Chapter 23: Trepidation & Regression

The deafening shot sounded, echoing throughout all the connecting rooms, the glasses resounded with small chimes as Jeeves' head was split in half. It was a horrid sight to behold, even Sherry screamed a little and looked away quickly, a sick feeling beginning to rise in her gut.

"What the hell is going on here?" Jake asked with confused annoyance, "I knew I never liked that guy."

"We need... to get to Piers, Jake." Sherry muttered with her eyes closed, anything was better than looking at a mutilated human corpse.

"Sure thing, Supergirl." Jake replied reloading his gun, giving a dirty look at the corpse before jogging over to her.

Crunching behind them started as they began to leave for the next room, Jake sighed and grimaced, not wanting to turn around.

"Quickly Sherry!" Jake told her hurriedly, taking her hand and pulling her along, somehow already knowing what was happening behind them.

The two made it half way across the room before Jake stopped suddenly.

"Go."

"What?" Sherry questioned her heart panging painfully.

"Keep going." Jake smiled, "Find the others and get out."

"I'm not leaving you!" She screamed, tears falling from her eyes. "Please Jake..." Sherry whispered closing her eyes.

He reached for her chin and gently brought her face level with his, so he could look into her beautiful blue orbs.

"You saved me Supergirl, now let me save you." He smiled, his eyes sparkling with determination.

Sherry gritted her teeth and forced herself to stop crying, and nodded, she could tell she wouldn't be able to change his mind this time. The love of her life stroked her face, then her hair before planting a deep soft kiss on her lips, showing how much he loved her. Sherry wished Jake would let her stay with him until the end, but there would be no arguing, not now.

Straggled footsteps reached Jakes sensitive ears as Jeeves got to his feet, obviously not wanting the two to leave.

The crunch of metal being sheared off reached him next, then something whizzing through the air made Jake's hairs stand on end. Quickly with his new ultra speed, he pushed Sherry and himself out of the way, just in time as a large wedge of aluminium flew passed and pierced into the wall.

"Jake!" Sherry screamed as another piece of metal flew through the air, and stuck into the wall next to the other, jutting out menacingly.

"Go!" Jake yelled, rolling away from her to the opposite side of the room. He could see the worry in her flushed face, and her mind racing quite evidently telling her to stay, he shook his head at her, and grimaced glancing to the figure in the door frame.

Sherry followed Jake's gaze to witness Jeeves doubling over backwards; his whole body contorting into a monstrous spider-like posture, they could hear every vertebrae in his spine crack under the pressure, as his head regenerated and bonded back together.

"Sherry!" Jake shouted wide-eyed signalling her to go.

She hesitated for a second before rolling onto her front and grappling to her feet to speed out the room.

"Now it's just you and me, asshole." Jake smiled, swinging his knees to his chest, rolling back ever so slightly before rocketing his legs forwards, resulting in flicking himself forwards onto his feet.

Black vines sprang from Jeeves' abdomen as huge hideous red lesions appeared near the joints to his limbs, Jake had never seen anything like it before.

"What the hell are you?" Jake asked disgusted.

"The imminent future."

"Future? Funny you look like a retard to me Jeeves," Jake laughed. "Always have."

The man Jake once knew as Jeeves growled in aggravation at the demeaning words.

"My name is not Jeeves you bastard child!"

"Oh, sorry you make it sound as though I care." He shrugged relaxed with a devilish smile, before jumping out the way when a tentacle came flying his way.

"Now, now that's how you play nicely." Jake muttered, reacting with gunfire.

"Play?! I'll show you play!"

Frowning Jake dodged to the side again, rolling onto his side keeping the firing going when more black tentacles soared towards his legs, fixed on wanting to drag him closer to the newly transformed man.

"You need to be quicker!" Jake laughed with a smirk, watching the black limbs snap off once hit with a few bullets.

"You believe that will stop me?"

Jake blinked slowly nodding with a sarcastic air, reloading his gun slowly trying to provoke Jeeves' fury even further.

"Y-you... are sadly... m-m-mistaken" Jeeves replied, stumbling on his words like he used to, when a hair-raising thrashing sound of blood came from his back, spiked vines emerged replacing the old ones. The spider-like legs he had acquired retracted into his body, cracking ribs as they went causing him to fall with a loud splat onto his stomach groaning.

"Doesn't look like I'm mistaken Jeeves." Jake commented amused, jumping to his feet furthering to anger the mutating man like he'd hoped.

"My name is not Jeeves!" The man grunted angrily struggling to his feet because of the new weight on his back.

Jake shrugged again unfazed but soon realized he was in more trouble than he first estimated; the large spiked feelers began to twirl, getting faster and faster until glass beakers and papers were thrown into the air and into the twister created.

The shock of Jeeves' new trick must have played on Jake's face because he heard the man's laughter as he too was taken into the powerful whirlwind, shielding him from all oncoming attacks.

"Oh, shit." Jake whispered under his breath, taking an even wider battle stance to thwart from being whipped up into the tornado, which was very difficult as it was growing by the second and the space in the room was diminishing rapidly.

Jake's gun gave out one powerful bullet after another, only to be swallowed up by the monstrous cyclone; not fazing it at all.

The ex-merc repeated the fire and reload plan over and over hoping it was having some effect on the creature, but to no prevail.

'This is getting stupid!' He thought angrily as he reloaded his last mag into his gun, finding it still had no effect.

"Fuck!" He shouted at the top of his lungs when the bullets ceased and a persistent unrelenting click resounded every time he put his finger on the trigger.

"When... will you get it, Muller... It's over."

Only for a split second Jake believed it true, but when a test tube full of white liquid swirled into the air and hit the spinning vines and exploded he thought differently; they slowed just faintly when the mixture collided.

'Just maybe...' He thought to himself hazily, when second nature kicked in and his hand reached for a nitrogen grenade.

Pulling the pin he threw it with haste, and dived for cover behind a chemical cabinet that had been knocked over in the commotion, a delicate whoosh and the sound of crystals forming quickly reached his ears after the explosion went off, the reverberating wind stopping suddenly. Jake cocked his head with a raised eyebrow, and popped his head up for a look; the vines and legs had frozen enough for Jeeves to stop moving, but unfortunately Jake could hear the cracking of the de-thawing process already.

"Th-th-this... w-w-won't... s-s-stop m-m-me!" The half frozen man stuttered, his eyes turning a bright shade of yellow as a tentacle broke loose from the ice and made a beeline for Jake.

"Tough luck asshole!" Jake shouted quickly, escaping the oncoming attack by disappearing through the door Sherry had used not long ago, his plan was to find the others or some ammo before the bastard got loose and killed them all.

Sherry jogged gingerly through the rooms, gun in hand tightly, tears threatening her vision as she thought of Jake all alone getting hurt by that freak show.

The thought of him being beaten to death just like in her dreams replayed over and over in her head as her feet carried her mindlessly through the labs, until she reached a new room unlike the others with glass chambers ranging in size.

Unexpectedly, she heard Leon's voice and a gun fire and ran towards it.

"Leon!" She hollered as she slid into the room with her gun raised, to see Ada standing over an injured Leon. "Drop your gun!" She shouted angrily.

"It's not what you think!" Leon replied quickly, looking to the dark headed woman who looked almost confused at his words.

"It doesn't look that way to me Leon." Sherry sustained with her gun held high.

"There was a J'avo in the room, Leon ducked as I shot it." Ada came back dryly, stepping back a few feet letting Leon get to his feet.

"I don't believe you." Sherry countered after seeing the axe in the woman's hand.

"Believe what you want," Ada replied again in her monotone voice, looking back a glass chamber. "I have this under control, so why don't you two go ahead and leave?"

"We aren't leaving without Piers, Ada." Leon shot back angrily.

Sherry watched the two and their body language, there was something underlying there that she didn't know.

Gunfire in the distance caught her attention, and her head snapped to the rooms she'd dashed through.

"Jake..." She whispered almost inaudibly.

"Jake?" Leon asked sounding worried, "Where is he?"

Sherry's face was blank as she turned to reply, her lips started to move without a voice, making her look like a fish out of water.

"Sherry?" Leon inquired more softly.

"He's battling with a the head of this project." Ada chirped with a sly smile.

"How do you know that?" Sherry asked flustered, receiving a nonchalant shrug back.

"Ada!" Leon shouted losing patients, and wanting more answers.

Ada was about to speak when a loud bang vibrated around the room when some of the ceiling fell through, and a door sprang open.

"Piers!" Chris shouted as he, Jill and Claire ran in looking flushed.

"Oh, isn't this a lovely reunion." Ada exclaimed dryly, her plans were now butchered if she didn't think of something soon.

"What are you doing here, Ada!?" Chris shouted through gritted teeth, raising his machine gun at her; also seeing the axe in her one hand and small cracks in Piers' chamber, and Sherry pointing a gun to her head, without Jake?

"As I've already said once, I'm doing my job." She glowered, not willing to give any more information away.

Claire looked around and frowned.

"Where's Jake?"

Ada sighed, not fancying repeating herself but instead raised her axe and took another swing at the glass chamber; causing another crack to appear along its surface.

"Stop!" Sherry shouted, running at Ada to stop, only she knowing what the consequences would be if Piers was released.

Both Claire and Jill raised their guns at Ada when she made a move to shoot Sherry, but an explosion went off in the distance making everyone stop, including Sherry.

"Jake!" She screamed and began running back towards the doorway simply to be knocked across the room by someone running in.

Ada took her chance to take another blow at the glass as everyone was distracted, and the glass chipped yet again causing another huge crack to appear.

"Stop right there, Ada!" Chris shouted letting his finger pull the trigger, intending on wounding her leg, but she expertly back flipped out the way with ease avoiding the lone bullet which soared passed her and into Piers' chamber.

"Chris!" Leon shouted, he didn't know where to look or what to do, Sherry was a crumpled pile on one side of the room, Chris was about to kill Ada to protect Piers, and Jill and Claire had ran to Sherry's side and the person who'd just ran in was Jake who looked angry and disorientated.

"What did you do!?" Claire shouted looking at Sherry's head that was bleeding from the blow to the wall.

"Sherry!" Jake shouted once he realized he'd knocked her flying.

"J... Jake?" She whispered shaking her head to rid the dizziness.

"Hey Supergirl." He smiled, holding out a hand to held her up.

"What happened? Are you okay?" She asked groggily, holding her head that was already half healed.

"Err..." Jake started before a loud whipping and gust came from the door.

Everyone turned at the sound to see a downsized tornado moving into the room, causing everyone to move back to one half of the large room whilst the cyclone took up the other.

"Ah, what a nice sight to behold you're all here..." Jeeves spoke through the tornado, "And Ada Wong, how lovely to see you again."

Ada huffed dropping the axe and raised her gun with both hands, beginning to shoot wildly at the creature.

"What the hell is that?" Leon asked, opening fire too.

"Hell if I know." Jake replied, holding Sherry up.

"Guns won't harm it!" Jill shouted over the howling wind.

"Then how DO we kill it then?" Jake asked after requesting ammo.

"Thermal scope." Chris joined in as he changed to his shotgun.

"Very clever Redfield." The whirlwind spoke again as it began to slow to a stop revealing Jeeves in a half destroyed lab coat. "No wonder Wesker wanted you dead." He laughed.

"And who the hell are you?" Chris asked angrily.

"Jeeves!" Jake said in an amused tone with a cheery smile, the reception from his Asian friend was more than commendable, as he again sent one of the vicious vines his direction, to miss entirely due to rage.

"When will you learn to shut your mouth, Muller?"

Jake smirked cockily and open fired upon the man now in his more human form.

"You're wasting your time." Jeeves smiled. "I have the new virus within me, thanks to your... friends." He gestured to Sherry and Piers, "I am unstoppable."

"Now, where have I heard that before?" Chris asked through gritted teeth, Jake looked suddenly to him and frowned wondering if he meant his father.

"Albert Wesker's efforts were admirable! He would have succeeded in his plans if it weren't for you!" Jeeves spat, just as a shrill sound came from his throat; longer spikes peaked from the previous ones, as the man mutated again into a more ferocious looking beast. "You see like Derek Simmons I can mutate without hesitation, constantly forming into a more perfect being every... single... time."

"Ah, just shut the fuck up Jeeves, you're really starting to bother me." Jake fumed, looking to Chris who looked back just as angrily, nodding to one another.

The two set into motion as the silent words sunk in; Jake took point with his machine gun blaring as Chris backed him up with the sharp crack of his shotgun.

Leon soon followed with his dual handguns; even though he was wounded, to which Sherry and Claire also proceeded with their own, all their faces contorted in concentration.

Ada frowned knowing that if she didn't help her mission would be pointless, and her boss would have her head, so reaching for her infamous crossbow she began to fire upon the creature too.

Jill backed up into a corner of the room, keeping out of the mayhem for now in wait for the opportune moment to fire with her thermal scoped rifle.

Jeeves shook his head and cricked his neck at the same time, just as the vines on his back began to swirl at top speed; again his body disappearing into the whirlwind magically.

"You sure we can beat this son of a bitch?" Jake asked to the side at Chris.

"Damn sure," Chris squinting and gritting his teeth, once the two neared the cyclone. "Me and Jill fought something similar in the desert."

"Right." Jake snorted half-heartedly, this bastard was going down no matter what, after all he did when Jake was at the safe house; running around after him obviously trying to postpone his search and rescue missions, to finding out he caused the outbreak, and to hurting and almost raping Sherry - his anger raised two fold.

"Jake!" Chris shouted when Jake began to jog at the whirlwind., "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm gonna kill this bastard!" His seethed through clenched teeth, leaping into the gust like a mad man, his temper getting the better of him.

"JILL!" Chris shouted apprehensively over his shoulder, to see her nod slightly.

Jill hesitated pulling the trigger after finding the glowing spot on Jeeves' arms because Jake was very close to the site after somehow escaping harm from the ongoing tornado, she could see him beating away at the man's face through the scope, and very thankful he was safe-ish.

"This isn't going to be easy, Chris! Jake's right next to the vulnerable spots!" Jill shouted grimacing, every time she caught a glimpse of a glowing boil Jake would be whipped over it, as if the man knew where she was aiming and using Jake to protect himself.

"Shoot!" Jake shouted over the wind, "Just shoot!"

"NO!" Sherry shouted loudly, looking back to Jill who knelt like a statue, battling with her conscious, Sherry's words and Jake's.

Jill shook her head and apologized quietly to Sherry, pulling the trigger and taking a perfect shot to the creature's arm.

The cyclone slowed after Jeeves' arm was blown off, and Jake was thrown out, doing a summersault through the air to land perfectly on his feet with a grin on his face.

"Good shot, Miss Jarhead."

"Thanks." She commented over the gunfire with a frown, still trained on the other weak spots.

"A minor setback." Jeeves commented when all his vines stopped and retracted, he looked almost normal again, except for the missing arm and blood spurting.

Everyone ceased fire and reloaded, watching the man carefully.

"You giving up, asshole?" Jake inquired.

"Jake..." Sherry started as she appeared at his side, "His arm! Look!"

"I told you it wouldn't be easy Muller." Jeeves laughed as his arm was re-growing.

"Oh shit!" Jake exclaimed again, awed by the regeneration.

"Don't be put off by it Jake." Leon remarked from behind, "This is going to be a breeze compared to Nemesis, right Jill?" He laughed.

"Project Nemesis?" Jeeves repeated, "Oh please! I am much stronger than that prototype." Jeeves raged, anger building again.

He was almost as hot-headed as Jake, Sherry thought in a split second.

Claire frowned having enough of this man's drivel, much like everyone else had and silently swapped her handgun for a much more powerful weapon she'd received from her brother just before entering the room.

The huge grenade launcher sat in her hands, and a deathly expression was transfixed on her face.

Sherry was the only one to notice her sudden change in artillery when she looked over her shoulder briefly, and Claire wasn't going to warn anyone when she fired; the problem was Chris, Jake and herself were in the blast radius.

Sherry's eyes widened when she saw Claire's finger pulling the trigger, somehow she managed to launch herself at Jake who pushed Chris to the floor, all three of them being spared from their deaths.

UPDATED: 15/01/2015 - Spelling, grammar.