April 28th, 1988

Executive training facility, Raccoon Forest, Arklay County, Illinois...

It was so sudden. One moment, he was standing over the tray where his proudest achievement, his Queen Leech laid, preparing an needle to extract some of its viral DNA for administration to the newest test subjects, and in the very next, he heard a loudbangas the door of his laboratory were kicked in. Two figures clad in black combat gear ran inside, carrying submachine guns which they pointed at him without hesitation.

He barely had time to even move his lips before they opened fire. Loud cacophony of deafening gunfire and shattering glass filled his ears as sharp pain spread through his torso when multiple bullets connected. He fell quickly, desperately trying to grab onto the table next to himself to try and support his weight. He only managed to pull the tray containing his child down onto the ground with him.

Doctor James Marcus, aged 69, was twitching on the ground, crimson bullet holes visible on his brown formal suit as blood pooled around him. He was wheezing, fighting for every breath as he rapidly bled out. It was a desperate fight that he couldn't hope to win.

Just outside of the laboratory stood two men in their late 20s. While they both wore white lab coats and ID tags identifying them as employees of Umbrella Corporation, their appearances weren't exactly alike as older of the two, Albert Wesker, had a short, slicked-back platinum blonde hair and sported sunglasses over his eyes despite the fact that he was indoors since they were pretty much his trademark ever since his teens, and helped him conceal his emotions from others. Man next to him, William Birkin, was two years younger than him. His hair, while also blonde, was of darker shade leaning towards brunette and longer, resembling an unkept mop that perfectly reflected 26-year old's workaholic nature; Even though he had a wife and two-year old daughter living in Raccoon City, he spent only sundays with them because researchers had a mandated one day off-work per week. Six days a week, he was toiling away.

Hearing a softthudas their old mentor hit the ground in the laboratory, Wesker and Birkin looked at each other. One of the first lessons that Marcus has instilled in all of his students was ruthlessness. Cultivating the ability to remorselessly claw your way up and step over others in the name of personal benefit was a must in the executive training center even before they were a part of its student body. It was one lesson which both Wesker and Birkin internalized perfectly during their studies there and one of the main reasons why they decided to screw over the old man and join Spencer. Choice was simple; Languish under Marcus and share in his fate or help with the acquisition of his T-Virus research data and continue it as their own, for Spencer's benefit of course. Even though neither of them was praticularly fond of Spencer, sticking with the winning party was always a good plan; Considering the fact that the old man Ashford kicked the bucket twenty years ago, Marcus was the only one who could really challenge Spencer's absolute control over Umbrella with his viral research, but he had no real allies within the company, save for two of his former star students who have just betrayed him for the first and final time.

They walked in silently, seeing the USS agents whom they brought to the facility below the building as they milled around the small laboratory, marking down equipment and viral samples which were to be destroyed. Walking in front, Wesker noticed first when Marcus' eyes darted onto him and Birkin. Two young men walked over to the dying man, crouching down at his level.

"Oh, time to die, doctor." Wesker said, his voice thick with mock pity. He didn't even consider pretending to care or sympathize with Marcus' plight. Hell, he WANTED the old fool to know that he was being double-crossed, to spend his last conscious moments trying to realize how could that happen to him, only for his lessons on competitive ruthlessness to hit him like a lead sinker and make him realize that he became a regular Victor Frankenstein, a man done in by the monster of his own creation. Or in this case, monsters.

"I'm going to take over your research!" Birkin said, malicious grin creeping onto his face as he gloated to the dying man. He intended to savor this moment just as much as Wesker, maybe even more. Furthering T-Virus research without constraints will be his chance to finally show his full potential and outdo that little whore Alexia Ashford. Sure, she was dead for nearly four years now, but her shadow still loomed over his research and any bio-organic weapons he tried to pitch to his superiors. Once he applies Marcus' decade of research into T-Virus, not only were Ashfords bound to end up buried in irrelevancy forever, but he was bound to be promoted to the position of the facility director in Arklay laboratory which would mean bigger pay and consequently, cushier life for his girls and once he retires, himself. Just the thought of enjoying the fruits of his current labor in several decades caused his grin to spread.

"We...sker... Birkin..." Marcus croaked out pathetically before his head lolled to the side, his mouth remaining agape and his eyes remaining wide open, frozen in gaze of pure horror. James Marcus has officially expired.

As Wesker prepared to turn away from Marcus' corpse, he noticed a slimy trail near the man's head. Following it with his gaze, he noticed a giant mutated leech slowly crawling away from Marcus' corpse. Birkin watched the leech too.

"What are we going to do about it? You know those things create T-Virus, right?" Birkin asked, switching his gaze towards Wesker.

"I do, but we don't need Marcus' pets. He had more than enough pure viral samples to create more in a laboratory." Wesker said coldly before motioning one of the USS agents over to himself and Birkin.

"Give me your handgun." Wesker requested coldly, once again looking towards the mutated leech with the agent following his gaze. As he noticed the leech, he nodded, pulling the handgun out of its holster and handing it to Wesker who calmly took aim and fired off several bullets into crawling creature. As the bullets hit it, leech let out high-pitched squeals but died before the handgun's clip ran dry. Satisfied, Wesker turned back towards the agent and gave him the handgun.

"Thanks." Wesker said calmly before adding "I assume you'll handle the rest?"

"Yes, doctor. Once we set up the charges around here, we'll dispose of the target's remains." Agent replied, his voice being filtered through his gas mask.

Wesker nodded. "Very well. Come on, William." He said, tapping Birkin on the shoulder as he turned towards the exit. Birkin followed behind him.

December 28th, 1998

Umbrella Corporation Headquarters, Raccoon City, Illinois...

It was a good year for business. Well, mostly good. Save for some kinks that could be ironed out, 1998 was promising to be another year of growth and success for a pharmaceutical giant of Umbrella Corporation. Those were the thoughts of its CEO, Ozwell Eric Spencer as he lounged in a leather chair behind a large mahogany desk atop which laid large stacks of official paperwork consisting of various reports, ranging from sales performance of the company's newest OTC drugs all the way to more illicit reports on the performance of newest series of B.O.W.s produced in Arklay laboratory. Next to Spencer himself laid a typewritter and several pages of A4 paper which were filled up with the typewritten text; It was an internal company memo for early 1999, meant to be published in three days.

After ejecting the spent ink ribbon from the typewritter, elderly man leaned back into the chair and cracked his knuckles. All things considered, things were running like clockwork; Umbrella's pharmaceutical (or "legit" as younger executives took to calling it) division was raking in profits from around the world by selling the company's medical drugs and hygienic products, even more now that the company was finally allowed to do business on the other side of the iron curtain; Ex-Soviet and Yugoslav territories were ripe for the picking.

On the other hand, research division, hidden away from the prying eyes of the public and Umbrella's true crown jewel, was chugging along in the background like usual, its only stain in the past year being an attempted betrayal by one of its brightest researchers; William Birkin, a man who joined Spencer's side a decade prior, willingly stabbing his own mentor in the back for a chance at advancement in the company's structure. A man who was involved in the creation of one of Umbrella's most successful bio-organic weapons before his 20th birthday. A man who created a new virus, known simply as G, and tried to defect to another organization to protect it. But, even though he deserved to be mowed down like Marcus, agents of the Secret Service were instead sent into his facility below this very city to capture him and his wife. Even though both resisted, action went off without a hitch and next part of the plan for Birkin's disposal could start.

Even before he gave the order for their capture, Spencer knew that he wanted to make an example out of both doctor Birkin and his family. That was why he sent Birkin, as well as his wife and daughter on a one-way trip to Rockfort Island. He knew that there was a bad blood between William Birkin and late Alexia Ashford, which naturally extended to her freak of a twin, Alfred who was put in charge of the Rockfort's prisoner population and Ashford family's holdings in South Pole. Whatever that wannabe fascist intended to do to Birkins to settle a 15-year old pissing contest; Kill them outright, work them to death, disembowel them one by one or even fuck Birkin's daughter while forcing her parents to watch or even participate before slitting their throats and defecating on the corpses, he had a blank cheque as far as Spencer was concerned. All that mattered was that doctor Birkin specifically suffered, which he most certainly is right now if Ashford didn't turn him into a fertilizer already. For a pathetic failure that Alfred Ashford was, he was a brutal warden and an experienced torturer, his vicious reputation within the company's executive circles being one thing which he unambiguously deserved through his own merit.

As he thought of Birkin, Spencer's thoughts wandered onto disgraced doctor's other half; Albert Wesker. One of the few survivors of the Project W. Arguably, Spencer's own greatest achievement right alongside Umbrella. Unlike Birkin, Wesker was smart enough to play ball, his resolve to do so seemingly only strengthening once he found out what happened to Birkin and his family. Currently, he was still playing his role of a double agent within RPD's Special Tactics And Rescue Service and was in command of its Alpha team and as of September, was reporting directly to Spencer since RPD's chief Brian Irons was compromised in USS' investigation of Birkin's treachery, having taken bribes from the doctor to ensure that Umbrella's agents couldn't enter his facility. Once a suitable replacement for the sick bastard was found, he was bound to have an "accident" that will remove him from the picture permanently.

There was also an issue of Sheena Island, a small island located just off the Irish coast. A month ago, T-Virus leak has occurred within the island's facility and spread into nearby town, zombifying an entire population of Umbrella's employees and causing a total death toll of nearly 6 thousand people, every single one being Umbrella's employee or their family members. Even though the facility was compromised, quick dispatch of UBCS' forces onto the island ensured that it was reclaimed within 24 hours, and that any and all survivors were silenced, averting potential PR fallout. The only person from Sheena Island who lived to tell the tale was Vincent Goldman, the island's commander and as per other executives, a brutal careerist willing to step over litterally anyone and anything to rise in the corporate ranks. A finest product of Marcus' executive training center which was to be reopened in two months in order to start training new generation of researchers which will lead Umbrella into 21st century.

In Goldman's report, incident on Sheena Island was officially described as an accidental biohazardous leak that got out of hand. Along with the incident report were pages upon pages of the results of Tyrant project conducted on the island, most notable of which was T-Hypnos prototype which survived the biohazard. Even though Spencer shared the concern of some executives, such as Sergei Vladimir, that Goldman had something to do with the "accident" on Sheena Island and engineered it to finally become one of the top-ranking executives in the company, results of the research, for which he logically credited himself in some key areas, were irrefutable and aside from hearsay and rumors among the company's European executives, there was no one and nothing to definitely confirm the claims of Goldman's involvement in Sheena Island incident as true. With that, Goldman has earned himself an executive promotion and was relocated to Racoon City three weeks ago.

All in all, save for Birkin's treachery, a loose end otherwise known as Brian Irons and a biohazardous leak on Sheena Island, everything was going as fine as it could. If he were younger, more idealistic, naive or complete idiot, Spencer would've entertained the thought that nothing will ever go wrong from this point on.

Meanwhile...

Underground facility, Antarctic base, South Pole...

Alfred Ashford could barely suppress his excitement as he walked down the dark hallway within the facility hidden below Umbrella's transport terminal, doing his best to suppress his giggles. After fifteen long years of waiting, longing, crying himself to sleep and resorting to coping mechanisms which would get him thrown into a nuthouse if anyone ever found out about them, he'd finally see his beloved sister again. With T-Veronica having been injected into her body on this day in 1983 and the exact hour when she was placed into cryostasis to stabilize the virus drawing closer with each passing second, it was up to Alfred to be ready to start the thawing process and awaken her.

Blonde aristocrat played with the hem of a large white towel which he grabbed on his way to the facility, having taken it from the workers' living quarters. Even though he detested the thought of something so filthy andcommontouching Alexia's perfect skin, he knew that it would be necessary to provide her with some dignity while leading her into the office on the upper level where a proper change of clothes awaited her.

For Alfred, 1998 was a year which got progressively better as it got further along. Sure, first eight months were fairly uneventful and were spent in monotonous blur of processing new prisoners and checking on the existing ones, executing those who proved too unruly or frail to work and resolving a backlog of chemicals which has built up in Antarctic base and caused significant grief with pretty much every branch of Umbrella as numerous angry E-mails from facility heads from North America all the way to Japan practically flooded both his company and somehow, even private inbox. Luckily, the issue was a simple case of workers' discontent combined with broken equipment which was fairly easy to fix; Machinery needed some engineers which were brought over from Rockfort and workers' discontent was crushed with tried and tested method of hiring strike-breakers, or in this case, UBCS trainees which were flown in from Rockfort and posted in the terminal in constant shifts to keep up the productivity through any means neccessary, even if it meant abusing the workers while also minimizing the opportunity for either of them to start sympathizing with the workers. Ever since those measures were enacted four months ago, angry E-mails have ceased.

By the late September, things went from good to great as Rockfort Island received three very special prisoners; William, Annette and Sherry Birkin. Apparently, William attempted to defect from Umbrella after becoming too attached to his viral project. Even though it would've been enough to just grab Birkin, Umbrella's policy for defecting employees was clear; Closest members of the defector's family were to be captured or killed alongside the defector, no matter how involved with the company they were. That was the reason why Birkin's wife and daughter were also captured even though the daughter was only 12 years old and probably didn't even knew what her parents really did for Umbrella. But to Alfred, that didn't matter. William Birkin was Alexia's only rival pompous, nay,stupidenough to openly challenge her just because he saw her as a stupid little girl. Their rivalry lasted since 1981 up until Alexia went into cryostasis in 1983. Alfred could still recall the shit-eating grin that broke onto Birkin's face during the assembly called when Alfred, at tender age of 12 and a half, had to publically announce Alexia's "death" before all researchers in Umbrella's headquarters in Raccoon City. As he noticed it, he wanted to call Birkin out, but he decided against it as he noticed an older man in brown formal suit, doctor Marcus, who stood right next to Birkin firmly elbowing him in the ribs with disapproving look on his face. Just for daring to disrespect his family, Alfred intended to ensure that Birkin specifically suffered to the point where he'd beg for the business end of his hunting rifle; His wife and daughter were collaterals anyways.

When he found out that Birkins have been sent into his prison, he resolved to pay special attention to them. Two adults were sent into the prisoners' barracks the moment they were assigned their prisoners' identification numbers and were put on the manual labor detail with the exception that William was given significantly harsher treatment as per Alfred's orders; Both open refusal to work and a single wrong move during his duties warranted a severe beating after which he was sent back to work even if he could barely stand after some praticularly gruesome beatdowns. If he received more than one beating in the same day, he lost both his one daily meal guaranteed to the prisoners who did their jobs properly and his barracks privillege for that whole week which meant that he spent his nights locked in the barracks' mess hall where his only options for sleep would be a rough wooden table, equally rough chair or a cold, hard concrete floor. Despite initial resistance, Birkin fell in line after an entire month of sleep deprivation and starvation brought on by his refusal to work took its toll on his body and mind. His wife on the other hand, was merely treated as another prisoner placed with the other female prisoners on the island. Aside from that, she worked the same manual labor as her husband. Unlike him, she broke quickly and started doing her duties as flawlessly as she could so she didn't face the standard punishment of being denied her daily meal or an appointment with Alfred's on-site anatomist. Alfred was certain that seeing William's body colored in sickly black, blueish and red colors from bruises accrued over the course of several beatings he took only during his first week on the island had something to do with that.

On the other hand, Birkin's daughter, Sherry was a special case. Even though his standard procedure for children younger than 15 brought onto the island as prisoners was immediate execution via gunshot to the head as they were usually to frail for manual labor, Alfred decided to forego his own rules for Sherry considering that she was Birkin's daughter. With that in mind, he had her placed in an underground holding cell near the prison camp's graveyard where she was isolated from the other prisoners. There, she was fed the same single meal per day as the other prisoners and mostly left completely alone as Alfred didn't want to risk her befriending some guard who may try to help her escape. The exception to that occurred only once per month when Alfred visited the prison camp for personal inspection of the prisoners. Then, he had Sherry taken out of her cell so that she could accompany him during the inspection. The sole reason he did that was so that she could see the results of her father's hubris reflecting on her entire family. He always made sure to remind her of that when they passed by either William or Annette. The only time he made sure to have Sherry punished was during their first outing in October; When she saw William working on fixing the walls of one of the older barracks, she immediately ran towards him, before either Alfred or the guard accompanying him could stop her. As he watched the girl embrace her father, Alfred swore that he'd correct that behavior. After all, this was his prison camp and his rules were the law. He nodded at the guard who immediately separated Sherry from her father, prompting the bruised man to protest and try to wrestle Sherry away from the man. He didn't get to do much before three other guards intervened and overwhelmed him, shoving him to the ground and proceeding to mercilessly kick him while Sherry impotently screamed and begged them to stop before her panicking eyes turned towards Alfred who stopped the violent spectacle after a few seconds of deliberation; He still wanted Birkin alive, after all. Once Sherry was placed back into her cell, Alfred made sure to mark her down for a three days-long exemption from prisoners' food rations. Alfred figured that if the girl had inherited even a fraction of her parents' intelligence, she'll be able to put two and two together and realize that her interaction with her father caused her to starve. His theory proved to be correct as Sherry barely even glanced at either Annette or William during her second outing in November, probably more afraid of getting them hurt than of another round of hunger.

As if getting to torture Birkins wasn't great enough, a glance at the calendar in the early December reminded Alfred that the day he was dreaming about for fifteen years was fast-approaching. Alexia will be awakened and their, or to be more precise, her plan for domination over ignorant masses could be put into action. But even more importantly, Alfred was ecstatic that his only sibling and friend will finally come back into his life and make him complete. Yes. All things considered, 1998 was a perfect year for Alfred Ashford and was about to end on a very high note.

As he approached the metal door, they slid open, letting Alfred into small room which housed a control panel near which a small elevated podium stood. It housed a large cryogenic tube which housed a young blonde woman suspended in the clear liquid. Thick black cables could be seen protuding from her right arm and from within her mouth, entering the chamber through a special opening near its back side.

As he entered the room, Alfred let out a shaky breath of excitement and stopped at the control panel. The moment he did, he rolled back the sleeve of his red jacket to check the time on his silver-plated Rolex wrist-watch. Only forty seconds left.

Looking over the panel, Alfred quickly found a button meant to be used for the thawing process, having recalled numerous times he came down here to just gaze upon Alexia for hours on end. Even in suspended animation and with feeding tubes jabbed into her body, she was still beautiful.

As he checked the watch again, Alfred saw that it was rapidly counting down, placing his hand over the button while feverishly staring at the watch, almost as if trying to force it to count down even faster with his mind.

5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

Alfred's heart rate reached an all-time peak as he hit the button with slightly more force than neccesary. Within moments, small laboratory was filled with the shrill sound of the alarm as the cryogenic liquid started to slowly empty from the chamber, revealing increasingly more of the blonde woman's body. Alfred's breath hitched in his chest as the realization set in; He had done the deed he could only dream about for the last 15 years, he awakened Alexia. With that thought, he started to approach the cryogenic chamber slowly and reverently as if he had just walked into Vatican.

As the chamber emptied completely, its front opened, letting off steam from within. When it cleared up, only the wet, naked form of Alexia Ashford could be seen as it was held up by two cables jabbed into her arm and mouth. Seeing this, Alfred silently approached the chamber, wrapping the towel he was carrying around his elbow before starting to undo the cable connected to Alexia's mouth. He knew for a fact that it was designed to go all the way down to her throat so he'd have to be careful while pulling it out. After unbuckling the cable, Alfred carefully hooked his arm behind Alexia, grabbing the back of her head and stopping himself in order to briefly run his hand through her wet hair, barely stopping himself from sighing in pleasure at the sensation; He had a job to do now. As he grabbed the back of Alexia's head, Alfred tugged lightly at the unsecured cable with his free hand, causing it to move. With satisfied smirk, he jerked at the cable once again, causing a part of its length to be expelled from Alexia's throat. After he repeated the motion four more times, cable ending in silver tube was fully pulled from her body. With that, Alexia's limp body fell from its upright position straight into Alfred's arms.

Even though he wasn't shocked at that, Alfred had to stop for a second as he registeted Alexia's wet, naked body pressed against him. He prided himself on never having impure thoughts about Alexia despite how much he loved her and the fact that her natural physical beauty only increased as she aged, but now, he felt uncomfortably hot pressure building between his legs and in the pit of his stomach, especially as he felt her exposed breasts pressing against his chest as he grabbed her. Steadying his breathing to try and calm his body down, Alfred got down on the ground, supporting Alexia's head with one hand as he took the towel from his elbow and spread it out to cover Alexia's torso and upper legs with the free hand. Once she was covered up, Alfred reached for her right arm, noticing that the cable jabbed there was a simple IV tube. He quickly unbuckled the cable and slowly pulled it out of Alexia's pale forearm. As he did, Alfred felt her stirring.

His breath momentarily hitched as he saw Alexia moving her head around slightly, her blue eyes opening slowly and focusing onto his face. By the time they opened completely, a confused expression on her face was replaced by a smile of familial recognition. "Hello, brother." She said softly.

"ALEXIA!" Alfred practically squealed in joy, pulling his sister into a tight embrace, his throat tightening from sobs as tears of joy started to stream down his face. This was officially the happiest day of his life.

"Calm yourself, brother. I'm happy to see you too." Alexia said, pausing briefly as she tried to reorient herself into a sitting position, a feat made more difficult by Alfred's shaking, sobbing form still clinging onto her. "Fifteen years is an awfully long time." She finished as she wrapped her arms around Alfred's back, leaning into him; Even though T-Veronica in her body would help her regulate her body temperature, it still needed time to activate considering that Alexia was still submerged in sub-zero conditions only a few minutes ago. Until then, she needed Alfred's warmth.