Author's Note: Yeah, I'm attempting to make the "author's note" part of each chapter relatively small, so that you the fans get to have more nice material to read and then review about!
Thanks goes to (In Order of Appearance for all chapters so far): random echo, Claire Burnside267, a reader, diddly day, Zil, Tasha Burnside, Umbrella-Experiment, Parasite Lin, Biohazard 101, Cand, Queen Kristina, Apokruphos, Redfield 99, Yumi Konoe, Chandler01, Lyger, Chicky Tifa, D-2Artemis, Shin, Simon552, Jimbo Jones, claire3407, Squall Leonhart, Mayaku, President Evil, ashford2ashford, The Elvish Vampire Seira, Felicia, Mayumi-H, Mossberg, Serena, Dragonchan, and Lily!
Thanks goes to reviewers of Chapter Nineteen: Lyger, Felicia, Biohazard 101, Mayumi, Mossberg, random echo, Mayuku, Serena, Dragonchan, Lily!
Special Message to Lily: I am not a review whore, so darn you, darn you to heck. ;_; Wah.
Don't worry, I'm trying my best not to make this cliché, I'm putting in various twists and such to make it...interesting, to say the least. And yes, flaming will not work in persuading me to change my mind, although some nice constructive criticism is always welcome as long as it's presented well, and not in an immature way.
On with yet another chapter...
-Even Fond Memories Can Come Back To Haunt You.... -
-By Brian Marcelo-
-brianmarcelo@hotmail.com-
Rated R.
-Hell Bound-
-Chapter Twenty-
-...-
With a look of fear evident in her features, she cautiously looked around her setting, wondering where she was. A few minutes ago she had been in a hospital stretcher, and then bright lights had obscured her vision. The next thing she knew, there was a period of nothing but darkness, and now...she was here.
She didn't know exactly how she got here, but she already had a good guess of where she was.
She gasped a little as something slimy squirmed by her leg, causing her to shiver as she backed away, hoping that whatever had just touched her was small and harmless.
She certainly didn't imagine hell to be like this...she imagined it to be a horribly hot place, with demons flying around, torturing damned people with various weapons and torture devices, and finally, she thought the damned place would be all red and fiery and brimstone-ish.
Instead, she was back in Raccoon City, or at the very least, something that looked very much like Raccoon City. There were, unsurprisingly, zombies and various other monsters that she had fought before in Raccoon City, although this time, they didn't even notice her. They were just shambling around, waiting for their next victim to show up, totally oblivious to her presence.
Of course, it made no sense to her, especially since Hell was suppose to torture you for all eternity for your sins, not leave you alone, as if you were invisible. Of course, another thing on her mind was why she was here. She thought she hadn't committed any major sins in her relatively short life; in fact, she thought she was a heroine.
However, she was sent here, wherever here was, for probably the rest of her life, just because she had killed all those zombies back in Raccoon City, Rockfort Island, and Antarctica.
A dark figure, wrapped in a familiar trench coat along with the blankest expression she had ever seen, had stepped up from the shadows of the alleyway she was hiding in, and had started to stare straight down at her with blank, dead eyes.
She cautiously backed away, her handgun held firmly in her hands, finger wrapped around the trigger in case she had to defend herself.
Mr. X, better known as the Tyrant, was here in her hell along with her, she thought, probably because it was the embodiment of Umbrella, the corporation that had ruined her life, as well as ending up being partially to blame for her untimely death.
To her surprise, it had started to talk as if it were a voice in her own mind.
"Do you know why you're here...?" it had asked her, its stare piercing into her very soul, making her shiver as she tried not to run away.
"Why...?" she had managed to mutter out, "Why am I here...?"
"You killed those innocent people..." it had said, in an almost amused tone.
"What do you mean...? They were turned into zombies!" she had argued frantically, " They were already dead...they were going to kill me!"
"It does not matter...you killed those people...you could've tried to find a cure for them, yet you did not..." it bellowed once more into her mind, causing her to shiver with every word.
"I...I didn't know there was a cure...the...the only cure I found was for the G-virus...the Devil vaccine...there was only enough for Sherry..." she said, stuttering in fear, which was not something she would normally do, even if she was around something as foreboding as a Tyrant.
"You failed those people...just like how you failed Steve..." it bellowed again, sounding more amused at her pain.
"I...I...." was all she managed to mutter before the Tyrant grabbed her by the throat roughly.
"What are...you...doing...?" she gasped out, as she tried to pry his huge hand off her throat.
"Punishing you for your crimes..." the voice in her head said simply.
Looking at the Tyrant with a confused expression on her face, she tried to take a swing at its face, which resulted in it throwing her against the alleyway wall harshly. She gasped for air as she lay on the ground, feeling pain she had never felt in her life, more painful then when she was dying.
"What...what are you going to do now...?" she had asked aloud, gripping her ribs tightly as they throbbed in pain from the impact.
"I shall leave you alone for now, letting you wonder what's real...what is not...and what hell truly means..." it had replied simply, it's haunting message being repeated in her head like an echo, even after the Tyrant had left her in the alleyway.
It seemed like Hell was going to treat Claire extra special during her stay there.
-Chris' jeep, on the way to Umbrella-
"Umbrella's finally gone..." Jill whispered in an amazed tone, somewhat afraid to look at the expression on her partner's face, especially since Wesker had been mentioned earlier.
"Yeah...all thanks to Alexia Ashford...pretty crazy, huh...?" he softly responded, sounding slightly shaky, "From the files that...Claire...and I kept from our experience with the Ashfords, we were able to learn that her family was one of the founding members of Umbrella..."
Chris couldn't believe that Umbrella was gone. After all the planning, after all the nightmares, after everything he had gone through because of them...it was all for nothing, seeing as how Umbrella was now gone in less then a day. It wasn't just a simple attack either, because now the towering building was no longer in view. No doubt the intense flames had probably caused the tower to collapse.
At first, he had thought it might've been Wesker, but after looking back at things that Wesker had said, it had seemed that Wesker no longer had any interest in Umbrella since he had the T-Veronica virus. Seeing as how Umbrella wasn't exactly trustworthy, Chris had deducted that somehow Alexia Ashford had gone to Umbrella and then had been double crossed, why, he didn't bother to think about further.
"Why would she want to destroy Umbrella if her own family founded it...?" Jill asked, despite the fact that she didn't really care why Alexia did it, because as long as Umbrella was gone, she was happy. At least, as happy as one could be when their partner/love interest was in pain over the loss of a sibling.
Mustering up all her courage, she slowly turned her head and glanced at him with soft eyes, noticing he looked neither sad nor angry, but more like determined.
'No doubt determined to avenge Claire...' she thought to herself, also noticing that his eyes didn't hold the same anger that was there earlier, 'Perhaps he learned that being in a constant state of anger wasn't such a good idea...'
"I hope you're having a nice time up there, kiddo..." she said quietly, as she leaned back in her seat and looked up at the afternoon sky, "I really wish we could've had more time to bond...it would've been nice to have known you better...I bet heaven sure must be a great place to be, huh Claire...?"
-Hunk's hiding place in Paris-
With a small *click*, he loaded the magazine into his Assault Rifle, one of the three weapons he had managed to smuggle out of Umbrella's main building as he was making his escape. Now that he no longer had a office, nor employer for that matter, to come back to, he had gone back to his hiding place in Paris, sitting back to ponder what he was going to do now.
Agent Hunk was quite experienced in many forms of combat and unarmed combat, and he had undergone many missions for Umbrella, many of them having a high fatality rate. However, he had always survived each mission handed down to him, no matter how suicidal it seemed to be. So often was he the only survivor that he was nicknamed "Mr. Death" by his fellow soldiers, who all wished to have his will to live despite all the odds.
Now that he no longer had an employer, he was free to pursue other things at the moment, such as joining with H.C.F. perhaps, or even better, tracking down Alexia Ashford. He may have had a unique fascination with her, but he wanted answers...he wanted to know why Alexia Ashford destroyed Umbrella, as well as wanting to meet her face to face, to quench his curiosity about her.
He chuckled as a thought suddenly crossed his mind. 'It's usually the heroes who never die, and the villains who always bite the dust...but not me, because I'm Mr. Death...'
He was snickering as he checked Desert Eagle magnum. "I guess that would make me qualify for hero status...?"
-The ruins of what was once Umbrella's Headquarters-
As they reached their target destination, they soon realized that the sounds from the explosions they had heard earlier simply did not match what had happened physically to the large building.
"What could've done this?" Ada asked quietly, as she and Wesker surveyed what was left of it Umbrella's Headquarters.
Umbrella's Headquarters, which had once stood tall and proud, was now reduced to nothing more than a few stories worth of twisted wreckage and dusty debris. Most of the area around what was once the Umbrella's main branch was engulfed in intense flames. It seemed that whoever did this sure wanted to leave their mark...
"You people should get as far away as you can! There's still many fires around here!" yelled one of the firemen, who had noticed the rather strange duo while trying to put the intense fires out.
"I'm special agent Ada Wong..." replied Ada, as she quickly pulled out her ID card, "And this is special agent Albert Wesker...we're here from H.C.F. to investigate what could've caused this..."
The fireman was too busy to respond since his eyes had widened and his jaw had dropped as he noticed Wesker, who still was in his T-Veronica form.
"Wha...what's wrong with your friend...?" stuttered out the fireman, prompting Wesker to fold his arms and growl angrily, "He looks like he's been set on fire or something..."
Ada nervously laughed as she glanced at Wesker. "He's going to a comic convention later...he just loves those comic book superheroes."
"He sure doesn't look like any comic heroes I've seen, ma'am." replied the fireman, who left to go put out the fires on wreckage.
Wesker growled angrily once again as he tilted his black sunglasses at Ada, who was trying her best to stiffle her giggles.
-In the alleyways of Paris...-
The Nemesis swiftly ran through the alleyways, relentless trying to find it's prey.
"ALEXIA..." it roared inhumanly, as it surveyed the area, trying to match the picture programmed into its brain with anything in the area.
This Nemesis was not the same one that had been dispatched in Raccoon City, but was actually the second model created. This Nemesis was much more advanced then it's predecessor, since it had a maps of Paris programmed into its brain, as well as having a higher resistance rate to any sort of weapons; it was even able to take direct shots to the head from high caliber weapons such as a magnum. Its healing rate was increased two-fold, allowing it to push bullets out of its body and heal any part of its body.
Carrying the name Nemesis-Beta, it was created to once again hunt down Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliviera. After being dispatched by Umbrella researcher Greg Jones, it had successfully found Jill and Carlos, and was just about to kill Jill when Chris Redfield as well as the other S.T.A.R.S. members came to her rescue. The Nemesis was not defeated however, only stunned temporarily. After the S.T.A.R.S. left, it was reactivated by Greg Jones, who programmed it to go after Alexia Ashford instead after she had started torching Umbrella HQ.
Being the last surviving B.O.W. from Umbrella, it kept on going throughout the alleyways, stalking Alexia Ashford, and thankfully, being undetected by normal Paris citizens doing their daily day things.
Of course, it wouldn't hesitate to kill anything in its way of course, be it S.T.A.R.S. members, police officers, or civilians.
"ALEXIA..." it groaned once more, as it grew ever so closer to its target...
-In the van with Leon, Steve, Rebecca, Carlos, and Barry-
"Umbrella's gone...can you guys believe it?" remarked Barry excitedly, as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, making sure to keep up with Chris' jeep, "And we didn't even have to do a damn thing either, isn't it great?"
Barry was overjoyed at the fact that Umbrella's Headquarters, which were most of their experimenting was now being done at, was completely demolished. He didn't have to worry about losing any more people close to him...he didn't have to worry about having to explain to the families of those who died...and best of all...he was able to see his family again.
"My family..." he mused aloud, "I can't wait to seem them after all this is over..."
"You're pretty lucky Barry, to have a family to come back to..." replied Steve, who had a firm grip on sub-machine gun, "I lost all mine to Umbrella...and a loved one too..."
"Yeah..." said Barry quietly, feeling stupid as well as ashamed for bringing up the subject of family after what had happened to Steve, as well as Claire.
"Oh..." murmured Rebecca meekly, as she looked at Steve sadly.
"I'm sorry for what happened to your parents..." Carlos interjected, as he put a hand on Steve's shoulder, "We've all lost someone because of Umbrella...friends...teammates...it must be really difficult for you..."
It was more then difficult for Steve Burnside; it was hell. Not only did Umbrella soldiers gun down his mother, and that he was forced to shoot down his undead father, but the love of his life, Claire Redfield, was gone as well.
"Thanks for caring..." Steve murmured with a forced smile, "I appreciate it guys..."
Leon, however, remained quiet as he slumped against the back of the van, thinking back to those he had lost. There was Ada Wong...voluptuous and sneaky, yet with a tender heart that she didn't dare show to just anyone. He could still remember how they had fallen in love so fast...how they stole glances at each other...how their lips met...and how she had died...
Then there was Claire...he was in love with Claire...he refused to think of her as a fallback...no...he did love her. He was in love with her personality and looks...everything about her made his heart flutter...
He was grateful that at least had been able to enjoy a nice breakfast with her that was filled with laughter and poking fun at each other...
Leon meant those words to her...those three words that he had only uttered twice in his lifetime...
He was missing Claire dearly, but was satisfied with the fact that she was in a better place now.
"Wherever you are Claire...think about me..." he whispered softly, as the van approached the disaster scene...
-.....-
Claire couldn't believe her eyes as she gazed upon the figure in front of her.
"Is that really...you...?" she asked meekly, still gripping her ribs from the impact she had sustained from earlier.
"Yes." replied the figure coldly.
"But...how can you be here with me...?" she asked, startled by the coldness in the figure's tone.
The figure shrugged.
"How...how you can be here...Steve...?" she asked, her eyes widening as he offered her a hand.
-End of Chapter Twenty-
The last part is meant to be confusing...
In Chapter Twenty-One we'll see another showdown...and we'll get to see what the hell is happening to Claire...
Stay tuned for the next chapter! As usual, please rate and review! I really apperciate any reviews I get!
Also, read Mayuku's (ID: 198490) stories! They are quite detailed and kick ass!
Unscathed: Wesker nearly kills Claire and Steve is back! A new adventure primarly focused on the destruction of Wesker has begun. Violent with subtle Romantic themes. Read at:http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=716816
Giving up on Love: A fanfiction narrated by Claire Redfield. She discusses a love triangle that's going on in her life between Steve/Leon/her and sums up how everything became a mess. Read at: http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=732827
Thanks goes to (In Order of Appearance for all chapters so far): random echo, Claire Burnside267, a reader, diddly day, Zil, Tasha Burnside, Umbrella-Experiment, Parasite Lin, Biohazard 101, Cand, Queen Kristina, Apokruphos, Redfield 99, Yumi Konoe, Chandler01, Lyger, Chicky Tifa, D-2Artemis, Shin, Simon552, Jimbo Jones, claire3407, Squall Leonhart, Mayaku, President Evil, ashford2ashford, The Elvish Vampire Seira, Felicia, Mayumi-H, Mossberg, Serena, Dragonchan, and Lily!
Thanks goes to reviewers of Chapter Nineteen: Lyger, Felicia, Biohazard 101, Mayumi, Mossberg, random echo, Mayuku, Serena, Dragonchan, Lily!
Special Message to Lily: I am not a review whore, so darn you, darn you to heck. ;_; Wah.
Don't worry, I'm trying my best not to make this cliché, I'm putting in various twists and such to make it...interesting, to say the least. And yes, flaming will not work in persuading me to change my mind, although some nice constructive criticism is always welcome as long as it's presented well, and not in an immature way.
On with yet another chapter...
-Even Fond Memories Can Come Back To Haunt You.... -
-By Brian Marcelo-
-brianmarcelo@hotmail.com-
Rated R.
-Hell Bound-
-Chapter Twenty-
-...-
With a look of fear evident in her features, she cautiously looked around her setting, wondering where she was. A few minutes ago she had been in a hospital stretcher, and then bright lights had obscured her vision. The next thing she knew, there was a period of nothing but darkness, and now...she was here.
She didn't know exactly how she got here, but she already had a good guess of where she was.
She gasped a little as something slimy squirmed by her leg, causing her to shiver as she backed away, hoping that whatever had just touched her was small and harmless.
She certainly didn't imagine hell to be like this...she imagined it to be a horribly hot place, with demons flying around, torturing damned people with various weapons and torture devices, and finally, she thought the damned place would be all red and fiery and brimstone-ish.
Instead, she was back in Raccoon City, or at the very least, something that looked very much like Raccoon City. There were, unsurprisingly, zombies and various other monsters that she had fought before in Raccoon City, although this time, they didn't even notice her. They were just shambling around, waiting for their next victim to show up, totally oblivious to her presence.
Of course, it made no sense to her, especially since Hell was suppose to torture you for all eternity for your sins, not leave you alone, as if you were invisible. Of course, another thing on her mind was why she was here. She thought she hadn't committed any major sins in her relatively short life; in fact, she thought she was a heroine.
However, she was sent here, wherever here was, for probably the rest of her life, just because she had killed all those zombies back in Raccoon City, Rockfort Island, and Antarctica.
A dark figure, wrapped in a familiar trench coat along with the blankest expression she had ever seen, had stepped up from the shadows of the alleyway she was hiding in, and had started to stare straight down at her with blank, dead eyes.
She cautiously backed away, her handgun held firmly in her hands, finger wrapped around the trigger in case she had to defend herself.
Mr. X, better known as the Tyrant, was here in her hell along with her, she thought, probably because it was the embodiment of Umbrella, the corporation that had ruined her life, as well as ending up being partially to blame for her untimely death.
To her surprise, it had started to talk as if it were a voice in her own mind.
"Do you know why you're here...?" it had asked her, its stare piercing into her very soul, making her shiver as she tried not to run away.
"Why...?" she had managed to mutter out, "Why am I here...?"
"You killed those innocent people..." it had said, in an almost amused tone.
"What do you mean...? They were turned into zombies!" she had argued frantically, " They were already dead...they were going to kill me!"
"It does not matter...you killed those people...you could've tried to find a cure for them, yet you did not..." it bellowed once more into her mind, causing her to shiver with every word.
"I...I didn't know there was a cure...the...the only cure I found was for the G-virus...the Devil vaccine...there was only enough for Sherry..." she said, stuttering in fear, which was not something she would normally do, even if she was around something as foreboding as a Tyrant.
"You failed those people...just like how you failed Steve..." it bellowed again, sounding more amused at her pain.
"I...I...." was all she managed to mutter before the Tyrant grabbed her by the throat roughly.
"What are...you...doing...?" she gasped out, as she tried to pry his huge hand off her throat.
"Punishing you for your crimes..." the voice in her head said simply.
Looking at the Tyrant with a confused expression on her face, she tried to take a swing at its face, which resulted in it throwing her against the alleyway wall harshly. She gasped for air as she lay on the ground, feeling pain she had never felt in her life, more painful then when she was dying.
"What...what are you going to do now...?" she had asked aloud, gripping her ribs tightly as they throbbed in pain from the impact.
"I shall leave you alone for now, letting you wonder what's real...what is not...and what hell truly means..." it had replied simply, it's haunting message being repeated in her head like an echo, even after the Tyrant had left her in the alleyway.
It seemed like Hell was going to treat Claire extra special during her stay there.
-Chris' jeep, on the way to Umbrella-
"Umbrella's finally gone..." Jill whispered in an amazed tone, somewhat afraid to look at the expression on her partner's face, especially since Wesker had been mentioned earlier.
"Yeah...all thanks to Alexia Ashford...pretty crazy, huh...?" he softly responded, sounding slightly shaky, "From the files that...Claire...and I kept from our experience with the Ashfords, we were able to learn that her family was one of the founding members of Umbrella..."
Chris couldn't believe that Umbrella was gone. After all the planning, after all the nightmares, after everything he had gone through because of them...it was all for nothing, seeing as how Umbrella was now gone in less then a day. It wasn't just a simple attack either, because now the towering building was no longer in view. No doubt the intense flames had probably caused the tower to collapse.
At first, he had thought it might've been Wesker, but after looking back at things that Wesker had said, it had seemed that Wesker no longer had any interest in Umbrella since he had the T-Veronica virus. Seeing as how Umbrella wasn't exactly trustworthy, Chris had deducted that somehow Alexia Ashford had gone to Umbrella and then had been double crossed, why, he didn't bother to think about further.
"Why would she want to destroy Umbrella if her own family founded it...?" Jill asked, despite the fact that she didn't really care why Alexia did it, because as long as Umbrella was gone, she was happy. At least, as happy as one could be when their partner/love interest was in pain over the loss of a sibling.
Mustering up all her courage, she slowly turned her head and glanced at him with soft eyes, noticing he looked neither sad nor angry, but more like determined.
'No doubt determined to avenge Claire...' she thought to herself, also noticing that his eyes didn't hold the same anger that was there earlier, 'Perhaps he learned that being in a constant state of anger wasn't such a good idea...'
"I hope you're having a nice time up there, kiddo..." she said quietly, as she leaned back in her seat and looked up at the afternoon sky, "I really wish we could've had more time to bond...it would've been nice to have known you better...I bet heaven sure must be a great place to be, huh Claire...?"
-Hunk's hiding place in Paris-
With a small *click*, he loaded the magazine into his Assault Rifle, one of the three weapons he had managed to smuggle out of Umbrella's main building as he was making his escape. Now that he no longer had a office, nor employer for that matter, to come back to, he had gone back to his hiding place in Paris, sitting back to ponder what he was going to do now.
Agent Hunk was quite experienced in many forms of combat and unarmed combat, and he had undergone many missions for Umbrella, many of them having a high fatality rate. However, he had always survived each mission handed down to him, no matter how suicidal it seemed to be. So often was he the only survivor that he was nicknamed "Mr. Death" by his fellow soldiers, who all wished to have his will to live despite all the odds.
Now that he no longer had an employer, he was free to pursue other things at the moment, such as joining with H.C.F. perhaps, or even better, tracking down Alexia Ashford. He may have had a unique fascination with her, but he wanted answers...he wanted to know why Alexia Ashford destroyed Umbrella, as well as wanting to meet her face to face, to quench his curiosity about her.
He chuckled as a thought suddenly crossed his mind. 'It's usually the heroes who never die, and the villains who always bite the dust...but not me, because I'm Mr. Death...'
He was snickering as he checked Desert Eagle magnum. "I guess that would make me qualify for hero status...?"
-The ruins of what was once Umbrella's Headquarters-
As they reached their target destination, they soon realized that the sounds from the explosions they had heard earlier simply did not match what had happened physically to the large building.
"What could've done this?" Ada asked quietly, as she and Wesker surveyed what was left of it Umbrella's Headquarters.
Umbrella's Headquarters, which had once stood tall and proud, was now reduced to nothing more than a few stories worth of twisted wreckage and dusty debris. Most of the area around what was once the Umbrella's main branch was engulfed in intense flames. It seemed that whoever did this sure wanted to leave their mark...
"You people should get as far away as you can! There's still many fires around here!" yelled one of the firemen, who had noticed the rather strange duo while trying to put the intense fires out.
"I'm special agent Ada Wong..." replied Ada, as she quickly pulled out her ID card, "And this is special agent Albert Wesker...we're here from H.C.F. to investigate what could've caused this..."
The fireman was too busy to respond since his eyes had widened and his jaw had dropped as he noticed Wesker, who still was in his T-Veronica form.
"Wha...what's wrong with your friend...?" stuttered out the fireman, prompting Wesker to fold his arms and growl angrily, "He looks like he's been set on fire or something..."
Ada nervously laughed as she glanced at Wesker. "He's going to a comic convention later...he just loves those comic book superheroes."
"He sure doesn't look like any comic heroes I've seen, ma'am." replied the fireman, who left to go put out the fires on wreckage.
Wesker growled angrily once again as he tilted his black sunglasses at Ada, who was trying her best to stiffle her giggles.
-In the alleyways of Paris...-
The Nemesis swiftly ran through the alleyways, relentless trying to find it's prey.
"ALEXIA..." it roared inhumanly, as it surveyed the area, trying to match the picture programmed into its brain with anything in the area.
This Nemesis was not the same one that had been dispatched in Raccoon City, but was actually the second model created. This Nemesis was much more advanced then it's predecessor, since it had a maps of Paris programmed into its brain, as well as having a higher resistance rate to any sort of weapons; it was even able to take direct shots to the head from high caliber weapons such as a magnum. Its healing rate was increased two-fold, allowing it to push bullets out of its body and heal any part of its body.
Carrying the name Nemesis-Beta, it was created to once again hunt down Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliviera. After being dispatched by Umbrella researcher Greg Jones, it had successfully found Jill and Carlos, and was just about to kill Jill when Chris Redfield as well as the other S.T.A.R.S. members came to her rescue. The Nemesis was not defeated however, only stunned temporarily. After the S.T.A.R.S. left, it was reactivated by Greg Jones, who programmed it to go after Alexia Ashford instead after she had started torching Umbrella HQ.
Being the last surviving B.O.W. from Umbrella, it kept on going throughout the alleyways, stalking Alexia Ashford, and thankfully, being undetected by normal Paris citizens doing their daily day things.
Of course, it wouldn't hesitate to kill anything in its way of course, be it S.T.A.R.S. members, police officers, or civilians.
"ALEXIA..." it groaned once more, as it grew ever so closer to its target...
-In the van with Leon, Steve, Rebecca, Carlos, and Barry-
"Umbrella's gone...can you guys believe it?" remarked Barry excitedly, as he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, making sure to keep up with Chris' jeep, "And we didn't even have to do a damn thing either, isn't it great?"
Barry was overjoyed at the fact that Umbrella's Headquarters, which were most of their experimenting was now being done at, was completely demolished. He didn't have to worry about losing any more people close to him...he didn't have to worry about having to explain to the families of those who died...and best of all...he was able to see his family again.
"My family..." he mused aloud, "I can't wait to seem them after all this is over..."
"You're pretty lucky Barry, to have a family to come back to..." replied Steve, who had a firm grip on sub-machine gun, "I lost all mine to Umbrella...and a loved one too..."
"Yeah..." said Barry quietly, feeling stupid as well as ashamed for bringing up the subject of family after what had happened to Steve, as well as Claire.
"Oh..." murmured Rebecca meekly, as she looked at Steve sadly.
"I'm sorry for what happened to your parents..." Carlos interjected, as he put a hand on Steve's shoulder, "We've all lost someone because of Umbrella...friends...teammates...it must be really difficult for you..."
It was more then difficult for Steve Burnside; it was hell. Not only did Umbrella soldiers gun down his mother, and that he was forced to shoot down his undead father, but the love of his life, Claire Redfield, was gone as well.
"Thanks for caring..." Steve murmured with a forced smile, "I appreciate it guys..."
Leon, however, remained quiet as he slumped against the back of the van, thinking back to those he had lost. There was Ada Wong...voluptuous and sneaky, yet with a tender heart that she didn't dare show to just anyone. He could still remember how they had fallen in love so fast...how they stole glances at each other...how their lips met...and how she had died...
Then there was Claire...he was in love with Claire...he refused to think of her as a fallback...no...he did love her. He was in love with her personality and looks...everything about her made his heart flutter...
He was grateful that at least had been able to enjoy a nice breakfast with her that was filled with laughter and poking fun at each other...
Leon meant those words to her...those three words that he had only uttered twice in his lifetime...
He was missing Claire dearly, but was satisfied with the fact that she was in a better place now.
"Wherever you are Claire...think about me..." he whispered softly, as the van approached the disaster scene...
-.....-
Claire couldn't believe her eyes as she gazed upon the figure in front of her.
"Is that really...you...?" she asked meekly, still gripping her ribs from the impact she had sustained from earlier.
"Yes." replied the figure coldly.
"But...how can you be here with me...?" she asked, startled by the coldness in the figure's tone.
The figure shrugged.
"How...how you can be here...Steve...?" she asked, her eyes widening as he offered her a hand.
-End of Chapter Twenty-
The last part is meant to be confusing...
In Chapter Twenty-One we'll see another showdown...and we'll get to see what the hell is happening to Claire...
Stay tuned for the next chapter! As usual, please rate and review! I really apperciate any reviews I get!
Also, read Mayuku's (ID: 198490) stories! They are quite detailed and kick ass!
Unscathed: Wesker nearly kills Claire and Steve is back! A new adventure primarly focused on the destruction of Wesker has begun. Violent with subtle Romantic themes. Read at:http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=716816
Giving up on Love: A fanfiction narrated by Claire Redfield. She discusses a love triangle that's going on in her life between Steve/Leon/her and sums up how everything became a mess. Read at: http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=732827