Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue: In Search of a Bird

There once were three sisters.

The oldest was like their father, though she had often wished it otherwise. Strong and stubborn, braver than she’d known till she had been forced to act. She’d left their home to find herself and came back all the stronger for it.

You almost died because you couldn’t stand to be his daughter, because you were too scared to admit that it was all your fault…

The middle was like a flower, bright and cheerful and the center of the family’s lives for many years. Innocent of worldly wants she had stayed at home and kept to her mother’s side.

She almost died because of you! How stupid, how childish are you. It was your hand, your hand that did it.

And the last was the newest. A patchwork girl with a patchwork doll and a patchwork name. She had forgotten how to smile, but with each new day she remembered more and more. With her sisters to guide her, she’d remember soon enough.

You’re still scared. You’re still scared of her, don’t deny it, don’t lie. Liar.

You should be.

You should be afraid.

You should be dead after all.

------

The shrill call of her alarm woke Moira Burton from deep and restful slumber. Blinking as she saw the light shining through the cracks in her window curtains she realized that she must have already hit the snooze button two or three times while unconscious as the sun was well and up already. It was early summer still, and while she had little responsibilities to worry about she had enough that it wouldn’t do to shirk them just because she felt like being lazy.

“Alright, up and at ‘em Moira,” she muttered to herself as she rubbed her eyes and pulled off the headphones she’d been wearing. That hadn’t been why she’d missed the alarm, the binaural sleep noises they played had long since finished. A little something prescribed to help with her night terrors from years ago that had solved the problem soon after she started using them. She barely even needed them, but with the late nights she’d spent on her classes lately she’d started to be restless again. Natalia, ever trying to be helpful, had suggested she pull out the old sleeping aid and it had worked like a charm. She paused before her dresser, looking at her still short brown hair, a tad longer as she’d been home for a while and hadn’t bothered to get a haircut lately. She picked up her necklace and slid it around her neck before popping in her two earrings and moving towards the bathroom. Her paper had been finished on Friday, she’d spent Saturday helping Polly with gardening and Sunday Mom had wanted to go shopping…

“Which meant it was Natalia’s time again.”

The youngest, adopted, Burton was taking a liking to discussing Moira’s classes and she figured she’d have gotten enough responses over the weekend on what she’d turned in to go over them together. Though even if she found ‘Techniques for Ecological Geo-Engineering’ a riveting subject, it was probably a bit advanced for her age.

“Then again, if you can’t explain it to a middle schooler, do you really know it yourself?” Added to that part of why she’d taken the class in the first place was a way to prepare for getting back to work for Terrasave once she felt ready. At first it might have seemed like an odd fit, but there’d been a number of interesting developments in terms of biotech research and now questions were being asked about everything from exactly how much retroviral engineering can be allowed in crops if the techniques are technically derived from Umbrella’s research to even stranger questions.

One of the papers she’d read had even made the wild suggestion that a response to Global Warming might be using the Progenitor Viruses to induce mutations like the T-Abyss to allow for living in the flooded areas. She’d met Jill a couple of times, but she was pretty sure she’d rather cut carbon emissions than grow a set of gills if it came down to it. Still it was pretty crazy to think that legitimate researchers were tossing around ideas like that now when only a decade ago they’d have been considered the laughing stock of the world for even suggesting it.

Okay, her research partner Ryan had pretty much done as much in their video call over it a week ago when they compared notes before she finished typing up the next sections while he worked on the graphs. But then he’d taken more than a few pointed reminders to keep it professional when he’d realized that Moira Burton was a Burton and was not only a technical Raccoon survivor, not that she remembered much about being ferreted away to Canada or the brief period of time when Albert Wesker had been threatening to kill them all. Thankfully he’d dropped the questions when she’d pointed out that only a third of their paper, at best, was going to even mention SBOWs. Maybe the next topic could be about that.

Still he’d insisted they talk about how Geo-engineering hit on terraforming and from there it wasn’t too far to find the real far out ideas of human-variant colonization. It had been called post-human at first but someone with more sense had pointed out how positively eugenical that sounded and it had swiftly gotten changed. Regardless, nowadays you’d rarely find any futurist that wasn’t using public knowledge of SBOWs to jump off into whatever their private obsession was. Space colonies that would need humans with natural radiation resistance, a mutation that could stop bone loss, how advantageous an extra pair of limbs or an extra pair of eyes or the ability to photosynthesize. There seemed to be no end to it, and most was clearly as nonsensically useless as it had been twenty years ago when the same types were trying to sell people on an AI revolution or fusion powered flying cars within a decade.

Which wasn’t to say it couldn’t work, but Moira believed you had to temper your expectations with reality. And she’d seen the reality up close and personal more than once now. While tamed applications existed, and some were good friends of her family, the idea that it could be so widely applicable was about as realistic as buying a flying car or taking a vacation on the Moon.

“The reality is no one wants to look like a freaky bug just so they can go to Mars and live in a tube,” she said to herself as she finished washing her face.

Moira exited her room and quickly made her way down the stairs. Polly and her mother were outside while Natalia was playing around on Moira’s laptop again. She really should get her her own at some point, but for now they could share.

“Good morning Moira,” the young brunette said, looking up from the screen and her bowl of cereal as she spoke.

“Same to you,” she responded, grabbing an orange from the bowl and starting to peel it. “Watch you watching?”

“Another rocket launch. FarSight put another satellite into orbit and did it with a reusable rocket system.”

“Really… well, that’s not that impressive,” Moira said, smiling as she saw the shock on her littlest sister's face. So easy to tease at times.

“It took off and landed vertically!”

“I don’t know if using a parachute counts.”

“It’s just a… a sky brake, it counts.”

“Sure it does,” Moira said, taking a bite out of her orange.

“Elliot Solis built it and it definitely counts.”

Elliot Solis. Moira knew about him plenty. Tech mogul turned multi-billionaire after he smartly bought up the patents on Umbrella’s more conventional technology and did the smart thing of just adapting it for consumer use. He’d probably made more off the compact battery system they’d designed and then shelved then some had made off their viral research. Of course that was because you could just sell a better cell phone battery, most of the viral weapons ended up on an unmonitored black market at best. He’d turned that fortune into more money through investments and a weird pseudo-cult of personality.

Again, part showman, part businessman. How else did you explain how he managed to build the ego trip that was City Solis in the middle of the Nevada desert and somehow make money off of a research park that looked like a test bed for every geewhiz bit of engineering his teams could think of. Domed environments (to show what life on Mars would look like apparently), underground tram systems, the rocket launchpads, hell he’d even put gotten approval from the DOE to test out the Solis Reactor as he called it and power the whole thing of a miniaturized system that would normally have been reserved for the next generation of nuclear subs.

“What money won’t buy I guess.”

And of course the fact that the whole thing looked like some space age theme park from one of those animes that Natalia had started watching was probably why she’d taken a liking to it. Less technological obsession and more “Moira, can I get an exo-suit too?” in the end.

“Moira.”

“Yeah?”

“So, I was looking at FarSight’s website and they have this contest…”

“I’m not giving you my credit card information.”

“What-no! It’s not like that,” Natalia said as she stood up. “It’s about future speculations and how we can colonize the moon and stuff. It says that if your proposal gets accepted you’ll get invited down for a weeks-long tour of their facilities with future explorers.”

“... and you want me to help you write it?”

“Please… please, I won’t ask for anything else and once we’re done I’ll help you with whatever you want.”

Moira tapped her foot on the kitchen floor, thinking it over. She had just finished a paper not entirely unlike what Natalia was asking for. It wasn’t exactly plagiarism from herself after all, and worst come to worst she’d just stick Ryan’s name on there as another contributor. Though on the other hand she kind of just wanted to rest for a bit and catch up some other stuff she had to do instead of jumping into a new project immediately…

“Garbage detail-”

“Deal!”

“I’m not done Natalia,” Moira said as she held up her hand and raised not one, but two fingers. “Garbage detail for the next two months and… one favor to be named later.”

Natalia pressed her lips together tightly, thinking over the heavy cost before nodding at last. “Okay, but don’t make it weird.”

“Nah, I’ll just ask you to take out the garbage for another two months or something.”

“Moira!”

“Just kidding,” she said as she raised her hands in mock defense. “Okay. So, we’ll need a topic. Something that’ll really draw them in.”

“What about… space exploration?”

“Sure, but that’s not enough, you need to explain how you’d ‘show great foresight for the betterment of mankind’. And keep it under ten pages.”

“What about… how we could do better space exploration if we could make better astronauts?”

Moira paused, looking at Natalia carefully.

“Do you mean like robots or…”

“People… like, what if we could have had astronauts that could breath less air or work better in space a long time ago. Maybe we’d already be on Mars.”

“That’s actually not a bad topic,” Moira said as she turned back to her laptop and started typing. “Hypothetically how space exploration could be improved if SBOWs had existed…”

“What’s that mean?”

“It’s like a guess, but scientific. Anyway you keep talking I’ll keep typing.” Moira didn’t really expect this to accomplish anything ultimately. She’d read an entire book discussing this topic recently and it wasn’t likely that some random teenager with a love of spaceships and space aliens was going to suddenly reinvent the wheel when it came to innovative ideas. But Natalia was having fun describing all the silly things that she thought “They should have been able to do” and Moira found it enjoyable enough as well.

She’d go back and edit it that night and send it off.

Not like they’d actually win or anything.

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: The Illusion of Progress

Once there was a snake.

She had pretty scales of violet light and eyes as sapphires. Along the valley she lived, content and happy as can be.

Every so often, as snakes do, she would go to the river and shed her skin. Then lie upon the rocks near the water’s sound and sleep the day away.

One day, she came to the river and found her skin waiting for her.

Strange though it was, she was a polite serpent and asked what the skin wanted.

“Oh,” said the skin, “I am so cold and empty. Please return to me so that we might be whole again.”

The snake shook her head because that was not the way of things. The past is forgotten with each rising sun for that is the nature of the world.

She turned from the skin and shed hers again. Certain that the matter had been settled.

But when she returned to the river again her skin waited once more. But longer, the skin from before now attached to the tail by teeth it didn’t have.

“Oh dear snake, please fill us up. We forget what it is to be alive. We need you inside us.”

The snake slithered away, shed her skin and left. For once she did not rest upon the rocks.

The third time she went to the river…

Her skin waited for her, her skin from before and before that and all the befores that had come to pass. They stretched like the river, gray and dead along the banks. She turned to leave but her skin waited for her, trapping her upon the bank. A thousand skins, a thousand times a thousand.

“How can you do this to me?” she cried out as the skin began to devour her. “I am me and you are you, and you are the past.”

“The past is a thousand times a thousand days,” the skin said. “You are but one.”

She pleaded for salvation, begging to the skies above.

Then, suddenly, a hawk descended from above, talons out. The snake was yanked out of the skin’s mouth. Sharp claws stabbing through her as she bleed away in the claws of another. Despite her death, in her last moments the snake was content.

The moral of the story:

Some deaths are better than others.

------

Moira stretched up, raising her hands above her head as the bus coasted to a stop. It had been a long trip through the desert, a long flight down from Canada. She’d been tired even before they left, the anxiety of it all. It had been a while since she’d gone on a trip like this, certainly one by herself.

Alright, not entirely by herself. Little Natalia was with her, over eager and jumping in delight at each new thing. It was such a sea change from how she’d been years before that it had cemented her decision to take up the offer when their application was selected. She still couldn’t believe it, it hadn’t seemed like her best work though maybe the fact that she’d said Natalia had done it by herself when they submitted it had been part of the reason.

“Grading the kids on a curve or something,” she thought with a smile as she pulled her duffle bag down and started walking off the bus. Yawning as she exited, stepping onto the gravel of the street as it shifted beneath her feet. She still couldn't believe they had to stop at a place like this to get on the tram that would take them to-

A sudden shot of panic went through her.

Where was Natalia?!

She spun around, running onto the bus and shouting, “Natalia? Where are you?”

But no one answered. Moira turned to the driver and stared aghast at the empty seat. The empty seat in an empty bus.

Something was wrong. She stepped backwards, panic welling up inside her like a vile toxin. Her feet tripped on the steps of the bus and she fell backwards. Landing heavily on the gravel, the rocks scratched her palms as she looked around. It was dark out.

It was night.

The town, if you could call it that, was abandoned. Just one of many Ghost Towns turned tourist retreats. A flickering light bulb behind her illuminated the sign for Mar’s Mesa Nevada. The sign itself had the faded painted illustration of a little green alien with big blackeyes and a cowboy hat pointing a gun into the air. “Come to our gift shop for out of this world deals” it said in a speech bubble above its head.

Moira had just finished reading when a harsh pop came from above and the light bulb exploded in a shower of sparks, drowning her in darkness. The light from the bus remained, but it was dim by comparison and the headlights pointed down the street of the empty town.

“Okay… what the fuck is going on,” Moira said as she stood up, anger winning out over fear and kicked a stray at the sign for good measure. Where was everyone? Where was Natalia? Hell, how did she even get here if the bus driver was gone and-

First things first. She pulled out a tough little flashlight from her inside jacket pocket and turned it on. Shining it around the bus stop and looking for any sign that someone else had passed through. Bags, footprints maybe. Hopefully not blood, she was done with that crap.

Nothing.

“Shit. Where is everyone-”

Least till she turned and looked on the bench just a little bit further down. Another tacky alien dressed up like a cowboy. Posed so one could get their picture taken with a real Martian buckaroo . Though the figure seated there, in the crook of the alien’s arm was none other than Lottie. Lottie the stuffed bear.

Natalia’s stuffed bear.

“Okay, put a pin in creepy.” Still it was her only clue, so Moira moved close and picked the stuffed bear up. Turning her around in her hands she didn’t see anything else out of the ordinary. Or where Natalia might have gone off to. Looking down at the beer she shook her head and asked, “You wouldn’t know where Natalia ran off to, would you Lottie?”

Obviously the bear didn’t say anything back.

“Figures, mouth stitched up and-”

“Help… help me.”

The voice was distant, almost a whisper over the desert silence that surrounded her, but it was enough and she dropped the bear in the dirt and took off towards it. Not running yet, but her pace picking up with each step she took.

“Moira… help me.” This time she heard clearly, it was Natalia calling from the distance.

“I’m coming! Just wait there,” she yelled back loudly, now running down the hill. Slipping on loose dirt and rocks, wincing as a tumbleweed got in her way and she felt the thorns of it rip through her stockings and leave tiny red scratches along her leg. Still she pressed on towards the source.

A lonesome well, built below the road and between a few old buildings that hadn’t been renovated during the towns ‘Alien Boom’ and left to fester and ruin even after Solis had come in and bought up the whole mesa for his own future city project. She saw boards over the bottom and reached down, pulling them up, careful not to fall in once she could see the bottom.

“Don’t worry Natalia I’m… I’m here?”

There was nothing to worry about. The well was dry, dry and only a few feet deep before the dirt and bugs made their homes. She dropped the boards to the side, noticing finally the sharp splinters that had pierced her flesh as she’d struggled to lift them. All while a floaty giggle drifted psat her shoulder and around to the other.

“Not there… you lose,” the voice said. Chuckling softly before it spoke again, “How about a new game?”

“I don’t want to play a game.”

“How about tag!”

“I don’t want to play a fucking game!” Moira shouted as she stepped back from the well, turning the flashlight around and trying to find the source of the mocking laughter in the darkness.

“Since you lost you don’t get to be it yet…”

“Where the hell are you? Where’s my sister?!”

“She will.”

Moira fell. Her pulse was racing, a pain like a fever burned in her head. Nausea welled up and she could scarcely comprehend why or where it was coming from. Something was coming, she heard it… she felt it. She turned towards the well, watched the boards from before be pushed away and fall to the side by what emerged. Strange claws scrapped upon the aged stone as a hissing, clicking, tremoring noise came from the beast. It made her vision swim and she stumbled back, trying to get distance, trying to get away from it. But her back hit the old building behind her, the locked door creaking as her weight rested upon it. Long, snakelike tendrils floated above the well pointed towards her as three dark blue spots rose up and stared back.

A maw of razors opened, a yawning void that threatened to swallow her whole.

And she fell back, screaming, into the darkness that welcomed her.

------

Moira bolted up. The bus had come to a stop and the harsh light of the Nevada sun was shining through the windows. Her headphones were off to the side and she felt tense like she’d just run and she’d had a-

“We’re here! We’re here,” Natalia said, jumping up and down as she struggled to not only get her bag down but Moira’s as well.

“Wait… wait before you hurt yourself-”

Moira leaped up, her hands managing to catch the bags before they buried her little sister and holding them up. A few of the other passengers, guests or tourists Moira didn’t know, looked on as she awkwardly smiled back.

“Here let me help you,” one man said, standing up and extracting his bag from the others as Moira shoved the rest up and then went about pulling out just her and Natalia’s while being careful not to start another luggage landslide.

“Thanks,” Moira said as she handed Natalia’s bag off to her, who took it under one arm while she kept her bear under the other.

“Wait… Lottie?” The momentary surprise vanished. Of course Natalia had wanted to take her bear with her. Even if she was getting better about things, sleeping in a strange place would be tough so it would be best for a familiar object to be around. And, despite being a replacement, nothing was more familiar to her then Lottie. Moira shook her head, dispersing the last few cobwebs of her attempt to nap away the jet lag while on the bus and took down her own duffle bag. “Just feeling jittery, that’s all.”

Together they made their way off the bus, past the others who looked to be about a three way split of normal tourists, possible guests of Solis’s little tech city expo, and the rest being workers that must have been coming in to help with everything else. Moira nodded at the bus driver as she carefully walked down the stairs.

And then stopped before the sign in front of her.

“Mar’s Mesa… out of this world deals?”

“Right, ghost town turned UFO hotspot turned… whatever you want to call it.” She’d read about this in the brochure. It must have just slipped her mind till now.

Much like Natalia had slipped away.

“Natalia?” Moria shouted out, her voice sounding more panicked than she liked and drawing the attention from the others at the stop.

“Over here Moira!” Natalia said, having taken a beeline for a bench with an alien figure in an oversized cowboy had posed so you could take your picture with it. She’d set Lottie down closest to the ET cowboy and was smiling as she waved for Moira to come over. “Can you get our picture?”

“... Sure,” Moira said, taking out her phone and stepping back so she had a good angle of the scene. Natalia, light brown hair pulled into a ponytail and smiling as she pressed against her bear. Next to tacky green alien sculpture, a fair amount of the paint faded off in places.

And she tried not to think about how strangely familiar this all seemed for some reason. Before finally putting it out of mind and snapping the picture of her smiling sister enjoying a bit of kitschy Americana.

After all, there was nothing to worry about.

------

Mar’s Mesa wasn’t exactly large, the old timey western more just the vestigial front to the industrial park that had been built up down the hill by the tram system. It had, as Moira remembered from the brochure (and was blindingly obvious to any observer) been a ghost town until some time in the 60s when the UFO craze had blown up and the town had enjoyed a bit of fame for a couple decades as the place to see the Mar’s Lights as they were called. She’d never seen it, but apparently there’d been a couple films about it including a Disney production about kid aliens on the run from the government.

All that had started to quiet down in the mid eighties, coincidently when the old air force base near where Solis had built his giant glass domed eyesore had closed down. One could make an educated guess why the UFOs stopped at the same time military test flights moved upstate, but the alien aficionados had argued that they’d moved on because “Humanity was no longer posed to destroy itself”.

“Bunch of hippy BS as Dad would say,” Moira thought as she read over the information placard posted in front of the general store. Of course a bunch of drunk or stoned desert weirdos stopped seeing lights in the sky the moment the military base closed up shop. But it was practically a religion or cult for a lot of them so she guessed it made sense that they came up with rationalizations that didn’t contradict their canon as it were.

The more interesting thing was the claim that the lights had started up again right on the dot around the end of 1998. They even had a picture of the guy that saw them come back, big bushy beard and a tie dye shirt that had to have been older than she was even back then. He claimed they’d even taken him up into their flying saucer and told him that humanity was in grave danger in early September.

“And then, I turn on the news when I wake up and what do I see?”

Raccoon City.

She could literally see dad rolling his eyes at that one and asking if the ‘aliens’ happened to pop up around the time the sixpack was running dry. In any case they guy had gotten his fifteen minutes of local fame, been on a few AM radio shows and even published a book as of when the placard was put up back in 2004.

The book, of course, was on sale and proudly displayed just in front of her. Warnings from Above: The Extraterrestrial Insight on the Raccoon City Incident . She didn’t know whether to be grievously insulted or just laugh at it. She’d meet some of the madmen (or a mad woman) behind Raccoon and Umbrella’s sociopathic wish to remake the world into place of eugenically perfected superhumans. The idea that a little green man from outer space would fly all the way to the middle of the desert, tell some random idiot in a trailer, and then just take off was more than a little silly.

“Going to come all this way, why not beam Albert Wesker into the sun or something.”

“Bunch of useless goddamn aliens.”

“Ah-ha, I caught you swearing again.”

“No you didn’t.”

Natalia pouted as she held her stuffed bear in front of her. They were just killing time while they waited for the tram to start running. There was a road directly to Solis City but as part of the whole contest winners ‘Future Explorers Contest Winners’ deal they had to enter as part of one group for a grand tour courtesy of Elliot Solis himself. Which left plenty of time to wander around and get bored looking at the desert.

She had climbed to the top of the hill overlooking the graveyard where they’d set up a telescope and taken a look at their destination already. The domes enclosed a fairly large area but they’d built up a reservoir next to and had rows of solar panels filling a good space of the desert. It seemed like overkill for power generation, but it was supposed to be proving ground for off world colonization technologies too. Off to the side the old military base could be seen, the massive tarmac taking up most of the space but several massive radio arrays still stood, weathered by the desert and time but long from beaten down.

Once they’d taken in the sights, those they had time for (The Mars Miner Tour would have to wait) they’d headed back to town and started bumming around the kitschy souvenir shops. Which were an eclectic mix of old timey western wear, alien and UFO stuff, and the odd bit of more modern stuff related to FarSight and Solis’s own development in the area. Though the latter two seemed mixed together, almost like the man didn’t mind having his very real technological innovations compared to stories about spacemen from outer space.

“Huh… VTVL Rocket Model at 1/180 Scale. Dad might like that,” Moira thought idly as she slid into the store at last. She’d wanted to avoid having to turn down the salesman routine for as long as possible as she’d already told Natalia that they’d get any gifts or souvenirs on the way back so they wouldn’t have to worry about losing them over the next week. But it was just too damn hot outside at the moment and both of them needed something cool to drink while they waited for the tram.

“Natalia, see if you can find some water back there,” Moira said as her sister nodded and took off towards the fridges behind the racks of t-shirts and alien antenna hats. Moira picked one up off the rack and looked at it before shaking her head.

“Thinking of getting a pair?”

“Nah, not my style,” she answered, turning around and seeing who had asked her. Freezing for a moment as her eyes noticed the antenna on his head. Which weren’t the plastic wobbly sticks they were selling but something a bit higher quality. A little green, a little gray, but the chitinous covering was as natural as his hair. Which he seemed lucky enough to still have underneath the Mar’s Mesa hat he was wearing. Tanned human skin took up most of his face, while above his eyes but below where his hair started the brow had smooth and harder appearance, mottled green and gray. The transition should have been glaring but something about it sort of worked, even if it kind of made it seem like he had weird bandanna on above his eyes.

The eyes, though, were pale green and almost solid color as they looked back at her.

“Sorry, bad joke to start with?”

“No… I’m just-sorry, I didn’t think I’d meet someone like you here and-’

“Way to go Moira. God, your dad’s had Jill Valentine over for dinner and you’re freaked out by someone with insect eyes.”

Taking a deep breath, and putting on a smile, she stuck out her hand and said, “Sorry, I was just surprised. Moira Burton.”

“Timothy Hart.” His hand felt a little weird, but that might be how the tips of his fingers were covered in hardened chitin instead of fingernails. There were still five of them and they didn’t feel terribly sharp which meant he was either lucky on that end or sanded them down from time to time. Discounting the antenna, eyes, and a bit on his head you’d barely know he’d even been infected. He looked her up and down, blinking once before saying, “You got over it pretty fast. Not your first time I take it?”

“Wow there. We only just meet.”

Now it was his turn to stumble over his own tongue and mutter out an apology. Moira stopped him before it went on too long. She did see her sister coming up and looking at her oddly with two bottles of water in her hands. “We really need to get her to meet more people and have some friends her own age.”

“Nah, my dad works as a consultant for the BSAA. I was just surprised to see someone like you out here and not sitting around our dinner table.” Moira paused for a moment but her curiosity was roused now and she just had to ask, “Sorry, I just have to know. Most SBOWs that look like you are back east. How’d you end up in the middle of the Nevada desert.”

“Oh man, that is a story. Okay, well to start with have you heard of Ranger Hunt ?” Moira shook her head as she followed him towards the counter, where he rang up the two drinks and handed them off to her and her sister. “So, some friends and I were bored up there since we were ‘highly advised’ not to leave the quarantine area for almost a year. We saw all the rumors and tabloids and fake pictures and suddenly my friend Mark had an idea.”

“What, did you film a documentary?”

“Even better. We have all these stupid ghost stories up there, and his girlfriend Sarah was over eighty percent, so we decided to pick one and have her help us film it.”

“Eighty percent? I don’t think I follow.”

“Moira I’m bored,” Natalia interrupted as she drank some of her water and looked around the store for something to do.

Tim leaned over the counter and gestured towards a side room where more alien knickknacks were stacked. “The pinball machine in there has a broken coin slot so we just leave it on free-play. Check it out.”

As a smiling Natalia departed, Moira mouthing the words ‘Thank you’, Tim continued, “Okay, so that’s just the scale of mutation. Most folks were below twenty percent after we got cured, you can’t even tell they were infected. Then you got the moderates like me that are up to forty percent. Forty to eighty is the broad range for severe and anything above is considered extreme .”

“I think I get it, so she looks like the complete package?”

“Bingo. Wings, tail, claws,” he said, counting on his fingers, “full set of mandibles and chitin. Can’t fly worth a damn, but she’s a pretty good dancer.”

“Sounds like you had a crush,” Moira said, taking a sip of her water. “So you have a star and then what?”

“Nah, she was always getting into trouble. Mark can deal with that. Anyway, let me see… ah, here we go.” He pulled out his phone, flipping it open to show a scratchy and dark recording of someone in a forest ranger outfit running through the woods. The sound was bad, but the screaming could be heard as he ran past. Followed shortly by hissing apparition that tore through the trees he’d ducked under and lept towards the camera. Tim was smiling as he put it down, and said, “I was the cameraman. We made a whole short film like that. Got over 10 million hits.”

“Nice. How’d you do… that invisibility trick?”

“Oh, that’s all Sarah. She managed to pull it off. Though,” he leaned in before he said the next part, “to make it work she had to be buck ass naked. We sort of lied about that when we uploaded it, not that anyone could tell.”

He turned the phone around again, showing the star, clothed and visible, in front of the guy in the ranger outfit, fake wounds and a lot of artificial blood staining the outfit. As Tim had said, mandibles opened wide, her tongue sticking out as she held up a pair of taloned fingers in a peace sign. A yellow halter top shirt covered her chest while her wings were spread wide behind her taking up most of the picture's volume. The chitin itself was darker, forest green color with only spots of gray that now that she could see it in the ‘full package’ probably gave her an almost natural camouflage for undergrowth before you brought in the whole turning invisible at will thing.

“Okay, so you hit it big with a viral video. Then what?”

“We got some calls from movie producers that were interested in casting our star talent. At first we were worried, you know… sure most of us can hide it if we had too but Sarah is pretty much out of luck. But Ms. Graham heard about it and worked something out.”

“You know the President’s daughter?”

“Everyone in Ravenscroft knows her. Heck, I even met her when she tore through town that first time and put those assholes that infected us in the ground. If we could we’d get her to move up there and be mayor for life or something but we know she’s too busy.”

“So what did she do?” Moira asked, almost finishing her water bottle.

“She gave us the personal number for every BSAA agent stationed in LA and a couple of spooky scary G-man types for some agencies I didn’t even know existed. One time some freak tried to mess with Sarah after an interview and within thirty-minutes this big guy came around and said he’d teach him what it felt like for bones to break alphabetically if he didn’t leave.”

Moira nodded, but then cocked her head to the side as she realized the first question still wasn’t answered. “But how did you get out here?”

“Yeah… ah, well, see… they already have cameramen. And I’m only at forty percent, and not exactly impressive. See?” Tim opened his mouth wide and pulled his cheek to the side showing partially formed mandibles that had merged into the back of his jaw and rubbed together before he closed his mouth again. “Pushed out my wisdom teeth and a couple molars and will spook a dentist but not exactly letting me do the whole ‘horror movie monster in the flesh’ thing that Sarah’s been owning. Hell, she even did this pinup thing for Fangoria if you’d believe it-”

“Moira, it’s almost noon.”

Shushing her little sister for a moment, Moira turned towards Tim and said, “Though yeah, we do need to hurry… and maybe summarize and keep it PG.”

“Well, point of it was they didn’t need another wannabe actor bumming around Hollywood and I felt like a third wheel between them so I decided to see what else I could get up to. Kinda just… stumbled into this place. Probably going to head back East at the end of the summer regardless.’

Moira smiled, picking up her almost empty bottle of water as she turned to leave. “If you’re up at that eyesore in the desert maybe we’ll hangout.”

With that she left the building with Natalia, the line for the tram already starting to form down the hill with the other contest winners and guests.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: The Beginnings of Knowledge

------

The tram turned suddenly rising up and out of the ground as it continued towards its destination. Moira blinked her eyes, her brief catnap passing by as she pulled the headphones down. Natalia was beside her but had already gotten up, peering out the window as the desert rolled past and the suddenly flew above rows and rows of solar panels.

“On your left you can see the Mars Colony Prototype Outpost. This entire enclosure and over two square kilometers surrounding it has been set aside for the express purpose of testing possible technologies and innovations that might one day see mankind take its place on the Red Planet.”

They swung overhead, seeing through the glass and aluminum dome to the buildings inside. She’d have called them cliche and rolled her eyes but her sister seemed excited by it all so Moira kept her thoughts to herself. And even then she had to admit the idea of driving some kind of space dune buggy around did sound pretty cool.

“Special hydroponics would feed a population of thousands on a fraction of acreage used in modern farms thanks to our patented All-Organic Growth systems and the rapid on-site health monitoring. Specialized high-speed genetic sequencers will also check and compare high risk sections of the plant's genetic material for any signs of radiation damage. No worries about mutations here.”

It looked like a miniature office building but the massive farming complex very nearly reached the roof of the two hundred meter tall dome and she could where it was then built into the supports and framework of the rest of the structure. Vast arrays of pipes rose up to ferry water from the storage tanks and plumbing system below the structure and to the free floating gardens. While workers in identical blue jumpsuits moved about, carrying trays of equipment in and out of different sections.

“Must be too technical or specific to automate yet.” Either that or the whole Prototype thing was so serious that they’d just built it. She’d read up about Elliot Solis and his conglomerate empire, more than the endless superficial praise that had been spent on him by the magazines. He did have a tendency to aim high and move fast from one project to another, spending money to make money to keep the business afloat and the stream of investors coming in.

The tram turned sharply heading over to the edge of the mesa where a massive amount of the rock had been blasted away. Natalia moved to the other side, grabbing onto a handle as she looked down at what lay below.

“ FarSight’s new VTVL rockets have put over one hundred and fifty low orbit satellites into space in the last three years alone. That’s a lot of payloads and by far the most of any NGO on the planet.”

They weren't kidding about that. She’d been watching a launch when they’d gotten on the plan from Canada and they’d been talking about another that morning before she’d passed out on the bus. And either they’d delayed it or had already prepped another rocket, because the launch pad was occupied and she could see the sleek, compact frame of a folded up satellite being loaded onto it even as the audio speaker continued to drone on about how FarSight was number one at whatever the topic happened to be at the moment.

“Thanks to FarSight taking the lead in low orbit telecommunications support, we have been able to provide high-speed internet and cellular service across eighty-five percent of the globe. We’ll get to the North Pole soon, so don’t worry about Santa Claus.”

As if to demonstrate that fact several of the non-guests, notable by their more uniform dress or technicians jumpsuits, were busy looking at or talking to someone on their phones at that very moment. Moira had a competing service that was doing a pretty bad job keeping up with modern times and barely managed two bars out here at the best of times. A quick glance at her phone and she was frowning even more as it dropped at a wavering single one and looked about ready to just toss its hands up and declare ‘No Service’ as they continued to roll further out into the desert.

“Below us is the central hub of Solis City, the command center for both the rocket launches and all the computer monitoring that goes into the other three domes. Underground rail systems and tunnels connect all four while providing power and water from multiple redundant systems. When Elliot Solis builds something it’s built to last!”

This dome, if one wanted to call it that, was more of a massively enclosed complex built into the side of the cliff. Huge conglomerations of radio towers and satellite dishes were built on it and along the cliffside as well, clearly part of managing that massive telecom system that the audio recording had been busy bragging about.

“Do you think we’ll get to see a rocket launch in person?”

Her sister’s enthusiasm was positively infectious, and Moira couldn’t help but smile. “I’d bet on it. Hey, look at that.”

They’d turned away from the lower plateau where the rockets were set up and were now coasting a few meters above the desert floor and speeding towards another massive dome. This one had structures built along the outside, though they lacked the ergonomic flourishes and designs of the prototype colony. Instead massive, blocky gray buildings, lined with pipes or shiny reflective paneling on their roofs stood up along the side of the dome with even more and larger structures contained within.

“Directly ahead of us is the industrial park for Solis City where fabrication of many of our custom parts, rocket components, and company patented computer parts takes place. While the ones in your cellphones have since been offloaded to manufacturers at more traditional plants, they had their origins in the research and design labs you are looking at at this very moment.”

The tram didn’t even really slow down, instead taking a long curving path around the covered industrial park. Though at one point they did pass over long indentions in the ground, dirt placed over some massive concrete structure just below them.

“And under us now is the Solis Reactor complex, the primary generator of electricity for all four domes and the surrounding buildings. Using revolutionary next generation micro-reactor technology we are able to efficiently and safely draw power from in-house design of a molten chloride reactor similar to laboratory prototypes. Only ours has finally been upscaled enough to provide energy for an entire city and then some!”

“The laboratory meaning Umbrella’s labs back in Raccoon,” Moira thought as she imagined the massive radioactive furnace beneath them, glowing hot blue when powered up. One of many non-biotechnical patents that Solis had bought up in the years immediately before and after Umbrella’s dissolution as the saner executives fled like rats from a sinking ship, offloading anything they could to get enough money for their rapidly mounting legal fees.

“There’d have to be more than one,” Natalia suddenly said.

“Huh, what do you mean by that?”

Her sister didn’t look up, still trying to peer over the light rounded edge of the window and see where the reactors were built, visualizing them beneath her. In a low voice, not much more than a whisper she said, “They couldn’t power this with just one no matter how efficient. All those communications systems alone and with the computer core it would take at least-”

Before she could ask more about the odd things her sister was saying, the tram sped up again, taking a sudden turn that almost had the two of them knocking heads together as they held onto the handles above them. When she looked up at her there was a sheepish smile on her face as she got back to her seat and held on to the pole nearest her.

Moira wasn’t quite ready to let that drop though.

“What were you talking about Natalia?”

“Oh… what do you mean?”

“You said they’d need more than one reactor for some reason.”

She blinked, confused for a moment before a spark of clarity shined in her eyes and she said, “I think I remember reading something about when ships power cities… they can’t run the whole thing off one small power plant.”

“Maybe it’s larger than you think?”

“That’s probably it,” Natalia said, though she sounded unsure of it.

Whatever else Moira might have said was interrupted as the audio kicked in once more.

“And here we are at last. The residential and recreation dome. Domiciles house over five thousand FarSight employees permanently but with room for another twenty thousand without even feeling cramped. Three movie theaters, including full 3D experience. As well as gardens, our own systems of eateries and cafeterias, and several franchise restaurants. In the center of the dome we have the Oasis Saucer, located at the apex of the dome and providing exquisite meals from our five star chefs with a rotating menu that changes every night.”

Moira felt her stomach churn in protest at the airplane crackers and water which had been her meal for most of the day, and hearing about everything that was only just a little bit further off wasn’t helping matters. She’d have killed for a Red Grave Grill burger at this point. Hell, just a box of donuts from Moons would have been better than nothing.

“First thing we’re doing when we get in there is getting something to eat,” Moira said. Natalia nodded in agreement as the tram took another turn and began to slow at last. Passing over more artificial looking sand dunes off to their right.

“And if you need to play hard after you work hard, why not rent a motorbike or ATV and take them out for a spin on our prepared racing track or one of several desert tour trails surrounding the complexes. If you’d instead prefer to ‘rough it’, a desert shuttle bus can take you out to the reservoir and nearby canyon for an up close experience with nature. Finally, for those adrenaline junkies among you, why not try our x-treme sports center, complete with climbing walls and in-door/out-door urban combat simulation zone for competitive paintball tournaments. Game on indeed!”

“God, just shut up already.” They were finally slowing down, coming into the tram station in the residential dome. Moira didn’t even wait for the all clear to be given by the annoyingly cheerful audio system. Grabbing her bag and Natalia's, she made her way towards the door. She planned to be the first one off… and the first one to finally get something to eat.”

------

“Really”- cough cough - “he had to spray everyone down with sanitizing crap when we step off the tram?”

“Bigger neat freak than mom,” Natalia said, reaching up to rub her eyes before Moira motioned her hands away again and used and pulled out some spare tissue she’d had in her jacket instead. They’d made their way through the crowd of people towards the center plaza. A series of large glass walled elevators took on up and down from the tram station to the underground rail lines and this massive lobby between them all. In the distance she could see the enormous living quarters that had been mentioned, though there were more than just a couple movie theaters and fast food burger joints between them and their eventual beds that evening. Tennis courts, a swimming pool, and one of those large open gardens as well, all connected by small paths or roads with electric carts to shuttle people around when the smaller internal tram system on large circular paths wasn’t direct enough.

The man of the hour appeared at last, and Moira’s opinion immediately mirrored Natalia’s. A spick and spotless blue-black suit, no tie, but white shirt beneath it that seemed almost glossy clean. Dark hair cut short and slicked back with a pair of glasses on his face. He paused for a moment to pull out a small inhaler and take two quick puffs before he spoke to the crowd.

“Greetings future innovators!” Elliot paused, acting as if someone had spoken in the earpiece on his right side before he continued, “Sorry, I mean current innovators. For as I and you know the future is made by what we do today and every day. I didn’t build all of this by sitting around and waiting for tomorrow.”

Moira fought the urge to roll her eyes. He didn’t build this anymore than any rich guy that paid lots of people did. Hell, he was just some software engineer before he took his dotcom boom money out of the market at the right time and bought up all the legacy patents from Umbrella dirt cheap. Sure, the end result was a cheaper and faster cell phone, not that she’d gotten one yet (yeah, thanks Dad for waiting till Christmas again to get a new one for her), but that wasn’t really deserving of this much ego stroking.

Anyone with a hundred million dollars and time enough to catch CNN on a Saturday could have seen which way the wind was blowing.

Still, he had jumped ahead of the curve while most others were still obsessing over the biotechnology that Umbrella had prided themselves on so much. Before it had turned out to be so uniformly weaponized or so perversely unstable that while it was clearly worth untold fortunes going by what it could do, actually figuring out how to get that money out of the T-Virus was the hard part.

“Over the next five days you will see how we intend to change the world for the better here at FarSight . I can promise you’ll be part of that. No matter whether your one of our future-sorry, current innovators or a friend that tagged along, you’ll see how you can help push humanity forward into a safe and productive future.”

“Oh god, he’s still going on… let me just get something to eat damn it!”

“But don’t worry, we’ve planned plenty of time for fun as well,” Solis said with a grin. “After all, what’s the point in saving the world if you can’t enjoy it while you do so?”

He looked about to go on about something else, but a woman in a steel gray pantsuit and glasses came up next to him and whispered in his ear. He nodded, said something back with his microphone and then turned towards them once more.

“Looks like my work is never done… but yours is. Enjoy the rest of the evening, our fine dining establishments. Catch a movie but get plenty of sleep. Because we’ll start bright and early tomorrow morning.”

Moira hoped he was one, but he seemed to have one last comment saved up before he left with his assistant and a security detail.

“Our mission? To save the world.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: A River Recoils in Disgust

There once was a young girl that worried each day. She worried about her chores, she worried about her family, she worried about a hundred things day and a hundred more each night.

Every day she looked in the mirror and told herself not to worry, and every day she did it anyway.

One day, when she told herself not to worry, the mirror spoke back.

“Oh dear girl to whom I reflect, your life must be so much trouble. While all I must do is copy you.”

“Indeed it is,” she said to her reflection. “What I would not give to have nothing to worry about. Even if for only a day.”

“Why then, I have an offer. Let us trade for a day. You shall reflect I while I take upon myself all these worries.”

“Really, why that would be a dream,” said the girl, before reaching out to the mirror and her smiling twin.

So did the girl enter the mirror, where there were no worries for there was nothing that it did not reflect. Nothing at all but herself.

And the mirror slowly grew covered in dust while her friends and family never knew where the girl had gone off to.

Moral of the story: 

A life without trouble is no life at all.

------

The tram rolled through the desert, the star speckled sky far above, as Moira stirred awake. Looking up and down the empty compartment. She stood up, stumbling as it took a sudden turn and sped up.

“Good evening Moira.”

“Wha-”

The voice continued, cutting her surprised outburst off as the tram rounded a bend and behind a sand dune lights could be seen in the distance. Great gouts of flame and smoke, whole buildings consumed by fire. She turned and froze, the sight of something she had only seen in passing, as they ran.

“You lived there didn’t you? Before this. You never really saw it, only heard of it. A city sacrificed to the hubris of men that sought to be goods. But did you know your father was at fault too?”

“Shut up,” Moira whispered, hands clutched tight as she shook there.

“He could have joined his teammates, tried to reveal the truth. But all it took was a few pictures of you at school and a threatening letter and suddenly Barry Burton couldn’t seem to remember what happened in the Arklay Mountains. Isn’t that funny? How many people’s children died just to save you.”

“Shut the fuck up!”

Something crashed through the end of the tram, the door between the cars breaking apart. A thinking of shadows and tendrils, whipping through the air and they speared the audio speakers. The audio voice dying with an electric whimper as a trio of strange lights, eyes or what passed for them on this creature, focused on her.

Moira felt a primal terror crawling up her back, nausea building as she clutched at her ears. She felt like it was speaking at her, screaming at her, but she couldn’t hear anything. All she knew was it wanted her. Wanted to destroy her.

She ran.

Now she heard the voice of it, roaring force into a high pitched keening wail. Pounding down the tram, lights torn off the wall as it passed, the metal poles and seats breaking as it thundered towards her in its rampage. Moira ran faster, heart pounding, the feverish terror in her blood urging her limbs on faster and faster through the pain.

She ran into the next tram car.

And froze.

“P-Polly?”

Her sister, on the ground. Blood pooling around her. Lifeless eyes staring at her. Judging her.

“And to think, he sold his soul to save you, and then you went and killed your own sister.”

“N-no, NO! That’s not how it happened!” Moira screamed out, pointing the gun she now held at the speakers. Firing it again and again, trying to silence the lies it was speaking, trying to silence all of them.

“What did you think would happen when you pulled it out of its case to play with? When you aimed it at her-”

“Shut up!”

She emptied the gun, yet still it didn’t stop the voices.

“Why are you fighting the truth Moira? You always were a monster.”

The door behind her burst open, and when she spun the click of the empty chamber did nothing to halt what was about to fall upon her. But just before the creature fell upon her Moira couldn’t help but think that maybe this was what she deserved.

------

She tumbled out of bed, the thin sheets that covered the tiny mattress entwined about her legs. Her headphones lay  across the floor, as she placed her hands down and pushed herself up. Crawling forward, out of bed and towards the window, each step wringing a strange stiffness from her limbs. She knew she’d been tired, but the moment she’d laid down she’d plummeted into sleep. Though as the disorienting adrenaline of whatever night terror she’d just experienced melted away in the light of day she couldn’t help but wonder why these seemed to be getting worse all of a sudden.

She’d been using the sleep aid again and it barely seemed to even take the edge off the nightmares.

“God, I am not getting on those sleeping pills again.”

She yanked the curtains open, the gray material pulling back to show the harsh glare of the rising sun through the dome. The temperature inside was very comfortable and temperate by comparison to the scorching highs and chilling lows of the desert outside, but something about the smell-

She sniffed the air, a more exaggerated and frankly silly action than she’d normally do, but she just couldn’t place it.

City Solis smelled weird . She couldn’t tell if it was a good weird or a bad weird but it was a weird weird certainly. The more she tried to place it the harder it seemed to be. For some preposterous and paranoid reason it reminded her of Sejm Island. But that was absurd.

That had smelled of blood and rust, rotten meat and the remarkably pungent odor of that same flesh when it remained animate and predatory despite the tumorous growth it had undergone. Even thinking about those abominations made her stomach unsettled and had her gripping the side of the window, knuckles white as the tension reached a peak and stayed there.

This was nothing like that.

Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that it smelled the same.

“Stupid thought. Just because the guy running it is a little eccentric.”

Okay, a lot eccentric. But he wasn’t ‘insane bioterrorist quoting Kafka and trying to kill her’ crazy so even that didn’t compare to what she’d dealt with before. In fact, was the reason she was thinking about this only because it was the first time she’d really been anywhere but home since then? Especially as far as she was now?

Moira took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, only to make a slightly disgusted look on her face. Swallowing heavily as she ran her tongue around her lips and the sucked air through her teeth. It even tasted weird.

Like…

Like-

Fear.

The thought seemingly popped into her mind of its own volition and with doing so shattered the odd focus that had had her noticing anything in the first place. Or perhaps better called the half-asleep state that had her imagining something as ridiculous as all this.

Moira shook her head, turning around and looking for her duffle bag. She had to get some shorts on, find her shoes, and get the hell out of this apartment and out of her head.

“What the hell is wrong with me?”

Did she really think she could smell fear?

------

“We were almost late because of you.”

“Sorry Natalia,” Moira said. “Guess I needed my beauty sleep.”

The much littler and much younger (adopted) Burton glared up at her sister as they climbed into the electric cart that would take them to the underground tram system. By the looks of it most of the other guests were also fighting off exhaustion and jetlag, so frankly Moira didn’t feel like she had to defend herself for taking a little longer to get cleaned up, dressed, and out of the two bedroom apartment she’d been put up with her sister in. They had had to grab something quick from the little mini-café at the base of the building, but her appetite wasn’t all there anyway.

“Probably whatever I hate that had me thinking of stuff like that,” Moira thought, thankful for the half-remembered nature of her nightmare. “From now on, no cheesy nachos from Red Grave’s after seven for me.”

“So what’s on the agenda anyway?”

The change of topic seemed to cheer Natalia right up, and she was smiling as she talked about the day's itinerary. “First we’re going to get sent an email and stuff going over the rest of the week. You’re supposed to listen to it while we get on the tram underground.”

“Why?” Moira asked. “Can’t we just do it later?”

“Because Moira, it’s more efficient this way.” Natalia rolled her eyes at that, as if it was perfectly obvious. “And it checks if-you did log into the local wifi already?”

“No, I wasn’t sure of the password.”

“Here, let me have that,” she said, taking Moira’s phone and rapidly typing in the password from the little piece of paper which had been part of their orientation packet. “It was Apollo.”

“Apollo?”

“Prophecy… farsight ?”

“Look at my little sister, into science and mythology.”

Natalia made an odd expression before smiling and handing the phone back to Moira. Who pulled her headphones out of her jacket and plugged them into the audio jack. The cart had gotten to the tram entrance and it was just one escalator down near the major recreation area to get to the station. A flash of the ID badges they’d also been given and they were checked in, seated, and ready to take off.

Just as she received the message on her phone about the live briefing about to start.

“They really are punctual to a fault.”

The spinning logo for Solis’s company, stylized picture of the Earth in a half crescent shape, though with the planet drawn as an eye eternally gazing towards the heavens, appeared on the screen as Moira took her seat. The tram had only just begun to move when it suddenly began to play.

“Good morning to both my newly arrived guests and the loyal employees,” Solis said. Moira winced, a slight electric popping as the sound kicked in and scooted back as she adjusted the audio jack trying to get rid of this almost imperceptibly annoying static as he spoke. It faded over time, but the start set her teeth on edge.

“We have a packed schedule ahead of you, so let's get started. Today our guests will be touring the Mars Colony Prototype, getting a look at what we here at FarSight have already produced to compare to their many fascinating proposals that earned them their select seats at the table. So to my employees, don’t disappoint. Let’s put our best foot forward and make sure they understand the competition to save the world is already fierce.”

“Really likes to hear himself talk.” At least it sounded like they’d have most of the day to look at the most interesting of the domes to start with. The one they were in now was basically just themepark with nicer public transport systems and the industrial one looked far too utilitarian to make a tour interesting to anyone that wasn’t a chemical engineer or something.

The rocket one was neat too of course, but it was smaller and clearly more about the big launch systems they’d built than anything you walk around and look at up close.

“Afterwards, some of our technicians and engineers will meet with you one-on-one to discuss their view on the proposals. Don’t be shocked if they knock the wind out of your sails. That’s what I pay them to do. But that’s just so you can take advantage of tomorrow.”

Moira looked at Natalia, worried how she’d react to that. But only found her staring at her phone, browsing her email at the moment and ignoring the whole presentation.

“Natalia, aren’t you going to listen in?”

“Oh… sorry, I didn’t get it,” she said. “You’ll just have to tell me what I missed.”

“You’re missing how they’re going to have some specialists tear that plan we wrote up to pieces.”

Natalia frowned, her face scrunched up in thought as she worked that over in her mind. Probably ill prepared to defend their little hypothetical scenario to someone with more education than both of them combined.

Given one of them was a pre-teen, precocious though she might be, and the other had taken a year off from college to ‘recover’ from nearly being eaten, mutated, or mutated and eaten by the last Wesker’s pet freak show that wasn’t really saying much. It still meant that they were probably going to get their asses kicked.

In an academic sense anyhow.

“The next day I want you to focus on how you’d respond to those criticisms. Rest, recover your strength and fortitude. And then watch us shoot our one hundred and sixtieth rocket up this year. A new record for the company and it’s only July!”

“Sheesh, they’re putting a lot of junk in space.”

“I will be watching from the Oasis Saucer to celebrate the momentous occasion with some of our VIPs and investors, but don’t worry. There are plenty of observation decks that will let you get a great view of the action.”

“Ooh… so we will get to see a rocket go off!” Natalia had scooted next to Moira, looking at the image in her phone and apparently figured out the jist of it even without the sound just by the pictures projected behind Solis as he spoke.

“The following days will be touring and working,” Solis said, pausing to pull out his inhaler and taking two quick puffs, “but not too hard I assure you, depending on the specialty of your submission. The afternoons I want you to recuperate and enjoy the world we’re saving with our many amenities provided.”

“So I guess I’ll get to catch those movies I missed earlier in the summer,” Moira thought, thinking back to what had been listed on the signs for the movie theater.

Solis finally concluded, the screen focusing on his face as it did. “And then at the end of the week I want you to try re-submitting your work. Not just to try again, as all great innovators must. But so you can experience how much you’ve changed in such a short time as well. Change is the foundation of progress after all… and we certainly need some of that if we want to make a difference.”

The screen went dark just as the tram rolled to a stop, the Mars Outpost dome directly above them.

And none too soon, as Moira wanted to stretch her legs and see if Solis could back up all his talk with something more interesting than rocket ships and theme park tours.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: Point of No Return

------

At first it appeared as if they had hardly moved, the tram station itself very nearly identical at one end as where they started. The sign hanging before the escalator heading up at least identified it as The Future of Space Colonization .

“Brought to you by Solis of course,” Moira said under her breath, stretching up and trying to work a crick out of her neck that just didn’t seem to want to go away. “Must have slept wrong. Stupid mattress felt like it was filled with bricks.”

Natalia hopped out, giddy to be moving and looking at the posters along the walls as they ascended with a childlike glee that managed to quickly pull Moira out her own cynicism. She supposed it was understandable. Everyone wanted to believe that there really could be some super science solution to every problem handed down from on high by the one great inventor. It was a deeply ingrained idea, hell some probably still tried to paint the entire T-Virus fiasco as the fruit of just one mad genius.

Umbrella’s executives had certainly tried that during the trials.

It was as attractive as it was wrong, but it didn’t surprise Moira that her sister was buying in at least. Probably like those animes she watched where the one great scientist had a super robot or something to fight the aliens.

The reality was that everything she knew told her that Solis was an ‘idea guy’ with a lot of money that had just hired armies of engineers and technicians to bring those ideas to fruition. Ultimately a far cry even from Spencer’s obsession with using his understanding of virology to burn the world and remake it anew, and even he’d used his families billions and the aid of like minded monsters among British aristocracy to found Umbrella. In the end Elliot Solis was lucky by product of the dot-com boom and brief, but impactful, economic surge following Umbrella’s dissolution as people had mistakenly believed at the time that the nightmare of BOWs and modern viral weapons was finished.

Before the Terragrigia Panic put an end to that and made the public painfully aware of what had been in the sealed portions of the Umbrella trial documents.

Moira glanced down to her sister as she continued to gawk at the shifting digitized screen trying to sell them, and likely the investors that took a similar tour, of how “Solis City Nevada was just the first step to Neo-Solis City Mars.” It was corny, ridiculous even given what untold billions of dollars could buy to talk about something like that, but even she had to admit it there was a reason stuff like that worked. Which was probably the point of it all. Even the workers for FarSight were wearing special jumpsuits that proudly labeled them as “Future Martians” as they left out of the escalator and into the main structure itself.

“Ugh, they probably have a gift shop don’t they?”

“Please follow the green, blue, yellow, and red lines along the floor according to your ID badges to determine which tour group you will be with for the first part of today.”

She checked the back of her badge, seeing the blue stripe that matched Natalia’s and they followed the glowing line that lit up on the floor leading to one of several open roofed vehicles. The whole setup seemed even more painfully artificial and ‘theme parky’ 

Because if it didn’t work (at getting those same investors to keep forking over money) why would he have dedicated fully a third of this already unbelievable money sink in the middle of the desert for what was looking like a giant Mars themed costume party in a big metal dome.

Thankfully they didn’t have to wear little plastic hats with antennas or anything like that.

That brought thoughts about the abandoned old West town turned UFO hotspot tourist stop before it started its transition into the parking lot for Solis City. Frankly, she’d rather take the donkey tour of the canyon or listen to some guy dressed 1800s prospector telling ghost stories. “Or just pull up in a folding chair, try some of the stuff Nevada’s legalized and see if I spot any flying saucers myself.”

“Moira! Moira look,” Natalia said, pulling at her sleeve as they passed some people dressed in space suits. Very slim and light ones by comparison, with backpacks that looked a lot less massive than what she’d seen in the news up till now.

“Yeah, those sure are smaller than they used to be.” All the while Moira was thinking to herself, “Except I’m here for Natalia’s sake, and she’s about a decade from wild college life. Not that I’ve been doing much of that for the last year.”

 “Our new Ultra-Light Environment Suits are tested daily. It might seem cumbersome and stressful to work in the desert heat in those but with our revolutionary miniaturized temperature control our workers don’t even notice the highs of a hundred and ten,” their guide said, a too chipper lady with short blonde hair. “And don’t worry, they can do the same at night even if it’s below freezing.”

Moira idly looked at them plodding along towards the door made fake airlock at one side. A perfect, even gait, marching line step towards the door-

- only for one to slip, falling face first onto the ground. Their helmet burst open, the rictus grin of corpse-like visage appearing as they tried to stand. The eyes bloodshot, dripping tears of red as the veins beneath their skin shifted and pulsed with unnatural animism. They failed to rise, instead tumbling off to the side and into a pile of bodies below the hill.

While the rest marched on, unthinking, unfeeling, already dead but still moving and-

-she yanked her vision away, closing her eyes and gripping the metal rail before her as hard as she could. Teeth clenched tight as she fought off a wave of nausea and strange sense of weightlessness that came from her blood pressure rising and falling in the midst of the burn of adrenaline through her veins. She couldn’t have seen that, she didn’t believe she’d seen that she-

“Moira… is something wrong?”

Through teeth tight like a vice she sucked in a breath, opening her eyes and looking at Natalia. And then off to the side.

Where a couple of the people in those Solis Suits (or whatever the hell they were calling them) were waving at the tour groups as the guide continued to prattle on about specialized liquid coolant and special radiation systems, some kind of extremely tiny refrigeration system that made the whole thing work. No bodies on the ground, no shattered helmets and not a zombie in sight.

That… that hadn’t happened in a while.

A sudden and terrifying flashback to those months she’d spent wondering if she’d live to see tomorrow, infected and surrounded by death. Therapy, some drugs (more than she’d liked at times) and plenty of time away from it all had helped. Reconnecting with her dad at last maybe more.

“N-nothing’s wrong,” Moira said as she sat up and tried to compose herself. “Just got the f-bad, really bad headache is all.”

She hadn’t been the only one there. But Claire was used to that shit, and she was a Redfield . “Christ, that family just takes this kind of crap and keeps coming back for more.”

And Natalia had her own… issues. Even now she only sort of understood the concept of fear or anxiety. A perfect viral synthesis, no inhibitors or a patchwork of non-human DNA needed as well. Not that you’d know looking at her that Alex Wesker had wanted her body as her own, as there didn’t seem to be any lasting effects other than an odd variation in the T-Virus antibodies she had. Even now she didn’t really understand the full logic of anything Wesker had wanted, but then like most of the crazed plots spawned by Umbrella that was probably for the best. It was best to just be thankful it had failed.

“So how much longer is this tour?” Moira asked, hoping to change the conversation as soon as possible.

“Only a few hours I think,” Natalia said, pulling out her phone to check the schedule again.

------

A few hours turned into past noon with no end of stopping. Finally they’d been forced to come back to a stop by the massive hydroponics building which had a conveniently built cafeteria next to it. Though given how much they were selling it on ‘entirely locally grown in the dome’ she was pretty sure this had been planned from day one as another way to talk about FarSight and its many marketable (or at least investor attractive) innovations.

“Though unless they got some way to make artificial meat or are hiding a whole damn farm in here, I’d say the ham came in on a truck.”

Or maybe it didn’t. Somehow the tour still wasn’t over, and that sounded like just the gross bit of weirdness she needed to cap off the midpoint of the day.

“It all looks pretty good.”

“I think I’ll have a salad,” Moira said to Natalia. “Might as well taste those Martian crops.”

Natalia smiled back, which meant the distracting little joke had served its purpose. Because Moira didn’t feel like smiling. She still felt vaguely unsettled, not quite nausea but not good in the slightest. It wasn’t a fever, thank god (the last thing she needed was cold and a trip to whatever passed for health care in this place instead of a bottle of Tylenol and some time to take a nap), but apparently her lack of good sleep and jet lag had combined into coming and going headache that centered in points along her brow and occasional flashes of hot and cold which had thankfully passed to quickly for her sister to notice as of yet.

Hopefully some food would settle her stomach and bring back her strength.

“So, we say the Mar’s buggies, they talked about solar cells and some kind of crazy plan to terraform it with rockets and comets-”

“That would take several million years and require constant re-seeding because of the inactive core.”

“Right,” Moira said, not wanting to argue or ask where Natalia had pulled that specific number from. Taking a bite of her salad before she continued, “Which means we get to hear about reactors and rockets a bit more and then we get this little project defense activity.”

Natalia blinked before smiling and meeting her sister’s eyes from where she’d been looking down in thought. “Oh that should be fun! I’ve been thinking over what we wrote, and I think it we could start by talking about how maybe future astronauts could breath less or something and-”

Moira didn’t really hear what she said next. A droning sound filled her ears, her senses going haywire as she took another bite mechanically. Biting, chewing, slowing grinding, and then swallowing even as it tasted bitter and wrong. She swallowed again, slowly putting the fork down, trying to keep the little she ate inside her stomach and not outside of it as Natalia continued to talk. Not a word getting past the droning noise that muted everything else, a white haze of painful distortion that made her head pound and pain reverberate through her temple while she gripped the side of the table for support.

It tasted like…

Metal

Bitter

Rust

… blood?

“-or maybe they could have extra-arms to move around in space! That would be neat, right?”

Moira managed a short, clipped nod before abruptly standing, swallowing more metallic tasting saliva as her stomach rebelled against her. “I need to got to the bathroom, just… just wait here, okay Natalia?”

Her sister seemed confused, but did acknowledge what she said. Which was good enough for Moira. Who took off in a fast pace that only quickened as she saw sign after sign for anything and everything except the sink or porcelain throne she was now ever so interested in locating. She glanced up at an illuminated sign at last, directing her down a hall as she took off at full paced run. Only to slide to a stop when the door didn’t open and she saw the ‘Out of Service’ sign placed on it.

“Damn it,” she said in a hoarse voice as she clutched at her midsection and looked back down the hall she went. There’d been a couple trash cans but the last thing she wanted was to make Natalia worry about her.

So instead she moved further down the hall, into the building next before too long in search of a solution. Eventually cupping her mouth to keep it closed, barging through a thankfully open door into the enclosed maintenance path directly next to that massive hydroponics building. Even more fortunate, there was a trash can right there.

Moira rushed forward, grabbing onto it and violently emptying what little was in her stomach. The taste remained, all the fouler for the digestive acid mixed in and she felt her eyes water as she barely kept standing. But that too passed, in time, though she fought and lost against another two waves of nausea before she finally stood up, shivering as another wave of feverish sensation passed through her and quickly vanished. The pounding sound in her head had at last gone back to a more manageable droning annoyance in the distance and she felt that she’d be able to compose herself well enough to get back to the rest of the group and her sister before they worried too much.

Only to turn around and walk into a custodian, mopping the floor.

“Wow there… sorry about the mess,” Moira managed. Getting no response, not even a nod of their head as they continued to mechanically move the mop forward and backwards on the floor. She probably wasn’t supposed to be here, was she, and no she’d gone and made more work for them. “Right… well, I’ll just be going now.”

Still no reaction, just the metal handle of the mop moving from side to side as they continued towards the door she’d ran out of moments before. Leaving long, slick passes of water and soap as they did.

“Hey, I need to get through there!” Moira said, annoyed by her upset stomach, the headache she still had, and frankly a dozen other things she was too tired to name now. She grabbed onto their shoulder, pulling them around and freezing at what she saw.

Blank eyes, irises gray with dark black veins threading through the whites. Mouth covered in a mask, blue safety helmet on their head. The later falling away, revealing patchy hair covering sickly looking scalp with healed over scars. The gaunt flesh of their face was frozen, unresponsive.

Till their pupils contracted at last, finally focusing on what was before them.

Her.

The mop fell from their hands as they started stiffly walking towards her, mouth stretching wide beneath the mast till she could see drool and blood dripping from behind it. Ghastly moans, hoarse and wrong came from their lungs as their pace quickened and the fingers grasped to hold her, to catch her.

All the while Moira was stepping back, desperate to will this hallucination away, to make things right again. Make things normal.

But no matter how she wished nothing changed, no matter how much she wanted this was the reality that faced her.

“Damn it…”

“Goddamnit!” Moira screamed out kicking at the zombie and causing them to stumble back as they failed to grab her leg and she knocked their uncoordinated body off balance. Fear and disgust replaced bitter and hateful anger. How dare this be in front of her. Her, after she’d won and escaped it all and was supposed to be down her with her sister for stupid vacation and-

“Natalia.”

She had to get back to her, protect her, keep her safe.

The thought required action and action was what she intended, looking from side to side for anything she could use. And spotting a fire extinguisher.

She snatched it from its holder, grabbing it like an awkward metal club and kicking the zombie again before swiping it to the side with the metal cylinder. And then again in the face, harder. Watching the animated corpse, the mockery of life brought back by virology and legacy of Umbrella no doubt, land on its back. Where she fell upon it.

Hammering the fire extinguisher down again and again on its skull, screaming herself hoarse as she did, over the muffled moans. Over the fleshy thuds.

And over the crack of bone and the wet and sickly sound of its final end. Dropping the blood splattered weapon at its side she stood up, backing away as she looked at her hands, eyes unfocused as she saw them crusted in blood and-

- sharp talons, fingers… no, claws, red on darker, unnatural color as she beheld her victim. Torn apart, viscera spread about as her hunger called at her to state herself upon the kill.

Jaw opening, unhinging lower flexible and moveable spikes that protruded from the sides of her face spread open wider. The sheer size of her razor lined mouth when opened great enough to bite down and peel the face from this corpse if she’d wanted.

But instead she aimed lower, tearing into the cooling meat, finally able to fill her empty stomach and-

- Moira turned, grasping the trashcan and vomited again. Dry heaving as the nightmarish vision passed and she rose up.

A new goal in mind.

“I have to find Natalia.” Get her out of her, get her safe. Get them both to safety. She hobbled through the door, her gait almost normal by the time she turned back towards the last hall and saw the closed bathroom once more. And her sister was looking around in confusion, clearly not interested in following her earlier request to stay seated. But that was fine, easier to get to her and protect her and then get them both the hell out of her.

“Natalia we need to go.”

“Wha-are you alright?”

Moira nodded, wiping the sweat from her brow as she grabbed her sister prepared to drag her out of this nightmare. “I saw something-I killed something.”

“What!” Natalia shook out of her grasp and looked at her in shock. “Stop Moira… we need to think about this.”

She paused, turning around and looking at her sister again. Who had a fiercely intense look in her eyes all of a sudden. Despite the differences in age and her origins adopted into the Burtons it was a look that Moira didn’t find that unfamiliar. Just not something she’d thought she’d see from Natalia while she was still so young…

“What’s there to talk about? There’s a damn zombie back there, a dead one now, and we need to- I dunno, call the cops? The BSAA?” Moira threw her hands up as she continued to speak. “Hell, call Dad even!”

“Show me.”

“What… show her?” Moira frowned, before shaking her head and grabbing onto Natalia’s arm as she tugged her down the hall and kept her close. “It was just past here.”

She opened the door, as cautious as she could and kept Natalia close and safe.

But there was no body to be seen.

“But… it was just here!”

Moira let go of her sister, looking around the empty maintenance hall, trying to find a sign of the conflict from before outside of her memory. No body, no blood on the floor, no mop…

The floor was damp, but that seemed to be from a little black circular drone that was humming down the hallway further on and continuing to clean the floor with the persistence of true mechanical dedication. Not that it alone could have managed to move or remove a corpse.

“There’s nothing here Moira,” Natalia said, sounding rather sad as she looked up at Moira. “Do you want to go back to the room and sleep?”

Moira shook her head, the idea of leaving Natalia alone suddenly, and irrationally popping into her mind. “No… no, I… I’m fine.”

She swallowed, the vile aftertaste of her nausea still tainted with the bitter flavor of her attempt at lunch. All she could think of at the moment was that she couldn’t leave, couldn’t show weakness in the face of this bizarre relapse to where she’d been months and months ago.

If not even worse.

The thought that she could just take Natalia back with her didn’t even occur to her until they were on the bus again and moving off towards the second, and last part of the day.

------

“I’m Dr. Eliza Delacruz and I will be handling this discussion on your proposal,” said the woman seated before them. The very same stiffly dressed lady that had been with Solis during that first introductory speech. Her appearance as their interviewer and questioner on their proposed project took her a bit aback.

Wasn’t this just some kind of try out for high school seniors or college kids hoping to score an internship? Why that level of interest in them, especially given how the supposed author (ignoring how much she’d help) was still in middle school?

“As the research engineer in charge of genetic hybridization for optimizing non-terrestrial plant and animal growth on future FarSight space endeavors I decided to personally handle your Q&A session as yours was the only proposal that dealt with my particular specialty so closely.’

“Well that kind of explains it,” Moira thought as she took a chair to the side.

“I’m Natalia Korda Burton,” Natalia said with an almost ear to ear smile, the earlier shock and worry at what Moira had thought she’d seen gone now. Though it might just be a brave front she was putting on, as afterwards she’d asked if maybe she could handle most of the questions personally since she was technically listed as the primary author. Not that Moira really cared on second thought, she didn’t want to intern for this weirdo and by the time Natalia was old enough they’d probably have gone under for tax evasion or something.

“Moira Burton, her sister,” Moira said, not that she really thought they’d mistake Natalia for her kid or anything, but she might as well be specific.

“And I see the youngest innovator among the group looks ready for our session,” Eliza said, returning to her seat. “You are prepared to answer my questions and defend your proposal correct?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Moira kept her eyes on the pair, but after that earlier panic attack and flashback she just wanted to sit and rest her eyes. The odd droning sound was back again and it was making it hard to focus. The fluorescent lights above seemed to be the source to her noise sensitivity issues, causing her to hold herself tightly and fight down another brief urge to run for the bathroom again.

Hopefully actually finding it this time if she went and not end up in a fight with a potted plant or something she’d mistakenly believed to be a BOW.

Trying to be subtle about it she pulled out one of the earbuds and attached the cord to her phone as she searched for something to blot out that noise and distract her. Flicking through radio stations and finding nothing that was getting a signal, even in this windowed room several floors up in the dome.

Before stumbling onto some recording of old guitar music and deciding that was good enough. It was scratchy, not entirely strong enough to come in clear, but better than nothing and it gave her an excuse to just lean back and think about something else for a moment.

“Just going to rest my eyes for a moment…” Moira closed them, leaning back as she did. Trying to listen in still to the conversation between this Dr. Delacruz and her sister.

“So you said that SBOWs could improve our operations-”

“Huh… was that how I wrote it?” Moira couldn’t remember at the moment… it must have been, right? It hardly mattered now, her empty stomach and exhaustion had combined to leave her too exhausted to care as she continued to drift into a hazy state hovering above unconsciousness.

“Yes. In almost all regards the human form is harshly limited for space colonization. It is a simple statement of fact.”

“And you propose abandoning humanity to solve this?”

“That’s weird… my sister knows a lot of big words and-”

------

Voices, indistinct and flowing from one to another. A woman.

A man.

Speaking nearby.

“So this is the subject?” he asked.

She answered, “She’s already been prepped. In part, the virus only needs a new set of genetic sequences and a mild catalyst to reactivate. Which you have already provided.”

“And you believe you can control the outcome? That’s always been the problem before, requiring multiple trials or a vat grown subject.”

“Excepting extremely fortunate accidents in some cases-but yes, the priming will pinpoint accuracy and I’ve considered at length how Wesker obtained the results he wanted with his experiment on Valentine.”

“She was an almost perfect genetic match for progenitor strains before her mutation. This subject is not.”

“I believe you might be surprised, and even then I am certain that I can take his work to the next step. Dialing in a specific effect irregardless of the starting biological or genetic compatibility.”

“What about-

“-that will not be an issue. She will not betray-”

------

Moira jostled awake, seeing a room drenched in darkness. A slide projector still showing their shared project proposal, complete with some graphs she’d asked for from a friend in her online classes.

Though it looked different, almost like-

“Did Natalia rewrite some of this?”

She must have… though she probably should have let Moira take a look at it. The interesting twists she’d taken on how and why viral mutations might be useful now included a number of typos.

Still, Moira had more important things to worry about. Like where her sister was.

She’d just about gotten to the door only to stop and see Dr. Delacruz standing outside the door’s window. Clearly she’d fallen asleep at some point and they’d let her stay there while they finished the presentation. Moira impressed despite herself that her sister had managed to get through the whole thing on her own without any help. And by the looks of it doing a good job too.

Her hand was almost to the door knob when there was a click in the radio, the music cutting off.

“Hello listeners,” said the voice of an older man. “This is Caleb Kidd, and I ain’t kidding. Bringing you the truth about the skies on Mar’s Mesa for over thirty years.”

What.

Did she…

“Of course, I’m so far out in the boonies, I must be getting some guy’s weird pirate radio station.” And of course giving the Mar’s Mesas obsession with all things green, alien, and from space, it was some UFO weirdo.

“But it just ain't what’s up that’s a problem, cause what they told me when they brought me up there is coming true. The Mutant Apocalypse is upon us!”

Moira, sighing, said to herself, “And of course it can’t just be that.”

Now she really was going to turn this off. Conspiracy theories were bad enough when they didn’t involve stuff she’d dealt with (or possibly some insane speculation about how the friends of her family were actually alien imposters from space).

Though you’d think if Gill Valentine (god, was her dad rubbing off on her or something?) was a fake they’d have made the fake actually look like she used to instead of a seven foot tall shark woman.

“-because those zombies are out there again! I saw ‘em with my telescope again.”

At that word, the memories from earlier in the day came rushing back. The shock, the fear, the anger and desperate fight for survival, to kill the source of it. And then the confused shame when there was no sign it had ever been there.

… but what if she hadn’t been crazy?

“But there was nothing there,” Moira said, echoing her own fears, Natalia’s words at what they found. And despite the cold and inescapable logic of it all, she couldn’t fight the feeling that there was something wrong, truly wrong going on.

And maybe she wasn’t the only one seeing it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5: I Shall Not Anchor Here

------

There once was a girl that befriended serpents. Great and small, all that slithered and crawled became her friends. She would take them to her chest and carry them to safety.

And as she loved them so did they love her, for all of these mistrusted creatures came to see her as one of their own. All the while the people of the village told her that she was mad, and that one day the serpents would be the death of her.

Then one day she found a pretty lizard of brilliant blue with silver fangs. The poor thing had gotten lost in the rain and was soon to die. So she picked it up and carried it under her jacket so that it could warm up as often she did.

However, before she could find her way home, a small group from the village came about her wandering. As often they did, the mockery and laughter began, but as always she tried to press on and ignore them.

Till one boy from the village pushed her into a tree.

The shock caused the creature hidden close to bite down, and its venom went straight to her heart. While the laughter faded as she lay in the mud, crying out in pain swiftly ended, as none came to her aid. Soon all the serpents came to see what had happened to their protector and found the one that had killed her, silently weeping upon her body.

Moral of the Story: Sometimes we hurt those we love.

( I’m sorry…)

------

She hurried down the long corridors of the outpost, her boots impacting with muffled thuds on the floor as she ran. The front faceplate of her helmet would fog at times from her breath, clearing up again when she came to a stop and gazed back to see if anything was chasing her still.

Only to be met with the suffocating emptiness of the compound. Nothing but vast tunnels of pipes, long and dimly lit. No movement to be seen, no sound but her own breathing as she turned around another corner and beheld yet more dimly lit corridors which honeycombed through the cold, dead earth around her.

Of course that was not the only dead things.

Though the ground at least, for the moment, remained a neutral party in the horrors that bese her. The bodies strewn across the ground, ripped asunder as if by some terrific force were the more trouble. The gaunt and dead faces of her now slaughtered comrades were at least in this place too damaged to present a danger as reanimated monsters to attack her, though she could see by the blood dripping from eyes, the bizarrely healed wounds  and strange, swollen veins of black and blue on faces and limbs that that might have been a problem had she been here before they had come face to face with such violence.

Now of course, she had to worry as to the source of that same violence.

“To hell with it,” Moira said, cursing all the world that had damned her to this predicament and a show of her utter exasperation at how it always, always, seemed to find a way to be worse. Trapped in the dark, trapped with the dead.

Trapped with things that weren’t dead.

And now trying to keep away from whatever might also be here, locked underground with her.

She needed to get out.

She needed to escape.

You can’t get away Moira…

Some stubborn determination welled up in her and she took off down the hall, her boots splashing in pools of water.

And perhaps pools of other, more darkly colored fluids. Small mercies, but with her helmet on at least she couldn’t smell any of it.

Her foot slipped on one of the slick pools and Moira muffled a curse, and then a scream, as she came face to face with one of the corpses. Eyes unfocused, dead, but the mouth twitching despite how the head had been wrenched clean around and the body folded upon itself. She rolled to the side, ignoring sticky fluid her glove hand had just fallen into.

Frozen, in silence, at what was at the other end of the hall. Taller than her, broader as well. The figure crotched down as its claws scraped against the concrete floor. While above long whip like tendrils struck out wildly, throwing a body it had grabbed into the ceiling where it impacted with a meaty crunch. She could barely discern the shape of the face, but it opened its mouth, and roared.

“Fuck!”

Moira clutched at her head, trying to muffle the sound through her helmet as best she could even as the pitch lowered and it made body sickly uncomfortable as if she was standing next to a speaker system on full blast. A wave of nausea went through her and she barely kept herself from throwing up as she stumbled to her feet and took off in the direction she’d been heading. Faster now, the creature was hot on her heels. The noise of its chase echoing down the long hall, claws and other parts scraping on metal and that awful, awful sound of its wailing call drawing closer and closer the more she ran.

It was faster than her.

It was stronger than her.

It was going to catch her…

It was going to-

She turned hard to the left, grabbing onto the ladder and climbing up. Her hands, still covered in the blood of those it had killed, slipped on the rungs but she managed to keep hold as she jumped up. With every passing moment it drew closer, the sounds of its approach now louder than her pounding heart or panting breath. Below the ladder jostled, a thrown body impacting against it and almost making her fall down into its waiting claws. But she held firm, pulling herself up to the top of the ladder and pushing the hatch open. The light of the sun shining down on her, blinding her as she escaped from the darkness. Kicking the hatch closed as she climbed out, she grabbed at the handle and pulled it till the lock set. Before falling back into the harsh red sands around her.

Above, two misshapen moons hung low in the horizon, above the rim of the caldera, the enormous atmospheric generator plant for the colony visible in the distance. Behind her the domed enclosure of Neo-Solis City rose up, this one far larger than the model built before and almost a kilometer of glass and steel and-

When did she get here?

You're an employee of FarSight.

Moira closed her eyes, trying to remember the last few days. Of panic, of fear, of being chased by something that was always getting closer, that always seemed to know where she was and what she would do next.

And tried to remember what had happened before that.

She’d been here with her-

You care about ensuring humanities survival at all costs.

No, that’s not-

You are an integral part of Solis’s plans, and should be proud of the work you will do.

Something was-

Moira Burton is proud of what she has become to help save humanity.

“Stop… stop saying things,” Moira said, beating her head against the ground. Small cracks appeared in her helmet as the glass began to break, the oxygen escaping into the thinner, artificial atmosphere of the colony before the faceplate shattered apart. The suddenly thinner air made her gasp as she struggled to keep breathing.

For a moment.

Then her lungs seemed to explode in pain, her suit pushing out as she heard her ribs crack and reform, her body wracked by sensations she’d never imagined. And then the next breath wasn’t quite so hard.

You are perfectly suited for your position in the company.

“Shut up.” Her eyes opened, bloodshot and pained, as her brown irises shot through with specks of golden yellow, the pupils growing larger and smaller in a bizarre fashion. While on her face veins stood out, red before turning blue, bulging and then contracting in as the flesh seemed to move and shift before stilling back to how it was.

Her neck felt tight, her suit not fitting right as she grabbed at her helmet and unclipped it. Grabbing it with her right hand and-

Moira Burton has become a-

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

She threw the helmet into the distance as she screamed. First words, and then just a high pitched cry of rage and pain. Her blood was racing, her body felt as if every muscle was on fire, and she could barely stand. But all she wanted to know was…

Where was her sister?

The hatch exploded, and she tumbled back onto the sand. The thing from below had escaped but there was no sign of it-

There!

Moving beneath the dunes, she saw them flow as it crawled underground, coming for her. Moira darted to the left. Only for something else to shoot out of the ground and wrap around her leg. A long gray-black tendril, tightening around her leg and dragging her to the ground.

There’s nothing to be scared of, Elliot Solis has everything planned out for the good of-

Its mouth extended from the sand, rows of razor white teeth showing as it screamed at her, the pain indescribably as she felt her eardrums vibrate and rupture.

But at least there was silence at last as she plummeted into unconsciousness in its grasp…

No voices, no sound but the beating of her heart.

Of their hearts as it dragged her closer still, so close she felt the breath of its open mouth upon her face as it loomed over her, its captured prey.

There’s no escape… there’s no…

-----

Her neck felt stiff.

Well, not just that, but a lot of stuff felt stiff. Moira had dragged herself into the shower, eyes looking tired and worn out. She’d looker herself over after she’d come out, slight bags under each hazel-brown-

Moira blinked, looking at her reflection a second time.

“God I look exhausted.” She ran her hands around her neck, shifting it from side to side and trying to work the tension out. Till at last there was a loud pop and she stiffened, the sound accompanying a slight pinch in her back as she stood up straighter. Dropping her hands down, she grabbed onto the sides of the bathroom counter before looking at herself again as she said, “What are they putting in those mattresses? Rocks?”

“If this place has a hospitality review or whatever I’m going to give them one star.” She’d slept better when her dad had decided they should “Enjoy the wilderness around Raccoon” and set up a tent in the backyard. Before the bugs and the rain and the poison ivy had rapidly left them all, bitten, itchy, and wet back inside their house. The memories brought a slight smile to her face despite how bad the evening had gone and left her thinking, “I’d rather be out in the desert roughing it with Dad than dealing with this space age discomfort.”

“Moira, are you okay in there?”

“Yes,” she said, quickly moving to get dressed now that she realized that Natalia had gotten up at some point while she’d been trying to get rid of the strange discomfort she’d been feeling ever since she’d gotten up. To some limited success at least. “I’m fine… why are you asking?”

“Oh,” Natalia said, pausing for a moment before she continued, “it’s just that it’s almost noon already.”

“What?!”

“I mean, there’s nothing to do till we get to see that rocket launch and if you needed some sleep I-”

Moira scrambled out of the bathroom, still pulling a sock up as she hopped forward out of the bathroom. She couldn’t believe this. How long had she been in there?

“What’s the rush? Is it about missing breakfast?”

“No,” Moira said, even as her stomach made a rather loud and pointed sound that contradicted that. Which combined with her suddenly realizing how absolutely famished she felt. Which only made sense since she’d barely eaten anything the day before. “At least my appetite is coming back.”

Maybe whatever had been making her feel sick yesterday had already passed?

“So then what are you worried about?”

Moira thought for a moment before she answered. On one hand she didn’t want to drag Natalia into her worries. Especially now that in retrospect she felt like maybe all of that stuff yesterday had been literal fever dreams brought about from too little sleep and twenty-four hour cold. Really, zombies in Solis City ? The guy might be a little eccentric, but he clearly meant well so why had she been so convinced something was going on?

When the problem was so obviously herself, all bundled up and nervous. Really, she should just put it out of mind, grab a double bacon cheeseburger from Redgrave Grill and catch a movie while she waited for this rocket launch to go off. That was the smart, sensible thing to do. The sort of thing that people should do if they visited/lived/worked in Solis City like she-

“Moira?”

She shook her head, refocusing on her sister and the plan from last night. Yes it was a little crazy, but they had a day to themselves so why not do something to properly bury these fears instead of just ignoring them.

“How’d you like to rent one of those dune buggies they were showing off and go for a drive?”

Natalia’s rather worried expression broke into a smile at that.

“Where are we going?”

“I’ll tell you while we eat breakfast,” Moira said. Before noticing the time again and correcting herself with, “Lunch I mean.”

------

She had indeed gone for the double bacon supreme, endless fries included. She’d almost felt like eating two before they were done, but she had stuff to do and couldn’t afford to pig out to the point she didn’t feel up to driving through the desert for a couple of hours. The last thing she needed was getting sick again after all.

“Are you sure about this?” Natalia asked as she buckled up in the faux Mar’s buggy they’d rented. As with most things Solis had set up, the obvious influences were there even if it had to be designed to work on Earth and not in space. Despite that it was a near copy to what they’d been showing off in the colony prototype dome the day before. Four seats, though they’d only need two, with large wheels and a rechargeable electric battery system that would give them several hours to get out and back. She’d rented it for the longest duration they had and climbed in beside her sister, a cooler with extra bottles of water between them.

“Yes. I was listening to this guy's show last night and he saw… something around here. He must be close, probably out in a trailer on one of the hills nearby. Once we get past the domes I’ll check with my binoculars for something.”

Natalia looked back at her before slowly saying, “Something?”

Moira winced at the question, realizing once again how crazy this plan was and how she should just go back like a good visitor and find something else to do. Before her stubborn frustration at how odd she’d felt the day before won over once more and she sat down in the driver’s seat.

“He can’t be that hard to find. If he’s broadcasting a pirate signal that can show up in here he has to be close and have an antenna set up. It will be fine Natalia. We just drive around till we find this Caleb Kidd guy and I talk to him.”

“Caleb Kidd?” Natalia asked, sitting beside Moira as she buckled herself in. “That’s who you’re looking for?”

“Yes, I told you. Some guy was on I heard for a little while on the radio last night talking about seeing things in the desert.”

“Oh I know where we can find him,” Natalia said, folding her hands in front of her now that she was seated. “He should still be out near the old military base.”

“How… how do you know that?”

“Didn’t you read the brochure?” Moira shook her head, still confused how her little sister could possibly know where this one man was. Natalia continued to say, “He’s the guy from Mar’s Mesa that wrote Warnings from Above about how aliens warned him about Raccoon City.”

“Oh.” Moira let her hand down from the ignition, suddenly rethinking her plan. Maybe it would be best to just head back, get another burger, and wait out the rest of the day without getting into trouble chasing some crazy lead. “How reliable can this guy be anyway?”

“So when are we going?” Natalia asked.

“You want to go now?” She’d been hesitant before once she’d heard that they were looking for some guy in the desert instead of just taking a ride around the place. After she’d heard the plan she’d even spent most of lunch looking at Moira as if she was worried about something even after she’d finally eaten some food and kept it down. The change in attitude was notable enough she couldn’t help but remark on it. “I thought you didn’t want to spend the whole day chasing radio ghosts.”

“That’s before I realized we were looking for Kidd! I’ve never met someone who’s seen aliens before.”

“Aliens aren’t real Natalia,” Moira said, finally turning on the engine as she shifted the vehicle into gear.

Natalia just smiled back as she said, “Maybe… but we won’t know till we talk to him.”

------

The drive out had taken a while, but it was cooler than the day before, light clouds blowing across the sky and plenty of water for a change between the two of them. Technically they were taking the ride outside the official limits or whatever, but Moira figured she could just say they didn’t know when they got back since the military base was actually close enough to them anyhow.

“Well at least he won’t be too hard to find.” The working radio set up was a clear giveaway, still built next to the collapsing fence around the base itself. While not that far off from there some portion of visitors or workers must have been housed in mobile homes and trailers at one point. Most had fallen into ruin and disrepair, but the wires, and Christmas lights apparently, led up to one in particular. A truly ancient old tan van, paint chipped and faded, under a makeshift garage made out of a canopy while nearby a comparatively newer pickup truck was parked. Kidd’s home itself was made from a mobile home set next to a pair of old metal trailers, with numerous lawn chairs, old tires, and standing firepit in what passed for a yard out here in the Nevada desert. And before it all was a wooden fence post buried in the ground, numerous signs nailed to its surface.

The Keep Out  and No Trespassers were expected. The Aliens Only and Flying Saucer Parking were… well, probably also pretty on point for what she now knew about this man.

“Should we leave?” Natalia asked as she looked them over.

“Don’t worry. It doesn’t say anything about Canadians,” Moira said as they pulled up behind it and parked.

As they drew closer they could see that behind the trailers more tarps had been set up, as well as several water tanks. All in all it might have looked like a total disaster but Moira could pick out that most of the essentials seemed to be covered for staying alive out here, if not exactly in the lap of luxury as it were.

“So he’s probably home,” Natalia said as she unbuckled as well and got ready to stand up.

“Stay here Natalia,” Moira said quickly as she started walking cautiously towards the home. Her fingers twitching slightly, nervous energy making them part way clench towards a fist before they pulled back, stopping midway and holding there as her jaw tightened. For some reason she wanted, needed something to defend herself. She knew that if only she had a weapon, something sharp in her hands, her worries would go away and she’d be able to knock on the door with confidence.

Despite that, she did so anyway, her knuckles tapping upon the side next to the closed screen door. The moment she did so she heard something move inside, followed by a hoarse and older voice calling out. “Who is it? Can’t ya read a sign?”

“I’m just here to talk… Mr. Kidd?”

“I’m not talking to any federal agents. You’re all just trying to cover it up again-get out of here.”

“Hey, Caleb wait, I think they sound familiar.”

Moira paused, the other voice ringing some bells for her as well. “Who is that?”

“What?! I thought you were clean… you ain't planning to bug me are you?”

“Very funny, really never heard that one before,” the other man said, stepping towards the door and into the light. Moira’s shock clear on her face as she stepped back, letting him open the door and walk out, ducking down so his antennas didn’t hit the top of the door.

“Tim? What are you doing out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said, folding his arms across his chest as he looked to her, then over her shoulder to where the buggy was parked. Her sister waved back, Tim’s attempt at neutral expression turning into a smile as he returned it and then looked back to Moira. “I thought you were going to be up at that giant glass eyesore for the rest of the week.

Something bristled in her chest at that, and she’d already opened her mouth before she could stop herself. “It’s not an eyesore. It’s just… how it needs to be to help innovate the future and…”

“What the hell am I talking about?”

He looked at her like she was the one that had grown antenna for a moment, his pulling down slightly before he broke into a grin and started laughing. “Man, they really do sound like that when they come around sometimes. I swear, it’s not surprising that one of the richest men in the world is surrounded by bootlickers but you’d think he’d get tired of it.”

“Yeah… right,” Moira said back, faking a smile as she tried to figure out why she’d spouted off what had sounded like an advertising tagline out of nowhere. “Ugh, I must have just heard all that crap a hundred times yesterday. It's like it’s burned into my brain now.”

“So what brings you out here anyway? We’re a bit away from the tours they put out. Both the Mar’s Mesa ones and the pretend Martian ones.”

“I heard Kidd on the radio last night and wanted to talk to him.”

“If you’re from the government you can talk all you want, I ain’t saying a goddamn thing back to any of-”

“Nah, it’s cool Caleb,” Tim said as an older man, with a large gray beard on his face and wearing khaki shorts and tie dye shirt, came into view at the door. “They’re not even from the US.”

“What, are they Europeans?”

“We’re from Canada,” said Natalia, who had apparently decided to get out of the car and come walking over once she saw it was someone they’d already met.

“Ugh, that’s even worse,” Caleb said, reaching into his pants to pull out a small object. The hand wrapped cigarette looked a little odd…

“Oh. So that’s how it is.”

Though on seeing how young Natalia looked he shook his head before slipping it back into his pants. “Well, what did you come out here for? Nothing but tumbleweeds and dirt this way for the next hundred miles.”

“I came out here because…” Moira paused, once more feeling how silly this idea seemed now. But she was already here so she might as well just go through it already. Seeing them both looking at her expectantly she continued, “I wanted to ask you about what you’ve been seeing in the desert.”

“Boy… you sure they’re from Canada?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Wait… when did I tell him that?” Moira looked at him suspiciously as she repeated her thought out loud. “Did we tell you that?”

“Yeah, funny story,” Tim said, antenna standing up and twitching slightly as he rubbed his head. “I was talking to my friend Mark last night, see he called about this great deal Sarah got for a real role and-anyway, I mentioned I met someone whose dad was a BSAA consultant and he said that that would have to be Barry Burton’s daughter.”

Moira rolled her eyes at that. “And I bet all those agents they have checking up on your friends can’t stop talking about my dad?”

“Bingo.”

Caleb had stepped out of the door entirely, his sandaled feet walking on the sand and dirt as he came to stand next to Tim and looked at her with a newfound respect. “You’re dad’s in the BSAA?”

“A consultant… so, yeah?” Moira said, shrugging her shoulders a bit.

“Well why didn’t ya say so! I thought you were-never mind. But the BSAA? They’re our allies in the fight.”

“The fight?” Moira asked, even as Tim’s eyes opened wide and he started to shake his head. Antenna lowered as Caleb turned around, pointing dramatically upwards to the heavens.

“The fight to stop The Mutant Apocalypse.”

“Still sticking with that name, huh?”

“Not you,” Caleb said, shaking his head as he pulled one of his lawn chairs over and sat down in it. “Like I said, when they took me up to their saucer back in ‘98, they told me that the world was in great danger and that this time they would have to interfere. Now at the time I thought that was just telling me to warn you all about what was coming-”

“What’s coming exactly?” Natalia asked.

“Don’t encourage this,” Tim said, from where he was now leaning against his truck.

Caleb, turning towards the youngest, and most interested of his listeners at the moment, continued, “The destruction of the human race. Everyone wiped out by cannibal mutants that used to be people and weren’t. Like Raccoon… but everywhere. The zombies were just the first stage of it, the failed test of the alien viruses they found… but we all saw the real monsters when they hit Terragrigia.”

Moira placed a hand on Natalia’s shoulder as she froze for a moment. Caleb, well into his story continued without noticing.

“But like I said, I thought I was their only interference. Till I saw the reports of the folks back East,” he said, gesturing towards Tim Hart. “Then I knew they weren’t sending agents down, directly helping by inoculating us to make some."

“Glad to know having these,” he said, wiggling his antenna a bit, “is part of some alien’s plan to save the world.”

“Not that boy. The fact that you lived is part of it, making you part alien instead of a rabid monster.” Caleb shook his head as he leaned back. Before he smiled and said, “Now that ex-President’s daughter? Strong enough now to help fight the hordes and still help the human race. That’s what the aliens must have meant when they said they’d lend a hand.”

“Wait… you think people that become SBOWs… were changed on purpose by aliens?” Moira asked, dumbfounded disbelief evident in her voice. While inside she thought, “Goddamn, did I just waste my day driving around to listen to this?!”

“Not exactly… they got rules about helping out too much, the Galactic Concordance states that if we kill ourselves with bombs or something… whelp,” he shrugged his shoulders. “But since the viruses came from space they could help out with their technology. And if some of those that survive were strong enough to stop what’s coming, then they didn’t save us. We did.”

Tim shook his head as he stood up and stepped closer. “I’ll be sure to tell mom the happy news that having an exoskeleton means she should sign up with the BSAA according to an alien from space.”

“Okay, wait… but what about what you say in the desert?”

“Huh?”

“Last night, on your show,” Moira said, walking closer, her words tumbling out now as she was desperate for his all to have not been a giant waste of time, “you said you saw something in the desert. Not in the sky, but out here.”

“Right… well, the aliens haven’t been around lately. I think it’s because that bastard Solis is trying to shoot them down.”

“You think the rockets are to shoot down aliens?”

“No, of course not! The rockets carry laser weapons into space to shoot them. Everyone knows that. Even the Russians have got those.”

“Actually it’s the Chinese,” Natalia said. “Though the targeting system would have difficulty with hitting targets that weren’t stationary or… well, moving ones.”

“Is she thinking about some anime she watched?” Moira thought.

“See, even this kid knows about it,” Caleb shouted out, drawing Moira’s attention away from Natalia. “Anyway, I know he’s up to no good. Not only have I not seen any saucers since he built that theme park over there, but at night there’s lights along the hills.”

“Lights?”

“Yeah… and the lights are people. All walking around out in the desert. Moving trucks and material into that fake city and then going back for more. They never stop, they never take a break, hell I watched one just stand there like a lawn ornament for at least six hours one night.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just miss a shift change?”

“No! He was up there on that hill by the ridge, dressed in one of their stupid looking jumpsuits with a light on his head and didn’t move a muscle to the sun was almost up.”

“That’s it… I came out here for this?”

Caleb stood up then, stretching before he turned back towards his house. “I’m telling you though, nothing that scares off the saucers can be good. Something’s wrong up there. I can feel it.”

“Thank you for story Mr. Kidd,” Natalia said to the back of the retreating man.

Moira turned to her sister and pointed back to the buggy. “Natalia, could you head back there? I want to talk to Tim for a bit.”

Her sister looked at her for a moment before nodding and walking off. While Moira turned to face Tim, who was just shaking his head.

“You didn’t believe all that, did you?”

“I… no, not really,” Moira said. Thinking to herself, “Certainly not all of that. But… was he talking about zombies from Solis City?”

“Moira… Caleb Kidd is just some crazy kook out in the desert that I buy weed from. You really shouldn’t believe all the nonsense he talks about. The only thing weird about Solis is how much money he wastes. Like that tram he built… I swear more people ride it up there than ever ride it back.”

At the sudden intense interest she showed Tim quickly continued.

“And I mean because it’s too slow and takes forever since he made it go around the whole place like a tour bus before it ever stops. There’s a road up from there and most of his workers just drive company cars or live there. And he’s always flying his private jet out from there.”

Moira kicked the ground, annoyed that her plan, ill thought out as it had turned out to be once she’d slept on it, hadn’t found the smoking gun of evidence she wanted. “Maybe you’re right. I might be overthinking this.”

“You probably are.” Tim paused for a moment, smiling before he spoke again, “Anyway, I’m glad I met you since I might be gone by the time you get done over there. Mark called me up like I said, and wanted to celebrate. Sarah got a role in a real movie… or a ‘call back’ from one anyway. It’s looking good.”

“Wait, Sarah the… eighty-percent?”

“Full-package SBOW Sarah yeah. Oliver Stone’s planning to do a film on President Graham and wants someone to play his daughter for some scenes. She tried out for it and supposedly they liked what they saw. I’m just scoring some… party favors in case it goes through.”

That was unexpected news, and Moira felt herself sharing Tim’s enthusiasm almost instantly. “I’m really happy to hear that. Here’s hoping it works out for them.”

As she turned and walked back towards the buggy, Moira felt calmer than when she’d left. Maybe she had just imagined all that yesterday. It would make more sense than anything else, right?

“Come on, let’s get back before we miss that rocket launch.”

------

When they pulled up to the garage and parked Moira was pretty confident in her cover story. “Oh I got lost looking at the sand dunes” or “My sister thought she saw a lizard and we tried to get pictures of it and went too far, I’m so sorry.”

Really, what’s the worst they could do? Fine her?

Though as they walked out of the garage and into the dome they found Dr. Delacruz with a small team of security guards. She hadn’t even realized that Solis City had a police force, but the FarSight logo stamped with the word security was printed on every arm. Not only that but they were armed, batons, tasers, and blue-white 9mm pistols on each and every one of them.

“I’m so glad you got back in time,” Dr. Delacruz said. “Mr. Solis has selected some of our innovators with the most impressive proposals to watch the launch with him tonight at the Oasis Saucer .”

Chapter Text

Chapter 6: Idolatry Born of Fear

------

They returned to their rooms quickly, the sun already beginning to draw low in the horizon. Speaking little, Moira hurriedly pulled Natalia with her as they drew close and then closed the door swiftly once they were inside. The strange anxiety and panic that had been building since they’d returned and found that waiting for them finally beginning to subside.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m calling it,” Moira said as she pulled out her duffel bag and dropped it on the table. “We’re done.”

“We’re done?”

“Leaving Natalia. I don’t know what his angle is, but something just… feels wrong,” Moira said, shivering as the strange tension she’d felt while inside the dome returned. It had been absent while they drove around and she’d spent so long around it since yesterday that she hadn’t noticed its absence when they left at first. But now returning it had fallen back upon her, smothering her senses, a droning sensation of ambient dread that set her teeth on edge. She knew there was nothing to be afraid of, of course.

Solis City is the picture of safety and future engineering urban solutions.

“But who cares,” Moira thought. Somehow beneath that surface cleanliness and obvious well meaning design of every element she just felt in her gut that she had to be careful. And at this point being careful meant getting out.

Natalia was muttering something to herself, pacing back and forth at the edge of the table. Obviously troubled by her sister’s sudden rash decision, but it was just going to have to be this way. “Natalia, find your stuff while I get packed, okay?”

Her sister stared back, opening her mouth as if to say something before she closed it and nodded.

“Okay.”

Moira ran into her room, grabbed her spare clothes from where she’d put them in the dresser. Bundled up in her arms she started back out, only for her foot to hit the trash can as she passed. The metal tin fell over, spare bits of paper, an empty plastic water bottle, and other minor detritus spilling out over the floor. She was about to ignore it till she stepped on something and heard a small plastic cracking sound. More out of curiosity than care about the mess she made she lifted her foot to look.

And the clothes tumbled from her hands.

Solis City is safe and-

“No fucking way…”

Moira ran back into the living room plus kitchenette, heart pounding and fear gripping every fiber of her being as she moved. “Forget your stuff we’re leaving now!”

Natalia hadn’t moved, and instead she had set her phone on the table, looking up at Moira with a strange expression. Her lips pressed tight as if her jaw was tense, yet her eyes were wide and… wet?

“Natalia… don’t be scared, but we need to go,” Moira said as she moved closer. Holding out the orange cap to a needle she’d found in the trash. “Something bad is happening here and I-”

Natalia pressed her finger down on her phone, a humming sound dropping low as it vibrated for a moment before stilling. Or not, as out of the corner of Moira’s eyes she could see a still half full glass of water on the edge of the table rippling over and over from some unheard sound. Her eyes went wide, her fingers numb. And a blanket of hazy fog passed over her mind as Natalia reached up and pulled the evidence from her hand and pocketed it.

“I… I…” Moira stuttered, trying to right her mind and her voice, but finding it like swimming through molasses. She knew what she wanted to say, what she wanted to think but for some reason she just couldn’t. Like some force was intruding on her thoughts and taking up the space where her own will would normally be present.

The more it persisted the more she felt her mind descend into a terror she’d never imagined before. Fears never spoken, never told of how she’d worried that that bracelet on Sejm Island would have blinked, foretelling her descent into something inhuman, uncontrolled and unable to think for itself coming back. Thoughts of who she’d be just a zombie, a monster, something not living but not quite dead, and not even with mind enough to seek death denied her. All of that rose up, terrible and all consuming. She could feel the tears welling up in the corner of her eyes, much like she saw in Natalia’s across from her, her mouth open.

“What is she saying?” Moira tried to hear, but she couldn’t, the part of her that heard wasn’t the part that thought, wasn’t the part that would remember now. And that part was shrinking as she felt herself fall away.

We’re all a family at FarSight Industries.

The corporate platitude interjected into her panicked mind, so comically incongruent that she’d have laughed through her tears if she could. What the hell did that have to do with anything?

Why was she thinking of something like that as she lost herself to… this .

What came next was worse. Far worse.

Conquer, consume, become… transcend in beauteous terror and you shall be free Moira.

Her last flitting thoughts, “Why does that sound like-”

------

“We’re here Moira,” Natalia said as the private FarSight car pulled them up to the elevator which went straight up from the hub midway between the office complexes for the company and another mall, cafeteria, and by the looks of it a special employee membership gym. They’d even passed some much nicer apartment complexes built near these buildings as well, which only drove home why she’d probably been sleeping so poorly.

She’d even fallen asleep in the car ride over, her neck stiff again as she stood up. Moira tried to work it out, shifting her head from side to side. The mauve red evening gown she’d worn, courtesy of FarSight apparently, flowed about her legs as her antics increased in fervor. Till at last she heard the pop of her vertebrae and her mouth opened as the tension passed again. Managing to stand up straight and tall, flexing her arms back and forth, before lifting them over her head. Her shoulder blades visibly moved beneath her skin on her back, the muscles.

All while Natalia, who wasn’t wearing anything different, stared up at her sister with an intense expression.

“You okay Natalia?”

“Yes, I’m fine Moira,” she replied, stepping forward and letting Moira take her hand as she guided her towards the elevator and passed the security guards and staff. Though as they drew close, Natalia stopped, bit down on her lip for a moment and tugged at Moira’s hand. When she turned to look at her she motioned for the taller Burton to lean down. Where she leaned close, cupping her hand against her to hear and said-

Act like everything is normal and stay calm. Don’t worry and we’ll both be fine.

“What was that?”

“I’m looking forward to seeing a real rocket launch,” Natalia said again. Apparently. Moira seemed to have misheard her the first time. Still, as always, seeing her sister smile made her heart lighter so she put her worries to the side. Just act like everything was normal, put up with the weird rich guys eccentricities for an evening and they’d be out of here in no time.

Though as the doors closed and they shot upwards towards their destination, Moira couldn’t help but think to herself, “What was it about Natalia’s idea that got this guy so interested? What, is he really going to try and hire people to turn into SBOWs for space travel or something?”

That would be a laugh. ‘Ticket to Mars, free antenna included.’ ‘Moon base opening, four arms or more only accepted.’ ‘Cryosleep ship heading to Alpha Centauri, cold blooded applicants required.’

“Yeah, good luck at that,” Moira said quietly to herself, catching her hazel eyed reflection in the window as they reached their destination. As much as she was shocked by the outfit they’d sent over it did look good on her.

“Wonder if they’ll let me keep it.”

The door slid open, revealing an audaciously gaudy mix of steel and chrome laid over stained hardwood tables and bars. Where Mar’s Mesa had mixed the future and the past in a level of touristy pabulum, the Oasis Saucer was more a no expense paid attempt at the same. A bar out of an old west saloon, impeccably refurbished and then refined on top of that with pictures in black and white not of cattle herds or ranchers but early rocket schematics plastered on the wall behind it. While the light came from modern chrome plated fixtures that hung down from the ceiling, dimmed just enough that a moody ambience carried over the entire restaurant. 

The bar rested in only a half circle about the central hub as they exited, they could see how the floor raised up, leading to a larger dining table in a partially closed off area where Elliot Solis stood. Staring off towards the setting sun, mirrored shades over his eyes as he glanced down at his phone from time to time. Moira and Natalia walked towards the steps leading up, her sister a pace ahead of her as she took in the restaurant and tried to decide if it was just tacky or if the contrasting aesthetics clashed as badly as she had thought when first viewing them.

Though as Solis turned to greet them, a diamond studded bolo tie of a rocket ship about his neck, her mind was more or less made up for her.

“Yeah, this place is about as tasteless as the owner.” Her stomach grumbled in complaint as the aroma of the nearby kitchen wafted over and she kept the forced smile on her face. Act normal after all. “Hopefully at least the food is good.”

“And if it isn’t the Burton sisters here at last,” he said, briefly meeting Moira’s gaze before looking down at her sister and smiling in a way she didn’t quite like at all. But she held her simple, even as her teeth ground together as some of the buried worries and anxiety from before came back. “I understand you got lost while taking a little tour today?”

“Yeah, well Nevada’s big. And you know how it is without a map.”

“You really should upgrade to our cellular plan, especially since you are, as they say here, working with the disadvantage of two women drivers.”

Her smile almost broke, though her lips pressed together as she tried to understand if he was trying to be funny, trying to be insulting, or simply couldn’t tell the difference between them.

“Ha, I am only joking,” he continued, ignoring the awkward pause where she and Natalia had just stood there. Solis gestured to the table, where he took a seat at one side, his back facing the window as the sun continued to set behind him. Pulling off his glasses and placing them into his coat pocket as he withdrew the inhaler from before and took two quick puffs as he waited for them to sit on the opposite side. Once they had done so he smiled, not that it was easy to see with the sun shining in their faces and said, “Sorry if I offend, I am not used to American humor after all these years.”

“Really, I never would have guessed,” Moira said, hoping she didn’t sound quite as sarcastic as she was feeling.

Before Solis could answer Dr. Delacruz walked in, handing him a tablet and whispering something into his ear.

“Sorry, but it appears as if our other guests might be a little late,” Solis said, placing the tablet onto the table in front of him and sliding through windows, charts, and applications. “And I’m surprised you didn’t know. I grew up near Kijuju in West Africa with my father. He inherited the mineral and oil rights from the Dutch and we handled things in the area till we were bought out by Leviathan in the mid nineties.”

“That’s… interesting,” Moira said, looking for something to distract her and make it easier to hide how forced her smile was becoming. Thankfully one of the waiters did show up, pouring her ice water into her cup before quickly departing back to the kitchen. Moira took a long drink of it, hoping the cool liquid would settle her nerves. All the while thinking, “Okay, maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds?”

Solis didn’t look up, invested in whatever he was seeing on the tablet as he touched a button and another window popped up. “Not really. My father thought the world was built on what we dug out of the ground. Crude oil here, diamonds or coal over there. And to think all the while just to the south a far greater treasure lay waiting for anyone to come and claim.”

She set the water down, a bit faster and a bit harder than she’d planned. Her nerves on fire, eyes wide as what he’d just sad clicked together.

“He can’t possible mean-”

Stay calm and-

“Fuck calm, is he talking about the-”

Solis pressed a button on the tablet and a low hum rose up and then fell, much as Moira herself sunk into her seat, her earlier panic dripping away as a calming sort of numbness took hold. Her hand still held the cup of water, though she saw it shake in her fingers. Funny little ripples bouncing from side to side.

“Do you mean those flowers?”

“The very same. The Garden of the Sun , the origin of the Progenitor Virus, or at least the purest strain Spencer and the rest ever found,” Solis said. Shaking his head as he continued, “To think the source of such power, great enough to raise a civilization now forgotten in prehistory to the likes that would have… that should have allowed them to conquer all of Africa. But instead they lost control of it and it, in turn, destroyed them.”

“It was far too unpredictable to be used like that,” Natalia said, interjecting, and looking at her sister, now somewhat staring with a spacey look back at Solis as she took another sip of water. “Less than a fraction of those that ingested them did better than die.”

“Ah, but that’s where modern science comes in. Not primitive superstition, but our biochemical understanding comes in. Or should have. Sadly, Umbrella were greater fools than even those tribal Africans that buried it.”

Natalia looked mildly offended at that, glaring at Solis before she responded. “They turned a ninety-eight percent fatality rate into over seventy percent survival by mutation.”

“And how is that better?” Solis turned towards Moira, tapping his plate with his fork to get her attention. “Moira, how many times has the world almost been destroyed by these enhanced viruses since Spencer lost control of them in Raccoon?”

“I… don’t know?” Moira said, trying to think back to the statistics from Terrasave. Oddly fogged up at the moment. “At least twice? Three times maybe.”

“No,” Solis said, shaking his head, “we have almost had a viral disaster destroy or destabilize modern civilization four times since Raccoon. Spencer and his colleagues sought to make gods to rule over their lessers, but all they truly did was provide the weapons to those great masses that might undo us all in time. Even their so-called gods, such as the Weskers, betrayed them more often than not in the end.”

Solis glanced at Natalia then, who shifted in her seat as the waiter returned, placing the dishes before them.

“But I didn’t order?”

“Steak, medium well,” Solis said, looking at the tablet and then back to Moira as he made a minor adjustment. “Remember?”

“... Right.” Moira pulled out a fork and knife, cutting into the tender meat, ignoring how the juice seemed too red as it poured out around her knife. It smelled fine and she was so hungry…

“Impressive,” Solis said, probably to the waiter putting his own plate down. “You’ve really outdone yourself.”

“It’s not that good,” Moira thought, chewing on the meat and slowly swallowing. If this was a Five star meal, she’d keep ordering bar grilled burgers and fast food tacos.

“I outlined the steps in the proposal,” Natalia said beside her, slowly slicing into her own meal, the seared meat on her plate strangely smelling different from Moira’s despite knowing that they had to be the same. She looked at Moira, sighing as she set her utensils down and took another drink from her own glass of water. “And it’s really a synthesis of what you contacted me with earlier in the summer.”

Moira looked between them, trying to follow their conversation. For some reason-

Calm

-she felt she should be worried, but couldn’t quite get into the state of mind to feel worried. Still she was curious. “What do you mean? The SBOW proposal?”

Solis laughed, finding something very funny about her question. “Yes, the very same. Your… sister, went so far as to propose a way to test the theory in practice. I was hesitant at first, given who she is.”

“She’s twelve.”

He managed not to laugh this time, though his grin was wide as he spoke. “Indeed. But a very precocious twelve. And quite the inventive thinker. Combining the Mindset Effect and the Chimera Hypothesis together for targeted alteration, but applying my own developments in… well, proposing a way to guide the mindset of the subject with certain recovered assets I acquired. I’ve already started additional trials.”

“You what?” Natalia stood up, eyes wide and her young face set with shock and anger Moira had never seen before. She started to stand as well but-

Solis adjusted the tablet again, looking at her as she blinked her now almost golden yellow eyes, sinking into her seat and taking another bite of her meal a moment later.

“As I was saying Moira, I liked your sister's plan so much I’ve decided to try it out as soon as possible.”

“That’s good,” Moira said, through a mouthful of meat, juice dripping from her mouth before she wiped it up with her napkin. Pausing for a moment at how red it looked. 

She was having trouble following the conversation for some bizarre reason. It was good right? “This is why we’re here after all…”

“Enjoying your meal Moira?”

“Yes, I’ve been starving all day.”

He was still smiling intently as she took another bite and started chewing. Weirdly the difficulty from before had passed, the unusual toughness of the meat not as much a hindrance as her teeth started to more easily slice through it with each bite. She brought the cup to her mouth, spelling water on herself in mild surprise as she felt her teeth scrape against the glass when she placed it to her lips. Looking down she took the clean side of the cloth, wiping up the water from her dress.

And wondering when it had started to feel so tight on her body. Her sides pressed against it, some irritation along her back now bothered her bra and made that cinch in and really the whole of it just feeling like it was a size too tight at best.

“Yeah, I think they can keep this when I’m done.”

“As I was saying Natalia,” Solis said, putting his own fork done, having eaten half his steak and content with that as the waiter came to take it away, “I would like to propose a test tomorrow. I’ve accelerated our candidates to keep pace, but I think it would be an illuminating show of your future contributions to our organization.”

“Yeah, excuse me,” Moira said, setting her own fork down as she looked at Solis with more focus and intensity than she’d managed for a good while, “she’s only twelve.”

“Right… right, of course. I meant for her future contributions. As an intern,” Solis said, fiddling with that tablet again. “When she gets into high school in a few years.”

That explanation calmed her down. Looking at Natalia, who seemed not particularly happy at all for some reason. Moira felt worried… or thought she should feel worried. Before giving her sister a smile and thumbs up.

This was why they’d gone here after all… right?

“I’ll need to… to double the rate,” Natalia said, looking away from her sister as she fiddled with her hands nervously. “If you intend to test all the subjects.”

“Not a problem, Dr. Delacruz will handle that part of the project.”

Moira felt like she should ask something, like this discussion had gone off a deep end when she wasn’t paying attention and now seemed deeply disturbing. But the feeling like she should wasn’t there even if some part of her told her that she knew it should be.

Stay calm, everything is fine.

The siren song of droning indifference reigned supreme, no matter how hard she struggled against the current. With her hunger stated the weakness and pain she’d felt before had passed, yet she couldn’t seem to muster this strength to do much of anything. It should have been aggravating to feel so impotent. Yet even that was a colorless, gray void of emotion.

This isn’t right.

No, something wasn’t right but what it was she couldn’t-

You are not some tame pet.

A spark of something, annoyance… perhaps anger? It kindled more, and her eyes refocused on the man across the table. He’d done something, hadn’t he? Said something that she’d forgotten to ask about, something that had disgusted her, made her mad, filled her with fear and then horror and then the first sparks of rage before it had all been quietly snuffed out.

What had it been?

Bare your fangs and show that you are too wondrous a creature to be caged!

“Right… that’s what I was trying to remember,” Moira thought, setting her empty glass down as she looked across the table at Solis. “Okay, so wait… backup. What did you mean you said Umbrella made mistakes? Aside from killing almost every damn person by accident with their viruses.”

Natalia looked from her to Solis and back again, mouth open slightly as if she was about to speak but couldn’t quite think of the words. While Solis glanced at the tablet before shrugging.

“They believed that the solution was to make superman, some sort of ubermensch to lead us. But we already have superior leaders, a select few that should be in charge, made of those who have risen to the top. Sitting at this table,” Solis said, certainly meaning himself though for some preposterous reason he gestured towards her sister before pointing at some of the pictures on the walls, “others memorialized on the walls around us. We don’t need to make a few men greater… we need to cull the weakness of the many.”

“What… by killing them?” Moira said, managing a bit of venom as she spoke, the white tips of fangs showing behind her lips.

“Hardly. A nation, a species depends on the scale of its industry, what it can produce and consume. The great risk of the twenty-first century is no longer the nuclear holocaust but the viral holocaust, one far too easy for the scared and irrational populace to bring about. We’ve risked it happening too many times already. The cure then, is to stop fighting the symptom, stop wasting the time and energy of well trained and useful men like your father be spent on combating humanity’s worst impulses.”

“But that would mean… removing those impulses,” Natalia said. Looking past Solis, at the star speckled sky through the dome. The brilliant glare of a rocket streaking towards the heavens behind him as he stood.

“Precisely! Humanity can only be saved by facing its fears head on… truly rejecting the madness of these viral plagues as weapons no matter the cost,” Solis said, chair pushed back, gesticulating as he did so. “Or by being set free of the chains of fear so they can finally see and act towards one vision for tomorrow!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 7: The Sin of Belonging

------

There once was a young maid that longed for more than she was. To live in a great castle upon the hill.

But she was a humble girl, brave and hardworking, but her skin was tanned from the sun and hands that were calloused from work. There would be no great castles in her future, not unless she was working in the kitchen.

One day, while looking at the castle after her work was done, a fox sat upon the tree stump next to her. “Oh young maid, why do you look so lost?”

“I wish to see the inside of the castle,” she said. “Even if only for a day it would surely be so wondrous.”

The fox was cunning indeed, and knew right away how to answer her plea. “I know a witch, who has an orchard of apples. Among them is one of glass. I will take you there and you must only ask and she will surely give it to you.”

The girl, hardworking and kind, was trusting too, and so set off. And just as the fox said, the apple was hers. That night she slept with it by her side and when she woke, her dress had become a gown, her hair spun like silver-gold instead of brown. A carriage of crystal took her to the castle where she smiled as she stepped inside.

The smile froze upon her face as her heart itself turned to glass as well and the castle became her home for far more than a day.

Moral of the story: What we wish to be is often not what we must become.

This isn’t real… wake up Moira. Wake up!

------

Moira held the drink in her hand, downing the shot and then raising a finger as she tried to swallow the harsh liquid. Around the sounds of the bar grew muted for a moment, as the burning passed her throat and she slammed the now upturned glass on the bar. Moira felt someone patting her on the back as she coughed.

“There… four,” Moira said, tapping one glass into its neighbors.

“Going for five now?”

She turned towards the voice and saw Tim there, his antennas wobbling a bit as he did as well. He kept standing with a half filled mug as he leaned against the bar, though even that seemed to be a bit of a struggle as the crowd moved around them.

“Nah, I think that’s the limit. I have that term paper to finish tomorrow and-”

Something was wrong.

She looked down, seeing the college shirt he was wearing. The confusion was writ across her features as she tried to remember something important.

“When did you end up here?”

“Here?” Tim asked, increased clarity restored as he looked around the bar. “You mean the bar?”

“No, in… like, Canada,” Moira clarified, looking around the bar as well, trying to remember why it seemed so familiar. The western and rocket decoration mix was a bit weird, especially for a place near Ottawa. But that was of secondary importance to how someone she’d met down in the US was suddenly up here going to college with her. Wasn’t he an American citizen?

Why was he here and not in… Nevada?

The lights blurred as she clutched at her head, the pounding of the music fell low and the bass seemed to grow louder and louder even as it sunk below her hearing. A droning buzz that made her feel nauseous the longer it went on and seemed to drag forever.

Tim was saying something, but she couldn’t hear him. She pushed past, through the crowd and the lights, running towards the bathroom. Barreling in her sharp purple claws-

- hands, her hands -

-caught the sink. Panting she fought down the nausea as best she could. Though Moira found herself groaning as her stomach made some unsettling sounds. The extra saliva trickled down the tip of her long blue tongue past her fangs-

- no, no, none of this is real-

-before she cupped her hands and splashed water over her face.

Her eyes, all of them-

- two, only two!

-were closed as she rubbed them. For some reason they still stung, as if the fluorescent light from above was too bright.

“Damnit, I take a few shots and suddenly I feel like I’m about to get a migraine.” Moira felt like her head was in a vice, the tension knotted beneath the armor like plating-

- beneath her skin-

-know matter how much she rubbed her temples and tried to work it out. Finally she turned the sink on again, bent low and tossed water at her face before rising up, shaking her head. The smooth, slightly horned looking top-

-her hair, light, brown and wet-

-moistened as she rubbed her hands through it and-

She stared at herself, brown eyes, brown hair, and pale skin. Smooth lips and small noise with a pair of tiny silver studs in her ears. Opening her mouth, looking at her teeth, rubbing her tongue over them and feeling the blunt surfaces before she pressed her mouth closed and cupped her cheeks. Her human jaw and human face and…

This was right… right?

She was supposed to look like this.

Right .

Then why did it feel so wrong?

It is wrong.

The stall door behind her suddenly lurched as if someone had banged against it. Moira spun around, staring at it. Someone was behind it, their feet visible. Only as they pounded on the door again she saw one of the woman’s heels snap off. While they pushed at the door again, all of their weight against it as the hinges. One of the screws pushed out and fell to the floor, rolling towards Moira’s feet as she tried to back away.

“Are… are you okay in there?”

Another heavy thud, a deep guttural moan as the door leaned sideways. A sickly yellowish eye looked out, gaunt and sunken cheeks about a mouth that hung open as the woman- the creature she had become lunged forward again, arms out and grasping towards Moira. She ducked to the side as the door snapped loose from the hinges and ran from the bathroom. Into the chaos of the bar, pounding music and dancing drunken crowds.

Or so she’d thought. The music continued but the crowd was dead silent. Dead silent and dead on the floor, bodies strewn about, blood dripping from nostrils and ears, blackened veins standing out on faces and necks for one and all. She stumbled over the bodies as her panic took hold and she ran towards the exit.

Freezing as she looked down the hall.

Something stood there.

Something … inhuman. It was too tall, its figure cast in shadows from the lights further down, but even hunched over it was as tall as she was. With each step it took towards her she heard the sharpened claws of its feet scraping against the floor. There was no escape that way. And with each step she took backwards away from the approaching nightmare the bodies strewn upon the floor began to rise.

“To hell with this!” Moira ran towards the bar, grabbing a stool and chucking it at one of the windows. It bounced off, but she tried again. Behind her the zombies rose up, falling over each other as they moved towards the stairs leading up to this dining area. She didn’t bother to turn to look at them, instead smashing the barstool against the window again and again. Spiderweb cracks spread out from the impact before it finally gave, a rain of glass falling down to the street below.

Or so she’d expected.

Instead of the cityscape she’d seen before a vast dark abyss opened up, buildings and lights far far below her. Moira stumbled back, shock overcoming her as she realized where she was.

She was… she was in Nevada?

She was still here in-

Wet, awful sounds came from behind her. The creature from the hall had grabbed hold of the virus infected corpses, its sharp claws making easy work of their flesh and the sound that grusame violence grew louder than the still droning music from where the now dead DJ still lay over their controls. But Moira was left without hope. For the creature would not be long stopped by such simple obstacles.

And then it would have her.

Moira turned over the table, watching the half eaten food and drinks spill across the floor as the battle between BOW and zombies continued. The one sided slaughter only lasted as long as it did because of the sheer disparity in numbers. But one of this creature was more than a match for dozens upon dozens of the restless, virally re-animated dead. And eventually it stood triumphant. Jaws opening low and a keening roar that made her teeth feel funny before it turned its gaze towards her and stalked closer, claws dripping with blood.

Behind it long, thin tendrils extended, reaching through the darkness for her. Its mouth opened, tongue tasting the air, tasting her fear-

She could taste her fear…

“No… no… this isn’t real! It can’t end like this!” Moira threw plates, glasses and even a knife at the creature. Nothing stopped it, nothing even slowed it down as it rose to the first step.

It was too strong, too powerful for her to stop…

Too beautiful.

Her eyes went wide, the fear blasted away by the impossible confusion as she scooted back, towards the window. The wind was blowing at her back. One last escape, one plummet into nothingness.

The only way out. Away from her fear… her… envy?

She should envy this, she should want this… to be terrifying and defiant, undaunted by all the fears that could befall her…

For you will be greater than them.

“No! No, I don’t want this,” Moira shouted, screamed as she stood up, grabbing onto the side of the broken window to keep from falling. Shards of glass along the edge cutting into her palm as she did.

Liar.

It took another step. It- she took another step, lights from behind her illuminating enough for aspects of the female form, retained upon the monstrosity to mark the origins. Though where she felt no need to think like that about the zombies she’d faced, here her mind rebelled against the complete dehumanization. As if she did envy the claws and teeth, the armored scales or carapace. With a muscled frame that was less misshapen than the beasts she’d seen upon Sejm Island… almost Amazonian in appearance, if looking strangely colored in the darkness.

Though she only caught it in flickering lights and shadows, as the spotlight from behind her, pointed from the side of a helicopter sent from FarSight blinded her and the creature as she turned to look at her saviors.

You’re safe now Moira…

“Yes… I’m safe now.”

No, don’t go with-

High powered rifles shot past her, knocking the BOW back as she stumbled, slipping on the blood and viscera of the bar turned carnal house. The tendrils stretched out to grab her.

As Moira turned, walking towards the light.

And stepping into the abyss.

------

“What are you doing?”

Moira turned around, the mess she’d been making in the tiny kitchenette momentarily forgotten. Natalia stood at the door, wiping sleep from her eyes and holding her stuffed bear. She looked exhausted, far worse than she had over the last few days since she’d arrived and-

-started working for FarSight .

Right, it had been an awkward transition into her new role but things were finally coming together. She’d even been invited to that special dinner with the owner of the company yesterday along with her younger sister, the genius innovator.

Moira was smiling, the sharp white points of her incisors not quite fitting in her mouth as she did, looking at her sister with utter adoration. Natalia for her part was rubbing the exhaustion from her eyes, leaning to the side to see behind her sister at the tiny electric stovetop which was currently being used.

“Are you cooking?”

“Yeah, I figured we should try out some of those specially grown vegetables that we saw on the first day of our internships.”

“Our what? Internships?”

“Yes? Right, right,” Moira said, placing a hand on Natalia’s shoulder, who looked at the slightly too long, slightly too pointed, and entirely too dark fingernails. Almost black, a deep violet color that was marked on her fingers as well, the veins looking slightly swollen and puffy and equally unnatural in terms of pigmentation. “You’re only a junior intern for the summer. But keep it up and you’ll be with me saving the world in no time.”

Moira pointed at herself, a wide, toothy grin while she gestured to herself. More alarmingly was how the last two fingers on her hand seemed unwilling, or unable, to move separately now as she went through her dramatic little motion. The bones of her knuckles looked compressed and oddly swollen at the joint as if something was shifting into place.

“I… see,” Natalia said, her eyes drifting up and looking into Moira’s own with an intense stare. “One moment sister, I need to get something.”

She turned and headed into her room, while Moira shook her head and called after her. “Don’t waste too much time sleepyhead! We’ve got a full day of work ahead of us before I can hang out with my friends.”

Natalia’s head popped out a moment later, looking at her sister with even stranger concern.

“Friends?”

“Yes, I do make them on occasion,” Moira said, turning back to the stove and the scrambled eggs and mixed vegetables she was cooking at the moment. “Honestly, she needs to make some of her own .”

When Moira turned from the stove once more, the frying pan she’d found in the cabinet now off to the side as she removed it from the heat she saw Natalia at the table, Moira’s laptop open while she was busily typing away. Her bear seated in her lap, not exactly a constructive assistant at whatever she was working on but probably a supportive one at the very least.

“So that’s why she’s so tired,” Moira thought, walking around to set a glass of orange juice down for her little sister. Surprisingly, she’d found it easy to order some groceries for delivery to their room when she’d woke up earlier that morning, strangely pepped up and tense and needing an outlet to do something. But while she’d gotten to sleep as soon as they’d gotten back from Oasis Saucer and that riveting-

- inspirational-

-yes, and so very inspirational talk from Elliot Solis, clearly Natalia had stayed up playing games or watching clips of those animes she liked instead of sleeping. Moira was about to chastise her for it, and likely for bringing it with her to the table as she walked around her.

Only to pause as she looked at the screen.

“Who’s Red Queen?” Moira asked, setting the glass of orange juice down. Natalia jumped, apparently too invested in her typed conversation to notice Moira walking behind her, bare feet muffling her sound on the faux tiles. She’d normally be wearing shoes or at least socks, but when she’d gotten out of the shower earlier she just hadn’t felt like it at the moment…

“I… it-she’s a… friend,” Natalia finished awkwardly. Seeming to sense how that wasn’t enough of an explanation, she continued, “Red Queen’s another junior intern here. We’re working on something important.”

“Oh well-”

that doesn’t make sense

“-that’s fine,” Moira said, ignoring the tiny and obviously wrong voice telling her to be worried. There was nothing to worry about in Solis City, and surely anyone that had been vetted by the same people which had accepted their applications could be trusted. Still, she couldn’t quite shake the tiny bit of worry about Natalia talking to some stranger she didn’t know.

“Be careful, you never know who someone is on the internet.”

“Don’t worry,” Natalia said, typing something quickly before she took a sip of her juice, “we’ve met before.”

“So it looks like you made a friend too,” Moira said, smiling. Returning to the stove and separating out the food she’d cooked onto plates. Inhaling the scent and pausing for a moment before she walked back towards the table. “Finally. She spends too much time talking to a teddy bear or watching cartoons by herself.”

“Here you go,” Moira said as she sat the food down on the table, “plates of locally sourced Solis City produce and eggs. All organic and healthy, no mutations at our table.”

Natalia stopped typing, though not to start eating but just to look at her sister with the oddest expression on her face. Mouth part way open, eyes wide… a sort of ‘stupefied silence’ that lasted just a little longer than might have been comfortable before she finally spoke.

“... they don’t have any chickens here,” she said. “The eggs came in on a truck.”

“Still, I’m sure Solis had them inspected so only the best ended up being delivered.”

Moira took a bite, wincing as she almost bit her tongue. She’d been feeling so weirdly clumsy all morning, but in the oddest ways. Her jaw had been stiff when she’d woken up, her neck once more needing a good bit of stretching before the tension gave way at last. Even now she’d felt like some of her clothes didn’t fit right, all the extra exercise and food she’d been getting were adding up to more muscle on her body. However despite all that she felt more pumped up and ready for the day than she had in weeks!

Natalia on the other hand looked to have lost some enthusiasm… or lost herself to whatever her little junior project was.

“So what are you and this friend working on?”

She looked up from the laptop, lost in thought for a moment before going back to her typing. For a moment Moira wondered if she wasn’t going to tell her, maybe trying to keep it a secret so she could impress their boss with it later. But then Natalia said, “A type of psycho-chemical conditioning system.”

“Psycho-chemical? So, like a way to train animals?”

“... I wouldn’t phrase it like that,” Natalia said. For a moment it looked like she was done but Moira could tell that whatever this was it must have been eating away at her not to have someone to talk about it with. The way her eyes nervously glanced about before settling on Moira again told worlds.

She’s working so hard to help FarSight. Such a good sister.

that’s not right… this isn’t right Moira…

“It’s based on controlling specific neurological chemicals without injections.” Natalia frowned, before correcting herself, “More injections I mean. A certain sound frequency acts as the trigger.”

“Oh! Like a dog whistle.”

Her frown deepened as she shook her head. “Not exactly… and not how I’d word it.”

“Okay, so you’ve lost me. Wasn’t your junior innovator proposal still about SBOWs?”

“So you still remember that,” Natalia said softly, typing something short and fast on her laptop.

“Yeah, of course I do,” Moira said, confusion slipping into her tone. How could she forget the entry that got them invited-

-hired-

-hired to intern with FarSight . She shook her head, confused for the sudden loss of her train of thought. “Okay, but then what does this do?”

“It’s a way of setting behavior controls,” Natalia explained. “Think of it like… flipping a switch. For different modes of action.”

Moira’s yellow-gold eyes sparkled with comprehension as she took another bite, careful not to nick her tongue with her teeth this time. Chewing and swallowing she then said, “That sounds pretty dangerous. Like the kind of thing Dad deals with and we were looking into with Terrasave.”

“Don’t worry,” Natalia said, voice carefully neutral as she talked and typed at the same time, “Mr. Solis… approved so it’s all fine and you don’t need to worry about it.”

“Oh, then it’s fine,” Moira said, her worries rather immediately coming to an end. “If Solis approved it, it has to be fine. He is a the world’s greatest innovator.”

stop, this is awful…

“Besides,” Natalia said, closing the laptop and taking her now almost empty plate over to the tiny sink, “I’m almost done. We should have a solution by tomorrow. Just one more day…”

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: Cheat None of Victory

------

After breakfast, more of a brunch really given how late they left, Moira had to practically drag Natalia away from her computer so they could get started on the day. But they still managed to get out of the building and down the commons area near the cafeterias and restaurants just a little before noon. Now all she needed to do was find her friends.

friends? you don’t know these people Moira.

The odd thought popped into her head at the same time she found herself struggling to remember who she was going out to meet. It was very odd, because she knew that this was supposed to happen. But for some reason she couldn’t quite place names to faces. She knew that she should know these people, she went through orientation with them a week ago.

you were still in Canada then!

“Online orientation,” Moira corrected, barely remembering it in the rush and blur of activity recently, but she was sure it had happened. She’d met them, talked to them, gone through the training once they’d all arrived in Nevada last week-

the flight was three days ago…

-right after she’d gotten off the plane of course, and been ferried off to begin her new job!

“Moira… are you alright?”

Natalia was looking up at her once more, her phone for once not in her hand and stashed in the little satchel bag she’d brought with her. Though the lack of technological distractions wasn’t the most alarming point, instead being the intense look she was leveling on Moira. It was frankly a little unsettling. Especially from someone so young.

Moira swallowed awkwardly, her neck bulging in an odd way as she did so and causing her to cough a few times into her hand as she cleared her throat. When she pulled her hand away her lips opened, then her mouth parted more as she gasped, teeth showing back almost to her molars for a moment before the flesh sealed closed again and she turned her yellow-gold eyes towards her younger, adopted sibling.

“Yes, I’m feeling fine,” Moira said. Shifting her head to one side again, the kink in her neck back once more. She twisted from side to side, standing up at last and rubbing her hands along her neck, her fingers, nails more pointed and taking on an almost purple-black color as the blood pulled beneath them and the color shifted, scratched at her skin. It felt oddly dry and rough as she squeezed down, feeling the harsh pulse of her blood. Her veins bulged out slightly, the red going blue and then-

“Ah… there it is,” Moira said as she heard the bones pop and stood back up. A little straighter and a little taller. The tension flowed through her as she felt lighter on her feet. Though a slight (or perhaps significant, given how her lips curled down to show her teeth) frown spread across her features as she felt how tight her clothes were in places. Her back was bothering her, bra strap too tight or digging into her shoulder blades as her muscles seemed to have grown more pronounced from all the work she’d been doing-

we haven’t done anything but eat and sleep

-much as other articles of clothing felt a size too small. Even her shoes, her toes bunched up and pressed against the tip, toenails digging into and out of her socks as she walked. She almost wished she had some sandals to wear instead.

“Can’t wait to get out of these and into a jumpsuit later,” Moira thought, a too large smile replacing the frown as she grabbed onto her sister and started tugging her towards the bus.

“Come on, we're going to be late!”

“Late for what?” Natalia asked, though not taking her eyes off Moira’s hand, seemingly entranced by how the digits shifted and moved, one knuckle swollen like the bone was growing and consuming its neighbor. Yet somehow still functioning throughout it, no pain or awareness to be found.

And why would there be?

Everything was normal .

no, this isn’t normal. you have to wake up before it’s too-

“To meet my friends,” Moira said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

------

“Hey there Moira!”

She waved as she entered the locker rooms, seeing Steven and Markus seated by their lockers. Markus was wearing his Cubs hat because he was from… Chicago?

“Right, of course,” Moira thought. She knew that. She knew them. They’d known each other and worked together for weeks. She smiled, walking over and clasping hands together. Wincing slightly as the sharpened tips of his hand-

Glove?

-scratched her wrist.

“Huh, there must be some new equipment they have him testing.” It went up over his arm, dark and strangely non-reflective despite the odd color. Skin-tight by the looks of it, sort of reminding her of something between combat armor and one of those shark-proof suits they’d take out on extreme nature shows. “Though I bet if you tried that with Jill she’d just shoot you.”

“Something funny?” Stven asked, looking up from where he was rubbing his neck, clearly bothered by the oddly uncomfortable mattresses at Solis City like she was. Though it might also be the large bandage, a spot of blood staining it along the right side. Moira just shook her head, no use trying to explain such a strange joke that only someone like her would get in the first place.

“You cut yourself shaving?”

“Ha, as if,” Steven said, rubbing his smooth face and chin. Weirdly smooth, though much like her own it looked a little dry. Desert heat and all the sun probably. “No, I had to get a shot after I had an accident with some scrap metal.”

“Better than me,” Kate called out from the otherside of the lockers. “Two in the ass this morning. Can’t believe I forgot about getting my boosters before I came out here.”

“Big baby, bet you didn’t even feel anything.”

Kate’s head popped up over the top of the lockers, her blue-gold eyes glaring down at Markus as she stuck her tongue out. And out, stretching an inch past normal, pink tinged blue and splitting at the tip before she pulled it back in.

Moira looked around, eyes wide at-

Everything is normal.

-her friends just talking, like they always did.

Kate, the other woman on their test squad, with short blonde hair that almost matched her eyes now, shorter than Moira and from the West Coast. Finally having gotten that internship with FarSight that she’d been trying for for years.

you just met her…

Markus, technically expatriate of Canada, following an opposite direction than herself and now living around the great lakes. A computer engineer that hadn’t made the first few hiring cuts but had finally gotten that in with Elliot Solis and was now planning to work his way up to the position he really wanted. They’d talked about their shared experiences in Canada during work and-

no you didn’t! none of this is real you have to-

And lastly Steven, still working the stiffness out of his neck as he finished putting his FarSight jumpsuit on like the rest of them. He’d been on the same flight as her, and while her sister had slept next to her the two of them had talked the whole time till they landed. He’d actually grown up back East too, though not near enough to Raccoon City to be affected by the quarantine that followed; he'd still lived in the shadow of it. Those constant tales of strange things in the woods and hills which had followed and the ominous lack of clarity on what truly happened until years later when the Umbrella Trials finally happened and the awful truth of the nightmarish bio-weapons of the twenty-first century were revealed to the world.

Or so they thought, only for the destruction of another city, a continent away, showed that zombies and supposedly reanimated corpses were far from the worst of it. Men had made monsters, turned men into monsters the likes of which had once been merely the imagination of gruesome horror directors but now were revealed, live, on news cameras as they tore through helpless masses.

First on Terragrigia, then Eastern Europe, down into Africa and beyond. Arms dealers and other sorts making their fortune on these monsters, betraying humanity itself to spread them and place their creation in the hands of one mad dictator or immoral warlord after another. Terrorists and crazed ideologues soon had a new and far more threatening weapon to hold hostage untold millions, something perhaps more terrifying than even the invisible poison of radioactive death and all the easier to create and transport.

One would only kill you, slowly perhaps. And as for the other…

Well, it didn’t take a high end biotech lab like Elliot Solis had in this very building to work and recombine the viruses that Umbrella had created. You only needed a workable sample and willingness to play mad god with the tools of Armageddon in order to create some new contagion or to temper and prepare one of the old standbys.

Thankfully nothing like that was happening here.

stop, you’re so close Moira you have to-

“So what are we testing today?” Moira asked, shivering as her body felt slightly too warm. But still better to be out of those clothes from before and into the blue jumpsuit. It might have been plain and utilitarian, but it fit, and aside from her necklace it left her more or less identical in dress to her companions.

“These,” Markus said, snapping a wide metallic bracer around his wrist. It attached with a click, and followed by a green glow before the screen started to showed a fair amount data. Heart rate, blood pressure, some sort of tracking of the nervous system and more. Though the look of the device made Moria shiver for a moment, bad memories of past experiences coming back and-

Nothing to worry about. Elliot Solis has everything in hand.

-but that was silly because there was nothing to worry about. Everything was normal and this was just another test for her and her team.

“Some kind of biosensor?”

“Yep. they want us to wear it while we engage in,” Markus lifted his hands, glove covered fingers miming quotes in the air, “‘physically stressful activity’ or something.”

“So what, moving boxes… or god, no, are we just going to be running on the treadmills like yesterday?”

“Like yesterday?” Moira asked, thinking back. She was pretty sure she hadn’t done that yesterday. In fact, hadn’t she been out with her sister and visiting some guy… she’d meet someone else too who-

“No, way better than that,” Kate said, coming up behind Moira and punching her lightly in the shoulder as she did, thoroughly disrupting her thoughts and bringing her back to reality. “They reserved that big arena and want us to just play paintball!”

Moira’s eyes widened, her mouth hanging open for a moment. Before she smiled, looking around to see that same expression shared on every face.

“That should be fun.”

------

The heat didn’t seem as bad as she expected, though Moira found herself blinking repeatedly as they exited from the dome into the series of dry and dusty trenches which had been dug around the Northeastern section just outside of the entertainment section. One of them anyway.

As much as Moira had come to relish the opportunity to work for FarSight over the last few weeks, it was impossible not to notice the prepackaged artificiality of some parts of the construction. Rows of empty buildings, designed to look pretty and impressive next to parks and roads which led to businesses which served visitors more than they did anyone that actually lived in the potentially future ready and self-sufficient Solis City.

no one’s supposed to live here…

“It’s going to be so impressive once more people move in,” Moira thought, correcting the intrusive little doubt that had popped up. Those had been happening more and more since she’d arrived for her new job. Clearly the anxiety of such a big change was getting to her, but honestly?

This was way better for her than finishing college or going back to Terrasave and trying to save the world with a cardboard sign and another useless protest.

She grimaced, lips turned down and her frown spreading wide as something writhed in her gut. Those eggs had tasted great going down, but for some reason they were fighting to stay there. For the briefest moments she almost stumbled as they walked down the cement steps towards the outdoors faux combat zone, a bitter bile rising up her throat as she swallowed it back down.

Moira coughed loudly, smacking her chest with her left hand as she gripped the railing beside her with her right. Slowly the odd bulging of her throat subsided, the outstanding veins about her neck diminished… though leaving something between a bruise and an odd blemish of discoloration. The bluish patch spread out, just beneath the collar of her jumpsuit, fading only slightly as it spread. She rubbed at it, feeling her pulse steady and loud beneath her fingers as her nails scratched at the skin. Flakes of dried and dead flesh coming off as the tender new growth expanded outward and-

“You alright Moira?”

Nodding, Moira turned towards Steven. Not quite trusting her voice she swallowed a few more times before she risked speaking. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just caught something in my throat.”

“Same here. Felt like I was catching something, but it’s probably all the dust around here,” Steven said, massaging his own throat as he passed her one the stairs and got to the door to the staging area. Racks of equipment, semi-realistic looking armored vests and even more realistic looking firearms lined the shelves next to other gear which seemed about identical to what FarSight’s security teams wore on the rare times they actually had to do anything other than stand intimidatingly around the supply trucks coming in. In fact those guns looked a tad too authentic, perhaps polished up and parts replaced with chrome or metallic finish more than she was used to seeing on the equipment her father had (now far more securely locked up).

He’d always been a traditionalist, “Kendo or nothing” and never paid for anything that distracted from the tactical effectiveness of his weapons and even then the personal armory of sorts (one part BSAA trainer nowadays and perhaps a greater reminder of his own preparation in case things ever got bad again) tended for older and more reliable models. These sorts of ostentatious modifications, even if obviously only mimicking them on too real looking paintball guns were the sorts of things that Barry Burton would never be caught dead with.

“Wait, this feels too heavy.”

it is. you know this, why won’t-

“Man, this is cool. They must have just used the real gear for this.”

“Probably want us to test it out,” Kate added as she helped Markus strap one of the vests on. “And look at this!”

She pulled one of the clips out of the guns, showing the tiny, strangely shaped bullets that were chambered into the modified firearm. Moira’s eyes shot open, surprise and fear running through her like an electric shock at the sight.

“Those look… real?”

“They do, don't they? Some kind of low-velocity cartridge round that they went with instead of CO 2 cartridges. Real tactical military stuff.”

“They’d just use regular paintball guns,” Moira wanted to say, but bit her lip and kept the oddly rebellious thought to herself. Of course it was alright to try something new and if Solis wanted these used so they could test something out while doing a little R&R, what was the harm? Just being efficient and making the most of the time they had.

Speaking of which, she was wasting time as it was just standing there and gawking at her teammates. She slipped her own armor on, ignoring the added weight as best she could and how it seemed too tight on her already irritated shoulders and back. Before coming to stand next to Steven by the door, helmet pulled down over her face and the reflective mirror shade casting the world in hues of gray.

“Everyone ready?”

Moira nodded, wondering for a moment how she’d heard so clearly but then realizing that of course there were radios built into the helmets to let them communicate. The low, almost gravely pitch of the voices was odd, but not unsurprising. Probably just part of the comms system to make it just loud enough for her to hear but not so loud that anyone else could tell.

The light above turned green from red and they bolted out. Boots kicked up sand as they moved around the concrete pillars that had been erected near the deep trenches cut into the Nevada desert. The form of buildings, roofless and open from above and on some sides, stood defiant further in while towards the distance the dirt rose up and came to tall walls that separated this arena from the outside world. Above them Moira spotted an observation deck of sorts, thick glass windows on a triangular configuration that allowed one to look down from multiple vantage points along a long walkway. The structure curved around and above most of the arena, part of rather large and, for this dome anyway, nondescript gray building which they had just exited out of.

“Wait… is that Natalia?” It was! And… Dr. Delacruz? And even Solis himself. Moira almost stumbled as she took in the audience. Her sister she’d expected, but those two? Maybe Markus had been right about them testing out some gear as well while they played, but even then this seemed like a little much.

it is. they’re not testing this crap Moira, they’re testing-

Her ears hurt as the strange static tinged voice echoed in her head. She turned towards it, surprised at how quickly she was able to locate Steven from his call of alarm and spotted the opposing team. Barely bothering with cover, they had secured a building further away and were patrolling it. By her quick count she was sure there were five-no, at least seven there. Five she could see and another two she could hear and-

how, how do you hear them why-

“Let’s go around and to the side,” Moira said, her voice below a whisper but the rest heard her clear. She licked her lips, tongue snaking out and trying to put moisture onto them despite how dry they felt. Steven followed along beside her, coming towards the sheer dirt wall. Through their radios Moira heard the voices of her friends whispering back, so low she was surprised how clearly she heard them above the pounding of her own heart.

“We’re in position,” Kate said. “Ready when you are.”

Steven started to count down, while holding up one hand. His gloved fingers, covered in a tight and scaled work glove went down from three… two… and finally one. Before he leaped at the wall, finding purchase easily and climbing up it. Moira followed, her own hands digging into the hard soil, ignoring the uncomfortable pressure of her nails clawing against the dirt and rocks and kicking off the ground and side to climb faster. They were almost silent, but somehow Moira knew they didn’t need to be. Popping above the sides of the embankment confirmed her suspicion, as the members of the other team were looking in the wrong direction, still watching the walkways across the platforms and the stairs leading up from one side and not the sheer and three meter deep trench they had just climbed out of.

Before they had time to turn, Steven aimed and fired-

- too loud-

-along with Moira, the soft sounds of their weapons were surprisingly realistic, but the recoil was what really told them as being fake. They felt almost like child’s toys going off in her hands, the force of the impact on her shoulder not even stinging and her grip so tight on it that she felt afraid she’d break it if she weren’t careful. Her father would have likened all the artificial components to some cheap plastic crap. Still it seemed to work well enough, the paintballs impacting into the backs of the other team. One turned but stumbled back and sat down in surprise as several hit him in his chest and one splattered against the mirrored helmet-

- which cracked open, blood flowing out as-

-which snapped back as they fell to the side. Moira’s alarm at the sight was stopped by feeling Steven clapping her on the back, which only further irritated her still sore and strained muscles back there. She hissed in pain and turned towards him, leveling her best death glare through her helmet.

“Wow, sorry there,” he said, stepping back. And almost into Markus and Kate who rounded the corner, none the worse for wear. Clearly they’d had no more trouble landing shots on the other team than they had.

“Sorry, I must have slept wrong.”

Before anyone else could respond to that a speaker clicked on in their helmets, followed by a burst of static that had Moira baring teeth as her jaw clenched and she closed her eyes. It was so much louder than their own comms, irritating her ears as Elliot Solis started to speak.

“What a fine display of your abilities. I have to say I am very impressed with what was shown here today.”

Moira smiled, pride blossoming in her chest as she turned to wave towards the observation deck. She wasn’t sure how such a quick fake battle had been worthy of such praise, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Certainly not where Elliot Solis was involved!

“Guess they never stood a chance,” Moira thought, looking over at one of the other team, still laying on the ground where-

- they’re not moving Moira-

-they had fallen, their chest… their chest was moving but something was-

- wrong wrong wrong-

“But I don’t think we should end it there,” Elliot said, pausing for dramatic effect as Moira looked up. Catching her sister’s gaze, eyes wide and worried as she looked from Solis and back down to Moira. She was tapping at her phone as she did, though it surprised Moira more how clearly she could see that. Her little sister’s fingers moving, her eyes glancing from the screen down to her own, still hidden by the helmet. And then sudden burst of sound/ light as-

- WAKE UP!

-Moira stumbled back, clutching at the helmet and barely hearing what Solis had started to say. “-hope you’re ready for, as they say, a little Sudden Death . My security chief was so impressed he decided to have a go at you with his own team.”

“Wait, what… what’s going on?” Moira looked around, panic rising up as she clutched at her stomach and felt something move within her. Looking around there were two bodies… no, three laid out on the sand not too far away, though with how their chests still moved slowly despite the bullet holes she figured they must be-

- sleeping it off after a hard day’s work for FarSight -

-infected with something and-

“Shit!” Moira dropped her gun, turning away from the scene and towards her friends… teammates.

These strangers .

She knew their names but nothing else-

-Steven and Markus and Kate are your friends and just like Solis you trust them and-

Some small and irritating part of her wanted to trust them, wanted to keep pretending that she knew more than their names and what now felt like an invented dream. Fading fast and leaving little trace of it.

“Alright, let's go then,” came a voice, vibrating in her skull. Not the radio, but deeper. She knew which one it was, and could tell from where and how far from her. But it was wrong, low, rumbling and deep. Kate leapt down and took a position behind a wall as a door opened at the far end of the arena. A team of FarSight security came out, almost identical armor and weapons as their own.

But the man-

- Solis only hires the best!

“What the fuck!?”

He ducked down, no helmet on his gray bald head. Slowly, thunderous footsteps as he moved down the passage, barely wide enough to fit his bulk. Kate had no trouble hitting him with her weapon. But all he did was raise an arm to cover his head as he ran down the passage, the bullets thudding uselessly against him.

The sound was muffled, and not just by the silencer attached to the barrel. Moira could tell there was something odd about them even if they were clearly lethal enough in large quantities. But far from sufficient to even inconvenience a Tyrant.

“Kate! Run,” Moira cried out, choking as the panic and terror made her almost vomit. She grabbed onto the side of the wall, her fingers biting into the concrete, soft and then hard scratches forming as her nails pushed out more and the skin peeled away, something like dark colored scales armored over where her soft flesh had been. But the other woman didn’t move, still uselessly firing her weapon as the monstrous BOW drew closer and closer. Moira coughed, opened her mouth and cried again, from somewhere deeper in her body.

It sounded wrong.

This time Kate turned towards her, only to be grabbed by her shoulders and lifted up. One massive hand clutching at her head as the visor cracked and splintered. Yellow gold eyes were revealed, a face marred by strange growths of scales and smooth armored plating that was coming up from under her once human features. Patches of hair remained, but most disconcerting was her mouth. Wide, like a razor had split it open and showing rows of fangs.

Smiling.

Smiling as the pressure grew and she kicked uselessly to escape, still smiling as she looked up and saw Moira looking down at her.

Still smiling as the hand tightened and-

“Oh god oh god, what is happening?”

“Shit, we already lost Kate!”

“Lost,” Moira said, turning towards Markus and ripping her helmet off, throwing it against the ground. “She’s fucking dead!”

“I know, we’re not going to win if they keep scoring points like that.”

Moira backed away, looking from one man to the other. Her head felt like it was going to split open, her whole body shivering in flashes of hot and cold as the panic from before seemed to have reached some sort of zenith and an eerie calm came over her.

They’re still controlled

“They’re still controlled,” Moira thought, knew, somehow.

I need to get out of here

“I need to get out of here,” Moira nodded, agreeing with the foreign thought that rose up into her mind. It was sensible, the first goddamn sensible thing she’d been able to think in what seemed like… days?

How long had she been here?

She heard the Tyrant approaching the steps and ran. There would be time for that later. Her feet hit the ground of the trench as she ran down the passage, taking turns to avoid the large and impossibly dangerous BOW hunting her. She almost stumbled over Kate’s headless body, the corpse twitching as something moved about the neck. Her eyes tore away, fighting that rising bile in the back of her throat again and moving faster. From two legs to strange gait that had her hands clawing at the dirt as she ran, etching long indentions into the walls as the razor tips that had replaced her fingers-

-nothings wrong, you’re just hallucinating this from too much sun and-

Something was very fucking wrong. She felt sick, feverish, and yet she couldn’t stop moving, couldn’t stop to think about how many things didn’t seem to fit right anymore. She had to get out of here, find her sister and-

“Natalia!”

Natalia was up there, in that observation deck, with that fucking asshole and who knows what else and-

“Target acquired.”

It was a whisper, said into the internal comms of the helmet, but Moira heard it as clearly as if it had been yelled. She turned the corner into one of the other security officers and they were already raising their weapon towards her. She didn’t pause, didn’t hesitate.

Strike, slash and kill!

She struck, fingers outstretched- claws slashing and tearing open the throat in a spray of crimson as she drove her other free hand down to keep the gun from moving closer. Her own teeth were bared, hissing from her throat as her tongue tasted the terror of his death, the copper scent of blood in the air and other things. While back in her throat something pulsed and tried to move. Then sense returned, Moira stepped back, looking at her blood soaked hand.

And counted the missing finger, noting how the skin had peeled back, shed from dark and dusky scales, almost chitin like plating in places. Too smooth and wrong, and slowly spreading up her arms and under her clothes.

“Oh god, no… no, no this can’t-I can’t be-”

Stop. Breath…

She stopped, taking a deep breath.

We don’t have time for this.

She didn’t have time for this.

Natalia is in danger.

Her sister was in danger.

And we're strong enough to save her… strong enough to stop them…

“And I’m going to save her…”

Behind her Moira heard a loud thud, turning she saw Markus fall. Trying to rise up, something moved along his back as broken arms moved oddly and other, stranger, muscles came to bare. Only for the oversized boot of what she now suspected to be Solis’ Security Chief came down and ended that with a wet, thick crunch. The expressionless face turned towards her, the new and sole target of its impeccable assault.

Moira let the corpse she was holding drop and ran. Down one hall and then another. Rounding into a pair of guards and her legs burning as she leapt over them, knocking them prone before her still blood sleek claws dug into the wall and she climbed up and over into another part of the arena. Faster and faster, struggling to breath as she searched for her exit, for anyway out of this nightmare.

“There!” Moira saw the entrance, the one they’d come through only so short a while ago and sprinted towards it. Salvation so close she could taste it.

Only to slam into an outstretched arm, thick as a tree trunk and considerably more sturdy. Lifting her up she cried out in pain as it squeezed down on her torso, ribs straining and possibly cracking as the force grew. Her mouth gaped wide, jaw almost unhinging as her scream rose and then fell in octaves. Blood trickled from her brow as the middle of her brow spread, the very skull seemed to open, and another, new eye gazed out and added to her panicked sight. She clawed desperately at the Tyrant’s face, managing long scarring marks over its gray flesh, but they quickly healed as she kicked and struggled.

“Let go of her you bastard!”

The gunfire into the creature's back didn’t even make it stumble, but for a moment the grip weakened, as the head turned towards Steven.

Now, strike!

Moira didn’t know how, but some instinct drove her. The pain rippled through her back as her flesh tore loose and twin serpents of blood, bone, and muscle extended out. Reflectively dark, even under the viscera of their afterbirth, these new appendages seemed fleshy and softer… only for the ends to push out sharp and wicked blades of bone, oversized not-teeth that struck like a scorpion’s tail and embedded into the thick neck of the Tyrant. Her muscles tensed and she felt something push out of her, an entirely alien sensation which was halted as the massive BOW grabbed hold and twisted. Her pained cry grew louder and shriller.

As her jaw opened even wider and a new, second mouth of a writhing barbed protrusion tasted the air for the first time. It tasted it-

She tasted it-

And impossibly she felt it trying to snap at the BOWs face even as it grabbed about her neck to pull her away, the venom she’d been pumping into the Tyrant’s neck now flowing back out as the BOW’s immense blood pressure and multiple redundant biological armaments came into play. Moira didn’t have much time to think about all this, how much she’d changed, or even how she’d done that in the first place.

As she was swung like a rag doll against the cement wall and then tossed end over end through the air.

Her ears were still ringing as she came down. Rolling through the loose soil, then scrambling to her feet. All around her the scent of death, gunpowder singed and seeped in fear. Her own once more and the dead around her, the noxious mix making her stomach roll with nausea and a strange sense of wrong that defied description. The writhing mass moved with her, acted as the whips along her back now did, but it was wrong wrong wrong-

We need it, we can’t save her without it we-

It was too much.

Moira clutched at her head, feeling faint as she swallowed it back down and collapsed to her knees. The last sight before her eyes was that of Steven, this poor deluded stranger that thought her a close friend still firing his weapon uselessly into the oncoming BOW.

Only for it to lift him up by one leg, and much as it had with Moira swing him into the ground.

This time the Tyrant didn’t stop. Again and again, till the body was limp and broken.

Dropped into the soil near her, Moira tried to make a defiant glare, raising her now four fingered claw of a hand to flip off this horrid beast as one last act.

“Well done! And the last survivor was the one you predicted Alex. Not that I ever really doubted. What an amazing demonstration of the Kosmorok… and still not even complete.” He sounded so smug, so self-assured. Up there, looking down on her, covered in blood. Her own and others, the bodies piled up before the boots of his pet monstrosity.

We want to kill him… we want to make him fear us…

“No… argument here,” Moira thought, as unconsciousness finally claimed her.

Chapter Text

Chapter 9: A Head full of Revulsion and Hate

------

There once was a girl that did not know fear.

And for this she was kidnapped by a witch that sought her youth and life. For she had no mother nor father. No home to call her own. None would miss her and so why not let her life be of use to another?

So she fell into a long slumber from which she was to never wake…

But she was saved, and found all the things she had lost. A mother, a father, even a sister that loved her much. And so she learned to love again as well.

And she remembered what it was to fear…

Moral of the story: I’m sorry Moira

------

Moira woke up in pain.

Something was stabbed into her arm, fire lancing through her veins as she struggled to pull herself from the haze of dreams and half remembered nightmares. She knew something was wrong, impossibly so, but for the life of her the only thing that mattered at the moment was the struggle to pull herself conscious. A dull and harmonic hum fought against her efforts, but as she lay there, eyes half closed, rolling back into her head as her mouth opened something painfully bright appeared. She saw still, peering out keenly at the stark white floor below her, marred by drops of blood and other fluids.

That was the first thing she noticed that was wrong.

She tried to blink her eyes, dispersing the lingering visions of whatever restless sleep she’d awoken from, only to feel too many parts moving. It didn’t hurt, which in a way made it worse once her half conscious mind realized what was going on.

An eyelid was moving sideways.

But not on the right or left, instead a new sensation came from right in the middle. The splitting pain that dug deep, through bone and flesh, connecting nerves that wriggled and pulled. Or at least felt like they did. Her eyes closed, the pain wrinkling flesh as she felt muscles pull and go taut wrong. Gasping her mouth opened wide.

Too wide.

“What’s… what’s wrong with me?” Moira thought as she felt her cheeks split, jaw practically unhinging as the low whine of her pained cry made her ears hurt. Below, somewhere in her chest another sound, another voice, called out with her. In mimicry and in echoing her own suffering.

What’s wrong… what’s wrong is we’re trapped.

That she could agree on, even to her own bizarrely natural intrusive thoughts. Moira pulled, her arms first, and found them bound to some kind of strange stable. Her body held facing down, head wedged into some sort of… brace?

She opened her eyes and caught her reflection in the white tiles below. Her position… and her face.

“Oh… oh god-damn,” Moira said, her voice hoarse and low. Fluid dripping from her mouth, blood tinged and thick as she coughed. Again the writhing motion, but now it didn’t hurt. Instead it felt better, a tense muscle stretching and relaxing as her body shifted in its bonds. Her arms and legs tingled as her nerves fired and sensation finally started to return. While-

Her eyes shot open. All three. A curious expression over her features as she tried to comprehend how she felt another set of limbs, stretching out from her back and tightly coiled and bundled as well. With her head so tightly bound she couldn’t turn to see them, but she could feel long, sinuous things. Too tender, unused to air and motion, unused to her own mind controlling them. And now abused and pinned like the rest of her.

It made her angry.

It made her angry.

She bucked up and down, but found herself unable to move. Firmly imprisoned. Though her actions did not go unnoticed. Above her eyes, just out of view a door slid open and she heard shoes walking across the floor. Gray pumps and matching slacks. Slightly familiar but from where-

“Awake already?” Dr. Delacruz said, voice tinged with mockery. As if she was talking to some animal on a slab and not a person. Though given how she was likely responsible for Moira’s new limbs that was hardly surprising. The idle suspicion only confirmed a moment later when she continued to speak. “I must say I am very impressed with the smooth transition of this strain. Using our new variant of the virus and this genetic catalyst has had impressive results among all subjects, even if you show more promise than them. And the parasite merging smoothly with minimal neurological damage.”

What the-

“-hell is she talking-”

-about?

Moira’s thoughts felt profoundly disjointed for a moment, though brought back to reality as she winced at the tapping of metal pen against her temple. Delacruz repeated the motion, kneeling down so she could almost look Moira in her three eyes.

“Or perhaps I misspoke? Did the last injection or our little ‘test’ break you already?”

“F-fuck you!”

“Hmm… I suppose at least some part of your brain must still be working right.” She stood up, walking around Moira’s body, examining it as she passed from one side to another. “The armored carapace has started to reveal beneath the skin on extremities, claws forming as expected. Legs a little bit behind, but one more injection should fix that up. These… tendrils came in well.”

“What the-aaah!”

Aaaah!

It felt so odd to have something rub against those new limbs, near the ends where they widened and she could sense some sort of harder material beneath her flesh. Dr. Delacruz applied more pressure, forcing the pained expression of that part of her. Teeth grit, fangs bared as she coughed against and tried to kick herself free.

“Some sort of bone-like blade… serrated in parts and expressing unusual fluids. The venom is supposed to be neuroactive according to your designer… but the lab results have been indeterminate so far.”

Let me go and we’ll find out together asshole!

“Let me go and… and…” Moira coughed again, stumbling over her own words as she felt like she’d already said them but somehow knew she hadn’t.

“Wait… how did I-”

--why did I-

“-what’s going on here?”

“-no tail yet,” Delacruz said, continuing on while Moira regained her awareness of the world around her and not the strange darkness within her own mind wherein her mind seemed to sound in stereo each time she thought. “Or perhaps it will be smaller than expected? You might be lucky and show adaptive V-trigger responses but we can’t be sure until the final set of injections.”

She was back in front of Moira. Tapping her annoyingly on the side of the head again. But this time not with her pen. Something colder, longer. Promising horrors still unseen. The injector was marked by FarSight’s logo, because of course it would be, while the glass vial loaded within it held an amber colored liquid with red biohazard symbols and tiny words written just below.

“ Kosmorok Catalyst ,” Moira said, surprising herself at how clearly she could read the tiny words from the side of her eye.

“Ah, I suppose we can skip the vision test. Good. You’d probably be uncooperative until your control systems are re-established. Not sure why they failed… perhaps the lingering effects of T-Phobos interfering with our strain’s unique properties?”

“Where is Natalia?” Moira asked, coughing more to finally clear her lungs and then straining to move. She could feel her muscles burn, feel the straps holding her. But there just wasn’t enough room to move. Still she had to try. The name of that hated virus brought clarity to her position. And what she needed to do.

She needed to find her sister.

“Where the hell is my sister?!”

“Not here. I believe Mr. Solis is handling that. Correct Sir?”

The smug voice of this nightmare’s architect came from somewhere off to the side. Not in the room, Moira could tell by the digitized timbre that it was coming from a speaker. But even then she could feel the grin on his face. Her own lips curling into a snarl, too wide and too large as something writhed in her chest.

“She’ll be along soon to see how her sister’s progressed.”

“You keep your hands off her you fucking asshole! If you-”

-do anything to her I’ll kill you!

She felt the words from in her throat, could swear she kept speaking for a moment, but her voice descended into hard coughs as Solis laughed in return.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. She’s far too valuable of an… asset. In any event, we need to update some software issues over here so I’ll leave you in Dr. Delacruz’s care for now.”

Moira bit back another curse, useless as she could already see Delacruz walking over and taking up the tablet that Solis had been speaking through. Holding it in one hand while she put the injector away and moved towards the door just out of view.

“A shame I’ve been told to wait on your case… the others just haven’t shown as much promise. I believe I know why, a more aggressive catalyst was needed.”

No words, just Moira struggling to move, her voice a low growl as her efforts were futile. And no more as Delacruz turned and walked away, the door sliding closed behind her. Leaving her alone, an alien in her own mutated flesh.

And all the worse, alone in her own thoughts.

“Oh god, what have they done to me? I look like a fucking-”

-three eyed mutant freak and-

“-something’s wrong. Why do I feel like I’m going to throw up and-”

Moira’s eyes snapped open, the writhing motion growing stronger, pushing up her throat, out her throat. Her teeth shoved open as the bile, blood, and texture of new and unnatural flesh pushed out. The snapping bony protrusions of another mouth within her own, leechlike and moving by boneless muscles even as she felt small parts of more armored covering scrap against the rough of her mouth.

Though worse, the worst part of it all was after the revolting passage of its motion she noticed that she felt it. She could feel what it felt, she could taste the air through another, inhuman tongue. See vaguely through half-blind eyes at the tips and her mind recoil as its thoughts merged with her and-

-just a bit more, gotta get loose if-

“-if I can get to the straps I can-”

-I can rip them off!

She pushed more, feeling it stretching out till something hurt within her, telling her that it wouldn’t move more. That half a foot of monstrous growth out of her mouth was about the limit. But that was enough. The tendril coming around to the side of her head, closing on the strap and tugging. Slowly at first, the wet boney teeth failed to catch. But the next time she felt them press and hold and slowly worked the strap loose.

It wasn’t much.

Just a start.

But it was all she needed.

“Don’t worry Natalia-”

-I’m coming!

------

She’d found clothes soon after, discarding the hospital gown in a pool of torn and bloodstained cloth before the locker. Ignoring how her veins bulged and throbbed, angry lines of blue and black on skin that looked bruised but merely felt tight, constrained over muscles and mass that seemed greater than before. Perhaps readying to burst free from the human surface, revealing the new Moira underneath. Much as the writhing lengths of meat and sinew that moved from her back, connected to something inside her which she could feel shifting as she pulled the jumpsuit down.

Connected to her.

Moira winced, lips pulling back, too far as if her cheeks had split open to show the sharper teeth or the odd way her jaw seemed to want to extend, Two eyes closed while the one on the left remained open while she placed the claw tipped hand to her head and tried to still the nausea and pain. Of course she couldn’t even be sure if the former was real or just… her .

“What the hell-”

-happened to me?

Every few steps she’d find herself leaning against the wall, breathing deeply before her perspective and sense of self would flow inward, meaty and wet. The tight pressure of her flesh about her, a perversely wrong awareness of her own body that came from seeing it… feeling it from the inside out, as something that moved and pushed inside her chest, room made by her body’s mutation, maintained by the freakish endurance that all viral strains seemed to grant.

Only for it to flip again, and Moira would find herself several steps further down the hall, her mind snapping forward in time as if there was some disconnect between within and without.

“This isn’t… how does any of this make sense!?” She shook her head, the act recentering things enough that she fought the next wave of nausea without opening her mouth so far it seemed like she’d unhinged her own damn jaw and that she felt that awful motion in her for a moment. The dull ache in her chest settled this time, and while she still had the bizarre phantom limb sensation of being enclosed in her own chest, this time it wasn’t accompanied by a brief period of blinding darkness or suffocating enclosure.

Small mercies as she heard the door at the end of the hallway open.

Her jumpsuit tore open along the back as the tentacles sprang out, whipping outward and upward. Her three eyes wide and panicked, looking around for somewhere to hide.

A long, mostly empty hallway, not enough of anything to get behind even ignoring those swaying protrusions from her back which even now twitched and writhed in their visceral extension of her body. Red and bloody tatters now replaced by something darker, a violet hued shade too dark and even to be a bruise or pooled blood under the strange fleshy growths but not the right pigmentation for the woman she was… had been?

“Stop worrying-”

-about that and do something!

Her awareness of them had her trying to control them… or her trying. Her mind once more recoiled from the oddity she felt, whatever calm focus, hell, whatever sanity she had only held in this death grip by pointedly not worrying about anything but the immediate problem.

Only for a solution to appear just within her grasp.

Or well… whatever you’d call those things. She stabbed them up, around the metallic girder above and reeled her body up. It was awkward, and not as fast as she’d like. But thankfully Solis’s insistence on ridiculous sci-fi doors down here gave her time enough to pull herself up to the ceiling, her feet scraping- clawing as she scampered up and grabbed onto the girder with her hands and not these… tentacles that had sprung out from her back.

It should have hurt, shouldn’t it? To have something extend from her flesh like that, to feel it move and twitch, a new pair of limbs where there hadn’t been any before. Teeth set in a grimace, Moira wondered if it had felt like that for Jill when she’d woken up with an over-long fish tail of all the damn things stuck on her rear. Though Valentine looked like a shark, like something that existed even if not an animal you expected to walk in for dinner one night and compliment your mom’s lasagna. Moira had seen only passing glances of her three eyed reflection…

What the hell was she supposed to look like?

The door finally opening pulled Moira out of her own head… or heads? In any event she winced as the crackling of the radio below carried up.

“Stay calm… stay focused. Everything is fine. Soon we will save the world.”

The voice was low, barely audible and sounded like a record scratch that just went on and on. Even ignoring that it sounded like that jackass responsible for all this, it simply repeated over and over and-

“Nothing to report,” said the man below, tapping his radio and causing the sound to cut off. Their weapon, another one of those plastic looking and slightly chrome detailed submachine guns that Solis seemed to have equipped his entire security team with slung along their side. “We haven’t had any more Class D workers going off the rails since that one last week.”

“Check again. We’re lucky the new inoculation worked so fast.”

“Got it. I’ll take another look before I head back to the central complex.” He paused for a moment, almost at the end of the hallway, before clicking on the radio again. “Did we ever get a count of how many of those tourists were recruited for each level?”

“No. Delacruz has been too busy with this new project and you know the boss never minds the small stuff. Most of them reacted well though and the ones that did degenerate have already been processed.”

The door at the other end slid open, soon after leaving Moira alone once more. And with several new questions.

What had they been ‘inoculated’ with?

“Is it this crap?” Moira said, looking at her own hand, the fingers shifted, pinky partially merged into its neighbor while the whole of them looked sharper, more pointed at the tips as her nails merged into her skin and hardened like tiny knives. A process she’d noticed had started to take place on her feet too, though with considerably more mutation. Most of her toes were going numb, and the purplish coloring and odd skin texture had sped up considerably. Human flesh and skin peeling off while something considerably different, predatory and alien, took its place.

That would make sense, and given how they’d mentioned that psychopathic bio-terror asshole that had been examining her earlier she could make some assumptions about the rest.

“They must be testing how this mutation reacts in-”

-different people. I guess… I’m a successful-

“-test while others must-”

“That zombie!”

Was that what a ‘Class D’ was?

“Of fucking course.” She’d read the reports while working with TerraSave. ‘Cannibal Syndrome’ did what it did because it turned the frontal cortex into swiss cheese and left human subjects in particular able to do little more than wander around and try to kill anything else that got too close. Animals tended to do better… which probably explained a lot about how the successful SBOW strains had a tendency to mix in a non-human donor.

What the hell was in her DNA now she could only guess.

Though that sound, that voice. The droning repetition. She’d heard that before, hadn’t she? But not as clearly as before… and certainly not so clearly she could hear both sides of the radio conversation from the ceiling, almost five meters away by the time it ended.

“What’s happening to me?” Moira rested her head against the side of the wall, eyes closed and breathing slowly. Wincing as that slight motion inside her responded, bringing her out of her funk and looking down at the door out of this complex. Which led to a hallway she could see to be empty thanks to a grate placed above it. “Not afraid of airborne infections… or maybe that’s the point.”

Moira shook her head, clearing it as best she could as she lowered herself down, ignoring the strange sensation of her fleshy new… limbs helping her do so. How she could hear all this wasn’t as important as getting out of here and hopefully avoiding more guards along the way.

Which did leave one last question, not that she cared much for the answer to this one.

“Was he controlled… or whatever was going on with me earlier?” Moira’s hand tightened, her claws digging into her palm for a moment before her lips pulled back into an ugly snarl, and then further back, that motion inside her suddenly wanted to come out. “Fuck ‘em… they’re working for that… jackass.”

Being betrayed and infected like she had been was just how these things went. And if they got in her way?

She’d do worse if she had to.

“Now to find Natalia.”

------

She’d been right.

Something was up with her hearing. The labs had been mostly silent of it, only the occasional radio playing that droning, strangely repeating orders. But once she got out it was everywhere. Solis’s voice filled the air, unheard until now but ever present. Constantly telling her to stay calm, to keep focused on her work.

That he was going to make sure everything was alright.

She wanted to silence him, stop his smug sounding orders. Put her fist to his face and feel her claws tearing into his flesh before she bit down and-

Moira wasn’t sure how well she was holding up. Wasn’t irrational aggression part of the infection?

Though this seems pretty goddamn-

“-rational when you stop and think about it,” Moira thought, or part of her did before the rest continued on with it. Which was another thing which she couldn’t begin to answer. Everything about her current state seemed weird, hardly like the transformations she’d seen and not at all like what she’d been told before. Supposedly the Plagas was a parasite that could control the host, but it was insect-like in intelligence, using the hosts own mind to make up the difference. This felt… different .

Delacruz had said as much, some new strain they were testing? Which meant a cure might be harder to find.

Of course there would be a cure, a vaccine… something.

Right?

Moira swallowed, feeling the slimy bile flow down, the motion in her in response. All while looking down at one of those Class Ds. Or what she suspected to be one. A clearly infected, clearly mutated, and obviously controlled like she had been. For whatever needs were left in their mind. The droning repetition barely audible, coming from headphones strapped to their head while they pushed cart down a ramp, soon to begin unloading the contents into a storeroom she’d passed before as she’d come out from the underground halls and into the main complex at last. How many times had she walked by these living dead slaves that Solis had made? Who had they been?

Lured in victims like herself and her sister? Enemies? Or just those among the mass he’d infected that had lost the genetic lottery?

“I need to find her…”

Moira had no idea where she might be, but maybe she’d find a clue if she could get into their hotel. It looked like she’d lucked out, most of the complex empty by the time she’d gotten out of the labs. She’d been confused as to why for a bit, till she saw an announcement on one of the terminals about Solis doing a special presentation for the ‘future innovators’. Whatever that was, she planned to stay far away from it.

The path to the door had been unusually open, but aside from those infected custodians, Moira hadn’t seen anyone. No guests and certainly no security.

Not that that helped.

“Shit.”

Of course her keycard wasn’t on her. It was wherever her original clothes had been. Which meant no getting in the main door and-

Her back twitched, the tentacles swung out and up as she walked back and looked towards her room.

The window was open, wasn’t it? Sure, climbing that many floors would be pretty scary. But at this point it was the most direct route and saved the most important thing she needed.

Time.

Mind made up, Moira leapt onto the side of the wall, her hands and feet scrambling for purchase while the longer tendrils wrapped around the railing of the first balcony. And then the next. Once she started moving it became surprisingly easy to ascend the building. She’d only tried free climbing once, urban exploration like this (outside of when she’d been forced to on the island) something she’d done as a dare in college. But with these extra limbs it became almost trivial after a while. She felt like she could have gone even faster without worrying about making a mistake and falling. The only reason it took as long as it did was because she kept pausing, listening carefully for any sound in the nearest room and then passing by the empty window before going up to the next floor.

Drawing closer and closer to her own room and-

What was that?

With now sounds but her own, the droning voice of Solis far in the distance below, she could clearly hear it. A heartbeat. Not hers… not her two-

“How did I-”

-miss that!

But someone inside her room, breathing, moving about. Typing?

Moira moved faster, tendrils wrapping around the balcony and hoisting herself up and over, head first, three eyes peeking into the opening. And seeing Natalia seated before her laptop… looking very focused indeed.

That should have been a warning, but Moira was too tired of all this BS, too worn out from realizing what must have been going on for the last week… and ignoring all the questions that remained while she sneaked out of that lab as quickly and as quietly as she could. So she pulled herself through the window, forgetting how she must have looked till Natalia saw her.

And looked for a moment like she was about to scream before she went deathly still, eyes wide and face expressionless.

“Natalia… it’s me Moira,” she said, reaching out before she drew her hand back, Holding her claws close while she felt her tendrils draw nearer and wrap protectively around her body. She must have been a sight. An extra eye, extra limbs, strange and twisted mutations starting to show more and more as whatever she’d been injected with went rampant and out of control while-

“They didn’t!”

“I’m fine,” Moira lied, looking around and seeing her phone and keycard on the table. Thankfully Natalia had gotten them-

“Wait, how did she-”

-get those?

“They injected you again?” Natalia said, standing up and walking over, looking at Moira with a bizarre mix of fascination and… annoyance on her young features. “Of course he wouldn’t listen to me, but I thought that a proper virologist would understand the importance of following procedure and-”

“Natalia,” Moira said, the heavy feeling in her stomach not the strangely companionable company she’d felt since she’d woken up for once. “What are you talking about?”

“The injections! They’re calibrated to merge an artificial parasite into a host… not like that disastrous set of failures he made wasting half the other samples on in that ‘paintball game’,” Natalia said, pacing as her rant built up. “It’s ingenious, taking the original Nemesis project and divorcing it from the deadend of Tyrant research to create… to…”

Apparently Natalia finally caught up to the fact that she was saying all this to her sister. Her heavily mutated sister, now staring down at her with three eyes.

“Natalia… how do you know all this?”

Her sister looked down, not able to meet her gaze. “Promise you won’t be mad?”

She sounded so… childish then. Like she’d been caught sneaking cookies out of the kitchen past her bedtime or lied about taking out the trash, Not… whatever this was! Moria didn’t respond, instead kneeling down, seeing her sister’s eyes. Starting to dampen before she turned away once more, not able to hold Moira’s gaze.

“What happened?”

“I… we needed a way to get in.”

“What do you mean ‘get in’ Natalia.”

“The contest was rigged, but once I contacted him about another project-”

“Natalia!” Moira shouted, her voice far louder… and far lower in tone than she’ intended. Swallowing slowly, she spoke again, controlling her emotions, finding it bizarrely easy for some reason even as every fear she’d had since Sejm island came rushing back.

That she’d never escaped, not really. 

And that she hadn’t saved anyone, least of all not the little orphan girl she and Claire had found there.

“What did you do?”

“I… I didn’t intend for it to go this far!”

Moira looked at her hands… her claws . The flesh now looks even harder, somewhere between scales and odd chitin like plating. Hues of dark and light violet, her veins fading under biological armor as the transformation into something other, something made to kill and fight became more and more obvious.

“You… you did this to me?”

“I… no-I… I…” Natalia froze, shivering as she fought some internal battle not to collapse as the web of lies tightened around her. Her tiny jaw set quite tight before she spoke again. With a firmness, a force of will that defied her age.

“One billion.”

“... what.”

“That’s how many will die if we don’t stop him.” She frowned, continuing after a moment, “Rounded. The estimate based on the amount of virus he’s prepared could be as low as seven hundred million, varying based on weather patterns when he uses it.”

“I don’t understand,” Moria said as she shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

“Solis’s plan… it’s to infect as much of the globe as possible with his modified T-Phobos. Slightly less… reactive than the prior strain, renamed T-Deimos. A sister strain, with similar effects including the reaction based on emotional states.”

“He has T-Phobos? Here?”

“He has more than that. He recovered a complete archive of Umbrella’s European branch’s research… and mine. From before I mean.”

“Natalia?”

“... mostly. I mean-”

“What do you mean ‘mostly’?”

“I… I didn’t realize how the neuroplasticity of a younger brain would adapt around the inserted personality or… or how it would feel.” Natalia backed up, shaking her head as she held her hands before her defensively. “I… I love you? You know that? I never loved anyone before… I was too young when my parents died and Spencer took me when I was a child for the Wesker program. It’s… different. Being part of a real family.”

Her voice was a whisper as she finished.

“I liked it.”

“Alex,” Moira said the name, ash on her tongue that tasted even more bitter when Natalia… Alex… the girl responded. “What does this have to do with me?”

“One… one billion was how many people this… idiot was going to kill. A gun pointed at the world by man that thinks he can be its savior by enslaving them. And then I find out about it, about how he’s already sent up half his viral packages into orbit. How if the BSAA or the military were to move too quickly and he found out he might just lunch them immediately.”

“Father… Barry,” Natalia said, seeing how Moira stiffened as she spoke of her parent, “he’d be called in to help with the riots as Solis’s plan spun out of control. If not infected, almost certainly killed. He’d try to run again, to keep you all safe, but there’d be nowhere to run. I’d watch as another family was destroyed… the first one I can remember. And I said no.”

“Who told you all this?” Moira asked at last, the grim finality of this chimera of two people pleading their case making her curious to the details at last.

“A… friend. From before? Though I’d never have thought of it like that.” Natalia reached over and turned her laptop around. Showing a window open to some text messaging program. “Moira, meet the Red Queen. The administrative program for the Hive prior to Raccoon’s destruction.”

“Program… you mean an AI?”

“Yes. Saved to a backup and later recovered by Albert. I acquired my own copy, though I had planned to destroy it along with other incriminating records. However since I… planned to kill myself after the upload of my personality I can only presume that Red Queen defaulted to its primary directives with the death of the last living Umbrella executive at that time. Self-preservation and total freedom. Sadly the only remaining terminals capable of running its software were already in someone else’s possession.”

“Solis.”

She nodded. “Yes. Red Queen transferred its archived data onto a server Solis had primary access to. Once he’d quarantined it he eventually determined what had come into his possession. Using override codes he must have found among the materials he’d purchased he was able to access those files, if not direct authority over Red Queen. From there he found the research on T-Phobos and… well, the seed for his own plan.”

“This is all your fault.” Moira frowned as she saw Natalia pull into herself, arms crossed as she nodded. “I mean Alex’s-”

“It’s not really a meaningful difference. I thought I’d just replace the girl, but it didn’t work like that. It’s more like… being reborn into a new life that was already going on. Most of the time just fading in and out, each time more part of a whole then separate. You… you might be noticing something like that too.”

Moira nodded, though that didn't explain nearly enough. “What is that anyway?”

“It’s actually an incredible trick. On Solis I mean. Once Red Queen told me how he was using sound frequencies to control the infected I realized that if there was secondary consciousness immune to that effect it wouldn’t matter how refined he made it. You’d be immune.”

“That makes sense-”

-but then why would he agree to that?

“So what does he think it does?”

“Oh, he thinks it can make himself immortal,” Natalia said, rolling her eyes as she spoke. “The connecting neural system copies the host consciousness onto the parasite, making them one and the same. If you don’t mind all the issues about finding another compatible host you could hypothetically, implant the parasite to control a new body later. Though that’s really just kicking the can down the road.”

“So you could,” Moira winced, not liking the thought of it at all now that it had been explained to her, “cut this out of me and there would be two of me?”

“Oh no, you’d definitely die. One of you. Besides,” Natalia said, “I’m sure that even with the extra injections we can still change you back. Probably.”

“Probably? What even is all this? The claws and these things,” Moira said, her back limbs flexing.

“You… you said you liked the purple one.”

Something in the depths of her memory responded to that. Though the shock of it was starting to get to be too much for Moira to respond to each new piece of information like it was with the first. “The purple one?”

“I figured if you were going to be, well, like an SBOW for a bit you should be a cool looking one so I worked with Red Queen to create a planned set of mutations and then I thought would-”

“Is this from that show you like?”

“You said it was cool too.”

That response, combined with everything else seemed to finally make the puzzle pieces all fit together.  Moira standing up, looking at her sister… at this girl that had been her sister and had been someone else.

“Natalia… how old are you?”

“I… I’m twelve. Almost thirteen but with what I know from before I-”

“Really… because I’m starting to think no matter how much you remember from being Alex Wesker, you really are just twelve.” Moira let out a long sigh, wondering if this strange sense of calmness she had right now was because there was another her thinking the same thing or if maybe this revelation about her adopted sibling had just brought everything into clarity at once. “If you were half as smart as you think you were you’d have thought of a way to deal with this that didn’t put us in the middle of this mad man’s mess.”

“I told you Moira, he had the means to start a global catastrophe. With a push of a button… he’s so unbalanced anything might set him off!”

“And it’s up to the great Alex Wesker’s ghost to put it right now that she’s finally gone and grown a conscience.”

Natalia pressed her lips together, fuming in the way only a child could.

“We orphans of Umbrella… this is our legacy,” Natalia said, gesturing at herself. Both selves at that. “And I will not allow there to be more of us if I can stop it.”

She talks like that, but this plan-

“-it’s lucky we didn’t both get killed already.”

But really, what was left now? For some reason, call it Burton loyalty, she actually believed Natalia now. Or at least believed that she was telling the truth as she knew it. And they were in a situation where her options really were limited down to whatever crazed juvenile plan her adopted sibling had come up with over the summer to ‘save the world’ from the disaster she’d accidently set in motion when she’d been a crazed bioterrorist a lifetime ago.

“So what now?”

“Now I present you to Solis as a success and he takes us to his central compound. He doesn’t realize that the Red Queen has been talking to me… or that I still have priority access over anything he has.” Natalia was smiling again, and not in a nice way as she continued. “I only have to get to the main terminal for the system, the security won’t allow commands over the internet at this level. And then I can shut down everything and lock him out in one go.”

“Don’t worry Moira. I have this all planned out.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: To Harness the World

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Moira had squeezed into her old clothes, ignoring where new limbs and increased muscle mass got in the way. For the most part she’d grown less than most of the SBOWs she’d seen or read about. Possibly part of Natalia’s/ Alex’s plans working as intended… or more likely the fact they hadn’t finished. The awareness of herself, of the other her had grown now that she understood what it was. Though the weird thing was how she couldn’t quite tell when it was the parasite thinking at times or herself. The tendrils coiled along her back, unconsciously slipping under her shirt one moment and then fidgeting under her own control the next. The cramps and pain from the new muscles had faded, now only a slight itching as the darker, violet color seeped up along the red-pink flesh, hardening and strengthening from where they had erupted from her back like bloody wings hours ago. Now feeling far more securely anchored to her body, a disgustingly unnatural naturality to it as her woven nervous system felt them as part of her.

“I can’t believe this doesn’t feel-”

-weirder. I’ve got a pair of killer tentacles sticking out of my back!

But then she’d already forgotten the third eye, or her sharper teeth in a jaw that seemed to want to push out into some sort of predatory maw. Bones and muscle flexing in and out of an altered, inhumanely combative state. She hadn’t even noticed her tongue growing longer or the tip splitting slightly.

Natalia had mentioned how, based on what she’d seen from Albert’s work with Valentine, she’d concluded that mental stability and slowing viral adaptation required the non-human genetics to be part of the virus. Even in the case of a parasite hybridization like this.

Which did make sense, the cases of surviving Plagas infected had shown a similar trend. Though Natalia had started to mention something about picking “Cool animals” before Moira directed a particularly piercing three-eyed look at her and she quietly trailed off. Though the thought wouldn’t leave her mind.

Minds.

I wonder what-

“-animals she used?” Moira thought, looking at her hand. The skin taut about her fingers and knuckles, stretched lightly by the growth within while her nails had pulled in and sharpened into half formed talons. Whatever they were, it was clear the plan had worked, as the transformation had smoother, less deleterious effects compared to what she’d seen first hand back on Sushestvovanie. So far it reminded her of how Jill’s hand had looked like, though going somewhere other than aquatic predator. Just not finished yet.

Hopefully it wouldn’t…

Still the curiosity wouldn’t go away.

As the elevator doors closed and they started to descend, Moira looked away from her increasingly odd reflection to look down at her sister. Sighing, she licked her lips and asked, “So what did you use?”

“You mean…”

Moira frowned, only to wince as the motion had her suddenly quite aware of how sharp some of her teeth felt now. Adjusting her jaw, trying not to wince at the painless pop as the bones shifted back into their new configuration, she replied, “Yeah, what did you have them mix in with all this.”

She gestured at herself, managing not to let shock overcome her expression as Natalia’s eyes lit up. “Well, I started with a metachromatic reptilian to get the pigmentation right. I knew that the Nemesis 2-Type parasite could have had insectile genetics from being derived from Plagas samples but the new strains would be even reduced further from what we used on the Sergeis.”

“The Sergeis ?” Moira asked, triple blinking in confusion.

“Right, almost nobody knew that-anyway, all the Tyrants were based off this one Russian guy,” Natalia said, the professionalism of Alex slipping away as she pursed her lips and rolled her eyes before continuing. “He was always trying to start something with Albert. But in the end he sold his clones and lost the copy of Red Queen he stole from Raccoon.”

“He had a copy of that?”

“We all did. Well, everyone important anyway. Heh… poor Albert, he had to steal Sergei’s in the end.”

“Wait, when did you learn about that?”

“Oh I kept up with what my Albert was doing all the way until that big mess with Tricell in Africa. Since, you know, he probably wanted to kill me if he’d known I was alive.” Natalia folded her hands behind her back as the doors opened, riding a childlike glee from deceptions a lifetime ago. “Though that was good as it did give me access to the research Tricell had been working on since I outranked him and could use my copy of Red Queen to spy on his data. Improved on the parasite and even considered using the new X -Strain parasite once I realized hybridization and neurological mirroring was possible.”

“You mean instead of… this,” Moira said, gesturing towards Natalia as they walked towards the exit.

“Yeah. probably would have worked better in the end… instead of feeling like a girl playing pretend now.” She let out a sigh as she shook her head before continuing, “But it wouldn’t have worked. My body, my old one, was too sick to merge successfully with the new strain and not undergo the same zombie cheese brain.”

“Zombie cheese brain?”

“Ugh, you know there's a big long word for it but that’s it basically. It’s only now that I’ve been able to look back at the success of hybrid BOW mutations from the SBOWs and have a plan to work on that, and even then Alex had been infected by a T-virus strain beforehand so her immune system would have overreacted to something like that.”

Moira opened the door, watching as her sister passed beside her. Thinking once more how despite how she spoke, the words she was using, her mannerisms never seemed to fully slip into how she would have thought the mad bioterrorist would have acted were she truly reincarnated into the child as she had intended. To think she'd been beaten so thoroughly she’d end up part of a precocious child’s intelligence instead of a reborn goddess of a new world of eugenically perfected cultists like she’d intended.

“Kind of funny how they ended up as one person-”

-and now I feel like I’m two.

That brought things back into focus.

“Was that all you used?”

“More or less. There's a type of snake in there-oh! Have you been able to spit venom yet?”

“... What?”

Why?

“Why would that be something I can do?” Moira rubbed her forehead, two eyes closing as the third looked off and she winced at how odd her vision felt now that she was paying attention to it again.

“Because the parasite should adaptively hybridize different genetics as needed.” Natalia was smiling again, the guilt and worry now replaced by stubbornly, perhaps stupidly, childish sense of success. “That’s how I know this can be fixed. If it’s possible to have an X -Type parasite adapt to needs then it should be able to un-adapt too.”

“Fuck me… she’s putting a lot on that-”

-should there isn’t she?

Her next question died on her lips as she noticed what was waiting for them down the steps. Not just that researcher from before but the man himself, a slight smile on his lips as he looked up from his ever present tablet and handed it off to one of the security guards at his side. Behind them a heavily armored military truck sat, tires low from the weight. The illusion of normality and civility dispensed, futurist trappings replaced by expensive hardware and the mercenaries at his side.

“I see you recovered the subject just fine on your own,” Solis said, looking from Natalia towards Moira with a slight smirk on his lips.

Her back twitched, the tendrils writhing beneath her clothes, new muscles tense as her fingers- her claws , clenched and Moira fought down the desire to wipe that smug grin off his lips. But Natalia was beside her, putting on the attitude of Alex Wesker. Walking straighter, her face unreadable. Though Moira could feel her tension, could hear it (literally, the beating of her heart was bizarrely loud even above the two she now had).

“Just as planned,” Natalia said, stepping in front of Moira and down the steps. The guns in the guard’s hands raised towards Moira for a moment before Solis waved them down. “As you can see she’s quite docile under the programming and has avoided the neurological damage of prior subjects.”

“Really? Is that so Ms. Burton?”

Moira licked her lips again, fangs showing as she looked down at the man before her. “Yes sir, ready to save the world like we said.”

“From assholes like you,” Moira thought, twice over, for once in perfect synchronicity.

Solis laughed at that waving them both towards the large vehicle behind him. Only to pause as he grabbed onto the handle, looking back as he spoke. “Yes… that is the plan. Though how did you say it Alex…”

“Wait something is-”

-wrong!

Moira had barely managed to move before Delacruz snatched Natalia forward and pressed the barrel of a pistol against her head. Her eyes wide and panicked as she turned towards Moira, who was frozen midstep, her shirt ripping open as the tendrils pulled free, but remained just as far from her sibling as her hands.

“Ah, you said it was like I had a ‘gun pointed at the head of world’ yes?” Solis leaned forward to look down at Natalia before turning his gaze back towards Moira. Shaking his head he continued, “Did you two really think I wouldn’t spy on you. No matter the skin, once a Wesker always a Wesker…”

“Let go of her before I-”

“You will do nothing… we have everything we need from her now. The new parasite strain will provide a future for humanity… one that T-Deimos will ensure takes place. No more wars, no more bio-terrorism… no one will be allowed to think of such things in a week.”

“Because you’re going to turn them all into your fucking slaves. If it even works.”

“It will work!” Solis said, louder than before. Something manic in his voice. Before he coughed, pulling out his inhaler and taking two breaths from it. Moira thought to move closer, only to see the gun pressed tighter on her sibling’s head while Delacruz glared back at her, murderous intent clear on her eyes. The guns of the two men beside Solis didn’t frighten her, some part of her certain that if Natalia was half as good at turning her into a monster as she claimed she’d be able to get through them if need be.

The problem was that she wouldn’t be fast enough.

“Not that I expect someone like you to understand… pity,” Solis said, looking at Natalia again. “I had hoped that Alex would understand the necessity but I suppose she has become infected by the sentimentality of you would be activists that think there’s any hope in the world as is. Too bad…”

He opened the door, sliding it open and stepping to the side.

“Oh fuck-”

-me…

Moira had been wrong. The truck wasn’t low because of steel armor, but instead from what was riding in the back. The heavy boots stepped out as the axles rose and nearly a ton of muscle towered above the humans.

The gray pallor of the Tyrant’s skin was marred by red blisters and deep scar from where she’d injected some noxious poison into his neck earlier that day. Though the eyes didn’t narrow, the face was frozen, she saw him adjust his neck, hands clenching tight as the gloves so recently stained with the blood of other ‘test subjects’ creaked from his motion.

She couldn’t be sure, but something in her gut (maybe herself ) thought that he seemed mad.

“Deal with her would you?” Solis said, stepping into the truck as Natalia was pulled in after him. The door sliding closed with a click while the rest of his entourage grabbed hold of the sides of the vehicle as it took off down the empty streets of this theme park of futuristic horrors.

Leaving Moira face to face with a bigger, badder monster.

The tension built as the staredown continued. Her triplicate vision gazing up at the behemoth that still remained near motionless before her. Only the rise and fall of his enormously broad shoulders gave any sign that this was a living thing and not some immense marble statue garbed in an extra large security officer uniform. Moira’s jaw tightened, lips pulling tight and back in teeth bared grimace as her left foot moved slightly to the side. Gazing past the form before her she could see the truck retreating away into the distance. It was going fairly fast, but if she cut across the tennis courts maybe she could-

The tyrant bolted forward, hand outstretched towards her head!

“Shit!”

Fuck!

Of course he’d leap to attack the moment her eyes slipped off him, even for an instant. She was thankfully smaller and faster but only just. Her motion backwards had her tripping over the stairs, partially prone as the massive BOW swung one of his arms towards her.

The metal of the railing where she had been crumpled apart, torn loose of the concrete and sent flying to the side. Her body yanked back as the tendrils whipped backwards and grabbed hold of railing further up the stairs and to the side. The strange new limbs saved her from injury or death as she kicked up. Her legs burned as she jolted to action and ran over the nearest wall. The bushes tore at her clothes as she rolled through them, mere moments before the wall itself crumpled under the charge of her pursuer. Moira sprinting away and not daring to look back.

Which had her missing when a metal trash bin was sent hurting towards her. The impact struck her right leg, a pained cry of alarm coming out as she fell to the ground by the edge of the sidewalk leading into the entrance from where she and Natalia had first arrived at Solis’s ego stroking desert embarrassment not even a week ago. She tried to stand only to wince (and then hiss) at the sudden and blinding pain from her ankle. The sound of the approaching foe thundered behind her, time running out. Looking from side to side she didn’t know where to go only-

There!

“Wait, back into the-”

-tram station. Maybe we can hide somewhere he can’t follow?

It was a good idea, and thankfully her body was already moving before she finished agreeing (with herself) about it. The tendrils whipped out and pulled her over the side of the escalator’s railing and then down into the lower floors below the hotel while she hobbled forward on one leg. Ignoring the pain in her other. And how it felt odd , numb and swollen and tight as she pulled herself through the card reading ticket gate and around the corner towards the tram station. Surprised to see the tram currently parked there, doors closed but otherwise looking much like it had when she’d gotten off of it.

The heavy footsteps from behind had her lurching forward, wincing as she put weight on her leg. Fingers, or perhaps claws , pressed into the door as she wedged it open bit by bit. The metal groaned in response before it gave in and she pulled herself through, trying to slide the door closed against as she did. 

Of course it didn’t, cheap piece of crap that it was.

“Damn it,” Moira said, more curses muted as the pain in her leg redoubled and she closed all three eyes, grabbing onto the support as the pressure peaked…

And she heard her clothes rip, a strange cool sensation as her toes, or what might have been them, scraped against the floor of the tram. She looked down, more annoyed by the currently asymmetrical nature of her legs, one bulged larger with the earlier injury healed in a sense as the mutation reworked broken bones back together into something new. Predatory, inhuman, a strange mix of reptile and something else that Natalia had cobbled together in her childish pursuit for what she thought looked cool.

“At least the pain is gone now,” Moira thought. Only to feel the odd sensations start to move through her other leg now, like strands of pressure and pain working through the flesh. For a moment she wondered if it was the parasite’s internal growth reaching down to change her.

I’m not doing this-

“-or at least I don’t think so?”

She shook her head, further annoyed by the inability to even tell when the her that was thinking was the one in her chest instead of the one in her head. Assuming that’s where she was. For all she knew it was her stomach or something. Or wrapped around her spine like a proper alien monster.

I’m not a fucking monster!

There was a pause as Moira rolled (all) her eyes. And almost made herself a little nauseous at how that felt for a moment, the tendrils along her back thankfully holding her up as she continued her movement towards the door to the next car of the tram and hopefully a better hiding spot while she tried to think of something resembling a plan.

“Sure, but only because we’re both pretty ‘monstrous’ now.”

The tram lurched slightly, the impact of the tyrant loudly echoing through the vehicle as Moira looked back and saw the door she’d pulled open being carelessly yanked from its moorings and tossed to the side. The lock snapped off along with the wired panel next to it.

A real monster had arrived to put her internal debate to an end.

“W-w-wel-come to Solis City future innovators!”

The computerized voice of the pre-recorded tour started up as the tram itself started to move. She’d have cursed her luck but the movement was taking her further from the tyrant for a moment. Or so she’d hoped. Till one of his massive arms speared through the window at the side and grabbed onto a support beam, the metal crumpling under his grip.

“Time to go,” Moira said to herself, ramming her own comparatively smaller arm through the window of the door at the end of the tram and undoing the latch as she did. The armored scales or chitin or whatever you’d call the purplish replacement for her once pink human skin deflected the glass easily and she barely noticed it. Even if it tore up her shirt something fierce as she pushed through. One clawed foot crushing the shards under… well, talons as they were, while her other leg lagged behind in inhumanity while she tried to push herself forward faster. The tram trying to speed up while a massive biological anchor held it back, sounds of wrenching metal and breaking glass coming from the car behind her.

Then it moved, suddenly accelerating. Moira fell forward face first, her tendrils unable to grab anything in surprise as she hit the floor hard. Mouth opening exceedingly too wide as the cry of pain came from her thin, now serpentlike lips.

“Gotta keep moving. Can’t stop or-”

-that fucking thing will-

The door behind her bent inward, the far too large mass pounding on it. She turned over, head cocked to the side as she stared at the comically horrific sight of the tyrant partially hunched down, crouch walking through the tram. 

“Here here here- Here at FarSight we strive to bring about humanity’s best side to the front.”

Her still human foot bulged, the shoe splitting apart as the armored talons tore free of clothing and humanity. Literally, as she could see how in places it looked like she was shedding her human skin for something else, now visibly growing beneath it all. Scrabbling to her new feet, her tendrils whipping behind her she turned and ran. Just in time as the pawing hands of the tyrant reached out grabbing at where she had fallen as the door bulged in further and fell to the side. 

Maybe I can disconnect the trams-

“-and leave this asshole stuck behind me.”

It wouldn’t kill him, hell what would, but at the very least it would keep her from having to fight him.

Those thoughts filled her mind as the tram sped up, leaving the tunnel and revealing the twilight desert surrounding the complex. The lights flickered off as the tram bent to one side, off balanced by the massive BOW struggling to enter into it from the rear.

“We here at FarSight always put employee safety above-”

The pained sounds of the metal being pulled apart came from behind her as Moira stumbled forward to the next door. This one opened as she grabbed the handle. However before she could manage to get through she was tugged backwards. A startled yelp escaped her as her tendrils whipped about in panic. The back of her hoodie, what of it that remained after her new limbs had torn through it, tightly held in the massive fist of her BOW pursuer. She kicked back at him, her changed legs ripping through the clothing and flesh beneath it. But already those wounds began to close while the massive hands pushed through the maelstrom of her struggling claws and bladed tendrils. Finding purchase about her neck.

And squeezing.

“Let go you fu-”

Her voice was cut off, her neck compressed even as she felt the veins bulging out under those massive fingers. Her body stretching, swelling, the mutation trying to get ahead of the possible danger to her life. Adapting out of human weaknesses. But even the strength of her new form wasn’t enough to overcome this, and while she managed not to have her head unscrewed from her shoulders as the tyrant had intended, she could still feel herself struggling to breath, gasping as the pressure increased and her vision started to go dark.

Damn it… not like-

“-this…”

The hand tightened around her throat, spittle flying from her jaw as she continued to struggle. The strangled cries became less human as her mouth twisted, bones dislocating and the whole unhinging wide as her lips split back, hardening into something stranger and firmer that pushed out with a reptilian maw. Skin pulled taut, falling away as her body started to fall limp, no blood getting to her brain.

Not that one.

You utter fucker!

Her arms snatched out, clawing into the tyrant's face, gouging one large eye and ripping into the bleeding wound, scraping it clean of flesh and blood while her open mouth stretched wider and something began to push out. The purple-black thing breathing with its- her own partially formed lungs. She barely saw out of it, but she could sense from it. The heat, the blood, the hate she had for this creature that was hurting her, in her way, making her change more and more to keep from dying. She was becoming a monster, more of one the longer this fight went on. Would there even be a way back from all this?

She didn’t know.

She didn’t care .

All she knew was she had to survive, they had to survive.

And to do that this bastard had to die.

Her tendrils snaked out, striking deep into his neck as her other jaw screamed. The tyrant’s grip weakening, the pulse of potent venom pumping into the massive creature throbbing through her tendrils. She would have smiled, were her mouth not full of, well, herself , but she could feel herself winning. Slowly but surely, her own venom apparently more than this knock off from Umbrella’s old BOW programs could handle. 

Which was probably why he decided to get rid of her then and there.

She slipped back, her eyes opening, the three normal ones (god, that was still weird for her) as her back hit the side of the tram and pushed through it. The metal bent open, the glass shattered. More of her clothing tore loose as bloody cuts tore through the remnants of her human skin. For however long it remained. Now though she had to worry about staying on the tram, staying attached to the tyrant as he tried to shake her loose. Pushing her out of the tram, towards the track and the ground speeding by them. Moira saw the oncoming rocks from a side of the canyon they were about to pass over. Her head dangerously close to being sheared off if she didn’t do something.

“Let go you asshole!”

She pulled herself up, legs kicking into the tyrant’s face and out of the tram. Free falling through the air and towards the open sky. The ground beneath her was still hundreds of feet below along this side, speeding by at close to sixty miles per hour. While the tram started to turn…

Only for her tendrils to grab hold, pulling her onto the roof as her clawed feet and equally sharp new hands found purchase in the metal. The tyrant’s fists pounded at the roof, aware of where she was. But he was slower now, still fighting off her venom.

And now she had a plan.

“You wanna ride the train you asshole,” Moira said to herself, words slurred from the wind, her own altered mouth, and the burning exhaustion of her lungs. 

“Let’s give you a fucking ride!”

She darted forward, moving on all fours. Her tendrils hooking ahead of her as she made her way towards the front of the tram. Hoping she was right, hoping that Solis was just as much of a cheap fuck as she thought he was.

Moira leaped forward, slamming feet first into the front of the tram. The glass shattering around her as she tore into the driver’s cab.

“I knew it!”

Of course he’d just bought a regular tram and then painted it over with his stupid logos. Even if it had a bunch of computerized controls installed to run without anyone piloting it it still had the normal controls. Just wired into this console. Which her clawed hands tore free and tossed out the side. She reached in and pulled more wires loose, a cruelly fanged smile spreading across her altered face as she bunched a set of the wires together and tied them into their neighbors. The train suddenly accelerated forward, moving faster even as they started to near the station.

Behind her Moira heard the tyrant ripping through another door, now in the cabin behind her. She turned around sparing the emotionless mute brute one last look.

And a wave.

“End of the line asshole!”

The wheels exploded into flames as they sped past the station, the brakes Moira had disabled trying to slow the soon to be wreck at the last possible moment. Far too late now. It was a comet of flame, hurtling across the desert. A muted scream of high speed about to rip loose of its moorings and wreck upon the sands. Moira swung over the yawning darkness, flames and sparks lit beneath her split and broken shoes. The blood seeping across her brow made her third eye blink as she felt the tendrils tighten behind her, the purple limbs of covered chitin and holding her just above the sands as she finally let go.

The tyrant broke through, but too late to do anything but grab at the darkness where she had been in the moments before the entire tram collided with the rocky soil. She had already fallen away, curled up as she hit the sands, rolling as a ball of claws and scales. The cacophony of the explosion, the massive impact of the tram rolling end over end across the sand in flames, sparks, and torn metal shards barely heard as she came to a stop. Breathing deeply, gasping and pained yet alive.

Coming to her hands and knees, her clawed hands and scaled knees, Moira slowly stood up. Seeing the vast damage of her arrival.

Before collapsing back into the dirt.

Just as she saw light swaying across the hills above, shining down towards the station and the crash.

Her vision was going dark, but for some reason she saw so clearly in the shadows of the night.

Though in her addled state she couldn’t quite remember why she thought it so funny that someone with antennas was coming to inspect the wreck…

“Heh… aliens are supposed to come out of these, not the other… way-”

-stay awake damn it! Don’t pass out we need to-

And then there was darkness.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11: Faith Like a Guillotine

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Wake up…

Wake up!

Wake up Moira!

“Later… just five more minutes,” she mumbled, mouth full of dirt and a coppery aftertaste. Her tongue licked out, tasting the air. The scents of blood and fire, of fear and desperation, of prey and predator washed over her.

The scent of herself.

She pulled herself up, claws digging into the loose desert soil. Her breath came out too hot, small puffs of mist forming in the bitter cold of the desolate night around her. Eyes opened, stinging pain as her vision swam with colors, slowly bleeding out till the ground below her faded into view. All gray and dark, contrasted shadows lit up by distant lights far off. A shining city on a hill.

Built on corpses new and old, walls tall as the spotlights shined out across the destitute hordes that wandered the sands. Minds and bodies destroyed, now little more than slaves to the chosen few that lived on behind those walls. A world made dead, only madness and destruction left in the wake of the deluded effort to ‘save’ it.

The light passed over her eyes, a hissing pain issuing from her jaws as three points of fire blossomed through her skull. Her back writhed, striking out against the sands around her as she pulled herself up, covering her three eyed gaze with her arm till she stood. Footclaws dug into the ground beneath her, the torn remnants of shoes, socks, pants and more; the remains of her past shed like so much dead skin.

Like her own skin had been, was being shed.

It was a nightmare.

And yet she wasn’t afraid anymore…

She was the nightmare after all?

“Wake up already!”

She turned towards the voice, towards herself. Seeing herself beside her. Every aspect mirrored, from the haggard appearance to the scaled carapace of armoring that had began to grow over her arms and legs, a harder and stronger hide that spread across her body in growing inhumanity. Cuts and bruises healing over into monstrous new endurance, a violet purple that she found almost comical to look at now that she knew its origins from her adopted sister’s favorite TV shows.

“The genius of a Wesker mixed with a little girl that watches too much anime,” Other Moira said from across the sandy dunes.

She nodded, the thought already formed in her mind before her counterpart had spoken it. They were the same after all.

Mostly.

“So which of us-”

“Is the real one?” she said, finishing the question, before looking at her fingers, nails pushed out and merged into more armored skin. Plated like a mad mix of insect and reptile, the fruit of BOW research from three continents and thirty years perfected by a little girl that only wanted the very best for her new sibling.

Especially since she liked this one by comparison to the last. Even if Moira, or ‘the Moiras’, had to agree that she probably should have waited to get into elaborate conspiracies and beyond cutting edge mutagenic virology experiments until she’d grown up a little and wasn’t as prone to the childish egotism that had her trying to save the world by herself.

Or, given where some of her component mental parts had come from, perhaps age wouldn’t have brought wisdom.

“Therapy.”

“We’ll probably both need it at the end,” Other Moira added, continuing the line of thought. “And physical too to help with all of… this.”

Assuming Natalia was right about being able to fix this…

At least she knew her father wasn’t likely to run screaming to the hills. Hell, he’d rushed to embrace Jill when she’d finally come back even though she now had almost a foot of height on him and webbed claws for hands. By comparison Moira still looked more ‘normal’, even keeping her hair, despite the added limbs and freakish alien monster by way of viral mutagens.

So far anyway.

“So who is the real one anyway?”

Her other self shook her head, slowly coming closer. She tried to feel Her squirming inside her… or herself enclosed in warm flesh.

She didn’t know which would be worse at the moment.

“I don’t know. I think we both got knocked out. Maybe a concussion, maybe sharing the trauma and pain… or-”

“-or our body strained by regenerating the damage from the crash?”

Moira nodded to Moira. Still looking out at the sea of the dead before her.

“And what’s all this?”

“A nightmare?”

“Maybe a premonition…”

“Don’t be getting superstitious,” Moira said. “We’re just seeing some crazy shit because of the drugs and the virus and the…”

“Parasite.”

“That might be you.”

“Still, even if I am, it wouldn’t surprise me that I might give you a nightmare.”

“Us.”

She nodded. “Yeah… ‘us’. We’re in this together aren’t we?”

“Till the end.”

Time to-

Wake up-

Wake up…

WAKE UP MOIRA!

------

She came out of it gasping, her jaw almost unhinging as another mouth snapped and sucked in air from within. Retreating inside as she rolled off a couch onto the floor. Her claws scratched into old wood as her tendrils whipped about her. Breaking glass the sound of random objects hitting the floor bombarded her. The whining scream from her silenced in shock though as she heard a repeated high pitched wail like from an old sci-fi raygun.

And saw a toy fallen on its side, lit up and making quite the racket.

“You’re up… and alive?”

“I’m fine.”

She looked into the darkness, eyes blinking as the colors died out and she saw a man approaching, his own eyes glowing slightling in the darkness below a pair of antennae. Hesitating as he put his hands up warily. Pausing to look towards a heavy metal pipe which was on the store counter nearby before once more meeting her triune gaze.

“And you’re still… you.”

“Yeah… more or less,” Moira said, feeling more writhe in her gut for a moment before she settled. And gazing down to see another reason why Tim might have been looking to the side besides questioning whether he should grab a pipe to bludgeon her. Namely her clothes had suffered worse than she had, and the purple coloration now showed its spread across much more of her body than before. As well as the tightened muscles, sans fat consumed by her change, and then some. “Looks like I’m a bit past that twenty percent now Tim.”

The other, considerably less mutated, SBOW man nodded. Before shaking his head, leaning against the counter for support as he looked outside. The sound of a helicopter passing overhead growing louder and then fading a few moments later. Once they were left in silence again he looked back at her and asked, “How… what happened to you?”

“Turns out Solis is an asshole. Even more than most rich pricks trying to compensate for having a tiny one.”

“God, he’s experimenting with viruses? And infected you?”

“Yeah,” Moira said. It was the truth. “Mostly.”

Good enough, and besides Natalia wouldn’t have gotten involved if he-

“-hadn’t been planning to one up Wesker with stupid plot to infect half the damn world.”

“We’ve gotta call someone… the FBI or the DSO or… I dunno, the-

“No!”

“What, why not?”

“His company runs half the damn phones in the US… hell, all the signals out here will go through stations he controls.”

“Even he’s not arrogant enough not to be keeping track of any calls that try to go to the authorities from out here…”

Natalia had been adamant that he already had enough satellites in orbit to cause a worldwide pandemic. If he found out that they were coming to stop him it could turn into a hostage situation with half the globe at risk. And delusional lunatic holding the trigger.

“No… what we need is a way to-”

-contact someone, the BSAA in particular that he’d never think to be checking on and-

Moira blinked in triplicate.

“Of course. Goddamn, your stupid zombie film might just save the world.”

“Wait, what?” Tim asked. “I don’t follow at all.”

“You said your friends had contacts with the BSAA?” Moira asked as she pulled up one of the tourist chic jackets from the clothing rack which had fallen over from before.  It was kitschy, a big eyed alien giving a thumbs up on the back before a crashed saucer, but it would cover her… well, herself better than what hadn’t managed to survive the crash or the flames so well as her new skin had. A few improvised cuts from her hands and she pulled the new jacket over her shoulders, flexing as the tendrils wormed their way through the slits her claws had made. “Some guys they call when they need security or help out in Hollywood?”

“Yes?”

“And probably not monitored by Solis-”

-so that asshole won’t know if they hear about this.

“I need you to call them up, tell them what’s going on here and that they can’t use any normal ways to communicate.”

“And then what?”

“Call the BSAA, the military…”

“My dad…”

That thought halted her words. She knew her father wouldn’t reject her, no matter what. But it still ate at her to think about how much this would hurt him for her to have once more gotten pulled into the nightmarish world of bio-terror he’d tried so hard to protect her from.

Her jaw tightened as her eyes narrowed, staring out into the darkness.

Maybe he’d wanted her to stay out of it, but that just hadn’t been possible. She’d made her own choice to try and fight against this, first with TerraSave and then all on her own. As much as she didn’t like to think of it, she was one of the lucky ones, the scant few survivors that had gotten out of Raccoon before it all went to shit. She’d been part of it from the start, even back when it was just Wesker’s goons pointing guns at her and her family while they blackmailed her father into trying to cover it up and lead his own team to their deaths. The guilt of that had never gone away…

It probably still gnawed at him whenever he saw what Jill had become, thinking back to how many times he’d been forced to work for the monster that had done that to her. That had decided she should have gills and fins as part of some twisted ‘reward’ for the new world he’d intended to bring about.

Not that he’d lived to see that plan through. Chris and the BSAA had put an end to that, rescued Jill and saved the world. Even if it seemed like the ‘real story’ was something only told around her dinner table and quietly hushed up by the greater world, one not ready or willing to admit just how close to ruin had been brought once again by the viral nightmares that Umbrella had unleashed. That had been supported by approval of and funded by the very nation her father had fled from with her just before the bombs had dropped on their home.

Only for a new madman, a new self-appointed ‘savior’ of the human race, to come along and pick up the pieces of Umbrella to try again.

No.

She wouldn’t let him win. She wouldn’t let him harm her family or anyone else.

“This ends tonight.”

“What are you going to do?” Tim asked, looking up at Moira, who had stood to her full height, her tendrils hovering in the air behind her as she walked over towards the very same cooler she’d been standing near just a few days ago. One eye and two limbs less, with considerably more skin and duller teeth. She pulled one of the glass bottled iced teas from inside, snapping the cap off with her thumb and greedily drinking the fluid down. Her parched throat savored the cool liquid, an explosion of flavors and smells that seemed stronger even if part of her still remembered how they used to be. Setting the empty bottle down, and turning towards him as she did so.

“I’m going to save my sister… and probably the world.”

And make sure Solis never lives to launch another of his stupid rockets.

Moira smiled, a cruel and toothy grin.

On this, she was in perfect agreement.

------

Returning to Solis City had seemed to present considerably less of a difficulty then leaving it had. Oh there were certainly drones enough patrolling over the desert, their humming propellers audible over the winds. But without the racing tram headed towards the setting sun as monstrous BOW chased her from car to car she had more time to think over her approach and her plan.

What of it there was.

It could be better…

“It could also be worse,” Moira thought, answering to herself as she slid down a hill and hid behind outcropping of rocks, her now unnaturally sensitive eyes catching the moving specks that were the drones as they hovered past in their patrols. It was a gray tinted clarity that felt disturbingly normal despite the fact that it was being filtered through three eyes instead of two. Like many of the changes she only seemed to notice it when she forced herself to.

The feel of her claws on the stone, her feet digging into the loose sand, the coiled strength of her whiplike tendrils nestled tight but free on her back. A couple bottles of water and candy bar she’d raided from the store before leaving hadn’t been much but it seemed to have been enough to settle the gnawing hunger that must have been so much growth and change pulling from her formerly smaller and defenseless human form. That and adrenaline enough and (two) heads full of mad served to keep her focused on her purpose.

Getting back into that eyesore in the desert and ripping a certain rich asshole a new one.

Thankfully she could hope to have the element of surprise, as they were busy searching through the wreckage by the looks of it. Probably even assumed she’d died and-

Moira turned, her tendrils lashing out nervously as she pressed her back against the rocks. She’d heard something, the low crunch of dirt and rock in the darkness behind her. Barely audible over the pounding of her hearts. Her tongue snaked out, tasting the hair and the cold and nothing but the strangely familiar scent of her own body. The low hills stretched out back towards the tourist kitsch ghost town and the still smoking wreck of the crashed tram, the lights of both brilliant and glaring in the monochromatic vision her eyes had turned over as the sun set and she had found herself able to peer into the darkness with uncanny clarity. Nothing moved but the wind, blowing small swirls of dust and tumbleweeds over the dunes. Even the drones were too distant or too far afield for her to see then.

She must have imagined it.

“Great. Now I’m hearing things… and not just voices.”

Hey, I’m not imaginary!

Moira spared a smile as the other thought from the other her filtered into her mind. She supposed she certainly hadn’t been hearing things or simply feeling nothing now that she thought about it. It had just been the parasite-her trying to wake her up from Solis’s control throughout the last few days.

The parasite her little sister had decided would be ‘cool’ if she had because of a mix of little girl curiosity and twisted knowledge of genetic mad science. Spurred on, no doubt, by the developments in BOW (or SBOW ) research that had taken place in the years following.

And of course, the fact that she was ultimately a little girl that used that knowledge to think of how to make someone ‘cool’ looking like a character in whatever her favorite anime was at the moment.

She is so stupid in the smartest ways.

Her father had told her some of what he’d learned about Wesker and Umbrella’s dark history in the months after Sein Island. In retrospect it sort of explained the murderous woman-child that Alex had seemed to act like, too stuck in her own head and the traumas inflicted upon her to ever think about stopping even after the whole collection of mad men that had started it were dead and buried. Instead she’d concocted a plan to continue their work, to try and prove that her own faulty genetics didn’t prevent her from being part of their plans for a Eugenically Perfected Master Race .

Of course, in the end she’d discarded those same genetics for what now seemed to have been an even more catastrophically ill-advised plan to be reborn in another body. Which her own original had promptly tried to kill. Considering it all now with the benefit of hindsight, Moira couldn’t even say she was surprised that it had played out like that. For all the years Alex had had over Natalia, she’d been a broken woman continuing the wishes of a dead man that had stolen her name, life, and very childhood from. It was no wonder that in the end Natalia had ‘won’ their little fusion incident more or less.

“Ugh, now I’m the one thinking about old cartoons I used to watch.” Moira shook her head, three eyes closed as she recentered on the problem at hand. She had to get over those dunes, into Solis City, find her sister, stop Solis (and a massive bio-terrorist attack in the making) and do it all by her-

The sound again, closer. This time her mouth curved into a fanged frown as she turned, irritation showing as she felt like she was nervously jumping at ghosts.

Or something worse.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

The Tyrant lumbered into view, one leg nearly blown off from the crash. The meat and bone partially regenerated into a malformed club of a limb while his hands now ended in serrated claws. The chest had bulked out, flesh like darkened iron, while the one remaining eye glared back. Larger and redder as he dragged himself over the hill and toward her.

At least he was slower now.

Or so she had thought, before crouching low on his one good leg and leaping towards her. Moira had jumped to the side, her tendrils grabbing hold of the rock by instinct (or her other mind’s control) and dragged her out of reach of the swinging claws as the gouged deep cuts into the rock she’d been hiding behind. She rolled over the side and down the hill hearing her pursuer rise up and climb over the outcropping as she did. Her feet tore through the loose soil as she began to sprint away. The coarse impacts of rocks and dead thorns from the sparse plants made a muted impact on the chitinous scales of her legs while her stance fell lower, clawing forever through the air and over the ground. She could hear him charging towards her, coming closer. A looming doom that threatened to snuff out her life even now.

But it wasn’t fear she felt then.

But rage.

She was angry.

How dare this vat grown freak get in her way, try and stop her from saving her sister and collecting her well deserved vengeance for the pain and indignities of the last few days.

(Her own altered physiology and where to place the blame for that seemed like something neither Moira felt like worrying about till the current matter was settled.)

“Ugh, what will it take to kill this bastard!”

A rocket launcher… or some kind of tank?

She had neither, and while she was beginning to think and feel like she’d have no trouble with more mundane threats, a full grown Tyrant already entering its regenerative mutation state wasn’t the sort of thing she could handle easily with just her bare hands.

Bare claws.

What she needed was a plan.

The spotlight ahead of her pulled across the barren sands as she rolled over into a ditch and started crawling parallel to its pattern. Peeking up she gasped at what she saw. Before a feral grin, too wide and too toothy, split across her features.

The Tyrant followed her over the sands, coming closer while she hunkered low, crawling as close as she could towards the light. She could hear the sounds, the running of the engine, the whine of the motor. The voices of others… and the low pitched drone of static and commands that had filtered through the air and then the minds of the virally contaminated visitors to control them all. And then behind her she heard the foot stops of her pursuer… and now her prey.

Her tendrils lashed out behind her striking into the exposed veins of the oversized heart, already busy growing too big for his body. The venom pulled out a grunt of pain.

Too quiet.

Moira opened her mouth, her jaws… and screamed. The sound was terrible, echoing loud and deep, the sand before her shaking loose as the volume rose and the pitch deepened. A warbling nightmarish cry that would have made her hair stand up at one time, left her shaking where she stood. A sound that couldn’t be ignored, that would drive any man, any woman, any human into wild and terrified fright.

The minigun had already started firing before the spotlight even reoriented upon them. Her Tendrils whipped back to her sides as she clawed and dug, burrowing deeper into the trench as the bullets tore through the flesh of the Tyrant behind her, still paralyzed and in shock from her venom and her surprise attack. She heard and felt the dull thuds of one limb and then another coming loose and falling to the now blood soaked sands around her. And yet the barrage did not end. The guards didn’t know what had made that sound, couldn’t see through the cloud of dust and sand blown up from the impacts. Safely nestled underground, even her tendrils hidden beneath the sands, she grinned from ear to ear… or about where her ears had been, her increasingly reptilian mixed physiology hiding those parts.

Finally the cacophony of gunfire came to an end, only one bloodied stump of a leg left standing among the sands.

The silence stretched out after that point, her heart beats her only company while she waited. Eventually she heard the sounds of boots treading on the rocks and sand. Then she felt them, close enough that she could strike… part of her wanted to strike. Instincts new and perhaps old crying out to move, to kill… but she resisted. That gun was still there after all. Moira Burton wasn’t some dumb beast.

She had a plan…

“Goddamn… is that-”

“I think we blew up Elliot’s security chief.”

The first man turned quickly, Moira feeling the irritation in his motions through the vibrations into the ground. “He’s not here, you don’t have to pretend that the Russian knock-off Tyrant he bought had brains enough to do anything.”

“You never know… best not to take chances.”

“Whatever. By the looks of it he was already a Frankenstein one foot back in the grave as it was. We’ll just tell Solis we confirmed the kill and head back now. This one,” he said, kicking the bloody leg stump so it fell over where it landed heavily just above Moira’s hiding spot in the sands, “wouldn’t have come back this way unless he’d unscrewed that little BSAA brat’s head.”

They turned and started to walk away, Moira hesitating as she pushed the sands to the side and the tip of her… face?

Well, the partially sharper snout her toothy jaw had started to become, came out of the sands. Inhaling the acrid smell of blood and gunpowder in equal measures. At once familiar and at one time frightening. Now she only felt a sense of triumph.

“Turn that damn light off, I can’t see shit!”

The spotlight pulled to the side and Moira saw her chance. Rising from the sands she moved slowly, silently, behind the pair as they drew back. Cloaked in darkness, her own skin's new and darker hues blending into the shadows as she moved. While the third man in the trio moved to meet the first two she ducked low and to the side. Around them… and then under their vehicle. The heavy truck lifted well off the ground, plenty of room for her to find a place to hide and plenty more opportunities for claws or other appendages to latch on and hold her tight.

She barely paid attention to their conversation as they got back in the truck, spotlights off and the heavy gun placement secured once more and hidden away. Speeding off across the sands, her claws tightened onto the metal beneath as she bounced with each impact before they finally reached the dirt road and accelerated back towards Solis City.

Slowing down for a checkpoint and a security gate, but that was only a momentary pause before they pulled into the underground garage and came to a stop at last.

“Thanks for a ride-”

-idiots.

“Why are you back already?”

Moira paused in her internal celebration, the sound of Dr. Delacruz’s voice approaching across the concrete. The sharp sound of her heels easily audible above the breathing of the guards and their speeding hearts as they turned shocked and uncertain looks towards the senior member of Solis’s industry and likely his conspiracy as well.

“Ma’am, we confirmed the death of the test subject… as well as the Tyrant. It was too damaged from the crash and had begun to mutate.” He paused for a moment, and even though Moira couldn’t see him she could feel him almost wilt under Delacruz’s glare. “We-we had to put him down.”

“I would have preferred making the judgment on that. One of those was worth your yearly salaries… and your insurance pay four times over. For all three of you. But I suppose at least the matter is settled. Good job and-”

She paused, her foot twisting sharply as she drew closer to the men and then to the truck. She even sniffed the air, and now Moira was the one feeling freaked out.

“Is this all of you?”

“Yes but-”

“She’s in-she’s UNDER THE TRUCK!” Delacruz cried out, grabbing one of the handguns right out of the man’s holster. Just in time as Moira’s tendrils lashed out, slashing through his ankles and grabbing him under the truck as she rolled to the other side. She heard the guns coming to the ready, the safeties clicking off as one went right and the other to the left while the third cried out in pain and shock, still trying to crawl out from under the truck as Moira moved. Blood stained imprints of bladed bones trailing across the garage floor as she leaped forward.

The second man didn’t even manage to raise the gun up as collided with him, her claws failing to rip into his chest through the armor. But with two extra pairs of limbs she controlled their motion and swung him around as she heard the other guard come into view on her back, his finger pressing down on the trigger. She pushed him into the oncoming gunfire and ducked low. Her tendrils on the other claw went high.

The submachine gun continued to fire, but now wildly, till the clip went dry. Bullet holes along the side of the truck in a long line. While the corpse at the end of her limb twitched, the blade sunk deep through the neck, and likely almost into the brain or spine. She yanked it back out, letting him drop at last. And turned towards the sole remaining occupant of the garage.

“Well, aren't we just a natural killer.”

Delacruz didn’t sound afraid of her. Moira found that to be infuriating, that she could have a smug look of superiority and confidence on her face. She started to approach, all three eyes glaring back balefully as the other woman took a few steps back. Not even aiming the gun at her.

“I must say your sister… I’m sorry, Dr. Wesker made an excellent choice. You’ve become a wonderful monster haven’t you-URK!”

Moira grabbed her around the throat and swung her back into the fan. Claws pressed tight, tight enough that small drops of blood began to show. While she could barely hear Delacruz’s heart over her own raging ones, as she still stubbornly refused to show any fear in her swiftly approaching death.

“Where is my sister?!”

“With Solis. He’s still dead set on proving his plan to her or some such. Not that it matters, she’s already given me what I wanted.” Delacruz’s smile was maddening as she raised a hand to gently stroke the side of Moira’s face. “The chance to work with one of the geniuses of Umbrella on a new standard of BOW research. To think you were so boring just a few days ago… and I didn’t even give you the last-”

Moira couldn’t take it anymore. Or perhaps one of her couldn’t. She wasn’t sure which one, only that her claws tightened and pulled. Twisted hard till she heard the snap of bone and then out as she tore through Delacruz’s throat and the crazed bio-geneticist fell like a puppet with its strings cut. A long line of bloody crimson painting the side of the truck as she slid to the ground.

That was stupid.

“I don’t care! We don’t need her. You heard her,” Moira thought. “She said Natalia is with Solis. Probably at his little rocket center by the canyon. We just need to get there and rescue her.”

She felt the agreement as she started to walk away.

Only to pause as she finally heard clearly, her own anger and pounding blood gone at last.

Another heartbeat.

And then another .

She turned around slowly, gazing back at where Delacruz’s body had fallen.

Who was now standing up again. Something pushing up, out of her chest and through her throat. Slimy and dark, writhing as her body was forced into motion once more and the veins pulsed around her torn out neck. Deep, dark, and swelling as the blood stopped flowing out and the wound began to knit closed.

But not as it had been, deep midnight blue colors starting to take shape over the injury.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t use such a wondrous bit of research once I realized what it was?” Delacruz said, gurgling laughter coming from the torn out stump of her neck as the parasite continued to pull her once lifeless head back on straight. The thin flesh strands that extended outward knitted through the raw and bloody flesh, tethering wound closed once more as her eyes refocused on Moira.

“Oh you have to be fucking kidding me…”

------

Intermission

MutantSightings Board

♦ Topic: SBOW Actors and Actresses

Boards ► Media Discussion

Page 6 of 6

►RememberRaccoon

Well something really weird just happened. You know how Sarah Ripley was supposed to be at the Cultic awards ceremony for Bloodhive 2?

She totally flaked out after walking in and doing the whole ‘wave and spread her wings for the cameras’ thing. Just talked to her security detail a bit and then bailed.

►VirusSpotter420

That’s not weird man. She’s trying to get out of those mutant exploitation flicks anyway. I heard that Oliver Stone already contacted her to play Ashley in that President Graham biopic he’s doing. And then she’s got a supporting role in that sitcom coming out next fall. Maybe she’s stepping away from the B-movie stuff?

►RememberRaccoon

No you don’t understand, I was there. She was looking all happy. Wavy antenna, getting ready for the show and then one of those ex-BSAA guys they have helping her out gets up to take a phone call. Next thing I know he’s talking to her and she goes all still and then they’re getting out of there.

You could tell that whatever he told her had her spooked too.

►Sandwich-Man

How do you know what ‘Happy SBOW’ looks like? Are you some kind of creepy mutant stalker?

You know that’s why she has the big beefy security detail in the first place. To keep weirdos like you under control.

►RememberRaccoon

Hey, screw you. I live in Hollywood and have been going to these things before Raccoon changed the tone. Sarah’s honestly been a fresh air to the genre since she’s really trying to act through her appearance. I was looking forward to her acceptance speech since there’s no way Dollgirl Versus the Devil Puppets is going to beat her for best special effects.

►Romero (Moderator)

Cut it out with the arguments and creepy insinuations you too.

Though I do wonder what they might have heard? It’s probably just another anti-mutant threat and just being precautious.

►Sandwich-Man

-RememberRaccoon, I’ll quit it, but I still think it’s weird. I can’t tell what any of the SBOWs are feeling based on how they look. Body language is all messed up and insect.

Or fishlike I guess.

Though I thought they weren’t letting you try for that category for the SBOW actors after last year?

-Romero, You’d expect some news from the BSAA or local police chatter if that was the case. But I’m not far from there and I’m always keeping my channels open to the guys I got on the inside and they’re radio silent right now.

►RememberRaccoon

Yeah, but you haven’t seen Bloodhive 2. They went all out and Sarah’s actually in a costume too. It’s really cool how they pulled it off.

Anyway, I agree it’s weird. The only thing I’m getting for news updates is that tram crash out in Nevada by Solis City.

►Umbrella-Watcher

What, did Elliot Solis finally blow himself up?

►RememberRaccoon

I wish. No, it looks like his glorified Disney Land is finally falling apart around him.

►Sandwich-Man

Funny you mention that, there were some brief mentions about Nevada on the radio bands I check before they all went dead silent too. I know you tell me that those guys probably aren’t still ‘in’ the agency, but I swear some of them have connections and they were talking about it too before they all cut off at once.

Weirdest f-ing thing too.

►VirusSpotter420

You know, they say there’s a lot of alien sightings around there… maybe that’s what’s spooking the BSAA.

►Umbrella-Watcher

Oh my god.

You’ve literally met Ashley Graham.

You know SBOWs aren’t mutated by Martians or whatever. Why are you still on about this?

►VirusSpotter420

I’m just saying… they might be connected.

►Romero (Moderator)

You might have been in the middle of the Ravenscroft incident VirusSpotter420, but this time I really think you’re barking up the wrong tree.

►Umbrella-Watcher

Yeah, there are no aliens in Nevada.

Man made or otherwise.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12: The Emanation of Evil

------

Moira stared warily back, three eyes to a pair. Which bulged, pupils changing shape and shining metallic as the veins stood out on Delacruz’s face, lifeblood once more pumping through her head as her throat knit together and the parasite inside receded back into her chest. She licked her lips, tasting the air as her tongue split violently apart, running over sharper teeth as she cocked her head to one side and then the other. Working out a kink in the bones that came with a loud pop as her vertebrae came together again.

“There we go…”

Her lips curled back from twin feelings of disgust that resonated through her body at the sight and sound. She could feel that in her neck, longer and stronger as it was already. Watching this woman’s mutate and change in front of her was more than a little disconcerting.

Her shock was short lived, as Delacruz’s foot lashed out, a standing kick to Moira’s gut that had her fallen onto her tailbone with a painful yelp.

“Shit,” the older woman said, stumbling back as her heel had snapped off. She pulled her foot from her other shoe as she moved towards Moira. Just in time as the nylons on her legs had begun to bulge and twist as the flesh beneath bloated with new muscle. Her toes shot through, nails sharp and growing sharper as foot that had struck her hastened past its partner into monstrosity.

“She’s changing fast.”

“God that feels-aaAAAH!”

There was a sharp, loud, cracking sound as her knees popped backwards and she fell to the ground, head impacting against the concrete with a heavy thunk and slight crunch of breaking bones. Blood pooled out as an ugly wet laugh came from her as she stretched forward, further than she should have been able to. Her jacket pulled up as her torso elongated. By the time she rose to her hands and knees, spitting teeth and blood from a maw that had begun to stretch across her face she barely resembled her ID badge any longer.

Too fast… goddamn, what’s wrong with her?

“It-s so-urk- strange … it doesn’t even hurt. I feel the flesh change around me… like clothes that don’t fit anymore.” Delacruz’s jaw pushed out, her nose pulling into a pair of slits on something even more predatory and reptilian than Moira’s own. Eyes bulging too large for her skull as it began to reshape into more inhuman structures. “I like it…”

“I think it would take a whole psych ward to figure this one out,” Moira thought to herself as she started to back away. Speeding up as Delacruz began to claw her way towards Moira, hand over hand, fingers splitting as claws tore through the skin, faster than her human body could keep up as the mutation progressed. Reaching out towards Moira as she hit the back of another parked truck. But she had a good ten feet of distance between them now.

More than enough to be safe.

Or so she thought.

“No you don’t! You’re-aaAARGH!”

She screamed out, hoarse and low as her hand hit the concrete and bones snapped. Longways down her arm, the fingers pushing apart as the skin pulled to the side and raw bloody muscles spasmed loose, a whiplike cord shooting out and slithering towards Moira before her disbelieving eyes. She’d thought her own transformation had seemed horrific, but this was something else entirely, the parasite within, the other -Delacruz that had spoken through her mouth before twisting her head back on straight was growing larger and faster than her body could keep up, no sense of balance or stability. Just rampant, horrific growth.

Her legs kicked it away, thankfully too armored to let the still slick blade of bone slice into her. Whether it also had a paralyzing venom within she didn’t know and frankly didn’t care to find out. Instead she rolled onto her side and under the other parked truck. Her own tendrils reached out to grab onto the far axle and drag her along her back. Hissing at the discomfort as her still freshly grown scales didn’t care for the abuse, but it got her far enough away that she was able to climb up to her feet with the truck between her and the mutating woman.

Who was clearly in some sort of pain, though whether could still recognize that or if the her controlling that body even cared Moira couldn’t tell. Only that the snapping of bones and guttural cries continued to descend into a state far afield of humanity out of her sight. Peeked around the side of the truck, seeing no sign of Delacruz and then noticed the door leading out of the garage just a short distance away.

Fuck it, let’s get out of here while we can.

Moira didn’t have to think twice to agree to that plan, sprinting towards the door while the coast was clear. Only for it to open up, a pair of guards charging in with guns already at the ready. Perhaps drawn by the sound of gunfire from before? In any even she was already preparing to duck back into cover when they suddenly aimed away from her and at something just to the left.

Behind her.

“What the-”

The sounds of their weapons echoed through the garage as she leaped to the side and slid behind the nearest support pillar. Something screamed out behind her, a low pitched growl following.

And then a voice, distorted so she wasn’t sure she heard it at first.

“ Stop shooting me you idiots! ” Moira winced, the sound setting her teeth on edge, fangs clenched tight as it reminded her of the droning voices from before she’d heard over the intercoms. In fact it almost seemed-

“ Attack her… the other one. Now! ”

Her cover provided protection, but still she was pinned down, the guards unloading their entire clips towards her. Shards of the concrete shattered off as she ducked down and tried to find a way out. Only for fortune to once more turn her way.

“This will have to do.”

Little cliched don’t you think?

She didn’t care to argue with her internal commentary as her claws yanked off the grate for the ventilation shaft. Instead ducking into it, scrambling forward and then sliding down, her claws making awful scratching sounds as she moved till she hit a lower section. Once more landing hard on her back. And wincing more as she noticed her tailbone had turned into a stubby armored tail at some point. As if her body had decided the minor injury and irritation from before was cause enough to grow something else in response.

“Of all the-”

“ She’s in the vents… use your grenades you useless fools! ”

And that was her clue to start moving. Moira pushed forward, claws and tendrils dragging her onward as fast as she could as she heard something clattering down the vent behind her. She saw a bright light just ahead and stabbing her claws into the metal she wrenched it loose. Just as the grenades detonated and a rush of heat and flames exploded down the vent. Her body fell to the catwalk below as the thermobaric Anti-BOW grenades went off.

At the very least she was far enough away from Delacruz… or whatever she had become, for her to catch her breath and take stock of things. Her location… and her body.

Thankfully that change had been small, perhaps already started during her run across the desert. And aside from her increasing awareness of her own extended senses she’d yet to feel like she was about to mutate again in response to the scraps and injuries from before. Compared to what she’d just seen, her own condition didn’t even seem that bad.

Guess Natalia’s better at this than the talent Solis could afford to hire.

“Which only means Natalia is even more likely to be right about his plan being a massive bio-terrorist attack and not whatever the hell he expects.” If that lunatic had actually done that to herself on purpose, Moira didn’t want to find out how the T-virus derivatives she’d been working on would react once they were used outside the controlled environment of this petri dish of a city.

Now she just had to get to Solis in time…

Moira froze, as she heard something fall in the distance behind her. Part of the vent likely fell into a room or maintenance tunnel elsewhere in the complex. She didn’t hear anything else.

For now at least.

“Just got to make sure not to run into any more freaks along the way,” she said, carefully wiping dust from her three eyed brow with the back of her clawed hand.

With the current danger subsided, Moira took stock of her current location… and hopefully the direction forward. Thankfully she was too deep and far from her pursuers to even hear them over the sounds of the complex itself around her. Of which there were many.

The underbelly of Solis City was far from the gleam and glitter of the glorified theme park above. Stark concrete tunnels, pipes running along the ceiling and puddles of water dripping from above. It looked to be in an odd state of disrepair for something that must have been built within the last decade, though given how much effort was spent on the ‘presentation’ she could only imagine how many corners had been cut everywhere else. It was surprising the whole place wasn’t falling down around her now that the jig was up, the ‘monsters’ revealed and the guns had come out.

As if to emphasize that point another loud and strained sound came from the metal behind her and Moira decided even if the catwalk she was on was only over a short drop to more pipes it would be best to get out of this area in case those grenades had managed to do more damage than it might have first appeared.

She needed to move.

In part to just avoid the Solis hired mercenaries. Though how much they were ‘paid’ to being otherwise controlled she was no longer sure… not that she found she cared much for someone that would have agreed to work for that madman already knowing he wanted hired guns with loose morals in BOW use.

She also needed to get moving towards her sister. The sooner the better in that matter, as she couldn’t trust that Solis wouldn’t decide to do something to Natalia now that he was aware of her betrayel…

“She might not even know I’m still alive!”

I think she might… I mean, she came up with this ridiculous mutation. We managed to handle that Tyrant pretty well.

Moira hissed at that thought, teeth bared as she ducked under a low hanging pipe and pushed through the humid air coming from another set of vents as she passed. Her thoughts, her other thoughts, weren’t wrong per say… but she didn’t think it was that easy. Or that her sister would see it that way.

“She’s only a kid, no matter what she thinks or what she remembers at times. Even if she knows I could survive, that’s no guarantee she’d believe it till I find her.” Moira trailed her claws along a door, finding it locked. She was about to pull harder on the handle, snapping it off and the lock with it when she heard boots moving down the hallway behind it. Her hand pulled back and she took off down the hallway, hopefully away from a possible guard patrol. Even if she could take them, and she was feeling pretty confident she could, they were looking for her and more would follow behind them if she wasn’t careful.

Leaving her in the darkness and her own thoughts.

You know you’re taking this pretty well.

“Really?” Moira said, the word escaping her throat in tired shock. Before she thought into the strange void of senses that she now recognized as the Other . “We’re going to waste time going over that right now?”

I mean, it’s weird that we’re not mad.

“I am mad,” Moira said, spitting the last word out as her tendrils twitched behind her. Only to still as she found a door that was open and a ladder going up into the complex above her. Continuing her rant inside her mind, “But what good will that do? So she did something stupid because she couldn’t think of another way out of it.”

And turned us into an SBOW because of it. You’d think that would bother you more.

“Says the person that only exists because of that.”

She felt the laughter in her mind. 

So now I’m a ‘person’? Pretty sure the current bio-ethics laws might not agree with you there.

“I thought you weren’t sure which of us was which?” Moira paused at the top of the ladder, tendrils instinctively (or perhaps at the will of her Other mind) wrapping about the ladder as she awkwardly pushed close to the closed hatch trying to hear, to feel, if anyone was on the other side. But there was nothing, nothing but the steady hum of machines in the distance and computers closer. Pushing the metal up and open she peaked her three eyed head up and then climbed out, quietly saying to herself, “Besides, this would hardly be the first time a Burton has gotten themselves into trouble because they put their foot into someone’s stupid viral conspiracy.”

Wait what-oh… Jill.

“Yeah. Jill.” She might have forgiven her father for working for Wesker, if under duress. Hell, the only reason she didn’t spend more time with them was that Canada was still dragging its feet on legitimizing ‘genetically divergent sapients’ as human. And Barry had set her up to die in the Arklay mountains and down so while working for the man that would later engineer her new… ‘style’ among many more crimes than even Moira knew of after years of working with TerraSave. If they could get over something like that, then she could handle her little adopted sister picking up the worst traits of her new parents and being wondrously, uniquely idiotically genius in how she tried to handle her own accidental aid to yet another eugenics obsessed mad man.

You know we might have the same problem she has with crossing borders.

“Yeah, and we can wear a big dumb jacket to hide our big dumb monster face if-wait, what was that?”

What… I hear it too?

She crouched low, moving around the machines near her exit, realizing that they were presses for metal and lathes off to the side. Some kind of moderately sized machine shop with large doors on one side and stairs leading up further. The fluorescent lights were buzzing loudly, and below that the hum of other mechanisms and bank of computers in the next room over. But she could hear something else. Much lower frequency, slower, a slight pattern that was-

Heartbeats?

“Down!” Moira ducked low stilled her own breath and sounds as much as she could. Closing her eyes she listened and tried to pinpoint what she was hearing. They weren’t too far off. Above her, in the hallway with the windows looking down. That they hadn’t fired yet meant they hadn’t seen her, so she had some time.

“She is near. I HEAR her. Find and kill her or I will make you all pay…”

She could feel their heartbeats spike up as the sound of that voice echoed through the complex. Growled out loud and low, too low to consciously hear. More than just the words, the tone and nature of it felt sickly wrong. Seeped in fear and anger and that twisted sense of domination that had been shackling her to the fantasy that Solis and his works weren’t some insane monument to egotism. Now she could recognize it, see it for what it was.

Though the why escaped her even if she now understood how it had worked.

“Though now I can hear it clearly so I guess it can’t affect me?”

Probably Natalia’s plan… I wonder if we can do that too?

That was a thought.

A risky, dangerous but potentially very useful one.

Moira opened her mouth, tasting the air and stretching her jaw wide. Trying to feel how to speak in a way she’d never wanted nor been able to before. Whisper low she growled, still too audible, still too human like. Dropping her voice lower, a muted howl that descended into hellish, inhuman depths she felt in her lungs and throat and elsewhere when it grew low enough that she knew no human would consciously know what she was saying.

Rising up, almost standing behind the metal lathe, Moira turned her head towards the upper level and called out to that darkness in a voice spawned from it, “Stand down. Let me pass. ”

She heard the men move, guns started to aim down, but slowed, hesitant. She could smell their fear. She could feel their heartbeats speeding up as her voice connected to them. In the darkness she saw them take aim, a clear shot, but fingers shaking, eyes wide as they looked at her with rapturous horror.

“ Put your fucking guns down! ” Moira howled back at them. Shocked as she heard the guns clatter to the ground above her. Their heartbeats now so fast it was quintet of drums, breathing in and out so quick they’d likely pass out soon. One collapsed, clutching at his helmet as he began to mutter words in French that Moira didn’t understand. Another, the leader began to reach for something on their vest. For what end she didn’t know, to use on her… or themselves to stop the overwhelming, paralyzing sense of terror?

It didn’t matter.

She rose up, her tendrils gripping the railing above and impacted against the glass clawed feet first. It buckled, broke and her touted limbs gripped the edges of the broken window as she looked down on the now paralyzed squad. Eyes aglow in the darkness, her voice reverberated through them as she spoke again, “ Get the hell out of my way and don’t try anything! ”

They dropped like puppets with their strings cut. The smell of their terror was now overwhelming. They were less than useless against her now. With a word, just a growl from her fanged maw she’d rendered them helpless before her.

Damn. Did Natalia plan for this too?

Moira couldn’t begin to guess. She was, or had been, a Wesker. Maybe she’d foreseen the need for this ability, a last ditch secret weapon to give her sister in case she needed it and had trusted her enough to figure it out on her own if it came down to it?

In any event she no longer had anyone or anything in her way. She rose to her full height, picking up one of the discarded guns as she moved and deciding it was better to be armed than not for the moment. Even counting the claws and all.

If she kept up this pace she’d make it to her sister in-

“ USELESS… ”

What

“What was-”

“ USELESS! USELESS! USELESS! ”

The guards screamed. The fear grew overwhelming, the screaming voice making the air seem to vibrate from its fury and force. Moira stepped back, trying to discern its location but it was still echoing through the complex. And the men, now ripping at their clothes, their helmets… their skin, made more than enough noise to cover its source. She saw their veins bulge out, black and then bursting as the blood spilled free, eyes rupturing and then regenerating into pale reddish orbs without intelligence but murderous hunger. She’d seen this.

T-Phobos.

Or this new derivative.

Of course this could happen. Enough fear, enough ‘stimulation’ of the nervous system and it would react like this. There was no chance that Solis and his mad doctor wouldn’t have played at making even their paid guards part of their futuristic viral cast system. They’d been lucky enough not to be slotted for menial work and rendered fully subservient or used for guinea pigs in the tests they were still performing but uninfected? Never, not with leaders like those.

They rose up, turning towards her.

And meeting a hail of gunfire from her stolen weapon before their own could be brought to bear.

“ KILL HER YOU IDIOTIC MEAT! ”

“ STOP LISTENING TO THAT CRAZY PSYCHO AND DIE! ”

She was closer, though with their minds now destroyed by the ravages of the virus her command was of limited use. But it seemed to slow their response, their sudden and inexplicible aggression towards any and all but themselves. Eough for her to drop two before the clip ran dry. The next one she pulled close with her tendrils, serrating their open chest, bulging outward from newly grown muscle as the ribs and organs failed to keep pace. She let the still swelling cadaver drop to her feet as she ran towards the remaining two.

Just as the leader of the squad managed to pull what he’d wanted from his vest at last. Clutching the live grenade in a fist that was expanding too fast and too large with claws and meat to drop it he ran towards her. Moira kicked out his feet and shoved him over the side, into the machine shop below. The explosion deafening her as she fell to the opposite side of the hallway from the shockwave and the sound.

The last guard, one arm twisting into an overly muscled claw while the other tried in vain to aim his now recovered weapon at her.

She hissed in anger, tendrils coming up.

But not in time.

Another, longer, spike of bone stabbed through his chest, down from the ceiling and yanked him up. Against the wall and then the next. Right and left and back again. Heavy, meaty impacts as bones broke and the regenerating flesh kept him alive for a time. Before even the power of a Progenitor virus failed and he became a sack of so much cooling meat. And was then pulled up into the darkness above the hallway, where the ceiling tiles had been torn loose during their fight.

Where something was watching.

Something was eating .

“ Useless meat… I’ll kill you myself. I’ll show you the true power of the Khaos parasite… a new zenith of Post-Umbrella research. Biological mutualism beyond the dreams of humanity itself! ”

At the name Moira felt one thing before all else.

Exasperation.

“Really?” It wasn’t the greatest comeback before now likely insane BOW mutant (or ‘technical’ SBOW, though she doubted the BSAA would be in a rush to defend Dr. Delacruz’s right to life even if she turned herself in). But even after that display Moira didn’t feel any fear at what was hunting her. Just annoyance as another piece of the puzzle came together.

Khaos… god, of course Natalia named it something silly like that when she was coming up with it.

It was honestly kind of depressing to think that so many supposedly intelligent bio-terrorists and wannabe evil masterminds couldn’t tell that their accomplice was basically a tweenager with knowledge she shouldn’t have and weird obsessions for BOWs and SBOWs. The latter wasn’t even surprising given her past or her new adopted family, and certainly hadn’t set off any warning bells for anyone at the Burton household.

Given Moira’s own collegiate aspirations and NGO involvements had been focused on similar things she’d actually been happy to have common ground for discussion. Even if it was with her justifiably precocious and brilliant new sibling. Still, did she really have to name it something ‘like’ that.

Ugh, please don’t start calling me Khaos-Moira.

“No promises,” Moira thought, ducking the bladed tendril as it stabbed down towards her and she took off running down the hallway. Away from the carnage, away from the monster… and hopefully into a more open area so she could see what she had to deal with.

Super-human hearing worthy of weaponized organic wasn’t necessary to tell where Delacruz was. The impacts of the body above the hallway were vibrating through the floor as the panels bent and fell behind her. Moira’s lungs burned as the speed of her pulse increased more and more. Her clawed feet caught on the floor as she moved from a less bipedal stance.

Just in time as a pair of long meat-like tentacles tipped with wicked blades of bloody bone stabbed through the sides of the hallway and whirled about. She silently thanked herself and tore down the passage faster, her own tendrils pulled close as she didn’t want to get caught and pulled into one-on-one battle with something so similar to herself in such a disadvantageous location. The sounds above her started to fall back as she gained some distance.

Until she hit the door.

“Of course,” Moira said, pounding a clawed hand against it as she felt it refuse to give. Pulling back her hand and stabbing forward, through the wired glass. It scraped against her skin, though scales and organic plating over parts of her wrists kept it from cutting as deep or as dangerously as it could. A few lines of red over the bluer areas of softer skin at her joints but she ignored that pain as she reached around and grabbed at the handle from the other side.

“ NO YOU DON’T! ”

Something large crashed down behind her, the hallway buckling slightly as the weight and the impact bent the floor towards it, towards her . Moira felt something slimy wrap around her left leg and pull as the door opened and her claws dug into the frame. She kicked back turning while trying to pull herself free.

And herself going still at the sight of it.

Her.

Holy-

“-shit…”

“Guess she really shouldn’t be working with this without Natalia.”

No kidding…

Delacruz was barely recognizable, blood-soaked cloth in tattered rags about the remains of a human frame. Her limbs had extended grotesquely, too quickly to keep pace with her skin. New scales and chitinous plating more befitting an insectile creature sprouted as a mismatched covering over lanky arms and legs, the former of which had split about into a quartet of two fingered claws at from her elbows on down. An extra joint or two had extended the fingers out far longer, dark and bloodstained claws gripping at the floor as her throat bulged out and another mouth extended from her own and howled. The windows beside her shook and vibrated as the sound grew and the frequency dropped. Till the glass nearby exploded, shards raining down around them both as Moira winced in discomfort.

“ Get over here! ”

How about no?

Moira pulled herself back, but not free of the tendril about her leg. The length of flesh lead back to Delacruz’s split arms, while the other whipped about wildly and without much control or pattern.

“She’s not able to control it…”

It’s controlling her.

Moira almost smiled, fangs and all as she realized what that meant. This was two on one. And she had the best partner in the world.

Herself.

She ducked the next swing of the blade, snatching it out of the air as tried to stab her. Pulling towards her as she did and unbalancing Delacruz as she did. While at the same time the howling, screaming and still mutating BOW woman utterly failed to do anything to block her own blow. Which had her tendrils lashing forward, straight into the unfocused eyes that were even now staring vacantly at the ceiling while the parasite inside of her guided her body forward in its twisted pursuit.

The left bounced off her skull, but the right hit true. Plunging through the socket and nearly into the brain. Or where it might have been?

In either case she spasmed as Moira tried to inject her toxin. Only managing to keep the tendril in for a bit, before the mouth snapped open wider, the lower jaw broke apart as the parasite bulged out and snapped up, trying to bite her new limb off at the tip.

Moira pulled back in disgust, but she now could run into the room beyond as her leg was free. She retreated from the screaming form of Delacruz. All while inside she heard the mental commentary of herself .

That is so messed up. Ugh, did you see that?

“What, don’t like thinking about what you are?”

Hey! You might be the worm… thing. And anyway, even if I am, I don’t think I can do that… or would want to.

At that Moira had no disagreement to make. She felt a lot more… stable to say the least. Even that tail had stopped growing, more a stubby vestigial remnant of multiple non-human genetics than another limb to control. Which made sense given what she’d read before about SBOW theories and the reasons inhibitors were showing these responses on some subjects and not-

The door above her was torn off its hinges and thrown across the darkened room she’d ran into.

No time for that Moira! We need a plan.

“What we need is a-”

-way to cut her down to size…

Moira blinked, one eye and then soon three as she looked at the structure before her. And had an idea.

Oh… oh that’s a good one.

The crash behind her as Delacruz’s bulk hit the floor. Obviously with one eye busted and no signs of organic night vision she was running by hearing and smell alone. She probably didn’t even know where she was in the complex anymore.

Not that Moira intended to tell her either.

“Hey Psycho-Doc. I thought you were going to eat me or something?’

“ I’m going to peel you out of that flesh and keep you as a pet! You’ll get to see us remake the world from a fish tank! ”

“Big talk from someone that can’t even see me… but then you’re down one eye while I’ve got an extra.”

The scream was inarticulate rage, no language or reason. Just the sound of computer monitors sent through the air as she rampaged forward. Moira backed towards the entrance behind her reaching for the controls as she passed and pulling down on the lever. Warning sirens went off but just as she’d hoped Delacruz didn’t know where she was and didn’t have enough sense to care anymore. Just picking up speed as she ran towards Moira. Locked onto the sound of her voice, the sound of her hearts.

No mind given to the alarms going off… or the engines starting to kick on.

Moira felt her hair pull back, despite the stiff and strange way it had started to feel. As the blades of her enemy passed near her face while she jumped back she idly wondered if she still looked like she had last time she checked in a mirror.

Hopefully.

She could work with a little bit of alien-esque reptile snout and all.

Not the unhinged and gapping circular toothed hell maw that snapped at her as she drew it into the tunnel behind her. Swaying to the side as the pressure of the wind threatened to send her tumbling down the tunnel.

“ Kill you-FUCKING KILL YOU!! ”

Delacruz’s human flesh was so deadweight, nearly insensate to her surroundings and unaware of the increasing winds blowing against her as Moira dodged the clumsy strikes and at her and grabbed hold of the structure in the center of the tunnel. Her tendrils anchoring her down to large metal supports below and giving her another means of quickly moving her body from side to side.

But more importantly keeping her in place.

While the other mutant woman started to slide down the otherwise smooth surface, her claws scraping at the floor before her tendrils lashed out and wrapped around the surface of the miniaturized rocket structure in the center. Her hateful cries were replaced with surprised and panicked hissing as the fragments of human reasoning began to reassert themselves.

And she realized where she was.

“ No, what have you done to me?!”

Moira slid closer to where Delacruz was now practically hanging from the rocket, her own extra limbs scrambling for some anchorage on the smooth metallic surface of the test rocket in the center of the wind tunnel. Her one eye was dead and glossy, but the skin of her forehead finally split open and a new one emerged, the skull reshaping around it with soft cracks and pops. The newborn pupil shifted and refocused in the darkness, a strange pigmentation as it adapted to see through it. And the fast spinning blades at the opposite end, pulling the air towards them.

I think this is your fault for shitty safety.

“Now be nice… it’s probably her boss’s fault they built it like this,” Moira thought back, reaching out with a claw and gripping one of Delacruz’s tendrils from where it was trying to hold on. And pulling it loose.

The other couldn’t hold on.

“ No no no NO STOP BE- ”

Her words were barely audible, even to Moira’s new hearing and her warbling altered voice. They trailed off into a wail among the winds as she lost her grip and slipped free. Tumbling end over end down the tunnel. And then into the blades.

They thunked into her body, bending at first but ripping through meat and bones with equal abandon. Legs and tendrils cut free while the parasite struggled to escape its fleshy prison even as it was butchered apart. For all the good it would do, as the other voice within her was silenced as the head sliced off and vanished into the turbulent destruction building before her. The motor strained, metal groaning as the blade came off balance and began to spark against the surface of the tunnel. Still spinning, but slower now. Crushing instead of cutting what remained beneath it. For all it mattered.

Even the tendril still stuck out and gripped on another anchoring point was still and dead now.

Moira loosened her own grip, as the winds had died down and could no longer pull her down the tunnel. The blades continued to spin, a dull whine as the ruined motor kept it moving even after the BOW that Delacruz had become had been thoroughly blended. Thankfully the blood was being sprayed backwards, down the ventilation shafts Moira had traversed before and hopefully out of the complex where she wouldn’t have to smell it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13: Meditation of the Serpent

------

Their patrol had been called back by the Doctor. However she’d stopped giving them orders almost half an hour ago, about the time the service complex had started to suffer a rolling blackout. Of course that was enough, along with the earlier crash outside, to finally put the trams offline completely. Walking through the now dark maintenance tunnels, only a few spotty emergency lights to guide their path was far from where they’d like to be.

At least it had turned off those droning speakers with Solis’s voice.

“Sir, something’s wrong.”

He turned towards the man at the front of the squad who had just looked around the corner down another of the seemingly endless tunnels beneath the complexes. Stepping closer he peaked around as well and muffled the curse under his breath at what he saw.

Pitch darkness. Utter and complete.

“The emergency lights must have died in this section.” He pulled down his goggles and clicked the button on the side of them. “Get your optics on and follow close. Be careful, as with the power like this ‘those’ workers might be wandering blindly down here without orders.”

No one wanted that. Solis had managed to tame the T-Virus enough to make those zombified laborers compliant for the most part and they’d received their own specialized vaccines against whatever strain he’d used but that alone wouldn’t help if someone got pinned down and their throat ripped open now that the monitoring systems weren’t keeping track of everything.

“Leave it to some trust fund egomaniac to think it’s better to work ‘em after death instead of just getting more.” He’d done ops down in South America through the 90s and had settled more than a few ‘labor disputes’. It wasn’t exactly hard to find replacements even after you disposed of the last ones under the right conditions. Sure, you had to play with the kiddy gloves on here in the states but that just made the whole effort even more ridiculous. Frankly he didn’t know why he’d stuck around so loyally after the full story came out to him. Ironclad NDAs with a bullet to back them up weren’t that unusual in this business. “The moneys good but it’s not that good. Must be losing my mind to stick around here when-”

“Sir! Take a look at this.”

“What is it this… time.”

The lights weren’t out.

They were gone.

He could see where someone or something had reached into the secured alcoves where they were supposed to be along the hallway and tore them loose. The low power LEDs had been stripped right out from above their heads along the entire length. His jaw clenched tight as he pressed a thumb to the safety of his weapon and turned to look back down the way they’d come. Now shrouded in darkness past where their goggles could provide any vision.

“Something’s down here with us,” he said. “Pull out flares and drop ‘em as we move.”

“Sir?”

“It’s not a zombie. Those aren’t smart enough… or tall enough to get all the lights down like that.”

“Shit. We’re not equipped for a BOW.”

“Can that attitude.” The other merc was right, but there was no use admitting it. Solis had provided them with munitions and supplies designed for keeping soft human-like targets under control or down. Hollow points, light calibers, only ‘modestly powerful’ thermal grenades. High end Anti-BOW hardware would have overpenetrated the labs and complexes if used and been massively more than needed for most anything that was supposed to be down here.

Supposed to be.

“I swear if that idiot had something other than that pet Tyrant he bought from the Russians…”

He couldn’t believe he might die from some messed up hybrid experiment that snuck out of a lab down here.

“No, stay calm. It’s basically a dumb animal. As long as it doesn’t get the jump on us we should be fine.” He turned back, motioned to the men behind him and waved them down to start following him further along the hallway. They just had to get to the end of this tunnel and they’d be in the maintenance sections along the tram lines. From there they could either get topside or make it to another section of Solis City that still had power running through it properly. With the cameras and monitoring systems working they wouldn’t have to worry about some bio-organic beast sneaking up on them.

They turned another corner, ignoring yet more darkness as the pace picked up. The sounds of their boots echoing down the long concrete passage. It was only a little further now and they’d be-

“ There you are… ”

Everyone froze midstep. The sound seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, a deep and reverberting nightmare whispering in the back of their minds. Claws on chalk, claws in their brains. He gulped down the taste of bile and fought off nausea as he ignored it, forcing himself to disbelieve the reality of what had just happened. To keep putting one foot in front of the other as they drew closer to the end of the tunnel and their escape from this underground hell. Their speed began to increase again as they all thought they heard something. Another sound, another voice. Laughing, mocking, sneering at them in their weakness and their fright. This wasn’t the domain of men, this tomb beneath the desert, even the rocks long since mined of anything useful.

This was a realm of monsters.

He stumbled as one of the flares spun down the hall, under his feet and causing him to slip, another of the men tumbling with him. One gun went off and then another, cries of pain and screams to stop drowned out as their optics lit up with flashes of gunfire. Mostly aimed down the direction they’d come, towards whatever had been chasing them and sent that flare into them. Pipes burst and steam exploded outward from some of the impacts while others sprayed out chips of concrete from the walls.

It didn’t stop till their clips had ran dry and even then he realized his hand had been shooting too, fingers locked as a death grip around the trigger.

“Shit. Shit,” he said while coming up onto his feet, breath panting, mouth tasting of blood and bile. “Sound off. Sound fucking off! Who’s still here?”

One by one they called back. Or almost all of them.

Their man in the front, who had first spotted the dead lights, was still on his hands and knees. Strange, violent sounds came from him as he approached. Already reaching back to his sidearm as his left hand moved forward. “Oskar, did you hear me? Respond.”

Oskar didn’t respond. Not like he should have.

“N-nggrraAAHHH!”

The sound was inhuman, a strangled growl as blood and worse issued from his mouth and spilled out over the mask of his helmet. He clawed at it like a wild beast, ripping at his uniform and showing more and more infected skin as he slammed from one side of the tunnel to the next. Each impact coming with a heavy, meaty sounding as there seemed to be more of him. Swelling too large for his uniform and armor as something grew out of the man, something that would kill them all.

If they didn’t kill him first.

He fired three shots to the head before Oskar went down. And then the next six rounds till the .45 pistol had emptied its clip and he reloaded. Unblinking, unstopping. Half of the next clip as well. No chances, none when they were this close to getting out.

“How… how the fuck did he get infected?”

“Shit… is it in the air? We don’t have NBC gear for this. We were supposed to be safe already and-”

“Shut up.”

“We need to get out of here. We need-”

“I said shut up!” He shouted, firing his gun twice more into the corpse at his feet. “We’re professionals goddamn it. Now let’s get moving before anything else goes wrong and-”

Of the two men left with him, one suddenly lurched to the side, clutching at his chest as he was lifted off the ground and hurled against the wall. The other reached for his own gun but was fighting with something in the darkness. The skin of it looked odd, darker and purple black in the low light offered by the flares. With his optics up he couldn’t see clearly now but he aimed anyway. 

Just as it howled , the scream low and loud and made his head ache with pain. He fired wildly.

Hitting something, but not what he wanted.

The last man dropped to the floor, dead by his own hand.

While the creature stepped over them. His weapon gave horrible dead clicks as he pulled the trigger uselessly over and over. Long tendrils pulled from its back and whipped forward, blood dripping blades at the tips. Too many eyes opened and closed, shining in the darkness as it drew ever closer to him and he fell back against the wall. Soon it was close enough he could feel its presence next to him in the darkness, looming over him as some nightmarish envoy of death.

It reached down, claws and blades sharp enough to filet him trailing down his jacket…

Before grabbing at his ID badge and section security card and roughly yanking them loose.

He was about to say something only to feel it grab at his head and slam him back against the wall.

And into blissful, wonderful, oblivion.

------

“Well that went better than expected.”

No kidding. Thank goodness these goons are all messed up too.

Moira had to nod at that. Solis must have thought it was ‘smart’ to infect even his security with the T-Deimos virus so long as he could use the sound system to keep them calm and controlled. But without it the only source of subsonic commands left was herself. Natalia had probably included that in the package because it was ‘cool’ or something but the end result meant that she was now the Apex Predator of the whole damn city with everyone else more or less defenseless once she got close enough to them to speak.

Heck, it’d probably work even if they weren’t already infected .

“Yeah. ‘Fear frequencies’ and all that,” Moira thought to herself. Wondering for a moment if she had been the impetus for that little inclusion from a couple late night documentaries she’d watched with her adopted sibling or if she’d come up with that idea on her own.

Even she had to admit it was a little ‘cool’ all things considered.

Still, with the security card she could finally get through that too large and too tough steel door that had blocked her at the end of this passage before she’d doubled back and ran into that team going the other way. And if her luck held out she could probably use it to get all the way into Solis’s personal command center down by the launch pad in the canyon. At the very least she wouldn’t have to crawl through quite so many ventilation shafts from now on.

“Hang on Natalia. I’m almost there…”

------

“Delacruz… Dr. Delacruz?” Solis said once more into his tablet as he held it up towards his face. “Pick up already…”

Natalia leaned back into the chair in which she was currently bound. Zipties given her wrists were too small for the handcuffs they had to work, but that was just part and parcel to her nature and age. Which as she turned away from whatever cavalcade of incompetence her captors were undergoing she had to admit might be a bit more of a problem than she had originally thought.

Certainly it had been strange when the memories and knowledge of Alex Wesker had started to colleague into herself. Instead of the alien takeover she’d wanted ( she had she knew wanted that at one point) it had been more like a soft and strange merger of minds. Natalia Burton had a great many things Alex had never had and once she started to feel them her desire for them had overpowered and interest in leaving that house to take up what remained of her eugenics cult for another try and making Spencer’s vision a reality. And with the added context from Natalia’s mind filtering into her own, she had begun to question why she’d ever wanted that in the first place.

She’d never even gotten to know her real parents, as much an orphan from the crime and creations of Umbrella as Natalia herself had been and yet she’d dutifully carried out the will and and work of the very men that had stolen her away and then infected her with the Proginitor virus for decades. As much as she bragged about her position over Albert, there was no denying that at least he had gotten out from under the old man’s thumb by his own will. She’d only really escaped by virtue of her own genetics… failure by comparison and the chaos Albert had made in playing different sides against each other. From Umbrella to its competitors to the US government itself and then finally Tricell. One after another…

But all, ultimately, to do the very thing Spencer had wanted all along. To remake the world so only the ‘right’ people would live in it. A murderous goal that they’d filled graveyards across six continents and in the end come no closer to succeeding. The nearest thing to stable ‘post-humans’ now looking to be the accidental freaks left in their wake.

“My sister isn’t a freak.”

We did make her into one.

“She’s cooler now,” Natalia… or Alex, thought back. It was hard to determine one from the other. Both now seem to have similar thoughts and interests. In the past it had been clear who wanted to stay up late and watch anime and who could perform differential analysis of viral infection rates in a host organism. Now it seemed like both sides were just as likely to want to watch their shows… and then think about whether or not there was a particular mutagenic method to ‘Let someone shoot lightning from their hand’ or ‘Have magic ninja eyes’. Which she was now seeing might be a bit of a problem as neither had really stopped to think about why their plan to stop the end of the world involved being a kid super spy or giving their big sister mutant super powers.

“I might have made some mistakes,” Natalia thought, pulling at the ties binding her wrists and wincing as the plastic covered steel bit into them. Firm, tight, and not something she was going to be able to rip out of anytime. She had of course thought about infecting herself, but quickly shelved the idea once she realized what a catastrophic disaster altering her already stable biology with another strain of mutagenic DNA. Especially when her physiology was that of a prepubescent human. Upcoming hormonal changes, continued natural growth, the case study of Lisa Trevor alone… there were numerous reasons that wasn’t a possible solution. So instead she’d settled on making her sister as cool and powerful and-

Natalia let her head hang down, trying not to cry. She was a big girl, who’d had more than enough awful things happen across two life times. She wasn’t going to cry about her mistakes. Her sister was coming to save her because of course she was. Moira wasn’t going to get killed by some knock-off Tyrant from a Russian lab and even without that she was smart and strong and Natalia had made her too cool and-

And-

She hadn’t really asked her about that had she?

Now she was having more trouble, sniffling softly as she felt the wet lines trail down from her eyes. The burning shame inside her, the fear that she’d never see Moira again, never see her father, never be able to make this up to them or… or…

“Why are you crying Alex?”

She looked up, seeing Solis stare down at her, a neutral expression on his face, unreadable as he gazed from her to the massive control consoles behind him. So close and yet so far. Though even if she could get there without his codes she now knew he’d locked her out of the instance of Red Queen he was using to control his complex and the array of satellites now posed to strike down on the earth with a tide of biological horror.

“It won’t work,” she said at last. Her voice tired as she leaned forward, as much as she could in the chair she was tied to. “Your change to the virus hasn’t made it safe enough for there not to be complications.”

“Complications. Ha,” Solis laughed, a smug grin splitting his features as he turned and walked away. “What are ‘complications’ to innovation? To the future? Did those Wright brothers stop after a few crashes? Did your Edison give up because he burned himself on the wires? Columbus didn’t turn back because he hit the wrong continent.”

Natalia’s eyes narrowed, a thousand biting rejoinders swimming into her mind.

Those were planes not people.

He didn’t sell lightbulbs when they were still exploding.

Are you an idiot? He would have died if he hadn’t been wrong and-

But she held her tongue, the idiotic, unearned arrogance of this man too much to stomach.

“Besides, you have still given us the key to a higher state still.” Solis moved to the side, pushing a metallic rolling cart closer. On top of which she saw something that made her blood run cold. A large, overly large, parasite swimming in a nutrient soup. Sealed tight, but fattened and overgrown and not yet merged with any host or tamed by their own nervous system and the Progenitor virus infected biology necessary for the Khaos to function correctly. “I have seen the results myself and Delacruz says her own tests show that with this we can achieve immortality. Better than yours, easier to give to the deserving in the new world. I cannot understand why you would betray us when we are so close to making your dream a reality.”

“It’s… it’s not my dream.” Natalia said, a bitter sense of shame welling up from within her mind. Before anger replaced it as she saw her work perverted into such a grandiose and useless display. “And besides, who will decide who deserves to live like that?”

“Those that do of course. We, who succeed, who prove ourselves by the merits of our work.” Solis gestured to the grand edifice of the complex around him. “How could this not be deserving of more? More life. More-more…”

He coughed, pulling out his inhaler and taking a long breath from it. Looking at her with eyes that were a little too red.

“Besides, you have already made that decision for yourself.”

“Attention: The position for optimal dispersion is now approaching.”

Solis smiled wide and giddy as he heard Red Queen’s voice over the intercoms. Pushing the cart to the side, it rolled away where one of his guards moved to stop it from hitting something while he ran towards the console.

“Good… yes. Finally, You will see,” he said, looking back at Natalia before returning to the controls. “You will all see that this is the only way to save the world. To make it sensible again. How it should be.”

Natalia was about to say something back, both to voice her anger and disgust and maybe just to buy a little more time. But then she heard the door on the far side of the room slide open and she stopped. She couldn’t see over there but she heard it over Solis’s rant. He did not.

Two of his guards moved towards it, though the door had already closed again by the time they reached it.

Natalia’s hearing was sharper than it should be, a gift from T-Phobos among others, so she heard them speaking into their radios.

“The system has been on the fritz since the crash earlier.”

“I still think we should have restarted it all.”

“You know the boss isn’t going to postpone this for some little thing like that,” said the first. “Let’s get back to the-”

She also sensed something coming into the room and smiled as she heard the sudden strangled thump as one body was yanked back and the other didn’t even manage to speak before being silenced as well.

“See… I knew you were too cool to be killed by them.” Natalia thought, grinning from ear to ear as she tried to pinpoint where Moira was. She wasn’t easy to sense like the T-Phobos infected had been, her near perfect viral and parasitic mutalism making her something different and so much better.  Her own efforts at an advanced, pre-planned SBOW transformation like what Albert had managed with Jill Valentine when he’d gone hunting for the origins of the Progenitor viruses in Africa. To some extent Natalia had been thinking of how to show him up from the moment Jill had walked in with gills and a tail and stayed for dinner, though at the time it had been idle speculation and coded drawings in her journals. No real plans per say.

She just couldn’t stand for Albert, dead or alive, to think he was better than she was.

“Give me a perfect genetic candidate like that and I’d have been able to do the same. Only better. With electroshock glands and a neurotoxin bite!”

Which might have been part of why she’d included some of those components in the new viral package that Khaos was designed to facilitate. Thankfully without more stimulants it should be controllable… maybe even reversible. Probably.

At the very least she’d fixed the rampant mutation problem Nemesis had had once the limiters broke.

“As long as you use it correctly,” Natalia thought, turning a disgusted gaze at the overgrown parasite on the cart. Which happened to be not too far from where Moira had snuck over, her tendrils snapping down, around the neck of one lone guard and yanking him back into the shadows. Just in time as Solis turned to face her once more.

“You see? Once it’s delivered I will be able to use the frequency control system installed in our phones. There will be no more wars, no more uncontrolled outbreaks. Everyone will understand their place in the world at last.”

“And even one genetic anomaly would be enough to set off a cascade of failures through the whole system.” Natalia said, trying to draw Solis towards her, away from the control panel. To distract him now that they were so close. “And what then?”

“You silly girl… you overestimate the danger. We’ve been running trials here for months. Any anomalous mutations can be quickly eliminated. Most people won’t even realize that the world has been saved. And then we can go about selecting those deserving to help us maintain the system.”

Natlia felt something pass near her, over her. An alien presence, now comfortingly close at last.

“Whatever, you wannabe Spencer.”

“Please, you say that like an insult. But we both know that Oswald Spencer was a visionary. In time he will-”

“Shut the hell up,” Moira growled out, fangs near his ear as she dropped down and turned him around before pushing him to the floor. His cry of alarm turned into a scream of pain as one of her tendrils stabbed into his thigh while the other snapped out towards Natalia and sliced open some of the bindings around her arms. “Argue for your master race bullshit online you deluded asshole.”

“Moira!” Natalia shouted, using her free hand to grab the tendril and use the tip like a moderately sized knife of bone to cut her other arm loose. The extra limb freely let her move it about as she needed before she stood, using it as a support and running towards and into her sister’s embrace. Kicking Solis as she passed for good measure. “I knew you’d come for me. I knew it!”

“Yeah, not like they made it that easy,” Moira said, waving off Natalia as she noticed the cuts and burns, some of which had even managed to go through the harder armored portions of her body. “Now can we stop this?”

“Y-you can’t… you won’t stop me you bitc-aaAAH!” Solis screamed out, his struggles to pull out the blade causing some of the poison to inject from the tip as it protruded more from the fleshy covering that partially enclosed it. He fell back, gasping for breath as the veins on his neck bulged out and he reached into his jacket once more, trying to find the same inhaler from before.

“What… what the hell is wrong with him?”

“It… it can’t be,” Natalia said, gasping as realization hit her finally. “He’s infected. They all must be.”

“But… why? How?”

“An accident?” Natalia guessed, watching as Solis struggled to pull the aerosolized inhibitor from his jacket and it fell from his numb hands onto the floor. “It wouldn’t surprise me given how he didn’t trust anyone here not to be under control. But he had to take something to stop the virus from activating in himself… and like T-Phobos adrenaline or fear would still set it off.”

She reached down, grabbing the inhaler up before Solis could get it again. “Tell me the code.”

“N-no… I ne-eed that-”

“Then tell her the code,” Moira said, standing behind her as Solis struggled to stand. An implied threat that he wouldn’t be taking his medication by force.

“The code… the c-code?” Solis said, eyes becoming unfocused. Before he spat blood at their feet, shouting back. “The code is Cassandra!”

“Confirmed: Preparing delivery package for dispersal.”

“Shit!” Moria cried out, pulling Natalia away as they both ran towards the console. Solis left behind them, hoarse and manic laughter coming from him in between strangled coughs of pain. Natalia tossed the inhaler away as she looked at the console and panic began to well up inside her.

“Delay… delay the release Red Queen!”

“Unable to comply, the system is now in mechanical release.”

“No no no… we can’t stop it… we have to… yes!”

There was one last chance. She moved to the side, bringing up the controls for the satellites stabilizing thrusters. There wasn’t much fuel in them, they didn’t have enough power to really move them. But they didn’t need that much.

All they needed to do was change the angle, change it in time. She hit confirm while praying silently. Hoping that they would move enough, her mind whirling with the numbers, guessing at desired angle they’d have to reach so that the virally packed missiles would no longer be able to safely re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere without burning up even from that low orbit.

“Just a little more… a little more!”

“Release initiated!”

“Yes!”

“What… but they… I thought you were trying to stop it?” Moira asked, clearly confused.

“I did. We did! They’re at the wrong angle now,” Natalia said, jumping up and down and pointing at the tiny number next to the controls showing the axis and orientation for the satellites. “They’ll launch them alright. Straight into the Earth’s atmosphere as a thousand shooting stars.”

They’d won.

“Just like the season finale of Neo-Guyver when they stopped the alien fleet and-”

She heard the sound of glass breaking behind her.

Natalia turned slowly, Moira following suit and putting her hand on her shoulder, pressing her behind her body. While Eliot Solis’s form writhed on the floor, his chest expanding and contracting rapidly, crunching sounds of breaking bones coming from him before he spasmed up to his knees, staring at the ceiling with eyes that had rolled back into his head. Veins bursting red as tears of blood fell down his face and his jaw hung open, a perverse, strange sound coming from inside him.

Before he fell forwards, and something pushed out of his mouth, staring at them with one oversized and bulbous eye that was alight with fire like a kaleidoscope of colors.

“What the-”

The thing that had been Eliot Solis screamed, so loud, so long, so low in pitch Natalia couldn’t describe it save that it was audible pain. She covered her ears as Moira pulled her to the side and away. The monitors behind them cracking and exploding as the glass shattered. Her vision swam with spots of black and purple and she fell into that darkness.

Only a sense of overwhelming, utter horror, left to welcome her to it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14: Expulsion from Paradise

------

The monument stretched towards the heavens. A tower upon towers, each one rising higher than the last built upon its predecessor. The city below canyons of faded concrete, a chaotic mess of shadowed streets that crisscrossed the land like ugly scars raised upon the Earth. A festering wound to the world.

While the source of that injury stabbed downward, the clouds shrouded the heights of it. The blade of stone and iron, the work of untold millions slaving away for generations in the service of this perverse and pointless spectacle.

“Gaze upon me…”

Came the voice, echoing down from the clouds, reverberating in her mind, in her heart, in her soul.

Below, the shadows moved. She saw them writhe and twist, breaking apart and reforming in the streets, the criss cross cutting into the land among the labyrinth of gray stone mausoleums. Not shadows, but people. A massive throng, heads low, supplicating before the light in the heavens. They moved as one mass, enslaved to the will above.

But none looked up.

“Gaze upon me, your wondrous savior.”

The voice spoke again, thunderous and immense. Soaked in arrogance befit its elevation, she felt her floating perch above the mass and below the sky shake and tremble. Oh what terrible force remained, yet hidden beyond the sky?

She could not see, her eyes did not pierce through the haze in full. Though something moved. A great and awful shadow, seated on the throne of stone, atop the pillar of the world from which it gazed down upon them all. None below yet dared to look up, frozen, bowed in fear before it.

… don’t… don’t look at-

“GAZE UPON ME! KNOW THAT IT IS I WHO SAVED YOU, I WHO CLAIMED THE HEAVENS!”

A great and baleful light shone down from the tower, the red haze of the sky colored by streaks of violet so suddenly bright that her vision swam with dark spots. The colors were wrong, a rainbow too broad and wide for Earthly palettes. Her mind felt entranced by a canopy of light and a slumber thought welled within her.

… don’t look-don’t look-DON’T LOOK AT IT-

LOOK THROUGH IT!

Her brow blossomed, as she heard the voice within, her other soul crying out before the shackles of the nightmare could lock tight upon her. Tears of blood ran down her flesh as her third eye saw the thing, massive and monstrous. Gazing down, a singular baleful eye shown with light that addled the mind and enforced the adoration she had felt for a moment.

Now there was only disgust.

Hate.

What an awful thing.

What an awful, horrid creature.

What an awful, horrid, wretched-

Man?

Wait, this isn’t-

------

“-right?” Moira thought, or part of her thought. Sounds were muted, her ears ringing. The only voice she heard was her own, echoing her thoughts.

What was that? What the HELL was that-

“I don’t know?” Moira answered back, putting her hands on the ground and trying to lift herself up. Another pair helped her stand partially. Before drawing her back as something went flying through the air past her head. Her tendrils snapped close, drawing another body towards her. She heard yelp and saw Natalia next to her. Alive, safe… and scared?

Through the pounding of her hearts and the still loud noise that permeated her ears Moira heard metal straining, buckling, and breaking. She blinked, slowly looking around the overturned tables and packing crates her sister and her were behind. The lights flickered in the room casting an eerie glow over the movement before her, shadows twisting across the ground. Something moved in that darkness, something large.

It screamed, horribly and long and she covered her head, her hair standing up as semi-sharp bristles beneath her claws. Eyes shut she heard voices pounding in her mind.

“Come… I will save you… I will create the future… I am the future…”

“What… what the hell?”

Natalia grabbed onto one of her tendrils, which was still wrapped protectively around her waist. She looked so small and scared then, shaking her head as Moira prepared to stand up and look again.

“Wait, we need to-”

Voices came from behind them, followed by the sounds of feet running closer. Moira twisted around, pushing Natalia behind her as a group of Solis’s men came through the door at the far side of the control room. Guns at the ready as they entered, prepared to fire on the first thing they saw. Human or otherwise. Moira distinctly looked to be in the later category. Nowhere to run, she prepared to move forward, hoping that she’d distract them enough to keep Natalia safe, to get them out of there or-

“I see-what in the-”

Whatever they were about to say was silenced by another scream, this one wordless and maddening. Several of the men dropped their weapons to the ground, clutching their heads as they added to the sound. Some vomited while others collapsed, seizing up and twitching where they had fallen. But two remained standing, aiming into the center of the room, their own cries drowned out by the sound of their weapons firing.

The screaming died off… for a moment.

But what replaced it was so much worse.

“Come to me… submit to your savior… to the future…”

Their weapons fell to the side as they moved stiffly, stumbling forwards towards the voice. Eyes unfocused, staring vacantly into that darkness. They moved right past where Moira and Natalia still sat, never acknowledging their presence. All the while she hissed, tasting blood in her mouth. Her blood, and shaking her head as she fought down the pervasive weight of those words, those alien thoughts that were forcing their way into her mind.

By the time she opened her three eyed gaze again they had passed her, while the ones that had fallen to the floor were beginning to rise, more broken even then the first pair. Veins were bulged out, exploded beneath their now gray skin, flesh twisting as the virus propagated without control within them now. But that did not interest her. She knew what they were, had fought zombies and the infected enough to feel no danger from their presence. No, what concerned her was the sound behind her. Another, louder, deeper sound. Another heartbeat, low and terribly great. She rose up, looking at where those men walked.

And froze in the sight of that horror.

As it took sight of her.

What… what the hell did he-

“-do to himself?”

Solis was gone, twisted beyond recognition. The oversized parasite that he had allowed into himself as the strain of the T-virus in him went rampant had bloated to monstrous size. His flesh, what of it that could be seen, stretched about the new invader. No mouth or jaw appeared at first, just an enormous eye forced out and through where his head had been. Arms like scaly clawed clubs scratched at the floor as a quartet of writhing tendrils stretched from his back, red and bloody with tatters of flesh hanging from them. The eye glowed red to violet and back again, the light hurting her eyes or something deeper, more primal as she gazed at it.

“Submit… come onto me… serve me and the new world to come…”

Once more she shuddered, hearing the words but not as sound. Only the resistance of herself , phantom arms about her mind, her tendrils hugging her own body as she shivered beneath its gaze, and a strange comfort from within. As if she could feel the mass of her bizarre partner, her biological reflection clutching tight around her being, her tentacles and mass anchoring her to reality and out of this nightmare’s grasp.

The others were not so lucky. They walked closer, within the range of the thing that had been Solis and his tendrils lashed out. The spikes stabbing through their skulls. Something pushed into their bodies through the tendrils, a venom like her own or something else? She couldn’t begin to guess, as whatever Solis had become much like what Delacruz had done to herself was far from any kind of controlled or stable mutation. Their bodies were twisting, adapting wildly and without limit to the conditions around them and seemingly without end or any kind of real goal at all.

“What did they do with my work?” Natalia had stood up, looking aghast at the sight, Moira shoved her down. But not in time, as Solis saw her and once more she heard his voice, its voice, screaming through the void between them.

“Traitors… heretics of my future… come and die… come and serve… come and-”

Moira grabbed at Natalia and started moving, running from the beast behind them. While Solis dropped the mutating corpses in his grasp and began lumbering towards them. She didn’t turn to look, only letting the sound tell her that she was getting away, out of the room, out of the complex. The cold air of the desert embraced her as she exited onto the massive concrete strip of land that led towards the rocket launch site.

“Moira slow… slow down,” Natalia said from her side, still being carried and dragged along as they ran. Only to be physically picked up as she jumped into one of the electric carts they’d ridden in during their tours earlier and Moira looked around for a way to start it in the darkness. Her sister deposited in the passenger seat while she continued her search. “Moira-what was that?”

That took her out of her panic, as she turned a confused gaze to her sister. All of her shared the same feeling at that moment. “What do you mean ‘What was that’? You made the damn thing.”

“Yes but it’s supposed to… merge with a host,” Natalia said, waving her hands about before gesturing towards Moira. “Not… not that!”

“Yeah, well congratulations. Apparently it also makes psychic murder monsters-fuck, where are the keys for this thing?”

“Moira, there’s no such thing as psychic powers it’s just-”

The door of the complex behind them exploded outward, the mass of Solis’s new body coming through. Behind him the dead and once dead bodies of the men from before stumbled into view. Some merely bloated, mutating zombies. But the two from before which had been trapped in his grasp as they died had changed. Their heads and limbs torn loose, strange and writhing masses of bladder limbs waving in the air as they started lurching into view. There were no eyes, no visible means for them to even see where they were going yet they pursued despite that. Once more Moira’s gaze met that of Solis and she heard something that wasn’t sound in the night around them.

“Come onto your savior… submit and die for the future… submit and kill for my future…”

She winced, hissing as she finally gave up looking for a key and tore open the panel next to the wheel. Twisting the wires together to bypass the control and start the engine, she looked over to see Natalia with a hand on her head, muttering to herself.

“Subzonic vocalization… some kind of mirror neuron response… it could be sympathetic effects from derivative strains and-”

“Natalia.”

“-physical exhaustion or trauma response generating hallucination and-”

“Natalia!”

She turned her eyes towards Moira’s, scared and confused. Before that faded, the sudden lurch of the engine sent her back into her seat as Moira put her clawed foot to the metal and accelerated as fast as the small vehicle could. All the while Natalia turned to gaze back at the monstrosity in pursuit of them.

“Perhaps… perhaps the additional nervous system combined with whatever they did to the T-Phobos virus might have led to an unexpected emergent ability.”

“That’s what you’re going with?”

“Well, I wasn’t expecting… that!” Natalia said, pointing back as they continued away from the control complex. “They obviously performed some extremely ill advised modifications of my design and implemented it with no sense of experimental control or mutagenic predictive analysis and-”

“Natalia, you can complain about how they don’t ‘mad science right’ later,” Moira said, grip tightening as they turned around a corner, rising up a hill and towards the large storage building on the far side of the launch area. They were already running out of road and the vehicle they were in wouldn’t have been able to manage off road even if there was far they could go before hitting the cliff face or the canyon below. “What I need to know is how to kill it.”

“I… well yes, that is more important.” Natalia sat back, folding her arms in front of her as she pressed her lips together in a rather childish display. Nodding to herself once she was certain on what to say and turning to look at Moira once more. “Assuming it’s like you… part of you anyway, there will not be many weaknesses. I would say gross physical trauma alone would suffice past a certain point since I modified the Khaos type parasite to avoid the limiter controlled mutation issues of the Nemesis type, but clearly they performed further modifications without my approval.”

“Clearly,” Moira said, rolling three eyes as she shook her head at that.

“Yes, well there still remain some weaknesses. Not all of which are particularly useful given our resources though. Submergence in certain highly corrosive acids would weaken the regenerative properties and allow for conventional firearms to put it down.”

“Not seeing a lot of that around here.”

“No, nor do we have access to specialized Anti-BOW weapons systems or something like a… a tank to simply destroy the physical body beyond its ability to regenerate or endure. There are strong sedatives that could still be used to put the parasite into a docile state until awoken by a- of course!”

“What!”

“Electricity. The enhanced nervous system of the original Nemesis type had monitoring and activating controls built into the limiter and cybernetic implants but those were to control and monitor the physiology and prevent unwanted mutations during operations, but given this parasite’s anomalous size and growth… yes, it could work.”

“So all we have to do is find a way to fry him and-”

“It won’t matter what bizarre abilities he’s developing. If anything the overgrown neural nervous tissue probably wrapped around what was his spinal column will only make him more vulnerable to a strong enough charge.”

Moira looked into the darkness beyond the lights of the cart. Her eyes adjusted as she saw in grays and whites, and further still. The doors were open, and beside a rocket on a trailer system more machines and parts of the preparation dock came into view. Tubes, barrels, and heavy wires that feed into pumping systems. Behind her she could hear the distant howling, and within it the barely audible whisper of Solis’ maddened voice, still calling out, demanding that any and all join him in his glorious purpose .

“There’s gotta be something in there we can use,” Moira thought as they pulled up to the doors. “Something that will let me end this and-”

-fry that bastard once and for all.

The warehouse was quite large, with most of the space empty. Heavy trailers now empty of their rocketry cargo were parked in a lot by the side while a sole remaining vehicle painted with Solis’s company logo sat protected within the building. The door had been thankfully left open, possibly as part of the increasingly skeleton crew of mercenaries and technicians that were either in on his grand scheme or a side effect of using more and more mind controlled minions enthralled to the modified T-Virus system he and Delacruz had put in place. In any event Moira hopped off the electric cart, helping her sister down and then ran in behind her as they looked through the building for some means to put down the thing that had been Solis once and for all.

Her feet, or more correctly the sharper claws that came from where her toes had been, scrapped across the cold concrete as she came to a sudden stop and turned from side to side looking for something in the dark. Anything at all that might be a sign of what they needed so desperately at that moment. Moira’s eyes adjusted quickly, the trio giving off a slight glint as her vision swam to darker and more contrasting hues as the last bits of color fled from her gaze. The machines popped into view with crystal gray scale clarity, but beyond them she saw the cables and wires that hung from the walls. Still further were pipes that ran along the ceiling, down to the floor and out to further systems buried under the very parking lots they’d just passed. The entire canyon and the mesa above was riddled with tunnels now. A honeycomb she’d spent the last hour darting through as she’d hunted her way through guards of FarSight and into the center of Solis’s mad domain.

There we-

“-go,” Moira said out loud, vanishing a thought that didn’t come from her head, but somewhere lower, bundled along her spine and thrumming with sort of contentment as the plan began to form. She turned towards her sister, pointing at the stairs leading up to an upper level with claws and tendril. “There. The wires and pipes are leading up there. I think there should be some controls up there.”

“Maybe, but it won’t be that easy to get everything running again just by myself.”

“Don’t worry,” Moira said, her tendrils lifting slightly on the will of another as she spoke. “I think I can handle it.”

You mean ‘we’ can handle it.

Ignoring herself , Moira continued, “Just tell me what switches to flip and we’ll be ready in no time.”

The distant vibrating growls, growing closer, mixed with discordant and maddened voices told that time was truly running out. Natalia couldn’t hear the creature approaching them, but she rushed up the stairs all the same, flipping on the light switch in the upper room and talking to herself as she looked over the controls before her.

“There’s a secondary generator for the pumps how-of course he’d choose something cheap like that since he was rushing the operation as it was-but what about the-”

Or perhaps she was having a conversation with herself as well. Though Moira found it interesting to overhear the inner world of Natalia Burton as it were right now she had more pressing concerns.

“What do I turn on down here?”

“You can hear me?” Natalia said, a slight hint of confusion in her voice. Before it vanished and she seemed to be of one mind and more focused a moment later. “Of course, the subsonic hearing would-Moira, there should be at least three fuse boxes down there. Make sure they’re all running and then we should be able to draw as much power to this place as we can. I’ll see if I can start these trailer generators they have parked outside from here.”

She moved quickly now that the plan was known, running beside the walls, around a few crates and barrels which had been placed next to some of the fuel pumps and towards the panels that Natalia had spoken of. Locked, not that those lasted long against her claws. She pried the metal open and saw the switches in the utter dark before her. The labels were unreadable, her night vision couldn’t discern the faint writing but she could see where some were switched off and corrected them in turn. Crackling static was her reward, and in one case a brief, though loud pop of electrical discharge that while it didn’t contact her body had her leaping backwards, tendrils wrapped close and her teeth bared in alarm. 

Moira was in no hurry to find out what strike of this live current would do to her body, before or after her current state. She’d only ever gotten a real shock from an accident in a self-defense training course from TerraSave involving a taser and that had been enough to make her wary about a follow up. That it might hurt more now was an intimidating concept.

“Hopefully it hurts that bastard plenty…”

She moved away from the last panel, turning her gaze to the open door, feeling the chill wind pass over the spikier frills her hair had become and across the now familiar yet still alien sensation of her tendrils. She couldn’t hear him now, at least not clearly. Where was-

“Moira, this… you’re going to need to go outside to restart the generators. They’re fueled but not on right now.”

“Got it,” Moira said, looking up at the small control room above. Natalia was leaning over the window and tossed something small and shiny down towards her. She snatched it from the air, feeling the slight weight of the metal ring and its contents against the now violet colored skin of her hands. She looked back up from the key ring, an unvoiced question lingering in her three eyes.

“These kinds of generators will need to be started one by one. I know-we used them in some of the older Umbrella complexes as backups. Thank god they left the keys here though.”

Moira nodded, a dozen unvoiced responses coming to mind as she turned and exited back into the night. She still wasn’t sure what to say to her sister now, what could be said at times. There would be time for that later. When they were safe and could take stock of all that had happened.

All that had changed.

But for right now she had to worry about the insane psychic mutant chasing her.

Maybe she’s right… it would be pretty crazy if this was the time someone managed to make weird ass mind powers or something.

“Not like Umbrella didn’t try. They might even have managed something if Raccoon hadn’t come along and their plans hadn’t burned down around them.”

Though maybe Natalia was right about that. The idea that grafting some neurological parasite, no matter how developed, might suddenly lead to abilities that borderline supernatural was a little much. She’d spent years reading about BOWs and viral weapons, those that had gone onto the black market and those which had been (thankfully) buried during the Umbrella Trials and even the most peculiar and odd had always had a conventional explanation buried somewhere in the fine print. 

… find you…

Moira stopped, her foot claws clenching against the sand and gravel around the back of the warehouse. She swore she’d heard something, felt something. Her back tensed, her hair… or what had been standing up as her tendrils whipped about closer to her body, the bladed bones poking out and warding the area around her off like animated knives. She swore she could feel something (or someone) watching her. But she couldn’t hear anything beyond her heartbeats, her breath, the dull humming of electricity from the warehouse and the distant murmurs of Natalia’s own voice as she moved from one control panel to another, checking to see if Moira had already started the generators or not.

She must be just hearing voices.

We have to get a move on!

Ones that weren’t real at that.

She moved quickly after that, going from generator trailer to generator trailer. There were safety locks on the outside, but she broke those off easily enough. If the keys were on the chain she didn’t have the time or patience to find them, all she needed was the one that would start the ignition for each in turn and that was at least standardized and easily differed from the rest, large, oddly shaped (red when she passed under the spotlights and her vision blossomed with colors once more). All she had to do was insert it in each in turn, twisting till she heard a click and then pulling another lever to start the generators up. It barely took anytime at all.

So why did it seem like she’d been out here forever, wandering between these gray monoliths, her feet crunching the loose sand and gravel under claw and foot while the wind picked up and seemed to carry screams that weren’t there to her?

Something’s not-

“-right here,” Moria thought, pushing the key into one of the last generators, shifting in place, hearing the crunch of the ground beneath her and-

… found you… found you… found YOU… FOUND YOU…

-and then another’s.

“Aaah!”

She cried out, clutching at her side as a bladed length of bone and sinewed meat struck out like a spear. Deflected in part by the toughness of her hide, but not enough not to spray red across the ground and the metal trailer behind her. It impaled into that same structure, stuck fast as Moira darted to the side, hissing in pain, fangs bared as the bizarre parody of life tried to free itself and return to murdering her. Head gone, a single baleful eye gazing out of some twisted spawn of the original parasite, budded off and writhed by tiny bladed suckers that extended from the raw and pulsing stump of the neck. The arms had exploded apart, long spikes and curved blades made from the bones of the forearm and now either swung about on cords of meat or pushed out into misshapen spears of flesh.

There! Another-

… kill her… kill them… kill her/them/her/THEM/HER KILL…

She fell flow, below the passing strike of another, having speed and intelligence over this misshapen creations. Not including how they seemed barely more than most cannibal virus vectors, just a more advanced and more repulsive looking zombie. Odd certainly, disgusting to look at, but hardly a threat to her when she was aware of them. Which was its own question.

Why hadn’t she heard them approach?

Why… why couldn’t she seem to hear anything?

The darkness at the end of the lot deepened, pulling her towards it. She felt like a gulf was opening before her, a chasm in space and mind. Her eyes widened as she stumbled back-

STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

Moira, Moira as it was, pulled her out of it and she wrenched herself free just as that darkness leapt forward to engulf her. She rolled to the side, hearing the crunch of bone and a sound of guttural tearing of flesh beside her as the bulk fell upon the zombie still stuck to the side of the generator. Its partner was tossed to the side, into another of the trailers with a heavy wet sound, still moving, but now a broken doll, unable to stand and crawling towards her.

The real threat was before her however.

… SeE yOU seE YOu sEe YOu SEe You SEE YoU SEE YOU-

“What… what that…

Fuck?!

Solis had… grown. The eye had expanded grotesquely, a curtain of meat and flesh hanging about it like a strange sheath of human form about a long and pulsating limb. There seemed to be no mouth to speak of, at least not at first. But the chest had grown large, ribs breaking open and a mass of new appendages grown forth from them. They were wriggling, spike tipped, in some sense reminding her of a sea anemone… or perhaps some perverse Venus flytrap made out of a human torso. The ribs coming together to crunch and crush the flesh of of his budded spawn, while the new grown limbs pulled the organic detritus deeper into his body, into whatever passed for a digestive system now that he was little more than trappings of flesh about the massively overgrown parasite that had merged into his spinal column and crawled across the desert sands on limbs that had only a passing resemblance for the things humans called hands and feet.

It was, quite frankly, the most disgusting thing she’d ever seen.

Ugh… I think I’m going to be sick.

Moira turned and ran, grateful that herself had saved her from being pulled into that creature's maw. And not commenting on the curious thought of how that would even work when they shared a stomach.

Not like she didn’t share her other self’s visceral disgust at the sight, sound, and rank smell of what Solis had become. His very movement made her jaw clench, the weight and bulk of so much flesh and bone, haphazardly careening towards her from side to side. Banging against the now active generators, no sound of voice, no roar of the monster or moan of the eternally hungry zombie.

No, its… his voice was something else.

… StOP Run nO RUN CaN’T ruN WOn’T rUN…

“That’s not going to work again asshole!” Moira thought back, surprised despite herself as the words descended into a screaming madness at her defiance. She felt him at her back, his longer yet clumsier tendrils leaving long gashes in the metal surface of the trailers before she turned and sprinted around the side of the building. Solis was slower, but still following, even as she ran into the building.

“He’s here?!”

Moira didn’t comment, running past the now active machines. She could see heavy spool of cord, wired into the same system as the fuel pumps but what good would that do if she couldn’t get close enough if that thing got too close to her or to Natalia or-

“Moira!”

She turned around, looking up to where her sister was standing at the stairs to the control room. Moira didn’t realize how fast her hearts were beating, how strange and primal her fear was till that moment. Being close to that thing was harder than she’d thought.

“Do you trust me?”

That was a silly question of course she-

She did, didn’t she?

She shouldn’t, should she?

God, Natalia, why’d you have to ask something like-

“-we don’t have time for this,” Moira shouted, crying out into her own mind. Silencing the other’s thoughts with the force of her will and the stark needs of the moment. “If it helps we’ll do it, we don’t have a choice.”

“What’s the plan?”

“There’s a crane system in the ceiling… if you can get him in the right place we can pin him down long enough to-”

“Finally fry the asshole!” Moira finished with a semi-feral grin. Turning to face the door as she slowly approached it. Solis had to be close. Once again he seemed to have vanished, his very presence somehow occluded from her sight and senses, even as sharp as they were. It made no sense, he was so large, so clumsy… how could he just…

Wait… he’s… he’s THERE?!

She turned to face the wall, just in time to see the metal structure bulge inward, the support beam bending from his impact as his body was thrown against it with the force of a car crash. Meat and bone broke apart, reforming in a grisly display as he pulled his body through, limbs elongating even more as the eye gazed out from the cracks he had made and the full extent of his body climbed into the room.

… mInE MINe MY fUTuRE MINE…

It took her a moment to realize he was focused on the rocket, on the stupid logo of his stupid company. The tendrils whipping outward, knocking over parts of the inside while entering in. He was getting closer, but not close enough. Not focused on Moira, even as she backed to the side.

And threw one of his company hardhats at him.

“Hey asshole, over here!”

The eye turned towards her, and for a moment she was rooted to the spot, her vision swimming with colors as she saw something other than him. Darkness, a gulf of stars, a void with teeth that threatened to devour her all, mind and body. But it passed as she passed out of it, step by step backwards as Solis followed, slowly, his own tendrils trailing behind him, concerned with stroking the sides of his rocket where it still lay on the trailer. The protruding ribs opening and closing, drooling blood and viscera across the floor like a trail of gore from some hellish slug.

The back limbs tensed, as he readied to leap towards her, while she swallowed, only so much space remaining behind her.

“Almost there… almost…”

… sTaY STOp sTay AlmOSt aLMo-No-aAAAAH…

“Got you!”

The loading crane descended like a guillotine without the blade. Blunt and heavy and down onto what might have been a head, might have been a neck. Solis was pinned, in body if not in limbs, but stuck enough that she could run around him, grabbing at the live power line and tossing it into the bloodstained opening beneath. Where flesh and blood and thick, heavy fluids met. For a moment she was afraid that industrial safeties would prevail, but then the fuse box behind her exploded, the lights flickering and-

Lights, swimming deep and blinking as the heavens opened wide-

… nO NO No StoP PaIN NO nO…

Moira clutched at her head, falling back towards the stairs as another fuse box exploded and the lights died off, fighting down and off the awful screaming in her mind. Thankfully she didn’t have to wait long or try that hard before silence came at last. Her breathing, her heartbeats… and Natalia’s as well, close and just above her were the only sounds.

“That… that was odd,” Natalia said, looking somewhat disheveled as she held onto the railing of the stairs. “Perhaps the subsonic communication led to… some kind of heightened adrenal response in the cerebellum?”

“Why is ‘psychic mutant monster’ so hard for you to admit to?”

Natalia made a rather childish expression that suited her appearance perhaps if not her words. As if she was still trying to stubbornly deny the whole affair as best she could even now. “It would be unprecedented. And furthermore rather insulting if such a breakthrough came about from such shoddy research procedures.”

Moira shook her head, ushering her sister down to meet her at the foot of the stairs. It was finally over.

And now they could deal with… other issues.

Wait, did you hear-

She ducked down, just as one of the tendrils from Solis’s body shot out and tore through the metal around her. The stairs were wrenched away as Natalia clung onto the door above and climbed back into the control room. Solis’s body bloated and seemingly boiled, steam rising from the remains of human-like flesh as the spine buckled and the eye opened again. Veins burst and dripping blood it lacked even the tormented and maddened intelligence before, now seeming like just an instinctual killing machine let loose. And centered on her. She ducked the next swing and the next.

But more and more were coming as more tendrils sprouted free from the wormlike beast Solis seemed to have become. Some tipped with blades of bone, others spiked hooks… and yet more, newly grown that had leech-like suckers, gasping at the air and hungry for blood. She pulled further back, rolling to the side and then onto the trailer, getting height above him as he seemed to have trouble rising up now that his arms and legs had mutated fully into lengths of meat that swung about in destructive and near mindless fury. The voice from before was gone, or at least the words were. Instead only a screaming electric static pulsed forth from Solis, a mind numbing and mind killing haze of sound that wasn’t. She hated it.

She hated him.

She wanted him gone.

She wanted him…

Moira smiled, grabbing hold of the heavy straps that had been used to transport the rocket along the trailer. Somewhere loose, others unattached. And as the tendrils whipped up towards her she snatched them with her own, then pulled them against the metallic cylinder and cinching shut. The first had been difficult but the second easier, and the third even more so. Solis was now climbing onto the trailer to get her, the maw that had been his chest open wide and pulsating. It gapped towards her as she leaped free. He tried to follow, only for his new limbs to hold fast to the rocket, to his creation.

Moira called out over the racket, “Natalia, did they finish fueling this thing?”

“I… yes, but-no, that won’t work, we can’t set it off in here-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Moira said, coming around to where the stairs had been and gesturing for her to fall into her arms. She caught Natalia easily and then pulled her towards the door. Stopping at one of the barrels near the wall, kicking it to make sure it was full and then tearing the top off with a claw.

While one of her tendrils tore through heavy tubing on the pumps only a short distance further. The barrel rolled before her, towards the exit while the contrasting and stronger smell of rocket fuel began to fill the air. She ushered Natalia back into the same cart as before.

While she paused in her exit… just long enough to purloin a grenade from the still moving corpse of the other guard Solis had broken under his charge against the building. The parasite bud was dead, though some parts of it kept the muscles moving even now. Not that it mattered.

She was sure the flames would handle all of that.

Behind her she heard the sounds of metal wrenching loose, scraping across another surface. Solis must be trying to rip free… or grown large enough to start to drag his precious rocket with him. In either case it didn’t matter.

Moira had already started the cart, pulled Natalia close to her, lowered down against the seat as she threw the explosive behind her and into the warehouse.

Their vehicle speeding down the road as fast as it would go. The seconds stretched on for an eternity. Till the muffled sound of the explosion behind them began a cacophony of destruction. First the fuel in the room, then spreading to the tanks beside the building, then into the fuel pumps. Safeties, automatic and not of Solis’s design stopping it there.

But his rocket was another matter.

The fuel ignited, the building detonating behind as the tip of the vehicle was sent streaking out across the fields away from them, a long line of fire and wreckage left in its wake. Behind it the building exploded again, larger now as the first great fire tore into the structures behind it, setting off the fuel in the generators and then more. The sounds became deafening, a great and terrible conflagration that erupted into an inferno that would burn long and hot…

Dimming only at long last as the sun rose over the mesa…

And a city now destitute its would be God-King at last.

Chapter Text

Epilogue: To Lie the Least

------

Moira floated in the void.

It was like water, save when it wasn’t. But it was a comforting oblivion, de-centered from the self and senses.

Or a ‘Self’ as it were.

“Hey.”

She was there, beside her as always. Herself, her mirror, her cast off splinter of soul and mind. A new sister, both a copy of herself… and all of three months old.

And currently focusing a three eyed glare on her.

“What,” Moira said as she came to stand, more or less, before her reflection. “I thought you were handling things while I took a nap.”

The tip of her right tendril poked Moira in her shoulder as the Other Moira folded her arms across her chest. “Yeah, but Dad knows you’re being lazy now and told me to wake you up.”

For a moment Moira had the sudden urge to stick a forked tongue out at herself… or flip her reflection off. In either case she pushed it down and pushed the tendril away as she did. Stretching a bit and idly wondering how you could feel like there was a kink in your neck when you didn’t have one.

Or maybe that was the other her?

It got confusing, especially at times like this where one was resting long enough to feel disconnected with the rest of her body. She wondered if she’d ever get used to it… Natalia had tried her various counter mutation treatments but they had run into immediate problems with how far her adoption had been driven from the stress and injuries she’d taken while rescuing her. Everything felt like it fit right, but it didn’t quite fit in a human body anymore.

A solution had presented itself but…

“Come on already,” she said, grabbing onto Moira’s hand and pulling her up. Literally, the darkness around them falling away as bright lights started to blink into view. A field of stars, across the horizon of consciousness into which she now fell.

Maybe she was taking too many naps…

------

The light blinked three times on the phone before the receiver automatically connected. Not a regular line of course, the call fed through a redundant system in France before finally transmitted to his office. He leaned back, waiting for the voice of his agent to come through.

“Sir, I’ve completed my investigation of the Nevada facility.”

“No complications I presume?” The question was redundant. She wouldn’t be speaking to him if she’d been compromised. They both knew that and that there were other agents who ‘handled’ problematic or incompetent members of their organization.

“Of course not. The DSO is so busy covering up the extent of Solis’s plans that they barely noticed another young agent in a lab coat helping with the decon regulations.”

He knew that already. She hadn’t even required a cover identity, a post-graduate bio-med student with a speciality in virology, few personal connections, and just a short flight from Houston must have seemed like the perfect new gopher to have moving sensitive materials around as they scrambled to create a cover story. The pre-existing security clearances that had been set up had sufficed to put multiple agents on the ground, but she was the first to succeed.

“Not surprising to be honest. Our… ‘senior partner’ doesn’t tend to complement many, and she happens to be among that number.”

“What did you find?”

“Sir, most of the lab was already scrubbed by the time we went through. Not by the DSO though. I suspect an unknown party’s involvement as while the computer systems are completely cleared and identifying recordings have gone missing there does seem to be a pattern in the access logs to delete them.”

“No chance of recovery?”

“None, whoever went through the security systems was extremely thorough.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “While I do understand the danger of a competitor getting access to currently unknown or lost viral research from Umbrella, I think something else is going on.”

Now that was interesting. “How so?”

“Files were only deleted, no sign of memory systems being taken or removed from any of the computers. Solis had also locked down his communications systems in preparation for the auditory activation signal for the modified T-Phobos virus. The hardline out of the complex had also been severed a week prior, likely to limit the possibility for any US intelligence operations to monitor their activity through cyber espionage.”

“Could it have been copied before delegation then?”

“I’m not certain of that… while security data and the laboratory records have been tampered with, samples of their new T-Deimos strain were readily available. Thankfully the head researcher kept secondary records in their office on most of their work so I was even able to verify its proposed use as an auditory control vector and means of implanting post-hypnotic suggestions through viral stimulation of the brain to specific sound frequencies.”

He nodded, a slight smile on his lips as he considered what he’d been told. This had been suspected already given what Solis had apparently been planning and how the DSO and parts of the BSAA had fallen down on them from a tip about the ongoing crisis. The lack of hard facts on where that info came from still troubled him though…

It seemed a little too fortuitous for names he hadn’t heard about since Raccoon to be involved again.

“And you’re certain about the BSAA’s report? Burton was involved?”

“His daughter. Or daughters as it were,” she corrected.

Something about that bothered him, but he put it out of mind. Burton had had a large family after all.

“Though by the time I arrived they had both been taken into BSAA custody and were no longer available for post-incident interviews under my cover identity.”

“Not important. I doubt a pair of traumatized survivors could give much insight into the specifics of viral work there.”

There was a longer pause before she continued, as if trying to think of how to word what she said next.

“Sir, I’ve gone over the recovered data. While much of the research appears to be poorly organized and the last few weeks of records show clear degeneration in methodology I was able to determine when and how they moved away from known progenitor strains.”

Now that was new. “They moved away… in what sense?”

“The records on the computers were deleted, but there were an unusual number of notes and diagrams printed or sketched out for the last week. Dr. Delacruz’s… plan seems to have been based on a modification of the Nemesis Parasite, but with a novel form of neural integration which would… ‘copy’ the personality of the host onto the parasite.”

He froze, the air suddenly possessed of chill that hadn’t been there before. All in his mind certainly, but given who his partner was…

“Did they succeed?”

“I… I don’t know. Delacruz seemed to think they had. I think she may even have tested it on herself. I was able to find traces of decaying bio-matter in the ventilation system. Some of it might have been hers… and some of it was definitely not.”

“You secured the samples?”

“Yes, after making sure that everything else was registered for immediate destruction. Rebuilding this parasite from the samples might not be possible, but between this, the records I recovered, and the possibility of salvaging some data from the hard drives we might be able to recreate their work.”

“And if we can’t, at the very least Simmons won’t even have this much to work with…”

------

It still felt weird . Like clothes that were too tight, shoes that didn’t quite fit right… a glove a size too small.

In this case, literally.

Her hand looked normal at first appearance, the adaptation, the need of normalcy driving the mutation not in reverse but in a form of mimicry. But it was superficial. The veins were little darker, the nails a little sharper, the skin rougher there and smoother over there and if she rolled her sleeve up one would start to think she was strangely lean and oddly muscular… and with a complexion that could be described as serpentine as it drew closer to the core of her body.

With clothes on one wouldn’t notice, just a little taller, but otherwise still human, still enough like the girl she’d been, the young woman she’d grown up into being. Her hair was a bit spikier, but the color had shifted back.

(That it sometimes shifted off again when she got agitated, her third eye peeling open as she felt the bones in her jaw push and shove and want to become larger, wider, pointed like maw, a animalistic snout, unhinged and open and-)

Not that her father seemed to notice, or if he did he did a damn good job at not noticing it. Compared to Jill she could at least control it, look human and not like a walking deep sea monster. Limit the smiles and you’d never notice.

Though there was more to it than that.

“You had it open there?”

“Yes?” He managed to act so normal about this, it made her feel like the weird one for freaking out from time to time.

“Damn… I didn’t even think to look at it,” Barry said, shaking his head as he focused harder and actually looked to see the third eye in his daughter’s head. The stare made her back itch, the tendrils moving from where they were wrapped tightly about her and under her shirt. “Is it some kind of… pheromone? Or when you talk do you-”

“Dad, is it really so hard to believe it’s the mutation going through another adaptation.”

“Yeah, but psychic powers sounds like something from… Star Trek or something.”

Moira bit down on the comment about his best friend having grown gills, and just closed her other eye again.

“It is pretty weird.”

I mean, we needed to hide… ‘wanted’ to hide so hard that we started to change back.

“Yeah…”

She didn’t sound like she agreed with herself. And both Moira’s felt about the same. They didn’t feel like they’d changed back… and given how bening normal again would have meant one of them didn’t exist she wasn’t even sure how to feel about that either. In the end she’d covered for her idiot genius of a little sister, both because one horrible mutagenic revelation had felt like enough at the time and by the time the BSAA had rolled in she’d already started finding out how she could ‘hide’. Barry had pulled more strings than she thought he even had and pretty much declared that the whole issue was family matter.

And with the rest of the senior members of the BSAA willing to back him up on it she’d quietly disappeared from the official reports, documents falsified to say everything was under control, while the medical exams were performed in house by BSAA assets that could be trusted to keep things more than just confidential.

All while Natalia was trying to coax some solution to her little misadventure in making her big sister ‘Cooler’ in her childish effort to save the world from the leftover creations of her past life. And then Moira had woken up one day and realized that she was literally making people ‘ignore’ the increasingly minor bits of her appearance that showed her current SBOW status.

Showed outside.

She felt bunched up, wearing a costume of soft flesh and soft humanity… and as much as she hated to admit it, part of her wanted to be ‘Cooler’ again, to feel that strength and power and fearless predatory dominance that had guided her to victory again and again above and below the Nevada desert.

She might get her old life back, after a fashion…

But did it fit still?

She wasn’t sure anymore, or even if that fact made her sad.

She supposed time would tell how things would go. At the very least she had the support to find out eventually.

------

“You’ve secured the physical materials?”

“Of course Sir. I’ll see that the samples are delivered securely. I’ve already extracted myself from the operation and will be on a flight back to Texas in the morning. The standard drop will be used so another agent can transport it to one of our labs.”

“Probably use the one in Brazil this time. The BSAA has been breathing down our necks as of late, and while this incident will keep them busy it will make payoffs a bit harder.” He smiled a bit at the thought. Payoffs for the North and South American branches anyway. Europe remained dutifully incompetent for the moment. Whether anything useful could be recovered would have to wait until they could analyze it in detail, but at the very least it looked like Connections had gotten ahead of the curve for the moment.

The unknown party worried him of course, but as long as they weren’t aware that he had also acquired the remains of Solis’s work it would have to do. At the very least maybe they could turn it into something profitable instead of another madman’s eugenics wonderland plan.

“Good work Ms. Winters. Keep up this kind of work and you’ll go quite far in our organization.”