Chapter 12

-Test Subject E. Wesker-

The group sat in complete silence as they waited for Chris to regain consciousness. It was awkward and uncomfortable for everyone except Wesker, who didn't seem to care one way or the other. The tyrant sat against the wall of the manor, near Chris's feet. Eva had placed Chris's head in her lap and was stroking his hair absentmindedly through her fingers. Wesker was watching his daughter from behind his dark sunglasses as she did this and after nearly a half an hour had gone by, he spoke to her.

"Why do you care so much for him?"

Grateful for someone to break the silence, the others listened in for lack of anything better to do. Eva continued to stare down at Chris's clearly troubled rest as she answered her father. "He's my last hope."

Wesker's expression went from neutral to surprised. "Last hope?"

"Yes. He's the only one who can save you." Eva answered simply.

"There you go again with the 'saving me' bit. What makes you think I need saving?"

"You do need saving. You may not admit it to yourself, but you don't want to be evil. I can see it in your face. You feel burdened by the fact that you've lost your humanity. At first, you thought it would be great because then you could defeat Umbrella and show them the monster they created. But you aren't a monster. When you succeeded in destroying Umbrella you realized that." Eva paused in her answer to look straight at her father. "You saw it in the way you continued to allow certain people to live when it would have been easier to just kill them. But I think...you refuse to admit it to yourself. You see those eyes of yours in the mirror and it's a constant reminder of the things you've done in order to bring justice to the world by crushing Umbrella. You should be proud of those eyes. To me, they symbolize what you sacrificed so the rest of the world could be safe."

Wesker laughed softly. "You think I saved the world? The man you're holding onto so tightly for my saving, thinks I am doing just the opposite. So why would he help you?"

She smiled slightly. "By being here, he's helping plenty. And you don't hate Chris as much as you pretend to."

"Oh?" Wesker asked, clearly amused by her explanation of his actions and the way he was.

"That's right. If you really hated him that much then he would be long dead. He's only human while you are a lot more powerful. You could kill him in a heartbeat if you wanted."

"I have tried to kill him many times. Chris has simply proven to be more resilient than I could have imagined."

Eva shook her head in disagreement. "When you put your gun to his head before, way before, why didn't you pull the trigger?"

Wesker froze. "You witnessed that?"

She nodded. "I was observing from a distance. Answer the question."

They stared at one another for a long moment, the others watching intently now to see what Wesker said in reply. Wesker surprised all of them when he laughed out loud.

"Desideratum." Wesker murmured.

"Desi-what?" Eva questioned, confused.

"Desideratum or necessary. I suppose you could say that is what Chris is to me and what I am to him. We both need each other to keep ourselves going. You see, Chris..is damaged like me."

"What do you mean damaged?" Eva asked him, still not quite understanding.

Wesker merely smiled to himself and was further saved from answering when a groan escaped Chris's lips.

"Is this what it feels like to have your insides ripped out?" Chris muttered miserably.

He sat up and took notice that he had been lying in Eva's lap but said nothing about it. Chris got to his feet with a grunt of effort and a hand held against his chest. After a moment, he lowered his hand from his chest after seemingly deciding that most of the pain had receded. Wesker also moved to a standing position and the rest of the group took this as a lead for them to stand as well. The BSAA agent turned his eyes to Wesker, determining that he wouldn't be collapsing again anytime soon.

"How much time?" he asked the black-clad man.

"A few hours." Wesker answered bluntly.

Eva examined Chris's calm expression curiously. "You know what's wrong with you?"

He met her gaze and nodded. "I figured it out when my chest felt like it was on fire. It's just how Las Plagas was described to affect the infected host in the Kennedy report."

She continued to study his face and seemed very puzzled about his serene attitude towards the knowledge that he was going to become a mindless being in a matter of hours.

"Aren't you afraid?" she asked him quietly. "We're going to have to shoot you if you change. I would be scared if those parasites were inside my body. I don't want to die and I know you don't either. How can you be so calm and relaxed?"

Chris looked her straight in the eyes when he answered her. "I'm far from relaxed, Eva. My sister is out there in the hands of an insane woman and the rest of us are all trapped in this place, forced to play Sin's game. But it's not the end of the world if I die. Besides, I got people waiting for me. Friends, family… They'll be expecting me. I knew the risks and the odds when I chose to join the BSAA. It was only a matter of time until I got killed, one way or another. That was inevitable. But for the amount of damage I've done, I'd say it was all worth it."

Eva turned her green eyes away from him and scuffed the cement with her black boot. "I wish I were that brave."

He looked earnestly at her. "Are you joking? You're the calmest one here. You're the one giving me the strength to keep moving, Eva."

Her cheeks flushed a light pink tinge. Blushing profusely, she kept her eyes lowered to the ground. "You're just saying that..."

"I'm not," he told her, placing a hand reassuringly on her shoulder.

After a moment, the man returned his attention to Wesker.

"Door number three?" he asked, extending a hand towards a red door on his right.

There were only three doors in the area in the first place. One which Sin had left through and one which led to the Ashford manor that was now mysteriously locked. This left the third and final door for their group to venture through and Wesker took the lead. The door took them into a hallway with a single door straight ahead. Passing through the second door, the group found themselves in a room with decaying walls and floors. To the left and right of the doorway were round cages of some kind. There were tables with scattered papers and books and Mohinder wandered over to them to take a look. Directly in front of the door on the other side of the room, there was a set of crumbling stone steps and a balcony with a door on the left. That was the door they would be taking it seemed.

Chris walked a bit further into the room with Sheva and Bennet, surveying their surroundings for anything of interest. Eva followed Wesker as he strolled over to one of the cages and examined it, searching for some sign as to what had once been contained within it. The others stood around by the door they had come through, unsure of what to do. Apparently bored with the cage, Eva made her way back over to the rest of the group and stood around with them. Her fingers constantly fingered her holstered gun out of habit as she tried to keep still. Claire watched her as she did this and finally decided to try talking to her. She went to stand beside the green-eyed girl and tried to make conversation.

"So Wesker's your dad, huh?" Claire asked, for lack of anything better to say.

Eva was watching Chris and Sheva converse with each other in the center of the room in low voices and didn't even bother to look at Claire when she replied. "Yeah."

"You definitely take after him." Claire said next.

"Is that so?" Eva asked, still watching the BSAA agents talking quietly with one another.

"Well you guys dress the same and act similar. Not only that, the blood relations is really obvious when you look at the two of you standing together. You guys have the same hair and general facial features and everything. I wonder where you got your green eyes from though. They're a very pretty color. I've never seen eyes so green before."

"You don't resemble your dad," was all Eva said, giving a brief nod towards Bennet, who was searching one of the desks near Mohinder.

Claire nodded in agreement. "Yeah but that's probably because we're not blood related."

Eva glanced sideways at the other blonde haired girl. "Oh?"

"Yeah, he adopted me when I was a baby. Actually, Nathan's my real dad." Claire told her, pointing a finger briefly at the older Petrelli man who was standing next to his brother near the door.

"Sounds like a story." Eva said to Claire, her voice returning to its disinterested tone that she tended to speak with.

Seeing that her attempts at socializing with Eva weren't having much success, she chose a different subject other than family.

"So you have a crush on Chris."

"Yeah-wait, what?" Eva stammered, glancing away from Chris quickly as her face reddened.

"Oh, you must be joking." Wesker stated loudly.

Claire and Eva turned to find Wesker staring at the two of them with astonishment written all over his face. He crossed his arms over his chest and tightened his stance. "A Redfield, Eva? Really?"

Claire placed her hands on her hips. "She can like who she wants to."

"Wha-I don't, huh?" Eva stuttered. Suddenly unable to form a sentence, she fell silent.

"Chris is far too old for you anyways, Eva. He's 35 and even-" Wesker started but he was soon interrupted by Claire.

"I don't care how old he is. I think he's cute." Claire promptly told him.

The expression on Wesker's face when Claire described Chris as cute was priceless, and out of nowhere Eva started to laugh. Claire and Wesker stared at her because Eva just didn't seem to be one to laugh much. The BSAA agents were glancing over at her now, wondering what had caused her to go off. Sheva turned from the laughing girl with a conflicted look in her eyes and she moved away from Chris to venture over to one of the cages. Eva forced herself to stop laughing and Claire nudged her in the ribs with an elbow.

"He's looking over here," she whispered to Eva.

Upon noticing Chris's curious glance in her direction, her face immediately started to redden again and she avoided her father's piercing gaze as she blushed. Eva knew she was being silly but she just couldn't help it. Thankfully something came up which pulled Wesker's attention off of her.

"Your name's Wesker?" Mohinder asked loudly from where he had picked up a few sheets of paper from the desk he was currently scouring. "I think these memos concern you."

With everyone's attention now fixed upon him, he read the information he had found.

"Memo 1, 1993. R-Virus (Regenerative virus) injected into new test subject E. Wesker at 14 months of age. Change in eye color from blue to green observed. Former Umbrella employee J. Wesker attempted to prevent our retrieval of test subject and was terminated at 1700 hours. Unfortunately, Umbrella employee A. Wesker arrived home early and witnessed her termination and team 4 was decimated at his hands. Spencer has told him that team four went rogue to try and kill his family. If any questions are asked, you are to say Spencer had no knowledge of the attack. Though he will be disappointed team 4 failed to retrieve subject, Spencer will at least be pleased we were successful in eliminating J. Wesker as he deemed her a distraction to one of his top employees A. Wesker. It seems A. Wesker is also unaware of subject's injection and this will also please Spencer greatly. Perhaps this will be a lesson to A. Wesker for disagreeing with Spencer's goals to create bio-weapons and for leaving the lab."

Mohinder lowered the sheet of paper, a thoughtful expression on his face. "What was your first name again?"

"Albert." Chris answered for the tyrant.

Chris seemed shocked at what he had just heard Mohinder read, Wesker looked increasingly angry, and Eva was beyond horrified as she stared at Mohinder.

"It says E. Wesker was supposed to be a test subject. If you're the A. Wesker mentioned in here then..." Mohinder trailed off in thought and then it seemed to dawn on him. "Eva is the E. Wesker mentioned in here. She was injected with something as a child!"

Mohinder glanced down at the memo again. "Something called the R-Virus. The 'R' stands for Regenerative. I haven't noticed anything strange or inhuman about Eva though. Regenerative... Do you suppose that allows her to heal like Claire?"

"They infected my daughter..." Wesker grunted, clenching his teeth as he forced himself not to express his anger.

Eva was still staring at Mohinder in shock. "No! I get cuts and bruises like anyone else!"

She pulled up a pant leg to reveal an old scar that was on the back of her lower leg. "See, I got that scar when I was riding my bike as a kid. There's nothing wrong with me! I'm not infected!"

Increasingly confused and frustrated, she turned on Wesker. "Umbrella infected me! Did you know about this?!"

"I didn't know," he informed her.

His fists were clenched very tightly and his anger was clearly visible to everyone. "I didn't know Spencer would ever do something like that to a baby. I should have known better. I should have suspected something like this when I found out I was one of Spencer's guinea pigs as a child."

Chris frowned at him. "You were experimented on?"

"Yes, I was one of the Wesker children. The only survivor. I learned about it two years ago from Spencer himself."

Realization flashed in Chris's eyes. "The Spencer estate, Jill and I walked in shortly after you killed him. Spencer told you then, didn't he?"

Wesker nodded, his teeth clenching again. "I would have killed him a lot sooner if I had known he was behind my wife's murder."

Again Chris looked surprised. "You were married, Wesker?"

A bit of anger left Wesker's features and his expression softened as he thought about his wife. "Her name was Jane. I'm sorry I lied, Eva." He turned towards his daughter. "I didn't want you to know about your mother's murder. I didn't want you to grow up with nightmares."

"I didn't know you stopped being a researcher because you didn't agree with their plans for creating weapons..." Chris murmured as he processed everything.

"I became disturbed when Spencer sought to obtain bio-weapons with 100% kill rates. I didn't want to be a part of a project trying to create something like that." Wesker informed him.

"There's another memo." Mohinder pointed out, reaching down to pick up a second sheet of paper.

"Read it." Eva told him. "I want to hear this."

Mohinder nodded and began to read.

"Memo 2, 2004. E. Wesker subject at 12 years of age has yet to contract any illnesses, even a common cold. Whether this is a result of the R-Virus is yet to be determined. Impossible to retrieve subject as former Umbrella employee A. Wesker has continued to monitor subject for protection. Though A. Wesker has dealt a crippling blow to Umbrella corporation, Spencer has assured us that we are far from finished with our work. Will continue to make observations on E. Wesker subject from a distance."

Mohinder placed the sheet of paper back onto the desk. "That's all it says."

"Don't worry. They're not watching you any more, Eva." Chris assured her. "Spencer's dead and Umbrella's finished."

"I know... It's just not knowing I was being watched all those years..." Eva said softly, staring at the floor.

"Umbrella had me under surveillance for a long time too." Chris told Eva, trying to make her feel better. "And I know-unnh..."

"What?" Eva turned to look at him and saw his head was lowered and he was clutching his chest. "Chris are you okay?"

The agent let out a sharp intake of breath, releasing frequent gasps of pain as he struggled to get through the sudden unbearable agony in his chest. Eva came over to him and his breathing became normal again, his shoulders relaxing as he straightened from his hunched position. He stood staring at the floor and Eva reached out a hand to place on his arm, concern filling her eyes. Chris seemed to notice her presence for the first time and he slowly turned towards her, his head still lowered.

"Chris?" Eva asked again.

Without warning, Chris lashed out at her and locked his hands around her throat. Startled, Eva did nothing to defend herself and he began to squeeze more tightly. Staring at Chris in terrified confusion, she saw his eyes were now red. Eva's own eyes bulged as her air supply was suddenly cut off completely and she tried to pull his hands from her neck with little success. Wesker started to move to stop Chris but Eva didn't need any help. She slipped a hand into a knife sheath attached to her belt and stabbed the blade into Chris's upper thigh, before kneeing him in between the legs with such force that he flew backwards.

"Gahh!" Chris shouted in surprised pain and felt himself sail a few feet back until he slammed into one of the cages on the right side of the room.

He fell and tumbled onto his side where he drew in sharp breaths. Relieved that she once again had air, Eva greedily gulped the oxygen into her burning lungs. Chris dragged himself onto his feet again, visibly paler and exhausted from fighting off the parasite inside of him.

"I'm so sorry," he said to Eva once he had partially regained his composure.

She shook her head as she replaced the knife in its case, justifying his actions. "This isn't your fault. You're not yourself."

Chris lifted his hands and stared at them as if he couldn't believe what they had just done. "Yeah... And soon I won't be myself anymore..."

"Don't say that! We'll find a way to cure you!" Claire exclaimed from where she stood near her father, Bennet.

Chris didn't seem to believe her words though and he continued staring at his hands.

"Figures I'd run into you again, Albert," a thickly accented voice spoke loudly.

The group turned as one to see none other than Excella standing at the top of the stairs. She had come through the door on the balcony and entering behind her was a man wearing a heavy purple robe. He had some sort of gold emblem on the front of his robe, a symbol of some sort, and carried a wooden staff which appeared to be alive. The staff twisted with vine-like limbs around itself and the man held it close as he looked down upon all of them. He had brown hair combed back, faded gray eyes, and a very gaunt and pale complexion.

"Saddler." Wesker stated as he stared at the robed man.

Hearing his name said in such a way, the man smirked. "Not as dead as you surely presumed."

The man's tone was very smug and Excella stood beside him with a satisfied smile of her own. She came down the steps and stood at the bottom of the stairs, watching them.

"When I saw you prancing around with your new friends, I decided to make a new alliance. One that I could be assured wouldn't fail me unlike you, Albert. Uroboros was our creation and you just abandoned it like it meant nothing."

"It means nothing, Excella."

Excella scoffed. "What, because your daughter disapproves? I thought you were above human weaknesses, Albert. It seems I was wrong. Doesn't matter. Saddler and I are going to carry out his plans of spreading Las Plagas across the globe. With it, he will have total control of everyone and the world will be a much greater place."

"Do you really believe that, Excella? His world will turn everyone into mindless beings. He'll do the same to you!" Chris declared.

"I don't think so," she told him snidely and turned her adoring gaze onto Saddler as the man began to speak.

"I can feel them growing ever so strongly inside you." Saddler commented, turning his gaze to Chris.

Chris looked up at the man in bewilderment. The man stared at him as he lifted up his left hand and held it towards Chris, palm outwards. Immediately Chris let out a tortured scream and he clawed at his chest as the parasite inside him fought for control. He dropped onto his knees and continued to struggle in pain as grunts constantly escaped his lips. A smile crossed Saddler's mouth.

"Perhaps you can resist. But you cannot disobey." Saddler informed him in his Spanish accented voice.

Chris went very still after Saddler said this and he slowly stood up. Straightening, he lifted his eyes to look at Saddler and the others could see that they had turned a red color. Satisfied he had achieved victory over his victim, he beckoned him to come forwards.

"Now, come to me Chris."

"No... Chris!" Sheva uttered in horror.

He didn't seem to hear her as he obediently walked to Saddler and stood beside him. He stood next to the robed man with a very detached, emotionless demeanor. Saddler noted the gun in his thigh holster and a smile spread across his face as an idea formed.

"Take your gun and shoot her with it." Saddler commanded, pointing a finger at Excella.

"What?!" Excella gasped in astonishment at the betrayal. "Saddler, you promised!"

"I'm sorry dear, but you simply aren't one of us. You are an outsider who doesn't belong. Shoot her," he stated coldly.

Chris reached numbly to his holster and withdrew the gun. He pointed it at Excella, who was growing increasingly frightened, and he pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced her chest and with a cry of pain, the proud woman crumpled to the floor in a pool of blood and moved no more. Chris showed absolutely no emotion or reaction when he did this and simply looked to Saddler for further direction. Pleased, Saddler gladly gave him further instructions.

"Let's see... Kill the blonde girl right there. She reminds me of the President's daughter, my previous failure." He spoke that last part bitterly but it had all come out clear. Saddler wanted his new puppet to kill Eva.

Chris moved the gun to point at her and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Instead of Eva, the bullet hit Claire as she shoved the frozen girl out of the way. Eva rolled Claire off of herself, staring down at the motionless girl that laid beside her. She knew that Claire would heal, but seeing her like that was still horrible.

"Oh well, she would have been next to die anyway. Go ahead, shoot her." Saddler ordered.

Eva stared at Chris, her eyes wide with fear and grief that he was doing such things. "Chris, no. Please stop."

He stared blankly at her for a moment and then aimed the weapon at her. Wesker quickly moved to stand in front of his daughter and his eyes pierced Chris's own. "Chris, this isn't you. Wake up."

Chris stared at Wesker, nothing registering on his face. But then his outstretched hand which was gripping the gun began to tremble. A sharp intake of breath came from Chris as he clenched his teeth, struggling against Saddler's control.

"I said shoot her!" Saddler yelled.

"No!" Chris shouted and dropped the gun.

He collapsed onto the floor, writhing in pain as he struggled against the parasite inside of him. Saddler made an annoyed grunt but wasted no time in quickly exiting the room. Sheva knelt down beside Chris who was still writhing on the floor, tears forming in her eyes.

"Oh God... We have to help him," she said desperately.

Chris suddenly latched his hands around her throat and she let out a gasp of surprise. But then he released her as he once again regained control of himself. The control was only momentary though and he once again began to claw at his chest in pain.

"Hold him down!" Wesker shouted the order, walking over to them.

Sheva backed off as Bennet and Nathan fought to hold him to the floor as they gripped his arms. Peter grabbed hold of his legs when one of them nearly knocked him off his feet and tried to keep them as still as he could. A strange inhuman hiss escaped Chris as Wesker knelt by his side but the tyrant ignored it. Instead, his eyes were watching Chris's chest. Without warning, he reached down and ripped Chris's shirt apart.

"What the hell is that?!" Peter asked in horrified disgust as he saw a lump moving beneath Chris's skin.

"The parasite." Wesker replied as he traced a hand along Chris's chest, following the parasite's movements.

When the lump drew closer to the heart, Wesker put pressure on the spot and it retreated farther to the right. Chris struggled even harder against the parasite's control as Wesker forced it to move towards his arm. For a brief moment when he was himself, his eyes still red, he yelled for Wesker to just kill him but his request was ignored and then the tyrant got what he needed. As soon as the lump moved into Chris's left shoulder, Wesker wasted no time in suddenly brandishing a knife and digging it into the flesh of the shoulder. Chris howled in pain as he drew a small but deep cut and then proceeded to reach in with his fingers, to yank out a hideous bug looking creature. The tyrant dropped the parasite to the ground and crushed it beneath his boot. Already the red was fading from Chris's eyes and the brown color returned. His breathing slowing, he quickly fainted from sheer exhaustion. But before he did, his eyes sought out Wesker.

"I always knew you'd be the one to stab me, Wesker." Chris said, laughing weakly to himself before his eyes closed.