Warning: this fic contains injury, blood, and death.
Alice is no stranger to danger. At this point, she comes close to dying on an almost daily basis. Some brushes are closer than others; occasionally, it's less of a "close brush" because she does die.
She's used to it, though. That's not the hard part anymore.
The first time it happened was sometime after she made it out of the Hive with Matt and Umbrella stopped them at the front doors of the mansion. When Alice was drifting in and out, never quite reaching full awareness and hardly ever dropping into the abyss entirely, when Umbrella was experimenting on her and pushing her body to its absolute limit... She saw her again.
"So... lemme guess, stuff didn't get any easier after you guys got off the train, huh?"
The world around Alice was blurry. Like an incredibly smudged oil painting. The person kneeling beside her, however, was clear as day.
"Rain...?"
"Yeah. Hey." It wasn't the same Rain that Matt had to carry down onto the platform, the one that had become very sick from the T-Virus and started rapidly deteriorating beyond the point of no return before they could get the antivirus in her. The bandages were gone from her hand. There weren't any teeth marks gouged into her neck. There was an easy smile on her face—one with an underlying air of self-assuredness that was so incredibly Rain. "What happened? I don't remember anything after... What is it you said to me? That you could kiss me?"
Alice laughed. She laughed, seized Rain by her shoulders, and pulled her into an impossibly tight hug. It took a moment before she hugged her back. Her hold was nowhere near as tight as Alice's—not that she expected it to be—but it was firm, and her hands were clenching the fabric of Alice's top.
A connection had formed between them during their time in the Hive. One that saw Alice drawn to Rain like a moth to a flame.
(It was funny, Alice would think later on, how Rain clearly flinched away from touch she deemed unnecessary, but would allow placating squeezes to her shoulder from her, the petting of her hair, the hands resting on her knee or cupping her cheek.)
A connection that saw relief flooding through her stronger than it ever had before upon realizing Rain was still alive. The first words to leave Alice's lips were, "I could kiss you, you bitch."
She regretted not actually doing that before Rain did pass and they had to leave her behind. She wasn't going to let the opportunity slip past her a second time.
The kiss was rough. It bled passion and Rain's touch was smoldering. Alice didn't want it to end. Didn't want to lose her a second time.
But eventually, she woke up—really woke up, finding herself alone in an abandoned Umbrella facility with about fifty needles sticking out of her. Then, the priority once again became getting out. She swallowed the hurt and soldiered on. She would get good at that.
However, that wasn't the last time she would get to see Rain. Alice's next stay with her came when she, Carlos, Jill, L.J., and Angela were trying to get out of Raccoon City before it was blown off the map. Thanks to Major Cain, they were running a bit behind schedule when they finally got the helicopter off the ground. They were caught in the shockwave of the blast before the rear hatch was even finished closing, and Alice made the quick decision to put herself between a piece of flying shrapnel and Angela.
While it didn't kill her, it certainly aided her in not surviving their eventual crash in the Arklay Mountains. She was dead as a damn doornail when Carlos tried to pull her body out of the wreck.
"The fuck you doing back here already, Lys?"
She was laying down again. Her surroundings were clearer that time around, allowing her to better see their overall featurelessness. It was almost reminiscent of where she woke up after they last saw each other. Slightly less clinical, though, and without the Umbrella logo plastered all over.
"Ouch. Try not to sound too happy to see me."
Rain rolled her eyes. "Please. If I'm happy to see anyone's mug around this place, it's yours." Then, she made a face. "Ugh. Forget I just said that sappy shit."
"Yeah, not happening." Alice grinned.
And that's how things would go. Like clockwork, she would open her eyes and find herself back in the apocalypse, end up in an incredibly dangerous situation that resulted in her passing out, dying, or coming close to dying; then land a good chance of finding herself back in that strange place with Rain.
"Just when I think there's no more shit left to hit the fan... you always find your way back here."
"It's not so bad. I get to see you again."
It wasn't that Alice was trying to end up there. Danger simply became an unavoidable part of her life (she could barely remember a time when it wasn't at this point) and often, she needed to throw herself directly into it to protect others or accomplish the current goal. If she just so happened to find herself in the muscular arms of a woman who ought to be as dead as she should be, then hey, she certainly won't be complaining.
The only real downside is leaving and feeling like she's losing Rain all over again. She's so, so sick of losing people.
Speaking of...
About thirty minutes ago, Rain narrowly avoided getting taken out by a licker. She's not Alice's Rain. She's a clone. One that is incredibly different from the original with her affability and non-violent nature. Umbrella undoubtedly has dozens more of her. Dozens of blank slates ready to be imprinted with false memories. It doesn't matter, though. Not to Alice. In the same way, it doesn't matter to her with Becky (who she nearly lost about twenty-one minutes ago to that same licker). They're people all the same. Innocent ones at that. Alice won't let them die if she can help it.
About five minutes ago, Luther was nearly killed by Rain. Not Alice's Rain. Not the clone from the suburban simulation, either. A different clone. She's a cold, ruthless soldier.
About five seconds ago, Alice reached her limit and hit the snow like a sack of potatoes. Luther stands over her, trying to get a response out of her. She can't manage one. Her everything hurts. The worst if it is either the hard blow Bad Rain delivered to her chest (her heart is continuing to go pitter-patter and every breath leaves her lungs as a wheeze) or the hard smack upside the head she received from Jill's staff (her head is pounding so hard it feels like she's still being hit).
Everything begins to fade out. Alice is used to it.
"Shit..." Luther mutters. Alice picked a good time to pass out, at least. The fight is over and the chopper is finally showing up. He double-checks to make sure she's still breathing. She is. He picks up her discarded coat and drapes it over her.
The aircraft begins to descend.
Leon is entirely preoccupied with Ada, Jill still appears to be out of it (he tosses his own coat over to her since her battlesuit looks thin as hell), and he doubts Rain's evil twin would be much help even if she wasn't restrained, so he takes it upon himself to get Becky and Rain out of their overturned snowcat.
He climbs up the grille guard and flings open the passenger door. "Come on. It's safe. We're getting outta here."
Rain needs a decent amount of help. The makeshift bandages around her middle are completely saturated with blood, and she starts swaying like she's on a boat during a storm the moment her feet are on the ground. Becky is easier. One of her small hands in his and he's pulling her up and out.
Once she spots Alice on the ground, Becky practically jumps the rest of the way down—or rather, she attempts to, but Luther catches her before she lands. "Mommy!"
"Whoa, careful now!" he says, hissing when the pain in his chest flares up. "Don't worry, kiddo. She'll be okay. She always is."
Rain stares at Alice and wonders who this woman truly is. She looks like Alice. She evokes that same pleasant, fuzzy feeling in her chest that Alice does, but it can't be her.
Then her eyes drift over to the person a few feet away decked out in tactical gear, struggling against the heavy-duty grapple gun cord binding her arms behind her back and her legs together. This must've been the person Becky called her sister because it feels like looking in a mirror. A very angry mirror.
...
Rain needs stitches. She isn't surprised. The gashes that the monster's claws gave her are deep. This isn't her first time needing to get them. She once crashed her bicycle and managed to slice her palm wide open upon landing. This is obviously more severe, though, and there isn't any anesthetic on hand, so the experience is even less pleasant. She tries to focus on something else.
Her gaze inevitably finds exactly what it did earlier. First: Alice, still unconscious but now laid on a stretcher nearby and hooked up to an IV bag. Becky is sitting beside her with a foil blanket draped over her shoulders and a hand worriedly grasped in hers. Second: the woman she shares a face with.
Rain has brothers. Three of them. She doesn't have any sisters, let alone an identical twin.
Whatever's going on, it's probably wilder than anything she could conceivably come up with on her own.
"Hey. Hippie." The woman blows a strand of hair out of her face. "The hell are you looking at?"
"You." Rain frowns. "...Me?"
"Well, stop it."
She doesn't. "Who are you?"
"Name's Rain."
"I'm Rain."
"Huh," the other Rain replies flatly, entirely unphased. "What a coincidence."
"I saw a lot of people that looked like you." Becky signs. "And mommy."
"What are you talking about?"
"On our way back, there was a room full of people. They were hung up like clothes. They looked like us."
Rain isn't sure how to reply to that, but she thinks she understands the implications. What the fuck. No, actually, what the fuck.
Suddenly, there's a quiet groan.
"Alice?" she questions.
Alice isn't quite looking in her direction, but Rain can tell that her eyes are partially open. "...Rain..." An odd grin finds its way onto her face. "...Hi..."
"You doing alright?"
"'M fine, babe..."
Babe? Rain can immediately feel heat creeping into her cheeks. She clears her throat awkwardly.
Alice's head lolls to the side and she reaches for the other Rain. "I missed you..." Her fingers graze her cheek before moving to cup it. The other Rain leans away slightly but ultimately, and quite surprisingly, lets it happen.
"Did you smack your head at some point or somethin'?" The frown on her face turns into a full-on scowl.
Alice exhales a slight laugh. "Yeah..." Finally, she processes that Becky is there beside her. "How'd you get here...?" She lightly boops her nose.
Becky smiles. "Luther carried me."
"Luther...?" Alice echoes.
"Y'know, I can understand you flirting with that one," Luther remarks, nodding toward Rain, "but it hasn't even been an hour since this one broke Leon's arm, nearly shattered my ribcage, and fully shattered yours."
The other Rain only flashes him a toothy grin.
Rain can see some form of realization beginning to dawn on Alice as she looks at him, then between her and the other Rain.
"Oh... Oh, shit."
She silently wonders what other version of her Alice knows, wonders if she means as much to Alice as Alice's Rain does to her.
She wonders where that Rain is now.
"Glad to have you back," Jill says.
There's something very sad hiding behind the smile on Alice's face. "Glad to have you back."