*Claps my hands together.* So you know that scene I mentioned during the Ustanak drabble that I wanted to write, with Leon waking up after mutating? Welll~
>:]
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Leon came to the feeling of being sprawled out on the ground. His breath was raspy as he tried to force air down into his lungs. Pins and needles were sharp in his limbs, the rest of his body numb.
He was alive? Why? How? Was this some sick joke of the universe? Let him have a few moments of clarity before it was ripped away?
Seconds passed and nothing happened. He kept breathing, feeling slowly coming back to him. He didn't try to move. What if this meager control snapped? He wasn't keen on finding out if he'd be made to watch or be the last bit of humanity finally torn out.
“Leon?! LEON!?”
Shit. Shit.
At the sound of approaching footsteps his head rose instinctively, Leon trying to ignore how his neck now moved.
“Leon?! I heard screaming! Are you okay-”
Helena's voice died in her throat when she saw him. She stared at him with open horror. But that wasn't what Leon's gaze settled on.
It was the gun she held pointed at him.
Good. He let his head fall back to the ground, and closed his eyes. All he could do now was wait for the inevitable. But instead of a finger pulling the trigger and a bullet piercing his brain, there was swearing and hurried footsteps.
“Hey, hey! Don't die on me!”
His eyes snap open, finding Helena crouched over him.
No, no, why was she getting close? Away, away, stay back! A weak hiss filled the air as he felt something twitch on his face.
Immediately the gun was trained on him again as she shuffled a few steps back. Better. Why was she waiting?
Leon didn't need a mirror to tell him what he looked like. He could feel how his body was twisted. Even now, just breathing felt different. Could he even talk like this?
Do not hesitate. He wanted to say. Take. The. Shot.
And yet, the trigger wasn’t pulled. That alone made Leon start to snarl before he stopped himself. Grant him the dignity of dying while he still thought like a human. Because he sure as hell didn’t look like one now.
Helena looked like she was about to say something, when sounds different from the plane's settling bones came over the fire.
Shuffling. Groaning. Both he and Helena heard it, turning to the sound. Turns out they weren’t the only ones to disembark the plane.
“Can you stand?”
Leon just glared at her, grunting in the process. Being able to speak really wasn’t looking in the cards now.
Helena shook her head. “Okay, that's alright. I'll clear the way, then I'll come back. See if you can get up in the meantime.”
It didn't take long for gunfire to ring out, accompanied by the cry of the undead being put to rest.
He waited for a minute. Then two.
She’s not coming back. Good. Leon thought to himself. He looked around, trying to see if there was another path. If she did come back…
Well. Leon wasn’t planning on staying put. If this was it for him, hopefully Helena made it far enough that whatever he was now hopefully wouldn't hunt her down.
Alright, first problem. Standing up. He was on his front, so that made things somewhat easier. All he needed to do was push his arms underneath himself. He can feel them folded underneath him already-
Shell scraping across the ground causes him to stall. Something else on him moved. Those are not his hands. Those are not his arms. They fold and twist in a way no limb even should-
A worried warble comes from Leon as he finally looks at himself. Folded neatly below him is what looks like a pair of mantis arms, with a touch of pterodactyl. Were these wings?
Okay, okay. You can handle this Leon. He thinks to himself. You're just built like a dinosaur. Just rip the band-aid off.
He pushes himself off the ground, the possible wings holding him steady. Okay! Standing! He can work with that.
Inventory. What does he have?
Again Leon gives himself a look over. Trying to assess the damage.
The vest was gone, and his shirt could hardly be called one at this point. His shoulders had strained the seams to near bursting, and the back was nearly split open. One singular button fighting for its life to keep the front closed.
It's here that he notices the arms that he felt earlier. Pins and needles prickling in the extremities, but with some thought can get them to move. Why didn't they do so when he was trying to stand?
Again, he feels something twitch on his face, and brings a hand up to investigate, only to smack a wing right into his nose.
“Fuck-!”
Well, at least it seems he can still talk. Wait.
He looked himself over for yet a third time, noting how that while albeit shredded, the sleeves of his shirt cling to where wing meets with body. Oh. His wings were his arms. Great. Just great!
“Oh fantastic, my controls got remapped. Is up down and left right!?”
Leon was silent for a moment, before quickly testing that theory. He let out a sigh of relief when he realized it was not.
Okay. Time for problem two. Walking.
His legs still worked normally, which thank fuck, but what in the world was he supposed to do with wings?! That his brain still thought were his arms. He just can’t catch a break, can he?
Shaking himself, and feeling just how much his body has changed, Leon grunts. He can do this. He just needs to pretend he’s reaching out with an ‘arm.’ He can play mind games with himself.
And the mind games work, as soon he takes a shaky step forward. Then another. He gets into a small groove, feeling himself get better and more sturdy with each step. Leon’s head swivels as he tries to find an opening to leave.
A glint of silver caused him to stall. He looked and- Oh.
His ring. The chain it was on must have snapped.
Carefully, carefully he bent down to the ground. It took a few tries to grab the ring, not used to the claws.
It sits in his palm. Cool against the heat of fire around him.
Would he even get anything besides condolences? Standard procedure was to cremate remains and send the ashes in urns. But something like this? His cadaver would probably be long studied before anything would be given away.
Leon closes his hand around the ring. He shook his head. “I'm sorry.”
He just hopes that whatever happens to him, that Luis would forgive him for not giving him closure. He brings the ring close to his chest, a low croon leaving him.
“Leon?”
He freezes, feeling something on his back stiffen and bristle. He swings to the sound, only to find Helena staring at him. Sporting more bloodsplatter on her clothes then the last time he saw her.
“You alright?”
The unasked question of ‘Is it you?’ hangs between them. The snap of fire and settling wreckage filling the silence. Leon thinks for a bit in those brief moments.
There is no strain, no struggle. Nothing breathing down the back of his neck, nothing to even suggest that he could slip and be nothing more than a snapping snarling beast.
Leon was still in control. Leon was still himself.
Just his luck, isn’t it? He shakes his head, a string of clicking noises leaving him as he does so.
Correction. Mostly still himself. He can feel Helena's eyes on him. Watching his every move, just in case. He can't blame her. It's what he would have done.
“Yeah. I am.”
“We need to get going, think you can handle it?” She asks, gesturing to the route she cleared. He nods, and they start moving.
He falls silent, eyes scanning the flames for any unwanted guests. They step past corpses, courtesy of Helena and her Hydra shotgun. The silence only grows as they travel further from the plane.
But, something is bothering him. Something that Leon needs to know.
“Why?” He finally asks, still looking ahead.
“What?”
“Why didn’t you shoot? You had the perfect opportunity.”
Helena is silent for a moment. “You recognized me.”
That caused Leon to stop. He tilted his head at her.
She gestures to him. “When I first saw you, I could only think of my sister.”
Helena looks away, voice growing somber. “You and Ada kept telling me she was gone, but I didn’t believe you. I refused to. It was just the two of us for so long and I couldn’t accept that I’d lost her.”
She stares at her hands, an action that Leon himself has done all too many times over the years. “When I was holding onto Deborah’s hand… She didn’t recognize me. She didn't see me. That was when I realized she was gone. That’s when I let her go.”
“But you? I watched you look at me. Watched you close your eyes and just accept whatever was going to happen next. That I could have just killed you, Leon.”
A grunt leaves him as he puts a wing down with a bit more force. “It’s what I would have done. You don’t hesitate with BOWs.”
“And yet, you did. Back at Tall Oaks, remember?”
He lowered his head, glaring. “I still took the shot.”
