"Hallways, hallways and more... hallways."

Suffice to say, Y/N wasn't the most patient person in the facility.

There was something annoyingly distinct about the place. It was plain, walls and structures built in a way that prioritised function and resourceful instead of vibrant, and a lively phase.

Or, he just really hated hallways.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Alice asked, her gaze glossing over the pristine steel covered walls.

The two had backtracked to where they had split off with Matt, and were now in pursuit of his location. Passing by more offices and rooms that would stand out to anyone as a corporate stock place.

"I'm sure..."

He didn't sound too confident.

"We've backtracked through here already."

Y/N stopped, the limp in his leg had gone down considerably, but still his speed was hampered. Rolling his eyes at the situation of them... maybe, being lost. He looked around the place, until he vaguely recognised the hallway next to him.

She was right.

"Shit." Y/N grimaced. "Okay, I know we passed through Office station C and then-"

"Then Board Room A."

"-Then Board Room A. So we just need to—"

But whatever he had planned to say was interrupted by a lone gunshot, causing the two Operatives to flinch, before sharing a look, and taking off towards the direction of the shot.

It didn't take them long to pinpoint the source, as they rounded a bend and passed another hallway, and into a large conference room. It's power out, dark and a complete mess.

They found Matt a minute later, huddled against the wall, and clutching Y/N's handgun in his grips tight, as the supposed cop stared down with wide eyes at the dead body before them.

It was a woman, late twenties and had blonde hair. She had been a zombie. Thanks to the bullet hole in the left side of her brain.

Alice, herself, voiced the question they were both wondering.

"Who was she?"

Matt looked up at the two of them, before deflating, and turning his gaze to the body.

"My sister."

Y/N shared a look with Alice, his head turning slowly to face her, and she herself followed. Before turning back to Matt, their faces matched either grin, or sympathetic.

"Sorry for you're loss." Y/N murmured. He himself was still feeling the raw affect. He could understand Matt's own pain.

Matt only nodded, his head down cast at his sister's lifeless body.

"Corporations like Umbrella think they're above the law." Matt said, before turning back up to face the two with a determined, hard fast look. "But they're not.

Y/N lowered his gaze to the floor as the words sunk in. While Alice kneeled down in front of the grieving man.

"There are hundreds of thousands of us who think the same. All over the world." Matt said. "Some of us provide information, others give their support." He sniffed. "Some took more direct action."

"Like you?" Alice asked, her eye brow raised.

Matt nodded, and turned to look at Y/N with a fiery gaze. "If your friends had been a little more thorough they would've seen right through my false ID. Then all the red flags would gone off."

"We had more pressing matters at hand than a possible mole in our systems." Y/N lowly, not liking the way he was targeting his colleagues.

"Yet it seems Umbrella's more content to let their people die than risk exposure." Matt snapped.

"You don't know that..." Y/N trailed off, moving his gaze away from him and towards the room around him.

"I do." Matt insisted. "You just don't want to believe it."

"The company's always had its secrets." Y/N said, slouching his shoulders. "Can't afford not to." He shook his head. "We all knew what we signing up for..."

"Did you?" Alice finally spoke up, causing him to sideline her, out of the corner of his eye.

Y/N let out a sigh. "I'm the one who requested this opt."

"What?"

"I thought Shade was in charge?"

"He was." Y/N told them, crossing his arms as he felt an uncomfortable tension grip him. "He just wasn't the one who authorised our go ahead."

"Then who did?" Alice asked, her eyes narrowing at him.

Y/N looked between the two of them for a few seconds, before setting his sights on the floor, with a sigh, he answered.

"My mentor, and the director of Umbrella's security forces. Albert Wesker..."

—

Flashback — A few hours ago.

"So the facility has been compromised?" Y/N asked, standing before a holographic screen of his boss. His arms crossed, and face stoic, void of any emotion.

There was something regal about the man who had taught him everything he knew.

Albert Wesker.

He was anything but simple.

The man's dirty blonde hair, piercing blue
eyes through black shades, and black outfit that made him look impressively imposing,
as he was intimating.

No matter hard he tried, Y/N always a felt bit of dread from his former teacher.

Something he picked up from him.

"Yes."

"Do they—"

Wesker interrupted him. "If you're asking if any of the personnel has been reported to gave survived the attack. Then the likely scenario would be none."

There was always a sense of coldness from him. Despite being under Umbrella's (and by extension, Wesker's) wing for nearly three decades of his entire life, Y/N could never understand why he acted like such a stuck up.

The giant stick up his arse probably had more emotions.

"Likely scenario, or not." Y/N countered, his eyes narrowed sharply. "Statistically speaking, there's always a chance for unlikely events to take place."

"And you believe this," He brought his hand up and waved it to the blueprint of information and structure of the hive on screen to their right. "To be one of those chances?"

"I do." Y/N stood at attention, his voice firm and back straight. Crossing his hands at his back. "With your permission, I would lead a small force into the Hive. Reboot the Red Queen, and uncover the course of the attack. And any survivors."

Wesker took his time staring at him, waiting, for anything to reveal itself. But the two men were in a stand off of sorts, neither showing any sign of weakness. Nothing they could reveal to themselves.

It was a minute long, until finally Wesker relented, "You will not be leading the team."

Initially Y/N wanted to protest, but the man continued. "You're CO will lead the charge, and you will fall in line, and do as exactly as he says."

The soldier scowled inwardly, but gave a nod.

"You forget, Lieutenant. You're a Captain no longer."

Lieutenant.

It was a symbol of his failure. A mocking gesture.

"We don't want another day like New Baghdad do we, Lieutenant?"

Y/N gulped, and his hand tightened into a fist at his side.

"No, sir."

"Good." Wesker finally relented. "Contact
your CO. You're going to Raccoon City." He mentally cheered and made to turn the hologram off, but Weaker interrupted him.

"And remember. No screwups. Not like last time. Understood? Or the Rising Phenix will be nothing but a fluttering bird in the wind."

"I understand, sir." Y/N swore he heard a bone pop at how hard he was clenching his hand.

"Good. You're dismissed."

The hologram of his boss disappeared, and all that was left was Y/N's fuming figure.

Despite his win, he couldn't help but feel he was being played.

—

Present Day.

"I requested to be apart of the opt because..." Y/N clenched his hand. "You're not the only one who had family inside."

The two civilians were marvelled.

Simply unsure as to what to say. Matt was understanding, yet speechless. The fact that he went and demanded to be apart of the mission, from one of the most powerful man in the company... well, Y/N didn't lack any balls.

Alice, herself, was starting to understand him a whole lot better than before. So they hadn't supposed to be here. His team, he himself had opted onto the mission at the last second.

She herself, wondered if there was more as to why this Wesker had let him and his team be the response team.

Perhaps, because he was his former student?

The way Y/N described it, they didn't sound like they liked each other, yet at the same time there was a sort of mutual respect (despite the indifference surrounding them) for each other.

"So... You got your sister on the inside." It wasn't a question. "Pulled some strings, now she's dead."

Matt nodded, before standing up and passing the gun over to Y/N. Sighing, he reached over and grabbed it. Placing his knife away and tightening the gun in his hand.

'Glad to be back with some real firepower.'

"My sister was going to smuggle out a sample of the virus they were developing." Matt told them, as he took a final look at her dead body.

"I could give you couple hundreds reasons as to why that's stupid idea." Y/N deadpanned as he gave the man a look. "You had no idea what that virus would do above ground. Did you guys even think of the ramifications if the virus got lose." He waved his hand around, and gestured took the room. "Now everyone's dead."

"She took precautions. We all did." Matt snapped.

"Well that worked out great." Y/N snorted, and turned away, unable to even look at the man.

Alice shook her head, and tried to be the peacemaker of the group. "So how was she going to make it out of here?" She asked.

"She had a contact within the Hive, someone I never met." Matt sighed. "They had access to security codes, surveillance, everything she needed."

"A mole in the Hive." Y/N murmured, his hand stroking up the length of his jaw as his mind began to wonder.

"So why didn't she make it?"

"Maybe she trusted the wrong person." Matt said. "Maybe they set her up. Kept the virus for themselves."

"Wouldn't be the first time..." Y/N trailed off in a whisper as a familiar memory made its way to his head.

"Do you have any idea how much the T-virus would be worth on the open market?" Matt asked. "To someone?"

"What, for all this?" Alice asked, eyeing all the death and destruction it had caused.

"Yeah."

Suffice to say, it was a hell of a lot more than Y/N made in a year, and that was saying something.

—

"Come on! Hurry!" Y/N shouted as they ran down another set of hallways.

They were on their way to the team's last known coordinates thanks to Y/N's comms.

Fortunately, they had found them.

Unfortunately, they were being chased by a huge group of undead.

"Get moving!" Y/N screamed as he pulled to a stop and opened fire on the zombies, nailing a couple of them in the heads while Alice and Matt proceeded ahead, as Y/N gave them time.

The two made it to the control room bulkhead door and pushed it open quickly, to reveal the others. Rain, J.D, Kaplan and Spencer.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Matt hissed as they pushed their way in, moving out of the way of Rain's pistol pointed at them.

Finally Y/N was the last one in last a nearby zombie was about to chomp on him, but Kaplan blew its brains out.

"Close the door!" Spencer exclaimed as Y/N barely got in. Zombies right on his heels

"They're behind us!" Y/N pressed his body up against the door as the group of them began pushing it to a close. As a zombie grabbed on to Spencer's arm, prepared to bite him, but Y/N shot it before it could.

"Son of a bitch!"

Finally they managed to completely shut the door and turn the lock.

Panting, tired and exhausted the team looked between each other, before Y/N looked at Spencer, who gave him a nod of thanks, and asked. "You okay?"

"Yeah..." Spencer gasped in a breath of air. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Y/N said, backing away from the door to check the others over. They all looked okay, yet looked as tired as he felt.

But it seemed Alice still had a spring in her steps. Because she was immediately moving other to the other end. "Right behind us. What about this door?"

"They're waiting for us out there too!" Kaplan exclaimed and moved forward to stop her before she open it.

Alice grimaced. "And that way?" She pointed towards the laser hallway, and to the Red Queen.

"That's a dead end." Y/N said as he came up behind her. "Just the Red Queen's chamber."

"Well, then we wait." Spencer said, desperately trying for a solution. "If someone doesn't hear from you, they'll send backup or something." He looked between the soldiers each. "Right?"

Each soldier shared a look, something that didn't go unnoticed by either Spencer, or the rest.

"What? What's wrong?"

Kaplan looked at Y/N, who nodded, the rookie turned to Spencer. "We don't have much time."

Y/N crossed his arms over and directed their attention to him. "You know those blast doors we passed on the way in from the mansion?" The three civi's nodded. "They seal shut in just under an hour. If we're not out here by then, we're not getting out of here."

"What are you talking about?" Spencer hissed. "They can't just bury us alive down here."

"It's standard protocol." Rain said, sitting down against the wall as Y/N and Kaplan stayed stood up.

"Containing the incident is the only fail-safe plan they had against possible contamination." Y/N explained as he placed his back against the wall. The all too familiar memory coming back to haunt him. "I know it more than most."

"You're... What? But how—"

"What do you mean, you know it more than most?" Alice interrupted, her eyes narrowing in slight suspicion. The entire situation had them all edge, she had a right to be suspicious.

And Y/N couldn't blame her.

The three soldiers in the room sharply turned their heads towards him. Something the three civilians picked up on.

"You saying this isn't the first time there's been a breach in containment?" J.D asked, nursing his broken nose. No hate in his tone, just curiosity.

Y/N almost forgot about the explosion back there, but decided not to bring it back up. Even with the injury.

"Not the same virus." Y/N clarified. "Not something on this scale. But... yeah, there has been one other incident."

"Where?" Kaplan asked, his features turned into sheer curiosity and a slight doubt at his friend's words.

Y/N looked at each them, before sighing and sliding to the floor, his back against the wall and his gun in hand.

"New Baghdad."

A/N: You might've noticed the phenix tattoo that I mentioned Y/N had on his left hand in previous chapters. And how Wesker referred to him with the...
"Rising Phoenix." Well, there's a hell of a lot more to Y/N than just a simple grunt. I can you tell you that now.