Code Name: EVE

When she started to come around, the first thing she noticed was that the ground under her seemed to be rocking. Then she became aware of the sound of water and her eyes fluttered open. She was lying on her side in the bottom of a boat, and when she tried to move a million little needles started jabbing at her. Ashley forced herself to sit up and take in what was happening anyway, using one of the white plastic seats for help. The first thing she saw was Jack in the front seat, but he looked like he was either asleep or resting as well. Her eyes widened and she searched the horizon around them. She could see the island in the distance, but the silhouette didn’t look the same and there were curls of smoke rising from it. Oh, god, what had happened to Leon? She was seriously contemplating grabbing a life vest and jumping overboard. She’d rather try to swim for shore than… But her… whatever they’d put in her… didn’t want her to. It was the same thing that had been pulling her toward the cult leader last night, only it was pulling her toward… Her heart sank as her eyes moved back to the still figure in the front seat.

He jerked awake as the rising sun touched his eyelids. He hadn’t actually meant to fall asleep, but he’d felt so inexplicably drained… The first thing he did was whip around to check on Ashley. She was awake, but she was only sitting in the bottom of the boat with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her eyes flicked up to him when she heard the sudden movement, though. He gave her a twisted smile. “How’re you doing back there, princess?”

Ashley eyed him. “What happened?” She finally asked. “The island…”

Jack looked back at the rubble. “The plan was for us to destroy it when we finished our mission. Slippery bitch must’ve made it out after all.”

“What about Leon?” The girl asked weakly.

“I wouldn’t know,” he shrugged, and his gaze switched back to her. There was something decidedly more intense about it now. “Want to sit up here with me?”

She opened her mouth, and then was frighteningly surprised she’d actually been considering saying yes, so she shut it again. He was probably planning on doing something. Finally she shook her head and answered, “I’m okay…”

Apparently accepting that response, he turned forward again and started the boat. He’d wanted to get to land and into the shade before the sun came up, but it wasn’t that far. He hadn’t really decided on what he was going to do once he reached the mainland. It wouldn’t be as simple as just going back to America and finding Wesker. Anyone he knew who could help him in that department was someone he knew through Wesker, so he wouldn’t be able to trust them. It was far better if the pair thought he was dead.

Ashley stayed curled where she was as the shore approached. He wouldn’t hurt her too much if she was good and quiet, right? And maybe he’d even get them back to civilization. She’d be safer in public, and she could find help there. Even so, when he cut the motor and let the boat glide into the shallows of the mainland, she unfurled only very slowly.

Krauser hopped over the side, biting back the wince at the way the salty water stung his injuries. Then he grabbed her wrist to help her over the side and up the bank. It was rather steep here, after all. Once on solid ground, he let himself turn to thinking about where to go. The castle was probably empty now, and if it wasn’t, he doubted anyone left was anything he couldn’t deal with. He consulted briefly with the instincts of his plaga, checked the direction of the sun, and then dragged Ashley after him into the woods.

She had no way of really knowing where he intended to go. For all she knew, he’d just picked a random direction and started walking. The idea of being lost in the woods with him was very unnerving. “Where are you taking me?”

“Salazar’s castle.”

That made her falter, and she pulled back on his hand noticeably. Too many bad memories in that place… especially that creepy ritual… “But… What if there’s somebody in there?”

Jack grinned at her over his shoulder. “If there is, it won’t be anything I can’t handle. Besides, would you rather be out here with the wolves and who knows what else all night? The forest gets pretty dark, after all…”

Well he did have a good point about that. Leon had killed most if not all of the creatures in the castle already. In the end, she just went quiet and did her best to keep up with him. It was difficult, though. Not only was he faster than Leon, but they weren’t using any kind of path, and scraggly bushes kept catching and tearing at her exposed legs. At one point, tired and short of breath, she misstepped making her way over a log and stumbled forward. She grasped for something to steady herself, and he was the first thing her hands encountered.

He turned at the sound of her stumbling in the leaves and instinctively grabbed her arm to steady her. Her other hand landed on his chest, and she gave him that deer-in-the-headlights expression he enjoyed so much. “Need help?” Jack teased.

“No, I just…” She looked up at him weakly, but didn’t move her hand or try to pull out of his grip. “I’m having trouble keeping up. You’re going too fast…”

“Then you need to try harder.”

Ashley groaned to herself as he turned around and started off again. Letting him leave her behind was an option, but she didn’t want to be out in the woods alone. Especially if she got lost and had to stay out here all night. Much to her relief, as the ominous bulk of the castle materialized, he did slow down. The place was huge. She remembered that. If she ran away from him here, there were so many places she could hide. On the other hand, she didn’t know how many traps there were, or how many were still active. She didn’t believe she could survive in this place by herself. And on a deeper level, she didn’t want to run away. She hated it, but that fact was still there.

Krauser glanced around as they made their way to the front gate. He’d been here before, but he hadn’t had a chance to extensively explore the interior. All he was really looking for right now, though, was a place to clean up and a place to rest. The last… three fights had it been? Well, they’d taken a lot out of him. Fortunately, the girl hadn’t decided to be any trouble. She just trailed along behind him quietly as he made his way across the Escher-esque stone bridges and stairs and into the castle.

It was all familiar. In fact, it had only been hours before that she had followed Leon through this very place. She was unconsciously staying rather close to her former rapist, expecting some horrific beast to come charging around the corner at any minute. In fact, she was a hair away from clinging to his arm. The only thing stopping her was a fear of what it might initiate. Ashley didn’t want to encourage him to take her again. Nor did she want to inadvertently anger him. He was badly injured, and if she did something that hurt him, he might retaliate in kind. At the same time, she was getting tired of these situations. The ones where her life and health depended on this depraved madman. Leon had been safety and security. And now he was… Well, somewhere very far away…

Hours of going up and down stairs and trying doors was really testing Krauser’s nerves. He’d already been on edge, tired and sore, and the last thing he wanted to find through this thousandth set of doors was what looked like some kind of throne room. “Goddammit,” he grumbled. Too bad Saddler’s place had been destroyed. The soldier had known just about every inch of that cursed island like the back of his hand.

Last time Ashley had been in this room, she’d been on her knees between two very sharp blades. She even recognized the square in the floor, still open. The faint odor of decay drifted out of the pit and she wrinkled her nose. That had been a particularly frightening moment for her, mostly because the position she’d been forced to assume had been too much like the pose Jack had put her in at the beginning of the fourth night. At the time she’d been certain that Salazar and those two things that were always with him had been planning to jump her. Then again, that had actually been her foremost concern when she encountered anybody with a plaga. Ever since she’d found out how easily hers had made her give in to Jack. At this thought, her eyes drifted up to his back. Thankfully, it hadn’t been that persistently drawn to any of the others. Only Jack and Lord Saddler, and even then its attraction to Saddler’s parasite had been different somehow.

Jack wandered to the edge of the pit and stood staring into it as he thought. He could hear water running down there, but the smell of blood and decay as much as the spikes kept him from attempting a descent. If there was water down there, it wouldn’t be clean enough for his purposes anyway. Then he remembered Saddler, telling him Salazar had failed to stop Leon. Though he hadn’t seen the act first hand, he knew it was after the news that Leon had taken Ashley from the church. Even so, it was around here somewhere that he’d also heard they did the rituals. He didn’t know what could be left to do after injecting the egg, but… “Have you been here before?” He suddenly asked without looking back.

She jerked out of her reverie and blinked. “What?”

This time he did look back at her, over his shoulder. “Have you been here before?”

Nodding, she let her eyes fall to the floor, rather than meet his. “Why?” There were footsteps, and then his shadow was falling across her feet. The president’s daughter still didn’t look up.

“I want to make sure we’re on the same page.” When she wouldn’t make eye contact, he used one finger and his thumb to lift her chin. “We both want to get out of here in one piece, right? But you don’t have the same capacity to defend yourself.”

“I… I guess…” Though she was aware of that little fact herself, she didn’t like having him acknowledge it out loud. She was as vulnerable to him as anything else in this place.

“If you’re a good girl, I’ll take you out of here with me. If you give me shit, I’ll leave you like that,” he snapped his fingers. “You follow me?” When she nodded shakily, he continued. “We both need a place to clean up and rest, because it could be a long trek back on foot. Do you remember anything from before?”

It was hard to think when he was touching her, or even looking at her. She did come up with, “There were… bedrooms on the third floor, but…”

“If you remember how to get there, then go,” he gestured impatiently.

The idea of going into an empty bedroom with him made her insides knot up. However, if she commented on it, he might take it as a reason to leave her here. And the last thing her plaga seemed to want was to disappoint him. As she slowly turned and led the way out of the room, she found herself wondering when it was going to be too late to get the thing out of her. Probably far too soon for her to do anything about it. It had been growing for almost a week now, and there was no way of knowing when the opportunity to remove it would present itself.

As he followed her, very close in case she bolted, he found his eyes drifting down to her pert little ass. He was sure it was unintentional, but her hips had this way of swaying when she walked, and there was something fascinating about the way her skirt shifted over the flesh underneath. On the other hand, he was surprised to note that it wasn’t having much of an affect on him at this point. His plaga was tired, and distracted by the arduous tasking of knitting together numerous deep wounds. He should have let it finish its job before challenging Wong, but he’d let his anger get the better of him. It didn’t matter. As long as Ashley continued to be this meek and servile, he had as long as he needed to rest up here.

There were so many stairs going up to balconies and then down again that it was rather difficult for the blonde female to keep track of what floor was which. It didn’t help that she could practically feel him checking her out. At last, though, she came to a familiar corridor. “It’s… one of these…” she gestured vaguely, hoping he’d let her fall back behind him again. Thankfully, his apparent preference to dominate situations won out and he moved past her to try one of the doors.

It was indeed a bedroom, but that wasn’t what he wanted at this instant. Making a mental note of it, Krauser closed that door and moved on to the next one. It must have been some kind of servant’s quarters, this hallway, because when he did stumble across a bathroom it appeared to be of the communal variety. There were shower stalls on one wall and bathroom stalls on the other. It wasn’t the sparse, dirty white tiled sort of bathroom found at gyms or public swimming pools either, though. It was clean, and the showers had frosted glass doors. Not that he needed or particularly desired frills. When he glanced back to ascertain that Ashley was still with him, he found her lingering hesitantly in the doorway. “Come on.”

“Can’t I just wait out here?”

Krauser shook his head. “You’re not getting that far out of my sight.”

“I swear I won’t go anywhere. There were times when I could have run before and I didn’t…”

“You underestimate me,” he snorted and smirked. He knew what this was really about. “Don’t you think I would have taken you again by now, if I really wanted to? You were as helpless in the woods as you were in that boat. So quit fucking around and get your ass in here.”

That didn’t mean she trusted him. No matter what he said, this opportunity was still more perfect than those other two opportunities. She could have fled over the side of the boat. She could have run off into the trees. This room was small, windowless, and the perfect place for him to trick her into getting naked and entering an even smaller space. The violence was clearly rising in those hard, gray eyes, though, so all she did was quietly step into the room and close the door.

Krauser watched her suspiciously for another moment before turning away to get his shoes and socks off. He didn’t stop there, either. After the kneepads and belt were removed, he unfastened his pants and let them fall to the floor. With his heightened senses, he heard the young woman behind him make a startled gasping sound, but decided to ignore it. He didn’t have anything to hide from her, so he discarded his last stitch of clothing and opened the shower door. When he tried the tap, the water came out cold at first, but it felt surprisingly good. The dull throbbing from the still open wounds faded as salt, sweat, and general grit were sluiced out of them, and he couldn’t help a low, contented sigh. Jack tilted his head forward into the spray and closed his eyes as the welcome drops ran down his face to fall from his nose, lips, and chin in tiny rivers.

Ashley hugged herself and stared longingly at the two empty stalls. She felt pretty disgusting, for it had been days since she last had a proper shower. Sure, the rain her and Leon had gotten caught in had felt good, but that had only been a brief reprieve from the sweaty running along dusty roads and through dirty trees. Her clothes were filthy, too, crusted with blood that hadn’t been there before she lost consciousness. All she knew was that it wasn’t hers. Finally, she kicked off her shoes, but left on her sweater and skirt as she slunk into the stall farthest from him. At first she just let the water run over her and her clothing, afraid to undress. After a bit, though, frustration took over and she yanked her sweater off over her head to do a proper job. The same with her skirt.

The soldier looked up at the sound of water, grinned, and shook his head. Silly girl. She resisted and resisted, but always gave up in the end. The water swirling around his feet and down the drain eventually ran clear, but he lingered longer than he had to anyway.

She’d hung her clothing over the partition to dry, and now she was focusing on herself. At one point she’d actually relaxed enough to let her eyes drift half shut. Lacking soap or a wash cloth, she was merely running her hands over her body. They traveled down the back of her neck, over her shoulders, and around the creases under her breasts. Heading down her stomach, they skipped over the cloth covered area, for the time being, and moved on to her legs. Only after she’d covered everything else did she return to her more intimate areas. For something like two days she’d been longing to scrub herself from head to toe like this, but the man’s presence put a huge damper over any relief. Just as she was feeling secure enough to temporarily pull her panties out of the way, though, she heard his water shut off and froze. There was movement in the bathroom, and she saw his silhouette glide across her door. It didn’t stop, and the door didn’t open, but she was still holding her breath.

The soldier got a towel out of a linen closet, dried his hair, and then started carefully dabbing at the wounds on his legs. It was a shame his mutation couldn’t shield more. The next thing he wanted to do was see if any of the bedrooms had spare robes in them, but he couldn’t leave Ashley alone in here. “You almost done, princess?” Jack called without looking up from the task at hand.

“…Yes…” she managed to force out. The tension in her voice was far too obvious to her. She didn’t like having him know how small he made her feel.

“Then hurry it up.”

Ashley looked down at herself, bit her lip, and decided not to take her panties off after all. Instead, she shut off the water and looked up at her skirt. Suddenly a shadow moved outside her door again and she heard something come over the top of it. With a squeak, she whipped around, only to find a fresh towel hanging there. As she pulled it down, she eyed it suspiciously for a trick. There didn’t appear to be any, but she took her time drying. When she did finally come out, she was clutching the towel closed with both hands, as though her life might depend on it. It was something she should have weighed when she’d decided to get her clothes wet. Jack was sitting on the counter, in nothing but a towel himself, examining a nasty looking gash in his chest. Once more, her eyes darted shyly away.

“Ready?” He asked, looking up at her. When she only nodded, eyes still averted, he slid off the counter and went back out into the hall. He could hear her footsteps trailing after him, but as he walked into one of the bedrooms they paused at the door. Glancing back, he muttered, “Not this shit again…”

While logically she knew it was pointless, it was still hard to let her guard down. She just shrugged helplessly, wishing Leon was in Jack’s place. He’d always been patient and understanding with her, never this abrupt or harsh. But that wasn’t going to happen, and her and Jack both knew what she was ultimately going to do. Mentally recoiling from the situation, she entered the room and pressed into a corner. Maybe the wall would open up and swallow her again…

Satisfied, Jack returned to the task of finding something to cover himself. The black robes in the closet were a bit tight across the shoulders, but he only had to wear it long enough to heal. The equivalent of a long nap with his new abilities. There was only one loose end, and he gestured at Ashley as he approached the bed. She made a noise, but otherwise didn’t resist, even when he told her to sit down. “You don’t want to be tied up again, do you?”

“No,” Ashley whispered, hoping that she didn’t know where he was going with this.

“Then this is how it’s going to work. I want to get some sleep. You can sleep too, or you can just sit there quietly. Either way, I’ve got senses like a cat, so if you try to leave the room, there will be trouble. You follow?”

The girl nodded, still apprehensive. When all he did was climb up on the other side and close his eyes, she let out a relieved breath and curled up at the foot. The towel slid up her thigh and she pushed it back down. As gross as the ganados had been, she really wanted one of those robes right now. And they’d be baggy enough to conceal her curves, unlike the clothes she had in the bathroom. Even if he already knew what she looked like under it, she could still avoid being immediately provocative. Out of sight, out of mind, maybe… But, she was afraid to get up, too, lest he take it the wrong way. Finally, after a long, uncomfortable period, she decided to try it anyway. If he gave her a hard time, she’d just explain… or something… Moving tentatively, she slid off the bed and tiptoed over to the closet. To her relief, he didn’t move. Ashley knew he’d never leave her alone in a room to change, and she didn’t trust him to not try to watch. It was better if he stayed asleep.

Jack felt the bed move and opened one eye a slit. When he saw that she was only going for the closet, he decided not to alert her to his state of consciousness. The closet made a sound when she first opened it, and his eye snapped shut as she shot a look back at him. There was a beat, and then he heard her rifling through it. He went back to watching her. She was still holding the towel with one fist, her other hand occupied with the monks’ garb. He could guess at the puzzle running through her head. How to get the robe on without dropping the towel too early? One forearm kept the towel pinned just above her breasts while she worked the garment around until she had it by the hem. As she let the white cloth fall, she quickly hugged the black cloth to her chest and pulled it over her head. Though her careful move had denied him even the slightest glimpse of her tits, her ass was a different story. The white cotton was still wet—see-through—and clung to her skin so that he needed very little imagination to fill in details. Then the robe dropped over it like a curtain. With the show over, Jack closed his eye and merely listened to make sure she stayed in the room.

When another look back showed her that he was still asleep, she actually did consider bolting. It was only an impulsive, almost habitual thought, though. The idea that was really pushing for dominance involved curling up on the floor rather than returning to the foot of the bed. Her plaga twisted at the thought, but she clenched her fists and ignored it. Despite that, the floor was surprisingly comfortable, and she actually managed to drift off. She didn’t know for how long.