Checkmate

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"Day one hundred and twenty...seven." Jill let out a heavy sigh as she checked the date off on the calendar. It was a sickeningly adorable kitten calendar Claire had given her, as though baby animals made her unofficial imprisonment any better. Since returning from Africa Jill had been under what was basically house arrest. She was driven to her shrink and doctors appointments, then brought right back home again with an agent stationed in an all too conspicuous car on the street outside. Her apartment was beginning to feel tiny, like the walls closed in another inch each time she managed to sleep. Sleep... that was yet another punishment. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Wesker's face sneering down at her, taunting her that she would never see her precious partner again. That she was the weak link in the pathetic operation. The only time she truly slept was when she took the pills the doctor had given her. He had promised it would be a dreamless sleep... he couldn't have been more wrong.

The room suddenly plunged into darkness, a shrill noise piercing the silence. It went on for several minutes, then a strobe light replaced it with a deep booming thump sound you could feel right down to your blood cells. This repeated on a cycle for well over an hour before the door finally slid open. 

"Chris? CHRIS!" Jill was wailing his name, clutching the radio as though it were the man himself. "Darius, tell me you go something!"

Rebecca was shivering, now the proud owner of a splitting headache. She was sure she'd gone deaf. Even her own rousing rendition of Henry the Eighth that Joseph and Richard had taught her wasn't enough. Though for a brief moment she lost herself in the memory of their Captain making them all run further until Chris admitted he'd added the verse about lusty Letty. When she'd paused to ask what a lusty Letty was, everything fell apart. 
Done with the memory, Rebecca turned to see who was coming through the door. Her eyes protested this however. She could see only shadows.

Darius nodded. "I've contacted the coast guard. Looks like we're going fishing. But... where's Rebecca?"

"Ah, still with us I see?" A silky voice asked calmly. "Not many survive my little induction." She added, closing the door behind her, bathing the room in further darkness. "You always were my brother's brightest pupil." A single red light offered some illumination now, highlighting the sharp cheekbones and ice cold eyes of the BSAA Director herself. 

"Shit..." Jill was pacing again, her fingers pulling at her hair, for a moment wishing it wasn't quite so long. "FUCK!" This time she kicked over the cot she had been sleeping on before punching the wall.

"Been through it before..." Rebecca said softly. "I hate to disappoint you." The mention of her brother and her look had the smaller woman's heart aching, though she knew it shouldn't. Wesker was long since dead.

Several hours later the two of them were pulling a half dead dead Chris from an open emergency hatch lying sideways on the beach. 
Darius was silently rushing Jill to make sure they weren't seen.

"Of course you have. Albert always liked..." Alex paused to give Rebecca a quick once over. "Fresh meat."

"You stupid meathead!" Jill was sobbing as she cradled Chris' head in her lap. "What were you thinking?!"

Rebecca shook her head, though this caused a wave of nausea to slam into her and she turned a dark shade of green. "Whatever it is you think I know about the guy...I don't." She ground out, trying not to appear weak. "I came looking for samples the little girl took from my lab but she'd already used them on the kid. You caught me leaving. Simple as that." 

"Jill..." Darius got nothing more out as a bullet slammed into his forehead and he tumbled into a lifeless pile of flesh on the beach. Not far away there was a man dressed in a heavy black military uniform, holding a semi automatic handgun. It wouldn't take him long to to cross the distance to them and it certainly didn't look like he'd come to make friends.

"Right. You came all this way for your... samples." Alex replied, clearly not convinced. "You are a doctor. You are not a soldier, you are certainly not an operative. So do not expect me to believe you acted alone, least of all after your good friend Jill Valentine disappeared so suddenly from the protection of the BSAA..."

Jill wasn't in the mood for friends anyway. She watched him approach and had her own weapon drawn without daring to glance at Darius. She may not have trusted him, but he didn't deserve this.

"I wouldn't expect a Wesker to understand a researcher's devotion to their work." Rebecca snorted. "I don't know anything about Jill. I came to retrieve my samples back and I failed. According to your brother that's all I'm good for. So why are we here?"

"Hands in the air." The man barked. His gun was aimed, at the forehead of the man who was lying in her arms. He seemed to know how to control her. He didn't wait for Jill to comply before he touched the receiver on his shoulder. "I've located the wolf and the raven." He said, knowing better than to take his eyes off Jill. "Waiting for orders."

Alex smiled, allowing Rebecca her words of defiance. "My brother was by no means perfect, far from it in fact. He always was a second rate dullard." She paused and pulled out a silver case, opening it to remove a cigarette and place it between her ruby lips. "However, he saw something in you, something the rest of them seem to overlook."

Jill didn't move, it almost seemed like she didn't even breathe, but Chris would be able to feel her pounding heart where she held him close. The code names threw her off somewhat. The BSAA were fond of using them, but she didn't recognize whoever this man was. What bothered her more, was that he knew enough to make Chris his target first. "So what, now they let any monkey with a vest hold a gun?" she sneered.

"Your brother saw nothing in me." Rebecca said through her teeth. "He manipulated me just like he did everyone else and when he was done he shot me in the chest." She once again used a diversion tactic in her mind. Sending herself into a memory while her nails peeled away layers of skin so she could slide her tiny wrist out the already tiny restraints. 
She'd been married once. He'd been a wonderful man. Trevor had been a professor of biology and chemistry at the college where she was getting yet another degree. It had been a wonderful six months. He'd helped her to get through the nightmares from the mansion and Raccoon city. And then one day...
"What?" Rebecca raised her head, knowing Alex had been talking and knowing the other woman knew she had been shutting her out. 

The dark blue eyes that met Jill's were filled with anguish. It was as if their owner didn't want to do what was being done. The man was careful to keep his gun on Chris, his masked face remaining on Jill. "Step away from Redfield with your hands raised or I will shoot him. I think we are clear on that, honey. Aren't we? You don't comply and the wolf dies. That's an easy one."

Alex didn't answer what Rebecca finally responded. She was watching the younger woman, crystal blue eyes giving nothing away before they were obscured by a cloud of exhaled cigarette smoke. She had often wondered how this little waif had survived what she had. At first she thought it mere luck, but no one was that lucky. Finally she leaned back in her seat and crossed one long leg over the other. "I do have a use for you. It would seem your DNA will make for excellent breeding stock."

Jill's mouth quirked into a slight smirk when the man called her 'honey'. If Chris were conscious, he would inform the other man how badly things often ended for men who called her that. "Seems to me, you need the wolf." She finally commented, though did raise her hands up, linking her fingers behind her head as steel blue eyes watched her would be captor.

Rebecca once again tuned the other woman out. Trevor was a wonderful husband. He would whisper to her in the darkness that he would make her a brand new world. One suitable for her. He would bring her a rare African Violet. Her favorite. He was happy with her...or so she thought. One morning she woke up alone. Not even a note. 
"No DNA. I'm an orphan. You want something special...get a race horse. Or... jack off." She snapped.

"No one said he had to be anything but breathing." Her new captor moved like a sleek panther hunting his prey. "They never told me he had to breathe the whole time either." He warned, moving closer to her. "You try me and he won't. You don't scare me, Birdy. Never did.ive seen your insides. You ain't so tough."

Like her brother, it was most dangerous when Alex was smiling. She took another long drag of her cigarette, then rose to her feet/ "You seem to be under the delusion I need your permission." She purred.

Jill smiled; she liked a challenge. "Not scared, but the big tough man needs his weapons to subdue me." She purred, fingers still linked behind her head.

Rebecca had learned a thing or two from Alex's brother. Like how to make a thin but very effective knife with what remained of her bindings. For some reason it had always been important to him that the little medic defend herself even when he made it a point to tell her she was useless. 
Alex would realize Rebecca was not useless when the slender woman was jabbing a piece of her former binding into the side of the female Wesker's neck. That done she made a break for the hallway, not sure where she was going at not really caring.

The wicked smile and the cracking of the knuckles would give away the man threatening Chris, even if his eyes didn't quite match. 
Jake Wesker holstered his gun and stepped closer to Jill. "We can play it your we sure but you're still going back. Whether I beat the shit out of you first or not. Don't think I forgot who killed my old man."

It wouldn't be long before the entire facility was on high alert. Alex was screeching at anyone within earshot for them to find her specimen and subdue it. And that's all Rebecca now was, an 'it', no longer even worthy to this woman of being considered human.

Jill tried to contain her shock, but arched her brow anyway. "That doesn't narrow it down, we've both put down enough pieces of shit to lose track of illegitimate offspring." Ever the smart mouth, something Wesker Sr had often beaten her down for himself.

Rebecca lifted herself into an air vent and held the grate shut. Once again she shut herself off. Trevor had danced with her at their wedding. He'd insisted. She'd tried to resist. He didn't know. How could he? Wesker had laughed at her when she'd asked him to at the police ball. He told her she'd only embarrass herself. She'd left and had never mentioned it again. Not that she'd had the chance. 

"Good. Then you should know me right off." Jake was across the remainder of the beach in less than a second, his elbow striking Jill under the chin. "I know who my parents are." He purred, the next strike slamming her to the sand beside Chris. "Can you say the same?"

In the hallways below, soldiers were combing the facility. They were searching vacant rooms and cupboards, only one of them thought to look above. He wasn't working with a squad, he seemed to prefer the lone wolf approach. After all, it was just one little girl...

Jill remained knelt in the sand beside Chris, though narrowed her gaze at her attacker. "I have no need to ride the reputation of my father." She spat, of course speaking only for herself.

A thin line of blood slid through the grate and tapped onto the soldier's shoulder. Rebecca didn't notice this as she tried to back further into the vent. She pushed the memories back into the dark part of her mind and locked them there. She'd never survive if she didn't.

The cat like eyes narrowed even as the lips twisted into a smile. "I don't either. I just know, it's getting under your skin." Again he stepped forward and pinned her to the ground, his boot on her throat. "You two need to get going." He hissed as he leaned down close to her ear. They have Sherry. You're going to fix it."

In the silence of the hallway, the soldier heard the blood drip, rather than felt it. He paused in his tracks, slowly casting steel coloured eyes upwards. It was such a tiny vent, but then... she always had been small. He used the barrel of his rifle to crack the vent, prepared for some sort of attempt at assault.

Jill's fingers had twisted around the boot, ready to snap that ankle if need be, but she halted at the drop of Sherry's name. That little girl she had damn near raised... The young woman she had been prevented from even seeing since her return from death.

"Fuck!" Rebecca lost her footing and the remainder of a nail as she tumbled out of the vent. It was only the element of surprise that had her landing on top of the soldier. "You moron!" She hissed, slamming her forehead into his chin as she tried to escape their sudden entanglement. 

"Don't fight them." Jake instructed, shoving a blade into the sand as a helicopter landed nearby. "Go. I can't save her. Just...tell her I love her." He added, once again yanking Jill to her feet and throwing her towards the chopper.

The soldier dropped his weapon and was quick to trap Rebecca in the circle of powerful arms that held her like a vice. "Now now sweetheart, don't ruin the moment he breathed into her hair with a rumbling chuckle. 

Jill stumbled several steps, clearly hesitating as she shook her head very slightly. "I'm not leaving without him." She swore. "Never again."

Rebecca couldn't catch her breath and struggling made it worse. So instead she closed her eyes. 
She had found Uroburos. She'd used the pollen of African Violet. At first it had been to see why the flower was killing bees. Then it was singling out the amazingly living organism that buried itself in the pollen. She'd been so proud of it. Then Umbrella had stolen it and Wesker had taken it from them.
Or maybe she simply didn't know what had happened to it.

"He's going with you." Jake snarled, standing in a fighting stance. "Now fight me...they'll think something's up. Don't make it look easy."

"You can't run forever." the soldier whispered. "Let me help... She never has to find you..." His voice was sincere, even if Rebecca couldn't see his face, other than his steel coloured eyes. 

Jill snorted and kicked the knife up from the sand, catching it without taking her eyes off Jake. "I always wanted to gut a Wesker." She replied.

Rebecca opened her eyes. For a moment the voice was so familiar it made her insides twist. "Ok." She breathed. "Do what you have to do." He wouldn't be the first to twist a knife into her gut. She could only hope he was the last. 
She closed her eyes. The first time she'd met him... he'd smelled like sandalwood and blueberries. She'd told him he reminded her of a bagel. She'd never heard the man laugh so genuinely...

"Nice." Jake nodded, cracking his neck and beginning to circle Jill. "I remember fighting you when I was little. You've always been a show off." His laugh was the same as his father's. "Try to remember you actually have to get the knife into the skin, babe. Possibly before I do." He shot towards her and his fist meeting with her rib cage. "Again. You're getting old."

"When did a bagel ever hurt anyone?" He breathed against her ear, his grip loosing now Rebecca had ceased her struggling.

Jill stumbled back a step or two, flipping the knife in her hand over so the blade now faced her forearm. "And you're over confident, typical Wesker." She lunged forward, slicing the combat knife upwards where it sliced Jake's cheek deep enough that it would leave a permanent scar.

Rebecca's eyes flew open. Had she spoken aloud? How humiliating. But then she was used to that. "Can you just get it over with?" She breathed. "It you try anything else, I swear you'll regret it." 

There was that unhappy twitch to the cheek. Though Jake had learned to drop his father's name he didn't like being compared to the elder man. 
"Look who needs a weapon." He purred, once again circling her. He shot up behind her and punched her in the back. 
"Jill!" Chris' howl made matters worse. He was fighting with his own captors, once again seeing what was happening as the fight with Wesker before he'd lost her. "Mother fucker! I'll kill you!" He saw nothing but Wesker. 
Jake grabbed Jill by the back of the hair, yanking her against him. "Clocktower. She's guarded by a Nem..."
He didn't get anymore out. Chris tackled him as if he were nothing more than a cardboard cutout. His angry howls followed by the sound of bloodied punches and dark laughter.

"You always enjoyed me trying something else..." The soldier breathed, scooping Rebecca up and walking at a brisk pace. "You liked your coffee with toppings, like a dessert." He mused.

Jill stumbled into the sand, the words 'clocktower' and what she assumed was about to be 'Nemesis' knocked the fight right out of her. She could hear the roars and the punching, but it took several agonizing seconds for her to force herself back into motion. The blade he himself had given Jill was soon jabbed up between Jake's ribs, though it avoided all vital areas.

Rebecca wasn't sure of what was happening. "Trevor?" She hissed, trying to keep her voice down, though she was filled with rage. "No. You...don't get to come here and...go to hell!" Once again she began to struggle, fighting to get away from him.

It was enough distraction for the others to capture Chris again, though he was still screaming with rage. "Die, Wesker!" 
"Sh...erry..." Jake's words came out in a bloody gush and he tumbled to the beach though it was more for show than anything else. 
Jill was now the one to be loaded onto the chopper. They attempted to sedate Chris while another medic rushed to get Jake on board. It seemed that this was not the way it had been planned out.

Trevor held tight to Rebecca, though did finally pull off the helmet and mask that covered most of his face. "You want Alex to finish what she started with you, just to prove a point to me?"

One of the men trying to subdue Jill would find his face smashed into the wall of the chopper as she fought to reach Chris. It was only as a syringe was forced into her neck that the fight left her. It seemed both the Wolf and the Raven would sleep their trip away.

Rebecca was exhausted. "I cheated on you." She whispered. He must have done something to her when he was restraining her. "When you left for that week long conference. He found me. I let him in. I always let him in." Her voice was fading out. "It's not you that smells like blueberry bagels, it's him. I just told you that because I want to pretend..."

Jake yanked off his shirt, cursing like a sailor. "Another Valentine special." He muttered, sneering at the wound. "I don't see why you don't put them down if you hate them so much, dad." He growled at the man preparing to take off.