Okay, time for another one of my exceedingly rare start-of-chapter notes!

First, longtime readers may have noticed that in addition to the RE Anderson movieverse category, I've also filed it under the RE gameverse category. This is because this series will be incorporating a far greater amount of elements from the games. (Sidenote: Does it bother anyone else when you go look at other fanfics in the Anderson movieverse category, only to find that authors have polluted it with their fics that are set exclusively in the gameverse? Don't miscategorize your fics, you damn jerks! :P)

Secondly, as a consequence of this, I suspect I may get some new readers by sole virtue of the new category, and you'll likely be confused going into this story with zero context. This is the start of a sequel/spin-off series to my previous series, "Alice, it's Raining!", and if you have the time to read something that almost hits the 200K word mark, I invite you to go read that one first.

If the idea of that is off-putting, Potential New Reader, then here is a brief summary: Alice, the star of the RE Anderson movies, was given a personality transplant by me and became a Chaos Goblin. She promptly fell in love with Rain Ocampo, who still died and became a zombie but retained her consciousness thanks to the Magic of True Love. As the events of the movies progressed, Chaos Goblin Alice attempted to make as many friends as possible and save as many lives as she could. Sometimes she succeeded… and sometimes she failed horribly. Eventually, True Love prevailed and Alice and Rain got their happy ending… and then (in an incredibly contrived sequence meant to justify this time travel fix-it tale) the Red Queen duplicated Alice's memories, inadvertently creating a new being and eventually sending the new Alice on a journey through space and time, depositing her into the shower-dwelling unconscious figure that is the Alice of this new universe.

One point the Red Queen made right before sending Alice off is that each universe has its differences, some major and some minor. Just because Alice thinks she knows how the next ten years shake out, that doesn't mean she's going to have an easy time of it. No, my longtime readers will be glad to tell you that I love torturing my characters a good long while before they earn their happy ending, hahahahahahahahaha. As Kaplan once said, "You're going to have to work for your meal!"

Alice raced to dry herself off and get dressed. Red dress, check. Boots, check. She opened the bottom drawer with all the nice guns inside, and didn't need Alicia Marcus' memories to tell her the code. "Looking Glass House, huh?" she muttered to herself, punching '1871' into the digital lock. There was a little 'Ping!' sound and the glass rolled back, giving Alice access to the 'his and hers' SMGs. "Sorry, Spence, no gun for you today, or ever again," Alice said, making sure she was fully locked and loaded.

She picked up the phone and made one, two, three, four phone calls.

On her way out the bedroom, she saw you-know-who's note: "Today all your dreams come true," he'd written.

"For once, Spence, I agree with your murdering ass," Alice said. Sure, her ma had sent Spence on the path, but he ultimately had free will, just like Alice, clone or no. Fuck him.

She strode out into the hall. "MATT!" she bellowed. "MATTHEW ADDISON, I KNOW YOU'RE IN HERE!" She suppressed the urge to giggle with excitement, reminding herself that this wasn't her Matt, that she was a complete stranger to him.

Matt came out of his hiding spot, gun in hand (just held regularly, pointing towards the floor), looking nervous as hell. "Yeah?" he said. "How did you —"

And Alice… just couldn't help herself. She ran forward and crushed him in a tight hug, tears of happiness streaming from her eyes. Until this moment, going back in time had felt like a dream or a hoax or something, but seeing Matt Addison's goony face and dorky haircut drove it home that this was real, she had an actual shot at fixing everything.

Matt wrestled out of her grasp. "What the hell! Who are you?!" he demanded.

Alice realized she'd just promised herself five seconds ago to not go nuts over seeing Matt again, and here she was, already fucking that up. "I… I'm Alice. Alice O—Abernathy." A spike of pain shot through her heart. No, she most definitely wasn't Alice Ocampo anymore, was she? Would she even feel the same surge of love upon seeing Rain again for the first time?

She realized she was standing there like a, ha ha, zombie, and went on. "I… I knew your sister, Lisa," she went on. "Matt… I'm sorry, but she's dead." That would explain away her tears, at least.

"Lisa? What?" Disbelief and anguish warred for control of Matt's face. "I… I was just talking to her a few hours ago. She said there was a fire drill, and then the phone line just went dead. She… she can't be…" Alice noticed his hand tighten around the grip of his pistol.

Alice walked over and snagged her wedding photo. Gag. "Look, Matt, Lisa was murdered, but I know who's responsible." She showed him the photo. "Spence Parks — the man posing as my husband." Alice frowned at Matt's look of confusion. "Didn't Lisa tell you about me? I'm head of security here, and we have a sham marriage as part of our cover. I was her contact in the Hive. I got her her job."

He eyed her with suspicion. "How do I know you didn't kill her?"

Alice licked her lips. Good ol' suspicious Matty. "Look, I can't prove anything right now, alright? And there's much bigger shit going on to boot. But I promise you: tonight, we're going to take Spence down. Hell, we'll be taking down the whole rotten mess, if all goes well." Lights flooded through the windows, and the sound of a helicopter was suddenly evident. "Listen, please trust me! In a few seconds, armed soldiers are going to come bursting through those windows. Act normal. Put your gun away. I called you here for assistance. Got it?"

Matt's jaw was tightly clenched, but after a second he gave her a curt nod. He'd play along… for now.

The flashbang flew through the window, and Alice smiled upon remembering screaming about it being a boobytrapped hockey puck, ten years and a universe ago. She sheltered her and Matt's face as it exploded, followed immediately after by Sanitation breaching through the windows. One of the soldiers tackled Matt to the ground — and Alice immediately recalled that this was Rain and her heart started pounding hard in her chest.

She walked up to Rain(?) as she was wrestling Matt's jacket and holster off and, authoritatively, ordered her: "Stand down! He's with me!"

The soldier looked to what could only be One for clarification. "You're not supposed to have civilians on site, soldier," he chastised.

"I'm a cop!" Matt declared.

"Yeah," Alice said. "I summoned him here. There's a leak in Umbrella, and I needed outside help to try and plug it. Not sure who to trust on-site or higher up."

One digested this info. "Report," he ordered.

"I'm still a little out of it from the defenses going off," Alice said, close enough to the truth. "But I know that earlier tonight Spence Parks infiltrated the Hive, secured samples of a deadly biological agent with the intention to sell them on the black market, and released a sample of said agent into the air system, prompting the Red Queen to kill everyone as a safety precaution."

"It's still a serious breach in protocol to bring a non-Umbrella employee onto the mansion grounds," One growled. "I'm placing you in custody until we can get this straightened out." He pulled a pair of handcuffs off his utility belt.

Oh hell no. If Alice ended up in handcuffs, the chances of everyone dying all over again were too damn high.

So she flipped him. Grabbed his arm, yanked her practically right up over her head, and slammed him down onto the ground.

The rest of the soldiers had already spread out through the mansion and weren't aware of the conflict… save for the two holding Matt at gunpoint. Their guns turned on Alice, and Alice almost had to laugh. After all, she had so much experience taking down Umbrella goons at this point that the only difficult part was restraining herself not to automatically kill them. She kicked their guns out of their hands with one sweep of her leg, then kicked not-Rain in the stomach, doubling him (or was it maybe Medic?) over.

Rain(?) pulled out a baton, telescoping it out to its full length with a flick of her wrist, and charged Alice. She raised the baton to bring down right onto her head, but Alice grabbed her by the wrist, sliding her other arm around her torso, and using her inertia to spin her around in a bizarre waltz. "My, you're a wonderful dancer," Alice purred.

Rain(?) used their embrace to her advantage, breaking out of the spin and rushing forward, pinning Alice to the wall, making her grunt from the impact. They were close enough now that Alice could see through the eyepieces of her gas mask… and there was no doubt, those were Rain's dark, beautiful eyes. And there was no doubt in Alice's heart that this was, in fact, her Rain. Just one glance was enough to cement her feelings, just like last time around. She released Rain's wrist and caressed her head through her balaclava, and she saw Rain's eyes widen in surprise at the touch, and at the look of desire Alice was giving her. She raised her arm once more, but got cold feet and couldn't crack her over the skull with her baton, letting her arm fall down to her side.

Not that that mattered, One and the other soldier were both back on their feet, guns trained on Alice. She was trapped.

Oh no wait she totally wasn't!

"Commander, I hereby request that you transfer command to me," Alice said, still gazing into Rain's eyes.

"That's not gonna happen, soldier," One said coolly.

"If you lead your men and women into the Hive without me guiding you every step of the way, then every last one of you will all be killed before sunrise," Alice said.

"Is that a fucking threat?" Rain challenged, her voice muffled through the gas mask.

"I'm trying to save your lives," Alice challenged back. "And I have a command code."

"Let's hear it," One said, disbelieving.

"1272017," Alice stated. God bless you Alicia Marcus for not just giving away your childhood memories, but your adult ones as well.

One pulled off his gas mask, the whites of his eyes as big as his surprise. "Command of this mission is hereby transferred over to Abernathy," he ordered, speaking into his radio so the rest of the team could hear it. His voice had a slight quiver to it.

Rain looked at her commanding officer with disbelief, then back to Alice with even more disbelief. She pulled off her gas mask. "Do you… recognize me or something?" Rain asked her.

Alice again reminded herself to play it cool — and not just in the sense that she had to pretend she didn't have oodles of future knowledge. Past Rain's scolding regarding Alice's lack of filter was still damn fresh in her mind. "…No," she finally said.

"Who are you?" Rain asked, and if Alice didn't know any better she'd say the other woman looked… haunted?

They were so close, so close. Alice could tug her forward with one motion and their lips would be together, ending all doubt… one way or the other.

Fear paralyzed her. What if soulmates were only really a thing in the universe she had just left? And Beccers' theory on soulmate bonding involved at least one party being infected with the T-virus, and neither she nor Rain were infected (yet). (Hopefully never, if all went well). And what exactly was up between Rain and JD, anyway? She'd never once asked Rain in the other timeline, partly out of concern for triggering some negative feelings in her wifey, partly out of concern that she was… a replacement, or something. That Rain and JD had some strong romantic bond and Alice had just stripped that away with her incessant flirting and soul bonding. Until now, the prospect had been so horrifying that Alice hadn't even consciously considered it.

Alice removed her hands from Rain, who then quickly stepped away from her and returned Matt his gun and jacket.

Alice sighed, forlorn. She tried to comfort herself with the fact that she was saving seven billion lives… and you know, it almost worked. "Prep for entry to the Hive," she said, One echoing the order over the radio.

Kaplan (because his nerdy ass was always the one opening the doors, it had to be him) opened the secret passage behind the mirrored wall, and they all filed into the secret train station.

Behind her, she could hear Vance and Warner chattering to each other. "Dude, what the hell's a command code?" Vance asked.

"You know… a command code!" Warner replied. "Don't you pay attention at briefings and shit? It's a code that identifies someone in Umbrella High Command! The fucking bigwigs! Your boss's boss's boss's boss!"

Vance scowled. "I thought this Abernathy chick was supposed to be a glorified security guard," he said.

"Yeah, well, she took down One, JD, and almost got Rain too," Warner said. "So I wouldn't say that to her face, unless you want to be shipped out to that place in fucking Siberia or something." Alice simply rolled her eyes.

Shit, that place in Siberia. She made a mental note to shut those fucking tests down ASAP.

They reached the train and Alice ducked around to the back, retrieving the virus case from where Spence had hidden it. Simply having it in her hands gave her an immense feeling of power. This was it, after all — the first big actual Fuck You Umbrella And All Your Evil Plans change. Now, any of them getting infected — especially Rain, Kaplan, or Matt — Alice could simply give them the cure right off the bat. (Not that any of them were getting bitten — if all went well, they wouldn't be seeing a single zombie in their time down here).

"What's that?" One asked, as Alice climbed into the train.

"Sample case, the one Spence bogarted," Alice answered. "We'll catch up with Spence soon enough," she said vaguely.

Kaplan furrowed his brow. "How did you know where it was hidden? The Red Queen blocked our access to on-site surveillance."

Alice gave him a mysterious smile. "Trade secrets, my son," she answered. "Oh, and you're gonna be the best man at my wedding." Kaplan looked uncomfortable but let it go.

Rain climbed beneath the train and fixed it like last time, having the same back-and-forth she did with JD. The train began rolling down the tracks, and she once again tried ineffectually to open the rear door.

She turned and, once again, saw Alice giving her the googly eyes. "You got a problem?" she snapped, sounding… harsher… than Alice remembered. Was she sore Alice had almost beat her ass?

Alice pursed her lips. "You… remind me very much of a woman I was in love with," Alice said. "Your appearance, your attitude… you could almost be her twin."

"What happened to her?" Rain asked.

"She died," Alice said, leaving out the part where she came back as a walking corpse.

Rain stared at her for a long moment. "Sorry to hear it," she finally said, before turning and trying to work the door again.

"How's that door?" One asked her, getting her head back in the game.

"It's sealed shut," Rain answered.

"Let me," JD said, clicking his tongue at Rain as he passed. He forced the door open, and Spence Parks fell out, pretending to be unconscious. Medic started to approach, but Alice waved her off.

Alice walked up and stomped him right in the balls. That got him to stop faking it. He howled in agony as all the men in the room instinctively flinched, covering their own 'nads reflexively. "Hello, dearest husband," Alice said. "Tell me, of all my dreams that you're going to make true, which one was it that involved the murder of several hundred people?"

"I… I don't…" Spence muttered.

"Save it, shit-for-brains," Alice snarled, kicking him in the junk again, eliciting another howl. "There was no nerve gas in the train tunnel. You're not an amnesiac."

He glared up at Alice, then whipped his head over to One. "I have a recording of her!" he snapped. "Selling Umbrella out to one of those terrorist activist groups! I wouldn't be surprised if she released the virus!"

"Oh, Spence, Spence, Spence," Alice said, shaking her head. "I have a command code. That means, as far as they're concerned, I'm Abyssinia Umbrella, the founder of this glorious company, and thus anything I do can never be construed as treason." Plus, she added mentally, that recording you have is of an elderly woman in a wheelchair who bears a passing familial resemblance to me, you utter fucking tool.

Spence's eyes bugged out. "How did you get a command code?"

"Yo fucking momma," Alice answered, before shaking her head. "No more talky, hubs." She turned around and sat back down. "Put this fucknugget in handcuffs." Rain complied, flipping him on his back (unmindful of his injured sack) and slapped the cuffs on him behind his back.

They arrived at the Hive's train station, and everyone disembarked, Spence at gunpoint. After sweeping the area for hostiles (and finding none, just like last time), they got out the heavy cutter and Rain began getting it set up.

Alice walked up to One. "Wouldn't you know it, but it's my time of the month," she said, cranking up the Flighty Girly Girl tone to a hundred. "And, silly goose that I am, I forgot my tampons back at the mansion! I'll just pop back over, grab 'em, and be back quicker than two shakes of a lamb's tail!" She giggled. One gave her an odd look, but she did after all have a command code. Medic offered her some out of her supplies, but Alice pretended to already be out of hearing range by the time the offer was made.

She climbed back aboard the train, raced it back to the mansion station, climbed out, ran to the entrance, opened it, and popped her head out. "Hello? Anyone home?" she called out.

"We're in here!" A voice answered.

Alice walked into the dining room, unable to suppress her grin at seeing Terri Morales and Jill Valentine once more. (Well, she'd just seen Terri like ten minutes ago, but she smiled at seeing Terri with her missing leg once more. Whatever!)

Remember the hint I mentioned at the end of AIGO? "Neutrino gluon matrix bombarded with protons"? Protons being an energy particle with a positive, or , charge? NG? An appropriate title for someone going back in time with a whole bushel of future knowledge, haha. (Especially since the RE games have had NG in one form or another for the entire series).

1871 is the date 'Through the Looking-Glass' was published. Makes sense it'd be the code to unlock the guns!

The command code (which was 100% invented by me to give Alice the means to not be arrested by these well-meaning clowns) is the date Final Chapter was released in theaters. Fun stuff, huh?

Spot the quote from The Rock, win a monkey! (The monkey is imaginary, and it's also insane and hateful like the one from Monkey Shines).

Gosh, what're Terri and Jill doing here?! You can probably guess what two of Alice's phone calls entailed…

Merry Christmas Eve, all! :D