Chapter 15: A Secret in the Darkness

"You be careful." Chris said after wishing the two well before taking off with Jill in the other direction, Jake rolled his eyes, he didn't need Chris' nicety. 'You still killed my father dickhead...' He thought grumpily as the two BSAA members disappeared into the thick darkness.

"Come on Jake..." Sherry whispered lightly, taking one hand off her gun to turn on the small flashlight behind her ear.

"Is it like the done thing to have lights off in these damn places!" Jake moaned, he too turning his flashlight on.

"I guess." She laughed, "It's always the same, you kinda get used to it."

Many doors greeted them as they made their way deeper into the complex, 'How are we supposed to search all these rooms without splitting up?' Sherry thought sadly when she reached for the door handle to the fourth room, and sighing at the empty space; not one piece of paper, book, chair or desk.

"Another one?" Jake commented annoyed, fourth room with nothing it was bad enough Redfield had given him orders, let alone going through this place without nothing to do or find.

"They sure don't want us finding out what they're doing here."

"Well we aren't leaving until we do." He cocked his head and smirked, making Sherry smile.

Their walkie-talkie crackled at the tenth door as Leon spoke up from his location.

"This is Leon, we've found an empty Syringe with Piers' name on it. It looks newish, they've tried to rub his name off but we could still make it out."

"Chris here, does it have a date? Or state what was in it?"

"Nothing, other than his name."

"Damn... Alright, keep searching. Chris out." Chris replied before the line went dead again, Jake rubbed his chin with his free hand sighing.

"Seems like we need to hurry the hell up."

"But Jake what if he hasn't made it, and that footage we saw was from just after the Underwater Facility... All this could be for nothing."

"Now, now Supergirl that's no attitude." Jake frowned, "That isn't like you... We have to try." She nodded and smiled agreeing with him, and began heading towards the end of the corridor, Jake couldn't help but wonder why she was thinking so negatively, it was unlike her.

"Jill look at this..." Chris called from across the dark room, files reporting on the new strain of C-Virus were layered over the floor, a small half burnt paper read:

'The new strain of C-Virus made by previous Neo-Umbrella leader Carla Radames; the clone of Ada Wong, was extracted from former BSAA member Piers Nivans on the 10th July 2013. He took well to further C treatments, but only for a short while, until complications arose...'

The other papers were musings of in depth experiments, such as that of the project called "The Widow", 'The creature that attacked Jake and Sherry?'

"I'll go and tell the others, you keep looking." Jill informed sensitively making route to the door.

"Where are you Piers?" Chris whispered desperately as he took more papers in hand flicking through them to find any information on his lost comrade.

"Jake and Sherry still haven't found a thing," Jill reported, "Neither have Leon and Claire."

He nodded in acceptance filtering through the papers at top speed, to find nothing but a detailed plan of the military base Jake had made into a safe house.

"Let's move on." He said boldly grabbing the paper on Piers.

Another long corridor stared at them, more desolate wards and offices hidden behind doors, it was looking hopeless, they hadn't found a scrap or morsel in the place.

"Maybe we should split up?" Sherry suggested.

"Oh no!" Jake shouted, "You aren't leaving my side, you understand?"

Sherry stared at him dumbfounded for a moment letting his words settle, they had slept together and become increasingly close over the past few days, but it was still hard to come to terms with that he was even more protective of her.

"Okay, I won't go anywhere."
"That's more like it." He smirked and took hold of her hand, leading her into a larger office he'd recently kicked the door in to.

This office was a little different to the ones they'd been in before, it was clean; no dust, no sand and a pile of papers sat endearingly on a skewed tall backed chair behind a desk.

Both Jake and Sherry frowned at the sight, neither saying a word.

Sherry was the first one to move letting go of Jake's hand, it was then he heard a slight hum of a machine, he dived for her just as he had so many times, and just in time as a red laser came slicing across the middle of the room cutting the chairs high back in half.

"That was close." Jake sighed in relief once it disappeared, he knew they'd have to crawl out of there hoping the laser wouldn't turn back on if they stepped on something, 'that's if it was triggered that way.'

"The papers!" Sherry exclaimed once she'd regained her sense of direction.

"Screw the papers!" Jake snapped as she tried to wriggle her way from his arms.

"They might have information on Piers, Jake!" She said as she squirmed all the more, finally breaking loose and getting to her feet.

He called to her as the machine rumbled again.

"They have Piers' name on them!" She yelled in excitement not realizing what she had just done.

"SHERRY!" Jake shouted in desperation as a laser grid appeared from the ceiling coming down horizontally onto the couple; there would be no way they would survive this. and they were too far away from the door to escape it.

'Oh shit!' Jake thought as he stared up at the grid motionlessly, feeling the floor vibrate with its momentum.

Sherry ducked rolling onto her back next to him, she took his hand in hers and whispered the three most important words into his ear, forcing her eyes shut as the laser came closer.

Every second they lay there, the buzz from the laser came louder and faster until it was upon them. Jake clamped his eyes shut at the last second waiting for the inevitable that never came, he frowned again wondering what had happened, was he already dead? If so why could he feel his body and Sherry next to him.

"What the?" He murmured opening his one eye and taking a good look in front of him; the laser had gone and the room as empty as before.

"What just happened?" Sherry asked from his side, her voice rigged with confusion.

"It was a nice little trick? Don't you agree?" Ada's voice boomed from over head, "A beautiful light show nonetheless." She laughed, Jake and Sherry sat up, one aiming a gun at the door and the other the ceiling. "Not even a hello now?"

"Where are you?" Jake asked angered.

"A control room deep under the facility..." She told dryly, "There's an elevator West of your location, it also seems that Chris Redfield is also en-route to it too."

"Why are you helping us?" Sherry asked, to be ignored hearing gunfire and a small giggle from Ada.

"My times run out it seems. Good luck you two."

"Ada Wong?" Chris asked baffled over the handheld transceiver. "She's dead."

"Well she was pretty real to us Redfield." Jake huffed.

'Shit!' Leon thought with a clenched jaw at the new information from Sherry's team, he knew it would only be a matter of time but the timing was way off.

"Leon, did you know about this?"

"...Yes... I did." He heard the disappointed and annoyed sigh from the BSAA soldier.

"Why didn't you tell me!" Chris shouted, "She started all this!"

"Oh man..." Jake whispered with a sigh through the radio.

"Chris, Ada wasn't the one to make the C-Virus... I know it wasn't her." Leon replied, protecting her again even though he had no evidence of this.

"Leon's right," Sherry began, "She told us there was another woman who was her clone, Carla Rames... or something like that."

"Why does that sound familiar?" Chris asked Jill, everyone hearing papers shuffling then a small gasp from the BSAA pair. "You're right..." He whispered, "A paper we found testifies your account Sherry, but we still can't prove it until we have more evidence."

Leon's heart stopped at the new information, he had no idea that the woman he'd followed for awhile in China was a clone. 'Ada... Why didn't you tell me?'

"If you find Wong apprehend her, we need to take her in for questioning." Chris ordered, everyone but Leon agreed, he would not arrest her, or subject her to torturous questioning. He shook his head receiving a sorrowful glance from Claire, he knew she'd had feelings for him for a long time but she also knew of his love for Ada, and she wouldn't stand in their way.

"Leon..." Claire began once the line went dead again, "We need to find her and warn her."

"I know..." He whispered clipping the radio back onto his holster, then rubbing a hand through his hair. "She probably already knows, knowing Ada." He laughed trying to mask his fear, soon hearing shuffling behind them, they both turned around, and came face to face with a plump naked woman with a black veil covering her head.

UPDATED: 15/01/2015 - Spelling & Grammar