Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil, or anything associated with it. I do however, own the story.

Corruption

Chapter Twelve: Corruption

Within seconds, bullets were searing through the air. No one could react fast enough, and there was mass chaos when realization finally hit. Without thinking, Chris dove into Jill. He silently prayed to God everyone would be okay, and cursed himself for not seeing the gun hidden in Wesker's pant leg. A million thoughts rushed his head, but were immediately silenced as he felt the hot lead enter his body. He hissed in pain as the bullet lodged in his shoulder, but soon forgot it as Jill let out a yelp.

Carlos locked his arms around Rebecca, trying desperately to keep her head from hitting as they slid across the floor. He just barely saw the gun in their direction, when Rebecca shrieked in fright, and he felt the burning in his arm. Carlos wanted nothing more than to clutch the wound, but Wesker was still firing, and he knew they had to get behind something.

Leon pushed Claire down, feeling the bullet whiz by his stomach. He crashed on top of her, listening for Wesker, and their team. There were assorted crashes and yells, and he prayed for more, knowing the more yelling, the more survivors. The gunshots were deafening, and Leon looked down at Claire, whose eyes were wide with shock, and brimmed with tears. Blood was oozing from his stomach and onto her shaking body, and although he knew it was just a graze, Claire thought it was a fatal wound.

Barry crashed to the floor from his spot in the chair. He quickly crawled behind a desk, searching for a weapon to stop the Tyrant from firing. He army crawled under another desk, his now numb ankle dragging useless behind him. He saw Chris crash into Jill, but he also saw the blood pouring from wounds in both of the couples. He quickly looked for everyone else. Carlos and Rebecca were huddled under a table, but Leon and Claire, he couldn't see. He knew they'd gone out of eye and earshot of the group just minutes before, but he could only hope Wesker hadn't gotten to them.

After what felt like forever, the gunfire finally ceased. Wesker stood, looking at the seven before him. He'd hit quite a few, but he couldn't quite see everyone. They were all still, but he knew that the seven weren't all fatally wounded. He stalked toward the majority of them, scanning for anyone but Chris.

"Christopher, you shouldn't hide. After all the shit you've caused me, I'm killing you last. You'll have the pleasure of watching me rip apart these pitiful fools you call family, before I put you out of your misery." Wesker gripped the gun, there were no bullets left, but none of them knew that. He saw the knife lying on the ground, stained with his own blood, and picked it up. The first victim he saw was Barry Burton, and he raised his arm to stab him, when it was caught, and snapped viciously back.

~ * * ~

"Claire." Leon whispered.

"Oh God, please don't-"

"No, I'm fine. It-it was just a graze." He said quickly. He hastily lifted himself up, showing her where the bullet had sliced across his abs.

"Oh thank God." She said relieved that the bullet hadn't entered him.

It had grown quiet though, and that wasn't a good thing. Leon lifted himself all the way up, grabbing Claire's good arm with his good hand. They peered out from behind their barricade, dreading the visual.

Chris looked down at Jill, who was biting her lip. Her breaths were rapid, and every now and then a hushed cry would escape. The blood was coming from her abdomen, and Chris couldn't stop the thoughts of anatomy, and how many vital organs the bullet could be lodged in. He clamped his hand over the wound, applying pressure. She returned the gesture, her hand clamping shakily over the wound in his shoulder. Jill was slowing her breathing, knowing that the quickened breaths could lead to further trouble. Her eyes stared up at Chris' worried ones, and she gave him a reassuring nod. The worry didn't cease when her eyes grew wide though. Chris looked behind him, seeing the corpse move from its spot on the table. They watched intently, barely registering Wesker's rant, as their focus stayed on the corpse.

Carlos clutched at his arm as Rebecca looked at her side. The bullet had grazed her, and then entered Carlos' arm. She sighed, thankful he had been there. She was shocked, her feet planted to the ground, and she would have been dead had he not have reacted so quickly. Carlos scooted them up further behind the table, giving them a better view of Wesker. He was watching for movement, all while threatening Chris. Rebecca stifled the cry as he went after Barry.

Barry stared up into the hard eyes of Wesker. Though they were now green, they still weren't a normal green. Before they'd been a dark, almost black in tint. Now they were a vivid lime color, full of inhuman rage. Wesker raised the knife after finishing his threat, and Barry knew it was it for him, when the hand identical to the one holding the knife, twisted Barry's fate.

~ * * ~

He looked around confused at his surroundings. He was in the lab, he knew that much. The last thing he could remember was the pack of hunters crashing through the cages after the release had been activated. Suddenly everything fazed back in. It was so loud, and he recognized the voice that was yelling. It was Albert Wesker. Hate boiled in his blood. A group of scientists and him had been planning to expose Wesker for a long time, but all plans were halted as Wesker murdered Spencer, and everyone else superior or inferior to him. He'd only kept the cream of the crop, and at a time he thought he was lucky.

The man stood, not remembering being so tall. He looked down at his arm. The limb was tan, and definitely bulked up. He looked at the white slacks that had risen to be almost shorts on his body.

'What the fuck?'

He reached up to touch his face and his hair. He ran a hand through the tufts above his head. It was too thin to be his hair; his hair was curly, not straight. That's when he caught the glimpse of his reflection in the glass of one of the holding cages.

'The bastard turned me into him!' He concluded after the initial shock.

He saw the arm raised, and grabbed it with little strength. The arm didn't just stop, it continued to pull back, and snapped, shocking both Wesker and the scientist.

The lime eyes faltered from their coldness as Wesker saw the clone. He let his arm hang limply at his side, staring at himself.

"Where the fuck do you get off cloning me?"

Wesker smirked. "I didn't clone you. The bastards I've been after did." The shock was still in his voice.

That's when he actually looked at his whereabouts. He recognized the few he could see, the renegades that had wreaked havoc on Umbrella for the past several months. Rage he'd never felt so strongly before bubbled up.

"Go ahead, you've got my strength obviously. Let's rid ourselves from them." Wesker hissed into his ear.

For a second, the man thought about it. Then he remembered what him and his colleagues had been in the process of doing. They wanted to wash themselves clean from Umbrella. Nothing good was coming to them when Wesker took over. He wouldn't want them after he used their skills. The people that they'd been briefed on over and over were in the room with him, barely living from what it appeared. They had been trying to seek vengeance and wash themselves from the torture. He knew Umbrella had murdered innocent people, and all the group was doing was fulfilling what the scientists with the company didn't have the courage to do.

"I've got your strength?"

Wesker's smirk turned into a grin. "All of it."

He nodded, before drawing back the cloned arm, and striking Wesker, whose body flew across the room. He ran forward with speed he'd never imagined, and kicked his foot outward. Wesker doubled over, blood pouring from his mouth. He began punching furiously at Wesker's head, and he picked him up, dragging him with him.

He saw the first two, Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, run forward. Looking down revealed Rebecca Chambers and Carlos Oliveira, Barry Burton, and then Christopher Redfield and Jillian Valentine.

"Who did this to me?"

Rebecca raised a weak hand, expecting the clone to grab her.

"Thank you."

"What?" She gasped.

"We've wanted to bring Umbrella down for a few months. We talked about it, my associates and me, but that's all it was…talk. You have had the courage to run in here, fighting for what's right, without any regard to yourself. You're not, as they called you, terrorists, you're heroes. They've rammed into our heads how evil you were, but you're anything but evil. By cloning me, I've got his strength, and I can do what everyone talked about doing." The clone paused. "I know it's too late to apologize for the pain, but I would like to help you in anyway, other than killing this asshole."

"We wanted to blow this place up, and get all the information we needed." Rebecca raised the folder. "We got the proof, we don't know where the self-destruct system is though."

"I see you found our evidence. Everything's in there. As for the manual self-destruct system, it's in the women's bathroom in the main lobby." Seeing the looks he added, "Nobody would think to look there. It's hidden behind the hand dryer. Get on the lift, go out into the hall, it's the fourth door on your left. I'll warn you, when you activate the self-destruct from the computer, it gives you thirty minutes, but when you activate it manually, you've got ten. "

"What about you?" Leon asked.

"I'm going to give this bastard what he deserves."

"But, we can't just leave you down here." Carlos said.

"What can we expect up there?" Barry asked weakly.

"I don't know, not much. Everything's down there, I can hear them." He tilted his head to the side. "Nothing's up on the main floor."

"Thank you." Chris whispered weakly.

"No, thank you." He replied.

Chris began to lift himself up, and he pulled Jill along with him. Claire and Leon grabbed chairs for Barry and Chris.

"Jill, can you walk?" Claire asked.

"I don't know, I think I broke my leg." She turned her attention to the clone. "You're a good man."

"No, I helped with all this." He looked down at Wesker who was coming to. "I'm going to end it, for the both of us. My colleagues and I should've put a stop to this before Spencer. We're going to hell where we belong." He slung Wesker across the room. "Just remember, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, you're all heroes." With that said, the clone began to walk toward Wesker.

~ * * ~

Sadness was in the presence of the group as they made their way down the hall. They'd bunched everyone on the elevator, Jill sitting in Chris' lap, and Rebecca in Barry's, while Claire, Carlos, and Leon huddled into the corner. The scientist's words had surprised them. While most would have killed everyone in the room, he'd actually thanked them. Umbrella's employees knew what they were doing was wrong, only few actually felt guilty because of it though. Guilt was on their minds too, a mutual feeling of leaving the man down there. It was what he wanted, he knew he deserved to go to hell, but still…

"Fourth door on the left?" Leon asked, breaking an uncomfortable silence.

Assorted nods were his answer.

They trudged on, entering the door. Another hallway with a single door at the end met them. Rebecca looked at the group. Chris was looking very weak, like he was about to pass out. He'd injured his ribs bad, and his breathing was slowing because of it. Other than his side being terribly bruised, his shoulder was discolored, like it had been dislocated. The other shoulder was bleeding from the bullet wound, and the slice in his head was still pouring blood. Jill had protested sitting in the chair with Chris, scared pressure on him would hurt him, Chris had told her firmly to sit down, and now she was looking at him with a worried stare. The bullet in her side hadn't hit any vital organs; Jill would have lost consciousness by now. Her leg was definitely bruised, but Rebecca couldn't tell if it was broken. Leon was bleeding from his own graze across his abs, and his wrist was definitely broken. Claire's arm was broken and hanging limply at her side, the makeshift sling hadn't lasted long. Barry's ankle was almost sickening to look at. The bone was poking jaggedly from his sock, and blood had turned the original white color of the sock too red. Rebecca could only hope that there would be no permanent damage. She turned her analyzing to Carlos, he was walking with a slight limp, and Rebecca figured it was from the injury in his knee. There was a bullet wound in his arm, and blood was running down the arm, and onto the hand that was applying pressure to it. Rebecca looked down at her shirt. The blood had soaked through, having sliced across her side and into Carlos' arm. The pain in her head hadn't ceased, and the concussion was wearing her down.

After crossing the main lobby, they found the women's restroom nestled between two decorative trees. Leon and Claire entered first making sure nothing was lurking around in the stalls. Carlos got to the hand dryer, and began assaulting it, pulling at the machine. Everyone else kept watch outside. Carlos finally got the machine from the wall, and pushed back the debris. Neatly built behind various wires, was a switch. It looked like a fire alarm, but Carlos yanked the lever down. Almost immediately, a siren went off.

"BUILDING WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN TEN MINUTES! ALL PERSONELL PLEASE EVACUATE THE BUILDING THROUGH EMERGENCY EXITS. ALL LOCKED DOORS WILL BE RELEASED IN APPROXIMATELY FIVE MINUTES! BUILDING WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN TEN MINUTES!" The monotone voice was shrill in the building.

They quickly reunited, and began the journey around the desk and the bodies of the soldiers they'd encountered what seemed like an eternity ago.

"Okay, let's get the hell outta here!" Barry yelled.

Everyone let out an enthusiastic yell, and barged through the front doors of the building. The cool night air met them, and everyone felt a calming feeling course throughout their veins. It was soon replaced with a mix of adrenaline, as they realized they had to move. Claire and Leon took hold of the chair Chris and Jill were in, and began running, pushing the chair forward. Carlos and Rebecca did the same to Barry's chair, ignoring the pain coursing through their bodies as they ran full speed. The group met the wooded area behind the building, and pushed through the gate.

"Five minutes until self-destruct!" The shrill voice was now a mere yell.

"Okay, you guys gotta get up. We have to get to the van, and the chairs won't go through the woods." Carlos said, helping Barry up. Rebecca stuffed the file down into her medical pack, and helped to get Barry moving.

Leon and Claire pulled Jill and Chris up. Leon locked his arm under Chris', who locked his arm under Jill, who locked her arm under Claire. Claire did the same, and met Leon's hand in the process. Their hands intertwined, and they looked each other in the eyes. It gave them a new burst of energy, and they began dragging Chris and Jill forward.

~ * * ~

After hauling the injured through the woods, they finally caught sight of the van. Their feet, stained with mud from the woods, hit the pavement. Rebecca pulled at the door, and began the task of laying down the seats. After a minute, the back was empty. Carlos pushed Barry in, and he crawled forward, heaving himself against the back of the driver's seat. Chris was next, with Carlos and Leon pushing him against the far side.

"Let him lay down, he'll be able to breathe easier." Rebecca ordered.

Leon and Carlos stretched Chris out to the very right side of the van. Afterwards, they lifted Jill in, who sat back, against the passenger's seat, right next to Chris. Leon and Claire huddled into the bottom corner, in front of Barry. Rebecca and Carlos hurried to the front. It was decided Carlos would drive despite his knee, Rebecca was feeling dizzy, and the last thing they needed was to die in a car crash after completing their agonizing goal of defeating Umbrella.

Rebecca settled into the seat, and began sifting through the documents in their evidence folder. Carlos twisted the keys that had been left in the ignition hours before. The van rumbled to a start, and Carlos slammed it into reverse. There were groans from the back, and Carlos knew speeding was probably going to hurt them, but they had to get out of the parking lot. The building was going to blow. He pushed the gears into drive, and sped out of the parking lot. The van crunched across the loose rock, and they finally got to the road. Carlos looked down at the clock. When they'd gone in, it had been somewhere around midnight, it was now nearing five in the morning.

'It felt a hell of a lot longer than that.' Carlos thought bitterly. He hit the accelerator, and the van excelled forward. The van rocked onto the paved road, and passed the woods the Umbrella Headquarters were neatly hidden behind. He slammed on the brakes, grinding his teeth together as his knee resisted the sudden movement. Everyone groaned, screaming obscenities.

"Carlos! What the hell are you doing? I can drive better than you and I can hardly see straight!" Rebecca yelled, setting the folder at her feet. She pulled the seatbelt down over her body, and clamped it down.

Carlos mocked her actions, and looked behind him. The road was bare, and he grinned. "From here we'll be able to see Umbrella go to hell."

Chris raised up, wincing at the pain, and looked out the window. Everyone's eyes shifted to the tinted glass in anticipation.

They felt the low rumble start, and the van shook. Then everything stopped, and their faces fell. Then all at once, there was a great shake, and it felt as if an earthquake was about go off the Richter Scale. A fireworks display went off, and then a ball of fire was released into the sky. The heat singed the trees, and all its surroundings. The smell of blazing heat filtered into the van, as Carlos rolled the windows down. Then, there was a loud explosion, and the trees in front of them bent over from the force. The van shook again, and it felt like a gust of hot wind entered the van as debris flew around them. Carlos rolled the windows back up, not wanting anything to enter the car.

"We did it." Carlos murmured.

Tears streamed down Rebecca's face, and she turned to Carlos, gripping his hand.

Claire leaned back against Leon's body. She sighed, a grin creeping across her face.

"We did it." Leon repeated into her hair. "We did it."

Claire grabbed Leon's hand, squeezing it in acknowledgement as her eyes blurred in tears.

Barry let out a gruff laugh, and ruffled Claire's soaked hair. They'd get to the hospital, and after all that was done, he could see his wife and kids, and they could celebrate. "We did it. We sent the assholes to hell!"

Jill trailed her fingers over Chris' face. He was smiling despite the pain he was feeling. She felt the twinge go through her body as she shifted.

"We're heroes." Chris said.

Jill nodded, stroking back stray strands of hair. "We are, and we survived. We got what was ours, and got revenge for the innocent." Jill paused as she began crying. "The guys didn't die in vain." She finished, referring to their S.T.A.R.S. teammates.

The van began moving again.

"It's over." Chris murmured before slipping out of consciousness.

~ * * ~

Author's Note: It's complete! That was the final chapter. I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Now on to other business…the sequel. I got some response on it, especially from Dale, and after the Thanks To The Reviewers, an excerpt from the sequel is included. So read through, and if you have any suggestions, please tell me. My AIM screen name is kickinxtreme. Thanks.

~ * * ~

Thanks To Reviewers

(In order from first review to last)

lady..dynamite/lady: Sorry again for no Claire/Wesker. I love the Claire/Leon pairing, and can't separate those two. Thanks for encouraging me on the story!

Santiago: You've been very enthusiastic, hope you enjoyed the ending. Thanks.

Dale: Well now what can I say to you? You've been my most frequent reviewer on the story, and I'm really grateful for it. More Leon/Claire interaction will be incorporated into the sequel, and I hope I can return the favor seeing how you give me my fill of L/C. Again, I hope your mom's okay. I'm not going to argue over the sequel, but I want another chapter of Miracles Do Happen, now that you mentioned the plot twist, I'm even more addicted. As we've said before, I'm sticking with you until the end and then some!

Dragon: I wasn't sure I was portraying the characters right and thanks for telling me I was doing well. Since you said you were sticking with me until the end, I hope you enjoyed it.

Frenchy: Thanks for your reviews, I'm glad you liked the couples.

Pinguicha: Ah, my second most frequent reviewer. Ada and Steve didn't show up to wreck anything, I was going to put them in, but they really didn't have a place other than being mentioned. You can do another happy dance now, since Umbrella's gone! Update your story soon, I love the songs you use in your stories, the sequel's going to have some songs used to show the angst and emotions.

Otasnake: Thanks for your review, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Chris Redfield Fan: Glad you loved it, there's the end.

Hell: Um…thanks for the constructive criticism, but how is that out of character? Leon and Chris had no way of knowing if it was Jill and Claire, and Chris knew it wasn't his mother, but it was just hard for him to take in. That's my explanation.

ScoobySnax: You got it, a sequel's coming up. Thanks for saying you'll add me to your favorite author's list as soon as you can log in.

Now if I left anyone out, let me know and thanks to anyone who reviews after I post this!

~ * * ~

Excerpt from "Aftermath of Destruction"

"They'll be okay." Leon reassured.

As soon as Claire turned to face him, mouth ready to reply, a doctor walked up.

"Claire Redfield?" He asked, deep voice rumbling out. He was fairly tall, standing a couple of inches above Leon. Claire estimated him to be in his thirties, and very arrogant.

"Yes." She replied, stepping in front of Leon.

"Your brother is Christopher Redfield?" He asked, impatience present in his tone.

"Is he okay?" She interjected.

The doctor ignored Claire's question, looked at his clipboard. "Has your brother ever broken or damaged his ribs before?"

"I don't…I don't know." She stammered.

"Well, you're his sister, shouldn't you know?" The doctor retorted.

"Y-you would have to ask Rebecca Chambers, Jill Valentine, or Barry Burton. T-they might know." Claire was feeling very uncomfortable. The doctor was trying to make her feel guilty, and with what she'd just been through, it wasn't hard to do.

"Rebecca Chambers is sleeping, Jillian Valentine is in surgery, as is Barry Burton." The doctor rattled agitatedly. "Would Carlos Oliveira know?"

"No, I don't think so." Claire answered, steadying her voice.

The doctor sighed. "Do you know anything?"

Leon had stood back long enough. "Hey back off. She was in college for a year or so, she doesn't know everything about her brother." Leon said sternly, stepping between Claire and the doctor. "And she knows a hell of a lot more than you."

"And who are you? Are you related?" The doctor asked, glaring at Leon.

"I'm her boyfriend." He answered, returning the venomous stare.

The doctor smirked haughtily. "Then I suggest you don't spout off too much. This waiting room is for family of patients only. You shouldn't be telling me my amount of knowledge compared to your girlfriend's, you should be thanking me for not having you removed from here."

Claire glanced at Leon, who clenched his jaw shut. He took another step toward the doctor, who backed away quickly.

"No, you should be thanking us. We just saved the every fucking person in this room-in this universe." Leon stopped and added more quietly, "And not one person knows it. So while you stand here and tell us to be thankful, you should really stop and think. Our friends-our family- are in there because of you."

The doctor looked at him confused, but quickly regained his composure. "Well, I don't know what pain killers you are on sir, but-" The doctor stopped as Leon's free fist began to tremble. He turned his attention back to Claire. "Has your brother-"

Leon interrupted, "I believe my girlfriend asked you a question."

The doctor looked at a seething Leon, and then looked back at Claire, who was waiting patiently. "What was your question ma'am?"

"Is my brother okay?" She repeated.

"He hasn't regained consciousness yet. The cut in his head had been opened too long, and we couldn't sew anything up. We just sterilized the area, and bandaged it. The bullet in his shoulder was fairly easy to remove, and luckily it missed the joint." The doctor paused, looking at the young, worried couple. "His ribs are what we're worried about. It appears he re-broke ribs that were never fully healed. The lasting injury could possibly cause a permanent effect."

"What kind of permanent effect?" Claire asked softly.

"Don't know yet. A few possibilities would be slight pain during strenuous activity, or worse constant pain. Then again, we can't see very well in the X-ray, so he may be fine. The main reason we're worried is because they, or something else, are causing problems with his breathing. He's not inhaling in a smooth fashion, causing his heart to work harder. In his weakened condition, it could be fatal." The doctor explained with a little bit of sincerity in his voice.

~ * * ~

Author's Note: That's a small bit from the first chapter of "Aftermath of Destruction". The chapter is entitled "Tomorrow", after an Avril Lavigne song of the same name. Each chapter of the sequel will be named after a song, so it's a bit of a song fic. I decided to do this, because emotions can be expressed better through a song, and as you can see this will be a very emotional story. Not as much humor as in "Corruption", more angst and depression though. Expect the full first chapter in the next couple of days.