Jano The Shadow Technology won't be coming out quite so soon after its first appearance in this fic. But there will be more of it later, towards the end of the story. About Kenny's reactions towards Jack and Lisa … he's an uptown kid. HHoD described the uptown kid's impressions on Jack and Lisa, and I followed her description as closely as I could – Kenny doesn't like Jack for the wrong reasons. But I never wrote Kenny as a very moral person anyway – he's got his faults like we all do. Hope that clears things up.

Vertiag Thank you for your support. And you can bet I'll continue writing this story to the very end.

E-ZB: Kenny's alliance with Wesker isn't a legitimate one. You'll find out later in this latest chapter that he's just trying to complicate things between Wesker and Alexia, and then it backfires on him – badly.

Jojo I decided to mention the characters from Resident Evil: Project Lucifer because first off, it's a well written story. I don't normally get into stories that are almost 100 original but the way this one story was presented, I dunno, it just really worked for me. Secondly, I could fit it easily into my own story because Kenny goes to the same school as Jack and Lisa. As for Kenny and Alexia's relationship, I somehow think of them as two bickering children. Well Kenny is 15 years old in this fic, And Alexia's been cryogenically frozen since she was 11 years old, which doesn't give her much time to mature. So I figured they'd be at around the same maturity level.

HHoD My final copy of the flashback was actually the second one. The first flashback I wrote out, I didn't like it so I deleted it and started from scratch, so I'm glad to see that you approve of it – and the rest of this story too, for that matter! It's definitely flattering, especially from someone who writes like you do. Hope you'll continue to follow this story, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for further updates. So yeah, update soon!

I had lost Alexia Ashford. And it was all stupid Wesker's fault. Had he not hindered my efforts, I would've been on the woman in a heartbeat. I looked at where to go next, hardly having moved from the man-made garden. Wesker stood behind me. I could feel his gaze digging into my back – a gaze of utter disappointment. My hands became wet with cold sweat. I've barely begun my jouney and I'm already looking like a fool! Like some kind of amateur!

"So," Wesker said, "you're going to bring Alexia back to me, huh?"

"Well maybe if you didn't stall me for a second back there …"

"I'm starting to doubt your abilities, Kenny."

"Hey!" Okay, I had to think. If I were a crazed woman, cryogenically frozen for the past few years, where would I go? After Steve … right, I got that. But where would Steve be, in this giant maze of a base?

"I'll give you a head start," Wesker offered. "You really look like you could use it."

"Thank you …" I gasped, finally making my frustration obvious.

"There is a prison at the base. And since Alexia has Steve as a prisoner, that would be a pretty good place to check out."

"Where is it?"

"I'm not too familiar with this base myself, but I believe you can get in there by entering the mansion, behind the secret painting that only Umbrella operatives can gain access to."

"How do you know about that?"

"I used to work for Umbrella, you know."

I wasn't sure whether to trust Wesker at that point, but I figured if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even be this close. "Alright, I'm going."

"Head through the computer room!"

So there I was running back into the mansion. The chilly air of the big empty room got to me once again, making goose bumps sprout all over my arms. My steady footsteps thumped rhythmically on the red plush carpet as I made my way behind the grand staircase to check up on Claire.

She was still trapped in the cocoon, but unconscious this time. Her head hung low, letting her chestnut brown bangs hang over her face. I closed my eyes and touched my forehead against hers. "I'm going now Claire. Stay safe. Don't let me risk my life in vain."

After those few words, it was back up the staircase case and …

"ACCESS GRANTED!!!"

Fuck! Did the stupid computer have to be so damn loud?! With my flashlight piercing the darkness as I ran along, I found myself back in the very same computer room I had made my phone call to Chris in. When was he going to get here? Oh no … How long would it take Chris to realize that Claire isn't on Rockfort, that she's here in the Antarctic with me? Would he die before he found out?

I took a step towards the phone, but then realized that Chris could wait. There were more pressing matters at hand – like Steve's safety. So Wesker said to go through the computer room. There was a small set of stairs leading to a door raised slightly above the floor level. I decided to give the door a try.

I found myself walking through a long hallway. It was narrow enough for me to plant my palms on either sides of the wall, but it was incredibly long. I proceeded down this corridor with caution, hearing my labored breathing echo through the space. It wasn't until I heard the sound of my own breathing when I realized that my heart, too, was beating crazily in my chest, my palms cold yet sweaty at the same time, and my mouth was pasty – like I'd been smoking pot. But I wouldn't know anything about that. These were the telltale signs of nervousness. Suddenly I felt the same way as I did when the whole Umbrella bullshit started, when I first walked down the halls of the Raccoon City Police Precinct during the first hours of my struggle for survival.

I missed those carefree times of being just a regular person caught up in a mess that was never intended for me. I missed my cozy bed that I used to sleep in my rented apartment in uptown Raccoon. I missed my room floor, littered with growing clumps of dirty clothes in every direction. I wanted to smell the sweet scent of dried sweat, the traditional aura of a typical bachelor's pad. I was so caught up in Umbrella's mess that I longed for a regular life again. I wondered if Leon, Claire and everyone else felt the same way … longing for the simple pleasure of life, wondering if they ever got sick of dealing with zombies and crazy people all the time like I was.

And then I got hit in the face, too caught up in my own thoughts to even look at what was in front of me. My body went sailing parallel to the ground until it ran out of trajectory and collided with the carpeted floor a few feet back from where I was standing. I opened my eyes but saw nothing but stars and black patches. Beyond that, it was hard to make out what I was seeing … until my vision came into focus.

A giant plant root … or tentacle had burst through the wall and swatted me away like a fly. This tentacle was about six feet in length – longer than I was tall – and had the circumference of a beach ball, gradually tapering out towards the head. It lay limp on the ground after striking me, so I decided to approach it again, slowly this time. The moment I came within five feet of the thing, it stirred and raised itself from "sleep". The damn thing wasn't going to let me pass. But I wasn't about to settle for that. One shot from my magnum and it screamed like a little girl, withdrawing back into the wall. Yeah – the thing screamed. Like it had feelings or something. Meh, whatever, so did I but it still didn't have any problems bashing me. I continued through the door at the end of the hallway.

"Get the hell away from me, you sick bitch!" Somebody was screaming desperately. There was no anger in the voice, only horror. My eyes scanned the surrounding area, trying to get a sense of where the voice was coming from. Along my left, there were prison cells lined up but they were all empty. Beyond those was a set of stairs leading up to the left, where an antique cannon sat gathering dust. To my right, there was a single green door beside yet another cell that –

"Help me, someone!" the voice cried again. It was Steve! "Argh!!" The latter cry was one of pure agony.

"Steve, I'm coming!" I yelled, pushing the green door open. I prayed that my hearing was acute enough to accurately locate the source of his screams. The green metal door wouldn't budge.

"Please state your personal identification …"

"Rockfort 16320!!" I cried with desperation against the cold, feminine voice that someone had chosen for the computer.

"Access granted!" Yeah, that's great. I didn't care. I just wanted in before Steve ran out of time. There was another door, in the empty brick room beyond the green one that I just pushed my way through. My first impression was to gape in awe at what this new room displayed. It was huge, dark and gray. There was a single path in the centre of the room that led to the wall on the other side, lined by creepy suits of armor. I'd seen horror movies before, and those things had a really bad habit of coming to life and using their weapons to chop their victims to pieces. Well, I realized those were the movies and this was real life and … and I suppose zombies only exist in horror movies as well? Screw it. I ran for my dear life between the armor suits towards the end of the room, where I suddenly saw Steve.

He looked horrible. He had on the same clothes he was wearing when I saw him on Rockfort – green slacks and a black button up short sleeved shirt over a yellow undershirt. He sat limp in a regular wooden chair with his head leaning forward, facing the ground so that I couldn't see his face through his bangs. Keeping him the seat as a large wooden pole positioned across his chest. And on one end of the pole was a giant axe blade, half of it embedded into the concrete wall! The blade was big enough to behead me like a chopper could cut off a chicken's head. Suddenly, I felt very vulnerable. Nonetheless, I approached Steve cautiously.

"H … hey buddy," I said, whispering quietly, "are you alright?"

Steve looked up, not without some effort. His eyes were glazed over, as if his soul had been sucked right out of his body. His forehead gleamed with sweat. I could see where the tears had streaked down his face from his eyes. He wasn't crying anymore, but the streaks were still moist, judging from the way they reflected the dim lighting. "K … Kenny …" he said weakly. "You're … here?"

"I'm gonna get you out of here," I offered. Wrapping my arms over the giant pole, I put one foot against the wall and began to pull with all my might. After a few seconds of hopeless straining, I decided to try and remove the giant axe from nearer towards the head – it was the blade after all that kept in embedded into the wall. But there was still no luck. I felt sorry for Steve as my breath blew mercilessly at his face, as I grunted heavily, straining with every fiber of being in my body to get the damned thing unstuck from the wall.

Steve then looked up at me tiredly. The colors from his eyes were gone. They were glazed over, staring blankly at me. "What?" I asked. "My breath isn't THAT bad, is it?"

"You've gotta get outta here," he said, completely in contrast to his initial reaction to my presence.

"You just said …" I trailed off. I realized then that he wasn't looking at me. The reason his eyes looked so distant was because he was staring at something else … past my shoulder. I spun around quickly to face the stranger.

"You really have a deathwish, don't you, boy?" Alexia asked with her gloved arms folded tightly across her bosom. He had morphed back into her human form. It was much easier on the eyes than her other form, the mockery of anything humanoid.

"I have a proposition for you," I said, meeting her gaze.

She raised an eyebrow. One corner of her luscious lips lifted. "And what can you offer me?" she asked, more out of amazement than anything.

"You know why Wesker is here, right?"

"I believe it was me who told you."

"Do you think he's worthy of the T-Veronica Virus?"

Alexia scoffed. "That sunglasses donning fool?"

"And he sure as hell isn't worthy of the Shadow Technology either." Alexia rolled her eyes at my comment, but I continued. "He's making a big mistake by coming after either of us in the first place. We're more than he can handle individually. And to think he's got the audacity to come after both of us at once…"

"He is rather full of himself, I'll agree with you there."

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm aching to give that insult to fashion a lesson. He's not afraid to deck a kid, so do you think he would have the class to keep his hands off a lady like you? Let alone a lady of the Ashford family…" God, am I sly or WHAT?!?! Using her name with such honorific connotations? Umbrella would want be either way, with or without the Shadow Technology!

"You have a mouth that would earn you a few slaps," Alexia stated blatantly, "regardless of who they are delivered by. I'm not fond of you, boy, but you have a point to your bantering. With the T-Vernoica Virus on my side, Wesker isn't so much a threat as he is a pest – one who is just begging to be eliminated. To think that he would even consider coming close to my family's work and using it for his own selfish needs …"

"Disgusting, I tell you," I added for effect. "Shall we deliver him from his pointless existence together?"

"I don't need you," she spat at me. "Though, if you want a piece of Wesker, you're going to have to fight me as well. You may have helped me see the truth but beware, this action does in no way affect my plans for you – to be a test subject of my virus."

"I would be so honored." Alexia gave me a funny look before walking out of the hallway, the clicking of her high heel shoes fading as she got farther and farther away.

I turned back to Steve. "I've got Alexia and Wesker in for a fight now, Steve," I said. "While they kill each other, Claire, you and me will get out of here. Everything's gonna be alright."

Steve shook his head in protest. "No …" he said. "I'm infected."

"What?!" I cried taking a step back.

"She injected something inside me … I … I think it's the virus."

"You're not gonna turn into some kind of monster. You have to fight it." I tried coaxing to fight the virus but who was I kidding? It turned everyone in Raccoon City into the undead, regardless or race, sex or religion. Steve wouldn't be any different. But still, maybe if I gave him some hope, however false it may be, it would be better than nothing prior to dying.

"Please, Kenny," he asked modestly, all the dignity he boasted from our first meeting completely sucked out of him. "I'm just a lab rat now. But you and Claire … you guys have a chance to get out of here. Don't waste your time on a lost cause like me."

"Steve …" Now I was starting to feel like a real jerk for even considering letting him die on Rockfort Island.

"Go … now …" his last word came out as an exasperated whisper.

XXXXX

"Alexia Ashford!" Wesker cried with a suppressed glee. "You're coming with me!" He stood at the bottom of the grand staircase in the main hall of the underground mansion, the plush red carpet soaking up the bottom of his dark combat boots. I soon joined Alexia at her side on the landing, staring down condescendingly at Wesker. What a sight we must've been – Alexia in with a modest white headband in her straight, silky blonde hair, a sleeveless purple gown and elegantly gloved arms. And then there was me, in a tanned mechanic jumpsuit from the escape plane with my pajamas underneath. Wesker then shot me a glance.

"You kept your promise," he said sounding quite impressed. "You brought Alexia to me."

"It didn't take much convincing," I replied. "After all, you need to be taught that you just can't get whatever you want." Wesker looked up at me beyond the rims of his sunglasses.

"Is that a challenge, Kenny?"

Alexia was the first to descend the flight of stairs, her body once again morphing into that sick, twisted gray plant-like human being. She threw a stream of her flammable blood at Wesker, who promptly dodged the drops. Now that she wasn't flinging her combustible bodily fluids at me, I have to admit that it was a beautiful sight to behold. The dark red drops fanned out in midair in an elegant fashion, some of them bursting into a ball of fire before they even made contact with the ground. It was like a synchronized dance performed by a group of fireflies …

After dodging Alexia's Alexia's fire, Wesker jumped in the air and countered her attack with a solid punch of his own. I stood there with my mouth gaping open. I've experienced battle with Wesker before, and he seemed inhumanly fast. But I sort of always passed that off as me being in the heat of the battle, not as an actual fact. But even when I wasn't engaging him in combat, I could see now that he definitely wasn't human anymore. My first clue was that set of reptilian eyes he had but this … this was confirmation.

As Wesker was recovering from the move that he struck Alexia with, I prepared to jump into battle, feeling confident as ever that we would emerge victorious if Alexia and I teamed up against him. The thought of us fighting each other at a later battle did cross my mind, but only for an instant. Right now, I just wanted to see Wesker squirm in defeat, I wanted to see his ridiculous ego crushed.

It was only a split second before I dashed off bravely into battle, having my target set right between Wesker's eyes when I felt a single arm wrap easily around my waist and a hand cover my mouth tightly – so tight that I found it hard to breathe. I was yanked off my feet with relative ease by the mysterious assailant and mercilessly thrown onto the cold floor behind the stairs, out from Alexia and Wesker's views. Pain exploded from the back of my head, having collided with the stone flooring. I saw stars for a brief moment as I attempted to pick myself up from the ground.

But the attacker lifted me to my feet effortlessly by grabbing the collar of my jumpsuit with a single arm and slammed me against the back of the staircase … into a strange cocoon like substance. Hey ... the cocoon had been cut open and Claire wasn't here anymore. As my vision adjusted, I could see Chris looking straight into my eyes – and he wasn't happy. I caught sight of some blood that stained his pant leg from within. For someone with what looked like a bad injury, he moved pretty well.

"Chris?" I asked in confusion – not sure whether it was him or not, and if it was, why did he look like he wanted to kill me?

"Don't you fucking act all innocent with me!" he sneered in a quiet whisper, trying to keep his voice out of Alexia and Wesker's hearing range.

"What are you …" I winced as he slammed me back into the wooden staircase backing for a second time.

"You're co-operating with Umbrella," he said. "I heard everything."

My eyes widened in shock. Was that what he gathered from overhearing that five second meeting? "No, no, you're wrong," I protested, but I was quickly silenced when he brought a wicked looking hunting knife to my throat.

"One wrong move, Kenny," Chris said, his cold blue eyes never faltering from my fearful expression, "and it's all over for you. The S.T.A.R.S. unit is officially defunct, along with our moral obligations to the job. Don't think I won't do it."