Resident Evil

Children of the Seraphs

By: Xenogears

Chapter four

In no way do I own the characters of Capcom's legacy, Resident Evil. They are used for non-profit purposes, only for entertainment. The characters Ryan Joseph Davidson, Anna Yamaguchi and Mark belong exclusively to me and may not be used by anyone without my permission. The stories Resident Evil: Silver Blood, Resident Evil: The Seraphs and Resident Evil: Children of the Seraphs are also copyright of me, and may not be used in any way without my exclusive written permission.

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	Ryan awoke with a terrible taste in his mouth, and an even worse feeling in his stomach. His vision was a painful blur, and sounds were multiplied ten-fold. He also had the worst headache he'd ever felt in his life. From what he had heard about them, he was having his first hangover. And a really bad one at that.

First he tried to figure out where he was. He was surprised to find himself in his bed. All he could remember was passing out drunk, then waking on something soft and comfortable, and then retching, and again sleep. Next thing he knew, he was in his bed. He now noticed the foul smell of vomit next to him, and saw it staining the sheets, pillow, and floor.

'Who carried me up here--?'

Suddenly, he felt bile rising in his throat. He ran for the bathroom, and just managed to hold off his stomach long enough to reach the toilet.

He let loose everything from the night before, and more, into the toilet, then he shakily flushed it. After a failed attempt to stand, he found that he had lost his strength. He hung dizzily to the side of the washbowl.

"Morning," he heard a voice say.

"Who's there...?" Ryan asked weakly.

"Leon."

"Crap--"

Ryan didn't get to finish. He lunged helplessly for the toilet once again.

"You really crossed the line last night."

"Yeah...but you would too if you went through what I'm going through."

"What's going on?"

"Didn't Claire tell you--?"

Ryan retched again. Leon respectfully waited for the gasping Ryan to surface, red-eyed and red-faced.

"No."

"Anna...she's...pregnant...and I lost my temper with her...she told me to get out of her life...means 'our chances are those of a snowball in hell,' in her special little language..."

"Say what?!"

"You heard me...Oh God--!"

Ryan ducked over the toilet bowl and gagged again.

"Damn...It's Monday...I have to get to school..."

"No, you don't. I called you in sick. You can deal with the consequences of your actions later."

'Great,' Ryan thought. 'There goes my perfect attendance record...'

"Thanks, Leon."

Ryan retched once again, and reached over to wearily flush the toilet, missing the lever on his first attempt.

"I'll bring you something to eat later. Clean yourself up."

And Leon shut the door. Ryan then found the strength to get up and get a drink of water from the sink. He placed his mouth up to the faucet and turned on the cold water, not even bothering to get the cup next to the sink.

For a long while, he stood hunched over the sink, rinsing away the foul burning taste, breathing heavily, his forehead touching the rim of the washbowl.

"...Shit..." he groaned.

For Ryan, it was going to be a very long day.

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Leon was not happy. He didn't want to spend his day off tending to two irresponsible kids.

He decided to go to Anna for her side of the story, and he found that both sides concurred almost exactly. It seemed the whole cause of this was simply overreaction.

"'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,'" Leon mumbled to himself. "Especially her..."

It was going to take a lot of work to bring those two back together, he knew. It would have to be done very slowly and carefully. Then the thought occurred to him that, in nine months or so, he would have more mouths to feed. Would he have to kick both of them out? No, Claire and Sherry would probably--no, definitely--stop him, and Sherry would most likely get a job to help support them if need be. Besides, he wasn't that cold hearted.

He smiled at the fact that Claire and Sherry had so much faith in Anna and Ryan, even though they were on a bad key with everyone at the moment.

"Still," he mumbled under his breath. "Just what the heck am I going to do?"

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Anna finally decided to get out of bed. Fist of all, she was very hungry, and second, she wanted to go see her friends to tell them what was happening. As she walked down the staircase, she felt very tired. On top of being pregnant, she hadn't had anything to eat since lunch the previous day.

She slowly descended the staircase and then went to the kitchen, and reached for all the junk food she could get her hands on. She managed to finish off almost half a shelf of potato chips, chocolate covered Pocky, and pretzels before she was done. She grabbed a glass and poured some milk to wash it all down.

She took her keys from the table at the front door and went for the garage and her car.

She didn't know why, but her eyes began to well up with tears when she hit the accelerator. Hormones? No...she had been thinking about Ryan at the moment she had pressed down the accelerator. About how sick he sounded when she passed by the bathroom, how helpless his groans were--

'Stop that!' she ordered herself. 'He's only a stupid little bastard who's getting one tenth of what he really deserves!'

It was about 2:15 when she reached Niles West. School would be out in about fifteen minutes. She would have to park in visitor parking and then wait for her friends by the main entrance.

Students began to pour out of the doors. She walked toward the school and found her friends and pulled them aside. All five of them followed her out to the tree island that was located at the main entrance. There she explained what was going on, not concentrating too much on gory details. They had known that Anna and Ryan had had at least one night together, but they weren't expecting something like this. Her friends were too shocked to even respond at first. They looked at the ground, or searched Anna's face worriedly, or made little sympathy sounds, until one of them, Jessica Roemer, spoke up.

"Well...Anna..." Jessica started, "we won't judge you, you know. We're here for you, all the way. Something comes up, just tell us, and we'll be there for you."

"Yeah!" Another one of her friends, Janet Tillman, said. "We can help you through this."

The others concurred, nodding and rubbing Anna's shoulders.

"Thanks, guys." Anna replied, a slight smile forming at the edges of her mouth.

"Hey, you don't need Ryan," Jessica said. "That heartless bastard can go to hell for all we care, right?"

"Well, he is the father of my baby, or babies. No matter how much I want to deny it. I guess I want him to at least take some part in my children's life."

"Do you...love him?" another one of her friends, Erin Stone, asked. "I mean, you seem like you do. Isn't that why you slept with him in the first place?"

Anna paused for a very long time, considering the facts.

"I...I don't know..." she said in a low voice, looking down at her shoes.

"Are you going to take him back?" Janet asked.

"No! I can't! He did something unforgivable, and this is his punishment."

After translating to her sister, Mi yon Kim, what had been said, Go eun Kim spoke up. She was the most rational one of the group.

"Anna, I think you should let him back into your life. He's made a mistake. A big one at that, but you'll have to forgive him. He's human after all. We all make mistakes."

"He's not entirely human..." Anna muttered.

This had attracted some odd stares from the others, but they didn't go any further.

"I won't forgive him. I won't take him back. That's that. He can slave over me all he wants, but it won't change anything."

"What about you slaving over him?" Erin said.

"Shut up!" She snapped. "I never did, never have, and never will!"

"You're making a mistake, Anna," Go eun muttered sadly.

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Claire Redfield sat in one of many desk chairs in the large auditorium, idly twiddling a ballpoint pen in her right hand. The lecture that was being given was quite boring, to say the least.

She had lost all interest in it once the female doctor at the podium went into a lengthy explanation of the various arteries in the neck. All she knew was that there were a lot of arteries and such, and that made it one of the most difficult places in the body to operate on. That, and how most hunters in the wild, and zombies, went for the neck in order to kill or disable their prey.

For the lack of anything better to do, she scanned over her notes. After she cleared through them, she rubbed her temples and began to think of the current events in the household.

As it looked, things were not good. First and foremost of all, Anna was pregnant. Second, they would soon have more mouths (or only mouth, Claire hoped) to feed. That, on top of Claire's medical schooling, wasn't what they needed. There would have to be a larger flow of income coming in to deal with that. Third, Ryan and Anna had gotten into the worst fight they had ever had gotten in, thus splitting them apart. Not only did this make Claire sad for the both of them, but it also upset the harmony of the household. Finally, on a lighter note of sorts, Ryan had passed out drunk, and was now suffering from a hangover. Leon had had to stay home and deal with him on his day off. Leon wasn't up to it at all. After she had spent much time persuading him, he had finally caved in and accepted. 'You owe me big on this one,' were his exact words.

'Man, was he pissed off when he came home -- he nearly screamed his lungs out,' She thought. 'Would have killed Ryan if I hadn't been there.'

"Ms. Redfield," came the voice of the doctor. "Do you care to tell all of us the last few sentences I just spoke?"

Claire was brought back into reality, frightened to have the entire auditorium -- at least 50 people -- staring at her.

"I'd...I'd rather not, Dr. Zhao..."

"And why not?"

"Because I...wasn't listening...?"

A roar of laughter went through the room, and Claire sank into her desk chair, trying to disappear.

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Next day...

Cursing, Ryan slammed his locker door hard, creating a loud, echoing 'clang.'

'Goddamn loads of homework for being absent,' Ryan thought. 'Goddamn teachers, goddamn principal, goddamn dean, goddamn school, goddamn school system, goddamn life, goddamn everything, even--' He stopped himself short from putting in "Anna."

"Hey!" a kid next to his locker said. "Watch it! You almost got my hand caught!"

Ryan looked at him and glared daggers. The kid was a senior, and a little taller than Ryan, but he didn't care. He had been, as Chris would say, "prayin' to the porcelain" most of the previous day, and that added to the current events with him and Anna, didn't make him happy, to say the least.

"You look here, jackass, I'm gonna do what I want to do at my locker. If you got a problem, then move your friggin' hand."

"Forget you man!"

The student pushed him, and other students going by began to stop. In response to this, Ryan pushed back. Then the student pushed him again. Ryan returned his shove, this time harder, and then the student. Ryan shoved him even harder, forcing the student back. Ryan thought his next move was to shove, but he was caught off guard when the student punched him in the face. The blow landed on his left cheek, but it still hurt him a bit.

"Oh, it's on now you shit," Ryan snarled as he rushed at the student.

Ryan punched him in the abdominal area. As he hunched over, he launched into one swift motion that started with a right punch to the stomach, which connected into a left spinning elbow to the side of the face, which connected into a right uppercut into the jaw. Ryan then took him off the floor by the collar, and shoved him against the lockers. One hand was around his throat, his eyes glowed slightly purple, and the lights flickered. Somehow, Ryan managed to keep his voice under control.

"Mess with me again, and I'll break my foot so far up your ass, you'll be tastin' leather for a whole freakin' month. Ya hear me?"

"What...what's wrong with you man...?"

"Everything."

"Ryan Davidson!"

Ryan turned around to face the hall monitor who was approaching him, and then let the kid slump to the ground. He was going to have about two weeks of suspension in the BAC, and probably Saturday suspension as well. That is, if he was lucky.

"What are you doing!?"

The hall monitor stopped short when he saw the color of Ryan's eyes. Ryan had begun slowly approaching him, but he stopped when he was a few steps away. The hall was deathly silent.

Ryan suddenly realized where he was and what he was doing, and stepped back a few feet. He closed his eyes, and tried to regain control. Concentrating, he forced his anger along with his powers at bay. When he opened his eyes again, they were their normal color.

"Just tell me what the consequences are, and I'll go home, okay?"

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Leon was sitting on the couch in the living room, when Anna came home. She didn't pay much attention to him, and simply walked by. About twenty minutes later, Ryan walked in. Anna was coming downstairs at the moment, and the two stopped when they saw each other. They gazed warily at each other, but there was no threat in either one's look. Ryan opened his mouth to say something, but by then, Anna had already turned back up the stairs, headed for her room.

Ryan stood as if Anna were still there, talking to him.

"...Sorry..." he whispered as he looked down at his feet.

Ryan continued to stand motionless for a few minutes, then he walked up the stairs. He stopped at the top, then turned to Leon.

"By the way, I'm in detention for one month, and one week in Saturday detention."

And then had continued to his room.

'Damn it...' Leon thought. 'I'm not liking this...If it keeps going on like this, I think there will be no chance for these two.'

Dinner was much worse.

The table was completely silent. By now, the whole house had heard the story. Ryan looked pensive but ate calmly and deliberately. Anna couldn't hide a hint of anger and she was eating more and faster than usual. Leon, very passive, looked from face to face. Claire, worried and hardly eating anything, glanced at Leon. Chris was training one of his trademark hard stares on Anna and Ryan, and Sherry nursed a look of worry and remorse.

"Pass the salt, please," Ryan asked. Obviously he hadn't looked up from his food to see that the salt shaker was at the other end of the table, right next to Anna.

Only Anna's eyes looked up from her food. They were cold and hard like steel. No one had ever seen her use a look such as that before.

"Get it yourself," she said, her voice low and full of rancor.

Ryan ignored her and asked again.

"Pass the salt, please."

Anna could feel her rage mount.

"I said get it yourself!" Her voice was strained from trying not to shout.

Ryan once again ignored her tone and repeated evenly, "Pass the salt, please."

Anna slammed a fist into the table and stood up. She was seething, and her eyes were crystalline blue. She raised one fist and Chris and Leon stood ready to jump on her if she were to use an acid attack. She did not fire however, and simply hefted the salt shaker in her hand.

"You want salt?! Fine! HERE!"

Anna threw it at him with point blank accuracy. Ryan caught it without looking up from his food.

"Thank you, Anna-chan."

Anna's rage increased to a level that she had never felt before in her life. She could feel the bubbling acid forming at the tips of her fingers. The deadly liquid dripped down onto the kitchen floor, making a hissing sound, and creating small holes in the floor.

"So na hu u ni watashi o yobanai de!"

"Wakarimasu, Anna-chan."

Anna let out a cry of anger, and then threw her plate at the wall, breaking it into pieces and sending food all over the floor. She stormed away from the kitchen, and the front door slammed.

Everyone stared at Ryan for a few moments, but he simply continued eating, unfazed from Anna's outburst. In a moment he got up, wiped his mouth with his napkin, and threw it on his plate. He quietly pushed his chair back and followed Anna outside. She must have been out on the porch, because the sounds of the both of them arguing in loud Japanese could be heard form outside only seconds later.

There was a crack, and Anna screamed something in Japanese.

"Damn it, Anna! You need to listen!"

Anna replied in shouting Japanese.

"Fine! Then I am! I just need to get through to you!"

Anna once again shouted in a rapid torrent of Japanese.

"Listen to me! Listen! I'm sorry for what I did, okay?! Can't we just leave this behind us?!"

There was another crack, this time louder, and Ryan gave a grunt of pain. Anna continued screaming in paroxysms of Japanese, sending their neighbors outside to see what was causing the ruckus.

"Hell no! I'm not leaving!"

Anna screamed a reply in her native tongue.

"No! You're not going to! We'll stop you if you even try! I'll search all over the freaking world to find you if you do!"

Anna threw open the door, and gave a yelp, reverting to English.

"Get your hands off me!"

"No! Get back here!"

"Back off Ryan! Get your goddamn hands off me!"

"Not until you listen to me!"

There were sounds of a brief struggle, and then Anna could be heard running up the stairs. Ryan stood frozen in place.

"She could have used her acid on me, yet she didn't. Does she still care for me?" Ryan said to himself as he walked to his own room.

"Great," Leon said. "If we don't get those two back together, they might destroy this whole house."

"I say we just kick them out," Chris offered.

"How can you say that?!" Sherry said.

"I don't exactly approve of them living here."

"Just because of one mistake?" Sherry said.

"It's not one simple mistake. They made a human life, at a very wrong time. They're still kids!"

"Which is why we can't kick them out," Leon said. "They need our help. We all worked together to get this far. We can't turn our backs on them now. Not when they need us most."

Chris crossed his arms.

"If I were their father -- " Chris began.

"But you're not," Leon interrupted. "Claire and I are their legal guardians, and we say they stay. Right, Claire?"

"Right," Claire replied, inwardly disgusted by her brother's words. "We do things in this household in a democratic matter. You're outnumbered by at least three-to-one. They stay."

"Fine," Chris snorted. "Have it your way. But I think I know better than you, and I think it won't turn out."

Tidbit: The "combo" that Ryan pulls off in this chapter was inspired by the "Reppu" Gear Deathblow in the PSX game, Xenogears. One of my friends tells me that the stance used, and the move itself is Tae Kwon Do, so I thought that it might be okay to use it. Basically, it's the same thing as in the game, except that the uppercut isn't a jumping spinning uppercut, but instead a standing uppercut.

Go eun Kim (KO-uhn-kim)/A Korean name.

Mi yon Kim (Mee-yohn-kim)/A Korean name.

BAC/Behavioral Correction Center

So na hu u ni watashi o yobanai de! (So-na-huu-nee-wa-ta-she—oh-yoh-ba-naee-deh)/Almost literally: "Do not call me that in such a way!" It's meant to say "Don't you dare call me that!" Basically the same thing.

Wakarimasu, Anna-chan (wa-ka-ree-mas(u) Anna-cha-un)/I understand/Whatever you say, Anna-chan. (Once again, I would go with the latter, though the usual use of it is the first)

Draft: 6/20/01 (6:20PM)

Final: 10/11/01 (2:51PM)

Ja ne!