The bonds of family

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Claire stared down at her ring, and realised she didn't want to contact Leon. She wanted him far away from Alex and any harm she could do him. "The last thing I remember is being put under for surgery. I don't know how i ended up here, or even how long I've been here." She confessed. Her secret fear, was that Leon would believe her dead.

Parker shook his head and rose to his feet. "I don't the help of some lovesick children!" He sneered. "I'll find Rebecca myself!"

It didn't seem to matter to Claire that the room they were in was dank and somewhat dirty. Perhaps she didn't notice, or perhaps she felt it a fitting reflection of the guilt she would feel the second this relationship was reignited.
Leon didn't know it, but once again Ada had gifted him with information, this time allowing him to think he had found it all on his own.

"It's the name my mother gave me, the woman who didn't even want me." Jake replied darkly. "You are not my mother."

Steve truly believe he was the only one. As he claimed Claire as his own he gave no thought to anyone else. As terrible as it was, he wouldn't have cared anyway. 

"That isn't true, you little turd." Ramona said, her fist balled at her sides. "You know why I couldn't keep you. I was trying to save you."

Claire was engaged to another man, and even still wore the ring that had been put back on her finger after her body was stolen from the hospital. It seemed someone had gone to much trouble to create as many variables as possible. It was all too much like an Ashford game. The dank air was cold against Claire's damp skin as she lay against Steve now, sapphire eyes filled with worry. She had been talking of getting them both out of there, how had it ended like this?

Jake snorted and advanced on Ramona now. "Yeah, yeah... all for the greater good and all that bullshit." He sneered. "You just wanted more time with daddy Albert." He added, close enough now to note that the way this woman held herself was indeed very familiar to him.

"I love you. You know that, right?" Steve whispered against her forehead. He'd missed the chance to say it last time. He wasn't going to do it again. 

"That son of a bitch is busy spending time with himself. He's all he ever needed." Ramona said bitterly. "You are too much like me. You just say the first thing that comes to your mind. You ever think that maybe you shouldn't?"

"The last words you said to me, before..." Claire closed her eyes, the memory still painful even after all these years. "Steve... What if we never get out of here? What if I fail you again?"

"Why? Life's too fucking short to worry about upsetting people." Jake snorted, and at least for the moment his gun was lowered.

"I will make sure that doesn't happen." Steve promised. "I can't lose you again."
"All adorable things, really." Alex said from the doorway she leaned against. "But seriously, kid? How do you expect to be her savior when you can't even save yourself?"

Ramona sighed, not because he'd lowered the gun but because he'd never learn. "Come on. Get your Sherry before I change my mind." She said, motioning him to follow her. "Your father already has some of her blood. That should be enough for us."

Claire was quick to sit up, jerking any item of clothing she could find over her head, which happened to be Steve's t shirt and not her own. "I put you down once, I can do it again." She swore hatefully.

Jake was shaking his head. "Don't you think Sherry has been through enough, without some weirdos poking around in her blood?"

"Did you now? Then how is it that I'm still here?" Alex made a show of looking herself over. "I seem to be in one beautiful piece." 
"That's not the word I would use." Steve snorted.

"We are going to make her a monster. The very thing her father was trying for." Ramona said as they walked. "Hell, maybe some of his seed is still in her."

Claire was scowling up at Alex again. "You're just like your worthless brother." She spat, hating this feeling of helplessness she had.

Jake's gun was suddenly pressed roughly to the back of Ramona's head. "Like hell you are." He snarled. "I'll blow your brains out before I let that happen."

"You're not going to compare me to yours? The great hero with half his head now gone?" Alex scoffed. "At least mine is still alive."

Ramona stood still, feeling betrayed for the second time that day. "Try harder, boy." She hissed. "You will not stop me with a simple gun like that."

"Is this why you brought me here? To brag about the inability of your family to just die?" Claire growled. She still hadn't put any thought into the idea of the virus she carried, and that that Steve did holding any benefit should they somehow combine.

"Wanna test that?" Jake sneered, proving quite vividly where his loyalties lay.
Before the young man could follow through on his throat however, a needle slid into his neck, and just like that he crumpled into a heap at his father's feet.

"I brought you here as food for my monster first but now..." Alex tapped her chin with a perfectly manicured red nail. "I think I shall do something more interesting. It's good to see you love the boy." 

"Albert!" Ramona cried, turning to see their son on the floor. "I had it under control, damn it."

Claire didn't like that look one bit. She was keeping an watchful eye on Alex as she slid back into her jeans with a fluid movement and stood between the elder woman and Steve. "Haven't you freaks done enough to him?!"

"Really? So him blowing your brains out was all a part of your master plan?" Wesker mocked as he hoisted Jake onto his shoulder.

Alex's lips twitched. She was more than a little amused at the sight of the young Redfield sibling defending a man that she knew was a monster. "Not nearly enough." She purred. "That virus inside him melds well with the one I created. I want something to make my brother foam at the mouth and it seems...I have come up with the perfect thing without even trying. How very good for me." She laughed, all but clapping her hands. "Leave it to a Redfield to screw everything up. You certainly aren't a hero like your brother, are you?" 

"As if it would have bothered you." Ramona muttered before she could help herself. "Albert, you're not going to do anything to our son. I won't let you. Set him down and let him wake up on his own. He'll feel like a fool and it will be a typical Wesker moment. Nothing either one of you hasn't been through before."

Claire tried to hide it, but the pain those words caused her showed quite clearly on her face. Of course she was still being compared to Chris. "I never said I was a hero." She breathed with less force than she had intended. It was the memory of how she had failed Steve, and now how she had betrayed Leon too that filled her with bitter sorrow.

"You thought I was going to do something to him?" Wesker asked, sounding genuinely perplexed. "You were taking him to the Birkin girl. After everything you said?"

"It's a good thing you recognize your faults." Alex mocked, smirking when Steve surged around Claire to go after her. She was quick to shoot him in the stomach. He was on the floor in an instant, howling in pain. "Don't play games with me. You can't hope to keep up." She snorted, turning to leave.

Ramona said nothing, her eyes dark ad she glared at Wesker. "I have work to do." She muttered after a moment. "Don't you have little mouse to play with?" She added, turning to head the other way.

"I don't despair, not even over the fact I don't despair." Claire called after Alex, having found herself reading a little more Kafka in the months after her escape from Alex's clutches the first time.
"Shit... What did she hit you with?" The young woman breathed, crouching beside Steve and using her own discarded t shirt to press against the wound.

"You're jealous of the mouse?" Wesker asked, utterly dumbfounded by such a notion.

Steve couldn't answer. Liquid fire was roaring through his body and it was all he could do to keep from screaming out. 
"By the way, when your fiancee gets here, I'll throw him a welcome party. Starting with the sounds of your animalistic love making with a monster." Alex purred over the loud speakers.

Ramona didn't answer, she turned fully and began walking away. She held her head high, as proud as she ever was.

Claire screwed her eyes shut when Alex told her this. She knew she shouldn't have asked herself how much worse things could get, as the universe always seemed to take that as some sort of challenge.

Ramona would be able to hear Wesker's fist slamming into one of the walls as she walked away. He wants to drop Rebecca Chambers' whole body in acid for this.

"Won't believe it...I can make those all by myself..." Steve ground out, opening his eyes. Claire would be able to see how yellow they were. "You'll be okay. I promise...no...I shouldn't...I can't promise..."

Ramona didn't turn around. Why should he be angry? He didn't even want her. 
When Wesker arrived in the labs, Sherry was awake and out of her straps. Desperately she was trying to find a way out of the room, her nails bent back as she tried to pry open the door.

"It's going to be okay." Claire breathed, her fingertips lightly brushing Steve's cheek. "I'm not going to let her perform any more experiments on you." She vowed, not seeming to care Alex had intended to use Claire for such things too. "I'm going to get you out of here."

Wesker had locked Jake in a separate room, and could hear Sherry's efforts to escape. He almost smiled when he threw open the door, knowing it would catch the young woman in the face and send her sprawling.

"Maybe we should find your Leon and flag him down before he makes it in here." Steve suggested. "You should just leave me here. With me she will forget about you."

Sherry landed on her backside, shaking her head as her vision clouded. Her hands went to her nose, blood flowing freely from the wound at the bridge of it.

Claire shook her head. "You think you know her, but you don't." She breathed. "You think it's coincidence she brought me here? For monster food, knowing I still carried the virus she gave me?"

"Oh my, I didn't know you were awake." Wesker purred, smiling when he saw the blood. "Just like your father, always poking his nose where it wasn't needed."

"I'm not smart enough to figure that out." Steve groaned, finally managing to sit up. "But I am smart enough to get you out of here before she manages anything." He added, getting to his feet.

"I was trying to leave." Sherry growled, spitting blood on the floor. "I could care less what dirty little secrets you have hidden here."

Claire no longer knew they would get out of there alive. Alex had done what no one else in the past had managed; she had taken Claire's hope, despite the  bold statement the young woman had made earlier. "We need to find somewhere I can clean that wound properly. And don't give me that 'monsters don't get infected' bullshit either." She warned Steve, offering the best smile she could.

"Oh?" Wesker smiled again and walked past Sherry as though she were worthless to him. "You would leave without your hotheaded boyfriend?"

"There's an infirmary on the other side of the building but...you know I should say monsters don't get infected." Steve said with a watery grin. 

"I was coming to look for him." Sherry said simply, still holding her nose. "You know nothing. You see nothing past those dark glasses."

"They still bleed." Claire breathed as she helped Steve to his feet, trying to get him to lean on her as they shuffled toward the door.

"I see another worthless Birkin." Wesker replied icily. "I should have drowned you the first time he forced me to hold you."

Chris couldn't even fish anymore.  He couldn't hold himself still. It had been a long time since Jill had done more than spoken to him. He groaned loudly and finally gave up on it completely, tossing everything out into the lake. Mutt barked at his beer cans floating in the water for several minutes before realizing her owner was stomping toward his truck. She yelped loudly and ran to follow.
For Chris Redfield this Heaven was turning to a hell of his own making.


"Your mistake." Sherry hissed, her eyes flashing a brief red. She shot toward him, her speed matching his own. As before she was able to get a hit in, catching him under the chin and sending him to the floor.

Jill couldn't even begin to make Chris understand just how much he had hurt her that day at the bakery. She had half a mind to give him something to accuse Her of. It had been weeks now, and she still wouldn't even sleep in the same room as him. Chris had gotten off fairly lightly, considering Jill hadn't destroyed something he loved the way he destroyed her trust in him. Each day was now spent with her spending time in the forest around their isolated home. As Mutt seemed to favour Chris, she had even gotten a dog all of her own. It had been a fluffy bundle of fur when she picked her little runt from his litter, though you wouldn't know it to see the wolf like creature that never left her side now.

Wesker found himself suddenly laughing. "Good girl." He purred, on his feet and slamming Sherry against the wall, powerful fingers around her slender throat. 'Is that how you trapped him? Proving how much of a monster you are?"

Chris had gone back to smoking heavily. He was seated in his truck now, covered in a cloud of it. He rested his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He'd gone back to having those nightmares. They were so bad the last few nights he couldn't bare to sleep. 

Sherry showed her teeth, clutching Wesker's wrist. "You're the only one who needs to be a monster all the time." She snarled. The heel of her foot catching him in the beast bone.