Revelations:

Mirror Mask

Episode 6:

Hopeless

The Middle of Nowhere

The voice in the dark wasn't like anything she'd ever heard before. It rattled instead of roared. It hissed instead of hollered. It was sibilant, a stir of echoes, a thing that promises that under the taunting tiny sound...a horrible truth awaits.

On her knees, Jill shivered. She closed her eyes to deny herself the vision that made the darkness worse. It didn't matter if she looked death in the eye anyway. At least, if she denied it, she could pretend it wasn't so horrible. She could pretend she wasn't terrified.

From the darkness, the other girl called, "Jill?"

Maybe it was time to finally acknowledge that. Trembling, Jill replied, "Yeah. I'm Jill."

"I heard-I heard it yell your name before.. I'm Kate. Kate Davis. I was one of the scientists here before-" She trailed off and Jill heard her breath hitch. "I'll tell you whatever you want. I figure there's no hope for it now. I should tell someone, anyone, that might be able to escape and make sure this place is burned to the ground."

Jill waited as she spoke into the black. "They told us at first that we were trying to find a cure for a rare disease. They made it seem like we were doing good things. When the experimenting started, we justified it that the person was already infected. So killing them was a mercy."

Jill said nothing. Her chest hurt with a need to condemn. But maybe she didn't know what it was like here. Maybe she was judging what she didn't understand.

Silence filled the air around them.

Kate whispered, "...but killing them just made it worse...because they didn't stay dead."

Softly, Leon's voice in her ear responded, "...heard that story before."

Jill, encouragingly, urged, "...zombies?"

Kate whimpered, "I don't know. I didn't know then...I don't understand what was happening here. I'm not sure what we were doing now. I just know that what we started...I don't think it can be undone."

The truth of that hung around them like a cloud of horror. What did that mean? Undone? What was done?

Into the quiet darkness, that voice came again, "What you think you know, is often what destroys you. Ask yourself what often masquerades as a man and is a monster. Ask yourself...how one becomes the other. You are in the dark...how do you escape it?"

When no one answered, the voice told them, "What is that lamp which lights up men,but flame engulfs it,and wargs grasp after it always."

Wargs?

Softly, Leon speculated, "...are we off? Is it telling us it's not a Wendigo...it's a warg?"

In response, Jill whispered, "...wargs were skinchangers in some mythology...maybe it's the same thing."

Did it really matter?

Whatever it was, it had Jill in its den. Whatever it was, it was being set loose against them in some kind of game. The proverbial eye in the sky was watching them, judging them, leading them...where?

Why?

What came after?

If they managed to stop the Wendigo or the warg or the demon that was both...what then? Another challenge? Did it only end with one of them dead?

In surprise, Parker filled the silence, "...sunlight."

Brows arched, Leon asked him, "What?"

"Wargs grasp after it always...wendigos hide from it...we're somewhere in a park of the world with so little of it..."

Leon snapped his fingers, "Sköll chases the sun. Daylight. It wants us to get the goddamn thing out in the daylight."

Whispering, Jill wondered, "You saying that voice wants us to get rid of this thing?"

Parker returned, "...I think so. Maybe it's a test. Maybe it's a coward tracking us...but it wants us to chase the sunlight and get rid of the warg."

Leon tapped his boot, "Ok. Wendigo, warg...it doesn't matter. What matters is that we don't have much choice here. The damn thing is able to mimic us, it can make us hallucinate, it won't be long before it starts having us turn on each other too. So we need to get Jill, set up some kind of trap, and lure the damn thing out into the sun. Knowing where we are can help us find out when the sun rises."

Jill urged, quietly, "...do you know exactly where we are?"

And the eye in the sky answered, "She lights up every land and shines over all men, and Skoll and Hatti are called wargs. Those are wolves, one going before the sun, the other after the moon."

Leon considered that for a moment before he spoke again. "Jill?"

Softly, she answered, "Yeah?"

"Putting aside the butt is a full moon joke-"

"...although not entirely,"She muttered and had him laughing a little.

"Right. Putting aside the fact I'd chase your full moon all over this frozen shithole if you let me."

Jill sighed with tried patience. Parker chuckled. Leon continued, "I think you're the key here."

She tilted her head, "How so?"

"If we think of Parker and I as Hatti and Skoll, what if you're the sun?"

There was a quiet as everyone digested this. Into it, Leon added, "That thing will chase you, Jill. It wants you enough to have taken you alive and not killed you. It wants you enough to have tricked you. Why? I think the eye in the sky knows that. I think it wants you to get free so it chases you, and Parker and I get to kill it when it hits the sunlight."

Annoyed, Jill sighed, "Because I need men to save me like a damsel in distress. I'm better with a gun than either of you."

Parker snorted. Leon rolled his eyes and remarked, "...that thing hit you in your head, sweetheart? You must have lost your mind if you think that's true. I could put a hole through the eagle eye of a quarter at almost a thousand yards."

Jill scoffed, "For all the good that does me at the moment. Why don't you put some of that legendary blood hounding to work and find me first?"

He kept picturing Jill birthing some kind of monster baby. Worried but willing to hide it, he remarked, "Gladly, sweetheart. You miss me?"

She rolled her eyes. Beside her, Kate whispered, "...are they coming? Are they close?"

The hope in her voice was infectious. Jill breathed softly and vowed, "...I hope so...I really, really do."

Leon and Parker looked at each other with the same thought between us - me too.

There was a clunk. There was a thunk. There was a cool sound of cracking ice.

Parker warned, "...behind yo-"

The world went white with light. Leon smashed into the computers and went to the floor. Something roared and squealed, whipped and whimpered and raged. He tried to roll over and something sank into his back to pin him to the floor

He screamed. Parker's gun lit in flashes of white.

Leon grabbed for his knife and a gush of fetid breath in his face warned him, "...surrender."

He almost laughed, but the sound sobbed out of his lungs instead. His hand slid off the knife. His mind resisted, but the glimmer of red in the world above him haunted. It left him breathless. It left him staring.

He simply gave up and lay still on the floor while his blood spilled red around him.

There was so much pain. It hurt to breathe, to move, to think.

Am I dead? Am I dying?

Confusion. Dementia. He hurt. He hurt so bad. He was alive.

He lifted his head, his vision was blurry. It was so hard to see. So hard.

Thoughts that ran together like rain on a windshield.

Blood, so much blood.

Was it his? Was it…

"Jill?"

His voice, deep, gruff. It hurt to talk.

"Jill!?"

He rolled, tried to sit up.

Burning flesh. He could smell burning flesh.

His?

"Jill!"

Hands on his back, lifting.

He grabbed for anything to hold him there. He was going to float away.

"The gods themselves shall perish: The sons of the gods shall reign!"

Leon drifted into that voice.

And sank down into the waiting dark.

Kate made a small sound of fear. "...you're so quiet. It's bad, right? It's so bad."

He'd finally stopped screaming.

Terror turned her chest so tight that Jill's only sound was a small moan. She'd never heard anything in her life like the sound of Leon Kennedy screaming. No arrogance, no mad taunting, no clever or witty repartee - he'd simply screamed. Her chin sank to her chest as she whispered, "...Kennedy...come back."

No answer.

"Parker?"

No answer.

Something scuffled in the dark. Kate made another whimper, "...I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I didn't know...god help me..I didn't know."

The dark turned gray. There was a wet sound of skin slurping on stone. Jill closed her eyes, fighting the urge to panic and cry. Kate did that for her, weeping softly into the silence.

Jill tried once more, although her body had long since surrendered to the cold and the fear. Lips numb, she beckoned, "...Kennedy...come back."

His voice made her nearly piss herself, "...I'm here."

She froze. Her need to believe was so strong it nearly made her vomit. Jill waited a moment and whispered, "...prove it."

After a handful of moments, his voice - breathy with pain but alert - instructed, "...I wouldn't say no to a hand job when this was over."

Halfhearted, hurting, but just crude enough that if it was the wendigo, it was a better one than Kate led on. Softly, Jill breathed, "...my hands are so cold I'd give you frost bite if I tried."

He laughed into her ear, "...I can think of worst things right now, sweetheart...Jill?"

She inhaled sharply. "...yeah?"

"Call my name out loud, would ya?"

She shook her head, "...you wish."

She could hear him shift. Her ears perked up. Her eyes opened in the dark as he instructed again, "Come on...call for me."

Without waiting, she did just that, "Kennedy?!"

His answer wasn't just in her ear anymore. It was there in the dark with her. "...fuck."

Jill went still. Kate whimpered. She called, "...you can't be here! Please...please please...if you're here..."

Jill finished, "...then we're screwed."

Softly, Leon teased, "...I'd like to be screwed with you, honey, but I gotta admit...the fantasy wasn't quite like this. Considerably less stench of death and urine around us."

Jill wanted to cry. Jill wanted to laugh. Jill wanted to run. She was trapped there in the dark shaking her head, "...you naked?"

His voice was amused, "...nope. Why? You wanna sneak a peak?"

Jill snorted, "I'm scared enough thanks. Don't need to die of fright."

He laughed.

It was good, somehow, to know he was there. She knew without the humor, she'd have given up by now. She was terrified for Parker. She was terrified for all of them. What did it want with him now?

What had changed?

The laughter died as something moved in the dark. Quietly, Kate whispered, "...run...when you can...run...ok?! RUN!"

Her scream was high. It echoed. The lights flickered and Jill caught glimpses of what was happening. Naked, the girl struggled to avoid the thing that gripped her. It lifted he from the ground, her hands were slapping and she was screaming. A flash of things like a bad horror movie. It was like a hunched over, oily, horrible werewolf or something. It had antlers? Horns? It was slithering and somehow hairy and somehow human? Her mind couldn't find anything to compare it to. Jill shouted, "DON'T!"

It bent Kate back like it would eat her. It lifted her to its mouth. She screamed, fighting still, fighting and wailing. Leon jerked on his chains in the flashing lights and Jill caught sight of him, arms bound, face bloody but angry. The anger on him was somehow terribly beautiful. He roared it, "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Kate's arms bound behind her back worked like a set of handlebars. It didn't need her consent. The lights flickered, she turned her head to Jill and her pretty pixie face stopped screaming as she begged one more time, "...help me..."

The thing impaled her on its bony protuberance. It was sexual, but it wasn't. Her legs went stiff and finally flopped uselessly around its thrusting. She went limp in its arms and the lights stopped flickering.

The dark swallowed everything.

Jill sagged on the floor, face collapsing with the need to cry. Her breath hitched and a voice in the dark invited, "...don't."

She inhaled sharply.

Kennedy's voice again, "...don't cry. If you cry, I'll lose faith."

She sucked in a sharp breath.

He called, "...I'm gonna kill it."

She said nothing. She just made a small sound like a whimper. He called it again, "...I'm gonna kill it. It won't touch you. Do you hear me?"

She whimpered.

He said it again, "It won't touch you. Say it out loud."

Jill shivered on the floor, "...it won't touch me."

A whisper, but it was better than nothing. His soothing voice came again, "...tell me about Jill Valentine."

She trembled on the floor and closed her eyes, swaying where she was kneeling. She appreciated the effort of it. She really did. So, she just started talking. She told him about growing up in the care of a woman who was basically a doormat to any man who wanted her. She talked about changing schools, changing houses, changing cities as her mother went from man to man looking for love.

She talked about being the only kid on the playground without friends. She mentioned growing into a strong survivor by simply never being close to anyone. As she spoke, she was soothed somehow by the simplicity of it.

Where he knelt, Leon felt a roll of sympathy for a girl who'd basically been ignored most of her life. He realized she was someone worth respecting as she went into talking about her time in Delta Force and her self propelled rise to being a S.T.A.R.S. member. She didn't talk about guys and clothes like most girls. She didn't speak about boys she'd left behind. She just talked about wanting to belong.

She'd spent her whole life trying to find a place that was hers.

She'd had nothing but the rug ripped out from under her everywhere she went.

She spoke about surviving, but there was a sadness under it that broke his heart. She needed a friend or something, and she'd only really had one - Chris Redfield. Currently, he was M.I.A. like they were. She'd been trying to find her only friend when she'd become a victim like this.

The rage on her behalf was nearly as white hot as it was for the girl that had gone silent in the dark.

He teased Jill, he encourage, he prompted her to keep talking. He didn't want her to stop and think about the thing that had just raped a girl right in front of them. He didn't want her to dwell in fear.

He meant what he said.

That thing was dead where it stood.

He was the guy who killed monsters.

It was his fucking job. It was who he was. He was going to kill that thing. Stupid Norse mythology and games aside, he was here to slaughter that thing. When she went quiet, he urged, "...tell me about Redfield. Tell me about the long lost love affair."

She laughed, voice breaking, "...no love...not like that...he's not a man you love like that."

Curious about it, Leon inquired, "...how so?"

"He's never going to stop. He's never going to give up the fight and go home. He can't. It's in his blood. Love isn't something you try to get from Chris Redfield."

Head tilted, he wondered, "What about you? Do you get love from Jill Valentine?"

With a snort, she asked, "Why? You applying for the job?"

He laughed. "Maybe. You saying I got a chance?"

"...you have a better chance of fighting that thing and winning."

He chuckled, "...so...you're saying there's a chance."

He liked the soft sound of amusement. If he could keep her laughing, he could keep her from descending into terror. He was afraid enough for them both. The good news? He channeled his fear into survival.

The thing on the floor finally made a scuffle of release. His hands were free. He rose, feeling over himself in the dark for his weapons. Nothing. He was weaponless. But that was ok. In some ways, he was a better weapon when you took away his tools.

Jill's voice guided him toward her as she whispered, "...find Chris if-just...find Chris for me, ok? I know I've been a bitch. I know you don't have any reason to c-"

The coat was warm as it slid over her shoulders. It settled like a hug around her body. She went silent, feeling the heat of it and smelling him on it. He smelled good like something earthy and musk. She knew it left him in a shirt and vest. She started to object and he zipped it over her torso.

Jill felt him pull at her restraints and there was a clink of noises. She listened to the sound of his belt releasing from his pants. Her eyebrows winged up and his soft voice teased, "...you wish, kiddo."

Amused, she heard him use his belt on the lock that bound her to the floor. After a moment, her hands were free. She poked her arms through his sleeves and he didn't even help her to her feet. She pushed upward, stumbled, and let him catch her to steady her. Jill gripped his vest to hold on for a moment, using the moment to let her forehead brush his neck. Not a hug, not exactly, but kinda. She hated that she wanted the hug.

His breath brushed her ear, "...you ready?"

She nodded. He let go of her arms. Jill kept her side close to him to feel his heat as they moved slowly through the dark. When he drifted too far, her hand came down and slid against his.

They held hands in the dark as they moved in fear.

She wanted to find Kate. She wanted to help. She knew, without trying, that Kate was impregnated now. She'd seen what happened to the one's who carried the offspring. Kate wouldn't survive the birth.

Was there any way to save her?

How had Leon ended up there in the dark with her?

With a tremor of fear, she wondered, "...you said men could carry the fetuses...are you-"

He shook his head, "...I can't tell you why I know the answer is no...I can tell you that something...tried...and couldn't? It didn't? Something. I...Parker...I don't know."

Jill pressed a little closer. His arm sealed against the front of her jacket. She should be ashamed to cling like she was, but the dark made them both afraid now. She left his right hand and her left free - both of their dominant hands open.

Not that they had a weapon to pull anyway.

Their feet brushed the ground. Her bare ones squished in something. She made a small sound of disgust and he guided her forward. His hands touched the wall. The gloves too the brunt of the wet, but his palm skimmed through something sticky and tacky.

Jill let go of him to feel along the wall beside him. They didn't stray far from the other until his palm found a knob, twisted, and light spilled in around his body. Jill hurried toward him, he caught her hand again, and pulled her from the darkness.

The second they were in the hallway, she simply gave up trying to be tough.

She spilled against his front. Surprised, he caught her in a hug. She shook, face against his vest and confessed, "...thank you...oh god...thank you."

His hands hesitated and finally cupped around her back and head to hold her. He wanted to tease her about her being naked, but the image of Kate kept him from trying. Jill clung to him, fingers digging into his back for a moment.

She threatened, "You tell anyone about this..."

He smiled, shook his head, and mused, "...about what?"

Her mouth curved up and he added, "Besides...who'd believe me? The Ice Queen looking for a hug? Please...I'd be laughed out of the room before I could finish."

They should let go. It was dangerous to keep standing there hugging, but the light was around them again. The fear was somehow lessened in the warm glow of it. The cold wasn't as cold.

It was stupid to fear the dark, because the light held the same horror.

It was stupid to feel safer in the arms of another person because they couldn't fight the thing that chased them. They couldn't kill it. They couldn't do anything but run.

It was stupid to stay there hugging but neither one seemed in a hurry to let go.