Resident Evil

Resident Evil: Demon Rising, part 2

French Riviera

---

Broken glass crunching under his boot, Albert Wesker surveyed his handiwork. The lab was a total wreck, the scientists and technicians who had been in the room were all lying dead, and a sample of the T-Virus was in his hand.

Wesker laughed.

"Easy come," he said to himself, hurling the vial into a corner. The virus splattered all over it's surface and the equipment that stood there and dripped down, some of it running into a ventilation duct near the floor.

"Easy go," Wesker laughed. "That takes care of the rest of the place."

He walked into a nearby office and triggered a secret door in the wall. The supervisor of the facility seemed to be fond of spy movies, it seemed, and the last thing Wesker needed to find wasn't exempt from this.

From the schematics he'd seen, this wasn't the only little hideaway, but it was the only one he needed. At the far end sat a computer terminal that glowed an eerie blue. He took off his glasses to better see in the dim light the screen provided, and took an old notebook from his pocket.

He flipped through a few pages, finally finding the one he wanted. Umbrella thought he was dead, and when he was still working for them, the access codes given to employees that died were never changed, just given to someone else. He'd even found a letter from the bigwigs to the facility's commander that mentioned it, confirming his suspicion that Umbrella was too lazy to change policy.

Thankful that these were universal to every base, he typed in the line of letters and numbers, and the clever symbols that needed to use the alt function on the keyboard to go through. It made it pretty hard for a code to be deciphered. A few seconds after entering the code key, a confirmation came up on the screen that reported the facility's entrances and exits were silently locked down.

But Wesker didn't stop at that; he entered in another code, this one even longer since he was setting it to affect only a certain area of the facility.

Smiling, he pressed the enter key and walked out. No sooner had he entered the main lab again then a cool, female voice came through the speakers.

"The self-destruct sequence has been activated, repeat, the self destruct sequence has been activated, this sequence can not be aborted, all personal evacuate laboratories immediately."

Wesker ran, leaving the main lab far behind. He raced through the facility and cleared the labs in seconds, stopping outside the cliché-hidden entrance. He looked in the direction of the labs and brought his arm up, fixing his gaze on his watch. At a total of five minutes from when he'd turned on the self-destruct, the ground rumbled as if there was an earthquake. An explosion rocked the general area of the labs, and the sound was music to Wesker's ears. And best of all, the rest of the place was still intact, just like he wanted.

"Death, he called. "Death, I need you!"

The reaper materialized scythe first in front of Wesker.

"Ahhhh… a nice piece of destruction you've made here. I wish you were around centuries ago! What do you need?"

"I need you to get to a computer and send a message," he answered, reaching into a pouch on his vest and pulling out a piece of paper. "Then do some other assorted things. It's all here."

Taking the paper in a bony hand, Death half-bowed in acknowledgment and disappeared.

---

"Dr. Luccianna, besides being a bio-chemist, is a trained spy. She made this… well, this," Leon indicated himself, "at Castlevania Pharmaceuticals, Umbrella's biggest competitor in biological weapons. And her first subject happened to be the corpse of one Albert Wesker."

"So that's what he meant."

"Huh," Claire said turning to her brother. "What do you mean?"

"On Rockfort Island, Wesker told me he had to sell his soul to a new organization… I thought he meant some kind of terrorist group or something Of course it was kind of hard to rationalize things, I couldn't breath at the time… but if this doctor was just spying, why'd she need to make this stuff THERE, and use it on Wesker in the first place?"

"She needed research that CP holds very, very tightly. The regenerative property of this stuff, the part that brought Wesker back to life and keeps either of us from getting injured by trivial things, is taken right from William Birkin's G-Virus. And apparently they got it quite simply. You know your friend Hunk, Claire? He works for CP behind Umbrella's back."

"I do not understand," Alucard said, flipping through the pages of an old book he'd noticed on a shelf in the house.

"What's so hard to understand, he's a double agent," Leon repeated in response to Alucard's comment.

"But that is what I find strange… Death isn't one to trouble with such things… for that matter, my father usually tries to spread his evil out from the moment he awakens. Does this look familiar?"

He slid the book across the table in Leon's direction. The ex-cop picked it up and looked at the open page. The yellowed paper was home to a drawing of an old, gothic-like castle.

"Of course, it's CP's headquarters," Leon answered, turning to the cover to see what the book was. The aged gold embroidery read "Myth's throughout the Centuries; 1985 edition."

Confused, Leon flipped back to the middle and read the caption, 'Ancient artist's rendition of the supposed castle of Vlad the Impaler. Believed a hoax as the castle has never been found.'

"Coincidence, I still don't believe it," Leon answered, setting the book down.

Claire rubbed her eyes, still not really recovered from having her skull banged against her brother's. "Well, he DID sort of come out of a coffin."

Chris blinked, "Coffin?"

Alucard grew agitated, "Why do you sharply refuse to even consider believing my word? You're a dhampire yourself!"

Leon looked visibly disturbed, and Chris was still confused.

"A what?"

"Half-breed spawn of a vampire and a human," Claire answered, still rubbing her eyes. She looked up to see her brother staring at her oddly. "So sue me, I was studying for a minor in mythology before I went to look for your sorry butt."

"I can smell my own kind without difficulty," Alucard said to Leon. "Do you have a bloodlust?"

Leon sighed, replacing his glasses as he answered. "Yeah."

Claire looked away from him, apparently now interested in Alucard. But Leon suddenly realized he had been staring at the blood on her bandage. Talking about it sparked an interest.

"I can control it," he added.

"Leon," Chris broke in, but Leon cut him off.

"She told me all of this..."

---

"Vell, dis is all turning out exactly as I'd expected…"

"And?"

Dr. Luccianna pulled her eyes from the microscope and turned to Leon.

"And dat's a good thing, at the very least. How does it feel?"

Pulling his shirt back on, Leon actually thought about the question. Even then, he couldn't come up with a very specific answer.

"Still feels... weird."

"Dat vill pass," the doctor replied. She took another quick glance into the microscope and added something to the sample of Leon's blood that she'd just taken.

"Dat von't take long," she sat down, suddenly sounding exasperated. "Vhat did they tell you, Leon? How'd you get into dis?"

"Guy in a suit told me to choose between myself and a twelve year old girl," he answered.

"Dat's so typical," she sighed. "Vork vit de government, do good... dis job is de ultimate example of good intentions being carried out by sinister means, you know. I ask vat to do ven de company I was spying in recently points to a corpse and says 'experiment on dis!' So I'm told to just do it to avoid suspicion, and I make someone just like you, someone on the opposite side, I vonder how many vill die because of dat?"

"What do you mean?"

Standing up, Dr. Luccianna went on as she checked the sample again.

"Vell, it vorked... you vant to know vat you are? I'll start at de beginning," she explained. Leon nodded with a surprising amount of patience.

"Ven dey gave me dis assignment, the only thing I first had to vork vith vas a very old sample of DNA, from blood taken hundreds of years ago. I don't know how dey got it, it looked human, but ven I really looked close, dere vere abnormalities… anyvay, dey just told me to use Umbrella's research as a base to artificially duplicate the abnormalities in dat DNA. So I vorked at their rival company for a vhile and completed it. And here ve are."

"So what does it do?"

Leon's voice was edgy; it was obvious he was really asking what it'd done to him personally.

"Dis is all going to sound like some veird horror joke. The sample I vas given, dey told me, belonged to a Nosferatu, a vampire. My task vas to artificially turn a human into a partial vampire, the term is dhampirism. And it vorked"

She handed him a mirror. He had no idea what to think, vampires... but whatever he wanted to believe, a look in the mirror, at his eyes, suddenly forced him to accept he wasn't human anymore. A few minutes ago they had been normal, but no more.

He dropped the mirror.

"Why..."

"Perfect soldier," she answered. "To tell you de truth, I have no idea if any of dat vampire stuff is true, but you're stronger, faster and much more resilient then any normal human vill ever be, even if you don't feel any different in dose respects just yet."

---

"I'll be in the car," Claire commented when Leon finished. Chris had briefly gotten up to hook a laptop up to the phone line and was in the process of connecting it to the Internet.

"Bout time, Jill," he said to himself, checking what he hoped was a secure e-mail account. "Finally some good news… what the?"

A message from Jill Valentine wasn't the only thing Chris had received. He turned the laptop to face the center of the table so everyone else could see what he'd just noticed himself.

To: Whom it may concern
From: You should know me rather well
Re: Let's talk about that, shall we?

Most of you know me as Hunk. Alucard, I can almost SEE the confusion on your face as I type this, this may be coming over on a work of man unfamiliar to you but I'm betting you still know how to read, so if you're still with your newfound human friends, I advise you to pay close attention. You never know when Father might be involved.

You have all meddled in Umbrella's affairs a great deal. Be that as it may, I myself have a use for you. You see, the Paris research facility, the same that one Claire Redfield should recognize, recently had an… accident. I'm supposed to clean it up but I have other pressing matters I must attend to. Since Umbrella is not an official employer as far as I'm concerned, I have would have no problem with it if they were to go down the drain.

If, however, the facility is not cleaned up, their annoying mercenaries will endlessly hound me. I propose a deal to you all. If you destroy the facility, which shouldn't prove to be an overly huge challenge, then not only will you stop the T-Virus from spreading to Paris, but I'll give you all the evidence you need to legally burn the company down in flames. The location and the computer access codes you will need are enclosed; an entry key is hidden at the front door. The authorities are present at the scene but someone who owes me a favor is keeping them back from entering the complex.

And Alucard; the master awaits your arrival. Don't disappoint.

Death

---

"I had just been informed you were heading out," Count Dracula talked, once again looking out the window if his recently renovated office.

"I'm on my way out, Sire," Wesker answered. "But I wanted to tell you something first."

"Yes?"

"I finished it."

A seldom-seen side of Vlad the Impaler came to the surface. The age-old vampire whirled around, a true smile painting his face for the first time in hundreds of years.

"So soon?!"

"And so perfect," Wesker answered. He was certainly proud of his feat. "It works perfectly in every simulation, in EVERY one."

"Go with Death," was the count's response as he grinned and sat in his chair. "Bring one of them back here and test it. Make sure the others get what Death promised, Umbrella has served their purpose and they must now be removed."

Wesker bowed, turned, and left, leaving Count Dracula to his thoughts.

"But you don't fail me Death," he said to himself. "Don't even think of failing me in this."

---

Closing the laptop, Chris passed clips for the handgun type they both used over to Claire. She tucked them away into her pockets, busy loading a round into the grenade launcher she'd opted to acquire earlier. One just like it had carried her through Raccoon City and Rockfort, and she wasn't going to be caught under-armed against the likes of Umbrella and their experiments.

Chris's handgun was still by his side, and he was chambering a round into his shotgun. Leon had pulled a futuristic looking rifle type weapon from under his coat, and he was setting the power pack in.

"That looks like something out of Star Trek, Leon," Chris noted.

"I think it's supposed to," Leon answered, giving his weapon a once-over like it was the first time he'd seen it. "The head of R&D where I get this stuff is a little loopy. It's a mass driver, actually."

Strapping the grenade launcher on her back, Claire took one of the clips Chris had given her and re-loaded her gun. She turned to Alucard, "Are you coming?"

"Yes," the dhampire replied. He had otherwise been just standing there in thought, not having to go through the preparations the others did. "It's a trap."

"Yes, I know," Chris acknowledged. "But being the noble good guys, we have to make sure there's no chance of that virus getting around."

"That e-mail certainly sent bells and alarms ringing," Leon added.

Chris turned to his sister; "Claire, do you think you could still get into the place from where you did last time?"

"Probably, why?"

"I want to keep some extra options open, we might want, or need, to split up. Or there might be a nasty surprise waiting at the main entrance, you never know. Okay, I just need to leave a message for Jill in case she gets here before we get back, and we're gone. I figure it'll be a three-hour drive, at least."

Leon and Claire went outside while Chris fumbled around the kitchen for a post-it note while Leon and Claire went outside, and Alucard opted to follow them.

"The jeep is ours to use," Claire pointed out in the garage, hopping in the driver's seat before her brother came out. Leon got in the back with Alucard, who opted to simply follow and not ask what the thing was. Chris came through the door at that moment, and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Claire.

"Hop in, bro," she smiled, a rather glaring smile. Chris did so, and immediately fastened his seatbelt.

Tightly.

---

Leaning over the roof of the building that served as a feint for Umbrella's lab, Wesker put a pair of binoculars to his eyes and looked down when he spotted movement. Sure enough, he had a perfect view of the jeep carrying the four invited guests. They were still a fair distance away, only now about to turn off the main road and onto a block that they could access the building from.

The early morning darkness might have been the perfect cover for them, if Wesker hadn't had enhanced senses, anyway. With the soon-to-be intruders spotted, Wesker retreated further back onto the roof where Death floated in wait.

"They're here. And he's with them," he told the Reaper.

If he didn't know any better, Wesker could have sword that Death's skeletal face had been formed into a smile.

"Which one do you want?"

"I don't care," Wesker replied. "If we're lucky, they'll get separated by themselves, and I'll just go for the closest. Maybe that one I don't recognize, but it would be fun to get Redfield or his sister."

"Ahhhh, so Wesker has a devilish side in him," Death mused. "If they split up, we should go in opposite directions, it will give us more time to single our targets out and get away before the others even realize something's wrong."

"Agreed."

Death vanished in his usual fashion, and Wesker dashed off.

Claire brought the jeep to a halt on a busy, public street a nice distance away from where she knew Umbrella was hiding, prompting everyone to get out. Chris looked at the map Hunk had given the, it was pretty straightforward, and he motioned everyone into an ally.

"Okay, this is straight-forward, we've all got a copy of the codes he gave us for this place," he explained. "There are police and military all around where the labs would be, but there shouldn't be any inside. The entrance that we want is that way," he pointed.

The small group made there way in the direction, sticking to alleyways and other obscure places so their arsenal would go unnoticed. Alucard even kept his cloak tightly wrapped around him so the lining's glow wouldn't give off light, but he couldn't keep himself from gazing in wonder at things of what was virtually a new world from when he last went to sleep.

"And this is a 'main' entrance," Leon asked to no one in particular, as they ended up in front of a fence that sealed off an innocent-looking office building, with a line of three garbage dumpsters on the fence's inner perimeter. They were facing it's east side, and there were no guards around at the moment. There were slightly visible lines in the wall near the ground, probably not noticeable to anybody just passing by and not looking for anything strange. Down near the end of the building, a few floors up, was a massive gash that tore through a row of windows.

"Hey, they still haven't fixed it," Claire commented in jest.

A helicopter sounded near by; probably the local authorities on patrol but wondering why they couldn't go in. being spotted would not be a good thing.

"After Rockfort, I swore I'd never climb anything again," Chris stated, noting that the fence wasn't barbed. Nevertheless, he quickly scaled the mesh and dropped over the other side, followed closely by Claire. The nearby dumpster seemed to get Chris' attention, however, as he fixed his eyes on a certain spot and walked toward it.

The helicopter was closer now, and the ambience from a searchlight was reaching over the building's roof, prompting Chris and Claire to press onto the wall. Chris had something in his hand; it looked like a strip of duct tape.

"Great," Leon said, looking up. "I think I'll opt to jump over, myself…"

With that, he backed up, broke into a run, somersaulted clear over the fence and landed silently, joining the other two.

Alucard, however, didn't get the chance to get over before the helicopter's sweep brought it overhead. It's searchlight didn't bother going anywhere near the side of the building, but it was heading for the other side of the fence at a rapid pace.

And it just swept by where Alucard was standing, seeing nothing except an odd cloud of mist. As the light passed by, the mist itself seemed to gravitate past the fence, slipping through the mesh like the air it was. The light passed by over the light fog again as the helicopter swung around, and then went dark as the light passed. When the ambient light hit again, Alucard was standing on the other side.

"I thought the sword was a neat trick," Leon mused.

Chris took a closer look at the duct tape in his hand. Attached to it, previously strapped to the dumpster, was a plastic card bearing Umbrella's logo and a barcode.

"There's that. Wonder where the keyhole is…"

---

Death watched the computer screen closely, waiting for Chris to find the way in. His skinless fingers tapped impatiently on the table, and a zombie shuffled somewhere behind him. No matter, the undead didn't think to attack him; maybe they could sense the lack of meat on his frame.

Death's wish was granted as Chris noticed the card hole near the secret door, and they'd seen that too. He used the card, surprised that it got totally sucked in by the reader, but they were content as the large slab of concrete and steel moved up.

"That's right, humans… a little more…"

Wesker needed one of the humans alive, that wasn't a problem. Two of the humans entered first… Death tapped a button, and watched as the door closed and locked, trapping them inside, and leaving one of them outside with Alucard. Two out of three wasn't bad.

---

"Damn it! Of all the…"

"Figures," Leon commented, grabbing the access card, which had come out on their side. He ran it through the reader on this side, which was plainly visible. Nothing happened. "If that thing's as thick as I think it is, we're not going back out that way."

Claire turned toward the opposite end of the chamber, where a normal sized but locked door was set into the wall. "Okay then, if we can't get out, we go in," she pulled the grenade launcher off her back and pointed toward the door. "I'll give this a try."

The door looked to be made of solid steel, but it certainly wasn't as large as the entryway. Claire backed up a little and pulled the trigger, sending a grenade into the obstruction. It exploded with force, not knocking down the door but noticeably damaging it.

"It's a start," she commented, grabbing another grenade from her sash and reloading her weapon. She aimed again, but Leon put his hand on the weapon.

"Wait, save the ammo, I'll take care of it."

Claire was content to comply, having learned the value of conservation in Raccoon City, Rockfort Island and the Antarctic. Leon stepped up to the door and ran a hand along it's surface, finally taping it a couple of times with his fist. After that, he took a step back and threw the hardest punch he could.

Not only did his fist dent the door in more, it started to shake it loose from the hinges. Leon hit it again, and again, and again, kicking it or throwing himself into the middle every now and then. Slowly, but surely, the door started to give way under his inhuman strength.

---

"We're not getting in from here," Chris admitted, tapping his gun against the wall. He tried not to worry about Claire, she could take care of herself, and she and Leon knew each other from Raccoon, at least. But the problem was getting in themselves.

"Perhaps that," Alucard said, looking off to the extensive damage in the building's side caused by Umbrella's pursuit of Claire not too long ago. There weren't any windows lower then the damage, but the side of the building was too smooth to climb.

"No, I left my grappling hook in my other vest," Chris jested. "I don't suppose you have rope or anything hidden away?"

"No, however I can improvise, remain here."

Before Chris could ask where exactly he was going, Alucard provided an answer. The dhampire crouched down and pushed his cloak into the air. The glowing cloth wrapped around his arms and formed into wings, while the rest of him completed the transformation into the bat.

Alucard flapped his wings hard, getting of the ground and quickly ascending parallel to the building and moved into the gap. Chris waited, anxious for something to happen, and he got his wish.

Just not in the way he wanted.

A growl sounded behind him, and Chris spun around just in time to see a zombie dog pounce at him with no warning. Instinctively he dived out of the way, just fast enough to avoid the monster's jaws. No warning… the ground was a lawn, a dry lawn; the dog's walking hadn't made any noise.

Determined to prevent any of his limbs from becoming a midnight snack, Chris pulled his shotgun without even getting up and blasted the thing as it jumped at him again. The point-blank range discharge blew the lethal yet frail creature into pieces.

Another growl, almost identical to the one he'd just heard, perfect, there was more of the things around. Chris made a dash for the area below the damage, not really knowing what Alucard could do to bail him out but hoping he could do something anyway.

He looked behind himself and caught sight of the two new dogs chasing him. Once again, he dived away, and the not-so-bright animals overshot him. Quickly standing, he totally destroyed one of them with his shotgun like he'd done to the first, but the second was too close and too fast for him to re-pump the grip aim, and fire.

Instead, Chris pulled his handgun and fired. The shot caught it squarely in the head, killing it. Sounds of more dogs were close by, but Chris wouldn't have to worry. A long fire hose dropped down from the building and hung a few feet up from the ground. Chris could see Alucard in the building, holding onto it.

Getting a running start, Chris jumped for the hose and managed to grab on just above the nozzle. He pulled himself up hand over hand until he could get his feet on the wall, giving him some leverage. What worried him were the bullet holes that riddled the hose. It wouldn't be very healthy if it were torn enough to break.

Be that as it may, he managed to scale the wall completely. But the hose just didn't want to hold his weight, and it snapped just as he reached the top. Chris grabbed onto the ruined concrete as he felt himself fall, and let out a sigh of relief that he'd been close enough to do so. Alucard offered a hand and pulled him up.

"Thanks," Chris panted.

---

Leon was starting to get angry. At least he could hit the object of his anger. The door had been very annoying, and it was finally starting to give, just a little more… he backed up halfway across the room and ran at it, slamming his shoulder and every ounce of strength he had into the crumbling metal thing.

It worked, and the door flew off and Leon had to catch himself from tripping as he came to a halt in the next room.

"Harrumph. Way to make someone feel useless, Leon."

"Hey, I got us in, didn't I? Come on, let's go."

Past the entry chamber was a set of double sliding doors that had been dislocated from their racks. They, in turn, led to the 'bottom' of a T-shaped corridor. The walls were dotted with a door here and there, and Claire, curious, went up to one. She drew her handgun as a precaution, and pulled the door open.

A zombie was standing right in front of the door on the other side. It saw her and reached out, it's rotted flesh barely clinging to it's body. Claire raised the gun in front of it's head and pulled the trigger, sending it down for good.

"All the challenge is gone," Leon commented, trying the door across from Claire. It was locked, so he kicked it in, and was promptly leaped upon by a Licker that had been on the ceiling in the room. He grabbed it's arm as it tried to tear his face to shreds with it's claws, and viciously whipped it down the hallway.

"I got it," Leon told Claire as the Licker scrambled to it's feet and came towards them. Leon reached under his coat and pulled out his rifle. "C'mon, little bastard."

He let it get a little closer. Then he aimed and pulled the trigger. The rifle made an energetic noise and recoiled in his arms, sending a large bolt of blue at the Licker that promptly blew it's head and upper body apart.

"Star Trek, Leon?"

He smiled, pumping the grip like a shotgun. The casing for the large shell dropped out and onto the floor. "Why don't we look at the whole hallway first before doing that again?"

"Agreed."

They walked down the long corridor towards the split at the end, mindful of their surroundings and any possible surprises that might be made known.

"So where is Sherry, Leon?"

He grunted. "I told you, she's safe," he answered, still walking.

"Don't pull that shit on me!"

"Claire, do you like being told off? I could do an even better job right now, if you prefer, there aren't any little kids around."

"Oh I get it, I'm the villain," Claire laughed. "Poor innocent Leon got his feelings hurt by the nasty bitch?"

"I'm lucky if I can remember ever HAVING feelings," he snapped. "Poor innocent Leon died on Dr. Luccianna's table."

"Yeah, the vampire freak has it so hard."

Leon grabbed her and forced her to look at him.

"Let me tell you something," he shot at her as he pulled off his glasses so she could see his eyes. "This much pain tends to… you know, I can't even put into words what I felt like afterward, but I died a little inside Claire, and I don't just mean being half-undead."

Claire didn't show any emotion on her features. She did, however, draw her hand back and slap Leon clear across the face.

"Don't you DARE touch me again!"

"That didn't hurt, you know."

She slapped him once more, "Sure is fun!"

Before either could say anything more, a light sound hit their ears, an elevator tone. The elevator was in the wall across from them, in the middle of where the hallway turned into a T. It dinged again, and the doors opened, allowing another rotting zombie to shamble out. Leon scowled, raised his rifle, and blew it in half.

---

Looking away from the computer that sat in front of him, Alucard re-checked the letters and symbols on the piece of paper in his hand. Leon had given him a crash course on computers during the ride over, commenting that if he was going to keep going on about having slept for 400 years then he might as well play along to kill time.

The system he'd found in the facility's built-in library had been left on, and it's default was for entering the facility's access codes for various functions, so even having literally been under a rock for the last few centuries didn't keep him from at least entering the code line.

Alucard had seen a lot in his life. So he wasn't surprised when a glossy, circular object fell in front of his face and in his lap, seemingly from nowhere. He stood and turned around, the object in his hand.

"What do you here, Death?"

"Why, I've only come to fulfill my part of the bargain, Alucard," the reaper replied. "That disc contains everything needed for the explicit purpose of destroying Umbrella in the human courts. But, you may want to leave it here for your friends, I'm afraid you'll be coming with me."

"I implore you Death," Alucard answered, drawing his sword. "Stop having delusions."

"Harrumph. You have no vision, Alucard. Very well, if you must make my life difficult," Death answered, gesturing with his arms. Small scythes appeared everywhere out of thin air, and every one of them started to spin and charge at Alucard, matching his direction. The dhampire darted around Death and baited most of the scythes to embed themselves into the scattered books on the shelves.

Hopping up, Alucard pushed himself off of the wall and catapulted at Death, slashing at the reaper on the way by. Death, annoyed, reached under his robe and pulled out his shotgun and fired. Alucard wasn't expecting it and ended up getting lambasted by the massive weapon's shot, the force ten times as much as the muskets he'd been pegged with in Castlevania.

Death blasted the dhampire again as he stood, sending him crashing into a cabinet of books that promptly fell backwards. But Alucard was getting sick of this. Rather then standing a second time, he formed into mist and floated into the air. Death's next shot passed through him and hit the wall.

"You are a pest, Alucard. But you can't hold your forms forever, I can wait!"

At that exact moment, Chris entered the library from a nearby door.

"Die, human," Death shouted, annoyed at being interrupted. He swung his aim around and blasted the shotgun at Chris, who was already in the process of diving behind another book cabinet.

This, however, gave Alucard the time he needed to reform and recover. He sheathed his mother's sword in favor of Azagal's Mourneblade, and attacked. Caught off guard, Death tried to swing his shotgun like a club, but missed by a mile. Alucard hacked and slashed, weakening Death while at the same time the Mourneblade stole that strength as Death lost it, and Alucard's wounds started to heal.

Alucard's problem, however, was the Mourneblade had no magical properties to it besides what was restoring his health. It was hurting Death no more then a normal sword would, and despite his almost rabid attacks, it wasn't much against the Reaper.

Death, however, had had enough. The reaper shoved Alucard away and took the moment to levitate higher, putting away his shotgun and grabbing his magnum. He willed a huge scythe to jab into the book cabinet right next to Chris, and it drove him out. Death aimed his gun at the ex-STARS member, who was now in the very wide open.

"I grow tired of this! Come with me right NOW, Alucard, or so help me I'll blow his head in two!"

Alucard stood motionless for a second, and Chris dared not to move with that thing pointing at his head and the bone of Death's finger on the trigger. The dhampire slowly walked forward, placing the Mourneblade back into his magic pocket in resignation. What Death didn't notice, however, was that Alucard also pulled out one of his Tarot cards and managed to slip it under his sleeve before it disappeared.

Much to Death's surprise, a small, floating, flaming skull appeared in front of him. Before the reaper could react, the skull rushed forward and bit into Death's gun hand. More shocked then hurt, Death dropped the magnum and tried to wave away Alucard's Ghost Familiar.

Death roared, "I have had quite enough of you!"

Alucard called his familiar back and drew his sword once more, while Chris pumped his shotgun and blasted Death straight on.

"Very well, you want to be with your humans so much? DIE WITH THEM!"

The reaper gestured, and one if his scythes appeared above the computer Alucard had been sitting at before. The scythe turned so it's tip was facing downward, and moved, pressing the ENTER key on the keyboard.

Death laughed, and disappeared, leaving Chris and Alucard to look at each other, one in confusion, the other already understanding what was going to happen in a few seconds.

---

"The self-destruct sequence has been activated, repeat, the self destruct sequence has been activated, this sequence can not be aborted. This facility will detonate in seven minutes. Main entrance is locked down, all personnel should procede to the helipad immediately."

"I swear if I ever meet that woman I'm going to tear her voice box out," Claire cursed. No sooner had she said that then the actual alarm klaxons began sounding. "Helipad… I know where that is! Let's go."

She lead Leon through several rooms, most of them trashed and crawling with an odd zombie or three, but nothing totally threatening. One room, however, gave them an obstacle; the lights were totally off in the large area, a research lab. The only illumination was from the light in the last room they'd just been through.

"This facility will detonate in six minutes," the computer announced.

"Door's on the right wall," Claire said, trying to feel her way around. Leon stepped ahead of her, taking off his glasses to let his eyes see little details that Claire couldn't. The light switch was next to the door they needed to get to.

Neither of them, in their rush of thoughts amidst the alarms, thought that maybe the lights had been turned off purposely. And the doer of that action was right behind them, silently keeping up as they crept through the wrecked lab.

Wesker saw this as a good opportunity to get what he wanted. Redfield's sister would be the perfect choice, since she'd likely be easier to restrain then her friend AND it would be a good measure of revenge. Quietly, he picked up a chair that had fallen on it's side, hoping the wheels wouldn't creak.

One did, but it wouldn't be loud enough for a human to hear. Wesker pulled it back and hurled it.

Leon suddenly spun around and in one motion, flicked the light switch on the wall and caught the chair before it could slam his head. Claire looked between he and Wesker, trying to figure out what just happened.

"Claire, go."

"But…"

"Now!"

She rolled her eyes and complied, slipping through the door while Leon regarded his attacker. "Lemmie guess… Wesker?"

"This facility will detonate in five minutes," the computer interrupted.

Laughing, Wesker replied "And who might you be?"

"Your evil twin." Leon smiled, putting his glasses back on. He raised his rifle and pulled the trigger, but Wesker would have none of that. He dodged the shot easily and ran in a blur toward Leon. But Wesker was going to get a surprise, since Leon was every bit his equal.

The ex-cop tossed the rifle away and swung an insanely fast punch at his incoming adversary. Wesker ducked under and shoved Leon into the wall, cracking and denting it in, throwing his own punches and catching Leon in the gut. Not to be bested, Leon caught Wesker's arm as he tried for a face shot, and then snapped Wesker in the face with his elbow. Wesker reeled back, unprepared for the force, and Leon kicked him so hard that he flew at least ten feet and rolled over a table.

Wesker quickly rolled to his feet, just in time to see Leon catapult at him from the table he had just toppled over. Wesker grabbed Leon in midair before the ex-cop could make his move and flung him into a bolted-down filing cabinet before kicking him in the ribs, but he hadn't quite caught on that his opponent was as strong as he was just yet, and was caught off guard when Leon rushed at him and hit for all he was worth, sending Wesker ten feet across the room.

Leon didn't stop there. He sped in a blur over the debris of the lab towards Wesker and in passing grabbed a board of wood that had splintered off of something. Wesker stood again, this time it was at the perfect moment to see Leon slam the wood into his face. The board shattered, and Wesker went reeling, encouraging Leon to keep up his attack.

"This facility will detonate in four minutes."

Ducking to the side as Leon threw a punch, Wesker picked up another of the lab's many work desks and hurled it squarely at Leon. But Leon rolled to the side. Wesker tried again with a heavy piece of equipment, prompting Leon to run up the wall and out of it's flight path. Leon dove off the wall at Wesker, pushing off and into him with insane force. The two tumbled through the mess and stood, back at square one.

"Well, now I know what heir Dr. Luccianna's been up to," Wesker laughed, lunging at Leon again. Leon caught his arm and swung his own. Wesker caught it, leaving them deadlocked.

"There's no replacing the original," Wesker mused, being the first to react to the situation by kicking Leon back. He rushed again, but Leon was ready for him. Stepping to the side, Leon caught Wesker and threw him over his head and into the wall.

The door across from where Claire had left opened, letting Chris and Alucard enter the room. Leon and Wesker instinctively froze for a second to see what was going on, and Wesker, realizing he had an opening, recovered first and slammed himself into the ex-cop, sending Leon crashing into the wall near the exit door.

Leon stood quickly, ready for more, when the sounds of explosives and Claire cursing overshadowed the alarms. Apparently, the way to the helipad wasn't totally clear.

"Leon, go!" Chris shouted, knocking Wesker back with a blast from his shotgun. "Go," he motioned to Alucard.

Both complied, Leon retrieving his nearby rifle before running through the door. Chris shot Wesker again, and again, knocking him down. But Wesker got up. Chris pumped the shotgun, pulled the trigger… and click.

"Shit," he muttered. Wesker smiled, and Chris knew exactly what was about to happen. But that didn't mean he could do anything about it. Wesker rushed at him. Chris tried to use the shotgun like a bat, but Wesker stopped dead right in front of him and held his arm up. Chris didn't have Leon's strength, and as such, the weapon harmlessly stopped on Wesker's forearm.

Wesker laughed. And then he punched Chris across the face with the power of 20 men, and each of them would be body-builders. Chris went down hard, and Wesker had guided his follow through so he wouldn't go far.

"This facility will detonate in three minutes."

The ex-STARS officer dragged himself to his feet, prompting Wesker to grab the back of his collar and almost force him down before kneeing him hard in the chest. Laughing, Wesker let Chris fall to his knees.

"You're pathetic, Redfield," Wesker mused. Chris opened his mouth to hurl an insult back, but all he could do was hack up blood; Wesker's blow had broken a few ribs and punctured his lung, and it didn't help any when Wesker grabbed his collar and yanked him up. "You know, I was hoping to get your sister, but I suppose I'll just have to settle for you."

With that, Wesker kicked him. Chris flew across the room at least twice as far as Wesker had managed to knock Leon.

---

"Yeah, come here, I don't have TIME for this," Claire shouted, quickly reloading her grenade launcher. She pointed it in the face of the advancing giant spider and fired, blowing it's small head into atoms. A dead Hunter lay at her feet, and burnt zombie corpses lined one wall. The door leading out of the room burst open, and another Hunter entered.

The creature pounced on her before she could reload her weapon and knocked her down. She hit it across the head with the barrel of the launcher, stunning it for a second, but it wasn't enough. It brought a claw up and jabbed it down, but Claire saw it coming and put the metal of her weapon between the razor-sharp talons and herself. The Hunter was stronger then her, however, and was slowly pushing it's hand down to slowly stab her.

The door she had came through swung open, and before she knew it, the Hunter was off of her. Leon had jumped on it's back and was struggling with it as Alucard helped her up. Leon snapped the Hunter's neck, and they ran on.

"This facility will detonate in two minutes."

The helipad was, thankfully, monster free, and the helicopter was in place. It had seemed like a dead end at first, since the door opened up on the edge of the roof and facing straight ahead, but all was well once everyone actually looked over to the side. The three of them piled in, Leon ending up in the pilot's seat. He started the chopper's engines; this would be close.

"Wait," Claire said, "Where's my brother?!"

Leon snapped his gaze to the door leading out. "He should've been right behind us, unless…"

As if in response to his thought, the door swung open. Claire was visibly relieved. She watched for her brother to step around the door, it was blocking him at the moment…

And she felt her heart skip a beat when Albert Wesker walked out from behind the door, carrying her brother over his shoulder. Chris was unconscious, and blood was trickling from his mouth.

Wesker smiled, right at her specifically, and waved with his free hand before dashing to the side and leaping from the roof.

"Chris!"

She almost jumped out and went after them, her last ounce of sense keeping her back. Leon lifted off the pad and started top fly away as explosions rocked the building, but they were clear by the time the main charges went off and the while facility, including something underground that they hadn't even found, exploded in a ball of fire.

They weren't totally free, however. The helicopter patrolling the area had spotted them, and was moving to intercept. Leon wouldn't have it. He picked up his rifle, aimed, and fired. The round went clean through the window and blew off the other chopper's rear rotor, sending it spinning around and out of control. They weren't high up, however, they'd be able to land.

---

Claire loaded the disc that Death had tossed to Alucard. Chris' laptop had always annoyed her more then anything, but she didn't let that bother her now. It was all she could do not to start breaking things, namely Wesker's neck. But he wasn't around.

To her shock, the disc was genuine. The disc had it all; research material on every virus, orders from the big wigs, specifications on all the planned monsters, even documentation on the Ashfords. It was all here, and it was real. Umbrella would call it fake, but it was real.

---

NEXT: Meditations on the Abyss

{Yes, now I'm ripping off Babylon 5. ~_~;;}