A.N: Ok people, the end is nigh. Just two more chapters to go.I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 20
The group continued on their way down the dark winding corridors of the basement of the house, stopping occasionally at the distant cry of a monster, or to fight one that had leapt out of the shadows at them.
Once or twice they had caught a glimpse of something rushing through the corridors ahead, but they had never confronted it, for it seemed more content in rushing around, making strange squealing noises.
All they had managed to see of the creature as it had made its frenzied runs, was that it appeared to be vaguely human and had a lot of inflamed pinky-red tissue on show.
Wesker had merely raised an eyebrow each time it had run past, but he was guessing that Aaron was somehow using the creature to take note of where the group was within the underground labyrinth.
It was as they were coming to the penultimate corridor before they reached the lab in which Aaron was lurking (or so Wesker had told the rest of them), that the creature stopped before them, and even Wesker had recoiled at the appearance and stench of it.
It reminded him of when he had first entered the Arklay Labs in the Spencer Mansion, when he had first seen Lisa Trevor.
The creature was around six foot or so, it's arms hanging limply by its side, its head making strange backward jerking motions, as if it were having a fit.
From the looks of the exposed flesh of the mutant, during the mutation, its whole body had turned inside out.
Its eyes were completely missing, its mouth just a thin slit which its tongue poked out of. Purple coloured corded muscle stood out all over its body, covered in a thin layer of pink-red slimy 'skin', blue veins and capillaries running visibly through the flesh, all spilling out from the throbbing white heart in the centre of its chest, that was covered in drying black and red blood, making each beat of the heart slow and shuddering.
Its lungs expanded and contracted slowly, fleshy pink bags forcing the partially exposed ribs upwards, and then letting them thud back down.
Every organ of the creature was visible, including its bladder, stomach, liver, kidneys and intestines. All covered in that pinky-red slime, a layer of yellow muscle covering the intestines that were starting to slide downwards, pulling the rest of the digestive system with it, the oesophagus lying taut against the neck.
Chris and Billy took a couple of steps back, recoiling from the overwhelming stench of blood and urine that emanated from the creature, and the rest of group followed suit, giving them space to move backwards whilst Wesker grimaced at the smell and covered his mouth and nose, the smell of the creature so strong that he could almost taste bile on his tongue…whether the bile belonged to him or the creature though, he wasn't sure.
The creature took a shuddering step forwards and then squealed again, its vocal cords tightening and thinning beside the oesophagus, as it threw its head back and squealed again. Throwing its arms out to the side and dragging its 'palms' against the wall, leaving a smear of blood and mucus, its fingers clenching as it squealed again.
Link stood near the back of the group, watching the creature with a sort of morbid curiosity at its behaviour, its mutilated body, as it threw back its head repeatedly and squealed again and again, its hands clenching against the wall, its body bucking and muscles spasming.
Sliding his eyes over to Wesker, he noticed the part-Tyrant frowning and drawing his knife, preparing to kill the creature.
Link pushed through the group who were clustered as far back as possible, and stood beside Wesker.
"What are you going to do?" he asked quietly
"Kill it."
"Why?"
"Because it's mutated, because it's blocking our path, and because its shrieks are annoying me."
Link frowned slightly "Why is it jerking?"
Wesker snorted "It's in pain. Probably beginning to mutate." Wesker turned to Link. "This lot don't seem to be able to handle it, whether it's the smell or appearance I don't know, either way, I want you to get them to move back about a meter or so. Keep them out of the way."
It was as Link was ushering the group back, Wesker's eyes lingering on him as he did so, that the creature began to mutate.
An eye suddenly burst out of the centre of its chest, spraying blood and other fluids over the group, most of it hitting Wesker. The creatures limbs enlarged and several shards of bone punched out of the skin, a raw bloody wound appearing over its abdomen as white teeth began to appear, tearing through the creatures own internal organs. Needle like pieces of bone pushed out of the fingertips of the creature's hands, a clear fluid dribbling down the sides of them.
It collapsed to the floor a moments later, then split open its sides, a multitude of thin arms pushing out of the wound, flailing and snatching at the air.
With the mutation seemingly complete, the creature turned its attention to Wesker, ignoring the rest of the group as if they weren't worth the trouble.
It lunged towards Wesker gracelessly, and he took a step back before sidestepping another lunge, throwing his leg out, tripping the creature over. As it fell, the shrivelled arms that protruded from its sides, grabbed for him, latching on to his waist, even as he brought his left hand down and back, smashing into the creatures jaw.
The force of the pseudo punch ripped the flesh of the creatures face, tearing through purple muscle down to the hidden skull underneath. The piece of jaw bone that had been connected to the rest of the skull shattered, leaving the rest of the lower jaw to fall free and hang by the right side that was still intact. As the jaw hung limply, the tongue spilled out of the new wound, lolling onto the exposed throat.
The hands holding onto Wesker's waist tightened their grip, and he kicked out blindly in an attempt to get the creature off him.
Wesker's kick connected with the mutant's crotch, and the body shunted backwards. While it was still moving, Wesker reached down and grabbed the hanging jaw and ripped it from the face.
Seizing hold of the few ratty strands of hair with his right hand, he turned the head towards the others. As he did so, a shot rang out loudly in the hall, the sound reverberating off the walls.
The creature, with a hole blown through its head, hit the floor heavily as it finally released Wesker.
Leon exhaled slowly as he dropped his stance, lowering the Desert Eagle Magnum to his side and holstering it. When Link had ushered the group away earlier, a few had lost control of their stomachs, vomiting over the floor. As a result, Chris and the others had been far too busy placating the members who had been sick to notice that Wesker had been struggling with the creature.
Leon had been the only one who had, and he had sprinted up the corridor to help Wesker out, knowing that if the Tyrant couldn't fight, then they had no chance against Aaron, and Hyrule was as good as dead.
Wesker looked at Leon and nodded curtly as thanks as the rest of the group, having recovered from the sudden loss of their lunch, jogged up to them.
"So you killed it?" Chris asked leaning down to take a look at it, then recoiling from the stench.
"With the aid of Mr. Kennedy, yes," Wesker answered as he pulled off the light suit jacket he was wearing, grunting in irritation at the gashes down the side of the fabric.
Chris smirked slightly as Wesker threw the coat over the body and brushed his hands over the black turtleneck sweatshirt he was wearing.
"If you're ready to face Aaron," Wesker started "we should move on…he's just down the next corridor."
Chris nodded and Wesker took the lead again, walking quickly, the rest of the group jogging to keep up with his quick pace.
Within a few minutes they were standing outside the silver coloured door of the lab in which Aaron was lurking.
Jill breathed in quietly as Maxi and Billy jogged up to the group, having brought up rear. Her former captain had a look on his face that was the closest thing to excitement that she had ever seen from him. It seemed that he was looking forward to this encounter. She, on the other hand, certainly wasn't. She looked over to Chris for reassurance, and he offered it in the form of a small smile. Moving closer to her, he brushed her hand slightly with his and settled his other on her shoulder. Leaning forwards, he whispered into her ear;
"Relax, Wesker will be doing most of the fighting, we're just finishing him off…OK?"
She nodded at her husband then looked to Wesker who had his gloved hand on the door. He noticed her looking at him and glanced towards her, nodding slightly then looking to the rest of the group.
As everyone turned and faced the door, Wesker placed his other hand on the slick surface and pushed. The door creaked slightly, and Jill saw him lean into the push, using all his strength to move the heavy metal. Inch by inch, the door opened slowly, revealing darkness and a silhouetted figure, which no longer resembled a human being.
Link drew his sword as he moved inside the dark room, his senses on edge, taking in every noise, smell and all that could be seen.
Aaron sat in a chair at the back of the room, facing them, but as the lights snapped on, and the door slid shut, it was clear that he had gone through a few changes.
Billy slid his gun out of its holster at the same time as everyone else did. That being the moment after everyone had recovered from being blinded from the sudden burst of light after the long darkness, and laid their eyes on the 'new' Aaron.
Siegfried scowled at the 'person' in front of him.
Aaron no longer resembled the small scrawny human, with dull unassuming looks. Instead, there was a monstrosity sitting in the chair.
His body had swelled up, leaving him standing at about eight foot tall, his skin now a bronze colour, silver veins running over the skin. His right arm had formed into a collection of ropy tentacles that loosely resembled an arm, while his left seemed to have merely grown claws.
From the shoulder blades a pair of wings had grown, frail pieces of bone draped with a clear membrane, still laced with silver veins.
His face seemed to have changed the most though. His hair was still black and greasy, hanging limply onto his shoulders, but his face was covered in pitted scars, as if it had ripped open several times during the mutation. His eyes now resembled Wesker's, slitted pupils but with a completely white iris, shot through with those strange silver veins. His mouth was now displaying several large fangs, jutting out and curling over his lips, cutting them open.
His torso remained much the same, apart from size and colour, but there seemed to be far more of that knotted muscle over his chest and abdomen. It was in such an excess though that it had folded over on itself, giving him a flabby look.
His legs remained exactly the same, making the disproportionately small to the rest of his body, stark white compared to the shimmering brown of the rest of his skin.
"Welcome back, Wesker," Aaron hissed out, his words marred by the fangs "and of course, your new – found team."
Chris growled lowly in the back of his throat at that. Aaron ignored him.
"How do you like the little surprise I left for you?" he asked Wesker
"You mean my Hunters? Very nice. I shall have to return the favour to you. I don't like to be in debt."
Aaron smirked "Will you now?"
"Why don't you cut the crap and just fight him already?" Chris snapped
"Very well then, though I must warn you that I'm not going to lose." He turned to Wesker, who merely pulled off his sunglasses and handed them to Claire who was standing next to him.
"We shall see."
Wesker pulled out his knife and dropped it on the floor, and stepped towards Aaron, who stood up and pushed the chair back to the far wall.
The two mutants stepped towards each other, then began to circle each other.
It was Aaron who made the first move, lashing out with the strange tentacle arm, aiming to knock Wesker off balance by striking him across the head. Wesker blocked the attack throwing his arms up in front of his face, grabbing one of the tentacles and pulling on it, dragging the hulking monster towards him.
In response Aaron curled the other tentacles around Wesker's arm, bending it around in an attempt to snap it off.
Wesker twisted with the arm as much as possible, trying to avoid unnecessary pain so early on in the fight. In an attempt to free himself he dropped to the floor and kicked out at Aaron's ankles, catching the side of it.
The attempt was successful and Aaron fell to the floor.
With Wesker still crouched Aaron kept a hold of Wesker's arm and threw himself towards him. Aaron landed next to him, his other hand going for Wesker's throat. The hand missed as Wesker twisted out the way, but his claws raked across the blonde's face, drawing dark red blood that contrasted sharply with his pale skin. Wesker hissed in pain and kicked out Aaron, his foot connecting with a hard wall of muscle. The impact jarred his leg and he lashed out in an almost desperate attempt to harm Aaron.
His gloved hand collided with the side of Aaron's face and he reeled away slightly, giving Wesker enough of a chance to wriggle out of his grasp.
The two staggered upright and away from each other. Wesker backed away letting the wounds across his face heal. The first blood had been drawn.
Growling, Wesker wasted no time in attacking Aaron. Rushing forwards, he slammed into the creation, using his speed, strength and weight combined with Aaron's disproportionately sized body to tackle him to the far wall.
As Aaron stumbled backwards from the attack, Wesker rushed at him again with a viciousness that the Tyrant himself didn't even know he had. His fist slammed into Aaron's face repeatedly, smashing into his mouth, his gloves ripping on the fangs, opening wounds on his knuckles that poured as much blood as was now coming out of Aaron's mouth. His punches shattered Aaron's nose, knocked a tooth out, broke open the skin of his cheek which sprayed a fountain of silver blood across Wesker's face.
Wesker's screamed and stumbled away from Aaron, his hands cradling his face as he continued to let out low sounds of pain. When he reached the far wall and seemed to have recovered, he pulled his hands away the spectators saw a dark red bloody steak across Wesker's nose and cheeks, a few specks of blood up near his temple, the skin having been eaten away. It seemed that Aaron's blood was corrosive.
"Like the surprise?" Aaron asked smugly, grinning at Wesker who was hunched in the corner of the room still uttering low keening sounds of pain.
In response, Wesker merely snarled and straightened up, his face still twisted in an expression of pain. Watching Aaron closely he moved towards him again, his steps deliberately slow and heavy. When he was within a foot of Aaron, he stopped and looked at him for a moment before they started to circle each other once more.
Wesker lunged for Aaron suddenly, his elbow swinging round and hitting Aaron in the mouth, whilst Aaron's hand moved to Wesker's shoulder, his claws tearing through the fabric of Wesker's sweatshirt and plunging into the flesh of his shoulder. Using his slightly greater strength, the 'Anodyne' creature pushed his opponent roughly, slamming the man into the wall, his back hitting a pipe that dug in and settled uncomfortably between his shoulders. Backing off, Aaron rushed forwards again a second later, pushing the blonde further onto the pipe.
Wesker grimaced as the pipe underneath his back broke, the ripped edge of it digging into his spine. He wasn't going to let Aaron win though, no matter what the cost and he reached out, grabbing the tentacle arm, twisting one of the long 'fingers', ripping the flesh and causing more of that shimmering metallic blood to pour out and onto the floor. The Tyrant laughed when Aaron shrieked in pain, the noise similar to the one that the inside-out creature that he had fought outside, and continued to do so even when Aaron's blood ran into the healing wounds on his knuckles. Catching himself, Wesker stopped his insane laughter and pulled the appendage he had hold of more forcefully, ripping it from the rest of the limb. Aaron stepped back a little and Wesker tackled him, the two falling to the floor, both struggling for dominance.
The struggle continued on for what seemed an eternity before Aaron finally pulled himself on top of Wesker, the remaining fingers of his tentacle hand wrapping around Wesker's throat, making him hiss from the blood that was spattered on his neck. He writhed under Aaron until the clawed hand slammed into his forehead and dragging down, and Wesker barely had time to snap his eyelid shut before Aaron' claws raked over it and continued down to his jaw.
Lashing out, Wesker caught hold of the elbow of the clawed arm and squeezed it in an attempt to snap it, whilst Aaron's claws raked down his face again, ripping through the already raw wounds, shredding muscle and flesh. Aaron yelped when Wesker's hand grabbed his shoulder and ground the bones together, his other hand rising to strike Aaron across the face, knocking him away from himself.
The two struggled upright and away from each other before rushing forwards again, Aaron's clawed hand going for Wesker's throat. He only managed to grab the collar of the shirt he was wearing, but he pushed his knuckles forward and down. His opponent, however, had struggled away enough that the claws only caught the base of his neck, just above the collarbones, but they had plunged into the soft flesh and he dragged down, pushing his hand in as far as it could go, tearing the flesh of Wesker's chest and stomach away with his hand just as much as with his claws. His tentacle 'hand' wrapped around Wesker's throat, and the Tyrant reached up, struggling to pull the squeezing appendages away.
He didn't manage it, but as the fingers tightened around his neck, and the other hand ripped his flesh away, Wesker turned his hips and kicked Aaron in the chest as hard as he could. The fingers ripped from around his throat, leaving a red mark only, and Wesker took full opportunity of Aaron's surprise.
As quickly as his injured body would allow, Wesker landed on his fallen enemies chest, and using his weight to fully pin him down, pulled at the tentacle arm as hard as he could, until it finally ripped away from the shoulder, spraying silver blood across the room.
Wesker fell back, clutching the wounds of his chest as the blood burnt them, and he screamed loudly, the force of the yell ripping at the back of his throat.
And Aaron was screaming too, making the room fill with a cacophony of pained wails.
Despite the loss of his limb however, Aaron recovered first and he pulled himself up. As he did, he noticed Wesker's combat knife that the ex-STARS captain had dropped earlier.
He lunged for it, just as Jill did, having noticed Aaron's gaze but he snatched it up first, shoving Jill backwards with his remaining hand.
Whilst Chris jumped over to catch his wife, Aaron strode over to Wesker who was beginning to push himself up from the floor.
Before he could fully achieve that though, Aaron kicked him, and he fell to the floor, rolling onto his back as Aaron drove the knife down into his lower stomach, and pulling the knife downwards through Wesker's groin muscles.
He was intent on finishing the job, but before he had a chance, something slammed into the back of his head and he pitched forward, turned sharply to see Maxi holding his now slightly bloody nunchaku.
Wesker was instantly forgotten, and Aaron jumped for the pirate, who dodged out of the way, and was replaced with Siegfried.
The German swung the Zweihander he had with him around, managing to get it lying under the mutant, whose descent to the floor had suddenly stopped. Using all of his strength, Siegfried grasped the hilt with two hands and heaved upwards, flipping the mutant into the air.
Yunsung leapt forwards as Aaron hit the floor, slamming his sword between Aaron's shoulder blades, and the stamping on it, in what he called his 'Drac slayer' move. Yunsung suddenly yanked the sword out of him, and Liam moved forwards.
Using his sword like a spear, Liam drove it through the shoulder where the tentacle had been ripped off, and using the sword as a lever to hoist Aaron up, so he stood upright, where he was instantly shot at by Billy, Jill, Claire and Leon.
As Liam drew his sword out of Aaron's shoulder, Maxi came up behind the mutant, flicked the nunchaku around Aaron's neck, and tugged so that his battered torso was bent backwards.
Chris looked to Link and nodded as Maxi held the dying creature in place.
The two men walked forwards. Link pulled out the Master Sword, plunging it into Aaron's heart just as a shot rang out from Chris's gun, killing the creature, together.
Maxi pulled the chain of his nunchaku away from the corpse's neck. The body toppled over, and lay completely still.
The group gathered around the body and stared down at it in hatred, as those with bloodied weapons wiped them clean on the cloth of Aaron's pants.
Link exhaled quietly and pushed his sword back into its scabbard.
"That was a job well done, I'd say." he commented
Chris was about to reply, a smirk on his lips at the victory, but he was stopped by Jill. She had laid her hand on his arm and as he asked he what was wrong she flinched her head into the corner of the room.
Chris followed the movement and saw what she was referring to, just as the rest of the group caught wind of it as well.
Wesker, who had clearly done most of the fighting, the one who probably deserved the most credit, was curled up in the corner, his hands trying to cover his wounds, his combat knife still stuck in his body near his hip cavity.
Sighing quietly, Chris walked over to the injured Tyrant, and grabbed him by the shoulders, dragging him out of the corner and pulling his body straight.
With a disgruntled look on his face, he moved to Wesker's side to look at the injuries he'd gained.
The disgruntled look and feeling that Chris had disappeared as soon as he took in the sight of Wesker's mutilated flesh though, and he found himself feeling something towards the traitor that he never thought he'd feel again. Pity.
Jill noticed the softening of her husbands features, and knew that it had to be bad for Chris's expression to change to pity for Wesker.
Uncertainly, she moved to stand by her husband's side, and when she did, she had to turn her head away from the sight.
The front of Wesker's torso was shredded, dark blood trickling into a puddle that was forming along the length of his torso. His breathing was slow and laboured, the occasional shudder of pain making a few loose strands of flesh dangle from his ruined chest.
He was bleeding from everywhere, it seemed. It was dripping from his raw, bloody face, the pin prick wounds in his bare shoulder, the gaping gash in his torso, the scraped skin of his bare back caused by the pipe, the thin, deep cut that trailed from his stomach to his pelvis. It contrasted brilliantly with the pure white skin of Wesker's naked torso that was adopting a grey tinge, the healthy, living look seeping out of his flesh.
Chris carefully reached forwards and curled his fingers around the handle of the combat knife, drawing it out of the Tyrants hip, wincing at the scraping sound of metal on bone as he did so.
Wesker jerked backwards suddenly, a cry of pain escaping his lips before he had a chance to restrain it. The knife being drawn out of his hip was bad enough, but Chris had scraped the open wounds of his torso with his hand, and it sent a wave of pain rippling through Wesker's now next to useless body. He trembled uncontrollably, flecks of Aaron's blood still present in his wounds, especially that of his knuckles and face. The right side of his face, Wesker new from the nauseating pain that emanated from it, was a mess that was probably irreparable. The rest of his face was swollen, and he didn't even want to try to assess the rest of his body. It didn't matter anyway, Wesker was sure he was going to die.
Opening his eyes briefly, Wesker glanced at the people who had congregated around him, that were staring at his broken body with various degrees of pity written on their faces.
He sighed heavily, his breath rattling out of his throat, and closed his eyes.
"..You..s...should probably get…" he choked on his words "back to…saving your country." Wesker's voice came out sounding incredibly old and frail. The group murmured something to each other, and he heard footsteps moving away from him and the door being pulled open. Someone remained by his side though, and he felt the remains of his sweatshirt being draped over his body as it shuddered. With some effort, he opened his eyes to see Chris and Jill still by his side. Jill glanced at him for a moment then straightened and walked to the others who were waiting by the door.
Chris stared down at his dying ex-captain, and he couldn't help thinking that Link had been right. No matter how much he hated Wesker, to see him lying on the floor in a pool on his own blood, gasping for breath and shuddering in pain when he had been in the peak of physical condition just ten minutes ago, was distressing to him. The man deserved to die in pain, certainly, for all the sins he had committed, but Chris still didn't like seeing him like this.
Clearing his throat, Chris briefly reached out to Wesker, his right hand grazing the dying man's, his left settling on his shoulder for a moment. He stayed like that for a second, feeling the formerly hot skin under his hand cooling rapidly.
He pulled away when Wesker's yellow eyes slid shut and the Tyrant seemed to lose consciousness, his shoulders slumping.
Chris stood up and then walked to the others, turning back to survey the room. The white walls streaked with red and silver from the two combatants that lay on the floor, one dead, the other dying.
He turned back and nodded to Link who was standing out in the corridor.
The Hylian moved off without a word, the others filing out into the hall behind him. Stepping out of the lab, Chris turned back to shut the heavy silver door. As he did so, he saw Wesker breathing what was probably his last breath.
Ok, as usual please review...blah,blah,blah