Zaac strayed off to the tabletop and computer by the windows; he stared off into the distance. It was too dark to see anything out of the ordinary. "It will be a while until our guardian picks us up, Zaac," said Sam, "Since there's nothing else to do would you mind telling us how you got stuck on Everest?"

Zaac folded his arms. "Do you really want to know, or are you just making small talk to pass the time?"

"Both..."

"I'll pass. I do owe you a favour for bringing me up to speed, but I'm not comfortable telling teenagers about my affairs."

"Okay..." Sam huffed. "How did you survive up here all this time? Can you tell us that?"

"This armour I made adapts to low and high temperatures." Zaac turned around and tapped on his armour's chest plate, next to a big hole he just noticed. "Hmmm… looks a bit under the weather." There was a hole in his chest area.

The cuts and scrapes shown the wear and tear across the plates over his limbs also. Zaac took the upper half of his armour off over his head and held it in front of him to inspect. "Awww, man. No amount of buffing will save that." He found the hole goes out the back and put his arm through it. "For a prototype, I expected more. Shit..."

Clover gawked at Zaac's shaved torso and his abs. She tried not to make it obvious, but failed terribly, by fucking him with her eyes. "Aren't you cold?" she asked.

"The cold doesn't bother me. This armour just adapts and does too much of a good job of it." Zaac only just noticed his chest was bare and the three girls were staring at him. Clover looked smitten. He could tell and quickly covered his body with his armour. "This is a bit weird."

"Drool much, Clover?" Alex said.

"Really?" Clover wiped her mouth. "Damn it." She got up to Zaac and held out her hand to him. "Would you like me to hold onto that, maybe fold it for you?"

Zaac blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "If you insist, Clover. It's too hot and stuffy in here anyway." He felt across a small deformity around his heart, a small dip where his scar was. The cross-shaped scar over his heart was a bit compressed. "Oh, yeah… That one hurt."

Scars are hot stuff… "You're telling me..."

"That's a doozy," Alex commented. "How does a guy like you get one of those?"

"Let's just say I've had a few heart problems in the past, actually had one recently. Sometimes it had to be taken out and put back in a few times..." Zaac chuckled.

"That's wack..."

Zaac walked over to the window and stared back outside. Sam thought he might be waiting for rescue, that's something she would do. Clover sat back on the bed and practically snuggled with Zaac's armour. It had his smell and had some weight.

"So you won't tell us how you got stuck here, and the cold doesn't bother you because of your armour," Sam said with a little slowly. "But what about food?"

"I hibernated. I fed off the ice for water and rested in stasis for the last few years. I can't expect you to understand what I am."

"Try us."

Zaac waved his hand submissively. "No. My business is far too personal."

"Really?" said Alex, "That just makes you more mysterious."

"Yeah." Clover chuckled. "Mysterious and hot!"

"Hmmm..." Zaac turned back around and rubbed his chin, brushing his light goatee. "Good comment; I'll keep that in mind. If you could, please respect my choice, Sam. I mean this time yesterday I was basically… dead… and now you're quizzing me."

"Sorry." Sam shrugged. "We thought it could help our situation if we just knew each other a bit better."

Zaac smiled. "Apology accepted. Do what you have to, to pass the time. Just leave my personal affairs out of it, it's still to early to start making friends." He walked away to the fridge.

Sam leant forward. "There goes our only chance to pass the time."

"I am not going back to playing I spy," said Clover, getting up from the bed. She walked after Zaac after she left his armour at the bottom of the bed.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll use my womanly charm to get him to sing." Clover smiled. "I like a challenge."

Zaac opened the fridge to reach for a bottled water on the door's rack. It was tap water, typical Neo-Umbrella using cheap water for their employees. How sad for them. When he closed the door and took a sip of water, Clover was there to his right.

Clover stepped forward and pressed her finger on Zaac's chest. "Say handsome… would you really want to keep secrets from us? We're practically besties now."

"Oh, she's good," Alex said to Sam.

Zaac stared at Clover's heavenly blue eyes for some time, and she was quick to falter under his golden eyes. So strange. So unique. "Thanks for the attention Clover but I wasn't born yesterday."

Clover blushed. "We're all friends here…" She rubbed her hand over Zaac's chest. "How about you express and open up a little bit and I'll tell you what, I'll let you take me out for dinner."

"I met a Scatterbrain once fifteen years ago; she couldn't break me and neither can you."

"Scatter-what?"

"As much as I appreciate the womanly attention, Clover." Zaac chuckled. "I don't think dating plans would roll well with the wife; she can be… territorial. You wouldn't want to get on her bad side, trust me, I've seen it."

"Wife?" she whimpered.

"And not to make it more awkward," he said while he scratched the back of his head," the age gap an' all just wouldn't work out."

"Ooooo, that's gotta hurt," Alex murmured.

"Did not see that coming."

Clover quickly shuffled back to the bed and sat next to Zaac's armour. Sam scooted to the corner, and Alex took her space. Clover's flirting nature was defeated, and Alex comforted her with her hand on the shoulders. "Better luck next time," she cooed.

"You're married? Kids and everything?" asked Sam. Clover groaned with her head in her hands. "You've been a busy man."

Zaac stopped drinking the water bottle he was on; he was on his third bottle now. He turned around and closed the fridge again. "Yeah." He showed the girls a gold ring on his left ring finger. "Haven't seen the wife or the kids for… nine years."

"You look young for your age."

"Don't remind me." Clover whined.

She slumped her body over Zaac's armour. It offered some closure to her dampened morale of being not as good at flirting as she used to. She thought she still had it along with her looks. Her game was rusty, but now she realised she couldn't charm everyone with her looks anymore, it just wasn't that easy.

"I suppose I can tell you a little bit about me since Clover went out of her way in an attempt to… seduce me. Any of you girls smoke?"

Sam choked a little. "No."

"Smoking's gross."

"Good for you."

Zaac walked to the same window again to look outside. He just needed to have a cigarette but needed to summon one unnaturally since he left his cigarettes back on the B.S.A.A. plane. He flicked his wrist, and a something black materialised into his fingertips. A cigarette and an oil flip lighter. He took a single puff and folded his arms.

"That's better."

"Well? We still got time to kill."

"I don't much like sitting in silence," Clover mumbled. She lifted her head off Zaac's armour and sat up against the wall. It was uncomfortable resting on her broken arm.

"This isn't easy for me to say, so I'll just start from the beginning..." Zaac inhaled another puff of smoke and exhaled it. It was definitely what he needed after the last few hours. He put his one arm over his back. "Back in 2009, my brother and I were on a mission in Africa to stop a worldwide catastrophe. This one terrorist we tried to eliminate got away, but the ordeal was contained, so we moved on." He smoked and exhaled. After a pause, he continued, "On our way home the terrorist hijacked the plane and tried to kill us. I was counting on the arrival, so I set a little trap… using my brother as bait."

"Wow, way to think on your feet, Zaac." Sam smiled.

Zaac turned his head. "Thanks." He swivelled his body back around to the girls. "I prefer the hands-on approach to things, but this time I had to do the unusual to catch the bastard. After the trap, I got wounded badly and had to bail." He smoked and pointed to his armour. "That's how I got that huge hole in my armour. I was… impaled. The trap worked, however, but at a cost set me back nine years."

"Excuse me... You've been up here for nine years?" Sam said slowly.

"Yeah. Over the years, I guess I… kinda froze to death. Literal death."

"But you're alive now?"

"I'm unique; kinda not your average person."

Sam decided not to press on the topic further; she was no match for Zaac's defensive attitude. The urge to find out how he survived in the cold could be of scientific interest; then again, she felt Zaac's life was bad enough already.

"What happened to this terrorist?"

"Hopefully he died in the destruction. I survived, barely, but I was in no shape to come back. A fair trade-off, I suppose." Zaac smoked the last of his cigarette and rubbed it out on the wall behind him. He sighed, heavily and brushed his chest. "A job well done is its own reward and ridding the world of that bastard made the nine-year absence almost worth it."

"Who was he anyway? We had quite a lot of baddies ourselves back in our junior days."

"Albert Wesker."

"I think Patryk had a WOOHP file on him," said Alex, sitting forward with a little frown. She looked at Sam. "Remember? We were there, and he was going through Jerry's old files."

"The one in the sunglasses?"

"Yeah."

"That was a few days after he took over WOOHP," Sam replied, "It happened so fast though I only recalled that he was declared dead in 2009. My mom might have mentioned him once or twice, but that's about it."

"Boy that made him happy, I remember Patryk had quite a smile on his face when he shuffled through a few of WOOHP's most wanted. Seeing this Wesker dead was such a good day for us all."

"Then, my plan worked. It backfired on me, but his reign of terror is finally over."

Sam looked away from Alex's innocent face and over to Zaac's. She squinted. "Any relation?"

"He… was my father."

"Wow. Daddy issues much?"

"Wait." Alex leant forward. "You killed your dad?"

"God willed it as there was no other way." Zaac turned his back on the girls and shook his head. They heard him sigh. "Wesker tormented my friends and family for years. He was lost in his own arrogance and was simply too dangerous to be left alive."

Zaac turned around to see Sam and Alex listening to his story intensely, whereas Clover was drifting into sleep. She had the sling back on. He walked to the bottom of the bed and brushed her hair. Fatherly instinct kicked in. "You see," he continued, "Wesker was planning to plague the world with a virus. If it succeeded, it would've wiped out billions of lives. WOOHP and the B.S.A.A. were able to stop him in the end. Sure we suffered a few losses, but it was necessary."

"I heard about that." Sam nodded. "I saw it on the news before school; I remembered because my mom was almost crying one time during lunch. I watched the news all day."

"The B.S.A.A. apprehended the stealth bomber that went out to contaminate the world, but Wesker got away. Then I caught him in my trap. He's dead, and now I'm here. All's well that ends well."

"How does it feel knowing you killed your father?"

Zaac smiled. "After the first three times he tried to kill me the fatherly love and care wore thin. I tried to show him the light and the error of his ways out of the respect I had for him, but he just didn't care. He would kill me in a heartbeat if he could. My only regret was not doing it earlier." He sighed. "Good people died because of him."

"Wow… Makes me take my dad for granted."

"All of this has a moral. Umbrella preys on the young, smart and gifted to mould into the means of an end. My father was all three, and since my mother died, he lost his paternal emotions."

"What happened to your mom?"

Zaac waved his hand, still smiling. Peaceful. "Dead. Let's leave it at that."

"Sure." Sam smiled. "Whatever you say."

Zaac gave Sam a thumbs-up, but before he went to sit down on the bed, he suddenly whipped his head around, as if he heard something the girls didn't. He walked to the same window as earlier, only he was peeking through it and not simply standing there. It was getting weird with him pacing back to it.

"What's up with you, Zaac?"

"I think there's something out there..."

Alex shrugged. "I can't hear anything."

At this point, Zaac pressed his face against the glass window. "It might be the sounds of a helicopter's rotors I'm hearing." He held himself from the window and nodded." It's getting closer."

"Patryk..."

"He's here." Alex smiled. "Now we can go home."

The sounds of rotors outside got louder as the source got closer and closer. The girls could hear it now and got excited that their guardian was coming for them. Zaac seemed a bit anxious as a bright light shined through the windows outside. The girls got up from the bed and joined Zaac at the window, expecting a rescue any time soon. Only when the helicopter got closer, Zaac saw something strange on the hull and wings. Weapons. Lots of weapons.

"That's not a WOOHP helicopter..."

The helicopter moved a few meters further away and stayed still to aim a floodlight at the building and windows. The windows were tinted enough to neutralise the brightness completely. Zaac heard something metallic spinning up. A minigun.

"Get down!"

Sam, Clover and Alex hit the deck behind Zaac, covering their heads for whatever reason. They trusted him as he did in turn. Bullets sprayed and tore apart the building, ripping through the walls, windows and the furniture. Dust and debris kicked up as the wall behind Zaac got peppered.

Zaac unsheathed Sally and stretched out his left arm, forming a red mist from his open palm. The bullets ricocheted and ripped apart anything they came into contact with, the girls were safe down low, but at this rate, Zaac's entire midsection would be torn asunder. The mist grew very slowly, not covering much at all.

Zaac stood firm while the minigun sprayed over to him, and when it did, the mist grew as his strange ability absorbed hundreds of live rounds, suspending them in mid-air. From the top of his head to his knees, he held the bullets in place. He hardly flinched, not to the helicopter or the recoil.

The minigun tore the windows and the front wall a fresh hole that ran from one side to another. Zaac saw the pilot and the pilot saw him and the girls cowering behind him. The bullets ceased just after they tore through the fridge and computer; the pilot retreated a bit more for some extra range.

Zaac closed his hand and let all the bullets he accumulated drop to his feet. They ringed loudly, littering the floor. Zaac stretched out his sword arm and challenged the pilot.

Something whistled at a blistering speed into the room, Zaac darted to the right and swung Sally. You could blink and miss it. It was a missile, cut in half, separating the lethal warhead to the body. Zaac twirled his sword and stood back in front of the girls.

"You'd best get your jetpacks and stand back! I need some space!"

Another missile shot into the room, but it struck Sally after a swift parry from Zaac. It exploded, cracking the ceiling above and kicking up some dust that obscured the girls' vision, making it harder to find their jetpacks on the floor. Another barrage of missiles was blown away with Sally's counterattacks; the constant explosions were agonising on the eardrums.

The helicopter tilted down and fired another missile at the support beams. Six missiles all it took to shake up the building and slant it to forward. Two of the four metal beams below disconnected from Mount Everest with the other two struggling to keep the structure upright. One gave away and shifted the building to fall forward; the girls began to scream again while they all slid and fell out.

The girls threw on their jetpacks and fired them up as quickly as possible. Clover and Sam scattered and flew straight up to the left and to the right, soaring over the helicopter. Alex flew down to grab Zaac; she wrapped her arms around him and pulled straight up. The pilot couldn't keep track of all the moving targets and pulled up hard for some extra altitude.

With a small floodlight shining brightly at Clover, the pilot targeted her first. She felt she was at a huge disadvantage with a broken arm, but that didn't slow her down. When the pilot's minigun started to spin Clover immediately darted to her right at full speed to avoid the spray.

The large rounds growled and echoed in the air like constant thunder. Clover flew circles the pilot and dodged the bullets admirably but with some difficulty. The girls were putting on more strain on their jetpacks, Sam and Clover were flying quicker to avoid being shredded by the minigun, and Alex had to put up with Zaac's extra weight.

There were still some gadgets that never went out of style or practical usage. Sam had her laser lipstick tucked inside her jacket pocket. She needed to get the pilot's attention somehow to harass him with their superior numbers and speed. Not like she could take potshots with her handgun. Talk about shooting a bear with a BB gun.

Sam flew to the helicopter's tail boom and wrapped her arm around it. Clover was struggling to keep herself out of the pilot's sights with the terror-inducing sound of the minigun stressing her out and slowing her reaction time. Sam uses her laser lipstick to sever the tall rear rotor from the tail boom. The helicopter was armoured, but it never had the armour to resist a laser.

The helicopter's weight pulled back and started to lose altitude with the minigun spraying madly into the air above. Clover ceased moving to catch her breath and to watch the helicopter plummet down. The pilot tried to keep himself in the air, but it rammed into Everest from the constant twisting and turning.

The loss of the rear rotor was hell for the pilot. The helicopter groaned, jutting far off course and in the confusion the pilot fired off two rapid missiles that zipped between Sam and Clover. A distant explosion on the rocky mountains was audible behind them.

Alex descended into view with Zaac in her arms. They gathered above the struggling helicopter. Zaac had his large revolver equipped and ready to fire. "Hell of a day we're having here."

"Flying would be easier if my arm wasn't broken."

"He's coming back up!"

The helicopter ascended straight upwards, nose dipping down. It was tilted heavily on its side and flew up to meet the girls and Zaac to open fire. Zaac fired his revolver twice before the pilot revved up his helicopter's minigun. Something exploded in a glorious display of red gore from the cockpit, and then the whole thing turned upside down and began to drop.

The helicopter collided with the mountain, shredding the aircraft into scrap metal. It was satisfying to watch it tumble about, exploding into a dozen pieces. The girls took a well-earned breather and joined back up.

They considered staying near the building they waited in, but in confusion with the helicopter, the building they once rested in was destroyed. Time to use the girls' X-powder for another distress call as the location seemed to have changed again.

With nowhere to go, they grouped up at the crevice where Zaac's plane rested. It provided adequate shelter even despite it only being a quarter of what it used to be, but it kept them out of the cold. Though it was sat on the left side, it wasn't too hard to get comfortable.

Zaac wasn't wearing armour over his torso - that went down with the rest of the building; he was left bare. He stood over the girls and covered them with a thermal bed quilt he inexplicably took without them knowing. They sat in the corner with each other in their arms. Zaac kept watching.

Zaac tucked the girls with the blanket. "I guess we'll bunk here for the night if we have to." He climbed over the pilot seats behind him to sit down. "Since my plane's leftovers were fine sitting here for the last decade, I guess it will be suitable for a single night."

"I wish we didn't have cold air behind us." Alex sighed. She hinted to the smashed windows to the girls' right. They were non-existent and summoned the occasional rush of cold air from the ice outside. The quilt covered them well, but the cold air shivering down their spine made it hard to relax and fall asleep. "Aren't you cold Zaac?"

Zaac chuckled. "Are you really asking that to a guy who spent nine years in subzero temperature?"

"Pat should locate our distress call soon; they're all on so hopefully we won't be here long. Shame, we can't use our jetpacks anymore. We could've flew home by now."

"Only so much turbulence Jerry's jetpacks could take; all it takes for a single bullet to ruin 'em."

"How do you know Jerry?"

Zaac relaxed his legs and sat forward. He chewed his bottom lip. "He hired me back in 2000, I was out of a job since Raccoon's destruction. Once I got top marks, he had me work along with Patryk and Mozz; we were his finest team. It was fun until my third year."

"What happened?"

"I quit. There was this one mission I couldn't participate in, and... it got real ugly. We argued, and I just ended up quitting on the spot, all because Jerry wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Wow, and I thought we had it tough." Clover shrugged. "Didn't think walking out was an option."

Zaac smiled. "Certainly is when shit rolls downhill."

"Was it worth leaving over something as little as that?"

Zaac sighed. "Hard to say in the grand scheme of things…"

"Please try," Sam asked.

"Despite how small the argument was, it was still pretty big. I refused to participate during that mission due to personal health and… religious reasons and Jerry just refused to take it on the chin. Pat, bless him, tried to convince me to stay, but there was nothing more to add. The bickering went on so long I kinda accidentally attacked Jerry and Patryk on my way out."

Sam huffed and brushed her long hair back with some frustration. She wasn't enjoying the dark turn to Zaac's story. "How could that have happened?"

Zaac lost his smile." They both got in my way, and I got bored of waiting. They were both obstacles, so I just made an exit for myself and broke out; the collateral damage was not my problem. My time was precious, and they were wasting it, asking me to participate in a mission physically I couldn't do."

"Damn..."

"Unlike the two of them, I had a family to feed, and I refuse to have WOOHP 'reprogramme' me, the last thing I need is a behavioural modification chip stuffed into my brain. That's why I quit for good. That's why we're on bad terms. I was disobedient, and then the old man whipped out a chip with my name on it."

Clover reminisced on that day at the start of their career. The one day where they were fugitives. "Oh, boy, been there, done that."

"Why couldn't you talk it out? You're strong. Smart. Not to mention flexible." Zaac was blushing with Alex's flattering comments. "You probably eat danger for breakfast."

"I'm a family man; I only want a safer life. No more zombies. No more monsters. No more terrorism. Me, family and nothing but smooth sailing." Zaac perked up and got his smile back on an otherwise difficult subject.

"We were meant to investigate Umbrella activity in South America," he continued, "When I heard there was this particular virus involved, I just couldn't go along with it. I didn't want to bail out of the mission, but I had to. We argued. I broke out. That was the end of my career and that bad blood; never wanted to see them ever again."

"What changed?" Sam asked.

"Patryk, being the white knight, dared to suggest my younger brother take my place. He and Jerry recruited him behind my back, completely without my consent. That's when my mild disdain turned into literal hate, not for the company but for those two in particular."

"What about Mozz? How do you feel about him?"

"He's a fine man. He's close to Patryk and Jerry, so, for his safety, I choose to stay away from him entirely."

"It's a real shame you left. WOOHP is fantastic! They're like family." Alex sank into the thermal blanket some more. "I can still remember all the highlights."

Clover looked at Alex. "Yeah? Like what?"

"Our promotion for one thing. And the time we first met."

"Hard to believe three besties like us met by Jerry's hand. Almost like we were separated at birth."

Alex chuckled. "Those are the best ones I can remember."

Zaac frowned. "Hmmm… Jerry hired me when he heard of my rap sheet from Raccoon City, and that was it. I probably got the short end of the stick at the end of the day, but that's no excuse to be an asshole and put my brother's health at risk."

"You could still come back if you want to. We could-"

"That won't be necessary; my days as a WHOOP agent is over. I'm all about moving forward."

Say, have you ever been woohped?"

"What the hell's that?"

Sam looked at Clover and nodded. "Guess that's another thing we took for granted."

Clover wriggled her hand like she was tipping some scales. "Ehhhh… Maybe. This is a nice bit of R&R, don't get me wrong, but what time is it?"

"Nearly five-thirty in the morning," said Zaac without even looking for a watch or a clock.

"Wonderful. With all adrenaline we stirred up earlier, I don't think we'll ever get to sleep."

A draught of cold air brushed up Alex's spine, and she instantly shuddered. "Especially with this cold." She Sam and Clover wriggled and shuffled their bodies to get some friction going. They felt warmer. "Much better."

"You three try to stay warm; I'll go topside and keep an eye out for Pat."

Zaac looked up out of the plane's wreckage with a little sigh. He had quite a bit of climbing to reach the surface; small icy ledges left and right and the wall here and there. The ice was cold to the touch and had some sharpness behind it. With his bare hands and chest, he started to scale and pull his weight up out of the wreck.

Climbing the narrow crevice wasn't easy; it was like a mountain on all sides. Only colder and sharper. One ledge Zaac held onto crumbled under the faintest grasp, a quick adjustment of his left hand kept him from falling. His palm bled down his arm from the strain under his weight.

Zaac threw his body to the opposite side and latched onto the ice with a better grip. Then he leapt back again to the other side at a higher angle. He was a few meters from the surface now, only two or three arm lengths to go. Another blanket that covered the crevice was so close.

A man in a black suit and tie stood over the crevice with a Makarov handgun raised to Zaac's face. The flashlight attached shined in his eyes. Late-thirties, short black hair and shaved face. He put away his gun and smiled, reaching out to Zaac. When he squatted, he was even more handsome up close.

Ебена мать! I couldn't believe it if I saw you with my own eyes, Zaac. You are alive!" he said in a lush Russian accent, soft and sweet like velvet.

"Aren't I always?"

"You're a sight for sore eyes, my comrade." Patryk took Zaac's hand and pulled him out of the crevice. "There any young girls down there?" He smiled. "A blonde, a brunette, a redhead perhaps?"

"Sam, Clover and Alex?" Zaac leant a little with his hand on his hip. "WOOHP spies by any chance?"

"That's right. My favourite superspies."

Zaac folded his arms, unimpressed. "Distress signal brought you here?"

"Hard to miss this early in the morning."

Zaac looked over Patryk's shoulder. He was alone under the light from the crack of dawn. A jet, however, seemingly levitated in mid-air some distance above Patryk. It was jet black and didn't make a sound. It was a wide fixed-wing helicopter used for personnel transport, one that could change into a jet at the flip of a switch. Interchangeable. No weapons were on it.

"The girls are in this crevice. I kept them out of the cold best I could."

"As guardian of WOOHP, I personally thank you, Zaac. Did I miss anything special?"

"A Neo-Umbrella helicopter tried to take us out, trashed the building, but we're fine. We were able to kill the pilot and the one who shot the girls down."

Patryk chuckled. "I was wondering where the building was." He noticed Zaac's bare chest with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you cold?"

Zaac shrugged. "I've been out here for a long time Pat..."

"So the response to being surrounded by beautiful young women was to take your shirt off? My my, your womanising ways are just-"

Zaac snorted. "Fuck off, Pat, it's been a long day."

Patryk took out his wallet and flipped it open. It was more phone than a wallet; the monitor showed another man his age. One with darker skin and thicker hair. Iranian and not Russian. "Mozzie, bring down a rope ladder for our old friend."

"No surprise he's here too."

"Zaac's alive? Who knew?" Mozz looked off the screen to press a few buttons. A rope ladder flew out of the bottom of the jet and uncoiled at Zaac's feet.

"Make yourself a home; I'll get the girls. Be sure to put a shirt on or something. You're kinda making me… self-conscious."

"Whatever." Zaac frowned. He took hold of the thick ladder and started to climb.

"Zaac!" Patryk called. Zaac didn't look him in the eye; he just stopped climbing to hear him. "I'm glad you're alive! Things truly aren't the same without you."

Zaac turned around and gave Patryk the middle finger; then, he continued to climb. Patryk laughed it off, but Zaac was serious; he threw away a career because of people like that Russian dog. He looked down infrequently and saw Pat using his bungee belt to lower himself into the crevice and out of sight. Gadgets sure had their uses, even if they were gimmicky. Zaac preferred lethal weapons.

The jet was spacious inside. The cockpit had no door; there were two couches behind him on the left and right with some overhead and lower compartments - probably used for supplying gadgets of sorts. Mozz flipped on autopilot and made his way to Zaac to shake his hand.

"It's good to see you, my friend."

"Mozz."

Mozz let go of Zaac's hand and adjusted his glasses. "I was honestly surprised when Patryk called me this late to tell me the girls were in danger." He folded his arms. "Never mentioned you were tagging along."

Zaac smiled. "It's been a while Mozz. It's nice to have the gang back together; shame Pat's here too."

"Don't you miss those days, Zaac? The missions? The gadgets? Not to mention the women?"

Zaac sighed. "Now and then…" Time to be dead serious here. "The excitement sure as hell was extraordinary, but I'm just not a fan of espionage anymore. To protect and serve, not to hide and spy. The perks were great at the time; I'll give you that."

"Could've made your point without hurting Jerry. He is an old man, you know."

"What can I say?" Zaac shrugged. "Jerry threatened me by trying to wipe my memory, and Patryk got in the way. I'm glad you stayed out of it."

"After everything we all been through, you still barely tolerate WOOHP, yet you like me..."

"I owe all three of you a favour for what you did for me." Zaac folded his arms. "But Pat and Jerry sullied that the moment I heard about Xander. I admit after cooling off; Jerry wasn't a bad man but… Alex… he never recovered. That pisses me off."

Mozz frowned. "That was a horrible mission… I'm sorry what happened to him."

"I will always appreciate WOOHP's help when it comes to terrorism, even so, when it comes to Neo-Umbrella, but I will never forgive those two for what they did behind my back. At least we can all be glad that Wesker's dead."

"Yeah… good job on that!" Mozz smiled genuinely." I trust it was hard for you, and I'm sorry."

"My only regret was letting him get away in Africa; it was a real mess after the mission. Beign away from the family was the worst part."

Mozz lightly punched Zaac's shoulder with admiration and stepped into the cockpit. "You shouldn't worry about that; we'll get back to Beverly soon." He sat down in the copilot chair and adjusted his glasses again to focus on the monitor in front of him better. "Wesker had to be put down for the sake of mankind everywhere."

"As much as it pains me to say it, I never got to properly thank Jerry for his help in tracking Wesker the last few times. It's always a welcomed opportunity to face that bastard again. Shame I couldn't bring him to justice."

"Least the death toll wasn't too high. Necessary losses, unfortunately."

"I wish the price weren't that terrible on me." Zaac sighed. He sat down on the couch behind him. It was pink, and he noticed it in the corner of his eye. "Real men wear pink. Right?"

"Nothing but."

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. In that case, it was a few billion. What happened to Tricell after the incident?"

Mozz turned around in his chair. It was able to rotate, that was a nice touch. "Bankrupt. Tricell was used as a scapegoat for the whole world-ending fiasco and, well, that's all history now."

"Good. They'd best stay bankrupt. Has there been any other incidents while I was gone?"

Mozz leant back in his chair, made a finger pyramid and thought decisively. "A few here and there… Firstly 2011, a distant relative of yours created another strain of Uroboros, to which lead to another outbreak. Let's see here..." He rubbed his chin.

"Who was the perpetrator?"

"Wesker's sister… Alexandria."

Zaac wasn't sure how to think; he knew all about Project W and the Wesker Children in 2006. Alex was a bit older than Albert and also, like him, a survivor of the project. "I met her once in my life; I definitely saw the resemblance back then, and I'm sure as hell not surprised she's just as twisted."

"When did you meet her?"

"I was there when Spencer told Wesker all about Project W. It's a pity I never knew any of my aunts or uncles, though. At least their sad story is over, with Alex's death 'n' all. I only met her once. How tragic."

Mozz flared his eyebrows. "Well, in any case, Alexandria Wesker was killed by Claire during the same year."

"Oh, goodness." Zaac frowned. "The aunt I barely knew, killed by my wife… Shit. Christmas is gonna get a little... empty."

"She was just as ambitious and maniacal as Wesker; good thing she's dead too."

"I expected as much." Zaac sighed. "Great, now it's up to my brothers and I to restore the family name, now that the bad blood is all gone. Anything else?"

"In 2013, there were these bioterrorist attacks in China and the United States. President Benford was killed in the conflict, and the world was at risk of infection, again. WOOHP and the B.S.A.A. were able to cure the infected population after the ordeal. It was a team effort, with the help from the National Security and the Secret Service."

"Anything I should know about?"

"The head of the Family, Derek Simmons, was lost in the conflict; that was a long time coming."

Zaac shook his head. "I hated that posh twat."

"The Family moved on and haven't been heard from since. I theorise that Neo-Umbrella's power is suffocating all other corrupt companies, keeping competitors at bay."

"Is that all?"

"Someone else you should know about is a Mr Jake Muller. He's Albert Wesker's son."

Zaac didn't respond and sat forward until he found his voice. "An illegitimate son?" His eyes rolled down, and he seemed disappointed. "I… honestly had no idea. I suppose it was after mother passed and Wesker was… Must've been in the early nineties when he went away for the weekends."

"It needed to be said; you missed out on a lot of things."

Zaac leant back. "My day can't get any worse, so you might as well tell me more."

"Last year, an experimental mind control fungus lost control and started infecting a small populace in Louisiana. Thanks to the Connections, this Mold was more than capable of spreading like wildfire. Acted under one mindset, like a hive of sorts."

"That's only the second-worst viral cancer I've ever heard. Was it contained?"

"Blue Umbrella destroyed E-001, cured the infected and put a stop to the Connections' research. For how long, we don't know, but they're gone for the moment. Hopefully, they won't try something like that again, well, not with you back in the picture."

"How sweet of people to hold me in such high regard." Zaac shrugged his shoulders. "And I thought Blue Umbrella would just be a niche company, didn't think they'd be trusted."

"They have their own military and research teams. They're fighting on our side."

"For now they fight on our side..." Zaac corrected. "Is that everything?"

"Appears so."

"Thank you for bringing me up to speed with all this, Mozz. Looks like there's still a lot of work to be done."

"I'll send you all the reports you need, just to keep up to date."

Zaac nodded, not saying anything.