This was spawned by the poem 'Sidekicks' by Ronald Koertge and me noticing Wesker only ever acknowledges that Sheva even exists maybe TWICE in the entire game.

RECOGNITION

She'd known she was out of her depth. She'd known it since they'd watched their contact was executed and they were swarmed by a wall of angry voices, fists, and makeshift weapons. But she had kept going, because they needed to catch Irving. When he asked her if she wanted to keep going, she'd sensed he had something else he was fighting for-something else behind those determined and sad blue eyes. So she'd gone with him. She admired it, that he was continuing on, even after everything he'd been through- BECAUSE of what he'd been through. She'd wanted to be that strong. So they kept going. Even when her heart hurt to see what had been done-been done to her people, because no matter how upper-class her accent, she had been born and lived all her life here and now one man had screwed it all with his dreams of greed.

They met Josh again, and she must've noticed how twitchy and nervous he was-nervous beyond their situation, if she could have believed it-and she tossed aside her suspicion even when Irving lay dying on the deck in front of them and gasped with his last breath the name of Tricell's African division because Josh was the only part of her depth that she could still cling to, like a rock in Chris' wave of determination to find his partner Jill.

And when they found the labs (oh god the labs with those flowers and those poor animals and the lickers, and he just stood there like a rock and fired shot after shot like he'd seen it all before and he probably had), and in between all the monsters she saw him bend, twice-once when he looked for the woman Jill in the list of subjects and the pod supposed to hold her was empty, and twice when he snarled at Excella, ready to tear her apart piece by piece and find Jill on his own.

Then he found her.

They ran into a huge system of caverns and met the mastermind behind it all, and found he'd done something to Jill and Chris just snapped, and oh there was a story there, far longer and more painful than the one she'd been told, and it was confirmed when Wesker didn't even glance at her, didn't acknowledge her at all and focused all his attention on Chris.

And when they found out how he was controlling Jill she could feel Chris' vision go black and the roar rise in his ears from despair. So she yelled a possible solution and after it worked Chris was holding her in his arms and it was wrong-or rather, there was no romance. It looked like a brother and sister. And she wanted to say something but she had the feeling that would shatter the two beyond all repair, so when Jill looked at her and knew that she knew, Jill just said 'Take care of him' and all that was unsaid weighed heavy on her heart, and she said she would because they both knew they needed Chris to stop Wesker-even through the pain of what they now both knew.

So they ran to the ship and she watched with the grim satisfaction of knowing she was right as the beautiful Excella was tossed aside like garbage by the man who she'd doubtless thought would make her his delicate queen in his new world, as the last true human. And internally, she laughed. All through the fight she laughed, because it was obvious to anyone with eyes that Wesker would never have a delicate queen- he'd have a lover (or a rival) who had the power to tear down his godhood singlehanded.

And when she found what he was planning to do she was scared. She was scared because he was so deeply obsessed he'd attempt to destroy the entire world to achieve his goal.

And she was even more scared when she realized, somewhere in-between Chris catching Wesker's glasses and being thrown off the second story, that if Wesker really wanted them dead they'd have been dead back in the caverns. So she said 'he's lost it' but didn't mean it the way Chris took it, but they had to play this tragedy out to the end.

She stabbed the needle in his chest and felt cold when she realized it wasn't doing anything and ran and ran and ran until Chris grabbed her arm and hauled her up with him, and she realized that Chris shouldn't be forced to live with the guilt, if he'd realized what she and Jill knew, but he caught her again and her heart clenched when she realized he didn't know and that there was no longer an easy way out (not that there ever had been).

They crash-landed and as they walked out limping she wondered absently what Wesker had put in the air supply to keep the two of them alive over a river of molten rock, and when the man himself appeared and overdosed on his own forced evolution she again wondered how far he was willing to go, and as Chris leapt onto his back and peeled open his own path to his the blond's heart she laughed at the bitter irony of it ending as it began.

And out of selfishness she did not shoot both of them, did not give them both what they so wanted, and she ran over and cut out Wesker's heart. She apologized to him with her eyes, and saw momentary disappointment and a sudden gleam in the dying orbs and she knew she'd been acknowledged in the fight over the determined and loyal boy with the clear blue eyes.

So when he grabbed their helicopter and screamed the boy's name with his last breaths, she wasn't surprised. And she looked at Jill and they both knew, and she took the launcher trying her best to keep the tears from streaming down her face, and the moment before they hit she heard his voice as clear as day.

You win, Sheva Alomar.

And Sheva Alomar cried.

She'd known she was out of her depth.