Story: Zirconia

Chapter Sixteen: Poison

"All things are poisons, for there is nothing without poisonous qualities. It is only the dose which makes a thing poison."

― Paracelsus

Wesker -

I should have left them both. I should have left her in the past completely instead of circling back to listen from outside her window. Chris wouldn't figure it out, he was far too dense. Yet, I wanted to know what he was doing here. My last intelligence on Chris had put him in Europe but not this area of the continent. I smirked slightly at his words as I listened in.

"Claire, what did he mean by 'did we set this up?" Chris demanded, he wasn't a total moron after all. Silence fell over the room, Claire likely struggling to come up with some sort of answer. She'd never been great at reacting to his temper, always giving in more than she should. That's what I'd been around for in the first place, no surprise my absence had inspired the bad habit to return. "Claire? What did he mean?"

"I've seen Wesker before this." She hissed after the pause. "Since the events at the mansion I mean. We met a few times, but I thought that was done. We hadn't seen each other for years, until today."

Not totally the truth, but fairly close...

"What!?" His voice was raised. "You've been fucking Albert Wesker?"

Yes, stunning well I might add…

"Language." The irony of hearing Claire complain about profanity was worth my eavesdropping. "I really...I get it was a mistake, Chris. I don't need you to chew me out."

Less enjoyable to hear…

"Why!?" The betrayal infused in Chris' voice was lovely. He continued to complain and list all the things he'd blamed me for, even ones I wasn't responsible for.

"Chris, Chris!" She interrupted his ranting. "I realize Wesker isn't a good person...and again, I just told you: mistake."

Was it…

"But, I saw him during the issues in Russia. I wanted to see him, to have him explain his side. I missed him Chris, you may not like or understand it, but I did." Her voice was lesser than before, near breaking. Had I really meant that much to her? Would she have really stayed with me?

"Do you really care about that monster?" Chris was still yelling at her. I was tempted to choke him out again, but I couldn't know if he may have called in back up while I was getting to the window. "You knew where he was, we could have gotten him for years now and you just let it go? You didn't mention to me once after he...after all the things...how could you?"

She really had kept our interludes a secret. I wondered at times, but this was clear cut. Chris was outright shocked by this revelation, so she'd never told him about us. If she every would have told anyone, it would have been her dolt sibling.

"I never really had a shot at that. When we met, it was rare it was always last minute, secretive. I have to be checked for bugs…" She paused after a slam shook the wall nearby.

Really Chris? Must you be such a neanderthal?

"You! I can't fucking believe you, Claire." He snapped at her. "Is that why you wanted to be here? To do this little display for Terra Save? So you could screw him again? Did it go sideways, is that why he looked so aggressive, or is that just how you like it?"

I flexed my own fingers lightly, realizing I'd gripped them into fists as he yelled at her. If she hadn't defended herself I'm not sure I would have remained as just an observer.

"What the hell!?" I could picture her getting back into his face. "No. You don't get to do that."

At least I'm not the only one that hears that line…

"I already said I knew it was a mistake, but I'm not doing this 'lets shame Claire for every possible relationship' choice. If it were up to you I would have died an old nun with dust in my cunt." She snapped harshly. If she hadn't continued to call our relationship a problem I would have found her echoing my words from my human days more amusing.

"Better than the disease that's been in it." Her brother returned like the fool he was. "Tens of thousands of people are dead because of him, being a nun would be better than his...what the hell were you anyway? A girlfriend? A side piece? Is this why you couldn't make it work with Leon or..."

The slap that echoed in the room brought a smile to my face.

Good for you, dear heart.

"Get out, I don't want to talk to you." She demanded. "I have grown up things to do tonight, I can't play your dramatic games."

"Mine? You were sleeping with Albert fucking Wesker and never thought to mention it!" They were both yelling at the other now. "You are unbelievable Claire. I know I haven't been around much, but I've been trying to help the world. Do I need to treat you like you're thirteen?"

Does he realize he's in danger?

"So have I? Do you think my work is pointless?" Her tone was cold as ice. "That trying to set up relief for the victims of bio-terror is nothing if I'm not the one personally saving them?"

"It is if you just leave the people causing the bio-terror to wander around and climb between your legs! What the hell happened to you that you would do this?" Chris sounded more deflated now, as though our relationship had broken part of him. I didn't mind that part of the conversation at all.

"Stop it. I won't keep repeating myself." She returned, still cold.

"I'm just trying to understand." Chris stated, not yelling now. "Claire, did he do something? Force you?"

"He didn't." At least she admitted how willing she was. "He never forced me to do anything Chris, he wouldn't."

Wouldn't? So, there may still be something there after all…

"Wouldn't?" It was a little insulting he echoed the same word I did. "You still like him! I don't believe this. We need to get out of here."

"No Chris, you can't just take me away when you're worried. I have things here to do, for Terra Save. If we're ever gonna get it off the ground then we need funding. If I vanish just before important presentations, that will never happen."

"You wanna stay here? What if he comes back?" I heard them moving around but didn't want to risk peeking. My hand was still near my weapon in case his temper went too far. "You can't be serious."

"I am. I'm not going to just run away. I have things to do here. Besides, you're the one he nearly choked the life out of. You should be more worried about getting out of here than me." She had gotten short again.

Truer words have rarely been spoken. Need to learn to listen to your sister, Chris. You're lucky you aren't dead already…

"Claire…" Still defeated, I did love that quality in his voice. "I swear to god if you don't come with me, I will knock you out and take you."

"Fuck you, Chris!" She snapped again. "You barely ever bother calling or writing or speaking to me at all. Why are you even here? You didn't tell me you were coming."

"I heard you were here from Leon, then thought I'd meet you as a surprise." His voice had altered back to annoyed. "I didn't expect to be the one so shocked."

"Yeah, of course. You talk to Leon more than me. Just butt out Chris, go back to saving the world. Your sister is a lost cause." She was immersed in rage at this point. I couldn't blame her, Chris had that effect on people.

"I'm not gonna just leave without you." Chris stated. I could picture him setting his jaw with the remark, probably crossing his arms.

"You are. I'm gonna go give my presentation soon, and pretend like you didn't treat me like a piece of shit for last five minutes." I heard a door open. "Go on. I need to change."

"I'm not leaving you. I'll stay with you through your meeting, and then we'll return somewhere safe and out of the psycho's hands." The door closed. "Get ready, cause when you're done, we're going. I had somewhere else to be, but this way more important."

That won't go over well.

"You wanna know why I stayed with him for years meeting in secret?" She said with a sinister edge I had to admit I enjoyed. "I liked it. He was good in bed, Chris. You wanna hear details? That the way he licked and touched me made me feel alive. That we'd spend hours pleasuring each other? I probably would have fucked him again tonight if you hadn't interrupted…"

You are delightful, dear heart.

"Fine, be a bitch." Chris snapped, almost stuttering and likely a little broken after that set of comments. "I'll wait outside then, but I'm not just gonna leave you here alone. Even if I think you're completely crazy and making life ending choices, I'm still your family. Pissed or not, I'm gonna get you somewhere safe."

The door slammed hard enough to shake the area and then she let out a huff. I heard several slams and peeked just enough around the corner to see her repeatedly kicking the frame of the bed. The Redfield family needed anger management in general. I left them to it, confident that if Chris hadn't called someone then he would be outside her room doing it now. I could work with what had happened here...

Claire -

Chris was in a Mood, capital M. I was lucky he didn't try to drug and drag me off. Then he couldn't say he was unlike Wesker if he did. Not that I could point that out without digging a bigger grave than I already had. I should have lied and said I thought I could 'femme fatale' Wesker, at least then Chris would just think I wanted more action of the combat vareity instead of the bedtime one.

Why did Wesker have to show up and wrecking ball my day anyway? I definitely didn't miss him right now, he was still just curling through like the goddamn tasmanian devil spreading chaos and shit everywhere he went. It was really hard to focus on my presentation, and I got through it largely because I'd practiced so much, but questions had been a small disaster. Now that I was fretting over every aspect of my day it was really hard to discuss minute details of where funding would go. I was hoping my private life being on the brink of collapse wouldn't totally ruin my ability to deal with possible donors, but I was pretty sure it had.

The people had left with few concrete promises. We'd had a couple people make small donations, but nowhere near enough to get us off the ground the way we wanted it. I knew that it wasn't totally my distraction, that it was hard enough in the current economy to get funding promises, but I still felt somewhat responsible for what happened. I hated that I hadn't given my best. I hated more that I'd had to send Chris off with bad blood between us. He wanted to take me away and I had refused. Once we said our goodbyes I'd retreated to the hotel lounge at the end of the bar to lick my wounds by soaking them in alcohol.

I watched the ice and brandy circle the outside of the glass as I tilted it slowly around the rim just to be doing something. I hated today. I wanted to go back and start over, not go out this morning. Though Wesker probably would have sought me out in my room if I hadn't gone to eat. I was probably doomed to be caught by Chris either way then just by how timing had worked out.

"Why the hell would you need to stay Claire? You just had the meeting?" He'd glared at me in a way where it was easy to read between the lines.

He hadn't said it aloud but he might as well have told me he expected me to try to fuck Wesker. I had a flight in the morning, the small team and I would be trying to build funding in London next. That meeting was a few days out. I expected better luck there given the public fear about bio-terror events that had been reported in the past few years. No one in the U.K. was ready to admit how badly it could affect the entire country if it was to hit almost anywhere. I didn't expect Moira to run up and shake my arm, earning her a scowl for her efforts.

"Claire, Claire, you won't believe it." She hissed, trying to keep her voice down in the quiet lounge despite the evident excitement in her face. "We got twenty million dollars."

"What?" I stared at her like she'd started spouting Latin. Was she serious? It wasn't a lot in the overall scheme, but it would mean a ton to getting Terra Save legitimized. It could lead to us getting more funds, make it serious when we could say we were getting that sort of money. "From who? Was it Barnes? He seemed the most interested."

"No, he pledged about a hundred thousand, which is good...but this was donated anonymously. Who donates that much money without a price tag?" Moira was still excited. "It's already been moved to accounts for the charity, it's the real deal."

"Was there anything about it?" I blinked curiously at this new detail. It was weird for 'philanthropists' not to be well known as such.

"The deposit had a short note yeah, but it didn't make any sense, it was just two words." Moira stated, still stoked and not paying enough attention to notice that I nearly dropped my drink when she told me. "Dear heart."

"T...that's crazy…" I said, trying to keep my voice steady. Had Albert Wesker just donated money to help my charity? That much money? Was he always that rich? I knew he was well off, but twenty million just tossed at me was a lot more than just well off. He was freaking rolling in funds if he could do that...why would he make that kind of a donation? Was he still here then? In Vienna? I finished my drink in a swift fashion, picking up a bottle from behind the bar when the tender was busy with someone else and heading back toward my room with it. I needed to be alone, to think about what was happening here. Thankfully Moira didn't follow.

Was this an apology note? A sign he wanted to pick up where we'd left off years ago? What the hell was going through his mind? Sure, I doubted any of the funds could be traced directly to him, he was much too cautious for that...but that didn't mean other people weren't paying attention. Was this me being put in danger again? Was it a warning? A payoff cause he planned to kill Chris? I didn't like having no idea what this money could mean.

My room was still destroyed, but on my bed was a phone I hadn't left there...with a small black ribbon that made my heart jumpstart despite myself. He was planning to contact me again, was the game back on? Whatever we were, was twenty million his way of trying to make up for the horrible things he'd said and done? I didn't know how to take it all. I sat on the bed exhausted, opening the bottle to take a swig straight of the vodka I'd swiped. Wincing from more than the call that happened a moment later.

Mistake, Claire. It's a mistake.

I picked up the phone to answer it anyway. Waiting with baited breath, not able to hear anything for the longest several seconds of my life before a voice that made me shutter in thirsty trepidation. "You look depressed, dear heart. Was twenty not enough? Should I have gone twenty-five?"

"You…" My first instinct was to insult him, but my heart wasn't in it. Not after all the exhausting arguments I already had today. "What are you doing, Wesker? Why give all that money to my charity?"

"It's something you wanted isn't it?" He replied, as though it were that simple. "I think I owed you a lot after some of the things I've done."

"That's not what I mean. We can't start...seeing each other again." I hated saying it, holding a hand near my heart in discomfort. I didn't like it, but I couldn't go through it again...him deciding I wasn't worth it one day…

"Why not?" He was taking a chance with the question, he'd paused for a moment before saying it.

"You know why. I can't do it again, Wesker. I really did love you, and you just left me flat out. I can't trust that you wouldn't do it again." I explained. "Besides, you nearly killed Chris today, and by your own admission you'll never choose me over your vengeance with him."

"Do they have to be mutually exclusive?" He asked and I sighed. "I was never dishonest with you, Claire."

"They are mutually exclusive, besides, you ditched me for years." I returned, afraid he might hang up while sort of hoping he would. At least when he finally gave up I could try to return to my life, probably after finishing the bottle of liquor and lots of tears. "Years, Wesker. I don't know if I should be relieved or depressed you're alive. I can't do it again...please. Don't ask me to choose between you and my brother."

Silence.

That said far more than any clever words he might utter. I still wasn't enough to compare with whatever bizarre obsession he had with vengeance against Chris.

"What if you don't have to choose?" He finally asked, surprising me. "I'll leave Chris, if you'll come with me. I'll leave him alone."

"If I'll come with you? With you where? I have work to do with Terra Save." I was confused by this sudden change. "You want me to drop everything for you? After what you did?"

"Yes." That was perhaps the most direct he'd ever been with one of his requests. Was he serious? He wanted me to just wander off from my life.

"I think Chris would notice, you said you'd leave him alone. What if he comes after you?" I couldn't believe I'd even asked the question, I should have just said no. I should have not entertained this madness even for a moment.

"I won't kill Chris." He stated firmly. "Claire, come with me. I can take you somewhere we can be together, tonight, somewhere safe. I can better protect you than I could three years ago. I can make things right."

"I don't think you can." I said, sadly at the thought. "Wesker...I don't think you know what right even is. Think about the track record…"

"I love you, Claire Redfield." I paused at the interruption. It wasn't just over the phone. I glanced toward the window. Wesker had not just snuck up, but opened it and came inside without my noticing. I blinked at him with a frown, hanging up the call. I didn't even know what to say to that. A small part of me wanted to laugh and call him a child, as he'd done to me...but I was too shocked. After years ago, those were the last words I'd ever expected to hear from Albert Wesker. "You described it yourself, didn't you. That we belong together?"

"That was three years ago." I shook my head at him as he walked closer, not getting up from the bed. This whole day was surreal. "Do you really think the same offer is open now? My life has changed. It's not the same as it was. I am not the same."

"I can't change the past, but we can alter our path now." He sat next to me, hand rising and brushing back hair from my cheek. He'd made the motion dozens of times in our meetings. Despite myself I leaned into the touch. I couldn't argue that I'd missed him, even if I wanted to.

"Wesker...why now? You aren't a whims sort of guy." I was confused, still hurt by his previous rejection. It was difficult to trust him at his word. "You have to admit it's very odd that you just show up like this and have done a one-eighty on your previous standpoint...which was hurtful to put it mildly."

"It took time for me, Claire. I'm not exactly someone that's emotional. I knew when I saw you again, I couldn't walk away this time. The last few years I thought of you often, it wasn't easy for me either. I thought I was doing the best I could to protect you then, but my circumstances have changed. I can alter our path so we need not fear danger from those that would come against us." He still held a hand on my shoulder, though I couldn't make out much on his face, he hadn't taken the sunglasses off. "I can make you something more Claire, something better than human."

"You mean like you?" I rolled my shoulder to push his hand away. "I don't think so Wesker, I like who I am...and while your promises sound nice, I could just as easily end up a zombie as many others."

"Unlikely. You've been acclimating to the virus for years now." He stated, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

"What do you mean?" I searched for any information in his stoic face.

"I've been exposing you steadily since the Raccoon City incident. After Lisa it's been established that long term exposure helps the body acclimate. With the Veronica incident we learned it for certain. You haven't had as long as she did, but our technology has improved as well. You'll end up closer to my development than any of the beasts we made. I hand tailored your…"

Fuck!

My hand stung like hell after slapping him. Had he gotten even tougher the last few years? He'd barely moved his face despite me putting in some real effort.

"Ow, shit!" Had I broken something? "You are a piece of work. You've been poisoning me for years?"

He took my hand to look at it critically, I hissed in displeasure when he pressed down on the ring finger. "No break as far as I can tell. You'll need to get you an x-ray to be sure. You should probably stop slapping me, dear heart."

"You have been -POISONING ME-!" I screamed back, all the more angry at myself for ever trusting him. "You...you never really cared... I was just another sick experiment."

End Chapter

So...perhaps a tad cliffhanger. Poor Claire, it must be hard wanting to slap your boyfriend only to hurt yourself XD.

-Aura

To my reviewers:

evolution 500 - I like to think I've got a at least semi-happy ish ending in mind? As much as could be expected. Claire will be present for some of the events of 5. Canon will shift slightly as a result of her presence.

Crystal - I have a hard time ever really feeling bad for Wesker. I always feel slightly bad then remember he sort of deserves bad things happening to him. Claire though...yeah. I feel bad for Claire.

Nspired1 - I understand the sentiment of keeping an eye out for Wesker/Claire fics. I do the same. I like the couple even if I realize Claire should have better taste in men XD. I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far and I hope you continue to as I press forward.