In the Ashes

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It was all gone. Everything. Her favourite dress, a bracelet a close friend once gave her, hell even the gun she had carried with her since basic training. Those things shouldn’t matter, the entire city was now nothing more than a crater in the landscape, and she was worrying about material possessions. The chopper lurched slightly, snapping her back to sickening reality. Chris, Barry and Rebecca were safe at least, that was the one silver lining to her feeling like she had been abandoned in the city by her friends. They had left weeks ago, wanting to tackle the rotten core of the problem. But what about the city? THEIR city? Was she the only one who had called it home? Jill Valentine let out a heavy sigh and glanced at the figure piloting their chopper; at least she hadn’t tried to save it alone.

Jill was holding Leon as he screamed, physically keeping him from rushing into the water too. She held him tightly, despite the fact tears were dripping down her own cheeks. Julian has been her world, he called her his angel... but he was her everything.

The charade was very much over the moment Rebecca kissed Allen with the taste of the pomegranate in her lips. His fingers sank a little harder into her slender hips as he breathed her name. “Becky...” Wesker has only ever called her ‘Rebecca’.

A few days later Chris stood next to his sister at the funeral, trying to remain strong for her and Jill. Leon hadn't even shown up. The night after they'd found Julian Leon had mumbled something about being called to a mission and had simply left. 
Chris wasn't about to tell the two women he loved that he'd found marks on his nephew's body. He'd taught Julian how to handle himself in and around water. There was no reason he should have died in the lake. The poor boy's nightmare's had been right.

Rebecca stood at the back of the church with Sherry, feeling terrible about herself. She'd poisoned Wesker with that pomegranate. When she had left him in the bed, she was certain he was dead. But he'd had no choice. If she didn't, she was never going to be free. Even if he didn't want her, he was never going to let her go.

Jill was stood on the other side of Chris, her fingers squeezing his hand tightly. She couldn’t let herself break down as she wanted to. Claire needed them, and she swore she was going to do so much more than kick Leon’s ass when this was all over. The night he left she had warned Chris the younger man was going to need a feeding tube once she was through with him.
Claire wasn’t crying. She wasn’t doing much of anything. She simply stared at her son’s tiny coffin, waiting to feel something, anything. This, and Leon’s disappearance had finally broken her.

Allen has fallen asleep believing he had finally gotten what he wanted. Instead, he would wake to find himself no longer in his own bed, but instead hooked up to several machines in a medical room. Luck had been on his side, one of his staff had found him after Rebecca left and raised an alarm when they couldn’t wake him to inform him of the Kennedy boy’s funeral.

Rebecca knew what it was like to lose a child. She recognized the agony on Claire's face. After all the well wishers were gone, she hugged her friend tightly. Nothing she could say would make this better. Not even the reassurance that she was not alone.

A young man paced at Allen's bedside as he finally opened his eyes. The man looked terrified and it only grew worse as the elder man sat up. "I didn't know!" He cried, his hands shaking. "I saw him...your son. But I didn't know...please...my wife just had a baby..."

Claire didn’t let the hug end. She clung to Rebecca, though didn’t cry. It was the fact Rebecca said nothing at all that helped. All day people had been saying what a tragedy it was, how sorry they were, if she needed anything... What she needed was for someone to tell her it wasn’t alright.
Jill hadn’t left Chris’ side all day. The both of them had been the ‘face’ for people to offer condolences to when Claire had shut down. They graciously accepted the superficial offers of sorrow and help, knowing they wouldn’t accept any. They just needed to get the day over with.

Allen groaned, holding his pounding head as he sat up. “What baby?” He muttered, frowning when he saw he was connected to an IV. “Where is Rebecca? What... what happened?”

Chris was exhausted. He'd been through that he'll more times than he wanted to count. He dropped onto the bed he shared with his wife and simply laid there, staring at the ceiling. 
He couldn't tell them what he'd learned. Maybe instead he'd go find Leon. Then the two of them would make things right.

"Rebecca went back to the Redfields, sir." Helena stood in the doorway, a heavy file under her arm. "It's probably best. She tried to kill you. You're lucky I found you."

Jill joined her partner a few minutes later, silently laying down beside him, her head on his shoulder and an arm draped across his chest. The question had been gnawing away at her for some time, she had simply been too afraid to ask. “Was... there a funeral for me, when I...”

“Lucky.:. Right.” Allen snorted, forgetting who he was supposed to be for the moment. “How long?” He asked from where he simply sat on the edge of the bed with his head bowed. “How long... has she been gone?” He wasn’t even addressing the fact she had tried to kill him.

"Yeah. It was Claire doing everything while I stood like a stone staring at an empty casket." Chris breathed. He held her close hating himself for being glad that Jill was still with him. "I refused to believe you were gone. I never gave up looking. I just gave up on myself." He took in a shaky breath. "Jill...I need to go and look for Leon before he does something stupid. Will you be okay here? Will you watch out for Claire? I'm worried about her." 

Helena crossed the room, her lips set in a thin line. "A few days. The Redfield nephew was killed and she went to be with Claire." She reached out, brushing the hair out of his eyes. "You look strange when you haven't shaved. Almost like you're a different person..." She breathed, her green eyes locked on his face.

“I’m annoyed you think you even need to ask me that.” Jill breathed, her pale blue eyes watching Chris intently. “Make sure he’s in one piece when you get him back here, I want him upright when I beat his coward ass down.” She added, kissing the edge of his jaw lightly. “I got the family, Red... you go do your thing.” She added gently, though there was obvious worry in her eyes.

Allen scowled and slapped Helena’s hand aside. “Don’t do that.” He warned thinly, though had to admit he had hated keeping his appearance matching that of the real Albert Wesker. That wasn’t him at all. He liked to not shave for several days, to have hair he could run his fingers through when frustrated. For Rebecca to... He quickly realised where his thoughts were drifting and he shook his head. He couldn’t. She had tried to kill him. Had she known the truth? The fact she had brought a pomegranate made him believe she did.

Chris would return over a week later with an overly intoxicated Leon and an extremely sick Rebecca. He was busy calling Tricel as she directed, trying to reach a contact she had but no one was answering. This was bad. 

Helena was doing as she was instructed and was keeping watch over Wesker. Rebecca had been so sure he would die with the poison she'd given him. But none of them realized that he was not the same Wesker. He was the perfect version. There was very little that did hurt him. As far as viruses went anyway. If Helena understood what was going on, she'd see just how much this version of Wesker truly was hurting.

Leon had been left in his room to sober up, Jill wanted him to feel every lunch she was about to swing, and Rebecca was resting in the guest room. “What the fuck?!” She hissed once she and her husband were alone in the kitchen. She was glaring up at him, horrified by the state he had come home in. “I thought you were just going dragging his ass back here! How did... fuck.” She shook her head and reached into the cupboard under the sink for the first aid kit. “Sit.” She instructed, needing to fix Chris up before she could even process what had happened.

Hurting wasn’t a strong enough word. Allen spent long hours locked away in Rebecca’s lab, reading her notes and watching the experiments she had recorded. It didn’t matter what anyone said... he loved her and what she had done cut him deeper than he thought possible.

"Helena?" Chris waved Jill to be silent as his call was finally answered. He told the woman on the other end about Rebecca and then gave her his address, hoping he hadn't done something stupid. 

Helena was quick to run to the labs, knocking on Wesker's office door. "Sir, she's been found." She told him. "She's with the Redfields."

Jill was giving Chris a look that silently screamed ‘are you kidding me?’ When he gave out their address. That was directly after the glare she had given him when he waved off her attempt to clean his wounds. By the time Chris hung up Jill simply stared at him, her arms folded across her chest.

“So?” Came Allen’s despondent reply. “Clearly that was her plan all along... Kill me to get back to them.” He added, no longer even attempting to act like the man he was posing as.

Chris grunted at his wife and the way she was looking at him. "I don't need first aid. " He muttered. "For fucks sake what a nightmare! I need a beer and a nap!"

"Sir, she wasn't with them to begin with. She was at the Tricel labs fixing an issue." Helena said softly. "But Wesker...you sound strange...are you sure we don't need to have you tested?

Jill narrowed her eyes, then jabbed a slender finger into a rather deep looking wound in Chris’ shoulder.

“For what?” Allen muttered, though finally sighed heavily and sat up a little straighter where he had been slumped at Rebecca’s desk. “Loss of patience?” He growled, allowing Helena to know she was irritating him.

"Jill!" Chris howled, tumbling backward onto the bed. "Damn it!" He lay there for a long moment, fighting to control his temper. "Tricel is coming for Rebecca. She was infected while we were gone. She kept begging for some guy named Allen. I figured it was someone she worked with." 

Helena explained what had happened to Rebecca and how she'd been calling for the dead man. "Her device is overloaded with another virus. It's not working." She explained. "I have the location. Are we going?"

Jill simply glared at Chris for a long moment then sighed heavily. “That doesn’t change the fact you’re bleeding and need my help.” She finally breathed, sitting down beside him and opening up the first aid kit she had pulled out when he first arrived. “You always have to be a hero, don’t you?” She asked gently as she used antiseptic to clean the deepest of the wounds first. Jill paused briefly, slender fingers tracing an old scar against his lower abdomen. It was a bullet he had taken for her many years ago. Chris has shoved her to the ground knowing he would be shot in her place.They each had scars that were results of saving the other; permanent ties to one another no matter what transpired.

Allen was already on his feet, nodding at Helena. “Perhaps next time you lead with the important information first?” He asked, reaching for the fun that was lay on the desk where he had been sat. It was a silent sign that he had actually been contemplating finishing what Rebecca had started. Would any one have truly missed the shadow of a man everyone feared? Allen wasn’t Albert, and the longer he pretended, the more like a failure he felt.

"Yes." Chris whispered, though he wasn't sure what he was saying yes too. He rested his hands on Jill's hips and slowly pulled her toward him, kissing her deeply. 
It was then, if course that Jill's phone rang. Carlos was making good on an old promise she'd made to help...even if it was not by choice...

Helena didn't know what to do. She'd come into Tricel looking for the truth about her sister Jessica. All she'd discovered was that the real Albert Wesker was dead and she'd fallen for a man named Parker. 
She was silent as she helped load the medical chopper. What she knew would change everything. It was too dangerous to simply tell someone. She'd have to give up on all that she'd been working for if she said something. Jessica would never come home...

Jill groaned against Chris’ lips as the sound of her phone pierced through the blissful moment they were enjoying. She kissed him once more then pulled her phone from her pocket. She didn’t recognise the number, but that didn’t mean much in their line of work. “Yeah?” She asked as she answered, running fingers through her long hair.

“You’re quiet.” Allen commented as he joined her at the chopper, looking a little better than he had when she found him. Eyes that were a little more grey than blue watched her face closely. One thing he did have in comment with the ‘real’ Wesker was an ability to read people. “Something has happened.” He simply told her. “You’re unusually distracted.”

"Jill..." Carlos sounded so sad. Not at all like his usual self. "I need you." It wasn't what he was supposed to say and it cost him. The punch to his stomach proved it. He groaned softly. "Jill...I need your help..." He corrected with a grunt. "Please. Nickolai is going to kill me."

Helena glanced over at the false Wesker, quickly wiping at her eyes. She noted that he'd chosen to shave again. 
"Sorry, sir. Just a bad day." She whispered, hoping it didn't show just how broken she was.

Chris would see his lover visibly pale when she heard whatever was being said on the other end of the line. Her lips trembled slightly, trying to form her next words carefully. “Nikolai...” she breathed that single word with a mixture of both fear and anger.

“Aren’t they all?” Allen asked with a snort. “Don’t play me for a fool, Helena, you wouldn’t like the outcome.”

"Tell Chris he shouldn't have stuck his nose where it wasn't wanted. Those you love are paying the price." Carlos' cry of pain was louder this time. "The boy said his angel would save him. Foolish child. So like his father." 

Helena didn't answer.  She hated when he tried to threaten like the real man. It didn't suit him at all. 
"My family thinks my sister is dead." She said finally. "They signed all the paper work a few days declaring her dead but I...I can't..." She stopped as the team motioned them it was time to go.

Jill could feel her heart pounding, and certainly not in the way it had moments before she took the call. Those chilling words filled her with dread. “Jules... it was you.” She whispered, screwing her eyes Shut when she heard Carlos cry out in the background. “What do you want?” She dares ask the question, fearing she knew the answer.

“What makes you think other wise?” Allen asked curiously. “You have proof? Or... you’re looking for the proof?” He added, nodding to a man who passed them. “If that’s the case, why are you here?” Another slip; the real Wesker wouldn’t have cared.

"I want what you stole from me years ago." Nickolai hissed. "If you don't show up, I'll kill him. It's that easy." 

Helena stared at him for a painfully long moment. Everything he did was nothing like the real man. "You need to be more careful. More people are going to figure out that you're not him. It's going to be dangerous for you when they do."

“I didn’t steal anything.” Jill hissed between clenched teeth. “You stole from me! You condemned an entire town!”

Allen’s entire body tensed up somewhat and he shook his head. “Not who? The man of your dreams?” He teased, again acting very much of of ‘character’.

"You are so blind." Nickolai chuckled. "You damned the world with your stupid choices. But worst of all, you damned those who love you." He purred, pausing as Carlos howled in agony in the background. "You have what I want, Jill. Bring it. Save a life."

"Too bad you belong to someone else." Helena said softly, shaking her head. "You'd better smack me around at least once when we get on the chopper. "Otherwise they are going to get suspicious. You should care more about that, Allen. Your life is on the line here."

“You’ll get it.” Jill swore, her fingers curled tightly into a fist at her side. “You hurt him, you’ll wish you hadn’t been wearing a vest.”

“You assume my life is worth anything.” Allen replied, turning away to grab a bag that needed loading into the chopper.

Chris was sitting up as Jill hung up the phone. His eyes searched her face for answers. His hands rested on her hips and he made sure she didn't leave him. He was terrified that was what was going to happen when he told her the truth. "I had a feeling it was him. He was sloppy. He left clues..."

Helena grabbed Allen's shirt and turned him around, kissing him deeply. She wasn't sure what came over her but she didn't regret it. He wasn't Wesker. He wasn't the monster that made her sister disappear.

Jill’s eyes were filled with angry tears that threatened to spill free at any moment, though they weren’t directed at Chris. “It’s my fault... all of it.” She whispered, sliding her arms around Chris and burying her face into his bare skin. “He’s hurting people because I didn’t have the decency to just fucking die!”

Allen tensed for a brief moment, thinking of Rebecca. But then, he remembered her attempt on his life; should he really care if something like this would hurt her? Allen slid his hands over Helena’s pert behind and squeezed it firmly as he jerked her against him. How was he to know the real him, if all anyone saw was who he was supposed to be? Maybe the real him wanted a different woman every night... no, that didn’t feel right either.

"He's hurting people because he's a bad guy. That's all they know how to do."  Chris told her firmly. "We won't let him get away with it. We'll trash him. It's what we're good at."
But Chris would be pulled away before too much longer. During the night, Rebecca Chambers had died.

The entire flight Helena felt shame. She should never have touched him. He was not hers. He never would be. 
She was toxic to men in general. Her history with them was proof. She kept to herself, pretending to clean her gun and stare out the window. She was such a fool.