Author's note: Here we are, the confrontation that no one has been waiting for! This is the penultimate chapter for this story. And God knows that I won't let things end without a bang, before the big bang.

TeKHey there, haven't heard from you in ages. (And that DID hurt my review count)Anyway, thanks for the compli, and as for how I put characters in scenarios normal people wouldn't want to be in? Well, maybe I'm just a little mad myself :p

Solid Snake91: Yeah, I wasn't exactly in one of my more inspired stages with that chapter. This chapter comes in extra long, just for you (and for the fact that I didn't realize it would take this long) But still, thanks, I'm officially printable now. J

HotaruAwww, hug. Okay, for you, here's some more sex and violence, loony style ; )

Recap: Leon Kennedy is dead, Chris is hospitalized, apparently framed for homicide. Jill has surfaced with her own hidden agenda. The police commissioner had an epiphany about the truth behind the violence, and he sets out to confront the recovering Chris Redfield one more time, not knowing that the savage Claire Redfield is also on her way to meet her brother. She already put Officer Kevin Ryman in terminal condition by viciously layering him with bullets at close range, killed three innocent people without hesitation, and is still hungry for closure. Will the battle hardened commissioner be strong enough to stop her bloody rampage? Or will her reign of death take a new victim?

Chapter 9: "Here and There"

"Destiny?" Aya raised an eyebrow, not used to hearing Kevin talk about such things.

"Yeah…do you believe in it?" he asked.

"…No, I…I don't think so…no."

'Why not?"

"It's just, if there's destiny, if we, well…"

"What is it?"

"If we already have all our lives, our futures mapped out for us, then…why bother? Why do what we do? I mean, there's no freedom."

"Oh."

"You?"

"Hard to say."

"Just a yes or a no."

"I'm not decided, I guess."

"You're guessing you can't decide?"

"I guess so."

The commissioner looked up, watching the stars glitter beyond the horizon. Shades of violet mixed with the dark blue carpet of the sky, making the old man wonder what was out there. Was someone watching them? Was there someone out there, higher, supreme, that laughed and cried along with the joy and misery of the human animal. Humans doing what it is they do, caring only for themselves and for the people they know, not even knowing about the existence of millions more. How at that moment, somewhere in the world, someone was making love, greeting death, crying, living. How their existence, how their names and lives, do not exist in the commissioner's own, and how his, was equally absent in theirs."…" The old man shook his head, leveling his gaze to what was in front of him. He was in a narrow alley that stretched forward for a few more feet, diverging into two wider passages, left and right, both of them leading to the wider streets.

"I mean, there are things that happen that are too…convenient, is that the right word? Coincidental."

"…"

"Okay, uh…when I was sixteen, I remember this…I flunked algebra, freshman year in high school. I didn't let my parents know."

"Typical."

"Hey, hear me out."

"Okay, sorry, sorry."

"So there I was, playing my SNES, with my problem at school nagging at me and I couldn't concentrate."

There was something missing. Something that could not be buried under a plastic smile and a cold heart. It was emptiness. A void in place of where happiness and comfort should be. Claire felt a strong gust of wind come from behind, pushing her forward. In Japanese culture, the winds of change are a powerful symbolism. They meant a many different things, from subtle reforms to social upheavals. Claire always began to wonder about the world when the wind blew. She thought of where it passed, who it passed, what it swept away, or brought to someone, and where it would go next. How something so lifeless, so arbitrary, could touch so many lives. All lives. It made her think of how big the world really was. "Where are you taking me?" she thought as the wind kept on forcing her to go forward. "To Chris…yes… our secret…I get to see you now…"

"I hope we're not talking about life altering epiphanies here, because…summer classes? Not exactly the tragedy of epic proportions."

"It doesn't have to be, Aya. Epic I mean. I…actually, I didn't know how serious it was. Yeah, to us now, something like summer class is just nothing, right? But back then, don't you remember being a kid? School meant a lot."

"…Yeah. I remember the feeling."

"Of course you do, you were scoring honors left and right."

"That was just my senior year."

"You were awarded a recognition award.

'Who doesn't nowadays?"

"…for not having a single absence since prep!"

"Wha-how did you even know that? We're not batch mates!"

"I saw the award on top of your drawer once."

'Well… I find that good education and good hygiene should come hand in hand."

"Anyway, yeah, so there I was, wasting my time with Street Fighter or something, and then all of a sudden, you know what happened?"

With a sigh, the commissioner took off his thick-framed glasses, wiping them with his handkerchief. A sudden blast of steam from one of the basements' ventilation managed to blur out his lenses, forcing him to stop to clean them. He could hear footsteps coming from the passage to the right, which as only about eleven feet away, but paid no heed. "…Why don't they put secret hospitals somewhere more accessible?" he thought to himself, noticing a blurry figure coming into view. It came from the right passage, steadily making her way to the left, not stopping to glance, or perhaps not noticing, at the old man. "…?" Placing back the handkerchief in his pocket, the old man put his glasses back on; finally learning who it was just a few feet away. "Claire…!" With that single realization, the old man's heart began to pound like a drum. Without waiting for another breath, he drew out his gun, a magnum revolver. The sudden movement made Claire take notice, maybe to late, that the old man, with his right arm, was aiming right at her.

"Bam!"

"Bam? Kevin, you suddenly exploded?"

"No! I mean… then all of a sudden, bam, the outlet suddenly short circuits and sparks fly. I mean literally."

"Okay."

´My hand turned black and all when pulled it out the socket."

"How…life changing."

´Thing is, nothing like that ever happened before. I mean, I was a techie, knew how AC/DC shit like that worked, but that, that was…I couldn't explain how it happened."

"Still not getting how this is destiny."

"On account that you don't let me finish?"

"Oh."

"Kidding, kidding, I…it's just that I've been thinking about it for a long time, and it's the first time I actually talked about it."

"Okay, sorry. So…what happened next?"

Claire's eyes widened for a second, caught off guard, but it didn't take long for her instincts to take over. For the two of them time began to slow down, though everything took mere moments to transpire. All of a sudden, she pulled back to her right, rotating backward, with her purse in her left hand, her right reaching into it. Finishing her motion, Claire pulled out the .45 she was hiding, popping the safety and ready to return fire by the time she was facing the old man. At the same time, the sudden movement made the nervous man's finger act on impulse, pulling the trigger and opening fire. It was the first shot fired, breaking the glass of silence and opening the door to chaos. The bullet flew right where Claire originally was, hitting the brick wall, strong enough to send particles and dust spray outward. "…Shit!" It was too long since the commissioner fired a gun, and with a single hand at that. The recoil made it impossible for him to reposition in time, at least not before Claire had her turn with him. "Got'cha!" Claire thought as she returned fire.

"So now that my SNES was busted, I really didn't have anything to do for the rest of my Saturday. So…I call Ryan. You remember him, right? Ryan Vazquez?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Yeah, so I call him up, ask him if he's got anything planned, and he said he wanted to just hang in campus. Probably play hoops or something. So I decided to come with."

"Uh-huh. He loved basketball."

"He really did."

"You didn't."

"Nothing else to do."

"Admit it, you like ogling boys."

"That why I fell for you, miss I can kick anyone's ass without worrying about split ends?"

"…So, yeah, so what happened next?"

At least his feet were still in good shape. The commissioner didn't bother readjusting his aim, opting instead to make a dive to his left where a green dumpster stood. It should be enough to give him cover from Claire's gun. A bullet flew nearly right through him, clipping the end of his trench coat instead. He felt the vacuum push his coat, nearly pulling him along with it. He didn't know where her two other gunshots went, only glad that he was still intact. With his elbows crossed in front of him, he landed beside the dumpster, rolling forward where his legs hit the wall. A small, black garbage bag left beside the dumpster managed to take the brunt of his fall. Claire's last shot however, managed to clip the edge of the dumpster, sending out a large fragment of shrapnel that tore into the commissioner's cheek. "…Suck it in! Suck it in!" the old man ordered himself, taking every fiber of his being not to scream in pain as the blood poured down his chin. It's been too long. He's too old. "Don't let her get too close to spray, don't let her…"

"Then she saw me."

"Who?"

"My homeroom adviser. Turns out that she forgot something in the faculty room so she had to go back. In that short window of time, in that huge campus, she and I saw each other."

"…"

"And she asked me, how I was, if I got into a summer school already, because it turned out, that it was the last week for enrolling in summer class. And I didn't even know."

Still using the dumpster as cover, the commissioner quickly got on his stomach, extended his right arm and fired a shot blindly, hoping that it would prevent Claire from closing in on him. It worked. With a shocked cry, Claire fell back as a bullet flew past her, so close that she heard the vacuum of air that it left in its track. "Bastard!" Claire followed the commissioner and rolled to her right, using the other end of the dumpster as temporary cover. Both of them were now leaning on opposite ends. It was then that the silence once again swallowed them, as each one waited for the other to move. Only six feet of steel separated them now. "…Come on old man…show me what you've got…"Claire then felt the pressure in the area shift, realizing that the old man was already making a move. "I'm faster than you…" With a twisted smile, Claire jumped to her feet and aimed at the commissioner's direction. Something moved upward, something fast. "…!" Claire didn't even have time to know what it was, as her instinct took over, forcing her to pull the trigger. Bullseye.

"So what my teacher does, is she calls my mom. She was at home."

"Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh is right. So my mom tells my dad, and by the time I got home, I got this entire barrage of sermons from my parents. I mean, really, the neighbors heard it, I think the dogs started barking…and those were some really lethargic dogs…and after all that, they tell me to clean myself up so we could find a summer school."

"Wow. That must suck."

"Yeah. Horrific much."

"…Wait, you mean, that was the year that you and I…?'

"…Yep."

Claire's mouth hung open as she watched the bullet tear right through a black garbage bag, sending its contents flying backward. She really was fast. And the old man knew it. Her eyes immediately shot down to the side of the dumpster, where the commissioner was on the floor, resting on his right shoulder, his revolver aimed straight for her. "…No…" For a second, their eyes locked, and that was only when Claire noticed the fury in the old man's glare. Her body tensed, signaling that she was making a move, still under the notion that she was faster than lightning. But before Claire could even aim her gun on him, the old man pulled the trigger, this time, finding its mark. Her notion was dismissed. Another loud crack filled the void. "Got you now you crazy bitch!" A sharp, searing pain erupted in Claire's shoulder, so much that it took out the air in her system, forcing her to simply gasp out loud in both shock and pain.

"You remember now, Aya? That was the summer that I needed to do an extra job to actually pay for my remedials…"

"The summer that we first met."

"Yep. So I keep on thinking…if, if my SNES didn't suddenly short circuit, if my parents didn't enroll me at the last minute in Stoneville High, the only place still accepting, near the café that you always went in…"

"…The café that you began working in…"

"I think that all that…it's more than a coincidence."

"…destiny?"

Claire felt her feet leave the ground for more than a second, as the force of the bullet literally sent her flying back. The wind blew hard, making her feel like she was sailing through the air. It didn't make the pain go away. The commissioner narrowed his eyes as he watched the girl land on the back of her head with a sickening crack. A sound that gave him comfort. He was winning. "…oh…hurts…never been shot…always…never…" Claire began to breathe louder as she tried to suppress the pain, finding herself staring at the beautiful night sky. There were so many stars. She clenched her right hand, feeling nothing but air. "…where's my gun…? Dropped…dropped it?" Her heart began to race as she heard the old man's footsteps draw closer. Closer. Closer. "She's down… call for a paramedic…no, the hospital is just a block away…can't involve dispatch…get her stitched up and throw her in jail…and finally…huh?" The commissioner stopped as he watched the young woman begin to giggle, slowly sitting herself up. "Freeze. Or I make sure the next one counts." The old man threatened, stopping in his tracks, just a step away from Claire.

"Is that what you really want?" she asked him in reply, her voice still a slur, almost like a whisper, from the shock in her system.

"…No sudden…" he repeated.

"What?" she asked, cutting him off, in a sultry, playful tone. Claire was now staring down the barrel of the gun. But she's been through worse. She was on her knees, with the commissioner looming over her like the shadow of inevitability. She was still breathing heavily, almost seductively, as she slowly took her jacket off. "You… had the perfect shot…but you didn't take it. Why? Maybe…" her eyes then locked into his, and with a trembling hand, she began to trail her fingers from her navel, to her breast. Violence always was psychologically connected to sex. It was something she knew, and was very much capable to exploit. Moreover, she was willing to. "…how long since the last time you fucked a girl, commissioner?"

"…" The old man didn't flinch, still keeping the gun trained at the young woman's face.

"Do you miss it commissioner? How warm it feels?" the young woman then lowered her right hand, sliding it between her thighs. "Come on…you can have my pussy if you want it…" she was still on her knees, thighs stretched wide apart, hoping that the commissioner would like to see more. "Come on old man…"she then began to move her hand under the cloth.

"…You… have the right to remain silent…" he started, cocking his gun again just to show that he meant business.

"…Fuck! Just push it!" Claire suddenly leaned forward, parted her scarlet lips, and with a crooked smile, began to suggestively engulf gun's barrel with her mouth. It worked. The old man stopped, shocked as he watched the girl began to trail her tongue up and down the barrel of the gun. Moaning and whimpering as she worked on the gun. She let the sour taste of gunpowder drip out of her saliva as her tongue reached the chamber of the gun. Her head was leaning to the left now, safe from a bullet's path. "This girl really is crazy…" the old man thought, his mouth now hung open, watching a savagely sexual display like this for the very first time.

"Now!"Without warning, she grabbed the gun with her left hand and with a loud shriek, quickly pushed it upward, further away from her face.

'Fu-!" The commissioner let off another startled shot that once again hit nothing but brick, and before he could re-maneuver himself, he saw Claire pull out the flick knife with her right hand. She kept it under her skirt after all, waiting for the right time to take it out and use it. It takes a man of physical perfection one and a half seconds to knowingly react to something. That was half a second more than the old man had, as Claire immediately plunged the blade in the side of his stomach.

He let out a cry of anguish, as the sudden bolt of pain made him lose balance, forcing him to fall back with Claire quickly landing on top of him. Her left hand was still clamped on the handle of the commissioner's gun, keeping it planted on the cold pavement. 'Die! Die, you old fuck, die!" Claire screamed at the top of her lungs, pushing the knife deeper into the side of the old man's stomach. With a loud growl, the commissioner grabbed Claire's hand, attempting to pull it, along with the knife, off of his system. "…!" The young woman complied, realizing that the spot she hit wasn't vital enough to make the wound fatal. With another shriek, she pulled the knife out of him and raised it over her read, ready to finish the job.

"No!" The old man raised his arm to cover his face, letting the knife tear into his arm, just beneath the elbow. "Suck it in! Suck it in!" he thought to himself, letting the pain drive him forward. She stabbed him again, and once again, the old man used his arm to save himself, resulting in another deep wound. Both of their hearts were now beating like drums, as the adrenaline to survive pushed them to ignore the pain racking their bodies. Claire raised the knife again, and this time, the old man had enough concentration to find realize where she was ready to bury it.

With another siren cry, the young woman slammed her knife down, but this time, the commissioner managed to grab her wrist with his free hand. The tip of the blade was just an inch above the lens of his glasses. All his years in the force, and it was the first time he stared at the tip of a blade that close. Claire gritted her teeth as she tried to push further, her eyes now glaring with anger. But not just that. Something shone in her eyes, a sensation she almost forgot, the feeling of desperation. She was Claire Redfield. She was not going to be taken down by a man no one would remember.

"No, no one is taking him away from me!" she creamed. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill…" Claire then noticed a movement to her left, one that she just found out, since her attention was transfixed on the knife looming over the old man's eye. The old man held his breath as he watched Claire's slow realization that he just inverted his grasp of his gun, now using his small finger to hold the trigger, with his thumb pressed against the base of the handle to tilt it forward. She was now in range.

"Oh…!" Claire quickly pulled back just as the commissioner pulled the trigger, sending out a pot shot that violently grazed her left temple. It gave the old man enough room to maneuver, and he immediately managed to hoist his right leg up and then kicked the lunatic off. "On your feet!" the old man urged himself as he quickly pushed himself off the floor. He however, didn't expect that the young woman was also fueled by adrenaline, that her pain and stubbornness wouldn't let her think of anything else but retribution.

In the field, there are always two kinds of people who get hurt. They are the ones who are either too new to realize the danger, or so old to believe that danger was no longer applicable to them. Claire was the latter. She sprang back up at him, letting out one final war cry, as she lunged at the old man with the knife. "No!" The commissioner fell back once again, this time to avoid Claire's swing. He immediately got on all fours, facing away from Claire, and immediately attempted to bolt for the clear direction. "Get out of her range!" he thought, as Claire swung again, catching only the end of the commissioner's trench coat since he already got to his feet. "Die!" she screamed again, just as the old man made a quick turn around, once again facing her, his gun aimed to kill.

Another gunshot rang out, and a sense of immeasurable agony suddenly bore its way into Claire, violating her very being. The old man simply looked in muted shock, with blood staining his glasses, as he watched Claire fall back, screaming in pain. The bullet hit her straight between the index and middle finger, tearing them off of her hand and prying what remained of her knuckles wide open. Her hand was now literally split in two. "Got you now…" he thought, as he could feel his heart begin to slow its pace, knowing full well that the danger was already nearing an end. Still shaking, the old man got on his feet, his left hand pressed over his open wound, and his right still holding Claire at gunpoint.

"Now, let's get this over with…" he told her in between his exhausted panting. With another deep breath, he slugged Claire over the head with the handle of his gun, relishing the feeling of the cold, hard plastic cracking against her skull. "Stab me? Stab me?" he yelled as he repeatedly kicked her on the side and the back of the head.

'…you are under arrest, for attempted homicide, possibly for homicide…and for being a psychopathic bitch." He hissed, reaching for his portable radio.

"…You monster…why…" Claire whimpered, now on her side, crunched into a fetal position, cradling her torn hand by her stomach.

"…?"

"How could you do this?" she suddenly screamed, now in tears, both from the pain racking her body, and the resignation she felt in her failure. "We had a deal! We had a deal! Chris is mine! Chris is mine and you'll never take him away from me!" she then continued, straining her throat with the decibels of her voice. "Deal?" The old man took care not to lower his gun an inch this time around.

"…He's mine, he's mine and he's all alone and…he loves me! We're going to have a baby…" she then continued, already to the point of hysteria. "…that's how much he loves me!"

'Who had a deal with you?"

"…"

"Tell me!"

"…Jill."

"…" The old man's eyes were now hung in darkness, his features carved out like a stone statue. It was the appearance of a sadistic smile though, that made a shiver run down Claire's spine. The old man started chuckling, escalating to loud, horrifying, laughter. Claire could only look in confusion, as the man regained posture. "…Jill's really involved. Perfect. I get to bring all of you down…" he whispered to himself, barely audible to Claire's ears.

"…What?"

"…"

"Please…let me go…he loves me…I love him…doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Stupid bitch…I don't give a fuck." The old man dryly responded, not showing a hint of emotion for the young woman's avalanche of emotion.

"…?"

"I don't care about your sick, little incest games… I don't care about the fact that I'm going to need a hundred stitches to stop my bleeding…and that after all we've been through, odds are the freak in your stomach is already dead…"

"…"

"…all I care about, is how you are Miss Claire fucking Redfield, and how bagging you, and exposing you and all your little S.T.A.R.S. buddies… for the crazy cunts that you people are, is going to make me famous."

"…"

"…No one will ever forget my name when I'm done with you, you little…" A gunshot suddenly cut the commissioner off. Claire's eyes widened in shock as she saw the back of the old man's head erupt as a bullet tore into his cranium, sending pieces of his brain flying forward. Without another sound, the old man crumpled to the ground, then falling face first to the pavement. "…" Claire's eyes focused on the matter seeping from the old man's open skull, only snapping back to reality as she heard the footsteps of someone drawing near. Claire narrowed her red eyes, trying to decipher who the shadows hid.

"…you…" the young woman's agonized face then contorted into what could only resemble a smile, as she realized who had come to save her.

Author's note: Okay, so maybe not as thrilling as the Chris and Leon death match, but what can you expect from an old man and a pregnant chick? (Hate mail!) Anyway, hope that got you interested, as the mystery finally gets answered in the final chapter of the Rose and The Estuary. And for a hint of what to come…nah. See you in the next chapter!