My great thanks to HighFlyingWings, who kindly chose to use some of his free time to be my beta reader!
Late October, 2006.
"Rebecca, Jill, Chris. Now that you're here, let's get started." I declared, nodding at them.
"Aeon. I heard that we finally got the location of Spencer, is that true?" asked Chris, leaning forward from his chair around the meeting table we were sitting around.
I smirked at him. "Indeed. We'll finally be able to get the bastard… Though more likely than not, we're only going to find his corpse."
"Why?" asked Jill.
I glanced at her, then back at Chris.
"Because we believe that Wesker will be present to kill Spencer at his estate soon. So you'll most likely be meeting one another."
The three ex-S.T.A.R.S. members' eyes widened, before Chris grinned widely.
"So we might be able to get both Spencer and Wesker on the same day? Damn, Christmas is coming early this year."
I chuckled.
"Agreed. We might, indeed, be able to bury two more remnants of Umbrella for good on the same day, which I'm sure we can all agree will make the world a much better place for all."
"No kidding." muttered Rebecca, looking half excited, half nervous at the idea of fighting her old team leader once more.
"Officially, you'll go to the Spencer estate under the authority of the BSAA. O'Brian is just as eager as we are to remove those two from the board, one way or another. Keep in mind however, that O'Brian is the only one to know about the possibility of Wesker getting involved. ISIS has reasons to believe that the BSAA is partially compromised by Wesker, so we can't let the whole organization know that we expect him to be here."
"You really think that Wesker is partially controlling the BSAA?" asked Rebecca, visibly concerned at the thought.
I sighed.
"Tricell is part of the group that supports the BSAA. You understand the implications of this?"
The three Hunters before me grimaced, but nodded.
"When are we going to deal with them? We can't let Tricell continue their studies into the viruses that they have without doing something about it!" declared Chris.
I chuckled. "Soon. If we do kill Wesker, Tricell is going to lose one of their greatest assets in the study of the viruses, and one of the most dangerous masterminds behind… a lot of horrific things."
I hummed, frowning slightly.
"And it's not like Insight Corp. hasn't been trying to probe at Tricell for a while now, but bluntly speaking, we're chasing so many leads at this points from all the potential buyers of B.O.W's to keep an eye out for that we're getting a bit stretched thin. The fact is that ISIS is still a growing organization, and trying to police the entire world, without getting caught, is by no means easy."
I shook my head. "Still, one way or another Tricell is growing from an annoyance to a threat to the world, and that means we're going to get a lot more serious about dealing with them. But first: Spencer and Wesker."
Chris closed his hands into fists, a look of clear anticipation on his face.
"Finally. It's time to end this."
Jill put a hand on his shoulder, the two looking at each other for a long moment before Jill nodded.
"Yes, almost ten years after the Mansion and Raccoon City… We're finally going to get justice for all of those that died because of him."
She looked at me, blue eyes hard and determined.
"Will you be joining us, Aeon?"
"Not quite. I'll join in on the mission, but I'm going to focus on securing the Spencer estate, to get as much intel as we can. After all… dealing with Wesker is rather personal, isn't it?" I answered, looking at Chris, who smiled gratefully at me.
"Yes, it is. I appreciate you giving us a chance to settle this between S.T.A.R.S. members, Aeon. Wesker has been a ghost hanging over us for far too long as it is."
"And of course, if we have a shot at killing him, it's thanks to us being Hunters that we've equal the playing field between us and Wesker. So once again, thank you for trusting us with these powers, Aeon." Jill declared warmly, a grateful smile on her face as she stared at me.
"You've earned it." I simply replied.
"Maybe, but I'm not sure we can ever fully repay you for everything that you gave us, Aeon." said Rebecca softly but firmly. "The things we've learned… What we have become, it's thanks to you."
I smiled at the three before me, all of them looking at me with gratitude for all the help I've given, both on a personal level and for the sake of their entire planet.
"It was the right thing to do." I said simply.
Then I smirked at them. "Of course, if you get your asses kicked anyway, I'll have to save you. Which will hopefully not happen, but I'm sure none of you will complain about a bit of extra training before the mission, just to make sure that you are ready, will you?"
The three grimaced, no doubt more than smart enough to understand that I was going to be particularly brutal this time, but to their credit none of them complained.
I was truly proud of them all… not that I was going to say that.
Not until they earned it by killing Wesker, at least.
Honestly, I'd be damned disappointed if an arrogant fool with delusions of grandeur was actually able to surpass the students of an actual godslayer!
The extra training if they somehow fuck this up was going to be harsh enough they might actually create a combined Nightmare Realm out of their trauma by the time I was done with them!
I willfully ignored the way they all shivered in dread. I was just giving them a friendly look! Honest!
-
A few days later.
Jill Valentine carefully made her way forward, walking slowly through the corridor towards the room where intel suggested Spencer was in.
She glanced around, easily seeing the way that Chris and Rebecca were nervously walking alongside her. Not that she was much different. After almost ten years of working to protect the world from the likes of Wesker, finally being able to get the bastard was…
Well, her emotions were a mess. There was determination, hope, fear, and so much more.
Wesker was one of the greatest threats to the world. If they succeeded in their mission today, they would make the entire world so much safer. If they failed…
She took a quick, deep breath.
Aeon is here, it'll be fine, she told herself.
Rebecca and Chris sent her a look, both of them knowing her well enough that her nerves were clear to see, but she gave them a reassuring smile back.
Worst comes to worst, they had a literal god on their side.
One who had already promised to take care of things if need be.
Which was both reassuring… and concerning.
Wesker had been running across the world for nearly ten years, now. What was it that Aeon had foreseen, that had convinced him that Wesker absolutely needed to die, here and now, rather than later?
She didn't know, but either way it had to be bad enough to convince him to step in personally, even knowing how important it was to the ex-S.T.A.R.S. members that they were the ones to deal with Wesker.
In other words, we can't afford to fail here.
She almost laughed at the thought.
Failure was never an option to begin with when you worked for ISIS.
The consequences of it would be far too great, after all.
Jill stepped close to the closed door in front of them, exchanging glances with her two teammates.
This was it, the room where Spencer was meant to be… and where Wesker most likely was.
Rebecca tightened her grip on her axe and shotgun, Jill held the Swords of Mercy at the ready, the familiar feeling of a grenade launcher on her back, while Chris palmed his sword and las-pistol in anticipation.
Chris nodded at them… and they bursted into the room, weapons at the ready.
They immediately took in the wide open room, the opposite wall having windows showing the cliff sides leading over the sea beyond… and there were two people in the room, one dead and one alive.
The blood-soaked corpse of Lord Spencer, founder of Umbrella, lay on the floor, a grimace of pain on his face even in death easily explained by the fist-sized hole in his chest…
And there, looking out of the windows with his back to them, stood the tall form of Albert Wesker.
The man turned the moment they entered, a lightning strike from the storm outside illuminating his glowing red eyes for a second as he stared at them coldly from behind his shades.
For a moment, the three ex-S.T.A.R.S. members and Wesker simply stared at one another in silence, looks of mixed determination and hatred on their faces as both sides glared at one another, before Wesker began walking towards them.
Jill and her teammates didn't hesitate, and they fired or charged as one, their eyes narrowing when Wesker easily dodged the shots.
Aeon had told them that they should fight Wesker much as if he was a Hunter himself, and it seems he had been spot-on.
Guns wouldn't be enough on their own to win this fight, Wesker was simply too fast for that, each of his movements more than fast enough to leave after-images behind.
If Jill and the others had not been Hunters, they would have been easily overcome through Wesker superior's speed and strength…
But they were Hunters.
Wesker's eyebrows rose when they all charged at him with inhuman speed, axes and swords in hands.
Chris was the first to reach Wesker, who quickly pulled out a knife from inside his long coat and began fending off Chris's swings of his sword, metallic *Clang!* echoing rapidly in the room.
Jill hit Wesker a few seconds later, her Blades of Mercy deflected by a scowling Wesker who was forced to take a few steps back from the combined assaults of both Hunters.
Then Rebecca arrived, and the fighting turned into an incredibly fast three vs one battle where the three Hunters, used to fight togethers as they were, seamlessly surrounded and tried to cut down Wesker to pieces between them.
A few seconds later, Chris managed to punch Wesker in the face, his shades shattering under the inhuman strength of a punch strong enough to send Wesker flying back several feet.
Wesker wasted no time throwing his broken shades away, red eyes glowing with hatred as he stared at all three of them, a trickle of blood coming from his nose.
"I see that ISIS has indeed made you stronger. The irony of you using the same methods as I do for power disgusts me." he spat.
"We're nothing like you, Wesker." hatefully replied Chris. "It is no virus that has strengthened us like that. We did not have to sacrifice our humanity for power like you did!"
"It matters not whatever means Insight Corp. used to empower you. I can always find out by studying your corpses!" Wesker shouted, charging forward with loathing in his eyes.
Knife met sword as Chris and Wesker tried their best to kill each other, Jill charging forward and trying to stab Wesker with her own swords, but annoyingly, Wesker was incredibly skilled with his knife.
Whatever could be said of the man, he was in his own way as much as a perfectionist as Aeon was when it came to combat.
Rebecca obviously agreed, as she raised a hand towards Wesker, and a lightning bolt promptly hit the surprised man in the chest, a scream of pain escaping his lips as he was blown backwards from the spell.
Wesker violently hit the wall behind him, falling on the ground in a smoking heap, before quickly rolling out of the way as Chris threw another lightning spell where Wesker was a moment ago.
He stared at the three Hunters hatefully, his eyes settling on Rebecca and narrowing.
"Rebecca Chambers… It has been many years since we last met. I still remember the foolish little rookie who wanted to help people… My, you've certainly changed since then. You're far less innocent than you were back then, aren't you? Not a shred of hesitation at killing, and your eyes hold only hatred… My, how have you grown. I look forward to opening your corpse and seeing what makes you tick!" he growled, once again charging forward, though this time he focused first on Rebecca rather than Chris.
If he expected her to be the weak link of their group, he certainly didn't get that as Rebecca snarled hatefully back, green eyes glowing with murderous intent and magic alike as her axe deflected his knife and she used her other hand to try and hit Wesker with another spell.
She missed, Wesker not so easily caught by surprise a second time, before Chris and Jill once again joined up and the fight devolved into a brutal three vs one fight once more.
"Yes, I've grown." Rebecca hissed hatefully back. "Because of people like you, I had no choice! The world is full of monsters, and many of them walk around in human skin! You, Spencer, and all of those like you are a cancer which blight this world! Seeking to drag us all down into hell, creating horrors without end just to satisfy your own ego! Beasts like you need to be put down for the good of all, and I'll do it with a smile!" she shouted, slamming her axe into Wesker's knife with her eyes burning with rage and disgust.
It certainly spoke of how deadly Wesker was that even then, the madman who sought to destroy the world held his own, a growing number of cuts managing to hit all four fighters, though all of them quickly healed thanks to the four's inhumanly strong healing factors.
The sheer frustration on Wesker's part at not being able to kill them quickly was obvious, but the man was still too disciplined to make mistakes because of it, simply using his building rage to empower his strike with greater strength and speed instead.
Jill was the one to hit properly next, a full stab in his back piercing all the way through his chest, making Wesker gasp in agony, though he swiftly clenched his teeth and used the fact that Jill couldn't quickly get her sword back from his body to backhand her, sending her violently backwards.
Jill hit the ground with a groan, but quickly got up, feeling the familiar warmth of the Old Blood in her healing her bruised face and broken jaw, noticing that at least she had kept her grip on her swords despite the pain.
Looking back up, she saw Wesker staggering backward, a hand on his wound as both the stab wound on his chest and back slowly healed.
His eyes jumped between all three hunters, before pausing on Jill's.
"Jill Valentine." he hissed. "A daughter of a criminal who rebelled by trying to be the best soldier and most good person she could be, training herself as hard as she could so that she could make the world a better place to prove that she was better than dear old Daddy." he spat. "How could you ever be anything but a pawn in the hands of your greater? First a pawn in S.T.A.R.S., then ISIS! You are destined to always be a tool, Valentine, in the hands of those infinitely your greater!"
Jill sneered back. "And you're better? You're a pet project of Spencer, nothing more than another step in the bastard's plans born from his delusions of grandeur as he tried to create his new world with him at its head! Believing himself to be a god, when he was just yet another madman amongst the many who plagues our world! You may have killed him, but in the end you two are one and the same! Face it, Wesker, if one of us is a pawn here, it's you! Even now, you're just doing what he always planned to do, while pretending it was always your dream all along! He manipulated you into his good little puppet so well that you may as well be his clone!"
Wesker snarled and charged, red eyes burning with hate as his knife cut through the air. A vicious exchange followed, swords against knife, a few punches and kicks mixed in for good measures, before Rebecca and Chris came in to support and Wesker had to focus on defending himself over trying to kill her.
Somehow, the fight quickly turned into a brutal slugging match between Chris and Wesker, who viciously began punching each other, the pain of the blows only fueling their hatred, both men moving so fast that neither Rebecca nor Jill could get involved without risking injuring Chris instead.
"And you!" spat Wesker, glaring with utter loathing at Chris, who glared right back at him with the exact same hatred. "Chris Redfield! Ever since the Mansion, you've always been in my way! Trying to stop my plans! You were a good subordinate in the S.T.A.R.S., but if I had known how much of an annoyance you'd prove yourself to be, I would have killed you much sooner than the Mansion! I made you, Chris Redfield! If it wasn't for me, you'd have been without purpose after leaving the Air Force! I brought you to the S.T.A.R.S! I trained you, taught you how to be a proper soldier! And in recompense you just refuse to get out of my way!"
"I respected you!" screamed Chris back, slamming his sword against Wesker's knife with utter fury in both their faces. "You did teach me so much! I thought I had finally found a superior worthy of my respect! You backed me up when my methods brought results! You supported me when I went against regulations for the sake of getting the job done! And then you betrayed us all!" he raged. "We respected you! We looked up to you! And you used us! Discarded us without a second thought the moment we were an inconvenience to you! Got the majority of the S.T.A.R.S killed! For the sake of all of those who died in that damn mansion, today, you die Wesker!"
Chris pushed his sword against Wesker's knife, sending him stumbling back from the sheer strength of the enraged Chris, who immediately rushed at Wesker, delivering brutal blow after brutal blow against Wesker that the man barely fended off until-
*Slash!*
-Chris' sword cut off Wesker's right hand clean off his arm, the limb flying off and hitting the ground in a splatter of blood a moment later.
Wesker opened his mouth, either to curse or scream in pain, either way it hardly mattered because a second later Chris cut his head off, then kept going, cutting over and over and over into the man's torso, until he finally brought both his hands forward and screamed.
"RRRRRAAAAAAGGHHHH!"
And a massive inferno consumed Wesker's body, incinerating it until only a small pile of ashes was left.
Chris staggered backward, falling on one knee as his strength left him from the massive amount of magic and rage that was now leaving him, only exhaustion and a feeling of mixed relief and immense satisfaction being left behind as he beheld the remains of the now dead Albert Wesker.
"It's done." he whispered, eyes fixed on the smoking pile of ashes.
"Yes. It's finally over. You did it, Chris." whispered Jill, putting a hand on his right shoulder.
He chuckled. "We did it, Jill. We did it. And don't think I haven't noticed the way he was slowing down, getting weaker as time went by, Rebecca."
Rebecca chuckled, holding up her axe.
"Yeah well, Aeon and the others taught me many things… including how to create a scentless, colorless, effectively unnoticeable poison that I could coat my axe with. Every hit I made upon Wesker injected more of it into his bloodstream."
She shook her head. "He was a tough bastard, though. That poison would kill anything other than a Hunter in less than a minute, and he was still doing mostly fine despite the several cuts I gave him."
Jill snorted. "Wesker being a tough bastard is no surprise, admittedly. But it doesn't matter. We got him. We finally got him, after almost a decade after the mansion."
"Indeed you did. Congratulations, that was a very nice fight indeed."
The three Hunters glanced at Aeon, who was calmly leaning against the entrance door, clapping slowly with a grin on his face.
"Aeon. Enjoyed the show?" asked Chris, with only a slight amount of sarcasm. He was both too tired and gleeful at killing Wesker for anything more right now.
"I did indeed. Excellent teamwork, perfect use of poison, and a few verbal burns along the way for good measure. I say you all did a great job!" he cheerfully declared.
"So what happens now?" asked Rebecca.
"Now? We're going to be investigating this place top to bottom, hoping to find anything that can help us put whatever remnants of Umbrella that still exists into the ground where they belong. Albert Wesker is dead, but he's not the only threat in the world, and our work is far, far from done."
His eyes glanced down at the book he had taken from this place, Spencer's life journal.
His eyes fell on a name: Alex Wesker.
"Far from done, indeed…"
-
"So, they are both dead then."
I leaned back in my seat, grinning. "Indeed. Both Spencer and Albert Wesker are dead! Which means we'll finally be able to get started on revealing some of the more important projects that we've previously felt too risky to make public."
Oedon hummed, while Lucy nodded. "Project 'Fountain of Youth' will be the first, I presume?"
"Yup. That's going to send shockwaves throughout the whole of humanity, though its full effects won't be seen for decades. And of course, it's about time we start using a proper super-soldier project! Blackwatch has one for goodness' sake, I refuse to not do one better than those ruthless idiots!"
"You're preparing for the Manhattan outbreak, in other words." said Lucy.
I paused, my grin slipping off my face as I sighed.
"Yes, I am. It's the next important event in the timeline, and the worst part is-"
"We'll be indirectly responsible for it?"
I sighed again.
"With Wesker and Spencer dead, we'll be able to focus on other threats… like Blackwatch. They've recovered their influence somewhat from the Las Plagas incident, where they weren't useful at all in saving Ashley, but now we can really put the pressure on them. Which means putting the pressure on Gentek. General Randall is going to start removing the least trusted people involved with Blacklight and Redlight, killing off scientists and more, and that means-"
"Alex Mercer going rogue… and the events that will follow." Lucy said softly.
I smiled grimly.
"A lot of people are going to die because of us putting pressure on Blackwatch. And yet…"
"They need to go."
"Yes."
We fell silent.
Much like with Umbrella, the fall of groups like Blackwatch and Gentek won't be quick nor silent.
They will not go gently into that good night… far from it.
And in their struggle for survival, they'll unknowingly cause the very events that will destroy them completely.
"At least, we'll be more ready for it than the planet would be in the original timeline." Lucy muttered.
I silently acknowledged the truth of her words. Yes, we would be ready. We did have the technology to let our people easily notice if someone was infected or not, which would be useful in saving countless lives.
Just being able to evacuate people from Manhattan without having to worry about them being infected will be enough to save thousands, possibly tens of thousands of people.
Considering the Blacklight virus could stay dormant within someone for a long time, being able to know whether someone is a carrier or not will be immensely helpful.
And yet, considering how fast the virus could spread…
Countless people were going to die, no matter what we did.
"By the way, where are Rebecca and the others right now?" asked Oedon, and I sent a thankful look at my wife for very deliberately changing the subject.
"Getting thoroughly drunk." I replied with a grin. "Once they were cleared to leave, they immediately called on Barty and went to the best bar they knew of a few hours ago for a meeting of ex-S.T.A.R.S. members where they could all cheer for the death of Spencer and Wesker, and rejoice that their dead comrades are finally avenged."
"Hm. Considering you were there for the mansion incident, I almost expected them to invite you as well."
"They did, but I declined. This is purely a S.T.A.R.S matter, I'm an outsider there."
Lucy raised an eyebrow at me. "Even with you helping to save their lives?"
I smiled sadly at her. "Not all their lives." I replied.
A look of understanding and sympathy crossed Lucy's face. "You feel guilty for not saving them all." she realized.
I shrugged. "What can I say? I hate letting good people die. I know that there were good reasons for why I couldn't save them all without revealing far too much of my true power to Wesker who was keeping an eye on everything, but even so…"
"Wesker caused their death. Not you." she said gently.
I smiled softly at her. "Maybe. But just because I did what was smart, did not mean I did what was right that day… And the dead deserve that I acknowledge that fact, rather than shy away from it."
I got up, smiling at both women. "In any case, I have a lot of work ahead of me if I want ISIS to be ready for the Manhattan outbreak. So I might as well get to it."
The two women watched me leave sadly.
"You don't always have to take the weight of the world on your shoulders, you know." whispered Lucy.
Maybe… But I'd rather bear that weight than let someone else do it when they aren't ready for it, nor desire it, I thought.
Jill, Rebecca, Claire, Chris, and all the others… None of them asked for this. None of them asked to have to fight for this world.
But circumstances pushed them into it, much as they did for me once.
All I could do, then, was offer them the choice to let that weight stay on someone already used to it: me.
But they chose to fight anyway. I respected that… and it left me no choice but to try my best to support them.
Even if it left me internally struggling with the desire to protect them from all these horrors that this world kept throwing their way.
I sighed yet again. Paradise, or Free Will?
How much was I willing to sacrifice of Free Will, for the sake of Paradise?
How much was I willing to sacrifice of Paradise, for the sake of Free Will?
Maybe one day, I'd find a clear answer I could learn to live with.
Today, however, was not that day.
So all I could do was prepare those I sacrificed the Paradise of for the sake of their Free Will to better fight the horrors threatening both.
…At the very least, blowing the heads of bloodthirsty beasts was as cathartic as ever.
-
In a press release that unquestionably made history, Lucy Miller of Insight Corp. declared being ready to sell a product named "Rejuv–nat" which can bring anyone back to their prime, and make all of humanity live up to 300 years old. This stunning announcement was followed by the promise that research into an even stronger version allowing human lifespan to reach 500 years had begun, and that the research team was confident in their ability to release that new version in the next few decades…
NASA declares that Mars might be able to begin terraforming by 2050 at the latest, though it warns that full terraforming might take decades, if not more, in order to make the entire planet fully habitable for humans. In the meantime, NASA has entered a partnership with Insight Corp. for the creation of the very first space habitats of humanity, and it hopes that it would serve as proof of concept for-
The world economy continues to be strong as recent technological discoveries allow for a level of growth unseen in decades, if not centuries. Many historians are already calling it the new "Golden Age of Humanity", and the UN reports that the wide-spread use of plasma technology has allowed for an incredible amount of additional energy used for the growth of industry and agriculture alike, with price of food and electricity falling ever downwards-
The number of deaths by disease and accidents continue to go lower, the UN reports, as new discoveries have allowed the widespread use of cures for cancer, genetic diseases, and more, while even more powerful medi-gel allows the stabilization of victims of accidents that would have otherwise died long before reaching hospitals. Combined with the use of Rejuv-nat, the UN reports that human population worldwide will reach even higher levels, though also reports that the newly improved farmlands, combined with the creation of Space Habitats and possible outright colonization of other worlds in the solar system will allow for that population growth to not negatively impact the resources of humanity and the Earth…
The Graham Administration continues to be one of the most popular in US history, a fact easily explained by the incredible growth of the country these last few years, combined with the low unemployment rate and the lower cost of living. The president's daughter, Ashley Graham, has also decided to follow in her father's footsteps and many expect her to one day seek to become President of the United States of America… Possibly the first woman to become such. The popularity of her father and his administration would give her a strong advantage over other contenders, and while some decry her friendship with Sherry Muradasilova as potentially making her a puppet of Insight Corp., the majority of the public see it as a good indication of a continued good relationship between the USA and the richest and most powerful company in the world…
-
I stared at the fight in the room below me, several monitors around me showing the fight from many angles.
Currently, Major Miranda White was battling it out with Major Rose, and both of them were most certainly wrecking the arena with a rather impressive amount of explosions, plasma and ground-shattering blows.
"Well, it seems like the super-soldier program is working pretty well if you ask me, sir." Declared Colonel Geary.
I chuckled. "Certainly seems that way." I replied, before wincing in sympathy when Major Rose managed a perfect blow with her massive Sword/Shotgun hybrid, sending Major White flying backwards with a shout.
"That looks like it hurts." Wryly pointed out the colonel, though neither of us so much as batted an eye when the wounded major got back to her feet, spat blood, and then charged right back into the fray.
With the healing factor both soldiers now possessed, even the blow she took wouldn't do more than slow her down for a few minutes at most.
"You've seen the latest simulations with Blacklight B.O.W.'s against our newly-enhanced troops. What do you think of them?" I asked.
"Frankly sir, as long as an outbreak doesn't happen in a major city we should be able to easily contain it." the colonel confidently replied.
"And if it does?"
He fell silent, eyes tracking the two soldiers fighting down below, before he finally replied.
"Depends on a lot of factors, but I suppose that-"
"Code Black, level Alpha-One." I answered grimly.
The colonel paused, before exhaling deeply.
"That bad?"
I said nothing.
The colonel pursed his lips, passing a hand through his black hair, not even a single white hair to be found in them ever since he, like the rest of ISIS, took a dose of Rejuv-nat.
"If shit hits the fan that bad…" he began slowly, "Then that'll depend on if water is involved. If it's a city that borders an ocean, then we'll have less ground to worry about. We can afford to concentrate our troops more. We've got thousands of soldiers nowadays, a far cry to the hundred or so we had back in '98, so that'll help as well, to say nothing of all the heavy equipment, the tanks, air support, artillery, all that. Combined with the fact that we've got our troops vaccinated against both Redlight and Blacklight, and we've got equipment allowing us to know if someone's infected… Well, it's possible. Far from ideal, but possible."
Not said but clearly heard anyway, is that if a Code Black, level Alpha-One scenario comes about in an entirely land-locked city, then we're going to have to repeat what happened with Raccoon City and focus our efforts on only parts of the city.
Code Black, level Alpha-One scenarios was used if a Blacklight outbreak happened in a major population center like, say, New York, or Paris, or a capital city with a lot of people.
Sure, we did have thousands of troops nowadays, around 10,000 in total, but they were spread across the planet. Calling them all in, as was protocol in such a scenario, would take a few days, and even then against possibly millions of infected to deal with…
ISIS was never meant to replace a nation's military. It was meant to be an elite fighting force trained to the razor's edge against all kinds of B.O.W's, capable of breaking the back of most outbreaks and contain things before they spiral out of control…
But it was no actual army. It did not have the sheer numbers required for that.
And in the case of a Code Black, level Alpha-One scenario, then that was where diplomacy, and the bounds of trust Insight Corp. created with many of the nations of Earth would pay dividends.
The local army of whatever country the outbreak would happen in would provide most of the manpower, with the majority of said army used to create a containment line around the city where the outbreak happened, while the elite soldiers of the local country, backed with ISIS troops, would then go in and cleanse the B.O.W's present.
Naturally, the U.S were such a pain in our collective asses because we couldn't trust them to do the damn job properly.
Considering all the masterminds and secret plots and what-have-you that the country was full of, more often than not an outbreak happened because of the local forces, and thus it just wasn't possible to properly coordinate with said forces.
We could hardly link up with Blackwatch soldiers, when those soldiers would rather throw ISIS troops at the B.O.W's and laugh at them dying rather than lift a damn finger to help!
So protocol if a Code Black, level Alpha-one scenario happened in the U.S, the situation was essentially "Don't count on any help, we're on our own."
There was some hope nowadays that with our links with President Graham we could trust at least some part of the government and the Army, but just in case any plans for an outbreak in the US involved ISIS dealing with everything on our own, and any other military forces were to be considered passively hostile at best, an active foe at worst.
There was a reason most of the simulations involving us fighting on US grounds had at least one moment where the local US Army troops turned their guns against ISIS troops.
Most often at the most inopportune moment for the lines to hold as well, because obviously those evil bastards of Blackwatch would screw things over that badly.
Still, I couldn't help but feel we were as ready as we could possibly be.
ISIS had Hunters, Super-soldiers, Power armour with energy shields (we've finally managed to hit the tech level required to create those for ten thousand soldiers!), tanks and aircraft with all kinds of deadly weapons, and even the regular soldiers of the countries of the world had lasguns, so they should be able to hold the line so much better than with bullets to fight with.
I sighed. Either way, the truth was going to be revealed sooner rather than later at this stage.
I did all that I could. I recruited and trained Hunters, created super-soldiers, trained an elite army, gave them all the best weapons and equipment I could give them without outright going full Clarktech, now there was only one thing left, and that was to see how things would go on the field.
And if the worst comes to pass… Well.
If I absolutely needed to, I would give the order to fall back to ISIS, and me and my fellow Hunters would deal with things on our own, holding nothing back.
I'd just prefer not to have to show to humanity what me going at full power would look like, because there was only so much "It's all technology and biology!" I could make them believe if I suddenly start going god-mode on Manhattan.
The only thing left to do, now, was to hurry up and wait, as the saying goes…
-
Rebecca looked at the thing in the palm of her hand.
A Bloodtox Grenade, made for the express purpose of melting the bodies of any Blacklight-infected the Bloodtox gas would get into contact with.
She, like the other Hunters, had been briefed on the upcoming Manhattan outbreak, much like Aeon had warned them of the Raccoon City outbreak ten years ago.
Of course, there was a major difference in fighting for a city of 100.000 and, well, Manhattan.
Especially when the virus breaking out was the Blacklight virus, of all things.
Rebecca, thanks to Insight Corp., had the opportunity to study all the various forms of virus in the world, including the Redlight and Blacklight virus.
If Redlight was terrifying, then Blacklight made it look like the common cold in comparison.
Rebecca's hand closed around the grenade, a grim look on her face.
Ever since the deaths of Spencer and Wesker, she, like the rest of the Hunters, had been… well, more relaxed.
Surely, they had thought, with both of those bastards dead, the world would be a safer place, right?
Turns out, the answer was a big fat "No."
As Aeon told them years ago, Umbrella was not the only group capable of damning the world, only the most active.
And with it gone, now it was the turn of another group to potentially destroy everything, it appeared.
Her hand trembled in rage as she considered the fact that, almost 10 years after Raccoon City, once again the world was about to see the full, horrific powers of mutagenic viruses in their full glory.
It made her wonder what was the point of it all, if every time they killed one potential world-destroying threat, another would rise to take its place!
… Rebecca sighed deeply, calming down from the sudden emotional high.
10 years passed fighting for the world, all of which was about to be put in jeopardy because Insight Corp. was now free to put pressure on Blackwatch, thanks to all the influence they now possessed in the US government.
Claire especially has taken to the task of trying to find the evidence she needed to shut down Blackwatch with a passion, and she had managed to find enough to make the leader of Blackwatch nervous to the point of him beginning to remove from play the more risky links potentially incriminating Blackwatch, and more than a few corpses of no-longer needed scientists had been found lately, all dead in "accidents" and the like.
But in the end, Blackwatch wouldn't die with a whimper. No, they would die with a bang… a potentially nuclear one, depending how the Manhattan outbreak would go.
Rebecca's green eyes were unfocused, as she remembered the many simulations that ISIS had gone through lately about a potential Manhattan outbreak.
Officially, those simulations were as a result of Blackwatch trying to detach themselves from Gentek, and the potential chaos born from that bringing higher risks of an outbreak from the Gentek labs in Manhattan.
Unofficially, the entirety of ISIS wasn't duped and they all knew that shit was about to hit the fan big time.
The grim looks on Rebecca's and the other Hunters' faces after Aeon had told them of the upcoming outbreak didn't help, nor did the way that Aeon was visibly distracted nowadays.
Though perhaps distracted wasn't the right word. Thoughtful, perhaps? It was like he was busy seeing something that only he could see, and as such was focused more on that than focusing on the present, with the exception of training sessions, where instead he was far more focused than usual, and far more ruthless as well.
All of which made it clear that the upcoming outbreak was going to be a spectacular clusterfuck.
"You know, that grenade isn't going to explode, no matter how hard you stare at it."
Rebecca glanced at Aeon, who was currently leaning against the entrance of the room she was in with a small smirk on his lips.
She chuckled, letting the grenade rest on the table she was sitting in front of.
"Hey, you never know. Maybe I should try and create a spell that can allow me to set things on fire by glaring at them…" she mused, a measure of amusement in her eyes.
Aeon snorted, coming behind her to look at the grenade resting on the table.
"A bloodtox grenade?"
"I always keep a few on me nowadays." she replied.
"You're worried." It wasn't a question, she noted.
"I am. Shouldn't I be?"
Aeon stared at the grenade for a long moment in silence, before his right hand came to squeeze her shoulder reassuringly.
"No matter what, I'll keep the world safe." he promised.
She looked up at him.
"And what if I want to help you with that?" she said.
He raised an eyebrow at her, and she looked away.
"I'm not Oedon. Or Lucy. I-"
"You are a Hunter. That is enough." he said gently.
"Will it be, though?" she asked softly.
He looked at her for a few seconds, before his expression softened.
"It isn't actually about Manhattan, is it?"
"Yes… no… It's just…" she sighed. "There's so much more out there than just the B.O.W's, right?"
She looked at him in the eyes.
Right now, both were black, but she knew they weren't. Not really.
If she focused… Called upon the ability of all Hunters to look at the Truth of things… then it was the darkness of the Void and the brightness of Starlight that were staring back at her.
"I'm not asking you to take on the heavens by yourself, Rebecca." he said gently.
"But that's what you did, once, was it not?" she pointed out. "How did you put it, again? Ah yes, you fought Beasts, madmen and gods alike. All for the sake of Humanity. And you're planning on doing it again. Not now, not yet, but one day… You will fight gods again, won't you?"
Her green eyes met his dark ones, and she could see that her words had hit the truth of things.
It had taken her… a long time, to fully understand things from her lover's point of view.
Even now, she probably only came to suspect a fraction of her lover's long term plans.
But she wasn't blind. This world… Her world… In the grand scheme of things, it was only a speck of dust caught in the solar winds to a god like him, or Oedon and Lucy.
So why was Aeon so focused on it?
The answer was simple: he wasn't. He was focused on the people in it.
More specifically, he was using the Earth to prepare. ISIS was an army, an elite army. Officially, it was one meant to fight against B.O.W's… but Aeon was a god.
The Rejuv-nat was the last piece she had needed to understand: Aeon was building an army, or at least the core of one, for the long term. Experimenting with what worked and what didn't.
Incorporating Hunters, and now Super-soldiers into the mix, in order to straighten out the kinks before he would throw them against his real enemies.
Everything, absolutely everything he had been doing with Oedon and Lucy had been only a planet-wide test, she suspected.
Oh, he really wanted to help people, she believed that much, but that was only part of his motivation.
All the technology he was giving this world was him experimenting with Societal uplift, and Rebecca suspected that he intended to use what he was learning now for far more than just her world.
The only thing she wasn't really sure of was what the end goal was, exactly.
She suspected that Yharnam had some part to play in his plans, but she had the suspicion that it went far, far beyond just Yharnam.
Possibly far beyond humanity itself.
And as she looked into his eyes… She finally asked.
Why do all of this?
What was the point of it all?
And… What did he have planned for her and the others?
Aeon stared at her silence for a long moment… but eventually smiled.
It was proud, and yet sad at the same time. As if he was glad that she had seen more than the others, farther than those still so very focused on Earth and its problems, and yet saddened that the bliss of ignorance was one she couldn't hide behind anymore.
Silently, he summoned a book in his right hand, opened it at a certain page, and then put it in front of Rebecca for her to see.
The chapter of the book in question began with a single word.
One written in capital letters, and which held power enough that even Aeon looked at it with cautious respect.
There, on bold, capital letters, was written the word:
AZATHOTH
1st October, 2008.
"Come on! Get moving!"
Major Miranda White waved several more of her soldiers within the back of their transport vehicle, before going in herself and telling the driver that they could go.
The driver wasted no time, speeding onwards with several more APCs.
"Ma'am! Any words from Command yet?" asked a soldier over the comms channel.
She opened her mouth-
"To all units, this is Colonel Geary! Sound off!"
-And immediately declared her own unit ready.
Not that any of them knew where they were going yet, all they knew was that the order suddenly came to head to the nearest troop transport as fast as they could, while the logistical corps began working on loading everything they could inside as many trucks available as they had.
"Alright, I'll be blunt ladies and gentlemen: We're all headed towards Manhattan. We've got a confirmed Code Black, Level Alpha-one on our hands. And no, this is not a drill."
Behind the visor of her armour, Miranda paled.
From the way everyone around her stiffened visibly despite their armour, her feelings were shared by all.
Those words were like a gut punch for them all, because it was confirmation, after the last several months of rising tensions from all the simulations they went through, that the worst had officially come to pass.
"At 2 pm today, a Blacklight outbreak was confirmed to have happened at Pennsylvania Station. Considering the hour and the location, the death toll is estimated in the several thousands already. And that's just from those infected by the virus, not including those who will be mutated by it. Blackwatch teams reacted quickly, but it's going to take time for them to arrive in strength, and in the meantime, we estimate that more infections are inevitable."
There was a moment of silence, before the Colonel continued, voice grim.
"To make matters worse, General Randall has made it so that only American troops are authorized to go to ground zero. As such, Marines are being sent to Manhattan to officially be the ones in charge of the outbreak, but in reality, Randall is the one with the power in the area, and there's no way in hell the old bastard is going to allow us to move in. So for now, the plan is simple: establish an HQ in Manhattan, reinforce it as much as we can, and then wait until things inevitably go to hell and the higher ups can put pressure on Washington to allow us to do our jobs. I don't need to tell you the implications of that."
Miranda grimaced, and she saw more than one ISIS soldier tighten their grip on their weapons.
The more time passes, the more infected there will inevitably be around Manhattan.
But of course, this being a Blacklight outbreak, General Randall was not going to let anyone other than Blackwatch be free to act, and so he had no doubt used whatever influence he had in Washington to get everyone but his people as far as they could be from this mess.
The logic was obvious: if Randall wanted any hopes of keeping Blackwatch secrets remaining so, he couldn't let anyone but Blackwatch soldiers to work on handling this.
Miranda was surprised ISIS could even get a single foot on the ground as it was, but she supposed that ISIS had their own influence in the US government.
If they had a few days, she suspected that ISIS could eventually pressure Randall and bypass him and go straight to the Pentagon and the President… but they didn't have a few days.
Especially not with a city like Manhattan involved.
"Any questions?" asked the colonel.
"Yes, sir." she said through the comms. "We do have the green light to evacuate people from Manhattan already, right?"
"Thankfully, yes. Though we'll have to do so using our own transports, and we will pay for the consequences if we let even a single infected escape Manhattan."
Miranda sighed in relief. That'll make things a bit easier, they could focus on trying to get as many people out of Manhattan as they could before everything inevitably goes to hell.
"And speaking of evacuation, we'll have to handle the zoo of Central Park on our own, too."
Miranda glanced at the other soldiers around her.
"Copy that, sir." she replied grimly.
Considering how terrifying the Blacklight virus could be to humans, no one here wanted to see what it could do to animals.
They already had to deal with t-Virus infected animals at Raccoon City, Miranda could do without a repeat of that mess.
"So to summaries: we go to Manhattan, establish an HQ, evacuate as many people and animals as we can, and then wait for Blackwatch to lose control of the situation so that we can go to the front ourselves?"
"Essentially yes, Major."
"This is going to be such a shit-show." muttered one of the soldiers close to her.
"Orders are orders." she replied, though she privately agreed. "Do we even have the equipment to handle evacuating the animals of the zoo, sir?" she asked over comms.
"Thankfully, we actually do, Major. You can give our thanks to our CEO and Aeon working together to prepare for the eventuality ever since we had to deal with this situation in Raccoon City."
"Praise be to competent higher ups…" muttered another soldier.
"Copy that, sir. We'll get the job done." Because like hell I want to see what a lion infected by Blacklight looks like up close.
"Good. Colonel Geary, Over and out."
Well, here we go again… Miranda thought, face grim as memories of Raccoon City came to mind. Hopefully things will go as comparatively well as they did back then.
At the very least, being a super-soldier would make things much easier.
Right?
-
"Miss Ashcroft. Good to see you, though I would have preferred if the circumstances were better."
Alyssa Ashcroft smiled at the man in front of her as she took her seat in the meeting room.
She, Claire Redfield, and Aeon of ISIS had worked together quite often after the events of Raccoon City to fight against the proliferation of B.O.W's across the world, and had recently turned their efforts against Blackwatch and Gentek.
It had hardly been hard for her to be convinced of investigating both groups. Gentek was no better than Umbrella once you start digging into the company, and Blackwatch… Well the sheer lack of concern for human life than the top secret group possessed made it easy to hate the bastards.
She had managed to gather some evidence of Blackwatch troops executing civilians during the Raccoon City outbreak, though sadly not anywhere near enough to actually use it to bury the group in scandals.
Still, she and her two friends had managed to put some pressure on Blackwatch recently, enough for the government to cut back some of their budget and ask a few pointed questions.
Still not enough to destroy the murderous bastards, not yet, but Alyssa was hopeful.
Aeon had read her on the Redlight and Blacklight viruses, though they sadly had yet to gather enough proof of their existence to lawfully accuse them in any Courts of Law.
Needless to say, after reading how the nightmares she went through in Raccoon City might as well be an outbreak of common cold compared to a Redlight Outbreak, to say nothing of Blacklight, Alyssa was quite motivated to stop those madmen from damning the world.
Though considering the grim faces of both Claire and Aeon…
"What happened?" she asked, deciding to go straight to the point.
Aeon grimaced, then waved at a nearby screen. "We had to hack these recordings, sealed by orders of General Randall, but… Well, see for yourself."
Aeon hit play, and Alyssa paled as she saw a recording of a team of Blackwatch soldiers try to surround a man in a train station, only for the man to glare at them hatefully before throwing a vial of some sort on the ground…
And at that point all hell broke loose.
Alyssa swallowed as she took in the scene of widespread death going on on screen, people everywhere screaming in agony and terror both before falling to the ground, their bodies jerking unnaturally.
"This is…" she muttered, dread in her voice.
"A scientist working on the Blacklight project by the name of Alex Mercer, as a result of doubts about his work and the recent purges from Blackwatch inside the ranks of Gentek, went rogue and took a sample of the virus as insurance. When the Blackwatch team tracked him down thanks to his cellphone, the man apparently decided that, if he was going to die, he wasn't going to die alone. This is the result."
"Where did this happen?" she whispered.
Aeon looked at her grimly.
"Penn. Station, Manhattan. At 2 PM."
Alyssa bit her lip. That was almost ten hours ago…
And Manhattan? God, that was…
"How bad is it?" she couldn't help but ask, even if she knew she wouldn't like the answer.
"Thousands confirmed dead… so far." said Claire.
Alyssa exhaled deeply.
"Is the island quarantined yet?"
"Not fully. People can still leave, though there are already military checkpoints being set up. The marines have been called, they'll arrive tomorrow."
Alyssa fell silent, considering everything that she had heard.
She had heard that something had happened in Manhattan, though info had been surprisingly scarce so far… Blackwatch's influence at work, no doubt.
Still, if this keeps getting worse…
"They won't be able to keep it quiet." she realized. "Oh sure, they can mention a biological attack… But B.O.W's and their existence is still officially a secret. But this is Manhattan. The bigger the outbreak…"
"The weaker their ability to hide the truth, yes."
For a second, Alyssa felt grim satisfaction at the news. If B.O.W's become public knowledge, then the victims of Raccoon City, amongst others, would finally be recognized as having died at their hands!
Then she grimaced. As much as she was happy about the truth being revealed, the cost of that revelation was going to be incredibly high.
"How long do you think it will take before Blackwatch loses control and B.O.W's start running in the streets?"
Aeon stared at her straight in the eyes.
"We estimate that in a week, around 50% of Manhattan will be infected."
Alyssa did the maths.
She promptly blanched.
"That's-"
"Yes. Several hundreds of thousands, possibly a million people infected by the Blacklight virus in a single week."
She stared at him in horror. That was several times the population of Raccoon City!
"The good news, for a given value of good, is that the Blacklight virus does not necessarily mutate instantly any infected. You can be infected and yet remain a completely normal human being for a while. The problem with that-"
"-is that any such people are ticking time bombs." grimly declared Claire.
"Ones who can infect even more people, too." finished Aeon.
"What-" she swallowed, took a few deep breaths, then looked at both Claire and Aeon with determined eyes.
"What do you want me to do? How can I help?"
Aeon smiled. "Help Claire take down Blackwatch and Gentek. If we can find proof that the virus comes from them, we can shut down both. Me and ISIS will do our best to hold the line, but General Randall has used his influence to force ISIS out of the critical areas. The more dirt you can find on them, the quicker ISIS can go to the frontline, and the faster we can make sure nothing like this happens ever again."
"They've blocked ISIS from helping?!" she exclaimed, stunned.
Aeon smiled wryly. "This isn't Raccoon City, nor is it an Umbrella-created virus. This is Manhattan, home to the labs of Gentek, and where both the samples and researches of Blacklight and Redlight are found. They can't afford to let us go wherever we please, to do whatever we please, because they fear we'll find evidence of where the virus comes from."
Alyssa stared at him numbly, utterly appalled.
"They are literally risking the lives of millions of people, the destruction of Manhattan, perhaps New York itself, just to have a better chance to hide their secrets?!" she declared, incredulous.
Aeon shrugged. "Reminds me of Raccoon City. Both Umbrella and Gentek/Blackwatch aren't really different when it comes to handling secrets, and their concern for human lives: Protect the secrets at all cost, and sacrifice as many lives as required to succeed doing so."
Alyssa's blue eyes narrowed angrily. "We'll see about that. You've got a lead to begin?"
Aeon smirked.
"Well, I figure that we can get started by someone personally involved in this mess: Dana Mercer, sister of Alex Mercer, and wouldn't you know it, she actually has the same job as yours as a mostly independent investigative reporter…"
-
Summer Rose in ISIS, records of a lost Huntress in the multiverse, Part 3. (Non-canon.)
Summer looked out of the window at the street beyond.
Her silver eyes were unfocused, her mind far from the sight before her, even if it was at the origin of her current state of thoughtfulness.
Outside, the world kept on turning, as billions of people went on with their lives, while Summer kept thinking of Earth, this strange new world she was now in.
Home to more people that the Kingdoms of Remnant could ever hope to have, with technology that, for the most part, was actually beyond that of her own world, and whose people already dreamed of the stars, who could very well see human visitors in the decades to centuries to come.
A world with no Grimm, no Salem, but also a number of horrific viruses which threaten all life on the planet, and ones so terrifying that Summer shivered in dread at the thought of Salem ever getting her hands on any of them.
Though that, thankfully, was essentially impossible, especially with-
"You look lost in thought."
-Ah.
She glanced behind her, the strangeness of seeing her own face staring back curiously nowadays mostly gone.
"Major." she said with a smile, using the woman's rank to recognize her, since they had both the same name.
"Huntress." teased the other woman, coming to a stop by her side to look at the world outside as well.
"It's so very different from home, and yet…" finally said Summer, the Huntress, to her Earth dimensional twin after a moment of silence.
"And yet some things never change?" finished the Major.
The Huntress nodded. "Monsters threaten humanity. Evil mastermind seeks to destroy all that Mankind has ever accomplished. A few heroes stand up for the sake of the many. And now-"
She glanced at the Major.
"-you even have Aura as well."
One of the things that Aeon and the others had been the most eager about was giving the members of ISIS Aura of their own, to make them safer.
Of course, since they were perfectionists, they also worked on creating actual energy shields technology, and doubled that with a super-soldier program.
While outwardly the Major was the same as ever, she was actually a lot more deadly than ever before.
On the field of battle, between her super-soldier enhancements, her Aura, and her power armour, the only reasons that Summer the Huntress could win at all was that she had the blood of literal gods in her veins.
Oh, and Insight Corp. had created some Dust-powered military weapons, on top of everything else they had, so that was yet another tool in their arsenal.
Honestly, if the people of Remnant had the same kind of resources, they might be able to push back the Grimm for good…
As it was though, all of it was considered necessary in case the worst case scenario ever happened: A Code Black, level Alpha-one outbreak.
That was the problem with this world: Humanity was so much more numerous, but with how the viruses worked, each human was a potential monster in waiting…
Summer couldn't help but think that seeing a world where Humanity being numerous was a bad thing was just wrong on so many levels…
"You're lost in thought again."
Summer blinked, then sighed with a wry grin.
"Sorry. Just… seeing the world outside makes me think, I suppose."
The Major gave her a knowing look. "It also makes you think of home, doesn't it?" she said gently.
Summer flinched slightly, before her shoulders fell, her eyes closing.
"Yeah." she whispered. "I miss… so many things. When I look up at night, it still feels strange to see a whole moon. When I look outside the window, it feels strange to see so many people, and I always keep trying to find a Faunus in the crowd. And-"
"Your family." softly interrupted the Major, pale blue eyes kind, and Summer nodded sadly.
"I miss hearing Ruby's happy giggling because of something funny she found. I miss hearing Yang being loud in the house. And I miss seeing Taiyang, feeling his arms around me and just…" she took a deep breath, before exhaling. "Being there." she whispered.
The Major smiled sadly at her, hugging her gently. "I'm sorry."
Summer shook her head. "Don't be. You did nothing wrong, none of you did. I was the one who chose to go on the mission that caused me to end up here, and all of you have been nothing but kind since I arrived. Honestly, I'm grateful to have ended here, instead of anywhere else."
"And I'm glad to have you, even if it still weirds me out that I have a twin across the Omniverse." joked the Major.
Summer sniffed, grinning at her. "Obviously you're my twin, Major! I'm a kickass Huntress who fought a Dark Lady and you're just a supersoldier, after all!"
"Pfft! I am the one who got to eat Aeon's cookies first, I'm obviously the superior one here!" argued the Major smugly.
Summer pouted. "Yeah, well I'll just have to eat more! There!" and then she very maturely stuck her tongue out at the Major.
Who promptly did the same right back. "I already ate more, I've already won! Victory is mine, and it was delicious!"
Summer narrowed her eyes at her twin… and then smirked. "But what if I pretend to be you in order to get both my share and your share of cookies?" she smugly declared.
The Major froze… before her eyes narrowed as well. "You've got silver eyes, the Boss would never get fooled."
"Contacts." smugly declared Summer.
For a moment, both sides glared at each other.
"You understand this means war?" whispered the Major.
"Bring it on!" whispered Summer right back.
The two growled at each other…
"If you kill each other, neither of you will get cookies."
Before simultaneously stiffening and looking at the amused-looking Aeon standing nearby with horror.
""No cookies?"" they whispered, voices thick with horror.
"Not a single one!"
They both glanced at each other, before simultaneously throwing themselves at his feet.
""We'll be good!"" they screamed. "Please, have mercy!" "We'll do anything, just please don't stop making cookies!" "O Great God of Cookies, we are your humble servants!"
Aeon pinched the side of his nose, looking down with a wry look of amusement at the kneeling women.
He opened his mouth-
"I'll go on a date with you! Hell, as many as you want!"
Summer and Aeon blinked, looking at the Major.
Said Major raised an eyebrow at their looks, before nodding firmly. "Have you seen how good he is at cooking? Definitely worth it!"
Summer gave her a mostly disbelieving look.
Those cookies really were that good.
"Well, since you aren't going to stab each other anymore I'll leave you to it." Aeon muttered, before shaking his head in amusement and walking back out.
Summer gave her twin a look.
"You'd really go on a date for cookies? Really?"
The Major shrugged. "The cookies are great, and… Well." she grinned. "I get a date with the most handsome man in the world. Possibly several dates!" She looked back towards the retreating Aeon and licked her lips. "I certainly wouldn't say no if he wants to eat my-"
"Stop, I don't need to hear that!" shouted Summer with a bright blush.
The Major looked at her with amusement. "C'mon, you can't tell me he isn't the most handsome man you've ever seen. He's a literal god!"
Summer hesitated. She wasn't wrong, but it didn't feel right to say that outright when she still very much loved Taiyang.
"I still have to thank you for that, by the way."
Summer blinked, shaken out of her thoughts by the sudden seriousness in the Major's voice.
She looked at her, who was staring at Summer much more solemnly.
"What?" she said, confused.
"We never really got confirmation before, did you know?" the Major said softly. "Oh, we knew that Aeon, his wife, and Lucy Miller weren't exactly human, but we never actually got any confirmation of what they were. Everyone in ISIS wondered, but we didn't want to ask- they had the right to their privacy, after all. Aeon saved my life several times over the years, and that's true of most people in ISIS. We're all loyal to him and the others… But we can't help but be curious."
The Major smiled. "And then you showed up, and Aeon outright came and said it. Explaining who and what you were… and what he and the other two women by his side were. I understand the why, it made explaining you easier, but it didn't change the fact that we finally had confirmation."
"It was that important for you?" she asked.
The Major nodded. "Years of fighting the worst horrors in the world leave a mark, you know." she softly replied. "You can't help but look at the world and wonder if it'll all come crashing down, someday. Worst, you can't help but think of what could happen to those you call friends and family. Will the next outbreak happen where they live? Will you be forced to kill them, just so they can rest in peace? And… Well, you can't fight zombies constantly and not wonder about the afterlife. What happens to those turned? Do their souls move on? Or do they just… stay stuck in their rotting bodies, unable to move on, neither alive nor dead?"
The Major fell silent, while Summer flinched at the last question.
The idea of having your soul stuck inside a zombie for however long the zombie remains "alive" was as disturbing as it was horrific for someone born from Remnant, who considered souls as something sacred.
"But then Aeon revealed the truth." she said softly.
The Major nodded. "Yes, he did. And there were no doubts left. Gods, benevolent gods, lived amongst us, and protected both the world at large and us specifically. We no longer need to worry about the world ending, because we know that no matter what, things will be alright in the end. Battles still needed to be fought, zombies killed, monsters slain, but… We have faith. And that is enough."
Summer stared at her dimensional twin, seeing the sheer belief all over face, the sheer faith in her blazing blue eyes.
This wasn't the kind of loyalty that could be bought. That was the kind of faith in someone tested by time, hardship, and yet proven true time and again, growing stronger through every hardship overcome.
This was the kind of faith which would have someone charge into the depths of Hell if ordered, because they genuinely believed things would be alright in the end, no matter what happens.
Summer stayed silent, considering her own thoughts on the matter.
She couldn't claim to fully understand the depths of her dimensional twin's devotion, but…
Didn't Summer herself believe that, once she went back to Remnant, things would be better?
That Salem would be defeated, that the world would be free to prosper without fear?
Even the thought of meeting Salem again didn't bring fear to Summer's heart, only anticipation, because what was there to fear when the gods stood by you?
All that because she had met Aeon and the others and gotten their agreement to help?
All things considered… Yes, she could at least understand where her twin was coming from-
"Which is why I'd be more than happy to show him the depths of my loyalty… personally. Preferably without clothes involved." smugly declared the Major, who began cackling smugly when Summer's eyes bulged at her words and she began choking on her own spit.
"Wouldn't that be… against your religion or something?" she couldn't help but ask between coughs.
The Major's eyes gleamed. "Well, considering the number of lovers he has, I'm pretty sure he's more than open at the idea of women passionately worshipping him in the bedroom-"
"Stop, please stop!" Summer pleaded, blushing brightly while hiding her face in the palms of her hands. It was damn awkward to see someone looking so much like yourself say things like that!
The Major, devil that she was, naturally began cackling harder.
If I had any remaining doubts, they're gone: she's definitely the evil twin of us both! Summer thought in despair.
********************************************
Summer aimed at the target… and then fired.
A second later, she looked at it critically, before frowning. "Close, but not quite yet." she grumbled to herself disapprovingly.
"Hard at work training already?"
Summer paused, before glancing at Aeon who was looking at the pierced target at the other side of the firing range with a curious look in his eyes.
She smiled at him. "Yep! It's always good to work on the basics, and honestly the training equipment ISIS possesses is top-notch, so might as well use it!"
Aeon gave her a knowing look. "And this has nothing to do with the fact it's been a year since you arrived on Earth, and you aren't distracted anymore from your memories of Remnant with the party ISIS threw for you yesterday?"
Summer flinched slightly, before smiling sheepishly. "I guess I'm pretty obvious, huh?"
Aeon gave her a dry look. "You look like you haven't slept much of the night."
He paused, before raising an eyebrow. "Unless you were passing the night with someone?" he teased.
She blushed, but shook her head quickly. "No! No, that would be…"
Wrong, she would like to say, because she still remembered bright golden hair and warm blue eyes, but…
It's been a year since she arrived on Earth. It was a good year, all things considered. A quiet one too, with no real emergency for ISIS coming up, no all-out battles for the sake of the world.
But it was also a year away from her home, from everyone she knew and loved, and while the party the day before had been a welcome distraction from her morose thoughts, it still had hit her just how long it was going to take for her to make it back home.
It had kept her up at night, making it impossible to sleep.
Just how old would Yang be when she finally finds her way back? Or Ruby?
Or, for that matter, Taiyang?
Remnant did not have Rejuv-nat. Humans and Faunus could live for a century at most, but eventually old age takes its toll.
She had faith that her daughters and husband would still be alive, hopefully still young too, But for all she knew her daughters would be married and with children already, and Taiyang an old man with grey hairs.
Or worse, they would be dead.
She tried not to think of it, but being a Huntress was a dangerous lifestyle. All it would take is one mission gone wrong, and Summer would return to her grave, not potential grandchildren.
And she wasn't sure what she would do then. If her daughters and lover had died when she wasn't there… If Salem had struck first, then-
Fingers flicked her forehead, and Summer's head snapped back, more out of surprise than anything else.
"Ow. What was that for?" she asked, rubbing her head.
"You were wallowing in self-pity." deadpanned Aeon, before his face softened.
"What is it that troubles you, Summer?"
Summer hesitated, before clenching her weapon tight and looking away.
"Just… thinking about what might happen during my absence back home. If they become huntresses, my daughters… If a mission goes wrong, or Salem tracks Ruby down-"
"Summer, it'll be alright, I promise you." Aeon Interrupted, gently but firmly.
"And how can you be sure?" she challenged, glaring at him.
"Because even if they die, I can bring the dead back to life. Properly do so, nothing like what you've seen here on Earth through the viruses' power."
Summer stiffened, staring at him with wide eyes.
"You-"
"I made a promise to reunite you with your family, and I will uphold it. No matter what, Summer, you will get back with them." He firmly declared.
Summer held back a sob of relief and joy and gratitude, and instead just hugged the man in front of her.
"Thank you." she choked out.
His arms gently surrounded her, hugging her back.
"You chose to help me against the horrors of the omniverse, Summer. When the time comes, I will repay that debt, and no one and nothing will stop me from doing so." he said softly, but with utmost conviction.
"You think the Brother Gods will let you act like that on Remnant?" she asked, bringing forth another one of her concerns. After all, the Brother Gods had long since left Remnant, but surely they would feel it if another god suddenly moved in on their old world?
Aeon huffed.
"Well they damn well better, because otherwise I'll be more than glad to show them why saying 'No' to a godslayer is a very, very stupid idea."
She laughed. "Are you seriously going to kill two gods for my sake?"
"Why yes, yes I would." he declared grimly, with none of the previous amusement, and only the deadly conviction of a man determined to see his chosen path through.
She blinked in shock, taking a step back to look up at him in surprise.
"You-"
"-are one of mine now, and I gave you my word. If those two try to stop me from doing the right thing, then I will show them exactly where they stand in the Greater Cosmos: beneath my boots, seconds before I kill them like I have killed the Eldritch Goddess who had sought to enslave me to her will."
Her silver eyes softened, though a measure of stunned disbelief was still clear in them.
"Aeon…"
He smiled sadly. "Knowing what the right thing is isn't always easy, Summer. I'm not my True Self, I'm only a man, and even as a godly avatar I'm not perfect. No one is. But… I'm the Good Hunter. Helping you is the right thing to do, I have no doubts about that. So even if it isn't the easy path, even if it means potentially having to fight two brother gods… Then so what? I didn't become what I am today by refusing to fight for what I believe in. So I'll say it again: You will get back to your family, and nothing, not even Death or the gods, will stop that from happening."
She hugged him again, her arms tightening hard around him.
"I'm not sure what I did to deserve that, but… Thank you. Truly." she whispered, voice thick with emotions.
Above her, Aeon smiled softly.
"It's the right thing to do." he repeated, before whispering so softly she almost didn't catch it, the words wistful "Now if only the right thing to do was always so obvious…"
Summer swallowed. This man, this god, was willing to fight other gods just for her sake.
She couldn't help but feel unworthy of this, because at the end of the day she was just one person, a mortal woman no different from any other that should have died a year ago…
And yet, she knew that Aeon wasn't lying. The sheer conviction in his voice, the sheer determination in his eyes…
He was absolutely serious about his promise.
She wiped her tears, brought forth by both the relief she felt at the assurance of one day seeing her family again and the surge of emotions brought by his willingness to fight for her, before blinking when she saw Aeon holding a warm cookie for her to take, a wry smile on his face.
"Here, you look like you could use one." he said gently.
She slowly took the cookie, looking up at him with amusement through her reddened eyes.
"Bribing me with cookies to stop crying? Really?" she joked weakly, a small smile on her lips.
Aeon's lips quirked upwards. "Is it working?"
She took a bite of the cookie, her eyes immediately turning lidded and a thoroughly inappropriate moan escaping her lips that brought a blush to her cheeks, though it was far less pronounced than a year ago.
She had long since given up on trying to hold back her moans when eating his cookies, it never worked anyway.
"Yes, damn you." she grumbled without any heat, a weak glare on her face thoroughly undercut by the way she was happily munching on her cookie.
He smirked at her, a roguish grin that made the flaming of her cheeks worse, so she eagerly snapped up the next cookie Aeon presented to her and went to eat it without looking at his stupid, handsome smug face.
When she was done, there was a moment of comfortable silence, before Summer took a deep breath and looked back at the firing range.
"Right, I should get back to it." she muttered.
Aeon nodded, though not before putting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently.
"If you ever need to talk, don't hesitate to come and see me, alright?"
A small, grateful smile spread across her lips, even as she ducked her head to hide her face behind the curtains of her red-black hair.
"I will." she promised softly.
"Good."
Aeon turned around… and then paused.
"Do you want another-"
"Yes!"
He laughed, though did not hesitate to give her another cookie before leaving her to her training.
Once he was gone and she had eaten her literally divine treat, she aimed at the target with Iron Thorn, inhaled…
And fired.
She exhaled, a small, satisfied grin on her face as she looked at the target.
Bullseye.
-
A.N: Alright! Here is the next chapter in which we deal with the events of the raid on the Spencer Estate and the leading up to the events of Prototype!
And both Spencer and Wesker are dead! Woohoo! Needless to say, the ex-S.T.A.R.S. members celebrated that fact by throwing a party. Though most likely, said celebrations kept going into Aeon's bedroom later on for both Jill and Rebecca…
I tried to make the fight into primarily a visibly emotional scene, in the sense that this fight was deeply personal for all involved. Everyone involved once worked on the same side and trusted each other, only for their CO to send them to their deaths and prove himself a backstabbing bastard.
Oh, and we aren't done with RE5, far from it, but right now Tricell is reeling from having Wesker dying, so it's going to take some time for them to do anything…
Beyond that, we finally get to the events of Prototype, which means a greater cast of characters, some new, some old, are about to get involved in that mess.
And already, things don't fully go to plan, as Blackwatch flexes its political goodwill to stall ISIS from getting involved. A dangerous gamble, but one that could work if Blackwatch gets a handle on the outbreak fast enough.
Of course, Murphy is an equally evil bastard to everybody, a Blackwatch is about to learn the hard way… And there is no possible way that stalling ISIS might bite them in the ass, right?
Oh, and Rebecca is the first person from RE!Earth to actually consider the long term. I thought about who might actually pause and think things through, but ultimately everyone else is still too focused on their world to really think of the big picture. But Rebecca is meant to be a genius, and one somewhat less focused on the politics or monsters, and more on the world itself and how it works, so I can see her ask herself questions that the others wouldn't think of yet. And while Aeon isn't revealing everything to his Hunters, that's partially out of a desire to not burden them with even more things to worry about than they already have. That doesn't mean, however, that he's going to hide anything if confronted over it…
And finally, more Summer omakes! In which I explore a bit more the interactions between the two Summer Roses, the differences and similarities, before having some more Aeon x Summer scenes, because Summer is adorable and fluff is good for the soul! The second part of the omake takes place not long before the Manhattan outbreak, for reference, so expect the next chapter's omake to be a bit more action-packed…
Still, with all that being said, I hope you all enjoyed this update! Next time, we continue to move onwards with things, and it's more likely going to be time for Aeon and co. to meet Alex Mercer and his sister…