CHAPTER I

Always Hesitantly

FOREWARD- This is my conclusion to the series that I've affectionately named my 'World' series. I recommend reading the first two installments for this final chapter will have some returning characters. I hope everyone will enjoy my tale.

It was early; morning dew still claimed its spot all around the parks freshly cut grass. The smell of spring excited all of his senses and the brisk morning breeze erased the troubles in his soul...or all of those things could have been a product of simply having Jill by his side. Chris liked to think it was both.

Ever since their war with Umbrella, a debacle corporation set to ruin every life it comes in contact with, Chris and the others tried valiantly to put Umbrella away. To stop the pain and suffering, and revenge the souls that did not come out as lucky as they had.

It was a never ending battle, but one that had to be seen through to the end. For everything was at stake.

After Claire's pregnancy and their last battle with Alfred Ashford things had slowed, but that didn't mean they still didn't work relentlessly in hope that someday it would all end.

Glancing over his shoulder Chris caught Jill's eye. She was his stable, the one thing in this never ending roller coaster that was his constant. She was what kept him going, and even though everyone else had become his family, Jill was the one person that meant everything to him.

"You seem to be in a deep thought," Jill's easy voice broke what had been a long streak of silence. "What has captivated your thoughts, if you don't mind me asking?"

Shrugging Chris told her. "I was just thinking about everything, everything that has gone on and everything we still have to do."

Gracefully moving in front of him Jill took her thumb and rubbed it against his brow. "You think about it too much, have I ever told you that?"

"Somebody has to think about it," he told her defensively.

Jill nodded "I agree, but sometimes..." pausing Jill looked all around, staring at the beautiful scenery that surrounded them. "Sometimes you just have to enjoy the moment that you're living."

Smiling, Chris whispered into her ear. "Like being here with you?"

"Something like that," she replied, wrapping both her arms around his neck.

"Well in that case," Chris said before bending down and kissing her firmly on the lips.

Pulling away Jill was smiling widely. "I like these moments." She told him.

"I do too," Chris said taking her hand; the two proceeded on their walk. "It's just sometimes...it's so damn hard to think about anything else. I'm afraid if I loose concentration for even one second..." Chris' words faded, but Jill knew exactly where he was going.

"That's when disaster will strike, I know I have the same fear, we all do. I suppose the best we can do is continue on and fight with the courage and bravery that we have been."

"I suppose," he said weakly.

"Chris," Jill addressed him firmly. "This will all end soon. It has to."

"I know, I know it's just until then."-

"Until then," Jill cut him off "we do the best that we can and enjoy the"-

"Moments given to us," Chris said, this time cutting her off.

Jill smiled, sharing another kiss the two turned around and started heading back to the apartment.

Their Seattle apartments weren't much. The group had split into two apartments. Chris, Jill, Rebecca, Claire and Grace lived in the one that they always had, while Leon, Carlos and Barry moved into one a few blocks away. It might have cost more, but the sanity it gave everyone was well worth it.

Upon returning back to the apartment Chris and Jill found the whole group already there, everyone was gathered around their tiny kitchen table. In the midst of everyone's familiar faces was one unfamiliar one, a man in a sharp grey suit sat at the table. His anxious steel blue eyes had joined the others in staring up at him.

"What's going on?" Chris asked his comrades, more nervous then curious.

The group turned their gazes to the stranger, whose own gaze was still focused on Chris. The man was older, late fifties, time had taken the man's hair and his face was beginning to wrinkle. All the man's characteristics pointed towards old age, spare one. The man's steel blue eyes stuck out like a white elephant. They bore into Chris, every bit of them thriving with a knowledge that had wore the rest of the man down.

All of these things left Chris nothing but transfixed as the man finally decided to at last speak.

"Chris Redfield I presume?"

Folding his arms across his chest Chris nodded.

"Mr. Redfield," the man addressed him sternly. "I'm special agent Robert Williams, assistant director of the F.B.I. I've come to talk about a subject that I'm sure will interest you all."

Adjusting his stance Chris stared at the man, and with one word that echoed everyone's thoughts, he said out loud.

"Umbrella."

"From the disdain, in your voice, I can tell there's no need to tell you about the corporation."

"You think?" Carlos blurted out from across the table.

Agent Williams merely smirked.

Leveling himself with the rest of the table, Chris spoke crisply to the Assistant Director.

"Why are you here?"

"For the very reason that I believe all of you are here," agent Williams replied. "To put an end to Umbrella."

"But why now?" Jill interrupted. "We've requested at least a dozen or more times for assistance into our investigation. Why are you now suddenly showing up?"

"Don't peg the F.B.I as naïve, Miss Valentine is it? We've kept tabs on Umbrella for some time now, but considering the magnitude that the Umbrella corporation is...let's just say we've had to tread lightly."

"Still, why are you here now?" Jill continued stubbornly.

Agent Williams stared at them with an empty expression, Leon took the opportunity to speak up and fill in the blank that special agent Williams was obviously avoiding.

"Adam," Leon said sadly. "He is-was a F.B.I agent. When it comes to your own you guys don't 'tread lightly.'"

"Yes, special agent Skampa is a factor to why I am here, but as I said only a factor."

"Then why else?" Chris questioned. "Why are we having the sudden fortune of having the F.B.I's Assistant Director gracing us with his presence?"

Looking neither cross nor terrible impressed agent Williams told them. "Contrary to what's probably all your beliefs, the F.B.I has been investigating Umbrella and their side objectives. During the period of our investigation we have never gained any solid evidence for us to fully pursue the company, that is until now."

Pulling out a brief case from under the kitchen table agent Williams pulled out a manila folder, he handed it to Chris.

"What's this?" Chris asked taking the folder.

"The folder in your hand Mr. Redfield contains information where solid evidence, that you have been searching for so feverishly, can be found. That folder can be the beginning of the end to this terrible nightmare that all of you have endured these past years."

"What would you know of nightmares?" Chris asked agent Williams bitterly. The Assistant Director just shrugged.

"It might have taken awhile, but the F.B.I is now offering their hand. It's your provocative if you choose to accept that or not."

With that agent Williams stood up, grabbing his brief case he made his way to the door only to stop in front of Chris.

"Here," the Assistant Director said, handling Chris a business card. "Just in case you want to consider what I'm offering. My cell phone number is on the back. Have a good rest of the day."

Chris caught one last glare from agent Williams intense eyes before he left the room.

When the door was shut Chris turned the card over in his hand and read the number to himself. Turning back to his friends he asked them.

"What do you guys think?"

Every single person in that room just stared at him blankly.

Sitting around the table Jill was taking careful notice to all her friends' expressions as Chris read the contents from the folder.

In Chris' hands was the layout to one of Umbrella's tightest security buildings, located not far from the D.C area. If the F.B.I's sources were correct, then in that building they were to find actual people that have been tested on. If they could retrieve even one of those bodies, well, that would be pretty damning evidence.

Even still, Jill found herself hesitant. Looking at the others Jill noticed she wasn't the only one to feel that way. When Chris was finished reading, Barry was the first to voice Jill's worries.

"I know this is coming from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but I can't make myself trust this information. I mean the government hasn't been exactly kind to us over the past few years."

"I agree with you Barry," Chris spoke. "But I just don't think this is an opportunity that we can pass up?"

"I don't like how the F.B.I is only coming to us now," Rebecca spoke up for the first time that morning. "I still have to wonder why now?"

"We know about Adam," Leon said coldly. "Whenever there's a circumstance that will make the bureau look bad they want to contain it. Having us on their side is the best way they can do that."

Rebecca frowned, but didn't say anything else. With the young chemist going silent, Carlos decided to pick up her cause.

"Don't get me wrong you guys, I would love to have the F.B.I be our amigos, but I can't help feeling that were being used here."

"Of course we are," Jill told everybody, she could feel her fist start to shake with the tinge of anger. "We've been being used from the beginning. That's why I think we have to be extremely careful when we make alliances."

"Jill, this is the F.B.I were talking about," Chris said incredulously. "I have a hard time believing there going to back stab us."

"OPEN YOUR DAMN EYES!" Jill shouted at him. "Wesker, S.T.A.R.S, Adam, name someone that hasn't back stabbed us. If this experience has taught us anything it has taught us not to trust anybody."

For a moment everyone was silent. Jill, meanwhile, was giving Chris a hard stare, who in return stared right back. Their stare ended when Chris turned away from Jill and looked at his sister.

"You've been awfully quiet during all this. What are you thinking?"

Claire, who had been feeding little Grace up to that point, looked up at everyone almost pleadingly. "I know it's difficult to trust anyone," she said to the group "even an organization as well established as the F.B.I, but I guess the way I see it is if you guys go on this lead, it might be a step closer in shutting Umbrella down. Of course it is a risk, but what the hell isn't these days?"

After a faint smile Claire went back to feeding her child, while everyone else absorbed what she had said.

Stopping Umbrella, there was nothing that Jill wanted more. Every night she dreamt of that moment, she prayed for a night when the hellish nightmares wouldn't haunt her. If joining with the F.B.I brought her closer to what they had all been desperately fighting for, then why the hell was she arguing against it? Only this morning she had told Chris 'it will be over soon'

"Well?" Chris whispered to her, interrupting her thoughts. "What do you think?"

Hesitantly she answered him "I think we have to be damn careful, we can't under estimate a thing."

"So, yes then?"

"It's worth the risk," Jill answered him.

Chris nodded and then turned to the rest of the table. "How about you guys?"

Apprehensive nods bobbed up and down the table.

"I guess I have a phone call to make then," Chris said, and with that everyone departed from the kitchen table off to do their own things. Jill stayed where she was and watched Chris pull out special agent William's card with his own case of apprehension. He turned to face her.

"I am doing the right thing right?" Chris asked her, though she believed his hesitation didn't come from his own doubt, but for her own.

"I think you're doing what has to be done," she told him supportively

Jill stood there and watched as Chris bit his lip fretfully, he was looking back at her earnestly. "I just want all this to be over."

Jill smiled and kissed him lightly on the forehead. "I know, that's all we all want."

"Thank you," he whispered breathlessly. Then got up from the table and moved to the phone. After a deep breath he dialed the first digit.