Blue on Black

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Leon Kennedy starred at his gun as he heard the truck shudder into the drop zone. It was never going to get any easier. It didn't matter how many times he came into these towns and cleaned them out. 
It had nothing to do with the people. It was Claire Redfield. He saw her everywhere. The same scenario played out in his mind. In the end he was in her arms. Except...he wasn't. For the most part, he was alone. Until he was calling a phone number that made his chest hurt just to make the chill inside him go away. 
"Claire..." He breathed as he stepped off the truck and looked around. "Will you ever forgive me?" 

Rebecca Chambers didn't share Leon's sense of loneliness. The mousy haired woman was rather happy living alone. She'd seen far too many of her friends and loved ones die to believe in anything but science. 
At the moment she was seated on the floor of her office chewing on her pen, watching a video about the bio-experiments that had been newly discovered from Raccoon city. She didn't seem to be buying a word of it.

"What? No. We can't leave." Chris shook his head at her. "At least wait until after half time. Please?" He took her hand off his arm and held it. "I'm here with you, babe. Nothing is going to happen." He added gently, leaning over to kiss her on the temple. "Every time that thing comes out...we can make out. How does that sound?" He purred, tipping her chin up so that he could make good on his offer. 

Leon held up his hands, careful to remain perfectly still until Claire was ready for him to move. "It's okay." He whispered. "It's me." He reached out as soon as shed dropped the knife and yanked her into his arms. He couldn't help it. He had to feel her. He needed to know if she was real. "Claire Kennedy...I love you." 

Molly was covered in blood and mud as she dragged herself into Wesker's office. It was as far as she could manage before she collapsed again. She knew she was still alive but she had no idea how. She also had no idea why it hurt so much. She arched her back, clawing at the wound on her chest, a scream of agony tearing her throat raw. 
She'd gotten to see him, even though he'd looked a mixture of shock and anger rather than the love she'd been hoping for. It was better than nothing.

Usually a kiss from him had the world melting around them. Not this time though. Jill was about ready to start shooting her gun and causing mass hysteria. “I mean it, Chris. I… I have this feeling. You know I’m never wrong when I get it…” 

Claire’s arms hugged around Leon as tight as she could manage. A part of her still worried this was a dream. She was going to wake up back in her gritty cell, or worse, on Wesker’s operating table. She was struggling to find the words to tell Leon how much she loved him. Instead she simply held onto him as though his touch were keeping her alive. “Can we leave now? Tell me there’s still a home to go back to…”

Molly would be cleaned up and given fresh clothing. While she would find herself lying in a warm bed, it clearly wasn’t Wesker’s. She had wounded him with her words when she left, even if he would never admit it out loud.

"Jill...Please, stop." Chris was all but ready to beg her. He had both of her hands now, his eyes pleading with her. "Trust me. You'll want to wait." He gave her his devil may care grin. "I promise I'll keep us safe. I'll always keep you safe. Ok?" He patted her flat stomach and rested his forehead on hers. 

"We'll find a place." Leon said softly. "I sold the house two and a half years ago. Everything went into storage. Except for that book you kept yelling at me to read. I take it everywhere. But..." He swallowed hard. "I've never read it. I keep opening it and feeling guilty and ripping out a page." He closed his eyes and laughed. "To tell the truth...there's only a few pages left." He carried her while he was talking, glad that they were alone. 

Molly woke up feeling better than she had since she was a small child. She sat up and and lifted her shirt, shocked to find her wound was gone save a small stitched scar. She could see that the rest of the scars on her body were gone and it made her wonder. She all but fell as she ran to the mirror in the bathroom. It was her. Somehow she'd come back. 
"What did you do?" Forgetting that she wore nothing but his old STARS t-shirt, Molly ran to Wesker's office. She was grinning, not even realizing that there were other men in the room.

Jill wanted to trust him, more than anything. If she told him where her intel had come from, he would think she was playing both him and Carlos. “I’m scared.” She breathed the words before she could stop them tumbling out. “But, I… Trust you. It goes both ways though… if something goes south, you know I always have your six.”

Claire allowed her head to rest on Leon’s shoulder, letting her eyes close as she listened to the sound of his voice. She still worried she would wake up, but for now she wanted to hold him and never let go. “I missed you.” She murmured. “He kept saying he would hurt you… I would die before allowing that.”

Wesker did no more than simply lift his gaze slightly as she entered, the page in his hand halting as he was turning it over. “I believe that is a private matter.” He informed her, though meant it wasn’t for the men in the room to hear.

It wouldn't take long for Jill to catch sight of an Umbrella logo. A tall man in a black suit was walking on the edge of the field, followed by two security guards. No one seemed to notice that they were all carrying large weapons. A few minutes later the group was followed by a silver haired man that she would know very well. Nicholai paused in his march and locked eyes with her, giving her a wolfish grin.

"He who?" Leon asked. "I missed you too. I know I keep saying it." As he settled her into his plane he updated her on all that she had missed, including Sherry. He even told her about Ada and her constant contact with him.

The group of men look her over in a way that she was not used to. The one closest to her offered a large hand and then his long coat. "Pretty ladies shouldn't be cold." He purred. "Here, let me fix that."

Jill didn’t even wait for Chris this time. She was in her feet and charging down as fast as she could without falling flat on her face. In the few seconds it took for her to spring to action, she already blamed herself for letting them come here in the first place. Then she wondered if Carlos were here… would he attempt to take Chris out, simply because he didn’t like him?

Claire turned her face to watch Leon, though it seemed like lifting her head was too much effort for what little energy she had left. “I wouldn’t be mad, you know.” She breathed after a few moments of simply watching him talk about Ada. “It’s been three years… for all you knew, I was dead.”

“Out. Now.” Wesker barked to the other men, on his feet and grabbing Molly by the upper arm before she could accept anything from any one.”

"Jill?" Too late Chris realized his girlfriend had disappeared. Hed been so excited about the plans he'd had he had simply missed the sight of her slipping off the bleachers and into the darkness underneath.

"Nothing happened with Ada. She works with bad people and she scares the hell out of me." Leon admitted. "But, she is a good contact to keep. We just have to be careful."

Molly didn't protest instead watching the other man walk out. He was almost an exact copy of her Wesker, save his strange choice of dress. She found this unnerving. It was even more this way when he turned at the door and gave her a wink. "No worries, princess. We'll see one another again." He purred, his voice that same melodious tone as the one she knew so well.
Once they were alone Molly could do nothing but look up at the man who was still holding onto her arm.

Jill dropped onto the grass with barely a sound, but remained low all the same. She kept in the shadow, trying to both seek out Sherry, and keep tabs on Nikolai. Her heart was raving, and it wasn’t from the thought of infection. She remembered what he had very almost done to her. In some small way… she owed the Nemesis for its relentless hunt of her. 

Claire was smiling softly as she watched Leon before reaching out and resting a hand lightly over his own at the small aircraft’s controls. He would see several of her fingers were taped up to heal old breaks. “But I thought nothing scared you, Officer Kennedy?” She teased gently. 

Once they were alone Wesker finally released Molly. He was almost avoiding looking at her. Her actions had hurt the fiercely proud man. “You aren’t supposed to be out of bed for several more days.” He commented coolly.

The group of soldiers was huddled together in a dark corner. It wouldn't be hard for Jill to hear Nicholai growling out orders. What was a little harder to hear was the pleading whimper of someone from the center of the group.

Leon's smile was sad. "Yeah well. I learned the hard way that there are things." He said softly. "Small things. You know..." He leaned his head over and momentarily closed his eyes. 

"I'm sorry." Molly said softly. "You should have left me to die. I deserved it." She added. She knew better than to touch him but she needed to. Gently she reached out and touched his arm, surprised at all the sensory it was causing her.

Jill knew that sound. Her cobalt eyes narrowed as she fought every part of her that screamed for her to simply charge in and start smashing heads. No. Now was not the time to do things the Redfield way. It needed the part of her she had tried to shut away. Jill edged closer, picking off one of the soldiers as he patrolled the area for his fearless leader. She did it silently, dragging him back into the shadow and beginning to strip him of his armour. 

Claire pulled her fingers from his and she very gently slid them through his hair. She smiled sadly; it was just as soft as she remembered it. Despite how physically broken she herself was, it hurt her more to see what this had done to the man she loved. “Small things can hurt the most… sometimes.” She assured him. “It doesn’t make them any less significant.”

Wesker felt it. Like a crackling spark the second their skin touched. This wasn’t the virus, this was simply how being with Molly had always made him feel. He was looking down at the fingers against his arm, unable to think about how easy she had found it to let them wander to someone else. Or so he believed. “What you deserved, would have been worse than the grave you dug yourself out of.” For that fleeting moment, he out into words how he felt.

As Jill was distracted the moaning teen got up. The moans had changed however. They were recognizable now. Both Chris and Jill would know it well.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to halftime!" The man on the intercom said. "Get ready for a Thriller of a good time!" The music began and the cheerleaders and several students dressed as undead spilled onto the field. Then the familiar dance began. The noise was deafening. 

"You're right. Let's talk about something else." Leon said with a smile. "You have to promise me something. When you see my apartment... You can't say anything. Everything you taught me about organizing..." He laughed. "It's back to normal. You'd hate it. It's so clean." 

Molly's fingers closed in on themselves. She had almost made it to the door when it opened and a uniformed man stepped inside. "Sir, Umbrella is showing itself." He passed her without so much as a glance and turned on a monitor in the room. "Sherry Birkin is there. Along with Valentine and Redfield. Orders?"

Jill pulled the gas mask down over her face just as the music started. She had scavenged enough of the Umbrella soldiers body armour to conceal her identity, and taken the weapons he had too. Selfishly, she was only doing it to grab Sherry, then her back to Chris and they would leave this town behind. Sherry was everything they had been fighting to protect so far. 


“Leon!” Claire wailed. “What did I tell you! Organised chaos is good for the soul!” She insisted. 

Wesker’s face twitched slightly as he watched the images on the monitor. “I want Birkin alive, at all cost. Valentine… You’re not to kill her until you are certain Redfield is there to watch. Then… bring him back to me alive. I want to squeeze the life from him with my bare hands.”

By this point Chris had realized Jill had left him. He believed it was because she knew. It wasn't the first time she'd bailed out on a marriage proposal. Hurt and angry he was walking home. He'd already told them not to bother announcing anything. 
Sherry on the other hand was in the middle of the field. For the time in her life she felt happy. She felt like a normal person. She didn't even look up at the stands. She was sure Chris and Jill were there.

"There's a problem with Redfield." The man said, cocking his head as he listened to something in his ear. "He's left the area. Umbrella somehow missed him. We aren't close enough yet to follow. We won't be in the vicinity for another thirty minutes." 
Molly had busied herself with digging through a box, finding a black uniform that was her size and sliding into it. She smiled at this as she pulled her hair back the way she'd used to in the army. "I'm going with them." She told Wesker. "I'll round up Redfield, sir."

It was hard to think with all the noise. But even as she was hiding the lifeless body, her thoughts were with Chris. She had known what he was planning, it was why she had allowed the night the continue at all. It would have been so easy to simply lock Sherry in her room and have done with it, but selfishly she had wanted the night. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to be in Chris’ life forever. That moment seemed so far away now though. Thankfully the noise masked the gunshot as she worked her way through Nikolai’s team. 

Wesker glanced away from the monitor and did little to hide the fact he had just looked Molly over with a rather hungry gaze. “You aren’t ready.” He warned her simply. “Redfield is a snake. Separated from Valentine you may stand a chance, but if she finds a way back to him…”

The undead teen was working his way through the teens on the field. Their screams were covered by the sound of the music. Even Sherry hadn't heard them. She was still lost in her moment of joy. She too knew of Chris' plan and she believed she was still to be a part of that. She didn't know that it was once again falling apart around her. 

It didn't surprise her that Wesker didn't think she was good enough to take care of his enemies. He never thought she was good enough. "I'm going. I can't take care of things, sir. Even if it's not the major ones. I'll follow orders. I need to be useful. Maybe then you will see fit to forgive me." She added firmly, not daring to meet his eyes. She had no idea the way he'd been looking at her.

Nikolai was briefly forgotten, and Jill was hyper fixated on the boy attacking all the other teens. It had been planned beautifully, and seemed like nothing more than convincing theatrics. Jill was quickly realising she was going to have to shoot this boy in full view of everyone. She lifted the sight of the rifle she had stolen to her eye and trained it on the shambling movements. 

“You are no good to your son dead.” He remarked, not calling Jake ‘our’ son through fear of the information leaking outside and someone using it against him. “You do not engage them if they are together, understood?”

"No ma'am." The familiar accent would purr in her ear. Nikolai's hands slid around her stomach and then her arms, forcing her to drop the gun. "I've planned this all for you. You'll miss the show." Sherry was still in the midst of the zombie outbreak dance unaware how close she was to a real one.
Chris had been outnumbered at their apartment and was now being dragged across the field, bloodied and angry.

Wesker's orders had been hours ago. His team was also now stepping into the crowd of people who were beginning to see that things were not right. The gates were locked. No one was getting in or out. 
Molly was not far from Jill, wondering if she should simply let the scene play out. Until she remembered Wesker's orders.

Jill. Alien toy struggled back against Nikolai as he forced the gun from her. She had a family now,  it a legal one, but that didn’t matter. Sherry and Chris were her life, and she’d be damned if she was going to let Nikolai take them from her. She didn’t know she had another enemy on the field that night, one that was still alive. Jill Valentine had no idea who Molly Wesker was, or that she would Jill her given the chance. “Nikolai, you son of a bitch! There’s no need for this!” Jill insisted as she struggled, but his grip around her was firm, a reminder of what he had attempted the last time.

Nikolai purred as he nuzzled her neck. "Oh I think there is. You fucked me over. I'm returning the favor."
Chris was fighting hard. He'd taken down several more of the men when a new set of soldiers in black took over. He couldn't keep up with all of them. 

Molly put her gun to the back of the silver man's head. "What an interesting game we have going here." She said. "Who's winning?"
The man turned his head to the side, seeing the emblem on her uniform and sneered. "Umbrella." He snarled. "Not your boss for sure." 
"Umbrella had better ship out. This stunt isn't worth what you fools are doing." Molly snorted. 
"What releasing a Nemesis?" Nikolai asked, turning his head to indicate the massive creature that was thundering across the field.

It was as Chris was beaten to the ground once more than a fully masked figure stood over him. “Take him alive. He has to watch her die first.”  

Jill ceased struggling when she saw the creature on the field. It had damn near killer her to take it down the last time, and that was without the worry of civilian casualties. “Wasn't wiping Raccoon City off the map enough for you, asshole?” She finally hissed. “You killed them all, and you think I fucked YOU over?! I could’ve saved them all!” She finally slammed her head back into Nikolai’s nose.

Chris was reeling in pain. He heard the voice but didn't recognize it. He could only hope that Jill was seeing what was happening further down the field.
"Sir, there's a Nemesis headed down field." One of the soldiers said. 
" J-Jill..."Chris' voice was hoarse but he managed to about his lover's name. This was bad...

Nikolai roared in pain, his gun going off into Jill's hip as he stumbled back. "You bitch." He hissed, blood flowing down his uniform. "I hope you die." He shoved passed Molly and ran for the gates the the monster got closer, mowing through zombies like they were grass.
Molly had never seen anything like the monster. For a moment she was frozen in place, thinking of the creature Wesker had told her had killed him. What in the hell was Umbrella creating?

The man stood over Chris touched the earpiece he wore, nodding at something that was being said. “Understood. We will extract it once Valentine is dead.” 

Jill fell down to her knees as pain rocked through her, forcing her to rip off the gas mask she had been wearing. She grunted loudly, glancing down to see the blood bubbling under the hand she had pressed to the wound. “Fuck…” She sucked in several breaths through her teeth, preparing to dig her fingers into the wound and pull the bullet out.

Sherry dove onto the masked strangers back, digging her nails into his neck.  Her cheer outfit was ruined and covered in blood but that was only half her problem. Someone was hurting her family. She refused to let this end well.

Molly kicked Jill's hand away. "Are you fucking blind?" She growled. "That thing is head right for us and you want to play doctor! Get up, bitch. We're moving before we become sandwiches." Interesting choice of words.

The stranger hooked an arm back behind Sherry’s head and flipped her over his shoulder to land on the ground at his feet as though she were a rag doll. “Lupo, one half of package accounted for. Apprehend Valentine and bring her to the extraction co ordinates.” He had one foot in Sherry’s stomach to keep her still as he made contact to the other team. 

Jill glared up at Molly even as she spat blood onto the grass. “Then deal with it.” She hissed, the bullet pressing on something side of her that was causing the kind of pain she was sure she would eventually pass out from. “What’s the matter? Scared?” She sneered.

"Molly is with Valentine advise." Lupo answered as Sherry began to claw at the stranger's leg in anger.The young woman's eyes had changed. The virus inside her had as well.

Molly grabbed the collar of Jill's shirt and began dragging her towards the charging Nemesis. Like the other woman she didn't take a challenge well.

“Irrelevant. Molly isn’t the MO. Orders were to execute Valentine in sight of Redfield and return the package. Have Delta team clear the way to the extraction.” He looked down at Sherry as she lashed out. “Package may not be intact for long. Hunk out.”

Jill grunted against the pain as she was dragged along. Whoever this woman was, she knew she had clearly never faced an N-type before. No one could be this blindly stupid. Jill reached to her belt and pulled out her knife, jabbing it through Molly’s calf.

Chris had managed to fight off the men that were trying to chain him to the goal post. He had gained a second wind somehow. Grabbing the gun of sn in concious man he sprinted across the field for Jill, his mind on nothing else.

Molly turned, her fist catching the other woman in the chin. "That's not nice!" She growled, yanking the blade out with shaking fingers. "He was fucking right about you!" 
There was no more time to talk. The creature was upon them. The hit Molly hard in the chest, growling when she didn't go down. The red head seemed to get angrier.

Jill quickly scooted backwards, spitting blood as she did so. She still had one hand pressed to the wound just above her hip, but was valiantly trying to get to her feet. Whoever this woman was, she was clearly not a friendly. All Jill had left now was the side arm at her thigh. Nikolai had taken the rifle, and she had lost her favourite knife trying to wound Molly.

Jill wouldn't get far. A tentacle snaked out and grabbed her ankle, yanking her onto the air. Not far from her the red head was being raised as well. A moment later the two women were thrown into one another while the monster made an odd sort of laugh.
Now furious Molly tore the knife put of her though and swipe at the tentacle, though only managed to hit Jill, slicing across her face.

More of Jill's blood splashed free. She couldn't even see now, handing upside down the wound on her cheek was causing blood to run into her eyes. She finally pulled out her side arm and fired at the monster holding her, though without her vision she was able to go only on her gut alone. Several shots rang free, one of which would hit Molly in her pert behind.