Jill had been on the run for the past two years . She'd been relocating place to place every now and then , enacting her own justice on those who had hurt her in the past , and after experiencing the BSAA's thoughts on recovery from the hell she had been put through , Jill Valentine could trust nobody. Not even the woman standing in front of her — she knew her once , didn't know how Claire had found her here , but the hold on her pistol never changes as it remains raised.
Who's to say the B.S.A.A. wasn't after her and using TerraSave and an old friend to get to her? Jill's paranoia was not doing exceptionally well after she was still recovering from so many medical effects, and her stance is that of a wolf backed into a corner.
Jess had been using all the resources in her back pocket in order to track Claire down here . It had seemed a little off with the lack of personnel , but she put that aside and set herself on looking for the other woman . She'd found her in a locked, dingy cell, and Jess' gaze flickered up the hallway as she opened the sliding bar door and was near immediately tackled to the ground.
The mercenary hadn't expected the motion at all , and neither did she expect the utter fury in Claire's voice . She struggled underneath her pin, her neck angled up and away from the shard of glass that was held on her throat . Something was wrong with Claire and while Jess didn't explicitly want to hurt her , she wasn't going to let the other kill her here.
"Quois? Non — chérie , what are you —"
Jess grit her teeth , fighting against Claire's hold while trying to keep herself alive. She shifted her knee so it was underneath Claire's stomach, and attempted to kick up and get the other the hell off her.
A low purr rose from Eight's throat as they slowly heaved themselves to their feet. Their posture hunched as they remained on all fours, and lifted their head as they sniffed the air. A caged muzzle tight around their jaws - a chain locked around their throat. "He will kill you," they said - their voice changing from Wesker's to an InGen handler they once knew as a juvenile. "He may not make it quick."
They shook, rattling the chain, and slowly crept forward from the darkened end of their cell. Their good eye gleamed as it reflected the light. "Brother?" they echoed, rather curiously. "I do not know." They paused, and in a voice that belonged to the stranger, "Who are you?"
Améris doesn't entirely know how she ended up here , in the . . BSAA's medical wing , or something . There'd been a hell of a lot of fuss over the detective for some reason or other, and she didn't quite understand — they kept calling her by a name that didn't entirely belong to her , save for the last name, and they'd run a ton of checkup tests . She couldn't answer any of their probing questions, and she couldn't entirely tell what they wanted from her in the first place.
Was she supposed to know the woman before her now? She could swear she hadn't suffered any memory issues , but it was clear that nobody else wanted to pay attention to what she considered to be the correct approach
Jess had been sitting on the edge of the bed for the past several hours, a notebook in her hand and several papers slotted inside, flicking through them with a pencil next to her. Her own bed was partitioned off on the other side of the large suite , but she'd stayed here for the time being after becoming incredibly invested in her own side of the investigation . It was still late at night , and Jess hadn't moved to take off her tailored gray blazer quite yet.
The whole thing was purely transactional for the mercenary — there would be some reward at the end of this , and she had little reason to do it out of the goodness of her heart. So, she'd treated this like every other contract she'd taken , even if the journalist's questions slowly began to grow less annoying than at the start of all of this , if her gaze lingered a second longer here and there. It was fortunate for them both that Jess knew the area — this exact room was one she'd stayed in once or twice before on other errands .
The mercenary didn't expect the other's proximity all of a sudden, nor the head rest on her shoulder . Claire didn't particularly know her that well — know her at all — so Jess wasn't sure why the other seemed so comfortable in her presence like she had the past night or two . The mercenary let out a breath and considered it for a moment . She doesn't particularly know how she felt about it , but she supposed with any sort of prolonged proximity , one grew comfortable in another's presence, and it wasn't something she'd carelessly disallow the other unless she decided to . Her words aren't harsh, nor are they dismissing , but firmly gentle would be one way to call it.
Jill's expression was twisted into a slight grimace as she lifted the heavy piece of metal, the sharp edges already having sliced into her palms. They didn't have a lot of time before the rest of the people who worked here got to them, and Jill would like to get Claire out from the precarious position she had just been in. Ada had fucked off somewhere else, and while Jill would have appreciated the help , she wasn't going to admit that at all . The trust was still shaky , but it was better than nothing right now.
Vibrant blue flickered up and to the side after Claire spoke , and Jill let out an exhale as she offered a hand to help her up, keeping herself aware of her surroundings in the near pitch black darkness , broken only by the limited emergency lights that casted an eerie red glow onto fragments of the floor.
‘ when you’re hungry & there ain’t enough to go around, ain’t no length to which a girl won’t go. ’
The Fates couldn't even leave her alone when she was in the middle of her work either , it seemed , and she hated that they could tell what she was thinking . Ailani was somewhere at home, working on that song of hers that just wouldn't be finished , and here Jill was , at the office and working so they could survive , or until her lover finished her music. It was late, and the coffee on the ex-cop's desk had long since cooled.
"Go harass someone else . Not in the fucking mood tonight ."
The thick , cloying smell of iron was incredibly evident in Jill's senses now, the familiar almost-drying crimson staining her face not light by any standards . It was stained further by Claire's thumb gently brushing against it , a slight hiss escaping gritted teeth as Jill tightened a bandage around her upper arm.
She really needed to stop getting into these fights so carelessly, but when she was driven by fury and anger and the sense of her own righteousness or lack thereof, Jill didn't particularly care . As long as her lover was by her side and as long as they supported each other , Jill would be content enough. Even if her opponent hadn't been killed , the ex cop had done enough significant damage to take him out of commission for a long while , and it was enough .
Betrayal was a hell of a thing . It had driven Jill to the point of destruction, and now everybody had turned against her just as she thought they would have — everyone but Claire . As much as she despised Wesker , he was right in one thing — if you wanted to survive , you looked out for yourself .
Jill allowed Claire to take her hand , calloused palm against the other's as she squeezed it softly . A light exhale and she set her expression, tilting it slightly as she considered the question.
". . Mentioned him once or twice before ."
"From back in the city . Carlos . Thought he'd be on our side . . but looks like those assholes got to him first ."
