"If I have a Mold outburst, shoot me. If you don't then I will do it myself."

This has been done for some time, but I've been hit with IRL stuff;

My girl got a bit ill, then it was her birthday, then I got ill. Anyway, turns out pretty much that her and myself had covid for the third time each. I was as bad as the other two times but this time I lost almost all of my smell. I was going around my kitchen sniffing stuff coz it was such a weird experience for me. I spent a week off work, and then was back at work but still suffering with the aftermath. However I'm alright now :) never thought I'd get covid three times in less than two years!

Then life threw another turd and my husband lost his job after nearly 16 years there; nothing he's done, just that the company had to close up completely. So of course we worried about money and stuff but he's already accepted a job, so we'll be fine, but fuck me it messed us up mentally for a bit!

As well as this, my anxiety took another wobbly recently over tiny things and I had no motivation to do anything.

Hopefully I can chill the fuck out now and smile a bit more! So on that note, please enjoy!

"Alright." Chris said, turning to his squad in the little computer room, their base of operations over the last few days, "I got my answers. My parents apparently never died, and while it looks almost certain that my father is alive in England, I'm making the presumption that my mother is also in England at the same location. Hound Wolf Squad already were going to investigate Vermapollo Corp and now I need more answers. Not only that, but we now have confirmation of Honorary Hound Luna's whereabouts. She is also in England, in-"

He had watched the video from Chloe a few more times, taking notes as she spoke.

"-Farchester House, in the west of England. I'm not even going to attempt to say the name of the province."

"It's called a county, Cap. It's Worcestershire."

"I don't care." Chris snapped. "All I care about is getting the girl out of there and establishing exactly where their labs are."

"What about your Pop, Captain?" Tundra asked. Chris leant heavily against a desk and folded his arms.

"I haven't decided yet. If there is more than just him then there's likely others who aren't dead. He told me that he's never been tested on with viruses, but he said his wife had."

Chris shifted his eyes subtly to Claire, who was slowly succumbing to her freshly administered sedatives.

"Claire, go lie down. You need to rest."

"But you've been awake for-"

"I'm trained to be awake for long periods of time, you're not. Please, Claire."

Claire simply groaned with mild annoyance and left the room, while Chris turned his attention back to his briefing.

"We've shown that we can bring in people who have been infected, and if lives can be saved, then they will be saved. However, we also don't know what Verminus Apollo is truly capable of. All we could find out about him-"

Chris shuffled another piece of paper and began scanning more notes that he had made.

"He had involvement with the corporation as far back as the late nineties, but it wasn't until 2011 that he became the head of the corp, after the disappearance of its founder. He then changed the name of the company to match his new name after a so-called spiritual journey where he had been unseen for two years. However, it seems any record of his identity before his name change has been deliberately erased from any database we came across."

"Sounds like a power move if you ask me, the identity change and the takeover." Canine remarked, leaning back in his seat with folded arms behind his head.

"It probably was. These corps are all the goddamn same." Umber Eyes replied.

"Luna mentioned in her video that Verminus intended to kidnap Claire, but instead she was easier to get to. We haven't worked out yet why he wanted Claire, but I'm wondering if he knew that she was infected with the Mold. If that's the case, then I want to know how the hell he found out before any of us."

"Claire was never involved with the Mold series though." Chris continued. "And we still need to find out how she came to be infected."

"Will she be ok?" enquired Tundra, and Rebecca spoke up.

"Treatment of previous Mold survivors has gone incredibly well." The former S.T.A.R.S Bravo member explained. "While startling for all of us, Claire's infection is indeed advanced, but it isn't as advanced as some cases I've seen, so I have no doubt that she will be fine. Her t-Phobos is kept well under wraps; it's practically cured, so I don't imagine the two will affect each other."

"The bottom line is that it doesn't explain how she became infected with Mold in the first place." Chris spoke again. "But if Verminus knew she was infected, then he must know something. I wouldn't be surprised if that slimy weasel Dave Brown knew something too."

"Chris, if I may." Leon raised his hand, and Chris inwardly rolled his eyes; he had forgotten that the one day RPD cop was even here. "Didn't Claire see and hear things way before Chloe was born? Does the Mold series do that?"

"It does," Rebecca answered for him, "are you saying that there's a possibility that the Mold infection might go as far back as…"

She looked at Chris, but he didn't need to think too hard about what year she was trying to calculate.

"2009. She began having hallucinations in 2009. In fact!" Chris stood up straight, both surprising and startling himself with his own revelation. "Claire only began to have hallucinations and hear voices after she began taking drugs!"

"Which Dave supplied her!" Leon also stood up, also surprised.

"And he's the one who performed the kidnap!" Jill joined in, "Did he fucking know this whole time?!"

"Jill! Rebecca! I need you to contact the appropriate department in the police!" Chris pointed at them both. "Find out what they found in the drugs they seized. It's a huge stretch, and it goes back nearly twenty years, but surely they have something archived. See if they found substances unknown to them."

Jill and Rebbeca nodded in confirmation, with Jill immediately sitting back down and turning to her PC. Rebecca in turn patted Jill on the shoulder before sitting down at the PC she herself was using.

"You don't think he was deliberately giving her drugs laced with trace amounts of Mold?" Tundra asked, and Chris shrugged at her.

"I wouldn't be at all surprised, but it's a bit too similar that the symptoms of Mold seemed to take effect when she started taking drugs. We would all assume that it was just the drug use, but she hasn't taken anything since before Chloe was born and she still has hallucinations, very violent ones."

"It's Dave, it's gotta be fucking Dave." Moira, who had remained silent but keenly listening, finally spoke up herself. The room turned to look at her and she cast her eyes past everyone, finally stopping at Chris. "The trippy stuff started with the drugs. He gave them to her. He then got done for drug dealing, I remember seeing him get clotheslined by the police. Funny how he then was let out of prison early, or in this case…"

She turned to her own PC.

"Some dirty fucker managed to swindle him out of prison, and it seems he's been mostly living in the UK ever since."

"You found something?" asked Chris, and Moira smirked, giving him a thumbs up.

"I sure did, thanks to Agent Kennedy and his help. There's no names officially, as you said earlier about Verminus' previous identity being a mystery, but it looks like he got Dave out and had him back over in the UK. So here's my thoughts."

She got up with her own notes and stood next to Chris, passing a look over the room before reading directly from her notes.

"Dave supplied drugs which were laced with the Mold, knowingly or not. Anyone who took them then became infected. He was fired from TerraSave after gross misconduct but the NGO hid the real reason; that he had loosely been linked to a company which then became known as Vermapollo Corporation."

"An NGO hiding stuff? Puh. What a shock." Jill spat from her PC, and Chris smiled weakly. BSAA hiding the Louisiana incident was shit enough, but the idea that his sister's employer had also hid an incident left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Dave likely then worked for Verminus, either at the time of his release or possibly even before then. It might not be too much to hypothesise that the company had something to do with the drugs being laced with the Mold. If that's the case then who knows how many people in New York City and beyond might be Moldy."

"Furthermore," Moira carried on, "if Claire's infection has gone back far enough, then it could be possible that Verminus has tracked the Mold in Chloe's blood sample."

"I'd argue that." Jill said. "Our records of Chloe show that she has consistently tested negative for the Mold."

"So he picked up t-Phobos in her blood samples? That's not exactly news to anyone. It's been on her records since her first blood tests as a newborn." Leon spoke, and the room silently nodded in agreement.

"Was there something we missed?" Chris asked Rebecca.

"Unless there was something he found that wanted to bait you to him." Rebecca replied. She sternly held her gaze on him, and he frantically thought of theories.

"W-well… maybe if TSR-02 is in fact my father, maybe he has his blood on file. Yeah, maybe it's that. He's found out that TSR-02 and Chloe are related by blood, and I'm the link, I mean-"

"Are you ok, Cap? You're sweating."

"You mean that he's seen the correlation of their blood samples, but now you're the one he's after because of past victories against bioterrorism, and he has the perfect trap for you by using two of your relatives." Rebecca explained on behalf of Chris, and he rapidly nodded at her theory.

"Yeah. Maybe Verminus saw this. Yeah, that's right." Chris averted his eyes from Rebecca's sharp, accusing gaze. "Anything more, Moira?"

"I'd say the same as Rebecca." Moira pouted at him. "He wants your ass so he can hand it back to you."

Chris nodded quietly; "He doesn't even know me, he's probably just trying to one up himself to the rest of the bioterrorism world." He looked up and gestured to the whole room.

"Mission objectives, Hounds; we'll travel to England in a long distance tricopter, loaded with two Toyota pick ups and whatever gear we need. Agent Kennedy, you contacted President Graham about getting air clearance?"

"I did," Leon confirmed, "Ashley has granted you air clearance, so has the UK government, and she wishes you luck. She said she'd sent some troops over to help but she is worried about weakening relationships with the UK. She doesn't want to cause too much of a ruckus within the first year of her term."

"Acknowledged, though, in the politest way, I'd never ask her for military help anyway." Chris responded. "We'll land in the west of England at the base where we've been given permission to land, then drive to the co-ordinates, and investigate from there. Once confirmed, I'll order us all to move in to Luna's escape point. Once Luna's escape and rescue is assured we will then move in to infiltrate the labs."

"But how do you know that we won't be ambushed, Captain? As you said, we don't know what Verminus is capable of." Lobo asked, but Chris dismissed his concerns.

"We won't be the only ones moving in. Since BSAA's incompetence, more and more people have abandoned them. Other rogue squads have been formed, and members include Parker Luciani, Quint Cetcham and Keith Lumley, as well as Sheva Alomar from the West Africa BSAA branch. All except Sheva are already in the UK for other reasons."

"As well as these individuals we have more waiting in the lines, in total we will be a 50+ strong unit. We will be moving first as soon as Chloe's rescue is assured, I can confirm that, and then the rest will follow once we have routed the facility, spreading themselves about and taking people in."

"Biohazard threat level?"

"Unknown. We will establish that when we get there, but it doesn't immediately appear to be on the same levels of any other company we have dealt with."

"We're taking people in, you say. Are we taking everyone in?"

"Yes." nodded Chris, "Everyone, be it scientist, researcher or the fucking janitor will be arrested and each one investigated. Any test subjects still remotely human will be evacuated and quarantined here, in the purpose built holding rooms downstairs. Rebecca will send a specialist plane to pick up anyone for quarantine."

"This seems a much bigger operation than what we're used to, Chris." Jill addressed with concern in her voice, but Chris once again nodded.

"True, but with the numbers we will have, I am confident. All I will say is this; in previous emails from my alleged father, there aren't too many people who aren't infected. Everyone else seems to be staggering in the halls of the country house, the lab seems pretty clear of free roaming infected. Unfortunately, there is little we can do about these, and we sadly will have to neutralise them, like any other operation."

"I assume TerraSave will move in to clear up?" Tundra asked, looking at Moira.

"You know it." answered Moira, "But we'll see how much TerraSave themselves try to cover things up. I will do my best to make sure we carry out our work efficiently and effectively."

"At this rate, there won't be any more BSAA or TerraSave. Why are both of them slipping down that coil?"

"I'm not speaking for either of them." Chris insisted. "If I had the resources to form a completely new NGO then I would. I'd oversee myself that it would not become corrupted."

"You're not doing too shabby with Hound Wolf Squad, though." Jill grinned, and Chris absently shrugged at her comment.

"Hound Wolf Squad was never going to be sizable, we went from special unit to rogue unit. We're lucky that BSAA hasn't tried to make us disappear."

"I'm just glad the President is on our side." Rebecca chimed in, and Leon smirked.

"She's been in the throes herself in Spain, and just remember when her father found out that his former Defense Secretary was attempting to turn countries against each other for his own gain."

"Ah yeah, Wilson and his Mad Dogs, or something?" Chris asked idly, but he didn't care for a response, and immediately shifted back to the matter at hand; the memory of Claire, sitting at home with her arm in a support after her shoulder injury, retelling the time that she was tasered and kidnapped by Wilson's men wasn't one he wanted to harbour right now.

"Ambushing a lab is risky business, but it's not unheard of. We will leave in an hour. Any questions?"

Leon raised his hand and Chris inwardly grimaced.

"Kennedy?"

"You getting your old man out of there too?" asked Leon, and Chris' eyes flickered. He silently scolded himself for not even considering it, but his father was meant to have passed away nearly forty years ago. How would he and Claire function with him being back in their lives after all this time? More concerning however was how would their father cope after being locked away from the world for nearly four decades?

"If it's possible, then so be it." confirmed Chris, "it sounds like he has sound knowledge of the place and how they operate, I'm sure that my father would have no problems with cooperating with us."

"And your mother?"

"She has been tested on, so she's likely infected one way or another. If we can get her out too, then we will. But I won't be treating them any differently from any other survivors. Not until this is all blown over."

"It would be nice if you could incorporate back into your family, Chris." smiled Rebecca, and Chris returned the expression. Chris took a sip of his now cold, lifeless and ass tasting coffee.

"It would be. Hard to get my head around, but it would be nice. However, as I said, they won't get special treatment just because they're my parents. Everyone who is savable will be saved. Any other questions, and may I request now that my family life is not brought up?"

Umber Eyes quickly lowered his hand and mumbled something under his breath. Chris observed the room, with their shrugging shoulders and content hums.

"Alright, get ready. One hour."

Not trained to stay awake, what bullshit! Chris should know better than to tell me what I can and can't do! I'm just as experienced in all of this, if not more! He goes in prepared! I never have, and I adapt to the situation just fine! I'm still fucking breathing, aren't I?!

I stomped heavily down the dimly lit, empty corridors, back to the little padded room that I was being kept in. My ears whooshed at the speed I was walking at, but it hurt.

Why?! Why am I being left out of this?! She's my daughter! She wouldn't have even got out to the balcony if I hadn't been such a bitch to her!

I stopped and looked down at my hands…

Was this really th-

"Pathetic."

I slowly closed my eyes and grimaced before turning around. Before me stood a young woman, of auburn-brown hair tied back, with loose, long locks draping over her shoulder, and she wore a deep red jacket and black jeans. She was marginally taller than me, but slightly stockier, and she cocked her head with a devious smirk.

"You're so pathetic. You're worthless."

"In your adult form again, Minnie?" I proclaimed, and she hissed at me.

"You don't even deserve to call me by my name!"

"I'm your mom, Minnie."

"No, you're no mother of mine." she sneered, and she held up her hand, tensing her fingers at me, "Five babies and not one of them you've kept safe!"

"I'm going after your sister."

"Are you?" Minnie snarled at me, creasing her nose. "Or are you going to bail out like the fucking chicken shit waste of oxygen you are? Worst mother ever."

I turned to continue walking, but bumped into someone. I felt her scentless breath on my face, but I couldn't look at her.

"Poor little Redfield, and for how long did you think that you were seeing ghosts? You're so fucking stupid, maybe I could've told you this entire time that you had the Mold in your sorry system, buuuuut…"

Minnie pushed her palm into my chin, forcing my eyes to meet hers. They were unlike my own. It wasn't my eyes that she had inherited, after all.

"I've enjoyed watching you be tortured by everything you've seen. And here you were, thinking you could suddenly see ghosties."

"If I'm infected with Mold, then how am I seeing you?"

"Because you're the dumb bitch who lovingly passed on the Mold to ME! I am stuck here because of you! I am in your conscience! Only difference is that I'm already fucking dead, through your neglect!"

She thumped her fist into my shoulder; it stung, but I didn't rise up to it.

"Minnie please, it was an accid-"

"Sometimes I think about hopping into Chloe's dreams…" Minnie's voice changed to that of a disturbed musical tone, and she tousled her ponytail with her fingers. "I sometimes think of just, you know, giving her a prod and telling her everything, and telling her who her dad is and who my dad is. Not that bullshit that you've been feeding her mind."

Minnie shoved me and cackled into the air, her voice reaching down the corridors but only for my ears.

"Silly me, I already have told her! But she's too cute and innocent to realise that what she hears in dreams is in fact real!"

I shook my head, and stepped past her, past the daughter I had failed so long ago.

"Maybe you should be lucky that she only inherited the tiniest of fucking spores from you! Not even Doctor Chambers can detect that one spore!"

I shrugged my shoulders to my ears and quickened my pace, but Minnie had begun to pursue me, closing the gap between us.

"Minnie, please, leave me alone." I uttered, but she laughed at me.

"Never. For as long as you exist, Mother, I'm going to be here, reminding you of how much you've fucked up."

"I know I messed up, but why do you hate me so much?"

"Why? WHY?!" she laughed loudly again as I threw open the door to my padded room, and she was still approaching as I closed it on her. I turned to sit on the bed, but Minnie was already sprawled across the sheets, still playing with the ends of her hair.

"Can you remember, Mother? You decided to ignore that I had stopped moving. You had every chance to notice yet you didn't. And now I'm stuck in this fucking limbo, along with you and Chloe! But her infection is so weak that she barely acknowledges it!"

"And you know what?" continued Minnie, "All those dreams she has, those nightmares…it's meee. I caused them. If I can't exist in a happy world then she can't in her dreams. Simple as."

I shook my head at her words.

"You can berate me, torture me, haunt me, but leave Chloe out of this. She's just as innocent and guiltless as you."

I turned to leave the room again, pushing at the door panel, but it slammed closed with Minnie's slender fingers pressing into the padded fabric. I looked at her with pain, but her expression was considerably different from that one of malice she had worn.

"She's asleep right now. Right this moment. Grandpa told her to sleep." Her voice was soft, quiet, as if the padded pockets were library books stacked inside long bookcases, as if someone would scold her for being loud. She wasn't looking into my eyes; she seemed distant, like her thoughts were elsewhere. Her eyes flicked so subtly, but she slowly shifted her gaze to me.

"Granny just spoke to me, too. She's also Mold infected, in case you didn't know."

"What?!"

"Granny is infected with Mold, it goes back to before the car crash, and Verminus did find the Mold in Chloe, but it's not that or t-Phobos as to why he's baiting you all. He also knows that big dirty secret that you've been keeping from her for so long. Granny has heard him talk about it."

My heart froze, and I felt like I wanted to puke.

"Mom knows?"

"Oh she so knows. Even after she heard him talk about it, he decided to have fun and show her the proof he has of the secret. And she is PISSED. She thought that Verminus was trying to anger her, until he showed her the proof he had."

"How can he even find proof to show?"

"All he had to do was bring up the DNA correlation between Chloe, Grandpa and Granny and, yeah, there it was!"

"Shit! I need to go!" I exclaimed, "I can't let him tell Chloe!"

"You're literally hallucinating me right now, Mother." Minnie drawled sternly, folding her arms, "As if you're in a healthy position to do anything."

"I need to stop him. Even just Mom knowing is too many people. I can't let her or Verminus tell my Dad or Chloe!"

I attempted again to leave the room after grabbing my trademark red leather jacket, and this time Minnie didn't try to stop me.

"Do you even know who Verminus Apollo is?"

"No, and I don't care!" I shouted behind myself, but she followed me closely behind before touching my shoulder.

"You don't realise how much danger you or Captain Alpha boulder boy will be in if you go!"

"Every time I've been in danger it's been unexpected, at least I know what I'm going into this time!"

"You don't understand!" Minnie's voice became younger, higher pitched, and I turned to see a much younger girl in her place, wearing a white summer dress and matching sandals, her hair was down this time, flowing down her back.

"You said that you'd be a good Mommy to Chloe. Remember that? I told you to be a good Mommy and you promised me that you would."

Yeah. I do remember that. She had said that to me on the morning of Christmas Day in 2009. The day I found out that I was expecting Chloe.

"It seems that I can't keep promises."

"It's only the Mold that makes you a bad Mommy. You're not a bad Mommy. Not really."

"If I was a Mom worth anything then you'd still be alive, you'd be nineteen now."

I continued on back down the corridor, but again Minnie had appeared in front of me, this time as an adult. As a nineteen year old. Her posture, her facial expression, even her clothes…was I looking into a mirror, observing myself as the nineteen year old college student in search of her brother?

"It's not your fault. Unborn babies just, you know, sometimes they don't make it. It's the Mold that makes us both crazy." She patted her chest and smiled at me. "I guess the only good thing about you being infected is that I can contact you. And Chloe. From beyond the grave."

"You didn't really tell her the secret in her dreams, did you?"

"Yeah. Out of spite, though. But that's all she sees it as. A dream. She just thinks it's her subconscious sleepy thoughts. But I have a feeling that by the time she's back home, she will know the secret. Whether through Granny or Verminus. I don't think you will get that chance. I think it will be out of your control."

"Then I will put it in my control." I said, and still I paced down the corridors until I reached a store room.

"People are going to die, Mom. I don't know who, but people WILL die."

"As long as Chloe goes on, I'm beyond caring."

"You don't understand, Mom. You have no idea who you're up against. No one does, but it will all be revealed."

"Then why don't you tell me?"

"Because I'd make the situation worse if I told you."

I opened several attache cases until I found a small handgun, MY handgun, and some 9mm ammo. Chris had moved all of my equipment from the apartment, and I never knew where until now.

"So?"

"So…" I loaded the bullets into the cylinder, and slipped several boxes into some hip pouches nearby, strapping them around my waist. "I'm going. Chris isn't going to stop me. I need to make things right."

"You're drugged up to the eyeballs with sedatives, it's a wonder you can even walk."

I ignored Minnie as I turned again to leave the room, and checked that no one was around. I ran down the halls until I exited the main doors and out into the cool night, covered the parking lot and scrambled onto Hayley, the old Harley Davidson that Dad had left for me.

"You're not going on the bike?!" Minnie screeched, alarmed. "On those sedatives?!"

I turned the key, and as the Harley came to life between my knees I looked at her, flipping the visor up.

"Come with me, Minnie. If you've seen through my mom what this place is like, then be my eyes."

"Granny has barely left some of those rooms in years. And you really shouldn't be going on your own."

"I won't be. I'm going in the tricopter with the others, but with a twist.."

"Wait. You're not gonna-"

"I'm going over to the base. I'm getting into the tricopter, and I'll hide out. Once we land in England, Chris won't have a choice but to bring me along."

"He's gonna be livid…"

"You called me a coward. Maybe I am, but at least watch me redeem myself. Come with me, and we, as the Redfield family, can all save your sister."

Granny and Grandpa are there too…"

"Then we'll save them all, if we can."

Minnie disappeared before my eyes, melting into a thick pit of dark mass. I sighed deeply and looked back at Rebecca's facility, expecting to see someone pursuing me, but no one left the building. I kicked the stand, blinked hard and closed the visor.

"Chloe, Chris has emailed back, you want to read it?"

"Sure." Chloe chimed, and she shuffled back over to the little laptop. She noted to herself again that the text was crisp and clear to her eyes, when literally only this time last week she had struggled and was increasingly getting headaches from screens.

Maybe being confined away from screens has helped her eyes, she wasn't sure.

HWS honorary member Luna aka Chloe.

I can't put into words how relieved I am to hear from you. I'm so glad you're safe and that TSR-02 is keeping an eye on you, and I'm so happy that all of the training I've given you has paid off. I'm so very proud of you, you really have the Redfield fight in you! Never lose that fight!

On this subject, I think when you're home I'm going to finally tell you that secret that I've been wanting to reveal to you for so long. Too much has happened recently, and I can't put it off any longer. I'd have told you right now, but it's for your ears and your ears alone. That and I'd like to tell you face to face.

HSW was already going to investigate Vermapollo this week, so I'll be joining them. I know you told me to stay away, but I just can't. I need to be sure that you get out of there. Forgive me.

Forgive me for this too; Verminus has likely found that you carry the t-Phobos virus. We never told you, and I cannot apologise enough. When you get scared you know that your skin feels weird, like pins and needles. That isn't your ADHD or anxiety, that is the virus. Chloe I can't express enough that you need to stay as calm as possible. I'd never, ever forgive myself if it activated. Please, take deep breaths if you ever feel scared, and don't rush into things. Take your time and get out of there alive. For me. You're a fucking extraordinary young woman, Chloe, I'm so proud to have you in my family, and you can do this. I know you can and I have full belief in you.

Chloe paused reading and scratched at her skin.

So the crawlies had nothing to do with her mental health? It made sense to her now, but the thought of her turning into an infected mutant raised her heart rate, and she scratched harder at her skin. Grandpa squeezed her shoulder, and she closed her eyes, controlling her breathing as Chris said.

As he has always told her to do..

After a minute she opened her eyes and continued reading.

As for Dave Brown; fuck 'em. He's a slimy weasel, he's only in this for his own gain!

TS-02 will send you off to a nearby town, and we'll rendezvous there.

Chloe, you have nothing to apologise for, nothing at all. We can have some big hugs when we're all back home, and of course I'll treat you to a big ass greasy burger!

You're not a shit niece, and you never will be. I love you, and I promise that you'll be safe at home soon enough.

Uncle Chris.

To TSR-02

Thank yo-

Chloe stopped reading and turned to Grandpa, pointing at the screen.

"Next bit is for you." She remarked, and he nodded, moving in to read it. Though she had herself moved away, he still read it out loud;

"To TSR-02. Thank you for helping Chloe, it really is appreciated. Though not ideal for her to be there, I'm glad that you happened to be around to assist her."

Grandpa shuffled into a crossed legged position and continued;

"Acknowledged the escape plan, however I still will be involved, against Chloe's wishes. We'll rendezvous with her at the town, but there will be more to be done. I won't address what but hang tight."

"Your circumstances are very familiar to me, and I don't think that it was an accident that you showed your forearm tattoos during Chloe's video message."

"Wait, what?" Chloe butted in, and Grandpa grinned at her.

"Yup. As I moved in to talk, I showed both arms for the camera!" Granda held both arms up proudly.

"So…Chris knows who you are? He knows you're Grandpa?"

Grandpa carried on with the email;

"It's going to take me some time to comprehend this, but I'm convinced that you're my father, and you know it too. Words cannot express my thought process right now. Claire knows too, and she's devastated that she's been talking to empty graves this entire time, as am I. We all lost out on so much, and I can only hope that some way we can meet up, even only briefly. I've never stopped caring, Pop, even now I think of you and Mother every single day. Please keep Chloe safe, please look after her. If you know that she is your granddaughter then you must be so pleased to have met her. If you didn't know, well, SURPRISE! You're a Granddaddy! I always remember when you said that neither of us would make you a grandfather, I bet it came as a shock to you!"

Chloe giggled, and Grandpa smiled and shrugged dismissively.

"As I said, hang tight, we have plans. Report back to me once Chloe is safely off the premises. Thanks, Pop. I owe you one. Chris."

"PS: Chris let me add to this email. Dad, I can't believe that you're still alive somehow, thank you so so much for helping Chloe! I love you and miss you so much, I'm crying right now, I can't believe it. All this time you were still around, I wish we could get all of that time back. I love you Dad, I'm sorry for sounding so erratic, I just can't fucking believe this at all! I don't think Chris wants me to go with him, I wish I could, just so I could maybe see you again. Love you Daddy, lots of love from your little biker princess."

Grandpa rounded off the email by wiping his eye and sniffing.

"I love you too, princess…" he whispered, and Chloe wanted to cry too. She knew how much Granny and Grandpa's deaths had impacted her family, even decades later she could see that. But he had stated several times that he wouldn't be leaving the building, choosing to stay for Granny's sake.

With a breath of courage she moved up to him and hugged him, folding her arms around his neck.

"W-what are you doing, Chloe?"

"You're staying here, aren't you?" Chloe stated. "You won't get to see them. Consider this the long awaited hug from Mom and Chris."

"It's…nice, Chloe, but a little awkward. You barely know me." Grandpa chuckled lightly, but Chloe shook her head.

"I lack a filter, I think, but I do know you. Mom and Chris always used to tell me about you, enough that it feels like you've always been around."

Grandpa broke the embrace and ruffled Chloe's ponytail, smiling down at her.

"Listen. Chloe. I'll whip something up for you to eat. You're going to need the energy. It's not going to be anything fancy, but I've got some carbs that you can have, just to give you that boost you need. Get some fluids in you too, and then sleep. I'll wake you up when I know it's light out in the labs. We may only get one chance at this, though, so be absolutely prepared and sure that you're fine with this."

Chloe nodded in understanding, and took a deep breath, scratching her skin once more.

Back in New York at the private airport, Chris watched as the two Toyota pickup trucks trundled into the tricopter, loaded with heavy metal cases of all of their equipment that often accompanies them. The Redfield man himself had quickly changed into his black thermal turtleneck and black cargo pants, complete with his chest harness, ready to slot his equipment and weapons once they arrived in England.

He had left Jill, Rebecca and Leon at the facility. Claire had locked herself in her room, but she had bundled herself up in the sheets. She was safe there, he thought. He only wished that the door was unlocked so he could give her a hug. He closed his eyes; a farewell hug or a "I'll be back soon" hug?

"Loaded, Cap! Vehicles are secured!"

Chris opened his eyes and strolled to the hold door. Looking east, he could see the faint pink glow of a new dawn.

"Hold on, Chloe. I'm coming to save you." He whispered to the gentle wind. He stepped on and did a head count, before slapping his hand on the door button, and it whirred and hissed behind him, closing him and his squad inside.

He was the only one that wasn't seated as the tricopter rose off the ground, and he gazed without purpose out of the porthole window, back down to the slowly shrinking airport. As it rounded, something behind the building glistening red caught his eyes, and he held his face within inches of the glass, frowning.

"Oh fucking hell, no." groaned Chris, and the rest of his squad looked at him in confusion. He turned and quickly glanced at them, still frowning, scanning his eyes along the hold. Thor padded back and forth under the legs of the squad, excitedly wagging his powerful tail. Finally Chris marched across, over the feet of his squad, and lightly kicked his foot under their seats. After six little kicks and side steps he delivered another, but this so-called bag of equipment moved, and made a noise, and he bent down. Tearing the bag out from under Lobo's seat, he ripped the zip open.

"Claire?! For Fuck's sake, what is your problem?!" He bellowed. No more chances for politeness, this was too far of her now.

"I'm going, Chris!" Claire whined, pushing herself out of the bag, falling victim to Thor's face licking. She yawned and rubbed her eyes wearily after pushing Thor and his tongue away. She had been asleep.

"You sure as hell aren't!" Chris shoved her aside and made for the cockpit. He had just opened the door before he heard a click behind him, then several more clicks. He scoffed once, and slowly turned to be met with Claire's SLS 60 pointing at his face. This isn't what startled him, it wasn't the first time that she had pointed her gun at him. His eyes widened slightly with alarm when he looked behind her, and saw that his whole squad were pointing their guns at his sister. Thor whimpered and tapped his paw several times on the floor.

Chris held a hand up to his squad..

"Stand down."

They looked at each other worriedly, and cautiously lowered their guns, only a little.

"I'm going, Chris." Claire repeated, and Chris took a step towards her, and her gun.

"I'm ordering you to stand down and lower your weapon."

"I'm not one of your pack dogs, Chris!" Claire shouted.

"And I'm not ordering you as your Captain, Claire! I'm ordering you as your goddamn brother!" Chris yelled back at her, and his outburst startled her. Seeing this, he stepped aside, took her wrist and disarmed her. He grabbed her by the front of her jacket and pushed her across the hold, pressing her against the hood of the first Toyota.

"I'm here to do a fucking job, Claire! I'm here to save your fucking daughter!"

Claire said nothing, but she softly touched his hand by her neck. He briefly looked at her fingers, then back to her face.

"Let me redeem myself." Claire whispered. "I owe it to you and Chloe."

"You won't redeem shit if you have a Mold moment, Claire. You'll get us all killed."

"Then shoot me." Claire stated, and Chris shrank back slightly in surprise, the squad gasping behind them.

"What?"

"If I have a Mold outburst, shoot me."

"Claire-"

"If you don't, then I'll do it myself."

More gasps were heard behind Chris, and he twisted his lips in fury at her. He let her jacket slip through his fingers and turned away. He heard Claire sigh, but he turned and slammed a fist into the hood by her side. She didn't look at him, but he still nodded to one of the seats at the side of the hold.

"You'll have your wrists tied up until we get there. Pull anything stupid and you'll regret it. We're here to save Chloe and investigate Vermapollo, not babysit you."

Claire didn't answer again, and she simply walked over to the gestured seat, holding her hands behind her back. Chris looked at Canine and nodded. Hesitantly, Canine pulled out some handcuffs stored in the wall slots and restrained Claire. Through all the little clicks and clatter of the chains, Claire never once took her eyes off Chris, and he neither her.

"Sorry, Claire, is that too tight?" Canine asked quietly, but Chris scoffed.

"No, she'll be fine, she's into that, so I've heard." He spat, and he turned to watch the birthing morning out of the little window.

He heard Claire cough in disgust, but he refused to look at her.

Slowly, one by one his squad sat back down, and after fifteen minutes, increasing altitude and more dawn filtering through the windows, Chris finally turned to face his sister. He couldn't be sure if she had never looked away, but she was still staring into his soul. He quietly walked over to her and sat down a metre from her.

"This is all my fault." Claire uttered. Chris kept quiet but looked at her. She rubbed her boots together in frustration and leant back in her seat, with tears silently rolling down her cheeks.

Chris shuffled awkwardly and glanced at his squad for their reactions, though neither of them offered any. They probably felt a little awkward too. He was in a professional capacity here, and even though his squad knew how close he and his sister were, he didn't want to drop his role as Alpha for the sake of comforting Claire, who should be tucked away in that bed! So was it a bundle of other sheets, then? Was that why the door was locked from the inside, so that no one could check on her? Maybe he should inform Rebecca.

He clicked his tongue, watching his squad look across at each other. They all looked at him and gestured to Claire, with Umber Eyes wrapping his arms around his own torso. Tundra nodded at him, and again subtly pointed at Claire.

Yeah, it seems like his squad don't care for professionalism right now either.

He got up from his seat and crouched down in front of Claire, resting his hands on her thighs.

"You never knew that you were infected, Claire. The Mold isn't your fault, and Chloe's kidnap isn't either."

"But they were after me and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time!"

"But she is ok, and she will get out fine. I just wish that you stayed behind."

Claire leant into him and rested his head on his shoulder. He let her rest there in silence, and he slowly convinced himself that she had fallen asleep on him.

"Remember Antarctica? That was the only time we were ever on-site together." Claire said softly.

"Wasn't a mission though."

"But it was your mission." Claire turned her head, and her nose brushed past his neck. "To rescue me. And now it's a rescue mission to get Chloe."

"Funny how it turned out like this, right?"

"Not as in haha funny but, yeah, I get you."

"She'll be fine, Claire-Bear." Chris lowered his voice to a soft tone, his brotherly tone. "I promise. I promise I'll get her out of there."

"Promise you will get out of there too."

When he didn't respond, Claire pinched his jaw and squished his cheeks with her fingertips.

"Promise, big guy."

"You won't leave me alone until I promise, will you?"

"Nope. Now promise me, Chris."

"Dammit, Alpha! Just promise your goddamn sister already!" Canine shouted, and each person in that hold laughed, including Claire. Chris pecked her on the cheek, and returned to his seat, neither confirming nor denying to keep the promise.

He always used to tell her that she knew that he always kept his promises.

But this time…

This time he felt that he couldn't.

The song for this chapter is Help Is On The Way by Brother Firetribe.

Chapter 17 is already done, but it is only just over 1,000 words. Might get it up before RE4r gets released. With money needing to be watched until my husband gets his payout, I can't get the game for a while, and quite frankly I'm tired of seeing it everywhere, so I'll be avoiding all social media for some time after the release. I will get it when I can, but just know that I really don't care that much about RE4 on any level. I will still play it; the demo is GORGEOUS, but RE4 was never a favourite of mine. I think I will probably love the remake though X'D