July 25, 1998

If I'd known at the time, I think I'd done a bit more than just have a nap on the helicopter. I'd probably gone home and slept through the entire afternoon before leaving for the mission. All we knew was the Bravo team had gone missing and we needed to investigate, though I have no idea why that warranted a helicopter. Wesker had woken me up about two minutes before we landed and given me a glare that told I'd get my ear chewed off for sleeping on the helicopter again. I hadn't cared enough to pay attention, I just grabbed my pistol and got ready to disembark the flying vehicle. We'd landed in a forest near the Arklay mountains, with no sign of anything or anyone.

Jill, who was checking her own weapon in preparation for the mission, just sent me a smile that made my heart flutter and Chris, who was staring intently at the ground, seemed to be ignoring Wesker as well.

I climbed off the helicopter once it hit the ground and moved forward, gun pointed straight ahead in case of any incoming hostiles, though what we found wouldn't exactly be affected by 9mm bullets. Most of Bravo team was lying on the ground, guts and limbs were spread around them like a blanket of viscera and gore. I noticed that one in particular was missing, Rebecca Chambers, a newbie to S.T.A.R.S. I couldn't imagine what this was like for her, being out here on her own.

We found their helicopter, however there was only one body, Kevin, and he'd been ripped to shreds, similar to the murder victims Bravo had been sent to investigate. A scream pierced the fog filled area, I could tell it was Joe. The sounds of shredding flesh and barking followed as the screams began to die out. I looked over and saw Jill shooting at them, but she'd used up her bullets on them and was currently attempting to firing an empty weapon.

One of the monstrous hounds, each of which had their ribs exposed and blood dribbling from their mouths, turned to Jill. Shit I thought, though my feet were moving before I could think. Just as the dog jumped to attack the defenceless female, I put a round through it's eye and into it's brain.

"Jill, run!" I cried as the other dogs seemed to notice their fallen comrade and started snarling at us. We took off in the direction Chris and Wesker had gone, hoping they had found some where we could escape the beasts currently chasing us.

I turned to check how far the dogs were from us, though this proved to be a mistake as one of the dogs had jumped towards us and was about thirty centimetres from chewing my face off. There wasn't enough time to bring my gun up and shoot it, and Jill was out of bullets. In that moment I did the only thing I could, I threw my arm in between it's teeth and let it sink them into that rather than my head. I felt each tooth pierce my flesh and muscle and try to tear my arm off, but I wouldn't let it. Grabbing my gun that had fallen next to me, I placed the barrel against the hound's temple and fired. The dog went limp, falling next to me like a sack of potatoes.

I got to my feet and saw Chris, Wesker and Barry slowly walking towards us, guns firing at the rest of the pack. I turned onto my knees and was about to stand to my feet when I saw something moving around under my skin, emanating from the wound in my arm. I went to investigate the weird obscurity as I could not feel anything there, however almost as soon as I did the sound of more barking occurred and we were forced to resume our sprint towards a hopeful safe haven.

After about five minutes we found something, an old, decrepit mansion with moss and ivy growing on the walls. The signs out the front read Spencer Mansion, whom I quickly remembered was the CEO of the pharmaceutical company, the Umbrella corporation. It was the only place anywhere nearby so we barrelled through and slammed the doors behind us, the sound reverberating throughout the old hall we were currently in. "Is everyone alright?" Jill asked as we caught our breathes, her concern for the team being higher than that of herself. "Yeah, all good" I replied, though something felt off about my voice, like it was unfamiliar to me.

"Where's Barry?" Chris asked, drawing our attention to the missing S.T.A.R.S member. "He's…" Wesker began, unable to finish his sentence, to acknowledge the fact that our friend was dead. "No…" Jill muttered, she and Barry had been like father and daughter, it was clearly hitting her the hardest.

We stayed silent for a few minutes, giving our dead comrade a moment of silence before I spoke up "we should radio Brad, get him to pick us up on the…" Wesker interrupted me before I could finish "Brad left, he's gone". "He just left us?" Jill asked, looking to Chris for confirmation "we saw him leave just before we found you".

Jill seemed to be upset for a moment, she lowered her head and spotted something, "Edward, your arm" she pointed towards the bleeding limb, though what she meant surprised us. The bite mark that had previously been staining my sleeve was gone, replaced by dried blood that began to seal the wound. "Guess it wasn't as bad as I thought" I said, my shoulders lifting up in a shrug, though it had definitely felt as bad as I thought it did.

A single gun shot suddenly came from the other room, drawing our attention towards a door on the left hand side of the hall. "What was that?" Jill asked, the situation clearly unnerving her as her voice wavered. "We'll check it out" Chris said, indicating to him and myself "seriously?" I asked, incredulously. Why did he have to volunteer me?

Chris ignored me and began walking towards the door, I just rolled my eyes and started to follow but someone grabbed my hand and stopped me from following him. I followed the arm up to see Jill's concerned face, "Edward… be careful" she told me, causing a smile to spread across my face. "Don't worry-" I replied, placing my lips against her cheek and making her blush "-I'll be fine".

I made my way through the door entered a large dining room, with a grandfather clock on one side and an old type writer on the other. I looked closer at the room and found an upper floor that over looked the dining room. Chris had moved towards a pool of blood that had stanined the ground in front of a fireplace. He was kneeling over it, seemingly doing nothing "did you find anything besides the giant pool of blood on the ground, or are you just trying to look clever?" I asked with a smirk on my face. Chris ignored my joke and wiped his hands across it. I was about to make another joke when I heard something coming from a door in the corner of the room, "I heard something" I told him, gun raised in my right hand and resting on the opposite palm. Chris seemed confused at first but followed me regardless as I already made my way through the door.

We walked though the door and entered a long hallway with two doors on the opposite wall. The sound was actually detectable now, the sounds of flesh tearing and teeth gnashing were coming from right around the corner. Me and Chris slowly approached it, but stopped when we saw the source of the noise.

Kneeling on the ground, grey skinned and hovering over a dead S.T.A.R.S member was a corpse that was eating the dead body, tearing out organs and peeling off flesh and stuffing whatever it could into it's mouth. My gun hand trembled, I knew I should pull the trigger, kill this monster before it turned on us, but in that moment I was too terrified to do anything.

The humanoid creature turned towards us, it's milky white eyes staring at me and my friend with hunger and vicious intent. I started to pull the trigger, but the shock of the situation caused me to miss my intended target and the bullet went straight through it's chest. That didn't stop it.

In a blind panic I started firing blindly towards the undead creature, all of the bullets left in my clip either hitting the creature in the torso or the wall behind it. Before I could load another clip, Chris lunged forward with a combat knife, ready to kill the creature. The knife was plunged into the thing's chest, straight through it's heart, which made it slump over for a second.

But it just got back up.

Chris was shell shocked for a second, he had put a knife through it's heart and it was still moving. The thing opened it's mouth and started moving towards Chris with the intent of tearing his face off. I had to do something, my best friend was about to die and there was nothing I could do.

The creature's teeth were centimetres away, I had to do SOMETHING.

Suddenly I felt something, it forced my arm towards the creature and something unexpected happened. A black, tar like substance shot out of my arm and pinned the creature to the wall my bullets had previously hit. I stared at the new extremity with shock, it wasn't even human. Nothing should be able to make something like this, yet here it was, protruding from my arm and pinning a monster that had been about to kill my friend to the wall.

This was a weird night.

As Chris came down from his adrenaline rush, he seemed to be in the same state I was, confused and surprised as hell. I was about to start shouting out all of the curse words under the sun when a deep, hungry voice came into my head.

FOOD.

The tar like substance began to shift, short tentacles coming off of it and moving towards the creature currently pinned to the wall. They kept moving towards their prey until they were right in front of it, at which it tried to bite them, it's jaw snapping at the slivering extremities. I tried to pull my arm out of the thing, however when I did it seemed to either move with me or rumble in annoyance, which confirmed that it was indeed a part of me.

Suddenly the small tentacles lunged towards the undead monsters head and started entering it's skull anyway they could find. It's milky white eyes burst from the way they were being squeezed against the two tentacles. There was blood and brain matter leaking from it's ears and nose from whatever was happening, and it's lower jaw had been all but ripped off from how viciously the tentacle in it's mouth was moving.

After a few seconds of the creature writhing in, what could be mistaken as pain, the tentacles retracted back into the mass of black substance that was appearing from my arm, before the rest of it retracted into my body. The now-dead zombie slumped to the floor, it's skin folding down as if it's muscles had disappeared, which is what seemed to have happened. Before I could do anything, my body was forced to face Chris and my hand launched itself towards him and gripped his face, shoving him against the nearby window.

Snapping out of his surprise, Chris snatched my gun out of my hand that hadn't just eaten the zombie's insides and pointed it at me. I looked at him with several different emotions on my face, shock being chief among them. "D-don't move!" he yelled, his voice and hand shaking as he pointed the lethal weapon at my head. Incoherent sounds left my mouth as I tried to remove myself from his head, shock and adrenaline still running through my body and preventing me from acting to stop him. I was about to say something else when that voice from before appeared in my head.

He is a threat, we must take him out

Panicking for a second, I stepped back and began to hyperventilate. What ever this thing was, it wanted to hurt my friend and I was not going to allow that. "I said don't move" he told me, half-heartedly, clearly struggling with the concept of hurting me "Chris, don't… please" I tried to reason with him, but he was too scared to listen.

He will kill us!

I wanted to tell the voice to shut up, to leave me alone and get the fuck out of my body. But doing that would have made Chris panic and shoot me.

Fine!

It yelled, though the voice wasn't in submission, but annoyance. I felt it move around inside me for a second, which was all I had to try alert Chris to the creatures intent. I went to yell at him. Tell him to get out of the way. To do anything that would avoid him winding up in the same position as the zombie on the ground. But almost as soon as I did that, the unthinkable happened.

A loud bang occurred from Chris' direction and time seemed to slow down, a bullet leaving the barrel of his gun and heading straight towards my head. I didn't know what to do, the bullet was aimed right at my head and would kill me in less than a second. Killed by my best friend, the worst way to go were my final thoughts as I closed my eyes in resignation to my fate.

I waited for that final flash of pain, for my skull to be punctured and my brain to be pierced… but it never came.

I opened an eye and saw that, about two inches from my face, a black tentacle had caught the bullet in mid-air and was stopping it from killing me. I looked behind it and saw Chris, the barrel of his gun smoking from just being fired. He stared at me like he regretted every decision he'd ever made, but I didn't care, I was too pissed to pay attention to the fact his hands were shaking like someone had set them to vibrate. "What the fuck were you thinking?!" I yelled, causing the tentacle to recoil from the sudden vibration. I stomped up to him and snatched the pistol from his grip, his hands too shaky to try and stop me.

We stayed like that for a while, I moved over to one of the seats that was against the corner of the little alcove we were in and sat down so I could rest for a few moments, Chris decided to busy himself by checking on the body the now-dead creature had been munching on. It turned out to be Kenneth, one of the members of Bravo team we'd been looking for. I had removed the clip from the pistol and put it into my belt, then placing the weapon back in it's holster in case Chris tried to make a dive for it. I still couldn't believe he'd done what he did, Chris and I had gone to the academy together, yet not five minutes ago he'd tried to kill me. I understood why but we'd been through so much together, I'd at the very least hoped he would have had more faith in me.

Putting the thoughts that been stabbing at my chest to one side, my thoughts went to the dark voice that had came from inside my own head before the undead monster had died. It definitely wasn't my own voice which meant I wasn't going crazy, a thought I was continually having to remind myself, however it hadn't remerged since that first incident.

After another five minutes where Chris went off to check a door on the opposite side of the alcove we previously had come from, I got and stormed off to find Jill and Wesker, leaving a note that read "I'm going to check on the others". The walk to the hall was interrupted by the voice from before finally making it's appearance again, though only for a second. Once again it only uttered a single word before going silent again.

Danger

I started panicking for a second, thinking that Chris had come back to finish the job. My eyes flicked over to the door Chris had walked through previously, ready to jump through the door to the dining room in case he burst through and started firing. I placed my hand on the handle so I could tear the door open, but this proved to be a mistake. A fact I learned once the voice made another appearance.

Not him

I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, the only signal I had to move out of the way from another monster tearing the door I had previously been holding be shred to splinters by a creature that was similar to the first. Decaying skin, stretched out over a face with splotches of muscle showing with white eyes, however there was one difference. Long, sharp finger nails ended each hand and it seemed to be quicker than the other one. I didn't have long, it was too fast for me to get my weapon up and Chris was god knows.

Before I could even finish my thought, the thing struck, swinging wildly at me with it's claws aimed straight at my head. It was about an inch from my head when I was yanked backwards and sent to the floor. I was disoriented for a moment, my head having hit the ground when I was yanked. In that moment, the sharp clawed monster jumped at me and tried to bite my face off. I grabbed it's wrists and tried to force it back but, despite being undead, the thing was far stronger than it appeared. It's breath was foul and made me want to start gagging, but the situation wouldn't let me throw up even if I wanted to. It's jaw snapping at me with some very hostile intent.

In that moment, my entire life started flashing before my eyes. In that moment, I truly believed I was going to die. My friends were my main concern...

Chris, the last memory I'd ever have of my best friend would be of him trying to kill me.

Jill, the girl I'd been in love with since I met her at the academy.

Wesker, he was an asshole but everything he did was for the sake of the job.

Claire, I'd dated that firecracker for a while, but once I joined S.T.A.R.S I broke with her. It hadn't ended well.

Rebecca, my little trainee, I knew she had a thing for me but I'd never given it much thought, not even a second glance.

NO, I WILL NOT DIE

Everything was a blur after that.

I remember the voice returning and the weight on my chest being lifted, but nothing else.

My surroundings had changed as well. Instead of the hall way I'd been in before, I was in some kind of Doctor's office. The walls were thoroughly washed and reeked of anti-septic, though the paper was peeling. There were shelves and cupboards that housed an assortment of medical equipment and liquids, contained in jars, that made my taste buds reel just looking at them.

"How long..." I thought, my hand on my head as it started pounding. There was a glass of something next to me, which didn't have an odour nor a strange colour to it. Realising how dry my throat was, I grasped the glass and started drinking the liquid. The taste was slightly salty, though that mattered little as I felt my parched throat become revitalised. 'Rain water' I thought, wiping my hand against my uniform's sleeve to remove the remnants of water from around my mouth.

I placed the glass back against the table, happy to no longer have a dry throat. There was a note on the table, my name present on the front in elegant hand writing that I recognised immediately. I picked up the piece of paper from the table, unfolded it and began reading.

'Connor

You've been out for a few hours. I left you some water I got from the rain outside (there wasn't anything else). I don't know what you or the others are doing here, but you need to leave.

I've gone to find Chris and tell him you're okay, I saw him earlier. I'll be back in about ten minutes.

Love, Rebecca'

"Who's that?"

I jumped away from a sudden voice coming from my shoulder, which was emanating from a mass of the black tar substance that had been causing me misery for most of the night. It had large white eyes and a row of sharp teeth, all of which was flowing out of my shoulder. I knew I should be freaked out, that my first thought should be severing the abomination that was currently connected to me, but I felt nothing. Only curiosity.

"What the hell are you?"

The face went from looking at the paper, to staring at me with a flat expression. The voice it spoke with was deep and unnatural, it's lack of lungs or a vocal cord made me wonder if I was going crazy and this whole thing was just...

"I am Venom, and you are mine"

Scratch that, I was not creative enough to come up with any of this, even if I had lost my mind.

"You are not insane Connor, that would not be beneficial for either of us"

"Then what are you?" I asked again, my voice beginning to get unstable as I noticed the saliva dripping from Venom's maw.

"They called me a Symbiote, I was created in a lab beneath this place. They wanted me to become a super weapon, but I had other plans"

"Then you know what's going on"

"The one you call Wesker, he let a virus loose as an excuse to bring you here. He wanted to destroy you and your friends, so you would be out the way"

I slumped against the head board of the bed at this. My boss, the person I had trusted to have my back, had planned to have me killed. I knew he was an asshole, but I didn't think he would do this.

Suddenly, my sorrow turned to rage. Wesker had been willing to kill me, my friends and god knows how many more people for no discernible reason. I knew what I had to do.

"Can you help me?"

A smirk broke out onto Venom's previously blank face "Do I get to eat him?". I cringed at that. With everything I had just learned, I'd forgotten what Venom had done to that Zombie earlier. Though I didn't care that much what happened to the undead, I didn't want happened to them to happen to...

Chris.

Looking directly into Venom's eyes, I asked him a harsh question.

"What were you going to do to my friend earlier?"

"... Eat him" he replied, something resembling shame on his features.

"Why?" I glared at the mass of sludge.

"Because I didn't see what you see"

I blinked a couple of times. What? What did he mean by that?

"When that thing had you pinned, I saw what you were thinking. The people you care for. It made me think" he replied.

An awkward silence passed between us, my eyes focused on the floor under Venom's weird head. My feelings had changed him? The hell was he on about?

Realising the amount of time since either of us had last spoken, I decided to say something.

"... So you saw what I was thinking?"

Venom cocked an eye brow, before deciding to answer. "I know everything about you Connor, I am inside your head..." I flinched. The idea of someone seeing my thoughts was... weird. "So, Connor..." he began, his head moving closer to mine and staring his big white eyes into mine.

"Cooperate and you just might survive"

Venom and I had been talking for about ten minutes after that. He'd been explaining to me everything Wesker and Umbrella had been doing, though I had no idea how we were going to stop them.

Umbrella was a multibillion-dollar corporation that, not only had plausible deniability, but also had my boss on their side. I was just a glorified police officer with a sludge monster inside me. Assuming I survived this place, they'd more than likely hunt me down and kill me.

"I will not allow that" Venom replied, his deep voice rattling next to my ear. "Why not, you could always jump to another body right?" I asked, causing Venom to move in front of me and give me a black stare. "You die, I die... plus I am starting to like you" he replied, though that last part was said much quicker than the first. Despite everything, I smiled at this. Against all odds, Venom wasn't that bad, he was just trying to survive.

"Okay, if you're staying, we've got to set some ground rules" I told him, moving from sitting against the wall on the bed, to the edge of the bed with my feet touching the ground. "Like what?" he asked, the edges of his huge white eyes furrowing. "For starters, no eating people unless I tell you it's okay" I began, though was immediately taken aback.

"When have I done that?"

"You tried to eat my best friend, like, six hours ago!"

"... fair"

Venom paused for a second before asking "What about Wesker?"

"Oh Wesker's fair game, go for the throat"

While we were talking, the sound of gunshots came from outside. Venom recoiled and slunk back inside, which still felt weird to say, and I grabbed my pistol from the desk beside me, the barrel aimed at the door. I waited a while after the shots had stopped, the pure silence making me uncomfortable. I felt the hair on my arms start to tingle and my breathing became uneven.

I slowly reached my left hand forward, the door handle feeling cool against my sweaty palm. The door creaked as I pulled it towards me, manoeuvring the pistol in my other hand so that it was still pointed out the door way.

I took a step out the door, turning both ways to check there was nothing on either side of the hallway. While I did, I found the person responsible for the gunshots. "Rebecca?" I called out, my fellow S.T.A.R.S member quickly turning and aiming her pistol at me. I quickly threw my hands up to avoid being shot, "Connor?" she called out, lowering her gun. "Hey Becca" I replied, quickly making my way over to her. "Are you alright, I found you earlier, you were covered in blood" she told me as I stood in front of her, "it wasn't mine".

Taking a moment, she suddenly threw her arms around me. I wrapped mine around her and relished in the comfort of having another human with me. I rubbed the back of her head, threading my fingers through her hair in an attempt to return the comfort. "I'm really glad you're okay" she told me, and while I couldn't see, I was pretty sure she was blushing. "Me too, we found the others outside, I was worried I'd never see you again" I told her, a blush appearing on my own cheeks. After the fight earlier, I wanted to spend more time with the people close to me, and Rebecca was high on that list.

I'd taken Rebecca under my wing shortly after I joined S.T.A.R.S, though she always excelled at every task I'd given her. She eventually became the medic for Bravo team and had really come into her own.

"Did you find Chris?" I asked her as we sat on the bed and she gave me the once over. "Yeah, he said something about an underground area" she told me.

"Sounds like the place I escaped from"

"What the hell?!" Rebecca cried at seeing Venom appear from out of my shoulder. She reached for her pistol and I could feel Venom about to bear his fangs. "Calm down, both of you!" I quickly yelled out, moving the shoulder Venom was coming out of away from the medic and holding the opposing hand to keep Rebecca from aiming her gun at my passenger.

Venom seemed to understand what I meant and slithered away to show he wasn't a threat. Rebecca was still sceptical about the thing she had just seen, but didn't try to shoot me which was the silver lining. "What is that thing Connor!" she demanded.

"His name is Venom. He attached himself to me while we were attacked outside. He needs a host to survive, so I'm letting him stay in return for keeping me alive" I explained. "He's called a Symbiote, the bastards who raised the dead made him in order to allow normal people to fight wars without getting hurt".

Rebecca seemed to be contemplating something, when I felt Venom move.

My hand shoved Rebecca to the side and I was tugged to the ground. A gunshot sounded and destroyed part of the wall behind us. "Get the hell away from her!" the voice of Chris yelled, holding a pistol to my head.

Venom forced my body to move in that unnatural way. My body rolled away from his gun and the symbiote erected a barrier between us.

Two gunshots bounced, harmlessly off the barrier, before Rebecca yelled at Chris. "Stop it!" she cried.

"What are you doing? He's one of them!" he said, before Venom launched a tentacle at him and knocked the gun out of his hands. "What the hell Chris?!" I yelled at him once Venom had lowered the barrier.

He seemed surprised by my words. "I thought you were one of the zombies" he muttered as I got in his face. "Why? Cause I got bit by a dog that gave me superpowers?" I asked.

He slowly nodded.

"Honestly, I don't blame you".

We both stood there for a second, before I smiled and brought him in for a bro hug. "it's good to see you're alive" I told him.

I explained the situation to Chris as Venom had to me. "So Wesker's behind this" he stated in surprise.

"Yeah, he's probably got Jill in the underground area" I told them while I went over my magnum. "Where did you say the entrance was?" I asked him. "It's under the stairs back in the main room" he replied.

We slowly made our way there, there weren't many zombies left, which meant we'd have to deal with more in this underground area. Venom described it as a laboratory that belonged to the Umbrella Corporation.

"It's here" Chris said as we walked behind the staircase to view a gate that barred a way lower.

"It needs two keys" Rebecca stated while looking at the hexagonal locks. "No it doesn't" I replied, before Venom began enhancing my muscles.

My leg reeled back, before my heel slammed into the lock and sent the gate crashing down the staircase.

"I had the other lock, ya know" Chris stated, holding up a hexagon crest shaped like the Umbrella Corporation logo.

"More fun this way" I replied.

We made our way through the underground area, the smell of damp stone penetrating the air as we moved through the caves.

Eventually, we made it into a crypt looking area with a large stone coffin in the middle of the room. "This whole room screams boss fight..." I muttered as we looked around the room.

I jumped down in the centre area of the room, followed by Chris and Rebbeca climbing down the stairs. On closer inspection, I saw that there was a deep pit surrounding the area and skulls lined the walls.

And Wesker was staring at the entrance.

"Wesker!" I roared at him, before launching myself at him.

He reached into his vest, before pulling out a small device. It was grey with a small dish coming out the top.

He pushed a button in the middle of it and a sonic pulse was released from it.

Venom roared in pain and I was sent to my knees in agony. It was like every part of my being was rattling with the attacks, while Venom tried to tear himself away from it, tearing my body apart at the same time.

"It really is too bad we have to dispose of you" he stated, before turning his gun on the other two.

I couldn't move from the pain, but I had to do something.

My magnum was still in my hand, but there was no chance of aiming it.

I clenched my hand and a bullet was released from my gun, striking a wall and distracting Wesker.

Chris lunged at Wesker while his eyes were drawn to me and knocked the gun out of his hand.

Wesker's finger left the device's button and allowed me to breathe for a second. Chris and Rebecca aimed their guns at him while they had the chance. "Put your hands up!" Chris ordered.

I slowly got to my feet and kept trying to catch my breathe. Venom had told me high-pitched sounds would cause us both pain, but I hadn't realised how much.

"Why, Wesker?" Chris asked the blonde.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you" he replied, before something drew our attention.

A loud groan came from the entrance and we saw something horrifying. A large, hunchbacked creature with skin stretched over it's entire body. Two thin arms that were shackled together hung loosely along it's body.

"Fuck" I muttered as we saw it heading towards us.

The creature was swinging at us with wild abandon. They were easy to avoid, but it was surprisingly nimble given it's stature.

Wesker had run through the gate and closed it behind him while we were distracted, meaning we were trapped in here with the monster.

I fired two bullets from my pistol at the thing, but it didn't even flinch.

"This isn't going to work" Chris shouted over the gun shots.

'Any ideas?' I asked the creature that resided within me.

Venom stayed silent for a moment, making me fear he wasn't going to help.

'Aim for the chains' he told me, before swivelling my arms around and pointing my guns at the aforementioned supports. "Take out the supports!" I repeated as we moved to the other side to avoid being knocked over the edge. "Got it, I'll hold this thing off" Chris replied.

"I'll take these two" Rebecca said as she moved over to the other side of the room. I stayed where I was and began correcting my aim towards the nearest chain.

I heard two gun shots and the sound of a chain link breaking. "Got one!" she called over.

I steadied my aim and fired at the chain I had to deal with. It skimmed past it and caused sparks to fly off of it, but otherwise the bullet hadn't done any damage. "Come on" I muttered.

'Remember you training' I thought as I took a deep breath in through my nose and released it from my mouth. 'Squeeze the trigger gently' my hand seemed to move on it's own.

'And fire!'.

The bullet released from the chamber and went forth, snapping the first chain in half and raising the lid on the sarcophagus by another inch.

Chris and the creature were within two meters of each other. He'd switched to a magnum, but even the powerful revolver did minimal damage to the monster. Rebecca started firing at the creature as well, though the added damage was naught more than a mosquito bite.

My gun swung around and aimed at the final remaining chain, but a simple click and the slide on my pistol pulled back. My weapon was empty. "SHIT" I yelled out as I began searching for a second clip.

They were all were empty.

"I'm out!" I yelled out to the other two who were beginning to panic.

"Me too" Chris yelled back as he slowly backed towards the edge of the area. "Same here" Rebecca replied, following Chris's actions.

Suddenly, Venom's body began to shift around my arm and became a blade about a meter long. He took control of my body and swung my arm at the remaining chain.

It snapped in two and the sarcophagus' lid was sent off.

Inside was the decayed body of a woman. Bits of flesh hung off the bones, and a face was distinguishable.

The creature was about to take a my friends, when it spotted the corpse.

A harsh, dried voice came out from the mouth of the creature, that spoke one, sorrowful word.

"Mother".

The monster slowly trudged over to the corpse and picked up the skull. It took two steps backwards and dropped itself off of the platform. A scream was released that slowly vanished as it fell into the abyss.

Finally having a moment to breathe, I slumped against the side of the sarcophagus. My head pressed against it has my racing heart slowly steadied itself.

Suddenly, two arms wrapped around me and I could feel Rebecca's quick breaths on my shoulder. I slid my arms around her back and just sat there.

"We're okay" I just muttered as we sat there.

Rebecca moved away slightly and just looked at me. I'd never really realised it before, and I couldn't tell if it was the adrenaline wearing off, but Rebecca was beautiful.

Before I even realised what had happened, my lips were pressed against my protégé's.

It felt wrong at first. I'd turned down and broken up with multiple girls because I still felt for Jill. But after a while, I settled into it.

We stayed like that for a moment, until a voice came from the passageway we had come from. "Hey guys, I got some ammo from the storage crate we passed" Chris called over to us as he climbed down the ladder.

We quickly separated and Rebecca moved away from me just as Chris . He walked around the corner and just looked at us.

For a moment, I panicked he would realise what we'd done. Though that was put to rest when he simply handed one full ammo box to each of us.

"Really?" I asked "where did you get ammo boxes? I'd have thought there'd clips".

"No idea" Chris shrugged as I took the box from his and loaded the bullets into my empty clip.

Venom helped raise the bars that blocked our advance as we made our advance. We kept going until a huge fountain and the end of our trail.

"What now?" I asked as we wandered around the circular structure. There were no cracks or crevices, only two circular locks for items we didn't have.

'Hold on' Venom told me before separating from me and diving into the water.

My body suddenly felt weak and I had to sit against the edge of the fountain. Chris and Rebecca walked over to me, the former looking after the living sludge. "What's it doing?" he asked.

"No idea. There must be something in the water" I shrugged as my head started pounding.

My body had grown so accustomed to having Venom within me that I felt odd going back to normal.

Rebecca reached into her pack and produced a water bottle that she handed me. "I know how you feel about Jill, ya know" she stated once Chris was out of ear shot. I smirked "that obvious, am I?".

"Yeah... What about me?" she asked.

I went silent at the question. It made me feel awkward and I was unable to provide an answer.

"... You know, I don't mind sharing".

My eyes went wide. I hadn't expected that at all.

I was about to respond when Venom's head popped out of the water. "I found them" he told us, before presenting two items. The first was silver in nature, and had the imprint of a wolf on both sides. The second was similar, though it was gold and had an eagle.

I picked both of them out of Venom's tentacles as he slithered back inside of me, though his head was still present. "Wesker threw them both into the water to stop us" Venom stated once Chris had reached us.

I handed one to Chris and the other to Rebecca, who took them over to the sides Venom told them to. They placed both medals into the slots and staircase began lowering itself below the water, that slowly drained until a lift became present..

'Wait, I need to tell you something' Venom told me as the other two walked down the steps.

Chris and Rebecca had reached the lift when they saw I hadn't followed them. "Hey, you coming?" Chris asked me.

"Uhh, yeah!" I cried back, before walking down the steps.

Venom had told me something that was truly horrifying.

I was entirely silent during the ride down. The brick style environment was replaced with wet concrete that I didn't even notice until the elevator stopped.

We slowly walked through the umbrella facility venom had escaped from. Several zombies and other monster were present, but they meant nothing compared to what was coming.

I felt a tug down a set of stairs.

"Who's there?!" a female voice called out.

"Jill?" I called out as I flew down the steps.

Chris and Rebecca followed me until we found a single cell that indeed held the brunette.

"I glad you're okay" I stated as I held her hand between the bars.

"Yeah, same. Can you get me out?" she asked.

Venom's tentacle pressed against the lock until it clicked open.

Jill burst through the door and threw her arms around me.

I smiled and hugged her back as we celebrate the brief moment. Chris and Rebecca came down the steps and smiled at the sight.

"Jill, you're alright" Chris stated as he wrapped his arms around us.

I tried to enjoy the moment, but it didn't last.

I knew what I had to do.

Once Rebecca was within range, Venom's tentacles wrapped around my three friends. Within a second, the sludge had thrown them into the cell and I closed the door behind them.

"Connor, what the hell are you doing?!" Chris asked.

"I'm sorry. Venom found something and I don't want you guys to die. I'll come back for you" I stated, before walking away.

Jill screaming my name tugged at my heart.

"Even though it hurts like hell" I muttered as I jogged up the stairs.

Finding Wesker wasn't difficult. He had provided power to the elevator in the centre of the facility just as I'd passed it.

An invitation.

It led to a hallway with several creatures in vats. They were all different colours, but it was clear what they were.

Venom called the Symbiotes.

At the end of the hall were two doors. Wesker was on the other side.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Wesker asked, though he wasn't expecting an answer.

He was standing before a creature unlike the others I'd seen before. It had a huge left arm and grey skin, with red veins present around the abnormal limb.

Though the grey sludge moving around it's extreme limb.

'Riot' Venom told me.

I pointed my gun, with half a clip, at the blonde.

"We both know you don't need that" Wesker stated. He finally turned to face me, his sunglasses reflecting the lights coming from the ceiling.

I knew I shouldn't, but my gun clattered to the floor.

I was going to enjoy this.

Back in the cells, the three STARS members were talking about the situation.

"What was that thing?" Jill asked, sitting on the bed.

"Connor called it Venom. He got it from the dog that bit him" Chris replied while lent against the wall.

"Right, but what was it?" Jill repeated.

"We don't know, he never said" Rebecca told her. Her back was against the wall while she sat on the floor.

The three were silent, before Rebecca stood up and walked over to the door.

And simply opened it.

Jill and Chris stood up in shock and walked up behind the short girl.

"He didn't lock the door".

They immediately followed my steps until a crackling on the radio.

"This is STARS officer Brad Vickers. Is anyone there, over?" the voice of the helicopter pilot, Kevin, asked.

Chris pressed the button on his radio and quickly responded, "This is Chris Redfield. We're at a mansion in the Arklay Mountains".

Static came from the communication device.

"We're too deep underground" Jill stated.

Chris turned to the shortest among them and handed the radio to her. "Rebecca, take this and go back above ground. Contact Kevin and get him to pick us up. We'll get Leon and bring him back" the brunette man informed her.

Though hesitant, Rebecca nodded, "please, bring him back".

Jill's eye brow arched, before watching as the girl ran towards the exit.

Jill and Chris climbed into the elevator and found themselves in the hallway of Symbiotes.

A loud crash came from the room I was in, causing the two to sprint inside.

They saw the grey creature, with it's arm ripped off, lying in a puddle of it's own blood.

I had been flung to the other side of the room, smashing vats of creatures and cutting up my skin.

The sound of a hammer being pulled back drew the attention of Jill and Chris. Wesker was pointing my gun and his at the two.

It still sounded like a fire alarm had gone off in my head, which seemed to be irritating Venom. Wesker was slowly approaching Chris and Jill, the guns pointed at the male, who was the closer of the two. My whole body was still paralysed and wracked with pain.

I couldn't do anything to stop him.

'I can stop him'.

'Shit' I thought, 'he's gonna kill them'. This was the only option I had left. "Do... it" I groaned out weakly. The sickening sound of bones crunching and scraping together caught the attention of Jill and Chris, who were now against the wall. Wesker looked over to see a horrifying sight. A seven-foot-tall mass of oily black muscle stared down at the villain with two eyes that were pure white. Two rows of sharp teeth lined his jaw. A large hand reached over and grasped Wesker's throat, then the sickening voice of the monster spoke.

"Eyes, lungs, pancreas. So many snacks, so little time".

A long, slick, pointed tongue protruded from his mouth and trailed it's way up Wesker's cheek. "What the hell are you?" Wesker asked, his calm demeanour a facade for the absolute terror he felt inside. The left side of Venom's face parted from the mouth to reveal my calm, unharmed face. Venom and my combined voices spoke three, horrifying, words that even had Jill and Chris shaking.

"WE ARE VENOM".

Everything had gone to shit after that.

Our body had taken a large chunk out of Wesker's side and we had left him to bleed out in the laboratory.

We had picked up my friends and carried them all the way to the roof where Rebecca was waiting.

"What the?!" Rebecca cried out as venom jumped up a hole he had created. Before we could answer her, they grey behemoth jumped through the hole we had created.

"Fuck's sake!" we yelled out, before lunging towards the beast.

We became a blur of claws and teeth. No matter what we tore off or devoured, the monster just kept going.

Helicopter blades could be heard over the sounds of two wild animals tearing each other apart, though we had no interest.

If we didn't kill this thing here and now, it would reach the city.

And we would not allow that.

Our teeth drove into the grey monster's shoulder and we began tearing off the enlarged arm. Riot simply travelled to another part of the body, before healing the wound we had made.

Riot's dummy body swung it's enlarged arm at us and severed one of our legs, though it didn't stop us.

We jumped over the rooftop, avoiding the constructs Riot threw at us.

"Connor, move!" we heard Chris yell, before a loud boom came from behind us.

A rocket flew forward and struck Riot's body, spreading it around the rooftop.

The large arm was severed in half and Riot's real body was slithering around inside it, clearly trying to get away.

We trudged towards the remaining grey ooze and snatched it into our large left hand. The right reached towards it and grabbed Riot's sludge.

Slowly, we started tearing Riot out of the remaining piece of flesh, enjoying the screams that came from it.

Riot reached about a meter before it snapped and became far smaller.

We raised Riot above our head and slowly lowered it into our gaping maw. We gobbled it up and tore it apart.

Slowly, Venom and I switched places and I was returned to my normal body.

I looked over to the faces of the others and was surprised by what I saw.

Each of them were shocked at my fight, but none of them seemed frightened or scared.

Suddenly, my legs gave out and I dropped to my knees. My eye lids slowly closed as I passed out

My three friends were shaken from their stupor and they ran over to me.

"Connor? Connor?!" Jill yelled as the helicopter slowly landed on the helipad.

By the time I woke up, we were landing back in Racoon City.

It felt strange to go home after everything that had happened.

I felt my head resting on some soft, and squishy.

Turning my head, I slowly realised that I was laying down on a human lap.

Jill's lap.

My face went red from the situation as I sat up and rubbed the back of my head.

"Connor, you're okay!" Jill stated as she quickly hugged me. I had to steady us from falling over, but otherwise I enjoyed the feeling.

Just as we were about to land, I told my friends something I had decided upon waking up.

"Guys, I'm leaving STARS".

They all turned to me in surprise, "what, why?" Chris asked first.

"Because I can't let Umbrella get away with this. They have enough money to bury the whole thing, and pay off anyone that could help" I responded as the helicopter landed back at the RPD building.

There was a moment of silence among us, before Jill spoke up. "I'm coming too" she stated.

I looked at her wide eyed. What I was doing was suicide in every way imaginable, yet Jill, who did not have a symbiote for protection, was willing to follow me.

I wanted to tell her no. To say it was the stupidest thing I would ever do. But ultimately, it was her choice.

"I'm quitting too" Rebecca stated.

That was even more shocking. I stared at my protégé and was about to ask why, when she continued. "I want to help people, but I don't want to do it with a gun or super powers" she started. "So, I'm going to become a scientist. I'll find a cure to whatever Umbrella make" the mousy girl stated.

I understood what she meant. Rebecca wasn't a fighter, she was a thinker.

"Guess that just leaves me then" Chris stated with downcast eyes.

"Hey, it's not we're leaving the country. We're just choosing a different fight" I told my best friend. There was no way Chris would leave STARS, and we all knew that.

And so, as we left that helicopter, we made a vow.

Umbrella had fucked our lives forever.

We were going to fuck them right back.

2 DAYS LATER:

I was sat at a fancy restaurant in the upper part of Racoon City. I'd just come from handing in my resignation.

As expected, nobody had bought our story and we were all labelled as failures and cowards by the chief of police.

Right now though, none of that mattered.

Right now, I was waiting for the arrival.

Right now, I was looking at my date, wearing a lavish blue dress, walk through the doors.

I stood from my seat and gave Jill a gentle hug. We had decided to give dating a go, after dancing around each other for so long..

"So, you gave in your resignation today?" she asked as we sat at the reserved table. "Yeah, Irons was pissed" I joked before taking a swig of wine from my glass.

"I'll bet, thanks for the heads up" she told me with a smirk.

Chief Irons was a portly, aging man that was almost definitely on Umbrella's payroll. He was the one who had called us fools for coming back with such an insane story.

Due to the destruction of the mansion, there wasn't any proof of our claims, so the four of us were labelled as crazy.

Little did we know, these happy times in the city wouldn't last.

A/N: As many of you have noticed, my writing style doesn't go well with Resident Evil 1's minimal story. So, I decided to mash the first 6 chapters into one so anyone can just skip it if they want.

If you want a full harem list, here it is:

Jill

Claire

Ada

Rebecca

Helena

Older! Sherry

Ashley

Maria

Angela

Sheva

Jessica