Silk Roads

by GenderlessPerson

When the road you're on is already in the verge of crumbling, you could either choose to foolishly continue onward, or turn back and change paths. Harry decided on the latter. MoD!Harry, Slash, LV/HP, MPreg

14. Chapter 14

Summary: When the road you're on is already in the verge of crumbling, you could either choose to foolishly continue onward, or turn back and change paths. Harry decided on the latter. MoD!Harry

Main Pairing: HP/LV (Marcaunon/Voldemort)

Side Pairings: Pending

Warning: AU, Time-Travel, Universe Hopping, New Identity, Slash (this means Boy/Boy), MasterOfDeath!Harry, Killings/Torture

Disclaimer: If I were the author of Harry Potter, Dumbies would have chocked on a Lemon Drop and drop dead, not AK-ed. So no, I do not own Harry Potter.

"Speaking"

"Parseltongue"

'Mental telepathy'

---

Chapter 14: A great holiday gone wrong.

Date: 27 September 2002
Location: Raccoon City
Dimension: Resident Evil 2 – Apocalypse [Spoiler warning for those who have never heard of RE]

Marcaunon hummed a lightly aired funeral march as he popped a piece of all-flavor-jellybeans into his mouth –oh chocolate pudding, his favorite! His face was impassive as he observed (via spyglass) the scene that was being played a few hundred meters north of him.

Raccoon City, where he had been dropped off by Death (the entity had left soon after, stating that It had to personally direct souls to the after-realms), was currently under lock down mode –Umbrella Corporation had built a metallic fortress around the whole City. Their sole purpose was to contain the citizens to prevent further infection –or more zombies from being born. They may seemed like they were doing the whole world good, but it was because of them that this dimension was on the verge of exploding into smithereens.

The creator of the T-Virus, a virus that basically reanimates the dead, worked as an Umbrella scientist. That was enough for Marcaunon to despise the entire Corporation. They were the guilty party for his unnecessary load of paperwork on his desk after all.

However, everything was too easy thanks to his Magic –it wasn't even a challenge to find out about the whole situation. It became too boring and he was supposed to be on vacation –that meant fun time. Imagine a video game where you started off as a max level character with full equipment and over powered stats. Boring right?

After collecting all the information he needed, he had decided that using Magic was a no no, unless in dire situations that is. Thanks to that, he did things the normal way and searched the whole city for five bloody hours for the creator of the T-Virus –which he failed spectacularly.

So now he was currently snacking away his frustrations as he watched the horde of people (he decided not to call them Parasites in this dimension, seeing that there was no such thing as Magicals) trying desperately to exit Raccoon City –they were like lab rats trying to find a way out of a maze the scientist had put them in.

He felt amusement as he stared at the only exit of this entire city –two huge mechanical gates that were currently being guarded by armed officers. The citizens were trapped, and they know it. That was why they were behaving like headless chickens.

Marcaunon swung his legs back and forth as he sat on the edge of a tall building's roof –a bag of snacks on his left side whilst his spyglass was on his lap. He took another piece of jelly beans and stared at it –fascinated by how yellow it was. Death had always said that his attention span was like a child's when left alone with nothing to do.

He suddenly perked up and looked through his spyglass when he saw how the horde's movements became frantic. The mechanicals gates that were supposed to be opened for uninfected citizens to evacuate had closed.

A man suddenly took out a megaphone and Marcaunon tilted his head. He recognized the man from when he had read through the high-ranking employee files. Timothy Cain, the person responsible for the containment and outbreak of Raccoon City.

"This is a bio-hazard quarantine area, and due to the risk of infection, you are all not allowed to leave the city." Marcaunon leaned forward in interest whilst the crowd looked panicked. "All appropriate measures are being taken. The situation is under control. Please, return to your homes."

His lips quirked upwards. If this was considered 'under control', Marcaunon would've felt dread if he were one of those citizens down there. Really, no wonder Death had always found amusement in watching mortals –they make the most hilarious of jokes. Infected walking amok in the city was considered under control. Gosh that guy cracked him up.

The horde ignored Cain's words as they continued to push forward, determined and too panicked to follow the provided instructions. The police were outnumbered 1:10, and it only made them all the more confident.

Marcaunon only popped the overly yellow jellybean passed his lips (ugh earwax flavor) as he watched with growing anticipation.

BANG!

The sound of a single gunshot made most of the people freeze in shock, and some even yelped.

"You have five seconds to turn around, and return to your homes."

The crowd was still unmoving whilst Marcaunon chuckled at their sheer stupidity. They were behaving like sheep waiting to be slaughtered! This continued on for another few minutes until the PA (public announcement) system suddenly came alive and announced that live ammunition was granted.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Marcaunon's scarlet orbs glinted and bled into crimson as his excitement grew, though his face remained its usually serene expression he often had before he had to don on his Hufflepuff mask.

Bullets were flying around everywhere and the area was slowly being covered by red. The people who had not escaped fast enough were screaming in pain and horror as their loved ones died in front of their eyes, and Marcaunon only laughed cruelly at their misfortune.

It has indeed been awhile since he had witnessed such unjustified slaughter –grading and paperwork had been taking too much of his time lately.

"Ah… How I've missed this so much…" He licked his upper lip and closed his eyes in bliss as he relished in the feeling of fear and carnage in the air. "So very much…"

OOOO

Marcaunon hummed a random tune as he bounced lightly along the deserted streets of… Well he didn't really know where he currently was at, only that there was a church in sight. He was currently dressed in a plain dark sleeveless hoodie and black jeans, to better blend in the dark, and even though he wore (very sharp) heeled combat boots, he made no sound as he skipped towards the building.

It had been so long since he even saw a church… and after the damn exorcism, he wasn't too keen on going anywhere near those buildings. However he pushed his feelings aside and continued onwards –he had sensed five presences inside, and he knew that only those who are skilled were the only ones capable of remaining alive during an outbreak of infected walking dead.

Without much effort, he sneaked passed some drooling infected and climbed through one of the many high windows. Why the people inside didn't take precaution to close all the windows was something truly foolish on their part. Even if the infected were unable to climb, loud noises could still be heard through the windows and the infected are curious creatures –they will investigate this church sooner than later. By daybreak the church would be infested by them.

The church's corridor was dark even with lit candles everywhere. He passed by chairs, statues, and doors until he spotted one with light shining within. Without a moment of hesitation or care about another person's privacy, he peeked through the keyhole and raised a brow at the sight. A priest (his eyes stayed on the man longer than necessary) was feeding a tied up woman… no… a tied up infected woman, a bloodied limb. He shrugged and moved on. A tied up dead woman and a spoon feeding priest were of no interest to him.

After a few more minutes of exploring (how careless of the priest to light up every single candle), the sound of someone's lightly tapping boots echoed softly throughout the hallway made him retreat into the shadows. A woman with blue eyes, chestnut colored bob hair, and mixed features –maybe Japanese and French– appeared along the corner. Her face would be considered attractive in the eyes of males.

Her eyes were narrowed in concentration as she walked carefully whilst holding her handgun in front of her –she must be a skilled shooter judging by her stance. She appeared to be in her twenties and was around 165 to 170cm tall, with a slender figure –the agility type he assumed.

She wore a blue tube top, with a white sweater wrapped around her black mini skirt, and a weapon holster strapped around her right thigh. Marcaunon gave her points for her brown knee length boots, however her overall appearance made him doubt her actual ability to handle a gun properly. She looked more like a woman that just came out from a nightclub than someone that had the capability for combat.

He wondered if there was an advantage in wearing such short and thin clothing –why not put on the sweater rather than tying it around her waist, wasn't it cold? And could she still maneuver around, like climbing or crawling, with that skirt on?

He halted his train of thoughts when she passed by before he advanced to the direction she had appeared from. He paused mid-step when he spotted a… weird red brainy thingy creature crawling along the walls and deadpanned. So the infected were able to evolve… but why would they evolve into something so ugly? That thing had no eyes! Why does it not have eyes!? How can it even see? Were they like snakes –using their tongues?

And look! He just proved his point about the windows. They should've closed it before ugly here crawled inside.

The brainy four legged creature thingy jumped hastily towards the ceiling and growled as it inched away from him carefully, before it continued to stalk its prey (the woman). Marcaunon only blinked and continued his steps. He took mental note of what just happened and frowned lightly –he should stay clear from any evolved infected from now on when in the presence of people.

He soon arrived at the entrance of the church's nave and blended into the shadows so that the occupants inside took no notice of his presence. The nave was lit around with candles as well. It was convenient for him, yet careless of them.

He stealthily climbed to one of the many horizontal ceiling beams and seated himself comfortable –Indian style. There were three people below of him, two men and a woman.

The first man he took notice of was a black man wearing the standard cop bullet proof vest and a white shirt underneath it. He wore a light brown cargo pants that had their hems tucked firmly into his black boots, with a weapon holster strapped around his right thigh. He also had his elbows and knees protected by some kind of pads.

Marcaunon skimmed the buzz cut black man's outer thoughts and discovered that his name was Peyton Wells, a S.T.A.R.S (Special Tactics And Rescue Squad) officer. Marcaunon hummed lowly and calculated that this man only had a few more hours left –judging by how grey the aura of death was.

The aura of death was something similar to a translucent shroud. It only appears when a person was near their expiry date, and darkens over time. It can be an accidental or sickness or even natural causes, like earthquakes and old age. Infected however were not shrouded by them because they've already passed their expiry date.

The second man Marcaunon spotted appeared meek and weak. His hands that were tightly holding a pistol (as if to reassure himself) were shaking violently in fear. He wore a blue button up shirt (that was wet with insane amount of sweat) and jeans. By the looks of his features, the blonde man –Angus Mackenzie– was Caucasian. He didn't look much like a fighter, and probably hid the minute he saw the infected. Marcaunon immediately dismissed the man. The aura of death surrounding Mackenzie was black –he would probably last for another ten minutes maximum.

His scarlet eyes moved onto the last person. She was a Hispanic woman with dark eyes and curly shoulder length hair. She would be considered average in the looks department. She wore a… he didn't really know what color of blazer she was wearing. Was it white, grey or very light green? He shrugged uncaringly and continued his observation. Her knee length skirt was the same shade of that unknown color, and in her hands was a digital video camera.

Marcaunon skimmed her thoughts and found out that she was called Terri Morales, an anchorwoman who aspired to be a journalist in order to work at Los Angeles or Chicago. She could forget about her dream though. Her aura was only a slightly lighter shade than the S.T.A.R.S officer, and even if she were to get out of Raccoon City in one piece, the future looked quite bleak for this world –zombie apocalypse does that.

He took out a bag of popcorn and munched on a piece (softly) whilst watching the three below. He would wait for the blue tube top wearing woman to leave this place, before he shadowed after her. She was the only one that would survive since he didn't see any aura shroud around her.

The sudden sound of a man's scream (probably the priest since his aura was black as well) was heard and the three stood up with haste, their heads turning left to right similar to those frightened rabbits he often saw Suki chasing. The woman, Terri, ran towards the double doors in her heels as she shouted over her shoulders.

"I'm getting outta here!" Her hands were already on the door handles.

"Hey!" Peyton shout-whispered as he rushed towards her. "No wait!"

Oh she shouldn't do that. Infected were standing everywhere outside.

When she opened the door, she screamed as she spotted a horde of infected rushing towards her and pushed the door close, with Peyton helping her. They were fighting a losing battle with the door due to the unlimited amount of strength the infected possessed, however what Marcaunon didn't expect was that the weakling, Mackenzie, to help them by taking a mallet (where that came from he didn't know) and shoving it through the two door handles as a make shift barricade.

Marcaunon licked his buttered fingers as he watched the two males aim their handguns towards the exit –as if the infected were strong enough to bulldozed through. Wrong thing to aim at, sweeties. There were two four legged brainy creature thingy on the ceiling and they were supposed to be focusing on that, not those harmless slow walking infected.

Some people really do have low observation skills.

The four legged brain–oh for Morgana's sake. He'll just call those things crawler. The first crawler suddenly growled lowly as it moved onto another spot near the altar. That gained the three's attention and they all looked around frantically.

Peyton was the first one to act smartly. He took out his flashlight to aim at the direction of the growling noises. They finally spotted one of the crawlers and gasped. Marcaunon understood their shock at those creatures' ugliness (what a huge misunderstanding). Even he felt that those things were beyond repair. Plastic surgery could only do so much after all.

"Jesus!" Who? Oh… Was it those human quirks where they say Jesus instead of Merlin or Morgana?

"W-what is that thing!?" It's an infected that evolved through unknown methods.

"Hey! Wh-where're you doing!?" Was shouted by Peyton as Mackenzie ran away. "Get back here!"

Idiot~ Predators always went for prey that fled solo. Marcaunon didn't bother to try and help the man. It was time. The shroud was pitched black and it wasn't even translucent now.

Whilst the idiot ran, Peyton dragged Terri behind one of the many pillars to hide from the predators and prepared himself by checking his ammo.

Mackenzie finally ran out of Marcaunon's sight and he waited for only another few seconds before he heard the man's scream of fear and despair. He took another piece of popcorn and tossed it up in the air before catching it with his mouth. What wonderful background music.

Just as it ended, the glass doors that was linked to the hallway and into the nave opened and the blue tube top woman entered. He mentally berated himself for getting distracted by her choice of clothing previously before he skimmed the surface of her mind. Her name was Jill Valentine, a S.T.A.R.S officer as well.

He blinked at how high ranked she was before she became the disgrace of the police force. He really should stop judging books by their covers.

She stalked forward and suddenly crouched near the pews. Marcaunon tilted his head to the side in curiosity. When Jill pulled out a pistol from below the many pews did he only understood her actions –dual wielders all looked so badass (again another misunderstanding on his part). As he was too busy praising her dual wielding stance in his head, he didn't notice that one of the ugly creatures had moved near him to drop Mackenzie's corpse onto the paws behind of Jill. They both jumped slightly due to the suddenly appearance of the body and the noise it made when it came contact with the pews.

Merlin's hairy testicles! Damn jump scares –real life edition.

Jill shot at the creature as a diversion and was quick to retreat, with Marcaunon's scarlet orbs following her movements until he lost sight of her once she hid behind one of the many pillars. He sighed and lay down on his back as he fingered his snack. It was risky to go down at this point of time, and he rather watched how it played out than intervened –Jill wasn't dying anytime soon anyway.

Maybe after he was tired of Jill will he go find the creator of the T-Virus. He needed the information in that man's head to create an Anti-Virus, as well as a serum that could potentially reverse the virus, and then save the world.

Wow… That sounded disgustingly cheesy.

Another few seconds passed by with him trying to rid his arms of goosbumps before he saw movements from the corner of his eyes. He sat up with his legs still crossed Indian style and leaned forward. Peyton had covered Jill's mouth and pulled her behind the pillar where he and Terri hid. Marcaunon thought back to the many criminal videos he had watched when bored and stifled a laugh that had almost escaped his lips. That was like a kidnaping slash rape way to gain someone's attention!

Whilst they whispered softly to themselves, Marcaunon was busy with covering his mouth –his shoulders were still shaking with mirth.

The two suddenly started shooting at their respective targets and Marcaunon ducked when one of the bullets came too near for comfort –what bad aiming they had. It wouldn't really hurt, but he didn't fancy dying again within twenty four hours –he had already died once when he was dropped at Hisoka's dimension.

Jill and her colleague continued for another minute before she cursed and said that her ammo was almost out. Whilst Marcaunon was weighing the pros and cons of entering the fight, the stained glass above the altar shattered into a million pieces and a person on a bike flew through.

Marcaunon only stared transfixed as he gave the person points for such a unique dramatic entrance.

The helmet was then removed and the rider with wet (or oily) light brown hair spoke fiercely.

"Move!"

The three automatically moved with haste away from the rider as she sped towards the ugly crawler before doing a backflip as she jumped off –he added another point for dramaticness. The predator turned prey was stupid enough to charge head on and became a firework when she shot two bullets into the bike's oil tank. What a waste of a perfectly good bike! The biker lady then twirled her dual pistols around and sheathed them into the holsters that were strapped around her thighs.

Marcaunon was impressed.

She then took out two uzi and started firing randomly at the second crawler, which leapt down in order to avoid her shots. The creature was positioned just below the altar and before it could move a step further, the giant cross that had a statue of a crucified male fell atop the crawler and made a pancake out of it.

Wow. She sure knew how to strategize. Marcaunon had thought that her aiming was off, but she had planned the whole thing –shooting at the chains whilst forcing the creature into moving at the direction she wanted. Astounding. Whilst Marcaunon was busy admiring the pancaked evolved infected, he missed how the biker woman had headshot-ed the third and final crawler with a shotgun. He jutted his lower lip out.

"Who… the fuck are you?" Jill demanded whilst Marcaunon munched on a kitkat. Shouldn't she be grateful that the dramatic biker lady saved their butts rather than demanding answers rudely?

Marcaunon trailed his eyes over Jill before stopping at the still wet blood trails on her boots. Maybe Jill was mad because biker lady had killed the creature near her and her boots got splattered with the creature's blood. Women and their shoes.

The biker lady just stared at Jill with her nose held high and Marcaunon inwardly cheered at the signs of a catfight. Fight, fight, fight!

"Before that," The woman's voice was raspy, as if she had not used it for a long time, or that she had screamed her throat raw. "why don't you ask the person sitting on the ceiling beams to come down?" She tilted her head upwards and stared directly into his direction.

Marcaunon's scarlet eyes widened in surprise before they roamed her body, taking note of her muscular yet slender figure. She was slightly taller than Jill, and had guns strapped all over her person. She wore a dark orange tank top under her mesh sleeveless shirt, and jeans that were weird in his eyes. The right side was long, whilst the left didn't even reach mid-thigh, though it did continue below her knee like a one piece leg warmer. Women fashion clothing made little sense to him, just look at what Jill was wearing! They were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse for Morgana's sake.

When he was finally done taking note of her clothing, his eyes returned to look into hers. The biker lady had strange eyes –and it made him want them all the more. Perhaps after she died, he would gouge out those eyeballs and put them in a display jar. Or maybe give them to Chaos as a souvenir.

He was a little curious about the aura of death surrounding her though. It would appear, disappear and reappear at random intervals –though it was only a darker shade of white, not yet grey. It was as if her fate wasn't already written, and she could change her death date depending on her choice.

"What?" Jill whispered as she squinted her eyes uselessly to try and see him. "Nobody's there. If you're trying to avoid–"

Marcaunon jumped down and landed softly on his boot clad feet, ignoring the way the video recording woman had fallen to her bum in shock.

"How did you notice me?" He raised a questioning brow at biker lady and popped his leftover kitkat into his mouth.

"You've been watching this whole time!?" Jill glared at him. "That man needed help!" She pointed at the meek man's corpse and continued to glare at him accusingly. Marcaunon only blinked as he licked chocolate off his fingers.

"He wasn't going to survive long anyway."

"You don't have the right to judge whether a person lives or dies!"

True. But he did have the right to judge whether a person gets tortured after they die or not.

"Jill…" Peyton placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

"H-how about some introductions?" Terri said as she pointed the camera his way.

"Why don't you tell yours first, my lady?" He bounced towards her and took her right hand, before kissing her knuckles playfully. He glanced up through his lashes to see her face reddening and took a step back as he dropped her hand. Was she angry? It was only a customary (pureblood) greeting.

"Terri, T-Terri Morales." She squeaked out.

"And you?" He pointed towards Peyton with his chin.

"Peyton Wells." Marcaunon nodded without even a change of expression.

He turned towards Jill, but didn't get the chance to ask.

"Jill Valentine. Now tell us who the fuck you are. The both of you." She scowled at the two newcomers and Marcaunon's lips quirked at her impatience. She was definitely someone he could poke around when bored –her reactions would be amusing.

"Ladies first." He gestured towards biker lady.

"Alice."

"Harry, Harry Potter. It's a pleasure to meet all of you." He purred.

Ah it has been a while since he referred himself as that.

OOOO

"We need to find somewhere to stop for a moment." Jill stated as she walked alongside her wounded colleague.

After their introduction, they had all agreed to group together until they were out of the city, so now they were currently walking in a graveyard –which was probably the most risk-free place during an outbreak of zombies, note the sarcasm– in order to avoid the horde of infected roaming the streets mindlessly.

Marcaunon glanced at the man's injured leg and tsked softly at the obvious bloodied bite mark. Peyton wouldn't last long, maybe three hours maximum, unless he was given the cure that is. He doubted that it has already been made though, but that was his original purpose for being here anyway. Once this dimension was zombie free, his desk would be free of extra paperwork –damn Death for throwing another dimension's work at him. He was Its Master for Merlin's sake.

He was so absorbed in his fantasy of lesser (none, was impossible) paperwork that he had not noticed that the group had stopped until he walked into a wall… Well not exactly. It was Alice, and she didn't even budge unlike he who had almost fallen.

Alice gave him a side glance before returning to her staring contest with Jill. They both had their guns out and pointed at each other. He only raised a brow at their antics as he moved to sit on top of a gravestone near him with his ankles crossed and his hands inside his hoodie pockets.

"That's considered disrespectful." Terri said as she stood beside him.

"Then they shouldn't have made the stones seatable then." Was seatable even a real word?

"What do you think you're doing?" Jill's voice made him turn towards her and he made a grab for one of his snacks… only to find them all already eaten. He scowled and wrote a mental note to get more afterwards.

"He's wounded. The infection's spreading." Alice stated matter of factly as she stared at Jill as if she was a little child asking how babies were made.

There was a few seconds of tensed silence before Peyton spoke.

"I'm fine."

"For now." Marcaunon added in helpfully, but only received a look that said he was anything but helpful.

"We should take care of him now." Alice said as if Marcaunon had not interrupted their conversation. "It'll be more difficult later. You know that." She turned to Jill, her stoic face turned serious.

Jill only shook her head in denial as she glared at Alice.

"Or we can shoot him the moment he starts acting weirdly." His words were ignored once again as the two continued to try and stare the other into submission. Marcaunon crossed his arms. How rude of them.

"If it comes to that, I'll shoot him myself." Jill determinedly said as she walked forwards.

Alice's gun barrel was at Jill's throat before Alice sighed and turned around, her face showing indifference.

"Suit yourself." She faced Peyton. "You'll only last an hour or two. And moments later, you'll become one of them. You'll endanger your friends, try to kill them –and probably succeed." Her tone was light as if she was talking about the weather. It made Marcaunon cackle on the inside –Alice was similar to him in their boldness with words, however she said those to warn them (she was kind) whilst he would say those to taunt them (he can never be considered kind).

"Maybe we could stitch his lips together?" He suggested. That way Peyton won't be able to bite them even if he was turned.

"What is wrong with you!?" Jill whispered in disbelief as she stared at him, before turning away with her arms crossed. "You really are sick."

Marcaunon only tilted his head to the side, not understanding her anger. Normal infected can't transmit their virus through any other means and only via saliva or blood, so stitching the lips was the best solution if she didn't want Peyton to be shot. That way Peyton won't be able to infect them when he suddenly became one of those flesh eaters.

"It's a logical solution."

Peyton's face had turned a slighter shade of pale as he edged away from Marcaunon.

"I'm sorry." Alice spoke nonchalantly as she stared into Peyton's eyes. "It's just the way it is." The woman was yet again ignoring Marcaunon's words. It was endearing and it reminded him of Chaos at times, so he won't kill her. Yet.

The silence was thick with tension for the group as they avoided each other's gaze, excluding Marcaunon whom was idly staring at the stars without a care in the world, and Alice whom was busy checking her firearms.

Terri's sudden scream of panic made everyone snapped their heads towards her direction. Marcaunon could only stare at the rotten appendage, which was protruding from the ground and holding Terri's ankle, with a deadpanned. See, risk-free place alright. Who the hell chose to walk at a graveyard during a zombie apocalypse again?

Jill was the first one to react as she ran to Terri and tried to pull her away from the infected's hold. The second was Alice.

She kicked the zombie's head once it had left the ground and a sickening crack was heard. Terri's ankle was immediately released upon impact but just as the group was about to relax, hands began to dig their way out of the many graves.

The T-Virus sure was amazing. It was even able to seep underground and reanimate decade old corpses.

His group all began breaking the infected's neck (apart from Terri), not wanting to use their firearms in case the sound attracted more of those drooling flesh eaters. Marcaunon hopped off the gravestone he had sat on and avoided a rotten hand that made a swipe at his ankles.

"Ah… Sorry about seating on your gravestone I guess?" He smiled at the owner of said gravestone and proceeded to kick the infected's head with his (automatically) Magic induced muscles, which made it fly off and hit Terri, who screamed at the sudden appearance of a decapitated head on her lap.

Alice was quick to slap her palm on Terri's mouth and looked disapprovingly at him.

"Wasn't on purpose I assure you." He ducked under another zombie's arm and twisted around before snapping the neck. His hands should be sanitized thoroughly before he even thinks about consuming any future snacks.

They continued this for another few minutes before Alice spoke up.

"There's too many of them."

"Way to state the obvious." Marcaunon grunted as he flipped another zombie to the ground before stepping hard on its nape. Something about breaking necks gave him immense satisfaction.

"You're having w-way too much fun, Harry." Terri stuttered as she moved closer to him. He turned to her after he kicked yet another infected in the back.

"It's… therapeutic." Destroying these humanoid zombies diminished most of his never ending bloodlust for Parasites at the moment. That was considered therapeutic right?

"Let's get the hell out of here." Alice announced whilst she moved swiftly away.

Jill agreed with her as she slung Peyton's arm around her shoulders and rushed behind Alice, the group following her closely behind.

They ran and jogged all the way until they had lost the horde. Terri was breathing loudly from the workout as she leant heavily on him (ugh), and Marcaunon wondered why she was still wearing her heels during the run. Marcaunon himself had no problems with running in his heeled combat boots, though he very much preferred not having to wear shoes at all –however he needed them to blend in better.

After their run, they had ended up near a ginormous white building and were walking near it. The pillars made great hiding spots to avoid random bypassing zombies.

Marcaunon subtly pushed the woman off of him and strode towards Alice and Jill. He preferred these two rather than those hopeless (Peyton) and helpless (Terri) people.

"Those were some pretty sleek moves back there." Jill started. "I'm good." Someone sure was lacking in the modesty department. "But I'm not that good."

"You should be grateful to have me." Another one that wasn't modest. Marcaunon snickered –the three of them made a good team (of not modest people that is).

"Oh I know I am." He purred. Without Alice he wouldn't be having this much fun.

Alice only gave him a side glance before turning back to Jill. How cold.

"They did something to me." She said solemnly, but before she could continue, the phone near them suddenly started ringing. What bad timing. He wanted to know what happened to Alice.

"It would be wise to move." He said and walked ahead.

They followed after him as they tried to ignore the constant ringing from each payphone they passed by, which no doubt was attracting unwanted attention, until Alice got annoyed and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?" She sounded really annoyed, which reflected on her otherwise stoic face. "Who is this?"

"What do you think it's about?" Terri spoke from behind him and he hid his annoyance at her presence. Did he do something to make her like his company or something?

"We'll know soon enough." He replied evenly.

OOOO

Marcaunon was sat at the back of the bus they had just hijacked (it was empty anyway), away from the group, as he stared at the night sky above. Dr. Ashford had requested (more like threatened) them to seek out his daughter, Angela, from her school and bring her to him.

He had given them the location, and description of his daughter. He had also promised the group that if they were to succeed, he would give them the means to escape from the perimeter.

How convenient that the man Marcaunon was searching for made contact with his group. Now that he knew that he would end up meeting Dr. Ashford no matter what, he could play all he wanted without a time limit –he just had to make sure that Angela was brought back alive and in one piece.

He licked his upper lip and hid a demented grin behind his hand.

"–Raccoon city will be completely sanitized." Alice stated as she pumped her shotgun.

"W-what do you mean by sanitized?" Terri asked, looking far too confused.

"Precision tactical nuclear devise." Alice murmured as she stared into Jill's eyes, totally ignoring Terri.

"What yield?"

"Five kilotons [1]."

"What…?" Jill laughed with no humor. "Fuck me."

"What does that mean?" Terri demanded.

"It means that a nuclear bomb will be dropped by sunrise, and it will wipe out all of Raccoon City." Marcaunon answered helpfully as he made his way over.

She looked shocked and could only imitate a fish out of water.

"One would wonder where you've learn that." Alice said as she stretched lightly.

"I read weird shit." He answered with a smirk.

"Bullshit!" Peyton exclaimed with rage in his eyes. "There's no way they'll get away with that! It'll be all over the fucking news!"

"Cover up." Terri said with sudden realization. "They can say that it was just a tragic accident."

"Very likely the case." He hummed in agreement.

Marcaunon tuned them out from this point on. He didn't understand their worries. Before Umbrella Corporation could drop the bomb (quite literally), they would already be out of this city. He had no doubt that Alice alone was enough to find the key–ahem girl, to exit this city.

He had sensed something in her, but it wasn't Magic. It was somewhat similar to Nen, but not entirely. It was confusing at best and the only way for him to figure the energy out was to delve deep into her mind –and he doubted that she would survive, Hisoka being the only Parasite exception to the rule.

But back to the topic at hand, their worries were unneeded and it was useless to wonder about the what ifs. Peyton was hotheaded and Marcaunon scoffed at the black man. How he was hired to be a cop was a mystery itself.

Alice stood up with a determined light shining in her eyes.

"Let's go."

They exited the bus and brisk walked towards the direction of the school.

When they arrived at a bridge, the two ladies (he already removed Terri from that category) were bad mouthing the organization and Dr. Ashford. Marcaunon hid a chuckle behind his hand as he listened to them. So even kickass ladies like them could gossip.

"–like some kind of sick game." Jill and her constant word of sick.

"What's goin on?" Peyton asked as Alice stopped walking all of the sudden.

"Wait."

"Sunrise ain't gonna wait."

"No. There's something down there."

"Where?" Jill stood on her tippie toes as she tried to see the thing Alice was seeing.

"There." Alice pointed at the direction of a car that was on fire about fifty meters away from them.

Marcaunon's Magic tendrils reached out and he hummed at the feeling of rage and hatred coming from the direction that Alice pointed at. He kept silent, wanting to see how this would play out. He was also curious as to how Alice noticed such a thing from so far away. Was it because of her not-Nen?

"I'm gettin sick of this bullshit!" Peyton gritted out and strode forwards to the railings of the bridge.

"Peyton!" Jill called out and placed a hand on the man's shoulder to calm him, but he just shrugged off the appendage and continued onwards.

See? Hotheaded.

A barrage of bullets suddenly went flying towards Peyton and he rolled away hurriedly, though he was far too slow to avoid them. The bullets had hit him all over, and Marcaunon knew that it was the end for the S.T.A.R.S officer.

"Nemesis…" Alice murmured in disbelief before she looked at them with panic. "Go! Run!"

Whilst Terri ran towards Jill, Marcaunon watched nonchalantly at how the black shroud pulled a bluish orb, the size of an adult's head, out of Peyton's cold body. He walked calmly towards the corpse whilst Alice jumped down the bridge to distract their unwanted company.

Jill was in tears as she tried to stop Peyton's wounds from further bleeding, whilst Terri stood awkwardly near them. As soon as he arrived in front of the corpse, the shroud wrapped itself around the bluish orb and bobbed towards him. He subtly plucked the blackened orb out of the air and returned his hand into his hoodie's pockets.

"Help me!" She shouted as she stared at him with wide desperate teary eyes. "Harry!"

Marcaunon only stared at her as he made no move to help her. Peyton was already gone. After the soul (the bluish orb) had been wrapped by the shroud, it can only be removed by Death –and not even he, the Master of Death, could bring the dead back to life when the soul was safely within the shroud. It was like a locked box with only Death himself as the key. If he wanted to revive a person fully and not turn them into mindless inferi, he needed the soul to be untouched by the shroud.

He fingered the soul in his pocket as he hummed lightly –another one to pass to Death afterwards.

"He's gone, Jill." He stated uncaringly and walked towards a vehicle near them. "We should meet up with Alice at the school."

"You… You insensitive son of a…!" Jill shouted, her voice shaking.

"I already know that." He looked over his shoulder and watched unfazed as the anger in Jill's eyes heightened. "And you should keep your voice down. Never know where those meat lovers are."

Marcaunon turned around to lean against the vehicle's door. This was getting tiresome –emotions were just not his thing. He sincerely had no idea why she was even crying. She already knew that Peyton was living on borrowed time –he was infected remember? So what if he died earlier than expected? He would've still died anyhow.

Another five minutes passed by before Jill finally stood up and entered the vehicle. She immediately began hotwiring the car. Marcaunon followed her example but sat at the seat behind her, before closing the door after him.

He materialized a small jar from his pocket dimension, not even the size of his palm, and pushed the soul inside. The orb resized to fit the jar as it passed through the opening, and only after it was fully inside did he push a cork after it. The jar then disappeared into his bottomless sling bag.

This made a total of one thousand six hundred and eighty souls he had on his person. That meant he had one thousand six hundred and eighty more paperwork on his desk –not forgetting the ones Death Itself had personally reaped.

He dropped his face into his palms and groaned. Paperwork was such a mood downer.

Whilst he was busy sulking at the prospect of lesser free time, he startled when zombie Peyton suddenly appeared beside Jill and begun to attack her –curse his paperwork induce inattentiveness! He only watched detachedly as she struggled to fight the bigger and stronger infected man off of her, with Terri screaming in fear.

Another few seconds of struggle before she managed to land a kick at zombie Peyton's midsection. It made him take a few steps backwards, but that was enough. She took out her handgun and with a constipated (pained) expression, shot his forehead.

"W-why?" Jill suddenly whispered as she turned to him. "Why didn't you help me? You were right there."

"I was respecting your wish."

"What?"

He looked at her weirdly. Did she forget?

"You said, and I quote, 'if it comes to that, I'll shoot him myself'."

She stayed silent as she stared vacantly at him, before she turned to close the door and stepped on the gas –quite hard he might add. He only blinked in confusion as he tilted his head. She was always angry with him no matter what he did or say. Women were hard to understand…

Just as they were off the bridge, Marcaunon spoke his mind.

"I told you we should've stitched his lips."

"Not. Another. Word."

He frowned and closed his eyes. He would listen to her order just this once. It was the least he could do to not antagonize her further –she was the one driving the car.

His muscles soon began to involuntarily relax themselves and he fell into a light state of slumber. He had not slept for more than twenty hours, so of course he would be exhausted.

He dreamt about being seated under a cherry blossom tree with Death smirking beside him, and Chaos standing only a few feet away, playing with the two serpents on a field of grass. His son was giggling and laughing happily, and it made him smile at the picture of innocence little Chaos made. The breeze was fresh and he hummed a light funeral march as he stared up into the blue sky, with white fluffy clouds the shape of chocolate bars floating lazily around.

---

He blinked his scarlet eyes and was suddenly startled when the blue sky was replaced by acid green. Marcaunon looked around in panic as he could not spot either Marchosias or Death anywhere. He felt cold. Extremely cold as thunder and lightning flashed across the hideous sky, and only polluted rain fell onto his skin.

It burnt.

Tears soon appeared in his eyes as he wrapped his arms around his shivering body. Was everything all a dream? Did he only fantasize about a world where he had a son and a friend that would never betray him? Could his insane mind take no more and had created a world where he could feel happiness –even for just a fraction? An illusionary trap?

Marcaunon's eyes blanked as he blinked the tears out of his eyes. How cruel of his mind to do such a thing to him.

He didn't want to live anymore if everything was only an illusion. He wanted to die. Why wasn't he allowed to? Was it because it was his fault that the Wizarding world fell into the hands of those without Magic? Was it because of that sin did Death not want his soul? Was he forsaken for all of eternity?

"I don't want to be alone any longer…" He whispered to himself as tears continued to trail down his cheeks. "Please… Help me."

A shadow suddenly loomed over him before an unexpected warmth wrapped around his body –as if someone had casted a warming charm on him. He tilted his head upwards, not minding how the rain made his eyes sting, and gasped in shock.

Wide disbelieved scarlet met narrowed suspicious crimson before everything turned black.

---

"Climb aboard."

Marcaunon was startled awake from his slumber by the car door shutting close and sighed tiredly. That was a terrible nightmare. He bit his lower lip nervously and hugged himself tightly. He wanted to see Chaos. He wanted to see Death. He wanted to see… Who was it he wanted to see…? There was only Chaos and Death in his life, nobody else.

He closed his eyes forcefully. It was just a dream, nothing more. Just a bloody dream. He wasn't in that ruined world where he was destined to be alone for all of eternity.

"Are you ok?" A male's voice he didn't recognized made his eyelids flutter open.

"Who?" He whispered groggily.

"Lloyd Jefferson Wayne. You can call me LJ. What 'boutchu, babe?"

He blinked owlishly and stared at the man that was seated beside him in the car. LJ wore a brown trilby on his head, and the black man had facial hair –though it was trimmed. He had a brown leather jacket on, and underneath it was a black shirt–

His observation was cut short when his mind connected the words that LJ had uttered.

"Did you just call me a girl?" He heard the two women at the front seats hide their laughter –unsuccessfully he might add.

"… You're a tranny?"

"Who… the bloody hell… are you calling a tranny?" Marcaunon took out his desert eagle and pointed it below the black man's belt. "I'm 100% male."

LJ raised both his arms in the universal sign of surrender as he sweated buckets.

"A-alright. Chill dude."

"I will chill after I blow off your unneeded pen–"

"Woah woah woah woah woah man! Let's not go down there." LJ was quick to panic as he covered his manhood.

"I'm sure he's sorry, Harry." Terri said as she giggled behind her hand.

"Yeah! I'm seriously sorry! Don't shoot my junior dude!"

Marcaunon narrowed his eyes at LJ for a few more seconds before he pushed the safety back in place.

"Really! Y-you just looked cute when you were sleeping so I thought –"

"Care to repeat those words?" His thumb grazed the gun's safety threateningly.

"N-nothing at all! Won't happen again. Mhm!"

"See that it doesn't." He cocked his handgun. "Or else…"

LJ scooted away from him and coughed in his fist.

"We got off to a bad start. What's yo name?"

"Harry."

"Well I'm–"

"Lloyd Jefferson Wayne. I got it the first time." Marcaunon crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against his seat as he crossed his ankles.

"Err… Yeah…" LJ ran a hand through his short curly hair, his trilby on his lap. "So where ya'll going?"

"Raccoon Middle High.[2]" Jill answered as she turned the car and nonchalantly ran over an infected that was sitting on the road and minding its own business. "We plan on searching the school for a girl. Angela."

"And bring her back to her father." Terri added.

"He'll provide us a way out of the city before Umbrella decided to drop a bomb on us." He murmured as he stretched his arms over his head.

"Wait wait wait wait wait. Hold up! Umbrella's dropping a bomb on us!?" LJ sounded panicked as his arms flailed around randomly.

"And we need to meet up with Alice." Marcaunon continued as if LJ had not interrupted him.

LJ was a very amusing man, and Marcaunon dubbed him as the comedy relief. The man has an easy going and funny personality, and he made Marcaunon amused more often than not (when he didn't mistake Marcaunon for a female). Especially the man's reactions.

Jill had explained to LJ about Dr. Ashford, Alice, and the bomb.

"So we all needa get our asses out of Raccoon before sunrise?"

"That's right."

"Damn…"

"You can say that again." Terri murmured whilst Marcaunon's lips quirked.

"We're here." Jill announced.

As they all left the car, Marcaunon took a glance at the police K9 vehicle and frowned lightly –were those able to get infected as well?

"I wonder if this place will be crawling with those." Marcaunon tilted his head to the side as his eyes glinted with interest.

"Everyone's armed?" Jill asked as she pulled out her firearm.

"Got my custom beauties here." LJ said as he showed off his golden handguns.

"I'm armed." Marcaunon smirked as he fingered his desert eagle.

"I don't know how to…" Terri was interrupted by Jill as she all but shoved a pistol towards the weather woman.

"You'll need it."

Terri only nodded nervously and they all entered the school. Jill was positioned at the front, since she was the one holding the flashlight –and that she had experience in combat unlike the other two, whilst Terri and LJ were side by side in the middle.

Marcaunon himself was told to watch their rear by Jill.

"Judging by the way you fought at the graveyard previously, I would say that you've had at least a decent amount of experience." Was said.

He only smiled at her belittling tone whilst LJ looked at them with confusion.

"Were you both datin' once?" LJ whispered to Marcaunon, but before he could reply, LJ continued. "Who am I kiddin? You're girly and look no older than nineteen!"

A tic formed on his forehead and he resisted the urge to throttle LJ. He was not girly!

"We both have different opinions is all."

"Hmm… Really? It seemed to me that it's all sexual tension yo."

Jill was the one who smacked LJ and threatened to castrate him if he were to continue being noisy. LJ paled and protected his manhood by covering it with his hands, much to Marcaunon amusement. The man's manhood was already threatened twice within the hour.

They continued walking until they stopped in front of a stairway, and Jill turned to them.

"We're going to have to split up if we want to search the whole building."

"Forget it." Terri spoke immediately. "I'm not going out there by myself! Forget it!"

"I could go witchu." LJ tried to calm her.

"You, take the first floor." She told LJ. "And you, take the second." She stared at Terri.

"Wouldn't it be inconvenient for us to split up?" Marcaunon stated monotonously. The three only stared at him with confusion. "There is no doubt that splitting up would cover more ground–"

"Then what's the problem?" Jill rudely interrupted.

"The problem, dear Jill, is that if we did split up and find the girl shortly after, won't we waste more time looking for everybody else after that?"

"I'll take the basement." Jill stated after a minute of silence. Marcaunon deadpanned. She was definitely still angry at him –but for her to ignore his rationale reasoning and endanger everybody else wasn't like her. "You'll go to the library and other such places –like the roof."

"No wait." Terri spoke suddenly. "Why not let Harry accompany me? I really don't know how to handle a gun…"

"There's nothing to it. Just try and hit them in the head." Jill was merciless as she stared Terri into submission. Marcaunon wasn't sure whether six bullets were enough for Terri –Jill did not even give her magazines.

They soon split up, however Marcaunon didn't move from his position. He only closed his eyes to sense if there were any other living beings apart from them that were in this building, and only when he felt them did he open his eyes.

He counted three in total. One was at the first floor, another at the second, and the last was near his location. He hummed in thought at there being two extra presences before he nodded to himself. The other two might be children that had survived by hiding inside a locket or something. He should go check if the one closest to him was Angela or a survivor.

After a few more minutes of non-stop walking, he frowned at the presence –they kept moving further and further away from him. He sighed and continued to follow, which lead him back to the entrance.

The person was going around in circles! Were they lost or something!?

Terri's presence suddenly vanished from his radar and he raised a brow. She died within ten minutes of being here. What a weakling. He focused on her soul and tugged on it via Magic. The blackened orb that used to be Terri answered his call and hovered in front of him. He ripped his pocket dimension open with his index finger, before pulling out an empty jar that Death had provided him with for this very purpose. He did the same to Terri's orb as he did to Peyton, before dropping it inside his sling bag once more.

He heard some screaming coming from the cafeteria just as the presence he had been following after for the past ten minutes vanished. He sighed in frustration and called for that soul as well. He repeated the process yet again with an irritated scowl on his once upon a time serene face.

He now focused on Jill's presence this time and trailed after her –she had another unfamiliar presence with her. Perhaps it was Angela.

… He ended up in front of the cafeteria doors again. He rubbed circles on his temples in irritation. He had passed this place thrice now. He pushed the cafeteria doors opened more roughly than intended with a handgun in hand, expecting something to spring at him at any moment.

When nothing came, he continued to walk forward before his elbow was grabbed.

Marcaunon twisted around and had his hands around the zombie's neck, ready to break it, but stopped when he noticed that it was only Alice.

"Oh." He blinked owlish.

"Oh, is the right word for this situation." His companion murmured as she battered his hands away.

"Well… Sorry about that."

"Not a problem."

"You're wounded."

She looked at the cut on her arm and sighed.

"Not by them."

He nodded indifferently as she took out a cigarette and started to inhale those cancerous fumes.

"Any reason why you're taking a smoke break when we're supposed to be searching for the girl?"

"You'll know soon enough." She replied mysteriously as she took another drag.

Marcaunon only raised a brow and sat atop one of the many tables. Alice and her dramatics were endearing as well as amusing.

"Do you perhaps have any coins?" Alice stared at him with curiosity. "I need them to buy snacks from that vending machine over there." He pointed at the snack machine next to the CocaCola one.

"… Why don't you just break the glass?"

Marcaunon eyes widened. He knew that Terri's stupidity was contagious! Alice suddenly chuckled at his forgetfulness and it made Marcaunon scowl all the more. Just as he was about to head over to the vending machine, the swinging double doors that lead to the kitchen burst open.

Jill came running as if hell hounds were behind her heels, and stared at them with shock before she quickly ran to them with a little girl trailing behind her.

"You better take cover, Harry." Was whispered to him by Alice as she flicked her cigarette.

He was confused. Why would he need to take cover?

Just as he was about to ask, two infected dogs came crashing through the doors behind Jill. When Marcaunon's heightened senses smelled burnable fumes coming from the direction of the kitchen, his reflexes took over –he needed to find cover before Alice's cigarette made the kitchen go boom. He pushed down the table that he was once sitting on and took shelter behind it, just as the kitchen combusted with Jill landing beside him.

After the explosion died down, he took a peek from behind the overturned table before scowling at Alice.

"A quicker warning would've done wonders for my still too fast beating heart, Alice."

"You reacted quickly enough didn't you?" She smirked as she dropped the fireproof silver blanket around her and the girl.

Her answer made him give her an amused quirk of his lips as he stepped closer to the two. Jill on the other hand only coughed and stood on shaky legs.

"Was there a gas leak in the kitchen?" How she knew about it when he himself (who could smell a cockroach from meters away) didn't notice a thing was weird.

"There wasn't any." Jill answered as she brushed debris off her mini skirt. "I turned the gas stoves on before we ran out."

He looked questionably at Alice, but she only stared back stoically.

"Thank you." A high pitched girl's voice made the three adults turned to Angela –or who he assumed to be Angela anyway.

The girl had wavy mid length chestnut colored hair, with blue eyes and freckles scattered over her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. She wore her school uniform, a dark blue blazer with a matching tie over her light blue shirt, and a blue and black plaid skirt.

Marcaunon tilted his head to the side as he observed her interactions with Alice.

"She's infected." Alice suddenly pointed out as she turned towards Jill and him. "She's infected on a massive level."

"You're infected as well aren't you?" Marcaunon stated matter of factly whilst he stood in front of the vending machine.

Alice snapped her head towards him in shock, whilst Jill glared at Alice.

"How di–"

"You're infected?" Jill cut in with disbelief and rage. "When were you going to tell us!? And you… Why didn't you tell us she was infected!? When did you notice? Is this all a sick game to you?"

He shot at the glass of the vending machine and grabbed a few snacks and chocolates, before he turned to face Jill who was looking at him with distrust. He replied only after he dropped the snacks into his bag.

"She felt similar, yet vastly different. To those infected." He answered as he ripped a packet of twisties open. "And when she said that they did something to her, I had my suspicions."

"And then? Why didn't you tell us?"

"You didn't ask."

"How can I ask if I didn't know!?"

"Hmm… I'm not sure really." He shrugged and looked at his hands. "Does anybody have any hand sanitizer?"

"Who the fuck would have any in this kind of situation!? And stop avoiding the question!"

Marcaunon ignored Jill. He wasn't really avoiding the question, his snacks just hold a higher priority than her.

"It's the Anti-Virus… The cure for the T-Virus." Their one sided argument was cut short when he heard those shocking words from Alice.

He swirled around and strode towards where Alice was seated with a metallic box on her lap. Within the box was a vial that had swirls of green liquid inside. He stared at it intensely.

"There's a cure?" Jill asked.

"How did you get this?" Alice questioned the little girl.

The answer was obvious to Marcaunon. It was her father. He was the creator of the T-Virus. What Marcaunon didn't know was that there existed the Anti-Virus as well. Didn't Death say that the world was already on its way to exploding because zombies kept on multiplying? It made little sense to him. If there was already an Anti-Virus, why have they not yet released it? Were Umbrella hoarding it for themselves?

As the three females were staring at one another intensely, he stood behind Alice.

"My daddy. He made it for me. He's sick… and one day, I'll get sick too. He just wanted to stop that." She looked at the two women with sadness. "When I was little, I had to walk on crutches. They said that I'll never get better, just worse."

Marcaunon moved away from them and settled down on one of the nearby tables, sitting Indian style with a piece of twisties in hand (he was forced to use Magic to sanitized his appendages unfortunately, it was a crisis of magnitude level).

"He found a way to make me strong."

"The T-Virus…" Alice whispered.

There was a few seconds of silence with only his munching heard.

"Then, they took the invention away from him. He's not a bad man. He didn't mean for any of this."

Tell that to Death and Its Master, little girl. His desk was filled with stacks of paperwork thanks to her father's invention. Once he got his hands on that bloody Ashford… Marcaunon's eyes bled crimson.

Alice pulled Angela into a hug as if to comfort her, and Marcaunon heard the girl sob. If only his paperwork could be solved by merely crying –Death wasn't as merciful as many people thought It to be.

The door that was linked to the hallway was suddenly kicked open, before a man with a semi-automatic rifle walked in. Alice was quick to whip out her shotgun to point at the stranger, though the man returned the favor by aiming his rifle to her chest.

LJ's appearance made Marcaunon raise a brow. What timing.

"Don't shoot. It's cool. He made a deal with the Doctor too. Same witchu."

The two lowered their weapons after a few seconds of assessing the situation.

"How many of you guys are there?" Jill questioned suddenly.

"Why do you ask?" The stranger replied with a confused expression.

Marcaunon stared at the stranger from his seat silently, not bothered with attracting attention to himself –people find it creepy when he stared at them for too long.

The man had short black hair, dark eyes, and facial hair. He wore a black shirt with the Umbrella Corporation logo underneath his bullet proof vest, and dark cargo pants that had the hems tucked neatly inside his boots. There was a holster strapped around his right thigh, and he wore fingerless gloves for better weapon grip.

Jill looked towards the direction of a male's corpse (with the same uniform as the stranger) whilst the others followed her gaze.

"Nicholai…" The man whispered his colleague's name sadly.

There was a moment of silence before the man started coughing out blood.

"When were you bitten?" Alice asked seriously with a slight frown on her face.

"Three hours ago."

"W-what the…" LJ ran a hand through his hair as he tried to calm himself. "You mean to tell me that I was walking around with someone who could turn into those things at any moment!?"

"Well. It's your lucky day." Alice said with a slight smirk.

"Indeed it is."

The stranger swirled around and pointed his rifle at Marcaunon.

"… I didn't see you there." He apologized as he lowered his weapon.

"He's a sneaky bastard." Jill murmured as she walked passed him and towards the hallway. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"What she said." Marcaunon hopped off the table he was seated on and walked behind Jill, twisties still in hand. "We don't want all the mini-zombies to appear. With all the noise we made it's a wonder they have yet to investigate."

That made the mortals hastened their steps and Marcaunon chuckled, amused that they had forgotten that this school was infested with infected school children.

OOOO

"So what exactly are you injecting me with again?" Carlos, as he had introduced himself as, asked Alice doubtfully as he observed her wiping a section of his arm with alcohol swipe –it was found within the metallic box.

"The Anti-Virus obviously." Marcaunon answered for her.

They were currently inside the car that Jill had hotwired previously. After they had gotten out of the school without any encounter from the dead, the Doctor had called them through a payphone and gave them the location for an already prepared helicopter. Jill had complained about how sick the Doctor was to be observing them via surveillance cameras all around the city, but stopped when Angela looked ready to cry. Marcaunon had called her a softie and almost got a bullet through his head thanks to that.

He now was currently seated in the middle of the back seat of the car, with Alice on his right and Carlos on his left –his arm was on Marcaunon's lap. Jill was driving as usual, and LJ was seated on the passenger seat beside of her. Angela on the other hand was seated on LJ's lap, since the car was only a five seater.

"Are they really safe?"

"Angela's been injecting herself with those for who knows how long." Marcaunon calmly stated as he picked at his nails in boredom. "I'm sure it won't be that painful."

"I'm not worried about the pain but – ow!" Carlos winced as Alice injected his arm. "A little warning next time."

"You wish to be bitten yet again?" Marcaunon asked, his eyes shining with mirth. "You must really be a masochist, or someone with a bite fetish."

"That's not what I meant! And you know it Harry."

He only laughed at Carlos, who was blushing madly.

"The T-Virus reanimates dead cells." Alice began as she closed the lid of the metallic box that contained the Anti-Virus. "Basically, bringing the dead alive. On a living human, it can cause incontrollable mutation, or it can help her walk again –if the virus is kept in check."

"With this." She brought up the Anti-Virus to eye level and the two stared at the vial of Anti-Virus.

"Though in the wrong hands, this happens." Marcaunon said without remorse as Angela turned to him. "He shouldn't have made it at all. Dr. Ashford basically killed millions of people just because he wanted to save one little girl." And brought forth millions of Deathfiles onto his desk.

"It wasn't his fault!" Angela shouted with tears in her eyes.

He would've felt something if Chaos was the one crying (which was impossible in itself), but since Angela was not his son, he ignored her tears.

"It is and you know it." Marcaunon suddenly gave her a mockingly kind smile. "Think about it. All your friends were infected… by the very same medication that you took on a daily basis. Wasn't it both your and your daddy's fault?"

"N-no…"

"That's enough antagonizing from you, Harry!" Jill said as she glared at him through the rear view mirror.

"Don't pretend that you don't blame them as well, Jill." Marcaunon drawled. "Peyton died because of–"

"I know alright!" Jill's knuckles were paper white as her grip on the wheel tightened. "But it wasn't their intention for this to happen. Nobody could possibly have known that the T-Virus could bring the dead back to life. Or the fact that it was contagious."

"Didn't you listen to what Alice had said, Jill? T-Virus basically reanimates the dead cells. Corpses are full of dead cells –of course they can be brought back to life." Marcaunon scoffed. "Really, for a genius, Dr. Ashford should've taken this into precaution."

"You don't have any friends do you, Harry?" Marcaunon only stared blankly at Jill when she asked such an unexpectedly random question. "You have a horrid personality. Nobody, even I, would even want to be near you if not for this situation."

The ride was silent for a minute before Jill laughed cruelly.

"So I was right."

"You are." Her smiled vanished instantly as Marcaunon grinned dementedly. "I do not need or require such weaknesses. I alone am enough for myself." It was true, however he also has Death and Chaos. Oh not to forget the two serpents, Suki and Mana.

"Isn't that lonely?" Angela asked with pity in her eyes.

"No. It's my preferred way of living." Marcaunon suddenly smiled. "I'm the type of adult you should never hope to be."

"You're only a teenager." LJ suddenly spoke.

Marcaunon chuckled, his eyes glinting with mirth.

"I'm actually 23 this year."

"What!? Damn that's some genes you've inherited." The tensed atmosphere was broken thanks to LJ as Marcaunon continued to chuckle at the man's imitation of a fish out of water.

"Many made the same expression as you once I tell them my age."

The ride continued with a light air.

"Alice," Carlos suddenly spoke. "Does that mean that Angie's infected?"

"Yes. The virus is enough to regenerate her dead cells, but not enough to cause further mutation."

"And they infected you with the T-Virus as well?"

Alice stared at Carlos for a few seconds longer before she nodded slightly.

"Yeah. But don't worry, I'm not contagious."

Marcaunon was inwardly laughing. The way she said it… It was like telling her boyfriend that she had STI but wasn't contagious if he wore a condom. (A/N: which wasn't true so don't have sex with someone that have STI please).

"Here" Jill spoke as she tossed Terri's digital camera to Alice. "Tape the story. See if it gets put to good use."

"It probably won't work, but do it if you're an optimist. I usually think my cup of water is half empty rather than half full." Marcaunon murmured under his breath.

"My name is Alice. I work for the Umbrella Corporation. I was head of security, at a secret high-tech facility called The Hive –a giant underground laboratory developing experimental viral bio weaponry."

OOOO

They arrived at the location where Dr. Ashford said that there would be a helicopter being held at. Marcaunon and co. stalked quietly from pillar to pillar, taking down guard after guard on their way to the helicopter. The tall building made a good fortress for the copter, and it was further away from the infected that were roaming the streets that used to be busy.

Alice had gone on ahead to clear the snipers, and when Marcaunon volunteered to do that as well, his idea was shot down by Jill –she didn't trust him.

"Really… Our goals are similar. Why would I purposely let them shoot you?"

"You did exactly that when we were at the church."

"I already apologized to the corpse didn't I?"

"Then will you apologize to mine if I were to get shot because of your easy going attitude?"

"Of course." He stated monotonously as he watched Carlos kill yet another guard.

Jill sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Just… Just follow the plan."

When they spotted Alice standing by the helicopter in the middle of an open parking lot, the group jogged towards her whilst Marcaunon himself blended into the shadows. He had a feeling that something was wrong –it was way too easy. His group didn't notice that he wasn't with them as they boarded the helicopter, so he climbed atop one of the fieldlights –why they were even here he didn't know– and sat Indian style.

Many don't usually look upwards when they were focused on something, so he was relatively safe for now.

His intuition was spot on when he saw Timothy Cain tiptoeing into the helicopter with a gun in hand. Whilst that guy was doing who knows what in there with his group, the Umbrella guards that Cain brought with him surrounded the helicopter, their weapons raised just in case. He waited for the people inside the helicopter to exit that metal contraption and snorted when he saw his group in a bind –literally.

Alice was standing in front of Cain, who had his arms around Angela and a gun to her temple. The other members of his group however, were kneeling in front of the helicopter with their bounded hands behind their back.

Marcaunon's eyes roamed the area before stopping on a wheelchaired-bound man. Charles Ashford, just the man he was looking for.

Now that he had found the scientist… Marcaunon licked his upper lip.

Dr. Charles Ashford, the creator of the T-Virus and one responsible for his overload of paperwork. He was a very valuable asset to the Umbrella Corporation, so Marcaunon wasn't worried about the man's life being in danger for now.

Ashford's aura of death was dark, but not yet dark enough for him to expire within the hour.

The man was in his late 30s, with a large forehead and a circular framed spectacle –which was awfully similar to the ones Harry Potter used to wear, perched on the bridge his nose. His dimple chin could be considered his best feature, seeing that his chestnut colored hair was already in the process of thinning.

He wore a light green shirt underneath his dark green sweater, dark trousers, and had a laptop built in on his wheelchair.

Marcaunon observed how the man's lips parted and moved, before Cain pushed Angela towards the wheelchaired-bound man. They hugged and he felt a twinge in his heart. How he wished Chaos was here with him and in his arms.

Maybe after Chaos was old enough, he would invite his son to travel along with him.

Marcaunon suddenly snapped his head downwards as he felt malicious intent and rage coming from below of him. There, a few meters from his seat, was a really hideous creature that exceeded the brainy four legged creature thingy.

He really didn't know how to describe that thing other than repulsive. It was like plastic surgery gone wrong to the extreme. The creature was humanoid, wearing a black knee length leather coat, with blue strappings on the right side, and black pants of the same material. It wore fingerless gloves on its hands, and had a machine gun strapped around its right arm.

What it wore wasn't what made Marcaunon declared its ugliness, but rather its overall appearance. The creature had purple tube like things burrowed in its neck area, though half of the unknown tube thing was out. Its skin was brown and looked oily. The creature was bald with metallic stitches running from its right cheek to across its no–… It doesn't have a nose.

Well… As he had previously stated before, it was hard to describe the creature's features.

He just blinked owlish before returning his scarlet eyes to observe the people. The creature wasn't his concern, unless it decided to go on a rampage and kill Dr. Ashford. He was this close to getting the cure. He just needed to steal Ashford for a few minutes to mind rape the scientist before giving the man back to Umbrella –disregarding the fact that Ashford would've likely turned out to be nothing but a drooling mess afterwards.

The area was suddenly lit up by hundreds of field lights (he almost fell down in surprise) and the creature dropped its weapon. Marcaunon only tilted his head in confusion as Cain began to talk to Alice.

She kept shaking her head with a glare on her face. He wondered what was being said… Hopefully it would be over soon. He sighed and yawned–

…

No…

Why in the name of Merlin's hairy testicles did Cain shoot Ashford!? Wasn't the scientist supposed to be indispensable to Umbrella!? That was the fucking creator of the T-Virus for Merlin's sake!

It was time for him to intervene.

Marcaunon's eyes glinted crimson as he stealthily jumped off his seat and maneuvered towards the shadows. He stalked towards the fallen body of Charles Ashford and without even a sound, he covered Angela's mouth (she was hugging her father tightly) with his hand before pulling both her and her father back into the shadows.

The people were all too busy watching Alice and the creature fighting a death match to notice the two that had vanished from under their noses.

OOOO

He dropped them carelessly once they were inside one of the many entrances in the building near their previous location.

"H-harry…" Angela cried as tears leaked down her face. "My daddy… Please... please help my daddy!"

"Why?" He asked with a tilt of his head.

"You dragged us here to save him didn't you?" She looked at him with hope filled innocent eyes.

"It seems like you're misunderstanding something, little girl." He said flatly as he stared at Angela with cruel and unforgiving eyes. "I only dragged you along because you would've noticed me once I touched your daddy."

"Then why?"

"I have business with him is all, and you were in the way." He aimed his desert eagle at Angela's forehead. "I am not so cruel to leave a defenseless little girl in a place full of flesh eating dead humans. I'll be sure to send your daddy after you once I'm done with him."

Angela only looked into his eyes as tears continued to roll down her cheeks.

"Don't think badly of me, Angela." He smiled softly at the girl. "It's all for the sake of lesser paperwork after all."

Without even giving her time to say her last words, he shot her in the head. At least she died painlessly. He grabbed her soul and plunged it into an empty jar, before he turned to Charles Ashford.

He pried one of the scientist's eyes opened and just as he was about to dive into the man's mind, a helicopter begun shooting at the building he was inside and a few bullet lodged themselves into his and Ashford's body. Marcaunon's eyes widened as he coughed out a mouthful of blood.

"F-fuck…" Marcaunon's eyes hardened in determination and he extended his arm towards the scientist with healing Magic already being activated, but it was all for naught. The man was already dead.

He sneered and growled in rage. Why? Only a second. He required only another second!

"Wait a minute…" He blinked and pushed himself off the ground. "There's still a way…"

Marcaunon stood up and begun chanting, his scarlet eyes glowing with power as the spell started to form. He was the Master of Death, and thus, he was able resurrect a person (and not mindless inferi) if their souls have yet to–

The black shroud suddenly wrapped itself around the soul orb of Charles Ashford, and hovered innocently in front of his face –as if mocking him.

His face blanked. His luck sure was amazing.

"Morgana's saggy titties…" He rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. Why didn't he just use Magic to apparate the two Ashfords to somewhere without the risk of bullets in the air?

He brought forth his Magic to pull out the bullets that had lodged themselves deeply into his body and healed the wounds a second after those shells were out. He wiped his bloodied chin and made his way outside, where the corpses of guards were littered everywhere.

He ran to the helicopter that was in the process of lifting off, and jumped inside. The occupants startled and pointed their guns at him, but he ignored them in favor of observing Alice, who had a head injury and perhaps a concussion, holding Cain by the collar as if ready to drop him below –where a horde of infected were currently walking towards them.

"Will you give me a minute with Cain before you drop him?" Marcaunon questioned Alice, his crimson eyes narrowed into a dangerous glare –as if daring her to say no.

He could see her shuddering at his expression, but he didn't care. It was Cain's fault that Ashford died, and he needed information that was undoubtedly inside that head of his. Without waiting for her to reply, he pushed her gently aside and grabbed the man's chin roughly.

"Look at me." He demanded. "Don't think about the Anti-Virus." By telling a person not to think about something, they will undoubtedly think of that very thing.

Just as he was about to dive inside the man's mind, the nuclear bomb exploded and made the helicopter shake terribly. He lost his grip on Cain and the man fell out of the copter.

Marcaunon's eyes widened and he was about to jump off after Cain, his Magic already prepared to apparate them away, but he was pulled back by the waist by Carlos.

"What are you doing!? Let go! I need to…!" He clawed the man's arms as he tried to reach uselessly at the falling Cain. "He… The Anti-Virus.. I need…"

"You'll die once you jump off, Harry!" Was shouted inti his ear by Carlos.

That was right. He couldn't risk using Magic in front of them –and his obliviate hadn't been practiced for a long time. What if Cain knew nothing?

He slumped into the man's hold and gritted his teeth in frustration. Everything had gone wrong!

"ALICE!" Jill's panicked filled voice made the two males turn. Alice's torso was pierced by a metal beam, with Jill frantically hovering above her body. "Oh my god… Oh my god! She was protecting me… Oh god!"

"We're going down!" LJ yelled. "Grab something!"

They all did just that. The helicopter span around uncontrollably and it made Marcaunon felt nausea. His arms unconsciously wrapped tighter around the closest thing in his reach (which was Carlos) and he closed his eyes tightly. He preferred flying via Magic rather than this!

After a few more minutes of torture, the copter crash-landed on top of a few boulders that were in the middle of a lake underneath an enormous waterfall.

"Alice! She doesn't have a pulse!" Jill shouted frantically.

Marcaunon opened his eyes and blinked to clear the debris, before releasing his hold on Carlos, whom immediately rushed towards Alice's side. His group tried everything to help Alice, but it was obvious that she was dead in their eyes.

He though… He stared at Alice's body, not corpse, with an intrigued expression. Again, her aura of death was flickering in and out of existence. He had never seen such a phenomenon before, and it was probably due to the T-Virus inside of her body.

"She's dead…" Carlos whispered as he blinked violently and subtly wiped his eyes.

They stayed for another few minutes as he took a look around. They landed somewhere in the mountains, on a rocky lake near a waterfall. The air smelt fresh here, unlike when he was in the city where vehicle fumes and factory gases polluted the air. He spotted a few squirrels scattering around in different directions and heard the beautiful melodies of birds singing –it was quite peaceful if one would ignore the broken helicopter on top of the rocks that was ruining the scenery.

"Well then…" He stood as he brushed some debris off of his bloodied hoodie. "We should get a move on."

"Before that…" Jill's voice cracked at the, which made her clear her throat. "Where were you?"

"Excuse me?" He tilted his head in confusion.

"When we were caught. Where were you?"

"Inside the building."

"… Why were you inside the building?"

"I felt something was off, so I decided to make a tactical retreat."

Jill's eyes burned and she grabbed a hold of his collar.

"And you didn't even bother to inform us!?" His lips parted, but were unable to speak as Jill continued. "Do not… Do not say that we didn't ask you."

His mouth closed with an audible click and he stared blankly at her.

"You wouldn't have believed me anyway. You would've ignored my advice like you did in the school, remember? When you forced Terri to travel alone? What did that result in? Her death, that's what."

Jill's fist rose as if to punch him, but Carlos grabbed her wrist.

"Harry," He turned to Carlos as he shrugged off Jill's hand. "do you know where Angie went? Even Dr. Ashford's corpse was missing."

"No." They stared at one another before Carlos turned around and started walking away.

"We should get a move on, away from here."

Marcaunon however made no move to follow.

"It was fun whilst it lasted." He waved at them with a slight smirk before darting towards the opposite direction, missing Jill's angry, LJ's exasperated, and Carlos's closed expression.

---

Date: 18 October 2002
Location: New York – Above the Statue of Liberty torch
Dimension: Resident Evil 2 – Apocalypse

He sat on the edge of the Liberty torch with his legs swinging back and forth as he struggled to read the newspaper in his hold –the wind being a bitch to him and his already astray hair. His scarlet eyes scanned the article as he hummed idly, not caring that a single drop could be the death of him.

"We have unconfirmed reports of disaster at Raccoon City… These shocking images just in–"

"Mysterious plague or viral outbreak seems to have run rampage–"

"Umbrella Corporation staging the death of innocent citizens–"

"The tape, apparently the work of the former Se7en Raccoon anchorwoman, Terri Morales–"

He released the newspaper in his hold and watched as it was carried away by the wind, before taking out another set of newspaper. His eyes scanned the articles with mirth as he chuckled at their misfortune.

"New evidence now, which discredits earlier reports–"

"Nothing more than a sick joke–"

"Fake video tape not only discriminates–"

"Nothing more than an elaborate hoaxed–"

"Playing on the very real tragedy which overwhelmed Raccoon City earlier this week–"

"Apparently the reactor of the nuclear power station went critical in nearly hours–"

"Similar to an Atomic energy disaster–"

"State Governor has personally extended his thanks to the Umbrella Corporation for their swift actions–"

"The perpetrators of the hoax, Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera, have now been stopped for questioning by the police–"

"Master?" Death tilted Its cloaked head curiously as It stood behind Its Master. "Have you completed your self-assigned task yet?"

"I'm halfway done." He took out a vial full of swirling green liquid and fingered the bottle. "I was lucky that they did not pay close attention to the quantity of Anti-Viruses inside that girl's box."

"Mortals have always been inattentive."

"Hmm… Very true." He tossed his bag that was filled with jars to Death, which It caught with one hand.

"Will we be returning, Master?"

"For now we will. It has been three weeks after all. I'm beginning to miss little Chaos." He turned to Death, his scarlet eyes softening. "And you as well."

"I apologize. The horde of souls kept on coming."

"I don't blame you at all, my dear companion." He patted the seat beside him and Death obeyed. It sat down and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Marcaunon leaned into Its touch and sighed.

"Not even a second has passed by for Chaos huh?" He murmured and closed his eyes. "We'll return back to this dimension on a later date then, but for now… I'll just have to endure the endless zombie induced paperwork."

"Those on your desk are only for Raccoon City souls."

"… And soon this whole world's Deathfiles as well."

"It might take years for the T-Virus to spread, Master."

"But time works differently."

"Indeed…"

They stared at the clouds a little longer before a black portal opened below them. Marcaunon tightened his hold onto Death as they fell through.

"We'll meet again, Alice." He transmitted that thought to Alice as the portal closed behind them.

---

Date: 10 October 2002
Location: In an abandoned apartment somewhere
Dimension: Resident Evil 2 – Apocalypse

"What's that in your hand?" Jill asked Carlos as she took another bite from her apple.

"A note." LJ replied for him as he stood behind Carlos.

"A note?" She scooted over to read over his shoulder. Her eyes widened as she whispered. "That bastard… And now he tells us!"

Umbrella Medical Research Facility Detroit

Alice's alive
She was taken by them
Since 28th September actually

Thought you ought to know,
Harry Potter
P.S. You didn't ask me whether she was still dead or alive back then!

---

Disclaimer two: I do not own Resident Evil 2 Apocalypse …

A/N: I thank vsama, for without her/him, this chapter would've been delayed for up to a month later. I do have to say that I'm sorry for not writing about the RE2:Nemesis game. I lost the game years ago… And I can't remember much to write about it. Insert sad face. But well… At least the two endings are the same (Raccoon city going boom!).

Oh my fish puddings... My eyes were spinning when I kept on rewriting and reediting this chapter. How many times did I delete everything because of the lack of information regarding Resident Evil things!? MY EYES! IT BUUUURRNNS~

[1]The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy discharged when a nuclear weapon is detonated, expressed usually in TNT equivalent either in kilotons (thousands of tons of TNT) or megatons (millions of tons of TNT). 1 kiloton of TNT = 4.184 TJ (terajoules)

[2] I have no idea what Angela's age is or the school's name. So yeah, I'll just estimate that she's around 13 and that it's called Raccoon Middle School…. Gehehehe….?

I hope that for those who had not watched or played Resident Evil before, that this chapter wasn't too confusing. I tried my hardest to explain the situation, but some things would slip my mind at times. Sorry 'bout that!

And about the ending of this chapter… Angela was supposed to be the one to wake Alice (mentally) when she was inside the circular water container thingy, and tell the group about Alice's alive status… But since Angela's been killed by Marc… He would have to take her role… ahahaha… Insert sheepish laughing here. I really didn't mean to kill off Angela, but my hands just typed the whole scene out on their own!

On to the reviews!

I thank all of those who had wished me a happy birthday! I'm glad that many of you were happy at the mention of Marc meeting Hisoka –I didn't mean to mind rape him! Honest! It's just in Marc's instinct to legitimize someone upon meeting –more so if they don't have any occlumency shields to protect them from any invasion.

For those who only reviewed to tell me that my story is complete and utter rubbish, please move on to another fanfic. Why even bother reading up to chapter 13 if you say that my writing is horrible and I have no plot at all? I already stated in the A/N that the dimensional hopping is part of the plot. The warning's been there since the prologue –not that any of your notice anyway.

And for those who gave me constructive criticism, I thank you and I will try my best to improve on those mentioned things.

Anyway, I made a Facebook group for those who don't have any Fanfiction account and wish to ask me questions regarding my stories, both Silk Roads and Mad Inventor. The link's on my profile page for those who are lazy (like me!) to delete the blanks of the link below!

Facebook (dooot) com (slash) groups (slash) genderlessperson

Story recommendation for today: Gaining Innocence by Power of Universe. This is a HP/Hannibal crossover. Harry, or Henrikas, has been abused by the Potters after they had murdered his real parents and announced him the child of prophecy. Around the age of seventeen, he was betrayed (his memories were sealed) and jumped into the veil. He was given another chance in life by the Veil's gatekeeper and was de-aged to four years old, before being sent off to another dimension (Hannibal). He's a creature that eats humans to survive, so there'll be a lot of cannibal mentioning. I would recommend this to people who aren't disgusted by the fact of eating another human (it's kind of like Tokyo Ghoul really) and mentions of rape. There will be slash between Hannibal and Will, but Henrikas is too young (in body) to have a love interest.

Rainbows and Zombies,
GenderlessPerson