The climb back up the mineshaft hadn't taken as long as Ashley had feared. It had seemed like she'd been falling forever, but the panic and adrenaline had had more to do with that than the length of the drop. Though it had still presented some difficulty, claws digging into the dirt and stone, finding where she could and slowly making her way up the shaft. Thankfully there was enough light for her to see with only her normal organic night vision and not the strange thermal sight she'd developed in panic and need as that creature had hunted her through the lower tunnels.

"Hopefully there's not more than one of those," Ashley thought, stabbing the pointed tips of her claws into a crevice and hoisting her body further up towards the light. Her foot claws scrambling for a moment before anchoring as well and letting her continue her ascent. A click of her tongue as she sucked in dusty breath of air and thought with mild bemusement that she'd only done something like this once before. That last spring break, before… all of this, some friends had talked her into trying a climbing wall at a nearby sports facility. She'd been so scared, even with the safety harness hooked up and barely managed to get halfway up before slipping and falling back towards the ground in a high pitched shriek. Before descending into embarrassed laughter and swearing off another try.

"Guess I've come a long way." It was odd. She normally felt more depressed when her mind wandered back to what it was like before, to all the things she'd lost and would never get to do again. But with everything going on lately that melancholic coloring wasn't there. Right now she was just happy to have found a use for these abilities. Without them…

Maybe she wasn't as unlucky as she'd thought?

There was time for such idle musings later, when she was safely out of this hellhole. For right now, Ashley needed to see what was behind that locked door from before. The collar she'd pulled off of that creature had what looked like a part that could be scanned and thus she supposed she was going to hazard using it on that door to see if it would open it. Worst case it didn't work, right?

"Or it calls a bunch of Plagas infected goons with guns." Ashley flipped it around in her hand once, before holding up the red blink section at about head level and close to the scanner. The red light on the collar turned green for a moment as the door gave an audible click and started to open. Antenna snapping up slightly she slipped through, quietly saying to herself, "Or it could work just like that."

The tunnel on the other side looked about the same, though the lights from before were now more visible, lining the walls and ceiling along long cords and wires that stretched to the door and then further into the mine itself. She looked up and around the other side, letting out a breath as she didn't see any signs of security cameras so far. Hopefully that meant that between that creature and the remote location of this place they hadn't felt the need for that extra bit of security. At least so far.

She could probably slip by unnoticed with careful use of that camouflage but hopefully that meant she could get further in without even having to worry too much about guards or other hazards.

Now it was just a question of what they might be hiding in here.

Those two, Sam's brother and mother, hadn't been able to say much under the control of the Plagas but they had mentioned something about those that were taken then being brought to the mine. People like that man from before? But where might they be then…

She came to a quick stop, antenna low and close to her head as she sucked in slow breaths of air. She smelled… she tasted something odd, as strong as before but different. It felt wrong and strangely familiar at the same time. Continuing down the path she stepped over boards which had been laid across the floor over the wires and saw the passage split. Both now with plastic coverings along parts of the walls and now more permanent lights fixed into the ceilings. Still no sign of anyone else. The path going further up went one way, but that strange odor was coming from the other. Shaking her head, Ashley turned towards it, her curiosity winning out over her trepidations then. Walking slowly, hunched down as she peaked around each corner, ready to fade into the background at a moment's notice and trying to keep the sound of her claws on the wood as close to silent as she could.

Eventually the tunnel opened up again, the rough hewn walls of the mine giving way to what must have been a natural cavern at some point. The smoother rock walls went up into the mountain, narrowing as they did till nothing but water and erosion could find passage. While down at Ashley's level the boards under feet slipped.

She let out a sharp cry, hissing in pain as her rear and wings hit the ground. The sound echoing in the thankfully empty room.

Only to be rejoined by more, louder sounds coming as well. Her eyes flickering blue as she saw them moving in the darkness, a heavy locked gate between them and her. The red eyes glowing in the darkness as they came to crowd near the entrance, misshapen insectile bodies moving in the darkness, wary yet entranced by her approach. Several, perhaps dozens, coming out of a deep pit that must have extended further into the mountain below this chamber. A naturally formed dumping ground for… them.

The ones that had changed.

That's what she'd been smelling.

"They're like… me?"

No, it wasn't that. It was so much worse. She saw as she drew closer, the much greater change, the slimmer, naked bodies divested of almost any remaining memory of their human origin. Skulls reshaped and shrunken, eyes gazing up at her with instinctual, animalistic curiosity at best. As she drew closer the hissed and buzzed, a swarm calling out to her from beyond the locked gate. Her eyes slipped from blue to green as she looked closer, needing to know.

"Damn it."

The Plagas was alive and well, healthy and fat. Full grown and well consumed into the depths of their altered skull and spine. She could see the warmer outline even under the exoskeleton, and it left no possibility other than the worst. In her case that half-cure had caused the parasite to alter… and passively merge into her body until they could cut and cauterize what they could once she returned to the States. Not enough to change her back, never enough for that… but her mind was her own.

There wasn't enough left to recover for anyone behind that door.

She turned away, antenna downcast and claws tightly fisted as she stomped foot by foot. The sounds from behind only grew louder. A buzzing, swarm of noise that seemed to burrow into the base of her skull. She could feel it, imagine what it must have felt like, what it would have felt like if she'd been less lucky, if that thing had eaten up further and taken more of her-

"Shut up…"

Her voice was quiet, barely heard above the cacophony behind her. Her antenna twitched as she kicked the ground, foot claws digging into it as far as the could. She whirled about wings spreading wide.

"Shut up."

Her voice was louder, angry now, angry and scared but more and more that fear was vanishing. She couldn't think like this, no one could. That swarming, buzzing horde mocking her, calling out as what she should have been. Just a mindless servant of that cult, another feral beast to be used to hunt and kill and-

"SHUT UP!"

Her voice shrieked out, a sharp, and inhuman hissing cry within it. Her eyes shifted from green to amber… to lightly glowing, soft red color in the darkness.

And the swarm stilled.

"Shut… shut up and let me think," she said, watching them with a new, and strange sort of curiosity. They were chittering, clicking mandibles and alien, unintelligent eyes amongst the lot. But somehow she could… feel their submission to her? It felt right.

She didn't like it.

She turned away from the door, looking around the room. Seeing a small wooden structure built along the side, likely containing controls for the door she ran towards it, hoping for some distance and some barrier to put between herself and them. She threw the door closed, and sunk to the floor. Cradling her head with her hands. Feeling the hardened carapace of her face as she closed her eyes and simply sat there.

She wasn't like them. She knew that.

This was… what was this?

"Damn it! It had to be this!" She threw her arm wide, striking the side of the wall and knocking down a clipboard that had been hanging there. Picking it up she looked at the first sheet. Seeing dates and times… and names. Of when people from the town below had started to react to whatever was in them and was taken up here. To be left in that pit apparently.

But there was more, another page below the first.

-Use of Inhibitor Α:

So far the use of the inhibitor has been only a moderate success. The strain of Plagas used by Los Illuminados presented issues already in terms of population pacification, with random mutations and the clear awareness of the population that they were controlled. Further weaponized strains sold on the black market have been even more unreliable. Thankfully the samples we recovered from Subject Graham have been purer and with only moderate tweaks have provided close to desired outcome.

However, while the majority of the population remains compliant, capable of emulating their normal behavior within manageable difficulties, the Inhibitor Α used to prevent Plagas maturity has not been shown to be 100% successful. Close to 30% of the population is still maturing at a slower rate. With the added issue that a significant majority of the cases are continuing to mutate along the Novistador Strain. Clearly the cloned Plagas cells have somehow retained a genetic imprint of their origins. Without additional treatments, and surgeries, the transformation does progress into a full BOW state, but our lack of success in producing a pure Dominant Plagas so far limits the use of these samples.

Furthermore the primary purpose of this project is the possible uses of the Plagas for population control and pacification. To this end, we have installed additional monitoring and control chips, to better gauge the effectiveness of Inhibitor Α and pinpoint when and why it might be failing. Progress on this front has been slow but improving.

We need to either modify the Plagas strains in use or the Inhibitor until we can keep at least 95% alive.

The clipboard fell from her hands, clattering to the floor between her legs. Ashley slowly came to stand and looked back at the locked gate. Silent now, but she could still see those eyes glowing in the darkness. Looking back at her.

Eyes so like her own at times.

"They… they used what happened to me," she said slowly, the words tasting like ash against her tongue, "to do this?"

Her anger from before had been hot, desperate and fueled by fear. But this was different. She hadn't felt this sort of cold, bitter hatred in years. The ones that had done this to her, that had wanted to use her as nothing but a weapon were all dead after all, and rarely did she have a dream where she confronted them…

All claws and mandibles and fury.

But this? This… mockery of her own state, a violation inflicted on others over and over?

She wanted them dead, she didn't care if they were Plagas infected or human. She wanted to find them and hurt them and stop them however she could. Ashley looked over at the controls for the gate. Seeing a laptop open by the side as she did. Cautiously she tapped the mouse, thankful that there was one as touchpads presented some difficulties for her at times. And was rewarded by the screen opening up. She leaned over it, that cold fury driving her to find out more, to fully see the depths of what had been done here.

Files about the success rate of this Inhibitor Α popped up before her, but she was less interested in that. Compared to something else she found next to them.

- Trials of Inhibitor β:

The lack of a pure and usable strain of the Dominant Plagas has limited our ability of this project so far. While our impure form does allow the subject to command, control, and remain a non-hostile to other Plagas infected there have been deleterious effects to the subject's mental and physical state. Death or possible mutation would be likely.

Thankfully the work of the late Dr. Sera was recovered enough to produce a new form of the Plagas inhibitor. Based on the studies of Subject Graham the new Inhibitor β can prevent even a matured Plagas from taking control or beginning unwanted mutations of the subject, allowing those implanted to benefit from numerous mild to moderate advantages without showing the signs of the Plagas or undergoing further development that would prevent removal upon the conclusion of the project.

Additionally, we have tested Inhibitor β on some of the test subjects in the pacification project once it was determined that Inhibitor Α had become nonfunctional in preventing Plagas mutation and development. While it did slow and in some cases halt the continued progress of the Plagas, much as with the case of Subject Graham, unusual mutations from baseline human genetics became apparent. In addition to this, Inhibitor β caused subjects to return to a non-cooperative state and recall their time under Plagas pacification.

In both cases subjects had to be terminated for later study, as the point of the Plagas Pacification is to control a selected population, with the possibility of removal of Plagas once the operation that necessitated pacification has been completed. Plagas mutation prevents this as well.

See Inhibitor Ɣ.

"Inhibitor Ɣ?" Ashley looked around the files, finding nothing on the laptop. And less around the desk. She'd almost given up any hope of finding out more when she looked over to the controls for the gate. Beside them there was something else, the switch marked a very dangerous looking red color and connected to a heavy gas canister seated just to the side. From there she could see how some of those tubes ran from the small structure all the way into the locked off pit.

A bold green Ɣ etched onto the containers. Above the words.

Plagas Termination Vector

She went back to the computer, loading up a search bar and typing in that phrase. Rewarded moments later with one last file.

-Plagas Termination and Project Completion:

Once a Plagas pacification is complete, the population must be restored to their original state. Provided that Inhibitor Α has been successful in containing unwanted and deleterious effects, removal of the Plagas will be possible. Surgical removal would be too costly and invalidate the primary purpose of this application of the Plagas to larger populations. Instead, much as we have determined that bother Inhibitor Α and Inhibitor β can now be administered through an aerosolized form, the new Inhibitor Ɣ will be given to the population once agents using the Dominant strain have safely evacuated the area.

Inhibitor Ɣ, also classified as the Plagas Termination Vector, will not only slow and reverse Plagas growth but lead to a necrosis of Plagas tissue in the host. Specifically the rate and effect is slow enough to allow full or near full recovery of facilities and motor control. While more testing is needed, this would circumvent the one lingering issue of the use of Plagas pacification to interested parties. Namely the recovery of infected individuals and minimizing potential international outcry over its use.

The one major limiting factor is the Inhibitor Ɣ requires that Inhibitor Α (or potentially Inhibitor β, should we wish to retire a Plagas implanted agent) functioned correctly. If the Plagas successfully adapted the hosts biology, leading to notable alterations of physiological structure in line with the development of or full transition into non-normative BOW state, then administering Inhibitor Ɣ would be lethal.

Ashley drew her hand back, as if it might be burned by touching that switch. Looking from the article on the computer and back again to the canister. The picture of what had happened had finally started to make sense.

"It would be something people like… this would want," she said, her bitter anger making her voice come out sharp and quick. The snap of her mandibles as she finished before she spoke again. "What PMC wouldn't like to be able to just turn everyone they might worry about fighting them into mind controlled drone…"

It was horrible, but not more so than many of the crazed experiments and weapons that Umbrella had developed and then successfully started to sell, or at least planned to, to the world at large. This at least might leave the population mostly intact, ready to continue working under their new leaders after whatever army had stolen away the very freedom of their minds during the conflict had finally left. Of course there were hiccups and problems.

"Well, I'm about to make some more."

The gate started to open, as Ashley stood up and stepped towards the entrance. The creatures inside hesitated, warily eying her. But she understood now, knew what they were and why they acted like this. They'd made them, made them like this from her. Stolen her blood, stole the tainted curse of the Plagas out of her DNA and used it to make these poor creatures. Warped their bodies, destroyed their minds, stolen their lives even more fully than hers had been. They crawled out of the darkness, still silent before her.

Her eyes lit with an eerie red light as she looked over them, seeing it reflected back by almost dozen pairs of five each. For whatever reason, state originating from her own or perhaps her age, full grown and mentally aware as she was now…

They submitted to her, as if she had a Dominant Plagas to control them. Maybe in a sense she did… it wasn't like there were any other examples of what she'd become to compare at the moment.

"Come on now," Ashley said, feeling them follow behind her, biding their time before she ordered them to move.

They might have an army waiting for her…

But then again, so did she.