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.

"You'll get what you get." Chris grunted. "And like it." He adjusted his shirt and headed toward his truck. Leon was a dead man and so was anyone else who stood in his way.

Rebecca groaned and looked around before elbowing him in the side. "No! This means we will have access to the progenitor flower that he used to create your virus. We can stablize it. We can branch off it and make it something stronger. The possibilities are so beautiful!" Before she'd thought better of it she'd wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. She closed her eyes. "There's so much we can do. It's like getting our own chance to make a new world...can you feel it?"

Piers smirking slightly as he watched Chris’ shoulders square back. “Yes sir…” He murmured, knowing that it had been the correct, if cruel, call to show him the image of Leon and Ada.

Wesker was surprised to find himself genuinely smiling, Rebecca’s excitement as infectious as any virus. He was pleased to hear her speak of a new world. The old Rebecca would have droned on about the ways she could use progenitor to save people. He smirked a little at the thought he had corrupted her, and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. Maybe that were true, but also, maybe she had softened him somewhat too.

Chris found himself staring at a version of Wesker that had him holding tightly to his gun. One shot and he could end the line. It would make it all better. There was Leon and then this worthless monster. Could this mission get any worse?

Rebecca was ignoring the people who were showing Wesker around the labs. She'd found the flowers. Nothing they said mattered to her. Their labs were a mess and their data useless. But these poisonous flowers...
She knelt in the dappled sunshine and simply stared at them, unable to hide her curiosity and joy. Shed been reading about them since the first time they'd been in the mansion. To be here now was something she never believed she'd see.

“Captain?” Piers saw how rigid his commander suddenly was and followed his gaze the the younger man several metered away as he walked beside a petite little blonde. “He isn’t the mission. Ada Wong is. You need to refocus.”

“Such beauty, even though there is true darkness deep within, waiting for someone to release it.” Wesker commented as he found Rebecca. He had quickly grown weary of the tour of the lab. He didn’t care. He wasn’t an administrator.

"I can. In just a minute." Chris breathed. His riffle aimed at the young man's head. "I'm in a great head space. It's all right." He was a hell of a sniper. He always had been. He'd bested Valentine. This was a walk in the park.

Rebecca had so many plans for the flower. Wesker had no idea. "It's almost like the Hope Diamond. The most beautiful thing and yet the worst." She smiled at him. "I know it's not a gift or anything but...I wanted to tell you thank you."

Piers sighed quietly, feeling all his hero worship begin to slide away. He was watching Jake through his own scope now, able to see the events that unfolded in the blink of an eye. The shot Chris fired at Jake should have taken to younger man out in one hit. Instead Jake pushed aside at the last moment, returning fire cracking the scope of Chris’ rifle. Piers would see a female looking figure, their face obscured by a strange looking mask. Whoever she was, she was protecting Jake Muller.

“I wasn’t talking about the flower.” Wesker breathed into Rebecca’s hair with a grin. “But off the record… you’re welcome. It was worth it to see that look in your eyes.”

"What the hell?" Chris was looking around him for the source of the shot, surprised it hadn't taken out his eye. In truth he wished it had. 
He turned his head to Piers with a snarl. We have to end that kid. He's too dangerous. You don't understand. Ada aside."

Rebecca laughed softly. "You're a terrible liar. This place was not for me. I'm not sure why you chose it. Spencer's flowers are a bonus. Maybe it was to get away from everything for a while?"

“Captain, it wasn’t the kid that shot at you.” Piers replied. “Didn’t you see her? He had some sort of bodyguard with him, she just… It seemed like she flew in out of nowhere.” He was glancing at the scope of Chris’ rifle now. “Who even makes a shot like that…”

“In truth, I didn’t choose it. I asked Excella for Tricell’s most secluded lab. Happy coincidence.” Wesker replied. “I don’t think even she is aware of the value of these flowers.”

Chris' stomach felt that old familiar flutter. Could it be? Was she still alive? This thought remained with him even as they continued to fight through China. Jill was alive and he was going to find her.

Rebecca scowled deeply at this. She had never even heard of a Tricell having a lab in Africa. What in the world was happening when she wasn't looking. Angrily she grabbed Wesker's gun from his clip and marched back into the lab. Within minutes the staff that were there were lying dead at her feet. She turned to Excella with a sneer, slamming the gun down on the metal table. "Clean this place up. It's disgusting."

Jill had never known pain like this. Every moment in China was pure torture. Seeing Chris right there, close enough to touch… and she couldn’t even say a word to him. Fighting the control Wesker had on her felt like her skull was splintering into a million pieces, and each one lodging into a different nerve ending. All she could do for now was console her self in the knowledge that Chris was alive, and that he hadn’t given up on their war.

Wesker could have stopped Rebecca, that much was a given. Instead he chose not to. He simply lingered in the doorway, watching her actions with a smirk. It was a glorious thing to behold. Almost as glorious as the look of outrage on Excella’s face that not only had this tiny little woman had just executed the entire staff, but that she had dared to speak to Excella herself in such a manner.

That shot had given Chris the hope he needed to survive as odd a thing as it was. Even with the death of Piers as a set back Chris pushed forward with his research. 
He kept on looking for the woman in the mask. Finally, he narrowed her and the what seemed like a corrupted Tricell to the heart of Africa. He'd gathered a team and was on his way. He'd deal with Leon when all of this was finished. The boy would come after.

Rebecca sat staring at what Wesker had done with the labs in Africa. It was not at all what she'd intended but to be truthful she had brought it on herself. 
She fingered the blood diamond flower he'd had made for her that looked like the progenitor flower. She did this often when in thought. Wesker teased it was a better habit than chewing her thumb nail.
She glanced across at where the basically doll version of Jill stood silent and waiting for an order. Or maybe she was thinking of ways to murder her. She was betting on the latter. 
Silently she got up and pressed several vials in her hand. "I want you to take these to the man in the market place. He'll know what they are."
When Jill was gone she sat down in her chair and rested her head on the desk to sleep.

Rebecca’s assumptions would be right on the money. Jill didn’t think she had ever truly hated any one before. Sure, there was Umbrella, but they were a faceless corporation. Then there was Wesker, but she put him in the category of simply not human, a problem to be eradicated. But Rebecca… She was supposed to be one of them. A good guy. Had Jill simply been blind to the small woman’s true nature all these years? That was how it felt when she had had to simply lay there as Rebecca poked and cut as she installed various models of the serum device now attached to Jill’s chest. 
Jill had taken the samples Rebecca had given her and left without a word. She was handing them over to their intended target, simply wanting to get out of the marketplace as quickly as possible. She hated this place, surrounded by all these people… they were potential targets that Wesker could force her to harm.

“Doctor?” One of the researchers stood hesitantly several feet away. “I-it’s the sample in observation room B-7. I-it…” He was wringing his fingers together, trying to find the words. “It escaped, killed four of our team and we can’t locate it within the facility.”

The man she handed them to smiled at her. "Don't worry, love. They won't win." He said gently as he took the samples and bundled them into a locked container. "The bad guys never do. You have to believe like I do. I have prayed and I have been heard." He slipped a small beaded band around heard wrist. "The colors of hope according to a man named Redfield. I have seen what he can do. Now go. Before the master knows you're gone." He added softly.

Rebecca groaned. "Don't worry. I'll get it." She wasn't really sure when the last time she'd slept was. It had been one thing after another lately. "Just don't alert Wesker. Okay?"

Jill stared down at the green beads now around her wrist. For a moment she could barely breathe, let alone move. “Where did you hear that name?” She finally managed to ask. She hated speaking with the mask over her face, it echoed her voice back to her, making her feel even more isolated and alone.

Though the man had repeatedly called the specimen ‘it’, the creature they were looking for was all too human, originally.

The man was still smiling as he turned back to his work bench and sat down. "So you know the man." He chuckled. "He claimed the woman who wore the bracelet would be made in heaven."
She wouldn't be permitted to ask more questions as she was summoned to another job.

Rebecca was having very little success with the monster. In fact it had struck her across the face and caused a significant nose bleed. 
Not to mention she'd fallen off the metal dias and landed on her back. For the moment she was stunned, her vision blurred and her breath coming in gasps.

Jill couldn’t stop herself rubbing a thumb over the beads now around her wrist. Of course she remembered this bracelet. She and Chris had both taken the same two weeks off for vacation back when they first started dating, but before everyone knew about them. She had made up some bullshit about visiting family back east, and he was of course spending time with Claire. In reality, they had taken separate cars and met at the airport. They spent the next two weeks driving along the west coast, hanging out at different beaches, eating all the food their stomachs could handle, and even making a poor attempt to learn how to surf. It had been the best time of Jill’s life, and she often wondered if she had expressed that to Chris. On their last night before flying home, he had told her they were going to get married one day, but he wasn’t fool enough to ask her after a month of dating in secret. Instead he had bought her this bracelet from a tacky roadside tourist spot, a promise that he would  make good on his announcement one day. 

The once human beast let out a now inhuman screech, the sound piercing enough to crack nearby glass. It left Rebecca bleeding on the ground rather than finish her off, and seemed to be searching for something. Shouts and gunshots would be heard gradually further away before there was a sudden silence. The silence drew on before a computerised voice announced the detection of fire in the greenhouse. This creature had found it’s true target; the flowers Rebecca held so dear.

Chris decided he hated Africa. It was far too hot. He liked his mountain home and his fishing hole. He knew Jill despised the heat as well. They loved the beach as much as anyone but their true love was a warm fire in one another's arms. 
This thought was what kept him going as he fought through the hoards of infected people who were trying to kill him and his partner. Jill was here. She was so very close.

"No!" Rebecca's cry was gutted and desperate. She shoved to her feet and ran, grabbing for a gun as she went. 
These flowers were clutivated and carefully raised. Each one was different and had a poison that worked in relation to the virus she had raised it too.

Chris’ house in the secluded mountains, overlooking a vast lake had always been another find memory of Jill’s, whether it was noisy BBQ’s with the rest of the team, or just the two of them sitting out on the jetty counting the stars. 
Jill had crossed paths with Chris several times over the past few days, each time Wesker cruelly forced her to cause further mayhem for Chris and his partner. Even now, as Chris burst into the ancient ruins shouting Wesker’s name, she didn’t know how she would be able to stop herself from hurting him. 

The fire had started in the centre of the greenhouse, taking several of her most valuable specimens first. It was spreading faster than the sprinkler system could keep up, thanks to the chemicals also stored in there that had aided in their cultivation. The creature had seemed to give up once it had accomplished its task, and was screaming in agony as it burned with the first of the flowers. What were left of the research team were scrambling to save the younger specimens, grabbing pots and soil to keep them alive as they transported them.

Chris faced Wesker and the masked stranger, baring his teeth. "It's good to see you're alive, Captain. I shouldn't have doubted that worms always crawl back to the surface." He hissed.
He had to keep believing that Jill was here. Sherard said he'd given her the bracelet. That meant she was alive. But where?

Rebecca was furious as she pushed her way past the researchers. She marched into the greenhouse, ignoring the fire and made a grab for the beast. 
"Not getting away so easy." She wheezed, yanking it out into the hallway. She ignored the pure agony she was in and stepped on it's stomach. "You're not getting out of it that easy, Piers." She gasped out, kneeling down. She knew that he was far too damaged to fight her. "You're going to pay for this." She shouted, tears streaming down her blistered face.

“What?” And miss this touching reunion?” Wesker mocked, his smile betraying the genuine joy he was about to get from watching Chris’ pain. “Like one big, happy…family.” He purred, pulling off the mask he had forced upon her to finally reveal Jill’s face. 
Her blue eyes met Chris’, but she could do little to convey her relief that he may finally be able to put an end to her misery. 

There was the faint crackle of electric in the air, clearly Piers was trying to fight back, but as Rebecca suspected; he was too damaged. All he could do was growl like an animal whilst trying to disloadge her slight weight upon him.

"Jill..." Chris could barely hide his joy from Wesker. Even if the woman in front of him was snarling at him. He barely heard Sheva asking if he was sure it was her. Of course he was sure. He knew it was her because she was like a part of his own body. There was very little else to say about it. 
"Jill...Valentine..." He gasped as she finally all but broke his arm. "It's ok." He wheezed. If he had to die he certainly didn't mind it being at her hands. "This is sort of hot." He whispered, knowing only she could hear him.

Rebecca shook as she shoved a shot into Piers neck and watched him fade into the darkness and back into his human form. She fell to the ground beside him, staring at the flames that overtook her greenhouse and the lab beside it. She began to sob bitterly, ignoring the sound of someone calling for Wesker, the very thing she'd told them not to do.

Jill wanted to laugh at his comment, to call him a dirty pervert, HER dirty pervert. All the times she had told him she could kick his ass when it came to hand to hand fighting, and he never put it to the test. Despite these thoughts she couldn’t tell him anything, but when he smiled at her, when he said her name, suddenly there were gaps in the drug pumping into her veins, or more like it was now only coming in waves instead of a constant flow. Jill let go of Chris’ arm to instead grab her own head as she screamed in agony.
“Well now, as much as I would enjoy seeing my theory that she has always been stronger than you proven true… I have far more important business.” Wesker remarked with an amused sneer. “I do hope she doesn’t end you too quickly, Chris. I would hate for you to miss out on watching Jill suffer.” As he said those words Jill screamed again, the device implanted din her chest going into overdrive as Wesker disappeared into a concealed elevator. 

Piers’ breathing was more of a ragged wheeze, the fire having damaged his lungs. It almost sounded like he was breathing the word ‘Captain’. 
Whatever he may or may not have said was irrelevant very quickly, as pounding footsteps came rounding the corner soon enough before halting very suddenly. Wesker wasn’t quite certain what he was seeing, or how the shit had hot the fan so quickly in his absence. It was almost as though it had been planned, but as he looked down at Piers remains, he didn’t think the young man still had the cognitive capacity to do something like this. He was now knelt beside Rebecca, horrified to see injuries. “Foolish girl… We could get more plants.” He breathed.

Chris held onto Jill tightly, trying to ignore Sheva when she said that they needed to keep moving. Nothing mattered right then. All he wanted to do was hold tightly to his completed soul. "You're okay..." He whispered. "I'm here..." He didn't know what else to say. It wasn't enough. it would never be enough. Nothing ever was.

Rebecca felt herself being lifted and dared to take in a ragged breath. "Not the point." She whispered. "Our world...he ruined it..." She buried her face in his shoulder, not caring that it hurt. "I was trying to help you. So you wouldn't have to fight the monster...I'm sorry."

Jill’s slender fingers reached up and touched Chris’ cheek lightly, he would no doubt be able to feel the tremble to them. She still wasn’t even sure he was actually here, or this was another fever dream caused by the drug Rebecca gave her. “You came…” she finally breathed joyously, both hands taking hold of his face now as she dragged his lips down to her own. If the drug finished her off right there and then, as least she got to do that one last time.

Wesker touched his cool lips lightly to Rebecca’s forehead and stepped over Piers’ body. “Monster? Excella isn’t that bad…” He teased, though he was surprised at how much his insides twisted at the thought of what would’ve happened if he had gotten here even a moment later.

It finally dawned on him that Sheva was punching his shoulder. "Get to safety." He whispered to her. "We'll take care of Wesker." He kissed her again and followed his new partner onto the elevator. It wasn't over yet. 

Rebecca's shoulders shook as she began to sob all over again. It was all gone.  Everything she'd been working to save was now collapsed into a smoldering pile behind them.

“Take care of him, he’s an ape with a hero complex.” Jill called to Sheva, though she smiled one last time at Chris before he doors slid shut. Once she knew he couldn’t see her to worry, Jill simply collapsed again. Chris had this. She believed in him. 

“Would this stop those tears?” Wesker had sat Rebecca down on the bridge of a vast ship and was now knelt in front of her, a single flower held out for inspection. “It was the one you had been working on in your private lab. I assumed that meant it was either important, or not yet ready.”

Chris lay on the floor of the helicopter, holding tight to Jill. They'd finally finished off Wesker and what was best he had his beloved back. He couldn't wait to tell Claire.
"We did it, babe." He told her. "We're going home."

Surprised at his actions Rebecca pressed her fingers to her lips. "Oh...I didn't know you knew about this one." She whispered.
 Gingerly she reached out and touched his face. "I love you so much." She told him.

Jill was quiet for a moment, listening to Chris’ heart beat where her ear was pressed to his chest as he held her. She still couldn’t trust this was real. Her gut still told her that Wesker wasn’t gone, not really. At the end, inside that volcano, he had seemed so… out of control, so unlike to cold, calculating man who had basically tortured her for two years. “Is home still on the lake?” She finally breathed. “With the fire pit and all those cushions you said I never should’ve bought?”

“I know.” Wesker responded with a smirk. “You constantly underestimate me, little one.” He added, almost kissing the tip of her pert little nose before realising how badly she was injured. “But for now, you are in far more need of attention that one little flower.”

"Those fucking cushions." Chris laughed deeply. "Yeah. I still have..." He wanted to tell her more.  But instead he was shoving her aside as a tentacle wrapped around his ankle and yanked him out of the chopper. His last thought before hitting the water was one of anger. He blamed the cushions.

Rebecca sniffed ever so slightly, knowing he was right. She was in shock. She could feel it. She was beginning to shiver. "It will be okay. We still have our world." She whispered, sliding her fingers through his.

Jill lurched straight after Chris, though Sheva was quick to hold her from jumping out after him. She was left screaming his name into the whir of the blades above them. 

“No, but soon we will.” Wesker assured his lover with a wicked grin. “And soon all the perpetual thorns in our side will be pruned for good.” He added.