A/N: Hello all, I am late. Whoops. I typically like to write several chapters ahead and as I finish one, I update, so that way if I get behind, there are already several chapters lined up. However, I didn't get around to editing this until now due to the fact I've had tests this week (and I have one tomorrow, yayayayayay). So enjoy my procrastination! And don't forget to leave a review, loves

"What do you mean?" Mac asks, worry in her voice.

"The orphanage encouraged the kids to keep diaries. Something about helping their educational value or something so nobody really looked into it. A couple months back- I don't entirely remember when, they quarantined the kids all of a sudden. No one thought much of it, figured it was like an early or late flu or something since kids get sick fairly often," Korina responds, her voice shaking. "But that wasn't it. It wasn't just... fuck. It was so much worse than I could have thought."

Mac sits down next to her. "What did they do, Ms. Pachis?"

The words are rushed out, as if she has to get them out or she never will. "Human experimentation." Mac stops breathing. "They would... tell the kids they were getting adopted. Yeah, sure. Adopted. Adopted by science in the name of war. Some of the kids would get bitter about their friends never writing back. One returned to the orphanage, but they explained away his condition. It was so sick. I felt sick to my stomach watching one of those videos. Nearly threw up. And Irons was just... offering them up, like cows for steak.

Not something for Mac to discuss with her. That's too... deep. Too raw and fresh. To an extent, too dark. The girl has come to terms with almost everything, even the things that were initially making her crack. She hasn't had a problem sharing until now. Korina swallows. "I can't- I can't-"

"I understand." At least she isn't forcing her to talk about it. Thank God. "Korina, what else did you find on the flash drive?"

"General information about employees, about deals with the military, about funding and where it came from, and then more experimentation, how the Tyrants were made, and the lickers. And that wasn't even some of the worst of what they did. They would kidnap people and use them. Like Lisa Trevor. She was fourteen when they invited her and her mother to the mansion, and she was kidnapped and experimented on. They killed her mother in an escape attempt, and they sent someone in dressed as her mother to fool Lisa. Lisa carved her face off to give it back to her mother. Through various experiments on her, she is where they found the G-virus. The government actually suspended research on the G-virus because of its dangers, but no one enforced it. Doctor William Birkin continued his research.

"But to get all of that I had to go through... Emails. Phone recordings. Official memos. A lot of tie ins that suggest and outright say people who knew what was going on and should have stopped it. A few even corroborated the president." Mac's brows raise, her dark skin paling a shade. "It's bad. All of this is so fucked up and bad. I'm not going to live. I should stop talking to you, so you won't be implicated-"

Mac places her fingers to her lips, and Korina silences immediately. "Why do you think I stopped taking notes? Because when you finish telling me everything, we're going to need to have as little evidence as possible of what you know. And no one can know the truth."

Korina shakes her head. "They can't get away with it." Of everything that has come out of this, they can not get away with it. That's the blood of one hundred thousand people- just those they know of, not including visitors, tourists, anyone trying a search and rescue- on their hands. "They can't get away with it. We can't let them get away with it!"

"How do you intend to prove it? These people you are talking about have far too many connections for some girl, a child, to come up and accuse them of helping cause the single greatest tragedy of the decade, maybe of the century if we're only counting on American soil. You said yourself you don't have it." Mac eyes her backpack. "Unless you have it hidden away."

"No. It's... it was back in Raccoon City." Korina dropped it because it was unusable anyway. She should have made a backup flash drive when she had the chance. "I'll get to what happened to it. Eventually."

Mac nods her head, and Korina starts again.

"I was... losing myself out there. You weren't from Raccoon. So when you see the pictures someone managed to take, all you'll see is destruction. That wasn't what it was to me. It was memories, losing their legitimacy. It was people who were dead and no one left to mourn them. It was more than just a loss of life. It was a loss of... of community. The people I knew, that I saw, that I didn't think about, I was seeing them again, only they were dead. Places where I spent hours looking for the prefect top or the perfect fitting dress were... gone. Burning. Eaten alive. All of Raccoon was eaten alive, and I could feel it from the inside. I had to stop. Then the girl on the radio, I heard from her again. She was hurt, bad, and she just wanted someone to stay on the radio with her. But that meant I had to know. I had to know my brother was okay."

"Hey," Korina said to her brother, waking him up as gently as she could. He wasn't feeling well since Irons hit him on the head with something, and Korina was taking pity on the poor child. Perhaps he wouldn't remember any of it, if he was lucky. And hopefully it wouldn't do anything permanent to him. Hopefully he hadn't heard her last night either. "Polo, it's time to wake up. C'mon."

His eyes blinked open, blue where hers were brown. His eyes were always such an enigma to her, even when she was little. They were in such a strange state where blue met grey, but they were so very bright. Even now, bloodshot and exhausted as he was, the color of his eyes stood against the rest of his face. He looked like a frog elf when they were young, but he was finally, finally beginning to grow into them. "Rina?" he murmured.

Korina smiled at him. "It's time to get up. We'll need to go soon," she told him, and Polo began sitting up. His head still hurt, and she almost wished she hadn't given Leon her last bit of herb. There wasn't any here, not any useful anyway. He groaned, hand against the side of his head where a large goose egg was. She kissed it as gently as she could and looked outside again. "They're clearing out somewhat. We'll be able to get by quickly and quietly. Our route shouldn't be blocked, but I already have others planned. And we're taking the map with us."

"Can you talk quieter?" Polo asked and winced at his own volume.

"It won't be quiet out there." Korina knelt in front of him. "But we might have a bit of time before we absolutely have to leave. Are you okay?"

Polo struggled to answer. "I'm... okay, I think. There's so much going on out there. So much is gone," he whispered, stubbornly avoiding the windows. "And I read this kid's notebook. It's kinda like a diary. Korina, I think-"

"I know." She didn't want to hear him say it. "I know what they did here. It's not okay, but we're safe. We're almost through."

He was quiet, struggling still. "Sherry... is she alright?"

Leave it to him to make a friend in all this shit. And leave it to Korina to not be a hundred per cent sure. She hadn't heard from Sherry in a while. "I don't know, Polo. I hope so. Claire's going after her, so she'll take care of her. Right now, you are my priority."

"I think it infected her. A monster with a really bad arm. It had an eye." G. Korina didn't know why she was surprised it was still kicking up trouble. Sherry wouldn't tell her what happened, just that something had. "Korina, will Raccoon City ever be the same again?"

"If any of these buildings are left standing, I'll be surprised." Polo looked close to crying. His friends were probably dead too. She held her brother to her, soaking in that he was still warm and alive. She could only tell him to many lies, and he would hear worse as soon as this was done. She didn't know how they planned on cleaning the city, but she knew they couldn't damn well leave it.

Which meant they didn't have much time. Korina allowed her a brother a few minutes, feeling him clutch her shirt and draw strength from a well that was drying up so very quickly. "Did you use the gun?" she asked, knowing it was time to leave.

"Four. I had to save Claire," he answered. Korina smiled at him, though it did make her a tad nervous. She kissed his forehead and stood again, gathering everything she had to get. Her ammunition was getting low, though that was partially because she shared with Leon at some point during their time together. He needed it more than she did, at least that was her thought at the time.

"He used one of his bullets. I didn't want him to use them at all. It meant he was one bullet safer and one bullet away from death. Even if he only used it to help the other survivor. It made my heart clench, so I took one of mine out and put it in his. He didn't know. And when we left, it didn't take long for everything to go to hell. The route was clear, really, and the number of the dead were limited. We didn't see a single licker until... we reached an alley."

They were at the end of the alley, almost like they were waiting. There were a few on their tails, chasing them, and she didn't have the time to shimmy her way around these lickers. She was out of bolts. And they were attracted to the sound of their running. Korina stuffed the drive into a pocket in her bag on Polo's back. "Polo, I'm going to separate them, and you have to run ahead! Okay! Go!"

Korina came to a stop and fired the shotgun she carried. The lickers screamed in pain and hissed in displeasure but it kept their attention on her and not on her brother. He ran by with ease, and they lunged for her. Korina couldn't even remember how she got out, only that she did by dumb luck and a well timed collapse of a fire escape that separated the two groups, separated the living from the dead. They hissed in displeasure, but she was too close now to worry about them coming after her again. Korina turned and ran for her brother.

She called for him, so he would know to slow down and wait for her. "Polo! Polo! Po...lo..." His head was in the grip of another Mr. X- or maybe the same one, she isn't sure. As she knows it her heart slowed, time stopped, and all of her focus zoned in on her little brother as his cries are muffled.

"Hearing Ben's head had been bad enough. Squished like a grape. But watching it happen to my brother-"

Because that is what happened.

It held her brother's head.

And it clenched.

SQUELCH!

And his brain went everywhere.

And Korina screamed.

"I don't- I don't know what happened after that. It looked at me, and it walked away. Like I were an ant. Like by killing my brother I was somehow... completely unimportant. It should have tried to kill me. It should have succeeded. I wouldn't have put up any form of fight. I wouldn't have even tried to run. I would have stood there and let it kill me. The only thing I may have tried... was to die next to my brother."

"Maybe it saw you didn't want to live."

"So why couldn't it finish the job? Why did it kill him and not me?"

Korina sat next to her brother. His head was distorted too, but it was easier to ignore than Ben's. His eyes were wide and staring up. His gun was a few yards away like he had thrown it, and there were four casings on the ground. He tried to fight. He tried to live. Nothing came near her. Nothing was in the area at all. It was like the dead just ignored the whole space. And she spent the rest of the afternoon there. Well into the night. When she saw the drive again, and that it had been smashed beyond use. It had been crushed like her brother's head. There was nothing left. So she mourned.

Mourned her brother.

Mourned her parents.

Mourned her friends.

Mourned her city.

To an extent, mourned herself.

"Night fell, and... it occurred to me that my brother needed to be buried. I dropped all my ammunition, though not my weapons. If I died, I died. Left them there in the spot he died and continued down the route. Still nothing neared me. I found a shovel in a trashcan- it was shitty, but it got the job done. I buried my brother outside the city. In an area dad used for hunting. I don't know if it survived the blast... I buried him and I started walking. They picked me up on the side of the road, brought you in, and here we are."

Korina is crying as she finishes. Raccoon City, her life, her family, all gone. And she's finally told someone how it happened. Because it did happen. Up until now it was all a bad dream, but now she's said it, now it's reality. Mac reaches over and pats her shoulder gently. "I'm sorry for your loss," she says, genuinely meaning it. Her voice is scratchy, as if she wants to cry too. "But we have to make sure you truly survive this. Do you remember the names you saw?"

"I- no. If I saw them again, I'd know. A senator from Louisiana. Two Representatives from Maine. Higher ups in the secret service. But there was one name I saw far too often. He wasn't involved, but they wanted to involve him. Something about a secret society." It's the only one she can remember. She can't for the life of her understand why she remembers it so well. "Derek Simmons."

Mac's breath hitches. "Shit. And all the proof is gone." Mac is quiet before sighing heavily. "It gives me somewhere to start. If it was in one place, it has to be in another. But for now, you need to forget all of that. Forget everything to do with that flash drive, only say that it was destroyed. I'll take care of everything else." Mac sends a message to someone else, and Korina flinches when the agent turns again.

Sadness is evident. "There are... special people who want to speak to you. They won't go into detail as I did, but they'll want to know certain elements, to make sure they match with the other two they've detained. Leon Kennedy and Sherry Birkin."

Korina nearly sobs with relief, but she has to remember her lie. "No, I don't know them." She doesn't need them to put together that Korina worked with Leon, or that Sherry Birkin is, more than likely, the daughter of William and Annette Birkin. There's no way she knows enough anyhow.

"And Korina?"

"Hm?"

"If you can... forget everything you saw in that awful place."

There's a knock on the door, and Mac answers it. The group that walks in is armed, as if she's going to break out into violence and kill them all. Korina is silent as they take her into federal custody, feeling less like a child than she ever had before. They take her backpack too, the only thing she has left of her life, and Agent Mac tries not to cry until she knows they're all long gone.

It takes three days before they let Korina go. All of her information matches what they gathered from other survivors, and she can tell they're unnerved by her. Unlike Agent Mac, these guys wanted to stay separated from it. They wanted her to stay separated too, but that is... quite impossible. The head agent- who never introduced himself, Korina notes- enters and unlocks her from the table. He's been the most unfeeling. He's been the one who pushes the most. "There's people waiting for you," he says.

Korina stands and follows him through the hallways. They're a maze, easy for her to get lost in, and she has before. She went to the bathroom and exited to find none of her guards outside. So she tried to go back and got all turned around. But he knows his way well enough that he leads her to the exit door, where someone sits behind a desk with a computer and more than a few boxes behind her. All of them hold personal belongings of other people.

"Name?" she requests, chewing gum.

"Korina Pachis." The chewing stops, and she stands up and grabs her box without much looking. Korina can tell someone went through it. It's not neatly placed like it had been before. Polo hadn't tried to mess it up and be forced to leave something behind. "They were looking for evidence that maybe you were lying. So they said... I'm sorry, sweetheart."

Sorry? She's sick of that word. Sorry isn't fixing anything. It isn't bringing anyone back, and it isn't putting the right people in prison. But sometimes you can choose to be a dick. Sometimes you can choose to just take it. So she says, "Thank you."

Korina pulls the pack closer to her and takes out one of the albums she managed to pack. It's the most recent one, with the photos they all took in the spring. Polo's hair was blue. But it was horrible, patchy, and just so cringe-worthy. Absolutely hideous, but... their mother let him take them anyway. Almost like she wanted him to remember this awful hair he had. She feels her top lip tremble as she presses her hand against the photo before the door opens again.

"Korina!" A pair of feet break out in a run before arms wrap around her in a mix of protective, desperate, and grateful. She nearly drops the album, but the mere touch makes her nearly break out in sobs. His own voice is thick as he says, "Korina... I thought you didn't make it. I didn't see you or hear from you, and no one asked me about you, so I just- I assumed..."

I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have made it. I should have died, it should have killed me, why didn't it kill me, why did it kill Polo and not me and why-

Leon's blue eyes meet hers as he pulls back to see her again. He brushes his finger against a scratch she gained after they separated. A dog's claw caught her cheek. "Oh... That must've hurt. It doesn't look like it'll scar, so I guess that's something." He pulls his eyes away from her and looks around. Looks for someone in particular, even as the door opens once again. "Where's Polo?"

His name breaks her. Her legs give out beneath her, and Leon catches her on her way to the floor. A wailing sound leaves her, and she doesn't even realize it's her for a moment. All production stops to stare at her and the man shushing her, keeping her close. Holding her, in a way no one has in so long. She didn't realize how much she craved physical touch until now. "Don't you have anything better to do?!" he shouts harshly, brushing his fingers through her hair. "Hey, focus on me, Korina, focus on me. Sherry, are you alright?"

"I- yeah, I am. That's Polo's sister, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," he answers. "Hey, c'mon, Korina. It's just you and me..." Korina tries to do what he asks. He's taken a shower since Raccoon, just like she has, so he smells of sweat and cheap, generic soap. He feels solid, real, boiling hot, and comforting. More important than that, he feels alive and human. She can feel him breathing. The last person she held is Polo, and he wasn't- No, no she can't go back to that. Leon is here. Leon is comforting. "There she is."

Korina backs away from him and sees a little girl with tears in her eyes and cuts and bruises of her own. "You're... Sherry, huh? Claire found you?" The girl nods, wearing a red jacket far too big for her. Claire's jacket. "So you know-... knew Polo?" She nods again, the tears starting to spill over as she recognizes what it is Korina is asking her. "Come here. It's alright," she says to the girl, and Sherry flies into her arms, tucking herself in between Korina and Leon. Korina wonders if Sherry even realizes who she is.

Somewhere in the tears, the little girl asks, "Did he hurt?"

Undoubtedly. "No, sweetheart. He didn't." Korina holds her as she cries, probably the first time she can get it out either. Above the trio is a man impatiently tapping his foot, watching them with narrowed eyes. Korina takes a deep breath, keeping her anger to a simmer and spits, "Can we help you?"

"I'm taking Sherry."

"And who the fuck are you?" Leon demands, clearly hearing this for the first time too. "Sherry's family is dead-"

Korina wraps her arms tighter around the child in her arms. "Which is why she's in the custody of the state. I'm Derek Simmons-"

"Bullshit she's going anywhere with you." Korina can feel her anger simmering over, boiling even. She places her shoulder between Simmons and the child in her arms, her gaze hateful. He pauses, eyes narrowing at her. "You weren't there. You can't take care of her like any of us can." They wanted your help for a reason. They know you'll want something to do with everything, and you won't drag this child with you.

Korina would rather die. Though, at the moment, that might not have been saying much at all.

Simmons is fascinated by it, that much she can see, and Korina feels the girl shift in her arms, and Leon is already sagging in defeat. "Korina... they have to-"

"No."

"Korina, we're not in any position-"

"I don't care."

"I do!" Leon snaps, and Korina turns to view him. Her gaze is still heated, even as Leon's is hot and pleading for her to understand too. "Korina, you just sat here in my arms and wailed for ten minutes, do you realize that? Neither of us are in any condition to help her the way she needs to be helped. Least of all you."

We can't trust him. But how do I convince you of that, Leon?

Sherry turns in her arms. "It's okay. He won't hurt me." Korina can't trust that! But Sherry untangles herself and stands up to follow Derek Simmons.

"If you hurt her... I will come for her." Simmons merely smiles, but it sends a chill down Korina's spine. She hates him already. Sherry takes his hand and is taken away by him and a squad of soldiers. Korina tries not to be bitter towards Leon because she knows he was just trying to help her. She stands up and offers him a hand wordlessly, which he takes. Leon laughs when she nearly topples trying to pull him up, and she can't stop her own smile.

Korina looks at the photographs one more time before putting the album back in her bag. "So where are you gonna go?" Korina asks Leon.

"I've got family I'm going to stay with for a while. Then I'm gonna iron some things out with another department," he answers. "You?"

"No clue. My mom was a single child, and my dad's sister died last year. No grandparents- they were in Raccoon too. I'm the only one left." Korina takes a deep breath, sagging as her heart twists painfully. She shouldn't be the only one left at all. It should be her, her parents, and Polo. Her grandmother too, but her grandmother has been slowly dying for years. Some days were better than others, but- oh fuck. How did she die?

Leon's hand rests on her shoulder, grounding her for a moment. "I can ask my folks if you can stay with us?"

Korina owes him enough as is. He reaches around her to open the door for her. "I-"

Someone runs into her, and Korina reaches for her knife on instinct only to remember it's not there. But then she catches the whiff of cigarettes and cheap cologne. "Korina!" Jayden sobs into her shoulder. He has one arm around her waist and the other around her neck, molding her to him. "I thought- you were in Raccoon- you didn't answer your phone-"

"Jayden, it's okay. I'm here." She sees a woman hugging Leon, much older than him, and a man beside them both. His parents. Both happy to see him alive too. "I'm- it's okay. It's alright."

"Sweetheart." Jayden's mother takes them both. Korina has known Anne for years, and the two spoke every time she passed the office and Anne was in, and that wasn't including the family dinners Korina came to. "We heard about Raccoon. Did you see-"

"I didn't, but... all of the cops were gone by the time I saw the RPD." Tears fill their eyes. The crushing reality they never wanted to hear. "I'm sorry."

I'm so sorry. Even if it's not fucking fixing a goddamn thing.

She stays with them for a time until she feels Leon behind her, waiting but not wanting to interrupt. She pulls away and looks to him. "Korina, we went through a lot together. I'd like to stay in touch, make sure you're okay. I asked my folks if it was alright to give you the house number, so-" He holds out a slip of paper, and Korina takes it. "No matter where you go, you can always reach me, kid."

"Thank you, Leon. I'll call you as soon as I figure out where I'm going," she promises.

"With us," Jayden says, as if it's obvious. Korina blinks at him, digesting the words. "Mom and I already talked about it with her people. Until we are all on our feet, we're staying with grandma. I told 'em you'd help with the cooking since you're an absolute whiz in the kitchen, and your mom was a pharmacist, so you're gonna make sure she takes her meds too-"

"You're making sure she takes her meds, Jay," his mother chastises, and Jayden smirks as he's caught in the attempt to pass his work off on to her- again. Korina can't laugh, but she remembers the laugh it would have drawn out of her. "And I will be taking a few refresher courses in accounting. It's been forever since I used my degree, but now's better than never."

Korina smiles at them both, hot tears in her eyes again. Jay smirks. "You really thought you were going anywhere else? I'm not that much of an asshole." His mother flicks his head, and he flinches with a small glare in her direction. Korina chuckles at them both. Leon begins walking away when Jay calls, "Hey, you! Thanks for keeping my best friend alive. I'm sure she was a handful."

Leon stops, and a smile plays at his features. "I'm sure I risked my life for her more often than the other way around."

"Oh, I'm sure," Korina says sarcastically, walking towards him. She reaches him and kisses his cheek before a quick hug. "I'll stay in touch. Don't be a stranger, Officer Kennedy."