More catching up for you! At the end of the last chapter, Cheryl Mason rescued Rebecca Chambers from some of Black Falls' demonic monsters. Things get just as dangerous for other heroes in this chapter, too! We finally get to see Alex and Elle Shepherd (from SILENT HILL HOMECOMING) again, but they're in trouble...so are Karena 'Lupa' LesProux and Caroline 'Willow' Floyd because of the evil powers of Reeve Meyers. Brace yourselves for the worst thing to happen in this chapter, though: the startling transformation of one of our heroes because of the nightmare town's overwhelming power, and she might be changed forever!

RESIDENT EVIL X SILENT HILL: JUDGMENT DAY

written by Charles Spencer,
inspired by Ygure

Chapter 30:

"CHANGES"

-1-

Deep in the otherworldly domain that was once Black Falls, Vermont.

BSAA Lieutenant Karena LesProux had taken position in the ruined, derelict place that was once a humble ice cream parlor. The owner of this place - it could be presumed his fate wasn't kind after Reeve Meyers and The Order transformed this town - opened it across the street from the local day care center. Secluded within, Karena had watched the day care center for over ten minutes, scanning for signs of any unusual activity. The day care was still and quiet as a tomb, like most all of the town. Dressed in black, her luminous blue biohazard mask covering her face, the inexplicable need she had felt for a while now to return here, to help the children within, was dominating any need for caution. Unable to resist any longer, Karena slowly exited the ice cream parlor to stand on the rusty-bloody grating that was once a sidewalk. Her breast rose and fell with an increasing pace...

...and then the woman spoke in a hushed whisper, not to herself but to those she had come for. "I'm here, little ones...I'll help you...I'll stay with you always if I must." Her tortured soul felt such regret, so much self-loathing, as she said in a louder, solemn tone, "I will not fail you. I can't. Not like I failed them."

"Who did you fail, Karena?"

The soft voice came off from the side and surprised Karena completely, but with years of combat experience a part of her, she instantly reacted by whirling fast and raising her silenced carbine to point it at the source of the voice. The lady in black gasped reflexively when she saw Caroline Floyd, Karena's teammate under Leon S. Kennedy's command. Not long ago, Karena threatened to kill Leon if he tried to stop her from coming back here.

Stunned that one of the team followed her, Karena asked awkardly, "C-Caroline? What are you doing here - ?" But then her eyes narrowed behind the glass of her mask, her tone became firmer as she said, "Leon told you to follow me, did he not? He ordered you to stop me - !"

Caroline didn't have a weapon in either of her hands at the moment, and quickly raised them both, palms out as she responded, "Whoa! Calm down! Do I look like I'm here to stop you? Am I pointing a gun at you?" Caroline gazed into Karena's eyes as she asked, her tone softening with every word, "Am I being threatening at all? Leon didn't tell me to follow you, Karena. I followed you on my own. I want to help you."

Karena's stance was rigid, but her carbine faltered in its aim. "Y-you do...?"

Caroline, a Native American beauty who was the first female U.S. Army Ranger, nodded deeply...her smile was reassuring, lacking any trace of guile. "I hate the idea of those kids being unprotected, too. I'm here to help you, that's all. My word of honor."

A moment full of tension later, Karena relaxed and dropped her aim from Caroline. The Frenchwoman nodded deeply. "Merci, Caroline, but...but I can do this myself. You do not have to help me."

Caroline frowned a little as she put her hands on her hips. She reminded her comrade, "I'm a Ranger, mademoiselle. I'd never leave a teammate behind. Even if I wasn't a Ranger, I'd want to help you anyway." Caroline slowly begain to walk to Karena...

...but the lady in black only seemed more uncomfortable. She said quickly, "No. N-no, it would be a good idea if you did not. Go back to Leon and Helena and Anne. I will be all right, no matter what happens."

Only a few yards separated the women. Caroline stopped and shook her head. "Sorry, I'm staying. I'm going in with you. So..." She gestured to the day care center across the street. "...let's go."

But Karena hesitated...she began, "C-Caroline - "

Caroline lifted a slender hand gently and said, "But answer a question for me first. Please. You said you wouldn't fail these kids like you failed them. Who did you fail before?"

Karena's stance stiffened perceptibly. Her voice was deliberately neutral when she answered, "That is personal, Caroline."

"We've been relying on each other for our survival, Karena. It can't be too much for you to answer a personal question, can it?"

Actually, it seemed to be. Karena shook her head slowly, seeming to shrink back as she stammered, "I-I-I cannot..."

Caroline's kind, exotic eyes looked at Karena...she seemed to radiate calm. "I'm here to help you, Karena. That's all. Please answer my question...please..."

"I...it..." The Frenchwoman seemed on the verge of softening, but then her posture turned rigid again. Karena said thickly, "It is too painful for me to even speak about. E-ever since I became an American, the only person I ever shared this with...was Leon. No one else."

Caroline frowned. "Well, I'm pretty sure you can trust me as much as you do Leon. Unless you don't...?"

Karena quickly, emphatically clarified, "This has nothing to do with trust. I told him...just in case I didn't make it through this mission. If I were to become a casualty, I...I wanted him to know I had left behind children in this world."

Caroline said carefully, "I didn't know. How many kids do you have, Karena?"

Karena didn't say anything at first, not for a moment. She looked down...she couldn't look at the Ranger, there was such pain in her voice when she finally answered, "T...t-two daughters...and they are no longer mine. I lost them, I failed them long ago."

-2-

In another part of the landscape that seemed to come from the darkest nightmares. Chris Redfield's team just encountered a large group of Minions. The monsters were barely recognizable as (once) human, and they were ferocious, but proved to be no match against the team's combined firepower. Still, it was a damned close call...Hector Hivers, the big armored operative, said angrily, "Son of a bitch...!"

The rest of the team wasn't in the best of spirits, either. The medic, Christine Yamata, asked their advisor anxiously, "Cybil, have you ever encountered anything like these in Silent Hill?"

Cybil Bennett, the lovely police officer from Brahms, Maine, answered tightly, "No, Christine. This is a first for me, too."

Hector looked at Cybil and griped, "Y'know, for supposedly knowing about the shit we have to deal with, I can't help but notice this isn't the first time you've been surprised!" He remembered that like him and the others, Cybil had never seen the dead Closer they found in the Sheriff's Office of this town.

Cybil glared at him and asked, "Tell me something, are you naturally a horse's ass, or did you have to work for it?"

Before Hector had the chance to respond, Christine quickly said, "Guys, c'mon, we've got enough to deal with without arguing with each other!"

Hector didn't care and began to growl, "I just wanna say - !"

"Hector!" It was almost a shout from Chris Redfield - the team captain was looking at the big man unkindly. "Don't say anything right now, okay?" Hector looked around and he registered the stares he was getting from Lieutenant Jill Valentine and the commando Regina. Neither looked to be in the mood to support him. Suddenly in a fouler mood, he turned and stalked away a few steps.

Cybil looked at Jill and said, "I only know about these poor creatures from what Anne Cunningham told me when she was in Silent Hill." She gestured around at the bodies of the Minions. "That thing we saw in the Sheriff's Office, when the fog was here? That Closer was something Douglas Cartland saw and fought when he and Cheryl were there. All of these things were in Silent Hill too, rest assured."

Jill tried to process it all and she said thoughtfully, "So basically over time, Silent Hill has been...producing new kinds of monsters?"

Hector turned and asked impatiently, "Okay, how can that be?"

Cybil crossed her arms under her breasts and said, "From what Douglas and Anne told me about their visits, Silent Hill itself was different from what I remember...especially for Anne."

Jill glanced at the creatures on the fencing and asked slowly, "You called them 'poor creatures', Cybil...why...?"

Cybil's eyes were haunted as she gazed at Jill and told her, "Because they used to be human...and alive. These things were once people, but they came back completely changed into this. That's the kind of power the darkness has on things now. It can transform the living and the dead."

Christine Yamata's eyes became wide and bright with fear over her face mask. She said, "W-wait, when you said the dark could change us because of the worst emotions or inner demons we have, I thought you were speaking figuratively!"

Cybil shook her head sadly. "Oh, this darkness can change us in more ways than one...especially if we die here." Even after thirty years, she still remembered what Harry Mason told her about Lisa Garland. The cop remembered seeing the Red Nurse in a fleeting glimpse just before she and Harry escaped with his daughter, so long ago.

Hector quietly told Cybil, "Now you're the one sounding looney-tunes, lady."

But Jill said in response, "Take a good look around you and see how everything else has changed, Hector. Cybil told us to keep an open mind, remember?"

Regina, who had been quiet up to that point, asked Cybil: "It sounds incredible, but you're saying if any of us die...I mean here, in the darkness...we'll become like these creatures?"

Cybil Bennett said thickly, "Or something else just as bad. I know what I'm saying is hard to believe, and I wish I could explain how, but I can't. It's how things are in this darkness. Look at it this way, they're no different from all of those innocent people who were infected and became zombies in the Raccoon City Outbreak." She looked at Chris and asked, "That's something I believe you know about, right, Captain?"

Jill Valentine quietly testified, "We both do, Cybil."

Cybil said to Jill, "I don't mean to bring back any bad memories, Jill..." She lamely looked at Chris again. "I can't imagine how painful it was to go through that outbreak, to lose your home..."

Chris Redfield's expression was stoic, but there was a haunted quality in his eyes...his voice seemed distant, so very alone when he said in response, "Oh, I didn't go through a damn thing, Cybil. Jill was in Raccoon City at the time...she survived and really tried to make a difference." He looked away and said in a much quieter tone, "I wasn't even there."

Jill looked at Chris, and the beautiful survivor felt worry lurch in her heart again for the man she loved...but before she could say anything, multiple loud reports sounded in the distance. Hector said with surprise, "Gunshots?!"

Christine Yamata said, "Sounds like they weren't far away!"

Everyone looked at each other...Chris Redfield lost his haunted expression and said in a commanding tone, "It means someone else is alive, at least for now! If we want them to stay that way, we need to move!"

-3-

It took a lot for the former Ranger to coax the BSAA operative back indoors...with the day care center still in view through the glassless show window of the former ice cream parlor, Caroline Floyd took a more casual posture as she looked at Karena LesProux, relaxed in spite of the darkness all around them. "I heard a lot about you long before we met, Karena. In your birth country, you entered the military and rose in the ranks of France's special forces faster than most men." She smiled a little. "That's something you and I have in common. You were given the code-name Lupa, and others called you what that means in English: the Wolf Mother. Because you had a reputation for being fiercely protective of your squadmates."

Karena looked into the darkness as she said quietly, "The team an operative works with is their family, Caroline. The team would give anything for each other. You must believe the same thing, since you were a Ranger."

"Yeah. You went so far in the French military, your reputation would make a lot of operators I know jealous. But you retired from the military for personal reasons six years ago. The next thing I heard anything about you was the year before last, when you joined Jill Valentine's group, the BSAA."

"Yes...?"

"You became an American citizen at about the same time...but that's all I ever heard about you, Karena. I did some checking of the public record, just out of curiosity. The strange thing was, I didn't find anything else. Outside of the fact you were married, it seemed all record of you was sealed. I have no idea if you're still married, or...?"

Something shifted in Karena's voice, she sounded increasingly desolate in tone as she said, "There are reasons for that, Caroline. After I gave birth to my second daughter, I knew I needed to leave the service to focus on being a mother...to raise my daughters with their father, Remi. We got married only a month later, and I thought that would have been the start of a peaceful, happy life for our family." For a long, dark moment, the lady in black stared into space until she finally said, "But...I was wrong.

"Perhaps I did not know Remi well enough before we were married...o-or perhaps it was just the case he grew unhappy with being a husband and father. He told me once he felt like he was...being suffocated by me and the girls." It took a clear, genuine effort for Karena to continue...there was so much pain in her voice. "All I know is months passed, and he only got worse, especially after he lost his job. He got angry for the slightest reason...we had arguments that...only got worse with time. I was trying my best, I was the only one of us working and I put all of my heart into being a mother for our girls, being the woman Remi needed, but..." Her expression flooded with sadness under her mask, but Caroline couldn't see. The lady Ranger did see that Karena began trembling, the emotion was so raw and powerful within her, within her breaking voice. "It wasn't enough. One night, we had a fight and Remi...hit me. A-and he didn't stop...he kept hitting me, and all I could think was I could not hurt him, he was the father of our children, our girls needed us both! But Remi was so angry...he left me in the living room and he started yelling for our girls, he rushed to their bedroom...huh-he..." Karena sobbed as she began to cry.

Caroline looked at the lady in black helplessly, but her expressive brown eyes reflected her clear empathy for the one she gazed at. "Karena..." But Caroline stopped herself. She honestly didn't know what to say.

Karena LesProux regained a little of her composure, but her voice was still so thick with agony as she managed to continue. "When...wh-when I realized he was going to take his anger out on our girls, I couldn't let him. I would have done anything, gladly given anything to protect my daughters. R-Remi had broken one of my arms, but I ran to our bedroom as fast as I could to get my service weapon, which I kept since my retirement. I moved to the girls' room and...a-a-and I saw him slapping both of the girls around, like they meant nothing to him. All he cared about was hurting someone, anyone. I-I lost myself to anger then, and...I screamed at him to stop. H-he would not, he...huh-he just...w-wouldn't stop...and then he picked up a lamp and he was going to hit one of our girls..." Karena clenched her slender hands into fists, trying desperately to will herself to calm. She managed to succeed, if only by a partial measure. The lady finally said, "I shot him, Caroline...a double-tap, right in his chest, and...h-h-he finally stopped yelling and hitting and...and our girls were screaming..."

Karena turned and walked a few steps from Caroline...she shook her head sorrowfully as her arms moved to hug herself. Caroline only stood there. Her heart went out to the Frenchwoman completely.

Meaningless moments passed...and Karena spoke again as she looked away from Caroline. "I was arrested for murdering Remi, but the charges were later dropped...it was decided I acted in self-defense and in the defense of my girls. But that meant nothing to Remi's family. He left behind parents and his sister, you see. They hated me, and they sued me in civil court. They wanted to take custody of my daughters. They argued I was an unfit parent, but I knew the truth. They hated me, and if I took away their son...their brother...they would take my children from me. A-and they did. The judge ruled against me, she...she called me unfit and l...I lost custody."

Karena turned to look at Caroline again, and oh god, her voice sounded so...broken. "I lost my children...my life had lost all meaning, Caroline. I didn't have the money to appeal and fight for them. I...I-I left France and became an American citizen...to get away from my failure...f-from the pain. But that didn't help...I-I still had no life, I had no purpose...until I was approached by the BSAA. They gave me a purpose, they gave me something to fight for again...and a new family. But it still...it's still like a hole in my heart to know I will never see my girls again. What good is a mother if she fails her children so completely, Caroline?"

Caroline Floyd quickly, emphatically said, "You didn't fail anyone, Karena. You did the best you could - !"

Karena responded thickly, "N-no, I didn't! I didn't have to kill Remi! I could have done something else...I had my hand-to-hand training, I could have found a nonlethal way to stop him!"

Caroline frowned as she looked at Karena. "You said he was about to hit one of your daughters with a fucking lamp. That's what you said he was going to do, unless you lied - !"

Karena instantly went rigid and she yelled, "I am no liar! I could NEVER lie about what happened! He would have hurt our girls, or done something even worse!"

Caroline didn't give an inch, then. "Did you have the time to reach him and stop him with your bare hands? You didn't, did you?"

Karena said, but very slowly, "N-no...I would never have reached Remi in time..."

Caroline said softly, "But a bullet could."

-4-

At that moment. The shooting that Chris and his group heard came from within a dark building where Alex and Elle Shepherd, still searching for Elza Walker, encountered a pack of monsters, Minions and Banshees, and they even had a couple of bloody Ferals with them on rushed chain leashes. Alex and Elle acted fast and fired their guns even faster...they focused on destroying the Ferals before they could deal with the more (and formerly) human enemies. The Minions were brawlers and rushed the young couple without hesitation, with the Banshees close behind. Only a few of the creatures were dropped and the rest got too close before Alex and Elle were forced to run, too. Alex yelled, "This way, Elle!" She followed him deeper into the building, turning into another hallway blind as they ran as fast as they could and reloaded at the same time.

There appeared to be an elevator at the end of the hall, or at least a dark and sad excuse for one, rusted and derelict. Elle breathed, "Even if it doesn't work, we can duck in there and hold out!" It wasn't the best shelter, but since they were outnumbered, it was better than nothing.

Alex almost had his hunting rifle reloaded by the time they got to the elevator doors. He said urgently, "Go ahead and get it open, baby! I'll hold them off!" His rifle fully reloaded, he turned just in time to see the demonic creatures scrambling down the hall toward them, over twenty meters away. He yelled, "GO!" Elle hastily obeyed and began punching the call button. God, would the elevator even work?! Thankfully, she heard and felt a rumbling from the other side...she couldn't tell anything more, though...!

Elle shouted with excitement, "I think it's coming, Alex!" She turned to see that her husband was fully focused on killing their enemies. Only able to fire one shot at a time with the bolt-action weapon, he worked the rifle as fast as he could, praying not a single shot he fired missed. He dropped three enemies within five seconds...the four that remained, a Minion and three Banshees, slowed in their pace cautiously. There was still complete hate in their distorted visages.

Alex aimed his rifle at them, only four shots left. He screamed, "BACK THE FUCK OFF! BACK!" Yeah, he might as well have been shouting at a wall. Did they even understand English? Inexplicably, though, two of them looked back down the hallway, toward the front of the building, seemingly distracted. The others seemed almost to do the same, but they were so completely focused on Alex...

He wondered what could have distracted them...something they heard...?

"Alex, it's opening, c'mon!" Alex dared to turn and saw his wife looking at him, her smile bright as the doors opened behind her.

But behind her...he only saw darkness...!

Elle Shepherd was so afraid, so desperate to escape with her husband, she had already begun to back into the elevator before she looked where she was going. It was a simple, understandable, innocent mistake. But in this living nightmare Black Falls had become, just like Silent Hill, the simplest mistakes could be worse than fatal. She turned to look as one of her feet stepped backward into the elevator car -

- no, into an empty, darker than pitch shaft! Elle realized her mistake but it was far too late, she had already stepped into empty space and was losing her balance as Alex bolted to her, he screamed to his wife as Elle began to scream too and oh she was already falling, already falling, her arms outstretched to her husband as she dropped her handgun into the darkness, into a shaft that seemed to have no bottom, there might not have BEEN an end to her fall, but Alex was reaching out to his wife the one he would have given anything and everything even his soul, and one of his hands clasped urgently to one of hers, and tragically it seemed as if they were both about to fall - !

But Alex's free hand was frantically reaching out and found the edge of the hallway floor he left behind...and he was jolted from the sudden pain of holding firmly to the ledge with one hand as he held his wife danglinig below him with the other. The strain was immediate and incredible. Alex couldn't even cry out as his face became a rictus of great effort.

Elle screamed, "ALEX!"

Alex grunted desperately, "I've got you, Elle! Hold on, baby! HOLD ON!"

"Oh god, I-I'm holding on, but are you all right?!"

Alex spoke through gritted teeth as he struggled to keep hold of the edge with one hand as his other hand held his wife's tight as she dangled below him: "I-I-I'm good, but...I'm not sure if I can keep my grip...o-on the edge...!"

With sudden alarm, Elle yelped, "A-Alex, I'm slipping...!" She could feel herself losing her grip as she held her husband's hand - !

"No-no-NO, hold on, baby! You can do it! Can you climb up?! Can you grab my sleeve with your other hand?! Grab my sleeve and climb, C'MON!"

"Hnngh...!" Elle's other arm reached up, and her free hand grabbed hold of his jacket sleeve. She was sure she could climb up, she might have had the upper body strength...

Alex encouraged his wife, "You can do it, Elle...gnnhh...! But p-please hurry, I'm not sure how much longer I can hold on...!" In spite of the horrific moment, he thought of the creatures they were barely holding at bay. He thought they should have attacked by now - !

Elle looked up at her husband, her eyes wide. "Y-you can't climb up?!"

"Nnnno...n-not like this...with one hand! I don't...have the strength...!"

Clutching onto her husband's hand and arm, Elle began to realize... "Oh...oh, Alex...you need to let me go...!"

Alex was beyond disbelief. He cried, "WHAT?!"

"Please let me go! Then y...you can use both your arms to pull yourself up...it's the only chance you'll have - !"

Alex roared, "NO! DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT!"

Elle's eyes expressed pure concern and love for her husband...nothing else. "Please, while there's still time, let me go...!" She thought she heard gunshots, a brief but collective burst of them, not far away...

...Alex heard the same thing, but he was still thoroughly fixed on his wife. He yelled, "I won't! You can still...climb up me...you can make it...ahh...!" He cried breathlessly from the incredible strain...he couldn't hold onto the edge much longer...but dammit, he'd never EVER let go of his wife's hand...!

"Alex!"

"It's...oh Jesus, it's no good...I-I can't...!"

Elle looked up at her husband desperately... "Oh dearest Alex, please let me go...it's your only chance...!"

Alex looked down and his eyes met his wife's...he shouted, "I won't let you go! I WON'T LET YOU AND OUR BABY GO!" Oh god, he was losing his grip...he was giving it all his strength, all of it, but his fingers were slipping little by little...he had maybe seconds left before the fall began...

Elle's eyes were wet and bright with tears...she moaned, "Oh god, Alex...all I wanted was for you to be safe..."

"I w-wanted you and our baby safe...m'so sorry...so sorry...!" He felt like worse than a failure, worse than impotent. And oh god, if they die here in the darkness, knowing that those claimed by the black are transformed, condemned forever...

"It's all right, Alex! Whatever happens next, whatever will...will become of us, it's all right!" Elle managed to smile. Her eyes were depthless in their love for her husband. She said in a louder voice, "At least...at least we'll still be together!"

And then Alex Shepherd felt it...it was the same surprising calm his wife felt in her heart and soul. It was going to be all right. No matter what. Alex cried to his beloved wife, "E-Elle, I love you!"

Elle Shepherd's smile was perfect as she said from the core of her soul, "I love you, too! I love you!"

And in spite of Alex, his fingers finally lost their grip on the edge and slipped -

- as only barely, BARELY in time, Chris Redfield grabbed hold of Alex's hand. The creatures that threatened the couple were lured away by the approach of Alpha Team, who shot the demonic things and then heard the frightened exchange between Alex and Elle down the hall! When the veteran survivor realized what was happening, Chris made a mad dash to the shaft, leapt, and nearly slid prone into the shaft himself. But with his other hand he took hold of the thick frame on one side firmly and stopped his forward motion. Chris found himself looking down into the dark abyss, at the two people he held onto with grim determination as he shouted, "I'VE GOT THEM! SOMEONE GIVE ME A HAND, I'VE GOT THEM!"

Needless to say, Alex and Elle were stunned to realize they'd been saved!

Jill Valentine appeared at the edge then, took one look down, and cried, "Oh, dear GOD! Hold on, we're here for you! We're going to pull you both up!"

"Yo, one side, ma'am!" Hector Hivers was there, and Jill stepped to the side to give the big man room. Hector quickly saw the situation and knelt next to his team leader. Too shocked to really be amazed by it all, he said to Chris, "I'm here to help, boss!"

It took a few truly precarious moments, but both Chris and Hector managed to pull Alex up as the couple held dearly to one another. Elle managed to climb up and onto the ledge, helped by Hector, as Chris pulled her husband to relative safety. Then Alex and Elle held each other as they were on their knees...they clutched each other in their arms fiercely. The lovers knew how incredibly, terribly close both had come to a fate worse than death.

The advisor to Alpha Team, unlike the others who simply felt awash in relief, felt so, so much more. Cybil Bennett was so completely shocked, she couldn't say anything for a moment. She said at first doubtfully, and then when it really hit home for her, her voice became a cry: "Alex...? Ohmygod, Elle?!"

They both looked up at Cybil, and they were no less stunned...but Elle Shepherd recovered quicker than her husband and almost shouted, "Cybil!" Then Alpha Team's advisor rushed to the couple and fell to her knees - instantly Cybil and Elle hugged fiercely, and then Alex joined his wife and they both embraced this fellow survivor of Silent Hill, so elementally grateful to see her.

The rest of Alpha Team could only watch with confusion as they began to realize their advisor knew the husband and wife...and then the agents understandably started asking questions...

-5-

In his sanctum, deep within what was once the town's City Hall. Reeve Meyers was getting more and more frustrated...he wanted to draw Karena into the day care center and his vile trap, but Caroline Floyd was getting through to her. He snarled, "No...no, this is unacceptable...!"

Blocks away, meanwhile, Karena sobbed, "I could have shot to wound Remi...I didn't have to kill him..."

Caroline said, "No, you didn't have to. But you did the best you could in that moment, you did what you felt was best to save your daughters. You were simply being a mother! I can understand why that asshole judge called you unfit, but she was still wrong. She just didn't understand what it meant to be a mother, what it was like to be in your shoes when your girls were threatened."

"Y-you are merely taking pity on me - "

"No! This isn't pity, Karena. I'm not just saying any of this to make you feel better! I'm telling you that if anyone else - if I had been in your shoes at that moment, I would have done the same thing you did. I would have done what was necessary, nothing more or less!"

"B-but my husband was so unhappy...if only things had been different, if I had done better - "

Caroline felt the need to step closer as she interrupted, "Wait one fucking second! You're really going to do that shit!? You're gonna judge yourself so harshly - !"

Karena looked at Caroline fully and cut her off in turn. "I WAS judged, Caroline. I was judged and I lost my daughters. And I deserve whatever happens to me."

Her eyes full of empathy for Karena, Caroline slowly shook her head. "This goddamn place really is like Anne said...it messes with our heads and..." She stopped herself briefly as she realized. "And you know that."

Karena moaned, "You shouldn't have followed me...you should have let me go..."

Caroline Floyd finally understood. "Karena, you know this is a trap...!"

The French-born agent said darkly, "I am no fool, Caroline. I pointed my gun at my team leader for nothing...I couldn't help but feel compelled to do so, and that made me realize I was being manipulated. But...b-but it does not matter."

Caroline responded urgently as she drew closer to the lady in black: "Of course it matters! You matter, Karena. I can't just let you go any further!"

Karena LesProux's voice broke as she spoke. "B-but I knew I might become a danger to you...I-I didn't want anyone else to follow me..."

Caroline softly returned, "Too late! I want to be here, I want to help you, no matter what."

Her voice full of fear, Karena asked softly in return, "W-why?"

Caroline drew ever closer, but her voice became far softer as she confessed, "Because I care for you. Ever since we met before, I've liked you. I-I really like you..." Self-aware, her cheeks reddened a little as she managed, "...god, I must sound like a schoolgirl..."

For the briefest and wonderful of moments, Karena really looked at Caroline...the lady in black calmed as she began to ask, unsure, "Y-you...you really...?" Suddenly she shook her head, her voice full of renewed pain. "No...no, I-I do not deserve...no! You must understand I have to do this!" She gazed at the hellish place she felt so compelled to go to. "I failed my girls, but...but I must not fail these children. A soldier must be ready to make any sacrifice, n'est ce pas? And...and you and the others will be all right, Caroline..."

"Karena, no..." Caroline felt so much fear in her heart for Karena...and then, at that moment, she felt something strange. Her feelings for the Frenchwoman intensified, so much so her desire was clouding her judgment -

- in the same way Karena's pain and guilt overwhelmed her. "Please...for your sake...d-don't stand in my way. If you mean it when you say you like me, that you...h-have feelings for me, then you will not deny me this - !"

Caroline suddenly lost her professionial calm and snapped, "Oh, don't give me THAT bullshit! I do care for you, but that doesn't mean I'll just let you commit suicide! Or maybe you don't mind hurting me, huh?"

Taken aback, Karena was at a loss. "C-Caroline...!"

In moments, because of the overwhelming mystic manipulation of the leader of The Order, Caroline's desire to be with Karena completely overrode her common sense...she was only barely aware of it, but she also didn't care. "All that matters to me is that I'm with you, so..." Because her feelings were being heartlessly amplified and coerced, she couldn't deny the one she cared for...but she couldn't let the lady in black go alone, either. "...s-so how about meeting me in the middle here, okay? I wouldn't stop you, but please don't say you can just leave me behind! Let me join you and...and we'll both be happy, huh?"

Karena stared at Caroline...she felt her own measure of desire for the former Ranger. "But...I do not want anything to happen to you..."

"I don't care." Caroline meant every word as she smiled gently. "I'm looking at all I care about, Karena. Maybe we'll have a better chance in there together. All I know for sure is it's where we both want to be now." Her dark eyes pleaded with the lady in black. "Okay?"

So enchanted by Caroline, Karena drew closer to her. One reached out, and the other took her hand. Karena's voice was solemn as she nodded deeply. "O...okay. M-merci, Caroline. Thank you." She looked at the day care center across the street...so did Caroline, and they felt the overwhelming pull to go there...

...the women readied their weapons silently, taking comfort in that they had each other, and then they began to move across the street. From his position, Reeve was tempted to laugh as he watched with his second sight, but he could wait until they were both dealt with. It was amusing that people could be manipulated easily by the most profound emotions like despair and love. And these two were marching gladly to their own downfall because of that, he knew they would never survive what was waiting.

But fortunately for Karena and Caroline, a young woman with world-changing power intervened.

Cheryl Mason was somewhere else in Black Falls at that moment, ministering to Rebecca Chambers, who was still unconscious. Cheryl looked outward with her senses for a moment to be sure there were no dangers nearby the sanctuary she found for them both...not too far away, she sensed Reeve's dark power at work in the wasteland. She used her own second sight to see where the monster's power was being focused...upon two agents who were being manipulated by him - holy shit, they were so close to literally being led to slaughter!

No! No, she couldn't let this happen. Too many had died or were suffering far worse fates because of Reeve. Cheryl traced the transmission of power so fast, she never bothered to become aware of exactly where Reeve was physically. That didn't matter at the moment because she literally had seconds, the women were a couple of meters from the day care's front door! But then she was looking down upon Reeve in his darkened office, his sanctum, his Halo of the Sun burning under him, and with a tremendous burst of power Cheryl glowed brightly as she screamed from the core of her soul, "Oh no you DON'T, motherfucker!"

Cheryl attacked Reeve at the exact same time she screamed. Her power reached him in the form of a psychic lance physically insubstantial yet full of tremendous force. The attack reached Reeve Meyers with the speed of thought and was meant to kill him.

Unfortunately, the monster didn't die. He already had mystic barriers established to defend his mind in case of such a thing happening, he was sitting on his knees in a ward meant to defend him from mystic attack too, bolstered by the protection given to him from the darkness by his God. Still, Cheryl's attack smashed into his mind and all he knew was agony as he screamed: "GGAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" By the time any of his followers reached him, he was lying in the heart of his crimson seal, unconscious. He would stay that way for hours.

The blue brightness that enveloped Cheryl Mason faded...she focused again on her beloved Rebecca...she resumed watching over the sleeping pixie...

The moment Reeve fell unconscious, his spell on both operatives was thankfully broken as Cheryl wanted. Karena and Caroline were so overcome by the loss of the monster's influence, they collapsed together to their knees on the crimson fencing only yards from the day care's front. They both shuddered involuntarily and Caroline was the first to manage to speak: "O-ohhh...Karena - !" She turned to the lady in black.

Very close by, Karena felt just as disoriented as she turned to Caroline, as well. Her slender hands reached out, and Caroline took them in hers needfully. They strived to physically steady themselves as Karena moaned, "C-Caroline..."

Caroline said shakily, "Something happened...I-I heard a girl's scream and then...I-I'm not sure what happened! But..."

Karena nodded deeply. "Now...n-now my head feels clear for...for the first time in too long. You?"

"Yeah...yeah, I'm okay. It sounds like you're okay, too."

"I am myself again...oui." The looked at each other as Karena said sadly, "The pain...the guilt...they are still in my heart. Perhaps they will always be a part of me." Her being stiffened as she felt a thunderbolt of anger. "But someone was using all I felt to manipulate me, and I nearly allowed it to happen!"

Caroline frowned thinly, feeling her own measure of anger toward herself and whatever manipulated her, as well. "I know how you feel...seriously, I do. I-I couldn't help myself...!"

Their hold of each others hands shifted...became much more tender as they supported one another. Karena said thickly, "I pray to god that doesn't happen again...even if it does, I cannot afford to fail those we came here to save. I will not fail my team again...I will never fail you again, Caroline, I promise!"

Caroline's heart soared as she smiled. "I almost failed you too, remember? I'm so happy to hear you say that because I want the exact same things! We've both got to be stronger from here on out for those who need us!" The Ranger drew a little closer to Karena and offered, "Please listen, Karena. When this is over...i-if we live through this shit...I want to do everything I can to help ease your pain." Caroline quickly, carefully added, "If...i-if you'll have me."

Karena looked at Caroline...her face couldn't quite be seen through her mask, but her expression was of elemental fondness. And of other things she felt building in her heart for the lady Ranger. Karena said, "You meant everything you said before."

The desire was so clear in Caroline's expression. "Of course. Even when something was fucking with the both of us, I absolutely meant every word."

Karena purred softly, "Caroline..."

Before either of the women could say anything more, a new voice shouted from not far away: "HEY!" Both of them turned to see Leon S. Kennedy running toward them, with Helena Harper and Anne Cunningham close behind in the middle of the fenced street. Karena and Caroline quickly rose and moved to meet them.

Helena asked breathlessly, "Are you both all right?!"

Caroline nodded deeply and said, "We're okay. We almost went into the day care center - "

"But we shall not." Karena stood very close to Caroline...the Frenchwoman said, "It...it is hard to describe what happened, but my mind is clear now. Someone tried to use...what this town has become to manipulate us, but we are both all right now."

Caroline said, "The day care must have been turned into some kind of trap since we were here. I don't know what's going on in there..." She felt a burst of sadness as she remembered the children and the adults watching over them. If they were still inside, then something happened to them. Something horrible. "...I don't think we want to know, anyway. If any of us went in, we most likely wouldn't come out, I can feel it. I do know we should continue the mission and put as much space between this building and us as possible!"

Leon earnestly responded, "Amen to that! We'll talk more about this later, but first we need to get our search for Mason and Chambers back on track - !" Leon stopped himself because of a sudden noise from within the day care center. They all looked at the building.

The moment Reeve had been driven unconscious, his control over the things inside faded, too. They sensed the prey outside. They were rushing as one to the front door...

...and the largest of the demonic things, Banshees and Minions that were once Ali, Charles and the adults here, burst out. As one, Bravo fired on them, but they realized who the things once were from their tattered clothes...

...just as the Gray Children, the kids who had been watched over along with more brought to the day care by Reeve Meyers, appeared and collectively began to surge out. All of the survivors were stunned...they were children, but at the same time, something far different and far more dangerous. Even though their little gray bodies were hairless and nude, it was hard to tell each child's gender unless one looked closely...they were almost like dolls in that respect. All of their faces were strange blank slates, virtually featureless except for their large mouths. They held blades in their little hands and giggled and laughed with an alien, haunted sound that none of the survivors would soon forget.

Anne, struck dumb by the horror of it, managed to look at Leon and asked urgently, "Uh, do we shoot or run like hell?! Leon!"

With a grim expression, Leon said, "We need to do both! EVERYONE, FALL BACK! BACK DOWN THE STREET!" The team backpedalled from the enemies, firing as they went...not a one of the survivors could bear to shoot any of the Gray Children. The moment Leon and the others put enough distance between them and their pursuers, they ran and kept running.

But how could one outrun the pure evil and insanity of everything around them?

The team finally came to a breathless stop...Leon kept looking back the way they came, his eyes alert, his mind screaming to make sense of things. It took a few moments for the weary survivors to catch their breaths on a desolate side street of the nightmare town. Leon raggedly said, "God almighty...! What were those things!? They...they looked like gray children, but...!"

"Dear god," Caroline breathed, her eyes wide with horror. "I-I think those were the children we saw in the day care before...!"

Karena stared at Caroline and could only moan, "Oh...oh, no..."

"Something got ahold of them, Leon," Anne Cunningham advised sadly. "Something changed those kids, just like the adults protecting them were changed...seemed like there were more of those kids, too. They transformed just like that asshole terrorist Caroline killed in the furniture store earlier."

Everyone stared at her. They didn't want to believe it, but the horrid feeling they all had in their souls told them Anne was right. Leon frowned deeply and tried to say: "But from all you've told us, that means...those kids were..."

Anne nodded. She said thinly, "Yeah...they were dead. Something killed them, otherwise they wouldn't have changed."

Tears of hot anger welled in Caroline's eyes...her voice was full of fury: "Th-that's insane...that's fucking SICK!"

Anne shook her head. "It's the way things are now, I've been trying to tell you all that. It's like Silent Hill." Her own expression darkened with anger as she regarded both Caroline and Karena and added, "But if the day care center was a trap for you both, it means some evil bastard killed everyone there so they'd become monsters and kill you...that's sick."

Leon growled, "It had to be The Order...maybe Reeve Meyers himself is using this town, what it's become...! Goddamn it, once and for all I need to understand how this all could be...why...?"

"This town has become a place that changes things." The voice was too calm, perhaps too introspective...Leon looked to the source. To Helena Harper, as she stared at Anne with a strange expression in her eyes. "The town itself has changed so much, just like you say Silent Hill did. It can change things. I can change people after they die...and even before." Helena's sedate expression of quiet acceptance caused Leon to feel a sudden chill in his blood, and he didn't know why. "You said it can change us because of the dark shit inside of us, didn't you, Anne?"

Everyone else looked at Helena carefully...even Anne had to frown as she nodded and answered, "Yeah, that's right. Anything that haunts us, this town will take that shit and use it against us." Anne's eyes examined Leon's lieutenant...the prison guard said slowly, "Helena. Is there anything...haunting you?" And she was deeply afraid she already knew the answer.

Helena confirmed her fears, still so strangely calm, as she answered, "Yes...and it's changing me." Helena looked down at her right hand...at the discoloration that had grown far, far bigger than her palm. The others finally noticed it as the lady said softly, "I've been trying to understand it, trying to fight it...but I can't. And maybe I don't have any right to."

Complete and total dread clutched Leon's heart as he stared at the lady he was falling in love with. He tried to say, "Helena..."

But Helena Harper was completely focused on the team's advisor...she smiled thinly as she began, her eyes so full of calm desolation. "You want to hear some dark shit, Anne? How about this? Before I started fighting bioterrorists, I was a Secret Service agent. I was part of the protective detail of the President of the United States himself. I prided myself on what I was able to contribute to my country, and being accepted into the Secret Service was one of the happiest and proudest days of my life."

Leon tried to reach the lady again: "Helena, you don't have to - "

A tear streamed down one of Helena's porcelain cheeks as she looked at the man she loved. "I need to say this, Leon. Everyone here deserves to know." Helena looked at them all, Leon, Anne, Caroline and Karena. Her voice thickened with regret with each sentence as she recalled her past. "Everything changed one day when my sister Deborah was kidnapped. The monster who had her taken was National Security Advisor Derek Simmons. You've must have heard of him and what he did. You must know he was one of the greatest traitors in our country's history...the man who arranged to have President Benford assassinated only a couple of months ago." Helena swallowed thickly as she wept. "But Simmons couldn't have gotten to the President without me. He wanted me to be absent from my station so someone could slip close enough and infect the President with the C-Virus. And if I didn't do what Simmons wanted, he would have killed my sister."

Her fellow DSO agent, Caroline Floyd, said awkwardly, "H-Helena, I know we haven't worked together for very long...hell, this is the first time we've worked together on an op, but I didn't know any of this...!"

Leon gave Caroline a look and grunted, "It isn't exactly something Helena wanted to advertise, Caroline."

The former Ranger looked at Helena...she said, "Okay, but if that fucking traitor Simmons was holding your sister hostage, if he made you help him kill the President - !"

Helena cut Caroline off: "That absolves me of any responsibility?" Helena suddenly smiled even more, as if she was tempted to laugh...even as her tears flowed copiously down her lovely cheeks. "I haven't gotten to the best part of the story, Caroline. I helped Simmons murder the President to save my sister, and in the end it made no difference. Simmons still had Deborah infected with some kind of variant of the C-Virus. Leon and I found her, but then she was sealed in a chrysalis and transformed...and..." Helena lost her smile as she remembered...her face almost broke from grief. "Deborah emerged as something else, something inhuman that couldn't recognize me. She tried to kill me and Leon, but...we killed her. I had to let her go in the caverns under Tall Oaks, and she fell to her death screaming. After that, we destroyed Simmons...we brought the truth of everything he had done to the world and got the information we needed to create the C-Virus vaccine. I turned myself in and confessed to my part in the President's assassination. A special grand jury deliberated over whether I should face charges of treason, and..." Helena's expression shifted to anger then as she recalled, an anger mixed terribly with shame. "I was told that I wouldn't face any charges at all. After everything I had done, I wasn't going to be judged for any of it!"

Leon S. Kennedy suddenly looked at Helena firmly...dammit, he had always sensed this from the lady, that she blamed herself for the terrible things Simmons had done. She had been forced to betray the President for the sake of saving her younger sister's life, and so in his heart, first and last, it was Simmons that was accountable, not Helena. Leon said with feeling, "Helena, no one with a conscience would have called you a criminal! You did what you had to do to save Deborah, and I told you even President Benford would have understood!"

"I understand!" Those words came from Caroline, who looked at Helena with pure sympathy. "Helena, anyone would understand if you put your family above your duty!"

Karena added passionately, "I must agree! What you did was out of love for - !"

Helena fixed on Karena and almost shouted, "But it wasn't enough! I did all of the wrong goddamn things! And in the end I still failed, and THAT'S something you can understand, right, Karena?! You said you failed your children! Well, I failed my country! I failed my sacred duty!" She finally cried out, "I failed the only family I had left in this fucking world!"

Affected, Karena could only say softly, "Helena...!" As deeply in despair as she had been, the Frenchwoman thought with a start there was such hopelessness in Helena's eyes...!

Anne Cunningham could only look at the statuesque brunette awkwardly...she had no idea what to say as Helena lamented darkly, "I should have protected the President, and I didn't. I should have been able to save my sister, and I couldn't. I was too fucking weak, I just bent over and did what Simmons wanted. I should have been stronger, I should have done things differently...!"

Leon drew closer to the lady in tears and began to implore, with all of his heart, "Helena, please don't...please stop doing this to yourself...!"

But Helena responded and asked pointedly, "What am I doing, Leon? Even you have to agree there was so much I should have done different. In the end, I made the choice to serve Simmons...and my sister died anyway." Leon could only stare at Helena helplessly...unfortunately, she was right, but how could he help her understand...?

It was then Helena moved closer to Leon...she stood before the survivor, lifted her tainted hand, and her fingers softly caressed one of his cheeks as she gazed into his eyes. The lady smiled, really smiled then, and almost whispered, "Oh, you beautiful man...I am not worthy of you."

Helena's smile faded only a little as the rest of her beautiful face was masked by a sadness that was haunting. She slowly stepped back from Leon and the others...she said finally, "I was a failure, in every way that matters. I should have done more, I should have fought for my sister. But instead, I condemned her. She became a monster because of me." Helena Harper stopped on the fencing under her feet...she couldn't look at Leon and the others as she closed her eyes. And still she smiled, as if she was ready for something. "Deborah didn't deserve that...but I did. I should have been judged." She managed finally, "Leon, I should have been the monster...not my sister...!"

In the next instant, shockingly, unexpectedly, it seemed as if Helena Harper had been struck viciously by an electric current of lethal power. Her entire being went rigid, locked in place as her every muscle contracted. The lady's eyes squeezed shut as her face slackened from the overwhelming shock she suffered. Thick vapor immediately seeped from the pores of her skin...along with a strange amber substance that coated every inch of her statuesque form. Leon and the others could only stare, paralyzed by disbelief, as Helena Harper was coated completely in the ooze, which built and thickened and hardened...

...it all happened so fast, only a handful of seconds, and Leon S. Kennedy couldn't help but remember that this was exactly what happened to Deborah Harper, deep underneath Tall Oaks...

...and now, only months after that, it was Helena Harper who was encased in a thick, alien chrysalis...her beautiful form was completely coccooned...it was impossible to tell if Helena was still even alive...

...and Leon felt like his sanity was threatening to slip away...still too stunned to move, he could only say in a voice full of terror: "Helena...?"

TO BE CONTINUED