Right here, believe it or not, here is definitely where you've reached the home stretch of the story...honest, it won't be much further to go before the bloody finish line. A big thank you to those who have read this far, and you're going to start to see serious payoff...

...because the relationship between Cheryl Mason and Rebecca Chambers is about to reach a beautiful plateau...but only if Cheryl can rise above her self-loathing and uncertainty. Her sweet Rebecca will have a lot to do with that, but neither will be prepared as a dark force confronts them. You veteran Silent Hill fans will know her as the Memory of Alessa, who last tried to kill Cheryl when she was Heather Mason in SILENT HILL 3! But the reasons for the Memory being there might surprise you...

...and finally, you SH lovers will see someone sing a song you might fondly remember - the title of the chapter will give you a hint!

RESIDENT EVIL X SILENT HILL: JUDGMENT DAY

written by Charles Spencer,
inspired by Ygure

Chapter 32:

"WITH YOU, WITH ME"

-1-

Rebecca Chambers woke up from the dreamless darkness with a start. Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes snapped open...her lithe, lovely body shuddered where she laid as she felt so disoriented. The last she remembered she was being attacked by monsters, but her first coherent thought was for the young woman from Silent Hill, the one Rebecca had felt a building, undeniable attraction to from the first moment they met. The pixie whispered needfully, "Cheryl...?"

There was no answer. The disorientation faded fast, supplanted by the pure need the sweet Medical Specialist felt in her heart. Rebecca Chambers sat up quickly and said louder, "Cheryl!" But there was no one in this derelict, dirty, hopeless room where she realized she was lying on a cot that had seen much, much better days. Her last memories really came back to her and the last she knew, she had been hit by something hard, and...that was it. She really began to ask herself if she was knocked unconscious as she fought those monsters, why wasn't she dead? How in the hell did she end up in this room, wherever she was?

Rebecca had been saved somehow...and she thought and hoped and prayed with all her heart she knew why. She looked to a disused table in the room and saw her backpack, which contained provisions from medical supplies and ammo. And that mysterious dark vial of Aglaophotis she took from Doctor Burton Young long ago. Her 9mm Beretta and suppressed MP5K were on the table, too. Rebecca called out again, "Cheryl!" She got up from the cot and her arms wrapped around herself. "Honey, are you here?! Where are you?" She looked around again and asked herself aloud, "Come to think of it, where the heck am I?!" She looked at the sole door for this room...no, it was more like an office...and her lips turned thin as she frowned. Was it a good idea to leave this room, considering all that had happened to Black Falls?

That wasn't even a question. Rebecca needed to find Cheryl. She moved to the table and picked up her sidearm...the girl checked it carefully to make sure it was fully functional and loaded, and it was. Holding it firmly in her right hand, Rebecca moved to the door...it opened slowly for her with an ominous creak...and she stepped out on full alert. "Oh...!" Surprised, she took a few steps further...

...into the huge interior space of a church. But it was a bleak, horrid version of what was meant to be a place of worship. The floor beneath Rebecca was in fact fencing, heavily corroded and thick with dry blood, and below it was nothing but darkness. The church itself could hardly be called that - it was worse than condemned, worse than deconsecrated. It was a dark, ruined vision. Everything was filthy and beyond old. Many of the pews on the first floor were missing or wrecked beyond repair. The structure of the place itself was almost skeletal up to the darkened second floor gallery. And the stained glass windows...Rebecca saw that there was something wrong with them, as well. The pictures the different colors of glass created didn't represent any faith the girl recognized. The stained glass created images that were dark, threatening, anything but holy. She took one look at the altar, and wished she didn't. Oh, it looked more like a place of sacrifice...there was so much blood there...

Like the rest of Black Falls, Vermont, even this place had been changed because of the darkness.

Pure dread lurched in Rebecca's heart as she called out again with worry, "Cheryl!? Are you here?!" But there was nothing. Only silence. Rebecca hoped Cheryl was all right as she felt thudding loneliness. The pixie needed the one she grew to adore desperately as she moaned softly, "Oh, Cheryl...!"

That was when Rebecca Chambers heard someone begin to sing.

-2-

Rebecca recognized the voice...it was Cheryl Mason from high above...oh, her voice...the voice was so filled with emotion and yet so absent of any hope, it nearly made the pixie's heart break...

Blue sky to forever
Green grass blows in the wind, dancing
It would be a much better sight
With you, with me

As Cheryl sang, Rebecca moved as fast as she could through the nave to the front of the building, to the tower...

If you hadn't met me
I'd be fine on my own, baby
Never felt so lonely
Then you came along

...she found the door to the stairwell and began to climb them quickly. As she ascended, the pixie holstered her Beretta. She didn't need it. Not with Cheryl.

So now what should I do?
I'm strung out, addicted to you
My body aches now that you're gone
My supply fell through

The closer she got to the roof, the words of Cheryl's song resonated deeply in Rebecca's soul...oh god, how lonely had she been, as well? And she did need the blonde, as well. The need was so clear and complete...

You gladly gave me everything you had and more
You craved my happiness
When you made me feel joy it made you smile
But now, I feel your stress

Rebecca truly would have given anything, everything to make Cheryl happy...and she accepted why beyond any reservation. She finally reached the door to the church's roof - it felt like Cheryl was just beyond! Yet...she hesitated, only briefly...she wanted to cry hearing and feeling such sadness from the blonde...Rebecca gathered her strength as she heard the last of Cheryl's song...

Love was never meant to be such a crazy affair, no
And who has time for tears?
Never thought I'd sit around and cry for your love

'Til now...

Silence. Rebecca stifled a needful sob. And she opened the door.

Rebecca found herself on the steel-and-blood rooftop, as warped and twisted as everything else in town, and she immediately felt the light rain make her wet as it fell from the eternal darkness above. Her heart lifted as she saw the blonde, standing on the other side of the building at its rear, her back to Rebecca. There were buildings near and far in this part of town...it was a bleak landscape that should rightfully have only belonged in a nightmare. Rebecca ignored all of it like she ignored the rain as she moved carefully yet urgently to Cheryl.

The girl from Silent Hill must have sensed her, must have felt

(my love my stress)

her approach, but she didn't move as she stood there. Rebecca couldn't see Cheryl's face, but she could tell that the blonde's hands were in front of her, like she was holding something. The pixie felt inexplicable dread along with her complete longing. Rebecca stopped only a few yards away...she said, "Cheryl...?" Her voice was so thin, so full of stress, so full of need. "Cheryl?" The blonde didn't answer. "Cheryl, please talk to me. Tell me what happened...together we can figure out what to do next - !"

Cheryl answered Rebecca...there was a frightening finality to her quiet tone... "You can see what's happened, Becca. The worst has happened and I couldn't stop it."

Rebecca shook her head. "That's not what I mean, honey! Cheryl, I saw you trying to stop the darkness...I saw how much pain you were put through...!"

The blonde's head bowed a little...her entire body stiffened. "You saw me change."

They were both so wet by this moment...Rebecca said gently, "Yes, but that doesn't matter! I promise you it doesn't matter, honey."

"Of course it does. I don't know what happened to me, but...it felt like something in me was finally given release. I felt electric...supercharged, y'know? At that moment, I felt like I could do anything, but..." Cheryl shook her head slowly. "But it wasn't enough. Even with all of the power I was trying to marshall, I couldn't stop the darkness."

"Another gateway opened, right? This darkness came from somewhere else...just like the fog. You were in so much pain when you tried to stop it, Cheryl." Rebecca hated to question the blonde, but she had to. "What happened? W-was it like before, when you tried to get rid of the fog..."

"Becca - "

"Cheryl, please!" Rebecca had begun to cry...she couldn't help herself seeing Cheryl like this, feeling the blonde's desolation. "I know you blame yourself, I know you think you failed, but we need to make sense of this! When you tried to get rid of the fog before, you said something stopped you...somehow your power was turned back on yourself and it caused you agony." She slowly drew a little closer as she asked, "Did that happen again when you tried to stop the darkness?"

Slowly, Cheryl answered, "Yes. Like before, I could see something that wasn't human...it only looked like a man. It was working the controls of this huge machine somewhere. It...the machine kept me from stopping the darkness."

"Do you have any idea how...?"

"No. Still, I felt like...I was connected to the machine somehow...but I don't understand how that can be."

Rebecca ran all of it through her head...her lovely expression hardened. "Something is working with Reeve Meyers. This creature, whatever it is, it's like you said...it's helping Reeve make this nightmare possible! Maybe we can hunt for it, find this monster and that damned machine...it's not too late, Cheryl! There's still hope!"

Cheryl's head turned a little... "You sweet, amazing girl. You honestly believe that."

Oh god, and Cheryl didn't? Rebecca Chambers told the blonde she had grown to adore, "I believe in you, Cheryl. I believe you can turn this shit around and make everything better."

"Why? I failed twice before because we're dealing with something that can turn my own power against me. The same result will happen again and again no matter how many times I try, Becca. I did fail...I am to blame for everything."

Rebecca gasped...she felt such incredible sadness then, as well. "Oh, honey..."

Cheryl's voice became so much gentler then. "I know it hurts you, Becca...I'm so deeply sorry for that, I swear...but it's still true. Because of whatever Reeve's working with, the thing using that goddamn machine, I can't do what I need to do. I can't stop this...I can't save you, and that means I'm worthless, doesn't it?"

"Cheryl...!" God, it did bring Rebecca such pain in her heart to hear Cheryl say that about herself...how do you help someone believe in themselves?

How do you even start?

Cheryl said quietly, "Dahlia told me so long ago I was good for nothing...and she was right. I couldn't save my dad. I couldn't stop Reeve. But I can still stop this, Becca. I can still save you."

"What...?"

"For the longest time, since I discovered The Order was still alive, I knew they'd want me to be the mother of their God again. And I knew there was one certain way to stop that from happening." Then, finally, reluctantly, Cheryl Mason turned slowly to fully look at Rebecca...

...and the Medical Specialist saw that all this time, Cheryl was holding her Colt Peacemaker...the .45-caliber single action pistol was cradled in the blonde's hands carefully.

The girl from Silent Hill looked down upon it as she told Rebecca: "If I die, The Order will never, ever get what they want."

Crushing horror fell upon Rebecca Chambers' heart then. Her blue eyes grew huge. She whispered, "No...nonononono, that can't be right - !"

Cheryl's hazel eyes gazed at Rebecca with a sad certainty. "It is, sweet Becca. If I end myself here and now, God won't be born on Earth. Paradise will never happen." Her eyes shifted to express how much she cared for and adored Rebecca. "I...I don't mean to hurt you...I'd never, ever hurt you...but it may be the only way to save you."

"The only way out is to give up, huh?"

They were both surprised to hear that question...it came from toward the church's tower, not far behind Rebecca. They both looked...and they saw someone else approaching them on the rooftop. It was a terrible sight, a brunette girl who was hideously burned beyond anything recognizable as she wore a seared down vest, skirt and boots. Cheryl's eyes widened then with complete shock because she had seen this being before...when she tried to kill her in Silent Hill 13 years ago on a hellish carousel. Rebecca had never seen her before, yet this new arrival reminded her in a strange way of Cheryl!

The being reached them, and her dark eyes were fixed on Cheryl...her ruined face grinned wide as she teased lightly, "You silly rabbit! You tried that before, and it went very badly...or maybe you need a reminder. Who better to bring back your memory...but me?"

-3-

The dark being stared at Cheryl, who could only look at the shadow with mute terror, and said, "Surprised to see me, Cheryl? Don't be. No matter how much you want to deny me, my memory will always be with you."

But this dark wraith was getting too close to Cheryl, and Rebecca Chambers was truly a warrior as she drew her 9mm pistol and pointed it at the being to defend the one she adored. She cried, "Whatever you are, don't come any closer! I said STOP!"

The thing stopped and looked at Rebecca - she never lost her grin. "Or you'll shoot? Go ahead, you'll have as much luck shooting a shadow. That's all I am." She turned back to Cheryl and said, "But I'm much more than a shadow to you...isn't that right?"

Cheryl said with quiet fear, "The last time I saw you...you tried to kill me."

"Because you were pregnant with the Lord of Serpents and Reeds when you returned to Silent Hill 13 years ago. I felt the same way you do now, that your death would save the mortal world! But you fought me with the same desperation and passion you felt when you fought Claudia Wolf and The Order then. Where's your fight now, Cheryl?"

"I..." Cheryl looked down self-consciously...she wished she had an easy answer to that question.

The wraith sighed, "Anyway, killing yourself won't work. Not here."

Cheryl looked up at the dark reflection with surprise. "W-why?"

"Because there's something out there in the dark that won't let you die." There was a note of caution in the wraith's voice. "I can't say much, but after you returned to Silent Hill 13 years ago, it was watching over you. It wouldn't have let you die if anything happened to you then, the same as now, until you gave birth to God. I didn't know that at the time, I only cared about destroying you when I had the chance, because I..." She hesitated and finally said quietly. "I can't say anything more or it WILL know. Your powers have been keeping you 'invisible' to threats, right? It's been looking for you ever since you put Reeve Meyers to sleep...and it's very close."

Rebecca looked at Cheryl, confused. "'Put Reeve Meyers to sleep?'"

Cheryl said to the pixie in a cool tone, "It was while you were out cold, Becca. I wanted to kill him, but he won't be doing anything for a while." Cheryl focused on the wraith and asked, "What will know?"

The dark vision only looked back at Cheryl, silent.

Rebecca's gun was trembling as she pointed it at the wraith...she asked anxiously, "Cheryl, what IS she...?"

The burnt visage looked at Rebecca and said in an amused tone, "You haven't guessed yet, girl? You can't see the resemblance because of the burnt flesh, huh? Maybe this will help..." In mere moments, the wraith transformed. Her burnt and blasted skin across her body healed...and then paled to become ghostly white. Rebecca was stunned to see that the wraith had transformed into a virtual mirror image of Cheryl Mason. Almost. There were some differences, of course. This dark girl was so much younger, only a teenager, but the resemblance was beyond denial. The being's dark lips smiled. "Oh, and you can call me Alessa."

"What?!" Rebecca looked at the wraith with angry denial. "No way, that's impossible! Cheryl was Alessa Gillespie in another life! You CAN'T be her!"

The being said, "I didn't say I was. I only said you can call me that." The dark girl gestured to Cheryl Mason and clarified, "I'm simply her Memory of Alessa...but her power and the worlds where the fog and darkness came from make so many things possible." The Memory looked at Cheryl, gazed into her eyes. "There was so much you wanted to discard the moment you died and were reborn in the baby Harry Mason saved. It was your last wish in that moment of fusion and transition, to make yourself a clean slate and leave all the memories of your previous lives behind."

Rebecca stared at the Memory...she was trying with all her might to understand. She asked tentatively, "You represent her memories of Alessa Gillespie...?" Before the Memory could answer, the pixie blinked and blurted, "W-wait, Cheryl wanted that to happen...?" Rebecca looked at Cheryl, who could only stare at her dark mirror.

The wraith almost laughed. "Of course! After all of the shit I went through, can you blame her?!" The Memory gave Rebecca an examining gaze. "Ha, I shouldn't have to explain it to you! You know as well as she does what it means to have something in your past you'd give anything to forget."

"I..." Rebecca almost froze. This thing knew somehow...she knew what Rebecca was so desperately afraid of Cheryl knowing...? Rebecca was on the verge of saying she didn't know what the thing was talking about, but:

The Memory of Alessa snarled, "Don't even try to deny it! I can sense it in you just as keenly as she can! Unlike her, though, I'm not so hesitant to really look and see what you're so afraid to simply tell her - !"

"Leave Becca alone." Cheryl Mason stared at the Memory with hard eyes, her stance stiff and ready. She jammed her Peacemaker back into the beltline of her jeans and said coolly, "You are here for me, aren't you?"

The wraith looked at Cheryl and nodded, a small smile still on her face. "Yeah. As you died in Silent Hill back in 1983, as you were reborn into a new baby, you tried to leave your memories behind in the darkness like baggage, right? A second chance. A clean slate. But something else happened you didn't want to: when you left your memories of me and little Cheryl behind, some of your power remained within us! The kind of power that opens gateways to other worlds! Too bad for you another knew how much power we had and took advantage of that fact."

Cheryl blinked. "What...?"

"You don't understand? That's all right...if you're lucky enough, if you're strong enough, you will in time. I..." Suddenly the Memory seemed distracted, in pain. She shook off whatever she just suffered and declared, "I can't stay long. It took so much to project myself here in the first place..."

Rebecca shook her head...this was all verging on being too damn much. "Wh-what do you mean?"

The Memory pointed at Cheryl and informed, "Ask her sometime in the future, girl...like I said, she will understand, but only if she's strong enough!"

Cheryl hesitantly asked, "Wait, if I tried to forget everything, why didn't it work? After I escaped Silent Hill with Douglas 13 years ago, I recalled all of my memories from my previous lives...!"

The wraith said with annoyance, "No matter how much you wanted to forget and even separate your memories from you, they're part of who you are. There ARE a lot of things beyond even your power to change, girl. Some things you hated and were ashamed of so much, but you could only push them down and out of your sight and mind. Like Elle said, it's a kind of natural defense. But you can only bury a memory for so long. Like that night Dahlia violated me and burned me alive, that shit Reeve Meyers did to you in that hospital with his drugs helped you remember. It would only take another push to make you recall other things you made yourself forget, too!" The Memory giggled then. "Ha-ha, denial really isn't just a river in Egypt, huh?"

Rebecca asked fearfully, "Cheryl...?" But the girl from Silent Hill didn't respond. She only stared at the dark other.

The Memory grinned and cocked her head toward the pixie as she gazed into Cheryl's eyes. "She still doesn't know everything about you, and you're so thankful for that. You wouldn't want her to know because you don't want to remember the truth of why you hate yourself so much. Why you see yourself as a monster."

Cheryl began to shake her head slowly...her eyes were complete fear as they became wet...oh god, she was beginning to remember something else...she whispered, "Please stop." Rebecca drew closer to the blonde - she had no idea what had begun to happen, and she was afraid to.

There was no more humor in the Memory of Alessa's voice as she spoke. "No more denial, Cheryl. The truth will set you free...the truth might even save you both. I know you have fight left in your heart and soul. If that wasn't true, you would have killed yourself to save her long ago." She had nodded toward Rebecca for emphasis. "Death would have taken away the pain and shame too, right? I don't just mean from being unloved and used...being raped."

Cheryl repeated in a quiet, desperate voice, "Stop..." Tears flowed down her cheeks as she started to tremble...

The Memory fixed on the wide-eyed pixie then. She said to Rebecca, "You believe in her so much. I wonder if your faith will be shaken when you know." Suddenly Cheryl broke down with a tortured sob, her weeping eyes squeezed shut as she fell to her knees...her arms wrapped around herself, and Rebecca felt so damnably helpless, she could only crouch next to Cheryl and take the girl's shoulders in her gentle hands. Seeing Cheryl in such pain made Rebecca cry, as well. But the Memory seemed inhuman and unaffected as she said lightly, "Yes, THERE we are...you shoved it so far down into your subconscious, Cheryl, but it's coming back to you now. Like a Jack-in-the-box would pop up if you play enough of his music...!"

Cheryl couldn't look at Rebecca...her lips were trembling with the rest of her as she said in a voice full of agony, "Please...oh, no..."

Completely dismayed, Rebecca whirled on the memory and screamed, "For god's sake, whatever you're doing, PLEASE STOP IT!"

The Memory said, "I'm not doing anything. All Cheryl needed was a push, like I said, and seeing me must have been enough." The Memory's dark eyes narrowed as she stared at Rebecca. "You KNOW you weren't shown everything, girl! In all the memories of her previous lives she gave to you, there was something missing, wasn't there? Something of incredible importance." This dark vision who represented the memories of Alessa Gillespie looked down at Cheryl Mason and her expression tightened with shame. "Thirty years ago, I called out to little Cheryl in Silent Hill, and Harry Mason took her there. But it wasn't because I wanted to be whole again, it wasn't because I wanted to be saved. Oh, no. I needed little Cheryl to do what I couldn't, to use - "

Rebecca Chambers' voice was thin with terror as she said, "The Seal..." It was what she had felt since she received Cheryl's memories in that back alley. She had felt something was missing, held back by the blonde because she wanted so terribly to forget and did...

...until now. Cheryl Mason moaned, "The Seal of Metatron..." Her head was bowed as she shuddered on her knees...her tears fell copiously with the rain in the darkness of Black Falls. "...oh, I needed to forget...I hated myself so much for what I wanted to do..."

Rebecca whispered, "Cheryl...?!"

The Memory of Alessa said flatly, "Tell her, Cheryl. Tell her or I will!"

-4-

For a few silent, horrible moments, Rebecca could only watch as Cheryl gathered her strength...and then she managed to speak, in a voice full of pain that felt so raw, what she spoke of might as well have happened yesterday.

Still unable to look at Rebecca, the girl from Silent Hill said, "Becca...the part of me that was Alessa Gillespie in Silent Hill had known only pain every moment of every day since she was burned alive in her own bed. The only reason she stayed alive was because Dahlia needed me alive...and without the other half of me, without Cheryl Mason, I couldn't give birth to God. But I needed to die, Becca. The only thing I wanted was to die. I needed to end the pain...but I couldn't kill myself. Dahlia wouldn't let me, and that bastard Kaufmann helped her by keeping me drugged constantly. But...

"...but there was something else I could do in spite of Kaufmann. Pain was all I could feel. It was my life, and I'd have given anything to end it. I would have done anything. So...s-so I reached out with my power...and I didn't have to reach far to find my other half. To find little Cheryl Mason." She shook her head slowly as she wept. "I knew I might have been playing into Dahlia's hands reaching out for Cheryl, she needed my other half as badly as I did so God would be born. But I was so desperate...and I was so, so angry. I needed to die, and I didn't care what might happen."

Cheryl gained enough strength to look at Rebecca with haunted eyes.

"A-as my other half, as little Cheryl, I felt Alessa's call and I was drawn to it. My father Harry, he was such a good and loving man, he would have given me anything to make me happy. He took me to Silent Hill and...and then there was the crash. Harry was knocked out, but I was okay...and then my other half called out to me again. I answered Alessa, and she told me that..." Renewed agony and shame in her expression. "...she wanted to play a game. I trusted her because I could feel there was a connection between us. I thought I could trust Alessa as much as I trusted Harry." She couldn't look at Rebecca. "I was wrong."

Rebecca glanced at the Memory of Alessa, who simply looked at them with an expression of neutrality. Waiting. The pixie asked quietly, "What did Alessa...what did you want, Cheryl?"

Cheryl said with great sadness, "I told you before. All I wanted was to die." Another long moment passed. And Cheryl continued, but it took such effort:

"About a year before Dahlia sacrificed me, I was curious to look at some old documents and tomes Dahlia had that recorded the history of The Order, their rites and mystic knowledge dedicated to their God. I focused on some old books Dahlia was really protective of, and I found something. It was an ancient ward of power called the Seal of Metatron. I asked Dahlia about it, and she said it was worthless. She said it was forgotten in those old pages for good reason and wouldn't say anything more about it. But I knew she was lying...I could feel that she was afraid.

"The Seal of Metatron is a ward of great power...but that means it also needs great power from someone to use it. It was far beyond Dahlia or any of her predecessors who led The Order...but as I laid in that hospital in neverending agony for years, I remembered it." She paused for a long moment before she said, "And I knew instinctively I could use the Seal. It could cause great destruction or great miracles depending on how it's used. The game Alessa wanted Cheryl to play was...was to draw a large version of the Seal at certain strategic points across Silent Hill. Alessa showed Cheryl how to draw it, and she did perfectly. As she did...Alessa used that little girl as a conduit, to impart her power into each Seal to prepare them."

Rebecca could only stare at Cheryl...she didn't want to ask the question that was provoked in her heart and soul...she was suddenly, elementally afraid to.

Cheryl couldn't look at the pixie...she was so completely ashamed. "You're asking yourself why, Becca. Alessa had incredible power inside her, even in the state she was in. She guessed rightly that when little Cheryl finished scattering the Seals across Silent Hill, Alessa could activate them, use their combined power to...to destroy herself. But...b-but it would also have destroyed the entire town." She finished with a choked whisper, "A-and everything and everyone in it."

Rebecca Chambers almost stopped breathing...her wide eyes were full of disbelief. "But the half of you who was Cheryl...her father, your father Harry Mason - !"

Horrible pain in Cheryl Mason's expression then. "The half of me who was Alessa didn't care, Becca. Alessa made the part of me who was Cheryl, a girl who was innocent and knew nothing but love, do what she...what I wanted because I was insane and so full of pain and anger and I just wanted it all to stop." Cheryl began to break down as she moaned, "And I...I would have if Dahlia hadn't realized what I was doing and she captured Cheryl before she could complete laying down the Seals...!" The girl from Silent Hill couldn't say anymore as she cried again, the shame and sorrow bubbling terribly in her core.

Rebecca squeezed Cheryl's shoulders as they were on their knees together...the pixie wept with the blonde as she said sadly, "My god, Cheryl..."

The Memory of Alessa took a step closer to them as she said, "And when you remembered your previous lives after your return to Silent Hill, you were so horrified I - YOU could have done such a thing, you wanted to deny it completely...just like you wanted to suppress the horror you went through when Dahlia sacrificed you to her God. You always felt like you were different before The Order found you 13 years ago, Cheryl. You always felt like you had nothing in common with anyone else, that there was something wrong with you. The feeling in your heart that you were a monster only got worse, even after you made yourself forget that you would have destroyed the father who loved you, your innocent other half, and who knows how many more...just because the dark half of you wanted to commit suicide. You denied it with all your heart, even after the self-loathing remained. But like I said. All it took was a push, seeing me again and truly looking at your memories of Alessa Gillespie, to remember."

Cheryl Mason did remember, she remembered that terrible secret she so desperately wanted to deny, to forget completely...and she had, but like the Memory said, the self-loathing never left her. It all came back to her, for better or worse, and it was too much for the girl from Silent Hill to bear. Her faith in herself already so fragile, it threatened to shatter as she broke down and cried beyond any control. For Rebecca Chambers, it was truly like Hell to see her beloved in such torment. Not long ago, she felt the kind of happiness she had never known before simply knowing Cheryl was happy, to see the haunted blonde smile and then laugh joyously at the County Fair before everything went terribly wrong. And she wept with Cheryl in quiet agony as she stared at the blonde with her wide blue eyes, held her shoulders so gently...

The Memory of Alessa seemed completely unaffected by what they were both feeling...she looked at Rebecca and said, "Well. Now you know why Cheryl has such a low opinion of herself! It wouldn't surprise me if this changes how you feel about her. Well?"

The pixie began to tremble with renewed intensity as she cried hot tears...her beautiful face's expression tightened into something firmer, harder, yet so so lovely...and then Rebecca Chambers turned and lifted her face sharply to look at the Memory as she held Cheryl's shoulders with unflagging devotion. Her blue eyes were bright with fury, and her voice was incredible in its passion as she screamed at the wraith: "Oh, I think I can surprise you, you BITCH! THE WAY I FEEL HASN'T CHANGED AT ALL!" Rebecca turned to look at the blonde, and her eyes shifted to an elementally loving gaze as she declared loudly, "I believe in Cheryl, now more than ever, and nothing will ever change that!"

Feeling the sheer passion in the pixie's words, feeling it from her soul, Cheryl managed to look at Rebecca...the Memory seemed shocked and said in a quiet voice, "How can you say that...?"

Rebecca said, "I know you're just a memory or something, you're not really alive, but look at her, Alessa! Remembering what she almost did is causing her so much pain!" She looked at the Memory and angrily demanded, "Aren't you asking yourself why?! ARE YOU EVEN ABLE TO CARE?!" The pixie's bright, loving eyes bored into the Memory's. "It's for the same reason she wants to stop The Order and save everyone! Because she IS a good person with a beautiful heart! I felt it in this amazing girl since I first met her! I understand she tried to destroy herself and Silent Hill, but that's because she was driven to do it! For so long, the half of her who was YOU suffered constant agony that was too much to take! It made her full of hate and anger, and only god knows what ANYONE would do if they've been through so much torment! And if I was in her place here and now, I'd hate myself for being driven to do something so terrible, too! That's why I can't judge Cheryl for that, for something she almost did, and I WON'T!"

The sweet pixie turned to Cheryl...one of her hands moved to tenderly wipe the tormented tears from one of the blonde's cheeks. Rebecca said soothingly, "Honey...honey, please look at me...listen to me." Cheryl was listening...she looked at Rebecca desperately with her wide hazel eyes. "I could feel how good and kind Alessa was in the memories you gave to me...I felt how lonely she was. All she ever wanted was love. She simply wanted to be happy. And then your m...Dahlia sacrificed you, she and those monsters in The Order turned you into something you weren't meant to be!" Rebecca smiled radiantly upon Cheryl. "If you really were a monster, you wouldn't care so much about stopping The Order. If you weren't a good person, you wouldn't care about saving anyone from Reeve. That's the kind of person you are, Cheryl! And even if you are different from most anyone else, I don't care.

"You are not a monster, I promise you, but you've got to believe that as much as I do! Remember the Alessa Gillespie you were before Dahlia almost destroyed you. That's who you were, and that's who you are now! I remember your other half, little Cheryl, was just as wonderful. When both parts of your soul were brought together again, you became the person I see before me now." Rebecca tearfully, passionately implored, "I see someone so incredibly beautiful body and soul, Cheryl. I believe that with all of my heart...I believe in you! You can believe in yourself, too. I swear you can, honey!"

Cheryl Mason was completely overwhelmed as she felt Rebecca's touch, as she really listened...she said mournfully, "I...I-I want to believe that, Becca. Oh, god..." Her wide eyes were full of gratitude for the pixie as she wept. "Oh, it means ev...everything to know you believe that. Y-you can really see past how different I am..."

Rebecca Chambers said softly, "All I can see is you, Cheryl. Every beautiful inch of you. I swear that'll never change. Never!"

Rebecca drew close and held Cheryl in a sweet embrace...the blonde clutched the pixie's body so needfully in return. Even with all of the power she held, Cheryl had been so alone for so long, her image of herself so desolate...until now. Feeling the sweet, sweet warmth from Rebecca's heart gave her strength...and more importantly, she really began to believe in herself as she felt her beloved Becca's pure devotion. Even as they held each other and wept in the midst of hopeless darkness...

-5-

Slowly, reluctantly, gradually, their embrace relaxed...because the women remembered another was there. Cheryl and Becca looked at the Memory of Alessa...and the dark being was smiling upon them with unexpected fondness. The Memory said softly, "You are both so lucky to have found one another, Cheryl."

Cheryl and Rebecca stood again, holding each other's hand...the blonde said thickly, "No, not lucky. Blessed." Cheryl looked at the pixie and said with increasing strength, "I feel beyond blessed that this girl found me." Rebecca's smile was brilliant as she looked back at the girl from Silent Hill.

The Memory of Alessa said to the blonde, "You can still stop The Order, Cheryl. You do have the strength you need to defy your fate as the Mother of God. You have the power to change things for the better."

Rebecca's smile faded as she asked urgently, "But how can Cheryl change anything when Reeve and...and whatever is helping him is using Cheryl's power against her?! We still don't even understand how he could!"

The Memory shook her head, even as her eyes expressed sympathy. "Like I said, I can't tell you much...if I did, the thing working with Reeve will know. It's very close now...it's about to find you, and I can't stay." The dark being turned and began to walk back the way she came...

"Wait!" The wraith paused in her steps...Cheryl's expression was so anxious. "You said that someone took advantage of you, of the memories I tried to leave behind...they're taking advantage of the power I gave to you. You must mean the thing using that machine against me! A-and what about my Memory of Cheryl? You didn't say anything about her or the power she has!" Her hazel eyes narrowed as she demanded, "Do you have anything to do with my not being able to stop this?"

The Memory didn't look at them as she stood in the rain, but she answered, "You're getting warm, Cheryl...warmer than you think. I will say that there is one more thing you need to be reminded of. And when that happens, you'll begin to understand more than you could have imagined. And then you'll know what to do."

Rebecca frowned and almost yelled, "That doesn't help at all! We need to know what to do now!"

In response, the Memory of Alessa looked back at them...and her eyes were completely black. Her smile was haunting as she said, "When the moment is right...you will remember." The Memory turned and moved further away...but as she did, her dark body...discorporated into the omnipresent black all around them, like ashes scattering in the air. It was as if the Memory had never even been there.

Rebecca turned to Cheryl and took both of the blonde's hands in hers reassuringly...she said, "There's still hope, Cheryl. You can do this! I do believe in you, and I always will!"

"Why?" Cheryl asked that with such fragile need as she gazed into the pixie's blue eyes. "Why do you believe in me?" She implored softly, "Why do you care so much?" She had felt that sweet, soothing tenderness from Rebecca from the first moment they met...that and other feelings she felt from the pixie had only gotten stronger over time, too.

Rebecca's eyes shifted in expression to become much like Cheryl's...so quietly, elementally full of primal emotion...she said carefully, "Isn't it obvious? You must know what I'm feeling, honey. I think I started feeling it since the night I met you."

Drawn to each other by an intangible yet overwhelming power, the women drew much closer to each other...their faces were only inches apart. Cheryl said in a hushed tone, "I feel the same way. I've felt the same things since then, too." One of her hands lifted...and her fingers softly combed into the black hair on one side of the pixie's head. Rebecca closed her eyes and sighed pleasantly from the sensation. Cheryl told her beloved, "Please...I know what you're feeling, but tell me. I...I need to hear you say it..."

On the verge of swooning, giving herself to the touch and warmth of the blonde without hesitation, Rebecca told Cheryl everything she was feeling, her beautiful blue eyes hungry...so sweetly, wondrously hungry... "I need you, Cheryl, and not just because it feels so wonderfully right to be with you. I need you more than I need to breathe...I need to be with you always. I want to give you anything and everything for your happiness. I want to give you every bit of me so I'll always be yours and yours alone, honey." It wasn't a question of falling or not. The pixie knew beyond a doubt she had fallen for the blonde. Completely. Rebecca Chambers' slender arms slowly began to take Cheryl into an embrace as she said in an adoring whisper, with all of her heart: "I'm in love with you."

Cheryl felt such happiness, she trembled as she began to hold Rebecca, as well. What she felt before at the County Fair, that paled to what she felt in these perfect moments, in spite of all the horror around them. This was what happiness was, she knew without a doubt what it felt to be loved, she saw the love perfectly in the brunette's half-open eyes. Oh damn, where had this incredible pixie been for all her life...for any of her lives before? And Cheryl Mason expressed everything she felt, as well. "I love you too, Becca. I...I was so scared to say that before. I loved my father so much, and then...then he was taken away from me. I won't let anything happen to you ever. I'd die before anything takes you away from me because you're my reason to live...and you are my reason to fight Reeve and make everything all right again. All I'll ever do is for you..." Their faces were so, so close now. "...because I do truly love you, with all my heart and soul."

Rebecca sighed almost soundlessly as she listened...Cheryl's adoring words made her tremble and begin to cry with pure joy...

...and then no distance at all was between them as Cheryl and Rebecca began to kiss on the rooftop of the profane church in the heart of Black Falls. Their eyes closed as they were both overwhelmed by the feeling, as their slender arms wrapped around each other. The kiss they shared in front of the hospital long ago, the kisses they gave to one another for comfort during the fog, they were only a prelude to the sensations they had just become host to. After an unmeasured time this way, Cheryl lifted one of her hands to carefully hold the back of Rebecca's head...her fingers combed into dark hair...

...and the blonde carefully pulled the pixie's face closer as their faces tilted enough...and their mouths opened as they both felt the primal need to deepen this singular kiss. Cheryl's tongue reached out hungrily and found Rebecca's, and the brunette trembled as she issued a euphoric hum into Cheryl's mouth. Rebecca surrendered herself completely to Cheryl...their lips pressed together and their tongues danced with a virginal sweetness that slowly gave way to their hunger for each other. Their arms clutched each other tightly, passionately as their kiss continued, and neither wanted to stop giving to one another...

...they let themselves go to this first, incredible bliss they shared with one another, this expression of the love they felt for one another...

...moments melted away as they forgot where they were...

...all that mattered to them was each other...

...and then Cheryl felt it. Even if her Memory of Alessa didn't warn them that some thing was searching for her, the blonde had already been keeping her paranormal senses open to detect any approaching threats. In spite of the pure emotion they were host to as they kissed, Cheryl sensed something. Something malevolent, craven, completely slaved to an overwhelming, beyond-desperate need that Cheryl could only guess at.

Instinctively, Cheryl used her second sight and searched for the threat...she cursed herself as she slowly, lovingly began to disengage from her kiss with Rebecca...and then she found it!

Her second sight saw it, at one of the third floor windows of a ruined building on one side of the church! But it was only a glimpse because somehow it sensed that she was aware of it, and it disappeared from the window fearfully. The glimpse was enough, because she recognized it...the thing that commanded the infernal machine somewhere else that handicapped her powers. It only looked like a man, pale, disfigured and covered with filth and worse, faceless. It was only a glimpse, and she thought she saw something on each of its shoulders...the glimpse was too quick for her to get a good look. And then with a burst of anger, Cheryl lost track of the thing! Her second sight couldn't follow it...the thing had 'cloaked' itself from her somehow, dammit, in the same way she kept herself and Rebecca undetectable from any threats...!

Their kiss ended between the women as their lips slowly, reluctantly parted -

- and Cheryl Mason turned to look to Rebecca Chambers' left quickly as her right arm moved and she took her Peacemaker from the belt of her jeans...the blonde's other arm tightened around the pixie as she aimed into the darkness toward the building where she saw the thing. Rebecca was naturally surprised by Cheryl's move, but quickly recovered as her own gunhand moved to her holstered Beretta. The pixie's blue eyes looked at Cheryl...and then gazed into the darkness at the building her adored stared at.

Rebecca Chambers asked breathlessly, "Honey, what's wrong? What's out there?"

Even though the thing was gone, Cheryl Mason didn't relax...she said, "I wish I could tell you, Becca. I really, really wish I could tell you." The Memory told her the thing, whatever it was, wouldn't let her die. It was the same thing stopping her from saving Black Falls and making things right again. The girl promised herself that somehow, one way or the other, she'd know why.

The evil forces out there wanted this world to see its Judgment Day.

For Rebecca, Cheryl swore that goddamn thing and Reeve Meyers and what was left of The Order would face their own judgment.

TO BE CONTINUED