Disclaimer: I am not Capcom so I can't own Resident Evil. This is the only place where I can make my fantasies about Resident Evil become a reality. I do own this amazing story so there is an upside for me not owning Resident Evil.

Author's Note: I have to say that I'm really sorry that I posted this chapter late. I planned to post this chapter on Monday because of the Super Bowl and my computer decided not to work for me. Long story short, my ac adapter broke and my laptop ran out of power. I wasn't able to use my laptop until late last night and I had some homework to do so this is the first time I could post this chapter. Now I have a few things to say before I begin this chapter so get ready for a long author's note. I am currently behind on writing Handles so I won't be posting another chapter in a while. I hope that I will be able to post the chapter maybe in about two weeks but you never know. Have no fear because I have the next few chapters planned out already so its just a matter of me writing them. As I can see so far, this story is going to be around thirty chapters long and I plan to finish it before the end of summer. Looking at the reviews, I see that Key of Destiny was on the right idea but didn't get the message right. The message was REREAD CHAPTER 2 because that chapter would have told you if I revived Steve. I picked Shepherd as the traitor because it would have foreshadowed his betrayal. Not only was General Shepherd the traitor in MW2 but also the main villain in Resistance 2 is named Jordan Shepherd (Daedalus). I really wanted you guys to hate Captain Shepherd and after this chapter, I can guarantee that people would hate him, especially Steve. Well this author's note wasn't as long as I though it would. Please review, because it will only encourage me to write faster. Now its time for Chapter 9 and if we find out if Steve lives or gets nuked!

KIA: Steve Burnside (Handles tV-Type Tyrant)

Main Characters: Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, Sherry Birkin, The Voice

Secondary Characters: Chris Redfield, Alexia Ashford, Alfred Ashford, Billy Coen, Dedro, Cerrby, Captain Karl Victor, Leon Kennedy

Villains: Captain Joseph Shepherd


Chapter 9: Phoenix's Ashes

Captain Shepherd was on the helicopter along with the rest of A.T.F. With the recent loss of half of the ABTS militia forces and Director Handles, the ABTS will soon crumble. As he pondered over his recent victory, his cell phone rang.

"Hello," Captain Shepherd said.

"I hope you were able to eliminate Handles for me." The mysterious voice said on the other line.

"He's taken care of." Captain Shepherd replied.

"Excellent, you've done well. Report back to headquarters immediately." The voice said as the line went dead.

Captain Shepherd said to the two soldiers, "Come on boys, let's go pick up the rest of the team. As the helicopter headed to the camp, they were unaware of the fact that there was a stowaway on board.


Chris, Jill, Alfred, Billy, Dedro, and Cerrby quickly rushed to the fire in order to put it out while Leon stayed back to watch over Claire. No one really bothered Claire because at this point, she was crying so hard that she was having trouble breathing. Of course, everyone was shocked when Captain Shepherd burned Steve alive.

When they were finally able to put out the fire, everyone was stunned at the sight they saw. Before them was Steve's body, was still intact. His faceplate was on the ground, so they could see his face, which was completely pale. It was also strange that the faceplate was still intact and the robes looked like they never caught on fire. Due to the heavy robes, no one could see if Steve's chest was moving up and down.

Everyone looked confused but a second later Alfred and Billy looked at each other and started to laugh. Dedro and Cerrby, who were in a frenzy since their master was burned alive, caught on to what Alfred and Billy were laughing about and started to calm down.

Chris looked at Alfred and Billy and yelled, "What are you two laughing at! You're friend was just killed and Claire is crying her guts out!"

That didn't get them to stop laughing and Billy turned his attention to Steve's body and said, "Congratulations Burnside, you survived death a second time in your life."

When Billy extended his hand towards Steve, Jill looked at Chris and asked, "Did you give Billy Wesker's drug?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Well look at Billy. He's lost his mind and plus the fact he was hitting on me when I was interrogating him."

"I'm going to kill Coen for trying to steal my woman!" Chris muttered to himself unaware that Jill heard his comment.

"Since when did I become your woman?"

Chris stared at her blankly to embarrass to speak. Dedro tapped him on the shoulder and handed him a note card that he took from Alfred's back pocket.

Chris looked at the card thinking it would help him out of his current predicament and read out loud in a monotone voice, "Things to do: polish rifle, buy Advil, and steal pictures from Alexia's photo album."

Alfred heard this and turned too quickly snatch the card out of Chris' hand however Billy was laughing so hard, he could have possible died from laughter.

"Why are you stealing pictures from your sister?" Chris asked Alfred.

"You know how Alexia transformed in the Antarctica base?" Billy said quickly before Alfred could give his retort.

"Yea she was nak… Oh my god!" Chris said as he realized what was in the pictures Alfred was stealing from his sister.

Jill also caught on to what Billy meant and was now flustered. "You know you Ashfords are completely demented," Jill managed to say, "You're a pervert and why does Alexia even take those pictures of her self."

"She thinks that it would boost her confidence of how she is the most beautiful girl in the world." Alfred simple stated.

"Wait one minute," Billy said turning to Alfred, "how exactly did you get all of that money you recently got?"

Alfred was at a lost of words but no matter what he said everyone already knew how he acquired the money.

"How could you do that to your own sister?" Jill spat at Alfred.

"I was tight for cash, plus the fact that one guy paid me a hundred bucks for this one picture of Alexia that he was going to put in his freak show."

"How could you do this to your own sister?" Chris yelled at Alfred.

"I'm sure that you did it all the time when you needed money." Alfred retorted.

Chris quickly grabbed the collar of Alfred's shirt and pulled him down towards him and growled, "DON'T YOU EVER TALK ABOUT MY SISTER THAT WAY AGAIN!"

"While we are speaking about this disturbing topic, Chris, if you happen to have a picture of Claire like that, can I buy it from you?" A voice smirked behind him.

Everyone stopped arguing, and quickly turned to see Steve standing there with his right hand on his chest. Everyone did a double take towards the site of the fire to find that there was no body and that they weren't seeing a mirage.

"But Steve how did you…" Jill said before Steve interrupted her by stepping back from Chris and bursting into flames right before their very eyes.

Steve was now completely on fire as he looked at everyone and replied, "The T-Veronica virus gives me the ability to combust my blood from the inside. I was able to combust my blood just before my body caught on fire, preventing me from becoming ashes and actually control the fire to heal me enough so I could stand. I was conscious the whole time and I heard some strange stuff. First of all, whey the heck is everyone talking about naked pictures of mom and Claire…"

Chris raised his eyebrows and looked to Alfred and he quickly said, "Hey Steve treats Alexia like his mom because of their connection to the T-Veronica virus."

"… Second, why in gods name are you guys selling naked pictures of your sister to random strangers."

"I don't sell naked pictures of my sister, Alfred does!" Chris yelled.

"I know if someone tries to sell naked pictures of Sherry, who is like a sister to me, I would skin them alive and roast them on an open fire…"

"Here you go." Billy said showing Steve, Alfred's note card so that he didn't burn it.

"Uh Billy," Steve said after examining the note card, "it seems like you just erased Alexia's name and added Sherry's name making the sentence say 'steal pictures from Sherry's photo album'."

"No what makes you say that," Billy quickly asked.

"There are a few things wrong here. I can still see Alexia's name faintly, Sherry's name was written in your hand writing, and SHERRY DOES NOT TAKE NAKED PICTURES OF HERSELF."

"Why would I take naked pictures of myself?" The female voice behind Steve asked. Steve turned around to see Sherry blushing and Alexia standing there confused.

"Hey mom," Steve said, "Alfred…" Before Steve could finish that sentence, Alfred quickly tackled him to the ground and he began to holler in pain. Sherry kneed Alfred in the balls sending him on the ground.

"Alfred," Alexia yelled, "We're supposed to be protecting Steve, not hurting him."

"Alfred, just because I can stand, does not mean I can take a tackle," Steve managed to say, "For god's sake, I just took two bullets in the gut…"

"Are you aright?" Sherry quickly asked Steve, allowing him to lean on her for support.

"Other than getting shot twice and nearly getting burned alive by Shepherd, I'm completely fine."

After Alexia heard this, she turned to Alfred and yelled, "Why would you tackle Steve in the first place?"

"Oh because Steve overheard us talking about how Alfred steals naked pictures of you and sells them to random strangers." Billy quickly interjected before Alfred could respond to her question.

"WHAT!" Alexia screeched making everyone cringe. She turned to Steve and Sherry and sweetly said, "Sherry, why don't you help Steve, find Claire. I'm sure she is worried sick about him."

"Wait Claire is here?" Steve asked nervously.

"Yea, Leon should be watching her." Chris replied.

"Alright, I'll find her. Anything is better than hearing what Alexia is going to say to you guys." Steve said as Sherry helped Steve head towards Leon.

Alexia turned to Alfred and yelled, "Why would you sell naked pictures of me?"

"Well you see I needed money…"

"For what," Alexia yelled waiting for an answer.

"To buy myself a semi automatic rifle," Alfred replied.

"So you decided to just sell naked pictures of me?"

"Actually Dedro told me to sell them?"

Alexia turned to glare at Dedro who looked at his wrist and quickly said, "Look…at…the…time. Got…to…go…"

"STAY!" Alexia screeched sprouting two tentacles from the ground to prevent Dedro from running away. "Nice try but you don't have a watch. Now why did you tell Alfred that selling pornography was a good idea?"

"I…heard…people…would…pay…a…lot…of…money…for…pornography."

"And who told you that crap?"

"Chris," Dedro stated pointing at Chris who was watching the whole spectacle along with Jill.

Chris thought for about a few seconds before he asked, "Please do not tell me that you were that guy from the porn agency,"

"No…Billy…was. I…just…overheard…the…conversation."

Everyone was turned to Billy but he quickly interjected, "Hey he would have never heard that statement if Chris over here wasn't so horny."

"I was under the influence of Wesker's drug that Jill gave me."

"Whoa, there is no way your dragging me into this conversation." Jill yelled at Chris.

Alexia just shook her head and smiled of the chaos she had just caused.


While everyone was bickering about Alfred selling porn to strangers, Sherry and Steve went over to Leon who was right now in a panic.

"What's wrong Leon," Steve asked.

Leon looked up with shock and asked, "How are you still alive?"

"Look I'm not going to combust my blood again for you," Steve replied, "Sherry why don't you go and see Claire first; I have to go get something from Alexia."

"Steve I really think that you should see Claire first," Sherry tried to say but Steve was already limping back to the bickering group.

"Wow Sherry you really have grown." Leon commented making Sherry smile.

"Yea it's been a long time, anyway where is Claire?"

"That's the problem, I can't find her."

"Weren't you supposed to be looking after her?"

"Yea but I went to the bathroom for one minute and she disappeared. I have no idea where she is."

"I'll give you one guess," Sherry said making Leon widen in terror, "Come on we have to go tell the others."


While the group was continuing to argue over this subject, Jill was looking around and saw Steve on the roof of the prison.

"Hey, Alexia what's Steve doing on the roof?" Jill asked Alexia.

Alexia just looked up and said, "I don… Jesus Christ! Guys Steve is going to do it again."

Billy, Alfred, Dedro, and Cerrby immediately panicked and started to follow Alexia towards the roof in sheer horror.

"What is he doing up there?" Chris whispered to Jill.

"I don't know but we are about to find out."


Steve jumped on to the roof of the prison, hoping that Sherry would not catch on to what he was doing until it was too late. Steve was humming as he went to the flagpole and pulled out a rope he concealed in his robe that he stole from the prison. He was planning to do it at the prison but Shepherd stopped his plans by attempting to kill him. The only reason he did not let Shepherd finish him of was that he preferred to do it himself. He could still remember all of the screams of the people he murdered and could still hear all of the voices ringing inside his head. Steve had enough of it, and he wanted it all to end.

"What are you doing?" The Voice yelled at him inside his head.

"Doing what should have been done six years ago."

"You are a fool for doing this, but I can't stop you from doing this and you can't stop me from doing what I have to do."

"What do you mean?"

"The world needs you Steve."

"No the world needs someone like Chris and Claire."

"You are too blind to see the truth and whether you like it or not, you will see the truth."

"You will not stop me!" Steve yelled but the voice did not respond.

Steve took the rope, jumped up to the top of the flagpole, and tied a knot to the pole. He than took the other end of the rope and tied it around to his neck. Before he could jump, a knife cut though the rope.

"What are you doing here, Leon?" Steve growled without turning to face him.

"Why are you doing this Steve, are you trying to hurt Claire again." Leon responded.

"This has been happening long before Claire was involved," Sherry said as the rest of the group arrived to the roof. "You see while Steve was working with Wesker, he forced Steve to do something that caused him to have a complete mental breakdown. As a result, he tried to drown himself but I was able to stop him from doing it. Over the years, Steve tried to kill himself a few more times but I was able to thwart it. After Wesker died, Steve's problem has only been getting worst. He attempted to kill himself more in these past nine months than he did in the past six years. These attempts have become a cycle so we know when Steve is going to have a meltdown. First he has nightmares and than gains headaches that come out of nowhere. Next thing you know, Steve is trying to commit suicide."

"But Steve has been getting smart lately," Alexia added, "He is truly being tortured by the people he killed that he tries to hide these signs however Dedro and Cerrby always bust him before he can end his own life."

During this time, everyone has been watching Steve, who was so out of it. A second later, he immediately snapped up and said, "Where's Claire?"

"Don't know," Leon said.

"You were supposed to watch her," Chris yelled at Leon.

"Oh dear god, she didn't," Steve mumbled to him self. Turning to Billy he said, "Give me your shotgun."

"Ok," Billy said as he handed the shotgun to Steve.

"Billy you idiot, Steve attempted to kill himself twice with a shotgun." Alexia yelled.

"Why should I care? He always gets all of the hot babes, like Claire," Billy exclaimed before Chris punched him in the face and knocked him out.

"If you ever talk about my sister like that when you're not under Wesker's drug, I'm going to shove my foot up your…"

"Chris!" Jill yelled before turning to Steve he put on his Handles mask.

"Claire is with Shepherd and knowing him, he will win the confrontation," Handles explained in his distorted voice, "I'm going to save her before its too late."

"Steve, wait," Sherry yelled but Steve was already gone.


Claire was all alone on the plane. When Leon wasn't looking, she stowed away on Captain Shepherd's helicopter. Tears were streaming from her eyes as she remembers him burning the one person who romantically loved her for her personality and not her body. She wanted revenge and she wanted it now.

With her M92F in her hand, she quickly pulled it out to kill the two A.T.F soldiers as they walked in. However before she could check the bodies she was hit from behind and her gun fell out of her hand. As she turned around to face her assailant, she could see Captain Shepherd standing there pointing her own gun at her chest.

"If it isn't the famous Claire Redfield, now what do I owe this great pleasure?"

"Sending you to Hell," Claire spat causing Captain Shepherd to laugh.

"So you saw Handles' death or should I say Steve."

"How could you burn him alive?"

"Simple, he betrayed Wesker and he was too much of a threat to keep alive."

"Well unlike you Steve has a heart and he would never join the 'Organization'."

"Handles was a weak pathetic fool who had power handed to him on a silver platter and just walked away from it."

"STEVE WAS NOT WEAK!"

"You act like your in love with him."

"I am."

Captain Shepherd simply smirked before responding, "Well unfortunately for you, Steve is in love with Sherry."

"That's a lie."

"Believe what you want but it is a known fact that on some nights Sherry stays in Handles room all night, and you and I both know that they are not sleeping. Come on Sherry and Handles have been together for six years, they are bound to have developed some romantic interest in each other."

Claire knew that Captain Shepherd was lying about Sherry and Steve dating but she didn't know if they have slept together. Claire felt depressed about the fact that she would never get to Steve again. She let tears come out of her eyes to trick Captain Shepherd in to thinking that she was upset over the fact that Steve and Sherry were dating.

Captain Shepherd walked over to Claire and whispered into Claire's ear, "Don't cry, I can show you a better time than Handles can."

Before Claire knew it, Captain Shepherd kissed her. The kiss made her squirm and she tried to get away Captain Shepherd quickly pinned her to the helicopter door and jammed his tongue down her throat. Claire shivered in disgust when his tongue brushed hers. She tried to bite his tongue but Captain Shepherd was one-step ahead of her and pulled his tongue out of his mouth making Claire bite her own tongue. As Claire hollered in pain, Captain Shepherd's tongue entered her mouth again. Claire knew that Captain Shepherd was going to rape her and she couldn't do anything to stop him. However, Captain Shepherd stopped kissing her but still was pinning her to the door.

"As much as I would like to continue our little make out session," Captain Shepherd gloated, "I have some business to attend to."

The helicopter door immediately opened and Captain Shepherd pushed Claire out of the helicopter. He closed the door laughing as he watched with pleasure as Claire fell to her death.


Claire was in horror as she was falling to her death. She realized that Captain Shepherd tricked her. He never really wanted to rape her; he just wanted her to think that he wanted to rape her so that he could just shove her out of the helicopter.

To her she was no longer afraid of death. Death could give her a chance to reunite with Steve again and they would be able to be together forever. How she longed to be near him again and after eleven years her only chance was stolen from her. If she couldn't have him in life, she would have him in death.

She saw a flash of blackness and in the next moment, she was on a rooftop. Stunned over what had just happened she turned to see her savior who was wearing dark robes was on the ground. She immediately recognized those robes and her eyes began to tear up as she said, "Steve."

The mysterious figure turned around to face Claire. Claire looked at him as she saw that she could not see his face because it the faceplate was covering his face. Looking down she winced over seeing two bullet holes in his chest as the blood covered the wounds.

"Shoot, it looks like my wounds opened up again," The mysterious person said in a distorted voice. Looking up to Claire he said, "I believe we haven't introduced ourselves, my name is Handles."

Claire was crying as she walked over him and kneeled down towards him, "No, you're Steve, my knight in shinning armor." With that, she lifted the hood of his robes and took of his metal mask revealing the face of Steven Burnside.

"Sorry about the mask distorting my voice," Steve said as he smiled at Claire, "I use it to hide my true identity."

"You don't need to hide your identity from me anymore," Claire whispered as she softly kissed him on the lips.

Steve was completely shocked at first, but once he fully grasped the entire situation, he began to respond to the kiss. For him, it was the best kiss he ever had but he knew it couldn't go to much further with the fear of infecting Claire with the T-Veronica.

For Claire, the kiss was simply amazing. She had always dreamed of kissing Steve for eleven years and now that she was finally kissing him, she realized that it was the better than she ever expected it to be. Nevertheless, Claire knew she couldn't take it any further with the fear of hurting him.

Claire slowly ended the kiss, cursing at Captain Shepherd for shooting Steve. Steve looked at Claire and asked, "What was that for?"

Claire just simply smiled and replied, "That was ten years overdue. Now come on, as much as I would love to keep kissing you, we need to get you to the doctor."

Steve blushed as he let Claire help him up from the ground. Claire allowed him to lean on her for support as she began to walk to the door on the roof. A moment later Steve fell to his knees with both hands on his head screaming in agony.

"STEVE!" Claire yelled as she went to him to see what was wrong.

"It needs to end now," Steve murmured as he painfully lifted his right arm to call forth a tentacle.

Claire was simply amazed at Steve's ability to summon tentacles as Alexia could. She watched as she saw the tentacle grabbed the shotgun that was on the floor and brought it to him. Her expression changed from awe to horror as Steve pointed the gun at himself.

"What are you doing," Claire asked unable to hide the horror in her voice.

"The v-voices they need to s-s-stop." Steve stuttered.

"What!" Claire asked completely confused. She quickly grabbed the shotgun and tried to pry it from the tentacle with little success.

She looked at Steve with tears in her eyes as he was now completely out of it and in complete and total pain. Steve was unresponsive after he replied to her answers and there wasn't anything she could do to snap him out of it.

With so many voices going inside Steve's head, he was beginning to think that he was losing his mind. However, he could hear The Voice's voice over all of the other voices.

"Steve, can't you see how much you're hurting Claire. Killing yourself like this isn't the only way to make your guilt go away. Killing yourself now will only cause Claire to kill herself. You only have two choices you can make; you can either accept Claire's love or end your life. From my life, I learned that is it is better to accept love than death."

"I thought you were a BI." Steve whispered to himself in pain so Claire could not hear him.

"I'm sorry I lied to you about being a BI. I was the tyrant who had the BI in him and with its help learned that Umbrella was using me for destruction. They never managed to find me as I have been in hiding for years. I have been alone, believing that I was the last tyrant alive, until you injected yourself with that serum, which tapped into your tyrant powers. As a result, you activated the tyrant's ability to communicate with each other with the use of their mind."

"Who are you?" Steve whispered as he began to lose consciousness.

"My name was Matthew Addison but I am now known as Nemesis."

That was the last thing Steve heard before he blacked out.


OMG The Voice was really Nemesis. Wait a minute, I'm the author, I should know this. So how is this possible? Well you have to find out next chapter. You will also find out in the next few chapters what act Steve did to cause a mental breakdown. Now we can all rejoice over the fact that Steve and Claire have met again and kissed. We can also get ready to burn Shepherd alive for not only killing Steve but for kissing Claire. You will also find out who Shepherd's mysterious contact is next chapter.

Now I know I left you with many cliffhangers but I have to at least tell you what is ahead next chapter. Nemesis tells Steve about how he survived Raccoon City, Steve and Claire discuss their new relationship, and Sherry tells Steve something that they have feared for nine months. And what in god's name does Steve plan to do with a machine gun, a rocket launcher, and poison.