Chapter Text
The smothering dust coats Claire’s throat and she’d give anything to be able to pull herself up, but the surface her fingers struggle to lock onto is already starting to give in. It’s not her own damn life on the line that makes every muscle in her body tense as she tries to get up— it’s everyone else’s. She couldn’t have survived tonight and lose the vaccine here. The thin sample must’ve slipped out of her pocket, because she can see it delicately teeter on the edge. Shit. She can’t even afford to look down on Jill right now.
Without warning, a man appears in the haze. A spike of caution shoots through her. There’s no way this is Carlos, and as he comes closer, something tells her she’s screwed.
“Well, what do we have here? A stray Valentine picked up along the way?” He says, voice cloaked in a thick, Slavic accent. His face contorts into a smirk that tells her that he isn’t looking to help them.
“Who the hell are you?” Claire spits out.
He disregards her and peers down into the crater below, shaking his head in mock dissatisfaction towards Jill. “You never could tell when to lose dead weight, could you?” His cold stare drops to the vaccine. “I knew you would have it.”
“Don’t you dare, fucker! I don’t know who you are or what your problem is, but I swear,” her voice builds in intensity, “you won’t get out of here alive if you chose to take that vaccine.”
“And what are you going to do about it, little girl?” he chuckles before grabbing the vaccine and stepping on Claire’s fingers with his heavy boots. The burning pain is instantaneous, and her grip struggles again as she tries not to let out a groan. What was this guy’s deal? “Listen, I’ve got a great deal for both of you. You fight the Nemesis, and maybe I’ll give you the vaccine.” Before Claire can even respond, he nearly crushes her fingers and she loses her grip, sending her falling until her back slams into the concrete with a jarring thud and the air is knocked out of her lungs.
Whatever horrible ringing in her ears is drowned out by the need to get up and fight, despite her sluggish body. She rolls over onto her side, a whine dragging its way out of her throat as she props herself up. The world isn’t in focus yet, but there’s no goddamn time for that. Suddenly, calloused but gentle hands are on her and getting her to her feet.
“Claire, Jesus, are you okay?” Jill’s firm voice asks as she scans her surroundings and blinks the tilting ground away.
“Yeah, I think I’m good,” she says breathlessly. “Come on. We gotta get rid of this bitch.”
“For the last time, hopefully,” Jill responds, a smidge of lightness breaking through her tense voice. No pistol is gonna do it on this thing, that’s clear enough. The creature’s behavior is getting increasingly erratic and animalistic, and hard to shoot. They resolve to bring out the big guns. but the fact that it’s hiding behind columns, being smarter than it looks, unfortunately, Claire notes, is making it hard as hell to beat.
Jill’s getting too close for comfort to Nemesis when it nearly tears off her leg, leaving a large gash that looks searing.
“Shit- you have to stay up! Christ, that looks bad. Get behind me,” Claire shouts before firing a flame round.
“You think I don’t know that?!” Jill says. The round stuns the creature for a moment before it begins to run around the walls and cower behind the metal pillars. Suddenly, a familiar voice crackles over the intercom.
“Jill, Claire! Thank god you’re alive!”
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If she wasn’t fighting for both her and Jill’s lives, Claire could have been beyond giddy to reunite with Carlos. Under his bird's eye view of the movements of Nemesis from above, they finally managed to take it down.
“I can walk myself, you know, Claire,” Jill says incredulously as she guides her to the lift.
“Sure you can,” Claire says with a slight smile on her worn out face. As they approach the lift, Claire offers help up but Jill only shakes her head slyly and hoists herself onto the structure.
“Nuh uh, redhead.”
Claire pulls herself on and lightly chuckles, her face close enough to Jill to feel her breath thanks to the lack of room.
“Like I didn’t just save your ass, huh?”
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The area is nearly silent, with only the echo of footsteps accompanying them as they go after Nicholai. It feels like there’s a clock ticking over their heads— no time to treat wounds or reload. Claire peers around a corner, spying the grey haired man before quickly stepping out and gesturing to Jill to do the same.
“It’s over! Give me the vaccine, you greedy son of a bitch!” Jill shouts as they point guns at him, fingers tensing on the triggers. He only returns the favor and shakes his head.
“Oh, no. You both print money. I like money. We shall make ours an ongoing arrangement. Now drop the gun.”
Claire glances cautiously at Jill, trying to decipher the thoughts that must be going through her head. The standoff is cut short at the violent rumble coming from the other side of the wall.
That thing has to be fucking dead. There’s no way.
Before either of them can react, a horrible mass of fleshy limbs freshly coated in acid bursts through and emits a strangled groan as it begins to take over the room, the walkway collapsing and sending both Jill and Claire below.
Whatever they dealt with before— this is nothing like it. It’s not even a mutant anymore,
something larger and more inhuman. It keeps expanding, like a rotten flower bubbling over with flesh.
Nicholai is infuriatingly still standing far away, still fine.
“Have you ever seen anything so incredibly resilient? The data on this fight would be worth millions. But, you know how it is. City’s about to explode, and you can’t put a price on life. Good luck!”
“Nicholai!” Jill yells out in fury and exasperation. Fuck, they were running out of time.
Carlos, from the other level, rushes in, nearly missing Nicholai’s escape. “Shit— Claire!
Jill!”
“Go after him! He’s got the vaccine. We can handle this!” Jill shouts.
Carlos’ eyes dart between the hallway and him, lips pinched in concern. “I know you do,” he says, and dashes towards the exit.
Claire backs up along with Jill, taking the monstrosity in fully. Her breaths come in shortly as she rakes her mind for a plan. “Why can’t it just die?”
Jill glances back, spying the large Umbrella developed machine gun in the back. “Like I know. This is the last fucking time we do this.”
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The final blow knocks them both down to the ground, Claire’s head falling into the crook of Jill’s neck as watery blood washes over them like a cruel relief. They both know there’s no time to linger, but exhaustion creeps over them like a wave that makes them sluggish to get up.
“It’s over. We did it,” Claire says, standing up and stretching her stiffened limbs.
“Almost. Come on- we have to go find Carlos,” Jill responds as she gets up. “I knew that we’d survive,” she says, smiling gently at Claire with tired, warm eyes.
She only lightly chuckles in response like a fool before they begin to trudge towards the elevator mayday alarms ringing in their ears.
They quickly ascend to the rooftop, Claire’s hand remaining locked on her pistol as she mounts the stairs leading to it, Jill beside her. Her eyes adjust to the night sky before they find Carlos on the ground.
“Oh fuck— Carlos!” Claire shouts, both women running to kneel beside him. Jill’s face drops as she scans him for a gunshot wound, eyes furrowing in worry.
Someone from behind yanks the gun from Claire’s hands, roughly grabbing her arms and kicking her in the back. Jill quickly turns to face Nicholai and fires, but his sudden movement only makes the bullet knick his arm.
“I’d drop the gun if I were you, Miss Valentine. Don’t make me blow the head off of your lovely lady here. Remember, I still have the vaccine you want.”
Jill’s breath stutters as her hands shake, grip loosening on the gun and letting it fall to the floor. He tosses the vaccine in her direction, only to destroy it with a bullet.
Claire’s chest constricts as a guttural cry rips from her. “No! What are you doing?!”
Jill stares in disbelief and devastation at the man. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”
He simply shakes his head. “Not my concern. My client simply ordered me to turn Umbrella to rubble, and I was successful, wasn’t I? City’s about to blow, so I think I’ll take my leave now,” he states, before pointing the gun at Jill. Adrenaline shoots through Claire like a needle, hand flying to her pocket containing the swiss army knife Chris gave her right before he moved away to begin training. She flips the blade behind her back, hands unsteady, and flings it directly into the right side of his neck.
Claire grabs Jill and hoists both of them to their feet, wincing as she sees Nicholai gag on his own blood. She can feel her heart pounding on her ribcage like a caged animal.
“Shit— holy shit. Who the hell taught you that?” Jill says, turning to her.
“I…” Claire begins, trying to catch her rough breaths, “I don’t know.”
“Are you okay? You’re not hurt- are you?” Jill says, hands softly raking down Claire’s arms.
“No. Yeah, I’m fine. Your leg, it might be infected. Let’s worry about that when we get out of here,” Claire stutters. The intercom voice begins again.
TEN MINUTES BEFORE STRIKE.
Behind them, Carlos coughs slowly before getting up. His eyes widen in shock at the scene, before turning to Claire and Jill.
“You’re okay. Bastard’s dead, and thank god for that. Come on, we gotta get out of here.”
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In the soft glow of the sunrise, the lulled silence on the helicopter is broken by the strike. Jill spies it flashing as it falls downward on the city. Claire is asleep in the seat next to her, head resting on Jill’s shoulder. She looks cute like this, Jill notes. The impact of the missile shakes the helicopter, jolting Claire awake as Carlos struggles to gain control again.
Jill, almost instinctively, wraps a hand around Claire’s waist to steady her. Claire glances out the window, smoke consuming every inch of the landscape.
“It’s over,” she mutters.
“We made it out, thanks to you.”
“I know. What would you do without me?” Claire teases, resting her head on the crook of Jill’s neck.
“Oh, it’d be over for all of us,” Jill assures softly, kissing the tip of Claire’s nose.
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