Old Vendettas

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The BSAA were as swift as ever with their rescue and clean up efforts in the aftermath of the New York attack. People were already being evacuated from the worst affected areas, a precaution they were told, nothing more. It was a chance to sweep the bodies from the streets and remove the charred remains of one Glenn Arias. There were emergency medical units being errected in many buildings. People were thankfully vaccinated, but there were still a great many wounded wandering the streets. Even the heroes themselves had found their way the one of the larger medical units, though one of their number would soon be regretting that decision. 
Chris Redfield would be given little warning before his wife zeroed in on him, lean limbs pushing people aside before she slapped him hard enough to make a sound that echoed. “You force me behind a desk, and this is how I have to find you?!” She hissed, holding up her PDA with a flashing red dot that showed Chris’ current location.
The small nurse who had been treating Chris for superficial wounds stared at the brunette with wide eyes, already quite terrified of this formidable looking woman.

Ciara shrugged. "Away. I'm always going...away." She said softly, very nearly tripping over a fallen tree branch. "I was trying to find somewhere to belong..."

"I can't help you this time, Claire." Leon told her, his voice breaking. "I'm sorry. Didn't Jill tell you that I said that?"

Billy caught Ciara score she could stumble, hisbsteel coloured gaze meeting her’s as the moonlight forced it’s way through the leaves. “How can you know if you found somewhere, if you’re always running?”

Claire couldn’t answer, but Leon would hear her sobs, an awful sound from a woman who rarely shed a tear. “Jill has Chris! They don’t care about anything else!” She insisted, her grief making her see things through clouded vision.

Ciara found herself unable to look away. She couldn't even open her mouth to tell him she had no idea. All she could do was lean in close to him and press her lips to his and pray he didn't pull away.

"You never loved me." Leon whispered after a long moment. "And why would you? You had Steve." There it was. His way out. Hurt her before Wesker's could make him really hurt her.

Billy’s fingers twitched slightly, remembering. “Ciara...” He breathed her own name against her lips, remembering the frightened young woman he had given his shirt to.

That was proof of Leon’s love; he knew exactly what to say to hurt Claire the most. She stared at the dawn on the horizon, as Leon ripped out what tiny piece of hope was left inside of her. “If I didn’t love you, I would have terminated the pregnancy.” She managed to whisper.

"You're free." Ciara whispered back, resting her fingers on his scarred but empty chest. "You don't belong to anyone but yourself now." She kissed him again, unable to get enough of the taste of him.

Leon snorted. "Who are you trying to fool, Claire? I've seen the girl. She is sad and pathetic. I heard how she runs away when things get hard. That has Burnside written all over it. We both know he's her father." He paused closing his eyes. It was time to drive the dagger into her heart and twist it in deep. "I shouldn't have tossed out the picture he sent me of the two of you in bed together. That was probably the only picture of the three of you together as a family." He ground out.

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Billy’s dirty fingers gripped Ciara a little more tightly now, drawing out the taste of her as long as he could. Despite her bravado, the girl tasted so sweet, so innocent. “Not true... brat.” He breathed.

Claire’s hand was pressed over her mouth now, trying to keep her heart broken sobs inside. One look into Ciara’s indigo eyes was all it took to know she was Leon’s through and through. “You mean like I saw the footage from a China, of you pretty much crying while holding Ada?” She managed to choke out. The only time Claire had actively asked for Leon’s help was the one time he had simply passed her situation on to someone else, something that had been an emotional punch to the gut all those years ago. “You’re with her now... aren’t you?”

"Yes, you are." Ciara argued, shivering as his long fingers moved beneath the worn shirt. "Can't you taste it?" 

"Of course." Leon laughed darkly, the sound of a woman's deep sigh of pleasure following. "I have to go now. Things to...do. You understand." He finished, abruptly hanging up on the woman he loved with all his heart.

“I can taste something...” Billy breathed, closing his eyes as his rough, dirty fingers traced over the bare skin of Ciara’s back. 

Claire stared at her phone when the call ended, too racked with hurt and grief to listen to the tiny voice at the very back of her thoughts that was whispering that that sounded very much unlike Leon. All she could do was scream and fire her gun into a nearby tree before simply falling back to the ground. She was a royal mess without him at the best of times, so what was she to do now? It would take time for her to calm down enough to know she had to go after him anyway. If only to punch him in his stupidly handsome face.

It was then that Ciara realized that Billy tasted like dirt. She remembered that her uncle had buried him and once again began to feel guilty. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, pulling away. 

"Claire, what the hell!" Chris nearly took them both to the ground as he came tearing into the clearing where his sister had been firing rounds. "What happened? What was it?"

Billy thought she meant she was sorry for kissing him, and sheepishly let his fingers drop away from her. “What did you even do?”

Claire could barely see her big brother through her tears, though she did let him take the weapon from her. “Leon!” She sobbed the word like it explained everything.

"I...killed you." Ciara breathed, her indigo colored eyes locked on the deep bruising on Billy's neck. "Did it hurt? You were really angry." She motioned him to follow her. There was a small stream that lead into a waterfall not far from where they were. It would do for now to get Billy clean.

Chris stuffed the gun in his back pocket and grabbed his sister, hugging her tightly. "Yeah. I know. He's gone. I'm so sorry." He breathed.

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.” Billy confirmed. “But, don’t worry. It wasn’t the worst I’ve felt.”

“No!” Claire insisted, though she hugged her brother tightly. “He called me! He... he...” She was replaying all the cruel things Leon had said to her, and somehow... Claire came out of it blaming herself.

"Rebecca told me it was the only way to save you." Ciara said once they reached the pool. She couldn't look at Billy. The shame was still eating her alive. "She told me that to save you from that Wesker guy...you had to die." She guided him to sit and pulled his hands toward the water. "How deep did he bury you for heaven's sake?" She muttered.

"No." Chris said gently, kissing the top of his sister's head. "He's dead. He can't call you."

Billy glanced down, a rough fingers grazing the angry wounds the device had left on his chest. “You shouldn’t trust her...” He breathed, worried that whatever Rebecca had convinced Ciara to do was going to hurt the young girl even more.

Claire shook her head in disagreement, a wet patch already formed on Chris’ t shirt. “He said Ciara couldn’t be his... that I never loved him because of... Steve.” She choked out. Chris was the only who had seen how upset Claire had indeed been after Steve’s death, but this was different. Her grief when she thought Leon was gone was something else entirely. “Chris... he’s with fucking Ada Wong!” Her mood quickly shifted from sorrow to anger in one breath.

"Luckily we'll never have to mess with her again." Ciara said, taking off the shirt she wore and dipping it in the water. "You're free. You can stick with me." She added, wiping at the wounds. "I promise not to try and kill you again." She laughed softly, her cheeks coloring ever so slightly. 

"What?" Chris glanced at Jill over the top of Claire's head, feeling like he was missing something. He hadn't seen or heard of Ada Wong in years. "Claire...Are you sure? You haven't slept. You're grieving. I know how it is."

Billy watched Ciara work for some moments before he quickly turned his gaze away. “You know, usually I have to try a lot harder than this to get women to take their clothes off...” He mused.

“No, stop saying that! I am not crazy!” Claire insisted, pulling away from Chris to shove her phone into his hand as she began to pace. It had yet to occur to Claire that Leon had only been saying the things he knew would make her hate him the most. 
Jill met Chris’ gaze, silently pleading with him to handle this situation carefully.

Ciara couldn't help but grin. "It wasn't that long ago that you told me I was terrible at pretending to be a slut." She pointed out. "Must not have been too bad." She went on, squeezing out her shirt over his head.

Chris was piecing together what he could, trying to decide what Leon had done. He knew the other man a little from what Jill told him. He would not have gone to Ada.

“Should I ask who you’ve been practising on?” Billy asked with a smirk of his own.

Jill agreed with this assumption too. If there was just one thing she knew about Leon, it was how much he had loved Claire all these years. “Alright...” She was trying to decide their next move as she took Claire’s phone from Chris and brought up the last call. “We have a number, if we take it back to HQ we could try a trace on it?” She suggested.

"You know, I don't want you to get jealous." Ciara purred, wiping at his face with the shirt. "Good grief, Billy. Looks like you were rolling in pig pen." 

Chris nodded. "Claire, you stay here and find Ciara. We going to teach Leon a lesson and save Sherry. "

Billy slid his fingers around Ciara’s slender wrist and stopped her from continuing cleaning his face. “I wish I had been.” He breathed, the memory of crawling out of his own grave still a little too fresh.

“No! If he’s with her, I want to see it for myself!” Claire insisted, but already knew she couldn’t change their mind.

"I'm sorry." Ciara whispered. She wasn't sure she would ever get over what she'd done. "You deserve to hate me." 

Chris shook his head. "Your daughter needs you. Ours needs us. " He smiled at Jill.

Billy exhaled quietly and shook his head, though he still help Ciara’s wrist. “You did what you felt was right. And even though it was the thing most people have nightmares about... I appreciate your uncle burying me, and not leaving me in that town to become one of those... things.”

Jill returned the smile and nodded. “Chris is right, Claire. Let us fix this. You and Ciara need each other more than you need to hate Leon right now.”

"He said you were family because I cared about you... And we didn't leave family behind. " Ciara said. "He wouldn't let me help. I tried."

"It's ok, kiddo. We'll fix this. Jill always does." He teased, winking at Claire.

Billy gave a quiet chuckle and shook his head. “I guess all the things Rebecca said about him were true then... and now I know why he pisses Wesker off so much.” He added with a grin.

Claire wanted to believe, she truly did. But Chris hadn’t heard the things Leon had said, the words alone were enough to make her simply crumble under their weight. “I trust you.” She told her brother softly, hugging him one last time before nodding at Jill. “Keep him safe.” She breathed, then took her fun back from Chris before heading back to her car.

Ciara gently pushed Billy deeper into the water, laughing when he lost his balance and fell in. "Well, that's one way to get clean." 

Chris set the helicopter to return to its home destination. "Just promise you won't try to save me this time. " Chris whispered to Jill.

Billy exploded out of the water, well aware he had created enough commotion to soak Ciara. He was grinning as he watched the water drip off her pert nose. 

“You know that’s a promise I’ll never make.” Jill breathed, her hands pressed lightly to her husband’s chest as she looked up at him.

Ciara couldn't help but laugh. The sound was strange to her. She splashed him back, for a moment forgetting that her life was wrapped in nothing but saddness. 

"And you wonder why I insisted on you having a desk job. " Chris snorted as the engine roared to life.

Billy pretended to snarl like a beast and dove on Ciara, sending her topplingninto the mud. Her laughter was entirely too infectious. 

“You know, I could make the same request of you.” Jill replied as she strapped herself in and pulled a headset on. “You didn’t leave me in Africa, why would I leave you anywhere else?”

Ciara only laughed harder, grabbing for Billy's shoulders. For once she didn't feel like someone was trying to hurt her or use her. "You turd! I just washed you off!" She shouted, pretending to pound in his chest. 

"When it comes to finally stopping Wesker you will do what you have to do." Chris told his wife firmly. "This isn't about us anymore."

“And?” Billy asked, picking up a handful of mud and rubbing it in Ciara’s face. “I thought women enjoyed mud masks?” 

Again Jill was left with awful feeling that them getting married had been a mistake right from the start. It had been nothing more than a reaction to him nearly losing her. “Maybe that’s the problem...” She whispered into the mic. “Is that how it is now? We aren’t people any more? Just soldiers to keep on fighting, no matter the cost?”