Terry briefly glanced at the blonde man with a puzzled expression and turned to Chris. She noticed that the two men were glaring at each other. Innocently, she attempted to correct the brown-haired man. "No, Chris," she stated, "this is Allan." However, her explanation fell on deaf ears. "So," Chris began, his eyes still on the blonde man, "this was what you meant by your 'other business'. Tell me, were you going to sell her to the highest bidder or keep her as your personal project?" The young woman could only help but watch in horror and confusion as Al swiftly grabbed Chris by the neck, lifting him off of the ground. "You have become an irritating nuisance," began Al, almost growling his words. "I once enjoyed watching you struggle, but you no longer entertain me." Al tightened his grip on Chris's neck, but was stopped by Terry's voice. "Al, stop!" Terry finally cried. After a brief moment, Al relaxed his grip, then threw Chris against the wall. "What the hell is wrong with you?" shouted Terry, as she ran over to the brown-haired man and realized that he was unconscious. After a few moments, she turned to Al. "Who the hell are you? I just want the truth," asked the young woman softly, her anger slowly building. After a few moments of silence, Al began his explanation. "I assumed a false identity to complete my mission. I was assigned to infiltrate Umbrella and to steal the X-Virus experiment. When I found out that you were the experimental target for the virus, I decided to get close to you to achieve my goal more easily." "So, everything we experienced was a lie. I was just a guinea pig to you, wasn't I?" inquired an angered Terry as tears began to well up in her eyes. "That's not true. Falling in love with you was not part of the plan," responded Wesker. "If you cared about me," retorted the young woman, "why did you allow them to experiment on me?" "You touched a part of me that I believed was dead; I wanted to share something with you as a token of my gratitude and my affection. I wanted you to experience that feeling of immense power and invulnerability that I attained when I infected myself. Come with me; we still have time to treat you and induce your adaptation to the virus." Al attempted to grab her arm, but Terry immediately pulled it away. "No," barked Terry, "I don't want to be a monster like you. I know about what you did to your former S.T.A.R.S. teammates and I want no part of your sick game." Al grabbed the young brunette by the arms, pulled her to her feet and pressed her against a wall, trapping her. The blonde man was preparing to speak when he looked into Terry's eyes and seemed surprised by what he saw. "What happened to the infection?" he asked, somewhat angered. The young woman grew terrified and unsure of how to answer, but Wesker was able to assess the situation. "I see; Chris gave you the antivirus, and he's turned you against me." Then he let go of the young woman and moved towards Chris who was still unconscious. "I won't allow you to ruin my plans anymore." Terry, still shaken by her realization of her lover's true identity, witnessed as the blonde man slowly moved to break Chris's neck. The young brunette swiftly rushed to the table and picked up the gun that she had left there. "Let him go!" she commanded. Al turned around and noticed that his young lover was pointing the weapon directly at him as he stood up. The blonde man smirked. "We both know that you're not going to kill me," he remarked. Wesker took a step closer to the young woman. "Don't come any closer," responded Terry. Before she could realize what was occurring, Al barreled towards her with unnatural speed. She gasped as she realized that he was suddenly behind her. Al took the gun from Terry with ease. The blonde man secured the gun and then turned his young lover around, pinning her against the wall and restraining her hands above her head, his eyes once again staring into hers. Terry whimpered lightly in fear and confusion as Al brusquely kissed her lips. The blonde man continued to kiss the young brunette's cheek as she turned her head away from him. A tear slid down her cheek as Al licked her neck.
Their eyes met once again. After some silence, Al began to speak in a calm tone. "Terry," he began, "humanity is feeble. Fortunately, we can still get rid of your weakness." 'What?' thought the terrified young woman. She watched as he pulled a syringe out of his pocket. "Al, no, please don't do this!" pleaded Terry, tears again welling up in her eyes as she struggled vainly against his restraint. Wesker strengthened his hold on the young woman. "Don't fight against your evolution," he commanded. Terry shut her eyes and waited for the inevitable pinch of the needle and the pain of the cold liquid entering her blood vessels and spreading a slow death.
Instead of feeling the injection of her executioner, Terry was startled by a loud thud followed by the removal of Al's firm hold on her wrists. She opened her eyes and realized that Al was on the floor before her, knocked unconscious by the impact of the chair that a conscious Chris decided to use as a weapon. "Terry, let's get out of here," the brown-haired man quickly commanded and reached out to her after dropping the chair. After a few seconds, the young woman proceeded to give her hand to Chris when she was stopped by something she saw protruding from one of Al's pockets. "Wait," stated the young woman, finding the document disturbingly familiar. She picked up the sheet of paper which confirmed her worst fears. On it was a picture of Paul along with his identifying information; the document also detailed the method of experimentation on Paul. "No," she stated softly, her voice trailing off. She looked down at the blonde man in disbelief. "Bastard," muttered Chris, who then remembered his priority. "I'm sorry Terry," Chris stated, taking her hand, "let's just go." Chris led her out of the room; she never took her eyes off of Al.
Her journey through the monster-riddled hallways of the devastated remnants of the facility was not marked by a paralyzing fear. Rather, Terry occupied herself with attempting to avoid the realization of what had happened in the dreaded lounge just moments before. She simply could not believe that the man with whom she had shared so much was capable of harboring such evil.
The young woman was snapped back into reality by Chris's voice. "Come on, Terry," began the brown-haired man, "I think that we are almost out of here." The brunette emerged from her stupor long enough to realize that they had arrived at the parking lot behind the facility. Three flickering lights allowed Chris to spot a few monsters as well as three cars occupying the lot. Sensing no threat from the creatures, the former S.T.A.R.S member swiftly guided the young woman towards one of the cars and succeeded in opening the doors. He entered the driver's side of the car while Terry sat on the passenger's side. Chris took a few moments in attempting to hot-wire the vehicle. After watching him silently, Terry finally decided to voice her troubled emotions. "It's kind of ironic, isn't it? The girl with dreams of curing society couldn't resist the man who wanted to infect her." Chris stopped what he was doing and turned to her. He was beginning to respond when they were startled by a sudden violent shaking of the car. Both Chris and Terry looked back and observed a tall humanoid creature which the former S.T.A.R.S. member immediately recognized as a Tyrant. "What the fuck is that?" inquired a frightened Terry. "Stay in the car; I'll take care of it," responded Chris, opening his door. "Be careful," commanded the young woman as she saw the brown-haired man get out of the car. She watched as he loaded his gun; Terry then heard a loud pop and saw Chris fall backwards. "Chris!" she screamed as she opened her door and jumped out of the vehicle, forgetting about the monster behind the car. She ran around the front of the vehicle to Chris. She noticed that he had been shot.
"Hang on, Chris! I'll get you out of here," Terry urged, helping Chris to his feet and leading him away from the car. They were stopped by a familiar voice. "Get away from him," the voice commanded. Chris and Terry turned toward its direction. They noticed Wesker near the facility; he was aiming his gun at Chris. "Come with me and he will live," stated the blonde man. "Don't do it," whispered Chris, his eyes still on Wesker. Without waiting for her to respond, Al shot Chris once again, knocking him to the ground. Terry kneeled beside the former S.T.A.R.S member. "Chris!" cried the young woman. "Just run," whispered the brown-haired man, slowly losing his strength. "No," she responded. Tears began to well in her eyes, but her own moment of vulnerability flashed in her memory. She recalled how Chris helped her. The young woman looked back at her comrade. "I'll help you beat this if you want me to," she stated, smiling somewhat reassuringly at Chris. He smiled back. "I just might take you up on that offer," he responded, closing his eyes and beginning to endure his own struggle.
Terry heard Wesker's voice from behind her. "Don't you see how weak they are? Why do you choose to remain feeble?" She turned once again to her former lover, this time looking at him with disdain. She noticed that he had lowered his gun and was approaching her. "Feeble? Well, I would rather be 'feeble' than be a heartless monster like you. How do you live with yourself after everything you've done?" inquired the young woman after she stood up. "You encouraged them to experiment on Paul, didn't you?" she continued. "He was an obstacle in your evolution," Wesker stated, matter-of-factly. "God, you're sick," noted Terry as tears began to well in her eyes once again. "You're not the man I fell in love with," noted the young woman, staring through her tears at the blonde man in astonishment and disgust. "You are a bastard," she stated further.
After a few seconds of silence, Al continued to approach Terry. "Why don't you understand?" he asked softly, confused by his young lover's animosity. The two looked into each others' eyes for a brief moment when they were interrupted by a sound behind the young brunette.
As Wesker turned to shoot the advancing Tyrant, Terry swiftly reached into Chris's vest and obtained his Magnum. She pointed it at the blonde man. He turned towards her after he neutralized the Tyrant. "Terry," he spoke softly. Wesker proceeded to put his gun away. "Allan…Albert, whoever you are," began the young woman, "just leave." "I will not leave you, Terry," he responded ominously. "You're coming with me."
The young woman looked at the blonde man with a worried expression but was then momentarily distracted by the sound of a car approaching. She turned her head slightly in the direction of the sound. Al, noticing his young lover's distraction, attempted to wrestle the gun out of Terry's hand. The brunette was startled by Wesker's forceful jerking and instinctively pulled the trigger as she turned her head back toward the blonde man. Both Al and Terry stared at each other in shock; then, almost in unison, they looked down at Wesker's wound. The two looked into each others' eyes once more, this time Al displayed a noticeable amount of pain in his glance. "Terry," he stated softly, collapsing to the ground soon after. Terry could not take her eyes off of the blonde man as he lay on the ground, motionless. She was completely oblivious that the car had pulled up in the parking lot. A bearded, red-haired man stepped out of the car and noticed Terry standing in front of a body he did not recognize at first. He also noticed Chris unconscious on the ground a few feet from the young woman. He made quick work of placing the brown-haired man in the car and proceeded to walk toward Terry. "Terry Walker?" he asked. The young woman failed to respond, still disturbed by what she had done. The red-haired man walked closer and looked down at the body before her. He immediately recognized the man on the ground. "Wesker?" he asked, and immediately became aware of what had transpired. Then, remembering Chris, he turned to the young woman. "Terry," he began, taking the gun from the young woman's hand without difficulty, "my name is Barry Burton; I'm here to get you and Chris to safety. Come on; let's go." Barry secured the Magnum and gently placed his arm around the young woman's shoulder and guided her towards the car. She sat on the passenger side and looked again at Wesker on the ground as Barry entered the driver's side, turned on the car and sped off.
After driving in silence for a few moments, Barry briefly glanced over at the young woman as she stared out of the car window, dejected. "He was good at manipulating people to achieve his own goals. Wesker did it to me, and it cost me most of my teammates," the red-headed man remarked. "You…we all are better off without him."
Terry was unsure of how to respond. She was even more uncertain of how she felt about the situation. Finally, after pondering for a few moments, the young woman decided to change the topic of conversation. "Do you think Chris will be alright?" asked Terry. Barry turned to her briefly and smiled. "Chris has strength that I greatly admire and I believe in him."
The next few days saw Chris's complete recovery. After the former S.T.A.R.S. member was released from the hospital, he and Barry assisted Terry in changing her identity in order to ensure her safety. Terry Walker, the twenty-four year old researcher employed by Umbrella did not exist anymore. She was officially killed in the South Dakota incident.
One bright spring afternoon, somewhere in California, Chris approached the young brunette with a warm smile. "Allison," he began, placing his hands on her shoulders, "I wish that this wasn't goodbye, but, for your safety, we must go our separate ways." He leaned slightly closer to the young woman and continued to speak. "I'll never forget how you saved my life; I can only wish you the best of luck in your new life." The two then engaged in a tender embrace that neither wanted to break. Allison began to sob. "Chris, I'll miss you," remarked the young woman. Chris pulled away from the young woman and looked into her dark brown eyes filled with tears. The former S.T.A.R.S. member then smiled at Allison. "Don't forget that we are still a team. You find that cure for diabetes while I handle Umbrella." The young woman smiled back. "It's a deal," she replied. With that, the two parted ways.
One month later, somewhere underneath the Arizona desert:
In a facility belonging to a rival organization of the Umbrella Corporation, a young scientist dressed in a white lab coat walked quickly down a sterile hallway towards a door, reading through notes on a clipboard. Once at the door, he entered a code and stepped into a darkened room which housed a flickering computer monitor and a person seated before it. The researcher recognized the person immediately. "Mr. Wesker," announced the scientist, who wondered why Wesker spent the majority of his time at the computer. The blonde man did not respond. The researcher took a step closer and repeated himself. "Mr. Wesker?" he inquired more loudly. "What is it?" responded Wesker, somewhat annoyed and refusing to take his eyes off of the monitor. "I have gone over your results, and I must say that your recovery has been absolutely remarkable, Mr. Wesker," noted the researcher. "I just need to run a few more tests…" he continued, somewhat nervously, only to be interrupted by the blonde man. "Later," Wesker began, "first, I need to tie up a few loose ends." "Very well," replied the young scientist, who then exited the room. Al then resumed his work on the computer. The screen displayed results of the search that Wesker had tirelessly conducted for several days. After a myriad of dead ends, the blonde man finally found what he had been searching for.
'Allison Baines…at last I've found you,' thought Wesker. 'Terry, did you think it would be that simple?' Wesker swiftly turned off the computer, put on his jacket and left the room. As he walked down the hallway, his thoughts continued to center around Terry. 'I intend to keep my promise.' The blonde man stopped once he reached the facility's exit. He pulled from his pocket the last known sample of the X-Virus he procured from the Sioux Falls branch. 'You will understand and accept what I have offered to you,' thought Wesker as he stared at the vial. After a few moments, the blonde man placed the sample back in his pocket and exited the facility.
-THE END-