Resident Evil: A Different Tale REDUX

by ShadowBrawler2000

Redone. Dante, the son of two Umbrella Researchers who were murdered by Wesker for trying to expose Umbrella's illicit experiments as well as being subjected to T-Virus experimentation, plots to kil the man, as well as destroy the company that ruined his chance for a normal life as the Arklay Research lab suffers a Bio-Hazard. Takes place from RE1 to RE CV:X CxJ RxB LxC CH.22 up

21. Chapter 21: Back to the Deep South

HELLO EVERYONE, AND WELCOME BACK! It feels really good to be back after so long. Apologies for those who've been waiting for god knows how long for me to return. I am happy to say that I now have a new computer, and can get back to work on the fics I've had to neglect for nearly 2 years. Thankfully, I'll be releasing a new chapter or revising an old chapter, for most of my fics except for the sequel to this story when this is released. Without Further Ado, I once again thank you for your patience and remember, CAPCOM owns resident evil and I own my OCs.

Chapter 21: Back to the Deep South

Nearly an hour into his flight, Chris noticed the sky becoming stark white from the Antarctic blizzard. He slowed decreased his altitude while keeping an eye open for any nearby landmarks. Eventually he spotted a couple of buildings along with small traces of smoke. Chris then noticed a portion of the ground open up to reveal a hangar for the harrier to land in. He deployed the landing gear and slowly landed the VTOL aircraft in the hangar. Once the blast doors above him closed, a ladder connected to a sliding walkway positioned itself right above the open canopy of the jet. Chris grabbed his gear and climbed up the ladder, taking a quick look around.

"Seems like portions of this facility are only running on emergency power. Need to find the generator." Chris determines while making his way over to a couple of doors. The pair on the right were for an emergency elevator, which prompted him to instead go through the door on the left, finding himself in a large circular room with a portion of the roof caved in by the remains of a crashed C-130. He began to walk forward and noticed a tentacle slightly writhing on the floor, coming from a hole in the wall near it. As he tried to walk over it, the appendage rose sharply and nearly struck him, leaving an indent on the railing where it hit. Chris backed up and readied his Glock, firing six rounds into the giant tentacle. As the sixth round hit the appendage receded into the wall and when it didn't return after several seconds, Chris figured it was okay to proceed. After damaging a second tentacle to clear the way, he climbed down a ladder and made his way down a staircase nearby, moving cautiously past a couple corpses trapped against the wall with some kind of webbing. He walked past another part of the hallway and entered the door in front of him, revealing an office. He looked around a bit and noticed an indentation on the wall that appeared to resemble the halberd object Chris had retrieved from the eagle plate. He placed it in and hear a lock click behind him, revealing a now open cabinet that had something inside. He walked over to the cabinet and discovered two items. The first was a cube-shaped paperweight with several Umbrella logos and a pair of A's. One red, one blue. The second was a diary, pinned underneath the paperweight.

"A Diary. Lets see who owned this thing." Chris said as he opened it, seeing it belonged to someone named Alfred.

"January 30th

There is a sealed room in the hallway located inside the Antarctic facility. I don't know what is hidden there, but I know how to get in. I can use the three jewels that each one of our three members wear as proof of being a legitimate descendant of the Ashford family. The only problem is, I do not know how I can gain possession of my father's proof.

February 17th

I finally succeeded in entering that sealed room. I could never have imagined that such an insane secret existed regarding the birth of both Alexia and myself... I hate my father. That fool, Alexander... Now it is obvious that we were merely created in an attempt to cover my father's blunder. I can never trust him again. I must regain the glory of the Ashford family with my sister. I have nothing to be afraid of, as long as Alexia is with me.

March 3rd

Alexia carried out the experiment on the human body we've been talking about. Our useless father must be happy now, since he can finally contribute to the Ashford family. The only thing we should be careful about is that the Butler, Harman, does not become wise to our activities.

April 22nd

The experiment resulted in failure. Our father was useless after all. Even worse, he turned into a dangerous monster that is completely out of control. We tied him down and locked him up in an underground prison cell. However, Alexia seems close to a solution. Beyond all of my expectations, she now says that she wishes to conduct the experiment on her own body. On top of that, she feels that she must be kept asleep for 15 years in order to accomplish the experiment. Thanks to that idiot, I can't see my dear Alexia for as long as 15 years. Alexia is going to sleep, with all of her trust relying upon me. Now, I am the only one who can protect Alexia."

"Now I'm wishing I hadn't found that diary. I should be on the eye out for those jewels though. They could prove to be useful." Chris thought as he tossed the item onto the nearby desk. He placed the paperweight in his pocket and made his way out the door and back up the stairs, going through the door right next to the ladder he used moments earlier. He found himself in a large rectangular room with a catwalk going all the way around, though damaged in a couple spots, just above a frozen layer of ice. He decided to go left first, finding himself on a small platform that connected to other portions of the room due to a gigantic layer of ice that was parallel to the platform. He walked over to a large tube with a red valve handle and saw that it could be removed. He noticed a few corpses but they were unmoving, possibly due to the cold. He removed the handle and proceeded towards the door when he heard noises behind him. The corpses behind him began to get to their feet, strips of flesh connecting with the ice peeling off while a couple more broke through a couple parts of the ice, surrounding him. Chris considered his options and tightly gripped the valve handle in his left hand while drawing his sidearm with his right. He turned to the zombie immediately to his left and roughly swung the valve handle, hearing a crunching noise as the metal handle partially caved in the zombie's skull. Chris quickly followed with a couple rounds from his Glock into two more infected. He shot another zombie and then shoved the last to the floor, stomping its head flat before it could get to its feet. Chris wiped the blood off the valve handle and attached it to a strap on the small of his back before he made his way back into the rectangular room, heading past the main entrance of the room to the first door on the right. Inside he noticed a few boxes and a couple of zombies, quickly dispatching them before grabbing a handy box of shotgun shells.

"Man, this stuff is starting to get kind of heavy." Chris thought, starting to feel the weight of the various items he was carrying. Finding nothing else of use, he exited the room and carefully crossed the ice below one of the damaged sections of the walkway, climbing onto the other side and going through the door to his right. He looked up and heard a familiar whirring noise, spotting another sentry device like the ones on Rockfort.

"What? He's here?" Chris said, since he knew Wesker was the one sending out the devices. Just as he tried to open the door to wait for the sentry to turn around, the camera spotted him and released the same frequency as the ones at the prison. Chris quickly holstered his sidearm and drew his shotgun. Just as one of the Hunters rounded the corner, it came face to face with the barrel of Chris' shotgun. One pull of the trigger and the point blank discharge eviscerated a good portion of the reptilian B.O.W.'s face. Chris quickly followed through with the second Hunter that rounded the corner just moments later, then quickly shot the sentry before looking around the corner to be certain that there weren't any more in pursuit. After several seconds past Chris reloaded the shotgun before withdrawing the weapon and switching back to the Glock. He proceeded through the door immediately to his left, finding himself in a room with a large aquarium. He noticed a small lift that was working and took it down to the floor below, which appeared to be some kind of warehouse. After killing a pair of undead security guards, he noticed a fire blocking off part of the room. He reached into his pocket and retrieved his lighter, looking around for something to extinguish the fire. Luck was on his side, and he spotted a fire extinguisher on a nearby shelf. He suppressed the flames and lit the lighter again to look around. The light reflected off a shiny object, which turned out to be a stainless steel Colt Python .357 magnum with a 4 inch barrel, along with two full speed loaders. He slid the revolver into one of his pockets and placed the ammunition in the other slot in his side pack. He went back up the lift and ascended a ladder near the back of the room. He found a console that appeared to have an indentation for the valve handle, but the hole was square as opposed to the valve handle's octagonal socket.

"Of course." He sighed and left the room to proceed further down the hallway, past a couple more corners and onto a service elevator, taking it down to another part of the facility. He exited the elevator and noticed a door right in front of him. He walked inside and noted a door immediately to his left which had a 'Warning: High Voltage' sign on it.

"Great. Now I should be able to turn on the main power." Chris thought as he entered, pulling out the lighter he got from Rodrigo to see what he was doing. He noticed a large power module and a large console to its right that had an octagonal hole that the valve fit into. He turned it to complete the module's circuit and then made his way to the right and pushed a red lever up to turn on the power. Now able to see more clearly, he noticed a couple nearly empty boxes of 9mm rounds and a few scattered 12 gauge shells which he quickly pilfered. He once again secured the valve handle to his back and left the room. He turned left and noticed several zombies lumbering towards him. He drew his knife from its sheath with his left hand and readied his Glock in a modified Harries technique, holding the knife arm under the gun arm. Chris slowly moved forward, shooting two of the zombies through the skull. He quickly shifted around the corner, driving the knife forward in a reverse grip while firing his Glock at the two behind it. After finishing off the last two zombies further down the hall and cleaning his knife's blade, he walked through the door at the end of the hall.

"Whoa, bit of déjà vu here." Chris commented, due to the room he entered resembling one of the rooms off of the main hall of the Spencer Mansion back in Arklay. He grabbed a box of handgun ammunition as well as a map that had been hidden in a vase being held by a statue in the middle of the room. He noticed a pair of doors past the statue that were locked, Chris did notice the bio-hazard emblem below the one handle, and a hallway with a few Hazmat suits on the wall. Around the corner past the suits and a door he noticed a tiger statue with two different colored eyes. He managed to pry out the gem in the statue's right eye, which caused it to rotate counter-clockwise 90 degrees. The rotation revealed a small nook that had a socket with a square head and an octagonal indentation that fit snugly onto the valve handle's octagonal socket. After placing the jewel back and pulling out the one on the opposite side, Chris then found another speed loader full of .357 ammunition. He pocketed the ammo and made his way down the hall towards the door he'd passed at first, which turned out to be a decontamination chamber. After the sprayers ceased, Chris opened the door, finding himself in a large, circular room with an enormous hive-like structure from which seemingly billions of ants around the size of cockroaches were milling around. He stepped toward a small platform right in front of the hive to pick up what looked like a fake dragonfly wing before quickly making his way into a nearby room, stepping on a few ants as he walked. Inside he saw what looked like a small lab, connected to a raised section with something in the middle. To the right on the raised section, Chris found a small terminal with an inscription.

"As twins, Alexia and I are two sides of a coin." Chris read off. Under the name, Alexia, appeared to be a number of symbols. A heart, a spade, two A's and a crown. Under the inscription appeared several buttons with symbols etched on them. Referring back to the inscription, Chris decided to input the code backwards, revealing a small drawer than looked like something could be put in it. On a hunch, Chris retrieved the paper weight he'd gotten from the office and placed it inside. Moments later the drawer closed and a large stasis tube emerged from the middle of the raised area. The front half of the tube opened to the side and a body clad in some kind of ceremonial military regalia fell out. After the momentary shock, Chris walked over to the corpse, seeing a blue ring on the man's finger. Thinking back to the diary, he pulled the ring off and dropped it in one of his pocket. From there Chris decided to make his way back towards where the elevator was located. Just as he opened the door, he heard heavy footfalls to his right and ducked down, hearing claws screech against the wall right above him. Before the Hunter could counter, Chris roughly jammed the barrel of his Glock under the Hunter's chin and firing several rounds point blank into its skull until the slide kicked back. Just as the last round fired, the hulking reptilian fell back onto the floor with a thud, unmoving. He replaced the mag in his weapon and replenished the empty one and traveled back up the elevator to the aquarium room, where he placed the modified valve handle into the indentation, draining the water. Chris slid down the ladder in the aquarium and noticed something at the bottom. He walked close to it and found that it was a key with 'Crane' written on the bow. Just as he dropped the key into a pocket, the aquarium glass shattered as a Hunter smashed through it. Unlike the other Hunters Chris had seen, this one had a dark, purple skin as opposed to the normal Hunters greenish scales. Chris quickly jumped away from its swipe and retrieved his MAC-10, firing several bullets into the creature until the sub-machine gun ran dry. The Hunter recovered quickly despite the injuries and lunged at the man, who just barely rolled to avoid the attack and equipped his SPAS-12, firing several rounds into the creature's back and then its face, ensuring that it wouldn't get back up. Chris reloaded the shotgun but abandoned the MAC-10 when he discovered he was out of ammunition for the weapon. After slinging the shotgun on his back, he then made his way back to the rectangular room, now noticing the controls for a crane to his right. He made his way into the small hut where the crane controls were located and then inserted the key into the panel. He activated the crane and moments later the crane broke through the ice in the middle of the room, revealing a heavily scarred and mutilated body with an exposed chest cavity hanging from the crane hook.

"Who could have done this?" Chris wondered out loud as he noticed something fall from the body onto the ice near the hole. As the crane started to move to the right Chris heard laughter. As the body on the crane moved out of the view of the main doors, Chris spotted the woman in a purple dress than Wesker had been searching for.

"Alexia."

"That is how I dispose of insignificant bugs, said the spider to the fly. How do you wish to die?" Alexia said cryptically with a laugh as a large spider emerged from the icy water in the middle of the room, latching onto the hut housing the crane controls. Chris quickly dived out of the hut just as the spider crushed the controls. As the former cop got to his feet, the spider proceeded to climb onto the ceiling. He glanced over to his left momentarily, seeing that Alexia had left in the commotion, then prepared to find the giant B.O.W. He drew the python he'd found earlier and leveled the sights at the spider. He fired twice. The first round caught the creature in the middle of its body, while the second impacted with its head. The spider dropped off the ceiling and flailed about wildly on the ice as Chris fired the remainder of the cylinder into the spider's hide. After a few moments the spider seized up and appeared to have expired. Chris ejected the spent shells and inserted the rounds from the speed loader before pocketing both items. He kept his Glock handy as he slowly walked onto the ice and towards the object the creature on the crane hook had dropped, which looked to be a rather large piercing with a green gem on it. Upon further inspection. The gem seemed to be removable from the metal portion, and Chris noticed it resembled the jewel on the ring he took off the dead man. After placing the green jewel in the same pocket as the ring, he made his way back down the elevator and to the area the Hunter had attacked him previously. The area had a small pool with a vase on a pedestal and a small merry go round. Chris looked around and found two other dragonfly wing items. One next to the merry go round, and the other on the platform holding the vase. After doing a quick brass check, he walked through the wooden double doors, which took him into a replica of the main hall of the Spencer mansion. He decided to look around, making his way to the underside of the main staircase. As he turned left, he gasped. He saw both Claire and Dante, unconscious and restrained by a sickly green web-like substance. Chris quickly drew his bowie knife and made quick work of their bindings. He pulled the two off the wall and sat them down against the opposite side.

"It's okay you two." Chris uttered. Claire was the first to come to, Dante regaining consciousness moments later.

"Fuck, is it good to see you." The adolescent said, stretching his stiff joints.

"Chris. I've missed you so much." Claire said as she hugged her brother.

"I know, but we need to get out of here." Chris replied, returning the hug.

"Not yet, we have to find Steve." Claire said.

"Who's Steve." Chris asked.

"He's a boy who escaped from that island with us, but then a monster attacked us and we got separated."

"So that means that Steve is still somewhere in this base?"

"I'm sure of it." Claire said with conviction, rising to her feet.

"We gotta find him. It's the least we can do." Dante added. Claire suddenly felt woozy and stumbled. Chris managed to catch her and helped her against the wall.

"Claire? What's wrong?" Chris asked.

"I think….I think I've been poisoned."

"Just hold on, I'll be right back." Chris said.

"I'm heading with you." Dante said. Chris nodded and the two quickly left the room.

"Hunters? I thought I was done with those reptilian abominations after Raccoon." The boy mused.

"Dante, do you know how she got poisoned?" Chris asked.

"Must of happened when we fought this one bastard. He had this sickly pale green skin and a large hole in his chest cavity that shot out a mist that must have been poisonous." Dante explained. Chris brought the two of them past the large ant hive and into the room where Chris got the ring.

"I see Alfred's no longer a problem." Dante said as he and Chris began to look around. Moments later the two found a report written by Alexia Ashford.

"Queen Ant Report

After discovering the remains of an ancient virus within the genes of a queen ant, I have been concentrating on the research of ants. The ecosystem of the ants seems truly ideal to me. There is one queen ant in each anthill, and the soldier and worker ants are the queen's slaves. They dedicate their lives to the queen. The death of the queen ant means the doom of the entire anthill. However, the soldier and worker ants can be easily replaced as long as the queen ant is alive. This is exactly the same relationship between myself and other ignorant masses. I have succeeded in creating an ideal virus by implanting the queen ant's gene into the mother virus that Spencer found. I used my otherwise useless father as a test subject. However, as I expected, the virus caused a rapid change in his cells, triggering the complete destruction of his brain cells and body flesh. Furthermore, a special type of poison gas was generated inside his body, that the blue herb had no effect against. Because of this, I created an antidote in case of an emergency, and stored it inside of the weapon/chemical warehouse on the B2 floor. I have decided to name this virus with unimaginable potential, the 'T-Veronica' virus. When I find out how I can fully utilize the power of wonderful virus, my great research will finally be complete."

"That monster Claire and I fought must be the one she's talking about in the report. We just need to find this warehouse."

"I might have an idea. Follow me." Chris replied and the two quickly boarded the elevator, making their way to the aquarium room.

"Hopefully the vaccine is down here somewhere." Chris muttered as the two boarded the lift. After a few minutes of searching, Dante eventually found a couple medical bags that had 'Special Antidote' written on them.

"Chris, I think I found it." Dante said, just after dropping to his knees.

"Looks like you better take a dose yourself." Chris said, attaching an IV to him. After a couple minutes Dante managed to stand back up, feeling much better than before.

"That's the stuff, alright. We better get it back to Claire." Dante replied and the two made their way back towards the elevator, only to notice another sentry device on the roof.

"What is that?" Dante asked.

"Something Wesker brought to the island." Chris replied as the sentry's light shined onto the both of them before it released its special frequency.

"Dante, get ready." Chris ordered and retrieved the SPAS on his back, Dante following suit with his Remington. The door behind them burst open and two Hunters sprinted towards them. The two fired at the same time, stunning both of the reptilian B.O.W.s for a moment. Dante moved forward and brought the barrel to the right-most Hunter, quickly blasting a hole through its head. Chris fired another round at the other and kept his weapon trained on it for a few moments until he was sure it was dead.

"So you're aware of Wesker's, 'revival', I take it." Dante said, pausing momentarily to find the correct word.

"Yeah. He's apparently after some woman named Alexia."

"So she is alive then. Back at the prison that guy in the tube was occasionally masquerading as the woman. Whatever happened to her over the past 15 years must have caused him to develop a split personality disorder."

"Whatever the case, we need to get out of here as soon as possible." Chris replied.

"Got it." Dante nodded as the two hurried back to the main hall mock-up. Chris readied another IV and a few minutes later Claire came to again, looking much better than before.

"Feeling better?" Chris asked.

"Thanks to you. Just like a big brother, huh? Always looking out for your little sister." Claire responded.

"If you two are done with the sappy sibling stuff, we still need to find Steve and get the hell out of dodge." Dante interrupted, handing Claire her AK and handgun. The three suddenly heard laughter and looked up, seeing Alexia on the walkway above them.

"It's Alexia." Chris said.

"Alexia? There really is an Alexia?" Claire asked.

"It's her alright. Her brother's dead." Dante answered.

"It's almost time you genetically inferior beings!" Alexia said before making her way into a door nearby.

"After her! She might know where Steve is." Chris ordered. Claire and Dante nodded and the three made their way up the staircase. Before they could get too far, a large tentacle burst from the wall and crashed down on the staircase they were ascending before receding back into the wall. Claire had just managed to get to the top while Dante and Chris toppled down onto the floor. She turned to look down, seeing Chris holding his leg and Dante checking himself for injuries.

"Chris!" Claire called down. Just then they heard Steve loudly scream. "Nooooo!" "Just go, I'll be fine." Chris replied. "But Chris..." Claire started, but Chris interrupted. "You've got to save Steve, go!" He exclaimed. "I'll keep an eye on him, Claire." Dante added. Claire nodded and quickly made her way through the door, finding herself in a break room. She quickly rounded the corner, passed through a door and proceeded down a hallway, dodging a couple tentacles that smashed through the walls. The next area she entered looked to be a holding area, judging by the open cell door to her right. A zombie tried to attack her but was quickly met with a double tap to the head from Claire's assault rifle. She proceeded through a door to her right and noticed a heavy, iron gate connected to a card reader. She quickly walked back into the holding area and up a small staircase to where a replica cannon was resting and noticed a file nestled in the corner near another cell.

"Security File

The Ashford family's most important secret is kept at this lab.

As a safety precaution, I have installed a self-destruct in the control room and have placed the activation code inside the computer. Once inputted, all door locks will be released to provide easy access to escape routes.

By using the elevator that directly connects to the hanger, one should be able to escape from the lab easily.

Please remember that I have used the name of my beautiful ancestor for the activation code.

Glory to the Ashfords,

Alexander Ashford."

"I'll keep this in mind once we rescue Steve." Claire thought and noticed a handle on the cannon next to her. She turned it, which caused the cannon's barrel to tilt forward. Seconds later a crystalline orb emerged from the barrel, followed by a large slab to come crashing down right in front of her. She quickly ran past the trap and over to the orb, which seemed to have a key card inside. After spending a moment trying to open the orb with no success, the slab slammed down again, giving her an idea. She placed the orb in the middle of the area where it dropped and after a moment the slab came down for a third time, cracking the crystal open and allowing her to collect the key card inside. She quickly ran back to the room with the gate and used the card. Just as the gate rose, the door she used to enter the room locked behind her. Still determined to find Steve, she proceeded down a hallway lined with several pillars and suits of armor. At the end of the hallway she saw Steve, bound to a device against the wall as well as a gigantic axe just to the side of his head.

"Steve?" She said and walked over to where he was, pressing a button to the right to release the bindings.

"Ugh...Claire?" Steve said, dazed. Claire tried to get him up but the large axe's handle pinned him to the wall. Try as she might, Claire simply couldn't free the weapon from the wall to move him.

"No, I can't do it! Who did this to you?" Claire asked.

"That crazy woman told me she was going to perform the same experiment on me that she did on her own father. She's completely, insane" Steve answered. He then grasped his check, crying out in pain as he started to convulse.

"Whats wrong?" Claire asked in concern, trying to help him. Steve roughly pushed her away as he started to hyperventilate while still convulsing in agony.

"Claire...can't breathe...Claire...help me...Claire!" Steve managed to say as his voice distorted. Blood began to spurt from various spots and his body started to mutate. Claire could only look on, horrified, as the boy began to grow in size as parts of his body deformed, his skin becoming a similar shade as the monster that poisoned her earlier.

"Steve!" She cried out, unable to process what was unfolding before her. The monster, Steve, rose it's head, revealing that Steve's face was still recognizable, though the eyes had turned blood red.

"No wait!" Claire called out, hoping that Steve could still hear her. The mutated prisoner began to stand and grasped the axe pinning it to the wall, near effortlessly retrieving it from the wall to use as a weapon. Claire heard the gate behind her start to close and reluctantly began to run towards it, dodging several swings from the axe the mutant Steve was wielding which smashed through several of the pillars and suits of armor adorning the corridor. As Claire neared the gate it began to descend at a quicker rate, causing her to duck under the gate to pass it before it closed. She got to her feet and backed up, seeing the monster Steve had transformed into slamming into the gate with the axe it had grabbed. She then noticed that each swing was slowly starting to bow the gate's bars, and knew that it was only moments before the gate failed entirely. Before she could ponder what to do next, another tentacle burst through the wall behind her, sending her violently into the wall before coiling around her. Steve's mutated form suddenly burst through the gate, making its way towards the restrained Claire. It raised the axe and prepared to strike the killing blow. Claire looked away as Steve swung, before suddenly stopping just millimeters from her neck. Claire looked at the mutated Steve and noticed the monster struggling to swing.

"Cl...Claire!" Steve's distorted voice sounded, as the monster brought the axe down instead onto the tentacle restraining her. The remaining portion of the tentacle turned to Steve and suddenly slammed into Steve with tremendous force, partially stabbing into his chest and damaging his heard before disappearing into the hole it had created. Claire got to her feet and saw the mutations to Steve's body recede, leaving him entirely naked.

"Oh Steve." Claire said, hurt in her voice as she slowly dropped to her knees in front of him. She grabbed his hand and he looked up slightly, bringing her hand to his face.

"Your warm." He said weakly.

"Steve, you've got to hang in there, okay? My brother's come to save us. We're getting out of here." Claire said, trying to fight back the tears welling up.

"Your... brother kept his promise, I'm sorry I can't not." "What? What are you saying?" "I'm glad that I met you, I..I love you..Clai….re." Steve managed to speak before slumping down, unmoving and not breathing.

"Steve? Steve? Steve?!" Claire said, starting to cry as she lightly shook Steve, trying to no avail to get him to awaken.

Aaaaand cut. *sniff* First of all, who put this bowl of onions here? Second, that scene in the game was definitely a bit of a tear-jerker. It does go to show that despite some of his annoying tendencies, Steve really was a person that Claire really cared about to elicit that sort of response out of her, considering the very short time they'd known each other. RIP Steve Burnside. With that, stay tuned for Chapter 22: Confrontations.