Chapter Twenty-Four: Xenothermic
"If the forest has a day of fire and the heat of the flames does not consume a special tree, it will still be changed; charred, but still standing."
― Dan Groat, A Punctual Paymaster
Claire -
"You can't stop me." Wesker stated he was already on the other side of the room. He'd slammed into Chris with enough speed to throw him into one of the metal walls and dent it. I started to come forward but another girl was shooting at him and the bullets were a little too close for comfort. I stared in shock as Wesker blurred toward her.
"Wesker!" I called out, afraid he would kill her.
He paused a moment at my cry, slamming the butt of the woman's own gun into her face with enough force to knock her down. Her nose was bleeding, but her chest still rose and fell. He touched the communication device in his ear after, as though immediately dismissing that opponent. "Take off, now."
"Sheva!" Chris cried out. Apparently the name of whoever he'd been working with. "You fucking monster. Claire, you can't let him do this. Whatever he told you, he's trying to murder most of the planet. We can't let him put this virus into the atmosphere."
Chris was largely dodging Wesker as he called out to me, trying but failing to shoot my (sort-of?) boyfriend. Wesker wasn't giving his best though. He'd actually remembered his promise to me not to kill Chris outright. That hadn't extended to whoever the poor girl on the floor of the compartment was. I hated this…
"STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU!" I stalked out of my spot behind the pillar toward them. My outburst earned a raised yellow brow from Wesker. Though the distraction got him shot again before I walked up and decked my brother for him. I ignored the smug smile Wesker gave.
"I can't believe you. Can't you both calm the fuck down?" I snapped. "You're both such...men. I hate it."
"Yes, let's have this dialogue." Wesker crossed his arms, still looking amused at my interjection.
"He's trying to destroy the world, Claire!" Chris bit back. "You are...I can't…we can't let him do this."
"I was working on that before you went all kool aid man on the situation." I snapped. "He was listening to me, and you killed it."
"If he only listens in specific situations, he's not the best pick for a boyfriend." Chris returned, then earned a punch from Wesker for that one. "Yeah, big bad tyrant...you never did fight fair."
"Yes, Chris. That's why you lost to me before I possessed powers." Wesker mocked, slapping away the counter fist my brother tried to throw. "Large words."
"Whatever, you've been the master of the sucker punch since before you turned into a literal monster." Chris snapped, slamming a syringe into Wesker and pushing a strange liquid before I could intervene. Chris stepped back to level his gun on Wesker, who had wavered on his feet and taken a knee. "Get out of the way, Claire!"
I didn't follow that order, concerned about what Chris had done. I'd stepped up next to Wesker, interjecting to look at him critically. Weskers eyes weren't quite focused and he was warmer than usual. Had Chris poisoned him? What would that do? Wesker pushed himself slowly to his feet, moving me to the side so I wasn't in the line of fire as directly.
"I won't kill him." Wesker hissed. "Just break him a little."
"I don't want that either…don't.!" I was left reaching after the blonde as he raced past me. Appearing between Chris and a switch he had been going for, dodging a couple shots from Chris' gun, then dashing forward to uppercut my brother when he went to reload. Another kick followed while Chris was still falling, throwing his body back along the cargo container. Away from the switch. My brother rolled several more painful feet before stopping.
"I had almost forgotten how enjoyable it could be to play with you." Wesker remarked as my brother jumped up and punched him fruitlessly in the chest. "The game will have to end soon. We should be at an optimal altitude any moment now."
Reason was out the window and we were out of time to talk about the insanity of this goal. I frowned and reached over to pull the lever Chris had been trying for. Wesker wasn't even paying attention to me, so I had the moment I needed to get it down. The whole ship lurched when I pulled the lever, the back of the plane starting to open sucking air from the compartment.
"No. Claire!" Weskers growl was close, but he didn't attack me. He grabbed my waist when I started to lift into the air, holding onto the wall with his other hand. "We are going to talk about this."
"Sure, let's argue about my loyalty if we live…" I snapped. At least the populace would be temporarily safe from this stupid plan. Assuming we even survived the now crashing plane.
Chris was holding on to another section of the inside. He sent me a somewhat relieved look, though it was hard to focus on details with the alarms echoing around us and the lack of reliable gravity to stay stable. The plane was definitely going down. If it wasn't for Wesker I think I would have been sucked outside. As it was, the other woman Chris was barely managing to hold onto while keeping a grip himself. When the plane slammed down I'd of been thrown around like a rag doll but Wesker had wrapped his arm around my back and held me close, securing my neck and back as much as he could as we bounced several times. I hated to think how much my brother and his friend had been tossed about.
He was getting warmer, whatever Chris had injected couldn't be good.
I only noticed after we moved that some of the heat was just the atmosphere. I felt disoriented and could only stare in shock a moment at the lava around us when he stumbled through an exit onto part of the plane. How in the world? What are the odds of crash landing in a volcano?
"We have to get out of here." Wesker glanced around with a scowl. Pausing his view on the tanks with the virus before leaning suddenly to one side, pushing me a little so the bullet Chris fired didn't hit me.
"This is over, Wesker!" My brother wasn't always swift on the uptake but he failed to shoot Wesker a few more times. Wasn't he getting that wasn't really working?
"Stop it, Chris! Not a priority! Let's get out of here before you two resume being idiots and trying to kill each other" I snapped. Glad that Wesker was leaving him alone. Didn't Chris realize he was only alive because Wesker let him be?
"He started it." In other circumstances I might have found the small pout on Wesker's face with his short protest cute, but volcano.
"You crazed…"
"Ideas!" I interrupted before Chris could start again, pressing a hand into his chest.
"I can probably jump us out…" Wesker stated, clearly annoyed. "Can't say much for sharpshooter here. Can we let him sink?"
"As if I am letting you out of here." Chris hissed pulling his gun back up.
"Might want to hold that thought." Wesker gestured to where Jill was carrying the woman Chris had called Sheva.
"Jill? Sheva!" Chris's gun lowered just slightly as he stared in shock. He let his defences down and Wesker was inside them. His fist meeting with my brother's face as he snatched the gun away. Jill was already picking her way with the girl toward the edge of the lava.
"We have to go, we will come back for the fool." Wesker lifted me before I could protest.
"No, take him first. Chris!" I called out as the part of the ship he was on started to sink. "Wesker, please. Get him first!"
Wesker looked down at me, then paused whatever he was about to say. He sucked his teeth instead.
"Fine, stay here." He left me on what seemed a relatively stable bit of rock and leapt back to get Chris. I let out a sigh of relief when he started returning with my brother. The wing of the ship he had been on was already under the lava. Then the ground shifted under my own feet.
Wesker -
Agony was something I'd long been familiar with. Physical pain was not enjoyable, but it could be ignored and overcome. The heavy burns on my arms were slowly starting to regenerate, slowed by the overdose of drugs the lesser Redfield had pushed into my system. My entire body was fighting itself and just staying conscious had been difficult. Now though, I just felt numb. There was lava cooling along my skin and I was chilled.
I shook her lightly, ignoring the thrum of fresh misery by using still open nerves. Her legs were decimated, I could see bits of bone where the flesh had gotten seared completely away when I reached to grab her. Ignoring the damage caused by the lava to reach for her before she was consumed by it. I almost got stuck, if it hadn't been for Valentine following protocols to keep me safe I doubt I could have pulled free alone.
"Claire…" I repeated her name a second time, not quite hearing it as I tried to get her to open those treacherously beautiful azure eyes. "Claire."
She didn't move, the last thing she'd done as I'd run for her was mouth two words to me before the earth had cracked beneath her. She'd cried out, but that even had been weak, short lived…
"She'll be okay. The virus..." Jill was starting to regain some control.
"It's not the same when someone dies from heat...it makes it more difficult…" I answered, pausing when I heard my voice crack. This all seemed as if it couldn't be real, this wasn't supposed to be this way.
"Claire." That man's voice tore my attention from her beautiful face. He hadn't gotten up but he was returning to consciousness nearby, his face contorted with fear and pain as he looked at what had happened to her. He started to say her name again, as if he deserved to utter it after causing this. I crushed a hand around his throat, starting to squeeze while he drug his fingers weakly across my grip. He couldn't get out more than the squeak of a sound. I had always hated him, but never as much in that moment.
Claire's arm slid from her chest, it touched my leg where it fell limply. Her final words replayed in my mind. I growled, slamming Chris's head back into the earth. Knocking him back into unconsciousness instead of choking him to death. If all I had left to offer Claire was my promise, I wouldn't let him ruin that as well. I reached back to her, struggling to pick her up since my arms still hadn't fully regenerated, half reconstructed flesh ripping free as I brought her close and struggled to my feet.
"Bring the idiot...we have to get somewhere, I have to do something." I insisted, stumbling as I started what promised to be the hardest trek I'd ever taken. "Take him to the bottom, somewhere safe, then run ahead and find a new aircraft. Hurry."
Jill didn't argue, though it was clear she probably could have fought the order. For once we agreed on help being needed here. Claire was in a much worse place than Chris. I ran as best I could with the poison flowing through my system, I just hoped it was enough. That anything would be enough.
The next few hours were a blur, her body hadn't started to go rigid, so that could be a sign the virus was trying to reanimate her flesh and had just been slowed by the amount of damage from the fire. My mind jumped between hopeful thoughts, and despair. One of the last feelings she'd ever possessed before her death was that she wasn't enough. That somehow I didn't want her...and now I just wanted to fix her. To bring back the irritated glances she sent when she didn't approve what I was doing...the blush on her cheeks when I pressed just the right buttons. The way she smiled lazily with messed hair while waiting for me to bring her breakfast…
Eventually Jill brought a helicopter to us, minus Chris - but that was wise. I hooked Claire to various equipment, shocked and anxious when there were signs of more than death. We'd brought her to another safehouse, but it lacked so much a larger facility would have been able to offer, I'd had to repurpose several pieces of equipment to get her on a passable life support system, but I was afraid to try and move her again. As it was her vitals were nowhere near stable and I could only stare at her broken body as I worked as quickly as I could, often tearing new flesh trying to form slowly with the poison hindering my regeneration and my clarity. I would work until I dropped if I had to.
Then, I heard it. The snap of a safety being pulled, the click of a bullet entering the chamber. Jill's P30 had run its course. I'd waited too long between a dose. She had the gun near my head, close enough to pull the trigger, and I was so sluggish I would have had trouble dodging even if I wanted to. Her eyes were filled with hate and disgust, but it was my face being reflected there that I saw. I didn't move to stop her.
"Let me save her first." I whispered, my voice still not functioning as it should. Turning my eyes back to the tub I'd repurposed to ice her body in to keep working. If Valentine still shot me, I couldn't blame her. Thankfully, I was still working a few minutes later and she had lowered the weapon. She was staring at Claire, regardless of what Valentine wanted to do to me, she wanted Claire to make it. It was probably one of the few things she'd ever agreed with me on.
Claire -
Holy son of a shit. Fuckballs.
It hurt. I hurt.
Coming back to consciousness I felt like I'd been repeatedly shot out of a cannon like a pinball ball in a machine, then also doused in gasoline and set on fire while someone was ripping my skin off. I wanted to scream, but I was half afraid that if I moved this would somehow get worse.
"Claire…" The voice was tired, a little distant, but I knew it.
Wesker.
It was when I remembered, he was coming toward me...the heat and burning...it had been awful. I'd fallen into the volcano and I passed out pretty quick. I'd felt him pull me, but that was it. He'd actually gotten me out then?
"I'll add painkillers in a moment." I was glad he was at least trying to help mitigate the agony. "Can you make a fist if you can hear me?"
I grimaced as I did my best to tighten my fingers together. I couldn't quite make a fist, but apparently it had been enough.
"Good, relax. I'm sorry Claire, I'll fix this. I'll fix you. I promise." He stated, though after the slight acidic warmth in my arm from the medicine I was already spiralling into the welcome black again. What did he mean to fix me?
Wesker -
Stable.
I let out a sigh of relief when the word flashed onto the monitor. Leaning back in my chair near her makeshift bed by the tub. She looked better, though it was clear she'd only just finally entered a state where her body was beginning to regenerate. It was slow, so it would take a while, but she'd heal. I took off my sunglasses to rub my face, it'd been over twenty-four hours since I'd gotten her back here.
I hadn't slept. I didn't need to rest like normal people...but I was exhausted between the lengthy regeneration of my own body and the poison finally starting to subside within my veins. I didn't want to risk passing out. I'd come to my senses and forced another dose of P30 on Valentine. She probably regretted not shooting me in my momentary lapse of self-preservation. I had the extra help to retrieve drugs or chemicals I needed so I could remain next to Claire. A moment could make the difference if her body began to crash. Still, she'd tried to make a fist when I asked...she could understand me. That moment had meant the world.
So far, it seemed as though there was a mild mutation in the virus I'd developed for her caused by the T-Veronica virus. She must have had some mild form of exposure when she was captured by Alexia It was so small it hadn't shown up in her blood when it was analyzed, but it was probably what had allowed her to survive the heat level of her near death experience. The T-Veronica virus had always been more resilient to fire than others. It had also been one of few that tended to allow for maintained self-awareness once activated. It could have been why her blood always had such high rates of success in bonding with Uroborus. She'd had nine years to be inoculated with it as well as the other virus' in her system.
I pushed myself to my feet. I didn't want to sleep, but I would do her little good if I lost function from not having eaten or hydrated as well. I also needed to reinforce the security. Even with Jill back under control, our security was light. I couldn't let anyone take Claire. It was easier to busy myself with random requirements than dwell on what had happened - that she still might not actually be herself when she woke. Understanding what making a fist meant, and actually retaining her memories and her sense of self was another story.
I pulled several dishes and pans from shelves, if I cooked a lot now I could just rewarm things later. It would help make her ongoing care easier to have things readily available.
Claire -
It still was horrible, the deep ache and crinkling shots of pain when I started to return to consciousness. It wasn't as bad as last time, but it wasn't comfortable. I barely opened my eyes, fearful I wouldn't have legs when I looked down. Both frustrated and thankful there was a blanket over them. I could at least make out two long limbs that pulled the blanket higher at my feet. It hurt, but I could wiggle my toes and move the blanket. I was pretty sure I shouldn't have toes left…so I must have mutated then.
My arms were pale, with several needles and tubes sticking out of my skin. The room was metallic, cold, lots of plastic and sheen. The sort of thing I'd come to expect from bio-weapon makers. Then, there was also a sleeping man half-hung over the metal folding chair he was somehow not toppling over. His hair was messy, out of place, nothing like him...but I knew him all the same. Even without the sunglasses he'd dropped on the floor...I knew Albert Wesker extremely well. He'd fallen asleep taking care of me…
How long had I been here? No calendars or clocks I could see. As far as we knew Wesker didn't age. Not a promising thought, it felt like it had been only a short time, but that could just be the stupor from heavy drugs. I almost cried out when I reached to push myself up in the bed, I was exceptionally sore...nothing broke or at least seemed to...but I lacked the desire to try again. I'd survived a fall into molten lava, I should probably take it pretty slow. At least I knew who I was and I didn't have any strange desire to bite pieces off of Wesker or moan piteously, that was a good sign.
I didn't want to wake him, I doubted I'd be conscious long myself from what I remembered of people after massive body trauma. I was already tired enough to just sleep again, but I was also a bit scared. What had happened to Chris? The girl with him? To Jill? Why was it just us in here? If so, where were they. Had they made it away safely? Thankfully, my anxiety wasn't enough to break through my body's need for rest for very long.
End Chapter
Whew, poor both of them. I feel extra bad for Claire, who has really bad taste in men tbh. Then, you can't help who you love? Particularly true if you love Wesker. It mostly is turning out okay? Obviously events are much different than 5 since Claire was present and all : ).
-Aura
P.S. I hope everyone still remains safe and virus free.
To my reviewers:
Crystal - LOL I didn't mean you. I meant the character was a perv. I'm glad you were able to catch up and hope you can finish out the series still enjoying it ; )
evo500 - Maybe? It's always hard to tell. Either way, for the purposes of my headcanon anyway it's the drug. If only because to me that makes more sense than a random physical change/attachment. Just easier for me to think of it like that XD.
anon - Hmm, always hard to tell.