A/N: To answer the question, I'm reworking alot of my stuff that I've lost my way on. Most of my older works are getting a face lift or a rewrite.

Revelations:

Mirror Mask

Episode 4:

Forsaken

The Middle of Nowhere

It didn't take long for her to finish. She hadn't eaten, so there was nothing to really throw up. She heaved, dryly, and shivered. Her sweaty face haunted her in the mirror above the sink.

Her hand grabbed blindly at the towel beside it and tossed it over the dead baby. She couldn't, ever, see it again. She couldn't. She just...she couldn't. They called her any number of names in her life: Frigid Witch. The Ice Queen. No One's Valentine. Stitched at the Knees. Uptight Cunt. The Bitch in Blue.

But she wasn't. She wasn't at all. She just...didn't let it in. Anything. If she did, she ended up throwing up over a sink in a frozen death trap.

The quiet drew out until finally, to her surprise, Leon spoke softly, "...are you alright?"

She had forgotten to mute her fucking communicator. Awesome. Fantastic. Shit in a circle of pigeons made of popcorn and farts...she'd thrown up where they BOTH could hear her. Leon Kennedy had just heard her barf.

It was a fate worse than death.

Worse yet? Kennedy sounded, for the first time, sympathetic. He was going to start putting her in the "delicate girl" file.

He tried again, gently, "Jill?"

She barked, coldly, "I'm fine. Alright? There's some kind of lab here and I just...the people are...it's bad."

"Do you want to-"

"I don't want to talk about it, alright?" Jill snapped, "Leave it be."

The quiet drew out for a minute as she relearned how to breathe. Parker said, into the ensuing discomfort, "Anyone know any good knock knock jokes?"

And Leon came back, "Got some puns."

Parker answered, sounding pained, "I might die here, Leon. But I don't want to die of embarrassment for you first."

Leon chuckled, unflappable, "The puns are good, Luciani. Good. Don't hate on the puns."

He laughed. Parker laughed. Jill? Still silent.

She was something else. Leon wanted to shake her to see if the ice fell out of her ass when he did. Lord, it had to physically hurt to be that uptight.

What had she seen to make her blow chunks? She was uptight, sure, but she was also a pro. It had to be bad to put her hunched over and tossing her cookies.

What kind of hell hole were they in here?

The Voice filled her ears as she hunkered over the sink, "Skoll - the one who mocks. Hati - the one who hates. So little recognition really. They are two wolves who are only mentioned in passing references that have to do with their pursuing the sun (Sol) and moon (Mani), through the sky in hopes of devouring them. At Ragnarok, the downfall of the cosmos, they catch their prey as the heavens and earth darken and collapse."

Jill shook her head, considering. The one who mocks...Kennedy? Was she the one who hates? In which case...who was Parker? Or was she was the prey? Was she meant to die here? Or battle at "Ragnarok"? There was no hope but to find the answers. She could speculate all day.

Whatever game this was, it was going to be played by the rules of their captor, that much was clear.

The Voice came again, distinctly distorted, impossible to know if it was male or female. This time the stanza of a poem. It was entirely spoken in Old Norse.

The good news? After it was over, Leon Kennedy proved he wasn't just a pretty face and translated.

Skoll is the name of the wolf

Who follows the shining priest

Into the desolate forest,

And the other is Hati,

Hróðvitnir's son,

Who chases the bright bride of the sky.

Leon paused, considering. What was the story they were telling here? Who were the wolves?

What was curious about it?

Into his headset, he said, "The noun used for Skoll's prey, goði translates to "priest". It's masculine. And the noun used for Hati's prey, brúðr, or "bride" is feminine. Since Mani (the moon) is male, and Sol (the sun) is female, the wording of this stanza strongly suggests that Skoll hunts the moon and Hati the sun."

Jill came back to him, curious, "Is gender assigned to the wolves themselves?"

Leon answered, turning a corner and clearing it. He spoke low and soft, "Both are male in the mythology. The sons of Fenrir."

Parker filled in the silence, "Fenrir?"

To their surprise, the answer was blasted from the speakers around them. "Fenrir is the most famous wolf in history. He is the son of Loki, the god of mischief. He was bound to a rock and awaits his rise to power. He consumes all in his path with jaws open between earth and heavens. He will devour Odin, and help bring about the end of the world."

Leon spoke with the first edge of anger she'd ever heard from him, "These bad guys and the end of the world. What's so wrong with the world?"

And the voice spoke again, "What will rise from the waves when the Midgard Serpent releases the world and brings the end, will be a new race. Two shall remain to birth a new beginning. Through destruction, emerges evolution."

Leon spoke again, surprising Jill. Was he taunting their captor? "Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos."

The voice responded, "Civilization is like a thin layer of ice on an ocean of chaos and darkness."

He was so quiet that Jill thought he might not answer, but he did, softly, "When tempest-tossed, embrace chaos."

The voice responded, almost gently, "...never could I breathe love...if I did not first learn...to inhale a little chaos."

The quiet stretched. Parker filled it, "Do you know our captor?"

Leon came back, sounding perplexed, "I don't know. I'm starting to think this might be personal."

Jill sighed, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Kennedy."

Leon came back, sounding amused, "You jealous, Valentine? You want me to scorn you instead?"

The Voice informed them, "Do not waste time on idle speculation. Find the answers. Free yourselves. You're running out of time. Here? Now? It is not infinite. Soon the stars will go out, and there will be nothing but darkness and desolation."

Leon murmured, "Such a jolly place."

Parker laughed, lightly, "Where is my chance? I can't hear a thing."

And Jill responded, "I know. It's so quiet. I'm gonna poke around a bit and see what else is in this hallway."

Leon hissed, softly, "Stay there, Jill. Stop being stupid."

"Why? Are you the only one who can be?" She finished searching the office in the infirmary, finding it empty. But there was a sealed doctor's coat in a package. She slipped it on, placing the scissors in one of the white pockets. It was a shitty weapon, but at least she wasn't bare handed anymore. She had to get out of this room.

She had to.

She couldn't stay here and look at these flayed corpses anymore.

She eased open the door, shifting around the frame. She padded barefoot along the floor, hating the cold. She came around the corner in the hallway and froze - face to face with an enormous wolf.

It was white. It was watching her with blue eyes. She held both hands up.

Maybe Hati and Skoll were actual wolves. Maybe they were all the prey.

The wolf watched her. Jill said nothing, ignoring the herald of Kennedy in her ear pleading with her to stay put. She showed herself unarmed. It was female, she could tell that because it didn't have a dick on its beautiful form. It looked as startled as Jill about their encounter.

It was also as neutral as anything in the world would ever be. If Jill let her run, the wolf would run. If Jill attacked, the wolf would kill her for it. Jill crouched down, submissively, offering nothing aggressive.

And the wolf moved closer to sniff her. Her heart sped up but she kept her hands up and harmless. It sniffed her hair, snarfling behind her ears. Jill didn't so much as move a muscle.

It licked her ear.

Jill lifted her head, meeting her eyes from the crouch. It gave her a knowing look and Jill whispered, "Run girl. Ok? Run. While you can."

The wolf paced twice, twitched her ears, and bounded down the other hallway.

Jill leaned on the wall, relearning how to breathe.

Lord. What was this place?

She peeked into another set of doors and found a kennel. It was rank. It made her crinkle her nose. There were no more dogs or animals alive in it. That part was instantly clear. The walls were dripping with blood and ectopic fluid.

Something was pulsing on the ground of the kennel, farting clouds of stench and stinking. Jill eased the door closed and backed away, shaking her head. She hurried down the hallway after the wolf. What choice did she have?

She was NOT crossing through the kennel. Nope. She'd take her chances with the four-legged version and not the goopy, blubbery stinking one. It was like Gizmo versus a gremlin. She'd take her chance with Gizmo.

The wolf emerged there, circling. It eyed her. She eyed her back. And the wolf turned and ran again.

Getting the feeling she wanted Jill to follow her, Jill did just that. She eased down the cold steel corridor. The wall was smeared in blood. Like someone had tried to run and left a trail behind it.

The blood was still wet, still fresh, and still dripping. She wanted to turn back, but she kept on going.

Leon emerged into a small lab. It was lit up and warm, like it had recently been in use. The walls were lined with photographs and formulas and test results.

A flickering lighted board showed X-Rays and spouted medical jargon at him as he scanned it. The X-Ray showed something growing inside the chest cavity of the person in the film. It was inside the stomach and the heart. Whatever was invading things, it was incubating like a parasite within their body.

He scanned the reports hanging on the wall, inspecting the data. It read a lot like plagas. He remarked, "I think it's connected to the plagas..."

It was Parker who answered him, "Remind me."

Leon answered, "Plagas are a genus of macroparasites native to Spain, where they are known as "Las Plagas", the name borrows from the Latin word meaning "plagues". They infected, they murder, they control." He scanned the data, brow furrowing, "There are three types that I'm aware of - and they are either subordinate or dominant. Type A is a simple type. Like a zombie...they maintain human form but are stronger, faster..."

He paused, eyeing the research on the wall. "B and C are mutated, more unilaterally the further you go. They retain some human attributes but are fully bonded to the parasite."

It was Jill that spoke now, "The thing that's chasing us...it's not human. It is, but it's mutated. But it's nothing...nothing next to what they were doing to people. I found..." She trailed off.

Parker encouraged her, "Go on."

"...I found a room where they were experimenting. Some kind of infirmary or something. Whatever it is g-"

Leon cut her off, "Incubating. It's incubating inside them."

Jill spoke again, hoarsely, "Yeah. And they were cutting it out and trying to figure out the why and wherefore...obviously they failed. I think someone wants us to finish it."

Leon shifted to study the photos on the board. People in mid-conversion. It was horrible. From melting faces to mutated forms. It was a horror show on a cork board.

He shook his head, "The plagas were sensitive to light. My guess? We're somewhere dark. Really dark. Where we'll be lucky to find any daylight at all."

Jill spoke again, softly, "So they can mutate to maximum efficiency."

"And mate. Mutate and mate. Until they're the perfect killer." Leon sounded almost wry about it. What choice was there? Wry amusement or complete and utter fear?

Parker said, breathlessly, "Figlio di puttana."

And Leon said back, "You got that right. Son of a bitch just about covers it."

He turned back to the test tubes mounted on the wall. Various stages of conversion. A half man. A half monster. A spider with two heads. A dog in the middle of splitting in half to reveal another dog somehow fused inside of it and a skull rising from that one with teeth and hair in the eye sockets.

It was John Carpenter bad.

Leon mused, quietly, "Anyone ever seen The Thing?"

Parker cursed again in Italian. Jill whispered, "...no. Why?"

"You're lucky. If you had, you wouldn't be so willing to head out of hiding. You'd be staying put like I told you. Not wandering around barefoot and weaponless. Fire, sunlight, those are only chances here. We need someone to chase the sun, alright. Because the moon is going to get us killed."

Jill filled the silence that spread between them, "I don't know where you are. Even if I was to wait, you could be on the other side of the goddamn town or something."

She had a point. Leon eased over to a computer, tapping keys until it lit up. The power was still on, at least to this room, so he was able to click around on the desktop, looking for clues.

"The radio distance on your coms is what?"

Parker said, "Five miles, give or take."

"Yeah," Jill sighed in his ear, "See? Waiting is stupid. I need to move. We all do. It's the only chance we have."

Leon clicked on a file and it opened, showing a rapid progression of the thing that had attacked him. It was a handsome fellow named John Davies. He was talking into the camera about the testing.

He was giving a run down of the procedure to evacuate the chest cavity of an infected dog. He was pointing to the thing on the table. It looked like a plagas filled with teeth and eyes. It was blinking at him, pinned down by nails in its appendages.

He pointed, he informed. He pointed, he informed. He talked about infection ratios and acidic flesh. He mentioned it needed to put an egg in your open sinuses to infect you. It didn't have to be your mouth. It would work in your nose or your eyes. Or your ears. He laughed, looking amused, "It might work in your ass!"

Awesome.

Leon mused, "You guys hearing this?"

Parker responded, "Yes." Jill grunted. He guessed that meant yes.

And Leon sighed, "That ass is too fine to be have a monster blow its load up it, Jill. You know what I'm saying? Stay put and wait for me."

She said nothing. Parker laughed. She was a tough nut to crack. But they'd get there.

Leon printed out some pages and tucked them into his pocket. He was just raiding another file when Parker let out a shout. Apparently, their evil friend had finally found him.

The odd part? Leon heard him shout in his ears and in the building. He paused, listening.

The struggle was loud. Parker was grunting. There was the boom of his gun - four times. Jill called, loudly, "Parker! You heard him! Fire!"

The roar of the thing was coupled with the boom of a grenade. That worked too, Leon mused, hurrying down the hallway toward the commotion. He was in mid step when it lumbered around a corner, flaming, burning, and shrieking.

Leon shot it where it lumbered, right in its pulsing stomach. The Magnum sent it over onto its back, shrieking and stinking. The flames WHOOSHED and consumed it, it tossed and wailed, and went still - crackling and heavy with the stench of roasting rot.

Parker rounded the corner, bleeding from the forehead, but alright. He glanced at it and at Leon. "Interesting. Why put us together and leave her out there alone?"

Leon shrugged, holding his gaze. "So we can save her. I love a good damsel in distress. Jill? You give me a kiss if I save you?"

Jill sighed heavily. He grinned. Parker shook his head, "She'll likely kill you instead, my friend."

"Oh, I'm gonna get her to laugh. I promise you." Leon inspected the burning mess, cringing. "It smells like rotten milk."

Parker nodded, "And old meat."

Leon sniffed again, "And dirty unwashed ass."

He waited, but Jill was radio silent. She was something else. He wondered if the stick up her ass kept her upright when she was sleeping. Amused at himself, Leon gestured with his head.

They split down the hallway together, moving with their guns ready. Parker kept glancing at him until Leon finally intoned, "Sup?"

Parker shook his head, lightly, and killed the transmission to his ear. Leon did the same, curious. The italian agent sighed and speculated, "What if she's infected?"

Surprised by the thought, Leon paused, "...Jill?"

Parker nodded, lifting a hand, "Hear me out...we wake up, armed, clothed, contained in the same part of the building. Jill is unarmed, alone, and isolated. Why? Unless the captor made it so she's the person who holds the answers."

Leon froze, head tilting, "Jesus. You're suggesting they might want us to cut her open to find the answers?"

Parker shrugged, "Hati and Skoll right? There are only two of them. We're both left to fight, she's stripped to be the prey. What other reason is there?"

Jill buzzed into their ears as they stared at each other, "Why the radio silence? What did you find?"

Leon turned his com back on, shaking his head at Parker, "Nothing. We were just discussing the ramifications of getting a boner in subzero temperatures."

Jill sighed.

And he added, "Would a frozen boner cut glass? What do you think?"

She didn't even respond. He smirked but gave Parker a serious expression. He wasn't entirely sure that it didn't make perfect sense.

Was Jill infected?

How long did they have to find her and get it out of her? If she was infected, would she turn sooner or later? The warrior in him even had the thought about putting her down on sight, to spare her. But it was quickly shoved away by common sense: they didn't know she was infected. She was his ALLY here. He didn't kill his allies.

Even if part of him was afraid they'd become the enemy.

It was always a gamble playing a game by someone else's rules.

The wolf led her down the bloody hallway. She paused, to make sure she was following. Jill called, softly, "Where are you taking me, pretty girl?"

The wolf paused at a door and let out a low whine from her furry throat. Jill glanced at the door and arched her brows, "You want me to go in there?"

The wolf circled three times.

She took that as a yes and eased open the door.

On the floor, chained up like a dog, a small girl lay. She was soaked in blood in a formerly white nightgown. Her blonde hair was saturated pink in places while chunks of something foul clung to her skin.

Jill froze, looking at her. A handful of moments passed before the breath in her lungs pushed free into the frigid air.

Not just hers...but the girl's as well. Jill moved swiftly, speaking sharp and fast, "Oh my god! Oh my god...Kennedy, Parker...find us. Hurry."

"Jill?" Leon's voice sounded so far away. How far were they? She needed them here yesterday...because the little girl covered in blood was still alive.

Jill responded, desperately, "I don't know how long she has. She's chained to the floor. I need help. Parker? I need help. There's blood everywhere."

Leon's voice responded, "Directions, Jill. Something to help us find you. Anything stand out?"

Parker came back to her, sounding worried, "We're hurrying, Jill. I promise. Try to guide us."

The voice came over the speakers, loud and close, "Woman to man. Woman to child. Warrior to mate. What darkness waits when the sun is swallowed? What terror fills the void?"

She started to answer, and the little girl in her arms opened one eye. It locked on Jill's face and held there, glassy, blue, and bright.

Jill whispered, gently, "It's ok. It's alright. Are you hurt?"

The little girl opened her mouth and started screaming...and the world went black around them. Just like that, instant darkness.