22 Resident Evil 0 Part 1

Word count 12,564

Once again, Oedon, Lucy and I were gathered in the Hunter's Dream, preparing ourselves for the next jump.

"So, what's your plan this time?" questioned Lucy, looking over the two jumpdocs before her, Resident Evil and Prototype.

"Well, I was thinking we could divide the work to be done like this: You, Lucy, get to be the CEO of a Pharmaceutical Company available from the Resident Evil jumpdoc, while Oedon gets to be the head researcher, and I… well..."

I smirked. "I get to go back to my roots, monster hunting."

"For fun and profit?" joked Lucy.

I chuckled. "Indeed."

Oedon smiled at me. "Then I wish you good hunting, dear Aeon. I am certain that you will find your worth in the waking world, as always."

"That, and you are looking forward to unleashing your lust to the beautiful women of this universe, aren't you?" Lucy declared, smirking.

I raised an eyebrow at her, smirking back. "I certainly didn't hear you complaining when Oedon and I 'unleashed our lust' upon you, Lucy."

"I can confirm." Declared Oedon, grinning widely at the memories of all that Lucy went through, and all the requests Lucy asked for.

Well, 'begged' for was a better word for what actually happened…

Lucy blushed slightly, no doubt remembering that night herself.

She grumbled, mumbling in her cup of tea about "lust demons" and "so many tentacles."

Considering the arousal I could feel from her, it was really obvious that for all her grumbling, she had quite thoroughly enjoyed herself.

To be fair, so did Oedon and myself.

"I'm curious however, will you take any of the possible viruses?" wondered Lucy.

I hummed. "Not on the Resident Evil side of things, but the Blacklight virus sounds useful. Once I have it, I can even modify it to be immune to its normal weaknesses, and I'll have a powerful tool to use for my mortal avatar. I'll have to be careful though not to show it off since the events of Prototype happen in 2008, 10 years after Resident Evil's first games, so showing that off a decade early would cause quite a few issues."

Lucy nodded. "Very well. I presume you want me to use that Pharmaceutical Company to prepare vaccines for the various viruses and help humanity in general?"

I smiled. "Indeed."

"Any ideas for a name?"

My smile turned into a smirk. "Insight Corporation. A place where we uncover the secrets of biology, and use them to bring greatness to humanity by freeing them from mortal weaknesses such as sickness, plagues, and more. Let everyone be free from diseases, and let such things become nothing more than a bad dream from a less enlightened age."

Oedon grinned. "Taking the goal of the Healing Church, but actually doing it correctly and ethically, huh?"

I chuckled, quite satisfied at being able to one up the Healing Church. "Exactly."

Then we made our choices, which were most of the available perks (except for things like the viruses, where I only took the Blacklight ones), before making the jump.

And as I did, I couldn't help the strong feeling of anticipation coursing through me.

Fighting humans serving evil was all fine and important, but I was a Hunter.

No, I was the Good Hunter.

I thrived against the monsters that could give nightmares to regular humans.

And I was about to meet a whole lot of them.

I grinned.

Let the hunt begin.

July 23th, 1998.

18-year old Rebecca Chambers, rookie member of Bravo Team of S.T.A.R.S., looked down at the radio in her hands.

She and her team were here, in the Arklay Mountains of the Raccoon Forest bordering Raccoon City, in order to investigate a series of brutal murders that had happened in the region, with the perpetrators of the case thus far escaping the discovery of regular police forces.

After their helicopter had crash landed following an engine failure (which was strange, since she had herself checked the helicopter not long before the mission and found nothing that could have resulted to this), she had first found a crashed car with corpses of two military police officers who were apparently meant to escort one Billy Coen, a USMC Second Lieutenant slated for execution due to murdering several innocent people.

After that, her team leader, Enrico Marini, ordered them to spread out and try to find the murderer, which led her to find this stopped train and investigate it.

However, she couldn't help but grimace at the fact that everyone in it appeared dead, though by what cause she did not know.

She may be the medic of the team, but her degree was in chemistry, not forensics!

All that she could tell was that there were no bullet wounds, which was confusing to say the least-

"Grrrr…"

She blinked, turning towards the sound before freezing, staring in shocked horror as a corpse, which was previously sitting on the nearby seat, suddenly sat up, its milky white eyes staring straight at her.

Taking a step back, her horror grew when several more corpses began rising, all turning their unblinking eyes towards her.

"That's… that's impossible…" she whispered, staring with wide eyes at the impossible sight of the living dead slowly but surely making their way towards her.

The zombie closest to her made to grab her, and she finally reacted, stumbling back and fumbling for her gun-

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

She turned around, blinking yet again at the surprising sight of an incredibly tall man with a magnum in each hand, his only visible physical features being two dark eyes staring coldly at the zombies, as the rest of his body was almost completely hidden beneath a black long overcoat and a hat.

The sound of three corpses hitting the ground echoed behind her, and she gulped.

Was he the criminal that had escaped? But no, Billy Coen was not supposed to be this tall…

In that case, who was he? He certainly wasn't part of S.T.A.R.S. She would have met him and remembered someone as… memorable as the man before her.

Then he relaxed, guns lowering and staring straight at her.

That's quite the intense stare he's got, she noted, trying her best not to squirm at the piercing look thrown her way by two dark, narrowed eyes almost completely hidden under both his black coat and the shadows of his hat.

She swallowed when he tilted his head at her, almost silently judging her, before straightening.

She was on her first mission, dammit!

She wouldn't stare like an idiot when fucking zombies just tried to attack her!

Even when a giant of a man with two very big guns was staring down at her like he was deciding how dangerous she was… and finding little to be impressed with her!

"Who are you?" she questioned, and she took a moment to privately cheer in the privacy of her own mind the fact that her voice was only a little shaky.

And even if it was, there were ZOMBIES! It was totally understandable that her voice was shaky right now!

That was her story, and she was going to stick to it!

"The name's Aeon. As for your next question, I'm here to investigate Umbrella… and hunt monsters."

She could almost feel the smirk thrown her way. "So you can call me Aeon, the monster hunter if you want."

She blinked. Opened her mouth to point out how ridiculous his introduction was.

Then her mouth closed with a snap, as her mind helpfully pointed out that there were still literal zombies behind her.

She turned, flinching at the sight of the headless zombie corpses not far from her.

Aeon, now that's a strange name, but then again the world just went crazy, she thought. She then stepped forward, staring at the corpses before nodding.

"Shoot them in the head."

She blinked. "What?"

He glanced at her. "The head. That's their weak point. So if you want to live, shoot them in the head."

She stared down at the corpses, before slowly nodding.

"Thanks...?" she said, honestly still processing what the hell just happened.

Because no, those zombies were still there, and she was pretty sure she wasn't hallucinating.

Aeon kept glancing her way, his dark eyes looking at her with sympathy. "First time dealing with monsters? Trust me on this, it only gets easier over time."

And then he turned around and began to walk away.

She stared at his back for a moment, before her brain finally got back into gear.

"W-wait!" she shouted, running after him.

He turned, raising an eyebrow.

"Need something?"

Her jaw dropped, completely stunned at his uncaring attitude.

"I… I got attacked by zombies! And you just… what do you mean you're a monster hunter? And what's that about Umbrella?"

He sighed, before nodding.

"Alright, you want the summary? Umbrella Corporation has a research facility in the mountains, and they've been researching things that no one is meant to know. They've also been creating B.O.W.'s, bio-organic weapons of war if you will, in this facility. Unfortunately for them, one of those B.O.W.'s went rogue, and it's sapient enough to have one hell of a grudge against Umbrella. Thus, it killed everyone in this train, causing an outbreak in the research facility, and now zombies and monsters are running all over the place."

She blinked yet again, trying to process the deluge of information.

"How do you know all of that?" she finally questioned.

He shrugged. "I did say I was investigating Umbrella, right? There's also a mansion belonging to them nearby, but I'll go there later. For now, I'll deal with this train, see what I can find, and go on from there."

And then he turned back and kept on walking.

"You can come with me if you want, do whatever you like." He said over his shoulder, not stopping.

After a moment of thinking about it, she followed him.

If nothing else, he obviously knew a lot more of what was going on around here.

For a time, they kept on walking in silence through the train, before Rebecca spoke up.

"Is that a grenade launcher on your back?" she said slowly, finally noticing what she was almost certain was, in fact, a grenade launcher.

Aeon grinned. "Yep."

She considered that. "...Why do you have a grenade launcher?"

"Why do you think?" he replied.

She considered that, too.

Then she looked at her gun.

"I'll probably need a bigger gun before the night is over, won't I?"

He laughed. "Oh, absolutely!" he declared cheerfully, as if the implications weren't all kinds of terrifying.

She sighed. Somehow, she had a bad feeling about how this night was going to be like…

"Say, have you seen another man? Someone called Billy Coen?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Can't say I have seen anyone living except you so far. Speaking of which…" he trailed off, glancing at her questioningly.

"Officer Rebecca Chambers." she introduced herself.

He hummed, still glancing at her. "S.T.A.R.S.?" he questioned.

She nodded. "You've heard of us?"

He grunted. "I've looked into you guys, considering your links with Umbrella. Still, that's a matter for another time. For now…"

He opened a nearby door, and a gunshot echoed a second later, before he entered.

She followed, noticing the corpse on a nearby bunk with a slight grimace, before looking at Aeon, who was reading through some papers he found on a nearby table.

He silently gave them to her, and reading through them confirmed most of his words, the existence of an Umbrella research facility looking into a "t-Virus," the word "B.O.W." being used repeatedly while speaking of a weapon, the suspicion that an outbreak caused the murders in the mountains…

She looked at him grimly.

"So you were right."

He gave her a look. "I told you, though I suppose I can't fault you for being doubtful of the words of a stranger."

She looked down at the papers in her hands, giving them back to him, and he opened his coat to put them in an inside pocket.

As he did, she stared at the inside of his coat.

More specifically, at the small armory's worth of weapons there.

"... That's a lot of weapons." She blurted, noting the various knives, 9mm handguns, .45 caliber pistols, high-caliber revolvers, grenades, and that was just from what she could see!

"Comes with the job." was his calm reply, as he stepped out and kept investigating the train.

She once again looked at her gun, which was not a bad one by any means, but she was starting to feel seriously under-equipped right now…

Shaking her head, she followed after him.

Coming across a closed door with the corpse of one of the train employees nearby, she bent down to take what he held in his hand.

A train key?

"Hey, Rebecca. He's a friend of yours?" Came the calm voice of Aeon, though when she turned around she froze.

After all, he and a man she recognized as Billy Coen were currently looking straight into Aeon's eyes, guns ready to fire on her companion at a moment's notice… and vice-versa.

She leveled her own gun at Coen, face grim. "Remember when I asked you about Billy Coen? That's this guy. He's a prisoner, a murderer slated for execution who escaped his guards… possibly by killing them."

Coen grinned. "So, you seem to know me. Been fantasizing about me, have you?"

Her eyes narrowed. So did his. "I see. You're with S.T.A.R.S. Well, no offense honey, but your kind doesn't seem to want me around."

He glanced at Aeon, and then very slowly put the gun away and behind his back.

"So, I'm afraid our little chat time is over."

He turned around, sending one last cautious look at Aeon who had lowered his guns when he had lowered his, before turning around and beginning to walk away.

Rebecca sent a wide-eyed look at Aeon, before going after Coen.

"Wait! You're under arrest."

She heard Aeon snort behind her, but was far too focused on the man before her to really notice.

"No thanks, Doll-face."

He leveled his left arm before her eyes, showing off a pair of handcuffs attached to said arm.

"I've already worn handcuffs."

He turned around.

"I could shoot, you know!"

He didn't even slow down.

She turned around, noticing Aeon's amused glance.

"What?"

"Seriously? 'You're under arrest?' In the middle of a zombie outbreak?" he replied, his voice carrying a note of obvious amusement.

She blushed slightly.

"I'm an officer! And he's a criminal!"

He snorted again.

"And he certainly looked intimidated by your threat, that's for sure."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"And why didn't you say anything?" she questioned.

He gave her a flat look.

"And what, exactly, was I supposed to do? Threaten to put him into jail while in the middle of a zombie outbreak?"

She grunted, before jumping in shock when a nearby window exploded as someone jumped through it.

Her eyes widened when she saw one of her teammates on the ground, bloody wounds all over him.

"Edward!" she shouted, rushing forward.

"Are you alright?" she questioned, kneeling at his side.

"What happened?" she asked, looking over all the wounds across his entire body.

One part of his right leg looked like it got bitten through! She could even see the bones inside!

"It's worse than… We can't…" her teammate looked at her weakly, eyes full of pain. "You must be careful, Rebecca. The forest is full of zombies and monsters…"

"Zombies and monsters?" she repeated, looking out of the window into the darkness beyond with concern.

Edward gasped softly… and then his eyes stilled, his head inclining towards his left.

She had barely time to feel her eyes widen in concern, a surge of fear coursing through her at the thought of Edward dying before her, when the window above her broke and a zombie dog jumped into the train and turned to look at her with bestial hunger, growling softly.

*Bang!*

She jumped, looking up at Aeon who just shot the dog dead.

He glanced down at her.

"Fall back! There are more coming."

She did as requested, taking out her gun in both hands and readying herself.

Aeon slowly walked to her side, and they made sure to have the wall of the train behind them while they looked at the windows.

And then several dogs jumped into the train, Aeon reacting to the threat first, though she followed a moment later.

The sounds of gunfire echoed for several seconds, before everything went quiet again.

"Dogs." declared Aeon flatly. "Zombie dogs. As if I needed any more reasons to purge Umbrella… I swear, if I come across a giant zombie dog on fire, I won't be held responsible for what happens next." he grumbled.

She glanced at him. "You've got a problem with dogs?"

His face turned grim, his eyes getting a faraway look in them.

"Damned giant fire dog… spewing lava everywhere… gliding on lava… so much bullshit…" he muttered.

Rebecca promptly decided not to ask more.

Just those words alone were more than enough.

She already feared the number of nightmares she'll get with just the memories of the zombies rising from their seats and turning towards her…

Either way, she walked up to Edward, sighing.

He was so happy just a few hours ago…

She shook her head, before looking down at what he was holding.

A box of ammo.

She grimaced… and then bent down to take it.

He won't need it anymore, she thought sadly.

She felt Aeon come behind her, giving her a sympathetic look.

She nodded, then looked at the train key she got.

Showing it to Aeon, they then proceeded forward, passing through the train until her radio suddenly began crackling to life.

For some reason, their radios were barely working since they had arrived at this place.

"Rebecca? Can you hear me? This is Enrico. What's your location? Over."

She smiled. "Enrico! Hello! Can you read me? Please respond."

"Rebecca! I can hear you. Now listen up. We've obtained detailed information about the fugitive from a document found in the wrecked wagon. Billy Coen killed as many as 23 people. Over."

"23 people?" she breathed in shock.

"We've also confirmed that he was institutionalized, so keep your guard up."

The radio crackled. "Can you hear me, Rebecca? Over."

She swallowed.

"Stay alert, Rebecca. He wouldn't think twice before killing you."

The radio crackled again. She frowned.

"Enrico! Captain? Hello? Hello?"

She tried the radio again and again, before giving up.

Communication broke down. Again.

"23 people, huh? That's quite the number."

She jumped, having been so caught up in her own thoughts that she almost forgot about Aeon.

How could someone so big be so good at disappearing from her notice, she had no idea.

She looked at him, noticing the calm, almost bored look on his face.

"You don't sound impressed." she pointed out.

He shrugged. "I've met, fought, and killed people with much higher kill counts before."

She gave him a long look. "You must have quite the stories to tell."

He snorted. "Like you wouldn't believe."

She opened her mouth to ask… and then thought better of it.

This was hardly the time for chitchat, after all.

So they kept going, using the key she found to open the dining room door…

And then here he was again, 2nd Lieutenant Coen, the murderer himself, coming out from behind a nearby seat at their back.

"It's gonna be dangerous here on in. Why don't we cooperate?" he asked.

She stepped forward, sneering. "Cooperate with you?"

His eyes narrowed. "Listen, little girl. If you haven't noticed, there are some pretty freaked out things on this train, and I want to get out of here. I don't think we stand a chance doing it alone." he declared, leaning against the staircase before her.

"You expect me to trust you? A wanted felon?" she replied, incredulous. "I don't need your help. I can handle myself. And don't call me a little girl!" she declared, growling slightly.

He smirked. "Alright, 'Miss Do-It-Yourself.' What should I call you?" his eyes flickered towards Aeon. "Both of you, big, tall and silent?"

"The name's Aeon." her companion replied calmly.

"And mine is Rebecca Chambers." she leaned forward, eyes narrowed. "But that's Officer Chambers to you."

Coen walked down the stairs, before leaning against the door they just came from.

"Well then, Rebecca, Aeon, why don't you go and try while I wait here?"

She opened her mouth to agree, but she was interrupted, by Aeon surprisingly.

"I think we should agree to have him with us, Rebecca."

She turned, staring wide eyes at Aeon. "What?!"

He shrugged. "Way I see it, one more gun on our side is always a good thing, especially right now. And he's a soldier, so he knows how to use a gun and fight. Besides, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, right? Better to have him where we can keep an eye on him, than doing who knows what where we can't."

"Listen to the big guy, Rebecca. I can tell he knows more about fighting than you do."

She turned again, staring at Coen, before grunting.

"You're sure about this, Aeon?"

"Well, look at it this way. If he wants to use us as bait while he bails out, we can always turn on him first."

Coen smirked. "Spoken like a true mercenary."

Aeon smirked back. "And what makes you think that I am a merc?"

Coen scoffed. "You aren't part of S.T.A.R.S. They're ultimately full of goody-two-shoes, like doll-face over there. You, though? I have met enough of the best of the best in the army to recognize a hardened killer. So you aren't S.T.A.R.S., but you aren't a soldier, so what does that leave?"

Aeon chuckled. "You would be surprised."

"Enough." declared Rebecca firmly.

Coen raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing, and Aeon seemed satisfied to simply relax against the wall and watch.

She looked at Coen for a moment. He may be a murderer, but he wasn't entirely wrong.

She had no real idea who Aeon was, and while she still trusted him more than a known convict, she still had no idea for who he worked for.

Or what he really was after.

She mentally sighed. This was her first mission, and already she was stuck between a murderer, a "monster hunter" whose true loyalty she had no knowledge of, a world-spanning corporation that had obviously done unethical and illegal research, and literal zombies.

Hell of a first mission.

Finally, she agreed, and their new trio went up the stairs.

There, she found a burned wagon, with one body still sitting at his seat.

She frowned. It looked curiously intact for a corpse.

Stepping closer to the old man, she put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him gently.

"Sir, are you alright? Sir?"

The old man turned his head towards her… and then his head fell off, along with the right half of his body, revealing dozens of small, slimy creatures within his body, all of them gathering together and then recreating the old man's body somehow.

She screamed, before a hand grabbed her right shoulder and roughly threw her backwards.

Then both Coen and Aeon stepped forward, firing over and over again at the worms.

Rebecca took a few deep breaths, then took her gun and joined in firing against the mass of leeches somehow having taken human shape.

Soon enough, the tides of monsters slowed, as the remaining ones retreated out of view.

"Are you okay?" questioned Aeon and Coen at the same time.

They shared a look, before both turned to look at her.

She gave them a quick smile and a thumbs-up, before sighing deeply.

Then the thunder outside roared, and they all looked outside… where a man stood tall, surrounded by leeches, looking straight at them.

Then the light of the thunder went out, and he disappeared.

"Who was that guy?!" exclaimed Coen.

Aeon, however, merely grunted. "Remember what I told you about what was going on here?" he asked, looking at her, and she frowned in thought.

Then she blinked.

"Wait, that's the B.O.W. you mentioned?"

"Pretty much."

Coen looked at them, and she sighed, before she repeated what Aeon told her.

He frowned. "So wait, Umbrella performed inhumane experiments on people in secret, and one of those facilities is in the mountains? That's why all of this is happening?"

"That's the gist of it, yes." replied Aeon.

He grunted, frowning. "And you are here to stop them?"

Aeon's face turned grim. "Trying to, at least. They've got facilities like this one all over the world, each with their own abominations hidden within. And I know they've got influence at every level of society. The nearby Raccoon City is their personal playground in all but name at this point, for example."

It was Rebecca's turn to be grim. "If that's true, then…"

Aeon nodded. "Yes. They've been doing experiments there, too."

She scowled.

"Damn."

Then she stumbled, as the train suddenly powered up, and she turned around in confusion.

"What's going on? Who's controlling the train?"

"Go and check out the first engine car." ordered Coen, looking at her.

Normally, she wouldn't take orders from him, but this really wasn't the time, so she nodded and began moving there.

"Listen!" he shouted, stopping her. "We gotta cooperate with each other from now on. You got that?"

She pursed her lips, grimacing.

Despite everything, he was still a murderer. What was she-

"Clue in, girl!" he shouted, stepping forward. "Or maybe you want to be worm bait?" he declared, pointing at the dead worms he killed.

She grunted, not pleased but acknowledging the point being made. "Alright!" she exclaimed. "But you remember, I will shoot you if you try anything funny!"

"Fine!" he replied.

Then he looked at Aeon. "And you, watch her back. If you two find anything, give me a call."

She looked at the hand-held radio he had, taking her own for a second before agreeing.

Aeon looked at her.

"You ready?"

She took a deep breath, before nodding.

"I am."

And with that said, she turned around, Aeon following behind her.

Going down the stairs, they investigated previously unknown parts of the train, eventually coming across the lift service.

"Look, there is something in it." Aeon pointed out.

Opening it, she noticed that there was a key within.

"You think it's Coen who sent it to us?"

"I can check." she replied, taking the radio.

A quick check confirmed it, though it also came with the news that Coen was currently stuck in a room which had a door that refused to open.

She promised to help if she could, before she and Aeon retraced their steps, going back all the way to where they got attacked by the zombie dogs.

Along the way, Aeon kept shooting at the heads of every corpse they came across, and Rebecca frowned at him.

"Why are you doing that?"

He glanced at her. "Isn't it obvious?"

She grimaced, before sighing.

"You aren't worried about your ammo?"

He snorted. "Remember all the stuff I have in my coat?"

She blinked, before nodding. "Fair enough."

"Besides," he continued "when it comes to a zombie outbreak, there is no such thing as overly cautious, only alive and undead."

There was nothing that she could say to that, so she just kept walking.

Finally, they arrived at the conductor's room, and after taking the ladder found there, they ended up in the bar area.

They only took a few steps into the room when a horrible shriek pierced the silence, and their eyes snapped to the roof, where something large was unquestionably moving.

"I give that shriek a 3 out of 10." deadpanned Aeon.

She blinked. "Only a 3?"

He snorted. "At best."

She gave him a long look. "What the hell is worth a 10 then?"

His eyes took a faraway look that she had first noticed when he spoke of the giant fire dog.

"You don't want to know."

She turned around.

She hardly needed to be the child prodigy the rest of society called her to know that he was very likely correct.

They kept going, Rebecca eventually finding a shotgun with a box of ammo for it, and she had to agree with Aeon's look of approval that yes, she certainly felt much better with a shotgun on hand than with just a pistol.

Especially with whatever was on the rooftop still being up there somewhere.

They returned to the bar area… just in time to see a scorpion slightly bigger than Aeon pierce the roof and fall down at their level.

Aeon blinked, while she stared in shock.

"Huh. I thought it'd be bigger."

She turned to stare at him in shock, because seriously that thing was bigger than she was, only to see him put his guns away inside his coat and then step forward.

"What-"

It all happened in a moment.

The scorpion sent his stinger at Aeon, who dodged, took the stinger in both hands, and then sent it straight back into the head of the scorpion.

There was a sickening *crack*, a dying hiss, and then Aeon stepped back, nodding in satisfaction.

Rebecca blinked slowly.

"Did you just kill that giant scorpion with its own stinger?"

Aeon looked at her curiously. "Yes?"

She stared at him.

"... Are all monster hunters as insane as you?"

He blinked, tilted his head, and shook it.

"Only the best!" he declared brightly.

She gave him a flat look.

"At the risk of being cliché… Are you from Australia?"

He snorted. "Please, where I come from, Australia is only a vacation spot in comparison."

Then he turned around, walking away.

"You're coming?" he called out over his shoulder.

She sighed. This was not what she had expected when she became part of the S.T.A.R.S.

Well, she thought while trying to cheer herself up, at least I have a shotgun now!

After helping Coen with his stuck door by sending him an ice pick to open it, they went through the maintenance corridor to enter an area where several dogs were caged in.

"Were" being the key word, because the moment both Aeon and Rebecca had stepped into the room, the zombie dogs broke through the doors of their cages and attacked them.

A few shots fired later, and they kept going.

Not long after that, Coen joined them, as with the door now opened, he was free to go back to them.

They then found the hookshot, and with it she was able to access a new section of the train, which gave her what she needed to get the blue pass card, and with it they were finally able to enter the frontal part of the train, in order to try and stop it from moving.

When they entered that part of the train however, they were met with a surprising sight.

"Soldiers?" exclaimed softly Coen, at the sight of the two corpses before them.

"Yes. It's Delta Team, a special unit from Umbrella, meant to take care of problems… quietly." replied Aeon.

She frowned. "If they are here…"

"Then Umbrella is trying to cover their asses and eliminate all evidence." declared Coen grimly, easily putting two and two together.

Aeon nodded.

"Come on, let's stop this train."

They finally entered the foremost part of the train, and Coen soon grimaced.

"The train will either derail or crash at this speed! I gotta stop this thing!"

"Here, that should help." Declared Aeon, holding up a manual he found close by.

They looked at it, before Coen nodded. "Alright, Aeon, Rebecca, go take care of what needs to be done. I'll stay here and hit the brakes the moment I can do so."

"Got it." she replied, before running outside, Aeon just behind her.

"Don't screw up!" Shouted Coen behind them.

"We won't!" she shouted back.

As they made their way down the train however, she stopped, freezing at the sight of Edward's zombie eating a corpse in the middle of one of the wagons.

"Edward! No…"

Her shout alerted the zombie, who stood up, turning to slowly make his way towards her.

"Stop! Don't come any closer!"

As she feared, he didn't listen.

Her gun, held in her own trembling hands, came up, and she swallowed hard as she prepared to shoot.

Then a large, glove-covered hand came up on her right shoulder, and she turned her head, staring into Aeon's sympathetic dark eyes.

"I can do it. I didn't shoot him before because I knew you wouldn't take it well, but…"

But, indeed. She looked back at the zombie before her, knowing that Aeon's words were correct, she wouldn't have reacted well to him shooting her former teammate's corpse in the head.

It still would have been preferable to… this.

Edward took yet another step towards her, and she closed her eyes, before shaking her head.

"No." she answered Aeon. "No. He's my teammate. It's… I should be the one to do this."

And with that, before she could lose her courage, she shot Edward in the head.

Staring at his corpse now laying on the ground, she slumped, closing her eyes.

Aeon's hand on her shoulder tightened, a silent but appreciated reminder that she wasn't alone in this nightmarish night.

She looked up at him, seeing the mix of sadness and grim approval in his eyes.

"It needed to be done." he said simply, and she sighed.

He was right… but that hardly made it easier.

"Did you…?" she trailed off.

He stayed silent for a moment, a dark look in his eyes.

"There is nothing quite like the feeling of killing a man you knew to be a good person… especially when you have met his children previously." he replied, before walking forward without another word.

She grimaced, before following.

Again, she couldn't help but wonder at what kind of past he had. It was obvious it wasn't his first time fighting off monsters, but what, exactly, had happened to make him the man before her?

Someone who could stare at any monsters without so much as a moment of fear or doubt?

And what would happen to her, if she ended up following in his footsteps?

She shook her head, running to catch up with him.

There was no point wasting time wondering about such things, especially when they had to stop the train from crashing.

Running at the end of the train, they activated the mechanism needed to operate the brakes, before she took out her radio.

"This is Rebecca. I've engaged the control device for the brakes! Over."

"Roger!" replied Coen. "I'll put the brakes on now!"

"We should get back in the train. Just in case."

She nodded at Aeon's words. "Alright!"

They re-entered, and found a corner where they wouldn't be able to move too much if the train derailed.

"We're still going too fast." noted Aeon grimly.

Then his eyes widened, and he rushed towards her, hugging her close to him before she could react-

And then the train derailed and crashed.

Rebecca groaned, consciousness ruthlessly reestablishing itself and letting her know that, while alive, her body most definitely did not like the experience of going through a train crash.

A chuckle coming from beneath her shook her entire body.

"While I'm always happy to have a beautiful woman in my arms, or even better laying on my chest, I'm pretty sure we have far too many clothes for us to have done anything fun. Truly, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined." came the dry, amused voice of Aeon, and when her eyes opened the situation was as bad as she feared.

She was in his arms, laying on his chest, and hugging him tightly.

Wow that's a lot of muscles, her mind "helpfully" supplied.

She froze, finally registering the situation, and in her haste born from embarrassment she got up backwards too fast, throwing her ass over head.

As she lay on the cold ground, Aeon's laughter echoing in her ears, she let her head fall on the concrete, a groan of misery leaving her lips.

Today isn't a good day, she thought grimly. And I've got a feeling it isn't going to get any better.

"Come on! Rise and shine, Rebecca. We still got to see if Coen survived this, too."

At that, her eyes flew open, because while her feelings toward Coen were… mixed, to say the least, she would still prefer him not to die.

There has been far too much death already.

Thankfully, it didn't take long to find a very much alive Coen, and after Aeon brought out some of the healing herbs of Umbrella (which he confirmed as safe for use, declaring it to be arguably the greatest discovery of Umbrella), they kept going, their group now finding themselves in a luxurious entry hall.

"The Umbrella Research Center?" Coen read from a symbol on the ground, before looking up at Aeon. "Wasn't that…?"

"Yes." Aeon confirmed grimly. "This place is, in fact, that research facility."

She and Coen took a moment to fully comprehend the implications.

"Well, shit." Coen declared, a sentiment she very much agreed with.

Aeon chuckled darkly.

"Indeed. If you thought the train was bad, that was only the start. Now, however, we are going to be dealing with the real monsters of Umbrella."

He smiled cheerfully at them. "So, what are we waiting for? Onwards, my friends! To new adventures!" he shouted brightly, before walking forward.

She and Coen stared at his back.

"That is the most cheerful individual in the face of death I've ever seen." deadpanned Coen, who nonetheless still began to follow after Aeon.

She almost agreed, but the memories of the looks on Aeon's face whenever his past came up made it clear that not everything was so clear-cut.

She glanced at Coen. Billy, she decided, because by now he deserved that she called him by his first name.

He, too, wasn't any different. There was more to his past and his crimes than what she knew, she was starting to be certain of that.

Again, she mentally sighed. This mission really was one clusterfuck after another with no end in sight.

But she supposed it didn't matter. It was literally do or die now, and she had no intention of dying at a mere 18 years old.

Or worse, becoming a zombie.

She shivered at the thought, before going up to follow the rest of her unexpected team.

At least, she wasn't alone in this nightmare...

Going up the stairs before her, she looked at the portrait in front of her, a gasp escaping her when she recognized the man.

It was the same old man that had turned into a monster made of leeches in the train!

"The first General Manager, Dr. James Marcus." declared Billy, looking at the name beneath the painting.

"A nasty piece of work, from everything I could find about the man." said Aeon, looking coldly at the painting.

"Attention. This is Dr. Marcus." came the proud, cold voice across the room.

"A recording." explained Aeon.

"Please be silent as we reflect upon our company motto. Obedience breeds discipline. Discipline breeds unity. Unity breeds power. Power is life!"

"Charming." drily replied Aeon.

"Indeed." agreed Billy.

"What do you know of him?" she questioned.

Aeon sighed. "A mad genius, in just a few words. Brilliant, but ruthless and utterly uncaring of morality compared to results. Dr. Marcus was eventually assassinated by both of his protegees, who had their own aspirations for Umbrella, partly because of his increasing lack of sanity and the numbers of corpses he was leaving behind in the name of his research, but mostly as a power grab move and for the protegees to get their hands on said research. As for the names of those protegees…"

He fell silent for a moment. "Albert Wesker and William Birkin."

Rebecca blinked in shock. "But… Albert Wesker is-!"

"Yes. He is the commanding officer of the Alpha team of the S.T.A.R.S. I am aware. I did tell you that I had previously looked into your team for its links with Umbrella."

She swallowed. "But if that's true, then…"

"Indeed. Make no mistake, your team was sent here to die."

She flinched. The sudden breakdown of the helicopter's engine was looking more and more sinister in nature.

"Umbrella sounds more and more evil the further you talk about them." bluntly replied Billy.

Aeon smirked at them. "That's because they are. They are ruled by extremists, who believe they will usher a new age for humanity, one where they will rule as gods upon it. In other words, they are megalomaniacs, who sadly have the resources needed to be very, very dangerous to all of mankind."

Rebecca gulped. That sounded insane… but then again, so did the zombies an hour ago.

God, was it really only around an hour ago that her helicopter crashed landed?!

"So. What's your plan, now?" questioned Billy.

Aeon shrugged. "Investigate the facility, see what I can find about the dirty secrets of Umbrella, kill anything that looks at me wrong, and then probably run like hell when Umbrella comes here by force to cleanse this entire place and burn it to the ground."

Coen stared at him for a moment, before nodding.

"Sounds like a plan."

They turned towards her.

She swallowed, then nodded too.

"Well, I'm supposed to investigate the murders in the region, and they happened because of this place, so… might as well join in." she finished.

She hardly had a choice anyway, considering going out alone would be a death sentence.

That, and damn it, she was knee-deep in a criminal investigation of a worldwide corporation.

She could hardly look at herself as Officer Chambers if she ran from this!

Aeon nodded, an approving look in his eyes, before turning back to the stairs before him.

"In that case, let's get started."

The first place they investigated was a dining room, though the nearby kitchen door marked with a fire motif was closed for the time being.

Beyond that was a room hiding a shotgun, that Billy gladly took, which meant they now all had "heavier" weapons than just handguns. They now had two shotguns and a grenade launcher.

They then took a ladder up, going on the balconies of the building they now stood in, killing any zombies standing in their way until they re-entered the building, entering a room with paintings on almost every wall.

Curiously, the place looked kind of like a classroom… though a rather strange one, mixing medieval elements with more modern technologies.

"It's a training facility for Umbrella employees… or it was, at least."

She looked at Aeon, who was holding a manual of employees of Umbrella, clearly labelled as such on the cover.

"Anything interesting?"

He shrugged. "Not really. Only more brainwashing about the values of obedience and unity."

She sighed, nodding, and before long they kept going.

Not long after they once again found themselves in the entrance hall, though this time Aeon's attention was caught by a statue holding a weighing scale.

He put a black statue on one side of the scale, before shrugging at their looks of confusion.

"Megalomaniacs and their weird security systems. Don't try to question it, it's not worth it."

They widely decided not to ask questions about the various items he picked up after that.

While searching a nearby room, a flock of crows broke through the windows and actually attacked them, though Aeon gunned them down swiftly.

Rebecca stared at the crows.

"Even the birds, now?" she wondered, because surely, the number of these monsters had to have some limits, right?

Aeon shrugged. "All things considered, at least those crows are normal-looking."

Billy and her turned to stare at him.

He grinned. "Trust me, there is nothing quite like being attacked by giant, bloodthirsty crows to teach you the value of never forgetting to look up for airborne threats."

"How big are those crows?" Rebecca questioned, wondering if she should have kept her mouth shut.

"Bigger than any of the zombie dogs outside."

Of course they are, she mentally grumbled to herself.

"Aeon? After tonight, please do me a service and tell me where you found those, so that I can make sure to never go there."

"Agreed." deadpanned Billy.

Aeon snorted. "Bah! Those crows were positively friendly and inoffensive compared to the rest of the place!"

"I repeat my statement: please tell me of the place, so that I know to never go there!" Exclaimed Rebecca, Billy passionately nodding at her side.

Aeon rolled his eyes at them, before walking forward without another word.

"You know, for all we know, Umbrella has a bunch of things that even this guy would consider crazy in their labs…" slowly said Billy.

She gave him a flat look. "Don't give the universe any ideas! Tonight is crazy enough as it is!"

And on those cheerful words, they kept going onward.

Eventually finding a map of the training facility, they had to separate after coming across a lift which required someone outside it to operate, Aeon and Rebecca going to the floor above.

They had only taken a step out of the lift when two giant insects, which looked like the unholy love children of a praying mantis, a spider, and a fly, tried to jump on them.

Aeon reacted first, and his guns came up, two bullets bathing the floor with green blood before Rebecca had time to finish raising her own gun.

"Thanks." she said, before looking at the monsters.

Aeon did the same.

"The moment we come across giant spiders, I reserve the right to bring out the grenade launcher." he declared flatly.

Rebecca blinked, pictured the mental image of giant spiders rushing towards her, and shuddered.

"Motion firmly approved and seconded." she replied, suddenly rather pale.

Thankfully, no giant spiders appeared in the next several rooms, and they were able to unlock a door which allowed Billy to rejoin them.

After catching him up on their side of things, earning a firm third approval of the "let's blow giant spiders up with grenades" plan whenever it would become necessary, they kept going, and, to the relief of both Rebecca and Billy, they found a grenade launcher in the next room.

Billy took it, arguing that, since Rebecca often teamed up with Aeon who had his own, it should go to him, and neither Aeon or Rebecca argued the point.

After that, Billy used a lever which opened a cage that for some reason hid a key inside, though the moment she took it a massive centipede several times the length of a human being bursted out from a nearby ventilation duct.

Rebecca's jaw dropped at the sight of it, the fact it was staring right back at her not helping, though before either side could do anything-

"Hey, ugly!" shouted Aeon.

The centipede turned to look at him, hissing loudly.

"Duck, Rebecca!" He shouted.

Instincts took over, and she did so immediately, adrenaline now surging through her veins as she recognized the danger she was in.

The centipede didn't even look at her, having eyes only for Aeon, who-

Oh dear. He took out the grenade launcher.

And he was grinning.

She immediately threw herself to the ground even further, shouting at Billy to do the same.

The look in Aeon's eyes was far too much like the one he held when the giant scorpion showed up for her comfort.

"Come get me if you dare!" Came the shout from Aeon, and an instant later there was a loud hiss.

Then Billy cursed, Aeon screamed "Surprise!," and the massive explosion after that was followed by a horrible smell.

And a loud, meaty "thump."

Opening one eye, Rebecca noticed the lack of screaming, and looked cautiously behind her.

The sight that awaited her was, alas, more or less what she expected.

A massive corpse missing a head, a blood-covered Aeon grinning madly, grenade launcher in hand, and without a doubt still in the firing position which lobbed a grenade straight into the open maw of the beast that had an instant before charged towards him, and Billy, standing frozen before the spectacle before him, who looked unsure if he should be impressed or should just facepalm.

She had the horrible suspicion it won't be the last time tonight they'll both feel that way…

After everyone had gathered their bearing from the unexpected attack (and Aeon removed most of the blood still on him), Rebecca had showed off the key with a fire motif she had found, Aeon pointing out it was the same motif as on the kitchen' door and at one other door they came across later.

Retracing their steps, they sadly only found materials that can be used to create a few molotov cocktails in the kitchen.

Then Rebecca found the oil required to fill her lighter, and Aeon pointed out the door with a painting nearby of a man lighting a candle they had passed by a while back.

Returning there, Rebecca lit the candle at the side of the door, and the previously locked door opened.

After Billy made quick work of the zombies inside the newly opened room, they investigated the small library, Aeon eventually showing off the small white statue he had found within.

Following that, they opened the other door which has a similar motif to the Fire Key, revealing a study which contained an iron needle that Aeon took (again, neither Rebecca or Billy commented on it. It had worked in their favor so far, after all), some ammo for their handguns and shotguns, and a diary which spoke of the new trainees of the Umbrella facility… including one William Birkin and Albert Wesker.

Rebecca scowled at the new proof of Aeon's words, but by now, she could hardly feel any surprise, and Billy only nodded.

He may have been suspicious of Aeon when they first met, but the more they learned of Umbrella, and the more he seemed to approve of Aeon's desire to investigate them.

Which, by itself, was hardly the reaction expected of a cold-blooded murderer, which only furthered her belief that there was much more to his story than what his criminal records showed.

That room done, Aeon brought them back to the room where he and Rebecca first came across the giant insects, pointing out the nearby clock which was missing one of its hands once there.

Setting the clock at 8:15, the clock suddenly activated, and Aeon nodded in satisfaction.

Following him to a previously locked door, he opened it with a smirk, which made Billy grunt and scowl at the door.

She could sympathize. This place was insane, as insane as the ones living in it.

The room contained several zombies (that Billy took obvious satisfaction killing, his frustration about this place being a convenient outlet), a page with a verse from a poem that Aeon read through before putting in one of his pockets, and a microfilm.

The next locked door had some ammo, healing herbs, and a zombie who began thrashing around the moment they showed up.

Billy and herself stared in surprise at the spasming zombie, but Aeon didn't so much as blink and immediately took the grenade launcher on his back.

Thus when it suddenly erupted into a shower of gore and turned into some kind of undulating humanoid abomination, Aeon immediately lobbed a grenade at it and blew it up.

There was a moment of silence, before Rebecca sighed.

"More abominations?"

Her voice held no surprise, only resignation at this point.

Aeon snorted. "Can't have it too easy, now can we?"

Both Coen and herself grunted at his words.

"I'm starting to really hate Umbrella." Drily declared Billy, and Aeon threw him a surprised look.

"Only starting?"

Billy blinked, before nodding.

"Actually, you're right. I've been wanting to shoot their leaders in the head at some point since… what, around an hour ago?"

"Join the club, but I'm warning you now, I call dibs." joked Aeon, and both she and Billy snorted.

"Fair enough." agreed Billy.

And then they kept on moving again.

The next room had a projector, allowing them to use the microfilm they found, which showed a bird's eye view of the classroom they came across a while back with numbers or letters assigned to every seat.

They began to memorize it, until Billy took a nearby photo showing the same thing that the microfilm did.

Aeon put it in one of his pockets, and they left the room, returning to the classroom where they unlocked the computer thanks to the numbers and letters corresponding to the seats.

Unlocking the computer also unlocked several nearby doors, and they soon investigated the nearest room.

The office they found held some ammo and grenades, alongside a mechanism that Aeon unlocked giving him a pair of small wings, looking like they would fit on the statuette he previously showed them, as well as the personal diary of Dr. Marcus.

Said diary revealed the existence of a "Progenitor" virus, and spoke of the beginning of the Umbrella Corporation created by a man named Spencer, of the creation of the "t-virus," of the Tyrants, and thoroughly showed the slow fall into madness of Marcus himself.

Billy and Rebecca read alongside Aeon throughout the diary who bluntly spoke of the utterly inhumane human experiments being performed, and grimaced.

"Damn." Billy cursed softly. "This guy really was a mad genius. Emphasis on mad."

Aeon nodded. "Sadly, he's hardly the only one. The rest of Umbrella is no different."

"And one of them is the commanding officer of the Alpha Team of S.T.A.R.S.'' whispered Rebecca, feeling sick at the amount of proofs they were finding of her supposed leader's involvements in monstrous experiments.

She had been so proud when she had been accepted into the S.T.A.R.S… if only she had known what she was getting into!

"To be fair, Umbrella isn't the only corporation that has done such unethical things. Far from it, but that's a story for another time. For now, let's keep going." Declared Aeon, and while she had many questions, she followed after him without complaints.

This was big, really really big, and Aeon was obviously knee-deep into this shadow war against evil corporations.

Because they definitely deserved to be described as evil, and if this was what Umbrella was truly up to… and if other corporations were just as bad…

What was truly going on, hidden behind the closed doors of secret research facilities? Just how badly in danger was the world, really?

And what could be done to protect it?

She didn't know… but as far as she could tell, Aeon was trying to help in trying to reveal the truth to the world.

The truth of the monstrous things corporations were doing behind closed doors.

And if she could help him, then she would.

She had chosen a career in the law enforcement, after all.

She wanted to help keep the world safe.

And the world looked more and more like it needed protectors to fight for it right now.

After that, they kept up their investigation of the facility.

The next room was an infirmary, where they were able to stock up on healing herbs and sprays.

Aeon passed some time looking into some kind of chemical tanks, before eventually coming back to them.

She asked for what he had found, since chemistry was what she had studied, and after explaining that he had found a note about how the facility had various useful chemicals scattered across the place, she promised to keep an eye out for them.

They then returned to the entrance hall, where Aeon put the pair of black wings on said statuette.

There was a sound coming from downstairs, and going down they found the painting of Dr. Marcus having seemingly gone into a hole in the ground, revealing an entrance behind it.

Aeon gave a satisfied smirk before entering, Billy and herself, equally exasperated by the architecture of this place, following closely behind.

Aeon stopped moving soon however, staring upwards, and she moved at his side, a question on her lips-

One which died quickly, replaced by a whimper of fear and disgust as she beheld the giant spider, as big as she was tall, currently resting on the ceiling of the corridor a few meters up ahead.

Billy took one look at it and began cursing.

Quietly, mind you.

"So. Just checking again, but if I remembered well, we promised to bring out the grenades, correct?" drily declared Aeon, his eyes not leaving the beast up ahead.

She nodded passionately in agreement.

Aeon grinned, took out his grenade launcher, and seconds later, the corridor was rocking from the explosion of the grenade.

"No one has any complaints about me being at the front for a bit?" asked Aeon.

There was, needless to say, no disagreement to be found from her or Billy.

A decision even further amplified by the discovery of two more giant spiders further ahead into the corridor.

Rebecca Chambers, once again in what had to be the longest night of her life, took a moment to be thankful to whatever higher being might exist that she wasn't alone to deal with all this.

She really wasn't sure she would still be alive if she had been.

In the only unlocked door of the corridor, they found a room with a list of all the names of the people used as unwilling test subjects, and all three of them turned grim at the sight of the pages full of names of said list.

A good reminder of how evil these people were… and how much influence they had to have successfully hidden all these crimes for so long.

Aeon quietly put the list into one of his coat's numerous pockets, and Rebecca could only hope that one day the families of the people named on the list would find the justice they rightfully deserved for all of this.

The next room was a dead end, if not for an open ventilation air duct up on a wall.

They stared at it for a moment, before Aeon grimaced.

"It's too small for me or you, Billy, to take it. Rebecca…"

"I'll do it." she declared, a bit more confidently than she really felt. Who knew what could be awaiting in the next room?

Both Aeon and Billy looked at her, and Billy looked ready to say something before grimacing, while Aeon merely nodded grimly.

"Make sure you've got your weapons ready and loaded. Do you have enough ammo?" questioned Aeon.

She checked her handgun and shotgun, checked her ammo reserves, and nodded.

She hadn't done all that much fighting tonight, not in comparison to both Aeon and Billy at least, partly because she was supposed to be the medic of the team, and partly because, well, both Billy and Aeon were frankly much better at fighting than she was, and it showed.

As much as she liked to think of herself as capable of handling herself, these two were obviously much more experienced in life and death situations, and they often had their guns up and firing before hers was.

It bothered her slightly, but frankly she was much more thankful to have backup in this madhouse than anything else.

And if nothing else, she was learning a lot by watching consummate professionals at work.

Either way, Billy put his back on the wall and held up his hands so that Rebecca could use them to reach the open air duct, and moments later her fingers grasped the entrance of the ventilation duct.

"I'm almost there!" she declared.

"Glad to be of service." came the slightly sarcastic comment from Billy, though there was a note of concern in his voice which showed his true feelings.

She looked into the open space before her, grimacing at all the dust and cobwebs inside, before taking a deep breath.

"Time to go inside."

Thankfully, the trip was relatively short, and she managed to reach the room on the other side quickly.

Dusting herself up, she looked up and around her… and immediately regretted it, a hand coming up before her mouth as she gasped, staring wide eyes at the wide room she was in… one filled with various old torture devices, all of them covered in dried blood.

"Rebecca! Everything's alright?" came Billy's concerned voice from the air duct, and she looked back towards it.

"Yes! There aren't any zombies in this room! It's…" she trailed off. "I'll tell you guys later! Give me a minute, I'll find the door of this place and rejoin you!"

Slowly making her way through the room, staring in horrified fascination at all the torture devices surrounding her, she eventually found a paper on the ground talking about the power generator.

Looking around, she spotted it, and quickly activated it.

Turning around, she smiled when the door of the room unlocked itself with the return of power, and made her way towards it, eager to reunite with Aeon and Billy.

And then something fell on top of her, shrieking loudly, and she screamed.

Looking up over her right shoulder, she came face to face with a bloodthirsty ape with wide, bloodshot eyes, and after thrashing around for a few seconds she threw him off her.

She noticed the concerned shouts from Billy coming from the air duct, but she was too busy staring at the zombie ape to really notice.

He jumped towards her, and she rolled underneath it, quickly going up on her feet again-

And then the ground beneath her gave way, and she fell backwards, barely managing to hold on at the last second at a strip of metal still mostly buried in the ground surrounding the hole she accidentally made.

"Shit… I can't hold on…" she muttered, her heart beating rapidly in terror.

She didn't know how deep the hole underneath her was, but considering that looking downward only showed darkness, she really didn't want to find out the hard way.

"Aeon! Billy! Help!" she screamed.

"Hold on! We're coming!" came Aeon's voice, and then the very faint sound of a door opening came from the air duct.

"Got to… hold on…" she muttered.

Hold on… and hope that her two companions would save her before it was too late.

"Come on!" I shouted at Billy Coen, before rushing through the door.

My black overcoat, that I received as one of the Resident Evil item perks, flapped in the air as I ran forwards, Billy close behind.

At least I knew where I needed to go, so I just had to quickly open the nearby doors to show to Billy that they aren't the ones that would lead to Rebecca, and keep going without wasting time trying them out more than for a handful of seconds.

Honestly, so far the events of Resident Evil 0 were pretty straightforward and simple.

Kill a few zombies, kill a few more esoteric abominations, and deal with this crazy mansion that would give the architects from Yharnam a good run for their money, and there you go.

Simple.

Alas, this time it wasn't so simple, since that air duct really was too small for my size.

Now, I could still go through if I really needed to, my biology as a bearer of the Blacklight virus made sure of that (and I could always cheat with magic if need be), but that would certainly reveal myself to both Billy and Rebecca, which I'd rather not do.

Not yet, at least.

Of course, I wasn't really concerned, since my true self was keeping an eye on the situation and would make certain that we wouldn't arrive too late, but that was hardly something I could tell Billy.

Coming at the entrance of the facility, Billy cursed.

"Which way should we go, now?"

I took a left.

"This way. If I'm right, I might have an idea of the place where the room is!" I shouted, running onwards, Billy following suit.

"I hope you're right!" he shouted.

Thankfully, we only had to deal with a handful of zombies on our way, and soon enough I opened a door which revealed some kind of torture room, with devices for it covered in dried blood all over the place.

I didn't even blink at the sight, only caring about the zombie ape staring at us and the hole in the ground where I could hear Rebecca cursing.

"Help her!" I shouted, before head shooting the ape and then rushing behind Billy.

"Rebecca!" screamed Billy, holding her by the arm right as her grip failed, myself taking her other arm a second later.

"Come on! Up you go!" I declared, dragging her upwards and back on solid ground with Billy's help.

Once that was done, we all took a moment to recover, Rebecca staring at us with grateful eyes, well aware we just saved her life.

"Thank you." she said, voice trembling.

"Thank you." she said, staring at the two men who just saved her life.

It was hardly the first time tonight, but this had been a really close one here.

If they had been a few seconds slower…

She shuddered.

"It's alright. Don't mention it." replied Billy, gathering his breath after running to her rescue. "We promised to cooperate with each other. Remember?"

She nodded, slowly getting on her feet again.

Then her radio beeped, and she blinked in shock, because she had been pretty sure it had stopped working a while back.

"This is Rebecca. Over." she eagerly said, anxious to hear from the rest of her team.

"Rebecca. This is Enrico." said her captain, her eyes brightening at hearing the confirmation that at least her team leader was still alive.

"Have you managed to locate Coen yet? Over."

She turned to look at Billy, who was slowly getting up, face expressionless as he stared at her, Aeon's own face showing no indication of his thoughts and feelings.

"Rebecca, answer me."

She swallowed… and then made her choice.

"No, sir. I have not found him yet."

She looked at Billy.

"I'll continue to search for him. Over."

She cut off her radio.

"Rebecca…" whispered Billy, a complex mix of emotions in his eyes.

She turned to look at him, smiling weakly.

"My first mission and I've already disobeyed orders." she shrugged slightly, a "what can you do?" look on her face. "So much for my great law enforcement career."

She sighed. "Oh well. I probably won't live long enough to worry about it." she joked grimly, though much more of her true feelings and fears shined through her words than she'd like.

Then her eyes snapped up, staring at him in the eyes with a firm look.

"Billy…" she began, a bit hesitantly but nonetheless determined to finally ask the question that has been bothering her for a while now.

"I just need to know. I need to know the truth. Did you kill 23 people? I'm not going to judge you." she promised, because by now she had killed who knows how many zombies.

Certainly, it wasn't the same, but she certainly hadn't gotten up this morning expecting to shoot at so many people.

Undead or not.

"I just want to know the truth." she repeated firmly.

Billy swallowed, looking from her to Aeon, who was looking curiously at him, but otherwise seemed willing to let Rebecca take the lead.

He took a deep breath, exhaled, and then looked away, a faraway look in his eyes as he began speaking.

"It was around this time last year. Our unit was ordered to Africa to intervene in a civil war." he said softly.

"Our mission was to raid a hideout of some guerilla forces located deep inside a jungle."

He sighed. "But the hideout was far away from our entry point. Some died from the heat, others were killed by the enemy."

He grimaced. "In the end, only four of us survived."

Then his face turned grim as he looked back at her. "Only, there was no guerilla hideout."

She blinked.

"What do you mean?" she questioned.

"Bad intel?" proposed Aeon, and Billy nodded in his direction.

"The idiots in charge had us operating based on wrong information. But we couldn't just return empty-handed, oh no."

He scowled. "Our leader ordered us to attack an innocent village."

His eyes regained that faraway look that she was beginning to associate with horrible memories, if both Aeon and Billy were anything to go by.

She wondered if she, too, would have that look on her face whenever she'll think back on tonight… if she actually survives the night, that is.

She stepped forwards. "So… did you execute those innocent people?"

Billy opened his mouth, but Aeon spoke first.

"He didn't."

They turned to look at him, and Aeon repeated his words.

"He didn't. Trust me on that."

"And how do you know?" Billy asked, eyes narrowed.

Aeon gave him a long look.

"Because I've met the kind of people that did this kind of stuff. I've met the kind of people who have killed civilians before. You don't have the look in your eyes that they had."

Neither she nor Billy had anything to say to that for a long moment, and silence fell across the room.

"Why do you investigate Umbrella, really?" finally questioned Billy, looking at Aeon.

She did the same, because she was equally curious. Aeon had talked several times of various horrors he faced, and seemed to know Umbrella and their crimes well, but what led him to it all?

Aeon gave Billy a long look, before his eyes flickered to her.

"I'd like to know too." she said softly.

He sighed.

"There was once a city." he began slowly, "who discovered in ancient tombs what they called the Blood of the Gods. Those who drank or were injected with this blood grew stronger, faster, had greater healing capability-" he took a knife, removed his left glove, and made a cut deep enough to draw blood on his hand. The cut disappeared in seconds, much to their shock.

"- and granted almost complete protection from diseases and the like. Some even began to discover that they could tap into something called Arcane Energy."

Before her and Billy's wide eyes, his right hand began to glow.

"Thanks to that, the local scholars established a school whose focus would be to discover more about the tombs, the Blood, Arcane energy and more."

He scowled.

"But the greed of man, even with the best of intentions, only led to disaster. One of the people who were part of the first expedition into the Tombs decided to create a church called the Healing Church, whose goals would be to worship the creatures from whom the Blood came from, and try to see if humans could be made… greater than they were through experiments with the Blood. And they were willing to get results through any cost necessary."

He grunted, scowling harder. "Some of what they did could give Umbrella a run for their money in terms of horror. And as I said, it backfired horribly."

He paused. "Those who were… corrupted by the Blood, whose willpower failed and who began to mutate under its influence… They become monsters. Beasts, bloodthirsty beasts, each more horrifying than the last. At first, they were few, but as more and more people took the Blood, as more and more Blood was used, the more the beasts multiplied and stronger they became. That's when the Church created the Hunters, tasked with hunting down the beasts."

He grinned, though there was little humor to be found in his smile. "Don't take hunters for heroes. They had good intentions, at least at first, but much like the Church they eventually became corrupted themselves. The desire for Blood became too much, and they became like the beasts themselves, caring only for the hunt and the Blood… until they, too, turned into the worst of beasts."

Rebecca swallowed.

"And you…"

He nodded. "I came from outside the city, for… it's a long story, but let's just say that I had little choice in the matter. I became a hunter myself, at a time where beasts had all but became the only things to be found in that cursed city, and I fought. Fought and fought and…"

He trailed off, sighing and closing his eyes for a moment.

"Tell me, Billy, do you remember the dead from your mission? Remember the corpses staring back at you, their unblinking gazes silently accusing you, of helping their death, of you being alive while they were not?"

Billy swallowed, face pale, but he jerked a nod.

Aeon smiled grimly. "I had to walk through rivers of blood and hills of corpses. I'm not exaggerating here, I mean literal rivers of blood and hills of corpses. I have seen so much death, dealt so much death…"

He fell silent.

"So you ask why? Simple: Never again. I want to protect humanity from those who would bring damnation and genocide upon it. I want to see it flourish and prosper in peace, without people having to fear nightmares coming to life. I'm no hero, I'm no knight in shining armor. I'm just a hunter, one who remembers the value of humanity, not only as a species, but also in regards to emotions like compassion and kindness. So I want to protect people who can't protect themselves from the living nightmares that threaten them with everything I have. I have become that which monsters fear, a hunter who rushes where angels fear to tread, for that is my duty: to hunt monsters who threaten humanity, wherever they may be found, at whatever cost is required to stave off extinction."

He looked at them both, then focused on Rebecca, looking her straight in the eyes.

"Does that answer your question?"

She swallowed. It certainly answered some, but also caused countless more to pop up.

Still..

"Yes." she replied, her voice only slightly trembling. "Yes, it'll do."

He grinned, the shadows in his eyes lifting to show the fearless, eager warrior within, or hunter in this case, that she had come to know over the last few hours.

"Good. Then let's keep going, yes? A hunter must hunt, after all... and it's about time we return to ours."

And with those last words, they kept going.

The long night ahead was far from over, after all.