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I'm okay. It was a little... much, but I'm fine.

[...]

I... feel sort of bad about making you go through all of that... I know it wasn't really my fault, but still...

If anything, I think i owe you the apology.

[Yours was weird, surely, but it wasn't traumatizing; it was just kind of a generalized gongshow.]

It's not like it was your fault either! Our minds are just... very strange places when laid out like that, I suppose.

That's one way of putting it.

[Probably the politest way.]

What you saw was the training facility, largely. The facility and the laboratories underneath it.

I thought that was probably it. Were you aware of everything I went through there, or...?

[Should he give you a recap... Should he mention Birkin...]

I wasn't, no. But I know where we were.

Ah, well, I ran into some familiar faces before I came across you.

[Child you. You know what he means.]

Sergei was exactly like you described him, though I wasn't exactly expecting him to ah... cut himself... He didn't give me any trouble, thankfully.

...Sergei was always a little alarming like that. He did that in front of me often; I'm still not altogether sure why.

[It was weird. And hopefully not kinky? He doesn't know.]

He was an interesting man, however. A bit much, but interesting regardless.

Oh, certainly. If the situation had been different, I think I would have found talking to him to be very interesting.

[You know. Assuming he didn't do that the whole time???]

...I started things out being strapped down to a table; Birkin was going to experiment on me, but apparently you meddled to ensure he couldn't. So thank you for that!

[...though things would've been way shorter and possibly less traumatizing if he'd just been killed outright by the virus...]

[...Ah...]

There were a few of you that I didn't want touched. Of course I didn't want anything to happen to you in particular.

Birkin... He was the one who gave me the virus. He told me some information about the likelihood of dying to it, but either he was instructed to omit certain facts or he knowingly lied to me. I wouldn't let him do anything to you.

I know. I'm not surprised Birkin was there, but it wasn't exactly my idea of a good time...

[He wanted to punch Birkin so badly, oh my god.]

But with that said, he was surprisingly decent to talk to. He didn't exactly help me any, but he didn't hinder me either.

I don't remember Birkin ever fighting. Sometimes we would have to call security to help us contain something, but often he would rely on me to do any fighting that was necessary. He was always better at the research aspect of it than me; I found it to be a fair tradeoff.

Birkin was undoubtedly insane, because all of us were insane there. But he was never aggressive.

I didn't think he'd be aggressive or anything, but he wasn't nearly as much of a pain as I would have assumed.

...And he didn't turn into the slug monster, so that's a plus.

[um.]

...Silver linings, I suppose.

Things really weren't all that bad until I reached that room with the cages. Though there was another room... There were stasis pods and one of them had been broken; there was blood everywhere and I found broken pieces of what appeared to be your sunglasses. There was also a monitor with a failed log-in, displaying your information.

...Needless to say, I was quite worried about you...

[...Oh.

He's kind of quiet for a moment before he says anything; just...]

...I died there. The first time. The broken stasis pod contained an experiment I was very fond of; I woke it up and let it kill me in front of Chris.

I was wondering if it was something like that. The further in I got, the less it seemed like it was something that had happened immediately before I arrived.

[...And then there were more pressing things to worry about.]

...It was something that I found frightening, something that unsettled me badly. But it wasn't unbearable, after a while. The dying process just wasn't pleasant.

I can understand. It seems like it would have been extremely painful.

[He's quiet for a moment.]

...I'm sure there were things in there that you never wanted me to see. Again, I know it's not my fault - and it's not your fault, of course - but I'm sorry. Experiencing it was... difficult, but I can only imagine how much worse it was for you.

[He shifts a bit, resettling his hands in his lap, while he tries to sort out how he wants to approach this.]

...I don't remember the cell.

[That seems...right, it seems like a good thing to verify.]

I don't remember anything that Spencer did to me before I was working for him at the age of eighteen. Those memories haven't come back to me, and somehow I doubt that they ever will; they were gone by the time I was an adult back then, I had no idea until I was told.

But...I did see that area for myself, before I went to confront him. The cells containing decomposing corpses, the stagnant water, that entire dungeon area... It's somewhere I found while I was looking for Spencer. Along with what he told me regarding the project, the fact that there were thirteen of us left and eleven corpses in the dungeon... Well, it wasn't difficult to piece together what that place was used for.

I don't remember it at all. But I know what that place was.

[He listens to all of that silently, and when Wesker does, he reaches out to take his boyfriend's hands.]

I'm really glad you don't have any memories of your time there. It... It would be terrible to remember that now, and that... I wouldn't want you to have to experience that.

...I've never been as angry as I was when I was talking to you there. I wasn't even certain it was you, but anyone doing something so cruel to a child... It's really upsetting. Leaving you behind in there was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

I'm sorry you had to experience something like that, even if it was just a dream.

...I'd be lying if I said I hadn't wondered about it sometimes.

[He'll let Jaeger take his hands, though, he won't resist that at all.]

I don't know if I was kept down there for any length of time, or if it was simply something temporary, or just something for the people who were called back... He made it sound as though I was given whatever I wanted beyond a certain point, that I was allowed to do what I liked and pursue any interests I may have had, but I don't know what happened before that. I know I wasn't allowed any contact with outsiders, and I never had anything that I might consider a family; I was always monitored by scientists, and often experimented on. I knew how to kill people from a young age; I don't remember how I learned that.

A good amount of it is speculation on my part. I don't trust what Spencer told me about it, but I don't know what happened for sure. It...bothers me, I suppose.

I'm sorry, Albert. I'm so sorry.

[His grip is tight on Wesker's hands and he's certainly not letting go, but the contact doesn't seem like it's enough.]

I can only imagine how difficult it is to try to deal with something like that. It's good that you don't have memories of it, but seeing that place and knowing what must have happened... Of course that would bother you.

[That gets a soft noise out of him, anyway.]

I wasn't upset with you for leaving.

I know, and I know there wasn't any other option... But if there had been, I would have stayed right there with you.

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