My great thanks to HighFlyingWings, who kindly chose to use some of his free time to be my beta reader!
Sheva glanced around her, as she, Jill, Chris, and Josh made their way deeper into the cave that Irving mentioned, their motorized boat allowing them to quickly reach the place.
Sheva had no real idea of what they were going to find there besides more infected, and neither Hunters seemed willing to share for the time being.
All she knew was that they were apparently pleased by Irving knowing of this place, which was rather confusing.
Shouldn't it be the opposite, if this place was actually important?
"So this is the place he was talking about." she said, trying to convince them into sharing more info.
"Looks, docks!" pointed out Josh at what lied further ahead.
"That's our destination. Drop us off here, Josh." said Jill.
They disembarked, Josh frowning at them all.
"So, you three are really gonna go through this?" he questioned.
"Yes." declared Chris. "From what it sounds like, a whole bunch of infected are going to hit what lies deeper inside this place. We're here to stop them."
"And we need to stop the Uroboros project at all costs." replied Sheva, though she glanced at Chris curiously. "Just… Why are they attacking here?"
The two Hunters shared a glance, before Jill looked at her.
"There's a research outpost deep in the area. That's going to be their target."
Sheva looked at them both. Considering the secrecy…
"Insight Corp's.?"
"Nowadays, yes." answered Chris.
… Which implied it wasn't always. Well, this whole mess was getting more confusing, though the secrecy was at least partially explained by it being Insight Corp.'s secrets. The company was rather tight-lipped about those at all times, after all.
"I guess there's nothing I can do to stop you." said Josh, and Sheva saw the pride and worry in his eyes as he looked at her. "I will call HQ and give them a sitrep on everything. I'll also try to get you all back-up."
"Send those to Aeon's side of things." declared Jill. "We won't need them. Trust us."
Chris nodded in agreement.
Josh frowned. "You are certain?"
"Absolutely."
He stared at Jill and Chris for a few seconds… Then sighed.
"Very well. Try not to get yourself killed!" he finished, looking at Sheva.
She smiled, nodding at the two Hunters. "I like my odds with those around me."
He sighed, then took the boat around and left, throwing them one last salute before going out of view.
Sheva followed the two Hunters as they began walking deeper into the cave. "The name that Irving mentioned, Excella…"
"You heard of it before?" asked Chris.
"The Director of Tricell's African's division." she replied.
"Correct. ISIS has been suspecting her of collaboration with Wesker back before his death. We wanted to investigate her further, but a lot of things happened between Wesker's death and right now. Of course, it seems like we're about to finally get our chances at getting her once and for all. All we needed was the evidence of her crimes in order to act."
"That's… If Tricell is truly corrupt, I fear for Africa. It gathered quite a lot of influence in the continent these last few years." grimly pointed out Sheva.
"We're aware. We'll deal with it in due time. We should focus on the present. I don't think we'll reach our destination without getting into a fight." warned Chris.
She sighed. "Very well."
They moved on, Chris' words quickly proving prophetics as some kind of spider-like creatures bursted from the ground to attack them.
Thankfully, they were "just" the size of a human head, and really didn't like lasers, so they were quickly slaughtered as they arrived.
Soon enough, they came across the first evidence of ancient ruins, as they pushed their way through heavy, carved stone doors to go further into the caves.
And Sheva immediately froze, as an entire underground ancient village spread itself out before her eyes.
"I never knew that such a place existed here…" she muttered in both awe and shock.
Chris, however, was looking down at the ground, covered in footsteps in the ancient dust covering this place.
"Looks like there was a lot of activity here, and recently."
"Then Irving was telling us the truth." Sheva declared.
Chris grunted. "Be ready for anything."
"I'm starting to get used to that after fighting with you two for this long." Sheva said dryly.
Both Hunters glanced at her with amusement.
"You think we reacted the same in the Mansion? I mean, Aeon was… Aeon."
"Oh, we had it worse, we didn't even know about B.O.W's back then." Jill remarked, blue eyes twinkling.
"Good point."
They kept going, cautiously glancing around. City fighting was always the worst, and the fact this was an ancient city in ruins didn't change that.
Sheva spent a moment lamenting the need to fight in an incredible historical area… And then the infected showed themselves.
By suddenly filling the area with lasers from lasguns.
"Shit!" Sheva cursed, instantly rolling behind cover as old instincts kicked in and laser bolts created holes in the stone all around her. "Lasguns?! Infected with Lasguns?!"
"Damn, Excella really kept the most deadly stuff for her true target!" complained Chris, from somewhere further beyond- she couldn't afford to look without getting shot at.
"Chris, plan?!" shouted Jill.
"Aura!" shouted Chris back.
"... Very well!"
Sheva had no idea what that meant, but one moment the infected were firing at her position, the next everything became a cacophony of sounds.
After a few seconds, she dared to peek out of her cover to look, and her eyes went wide.
So far, the Hunters, despite everything, had mostly stayed at human levels of strength and speed, with only a few moments breaking the upper human capabilities.
What she was seeing was them utterly discarding them.
Both Hunters were right now running across half-broken walls, jumping inhumanly large distances to both get closer to their enemies and avoid enemy fire.
They jumped, ran, rolled and almost outright danced from broken rooftops to broken rooftops, guns firing or swords flashing as they cut their ways through the enemy ranks with no hesitation and no mercy.
The sheer speed, agility, and strength on display left Sheva to stare dumbly at them, and the few moments where laser bolts came close to hitting, a glowing shield of energy would suddenly sprang up to protect them from harm.
These were the Heroes of Manhattan in action. No longer pretending at human limitations, they blurred across the battlefield, bringing death and destruction everywhere they went.
Her eyes could scarcely follow them, only the broken corpses left in their wakes stood as testament to their actions and deadly skill.
In seemingly no time at all, what was a large force of infected with perfect ambush positions turned into a graveyard, both Hunters not even winded by the slaughter they had unleashed.
They turned to look at her, barely a drop of blood on their bodies, and Sheva swallowed.
Their enemies had sent their best, infected soldiers armed with modern equipment to guarantee the success of whatever mission they had been given.
Obviously, whatever advantages the enemy mastermind (Excella?) had thought she possessed…
Well. The risks were calculated.
Unfortunately for her, the woman must have been horrible at military calculations.
"Come on, let's go." calmly said Chris, and Sheva silently got out of cover.
What was there to say, when gods of the battlefield told you that victory was at hand, than to go forth and claim it?
-
They kept on moving.
Against legions of infected, they kept on moving.
Against whatever elite soldiers infected by Las Plagas to be stronger, faster, tougher, they kept going.
Against countless perfectly executed ambushes, traps, overlapping firing lines, they kept going.
It was a slaughter. The most shocking part was how quiet things always were.
At first, there was laser fire, explosions, war cries, and more.
And then the Hunters moved, and silence fell on the battlefield.
There were no screams of pain, for every blow was deadly. There was no hesitation, no doubt, no mistakes; no wasted shots or movements.
There were only the sounds of corpses hitting the ground. Of weapons falling from lifeless hands.
Of infected being cut down like wheat before the scythe.
Sheva did her best to help. To attract attention, to distract the enemy, to kill whoever she could before the Hunters reached them.
Even so, there was no doubt in her mind.
A single Hunter was all that was needed to win.
Two? It was overkill. Gross, absurd overkill.
The infected, the great B.O.W's, terrors of humanity…
They were helpless. Utterly outmatched.
The battlefield was a slaughterhouse, the Hunters the butchers, and the B.O.W's were the poor lambs led to the slaughter.
They kept on moving.
They faced traps, poisoned darts from the walls, pitfalls, giant balls on fire rolling towards them.
Sheva wasn't even sure the two Hunters really noticed any of them. They dodged everything, avoided everything, and did so with such skillful grace that Sheva felt fat and slow in comparison.
It was like they had experience traveling in trapped ancient underground cities and tunnels somehow! But that was absurd, right?
… It should have been, but at this point she wasn't even sure anymore.
They kept going.
The next corridor began to literally collapse around them, and Sheva ran harder than she had ever ran before in her entire life.
She could almost feel the weight of the stones crashing a hair's breadth away from her… and still, the two Hunters didn't even seem worried, merely sprinting forward like they did this a thousand times over before.
They slid under the closing stone door at the end of the corridor, Sheva rolling underneath instead, panting for breath, her heart beating fast and sweat clinging to her.
The two Hunters got up, calmly dusted themselves off, and didn't even have the decency to breathe hard to rest!
What the hell were they feeding these guys?! She thought incredulously.
They kept on moving.
They came into a room where they had to interact with various statues to move onwards, more infected coming out to kill them.
Both Hunters jumped across the room and began killing.
From pillar to pillar, from crumbling wall to crumbling wall, they jumped and ran and avoided every laser bolts while slaughtering their enemies.
The infected sought to kill them through sheer numbers and laser weapons.
They failed. Miserably.
In less than five minutes, the only remaining things moving in the room were her, the two hunters, and all the puddles of blood spreading everywhere.
And then the same flying creature that had come out of a truck once before suddenly came out of a hole in the ceiling of this place, screeching loudly.
And Sheva was left to stare in stunned shock as Jill took out her swords, took off at a running start, jumped towards the monster still in mid-air, and impacted it in the belly, driving her two swords down deep into its insides and then letting gravity drag her down, the monster shrieking in agony as it was disemboweled.
Both Huntress and monster hit the ground, the first with cat-like grace and the second in a rough manner that only opened its insides even more, at least until Chris came running and jumping as well, his greatsword going hilt-deep inside the creature's brain, killing it instantly.
Chris tore his sword out of the monster's body, both Hunters nodding at each other, before they glanced at her.
Chris smiled. "Come on, let's get going."
And Sheva followed, the two Hunters walking away from their combined kill as if nothing of note had happened.
-
Eventually, they found the presence of the ISIS soldiers that was to be expected if this place really was an Insight Corp. research outpost.
And by that she meant she found where the true battle took place.
Arriving in a wide open area holding even more ancient buildings, they found themselves at the back of the tattered remnants of what used to be a pretty impressive army of B.O.W's.
The corpses of hundreds, perhaps a thousand of very-well equipped infected holding lasguns were sprawled everywhere, the remains of dozens of Lickers could be seen across the area, and more of the flying monsters lay in bloody chunks across various buildings…
And of course it was essentially impossible to miss the massive corpse of a spider-like monster crushing several houses with its size, great wounds on its body oozing blood like waterfalls, with one man she recognized easily standing over it, having seemingly just finished killing it if the way he stood holding bloodied sword and gravity gun in hands was anything to go by.
Aeon Muradasilova, leader of ISIS stood tall, seemingly uncaring of the sheer amount of blood and gore covering him or of the massive monster's corpse he stood upon, glancing around at the rest of the battlefield with calm focus as he took in the situation around him.
From who Sheva recognized as Rebecca Chambers standing surrounded by a green cloud that was outright melting dozens of B.O.W's without harming her, to the twin Summers currently killing more surviving B.O.W's every second while what had to be a hundred corpses lied broken on the ground behind them, and of course over a hundred ISIS soldiers all over the back end of the area in various defensive positions gunning down the remaining B.O.W's, the smoking holes present on the majority of the B.O.W's bodies making it clear who had killed those.
And of course, there were smoking craters all over the place full of various monstrous and human-looking body parts from the various types of B.O.W's.
Quite obviously, what few B.O.W's Sheva and her team had encountered had been nothing more than stragglers in comparison to whatever small-scale army had assaulted this place.
Jill and Chris didn't waste any time, charging in the back of the remaining formation of B.O.W's, Sheva shaking herself off from the sight of the wrecked battlefield before her and joining in whenever she could.
Their arrival was not missed by either friends or foes, as part of the remaining group of B.O.W's still alive turned to fight off the newcomers, while the ISIS soldiers reacted to their arrival by redirecting some of their firepower to provide cover fire and shoot down targets of opportunity created by the shift in the battlefield.
The ensuing fight was hardly worthy of being called such, as the combined might of Humanity fell upon the overwhelmed B.O.W's with deadly focus, each Hunter carving lines of slaughter so violent that blood flew in the air to create areas covered in blood-red mist and clouds.
Sheva was once again free to observe the greatest B.O.W's fighting force in the world, and it was pretty quickly clear that no amount of giant monsters or well-equipped Nipaya, the regular Las Plagas infected, could do anything against those gathered here today to fight them off.
Sheva still fought, killing off as many as she could, but even she had to admit it was a drop of water in the ocean of blood brought by the soldiers of ISIS…
Especially the Hunters.
And especially their leader, who moved so fast that Sheva couldn't, for the life of her, tell exactly when the B.O.W's died.
One second she was staring at entire groups of heavily-armed Nipaya, the next there were only corpses, with Aeon casually walking away from what used to be an enemy position.
In the end, a few minutes later, the last infected fell dead, and silence was returned to the entire area.
All Hunters present met at the spot where the last surviving infected had been, talked a little about something she was too far away to hear, before Commander Aeon, Jill, and Chris came her way, the others cleaning out their weapons of gore or just making their way back to the ISIS soldiers.
"Sheva Alomar." the leader of ISIS declared, smiling at her. "I imagine that you had an interesting time with my two Hunters?"
Sheva snorted. "Interesting is certainly one way to describe it."
His smile widened. "Good. I figure that you have questions, so why don't you follow Jill and Chris deeper inside the place? I'll rejoin you all shortly."
Sheva nodded. Considering that a battle had just been fought here, one with over a thousand combatants, she figured he had some post-battle matters to attend to first.
"I'll gladly take any answers you can give me, because while I understand that there are concerns that the BSAA branch I am a part of is infiltrated, I have… so many questions about everything."
"Understandable. As I said, don't worry, I'll give you what I can. In the meantime, being able to relax, eat, and drink something would probably be appreciated, I'm sure."
Sheva laughed. After fighting for hours upon hours since this insane mission began, she really could use all of that!
"Absolutely! I'd kill for a good cup of coffee right now."
Commander Aeon grinned. "Fair enough. I'll leave you two to guide her to the base camp."
"On it." declared Chris, Jill smiling at her.
Sheva followed them, passing through the battlefield, seeing smoking craters, broken B.O.W's corpses, various evidence of heavy Dust usage and more.
The air tasted of blood and death, of fire and smoke, though both Hunters didn't even blink at their surroundings.
If anything, they seemed to relax, here amongst the bloodshed, with the ground so filled with corpses that the ground ran red with blood.
They passed by ISIS soldiers, all of them standing at the ready of a potential second army, weapons held firmly in their hands.
"Will there be more attacks?" she couldn't help but ask.
"Not from what Aeon told me. Why?" asked Jill, glancing curiously at her.
"The soldiers seemed on edge." she pointed out.
Jill blinked, glanced at the ISIS soldiers, then back at her with confusion. "What do you mean? They are actually pretty relaxed."
Sheva stared back, and then glanced at the ISIS soldiers.
… Nope, it still seemed like they were ready for a fight at any time.
"They are all but standing at attention, like they are about to duck down under cover at the slightest concerning sound and open fire." she said dryly.
Chris glanced at her. "No, they are relaxed. Trust us on that, this is them being relaxed."
She blinked.
… Different standards, she supposed. She was used to the relaxed way freedom fighters held themselves, or the BSAA soldiers who were, while well-trained, by no means on the level of ISIS.
Finally, they came inside the facility, coming inside a tent obviously meant for relaxation.
After all, there were tea and coffee machines!
Sheva all but collapsed in a chair, properly relaxing for the first time in what feels like an eternity.
In no time at all she had her coffee, a few things to eat, and Sheva had to push back the desire to just take a nap for a few hours. Hopefully, she could do that soon-
"Alright you lot, get moving! We need to be out and about as soon as possible!"
-and that shout coming from Commander Aeon's voice broke that quickly.
She didn't even have time to properly get up before said man entered the tent and waved her back down.
"Sit down, we'll be talking for a little while. We can afford some time to do so before we need to get going."
"Going where?" she couldn't help but ask, incredibly confused.
Commander Aeon smiled. "You'll see in a minute. But first, explanations."
He sat down, Jill passing him a cup of tea he cheerfully thanked her for before enjoying it for a second…
And then he looked her in the eye.
"Alright, so all of this is obviously highly classified, though how long that will remain true depends after the coming operation is over."
He took a second sip and sighed.
"The story of all this began in 1998. In the aftermath of Raccoon City, Insight Corp. grabbed as much of the resources of Umbrella as we could. The goals were as much enemy asset denial for anyone else trying to pull off a Umbrella 2.0, as it was to destroy Umbrella itself. This place-" he waved at their surroundings "-was part of that. This facility is where everything began when it comes to Umbrella-derived viruses. Spencer himself and his first group of researchers found what they called 'The stairway to the Sun'", a specific kind of flower holding what they named the Progenitor Virus."
Sheva blinked in shock. "You mean-"
Aeon grinned grimly. "Yep. The t-Virus, the G-Virus, you name it- it came from the Progenitor virus found here."
He took another sip of tea. "Now, they rapidly encountered a wall blocking their research: the Progenitor virus present in the flowers existed only in this place. Any attempt to cultivate the flowers elsewhere created only that: the flowers, without the virus. This was, obviously, a problem, and so Umbrella created a facility here to better study and harvest the Progenitor virus."
He sighed. "When Umbrella fell, Insight Corp. bought the rights to this entire place, as we knew of it but couldn't do anything until Umbrella was gone, and then, well."
He grinned fiercely. "I set up a trap."
She blinked. "A trap?"
"A trap. Aeon really loves those." said Jill with an amused grin.
The man in question merely grinned wider at her words. "You see, the virus could only be created from here, and everyone in the know knew it. So what I did was collect a certain amount of the virus for anti-virus research… And then I cleansed the place, top to bottom, of anything holding the virus. It's gone, now- nothing remains. Nothing."
Her eyes widened. "That-"
Aeon's grin was wide and vicious. "But, and that's the important part, I deliberately put in a lot of work to ensure that it looked like the flowers and the virus still existed, and that we regularly harvested more of it for research. I knew that, at the very least, Wesker would know about this place, so one day, someone was going to try and take it from ISIS, or at least raid it for samples. And so, I waited. For 10 years now, I waited for someone to make their move on this place. And finally… Excella Gionne took the bait, hook, line, and sinker."
He let out a deeply satisfied sigh. "And so we come to recent events. Everything you were a part of was a bait, a distraction from the real objective. Excella knew about this place, and so wanted to draw my attention to the area around it, away from her real target. She chose this area for testing the type 3 Las Plagas, deliberately leaked info about Irving, and then waited to see if we took the bait. And then seemingly, we did."
He took another sip of his tea. "She couldn't have just charged in this place with an army. She knew we would have noticed the logistics required to even bring that army around in the first place. She needed a reasonable target for us to focus on, one that was both in the area, would explain mass use of resources, and not make me question things too deeply. So, the tests of Las Plagas, the attempt to bleed the BSAA and ISIS with waves of infected, and traps, and spies, the works. It really was pretty damned well set-up, no question. The problem were that, A), this place held none of what she needed, which was samples of the Progenitor virus to stabilize the Uroboros project. And B), the fact that I knew her true goal all along. Still, I needed to make her think that she had me and the BSAA fooled, so we played the part. I brought ISIS in force against the 'outbreak', and sent not one, but two Hunters against her sacrificial pawn Irving, who was always meant to be used as bait. And again, she bought everything. Me throwing so much manpower against her waves of infected showed her that I believed that to be the real threat to focus on, and having two Hunters against Irving guaranteed that they wouldn't be here when she made her move."
"But you knew." she finished, and Aeon smirked in triumph.
"I knew. So while she wasted all of her excess manpower trying to keep ISIS busy, I prepared the defenses here in secret. And when she made her move, believing that I was busy elsewhere overseeing the cleansing of the infected city and its surroundings, I actually had myself, the Summer twins, Rebecca and a few ISIS soldiers join the defenses of this place. And I already knew where she had hidden her secret elite army, since that isn't exactly easy to hide, especially when I knew that she would have one at the ready to strike at her real objective, so it was simple enough to know when they suddenly began moving."
Sheva let out a deep breath. So that was it, then.
Excella gambled everything on a successful raid of this place to get samples of the Progenitor virus required for her new virus, and she lost everything instead. With her elite army dead, Irving and whatever resources he had gone, and the outbreak contained by ISIS, she had just lost an immense amount of resources in one operation.
"And what about Excella herself?"
Aeon chuckled darkly. "We recovered recordings of her ordering the assault on this place to her Las Plagas controlled soldiers. She was so certain that she had all but won that she actually gave the order herself and didn't bother hiding it properly. More, ISIS tracked down the bases where all of those B.O.W's and more came from, so we're not going to give her time to get out of this one. We're going to strike at her now, and take out the bases where she did her research and made her B.O.W's."
"Now?" she exclaimed in surprise.
Aeon turned grim for the first time in this conversation. "We got reports of her preparing a special bomber a few minutes ago. Apparently, she learned of her failure and decided to go full-scorched Earth tactics… Except with the entirety of Earth."
Jill and Chris' eyes widened in shock, and Sheva froze. "Wait, are you saying that Excella is going to try and use her virus right now? But it sounds like it isn't properly finished!"
"It isn't. Most likely, anything infected with it will just melt into a puddle of organic materials eventually rather than anything else." grimly agreed Aeon, and Sheva's mind flashed back to what happened to Irving, in the end. She shuddered imagining that fate for all of humanity. "But Excella has been noted to be more and more unstable after Wesker's death. That's something of a feat, considering she joined up with Wesker in the first place, but apparently he had sunk his claws into her enough that she went a bit crazy with him gone… And well, now she's going full Wesker."
"Shit! Fucking Wesker! He's still fucking us over even after his death!" cursed Chris, slamming his right fist on the table, but Aeon grinned at him. "Well, while we go take care of her bases, I know where the ship holding that bomber is, so your next mission is to go stop her at any cost."
He glanced back at Sheva. "You are free to go with them, if you want to see this to the end."
"Of course." she immediately replied. "We're a team."
Jill and Chris grinned at her words, and Sheva smiled back. She might not be a Huntress… But she could still help make things easier on them, and by the smiles on their faces they were quite happy to have her onboard for this.
"Then it's a plan. The Summer twins, Rebecca and I, along with a group of ISIS soldiers, will go secure her research facility. Meanwhile, Chris, Jill and you Sheva will go stop Excella from damning the world with a half-finished mutagenic virus."
Aeon finished his tea, putting back the cup on the table just when an ISIS soldier arrived and told him they were ready to go.
The leader of ISIS stood up and smirked at them. "Good luck everyone, and-" he winked at Jill and Chris "-Godspeed!"
For some reason, both Hunters groaned at the same time, faces falling in their hands.
Whatever was going on, their reactions seemed to greatly amuse ISIS's leader.
-
Rebecca Chambers glanced at her surroundings, taking in the insides of the Tricell facility making the Uroboros virus that was the latest threat to the world.
For the most part, it certainly looked like any other industrial facility…
If, of course, one didn't count the Las Plagas infected soldiers guarding the place.
All of them were armed with Lasguns, because obviously these guys were meant to be the elite of Excella's army.
Rebecca would give Tricell that much: the type 3 Las Plagas was pretty impressive, biologically speaking. It had everything the regular Las Plagas had, except better.
With, naturally, the same problems of being weak to heat. Aeon's little modification had stumped the greatest researchers of Tricell, as expected.
She snorted. Not surprising, Aeon had given her an in-depth description of his work, and she'd been left stuck between awe at what he had accomplished and the feeling that she was never, ever going to be as good as him in her own field of study.
Logical perhaps, he was a god and she wasn't, but it was still moments like those that really showed off the differences.
Well, either way that wasn't why she was here for. She was here, along with others from ISIS, to help take over this place and ensure its secrets would be destroyed, and it was time to get to work.
Aeon and the ISIS soldiers had taken the main entrance, leaving her and Summer (the silver-eyed one) to infiltrate the place and hit the defenders from the back.
Since it was a stealth mission, at least for the most part, she even had a crossbow of all things for a long-ranged weapon.
Normally more or less useless against zombies… It was perfect for her.
She turned a corner, coming across her first infected. Before it could do anything, her crossbow bolt flew, hitting him between the eyes.
She calmly walked forward, ignoring the sight of his body melting into a puddle of biological materials. Enchanted crossbow bolts, with added runes for extra damage, were far more deadly than most anything else.
She picked up the bolt as she passed by, a quick spell cleaning up before she put it back on her crossbow.
Moving through corridors and wider areas, she could hear the distant sounds of fighting and explosions.
Rebecca herself simply kept going, occasionally hiding just long enough to quickly turn any undead she saw into melting puddles of goo.
As for when there were several grouped together, well, that was what the Multistrike skill Aeon taught her and the other Hunters was for.
She didn't need to hide her superhuman skills here, so it made going through the facility so very easy.
A single infected? Crossbow to the head before it could see her. Group of infected? Multistrike crossbows to the heads.
And since the nature of that skill was that it acted like a duplication ability, any attack with special properties, like her crossbow, would result in the exact same thing: puddles of organic materials that were once infected soldiers.
Now no longer.
Honestly, Rebecca couldn't help but feel nostalgic. Ten years ago, she was terrified out of her mind while dealing with Marcus' madness and every B.O.W's in the Arklay Mountains…
And now here she was, slaughtering B.O.W's far more deadly than any regular zombie with casual ease.
She raised an eyebrow however when she came across a new section of the facility absolutely covered in organic growth, and with a few dead infected stuck in some kind of webbing.
Apparently, these people weren't even able to fully control their own research facility… Or maybe they deliberately let whatever thing had caused this be, in order to research it and learn how to replicate it?
Possible.
Very possible, considering the type of people at the head of this place.
She shook her head and sighed to herself.
Really, how evil stupid could someone be that they would deliberatly let an uncontrolled B.O.W. be inside their own research facility?!
Truly, sometimes it astounded her that humanity managed to survive as long as it did when people like that managed to get power in human civilization…
And no, Billy's joke that "it was something in the water" didn't hold any truth to it.
She checked with samples from every ocean of Earth for potential stupidity-inducing viruses just in case.
But nope, humans were apparently capable of being this foolish all on their own.
She honestly would have prefered Billy to be right, at least it could have helped her find a cure for such stupidity…
Alas, it is not to be.
She kept going, more cautiously now that some kind of unique B.O.W. was apparently hiding around the area.
She took in the various trails of slime around the place, the various growths of organic materials-
*SKKKRRREEEE!*
She turned around, a crossbow bolt flying towards an insectoid B.O.W. of some kind coming closer to her.
Unfortunately, the hard exoskeleton of her enemy caused the bolt to harmlessly bounce, and Rebecca's green eyes narrowed.
Jumping a few feet back, she switched to the shotgun at her back, deciding that a new weapon was obviously required.
The monster lunged, and she greeted it with a shotgun blast at close range.
Her eyebrows rose when the creature, while certainly blasted backward, didn't explode into gore from the shot.
Worse, a cloud of acid was released when the bug B.O.W was wounded, and Rebecca could feel it trying to eat at her flesh.
She grunted, her aura protecting her, before a wave of green magic spread from her, banishing the acid.
The B.O.W. got up and screeched at her… And Rebecca replied by blasting it in the face.
She came closer, her narrowed eyes focusing on the white spots on its body that opened for a few seconds after each of her shots.
She targeted one of those-
*SSSSSKKKKKKRRREEEEE!*
-much to the agony of the monster, orange blood flying around.
She smirked. "Gotcha."
And then she blasted it. Over and over again, uncaring of the clouds of acid created kept at bay or outright nullified by both Aura and magic.
When she was sure it was dead, she sniffed once, then calmly put her shotgun on her back and went to get her crossbow bolt back.
Well, that had been mildly interesting. Surprisingly good exoskeleton to resist her shotgun like that.
The Alloy Cannon, as it was officially called, was capable of blasting a Licker in bloody chunks in one shot, which really said something about that monster.
Ah well. It was dead now, she should focus back on her mission.
Now then, time to get to the real important parts of this place…
-
*SSSSSSSSSSSKKKKKKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE!*
"What is it with bugs today?!" Rebecca shouted, grenade launcher in her hands as grenade after grenade flew towards the weak points of the giant monstrous bug attacking her.
The same one Aeon had dealt with in the attack on the research station, actually.
Here she was, having finally found the place where they were keeping all of their human test subjects, an enormous pit with a central pillar surrounded by a platform serving as an elevator, when this giant monstrous bastard showed up and tried to eat her!
Needless to say, she was not amused by the unexpected last-ditch effort of Excella at killing anyone trying to get inside this place.
Or at least, Rebecca hoped that this monster was meant as one last security guard. If that monster was actually one that was in no way controlled by Tricell, here in their most important research facility, Rebecca was going to find a way to convince Aeon to let her have a long talk with Excella about not being an incompetent idiot!
Finally, one of the monster's legs became too weak, and the head of the monster collapsed on the edge of the platform they were on.
She Quickened forward, scowling. "Eat this, instead!" she growled, throwing a plasma grenade into the monster's maw.
She quickened back-
*KA-BOOM!*
*SSSSSSSSSSSKKKKKKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE!*
-and her eyes widened when the damned thing didn't die despite just eating a plasma grenade to the face.
"Damn, you're a tough one, huh?" she muttered.
The monster recovered enough to glare at her with palpable hatred, blood falling from its burnt maw like rivers, and Rebecca glared right back.
"Alright, you glorified mistake of evolution and human science, let's end this!"
She took out her axe, which began to glow a bright green, and then charged forward.
If grenades didn't work, then how about magic and brute strength?
The monster slammed a massive claw right where she used to be before she Quickened out of the way, her feet carrying her forward straight at the monster's face.
The giant bug B.O.W. roared in challenge at her coming, before striking forward, Rebecca's green eyes tracking its movements as its open maw came closer to her body.
Not yet.
Her vision filled with the head of the monster, she kept moving forward.
Not yet.
Her vision filled with the open maw of the monster, she kept moving forward.
Not yet.
Her vision narrowed, seeing nothing but the acid-filled maw of the monster's throat-
Now!
She jumped and Quickened, her right foot smashing open one of the monster's eyes.
It jerked upwards as it roared in pain, throwing her up and above it, and she quickly shifted, taking her axe in two hands-
And then she focused.
"Die!"
She slammed downwards, her body a blur before it hit the hard exoskeleton of the monster above its brain, her ax smashing upon it with such strength that a shockwave bloomed around her, crushing several feet of the monster's flesh downwards.
The worst point was the place where her axe hit, the force of the blow easily breaking through the hard outside, continuing through the soft brain matter, and then continuing even beyond that, through its maw and underneath it, the downward shockwave piercing through the exoskeleton underneath the monster.
The green glow of her axr spread over the soft meaty insides of the monster, the flesh hit by it turning green with decay, quickly turning to dust, the magic spreading more and more as it used the rapidly fading lifeforce of the monster to keep devouring its flesh and decaying it into dust.
Rebecca jumped from the monster's head, coming back on the platform around the central pillar of this place and glancing back to see the monster slide out of sight as its corpse lost its grip on the walls and fell down into the massive shaft of the area they were in.
She smiled and activated her radio.
"Aeon, this is Rebecca. Objective secure. How are things on your end?"
"The defenses are crumbling, and Summer's part of things is done as well. Give it an hour to sweep this place clean, and we'll call it a win."
She let out a breath.
"It's all on Jill, Chris, and Sheva's shoulders to win this for good, then."
Aeon chuckled. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about those three…"
-
"This ship is huge!" muttered Sheva.
They had managed to board Excella's ship just as it was taking off, but they had been taken off guard by how big the ship was. So now they were trying to carefully track down Excella while knowing that hundreds of infected could potentially all charge at them the moment they were discovered, which would make quickly getting to Excella… complicated.
"Do you think they're going to use this ship to spread Uroboros? I know that your leader mentioned a bomber, but…"
Chris shook his head. "No, using a ship like this would give away their position too soon."
"Right. Well, let's get going."
"Agreed. It's time to erase Wesker's legacy once and for all." growled Chris, while Jill nodded. "About time. It's been over 10 years since the Mansion, after all."
Chris grunted in agreement, and with that they were off.
Every person they came across on the ship were infected with Las Plagas, so they had no choice but to kill them as quickly and quietly as possible.
They also came across infected dogs, that they had to put down as well, and some kind of new infected, as every headshot those infected were hit with caused them to violently mutate, a flytrap like mutation bursted from, their necks, made of flesh and bones, along with a fleshy growth on their left leg.
Still, with two Hunters on top of Sheva, they made good time, pressing ever deeper into the ship.
They passed through corridor after corridor, twists and turns one after another in the hopes that they were going where Excella was, or at least where something of worth could be found.
The maps they came across sadly weren't saying where "Evil mastermind" and "world-ending missiles" could be found.
"They really should. It'd make our jobs easier!" joked Jill.
"Reminds me to bring the subject up with Aeon at some point!" replied Chris with a smirk.
"Somehow, I don't think the leader of ISIS is going to be very successful at convincing any evil mastermind into helpfully marking where they and their horrific weapons can be found." pointed out Sheva, amusement clear in her eyes at the mental image of the leader of ISIS trying his hardest to convince Excella to do exactly that.
Both Hunters glanced at each other, grinning.
"You never know." said Jill. "Stranger things have happened." agreed Chris.
Sheva scoffed. "It'd take a miracle for that to happen!"
Both Hunters snorted. Loudly.
Sheva blinked in confusion when Jill looked upwards, lips moving silently as if she was praying to some god or another.
Sheva blinked when… something washed over her, making her instinctively shiver.
"Come on, let's find a map!" cheerfully said Jill.
Sheva looked at both Hunters with a confused look on her face.
"There's no way that will ever work-"
They turned around a corner.
And there, right in front of them hanging on the opposite wall, was a map of the ship, with everything perfectly detailed… Including where the bomber holding the Uroboros bombs was.
There even was a part helpfully marked "Excella's quarters." and everything.
Sheva blinked, while both Hunters smirked smugly.
"I'm sorry… What."
"Nothing that you need to worry about." said Chris, sounding very amused at the look on her face.
Jill was downright smug for some reason. And whispering something about… Awesome boyfriend?
What?
"Come on, let's end this!" cheerfully said Chris, and Sheva could almost see him and Jill whistle innocently as they turned and walked away.
Sheva let out a deep sigh.
"I have so many questions… But you know what? End of the World first. Potential world-view breaking revelations later."
She followed them.
-
Eventually, they came across a laboratory holding data on the Uroboros virus.
The researchers mentioned how immense the difficulties of the project was, as mixing together the various viruses they had possession of was a challenge involving three main problems: excessive mutations, mental atrophy and instability.
Not only the Uroboros virus mutated wildly out of control, causing those infected by it to go on a rampage in order to absorb more organic material to fuel their mutations, but the mental atrophy caused those infected to, at best, become less than what they were.
At worst, there was no mind left, and only a rampaging monster that could not be controlled.
And finally, the problem of instability. Many test subjects outright melted into puddles of organic materials sooner or later as a result of the Uroboros incapability to remain stable on a fundamental basis, which naturally was not what anyone wanted.
It was ultimately hoped that, by introducing more Progenitor Virus into the base virus, the question of stability could at least be somewhat mitigated, for a certain amount of it had been recovered from old Umbrella facilities.
However, the amount available was a pittance compared to what was needed to conduct their research, and so that matter required either a source of the Progenitor virus or an alternative.
"And so Excella's plan to get samples from the research station she attacked." finished Chris.
"Yeah… But look at the mortality rate! Or at the acceptance rate! Most test subjects failed to bind properly to the virus, in fact everyone failed! And as a result, most test subjects either outright died, melting into puddles of gore, or became unstable monsters!" pointed out Sheva.
"Then we stop her before she can use the virus across the planet. No matter what, she needs to be stopped!" declared Jill.
"Agreed. Come on, let's find Excella. It's about time we introduce ourselves in person." growled Chris, before he turned away from the computers and walked towards the nearest door.
They moved on, killing more and more infected. By then the alarms were ringing about intruders, and everyone coming in were armed to the teeth.
The respected lasgun was soon joined by laser machine guns and even plasma rocket launchers. Apparently, none of the infected cared that they were aboard a ship, only that the enemy, that is to say Jill, Chris, and Sheva herself, died.
Thankfully they were pretty far from the hull, so despite the sudden mass use of explosives the ship managed to remain structurally sound.
Though at several points, Sheva could do nothing but hunker down and let the Hunters fight, because she quite simply did not have the speed required to face people as well-armed and ready to use suicidal tactics as these guys without risking herself greatly.
Still, they managed to progress. Against waves after waves of well-armed, mentally unbreakable enemies, they pushed, and pushed, and pushed until eventually no one was left to charge at them.
Every room they left was riddled by laser fire and explosions, the ground and walls covered in blood and gore, sometimes even the ceilings had splatters of blood covering them.
And still, nothing could stop them. With two Hunters of ISIS leading the charge, every defensive position in their way was broken sooner or later, until finally there was none left.
And then they came out across a courtyard on top of the ship, and froze.
There, standing before them, was Excella Gionne, a grimace of pain on her face and wild, crazed eyes staring at them… while behind her a massive pile of corpses, at least a hundred of them, could be seen towering over her.
"Excella!" shouted Chris. "What are you doing?!"
"Winning!" she screamed in rage, almost frothing at the mouth. "Years! Years I spent trying to change the world! To create a new world order filled with god-like beings as Albert envisioned! And who did I find blocking me at every step? ISIS! ISIS, ISIS, always ISIS! Hounding my every step, sabotaging my every effort! Uroboros was meant to be the creation of a divine mutagenic serum, capable of changing the world! Instead, it's a failure!" she roared… Before grunting in pain, falling on one knee.
She looked up with a crazed smirk, a look of pure spite in her eyes.
"I could have been a goddess! A queen ruling a world of gods! If not for you!" she snarled with hatred. And yet, there was a look of grim satisfaction on her face. "But while Uroboros cannot create gods, it can certainly destroy! So that's what I'll do! I'll destroy the world you love so much and leave only puddles of gore where once there were humans! For Wesker and my dreams… If we cannot have victory, we shall have revenge!"
Sheva and her teammates' eyes were wide. "Excella, what did you do-"
"I injected myself with UIroboros!" she grinned widely. "It's tearing me apart, but it will give me the power to kill you all! And while I do that, the bomber I set up is just about ready to launch! It's all automated, and with extensive stealth capabilities, so once it's in the air, no one will stop it! And then me and Albert will have our revenge on this damned world unworthy of our ambitions!"
"She's completely mad." whispered Sheva in horror.
Whatever Chris or Jill might have said would forever remain unknown, as suddenly Excella convulsed violently and exploded in black ooze that reminded everyone of that one monster at the very start of this mission.
The ooze rapidly grew, consuming every corpse on the pile and growing even bigger.
"Move! We need to get to a higher position to fight from!" shouted Jill, glancing at Sheva for a second, and all three immediately began running as fast as they could.
Massive black tentacles of ooze slammed close to them, forcing them to jump, roll and duck as they tried to run to a better position for a fight while avoiding the certain death that would surely follow if the tentacles got a hold of them.
Running for safety was made even harder by the fact that the entire ship, despite its immense size, was rapidly shuddering and shaking as more and more black tentacles of ooze were formed and went throughout the ship.
Again and again, they just barely avoided being hit, Sheva feeling the sweat falling down her face while her heart beat faster than ever as she took in the absolutely massive monster that was still growing aboard the ship.
Finally, they reached a door leading inside the ship and didn't hesitate, running inside before firmly closing the door.
"Persistent son of a bitch." cursed Chris, while Sheva, once again, was the only one left panting for breath.
Though she couldn't help but feel a trickle of fear at the heavy frowns on both Hunters' faces.
"So what now?" Sheva finally asked.
Jill glanced at her, before looking at Chris.
The two exchanged a look.
Then they looked at her and sighed.
"I think at this point we really can't hold back. That thing is just too big." grumbled Chris.
"And we need to stop that bomber." grimly reminded Jill.
"Right. Fuck holding back, then." agreed Chris, before looking at her. "Alright, the good news is, we had time to re-arm properly while at the research camp, so we've got Dust on us."
"And we can give some to you for the fight ahead."
"Won't you need it?" Sheva couldn't help but ask.
They grinned coldly.
"Trust us, we won't."
Sheva was a bit doubtful, but nonetheless took on the reserve of Dust both Hunters had. Dust was still highly secret, with very little actually making it out of Insight Corp. or ISIS's use, but Sheva knew nonetheless how powerful the stuff was.
"Just throw it at what you want blown up, and shoot it when you want the explosion to go off," said Jill.
Sheva nodded. "Alright."
"Good. Now come on, we don't have time to waste."
They ran, passing from room to room and corridor to corridor, occasionally having to duck or roll away from a black tentacle suddenly coming from the walls or ceiling to try and kill them.
When they finally arrived on the rooftop, their eyes widened at the sight of the massive monster before them.
"It's even bigger!"
"Target the areas glowing red!" shouted Chris. "That's the weak points!"
Sheva didn't question the order, and merely took out a red glowing crystal and threw it at one of the glowing red bulbs amongst the dozen of massive writhing black tentacles, before shooting it once it was close enough, the ensuing explosion popping the bulb like an eyeball exploding and being burnt at the same time.
As for both Hunters, they glanced at each other, nodded once… and then Sheva's jaw dropped as they pointed at two different red bulbs and lightning bolts flew from their hands, striking the red bulbs and causing the entire monster to writhe in agony.
"What the-"
"Focus!" sharply ordered Chris, his other hands coming up to fry several smaller black tentacles coming her way.
Sheva clenched her jaw and did as ordered, knowing that now wasn't the time to ask if they had fucking magic or not.
And it's not like she needed their confirmation to see for herself the elemental fury being unleashed.
Sheva kept throwing and firing at various Dust crystals to destroy more red bulbs as they appeared, but the two Hunters had by now completely given up on hiding their supernatural abilities.
Magic flew forth from their hands like the fury of gods made flesh, great lightning bolts mixing with storms of fire which consumed the ever mutating monster and made it shriek in agony (somehow, for it had no mouth that she could see).
Sometimes, their bodies outright turned to fog when a black tentacle was too close to hitting them, allowing them to avoid attacks with greater ease, and their other hands held their swords, which cut through the air and somehow always managed to cut through whatever tentacle was about to attack them, if not several tentacles at the same time somehow.
Sheva had to focus her entire willpower to not gawk at the wizards (gods?) fighting by her side, valiantly trying to ignore the madness of seeing the sea rise to fight the tentacled monster, or the sky darkening and unleashing lightning bolts strong enough to temporarily blind upon the monster.
The fight was pure insanity, more worthy of a ballad of old about legendary heroes controlling the elements fighting great evil spirits than anything realistic, but yet it all stood true before her.
"Couldn't you have just used the Dust for this?" she asked at one point, her mind pointing out that surely the elemental abilities of the Dust would work well with… whatever magic they were performing.
"First, yes but you wouldn't have anything to strike at that thing yourselves then if we had used it ourselves!" shouted Chris, a wave of his hand burning to ash dozen of small black tentacles jumping at him.
"And two, we don't have enough Dust on us to kill that thing with anyway, so we might as well get serious from the start! I mean, have you seen the size of that monster?!" exclaimed Jill, which was fair.
It was by now easily the size of several houses put together, after all.
"Any other questions, or can we focus on killing that thing?!" shouted Chris.
"I'm good!"
At least for now, she thought, because otherwise she had many questions.
Instead, she threw another Dust crystal and shot it, deadly sharp blades of wind cutting another red bulb into pieces.
More and more massive tentacles appeared, trying to either squash them flat or get a hold of them, but the two Hunters worked perfectly together to hold them at bay.
One defended, while the other unleashed powerful elemental attacks on the monster; then they switched, over and over again, as if to keep the monster guessing who would do what.
The night sky was lit up by explosions, great storms of lightning and fire mixing with deadly sharp waves of waters from the sea or the winds.
And eventually, as they avoided or struck down every black tentacles trying to kill them, as they blew up every red bulbs as they appeared, as the Uroboros virus was forced to mutate more and more-
The true core of the monster appeared.
A massive red bulb, the size of a small house, suddenly peaked out from the mass of black tentacles, and Sheva's eyes widened.
"That's got to be its true weak point!"
"Agreed. Jill?"
"Together?"
"Always, partner."
Both Hunters took their swords in both hands, set themselves in positions to swing-
And then they swung their swords at the same time.
And Sheva's eyes bulged.
The air broke, reality shattered, the very space between them and the monster, and beyond, glitching in ways that made Sheva's eyes water at the sight.
The world fell silent, not a sound reaching Sheva's ears, as if the world itself could not believe what had just happened.
Waves crashed against the ship, and she heard nothing.
The ship shook, and she heard nothing.
Fires were everywhere across the ship, and she heard nothing.
The winds, which a moment before filled her ears, suddenly cease to exist.
The colors themselves of the world seemed to drain out, leaving everything gray and unnatural.
She could not hear her ragged breathing, could scarcely feel herself breathe at all.
And before her eyes, the monster had frozen, as if suddenly caught in a moment in time…
Until suddenly everything rushed back.
The waves hit the ship, and she tasted seawater.
The ship shook, and she felt the vibrations underneath her feet.
The winds screamed in her ears as the storm above continued to rage.
The colors rushed back, filling the world with life.
And the monster suddenly split into several pieces, as if a god had brought a knife and cut it deep several times over.
It fell back on the deck of the ship, where it promptly started to melt into horrific massive puddles of organic goop, everything melting and dissolving into an organic soup which was being quickly washed by the waves of the storm raging around them.
Only for that storm to begin to disperse unnaturally quickly as well, as unnaturally quickly as it had appeared.
That thought made her glance to the side, where both Hunters were standing.
For the first time, they were breathing deeply, actual sweat on their brows even as Jill kept on waving at the sky, hands glowing blue.
"Right… We need to stop the bomber. Come on, let's get to it quickly!" declared Chris when he had gathered his breath.
Sheva put her questions to the back of her mind for now, and followed both Hunters as they all but flew back into the ship, quickly going to the nearest control room.
From there, they found that the bomber was minutes away from being launched, Excella not having expected ISIS to find her so quickly causing it to not have been armed with the Uroboros bombs yet.
But they had to move and fast, or it would be armed thanks to a group of Las Plagas soldiers following their last orders currently hard at work arming it.
So they began running once more, gunning down anything in their way as the fate of Earth rested on their shoulders.
Corridor after corridor, room after room, dozens of Las Plagas soldiers tried and failed to do more than barely slowing them down, both Hunters not even bothering with weapons and just blasting anything that moved with lightning bolts.
"Come on, come on, come ooooonnn!" muttered Sheva, running as fast as she could behind both Hunters, letting them kill anything standing in their way since they were faster at it than her anyway.
And then they bursted into the launching pad with the bomber just as an automated voice declared
"Bomber armed and ready to launch in 5…4…"
Their eyes widened.
"We don't have time to get there!" screamed Sheva
"We can't blow it up without releasing the virus everywhere!" shouted Chris.
On the corner of her eyes, she saw Jill freeze, mutter something with desperation and faith both in her eyes-
And then her gun came up and she fired.
The shots hit different but specific parts of the bombers, before she stopped firing.
… Was it Sheva's imagination, or did Jill's eyes glow for a second?
There was a second of silence-
-Followed by the automated voice from before speaking words of such relief that Sheva collapsed on her suddenly weak knees while laughing in gleeful disbelief.
"Damage reports received from bomber systems. Damage renders bomber incapable of flying. Launch canceled until repairs are made."
Chris' eyes widened, before glancing at Jill in shock… and then, unnoticed by Sheva, understanding dawned, and he almost collapsed in relief and gratitude.
He looked upwards, lips moving for a moment before he smiled.
"We did it." muttered Sheva, still in shock and trying to calm her wildly beating heart.
"Yes. We did." agreed Jill.
And then the woman looked up at the night sky, stars twinkling brightly in the heavens, and she smiled.
Her blue eyes twinkled with the light of stars themselves for a second more before turning back to normal blue.
"With just a miracle or two along the way."
-
Some time later.
Sheva saluted, along with Jill and Chris, as both Commander Aeon of ISIS and Director O'Brian of the BSAA stood before them with proud smiles on their faces.
"Thanks to you all, the end of the world as we know it has been avoided, and the guilty parties are no longer a threat to the world. There will be rewards for this, ladies and gentleman, have no doubt." said the Director, eyes bright as he looked at them.
"And I'm sure your fan clubs will grow even more after this, Jill, Chris." remarked Commander Aeon, the man smirking widely at the twins groans of dismay his words earned him.
Director O'Brian's lips twitched into a smirk for a second as he looked at her. "Oh, I dare say it won't just be these two having fan clubs. Saving the world is always a very good PR move, you see, for all of those participating in doing so."
Sheva blanched slightly.
The Director's lips twitched again, before he nodded at them all.
"There will be a more official meeting later for your rewards. For now, this debriefing is over, and I won't take more of your time. Even in victory there is always work to do… Perhaps especially so. But make no mistake: ending the twisted legacy of Albert Wesker once and for all is no small feat, so feel free to go celebrate however you wish. Unless you had any questions about matters we haven't yet mentioned so far in the debriefing?"
"I had one." spoke up Sheva. "What about the suspected spy in the African Branch of the BSSA?"
"Caught." replied Aeon with a fierce smirk. "A woman named Suzuki was working for Excella all along. She even tried to take your place on this mission, Sheva, but was ultimately rejected in favor of a more experienced agent, since Suzuki was only among the BSAA for a few months. Either way, she's been arrested, and considering the number of BSAA agents killed in this mission, you better believe that she's not going to be a problem for a long while."
Sheva smiled, glad to know that this particular issue has been resolved, and equally very satisfied at knowing the spy would pay for the consequences of her actions.
She glanced at Jill and Chris, her mind on everything she had seen them do during the mission, and especially at the end…
"I do have a few questions about some secrets of ISIS I saw during the mission…"
"I'll answer those, if you're alright with it, Aeon."
Sheva blinked as Chris spoke up, drawing a surprised look from Jill and a knowing, amused and approving one from Commander Aeon.
The leader of ISIS nodded, smirking approvingly, and Chris turned to look at her, smiling with something almost hopeful in his gaze as he looked at her.
"I was thinking of a pretty good restaurant where we could talk in peace. If you're interested?"
Sheva's eyes widened as she caught on to what he was asking her, and the hopeful look in his eyes.
For a moment she stared at him…
And then she smiled.
She hadn't expected a man like Chris Redfield to be single, but if he was…
Well.
After everything they had gone through, she certainly wouldn't mind getting to know him better.
She was greatly looking forward to it, in fact.
"Very much so."
A.N: Alright! Here is the next chapter in which we finish the events of RE5.
As you saw, there were quite a few differences to canon, all born from Aeon playing the long game, Wesker's death and Jill not being brainwashed, etc.
Greatest of which is that Jill isn't blond! Truly, the most important part. (Seriously, why the hair change, Capcom? That was just weird.)
That aside, we had ISIS kicking ass, Rebecca taking a walk in a B.O.W-filled facility, the trio of heroes slaughtering their way through most everything, with only Excella requiring them to go all out. Honestly, if Aeon had been here, he'd be grumbling about "easy mode" and how giant monsters didn't have weak points back in his days…
I hope that Aeon's explanation hit every question you readers may have had over what was going on in the background while the trio hunted Irving, and what his overall plan was.
Also, yes at the end Jill prayed to Aeon for help, and got the knowledge on how to cause the system to shutdown the bomber launch in return.
I am so disappointed I wasn't able to write a scene worthy of Chris punching a boulder like in the game… I had thought of having him punch the ship itself in order to break it in half, preventing the bomber from flying as a result of the entire ship suddenly sinking, but sadly the entire scene didn't flow properly, nor would I easily be able to explain things like "Wouldn't the virus sink into the sea then?" and the like.
Still, with all that being said, I hope you all enjoyed this update! Next time, we hit Resident Evil Revelations 2, the last game before RE6, which will be the last game of the entire jump… The next jump is almost in sight!