25 Resident Evil 1 Part 2

Word count 8,858

As Jill and Aeon kept going onwards, they eventually found where the dog that supposedly had something valuable was located, and used the dog whistle to call him.

After putting down his zombified form, they found that his collar had a key hidden within it.

That key, they used it later on when they came across a trapped pedestal holding another key, where Aeon swapped the key he was holding with the key on the pedestal, thus preventing the trap from activating.

They kept going, checking every room they passed by for anything useful and killing every zombie on their path, until they came across the bust of a tiger.

Aeon looked at it for a moment, then put the blue gem he took from another statue a while back in its left eye socket.

The statue turned half-way around to reveal… a box of shotgun shells?

"Why?!" she complained. "Why would anyone bother thinking of doing something so complicated just to hide ammo?"

Aeon shrugged. "Umbrella. When it comes to them, the best thing to do is to not think too hard about all of this, and keep killing zombies. Trust me, it's easier that way."

She sighed.

If nothing else, even the damn architecture of this place served as proof of the madness of Umbrella's leaders.

Not that she needed any more evidence right now…

In any case, they kept going, finding a room where several plants were kept… and one of those plants had obviously been affected by the virus going around this place, because a bunch of its vines began waving around when they came closer to it.

Aeon took one look at the plant and its vines, turned around, took out a chemical for dealing with plants he pocketed a while back, and put it into a nearby container.

The chemical then went through the irrigation system, washing over the mutated plant and apparently killing it, or at least making it incredibly lethargic.

And with that, Aeon boldly walked by the plant, took the mask hanging from a wall on the other side, and came back to her with a smirk.

Jill shook her head, not even surprised by this kind of craziness anymore, and simply left the room, Aeon following behind her.

Their overall good mood dropped however, when they came across the corpse of another member of S.T.A.R.S., this one from the Bravo Team.

"Forest…" she whispered sadly.

Aeon stared at the corpse at their feet for a moment, before crouching down beside it.

"I think we are seeing more proof of someone from your team surviving, Jill. The bullet wounds on this corpse match the ones from the last dead zombie we came across."

Looking closer, she noticed the same. The wounds were definitely the kind done by a S.T.A.R.S. standard handgun.

She still grimaced, however. Not only because of the confirmed death of another S.T.A.R.S. member, but because…

"If Chris did that, it probably hadn't been easy on him. He and Forest were good friends…" she said softly.

Aeon nodded grimly.

"That's another reason to be horrified by the virus Umbrella created: it turns your friends and family into mindless monsters who will kill you as well as anyone else."

Jill scowled. A weapon capable of turning your loved ones into your potential killer… truly, Umbrella's lack of morals and humanity just kept on being proven time and time again.

Shaking her head, she turned away with a sigh.

"Let's go. There is nothing we can do here."

Aeon silently agreed, and they made their way into another room, this one containing several suits of armor on pedestals, with a mask held behind bars.

He looked around, looking at the tablet at the center of the room, before pushing the pedestals holding the suits of armor back in a certain order.

When he was done, the bars holding the mask withdrew, allowing him to take the mask and put it in one of his pockets.

"Did I ever mention how happy I am that you are here? Because I am, thank you very much." deadpanned Jill.

"Not a fan of Umbrella's idea of puzzles?" he replied with an amused grin.

"No." she replied bluntly.

Aeon snickered, before leading her out of the room and into yet another puzzle room, where Aeon had to illuminate several specific stained glass windows using several switches, which then opened a nearby wall upward to reveal yet another mask.

After Jill once again repeated her relief at Aeon's presence, and was done cursing the makers of this place to the deepest pits of Hell, they made their way back to the underground tomb, putting the three gathered masks into the nearby graves.

Three of the chains holding the coffin broke, as expected, though there was still a fourth to remove in order to get access inside the coffin.

They thus made their way back into the mansion, eventually coming across Barry once again.

Jill came closer to him, seeing that he was reading some kind of document, though Barry jumped back in shock at her unexpected presence, having been so focused on reading he hadn't heard them coming.

"Jill! Aeon! Don't scare me like that!" he exclaimed.

"Barry." she replied with a slight grin. "I didn't mean to get you that excited."

He shook his head, smiling back at them.

"Right. Anyway, you should read this."

She took the document and began to read, Aeon doing so by reading over her shoulder.

The document was a sort of last letter to a loved one of a local researcher, who mentioned how they were all infected and that he would soon kill himself in order to avoid becoming a zombie.

"What do you make of it?" asked Barry.

Jill sighed. "Well, I guess we were right about this mansion being quite unnatural." she replied.

Barry snorted. "You've got a way with understatements."

"But what about the part that's torn off?" she wondered.

"Well, my only guess is that it was the most damning part of the letter and somebody else didn't want anyone to see it."

Jill and Aeon gave him a long look.

Barry flinched slightly.

"Hey, it wasn't me! I'm all for team 'Fuck Wesker and Umbrella,' remember?"

Jill kept staring at him for a moment, before relenting.

"You're right. I guess Wesker might have passed by here already, then."

He nodded. "In any case, we should keep going. We haven't found a way out of this place yet."

With that said, Barry left the room, leaving Jill and Aeon behind.

"You think he was honest about not being the one who tore the last part of that letter?" she questioned.

Aeon looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "Why ask me? You know him better than I do."

She grimaced. "I'd like to agree, but my team leader turned out to be a traitor, and Wesker got to Barry once already. So at this point, asking for a second opinion sounds wise."

Aeon hummed, looking at the door Barry took to leave the room.

"For what it's worth, I think he was honest when he said he had nothing to do with the letter being torn."

She sighed in relief. "Good. I wanted to hope, but…"

She shook her head. "Nevermind."

Aeon nodded, then began to look around the room and touched various things, eventually causing a nearby panel to side up and reveal a small emblem, that he then put into a pocket.

"Alright, let's keep going."

Jill grunted, because of course there was something hidden in this room too, and then followed after him.

The night was far from over yet, unfortunately…

Chris Redfield was, to put it mildly, annoyed.

Not only at the world in general, but sadly also at himself.

When Rebecca first told him that Wesker was a traitor, he had been beyond pissed.

Unfortunately, he eventually managed to calm himself down, and asked to see the proof that Rebecca had gathered.

Problem was, she had none to show him, because this "Aeon" was the one who's currently holding on to it.

Which means that, for all intent and purposes, it was Rebecca's words against that of Wesker.

And without any proof, then the logic of "innocent until proven guilty" applied.

After all, if he accused Wesker of anything without any proof to back his words, then his team leader would be in his right to laugh at his face.

Not that he would, Wesker was hardly the laughing type from what he knew of the man, but the point stood: without proof, he could say nothing.

So yes. Chris was, to put it mildly, annoyed.

A fact furthered amplified by this mansion's insane architecture.

God, this place's logic was essentially non-existent!

Grumbling to himself as he entered the next room, he blinked at the strange sight of a piano at the center.

Hesitating for a second, he finally decided that he might as well enjoy doing something beyond hitting his head against the puzzles of this place or killing more zombies.

So he began pressing the keys of the piano, trying to follow the pattern of notes he had found before entering this room.

He jumped back however, when Rebecca suddenly entered the room, the surprise of her unsuspected appearance making him flinch.

She smiled. "It's just me, Chris."

"Rebecca." he sighed in relief, happy it hadn't been yet another zombie.

She came closer, looking curiously at the piano.

"I thought I recognized the song…"

He looked at the piano, then at her, then back at the piano.

"Can you play it?" he asked.

She nodded, and he stepped back, letting her have access to the piano.

After a moment, she began playing, and soon enough music filled the air.

Eventually, she finished, a smile on her face.

"That was great." he commented. "No mistakes, too."

Her smile widened. "Thanks. I… recently was able to practice at little, so that helped."

His reply was cut short, however, when a nearby wall suddenly slid up, revealing a hidden room.

Chris looked at it in shock, and so did Rebecca, though she recovered quicker than him, grumbling about how she "should have seen that coming…"

Investigating the newly revealed room, Chris found a diary belonging to whom he assumed to be the architect of this place.

If the diary's content was anything to go by, he and his family were not kindly rewarded for building this place by one of Umbrella's founders. Quite the opposite.

The other thing he found was a gold emblem that he swapped with a steel emblem he had picked up some time ago.

Coming out of the room, Rebecca looked at him curiously.

"Found anything?"

"Some." he replied, showing her the gold emblem and the diary.

She grimaced when she read the diary, sighing at more evidence of Umbrella's crimes that were shown within.

"Keep it if you want, I need to go and put the emblem where I think it needs to be placed." he declared.

Rebecca nodded, keeping the diary in her right hand.

"Good luck out there, Chris."

He smiled. "Thanks."

After that, he returned to the dining room, putting the gold emblem where the steel one was.

He waited a moment for anything to happen, but he heard nothing.

Frowning, he cursed softly.

Maybe he should go back to Rebecca and read that diary again…

As Aeon and Jill made their way to the dining room, they stopped at the entrance.

There on the other side of it, was a gold emblem on the wall.

"I don't remember that being here…" she pointed out

"Agreed." replied Aeon, who began looking around the room.

He eventually stepped closer to an old clock, messing around with it for a moment, before coming back with a key.

"Don't know if it's related to that gold emblem, but the clock was slightly different, and I found that inside."

She nodded.

"You know where the door for it is?"

He hummed. "I think so. Come on, let's find out."

"What about whoever put that emblem there?" she questioned.

Aeon shrugged. "We've got no idea where they are right now, and this mansion is way too big to just try and search around. Might as well try and find a needle in a haystack."

Jill sighed but nodded. He wasn't wrong, sadly.

With that said, they left for where Aeon hoped to find the door corresponding to the key he found.

Chris came back to the dining room, diary in hand.

He didn't understand. Putting the gold emblem there should have done something!

When he entered the room however, he froze when he noticed that a nearby clock was different from what he remembered a while ago.

Eagerly stepping forward, he checked the clock… only to find nothing in the hidden space now revealed.

Staring blankly at the clock in front of him, there was only one thing he could say to that.

"Well, shit."

Aeon put the key into the door, smiling when it allowed him to open it without issues.

Jill nodded to him, then entered, revealing a large room in a rather pitiful state with dirt and cobwebs everywhere.

She grimaced, but entered further in, Aeon following suit.

Looking around, she saw nothing interesting at first glance-

And then a giant snake came down from above and opened its mouth wide enough to swallow her whole in one gulp right in front of her.

Freezing in both shock and terror, she stared as the monster came closer, readying to strike-

And then Aeon took her by the shoulder, pulling her back hard enough to almost make her fall.

Which meant that she could see all that happened in quick succession.

First, the snake struck, launching itself forward toward Aeon.

Who replied by punching it in the snout with his right fist.

It promptly recoiled back in shock, hissing loudly, which was when Aeon brought up the grenade launcher and shot one straight into the open mouth of the beast.

Its mouth closed, heedless of the dangerous projectile it swallowed.

A second later, blood splattered across the room, as the snake's head erupted into bits and pieces of flesh and bone.

And just like that, Jill was left staring blankly at the man who might have saved her life yet again, now casually reloading his grenade launcher, seemingly uncaring of all the blood he had on him.

He turned to look back at her, and she had only one thing to say about what just happened.

"Did you seriously just punch a giant fucking snake in the face?"

For some reason, Aeon just laughed at her words.

After Aeon cleaned himself up (for the most part) and after they found the last required mask in the corner of the room, they began to make their way back to the underground tomb, both of them silent.

Jill eventually broke the silence first, however.

"Thank you." she said softly.

Aeon glanced at her, an eyebrow raised.

She grimaced. "For saving me again. I just…"

She sighed.

"I'm a member of S.T.A.R.S., I should be better than this, but I just… This place, it keeps on throwing new horrors at us, and if it wasn't for you, I'm not sure I would have made it this far."

He kept looking at her for a moment, before shaking his head with a smile.

"Trust me, you would have made it just fine, even without me around. And don't criticize yourself so hard about your actions so far. This, all of this… it's quite literally not the kind of war you were trained for, Jill." he replied, voice kind.

She frowned. "You're implying that this is the case for you."

He fell silent.

"No." he replied eventually. "I was trained for worse, Jill Valentine. So, so much worse." he finally declared, voice soft and eyes distant.

She glanced at him for a long moment, taking his unfocused eyes and the slight grimace on his face.

"What kind of war were you trained for, then?" she questioned. "What is so horrific that even this place hardly bothers you?"

Aeon smiled.

It was utterly lacking in humor, devoid of any emotion, and the sight of it sent a chill down her spine.

She had seen him smug, happy, brave in the face of all the horrors they had faced so far.

But whatever he was now remembering was apparently bad enough to leave only a grim-faced killer staring back at her.

"I fought nightmares, Jill Valentine, nightmares beyond anything you could ever imagine right now. They were terrifying enough that they could bring the doom of civilizations with them. You were trained to keep the peace of human civilization, Jill. I was trained to prevent human civilization from going extinct."

And then he fell silent, the discussion unmistakably over for now, and she was left with more questions than answers.

Questions she was starting to seriously wonder if she wanted him to answer.

And perhaps worse, questions she wondered if she could afford to not have the answers to…

Aeon put the last mask on the corresponding stone face, and they turned around to witness the sight of the last chain keeping the coffin in the air being removed, causing the coffin to fall to the ground with a crash.

However, the fall also opened it, revealing-

Her eyes widened.

"The zombie's skin is red!" she shouted.

"Indeed." agreed Aeon, readying his guns even as he spoke.

She immediately switched to her shotgun, and the moment the zombie began running in their direction, both of them opened fire.

The zombie stumbled back as her shotgun blast caught him in the chest and Aeon's Magnums put two bullets in his head, straight through the eyes, though it still took another blast from her shotgun and two more Magnum shots to put it down for good.

For a moment, they stared at the corpse, before Aeon shot it in the head a third time.

She glanced at him.

"Double tap." was his reply.

She mentally shrugged, agreeing that she certainly wasn't going to complain about that thing taking more bullets to the head.

Then Aeon stepped up to the coffin, holding up some kind of elaborate hexagonal emblem for her to see.

She grinned. "Guess that your suspicions were right… yet again." she declared, voice filled with amusement.

At this point, she was just enjoying imagining the looks on the faces of the leaders of Umbrella if they knew how easily their security systems were seen through.

Either way, after a bit of searching, they found the door that the emblem was supposed to unlock, and they found themselves on a dirt path going out of the mansion.

Aeon took a look at a nearby signpost and snorted.

"Jill, take a look at that."

She came closer, reading the signposts and…

And…

"Really?" she deadpanned.

"Valley of Destruction? Cave of Hatred? Summit of Madness? Path of Revenge? Are they serious?" she declared, incredulous at the ridiculous names she was reading.

Aeon snickered. "Well to be fair, I think that we both know by now that the leaders of Umbrella have a… unique view of the world." he replied dryly.

She scoffed. "They should all be lined up and shot for the sake of the world, you mean." she grumbled.

Aeon nodded. "Yup, pretty much. In any case, let's keep going."

Jill agreed, taking point as they went deeper into the path.

She stopped however, as Aeon began to activate various switches they came across, unlocking the steel doors at the end of the path.

Going through the doors, they found yet more tombstones…

She blinked, seeing Aeon messing around with two of them, which revealed…

She blinked again. "Why is there a Magnum hidden under a tombstone?"

Aeon gave her a look, before handing the revolver to her, alongside a pretty impressive amount of ammo for it.

"Don't think too hard about all of this. Just take the gun and use it to kill more zombies more easily."

Jill did as he ordered.

At this point, she certainly wasn't going to complain about finding more weapons.

Armed with her new weapon, which she was admittedly rather happy to have considering what she saw Aeon do with two of them, they kept going, eventually finding…

"A cabin in the woods?" wondered Jill, looking at the wooden structure before them with curiosity.

"Indeed. Let's hope whoever lives there isn't around." replied Aeon, a frown on his face.

Going inside, they found a crank laying on the ground that Aeon put inside one of his pockets, and a few papers on a nearby desk that he looked at for a few moments before shaking his head, turning back towards her.

"Let's keep going, there's nothing else to find here."

She nodded, and they left the building without any issues, going back to the mansion.

There were still many more parts in it that needed to be investigated…

Chris looked at the wooden cabin in the forest up ahead, hopeful to find some answer in it.

He knew that there were other survivors at least, since several doors that had been previously locked were now open, though sadly he had no way of contacting anyone.

Especially when considering the fact that the radio he had on him was broken, only allowing him to receive messages but not send any.

So he knew that Wesker was alive, having managed to catch fragments of his conversations using his radio, a fact that he was rather unsure how to feel about if it turned out that Wesker really was a traitor who led them to their deaths.

Sadly, he had yet to find any proof to corroborate Rebecca's words so far in this place, which was not helping him decide what to feel about his team leader.

He paused, hearing an inhuman moan and the rattling of chains from far away.

That… was probably not good.

Stepping forward more cautiously now, he entered the cabin, sadly finding nothing of value within it, except for some scattered pages of a makeshift diary written by the daughter of the architect of this place.

Needless to say, it implied nothing else but tragedy for the family in question.

With one last sigh, he stepped out of the room-

And then he rolled forward, heavy manacles barely missing his head.

Turning around, his gun came up to point at…

He stared at the humanoid monster in front of him that was moaning inhumanly.

Shooting it several times in the head, he grimaced when it seemingly did nothing except piss this monster off.

At that point he decided that running the hell away from this humanoid abomination sounded like a really good idea, and promptly did so.

Thankfully, whatever the hell that had been was just as slow as every other zombie, and he had no trouble leaving the cabin and then making a run for it towards the mansion.

If he had to face monsters, he'd prefer they be ones he could actually kill, after all…

Aeon assembled the crank to control the dam, and then used it to raise the dam up and draw the water out.

With that done, they were able to go to the other side of the basin without issues, and eventually they made their way into another part of the building.

They stopped quickly however, when they noticed what was all around them…

"What happened here?" Jill wondered, staring at all the corpses of zombies surrounding them.

Aeon frowned, looking at the various corpses, before smiling.

"I believe that this is Rebecca's work. Look, there are some zombies killed by what could have been shotgun blasts."

Looking around, she noticed the same, with some of the zombies dead by headshots and others by what had to be a shotgun.

She whistled slightly. These were a lot of corpses…

"I thought she was a rookie? Because this isn't the work of a rookie…"

Aeon chuckled. "I might have taught her a few things yesterday, since she really could have used the training. Happy to see she put what I taught her to good use!"

Jill snorted. If the slaughter around them was anything to go by, he must have given her some impressive fighting tips…

Then again, she thought while glancing appraisingly at Aeon, that isn't entirely surprising…

Shaking her head, she pushed open the doors in front of her and went through-

Before feeling Aeon roughly push her forward.

Rolling with the blow, she turned around, gun at the ready, and questions on her lips-

Only to freeze in shock when a giant spider stared back at her from the doors, having apparently been hiding above and almost successfully striking her when she went through them.

A second later, the spider exploded into gory bits, revealing Aeon on the other side with his grenade launcher in hand.

Jill blinked slowly.

Then she nodded.

"After we're done with this place, I'll buy you a drink. Hell, I'll buy you all the drinks you can have at the bar if that's what you want."

Aeon snorted.

"Is it for saving your life again, or saving you from the giant spider?"

"Yes." deadpanned Jill.

He chuckled.

"Alright, but I'm warning you. I'm married, so if we end up in a bedroom, it's only if you buy my wife drinks as well."

She raised an eyebrow.

"You think you can get a threesome out of this, handsome?"

He grinned. "Please, I would have to hold my wife back from seducing you if you are going to meet!"

She coughed.

"Okay, did not see that coming." she admitted.

Aeon grinned. "No one ever does… not until you're already bound to a bed, screaming her name, and calling her 'mistress,' at least."

And then he walked away, a smirk on his face.

Jill blushed, before shaking her head.

As they keep exploring the place, she couldn't help but ask:

"So, who's on top between you and your wife?" she wondered.

He threw her an amused glance.

"Wondering if anyone ever got the best of me?"

She blushed slightly. That wasn't exactly how she would have put it, but…

He chuckled. "Me… most of the time. There's something about seeing a beautiful woman eagerly jumping up and down on you that is incredible to see, after all." he declared, grinning towards her.

She grinned back. "Not shy, are you?"

He shrugged uncaringly. "Well I'd definitely like to see you naked and begging for more, so at this point, being shy is kind of counterproductive, you know?"

That brought a startled laugh out of her, because that was without a doubt the most blunt proposal she ever heard in her life.

Shaking her head, she smiled at him.

"Play your cards right, and you might get your wish." she replied, eyes half-lidded, and she took point, deliberately shaking her hips for him to see.

She heard Aeon huffed a laugh behind her, and a quick glance made her grin when she saw him staring.

It felt… nice to do something as comparatively normal as flirting after the madness of the last few hours.

And sex was a great way to de-stress, something she was no doubt badly going to need after tonight…

She grinned. Heh, she might actually do exactly that in the end.

Of course, they both still needed to leave this place first…

She stopped, raising a hand to stop Aeon too, as she heard whispers coming from a door further ahead.

Coming closer, they put themselves close to the door, listening to…

Wait, was that Wesker? And Barry?

Her eyes met Aeon's, all thoughts of flirting gone as they listened to Barry and Wesker argue, and any remaining doubts she might have had of her team leader's treason were crushed as she heard Wesker coldly declare that S.T.A.R.S. had to die tonight.

Eventually, they heard Wesker leave from a door opposite to theirs, and waited for a moment before entering the room.

"Barry." she said, looking at the man who blinked in surprise at their sudden arrival.

He opened his mouth, before closing it.

Finally, he smiled.

"Heard everything, huh? Don't worry, I am pretty sure that Wesker has no idea I switched sides again."

"What did he want?" she questioned.

He grimaced.

"He wants S.T.A.R.S. gone. I tried arguing with him about it, but… he really wants you and the rest dead, Jill."

She scowled. Yeah, that fit with what she heard.

"Fine, then. We'll deal with him later. For now, did you find anyone else?"

He shook his head.

"I came across proof that others are alive, but nothing else. Dead zombies, discarded shells, that kind of stuff. Still, we'll find whoever is still alive eventually, I am sure of it."

She nodded. "We will."

Barry smiled at them, before sighing.

"Right, I should keep searching. It's just, this place is so big…" he shook his head, before walking away.

"Take care, you two. We haven't seen the last of this place yet."

She smiled at his words, then turned to look at Aeon, who had a document in hand and was reading through it.

"Hey Jill, look at this."

She did as requested, reading through the document on 'Plant 42.''

When she was done, she blinked.

"Well, shit. Blood-sucking gigantic plants now?"

Aeon hummed. "Well, that brings back memories… well, the blood-sucking aspects of it, at least. Surprisingly, I had pretty much never had to deal with deadly plant life before…"

He smiled brightly.

"I look forward to fixing that!"

She snorted.

Obviously, he would react to the news of a giant, man-eating, blood-sucking plant by eagerly looking forward to killing it.

Why was she even surprised, at this point?

Shaking her head with a smile, because it was kind of hard to be terrified about giant cannibalistic plants when your companion was all but jumping like a kid at the thought of fighting the damn thing, they then looked around for anything valuable, Jill finding a key that she used to open a nearby room.

She regretted doing so however, as the room in question only contained a dead man who had hanged himself to try and avoid becoming a zombie.

A failed attempt at that, considering the way the corpse tried to grab her when she came closer.

Thankfully, a few bullets put him down for good, and they were able to find another room with yet another key.

Hopefully, that'll be the one that will let them make progress.

Chris looked down at the hatch entrance he had found hidden behind two bookcases.

Gong down, he frowned, noticing that he went from a wooden house to what looked like a full-blown underground research facility.

Going onward, he eventually opened two doors that led to a wide open area with water going up to his knees, but what really got his attention was-

"Richard!" he exclaimed, smiling.

Coming closer to him, he blinked when Richard turned to look in terror at him.

"Chris!" he shouted in shock, before looking to his right, his fearful look growing.

Chris blinked, still coming closer.

And then everything went horribly wrong.

Richard looked back at him, an expression of terror swiftly turning to determination.

"Chris, no!" he shouted, before launching himself forward and roughly pushing Chris back.

A second later, a massive shark's jaws went for where Chris would have been… and where Richard now was.

Putting himself back on his feet, Chris looked down at the water before him, seeing only a puddle of blood where Richard was.

"Richard." he said, pale and shaking over the fact he almost died… and that Richard certainly saved his life at the cost of his own.

Swallowing, he looked around, noticing the doors to another room further ahead.

Running as fast as he could even with the water slowing him down, he barely made it before not one, but two giant sharks almost took large bites out of him.

Going into the control room, he found that the water pressure was way too high, which allowed the sharks to reach the level only humans were supposed to have access to.

With a scowl, he hit the button required to remove all water in the area, though a shark immediately attacked the glass panel of the control room he was in.

Thankfully, the glass held, and after messing around with the controls he was able to get the water entirely out of this place.

Going down and back into the main room, he stared with grim satisfaction at the bodies of the sharks.

Even if those bodies were still twitching…

Coming to a stop, he looked down at his feet at the Assault Shotgun there, slowly picking it up.

He was pretty certain this was Richard's weapon…

Checking it for ammo, he nodded, then shot the nearest shark in the head until it was only a mass of gore.

Then he did it to the other shark.

Once that was done, he noticed a key lying on the ground not far from him, and took it.

And then he made his way out of this place.

Chris grimaced when he thought about Rebecca who had tried so hard to save Richard.

This… was not going to be an easy conversation.

He would take whatever Rebecca threw at him for this, though.

It was his fault Richard died, and he would not hide that fact from her.

Both she and Richard deserved only the truth, after all.

Jill and Aeon kept looking around the room full of chemicals that they had found, trying to find what they needed to weaken, if not hopefully kill Plant 42.

Eventually, they successfully created the "V-JOLT" as described in some papers they found, and went back to exploring the place.

They shared a look when they found an underground entrance open behind two bookcases, and went down to discover a whole underground facility.

They did manage to find the roots of Plant 42 in one of the rooms of the facility, and they promptly used the chemical they had created to get rid of them.

Once those roots were surely destroyed, they kept going, finding several dead sharks, some of which were obviously killed by shotgun blasts to the head.

Again, they shared a look, but otherwise kept moving forward, though eventually they went back to the house above as there was one last room they had yet to check.

Entering the room, Jill's eyes went wide as she properly beheld the size of Plant 42 for the first time, noticing that its body covered the entire room with vines.

Looking up at the ceiling, she stared at the massive flower-like… whatever the hell that was of the plant, stepping closer to have a better look.

And then she gasped as one of the vines suddenly went toward her body, picking her up like she weighed nothing.

Sadly the plant got her arms stuck to her body, so she could do nothing except struggle helplessly against the large vine holding her.

She turned her head, looking at Aeon with fearful eyes.

"Aeon! Help me!"

Her eyes widened even more when one of the vines went around his body and picked him up, though she noticed it didn't get his arms and that he was holding his grenade launcher.

"Aeon!"

"Don't worry, I got this!" he replied with surprising calm for someone in the grip of a giant man-eating plant, though her thoughts were brutally derailed when the flower-like part of the plant opened up, and she stared into the mouth of the monster with even greater fear.

"Aeon!" she shouted. "If you want to do something, it's now or never!"

"Don't worry, as I said, I got this! After all, all these giant monsters keep being stupid enough to open their mouth towards a man with a grenade launcher!" he shouted back.

A moment later, a grenade went flying into the center of the plant, and it burst in a massive amount of flames.

Jill and Aeon were roughly thrown into the ground, though they quickly got back on their feet, looking at the dying plant consumed by fire before them.

She looked at Aeon, sighing deeply.

"I thought I was finished. Again." she said.

He actually chuckled at her words, holding the grenade launcher high for her to see.

"So, are you still wondering why I have one of these? With both regular grenades and incendiary rounds?"

"No." she replied bluntly. "In fact, I'm considering never going out of my home without one of those always at hand from now on."

Aeon snickered at her dry reply, which is when Barry came barging in, flamethrower in hand.

"What the hell happened here? I heard… screams…"

He trailed off, looking at the massive dead plant and the two people covered in liquefied plant remains in front of him.

"What the hell?!"

Aeon and her shared a look, before they began laughing.

Barry blinked.

"No seriously, what the hell is going on?!"

As Chris made his way back to Rebecca, he suddenly heard gunshots further ahead, and after turning a corner stared at the back of Albert Wesker.

For a moment, his mind raced as indecision gripped him.

Should he accuse Wesker of betraying them all? Should he outright shoot the bastard in the back?

But what about evidence? Despite his best efforts, he had found no documents involving Wesker so far. Plenty of them showing Umbrella as monsters in human skin, but none of those documents ever hinted at Wesker being involved so far.

Wesker finished killing one last zombie, and despite himself, Chris relaxed.

He respected Albert Wesker greatly. Chris was someone who had problems back in the army with superiors being unwilling to do anything but follow orders to the letter since he had always been more of a free spirit. When he had began to work for Wesker, he had found in his team leader a man willing to back him up, even encourage him, to use lateral thinking to solve problems, and Wesker had often protected him from others who criticized Chris' methods as borderline unacceptable simply because they were not "in the books" of regulations.

Wesker however proved to be a man focused more on results than the means required to get them, and thanks to that, Chris had solved many cases with less orthodox methods.

And that was why, even if he had doubts about the man, he still believed that Wesker was owed the benefit of the doubt.

He owed Wesker that much.

"Wesker." he finally declared.

His team leader turned around, nodding at him.

"Chris. You're alive."

"My words exactly." he replied. "Where's Jill? I thought you were with her." he questioned.

"Yeah, I know. We got separated." answered Wesker after a moment.

Chris' eyes narrowed. "I see."

Suspicious, but unfortunately once again, not enough by far to throw any accusations in Wesker's way.

"In any case, we should find a way out before we get turned into zombie food." he continued. "Got any suggestions, Wesker?"

And if there was just a hint of accusation in his voice, well Chris was only happy it was just a hint.

"We should get a better grip on the situation. There must be areas we've yet to explore in the mansion."

Wesker paused, before looking straight at him.

"Chris, I want you to check the mansion out one more time. I'll continue my investigation here."

Chris pursed his lips, but nodded.

He still wanted to find proof of Wesker's true loyalty towards Umbrella.

Or the lack of proof, either worked.

"Sure thing."

Wesker nodded back, and then left without another word.

Chris looked at the corner where Wesker disappeared from view for a long time, wondering once again if he was making a mistake letting Wesker off the hook simply because Chris had yet to find any proof of Wesker's betrayal beyond Rebecca's words.

Then he sighed, and shelved that thought for later. He had made a choice, he would have to live with its consequences, good or bad.

So with that said, he kept going, eventually finding Rebecca walking up a nearby corridor.

She turned around, shotgun at the ready and pointed at his head, and he got a flashback of their first encounter.

If the sudden blush on her face was anything to go by, he wasn't the only one.

"Sorry, you scared me." she said, apologetic. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." he replied softly. "But… Richard…" he walked around, head bowed.

"He's… gone." he finished, before explaining what happened.

Rebecca closed her eyes, swallowing hard.

"I'm sorry." she whispered.

He shook his head. "It's my fault!" he shouted angrily. "I should've… watched out for him…" he trailed off, voice sad.

Rebecca turned her back to him, looking in the distance.

"I found a pharmaceutical room. I think I can come up with something useful. I'll be there." she said before running off.

Then she stopped, and turned to look at him, smiling sadly.

"I'm glad you're still okay, Chris."

And then she kept running.

He sighed, somewhat relieved that she didn't appear to hate him for causing Richard's death, but also feeling guilty, because he feared the real reason she ran off so fast was so that she could mourn alone.

Shaking his head, he kept going.

There were still questions he wanted answers for, and an escape route to find.

No time to feel sorry for himself just yet.

After catching Barry up with the latest discoveries, they split up again, with Jill and Aeon returning to the mansion and Barry staying around to see if he could find anything interesting.

Aeon did find a key in the room with the giant plant, and they were eager to hopefully find an escape route at long last.

Of course, Jill's good mood lasted exactly as long as it took for a massive reptilian humanoid monster to try and kill her from behind.

"A Hunter." declared Aeon, looking down at the dead beast at his feet with slight disdain. "Well, that's what Umbrella calls these things, at least. Much more dangerous than the average zombie, and much harder to kill… but not impossible by any means. As always, if you shoot something in the head long enough, it will die, no matter how tough it may be."

"Wise words to live by." replied Jill, looking at the creature who had tried to sneak up on her.

Fortunately, she had heard it coming. Unfortunately for said monster, she was sufficiently startled by it that she replied via a backward kick to its face.

And apparently it was just as surprised to be found as she was surprised to have found it, because it jumped back with the kick enough to give her the time to bring up her shotgun towards its head.

Needless to say, it didn't last long after that.

"Indeed." replied Aeon. "And remember them well, because if one of those made it inside the mansion, more will, too."

She nodded.

"Well, guess I'm keeping the shotgun ready from now on, then."

As they kept going, Aeon's words proved prophetic, and they had to deal with the occasional Hunter, alongside even more puzzle rooms in the new area of the mansion unlocked by the key found in the giant plant's room.

They eventually found the grave of the architect of this mansion, alongside a diary belonging to him that showed quite clearly that Umbrella always intended for him to die.

The grave itself turned out to be a hidden entrance however, and they went down to discover yet another hidden research facility.

And yet more giant spiders in narrow corridors.

Needless to say, Jill was far from amused, though Aeon just carved a path through them by lobbing grenades at any new spiders they came across.

After finding a few items and more ammo, they took an elevator which… brought them back into the mansion?

Jill groaned. "And here we are again…"

Aeon chuckled, obviously enjoying her exasperation with this place's insane twists and turns.

Jill threw him an annoyed glare that he shrugged off like water off a duck's back, his grin still firmly in place, and with a grunt she took point and gleefully shot any zombie in their path.

They eventually came across a room with a document that Aeon took, read, and then gave to Jill.

Her face twisted into a scowl as she saw the signed orders straight from Umbrella HQ ordering the death of all S.T.A.R.S. members as well as the destruction of this mansion to hide all evidence linking this place to Umbrella's criminal activities.

With an angry scowl, she gave Aeon the document back.

"Yet more evidence that my employer wants to kill me. Just great. I think I will definitely have to take you on that job offer, because it's pretty obvious by now that Umbrella's idea of a retirement plan is a cold grave at best, turning you into a zombie at worst."

"Well, you'll just have to show them your disagreement with those plans by living a long, happy life in someone else's employ, don't you think?" he replied with a smirk.

She smirked back. "That does sound like a much better offer to me. I'll take it!"

They chuckled, then kept going, Aeon pocketing two more gemstones he had found in the room on the way out.

They eventually found a library, where once again signs of battle were found all over the place, though they only saw some puddles of blood and no corpses.

Jill also found some sort of medal with a wolf motif however, so that would hopefully prove useful later on.

After that, they went back to the bust of the tiger and Aeon put one of the gemstones he had found in its remaining eye socket, being rewarded by a MO Disk in return.

They looked at one another, then Aeon shrugged and put it in one of his pockets for later use.

They then made their way to yet another room that they had yet to investigate, finding within it a jewelry box that Aeon unlocked thanks to the remaining gemstone he had found, which revealed a key with the emblem of the Spencer family upon it.

Using that key allowed them to go inside a small study where they found yet another medal, much like the one found in the coffin.

Finally, they activated yet another elevator, which allowed them access to a device that opened a secret entrance in one of the courtyard of the house.

Eager to hopefully finally make some progress towards a way out, they made their way towards the newly opened entrance.

Chris kept going through room after room, often finding signs that other survivors had already passed by, but sadly he had yet to actually find whoever the survivor (or survivors) was.

He hoped Jill and Barry were still alive, and that they eventually would all find one another.

As he entered yet another room, he suddenly heard shotgun blasts from not far away, and immediately began running in that direction, the shotgun he had found a while back held tightly in his hands.

Finally coming before the room where the sounds of gunfire echoed from, he kicked the door open, revealing-

He blinked.

Rebecca blinked.

The dead Hunter at her feet twitched.

Rebecca's shotgun came down and fired once more.

Both S.T.A.R.S. members stared at the Hunter's corpse for a moment, before they relaxed.

"Sorry, Chris. I didn't mean to get you worried." Rebecca said, smiling a bit sheepishly.

He chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I'm just happy that you're doing alright."

Then he sighed. "Still, we really need to get out of here. We also need to find the others before being able to do so. You're with me?"

She smiled. "Of course."

He nodded. "Then let's team up and let's find a way out. I don't think it's wise to stay separated any longer."

She chuckled. "Rebecca Chambers, reporting for duty, Sir!" she declared, grinning.

Chris grinned back. "Happy to have you, Officer Chambers. Now come on, let's go."

As they made their way outside the mansion, they suddenly stared in surprise as a secret entrance opened.

Exchanging glances, Chris took point, going down a ladder to find an underground cave system that he and Rebecca carefully explored to find-

"Captain Enrico!" shouted Rebecca, eyes widening at the sight of her wounded captain leaning against a wall.

"Rebecca! And… Chris. Don't come any closer, you two." Enrico growled.

They jerked back, stunned silent. Why was he so hostile?

"What happened?" questioned Chris.

"Double… crosser…" growled Enrico, gun pointing at them even as his whole body shook from the pain of his wounds.

"Captain, wait!" exclaimed Rebecca, extending a hand towards him.

*Bang!*

"Ah!" screamed Enrico, as a small red circle appeared on his chest.

Chris and Rebecca jerked, looking towards one another and seeing that neither of them took the shot, they turned around.

They caught a glimpse of a human leg disappearing from a corner, and Chris rushed forward to find the culprit while Rebecca went to her captain to check for his wounds.

Chris snarled however when he lost whoever the shooter was in the complex cave system, and ran back to Enrico.

Rebecca looked up at him when he arrived, eyes sad, and she shook her head sadly.

"All he said was Umbrella." she whispered.

"Fuck." he cursed, rubbing a hand on his forehead.

For a moment, they stared at the captain of Bravo Team's corpse, until they heard footsteps coming from behind.

Turning around, guns at the ready, their eyes widened when two people appeared from the corner.

"Jill!" he shouted.

"Aeon!" Rebecca exclaimed.

The two people jerked.

"Chris!" screamed Jill.

"Rebecca!" declared the incredibly tall man at Jill's side with a large smile.

"Enrico!" yelled Jill, staring in shock at the dead S.T.A.R.S. member.

Naturally, things dissolved into chaos at that point.

After a general round of explanations and introductions was made, Chris requested that Aeon show him the evidence of Wesker's betrayal he had gathered so far.

Jill watched him as he began reading the various documents Aeon gave him, some of which she and Aeon had found in this very mansion.

As Chris kept reading, his face darkened more and more, until it became almost a snarl by the end of it.

After he was done, he gave the papers back to Aeon, turned around, and then punched the nearest wall with a shout of rage.

"Fuck! I knew I should've shot that bastard in the back when I had the chance!" he shouted.

Rebecca blinked. "What do you mean?"

Chris turned to her, his fury leaving him to make place for guilt.

He sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, Rebecca. You told me that he was a traitor, but you had no proof, so… when I saw him a while back, I let him go without saying or doing anything."

Jill frowned, before sighing. "You did respect him greatly…"

He nodded sadly. " A bit too much as it turns out."

Rebecca shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I suppose that it really was my word against his, without any proof to back me up. Besides…"

She grinned, looking at them all.

"We're all here now, and that means we can fight him together, no?"

Chris stared at her, before smiling. "You're right. This isn't just about me, but about S.T.A.R.S. as a whole. So with that being said… let's make our way out of this place, and hopefully we'll be able to find and deal with Wesker along the way."

Jill nodded. "Agreed. We'll have to find Barry too, since he is still alive somewhere."

Chris frowned, remembering what he has been told of Barry's betrayal, but sighed and agreed.

Jill knew he was angry at Barry siding with Wesker, but at the same time Chris and Barry had known each other for years now, ever since Chris joined the army where the two met.

So he knew as well, if not more, than she did how important Barry's family was to him.

"Right. Let's do this, then!" Rebecca declared with a smile, and everyone agreed.

As they began to travel through the caves, Aeon turned to look at Rebecca.

"So tell me, how many giant monsters have you killed since we last saw each other?"

Rebecca grinned. "Probably less than you, I imagine!"

Jill snorted. "Oh, you have no idea…" she grumbled quietly.

"Wait, what do you mean you punched the giant snake in the face?!"