Author Note: Continuation to Secrets and Flies that starts Three months after the end of the last one. Love, betrayal, suspense and action are on the menu for this story as we watch our favourite band of Umbrella renegades give it their all too hopefully bring a final end to their hellish lifestyle. To do that, assistance will be required from some, unconventional characters...

I do not own the characters & this will be very different from any RE movie and/or video game plot (to date)

Please read & review as you wish!

B.

Update 05-July-2021: Minor updates / corrections based on latest changes in Secrets and Flies.

Calm Before the Storm

- 9 -

- Angela -

She could tell she was moving. It felt was different than the lulling rocks The Arcadia would make in ocean waves. It was more of a rumble, like tires driving on gravel. The more she concentrated, the more she could make out a whirling sound, like from a helicopter. The last time she was airborne it was leaving Raccoon City with Alice and Jill. They weren't up in the air for long, the shockwave of the exploding missile sent their plane nose diving into the Arklay Mountains.

Suddenly, she felt a jolt, something metal rattling. Fearing the same was happening again, Angela opened her eyes, squinting slightly at the bright light above her. Metal clattered again, quickening her heartrate. Her vision couldn't focus, blurred by sleep and exhaustion. All Angela could make out was as a shadowed figure looming over her, now shielding her from the light.

"Angela?"

Angela blinked a few times, her throat dry and thick like cement. This mystery person read her mind, placing a glass of water to her lips and forcing her to take a sip. The water was cold, shocking her nerves back to life. She coughed, the shadowed figure wiping the sides of her lips with a soft, white cloth.

"Hey, are you awake?"

Eventually she recognized that voice as belonging to K-Mart. Angela blinked, now able to clearly see her friend dressed in a fresh pair of military fatigues and relief on her face. Angela cracked a smile and then winced as a stinging sensation brewed in her left shoulder and traveled down her arm. The pain jolted her memory, remembering the battle against Umbrella.

"W-Where am I?" Angela asked. Her fingers slowly moved to the bandage on her shoulder, the cloth knotted and caked in blood.

"You're in a helicopter heading to Washington." K-Mart explained.

Washington? What the hell could be in Washington?

"The ship? W-what happened?"

K-Mart's eyes went dark and misty as she recounted the highlights of their battle with Umbrella to her dazed friend. She conveniently left out certain details, figuring that in due time Angela would figure out her true loss against the enemy. Angela listened, only retaining bits and pieces, her mind still foggy and disjointed. The pain in her shoulder was a grave distraction, but that was not what was flooding her mind. She felt different, almost empty, as if something was missing.

She turned her head, noticing Claire was beside her on another stretcher. Her eyes were closed and an IV was strung up above her, the clear liquid half gone. Fresh, white bandages were wrapped around her ribs.

What the hell happened? Where was Alice, or Jill? Why were they going to Washington? Did others survive?

"Hey, are you okay?" K-Mart asked, watching Angela wince as if she was having a migraine.

"Did we win?"

K-Mart nodded, the cabin shaking once more. Now that she was conscious, every movement made another bolt of fire shoot down her arm. Angela closed her eyes, a queasy feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. Only then did she realize the real pain was not coming from her shoulder. It was radiating from her abdomen.

"My baby, d-did it make it?" Angela asked, her eyes wet with tears.

K-Mart searched the young woman's face, but the silence spoke for its self. Angela already knew the answer before she even asked.

"Y-You need to rest, we'll talk later." K-Mart muttered, hoping the young woman would not put up a struggle.

Angela closed her eyes and just nodded slightly as if to agree. She turned her head away from K-Mart, not wanting her only friend to see the hot tears burning her cheeks. First her father, then the boy she loved, and now her child. Another loved one has been ripped away from her by Umbrella.

-Jill-

She did not know what was worse, seasickness or turbulence. As the helicopter shook and rumbled with every new air current it passed, Jill could feel her stomach doing back flips and handsprings. She sat off to the side, watching K-Mart tend to Angela. It was so hard to believe that five years ago, Angela was just a twelve year old child in need of rescuing at an elementary school in the heart of Raccoon City. After Umbrella wedged their grungy hands between them, Jill thought for sure the girl was either dead or captured and become a science experiment. When they found her in Mexico, the only survivor, it was both a relief and a surprise. When they found out she was pregnant, everyone including Chris, who was apprehensive about almost anything that happened a board The Arcadia, was overjoyed.

Now, the loss of her unborn child was just another casualty added to Umbrella's ever growing body count.

She pulled out the hunting knife pocketed in the lining of her boot and studied her reflection in the smooth blade. Her skin was speckled red from blood and dirt streaked her cheeks like warrior paint. Her eyes were hollow and dark. She looked like a survivor and was proud to wear the blood of those she killed to protect the innocent. Jill sheathed the knife once more, scanning the helicopter that was her home for the next ten hours.

Claire was asleep on a stretcher next to Angela. Her ribs, sliced open by a helicopter blade, were covered in fresh bandages as she rested, attempting to regain as much strength as she could before Washington. Chris was at her side holding her hand. His body was hunched over as if he was going to cry or crush someone with his fists. Everyone had their own set of priorities.

Luther was propped up in one of the very uncomfortable seats along the left side of the helicopter, his eyes closed, muscles relaxed. It baffled her that he was able to sleep with the helicopter constantly bumping and groaning. At the rear of the chopper Alice and Leon, a man Jill knew by reputation more than name, were talking strategy. Their voices were hushed and low as if they were sharing a secret that no one else was equipped to know. Even though Chris's attention was on Claire, his eyes were staring into the back of Alice's skull so hard Jill thought he'd burn right through it.

Finally, there was Ada Wong, a deadly assassin whose alliance was to Umbrella's before she switched sides for unknown reasons. She was alone on the right side of the helicopter, her guns laid out on a cloth sack at her feet. She was going through and cleaning them one by one, restocking the magazines, prepping for battle. Jill did not understand why she chose a red dress under her long black coat. It felt like the least practical, and most revealing outfit a woman could wear when fighting monsters and demons.

Ada was also her only chance at gaining some sense of closure. Since Alice removed the Medusa Bug, and her countless discussions with Claire on coping with memory loss, Jill had been slowly, and painfully putting her life back together. Alice was able to fill in some gaps, Angela too, but no one was able to tell her exactly what she did as a drone to Umbrella.

Ada was her only hope.

Figuring this plane ride was as good as time as any to try and get some answers, Jill got up, using the wrap around netting on the ceiling for support while navigating the shaky helicopter. She sat down beside Ada, noticing the woman did not even look up at the presence of another.

"What made you switch?" Jill asked point blank.

Without looking up Ada replied, "Who says I have," she paused, eyeing Jill with a mischievous grin.

"If you didn't, you'd be dead by now."

Ada snapped the slide back into place, shoving a clip of 9 mm rounds into the magazine with a satisfying click. She turned the gun sideways, aiming it at Jill. Jill stood her ground, her mind had been fucked with enough.

"I want check out on my own accord and not before some demon bastard does it for me." Ada explained, lowering the gun. "Plus, I don't take orders from a homicidal computer."

Perplexed, Jill asked, "What happened to Wesker?"

Ada smiled and nodded in the direction of Leon and Alice, "Go ask them. Umbrella is not the same as it used to be."

Jill looked down the plane at Leon and Alice, quickly returning her attention to Ada who was back to cleaning her weapons. "I'm not asking them, I'm asking you. I find it hard to believe that someone as high ranking as you were, wouldn't know what happened."

"You had a higher ranked than I, Chief Officer Valentine." Ada remarked, seeing the surprise on Jill's face, "You don't remember do you?"

"I was hoping you'd be able to fill in the blanks for me." Jill replied, "Ever since Alice freed me from that, that thing I've been trying to piece together what happened. The part I'm missing most is when I was under Umbrella's thumb. Of all the people I'm stuck with on this helicopter, you're the only one who can help me."

Ada sat back in her seat, putting her gun on her lap and crossing her arms. This new development intrigued her. She knew about the Medusa Bug program, it was something Wesker spearheaded within the last three years as head of Umbrella. She was also fully aware that The Red Queen, if she still called herself that, had made some enhancements to the project.

"I can't speak to everything, but I did witness you, dressed in that awful purple jumpsuit and red glowing bug on your chest, stalking the halls of Umbrella Headquarters. You had hundreds of men and women under you, hanging on your every word. It was beautiful and also, disturbing."

"Oh God," Jill breathed, beside herself with guilt.

"You ordered the execution of thousands of innocent lives as Chief Security Officer and you know why?"

Jill just shrugged her shoulders, "Enlighten me,"

Ada's smile grew wider, "Oh I love this irony, because of that blonde freak of nature over there." she replied, her grin as wide as Cheshire cat.

Jill felt the colour drain from her face. The nauseous feeling returned in the put of her stomach, but not because of turbulence.

"You're main objective was to capture Project Alice; dead or alive."

Jill caught the eye of Alice who gave a weak smile in her direction before turning her attention back to Leon and the map they were scheming over. Tears welled in Jill's eyes, unable to believe she would do something like that. Alice was her comrade and friend, why would she try to kill her.?

"Was Alice the real reason you and Leon came to The Arcadia?" she asked, her voice shaking.

Ada stood, holstering her gun with a smirk. "Go ask Alice whose really pulling the strings on this whole operation."

With that she walked off, disappearing into the only lavatory on board. Jill was left questioning if she was better off before or after she talked with Ada.

T.B.C.

Hope you all enjoyed! Please let me know what you think :)
Always open to suggestions/comments/concerns/praise/ etc.