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Trust Fall

Romance/ Adventure

Claire Redfield, Chris Redfield, Steve Burnside, Jill Valentine

Summary: To Claire Redfield, it feels unreal that the incident in Antarctica was two months ago in 1998 but that is how long she has been living with Chris. Yet, she knows deep down that this peace cannot last since her brother's recent obsession with taking down Umbrella. This very obsession brings the siblings back into conflict against Wesker and an old friend they long thought dead.

Chapter 1:

She couldn't call it a favorite past time, but Claire Redfield often found herself lingering by the missing persons posters near the bathroom of the grocery store while her brother Chris finished checking out. She liked to imagine that someday the posters all cleared out and there could be a happy ending for everyone on the board. But in the age of bioterrorism she perhaps knew that it was too hard to save everyone, let alone just one person.

Two months. With the amount of nightmares, time seemed to pass as if it was only yesterday she was surrounded by zombies on Rockfort Island. It had already been two months since Claire and her brother made it out of that frozen hellhole in the middle of nowhere away from monsters and madmen. And two months since one person had not made it out with them on that plane.

Steve Burnside.

Even with all the time that passed and chaos in the world since Raccoon City, Claire never quite forgot about Steve. She made it a kind of duty to remember the young man as he would no longer exist outside of prison number 267 on Rockfort Island. There was no headstone, and when her and Chris returned to the coliseum there wasn't even a body to bury.

No one else would remember his cheeky smile, endearing (if sometimes grating) overconfidence or quirky tendency to try and lighten the mood even if their lives were on the line. Sure he was her knight in shining armor, up until the very end…

"Claire!" A voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Chris held up a few bags of groceries. "Are you just going to stand there or help me with these groceries?" Her brother pressed something into her palm. "And it's your turn to drive home today."

Claire sighed, a small smile snuck its way onto her face. "Fine, fine." Just as bossy as she remembered. Walking through the grocery store parking lot, she had her arm around his upper arm chatting away about a movie she had watched with a couple of friends last night. It was as though nothing had changed since Chris had disappeared without a word before Raccoon City, but the younger Redfield found herself gripping his arm just a little tighter.

She had recalled a memory from when they left Antarctica behind.

"Please promise you won't leave me alone again." Claire reached from behind and tightened the grip on her big brother's shoulder as the jet delivered them from the base in Antartica.

"I'm sorry Claire, but it's not over yet. There's still something we have to do." Chris said, the look on his face was of a bull that was ready to charge right back into battle as soon as his feet touched the ground.

" You mean…" Claire's heart sank deep into her stomach. She wanted to be selfish, to make him stay. She had gone through all the trouble of finding Chris just to be there when he takes off again.

"Let's finish this once and for all!" Chris said, resolve blazing. The determination in his voice stung, but she supposed it was for the best. If there were to be no more victims like Steve then they would need to take down Umbrella.

Chris wasted no time in this venture. His sister knew that his partner from his old days, Jill, had teamed up with him following lead after lead, but Umbrella was a hydra: each time they got close they hit a dead end. Claire would still see her brother poring over his computer, the times he finally emerged from his room he seemed tired, defeated because he had lost another battle. Yet he was convinced he could win the war.

Without skipping a beat as soon as they got home, the older Redfield disappeared into his room. It was his sister's turn to make dinner tonight. She was in the kitchen preparing spaghetti with the new ingredients from the store and she wondered if Chris would actually come to the table. She doubted it since he had only emerged from his den a handful of times.

Claire tried to reconnect with him over meals, but he was always itching to go somewhere else. Missed parts of the conversation, eyes shifting toward his bedroom, where he could get information on a new lead. The unyielding dedication to his cause meant he was going down into the rabbit hole and Claire was stuck staring down into the abyss. Claire wanted to know where it was he was trying to go. She decided to follow him in this time. She took the bowl of spaghetti from across the table and went to the closed door down the hall.

"Chris, what are you doing in there so long? You missed lunch because you were busy and now your dinner is going to get cold. You need to eat sometime or you'll fall out." Claire called from behind the door. She knitted her brow and knew he hadn't heard her with the lack of response. The door was slightly ajar. She was more concerned with him overworking himself than his privacy, and nudged the door soundlessly open with her shoulder.

The room was soundless and dark, but as soon as she took a step a paper crinkled under her foot and the sound of rustling paper strewn across the unforeseen ground spread throughout the room. It created a sort of wind in the stagnant room, but failed to rouse Chris. She saw the computer as kind of a light at the end of the tunnel. Claire needed to go in deeper. She got close to him, wondering how to get his attention without giving him a fright. Glancing over his shoulder, she wouldn't need to contemplate that anymore.

Subject: Veronica virus in South America.

Chris,

I have a lead in South America. There has been repeated sightings of a man we believe to be Wesker with a reptilian humanoid monster as a kind of attack dog. Everywhere he goes, slaughter seems to follow and in most cases the dead are coming back to life. These zombies are most likely the result of the Veronica Virus as they display the same behavior as victims of the virus. It is for this reason we believe he is dealing with a militant group known as The Holy Eagles, a violent group who has grown stronger in recent years following a power struggle with another group known as the Sacred Snakes. We will start investigating tomorrow, meet me at the airport at 10:00.

Jill

Wesker! and the reptilian Monster…it had to be… Steve!

Claire felt all the blood in her body dry up as a cold air ran through her empty veins.

Nothing was real.

Her hand released the spaghetti and it fell straight out of her hand onto the table. The noise was so foreign to her… so far away.

However, it was close to her brother and Chris was starled and jumped up, backing away from the danger as a réflex. The imminent danger was his own sister.

With only the glow of the computer illuminating the space between them, the older brother could not see his sister's face fully but he could feel her seething. "How could you keep this a secret from me? You and I were both there, and you know what Steve meant to me!" She lunged forward fists clenched to her sides, eyes lit into blue flames by the computer light.

"What was I supposed to do?! I couldn't put you in the way of those monsters again. I just..couldn't." Chris couldn't meet her eyes for a second, caught off guard. He had expected a reaction like that but in the deep pit of his stomach hoped she would just understand.

Claire wasn't done with her tirade though. "So you were going to disappear again? So I'd have to go looking for you like I did in Raccoon City? If you pulled this stunt, I would have been in danger either way!"

"Claire, I am not-" Chris tried to quell the flame, but she was relentless.

"Chris, I'm not going to hold you back, you're the one who taught me how to fight, remember?"

Chris flinched, something he never did against power hungry men and monsters three times his size or even his own superiors.

She was right. Yet, for her sake he needed to stand his ground. He taught her to fight, but had never intended to have her put in a situation where she'd have to use those skills. "I am not arguing with you about this! I'm not letting you go-." The exasperation dragged in his voice but sent sparks jumping off the ground like a match. Chris should have known better than to think his sister would back down. She was just as stubborn as him.

Claire walked right through the flames, getting right up in his face. " I don't care if you're letting me or not. I'm going to where Steve is and you are not going to stop me."
And just like that she made for the door, ignoring the hulking wall between them that was her brother.

Nothing could stop her from finding Steve, she wasn't about to lose him a second time.

Chris went after her, and caught hold of his little sister's wrist before she could slip out of the door. His sister's piercing resolve sliced him like a hot knife through butter. "Claire," He breathed, defeated. He knew he couldn't stop her. She was relentless in this pursuit just like he was with his. "I'm going with you."