Jill Valentine was furious (overjoyed) at watching her fleet of Umbrella gunships obliterated by the singularity device. The pilot of her gunship had informed her of the solitary gunship that had taken off from the Arcadia, but had dismissed the request to achieve a targeting solution. She was prioritized to take prisoners when possible, and a sole gunship could simply be flagged for tracking via satellite and the inhabitants captured at a later date. She had never imagined (willfully fucking ignored) the possibility that that damnfool Alice would have dislodged the singularity device from the Arcadia and utilized it to almost completely annihilate her offensive capabilities. Her superiors would be extremely displeased. (GOOD! I HOPE THEY KILL YOU, YOU FUCKING BITCH!)
Jill twitched at the flicker of independent thought that had battered against her psyche, then refocused and suppressed it. She took stock of what remained: one gunship, one squadron of Umbrella shock troops, and… she looked back (heart aching) at the sole reason her gunship had been flying lower and slower than the rest, Project Nemesis. (HIS NAME IS MATTHEW ADD-)
Independent thought suppressed.
She had been the handler for Project Nemesis for about a year now, but had fought alongside him in some capacity almost since her induction (kidnapping and mind rape) into Umbrella, about five years ago. Time and again, the giant BOW had proved its worth, even though those first few months had been… less than satisfactory. Now, staring at the monster, its bulky frame accompanied by its equally massive complement of heavy weapons, she allowed herself a rare (public) smile at what was once seen as one of Umbrella's biggest mistakes. After all, he was the reason the gunship had been just a little slower, flying at a slightly lower altitude than the rest of the fleet, and therefore the reason they were still alive.
She had planned a pep talk for her soldiers, but that was out the window. The men were all shaking, frightened. Dozens of their comrades had just been obliterated. Oh well, tough shit, move on. She made a mental note to write a request to her superiors to fully liquidate the non-clone members of Umbrella's security forces; in her estimation, the clones she had had the honor to work alongside were much better, much more efficient fighters, unburdened by a lifetime of quirks and idiosyncrasies, and (most importantly) easily replacable. (YOU PSYCHOTIC FUCKING PIECE OF —)
Independent thought suppressed.
She walked up to Nemesis. "Here's the plan, Nemesis," she stated. "You will make initial insertion onto the deck of the Arcadia. You will suppress any enemy combatants on the deck until my team and I are able to secure the bridge. After that, capture or kill any remaining enemy combatants on deck, then fall back to the bridge for further instructions.
"Acknowledged," Nemesis signed back. It (he) picked up its (his) minigun, walked to the rear of the craft, and waited for the back hatch to open up. When it did, it (HE) leapt down without hesitation.
As he suppressed three figures behind a wrecked airplane, Jill turned to her team and barked out, "Drop down now!"
They jumped down one right after the other, rappel lines preventing them from splattering against the deck (too fucking bad about that). The soldiers began storming the tower where the bridge was located, but gunfire from within broke out, taking down one of her men and forcing her and the others to take cover. Jill clenched her jaw in anger; she didn't have enough goddamn bodies to spare to just rush the tower, hadn't even anticipated there would be armed resistance within! The intel had suggested only Project Alice and the Redfields (Chris! Leave him alone!) were armed, and she kicked herself for not realizing that they might be able to arm some of the subjects interned within Arcadia.
"NEMESIS!" she shouted out. "CHANGE OF PLANS! CLEAR THE TOWER!"
XXX
LJ watched the massive form of Nemesis running towards the tower… running towards him. For just a brief, terrible second he'd been back in Raccoon City, in that theater lobby, surrounded by a dozen dead STARS agents, that big motherfucker marching right up to him… He shook himself out of the horrific flashback. "We gotta get the fuck out of here!" he roared. He ushered K-Mart and Betty away from the door. "Go fuckin' hide downstairs!" he urged them. "And if he gets down there, drop your goddamn guns!"
Betty stopped and gave him a curious look. "Drop our —"
"Just fucking trust me!" LJ snapped desperately, and Betty only took a second to nod her head before following K-Mart down the stairwell.
He stared to make sure they were gone from sight before tossing his guns down the staircase after them. He gulped and turned around and watched the light from outside vanish as Nemesis blocked out the doorway entirely. It ducked its head to fit in, then fixated onto LJ with its sole eye.
"H-hey, Matt, it's me, LJ!" he said, hands raised high in the air. "You know, Lloyd Jefferson Wayne? Remember? Raccoon? Alice? Carlos?" His eyes bugged out of his head as the barrel of Nemesis' minigun began to spin up. "Oh SHIT!" He dove down the staircase, scrambling for his guns before vanishing into the cargo hold.
Nemesis watched the stairwell for a moment, to make sure LJ wouldn't make a reappearance. Its minigun stilled and it proceeded up the stairs to the bridge.
XXX
Alice peeked over the tattered edge of the wing. The Umbrella soldiers and their dominatrix-themed leader were approaching, guns at the ready. Alice turned to Chris and Claire with a smile. "Hey guys, wanna see a neat magic trick?" Before they had a chance to answer, she stood up and waved. "Hi, guys!"
The Umbrella goon squad all trained their guns onto Alice. "Project Alice," Jill sneered.
Alice's eyes went wide. "Jill! No shit! How the hell are you?"
"Jill?" Chris peeked around the side of the airplane, his eyes going wide.
"Gotta say, blonde is a really good look for you," Alice said. "You look cute as hell! That little, uh, necklace thingy, though…" Alice made a disgusted face. "Sooo last season. You should totally ditch it."
"Surrender or be destroyed," Jill ordered, ignoring Alice's blather. "Turn over Chairman Wesker."
"Hey, how about we negotiate a bit?" Alice offered.
"Umbrella does not negotiate," Jill stated.
"Umbrella does not have a whole lot of soldiers left," Alice pointed out. "Remember how I fucking killed a shitload of them a few minutes ago? Ah, the memory of that is something I'll cherish forever." She smiled nostalgically.
"Umbrella does not negotiate," Jill repeated.
Alice sighed. "Okay, I'm gonna show you something, alright? I'm going to reach into the cockpit of this here plane and pull out a package from underneath the seat. I'm going to be moving slowly the entire time. I promise I'm not going for a gun or anything of that nature. Alright?" Jill was silent, so Alice did as she said she was going to do. She slowly reached into the cockpit, under the seat, and pulled out the package she had left there. It was a large backpack, which she set on the ground in front of her. She unzipped it.
She pulled out a motherfucking black hole bomb. THAT'S RIGHT Y'ALL, THIS IS THE ONE FROM UMBRELLA'S TOKYO BASE! FUCK CHEKHOV'S GUN, THIS RIGHT HERE IS CHEKHOV'S BLACK HOLE BOMB!
"Holy shit," Claire muttered, seeing the damn thing in Alice's hands.
"You know what this is?" Alice asked, a crooked grin on her face.
Jill, brainwashed as she was, still hesitated. "…That is a singularity device. Where did you get it?"
"eBay," Alice answered. "Five stars, would buy from shopper again. Now, let's start negotiating."
"Umbrella does not negotiate," Jill reiterated.
"Yeah yeah, so I've heard," Alice said dismissively. "What's your mission objective here? Is your objective to be sucked into a black hole? Because I can totes make it happen."
Jill hesitated again. "…Our objectives are to put down the insurrection on the Arcadia, either by securing it and executing all aggressive parties or by obliterating it. And, if possible, to rescue Chairman Wesker."
Alice nodded thoughtfully. "So, if I push this little button here to activate the black hole bomb — timer set to zero seconds, by the way — it would fulfill at least that first mission objective?"
Once more, Jill hesitated. "…Yes."
"So do you want me to push the button?" Alice asked. "We're old friends, Jill, so if you want me to, I 100% will do it, okay?" Jill was silent this time, while Claire and Chris gave her severe looks. "Okay, you don't think that's a good idea, I take it. How about this: You land your little helicopter thingy, you and all your friends and Matty get on it, and even ol' Whiskey himself if you like, and then I get on it, and you can take me to I guess Yet Another Secret Umbrella Lab or whatever it is you have in store for me. And you leave this ship and its people alone. I'm sure I'm worth a lot more than the 2000 or so scrubs belowdecks."
XXX
Jill attempted to work out a solution to this puzzle before her. It had been a long, long time she'd been faced with a problem she couldn't simply shoot.
She considered the cost of failing to pacify the Arcadia uprising. One possible consequence would be that her scarab would trigger a pain response throughout her nervous system. It would be excruciating… but it would be temporary. Much better than if she failed to rescue Chairman Wesker, though… that would likely result in a much more drastic punishment. Her scarab might simply burrow through her sternum and rip her heart from her chest. She'd seen it happen to another operative, once. If she wasn't returning to base with Wesker, she may as well tell Project Alice to go ahead and press the button. (fucking do it).
On the bright side, taking Project Alice into custody would go a long way towards pleasing her superiors. Would it be enough to offset their anger at the loss of Arcadia? Maybe… maybe if she had more high-priority targets to offer her superiors than just Project Alice…
(oh you fucking evil bitch)
"You, Claire Redfield, and Chris Redfield will submit yourselves into custody. Nemesis will be allowed free reign of the ship in order to secure Chairman Wesker," Jill announced. "Once Chairman Wesker is secured, we will all leave the Arcadia, its structure and inhabitants intact and unharmed."
Alice glanced towards the Redfields. "Well, what do you guys think?"
Chris was still staring at Jill. "I can't believe the bastards have her brainwashed," he growled.
"Chris!" Claire hissed, swatting him to get him to pay attention. She turned to Alice, a resolved look on her face. "If it'll save everyone below decks, I'm in."
Chris nodded, determined. "Me too." His mouth soured. "Even if it means Wesker gets to go free."
Alice poked her head back up from the little powwow. "Alright, we hereby agree to your terms!"
Jill gave a single stern nod, before issuing a few commands into her radio. The gunship, which had been orbiting the Arcadia in a lazy circle, came in and touched down, the rear hatch lowering once more.
Alice, Chris, and Claire left cover and began the final march to the mouth of the gunship. Unbidden, Chris grabbed Claire's hand and gave it a squeeze. She looked down at it, then gave him a curious look. "When you first got into middle school, you stopped holding my hand. Said you were 'too cool'."
Chris snorted. "A guy can't change his…" He trailed off, realization dawning on his face. "…You remember."
"I remember," she confirmed, a tear escaping one eye. They squeezed one another's hand tight, tight, tight as they stepped onto the ramp.
Alice walked up to Jill… and then past her. "Where are you going?" Jill demanded.
Alice gave her a narrow gaze. "I'm going to go say goodbye to some friends. Do you remember what friends are? Hey, I'll bet LJ would love to see you again, even though you're brainwashed out the ass."
(I still can't believe LJ is still alive) Jill was stoic. "Lloyd Jefferson Wayne is a low priority target."
A manic look passed over Alice's face as her finger hovered over the trigger mechanism. "Actually, Jill, you come with me and tell LJ how much you miss him, or I'll send us all straight to hell, I don't even give a fuck."
Jill looked at Alice's face, and realized she was telling the truth. "You cannot be serious." Alice showed Jill the button and depressed it a fraction of an inch. "…Your file grossly underestimated the degree to which you are insane," Jill finally concluded. (Sister, you have no goddamn idea.)
The four of them (two Umbrella shock troopers escorted them) traveled to the tower, following the staircase down into the cargo hold, and into the cryo-crypt. "LJ!" Alice called out. "Got an old friend who wants to say hi!"
LJ reluctantly approached the Umbrella soldiers, but lit up when he saw Jill. "Oh, no fuckin' way, it's Miss Supercop herself!"
Jill stiffly walked up to LJ. "Hello, Lloyd Jefferson Wayne," she said as icily as possible. "I am surprised that vermin like you was able to —"
Alice kicked her in the shin. "LJ is your friend, Jill, and we do not call our friends vermin."
Jill gritted her teeth. "Your… continued tenacity… is an admirable trait," she managed. "When I… when I saved your life all those years ago, I never thought…" Jill trailed off, realizing that tears were pouring down her face. Her entire body abruptly seized up for a moment, before Jill The Brainwashed Bitch reasserted control. She absently wiped away the tears that had escaped. "Anyway… your continued survival demonstrates a savviness that would get you far if you chose to serve Umbrella. Nemesis and I are always glad to have a friendly face." Her mouth contorted into something that was meant to be a smile.
"Uh, thanks, but no fuckin' thanks," LJ said, incredibly disturbed by this conversation and the incredibly obvious brainwashing Jill was going through. He turned to Alice. "What the hell is going on?" he asked.
"I made a deal with Jill," Alice explained. "Her and Matty will leave you folks alone, as long as me, Claire, and her brother Chris go with them. Oh, and we're bringing Whiskey's worthless carcass with us too, I guess." She leaned in and in a low voice said, "Might want to beach the ship or something, just get the hell away from it. These assholes don't like us playing with their toys."
Nemesis returned from the depths of the ship, holding Wesker like a bride about to be carried across the threshold. Already he was looking a lot better than just a little bit ago when he was getting shot an absolute fuckton amount of times and had his actual entire brain shot out and destroyed.
Alice looked regretfully at the place where his head wound had been. She'd been able to see all the way inside his skull; now the bone had regrown over the hole and his scalp was following suit. "I knew I should have bricked into his head when I had the chance," she grumbled. "It'd have been a decided improvement over the previous tenant."
She said her last goodbyes to LJ, Betty, and K-Mart, then followed Jill's crew upstairs and out of the tower. As they were walking towards the gunship, Wesker growled and leapt out of Nemesis' arms. His glowing red snake eyes holy shit how fucking cool was THAT focused on Alice, and a crapload of toothy tentacles shot out of his mouth.
"Nope!" Alice grabbed one of the Umbrella soldiers and shoved him into Wesker's murder maw, the tentacles latching onto the dude's face. His muffled screams could be heard for a few mercifully brief moments. A few moments passed, and Wesker's mouth tentacles unlatched, letting the body fall to the ground, drained of all its fluids.
Wesker grunted, feeling for his sunglasses, unable to find them. "Where are my sunglasses?" he demanded.
"Oh, I broke the shit out of them down below," Alice said. "Dunno why you wear them, honestly. The 'I am the motherfucking devil' aesthetic is much cooler than the 'Barely legally distinct from Agent Smith' crap you like. Got a pitchfork? Red tights? Can you grow a goatee?"
"I like sunglasses because they give me an aura of mystery and intimidation… a tactic clearly wasted on you." He scowled. "What are you doing with a singularity device?"
Jill stepped forward. "Chairman Wesker, allow me to brief you on the situation." She gave him a quick rundown of everything that had occurred since he'd gone nighty-night.
Wesker gave Alice a withering look. "Congratulations on your victory are in order, I suppose, temporary as it may be." He walked past her and marched up the ramp of the gunship. Alice followed, and once Jill and Nemesis boarded the ramp folded up and the gunship took off, headed northeast.
XXXXXXXXXX
There was some concern that Jill didn't survive the black hole attack at the end of the last chapter. As if I'd kill her off offscreen without fanfare! Who do you lot take me for, Paul WS Anderson? Jill has FAR too many fun things left to do before I send her to that big spooky mansion in the sky, hahaha.
You've gotta love it when brainwashed people have inner turmoil.
You've also gotta love it that Alice is the type of gal who drags a WMD halfway around the world, Just In Case.
It's kind of bullshit we never got emotional closure re: Claire and Chris reuniting. (And no, bonding over repeatedly shooting Wesker doesn't count). So, it's fixed now!