Authors Note: This is a longer chapter this time, coming close to 2000 words. I don't know if that will annoy some people or make them happy but that's what it is, I'm just trying to get this finished for you guys so you can actually have a completed story! Enjoy chapter 28, Beast Below.
Albert Wesker stood in the half light of the dark chamber, the only light being from the illuminated water behind Ada and Leon.
The blond man could barely be described in such a way, his face looking wrong. There was no other way to describe it. The facial features, while obscured by black glasses, were misshaped and misplaced making Wesker look like a cheap imitation of himself. Leon furrowed his brow as he stared
He fell in a the mouth of a volcano, I read Chris's report myself, I talked to Chris and Sheva both after. How?
Beside him Ada didn't allow herself to react at all, instead donning an emotionless mask.
"Are you not pleased to see me, my dearest Ada?" Despite the physical changes Wesker's dry voice hadn't changed.
"I remember your face slightly differently, I guess I'm just a bit thrown. But tell me, how did you survive swimming in lava?" Her hand stayed firmly gripped around her pistol, betraying her feigned calm demeanour. Wesker's lips curled into a vicious smile while Leon gave Ada a side long glance.
What are you getting at here, Ada?
"That I have to thank your doppelgänger for. She took it upon herself to take my remains from Africa and use her C-Virus, modified with bacteria taken from the depths of the ocean to recreate me with all of my power. She wanted us to create a new world together. I should be thanking you for removing Ms Radames." His distorted smile turned more malicious, "And now you have outlived your usefulness to me, Ada. You already aided to create C, and many more of Umbrella and Tricell's creations. How many people's blood must be on your hands?"
In his peripheral vision Leon caught Ada's mask fall momentarily into an expression of guilt and sadness before returning to its usual expression.
"Is that all you have to say? Meaningless, drawn out explanations? You gave been killed once Albert. It can be done again." In one swift movement Ada rose her gun and squeezed the trigger. Before the bullet could make contact Wesker had moved at a blinding speed a meter to his right.
"I expected more from you." He announced loudly, pulling his own gun from a hip holster. Instinctively Leon stepped forward, effectively putting himself between Wesker and her. A low chuckle escaped Wesker's deformed lips, "What's this? Your hero trying to keep you from harm? You must have changed greatly yourself if you're going to let someone else fight for you, Ada. It will only end in misery." Wesker raised his gun and dashed forwards, closing the gap between Leon and the blond so that the cold muzzle of the gun was pressed to Leon's head, "Misery, Ada. Only Misery."
"No!" Ada cried out, firing her pistol multiple times rapidly despite it not being her automatic gun, causing Leon to flinch and close his eyes. This time the bullets did hit their target, tearing into Wesker's arm holding the gun and his head. But he didn't fall.
Wesker lowered the gun and behind the dark glasses red eyes flashed visibly. The bullet wounds reformed, the flesh around them crawling in a manner that Ada recognised better than Leon. Leon flinched backwards, retreating to Ada's side as they both stared at the healing tissue.
The C-virus healing that the j'avo had. I should have realised. Ada cursed silently.
Wesker chuckled darkly again, "I've wasted enough time here. As much fun as I have threatening your happiness I must leave. I'll leave you with a friend, I'm sure Leon Kennedy here will die all the same. You aren't worth my effort." He dashed away in a dark blur with his inhuman speed and when lights flicked on from above Ada and Leon, Wesker was already gone, a door at the other end of the huge circular chamber closing mechanically being the only evidence that he hadn't just disappeared into thin air like a bad magic trick.
And yet neither of the couple paid any attention to the closing door, their gaze instead focused on the floor below them. Below the metal grating lay more water which in turn held the four hand like limbs and lower body of a bluish, translucent creature whose organs visible through a layer of see-through, jelly like skin. It's other two hands were pressed against the metal grating as the skull held within the jellied skin stared at them from where it was, directly below their feet.
"Shit." Leon cursed, grabbing Ada's free hand instinctively and pulling her away from the creature that Ada and Leon both recognised as being a Haos, despite its differences from the Redfield report. As the couple dashed towards one of the walls the Haos behind them pushed upwards with its first two hands, the metal grate flying upwards as it pulled itself out of the water and onto an equal field with Ada and Leon.
"Haos only had two arms." Leon stated, hitting the wall with the palm of his hand and looking at Ada.
"It wasn't fully formed. This must be its final form," Ada muttered, her mind more focused on their hands despite years of instincts yelling to turn around, let go of him and make sure that she survives the Haos, no matter what the cost to Leon would be. Leon pulled his hand away first so that he could hold his pistol in both hands. Ada followed slightly reluctantly before pulling herself back into a fighting state of mind.
Haos hadn't moved far, instead it was just standing awkwardly on the back four hands while the other two hands were held slightly above the ground looking as if they were preparing to swat at the two.
"The Redfield report didn't discuss how Haos was killed. You know Chris Redfield personally, did he tell you?" Ada discharged the clip in her gun, trying to gauge how many bullets she had left after losing her desperate firing of bullets at Wesker to save Leon.
"I've only seen him once in the past couple of weeks, and even then I doubt he would want to talk about it."
Ada chewed at her lip for the second time in the past 10 minutes, "Carla near enough melted when she made contact with the console, she was a C-Virus creation. Maybe..."
"Electricity." Leon announced with realisation before firing off a few rounds at the Haos. The see through jelly monster reacted with a low scream that vibrated through the room before swatting a hand at Leon, causing both Leon and Ada to roll out of the way, "Ada, where are we going to find electricity?"
Ada swept her eyes around the room before firing off some more bullets and once again being forced to dodge another swipe. The Haos' hand instead slammed down on the metal grate, causing the grating to shake and disconnect from the wall, slanting the whole floor closer to the water below.
"There are doors at either side of the room, both of them connected to electricity. If you can draw that things attention I'll blow the wall beside the doors open. We'll figure it out from there." Ada holstered her gun and reached for the folded crossbow fastened to her leg. She heard Leon fire at Haos, drawing it to the other side of the room. Quickly she took her opportunity, firing an explosive arrow into the wall beside the door that they had come in from which was now closed (of course it was closed, why would they have any hope at escape?).
The sound of Leon crying out behind her and a hard slam on the grating, slanting it further towards the water, caused her to turn sharply. Leon was lying on the floor, trying to push himself back to his feet weakly. Behind her Ada heard the explosive arrow explode. She cast a glance backwards and smiled weakly seeing the sparking electricity. She loaded another arrow into the crossbow and aimed at Haos.
"Leave him alone!" She fired, the combination of the sound and the hit attracting Haos to her and away from Leon, allowing him the chance to get up.
Ada stood stock still infront of the wall, waiting for Haos to awkwardly untangle its hand-legs to charge towards her, hand out stretched to grasp at her. She waited patiently, hoping that Leon actually was okay after the hit he had taken. At the last second, as she came face to face with the hollow eyeless skull she rolled to her right and ran. From behind her she heard an electrical sparking and another low scream that once again reverberated throughout the room and shook the grating.
"Leon! Are you okay?" She sprinted and kneeled at his side as she noticed that he was still unable to stand.
"I'm okay, Ada." Leon reassured unconvincingly, brushing her off and not allowing her attempts to check him for injuries. They used eachother for support until they were standing. Ada cast a glance behind her, noticing that they were directly beside the door which Wesker had exited out of. She pulled another explosive arrow and loaded it carefully while still holding Leon's hip, firing it into the wall beside her, "Come on, we need to get some distance before Haos recovers." The jelly blob of hands that was Haos was still twitching in the corner and trying to prise its hand free from where it had obviously hit the wall and knocked the doors out and gotten caught in the opening, causing the electricity to continue surging though it's body.
The arrow exploded, another sparking wall revealed, as Ada and Leon both ducked instinctively.
"Ada, the door's open, run, fast. I'll deal with Haos," he pushed Ada away from him slightly, making an attempt to straighten fully but failing and simultaneously making his limp arm obvious to Ada, "Find help, the cure is somewhere in here. Come back with a whole army of you need to, just do that job. I'll do this one."
Ada stared at him blankly, trying to figure out where this bout of altruistic attitude had come from. She stared at the arm, broken or at least dislocated, she noted.
"I'm not leaving Leon," she said firmly trying to move closer to him, "We're getting out of here together, handsome." She heard Haos release itself and begin to turn. Leon stared at Ada for just a fraction of a second before deciding that fighting with a woman like her would be a lost cause, too wilful. Too good a person. He didn't know why he believed that about her but he did.
They stood infront of the wall and waited as Ada had before until it was the right moment and then-
They rolled at the right time, in opposite directions. Leon faltered as his roll caused a spike of pain through his shoulder, being left useless on the floor. One of Haos hands hit the electricity, almost instantly it body falling limp, killing it, the heavy body falling hard on the metal grating and being the last straw as the metal links connecting to the wall snapped and the whole thing fell into the water below, taking Ada and Leon down with it.
Authors Note: I now only have one exam left so I can actually write. There is likely only one chapter left but here's the thing, this fic was originally going to run into Thirteen, meaning that this story's ending won't be totally clean cut (for those who don't know thirteen was a slightly jokey story that I wrote around a thousand words of that I at the time intended to continue after Unknown enemy was complete). What I'm getting at is would you want me to go on and write thirteen? (There's around 6,000 words of it written already in my saved files) Or would you prefer I change things so that this is a clean cut ending with no chance at continuation? Personally I want to write Thirteen and some of it is indeed written but I will listen to you guys on this so whatever you decide. Thank you for reading, see you soon for the next part (try coming back in a week and it should be up) :)
