This Child I would Destroy, If You Try to Set Her Free
Title is from the song My Medea, by Vienna Teng.
Sorry for the delay, I did warn you. Righteo well, this story has been a pain in the arse for me to write, it's been terribly difficult to put across what I'm trying to say. On top of that, I'll be getting a lot less time to write, I have big exams coming up which, hate to say it guys, but my future is more important than my lame ass attempt at fanfiction. XD That being said, I may decide to scratch the story all together if everything goes pair shaped. I'll try my best to continue with it, I may just be slower, but we all know life can be a real beach. Thanks for the reviews and support. : )
After ten years, never once was there silence between the two. They always had something to say to each other, but this night was different. Neither wanted to speak in fear of the other shooting them down, for once they felt awkward in each other's presence. Though the feelings were understandable, both had done and said many things they regretted. And the past they shared and connection they had with one and other couldn't be forgotten so easily.
Occasionally, he would grab a sneak glance of her, watching her as she gazed out the car window. He would be lying if he said he didn't miss her. But that didn't change anything. As much as he regretted saying it, his main priority was his daughter. Just as when Jill had fallen at the Spencer Mansion, she had then taken the main feature of his life and work, everything else came second to that. He just didn't seem to realise each time he put his mind on something to save a person he loved, others slipped away from him. In his quest to find Jill, he pushed Claire even further from him, and now to find Anna he was disregarding Jill. Feelings were complicated, one minute he loved Jill, the next he was angered by her. No doubt about it, the man was confused.
Unlike Chris sitting next to her, she refused to look at him. She could feel his gaze upon her, but she didn't wish to see him. Yes, it was her choice to help find Anna, but what else would she have done? A young child was in danger, and she was a selfless woman. Her feelings would have to wait, because now the most important thing to her was to do anything in her will to save the life of another. She would swallow her pride and help Anna at anything. If it turned out Anna had been taken for testing, Jill had encountered it before. She would never wish it upon anyone, especially not the daughter of the man she loved endlessly. And there lay her problem. No matter how often she would tell herself otherwise, Jill still loved Chris. She was angry and upset, but after loving someone for so many years, the feelings don't just disappear. Perhaps it would have been easier for her, had the feelings have dissolved quickly. Then she wouldn't have to deal with the heartache she felt every time she laid eyes upon his face.
...
"...What made you come, Jill?" Chris croaked out, breaking the silence between the two. She was shocked, and snapped her head to face him. She closed her eyes, and sighed deeply.
"There is a young girl in danger...missing in fact. Her life, or any other person's for that matter, is more important than our troubled relationship." Tears began to well in her azures. "You know Carlos asked me the same thing after I said I was coming to find you... And it hurts me that people have to ask why I'm here, Chris. It hurts. I mean of course, I will do anything in my power to help someone else. You broke me and embarrassed me with that note, yes. But this is someone's life we're talking about... This isn't a joke; we need to put aside our differences. We can wait...Anna can't."
It wasn't the reply Chris expected. But it made him realise why he had fallen in love with her in the first place. She put anyone before herself, because even though humanity was messed up, Jill always cared for people regardless.
"...Thank you for coming. It means a lot to me." She nodded in response and wiped away a stray tear. "And I'm so sorry for the letter. I should have said it to your face... In fact, I shouldn't have slept with you in the first place."
Chris had thought his apology may have comforted her. It did nothing of the sort, it hurt her even more by knowing what she thought was love, was merely him relieving his lust. She bit her tongue, and refused to become more angry or upset by his words.
"Let's just get Anna, and we can talk about us later." She said slightly sharply. He nodded carefully, and the two went back to their silence.
Jake continued to drive them to their destination from the front seat, silently hoping the two would correct their problems.
Anna shuffled on the hard bed until her arms were safely huddled around her legs. She didn't know how long she'd been there. It seemed like an eternity, she had no recollection of time or day. She merely slept when she felt necessary and ate whenever she was given meals. Her crying had began to stop, seemed she didn't have the energy for it. Her whole captivity was so surreal, she wished to wake up. She had got to the point where death was more favourable than this.
The door of the sterile cell slid open and was quickly shut after. Luke stood panting, and sweeping the hair from his eyes.
"Good you're awake." He puffed out, readjusting the black rimmed glasses on his face.
"What is it?" Anna asked, puzzled by his sense of urgency and despair.
"You're not Jill Valentine's daughter. You don't have the antibodies. What the hell? Why didn't you tell me? ...Fuck." Luke whispered. He rubbed his head, attempting to calm.
"I..I don't know..."
"If Alex finds this out, we're screwed." Anna regretted not telling him, and the tears that had ceased to flow now began once more. "I don't know what to do..."
"I'm sorry... I was scared. What's going to happen?" She asked wiping away her tears.
"I don't know how to keep it from her. She'll kill you the minute she finds out." Luke said. His heart went out the young woman, he had grown closer to her, like she was his little sister. He was determined to protect her. "Don't cry. We can't attract attention to ourselves...Look I'll do everything I can to prolong her finding out. But there's only so much I can do."
Anna nodded slowly and mouthed a thank you. Her hands began to shake. Although she thought about death over her captivity, the actual fact that her life could be close to an end made her petrified. She was only young, she hardly lived a life.
"I'll do all I can. It'll be okay." Luke falsely promised her. He walked up to her, and wrapped his arms comforting around her shoulders. She tensed up, feeling like the situation was strange. But she eventually melted into his arms and sobbed into his shoulder.
"Your dad will come for you." He whispered her words she wished to hear. He didn't believe them himself, but he hoped for her to be calmer. He couldn't help but feel guilty; he was working with the enemy. And a young girl was suffering because of their actions.
Luke slipped into his private lab, hoping to remove some evidence of his findings before someone crept upon it. The man jumped as he laid eyes upon Sherry sitting at one of the various microscopes.
"You seem nervous." She said, not retracting her sight from the objective lens of the microscope.
"Uh...It's just late. Didn't think anybody would be in here. What are you doing?" He asked, pulling up a chair next to the young blonde woman.
"You're job. You've been taking forever with Miss Redfield's sample. We should already be culturing the antibodies to add to our virus. Alex is not going to be amused with your delay." She replied smoothly.
"Yeah, well I'm just checking everything is set. We can't rush into things now, can we?"Luke replied cautiously, running fingers through his tangled hair. He never got along with Sherry. They had to work together often as they were the best scientists. But she was closer to Alex than Luke ever wished to be. Sherry knew a lot more than he ever would; Alex almost seemed to trust her. On top of that Sherry didn't seem to mind the work they did, whereas Luke despised what he was forced to do.
"We can't take a life time to do it either." She replied sarcastically.
"Well perhaps I would work harder if I knew what the hell I was working towards."
"Classified information, Mr Johnson. Perhaps you'll find out once we're finished." Sherry went back to examining the slide, while Luke couldn't sit at piece so paced the room all the while trying to think up of a way to get rid of her.
Sherry broke the quiet in the room by gasping, and pushing back from the bench.
"This can't be right..." She said, turning to glare at Luke. He acted innocently and so looked shocked. "Are you sure this is her blood?"
"Uh...Maybe we've got the wrong sample; we better just test again to be sure..."
"...You're lying." She said, a devilish smile creeping upon her face. Her smile unnerved the slightly older man.
"What?"
"This is her blood. She's not the biological daughter... And you thought you could fool us." Sherry smiled, standing from her seat. "I knew it."
"Sherry, please. She's just a kid. Don't you have any heart?" Luke attempted to plead with her to no avail.
"We need those antibodies. And we have been chasing nothing for weeks, and you've known this. Anna is completely irrelevant now. Alex has to know, and I'll tell her." She said, about to walk past Luke to the door.
"No you won't. You'll keep your little mouth shut." Sherry turned on her heels to the source of the low voice. Leaning against the doorway to the lab, a smirk began to play on Ada's features.
"What makes you think I'll listen to you? You're just as bad as him." Sherry spat, receiving a scoff and roll of the eyes from the Asian woman.
"Because you know, unlike Luke, that I'd hurt you. I'm not scared to kill someone, missy. I've done it before, so you'd be no different...So, you will keep your trap shut, until otherwise informed, 'kay?" Ada threatened. She was right, the one person other than Alex that scared the hell out of Sherry was Ada. She was a powerful woman, and Sherry knew she didn't play by the book.
"...So?" Ada asked impatiently.
"...Okay. But you can't hold it forever, she'll find out and when she does both of you will regret not telling her sooner." She replied.
"Yeah, sure." Ada said nonchalantly, "Now can you leave? I have to talk to Luke."
Sherry snorted; annoyed by Ada's dictating, but she still complied and left the room in a huff.
"What is it?" Luke asked caringly. One of the only people he got along with in the hell hole was Ada. He admired her, and although occasionally her actions were questionable, he knew her well enough to know her heart was true.
"Don't you just hate that little brat?" Ada joked, walking up to Luke, who was now leaning against the work bench.
"Sherry? Yeah, she isn't my favourite."
"And who is?" Ada asked teasingly. She deliberately got closer to him, standing on her tiptoes enabling her to push her body against the taller man's.
"I don't have a favourite." He whispered, sweeping a strand piece of dark hair behind her ear. His action brought a small genuine smile to her face. It wasn't love between the two, it was loneliness. Luke had lost everything, he was lonely. And even though she would never admit it, as was she. They weren't a perfect match, they were practically opposites. He was a caring, sensitive, all round nice man, she was a flirt. But their situation had brought the two together for comfort. Ada knew she missed Leon anyway, and in her opinion, Luke deserved someone better than her.
Ada placed a tender teasing kiss on his thin lips.
"You sure about that?" She asked seductively, receiving a small smile from Luke. He replied by bringing her in for another kiss. This time he made it more passionate, and wrapped his arms around her slender waist. She pulled away slowly, and adjusted her red dress.
"That's not what I came here for." Ada said.
"And what did you come for?"
"You know I hate to be the bringer of good news," Luke chuckled at her, "The research facility has been caught out. And from what I've heard a certain Chris Redfield is on his way to get his daughter..."
"What? How do you know all this?"
"It's not important. What is is that Anna will be safe if he gets her on time. And so will you." Ada said.
"And what about you?" She laughed lightly.
"We'll see what I do. But I won't be coming with you." A sly smile formed on her lips. "But be on guard. Let's hope you get out okay. You deserve to have a good life, Luke."
He was taken aback by her kind words; she was always a kidder never incredibly emotional or caring. Nerves began to build within him, it was actually true, and finally he could be free with the help of Chris.
"Here." Ada walked up to him, and slipped a small pistol into his hands, "Just in case."
She slipped away from him, and gave a smooth wink. A second later the mysterious woman had left without a trace.
"Here we are." Jake spoke, switching off the car headlights. The building looked empty, not very promising for them. There was nothing suspicious about it, just a typical clean research building. Jake handed them earpieces so they could keep in contact with him throughout.
"Be careful, guys. And no unnecessary killings, remember? Don't get your hopes up, this might not even be the right place." He said. Chris and Jill slipped silently out of the car, and looked around the deserted land. The area was pitch black, at least they had no fear of being seen.
Chris pointed to a back entrance, and received a nod from Jill. They sneaked around to the door, and Jill furiously started to pick the lock. Within seconds she heard the click, and the door was open. Fear began to rise within Chris, if this was the right place and bio-weaponry was being made, the security was far too low. He started to think this was a mistake.
Stepping into the corridor, there were no windows. But the walls were blindingly white. Again no security men, no alarm, no visible cameras. The place had little security whatsoever. It was as if whoever was working here, didn't mind outsiders seeing. But then again, the security wasn't necessary; no one had ever seen the place as a threat, the lack of security made it seem they had nothing to hide.
The two slipped through various corridors, some containing animals and pieces of laboratory equipment. Nothing out of the ordinary, after the all, the place was supposedly an animal testing centre. They hadn't a clue where they were going, but after walking through identical corridors, they stepped into a much larger room. It had the layout of a prison, at least three stories high, each floor having various uniform closed white doors. In the centre of the large room, a huge computer screen sat with various side screens. Jill jogged over to the screen and scrolled through the information, shocked by what she was reading.
"...We were right." She whispered. Chris ran to her side, and read over her shoulder. "All these people, they're being used for some sort of testing. Each one of these doors lead into cells."
She flicked the mouse down so Chris could see. Various faces popped up with some information about them, including their cell number. The sight brought back memories for Jill, it was very similar to what she and others had to go through with the testing under Wesker's control.
"Wait." Chris leaned over to read one of the names, "Steve Burnside? He's still alive?"
Jill peered at the information in disbelief. Chris had told her about the boy, even though Claire refused to speak of it.
"No." Jill pointed to the screen. "They're just using his body and remaining virus I guess... It says he's deceased."
"But it's been years."
"I don't know..."
"We better take some of the information." Chris said, pushing past her to put in a memory stick. Immediately an error popped up, and asked for certain passwords and codes. "There's the security, I guess. I knew this wouldn't be easy."
Chris continued to fiddle with the computer, attempting to find another route of taking the information. Meanwhile Jill glanced around the rooms surrounding the computer on the ground level. Each one had a digital keypad beside them, and a retina reader. There was no hope in hell of them getting into one of the cells. From the information on the computer, the majority of the people they saw were dead, very few were still living.
"Stop!" Chris turned to see a man standing before him, presumably a lab worker, holding a pistol to his face.
Jill immediately turned and retrieved her handgun to aim back at the mysterious man.
"Who are you?" He demanded to Chris, ignoring Jill's aim on him.
"We're here to find my daughter. We know what you're doing you son of a bitches. So either you play nice and help us, or my friend here will blow your brains out." Chris replied angrily.
The moment Chris had mentioned daughter, the man lowered his gun.
"Chris Redfield, I presume. Man, am I glad to see you." The scientist replied. Chris looked confused, it wasn't what he was expected. Jill was still on edge, she didn't trust him and so her gun was still firmly positioned for his head.
"What? How do you know me?"
"My name's Luke Johnson. I was told you'd be coming." Luke barged past a confused to Chris, and got to the computer. He began to furiously type, and therefore gain access into the information.
"What are you doing?" Jill demanded.
"Getting you the information you require. Now do you want to keep your voice down, please?" Luke replied, not removing his focus from the computer screen.
"Why are you doing this?" Chris asked well and truly confused.
"Because I want out of here too. We don't have much time." Luke removed the memory stick and handed it swiftly back to Chris. He continued to type quickly.
"You work here? What's going on?" Chris demanded, he needed to find out something. None of this made sense to him, he was getting help from a worker?
"Look, we'll talk about this later, you just have to trust me. Now let's get your daughter." Luke said, walking off to a nearby cell, and starting to type onto the keypad. Chris's heart nearly stopped, he had to believe he was getting his daughter back. He was overwhelmed, it didn't seem real.
Luke stepped away from the door as it opened, letting Chris have full access to the view of the room. The door opened and all Chris saw was a little girl curled up on the bed. She looked tired and upset but she looked healthy. It brought a genuine broad smile to his lips, because this wasn't any little girl, it was his little girl.
"Anna?" Chris finally breathed, it seemed for the whole time Anna was missing he had held his breath. She cocked her head up; hoping this time the voice wasn't inside her head. Seeing her pretty face, he ran up to her and enveloped her in a huge bear hug, pulling her up to a standing position. Without hesitation, Anna began to cry unto her father's shoulders, while he spoke words of comfort and gently patted her back. The sight was beautiful for Jill, a father and daughter had been reunited, she could see the strong connection they had with each other. She hadn't seen Chris's face light up so much in a very long time. Although she too was smiling, her hand still hovered over her holster. She couldn't fully trust Luke.
"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" Chris asked desperately, patting down Anna's dark locks. She couldn't speak, just shook her head with a large smile on her face. He wiped her tears with no complaint, like any father would. Chris removed the leather jacket from his shoulders and placed it around her shoulders which were only covered by a hospital gown.
"Can we get out of here?" Anna croaked.
"Of course." Chris laughed lightly.
"We don't have much time. I'll get you all out." Luke stated, shutting the door as they left.
"And what about all these other people?" Jill asked, she couldn't just rescue Anna and forget all the other's souls.
"The information I've given you is enough, the BSAA will shut this place down. It's solid evidence. But you have to leave, it isn't safe." He demanded. He knew that Alex wouldn't take any prisoners; their main priority was to get out of there. He also knew that at the time, there were no others living. They had either been killed or infected. They had no hope left. But he'd be damned if he didn't at least save one of the people.
"Come with us, Luke."Anna said. She had no intention of leaving the one person who looked after her. Chris looked questionably over to the other man; to gain a Redfield's trust took a long time. But if his daughter trusted him, then he would have to too.
The four of them began to sprint back to exit the large room. As they slowed to the door, each noticed their footsteps weren't the only ones in the echoing room.
"Where'd you think you're going?" A voice asked, stepping into their view.
"Sherry, stop this." Luke replied, as Sherry began to raise a gun pointed towards Anna. Chris looked confused, he'd heard the name before, and from the looks of her, no doubt this was the Sherry he was thinking of. Jill immediately raised her gun to counter Sherry.
"You can't just leave. Nobody just leaves."She replied.
"You don't need Anna."
"True. Well then give me her." She demanded, pointing towards Jill. Jill furrowed her brow confused as to why she wanted her.
"What are you doing, Sherry? I'm Chris Redfield, Claire's brother. She rescued you, remember?" Chris asked, in hope he could beat sense into the young woman.
"I know who you are. And I don't care. People are pathetic. They'll never be there for me. My parents weren't there for me, and Claire and Leon left me. Alex is only one who's always been there no matter what. So I'll do anything to stop you from leaving." She threatened.
"Alex?" Chris muttered, the name sounded vaguely familiar but he hadn't a clue where from.
"You won't stop us, we're going. This is over." Luke replied calmly. He saw Sherry's hand shake ever so slightly. The girl talked big, but she was just as scared as the rest of them. He carefully placed his arm around Anna, pushing her further from Sherry, and protecting her with his body.
Luke nodded to Chris and Jill to instruct them to move carefully towards the door. The second they moved, Sherry tensed. She knew all along the research they were doing was wrong, but she was too caught up in it now. Her only hope was with Alex. So for the meantime she would do anything to help the woman she saw as a friend. Even if that meant shooting someone else.
"No!" Sherry squealed as they got closer to the exit. "We need Jill Valentine dead or alive. And Anna's seen far too much. So either hand them to me, and I'll pretend this never happened, Luke. Or I'll kill every one of you."
"Four against one, isn't looking hopeful for you, Sherry. Give up." Luke tried to compromise with her. The exit door slid open just beside them. Chris quickly pushed Jill who was next to him through the door, while Luke had distracted Sherry. All this talk of taking Jill scared him; he wouldn't let her go through what she had too previously. Jill stumbled on the other side onto her knees, but quickly rose to her feet just as the door closed behind her. She desperately tried to open it once again, as now she was raging at Chris for pushing her away. She was just as strong as him; she didn't need to be protected.
Sherry groaned in annoyance after noticing Jill had left. She had let the woman Alex required slip, because she was too scared to shoot a gun. With her gun still firmly aimed in Anna's direction, she brought her other hand to rub at the throbbing pain in her temples. She knew Alex would be so angry for letting them leave, but she wasn't a killer. She didn't know what to do.
Chris could see her beginning to break; he could tell she wasn't coping with the situation. After all, she was only a young adult. He cautiously stepped towards her, his hands in the air to show he meant peace.
"No! Don't move!" She screamed at him. Her hand was now vigorously shaking, a sweat droplet running down her forehead, sticking a lock of blonde hair to her temple.
"Come on, Sherry. We can work this ou-" Chris was too late. The room shook with the echo of a gunshot rattling through it. The once pearly white room was now splattered with red, while a continuously flowing pool of blood began to form on the tiles.
I think my next update shouldn't be too late, but after that...We'll see.
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