Recommended BGM:

1. Resident Evil (Remake) - Guardhouse I

2. Resident Evil (1996) - Second Floor Mansion (Again)

3. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) - Never Give Up The Escape

Chapter 15

Wesker wasn't able to catch much of the conversation between Jill and Barry, but after a muffled, "Don't mention it," from Barry himself, he quickly got inside the room he is in now, using the Spencer family emblem key he had been given by Spencer himself to open it and lock behind him.

After a little while, he had heard a door open and close, followed by a few footsteps, and then a door was heard shutting again, suggesting that either Jill or Barry had entered the hall outside and through the door opposite to the one just in front of him.

Just in the same direction, I expected them to go.

He held the heavy Wolf medal up to the light of the desk lamp, grinning. It had been quite easy, really. Just before he gave a small talk with the two Alpha and Bravo members, who were now under his own thumb, he happened to remember that in order to open the secret entrance to the lab, he needed to find the so-called Wolf and Eagle medals, two objects that should be inserted through their respective depressions opposite to each other.

Through the second floor of the library behind a heavy glass frame, he'd found one of the two Last Book volumes to which he immediately smashed the window with the butt of his Samurai Edge, and grabbed the book inside then and there, where the Wolf medal was stored within. Just after hearing a distant door open on the third floor, he had quickly opened the only door he used to get through and closed it just enough to later be able to see a glimpse of Frank Woods running from Yawn, an accidental side-effect of a large snake infected with the virus that Umbrella has played with for far too long.

Bet he had some fun with it.

He had hoped he could've stayed in the library to record some valuable combat data from Woods and Yawn itself, but he couldn't be able to risk staying there any longer as not only would Yawn have set its eyes on him as well, but it was a guarantee that he would've been seen by Woods himself and a whole rain of red flags would've fallen all over him.

He hadn't mentioned it to anyone about the Wolf and Eagle medals being required to open the lab itself as he wanted a headstart in getting to the lab first and foremost. According to Nathan Winchester, he hid the other Eagle Medal inside the other Last Book volume where "Spencer would keep it safe to himself", which had to be his own private study inside here.

Before looking for it, however, he considered checking inside the crypt in the cemetery but decided against it. The mansion was big, no doubt, but it wasn't that big either, and there was no need to risk exposing himself to be seen any further. Besides, they most likely haven't found any of the other masks yet, and it would still be impossible to find the other missing emblem object anyway as it was nowhere to be found inside the mansion, which made Wesker grin wildly at the thought of him having the higher advantage.

Plus, he'd almost got caught on Frank Woods' path, probably still looking for more "clues" by now, assuming he had survived his encounter with Yawn, that is. He couldn't deny that STARS were a well-trained group of people, especially with the decades of experience both Woods and Mason happen to carry on with themselves so having seen Alex survive thus far, it was probable that Frank got out of the fight alive at least.

Besides, this room was the most comfortable he's ever been throughout the mansion. A nap wouldn't exactly kill him right now.

He leaned back in the desk chair, pleased with himself for all he had accomplished so far. What could have been a disaster was actually turning out quite smoothly for him, thanks to some quick thinking on his part. He had already found the Wolf medal, exactly where Dr. Winchester had said it would be "safe" in the mansion, and both Barry and Alex would make sure to secure him the emblem key he needed to gain access to the courtyard, despite their hesitant, miserable faces.

Oh, poor ol' little Sergei … if only you knew the things happening here right now.

Wonder what your little minion is doing as he does your dirty work at the training school grounds.

It sounded hypocritical, considering he now had an entire team of minions getting all their hands dirty for him, but after all, he was the leader of STARS since its foundation, and Lev Kravchenko was nothing more than just a lapdog to Sergei Vladimir.

Wesker was a gifted man since his late teens. Almost exactly twenty years ago, he was assigned to the Arklay labs, alongside William Birkin, both of whom were aged eighteen and sixteen, and were considered to have been one of the youngest, brightest people in the Arklay research team; the whole corporation for that matter.

That is, however, until a few years later that the then ten-year-old Ashford girl came along as chief researcher and stole the youngest and brightest title from Birkin himself, infuriating him over time as the two developed a rivalry. The girl's stay didn't last long anyway, but her arrival had inspired Birkin to focus all of his attention on his work rather than anything else.

After a few moments of dwelling inside his own thoughts about the people involved with Umbrella, he stood up and stretched his arms and legs, turning to scan some of the titles on the bookshelf beside him, looking for the second book he required, as well as something to read as he waited for time to pass.

Very quickly, however, he frowned as he saw many of the titles of the books. One of them was called, "Mitochondria and Biosynthesis ", another, "DNA Structures and Libraries", and the next one being, "The Study of Electrophoresis".

Nothing particularly entertaining. Just a bunch of old biochemistry textbooks and medical journals an amateur could easily understand.

Just looking at the titles was already making him bored and sleepy. There wasn't anything he hadn't already learned before in his previous line of work.

But there was one book in particular that caught his eye, which seemed out of place compared to the others.

The final Last Book!

Happy that Winchester wasn't exactly the most unstable individual compared to many others when he last contacted Umbrella, he pulled the book out and opened it.

Only to reveal that there was nothing inside the red book at all.

Wesker stared at the hollow indentation where the Eagle medal should've been, feeling his bright mood slipping away at that instant.

That delusional bastard!

He quickly threw rows of books off of their places, trying to see if the Eagle medal might've fallen in between elsewhere inside the bookshelf. He began to frantically look underneath the main desk, over the shelf, inside the cabinets underneath, and yet he found nothing, letting out a low moan of helpless rage consuming him inside.

As stable as he could be at the time of his last call, Nathan Winchester was still suffering the same symptoms the other researchers have done as well, and that also included delusions and extreme paranoia. He might've thought that the Eagle medal must've still been inside the book, more worried about where to hide the book rather than making sure the Eagle medal was still inside. It was almost as though the doctor was pulling a cruel prank on him, probably dancing as a mindless wandering zombie right now for having trolled him at the last minute. It was the only other key he needed to open the secret entrance to the underground lab, besides all the other stuff he needed to have first.

To get out of the mansion, he needed at least one of the whole octagonal-shaped objects. Once out in the courtyard, he'd have to make his way through the winding maze of underground tunnels that ended in a hidden section of the garden, where it housed an old stone fountain with two depressions where both the Eagle and Wolf medals should be, marking the main entrance to the underground laboratory.

Finding the red Last Book empty inside and with the room having no Eagle medal meant that the medal could be virtually anywhere, literally anywhere at all and that his chances of even gaining direct access to the lab had just dropped down almost close to absolute zero.

Unable to control his rising fury, he quickly threw the empty book against the desk, smashing the lamp along with it as it came crashing to the ground, robbing the room of its main light away, the remaining light being that of the dim moonlight from outside the open window. There was no point in clinging on with the hope that the masks and the missing emblem were his only chance of getting to the lab in time. He'd have to give up most of his edge and pray that the others would somehow accidentally come across the Eagle medal for him, lost to the vastness of the place itself.

Which means more risks, more searching, and a chance that any of them could discover the lab before he could even get there in time.

Foaming at the mouth, Wesker stood in the silent darkness of the room with his fists clenched as he used every strength of his fiber, trying not to scream.

After begrudgingly having left his Bravo teammates to fend for themselves, Mason had remembered there was a door just upstairs, which had a carving of a helmet; the same type of lock that the silver key he had could open. Before opening the door, however, he hesitated for a moment, silently screaming at himself intensely inside his mind for not telling the truth to Rebecca and Richard. At the same time, however, he knew they already suspected him of hiding something and Mason wasn't the best liar either, his body language was already hard to contain as is, considering…

No, I won't let that happen! I… I can't!

Even if Wesker was lying, he couldn't afford to gamble on his own son's life. Let alone Barry's family's lives as well. If it was only his own life, however, he wouldn't care one bit and would simply have Wesker killed right then and there. Anything else that'd be coming for him, there was nothing he hadn't already seen or dealt with before: spies, hitmen, assassins, murders, commies. He could take all of them out if he had to. Even as ridiculous as it may have sounded not even a few hours ago, literal mutant monsters as well.

As soon as he started heading inside and peaked in for a bit, it seemed as though it was some sort of taxidermy room, filled with the heads of two deer up on the west and east walls, staring at one another. Seeing no immediate danger, he quickly went inside and closed the door behind him, locking it in the process in case either Rebecca or Richard would come upstairs and suspected that the door was recently opened somehow.

Looking around, the first thing that made him slightly jump was an eagle statue, or what seemed to be a stuffed eagle. It had glowing eyes and the whole thing turned to look in whatever direction he went inside the room. It looked possessed, creepy enough to make him develop spine chills. The entire mansion surely knew how to creep someone out, even someone as a hardened soldier such as himself, in one of the most creative ways possible.

Ignoring it for the rest of the way, he surveyed the center of the room, where there was a lit chandelier on top, directly shining over the only round table inside the room, with a chair placed right in front of it. Lying at the table was a small lamp, a couple of stacked textbooks with what seemed to be about biochemistry and there was a small lonely blank piece of paper just lying far from the rest of the stacked books.

As he picked it up and flipped the paper over, he saw it was a copy of an email printed out. He silently started reading it as he sat on the only chair in the room, still feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the eagle on the other side directly staring at him with glowing purple eyes, as if it was silently studying exactly what he was doing.

CONFIDENTIAL

To: Chief of Security

Date: July 22, 1998, 2:13

X Day is drawing upon us. Execute the following procedures within one week. Prompt actions are demanded.

1. Lure S.T.A.R.S. to the estate, and obtain B.O.W.'s raw combat data against S.T.A.R.S.

2. Collect two embryos of each mutated specimen as samples, excluding the Tyrant. Dispose of the Tyrant.

3. Ensure complete disposal of the Arklay Laboratory including all personnel and test animals. Disguise their deaths as an accident.

When the above procedures are executed, report to headquarters for further instructions. If for some reason you are unable to execute the procedure by the deadline, report immediately. In case of emergency situations, report directly to the extension number, 5691.

Good luck.

Umbrella Headquarters.

Umbrella Inc.

Alex felt his blood boiling all across his entire body, the paper trembling in his hand as the intense hatred and rage drove him towards complete insanity. This sudden amount of negative emotions was something he had never felt before; not even against his worst enemies from earlier in his life.

Wesker had played them, had toyed with them, knew their fates even before he gave the sudden order to search the Arklay Mountains, and now his and Barry's families are…

He couldn't handle it any longer and the rage that built within him had finally reached its top limit and immediately began to groan and scream in a blind haze of fury as everything went red inside his mind and began crumpling the paper and violently throwing every bit of furniture he could find inside the room, breaking and smashing everything he could see, including the stuffed eagle itself, who had been looking at him funny the entire time.

At this point, he didn't care if anyone out there had heard him inside. His anger, frustrations, and rage were too much to contain. Even after having gone through so much in his life, it seemed as though there was always a bigger fish to fry elsewhere, going through many other creative ways to try and ruin his life as much as possible.

Suddenly, his head began throbbing in pain, being able to hear a familiar voice inside his blank mind, telling him something he couldn't understand. After decades of haven't seen them, at least outside of his dreams, the dreaded flashing numbers had now begun to show up once more, being able to see them all across the silent air of the room itself, the numbers being printed all over the ground, walls, ceiling, and fallen furniture.

Not this again! Agh!

After Hudson helped him with his deprogramming from the brainwashing effects he had as a result of Nikitta Dragovich, Friedrich Steiner, and Lev Kravchenko, he stopped seeing those numbers ever since and for thirty years straight, he hadn't experienced anything like what he is experiencing now.

A short while later, they all quickly disappeared just as fast as they had shown up, and then there was a knocking on the door itself, his head having already stopped hurting.

At first, he didn't want to open it, out of fear that it could be either of his teammates, who may have heard the loud crashing noises out of an uncontrollable episode he had just experienced. The continuous knocking continued for seconds on end, but there was no voice that went along with the knocking itself.

As he leaned against the wall right next to the only door in the room, he slowly let himself slide to the ground, shutting off his eyes, and began to wait for the other person on the other side to just leave him alone as he silently began to fight off the terrible mental breakdown he was now experiencing, feeling all kinds of mixed emotions inside.

If Woods was here, he'd be telling him not to be an emotional kid and to "stay fucking strong", but it was becoming too much for him to bear… thinking about those damn numbers, the CIA having most likely told Umbrella to dispose of STARS because of his and Woods' involvement, Harry's little mutilated body … and the potential fate that may already be waiting for David himself.

And the knocking continued… not stopping for anything.

Having had enough of everything, he finally opened his eyes as he stood up and immediately unlocked the door to confront the person one way or another. As he turned the knob and pulled the door open, his eyes couldn't believe who he was seeing. Aged, but just as he saw him through his delusions over thirty years ago, he had his hair trimmed, almost shaven on the round edges of his head. His chiseled features still resembled the exhaustion of having fought many battles in the past; the same person whom he had trusted his life with back in his years trapped inside Vorkuta.

"Reznov?" Mason said in confusion, not wanting to believe it at all, but wishing otherwise. "The Viktor Reznov?

The former Soviet casually walked inside the room, seeing all the types of disasters Mason had caused recently. For a long moment, he did not utter a single word nor even faced Mason to look at him directly.

As he closed the door, Mason started whispering to himself, almost hysterically.

"No… no he's not…he ain't real. He can't be. I'm hallucinating. Again. He's dead. He died after that damn riot all those years ago. He couldn't be alive. I know he ain't… he just can't—"

"Be alive?" Viktor finally said as he turned to look Alex directly into his eyes. "You mentioned it multiple times. No need to repeat yourself."

I'm hallucinating again… Could it be the heavy distress I had? Get off of my damn head!

Mason squinted at Reznov for several seconds before outright telling him off. "You're just a figment of my imagination. A hallucination. You can't be any more real than I am. Just… please get the fuck outta my head!"

Reznov smiled slyly at him as he got closer to him, pointing directly at his forehead. "I've always been inside your head, Mason. You simply never needed me until now," he took a small step back before turning his back on him once more as he rubbed the edges of the fallen round table next to him. "Someone got to be looking out for you anyway."

Alex felt a sullen wave of loneliness and longing for his friend from Vorkuta. He knew the Reznov he was looking at and talking to wasn't real at all, which made him even more depressed than he already was, wishing he was the real deal. It would've been impossible for him to survive that crash and explosion from the moment he jumped to his own freedom.

However, just like they say, when there isn't a body to be found, their deaths cannot be completely confirmed.

Wish that were the truth in that fucking explosion all those years ago…

After a few moments of losing himself in his own thoughts, Reznov broke the silence inside, telling him something he did not expect.

"If you haven't realized by now, my name isn't Viktor Reznov, at least that's not the same person who I am anymore."

Mason looked up at him, raising an eyebrow, confused.

Reznov continued, turning his head around to face him once again. "I sense the confusion behind your expression. No need to worry. All you need to know is that you need to deal with your main problem: Albert Wesker."

"No shit!" He exclaimed, feeling far too inhibited about it as he turned his head to face the stuffed deer head on the left wall from the door's location. "What do you think I've been doing to try and prevent my boy from being killed by Umbrella?"

Reznov gave a seemingly sardonic smile as if he knew more than he let on, even though just about anything he knew was already known to Mason, considering he was still a part of his imagination, his head most likely trying to cope with his extreme emotions and distress altogether.

"Oh I see…" he said almost cynically. "Your American brother never told you, da? Or maybe, have you forgotten the reason why you still have numbers inside that thick head of yours?"

Mason was still once again confused about what he was talking about and before he turned around to ask him about exactly what Woods might have not told him about, he had already disappeared in that instant, startling him for a moment.

What the hell was that all about?

He felt completely embarrassed, having already been aware that Reznov, or whoever it was that resembled his fallen friend from Vorkuta, was merely just a hallucination, yet he still kept talking to him as though he was real.

But what the hell did he mean with everything he had just told him? Was there something deep inside his mind that he may have forgotten about after all these years? Has he acted under the influence of the brainwashing effects during what seemed to be a thirty-year hibernation? Did Woods know something he hadn't?

Frustrated about having no answers to anything wandering around his mind, he finally decided to go back to the main hall and go to the cemetery from there in order to see the place in which he needed to use the mask that Richard had given him, hoping it would at least clear his mind from the questions still lingering on and about.

There was no one to bother him throughout his way to the main hall, not even any monsters at all since he had already gotten rid of them earlier, with at least the one crimson head having been killed by Chris himself back when they were escorting Richard to safety. Once he arrived at the dining room's balcony, he slowly crept towards the doors to the main hall before he heard a distant piano playing elsewhere.

Mason didn't think the mansion itself was haunted, mostly because he wasn't much of the superstitious type, but he suspected it was someone in the mansion playing the piano, possibly to distract some of the ghouls inside the house or maybe to loosen up their minds off of things, which he wanted to think it was the latter. After all, he himself really needed something to put his mind off of things and the soft, distant melody that played was of a classical tune that he remembered his father listening to back when he was just a kid, making him feel somewhat nostalgic.

Good ol' Moonlight Sonata.

But as much as he wanted to stay and listen to it, despite the grandfather clock's constant ticking polluting some of the melancholic sounds, he couldn't afford to waste any more time as his son's life was still at stake and so without further hesitation, he opened the doors to the main hall, now having become lost in thought about everything that has happened up to this point in time.

He was about to begin walking downstairs before Woods called out to him, not having noticed him or Chris earlier, who had been standing in the opposite direction he had come in from.

"Mason!"

The taller man ran towards him and patted him roughly on his back, grinning at him. "Goddamn, am I glad to finally see you!"

Mason forced a smile on his face as he quickly searched for an acceptable answer, guilt immediately overcoming him from the inside, while also feeling somewhat betrayed at the same time, though he couldn't find the reasons behind it.

Keeping Rebecca and Richard out of the loop hadn't been easy, but Woods was basically like a brother to him…

Frank… I'm sorry…

"Hey brother," he responded as his smile became more natural and genuine. "Glad to see you and Chris are a-okay as well." He was definitely glad, but he wished he hadn't bumped into them this early on.

"Where have you been?" Asked a curious Chris. "Anything new so far?"

Alex shook his head, somewhat uncomfortably. "Nada. Once we separated, I wasn't able to find anyone after a while so I went back to check in with Richard and Rebecca. Richard is finally awake and doing fine now."

"'Bout time we finally hear some good news around here," said Woods before he dropped his mood into a darker tone. "Unfortunately, we found Forest's dead, well, undead body as he became one of those things."

"We had no other choice but to put him out of his misery…" Chris followed, his tone grimmer than ever.

Alex felt another wave of guilt and sadness running against him, swallowing thickly as he processed the information, suddenly feeling his anger rising up again which he now managed to get under control, unlike before. Though it didn't necessarily mean he hated Wesker any less than he already did.

Ironic, isn't it? Umbrella has been the cause of all this and Wesker had been ordered to cover all this shit up, making everyone's deaths be ruled an 'accident", avoiding any type of responsibility about everything,

…And here I am lending them a hand, willingly.

"I'm… sorry," he meant it in every way possible; in many other ways that they were completely oblivious about as well.

Mason took a deep breath, putting out a mental image of David as a little boy and another as a young adult. He took out the death mask that Richard had given him.

"So Richard found this before he got injured and we've come to find out that there's a crypt in the back of the cemetery where this needs to be placed in order to access the main key to getting out of here through the backdoor of this place."

At least he was being vague about how he knew such information. Hopefully, they'd take the bait regardless…

"You mean, that door below in the center leads to the cemetery?" Inquired Woods as he took a glance at the exit, camouflaged through a fake painting if that was even possible.

Mason nodded. He didn't exactly want them with him as Wesker would never keep contact with him if he or Barry weren't alone, but he had no other choice if he wanted to keep them onboard into helping find whatever they needed to find. If the bastard was hiding elsewhere, listening to each word they were saying, it was much safer to be more careful with what came out of his mouth. Who knew if the entire mansion was rigged with audio capture devices…

"Then let's waste no time then," Chris suggested as he was the first to slowly open the door to the cemetery. Woods and Mason followed right behind him, covering each other's backs as they scanned the entire environment outside on the warm, summer night.

They were able to hear some of the nocturnal creatures; chirping beetles, cicadas, even the howls of the rabid dogs, who sounded fairly close by, but distant at once. Considering how the entertainment media depicted zombies to be, they went deeper into the cemetery, half-expecting any dead corpse to come back alive from their shallow graves. However, there were no hazards of any sort, at least that they could see.

"Over here," Mason pointed out as he was the first to spot the entrance to the crypt at the back of the graveyard. "Think this is it."

"Wait," Woods called out before entering.

Please don't ask me an impossible question…

"You sure this isn't a trap? For all we know, this shit could bury us alive if we ain't careful."

For a moment, Alex thought the trap he was talking about was the setup Wesker had put him and Barry into. But he was glad it was nothing more than mere speculation about the crypt's ominous entrance.

Great. Let's keep it that way.

"Positive," he responded back, letting out whatever shred of confidence Alex had left.

Woods nodded back, unknowingly throwing Mason into an overwhelming wave of guilt once again.

God, it hurts to see him so trusting right now. If only he knew…

As the trio descended further, the sounds of running gears of an unknown collection of machinery began to grow louder just as the temperature progressively rose as well, the smell of the crypt hitting their nostrils; an extremely putrid decomposing smell that allowed none of them to breathe comfortably any longer.

"Man this place is the worst," said Chris as he allowed himself to breathe through his mouth instead. "Smells a lot like roadkill out in the desert."

"Yeah, no shit," Woods agreed. Although the smell was terribly bad, Woods was already used to the smell of hot decomposing organic matter. For Woods and Mason, it wasn't uncharted territory, but the entire estate in itself was a completely different experience; virtually nothing could have ever prepared them for it.

The trio had finally reached the bottom and from what they all saw, there were at least four different statues on their left, with one of them already having a death mask installed, which had no mouth on it. Apparently, someone must've already been here, but to know who it was, none of them could tell.

On their right, they saw a stand with a book on it which was sprayed with blood on top, but what really caught their attention was the source from which the blood had dripped. A coffin was suspended directly on top of it. One of the chains that held it in place was already ripped apart.

"Who the fuck would…?!" Woods became speechless at the sight of something so elaborate, yet completely insane due to the medieval mechanisms the entire place was almost based out of.

"This is… so not good at all!" Chris blurted out in disgust. "I mean… why? …Just why?!"

Mason was extremely bothered as well, but the curiosity was too much as to what would happen if he were to add another mask to the collection. The thought of the only other family member he had that was now in danger just kept haunting him more than the sight of the coffin itself.

Without much hesitation, he inserted the mask into the statue without a nose and a sudden noise of metal and chain was generated throughout the room as an entire chain on the coffin itself snapped apart, making it jolt violently in a sudden swinging movement as blood seeped out from where the chain once held in place. Only two remained and yet two more masks were now needed. The whole process was entirely disturbing, at best.

What has Umbrella done?

"Two more to go, eh?" Woods finally said. "So whatever you said we need is in there?"

Mason nodded. "Can't say for certain but yeah. Kinda fucked up, right?"

"Understatement of the fuckin' century if you ask me," he replied back. "This hellhole surely loves its medieval shit around."

"If this is how far they'd go just to simply hide a key, it must be extremely important somehow," said Chris, still staring at the awful sight they have all just witnessed. "Still don't quite understand why they would even do something like this to a person's corpse anyway."

Woods shrugged. "Traitor? Whistleblower? Who the hell knows? But if what Mason said is true, then we have to bust our asses on finding those other missing masks."

Come on Frank, don't do this to me again.

Mason was still hurting and soon began to realize that the more he'd stay with him, the worse the guilt would be, and the more trouble both of them would be in as well. He had to look for an excuse to leave the two alone somehow. Though it was much easier said than done.

"Oh Mason, I almost forgot to tell you."

Please Frank make it quick…

Woods held up a white key in front of him. "I found this key with an armor carving near Forest's corpse. There was an armor spike trap where a replica was in. Bet your Speyer guy was the one who replaced it with a fake before us Alphas got here."

Mason looked closely at the key, realizing that it was the same type of key Barry held. He then thought about an idea, an excuse to be exact.

"Why don't you two go search some of the rooms locked with that key on the west wing while I go look around on the east side for any clues regarding those masks?"

"Funny," said Chris, "that's exactly where we planned on heading as Frank kept telling me there was a certain place that required this key on that side of the mansion."

Perfect!

"You sure you don't wanna tag along?" Said Woods, looking a bit concerned. "We could use another pair of extra hands."

"I'll be fine," he reassured him. "Plus, before your team arrived, there were some rooms I left unexplored on the east side of the second floor since I was more concerned about Richard's safety as soon as I found him in the state he was in."

At least that much was the truth anyway.

Woods stared at him for a moment. Mason could see him forming some doubts inside his eyes, his gaze was just about the same as saying: There's something you're not telling me, Alex.

Just accept that as an answer already.

"Alright," he said finally, shoving a bit of weight off of him. "Meet ya in fifteen, main hall?"

Mason nodded and immediately began his ascent up the stairs, trying to put as much distance as possible from the duo who was still behind him. Once he arrived back at the main hall, he climbed up the stairs to his left, his conscience repeatedly yelling back at him without mercy, reminding him of his betrayal.

You're a damn liar, Alex. Look at you now, using your own friends the way Wesker is using you, toying with their trust. You aren't even under the influence of the Russians, yet here you are, committing treason out of your own choice. You're just as bad as him.

Mason shook those thoughts aside. He didn't need self-pity for his current actions. Feeling sorry for himself never helped matters with his relationship with his son. It wasn't going to help him now either.

As he reached the door to the east wing, he gave one final sigh before entering the wretched hallway once more, hoping he wouldn't run into anyone else anymore.

Author's Note: We're almost halfway through the fanfic now (about slightly over thirty chapters in total)! I had a hard time writing this chapter since initially, I spilled a lot of information that would've been considered too many spoilers early on, but I do hope I gave out just enough information to say "Wait what?". As always, don't be shy to bombard me with long in-depth reviews if you really feel like there's a lot you wanna tell me. I will gladly message you back with a response as early as I can. :)

Also, I had a good amount of people messaging me mostly about the RE side of things and how well it's being done, but if you're also a CoD fan reading, please let me know how well I'm doing with Woods and Mason's characters so far. I don't want to be accidentally butchering them without knowing lol.