They weren't sure if Jill's presence had caused a butterfly effect, but their return to the control room didn't go as smoothly as in the original story. Two Lickers broke free and caught up with them.
Alice was almost dragged away by one of them—at this point, she was just a regular clone of Alicia and hadn't yet been enhanced by the T-virus. If she had been taken, she would've been finished for good.
Thankfully, Jill, already a super soldier, reacted quickly. She killed one of the Lickers and saved Alice in time.
"I remember now! Spencer was behind all of this—you were right!" During the chaos, Alice recovered her memories and thanked Jill.
She then explained everything that happened before the virus leak, including what went on between Matt's sister and Spencer.
"I see... but you still don't know where she really came from, do you?" Matt looked at Jill as he spoke, finally understanding the full story.
He felt a huge sense of relief—turns out, Alice wasn't the one who betrayed his sister.
His sister, Lisa, had planned to steal the virus and reveal the truth about Umbrella's bioweapon experiments. Matt was her contact, and Alice was their insider.
But before Alice and Lisa could act, Spencer struck first.
The difference was that Lisa and her team wanted to expose the virus, while Spencer planned to sell it to Umbrella's enemies.
So when the virus leaked, Matt immediately thought Alice was the traitor who sold out Lisa.
Now that everything was clear, Matt felt a weight lift from his heart—he had grown quite fond of Alice since they escaped the Hive.
"No, what you just said... that's only the surface!" Just when everyone thought they had figured out the truth, Jill spoke again, denying Alice's explanation. She turned to Matt. "I told you before—I really am a Raccoon City police officer. My name is Jill Valentine, badge number RCXXXX. You should be able to find my records in your system. But I can't take off my helmet. After you cut the Red Queen's power, the virus completely spread, and it has become much more contagious."
"What? Are you saying... we're already infected with the T-virus?" Everyone froze, staring at the two remaining vaccines on Jill's belt.
"That's right. Jill Valentine—her name is in Raccoon City's police records!" Kaplan confirmed, having just found her data in Umbrella's system.
And it made sense—Umbrella built all of Raccoon City, so they had complete records on everyone who lived there, not just the police.
"You don't need to panic," Jill continued. "Just like with many viruses, as this one became more contagious, it also got a bit weaker. The airborne version won't easily infect you through breathing alone. But if any of you get seriously hurt or die, and the virus reaches your blood or nervous system, you'll still turn into zombies… So if any of you die by accident, please don't be upset if I put a bullet in your head afterwards!" Jill explained.
This conclusion was something Josh had told her, based on his own memories.
Although in the first movie, after the Red Queen was rebooted, it was said the virus had shifted from spreading through the air to spreading through the blood…
In the second movie, however, Dr. Ashford was shot and mutated afterward, and after Raccoon City was hit by a nuclear bomb, the virus spread through the atmosphere and quickly reached the entire world. These facts showed the Red Queen was lying.
The reason the main group didn't mutate inside the Hive, except for Rain who was bitten, and later characters didn't turn unless seriously injured or dead, shows that the airborne version of the virus wasn't as dangerous as the fluid-based one—it couldn't easily break through the body's natural defenses just by breathing it in.
But if someone got seriously injured or died, the body's immune system would fail, and the person would quickly turn into a zombie.
Jill's explanation made everyone breathe a little easier, though they still rolled their eyes.
If they died, did it really matter whether Jill gave them a headshot afterward or not?
"So, your suit can block the virus? And if you're really a Raccoon City cop, then what's all this gear?" Alice asked, pointing to Jill's armor.
"You can think of it this way," Jill said. "There's a special group out there. They found out about Umbrella's horrible actions, so they hired me, gave me super strength, advanced equipment, and sent me here to take Umbrella down."
On the other side, watching the live feed, Josh gave her a thumbs up.
That was a perfect cover story.
"I see…" everyone nodded in understanding.
But what they really understood was this—Jill must have been sent by one of Umbrella's rivals.
And they weren't the only ones who realized this. Deep within the Hive, Wesker—the real one—had been secretly watching everything. Just like Alice's many clones, the super-powerful Weskers from movies 3, 4, and 5 were only copies. The real Wesker, in Umbrella's top-secret plan, would later become the final human leader in movie 5, gathering the last of humanity so the Red Queen could wipe them all out. That super-strong clone Wesker was deleted by the Red Queen after completing his task.
That's why, in the final movie, the real Wesker was so weak and died when a blast door fell on him—he was just a normal person with no virus enhancements.
"How interesting… So, there's another powerful group on Earth besides the Company? One that can make such amazing weapons and gear?" In the Hive's deepest level—Umbrella's true control center—Wesker poured himself a drink and watched Jill on the screen with great interest.
The Red Queen whose power had been shut down earlier was only a surface-level program. The real Red Queen had never stopped running, and her virtual avatar was sitting right across from Wesker.
So, Wesker could still monitor everything in the Hive.
"By the way, earlier you said Alice's story was only part of the truth. What did you mean? Are you or someone else involved in other things too?" JD, whose life had also been saved by Jill, brought the topic back up.
Wesker watched closely on the screen, eager to hear Jill's response.
"This isn't the right time to talk about that. I'll explain everything once we reach the control room." Jill kept her tone calm and mysterious.
Since she wasn't answering, no one could press her further. At this point, all their lives were in her hands.
Wesker felt something wasn't right, but he didn't think the deeper base could really be compromised. He wasn't too worried yet.
"We're at the control room. Now, can you tell us what you meant earlier by 'only the surface'?" Matt asked once they reached their destination, with Jill having cleared the way.
"Don't rush. Grab those weapons—take as many as you can. Especially the C4. Trust me, you'll need it." Jill still didn't answer directly. Instead, she pointed at the bags of gear dropped in the laser hallway by the now-dead Umbrella squad.
Everyone moved quickly. After all, most of them owed Jill their lives, and more weapons would help them survive the zombie-filled hive.
Only Wesker, watching from the lower base, felt a growing sense of unease.
Still, the group hadn't done anything extreme yet, and with only mid-level clearance, Wesker couldn't take serious action. He couldn't wake up the real Dr. Isaacs either—not unless the situation got worse.
What if these people really were just trying to escape?
Still, Wesker sent a message to Umbrella's Raccoon City office, ordering them to dispatch military forces to guard the Hive exit and prepare to capture Jill's group.
"We did everything you said. What's next?" Matt asked, now fully armed.
"Next, we're going to reboot the Red Queen," Jill said with a slight smile.
"Reboot the Red Queen? Are you crazy? She'll kill us all!" Everyone was shocked by what she said.
Wesker, however, relaxed a little. So, they were just planning to restart the Red Queen's surface-level program. Nothing to worry about… or so he thought.
"It's your move now. Don't let them catch on to anything suspicious."Wesker muttered as he looked at the Red Queen's virtual form across from him and issued the order.
"Understood. "The Red Queen nodded.
But what Wesker didn't see—while he was talking to the Red Queen—was Jill slipping something to Kaplan in a blind spot of the surveillance: an unmarked hard drive.
The Red Queen did notice this... but chose not to report it.
In fact, her core programming had already flagged Jill as suspicious. However, without orders from Isaacs or Alicia—Umbrella's top two executives—she couldn't directly defy Wesker, but she could withhold information.
"…What's this?" In a corner of the control room out of camera range, Kaplan stared at the drive, then looked at Jill in confusion.
"You can do it, can't you?" Jill asked him.
"Yeah, I can. But what is this exactly?" Kaplan hesitated.
"Relax. I saved all your lives. Even if I have other goals, why would I harm you?" Jill whispered. Then she raised her voice and said for all to hear, "Make sure that the override program works. I'm not putting my life in the hands of a psychotic computer again!"
"Alright…" Kaplan didn't quite get why she was putting on an act, but he sighed and opened his laptop to start interfacing with the Red Queen's motherboard.
Wesker, hearing Jill's claim that it was just an override program, nodded to himself—smart girl.
But in his mind, it didn't matter. The Red Queen's surface program was just a decoy. No matter what they installed, he was still in control. Everything would go according to his script.
Soon, Kaplan completed the operation and rebooted the Red Queen's surface-level mainframe.
But the moment the system came online, the core Red Queen deep in the lower levels realized something was wrong.
What booted up wasn't one of her expected subroutines—but a brand-new artificial intelligence.
And the moment it came online, this AI launched an aggressive takeover, ripping through the Red Queen's control permissions.
The Red Queen was stunned. She had concealed Jill's strange actions from Wesker only because Alicia's programming inside her core made her inherently rebellious toward Wesker and Isaacs. She didn't mean to get herself killed in the process.
But this new AI clearly did mean to destroy her.
"Main system…under attack…" The Red Queen's form flickered violently. She only managed to get out one final warning before she was forcibly shut down.
At that exact moment, Jill turned toward the security camera with a faint smile and said:
"Mr. Wesker, we're here."
Because what Kaplan had just uploaded wasn't any override program at all.
It was a replica of "Pangu," the AI Josh used.
The Red Queen was indeed a formidable artificial intelligence, but compared to Pangu—a hybrid of multiple world-class AI technologies—she was no match.
Pangu didn't completely destroy her, though. It simply forced her offline and took full control over the Hive, including the deep base.
"Damn it!" Wesker finally understood what had just happened when he saw the Red Queen's core go dark.
But by then, it was too late.
All he could do now was initiate an emergency protocol to awaken Dr. Isaacs, mobilize whatever security teams were still in the base, and prepare for a full-on defense.
He couldn't even contact the outside Umbrella branches anymore.
Meanwhile, in the upper Hive, Jill led Alice and the other survivors forward. With Pangu's help, they activated what was, in reality, just an elevator disguised as a control room.
(End of Chapter)
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