Resident Evil 1. Chapter 1

Not everything is what is seems….

Disclaimer: Resident Evil, its characters, and story all belong to Capcom.

It had been a few months since Raccoon City, and the Anti-Umbrella group was on its way to a special meeting in an old abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Atlanta, GA. They all walked into the dimly lit room with a large round table, their informer and their leader sitting across from them.

Things had finally been looking up for the group that swore to show the world what Umbrella really was. It was sad that it took the destruction of thousands of innocent lives and the bombing of many of the team's home, but now Umbrella was backed into a corner. The United States Government was cracking down on what Umbrella was doing behind closed door, spearheaded by its new special agent in charge of investigating the "pharmaceutical company", Leon S. Kennedy. While he attacked Umbrella from the legal and public side, Chris and Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton, and the thought dead Rebecca Chambers attacked Umbrella in its vulnerable secret side. There had been many small battles, each supplying Leon with new ammunition to fire at the limping Umbrella. They knew it wouldn't be long before the U.S. could shut down the pharmaceutical titan, at least on the states side. Europe was nearly unfazed, even with all the evidence that the U.S. was showing the world. They were too well rooted and even though losing the U.S. as a source of resources was like taking an arm from the beast, Umbrella was still a threat to everything humanity could bear to lose.

Umbrella knew about the group and five of its members, (Rebecca was believed to be dead from a car accident trying to escape the city during the outbreak) but they always were one step ahead. Sir Spencer had often threatened to end or ruin the lives of operatives who failed to locate and kill the thorn in his side, but it never made the reports on his desk change. The group had always left whatever hiding was raided, showing evidence of having left shortly before Spencer's men got there. The old man was determined he wouldn't leave this life before he got the S.T.A.R.S. members that had lost him his greatest operative, Albert Wesker.

"So nice to see all of you again, though as always, I wish it were under better circumstances." The group sat down in their chairs beside their STARS comrades. Wesker was sitting as usual with his hands in his lap and his legs crossed as he greeted his most prized special unit of pupils that was sure to bring down Spencer and the evil corporation that was sure to bring the destruction of humanity if left on their course. To his right was Ada Wong, Leon's girlfriend and top agent of the "Organization", and to his left was a young woman to whom the others did not recognize. She was a slim white female, slightly taller than Claire. Her red hair rested its tips on her shoulders and her gaze was almost as unreadable as Wesker's, though she didn't hide her eyes behind glasses like him. She was confident in herself and her abilities and anyone thinking of pulling anything over on her was in for the beating of a lifetime. She caught Chris's attention from the second he entered the room. It wasn't attraction; she just had that spark in her eye that made Chris wonder what her background was. Wesker could see the wheels turning in his star pupil's head and decided that there was no point in wasting time with updates on their cause until reunions and introductions had be established.

"Everyone, this is Alice. She was Chief of Security at the Arklay Labs after my transfer to Stars. She has been our lifeline into Spencer's head since we began. I am bringing her before you now because after the catastrophe at Raccoon City, Alice has been formerly asked to resign. We will no longer have intel regarding Umbrella's movements, experiments, and their hunting of your team." Wesker stated pointing to Chris. "She will join Ada and I in the Organization's Special Forces and will be personally responsible for making sure your team is given transport and protection. If you need anything from us Chris, she will make it happen."

"What about the rest of our teams Wesker?" Chris asked. "How will the hiding surviving bravo team members and Joseph be protected? Umbrella finds them, and they are going to know who set up the fall of Raccoon City to start the government looking into them. They will be executed!"

"I have already evacuated them and their families to Leon and explained the situation to him. He has them under critical secrecy and protection. Even I couldn't find them without Leon's help now." Alice quickly jumped on Chris's worries reassuring him and convincing him she was indeed on their side at the same time.

"Alice was my top officer at Arklay, she is very through and not prone to making mistakes. I am sure you will appreciate her abilities." Wesker grinned as he saw his team loosen up, their resolve to destroy Spencer and his monsters was as strong as ever and since Spencer was upping his game, Wesker knew it was time to up theirs as well. "I asked you to bring Miss Chambers because I wanted to inform her personally," Wesker turned his attention to Rebecca who focused her eyes on Wesker hoping that what he was about the tell her was what she was waiting for. "We have found Mr. Coen."

"Billy is alive!" Rebecca's face brightened up, she turned to Jill and hugged her.

"Yes, he was an Umbrella prisoner after your escape from the training facility. Alice remembered me mentioning him and thought the name looked familiar on one of her prisoner rosters. She had him transferred to Seattle where we intercepted the transport and mentioned you upon his rescue. You will be joining him with Leon in D.C."

"Thank you!" Rebecca exclaimed, a tear in her eye. She had worried about him for months and now she was going to see him again.

"If you will come with me we will be going." Alice stood up and headed to the door behind her, Rebecca saluted Wesker and with his nod she ran off following Alice to a car parked on the other end of the warehouse.

"Now onto business," Wesker turned his gaze at Claire turning emotionless letting the former Stars members know he was about to start on a mission for them to help take down their enemy. "We have them in America but the Europe branch needs to be shaken a bit. Claire, I'm sending you to the European HQ for Umbrella and I need you to do some damage then get yourself caught."

"Are you out of your mind!?!" Chris jumped up, obviously not liking this scenario one bit.

"Listen to me Chris." Wesker knew this wasn't going to be easy. "We have done good covering up our chains. After that thing impersonating Marcus released the T-virus, it gave us the opportunity we needed to get out our friends and gave the public they needed to see to stop having the wool pulled over their eyes. We got Bravo teams survivors out of there, demolished the mansion and got out leaving those of you behind to cover our escape. I got Birkin and his family out and thankfully Hunk was able to convince those power hungry fools that William turned himself into a monster and killed his team. They never wonder why he is the only one to ever make it back, their pathetically stupid. Thankfully Alice warned me they were sending the Nemesis after you Jill, and we stopped it before it killed anyone. Even though Carlos failed to stop Nickolai, Alice was able to kill him before he gave up our little ruse to Spencer and his lap dogs. We have Spencer where we want him, but we need throw him a curve. Something that will scare him into really making a mistake and showing his hand, it's time he knew who was hunting him."

"What do have in mind Wesker?" Claire asked signaling to her brother that she was willing to follow Wesker's plan and that Chris needed to sit down, which he did reluctantly.

"You will get captured, but we will have a tracer embedded in you. After you have been taken to detention and experimentation facility, my special forces and I will attack where you are. We will do our best to see if we can't free you without looking like we are helping you if we can. I will confront you where I know Spencer will have cameras set up so he can see I am alive and well. I will need to pose as your enemy to keep our story believed by Spencer but you will need to contact Leon as soon as possible to get a message to Chris to rescue you as soon as possible. Being on the Umbrella network they will trace the e-mail so make sure you send it to Leon and let him contact Chris to let him know to come get you. Gather what intel you can as Alice and I do the same. When it is all said and done we may have enough to give to Leon that the International Committee will have to listen to the U.S. about the dangers of Umbrella. Then it will simply be a matter of time till we find Spencer and give him the justice he deserves."

"Ok." Claire agreed, leaving Chris no room to argue.

"Jill, you and Barry are on standby on this one. Head back to the Canadian safe house with Carlos and await further orders there." Jill and Barry nodded and everyone stood up.

"It won't be long now my friends, soon we will no longer have the hide and the snake will be pulled from the shadows and seen for what it really is." Wesker shook hands with his team as they returned to the battlefront with their orders. He hoped that he was right in guessing that Claire might be sent to Rockfort Island, if that was the case he may finally find out what happened that had Umbrella focusing so much on the Ashford family's island, and if Veronica really died in that experiment.

* * *


	2. In the wake of Veronica

**Well this is an unexpected continuation for me. I had intended for this to be a single chapter story but due to a showing of interest by those of you asking for me to continue this path, I'll reopen this archive. I hope that the following chapters entertain you and I look forward to hearing from you on how you think the fall of Umbrella should go. After all, Until October what really happened to Umbrella is still a secret. Thanks for your encouragement to dive back in to the world of survival horror's unseen side.**

Chapter 2-In the wake of Veronica

For what it was worth, the mission was a success. That's what Wesker kept telling himself. The burns to his face would heal in a few days thanks to his evolutionary enhancement, but Claire was shattered, and Chris was severely compromised. Claire was all he had left, and Wesker almost cost her her life, and he wasn't about to let Wesker forget it. They met at the rendezvous coordinates as planned. Wesker climbed out of the Black Hawk to check on his friends as Chris landed the Harrier near them. He knew he should have suspected that one coming as he lay on his back on the tarmac of the Organization run airport.

"That was too damn close Wesker!" Chris yelled out rubbing his knuckles. He greeted Wesker the only way he felt he could after listening to his sister's tale on the way back from escaping the frozen Antarctic after killing Alexia Ashford. He listened to her talk of her treatment at the hands of the Umbrella forces on her way to Rockfort and how if it weren't for Rodrigo Raval she feared she might have been beaten or even raped by some of the guards. "You worked for them! You knew getting her captured might lead to her being tortured or worse and yet you still asked her to do it! You had better tell me you got something good on those bastards for Leon to use or I swear I'll send you to the worst level of Hell for putting my sister through that!" By this point four Special Ops. Soldiers had their guns trained on Chris and Claire was climbing out of the jet to try to reason with her brother. Alice ran in front to the soldiers and ordered them to lower their weapons as Wesker rubbed his jaw sitting up.

"Mission successful Redfields." Wesker smirked; he knew Chris would have tried to kill him if he really blamed him for the situation. Chris was a smart man and just needed to vent, Claire was the only nerve Wesker knew of that anyone could pinch on Chris. "Yes I did, and Claire agreed even after all that she has seen of Umbrella."

Claire stood in between the two, facing her brother. "He's right Chris; I knew what I was getting into. I just underestimated how scary it would be." Claire was holding her brother's arms hoping that his usual sense of reason would come back to him.

"That was my favorite pair of glasses you smashed back there." Wesker remarked as he stood and brushed himself off and pulled a new pair from one of his vest pockets covering his bright red and yellow eyes.

Claire had never heard Wesker joke before; she wondered if the man ever had a sense of humor. The smile across Chris's face let her know he saw that Wesker was only trying to cheer him up and that he was back to his old self.

"And yes, we did recover some remarkable evidence for Leon. Ada is taking it to him as we speak." Wesker turned away from the siblings staring at the full moon overhead. "Spencer will think you and Claire have taken it to him. I assume he is probably getting his wake up call right about now to inform him he may want to come to HQ to be informed of my return to life and Alford and Alexia's death and failure to silence you."

"What happens now, Wesker?" Claire turned looking at the shadow in front of them.

"We will see what Spencer's move is. Then we will look for a weakness to get through to him with. If he splits his teams up to come after both of us at the same time we can divide them. If he decides to ignore you for the moment and come after me then you will simply take what's left of Stars and some of my special forces and take him down while I lead them away from protecting him. Regardless, for us to bring him to justice he cannot learn of our alliance." Wesker walked over to the Black Hawk, retrieved a manila packet and returned to the Redfields. "This is the last time we will be seeing each other for a while. These are copies of all the files and information on everything we recovered from the two sites." Wesker handed to the packet to Claire while never taking his gaze from Chris. "I leave it to you to formulate what you want to do with the others. There is a ghost e-mail address you can leave your decision to and it will get back to me so when you feel like you are prepared to move, we can take down Spencer and finish this. Leon will be able to give you any new leads from our end. I leave you in charge of Stars from now on Chris." Wesker extended his hand to shake with Chris one last time before they would be fighting this war from different fronts. Chris took it and nodded his head understanding what was he was being charged with. Wesker turned and walked back to the chopper. Alice was waiting for him; she had the soldiers already in their seats and waiting for their orders. Wesker climbed in and took his place next to her.

As the chopper started to lift off, Wesker watch his two colleges on the ground get on the motorcycles he had left them and speed off. All the pieces where in place and soon the final round of this chess game would be played, all that was left were Spencer's next move. Wesker leaned his head back and closed his eyes. As the chopper chased the mourning sun, he stared at the horizon.

"Your move Old Man, check." He said as he pulled the zipper on the body bag to inspect the frozen body of Steve Burnside. With a little luck he hoped he may be able to get a sample of Alexia's T-Veronica strand. After all, being able to turn Spencer's guardian monsters against him aught to be a fair slice of justice. Hopefully Chris and the others wouldn't be ready to mobilize till he was done with his analysis.


	3. Preparations

Chapter 3- Preparations

Ozwell Spencer couldn't believe what the report on his desk was informing him. It would have been one thing for Wesker to have turned up in Raccoon City as a mindless zombie but for him to show up on Rockfort Island and with his mind under his control was completely unexpected. He sat at his desk his head held up in his hands trying to piece it all together. The IT department had noticed several attempts to jack in to the Umbrella intranet, even citing that the username and pass code belonged to Albert Wesker. They brought it up to the President's attention and he had assumed that it was the Anti-Umbrella group using intel they had found at the mansion. To think, Wesker had shown them he was alive all along and they never even acknowledged the possibility. Spencer knew that if Wesker had turned that he had to be prepared for anything. Wesker knew all of Umbrella's protocols, their abilities, and their strategic countermeasures, Hell, he developed most of them himself under Spencer's observation. The old man could barely handle the shock of having one of his most trusted turn on him. He could turn on any "friend" or colleague but the thought of anyone betraying him was almost too much to stand. It was apparent they he wasn't working alone, no ghost could amass such a talented Special Forces unit or equipment by himself. The more he thought about it the angrier he got till finally his anger consumed him. He slammed his fist down on the desk telling himself that he would have his revenge. He thought about what he could do to get back at Albert, and suddenly he came to a sad realization. Wesker never showed himself tied to anything, person or object. He was proud of his Stars unit, but under Spencer's own orders he sacrificed the majority of them to the nightmares of the mansion. Had he not already fired her he would have used Alice to track Wesker down, but she had not been heard of nor seen for the past several weeks. For the first time in his life Ozwell didn't see a way to gain an advantage, and for the first time in a long while he felt an unfamiliar chill run up his spine. He was thrilled; for once in his life he felt a true challenge coming on. In his seventy-one years on this world, no one had ever caused him to feel fear. He couldn't believe that in his whole corporation there wasn't one advantage the he could use against this man. He thought long and hard refusing to give up till he found something to use against this threat to his legacy. Then it hit him like a sucker punch to the jaw; Wesker did love something, his work! Spencer typed in "Wesker, Albert" under the researcher name category on his intranet and immediately he was looking at the title's of four-hundred and thirty-two papers written in Wesker's twenty-one year career as one of Umbrella's top scientists. He knew it was there, he just had to find it. After a few minutes of scanning the paper's titles he found what he was looking for. He grinned as he pushed the talk button on his office intercom.

"Candice, contact Dr. Saddler and have him bring me everything we have on the Human Evolution Project."

"Right away Sir Spencer." The young woman's voice replied.

"I'll get you where it hurts you the most Al, your pride." Ozwell laughed as he turned his chair to look out the window of his office in his mansion in northern Spain.

It had been a few weeks since the Rockfort Island incident, but the effects of it were still showing on the anti-Umbrella group. Chris spent most of his time with Jill and Leon analyzing the files Wesker left them trying to find a good plan of attack. Claire had never seen her brother so focused; there wasn't a time Chris wasn't working with his Stars teammates discussing where would be the best target for them to coordinate an attack with Wesker's Special Ops. The Europe branch was rattled but there wasn't any sign of what Spencer was planning. It wasn't that Chris didn't care that his little sister was heartbroken; he just didn't know what to say to her. He hoped Wesker was telling the truth about being able to resurrect Steve, but with Wesker not even knowing what was different about T-Veronica and the regular T-Virus he admitted that he wasn't sure what effect the T.E.-Serum he developed would have. True it had brought Wesker back though his being dead had some physical side effects such as his reptilian eyes, but on Ada his perfected version left none of the physical defects Wesker suffered from. Granted, she didn't have his reptilian rapid healing either, but she did have the increased speed and strength. Claire was spending most of her time in her room of the safe house trying to wrap her mind around the possibility of her knight's return. He died saving her so many times and she was helpless from saving him from Alexia. She knew that she couldn't blame herself, but she still felt terrible. Leon had spent some time with her trying to help, but all that landed him in was trouble with Ada. As confident as the woman was, she was possessive. Leon had been close to Claire since their escape from Raccoon City, even if it wasn't quite how Umbrella thought it went. Ada wasn't killed by Annette Birkin, which was staged so Umbrella would remove Ada from their list of threats, though most of what happened up to the entering of the Umbrella facility did happen minus the run ins with the fictitious G creature. Through their working together, the two developed feelings for each other; and when Ada was injured by a well hid licker Leon's devotion to protecting her helped her acknowledge those feelings in herself. Things had been rocky though and it seemed the couple did more fighting that loving lately. The one person in the world who could make Claire feel better, was lying on an observation table somewhere in a hidden Siberian lab. Wesker was taking samples while carefully doing his best not to disrupt the life support systems that artificially kept Steve in between this world and the next. Wesker was working his hardest to bring Steve back, though it wasn't for Claire. Strangely enough, what Wesker had found out so far was that T-Veronica had actually bonded to the boy's DNA much as the T. Evolution strand had done to Wesker. If anyone was going to actually be able to have influence on the T-Virus creatures' thoughts and actions, Steve was the only one who would. Alice was waiting outside the lab; she had just received news from one of her monitoring bugs in the Umbrella intranet, and what she had to show Wesker could very well signal the start of the end to all that stood in Umbrella's way.


	4. Tick Tock

**Spider-Man and its characters belong to Marvel Comics.**

Chapter 4-Tick Tock

It wasn't unexpected; the old man didn't become one of the most powerful individuals in history by being lazy or stupid. Wesker was almost insulted to know that it took Spencer this long to go back over that old report he had written almost 15 years ago. It wouldn't take a team of Umbrella's finest very long to unlock what Wesker never published, not nearly as long as it took him to discover it himself. The Human Evolution Project was one of the first major ideas using the Progenitor Virus as something other than a weapon, but since improving the abilities of natural human being to stay off infection and age and enhance the natural abilities of its host was a good way to put medicine out of business, Spencer dropped the project suggested by Wesker. Wesker used his research and findings to help the T-Virus project by creating its greatest weapon, the Tyrant. Though brute strength and vitality were enhanced, the Tyrant was never more than a corpse and as such it never showed what Wesker had intended it to prove: Human potential had an almost infinite possibility for improvement.

Though outwardly he gave up on the project, secretly he continued to attempt using the Progenitor Virus to jump start evolution in many tests on various animals, all merely killing the subject or creating something that was only fit to being destroyed. He was nearly ready to give up on his dream of converting this demon into a benefit for mankind when inspiration came from an unlikely source, a comic book. He never caught the name of the series but one of the officers at the RPD was an avid collector. Wesker overheard him telling another officer in the break room about a scientist who apparently had grafted the DNA of a reptile into his own, regrowing his amputated arm back but also changing him into something more. Strangely enough, mixing in the genetic code of one animal into the virus to help stabilize it was one answer he had previously not imagined. He tried many of natures most adept survivors like the cockroach and alligator but all the variations seemed to always change the host subject into more of the animal its virus was bonded to than an actual evolution of its own abilities. In the end strangely enough the DNA of a reptile had the weakest and strongest effects on the host. The subjects bonded with PV-snake gained the reptilian ability to heal but also incorporated the Progenitor into their own DNA and cause slight but noticeable changes in their abilities. Strength and speed were enhanced, but the immune systems had very little change as well as almost no change in mental health or improvements.

One thing that did seem to change physically though was the eyes. All subjects inherited the slit eyes of a reptile, and although this may have been an improvement from where he had been, the fact was he was still making monsters until the physical mutations were no more. It was this incomplete version he used on himself when he was gravely injured in his battle to bring down the released Tyrant with his Stars team while activating the self destruct sequence at the mansion. As with his previous experiments, he obtained increased strength and speed as well as the reptilian eyes but it did heal him and he wasn't turned into a mindless zombie like many of his ex-colleagues at the mansion facility. After his defection from Umbrella, his perfecting of the T-Evo serum was an immediate priority. He shortly discovered that slightly weakening the T-virus strand, replacing the less stable Progenitor in the serum, and adding the subject's DNA shortly before injection, caused it to customize itself into a single subject's "infection", which caused slightly improved but mixed results. The test subjects no longer showed reptilian trademarks in the eyes, while keeping the strength and agility enhancements. One drawback was the loss of almost limitless regeneration capabilities, but at least healing was more rapid than the average human being. This is the version that saved Ada's life from a licker bite that nearly claimed her instantly if it hadn't been for a lighting fast reaction from Leon blasting its head clean off its shoulders, before it had the chance to rip a whole section from her torso.

But now they were running out of time, Spencer was on the path to unlocking the secret of human evolution and Wesker had no one to blame but himself.

"Do you really think they can follow what you did, even with the successful half of your work missing from the paper?" Alice stood behind her mentor who was slouched over the front of his desk, deep in thought, asking himself the same question.

"I don't know Alice. We both know that when Spencer sets his sights on a goal, he puts everything he has into achieving it. After seeing me and what I can do, he must have remembered the possibilities I brought up in my paper." Wesker's thoughts turned to his Stars teams and their safety. If Spencer and the brains of Umbrella were able to unlock the answer that had plagued those early experiments, then there was no telling how many of his soldiers he would enhance with its power. He ran scenarios in his head and calculated what he believed the Old Man's next moves would be if he actually did figured out how to use the findings. "One thing is for certain, we have to act soon." Wesker straightened himself up as he turned to face the woman who had proved her loyalty time and time again by eliminating his threats and keeping him and his team out of harms way.

"It took me nearly 13 years to obtain the answer; hopefully it will take them at least two or three." Wesker looked into her eyes as he rubbed her cheek with his gloved hand. "Don't worry, I won't allow our child to be born into a world that is filled with chaos. After Spencer is gone I'll bring order to this insane world using the same company my grandfather let corrupt him." He kissed her holding her tightly in his arms quelling her fears. If Steve held any chance of gaining the upper hand against Spencer they were defiantly going to need them now. He briskly walked out of his office putting his glasses on and headed toward the lab where William and Annette were already hard at work trying to sort out the complex sequencing of Alexia's Veronica virus.

"Report." He said to his old friend as the sliding doors opened granting him passage into the lab.

"That crazy Bitch is lucky this was able to be controlled at all." Was all William could muster to say as he looked through the microscope scribbling notes on the pad beside him.

"It seems to mutate randomly yet never truly leaves its original state, it's quite fascinating." Annette said looking over her shoulder at Wesker. He picked up a notebook to review what William had found so far.

"Can we bring him back?"

William leaned back in his chair and spun it around to look straight at his interrogator. "I honestly can't say," he put his hands in his coat pockets and flailed them out flapping the lab coat slowly as he always did when he was puzzled. "Even though as far as modern medicine is concerned, he's dead" He said sighing as he looked at the corpse though the glass wall on the far side of the room.

"And as far as we are concerned?" Wesker asked sensing the doubt in William's voice.

"Something is going on in him. I can't tell what it is yet, but I have no idea if we can wake him up. Much less if what we wake up will be what died on that island."

Wesker walked up to the glass and stared at the body of the young man in the operating room in front of him. As he started to turn away to help the others study the mountains of data coming in every few minutes from the computer analyzing Steve, his skull suddenly felt like it was on fire and he dropped to his knees grabbing his head. William jumped up to aid his friend and grabbed his shoulders shaking him.

"Al, Al, you ok? Al, answer me!" Suddenly he noticed the small puddles of teardrops and yanked Wesker's glasses off. The expression of pain on Wesker's face was pale in comparison to the anger in his eyes.

"You can't make me kill Claire you stupid bitch! I love her and I won't let you have her!" Wesker yelled out staring at nothing and seeming to not be himself, suddenly the computers in the room went crazy with data and Annette screamed out of shock when she look over at the glass. Though his eyes weren't open and there wasn't any sign of consciousness, Steve was sitting up and the wounds on his body were rapidly starting to heal.

On the other side of the world Leon and Ada were having dinner when suddenly Ada felt like someone jabbed a splinter into her brain. Suddenly she started seeing a flash of images inside her head, all showing Claire in some way. She didn't know why this was happening, but one thought kept at the front of everything: protect Claire.

"Ada, you ok?" Leon asked reaching across the table putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know. Something's wrong. We need to check on Claire, I don't know why, but I feel like we need to make sure she is ok." Ada said, hardly believing what she was saying. This was the first time her and Leon had spent the night together without work involved in someway and here she was concerning herself with that girl.

"Ok, what do you think is wrong?" Leon asked, concerned.

"Claire… Now!" Ada yelled out, not being able to control herself. She suddenly flipped the table over and grabbed Leon by his neck and lifted him up barely leaving his toes on the ground. "Show Me Claire, I want to see her!" she screamed. What was going on, what was she doing?

"Ok! Ada calm down!" Leon was confused as he wrestled with her. She was choking him but he could feel her resisting. He looked down at her to plead with her to calm down and that's when he noticed her eyes. There was a concern and fear in them that he had never seen before, this wasn't Ada. Something was taking control of her and for all he knew, Umbrella was behind it. "I'm sorry for this." He said under his breath and he grabbed her wrists and lifted himself up kicking her in the chest pushing her off of him. She stumbled back but it barely fazed her. She lunged at him again, not like someone who was trained in hand to hand combat, but like a crazed zombie from Raccoon City. He was now sure Ada wasn't in control of what she was doing, but if she wasn't, who was? After a few minutes of Leon dodging Ada's feeble attempts to grab him he decided it was time to go on the offence. He didn't want to hurt her, but he had no choice. She lunged at him again and he quickly knocked her arm up as he kneed her in the stomach causing her to bend over and elbowed her in the back of the neck sending her to the ground unconscious. He knew that was too easy, Ada was much better than that. She was mumbling something as he picked her up. He almost dropped her as he strained his ears to make out what she was saying. Most sound like the gibberish of a scared child, but then he heard something that made no sense to him, "Claire, I'll find you no matter what. I love you."

Chris was sitting in his room going over the day's decisions in his mind. Jill, Carlos, Rebecca, Billy, and Richard were heading to Umbrella's 6th European facility with a group of Wesker's Special Forces to attempt to destroy the laboratory to keep any more Nemesis type creatures from being created and sent after them. It was a move that was sure to weaken Spencer's muscle, it was also the least risky target since most of Umbrella's security forces had been moved to Umbrella HQ or protecting Spencer himself. Granted, saying that the 6th facility was the safest move was like saying the cat was the safest route to the cheese for the mouse. There was no way to tell how many of those demons roamed the halls protecting the facility, but at least if they were successful they might only have to fight people with guns instead of creatures for a little while. At least that made the combat odds somewhat fair. Intel sucked lately, neither Wesker nor Alice had made contact in over two weeks, and what they sent didn't have much more than updates on security placements. With no updates on what Wesker and William had learned from Steve and weather or not they could revive him there was still no way for him to comfort Claire in any way other than to reassure her that Wesker was doing everything he could and that they just had to trust him. He never felt like that was enough, but what could he do. He was a good leader, and an excellent soldier, but he never claimed to be great with science. He had a headache and decided it was time to go to sleep; Jill would be reporting in in a few hours and then would be the hard part of waiting for the report of success or failure. He wished he was with her in France taking the fight to Umbrella's doorstep, but as the group's leader the vote was unanimous by the other members of Stars that Chris stay and plan their next move while they carry out the punishment. Barry joked that it was revenge for Chris getting to be the only one to have fun in the Antarctic, though Alexia had made that trip anything but fun. It was recommended by Wesker that he take Claire and the rest of Stars to take out the last U.S. Umbrella facility in Chicago, seeing as how Spencer had almost completely given up on any work getting done in the U.S. with Leon in his way at every turn keeping his people's B.O.W. research hindered. Maybe they might find some new intel there, but Chris doubted it. The Chicago branch was showing as mostly running on a skeleton crew with very little security at all. Best they might get there would probably be a few names and maybe an e-mail or two with hints of something worth knowing. At least it would be rid of the last portal to Hell in the States, which was worth destroying it in itself.

Claire was finally starting to get a little sleep at night. She still saw Steve in her dreams, but at least it wasn't his death she kept replaying in her dreams. She was starting to have hope, and starting to remember the good things that happened on Rockfort and Antarctica. She remembered seeing Steve trying to hide his crush, thinking of the time she acted like she was asleep on his shoulder in the plane to see if she was right. She smiled as the memory of landing on him when they dropped out of the plane came up, she thought Steve looked so cute trying so hard not to let her find out what he thought of her. It finally came up though, as it had every night since she got back. Those final moments of Steve's life, those words he used the last of his strength to say, "I... I loved you... Claire." She always sat up out of bed with tears in her eyes at the sound of his voice saying that. There was something about him that made her say the same thing she said right after he passed away in her arms, "I loved you too." Claire had always believed in soul mates, in being able to find the one that was meant for you and knowing without a doubt that they were going to be the one you died with. But she lived, and he died without her. He couldn't have been the love of her life if he was only in it for a short time, could he? No matter how much she tried to reason with herself over it, she felt like things between her a Steve weren't over. She believed her brother when he told her that if there was a way to bring Steve back, Wesker would find it. She rolled over in the bed and pulled the blanket back up and wrapped it around her shivering body. As she started to fall back to sleep, she resolved herself to only dreaming of what life was going to be like after Steve came back and they wiped out Umbrella for good. She almost had fallen back to sleep when Chris burst into the room.

"Claire, are you asleep?" Chris said half whispering, half yelling.

"No why?" She sat up puzzled. What could have Chris waking her up in the middle of the night for? The 6th European mission wasn't for another 12 hours.

"We have to go see Leon, he says something's wrong with Ada and she keeps asking for you."

That's all Chris needed to say was they had an ally in trouble, Claire jumped out of the bed and threw her hair into a ponytail as she followed Chris to the airstrip outside the safe house where Barry was already warming up his helicopter. A few minutes later they were on their way to see what had Leon so worked up.


	5. Same Book, Different Cover

Chapter 5-Same Book, Different Cover

The lab was sealed, and Wesker was recovering from his trance. The Security feed was still showing Steve sitting up, still in a bit of a trance himself, but otherwise unmoving. It took William and Annette both to move Wesker out of the lab, but he was back to himself and that was good enough.

"Do you think it was how close he was to Steve that woke him, or Steve's regeneration?" Annette was asking her husband.

"It certainly wasn't anything we've done." Will looked back at the door. His mind raced on what he had seen. Had Alexia really created a version of the Virus that could control others that were infected? Wesker was infected, though still having control of his mind seemed to allow him to resist the mind controlling effects of Veronica. The tears on Wesker's face showed that he was defiantly susceptible to the effects of the V strand; god knows a mindless creature or zombie would be little trouble to control showing the effect it had on him.

"Wesker, are you ok?" Annette asked as she patted his back.

"I'm alright; though I would rather not go through that again if possible." Wesker stated as he regained his strength trying to pick himself up off on his hands and knees.

"Do you remember what was going on to you?" William jumped on the chance to know if Wesker was linked to Steve in any way.

"Yes, he was accessing my mind. He was looking for Claire." Wesker grabbed a pipe on the wall and hoisted his still hurting body up off the floor. "Oh no, he is going after Ada next!" Wesker yelled out as he suddenly remembered what was running thru his mind. "He went thru my memories trying to find Claire; He keeps saying he has to protect her from Alexia. He obviously skipped out on the part where Alexia is dead."

"At least it seems like he is on our side at least." William helped his friend balance as he threw Wesker's arm around his neck and started walking towards the command center where Wesker could contact Ada.

"Maybe," Wesker had a bad feeling in his gut, though he couldn't figure out what he feared. William looked at him as they hobbled down the hall, "There was something dark locked inside his mind along with him, and he lost the ability to keep it sealed."

Leon was carrying Ada thru the door to his office when the Chris, Claire, and Barry buzzed him of their arrival. He answered his radio and told them that he was at his investigative office and that he and Ada would wait for them there. He sat her up in his chair and turned around to head outside to wait for them.

"You guys better hurry, I don't know how long she will stay out."

"We will be there in a few minutes Leon." Claire answered.

Suddenly Leon collapsed when the back of his head was struck by Ada with the butt of the gun he kept in his desk. As the world started fading he noticed Ada's hair starting to grow and changing from its usual dark color to blond.

Claire was the first one out of the car as Barry stopped it in front of the office building and she made a mad dash for the door with Chris right on her heels. Barry parked the car as the two siblings ran inside and headed up to the third floor using the stairs. As they burst into the room they saw Ada standing over the unconscious Leon at gunpoint while she was physically mutating into the last thing either of them ever expected to see again. The woman looked at the two and grinned.

"Hello Claire," Alexia Ashford had finished her "reforming" of Ada's body into an exact copy of the woman Claire and Chris killed on Rockfort Island, "with you dead he will have the last bit of his sprit broken and I can have that body of his back." Claire stood amazed and confused. The bullet might have hit her if it hadn't been for a quick thinking push by Chris. The woman gave out a cruel laugh. "Would you fight back and kill your friend?"

Chris was behind a copying machine and already had his gun drawn and was debating the thought, he noticed Claire leaning back against a file cabinet. She was knocking her head against the file cabinet, wanting to kill the woman that took Steve from her, but that was Ada. Sure she was being possessed by Alexia somehow, but their friend was still in there.

"How that Hell are you here Alexia?" Claire yelled out in frustration, "Chris killed you back in Antarctica!"

The woman's face changed from that of enjoyment to anger. "Yes, and because of that I had to hide my consciousness in the body of that brat!" She fired a few rounds into the file cabinet causing Claire to push up against the wall.

Chris couldn't wait anymore, ally or not, this woman was using Ada to try to kill Claire and he couldn't let that happen. Claire mouthed to Chris "don't" but he couldn't just roll over. He snaked around the copy machine and fired a few rounds before dodging a few from Alexia. He knew he didn't miss a point blank but he had to see. He stuck he head around to see that Alexia was holding Leon up and now Leon was bleeding from two bullet wounds in his leg and shoulder. How could he have been so stupid, in his fear for Claire he actually forgot about Leon. Suddenly they heard a thump and heard Alexia grunt. Chris and Claire peeked from their hiding spots to see Alexia's hair color changing back in spots and it seemed like Alexia was having difficulty keeping her concentration on the two of them. They heard a bell ring and Clair saw Barry hug the wall as he tried to sneak up to them. Claire waived him to hold, and she took off from her spot and barreled at Alexia swiping her gun away and punching her square in the jaw. Alexia spit up a little blood as she turned and faced Claire who was already on the offensive, lifting her leg for a kick but Alexia grabbed her foot. Alexia kicked out Claire's other foot and as Claire lie on the ground Alexia stomped her twice in the stomach. Chris was up and charging at Alexia but she knocked him away with spinning kick right to his chest sending him barreling through the office window to the hall right into Barry. Claire could barely move she was in so much pain, and then she felt Alexia's foot pressing down on her chest just below her neck and heard Alexia cock the hammer back on the gun. As she looked up at the barrel of the gun pointed right at her head Alexia smiled, "Any last words?"

Suddenly there was a smashing sound as the office window to the outside shattered and a deep growling voice yelled out, "Go to HELL!" A purple tentacle wrapped around Alexia pinning her arms to her side and lifting her up off of Claire. Claire rolled away and looked on in amazement as another tentacle flew into the window and wrapped itself around the window ledge like a hook and suddenly a Nemesis smashed though the wall where the window used to be. Alexia grinned as the giant walked towards her, arm extended showing where the tentacle originated from.

"You know you can't kill me, only the host. You should just succumb to me and let me have that body of yours you stupid child." Alexia taunted the hulk approaching her.

The Nemesis focused its one eye on Alexia for a moment then seemed to go into a kind of trance. Alexia shrieked when suddenly she seemed to fall asleep the a few minutes later she started to form back to looking like Ada again. Claire wondered what was happening as Chris grabbed her and pulled her to where he and Barry had already dragged Leon out in the hall and were tending to his wounds, luckily they were clean shots and the bullets went straight through. Chris and Barry stood between Claire and Leon and the Nemesis who was laying Ada on the desk. Something wasn't adding up, Nemesis were hunters. They didn't protect people, especially the Anti-Umbrella group members, and normally they didn't talk much more than single word sentences. Everything in Chris's head told him to shoot first ask questions later, it certainly would have been the smart thing to do. When the Nemesis turned it focused on the two men aiming at it but all it did was raise its hands in a surrendering fashion.

"Is Claire ok?"

Barry and Chris just looked at each other, nothing should catch them off guard with what all they had seen since starting this war with Umbrella, but this was defiantly something from left field. Chris looked back at his sister and she nodded that she was ok.

"Yes, she's fine. I can't believe I'm saying this but, thank you." Chris said as he turned back towards the creature.

"That's good. I was hoping I would find my way back here before Alexia woke inside Ada." The voice was deep and hard to make out but it was understandable. "She kicked me out before I had time to lock her out of Ada's mind."

"Who are you?" Claire said charging between the two men in her way.

"I knew I'd find you." All he wanted to do was hug her, but he knew this wasn't his body and he didn't want to scare her. "I guess you wouldn't recognize me like this would you? I know this is gonna be a little hard to believe Claire but, it's me, Steve."


	6. Gatekeeper

**Hello everyone. Thanks for your reviews, and I'm sorry it took so long for me to get back on this. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles came out as well as the DVD for RS: Extinction so I have had a lot of new info to take into for this story. I hope that I will still be able to bring you an entertaining story and I want you to know that even though I know this is a short return chapter it is only because the action is going to start speeding up in the following chapters. I look forward to getting back into the world of Survival Horror and also to your reviews.**

Chapter 6- Gatekeeper

"Quite a growth spurt."

Barry broke the silence with his usual smart-assed approach, but for once, those around him welcomed that aspect about him. This wasn't exactly the kind of "reawakening" Claire was hoping for, how could this thing standing before her be the love of her life? It didn't make sense, but then she looked into the Nemesis's eye. As grotesque as the beast was, its rash actions were certainly reminiscent of Steve's reckless "Hero" approach, and there was something tugging at her heart telling her he was who he said he was.

"Steve?" Claire suddenly began to believe that it was possible.

"Yea, it's me." The Nemesis replied, slightly sheepishly, reminding her of that insecure boy back on Rockfort Island.

Before he knew what was going on Claire had her hands wrapped around him crying into the restraining trench coat that was designed to keep the Nemesis mutation under control. His arms were still up, and Chris's gun was still trained on him. This was all he wanted to feel again since Claire held him when he died. He suddenly felt at peace, like nothing could go wrong. Claire was still sobbing when he lowered his armed around her. Chris was skeptical, but if it was going to kill her, it had the opportunity long ago. There was also something in seeing Claire break down like she was that made him believe that Steve really did come back to her. Barry was tending to Leon when suddenly Leon started convulsing.

"Chris! Leon is in bad shape!" Barry yelled out. Chris holstered his gun and spun around to face they're fallen comrade.

"Leon, hold on! We are gonna get you to a hospital as soon as possible, don't you die on us!" Chris yelled as he looked around for something to use as a gurney to carry Leon out.

Claire felt terrible, she was so wrapped up in finding Steve again that she forgot Leon had been hurt. "Oh no, Chris is there time?"

"He's lost alotta blood. If we're gonna do something we gotta do it now!" Barry yelled out.

Steve didn't know what he was thinking; he just knew that someone close to Claire was in trouble. Before anyone could argue with him he launched one of his tentacles into Leon's shoulder wound.

"What the Hell!?! Steve, what are you doing?" Claire screamed as she turned to face Steve. He seemed to be in a trance and the tentacle slowly pulsed and retracted out of Leon's wound. Suddenly Leon's wounds started healing rapidly and his breathing slowed down to a normal pace. Chris couldn't believe his eyes, and Barry already was halfway lifting his gun ready to unload on Leon's assailant before Chris grabbed his gun and signaled to him to see Leon's healing. "Steve, what's going on?"

"Gimme a sec," the monster groaned, "I gotta keep my concentration or the virus could backfire and take over his body."

It took a second for what Steve was saying to sink in. Chris was the first to break the silence and ask what everyone there was debating was possible.

"Your using the virus to heal him aren't you?" He asked. A nod was all he got in response. Leon began coughing and his eyes opened wide as pain showed across his face. His eyes were ghostly white for a few seconds but color returned to them after a moment and he rolled over and threw up a small amount of blood.

"I got the virus into that blood he coughed up, I don't know what you want to do with it but the virus is still alive in it." Steve sheepishly admitted, showing that he had not really thought about what to do till after the fact of infecting Leon.

"That's a neat trick, slightly disturbing but neat." Barry joked as he patted Leon's back helping Leon cough up a little more blood. Leon pushed himself up leaning against the wall sitting up to face his rescuers.

"Took your sweet time." Smirk on his face.

Claire dropped to her knees and threw her arms around Leon. "Thank goodness you're ok." She turned to Steve a tear in her eye, "Thank you Steve."

"Hey, what are friends for?" Steve said turning around and trying to hide his face, if he were in his body he was sure that he would be blushing from seeing Claire like that and addressing him that way. He didn't know if his current body could blush but he wasn't going to take the risk.

"How's Ada?" Leon asked not being able to see her through Steve.

Chris jumped up and ran over to the desk where Steve had laid her after he had removed Alexia from her. "She's fine, unconscious, but fine."

"Good" Leon said with a sigh of relief. "Now can anyone explain what the Hell is going on!"

"What do you think Dr. Saddler? Can you finish Albert's project?"

Spencer was sitting at his desk staring at the Senior Researcher of Umbrella's Madrid lab.

"This is all still very theoretical, and although I am studied on genetics we both know my field is in parasitic and animal behavior. Raccoon and Rockfort were our genetics labs."

"You think I don't know that you imbecile! I founded this company!" Spencer yelled slamming his fist on the desk. "Look Saddler, I need that project finished! You worked on Progenitor and T-Virus projects before. Bloody Hell, you're the one that recommended we create the Nemesis as a parasite and have it infest a Tyrant. I need someone who knows how the virus reacts and can give me results."

Saddler knew that arguing with Spencer was pointless; it would only lead to career suicide or actual suicide as the police would label it if he angered Spencer bad enough. He wanted to get back to his fossil that he received from that strange young Castilian; the creature in the stone was unlike any he had seen before.

"If I am going to be able to pull this off I am going to need Dr. Isaacs from the Detroit Lab. He was our genetics expert on the Nemesis project until its completion. He knows more about the Virus then I ever will."

Spencer looked almost annoyed. He was worried that Saddler wouldn't be good enough. Isaacs was still in the Detroit Lab and getting an Umbrella scientist out of America was getting to be nigh impossible even for someone as influential as Spencer.

Suddenly the buzzer on Spencer's desk rang and his secretary came on the intercom.

"Sir, I have a young woman here who says it is imperative she speaks with you."

"I am busy at the moment Candice, ask her to…" He was puzzled, this wasn't his office. It was a secret Umbrella hiding chateau. Only the top branches of Umbrella personnel knew about this place. "Candice, who is the young woman?"

"Good afternoon Mr. Spencer, pardon the interruption but I believe we can still help one another." Alexia Ashford brashly stated at she opened the doors and walked into Spencer's study. She just smiled and sat down in a chair beside Dr. Saddler who looked like he had seen a ghost. "Now, what is this problem with a Virus that needs attending?"


End file.
