Chapter 1: Subject Theta
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC.
Kind of got the idea for this when reading over the information on the C-Virus from the wiki and thus this came about. Hope you guys enjoy this and I hope to see your feedback in your reviews.
Summary: Following the 2013 Bioterrorist Attacks, Neo-Umbrella stands on the brink of oblivion with Carla now dead. However, with the world focusing on recovery, the organisation decides to consolidate its remaining power and resources, intent on making sure that their late leader's vision for the world becomes a reality. Establishing a new base of operations, they began more work and research into the C-Virus, intent on making the perfect beings to populate the new world. One unlucky soul is one of the first to be experimented upon…
The best way to describe how he felt right now could be best be summed up as hungover, headache and foggy head included and that would have been logical if Noah Hale had actually gone to a bar. Yet here he was, the feeling of a hangover present with no memory of what had happened several hours beforehand. What Noah did know, despite the foggy head and blurred vision was that he was strapped to a chair.
"What the bloody hell?" he muttered finally as he tested the restraints.
"Good…you are awake" a cold female voice said behind him.
"What is this? Where am I?" he asked, vision clearing now. The work was pure white and smelled of disinfectant, almost like a hospital, but the fact that he was tied down told him that he was definitely not in a hospital.
"This is evolution in the works…" she answered his first question. "As for where you are? Well it's your new home" she said, pacing back and forth.
"What are you blithering on about?!" he snapped.
"Tetchy" she mocked cruelly. "Mr. Hale, try speaking in a more civil tone"
"Forgive me for not being so bloody courteous since you have me strapped down!" Noah snarked, trying to look around the room. He couldn't see the woman, but he saw a logo on one of the screens in the room. It was octagonal and split into eight sections, four white, four black. Noah thought of it as a monochromatic Umbrella logo.
"You're forgiven" she returned with equal amounts of sarcasm.
"What do you want with me?"
"It's not you personally that we are interested in" she said, walking to stand in front of him. She was dressed rather formally in a black suit that was crisp and clean, her high-heels clean and immaculate and she looked very severe. Despite her cold exterior and the fact that she was in her mid-forties, it looked like she had aged well, with only a few wrinkles marring her face. "It's your genetic structure that is of particular importance" she finished her sentence.
"My genetic- Who the hell are you?!" Noah exclaimed, fear and anger combining in his tone.
"Well seeing you asked so politely and seeing as we are going to be spending a lot of time in one another's company, my name is Dana Holloway. I'm a geneticist and virologist" she explained and he gulped. These science types could be dangerous due to their curiosity.
"How do you know so much about me?" was his next question as she used his surname.
"We've been observing you for a while. Noah Hale, British citizen from London visiting this country on holiday. Should have come in the company of others, perhaps we would have left alone" she said cruelly. "Now that you are awake, we can begin" she said as two men in crisp clean white coats came into the room.
"Begin what?" he asked, but he went ignored.
"Prepare the sample" she ordered one of the scientists.
"Yes ma'am" he replied respectfully, digging around in a cabinet and pulling out a metallic box. The doctor pulled out a syringe before opening the box and pulling out a vial of dark blue liquid, labelled C-Virus and he began struggling.
"No use in struggling" the other scientist mocked as Dana grabbed a voice recorder.
"Dr. Dana Holloway, experiment number eight, new designation 'Theta.' First tests with an updated sample of the C-Virus. Intention of experiment: successfully bonding the C-Virus to the host on a base cellular level with no visible mutations. Subject is a male in his late twenties, no outstanding health conditions that could potentially affect the experiment. Height, 6'2, weight 170lbs, ideal weight that is proportionate to height. Potential visible markers of the virus could be in eye colour which is currently brown"
"Please…don't do this" Noah pleaded with one of the scientists.
"Consider this an honour. A pioneer in evolution"
"This isn't natural!" he protested.
The doctor handling the blue liquid drew two millilitres precisely from the test tube and he flicked the needle to make sure there was no excess on the tip. Noah's breathing picked up as the doctor approached, face cold but eyes curious and soon the needle was descending to his veins which were showing for he was tensing.
"Clenching your muscles is unadvisable. Let it happen" Dana said coldly.
"No bloody way!"
"Don't say I didn't warn you"
When the solution was injected, Noah stifled a cry of pain as it felt like fire surging through his being, heart now pumping the virus around his body. Eyes wide open, they suddenly began to turn a dark blue and soon the burning in his veins gave way to a gentle warmth that would have been soothing if not for the fact that Noah was fully aware of what was going on. Dana continued to speak into her voice recorder as the doctor moved away.
"No immediate adverse reaction to the sample. It would appear that it has lowered the melanin content in the stroma of the iris, resulting in a dark blue colour" she said, also noting it into a tablet for good measure. "Subject is conscious and aware. External temperature is average. Internal temperature is elevated but well below levels that resulted in failure prior. Theta can you hear me?"
"Unfortunately. And it's Noah" he ground out.
"Self-awareness remains intact. Continued observation over the next hour to see if there is any change. Blood sample to be taken for analysis and comparison with the initial bloodwork taken prior to admission of the injection" she said, clicking off the recorder.
"What the fuck have you done to me?" he hissed.
"Improved you, Theta. Improved you" she said before dismissing the scientists.
"You cold-hearted bitch" he glared when she sat across from him in a computer chair, crossing one leg over the other.
"All of this is being done for the greater good, to bring on a new level of evolution, improve our lives permanently" she said and he chuckled humourlessly. "You will be remembered as the one who had served as a pioneer"
"You turned me into a freak"
"Soon, Theta, you will thank me for this"
"For some reason I doubt that Ms. Holloway" Noah spat the name out like it was poison before he was dragged off by security personnel to a grey room with a window above. 'To be watched like an animal'
An hour passes and as she said, Dana entered his room, syringe in hand and with a resigned sigh, he held out his arm so she could take a sample of his now altered blood. When she was done, she had the same guards escort him back to the lab with her as she prepared a slide to view beneath the microscope that was connected to a screen so the image was digital.
"Why did you bring me back here?" he asked.
"Well…I was feeling generous and thought you should see this" Dana said in a civil tone.
"You're so kind" he said sarcastically.
"Well it's good to see that the virus is not affecting your personality" she said seriously as the image came up and the system began to analyse the genetic structure. Soon an image of a DNA strand was shown. "This strand was taken from you unaltered blood" she explained and he merely nodded, ever so slightly curious. "And this" she said as a new image came up. "Is the altered strand" and his eyes widened.
"A triple helix…" Noah whispered and she smirked.
"Indeed it is"
"What does it mean?"
"The C-Virus has bonded well with your cells. Everything appears normal in your blood, but in the small details, you are now evolved…" she said and soon he was grabbed and stripped of his hospital garbs until he was in some grey boxers and Noah was dragged to a table as a full team came in.
"What…what's going on?"
"Phase 2, Theta. Time to see just what your body can do" Dana said, still smirking as he was strapped down.
"What do you mean?"
"Well…most people would call it torture" she said, sterilizing her hands properly before coming back over with a protective gown and mask. Noah gasped when she picked up a scalpel. "We prefer to call it 'the pursuit of science' and I will tell you now…we need you aware for this" she said as one of the doctors looped a microphone into her ear so she could record.
"You can't…please…have a fucking heart…"
"You're going to feel a slight pinch" she said, before beginning. "Making first incision" she said and soon the blade broke his skin, fiery pain causing him to gasp but hold in a cry. He could feel an actual heat then, like fire. "Elements of the T-Veronica Virus is present with the blood igniting upon contact with the atmosphere" she said and his eyes widened as it burned. "Elements of the G-Virus present with a healing factor similar to that of Birkin" she continued. The rest of the team soon joined in with their own scalpels, testing his body's newfound ability to heal, and on top of the burning blood, he was losing the will to not scream.
'Lord…please let it be a bad dream…please'
"Theta's healing factor is able to heal multiple wounds rapidly ranging from lacerations to burns" she said and then she turned to a more brutish scientist. "Break his arm"
"What?" he breathed out when his body had finished.
There was a sudden snap as his arm was broken and he finally cried out in pain. Two minutes of pure agony that felt like hours later, his bone had healed properly with no anomalies although it still had a dull ache to it. He was given a brief break so they could conduct their X-rays.
"Bones have healed as though they were never broken. No evidence of break present in the scan" she noted.
It wasn't for another two hours before they allowed him to be taken back to his cell where he wanted to curl up on the mattress and just die. In those hours, they had broken him. He would only respond to his designation and though he remembered his name, he'd associate it with pain. Soon it was dark and he was on the cusp of finally drifting off to sleep if it wasn't for someone coming into his room and he instantly flinched. The symbol for Theta had been tattooed onto the back of his hand.
"I'm an ally" a male voice whispered and he turned to see one of the scientists that passed in the halls of the facility.
"I don't believe you…"
"I don't care" he said, putting a piece of lined paper down, a key card a silenced gun. "On the paper are instructions on how to shut down the power for twenty minutes. It should unlock the main doors so you can get out of here. Head North and you'll soon find the road which leads to a town. Contact the number and explain what has happened. Security is disabled at the moment and the guards on duty are dead, but keep the gun in case you need it" he instructed and the other nodded dumbly. "Go. Before the back-up cameras come online"
The handgun was clutched tightly in his hands and the paper tucked out of sight as he walked down the quiet halls of the facility and into the control room where he saw the bodies of two guards. Theta got to work disabling all of the failsafe programmes in place before shutting down the power and making a beeline for the main doors.
Never had he been so grateful to see fields in the dead of night as he sprinted away from the facility, putting some significant distance between him and it. By the time he made it to the road, he could barely hear the sound of alarms in the distance and it spurred him to run more, his now advanced physiology allowing him to keep going that little bit longer until he reached the town limits. Concealing the gun and breathing heavily, he went in.
"Oh thank God…" he muttered.
'I must look a right state…wandering around in hospital clothes'
Theta soon reached a police station where the guy on the graveyard shift eyed him with curiosity but was polite enough to not call out his haggard appearance. His feet were a little sore, his body ached from all the punishment they had inflicted upon it and his now blue eyes looked to be completely tired.
"Is it possible I could use your phone?" he asked politely.
"Go ahead" the officer said, sympathetic despite not knowing his situation.
Pulling out the piece of paper that the scientist had provided him with, he dialled the number that looked to have been hastily written. It rang a few time before someone picked up, a deep voice bringing him instant comfort.
"Captain Redfield of the BSAA…"
Yes I did deliberately stop referring to him by his original name to represent how much damage had been done to his psyche.