Chapter 1: Awakening

Wesker's eyes strained against the harsh fluorescent light. Is this hell? Would there be this much pain in hell? No, he decided, and strained to sit up. What is going on here? Something was holding him down. He opened one eye, just the thinnest sliver, trying to get a clear picture of his surroundings. Immediately he was struck by the place. This room looks very familiar, like one of the research rooms in... shit, the Hive!

The pain wracking his body suddenly became nothing, the burning in his eyes faded away as the desperation to escape became overwhelming. He hadn't expected to ever wake up, after he had released the Tyrant, it turned on him and, he thought, mortally wounded him. He crawled away from Chris and Rebecca, expecting to die. There was no way he was going to let himself die in front of that bastard, Chris. He made it as far as the adjoining room, where he had injected himself with morphine and a dose of the Anti-Virus. Always looking to the bright side, thinking you'll escape. He laughed morbidly and pulled away the tubes and wires that snaked in and out of his skin. The pain was exquisite, but the wounds seemed minimal.

He ran his hands across his neck and chest, where the Tyrant had struck him. There was nothing. No wound, no scar. Was this a dream? He lifted himself from the table where he had been lying. It was one of the tables the researchers had used to operate on BOWs. He shuddered as he thought of the creatures that may have been on that table before him. His legs were shaky, as if they hadn't been used in a long time, but they found their strength quickly and he moved with his old animal grace in a few short steps. He could see his breath hanging on the air in front of him, but he didn't feel the sting of cold, despite being dressed only in a pair of UBCS issued white cotton shorts.

The brightness of the room made it hard to see. A flick of the light switch brought the room into sharp focus. Strange, with no windows, it should be dark. He made his way to the mirror over the sink. He needed to see if this was his face, his body. Why were there no scars form the Tyrant attack? There were no scars on him at all, for that matter. Even the scar from his appendix surgery when he was twelve seemed to be missing.

At first glance, Wesker did not recognize himself. Ferocious red eyes glared back at him from the polished steel mirror. He looked closer. These demonic eyes were his. They glowed from his familiar face. It did not occur to him to be afraid, to be horrified of what might have happened to him. Instead, an intense heat spread through his body, all of his muscles seemed to be stronger, more alert. A kind of sick joy filled him as he smiled at the wicked face that stared back at him.

"Do you like it, brother?" A deep, gravely voice echoed through the room. Wesker spun on his heels.

"Well, well. Jack Krauser. I suppose you know something about what has happened here," Wesker managed a very sly smile. Krauser crossed his arms over his massive chest and leaned against an empty BOW tube in the far corner of the room. Wesker sensed that something had changed in Jack. He could feel it tingling in his nerves. They had done something to Jack too; something very similar to what had been done to him.

"Do you feel alive, brother? Do you feel renewed?" Krauser asked pointedly, the pitch of his voice teetering on maniacal. Wesker noticed that Jack was similarly attired, wearing only a pair of long cotton shorts with UBCS stamped on the right leg.

"I see that you're still in your pajamas," Wesker said sarcastically.

"Let's cut the shit, Al. You need to know what's going on here," Krauser motioned to the table where Wesker had been lying, "Have a seat."

Wesker looked back at the table and felt a wave of electricity dance down his spine. "I think I'll stand. Why don't you just tell me where we are and how the fuck we got here. Are we in the Hive?"

Krauser laughed. His laugh seemed to rumble through the room, making it seem emptier than ever. "Oh no, we are not in the Hive. The Hive is gone. The entire Racoon facility has been obliterated. We're half a world away from your old hometown."

Wesker's eyebrows arched, "The French facility? But how did we..."

Krauser laughed. "You're so goddamned patient, aren't you! I was getting to that," Krauser began to pace the room in slow circles. His steps were sure and deliberate, "Apparently, you were nearly killed in the Spencer Mansion, but Umbrella thought you were much too valuable to be left to rot, so they sent in Hunk's team to retrieve you and bring you here, so they could revive you. Of course, you know Umbrella. They don't want to just get you back to your old self. Any little bit of flesh is an opportunity for experiment."

"And you?"

"I was one of the mercs sent in to find survivors in Racoon after the virus broke out. T-Virus was carried to the city by rats, but you were a researcher, you knew that would happen. I never thought we were in there for survivors, I always knew it was a test. Umbrella sent us in to see how we elite warriors would fare against their creations. Apparently, I did very well. I made it to the rescue chopper, but the chopper did not escape the nuke that Umbrella dropped to erase their mistakes. The chopper went down and I was pinned underneath it. I was alive, but barely. So, I too, was brought to this facility for "treatment". We are lucky to be here, brother. This is where they send their best soldiers; and sometimes, as I have discovered, their worst enemies. Come with me, I have something to show you."

Wesker followed Krauser down the long, twisting corridors of the facility; their naked feet made only the softest sound against the white marble tiles. Wesker puzzled over what Krauser had said. Were they indeed, part of another of Umbrella's twisted experiments? Where were all the scientists, the lab techs, the janitors? Wesker was sure the answers were at hand, and he was in no hurry to press Jack any further. He had not seen what they had done to Jack, who had been a brutal man to begin with, so Wesker followed him obediently, deciding he would find his own answers.

After what seemed like ages, Krauser stopped at door 1013. He looked back at Wesker and smiled. "You're gonna love this."

The room was much like the one that Wesker had woken up in. It was not the room itself, but it's content, that had Krauser so excited. Wesker could see a figure on the table in the middle of the room. Even though it had been draped with a sheet, it was obvious that this was a woman. Wesker looked at Krauser quizzically. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Ada Wong. I followed her all over Racoon. I'm not sure who she worked for, but she was trying to steal a sample of the G-Virus from Umbrella. She's a spy; and a damn good one too, in more ways than one." They approached the table. There seemed to be no life beneath the sheet. "Go ahead, take a peek, she won't mind." The light in Krauser's eyes was almost frightening. Apparently he saw this woman as a worthy foe, and was very impressed to find her here.

Wesker pulled the sheet back to reveal a stunningly beautiful woman. He wondered if she had been naked when Krauser found her, but quickly pushed the thought from his mind. He decided that, whoever this woman was, he was glad that she was here too. "She's smart, quick, and deadly," Krauser continued, his blue eyes scanning Ada with unadulterated interest. "She survived Racoon, but I shot her just before I got on the rescue chopper. I suppose it was another member of Hunk's team that picked her up, since she obviously got out before the bomb. She was wounded by a licker, but someone must have given her the anti-virus, because she wasn't infected." He ran his fingers along the monstrous scar that marred her flat, otherwise flawless stomach. "A worthy adversary, and now she is one of us."

The pleasure in his voice was unmistakable. Wesker looked at Ada again, "Is she alive?"

Krauser's dreamy expression dropped for a moment, he was furious. "Of course she's alive! She's in suspended animation for preservation. You were too, my friend. Until I woke you up, that is."

"Suspended animation? For how long?"

"Four months."

Wesker was shocked. He had no idea it had been so long. "What about you? Why weren't you in suspended animation?"

Krauser's eyes gleamed, "I was, but those idiot scientists underestimated me and I woke up on the operating table. I had to turn the tables on them, so to speak," he laughed "I woke you first because I needed you to help me wake her. Two people have to put in the key cards and the codes to turn off the machine. The consoles are in the room behind the mirror."

Wesker glanced back at the large two way mirror behind them. "Wait a minute, who helped you wake me up?"

"One of the scientists," Krauser noticed Wesker's puzzled look. "Oh, I killed him. I didn't want him learning about our plans."

Instead of finding answers, Wesker only had more questions. What plans could Krauser possibly be talking about? There had to be a scientist left in this facility somewhere, one he could torture the answers out of. "I have the key cards," Jack said, breaking Wesker's reverie. Jack picked up two bloodied key cards from a table covered with cruel-looking surgical instruments. It was easy to guess how he had obtained them. Krauser had always had a cruel streak; there was no telling how far the experimentation had pushed this.

The controls for Ada's stasis were complicated, and Krauser's knowledge of this sort of equipment was limited. Getting the console running was a long and grueling process. Perhaps the real reason the scientist that had helped Krauser was dead was that he had insulted Jack's intelligence. True, Jack Krauser did not have the makings of a top Umbrella researcher; this man was made to kill, there was no disputing that.

Wesker hadn't seen Raccoon City, but Krauser said the virus had gotten out. Wesker had seen the outbreak at the Spencer Mansion and had personally overseen many of Umbrella's Top Secret experiments. He could imagine it: zombies, Cerberus', hunters, Krauser had mentioned lickers (so they had finally achieved it), and perhaps even some sort of Tyrant mutation; and with all that taken into consideration, Wesker was not surprised that Krauser had escaped. If he had been in the mansion, Krauser would have escaped that nightmare too.

Krauser did not have a conscience, but then, Wesker never considered that he might have one either, but he had a great love of money and very close business ties that he was not quick to break. Perhaps it was those things that kept him from being as ruthless as Jack. Whatever his reasons, Jack Krauser was well-suited to killing. Wesker thought about the scientists that should have been roaming the halls. Perhaps he wouldn't find one to question after all. "Ready," Wesker said finally, having finished entering the long streams of code required to begin waking Ada up. Wesker and Krauser simultaneously pushed the key cards into the proper slots and typed in the access codes that Krauser had written down on the back of a scrap of paper. Beaten out of a scientist, no doubt.

As they waited for Ada to awaken, Wesker realized that he was ravenously hungry. "Is there a mess hall here?" Jack nodded, but didn't take his eyes off of Ada.

"We'll go when this is over. She may be hungry too."

"What is it about this woman? I've never seen you act like this."

"It's not who she is, or who she was. It's what she will become, my friend. I've see the charts, the samples. I know what they've put in her, what it's going to do to her. She will be the most magnificent Bio-weapon ever conceived," Krauser could not stop his smile from spreading. He felt like he had a part in her being. After all, he was the one who shot her. If she had escaped the city, or even died, she would not have had the opportunity to become the creature she was destined to be.

"What has she been injected with?"

"T-Veronica."

Wesker looked back at Ada. T-Veronica? That's impossible! That virus is a myth, Alexia Ashford, the child prodigy who was the mastermind behind the virus, died many years ago, before the virus was ever completed. Perhaps Jack was mistaken, or perhaps Umbrella had seen its potential and continued with the research. Of course, it could be another imperfect prototype. Umbrella was not known for testing extensively on lab rats before trial in a human subject. For Umbrella, human subjects were labs rats.

"While we're waiting, do you mind if I ask you a few more questions?"

Krauser looked uncomfortable, but shrugged in agreement.

"Where is everyone? This place seems too big to be so empty."

"You're assuming that I killed everyone?" Krauser laughed, but didn't wait for an answer, "Well, I did kill my fair share. Of course, I disposed of the scientists when I woke up, then the security guard who ran in the room when he heard all the noise. I took his gun, pulled out my tubes and ventured into the hall. I expected to find people everywhere, but there were few. I shot the ones that were close, and not long after that, an alert went out for employees to evacuate to the upper levels. There was no commotion, no screaming and running. The place seemed half-dead already. I ran into two doctors just outside of this room, so I broke their legs, tied them up and questioned them.

"It so happens that Umbrella has been under attack since Racoon City; the whole organization is falling apart. They had been developing super-soldiers here. A class above Tyrant and even Nemesis."

Wesker had not heard of Nemesis. "A creature stronger than the Tyrant?"

"Oh yes, that's right," Krauser smiled, "You never saw Nemesis. Well, he was a sight to behold. A second generation of Tyrant. Bigger, faster, more intelligent, but that isn't what you wanted to know. I wanted to tell you about this place. This is a new viral research facility. As I said, they are breeding super-soldiers here. That's what you and I are. What she is. But Umbrella gave the order to shut this facility down, to terminate all of the experiments. We are more dangerous than any zombie, or even any Tyrant. We have all the powers of the Tyrants, but none of their hideous mutations. We can think for ourselves, live among ordinary people. We can even breed and pass our mutations on to the next generation." Jack seemed especially pleased with this.

Wesker could not stop thinking about this new power. He was now superior to the Tyrants he had long admired. He knew that something was different about him, he could sense his environment with every nerve and muscle. He glowing red eyes could detect even the slightest detail in pitch-black. He wanted to try his powers, to see how far they could go. What virus had he been given and how would its mutation affect him? How had it affected Krauser and Ada Wong? Were they all given T-Veronica, or only Ada? It didn't matter now; Ada was stirring on the table. Krauser would have no more time for questions.

CHAPTER 2

Ada awoke slowly. The room was dark, but she could make out a dim green light here and there around her. A man's voice spoke to her gently. "Good morning Ada. Did you rest well?" She did not recognize the voice.

"Leon?" she asked quietly. The man didn't sound like Leon, but he was the last man she had seen. The last man she could remember.

"No, not Leon. My name is Jack. Jack Krauser. My good friend Albert Wesker is here with me. We want to make sure you are okay," Krauser disliked being mistaken for that bumbling idiot Leon Kennedy, whom had barely escaped Raccoon City before the explosion. He tried to remain calm. He needed her to trust him.

"You are in an Umbrella facility Ada," Wesker said, trying to keep the tone of his voice as neutral as possible.

"Umbrella?!" Ada was overtaken by panic. "Who are you?! What have you done to me?!"

"Calm down Ada. We're prisoners here too. We've escaped and we're here to set you free," Wesker quickly tried to become a knight in shining armor. This woman could prove to be useful, after all, and he had no intention of scaring her away quickly. "The Umbrella Corporation is falling apart; they had sent orders to destroy this place and everyone inside. We are here to save you, to get you out."

Ada was cautious. She began to sit up on the table. Wesker handed her a lab coat that he had found hanging on a wall and Krauser gently removed the tubes that stuck into her arms and chest. "You two were experiments?"

Krauser smiled at her. "We'll tell you all about it in the mess hall. You must be hungry."

Wesker looked around the kitchen half-heartedly. "They don't cater to vegetarians much here, do they?"

"YOU'RE a vegetarian?" Krauser asked, shocked, "No way!"

Wesker gave Krauser the finger and continued to search for something that wasn't full of meat. He finally settled on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and joined Ada and Krauser at a long, cafeteria-style table. Krauser was hungrily eating some sort of roast beef while Ada daintily nibbled a grilled-chicken salad. "At least everything's fresh," she said quietly, trying to make conversation. She still wasn't sure how to feel about her new comrades. Wesker's glowing red eyes were frightening at first, but she figured it was part of what Umbrella had done to him, so she chose to pity him rather than fear him. Still, Wesker looked very familiar and Krauser looked like a beast, but perhaps his appearance, too had something to do with all that had happened here. Maybe that was why she felt like she knew Wesker. Krauser told her how she had been in stasis and had been injected with some sort of virus.

This made Ada's heart jump. She remembered Raccoon City and the G-Virus. She had seen what it had done to all those people. She had seen what her boyfriend John had become. Krauser reassured her that the virus in her was not the same, that if it was going to kill her, she would already be dead. That did little to calm her down, but there was nothing she could do about it now. She noticed that Wesker wasn't eating. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Starving," He grumbled, "I just think it's a little sad that my first meal in four months is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I had hoped for something bigger."

"Why don't you eat meat?" Krauser asked; his mouth full of roast beef.

"I've always tried to be very careful about what I eat. They inject steroids into meat, you know."

Krauser and Ada stared at Wesker for a moment. Krauser threw a balled-up napkin into Wesker's face. "We're monsters now, you idiot! I doubt what's in this beef is any worse than what's in you already!"

Ada began to giggle, she couldn't stop herself. Wesker and Krauser soon joined her laughter, and for a time, they felt almost human again.

After they finished eating, they began to scour the facility for something to wear. Krauser and Wesker dressed alike, both having found black t-shirts and black pants in the security storage room. Wesker quickly found a pair of boots his size in the store room, but Krauser had to take some from a dead security guard. Ada found a pair or jeans and a long sleeved red t-shirt in a locker near the facility's entrance. "Now if I could just find some shades," mused Wesker aloud.

After eating and getting dressed, the three of them found a reasonably comfortable office where they could sit together and make a plan. Wesker figured it must have been the office of one of the higher-ups. He glanced around at the strictly posed family photos, but didn't recognize anyone as a Spencer or an Ashford. He had run into his fair share of them during his time as a researcher at Umbrella, but this appeared to be a different family. Wesker and Krauser waited for Ada to speak. Whatever her intentions were, they would play up to them. Krauser had his own sick reasons, but Wesker saw her as a test subject.

"I'm glad that someone's finally bringing down Umbrella," she said at last, trying to gauge their reactions. She was, after all, a spy. She was not sure what they were waiting for, what they wanted to hear.

"Well, they really screwed themselves when they fucked with us," Krauser smiled. If Ada wanted to bring down Umbrella, that's would he wanted too. At least, he would let her think that until he could change her mind. Umbrella was a mighty entity, and whatever they had done to him was a marked improvement. "They've turned us into super-soldiers, the kind with the power to bring them down."

"But the question is, do we take them down from inside or openly attack them?" Wesker was concerned about protecting his interests. He had no intention of leaving Umbrella.

"They tried to destroy us, I think we should openly attack them," Ada was sure that Krauser was with her, but Wesker was harder to read. She could still see the red light of his eyes dancing behind his shades, but his face remained calm and flat, without the slightest hint of expression. "I'm sure my old corporation would be glad to have me back. All of us, for that matter. HCF has been trying to bring Umbrella down for decades. Now that we are carriers of UBCS viruses, they can extract samples from us and finally unravel this whole mystery."

"Like Lisa Trevor? I'm through being a lab rat," Wesker thought aloud.

"Lisa Trevor..." Ada whispered. That name sounded so familiar. "From the Arklay labs? How did you know about her?"

Wesker realized he'd said too much, but was quick to recover himself. "Twenty years ago, I was assigned to the Arklay mountain labs as a student researcher. That was back when the Ebola virus had just been discovered. I thought I was there to research a cure, but learned that our studies were being used for a much more horrendous purpose. William Birkin, the head researcher, was using our research to construct Bio-Organic Weapons fir Umbrella."

"You knew William Birkin?" Ada's face was twisted with disgust. "I was sent to Raccoon City to find his G-Virus sample and bring it back to HCF. How could you have worked with that monster?"

Wesker had to fight back a smile. So, William had finally completed the G-Virus. Good for him. Is that what I've been injected with? "You must remember, Ada that I was sent to search for a way to stop the Ebola virus. Birkin and I did not work together closely. In fact, I only met him once or twice during my time there. I was one of many scientists whose noble work unwittingly contributed to heinous research."

Ada seemed placated. She relaxed back into the overstuffed leather chair and let her eyes close. "I think we should get out of here before they send in a sweep team. We should get in touch with HCF and tell them everything we know. Before we leave, I think we should all get some rest. We have no idea what's in store for us out there."

Ada found a bunk in the night watchman's room and lay down. She was asleep in a matter of moments. Wesker and Krauser left her there and went to the records room down the hall.

"I think we should kill her," Wesker said flatly as the door snapped shut behind him. "She wants to attack Umbrella. I have too many loyalties to this company to see it brought down by some no-name Chinese spy-bitch."

Krauser perched on a battered stool he had pulled from a dusty corner of the room. "I won't let you kill her, not until we see what Veronica can do. Can you imagine the notoriety your beloved Umbrella will give you if you are the researcher who provided conclusive data on this untested virus?"

"What if HCF is successful? I do not want to let this company die!"

Krauser looked confused. "What is it about Umbrella?"

"I admire what they do. I always have. I lied to Ada about Birkin. He and I worked side by side on both the "T" and "G" viruses. They are as much mine as they are his. They have amazing potential of BOWs. So do we, people like us, I mean. Could you imagine what a country would pay to get its hands on the virus that causes these kinds of advanced genetic mutations?"

"I see what you mean, brother, but the scientists I questioned said that Umbrella is under attack, they are trying to destroy everything. Birkin is dead. He and the G-Virus were destroyed, along with the hive and all of Raccoon City. I think this company is in its death throes."

"Well then, I will rebuild it. I could bring it back to its former glory without all the pretentiousness and waste that the Ashfords and the Spencers attached to it," he glared hard at Krauser. "I will not see Umbrella go down."

Krauser's shoulders fell. He felt loyal to Umbrella too. They had given him a great gift, as he saw it, and he was more than willing to be their guinea pig if it meant opportunities for further enhancement. "Why don't we see what we can find in here, then join up with Ada's people. You've been a double-agent before. What's stopping you now?"

Wesker thought back to his trip to the Spencer mansion with the STARS team; he reminisced about how perfectly his plan would have gone if the Tyrant had not attacked him. Yes, he had been a double-agent. Even as a researcher at Arklay, he had his mind on his best interests primarily, and those did not always coincide with his fellow researchers, or even with the heads of the company. HCF was, undoubtedly and inferior organization, one he had never heard of anyway. If nothing else, perhaps they could provide him with funding and a bit of equipment. He already had in mind where he wanted to go.

If he was going to remake Umbrella in his own image, the best place to begin would be Rockfort Island. Rockfort was a remote Umbrella prison camp run by the notoriously incompetent Alfred Ashford, twin brother of the legendary Alexia Ashford, creator of the T-Veronica virus. Even though she was only a little girl, she was brilliant. At ten years old, she was sent to Arklay to be the head researcher. She was killed only two years later; rumor was that she had injected herself with T-Veronica and died.

Wesker had a hard time believing that such an intelligent scientist, even a little girl, would make that kind of rookie mistake. He felt that something much more devious had taken place, but had no way to confirm it. Perhaps the answers would be on that island. After her death, life continued as usual, with no more mention of T-Veronica or Alexia Ashford. Her brother came to Arklay for a time, but was soon shipped off to head up Rockfort, a remote enough location that he would not further shame the Ashfords or Umbrella with his foolishness. Rockfort was basically a testing facility where Umbrella dumped failed experiments and enemies from within.

"We need to get o HCF," Wesker announced suddenly as he and Krauser dug through Umbrella's files. "We need to find out if there is anything left to save."