This has been a long time in the making. It started as an idea I came up with a friend I met online, but since we lost contact, I decided to keep going on my own. So, old friend(Haryel, maybe? I'm so sorry I don't remember your name!), if you're reading this and you remember me and this story, shoot me a message? Let's talk!
3 Years Before the Fall of Raccoon City
"Jillian."
"Seriously? This is the third time tonight. I thought I told you not to call me that."
Alice would normally take any opportunity to tease Jill more, but this time she decided against it. This time she only smirked, even though Jill couldn't see her face. "Have you ever heard of the Umbrella Corporation?" She asked as they walked side by side with their flashlights pointed down the hallway ahead of them.
"Only the biggest, most powerful corporation in the world today. Yes, I may have heard of them once. Why?" Jill chuckled and continued walking down the long corridor, she was so focused on the sounds around them and worried about who they might come across around the corner that she didn't immediately realize Alice had stopped a few feet behind her.
Jill would have kept on going alone, but the lack of answer caught her attention and she stopped to look over her shoulder. When she saw Alice standing there like a creep, she directed the flashlight directly at the other woman's eyes. Alice squinted, then shielded her face from the light and nodded to her left where a large double door made of metal stood. It was painted over in green, but the paint was peeling off and some of it was all over the floor. "Over here." She waited until Jill was next to her again to place a hand over her bicep. "Well, they're hiring. I thought we could both try out."
"What about S.T.A.R.S.?"
"It doesn't hurt to keep our options open, Jill."
Umbrella went against everything Jill believed in and the idea of working for them even as some kind of a spy made her skin crawl – she didn't think she could ever live a double life like that, too much trouble, and her moral compass would probably have a heart attack. Without acknowledging what Alice was suggesting, Jill took a step closer to the door and extended her hand towards her friend, knowing she would understand what she wanted. Alice quickly handed her a black kit and then pointed her own flashlight at it as Jill chose a couple of picks to get the door open.
It was easy, needless to say. One of the great things Jill had learned from her father. "They'll know it was me, I hope you know." She said as she placed the picks back in the kit and handed it back to Alice.
With the doors now open, a huge olympic pool came into view. Jill had no idea the place existed, but suddenly found herself thankful that Alice managed to convince her to come.
"Oh, I know." Alice shrugged and then reached inside her pocket. "That's why I have this." In her hand was a set of keys, and before Jill could ask, she added: "I also don't want anything to happen to your reputation here. I just happen to like it when you have that look of concentration on your face."
And with that, Jill playfully hit the back of Alice's head while she took to locking the door behind them. "No wonder your boyfriend cheated on you." She joked, looking up at the glass ceiling where a dim light coming from the big and bright full moon shone through and hit the near crystal clear water of the pool. It was breath taking. Or as close to breath taking as they would ever get while staying in a military camp.
"What is that supposed to mean!?" Alice asked as she began to take off her clothes and Jill instantly followed her lead – neither of them shy, thanks to the communal showers they had already seen each other's bodies plenty of times before.
Jill didn't answer, choosing to simply give her a shrug before jumping into the pool.
Present time
Alice wasn't entirely sure why Jill was so annoyed with her, but, truth be told, she was kind of getting a kick out of it. It was childish to push her buttons now of all times, she knew that, but entertainment didn't come so easy these days and she wasn't planning on being picky about it. Plus, the way they ended up glaring at each other everytime they disagreed about something as well as the memories of happier times spent together were basically two of the few things keeping her alive and sane at the moment, it helped remind her of her fleeting humanity. It was difficult to keep a hold of herself these days; after seeing it on the news multiple times and constantly thinking about the events that lead to Raccoon City being wiped out of the map...damn it, a part of her became filled with so much anger that anger was sometimes the only reason why she woke up every morning.
She couldn't forget the fact that she had completely neglected certain things, certain signs, and she knew she was the one to blame for everything that happened back there. And yet, she wasn't about to regret everything. Had she acted any differently, Umbrella might have gotten away with it once again and she wouldn't have had a chance to strike them where it hurt, their public image(more or less).
"Are you alright?" asked the little Ashford girl, still so delicate and so innocent, she was completely unaware of the monster her father had put inside her DNA just to keep her alive. The T-Virus mutated every passing minute in her body and even though Angie didn't mutate entirely like Alice did, Alice could still feel it coming off of her in waves and she wished she could somehow make it stop. Angie didn't deserve this fate, she deserved a happy life, far away from this mess they were in.
Happiness. As if that was possible now.
Alice only had one objective from now on, and that was to keep quiet about what happened in this mutating process. She knew she would scare them, all of them, if she ever told them how fast the virus was developing inside her body - she couldn't even classify herself as a normal human being anymore. It was an undeniable fact she had noticed even while they were still at Raccoon City, when the blood in her veins began to run much more rapidly, when her senses became overwhelmingly alert and spectacular movements began flowing out from both her arms and her legs(as if jumping off motorcycles was something she had done her entire life).
She died inside more and more as time passed by and something worse started to take control of her.
But there was hope yet.
Love was not something the creature inside her understood, but love was something that kept her somewhat grounded.
When she escaped Umbrella's lab and saw Jill for the first time in what felt like a century, she felt something she didn't think she would ever feel again. Her heart started beating faster and she felt completely breathless. "Thank god." Jill said quietly, but there was so much love and worry there that Alice could barely believe that she had, indeed, reached a place as tightly locked and hidden away as Jill Valentine's heart.
It was something that made her smile: Jill liked to pretend she had it all under control, her words were often filled with sarcasm, but all it took was one look at Alice for her heart to betray her just like Alice's own heart had done.
But then, instead of feeling relief, she caught herself wondering if she was reading it all wrong. Maybe that wasn't love. There's a chance Jill was just nervous, but nervous of what, exactly? And why? Alice couldn't find an answer. Jill was a mystery, a contradiction, she appeared calm when she wasn't, she thought rationally even when there was nothing rational about the way her body reacted. Then again, that's probably what made her such a great woman and what set her apart from the rest: her ability to keep it together even when she felt like everything would fall apart.
"Let's keep on moving, everyone. We don't have all day." Jill called out as they walked into their new hiding spot, a dirty motel by the road in the middle of nowhere. Another cliché they apparently came to appreciate since leaving everything behind.
This secret life pleased Alice more than it probably should, it was just like playing hide and seek, though this was much more complicated than a simple child's game, it was much more exciting and dangerous.
By now Umbrella must have sent out a bunch of soldiers specially trained to deal with things like her.
Unfortunately for them, Alice herself had already gone through the same type of training and knew very well what she'd have to deal with later on.
She was ready.
a/n: after spending a lot of time reading about Jill and STARS, I'd like you to pretend that the STARS team has been around for some time, that way it would make sense for Jill to want to join them/be recruited. other than that, hopefully everything else will fit in.
