Ok, heres the next chapter. Quick, huh?

Well, enjoy.


"Maeda, you're okay!" said a new voice.

As the finished opening, a young Hispanic lady came rushing through the door. She hugged Dr. Maeda tightly, clearly over joyed.

"I'm alright, Anne, really," Maeda said in return.

"Anne?" I said, seeing as I didn't know anyone by that name.

"Pardon," said Anne, leaving the hug, though she kept her hands glued to his shoulders. "I am Dr. Anneliese Frank. I have a PhD in psychology."

"Nice to meet you, Anneliese," I said calmly. Shifting the shotgun to my left hand, I extended my hand to her, which she gracefully took and shook lightly.

"Please, just Anne."

"So, um… What happened in here?" said Fisher. He was commenting on the state of the elevator, which was fairly blood soaked, thanks to the battle Aya and I had earlier.

"We had a run in with some more NMC's," said Aya.

Afterwards, the three of us, being myself, Aya, and Dr. Maeda stepped out of the elevator. We had procured Maeda earlier, just after activating the console while in sync with the others.

"However, as you can see, we are quite alright," I said.

"That is good news. And now that we have taken care of the security lock, all that needs to be done is for you two to deal with Emilia," said Maeda. His choice of words made it seem like we had to kill Emilia, though I knew what he meant. We just needed to calm her down, seeing as she was angry enough to kill most people.

"You're going to kill her?" Anne asked, stunned by Maeda's choice of words.

"No, no," Maeda said quickly. "Aya and John only need to calm her down. Other wise, none of us can go down to meet Dr. Pereira."

"Wait… Did you say Aya and John?" said Anne, shocked yet again. "As in Aya Brea and Jonathan Bale?"

"Yes, the very same," said Maeda.

"Oh… Well, it's an honor to finally meet the two of you."

Anne proceeded to bow before the two of us. I was rather confused as to why she had, as this conversation had suddenly gone to insider information. Aya seemed to be clueless in this event as well, as she had a fairly confused look about her.

"Anne, they don't know yet," said Maeda, getting a grip on Anne's shoulder.

"Oh, I see, Anne said.

"Know what? Aya asked.

"I'm sorry, we mustn't tell you," said Maeda, who quickly looked away and then adjusted his glasses.

"Tell us what?" asked Aya.

"What are you hiding, doctor?" said Samantha.

"Please, I can't tell you," pleaded Maeda. "Aya, John, you must believe me. Emilia… is very special. You'll both understand once you meet her in person."

Silence fell amongst the six of us, and an unpleasant feeling came to me. Maeda was clearly hiding something, but he didn't want to tell us. I could only assume it was too important for him to transfer to words. Determined to put this behind me, I simply decided to speak again, this way I could force myself and Aya to the fourth floor to confront this "Emilia."

"Alright, we'll handle that," I said.

"Thank you."

"You two be careful, okay?" said Sam, trying to be supportive.

Stepping back into the elevator, I waited for Aya to get in then pressed the button for floor B4. Sam and Maeda waved their hands as the door closed, with a quiet return of affection from Aya. Once the doors had closed, the elevator lowered itself, leaving the two of us alone again.

"Well, this is going to be interesting," I said.

Aya seemed a little distraught, most likely because of my wound earlier. I had already told her I was fine, and even tried to be a dumb ass so that she would cheer up a little. Yet her emotions on went down hill, which only made me worry about her.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she asked.

"Positive," I said calmly.

"Oh…"

She fell silent, looking away in shame. She tried to shake it away, yet her face still showed her sadness and worry.

"Aya," I said.

"Y-yes?"

"You know I'm not going to die on you, right?"

"I know… but you were bleeding so much… I just…"

"Freaked? Don't worry about it. That happens."

I smiled at Aya, who made eye contact with me. She smiled back, though weakly, and then looked away again.

"I'm a lot tougher then I look. I'll be fine."

Aya kept looking away, still ashamed, or afraid. I wasn't sure which, but it worried me to see her like this. She was usually stronger then this, and this weak Aya was a strange for her personality.

"We'll be alright," I said, all the while placing my right hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks for the pep talk," she said, placing her right hand on mine. She looked back at me as well, a smile on her face.

"That's the Aya I know."

Just then, the elevator stopped, and in a jerk of instinct, I readied my shotgun. After the battle earlier, the two of us reloaded all of our weapons, making sure that we were ready for any attack.

With my shotgun at the ready and Aya with her L85A2, we waited for the door to open. It slid open slowly, but what we saw put us at ease. A long hall, brightly lit and clear of any doorways was before us. The scent of a beach came to my nose, and I couldn't help being a little entrance by this smell.

Aya and I stepped out of the elevator together, making our way to the end of the hall. At the end, we had to make a left, which led to a rather large room without a ceiling. The wall of the room was mainly glass, which allowed a very good view of our surroundings.

Somehow underneath this gigantic mountain was not only a research facility, but also a fairly large, artificial jungle. It reminded me of the jungle inside the Neo-Ark facility that I went to back when I was a guinea pig. The trees and paths lied mostly nearby, while a large sea like expanse made about fifty percent of the room. A small lagoon laid to the left of us, which I soon learned was west, thanks to an enlarged compass statue in this open room.

"It's warm here," I said, feeling the heat pound on my head. It was about a hundred degrees, and with the humidity, it felt even warmer.

"John, look!"

Aya was pointing to a small building to the Northeast. It was a plain office style building, and in this jungle, it was probably the refuge of some NMC's, perhaps even this "Emilia."

"Let's check it out," I said.

We made our way to a nearby stairwell to the east of the room. After climbing down, we game to a solid dirt path, and followed it in the direction of the building.

"Strange… Shouldn't there be some animals or NMC's nearby?" Aya said, making an observation of the silence around us.

"They probably haven't noticed us yet. Don't be surprised if we get ambushed though."

As the path winded down, Aya and I came to a fork in the road. One headed farther north, but seemed to twist off to the west. The other made a sharp turn to the east, which was far closer to the building. Making a silent decision, the two of us headed down the second path, towards the building.

A short time down this new path I heard something in the distance, to the north. I wasn't particularly sure what I was hearing, but it certainly made me wonder.

"Aya, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Aya said stopping next to me.

Suddenly, the trees began to rustle, and with an enormous pound of the ground, some sort of large object smashed the ground before us, bringing all the trees in its path along. Upon sight of the thing, I grabbed Aya and hit the deck, so that debris couldn't hit us.

The object retracted towards the north, leaving much of the debri, as well as the two of us alone. I quickly stood up then gave chase, but stopped when I heard Aya's voice.

"Wait!"

"Aya, you go find this Emilia! I'll deal with whatever this thing is!"

Aya continued to try and stop me, but I just kept running after this thing. After another look at this thing, I thought it looked like an octopus's tentacle. IF this was an octopus, then I was sure it far larger then anything recorded, as far as octopus' or squids go.

The tentacle retracted back into the water, which was surrounded by a sandy shore. I came to the shore, but due to the water, I lost track of the beast. Yet the water soon gave way, and another tentacle came from the blue depths and struck at the land. It hand been aiming at me, and I was forced to dive out of the way.

"John!"

Taking a quick look around, I found Aya running toward the shore via the new path way created by the octopus. Seeing as the tentacle that came down on me a moment ago was in Aya's way, she jumped over it and carefully watched for the suckers of the tentacle.

"Aya, what are you doing here!"

"I'm here to help!

"But I said to-"

My speech was cut short by the sight of another tentacle rising from the water. I grabbed Aya's hand and started to run down the shore line. The second, or rather the third tentacle slammed against the sand behind us, but rattled the ground enough for us to stumble.

"John, what's that!"

Aya at the moment was pointing toward an object ahead of us, though I was more worried about another tentacle. Looking ahead, I found the object that Aya was pointing to. A crane had been lowered to the ground, leaving the user console on ground floor, along with the actual crane and lifting hook.

"It's a crane! It must have been used for construction!"

"Maybe we can use it do fight that… thing!"

Looking back at the octopus for a moment, I figured out a quick plan of attack for the beast. Taking into account the size of the area so far, as well as the size of the cane, if we used it to lift the octopus and then throw it into the lagoon, that beast would dry up faster then a sack of potatoes.

"Come on, I have a plan!"

At the crane, I told Aya my plan quickly. She seemed very skeptical, but I was in no mood to argue about this. Leaving Aya to handle the controls, I hoped onto the lifting arm, and then carefully proceeded to the lift hook. I almost fell over when Aya raised the crane, but about fifty feet, I decided to go on all fours and travel the arm.

Once at the end of the arm, I lower myself onto the hook and used it as a step while I used my hands to hold onto the steel cable. Making a quick hand gesture, I asked Aya to lower the crane. She did, and the machine lowered. After some time, the hook touched water, and before it descended into the depths with me along with it, I took a deep breath and ensured my footing.

Under the water, the octopus was enormous, and ugly. Several of its tentacles immediately took hold of the cable, and I only managed to stay un-suctioned to the beast's tentacles. Once the hook was low enough, I used my personal brute strength and hooked the octopus' head, so as it couldn't get away.

Quickly I ascended to the surface of the water, and with another gesture told Aya to lift the crane and proceed with the plan. The crane rose, and the enormous octopus came with it. Once at a good height, Aya rotated the crane, and after some carefully positioning, dropped the octopus into the small lagoon. With very little water, the octopus was sure to die soon enough on dry land.

Aya rotated the crane once more, though this time without the octopus. She then lowered the crane to ground level, this way she could easily step out. By this time, I was already on dry land, though my clothes had taken a lesson from the water and were one with wetness.

"John, you're soaked."

"Clearly."

With all my weapons on hand, I drew the revolver from my holster, and the two of us continued on our path the building in the northeast. We followed the path that the octopus had made for us, and soon had gotten back to our trail.

From the trail the building was only a short distance away, so Aya and I got there rather quickly. We climbed a few steps just before we got to the very nice patio of the building. There was a long style swing, with the seat capable of fitting three full grown people at once. Several plants rested by the main window of wall, mainly lilies and roses. After the quick evaluation of the patio, I checked the door to see if it was un-locked. I twisted the handle, but it wouldn't budge. Taking a look at the door, there was a panel to enter coded, which Dr. Maeda and Dr. Frank most likely knew.

"Damn, it's locked."

"Then how do we get in?" asked Aya.

"Well, I would say call Maeda, but I really don't feel like waiting."

Afterwards, I raised my gun to the lock, and with a quick blast, I opened the door. Stepping inside, I found the walls to be fairly… girly. Everything was neat, the walls were a sort of pinkish color, and several icons of childish television were visible at first glance. One noticeable figure was the "Hello Kitty" dolls, which seemed to flock everywhere.

"This is where Emilia is?" I said, fairly confused. I wasn't much of a kids kina guy, but seeing a little girl's room was new to me.

"What, you've never been to a girl's room?"

"No."

"What!"

"I'm a single child."

I continued forward, making sure to look everywhere. The first place I looked was in the room to our immediate left. The room was a small bedroom, suitable for a child. The covers for the bed were shifted about, as if someone had slept there recently. Carefully, I stepped inside the room, finding it empty. Taking a look under the bed and in the closet gave me nothing to go on as well.

Aya was taking a careful look around the main living room. It was stocked with a lot of things, ranging from books of various ages to videos games and the consoles needed to play them, such as the Gamecube and the newer Playstation 2. There was a bean bag chair in the corner by the large HDTV, and a comfortable looking sofa sat a good thirteen feet from the TV.

"Okay… so she was living here?"

"Looks like it, John. Let's check the other rooms, there's nothing here."

We walked farther into the building, leading us to two options. First, there was another bedroom to check. It was plainer then the living room or the other bedroom, and seemed untouched. The second was the kitchen, what with the various number of cabinets and shelves.

"I'll take the bedroom," said Aya.

"Alright."

Aya went into the bedroom, and with little hesitation, I wandered off into the kitchen. With a quick glance of the room and the cabinet door, it was easy to guess that there wasn't anyone in here. The room was neat, and everything was where it should be. Plus, there weren't any pots or pans on the ground, so it's safe to assume no one was hiding on the lower cabinets.

Just then, I heard a strange sound coming from the pantry. It took a moment, but I soon recognized it to be someone crying. I was fairly certain that "Emilia" was hiding there, so I went for the pantry door and opened it.

And there she was. An eleven year old girl with shoulder length brown hair and smooth, light colored skin was hiding in the pantry, crying. She was wearing a brown skirt the covered her knees, a brown shirt, and a turquoise shrug that tied off on a decorative ring. The reason for the turquoise shrug was simple; both the skirt and the shirt had turquoise butterflies.

"Emilia?" I said, curious if she was her.

The girl looked up at me, the emitter of the strange and new voice. At first glance, I could see disbelief in her eyes. She rubbed the tears out of her eyes, and with another glance came a sight of pure joy.

"Daddy!" the girl said, just before attacking my body with a child size hug.

"Daddy!" I said, confused.

"Oh, you silly bear!" she said, continuing her hug.

"Aya, I found Emilia… I think."

"You think!" said the girl, backing away with a pot on her face.

"Yep, I found her."

"John, you're not gonna believe this," said Aya coming into the kitchen.

"What?"

"Just look at the file."

She handed me a thin file, which had two pieces of paper, both of which pertaining to the young girl. Her name was written as "Emilia Bale," and with a few glances, I figured out what she meant.

"Aya."

"Yes?"

"You never got me drunk and then seduced me did you?"

"What does seduced mean?" asked Emilia.

"You don't need to know that, honey," said Aya.

"Hi, Mommy!"

"Answer the question, Aya."

"No, John."

"I thought not… Great…"

"What's wrong, Daddy?" asked Emilia.

Emilia had already gone back to my side, and feeling no need to make Emilia cry again, or anyone for that matter, I gave her a hug.

"Lot's of things, Emilia. But me and mommy are gonna make everything better."

"Daddy."

"Yes, Emilia?"

"You're all wet."


If you noticed the ANNE FRANK name, you guessed it. I needed a name for Anne (i started with that) and Frank just kinda fit.

Also, I named John "Silly bear"... Isn't that just adorable.

Well, enjoy the chapter, and PLEASE, review. I want another comment.

Later.

ZF