@marymycete asked: sender looks receiver in the eye as they (shoot) someone / hey. this. but itβs wesker and you know exactly who heβs shooting :) // choosing violence
IT ALL UNFOLDS TOO QUICKLY for Michael to do anythingβ as if he even could. He has grown frustratingly used to the powerless feeling that comes with crossing paths with Albert Wesker ( no meeting as alarming as the first yet, when Rose still thought him dead and Michael never heard of him at all. Of course Michael underestimated the situation, quickly sobered by watching him overpower her like it was nothing ).
Still, knowing how far he is from an even match doesn't douse the fire. Letting it drive him, whether that's barging in verbally or taking whatever shots he can, is just about the only thing he can do to try and shift Wesker's attention from Rose for a second. It's a shit strategy. It leaves him ignored at best and with a new broken bone at worst, but he can't just stand by.
He doesn't even process what he said ( barely registered Wesker's current point either, another drawn out speech about giving into her abilities that he's short on patience for ), but it gets Wesker to look at him. Michael holds his gun like a soldier and his head up like he's a child acting out for attention again. For a moment, he has it. If nothing else, he'll buy Rose time.
But Wesker looks at him as if he's already won without Michael knowing it, a kind of expression that he is nauseatingly familiar with.
Wesker's gaze doesn't waver as he fires directly at Rose.
Michael's face falls. His stomach turns, he lowers his weapon, he thinks he yells her name but his ears are ringing too much to tell. She stumbles and Michael quickly forgets everything he knows about her near-invincibility. It doesn't matter that one shot won't even come close to bringing her down, or that if Wesker wanted them dead he clearly would have done it already; all he sees is the wound and the pain and adding his best friend to his never-ending list of burials.
Abandoning all rational thought, he starts to run for her. Wesker appears in front of him in an instant, a blockade that turns his protectiveness to anger. When shoving past fails, Michael resorts to lashing out hand-to-handβ it does nothing but come off as petulant.
It doesn't occur to him that he's made himself the perfect bait until Wesker grabs and throws him across the room like he's nothing. Pain erupts from his back, left to crumble to the ground now that he's no longer an issue. Michael sputters, pressing his hands to the floor to keep himself vaguely upright while his head spins. He can't see Rose through the black spots and blurry vision. Is she okay?
The familiar connection within him seems to thrum, an intense feeling that lingers where a scar should adorn his body. Michael knows then what he's pushed her to again. And as always, guilt is enough to hold him down.
