Story: Zirconia
Note: This chapter follows loosely events in Resident Evil Code Veronica after the events of 1,2, and 3 (with some shifts to canon that don't alter the world events for the most part overall). A certain understanding of those games is expected as I largely summarize things that happen within them and don't discuss many events at all since in this fic Claire wasn't present for the events. Next chapter will have less summary of game events and more Claire/Wesker together again.
Chapter Ten: Jarring
"The beauty of the unexpected lies within the surprise of the momentum, not only at its tipping point, but also within all the moments waiting."
― Akilnathan Logeswaran.
Claire - Six Months Later -
My mind paused, losing the ability to react as my eyebrows vanished into my bangs. It couldn't be. I backed up against the door I'd just come out of, not certain I'd be able to keep my feet otherwise. The heavy perfume of flora in the air of the courtyard was uncomfortably humid, my chest felt heavy from more than the damp air though. My heart skipped a beat, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The rest of my surroundings were forgotten when my eyes landed on the dark clad form walking toward me.
"Wesker?" I breathed the name, disbelief blending into relief as I watched him saunter toward me on the white stone path. "You? You're alive?"
"In a manner of speaking." Wesker drawled, not pausing in his approach. I didn't know how to react, or what to say. He was supposed to have died after betraying the Umbrella members at the mansion. Why was he here? How was he here? "I didn't expect to see you, dear heart."
"I...what? I was told you were dead." I stammered, failing to back up even more when he got closer, pressing my back into the door instead. This was too much. It was all a lot...I'd dreamed about him a few times in the past several months. I'd missed him more than I'd cared to admit. His death had really shaken me...all the dark stories around it... "You…you're here."
"I"m alive and well." He assured me with all the confidence I remembered being enamoured by. It was like watching a ghost. A ghost that had destroyed my hometown and nearly killed my brother. "You seem frightened, Claire."
"I am, a little." I admitted as he paused a few feet away, relieved that he paused at a decent distance for a conversation. It could have been casual if not for the circumstances. His miraculous reappearance far from Raccoon City. I'd been kidnapped and brought to an Umbrella facility. A prison covered in the infected. "It's not safe here, why are you here?"
"I think I explained once before that I commonly travel for business." Wesker stated, the small smirk on his face more ominous than I remembered. He remained standing comfortably nearby, not the slightest bit ill-at-ease despite the distant noises of 'other' creatures in this place. "Yourself?"
"I was looking for Chris in Paris, then Umbrella grabbed me. They trapped me here...I've been trying to escape." I answered honestly, despite the alarm bells still going off in my head. I'd missed the man standing a few feet away, imagined what I might say or the conversations we might have if we met again. I wanted to ask so many things, too many to decide on any one before my busy mind settled on the answer to a mystery I'd never figured out. "You, you took me out of Raccoon City that night."
"I did." He nodded at my comment, impossible to read behind his choice of eyewear. "I didn't want you to fall victim to the virus. I didn't expect you to go chasing after it. Not wise, but I must say I don't mind the meeting, Miss Redfield."
"You saved me…" I breathed, still a little taken aback. I'd never figured out how I'd gotten back to my dorm room last summer. My bike had been missing and I'd lost half a day. I'd thought Chris must have arranged for someone to take me home, but we'd gotten to speak so little since then that I never had a chance to confirm it. I'd believed it when I'd been told he'd died at the manor after betraying the S.T.A.R.S. team, I'd been horrified. Shocked, far more hurt than I should have been considering how little time we'd known each other. I'd thought myself a horrible judge of character, but he'd saved me?
"You...you said business, do you still work for Umbrella?" I asked, noting the slight tick of his lips downward at the query.
"I have been sent here to retrieve something of importance to my current employer, not Umbrella. Generally I keep to mission, though I have to say you are quite the fetching distraction." He took the two steps to close the distance between us, I froze slightly at his motion. I could see my own reflection in his signature sunglasses. "You clearly don't feel the same."
The sharp sound of my slap echoed around us in the stony overhang. "I thought you were dead! How could you! You betrayed everyone! You...I..."
I wanted to slap him again but he caught my hand this time as I lost track of what to even say. He pressed me into the wall when I began to struggle against his grasp, he didn't budge. I stared in shock when he leaned in and kissed me. It wasn't hard, or forceful...it was a light brush, just enough for my body to shudder in memory of our nights together, of my dreams of our nights together...shattering what was left of my tantrum.
"I did what I had to, to survive." He said after leaning away just enough to view my face, his eyes seemed to gleam behind the dark lenses. "Did you miss me? Mourn me? Even after your brother labeled me the traitor? Does it burn you to know I'm the one that kept you safe?"
I was half tempted to headbutt him, but my hand still hurt where I'd slapped him. "I didn't want to believe them. You did it though, didn't you? You're why Raccoon City is in ashes."
"I risked much even taking you from the city, had you remembered…" He paused as a small buzz came from near his ear. An intercom to someone else, so he wasn't working alone. Who was he working for now? Not Umbrella he said, then who else? "What? What is it?"
He released me to turn away, listening to the device. I didn't know what to do. Was I supposed to just accept this? Was he really just a traitor? But he'd seemed so normal when we were alone. He'd helped me get out of that nightmare. I might have died if he hadn't interfered. There had to be more to the story, didn't there? He had to have some reason that he did all this, that he betrayed so many people...that he'd let his actions take so many lives...
"Stay there. I'm coming." He stated to his mysterious ally before turning back to me. "You'll be alright on your own. Seems you've made it this far. Here."
He pulled one of his guns out to hold it toward me. I blinked at it, confused at this sort of behavior. He was a bad guy, right? He'd betrayed everyone...but he'd saved me...he was offering me a fully loaded weapon in a place where both guns and bullets came at a premium.
"What? No. I'm not letting you go alone." I frowned at him when he lifted my hands to press the weapon into them after I ignored the offer. Wishing I didn't feel the warmth in my face when he leaned down to kiss my hands before letting them go. I immediately turned the gun on him when he turned away, but I was shaking slightly. I didn't want to hurt him. "Wait, I'll shoot you."
"As much as I'd love to play, Claire. I did say I was on the job." He smiled at me, then leapt away much faster and higher than anyone should have been able to. My whole body took after my hands, shuttering as I stared after his disappearance, lowering the gun he'd given me back to my hips. If not for the wall I would have fallen to my knees. I felt weak, this was the last thing I'd expected, and I'd just been through a madman with multiple personality disorder and several rounds of zombies.
This had been my first personal encounter with people or creatures infected with the biological weapons Umbrella manufactured. After I'd gotten a message from Chris to avoid home, I'd done so. I'd finished my first semester of school before the bombs wiped Raccoon City completely off the map. Then I'd guilted Leon to tell me about what had really happened, a lot of horror stories were in the news just before and after the military destroyed the city. I'd taken a sabbatical from classes to search for my brother. I didn't realize how under prepared I was, or that Umbrella would take my infiltration of their facility as a reason to imprison me.
Had Wesker really been the cause of it all? Even if he'd betrayed S.T.A.R.S. he couldn't have done all of it on his own. There had to be more to the story...why save me if he didn't care at all? It wasn't some heartless 'hit it and quit it' relationship if you put yourself at risk to rescue the person. Why couldn't I remember that night? I needed answers and the only one that could offer me any had just supermaned off into the night.
Wesker - Later -
The whirling blades of the coptier dropping me off up covered up the disembodied moans I knew were ahead of me. I hadn't expected to find Claire at the prison, or her brother for that matter. I was frustrated that she'd left with some other prisoner, let herself get kidnapped a second time. I should have taken her with me...but she would have slowed me down. Thankfully, I was already planning to go to the facility in Ashford diverted the plane to. I would find her inside, two birds with one stone given I also needed the sample of the Veronica virus. Our paths were apparently destined to cross.
The less desirable factor was I didn't know what could happen with the Redfield's present. As much as I wanted to kill Chris, his presence was almost tempting enough to give up my current mission completely. Yet, I knew that would probably reflect poorly on me in Claire's eyes. Then, her brother wasn't going to be keen on us picking up where we left off, and if I couldn't have her either way then vengeance was a nice consolation prize. I jumped the last few feet to the ground and rolled to a stand so the coptier didn't need to fully land. Just as well with an outbreak around. I'd let them know when I needed extraction.
My former time with Umbrella always made infiltrating their facilities a bit easier. I headed toward a security room where I could get a breakdown of what would be happening here. I shot a few infected along the way, or possibly just people, I didn't pause to ask questions or see if they would lunge. I had work to do after all. It didn't take long. This was a smaller stop on the way to the larger surveillance area, but it allowed me the chance to drop a monster on Chris. It would serve to slow him until I could catch up. He was frustratingly good at surviving them, so I figured I'd still get the kill in myself. It took a bit more looping around and avoiding other infected to reach the actual spot where the Redfield was, but eventually I found him. In the same secondary surveillance room I needed to look over. Convenient.
He pulled a gun on me when he saw me, but it was too late. I threw him across the room before he would be able to tell I'd moved. I cracked my neck as I stalked after him, ignoring the tubes and screens on either side of us. Knocking the weapon from his hand to lift him off the ground, pressing him into the wall. His flesh would bend or break at my will. After what he'd caused...after how he continued to be a thorn in my side...I would finish him here. He gasped for air and struck at me, though that only served to knock away my eyewear and reveal my eyes. I laughed at the widened fear on his face, the recognition that I wasn't the man he had seen die that night in the mansion half a year ago. I was so much better.
My laugh was echoed by a female voice I recognized. I glanced to a side screen where a blond woman stared out a moment before the video feed died. Alexia had been pulled out of stasis? I tossed Chris to the side. I didn't have time to enjoy killing him now. I had other things I needed to do. If Alexia was awake then she was much more dangerous. I couldn't play with the Redfield's right now. I needed to find and secure the target.
Claire - Shortly After Wesker Leaves Chris to deal with Alexia -
Relief flooded through me when I'd found Chris, or more accurately, when he found me after Alexia had captured me again. I hated to think what she did to Steve. He deserved better than to suffer at her hands. I had been told by Chris to leave just a few minutes ago, but I couldn't...not when I knew Wesker was here too. What was I supposed to do? Run away without answers? I'd had six months of no answers from anyone. I wasn't willing to suffer through more of 'not knowing'. I managed to avoid most of the infected as I rushed back inside the building and toward the front steps. That's where Chris had said he was going, so I presumed the former S.T.A.R.S. Captain would be there as well.
I didn't expect Wesker to suddenly come around a corner with several infected on his tail. Or for him to lift me from the ground without missing a beat, his body hitting mine with enough force from his speed to knock the wind out of my lungs. I felt a hand cradle the back of my neck as he dashed away from my target area carrying me like a sack of potatoes. He got us all the way to an outside area before pausing, setting me on my feet and leaning on the wall to catch his own breath after the dash. He lacked his glasses, and the eyes that had been golden in color before had a rim of red around them...what had happened to him?
"Wesker...how are you alive?" I breathed, still orienting myself after the unexpected relocation through most of the facility. "How did you…? What happened to you?"
"Well spoken as usual, I see," He teased, smirking at me. "I'm not sure we even have time for a summary. Your brother will catch up to us soon, I expect. I can't stay here, I have a job that needs finishing."
"But...you haven't told me anything!" I set my hands on my hips, annoyed at his attitude. Shaking my head and stepping in his way. "Everyone said...no. It doesn't matter what they said. I thought you died! I thought we...well I guess I was stupid...but yes I mourned for you! I think a part of me always would have. How dare you think otherwise! I cried over you, you idiot. I think I've earned some answers!."
I'd managed to surprise him, without his glasses even the slight raise of his brows made it clear he hadn't expected me to say these things. Perhaps he'd convinced himself I'd hate him, I wasn't sure I'd really forgive him even if I knew the whole story, but I wanted to hear it all the same. I wanted to at least give him a chance since he'd safeguarded me so often. Even just now I was disoriented, but he'd taken me away from the dangers of the infected inside.
"We don't always get what we deserve Claire, sometimes it slips through our fingers just when we think we've won." He stated, stroking my hair then letting it go. "I'd love to explain it all, someday. But I still have a mission, and you need to leave with your brother before the facility self-destructs."
His face grew dark when he mentioned Chris, what was it about my brother that still set him ill-at-ease? I scowled at the excuses. "I can't leave either, I have someone here I need to take back with me, he doesn't deserve to be here...and I need to talk to you. I can't just keep on not knowing about what happened back then. I know we didn't really see each other long but I cared about you, I care about you. I want to hear your side of things."
"Yes, Mr. Burnside. Our interests there don't coincide. He is who you mean to rescue yes? I will be taking him or whatever is left of him. It isn't as though his family would want it." Wesker stated, pushing off the wall as gunfire echoed down the hallway. "I believe our time is up, dear heart."
"Wesker!" I reached out and grabbed his arm, not wanting him to jump off like he had last time. It earned me another perked brow, though this one was less surprised than my last outburst. "We need to talk. I can't just let you run off again without knowing we'll get to talk about everything. Please..."
He hesitated, eyes staring back at me as though torn on what action to take.
"Your brother Claire, will kill me. If you aren't stalling me for his sake, you'd need to leave with me after I collect the sample. Do you really trust me to that degree?" He finally asked, setting a hand on my wrist, pulling my grip away more gently than he could have. "If you don't like the answers are you going to kill me yourself or wait for Chris to catch up to us?"
"Chris isn't like that. I can explain to him." I protested, swallowing when he set a finger against my lips. The close contact made this painfully real.
"You know that isn't true. You aren't talking sense into him after what happened, Claire." He said, brushing his finger along the rest of my lips, as though he didn't want to let go either. Had he missed me then? Or was this a game? "This isn't mindless anger over a date. It's a little deeper. I…"
He hesitated again. Pausing and not looking at me, his eyes were staring into space as if he was calculating several large numbers all at once. "I can try to contact you in the future, though it'll be complicated to set up such a meeting. If you promise not to bring your brother."
"I wouldn't...I told you I want to hear it from you." I insisted. "When?"
"Soon, the next few months if I can manage it." He returned, his voice having grown lighter. He leaned down to press his lips into mine again and I hated that I met him halfway. I didn't even really know who he was, I had never known, but I wanted to. I shivered when he disappeared, moving too quickly for me to follow. I wasn't sure where he'd gone, only that I was acutely aware of his absence. I'd thought him dead...but now. What was this? He was a criminal, he had worked for Umbrella and aided in the destruction of my hometown. At least, that's what I'd been told...would he argue that story? Would he admit it? Would he actually explain anything?
"Claire, we need to get out of here." Chris' voice drew me out of my busy mind and I nodded to him solemnly. Whatever might come in the future with Wesker, I had to survive tonight before I could figure it out.
End Chapter
It took me a while to decide on how I would alter events in CV (Code Veronica). I used only vague references not just for the sake of summarizing for people that know the game, but also cause I like avoiding spoilers for those that don't and have an interest in playing for themselves.
-Aura
To my reviewers:
Evolution-500 - Thank you. Hope you continue to enjoy my fic.
Crystalyna - 3
