Chapter Text
—
Leon has come to accept certain death as being an occupational hazard.
This wasn’t necessarily a suicide mission, atleast it didn’t start out that way. He was sent to help evacuate a facility, and to neutralize any threats if needed, as it turns out there was only one, but his kill count was so high Leon might have better chances facing down an army. Also he was supposed to be dead, like several times over. So even at baseline his odds weren’t great, but that’s nothing new.
He’d been briefed on Albert Wesker, he heard all the stories, from firsthand accounts and from old reports. Ada and Chris both had worked for him once upon a time.
The rule with Wesker seemed to be to betray him before you get betrayed. Although he’d probably have trouble earning anyone’s trust these days. He’s pretty sure even Umbrella wants nothing more to do with him at this point, and that’s really saying something. Guess it’s hard to sell B.O.W.s when the world gets rendered empty by a virus.
Needless to say DSO wanted to drop a bomb on him. Leon thought it was a good idea. And an opening to do so just happened to present itself when Wesker appeared in one of their facilities like a phantom.
The DSO would have trouble getting the green light to drop bombs most places, but on their own property? It was a golden opportunity. And ever since visuals from a few months ago had confirmed the sightings of Wesker were unfortunately true, they had come up with a list of plans to eliminate him. Most of which Leon was not privy to but he's more of a wing-it kind of guy anyhow.
—
Leon’s part was to get people out before the bombs started falling. If everything went well there would be one dead target and zero casualties. He was given a set jurisdiction in the building, he just had to clear out everyone in the area assigned to him before a set retreat period, which would give him plenty of time to get out of there.
If only things ever went that simply. After he cleared all the rooms in his sector he was sent over to help the task force set in the quadrant next to him. They kept running into road blocks, people tended to panic in situations like this, meaning there were injuries and people who got lost, and then unforeseen debris and access code issues made things even harder. Small enough things that seem almost inconsequential, but it all stacks up, becoming critical when timing makes the difference between life and death, and they’re short on it.
As more issues arose Leon found himself getting led deeper and deeper into the facility. It’s partly his own fault for being so reliable in these kinds of situations, riskier tasks seemed to get delegated to him more often than not, and he's not one to say no when there were people he could help within his reach.
There was a group of people that had gone missing. No one could get through to them and they were last seen on security cameras a couple hallways down from Leon’s position, in a large cargo hold. He's been told they appeared to be locked inside. He’d also been ordered to abandon them and head to the rendezvous point for immediate extraction.
Internally he felt the clock ticking as he bolted down the empty halls. It would be a close call and if he couldn’t get them out ASAP they were all as good as dead.
His stomach turned when he rounded a corner and saw someone laying on the ground. He crouched by their side, placed his fingers to their neck, he didn’t even need to bother checking for a pulse his skin was growing cold and stiff. Leon could barely register the hole in the man’s stomach before he was moving on.
And then there was another, and another, and another, with trails of blood and bullet holes littering the walls. Each one was bloody and bruised, some harboring egregious wounds, like the first. Leon recognized their uniforms. They had been on the special task force to keep Wesker distracted. He hadn’t been told what location Wesker was in but he can understand now why he was given orders to abandon this area.
Leon hoped they emptied enough anti-B.O.W. rounds into him to keep subdued.
Not his luck.
He turned another corridor and froze in his tracks. His pistol is in his hands within an instant. And there he is. Albert Wesker, looking irritated but not much in the way of injury. Well, Leon could see the shine of blood coating his chest. The liquid coagulated around the dark burgundy circles, which he could barely make out against the black of his strangely textured suit.
“So they sent someone afterall.”
“Freeze!” Leon commanded.
Wesker tilted his head, and reached his fingers into the wound by his shoulder, plucking out the bullet.
He knows from experience that that shit hurts and he can’t help but wince.
Seems to be the reaction Wesker was hoping for as he cracks a smile. “And not just someone.” He has the bullet held between two fingers like a card and flicks.
Leon feels the bullet whizz by his ear like it was fired from a gun, and hit the wall behind him. He peers over his shoulder to look and sure enough there’s a small crater contrasting with the sleek white paint.
“Nice shot.” Leon turns back, looking down the iron sight of his pistol.
“I wasn’t aiming for you.”
“I’ve killed a lot of creatures but this is my first time fighting a ghost,” Leon said. “Guess I shouldn't have bothered packing extra bullets.” He still kept his gun raised to the B.O.W.
“Ha. No, you won’t find them to be of much use unless you’re trying to make me angry.”
“What is it with you B.O.W.s not staying dead? A volcano isn’t hot enough for you?”
“Don’t mistake me for one of those brainless beasts.”
Leon tilted his head, “Oh, then what are you? A poltergeist?
”Amusing, but no.”
“We’ll see if that’s still true by the end of the day.”
“Are you going to fire that little toy of yours or are you just stalling?”
“One of those.” He didn’t necessarily want to tell him there were a dozen people in need down the hall, trapped like fish in a barrel.
“You did see what happened to the last people who tried to slow me down, didn’t you, Agent Kennedy?”
“So you know who I am.”
Wesker hummed, “I was rather taken by your file. To be one of the few to survive Raccoon city…You greatly exceeded all the life expectancy limitations placed upon you. Some might say you cheated death.”
“Something we have in common.”
“Indeed. And now here you are, on a suicide mission. Do your worst.” Wesker held his arms open, beckoning Leon to shoot him.
He faltered, lowering his weapon a touch.
“You’re not as dumb as the rest.”
“It won’t matter anyway, we’re both dead.”
“It’s flattering that they are that afraid of me. To destroy this whole place, all that precious data and research left behind, just so they can kill me…they even sent one of their best agents to their death, all for me.”
“So you’re aware.”
“Yes, and you’re right. It won’t matter.”
Leon lowered his gun completely, and when Wesker didn’t move, he slid it back into place at his hip. He felt his tense posture relax just a touch the wisp of a smile on his lips. “Everyone else should be evacuated by now.” He needed to lose him. It was his only shot, and maybe Wesker would try to run for it if he thought the way was clear. Leon was also aware that that could jeopardize the mission but he had to trust that the others had some contingency plans, maybe back up was waiting in the halls, traps set meant only for the infected.
Except it didn’t matter because the man didn’t so much as flinch, so it looks like plan A is still full steam ahead.
“They should, shouldn't they?” Wesker disappeared like a strike of lightning, and then Leon was being thrown back, launched into the wall behind him knocking the wind out of him, he could scarcely choke out a breath with the sudden bruising pressure on his throat.
He was pinned to the wall by Wesker's hand, holding him there like he was nothing and Leon thought this would be it, but then the man threw him over his shoulders, forcing another wheeze out of him as his stomach smashed into Wesker’s shoulder. It might as well have been concrete.
And then Wesker was walking, and Leon began to thrash as he struggled to get air into his lungs. He realized quickly how futile it was. The man’s grip was like iron, and he would just press his gloved fingers deeper into Leon's back until he couldn't do anymore than flail and kick his legs.
Leon gave it up and instead grasped at Wesker’s back, trying to take hold of the fabric so he could tear it or something, hoping it would him piss off and just maybe give him an opening.
“Enough.” Wesker growled, suddenly dropping Leon to the ground like a sack of flour.
Leon shot to his feet, and unholstered his gun, aiming it directly at Wesker's smug, grinning face. That made him pause. They both knew it was useless. Wesker's expression said it all, ‘give me one good reason to kill you.’
He was about to say something stupid, something about seances or table salt, but it evaded him when Wesker nodded his head to a window, it had a view of an open area, like some kind of warehouse, they could see down a level below them. They must be in a manager’s office, one where the boss can survey all the workers transporting and opening crates and cargo.
“Shit” Leon let out a gasp. There were at least a dozen people down there…he found them. Scientists, lab techs, managers, they were normal people. Some of them were bruised and they all looked more or less shell shocked. Leon could recognize a hostage situation when he saw one. So it was all Wesker's doing... “What did-…why?! Those are innocent people.”
“Were you expecting I’d let you drop a few bombs on me without consequence? And I’d hardly call these people innocent. They knew what they were signing up for. What idiots. Did they think the federal government would protect them?…Well, I suppose there’s still a chance…”
Honestly, Leon didn’t know why he bothered asking, There were never any good reasons. A part of Leon would always be searching for the sense behind these kinds of things. “Let them go.” He found himself unable to mask his outrage.
“It’s too late for that.”
It is too late. Leon had heard it playing softly in the back of his head ever since he laid eyes on the man. Because Wesker wasn't running, which means he doesn’t think he can get away in time and if someone with his speed can’t do it what chance do they have? He pushed the thought away again, it’s no good for him now. He’s made it out of tight spots before. It’s a dangerous tightrope he has to walk, to have enough cognitive dissonance to find courage in hopeless situations and to be acutely aware of every danger that surrounds him. After everything he’s experienced he’s got to believe there’s always a chance. Leon let out a shaky breath. If things went to plan the DSO is going to start dropping explosives on this facility in less than 20 minutes.
“Unless, you call off your friends.”
Leon’s face scrunched in disgust, he’d never- but then his gaze fell on one of the scientists, a woman, she still had her lab coat on and was holding a phone up to her cheek, sobbing. Bet this was the last thing she ever expected. Bet she liked her job, had a passion for it from a young age and was ecstatic when she was hired. Bet she woke up thinking she’d have another peaceful, maybe even boring, Thursday at the lab, and now here she was having to look death in the face.
If it was just his life, his own doomed life, he’d tell Wesker to go to hell, it was his job to stop people like him at any cost.
“Well, the clock is ticking and I don’t like having my time wasted.”
Leon glared at him. It wasn’t at all fair, but maybe a dozen or so lives lost was just the cost of killing Wesker. This man, directly and indirectly, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and ruined countless more lives. And he’d do it again, god knows Wesker would do it again. He’d kill billions if given the chance.
But Leon never wanted to save the world. He only ever wanted to help people. He pressed his finger to the device in his ear and spoke into it. “Call off the mission. There are a dozen or so hostages here, probably more. It’s not evacuated.” No response. “There are hostages here, I repeat, there are over a dozen people stuck here.” Nothing. “The hell-“
“Hmm, I suspected as much. Tell them it won’t be enough to kill me. They'll care more about that.”
Leon’s gaze shot to Wesker, so little could be gleamed with those sunglasses hiding his eyes. Leon’s eyebrows knitted together. No. This couldn’t be happening. Not like this. Not so pointlessly. “Come in please, is this really worth it? Are we sure it will be enough to neutralize the target?” Leon called into the comm. Dead air. Has the connection been severed? Did they think he was making shit up to spare his own life? Why was no one responding?! Did something happen? Did Wesker have something to do with it? Was he just toying with him?! “No answer…” he confessed.
“Idiots. Utterly incompetent. Do they really think a few bomb will do anything to me? What wasted effort.” Wesker growled.
“If you aren’t worried about dying then why take hostages?” Leon dared to hope. Wesker could be lying, maybe this really would be the end for him and their deaths wouldn’t be as meaningless as all the ones in Raccoon City.
Wesker laughed, cold like ice.
It shook Leon to his core. This man wasn’t afraid.
“You’re quite the optimist. I’ve been in the blasting range of my fair share of explosives and I only come back stronger. I was just hoping to avoid the tedium of having to pull myself back together.”
“You son of a bitch. Fuck. Fuck.” Leon turned away from the window, pacing a couple steps back and forth, it was important to never stop moving, with stillness came despair.
“Don’t blame me. I have better things to do than to get eviscerated again, and the accompanying pain will be rather drivel.”
Leon’s instincts kicked in. It’s not over yet. It’s too late to run but maybe there is somewhere they can hide, take cover. “There must be something- somewhere-“ Leon looked around frantically for a miracle. Like a bomb shelter would suddenly materialize. Leon started digging through papers on the desk, he hadn’t had a moment to take it in but this office space had been ransacked, papers dumped everywhere, drawers open and rifled through, random office supplies scattered the ground. Among the papers were classified documents, tax sheets, and maintenance instructions. A bunch of crap. He didn’t know what he was looking for, a map showing a secret safe room would be useful.
“What are you doing?”
“Are you just gonna stand there?! We have 20- maybe 15 minutes before we are all blown to smithereens! You just said you wanted to avoid that so maybe help me figure something out!” Leon snapped and Wesker closed his mouth.
“…well said.” Wesker stepped next to him, looking over Leon’s shoulder at the pile of documents, while Leon flicked through them with his thumb. “There’s not going to be anything useful here.”
“How do you know?”
“This is all business nonsense, what are you expecting to find?”
Leon groaned and shoved the papers back on the desk. “Let’s go ask those people, they should know if there is a safe room.”
“A safe room wouldn’t be equipped for deterring what has flattened cities.”
“Well, what can? Aren’t you supposed to be a genius? Have any better ideas?”
The corner of Wesker’s lip turned up into a smirk and Leon wanted to get at least one good punch into that face before they all died. “It’s a shame that our first meeting also has to be our last. I’ve heard so much about you. You’ve proven yourself to be competent, more than that even.”
“Gee thanks, that’s really what I want to hear from you right now.” Leon walked over to a filing cabinet opening it to find it was overflowing with documents, he shut it quickly in frustration, shaking his head. He knew he was scrambling. He was really fucked this time.
“If you worked for me you wouldn’t have to worry about explosives anymore.”
“Oh, go to hell.”
“And what’s so wrong with me?”
“You mean aside from the Bio Organic Weapons you engineered and used to kill thousands?”
Wesker clicked his tongue. “See that’s the problem with you. That pesky sense of justice…” he wagged his finger in disapproval.
Leon glared, turning to leave. He wouldn’t spend his last minutes with Wesker. He needed to free the people on the lower level, a safe room was their best bet-
Wesker suddenly grabbed him by his collar and yanked him back. “I wasn’t finished talking.”
“You think I fucking care?” He jabbed his elbow backwards into Wesker's side and it didn't even phase the man, meanwhile Leon had to stifle a grimace. He's seconds away from grabbing his gun, if he hit Wesker in the eyes, surely that’d be enough to slow him down a bit, but then he was let go. Leon spun to face him.
“I had suspected, hoped even…that I would find someone like you. From what I can tell you meet most of the criteria, and now that I have met you…I’m almost sure of it.”
Leon couldn’t be fucked to make sense of whatever rhetoric Wesker was spouting.
“Nevermind…I have an idea. Obviously, they’ve had this whole scheme planned out for some time. They wouldn’t bother leveling a place that has shelters to escape to…But there’s always oversights.” Wesker took a step back and waved a hand at him, commanding him to follow. There was a closet door perpendicular to the window, he opened it, gesturing for Leon to take a look.
“A closet? How’s that any-“ He cautiously peeked inside. Leon’s eyes widened, it was a typical walk in closet, not unlike what you’d find in a classroom. There were smaller crates and supplies lined up on the shelves along with vials, glassware, and briefcases. He’s seen a good many like it in all the infested laborites he’s explored. Except for at the very back, wall to wall, floor to ceiling was a silver chamber, a safe.
Wesker walked forward and inputted a code. A light turned green and it gave a positive beep, followed by the click of it unlocking.
Leon couldn’t believe it. “You knew this was here?” Why was he surprised? Of course, Wesker probably downloaded schematics beforehand.
“Naturally. However,…I hadn’t considered using it to protect from bodily harm. As you can see…” Wesker pulled the handle and the door slid open.
Leon’s shoulders slumped. The space was tiny. The door made it look tall and wide enough to house several people, but the walls were incredibly thick, there was maybe room for one but it wouldn’t be a comfortable fit. It obviously wasn’t intended as a shelter for people but for precious items.
”…it’s a little cramped.”
“Will that even work?”
“These safes are meant to withstand near nuclear-level explosions. People are replaceable…but some things are not.”
“Then why’s it empty?”
Wesker grinned, showing his teeth. “Does that really matter now?”
There was no time to question him further, he could only assume that whatever had been in there was now in Wesker's possession. “…Suppose it’s better than nothing…is a safe really gonna be safe for a person?”
He said looking around the tight space.
“As I said, it’s the best you’re gonna get.”
He really wasn’t convinced and Wesker’s testimony only made him more suspicious. Either way, he needed to go talk to those people. If they couldn’t come up with anything better then maybe one of them could use this. He turned to leave and Wesker grabbed his shoulder.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
”Don’t touch me.” Leon tried to shrug the hand off. “One of the smaller women might be able to fit-“ he started.
“My what a hero you are. This is your only chance and you want to give it to some useless beaureucrat.”
“I don’t expect you to understand. Just stay out of my way. I’ll be dead soon enough and you’ll have one less enemy to worry about.”
Then there was a crashing sound, and sirens started blaring, lights turning red and flashing.
“Fuck. No. Not yet. It’s not supposed to-“ They should take another 5- maybe even 10 minutes.
“Hm, looks like we’re about out of time.” Wesker grabbed him by the neck and Leon thought he was really gonna do it this time. Of course, he wanted to have the pleasure of killing him, make his death extra brutal and get some revenge for what was about to be a very miserable experience, if not the end of his life. But then he was lifted off his feet and slammed into the tight space.
No. Oh, no. “What the hell are you-?!” Leon grunted, his voice hoarse from the abuse. He tried to push himself back out but Wesker shoved him again, forcing him into an awkward pose. He couldn’t get any leverage, couldn’t get his body to move, he felt helpless. “Stop!”
“Hold still, you’ll hurt yourself.”
“Let go of me. Why do this?!” Leon couldn’t understand it. Was Wesker, of all people, really trying to save him? He twisted his body, his head was bent uncomfortably forward, he tried to use his arm that was pressed against the back wall to move forward, it was the only thing he could really manage and it would probably end with a dislocated shoulder but he was going to do it anyway, when Wesker pressed his hand against his collarbone, holding him in place.
“You have potential. I’d hate to waste it.”
“Eat shit.”
“Try to calm your breathing, this thing isn’t well ventilated. I’ll let you out once it’s over.”
“Wait-“ Leon’s eyes widened, his voice catching in his throat like a plea. Wesker slammed the door and Leon heard it lock, a solid metal click, the bolder to his tomb. Not this. Not like this.
Leon was lost in complete darkness, it was just the coolness of steel that surrounded him and the air that quickly grew damp and hot with his rapid breathing. “Wesker!” He screamed to no avail, he gave it up quickly. The man probably couldn’t even hear him and wouldn’t care if he could.
Leon could do nothing but get his lungs to stop gulping down his small supply of air. He could already feel his joints and tendons growing stiff and unhappy. Every moment grew more uncomfortable, and it would only get worse. It was probably only a minute, but it felt like an age, and that’s when explosions started.
—
Distant at first, like thunder, but it grew louder, loud enough to shake everything around him, he gasped in agony, the bomb impacts reverberated through the safe and shook him. It felt like an earthquake, or like 10 earthquakes stacked on top of each other. The rumbling came in waves, and it just wouldn’t stop. Each time it calmed Leon thought it was over but those few precious moments didn’t last long. Suppose they kept deciding to drop more for good measure. Leon hoped it was enough. Hoped Wesker was overly arrogant about how indestructible he was. Even if that meant dying in here like this, not like there’s anyone else who would be able to get to him in time. They wouldn’t even be looking for him, they’d assume his body was dust, but maybe when they finally came looking for whatever was supposed to be in here…Leon swallowed hard, his mouth was completely dry.
Wesker shoved him in here just so he could taunt the DSO. He swapped whatever important sample was in here and replaced it with Leon’s corpse. What a fucking joke.
His legs were cramping, they were bent horribly, a position he couldn’t hold but he had no room to move, to shift his weight, so his muscles took on all the heavy lifting, it burned so bad he thought he might sever a filament. He was grateful for the parts of his limbs that had fallen asleep.
Through all the terrible sensation he only sometimes thought of how the air was growing thin and stale, how his head was throbbing. He kept getting knocked against the hard walls at every angle, he’s likely concussed at this point. The hurt was eating up his conscious mind like a black hole.
—
When he came to again he was confused, it was like a nightmare, like he was in the darkest pit of hell. He was aching all over, gasping, trying to suck down oxygen that simply wasn’t there, but he noticed there was no movement, no tremors. Everything was still, and he couldn’t hear anything above the ringing in his ears but he was hopeful that maybe it was over.
And then at some point, not long after he noticed the calm, a coolness hit him, and the world went from black to red as light hit his closed eyelids, and he felt himself falling forward, he could do nothing to stop it. He fell hard onto solid ground. Whatever, rubble that was left was poking into him, cutting into his body where he laid, and distantly he could smell the stench of burning metal, and the world faded away again.
—-
Leon was woken once more by his own coughing, he sputtered and choked on the thick harsh air that tasted like ash. When he finally cracked open his eyes he could barely make sense of it. Everything was blurry, he could make out only vague shapes. Sharp, twisted shrapnel, sparkling shards of glass, billows of black smoke that drew up into a grey sky.
Awareness was slow to dawn on him. He spent ages just looking around, completely cluelessly. What was this? What happened? Why was everything destroyed? And then he remembered, it was his first day and everything went to shit, the monsters, the blood, everyone was gone or infected. He tried. He tried to save them, he was just too little too late- no- no…that’s…not right…
He shook his head to try and clear it and immediately regretted it. The motion made it throb, he could almost feel the blood sloshing around his head.
He spent a while longer staring at a scrap of black, latex-like, fabric stuck on a shredded ceiling beam. It felt so familiar, and he must have finally gotten enough oxygen to fuel his brain because suddenly he recognized it and he finally had something to hold onto, Wesker.
It came flooding back after that and he hurried to his feet, and quickly went back down again. His legs couldn’t handle the strain. He tried again, much slower and managed to stay upright.
He walked with a major limp, but despite all the damage around him he was relatively unscathed. Just the soreness in his limbs and bruising all over…and probably some head trauma. Luckily, or maybe it was more of a show of his misfortune, he had a tolerance for pain.
He looked around as he waded through the ruin. ”Wesker…” he called, his voice hoarse and much too quiet, although he couldn’t hear much of anything over the ringing. “…Wesker…”
He stopped when he felt a squishy texture under his shoe, he looked down to see pink viscera. Leon quickly stepped off it. There were black worms running through it, some kind of maggots was his first thought. Leon was mesmerized by it, the way they moved like leeches, the way the flesh wasn’t burned like everything else. His brain was still working slowly. It wasn’t until he noticed that the worms weren’t eating the flesh that recognition set in.
He’d never seen it in person before, the Uroboros. Wesker…was this all that was left..? Could he recover from this? It seemed impossible, but then he noticed the tendrils snake off into the debris, and he followed them to a much larger mass, it was about the size of a human but there was nothing human about it, aside from the tan color of skin. The inky black parasites laced through the carnage. The whole thing was pulsating, twitching as the Uroboros tried to make sense of the organic material and put it back into place.
It was plenty disgusting but Leon isn’t even sure it made the top 10s list for the most horrific thing he’s ever seen, but it was especially chilling out here in all this destruction.
“Wesker…” It looked painful, the way it withered, the way the tendrils pushed and pulled the flesh without care. The virus or the parasites or whatever they were didn’t seem to pay mind to what anguish it caused, just wanted to get back together as quickly and efficiently as it could. He could almost pity Wesker. What about this was envyable? Definitely an evolved form of sickness.
Leon can get the appeal of immortality to an extent. He is a human afterall, and despite what his profession and stubbornness lead people to believe, he doesn’t have a death wish. He much prefers to live actually, but how much pain do you have to be in for it to not be worth it anymore? Wesker’s answer would be no amount, but Leon isn’t sure he even gets much say in the matter. It’s a hypothetical question. Wesker isn’t a man afraid of pain. He’s rather certain by now he’d keep coming back no matter what. But Leon wonders if he could decide to stay dead or was he doomed to live this over and over in that volcano, or whatever hellhole he came from.
More importantly, this is horrible news. Because if bombs, a volcano and multiple rocket launchers can’t kill Wesker then what can? At this rate they’d have to launch him into deep space to stop him and even then, Leon feels like the man would be able to hitch a ride back on an asteroid.
Leon unholsters his gun and fires 3 shots into the mass. He didn’t know what he was expecting, just letting off steam maybe. Some mix between a pathetic last ditch attempt to finish the mission, anger, and a mercy killing to put the awful thing out of its misery. The bullet holes disappeared almost instantly but the mass started withering violently, building itself up quicker, black tendrils latched onto his pistol and plucked it from his weak grasp before they winded around one of his legs and pulled until he fell back against the ground, he swears the things hissed at him.
Leon kicked the thing away and scooted backwards, farther out of reach.
God…How did he survive again? Those people…he failed them and now it was only him and a monster. They died for nothing.
How’d he even get out of safe when Wesker was like this? Did those Uroboros things open it somehow or did it just get busted in the explosions? He should try to get more distance from it…call in some back up, tell them Wesker survived, do something. But he couldn't find the strength to get up, and he just stared at the sky, flat on his back. He could see in his periphery that the thing is twitching and morphing, his bullets must have really set it off, maybe because it perceived Leon as a threat it is trying to heal faster.
Leon rolled over onto his belly and thought about crawling away or finding his gun. He prayed to god that that thing isn’t mutating into something even worse.
It was getting really hard to do anything, he couldn’t think straight and even if he could think of something coherent he could do fuck all about it with the world going fuzzy like it was.
—
He thinks he awoke and fell back into unconsciousness a number of times, too exhausted to keep his eyes open and too uncomfortable to rest.
“Kennedy. Wake up.”
He groaned.
“You alive, kid?”
Leon could recognize his voice without needing to see him. “Something like that.” He croaked.
“Good.”
“Guess you are too…fuck.” He blinked open his eyes. Wesker was standing over him. He was wearing his usual clothes, Leon doesn’t know how he managed that. They were badly tattered, but had mostly survived, had they been tangled up somewhere in all that viscera? His sunglasses were the only thing distinctly absent and Leon couldn’t help fixating his gaze on those fiery red eyes.
“Our reputations remain intact.”
Leon tried to get up, and found his arms felt like lead and his legs wouldn’t even move.
“Go slow. You just survived a bombing. You’re going to be out of commission for a while.”
“They’re all dead aren’t they?”
“Who?”
“Those people, the scientists.”
“Undoubtedly.”
He tried to get up again. He didn’t know what his plan was, he couldn’t really imagine himself getting away from Wesker but damned if he wouldn’t try, damned if he just laid here and let himself be watched by the vulture. “They didn’t have to die…”
“Take it up with your own people.” Wesker placed a boot on his chest and forced him back to the ground.
Leon grunted in defiance and to hide the pained noise he would’ve made. “What's your plan now?” He said between gritted teeth.
”My plan hasn’t changed, only you are now becoming a part of it. Congratulations to you.” Wesker stepped over him with one leg then fell to his knees so he was straddling Leon just below his pelvis.
“Woah-“
“Don’t flatter yourself.” Wesker grabbed the bottom of Leon’s shirt and pushed it up over his chest. ”I know you’re used to people thinking you’re cute but that kind of thing won’t work on me. I can’t say I don’t see what Ada saw in you though. Quite the hearthrob, aren’t you? What a simple girl she turned out to be.”
Leon couldn’t help but flush, anyone would, blame it on his mushed up brain, but the heat of the moment froze over when Wesker produced a syringe, “Not this fucking shit again.” He thrashed weakly.
“This isn’t mind control. Believe me, with your personality, I wish it was.”
Leon couldn’t do a damn thing, grasping at the arm that held the syringe. Wesker didn’t even bother batting him away, he injected the needle by his heart. Then he was off of him and Leon sat up weakly, his shirt falling back into place. His hand placed protectively over where it stung. “What was that?” He tried to make his tone threatening, but the day had taken its toll and it just sounded scared.
Wesker smiled.
Leon rose to his feet, fighting through the pain to do so, his head darting around, scanning the ground for his gun. If it was anything like the other viruses he wouldn’t have long until he transformed into some horrible mutated beast, he wanted to stop that from happening If he could, before he hurt anyone…
“Looking for something.”
Leon turned his attention back to Wesker who was holding his pistol, with his pinky looped in the hole that housed the trigger.
“What did you do to me?” This time he at least sounded angry as he lunged for it, it was more so just tripping forward honestly. Wesker easily dodged, he didn’t even need to use his super speed.
“Don’t worry, I’m not done with you yet.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
“If you don’t want to turn into a mindless monster, this isn’t going to help you.” Wesker waved the pistol in the air. “You remember most mutations are triggered by mortal injury.” Wesker threw the weapon behind himself, much harder than humanely possible. Leon would not be seeing it again.
And then Wesker was right in front of him, grabbing Leon by the shoulders. “Fevers and lightheadedness are a few of the symptoms. Try to take things easy for the next few days.”
“What are you-?” Leon's head is already swimming, he tried pushing Wesker away with a hand to his chest. “Ugh- Get off me already-“ he grunted in frustration, he didn't so much as budge an inch. The silver lining is, if he’s to believe him, this means he really isn't gonna die today. Although it doesn’t feel like much of a prize since it looks like Wesker will be carting him away to one of those fates worse than death.
“Apologies. I just don’t want you to hit that head of yours when you pass out. It’s already taken quite the beating today.”
“Wha…?”
“I’ll be in touch.”
His vision fades into grains of noise that eat up Wesker‘s image until the film is gray and the shape of his face is indistinguishable against the backdrop of smoke, and all that’s left are those eyes that radiate with the fire of the stars, two molten suns, red like dusk, like blood, like a siren's warning light.
Leon's eyes slip closed and he's gone.