it.
His opinion of Rain and J.D, however, had led to a series of screaming fights, a moody J.D, egotistical Demitrov, volatile Rain, and incredibly stressed out Alice.
And then, practically overnight, something had changed. J.D and Demitrov still hated each other, yeah, but now him and Rain were practically attached at the hip. While he still didn't treat her the same way he did Alice— hugely arrogant and yet somehow coolly respectful— she was still one of the only people in the group that he at least attempted to make an effort with.
"I ordered pizza," he said, his expression almost comically shocked, as if the mere suggestion that he would neglect to help J.D in the kitchen had wounded him deeply.
At this, J.D came stomping back into the room. "Are you fucking stupid? We don't have any money to buy pizza with—"
"You, Salinas," Demitrov interjected coolly, "Are poor enough to be living in a slum like this. I, on the other hand, have plenty of money to cover a pizza bill."
"That's not the point!" J.D shouted. "We shouldn't be drawing attention to ourselves—"
"J.D," Rain said, expression exasperated. "It's a pizza deliveryman, not an Umbrella agent. Calm the fuck down."
"If it'll make you feel better, we can kill the deliveryman after we get the pizzas," Demitrov said, a slightly malicious tone to his voice now. "That way you won't have to worry about it so much."
J.D's eyes narrowed. "Yeah. Kill some stupid kid. Although I guess you'd be used to that, working with Umbrella, and all."
Demitrov stiffened, all senses of teasing or amusement going out of his demeanor as he did, and Michael winced. Demitrov wasn't proud of what he'd done at Umbrella— anybody could see that there was obviously something behind that— and J.D had just pushed one of his few buttons.
"Don't bring that up," he said darkly. "You don't even know what the fuck you're talking about, Salinas."
J.D scoffed. "What, except for the fact that you've taken out entire orphanages out in the name of Umbrella? No wonder you're such a great fucking marksman, you've had lots of practice."
"J.D," Rain said sharply. "Both of you, stop acting like idiots."
"Stay out of it, Rain," J.D barked at her, just as Alexei said, "I don't need fucking backup, Ocampo."
"Fine," Rain said, looking disgusted. "Do whatever you want, I don't care."
She left, leaving Michael standing, watching J.D and Demitrov's fight escalate to a shouting match. Both men were literally inches apart now, looking ready to tear each other apart if someone didn't intervene. Michael wouldn't have been surprised if the entire neighborhood, let alone the entire safehouse, couldn't hear what was going on.
Not for the first time, he wished Alice was here. J.D and Demitrov listened to her, at least; and if she'd been here in the first place, this entire stupid situation would never have occurred—
Most likely, anyways, he corrected himself belatedly. J.D and Demitrov weren't exactly easy to work with at the best of times, but at least it wouldn't have advanced this far.
He was brought out of his nervous reverie when Demitrov punched J.D.
This started a whole new level of fighting, with J.D tackling Demitrov immediately thereafter, sending a counterful of stacked dishes toppling down over them.
Michael sighed, wishing wistfully that he was somewhere else; at home, sitting with his parents and little sister, watching some stupid television program or listening to music. At university, sitting in the library, out with friends, or even in class taking notes.
Instead he was here, in a fleabag apartment, trying— and failing miserably— to exercise some control over the little group in Alice's absence.
He wondered when, how, his life had taken this sudden turn.
Then he threw himself into the fracas.
By the time Rain came out of her room to see what was going on, the fight was pretty much over; Demitrov, coolly calm and collected as always, had stood as soon as Michael had involved himself, looking completely disgusted with J.D.
J.D, on the other hand, was still shouting at Demitrov, fighting to get at him. Michael's first attempts to intervene won him a black eye and impatient curse from J.D, making him wonder why he was even involving himself in this mess.
Then Rain was there, pulling J.D back, shouting, "J.D, calm the fuck down, man—"
Then the door opened, and Alice walked in, gun in her waistband, expression exhausted.
A few steps behind her trailed the pizza boy, carrying three large boxes and looking terrified at the scene in front of him.
Which, Michael realized, taking in the scene himself, he should.
All four of them were red-faced, panting from the effort the fight had taken; with the exception of Rain, every one of them was bruised and bleeding. Pots and pans had fallen into a cluttered mess around them, the floor was slick with water and soap that had managed to find it's way out of the filled sink, and the television was blaring, lending a slightly detached quality to the entire scene.
Alice scanned the room once.
"What the hell is going on here?"
xxxxx
The room went dead silent.
Alice looked around, focusing on each of them in turn. Even soaked to the skin, eyes red from either exhaustion or tears, her bright eyes were liquid steel as they fell on him.
"Alexei," her voice was smooth, and she arched an eyebrow slightly before continuing. "Why don't you explain?"
Fuck.
Alexei had no idea how, exactly, Alice always knew precisely who to blame.
Instead of noting this, he smiled blandly in response. "Salinas lost his temper."
J.D sputtered, and he allowed himself a small smile. Really, J.D made it too easy sometimes.
Alice narrowed her eyes at him briefly before seemingly coming to the conclusion she wasn't likely to get a straight answer out of him anyway. Glancing away, she ordered, "Alexei, pay for the pizza. Both of you, clean up this mess."
"We need to talk about tomorrow, so nobody—" here she glanced at Rain and J.D; the former smiled slightly, the latter continued to glare at Alexei—"Leaves this apartment. Understand?"
They nodded. Alice nodded once, then, looking satisfied, swept out of the room, Michael following.
J.D got down on his hands and knees, beginning to clear the broken glass off the ground. Rain took the pizzas from the kid, who's expression was still mildly terrified, and placed them on the table.
As J.D set to work dumping the glass in the trash bin and Rain began stealing all the assorted pizza pieces, Alexei went to pay the deliveryman, half-listening to their conversation as he did so.
"Wait, you're just leaving?" J.D's voice, teasing but plaintive.
Rain's voice was coolly amused as she responded. "You made the mess, you clean it up."
She left.
Alexei finished paying the deliveryman, adding a big tip—he figured he deserved it—and turned back smile at J.D. "Got it, Salinas?"
J.D glared up at him. "No, I don't 'got it', Demitrov—"
"Good," Alexei said blithely, picking up one of the boxes and continuing into the living room., the echoing sounds of J.D swearing wonderful, comedic music to his tired mind.
That had been ten minutes ago.
Now he sat alone in silence, the cold and greasy pizza box and what was left inside of it on the floor next to him.
The walls here were paper thin, and he could hear Rain and J.D laughing, drowning out the quiet murmurs from Michael and Alice's room.
It made him envious.
When he was with Umbrella, he had never needed—or cared about—personal relationships. Powerful, insanely gorgeous, and already wealthy, he'd climbed the ranks of Umbrella quickly, reaching Archangelo's level in less than a year. Life had been spent in a beautiful, palace-like mansion, cavorting with an array of nameless, faceless women, blithely signing his name on every Umbrella permission document that came his way, and for awhile, he'd known a twisted sort of paradise.
Until one day Alexei had woken up and realized that paradise was slipping.
He hadn't suddenly woken up to realize what he was doing was wrong, much like he imagined Alice Parks had. He'd known what Umbrella was doing was wrong. He just hadn't cared.
He wasn't a fucking saint, after all. When life bestowed fortune, Alexei didn't believe in overanalyzing it. What was the point?
What Alexei was was ambitious. Efficient. Even ruthless. A person couldn't get to the top ranks of Umbrella without being ruthless at times.
What he had woken up to realize was that Umbrella was losing. Sometime, between the hushed-up Hive incident and the renegade S.W.A.T. team's return, things had changed and Umbrella had begun to falter.
He'd watched in silence as Umbrella had continued to crumble, hammered away at by this tiny group of renegade Umbrella members. Mutations had escaped, viral information and carefully hidden secrets had somehow become public knowledge, and different members had slowly lost all credibility as Umbrella's top reputation began to crumble.
This had left Alexei with two options, neither of them particularly desirable. Stay with Umbrella to the bitter end—or abandon a life of wealth and prosperity to one of substandard normalcy.
Alexei was used to a life of wealth. Growing up in the household of two full members of what still remained of Russian nobility, he had never known anything less.
Living in this hellhole was fucking torture.
Eventually, he'd thought of a way out.
He'd been on that last pathetic attempt of a clean up mission in the Hive, his first active duty, when it had occurred to him on a spur-of-the-moment thought: the anti-virus.
That one, stupid little case they were carrying was worth over five hundred billion dollars. On the black market, it's price would be doubled.
With that money, he could begin a new life—sail away to Tahiti, buy himself an island, do whatever the fuck he wanted, really.
He could start over.
It was amazingly simple, really. He was surprised nobody else had thought of it first.
From then on it had been a matter of simple deviation: lying about the codes, trapping his group, and arranging for his own transportation.
Oddly enough, that had been the hardest part. Alexei had been pleasantly surprised at the loyalty of some of Umbrella's lower members.
It was amazing, however, what one million dollars could buy a person.
Alexei had walked out of the incident whole, healthy, and soon to be very, very rich.
Unfortunately, Umbrella had chosen to detonate his house, rather than deal with the entirely messy process of killing him by stealth. Alexei had barely escaped with his life, had been halfway across the country holed up in an anonymous hotel room when he'd realized one simple fact: he'd left the anti-virus behind.
It had been detonated along with the rest of the house.
This, unfortunately, left Alexei completely fucked.
Before he could chose another plan of action, he'd ended up in Alice Park's hotel room, fighting off Hades with the rest of them like a good little hero should.
And now he was here. Which, in retrospect, wasn't all bad. The million dollars he'd spent had guaranteed him a contact for life, meaning he was well-informed at all times of Umbrella's activities and status—more so, actually, than he had ever been working there.
The people here weren't bad either.
Alice Parks was beautiful, classy and intelligent; Michael Cahill was quiet and boring, but doubtlessly intelligent as well.
Neither of them interfered in his activities, and he appreciated that.
J.D Salinas was an idiot, but decent on the field. And Rain Ocampo… Rain was something else entirely. While her demanding, volatile attitude had pissed him off at first, just as he supposed his cool, slightly arrogant tone had pissed her off, she'd quickly grown on him. She was sufficiently intelligent and she could match him on the field as well, something else he appreciated. While he could lift a hell of a lot more weight than she could, she could kick his ass in a race, and they both knew that.
She was also witty, and there was something almost endearingly charming about her completely tyrannical personality.
He had never cared about personal relationships.
Sometimes, when he was here, he worried he was starting to.
He glanced edgily at the clock on the VCR.
11:17 pm.
Fuck this.
He stood abruptly, walking through what he called "the crawl space" and the rest of the group referred to as a hallway and stopped in front of one of the doors, knocking politely.
Rain answered instantly, sounding irritated. "What?"
"May I come in?" he asked, his voice full of exaggerated politeness. "If it's all right with Salinas, of course."
"No," J.D muttered sullenly inside. Alexei heard a sharp smack, followed by an irritated. "Ow. What the fuck, Rain—"
"Yeah," Rain replied finally, cutting J.D off.
Smart girl.
Alexei opened the door and walked in, taking in the scene quickly; both were sitting on the lumpy bed they shared, looking bored and relaxed. "Ocampo," he drawled slowly, leaning against the doorway. "Want to come on a cleanup mission with me?"
"Cleanup mission?" she asked skeptically. "Or a waste of time patrol?"
He shrugged elegantly, grinned slightly. "A little of both?"
She grinned in return. "Hell yes."
She bounced off the bed, gave J.D an affectionate clap on the shoulder. "See you, J.D."
"Yeah," he muttered. "Bye."
Alexei slung an arm around her shoulder as she passed by him. "Bye J.D."
J.D didn't even grace that with a comment; he just sat there, watching them go, looking pissed.
Alexei smiled.
xxxxx
They were twenty minutes into their walk when Alexei broke the echoing silence.
"Let's talk, Rain," he said brightly.
She stared at him. He stared back. Finally, she broke.
"Why?" she asked plaintively. "I like the silence."
And she did. She wasn't exactly what someone would call quiet—J.D made a point of reminding her of that often—but for some reason, being around Alexei was calming.
He smiled charmingly. "I want to get to know you better."
"Something might here us," she pointed out languidly. "One of Umbrella's monsters, or something."
He snickered at that, and she grinned slightly, unable to help it.
With the storm having blown through and out in a matter of hours, the only sounds in the quiet Vegas night were the splashes of their footsteps against the wet concrete. Their quiet voices were held in the still sky, carried away through the air, and were it any actual mission, there would have been a legitimate point to her comments.
But on these missions, nothing happened. Ever. Rain, unfortunately, knew this better than anyone, having signed up for the missions in a desperate bid for action only to realize they were fucking pointless.
She fought off more problems walking through their goddamn 'safe house' than she ever did out here.
"Tell me about Salinas," Alexei suggested. "He interests me."
Rain rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, right."
"No, seriously," he continued, unperturbed. "I've never met anyone that stupid before. He's fascinating."
Rain smirked slightly before loyalty prevailed and she added, "Hey, watch who you're calling stupid. He's my best friend."
Alexei glanced at her, and she sighed. "He's reckless, okay? Doesn't mean he's stupid."
And somewhere along the way her tone had changed to one of defensiveness, and she wanted to cringe, hearing it in the air, shattering the still calm of the night.
J.D had been right—she really wasn't capable of a calm silence.
She waited, tense; they were walking in tandem, their footsteps echoing loudly in the night, and Alexei looked thoughtful.
"Why?" he asked finally.
"How the fuck should I know?" she bit off, annoyed despite herself.
Alexei didn't call her on it; he only raised an eyebrow, as if she hadn't just snapped at him, and waited for her to continue.
"He thinks we don't trust him," she admitted bluntly, and the previously unspoken confession lingered in between them.
Part of her wished she could take the words back. It wasn't a secret, and it wasn't something J.D himself had told her, but all the same… it wasn't any of his business. She shouldn't have told him.
She opened her mouth to tell him so, but he cut her off deliberately. "Why wouldn't you?"
Had it been anyone else, Rain would have told them to fuck off. Reminded them, harshly, that what went on between her and J.D was nobody else's goddamn business.
But Alexei had a way of making her reveal information she hadn't even been able to admit to herself. With a series of well-placed questions and looks, he'd somehow mastered a technique nobody before J.D had managed to fully grasp.
Part of her hated it. The whole reason Rain didn't tell people stuff was because it made her vulnerable, and with every bit of information she let slip to Alexei, she gave him a stronger weapon to use against her.
Yet another part of her trusted him enough to enjoy those little looks and comments; the way she could open up to him without even stopping to think about it.
She didn't want to think about it.
"Back down in the Hive," she began, and she didn't need to fill him in on the rest—Alice had already told him everything worth knowing about their last trip down there. "J.D and Olivia ended up in a—"
She halted there, not knowing what description to use; the term relationship somehow gave it a much fuller meaning than she wanted to apply to the weeklong train crash that had ultimately led to their downfall.
"Fling," she said finally, hating the word but unsure of what else to say. "J.D started to trust her—he followed her, blindly, and eventually Olivia betrayed us. We never could trust her, and then… we couldn't trust him either, not anymore."
A brief flash of resentment coursed through her, directing her next words. "Now he's… I don't know, trying to make up for it or something."
"Or regain your trust," Alexei suggested offhandly.
Rain shrugged. "He's going to get himself killed," she said flatly.
Alexei shrugged as well. "Maybe."
Their was another brief silence, one which Rain broke instead. "Why do you care?" she asked sharply. "You ask all these fucking questions and—"
"Do you trust him now?" Alexei asked simply, cutting her off completely, and she blew out an explosive breath before answering:
"I don't know."
The words were tiny, laced with a sort of sorrow and fear she didn't even want to try and analyze; and too late, she wished she'd just said something fake, had lied, had managed to avoid this conversation entirely.
He was standing too close to her, his eyes searching and thoughtful; she felt entirely too open to him.
"Look," she began harshly. "I don't—"
And then his mouth was on hers, cutting her off a second and final time; she gave in without even thinking about it, yielding under the soft pressure of his mouth, somehow registering how close she was to him, pressed up against him, his arms pulling her in impossibly close—
Then he pulled away, leaving her feeling lost, confused, and inexplicably angry.
"What—" she started, but he cut her off again and she realized suddenly that they were no longer alone.
There was something across the street.
In the dark night, Rain couldn't make out distinctive features—from her viewpoint it looked like a harmless dog, albeit a large one.
Then it moved, a fluid, graceful movement as it started towards them, and she felt a shudder pass involuntarily through her as it did.
Whatever it looked like, there was nothing harmless about it.
She still had her handgun in her grasp; she'd never put it away, and she unlocked the safety now, holding it ready in front of her.
She realized suddenly that it was their only weapon—Alexei hadn't bothered to bring one.
He was behind her only slightly, and whispered, "Ocampo, don't let it see you—"
Completely fucking useless advice, and yet, faced with the prospect of the thing in front of them, she absorbed the order as if it made sense, not bothering, for once in her life, to argue.
It looked right at them.
And then it turned and loped away.
Rain allowed her grip on the trigger to falter only slightly before asking bluntly, "What the fuck just happened?"
She spun around to look at him, and jumped despite herself at his appearance; gone was the charming, deceivingly cheerful persona Alexei constantly played at.
Instead, his features were hard; his blue eyes dark and steely as he said shortly, "Crawford is in town."
Rain blinked. Then: "What?"
Alexei didn't even bother answering. He just turned and hurried away, obviously expecting him to follow.
Rain just stood there and stared at his retreating back, feeling distinctly confused and even more irritable as she demanded:
"Who the hell is Crawford?"
xxxxx
Two full hours had passed, two hours which he had spent scowling at the wall and wondering what Rain and Demitrov could possibly be doing, before Alice finally knocked on the door.
"Yeah?" J.D asked simply, glancing at it as it opened swiftly.
Alice stood there, holding one of the files in her hand. "Where are Alexei and Rain?" she asked pointedly.
J.D shrugged, staring at the floor, knowing he was acting like a petulant child and not caring.
After all that had happened with Olivia, he couldn't believe Rain was off alone, in the middle of the night, screwing around with Demitrov.
Not literally, obviously. Unless—
That brought up all sorts of horrifying images, and J.D pushed them aside, trying to focus on the matter at hand.
Alice was staring at him, looking equal parts concerned and wary, and while normally he would have at least tried to make the extra effort to be a good little boy, tonight he was too tired to care. "What?"
She raised one slender eyebrow at him, her expression too knowing for comfort, and he flushed slightly.
It didn't help that the entire group seemed to assume his concern over the situation was nothing more than jealousy and a mistaken sense of over-protectiveness.
Michael appeared in the doorway. "I didn't see them anywhere outside," he said, answering Alice's questioning look as he slid into the room, sitting down on one of the desk chairs next to the bed.
Alice sighed, and J.D looked closely at her as she did so. He wasn't good at deciphering people—fucking hopeless, actually.
But even he could see how tired she seemed lately.
"We'll start without them," she said simply, although her voice was full of irritation.
J.D nodded, somewhat savagely. "Good."
She glanced at him, and then at Michael, beginning without any preamble. "Everyone here knows what's happening tomorrow already. I just wanted to make sure everyone was okay with it."
Even tired, her blue eyes were bright and somehow warm as she looked over J.D and Michael; and J.D realized, suddenly, that she was just as glad about tomorrow as she was terrified.
Alice had been drifting for weeks—they all had. Sliding down the messy path to salvation, fading away into nothingness—and now, finally, they were fumbling their way to a concrete ending.
In a way, it was almost inspiring.
"I don't like how much of our plan relies on Demitrov," J.D voiced instantly, and wanted to cringe at how whiny the words sounded, clearing his throat and adding instead, "He works with Umbrella, and that gives him an edge. But if he messes something up, we're all fucked."
Both Alice and Michael looked exasperated, but not entirely surprised, and he realized they'd both been expecting this.
He wondered if Demitrov got the same reactions from the group when he mentioned J.D.
Probably not.
Demitrov would never allow himself to look that childish.
"J.D," Alice began, and just looking at her, J.D could see how hard she was trying to keep it together. He felt a momentary flash of guilt that came out of nowhere and threatened to overwhelm him—first Olivia, and now this.
No matter what happened, somehow, J.D Salinas always seemed to be at the root of it.
"This is what the plan is," Alice spoke calmly, rationally, but J.D could see that part of her was hoping he would just shut up and let things be, make it easier on all of them.
But he couldn't, and it wasn't just because of his dislike for Demitrov, or his annoyance at the relationship building between the ex-Umbrella figurehead and his best friend.
J.D had always had some degree of intuition. Usually, he went against it completely anyways, doing the stupid thing to get fast results.
But his intuition was always right, and tomorrow…
He had a bad feeling about tomorrow.
"Demitrov is a loose end," he said flatly, not knowing what else to say. "I don't trust him."
Alice looked like she was debating whether to beat him with something or take the easy path of suicide, her sharp blue eyes a contrast to her exhausted expression.
Michael was staring at the doorway, and too late, J.D became aware of the figures standing in front of it.
True to form, Demitrov ignored him completely; leaning casually against the wall and watching Alice carefully.
Rain's posture, however, spoke volumes. Even though she too focused her attention on Alice, J.D could practically see the barely restrained irritation in her stance—
And when she turned, finally, to glance at him, the accusation and somehow misplaced worry in her eyes forced his own gaze back to the floor.
Alice broke the sudden silence. "Nice of you two to show up," she clipped plainly, staring at both Demitrov and Rain.
Neither of them looked fazed; Demitrov only said simply, "Crawford is here."
Both Michael and Alice tensed; Alice narrowed her eyes slightly at him. "How do you know?"
"Saw one of his attack dogs," Demitrov said simply, his posture unchanging, but his blue eyes stormy.
"Who's Crawford?" J.D finally interceded bluntly, feeling like an idiot for asking but even stupider listening to something completely impossible for him to understand.
To his surprise, Rain gestured at him and said, "Dude, exactly. That's what I told Alexei."
Demitrov looked irritated, glancing at both of them and saying, "Look, if Umbrella has a boss, Crawford would be it. His being here, at this time, is too much of a coincidence to continue."
He looked back at Alice. "Alice, I would highly suggest we move the mission to a later date, or at least scout out the area before carrying out tomorrow's plan."
J.D was surprised, despite himself, at the unwavering respect in Demitrov's voice—he had never, ever spoken to Michael or even Rain that way before, and it was almost disconcerting to hear such a subjective tone in his regularly arrogant voice.
But Alice was already shaking her head. "No. This changes nothing."
"Alice, this changes everything," Demitrov argued, his tone of respect melding into one of almost hostile desperation. "Our plan depended on Umbrella's lack of security. If Crawford is there—"
"No."
Alice spoke harshly, and Demitrov fell silent. "I don't care what happened. This is our plan, and we're sticking to it. If anyone has a problem, they should say something now."
She glanced around the room, at everyone inside it. Nobody looked particularly arguementive; Rain and Michael were both silent, staring at respective points on the wall and ceiling, and Demitrov kept his mouth shut, looking mutinous.
And J.D? J.D didn't care.
He just wanted this all to be over so he could get back to something approaching a normal life. Fighting was one thing—but this mindless, political idiocy he could do without.
"Good," Alice said finally, breaking the heavy silence that had settled over the room, and though her expression was strong, confident, the face a leader should have, her voice was almost exhausted as she added, "Whether we win or lose…"
"This ends tomorrow."