Disc: Don't own anything.
Claire groaned in pain as she slowly regained her consciousness. She had lost count of how many times she had been knocked out or drugged during the past few weeks and she couldn't help but wonder, whether such things had caused permanent brain damage to her. Claire's head and neck hurt like hell and kept throbbing painfully and a part of her felt like her head could just drop off as silly as it sounded. Her whole body ached, but thankfully it didn't feel like anything was broken.
However, Claire soon found out that she couldn't move her arms and legs freely.
"What the hell?" The young Redfield girl asked out loud before lifting her head slightly to see that her was body being held down on a cold metal examination table by thick leather straps that made sure that she wasn't going anywhere.
Fear started to creep into the Claire's heart and mind as she realized that she was in a room that reminded her very much of a laboratory room or worse, an operation room. There were chemicals inside wall cabinets that covered the walls and in addition to those, there were all sort of medical and chemistry equipment on trays and tables. However, the worst part was a small metal cart next to her with the all too familiar syringe lying on a metal tray, waiting to be used. Next to it was her golden lighter that H.U.N.K had given her. Wonder why they hadn't stolen it?
The sight alone made Claire panic and make her try to free herself from the bindings, but it was futile.
The events from earlier came back to her mind and Claire couldn't help but get worried for her brother and Leon. She knew her brother and Kennedy were both very talented and experienced when it came to fire fights and combat, but those men she had seen had been well trained and geared, making them a tough opponent even for someone like Wesker.
'Wesker...he probably is alright, I can't see him being defeated by some mercenaries...no matter how talented.' Claire thought, but oddly she still felt slightly worried for the blond man she had learned to know somewhat better.
'For heaven's sake...am I actually fearing that Wesker got killed? Absolutely absurd...' the young woman nagged at herself for thinking of such things. The fact that only few of the mercenaries had made it back to the helicopters indicated that they had been killed or at least delayed. But as it was, Claire was right now more worried about her own fate. Who ever had taken her clearly had no good intentions in store for her. The mere fact that she was being held like this with the virus syringe next to her was enough indication of that.
For a moment she simply lied there with only her thoughts to accompany her, but finally, Claire heard someone walk outside her room and noticed a large mirror on the wall. It had to be one-way mirror with someone watching into the room from the other side looking at her. Claire gave a defiant look to whoever was on the other side and said "go to hell.." clearly so that they could read her lips.
The young Redfield was surprised to see the door open and a man she had never before seen in her life walk in to the room. Was he the one behind all this? The man had a gaunt face with short brown hair. His body was slightly shorter than Wesker's and quite thin; but still managed to command authority with his presence. He wore a dark brown suit with red tie and in addition to that, he had an expensive looking clock on his right wrist and thin-framed eyeglasses.
"Ah miss, Redfield, how nice of you to finally join us. I was afraid that my men had done some lasting damage to you." The man said with a smile that told Claire that he wouldn't have really minded such damage at all. His tone was cold and mocking, as if she was nothing to him.
'Disgusting man...somehow I like him even less than Wesker.' Claire thought and kept her silence for a while longer, eyeing the man suspiciously.
"But I forget myself. Let me introduce myself to you. I'm Jack Wyatt the head researcher of the company Parantaall, I'm sure you have heard of us." the man continued all pleasantly, but there was clearly sinister intentions behind all that smiling.
"Truly a pleasure." Claire replied, voice full of sarcasm and dripping poison. "I've heard of you...you are the rising star in the in the chemical and bio weapon industry, very similar to Umbrella, if I you don't mind me saying so." Claire said, eyeing the strange man with narrowed eyes, "I guess I don't have to introduce myself to you. Since you seem to know exactly who I am."
"Who wouldn't know you? You are the survivor of the Raccoon city incident and the Rockfort Island." The man said and Claire figured out that he probably knew absolutely everything about her there was to know; the information probably taken from Umbrella's databanks that were stolen.
"Your skills are well known to me, as is Wesker's fixation on you. It is truly admirable in certain way…I didn't think that man would care for anything else than power." The Wyatt man said with a pondering look in his eyes to which Claire scoffed angrily
"Wesker? He might have some strange fixation on me right now, but I assure you…he only cares about power." She said defiantly, not wanting the man to think she felt anything towards the man or vice versa. It was no one's business.
"Oh? So you two aren't 'friends'? An I thought you shared something special with him. Didn't he give you this beautiful lighter?" The man mocked the younger Redfield and picked up the golden lighter up from the tray, showing it to her before placing down again, leaving it there. Claire who seethed in anger and was now fully convinced that this man was far worse than Wesker.
"Shut up, I don't want anything to do with that man. If your people hadn't interfered, I would have made sure that I would have never had to see Wesker again. And besides, I got that lighter from someone else." Claire snapped, but the man just kept eyeing her with his cold steel grey eyes.
"I see, pity for you then. I guess only your brother and Kennedy will mourn you then. From what I know, the rest your group are angry with you…truly disappointed and I couldn't agree more. To have something so powerful and dangerous like this." The man picked the syringe from the table "traded for a foolish young girl who keeps getting in trouble she can't survive alone." The researcher finished and Claire felt rage building up inside her, gnawing at her. His words hurt worse than and hunter's bite, poisoned or not.
"What do you want with me? You could just have grabbed the virus and gotten out of there. You don't really need me." She asked, trying to contain her anger and not give the man the satisfaction of seeing her get angry. The researcher's eyes narrowed as he smiled at her.
"That was the initial plan yes, but I thought it would be amusing to torment your group and Wesker by testing the virus on you. Our facilities are about to start multiplying this, so it won't matter to have the rest of sample spent on you, after all, we can still get it from your body afterwards if the need rises." The man chuckled before removing the top from the syringe.
Claire's eyes widened in horror and all colour left her face. She had guessed as much from the nearby tray with the virus on it, but hearing it from a man this evil made it felt tenfold worse.
Claire swallowed lightly before continuing with her question,
"You were behind the attack on the train and the facility, weren't you?. What do you wish to achieve by this? Why infect me with the virus?" The younger Redfield asked, trying to learn the reason for these events she, Wesker and her friends had taken part of.
The Wyatt man eyed her now with almost boring look, trying to figure out whether to waste time on her or now.
"I hardly think you need to know that, after all you will be dead soon enough, but I guess I can spare a moment to tell you. " the man murmured.
Claire held her breath and felt her body start to tremble lightly in fear when the man pointed at her with the virus syringe.
"You see, I want to destroy Umbrella completely. Its reputation, well that is gone already, but, the research is still going on. I've managed to get almost all the research data from them and now that I have this virus strand as well…I can finally turn that freak Wesker back into a human and kill him without any problems." He said and brought the needle closer to Claire who was now breathing faster.
"This haven't been tested very much and the effect on a normal person is still varies with every subject. You will have the honor of advancing the research."
"Why?" Claire asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
"As I said, I will have more samples soon enough, don't you fret. There is no way your friends and Wesker will find this place. Just be happy that he gets killed even though you will die before that.." The man hissed maliciously before piercing Claire's arm with the sharp needle.
"No!" Claire yelled in horror, barely feeling the pain the needle caused, but it felt like her heart was about to stop when she saw the dark green liquid leave the syringe into her blood stream.
"There…it should take a while, but soon enough, we will be able to observe the process and when the time is right, whatever you turn into will be set loose on an unsuspecting city. My company will accuse Umbrella of such deed and come in as a savior. " The Wyatt said, clearly satisfied with his work and plan.
"Have fun wallowing in your misery, girl." The man muttered, followed by a sinister chuckle before he left the poor girl alone in the room. He even turned off the lights so that Claire would have to endure the darkness as well.
Claire couldn't calm down, her heart was racing and she feared that it would burst through her chest.
"No..Does it have to end like this?" she whispered. This was it, she had been infected and there was no cure. The only remedy to her condition now was death. The young woman wanted to scream, thrash and fight but oddly enough, she simply lied there, imagining how the corruption spread throughout her body even though she couldn't feel it. It was a very odd feeling. She was filled with adrenaline, but so far the virus hadn't done anything to her; Claire didn't feel any different yet.
"The process is probably slow…a degeneration of the mind and flesh that takes longer unless I die." Claire muttered so that she wouldn't have to be in total silence.
"I wonder if I will turn into a zombie…" she thought out aloud again, trying to imagine herself as a rotting corpse. It wasn't a pleasant idea. The idea of Chris seeing her decaying corpse walking somewhere, waiting to get a bullet into head made Claire teary eyed; she didn't want Chris to witness that.
Something Wyatt had mentioned stuck in Claire's mind. Would she be happy if Wesker died? He had caused a lot of pain and damage to the world, there was no doubt about that, but would his death make it all right? She wasn't so sure about that anymore. It was odd now that she thought about it.
The young woman had calmed down and just lied there in the darkness on the cold metal table, trying to feel if anything happened in her body.
For some odd reason Claire found herself humming the tune she had heard during her time in the Rockfort Island, the one Alexia and Alfred knew. It calmed her down further and when she came to the last note, Claire closed her eyes and felt a tear roll down her cheek. It was so peculiar, just lying there, waiting for a lonely death.
Now that she thought of it...If someone had to kill her mutated body, she would like it to be Wesker. She wanted him to end her miserable existence fast and effectively.
Yet, it was probably something she wouldn't get.
Wesker, Chris and Leon were hiding in the outskirts of a large facility that belonged to the company Parantaall. The three of them had tracked Claire to this location and they were sure that she was held there. The place was old and only recently been bought by the company. The official records said that it was a research facility for health items, but they knew very well what went on inside those walls. It was umbrella all over again.
The three of them were slowly growing impatient as they waited for the evening shift to end so that the distraction would be most effective. During the night hours there was less research staff, but the security was naturally tighter. They had been waiting for almost a whole day and the wait was slowly killing all of them. It had taken them a good while to get there by car and drive had been most awkward with Wesker driving while Leon and Chris had been sitting on the back seat, eyeing the blond man murderously. Needless to say there hadn't been much chatting.
As much as they wanted to kill each other, it was important for them to work together in order to get Claire and the virus back from the Parantaall group. Wesker had given Chris and Leon all the information he had on the company since they weren't his friends either, far from it to be honest.
They had followed the signal here and for hours and Wesker had tried to find all he could on the staff, layout and security system with pretty good results. As effective as the group had been earlier with their strikes against him, it seemed that the head researches, as intelligent as he might be, lacked common sense and wisdom. It was truly amazing how they hadn't found the lighter on Claire. Perhaps they hadn't suspected such a thing or perhaps they were so confident in their skills and power that they didn't even bother to care. Whatever the case was, it would be their undoing.
The three of them had come up with a plan to infiltrate the facility with the main objectives being saving Claire and getting the sample and destroying the research facilities if possible. It would favor both Wesker and the anti-umbrella group. Wesker had compared Claire's coordinates and altitude to the map and they were pretty sure that she was being held in the holding area that was located underground.
Their plan was a good one for what little time they had to make it. Te ex S.T.A.R.S captain would use the roof entrance that lead directly into one of the security posts. He could access it easily with his skills, and use a scrambling device on the security system so that Chris and Leon could enter from the side entrance close to the research facilities, where they suspected the virus was being kept for the research.
It was Wesker's job to retrieve Claire, after all, he had refused to let Chris and Leon use his personal mobile like device. The two anti-umbrella group member might not have liked it but they had to agree that Wesker could move faster and was able to access areas Chris and Leon simply couldn't. His plan was to use the elevator shaft to quickly descent from the upper floors to the ground ones to free Claire and meet up with the two men to make the trade once more.
Chris and Leon were positive that they could trigger the facility's contamination protocol from inside and make it out in time before a fiery inferno burned everything down in a heat that would destroy all biological monsters and contaminated material. The facility would stay intact so there was no fear of the whole compound collapsing on them like with most Umbrella's buildings.
Chris had made sure to mention that who Wesker and the man had glared at the older Redfield with a look that said, "Don't make me change my mind about this truce."
And what a truce it was indeed. They wanted to kill each other, they didn't trust each other in the slightest and they knew that Wesker would backstab them the moment he had a chance. There was a possibility that the virus was being held somewhere else and not in the research area for studying it in a safe environment, but it was a risk they had to take.
Leon was somewhat amazed how well Chris managed to work with Wesker and it showed that they had been in a same special force once. Even if they now hated each other and Chris wasn't his subordinate, they formed the plan fast and it was effective, giving Kennedy hope of saving Claire whom he cared for greatly.
"So, you enter the roof and when you send the signal to us, we access the facility area, search for the virus and trigger the contamination procedures when we are done…while you search the holding areas for Claire." Chris revised the plan with Wesker, the blond man merely nodding somewhat disinterestedly, clearly focusing on the map and making mental notes to himself about the routes he could take.
Finally, the beeping sound coming from Wesker's clock indicted that it was time to start the operation.
"Be ready…this won't take long." Wekser stated while adding a silencer to his gun.
Chris scoffed angrily and eyed his ex Captain with burning hatred evident in his eyes. he would still hate his ex captain even if he saved Claire ten times.
"If you betray us, you will regret it Wesker. No matter what the outcome is with the virus, she is coming with us. .. I will make sure you will never touch Claire again." Chris growled and pointed aggressively at Wesker.
"You and me both…" Leon added to this.
"Why, of course. " The older man said with narrowed eyes and with a smile that told Leon and Chris "I hope you both die in there.." before leaving the two men behind. Wesker dashed forward in the unnatural speed, leaving Leon and Chris just standing there, staring at the facility that looked menacing with lights casting long shadows on its walls.
"God damn it, I want to see him dead." Chris growled, seething with anger. Wesker was source of all evil in his life and trusting him to save Claire made him sick to the core, but they knew that once they were detected, time would be of the essence and they wouldn't be able to move as fast as Wesker.
"I don't like this Leon, we can't trust him. How can we know that they don't keep Claire and the virus in the same place? This is Wesker we are speaking of. What if he plans to use us s a mere distraction and then just escape unharmed with my sister and the virus. I can't let that happen."
Kennedy didn't look pleased either. While the younger man had been more patience and calm, he wasn't happy either. He loved Claire…and it pained him to see her suffer like this. Sure he had been attracted to Ada Wong…but it was Claire he cared for and wanted to protect.
"Yeah, I don't like this either, Chris. After this, I want Claire to just be safe and enjoy life somewhere where she doesn't have to fear for her life." Leon replied to which Chris scoffed somewhat annoyed, but it was clear that he wasn't annoyed with Leon.
"Claire is such a handful at times, even when she was a kid she ended up in all kinds of trouble. She might have a natural talent for that. And now that it seems Wesker has taken interest in her, I fear Claire will never be fully safe before we deal with him." Chris muttered, to which Leon simply smiled slightly
"Takes after you, I guess. But, Claire has her brother looking after her and I try my best to keep an eye on her as well." The brown haired man said, assuring Chris that he'd try to keep Claire safe.
"You know, Leon, if you and Claire try to..you know form a lasting relationship, I trust you will not let Wesker hurt her ever again." Chris stated to which Leon nodded gently.
"I promise." he said. It would be a hard promise to keep, but he'd try his best if Claire wanted to be with him.
Suddenly their transmitter beeped which indicated that it was time for them to move as well.
"Well, that was fast." Leon said somewhat surprised.
"Yeah…it is Wesker alright…probably killed all the security officers." Chris scoffed and muttered some curse words beneath his breath before pocketing the device and moving with Leon towards the facility entrance.
Wesker walked through the security room with a cell phone device in one had and the pistol with a silencer in the other. There were 4 people lying on the ground and against the wall with guns in their hands, but Wesker had taken them by surprise. He had dodged the shots with his speed and delivered 4 clean headshots. The scrambling device had been installed successfully and would give Chris and Leon a chance to get inside the facility. The blond man glanced at a security camera, his glowing orange eyes narrowing slightly as he saw his hated enemies enter the building, making their way towards the research/manufactory area.
"Just a moment dear heart…I will find you shortly." Wesker muttered, glancing at his map of the facility and Claire's location there before taking off once more.
Wooo, chapter 21! We are nearing the end of this journey ( finally...) I probably try to keep the chapters slightly shorter from now on since it is easier for me to keep the focus and quality up that way. I want to thank again all my readers, especially admiralsarah who manages to kick me into writing :D Things are getting heated up. What will happen to Claire? I couldn't come up with any good company names...