Doopleganger

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Rebecca Chambers stared at the clone and shook her head. It was a much better copy than the one they'd worked on of Wesker during the Africa debacle. She sighed deeply and shook her head. 
"This isn't going to work. I don't care how good he looks." She muttered, well aware of the tall man standing in the background. "This is Jill we're talking about. Chris pulled her out of her own virus. There's no way she won't sense something." She groaned again and ran her fingers through her hair, only now remembering she hadn't bothered to have it cut in a long while. "Goddamn it. I could understand him dying in a biochemical outbreak but cancer? Who covers that shit up?!" The headache was there behind her eyes. She needed coffee and sleep. At least coffee. "He's not going to fool anyone. He's too cheerful. Chris was a real son of a bitch there at the end. And what about Claire? She'll smell a rat...oh god....What the hell was I thinking agreeing to this?"

Wesker didn’t even try to hide his smile. He could feel the anger radiating from the woman behind him, and he knew what he would do with that kind of anger. “Is it the sweetness that irks you?” He asked without taking his gaze off the screen.

“He’s still using that stupid test?” Ruby asked, subconsciously rubbing at her hip where there was a hidden scar. “Clearly you survived though, what’s the problem?” She couldn’t afford to let her guard down. Not now.
The problem was, the look on Ruby’s face was almost a mirror of Jill in that moment she had once believed Carlos about to die. The features she had inherited from her mother still conveyed that same abundance of emotion, something she had never been able to hide, no matter how much Wesker had tried to beat it out of her. There were times she could mask it, certainly, but at her core Ruby was a whirlwind of emotion ready to explode at any moment. This life was supposed to be different. This life, as one of the good guys, was supposed to give her a purpose and fill the void that lay at the centre of that whirlwind. Yet here she was, being betrayed and bartered by someone she had very almost trusted. She had no choice but to help Rebecca, the real Rebecca. Carlos had made it perfectly clear that if she didn’t… Chris would pay the price. He knew Ruby would protect Redfield at any cost, even her own life. This was what it meant to be the good guy; you never won, not really. All Ruby had wanted was a family of her own, but here she was, entering into a contract to save someone elses. That was why she couldn’t express her true sympathy for the man before her.

Three days later, Amy was the one leaning over the monitor, watching Wesker's pet tucking a wedding dress into an obscure closet in the mansion. Natalia walked away from it looking more than a little disappointed. 
The crimson haired woman was pleased with herself. She'd found a distraction for Wesker that made him forget all about the young woman's proposal. It came in the form of a well built young man with dual colored eyes. Through the hours of torture he'd given the elder man nothing more than his name, Noah Coen.

“Coen? Interesting...” Wesker mused as he simply stood before the young man, watching him with all the interest of a child fixated on its newest toy. He didn’t elaborate on why this was interesting, but Wesker was a man who valued information, and something as infuriating as someone interfering with a plot he and an old friend had once laid out all those years ago... well that wasn’t easily forgotten. At the time he hadn’t had chance to pursue it, what with death and several explosions following in quick succession, but this was simply too delicious to ignore. He could see the resemblance now, but there was something else there... something he was struggling to put his finger on.
“What could a child possibly feel he could accomplish by seeking me out?” Wesker asked at last, apparently much calmer than he had been the preceding days. “You are but a boy, nothing you do will ever be of consequence.” He added, seemingly ignoring just how meddlesome Claire and Leon has been in their younger years.

Noah's strange eyes swept over Wesker and he simply snorted. "I don't even know who you are." He grunted. And it was true. Rebecca had done everything in her power to keep her son from finding out the darkness she still lived with. His becoming a soldier was meant to keep him from Albert Wesker on any level.

Rebecca had tried hard to keep the name Wesker from her son, but in the end it was a Wesker she had needed to call upon to save him. Fate was cruel like that.
Wesker now watched the boy. He was young, that much was certain, but he saw raw strength in the youth. The question had suddenly become; how could he use the boy for his own gain? “You will.” He responded, realising Noah had spoken. “Wesker is a name you will know well. It is either the name of your employer, or your executioner. Which would you prefer?”
Carlos had tried to follow Ruby when she had left, insisting he could offer support before she ran headlong into danger like her mother. That had infuriated the young woman further and she had simply slammed the door of her sleek black car in his face and screeched out of the parking lot. Ruby called at the home she still shared with Chris, gathered up her guns and gear, then headed for the co ordinates Rebecca has given her. It was a place she hardly needed directions to. This wasn’t the sort of homecoming she had been hoping for.

Noah snorted again, narrowing his eyes as he watched the elder man walk by. He didn't answer him. 
His attention caught on the woman who was seated on a computer nearby. The strange woman was oddly grinning and bouncing in her chair. She was pleased with herself. As strange as this place was he could only imagine what was making her so happy.

Natalia sat on the porch, her knees pulled to her chest. A storm was growing in the distance, she could sense it. It made her feel like something was coming. She wondered if she should be concerned.

Wesker didn’t tear his attention away from Noah. The boy intrigued him. If he couldn’t break him, it would be a refreshing distraction to send him home. In pieces. “Your father, William, I believe, he was a coward too. I see the Apple does not fall far from the tree.”

“You really won’t give up on him, will you?” Natalia would recognise the female voice from the shadow of the porch. The storm wasn’t coming; it was already here. Ruby had no doubt she would kill Wesker if it came down to it.

Noah gave no reaction. He was wiser than that. He tried hard not to wear his emotions on his sleeves. His mother told him what happened when he did. Instead he continued to watch the woman across the room. She'd stopped moving and wasn't smiling. What could have changed?

"What did you come here for?" Natalia asked Ruby, wiping at the corners of her eyes. "You know he still hates you. He blames you for ruining his shot at Stone."

Wesker was actually rather enjoying how calm and almost stoic Noah was when faced with his own demise. It was a refreshing change to the hot heated ego of the Redfield clan. “Something interest you?” He asked, glanced over his shoulder to the young woman so eager to distract Wesker from his lover.

“You say ‘still’ like he ever felt anything else.” Ruby snorted in reply. “If he’s such hot fucking shit, why didn’t he stop me from getting in the way? Because he’s a failure. He has failed at everything he ever attempted.” She added smugly.

Amy was clenching her fists. Ruby could ruin everything. Without even realizing it, Wesker was doing more to destroy her than she could ever manage even as a little girl. Ruby's appearance could ruin it all. 
Noah smiled at the distraction, his long thin fingers working at the restraints on his wrist. 

"You don't know him very well." Natalia whispered, wrapping her arms around her legs. "All his plans are completed how he intends."

Wesker watched Amy for a brief moment, his eyes glancing at her clenched fists and back to her face. “You wish to interrogate the boy yourself?”

“And are you a part of those plans?” Ruby asked simply as she checked her side arm over for what felt like the millionth time. No chances. She would avoid Wesker if possible, but she would be prepared either way. He broke her arm last time they met, and that isn’t something that is easy to do.

"I have no interest in a useless soldiers." Amy snapped. "Feed him to the lickers and be done with it." She hissed. 
Behind Wesker Noah chuckled softly. He wasn't afraid of lickers anymore than he was the hunters he'd been locked in with hours earlier. 

"That's not something you care about." Natalia said, her tone thin and dark. "I'm well aware of what you think of me. Now, get the hell off my porch." She pulled a gun from out of her lap, turning to point it at Ruby.

Admittedly, Wesker had been surprised when Noah has survived the hunters. No one had survived that long with that number since Ruby. It intrigued him, to want to pick this boy apart and find out what he truly was. “Amy, Need I remind you how I feel about women and their useless emotional outbursts?”

Ruby’s dark brows hiked up, Out of amusement rather than real shock. “Well now, looks like little Natty finally grew a spine.” She remarked. “You do realise that won’t stop me anymore than it would stop him, right?”

Amy turned in her chair, giving him a pretty pout. "Is that why you enjoy your pet so much? Because she doesn't fight you? Is she like that in the bedroom as well? How boring."

"I'm well aware of that." Natalia said softly. "Who said I was trying to stop you with this?" She looked down at the gun, for a moment wondering when Wesker would realize she'd taken it. She'd dug it out of a drawer in his office. An extremely heavy gun with bullets still in the chamber. "Last chance, Ruby. Leave before I let him know you're here."

Wesker was upon the redhead in an instant, fingers curling around her slender neck and slamming her face first into the computer keyboard she had been sat in front of. “Need I remind you how replaceable you are?”

Ruby clucked her tongue and shook her head. “No can do, Mom.” She replied in a mocking tone. “You let him know I’m here, and it’s him you put in danger.” She added, recognising the gun Natalia currently has pointed at her.

"That's what I thought." Amy laughed mockingly, even while blood ran down her face. "You are bored with her. She cannot keep up with the beast inside you." 

Natalia shook her head. "I've heard that line before." She muttered. "Why are you here, Ruby? There's nothing here for you. He's not even here right now."

“And let me guess, you can?” Wesker sneered. “You know. Toning of the beast, you have never even met it.” He added, ringing his lips down close to her ear.

Ruby smiled and perched her slender frame up on the railing that ran along the porch. “He who?” She asked, still smiling. “Little Natty..: always ten steps behind.”

"Are you so sure about that?" Amy closed her eyes, a shiver sliding down her spine. Brother or not, she still wanted him and always had. Spencer had punished her for that. It meant nothing to her. 

"Stop making fun of me." Natalia hissed, a line of tears sliding down her cheeks. "Ruby...please...just go!"

“Positive.” Wesker replied icily, slamming her face into the keyboard once more before finally releasing her. “Else you would be dead.”

Ruby shook her head again, then hopped back down to her feet. “He has something I want, and I am not leaving without it.” She replied, finally seeming likes he had simply gotten bored of taunting Natalia. “Stone is screwing around with Claire, does he even know that much?”
She added as she headed down the porch steps.

"I told you there is nothing here for you." Natalia was angry. She was mad at Ruby making her feel worthless and mad at Wesker for confirming it. More tears were rolling down her cheeks as she stepped toward the other woman. "This is his house. Not mine and not yours. Now leave!" She shouted, her voice louder and more irrational.

Ruby studies Natalia for an almost agonisingly long moment, then smiled. “He has a new toy, doesn’t he? That’s all I want, to take his toys away. Without his toys, he is all yours again.”

"I wouldn't dream of taking away what makes him happy." Natalia whispered, lowering the gun. "It's been so long since I've seen him smile." She paused a momet and wiped her face. "Leave him alone and I'll take you in and give you whatever you want."

Ruby hesitated, far too accustomed to doing things the hard way. “So he is here.” It wasn’t a question. “I told you I wasn’t here for him, only for something he took, however... if he tries to stop me, I WILL defend myself.”

Natalia shook her head, making it clear she didn't agree with the other woman's words. Silently she opened the front door and motioned Ruby to follow her. 
The front room was extremely clean though there were a few boxes lining the wall close to the door. A small yellow sweater was resting on the top and a set of car keys was lying next to a pair of white tennis shoes. 
In the kitchen two plates had been set out. One of them had moldy food in it. The other was empty. 
Finally she paused in a long hallway that had several doors in it. "Ruby...the last time I saw him he was in a terrible mood. I can't guarantee that it won't be worse now."

Ruby took all of these things in, the smell of the long since spoiled food irritating her delicate nose, though she didn’t say anything about it. “And when was the last time you saw him?” She asked the other woman uncertainly. The long hallway filled her with old childhood fears. The room. That’s what it had been called by all of his test subjects. It was a large room at the end of a long corridor, and inside was filled with lickers and hunters. How many was dependant on how much of a failure he deemed you. If you survived, to him it simply meant there hadn’t been enough of them in there. She rubbed at the old scar on her hip again. Perhaps her only failure had been that she kept surviving.

Natalia was never supposed to know about this hallway. One of the men she'd been punished for being kind to had given her the code to it before Wesker had torn him apart. He'd sent her a message saying she needed to know the truth. The fool hadn't seemed to know that she already knew. She simply chose to ignore it. 
"I'm not going with you." She said after a long moment. "Someone is picking me up. Good luck." 
"Fuck you both!" Moria Burton screamed from the other side of the door where the two women stood. She'd brought a gun when her. It was strangely similar to the one Natalia carried. "You're not getting away from me this time, bitch. Either of you." She was angry and hissing like a cat with an attitude problem. The first bullet slammed into Natalia's rib cage. The second slid neatly between Ruby's ribs and into her left lung just below her heart. 
Natalia slid down the wall, leaving a streak of blood in her wake. "Don't worry...he...won't come..." She gasped out.

Ruby took on a sudden and watery gasp, her gloves fingers instantly going to the wound in her abdomen. It didn’t hurt. Why didn’t it hurt? She didn’t need to see the blood to know the sticky substance was there, and she needed only one hand to level her own weapon at their attacker. “Wrong day to piss me off, bitch.” Ruby retorted, her voice oddly calm despite the fact there was still a bullet lodged in her lung. The white hot fury that was building was all Wesker. It went against everything she knew Chris would want from her; she was going to flay this woman alive for getting in the way.

Moira's eyes glittered a strange yellow and she snarled. "You killed my dad. I'm returning the favor!" She shouted, taking another shot at Natalia, this one hitting her in the stomach. The slender woman let out a soft whimpering sound, blood spilling past her paling lips. 
Moira yanked her arm back up and sneered at Ruby. "I'm going to make him sorry he was ever born." She aimed for the other woman's head, planning to end Wesker's daughter. She was sure this would hurt him.

Even with the gun all but pressed to her forehead, Ruby laughed at Moira, openly mocking her grand plan. “Wow, you really are fucked in the head, huh? Nothing would make me happier than him being cold in the ground, but a pathetic nobody like you doesn’t have in them.” She sneered. “And killing me? Wow, you really don’t have a clue, do you?”

"Albert..." He had told her once all she had to do was call his name and he would come for her. If nothing else she could at least see him again. "Please..."

Moira's fingers twitched on the trigger. "He's going to hate himself as much as I do." She growled.