Once they had a moment to settle after the sudden Licker attack, the duo decided to check the rest of the floor before making their way back to the greenhouse.

Getting the lights back on had the added bonus of releasing a lockdown that had been in effect and opening the low-temp lab they would need to make the herbicide. With the path cleared for them, they took a flight of stairs back up to the greenhouse and used the code found under the helix trophy to unlock the chemical locker.

"Well…that was an annoying waste of time." Claire commented as the system ejected the now full canister that she clipped back on her belt. The two of them having spent several minutes mixing the solution to the right consistency.

"Mixing chems is a strict science. Too much or too little of something can cause dangerous side effects." said BJ as they made their way back to the low-temp lab.

"I didn't take you for a chemist." replied the young Redfield as they took the stairs back down to the lower levels.

BJ shrugged, "Mom and dad did their best to get me to follow in their footsteps. I did have a knack for science, but it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. Good thing I can put that knowledge to use now."

They entered the lab, shivering from the almost sub-zero temperatures and approached the cooling unit and inserted the chemical mix into the system.

Inside, the mechanical arm picked up the canister and moved it to the correct slot. Inserting it into place, the machine quickly cooled the concoction before the arm removed it and brought it back over to the insertion point where it was ejected back out.

"So much for the hard part." said Claire, taking the now frosted canister.

"Then let's finish it." The Marine said back. The duo left the lab, encountering a couple of wandering zombies that they put down quickly as they made their way back to the greenhouse control center.

Injecting the solution into the control panel, the system locked it in place before the PA reported the dispensing process. BJ and Claire watched from the window as the herbicide began raining from the sprinklers above, the reaction was almost instant as the plants began to wilt and blacken.

The whole process took only a couple minutes, but when it was finished they stepped out into the now much clearer greenhouse. "So much for the weeds," said Claire.

"Warning: You have dispensed a dangerous solution without authorization." The PA reported. "Your actions have been logged and you may be subject to disciplinary measures."

"Yeah, go fuck yourself." BJ snarked back as they found the body with the security chip they needed laying on the walkway. He wasted no time pulling the chip from the dead man's bracelet and inserting it into theirs. "There shouldn't be anything stopping us now."

As if to prove him wrong, a small group of plant monsters came lumbering out of the ruined foliage toward them.

"I don't think they appreciate us killing their friends." said Claire as she switched to her grenade launcher. BJ brought his flamethrower to bear and unleashed a jet of napalm into the center of the group, Claire followed up with a round from her launcher to spread the blaze farther and encompassing the living plants who released a chorus of screeches.

Without waiting for them to either regroup or survive the flames, the duo ran back to the control room and followed the corridors back toward the central chamber. BJ tossed his now empty flamethrower onto the walkway as he and Claire crossed the bridge over the deep chasm of the facility. Activating the panel on the central platform that activated the bridge that led to the Western sector.

"Almost there." BJ said under his breath as they made their way across.

When they reached the other side, he stopped before reaching the door. Something weighing heavily on his mind for a few moments before he turned to his partner. "Claire, I need you to promise me something."

The brunette frowned in confusion, but remained silent. "If something happens. If for some reason I can't make it back. Promise me you'll make sure Sherry gets out of here."

"BJ…" Claire was caught completely flat-footed from the statement, not expecting it at all. "What…What the hell are you talking about?"

"I can't explain it. But ever since we got to this facility I've had this horrible gut feeling." he admitted, "It made me realize that no matter what happens to me, Sherry needs to get out of all this."

Claire shook her head in disbelief, "D-Don't talk like that! We're all getting out of here!" She grabbed his shoulders and glared at him, "That includes you, understand."

The Marine smiled, "I'm just speaking in hypotheticals, Claire. You're the only one I can trust to look after Sherry if the worst should happen."

A moment passed and the young Redfield suddenly looked unsure, "BJ…I don't know…how would I even…" she froze when BJ put her hands on her arms.

"Claire, I have no one else. I know I'm asking the world and then some. But there is no one else I can trust with my little sister's well being…please." BJ said pleadingly.

Claire couldn't look away from his gaze. He really was asking the world of her in that moment, but she could see that he wouldn't even consider asking this of her unless he had complete trust in her. And after everything they've seen, done and experienced together she could understand how she'd earned such from him.

Just like he'd earned such from her.

Swallowing thickly, the brunette nodded. "Okay."

BJ nodded back, "Okay." They quickly gathered themselves and continued. The automated doors opening on their approach and they found the body of another Umbrella Spec Ops laid out on the floor, their body carved up and laying in a dried pool of their own blood.

The door in front of the body had been forced open, the dense metal warped and bent outward as though something had smashed its way through.

"Well, can't say this looks good." Claire commented.

BJ knelt down by the body, going through the pockets briefly before they carefully made their way through the broken doors, the duo found themselves in another lab. The lights were off forcing them to bring out their flashlights that they used to scan the room.

"You made it."

They snapped their weapons and flashlights to the far corner and were surprised to see Annette Birkin standing in front of a fuse panel tinkering with the wires. A moment later there was a spark and the lights and machines flickered to life.

BJ and Claire lowered their weapons, "What is this place?" asked the young Redfield.

"William and I's personal lab." answered Annette as she began moving about, checking various machines. "It's where we kept the samples of the G-Virus and the Devil antivirus, and it has the means to make more."

"Then what do we do to make it?" asked BJ stiffly.

"I have all the elements I need to synthesize the antivirus to help Sherry. But we're missing one key ingredient." Annette turned to her son.

"Your blood."

The air became very heavy, the Marine looked downright thunderstruck while Claire was shocked to her core. "What?" BJ asked in almost a whisper.

The older Birkin took a deep breath, "We never told you, but after you were born you became very ill. Your father and I went to several doctors, even a few colleagues, but none of them were able to find a way to help. We were desperate.

"We'd just started working for Umbrella, and they had the resources to help us and funding if it meant they could benefit from our work in the end. Your father and I ran tests, tried different medians, until one day we made a breakthrough. We created a serum that would boost a person's immune system to unparalleled levels."

BJ felt his stomach drop to his feet, "What…What are you saying?"

Annette gave him a long look, "Did you ever notice how you've never gotten sick? Not so much as a cold while those around who did? Or how you seemed to heal from injuries quicker than others? The serum your father and I created, we gave it to you when you were only a few months old. In no time at all your illness went away, your immune system became stronger along with your body's natural healing, and from that we were able to open a new field of antiviral research."

The shock had worn off and a blinding fury had taken its place. BJ crossed the room in quick strides and had his mother against the wall, his sidearm pressed to her head. "YOU USED ME AS A FUCKING EXPERIMENT?!"

"BJ!" Claire shouted, only being able to look on from the sidelines.

"We did what we had to do." Annette said, calm despite a gun being put to her head by her own son.

"But you and dad managed to benefit, right?!" BJ bellowed, "Made yourselves a name in Umbrella at the price of using your child as a guinea pig!" His glare could have melted steel, the raging inferno in his veins wanting to reach out and incinerate the woman in his hands.

"It was always about your careers." he hissed dangerously, "Nothing else in the world mattered to either of you. Sherry and me? We were just distractions, easily left behind so the two of you could continue to push farther in Umbrella's good graces. Was any of it worth it? Was it worth sacrificing us?!"

"I DIDN'T WANT TO LOSE MY CHILD!" the woman screamed suddenly.

Mother and child glared at one another, a tense standoff that anyone could tell had a large amount of baggage about to explode. Annette had tears slowly siding down her face as her blue eyes looked into the identical ones of her son. She slowly reached up and held his face in her hands, the tenderness of the action nearly knocking the wind out of BJ.

"I've never been the best mother." she admitted softly, "I've made many mistakes. But having you and your sister wasn't one of them. When I held you in my arms for the first time, I swore to do whatever I could to protect you." More tears fell, "You were so small, so weak, I would have done anything to ensure you continued to live."

BJ lowered his weapon. He didn't know how, but he somehow knew she wasn't lying to him. The gun clattering to the floor when it slipped from his numb fingers.

"I know how much you despise your father and I." Annette continued, "We were never there for you, forcing you to grow up faster to be there for Sherry when we weren't. Part of me wants to blame Umbrella for it, but it was our ambition to dig deeper and push farther in our fields that kept us from home. I could only watch as you grew up into the man you are from the sidelines, raising Sherry in our stead, you were a better parent to her than we could ever try to be."

"And now you both face the catastrophe of our mistakes."

The last statement had both BJ and Claire reeling. "What does that mean?" asked Claire, having remained silent all this time.

"What has happened here, what has happened to Raccoon City, all of it started the moment they came for what William and I created." answered Annette.

X Flashback X

William Birkin ran into his private lab and went directly to the storage unit that held the samples of everything he'd spent most of his life working on. Punching in the access code, he quickly started removing various multicolored vials and slipping them into a specialized case he had opened on the floor.

They wouldn't take his research! Everything he and his wife had sacrificed for wouldn't be taken from them without an ounce of recognition that they rightfully deserved.

He'd just slipped the last vial in the proper pace when the sound of metal crashing behind him had him spinning around. Finding several rifle barrels aimed in his direction.

Umbrella's personal Black Ops unit had found him.

"Doctor Birkin! You will come with us quietly!" Ordered the leader of the squad.

William stood slowly, clutching the sealed case to his side. "You think I didn't know you were coming?" he said, slowly reaching into his lab coat. "This is my life's work! I'm not handing over anything!"

"We have orders, Doctor Birkin." The squad leader relayed, finger tight on the trigger of his weapon. "I'll ask you one more time-"

The man pulled a sidearm from his coat, and was instantly pelted by a hail of bullets. "STOP! HOLD YOUR FIRE!" The squad leader shouted, the gunfire stopped as Birkin laid in a pool of his blood.

One of the other soldiers checked his vitals and cursed, "He's dead, sir."

"What the fuck were you thinking?!" the leader demanded of his subordinates, "We were supposed to take him in alive!" No one answered him and he cursed again before getting on his radio. "We're in, sir. But there was a SNAFU. Target resisted, we had to take him out." There was a moment as their superior responded. "That's correct, sir." Another moment passed, "Roger that. Just the samples then."

He motioned to one of the others and they picked up the case from the dead doctor's hands. The still warm blood dripping off the metal onto the floor. No one said anything else as they filed out of the room.

Unknown to them, William was still alive. Despite his numerous wounds, he sat up against the storage unit. Gritting his teeth in pain and hatred at having everything he'd ever worked for taken away.

Reaching into his lab coat again, he pulled out a syringe filled with a dull-purple fluid. "Nobody, is taking G from me." he hissed through bloodied teeth before stabbing the needle into his arm and injecting the contents.

Pulling it out, he threw the syringe aside where it rolled across the floor and stopped at the feet of his wife who was looking at him in horror.

"William…what have you done?"

William stood up slowly, his wounds healing at an accelerated rate but his body had begun to convulse sporadically. "G IS MY CREATION!" He bellowed, stumbling in the direction the armed gunmen had gone with the sealed case.

Annette shook her head, grabbing her husband's dropped gun and aiming at his back. She knew what the virus would do to him, what would happen if she allowed him to mutate…but she couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger on the man she loved.

She could only watch as he left the lab, the sound of clothes and flesh tearing reaching her ears before a primal roar tore through her soul.

X Flashback End X

"I should have killed him while I had the chance." Annette lamented, "I don't know why…I just couldn't do it."

"He was your husband," said Claire. "You loved him."

The older woman gave a sad smile, "We were more married to our work than each other." She looked at BJ who had his gaze on the dried blood pool where his father had laid.

"Why?" he asked.

"William?"

"Why would you abandon Sherry in this shithole as it all burned down? If you felt so damn remorseful, why leave her on her own to fend for herself?" he asked, turning to his mother with a sharp, judgemental gaze.

Annette looked away, "I couldn't let her grow up in a world with the G-virus in it. It had to be destroyed. She would have been safe-"

"The whole fucking city is a necropolis!" the Marine snapped, "Everywhere is overrun! The only survivors Claire and I encountered didn't last more than a couple hours. There is nowhere safe in Raccoon City! If we hadn't found her…" he trailed off, not wanting to consider that 'what ifs'. "Whatever, that doesn't matter. You said my blood can help make the antivirus?"

His mother nodded and moved over to a machine similar to the mixer he and Claire had used to make the herbicide. "I only need a small amount, enough to destroy the G-embryo in Sherry's body and purge it from her system." Annette said while picking up a syringe.

"Then let's get this over with." BJ rolled up his sleeve as his mother came over and inserted the needle. Filling half the syringe with his blood before removing it gently. Annette took the vial to the machine and inserted it, pressing a few buttons on the attached keyboard the gathered materials were drawn from their respective vials and mixed within the system.

Minutes ticked by, nobody spoke or made a sound as they waited for the results. A small door on the side of the machine opened and a vial containing a dark-teal serum was ejected into Annette's waiting hands.

"This is it." she said after looking the concoction over with careful eyes before handing it to her son.

"We're running out of time. We need to get back to Sherry." BJ said, pocketing the antivirus and drawing his AR-15.

"The door down that corridor should lead us back to the NEST's entrance lobby." the older Birkin stated while pocketing the antivirus. "It'll save us precious time."

"Then let's go." said Claire, machine pistol in hand as the three of them double timed it in the direction Annette pointed out. Exiting the lab and going across a long walkway with a wide circular platform in the center toward another door on the far side.

They had just made it past the central platform when a loud bang rattled the metal beneath them. Spinning around, they were met with the sight of the mutated William Birkin as he rose up from the floor where he had landed.

"Seriously?! Him again!" Claire exclaimed, she and BJ raising their weapons to fire when Annette pushed past them. Pulling a bulky handgun from her lab coat and aiming it at what had once been her husband.

"This ends now, William!" she shouted before pulling the trigger. A large projectile left the barrel and exploded against the abomination, bathing him in an odd fluid that caused steam to sizzle off his form.

The mutant Birkin roared in agony, falling to a kneeling position before collapsing face-first to the metal catwalk.

BJ slowly lowered his weapon before turning his attention to his mother as she reloaded the handheld launcher. "...mom?"

"I'm sorry." she said, her voice tired and solemn as she looked up at him with a broken expression. "I know you will never forgive me for what's happened in the past, but the least I can do is make sure you and Sherry have a future."

Annette reached into her pant's pocket and produced a pair of flash drives that she handed to her son. "The first drive contains evidence of what has happened in Raccoon City. The other contains everything you and Sherry will need to start over anywhere you want to go. Don't let Umbrella get away with everything they've done."

Taking the two drives, BJ looked at his mother not knowing what to say. She saw this and shook her head, "I owe you both this much. I'm only sorry I couldn't have given you more."

Claire watched the interaction before movement behind them caught her attention. "LOOK OUT!" The two Birkins snapped up in time to see William's mutated form lunging for them with his massive claw arm outstretched.

BJ went to raise his weapon, when he was suddenly shoved aside. Annette screamed as large claws enclosed around her body with bone crushing force and raised her in the air. Managing to fire the small launcher in her hand into her mutated husband and making him roar in pain as the same fluid coated his body and seemed to burn him.

Flailing his arm, he threw Annette across the room and into the far wall with enough force to dent the reinforced metal.

"MOM!" BJ roared before unloading an entire clip from his rifle into the G-mutant's body as it started to convulse violently. Three more arms burst from its frame, two larger than the others that came out of its back like enormous wings while the claws on the slightly smaller ones grew very long claws.

Its head became bone-like with glowing yellow eyes, and a series of large teeth formed a circle on its chest while dozens of small eyes sprouted across its body. The largest one, now bigger than a car's hood and a glaring red color, opened and swiveled on the elbow of the right-side 'wing arm'.

Alarms blared as the platform and walkway began to lower, Claire stood at the console by the door beside where Annette was now slumped against the wall she had been thrown into. "BJ LET'S GO!" she shouted over all the noise.

The Marine turned from her to his father's monstrous form. It wouldn't stop. It would keep coming and keep mutating.

"No." he said, taking the antivirus from his pocket and forcing it into Claire's hands. "Take my mom and the serum and get back to Sherry. She doesn't have much time left."

"What? But-" Without warning, BJ slammed his lips over hers. Any words or thoughts in the young Redfield's mind were instantly lost the moment they made contact. Claire's shock wore off almost as quickly as she pressed back, taking in the warm feel and taste of the Marine's lips on her own before he pulled away.

"Get going, I'll be right behind you." he said with a half-smile before dropping down to the still lowering platform.

Claire shook herself and sent him a half-hearted glare, "You better." She reached down and helped Annette to her feet, slinging an arm over her shoulder to keep her supported.

"...W…illiam…" The older woman hissed through the pain she was in.

BJ looked up at her, "I got this, mom. Go. Sherry needs you now."

Annette locked eyes with her son, and nodded. "Don't stop…until it's finished…" Claire helped her through the door and they disappeared.

Once they were safe and out of sight, the Marine turned back to his former father as the platform finally stopped on the lower level. Lights coming on to illuminate the much larger lab area they were now in the middle of.

"Alright, old man." BJ stated as he reloaded his AR-15. "I think it's time you and I buried the hatchet."

The mutant Birkin roared in primal challenge and stomped toward his prey. The fight between father and son was about to reach its apex.

X

A/N: A bit of a short chapter, but I'm gearing up for the grand finale.

A piece of BJ's past has come to light, he and his mom managed to hash a few things out, and the antivirus for Sherry is on its way to her. Not to mention Claire and BJ had a moment that many were looking forward to.

Now BJ just needs to deal with his father. Everything's reaching an apex, soon it will be the final run to the exit in true RE fashion.

Already at work on the next chapter, there should be about three more before I put this story to bed. And I'll be sure to make them worth the wait in the end. Till next time folks.