CODE: Kronos - Enhanced Edition

(A revived 'revamp' of the original fic)

Summary: It came in an email. Claire Redfield, a TerraSave agent recently put on suspension, was sent a cry for help by a disreputable cyberterrorist in the wide web. In the email, she has discovered more secrets hidden on the beautiful island, Cape Inacio, and behind H.E.L.I.X. Foundation - the biggest 'honourable' conglomerate to date in 2016 - than she had bargained for. What pushes her to ignore all sense of judgement is the discovery of a long-deceased friend, alive on the island. But a conspiracy runs deep across the world that Claire finds herself and allies close to her entangled in a web of deceit, alongside with several islanders waging a losing battle against those with their own treacherous and greedy motives.

In the game of chess, Claire has to find and work together with a woman named McLenlan, the very person connected to all of this if she wants to resolve the mystery of her current situation - while a possible outbreak is on the rise. However, she will be forced to go through her closet of skeletons once again.

Grief is, after all, a terrifying and surreal gift.

PILOT

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." - William Faulkner

THE NIGHT WAS QUIET.

Nothing this campus cop couldn't handle. In fact, he much preferred it over the day shift. For a small yet exaggeratedly-prestigious university, most of the students didn't really reflect that noble, bright-eyed attitude. Kids were kids, after all - dabbing their fingers away on their smartphones rather than drilling their brains on the next boring thesis.

The solitude in the medical faculty was quite a comfort to Benard with, of course, his phone to keep him company.

"-Although it has been only three years, there are still lingering scars in several countries, most notably China, from the worst bioterrorist disaster in history. H.E.L.I.X. Foundation's contribution in biotech has been helping these countries recover from their ordeals. However, concern has risen over the last few weeks with recent rumors buzzing on the wide net about the China branch of the Foundation withholding vital information-"

The campus cop needed to hear a human voice. Something to break the stillness away and disperse the silly rumors his colleagues have been hearing on campus ground. The faculty building he was in wasn't brand-new - only completed seven years ago. But there have been sightings inside the building. Scratch that, the whole island seemed to be stained with all sorts of superstitious gossip and nonsense.

The most laughable talk was seeing ghosts roaming around a few weeks ago. Benard and a few other staff brushed it off as a student's stacking stress over the semester. Just last month, the college even put a handful of students on suspension for starting up those rumors in the first place. Hit by the 'island fever' that has been going around.

With a sigh, Benard sat back in his seat and drifted his eyes from the monitors to his phone. He had been debating which was more entertaining to watch: the black-n-white still images of empty halls or the monotonously-speaking anchorman repeating the same ole sentences since last week. Had it been an attractive woman instead, he'd stick to his smartphone like glue.

Benard still picked his phone. Who was going to slap him on the wrist for being bored from doing his job?

"Last Monday, USA Minister Domenic Moore of the Ministry of Health - one of the benefactors to the Foundation - has made a press conference to dismiss those claims and to discuss H.E.L.I.X. Research Institute's latest development in artificial intelligence."

The newsroom cut to a video clip, displaying what looked like the usual politician at a podium - a well-known figure from the USA's Ministry of Health that rose up in the recent years.

"For many years," the tall man in the suit spoke proudly. "Corporations like Umbrella have betrayed our trust. Creating lethal bioweapons for profit. It's thanks to them, they have put that bad label on other pharmaceutical companies, making it difficult to win that trust back."

What a yawn. It prompted Benard to let one out as he stretched his arms and back - he didn't see on one monitor an injured man, leaving behind a trail of droplets before that person disappeared off-screen.

Benard finished rubbing the sleepiness off his eyes and continued watching his smartphone.

"H.E.L.I.X. Foundation was built on the ideals that companies shouldn't exert exclusive control over a commodity during humanitarian crises. Coeus CO was the company that proposed that vision to the world. They were the founders who created a source of hope in the Inacio Isles."

The scene changed again, this time showcasing familiar sights Benard had seen every day: from the structures of the university to the famous international research institute and ending with the capturing short clip of the whole island.

Benard's and many people's home - Cape Inacio.

"For fifteen years, they've worked to make this partnership a reality and they succeeded. Their insight? To-"

"To admit their faults and put everything in the past for a better, brighter future, yada-yada," Benard recited exactly what the Minister said. It was a broken record. "Like I don't hear that every day." It was particularly the university's catchphrase.

"Those online claims? They are from people who are afraid. People who want to strike fear. They are led by a cyberterrioist!"

Benard scoffed. "First, evil organizations. Now hackers. The conspiracies people cook up." He leaned snugly back into his seat. "What's next? Another pandemic?"

BAM!

"What the-?!"

The sudden slap to his security booth almost made Benard fall off his chair. As quick as he could, he forced his feet down to stop his own hip from hitting the linoleum floor. His ears felt the sharp pain of the earbubs yanked out of them.

The color red smudged across the glass with a screeching sound - his small station had the typical window for him to oversee anyone walking through the security doors and into the laboratories. The amount of security they had on the campus was just on par with the one at H.E.L.I.X. Research Institute, all thanks to some ingenious high tech of the century. That was why Benard took his night shift so easy. There were only one or two people, besides him, inside the medical faculty accounted for.

He hurried out of his booth to notice a man - hunched down and greatly fatigued that he was using the walls for stability. The stranger didn't seem to head for the exit but instead to the right hall.

Benard recognized the stranger's face. Even down to the attire and glasses he saw the man wear a few hours ago. The campus cop had exchanged the usual hello and little chat-chit to him before the man had walked past the security booth.

"Mr Lee? H-Hey!"

Benard tried to help but the man in his fifties didn't stop. He particularly pushed Benard's offer of a hand aside and limped onwards. The Dean of the Bioscience school wasn't his usual self - his suit was in a mess and his skin was white as a sheet. He was muttering to himself over and over again with deranged eyes.

"It's a lie."

"It's a lie."

"It's all a lie."

"Mr Lee!" Benard wasn't sure what to do. His first thought was stopping him and getting him to sit down calmly while he'd call admin. After all, the smell of iron was so strong. He saw the deep wound on the dean's shoulder. Someone had assaulted him.

Screw it. This was serious. Benard hurried back to his booth and fetched the landline phone off its receiver.

"Hello? This is security from the university. Yeah. Someone was attacked."

He didn't notice someone walking sluggishly down the hall.

Pitter-patter-pitter-patter went the bare feet. Slowly towards his booth. With a low, inhuman growl.

THUD!

Lee used every fibre in him to haul open his office door. It did hurt. The wound was so deep, he was feeling the aftereffects of blood loss. Yet, he pressed on, fueled with all sorts of emotions.

Fear. Rage. Sorrow.

McLenlan was right. If only he had listened to her.

We have been lying to ourselves.

They have been all too fixated on keeping this Pandora box closed for far too long.

A blond-haired woman in white sits in the dark, her face obscured by the shadows. Only the light reflected off the lens of her glasses.

Her ID badge, pinned to her breast pocket, bears the Foundation's name, H.E.L.I.X., and half of her full name.

McLenlan.

Lee dug through the top drawer of his desk, fingers gripping on the thing he had sworn for. Its original intention was for self-protection.

He knew. One day this island would swallow him up whole. They would come after him if ever he would talk. He was, after all, just another pawn in the bigger picture.

Now, the handgun was given a new purpose.

Panting, almost delirious, he fell back into his seat, ignoring the red drops staining the black leather. He raised his head and glanced at his office door through blurry vision.

A figure stood there. Motionless. Almost like a ghost. Those brown eyes were so terribly sad and glossy. Beckoning him to come and confront the little black-haired boy.

Be happy again. There is no need to be in pain. Come and give your son a hug-

No, he thought to himself.

This was just another lie.

"The last outbreak and those before were times of uncertainty. But they were also times of great changes. If society is to emerge completely out of tragedy, then we must pull together more than ever. We cannot have our judgement be clouded because of online falsehoods in social media," continued the politician, expressing his wide smile to the audience. Through the cop's smartphone - now covered by blood splatter.

The landline phone draped down, a muffled voice on the other end calling out to the campus cop to respond.

The cop wasn't in his booth anymore.

"This is not the time for misinformation and panic. This is the time for fact and hope. We have to move on and learn from our mistakes."

During all of the interview, Lee made one final resolution in his office. He took one last look at the family photo on his desk - the wife who left him years ago and the little brown-eyed boy. He mentally prepared himself, biting down on the pain.

This was the only thing he could do - both as a way to stop it before it'd spread and as a cry for help.

The higher-ups wouldn't be able to clean up this mess he would make.

He lifted the handgun to his head.

"-We will clear these doubts to the fullest intent! We are all in this together," said Minister Moore with the utmost confidence. "Everything will just be a thing of the past."

BANG!

The lid on the box came off.

26/4/2020 A/N: Hello everyone who's new and those back for this fic. I've been going over my old fics and working on revamping them. It's only recently that I've taken this revamp and completely changed my approach to this writing and have revived this week along with the next chapter. A lot has changed that I couldn't let this one go on haitus. That said, it's also the most difficult plot for me to write about.

With all my revamped fics, I've taken to preparing a point-form document before I had into writing so I don't find myself with writer's blocks. However, CODE: Kronos has always been hard for me, alone, because of the massive world-building involved and the plots needed to connect to each other. It has been helpful like rechanging my original characters and even future characters to have more character development in them and to give a more human delivery for RE characters like Claire to interact with. But brainstorming alone is always the hardest and even harder to find someone in the same community to help me with this. In my other fanfic revamps, I've had friends and people from those respective communities discuss ideas and picture things that were never tackled in the source materials. Although I have a general idea what this mystery is, I can't graduate I can be vigilant on updating this fic but I'll try my best and darnest.

So I have an idea: the first two chapters are up to see how you guys like the beginning so far. Some things are the same from my original and previous revamp but the plot is gonna take a whole new direction where it's more focused on conspiracies and mysteries in the background while the protagonists are handling a possible outbreak. That said, if you really want to see this story push all the way to the end, I welcome you to the storywriting and brainstorming. Any sort of help would be tremendous as long as the main plot stays on course and doesn't go off track. This is basically the writing of what an RE game plot would go (and I still need to figure out where the corniness has to appear in this serious writing...) You can DM me and we can talk further on the matter, and showing the plot-point document public to you, provided you do not be disrespectful to the works and people involved with this project of mine, and be open-minded to how the story might unfold. Moreover, the main theme of this story has to be the main focus: grief. Subthemes are humanity, social media, tech vs bio and a few minor points.

This is a test to see how the beginning fairs and if possible, getting help on the plot. It's not an easy one with how depth it is from a first glance. Take this story as if you're playing a real RE game too. Thank you for taking a look over this story and its changes. I'll try my best working on the planning and most importantly the next chps. We have one more important RE character to come in.

PS. Disclaimer: There's not gonna be much romance. Sorry. I know RE readers love romance and I expect some might jump on the offer thinking of seeing pairings here. Sadly, this isn't gonna be one of those (or the more extreme romance writing). The main focus has to be the action and horror above all else. There might be some fluff, drama, etc but we'll have to see later down the line (I'm not against it because I can expect certain things to happen in response. After all, the RE characters are just as humans as we are.) Apology if you were hoping for a full-blown romance fic.