Warning: this fic contains violence, blood, injury, and death.
The water is frigid.
"Do it."
The axe is heavy in Alice's hands. She can't use it. She refuses. "No. Get up."
"Just do it!"
She doesn't know this place. Doesn't recognize the bland metal walls, heavy security doors, complicated-looking equipment, or the man standing beside her. "Rain, please get up."
"You don't have long to decide. Kill her."
All she knows is the woman with her head bowed in front of her, as young as the day they first met, urging her to bring the weapon down on her neck. Alice can't.
"You have no choice!"
What does Rain mean? Why not? What the hell is going on?! What happened to her? She's bloody and appears quite sickly...
"Alice—"
Alice drops the axe, letting it hit the water with a loud splash. She reaches for her partner, desperate to understand and help.
"Alice?"
Her fingers end up touching nothing but cool fabric instead.
"Lys?"
She blinks awake, finding herself grasping a fistful of the comforter. The spot beside her on the bed is empty. Her heart pounds in her eardrums, and the worry continues to linger. "Rain...?"
"It's me." A hand comes to rest on her shoulder. She glances up, finding Rain at her side, half-dressed and sending her a concerned look. More importantly, she's fine. Perfectly fine. "You were mumbling in your sleep. Sounded like you were having a bad dream or something. You okay?"
"Yeah, I just..." Alice shakes her head and manages a smile. "I'm fine. Did I miss my alarm?"
Rain holds her gaze for a moment longer. "No. I think you've only got a few minutes before it goes off, though." She bends down to pick up the shirt she discarded upon entering the bedroom.
Alice sits up and fiddles with her wedding band. It was different in her dream. "Alright. I'll go get Becky, then."
When she gets her day started, she's sure she'll forget what she saw in her sleep. She hopes so.
After waking their daughter, Alice goes through the usual routine: Showering, getting dressed, doing her hair and makeup, and going downstairs to start on breakfast. By the time she's standing in the kitchen and turning on the stove, she's feeling significantly better. It's a day like any other. She finds comfort in that.
It isn't long before Becky joins her, followed by Rain. Becky uses her short amount of free time before school to draw. Rain places her hearing aids beside her on the kitchen island. "I charged your batteries for you," she signs.
Becky signs a thank you in response, placing down her pencil so she can put them in.
Rain walks around to the other side of the island so she can help Alice. "I swear, these batteries aren't lasting as long as they used to."
"I can pick up some new ones when I head back from the store," Alice says.
"Nah, don't worry about it. I pass the shop on my way to work, remember? It'll be less gas if I do it."
"Mom, look!"
Once she finishes taking the toast out of the toaster oven, Rain turns and gives her full attention to the drawing Becky is holding up. It's an absolute explosion of color and all harsh strokes, leaving behind the shine of the pencil's wax. A few background pieces had been added since Alice last got a look at it. Namely, their house, a tree, and a smiling sun.
"Whoa, that's awesome! That's you there, right? And that one's mommy?"
Becky nods. "You're next to the tree."
"You're an insanely good artist, you know that? I like that shirt you gave me. Very interesting," Rain compliments. "If I had to give one critique, I'd say I'm kinda offended you made me smaller than the mailbox. I'm not that short."
"Yeah, but only with heels on," Alice remarks teasingly. Rain sends her a scowl before handing the drawing back to Becky.
"You catch that? I'm being bullied."
Alice seizes Rain by her jacket and tugs her closer. "You'll live. You're tough." They share a quick kiss and the faux frown is gone, replaced by a crooked grin. Alice takes a moment to simply admire it, then says, "As much as I'd love to keep you here, you're gonna be late if I do."
"Wait, shit, what time is it?" Rain glances at the clock before pulling away.
"Time for you to get a move on."
As Rain begins to hurriedly leave the kitchen, their entire lives are suddenly flipped on their heads.
A corpse-like figure barrels from down the corridor. His icy hands grab hold of her and his mouth opens wide, what can only be described as a fleshly flower sprouting forth.
Becky shrieks and Alice clutches her, freezing in place. The unexpectedness and shock of it all render her unable to process what she's seeing.
The force of the impact makes Rain stagger a bit. She desperately fights to throw the intruder off and keep his second mouth away, landing in the den in the process.
This is Alice's nightmare. This is...
This...
And Rain—
"Go! Take Becky!"
Alice still doesn't move.
"Lys, go! Now!"
"But you—"
"Don't worry about me!" Rain manages to smash a lamp over the person's head. "I'll be fine!"
Alice worries. She worries that she's going to lose Rain here and now, but...
Rain is tough. And keeping their daughter safe is the biggest priority. They both know that, so Alice finally gets a grip and quickly leads Becky into the pantry.
Before she can even close them inside, multiple pairs of hands slam against the glass of the back door. Blood smears across its surface.
CRACK! The series of growls and groans coming from outside becomes clearer. With no lock to use, Alice resorts to using a shelf to bar the intruders' entry into the pantry. It isn't long before they start trying to force their way in.
She isn't sure what's more deafening, the sound of them bashing the wood or her heart pounding in her ears. 'What now? They're going to get in!'
The window's no good. Even if it did open all the way, it isn't big enough for either of them to fit through.
The shelf jolts. Red-stained fingers begin to peek through the small gap they've created between the door and its frame.
Alice takes a broom. If there's no escape, she'll make one for them. Using all the strength she can muster, she jams the end of the handle into the ceiling and keeps repeating the action until a large hole is created.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Things fall from the shelves. The gap gets bigger.
She lifts Becky and helps her into the attic above them.
Thump.
Alice jumps and manages to grab the edges of the hole.
BANG! The intruders have gotten inside. They're—one of them has her leg! Screaming and kicking, she manages to shake them off and pull herself all the way up.
Now, all they can do is wait for an opportunity to leave...
It feels like an eternity, but things eventually go quiet beneath them. Alice turns to Becky and with both hands, does a downward-facing Y-handshape. Stay here. Becky nods.
Adrenaline and trepidation coursing her veins, Alice opens the attic door. There isn't a soul in sight.
She lowers the ladder, cringing at the noise it makes. After making the descent, she closes it behind her and carefully begins to make her way downstairs.
"Rain...?" she whispers. As she approaches the mouth of the main corridor, she catches sight of a big stain on the white rug. A red stain. She swallows. "Rain?"
She rounds the corner.
A body is laid in the smashed remains of the coffee table. It isn't Rain.
...CREAK...
Alice spins around, trembling like mad.
The coat closet opens up. She bites back a shriek as Rain stumbles out, accidentally taking a few articles of clothing with her.
"Oh my god," Alice breathes out. Her partner is noticeably roughed-up and there's a bit of blood trailing from her hairline, but she seems fine otherwise. Alice grins in relief and just about tackles her to the floor. "Oh my god, I thought you were dead."
"No. No, I'm okay, Lys. Don't worry."
"How—?"
"Turns out I should've never made fun of that pointy lamp you picked out, 'cause it ended up being a decent weapon." Rain's never been inclined to violence. In fact, she's only been in one physical altercation before. Someone hadn't liked the audacity she and Alice had to go on a date in public. The only thing she accomplished was getting punched square in the nose, which made Alice angry enough to sock the person in the jaw (protectiveness was a good look on her, Rain wouldn't lie). However, in that moment of fight or die, she managed to keep bashing with the broken light long enough to stay alive and to slip into the coat closet unnoticed. "Where's Becky?"
"In the attic. Let's grab her and get out of here."
They head back upstairs.
"I still can't believe this... Why are these people doing this?"
"Those things are not people. Not anymore. You saw the one that jumped me, didn't you?" Rain opens the attic.
"But what are they? They almost looked dead, didn't they?"
"Yeah..."
Becky climbs down and immediately clings to both of them.
"You alright, kid?"
She nods and signs an I love you, which they return.
The plan is to get outside, get to the car, and get the hell out of town before stuff gets worse. They get that first part done without any further issues. Things are chaos outside, so they need to make the next part quick. Rain unlocks the car and gets Becky inside.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. A rotting man is sprinting toward them, his uneven footfalls loud against the pavement.
Rain moves to shield her wife, but Alice beats her to it.
Alice has already nearly lost Rain once today. She's not going to go through it a second time. It's her turn to protect her family. She rams into him, toppling him over. He's quick to get back up, his attention now fully on her. She runs. He chases.
Rain doesn't want to take off without Alice, but she does so anyway.
"What about Mommy?"
"She'll be okay. She'll catch up to us later." She said she would. And Rain is going to trust her on that.
She spares a glance in the rearview mirror. There's a literal horde of monsters coming up behind them. Not good. She increases her speed, swerving around the wreckage in the road.
A horn blares and a dump truck barrels into the intersection, clipping the back end of Rain's car. The next thing she knows, the vehicle is skidding vertically across the asphalt by its front bumper. It continues tilting forward until it flips over entirely.
Everything goes black.
...
"...om?
"Wa... up...
"Mom, ...ease wak...
"You have to wake up!"
Rain groans and Becky stops shaking her. Becky has unbuckled her belt and gotten out of her seat, but Rain is still hanging upside down from hers. Her head is pounding and her neck is cramping from the awkward position she's in.
"They're coming!"
"Huh...?"
Rain looks out the shattered window past Becky. There's a blurry mass in the distance that's slowly growing larger, almost like...
A mob...
'The mob!' The monsters! "Oh, shit!" Rain squeaks out, fumbling to release her seatbelt. She can't. It's jammed. She's stuck. "Becky, I need you to start running. Run and don't look back. Find somewhere to hide."
Becky's eyes are shining.
"Hey, I know it's scary, but you can do it. We'll both find you. I promise. Now, run!"
With one last fearful glance at the coming horde, Becky gives Rain another I love you. Rain returns it before Becky takes off.
Rain continues her attempts to free herself until the monsters reach her. Then, she braces herself to get ripped apart.
Except that never happens. They run right past her, completely unaware that she's still in the overturned vehicle. They only see Becky and a small group of officers in the distance. In the end, they pick the officers over her daughter.
Rain can't watch.
"The strike team is late." Ada glances up from her watch. "Where are they?"
Alice hardly hears her. "There's movement in the house behind you. Upstairs window." Not waiting for a response, she promptly makes her way up the pathway and inside the home. Ada follows.
The whole place is a mess. Blood is smeared everywhere.
"Why would they be in here?"
Alice lets her eyes carefully survey her surroundings. To her right, she finds a figure. It's...
It's her. Or rather, the woman looks like her. She's sporting long blonde hair and straight-cut bangs, a red flannel shirt and some boot-cut jeans, and a face that is exactly the same as Alice's. Her body is splayed awkwardly across a coffee table, her throat ripped out and her unseeing eyes staring up at the ceiling.
This isn't the first time that Alice has found herself sharing a face with a corpse. She thinks of the sea of bodies in red dresses she came across in the desert, thinks of their blank faces and the dried blood and gore pasted around the injuries that killed them. She thinks about every Alice that fought and got blown apart in that facility by Wesker. She swallows down the sick feeling rising up her throat like bile. "They're using clones of me."
"Of course. You were one of the fifty basic models."
Alice scoffs and dazedly mutters, "Basic models."
"How do you think Umbrella populates these test scenarios? Hundreds of people dead each time they run a simulation... Umbrella imprints them with basic memories, just enough to ensure a correct emotional response to the threat of the biohazard. In one life, she can be a married family woman. The next, a businesswoman in New York. In another, a soldier working for Umbrella."
cREAK...
Alice and Ada whip around, pulling their guns out. They share a look. Alice nods and starts to head upstairs, watching out for threats. B.O.W. or otherwise. Just as she reaches the landing, there's another noise.
CReaK...
She follows it into an overly pink child's bedroom.
...creak.
It's coming from the closet. Alice tightens her finger on the trigger and reaches for the door handle.
There's a sudden bang and a snarl. An undead cop throws itself at her from inside. Dead fingers close around her wrist and force her arm up. She ends up firing five rounds into the ceiling. Gnashing teeth dive for her neck, but she catches the zombie by its throat and stops it short.
This is nothing new.
Without much effort, Alice manages to successfully re-aim her weapon and blows five holes into the zombie's stomach and head. It falls limp.
Creak!
'Another one?'
"Mommy!" A young girl, probably younger than nine, is standing in the doorway. She signs as she speaks. "I knew you'd find me."
The next thing Alice knows, the girl is running over and hugging her tightly. The corpse of her clone flashes through her mind and her heart sinks straight into the floor.
"What happened to your clothes and your hair?"
She doesn't respond. What is she meant to say? That she isn't this girl's mother? That her mother is dead as dead can be downstairs, gristle and blood from her ruined neck decorating the floor?
She can't do that. So instead, she simply returns the girl's hug and tries to comfort her.
Instead, when they go back to the ground floor, Alice makes the girl close her eyes until they're outside, mouths "I'll explain later" to Ada, pretends like she's simply making sure the girl has their home address memorized when she asks for it, and confirms that the residence is free of threats before telling her to get her things.
Ada's gaze remains judgemental and slightly confused the entire time, but Alice ignores it and preoccupies herself by checking out the myriad of photos sitting on an end table, wondering idly what the other Alice's husband looks like and what happened to him.
She doesn't find out because there is no man. There's a woman. One with dark eyes and dark hair that despite all the time that's passed, are so very familiar to Alice and clear in her mind's eye.
"You got a problem?"
It's Rain. She doesn't have the grouchy expression Alice usually pictures her with, instead matching the massive grin on the other Alice's face as she poses beside her. There are trees behind them, and they're dressed like they're on a hike.
There's a photo where they're both clad in white and holding each other close.
Another was taken at a park. The other Rain has the girl sitting on her shoulders.
A deep, longing ache settles in Alice's chest. She picks up a frame. This one features the happy couple during the girl's birthday. Her sixth one, according to the number-shaped candle sitting atop the cake.
"None of this is real."
"I know." Alice takes a deep breath. "It is to her, though."
"That's the point. All these feelings she has for you, they were imprinted. A day ago, she was a blank slate. I could show you a dozen like her in cold storage."
Alice stares.
"I'm sorry, but it's true."
It doesn't matter. She's an innocent kid. And she's still a person, even if she was manufactured in a lab.
"Ready!" The girl walks out with her backpack on. "I was fast, wasn't I?"
Despite everything, Alice smiles slightly. "Yes, you were."
The girl holds out her hand. Alice takes it and they walk to the front door.
Apparently, a few minutes is too long for her to go without a surprise to smack her upside the head. When they step onto the porch, they're greeted by Jill and about a dozen armed Umbrella soldiers. The two standing behind her have their helmets off. One has Carlos' face, the other looks like James.
There's a third Rain. She's decked out in tactical gear and slackly pushing herself on a bright red swingset. The sight would have been almost comical if the situation wasn't so serious.
"Mom...?"
"That's not your mom."
Rain cocks her weapon.
"There's a child here."
"Your problem. Not ours."
"All heart," Alice remarks sarcastically. "You haven't changed a bit."
"I don't know you, lady."
'Right.'
"Now," James starts, "surrender or die."
"Fine." She puts her hands up in a show of surrender, sauntering her way closer to the girl.
Ada unholsters her gun and starts shooting.
Alice runs, ushering the girl back inside.
"You can't stay here. Go through Moscow to the submarine pens. This will show you the way out!" Ada shouts over the gunfire. She tosses her red-rimmed glasses over, alongside her grapple gun. "Take this, too. The less I have with me, the better!"
If Rain's being honest, she doesn't exactly know how she got here. She's never seen this place before... Despite the fact that the entrance most certainly did not appear as though it'd lead to a subway, that's undoubtedly where she's standing. And for some reason, everything is in Russian?
"Hey!" By chance, though, it would seem she's found herself going in the right direction. After spending so long searching, she's finally found her wife and daughter! They both turn at the sound of her voice and Alice—'Jesus christ, is that a gun she's pointing at me?!' Rain stops dead in her tracks. Alice mirrors her wide-eyed expression before slowly lowering the weapon.
"Mom!"
"I'm so glad you two made it. I was really starting to worry." Rain closes the rest of the distance between them. She hugs them both tight and kisses Alice on the cheek. Alice is a bit stiff, but it's probably the stress. "As in, I was starting to think I was the only one alive."
Alice says nothing, only continues to stare. Rain looks her up and down. Her hair is its natural brown color and cut short. She's dressed in some sort of fancy black suit with loads of straps. That's strange. "...Where'd you manage to get a haircut at a time like this? And what's with the uh, S&M getup? I mean, don't get me wrong, Lys. You look damn good, but... Damn. What did you get up to while we were apart?"
Alice just shakes her head and holds out one of her guns. "You know how to use this?" There's something almost expectant in her gaze. Like she truly thinks that Rain will.
She does not. Alice knows that. She stares at her as though she's begun to mutate and sprouted another head. "Since when do you?"
"It's easy. Here." Alice sticks the firearm in Rain's hands and gets behind her, positioning her so that she's holding it correctly.
"Babe, you know guns freak me out."
"You don't need to be freaked out. It's like a camera. Point, and shoot." Alice guides Rain's pointer finger to the trigger and pulls it. Three bullets hit a pillar about fifteen feet away from them. "See? Easy. You're officially a badass. Congratulations. Just make sure you keep it aimed down unless you intend to use it."
The kickback was startling and her heart is beating good and fast now, but... yeah. Okay. Rain will admit, that wasn't too bad.
An explosion rocks the ground above them. "What the hell is going on now?" she mutters, mostly to herself.
"I'm going to go find out. In the meantime, you have to keep her safe." Alice crouches down to Becky's level. "You stay with Mom, alright?"
"You're going again? You said you wouldn't leave."
"Trust me, okay? What I say is true. I'll be back for both of you."
"You promise?"
"Trust me." Alice stands. The team needs help. She has to get back to the surface.
"I love you."
The words stop her dead in her tracks. The girl is standing there, thumb, index, and pinkie fingers up, middle and ring fingers down. After a moment, Rain does the same handshape.
Part of Alice wants to say it back. She doesn't, but she considers it briefly. This isn't her daughter, isn't her Rain. She isn't the girl's mother, isn't Rain's wife. It's wrong of her.
She's still stuck, though. How do you explain to someone that they're a clone? That most of their memories are false, and they've been dropped in a simulation in a facility under-fucking-water for the sole purpose of being a victim in a demonstration of a bioweapon's capabilities? That they're meant to be dead already, that they aren't meant to be here, but even if you don't know them—not really, even if you're actually a stranger, you're going to do your best to get them out of here safely?
...Alice isn't sure. She doesn't feel like she's great at being gentle or providing words of comfort. That side of her may have existed at one point, but over the years, it's been buried beneath countless tragedies.
She decides that the problem will be one for future Alice to figure out. So with that, she manages a constrained smile in response and gets a move on.
'Man, what has gotten into you, Lys...?' Rain takes Becky's hand in hers. "Come on. We've gotta find a hiding place." She has a good spot in mind.
"I met your sister."
She blinks. "My what?"
"Your sister. She's not very nice."
Rain...
Rain doesn't have a sister.
Rain doesn't know how long they wait for, but she does know that she spends most of that time thinking. Things she's certain of are too few and far between for her to make heads or tails of the situation.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Four figures enter the station.
"Hello? You can come out. I'm back." Alice! Becky runs straight into her arms. Rain trails after.
"Where did you find these guys?" she asks. Alice has brought three burly men with guns with her. One is bald with a neatly trimmed beard and a few tattoos. Another has slicked-back hair and a red vest on. The third is dirty blond with intense eyes.
"Ran into them while I was taking a drive," Alice replies.
"We're not the only thing. I'm seriously concerned for whoever keeps giving you licenses," the man with the tattoos says. He eyes Becky and Rain. "Who are these two?"
"I'm Becky."
The corner of the man's lips ticks up in a half-smile. "Hi, Becky. My name's Luther."
"These are my moms."
Alice goes completely still.
"Your moms? Ah. Mhm."
"Long story."
"Twenty-two minutes left," the dirty blond announces.
"There's no going back the way we came," Luther says, and Red Vest tacks on, "We lost our map with Sergei."
"I'm on it." Alice pulls a pair of red-rimmed glasses from the side of her boot. They all watch as a detailed digital map appears in front of the lenses. Seriously, where is she finding this stuff? "We can take that tunnel. There's a service shaft that leads to the submarine pens."
'Submarine pens?'
Alice jumps onto the subway tracks. Luther, Red Vest, and the dirty blond follow after her. Alice helps Becky down and Luther does the same with Rain. Three weapon-mounted tactical lights switch on as they head into the dark.
Rain hangs behind with Becky, Luther, and Red Vest. Alice walks ahead alongside the dirty blond guy. Rain doesn't know why, but she's getting the vibe that he isn't too thrilled about the fact that Alice brought her and Becky along.
"How'd you end up working for Wesker?"
'Who the fuck is Wesker?'
"I don't work for him, but things on the surface have changed. Wesker said you knew of some weapon. Something that could turn the tide for us. But I don't think I would've risked so much for one person."
"You're probably right."
There was definitely a bit of animosity between this guy and Alice, too. Rain is so confused.
They head up a set of concrete steps and a couple of metal ladders, finding themselves standing in the submarine pens. What are these doing here?
The pens take them to a floodlit tunnel, which eventually leads to the elevator shaft.
"Everybody get onboard."
Red Vest takes the controls. "Hold on. Next stop, menswear and sporting goods." He pulls a lever.
The elevator shudders and begins to ascend. They only make it about five feet before it stops abruptly and the lights go out. An alarm blares.
"Barry, what is it?"
"I don't know," Red Vest—Barry replies.
Luther hops down, messing with the console in front of the elevator. "Somebody must've cut the power remotely."
Alice lowers herself to Becky's level. "Be strong. We're gonna keep you safe." As Alice joins Luther and the dirty blond at the console, Becky sidles up beside Rain.
"Can you get it online?"
Luther shakes his head. "Not without the access code."
"Well, we've only got nine minutes now. Looks like we're going with plan B." At Luther's frown, the dirty blond smirks. "There's a reason we planted those explosives."
Rain nervously checks over her surroundings, unable to shake the unease settling in her gut.
She glances up.
Something is glistening above them. Something huge. Something that's moving.
'What the hell is that...?'
A roar reverberates throughout the elevator shaft. Rain pulls Becky even closer to her.
'What the hell is that?!'
Barry whips around, ready to unload his entire clip into the source of the noise. He doesn't get the opportunity to. The monster lashes out, long claws slicing his face wide open. He's knocked straight off the platform and collides with a container down below.
It grows closer. In the poor lighting, it looks like nothing with a dark mass of meat with a maw full of razor-sharp teeth.
Quick as lightning, two tendril-like tongues shoot out.
Becky screams.
Rain snaps out of it. There's no time to think things through, only time to act. She shoves her daughter away and out of the path of danger.
The tongues tightly wrap around Rain, forcing her arms against her sides and binding them in place.
The gun slips from her grasp. 'Probably should've used that—'
The monster lifts her from the ground which such quickness that she just about gets whiplash from it. It takes her to an upper floor.
Alice watches on in horror.
Leon rushes to Barry's side. He spits out a mouthful of blood. "I feel like shit."
There's no question in Alice's mind what her next move is. She climbs back onto the platform and checks on Becky, picking up her discarded weapon. "Are you hurt?"
"No."
Luther joins them.
"Good." She turns to him. "Will you watch over her for me? I need to go get Rain."
"Yeah, I've got her."
Leon quickly blocks Alice's way to the emergency ladder. "Don't be stupid. I didn't lose friends so you could walk away like this."
"I plan on coming back." She tries to get around him. He doesn't let her.
"Don't do this. You're more important than she is."
"You couldn't be more wrong."
"This is a mistake."
"Get. Out. Of. My. Way." Her tone is dangerous. Leon begrudgingly listens. If he hadn't, Alice thinks she would've made him. She's lost Rain before. She's not letting it happen a second time.
'She isn't Rain. Not your Rain.'
Ignoring the voice in her head entirely, Alice makes the ascent.
The area above is dimmer than the last. Blue lights lining the walls flash in sequence, briefly illuminating portions of the corridor. It's damp and musty. She proceeds with caution, armed and ready for any more unexpected surprises.
A dark shape rests on the floor. When she picks it up, she realizes that it's Rain's beige jacket. It's coated in a thick layer of slobber. This isn't a particularly great sign, but maybe just this once, Alice will be optimistic. Like she used to be.
At the opposite end of the hall, there's a second shaft. This one goes even further down than the one she left the others in. What's down below, however, does not matter. Rather, it's what's above: Three fleshy sacs on a wall and a skinless monster, which immediately takes notice of her presence.
Since that first encounter on the train so long ago, Alice has taken down more lickers than she can count. What's another?
Using Ada's grapple gun, Alice propels herself upward. Once she's in range, the monster rears, its tongues and claws reaching for her. She flips over it with practiced ease, firing as many rounds into its featureless face as she can before landing. It falls heavily on the concrete, unmoving.
Alice hastily reholsters her weapons and approaches the sacs. Behind the thick, cloudy membrane on the front of one, she can see Rain. Alice digs her fingers in and starts tearing a hole into it.
"Rain?" Hooking her arms under the other woman's, Alice pulls her free. "Hey. You've gotta open your eyes. I need you here with me. Rain? Rain. Hey. Come on." She's unresponsive. Not again. Not again, dammit!
Abruptly, Rain coughs. "Don't worry, I'm still alive." She opens those dark eyes of hers a crack and grins crookedly. "You really came all the way up here to get me, huh?"
"Of course I did," Alice says before she can stop herself. The relief she feels is immense.
"God... do I even want to know what this shit I'm covered in is?"
"Probably not. It's okay, we can hose you down later."
"Gee, thanks."
Alice just smiles, offering a hand to Rain. The very moment that Rain's on her feet, she winces.
"Great. I think I fucked my ankle when that thing was manhandling me."
"I've got you." One of Alice's arms finds Rain's back and the other hooks around the backs of her knees, easily picking her up (and quite clearly flustering her). "We don't have long, so we need to move fast."
"I—you're nuts, you know that? When you started going to the gym with me, I didn't know it was because you wanted to become some kind of... action hero or something. Like, I'm still reeling. This is wild. You're wild, Lys... I love you so much."
I love you.
Alice looks away. A pang of hurt goes through her chest.
Rain doesn't love Alice. She loves her Alice, who she thinks Alice is.
And Alice can't keep letting her believe that any longer. It isn't right.
"Rain... there's a lot going on here. More than I have time to explain, but there's one thing I think you should know now." Alice takes a deep breath, shoving her complicated emotions aside. "I'm not your Alice."
"What do you mean...?"
They're getting close to a room. The sound of machinery fills the air. Tracks lined with countless bodies come into view.