88 knew she should have made her way to the nearest medical station to clean and bandage herself, followed by a (hopefully) discreet visit to the lab — the cloning machine was capable of repairing damaged tissue in addition to its primary function, and if she could use it without being seen by Rebecca or one of the other clones, she wouldn't have to answer any awkward questions regarding how she had lost her finger.

It wouldn't matter what questions she did or didn't answer, though, if she couldn't find 87. She knew how 87 felt about hurting or even killing someone else; it didn't matter that 88 had willingly stuck her finger into the other woman's mouth, it didn't matter that 88 had had such a… wow… something experience from having her finger torn off. (Maybe she'd have to bite the bullet and use the memory machine to give herself a sex ed course after all, if she couldn't even describe what she was experiencing). She knew 87 was experiencing the realization of her worst fear, and would be taking steps to ensure she was never a threat to anyone again.

So, she ran directly to the armory.

She found 87 sitting on a bench by an open locker. A pistol lay on the bench next to her; the clip was in one hand, and she was trying to load bullets into it with the other, but her hands were shaking so badly she was instead dropping the bullets onto the floor at her feet, where several had already fallen.

"Hey," 88 greeted, sitting at the far end of the bench.

"You're still bleeding," 87 stiffly pointed out. "You should go and get that taken care of. Right now."

88 looked down at her hand. The flow of blood had slowed, but it had almost completely soaked through the sleeve of her lower arm, and was still drip-dripping onto the ground. "Eh, I'll be fine," 88 dismissed. "I'm more worried about you."

"I just permanently fucking mangled you," 87 snapped. "You shouldn't be worried about me." Another bullet fell to the floor.

"No, you didn't," 88 said. "The cloning machine can just put a new finger into my hole." (In another universe, Sterling Archer shouted "Phrasing!" and had no idea why).

"And that makes what I did okay?" 87 asked.

88 smiled and blushed. "Well, it was a lot more than okay…" she admitted. "When you tore off my finger, it felt… good. Like, really, really, really good."

87 stared at 88 through narrow, disbelieving eyes. "Bullshit," she declared.

"Do you think I was telling you to bite down harder because I wasn't into it?" 88 asked. "What do you think was going through my mind? 'Oh, gee, this is painful and unpleasant as hell. I know, since today's Opposite Day, I'll tell 87 to bite down harder, to let her know to ease up!'" She shook her head. "I'm not lying, and I'm not crazy."

87 stared at the bullets on the ground at her feet. "…Sounds like you are," she muttered. "Don't worry, you'll get better once I'm gone." She finally slid a bullet into the clip, then snatched up the gun and slid the clip home lightning-fast. She only needed the one bullet, after all.

"No I won't," 88 challenged. Just as fast as 87, she had her knife out once more, dimpling into the flesh above her ribcage, poised to slide right into her heart with just a little bit more force.

87 was mildly horrified at this turn of affairs. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked.

"Well, what the hell do you think you're doing?" 88 echoed. "I worked hard to bring you back from the brink, 87. I made sure you were fed. I bled for you. Do you really want to throw away everything that I did?"

"No, but what happens next time I hurt you?" 87 retorted. "Suppose next time it's not your finger, but your goddamn throat! How am I supposed to feel when I watch you bleed out and die in front of me? I'm sure you'd bleed out a lot faster than I'd be able to get you taken care of!"

"And how am I supposed to feel watching you fucking shoot yourself?!" 88 shouted. "You don't think that'd kill me just as much as you tearing out my throat?" She gestured to the knife with her free hand. "After seeing that, after losing you, doing this would be a mere formality. Damnit, 87, my heart will only go on beating for you!"

87 felt her resolve begin to crumble and let the gun drop a fraction of an inch. "…Are you serious?"

88 nodded, tears finally spilling from her eyes. "Absolutely, in every sense of the word. I love you, 87. I want to be with you. If you don't feel the same way, if you're worried what the others will think, I'll —"

She was cut off as 87 rushed forward, swept the knife away from her chest, and wrapped her up in her arms, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss. Sure enough, the Mystical Soulmate Fireworks Show commenced, battering the armory with supernatural gales of wind and harmless bolts of multicolored lightning. The wind, the light show, and the opened locker doors all wildly clanging around may as well have been in another country, for all 87 and 88 paid notice to it.

Finally, the storm died down, and they parted from one another to catch their breath. "…Wow," 87 breathed out.

"Yeah," 88 agreed. "Wow."

"…Are you sure you want me?" 87 reiterated. "Like, everything about me? You don't care if I… if I hurt you?"

88 put her hands on the sides of 87's head and stroked the other woman's cheekbones. "You could never hurt me," 88 reassured her.

They met again in a kiss, 87's lips now hungry for more. And they showed it; she forcefully pressed her mouth into 88's, eliciting pleased sounds from the other woman. She drew 88's lower lip into her mouth, and 88's arms only squeezed her tighter. 87 bit down on the lip, hard, and 88 moaned into her mouth. 87 bit down even harder, drawing blood, and 88 minutely nodded, encouraging her onward.

87 clamped down with the full strength of her jaw and jerked her head; 88's lower lip was torn clear off. "Swallow it," 88 commanded her. "I know you're still hungry." Blood was freely flowing down her chin, and 87 messily ran her tongue up its length, lapping it up before swallowing 88's lip like a big fat noodle. 88 gave her a pleased, very toothy grin, one that could have gotten her first prize in a Matt Addison Impersonation Contest.

The door to the armory slammed open and the two women whipped their heads towards the sound, Deer Caught In Headlights expressions on their face. Alice stood there, gun drawn at the sight of all the blood, aimed halfway up so that she wasn't quite pointing it at 87. "What's… going on here?" she asked.

87 and 88 gave each other a worried look. "Uh… nothing?" 88 suggested.

Alice was dubious. "…Is this a sex thing?" she finally asked.

88 felt herself begin to blush and buried her face in her hands, getting them (well, the one that wasn't already missing a finger) bloody. (She also wasn't blushing that much — the aforementioned blood loss, you know). 87, however, proudly stood firm, wrapped an arm around 88, and declared, "It's a love thing," she clarified.

"And a sex thing, I think." 88 mumbled, grateful she hadn't had to vocalize any sounds that required the use of her lower lip.

Alice's eyes went wide with excitement. "Really?!" she asked. "Did you get the big sparkly magic light show?"

"Uh…" 87 was utterly befuddled by the question (since nobody had told her about Magical Soulmate shit yet, haha).

The White Queen materialized in the armory. "I can confirm that an anomalous energy reading occurred in this room moments ago," she said, popping back out of existence.

"Aw, you guys!" Alice cooed, rushing forward to embrace them. She realized after a moment that 88 was still heavily bleeding, and indeed blood had been smeared all over her top. "Oh, ew. Yeah, you might want to go get that looked at, Dee," she informed them with a grimace. She looked down and saw 88's hand, which still had a slow drip of blood leaking from the missing finger hole as well. "Oh yikes, you guys are into some really kinky shit, huh?" She smirked. "Not that I'm judging, I'm technically a necrophiliac." Her face brightened up. "Oh, that's why I came barging in here! Rain woke up just moments ago! I gotta go tell the others!"

87 turned to 88. "What was all that about a magic light show?"

"I'll exlain it to you on the way," 88 replied. "Let's go get ee soe new ody arts."

She filled 87 in on what Alice had told her of the mysterious soul-bonding that her and her wife had gone through, and what the late Mr. Kaplan had also gone through with his deceased husband. They made it to the lab and stopped short when they saw Rebecca there, working at the equipment. Before they could even try to sneak to the cloning machine, she saw them out of the corner of her eye. She turned, looking at them full-on, taking in all the blood smeared around 87's mouth and the injuries 88 had on her face and hand, and saw that they were holding hands, and simply closed her eyes and began slow, deep breaths.

"Dr. Chamers, I —" 88 began.

"Just go use the damn machine," Rebecca snapped, sounding more resigned than angry. "I don't want to hear about it. Like, at all. Ever. Pretty please. With sugar on top."

"Yes, a'a," 88 said, contrite. She laid down in the machine, then looked through the glass expectantly at 87.

87 didn't have the first clue on how to use it. She turned to Rebecca. "Um, Mrs. Dr. Chambers, ma'am? How do I —"

"Goddamnit," Rebecca uttered. She walked over and began operating the controls herself. She gave 87 some serious side-eye and gave her a little dismissive wave. "Please go take a long, hot shower. Toss your scrubs down an incinerator chute. For the love of all that is holy, pay extra attention to your face and neck, and brush your damn teeth afterwards."

"Yes, Dr. Ma'am," 87 said, nervous and intimidated as she left the room as fast as possible.

XXX

Alice, Rain, Rebecca, 87, 88, and all the other clones stood vigil at the graves of Kaplan, Carlos (they'd recovered a few charred bones from the wreckage), Spot (the name Alice and Rain had decided to give the zombie dog that had given its unlife for Rain), and the 86 clones who had been (permanently) murdered by Dr. Isaacs. All of them had worked hard to dig the graves, and it had only taken one long, agonizingly hot afternoon (and an obscene amount of sunblock). (Rain had tried introducing Alice to her birds during this outing, but Alice had begun bellowing in terror and Rain had sent them off). Each grave had a small marker, produced by the 3D printer in the laboratory. For the clones, Alice had chosen to give each of them the Alice name ("It's not like it'd be confusing like if they were still alive,") and the image of a butterfly with a halo.

"Do you really believe that clones get into Heaven?" Rebecca asked, purely out of curiosity.

Alice nodded. "Why wouldn't they?" Rebecca had no answer to that.

After a few more minutes had passed, Alice and Rain turned to address the clones. "Everyone, Rain and I have an announcement to make."

"Are we gonna go after those pricks in Tokyo?" Neo asked, excitedly fidgeting with the grip of her katana. "All of us just charge in there and kick ass?"

Alice smiled. "Love the enthusiasm, but no. This is a two-person job, just me and Rain. The rest of you can stay here if you want, but I think the best course of action would be if you all scattered to the four winds and used your badass superpowers to help all the isolated communities and the remaining convoys that serve as their lifelines, both here and abroad." She turned to Rebecca. "Will you stay on here and keep working on a permanent cure?"

Rebecca gave Alice an incredulous look. "Of course, why wouldn't I?"

88 immediately raised her hand. "I'd also like to volunteer and stay, to help Dr. Chambers with her research!"

"Me too," 87 said, even though most of her support would be moral. (Or immoral, depending on how you feel about extreme biting, hahaha).

"Yo, I'll stay as, like, their bodyguard," Neo offered. Her partner and a few other clones also voiced this choice.

"Wonderful!" Alice clapped her hands together. "Rain and I will be leaving tomorrow morning, and anyone else who wants to walk the Earth can hitch a ride on the helicopter we'll be taking from the cool-ass underground hangar."

"Will you be coming back?" 88 asked.

Alice shrugged. "I hope so! But there's only enough fuel to get us across the Pacific, and who knows how well our infiltration of Umbrella Tokyo will go?" 88 looked distressed at Alice's cavalier attitude, so she quickly amended herself. "But hey, look, I'm sure we'll figure out something for the return trip! Even if we have to take a rowboat with one oar, we'll be back! And there ain't no way Umbrella will be able to stop us from kicking names and taking ass!"

The assembled clones cheered and applauded, and even Rebecca was able to put her cynicism away long enough to clap her hands together a few times.

Too bad Alice would never be seeing most of them again.

XXX

Ada Wong grimaced as the sun rose on yet another hot as fuck day in the middle of the desert. She was 100% convinced Wesker had assigned her to surveil the Nevada base as a punishment for being caught by Ocampo and divulging the existence of Abernathy to her — after all, one of Umbrella's satellites or that creepy little computer girl could easily do the same job she was tasked with — but figured spending a week or two in the desert was better (or comparatively safer, anyway) than some of the other punishment assignments she'd gotten from him in the past.

She was up on the elevated rocky area where (unbeknownst to her) Claire and co. had scoped out the compound when they'd first broken into it. She emerged from her little tent, stretched, then squatted behind the rocks, out of sight of the compound, for her morning pee.

She almost made a mess of herself when the sound of the doors concealing the underground hangar opening reached her ears. "Shit!" she uttered, racing to wipe and pull her pants up before quickly pulling on her ghillie suit, crawling to the edge of the outcropping, and watching through her binoculars as the helicopter rose from the hole in the ground and took flight westward. She quickly switched to penetrative infrared and saw several dozen heat signatures inside the helicopter.

Well, that was most, if not all, the clones. She retreated from the edge once the helicopter was out of sight and grabbed her satellite phone. "Wesker, I just saw a chopper take off, and I'm pretty sure it had most of the clones, if not all of them," she reported.

"Well done, Ada," Wesker said, sounding pleased. (Of course he had, the Red Queen had already relayed the information to him, haha). "I suppose you've been in the desert long enough. Make your way to the Siberia base for a bit of R before your next assignment."

She shuddered. The Siberia base. She almost requested Tokyo instead, but instead steeled herself and said, "Yes, sir. Wong, out." So, she wasn't entirely out of the doghouse yet, it seemed. Wesker would only have one reason to send her to Siberia: she would be liaising with Valentine, the security chief, and every second spent in Valentine's presence was a not-so-subtle reminder that her autonomy was a courtesy, something that Wesker could take away if she ever dropped her guard.

Before she started to pack up, she examined the compound one last time, and saw that there were a pair of clones patrolling the perimeter of the fence. "Be advised, there does seem to be a light clone presence still on site," she tapped out in an email onto her computer.

"Acknowledged," Wesker replied. "Will not be a problem."

Ada hurriedly finished packing her things and began the long trek to the old mine entrance where she'd stashed her ATV.

XXXXXXXXXX

Y'all know Lady and the Tramp, right? The song where the two dogs are eating pasta (and SLURPING UP NOODLES) is 'Bella Notte', hahahahahahaha.

I'm a tremendous nerd, so I made sure to say all of 88's lower-lip-lacking-locquation out loud to ensure phoenetic accuracy, haha.

There's a meme that's been in circulation for a while now pointing out that 'Cerberus' translates loosely to 'Spot', hence the name.

Shout-out to Alice's fear of birds from the very first chapter of AIR!

One more chapter left, then we can start in on InRA! Gosh, whatever could occur in the last chapter?