Chapter 14

-The Ambition of Sin-

They waited a few minutes after Saddler disappeared to make sure he was going to stay gone. While they waited, Eva explained her theory that Sin was making these old enemies of theirs appear to mess with them.

"It worked." Claire admitted. "I mean... They were so real. They could touch and even hurt us."

The younger Redfield looked over at Eva's badly hurt arm when she said this and sighed with frustration.

"Too bad we didn't figure it out before I broke my arm." Eva said.

"I still don't understand how I got infected with Las Plagas though." Chris pondered. "I don't remember getting injected at all."

"When one is unconscious, they tend to be fairly unaware of most things. You continued to slumber quite steadily, even after I injected the parasite into your neck." Wesker informed him.

Chris glanced at the Wesker still standing slightly behind and to his left, near one of the cages. Then spun around fully towards the door they had all entered through when they had first found this room. Standing by the door was a second Wesker who looked exactly like the actual one standing near Chris. The newly arrived Wesker was the one who had spoken and this time Chris and the others weren't fooled. They knew this was Sin.

"You injected me?!" he exclaimed in anger.

"Correct," the Wesker look-alike said to him. "The majini had knocked you out for only a few minutes but while your team was busy fending off the hoards, I slipped right by their defenses and infected you."

He seemed proud of this accomplishment and he smiled at Chris. It was Wesker's smile and this only caused Chris to become even further infuriated. "What for?!"

Sin shrugged his black-clad shoulders, the smile leaving his face as he answered in earnest. "To have a little fun at your expense. It was rather amusing watching your team wonder if they would need to take your life or not. The fear in them was palpable and very exciting. You didn't disappoint, Christopher. You fought the parasite with all your strength, refusing to give in to the urge to kill your friends. Very impressive I must say."

"You sick freak!" Claire yelled at him.

"I'm sin in the very flesh, my dear. What were you expecting? For me to do good? A laughable concept."

Claire fumed silently as she stared at the Wesker look-alike with barely restrained anger. Chris was not able to restrain himself as such. He gave in to his temper and walked straight up to Sin. He drew his weapon and pointed the handgun right between Sin's eyes. Or at least it would have been if he hadn't been wearing sunglasses since he was currently masquerading as the blonde haired tyrant, who never seemed to be without the dark shades.

Sin waited patiently for Chris to do something more, and when he didn't, disappointment crept across his features.

"Go on then. Pull the trigger. It should be easy when I wear the face of a man you loath."

Chris's jaw tightened and he clenched the gun, his finger lightly pressing against the trigger but not even close to what it would take to actually fire the weapon. Sin didn't seem at all surprised.

"You can't do it, can you? Men like you need a reason to kill." Sin determined critically.

"I have plenty of reasons." Chris snarled, angry at his inability to shoot the man, or whatever he was.

Sin had infected him with a dangerous parasite, brought them all to the mansion where his BSAA teammates had been killed off one by one, and had recreated enemies who wanted to kill them. He was the very definition of someone Chris wanted to shoot, especially when his face was Wesker's own. But he also knew he couldn't do it and Sin saw right through his tough exterior.

"And yet you still fail to act." Sin pointed out. "Do you know what your sin is, Christopher?"

He lowered his weapon, knowing he wasn't going to use it. "No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me."

Sin ignored the contempt in which Chris thickly coated the words with and continued. "You lie to yourself until you believe whatever you need to get the job done. Take my good friend Albert here..."

"I'm no friend of yours." Wesker stated firmly.

Sin pretended not to have heard the other man but did alter his next words slightly. "Take Albert here... You've convinced yourself that Albert is no different than the other monsters you've had to eliminate. And you tell yourself that he's just someone, or rather, something that needs to be put down. But even as you tell yourself this, you know it to be untrue. You have seen his humanity reveal itself again and again. Even you couldn't have failed to notice how he lets you live at each encounter. Or how he took so long with his plans of world domination and somehow even allowed a leak so that a certain organization known as the BSAA would come investigating... He made it so painstakingly obvious that he was waiting for you to stop him, Christopher. Even Albert isn't enough of a bastard to allow the entire world to suffer..."

"Enough talk," the true Wesker interceded.

"Hmm, not in such a good mood to chat are we? No surprise there." Sin derived. "Then we'll get right down to business. Though business is always pleasure for me."

"Get to the point." Wesker said harshly.

"There is no point. I want you to die. All of you. And die you shall. None of you will make it out of here alive because my next trick, is a real...killer." He chuckled at his own cleverness as he started backing away from Chris.

Sin quickly departed the way he had come, out the door. Chris started to run after him but soon stopped in his tracks. Sin had been in Wesker's form and apparently could move as fast as the tyrant when he was.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Nathan asked, looking over at the area Sin had just vacated.

"I don't know but I doubt it will take us long to find out." Chris replied, turning back to face the others.

Chris immediately regretted his words when the room around them began to bend and warp. The group looked around themselves in alarm as the very walls of the room began to extend and morph. The musty concrete floor upon which they stood became marble floors and in the very center, red carpet. Stairs began to add to the small pair of steps directly in front of them and each step also became covered in the red carpet. The old metal banisters were replaced with sleek wooden ones and the walls continued to push back, making the room larger. With the group watching in amazement, they soon found the room had changed into the foyer of the Ashford manor which was where they had first run into Alexia and Chris's sister.

Heavy foot steps resounded throughout the room and a tall broad shouldered man came stomping out from behind the staircase. Calling this thing a man was perhaps too kind. It wore black pants, a black overcoat, black boots, and black gloves but the exposed head and neck was another story. Its skin was a pasty white color and the skin around its lips was gone, exposing muscle and teeth, making it appear to be grinning constantly. Skin had been sewn crudely over its right eye with large stitches so that it only had sight with its one beady left eye. To put it simply, the thing was ghastly to behold. But it also presented danger, for there was a rocket launcher mounted on its left arm. The thing resembling a man walked out from behind the stairs and paused when it reached Claire Bennet, who happened to be standing nearest to the left by the stairs and to the creature. It stared at her as if trying to comprehend something and Claire stared back nervously. She glanced towards the others, her face slightly twisted in disgust at the creature's hideous appearance.

"What is that...thing?" she asked no one in particular.

Wesker was the one to answer her and it was really no surprise to them. He had been a researcher for Umbrella at one point so he tended to be rather knowledgeable in these sorts of matters.

"That is a modified version of the original Tyrant model. Umbrella infected it with a parasitic organism of some kind designed to increase intelligence. Before being deployed they are first programmed with instructions."

"So basically it's just like the tyrant we fought from the mansion lab, right?" Chris questioned.

"Not exactly. This one is capable of simple thought processes unlike the other and can even make decisions. They named it Nemesis." Wesker informed Chris, a hint of approval in his voice.

"Nemesis?! Isn't that the monster that stalked Jill in Raccoon City and killed Brad?" Chris demanded.

"Correct. Nemesis would have been a success too, but of course Umbrella wasn't satisfied enough. They needed something better, more deadly."

Claire glanced at the thing and then at Wesker. "So...what is it doing?"

"It's assessing your threat level. As long as no one draws their weapons it should leave us alone." Wesker told them, eyeing Bennet who had been reaching for his handgun.

Getting the hint, Bennet withdrew his hand and kept it at his side. Nemesis was turning away from Claire now, disinterested. The creature took a few steps and then paused, rotating in Chris's direction.

"Sstaarrss..." Nemesis said, the word nearly masked by the growl emitted along with it.

Chris's eyes widened as the creature locked onto his form. Wesker raised any eyebrow as he seemed to realize his mistake.

"It seems this is the exact Nemesis from Raccoon City." Wesker said slowly as he put the thought together. "Which means the tyrant is also programmed to kill all enemies of Umbrella, specifically STARS members."

"Not a STARS member any more... Good Nemesis..." Chris said to the creature, hopelessly trying to keep the thing from attacking.

Nemesis merely repeated its previous sentence.

"Sstaaarrrsss..."