A/N1: I need to apologize, the second chapter had too many errors (my favorite one was the -buthen- typo XD). Also I found a caring soul who has been helping me correct and improve the history, so this chapter is better. Thanks Lifesaver ;)

A/N2: Thanks for the comments, favorites and all that jazz :3

Disclaimer: Same as chap1

3. Kingdom Of Tyrants

Since the incident on outskirts of Zurich they have not exchanged many words. Claire driving, Alice looking out of the window lost in thought. There was a long awkward silence until Claire spoke out.

"Just so you know, if you're gonna burn me on the money, you might as well kill me now."

Alice looks over, arching both eyebrows.

"I was supposed to have this car back three days ago. It's not my car, I mean, it is my car, but not any longer legally, I mean"

"I know that"

Claire looks at her with surprise, looking away from the road for a moment.

"What?"

"I said I..."

"I know what you just said. It's just that how in the hell…"

"Redfield! Look forward!"

Claire looks back at the road just in time to avoid an oncoming truck."Shit"

"Is that a favorite word of yours?" Alice smirked at her.

"Can I tell you how much you're freaking me out? Okay? Because you are! You're completely freaking me out."

"I'm sorry…"

"How do you even know my last name?"

"I heard you in the bank, when you were talking to the cashier, sorry. I didn't mean to listen; it's just that you were talking really loud."

Now Claire's face was taking on the same hue as her red hair.

"Well, yes."

"I'm sorry. Really. What do you want me to do? I mean, to stop freaking you out"

"I don't know. Smile. Sneeze. Something. You've got a bag full of money and want a ride to Paris. Fuck it, I don't know..."

There's the awkward silence again. Claire is thinking.

"What kind of music do you like?" It's a weird question but it'll do.

"I don't know" Alice says.

"You don't know?"

"Listen to what you want."

This woman was really putting Claire on edge; she was starting to get impatient again.

"Who pays twenty thousand dollars for a ride to Paris?" The words came out of nowhere.

"I don't know. I don't know who I am."

"Kind of cliché, isn't it?"

"No. No, I mean, I really don't know who I am. I can't remember anything before two weeks ago."

Claire's face told her she wasn't buying it.

"I'm serious."

"What do you mean? Like amnesia?"

"Look, go ahead, put the radio on"

Alice was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Knowing that the woman next to her was afraid of her wasn't helping. She didn't think it would be good to tell her about her problem. The redhead could throw her out of the car at any time.

"Amnesia? You're saying you REALLY don't remember anything that happened before two weeks ago?" Claire was incredulous.

"That's what I'm saying"

"Give me a fucking break" She says in German. "I need a smoke".

Claire pulled off the road, removed her seat belt and got out leaving a confused Alice behind.

"Do you even know your name?" Claire asked as she lit her cigarette.

"I'm Alice. Alice Abernathy" She said as she got out of the car. "That's all I know"

"Incredible" The redhead said, the cigarette dangling from her right hand. "Want a smoke?"

Alice nods; she takes the cigarette from Claire's fingers, and inhales. The nicotine hit her lungs and she starts to cough, then choke, she's choking.

"I….I… Jesus I think I don't smoke" She tries desperately to recover herself while feeling silly.

"Yeah, I can see that"

Claire is laughing, watching as the other woman attempts to compose herself. It is an infectious laugh, and soon the blonde begins to laugh with her. When the laughter dies down, they look at each other.

"I'm Claire by the way"

They smile at each other.

"Nice to formally meet you, Claire Redfield"

They share another smile before Alice frowns.

"I… I'm hungry."

Claire just rolls her eyes before getting into the drivers seat again.

Umbrella Communications desk. Zurich.

Claire's face, her passport photo, is on the big screen. Spencer is behind his desk, Birkin is staring grimly at the picture of the redhead.

"So who is she?"

Birkin begins to open a folder, looking into its contents, scanning.

"Claire Helene Redfield. She's twenty-two. Born in California. Moved to Zurich when she was 11, uhm let me see…her father was a welder, died in 88, no info about the mother. She was living with her grandfather, who died two weeks ago. She works at her grandfather workshop, she's a mechanic."

"No political affiliations?"

"None found"

"Jail?"

"No."

"Keep reading."

"Her brother's name is Chris Redfield, uhm currently living in… Oh Christ."

Birkin can't believe what he's reading. He lifted his gaze from the folder, looking terrified.

"What's wrong?"

"Her brother, Chris Redfield, he's currently working at the S.T.A.R.S division ... at Raccoon City."

Both men look at each other with concern.

"Do you think they are trying to bring the corporation down?"

"It's impossible, nobody knows about this Raccoon City event"

"Still…"

"What? It's impossible that this woman has had contact with her brother meanwhile the city's being destroyed by those monsters. A technician would have noticed it, all networks are being monitored"

"Spencer, you have to agree with me this time. This thing is getting out of hand! Wesker is too busy doing… whatever stupid secret with the T-Virus… the rest of the board is too scared of him to even leave the complex, it´s impossible contact the Top Head and all the company forces are being used to contain this ridiculous accident in The Hive."

"What's your point?" Spencer is now paying attention.

"My point here is that we are not giving enough attention to this woman and her "new" friend, we don't know what she's trying to do, but it seems to me that she's trying to rock our ship, she knows too much. I won't feel calm until we've got this Project One under our command."

Spencer is thinking, he's tired, Birkin can see this; he's wondering how long the other man has been working without touching a bed.

"Call Hunk" Spencer says.

Birkin is pleased, a smirk is beginning to widen on his lips.

"Call Hunk and send both pictures"

The smirk fades.

"Wait, I never said that… We can´t just eliminate this Project because it's damaged."

"You said this is getting out of hand, and with that I agree, but this Project has given me enough trouble and I want it to be eliminated."

"We should talk with Wesker first"

"No, I will not discuss this."

Its night, they have parked in a small restaurant on the way. Both are sitting at a table near the door, avoiding closeness with other tables and the people at the bar. Alice has the red bag on the table, after they order some food she stars to show its contents to the redhead. Claire is looking at her incredulously, her whole attention on Alice.

"So you have no idea? Not a clue what came before that?" Claire is looking at her sadly.

"No." It came out as a whisper.

"When you think of it, before the ship, what do you see?"

"Just fragments of memories, nothing coherent, I kept trying things; I thought if I could find all the things I could do, I could put it all together"

"But it's not working?" She asks but it sounds more like a statement.

"No, I mean a bit… I was ok for a while with it but now… this is confusing"

"What you mean?"

Alice is not sure if it's a good idea to tell the redhead about her skills. She's hesitating.

"Hey I won't run away. At this point, you should be able to trust me." Claire is smiling at her. "I mean look at me! I'm the one who trusted you from the beginning with, giving you a ride and stuff"

Alice knows she's right.

"I was ok for a while, but then, there are all these other things I know how to do I think something happened to me, when they found me, in the water, I'd been shot twice."

"Ok, so you're a victim?"

"I don't think so." Alice was completely serious now. "There was a gun at my box in the bank, and all this money and passports. I fought my way out the bank; I know how to handle a gun."

"People can do amazing things when they're scared."

"I was not scared."

"So what you're saying is that…?"

"I come in here, instinctively the first thing I do is look for the exits. I can tell you the license plate numbers of all three cars out front. I can tell you that the waitress is left-handed and the guy at the counter weighs two-hundred and fifteen pounds and knows how to handle himself."

Claire is paying attention to everything the blonde is saying.

"I know that the best place to look for a gun is the cab of that grey truck outside. I know that at this altitude I can run flat out for half a mile before I lose my edge. I knew that you were my first, best option out of Zurich. How do I know all that? How can I know all that and not know who I am? How is that possible?"

At that moment the waitress came over with the food, however, neither of the women paid any attention to her. Claire was watching Alice carefully, thinking.

"God." She let out a long sigh "You're really not kidding, are you?"

A Street in Rome.

An English man is walking with broad strides down a busy sidewalk, ignoring his surroundings. This man is known by the name of Hunk, just like that. He's thirty-five, slender, clean-cut and easy to miss. His phone starts pulsing, without stopping he pulls it out of his pocket.

Two photos, two targets, easy money.

He puts his phone back into his pocket. Now he's heading to the street, looking for a cab. He's got a job and it should be done in less than 48 hours.

CLAIRE POV

The two women are still sitting at the table in the small restaurant. Claire has finished eating; her companion however is now eating her second order of fries.

"You weren't kidding when you said you were hungry, right?" Claire asks with a smirk and Alice just nods, gulping the fries down.

Claire is looking around, she's not analyzing every detail as the blonde did, but she's trying to recognize the most important things, just to be safe, something her brother, Chris, had taught her from an early age.

Her attention is captured by the television screen just a few meters away from their table; a brunette in her 30s is giving the latest news. Claire pays attention, sharpening her ears to catch the audio of the device.

"On the international news, the bizarre killings in the small town of Raccoon City, USA have spread to the edges of the city, the number of victims found around the city have been increasing by the hour since the…

Jesus, Claire thinks.

"... the police have not managed to find the person or persons responsible but our source says they believe it to be the work of a serial killer. We can only wonder at the mental state of any involved. We're joined now, live from the Raven Bridge. Tony can you hear me?..."

The screen changes, now instead of watching the brunette, Claire can see a big man with a dense mustache; his name is Barry Burton as identified in the telecasts.

"The killings started this morning, we found the bodies of a few campers who were vacationing near the forest, both completely shattered, at first we thought it was due to the bears that abound around the forest, however a specialist reported that the bite marks were not animals, but human ..."

What the hell?.Claire is now looking around for a volume control.

"What do you mean by human bites?" The man holding the microphone is now visible on the screen of television.

"Well, apparently we are facing a case of cannibalism my friend." Barry Burton continues, shrugging his large shoulders. "After we found these bodies in the woods we got a call that another body with the same conditions had been found next to a gasoline transport truck on the outskirts of the forest. We were trying to focus on one area when another call reached the base, a man with torn clothes and blood on his jaw was seen by the edge of the forest, but he disappeared a few meters away. We've sent a special team to investigate the forest; however as of three hours ago, we've lost communication with them"

"Will you send another team to investigate?" The reporter asked.

"Negative, the team we sent is the fittest and best prepared for this type of case, chances are the problem is a communication failure, nothing serious. The S.T.A.R.S. team .. "

Claire gasps.

"What is it?" Alice has looked up from her plate of food.

"Look ..." is all that Claire manages to say. Both watch the television. A pale-skinned blond man can be seen on the screen.

"The Umbrella Corporation has sent a containment team to help decipher what is happening and to support the Raccoon City Police Department as the chaos in the streets by the citizens is quite alarming, we are joined now with Major Cain, a senior operative of the Umbrella Corporation, who will explain a little of what is happening..."

"What's the problem? Alice says.

"That thing is happening in Raccoon City. My brother works there, he is part of a special team of police, the S.T.A.R.S, that cop just said that my brother's unit was sent to investigate those murders in the forest but they've lost contact with them"

Claire's worry is tempered by the fact that she knows her brother can take care of himself very well, yet she cannot help feeling scared, Chris is tough, but with these cases she always thinks the worst.

"The Umbrella Corporation is committed to keep Raccoon's citizens safe from this situation, but we don't believe that the actions that have been taken by some of the citizens are in anybody's best interest, people must be calm, there's no need to panic…"

The camera focuses on a business being torn apart by frenzied mob, a market being destroyed by people screaming; pulling food cans out in panic.

"Whatever is going on, whatever needs to be done, we will find the solution and people can be at peace in a few hours ..."

"Ugh ..." Claire can't stand to look at the stupid Umbrella man.

Alice looked over."What?"

"Umbrella Corporation, I just don't trust them"

"Who are they?"

Claire looks at her blankly.

"Umbrella Corp? Are you ser….? Oh right, amnesia, I just forget for a moment that you remember nothing….uhm Umbrella is a huge international company that sells medical stuff, pharmaceutical merchandise and well cosmetics; you know things like that. But I don't know, they've always given me a bad feeling, as if they are concealing something bigger. It's just that Umbrella people always have this air of superiority, like they know better, you know? I'm not the only one who believes this though. A few months ago there was a strike at one of its facilities, the crowd went crazy."

"I don't know why, but this Umbrella Corp sounds familiar to me"

"Well it has to be, I mean it's a really big deal, everybody knows they exist"

Alice looks disappointed.

Shit. Claire thinks. She sounded like a bitch.

"Or…maybe your memory is coming back, maybe things like hearing about Umbrella trigger something in your mind" She's trying to cheer her up. "It'll come around in time, I'm sure." Claire smiles.

"I hope so." She's not completely sure and Claire can see it in her eyes. "Thanks."

They look at each other smiling. Claire finds herself staring at the other woman for longer than necessary. Her smile, and the way her eyes sparkle when she's smiling is very attractive to her. She's so attracted to her.

She truly is beautiful. Really beautiful.

I'm starring at her, stop it, stop it, stop it! Stop It!

Alice raises an eyebrow suggestively, smirking and Claire looks away mortified.

Jesus she's hot…

"So, a pharmaceutical company that has a military unit?" Alice asked, trying to dissipate the awkwardness. "It's a bit strange, isn't it?" She asked.

Claire breathes an internal sigh of relief, thanking all the Gods. "Exactly… supposedly one of the reasons is because they have shares in several companies of different natures, security, that kind of thing, but if you ask me, that sounds like bullshit."

Alice snorts. "I'm full; we should get back on the road"

Claire just nods; she's starting to get up when a hand stops her.

"Don't worry about your brother. We'll find a way to get in contact with him once we get to Paris, ok?"

Claire can't help but smile broadly, trying to ignore the feeling she gets from the the touch of the blonde.

Hunk has reached his destination, a warehouse located on the outskirts of a speakeasy, where no one dares to look and few come close.

He gets off his bike and pulls out some keys; he turns to a gate and quickly eases it open.

It's an elevator, everything is dark but he knows where he's going. Leaving the lights out, he reaches and hits the up button. The elevator begins to slowly ascend.

Umbrella headquarters conference room. Zurich

Wesker walks patiently around the circular table at which six men are sitting, waiting.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" The man speaking is Spencer.

"The orders by the Head were clear; we do not intrude into the matter"

"But the cause of the spread was our fault!" Birkin is speaking. "Don't you think we should try to and contain the problem?"

"We cannot ignore the orders that have been sent from above Birkin." Wesker speaks slowly and precisely. The calm that he offers to his peers only serves to increase their agitation.

"There is nothing we can do now, we must simply wait."

"Wait?" Nivans is sweating and trembling, almost out of his mind "Wait? Wait for the infected to come to Europe? Wait to die like those people in The Hive? My God, what's wrong with you people? I just can't…."

The man is getting up from his chair, breathing heavily, almost in tears. The others are looking at him with caution, but Wesker remains calm.

"There must be some way to change this, we must ..."

The shot rang out across the room.

No one hears what Nivans think should be done; his body falls lifeless to the ground. Wesker is holding his gun up.

"Is there someone else who wants to discuss the issue?" His voice is cold, and may even contain a hint of amusement. "Good." He holsters his weapon.

"Dr. Isaacs is already working on creating an anti-virus serum" He continues talking like nothing happened. "This will take time, so the best thing we can do, is to stay out of this… issue. Everything that happens from now on with the virus around the globe is no longer our business. Our priority now is to keep the important people in the corporation alive and underground."

Everyone is silent, two men enter the room, holding the body of Nivans by the arms and dragging it out.

"What about Project One?" Birkin questions getting a look of disgust from Spencer.

"The Project One is an important asset for the company, change the instructions you sent earlier to Hunk, the girl can be eliminated, however I want our B.O.W alive."

"This… thing… woman… she's dangerous, she should be eliminated" Spencer is trying to stay calm.

"I beg to differ" Birkin is joining the argument. "Yes, she's dangerous and yes she's hiding something important under that facade of innocent girl, human…. whatever… she may be even working against the corporation but if so we will find out when we have her on our hands"

Spencer is pissed.

"Change Hunks orders" Wesker is talking to Birkin now, ignoring an angry Spencer. "Tell him to bring her as soon as possible be sure he doesn't miss her and Spencer ... That's an order.

Hunk's Storage Unit.

Hunk is moving fast, closing the door behind him, moving to a pile of books and taking the top book off, he opens it.

Inside the book there is a timer with a small bomb connected to it, a booby-trap. An L.E.D light stops flashing as he code in his password. He's moving to the corner, pulling away a pile of newspapers, hidden there, is a metal lock box.

Hunk takes off his watch, wallet, empties his pockets and places all of it into the empty tray on top of the box. He lifts the tray up, setting it aside revealing a much larger bottom compartment. Hunk pulls out stacks of money, a handgun, a dozen clips of ammo and a passport.

Suddenly his cell phone starts to vibrate again, the orders have been changed, there is now a single target and an extraction. For this he'll need more advanced equipment. Quickly he locks his belongings and heads for the exit, before continuing with this mission he must make a stop at the Umbrella facility.

ALICE POV

It's a beautiful sunny morning; Claire's Mustang is parked at the side of the road. Inside Alice is sitting in the passenger's seat, fully asleep. Nestled there.

Suddenly she violently wakes up, she's frightened at first and she's trying to adapt to her surroundings. First thing she looks for is her red bag; she sees it at her feet. Now she's looking around, looking for her companion, she begins to panic again.

"Claire?" Her voice has a tone of fear.

Damn! Where is she?

"Hey!" Suddenly the redhead's face appears at the window of the driver's side. Claire is smiling. She's got a sandwich, a soda and she's smoking from fresh pack of cigarretes. Same clothes, but her make-up's been washed away. She looks clean. Simple. Gorgeous.

Alice let out the breath that she was apparently holding, bringing her pulse back to normal. She's closed her eyes.

"Where were you? You scared me." The words come out harsher than she intended.

Claire is looking puzzled.

"Uhm ... I needed a break."

Right. Stupid Alice, the poor girl has been driving all night and now you're bitching because she needed some rest. Stupid, stupid.

She steps out.

"Where are we?" She says with a yawn.

"We're about an hour away" Claire snaps, has a bit of resentment.

"Look, I'm sorry, I was scared; I thought something bad had happened to you. I can't believe I fell asleep."

"It's ok, you were tired. Here." Claire reaches into a paper bag, inside is another sandwich and a soda. "For twenty-thousand I like to throw in breakfast. So what do you dream about? "

Alice opens the bag and begins to eat her breakfast.

"Why do you ask?" She says.

"Uhm ... you were moaning a little, I thought it best not to wake you up..."

Moaning? What the…?

"I dream that I'm asleep. I dream that I'm asleep and I can't wake up." Another silence. Claire's watching her. "That doesn't even make sense, does it?"

Claire smiles at her."Not really, no"

Alice smiles a little. "No, I guess not."

"Do you ever think maybe you have a family?"

Alice is looking to the horizon, not sure how to answer.

"I thought about it. I don't know."

Claire looks away. Wondering what she was hoping for.

"We should return to the road, I've rested enough and want to get to Paris as quickly as possible, I tried to find news about what is happening in Raccoon but nothing new so far"

Umbrella's Langley facility

A blond man with glasses is walking down a corridor. His face shows no sign of emotion; however, the man is concerned.

He enters a dark office, and goes to a desk. From one of the drawers he pulls out a pair of sheets and a ballpoint. He sits at the table, staring at the blank pages for a minute then he begins to write:

My name is Albert Wesker

I aspired to be one of the principal investigators of the Umbrella corporation; a major international player in pharmaceutical goods and medical supplies along with the more clandestine operations that utilized genetic engineering and secret research of bio-organic weapons known as B.O.W. After World War II, a scientist, by the name of Charles Ashford developed a unique virus, the T-Virus, a compound capable of binding toward cells to prevent aging and improve cellular regeneration.

Umbrella was planning to create the perfect soldier. In 1997 I became the leader of the UBCS unit, an Umbrella subsidiary, a private military company with a highly trained security force capable of rescue and reconnaissance paramilitary operations and top-secret situations.

On April 9, 2001, Dr. Ashford managed to combine the T-Virus in a human host without creating alterations or mutations in its structure. He called it Project One. He had tried to create such unions in the past, but all projects had failed, the T-Virus was so strong it created massive mutations on the host and they all became, different. There was however, an accident. It occurred in one of the laboratories containing the virus. An intruder sneaked inside the complex, causing an alert on the defense system of the facility. The way in which the accident occurred is unknown, we only know that as the intruder tried to escape he was stopped by the internal defense system, an artificial intelligence known as The Red Queen. The virus he was trying to steal suffered complications inside its structural code and passed from liquid to gas within seconds, infecting all base personnel. The Red Queen took drastic and lethal measures that day, to prevent the spread of the infection. A group of survivors managed to leave the place in a cargo plane, along with a dazed Project One. The plane disappeared and was never recovered.

On April 17, the bizarre murders began occurring in the forest of Raccoon City, near to the Arklay Mountains, where the Mansion and The Hive synthesized and used the virus. The mansion was Umbrella's secret lab, and clearly the T-virus was the cause. The city police sent its expert group, the S.T.A.R.S, to investigate. Initially, Umbrella instructed me to keep away from the group and not interfere, in order to allow us to obtain a comprehensive portrait of the BOW's combat abilities against the highly trained S.T.A.R.S, but everything spiraled out of control, so I sent a UBCS group to the scene. They too failed to contain the infection.

Soon the T-virus spread, thanks to rats throughout Raccoon City, and Umbrella USA had to face the situation. The good citizens died, but due to the regenerative nature of the virus, their bodies were reanimated, void of though and emotion. Their one objective: to feed. People were not match against those creatures. In the chaos, Umbrella put Major Cain in charge, a man quite stupid and ignorant that did not comply with the directions, the order given was simple, nothing comes out of Raccoon, however a group of survivors were trying to escape.

From the highest echelons of the corporation, Umbrella Europe sent a new type of B.O.W, called "The Nemesis". Nemesis's job was to pursue and eliminate the S.T.A.R.S officer Jill Valentine and the other survivors that were trying to flee with her. This would give our organization more data on the fight capabilities of the Nemesis. When Nemesis was destroyed by Jill Valentine, Major Cain chose the easier exit, sending a bomb that killed not only most of the walking infected, but more than a quarter of the staff of the corporation, stupid man. Now, the virus continues to expand around America, soon it'll invade the other side of the world.