Despite the years that had passed and all the trauma in-between, that one night in the Arklay Mansion was burned forever into Chris' mind. With Wesker's death the nightmares began to fade but the memory itself was as clear as ever. Chris never thought that would be advantageous but as he stepped into the mansion the entire layout came to his mind, ingrained from the repetitious tracks he'd run finding keys and dodging zombies.

God, what was wrong with these people?

He took a deep breath and willed the shaking out of his hands and steadied his rifle. This was the same place, yes, but it was not the same situation. People still lived here, the labs below were incomplete. He wouldn't find his dead teammates mutilated around the grounds, wouldn't face a tyrant after it impaled the man he believed he could trust…

"Chris, you okay?"

He snapped back to the present and nodded. "Yeah, sorry, just… This place is kind of creepy."

"Kind of?" Lake Wright scoffed. He held his rifle low but at the ready, his stance relaxed but the way his eyes danced around the entrance hall showing him to be anything but.

"They really keep kids here?" Gary Doherty murmured, looking around at the grim atmosphere that was as dark and claustrophobic as Chris remembered. At least this time they could escape to outside if necessary.

"Quiet," Captain Orellana snapped before calling out "This is the RPD, we have a warrant! The building is surrounded!"

Well they had the K-9 unit in the back should anyone run, though Chris suspected everyone already did. The remoteness of the mansion meant that the only way out here was by helicopter, so anyone in the building would have heard them coming. That was if the snooping around and record pulling they'd been doing over the last several months hadn't tipped them off.

No one answered and the K-9 unit didn't see anyone making a run for it. Captain Orellana called them inside to assist with the room search; the mansion was too big for the four-man tactical unit alone.

"Lead the way, Chris," the Captain said.

"We should check upstairs first, they'd most likely keep the kids up there." He remembered the twisting hallways and rooms that seemed to serve no purpose other than to house traps for the unwary and assumed they had once been used for something or someone.

The K-9 unit began its search of the first floor while Chris and his team moved up the grand staircase.

"This is some mansion," Lake whispered in awe.

Chris shuddered.

Attempts to get visual proof of any children or suspicious activity at the Arklay mansion proved useless and Chief Lowe nearly dropped the whole thing, but Chris' mission was saved by some accountants, of all people. There were a number of Raccoon City residents whose paychecks were traceable to Umbrella despite its lack of operation in the city as of yet, which in itself was hardly suspect, it was a big mansion and would require staff to maintain it, including grounds and kitchen staff. However, the number was unusually high even for such a large building, with said staff's previous jobs marking them as teachers, doctors, medical researchers, physical trainers, and a former ammunitions officer from the army.

The final piece was the seizing of an order to the mansion from a local clothing store containing children-sized outfits when there were no records showing proof of any youths on the premises. Spencer or any of the listed residents had no children.

This and an 'anonymous tip' detailing the number of children, their approximate ages, and the number of each sex corresponding to the seized outfits was enough for the judge to sign the warrant, albeit unhappily. This would destroy Umbrella and with it the city's hope for progress.

But the city won't be blown away before the next millennium, Chris thought as they reached the landing and systematically began searching through the rooms.

If the building had been abandoned it wasn't until the last minute; a fire still burned in the study and the lights were all lit. Whatever traps and horrors were to come did not yet exist and the four men moved unimpeded. Lake whistled as he looked down into the dining room from the gallery. The west wing cleared, Chris led his team back across the catwalk in the main hall to the east wing to find the door locked. Gary looked ready to kick it in when Chris said he knew another way up.

Orellana let the K-9 unit know they were coming back down to use another route. So far they too had found nothing and announced the eastern side of the first floor cleared. Chris led them to the back stairs, staring up as they entered the high-ceilinged room. The windows were shut, the lights were steady, and there were no goddamn crows staring down at them. He released an unsteady breath of relief and crossed the small room.

Dread was still forming in his gut, not from danger but over the fact they had yet to find anyone. Umbrella had packed up and fled; Raccoon City would be saved but they would just start again somewhere else and Chris had no way of knowing where. He failed.

The stair creaked when he started to ascend, almost covering the soft sounds of steps and the slide of polished wood under a palm coming from the landing. Gary looked up just in time to see someone launch themselves over the banister and drop, a blade raised to split his skull in two. He cried out and barely raised his rifle to deflect it in time.

"Holy shit!"

His attacker fell back from the block but had barely touched the floor before he launched himself forward again, the machete he was wielding slicing quickly through the air and trying to get around the weapon Gary was using as a shield.

"Don't shoot it's a kid!" Orellana shouted, blocking Lake's rifle when he instinctively trained it on their small assailant.

"Kid, stop!" Gary yelled, "We're here to help you!"

The young boy didn't answer outside a snarl and dove for Gary's legs who had no choice but to swat him away with his weapon but he was barely deterred.

"Grab him!"

"I'm trying, he's fast!"

The machete whistled as it was whipped through the air, keeping the men away even as he kept going for Gary. Chris pulled out his pistol; he was far more accurate with it and could fire a shot near the boy to startle him except…

Blond, short cropped hair, intense grey eyes, and lips pulled back in a hateful snarl baring teeth that Chris would recognize at any age.

"Albert!"

The boy hesitated, turned to Chris with his brows furrowed into confusion, and it was enough. Gary dropped his rifle and dove, pulling the boy up and locking him against his chest, pinning his arms to his sides. Albert kicked and yelled but could not break free or lift the machete.

"Drop it!" Gary snapped.

"Let go of me!"

"No, you're not getting away from me and it won't do you any more good so drop it!"

"You're intruders! You don't belong here!"

"Neither do you!"

Chris stepped forward and yanked the machete from the thrashing boy's hand. With his weapon gone, Albert calmed into seething silence, glaring at his captors. His eyes lingered on Chris.

Lake ascended the first steps of the stairway and watched the open door above while Captain Orellana contacted the K-9 unit letting them know they'd found someone and it was more likely that there were more in the upstairs east wing. Wesker refused to answer when asked, lapsing into a look of indifference Chris remembered too well. The other unit split into two teams, the first to come and support the tactical team and hold Wesker, and the second to move to the locked door in the upstairs main hall should anyone come out.

Gary set the boy back on his feet and handed him off when the first team arrived.

"I don't need to cuff him, do I?"

"I think he's done with his murder tantrum, right, kiddo?"

The boy glared.

With one last anxious glance back at Wesker, Chris led the way to the second floor.

They were met with no more attacks, the floor too quiet and seemingly as abandoned as the rest of the building. They came to the hallway of traps but in this time there were only four doors. Chris pushed open the first door and fell back with a grunt as a statue raced forward to impale him…

"Chris! You alright?"

He gasped, sweat beading in his hairline. There was nothing there. He wiped at his forehead, nodded, and peered into the room.

The lights were lit, illuminating a wardrobe across the room from the door. That was what he saw. There were three small desks and three beds, each with a boy sitting on it calmly, hands folded in their laps and regarding Chris as though bored.

"Shit," he muttered, "more of the kids in here."

Gary came in and gave them one of his big, friendly smiles. "Don't be scared, we're here to help you." The most reaction he got was an eye-roll.

The Wesker children obeyed when ordered to file out of the room and stand against the wall while the other three rooms were checked. In the second room two boys waited, the third bed empty, and in the third room three more boys. The fourth room held three equally calm and disinterested girls. The rest of the second floor was empty. The entire staff and residents had fled the mansion and left the children behind.

Why?

The children neither struggled nor argued as they were guided downstairs to where the K-9 team waited. Albert was returned to the group while Orellana called up the remaining team and ordered everyone back outside.

One of the boys from the second room glanced at Albert with a disapproving air that didn't belong on the face of a young child. "Where did you disappear to, Thirteen?"

Albert didn't answer.

"I bet he tried to run away," a blonde girl standing beside him said, her tone soft but smug.

"Shut up, Alex," Albert muttered, "At least I was doing something, not just sitting on my ass waiting for further orders."

"An undefined 'something', how useful. And you couldn't even do that."

Albert punched her in the face.

Once outside the children were separated into smaller groups under watch, Albert and Alex kept well apart from each other. The fight had not been easy to break up as Albert wasn't satisfied with just one punch and straddled her on the ground and kept pummeling, but she retaliated by grabbing his head and attempting gouge his eyes with her thumbs and rip off his ears. The other children had watched the fight with only vague interest until the tactical team pulled the two apart.

None of the children responded to questions about where everyone else in the mansion went or even inquiries on their health, which upon closer inspection was not as good as one would assume. Some of them looked too thin, one of the boys had a fading black eye and one girl had a cast on her right hand.

Gary had three kids and took it upon himself to try to talk to the children and assure them they were going to be all right now, explaining that they were going to be taken to the RPD by helicopter. He might as well have tried sweet talking city lawyers for all the looks they gave him. One girl finally took pity on him and identified herself and her "siblings" by number and age, but not name.

There were nine boys and three girls, their ages ranging from eight to twelve, though Chris honestly couldn't tell who was what by looking. Albert should be ten, but he was on the smaller side and could have passed for younger.

Chris couldn't help but count again; nine boys and three girls, twelve in all.

"We're still missing one," he told Orellana, "There should be thirteen. Nine boys and four girls."

When asked about the missing child, the helpful girl, who identified herself as Seven, merely shrugged. Chris noticed Albert smirk in the corner of his eye.

The children were going to get lifted out on the two helicopters with the tactical team while the K-9 unit did a more thorough check in the mansion and around the grounds with their dogs, waiting for a second trip. They assured Orellana they'd look for the fourth girl.

Unable to help himself, Chris stood watch over Albert's group. Maybe it was fascination that kept making him look at the boy, maybe curiosity, or more likely he wanted to be damn sure Wesker got on that helicopter and didn't make a dash to the woods.

Everything hinged on Wesker getting away from this life and Umbrella for good.

Along with the promise of jobs and prosperity, Umbrella had pledged to back the construction of a modern hospital in Raccoon City, a pledge that would now remain unfulfilled for an unknown amount of time. Chris didn't regret his decision to alter history, but he'd forgotten to what extent Umbrella's downfall would affect the town. He was reminded now as he stood watch over the Wesker children as they took turns being looked over by the overworked doctors and nurses of the single, small clinic that serviced the town. Outside of that were a few family doctors that ran a clinic out of their homes and made house calls. A couple of them had answered the late night calls and came to assist handling the 'poor lost children'.

They'd arrived at the RPD without incident, the children disturbingly docile to the point Gary worried they were in shock. The mere mention of it made blankets appear and Jen the dispatcher started making hot cocoa. The fact they looked at the sweet drink like they didn't know what it was was depressing.

It was in the midst of getting the children's fingerprints and making calls to social services and the next town over for missing child records that Orellana noticed markings under one of the boy's collar. Rolling back a few sleeves revealed old scarring on some of them. This and the current minor injuries (and the fact that Five smashed Seven's face into the wall earlier) made them hasten through the fingerprinting and get the kids to the clinic before any questioning or attempt at proper identification.

The bus arrived to take the children just as the mayor practically kicked in the door in stressed fury and Chris, Gary, and Lake were happy to take the out and left Captain Orellana to handle the initial reports and the mayor and Chief Lowe.

They mostly just stood around, trying to stay out of the nurses' way as they ushered children about. He didn't miss Two quietly informing a nurse he would like more cocoa. The Wesker children were being compliant, yes, but not polite. They didn't ask for things but told people what they wanted and apparently expected to get it. One doctor's eye was beyond twitching as Twelve, or Alex, told him how she would deal with her own injuries since he was clearly incompetent.

Chris kept an eye on Albert and took note when he was guided to an examination room by one of the nurses, a doctor following soon after. When that doctor emerged a little while later he couldn't help but inquire about Wesker's health.

"He was the only one who struggled earlier," he explained when the doctor gave him an odd look, "I just wanted to make sure he was okay."

The doctor shrugged. "He's dehydrated and a bit malnourished. After a couple of good meals he should be fine. All the children have old scarring and signs of injury of varying degrees. These kids have been put through hell, but it looks like they were given medical attention afterwards so it could have been a lot worse than it is." His voice dropped low, allowing out some of his anger, "Still, what sick people do this to children? Some of these injuries are years old! This was out at that mansion in the mountains? Is that fancy 'Lord' Spencer involved in this?"

"I can't say anything for certain right now," Chris lied.

Gary was still trying his luck with Seven since she'd been the most forthcoming so far. She was even more so after getting her head smashed, glowering at Five and explaining away clearly just to spite him.

"When did all the adults leave you guys?"

She gave a small tilt of her head in a shrug like it hardly mattered. "Two days before you all began trespassing, I suppose."

"Two days all by yourselves? The place was pretty well lit up."

"Of course. We must always ensure the mansion is welcoming in case Father comes home."

"And who is Father?"

She gave another tilt of her head and said nothing.

Gary didn't bother pressing that line of questioning, there'd be plenty of time for that later and most likely not by him. "Did you guys have food during those two days? Did anyone make sure you could take care of yourselves?"

"We can take care of ourselves. We were told to wait, so we did. Thirteen broke into the kitchen stores yesterday. He's not supposed to do that but he always disobeys. Since it was already stolen we took it from him for ourselves."

He sighed. "You could all share, you know, and then no one has to be hungry."

Seven wrinkled her nose at him like the idea was abhorrent. "If you can't defend what you have you don't deserve it."

Chris watched the exchange sadly, feeling bad for both Gary and the children. Gary looked a bit distraught but he didn't understand the depth of how twisted these children became. Had they survived would they have been just like Wesker? Or was it, as far as Chris knew, that he was the only one to return to Umbrella what damned Wesker to his mad end? Had the others actually managed to create somewhat normal lives for themselves before it was brought to an end by the T-virus?

He didn't know in his own time, and he'd probably still never know in this one. Once all this was done with the children would be handed off to social services and would no longer be of concern to him. They were free of Umbrella.

"Hey," Lake leaned on the wall next to Chris, "Didn't get a chance to ask earlier, but how'd you know that one bugger's name?"

"What?"

"The crazy one, Thirteen, you called him Albert or something when he was tryin' to cut up Gary. How'd you know?"

"Uh, well… There were some names attached to the clothing order. I just yelled out the first one that came to me."

"That's pretty damn lucky," Lake said, his voice betraying he didn't believe it.

"It's been a pretty lucky night. Could have gone a lot worse."

"True. But I wasn't expectin' to find any kids, to be honest. Who'da thought we were about to get into bed with those Umbrella sickos. What were they tryin' to accomplish?"

"Who knows."

The doctors' findings were about the same, the children were overall healthy if underfed and so they were herded back onto the bus and returned to the RPD. The exhausted tactical unit handed them off to awaiting uniformed officers and went to find out how many more grey hairs Orellana gained this night. Chris watched Albert as he was ushered out of sight by the officers, an odd feeling in his gut, and then followed after his teammates.

Chris tried very hard to never compare Captain Orellana to Wesker, but sometimes he couldn't help it, especially when the Captain looked like he was about ready to eat someone's face. That happened a lot when government officials were around. Chief Lowe didn't look much better as the mayor vented his frustrations on the loss of Umbrella and the promise of city progress, not to mention how making such connections with revealed kidnappers and child abusers would make him look.

The judge had signed the warrant but Mayor Lundgren had made his displeasure with the whole affair known to everyone. Storming Spencer's mansion, which had been a staple of the Arklay Mountains for over seven years, would damage relations with Oswell Spencer by offending him and making them all look like fools if they were wrong. And how could they not be wrong? Kidnapping? Brainwashing and experimenting on children? What nonsense.

Mayor Lundgren had prepared for the impending apology; he'd been up all last night writing his statement and condemnation of the police force for not performing their jobs properly. He was not at all prepared for twelve abused children to be extracted and dumped into his police department.

Chris didn't give a damn about the mayor's reputation or the lost opportunities for progress. Something else would come along eventually or it wouldn't. If anything they'd have to make up some reason to use those electric trams underneath the city and would try to entice another company out to Raccoon City. Construction of the chemical plant Umbrella was to use had already begun so surely someone else could make use of it.

He was suddenly tired. Physically from the night's work but also a weariness from the sheer anticlimactic of succeeding in his mission. The Wesker children were free from Umbrella, which was now exposed. Spencer and his people fled.

It was over.

Chris didn't feel cheerful or even assured.

Seeing his men outside the door, Captain Orellana excused himself from the Chief's volatile office and made his escape, shutting the door behind him with a long-suffering groan.

"Everything hunky-dori as ever, huh?"

"Shut up, Wright. Debrief tomorrow morning and I'll need your full reports before the end of the business day. This is a mess and it's only going to get worse before it gets better so get a good night's sleep. Hell, debrief at eleven o'clock; I want some sleep at some point too," Orellana said, rubbing at his eyes.

"What about the kids," Chris asked.

"I'll keep you informed best I can but they're not really our concern anymore. They're going to be questioned tomorrow, probably be given psychological assessments to see how bad the damage is, then handed over to social services who are going to try to locate their families."

And that was that.

Chris went back to his lonely house and crashed, earning relief from any dreams and sleeping the rest of the night through. The debriefing included the K-9 unit's full report, including the discovery of the body of the missing child beneath the mansion in space being dug out for unknown purposes. (Chris knew, of course, but said nothing.) Initial report suggested she'd drowned but it was hard to tell as she'd been cut open and apparently experimented on. The coroner of course would have the final word. Nobody said anything when Lake excused himself to throw up when photographs were shown.

Files on the children had been uncovered and then promptly locked away, the depth of Umbrella's disgusting acts to be seen only as needed in the case of the children's care and not for the public. Mayor Lundgren was in damage control mode and Chris suspected much of this whole incident wasn't going to make it to the public's attention.

In the end the official word was that a cult had kidnapped the children as infants and was raising them as child soldiers out at the mansion for the usual cultish revolution. It was close enough, Chris thought, and despite the fact that Umbrella's involvement was glossed over its marriage with Raccoon City was finished.

Umbrella was finished.