Disclaimer: I do not own any Resident Evil characters or Resident Evil terms but I do own anything else that is original, Kronos virus, everything about the project and much more coming in the next chps.
Chapter One: Two Steps From the Edge
FOR A HEAD DIRECTOR OF ONLY ONE YEAR AND FOUR MONTHS overseeing the entirety of the Theseus Research Facility, the stress was visible. It might had sliced off a decade of her life already because Iria felt very much drained with the daily and crucial workload.
It was just another day for her; going over every little detail on HELIX's loved child, the Kronos Virus.
The most deadliest retrovirus mankind had ever created, more lethal than compared to the t-virus or many names contained tightly within the facility's thick walls.
There was not a single moment that Iria wished she had one day of never hearing that name.
So she was more relieved to step out from the meeting room once the conversation was over, not without a few spiteful glares from the other scientists and associate directors.
It wasn't like she asked for this position. And even if she'd step down, happily handling the seat to one of them...it'd simply be given satisfaction to that bastard.
A cold splash to the face barely had any effort to dull out the strain and exhaustion. How many times had she gone to the bathroom today just for the sink? She lost count already. However, as she rose up, it had been the first time she truly gazed at her own reflection.
She looked awful. The last time she ever looked like that was overworking on a college thesis for a whole week.
Iria took a hard look at her blurry self. There were new wrinkles that weren't there yesterday... Even, her blouse and work pants were at their worst after a whole day and night. She immediately ran her fingers through her wavy hair to untangle the small knots, pulling off the rubber band and thus, she took it upon herself to neatly tie it back up. She unbuttoned the first two of her lab coat, at least seemingly relieving her of lingering suffocation.
Another few seconds in front of the mirror and she knew she couldn't stay any longer. She had an image to uphold.
She wonder how the pervious director managed all this tension. Sadly, there was no way she could ask Stein up front.
"So the same old talk as always?"
A glance to her left and sure enough, the African American woman had found her in the ladies.
Iria wore back her glasses and beamed a light smile.
"As dull as ditchwater. Another minute and I'd knock myself off from boredom."
"I can believe that, hon. K-Virus this, k-Virus that. 24/7. Everyone's either too frightened or too uninterested on changing the subjects."
"What do you expect? There's nothing much to talk about that HELIX's praised product. What could change the world, the same mindless 'make a difference' talk to keep us focused on this project."
"Make us into the obedient drones they want. Hold us as hostages for nearly five years, blackmail us, threaten us, scare us out of our wits, making us slave day in, day out. If the BPD heard about the crimes HELIX's been doing, they'd be arresting them in no time flat. Heck, tell the whole world and the whole company goes down like Umbrella."
There had been many attempts Kailey Bernard wanted to contact her old workplace, once a DNA analyst before having enough of the work - a few times she had stepped over the line. The victims, the reasons behind the crimes, it became too much for her despite how damn good of a job she did.
Then again, her choice to work under HELIX was worst than leaving BPD Investigations Division.
No witty remarks back - she had expected something from Iria but nothing did. The staggering pause just poked more into her concern the longer it took.
"You alright? You seemed out today."
Iria massaged the bridge of her nose. "Aren't we all?" She breathed deeply. "Guess I'm just a bit worn out these past few days."
"Nothing family related?" It was a wary subject to touch, but Kailey had to press with her deduction skills.
And before her eyes, Iria hesitated to reply. She then waved back a smile. "It's alright. Nothing bad. Really."
Kailey sighed. She knew full well not to push.
"Well, hope you're ready for more bad news then. He's here."
A frown sketched deep into the blonde's face. "Which one?"
"Both. But if it makes you a bit better, it's the one HELIX sent that wants to see you."
"Of course..." Well, she couldn't complain about that - only that the day wasn't over. It was barely into the break of evening. So no rest for the 'wicked' director. "Where is he?"
"Near the elevator. All too 'eager' to sit back at administration and particularly charged right down here instead of waiting. Shouting that he doesn't care about the details, he wants to see the results up front."
"Hmph," Iria huffed. "Couldn't read numbers to save his own life." She prepared herself, letting by another pause of silence. "Well, we better not keep him waiting any longer. The faster he sees everything, the faster he's gone on his little luxury plane."
Kailey nodded in agreement and the two ladies stepped into the white halls.
"So how much of a snob is he?"
"The classic rich one who rode on the tailcoats of his daddy. A germaphobe too. Jerk changed his fancy gloves for a new pair when I shook his hands."
"Sounds terrific."
"Indeed. I wanted to punch the white man because I thought he was being racist."
"Wish you did. I'll make sure he doesn't come after you."
"Oh, now that's a fight I'd love to see. Too bad these HCF guards are too close on our necks," Kailey murmured.
She fell silent as two thugs steadily walked past them in the hallway. No exchange of glances but then again, she didn't want to be peering into those inhuman red eyes.
These men came and went as they pleased inside the research facility, their boss's way of keeping an eye out or on rare occurrences, be tested against HELIX's abundance of horrified creations. Sometimes, an order. Sometimes, a joke.
It wasn't uncommon for those men in black uniforms to cause a ruckus among the staff. All out of fun in toying with the 'humans'.
"Ignore them." Iria's steel voice steered Kailey away from the guards, that calm tone of a leader ensuring her nothing bad would happen. "They know they can't do much to us. We're just precious cargo after all."
"Isn't that true?" That was the only one fact everyone appreciated, as horribly bleak as it may be. It was the one fact that protected them. They were too important - all for the sake of the dark projects, including the most prized and treasured one.
And yet, a single slip off could easily destroy their only ward of protection.
"That's him," Kailey pointed both verbally and physically.
Oh, yes, the visitor of the day was as what Kailey had said, a classic snob - the kind with an expensive suit and polished shoes that had more zeroes than those even on her paycheck. Perhaps even one tiny blotch would drive him to strip them off and toss them into the incinerator. Clean shaved and brushed back, glazed titian hair and watchful dull grayish-blue eyes.
And such a corny-looking scarf. Avant-grade? Iria was never into arts.
Not too far from the lackey of the board of CEOs was a Hispanic woman, irritated with whitened knuckles. She desperately wheeled around for some sign of escape until she finally noticed Iria and Kailey walking down the hallway.
"McLenlan," the Spanish lady whined worriedly, warily unsure to leave the guest alone on the account he could stupidly wonder off. But seeing the director approaching, she softly rushed over to Iria. "I am so sorry, Iria. I tried to stop him but he, he refused. And..."
On the spot, Iria could tell her cage was rattled. Flustered. A clear sign of shaking fists - she clearly wanted the claw the eyeballs out of the man's sockets because of his foul tongue. What happened that caused her to lose her calm, collected mood were minutes before the two women arrived to the scene.
If it had been someone else in Iria's position, they'd brush her off and reproach her for such an attitude towards a VIP. However, Iria wasn't that kind of person. And nobody inside the facility had the same 'gift' as she possessed.
It was inescapable - when the name, Iria McLenlan, was spoken out, instantly people would know. The youngest sister of Carme McLenlan. The highly intelligent McLenlan sisters. World-renowned for tackling the hardest medical and biological questions at such young ages. To a certain degree compared to her older sister's fame.
But no one knew how the intelligence in her head worked better than she did. Her perception...had a way of dissecting, analyzing and theorising everything and anything to gain more information. From action and reaction, statistic and detail. As quick as the tiny electric currents inside her gray matter swishing about, she managed to construct a result - turn a problem into hypothesis into a test into an outcome in under seconds.
This natural ability have been helpful to her throughout her life and her career, sadly also a curse benefitting the k-Virus project. However, when it came to people...it was a slightly different story.
Because people were sometimes unpredictable.
In a split second, Iria examined the newcomer one more time. Kept his hands behind, his body in a poised manner but with one twitchy toe - disliking his time being wasted the longer he waited. No response to passing staff - showing no interest to those of status lower than his. A complete lack of empathy this man showed while silently boosting his reputation higher and higher into the clouds.
There was one quick glance she took note, too fast for anyone else - a hint, a very small hint of contempt towards two colour-skinned scientists that walked by.
...Yup, she was going to have a thrilling night.
Some people would call this being judgmental. Perhaps. Didn't matter. That was how her brain worked.
"It's ok, Joanne. I'll handle him. Continue with work, ok?"
The young woman relaxed but was hesitate, a visible sign to be leaving her with a jackass but with a nod from Kailey, Joanne was assured the director wouldn't be alone and took off.
"If I start to lose it, stop me quickly," Iria whispered.
"First sign of a fist and I'll get us out."
"Ah, Director McLenlan. A pleasure to meet your acquaintance for the first time," the high-ranking official greeted the moment he sighted the blond-haired boss. "My name is Nash Krauss."
A suck-up no less. Sugar-talking to her so she'd give the thumbs up to the bosses at HELIX HQ.
"It's a pleasure as well, Mr Krauss," Iria lied, rising her hand out.
"Please. Call me Nash." He shook it with a sultry grin and right before her, he weaved his hands out of his gloves and ditched the tainted ones to the floor. The businessman forked out a silver thin box from within his jacket and from that, he pulled out a clean set for his hands. "I apologise on behalf of the company for this sudden visit at this hour. I've been sent here to account the recent investments and security upgrades for assurance. See them with my own eyes up close rather than hear it from the middleman."
Kailey's eyes bugged out wide, disbelieving what she had saw. How many gloves did he carry and how could an dumbass like him still work with an attitude like that! ?
"I understand. We will make this visit as short as possible."
Well, she had to admire Iria's composure - reinforced to endure those snapping remarks
"That would be fantastic. I don't want to take too much of your time." Iria took the lead, Kailey close by and the man exactly three feet behind them. "I believe all is in order for the Kronos Project? We've not had any updates for the last four months."
"We are still running more tests on the new variant for signs of rejection but you do not have to worry. Latest tests show that the phagocytosis process between viruses are reasonable."
"Ah, right. This virus is...capable of combining with others, correct?"
So he knew what the virus was in laymen's term.
"In a matter of speaking. The Kronos virus absorbs certain biological traits from other existing viruses to make them its own, including the host's. This devouring is the phagocytosis process. However, there can be many unpredictable outcomes, sometimes resulting the host in becoming a rebound."
"Rebound?"
"A state of mutation where the body becomes biologically disconnected with the virus' symbiosis and the devouring becomes uncontrollable. Basically, nothing more than bags of meat." A twist of sickness crept on Krauss' face at the imagination, as quick as it had left him. "The virus makes every attempt to devour other substances constantly and to the point of self-destruction. We have had too many failed incidents when introducing the g-Virus with the k-Virus. Hence, these tests are important for the purpose of lessening the chance of a rebound."
"I-I see. I have heard that is the reason for the upgrade on security and including AI research into the system."
"We need to take every precaution and as much of it. We have had an accident more than a year ago-"
"Yes, yes. The previous director and a few personal," he brushed it off so easy. "Unfortunate, indeed." Both Iria and Kailey quietly grimaced in response but the short silence was ignored. "So has there been any successful tests?"
"Besides all that you know about the full progress of the K-Project, a new bioweapon specimen has been developed from the recent variant."
And like that, it was the magic word. "Ah! A new BOW type. The board will be pleased to hear that."
Following the two women, they walked into a room similar to any other room inside the research level but with one purpose. Others would be of jotting down specimens' behaviours or viral engineering and development or much more but the purpose of that room was more of an surgery.
All because HELIX found them too valuable to dispose off after the discovery of a serum.
The room was divided into two by bulletproof glass. Beyond the panel of the observation room, five people in heavy suits were at work on something large sprawled across the operating table - the fancy, high tech machines taking over the scalpel and needle rather than in the hands of a surgeon.
Krauss tightened his gaze. Whatever he was looking for, he couldn't see a huge, destructive monster like he had expected. Much of the machinery and operating curtains had hid its form. The only indication of its existence were the real-time x-rays and 3D scans on the monitors.
"Specimen name, Stheno. BOW type, Hesperides."
The name was indeed impressive. But still, he could not get a good look at the BOW.
"Faster, smarter, deadlier than previous BOWs. It can bat down a Tyrant in a single swap."
Simple words. That was all Kraus wanted to hear from Iria.
"We have also discovered this BOW has the ability to control Erinyes through vocals and dominance from our last combat tests. A bit like an alpha taking lead."
"Fascinating," Krauss gasped. "How many Hesperides do we have?"
"Only this one. Stheno is the second Hesperides we have created."
"What happened to the first?"
"Unfortunately, the first one, Medusa, had to be euthanized due to nervous and respiratory complications. The team in charge of the Hesperides creation suggest it's a setback from the t-Veronica virus conflicting with the Kronos virus but that's a theory. Stheno has apparently sustained similar problems even with massive genome splicing. That is why we have moved her to this ward to fix them. After the operation and recovery, Stheno will be moved up for combat testing."
"Oh, that is good! Too bad though. I would have enjoyed seeing that show."
Right, watch two brutes tear and rip with a sea of blood across the combat chamber.
Seeing there was no point in hoping for a better glimpse, Krauss walked out of the small observation room. Iria again took the lead.
"Still, isn't it dangerous to have a BOW like that down here?"
"All security precautions have been prepared in case of an outbreak. As you said, we've implemented the artificial intelligence research into the system thanks to the technological quadrant."
As he was about to open his mouth, another question to open up the layers that left him confused, the floor lightly trembled under his feet. For the two women and every staff walking down the halls, the small little tremors were something daily and nothing to fear of.
"What-" His hand launched for a railing to steady his balance.
In a methodical, tick-tocking pace, a large bipedal machine trotted down the same hall they shared. Shimmering burnished metal plated body with a large weapon - changeable from bullets to grenades to even harpoons - slotted onto one of its metal claws. A tank basically, enough to battle and tackle down a BOW without severely damaging it.
Its red digital eyes scanned about, clearly ignoring the non-infected humans around it and sending shivers down the pitiful corporate man. Well, it was natural for the machine easily towered just as a Tyrant. The good side was that the spaces were large enough for the drone to roam freely without accidently squashing into a living being.
"Meet Talos. Beta 3.5. We have 50 models stationed throughout this level and the lower levels. By the next month, two more model types, Strix and Laelaps will be added."
Krauss didn't pry more questions about the names. He was all too amazed at the giant drone, which eventually, both it and its little quakes disappeared down the end of the hall. So this was what the AI research team have been creating - robots of war but instead of moving them to be sold as weapons, HELIX had decided on inputting them into security after an incident.
And why should they? Bioweapons were on the rage because of the infinite capabilities that a computer could not replicate. BOWs were a means of rapid evolution, of gaining every form of immorality, a computer AI was a series of numbers inside a box. However, it would have been a bonus to combine AI and BOW to create the most powerful weapon of all - under the rumours in the black market that Umbrella had once created such combination of metal, meat and power.
So if HELIX could beat the other competitions in producing a BOW of AI, that would be one big step up. Sadly, neuroscience was still at its primitive state, experimental if anything.
"So are these machines remote-controlled?"
"Yes and no. Talos are operative by control central on this floor, not just by operators but also by our newest mainframe, GAIAN," Iria explained. "Genetic and Artificial Intelligence Access Network."
A thumb upwards and Krauss' glance followed suit. Sure enough, rooted into the ceiling were in a way, security cameras but instead of lens, they looked more like red cybernetic eyes from an old sci-fi movie.
"Is it a good idea to have a computer run this place?"
"Do you have an inquiry about my functionality, Visitor 97 Nash W. Krauss?"
Krauss jumped. It was a legit jump out of his skin at the sound of the strange, computerized female voice that spoke from above. He searched about for the source frantically until he stared back at the red eye.
"Mr. Krauss. Meet GAIAN."
"S-She can hear me?"
"Every single word. Every single action you do. Even your record. Creepy, no?" Iria uttered with straightforward effort.
"Nash Wendall Krauss. American. HELIX official from the USA headquarters. Born in New Hampsire, 1971. Arrived in Cape Inacio at 8:19 PM due to flight delay by extreme weathers instead at appointed time, 3:00 PM."
"I-Impressive." The remark sounded forced, not out of praise. His privacy was invaded and opened up for anyone in the radius to hear.
"Human error is what causes accidents and outbreaks. With a supercomputer like GAIAN, any specimens or viral pandemic will have zero chance of escape," Iria railed on coolly. "She has absolute control of the entire facility - ventilations, crooks, corners, everything. Nothing can get out or in."
There was a twitch of uneasiness. The idea of being trapped inside with crawling specimens did not sit well on Krauss. After all, there had been many outbreaks before and from those, HELIX improved everything to lower any chance.
"There's no way of getting out? For non-infected, I mean."
"GAIAN is the only one who controls the lockdowns. She will undo them if there are no infected escapees detected. However, personnel with Level Six keycards can bypass the lockdowns." Iria lifted up the thin card with two blue diagonal strips - intertwined with each other - connected to the lanyard around her neck.
The special keycard to open every single door without any problem. Only a handful wore or carried it like an honoured badge, besides herself.
The two Chiefs of Staff and Management. Three Chiefs of the Office of Science Quality and Integrity.
Ironically, R&D Supervisor, Albert Wesker.
And seven minor Associate Directors in charge of microbiology, neuroscience, parasitology, biochemistry, genetics, biological engineering and artificial intelligence. But with some privileges removed on their keycards.
"Once lockdown procedure has finished, security squads will start their procedures to direct staff back to the surface. There are designated safe areas where personnel can stay protected until rescue arrives."
Relief washed over his face as Krauss attempted to straighten his scarf. "That's good. That's good. Hopefully, we don't have an accident tonight."
Onwards with the tour.
"There is no need to worry about that. All Kronos variants and collected viruses are secured tight. The only way they could ever be taken out in from their canisters would be one of us walked in and took it out. But even then, they wouldn't be able to get by GAIAN's scans. As of right now, the only danger to worry about is Stheno and she is under heavy sedation."
"And what about that room?"
Her gaze traced along the direction of his one gloved finger and the target immediately stopped her in her tracks.
That one particular space in the entire research ward.
"...Nothing of interest," she replied charily. A little more protectively. "Just a small side project."
Krauss raised his eyebrow suspiciously. "And what per se is this project for?"
"It is experimental at the moment. Tests are still incomplete for a definite answer."
"That was what I was asking for, McLenlan." He folded his arms behind him. One more time, answer him correctly. He didn't want any bit of funding falling through the cracks because of an little experiment.
"You have nothing to worry about. This project is under Wesker's account personally."
That surprised Krauss. "His investment, hm? Now I am curious. Don't take this the wrong way, I have nothing against Mr. Wesker. He has been given great contributions to this company for years now. But...what particular reason does he have for this one project?"
Good question. That man had too many secrets, too many agendas under his sleeve and even with this little 'project', she could only guess.
He was unreadable to Iria. And she hated that.
And great contributions? She had never once trusted that man since he walked right into the facility the first day of his arrival and suddenly, the rules were changed drastically.
That day of him taking over the Kronos Project was the day the doors to the world locked up on all of them.
"I am sorry. You will have to ask Wesker himself. He has ordered me and a few personnel strictly not to give any information until the project has...become successful."
The titian-haired man stiffened. A big no-no clearly. So Wesker had his hand deeper into the company as well... "Very well. Shall we continue?"
And with no objection, the three walked onwards.
"I must say, a few from the board and even I had a lot of doubts about the changes. But you certainly prove me wrong. I admire your tenacity, Iria."
Already on first name basis? Now she really wished he'd kept quiet instead of droning.
"You've just become director and turned this place into something promising. With you in charge, the entire project of the Kronos Virus will yield great profit. As expected of the famous Carme McLenlan's little sister."
That was when Iria stopped.
As in dead stopped.
Oh no. Kailey bit her lip but did nothing else.
Krauss paid no attention to the sudden halt, brushing forward with enthusiasm. "It's very unfortunate about her death. She would have been a great asset working here. Why, the ideas she had? Would have given great possibilities with the Kronos Virus, wouldn't you say? Still, you are here so that's not a total loss."
The one subject that no one was allowed to talk about. And already, Kailey knew the expression the woman right next to her had.
How dark and narrowed Iria's glare was to the naive rambling man.
Carme McLenlan. Her reputation was unmatched to many intelligent minds combined for many reasons - one for her theories and revolutionary ideas. For few, they had called her insane for grasping at straws but she had successfully proven them wrong.
It was indeed unfortunate that she died young six years ago. The gifted woman easily taken down by a small accident.
So talking about her was something unavoidable. Now and then, the topic about her would slither unexpectedly.
But praising her sister like a martyr was nothing but a death sentence.
Worse, it insulted Iria. Like they knew her sister better than her.
They knew nothing about the real Carme, only her famed persona in the world of medicine, science and medical psychology.
It was the same tiring speech.
"I'm so sorry for your loss. She was the best of the best."
"It's so terrible, losing a brilliant mind like that."
"The things she made, she could have changed the world."
"You are still here. You can continue on her work. She would have wanted that."
"Her name will go down in history."
She had lost a beloved sister. Not an idol.
Kailey could tell she had every attempt to rip a hole into the blabbering man but before she could stop her...
"I apologise, Mr. Krauss. We will have to cut this tour short."
The cold, unruffled response baffled Krauss on the spot. Enough to cut him down.
"Excuse me?"
"It's very inconvenient that you had been pressured to arrive here this late. That being said, it is also late and I still have other matters to attend to. It'd be best to continue this visit tomorrow."
"What?"
Iria knew. Cutting halfway through this with the excuse she had other business to do would be crossing thin ice. From the aggravated twitching Krauss had there, he had surely expected himself to be leaving the island on that very same night.
But she didn't care.
"I'll send someone to take you back to Level A. This can be a good opportunity for you to relax after a long stiff trip. Tonight is the fireworks and every year, they do a fantastic job better than the last. I guarantee you will enjoy it."
She had deliberately lowered her voice at one specific word, enough to sour the official's mood. Right now, Iria no longer cared about keeping a straight face just for the sake of order.
Her indifferent face was enough to tell him back off or else.
He opened his mouth, no doubt about to spit at her for her interrupted conclusion. But he halted back with the grounding of his teeth.
"Y-Yes, you're right... Tomorrow will do. Howe-"
Before Krauss could even continue or say anything else, Iria already wheeled around in a less caringly fashion with her employee followed suit.
Kailey glanced back a few times, seeing the steam slither out that man's ears - a prize-worthy expression to see.
But at what cost?
"That was bold of you to do that, Iria. You're not afraid of him spilling the beans to HELIX after that scene?"
"I don't care."
"Stop Iria." Quickly, the worried black woman rushed in front of her boss, once work-colleague but still a friend. "Maybe you're sick of this job but I care. Everyone cares that you keep your head in the game. You know what happens to those who disobey the company."
Iria knew that one fact. Everyone working under HELIX on this little island knew it.
One moment of rebellion and your outcome of getting out alive would be slim. The choices of your executions were many, such as being gunned down by HFC guards or forced to become a specimen of the Kronos Virus.
Worst part, family members were included...
"Maybe they should."
That frightened Kailey.
"You don't mean that."
"...I'm sorry, Kail... I'm just not thinking straight today..."
"Iria, dear. You're overworked," Kailey grunted. "The New Year is just around the corner so it's time to put down the hatchet and take a break." Her tone rose at the last three words. "So tonight, you, Hannah and Randy are going to watch the fireworks. I'll be there. Zach and Victor, their families are going to be there. It'll do you good. What do you say?"
The offer was promising. The typical, yearly event that most of the islanders would head to the Blue Crab shack at 9. Seeing the annual sparks of colours in the night sky, smelling hot dogs and steak roasted on barbecue pits while the adults toast their drinks and the kids dart across the white sand.
Yes, anyone drowned in work would immediately take the chance to head to the surface.
"Thanks for the offer, Kail," she started, still holding her smile. "But I think tonight, I pass... Too many things on my mind."
Kailey drooped her shoulders dejectedly but her silence acknowledged the reply. "You know where to find us if you change your mind."
"Like always."
With goodbyes, the two women departed - one heading to the central elevators and one heading back into the labs.
Only one place interested Iria, the very one she wouldn't allow Krauss to enter. Visiting that one clinical room had somehow merged into her busy schedule and she had done so ritualistically for a week. A week after the specimen was moved from the cryostatis chambers and even before that, she had constantly visited him in that frigid room since that trip to that lonely little outpost at the edge of Antarctica.
Iria wasn't sure why she constantly made an effort to see that comatose man laying on that slab with wires and tubes inside and out of his body.
Again, on that day, she stood right in front of that person in hospital pyjamas. Motionless. Unable to speak. He was now just a shell, routine nutrients, hydration and oxygen forced into his body to keep him alive.
Pointless, really. If he were to wake up now, he'd be riddled with nothing but spasms from any lack of muscle movement. And even if he could... She was conflicted to see him open those eyes at her. More afraid of the possible brain death.
The young red-haired lad who slept on that bed like a different tale of Sleeping Beauty.
Wait, bad choice of fairytale. The real version was much darker when she first found out...
Still, he was, in a manner of speaking, 'fresh as a daisy'. A week ago, he was a nothing but a frozen, well-preserved, blue-veined corpse. Against all odds, she managed to revive the once dead redhead, kept locked up in cyrostastis for a year.
All because of that hook, line and sinker that man baited her into doing it...
Her glance trailed up to the chart laying at the side, another act that snaked into her habits. So she had read this a hundred times. She could easily recap every sentence, every number, every graph and every specific. And yet she reread the papers once more.
Steve Burnside.
Date of death, December, 15, 1998. Location of death, unknown Antarctica Base. Date of revival, December, 25, 2000. Original subject of the t-Veronica virus, now subject of new improved k-Veronica Sigma virus.
Blood type, AB. Height, 5 ft 8 in. Weight, 148 lb. Loss of weight noted.
Brain activity level, low. Eye response to speech and pain, low. Muscle response to pain, low. Blah, blah, blah.
The same results over and over. Basically, an unresponsive, comatose patient who was nothing more than a Petri dish and a factory.
The only lack of information was his backstory.
There was no chance of asking for that. She'd be told it would be irrelevant, especially by him...
She tossed the file back to its original spot and glanced back at the man.
Her perception went to work. Again. Skin still pale, veins fading off. Copper red hair, short and rebelliously styled. As young as the day she first saw his frozen corpse.
Oh.
Gently and lightly, her fingers drew up to the lad's red fringe and brushed it off his shut eyes. However, in mid-action, she stopped herself.
Again, she did this. She didn't even know why...
"I reckoned ya'd come by eventually, lassie."
She stirred away to the rich, thick Irish accent that easily crushed the silence tinted with beeping and humming. Standing with a huge, jolly grin, hands in pockets, was a stout Irish Indian man already well past his forty age mark. He was also in a mess, just like Iria but a whole day straight from 8:00 am would do that to anyone.
Surprisingly, the fatigue didn't bother him one bit - the beaming bright smile he shone out just penetrated the tiredness.
Prasad O'Hehir.
"It's that obvious?"
"O' course!" he chuckled. "He's starting to grow on ya now."
"Don't be silly. This is just part of a director's work."
"O' really?" He folded his arms, his soft grin plastered strong.
She sighed. "No. This is out of my own accord... I don't understand why... I don't even know him."
"But ya want to?"
Really? She wanted to? "...Is that weird? These are just specimens. They're not human anymore."
"Well, I beg to differ. They were human. The question is are they still human?"
"If they are, they'd surely go mad at being lab rats. Reminds me too much about that short novel about a supercomputer toying on five humans... And I'm that supercomputer."
"Doubtful. That supercomputer didn't show guilt to his captives. You, however, are to this lad."
"I still don't understand why... I don't get it..."
It confused her - this unusual connection she found herself having. The most strangest part was that she had no answer to why.
No matter how hard she pushed her mind to analysing her fascination on this specimen, she couldn't understand. He wasn't some thrilling, interesting breakthrough for scientists to leap on and open him up like a present - she has pretty much grown tired of all of the viruses that went through her hands.
So why?
"Remember the day we were taken to Antarctica?"
She laughed softly at Prasad's question. A hmph, more like it. "Of course. All I could think was that bastard's way of taunting us with that smack of freedom in some frigid wasteland..."
"Then do you remember what I said when I saw his file?"
The small pinch of anger subsided. Yes, she remembered as clear as day. That one sentence Prasad gasped out when he read through the thin file. It was what started it all - her strange, unusual duty to visit the young man.
"...That he was as young as your son."
Prasad nodded, the smile wavering away. "Reason why you're as affected by this as I have been is 'cause this is the youngest specimen we've had here. This person is still a kid no matter how ya look at him."
"Seventeen isn't even a child's age."
"You said he isn't young now. I say he's still is. Still too young to know the world. It's that youthful time for everyone to learn mistakes and the ropes on their own because even grown-ups don't have all the answers yet. We all had been dere before. I was damn stupid around that age. My wife was my girlfriend back then. Gave me quite a slap to put some sense back into me."
The chuckle was shortlived. It was sad. Pitiful. Sure, people had pointed out that Prasad was too soft. Maybe. But he couldn't help but see this redhead anything else but a specimen.
Every other specimen were monstrous mutations of the k-Virus. This boy looked human. His vital signs were human. Everything about him was human.
So how could he easily say this was the same as the horrors they kept locked up below?
"Poor lad, though. He's struck here with us as our little virus plant," Prasad glowered lightly, glancing back at the neatly-placed testtubes beside the heart monitor. Recently extracted blood samples. "I bet ya that man's going to have him join him the moment he opens his eyes too."
That was a likely scenario, one Iria couldn't disagree. A possible outcome she actually started to fear... A definite ending of that man in black manipulating a puppet with a blank mind.
Frightfully...she didn't want a second Wesker.
"Possibility of him waking up is slim, Pras. And whether or not his mind is intact after a year of being dead." She laid out the mental cards and repeated them verbally. "20% he'll wake up as an amnesiac. 80% braindead... Funny thing... I want the latter..."
Iria gazed at her old friend with a guilty look.
"Sounds cruel of me, isn't it?"
He said nothing at first but he understood. Wesker would surely fill in those holes in the lad's head just as he had spun everyone around like headless chickens with his mind games.
"No, Lassie. Just being honest."
Honest...was that really it? Two words opposite of each other and yet too difficult for Iria to differentiate the two.
"Aah, enough of this grim talk." There was a need to change the atmosphere before he'd be seeing the poor lassie be suffocated underneath it. "Tell me. How's your cat doing?"
An eyebrow rose. "Really? You want to chit-chat now?"
"I can't just pretend to ignore that after you'd showed us those results. And anything sounds better than work."
"...Nothing changed. Phi is still as healthy as ever... Is it even possible for an animal to build a natural resistance in just a year?"
"Well, depending on the breed and genetic problems. And considering her diet...yeah, maybe. Ya still get those gifts from her?"
"Every single morning. One bird on the mat like always," she replied with disgust. "It has to them. They must have adapted long enough on this hostile island to be resistant to the old virus...but that's a theory."
"And it needs testing." Prasad warily checked up to the red eye above them, the mechanical retina scanning elsewhere and luckily not on their own conversation. "How bout you, me and Gordon go birdwatching this weekend? This is one opportunity HELIX's not gonna take from us."
"You sure that's a good idea?"
"Iria, natural selection has a funny, unpredictable way of changing things. If ya unknowingly discovered what I think ya did, this could be our trump card. We can't let them take this away like they did with Gordon's serum."
The mentioning of that name slowly saddened Iria on the spot, deepening an old cloak of shame on her.
Reopening wounds from a week ago.
"It's Gordon. He can't be angry at ya forever. Man's too foolish to keep a gauge."
"He should. I went behind his back."
"Because Wesker forced you into a corner." Prasad slugged his shoulders down, seeing the poor woman unconvinced. "Gordon will understand... And if not, I'll knock him again."
Her eyes widened. "Prasad, you didn't-"
"Now, now. This is something stubborn men need to do. And sometimes, men don't do well with words."
In order words, he did. And from the way he implied, Gordon returned the favour. Or tried.
"Really, you two. You shouldn't-"
He stopped her with a raise of a hand. "Working inside this bucket can drive anyone crazy. A good whack brings anyone's senses back. I should know."
Iria wanted to object. Not as a director at all but as a friend whose fault sparked out this shebang in the first place. If she had known, she'd have stopped their foolishness, yelling at the top of her voice at how stupid to see grown men wrestle at each other.
But his stern gaze took her this matter was long past and no point in digging it back up.
"Ok. I'll leave it alone. Still, I can't believe you."
Prasad loudly chuckled. "Well, you are my drinking bubby. Through thick and thin."
She nodded lightly.
Out of the entire staff, only Prasad had managed to make an impact on her. A man much older than her who had overheard that she'd be working under HELIX on the very first day of orientation, rushed up to her and greeted her spontaneously.
All because she was half Irish. Nothing about her reputation or achievements or that she was the sister of a famous woman. Just someone with similar roots that he could share inside their workplace.
She was terrified, hearing an accent thicker than her father's boom as her hand was shook in an exaggeratedly welcoming manner. Iria had been quite an introvert - sometimes still was at so Prasad's outright and ecstatic personality was something alien to her. Yet this Indian man managed to thaw out her little shell. She had even embraced more into her Irish culture, thanks to him.
In fact, if it wasn't for him, she'd not be a little more opened than she was in the past.
"What would I do without you, Prasad."
"Ya're a smart lassie. Ya'd figure things out even without me and Gordon."
She smiled. "I can't thank you enough. You and your family."
Another loud, bellowed chuckle. "Ah! What are next door neighbours for? Ya're already particularly family. Raj enjoys being like an older brother to your niece and nephew..."
Then it came as a surprise to her. A deep sigh heaved out of Prasad's sigh as his smile crept down in an indifferent approach.
This...Prasad had never looked like this before.
"Something wrong?"
He struggled in the silence. Wanted nothing to add more onto Iria's plate, worry her more with unnecessary news.
But it was too late, she was already glancing with concern.
"...I demanded HELIX to send Raj's application. Those hotshots denied ever taking his letter. Hmph. Like they can fool me that they're not burning our mail and hacking into our comps..." His eyes furrowed with distaste. "Know what they offered instead? Giving Raj a position to work here. Telling me he's a smart lad, give him special services because of his condition. I told them to bugger off."
"...Anything I can do?"
A shake of the head. "They never listened to Director Stein. They won't listen to you, Lassie."
Very true. She may have all the powers to maintain and oversee everything happened within the facility like clockwork but she was still powerless. One of many weak humans tangled in the twisted fishing nets HELIX has left out, expecting them to bait out more profit.
The conversation had derailed, no solutions to offer and rise Prasad's spirits up back.
In the end, Iria could say, "Which college is Raj looking into?"
"Trinity College. He had always wanted to see Dublin. Arya's proud of him to be visiting our hometown. But know what's the best part he told me? School's have wheelchair service." Another burst of laughter, enough to cut down the stiff bleakness and bring back Iria's gentle smirk to his regained happiness.
Good. She couldn't bear to see his persona be tainted by the dark atmosphere of this place.
"..I'll tell Raj to rewrite his application. Figure something out. If he gets accepted, HELIX has no choice but to let him go."
"Yeah... I'm sure of that." It was naively optimistic, a wretched thought under their circumstances but did that matter? She was hopeful - with some sheer luck, they could find a hole in HELIX's system. "I should let you get back to work. No good of keeping you longer down here."
"Nah. Don't feel right to be leaving this lad here on a night like this. I told Arya to go ahead without me."
"You sure, Prasad?"
"It's alright. They have Hannah and Randy. More the merry."
"That's good... Well, don't stay too late, Pras," Iria muttered before she headed for the entrance.
"Lassie."
She turned back.
"Bought me a new bottle of Irish whiskey. If ya're still around, I'll break it open and we'll continue our chess game."
It was an usual after-hour rite. Whenever work was at their stress or at their least, Prasad would stroll into the director's office and be her opponent in a game of chess. Four years playing on the polished Hornbeam and Beech wooden board - a memento of her father. As far as she had recalled, they've had only ties, never wins or losses. And she was the best chess player during her youth.
The drinks, offered by Prasad on his behalf, became a tradition for them to toast for special days - mainly Patrick's Day. He'd always come by with a bottle in one hand and two shot glasses in the other.
And every time she doused the alcohol down, her throat and insides burned from the blazing intensity. But she couldn't complain as one gulp of the very strong liquid seemed to reinvigorate her body.
"Of course. You left me in quite a predicament."
He simply shrugged his shoulders. "Ya should have seen that gambit coming a mile away."
Indeed. The Queen's Gambit took her by surprise that it left her unsure of her next move and eventually, they had to leave the game unfinished until the next time.
"Harris, Kath, Dae-hyun. Ya three should head back to the surface for the fireworks," Prasad then uttered to his three colleagues further inside the room. "I'll take care of the rest."
"You sure? It's no bother for us to stay."
"It's going to be the new year. No point in missing out."
"The same should be said for you, O'Hehir. Stop takin' everything and puttin' them on your plate."
"I'll stay back. You two have fun with your folks."
"Out of the question, Dae-hyun. I said all of ya three."
"It's alright. I told Soo-Jin to go first with the children. I'll meet them before the countdown."
The conversation of four had softened the further Iria walked away from the room.
She missed those kind of talks - before she became the boss. The days she spent as a virologist...
They seemed more merry back then. Amusingly humorous under harsh conditions but Iria admitted to herself. Those times were a bit better.
"This is absurd! Where is McLenlan! ? I want to see her at once!"
The holler from across the series of halls had snapped her out of her jumbled thoughts. Concern urged her feet to follow after the voice, as much as she wanted to turn in the opposite way.
Sure enough, the official was bellowing with a viper's tongue, angry that its prey had dodged its fangs and already prepared to send them on the frightened animals in white coats surrounding him.
"What is it?" she calmly demanded.
Krauss, quickly noticing the blonde, stomped angrily. "Explain yourself! What is that project in that room for! ?"
Her eyebrows knitted together out of confusion. "I already told you. That is a side project-"
"Don't take me for a fool! That is where the t-Veronica specimen is, isn't it! ?"
Oh.
So he found out. Or prompted someone to spill the beans for him.
"Tell me exactly what that project is! Why Mr. Wesker had decided to terminate the t-Veronica cultivation! ? Do you know how much money we could lose from this one alteration! ? We can lose third of our investors!"
She heaved a heavy sigh. The start of a migraine was snaking its way into her head. "We have collected enough samples to mass-produce the virus outside of the host. There was no need to continue and hence, Wesker wanted to take to the next level on the specimen."
"Next level! ? That was a one of a kind! And you!" A finger jerked right in front of her face. "I've heard that you were the one who administered that little experimental serum! You should have declined and informed the company immediately!"
So now the blame game. And now the migraine was building up by the itching, scratching racket that slowly surfaced in her ears.
No. Inside the back of her skull.
There was one drawback to her little gift of perception. That was why she also called it a curse. Just as the gears went to gather information rapidly from examining her surroundings, the gears were put on overdrive to find a solution to the man's outbursts - something to deafen down his voice.
But all her mind was receiving was nothing but noise.
Irritating, mind-numbing noise.
That was why people were unpredictable to her. That was why she didn't open up her circle to everyone.
It was too much work, trying to understand human nature. Disagreements, opinions that conflicted with others, ethics, politics, theology. Judgment too quick in hammering down before all the evidence could be laid out. A means to throw oil and fire into society's thinking whenever one's presence was threatened. All because they wouldn't agree if they were not right.
It was all about survival of the fittest. Iria just didn't know how to counter in order to survive.
"I followed orders. If you have a problem with this, discuss it with Wesker. You can find him on this island if you wish to make a meeting with-"
"Don't turn this around. This falls under your responsibility, McLenlan! You have made that specimen useless! You do not have the decision to change procedure on any important developments without the company's accord!" Krauss barked. He soured his mouth into a disappointed glower. "It was a mistake of Wesker to appoint you as director. Should have expected little out of the sister of Carme McLenlan."
And that was enough. He pulled at the one topic he wasn't supposed to say.
The noise was at its most unbearable.
"Here, I thought you were like Carme. All that talk about you following in her footsteps, pushing this project to great success with a mind like hers. But I can see it clearly that you are second best. The CEOs and Wesker shouldn't have put so much high hope on you. Better yet, if Carme had survived that car crash, she'd make a better director than you."
Krauss was too obsessed in his anger to notice the subtle changes.
Trembling, curled up fists. Angry hazel eyes. Grinding teeth inside a closed mouth, a thinly squeezed frown painted across it. The more he mocked at her, using her own sister as ammo, the more the noise in her head became fuzzier and fuzzier - his voice almost being inaudible.
Until she snapped.
"Shut up, you carallo."
The insult, soft as snow but fatal as venom, caught Krauss by surprise. Moreover, the last word was foreign to him, itching into an obvious dislike of his.
If anything, calling a person like him that was tasteful to her.
Iria had grown up with a foul mouth, thanks to her mother, born and raised in Galicia, Spain. Curses spewed out from honesty. Yes, she had been scolded for following that example.
But today, she had enough of this show.
"You do not know my sister. So shut your mouth."
"W-What? What was that just now?" Krauss hissed. "You have the gall to speak to me like that? You should take back what you said, McLenlan."
It was a warning tone but Iria didn't budged.
"Ah. I see." With a smirk, he glared at her. "You were always jealous of her, weren't you?"
Thud!
Hands launched on the folds of his suit, smashing his body into the wall. Dark hazel eyes daggered deep at him with the intent to silence him.
Again, he was taken aback. The attack frightened him even. Sweat began to bead down his forehead. He could have easily rebuke back, a man taller and stronger than she was but that expression numbed his muscles to do anything.
She was very much close to the edge.
"Do. NOT. Talk about her," she warned.
That was another thing Iria hated the most.
People assuming she was envious of her dead sister.
They were wrong.
She unhooked herself off the scared official but her gaze stayed cold and murderous on him. "You have overstepped your visit. Leave. Now."
It took a moment for him to regain back his composure and once it did, rage swelled up in him. In a frantic, terrified effort, he ran his hands across his suit as if to wipe some invisible stain Iria left on the fabric. "You... How dare you! You, you insolent spicracker!"
That was the best he could pull? A racist word?
How pathetic.
"The board will hear about this! About the cancellation and certainly about you! I'll make sure you will be demoted down to cleaning up BOWs' shit, you bitch!"
Iria remained unmoved. Threats were blunt to her and seeing no reaction all the more irritated Krauss.
"Go right ahead," she hissed, a deliberate pause in between each word.
There was no victory Krauss was finding out of this verbal battle. It was certainly and almost sending him into a visible state of paranoia and fury. Someone, even of a mixed heritage, had belittled him.
"Ogata," Iria called out to a scientist, a Japanese from the biochemistry quadrant, standing by. "Please call security to escort Mr. Krauss back to the surface."
"Ah. Y-Yes."
"You..." Krauss growled through his teeth. He had never felt insulted, embarrassed. But he was also helpless. Miles and miles away from the building in USA and the bosses weren't here to back him up.
So the only move he could do was surrender. Just this once.
"This is not over yet, McLenlan," he spat but it barely affected the woman. "Be ready to have your title revoked and pack your things up. Better yet, be prepared to be one of these specimens as well!"
Krauss took off, marching away.
Iria didn't care anymore.
It was a meaningless, baseless threat that didn't even fickle a spark of fear into her. There was nothing a hot shot like him could do to take her down. Maybe her title but to toss her into the same glass chamber with the virus, she knew too well the outcome. His outburst had been recorded under GAIAN's eyes anyway.
She was just too valuable to be exposed. All because of her reputation and skills.
It only boiled her up from the inside even more.
She was sick and tired. Of the man. Of the pressure. Of keeping up the charade. Of everything.
The last string of her enduring tolerance had pulled, stretched and nearly torn. She didn't care of the sea of eyes on her, watching this stupid mask she had been wearing since this job fell into her lap, crack open.
No more.
"Get back to work!"
Rarely. Very rarely, Iria had ever raised her voice at home and at work. Much rarer had she ever stepped forth as an angry director. But the volume showed business; it whipped everyone back to shape like frightened mice. Hurry back into their workplaces and pretend this never happened.
No one talked to the fuming woman, who was already heading to her only last resort for peace all the way in the far westward side of the floor.
It wasn't the break room. It wasn't the locker room. It was HELIX's cruel joke into the architecture as a constant reminder to their employees that in this beautiful island, they were the company's prisoners in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
She rammed her way through the doors, hit by the bright radiant blue shimmers stretched across the large observatory deck. Unbreakable glass held back gallons and galloons of seawater from flooding into the lower levels - not even a bullet could shatter the panels.
A hypnotizing sanctuary within the sea, too far away from the fish-inhabited coral reefs or the tall kelp forest. Not even the sunset rays could penetrate down to the depths.
Best of all, there was nothing but silence.
Iria took no hesitation to sit down at her usual spot on one of the cushioned benches, resting her head in her hands.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Let her stay here. Let all that jumble and static gully out of her mind.
Let her be in peace for a moment...
She lost track of time. Like always. Sometimes as short as fifteen minutes. Even longer than two hours.
"Saw that gasket early, Iria."
The unruffled-toned voice seeped together with the tranquillity. Because it was familiar. But Iria did not object to the intruder's presence, even when the dark brown-haired tall man sat next her.
Gordon Vaux. Associate Director of microbiology.
"I thought you wouldn't talk to me."
He scowled regretfully. He had indeed made that clear a week ago.
Gordon sighed heavily. "Stupidest idea to do to my own boss."
"Vaux, please. We've worked together since the start. You don't call have to call me boss."
"I know. Force of habit." He shrugged his shoulders. "Just as you are still calling me Vaux after all these years."
A soft smile cracked weakly. Yes, Iria really should stop doing that - he was no longer her senior ever since she was given the seat of the director. Force of habit, indeed.
"Besides, I can't avoid you forever... And clearly, you need someone to lend an ear."
Her smile washed away. "...I went behind your back for my own selfishness. I took your serum and used it on the t-Veronica specimen... You shouldn't talk to a backstabber like me."
"A pretty, smart lady like you? Well, after a week, you just forget about the bad things and move on. No good having an unhealthy grudge."
Iria chuckled lightly and seeing that brought out a wrinkled smile on Gordon. However, it dispersed quickly.
"I've heard from Prasad... The deal Wesker made with you..."
He read the signs no matter how hard she tried to hide the hatred seeping out - her hands dug into her elbows as she bit heavily on her lips.
That man in black really pissed her off...
"Why didn't you tell me?"
She didn't reply straight away, staring at the bright deep blue before her before she finally glanced at him, eye to eye.
"Would you have forgiven me if I had told you?"
Gordon didn't show resentment or conflict. He should have, Iria thought, but he simply fell quiet, listening. And the more silent he kept, the more it drew out her confession easily and with all the riding emotions.
"I was desperate. All I cared about was getting Hannah and Randy off this damn island. For them to see their parents again... To be far away from this nightmare..." She shook her head, more towards herself as the statement was only half-true. "No. That's not just it. I wanted to see it for myself. I kept telling myself that what happened to Raccoon City...it was just a dream."
Memories were flooding drastically, too powerfully for her to stop them all.
That one particular day that started shedding at her pillar of mental stability, already worn down by the death of her older sister, Carme and her brother in-law, Andrew, and the severing of the islanders' connection to the outside world, all down by the generous HELIX foundation.
On September 22, 1998, Raccoon City was laid waste to a viral outbreak. Eight days and over a hundred thousand people dead, the once buzzing city was destroyed by a missile strike, wiped out from the face of the earth.
That was where Iria and her family had lived before the outbreak. Before the car accident. Before the funeral and the burying of two bodies in the central graveyard of Raccoon City.
So hearing that news muffled out from the break room's TV on Level A had stunned her so badly. She was only passing by when she heard the city's name spoke out from the anchorwoman. She didn't even remember what she was doing back then.
Gordon and Prasad hadn't expected her to collapse outside the break room, petrified and wordless.
"It's a stupid idea...thinking I could go back and find their graves intact... Everything about Raccoon City was a lie. Nothing happened there. Nothing was destroyed by a rocket. Carme and Andrew are still there. That's what I kept saying to myself just to stay sane!" Iria hissed.
He peered at her with shock, seeing her ground her teeth tightly, her fingers twisted into the fabric of her leggings and her eyes watering, looking fiercely at him.
It had been the first time he ever saw her break.
"That man...he used me and then broke off the deal. He said they were nothing than dirt. My sister. Her husband... I wanted to kill him...! I wanted to kill that bastard!"
There was sheer, bloodthirsty anger Gordon could easily see in the woman, shattering through her peaceful yet sharp-witted shield. He had known her since the first day of the orientation when the facility first opened their doors to HELIX's staff, both precedently and newly hired.
Right on that bench, he believed she would have killed Wesker.
"He took the one thing I wanted the most and smashed it right in front of me..."
Gordon had never seen Iria like this before. For her to break in front of someone else, see a side uncharacteristic of her.
But she was human. Just like every other staff inside these white walls.
"You still miss your sister very much?"
An obvious, silly question but the thing was that she hadn't moved on.
"I miss both her and Andrew. Every single day."
That was the truth. She missed their company, their laughs, their smiles, even the arguments.
She was never envious of her sister - in fact, she missed everything about her, even the little rival competitions they pitched at each other.
For six years without her sister, there was no meaning of being the McLenlan Sisters. Carme was no longer there to talk, to fight, to become better of a person, to be there when Iria needed her the most.
There had been nothing more than loneliness.
"...Go home, Iria," Gordon softly muttered, a heavy hand on her shoulder. "You need to rest."
Easily said than down. "...I can't."
His eyes widened but he quickly understood why. "Hannah again?"
Her fingers, tangled and fidgety, tightened.
Right on the bull's eye.
"...I got angry at her... It's a stupid thing." She hoped Gordon wouldn't persuade any further. But the silence was worst as she looked back at him.
He didn't need to ask but he didn't reject.
"...She found an old gift from my father... Asked questions about who he was and all. But I didn't want to answer them."
"...Because you hated him?"
Hate him?
She had never once showed resentment to someone of her own blood.
"No... Because I thought there's no point in talking about a dead man... I didn't want her to...to be learning about these things... She's just going to make it harder for herself..."
Another punch had been delivered to her, courtesy of HELIX. The moment she thought they had pulled out all the cards on crushing their spirits, they took out another hidden Ace - telling her that Seoirse McLenlan had unfortunately deceased.
It had to be another lie. Just as they regrettably told her and her family Jared Blackwell, Andrew's brother, had passed from injuries sustained in Desert Storm.
But she knew that HELIX had other alternatives if all those were nothing but lies. There was no more hope for her outside this island...
One more news of someone's death and she was surely going to lose her mind.
"You have to talk to her. You're family. You're all that you have left in this world..."
She tightened her eyes. That was the one thing she had difficulty doing in the years spent on the island.
"She doesn't need me. She and Randy need her mother. I can't be my sister to those kids. I can't replace anyone."
"No one expects you to. And they know that. But you three are still family," Gordon enforced. "If you don't set things right, then those kids have no one else."
Seconds ticked by and that was enough to tell him that was all he could do, Iria stationary and staring endlessly at the blue nothingness. Knowing full well pushing anymore would not yield anything for her sake, he stood up from the seat.
She felt his presence waver further and further away from her.
"Iria?"
She feebly gawked at the tall man, standing close to the doors, a hand on the handle.
"If it was me in your shoes... I would have done it too," Gordon spoke with true honesty. "I would have done that deal just to get my folks off this stupid rock."
Iria said nothing in response - merely stunned by his statement. And she shouldn't be taken aback by an sincere, down-to-the-point answer. Anyone else would want absolute freedom off the island. Their home and their prison. Locked away from the whole world and nobody outside knew the truth. That they were alive, hostages under a powerful, corrupted company...
Gordon didn't expect her to reply and simply left her to think long and hard on his words. Even if she could have said anything, he was already gone through the doors.
And she was left alone with her thoughts in the comfort of the eerie yet peaceful and captivating blueness.
*/*/*/*/*
At long last, Iria finally pushed herself off the seat and left the serene blue-lit deck. But her next destination, she wasn't sure herself.
There was nothing left for her to do in the research level. She was a director - directors were supposed to sign papers, listen to the meetings and make sure everything was shipshape.
Leadership wasn't something she had ever considered, or expected it to be very tiring. Suffocating.
Iria strolled to the central elevator and hit the button. Might as well leave this floor.
As she waited, she brought up the brown leather watch across her wrist closely to her and out of habit, fiddled with the screw.
The arrows had stopped moving a long time ago. The gears were out of place, their clanking inside replacing the softened tick tock tick tock. The leather belt was starting to wear at the edges and the threads a bit unwinding here and there. The glass was still as cracked as the day it was broken. It never told her the current time, but it told her the exact time, hour, minute and second the previous holder died.
It was a silly little habit, twirling the knot and the watch wouldn't move. But it made her contented.
Less alone.
After all, this was her saudade.
Another sigh from her dry lips, that she prompted herself to roll them inwards to her tongue.
If this was a normal day, she would be driving down the lightly-snowed road to that suburban house with a garden and a clubhouse still being built, to spend the night. All because those two knew she'd be spending alone like always that they would usher her to come for these family events.
Her older sister, Carme opening the front door, smiling happily with open arms. Then the two in their cute little sweaters knitted by Andrew's mother would be rushing with giggles at their aunt's arrival and sparkling eyes hungry for gifts. Andrew taking over the kitchen and making a decent meal, few burnt spots here and there. The TV on showing the New Year clocking down. And at the last seconds, she and the four would step out into the cold to see the colours flash above them.
A normal family celebration.
Sadly, it wasn't a 'normal' day. She wasn't in Raccoon City, before 1995. This was the grim present she was trapped in.
Ding!
Again, she was distracted to her bundle of thoughts that her senses were delayed. Regardless, she snapped out quick enough to hurry into the elevator just before the doors would close on her.
And at last, at the light hit of the top button, the soothing silence and humming settled down her nerves. Her body easily flung back to the wall at the welcoming. Serenity - not as powerfully breathtaking as the observatory but the time spent inside this small metal box seemed to give enough mental relief before she would step off to any of the floors.
Iria dug into one of her pocket and flipped open her phone.
One new message. Came an hour ago.
Beep!
It's a little early but Happy New Year 2001, Aunt Iria!
I'll cya tmr.
"Oh, Randy," she uttered gladly but felt her heart break before she even decided to text back. Another stab into it from the fact she hadn't gotten another message from a different sender.
Sadly, that one person had stopped sending messages to her, even whenever Iria texted to her...
Her thumb hung bitterly over the buttons as she tried. She really tried. Eventually, she gave up and exited out of the messages.
A pathetic excuse of an aunt indeed...
Eventually, Iria checked the time.
Ten seconds till midnight.
It took her by surprised that it was already so late - then again, she shouldn't be. She had been at much later times than midnight.
Should she go back home? The kids were surely fast asleep and even if not, only one would greet with the brightest smile on his sweet face. He'd be glad to see her but by the time she reached home, the new year event would be long over.
So was it worth going back?
She counted down the last seconds.
4...
3...
2...
1...
Happy New Year, 2001.
"Here's to the new year, Carme-"
Then all of a sudden...
VRRRROOoooooooooooooooooooooummmmm...
The whole lift became dark.
"What-?" The flashing of distorted digital numbers on the small black screen pinched at Iria's worry. This was something new, something different. The way the elevator's screen was fizzing uncontrollably was more like...
Like a computer glit-
A thundering noise, one she wasn't familiar with hearing, erupted loudly around her and nowhere as red light, one she knew the significance immediately, blinked and rained furiously on her. It was all too quick for her to register that her sudden loss of balance took her by complete surprise, adding with the screeching sound of metal running down metal.
It was all too quick for her to realise the lift was falling.
Even when the lift suddenly came to a complete stop by a brake, Iria couldn't respond fast enough to see herself fall to the floor, her head contacting to the grey reflective tiles.
THUD!
Iria's only reward for her fright and confusion was pitch blackness.
Vickie: Helllllooo everyone and OMG I FINALLY FINISHED CHAPTER ONE! There were parts I wasn't too sure and I'm more surprised I added a lot of details here and there, making this a long chapter.
But I will say this one chapter is showing you an side of Iria from the past, who she was, how she interacted, all that. And it's gonna be rougher after this point. :3
Btw 2 things. 1, I changed the year because I made a mistake. In my main fic, Steve was revived in 2001. I originally wanted to use the 2000 millennium bug as the cause of the sudden blackout but I can use other plots that caused it. And 2, there are some terms here that I don't plan to give explanations like I did in my main fic BUT those terms will appear in my main fic. Heck even the Hesperides will be a BOW type I'll be putting in CODE: Kronos. Of course, you guys won't be seeing Stheno there. That's the most powerful, deadlier enemy ever developed in the Kronos project. THAT'S WHY THIS IS A DLC! Stheno is that one special tough monster you face in the DLCs. So if those terms throw you off, sorry about that but hopefully, the explanations in later chapters of CODE: Kronos will help out.
Also, if you have read CODE: Kronos, you'd be seeing familiar names too. :D
Hope you all enjoy this long chapter! And yup, the cliffhanger too. I may take a while on the next chapter but I don't plan to leave it like that. I do also plan to do my next fanfic. :D Basically about Steve's experience after his wakeup. Anyway please, read and review and look forward to the next chapter!
PS May need to edit some parts again but meh.