[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 460 - Leech Queen

Even when Rebekah called him a monster, not a single thing changed on Marcus's face. He looked like a teacher who had just heard a predictably wrong answer.

"How regrettable."

He studied her. No anger in his eyes. Just the quiet pity of a man who had expected better.

"But it's alright, child."

"I don't blame you for not understanding me yet."

Leon stepped forward, planting himself squarely between them.

"Your ears working?"

"She said no."

Only then did Marcus shift his gaze to Leon. He looked him over, unhurried.

"Young people are always so impatient."

"I told you, I won't hurt her."

"I'm not even going to force her to learn anything she doesn't want to learn."

"I simply want her to stay here and keep a lonely old man company."

"She'll come around eventually."

Behind Leon, Merle muttered under his breath.

"What the hell. Is this old freak even speaking human?"

Leon could feel Rebekah's hands trembling where she gripped the back of his shirt.

He was not happy about this.

Not even a little.

"We have no interest in making an enemy of you."

"We get what we came for, and we walk."

"I'll be straight with you."

"Our common enemy is Umbrella. That old bastard Spencer. Isn't that right?"

"This flower, and the T-Virus you're sitting on — consider it your investment in us."

"We'll tear Umbrella apart from the inside. Drag Spencer off his throne."

"That's a deal that works entirely in your favor."

Marcus listened. Then he laughed.

He shook his head, the way you do at a naive child.

"Umbrella? Spencer?"

"They'll die, yes — but that's incidental. I never stopped planning to kill them."

"My true goal is to cleanse this filthy world."

The smile faded.

"As for your deal."

Marcus extended one finger, pointing past Leon's shoulder at Rebekah.

"Leave her here."

The air in the greenhouse went still.

"Convince this girl to stay of her own free will."

"You can take the entire pot of Stairway of the Sun with you."

He wasn't done. His voice dropped to something that carried its own gravity.

"The work of my entire life. My most perfect creation. The T-Virus — fused from the Progenitor Virus and Leech DNA."

"I can give you that as well."

"I'll retrieve it myself and place it in your hands."

"So, young man."

"A girl who means nothing to you, traded for the power to conquer the world."

"Isn't that the better deal?"

Leon looked at Marcus.

He had no idea why this old monster was so fixated on Rebekah.

But he knew one thing.

Nobody got to use his people as bargaining chips.

Not Rebekah. Not anyone.

"I'll say this once more."

Leon's voice wasn't loud. But in the quiet of the greenhouse, every word landed like something physical.

"However many people we came in with."

"That's how many we leave with."

"Not one fewer."

Something finally shifted on Marcus's face.

"Are you certain?"

"You are refusing a gift given to you by a god."

Leon didn't answer.

He put his hand on the grip of the gun at his hip.

That was his answer.

Abraham and Shane stepped forward at the same moment, gun barrels rising slightly, locking onto Marcus.

The killing intent of the entire group bled through the greenhouse like smoke.

"Very well."

Marcus raised both hands in surrender.

"Since you've made your choice."

"There's nothing to be done."

The regret on his face looked genuine.

"I had intended to let you go out with some dignity."

The words barely left his mouth.

The floor of the greenhouse began to tremble.

"I forgot to mention."

Marcus's voice drifted strangely through the vibration.

"My Queen has spread throughout the entire underground of this facility."

"This place is its heart."

"Welcome to my kingdom."

"And welcome to your grave."

The Leech Queen's biology is nothing like an ordinary leech's. Both are hermaphroditic, but the Leech Queen can self-fertilize, reproducing entirely on its own. Its olfactory system is formidable, capable of commanding the entire colony through scent signals alone. It has one critical weakness: it despises dryness and recoils from light. But it can consume its own kind, absorbing them to drive its own evolution.

By any measure, its intelligence should be near zero.

But the Leech Queen had spent years absorbing Marcus. What emerged was something that could match a human mind completely. More than that, its personality, its mannerisms, its very character had become a perfect copy of the man it had consumed.

The Leech Queen, in human form, was Marcus.

➤ Next: Done Deal — Steel and Blood