Chapter Twenty-Five: Yammerer

"A loud mind is greater than a loud mouth."

-Matshona Dhliwayo

Wesker -

The bright orange undulating ground was swiftly disintegrating the earth and metal that had landed on the thick magma. I couldn't quite move fast enough across the crumbling bits of earth, forced to watch as her legs slid into the lava, skin blackening and cracking off where she sunk into the fiery surface, her clothes not in the liquid still catching fire and I fought to reach her. I couldn't get there though, she continued to sink, the skin on her face bubbling and blackening before melting slowly from her skull, which was also catching fire. I reached out, wanting to pull her free, even what was left of her. Then I fell in myself.

My mind came out of the nightmare instantly as I hit the floor next to Claire's bed. I'd fallen asleep keeping an eye on her. I scowled at the unwelcome visions fading from my mind. I definitely had waited too long to rest if I was starting to see things. I rubbed my eyes as I pushed myself back up and to my feet. Claire was still sleeping, but she'd moved slightly. Had she woken up a little? I wish I had better equipment here I could keep records with when I had to inevitably sleep.

I reached up to carefully turn her, it was past time to clean her up a little for the moment, so I took the sheet off and was pleasantly surprised by how much her legs and feet had regenerated. The skin was clearly still not fully regenerated since I could see through the almost translucent color - but it gave me a view of the tendons and muscles underneath. It all looked appropriate, that she was regenerating the way her body should be. I was ginger with moving her, while I knew I had to be careful with the fresh skin, I also had to move her sometimes or she could end up with bed sores. Unlikely given the level of regeneration, but I also wanted her to be comfortable.

"Wesker…" The light, weak voice, excited me more than I thought it would. I leaned closer, smiling at her when she opened her eyes. The blue was there, but it was brighter than before, almost illuminated...but her eyes possessed slits now, not unlike my own. Then, I'd carefully been pushing her DNA toward a mutation akin to mine for years so I wasn't surprised. If that was the only change, we would be lucky. I offered her a light smile, reaching to touch her hand lightly when her fingers twitched.

"I'm here." I reassured her, letting her touch my hand. "You'll be all right."

"Chris?" She asked, and I did my best not to frown, but I felt the smile drain from my face. After all this, that moron was her first concern? "Jill?"

"They're fine as far as I know. Jill reports having carried Chris to safety." I explained, trying to keep my voice level. She offered a faint smile. No matter how much I wished I could crush her brother's skull, she needed support right now. "You're recovering well."

"You...kay?" She stumbled over her words, voice thick with drugged exhaustion. "You...your arms."

"I've regenerated." I stated, holding her hand a bit tighter. At least I still made the list of her concerns. "You're my concern."

"Wha...time, day...it?" She mumbled, her eyes not really focused, starting to drift slightly shut. "Ow long?"

"You've been in recovery for about three days." I answered, gently pushing her hair back. "You should rest though. I'll be here."

"Oo, eep." She wasn't even making words anymore. She'd leaned into my touch, letting her eyes slide shut again. I watched her breath slow and listened to the monitors beeping slowing to stable rates for sleep. She knew me, and she seemed to know herself...she knew Jill and Chris' names. I set my forehead against her arm on the raised bed, closing my eyes. She was going to be alright. I wasn't sure I'd ever understood true relief until I'd seen her aware of herself. Seen her reach for me…she would recover...even if it might take some time.

The slam of a door upstairs let me know we weren't alone, I scowled toward the steps and left her for the moment. She was largely safe now. Feet on the stairs, Jill was met with the barrel of my gun as she came down.

"Excella." She reported. "She has a large group with her."

Of course, it was bloody Gionne. Her best skill seemed to be showing up where she was least desired. Given it had been days, her course of p30 would have worn off and she could have removed the mind control device. I didn't think the witch was delighted with how she'd been treated. Unfortunately, she'd been aware of the placement of this safehouse.

"Find him!" I heard her snapping from above. "I know he's here. That he keeps little secrets in his safehouses. We haven't seen a lab, so there's something else here, get it!"

It was a matter of time before they discovered the bookshelf the door to the lower level doubled as. Not the most original of covers for a secret door, but one that often worked at least for a time. Jill was staring at me, waiting orders. She had gotten a dose herself of p30 not long ago so I knew she'd be loyal at least. I had an escape tunnel just for purposes like this...

Even if there was an army, I could probably defeat them. I couldn't be rash though, I didn't want Claire caught in the crossfire. Given it was Excella, she had some idea as to how to poison me as Chris had. I'd managed to recover, but I wasn't eager to repeat the experience. I also doubted she was fool enough not to have guns large enough to make me struggle. I knew there were tyrant level threats available to her. I could probably even take some of those, but I still needed to protect Claire. I loathed to think what Gionne might try to do to her. Thankfully, my place did have a self-destruct, so once we were a safe distance I could put a damper on her immediate plan of capture.

Then, I had a lot of dead weight, so escaping on patrolled streets would prove difficult. I eyed Jill with a frown, not wanting to entrust Claire to anyone...but I couldn't help it. Jill was incredible as a fighting force, but still nothing compared to what I could do. "Valentine, take Claire as carefully as you can to the secondary helicopter, the one Gionne shouldn't be aware of. Fly out to the safehouse in Cairo, you were there with me once. Can you find it?"

She nodded.

"Good. Get there, set Claire back up on fluids and support systems. Dose yourself with p30 and await further instructions." I ordered, tightening my gloves as I lingered near Claire. "I'll catch up."

I leaned down to kiss her, hoping this was the right call. "Go on, I'll give you a few minutes or until they find the hidden switch."

Jill didn't hesitate, moving to pick up Claire now that I'd taken out the tubes and wires. I watched her all the way to when the red hair disappeared into the escape hatch. I closed it again, another thing they'd need to search for if they actually wanted to find them. Then I went back to the steps and took a deep breath.

I hated to think what the witch would do if she found Claire. I needed to make as short and effective work of Gionne's teams as I could. Gionne had outlived her usefulness, so she had to be eliminated. Once she was down, the rest of her teams should break off easier without a set leader. I heard her still barking orders, frowning at the presence. Why would she come in person? She knew what I was capable of. Was she that annoyed or that stupid? They still hadn't found my switch either…

It hadn't quite been a few minutes, but I pushed the door open, leaving a bullet in the head of the man that had been getting close to discovering me. His fate would have been the same either way, I downed two more before the screaming started.

"Hostile, hostile!" A man had backed around a corner after his partner took the shot in front of him. "He's here!"

I followed him around the corner, stepping casually out of the way of his wild assault of bullets before putting one of my own in his skull. She didn't even bring a better team with her? I sighed at the lack of challenge. In the living area I downed three more men in swift order before I heard my name.

"Albert…" Excella's voice drew my attention from behind, she had a gun pointed my way loaded with a syringe of red liquid. She'd been planning to ambush me from a corner. Though she shouldn't have let me know she was there. "Just who I was waiting for."

"Had you expected to hit me with that?" I smirked at her as I leaned lazily out of the path of the projectile, moving in front of her in what she had to comprehend as little more than a flash. I winced as jaws closed around my legs a moment later...a makeshift bear trap only with several syringes on the ends. It wasn't just one shot of the poison, it was several…

I faltered, the world blurring as I reached out and pulled her weapon away from her. Taking a knee with my bleeding leg as the virus burned in my veins at the large dose of PG67 now coursing through. She had caught me there…

"Ha, I knew you couldn't help but try and just finish it. You were always more simple-minded than you realized." Excella mocked, moving back from my reach when I made a wild grasp for her. I reached down to pull apart the bear trap, growling with the effort before the metal screeched and bent backward.

"Did you think that would be enough?" I hissed at her, and while there were a few of her, I could still manage this…

"No...but you were distracted while you're little girl is collected from your esca…" She didn't finish the statement. I rushed her, grabbing her by the mouth and then slamming her so roughly into the worked brick of the wall that I'd crushed a hole into both it and her skull. This had been a trap. They'd been after Claire all along, that's why there weren't more men here...and Jill could only do so much. I slammed into a wall trying to run out of the building, shot a few more men outside, and replaced my clip. I couldn't just speed to her...I'd have to hope Jill could do more. I was trying to get closer, but my cells felt like they were all being individually branded...there was little help I could offer like this. I stumbled back into my lab to makeshift an antidote before I lost control completely.

Claire -

I wasn't still in bed. I was being shuffled around harshly, nothing like the careful movements before now. I was still in pain and that definitely wasn't helping. I vaguely recalled coming to visit a couple times before...but this was a mess. I couldn't quite focus, it felt like I was being carried, and I couldn't really pick out any specifics of the surroundings other than we were outside?

"...aahhp…" I still couldn't quite make coherent words. I was glad I hadn't really eaten as I continued to be jostled around...then even the sense I was being carried went away. I was without gravity a moment before I came to a sudden and uncomfortable stop. I rolled several times, wincing as I bounced over a hot dirt street beneath me. Ouch...didn't they know I'd just made it through a volcano? Did they need to drop me in the middle of the African desert? Couldn't they stop throwing me around like a sack of potatoes?

Dizzy, and disoriented, I heard several loud shots around me but they were muffled like I had on protective earmuffs.

"Here. You'll want to make sure you have a good seal on these."

Wesker carefully placed the protective gear on my head and adjusted my hair neatly while my brother hovered in anger. The image flickered through my head, I hadn't thought about that for years. It would have been nice to get lost in images of other times, but more shots pulled me away from the spiral toward unconsciousness. I needed to not be sleeping if there was gunfire around me. With great effort I forced my eyes open, blinking several times and trying to focus. People were fighting...but it wasn't Wesker or Chris.

Jill was darting gracefully between a team of men with weapons that were trying to get a handle on her. She broke the neck of one, and it fell to join a half dozen bodies already on the ground. She took a nasty strike to her shoulder from one's combat knife, but it only gashed her before she disarmed them and turned it back on them. She was incredible, a little package of death dancing between trained mercenaries like they were children. She finished the entire group and walked back toward me. Though...she was bleeding from more than the one wound I'd seen…

"...sssker?" I tried to say, my mouth felt like it had been stuffed with cotton and my tongue had to move through it to try and speak. She didn't answer me, just bent down to lift me up, her eyes still absent as they had been since I'd seen her again. I hated that, the vacant expression, she was a beautiful killing machine now, and little else while she was being controlled. I couldn't protest really when she lifted me again and started running. Where was she going? Was Wesker okay? If she was this bad off, what was he like?

I barely managed not to teeter back into the oblivion of sleep as she rushed with me through several more blocks. If she hadn't stopped to set me on cold metal, I probably would have. Instead I blinked at the black machine I was in now. One of his helicopter's. Had he sent Jill away with me? Then, what had happened to him? I swallowed as much of the dryness in my mouth as I could.

"Jill, where's Wesker?" I managed to get the syllable's out clearly this time. "We have to get Wesker."

She paused where she'd been starting up the helicopter. Turning to look at me, there was something more in her eyes, perhaps a bit of confusion instead of just nothing. She looked at me a moment then kept flipping levers. I felt the sweltering dusty air when the propellers were started.

"Jill, please." I said as loudly as I could. "Answer me, where is he? Don't you have some sort of protocol to look after him?"

That earned me attention again, the woman narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Is there healing here? Get your wounds." I said to her since she was actually looking now. She moved to get a first aid spray out of a kit in the front. I didn't want to try to send her back for Wesker without her having healed a little first. "Yes, good."

"He's...not safe." Jill managed to speak, though it sounded like she was fighting to do so. "He wanted to take the brunt...for...you."

"Then we have to help him." I said without thought. Then frowned when I realized if Wesker couldn't handle it then we probably couldn't do much to help. "What even happened here? Who is attacking?"

"Gionne. Tricell." Jill was clipped but managed to bite words out. She finished healing herself and turned back to the console to continue to prepare.

"No, Jill. We can't just leave him." I tried to interrupt her again. I wasn't fully sure of what was happening...but I knew I didn't want to just ditch Wesker. Even if he was crazy, he was my madman to deal with. Then, the choice wasn't left to me as gunfire left cracks spider webbing across the front of the helicopter. Jill was forced into the back with me, slamming the door and throwing herself over me as the shots continued to ring out around us.

Should I have let her leave? Regrouped later? Shit...now we were literally sitting ducks.

The gunfire seemed to last an eternity, so long that the opening fear began to shift into a sort of absurd impatience for the shots to end or for us to go up in flames. Then, several minutes later, it paused. The shell around us was full of holes, but I'd faired all right. Jill had been clipped a few times and was already bleeding again, but less than she'd been before she healed. Jill jumped up to be ready when the door slid open, then paused when Wesker slumped to a sit on the edge. He was covered in blood, as if he'd bathed in it...it was in his hair, across his face, coated his arms and legs...I stared in shock at the unexpected scene.

"Find us a truck, Valentine." He murmured, his voice slurring, as if he were drunk. "Make it quick. I'd rather not try to survive a round three."

"Wesker." I managed to sit up and throw my arms around him, pushing us each out of the helicopter and to the ground when he failed to catch me. He winced harder than I did, closing his eyes not just because I'd knocked the sunglasses off. "You're all right…?"

I wasn't all that certain of the fact. He'd definitely been through a lot before, but he'd still sounded mostly himself even after shoving his arms in lava. Arms he didn't even lift to hold me or get me to move, as if it would be entirely too much effort. What had they done to him?

"I'll manage." He stated after too long a pause, I had feared he'd fallen asleep. "Just, tired."

Jill returned with a truck before I could ask what happened, she couldn't have gone far. Then helped load both of us inside. Jumping in and just driving. I presumed she knew where she was going. I was still more surprised that Wesker had already passed out before giving any sort of order. His head had rolled forward, and if it wasn't an entirely gory mess I might have thought his sleep cute. Now I was just disturbed. I reached up to tilt his head back into a different, hopefully more comfortable position.

"Where are we going Jill?" I tried, hoping she'd still speak to me.

"Cairo." Jill answered. "It'll be quite a trip. You should rest."

"Just...be safe…" I replied, but I couldn't really argue. I was still exhausted myself...and now that the action had faded away and all we had was the hum of the engine, it didn't take much prompting. I probably would have ended up back asleep soon either way.

End Chapter

Wesker one man army-ing Tricell forces (well two really with Jill) was amusing. Claire was more like: well, this is cool to watch and all but can we go now? She's still a baby tyrant though. This fic was never an explore cool new powers fic, so one chapter to go. Wesker and Claire will finally get to talk after the volcano debacle. We'll see where the chips fall...

-Aura

To my reviewers:

Crystal - Ah okay. Well, it's good to read into some of the foreshadowing : ) Why it's there.

Evo-500 - Less likely after how badly it went last time XD.