What I Never Told You

"I'll take that as a yes. They talked about him. A lot. I guess he had an antibody that could fight off any virus. Apparently, he abused his gift, took it for granted, and then ended up turning himself into some kind of monster. And here I thought dear old dad was just a deadbeat skipped out on us - no, no, no... he was actually... a freakin' nut job who almost destroyed the world!"

And Jake Muller would never be the same after that day.

iii

"Damn it, what the fuck do they even plan on doing with me down here?"

Jake was shirtless, only wearing a pair of light blue sweatpants, as he was led by a J'avo towards a round door at the end of a long, white corridor. After he and his partner Sherry Birkin got separated during a fight with a horde of J'avo, he was taken here, to some mysterious Neo-Umbrella underwater facility. Soon, he and his infected guard reached the circular door, which opened, leading them to a room that was a mix of a laboratory and an operation room. The J'avo left him and closed the door. Jake couldn't really do much; he was shackled. His feet felt the cold steel and it stung his bare skin, so he decided to take a seat on the surgical bed.

He looked around. There were large storage capsules filled with clear, green liquid, which housed strange-looking creatures still in fetal stage. Jake narrowed his eyes, and he could make out that they were BOW creatures that Neo-Umbrella developed for some god-awful reason. But what caught his eye was the capsule at the far end of the room, the biggest one with a lot of tubes stuck to the sides. He approached it, and the figure he saw inside made his insides lurch.

There was a man in the capsule. Or at least, Jake could tell it was a man in there. Goddamn it, how far can these sleazy whitecoats go, he thought as he wrinkled his nose in disgust. Mustering up a bit more of his guts to take a look again. Yep, definitely a guy in there. But…something's not right. Why do I have this weird feeling…? He peered closer, and he could make out blonde hair which was disheveled (and miraculously still there), a well-toned body that wasn't too bulky but was definitely muscular, and the man was missing his right arm. Black tentacle-like things covered most of him, save for his torso. Thankfully his left arm was still intact but the black tentacles had covered it. Jake also noticed that the black tentacles had some metal protrusions sticking out of it, and that the man's flesh was severely burned, but the liquid he was in seemingly healed it.

And when Jake looked up to see the sleeping man's face, he was startled and backed away.

The man's eyes were open, and glowing red. Jesus Christ, Jake thought as he backed away. The hell? His eyes are open? What if this guy just decides to lunge at me? His eyes then went down to the small but readable letters engraved on the capsule's bottom ring. The name of the man inside surprised Jake more than if he found out that Chris Redfield was gay and secretly in love with Leon Kennedy.

Wesker, Albert J. Retrieved from Kijuju, Africa, c. 2012

Holy shit, Jake thought. That's…my dad in there. Swallowing up his apprehension, the young mercenary approached the capsule again, and this time, he looked his nearly-irrecognizable father in the face. And the memories came back to Jake Muller-Wesker when he was a child, asking his mother what his father looked like.

iii

"Mom, where's Dad? I wanna see him…" The young boy said. He envied the kids at school when they were picked up by their moms and dads. Only his mom, Anita Muller, picked him up. No father by her side. "Sweetheart, your father's…" Anita began, but she stopped halfway as the tears came rolling down her face. The little boy wiped his mother's tears with his handkerchief. "Mom, I'm sorry I asked…" the boy said. "But, can you tell me at least what he looked like?"

Anita wiped the last of her tears as she sat her son, Jake, on her lap. "Well, you have your father's face, for one." She said. "And the shape of your chin, and your physical traits. Those were all from him." "But what about my hair?" little Jake asked. The kid was bubbly everytime he asked his mother about his father. He was a child then, and he wasn't aware of the truth until he became a teenager. "Son, you got your hair, nose, and eyebrows from me." His mother answered. "Your father was blonde."

"What's his name? I keep forgetting. It was, uh, Alfie… Alfred…?"

His mother chuckled. "Jacob Muller, your father's name is Albert Wesker."

iii

"Heh, out of all the places I'd imagine to see you," Jake muttered. "I never thought I'd see you here, Dad." His heart was racing with anger at his half-dead father. He left them. Left them to starve. Left his mother to get sick and die. Left him without even letting him feel what it was like to have a father. But Jake always remembered the letter that his mother left on her death.

"Please don't be mad at your father. I'm sure he loves you and is looking out for you." And the state that his father was in right now, Jake couldn't bring himself to be angry. Instead, he sat on the cold, steel floor, at the base of Albert Wesker's capsule. "Hey, Dad." Jake muttered, still tasting the word on his lips. "You know, this is the first time I've ever seen you. And boy, do you fit my mother's description: blonde, handsome, but right now, you're suspended in that fucked-up spa treatment, burnt and barely recognizable."

Then, a familiar feeling hit the mercenary. He felt heat stinging at the back of his head near his eyes. It was the sensation of crying. Try as he may to hold back his tears, the man couldn't blame himself. He hated his father for leaving them, but he missed him because he never got to see him. Never got to be with him. But Jake had to be strong. He can't show his tears. Not in front of the psychopath who tried to destroy the world. And at the same time, he wanted to say a lot of things to that psychopath inside the capsule.

"Dad," jake said, biting back his sobs with his arrogance as he placed his shackled hands on the surface of Wesker's capsule. "Why'd you leave me and Mom? What did we do to you? Did you hate her? Do you hate me?" He knew it was crazy to talk to someone who wouldn't likely respond, but Jake saw the slightest twitch in Wesker's eye, which made him cringe back a bit. The mercenary shook his head. I must be losing my damned mind here , he thought. And here I was, thinking that his eye actually twitched. But why do I have this damn nagging feeling that it really did twitch? Ah, fuck. And this time, he looked straight into the malicious, yet distant, crimson gaze of Albert Wesker.

"Dad, do you have any idea how much I've wanted to see you then? There's…a lot of stuff I wanna tell you about."

iii

Is this…death? No. I can feel…cold…liquid. I'm suspended in some solution… But I can't move. Yes, I must be dead. It looks like my plan can never go on. I suppose I can leave it behind... Wait a moment… that boy down there…Those eyes…that shade of red for the hair… it can't be…

Jacob…Muller? My…son? What's he doing here? His questions… His eyes…

I am no God… I am a monster.

Jacob… Until I can move again… I cannot answer your questions. My eye is the only thing I can move. I cannot even open my mouth to speak…. But know this… I can never hate my own family…

I just…have my reasons for leaving you and Anita. And soon…you'll understand…

What I never told you and your mother.

And all that the once-feared man could do was twitch his eye…and shed a lone tear.