[Albert Wesker - 1986]

[Arklay research facility]

[Raccoon City, Pennsylvania]

It was in the humid summer months that Birkin's daughter was born. He seemed ecstatic about it, something that I couldn't quite grasp. With his research at the facility growing every passing day, what sense was there in starting a family? Brilliant though he was, Birkin had his flaws. From his unnatural hatred of the young Alexia, to this futile attempt at normalcy, he disappointed me.

We weren't normal men…we were gifted men. Why spoil that?

He was still a sight better than that fool, Askari. The good doctor was doting over his test tube child as if she were the sole purpose for his existence. I grew irritated at the constant displays of her development… I had to endure a merciless assault of pictures, footage, and generic babble about the child. Birkin, in his paternal stupor, no doubt found it all precious. I still did not forget the day Dr Askari let that child wander five floors down, all the way to our dangerous, viral research. It was pathetic, as a researcher, to allow his experiment to possibly be compromised like that! Of course, most people would have instead called it bad parenting.

Today, the child in question was sitting on one of the chairs usually reserved for the board members; she was so small that she was barely able to peep over the top of the table. Her name was Ashera. Surprisingly, Spencer had allowed this little intrusion into his meeting. Truthfully, the child was quiet and well-behaved, but the presence of a little girl at a business meeting confounded me. She was Spencer's new pet project, supposedly a prototype super-soldier. I was uneasy with that explanation. The founder of a company such as this doesn't usually concern himself with a commonplace experiment.

Spencer was briefing us about something of great importance. The t-virus was making an advantageous headway; however, certain voices within Umbrella were calling for Marcus' research to be shut down completely. I was listening carefully enough, and I soon was too wrapped up in my thoughts of our newest development to pay the child much notice.

'When do you want us to act?' Birkin asked eagerly. This was the first time that I'd seen him enthralled by his work in a long time.

'I can see the calls for his termination strengthening in a few months…for now we shall keep a close eye on him. Birkin, when the time comes, the t-virus research will be yours,' Spencer stated evenly.

'So, we wait?' Birkin's voice had taken on a hint of disappointment.

'You will await orders, yes,' Spencer told him, 'I simply require that you be ready to act at a moment's notice.'

Birkin nodded quickly, his eyes darting from Spencer to me, as if he were waiting for me to say something. I really didn't care that Birkin was the one chosen to be credited with Marcus' research. Such trivialities defeated the purpose of doing anything productive in the first place.

'That sufficiently covers our agenda,' Spencer stood, and so did we. Little Ashera looked at us; her large eyes were impassive, almost doll-like. 'I suggest you both take her back to her father. She's bored by us.'

Birkin assented to this, but left the child to be led out by me. I shot him a sidelong glare. He claimed that she hated him, and it did seem to be the case. The girl despised Birkin…why I did not know. He certainly was friendlier towards her than I was. Instead, she was unreasonably attached to me, to the point of following me when she was left within the lab. I wasn't exactly aggravated by this development, simply perplexed. She followed, but stayed out of the way. Sentient, intelligent eyes tracked my movements, but she never uttered as much as a syllable.

'Do you like being in the labs, Ashera?' Birkin looked down at her, smiling in that fatherly way that made me want to throttle him.

'Sometimes,' her voice was quiet, her accent lilting high and low, all the while maintaining a soft monotone. Askari had decided to raise her away from America, in the third world home country within the depths of the Caribbean's Lesser Antilles, which he and his wife had once called home. I had my doubts about the idea, but I had long since decided against trying to understand the logic of Jonah al-Askari.

'Why sometimes? What would you rather be doing?'

'I want to go back to school.' She said simply, 'Daddy doesn't come see me there, so why do I have to come here to see him?'

It was a surprisingly eloquent answer for a six year old. She was showing her good genes… no doubt, not inherited from her father. When I considered it, he looked nothing like him either… her light brown skin contrasted his dark complexion, her features more delicate and refined. I had never seen her mother, so I couldn't be certain as to where her aesthetics lay. She carried a strange, striking look that could be termed as unique. When questioned, Askari pointed to both his and his wife's mixed lineages as the answer. I was rather apt to doubt him. Sooner or later, I would peruse her file myself. More than a few things were being poorly hidden… not the least of which was her true purpose.

'What's so good about school?' Birkin sounded thoroughly amused by her.

'It's more interesting than sitting in a room watching people work,' Ashera said, and her tiny hand gripped mine a little tighter. I did my best to ignore the nuisance. 'It's nicer at home.'

We had mercifully gotten to her father's floor. I opened the lab and led her in, and her tiny face set into something akin to disappointment. Someone was obviously not fond of their father.

'Dr Askari,' Birkin called, 'we've brought back your little girl.'

The cinnamon-skinned man in the isolation chamber nodded at us, and pressed the intercom.

'Thank you, sirs,' he said. His voice always shook.

Pathetic.

Ashera had let go of my hand on her own, and hoisted herself up on the high lab chair, looking sullen. We left her there, and as soon as the door clicked shut, I held Birkin back.

'I want that girl's file. There is something amiss here that I don't like.'

[1990]

[Umbrella Regional Research Facility]

[Chacachacare island, West Indies]

'This place was a leper colony,' Ashera explained, gesturing to the broken wrought iron fence of a nearby cemetery, 'nuns stayed here and ran it, they were buried here. Apparently, the island is haunted.' She added the last with an amused giggle.

I ran my eyes over it uninterestedly. The wretched island was disastrously hot, and the insect life could probably populate the entire United States several times over. Unlike the young girl, I was not enjoying myself. Spencer had sent me here to return some viral samples to him, trusting me in the hands of Askari's girl genius. She seemed to be discovering the thrill of research and science fully, though I wondered how that would fare with her father's apparent plans to have her begin her training soon. Like most prodigious youth of her age, she was almost ready to be enrolled in a degree programme, and was due to finish her last year of schooling soon. After the Alexia incident, Dr Askari was apprehensive about sending to work in viral research labs at a young age.

I'd seen a fair bit of her over the years, generally from her visits to the Arklay facility. Unlike her infantile self, she seemed to have grown a large desire to talk back to anyone and anything. Her wit was impressive enough, if not more than a little annoying.

As planned, I had gotten my hands on several of her confidential files. I even went as far as testing her DNA myself. She was no daughter of Dr Askari. I'd even found that she did not match her mother's genes as much as she should have, despite being birthed by the woman. With further testing, I was able to deduce that her genes had been spliced in from several different people, one of which was her birth mother. It was an occurrence that the scientific community doubted fiercely, and a method that most would not even try.

The girl herself wasn't aware of being an experiment. As the family of an Umbrella scientist, and being routinely in the labs, she was subjected to the same routine physicals as everyone else, and her records were filled thusly. I was still in the dark when it came to her actual purpose… Spencer's intentions were becoming increasingly cloudy, the more I considered the facts.

She led me to the facility, and took her usual station on the researcher's chair.

'I might be coming to Arklay soon,' she said, watching me stack the various petri dishes and syringes into their travelling incubators. 'I'm due to start my degree in a month or two. I can't beat Alexia Ashford, but I can speed through the system faster than most people,'

'Dr Askari is sending you abroad, I assume?' I didn't look around at her.

'Yeah. He hasn't told me where exactly,' her voice was bitter, 'I am looking forward to getting some serious research done when I can though. Working under you and Mr Birkin is something I look forward to the most.'

'I'm leaving the research facility,' I mentioned matter-of-factly. I heard the creak in the chair as she hopped off.

'Really? What would make you do that?'

I wasn't going to stand here and explain myself to a ten year old, but I placated her with one of the most commonplace excuses of fidgety scientists.

'I plan on expanding my horizons, Ashera,' I turned to face her, and found her staring at me, confused. 'I don't expect a child to understand, but I have an agenda to follow.'

She really was just a very smart child. Innocence, naïveté, and unblinking trust were on her face. I almost laughed. She would be a machine as a researcher, if they ever let her pursue it, however, unless she was allowed to grow up, she would always be someone's puppet. I had little respect for puppets.

She continued to look at me strangely, and led me out, without another word.