Work Text:
False Hope
By The Deadly Gambit
Summary: A “What if” of RE9. What if Zeno was still alive, and what if Elpis was not a cure for Leon, but something far worse.
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Elpis should have worked. It should have fully healed Leon S. Kennedy from the original strain of T-Virus inside of him. Instead, it made him feel good enough to take on Victor Gideon in one last battle. One in which he made sure that the maniac would never walk away from. Soon after “Requiem” finished off the mad doctor, leaving him as nothing more than a reddish-brown puddle of goo, Leon felt a sudden return of pain. Something was wrong.
After so many vaccines, so many bioweapon infections, Elpis was overwhelming his system. The black skin scars had not returned to rear their ugly head, just the agony shooting through his entire being. At first, he tried to walk, tried to find Grace. Instead, he fell to his knees, arms wrapped around his body as he let out a scream that was just torn from his throat. It was visceral.
Grace came to, hearing that scream. It nearly made her jump out of her skin. Never had she heard a man scream in such a way. Pushing the debris away from her own body and checking her own wounds (which were thankfully minor), she ran towards the source. Leon was clawing at his own arms. Had he not been wearing gloves, Grace was sure he would have clawed off pieces of his own skin.
“Leon!” She screamed out at him, trying to direct his attention away from whatever had caused his body to go rigid and for those screams to stop. As soon as she was right before him, a gasp escaped her lips. One of his eyes… the whites of it turned black like ink, surrounding an icy blue iris, and a now serpentine like pupil.
“Grace… kill me…” Leon managed to gasp out before his body just collapsed in front of her. She watched in horror as black veins started to develop around his eyes, and his body began to convulse violently.
“No, no, no, no… it… it was supposed to be a cure! Why is it?!” Grace started to panic. Why was this happening to Leon? After everything he did, everything he sacrificed to get to this point, he now appeared to be turning. Just like the other zombies she witnessed at the Care Center, and the one at the hotel. Before she could do anything, something moved faster than she could register. A streak of white… of someone who should have died when Victor quite literally knocked his head off.
“How peculiar...” The gravely voice spoke, carefully rolling Leon on to his right side and into a safety position. “Elpis only cured the T-Virus and activated a trojan horse in Kennedy’s body.”
“W-what do you mean? What is happening to him!?” Grace continued to stutter, not addressing how Zeno was able to reform himself, or regain his powers. Her concerns were mostly on Leon. She opened her mouth to say something else, only for Zeno to tut, tut her.
“Did you really think I would be stupid enough to inject an unknown vial into my body, Grace, dear? That is what clones are for, and I, thankfully, had one hidden away in this facility to see what Elpis would do if I had injected it myself. But Kennedy here? You injected it thinking it was a cure all, just like Victor. How utterly foolish.”
“That’s not what I asked!” Grace managed to shout before Zeno started to chuckle.
“Kennedy has been exposed to more than one Virus. The T-Virus was acting as a dam, blocking another virus within him. And once that dam came crumbling down, the other virus activated. Elpis appears to have been a trigger to something within him. Something the Connections will be very interested in.”
“W-what are you saying? H-he’s infected with something else? Something worse?” Grace found herself at a loss as Leon’s convulsions finally stopped. She looked horrified as Zeno began to pick him up in his arms, like he was now something precious. “W-where are you taking him!?”
“As I said, the Connections will have much interest in Kennedy, Grace, my dear.” Zeno smirked. “As for you, you have lost all value to us after releasing Elpis. You may take what’s left of it, have it studied, passed about humanity as a cure for the T-Virus infection. Let humanity have its false hope that this was all but a nightmare and a new day has dawned on them. All while Kennedy helps us delve into the true future of mankind.”
“You can’t do that! I-I won’t let you!” Grace found “Requiem” on the ground where Leon was and desperately fired off a shot a Zeno. One that he was able to dodge as he had done so easily before. Zeno would only smile back at her.
“Do not worry, dear Grace. He will be well taken care of. As long as he continues to draw breath, the Connections will study and care for him. And he will help us truly walk into a new dawn of mankind.” Grace had fired another shot, and again Zeno had dodged it while carrying Leon’s unconscious body in his arms. “Goodbye, dear Grace.”
“No, wait!” She screamed, pulling the trigger on “Requiem” repeatedly. It was out of rounds, and Zeno was gone with Leon. It was as if the two were ghosts and never existed in the first place. The large gun dropped out of her hands as the lights on ARK had started to fade and all she could hear were her own anguished cries.
“Oh God… Leon, I am so sorry…. I-I did not know… I didn’t know…” Grace then realized she should have listened to Leon and ended his suffering. Now, he was going to be another test subject for another shadow organization. He would never be free.