"Mark

"Mark!" Anna exclaimed.

Anna ran toward him, Ryan not far behind. Anna propped him up and he made a low groan. He had a wound on his forehead that was bleeding severely. He opened his brown eyes and said in a raspy tone, "Anna?"

The man's black hair brushed the shoulder of his blue long-sleeved shirt as his head lolled to the side.

"Mark! You're okay!"

"Yeah..." He tried to brush the dust from the thighs of his carpenter pants.

"What happened?" Ryan asked.

"I...don't know...this pink thing just dropped from the ceiling and knocked me out cold..."

"A Licker? Are you sure? If you're right, then you should be dead!" Ryan said.

"I guess I'm just lucky..." Mark replied.

Mark shakily rose to his feet, supported by Anna.

"Come on. We have to treat that wound." Anna said.

Ryan turned for the lift.

"Wait. Ryan," he heard Anna say.

"Wa¾ " As soon as he turned around, he saw the butt of the gun he gave Anna flying straight for his face. There was an explosion of pain, and then he was overtaken by the darkness of unconsciousness.

Resident Evil

The Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter five

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment.

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Ryan didn't know how long he was out. The only thing he did know was that it seemed to be only a few seconds since he had been knocked in the head with something.

He slowly opened his eyes. The pain in his head was still fresh, so he tried his best to ignore it.

"Wh...what...happened?"

His face hardened when he recalled what happened.

"Anna!" Ryan spat.

He tried to move, but his limbs were stuck. He glanced at his legs and arms, which were strapped to a table exactly like the kind used in lethal injections. Needles were taped into veins in his left arm and left leg, and they were attached to transparent tubes that snaked out of his view behind him. He struggled uselessly against the restraints. He stopped when he heard a door slide open somewhere close by.

"Good job, Anna," he heard an adult voice say. "If I could reward you I would."

"Just knowing that this is for the betterment of mankind is reward enough," she responded.

Ryan was chilled to the bone by her response. Her voice was monotonal, and it sounded as if she actually believed in her own words.

"It looks like our subject is awake, Dr. Vickers," a voice that sounded like Mark said.

Soon enough, there were three people at his side, staring over him. One was a slightly heavyset man with blond hair, glasses, blue eyes, lab coat, and a trusting smile. But Ryan didn't buy that smile. The other two were Mark and Anna.

"Ryan Joseph Davidson, I presume?" Vickers said.

"No, Marco Polo," Ryan said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "What do you want with me?"

"Oh! Things that you could only imagine! I need you a new viral series that I have developed."

The first thing to go through Ryan's head was 'Shit! I'm dead!' He had to tell himself to be calm. "What will it do to me?"

"Good things," Anna said, her voice still monotonal. "Mark and I have had the procedure done on us, and it changed our lives...for the better."

Ryan visually flinched.

"So that's what the papers meant by 'tested'!" Ryan exclaimed.

"Oh...so you found that, did you?" Mark said. "Well then, I guess you know what will happen, don't you?"

"No. Not really."

"Let's get this started," Dr. Vickers said. "Anna, get the vials."

"You two-timer!" Ryan suddenly shouted. "I trusted you! And now you're one of the enemy? Omae o koroso!"

"You wouldn't go do something like that, now would you?" Anna said in an innocent voice.

"When I'm angry, I tend to do things that I normally wouldn't do."

"Trust me, Ryan," Anna said. "You will thank me for this later."

"If you live that long," Ryan answered with venom.

Ignoring him, Anna came back from one side of the room with a vial that was dark purple in color.

"Ah! Good choice, Anna! AE²!" Dr. Vickers said.

Anna slid the vial into a slot in a machine that stood at the table's head. She pressed a button.

"It's armed," she said.

Ryan's mouth went dry.

"Punch it," Vickers replied.

Anna pressed another button, and the machine started to emit a low hum, and the liquid was quickly drained from the vial. The tubes that led from the machine to his limbs started to fill up as the liquid began to slowly run down toward him like impending doom.

Two seconds after the liquid made contact with his blood stream, he could feel an itch starting in various places on his body. Claire's words about zombies then came back to him.

'It first starts out as itchiness, then headaches, nausea, and then unconsciousness. When you wake up, you'll be a full-fledged zombie.'

'No!' he thought. 'That ain't gonna happen! They said it would help you! Not kill you!'

The itchiness was creeping across his entire body. For four long seconds it itched intensely. Then it stopped.

"Stage one reached," he heard Mark say.

Then, without warning, pain started to explode from every nerve in his body. He resisted the urge to scream out, but he couldn't hold it.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh¾ ¾ ¾ ¾ !!!"

"Damnit! Get me some morphine!" Vickers said.

"We don't know what will happen if we do!" Mark said.

"He's going into arrest!" Anna said frantically.

The pain increased, the sensations raging through the deep tissues of his body. Finally, his mind shut down against the raging sensations, and his vision went black. Once again, darkness overtook him.

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Chris scanned over the list for what seemed like the hundredth time. His eyes kept moving over the names, statistics, and compatibility factors. While it should have relieved him to know that he, his sister, Leon, and Sherry were incompatible with whatever this Dr. Vickers had planed, it still worried him that Ryan was considered a viable candidate. Plus, there was the added factor of the Yamaguchi girl.

Chris looked up from the paper and stared off into space.

It bothered him that they knew next to nothing about this Anna Yamaguchi, and the role she played in this ghost town. Ryan seemed to trust her, though, and that would have to do for now.

The events at the school didn't set him any more at ease. The fact that there were zombies, Lickers, and other B.O.W's in the area made him all the more anxious to figure out what the hell was going on in this town, and get out of it as soon as they could, he didn't want another Raccoon on his hands.

Chris pinched the bridge of his nose. No more Raccoons indeed.

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Ryan opened his eyes. He was lying, unrestrained, on a cot in an empty room with one small balcony window. Shades were drawn down over it, preventing him from seeing outside. As his sight cleared, he gazed around, looking for a clue to where he was.

rap rap rap rap

Ryan turned toward the sound.

rap rap rap rap

It came form the balcony window. He slowly rose to a sitting position, pushed off the cot with an effort, and walked to the window. He paused when he placed his hand on the cord that would pull the curtains back. Gathering all of his courage, he pulled the cord. As soon as he did, he fell back and started to crawl backward. What he saw was what looked like the ruins of a city he guessed to be Bhrams. But what scared him the most was what was outside the window¾ thousands of ghosts that looked like the ones that could be seen in old-fashioned horror movies. Their voices were babbling incomprehensibly for a few moments, then they all joined in a chorus.

"Why did you leave?"

"I-I-I...had no choice!" Ryan stammered. "I had to!"

"There was a choice. You could have stayed and died with us."

"No way! I didn't want to die!"

"Come with us, Ryan...we're lonely...please..."

"NO!!"

The ghosts started to ram into the window, making small spiderweb cracks where they struck it.

'Shitshitshitshitshit! What the hell do I do?!'

Ryan frantically looked around for a means of escape, and for the first time, he noticed a door at the far end of the room. He sprinted toward it, praying it wouldn't be locked. He tried the doorknob, and as soon as he opened it and dashed through it, he heard the balcony windows shatter. He slammed the door behind him and didn't look back, getting as far as he could from the banging at the other side of the door.

The new room he had entered was dim, but he could see that it was made of steel. It was four-sided, and on the far wall was an Umbrella logo. Ryan walked up to the far wall, leaned against it, and let out a sigh of relief.

He stopped leaning against the wall however, when he felt something warm against his back. He slid his hand in back of him. Bringing it up to his face, he saw it was blood. He wasn't feeling any pain, so he knew it wasn't his own blood. He turned around and looked at the Umbrella logo, than backed up a few paces. The logo was actually bleeding, its colors changing, softening, oozing, dripping down the wall. The banging at the door was getting louder, urgent. The logo was now a giant blood spot on the wall. Ryan looked around for another escape, but he found none. His worst fear came true, when he heard the undeniable scream of several Hunters as if they were all around him. The blood spot on the wall started to move toward him. Ryan couldn't move, afraid of what might happen.

When the spot surrounded him, the Hunters' cries became so loud one might have been right in front of his face. He let out a gasp when a scaly arm grabbed his leg. He knew what it was instantly. He reached for his Colt .45. It felt different, but it was still cold like steel. Pointing it at the Hunter, he found out why it felt different. It was a human arm severed at the elbow.

The hand began to move, and Ryan threw it to the other side of the room. It hit the wall with a 'splunch.'

Ryan didn't understand what was happening thus far, but he didn't take the time to figure out why.

The Hunter's grip began to get more powerful, and then he could swear that the banging would collapse the door any second. The Hunter yanked on his leg with inhuman strength, pulling him through the floor. He didn't even get time to scream.

He was surrounded by red, and could hear Hunters all around him. He could say nothing. He could do nothing. He could feel them clawing and ripping at his body. Then once again, darkness.

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Claire blinked the sleep away from her eyes as she realized that Leon was nuzzling her neck. Feeling safe and warm against him in their spoon position, beneath the blankets, she smiled.

"Ready to get up and face the day?" Claire asked him in hushed tones.

Leon tightened his grip around her and pulled her closer. He bit her earlobe gently. "Not just yet," he said around her skin.

Claire snuggled back into his embrace, his intentions obvious. "Sherry and Ryan are right down the hall," she warned in a low voice.

Leon turned her onto her back and leaned over her. "We'll be quiet," he assured her. "Besides, they're probably sleeping like logs after yesterday."

Claire smiled up at him. "I guess so." She traced the line of his lips with her fingertip. "I must be dreaming," she sighed.

Leon grinned and bent down to kiss her. "Then so am I."

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Ryan awoke and jerked to an upright position. He was sleeping in a bed. It wasn't very comfortable, but that didn't really bother him, considering the dream he had just had. He got out of bed. The room he was in was the size of an average living room but was furnished like a prison cell, with a small cot, a toilet, and a washbowl. There were no bars but a door where bars would be.

With a heavy sigh, he walked over to the sink. Turning on the cold water, he splashed some on his face.

It felt warm. He looked down at his hands. They were covered with blood. Slowly, reluctant to see what he would find, he raised his eyes and looked into the mirror above the sink. His face was covered with blood. And behind him in the mirror, someone else was in the room. Although the room was well lit, the figure was shrouded in darkness. It held out a hand over which a sword made of flames hovered. Ryan instantly turned around to face him, but something hit him and he went flying. When he hit the floor, he rolled over. He could see his headless body across the room. The figure hovering over it had decapitated him. He wanted to scream, but he could only breathe. His head was jerked into the air by the hair, and he could see clearly who was holding it: Mark.

Mark gave an evil grin.

"Batter up," he sneered.

Ryan felt himself being tossed like a ball, the whoosh of the sword, then darkness.

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Ryan woke up suddenly, jumping out of the bed onto his feet. He stood there until his breathing calmed down. The room he was in was the same place where he had been beheaded in his dream. He slowly walked over to the sink. He turned on the cold water and waited for a few minutes. When he was convinced that it wasn't going to turn to blood, he splashed some on his face. He then let the water run and looked up at the ceiling.

'I wish it would just dim down a little,' he thought.

As if on command, the lights dimmed down a notch.

"Thanks," he breathed to no one in particular.

He looked at himself in the mirror. His face was flushed, but nothing seemed wrong. He leaned in for a closer look. His eyes had changed color. They were now a glowing purple.

"What the hell?!" he exclaimed.

He blinked twice, and they returned to normal again. He blinked twice more, but they didn't change color.

Ryan went back to the bed. For lack of something to do, he started to untie his hair, but stopped when he found his hands shaking. At first he wondered why, but then it occurred to him: he hadn't had a cigarette in two days. He was going through nicotine withdrawal. He cursed under his breath, and reached for his cigarettes. He was surprised to find them there, along with his lighter and switchblade. His guns, though, were missing.

He shook one out, tremblingly put it to his lips and lit it with his lighter. With a long drag, the shaking diminished.

After finishing his cigarette, he knew he had to leave. He went for the door and tried the latch, but it turned only half way. It was locked.

'Damnit! Open!' he thought.

There was a tingling feeling in his hands, then a beep and a click. The door was unlocked.

"Some weird stuff going on here..." he muttered.

Ryan opened the door onto a hallway of the labs. He was about to step out when he heard approaching footsteps. Ryan closed the door, but not all the way. He took out his switchblade, and waited. When the footsteps passed, he chinked the door a couple of inches and through it saw Anna Yamaguchi walking away from him down the hall.

Rage overcame any clear thinking. He slipped out from behind the door and crept quietly up behind her. When he was within a few more steps of her, he dashed forward, clamped his left arm around her shoulder and placed his switchblade to her throat.

"Peekaboo, you f*** you." Ryan said with pure malice.

Ryan imagined stabbing her countless times in the back, leaving her to die slowly in the middle of the hallway; but telling himself he wasn't a cold-blooded killer, he reined in his rage.

"Well..." Anna said in a tone that suggested that nothing was wrong. "Nice to see you too, Ryan."

"Shut up. Take me to my weapons. Now."

Anna complied, and led him down several corridors. She finally stopped at a door.

"If there is anyone behind this door, you will die." Ryan rasped in her ear.

Ryan pressed the open button with his free hand, and entered the room. It was very small, about the size of a janitor's closet. On the table were his weapons and ammo.

"Pick them up. Now. And don't try anything, 'cause I'm faster with a knife than you think."

Anna complied. Just as she went for one of the guns, she turned around, and Ryan couldn't believe what he saw. Anna's hands were erupting with thick jetting streams of water. They hit Ryan with such a force he was knocked to the other side of the hall. Ryan's weapon was no longer in his hands.

He looked up at Anna. She had an emotionless look on her face, and he could she her eyes were a glowing crystalline blue, not their usual green.

"Wh...wh...wh...what the hell are you?!" Ryan breathed.

"I am Seraph."

"What?"

"I am Seraph."

"What the hell is a Seraph?"

"You should know."

"You aren't making any sense!"

"You will understand...in time."

With a suddenly flaring fury, he leaped at her with speed that he didn't know he possessed, and tackled her to the floor. He felt a surge of energy go through his body, then he felt a pulse like electricity running through his hands, and into Anna.

She started to scream, and Ryan held her there for a few seconds, trying to realize what was happening.

'What the hell are you doing?! Get off of her! She's dying!' Ryan's mind screamed at him.

Ryan fell over backward, and looked at the young woman across from him. The smell of burnt flesh was apparent in the air, but it wasn't too thick. If Ryan had held her for a longer amount of time, he then knew, the smell would have been worse, along with her condition.

"What...did...I...just...do...?" Ryan stammered as he looked at his own hands with disbelief.

"You...gave an electrical discharge...though your hands..." Anna replied.

"What...am I?"

"You are Seraph..."

"I'm human!"

"Yes, you are still part human, but you are still Seraph."

Anna stood up. On her own, a little shakily, but she managed to get her balance back into check.

"Come with me and I'll explain," she said.

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Sherry got up out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She stopped at the door and read the note in Ryan's writing. She noted that the last part of the letter was written in Hiragana, spelling out, 'See you later.'

Sighing to herself, she crumpled up the note, and tossed it aside. She could worry about that later. For now, she needed a shower.

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Anna guided Ryan into a room that had several chairs and a slide projector mounted on a table near the back of the room. Anna went to the front and pulled down a projection screen. She then turned on the projector.

"It started when Dr. Vickers was hired by Umbrella for work on a group of new viruses that would let the subject still think for itself, so it could have inhuman abilities but not be turned into a monster¾ and still be kept under control." She pressed the 'next' button on the projector.

The new slide showed the new viruses' names, and their elements.

AF= Fire

AW= Water

AE²= Electricity

AE= Earth

AA= Wind

"It took several years, but when he had finally completed his research, he realized that using one of these new viruses, he could complete his dream of purifying the human race."

Ryan wanted to ask a question, but he decided to wait until she was finished.

The next slide showed a baby boy being held.

"Around this time, Dr. Vickers made an artificial human infused with the AF-virus. This being would grow at an incredible rate¾ he reached the human age of fourteen in two months¾ but the growth rate stopped when he reached the human age of fifteen. This being would later be known as 'Mark'."

Ryan once again withheld his questions.

The next slide showed Anna's personal file.

"Over the course of one year, my father, who worked for Umbrella, got wind of an experiment that needed children of nineteen or younger who had two of the rarest blood types in the world, O negative, and OB negative. I heard of this, and wondered what would happen to me if I accepted, so I contacted Umbrella and told them who I was. My father was against it, but Umbrella said that unless they complied, all of us would be killed. He was forced to accept, and so I was sent here to Carlton where I have been for the past year."

The next slide showed a few documents that Ryan was unable to read.

"Umbrella was angry with Dr. Vickers for not handing over the research that he promised them. Dr. Vickers replied by saying, 'These children are the way to the future. They are a more highly evolved human form. They must be used to purify the planet of all unworthy humans. If you try to stop the judgement of God, then you shall be punished.' So Umbrella sent in a strike force. They were under orders to kill everyone in the city, as Umbrella believed that they were all Seraphs, which they were not. Mark and I just so happened to be in the labs at this time. When the strike force came into the lab, Dr. Vickers ordered us to kill them. I took down a few, but Mark got most of them. That was a few days ago. Now, let me explain to you how this all works."

Anna turned off the projector.

"A Seraph draws its abilities from both the elements and the body. Water, Fire, and Electricity are mainly from the body. Wind and Earth are mainly from the elements. When using your abilities, you place yourself in danger. For instance, if you were to use Electricity for too long, your brain would implode from the overwhelming power of electricity. Using Water too much would cause instant dehydration and death; using Fire too much would make you spontaneously combust into flames; using Earth too much would render you so weak; that the atmosphere could crush you even if you were on the ground. Finally, Wind would cause the entire body to just shut down, if used too much.

"However, there are good effects as well. Even though all natural traits such as intelligence, physical endurance, physical strength, concentration, and speed go up, depending on which element you have, you get a bigger boost in that certain category, plus a resistance to that element you chose. For instance, Fire gives more physical strength and you can walk though fire as if it were nothing.

"Water gives enhanced concentration, and also lets you stay under water for hours without having to take a breath. It also gives heightened response for white blood cells, a higher count of them; and sometimes minor wounds will close up without the help of white blood cells¾ in short, enhanced healing.

"Electricity gives a boost to speed, and basically makes you a human conductor of electricity, which you can use to your own ends.

"Earth gives a boost to physical endurance, and allows you to walk over any earth-like terrain.

"Wind gives a boost to intelligence, and may allow you to float in mid air, though it hasn't been tested yet."

"I have some questions," Ryan said.

"Shoot."

"First, with these powers, can you cause natural disasters?"

"It hasn't been proven yet," she said, "but it is believed that you can. However, I would think, it would take years to develop that kind of control over the element you are using, in your case, electricity."

"Your parents are still alive, right?"

"Yep. I had no choice but to lie, otherwise you wouldn't have come here. They're living in L.A."

"What's with all the zombies?"

"Dr. Vickers found out that his lab assistants were planning to turn him over to Umbrella, so he released the T-virus and various B.O.W's to the upper levels. He managed to confine it to the labs only, thank God."

"Can anyone become a Seraph?"

"No. You see, he wants to get as many seraphs as he can, but if you don't have O negative or OB negative blood types, then the viruses kill you. Its not known why."

"Why do you follow Dr. Vickers? He sounds like a madman!"

"He does have a point. Do you know what we've done to this ball of spinning dirt? Countless things to screw it up. And what have we given back? Nothing."

"Well...we recycle! We have forest preserves! We...have zoos that take in endangered animals and nurse them back to health! We...uh...damn..."

"That isn't enough."

At that moment, the words of some character that he had seen in the movies came back to him

'Mankind is not a mammal. Mammals coexist with their environment, and help it to survive. Humans however, simply move to one area, exhaust its resources, then move on. There's a name for that, you know. A virus. That is what mankind is. A virus.'

"A virus," Anna said, snapping Ryan out of his thoughts. "That's what mankind is."

Ryan thought all this over.

'Jesus...I feel like I'm in some kind of video game...an RPG to be exact...' Ryan thought.

"Well?" Anna said.

"I..."

"You have to face the fact that you have been chosen to lead mankind into a new future, Ryan."

"I...I...guess...you do make a point..."

"Great! Perfect! That brings the number of Seraphs in the world to eight!"

"Holy shit! We're outnumbered one-billion-to-one?!"

"Yes. But not for long."

An idea popped into Ryan's head.

"Hey Anna, could you give me a map of this place? You know, so I can find my way around?"

"Sure."

Anna went digging though a desk drawer, and came out with a paper map.

Ryan couldn't help but smile.

'Unlike these bastards, I haven't lost my sense of humanity. I'm goin' rouge!' Ryan thought.

First and foremost, as you can see, Ryan is addicted to tobacco. That is NOT a good habit to take up. For those who think I was glorifying smoking, you are wrong. I placed it in here to help say that its bad, hence Ryan's shaking hands. He wouldn't have that if he wouldn't be smoking, now would he? (Of course, there are many other side effects, most, if not all, leading eventually to death.)

The character interludes of Chris, Leon and Claire were written by Mayumi_H and used with permission.

For the record, Jared Vickers has no relation to Brad Vickers in any way, shape, or form.

Omae o Koroso (O-may-o-ko-ro-so)/I'm going to kill you.

Draft: 3/16/01

Final: 4/?/00