--U.P.R.F, Level 3 - Lab 4 (Umbrella sector), 5:50PM--

"Dammit, you want me to take her along like this??" Rez asked Doctor Jacques Noiv as the scientist rifled through a cabinet containing various vials and bottles of drugs.

The scientist shrugged, "She will be in operable condition by the time you need her. This was to be expected."

He referred to the way Eléonore thrashed upon the steel table, having yet another seizure. Her eyes opened wide, the red marks on her face had faded, and she was babbling words Rez could not decipher, but was talking more in those frantic fragments than he'd heard in the whole time he'd known her. It was damn creepy, if you asked him.

"What do you mean, 'expected'?" he asked. Not out of any concern for her, but since she was an experiment, and so was he in a sense, he had a need to know what side effects they considered 'acceptable' or 'expected' in their subjects.

"Elé has outlive all other subjects in her group... and has shown remarkable tolerance to her conditioning and to her mind's own innate capabilities. However, she's beginning to gain cognitive thought of herself and her surroundings outside of what we have trained her to accept."

"In other words, she's beginning to think too much and go insane," Sergei simplified in a flat tone.

"And becoming unusable. It won't be long at this rate..." Doctor Noiv trailed off. There was no need to finish the sentence in order to make the meaning clear.

Romanav watched impassively as the scientist gave Elé a shot of some clear liquid, having almost an immediate effect on the girl. Her speech slowed and became intermittent, her eyes unfocussed. All movement stopped.

"Here," Jacques said, passing another syringe of the same to Rez. "Give this to her in exactly two hours. She'll be fine after that."

Rez took the syringe but cast a doubtful look to the girl on the table. "Hell of a lot of good that'll do me when she's comatose..." he griped.

Noiv smiled and turned to the girl, removing her restraints. "Elé, get up."

Slowly, with the methodic nature of a machine, the child obeyed, keeping the same blank look as before.

"Now, stay with Mr. Romanav and complete your mission tonight. You are both excused, I have work to do in preparation for the delivery tonight."

Rez took his cue and Eléonore followed, oblivious to the wary looks cast over his shoulder at her.

~*~*~*~

--U.P.R.F., Level 2 – Blue Sector Cells (Shadoloo side), 5:22PM--

The 'tock tock tock' of heels announced her arrival. Iwa grimaced at the sound and looked to Doctor Yamada, the wincing showing that his concentration had broken off again. Since the time she had known him she knew better than to interrupt his long monologue. For the better part of the time she had tuned out his voice and was paying attention the Maru-cam instead. The team of four guards wasn't worried as long as Doctor Yamada didn't wander too near the bars.

"What brings you down here?" Doctor Yamada turned his attention to his colleague. She wasn't alone. Accompanying her were both Doctor Ryan and Markus.

"Just thought you should know. Some of the preliminary results are out. As you can see the he reacted well to the serum. The antigens are working properly. I think we found part of the Deep Doll program. We could probably start the intermediate test when the rest of the equipment has arrived." She smiled.

"And that's all you came to say?"

"Ryan made something to play with actually."

"I rigged up a remote." The Chinese scientist stepped forward, waggling a small device in his hand. It was about three inches by two inches, with a Liquid crystal display at the top, three rows of button, and a knob at the bottom.

"This remote control works like the mainframe in the lab. The left and right arrows in the top row selects the test subject. The 'O' button at the bottom row confirms the test subject. If you want to select everybody, press the 'M' for mass button then confirm it." Doctor Ryan scrolled through the list. Since John was the only one there the channel listed his as active while the other channels remained unused.

"The 'Q' button is for the Qi inhibitor in the PSI chip on his forehead. Selecting it allows you to switch on or off the inhibitor. '+' is for on and '-' is for off. It's on now. Off." He clicked the '-' while the others watched John. He seemed to realize he could feel his qi again and attempted to gather it.

"On." Doctor Ryan switched on the inhibitor. A mild current disrupted his concentration to gather his qi.

"Off."

"On."

"Off."

"On. If he's not gathering qi there would not be a current coursing through his pain receptors, as that part of his brain is not active enough to trigger a response. This is to ensure minimum damage."

"And this," indicating the lightning button, "if you feel like screwing around with your friends, is meant to stimulate the pain receptors via the chip." He clicked the button and twitched the knob a teensy bit clockwise. A grimace on John's face showed the effect of the pain stimulation. Proving his point Doctor Ryan returned the button to its initial position.

"And if for whatever reason he's thinking of hitting the chip against something hard or pulling it out, the chip will automatically stimulate the pain receptors until he passes out or it blows his brains out. Which we hope would not happen. So if you want to lessen his pain you have to click the lightning button and then the 'X' button to nullify the chip's reaction. Can you remember that?" he asked Iwa.

"Kinda."

"Tch... Pressing '-' and 'X' and 'O' kills of the chip for painless removal."

Doctor Markus was looking at Ryan expectantly but he handed the remote to Iwa instead. "Keep this. We have the mainframe and techs who watch it. The remote only has a 50-meter radius. So if it isn't us, it's you."

With that done, the crew realized it was time for dinner. The rest had headed off but Doctor Markus held Iwa back.

"Don't hold much hope for him to be an Active Doll," he told her.

"What are you getting at?"

"For a tough guy like him, he's as fragile as you used to be up here." Doctor Markus tapped his head.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Iwa called out after the German Doctor. The older man just gave her an enigmatic smile and walked off.

"I don't like him," Iwa said to no one in particular. There was still one more day before she could contact the Master and there were things he needed to know.

"You're not the only one," an answer came from within the cells.

"Took you this long to start talking to me again?"

"Don't assume too much."

"You're the one's who's making assumptions."

"Whose side are you one anyway?"

"Mine. Though I doubt you'll believe if I tell you. This is killing me slowly." She held up her right hand and ignited her qi. The ghostly blue qi sizzled and crackled before she extinguished it again.

"But that don't mean you got to turn to Bison!" John sprang closer to the bars. "I mean. What about Ryu-sama? Detective Chun Li or even Gen-sama? You have some of the most experienced people on your side when it comes to the ways of Qi manipulation."

"Ah. Thanks for caring. But what have they achieved with the last fifteen years of my life? The two dominant qis have gotten stronger as did the buffer. But the buffer is suffering from the constant corruption of the other two. I am having trouble keeping the balance. My last outbreak burned me so much that it left me numb and in bed for a week or so. And he did nothing to help me." There was that resentment in her voice again.

"You do know Master created me," she said, dumping him with more information than he could handle.

"You're..." He was unable to finish the sentence. Obviously there were things he wasn't told when he took this mission.

"Not a clone, but a host to an Essence who was used as a prototype doll. It's not in my official records so Guile or Chun Li can't tell you much. That is, if you even speak to them at all. You should see the files Master has on me. He even managed to trace the research facility, team and data that sparked my Essence based insanity."

"But why Bison?!"

"Why not? He made me. He knows what I am and what I have become. He came to realize that something like me ran for fifteen years before acting up. He would probably get a good thirty years out of an Essence based host before it burns itself out. A decent fighter like you could probably come with a twenty odd years guarantee. What works on me would work on you. What works on you would work on him." By "him" she meant Ryu, although John was unaware of such.

"Or would you rather I give up now and die?" Seeing the conflicted look in his eyes, she smiled sadly and walked out of the holding cells, allowing him to digest all the information.

Yes, most of it was true but there were a few half-truths. Yes, her qi did evolve on its own and she had learnt more during the last six months. Yes, she did let on about the three projects that were running simultaneously.

Lastly, yes, someone was dying but it wasn't her.

~*~*~*~

--Interstate H1, 10:12PM--

"You're heading to the location now?"

As Sergei Rezlorn Romanav sped down the highway in the car rented to him for this particular night, he held his cell phone to his ear with his right hand while he glanced over his shoulder at the girl in the backseat, her dark eyes staring blankly out the window. He'd given her another sedative like the doctor told him, not one that dulled reaction or movement but one that dulled the brain's deeper functions, like a heavy anti-depressant without the ill side affects. Though the use of the drug meant that Eléonore's mental condition was deteriorating, Rez much preferred her this way. He didn't have to deal with her weird little ass. But it was creepy, how mechanical she behaved...

He snapped back to the conversation at hand. "It might be wiser if you stayed away from the area while I pick up the package. No? Ah, well, it's your choice. Don't blame me if you encounter any stray bullets."

A lapse where the other person spoke, then, "I'll be there soon. See that things stay on schedule, and don't damage the package." Rez grinned. He'd been given strict orders on this pick-up, and knew his contact had as well. Rez had a safe delivery in mind, and perhaps he'd get a reward for all his hard work.

In the backseat, Eléonore continued to watch the dark landscape go by, listlessly.

~*~*~*~

--Dry Dock 3, Pearl Harbor district, 11:05PM--

Agent Natalie Wynshire sat in the back of a black, unmarked van along with other members of the small task force designated for this mission. She checked her gun, Claire, then her ammo, the secondary weapon, its ammo, and made sure all the straps in her body armor were secure. Next to her on the right was Agent Sandoval, a local female veteran who'd been a field agent for more than a decade. She had dark skin and slightly lighter hair, with green eyes that usually looked hard and cold, but Natalie knew her to have a wicked sense of humor.

On her left was Agent Lars, a man about Jin's age with light brown hair and a neatly trimmed goatee who usually didn't know when to keep his mouth shut. He was currently messing with Sandoval over some boyfriend of hers and how she was "being a cougar."

Natalie let an unsurprised smirk show when the woman kicked Lars sharply in the shin. The three of them were to be the infiltration team, with a backup intel team of two, Matthews and Zieman, who would provide the team with information and changes in plans, escape routes and so on from the relative safety of the van.

They'd been briefed earlier in the day, apart from Nat who'd received her information shorthand from Parker when she had finally arrived at work. Since then she'd been immersed in preparation.

This job was likely to be much like the human smuggling bust a few weeks back, when they'd found people being prepared to ship to an unknown location. This time, however, the place was supposedly set up more "professional", with a little more manpower. The information they'd obtained also alluded to other illegal activity, some of it raising questions in Natalie's head about whether or not it had to do with the files she'd browsed earlier. That she still didn't know who Umbrella's informant was bothered her. For all she knew, it could be one of the people sitting in the van with her...

Or the man on his way to the scene right now.

Parker was set to meet them shortly, this being the first mission Natalie would experience where her superior was taking an active role. She wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. It was an important detail, either way.

"I heard there was an incident early this morning," Lars said as they waited, with a conspiratorial whisper as if they might be overheard. "An undercover agent was looking into a lead in a makeshift lab and was attacked."

Sandoval gave him a sharp look, "And this is new, how?"

Lars grinned, "He subdued his attacker, but the clean up crew and pathology almost had a fit! They thought they'd been called a few weeks late."

One of Wynshire's brows arched, "What do you mean? And by subdued, you mean he killed them, right?"

"That's just it," Lars shrugged. "He couldn't have killed her... not the first time, at least. Just by the look of her, I heard she'd been dead for weeks."

That bit brought to Natalie's mind pictures that turned her stomach. "So the rumors are true then. How do you know all this, anyway?"

"He's boning a girl on the cleanup crew," Sandoval said in a bland tone. Lars only gave his best sh-t-eating grin and Natalie rolled her eyes.

"Cut the chatter, guys, SAC's here," said Zieman from the front of the van. Everyone silenced immediately, the three field agents filing quietly out of the van. Natalie had learned quickly that little love was held in regards to Kyle Parker, and the only respect given to him was that demanded by protocol.

Flak jackets on and weapons at the ready, the trio watched their superior walk towards them in like form, the building they were to enter looming up about a block to their west, almost directly behind him. His car was parked a short ways from the van, making it look a bit less like the vehicles were connected. As he strode the distance, Natalie wondered with an eerie feeling in her heart why he was coming on this mission himself, with only his standard sidearm and a vest. He was going to be more liability than use.

"Good, we all seem to be ready," he said nonchalantly, putting on his headset as they did the same. After a brief test in communications, the four of them turned to face the building.

"Once we're inside, Lars and Sandoval will ascend to the second floor and sweep the area to be sure we don't get any surprises from there. Wyn, you're with me, on the first floor and subterranean level."

Agents Wynshire, Lars and Sandoval all exchanged surprised glances.

"Sir, that's not according to plan. The plan was the three of us go in and-"

Parker cut Agent Sandoval off sharply, "And the plan has changed. Matthews?"

After a moment, a resigned voice came over the headset. "Change confirmed. The guys at headquarters just took their sweet time informing us, apparently."

"Satisfied? Or should we all go back so you can explain the flaws in the plan while you're being written up?"

No one said anything. The move was nothing short of stupid. Even as good as any of them were, their strength lessened the thinner they were spread, and each team would end up too far from the other to lend support. Not only that, but Natalie had the added responsibility of keeping her boss' ass out of the line of fire; no matter how many years he'd been in the field, she had the distinct impression that he would be less than useful. Why had plans changed? They were going to run into something that the four of them would have enough trouble with together, let alone split. A sinking feeling that had been coiling in Natalie's stomach grew.

"Let's go. Wyn, you take point."

Huffing softly, Natalie led the way toward the building, around a smaller structure and along an alley where no windows overlooked. Her .454 remained holstered; instead she used what she considered a better weapon for greeting unexpected enemies at close range... that being the SPAS-12 shotgun, set to semi-auto.

The alley was empty. The door was seemingly unguarded from the outside, lit dimly by amber streetlights. Their heavy boots thudded softly against the uneven pavement in spite of their best efforts to keep quiet. Parker's leather shoes - the bastard just could not do anything practical, could he? - squeaked now and then, a small noise that rang irritably in the ears of the three lower ranking agents.

Lars and Sandoval leaned against the brick wall on both sides of the steel door, Lars checking the knob.

"Locked," he responded without surprise. Pulling a tiny bit of plastic explosives from a pouch on his belt along with the charge, he quickly affixed these to the door at the locking mechanism. The bomb was so small that Natalie could barely see it in the light, but stepped up to lean on the wall, away from the explosion, just the same. Parker did likewise, and with all heads turned away, Lars detonated it. A harsh thud was all that was heard, but it made their hearts race in anticipation that someone inside had noticed.

With Wynshire already in motion, Sandoval kicked the door in. Natalie burst into the room, shotgun first. The light mounted on it shined in a wide circle on the wall... a turned-over chair... the floor. She entered the room carefully with all others following, Parker at the rear. Lars found the light switch and flipped it.

Nothing. No guards, no sign of any. A musty smell mixed with the scent of the sea air was all that greeted them. Other than the chair, the room was empty. A door to the right, and stairs to the left.

Instead of being relaxed, Natalie tensed further. This wasn't right, unless they had the wrong building or their information had led them on a cold trail. The last bust had started with little evidence... but it hadn't felt this way. Something was wrong.

"Lars, Sandoval, move to the second floor. Wyn, to the right, move."

Fighting her instinct, Natalie gave the dark, older woman and the sometimes-annoying man a wary look. Sandoval returned the concern, if more subdued. Lars gave a grin that poorly masked his unease. Though she knew them little and they knew her less, there was the common bond between them that is shared by people who experience life on the edge of death, who put their lives at risk with the knowledge that each time they look at a comrade could be the last.

As she watched them advance up the stairs and moved to the door with Parker behind her, Natalie sincerely hoped not.

When she heard an impatient sigh behind her, Agent Wynshire advanced through the door.

Again, there was nothing in the room worth noting. She kicked over a box to be sure someone wasn't hiding in or behind it, and was almost disappointed to find nothing. No, she was disappointed, more than that, she was continuing to have that eerie feeling. If she was attacked, she could at least feel better in that the enemy had heard the explosion at the door and retreated back a room or two.

The next room was the same, so was the next. Above her she heard nothing, nothing over the comm link but quiet comments to and from Matthews and Zieman. Soon, even that stopped. She glanced behind her at Parker, mistrustful of him most of all. Was he the leak? Had he set them up somehow? Blue eyes turned forward again trying to concentrate on any threats from ahead or behind.

She found nothing on the first floor, not even evidence of illegal activity, and heard Lars say over the comm that he and Sandoval were about to rejoin her and Parker, just as she was descending into the lower level. They had found nothing either.

"What can I expect in the subterranean level? Do you have the blueprints?" Wyn asked into her headset. Parker mumbled something about paying attention behind her, which she ironically ignored.

"You should come out into a small room with a hallway at-"

A short bit of static, and the channel went blank.

"Matthews? Matthews... Zieman? Lars... Sandoval, respond..." After several attempts, Natalie turned to Kyle, who scowled impatiently at her while she paused halfway down the stairs. "My headset's messed up, I'm not getting any responses."

"Mine works fine," he replied. "Matthews says he can hear you. It must be your speakers."

"Give me yours."

"What? Wyn, I'll pretend for your sake that you didn't make such a stupid demand of your SAC."

With a muttered curse and a scowl of her own, Natalie turned forward again and continued.

She started smelling a faint stench of something more than mold and saltwater at the bottom of the stairs. Yet as she looked around the room, she saw nothing. With a glance over her shoulder, she asked, "You smell that?"

Parker's handkerchief over his nose was enough of a response. Cautiously, Natalie entered the hallway. "Did Matthews say any more about the layout?"

"Six rooms, three to the left, two larger ones on the right, the largest at the end of the hall. Two closets, both in the largest room. Nothing else shows on the blueprints."

Well, at least he was replacement headset, even if she didn't trust him to watch her back.

The farther she went, the stronger the smell became, and the worse she felt about this. "God, I wish Jin was here, or that I wasn't." By no means was she a coward, but Natalie wasn't stupid, either. The first room on the left looked as if it had been a storage room, various cleaning supplies stored on plain shelves. Same with the second, causing her to be morbidly curious as to why anyone would need so many cleaning supplies for one building. The first room on the right had two plain file cabinets, which were both empty, and a metal desk. The second had the same type of file cabinets, and three cold storage containers. All of those were empty, but still plugged up. The third room on the left had absolutely nothing.

Only one room remained. Where were the other two agents?

"Anything over the comm?" she asked.

"Only Lars getting his ass chewed out for spooking Carla."

It took Wyn a moment to recognize Sandoval by her first name. "Right," she said slowly. "Are they coming?"

"I told them you could handle this."

That was strange, she hadn't heard him say anything. That small alarm went off in her head again, but she said nothing of her mistrust. "Tell them to come on. If there's anything at all in this building, it'll be in here." She indicated the final room with the business end of the gun.

"What? If we haven't found anything yet, it's probably a false lead. And the smell is bad enough without hearing Lars complain."

Natalie gave him a dubious look and tapped her headset again, hoping against hope to hear something. When nothing but the faintest static crackled in her ears, she released a slow breath and moved closer to the final door. Unlike the others inside the building and more like the one leading outside, it was made of steel. This did nothing to settle Natalie's unease.

Lips curled in disgust at the smell, she tried the knob. It was locked.

"Shoot it," Parker instructed.

She glanced at him, "You shoot it. I'm the one who's going to need my ammo if anything is on the other side."

Rolling his eyes, Kyle stepped forward and fired one round from his M9 into the door lock. Then he nudged it, making it swing slowly open with an ominous creaking.

The smell that washed out of the room nearly made both of them gag.

Trying to breathe as little as possible, Natalie crept cautiously into the room, using her flashlight to see.

"Find the switch," she said, and Parker felt around on the wall until she heard him flipping the light switch... which apparently didn't work.

"Great," she heard him mutter.

This room wasn't like the others. Aside from the smell, she could see it was littered with papers strewn on the floor, with boxes and crates for storage, open-sided shelves filled with bottles and jars. There was so much stuff that she couldn't see the other wall, then realized it was a maze of litter, and that either the person who used it was a messy packrat, or all the contents of the other rooms had been consolidated to this one.

When her eyes adjusted a little more, she noticed a soft glow coming from the west corner. She forced herself to listen hard, and sure enough, she could hear the quiet hum of an electronic device, a computer.

If it was on, that meant someone had to be in here recently... or even right now. There was no way they hadn't heard the gunshot at the door. Oh well, nothing for it now.

They swept slowly through the room, Parker staying close but always behind her. The sense of something being wrong was almost overwhelming to Wynshire now, but she was already in and there was no way out but to make sure the building was clear.

--The Makai's private beach, 11:20PM--

Victoria felt the soft, familiar footsteps on the sand behind her. She didn't have to turn around to know who it was. Suppressing a smile she said, "I guess you got my message."

"I did." Enrique said softly, his hands lingering casually in his pockets. After a moment of hesitation he sat down on the sand at Victoria's side.

A minute of silence ensued, the only sound was coming from the waves as they washed ashore.

Enrique was the first to speak. "Your hair is different."

Victoria glanced at him and blinked, astonished that he'd notice. It shouldn't have surprised her much, she thought. Riq, being who he was, was more attentive to detail than other men.

"Yeah. I kinda got dragged into it." Victoria shrugged. "It's ok I guess", she added, twisting a strand of brunette hair around her fingers.

"Looks good." Enrique concluded. Honestly, he didn't know much of anything about hair, but he had to admit it did flatter her. It was now at least three inches shorter and about a shade darker than what it originally was. The golden streaks that framed her face were now gone, replaced by more subtle highlights that only seemed to shine through if hit by light in the appropriate angle. Her bangs were also cut shorter, falling just below her cheekbones.

"Thanks..." Victoria smiled, grateful for the compliment.

Another short period of silence followed as each seemed to lose themselves in their respective thoughts. Victoria sighed, long and loud, digging her fingernails into the sand. She thought her question over and finally mustered enough courage to ask it even though she was terrified of the answer.

"Do you... do you think he's alive?" Riq noticed the slight shaking in her voice.

It was now Enrique's turn to sigh. Victoria had not mentioned a name, but he knew she was referring to her friend Sean Matsuda. After what he had seen this morning he feared that the possibility of finding him alive and let alone healthy was very slim.

"I don't know." He replied sincerely, trying to sound as optimistic as possible and yet feeling he failed miserably. His hand moved to hold Victoria's, having to first dig her fingers out of the softness of the sand. "If he is alive, we'll find him..."

"I could have done something to stop them, you know. I was with him, before they took him. So stupid..." She stopped, unable to continue, curling her knees up to her chest.

Riq frowned. The last person who should be feeling any guilt for what happened was her. "No..." He slipped his arm over her shoulders in an attempt to offer her some support. "What happened is not your fault. Don't blame yourself."

Victoria felt Enrique's hand give a gentle squeeze on her shoulder, a sensation that provoked her breathing to stop just momentarily. She released the inhaled air, instantly feeling relieved of a small part of her growing tension.

"I'm not going anywhere tomorrow. After the fight, I'm staying here." The subject had not come up yet, but Victoria felt the necessity to make it clear.

It took a moment for Riq to nod at her statement. "I'm not asking you to." It was a problem, of course. She was his responsibility, and her staying only complicated his already dense situation. Riq was also aware that convincing Victoria to do otherwise was downright impossible, so asking her to keep out of harm's way was as good as he could do for now.

Victoria smiled knowingly. "I'll try to keep my butt out of trouble, I promise." She said, smiling again at the small scowl Riq unwillingly produced.

Enrique had known Victoria for years now and yet the fact that this girl could, if she wanted to, slip into his consciousness and hear his thoughts, freaked the hell out of him. Not really because she was capable of something so unnatural... Riq had seen enough in his lifetime that rendered her abilities completely harmless in comparison... but simply because having his privacy threatened made him feel uneasy, to say the least.

Victoria didn't have to probe into his head to have an accurate idea of what he was thinking. In fact, unknown to Riq, Victoria had never gone past reading his facial expressions or his movements, never had gone further than what she could see on the surface. She respected him. And that was probably why he was always such a mystery to her, Enid concluded.

Victoria slipped out of her short trail of thoughts and into the realization that Enrique's arm still rested on her shoulders. Her fingers tapped onto her knee as she pondered on how much she could humiliate herself by doing what she was about to do next. Shaking the conflict out of her mind and bracing herself, she went for it. Slowly, she closed off the already small distance between Enrique and herself, and even more slowly, and frankly, very horrified, leaned her head just below his shoulder.

Enid feel felt her heart stop as Riq's arm levitated away from her body. Expecting some sort of rejection, she reluctantly considered moving away only to have her thought cut short by Enrique returning the embrace.

It was the least he could do, Riq thought briefly as he pulled her near. Victoria closed her eyes allowing the comfort he offered to sink in, losing track of how long they sat in silence.

"You have a fight tomorrow."

Victoria's eyes fluttered open at the sound of his voice. For a moment there she thought she felt his chin gently grazing the top of her head. She looked down at her watch. It was getting late.

"I guess I should go get some sleep." Pulling away from him, she reached for her bag and slipped her feet into her flip-flops.

Smiling, she glanced at him. "Gracias, me siento mejor. (Thanks, I feel better.)"

Enrique nodded and offered her a small smile, then broke eye contact only to stare at the ocean again. "Buenas noches. (Good night.)" He said simply.

"Night." She smiled again, and leaned in to give him a quick good-bye peck on the cheek, not aware of the subtle turning of his face towards her.

Victoria's heart sunk, her cheeks flushing with an uncontrollable wave of scarlet embarrassment as she felt her lips touch the corner of his.

'God what did I do?! Did he notice?!'

The answer to the latter was obvious, for Enrique was staring down at her with another one of those unreadable looks. This one was somehow different. In a mist of uncontainable feelings Victoria slanted her head towards his face again, this time the target of her lips being unmistakable.

CLICK! FLASH!

"What the hell?" Enrique heard himself say as his eyes squinted out of the temporary blindness caused by a bright, bluish, flashing light. To his left, Victoria was already up and on her way towards the culprit: an average height, thin man whose pants were rolled up to his knees in a futile attempt to keep them dry as he stood amidst the waves aiming a camera at the pair of fighters.

Two more flashes, then the photographer decided to run for his life as Victoria closed up on him. He stumbled into the water, miraculously salvaging his electronic equipment from getting soaked, and then ran for dear life again, this time on the dryer sand.

"What the HELL are you doing!" Victoria yelled, and was about to sprint in pursuit only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't bother." Truth was, Enrique had other things to worry about... and restraining Victoria from impaling this man's limbs to a useless mush was not on his list of priorities.

"But..." She turned around to face Enrique, and suddenly remembered just why the pictures must have been taken. She felt the blush on her cheeks again. "I..." she began to mutter something, before having Enrique hand her the bag she had left behind.

"Let's get you back to the hotel."

Victoria was more than grateful for the change of subject.
 

~*~*~*~

--Dry Dock 3, 11:38PM--

It didn't take long to discover the reason for the smell.

At the desk with the computer, a figure was slouched forward over the keyboard. Closer inspection not only revealed the hole from a gunshot in the side of his skull, it showed maggots had already set up residence in his brain. Natalie stepped back and suppressed a retch. The computer screen was blankly white, with its drive case open. To get a better look would mean getting close to the body, and she wanted to keep her lunch down. Let the clean up guys worry about it.

"So we came here for a days-old dead guy? I thought we had plenty of those..."

Parker's flat tone reprimanded her. "It's a murder scene, so it's not like we didn't find anything here, Wyn. You check the closets and be sure of things. I'm heading back."

Somewhere in her brain, a little red flag popped up. Resolutely, she pushed it back down. "...Fine."

He went back the way they'd come, and she proceeded to the area they'd not yet checked. The rest of the room was unremarkable, if one ignored the questionable contents of various jars on the shelves. She would take a closer look later, when the lights were on and the clean up crew was down here.

The first closet she opened contained a cold storage unit with vials of blood and serums she wouldn't know how to identify. The second contained something far more disturbing, something that made her jump back with a small shriek when she discovered it.

Inside a lit tank containing a viscous, milky-blue liquid was the body of... well, what the hell would one call it? Keeping her gun trained on it, Natalie stepped closer, praying it really was dead.

It had no skin. None... but was larger than a man and roped with muscle. The body was shaped like a human male... but the forearms were thick, with sharp talons in place of fingers. A gaping maw lined with razor, pointed teeth were lax, an impossibly long and reptilian tongue hanging out. There were no eyes... but the brain covered the skull, rather than being protected by it.

Natalie caught her breath, forgetting the stench of the room or her mission, thinking only that this thing must belong to Umbrella, that the coloration of its brain and flesh reminded her too strongly of the pictures she'd viewed earlier. Files she now deeply regretted not finishing, but she didn't have time to regret it for long.

Gunshots rang from above.

With the speed she was known for in the arena, Natalie backtracked and found the exit of the room. She raced down the hall, up the stairs, heart racing as she tried her communications device again.

"Dammit, somebody answer me!"

Nothing.

She cursed and went through the rooms of the first floor with the shotgun leading. Now she could hear voices. A female shouting. Sandoval.

Natalie reentered the room they'd started in just in time to see the body of Lars tumble down the stairs. From his open, expressionless eyes, she knew he was already dead. Blood leaked from under his arm and poured from his neck, where his armor didn't protect him.

"Sh-t!" she cursed, stepped over the body and ran up the stairs as more gunfire sounded.

Pinned down where the hallway met the stairs, Sandoval was exchanging gunfire with the enemy. Wyn was almost to the top of the stairs when she called out. "How many?"

"Just one confirmed, but damn, he's good!"

"I thought you were supposed to be out of the building!"

"What? What are you talking about? We lost communication on our way to you and were about to head back when we heard something upstairs. We came up and got attacked!"

So Parker was lying. Wynshire muttered the foulest invective to come to her creative mind.

"Bastard tagged Lars in the side on his first shot. Stupid kid wouldn't fall back, tried to keep shooting..."

Natalie could tell the older woman was rattled by the way her hands shook as she reloaded. She moved into position to cover and returned fire at the enemy with Claire. She caught a glimpse of him at the end of the hall, ducking into a doorway for cover. The other end of the hall seemed empty, the stairs situated at the middle.

"Did you see the SAC?"

"No... he split off from you?"

"Just a few minutes ago, before I heard the shots."

Sandoval cursed, stepped around the corner to fire.

And lost her head. Literally.

Natalie watched it as if it were in slow motion. A blade attached to a chain sliced through the air and her fellow agent's neck, retracting in the next instant as the head rolled down the steps and the body crumpled.

Hot blood sprayed over Natalie's shoulder, but it only took a breath for her to collect her wits and run. Back down the stairs, turned so that the shotgun covered her retreat. She saw someone start to enter the top of the stairs, one small, pale hand holding the blade that had cut down Sandoval. Natalie let loose with the shotgun, sending a spray of scattershot at the person and into the corner of the wall. A short cry rang out, then heavy footsteps from the other direction. She reached the bottom and bolted for the door. At a full run, she went for the van.

Inside she found what she both dreaded and expected. Matthews and Zieman, both dead, throats slit. The equipment was trashed, so was the wiring under the dash.

"F--K!" she seethed, grabbing a box of shells and running for it. She made it halfway down the block before a shot shattered the staccato rhythm of her heavy boot-falls. Pain lanced through her left calf and took her down, sending her tumbling in the momentum she'd built.

She cursed with vehemence and looked behind her. There, she saw something that sent black tendrils of hate throughout her heart, coiling into the bitterest resentment.

Walking towards her from the building was her SAC, Beretta in hand. Claire was empty; she'd have to take time to reload it. The shotgun she was reloading now, but had a thought in the middle of her rage.

If she killed Parker with nothing to show for his deception, she would be in trouble. True that Jack's files supposedly gave proof of him selling info to Umbrella, but what if something happened to those? What if Jack got the wrong person? Worse yet, what if something happened to her tonight, and those files were never found. Rolling over as if trying to crawl away, leaving a trail of blood from the wound on her leg, Natalie pulled out her cell phone and kept it hidden. She pushed a few buttons until the recording device was engaged, then slipped the slender phone under one fingerless glove, the receiver sticking out just enough not to be muffled.

She heard his footsteps, heard the leather of his shoes creaking. He was close enough, now. She rolled onto her back, shotgun aimed for him. "I knew something was up. Shoulda went with my instincts and put one between your eyes in that basement, you son of a bitch," she hissed.

Kyle grinned at her and made a mocking gesture. "But you didn't, and here we are. A shame that so many resources were wasted for this, Wyn. But you know, we had to make it look real."

"For what?" she demanded between clenched teeth, finger itching on the trigger of the SPAS-12.

"For making this exchange, of course." He gestured behind him, where she could see another man exiting the building. The shooter.

"You're giving me to them, aren't you? You're trading me to Umbrella."

"We all gotta make a living somehow, Wyn." He knelt, nudging her gun to one side with his, wearing that condescending smirk she hated so much. "And I don't really care for how you make yours, either. You know, if it wasn't for you and your bullsh-t, always bucking command, I'd be a lot closer to Assistant Director right now, and I'd never have to put up with you again."

He fired a round into her flak jacket, drawing a gasp from her as the jarring impact of the bullet knocked the air from her, crushing down on her ribs for an instant that felt entirely too long. She fought to draw breath again, growled and pulled the trigger on her shotgun, though she was too winded to lift it.

The pellets sparked and ricocheted off the ground, two catching Parker in the leg. He leapt back with a curse, holding the offended and bleeding shin. He'd only been grazed by one, the other was embedded. But the pain was ignored in favor of survival as she fired again, hitting him full on in the chest.

Unfortunately, he also wore a vest, and was knocked back and winded the same as she'd been. She leaned up, aiming again, this time fully intending to kill him. "Eat this you c--k-munching-"

He fired before she did, but the report wasn't as loud. A stinging pain erupted in her thigh, and she looked down to find a dart protruding from it. In his other hand she saw a second weapon, a tranquilizer gun. Flashbacks came to her of how he'd apprehended her and Jin weeks ago. The effects began to take hold, numbing and slowing her, but adrenaline kept her awake.

She tried to fire again, but her gun drooped too far, and as Parker recovered he ambled closer.

With a harsh kick he sent the shotgun from her grasp, and with two more he had her curled with her hand protectively over her midsection. Claire was snatched out of her holster and thrown a few feet away.

Natalie coughed, tasting blood. "You bastard... son of a bitch..."

Kyle snorted a laugh. Rez now stood behind him, glaring at Parker as the Agent reveled in his little victory.

"Oh, come on, Wyn, it's not like I'm going to kill you. Although, when they're done with you, you might wish you were dead. And your fiancé... looks like he might have been better off not getting mixed up with you after all."

Blue eyes lost none of their intensity to the drug in her bloodstream. "You're going to die for this, Parker," she swore.

He turned from her with a careless laugh, now facing the man Natalie didn't recognize, but hated already. "Now, I trust my account has already been credited?"

Sergei looked at the woman on the ground as he answered with a small smirk. "I'm told it's being taken care of now."

"Good. Now, go back and tell your bosses I want another eighty thousand."

Rez looked at Parker with extreme annoyance in his eyes. "Let's get two things straight. One, I'm no messenger boy. Two, you get only what you deserve. I told you not to damage her..."

"I was shot!"

"I told you not to come yourself. Besides, it gives you a plausible alibi as the only survivor. And as I said, you damaged the package, you stupid f-ck."

While the two argued, Natalie stayed curled on her side, back to them. Numb fingers pulled out her cell phone and worked clumsily at the keys. She stopped recording, then typed in a text message she dearly hoped Jin could figure out and that she could remember accurately from glancing over the map at the briefing.

Latitude.... It was... 212... 11... 7N...

She pressed the keys as soon as the numbers came to memory, but hadn't the time to spell out "latitude/longitude".

212117N
1575749W

She hit the send key. When her phone's background screen showed again, she looked longingly at the picture of her sleeping lover. She burned the image into her head, knowing that perhaps that morning would be the last she'd ever see of him, or rather, the last he'd see of her. On a final impulse, she put a hand to her throat and jerked loose the necklace she wore with her cross. Removing the only two other pieces of jewelry that mattered, both rings, she slipped them onto the cord and looped it twice around the phone's hinge before flipping it shut. The argument behind her had gotten heated, and she could hear the shooter threatening Parker, and her boss's silence.

She wouldn't be another mysterious casualty. He would know what happened to her and who caused it. God willing, he'd use the information wisely. Praying the damn thing didn't break into pieces, she sent the phone skidding across the pavement, landing under the van.

Rez turned toward her at the sound, saw her hunched over with her hands moving. He stalked over, kicked her to roll her on her back, and sneered when he saw scattered shell casings. It looked like she'd inched closer to her revolver, which he now picked up and examined. "Nice gun," she heard him say dryly, right before he drove the butt of his rifle into the side of her head and all went black.

~*~*~*~

--U.P.R.F., Level 6 - Black Card Sector, Umbrella exclusive room, 12:01AM--

"You have the specimen? Yes? Yes? Good. Hurry back. We need to repair her as soon as possible so we can begin work. No. We'll see. Goodbye."

Dr. Anthony Reis hung up the phone and smiled pleasantly to Dr. Noiv. Both sat across from each other at a table, upon which the only thing was a single red file.

"Success?" Noiv asked.

"Obviously," Reis responded, opening the file. Within it was a stack of documents, the top being a copy of "Mien's" tournament ID, a picture of her without the disguise, and one of her federal badge ID. Beside each of those were various lines of information linked with her. Taking a red marker from his lab coat pocket, Anthony marked "acquired" at the top of the page. He closed the file.

"We have two subjects in custody. Were we not to have more by now? I do not care for the neighbors we've allowed to move in..." Noiv referred of course to the separate but symbiotic Shadaloo facility.

Reis grunted, "Neither do I, but it seems our contract will hold for the time being. He supplies funds, which we need after the loss of both resources and public trust, and we provide him with what he wants, if we are successful."

"The transference of a soul isn't something I'd imagine such a crude organization is capable of."

"Be that as it may, we still don't know a lot about this energy so broadly termed as ki, qi, or chi. However Bison plans to transfer his own is not our concern. We simply have to make sure his host body can be made to never require another transfer, or maintain for many years at the least."

"I thought we were designing other ... things of interest for him?"

"We are, yes. Those are important, but apparently his plans regarding these 'relics' he's been lusting after are slow in coming together, and may fall apart entirely," Reis replied.

"How surprising," Noiv snorted, his hint of sarcasm evident. "A group of ancient devices meant to contain and bestow unfathomable power? Preposterous."

Reis stood and walked to his filing cabinet, used his personal keycard to open it, revealing a drawer full of other files, all red. As he replaced the one on Natalie Wynshire, his thumb brushed over a few others, nudging them open to reveal other pictures. A Japanese girl with short brown hair, dark eyes and a winning smile. A Hispanic woman with light brown and blond hair. A man with black hair and gold eyes, among several others.

He closed the drawer, which automatically locked back.

"But we're really here for the projects, aren't we? I mean, money's worth only goes so far when compared to science..." Jacques's eyes lit up on the last words, giving him a slightly mad look.

Reis smiled, "Only so far, yes. At least we have these subjects. I have a feeling this new one may prove quite useful, in more ways than originally intended."

"If we can control her," Noiv countered.

"Yes, if. If not, then..." he turned, looking over the rest of the room.

Around them, lining the walls of the expansive room, were rows of tanks, uncountable at a glance. Inside each was a body, some mangled and unrecognizable, some too human in their last moment of terror or despair. All of them were failures. All of them were 'learning experiences'. None of them were alive.

At the end of each row stood a few empty tanks, like coffins waiting morbidly to be filled.