AN: It's the king and you know it, so for the love of God review, or Claudia will cry, and Shak will blow something up.

S&C

Claudia fidgeted nervously with the hem of her skirt. Jonathon should have been back by now. She supposed he must have had a lot of work to do. She did not suppose that at that very moment he was locked in his bathroom with a copy of Playboy having a performance wank just in case. Which would have been an infinitely more accurate assumption.

Taking a deep breath, she decided to take the initiative and go look for him, conveniently ignoring the fact that her sense of direction was on par with her eyesight. The corridor was empty, and she breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a Wesker-free area. She was developing a real fear of him, and was not sure how she would hold up when he demanded the virus formula from her. But with Daniel dead, she couldn't, she just couldn't. Which was easy to say when Wesker wasn't towering above her.

With a sigh, she stepped out and began walking in the opposite direction from the way in which she had arrived, reasoning that this would lead her into the heart of the Necropolis.

After walking in silence for a good five minutes, a terrified scream rent the air. Whirling about with a start, a diminutive figure could be seen hurtling towards her. She did not possess the reflexes to get out of the way in time, and found herself on the floor with a crash.

Claudia and the mystery assailant, who was, incidentally, a fourteen year old girl in school uniform with bad hair, both scrambled to their feet simultaneously. The schoolgirl grabbed her urgently by the shoulders, trembling.

"C...c...cerebral toxin!" she blurted out.

"You're a cretin," Claudia replied.

The schoolgirl ran off.

As Claudia stood for a moment to contemplate this rather strange event, a scraping sound began to resonate through the corridor. A strapping figure in a bloodstained lab coat came into view, wearing a devil mask and carrying an enormous knife. He stopped in front of the bewildered scientist and looked at her for a moment.

"EVERYONE MUST DIE AND SUFFER FOREVER!" he informed her.

"And apparently so are you..." she muttered to herself. His name badge read G. Maxwell. She made a mental note to report him to Lancaster. Men covered in blood wearing halloween masks did not ensure a good working environment.

Shak's right. Where does Umbrella find these people?

As the blood stained apparition shuffled off in not terribly hot pursuit of the schoolgirl, Claudia cocked her head to one side and wondered if she was going insane.

Continuing through the labyrinth that was Achma, it soon became apparent that she was painfully lost. Stopping to look at a smear of blood on the wall, she could have sworn that she'd passed this part before. Was she going round in circles?

Across from her was a door that read "Security". She reasoned that at very least there would be a telephone connection, although calling Jonathon and having him come rescue her would be embarrassing at best. Still, the security office was bound to have a map.

The door was electronically locked, but this was no real problem for her, as she knelt beside the door and over-rode the system, barely even thinking about it. The action was becoming second nature and it did not occur to her that if the door was locked, it was probably because she wasn't supposed to be there.

The room was enveloped in darkness, and she flicked on the light, to be greeted with the corpse of a security guard. It looked like suicide. She jumped back a little, but she had been on tour with Shak that day, so dead bodies were not something which shocked her any more.

Pushing the man's remains off the seat, she booted up the computer as he slid to the ground. It was password protected, but again, hacking in was something she hardly even realised she was doing.

Ok, map...

She began to root through various folders in search of a plan of the base. The contents of the computer were in disorder, and she was about to run a search, when something caught her eye.

A record of surveillance videos, dating back to Orpheus, the base her and Daniel had been stationed at before she was sent away. Through morbid curiosity, she opened the folder, not really sure what she was looking for.

I wonder what happened after I left...?

Even though she knew it was standard to keep all files from the past decade, there was still something unnerving about seeing mementos of her early life sitting there on the screen. She would not have time to watch them all, as much as she desperately wanted to see Daniel again, albeit posthumously, so she selected the most pressing date for her. The day after she left.

As the file loaded, she looked over her shoulder guiltily, as the screen faded.

Daniel was sitting at his desk, head in hands. He was unshaven, his eyes were red, and he looked thoroughly miserable. Claudia's heart gave a little lurch. He began to half heartedly leaf through some paperwork. She noticed that it had only taken a day of her not being there for his desk to end up in utter disarray. She began to skip the video forward, until something caught her eye and she wound it back to watch Wesker entering. He looked the same five years ago as he did today.

On anyone else it would look as though he was just striding purposefully, but Claudia knew enough to realise that it was as close as her boss came to storming. Placing two mammoth hands on Daniel's desk, he pushed the wood down to the point where the legs began to splinter. She covered her mouth with her hands as Daniel looked up with his own brand of rage. The two men stared at each other in silence for a moment, then the sound of dialogue began to crackle out.

"You turned off her life support." Wesker spoke first.

"You can't use Umbrella for personal vendettas!" Daniel blurted out, clearly shaken but standing his ground. "This is not part of our job!" he stood up, "This is cruel..."

"You turned off her life support," he repeated deliberately, "You attempted to murder my lover."

"It's not murder to put a dying creature out of its misery. You slit her throat!"

"That action bears no consequence on this conversation," he replied simply. "She's out of bounds..."

"Wesker...what's happened to you!" he cut short, "And where is my daughter? I want to know where Claudia is!"

Wesker did not reply.

"What have you done with her!" his voice was hoarse, "If she's dead, Wesker..." he gritted his teeth.

"She's alive, although I cannot vouch for well. As is my Shakahnna."

Daniel stepped forward, looking up at Wesker with his fists clenched at his sides. His whole frame was shaking as the BOW stood there impassively.

"Where is she!" he yelled. Claudia was taken aback. She had never seen Daniel raise his voice in all the time she had known him.

"You would have such a tantrum over someone who is not even your own blood? Unfortunately for you, it was not Jonathon who caused all this trouble."

"How can you behave so irresponsibly?"

"You have no jurisdiction to speak with me on responsibility. Your charge has caused me much aggravation."

"She's just a child!" Daniel exclaimed tersely..

"You should have had her on a tighter leash," Wesker replied, "I assure you, Daniel, you will pay for her sins as well."

"What have you done with her?" he persisted, his responses indicating that he either did not notice, or not care about the blatant threat.

"She's been enrolled in the espionage division."

Daniel took a few steps back, a look of utter horror on his face. "Wesker," he said quietly, "That's a death sentence."

"No," Wesker made to leave, "If she comes back here, that will be a death sentence."

As Daniel sank back down in his chair, Claudia reached out with shaking hands and shut down the file. She wasn't sure if she would rather have watched that or not. As tears began to pour down her cheeks, she realise the latter was true.

Putting her head in her hands, she began to sob. Everything was in such a mess, Daniel was gone, and there was no way she could trust Wesker. She didn't know what games he was playing, but she knew he wasn't playing by the rules, and now more than ever she realised how alone she was. Wesker's presence had been somewhat comforting, a reminder of Orpheus, but he had made her adoptive father angry, and no matter how justified Wesker thought he had been, Daniel never acted unfairly. She had always assumed that ending up in OCRC was her own fault, but seeing Daniel's reaction made her realise that he was right. She had been just a child.

She knew she had to do something, and she made a promise to herself to investigate the events of the last five years. No matter how poor the staff were, she just couldn't believe that Daniel's death would have been caused through incompetence. But dared to outright kill him? He and Wesker had always seemed to work so well together. Maybe it had something to do with what she'd just watched. Was that why Jonathon had said that he'd blamed her at first? It never occurred to her to make the connection between Wesker's comment about the junior Lancaster on the video, and the fact that Daniel had kept his son a secret.

All she did know was that she hoped that she wouldn't put Jonathon in danger as well. The last thing she wanted was for history to repeat itself.

-

Shak and Herrison had been following tyre tracks for a few hours now, making their way in the direction of the base on foot.

"My feet are tired. You should carry me," Shak announced.

Herrison looked at her and groaned. "Not a fucking chance," he said shaking his head.

She punched him on the arm playfully, "You pussy."

He winced and continued walking.

"I'm hungry," were the next words out of the redhead's mouth, a statement prompted as she glanced at a corpse.

"Me too!" Herrison's face took on a dopy look, "Let's go to McDo..." he cut himself short and shook his head. "No. I like steak. I do not like fried burgers."

He made a face a walked on.

"I'll eat just about anything if it's fried," Shak postulated, "Hey, do you think there's any of that Hunter left?"

"That's disgusting," Hunk replied vacantly, frowning to suppress the look of ignorant bliss he had spent five years cultivating while undercover.

They walked in silence for a few minutes.

"So Hunk..."

Herrison winced at whatever was coming next. "Yes...?"

"Do you want down Claudia's pants?"

He stopped short and made a slight choking noise. "Don't be ridiculous," he snapped, "My job is to protect her. That's all."

"Protect her underwear from other men...?" Shak was annoying.

"You know people don't like it when you call their bluff," he retorted, not yet aware that Captain Taylor had no shame.

"Why would they need to bluff?" she asked innocently.

"Can we change the subject?" he asked tersely.

"From how you want down Claudia's pants to what?"

"I don't want 'down her pants'!" he cried.

"It's ok. When you two have kids I can be the Godmother and bring it up properly. It can be a STAR."

Hunk choked again imagining Claudia's reaction.

"So would it call you Hunk or Herrison?"

"I would imagine it would call me Dad..." he stopped himself short and rounded on her angrily, "Claudia and I are not going to have children together! She thinks I'm Down's!"

She put a hand on his arm, the picture of tact, "Do you have problems in "that area"? You could always get that Lancaster guy to donate some sperm, if I wasn't going to castrate him..."

"Not if I get there first!" he snarled, clenching his fists.

"I don't think you should wank off Lancaster," her face softened, "It's ok, you don't have any need to be jealous. He's Umbrella scum, Claudia wouldn't go anywhere near him."

Herrison would have decked her if it wouldn't have blown his cover. He was as devoutly loyal to Umbrella as his charge was.

"He's very manipulative," he finally said with a tense sigh.

"She's not as clever as me," Shakahnna announced, "But she's not stupid."

"You're not clever!"

"I figured you out, didn't I?"

"Only because there was no unspoken bond that you stupid people have together!"

She put her arm around him, and he stiffened, taking the gesture to be a portent of impending doom, "You know, I think that you two would make a very good couple." She grinned, "I'll fix you up, leave it to me."

Hunk shrugged her off angrily, "For the love of God, stop talking."

She looked at him inquisitively, "Is she your sister or something? This is uncanny. Are you sure you don't work for Umbrella, if you're into incest?"

Hee hee...incest.

"She's not my fucking sister!" he exploded.

"What?" she said obtusely, "You want to fuck your sister?"

"I can't believe none of your colleagues have ever tried to shoot you!"

"They have."

Herrison, in spite of things, was mildly surprised. "And that didn't faze you?"

She jumped up, making a tall gesture with her hand. "It's about this high and once that's fazed you, in comparison everything else is a piece of piss. Speaking of which, it currently has my charge..."

"She's not your charge," he said huffily, "She's my charge."

"Who saved her from Wesker?" she said immaturely, "NOT YOU, WHERE WERE YOU HERRISON? OFF CHASING ANGELA'S SKIRT!"

He opened his mouth for an angrily reply but she cut him short.

"RANK!" she held up her hand with a stop gesture.

"You're rank."

"Yes," the redhead was not insulted. "But I'm also in charge." She leaned in and raised her eyebrows twice in quick succession, "I'll fight you for it."

"I'm not going to fight you," he sneered. Hunk, cream of Umbrella's espionage division, from a long line of trained soldiers, was not going to roughhouse with a STARS captain, however irritating she was.

"YOU'RE GAY!" she screamed, pointing at him. "If you won't fight with me, you must be a poof or a hippie! But it does mean that you concede that I'm in charge."

"I most certainly do not, you little savage..." he trailed off, looking down to find that her cat claws had miraculously appeared at his crotch.

"Are you sure...?" she asked with an angelic air that was throughly perverse.

"No."

"Good good!" she jumped up and patted his head. Hunk wished he was dead.

"As much as I'd like to stand and argue with you, we should look lively," he nodded towards the oncoming hills. Carriers were shuffling towards them, their low moans breaking the eerie silence of the dead town.

Shakahnna broke into a grin and readied her claws.