Chapter 20

-Saying Goodbye-

Dante started walking purposefully towards Chris and Eva, determined to finish them off. Chris placed himself in front of Eva as Dante came at them but then a flash of some kind went off directly in front of them. A man was standing between Chris and Dante. His body was similar to Dante's in that it was see-through. Standing between the two of them they could see the new arrival wore a STARS uniform.

The man faced Dante. "Why don't you just back off, ya hear?"

Chris stared incredulously at the spirit standing before him. "Forrest?"

Forrest Speyer glanced back at him and a grin spread across his lips. "Hey Chris."

Another flash of light. "Still getting yourself into trouble, eh Chris?"

Kenneth Sullivan had just appeared near Forrest and had spoken to Chris. A few more flashes and now Joseph Frost and Richard Aiken were also standing between Chris and Dante. A flicker of annoyance passed across Dante's features as he took in the appearances of the deceased STARS members.

"What is this?" Dante questioned irritably.

"We're here to make sure you go back where you belong without hurting anyone." Joseph informed him.

Dante seemed to be searching them for some kind of answer and then he smiled. "Ah, you can only protect him. Then I'll just move on to someone else."

He turned his eyes onto Peter and Nathan, who were standing behind him and to his left. With a smile, he took a step towards them threateningly but that was as far as he got. Two figures appeared in front of the Petrelli brothers.

"I'd appreciate you keeping your hands off my sons." Arthur Petrelli said sternly.

"Yes, it would be in your best interest to listen to him," added the man next to him, who was Linderman.

Nathan and Peter seemed surprised at who had appeared to protect them but Dante just looked infuriated. He spun around and headed for Matt but a young woman stepped in his path with her hands on her hips, after she came in a flash of the weird light that seemed to keep happening.

"Uh yeah, you can stay away from him," she said with attitude.

Matt was amazed to see her. "Daphne!"

The short blonde twisted her neck to gaze at him, smiling. Dante was growing increasingly upset and Chris got the feeling he was losing his ability to stay in their world. It seemed the appearance of the other spirits was causing him to lose his control. Searching among each member of their group, his eyes finally landed on Wesker.

"You! You won't have any to save you!" Dante decided, and moved towards Wesker with murderous intent.

Two flashed of light and then a woman with long blonde hair and a man in a lab coat were standing between Wesker and Dante.

"Wrong," the woman said to Dante.

"He has friends too," the man in the lab coat informed him briskly.

Eva stared at the man in the lab coat as if trying to figure something out. "Birkin?"

Birkin gave her a small smile. "You remembered. Wow, how you've grown."

"How's Sherry?" Birkin asked, looking at Wesker. "Is she alright?"

Wesker replied smoothly. "Of course. I promised I would look after her."

Birkin nodded with relief and turned back to face Dante. Meanwhile, Wesker now only had eyes for the woman standing next to the white coated scientist. She sensed his stare and turned to look at him with a smile.

"Albert..." she said as she gazed at him.

"Jane, I'm so sorry... I didn't think Umbrella would come after you." Wesker said, a hint of sadness in his tone.

"Spencer wasn't happy when you decided to transfer out of the lab. It was no accident. Spencer ordered those men to kill me and take Eva. Let's be thankful you arrived in time to stop them," the woman told him.

"But I didn't. You-" Wesker was cut off.

"You did. You kept them from taking our baby and that's what matters to me." Jane Wesker informed him. "Now you have to let me go, Albert. You've been using my death as a reason to do many things I never would have tolerated. Enough is enough. I know it's difficult but you need to move on and let me go."

"Mom?" Eva asked the woman in a small voice.

Jane turned around to look at her and smiled. "Eva... You're all grown up."

She seemed to notice something strange. "But, green eyes...?"

"Umbrella injected her with a virus the night they killed you." Wesker told her.

Immediately the woman's eyes lit up with worry but Eva quickly spoke. "The virus isn't anything bad. It just allows me to heal if I die."

Jane didn't seem much more calm about the whole idea but she appeared to accept it as reality and turned away from Eva.

"Sin, it's time for you to go." Jane told Dante firmly. "You don't belong here any more than we do."

"No!" Dante thundered. "I want my fun! I want them to die!"

"It doesn't matter what you want." Sheva had appeared and was standing next to Jane, fixing Sin with a hard stare. "What matters is that you're going to the world you belong in."

Dante was becoming increasingly see-through and he lifted his hands out in front of him when he noticed they were disappearing. Fixing them with a final glare, he started to disappear entirely.

"Humanity is weak! Humans will always sin and as long as they sin, I will never truly die. I will never be just a memory!" Dante raged before vanishing entirely.

A strange swirling cloud appeared near the edge of the hill, in what could most readily be described as a vortex of some kind. Sheva turned her gaze to Chris.

"Just so you know, I had changed my mind long ago about betraying you. Once I got to know you I knew I would never be able to do that to you. We were partners, Chris, 'til the end."

Satisfied she had said what she wanted, Sheva was the first to enter the vortex and Daphne, Linderman, and Arthur Petrelli immediately walked over to the strange cloud as well and passed right through it. When they did, all three disappeared into thin air. It seemed it was time for them to go back where they belonged as well, in the world of the dead, whatever or wherever that might be.

Forrest Speyer scoffed and gave a laugh. "Not so tough."

Jane gave him an almost scolding look and he abruptly cut off his laugh. The deceased STARS soldier gave Chris a giant grin before trotting over to the vortex and stepping inside. The other STARS members went over to it and Joseph waited outside of it as the rest went in. He waited there, looking in Jane and Birkin's direction. Apparently he was waiting for them to depart first. Jane turned back to her husband and though she couldn't actually touch him, she placed a hand by his cheek as if to caress it.

"Take care of her." Jane whispered softly.

There was no need to specify who she meant, for there was only one girl that Jane cared about more than anyone else. She gave Eva one last smile before heading straight for the vortex and going in. Birkin followed behind her and that left only the deceased STARS member Joseph Frost. He stood there with his arms crossed against his chest and he looked to Chris.

"Someone wants to see you." Joseph told him.

Chris started to ask what he meant but his question caught in his throat when he saw her. Jill. She was standing right in front of the murky vortex, staring at him. The two long time partners stared at each for several long moments and seemed to be communicating some sort of private message between the two of them. Though her eyes remained sorrowful, Jill smiled comfortingly at Chris.

"It's going to be okay." Jill said to them. "It really is."

She examined Chris's face one last time, then turned and departed through the vortex. Chris gazed after her lingeringly and Joseph met the BSAA agent's somber expression with a friendly smirk. He shifted towards the vortex and glancing behind him, the dead STARS member waved a hand out to the side in farewell to his old comrade, Chris. Then he was gone and the vortex faded from sight. And then the entire hill was shifting and morphing, disappearing around them.

Chris, Eva, and Wesker found themselves standing outside the tyrant's compound in Africa. The same building which used to belong to Umbrella but was now Tricell's property. The three quickly established that they were alone. The rest of the group had vanished, most likely to the various places they had come from. Now that this was all over, they had gone home and the remaining three were left to pick up the pieces.