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I really am happy to hear that.

[...]

I... Well, I'm sure it goes without saying at this point because I repeat it so often, but I really do love you, Albert. No matter how difficult things get, I'll always want to stand beside you.

[Maybe Wesker doesn't need to hear it, but Jaeger needs to say it.]

I love you, too.

[That's a bit more immediate, a bit less difficult this time around; he seems to realize that he's paused in his task, however, and he returns to it quickly, finding those photographs he was talking about and bringing them over, passing one to Jaeger as he settles on the couch again.

The picture depicts a beautiful woman wearing a red dress; she looks like she's in a base of some sort, looking out a window and apprently unaware that she's being photographed.]

This is the woman I don't remember much of; I've seen her in my memories, however, I sent her on a mission once. She's the one I gave those explosive sunglasses to.

[He's much more relaxed by the time Wesker brings the picture over, and he studies it curiously.]

She's very pretty! I wonder what she needed those sunglasses for, though...

I seemed to have faith that she'd know what to do with them.

[Wesker.]

Well, that's... promising, I suppose...

[oh my god.]

Isn't it just.

[He'll pass over another one, though; it seems similar to the other older photos he has of Jill and Chris, in that it's awkwardly-posed in an office somewhere. The photo depicts a somewhat heavyset man with dark hair, slightly less intense in the face than Jill and Chris.]

This is Barry Burton. He's one of the few other members of S.T.A.R.S. that survived that incident I've discussed with you.

[You know, where he stabbed everyone in the back.]

I always found him a little weak-willed, honestly. But he was a good man and a loyal subordinate, and he rather loved his family. I'm not sure what became of him after all of that; I didn't keep track of him in quite the same way I kept track of Chris and Jill.

I see...

[Well, hopefully he didn't die horribly or anything, that'd be awful.]

How many people were in S.T.A.R.S.?

That's a good question, honestly. I know there was at least one other unit that answered to me, though I believe I mostly worked with Chris, Jill, and Barry. I'm fairly sure I was in charge of the entire program, but I was placed there under Umbrella's orders.

Was it something you were able to enjoy, despite being there on Umbrella's orders?

[It takes him longer than he would like to sort out an answer.]

...I don't know. It was a job that I was good at, so I was fine with doing it; I didn't mind doing what Umbrella wanted me to do while I was there, so I did it without complaint.

I think I liked the people, however. They respected me there, but they also seemed to like and care about me. It was...strange, and I never did fully get used to it. But it wasn't a bad thing..

Well, I suppose that's better than resenting it, ja? I'm glad they were good to you.

[...It really is a shame things hadn't worked out for Wesker.]

Most of them were legitimate - people who were there because they wanted to help others, they weren't with Umbrella. I was there to ensure they didn't find anything they weren't supposed to, and to cover up or destroy anything they stumbled across involving Umbrella's activities.

The others were civilians. Normal people.

I see... I can certainly see where that would be very jarring, given what I know of your life. It must have been hard to believe that they really did want to help others, ja? I imagine it was difficult to relate to them.

I don't think I understood them at all, really. I found Chris and Jill to be naive at best...they were like spoiled children to me, thinking that they could change the world with their presence and their intentions when they were unwilling to truly work or suffer for it.

There wasn't really anything to relate to, even though they certainly seemed to think they could be close to me in some way.

...It sounds difficult. Lonely, even. I'm sorry.

[Maybe something like that wouldn't have made much of a difference in the end, but the fact that he could never be close to them in any way bothers Jaeger a bit.]

...I don't know if I truly felt lonely or not. I think in some way I might have, otherwise I wouldn't have kept people around me as long as I did, but I didn't recognize it as such.

I'm not surprised you didn't recognize it. Given everything you went through... well, I can see where you'd never want to be around people again. I'm glad you had some relationships, even if none of them were very good or healthy.

Some were better than others; some went well until they rather suddenly didn't, some were just...odd, I suppose.

[Speaking of odd relationships, he'll pass the last photo over to Jaeger; it's of a man who appears to be in his late fifties or early sixties, perhaps, though he's got a broad, strong build and doesn't seem to be suffering for his age any. He has some pretty severe facial scarring that indicates someone absolutely went to town with a knife on him at one point - down the left cheek as though he was just straight-up stabbed in the face, half a Glasgow smile starting at the right corner of his mouth and extending upwards a bit, and deep scars above his eyes as though someone may have tried to slash them out - but there are implications that he was good-looking before all that happened to him; his haircut is...stupid, but likely something Jaeger will find familiar.]

That's Sergei, incidentally.

[He'll take it and it doesn't take long for him to smirk a bit.]

My, he really does have the same hairstyle, doesn't he...

[That's honestly really goddamn amusing.]

He certainly is impressive.

That's certainly one word for it. He was about half a foot taller than me.

[And Wesker is not a short man.]

I figured he'd be tall, but not that tall...

[He has no idea what to make of this, oh my god. Here, you can have the picture back.]

[Just hand him his photographs and we can all try to ignore how freakishly huge Sergei Vladimir was.]

He was a former colonel in the Red Army, back before the Soviet Union collapsed. Apparently one of the Umbrella CEOs took him in after that happened, as he felt he had nowhere else to go; he was given a purpose that way, something to do with his life. He reminds me a bit of Krauser in that way - I did the same for him after he left the US military.

Sergei didn't know about that, however; he told me about his own experiences shortly before he died, though I didn't understand why he was telling me anything about it at the time.

I see... He really does sound like an interesting person. He was the one who was trying to bring Umbrella back, ja?

He was. I imagine it was because he felt he didn't have much else left.

Sergei was a very strange person in general, honestly. He called some of the more intelligent mutations his "brothers," for some reason; he also liked to insist that machines had feelings that were beyond human understanding. He would tell me that he was glad we were such good friends and had such a healthy, functional relationship immediately before trying to kill me; he commented on how peaceful Russia is before mentioning that he was looking forward to burying me there. It was..."interesting" is a good word for it, if a bit mild.

...He sounds like he was... an experience...

[ohhhhh my god why did any of that happen???]

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