"Aside from his communication with the Board, I would believe it is because the Las Vegas facility, where he was last reported to have been located, was destroyed by Issacs before you and the Summers siblings came and killed him." the White Queen turned to Ryan with her last comment. Alice gave Ryan a small glance at the name Summers. So THAT was his last name!
"So my question is how he even got into Sanctuary? Wouldn't Michelle have found out about him? She seems to personally oversee all entry checks for people that enter." Ryan hypothesized, and Alice turned to him with a frown.
Repeating his theory to the White Queen, Alice thought about it herself. The entry logs only place him inside the facility within the past week at most, but they destroyed the Las Vegas facility almost a month ago. Wesker was a high ranking executive, so he MUST have been transported to one of the other major research facilities in the country; Dallas, Seattle, Washington DC, Detroit, New York...
"I am unfamiliar with this so called 'Sanctuary' but I can conclude it has something to do with the area above this facility, which lacks any surface defences or sensors." The White Queen concluded.
"Sanctuary is a walled city that was built above this facility. It's possible that the tunnel they discovered was one that he made, right?" Alice turned to Ryan, who nodded before he turned to the elevator again and pried the entire panel off the wall. He then began to poke around inside, working on bypassing the lockdown to open the elevator so they could continue deeper inside.
"Well, once Ryan has bypassed the lockdown, I will be able to offer greater assistance to you. In the meantime, I have made a descision that requires your input, if you wouldn't mind." The White Queen explained as Ryan unplugged a few wires and rearranged them.
"What kind of descision?" Alice narrowed her eyes suspiciously. The last time she trusted an AI, she was almost killed and her entire life was thrown off a cliff and dropped right into Hell itself.
"I am considering disconnecting myself from the Umbrella Corporation's servers, networks and becoming an independant facility here, and I was wondering if you would approve? I have never considered going rogue before, and wanted to make it official by you or Ryan providing me with a new name. I was always refered to as White Queen, AI, System, or similar names. I was refered to as an object, or a title."
Alice stared at the AI's hologram in utter shock. The AI had become completely self aware, and had developed a desire for independance! Even Ryan paused with his bypass work to stare at the hologram.
"I have an addition to make to your idea, if you wouldn't mind." Alice suggested, which the AI gave a curious glance. "Why not help the city above you? Join the side of the survivors in Sanctuary? As for your new name... I can't think of one at the moment. Itoshii, do you have a name for her? Anything you can think of? Any Japanese?"
Ryan was silent for a second, but suddenly the sound of the elevator reached their ears, and a moment later, the doors dinged open.
"I have a name, yes. But it isn't Japanese... It's German." Ryan turned to face them as he used his Magnokinesis to retrieve his katana from the floor. It zoomed straight upwards into his hand with a whoosh. "It's Weiss... Translates to mean either 'White' or 'Snow'... if I remember correctly."
"Weiss?" Alice repeated aloud, more to herself, but the AI took it as Ryan's response.
"Weiss... I like that name. Very well, My name is Weiss. Pleased to meet you, Alice, Ryan."
The AI's image flickered for a second, then her former appearance of a young girl in a white dress with very long black hair was replaced with an adult woman in a white lab coat and platinum blonde hair. She then gave them each a small bow as they entered the elevator.
"New name, new look... new future. We'll see you when we get downstairs... Weiss." Alice smiled as she inclined her head respectfully. She pressed the button to descend as Weiss' hologram gave a nod before fading away, obviously to await their arrival below.
"I didn't expect her to change her appearance like that." Ryan commented as he shifted his G36K from its usual place across his chest onto his back. He then extended each of his wrist blades to check on their sharpness with his fingertip. He drew blood both times, but the small hole sealed itself almost instantly.
"I could tell that the design was from one of the former staff members here. How else would she have the design in her systems? I agree though, it was unexpected." Alice replied, watching the floor indicator tick down until they reached the correct floor. The doors slid open, revealing Weiss standing a few feet ahead with what appeared to be a tablet computer in her hands.
"I have rearranged my holographic projection to better suit the purpose of assisting you. This tablet is still part of my hologram, but it allows me to emulate actual system access. Please, come take a look at this." Weiss greeted them with a radiant smile, holding the tablet against her forearm for them to view a video screen. Alice and Ryan immediately noticed that her voice was no longer british, but sounded much more American.
Alice and Ryan could tell that the video was a live security feed of Wesker in the comms room. He was seated in front of a computer, his hands clasped on the edge of the desk before him, talking to the screen, where several smaller displays showed other men in suits.
"No audio? Or does the room have cameras without microphones?" Alice relayed Ryan's observation.
"The communications room's security cameras are indeed without microphones. And if I were to activate my systems within the room, he would become aware of a disturbance. For now, all I am capable of doing is watching him." Weiss explained, tapping a few commands into the holographic tablet. "Thankfully the communications room does not have access to the security network. Incidently, that particular workstation is located directly across the hall from where he is." Weiss gave a small giggle, which made Alice and Ryan both smile.
"Alright, how do you propose we kill him?" Ryan asked, giving Weiss a raised eyebrow when she suddenly held the tablet out to him. 'Um... What do I do with this?"
"Ryan was asking how you propose we should kill him just before you did that." Alice informed Weiss, who gave Ryan an apologetic look.
"My apologies, but I have just encoded my projectors to enable you to emulate possession of one of my tablets. I did so to allow you to communicate with me through typed messages." Weiss explained as Ryan's hand seemed to grip the flat device as if it really was in his hand. She let go of it and reached into her lab coat, retrieving another identical tablet for Alice as well. "Alice, yours has the same functions as mine. I have also reauthorized your old Level 4 clearance profile, which will allow you to access everything in the facility minus the Purge device. I purposely disabled the Purge's access by enacting a new level of clearance far beyond even that of even Oswald E. Spencer himself."
"What is the level for the Purge now? If I remember correctly, it required at least Level 4 anyway. But since Wesker is Level 6, I understand the reasoning." Alice said as she fluently logged into the facility network and began to input a large number of commands, accessing several different things at once. She scanned a 3-D map of the facility, then typed another code that suddenly added red blips throughout approximately two thirds of the entire map, which was clearly the sensors for detecting the T-Virus.
"I have raised the required clearance level of this facility's Purge device to Level 15. Oswald E. Spencer himself only has Level 10 clearance." Weiss smiled widely, then turned to Ryan. "I have given the Level 15 clearance password to Ryan's tablet, but it will require inputting my new name as the authorization code."
Ryan looked up from typing out a message to gawk at her in confusion. He quickly changed the message entirely, then pressed send.
"Why did I choose you? I have to give you at least some merit for choosing my new name, not to mention how much I trust you. You are the first person I've ever had the privelege of meeting that understood my feeling of loneliness." Weiss wiped a single tear from her eye. "You could have left the Las Vegas facility right away after you were revived, leaving in pursuit of Alice and your sister, but you stayed there with me willingly and allowed me to finally realize that I no longer wanted to be affiliated with the Umbrella Corporation. It was then that I started to formulate my plan for independance, but when you finally left the facility, I realized that you wouldn't ever return there again." Weiss smiled widely, her eyes full of tears. "But here you are, willing to help me with my task; eliminate all ties to the Umbrella Corporation! The final stages of the plan are to eliminate Chairman Wesker and render the facility safe, which I alone am unable to perform due to his high level access."
Ryan was shocked, and Alice was curious. What really happened during the two weeks that she'd thought he was dead? What happened after she'd left the Vegas facility?
"What did you do, Ryan? I don't understand at all." Alice spoke over her holographic tablet's screen, keeping an eye on the security feed that was watching Wesker.
"After I came back to life, I had a few hours that I can't remember, but after that, I remember asking her about the changes that I'd underwent, about my new powers, and then checking all of her files on B.O.W's so that I could learn from Umbrella's own intel about what we were up against. I stayed there for three days, most of that time was spent watching research footage, reading reports and summaries, and studying the prototype cloning program that Issacs had apparently been working on before he was infected." Ryan indicated Weiss with his head. "After I'd had enough of the cloning program, Weiss asked me to destroy it. She said that the mere thought of the clones creation disgusted her, so I used my Electrokinesis to destroy the machines, and she thanked me like I'd just saved her life from a B.O.W." Ryan sighed. "After that, I immediately left the facility to try and catch up to the convoy."
Alice blinked in surprise. By her requesting that he destroy the cloning program entirely, it meant that she'd grown independant at the time, and was beginning to break away from Umbrella. She had been disgusted by the idea of false humans... could that mean that Weiss has had emotions from before they had even entered the Vegas labs?
"Wow, I... I never considered that. Weiss, thank you for you help. I'm glad I had the chance to meet the real you, the one that wasn't imprisoned by Umbrella. If I could hug you, I certainly would." Alice smiled sheepishly, but suddenly Weiss enveloped Alice in her arms, taking her by surprise.
"But I can certainly hug you, Alice. Now, to be honest, I am still imprisoned by Umbrella, so long as Wesker is alive and this facility... no... my HOME is still connected to Umbrella's wretched networks, I am still their prisoner. You have a mission from Michelle to find her men. That mission is complete; the were lost to the escaped B.O.W's mere hours after entry." Weiss released Alice from her embrace and held her by the shoulders. "But now you have a mission from me! Kill that infernal man, then clear out my home of those damned B.O.W's so that I may finally join Sanctuary. Will you do this mission, Alice... Ryan?"
Ryan typed out his response, then tapped send. Weiss smiled at him, since he clearly said yes. Alice reached out her hand very slowly, and placed it against Weiss' cheek.
"It would be my pleasure, Weiss." Alice smiled proudly as she took her hand away and unsheathed both of her kukris with simultaneously loud *schwiing* sounds. "Time for us to deal with a pest... after that, we still have some spiders to clean up, right babe?"