Title: Decode
Author: Broken Hallelujahs
Pairing: Alice/Claire
Rating: M (for sex and language. If you're underage leave now before your parents catch you)
Summary: As Claire struggles to find her identity, her memories slowly begin to piece themselves together. What memories will she unearth, and what does Alice truly mean to her?
Disclaimer: Own not. Profit not. Sue not.

A huge thank you to Jon and Manya19 for spending countless hours going over the little details with me. You two are amazingly patient and I'm blessed to have you!

"Memories are all we really own" - Elias Lieberman

Alice. Crazy Alice.

Claire froze in the back of the plummeting plane as the thought brought forth images, memories, unbidden and flashing violently.

She closed her eyes tight and sucked in a gasp of surprise.

Crows. Infected crows. Hundreds of them, blotting out the sun, attacking the people around her, attacking her. A blonde girl screaming her name. Children in a bus. She remembered thinking she was going to die this time.

Like some bad remake of 'The Birds' her mind supplied unhelpfully.

Then the sky was on fire, ash was falling, and in the midst of it all...

Alice.

Then nothing. No more memories, and no explanations.

Claire's eyes snapped open, only to find they were on the roof, and Alice was already out of the cockpit, speaking to the survivors that had prompted her daring maneuver.

Annoyance with her current state gave way to fury in seconds. She threw back her canopy with more force than necessary and squirmed out of her restraints onto the wing in time to hear Alice introduce her to what Claire guessed was the leader of the little gang.

She ignored both his hand and his greeting, hopping down. Shooting Alice a quick glance, she stomped off to the farthest and highest point she could see.

A staircase.

She clambered up, feeling Alice's eyes on her just a moment more, but she ignored that too, and soon the weight of the gaze left her.

Claire gripped the metal railing in both hands, grit her teeth, and barely kept back a scream that threatened.

Who the fuck am I? She inwardly shouted at herself.

It didn't matter. No matter how hard she tried to dredge anything, any scrap of memory up, everything remained stubbornly clouded.

God help me, I'm going to seriously enjoy damaging whoever did this to me.

Still seething, she sank down on the concrete landing of the stairs and dropped her aching head into her hands.

It's like Total Recall! Well, maybe more like Jason Bourne, you're kind of dangerous and moody like him.

She sighed into her hands and fought down the urge to cry. None of this was making sense. So far all she knew was that she seemed to have enjoyed movies, but could recall nothing pertinent to her situation. Or, more importantly, any of the things that Alice had asked her about.

Or Alice, for that matter.

She'd been trying for two days now to get her memory to work for her and now, all of the sudden it was working, but still not in any way she wanted it to.

Arcadia. She urged herself to remember. ARCADIA.

A helicopter on a beach, that same blonde girl next to her, worry in her blue eyes. She felt tired, and so sad. Something was missing. Something important. There was an ache in her she didn't understand. Then, out on the horizon a ship, and coming from it boats, rescue boats, surging through the waves towards them.

She started forward towards the craft and the crews manning them.

Then nothing, a great, big, blurry blackness before...

Rough hands grabbed her, and then there was a sharp pain as the scarab device Alice asked about was shoved onto her chest. Something pierced her skin. She fought. Kicking, punching. Broke free and ran...-

Claire brought her hands away from her face at the rush of information. She brought up her fingers to gingerly touch the skin between her breasts. A small scar greeted the pad of her index finger. She shivered lightly and dropped her hand.

Is the blonde girl 'K-Mart'? She wondered and felt a pang in her chest at the idea of someone hurting the teen.

But what about me? She grabbed a handful of red hair and closed her eyes again, willing herself to focus, feeling her eyebrows draw together as though obeying the command.

"Claire," she said aloud to herself, "my name is Claire Redfield."

"Claire Redfield?" An older man asked, glasses in one hand, a pencil in the other. He looked up from his desk and scanned the room. Claire waited for his gaze to reach her before she raised two fingers by way of identification. She felt the smirk on her face, but couldn't, and wouldn't, have erased it for any reason. She could already tell this class was going to be a joke, and good ol' Noah up there was going to be a push over... -

"Claire!" Someone yelled after her, but she didn't stop, just continued out of the small apartment and towards her waiting motorcycle.

"Claire! Jesus, stop! I'm sorry, just wait a second, I didn't mean it! Come back here and let's just talk! Claire!"

The weight of the bike felt welcome to her as she swung her leg over and took up the kickstand, supporting it on her own. She revved the engine a couple of times, and despite the tears, a smile lit her face at the growl of the older model sport bike. Ignoring the continued pleas of the man chasing after her, she flipped him the bird over her shoulder and then gunned the engine... -

"Claire?"

Claire's eyes snapped open once again, her breath ragged and heart in her throat, body flooded with adrenaline over the last, memory, flashback... whatever.

Alice was coming up the stairs towards her and Claire felt the ever present tension in her body relax almost immediately. She smiled at the older woman, not understanding the familiarity her body seemed to have with the stranger who called her 'friend'.

There was something there, she was sure of it, and it had to do with crows and fire.

I am going to figure this out, she thought to herself as Alice crested the top of the steps and stepped in close. Her eyes traced over the brunette's body, her face, and she struggled with the urge to reach out and touch Alice's fingers. Somehow, as close as they were, Claire felt like she wanted to be even closer to the other woman. There was a warmth in Alice's presence and she knew, just knew, it would only be amplified by contact.

Alice pointed out over the city towards the distant ocean, and Claire's eyes followed her gesture immediately.

"Claire, that ship over there? That's Arcadia," she spoke as though surprised and Claire realized with a jolt that the woman wouldn't know. She hadn't been on the beach.

"I know," she replied, happy to be able to say it. To know that she remembered something, maybe it could help them. Help Alice.

She didn't miss the look of relief and what looked like a glimmer of hope that lit up the brunettes face. "You remember?"

Claire nodded slightly, "I remember the beach. People were coming to help us."

Her fingers reached again for that scar on her chest, Alice's eyes flickered down and back up.

"What happened? Why didn't you go with the others?"

Claire bit her lip and lightly shook her head, "I don't know. I can't remember."

Alice's face fell, but only slightly, perhaps she didn't think Claire would notice, but she did.

I have got to figure this out, soon. It felt like she was missing out on a secret that should have been hers to keep to begin with.

Claire watched Alice nod, her blue eyes flickered up and met Claire's stare for the briefest of seconds. Long enough for Claire to detect a look of pain that only served to further pique her curiosity.

"We have to get to that ship," Alice declared finally. Looking back out over the stretch of ruined city. She then sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Luther says there's food downstairs, I'm going to go eat something. You want to come with me?"

Claire opened her mouth to say yes but bit back the word at the last second, hating to shoot down the hopeful look on her 'friends' face but...

"I - I need some more time to myself, if you don't mind," she looked away quickly before those beautiful blue eyes could erode her will away.

"Sure, I'll just be inside then," Alice faltered and stopped at the bottom of the steps. Claire swallowed hard and pasted a small smile on her face for the other woman.

"Alice, I'll be fine. It's not like I'm going to be running away," she assured her and crossed her arms firmly over her chest.

Alice nodded and smiled back before turning to leave her to her thoughts.

Claire sank down once more, crossed her legs and looked up at the sky with a humorless laugh.

Who am I?

TBC