In It For the Money

XXXVI

"So..." Leon began, leaning his forearm on the kitchen island. "How are you holding up?"

"My entire body feels... I don't know, like super weird. I'm all tingly-like in the sense that I feel nauseous and weak. But at the same time, I feel overly energized and like I have a hunger to run laps for miles until I collapse from exhaustion." The male rambled, thinking deeply while his brow began to furrow. "I barely remember anything from the last time I was awake, just bombing that base and you. Your face." They made eye contact and the male could see the longing in Leon's eyes. "And you were scared."

"Scared doesn't even cut the surface," Leon answered, his voice low and soft.

"Terrified, lost. There are so many ways to put it, but none of them sound quite right. I remember the clearing and my team arming the explosives, but that's all I can remember. That and a strong rush of adrenaline and a burning sensation running inside of my veins. Like my blood was on fire, without the flames. Burning like a fire you can only see in the dark." He sat down and contemplated everything. "When I woke up I nearly took a bite out of the first person I saw... Poor girl..." He shook his head and closed his eyes, tucking his hands together in his lap.

"You attacked someone? And they still sent you home?" Leon asked, looking at Jill with worry in their eyes.

"Why did they let you out? What was so important?"

"It's foggy now like it didn't happen. I'm still so out of it. I feel like a deer in headlights. Though instead of headlights it's the calmly swaying flame of a candle. I could still feel a tingling in all of my body and now? Now it feels like my legs are numb and going to fall apart at any moment. Like I was made from the softest fabric known to man. I feel like I took every drug known to man all at once..." He shook his head. "I don't even know what I dialed like I wasn't controlling my actions. It's so weird..." He sighed, hanging his head slightly.

"Like your actions aren't your own?" They could hear the unease from Jill as she shakily reached forward and lowered the front of the male's shirt to reveal a small covered wound and sighed as she sunk relieved in her seat. "You don't have the device I had on me back in Africa..."

"Wesker easily could have done that." The male answered, his face hardening. "He had me unconscious for a while. There's a reason that he hasn't." The male thinks to himself as he stands up, walking himself to the mirror. "And to be honest..."

"Yes?"

The male turned to them anxiously, pleadingly. "I know why."

A smile formed on his lips, sinking into a sinister smirk. "Go ahead." The group gasped and shuffled towards the other male as Wesker entered the room. "Tell them what makes you so special."

"What's he talking about?" Leon asked, looking at his lover as he stepped out to defend them both.

"Yes." The shorter male spread his arms to hide the other two behind him. "Why?"

The male eyed Wesker like a cat, eyes narrowed into slits as he adjusts to a more defensive stance. "Wesker. What do you want?" He growled, feeling the same tingling feeling arise in his veins. He bit the inside of his cheek as he let the adrenaline calm the nerves around him. "Get out of my house. I gave you my warning!"

"And you expected me to yield to your feet even so? What more did his highness want? Me on my knees begging for a second chance? You belong to us now." He stepped forward, eyes unwavering as they locked with the other males. "You and that wolf of yours."

"What? What wolf?" Jill asked, looking at the male wearily. "What is he talking about?"

"Run." He answered, eyes unmoving from the slicked-back blonde. Only his usual perfect hair has strands falling like crystal bursts of insanity. "Run right now."

"I'm not leaving you this time!" Leon argued, but his blood ran cold as the male turned towards him. Eyes bloodied and sharpened like Weskers.

"This isn't a debate." His voice sounded more animalistic, an octave just above the snarl of that of a beast. "Run!" As he yelled that Wesker rushed them, hands narrowly blocked by the male. "Please..." He mumbled, closing his eyes tightly as he pushed Wesker back several steps. "I control my own path, Wesker. You lost control when you sent me on that mission. You should know yourself better than that." 

"Oh trust me." The blonde pinned him into the corner wall, closer to the ground at an angle. "I already have that part covered." The male's eyes widened.

"What have you done?!" 

Wesker smirked and wrapped his gloved hand around the male's throat, lifting him into the air as the male struggled to pull the fingers apart to escape. "My little experiment."

"What experiment?"

"Why don't we go see?" He launched his body into the kitchen counter as his body slammed to the ground, coughing heavily before having a kick harshly sent to his ribcage. He slammed into the wall at the end of the kitchen, coughing blood up onto the floor. "What are you so afraid of? Becoming better than you are? To evolve it to live. To refuse is to die." He grabbed the male by his hair and lifted him by it. "Are you afraid to die or are you afraid to live?"

"Go fuck yourself." He snarled, feeling the hot burn in his veins as a curse left his lips. Wesker frowned and slammed him against the floor twice before throwing his body into one of the cabinets.

"You will obey me!"

"Never!"

"Oh, I wish you hadn't said that." Wesker 'tsked' as he pulled a needle from his trenchcoat, stepping closer like a wolf hunting its prey. "Don't worry. It'll only hurt for a while." That same sinister smirk lifted his lips as he grabbed the male's arm harshly and slammed the needle into him, the dark swirling liquid disappearing into his arm as he began to feel sick to his stomach.

"What did you do...?" As his vision blurred and pain seared through his very core he suppressed a cry of pain.

"To suffer is to change. You must change in order to become a better version of yourself. I'm just helping you to see that. This is how you save the world."

"This... Isn't saving the world..." He shakily tried to push himself up, only stopping at his hands and knees as he felt a tugging sensation at the top of his spine. "This..." He began to feel himself lift until he was staring Wesker in the eye, his left hand holding the counter. "This is terrorism."

"And you, my beautiful specimen, are my greatest terror yet."

His eyes softened and he could feel the tears brimming his eyes. "And I'll kill you... All the damn same."

"We'll see about that," Wesker answered, crossing his arms over his chest. The stare-down lasted a few minutes longer before the shorter male cried out and collapsed to his knees, clutching tightly to his head. "This is only the beginning. It starts here and now with you. And you won't even notice a thing."