A/N: Hey guys, a warning in advance I probably should have mentioned sooner. The eventual romances are, quite literally, eventual. Meaning, they won't take place until further down the line, there are some events already into play that will happen before Jill and some of the other characters show up, and even then it will be somewhat slow paced for the sake of the story. I apologize if you were looking for something sooner, but don't worry. This story will get there. :)

The body hit the floor with a heavy thud, jolt after jolt caused it to spasm and twitch on the ground. When the gas was released, numerous infected had spread into parts of the facility that hadn't been intended for them to reach. The masked operative took barely more than four casual steps forward, the digits of his right hand clenched and released as a pulse of electricity dangled between them and all across his arm. His left hand slipped down to the straps at his waist to pull loose the sidearm there and raise it, barrel of the gun poised directly down at the burnt infected. It jerked, arm held out to reach toward his leg.

He fired.

The zombie fell limp at the execution, body melted away into the hard concrete of the floor. With a quick movement, the Picador was placed back in it's confines at his hip. There was movement from outside the room, on the other side of the door as it opened. The soldier turned at the motion, eyes narrowed as they peered out from the lenses of the mask, almost perfectly identical to the one Vince wore, and rightly so; it was that man who had bestowed it upon him in the first place. He hated it; how it concealed him, how it kept his unmistakable features out of view and his identity a well hidden secret.

He didn't have the words or control to vocalize his opinions anymore. The minds hidden away behind the bioterrorism organizations had made sure of that; the pulse that would continuously flare at the back of his neck reminded him of the fact non-stop. It had been implanted over a year ago, months after his presumed death at the depths of the ocean. Piers Nivans had always been a man of well trained self-control, yet now he found himself with none at all. It was an unending torment, forced to act and obey. It was a much deeper sense of submission than mankind could ever offer, it was something that shouldn't have had the luxury of existing.

But there he was, trapped in the dead center of it all with no way out. His body worked on autopilot, as if he was little more than an observer inside his own skin. It was a relentless nightmare with no end in sight, and his captors only sought to tighten the leash the more time went by. Piers often wondered if Jill Valentine had felt exactly the same more than five years ago when she had found herself in a similar situation at the hands of a merciless villain that had kept her enslaved just as well. He'd read the report, anyone in the B.S.A.A. had. What hadn't been told on the file about the events in Africa had been gossiped to every ear in HQ.

Footsteps.

A single J'avo passed through the recently opened door frame, the Tricell logo had become uncomfortably familiar over time. Vince must have sent it to come retrieve him.

Sure enough, it hadn't been barely more than a few seconds after that his phone went off. He pulled it free and flipped it open, shielded eyes rested on the screen as Vince informed him of the situation. He felt the movement of his body as it worked on it's own with a single, quick nod across the link. "On my way," Was the simple reply, words that were formed for him whether he wanted it or not. When the link was cut, the phone was put away as he made a move to unkindly brush past the J'avo who followed behind as instructed.

They made way down the winding halls, until the roar of hungry infected sounded behind them and zombies flooded into the walkway by the dozens. The J'avo made a move to fire it's weapon, but a kick to it's kneecap that shattered the bone sent him to the floor. Piers gave a last shove to the multi-eyed mutation that caused it to sprawl forward into the awaiting arms of the horde. Hungry and mindless, they started to snap their jaws around the flesh of the J'avo, and while it kept them distracted, the ace sniper turned and continued on his way to the roof. Echoes wafted behind him of sickening crunching noises, followed by the smack of lips as they chowed down on their meal. The J'avo, not immune to the effects of pain, released screams that nearly overlapped the other sounds and weeded them out.

Piers tapped at the controls of the elevator as the doors closed, concealing the infected from sight. Upon arrival at the top, he didn't hesitate to make way toward the already prepared helicopter and silently climbed in.

To the far side of the room, Pritchard fended off multiple attacks from the approaching horde with an eye through her scope and her back to the wall. Kavanagh had retreated after the assault on his well being, now closer to the back alongside the sniper to help keep her defended. The room wasn't necessarily big enough to require use of a scope, but the distance was enough that one was still useful in trained hands. Further behind the squad of firing soldiers, Jenesis had managed to slink against the wall near a control panel with her laptop hooked into it. Fingers darted wildly across the keys with gray eyes that matched the same speed, reading through line after line as she attempted to gather any useful data during whatever short amount of time they had left.

A fallen zombie dropped inches from her feet and made her visibly jump, out of reflex her eyes raised from the screen to land on one of her fellow B.S.A.A. soldiers. She huffed, clearly annoyed as he offered an apologetic shrug and returned to defending her as she reverted her attention back to her hack of their systems. It wasn't long until there was a ding and a notification across the screen; it'd worked. Several files and images came to life under her gaze that widened slightly - it seemed as though the mission hadn't been for nothing, after all. Unhooking her devices, she shimmied away from the wall and through the soldiers, everything placed safely back into her pack that stayed looped across her back.

"Captain! I managed to hack into their systems, whoever that was hadn't been lying, we have less than ten minutes to evac out of here before the place collapses down around our ears! It's too late to go after him!" She yelled as she pulled free her weapon and provided cover fire of her own to assist. The Captain seemed to hesitate, he half expected it to be a rouse and the B.S.A.A. had hardly any time to investigate. "Did you find anything useful in those files?" Jenesis had said she'd hacked into the system - there had to be something there unless they wiped it clean. They needed something - anything to go on that didn't leave them with empty palms.

"Yes, sir! We won't need him if we can get out of here. I have data on previous calls and delivery charts, they've been making shipments all over the place but I have coordinates. We've got them!" Jenesis gave a motion over her shoulder toward her pack. As long as they got clear, they could relay the Intel to HQ. The Captain nodded in approval, his attention now on the rest of his team. "Eliminate all hostiles and fall back! If this place blows, I don't want anyone here when it happens!" The given order was hollered above the remaining sound of gunfire. There wasn't a way for them to retreat before ending the threat, given how enclosed the space was the team would have only been at more risk if they gave away their ground.

The threat however, had died down to a handful of cannibalistic monstrosities that took hardly a minute to finish off. Just like that, the moment another, "Clear!" echoed from one of the soldiers, they all climbed to their feet and filed back out the door as ordered. Multiple footsteps padded across the cement as they scurried out of range with heads ducked as they took cover behind a building just as the facility blew. Moments after the blast ceased, one by one the soldiers moved to observe the fiery remains that were little more than rubble in the distance.

A sound of a chopper overhead caught the attention of a few; it hadn't belonged to the B.S.A.A. so it had to have been the masked individual who had sought to delay them from gaining any Intel. The helicopter had hovered momentarily, long enough for the two operatives to spot the B.S.A.A. soldiers from their aerial view and Piers took in the sight. So it was true, it had been Alpha that was sent in. Of course it would be, they were the front line unit and most capable.

Piers wasn't as well informed on whatever plans the bioterrorists had in mind, it wasn't necessary to fill in someone who was quite literally a walking toy soldier that could be twisted around and forced to follow any given command. What he knew was more commonly than not things that he'd simply overheard. Whatever they had planned, Chris Redfield was caught directly in the middle of it.

Don't let them trick you, Captain.

It was the last clear thought he had as they drifted away from the wreckage.

It hadn't taken much more than a few minutes for the helicopter to disappear out of sight and out of reach, the BSAA unit didn't have a way of tracking it, but if Jenesis was right about the data... Captain Redfield turned on his heel. Before he had a chance to open his mouth, their radios buzzed to life. "Alpha, this is HQ. We have information that suggests the facility was destroyed, what's your status?"

Chris raised a hand to his earpiece, "HQ, Alpha here. Intel was right, the facility's gone but we all made it out in time."

"Were you able to seize any data on the source behind the terrorist assault?"

"We met an unidentified agent while inside the facility, but we weren't able to catch him for questioning." He made a motion toward the technician with a signal of the hand. Jenesis nodded and tugged free her equipment from the pack and pulled up the data she'd been able to scavenge. "One of my soldiers were able to get a hold of some of their files, we may have a location on the next bioterrorism movement." He crouched down next to the younger woman as her fingers flew across the keyboard, moments later the Intel had been directed back to HQ. There was a long pause before anymore voices sounded across the comm, the seconds expanded into elongated minutes as the group waited on orders for how to proceed.

The radio finally crackled to life, "Alpha Team, your mission just changed. The evac has been cancelled, the helicopter we're sending will take you to the coordinates from those files. You'll be dropped off near a dock, these reports say that a ship carrying a delivery of bio-organic weaponry will arrive by morning tomorrow. The BSAA has already made the correct reservations in a hotel not far out of the way, you can stay there until it docks. We can't waste time with this, get in there and see what you can do." There was the briefest pause, "And Alpha... Be careful. If the Intel is correct, there's a chance you may be dealing with the remnants of Neo-Umbrella."

The Captain felt his jaw tense at the news. "Copy that," The comms faded into a heavy silence thereafter.

Neo-Umbrella. They had caused enough trouble already.

Within the hour, the helicopter had arrived to pick them up and make way toward their new destination.