-Undying Forever-

Unknown town, Colorado

Okay. She wasn't dying. She wasn't even bleeding. This vest was miraculous. It really did hurt though. And she recalled she really was dying. Her luck was shit. Her life was shit.

Her dad yanked her by the arm to get them to shelter in an alley near a dumpster. How fitting. He'd also grabbed her by the arm attached to that hand.

"Broken bones, Dad! Let go!"

He let go and she switched her frown to the others. Sherry was distressed, staring at the combat knife sticking in her sweatshirt. Billy dialed a number on his phone and walked farther into the alley to hear the call. He was probably calling Rebecca to see about the rest of them. That'd be good.

Renny put his hands on her shoulders and examined the weapon. "Did it get through? Are you bleeding? Should we pull this out?"

She placed the good hand on his chest for counterbalance. "I got it."

The man grimaced stronger than she did when she grasped the blade handle tight and pulled it out. Wesker plucked the knife from her which earned him a scowl. Eva lifted the sweatshirt up to survey the damage. The sweatshirt was a lost cause, the vest would need to be discarded, but her tank top remained intact. She was pretty sure her sternum had taken a solid bruising. It hurt like hell.

"Eva..."

"I'm fine, Wesker." She wiped the wetness from her face. "Remember, we're saving Chris, not killing him. Okay?"

Billy walked back to them. "Rebecca went with one of the ambulances to the nearest hospital. It's about six blocks from here."

"How are they?" asked Sherry. "How's Jake?"

"I can't say. Rebecca's accompanying Claire, who I can tell you is doing well. She has crush injuries causing massive bruising and some internal bleeding. They won't know facts until they get her to a doctor but she's alert and in pain. Good things.

Eva smirked dourly. "Right. Good things."

"We should get to the hospital," Renny said, squeezing the bridge of his nose like a headache was coming on.

She sighed. "Fine. We have to make sure everyone's alright. After we do, I want to see my kids."

They completed the necessary walk in low spirits. On her end anyway. She was freaking tired and required sleep for days. Getting Chris back alive was a desperation she wished to ignore. It was hilarious how easy/not easy her life used to be prior to what her existence was now.

Krauser was strolling out of the emergency entrance doors when they arrived. Surprisingly, Leon drove up, parking and jogging to meet him. It looked as though Wesker would loiter nowhere near his other kid. Nice.

"Go check on Jake with Sherry, Wesker." She left no room for discussion. "I'll go with Billy to find Rebecca and Claire."

Eva studied Leon and Krauser talking and going inside together. Neither noticed their arrival. She smothered a cough and went in. They were both worried but Billy was on another level.

They located Claire first. She was drugged out of her skull and quite happy with it. Exhausted too. Expressing her deepest desire to eat cupcakes, she mumbled on and on how Chris wouldn't let her have any more before passing out. A nurse told them bleeding from lacerations had been stopped, she was out of danger, and while she'd be bed-ridden for a couple days, she would make a full recovery.

Renny came to the rescue when she was debating whether to stay so Claire wouldn't be left alone. He sat with her and Billy was out the door in an instant. Eva quickened her pace to keep sight of him. She was having a difficult time pretending she wasn't beginning one of her bad days.

There was a doctor who ambushed her once returning to the first floor. Billy put aside searching for his wife to ensure she allowed herself professional care. Annoying. It took forever. X-rays, discussion of possible surgery depending... She dismissed that idea on the spot. The whole thing had to be wrapped and cast. Her arm was placed in a sling and she was told to keep the limb above her heart where possible to manage pain. Eva did appreciate the pain medication given which she would add to the pills she was already on for the whole..gradual organ failure inevitability.

Across the hall was a bathroom where she threw water on her face. She allowed the coughing fit to start and spent far longer than she planned waiting for her body to feel ready for moving about like a regular person. Satisfied enough by the reflection in the mirror, she glanced at the vest and sweatshirt left trashed in the bin. It wasn't a beloved piece of apparel or anything. Shrugging into her leather jacket, she applied the sling again and exited to the hall.

Her timing turned out to be fortuitous. Billy was sitting on a bench close to the bathroom with Rebecca. She appeared tired but content. The woman lit up when she saw Eva, choosing to remain seated. Her arm was hooked in Billy's arm. Cute.

"Eva, hi." She rested her head on the wall behind and shut her eyes as she began a recitation. "I heard you saw Claire. Jake's still in surgery. They're taking the bullets out of his legs and stopping the bleeding. I supervised for a while. It's going great. He's going to be fine. Long recovery ahead, but fine. Everybody will be fine. It's good news."

She smiled the best she could. "We have to stop Chris. We can't keep doing this."

"Eva! You guys are alright." She turned to find Leon hurrying down the hall toward them. "I never see an end to this shit. It's a relief you're not worse off."

"Did you see Claire?" Rebecca asked.

"She's sleeping." His cheery demeanor faded and he stood beside her, glancing sideways. "How much longer can we keep going on like this?"

"Those two will be in the hospital for a while," Billy said, climbing to his feet. "We should go wherever we're going."

Eva checked her cell battery. One bar. Al and D needed their mother. She had to get home.

Feeling a renewed sense of urgency, she asked, "Where's Wesker? Let's get moving."

She ran out the automatic doors, unwilling to wait for the others.

"Don't be rash, girly."

Eva halted immediate and located the moron leaning on the outside wall. "Girly? Really?"

Krauser grinned and held something higher in his right hand. "I have the key."

"Good for you. Get behind the wheel and bring the car around. Let's get this party moving."

"Pushy, pushy. Yes, ma'am."

He went to do what she said. Leon stood with her, looking around in front of them when he obviously wished to speak. Eva ignored this and thought of her kids' faces. She used to be anti-aging and now she was anti-living. She was a bucketful of sunshine, wasn't she?

"Eva, we'll help him. This won't be forever."

"Thanks, Leon. Come on."

Instead of the far back, she got in the front passenger door. Krauser could be a talker, but not usually with her. The odds were better she'd be left alone. Leon and Sherry filed in, sitting at the back. Rebecca and Billy next. The former offered encouraging words as she settled on the middle window seat. Renny was a little less welcome, patting her on the top of the head.

Hope in the face of hopelessness. It was a good thing to say, to have. Wesker came to stand outside the door and gave Renny a stare until he took the hint, switching to the backseat. She flipped the mirror down and watched Wesker's inevitable speech. His mouth opened and she smiled when Sherry halted words.

"We're not killing Chris, Wesker. You're not to do it again."

"Everybody makes mistakes."

Eva looked at the stature of the building housing two people she cared for. They would have to entrust Claire and Jake to them for the time being. Sad to see them hurt, the mental pain was worse. Saving Chris would save them from any further torture as well. The hospital grew smaller and Krauser entered the highway ramp. It wouldn't be too long before she saw those two again. She really was very fond of her friends.

Fixing her hair in the mirror, she resented the shadows below her eyes and shut the mirror away. Some cuts and bruises only made her appearance worse. She would have to explain the altered appearance to her children; lie she was feeling fine. Stretching the truth might be the wiser course of action for her insightful twins.

The drive time ticked on longer than four hours. She needed to leave this car. Thankfully Krauser veered off the highway a bit fast, leading them to the neighborhood her aunt resided. It was kind of everyone else to willingly divert the mission to include a stop at home for her.

"How old are Aly and Donovan?"

She looked out the window, rubbing her gifted diamond choker when she answered Renny. "Five, going on six."

Eva thought of something and voiced the concern, eyes spacey. "They're not away from me often. Not for this long."

The vehicle belonging to the DSO drove into the small driveway. Her kids were playing in the yard, throwing a ball at the wall of the garage. She would have swore that ball levitated in front of D for the briefest of seconds, but she had to be seeing things in her exhausted state. As Aly turned to look at them getting out of the car, thunder rumbled somewhere in the gathering clouds.

"Mommy!"

"Mommy! We missed you!"

Aly plowed into her a moment before Donovan did. "Oomph!"

"Don't go," D declared, attaching himself to her back.

"Hey, guys." Laughing, she straightened to full height. "What are you up to?"

Her girl smiled wide, retrieving the plastic ball. "Target practice."

"Tar..get..." Renny scratched the side of his chin. "Where did you learn that?"

She looked at him in curiosity. "Hello."

"Hi."

Some of the others remained by the SUV stretching their limbs, however, along with Renny came Wesker and Rebecca.

"Mommy, are we going home?"

Donovan nuzzled his cheek on hers and she shut her eyes. He was sleepy. Probably due for a nap. She remembered the call from him.

"No. Um. D, do you remember when you used the telephone to call me?"

"Uh uh."

She carried him to the front door where Natasha came out to stand on the small square porch. Worry etched into every line on her face. She'd want to have a discussion. There was no time for a discussion.

Eva crouched low to the ground and Donovan climbed off. Aly threw the ball hard at the wall one last time and then walked over. Rebecca and Wesker moved onto the short sidewalk connecting the driveway to the porch. Renny jogged to retrieve the ball which was heading for the street.

"You remember, dummy. Don't lie."

"Hey. Don't call your brother names."

"I forgot!" whined her boy. "We should go, Mom. I want to stay with you."

"You can't right now. I have to do something. Listen to me." She waited to make sure both were looking and listening. "You know the picture of Dad I showed you, yeah?"

Two heads nodding in the affirmative.

"The bad man you said was coming on the phone... Does the bad man look like Dad?"

Aly giggled. "No, silly. Daddy wouldn't be mean to us."

"The bad man has eyes like Grandpa."

Renny dropped the ball he'd been handing D at his declaration. He looked at Wesker. "What the hell, man? I thought you said you were the only one of 'em left."

"I am."

Rebecca frowned and folded her arms, resting the knuckles of one hand under her chin worryingly. As far as she knew, there were thirteen survivors of the ridiculously selective project that created her father the way he was now. Two of those thirteen survived the next stage of the experiment. Albert and Alex Wesker. Alex died later on an island where she was experimenting to discover the path to immortality as Spencer had wanted for himself.

"Well your certainty is maybe wrong." He turned from Wesker to her. "You mean there could be another eugenics toting psycho out there?"

Albert Wesker was the only one left. Or at least he was supposed to be. Alex Archer. Alex. Could it be Archer was Alex Wesker? If that was true, the female Alex Barry Burton and Claire encountered was a fake. A fake put out there by the real person? Her dad believed she was one of them, like him. If female Alex was fake, she fooled even Wesker. It could explain the oddity of her being sick, of not gaining abilities and altered eyes as her dad did.

"Maybe," she murmured, belatedly answering Renny.

She caught Al staring upward, concentrating. Lightning sparked across the sky dangerously low. Eva put her hands on their backs and gently guided them to their aunt and the house. Leon got out of the car.

"Eva, the dot stopped moving. We've got a location."

Hugging them close, she kissed their foreheads. "Everything will be okay. We'll go home soon, I promise."

Her focus had to be on Chris for now. She got in that car and refused to look back at her children. Sherry, Rebecca, and Billy were kind enough to wave until they were out of view. She could not. No one started conversation which was a relief. Rain fell, pattering the window she stared at without looking through. Eva wondered if Chris was some immortal warrior destined to fight and never die. It would be just his luck to fall into that most hated fate.

The drive was several hours to the location and she dozed off and on. Her body felt exhaustion to the extent she couldn't find real sleep. She didn't want it anyhow. She didn't deserve it. She gave up on Chris and he'd suffered all these long years. That's why she needed to get him back.

When the car slowed, she startled to something dropping in her lap. Renny looked at her apologetic and continued passing out the water bottles. Billy chugged his while she chose to sip a few times before screwing the cap on again. They exited the car in a staggered manner. Wesker was out first but hovered to grab her good arm and lean close.

"No unnecessary risks. No stupid acts based on the man you loved. Understood?"

"Fuck off!" she snapped, wrenching her arm away. "I'm not an idiot."

Their group of eight approached the worn-down factory. Seemingly abandoned and left to rot, Eva wasn't buying. They spread out without really meaning to, studying two separate entrances in immediate sight. Billy ended the silence between them.

"Do we split up?"

"Do we wanna die?"

Leon disagreed with Renny's concern. "We've got this. We deal fast damage and Eva gets in his head again. That's the plan."

"What if there's a Wesker in there?" Rebecca asked, sounding a bit confused about the idea of it.

"There's a Wesker right here."

She watched him firmly take his place beside her and Leon took charge to divide the rest. He headed for the left-most door with Krauser, Rebecca, and Renny. Eva followed Billy, Sherry, and Wesker to the right. The door was locked until it wasn't, courtesy of a swift kick by her father. He waited for them to ready weapons and they went inside.

Eva assumed there would be exploring, a few rooms to pass through. Instead, they walked into a huge room with either clear space or shut off conveyor belts and machinery. And Chris. Chris was standing on a walkway above dressed in his usual black outfit and gear. She raised her stun gun, glancing at Billy who was carrying the Spark Shot. Sherry and Wesker had electric batons held steady.

"How did you find me?"

That wasn't Chris talking. She scanned the room for the owner of the voice.

"Ah, of course." She found him standing on a different section of the walkway above. "Chris goes on significant tears when he's free of me."

"You did something to him!" Sherry shouted up. "He doesn't know what he's doing!"

"You'd like to think that," Alex replied, extending his arms in a showy manner while leering down toward them. "It's him who kills all those innocent people when he runs from me. He knows what he's doing. He just doesn't care."

"Chris!" Eva yelled. "Chris, it's me!"

"Oh stop that, will you?"

"Go fuck yourself!" She focused on who mattered. "Chris!"

The man started meandering along the metal bridge, reveling in his words. "Chris is most destructive when he's not under my control. He wasn't controlled by my chemical when he attacked your little team. It's the viral carriers. He can sense them. Goes at them like a hound."

Eva didn't want to hear this. It was already bullshit the situation felt like a repeat of when she got him back for mere seconds. She eyed him when he stopped moving, peering down in her and Wesker's direction. Sunglasses and the hat pulled low on his forehead prevented her from confirming if he was indeed a Project W survivor.

"Ignored your girl in my lab when the chemical quit affecting because she must be defective, broken. He doesn't see her as a threat, period. But you and your friend there," he licked his lips, excited. "Very enticing. He'll try to kill you like a rabid dog. He will never stop."

Sherry and Wesker exchanged glances before Sherry backed up and looked at Billy, who subtle as possible charged the weapon, aimed and fired. The shot hit Chris straight on, toppling him over the railing and to the floor below. Alex looked mildly annoyed.

"That was unkind, Bill."

He swung himself over the side to join them on the bottom floor. Chris was standing and he blinked in Alex's direction, seeming confused. Without looking to acknowledge the stare, he waved an arm. This caused him to look harder, stumbling a moment in his lack of attention. Billy shot him a second time.

Alex lowered his arm. "Legend. Obey. Kill them."

Eva rushed to lessen the distance between them. "Chris!"

She dropped the gun and held up a hand as if to greet him, uncertain what else to do. It had to be different this time. Her kids needed their father. She had to break through this time.

"Please..Chris, see me!"

Leon pushed open the same door they used, revealing rain had begun to pour heavy again. Something must have gone wrong with the entrance they intended to use, or maybe there was no access at a certain point. Chris's intimidating stance melted when he gasped, collapsing to his knee.

He looked in pain. He looked in a lot of pain. Tears threatened to swell and she fought them. Her eyes flickered to Wesker racing toward Alex who was on the move. Alex was attacking him so he was just meeting him halfway. Violence was about to explode and Sherry picked up her stun gun, shooting Chris.

"Sherry, no!"

Billy held off on firing another shot. Alex suddenly pulled a gun and fired shots designed to keep his attacker at bay. A second gun was removed from his boot and fired into Chris. It hit his arm. Leon surged forward, preparing to fight or defend against a drugged soldier. The others stayed at the wall, choosing to watch and see where they might be useful. Or so she guessed.

"Legend! At attention!"

The door remained open, bringing continuous sounds of rainfall. Chris disappeared on a day when it was raining. She thought of him more often when it was a downpour like this.

Despite his obedience, rage filled his face. "I've told you many times."

Alex lowered his guns. "What did you say?"

"My name..is CHRIS!"

He ripped the needle dart out of his arm and crushed the glass casing in the fist formed. Dropping it, the quiet, seething rage grew visibly in his expression. His gaze swept deliberate across everyone in the room, landing on Alex last.

"I made you a promise six years ago, Alex." His tone dripped disdain. "That one day I would put my knife in your skull."

She felt such joy. It was Chris again. Angrier, vicious. He came for his wannabe master in vengeance. Wesker stepped aside to let the two tangle and after a few moments, Alex managed to disengage to move onto the stairs behind him. He took a needle shot out of a belt pouch to reload the gun.

"You forget. I control you. I'm in charge."

Chris caught the damn thing before it could hit his neck. "You forget. You made your weapon better than you."

Alex pulled his sunglasses off. A brief glimpse of fear in those inhuman eyes and confidence overcame it. So he was a Wesker survivor. The female Alex had to have been a fake planted by him. Meant he'd go to absurd lengths to cover whatever he was doing.

"Scared, Alex? I know you are," he taunted, rather unlike Chris. "You created me. You know you cannot kill me. Should have been more careful choosing who you turned into a monster."

Eva practically cheered when Chris curb-stomped the bastard once more. He stabbed his sword through Alex's abdomen, angled toward the chest. It was possible to appreciate his improved skills and speed while of his own mind. She was still worried, but felt in control now. He was free.

"I will kill you," vowed Chris. "I promised."

His enemy flipped the situation around in an instant. He grabbed Chris by the throat, compressing the carotid arteries to rob him of oxygen. He was taking away brain function to cease his assault. He drop kicked Chris from him, tugging the sword out. Chris hit the wall with great force. Rendered unconscious, his eyelids were half open and the eyeballs were rolled to the back of his head. It was a terrifying sight. She prayed he was okay.

Alex returned to the walkways, heading for a section shrouded in darkness. "You're too late!"

She didn't know what he meant and she didn't care. Krauser jogged forward and picked up the sword. Rebecca headed directly for the limp body of the man they came for. Her remaining allies began to gather. Alex fled, the coward, and she ran to be with Chris.