Made In Heaven

by True Devil's Reign

Worried for her brother's safety, and angry after an argument with her boyfriend, Claire Redfield heads off to Raccoon City to find Chris herself. But Tony Redgrave isn't about to let some stupid argument hang over them and follows after her. Unfortunately for both of them, a petty argument is the least of their worries once in Raccoon City... Co-written with Da-Awesom-One.

14. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen: Leaving Home Ain't Easy

---

Tony grinned fiercely at the monstrous William Birkin, his eyes flashing between blue and gold. Inside him, his inner devil howled for blood.

There would be no more interruptions. No more holes to knock down his enemy into, and hope it would be the fall that finally killed them. Just him, and it.

And only one of them was walking away...

"Alright, Billy... Time to put you outta everyone's misery!" he taunted the roaring G-Carrier, letting out a laugh as he opened fire, the beast charging for him.

Birkin's third monstrous form stalked confidently through the oncoming barrage of bullets, each fully jacketed round piercing into the monster's red flesh and strange bony protrusions at the center of its torso, small burning holes opening as disgusting, bright orange muck for blood burst open with every faint *pop.* The massive eye on its swollen right arm's bicep locked onto Redgrave as he continued to pour bullets into the beast. The hideous grin its skull-like face bore seemed to widen as Tony's rifle quickly ran dry with a tell-tale *click,* prompting the beast to draw its massive left arm back and bring it down a mighty swing, palm flat and claws ready to tear through the youth in red-

-and the white-haired boy deftly jumped into the air, a good twenty feet over his opponent, swiftly ejecting the empty magazine of his LE 5 and exchanging it with a fresh one, before letting the automatic fall from his hands, the strap of the rifle ensuring it fell to his side in easy reach. Tony's now-freed right hand reached over his shoulder to draw his gothic longsword out in a single motion. Descending back down with the tails of his red coat extended like a pair of great wings spread, Redgrave swung his sword down in a furious Helm Breaker, both hands gripping the blade's hilt as he dropped down hard. Birkin's third form shielded itself with its massive upper arms, while its smaller two slashed out in vain, their swipes never finding their target, while Tony's sword found its.

Woozy sliced through the wide flesh of the monster's large palms, more glowing orange blood spraying out as the beast flung its arms out and howled in rage, if not pain. The sudden motion almost caught Tony as he quickly dashed back before lunging forward again, Woozy thrusting out in a Stinger to run through the mutant's gut. The barbed tip of the blade was just about to bury itself into the G-Carrier's stomach when the monster jumped and spun in place, its left leg lashing out in a wild spin kick that deflected Tony's strike. The mercenary almost found his sword knocked out of his hand from the monstrous strength of the beast's kick, his own incredible strength the only thing allowing him to keep his grip on his sword's hilt.

Quickly recovering, he dashed backwards a second time to dodge the G-Carrier's follow up attack, a second downwards strike from one of its massive arms, the former scientist letting out a rasping, hiss-like snarl from its perpetual grinning teeth. Tony idly stood in place, spinning Woozy in his hand as he and the mutant glared each other down... and he noticed that all the holes he had filled the monster up with, alongside the couple of deep cuts he had inflicted on its huge, clawed hands, were still bleeding openly, oozing thick, dark orange blood. The bullet holes and cuts were shrinking, but at a snail's pace compared to how its first two forms had regenerated their wounds.

Annette's second acid shower on her husband hadn't been able to take down William's new form like it had his prior, but it had possibly left the monster vulnerable - truly vulnerable - for the first time. Now, all Tony had to do was inflict enough damage on the monstrous former scientist to finally put him down for good.

The massive orange eye on the G-Carrier's upper bicep narrowed suddenly, and the beast snarled as it did a complete one-eighty, turning its back on Redgrave and stomping away in long strides, the eye on its back glaring angrily at the white-haired man as he blinked in confusion.

"What?! Leavin' already?!" he jeered with a smirk.

In response, the G-Carrier reached a large, silver canister situated next to one of the many computer servers stationed across the area. Both sets of its arms gripped a set of three cannisters grouped together, which were almost as long and wide as the mutant was, the monster's larger upper arms grasping it by the top while its smaller wrapped around the lower section. With a grunt, it hoisted the cannisters up, small sections of metal and wiring tearing loose, sparks flying and pressurized air hissing forth. Grinning face opening in a roar, the G-Carrier spun around, and tossed the cannisters in the same motion, the huge metal container flying right towards the man in red.

Having seen the throw coming a mile away, Tony easily dashed twice to the right, taking cover behind another row of computer servers as the cannister soared through the air, smashing into another set of servers towards the back, and promptly exploded in a great blast of fire and sparks, burning metal and plastic scattering all over the floor. A rush of hot air whooshed through the area as Redgrave darted towards the G-Carrier again, Woozy thrust out in another Stinger, the mutant meeting his stab with a lunging stab of its own huge right arm, the claws nearly finding the pale flesh of Tony's cheek as he ducked under the attack, while the barbed tip of his blade found his adversary's gut and ran through it, red flesh tearing and hot orange blood spilling as Redgrave rammed his sword in as deep as he could.

"Shouldn't go throwing around your toys like that!" Tony chided the beast mockingly. "That kinda behavior gets ya Time Out!"

The G-Carrier tossed its head back and screeched in agony, which music to the mercenary's ears. It was almost loud enough to drown out the blaring alarms and the droning computerized female voice emitting from the speakers on the ceiling far above.

"Class A breach detected. Lab quarantined until target is neutralized."

"Workin' on it, sweetheart!" the boy called back, unable to help himself.

Grinning savagely, he slammed his free hand on the pommel of his sword, shoving the blade deeper into the monster once called William Birkin. The G-Carrier ceased its scream of pain to snap its head back down, grinning face leering down on the youth as its huge left arm swung down on the smaller man, forcing him to his knees as he found his shoulder almost knocked from its socket. Before he had a chance to recover, Tony felt the wind get knocked out of him as the mutated Birkin kicked him square in the chest, sending him sprawling on his back, the foot digging into his sternum and pinning him down on the floor.

The G-Carrier's smaller arms gripped the blade of Woozy still impaled in its gut, tearing the weapon out of its stomach in a spray of glowing blood before tossing the weapon aside, roaring down in Tony's face. The boy sneered back at the monster's rage as it drew its right arm back, the ever-present eye glaring down on him.

"Gugh, I swear, your breath gets worse with every form! Betcha think you'vegot me right where you want me, huh?!" Tony challenged as his right hand reached for the holster on his right hip.

From the flaring light of the fires burning nearby, the dark metal of the fifty-caliber magnum Tony had taken from the R.P.D. hours ago gleamed, the lightning bolt held in the hawk's talons on the grip flashing in the firelight.

"Jokes's on you, ugly!"

A massive *BANG* echoed through the lab as a single, loud shot found its target, the eye growing from Birkin's left thigh, obliterating the organ in a blast of nitrate, burnt flesh, and spraying blood, along with most of the surrounding flesh and muscle of the thigh itself. The G-Carrier screeched in clear agony, its leg blown off the mercenary's chest from the force of the shot, the creature falling backwards, glowing gouts of its orange blood spurting and splashing with every stumble. Freed, Tony rolled back over front into a handstand that pushed himself several feet backwards, landing in a low crouch, his icy eyes quickly scanning the floor ahead. He quickly spied the skull engraved on the hilt of his sword several feet behind the staggering mutant, the former scientist struggling to correct its footing, now favoring its right leg over its barely hanging on left.

Holstering the Lightning Hawk back on his hip, Tony charged forward in a quick succession of three dashes, his hands digging into his coat's interior, producing his Beretta and Colt out as he reached Birkin. The G-Carrier drew its left arm back for another overhead swing, but just as the monster swung its massive, clawed mitt back down, Redgrave leapt over the mutant, spinning rapidly as he fired down with both handguns in a rainstorm of bullets. Numerous rounds struck the G-Carrier's grinning face, chest, the tumor-like eye growing out of its bicep, and a few found the monster's back but missed the eye growing just at its midsection by scant inches.

Burning orange gore burst from the swollen eye, but the orb swiveled and spilled tears of blood only, refusing to close. Roaring in fury, Birkin swung both arms up in the air, swiping after Redgrave in vain as the youth landed behind the beast in another crouch, exchanging his handguns for his Remington. Racking a fresh shell, Tony lunged forward, shoving the shotgun out in a stinger motion, the barrel of the rifle connecting with the eye on the monster's back at the same time Tony pulled the trigger.

A muffled blast of buckshot tore the eye and the flesh around it apart, the force of the young man's pointblank shot shoving the G-Carrier onto its oversized hands and knees as it screeched in fresh pain. Rolling around the creature's side, Tony slid his shotgun back over his shoulder with one hand while the other snatched the hilt of Woozy, quickly yanking the sword off the floor. Spinning forward so he was standing directly in front of the mutant, Redgrave flipped his grip on his sword, so the barbed tipped point was lined directly with the twitching, bloodshot eye on the G-Carrier's bicep.

Sneering down on the eye, which widened as it seemed to realize his intentions - too little too late - Tony jammed Woozy straight into the orb, burning orange blood bursting as the tumor popped like an over inflated balloon. The monster screamed in agony, music to Tony's hears as far as he was concerned, but the beast began twitching and jerking violently, forcing him to step back, yanking Woozy free from its upper swollen arm in another torrent of blood and tearing flesh. Stepping back, the swordmaster watched in disgusted fascination as the strange, closed, bony protrusions growing around the center of its chest began to open with a slick squelch of splitting flesh…

Which revealed dozens of small, glowing orange and yellow eyeballs; miniature copies of the three tumorous eyes Tony had destroyed across Birkin's mutated body. The many eyes twitched and swiveled about, rippling as if trying to blink, some of them looking up at the disgusted youth while others gazed about blindly at their host's surroundings. Giving Woozy a harsh swing to flick off any remaining drops of blood and flesh from his foe, Tony swung the sword back over his shoulder with his right hand while his left found the grip of his LE 5 at his side.

"Yeesh. Worst case of zits I've ever seen, Billy Boy. But don't you worry, though," he reassured the transformed scientist, his own icy orbs looking over the exposed group of eyes on the monster's chest.

As he did, he paused as he spotted a pale discoloration of flesh, just slightly below the left, smaller arm under the grotesquely swollen left. It took Redgrave a moment to recognize the pale skin was the nose, cheek and glassed over eye of William Birkin's human face.

The sunken, last, and almost lost trace of the doctor's humanity stared silently, miserably, back at the young man. Tony then looked back at the mass of glowing eyes growing from the monster born of both his flesh and the virus he had slaved over and given his life for.

"I'll clear 'em right up for ya."

With that declaration, Tony opened fire with the automatic rifle, dozens of jacketed rounds tearing the numerous eyes apart, brass casings ringing as they ejected at an equal pace in time with the exploding orbs, bursting apart in multiple splashes of a foul smelling grayish-green pus. To Redgrave's disgust, for each eyeball he shot apart, two more seemed to grow rapidly in its place. The G-Carrier jerked and flinched with every shot, and as Tony emptied the LE 5's clip into the monster's chest - swiftly ejecting the empty and reaching for a fresh inside his coat - he became aware of an intense wave of heat rushing over him.

Before he had a chance to so much as blink, Birkin snarled and swung both of its massive arms out in wide slashes, forcing Tony to jump backwards to avoid the strikes. Landing a good six feet back, skidding slightly on his bootheels as he finished reloading the automatic, the mercenary watched as the beast staggered back onto its feet, another change overcoming its form; not as severe as its last transformation, but still easily noticeable. The creature rose to its full height, head tossed back and all four arms extending outwards as it trilled a deep, rumbling snarl, its entire body beginning to emit a visible miasma of steaming mist.

As this happened, its already-mutilated and swollen red flesh began to bulge and tear with greater muscle mass than before, some sections of its body beginning to glow and pulse a deep, ominous red, as the multiple wounds Tony had inflicted upon it finally finished knitting themselves closed. Even the huge hole on its thigh was rapidly regenerating the lost mass of flesh and tissue from the Lightning Hawk's bullet. None of its tumor-like eyes reopened, but the mass of eyes growing from its chest remained, each eyeball now locked on Tony as the beast lowered its head to glower down on the youth, perpetually grinning smile opening in a feral hiss, more steam issuing out of its parted jaws.

He wasn't sure what exactly had happened, what all this sudden change on the G-Carrier meant aside from its wounds healing, but he had a feeling it was the equivalent of this monster catching its breath or getting a second wind. For most people, this would be bad news. But for Tony...

"Still got some fight left in ya, huh?" the white-haired youth prompted, reaching over his shoulder to draw Woozy back out with a fierce grin, his icy eyes flashing from cold blue to blazing red and yellow.

"Good. This was starting to feel too easy."

---

The blaring alarms and flashing red and yellow lights sufficiently distracted Claire as she helped Annette, the older blonde woman leaning heavily on the younger auburn-haired girl, along through the West Labs. The biker girl hardly cared as she and Annette were blasted with hot air and water in reverse order before getting back to the locker room, though Claire was absently grateful that Annette was still able to walk somewhat under her own power. The opder woman's right arm was currently draped over the younger woman's shoulders, Redfield wrapping her own left arm around Birkin's waist to help keep her up and steady. Behind them, she could hear muffled gun fire and smashing equipment as Tony and Annette's mutated husband battled for the third time.

The two had exited the previous reactor room when the doors swiftly shut behind them, the automated female voice droning on about a quarantine breach, but Claire ignored it, focusing on getting herself, Annette, and the cure back to Sherry. It had been only maybe an hour and a half at most since they had left her back in that office by the reception of NEST, but that was still too much time. The infection the girl was suffering from…

The college girl had no idea how long it would take the G-Virus to overcome Sherry's body completely, but Claire held onto the hope that they still had time... while a voice in the back of her mind began to ask questions.

What if it's already too late? What if Sherry... What if Sherry's... changed?...

She'll definitely be daddy's little girl, then, won't she? a dark part of her mind - which for some reason sounded an AWFUL lot like Tony - taunted. Claire internally told that little voice to shut up, but her mind was already drifting, racing away…

She could see herself opening the door, Annette still leaning on her for support... Aand there would be Sherry, up from the bed... But not the Sherry she left resting on the bed, replaced by something inhuman; monstrous...

Just like her father.

Before she could tumble down that dark rabbit hole of thought any further, the wounded scientist suddenly froze up in the younger girl's grip before beginning to cough fiercely, painful sounding hacks for breath. Claire did her best to keep herself and Annette steady, wincing when she spotted droplets of spittle and blood flying from the woman's mouth. After several seconds, the fit passed, with Birkin inhaling heavy gasps for breath, a thin line of fresh blood dribbling down her lips. The blonde raised her left hand to her side, wincing sharply as her fingers just barely touched her lower torso.

With another heavy intake, Annette whispered weakly, "Broke my ribs... William broke my ribs..."

Normally, Claire would have been far more sympathetic to the woman's obvious agony. But she remembered Annette's own angry brush off of Sherry - her own daughter - back in the sewers, even as the girl was beginning to feel the very obvious effects of the virus her parents had created - right in the very lab that they were currently in, no less - begin to take hold. And any sympathy she may have felt was burned away by her lingering anger.

"We've gotta keep moving," Claire reminded her, tone clipped, as she readjusted her hold on Annette, and practically yanked the older woman forward. The blonde grunted in pain, eyes squeezing shut, jaw grinding down, stumbling and nearly falling.

"Come on, we don't have any time to waste!" the biker practically snapped, casting her a furious glare as the she stumbled again, still rasping for breath.

"I can't... I can't..." Annette whispered pathetically.

"Yes, you can!" she shot back, having to almost shout over the blaring alarms.

Birkin didn't even try to look back at the younger girl keeping her up, slowly going limp in her grasp as she continued to pant and hyperventilate for breath.

"Just... Just leave me... Leave me here..."

Claire froze at those words... And then something inside her finally snapped.

Before she could stop herself, the words came flying out, hot and bitter as she furiously glared down on the injured woman.

"YOU THINK I DON'T WANT TO JUST DROP YOUR WORTHLESS ASS HERE, AND TAKE THE CURE TO SHERRY MYSELF?!" the auburn-haired girl raged down at the woman, her voice well and over the screaming alarms.

Annette flinched in her grasp and her eyes flickered up at Claire's, meeting her burning rage with shock. The older woman's mouth fell open, but Claire didn't give her a chance to croak out another word.

"You left your daughter to die in Raccoon City! All alone, while you were safe down here, using some bullshit excuse that you were trying to keep your husband's work out of the hands of spies, protect the world, or whatever fucking fairytale you told yourself to help you sleep at night! And now that your daughter's in danger from the very bullshit you created - now that she actually needs you - you're just gonna lay down, give up and die?! FUCK. YOU! You don't get to quit! Not yet!"

Glaring down at the scientist, Claire Redfield hissed, "You are going to get up, you are going to come with me, and, for once in your miserable, fucking life, you are going to be a fucking mother to your daughter! Save her with the vaccine you made! Make up for every day you weren't there for Sherry when she needed you! If this is really is the day you die, then this is your last and only chance to make amends for your failures! So pick your sorry, worthless ass up, and move!"

The other woman said nothing for a good moment. But her eyes, previously blurry and dazed, burned with her own indignant anger from the college student's harsh words, her jaw grinding down again as she forced herself upright with a repressed groan of pain.

Returning Claire's glare, Annette hissed back, "...Let's go then."

That got back a rueful smirk from the younger girl, and the two resumed their way, now at an equal and quicker pace. Internally, Claire was grateful for the fresh anger giving her a boost to keep going.

Anger was also good for keeping fear at bay.

---

Ada was less than ten meters from escape.

The huge automatic doors were still open, even if it was just partially. But there was more than enough of a gap for a quick duck. Just one, and them she would be out of NEST. After that, it was a quick run up the loading dock's steps, and back to the cable car. From there, a few easy buttons to press and a control to flip, and she'd be back on her way to the sewer treatment facility under Raccoon City.

Her mission was so close to being accomplished...

And the only thing standing between her and a job well done was a tall figure dressed in black, flesh hidden underneath wrapped gauze, and a sheathed katana held in one hand. His icy eyes locked with her own brown orbs, holding her gaze easily with a single, intense stare.

Ada would rather face down an entire horde of infected human carriers, any of Umbrella's biological experiments, and even another Tyrant - all at the same time- to reach that doorway, rather than confront this lone bandaged mystery man called Gilver.

The two held each other's stare, and stood their ground in silence, Ada's LE 5 trained on the stoic swordsman, who held his blade at his side, his thumb just under the hilt of his blade, ready to draw when needed.

Outwardly, the agent looked as calm and cool as ever.

Internally, she was fumbling for an escape plan that wouldn't end with her skewered through Gilver's sword.

Shooting him was useless. If his uncanny ability to just vanish and reappear didn't protect him from bullets, then his inhuman strength and speed simply let him deflect them with his katana. Even with the higher speed and bullet output from the rifle, she seriously doubted she could so much as nick him with a round from the machine gun. Ada began to consider trying to aim for his knees and ankles to trip the bizarre bastard up so she could make a dash for escape, when Gilver's cold gaze flickered upward slightly, glaring at one of the flashing lights from the alarm.

Ada felt her heart lock up and she almost squeezed her gun's trigger, when just as quickly, his eyes fell back on her, narrowing spitefully, as if daring her to try. In an instant she froze up again under the intense scrutiny of his glare, her finger twitching off the LE 5's trigger. The stranger observed her for another moment, before his icy glare flickered to her right, staring at the closed door a few feet away.

The mystery man looked back to her, keeping his eyes on her once again, though now they were narrowed in contemplation instead of contempt. After a tense moment, the gauze around his mouth crinkled slightly, his teeth visible as he grinned viciously.

"Yes... This will do very... nicely."

Ada blinked, caught off-guard and utterly baffled by his words, even moreso when the bandaged swordsman calmly slipped his empty hand back into his pocket and began to walk towards her.

Quickly regaining her composure, the woman snapped, "Don't come any closer!"

She punctuated her point by lining the sights of the LE 5 on him. Unfazed, Gilver simply extended his sword arm out, shoving the barrel of the machine gun aside with the hilt at the same time Ada pulled the trigger, sending a trio of rounds uselessly into a wall.

The agent braced herself for the swordsman's reprisal... but nothing happened.

Blinking, Ada looked up at Gilver's swathed face, and saw he was still grinning mockingly down on her. Sneering, he spoke again.

"Calm yourself, Agent Wong. As you should well know by now... you are not the one I seek."

Pulling his sheath back, letting her step back and the side to get out of his way, the darkly-dressed warrior slowly stepped closer towards the closed door, looking over it a second time before turning his gaze to the automatic door further in the back. Then he glanced back up at one of the blaring alarms, all the while wearing an intense grin, the whites of his teeth the only thing visible on his bandaged face. To say the smile he now wore unnerved her more than any of his previous supernatural feats was ridiculous...

But Ada couldn't fight the slight tremor running through her hands.

"A ticking clock..." Gilver murmured, still looking at the flashing alarm, before looking back to the closer door to his left.

"An innocent life on the line…"

Ada blinked, looking from Gilver to the door in confusion over his words, before he spoke again, prompting her to return her gaze to him.

"This is better than I could have desired."

He glanced over his shoulder to look back at her, his icy eyes narrowed again.

"You may take your leave now, Agent."

With that said, he faced the door opposite of himself and began walking away, his footsteps making soft *clicks* just under the drone of the alarm.

Despite herself, Ada blinked in disbelief.

"...That's it?" she whispered to herself. She felt a strange combination of relief... and disgust towards said relief.

She flinched in surprise as Gilver replied again, having somehow heard her over the blaring alarms. "You no longer matter. Everything is in place. Your presence is a distraction, at this point. Besides..."

He stopped just before reaching the door, slowly turning to look back at Ada... And the young woman couldn't fight back a shudder of terror at the sight of his malicious grin, the lighting from the alarms turning his eyes from a faint ice blue to a deep, murderous red. What he said next froze her to her core.

"I already know where your soul will be going soon enough. So do not fret, Ada Wong..."

He turned to face the door, and the lighting in the reception room began to flicker, the lights dimming and going out, but not the alarms. As this happened, Ada caught sight of Gilver's shadow against the wall... And she nearly fled for her life at what she saw.

Instead of the shadow of a tall, thin figure clutching a sheathed katana...

The shadow was of a tall, broad-shouldered figure, their body's proportions strange, somewhat bulging in places and jutting out in others... And horns descended from his head, a long cape hanging off their shoulders, with a massive sword in place of the thin eastern blade.

When the lights flickered back on, Gilver was gone, though Ada had never heard the door open.

What she did hear, were Gilver's last words to her.

"Our reunion is inevitable."

Unable to stop herself, Ada took a shaky step back, the barrel of the LE 5 twitching from one spot to aim at to another. But the bandaged man was gone once again. Still, she didn't understand why she was reacting this way.

Even though Gilver was gone, his presence still lingered, like a thick miasma threatening to choke the breath out of her. Her heart pounded hard against her chest, feeling ready to burst open. She had to leave, had to get as far away as possible from this oppressive feeling.

But still she didn't move, her brown eyes looking towards the door Gilver had acknowledged twice beforehand. As she recalled his words "An innocent life on the line…"

"Birkin's daughter..." Ada whispered to herself in realization.

If the girl was in there, infected like Redgrave's girlfriend had said, then she had all the more reason to hightail it out of there. They would be coming along shortly with the vaccine to save the child, if there was still time for that. Besides, her job wasn't done yet, anyway.

She had to escape back to the sewers, and get back to the city to find her contact. After that, she could finally leave the city, and put it and this night behind her.

But the agent still didn't move, her eyes wandering back to where Gilver had disappeared.

He wasn't after her, nor had he ever been. His interests were solely on that loudmouth Tony Redgrave. Better him than her, though. She didn't know what Gilver was, but the sooner she put as much distance between herself and him, the better.

His parting words hadn't meant anything. He was just trying to rattle her, she concluded. Well, he succeeded. And he could laugh all the way to Hell when this place went down in flames and rubble. Some part of her mused how apt that sounded, and she had to force herself not shiver again.

Ada turned towards the open doorway, her final obstacle to escape NEST... But still, she found herself struggling to move forward.

She had the G-Virus sample. She had a means of escape. The job was almost done…

So why was she hesitating?

Was it possible…

She was worried about whatever Gilver's intentions towards Tony and his girlfriend (Ex-girlfriend, she reminded herself)?

She shook her head.

What did she care?

If the freak wanted to cross swords so badly with that braggart, that was fine with her. And if they were caught in the destruction of the lab, all the better. No more Gilver, no more annoying witnesses, no more complications. All she had to do was take a few more steps, and she'd be closer to finally leaving this city of the dead.

But as she forced herself to take that first step, Ada found her stomach still wouldn't settle, and a strange feeling was beginning to fester there. An uncertainty.

She had seen what Gilver could do, and knew those two youths didn't stand a chance against him. Redgrave was like Gilver, that much was obvious. But Gilver was simply far more inhuman compared to that cocksure young man. Neither of them was going to survive whatever that bandaged monster had planned…

What the fuck does it matter?! That's THEIR problem, not mine, goddammit! Stop thinking, and start ACTING! Get a move on, and GET OUT! You have the sample, so get out of here, and FINISH THE MISSION.

Her mind raged at her, the part of her that was the cool, collected agent, unleashing its frustrations at her continued hesitations.

Inhaling deeply, squaring her shoulders, Ada Wong faced the exit, and began to calmly walk away.

"Sorry kids…" she whispered.

And she was…

But she had a job to see through.

---

Sweat dripped down his forehead and the back of his neck, making the long white locks stick to his skin. A few stray drops managed to slither down into his eyes, and Tony fought the urge to blink and wipe at them. He wasn't sweating because he was nervous, the only time he could ever recall being nervous was when he first asked Claire out, and even then, he hadn't sweat. No, he was sweating because of all the freaking heat Birkin's transformed body was now giving off.

Like he had told Claire back at the beginning of their night in their first hours in Raccoon City: fire, and heat, were bad for his complexion. It was bad enough with the sweat dripping into his eyes now, but the G-Carrier's swollen, grotesque form was emitting waves of misting steam as well. Steam so hot, it stung the exposed skin on his forearms, chest and face if he ventured too close. The fight with the monster was starting to lose the thrill, and was become just aggravating, which seemed to be the running theme of each of Birkin's new forms.

The other running theme he was currently dealing with…

"Would you just stand still?!" Redgrave raged, firing three-round bursts from the LE 5 to punctuate his frustrations.

After becoming a walking sauna, Birkin's mutant form had begun to hop and charge around the bottom of the Bioreactors Room, screeching its fury, and tearing apart everything with numerous swipes from all four of its clawed arms, the boney talons tearing through various computer servers and metal cannisters alike, scattering debris across the already littered floor, igniting fires from spilled fuel from the tanks in the process. Tony had ducked, dashed, and rolled to dodge the attacks, the beast leaping after him like a bloodhound chasing after a scent. Quite literally, in fact, as it dropped onto all four - rather six - limbs before catapulting after him.

It was in pain from the intense internal heat its body was now giving off, possibly out of its mind from it. And all that monstrosity could focus on was sharing that agony with the one who had pushed it this far.

His machine gun's rounds found their marks every now and again, drilling new holes in the G-Carrier's burning skin, causing more steam to hiss out with very little blood spilling. Tony chalked that up to it evaporating before it had a chance to hit the floor. Finally, the rifle ran dry, and the gunslinger flung it aside, having used the last clip in a failed attempt to shoot out the eyes growing on the front of its chest. Not entirely, unfortunately, but the few he had popped had simply been replaced by several more. Skidding backwards, Tony drew Woozy from over his shoulder, pulling the blade back, and gripping the hilt with both hands when Birkin ceased his pursuit, pausing to glare down on the red-coated warrior, before quickly turning its back to him and stomping away.

Blinking, Redgrave smirked and remarked, "What, running away already? C'mon, you're just gonna give-"

The G-Carrier reached the front of a lower section of the entrance walkway, all four of its arms gripping the metal plating, and began to tear it off into a single, large section of metal and wiring over forty feet long, and nearly a full-grown man's height across. The boy blinked, his cocky grin vanishing as he uttered his last word lamely.

"…up?"

The strength needed to pull off such a feat was mind-boggling, but even Birkin's transformed body seemed to find its limit, Tony's icy gaze watching swollen muscles burst along its arms and legs as it tore the section free. Its sheer size didn't leave much room for maneuvering, and he had to time his next move just right, or he'd find himself trapped under that behemoth soon enough. Sheathing Woozy back over his shoulder, Tony tensed, waiting…

He didn't have to for long.

With a furious roar, the G-Carrier turned and flung the wall section, the whole thing coming apart before it even finished falling, scattering heavy materials all over the place, breaking what few servers still standing, knocking over cannisters of bright blue coolant and just turning the wreckage into utter chaos in a resounding crash of metal, mortar, and the monster's triumphant screech as it saw its prey vanish under the rubble, no sight of his red coat anywhere. Huffing and hissing, chest rising and falling, nest of glowing eyes on its chest flickering about in different directions, the G-Carrier took a shaky step forward, its body still knitting together the muscles and tendons it had torn from such a strenuous action, but aside from the crackle of sparks and flames, it could not spot its quarry anywhere among the rubble…

When it heard heavy boot falls, coming from above.

Screeching, the beast snapped its head back, and each set of eyes, both the ones on its head and the ones growing from its chest, widened in shock as it saw the white-haired youth running up the wall of the opposite support platform before jumping off once he was almost at the top. As he did, his icy eyes flashed red and gold, his gothic greatsword drawn and pulled back, both hands gripping the hilt as he roared back at the monster, "You're mine now!"

The G-Carrier only had a second to react, one unsteady step back in retreat before Tony Redgrave completed his descent, frayed ends of his coat flaring out like a great pair of wings as he brought Woozy down in a mighty Helm Breaker, tearing through the eyes on Birkin's mutated chest like a burning knife through butter. More foul gunk, now a disgusting shade of piss yellow mixed with puke green, sprayed out, the rancid-smelling fluid steaming and burning, but the boy refused to relent from his assault. Rising back up, Tony swung Woozy in the same motion in a rising arc, the swing going high this time, and inexplicably, Redgrave released his hold on his sword, letting it fly spinning into the air well over them and several feet back. As the G-Carrier staggered back, the man in red drew his Colt from inside his coat, firing a heavy round point-blank in the monster's ugly mug, destroying one of its normal eyes and making it scream in terror and pain.

Turning away from the G-Carrier, and dashing before it had so much as a chance to draw one of its arms back to counterattack, Tony raced across the floor, lining himself up with Woozy as the sword continued to spin and fall through the air. With a fierce shout, Redgrave jumped and flipped into the air, the tip of his boot colliding with his sword's spiked pommel, sending the weapon blade first straight into Birkin's chest, the sword-turned-spear ramming through the still-open cut Redgrave had first inflicted, popping several more eyes in the process, and causing a fountain of dark yellow gunk to spray out. Completing his fall, Tony whipped around in a crouch, both hands holding his drawn Colt and Beretta, while around his hands and traveling into the weapons as well, strings of crackling red and white energy began to gather, the strange power charging into Redgrave's pistols.

With a furious, warped shout from Tony, his pistols came to life as his fingers squeezed down on the triggers rapidly, both handguns firing in time with each other, each bullet glowing red, and discharging arcs of red and white energy that struck Birkin's mutant form with far more power than either handgun had previously possessed. Tony didn't stop firing until the chambers clicked dry, both guns smoking and crackling themselves now. As the last bullet found its mark, the G-Carrier's chest exploded, more arcs of red and white energy discharging and frying its already burnt flesh, the smaller lower arms it had grown flying off as dark yellow fluid came gushing out along with burning flesh, meat and bone, from the massive hole that had formerly served as its rib cage and sternum. The thing that had once been William Birkin let out one final, agonized screech and collapsed onto its knees, sprawling down face first, its remaining arms going limp as it struck the floor.

The alarms continued to blare and scream from above, but the bottom of the Bioreactors Room went silent at last.

Tony observed Birkin's body for a long moment, his eyes flashing back from red and gold to their normal icy blue. And when he was sure the beast wasn't going to get back up, he let out a long exhale as he slowly rose back onto his feet. He glanced downwards at the smoking pistols still in his hands, and, when he saw the frames were cracked and burned, the metal and plastic beginning to melt even, sighed sadly, shaking his head.

"Damn... And I really liked these, too! Granny's not gonna be happy I busted her loaner, either... Oh, well. They never last, anyway."

With that said and a causal shrug, Tony dropped both guns to the floor. He was pretty sure he was out of ammo for them anyway, so no great loss. The mercenary strode towards the still body of the G-Carrier, his pace confidant, but he still drew his remaining sidearm, the fifty-caliber Lightning Hawk.

Just in case.

As he reached the body, the automated female voice chimed from above over the repeated warning alarms for the detonation and lockdown sequences.

"Target has been neutralized. Ending quarantine."

"Music to my ears…" Redgrave muttered as he reached Birkin's grotesque corpse. Bending over, spying Woozy's hilt under one of the body's heavier arms, Tony snatched the grip, and with a single harsh tug with his left hand, undertoned by splitting flesh and a fresh rush of the monster's awful-looking lifeblood, he tore his sword free. Despite himself, the youth was unable to stop the look of disgust that formed on his face as he looked over his favorite blade, which was covered in the awful offal.

"Yuck. Definitely gonna run you through that carwash back up there... Several times."

Turning away with his sword still held out and away from himself, lest he stain his clothes all over again, Tony started to walk away, before pausing to a stop. Craning his head to look back over his shoulder, he stared at the still body of the G-Carrier, remembering how the beast had convincingly played dead earlier to get the drop on its former wife. After a moment of consideration, Tony's right hand, still holding his Desert Eagle, slipped under his left arm, the huge barrel lining up with the corpse's head before he fired again, the heavy blast briefly drowning out the sounds of the alarms.

The massive bullet tore through the monster's lower jaw, blowing it off and a good chunk of the floor under it, not leaving even a trace of flesh or bone, or even blood, as only a few droplets fell out after a second, much of the beast's life fluid already a large puddle on the floor. Aside from jerking from the force of the compact cannon's impact, the monster's body remained still and motionless. It seemed it was dead for good this time.

Satisfied, Redgrave holstered the huge handgun, and resumed his trek towards the support platform with the exit to the Bioreactors Room. Instead of hopping onto the lift attached to its left side, Tony opted to take a running jump back onto the side of the wall of the support he had leapt off earlier, once more defying most physics as he raced up its side with all the speed of a track runner, snatching a railing bar, and hauling himself up and over onto the platform before gravity had a chance to catch up with him. Rolling his neck, Tony let out a slow breath, then glanced down at his hands, looking them over as images flashed in his mind's eye of the curious red energy they had imbued into his pistols.

The sensation had been strange, but oddly familiar. Not unlike when he felt his wounds heal themselves, but harsher. Hotter...

As if the burning anger of his inner devil had come roaring out through his guns, empowering his bullets to make them even deadlier.

The mercenary smirked, clenching his open palms into tight fists.

It felt pretty awesome, all things considered...

But there was no time to dwell or think about it any further, at least for the moment.

Looking up, he started for the door to follow Claire and Annette... only for it to remain closed. Frowning, Tony raised his hand towards the scanner, wondering why it hadn't picked up the I.D. bracelet's signal-

-when he remembered Claire telling him Ada had absconded with it after Birkin's dramatic entrance.

Exhaling harshly in frustration, he snapped, "Why's my luck with women always so rotten?"

Stapling his fingers together and flexing them out, earning several satisfying pops from their joints, Tony gripped the thin, open section of the doors where they met, easily prying his fingers deeper inside, shoving the two metal sections apart in a screech of straining metal and flickering electronics.

The red-coated gunslinger took a single step forward when realization struck him. "Hey, wait a minute..." His eyes narrowed as he rubbed his chin in thought. "If I could do that this whole time, why didn't I just do this with all the other doors in the first place?!"

Tapping his chin again, Redgrave shrugged, muttering, "Eh, hindsight..."

Walking through the decontamination room in reverse this time, getting air blasted, then fried, and finally rained on, Tony stayed under the water with Woozy out, letting the blade get clean as best as it could before stepping into the locker room, annoyed that he was now completely soaked, but at least his sword didn't have any of Birkin's flesh and blood left on it. Sheathing the blade back over his shoulder, Redgrave absently drew his shotgun with the same hand while searching his coat's pockets for his remaining shells. When he found them, he looked down into his palm with dismay, noting he only had four left.

"I should charge Annette for all the ammo I've wasted on trying to put her hubby down…" he mused aloud with a smirk.

Reloading the Remington, Tony knew he was going to have to deal with whatever else was still in the lab with just his sword, which wouldn't be a problem whatsoever, and preserve his remaining ammunition just in case. Still, even with only a few shells and a clip and a half left over, a shotgun and a magnum were nothing to scoff at. As he reached the door to the locker room that led back to the first lab of the West Area, Tony paused, and looked back at the way he came, once more wondering if Birkin was truly and finally dead.

The G-Virus in his veins, now having completely subsumed his humanity, had allowed him to survive his first execution and his previous battles against Redgrave. Still, as he had just proven, it could only heal so much damage at once before finally becoming overwhelmed. And even if the G-Carrier wasn't truly dead but comatose, it probably wouldn't be able to recover in time to escape the lab before it all went boom...

Probably.

The droning alarms broke him from his thoughts, and he shook his head. One way or another, the thing that had once been William Birkin was going to go down with the laboratory he had spent the last years of his life in, having become the summation of his life's work. Nothing more than another failed monster in defiance of his corporate masters.

A pitiful end for a pitiful man.

With that thought, Tony exited the locker room, moving from a slow walk to a quicker pace. He had to catch up with Claire and Annette, cure Birkin's daughter, and get them all as far away from this place as possible before it all went down in flames and rubble.

---

Despite herself, Claire was impressed with Annette as the two made their way back to the reception from the West Lab. As they crossed the connecting bridge back to the main platform of the huge hub shaft of NEST, an ominous rumble issued from somewhere deep in the facility, and Claire felt the faint vibrations hum under her feet. As soon as they died down, Birkin suddenly pulled herself forward at a quicker pace, almost pulling herself free from the biker girl's grasp.

"Have to hurry. Not much time left..."

Despite the rasp in her voice, her words still carried over the alarms, and the younger girl did as bid, upping her pace to keep stride with the older blonde scientist.

They reached the reception, and to Claire's dismay, the huge shutter doors were closed, blocking off their escape. Since she and Annette were the only two in the room, the college student assumed the spy woman, Ada, had presumably escaped with the cable car, anyway, so no reason to cry over that spilt milk. She'd help Annette save Sherry first, and then bemoan their inevitable deaths.

Upon reaching the door, Claire shoved it open with her free shoulder, both women spilling inside. Her grey-blue eyes fell on Sherry still laid out on the bed, her skin still deathly pale, the swelling visible against her near porcelain colored flesh, but there were no further developments or mutations as far as she could to stop herself, Redfield exhaled a held breath in relief.

She hadn't been too late. They could still save her.

The two staggered into the security room, Annette pushing herself away from Claire to stumble towards some medical equipment stationed by a computer, quickly pounding a few keys and buttons along a keyboard while snapping at the college student, "Get a syringe... From that drawer!"

Nodding, Claire quickly yanked open a nearby drawer, which had inside it various medical tools and equipment. Quickly spotting a syringe in its packet, the redhead tore the plastic apart and handed the needle to Annette before reaching into her pack for the DEVIL Vaccine, giving it to the older woman a second later. Despite her injuries, the scientist smoothly pierced the thin rubber barrier of the vial with the syringe's needle, pulling the plunger back to fill it halfway before stopping to place the vaccine aside, her fingers flicking the barrel to get any stray bubbles that lingered.

Looming over Sherry, Annette took her daughter's arm, only pausing for half a second to note the vest her daughter had on that was just a tad too large for her, before piercing the needle into a vein along Sherry's forearm, slowly pushing the plunger down to inject the golden fluid into her body, only stopping once the syringe was empty. Gently removing the syringe, Annette tossed it onto the desk nearby before speaking to Claire again.

"Bandage, alcohol... Cotton swab, please..."

Nodding, Claire quickly retrieved the two items, walking back over to the other woman as another rumble issued through the lab, this one stronger than the last, several stationary items rattling across the room. The youth ignored it, reaching Annette and Sherry, helping the mother clean her child's injection site, and apply the cotton and bandage. After they finished, Annette collapsed to her knees with a harsh gasp, her body shuddering as she ground her jaw down and fought back the pain she was suffering.

Despite herself, Claire placed one of her hands on Annette's shoulder to help steady her again, the older woman giving her a quick look before both looked back to Sherry. She wasn't quite sure, but the swelling around the pre-teen's eye seemed to be smaller than it was a moment ago.

Looking back at Annette, Claire asked, "How long will it take before... before we know?"

Annette looked back at the computer monitor attached to the medical equipment, which displayed Sherry's vitals waxing and waning between red and yellow graphs, before responding, each word somewhat labored and strained.

"I'm not... not sure... We never... never reached this stage in... G-G's development... The vaccine's designed to... to negate early-stage exposure..."

At the words 'early-stage exposure', Claire felt her heart and stomach tighten up, clenching in fear. Sherry had been infected hours ago... Was that too much time for the vaccine to be effective? God, to have struggled all this way only for it to have been for nothing...

When the readout on the computer screen suddenly slowed, the red and yellow vital signs beginning to rise and slowly turn into a bright shade of green. Both Claire and Annette stared at the computer in astonishment, before the older woman chanced a look back at Sherry, and gasped loudly.

"Oh my god... Look!"

Claire followed Annette's line of vision, looking back at Sherry's prone body...

And witnessed a miracle.

Gradually, but gaining speed, the preteen's pale skin was regaining a healthier pallor, and the discolored swelling engulfing her left eye was bubbling like froth before settling back, all traces of the angry red infection that had consumed it gone so quickly, Claire would have most assuredly missed it if not for Annette's gasped words.

Gradually, Sherry's closed eyes fluttered open, and Claire couldn't keep the relieved smile off of her face, the weight around her heart finally easing away. She had failed to save Martin, but she hadn't failed to save Sherry. The little girl's bright blue eyes met her grey-blue orbs, and she smiled at the sight of the older girl, while Redfield knelt down next to her bedside, unable to stop smiling.

"Hey," she greeted, somewhat lamely, but she was so overwhelmed with relief it was all she could think of to say.

"I knew you'd make it..." Sherry whispered back, smiling.

Despite the assurance in her voice, Claire remembered the many close calls between arriving at the NEST. From the carnivorous plant men, the return of that unstoppable behemoth she and Tony had fled from the R.P.D., to Ada's sudden betrayal, and the sudden reappearance of Sherry's virally infected father, there had been too many close calls. But somehow, she had succeeded, and Sherry was finally free from her G-Virus infection.

Sherry's smile faded as her eyes flickered past Claire, seeing the disheveled form of her mother staggering over.

"Mommy?" she whispered in disbelief.

Practically collapsing to her knees with relief, Annette leaned closer to her daughter, struggling to respond.

"Sh... Sherry... How are you?" she asked breathlessly, struggling to form the words as she fought to ignore the growing agony in her chest, a droplet of blood developing at the corner of her mouth.

"Ok... But you don't look so good," she replied, her young face filled with concern.

Annette didn't respond to her daughter's words, and instead moved to stand up, only to stumble and practically collapse with a pained cry, barely having the strength to grab the nearby chair in a futile attempt to steady herself.

"Mommy!" Sherry cried out, quickly sitting up before looking back at Claire and saying, "She needs help!"

Claire nodded, quickly standing up and moving towards the older woman. The college girl reached out to grasp Annette by her back and shoulder to help steady her, when out of the corner of her eye, she saw the screen displaying Sherry's vitals flicker and change. Blinking, she looked at it before glancing back at Annette, speaking to get the scientist's attention.

"Hey, look at the screen."

Annette's gaze followed Claire's, and she let the younger girl help her back onto unsteady feet, her eyes poring over the screen. Letting go of Claire's hand, Birkin gripped the edge of the desk, still reading over Sherry's vitals, before whispering in relief.

"Oh, thank god."

Hearing this, Claire felt her hopes soar even higher.

"So Sherry's gonna be alright?" she dared to ask, a part of her terrified that no sooner asking this would the worst happen. That the screen would change again, and Sherry would be struck with the returning effects of her parents virus, only much worse than before as it completed its insidious infection. But to her relief, Annette nodded, before straining to speak again, slowly turning to face Claire as she spoke.

"She'll be weak for a little while, but... Yes, she's free from the G-Virus."

And with those words, Claire felt the weight of her failures to save Elliot, to save Marvin, ease just ever so slightly from her heart. She had failed to save either of them, and she would live with that guilt the rest of her life. But she had not failed Sherry.

Looking back to the younger girl, Claire reached out to stroke her shoulder, excitedly asking, "Did you hear that?"

Sherry briefly returned the older girl's enthusiastic grin-

-before it dropped into an expression of panic as her mother stumbled forward with a pained cry, clutching her side with her right hand, her left reaching out to Claire, the younger girl gripping Annette's arm as the scientist collapsed on the floor, her voice crying out hoarsely, a terrifying sound the combination of intense agony and choked struggles for breath.

As Claire knelt down next to Annette who painfully settled flat on the bloodstained floor, Sherry frantically crawled next to her mother, looking back to the older girl to ask in horror, "What happened to her?"

The college girl blinked and her mouth opened, but no words came out as she struggled to find the right words. Telling a child her mother had been injured by their father was horrifying enough as it was, without the insane details of the fact Annette had been trying to kill the monster William had become…

Finally, Claire found her voice.

"She was attacked... By that monster..."

But before she could explain any further, Annette managed to catch her breath, interrupting the college student, and managing to gasp out, "Don't... Don't worry about me..."

Looking at Sherry for an all too brief moment, the dying mother reached into her coat's pocket, taking a small object out, and placing it into Claire's left hand, the scientist's hand shaking and struggling as much as her next words.

"Take my daughter... to safety..." Annette begged, and Claire looked down into her palm, seeing she had placed her own wristband with the magenta-colored chip with the roman numeral 'IV' on it in her hand.

Looking away from Claire, the older woman's eyes filled with tears as she looked back at her young daughter. All her life, she had worked with William to see the fruits of his research reach their full potential. To create a legacy that would surpass others in the annals of science before them...

And only now, as she looked at her daughter, the living proof of her love for her husband she had thought non-existent, did Annette realize it had all been a waste. The countless years, the back-to-back months, weeks, days spent slaving away for a company that had cast them aside after years of loyalty all in the name of money...

How she wished she could trade all that lost time for just one more day with her daughter.

Voice breaking with pain both physical and emotional, Annette weakly whispered, "I'm sorry, Sherry... for everything..."

And as she uttered those words, Annette knew they weren't enough.

Nothing would ever be, for how she deeply she had failed as a mother to her daughter.

Her child could only stare back in a kind of stunned awe and silence. Sherry had never heard her mother apologize to her for... for anything. But now...

Annette spoke on, voice filled with pain and desperation. "Your life is what is important now-"

But she couldn't say anymore, her breath becoming a raspy cry, and Sherry frantically looked back at Claire.

"We can't just leave her here!" She begged the older girl.

The college girl nodded, affirming, "You're right, we can't-"

And she moved herself over Annette, reaching down to try to lift the wounded woman, when the electronic female voice from earlier suddenly chimed out again. More ominously the room the three females were in shook as the entire facility rumbled.

"Attention: Unauthorized removal of a [Level 4] virus detected. Facility lockdown initiated. Self-destruct sequence will begin when lockdown is complete."

Panicked, Sherry looked down at Annette, the older woman struggling to explain to her daughter as fresh blood began dribbling down her lips.

"It's… the self-destruct code… In case the G-Virus... leaves the building..."

She coughed wetly, droplets of red mist spraying out of her mouth as she looked back up at Claire with weak, dimming eyes.

Choking on her own blood, Annette desperately gripped the younger woman's hand with what little strength she had left.

Sobbing, choking, the scientist pleaded one final time. "Please... Save my daughter."

Then, Annette's body seized, one last long, rattling breath slipping past her bloody lips...

And then she went still, eyes open, but unseeing.

Tears burst from Sherry's eyes as she frantically clutched at her mother's still form, crying out desperately, in denial.

"NO!"

But Annette remained motionless as her daughter wept on her chest.

Above the mother and daughter, Claire fought back her own grief, feeling warm tears running down her dirty cheeks.

She had hated Annette, honest and true, for abandoning Sherry in her time of need, with the pitiful excuse of trying to ensure her husband's work didn't fall into the wrong hands…

But she had come with Claire to save Sherry in her time of need.

Maybe that single act didn't make up for the short lifetime of neglect she had inflicted upon her daughter…

But no one could say Annette hadn't loved her daughter enough to save her life at the cost of her own.

Swallowing the ever-growing grief down, Claire hated herself for what she had to do next, but there was simply no time to let Sherry mourn for her mother. Not if the older girl was to keep her mother's dying last request. Reaching down, Claire gently rubbed the grieving child's quaking back while gripping her shoulder with her other hand, unable to keep the quiver out of her voice as she spoke.

"Sherry... Sherry... We gotta say goodbye to your mom. Come on."

Around them, the room began to shake, and Claire heard ominous tremors mixed with muffled explosive booms. The college girl looked up at the ceiling, seeing the lights flicker as one of the shelves of medical items shook and rattled.

Looking back to Sherry, Claire pleaded with the sobbing child. "Please... Say goodbye."

The room shook, another muffled boom resounding in the background. Hating herself for what she was about to do, but knowing there simply wasn't any time left to let Sherry grieve freely, Claire went on, her own voice trembling with emotion, but still gentle and beseeching.

"Please, Sherry, listen…"

Inhaling a deep breath, Claire affirmed to Sherry what she knew to be absolutely true.

"She loved you, OK?"

The older girl desperately wanted to tell Sherry how her mother had dragged herself through pain to deliver the vaccine that had saved her life, a final selfless act to make up for years of neglect, but the blaring alarms and shaking lab simply made that impossible. There was no time...

But if she could save Sherry from the explosion and escape, she vowed she would to make up for this.

They had to go. Now.

"We really gotta get going. Come on..." Claire urged the young girl, whose shaking slowly stopped, her sobs quieting. The older girl stood up, sniffling one final time. Sherry looked up to Claire, then down at her mother's body.

Reaching down, she kissed Annette's still warm cheek. A final silent goodbye.

Then, she turned to look back up at Claire, who extended her hand out to help her up, which the younger girl accepted gratefully as she pulled herself up and towards Claire in a tight embrace.

"You were right about this jacket..." Sherry murmured, before looking up at Claire with tear filled eyes and a small smile. "I'm so lucky to have you..."

Claire found herself at a loss for a words, part of her feeling guilt for how meeting Sherry had led the girl to first getting kidnapped by a madman, then trapped and infected by her mutated father, and now forced to leave her mother's body behind. But still, the girl considered herself lucky to have found her...

And truthfully, Claire echoed the feeling. Keeping Sherry safe, protecting her where she had failed to save Elliot and was forced to leave Marvin behind, had given her the will to keep going when she had felt like giving up.

But once more, the rumbling booms shaking the NEST laboratory forced her to put those thoughts on hold for now.

"Listen, we can talk more about that later. We gotta hurry, now. Come on."

With that, she began leading Sherry away, towards the door back out into the entry lounge of the lab, all the while slipping Annette's wrist band on. This would give them access to that elevator in the center of the NEST's hub...

And hopefully the means to finally escape this nightmare.

---

Tony darted through the open automatic door as soon as he finished prying it open, his boot falls echoing off the metal of the connecting bridge as he raced for the central platform when another explosive rumble rocked the lab. The entire chamber shook, making him slide to a halt as he focused on balancing his footing when the metal groaned audibly under him.

"Aw, crap...!" Redgrave uttered as he realized what was about to happen.

As expected, the bridge began to wobble and give, small sections of its flooring falling away along with the short handrails on its side. More explosives cracks issued from above, bits of dusts beginning to drop, and a second, louder rumbles and cracks bellowed, causing the back half of the bridge to snap off and plummet into the darkness below. Tony's head snapped around at the sound of the metal giving, before he turned straight ahead and rushed forward, leaping off the last stable part of the bridge just as another booming rumble shook the lab, sending what was left of the bridge to the West Area falling into the darkness below.

Landing on the central platform, Redgrave whipped around to look at the empty space where the bridge had been when the computerized female voice spoke loudly over the continuing rumbling and muffled explosive bursts.

"Attention: Self-destruct sequence initiated. Use the Central Elevator to evacuate immediately to the bottom-level train platform."

Any initial panic he felt for the impending destruction of the lab died upon hearing the words 'train platform.' Tony's gaze snapped up then back down to look at the large elevator directly in the middle of the central platform, his icy eyes widening as he grinned in realization.

There's an escape train! We still have a way out of here!

"Man, am I glad these corporate assholes love rippin' off movies so much!" he uttered aloud with a laugh.

Umbrella's penchant for cinematic plagiarism had just given them all a chance to escape alive, if not unscathed, and Redgrave was grateful for their lack of originality for once. Turning and facing the last still connected bridge back to the reception area of NEST, he started powerwalking for it. He just needed to find Claire, Sherry, and her mom, and then they could all take the elevator down to the train platform, where their ride out of this hellhole was waiting for them.

The white-haired youth took exactly three steps when all the remaining lights in the Central Shaft flickered off, plunging the room into total darkness.

Tony stopped moving as soon as the lights died, his whole-body tensing as he felt an ominous, oppressive aura washing over him, threatening to engulf him. At his sides, his hands twitched into tight fists, and a spark of crimson and amber flashed around his eyes, briefly piercing through the pitch blackness. After a moment, the lights returned, flickering back on weakly as more explosions rocked the lab, but the central platform held steady, as did the last bridge.

But Tony no longer had any intention of crossing that bridge. Smirking to himself, back still the elevator, Redgrave sighed before speaking aloud.

"Lights cut out, cue the bandage bastard entering stage right to ruin my night. Y'know, you really oughta work on how to time your entrances, 'cause you always pick the absolutely worst times to show up."

Behind him, a low chuckle.

Turning around entirely, Tony was unsurprised to see the dark form of Gilver standing across from him, directly in front of the door to the elevator, his sheathed katana placed in front of himself, both bandaged palms resting atop the pommel of his blade as he stared back at the boy, his own icy eyes meeting and holding Redgrave's own.

But instead of the usual bored disdain that filled those cold orbs…

Now there was a flicker of excitement.

"With respect, I disagree," Gilver replied coolly. "I believe I've arrived at just the right time."

To that, Tony scoffed, making a show of looking around at the shaking laboratory beginning to fall apart, noting he could see huge jets of flames burning in the darkness below as the whole facility prepared to come down in a literal fiery crash.

Placing his hands on his hips, Redgrave laughed mockingly.

"'Right time?' In case those wraps are cutting off the circulation to your brain, this whole place's about to go down in flames!" Waving his fellow mercenary off, Tony turned his back on the gauze-covered swordsman before declaring, "I ain't got time to play with you right now, so take a hike! We'll catch up back at Bobby's later. Fair warning, I'm gonna kick the snot out of you for pryin' into my personal life. Look forward to it."

Gilver's response was cool and even... but its intent was clear.

"I'm not going anywhere, just yet... And neither are you."

Slowly, Tony turned back to face his fellow swordsman, not even bothering to hide the aggravation on his young face as he bared his teeth in restrained fury.

"In case you missed the announcement, we don't have time for your 'mysterious rival' act. Do I gotta spell it out for you, stupid?"

Redgrave's words were a low snarl, his patience for Gilver's continued interference finally running on empty. The stranger's bandaged face betrayed nothing, his shadowed eyes narrowing slightly as his fingers flexed over his sword's pommel. Still holding the white-haired youth's furious glare with his own cold glower, the mystery man spoke again.

"When I first arrived at Bobby's Cellar... I had thought the means of fulfilling my goal were those two you allowed so close to you... Your 'partner,' Grue... And that old woman. The gunsmith, or the so called '.45 Caliber Virtuoso,' as she's infamously called…"

At the mention of Grue's name, and Nell Goldstein's nickname, Tony's whole body went tense. Just over his shoulder, the empty sockets of the skull engraved onto Woozy's hilt briefly ignited with red sparks at the same time Redgrave's own eyes flashed from blue to crimson and amber.

"If you've so much as breathed near them...!" he started, voice deepening an octave as his eyes continued to flicker.

To his fury, Gilver simply chuckled, his own icy orbs narrowed in amusement. "Oh, they no longer matter to me in the slightest. No, I already told you, Tony Redgrave…"

The corners of his masked lips crinkled as he flashed a wide, merciless sneer at the red-coated youth.

"Claire Redfield is the key to what I seek."

At the mention of his ex's name, the sound of metal sang through the air as Tony practically tore Woozy from his back.

The sight of this made Gilver chuckle lowly, his eyes narrowing in dark mirth. "How interesting that you draw your sword... when you chose to hide it from her…"

Tony glared furiously back at Gilver, the hand gripping his sword's hilt shaking. "She's got nothing to do with whatever beef you have with me," he snarled.

Gilver cocked his head at Tony, tutting mockingly. "Oh, I disagree. I find it so very curious that you chose to hide this false life of yours from her... But I suspect... that you stayed with her so long because she helped you feel... real. Or, as you would put it... human."

Tony's rage was briefly cooled by confusion at Gilver's words, but he didn't stay that way for long, as the masked madman continued.

"A lie within a lie... Being with her probably helped you convince yourself of your self-imposed falsehood. Made you believe you were... normal. And with that normalcy… Complacency. And so you became convinced the lie... was the truth."

Gilver met Tony's gaze again, his sneer widening as he laughed mockingly.

"Pathetic."

Unable to contain his frustrations any longer, Tony furiously swung Woozy out, leveling the barbed tip at Gilver while shouting in anger.

"You know, it really bugs the crap outta me when someone talks more than me. So why don't you spare me the cryptic crystal ball, fortune teller bullcrap, and start making sense!"

Gilver raised his right hand up from his sword's pommel, meeting Tony's fury with cold mockery.

"And therein lies the source of our conflict. You refuse to listen, refuse to see, and so the truth remains concealed from you... of your own volition. But for how much longer that remains... Well, that is up to you."

Gilver slowly extended his free hand out, his index finger pointing directly at Tony's chest.

"You see, the truth remains just within reach. It always has. You need only open your eyes... and remember."

Across his neck, and just against his chest, Tony suddenly became acutely aware of the weight of the chain and amulet against his skin. Another heavy rumble quaked through the facility, and a flash of exploding flames briefly ignited from below. Despite himself, Tony found his gaze flinching downwards, spotting the explosion, its orange and yellow light flashing against his icy eyes-

---

-and he wasn't standing on the central platform of the huge shaft in the underground Umbrella lab, but back in the burning home from his nightmares. Redgrave gasped and looked about wildly, hearing flames roaring, wood crackling and burning, smoke stinging his throat and eyes. Before he had a chance to so much as blink, a figure ran past him, and Tony's eyes widened as he caught sight of blonde hair and a red dress. She was shouting, but unlike in his nightmares, he could finally hear her.

"Where are you, Ver-?!"

And then shadows along the walls ahead shifted, pulling themselves free from the darkness, turning into tall, lanky figures of thin arms and legs, practically skeletal, their faces concealed under the hood of their dark robes. And in each of their hands, a long, jagged blade. The group of creatures lunged forward; weapons all aimed for the woman. Tony's eyes widened, his body moving on its own, his left hand reaching out-

And then the flames erupted around him, preventing him from reaching the woman…

But that did not drown out her terrified screams of agony...

---

And then the darkness and the fires were gone, and Tony was back on the central platform, his left arm still outstretched. Stumbling back, the stunned youth snapped his gaze all over, feeling cold sweat dripping down his face and neck. His nightmare had manifested in the waking world, and he was at a loss as to understanding why.

But his confusion only seemed to intrigue Gilver further, the bandaged-wrapped swordsman narrowing his eyes while his grin widened.

"Ahhh... Perhaps I was wrong. You aren't completely ignorant of the truth, after all."

Gripping his sword's sheathe in his left hand, Gilver slowly began walking to his left near the collapsed connecting bridge to the West Area, never taking his eyes off of Tony, who still blinked and panted, struggling to compose himself. Gilver spoke on, just loud enough for Redgrave to hear, but his words were to himself, hushed and inquisitive.

"You do remember... but you won't let yourself know. Interesting... Trauma, perhaps? Is it too painful to bear, those memories? The agony of loss? Humans have such fragile minds, after all... I wonder..."

Gilver's eyes narrowed in their corners as he contemplated in silence for another moment, before slowly widening as realization struck him.

"Perhaps if you endured another tragedy... No, not another... The same."

The grin the masked madman grew reflected the dark eagerness in his next words.

"If you were to lose Claire the same way you lost her... Perhaps then you will remember at last!"

Hearing that knocked Tony out of his stupor…

And back into righteous fury.

The swordmaster's grip tightened on Woozy as he once more caught Gilver's eyes, both men's icy orbs locked as the facility rumbled and shook further and further around them.

"You're not going anywhere near her ever again..." snarled Redgrave.

To his mounting fury, Gilver only continued sneering, but his eyes looked past his adversary, just over his shoulder.

"It would seem you're about to be proven wrong... Again."

And from behind him, a familiar voice called out to the white-haired youth. "Tony!"

Groaning exasperatedly, Tony spun around in a weary manner as he saw Claire running across the connecting walkway from the NEST's entrance to the central platform, holding Sherry Birkin's left hand in her right as she led the younger girl over. In spite of the situation, Redgrave felt a small measure of relief when he saw that despite some paleness, Sherry looked a hell of a lot better than she did a few hours ago.

Both girls reached him, Claire smiling up at him for a split second before she realized he had his sword out. And as her smile fell and her gaze wandered back up, her grey blue orbs spotted Gilver's dark form standing across from her partner. Upon seeing him, understanding and horror washed over her beautiful face. Instinctively, Claire stepped back and held her right arm protectively over Sherry, looking from Gilver back to her ex-beau.

"Tony... What's going on?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Behind her, Sherry peeked around the older girl's arm, her wide eyes quickly spotting the dark swordsman as well, before looking up at Claire and whispering, "Who's that man? Why does he have bandages all over his face?"

"Well, his face and some sharp glass got in a fight, and I'm pretty sure he lost," Tony quipped loud enough for Gilver to hear over the blaring alarms. The loudmouthed white-haired youth didn't look back at Gilver, but could sense his rival was not even remotely riled, to his annoyance.

Despite that, it did get a faint smile from Sherry, which brought a grin of his own back to Redgrave's face. Claire, however, was not having any of it.

"Anthony..." she practically growled.

Sighing, hating it when she used his full name, Tony briefly slumped his shoulders before squaring them back up with a heavy inhale before met Claire's gaze. Seeing her normally jovial and lively ex with a sudden stoic and serious expression on his handsome face made her growing annoyance falter, leaving her unprepared for his next words.

"Claire, take that elevator, and head for the train platform. You two need to escape... while I stay behind and handle Gilver."

Claire's mouth fell open in a gaping "O" of disbelief, which quickly morphed into familiar fury as she snapped back at the taller male.

"Are you out of your mind?! This whole place is about to blow up! There's no time for this macho bullshit you keep doing! Whatever this is between you two, it doesn't matter!"

The youth sighed heavily again, balancing Woozy across his shoulder as he nodded and murmured, "You're tellin' me..."

Tony glanced back over his shoulder, icy eyes meeting Gilver's matching pair, before looking back at Claire and saying, "But I've gotta stay... And you gotta get Sherry, and- Wait..." He stopped, looking from Claire to Sherry, then back the way they came, before settling back on Claire as he asked, "Where's...?"

Then he saw the pained expression on the young woman's face. And a quick glance down at Sherry, who was gripping the taller girl's hand tightly, her face scrunched up in an obvious effort to fight back tears, was all he needed to see to understand that Annette hadn't survived the injuries her monstrous husband had inflicted upon her. Despite the woman's role in Raccoon City's demise, he had not wished death upon her. Not like that.

Tony let out a heavy sigh, eyes closing briefly, before opening them again as he felt Gilver's glare burning against his back.

Looking back at Claire, he spoke again. "You and Sherry need to leave. Now. I got a feelin' we're runnin' out of time... I mean, besides the blaring alarms telling us we are."

Claire vehemently shook her head, harshly snapping back, "I'm not leaving without you, Anthony! Even if you beat him before this whole place goes up, you won't have enough time to-"

"Claire."

The auburn-haired college girl stopped mid-tirade when she heard the heaviness in her ex's voice. Blinking, she met his gaze again, seeing the sad smile on his lips.

"You're not gonna win this time, alright? No matter how much you use my full name. This is something I have to do, no matter how much I don't wanna. If I don't keep him here... he'll come after us. After you. And I'm not letting him corner you again."

The white haired youth trailed off for a moment, looking away from his former lover before meeting her eyes again, expression bitter and forlorn.

"This is all the lies I've been telling finally catching up to me... So I gotta stay and make this right."

Claire blinked again, suddenly finding her eyes stinging with held back tears. Still smiling gently, the tall youth knelt down, so he was eye-level with Sherry, his smile brightening as he began speaking to her.

"Hey there, kiddo! Man, you're lookin' a lot better already! Claire's pretty fond of you, so I'm glad to see that you're gonna be okay. Hell, I'd say she likes you more than me, at the moment!"

That got a confused blink from Sherry as she met the older boy's stare. Tony reached out with his free hand and gently ruffled her hair before speaking on.

"I need you to stick with Claire for me, okay? Like glue, you got me? She's busted her butt tonight to help save you, and we're almost out of the woods. Just stay with Claire a little longer, and you'll be fine, alright?"

Sherry stared back at Tony before slowly smiling and nodding. "I-I will."

Tony's grin widened and he rose back up, giving her a gentle pat on the head as he said, "Thatta girl!"

As he spoke to Sherry, Claire found herself looking towards Gilver. The bandaged-wrapped man in black was entirely silent, simply observing the exchange, one hand in his pant's pocket, the other gripping his sheathed katana. His cold eyes, like the deepest ice blue, met her grey orbs...

And she held his glare, the flashing red of the emergency lights giving them a burning glaze that could cower a man twice her size.

But all her burning scorn earned from Gilver was a bemused smirk.

But as the two exchanged glares, Tony finished his conversation with Sherry, pulling his hand back from the inside of Claire's too-large vest, still draped over the little girl. His expression had become much more serious as he gently asked Sherry, "...Think you can do that for me, Sherry?"

The pre-teen nodded, her young face showing slight confusion at the older boy's odd request, but it was simple enough, all things considered. The fact he was trusting her with such a task had her heart pounding, and she swore to herself she wouldn't let Anthony down. He had fought to help her, just like Claire, so it was the least she could do for him.

Rising back up, Tony gave Sherry a gentle grin and one last thumbs up before looking back to Claire. Once more meeting his ex's pained eyes, his grin slowly shrank, becoming forlorn again as she shook her head slowly and uttered, "You don't have to do this... We can face him, together-"

"Nope. This is my fight... And no offense, he's a little tougher than a couple of drunken creeps..." Tony interjected, before suddenly turning his back to both girls, turning his own cold glare onto Gilver, before speaking on.

"Besides, I promised Marvin I wouldn't let anything happen to you. And that's a promise I'm keeping."

At the mention of the first person she had met still alive in the R.P.D. building, Claire felt any lingering urge to argue die, and had to fight down a sob in her throat.

Still holding Gilver's cold eyes, Tony declared, "Time to go, ladies. Things are about to get ugly..."

Despite herself - despite everything in her entire being sayin otherwise, Claire reluctantly knew she couldn't convince him to let her stay. After all, he was right. Sherry needed to be taken to safety, and out of the two of them, Ton was the only one that stood a chance against whatever kind of monstrosity Gilver was.

Quietly, Claire relented. "Fine. I'll take Sherry, and go..." But then she lifted her face to give him a fierce, determined, greyish blue-eyed glare. "But you'd better be right behind us, Anthony. And you'd better win, because if you thought I was mad earlier, then you don't want to know what'll happen if you lose and I have to handle Gilver by myself. Got it?"

Tony didn't immediately respond, but he didn't bother to hide the grin upon hearing the worry in her voice, shaking his head. "Whatever you say, babe."

Looking down at Sherry, Claire took the child's hand before gesturing at the elevator. "C'mon, Sherry. Let's go."

The blonde girl nodded and followed after her, Redfield quickly reaching the electronic panel glowing pink with the Roman Numerals 'IV' on them. Tony had walked alongside them, standing directly between them and Gilver. His posture had changed, having been loose and lax before. Now he had straightened up, his arms at his sides, right hand opened but tensed as his left hand ripped his scabbard tightly. His eyes were solely on Tony, who had Woozy out, held loosely on his right side. His eyes, no loner jovial and now more focused, were locked directly onto his rival.

Slapping her palm down on the screen as the lab begun to shake with greater ferocity, it flashed green and unlocked, the elevator doors opening.

Claire ushered Sherry into the lift, taking one step in herself, but stopping for a moment. Face furrowing, the redhead took one final glance over her shoulder to her partner, his back to her as he stood fearlessly between them and Gilver.

Finding her courage, exhaling and inhaling deeply, steadying herself, she looked back at Tony, speaking up. "Hey!"

Somehow, the man in red knew she was calling to him as he lifted his sword upward, the bright sheen of the metal reflecting some of his face, his eyes looking directly at her.

Meeting his icy blue with her grey-blues, Claire didn't bother to hide her anxiety as she pleaded, "Let's get through this. Both of us."

Her ex said nothing, his brows merely rising slightly, before a smile reached his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Long as you promise not to die."

Surprisingly, she couldn't resist the hopeful smile that graced her features as she nodded back. "Ditto."

Tony responded with one last wink from his left eye before dropping his sword to the side, he did readjust his grip as he focused on the dar swordsman once more.

Taking that as her cue, Claire finally stepped into the elevator. "Let's get the hell out of here," she said to Sherry as the elevator doors closed, and the lift began its descent into the darkness below.

Redgrave watched their departure from the corner of his eye, feeling the young woman's eyes on him the entire time she could still see him, before letting out a heavy breath once he was sure they were beyond Gilver's reach... for the moment. Now it fell to him to make sure they stayed out of the masked madman's grasp for good.

Tony leveled out Woozy so that the barbed tip was aligned with Gilver's gauze-wrapped face. The darkly-clad swordsman had stayed eerily quiet through Tony and the girls' conversation... One that the mysterious warrior no doubt believed, and intended, to be their last.

All around them, the NEST facility shook and rumbled, multiple explosions, great and small, igniting through the darkness beneath them, sections of the walls and ceiling crumbling away in bursts of steel, mortar, and piping. From above, the electronic female voice called out over the rumbling and booming explosive bursts.

"Attention: self-destruct sequence initiated. Fifteen minutes until detonation."

And just like that, the stakes had risen as high as they could.

A ticking clock, and a final duel with his self-proclaimed rival...

All to keep the woman he loved and the child she had chosen to protect safe.

As far as clichés went, this one wasn't too bad.

Honestly, it made for an exciting finale.

Icy eyes glaring into his rival's cold orbs, Anthony Redgrave practically snarled, "So is this the pulse-pounding, heart-stopping final showdown you were hoping for?"

Across from him, Gilver's bandaged face betrayed nothing, but his eyes gleamed with malice... and excitement.

"...You've got that right," he hissed, his thumb flicking the hilt of his katana, the exposed metal of the black blade flashing in the firelight.

---

AN: Three, years. Three long, painful, years. Since the last update. Since my life went to shit in a handbasket. Hello, faithful readers! ...if there are any of you left, that is. Welcome to the third-to-last chapter of Made In Heaven! Much like the last two chapters, this was supposed to be much, much longer! All the stuff that I'm currently working on for the next chapter was gonna be in this one, but I decided to split things up again, extending our ending run. But before you groan and think "Oh, great, he's really never gonna finish it now," I have actually completed ONE of the final chapters already, and begun process on the others. I can't say HOW LONG it will take me to finish this story, BUT I AM GOING TO FINISH THIS STORY. Not just for y'all, but for me, and especially for Da-Awsom-One, who has been my faithful friend, and co-author rock throughout out this long wait. Frankly, if I was in his shoes, I would've dropped my sorry ass a long time ago. But he's a better guy than me.

I don't like talking about my personal life, but I was in a very unhappy place three years ago. And it ended with me getting assaulted, fired and humiliated from my job. I was at my lowest for a long time. I had been at that job EIGHT YEARS, and they threw me aside like trash. Needless to say, I have been in a hella depressed slump for a while. But I am in a much, much, MUCH better place now. I'm still struggling with my writing, trying to balance work and this to the best of my abilities, but I am not a young man anymore at this. To quote the great Zapp Brannigan, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is bruised, and spongey".

But there's so much Devil May Cry stuff happening now, some good and great, (Fire Inside, the Netflix anime, JOHNNY YONG BOSCH BEING DANTE), and not so great... (Farewell Hideki Itsuno, I wish you safe and successful travels on your next journey!), and I NEED to finish Made In Heaven. Because I still have other stories to tell.

So, if you're still there, I hope this chapter was worth the wait.

Next Chapter: The long-awaited duel between Tony Redgrave and Gilver begins, as Claire and Sherry make their desperate escape from the exploding NEST. Unfortunately, this is Anthony Redgrave's last stand...he's not walking away from this one. Yes, I daresay the next chapter is Tony Redgrave's last...