Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Post Code: Veronica. I couldn't bear the thought of Steve being dead so I wrote my version of what it was like afterwards for him and Claire. Also, the POV jumps around a lot between Claire, Chris, Steve, and I think Wesker once or twice.

Finding Steve : Chapter 1

…..Alexia wants to test me, see if I'll obey her orders. Claire, she wants me to kill you!"

Steve, no! You have to fight her…….

……….I'm glad that I met you ... I... I love you... Claire...

Steve!...

Claire suddenly woke from an unpleasant sleep breathing heavily with sweat soaking her back. Her face itched from tears dried onto her cheeks. The morning sunlight leaked through the seams of her tent. Just another nightmare, she told herself and lied back down on the creaky cot. But it wasn't just another nightmare. Not even weeks prior it had been her reality. She and Steve Burnside had escaped from Rockfort Island only to get themselves into more trouble. Steve was injected with the T-Veronica virus by Alexia Ashford and mutated into a wild monster. Claire felt her heart begin to crack as she and her brother Chris helplessly watch the virus take him over.

"There's nothing you can do," Chris told her. "The virus is in control now. That's no longer Steve."

Claire knew that Steve would be able to fight it. They had made it through Alfred's insane traps with only a few close calls. If she had found anyone else, she didn't think she would have survived. There was something about him that made her smile while his back turned. Maybe it was his terrible sense of humor, his reckless behavior. Or maybe his charm. Even from the beginning, she felt a connection to him. They were meant to escape together.

"Go on without me," Steve said in short breaths. "I'll be fine."

"I'm not leaving you," Claire ran her hand over his bloody face. "I'm not leaving without you."

"Sis, we need to go. We need to stop Alexia." Chris said as calmly as he could.

"Yeah, Claire," Steve smiled. "Listen to your big brother. He always knows best."

"Claire, he'll be fine. We'll come back for him, but for now we need to stop Alexia."

Claire stared into Steve's grey eyes with tears swelling in her own. He smiled his boyish smile at her for what she felt was the last time. She gently laced her arms around his mangled body, holding him close to her for the few last moments they had left together.

"I'm glad that I met you….." he whispered soundlessly into her ear. "I…I love you… Claire…"

She felt his body go limp in her arms. "Steve," she said pulling herself out of his empty embrace. "Steve!"

Chris pulled his hysterical sister off the boy's body. "We need to go. He would have wanted us to stop her. There isn't much more time."

Steve would have wanted us to stop her. She needed to stop Alexia for Steve, to stop anyone else from getting hurt by the virus. She pulled herself together as best as she could on the outside but on the inside she was screaming as she drowned in a pool of emotions. She was upset and hurt. Angry at Umbrella, angry at the Ashfords. Even angry at Chris from letting her leave Steve behind. Angry at Steve for leaving her alone. But she did have some hope in the back of her mind that STARS would be able to revive him. There had been reports of people being infected and surviving. It was possible. That hope of Steve returning into her life was just enough to keep her going. They had to stop Alexia.

Claire groaned in frustration as she pulled herself out of bed. She needed to stop thinking about him or she was going to make herself sick. She slipped into her vest and boots, buckled her holster to her belt, and pulled her auburn hair back into her usual ponytail. She emerged from her tent into the dusty morning air to find two of the four remaining STARS members sitting around the fire. Chris and Jill were no where to be seen.

"Good morning," Rebecca Chambers said happily as she passed Claire a tin mug. "Coffee?" Claire nodded. She hated staying at this camp with her brother and the remaining members STARS. She felt so isolated from the world as if she was a refugee in hiding.

"It may be a little lumpy, but it's fine," Rebecca said as he poured Claire's coffee. Claire grimaced as a think clump of only God knows what fell from the coffee pot.

"So we think we know where they're keeping your Steve friend's body," said Barry Burton as he stirred a pathetic bowl of oatmeal. The blood drained from Clarie's face. "A man by the name of Albert Wesker has him. You ever heard of him?" She knew of Wesker but very little. From what she heard from Chris, he used to be a caption of STARS until he betrayed them.

"I know of him," Claire sipped her lumpy coffee. "Where do you think they have Steve's…body? And why do you think Wesker has it?" She wouldn't believe he was dead even though she felt his lifeless arms around her.

"Because Wesker was the only human left alive in Antarctica with us," Chris emerged from behind his tent with a pile of firewood in his arms. "We think Wesker is holding the body in one of Umbrella's old facilities."

"Why would Wesker want him and why an Umbrella facility? I thought they were all destroyed after the Raccoon City innocent?"

"Because that man seems to have a strange fetish of the place." Barry mumbled under his breath. Rebecca slapped his leg.

"Wesker has a tendency of keeping things alive longer than they should, such as Umbrella and himself, "Chris threw a few more logs on the fire. "We think Wesker because he managed to escape the Spencer Mansion without a scratch. I wouldn't be surprised if he did the same from Antarctica. He probably wants the body so he can try and extract the virus from it." Claire hated how they referred to Steve's body as "it". He was once a human being, just like them. Steve deserved some respect, he saved her life after all.

"Well do we know which facility?" Rebecca asked. "Do you think Leon could track him down like he did Claire? Or maybe Jill knows something about him."

"Already on it," Barry said before eating a spoonful of oatmeal. "That pretty boy found him no problem, and he would have to track down Jill for us to get any information out of her."

A faint wind of relief swept over Claire. Leon would save the day again. She began to wonder how he was doing. They hadn't spoken since Raccoon City.

"Leon thinks Wesker is somewhere in South America," Chris said softly to his sister, hoping she wouldn't get too wound up by the news. "But it's just a hunch. He could be anywhere. He's no longer the man I once knew."

"We'll we need to go find him," Claire said excitedly. "Where ever Wesker is, that's where Steve is." Claire felt her heart begin to lighten. She could have Steve back in her arms sooner than she first thought.

"It's not like South America is right next door," Barry said. "It will take at least a week to get everything together, and the others aren't up for a voyage across the Atlantic."

"That why you and Rebecca are going to stay here in Europe and see if you can find anything of Umbrella's remains lying around here while Claire and I head down south." Chris felt himself smile as he watched his sister's face light up. It was unusual to think that Claire was this excited about finding just his body. He wondered how she would react if she found him alive, but Chris kept the thought of Steve being alive to himself.

Chris and Claire spent the rest of the day packing for their trip. Claire found it hard to contain her excitement, even if she might just find the lifeless body of the boy who loved her, or even if they didn't find anything at all. Just the idea of searching for him made the ache in her heart disappear, even if only for a little while. She even felt as if she was falling for him.

That night, soon after Claire returned to her tent for the night, Chris pulled out a small laptop computer from his pack and quickly messaged Leon.

Leon,

Claire and I are headed for South America in the morning. If you have any more information on Wesker's location, please let me know. I'm afraid that Claire is putting too much faith in the little hunch we have. You know how she is, her emotions can get the best of her. I'm worried about her. I didn't know she cared for Steve as much as she does. As for my current location, I'm in the outskirts of France with the remaining members of STARS. That's all I can tell you, but hopefully we'll talk soon. Take it easy.

Chris

Claire couldn't sleep that night. She tossed and turned in her noisy bed and threw the thin blanket off her. She was burning up even in the chilly European air.

"I'll find you, Steve," she whispered into night hoping that somewhere he could hear her.

On the other side of the Atlantic, a man with pale hair and skin wiped drops of sweat from his brow. He had only been on the equator for a few days but he could feel the heat creeping through his skin and into his brain. He couldn't stay here much longer. He pushed his sunglasses back on his face shielding the blinding sun, with his back to the managed boy lying on the ground.

Wesker smiled as he listened the boy struggle behind him.

"You son of a bitch! You can't keep me hear for ever!"

"On the contrary, yes I can," Wesker laughed. "No one other than me knows you're alive. So no one is going to come looking for you."

Claire, where are you? Steve pleaded in his mind. All he longed for was to see her face one more time, hold her in his arms and kiss her for as long as he possibly could. He had no one left in this world other than her. She was all he had left.

"You are the key to a new millennium. With just a few drops of your blood, I can begin my transformation of the world."

"You've already got my blood, so let me go!" Steve tried pushing himself out of the dirt, but he was far too weak to move. At least once a day, Wesker injected the virus back into Steve causing him to transform and making sure that he couldn't grow immune to the virus, let alone fight it. But even when Steve was transformed into a wild beast three times the size of Wesker, the man still held an unusual power over the boy. Steve was helpless against Wesker.

"I could easily kill you and stop all your pain," Wesker laughed again, "but that would be far too easy. And even if I do let you go, I will have total control over you until the virus is entirely out of you, and we both know that is never going to happen." Wesker pulled a syringe from his pocket.

"No…" Steve said helplessly as he pulled himself into a fetal position. "No more."

"It's wonderful to think that you're terrified of yourself, since this was once your blood after all," Wesker inched the needle towards Steve's neck. "You're not going anywhere."

Steve's whole body began to shuttered as the virus took over. Wesker laughed as the beast emerged from the depths of the boy's thin body. With every dosage, Steve gained less and less control of the virus. He could feel his soul beginning to wither away.

Claire, please…. His thoughts cried out to her before the virus consumed his mind.

Read and Review, please. Be on the look out for Chapter 2 :)