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I'm not sure how to introduce this chapter, honestly. If you're a true blue Silent Hill fan, you know to expect the unexpected when it's time to enter Nowhere. One of the big mysteries of this story will finally be solved and explained, and the greatest villain of this tale will seriously begin getting his just due.

More than that, an incredible girl will grow -- the art above only hints at how MUCH! ^w^
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RESIDENT EVIL X SILENT HILL: JUDGMENT DAY

written by Charles W.S.,
inspired by Ygure

Chapter 57:

"THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS AND DARKNESS OF BEING"

In an ugly-profane office within City Hall, Reeve Meyers was LIVID. Yes, this complete asshole was a narcissist and heartless sociopath unlike anything you'd want to imagine, but he was still human. Kind of. Even the likes of him could feel that ol' fight-or-flight instinct rear its head when they saw disaster was on the verge of literally dropping on him like a ton of bricks. He just saw the God he needfully, desperately believed in fail thoroughly. The girl from Silent Hill and everyone with her had won, and they WERE going to come looking for him one way or the other.

But compounding all of that was a silent communication by thought that the mysterious bald man issued to the High Priest...Doctor Burton Young, still sitting and squirming in his filthy pants, didn't understand ANYTHING at that moment as Reeve screamed at the bald man, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST TRACK OF ALESSA!?! I must prepare my soldiers! WE MUST MAKE READY FOR THAT BITCH!" The patron could only stare at the High Priest as he rushed to the doors of his office, opened them, and stepped out --

-- but Reeve hardly got three steps before he HAD to stop. He'd expected to enter the ugly corridor right outside of the office in City Hall. He really did.

Reeve heard the heavy doors close behind him loudly, but only barely...as he looked before him numbly at this interior of the Spencer Mansion. The space was so huge and austere with the great staircase right before him...its trappings and furnishings were beautiful in that old school European way...yet it was also so big and cavernous, it felt genuinely empty and hollow. Reeve had no idea, but this mansion had been a perfect reflection of the asshole who owned it -- he was someone who was so fueled by money and ego, he never imagined sparing any expense chasing his dreams of immortality.

Reeve took a few steps inside as his mind worked...what was a damn typewriter doing on that one stand next to the bannister? Then he remembered some things that Dahlia Gillespie wrote in the arcane journals left behind in her church. People could have as much of an effect upon the fog and darkness as it had upon them...and Dahlia feared that Alessa had a greater amount of control over the darkness and the very reality of it.

She realized that Alessa channeled her very soul from her burnt, tortured body to somewhere else at times to escape the pain...to a place she shaped and molded from pure will.

The bitch did completely recall her past lives and would have remembered how. Reeve had sensed Alessa was draining a LOT of energy from God...he didn't expect the girl to hold that kind of power and couldn't reckon how she was using it. Until now!

Fully understanding, the High Priest snarled, "Alessa...you clever little whore!"

The villain reached into his robe and extracted a S&W .38 Special from its holster...a tried and true gun, unfortunately in the hand of someone completely evil. Reeve thought quickly and his instincts told him to go left. He moved to those doors with his revolver at the ready, opened one of them --

-- and found himself at one end of a long, gray, diseased hall. He recognized the feel of these environs. He seemed to be somewhere in Silent Hill??? With a growl, the High Priest stalked down the hallway past many hotel rooms...wait! There was music coming from a room he was about to pass! The predator felt a sudden conflict. Following the music might get him somewhere, or...maybe he was being lured? He tried to reach out with his paranormal senses, but couldn't get a fix on anything.

Fueled by inhuman hate more than fear, Reeve burst into the room --

-- and entered the great lobby of the Raccoon City Police Department.

Reeve stared at the fountain and the gorgeous statue of the woman before him and he suddenly yelled impatiently, "This is getting tiresome, Alessa!" Beside himself with frustration, he looked around and really tried to get his bearings...then he fixed on that music again. The music seemed to be coming from the big doors at the entrance. He approached them. The evil one closed in and he wouldn't have recognized (or much less cared to at the moment) it was the resonant, soulful voice of blues master B.B. King as he gently strummed his beloved Lucille. Reeve slowed to a stop at the doors. The song seemed to be coming from right behind these doors...or, for all he knew, this was another damned trick.

Reeve slowly opened the doors, his gun at full extension, ready for anything. Instead of stepping outside into the night, he found himself in a dimly lit bar with grimy, wine-colored walls. Again, he felt like he was in Silent Hill. Fully on his guard, prepared for anything, Reeve limited himself to his physical senses and what he could hear and see and feel like anyone else. He suspected he might not get anywhere trying harder. He moved very slowly, and King's song was coming from the jukebox in the distance. He saw a garish yet still stylized neon sign on one wall next to the figure of a woman:

Heaven's Night

Reeve fully entered the main room...and saw them.

Rebecca Chambers was seated upon a chair at one of the tables close to the stage with a stripper pole...Cheryl Mason straddled the pixie's lap, and they were kissing one another as they embraced with a pure love and passion that instantly got Reeve furious.

Reeve began to stalk toward them as he aimed his .38 and roared, "You miserable CUNTS -- !" He was cut off fiercely as his gun suddenly twisted in his hand as if someone else got ahold of it. It was so sudden, so shocking, his trigger finger broke as the gun wrenched away and went flying to one side. Then pure FORCE slammed into him so hard he sailed like a sock monkey right into a far wall and dropped to the filthy floor with a thud!

Cheryl gently stopped kissing her pixie...looked at Reeve with deliberate slowness...and said, "I don't care about insults...but don't insult my girlfriend." The girl from Silent Hill rose to stand and took up her Peacemaker from the table. Rebecca rose and got her MP5 ready.

Reeve was in a LOT of pain at the moment and was giving his all to just stand up, but Cheryl wouldn't let him. The blonde reached out and began to drain Reeve of his might...and in turn, used that power to keep Reeve pressed to the floor like gravity had increased in intensity a hundred times over. Standing over him, Cheryl told the High Priest, "I'll really focus on you in a minute. Right now, we just need to wait for -- !"

Out of nowhere, ANOTHER entered Heaven's Night at a virtual run...but stumbled to a stop. Rebecca was surprised by this new arrival. Cheryl wasn't. It was a tall bald man in a dark suit with much darker sunglasses. The girl from Silent Hill purred, "There you are! I knew you'd come looking for Reeve!"

As she aimed her MP5 at the bald intruder, Rebecca asked anxiously, "Who the hell is this!?"

Cheryl told her pixie, "Good question, sweetie! The last time I saw him was in the hospital..." She fully faced the silent bald man. "...when I was drugged, strapped down, and Reeve was preparing to make me open the gateway." Cheryl took a step toward the dark figure, and the bald man seemed to become very afraid as he took a halting step back from her. Rebecca didn't notice that Reeve looked really, REALLY scared now. The blonde stared at the bald stranger with building anger and said, "But this...this isn't what you really are." In the next dramatic moment, Cheryl's eyes glowed brightly as she shouted, "Let's burn away that damn disguise, VALTIEL!"

The bald man spontaneously combusted, much to Rebecca's shock, thanks to Cheryl's mystic power! The Medical Specialist had no idea what her lover was doing, but Becca trusted in her completely. There had to be a point to this...and she was proven right as Cheryl made the flame extinguish almost as quickly as it manifested...

...and what stood there now was something humanoid, but far FAR away from what you'd call human. He was pale, faceless, a vision of pathetic and craven sin. He couldn't stay static, constantly spasming and twitching with agony and frustration. He appeared to have two large circular brands on his shoulders. Were they...yes, they were each the Seal of Metatron.

Cheryl nodded and purred, "But really, the last time I saw you was outside of that church, Valtiel. You're Reeve's silent partner. You're the one who's been helping him retard my ability and draw my power away...you're why I couldn't close the gateway all of this fucking time as it got more and more unstable, right?!?"

Valtiel suddenly lurched forward to attack Cheryl! Bad idea. The girl from Silent Hill shouted, "DON'T!" In the same instant, she used her power to drive Valtiel to the floor harshly, and suddenly all HE could do was spasm and writhe helplessly lying there in mirror of Reeve. Rebecca really noticed that those brands on the thing's shoulders were glowing now. Cheryl snapped down at the craven thing, "I can use those Seals Metatron branded into you to bring you low and keep you there, you little shit!

"You've always feared me, Valtiel. Still, you needed to keep tabs on me and help Reeve get me. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even let me die. Neither of you would let anything serious happen to me before I became the Mother of God." Cheryl would let them wonder how she had figured it all out...she'd never tell them that in many ways, she enlightened herself to the truth.

Cheryl spared a look at her lover and asked, "Becca, would you like to know who the High Priest of the Sect of Valtiel worships before his ugly God?" He pointed at the craven thing, Valtiel himself, and said, "Him." Rebecca understood as she felt serious loathing toward the pathetic patron, too.

The girl from Silent Hill took a brief moment to lower and sit on the floor approximately between Valtiel and Reeve. Her legs were crossed as she relaxed a bit in posture. Cheryl said to Valtiel, "I wouldn't be surprised if you worked with Clauda Wolf years ago when she had me impregnated and lured me back to Silent Hill. I wonder how often you worked with other leaders of The Order like Dahlia? That doesn't matter so much. What does matter is how you and Reeve have been using me, Valtiel.

"Give me just a minute...to look into you." As her right hand held her Peacemaker, Cheryl's free hand reached out toward the writhing thing...and he began to shudder and spasm violently. Reeve, not far away, felt something like true terror as Becca kept her MP5 trained firmly on the bastard. A few heartbeats passed, and Cheryl nodded. "Yeah. I can see it...that infernal machine that's been drawing my power and stunting my potential...because I'm connected to them. It's confining the ones I tried to throw away and deny." She was getting so angry, but held to her focus because she absolutely needed to right now. "One person's trash can become another asshole's treasure, right?

"You...have taken advantage of me...for too long." It took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She was that angry. Finally, Cheryl snarled, "This is gonna take some effort...it will hurt...but like they say. No pain, no gain."

The girl from Silent Hill really used her power then as she subtly drained both Reeve and Valtiel, and that made this herculean task much easier. It still hurt, and it only got worse with each heartbeat. Cheryl began to rock slowly where she sat as her outstretched hand started to tremble...Rebecca felt real growing worry as she heard her lover say, "It won't take me long to find the machine if I know where to look...and I do...thanks to you, Valtiel. Now...all I have to do...is go remote viewing...through the gateway. That'll take some strength...but I've got you and Reeve to give me what I need...!"

Increasingly weak, increasingly horrified, Reeve issued a deseprate, "N-nnuuuhhhh...!"

Immediately, Rebecca was looming over the High Priest and shouted, "Don't you move!"

Cheryl's nose began to bleed as she managed, "I can do...a lot...by remote, you know. Reeve knows that."

"Nnooo!" Reeve was inhuman in his intent as he began to really put effort into rising, but then Rebecca fired a three-round burst from her MP5 into his gun arm! "AAUUHHH!"

Rebecca roared, "I TOLD YOU BEFORE NOT TO TEST ME! HOLD STILL!!!"

Cheryl's outstretched hand was on the verge of quaking as she reached out in so many more ways than one...as she devoted her very soul into arrowing in on that massive nightmare machine in the heart of Hell's darkness. She nearly whispered, "You've been...using me...because of that connection. But...I've got bad news, asshole." Cheryl's freckled face tightened with divine fury as her eyes glowed BRIGHTER and she said with increasing volume, "That connection...

"...works...

"...BOTH...

"...WAYS!"

Somewhere deep in the heart of Hell on the other side of the gateway, Cheryl used pure will to make the infernal machine grind to a halt...more than that, it began to shudder...to swell...and its profane components slowly, systematically EXPLODED...one of those blasts sent two figures literally flying from its confines and they both cried out with sweet release as they were liberated once and for all!

Cheryl nearly collapsed where she sat, and Rebecca was so tempted to rush to her beloved...but she kept her gun trained on Reeve just in case...it hurt so much to simply stand there, but in the next heartbeats...Cheryl's head lifted again and she sat up straight. Her lovely face reared back as she felt like chains that had been wrapped around her very soul for so long were finally broken and fell away. She didn't just feel renewed vigor, she felt everything within her build...the potential she held that had been retarded for so long was finally given free reign, and it was so much more than wonderful...and yet, more than frightening, too.

Cheryl finally sighed into the air, "Oh...oh, that's much better!"

She heard her beloved Becca ask nervously, "H-honey...are you all right?"

Cheryl answered with a loving voice, "Yes. I'm okay." Rebecca felt true relief as she saw her lover stand easily before Valtiel again, but felt thudding worry again when she saw the blonde's nose had been bleeding. But the expression of pure liberation on Cheryl's face communicated that wasn't a big thing. The girl from Silent Hill closed her eyes then and she said with a gentle voice: "Alessa. Cheryl. Please come to me." With her power, it took little effort to lovingly summoned them both from the infinite darkness beyond the gateway...and they answered.

In the heart of the bar, a sudden bright nova burst of light issued, and there appeared a little girl who wasn't even seven years old. The Memory of Cheryl. Another far darker figure, a girl of only fourteen, literally stepped from some of the darkest shadows of the bar. This haunting sight, the pale Memory of Alessa, was much more familiar to the Medical Specialist. The shadow moved and stood next to the bright little girl.

Rebecca almost totally forgot about Reeve as she looked at the pair. The High Priest and Valtiel were also stunned and still. Becca came back to herself when she heard Cheryl speak: "Things have as much power as we give them, sweetie." The pixie looked at Cheryl, who was gazing at these Memories solemnly. "They're both who I once was...and I was in such denial of them both, I tried to separate them from me. I needed to deny Alessa and her memories of agony...of fear and hate...and guilt. I needed to deny Cheryl because she had her life stolen from her...the pain of knowing she had her future with her father taken by Dahlia was just as horrible.

"But I couldn't deny them. Their memories were still an eternal part of my very soul, and nothing could change that. I didn't realize that at the time when I gave them both power and...a kind of life as Harry and Cybil took me out of Hell." Cheryl began to weep as she said to her Memories with infinite regret, "It wasn't just useless to deny you...it was one of the greatest mistakes I ever made."

The Memory of Cheryl was just as solemn as she said softly, "All we ever wanted was for you to accept us...to accept and love yourself, Cheryl."

The Memory of Alessa purred gently, "Every bit of yourself...warts and all."

Cheryl nodded and said thickly, "I know...but I was so afraid of loving myself and...and accepting what I couldn't change."

The girl from Silent Hill moved very slowly to her Memories as she mused, "That's what the test of life is all about, though...isn't it? Only by striving through challenge, by trying to be better today than we were yesterday, that's the only way we can grow. And you can't build a life without working for it...at times struggling...and facing inevitable pain. The kinds of pain we have no choice but to suffer because of nature, chance, or..."

Cheryl thought of Reeve and Valtiel as she said with a quieter, angrier tone, "...or the will of others."

The blonde looked at both of these reflections of who she once was as her expression became so much more thoughtful...as she really answered the challenge of this final exam and spoke to them...to Rebecca...and her great enemies who could do little more than listen. "That's what makes life such a test. We don't simply have to face our own individual challenges as we grow...because we each don't live in some self-contained bubble. I'm sure if we were each separate and alone, life would be a lot simpler. But we're not."

Cheryl turned to look at her pixie, and her expression was so soft as she said, "If we're really fortunate, we'll only meet those guided by the best in them...those like you, Becca. If we're unfortunate, we'll run into assholes like Reeve or Dahlia or Wesker. Those who prey upon everyone else in so many ways." Her eyes hardened as she stared at Reeve. "You and Dahlia and Wesker and that little sycophant Claudia have one important thing in common, Reeve.

"You all wanted to be bullies who would decide the fates of everyone else you deem 'unworthy'. Or 'inferior'. Or 'heretics'. It's the same senseless, stupid song you'd hear at different times across history." Reeve began to really glower at Cheryl as she snarled, "Part of the challenge of life is growing up, and you can't help but notice that the very worst of people in history were, when you get right down to the meat of it, children.

"People like you live to prey upon others like bullies.

"You really think you have some kind of right to take whatever you want.

"You get other stupid, selfish little kids to follow you and be part of your club.

"And when there's enough childish assholes obeying the lead bully in the same club...or cult...or regime...or reich...then you can really start judging everyone who isn't one of you. You start taking from everyone else because you're so goddamn greedy. And if anybody says no, well, how do bullies usually respond? You do something worse! But you don't stop there, do you? You look at your world and judge everything, and you'll want to burn things down if they don't change to suit you.

"That's what you wanted, to change the world into your image. Dahlia wanted the same thing. So did Wesker and so many more assholes in history, it's almost pointless to count."

Cheryl took a deep breath through her nose...and sighed as she looked into space. "Some people honestly believe we can make some flowery, perfect utopia on Earth where we'd each somehow be responsible for each other. It's a cute idea. So progressive. But that isn't even possible because there will always be some of us who will be selfish, immature little children who want to take from everyone else. Most people are more grown up than that. I thought I was. Once.

"But a perfect utopia isn't possible because we aren't perfect. There's a duality, a bright light and a great darkness, in all of us. They're like the little cartoon angel or devil that pop up on your shoulder to urge you to do one thing or the other." The girl truly growing into a woman smiled a bit. "It's so easy to be tempted to go into the darkness or the light. You can lose your way in either for the worst of reasons...yes, people have done the worst of shit for the 'right' reasons, too. More often than not, a lot of us live in a gray fog between the two. Getting lost in that fog can also be really easy if you're not careful.

"But you'll never get lost as long as you have a compass. A way to find balance. The best way to do that is to simply...do unto others." Cheryl sighed sadly. "So many people forget The Golden Rule. Or worse, they're never taught that at all. That does create balance. It promotes order. That brings harmony, inside and out."

Cheryl looked to her Memories again. "You might as well embody the light and dark in me, not simply my memories. You, my Memory of Cheryl...you lived a life full of love from your dad Harry. You could only see the beauty in everything around you. You dreamed of bringing even more beauty to the world by expressing yourself through art.

"You...my Memory of Alessa..." Cheryl's expression became full of pain as she looked at the wraith. "Your life was one of loneliness and fear. There was so little beauty and even less love in your world. And when Dahlia..." The blonde's breath caught in her throat as the Memory of Alessa looked down painfully. "Your fear became anger and then hate. You embraced all of that toxicity as your powers reached out, and you brought your uncertainty and terror to all of Silent Hill. The most tragic part of it was..." With a quiet, strangled voice, Cheryl moaned, "I never even meant to do that."

The Memory of Alessa looked back at Cheryl with just as much regret...because she was a reflection of the same girl from another lifetime, after all...and she managed with an ethereal voice, "And then...I did get as bad as Dahlia. I...I almost became worse. And it was because I got so selfish and needed the pain to stop." The Memory of Cheryl looked at the dark half with pure love and empathy.

Cheryl looked back at her lover sadly, and Becca could only look at her lover with truly solemn blue eyes as the blonde continued. "It is possible to go to one extreme or the other. We can so damned full of ourselves in every way Jung and others wrote about...but part of growing up is finding that balance. None of us could ever call ourselves purely good. My dad couldn't have been perfect...dammit, I feel like shit for saying that, but I'm sure he wasn't! I'm also totally sure he did his very best. That's why I'll love him forever."

Cheryl looked back at her Memories as she really began to make peace with them...and herself. She said gently to her Memory of Alessa, "We need the aggression and drive that comes from the darkness in us so we can be strong enough to tackle any challenge, to simply have the motivation to reach for what we desire...and be strong enough to resist someone else when they try to take something from us. That can be moderated and governed reasonably by being in harmony with the light inside." The blonde looked at Rebecca once more. "You needed the strength and aggression to do what's necessary when the worst of things happened, sweetie. Good intentions and love alone didn't help you survive so many zombies years ago, right?"

Becca smiled softly back as she answered, "No, they sure didn't. Guns did help!"

Cheryl nodded. "Some may think it's strange to say, but we need a balance between the light and the dark so we can really mature...never get lost by remembering that Golden Rule...and bring only the most positive things to our world. That's the best most of us can aspire to. That's all I could want because I would never want to be like Dahlia.

"If that ever happened, Becca...then I would fail you...so I swear on my very soul I won't." Cheryl said that with such perfect love and truth, Rebecca nearly burst into tears of happiness.

The girl from Silent Hill reluctantly turned away from Rebecca for the last time as she truly grew and began to walk slowly toward her Memories...she said calmly at first, "The only way I'll become a woman like that and be the best version of myself is if I grow. If I accept myself...and love all of myself..." She stopped before the Memories and she began to cry as her voice thickened with regret. "...but for so long I couldn't, and I am so sorry for that." Cheryl's face looked downward and she said very meekly, "I know that's useless to say."

A very young, infinitely loving voice reassured, "That isn't useless." The blonde looked at the Memory of Cheryl, who looked so excited as she began crying, too. The girl she once was told her, "It's beautiful, Cheryl."

The Memory of Alessa was also in tears as she closed the distance between her and Cheryl, as well. She purred, "We do love you. Please love us...embrace us." There was hardly any distance between the three at all now, and the wraith urged tenderly, "Love yourself once and for all."

In the next surreal, remarkable moment, Cheryl did close that distance as she took these embodiments of her past lives close...and held them tight. They all relaxed into one another. All three felt a true peace and happiness for the first time in...ever.

Then something happened that took Rebecca Chambers totally by surprise: a mystic light began to issue and then flare BRIGHT, but it wasn't a blinding physical light. It was something more profound than that. Fear gripped the pixie's being so fiercely she was tempted to panic and call out her lover's name...

...but in only heartbeats, the light faded to nothing...

...and in the heart of Heaven's Night, Rebecca saw ONLY Cheryl Mason standing there. Reconciliation and fusion and growth were achieved, irrevocably and for all time. The woman turned to her beloved pixie, who marveled because her extraordinary lover seemed to be more beautiful than ever. Her eyes no longer looked bloodshot and had shifted from hazel to a truly supernatural color. Some of her clothes had changed. And even more starkly than that...her hair had shifted permanently from blonde to a black darker than raven's feathers.

Astonished, Becca barely breathed, "W-wow...!" With a goofy smile, she added awkwardly, "Um...y-your hair...!"

Cheryl frowned a bit and realized...she asked dryly, "What? I did tell you I wasn't born blonde, remember?"

"I-I remember...still...you look incredible, honey."

Cheryl smiled then and murmured, "You're too damn kind." Fully relaxed in her posture, the woman moved to the long counter of this bar. As her right hand still held her Colt .45, Cheryl pulled a flattened pack of cigarettes from one of her jeans pockets. There were only a few left, kind of bent from constant carry. Cheryl got one and took a seat as she said, "Excuse me for a minute. It feels like forever since I had a cigarette."

Rebecca advised gently, "Those are kinda bad for you, you know?"

Cheryl shrugged, snapped her fingers, and made the end light into a cherry...she took a deep luxurious drag from the filter, and gradually exhaled blue smoke. She gave Reeve and Valtiel a hard glance and reminded, "Maybe, but there are things a lot worse."

The pixie giggled, but with little humor. "Ain't that the truth...!"

For many meaningless moments, Cheryl let herself relax...but she kept her passive power active to keep Reeve and Valtiel low as she drained from them. After all of the things she had been through, really reconciling herself with her past so she could embrace a future of infinite possibilities, the woman needed this moment. Finally, she took another drag, and moved from the bar.

Cheryl approached Reeve and Valtiel as Becca watched them carefully...with a casual gait, the raven haired woman said with building power, "Now...before I get to Reeve...I have something to say to you, Valtiel!" With a thought, this incredible woman who would have been called a sorceress in more ancient days lifted Valtiel to suspend the craven being in a hover above the floor with nothing but absolute will! Becca realized that Valtiel couldn't move outside of a few odd twitches, and that wasn't his choice. That was a trick she saw Cheryl do before, making an enemy so totally powerless...and she didn't mind one bit.

Cheryl mockingly blew a plume of blue smoke into Valtiel's face, really getting into the moment...she told the pale thing unkindly, "Before I kick your ass back home, I just wanted you to know I get it. I really understand." Cheryl looked at Becca and informed her, "When I looked into him, I realized why Valtiel was so desperate to see me give birth to his God on Earth. It isn't just because Valtiel is her most faithful servant...

"...this worthless creature simply wanted to be a good son." Cheryl really stared at the pale, craven thing again. "It must have been frustrating for Metatron to brand your ass and make you so low, force you to use your wits since you no longer had any power. At least, you'll never be nearly as strong as I am. That's why you needed mortal servants like Reeve and Dahlia and others in The Order on Earth. That's why you needed your godforsaken machine. You could never get by without help.

"Supporting your mother meant everything, even though that bitch was so much more terrible than Dahlia was!" Cheryl sighed. "Unlike most kids who are abused and preyed upon, you couldn't help but identify and relate to your mother. Being born and raised in Hell is enough to turn anyone into a monster, too. But then, even in the worst of places, we can choose to be better and rise above it...yet you never even gave that a thought. Ever." Not even a foot separated Cheryl's face from Valtiel's pathetic pale visage as he twitched helplessly. "I really do get it..."

The woman couldn't help herself and said with slowly building anger, "...but that's no excuse, you sack of shit..."

Then Cheryl took FIRM hold of Valtiel with her pure will and she screamed with overwhelming power: "...so get out of my face and GO BACK TO WHERE YOU BELONG!!!" As she railed, the woman spun and gestured as if she was throwing an object with her free hand, and simultaneously, Valtiel went soaring from the stunned pixie and clear across the massive room. The creature didn't just hit the wall. A strange kind of shadow had manifested there and Valtiel flew INTO it! With another passionate gesture, Cheryl made that shadow fade away. There was nothing there now.

Cheryl looked at that space for a few beats...then turned once more to look down upon the High Priest of the Sect of Valtiel. She purred, "Well, Reeve."

The raven haired beauty flexed her will again and harshly made Reeve Meyers levitate into a standing position just like that...she let him go, and the asshole stumbled back into the wall behind him because his knees were so weak. Rebecca kept her MP5 trained FIRMLY upon him. Cheryl considered her enemy and said, "I'm sure you've got something to say. Go on. Spit it out!"

In spite of his weakness, Reeve stared at Cheryl with cheated fury. One hand gripped the bleeding arm Becca shot three times. He did look a lot paler than he was before as he said in a measured tone, "I...require...medical attention."

Cheryl nodded. "You are bleeding badly. Becca can put a tourniquet on your arm." She looked at her lover. "But would you want to?"

Reeve snarled, "Please! This nothing refused to kill me before when I was unarmed!"

Rebecca's expression became dangerous again as she really readied her SMG and snapped, "You've been giving me every reason to wish I changed my mind, goddamn you...!"

Then. The pixie heard Cheryl say very softly, "Please don't." Becca looked to her raven haired lover, who urged with care, "Don't let him change you."

Rebecca's expression softened immediately...the sweetheart nodded and said with an incredible smile, "I won't, honey. I'll only grow." She looked at Reeve with harder eyes and added, "Besides, it would be too easy to let you bleed out and die!"

Cheryl purred, "You're right." She lifted her Peacemaker then and aimed it right at Reeve's face. "Let Becca treat you and be civil, Reeve. You don't have enough power to do shit right now, but if you want to try something anyway, I'll hit you with a psychic attack. You know what I can do from long range." Cheryl threatened with a granite-hard tone, "I won't kill you, but I will make you wish for a lobotomy!"

Not being a total idiot (for better or worse), any defiance in Reeve flagged under Cheryl's gun...Rebecca moved gracefully to the High Priest's side and his wounded arm. The pixie briskly began to strip fabric from the voluminous sleeve of his robe so she could start tying off blood flow to the arm at the proper place. She was a seasoned expert at field medicine in the worst of situations.

Reeve looked at them both with curiosity as Becca did her work and finally asked with loathing, "You intend to turn me into your friends so I can face a higher authority?"

Cheryl answered softly, "Oh, I've got something like that in mind. Yes. You will face justice for everything you've done."

The High Priest said with building consternation, "You really want to be like your lover and all of the worthless sheep in our world. You hold true power, Alessa...you could be a god on Earth. You could have everything you ever wanted. How could you settle for less and abide by a world that makes no damned sense???"

Cheryl smiled a bit...and finally answered, "You are such a child if you can ask that after everything I just said, Reeve. When it comes to the test of life, you got it all wrong because you never grew up. I'm not sure if a few circuits in your head got crossed or if you just naturally developed that way -- I don't want to know you THAT well! -- but I do know you're not capable of growing up. Like Dahlia and everyone who was ever part of The Order, you built your own clubhouse where you judged the rest of the world because things weren't the way you wanted them. Your 'religion's' ideas always had everything upside down in the same way a cross is turned on its head to become something unholy.

"You say you want order, but what you really need is chaos. You preach about harmony, but what you really want is dominion. You even call Hell 'Paradise'. You have everything backwards, and you don't have the self awareness to see it...but then, you'd have to be an adult to be aware of what's so wrong with you. I'm sure you're hating me so much right now for simply calling it like I see it!

"You might have graduated from pulling wings off of flies to roasting the neighbor's cat in their own microwave while they were out of the house..." Rebecca stopped EVERYTHING and stared at Cheryl. The raven haired woman said quietly, "Yes, he did that." With pure disgust, Becca tried to refocus on her work, but her hands became a lot unkinder. Reeve winced more than once under the pixie's ministrations. Cheryl snarled, "You finally murdered your own parents in their sleep." Becca nearly paused again, but tried not to think about it. "I got to know you as well as you know me, Reeve.

"All you could do after that is go looking for people who were almost as screwed up and selfish as you are. People you could convince to believe in you because it would get them something. That's why everyone outside of your cult is the enemy or only worthy of being sacrifices. That's why you would have condemned our world if given the chance!

"You might have learned a lot and gotten stronger...but you never grew. All you did was become a bully and a predator. Even your belief in your God was based on one simple thing: gimme...gimme...gimme." Reeve looked INCENSED as he stared into the sorceress' eyes. "There are all degrees of selfish assholes like you in our world, Reeve. They range from the lowest carjacker or some piece of shit who would shoot a kid just for their shoes to politicians who manipulate some people against others! Hmf. Politics. Usually the person who claims they're the most dandy and tolerant are the ones who judge everybody who disagrees with them...but really, they're the ones who are more intolerant than a backwoods bigot!"

Cheryl drew closer to him and snapped, "You're a thousand times worse than any of them because all you can do is take and destroy and burn. I will never be so childish and full of myself as the likes of you and Dahlia. I told that bitch when I was given the chance to forgive or condemn someone for their sins, I chose to do neither. I wasn't born to be responsible for anyone else, and I'm not here to pass judgment over anyone like a god." The beauty declared with emotion, "All I want is to do unto others, just like my father taught me. I want to live and let live, and I'll ONLY get harsh if it's to defend myself or anyone else who just wants to live their lives!

"I am my father's daughter, Reeve, and you say that makes me a sheep? Well, I'm proud of that. I'd rather be a sheep than a childish little puppy like you who'll be hungry forever!" Rebecca's breaths became so shallow as she heard her lover make that proclamation. She had never felt so fortunate -- no. So blessed to know and love this woman from Silent Hill.

Cheryl took a beat to calm herself as Reeve, all but completely impotent, could only seethe. The sorceress finally took a step back, regarded the High Priest, and told him, "We're going to take you outside in a minute. Me and Becca will deliver you and your followers to her friends..." A deliberate pause.

And the woman quietly finished, "...but they can't just arrest you."

Rebecca's brow crinkled as she looked at Cheryl. Reeve frowned and said flatly, "What?"

Cheryl gently shook her head. "You sinned too horribly, Reeve. I'm not counting any of the things you and Valtiel did and tried to do to me. You made me bring other worlds to Earth. You consciously and deliberately went against the way things are because of the Creator. Because of your selfishness and evil, thousands were slaughtered, and so many of them were also damned. You and your own must be judged for your crimes...you must for one very simple reason.

"We all reap what we sow."

A couple of silent, tense beats passed...and Reeve Meyers began to chuckle. No, he really started to laugh. "Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh! And so you invalidate most everything you claim when you say you are better than me, Alessa."

Cheryl's eyes narrowed. "I never once said I was better, I'm just more grown up than you are. You weren't listening. And for the last damn time: my name is Cheryl."

"Still and all." Reeve grinned like the rabid wolf he was. "You claim you would not want to be like a god, and yet you say I must be judged. If you really mean that, then you contradict yourself." He finally growled, "You make yourself a hypocrite."

As Rebecca watched, the woman from Silent Hill smiled back in a way that really bothered Reeve...she drew close, almost too close, and told the High Priest, "You think so, huh? You'd be right...except you've got to understand this. I'm not the one who's going to judge you!"

Instantly, Reeve's own lupine smile dissolved as he looked into the woman's eyes. The asshole DID begin to understand. And that's when he started to feel real, genuine fear for the first time in his life.

Cheryl's own smile faded as she stepped back, turned, and walked from Reeve and Becca to the center of Heaven's Night once more. The pixie still didn't quite get it herself, but she was about to. With her face turned away, Becca never saw her lover's eyes become surreally alight again as her thoughts and voice reached out, and they both heard and felt Cheryl as she called out gently:

"Red Pyramid. Excuse my trespass, but I wanted you to know. I have Reeve Meyers. Follow my call, and you will find him and his followers. That is all." Cheryl's eyes returned to their subdued spectral color again...

...very slowly, the sorceress turned to them...

...as Rebecca felt jolting awe. Reeve, meanwhile, had graduated to legitimate, soul-shredding terror. The High Priest felt overwhelmingly NUMB from it as he managed to say to Cheryl, "Y-y-you can't do this." With quiet desperation, he looked at Rebecca and implored thinly, "You can't let this happen. You can't."

Rebecca wasn't looking at Reeve. She was gazing back at her lover as she slowly returned to them. The pixie did understand. She really did. Rebecca finally looked at Reeve's desperate face...

...and the Medical Specialist said softly, "You're the one who wanted all of this, Reeve. You forced Cheryl to bring Limbo and Hell to our world. You killed so many or condemned them forever. People like Gwen, Bea, George, Sienna, and so many more are damned because of you. There is no punishment in our world that would fit your crimes...but maybe there is in Hell.

"Besides." Rebecca Chambers stared into the High Priest's soul and told him with a diamond voice, "I'm not responsible for a monster like you."

Cheryl Mason was there before them both...and with resolute eyes, the woman purred to him, "Time to reap, asshole."

TO BE CONTINUED
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Next...it's time for judgment. ^______^

Giving credit where it's due for the models used in my art above!

XNALara created by Dusan Pavlicek; XPS by Dusan and XNAaraL

Models:
Cheryl Mason, before and after her transformation, by ...for 'after', her God of Thunder shirt is thanks to a mod by !
Rebecca Chambers by !
Colt Peacemaker by !
Cigarette by !
Heaven's Night by again!

Description
I'm not sure how to introduce this chapter, honestly. If you're a true blue Silent Hill fan, you know to expect the unexpected when it's time to enter Nowhere. One of the big mysteries of this story will finally be solved and explained, and the greatest villain of this tale will seriously begin getting his just due.

More than that, an incredible girl will grow -- the art above only hints at how MUCH! ^w^
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RESIDENT EVIL X SILENT HILL: JUDGMENT DAY

written by Charles W.S.,
inspired by Ygure

Chapter 57:

"THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS AND DARKNESS OF BEING"

In an ugly-profane office within City Hall, Reeve Meyers was LIVID. Yes, this complete asshole was a narcissist and heartless sociopath unlike anything you'd want to imagine, but he was still human. Kind of. Even the likes of him could feel that ol' fight-or-flight instinct rear its head when they saw disaster was on the verge of literally dropping on him like a ton of bricks. He just saw the God he needfully, desperately believed in fail thoroughly. The girl from Silent Hill and everyone with her had won, and they WERE going to come looking for him one way or the other.

But compounding all of that was a silent communication by thought that the mysterious bald man issued to the High Priest...Doctor Burton Young, still sitting and squirming in his filthy pants, didn't understand ANYTHING at that moment as Reeve screamed at the bald man, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST TRACK OF ALESSA!?! I must prepare my soldiers! WE MUST MAKE READY FOR THAT BITCH!" The patron could only stare at the High Priest as he rushed to the doors of his office, opened them, and stepped out --

-- but Reeve hardly got three steps before he HAD to stop. He'd expected to enter the ugly corridor right outside of the office in City Hall. He really did.

Reeve heard the heavy doors close behind him loudly, but only barely...as he looked before him numbly at this interior of the Spencer Mansion. The space was so huge and austere with the great staircase right before him...its trappings and furnishings were beautiful in that old school European way...yet it was also so big and cavernous, it felt genuinely empty and hollow. Reeve had no idea, but this mansion had been a perfect reflection of the asshole who owned it -- he was someone who was so fueled by money and ego, he never imagined sparing any expense chasing his dreams of immortality.

Reeve took a few steps inside as his mind worked...what was a damn typewriter doing on that one stand next to the bannister? Then he remembered some things that Dahlia Gillespie wrote in the arcane journals left behind in her church. People could have as much of an effect upon the fog and darkness as it had upon them...and Dahlia feared that Alessa had a greater amount of control over the darkness and the very reality of it.

She realized that Alessa channeled her very soul from her burnt, tortured body to somewhere else at times to escape the pain...to a place she shaped and molded from pure will.

The bitch did completely recall her past lives and would have remembered how. Reeve had sensed Alessa was draining a LOT of energy from God...he didn't expect the girl to hold that kind of power and couldn't reckon how she was using it. Until now!

Fully understanding, the High Priest snarled, "Alessa...you clever little whore!"

The villain reached into his robe and extracted a S&W .38 Special from its holster...a tried and true gun, unfortunately in the hand of someone completely evil. Reeve thought quickly and his instincts told him to go left. He moved to those doors with his revolver at the ready, opened one of them --

-- and found himself at one end of a long, gray, diseased hall. He recognized the feel of these environs. He seemed to be somewhere in Silent Hill??? With a growl, the High Priest stalked down the hallway past many hotel rooms...wait! There was music coming from a room he was about to pass! The predator felt a sudden conflict. Following the music might get him somewhere, or...maybe he was being lured? He tried to reach out with his paranormal senses, but couldn't get a fix on anything.

Fueled by inhuman hate more than fear, Reeve burst into the room --

-- and entered the great lobby of the Raccoon City Police Department.

Reeve stared at the fountain and the gorgeous statue of the woman before him and he suddenly yelled impatiently, "This is getting tiresome, Alessa!" Beside himself with frustration, he looked around and really tried to get his bearings...then he fixed on that music again. The music seemed to be coming from the big doors at the entrance. He approached them. The evil one closed in and he wouldn't have recognized (or much less cared to at the moment) it was the resonant, soulful voice of blues master B.B. King as he gently strummed his beloved Lucille. Reeve slowed to a stop at the doors. The song seemed to be coming from right behind these doors...or, for all he knew, this was another damned trick.

Reeve slowly opened the doors, his gun at full extension, ready for anything. Instead of stepping outside into the night, he found himself in a dimly lit bar with grimy, wine-colored walls. Again, he felt like he was in Silent Hill. Fully on his guard, prepared for anything, Reeve limited himself to his physical senses and what he could hear and see and feel like anyone else. He suspected he might not get anywhere trying harder. He moved very slowly, and King's song was coming from the jukebox in the distance. He saw a garish yet still stylized neon sign on one wall next to the figure of a woman:

Heaven's Night

Reeve fully entered the main room...and saw them.

Rebecca Chambers was seated upon a chair at one of the tables close to the stage with a stripper pole...Cheryl Mason straddled the pixie's lap, and they were kissing one another as they embraced with a pure love and passion that instantly got Reeve furious.

Reeve began to stalk toward them as he aimed his .38 and roared, "You miserable CUNTS -- !" He was cut off fiercely as his gun suddenly twisted in his hand as if someone else got ahold of it. It was so sudden, so shocking, his trigger finger broke as the gun wrenched away and went flying to one side. Then pure FORCE slammed into him so hard he sailed like a sock monkey right into a far wall and dropped to the filthy floor with a thud!

Cheryl gently stopped kissing her pixie...looked at Reeve with deliberate slowness...and said, "I don't care about insults...but don't insult my girlfriend." The girl from Silent Hill rose to stand and took up her Peacemaker from the table. Rebecca rose and got her MP5 ready.

Reeve was in a LOT of pain at the moment and was giving his all to just stand up, but Cheryl wouldn't let him. The blonde reached out and began to drain Reeve of his might...and in turn, used that power to keep Reeve pressed to the floor like gravity had increased in intensity a hundred times over. Standing over him, Cheryl told the High Priest, "I'll really focus on you in a minute. Right now, we just need to wait for -- !"

Out of nowhere, ANOTHER entered Heaven's Night at a virtual run...but stumbled to a stop. Rebecca was surprised by this new arrival. Cheryl wasn't. It was a tall bald man in a dark suit with much darker sunglasses. The girl from Silent Hill purred, "There you are! I knew you'd come looking for Reeve!"

As she aimed her MP5 at the bald intruder, Rebecca asked anxiously, "Who the hell is this!?"

Cheryl told her pixie, "Good question, sweetie! The last time I saw him was in the hospital..." She fully faced the silent bald man. "...when I was drugged, strapped down, and Reeve was preparing to make me open the gateway." Cheryl took a step toward the dark figure, and the bald man seemed to become very afraid as he took a halting step back from her. Rebecca didn't notice that Reeve looked really, REALLY scared now. The blonde stared at the bald stranger with building anger and said, "But this...this isn't what you really are." In the next dramatic moment, Cheryl's eyes glowed brightly as she shouted, "Let's burn away that damn disguise, VALTIEL!"

The bald man spontaneously combusted, much to Rebecca's shock, thanks to Cheryl's mystic power! The Medical Specialist had no idea what her lover was doing, but Becca trusted in her completely. There had to be a point to this...and she was proven right as Cheryl made the flame extinguish almost as quickly as it manifested...

...and what stood there now was something humanoid, but far FAR away from what you'd call human. He was pale, faceless, a vision of pathetic and craven sin. He couldn't stay static, constantly spasming and twitching with agony and frustration. He appeared to have two large circular brands on his shoulders. Were they...yes, they were each the Seal of Metatron.

Cheryl nodded and purred, "But really, the last time I saw you was outside of that church, Valtiel. You're Reeve's silent partner. You're the one who's been helping him retard my ability and draw my power away...you're why I couldn't close the gateway all of this fucking time as it got more and more unstable, right?!?"

Valtiel suddenly lurched forward to attack Cheryl! Bad idea. The girl from Silent Hill shouted, "DON'T!" In the same instant, she used her power to drive Valtiel to the floor harshly, and suddenly all HE could do was spasm and writhe helplessly lying there in mirror of Reeve. Rebecca really noticed that those brands on the thing's shoulders were glowing now. Cheryl snapped down at the craven thing, "I can use those Seals Metatron branded into you to bring you low and keep you there, you little shit!

"You've always feared me, Valtiel. Still, you needed to keep tabs on me and help Reeve get me. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even let me die. Neither of you would let anything serious happen to me before I became the Mother of God." Cheryl would let them wonder how she had figured it all out...she'd never tell them that in many ways, she enlightened herself to the truth.

Cheryl spared a look at her lover and asked, "Becca, would you like to know who the High Priest of the Sect of Valtiel worships before his ugly God?" He pointed at the craven thing, Valtiel himself, and said, "Him." Rebecca understood as she felt serious loathing toward the pathetic patron, too.

The girl from Silent Hill took a brief moment to lower and sit on the floor approximately between Valtiel and Reeve. Her legs were crossed as she relaxed a bit in posture. Cheryl said to Valtiel, "I wouldn't be surprised if you worked with Clauda Wolf years ago when she had me impregnated and lured me back to Silent Hill. I wonder how often you worked with other leaders of The Order like Dahlia? That doesn't matter so much. What does matter is how you and Reeve have been using me, Valtiel.

"Give me just a minute...to look into you." As her right hand held her Peacemaker, Cheryl's free hand reached out toward the writhing thing...and he began to shudder and spasm violently. Reeve, not far away, felt something like true terror as Becca kept her MP5 trained firmly on the bastard. A few heartbeats passed, and Cheryl nodded. "Yeah. I can see it...that infernal machine that's been drawing my power and stunting my potential...because I'm connected to them. It's confining the ones I tried to throw away and deny." She was getting so angry, but held to her focus because she absolutely needed to right now. "One person's trash can become another asshole's treasure, right?

"You...have taken advantage of me...for too long." It took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She was that angry. Finally, Cheryl snarled, "This is gonna take some effort...it will hurt...but like they say. No pain, no gain."

The girl from Silent Hill really used her power then as she subtly drained both Reeve and Valtiel, and that made this herculean task much easier. It still hurt, and it only got worse with each heartbeat. Cheryl began to rock slowly where she sat as her outstretched hand started to tremble...Rebecca felt real growing worry as she heard her lover say, "It won't take me long to find the machine if I know where to look...and I do...thanks to you, Valtiel. Now...all I have to do...is go remote viewing...through the gateway. That'll take some strength...but I've got you and Reeve to give me what I need...!"

Increasingly weak, increasingly horrified, Reeve issued a deseprate, "N-nnuuuhhhh...!"

Immediately, Rebecca was looming over the High Priest and shouted, "Don't you move!"

Cheryl's nose began to bleed as she managed, "I can do...a lot...by remote, you know. Reeve knows that."

"Nnooo!" Reeve was inhuman in his intent as he began to really put effort into rising, but then Rebecca fired a three-round burst from her MP5 into his gun arm! "AAUUHHH!"

Rebecca roared, "I TOLD YOU BEFORE NOT TO TEST ME! HOLD STILL!!!"

Cheryl's outstretched hand was on the verge of quaking as she reached out in so many more ways than one...as she devoted her very soul into arrowing in on that massive nightmare machine in the heart of Hell's darkness. She nearly whispered, "You've been...using me...because of that connection. But...I've got bad news, asshole." Cheryl's freckled face tightened with divine fury as her eyes glowed BRIGHTER and she said with increasing volume, "That connection...

"...works...

"...BOTH...

"...WAYS!"

Somewhere deep in the heart of Hell on the other side of the gateway, Cheryl used pure will to make the infernal machine grind to a halt...more than that, it began to shudder...to swell...and its profane components slowly, systematically EXPLODED...one of those blasts sent two figures literally flying from its confines and they both cried out with sweet release as they were liberated once and for all!

Cheryl nearly collapsed where she sat, and Rebecca was so tempted to rush to her beloved...but she kept her gun trained on Reeve just in case...it hurt so much to simply stand there, but in the next heartbeats...Cheryl's head lifted again and she sat up straight. Her lovely face reared back as she felt like chains that had been wrapped around her very soul for so long were finally broken and fell away. She didn't just feel renewed vigor, she felt everything within her build...the potential she held that had been retarded for so long was finally given free reign, and it was so much more than wonderful...and yet, more than frightening, too.

Cheryl finally sighed into the air, "Oh...oh, that's much better!"

She heard her beloved Becca ask nervously, "H-honey...are you all right?"

Cheryl answered with a loving voice, "Yes. I'm okay." Rebecca felt true relief as she saw her lover stand easily before Valtiel again, but felt thudding worry again when she saw the blonde's nose had been bleeding. But the expression of pure liberation on Cheryl's face communicated that wasn't a big thing. The girl from Silent Hill closed her eyes then and she said with a gentle voice: "Alessa. Cheryl. Please come to me." With her power, it took little effort to lovingly summoned them both from the infinite darkness beyond the gateway...and they answered.

In the heart of the bar, a sudden bright nova burst of light issued, and there appeared a little girl who wasn't even seven years old. The Memory of Cheryl. Another far darker figure, a girl of only fourteen, literally stepped from some of the darkest shadows of the bar. This haunting sight, the pale Memory of Alessa, was much more familiar to the Medical Specialist. The shadow moved and stood next to the bright little girl.

Rebecca almost totally forgot about Reeve as she looked at the pair. The High Priest and Valtiel were also stunned and still. Becca came back to herself when she heard Cheryl speak: "Things have as much power as we give them, sweetie." The pixie looked at Cheryl, who was gazing at these Memories solemnly. "They're both who I once was...and I was in such denial of them both, I tried to separate them from me. I needed to deny Alessa and her memories of agony...of fear and hate...and guilt. I needed to deny Cheryl because she had her life stolen from her...the pain of knowing she had her future with her father taken by Dahlia was just as horrible.

"But I couldn't deny them. Their memories were still an eternal part of my very soul, and nothing could change that. I didn't realize that at the time when I gave them both power and...a kind of life as Harry and Cybil took me out of Hell." Cheryl began to weep as she said to her Memories with infinite regret, "It wasn't just useless to deny you...it was one of the greatest mistakes I ever made."

The Memory of Cheryl was just as solemn as she said softly, "All we ever wanted was for you to accept us...to accept and love yourself, Cheryl."

The Memory of Alessa purred gently, "Every bit of yourself...warts and all."

Cheryl nodded and said thickly, "I know...but I was so afraid of loving myself and...and accepting what I couldn't change."

The girl from Silent Hill moved very slowly to her Memories as she mused, "That's what the test of life is all about, though...isn't it? Only by striving through challenge, by trying to be better today than we were yesterday, that's the only way we can grow. And you can't build a life without working for it...at times struggling...and facing inevitable pain. The kinds of pain we have no choice but to suffer because of nature, chance, or..."

Cheryl thought of Reeve and Valtiel as she said with a quieter, angrier tone, "...or the will of others."

The blonde looked at both of these reflections of who she once was as her expression became so much more thoughtful...as she really answered the challenge of this final exam and spoke to them...to Rebecca...and her great enemies who could do little more than listen. "That's what makes life such a test. We don't simply have to face our own individual challenges as we grow...because we each don't live in some self-contained bubble. I'm sure if we were each separate and alone, life would be a lot simpler. But we're not."

Cheryl turned to look at her pixie, and her expression was so soft as she said, "If we're really fortunate, we'll only meet those guided by the best in them...those like you, Becca. If we're unfortunate, we'll run into assholes like Reeve or Dahlia or Wesker. Those who prey upon everyone else in so many ways." Her eyes hardened as she stared at Reeve. "You and Dahlia and Wesker and that little sycophant Claudia have one important thing in common, Reeve.

"You all wanted to be bullies who would decide the fates of everyone else you deem 'unworthy'. Or 'inferior'. Or 'heretics'. It's the same senseless, stupid song you'd hear at different times across history." Reeve began to really glower at Cheryl as she snarled, "Part of the challenge of life is growing up, and you can't help but notice that the very worst of people in history were, when you get right down to the meat of it, children.

"People like you live to prey upon others like bullies.

"You really think you have some kind of right to take whatever you want.

"You get other stupid, selfish little kids to follow you and be part of your club.

"And when there's enough childish assholes obeying the lead bully in the same club...or cult...or regime...or reich...then you can really start judging everyone who isn't one of you. You start taking from everyone else because you're so goddamn greedy. And if anybody says no, well, how do bullies usually respond? You do something worse! But you don't stop there, do you? You look at your world and judge everything, and you'll want to burn things down if they don't change to suit you.

"That's what you wanted, to change the world into your image. Dahlia wanted the same thing. So did Wesker and so many more assholes in history, it's almost pointless to count."

Cheryl took a deep breath through her nose...and sighed as she looked into space. "Some people honestly believe we can make some flowery, perfect utopia on Earth where we'd each somehow be responsible for each other. It's a cute idea. So progressive. But that isn't even possible because there will always be some of us who will be selfish, immature little children who want to take from everyone else. Most people are more grown up than that. I thought I was. Once.

"But a perfect utopia isn't possible because we aren't perfect. There's a duality, a bright light and a great darkness, in all of us. They're like the little cartoon angel or devil that pop up on your shoulder to urge you to do one thing or the other." The girl truly growing into a woman smiled a bit. "It's so easy to be tempted to go into the darkness or the light. You can lose your way in either for the worst of reasons...yes, people have done the worst of shit for the 'right' reasons, too. More often than not, a lot of us live in a gray fog between the two. Getting lost in that fog can also be really easy if you're not careful.

"But you'll never get lost as long as you have a compass. A way to find balance. The best way to do that is to simply...do unto others." Cheryl sighed sadly. "So many people forget The Golden Rule. Or worse, they're never taught that at all. That does create balance. It promotes order. That brings harmony, inside and out."

Cheryl looked to her Memories again. "You might as well embody the light and dark in me, not simply my memories. You, my Memory of Cheryl...you lived a life full of love from your dad Harry. You could only see the beauty in everything around you. You dreamed of bringing even more beauty to the world by expressing yourself through art.

"You...my Memory of Alessa..." Cheryl's expression became full of pain as she looked at the wraith. "Your life was one of loneliness and fear. There was so little beauty and even less love in your world. And when Dahlia..." The blonde's breath caught in her throat as the Memory of Alessa looked down painfully. "Your fear became anger and then hate. You embraced all of that toxicity as your powers reached out, and you brought your uncertainty and terror to all of Silent Hill. The most tragic part of it was..." With a quiet, strangled voice, Cheryl moaned, "I never even meant to do that."

The Memory of Alessa looked back at Cheryl with just as much regret...because she was a reflection of the same girl from another lifetime, after all...and she managed with an ethereal voice, "And then...I did get as bad as Dahlia. I...I almost became worse. And it was because I got so selfish and needed the pain to stop." The Memory of Cheryl looked at the dark half with pure love and empathy.

Cheryl looked back at her lover sadly, and Becca could only look at her lover with truly solemn blue eyes as the blonde continued. "It is possible to go to one extreme or the other. We can so damned full of ourselves in every way Jung and others wrote about...but part of growing up is finding that balance. None of us could ever call ourselves purely good. My dad couldn't have been perfect...dammit, I feel like shit for saying that, but I'm sure he wasn't! I'm also totally sure he did his very best. That's why I'll love him forever."

Cheryl looked back at her Memories as she really began to make peace with them...and herself. She said gently to her Memory of Alessa, "We need the aggression and drive that comes from the darkness in us so we can be strong enough to tackle any challenge, to simply have the motivation to reach for what we desire...and be strong enough to resist someone else when they try to take something from us. That can be moderated and governed reasonably by being in harmony with the light inside." The blonde looked at Rebecca once more. "You needed the strength and aggression to do what's necessary when the worst of things happened, sweetie. Good intentions and love alone didn't help you survive so many zombies years ago, right?"

Becca smiled softly back as she answered, "No, they sure didn't. Guns did help!"

Cheryl nodded. "Some may think it's strange to say, but we need a balance between the light and the dark so we can really mature...never get lost by remembering that Golden Rule...and bring only the most positive things to our world. That's the best most of us can aspire to. That's all I could want because I would never want to be like Dahlia.

"If that ever happened, Becca...then I would fail you...so I swear on my very soul I won't." Cheryl said that with such perfect love and truth, Rebecca nearly burst into tears of happiness.

The girl from Silent Hill reluctantly turned away from Rebecca for the last time as she truly grew and began to walk slowly toward her Memories...she said calmly at first, "The only way I'll become a woman like that and be the best version of myself is if I grow. If I accept myself...and love all of myself..." She stopped before the Memories and she began to cry as her voice thickened with regret. "...but for so long I couldn't, and I am so sorry for that." Cheryl's face looked downward and she said very meekly, "I know that's useless to say."

A very young, infinitely loving voice reassured, "That isn't useless." The blonde looked at the Memory of Cheryl, who looked so excited as she began crying, too. The girl she once was told her, "It's beautiful, Cheryl."

The Memory of Alessa was also in tears as she closed the distance between her and Cheryl, as well. She purred, "We do love you. Please love us...embrace us." There was hardly any distance between the three at all now, and the wraith urged tenderly, "Love yourself once and for all."

In the next surreal, remarkable moment, Cheryl did close that distance as she took these embodiments of her past lives close...and held them tight. They all relaxed into one another. All three felt a true peace and happiness for the first time in...ever.

Then something happened that took Rebecca Chambers totally by surprise: a mystic light began to issue and then flare BRIGHT, but it wasn't a blinding physical light. It was something more profound than that. Fear gripped the pixie's being so fiercely she was tempted to panic and call out her lover's name...

...but in only heartbeats, the light faded to nothing...

...and in the heart of Heaven's Night, Rebecca saw ONLY Cheryl Mason standing there. Reconciliation and fusion and growth were achieved, irrevocably and for all time. The woman turned to her beloved pixie, who marveled because her extraordinary lover seemed to be more beautiful than ever. Her eyes no longer looked bloodshot and had shifted from hazel to a truly supernatural color. Some of her clothes had changed. And even more starkly than that...her hair had shifted permanently from blonde to a black darker than raven's feathers.

Astonished, Becca barely breathed, "W-wow...!" With a goofy smile, she added awkwardly, "Um...y-your hair...!"

Cheryl frowned a bit and realized...she asked dryly, "What? I did tell you I wasn't born blonde, remember?"

"I-I remember...still...you look incredible, honey."

Cheryl smiled then and murmured, "You're too damn kind." Fully relaxed in her posture, the woman moved to the long counter of this bar. As her right hand still held her Colt .45, Cheryl pulled a flattened pack of cigarettes from one of her jeans pockets. There were only a few left, kind of bent from constant carry. Cheryl got one and took a seat as she said, "Excuse me for a minute. It feels like forever since I had a cigarette."

Rebecca advised gently, "Those are kinda bad for you, you know?"

Cheryl shrugged, snapped her fingers, and made the end light into a cherry...she took a deep luxurious drag from the filter, and gradually exhaled blue smoke. She gave Reeve and Valtiel a hard glance and reminded, "Maybe, but there are things a lot worse."

The pixie giggled, but with little humor. "Ain't that the truth...!"

For many meaningless moments, Cheryl let herself relax...but she kept her passive power active to keep Reeve and Valtiel low as she drained from them. After all of the things she had been through, really reconciling herself with her past so she could embrace a future of infinite possibilities, the woman needed this moment. Finally, she took another drag, and moved from the bar.

Cheryl approached Reeve and Valtiel as Becca watched them carefully...with a casual gait, the raven haired woman said with building power, "Now...before I get to Reeve...I have something to say to you, Valtiel!" With a thought, this incredible woman who would have been called a sorceress in more ancient days lifted Valtiel to suspend the craven being in a hover above the floor with nothing but absolute will! Becca realized that Valtiel couldn't move outside of a few odd twitches, and that wasn't his choice. That was a trick she saw Cheryl do before, making an enemy so totally powerless...and she didn't mind one bit.

Cheryl mockingly blew a plume of blue smoke into Valtiel's face, really getting into the moment...she told the pale thing unkindly, "Before I kick your ass back home, I just wanted you to know I get it. I really understand." Cheryl looked at Becca and informed her, "When I looked into him, I realized why Valtiel was so desperate to see me give birth to his God on Earth. It isn't just because Valtiel is her most faithful servant...

"...this worthless creature simply wanted to be a good son." Cheryl really stared at the pale, craven thing again. "It must have been frustrating for Metatron to brand your ass and make you so low, force you to use your wits since you no longer had any power. At least, you'll never be nearly as strong as I am. That's why you needed mortal servants like Reeve and Dahlia and others in The Order on Earth. That's why you needed your godforsaken machine. You could never get by without help.

"Supporting your mother meant everything, even though that bitch was so much more terrible than Dahlia was!" Cheryl sighed. "Unlike most kids who are abused and preyed upon, you couldn't help but identify and relate to your mother. Being born and raised in Hell is enough to turn anyone into a monster, too. But then, even in the worst of places, we can choose to be better and rise above it...yet you never even gave that a thought. Ever." Not even a foot separated Cheryl's face from Valtiel's pathetic pale visage as he twitched helplessly. "I really do get it..."

The woman couldn't help herself and said with slowly building anger, "...but that's no excuse, you sack of shit..."

Then Cheryl took FIRM hold of Valtiel with her pure will and she screamed with overwhelming power: "...so get out of my face and GO BACK TO WHERE YOU BELONG!!!" As she railed, the woman spun and gestured as if she was throwing an object with her free hand, and simultaneously, Valtiel went soaring from the stunned pixie and clear across the massive room. The creature didn't just hit the wall. A strange kind of shadow had manifested there and Valtiel flew INTO it! With another passionate gesture, Cheryl made that shadow fade away. There was nothing there now.

Cheryl looked at that space for a few beats...then turned once more to look down upon the High Priest of the Sect of Valtiel. She purred, "Well, Reeve."

The raven haired beauty flexed her will again and harshly made Reeve Meyers levitate into a standing position just like that...she let him go, and the asshole stumbled back into the wall behind him because his knees were so weak. Rebecca kept her MP5 trained FIRMLY upon him. Cheryl considered her enemy and said, "I'm sure you've got something to say. Go on. Spit it out!"

In spite of his weakness, Reeve stared at Cheryl with cheated fury. One hand gripped the bleeding arm Becca shot three times. He did look a lot paler than he was before as he said in a measured tone, "I...require...medical attention."

Cheryl nodded. "You are bleeding badly. Becca can put a tourniquet on your arm." She looked at her lover. "But would you want to?"

Reeve snarled, "Please! This nothing refused to kill me before when I was unarmed!"

Rebecca's expression became dangerous again as she really readied her SMG and snapped, "You've been giving me every reason to wish I changed my mind, goddamn you...!"

Then. The pixie heard Cheryl say very softly, "Please don't." Becca looked to her raven haired lover, who urged with care, "Don't let him change you."

Rebecca's expression softened immediately...the sweetheart nodded and said with an incredible smile, "I won't, honey. I'll only grow." She looked at Reeve with harder eyes and added, "Besides, it would be too easy to let you bleed out and die!"

Cheryl purred, "You're right." She lifted her Peacemaker then and aimed it right at Reeve's face. "Let Becca treat you and be civil, Reeve. You don't have enough power to do shit right now, but if you want to try something anyway, I'll hit you with a psychic attack. You know what I can do from long range." Cheryl threatened with a granite-hard tone, "I won't kill you, but I will make you wish for a lobotomy!"

Not being a total idiot (for better or worse), any defiance in Reeve flagged under Cheryl's gun...Rebecca moved gracefully to the High Priest's side and his wounded arm. The pixie briskly began to strip fabric from the voluminous sleeve of his robe so she could start tying off blood flow to the arm at the proper place. She was a seasoned expert at field medicine in the worst of situations.

Reeve looked at them both with curiosity as Becca did her work and finally asked with loathing, "You intend to turn me into your friends so I can face a higher authority?"

Cheryl answered softly, "Oh, I've got something like that in mind. Yes. You will face justice for everything you've done."

The High Priest said with building consternation, "You really want to be like your lover and all of the worthless sheep in our world. You hold true power, Alessa...you could be a god on Earth. You could have everything you ever wanted. How could you settle for less and abide by a world that makes no damned sense???"

Cheryl smiled a bit...and finally answered, "You are such a child if you can ask that after everything I just said, Reeve. When it comes to the test of life, you got it all wrong because you never grew up. I'm not sure if a few circuits in your head got crossed or if you just naturally developed that way -- I don't want to know you THAT well! -- but I do know you're not capable of growing up. Like Dahlia and everyone who was ever part of The Order, you built your own clubhouse where you judged the rest of the world because things weren't the way you wanted them. Your 'religion's' ideas always had everything upside down in the same way a cross is turned on its head to become something unholy.

"You say you want order, but what you really need is chaos. You preach about harmony, but what you really want is dominion. You even call Hell 'Paradise'. You have everything backwards, and you don't have the self awareness to see it...but then, you'd have to be an adult to be aware of what's so wrong with you. I'm sure you're hating me so much right now for simply calling it like I see it!

"You might have graduated from pulling wings off of flies to roasting the neighbor's cat in their own microwave while they were out of the house..." Rebecca stopped EVERYTHING and stared at Cheryl. The raven haired woman said quietly, "Yes, he did that." With pure disgust, Becca tried to refocus on her work, but her hands became a lot unkinder. Reeve winced more than once under the pixie's ministrations. Cheryl snarled, "You finally murdered your own parents in their sleep." Becca nearly paused again, but tried not to think about it. "I got to know you as well as you know me, Reeve.

"All you could do after that is go looking for people who were almost as screwed up and selfish as you are. People you could convince to believe in you because it would get them something. That's why everyone outside of your cult is the enemy or only worthy of being sacrifices. That's why you would have condemned our world if given the chance!

"You might have learned a lot and gotten stronger...but you never grew. All you did was become a bully and a predator. Even your belief in your God was based on one simple thing: gimme...gimme...gimme." Reeve looked INCENSED as he stared into the sorceress' eyes. "There are all degrees of selfish assholes like you in our world, Reeve. They range from the lowest carjacker or some piece of shit who would shoot a kid just for their shoes to politicians who manipulate some people against others! Hmf. Politics. Usually the person who claims they're the most dandy and tolerant are the ones who judge everybody who disagrees with them...but really, they're the ones who are more intolerant than a backwoods bigot!"

Cheryl drew closer to him and snapped, "You're a thousand times worse than any of them because all you can do is take and destroy and burn. I will never be so childish and full of myself as the likes of you and Dahlia. I told that bitch when I was given the chance to forgive or condemn someone for their sins, I chose to do neither. I wasn't born to be responsible for anyone else, and I'm not here to pass judgment over anyone like a god." The beauty declared with emotion, "All I want is to do unto others, just like my father taught me. I want to live and let live, and I'll ONLY get harsh if it's to defend myself or anyone else who just wants to live their lives!

"I am my father's daughter, Reeve, and you say that makes me a sheep? Well, I'm proud of that. I'd rather be a sheep than a childish little puppy like you who'll be hungry forever!" Rebecca's breaths became so shallow as she heard her lover make that proclamation. She had never felt so fortunate -- no. So blessed to know and love this woman from Silent Hill.

Cheryl took a beat to calm herself as Reeve, all but completely impotent, could only seethe. The sorceress finally took a step back, regarded the High Priest, and told him, "We're going to take you outside in a minute. Me and Becca will deliver you and your followers to her friends..." A deliberate pause.

And the woman quietly finished, "...but they can't just arrest you."

Rebecca's brow crinkled as she looked at Cheryl. Reeve frowned and said flatly, "What?"

Cheryl gently shook her head. "You sinned too horribly, Reeve. I'm not counting any of the things you and Valtiel did and tried to do to me. You made me bring other worlds to Earth. You consciously and deliberately went against the way things are because of the Creator. Because of your selfishness and evil, thousands were slaughtered, and so many of them were also damned. You and your own must be judged for your crimes...you must for one very simple reason.

"We all reap what we sow."

A couple of silent, tense beats passed...and Reeve Meyers began to chuckle. No, he really started to laugh. "Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh! And so you invalidate most everything you claim when you say you are better than me, Alessa."

Cheryl's eyes narrowed. "I never once said I was better, I'm just more grown up than you are. You weren't listening. And for the last damn time: my name is Cheryl."

"Still and all." Reeve grinned like the rabid wolf he was. "You claim you would not want to be like a god, and yet you say I must be judged. If you really mean that, then you contradict yourself." He finally growled, "You make yourself a hypocrite."

As Rebecca watched, the woman from Silent Hill smiled back in a way that really bothered Reeve...she drew close, almost too close, and told the High Priest, "You think so, huh? You'd be right...except you've got to understand this. I'm not the one who's going to judge you!"

Instantly, Reeve's own lupine smile dissolved as he looked into the woman's eyes. The asshole DID begin to understand. And that's when he started to feel real, genuine fear for the first time in his life.

Cheryl's own smile faded as she stepped back, turned, and walked from Reeve and Becca to the center of Heaven's Night once more. The pixie still didn't quite get it herself, but she was about to. With her face turned away, Becca never saw her lover's eyes become surreally alight again as her thoughts and voice reached out, and they both heard and felt Cheryl as she called out gently:

"Red Pyramid. Excuse my trespass, but I wanted you to know. I have Reeve Meyers. Follow my call, and you will find him and his followers. That is all." Cheryl's eyes returned to their subdued spectral color again...

...very slowly, the sorceress turned to them...

...as Rebecca felt jolting awe. Reeve, meanwhile, had graduated to legitimate, soul-shredding terror. The High Priest felt overwhelmingly NUMB from it as he managed to say to Cheryl, "Y-y-you can't do this." With quiet desperation, he looked at Rebecca and implored thinly, "You can't let this happen. You can't."

Rebecca wasn't looking at Reeve. She was gazing back at her lover as she slowly returned to them. The pixie did understand. She really did. Rebecca finally looked at Reeve's desperate face...

...and the Medical Specialist said softly, "You're the one who wanted all of this, Reeve. You forced Cheryl to bring Limbo and Hell to our world. You killed so many or condemned them forever. People like Gwen, Bea, George, Sienna, and so many more are damned because of you. There is no punishment in our world that would fit your crimes...but maybe there is in Hell.

"Besides." Rebecca Chambers stared into the High Priest's soul and told him with a diamond voice, "I'm not responsible for a monster like you."

Cheryl Mason was there before them both...and with resolute eyes, the woman purred to him, "Time to reap, asshole."

TO BE CONTINUED
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Next...it's time for judgment. ^______^

Giving credit where it's due for the models used in my art above!

XNALara created by Dusan Pavlicek; XPS by Dusan and XNAaraL

Models:
Cheryl Mason, before and after her transformation, by ...for 'after', her God of Thunder shirt is thanks to a mod by !
Rebecca Chambers by !
Colt Peacemaker by !
Cigarette by !
Heaven's Night by again!