Chapter 8

-Preview of Uroboros-

Chris's expression clearly portrayed his uncertainty as to his partner's whereabouts. He momentarily forgot about Sheva though, when he noticed the man seated in a chair directly under the balcony. The man was extremely pale skinned, almost a sickly gray color, and his bald head lay limply down on his chest. Upon closer examination, they noticed the man was strapped to the chair with metal restraints. A woman in a tight white dress came around a corner that Chris and the others hadn't seen until now.

"Excella!" Chris called out, grabbing her attention.

The pompous woman sneered at them. "You don't know when to quit, do you?"

"Excella, where's Sheva?!" the BSAA soldier demanded.

Excella wrinkled her nose, disapproving of his tone he was taking with her. She crossed her arms across her chest and looked down her nose at them.

"If you can behave yourselves, maybe I'll tell you," she snottily told them.

Matt started to come closer, his eyes on her as he began to focus on her mind. Knowing what he was trying to do, she stepped towards the stairs and wagged her finger at him.

"No, no, no. Don't play your tricks with me."

"So you've made it this far," a cold, flat voice echoed from above.

Wesker was standing on the balcony, his gloved hands placed on the railing as he looked down at them.

"Wesker!" Chris shouted, running forward so that he now stood beside Matt.

The man's lips upturned in that slight smile of his which would actually be a nice smile, if he didn't clearly use it to intimidate those around him.

"Too bad you won't make it much further." Wesker added.

"Wesker! Where's Sheva?!" Chris asked forcefully.

He raised an eyebrow at the younger man. "You expect me to keep track of your team, Chris? Not very good leadership on your part."

Wesker raised up his hands in proclamation as he proceeded to deliver his message to Chris and the others.

"Uroboros is on the eve of its appearance! Your feeble attempts only delay the inevitable. The entire world will be infected. A new genesis is at hand and I will be the creator!"

Chris glared up at him. "You've lost your mind, Wesker!"

The man lowered his gaze back to Chris and smirked. "Natural selection leaves the survivor stronger and better. Soon even you will understand, Chris. One glimpse of my world and it will all make perfect sense."

"Enough talk! Where's Uroboros?" Chris questioned angrily.

Wesker turned his eyes to Excella, who was standing at the foot of the stairs. "Excella, why don't you enlighten our guests."

She grinned maliciously at the group. "Certainly."

Excella walked over to the gray skinned man strapped in the chair and reached into her dress, pulling out a capped syringe. Removing the cap she placed the needle to the man's arm and injected the red fluid into a vein on the captive's arm. As soon as she injected it, she backed away and headed for the stairs. Reaching the foot of the stairs, she turned back to their group.

"You've spent so long trying to track down Uroboros. Well here, enjoy." Excella taunted, mockingly sweeping a hand in the direction of the restrained man.

Watching Excella hurry up the stairs, the group returned their gaze to the man in the chair as he started to jerk sporadically. The gray skinned man stood up, yanking his arms free from the restraints as if they were made out of paper instead of steel. A low rasp escaped the man and he lifted his head to glare at them. He began to step towards them and as he did, tentacles began to burst from his back and chest. Then the tentacles retracted back into the man as he continued to come closer to Chris and Matt.

The man's progression towards them faltered and the mutation began again, tentacles ripping out of his body and enveloping him entirely.

"Hmm. Too bad." Excella said as she watched from the balcony, standing beside Wesker. "Looks like he wasn't worthy; Uroboros has rejected him. Only the chosen ones will be worthy for the coming world."

The man was now completely made of tentacles and he came for them. Chris pulled out his magnum and opened fire on the mutated creature infected with Uroboros. Sylar ran forward and shot electricity at the thing. Wesker watched with intrigue as one of Chris's companions summoned electricity from just his hands. Noah Bennet drew a handgun from a shoulder holster which he'd kept hidden until now, and shot at the monster. After great effort the group managed to bring the creature down and it fell to the floor, evaporating upon impact with the ground as it absorbed into itself. Chris had four bullets left in his handgun, his magnum was empty, and all other weapons were now empty as well. Their group was definitely in trouble.

Excella glared down at them, disappointed that they had beaten her monster so quickly.

"As soon as you are all through with your vigilante mission, you should leave. There's nothing here worth throwing your lives away for."

With that said, she walked away from Wesker and out of sight. Wesker started down the right staircase, clapping his hands slowly together.

"Nicely done, Chris. Course, you were one of my men."

Chris glared at Wesker. "Will you let that go?! I haven't been under your command for ten years."

Wesker tilted his head, studying Chris as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "Perhaps not under my command but certainly under my control. Look how you came here, like a rat in a maze. You are hopelessly lost, Chris. If you could only open your eyes and accept my new world..."

"That's never going to happen, Wesker!"

This outburst returned the smile to Wesker's lips. "You haven't changed, Chris. I admire that. Unfortunately I tire of your interference."

The smile left his face as he continued to walk closer to Chris, his demeanor menacing and dangerous. He was definitely posed to attack at any moment. Matt tried to get into Wesker's head, staring hard at the black-clad man. Wesker paused in his tracks and stared back at Matt before smirking.

"Your mind control won't work on me. Besides, I want to kill him," the man said bluntly.

Then Wesker was moving, his form now merely a black blur of motion. Chris raised his gun only to be in time to have it knocked from his grasp. Wesker grabbed his arm and twisted it behind him before kicking Chris in the back, which sent the younger man to the ground. Sylar raised his hand but Wesker was behind him and he sent Sylar against the wall before he was moving again. Mohinder tried to attack him with his enhanced strength, landing a punch against Wesker's face, but it did little and the enemy threw his fist into the science man's face.

"Things are actually getting interesting, eh Chris?" Wesker commented as Mohinder fell.

He turned to engage Chris once again as the BSAA agent attacked. Chris rammed into Wesker, trying to bring the taller man down. Wesker slid back maybe a foot or so before he stopped moving. He was far too powerful for Chris and he found the agent's attempts to fight him amusing. He rammed a knee into Chris's stomach twice before throwing him to the ground. Chris rolled across the floor with a loud grunt of pain. Danko and David attacked Wesker together. Danko fell to the ground, the result of a well placed kick, and David was shot in the head by a bullet from a gun Wesker took out with astonishing speed.

"David!" Chris yelled in shocked horror.

Noah retrieved Chris's fallen gun, turning to shoot Wesker but found the gun smacked from his hand. The tyrant picked Noah up by the throat and squeezed. Bennet struggled against the man's grip and Claire ran at the black-clad man with fear for her father's safety.

"Leave him alone!" Claire shouted and shoved hard at the older man.

Caught by surprise, the sunglasses were knocked from his face and Wesker released Bennet, who coughed for air. Claire ran to her father to make sure he was okay. Their opponent made an audible sound of annoyance and lifted his eyes to glare at Claire and her father. Claire gasped when she saw his eyes. They were red-yellow and the red was practically glowing in the rather dark room. Wesker stepped towards them but then Sylar was shooting electricity at him. He flipped backwards several times and then fired a bullet into Sylar's head. Sylar fell to the ground as Matt once again tried to get into his opponent's head. Peter and Nathan looked on helplessly. They wanted to help but what could they do? Wesker could feel Matt trying to get inside his mind and he appeared in front of the ex-cop.

"I told you that won't work. Get out of my head!" Wesker shouted in fury.

He was clearly aggravated now and he aggressively backhanded Matt across the face. Matt stumbled backwards, holding his face in pain as Wesker turned his attention on Sylar who was speaking to him.

"You're going to have to do better than a bullet to my head." Sylar informed him smugly.

Wesker simply stared, no emotion. "Certainly you could not survive a severed head, hm?"

Sylar glared, daring him to try.

"Wesker!" Chris shouted, distracting the tyrant.

He knelt on one knee to get a better shot and started shooting his last bullets at his enemy, who weaved and dodged the bullets, appearing on the left side of the room, then closer to Chris but on the right. Chris felt his gun click empty as he missed Wesker for the fourth time and suddenly the man was in front of him with his handgun pointed in Chris's face. He lifted his head in surprise at Wesker's sudden appearance in front of him, before his face transformed into a glare of defiance and hatred. The heroes looked on in horror as they were helpless to do anything in time to save him.

"Time to die, Chris." Wesker said to his nemesis.