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The night air was heavy with smoke and decay. The remnants of a ruined city stretched endlessly under a red and dying sky. Ash drifted like snow, carried by a faint, toxic wind that whispered through broken glass and twisted steel. The distant howls of infected creatures echoed through the silence, their cries fading into the hollow skeletons of once-crowded buildings.
Jack walked slowly across the fractured ground. His boots crunched against the shattered concrete, his shadow long and sharp under the flickering firelight. In his eyes burned an emotionless calm — the confidence of someone who had already accepted what he'd become.
Before him stood Alice, her hair tangled by the wind, her stance defiant but tired. Her gaze was cold and wary, yet beneath it flickered something more human — exhaustion, regret, a sliver of pain.
Jack stopped a few meters away, his voice steady and almost gentle.
"You guessed right," he said softly. "You are not the only one. This great one has also fused with the T-Virus. The abilities you possess—I have them too. The ones you lack…I still possess."
Alice's lips curled into a bitter smile. A hollow laugh escaped her.
"Ha… ha ha… ha ha…"
Jack tilted his head slightly, studying her as though she were an experiment in motion. "What are you laughing at? Do you find comfort in meeting another monster like yourself?"
The laughter died on her lips. Alice's eyes darkened. "I'm laughing because you're pathetic. If I had the choice, I'd never want this power."
Her voice trembled. "Ah…" She screamed suddenly, and her pupils changed — morphing into a black, three-pointed star that pulsed with unnatural energy.
The earth responded to her rage.
The ground beneath her feet began to split open, forming deep fissures that glowed faintly with red light. A storm of dust and crushed stone rose in swirling chaos around them. The air trembled as a pulse wave erupted from her body, a wave of invisible force tearing across the ruins toward Jack.
He didn't move.
"Compared to Raccoon City," Jack murmured, almost nostalgic, "you've grown. Back then, you might have hurt my human form… but now—"
Before he could finish, the debris and the violent shockwave froze in midair — suspended one meter from where he stood. Time itself seemed to hesitate.
Alice gritted her teeth, her muscles straining as she pushed harder. "Hateful!" she screamed, forcing her psychic energy forward, but it refused to obey. The pressure twisted the air, and the ground exploded in violent cracks, sending shards of rock flying in every direction.
Jack simply shook his head. "Alice, save your strength. You cannot kill this great one. I could end you easily… but I won't."
His calm voice cut through the chaos like a blade. As he spoke, Alice's energy began to falter. The swirling dust dropped. The stones fell harmlessly to the ground. Her power, magnificent yet unstable, collapsed under the weight of his superior will.
Her breath came out in ragged gasps. The strain was unbearable. The world seemed to spin.
Jack raised a hand, and an invisible pressure pressed down on her mind. "Even the use of psychic power has its price," he said quietly, stepping closer. "Even I—though my brain has evolved to its limit—still feel pain and dizziness. Your mind has burned too bright, too fast. The energy drain is immense."
Alice clutched her head and dropped to her knees, trembling. A faint smile appeared through the pain. "I lost…"
Jack stopped before her, looking down. "Yes," he said simply. "You lost."
She lifted her head, her eyes blazing even through exhaustion. "Are you going to kill me?"
"I told you already," Jack said. "I will not kill you."
Alice's lips twisted into a tired sneer. "You'll regret it. If I ever get the chance… I'll kill you."
"Perhaps," Jack said with a faint smile. "But you'll never get that chance."
Her vision blurred. The last thing she saw was the calm in his expression, an indifference more terrifying than death. Then everything went dark.
Alice collapsed.
For a long moment, the world was silent again — the storm of psychic power gone, leaving only the whispering wind and the faint crackle of distant fire.
Footsteps echoed from behind. Jill Valentine emerged from the shadows, her weapon drawn but lowered cautiously. Her eyes darted from Alice's unconscious form to Jack.
"How is she?" Jill asked.
"She's fine," Jack replied. "Just sleeping."
Jill frowned, walking closer. The air around him felt unnaturally heavy, as if gravity itself bent in his presence. "What are you planning, Jack? You don't want to kill her, but you're not trying to save her either. What's your goal?"
Jack looked up at the sky, where gray clouds drifted over a faint dawn. "Life needs to be colorful," he said simply. "That's all."
Jill raised an eyebrow. "Don't make it sound so poetic. What are you, an artist now?"
Jack's lips curved into a half-smile. "Maybe I'm just being dramatic."
Jill sighed, shaking her head. "Whatever. I don't care what you're up to. But don't go too far, Jack. I can't protect you forever."
He turned to her with a faint smirk. "Relax. I'm not that type of man."
Jill gave him a long look — somewhere between annoyance and reluctant trust. Then something flickered in her memory.
"Earlier," she said, "Alice mentioned something called 'Project Alice.' What did she mean?"
Jack's expression darkened. "Project Alice," he repeated slowly, as if the name itself carried a shadow.
"What is it?"
"Before Project Alice," Jack said, "there was another—Project Nemesis."
"Nemesis?" Jill's voice dropped. "The creature you killed? Alice said he was once human… a man named Matt."
Jack nodded. "Umbrella conducted experiments on both of them—Alice and Matt. They became two branches of evolution. Alice—the perfected human. Nemesis—the corrupted mutation."
Jill's brows furrowed. "So Umbrella didn't know which was superior… so they made them fight."
"Exactly," Jack said. "Alice defeated Nemesis, proving her evolution was stronger. That's when Umbrella began Project Alice — an attempt to push that evolution further."
He began to pace slowly, his tone almost clinical. "The project had three objectives:
First, to enhance Alice into the ultimate bioweapon.
Second, to mass-produce clones — a controlled army called the Alice Legion.
Third, to harvest her genetic code to create a serum capable of domesticating zombies."
Jill shuddered. "That's… monstrous."
Jack smiled faintly. "Evil has its own beauty."
"Only a psychopath would say that," Jill muttered. "Alice mentioned she shared a link with her clones—is that true?"
Jack shrugged. "How else do you think they moved as one?"
"Wait… can zombies really be tamed?" Jill pressed.
Jack's voice lowered. "Alice's DNA resists the T-Virus. That's why Umbrella wants her. But she's been in hiding. They never got a full genetic sample. So no, they can't domesticate them. Not yet."
He smiled darkly, the light catching in his eyes. "But the idea is… interesting."
The first light of dawn broke through the clouds, spreading gold across the ruins. The smoke turned pale in the new sunlight.
Alice stirred. Her eyes fluttered open, and she sat up quickly, gasping for breath. Her skin was cold, her heart pounding like a drum inside her chest.
She looked around, disoriented, the nightmare still clinging to her.
"There's no need to look around," came Jack's calm voice from the shadows. "You weren't dreaming."
The morning wind carried the scent of ash and blood. The war between humanity and mutation was far from over.
And somewhere deep inside, both Alice and Jack knew—this was only the beginning.