Sibling Rivalry

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Chris Redfied pressed his knee hard into the neck of an extremely dirty and unkempt man. "Enough!" He shouted, too angry to pay any attention to the blood dripping into his eyes. "You seem to have the idea that I'm here to do anything but get information!" He held tight to the other man's enormous hammer with his free hand. "I'm not going to kill you unless you make me." He added darkly. 
The BSAA was dirty. It was rotten from the inside just like Umbrella had been. There were viruses leaking out left and right. 
He'd gotten a clue about a way to end it. At least that was what the message had implied. 

Rebecca Chambers held onto her coffee cup as she followed a tall figure dressed in black. She was barely paying attention to where she was going as she stared at the corpses of men with mutated bodies. Oddly they looked like werewolves. She wondered where this virus had come from. 
She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't see the man in front of her stop. She crashed into him hard enough to send her to the ground. Her much needed coffee showering over the bodies next to them. 
Rebecca had prepared for this mission for months. Everything was supposed to be going like clockwork. But her source was dead and nothing was as it was supposed to be. 
"I hate snow." She snorted, trying not to laugh at just how stupid it all was. Her tall partner hadn't moved. "But worst of all...I hate creepy dolls." She added. "There's another one! I swear it's watching us!"

"Jill, we can't just split up." Leon said firmly. "That's what they're expecting us to do." He gently shook her upper arms, hoping to make her see reason. "We are stronger together. It's the Redfield way. Right?" 

Rebecca sat beside Wesker later that night as he located the cell network and began to map how he planned to wipe it out. 
She was chewing on her lip in thought as she tried to think of anything except what had happened on the desk earlier. She'd been trying to force herself to write out the DNA strands of the Projenitor flower. 
She knew Claire was standing nearby but she ignored this. Her best friend was long gone. She'd died in that village.

“And the Kennedy way isn’t running off the Spain. Alone?” Jill countered with an arched brow. “Besides, am I really a Redfield Just because a piece of paper says so? The Valentine recklessness doesn’t just fade away.” She added, though the way her face softened made it obvious Leon had won this one.

Claire stared at the wall ahead of her, lost in her own mind until Wesker gave her another order. A fat tear had rolled down her cheek. Those things she had been forced to say to her brother, they had torn through her like steel blades. Her fear now was that Wesker would have her do the same to everyone she loved. Jill, Sherry… Leon. 
“Keep chewing your lip like that, and i’ll never get any work done.” Wesker mused, though he hadn’t glanced up from the map on the screen he was studying.

"You know that Jill Valentine will never be lost to anyone or anything. Chris or all people wouldn't stand for it." Leon said softly, his rough thumb brushing her jaw line. "Not even your worst enemy could break you." He whispered, his lips dangerously close to hers. 

Rebecca laughed. "Seems like you're in for a long night then." She said, rubbing at her temples. "If I had Spencer's diary this would be so much easier." She added. She leaned back and closed her eyes, trying to rid herself of the frustration. 
A monitor flicked on beside Wesker and a familiar young man appeared. "Yo, Boomer man. I've got some tea for you." He was wearing the familiar doctors coat and glasses. It made him look older. "I was just out looking for some dank reading," he held up the very thing Rebecca had just been talking about. "When I saw something that gave me life! I thought I'd share. You know just in case anyone was watching..." The image changed. It was now Leon and Jill locked in a heated kiss before the monitor cut off again.
"What the hell?" Rebecca hissed. "He had the diary."

Claire was still staring at the screen after it had faded back into darkness. She couldn’t breathe. It couldn’t be real. No matter how much trust she had in Leon…Jill would never have betrayed her brother like that, would she?
Wesker was leaning back in his seat, fingers casually clasped behind his head as he watched the dark monitor with a rather bemused smile. “Well now, that was an interesting development.” He mused before turning his gaze to Rebecca. “And a little too convenient. I’m going to have someone go over the surveillance system. I would guess he has been watching us to suddenly produce Spencer’s diary as soon as you express a desire for it. Has me wondering what else the little toad is hiding.”

The guilt hit Jill the moment their lips met. Leon was whiskey and rain, not sandalwood and tobacco. How had this happened? Had she always wanted this? No, it wasn’t him, per se, it was what he represented. Leon was kissing her with such heat and passion, just like Chris had in the beginning. That was what she craved, why she had even brought up her uncertainty about being a true Redfield; the fire had died from a smouldering flame to a lukewarm ember.  It still didn’t excuse how she had allowed the kiss to happen, or why her fingers were now tangled in Leon’s soft hair.

Rebecca rubbed her eyes in exhaustion. If Wesker's guess was right then that meant the disgusting worm knew about their plans to shut down the cell service. It would complicate things. Frustrated she shoved things off the desk in front of her. She watched the papers flutter to the floor and tried breathing deeply. Cutting off the snake's head at the source was not going to be possible until they had something else to work with. She wasn't thinking of the tryst of Jill and Leon at all. 

Chris was shown every moment of the tryst. It was the second time he'd screamed for his captor and the young man relished every sound. In fact, he sent the sound back to Wesker. 
"Yo man, I'm gonna flex here. I am fire. That Redfield pain...I am shook." Justin purred. "Who knew all it took to break him was Jill. That sex vid will live rent free in his head forever! Can we just say I slayed that set up? No cap. I did what you couldn't, Bruh!"

Wesker had watched Rebecca lose her temper and destroy the work on her desk. It was surprising for him to see the small woman act this was, but he was relieved to see she wasn’t still hiding behind the sweet facade her team mates had bought for all those years. He reached out to take her hand when the monitor pinged with another incoming message. It left him with a feeling he couldn’t quite put his finger on. “You knew Jill and Chris as well as anyone, does it strike you as odd that she suddenly betrayed him at the drop of a hat?” He pondered, having muted the sound of Justin’s annoying voice. “Pretty boy Kennedy doesn’t seem like her type, when you compare him to Chris and… What was that grunts name… Carlos?”

Funny that it hadn’t taken Jill’s greatest enemy to break her… it had simply taken her best friend. The slender woman was pulling her tank top over her head, her back to Leon as the gravity of what she had just done hit her. Jill still couldn’t explain what had come over her. It was like all control had been yanked from her brain and all she knew was desire. A desire for her husband, never her best friend.

Wesker always seemed to know the right things to say to get the wheels turning in Rebecca's brain. She began chewing on her lower lip, her eyes moving quickly from side to side.
It wasn't long before she spoke. "Fermones... Remember the plant in the mansion that was sending out spores into the air ducts? Could he have been replicating that with maybe Chris' scent?" She was now chewing on her fingers and pacing. "That would have worked...I can't believe we never thought of it..."

Leon didn't know what had just come over him. It was a move he should never have made. Silently, he pulled his jeans back over his lean hips. 
Claire would never forgive him if she found out. Everything he loved felt like it was even further away than before and that was hard to do.

Wesker’s brow knitted as the gravity of what Rebecca had just said settled in. No. He couldn’t accept it. “You’re telling me, that pathetic child, with a very narrow grasp of the common tongue, has perfected control without the subject even knowing they’re infected?” He exhaled heavily, the implication humbling even him. “If that’s true…” He glanced to where Claire stood in silence, unable to express the rage he knew she likely felt in that moment. It had been hard work gaining control of her. “I’ll need samples from both Valentine and Kennedy.” He remarked finally. “Claire, apprehend them. Alive.” He was smiling as he said it, knowing how torturous it would be for the redhead to confront either of those people right now. 

Jill continued to keep her back to Leon, not wanting him to see the tears that streaked a path down her cheeks. There was no coming back from this. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, hide it from Chris, and once he knew… forgiveness wasn’t an option. Their captor had destroyed the united team that stood against him with such little effort. Jill tried to regain control of herself by unchambering the round in her handgun before sliding the magazine out and placing the bullet back into it. Her fingers shook. Jill couldn’t pull her gaze from the engraving along the side of her weapon; S.T.A.R.S. Had she just destroyed what little was left of their team?

Justin stood, his hands folded in front of him. He wore a dark smile as the helicopter piloted by Leon Kennedy landed on the helipad. 
"I don't know what the two of you are here for." He said, his words simple this time. "I let him go." He spread out his hands, his smile practically cracking the edges of his face. 

Rebecca was buried in old records and papers. It wasn't her first time in Spencer's secondary mansion. 
She could hear Wesker's guard shifting and muttering at the door. They'd been here for several hours and she had yet to find what she came for. 
Frustrated she threw a tattered book at the man. "Stop complaining and do your job!" She shouted, wincing at the echo the she'd produced. 
She wished Wesker was here instead of going along with Claire to find Jill and Leon. The out of her stomach felt strange as if something were about to go wrong.

Jill felt sick. Her stomach roiled, like it wanted to expel what was in there. When had she last eaten? Was there even anything to vomit up? He let Chris go… for what reason? Her thoughts fired a million miles a minute, her eyes darting from that sardonic smile Justin wore, to the doorway behind him. Had he really let Chris go, or was he lying dead in that disgusting basement? Finally her churning gut made the call for her. Jill pulled the gun she had so lovingly cared for all these years free and pressed the cool steel to Justin’s forehead. “If Chris is free, then there’s really nothing stopping me from blowing a hole in that shit you call brains, now is there?”

The second guard snorted with quiet laugher that was decidedly female. “Yeah, if you babysit real good, we may get free pizza.” She mused, thinking Rebecca couldn’t hear her. The two escorts had taken up sentinel positions on either side of the doorway after having checked there were no other exits in our out of the room. Rebecca was safe, so long as the guards still breathed.

Justin's smile didn't waver. In fact he leaned into the gun. "Look at you flexing." He snickered. "Go on. Try. It." Every word was spoken in a harsh tone. The deep gray eyes that we're focused on her face were daring her to action. 
Behind Jill, Leon pointed his gun at the young man. His finger twitched on the trigger. But for some reason he couldn't move. It was like he was frozen. "Jill..." He croaked. "Be... careful..."

Rebecca's breath caught in her throat. She may not have found what she was looking for, but this was even better. Scrambling to her feet she grabbed for her phone only to find it missing. 
A heavy hand slammed down over hers. "Yo, the boss says you're so extra. You and the boomer need to be taught a lesson." He snorted, grabbing her by the wrist and tossing her against the book shelves.

“Careful was about twelve hours ago.” Jill snorted without tearing her gaze from Justin. The hesitation was gone. The young man’s head exploded, spraying her face with blood and brain matter. Jill barely even flinched. She had lost everything. Everyone. In the end it had been her own stupidity that had slammed the final nail in the coffin. What difference would it make by taking this assholes life?
The brunette blinked at last, wiping away the sickening fantasy. Justin was talking, she could see his lips flapping and slowly his voice came back into focus, like tuning in an old radio. 

The female guard heard the voices first, but by the time she had rushed into the room, Rebecca had already been flung against the bookcase. “Oh shit… call the chopped now1 We need back up!” She called to her partner, already firing several shots at Rebecca’s attacker.

"Jill!" Leon roared. The young man was talking as Jill fired her gun. The bullet shot neatly between his eyes, breaking the bridge of his glasses. Somehow he managed to finish his sentence before his shoulders fell and his knees buckled. 
A thin line of blood appeared from the hole that had been created. 
It was when he saw the blood that he was able to move. Leon crossed the last of the gap and grabbed Jill by the waist. It was not hard to force her to drop the gun. 
He turned her to face him. "Breathe." He told her firmly. "We're not going to let them win. We will find him. Just like Claire."

"Not him!" Rebecca screamed. She could barely hold onto the notebook she'd found. The man was turning back towards the woman who was shooting at him.
"You are giving off unusable vibes. No cap." He snorted, grabbing her by her vest and giving her a hard shake. "I ate that." He grinned, snapping her neck. "I could buss this mother all day. Think you're other boys want to play?"

Jill’s grey eyes seemed somewhat unfocused as she looked up at Leon, like she barely saw him. Then she felt the hands on her waist, a mans voice telling her breathe, though it sounded like he was underwater, or her ears were ringing. Was it from the gunshot? Finally Jill blinked several times, still looking up at Leon as she nodded. “I have to find him… he needs to know.” She finally managed to breathe.

Rebecca was all alone in the room now. The message hadn’t gotten to the team back at the chopper. No one knew their comrades were already dead.

Leon was nodding. "I know. We'll find them both and fix this." He told her. His plan of getting to Chris was now one of getting them back to helicopter. He'd seen what Jill hadn't. They weren't alone. There were several guards beginning to head in their direction. She had shut down on him. 
He grabbed her around the waist and turned with her. The first of them was upon them. He shot the man in the throat. "There are twelve..." He hissed in her ear. "A sniper on the roof. We have to..." He was trying to force her to run toward the chopper when it suddenly exploded. The force of the blast sent him sailing backwards. He hit the water, his thoughts of fighting their attackers temporarily on hold. 
The blast sent Jill in the opposite direction. She found herself being dragged into the gates of the new Raccoon City as the chaos nearby reached a fever pitch.

All Jill knew was noise, and then pain before finally silence. Her skin had been charred in some places from the head of the blast, but that didn’t matter. That she could cope with. What troubled her in that terrifying singular moment was the fact she found herself lying in the street directly outside her old apartment. Her apartment that had been obliterated along with the city it stood in. Jill scrambled to her feet, cursing furiously when she reached for her gun and rational thought reminded her that Leon had disarmed her after she had shot Justin. Oh god… she had shot Justin. An unarmed man, and she had shot him in cold blood. It didn’t matter if he was an evil little twerp, he was still only human. Who even was she anymore?

"Motherfucker just stood up." Chris Redfield stood near her, pushing on the apartment door. He didn't like that the old trick seemed to work. "Had a bullet hole right in his head and he rubbed it off like it was a bruise...what the fuck?" He grunted, finishing his push. A key fell into his hand. He turned and handed it to her. "You first." He finished gruffly.

Jill stood frozen in place, her palm simply outstretched as Chris dropped the key into it. She stared up at him, as though unable to believe he was truly there. Her mind had played for the ultimate fool in the last several hours; what was even real any more? Finally her other hand reached out, a slender finger poking him in the chest, testing he was truly there. If this was real, it may well be the last conversation they had. “I shot him.” She breathed, feeling the words were as stupid as they sounded, he had just told her that. “I never hesitated. I didn’t question him. I just… I shot him.” Her big grey eyes filled with tears as they finally met Chris’ own cerulean gaze. “Something is very wrong with me.” A fat tear leaked free, though she made no attempt to hide it like she had with Leon.

For the first time Chris did not reach out to wipe the tear from her cheek. He simply stood looking at her. "He's not human, Valentine. He fucking stood back up and shook himself off. And as far as being unarmed, I'd say the twenty guards he had surrounding you is not unarmed." He yanked a gun from back of his tattered prison pants and held it out to her. "Are you going to open the door or are we going to keep standing here?" He growled.

Jill’s gaze cast down to the gun Chris held out to her, then simply turned and unlocked the door without taking it. If she was lucky something was waiting on the other side that would end this miserable existence she had put herself in. Jill entered her apartment as she had a million times before. And most of those times, Chris had also been at her side. He had often pleaded with her to just move in with him and Claire, that her apartment was in a worst part of town. That he couldn’t sleep knowing she left her window open at night. Jill had loved to point out the only reason he even knew that was because he had been creeping around the fire escape.

Almost as if he knew her thoughts Chris headed for the stairs. He stumbled on the last few steps, his bruised knees protesting his forceful movements. 
He shut the offending window and returned. "I don't know what the hell this is." He growled. "It's all the same. It's like you never left. There's still the outline from the station to Spencer's mansion." He paused and swallowed hard. "The picture of the baby is even there..." As soon as he said it, he knew it was wrong. The baby had not come along until after Africa. It should not have been there. Someone knew more than just Raccoon City.

Leon pulled himself from the water, making sure to keep himself hidden. The last of the guards were dead and there were two lone figures standing near the still smoldering remains of the chopper. He couldn't see Jill anywhere.

Jill had drifted into the tiny kitchen area, staring at the photos held into the fridge with tacky magnets. It was one of her little quirks, any time they had visited some place, she would try and find the absolute worst fridge magnet to commemorate it. This particular photo had frozen her in place like a statue. It was her and Chris, sitting on surf boards and holding brightly coloured cocktails in impossibly blue water. They had had the bright idea that they could learn to surf in the one week they were on vacation in Maui. It hadn’t ended well, and for that she was thankful. It had been a dream vacation any every sense of the word. The memory faded as she heard Chris say the one word that could make her feel worse than she had when she stood outside the apartment with him. The baby… Jill felt her already roiling gut lurch as she turned to where Chris was sat on the edge of her rickety old bed, looking at the photo in a delicate frame that had been sat on the nightstand.

Wesker was kicking smouldering wreckage aside, looking for body parts more than anything. This was their chopper, so where were Leon and Jill? He muttered something incoherent before glancing past Claire to something several feet from the burning shell of the helicopter. Wesker didn’t speak to her as he stalked over, crouching down to pick up the discarded samurai edge. He found himself frowning as he turned it over in his fingers, then ejected the magazine and found only one round had been spent. Even he knew Jill would never have left this gun by choice, so where was she? He glanced around the immediate area again, taking note of the blood droplets that lead back indoors, but then the bodies of Justin’s security that lay on the opposite side of the rooftop. It wasn’t adding up.

Chris didn't know how many times he'd run his fingers over the tiny wooden frame that he was holding now. By the way he was doing it now he could guess more than enough to fade it. 
He'd carried the boy all over the hospital, showing everyone his son. He'd refused to let  anyone else hold him. Claire has had to wait until he was snoring to get the infant from Jill. 
He had told them both he'd never done anything right in his life. At least until him. Then, six months later, the baby had simply died in his sleep. Rebecca had called in sudden infant death syndrome. Chris had taken the loss hard.

Leon grimaced as a leg rolled toward him, the muscle strands brushing his cheek. He held himself still, Krauser's voice about crawling through hell hissing in his ear. 
Silently he reached for his knife. With the other man's back to him he would be able to get close enough. A neat shove into the spine...it would be so easy.

Jill’s slender form slumped onto the edge of the bed beside Chris, though careful not to let herself brush against him as she so longed to do. Even the briefest glance to that lone photo has her glad she hadn’t taken the gun from Chris when they entered. Their son’s death had been a dark enough time as it was, it was the last thing she needed reminding of right now. The sweet boy would’ve been a teenager by now. Would Chris have taught him to shoot? His aunt Claire to throw a knife with frightening precision? Uncle Leon… Jill screwed her eyes shut. She had to stop these thoughts. “Why aren’t you screaming at me?” She finally breathed, though was staring at the wall in front of them, various leads on Umbrella pinned there, just as they had been in her real apartment.

“My, my… What a lovely coincidence.” Leon was so fixated on Krauser, he had missed the silent approach of Wesker, and… Claire. The elder man’s gun was pressed to the back of Leon’s head, much in the same way Ada often had in the past. Leon’s usual trick was no use against whatever it was Wesker had become, he would be dead before he had even flinched.

"There were so many pictures. So much stuff and it was all just fucking gone." Chris said as if he hadn't heard her. "It was like Wesker had won all over again. I haven't said his name in years. Have you? Do you even think of him?" 
He set down the frame and got up. He needed to shower. He needed to wash the grime of dried blood and dirt off his body. He had clothes stashed in this pretend house. Why not wear them?

Leon held on firmly to the handle of his combat knife. "I should have known you'd show up here." He snorted. "This bar isn't checking people at the door." He quipped.

“How can you ask me that?” Jill breathed, looking up at Chris’ back as he headed to the bathroom. “Are you saying… You don’t think I loved my own child?”

“Funny, you didn’t seem so concerned with who may be around when you were rutting Valentine like a dog in heat.” Wesker remarked coolly. “How long had you been waiting for Chris to be out of the picture to take your shot at her? Because lets face it, settling for his baby sister was hardly satisfying, now was it?”

Chris paused, but didn't look back. "Say his name, Valentine." He said. It was easier to fixate on this. He had already dealt with it. But that didn't matter. He wanted her to hurt like he hurt. "You know what? Just don't. Justin is so much better off without me." He breathed. He stepped forward and slammed the door.

"You may be able to goad Chris into a fight," Leon said, his eyes searching the edge of the helipad. It was no more than ten feet. All he needed was a simple distraction...dirt in the eyes his father called it. 
Then he saw it. The leg that had landed in his face. In a swift move he kicked it up and used the momentum to swing it into Wesker's face. The other man may dodge it but while he was, Leon was running for the edge.

Jill’s whole body tensed as the door slammed. This was worse. So much worse than him screaming at her for what she had done with Leon, but clearly he knew. Why else would he be treating her this way? 
While Chris was in the shower, Jill didn’t bother him with theories of who had done this to them, she knew him well enough to know it was only going to lead to them throwing things, the hole in the wall beside the bathroom door evidence of a past fight. Jill had fished around in her dresser drawer, not sure whether to be surprised or disturbed that even her hidden pack of cigarettes were there. She had soon opened the window Chris had closed and was perched on it, one lean leg pulled up towards her torso as the other hung outside. It was raining. She could feel to fine spray on her face and closed her eyes as she took a long drag of the cigarette. Jill hadn’t spoked since getting back from Africa. Apparently some habits weren’t as done with as she thought.

Leon was so close. He probably thought he was going to make it. Instead, a S.T.A.R.S engraved knife embedded itself in the back of his thigh, deep enough that he would not be able to keep up momentum. Claire calmly walked across the helipad, holding Leon face down with one foot as she wrapped slender fingers around the hilt of her blade and twisted it as she pulled it out. A trick Chris had always taught her if a guy ever tried anything; twisting her knife would make it damn near impossible for the asshole to follow her. Still not saying a word, Claire kicked Leon hard enough to flip him onto his back, her once bright sapphire eyes devoid of anything as they looked down at him.

Chris finally came to join her. He sat at her desk, rifling through the papers there. He nodded, glad to finally find something out of place. 
The letter he'd left her when he'd left the city was not here. None of the love letters he'd written her were stuffed in the back of the drawer where he'd put them hoping she's never find them. 
The picture he'd given her of his swear in in the military was also missing. Someone had gotten sloppy.

"Cl...aire..." Leon groaned, looking up at the woman he loved. He had no thought that it was her who had injured him. "Fuck...we need to go..."

Jill watched Chris, taking another long drag of her cigarette before stubbing the remains out on the worn window ledge. Slowly she swung her leg back inside, but remained sat on the ledge. She was struggling to find the words needed, and so decided to focus only on their current situation. “If you’re looking for my diary to find out what I thought about your ass back then… it’s in the other drawer.” She remarked, the edges of her lips quirking into the slightest of smirks.

Claire kept her foot pressing down on Leon’s chest. Though her eyes betrayed nothing, fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She could still see the mental image burned into her brain. He had been all over Jill, and who could blame him. Even now, Claire wanted to break and simply ask him why. “He wont be going anywhere. Are we extracting him now, or waiting until we have Valentine too?” She asked Wesker as he came to stand beside her. 
Wesker could see the confusion on Leon’s handsome face, and took a moment to bask in it. “I can’t risk her saving the boy. We will remove him and come back for her.”