AN: I'm positive most of you, heck all of you know where this is from. But I just saw the ending for RE5 recently, and let me tell you, I was shocked. Okay, well duh, seeing as how I don't play the games, but watched tidbits of other people playing them (I'm horrible at videogames and always feel guilty when my character dies). Anyway, I am reminded again of why I heart RE. To make an AN short, (too late ) I did this in order to give me some sense of where Chris is mentally and emotionally, and thought, why not make this a prologue and see how people like it?

More AN: There will be slash, folks. Not right away, but there will be, so if you have anything against it, I bid you good day.

Disclaimer: (sigh) I do not own RE or any of its awesome characters. I cannot do the creators justice, but hell, watch me try!

There's Nothing like A Trail of Blood

Prologue: Loss

Liquid heat.

Dry unbreathable air.

In the moments Chris used to scramble up the ladder to follow Sheva into the helicopter, all he could think about was the heat coming from the volcano below. Not about Wesker. He was dead…probably. There was no way he would be able to survive all that lava, and even a self-proclaimed god wouldn't be able to ignore the power of molten rocks. But when the Redfield was finally inside the much cooler interior of the aircraft, for a split second he remembered what he had seen.

Wesker. Tentacles surrounding him, eyes flashing crimson in the battlefield of hell and burning rock…Wesker. He had fallen in the lava. He had been in pain, pain…he was now…

At that moment black tentacles burst out of the sea of fire and latched onto the rails of the helicopter, curling around the metal like an anchor. There was no thinking, only reacting as Jill told Sheva about the RPGs, and Sheva handed him one, the metal feeling heavy and cool, weighing Chris down in all the chaos.

Chris saw the shock on Wesker's face just as the jade green of the RPG heads slammed into him, exploding into a curtain of lava that veiled whatever the weapons did to the blonde man from view.

There was no final glimpse after that.

All Chris could think after that was… that it was all over. And another curtain fell over, this time over Chris, a shadowy black one that kept him from feeling anything at all, except a sense of weariness and maybe some relief.

Hours Later...

The metal propellers glinted with the reflection of the setting sun's dying rays.

Inside, silence reigned.

Clear sharp blue…outside.

Clear sharp grey.

Clear sharp crimson, smoldering like embers ablaze with a shock so real that in that moment Chris Redfield knew with a cold certainty that when his former S.T.A.R.S. captain plummeted to the hell that awaited him in the volcano below, a part of Chris shattered, and cracked fragments fell along with the man that had destroyed everything…

Countless lives…

Chris…and any chance of life after the end…

It was all over. Chris snapped to attention to his quiet companions inside the helicopter. How long has it been, a couple of hours maybe? Why did he feel as if it just happened seconds ago? Why did he feel this heavy feeling of—

Wait, feelings?

Feelings?

How are you supposed to feel when you see the person you hate with every ounce of your being, the person you dedicated every drop of sweat, blood and sanity to in order to rid the world of his presence, finally killed?

How are you supposed to feel when you see the person you most admired, the person you dedicated every drop of sweat, blood and sanity to in order to earn his respect, see some sort of emotion flickering behind those damn sunglasses, die by your hand?

What are you supposed to feel when that person's gone?

Maybe, Chris thought and settled his gaze on the metal floor in front of him, just above the reach of his boots, maybe…in the end…he wasn't supposed to feel anything at all.

Not if he wanted to stay sane.

Not if he wanted to survive after all of this.

At that moment, the surviving member of the previous game with Albert Wesker chose the option that any one who wanted to fall to pieces privately would choose.

Smoke trailed up into the clear sharp blue behind Chris Redfield and his companions…

An era of fear was soon to be extinguished…

But the caw of a black bird circling lazily above the humans struggling to stitch their lives back together brushed them with reality, for an era had ended, soon to be replaced with another.

Only a fool would believe that the world was at peace at last.

A/N: Whew! Well, there you have it folks. I hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to any comments and feedback, this being my first fanfic and all. That being said, I'll update as soon as I can!