Resident Evil: Tangled Web

By: PhantasmBabeIvory

Author's Notes: Sorry for the long wait. This chapter underwent quite a few drafts before I felt completely happy with it. Hope you all enjoy it!

If you haven't already, please check out the poll on my profile page. (I've removed Frederic's name from the list since it's now obvious it's not him.)

Chapter Eighteen

"We can't leave him gagged forever, Claire."

She looked up from the revolver in her hands, though she continued idly rolling the barrel with her thumb. "I'm not that eager to talk to him, Elliott. Even before we got here, he was on my list of people I never wanted to see again."

Elliott stepped over to Claire and kneeled in front of her, catching her hands in his. "Burying your head in the sand is not helping… I need to know what you're thinking."

Claire's eyes darted toward Frederic; Elliott could hear a sharp intake of breath behind him. "A lot of people got hurt or killed because he got greedy." She looked back down at the gun. "Wesker's no saint, but he doesn't have nearly as much blood on his hands. He's only directly murdered two people himself that I'm sure about."

Elliott hesitated. It sounded like she was trying to psych herself up to do something. "I wouldn't blame you if you want payback for what Frederic did to you," he said softly.

Claire wordlessly got up after a moment. Elliott watched her cross over to Frederic and stand next to the table he was positioned on. "I have a lot of questions for you. But after the way you played me, I don't trust you to be honest. So here's how this is going to go." She put the barrel of the gun against his knee. Frederic began breathing heavily in response. "If at any moment I think you're not being straight with me, I will pull the trigger. Understand?"

Elliott couldn't tell if she was serious or if this was just a ploy to get the man to talk. He went to stand on the other side of the table, conveying to Claire with a look that he wouldn't stand in her way.

Frederic nodded, and Claire reached down to rip off the masking tape. Frederic recovered quickly, looking at her with wide eyes. "You're going to kill me, aren't you?" he said.

Claire scoffed. "It's sad that you think I'm that vicious. Not that you don't deserve it. Let's not forget that you tried to kill me when you set a time-bomb inside Wilpharma. Was that always part of your plan, or did you just improvise because I got in your way?"

"None of that was planned," Frederic said with a gulp. "Surely you can't think I meant for you to get contaminated. For all I knew, you could have turned just like the G-Virus' other subjects."

Claire laughed bitterly. "Wonderful. I'm just a happy accident then. That makes it so much better." She hesitated. "Did your company really try researching a vaccine for the G-Virus, or was that just a lie?"

"That part was true. Three years were spent on that endeavor, but we never came close to promising results. The higher-ups eventually decided it was too costly to keep funding the project."

"At least Wesker has some data to work with," Elliott said. "Something that tells him what not to do."

Frederic paled. "Is that what he's intending? To pick up where Wilpharma left off? I had no idea he was interested in such a thing. It's a shame. We could have used his help."

Claire shifted the gun against Frederic's knee. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but even Wesker doesn't think very highly of you. I don't see him taking you on as a colleague… How did you get here?"

Frederic blinked. "I don't even know where 'here' is."

Elliott moved closer. "A hidden underground facility in West Africa," he answered. "Welcome to the abductee club."

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Frederic asked.

"It doesn't matter," Elliott said. "You're not the one who gets to ask questions! Now answer ours. How did you get out of prison?"

"A fellow prisoner shanked me. Collapsed one of my lungs and caused internal bleeding while he was at it. The last thing I remember is being airlifted to the nearest hospital for emergency surgery. I only woke up two hours ago, and I was here."

"How long ago? When were you attacked?"

"December 7th, I think it was," Frederic said.

"That was three days ago. You expect me to believe you've been unconscious that long?" Elliott asked.

"It's the truth!"

"It makes sense if he was drugged," Claire said. "That would have made it easier for Wesker to get him here with no fuss."

Elliott turned to look at her. "Seems like a lot of trouble to go to just to give you a shot at vengeance."

"I doubt it's that simple," Frederic said, looking at Claire. "Your friend in the Secret Service came to visit before the attack. He suspected I was responsible for your disappearance, probably even more so now."

Claire's face fell. "Give the devil his due," she said quietly. "Wesker really thought this one out." She turned her gaze to Frederic. "You make the perfect scapegoat."

"And odds are the trail goes cold while our loved ones and the cops are looking for the wrong person," Elliott said. He locked eyes with Frederic. "Your chances for a bright, shiny future don't look good no matter which way you slice it. But maybe you could help us in the meantime. What do you know about Wesker?" Elliott asked Frederic.

"Only what I've heard through the grapevine. I know of him only by reputation. If anyone could manufacture a vaccine, it would be him."

"Not particularly interested in that," Claire said dryly.

Frederic blinked. "I would think that you of all people would be all for it. Considering you're one of the strongest advocates about keeping Umbrella's creations from harming the world. Why wouldn't you want to see a cure put on the market?"

Elliott scowled. "You already know that her friends and family are looking for her, and you have the nerve to ask that! You really are lacking in brains!"

"A cure may be something I'd like to see, but not like this. Not under these conditions," Claire said. "And certainly not with a lying madman calling the shots."

Frederic cast a nervous glance at the gun still aimed at his knee. "Albert Wesker might be many things, but a liar is not one of them. My sources tell me he's not known for always revealing the whole truth, but he's never outright lied about anything."

Claire's finger tightened on the trigger. "I didn't ask for you to put him in a positive light."

Frederic cringed. "You told me to be straight with you. That's all I'm doing," he said, voice shaking. "Please don't shoot me."

"That's dependent on whether or not I like your next answer. Can I be returned to normal? Go back to who I was before the explosion?"

"I don't know. There's never been anyone like you before, Miss Redfield. It's not an easy task to rewrite someone's DNA when it's been altered in an unusual way," Frederic said. "Even I wouldn't know where to begin." He shifted on the table as though working out a cramp. "If it means anything, you got lucky. There are worse fates you could have endured."

Claire didn't give either of her companions any time to react before pulling the trigger. Elliott just about jumped out of his skin at the deafening sound of the bullet leaving the chamber. At the same time, a shriek escaped Frederic's lips. It took both men several seconds to realize that Claire had altered her aim and shot the thick padding of the medical table instead.

Elliott recovered when the acrid scent of urine reached him. A look of disgust crossed his face. "You have got to be kidding me," he said to Frederic. "Congratulations. You're one of the biggest wusses I've met."

"No argument there," Claire said. "What gets me the most is you're not even sorry, Frederic. You know better than most people what instincts the G-Virus awakens in its hosts. For all you know, I could just be having a delayed reaction to the negative effects. What do you think it would have done to me and my brother if I'd turned, especially during one of his visits?"

Looking deathly pale, Frederic said, "I'm sorr…"

Claire silenced him by pressing the barrel against his forehead. "It's too late! You lost the right to apologize!"

Elliott took a hesitant step forward, afraid that any sudden movement on his part might drive her to do something she'd regret. "Claire, stop. This isn't you."

"I don't even know what I am anymore thanks to him."

"You're a good, caring person who just got caught in a bad situation. That's what I've seen and what I still believe." He took another step toward her, cautiously placing his hand over the weapon. "Shooting him won't make things better."

It seemed to take forever before Claire loosened her grip on the gun so Elliott could take it from her.

Frederic breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God…"

Elliott retrieved the piece of duct tape from the table where Claire had affixed it. "That's enough out of you," Elliott said, placing the tape back over Frederic's mouth. He turned to Claire, gently grasping her by the elbow. "Come on. You'll feel better by putting him out of sight."

Elliott drew the curtain back into place before guiding Claire over to the far side of the room. He idly glanced at the gun in his hand as he settled onto the floor and leaned against the wall. "You know, I'm surprised Wesker left us with a means to shoot him when he comes back."

Claire sighed. "I wouldn't advise it. My brother Chris tried the same thing when he ran into Wesker back on Rockfort Island… The most you'd accomplish would be to piss Wesker off."

"The guy's impervious to bullets?"

"No, just fast enough to dodge them."

Elliott had trouble swallowing that. "Bullshit," he said flatly.

She half smiled; there was a hollowness to her voice when she spoke. "Do you really want to risk putting it to the test?"

Elliott set the gun on the floor after a moment of thought. "Maybe not." He glanced at her. "You look like you could use a hug."

Claire chuckled bitterly, but still scooted closer to him. "I'd prefer a guarantee that my life could go back to normal. But a hug sounds nice."

Elliott wrapped one arm around her. "You don't have to answer if you don't want, but Wesker mentioned that your friend, Sherry, was exposed to a different strain of the virus. Care to talk about it?"

"You may regret asking. It's not the most pleasant story."

"How much worse can it be than anything else you've told me?"

It took a long moment for her to speak. "One of the negative effects of the virus is that it makes the carrier want to propagate a new species. But it can't be just anyone who gets, uh, impregnated. The embryo will only successfully take root in someone who's a close genetic match to the host."

Elliott closed his eyes. He suddenly understood what worried her the most about mutating while her brother was close by. "And William did so with his own daughter."

Claire nodded. "By that point, he was just a mindless beast driven by instinct, but yeah. Fortunately for Sherry, the process could be undone. Her father, while he was still himself, formulated a way to kill the embryo before it matured. But that cure didn't eradicate the traces of the G-Virus from Sherry's system. She has a healing factor too, but nowhere near what we've seen of mine. It takes her longer to recover from injuries." She paused. "The government facility where she's being held – there are scientists there who have studied her for years trying to better understand the virus and its properties. Odds are I'd face the same thing if we ever get out of here."

Unsure what to say, Elliott gave her a comforting squeeze. It elicited a sad smile from her.

"I feel like such an idiot," Claire said. "I've been so focused on how badly I want to go home that I didn't consider all the variables. Wesker promised I would see my brother again, but he didn't say under what circumstances. I wouldn't put it past Wesker to trigger my metamorphosis just to get at Chris."

Elliott leaned closer so he could whisper in her ear. "All the more reason to find a way out. Either on our own or with RogueChild's help."

Author's Note - RogueChild's identity won't be revealed until one of the final chapters of the story. Happy guessing until then.

up next - Wesker encourages Claire and Elliott to set terms for the duration of their stay. Frederic is moved to another part of the facility, though Wesker promises he won't be around for long.