Alpha Team

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It was a little after midnight, a time most of the building was in darkness. But several shots were ringing out in the basement level. 
“Take. That. You. Son. Of. A. Bitch.” Jill was hissing as she fired her weapon at a distant target with a picture of Wesker’s face taped to it. It had been several weeks now since Chris had aided in her escape from Africa. Several weeks of tests and evaluations to prove she was coping just fine. Of course, masking trauma was all par for the course when you were a Raccoon City survivor. What pissed her off the most, was knowing she would never get to make Wesker suffer like he had her. That’s why she was here, rather than at home, sleeping. Sleeping meant the nightmares returned. Here she would. Urn herself out until she simply collapsed from exhaustion.

“You keep calling him that, but you’re both the same!” Jill growled. “Fine, bleed out right here. At least then you can flirt with the waitress instead of me.” She added as she rose to her feet.

“No, you are on time.” A familiar voice purred from the darkness of the factory shell. “I did question placing trust in a mere waitress however.”

"Okay..." Carlos once again took her hand. "You need to take a breath. Don't let that bastard's serum control you." He led her to the bathroom and closed the door behind them. "It was an accident." He added, pulling off his shirt. "Anything else you want me to take off?"

"Albert?" Rebecca breathed. She didn't trust herself not to run to him. He had always chastised her for it. 
In the end she couldn't help herself. It had been so long and her heart was so broken. She crashed into his midsection before she'd even realized it and began to sob, wrapping her arms around him.

Jill rolled her eyes and snatched his t shirt from him, running just the edge of it under the tap. “How do you know about the serum?” She asked, though her head was bowed as she tried to clean away enough blood to see how bad the wound actually was.

“What did I tell you about crying?” Wesker warned, though he was gently running a hand over the back of her head.

"I told you. I've been working with Umbrella. They knew about Tricell and Wesker." Carlos explained. "That's how I was able to pass the info on to Chris." He watched her as she cleaned the wound. "Jill...I've missed you." He breathed, catching her hands and pulling her against him. He kissed her deeply this time, hoping it was enough to remind her of the confession he'd made the last time he'd seen her.

"I'm so mad at you!" Rebecca couldn't catch her breath but she began pounding her fists on his chest and shouting. "Excella...Africa...Uroburos..." Her nose was a bright red and she could barely see. "You...left me...I hate you..." She did this until she was exhausted. Finally she felt her knees giving way. It was all too much.

There was nowhere to back off to this time. The bathroom was so tiny is was claustrophobic. The cafe itself was small, almost quaint, so it was no surprise their facilities were the same. With her hands sandwiched up between them she felt control slip, and for the briefest of moments she allowed herself to drown in that kiss. Carlos had always understood she was capable of taking care of herself. He wanted her stood beside him, not behind him like Chris always wanted. But that was where the conflict came from; she had felt cherished that Chris still wanted to protect her even after all those years. “Carlos... no...” She finally forced herself to breathe. Cherished, perhaps... but since the return from Africa, that feeling felt more like he was holding her at arms length.

Wesker allowed his younger lover her tantrum. He understood her frustration, but he also understood his own feelings. Chris needed to believe Albert Wesker truly was dead, and asking Rebecca to play double agent whilst being so close to Redfield was simply out of the question until he could assure her safety. “Excella; expired, Africa; done, and Uruboros; a failure. Did I leave anything out?” He asked as he crouched beside Rebecca.

"What? Why?" Carlos asked breathlessly. He looked heartbroken. "Jill please...I can't keep dancing around it like this. I love you."He rested his forehead against hers. "Don't make me beg..."

Rebecca pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her face in them, "You...scared the hell out of me...again..." She gasped out. "You don't know what that's like? Do you? To be so close to the person you love....and not be able to save them..." Again her shoulders shook. "I..failed..I'm so sorry..."

Jill closed her eyes as she tried to find the kindest answer to his question. “Do you actually even know me?” She asked finally. “We survived hell, Carlos, that much we can agree on. But when is my birthday? Where did I grow up? Is Jill even my real name?” She didn’t want to hurt him, that was the very last thing she wanted.

“No, I don’t.” Wesker admitted almost gently. “I’ve never been in a position that left you open to that risk.” He added. “But it had to be done. The BSAA needed to believe Albert Wesker was dead beyond a doubt.”

Carlos' eyes searched her face. "He does know how bad it is does he?" He said softly. "I can help. We can find it. All we have to do is jog your memory."

Rebecca turned her head to look at him, her nose red and bright blue eyes dark with emotions. "I fucking hate them. They scrapped off pieces and Chris told everyone to find some way they had been wronged and then set fire to it. They all have me hell when I refused to take part." She whispered. "They celebrated your death...none of them know how much I want them dead! And now...I can't even get Jake to answer me..." Though she knew he'd probably balk at her touch, she needed it. The tiny woman leaned on her former lover and breathed him in, feeling better than she had in months.

“No, my point is that Chris know all the little things.” Jill breathed. “I love him, Carlos, and that’s why I can’t tell him everything that happened to me.” She added, her pale blue eyes betraying emotion she would never admit out loud. “I would have done the same for you, if you hadn’t already known.”

Wesker surprised himself by laughing quietly. “I didn’t think the golden boy had it in him to be quite so dark.” He mused. “But it seems my plan worked better than I could have hoped. They truly won’t have a clue.” He added, still stroking Rebecca’s hair gently.

"But I'm not him." Carlos said bitterly. His lips closed tightly and he nodded several times. "You don't have to spell it out for me."
"Jill!" Chris' panicked roar could be heard throughout the tiny diner. The fear of losing her yet again was audible.

Rebecca shook her head. It hurt that he'd left her in the dark. She'd had to scramble to cover her grief. The first time it hadn't been so hard. There hadn't been enough time. 
And yet...the way he was gently running his fingers through her hair betrayed something she was so sure he didn't feel. 
"I can't go back." She whispered. "You can't keep doing this to me, Albert."

Jill’s whole body tensed, knowing Chris would see this cosy rendezvous as something other than what it was. “No, apparently I do. I’m not ready for anything, Carlos. I need to find myself first.” She breathed, handing his damp, blood soaked short back to him.

“You know this from the start, Rebecca. How many times did I try and warn you?” He added. “This is something I must do, something I’ll never stop fighting.”

The thunderous knock came next, followed surprisingly by Chris' gentle tone. "Jill? Are you okay? Claire said you were here. I'm just checking on you."
Carlos raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his bare chest. He hadn't bothered to pick up the shirt she'd thrown at him. 

"Do you at least know where Jake is?" She asked, wiping at her cheeks. The effort only made things worse. Her cheeks were now streaked with grime.

Jill narrowed her gaze at Carlos, all too aware he would not make this situation any easier, given what he had confessed to her only moments earlier. “There was an accident, everything is fine though, too really didn’t need to worry.” Jill assured her partner through the door. “Did you catch Rebecca?”

“The boy is safe.” Wesker assured his lover gently. “I trained him well.” He added, finding the grime smeared across her face made Rebecca all the more adorable. “I would never knowingly place either of you in harms way, tell me you understand that?” Just from the way he spoke to and treated Rebecca, it was clear this was not the Wesker Chris had encountered in Africa.

"I didn't see her." Chris said, his tone growing more worried by the moment. "Do you need me to? Are you sure you're all right? There's blood out here..." 
Carlos couldn't help the snort of laughter he was trying to hold back. Chris was everything Wesker had said he was. No wonder Jill was trying to get away from him. 

Rebecca nodded. "I think it's time we go back to Europe." She said, this time spreading the grime across her button nose. "I miss our home there." She confessed.

“Rebecca was the one who had the accident, there was some blood, but it’s under control. I think you should go see if she’s still outside, she didn’t seem to acting right.” Jill called back through the door, though was again glaring at Carlos.

“Europe? Really?” Wesker asked, quite shocked. “Won’t the BSAA heroes have something to say if you simply disappear?”

Chris was a little more worried than he wanted to admit. Claire had told him that Jill wasn't alone in the diner. She hadn't told him about Rebecca. So when he saw the blood he assumed whoever she was with had attacked her. "Jill...there was no one here when I got here. I didn't see Becca's car."

"There's a branch there." Rebecca said, all but shivering with excitement. "No one would be surprised if I took the lab and moved it there. I've been a bitch so I think they'd be happy." She laughed finally.

“She stabbed someone when she tripped, Chris. I’ve been trying to stop the bleeding.” Jill assured him, knowing how suspicious it looked if he saw who she was in there with. “I think it’s all good now, I’ll meet you outside once I’m cleaned up, okay?”

“A bitch? I don’t think you know how.” Wesker teased. “What about Claire? She was poking her nose around for as long as I can remember, you think she will just accept your leaving?”

"I'll go see if I can find her." Chris said, trying to give Jill room. He was afraid if he crowded her he would lose her. He couldn't lose her again. Ever. He wasn't sure he could ever recover from that. 
When his footsteps had gone, Carlos spoke again. "I'm not leaving town, Jill. I got an assignment with the BSAA. For now we'll be working near each other." He said cheerfully, yanking on his shirt and heading out the door.

"Albert...I'm an afterthought to everyone I know. With Jill here Claire's pushing it to be thinking about me now." She didn't have to add the part about stabbing someone almost right in front of her.

Jill slumped down onto the toilet seat and simply buried her face in her hands. She wanted to scream. Perhaps living hell as a drone was actually preferable to this. She waited several more minutes before she joined Chris outside, a smear of blood streaked across the whole tank she head been wearing while running. “It’s still pretty early, you know. You didn’t have to get your ass out of bed just for me.” Her mask was again in place; the last thing wanted was Chris worrying about her.

“Precisely.” Wesker commented as he began steering Rebecca in the direction of his car. “They won’t suspect you of a thing.” He purred. “You have a unique opportunity to gather data from Jill’s failure.”

Chris laughed wearily. He hadn't slept well since losing Jill. He'd known the moment she left the bed. "I'm up." He shrugged. "Did you eat?"

Rebecca was silent was she was bundled into the passenger seat. Moments ago she'd been thinking of the very same thing but now she was selfishly, desperately wanting to go to the only place she'd ever been able to call a home. She'd been through so much it was killing her to spend another night in that tiny cot alone.

Jill nodded. She hadn’t eaten that much, but then again, she didn’t really get that hungry any more. “Did you?” She countered.

Wesker drove for some moments in silence, though he was actually monitoring Rebecca. Finally he believed he knew what was wrong. “I’m not saying things continue as they were, for one, It would please me very much if you left that pathetic hole you call an apartment, and relocate to mine, for the time being.”

Chris looked down at the crooked way he'd put on his jeans and then pointed out to her that his shirt was on backwards. "All I did was lay in bed naked like an idiot, thinking you were coming back. When Claire called I just grabbed something." He gave her a sheepish look. It was not lost on him she had lied about cleaning off the blood.

Rebecca glanced at Wesker, wishing she were as brave as Jill or Claire. Hell, even Ada. Then she could be the one leading the man instead of the other way around. 
Here she was simply falling back into the familiar darkness and all for a simple, "it would please me very much." 
It was the same thing he'd said when he'd asked her to lead Jill and then Chris down into the mansion basement. Not to mention the other members of STARS.
She was a monster. All for the feel of his breath against her skin in the darkness, a heated whisper of her name from his lips...she would burn down the world...
But the question always was, would he do the same?

“Why did Claire call you?” Jill asked worriedly. “It’s not like I was kidnapping people are anything.” She breathed, reaching out to straighten up Chris’ belt buckle.

Wesker glanced at Rebecca as he drove when she didn’t answer him. “You wouldn’t want that?” He asked. Rebecca had been an integral part of all of his plans for many years now. To begin with, that was all she was; an easily manipulated, starry eyed teen. But as the years passed, he realised he had allowed his trust in her to blossom into something more. The fact they had a crown son was proof enough, to him at least.

Chris' smile softened. It was the little things like this that he missed most. "See you haven't changed." He said. "It's just like the time we had uniform checks and I came in sick and my buttons wrong?"

Rebecca chewed on her lower lip, deciding it was time she quit pouting. She had spent months lying awake, making herself sick over losing him. 
"Tell me the bed is enormous and the coffee pot makes espresso!" She reached across and rested her hand on his thigh.

“Some days I would swear my partner was a toddler.” Jill teased, now reaching up to fuss with his disheveled hair. “Every time we failed inspection and Wesker busted both our asses... I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.” She confessed with a gentle smile.

“I haven’t slept in it, but the espresso is as strong as I recall you liking it.” Wesker replied, his fingers resting gently over her own against his thigh. “You you drank anything else, that’s when I know something was very wrong.” He added, lifting her fingers up and kissing them gently.

Over the next few weeks Chris did his best to allow Jill her space. He returned to his job and included Jill in everything. He didn't mention Carlos or the fact that he knew the man was already in the BSAA and trying to get close to her.

As soon as Rebecca put down the phone from speaking to Jake, she climbed into the massive bed and slept. Over the next few weeks she returned to her old self. 
Curled on the living room couch, wrapped in a blanket and sipping her coffee, Rebecca poured over the blood work she'd taken from Carlos. This was perfect.

Jill continued to struggle over the following weeks. She still had the nightmares of things Wesker had had her do to people. At this point she would rather the nemesis returned to haunt them instead. She also continued to have worries about Rebecca. Something just didn’t feel right every time she was alone with her. So many tests and samples were still being taken from her, and every time she even attempted to mention it to Chris, he acted like she was just being paranoid.

Wesker had taken great care to ensure his death remained permanent, so far as the BSAA were concerned. He worked on the serum research with Rebecca, astounded how easily she was able to cut herself off from her old team mates this way. She continued to impress him more and more. Even on this day as they poured over the latest results from Carlos, he was thinking ahead to how they would put this into action.

Late that morning, Chris was pouring over reports not unlike Rebecca. Though his were a little different. These included a strange rumor from Sherry Birkin about a young man by the name of Jake Mueller. Because of the reports on the man, he was more than a little obligated to check it out.

"I have to be honest." Rebecca said as she set down her folder and looked across the long couch at Wesker. "I really didn't think the virus would catch so well in Carlos. You think he'd had told someone he was given a dose of G." She shook her head. "Umbrella is full of shit heads..." She added, chewing on her lower lip. "Not like we didn't know that but..." She paused. "What Jake came back with from Spain...that file on Spencer's daughter, Miranda. Remember her? You think all that's true? Do you remember her?"

“Anything interesting?” Jill asked leaning over Chris’ shoulder close enough that her once again dark hair brushed against his cheek.

Wesker smiled as he simply listened to Rebecca speak. “Carlos certainly is an anomaly. I am starting to wonder if he and Jill were closer than she lets on, maybe she infected him?” He asked with a smirk. “Miranda... whiny, entitled princess with daddy issues?”

Chris closed his eyes. Jill smelled like summer rain and strawberries. His favorite things. He smell was so intoxicating he couldn't help himself as he grabbed Jill and yanked her into his lap. "Now there is." He growled playfully, pretending to bite at her neck. "Valentine...you taste so good!" He purred.

Rebecca's mouth dropped open. "If Jill can pass G...then I need to get a sample of Chris' blood. " She paused, once again chewing on her lower lip. "And Miranda... Spencer's extended family... The progenitor virus. They had it and wouldn't share? Or was it something else?"