[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 490 - Marcus Backs Down

"Could it be... that power you used to control my bio-weapons?" Marcus asked. Genuinely curious.

Leon didn't give him time to think it over.

"That's right. Let me lay it out."

"Under my control, you keep your mind. You can keep doing your research. I'll set up a dedicated lab."

"And if you want revenge on Wesker, William Birkin, anyone else from Umbrella Corporation — nobody's going to stop you."

"One condition. Once I convert you, every action you take falls under my command. No exceptions."

"All you have to do is stop using living people as test subjects. If you genuinely need material, I'll go out and find you some from Umbrella's ranks."

"Anyone who slaughters innocents, anyone who's earned it, I'll hand them over. Your materials. Your call."

Merle's eyes nearly left his skull.

The boss is negotiating terms. With the leech monster.

Marcus's head, that dense, shifting mass of Leeches, twisted slightly. A beat of thought.

"Fine. Deal."

No hesitation. No counter-offer. Just yes.

The moment the word landed, something shifted inside his leech-formed body. A strange light pulsed through the writhing mass.

One leech separated from the rest.

It was larger than the others. Its body held a translucent, crystalline quality, like living amber, catching the dim light and throwing back a faint, cold glow.

It dropped to the floor at Leon's feet and went perfectly still. A pebble among a sea of writhing things.

Leon's eyes narrowed.

Too fast. Too easy.

That ready compliance stirred something cold in his gut.

What's the angle here?

"Don't try anything cute."

"I have two things I genuinely can't stand." Leon's foot came down on the leech's head. Light pressure. Enough. "Two-faced people. And leeches."

Marcus laughed. The kind of laugh that crawled up your spine looking for somewhere to nest.

"What, you don't trust me?"

His body swayed, voice carrying something like amusement.

"I can't beat you right now, we both know that. The T-Virus enhanced me, sure, but at my base I'm still just leeches. You're human. The gap between our life forms is what it is. I'm not deluding myself."

"Going straight to hell doesn't appeal to me. Letting you take control means I stay alive. Simple math."

"You've got a lab, don't you?"

"Run your tests. Have your scientists go over everything. If I'm playing tricks, they'll find it."

"This is my core." A pause, unhurried. "I'm handing it to you. If that's not sincere, I don't know what is."

Behind Leon, Shane and the others stood with their mouths hanging open. Wide enough to fit a fist.

A negotiation. An actual negotiation.

The Father of Monsters sitting across from a virus-modified human, talking terms, and one of them had just put his own vital weakness on the table.

"Boss." Merle's voice came out low and tight, his grip white-knuckled on his gun. "You believe this thing?"

Leon said he didn't know.

But that's what experiments were for.

The connection between a hive mind and its host body had tells. Almost impossible to fake. He'd know.

And right now, he didn't have other options.

Ashley was still in the ICU.

Marcus had walked right up and handed himself over. Leon was going to use that.

"Fine."

One word.

He crouched and picked up the leech carefully, two fingers, nothing dramatic. Dropped it into an empty magazine box. Tucked the box into the waterproof pouch inside his tactical vest.

"Rick, Shane — take Abraham and clear out."

His voice was flat and even.

"T-Dog, Glenn, stay behind. Get this place cleaned up."

Rick and Shane traded a look. They nodded and moved.

The reservoir cleanup was ugly work.

The virus-modified leeches reproduced faster than they could burn them. They'd filled every corner, every crack, every seam of the cistern. T-Dog and Glenn went through it with fire and acid, survivors working alongside them, and the whole sewer turned thick with the stench of char and chemical rot.

Marcus stood to the side and watched. Still. Patient. Those cloudy eyes tracking the work without a word of resistance or hurry.

Leon didn't wait around to watch.

He moved fast toward the lab, the magazine box secure against his chest.

His nerves stayed coiled the whole way.

Part of his brain kept insisting the leech was going to push through the lid. That Marcus was going to make his move the second Leon's back was turned, some buried failsafe, a trigger he hadn't seen.

He pushed open the lab door.

Nothing had happened.

The lab hummed with light. Bright and steady.

Candice was at her station, still sorting through the Stairway of the Sun data. She heard the door and turned.

When she saw Leon, something warm crossed her face.

"Leon, you're alright —"

She stopped.

Her eyes had found the magazine box in his hand.

"Candice." Leon crossed to her and held it out. No preamble. "Analyze this. It's Marcus's core leech."

She took it slowly.

Then she opened it.

The leech inside looked nothing like the others. Crystalline. Semi-transparent. Something almost gemlike about it under the lab lights.

The curiosity hit her face like a switch had been thrown.

"Marcus? The Leech Queen?" Her voice dropped. "This is his core?"

She reached for the tweezers. Extracted the leech with careful, practiced hands. Petri dish. Goggles on. Microscope positioned, focus dialed in.

The image resolved on the screen.

"Unbelievable." Her voice had gone quiet and fervent, the way it always did when something genuinely surprised her. "This isn't a simple leech."

"Its cellular structure is remarkably stable. The genetic sequence is more complete than any leech we have on record." She paused. "More pure."

Her finger touched the screen.

"Look at this. The energy conduction mechanism is far more efficient than a standard specimen. And here, this small internal organ." She leaned in. "It looks like... a consciousness carrier."

Leon's brow pulled together. "A consciousness carrier."

"Like a miniature brain." Candice straightened, eyes still locked on the screen. "It doesn't just control the leech swarm. It stores and transmits information. It may even," She caught herself. "It may even be storing Marcus's own consciousness."

She turned to face him.

"If the T-Virus is a powerful modification built on the Progenitor Virus, then this leech is the Progenitor Virus in its purest form. Perfectly fused. It controls the others the way a queen bee controls a hive."

A beat.

"Leon." Her voice was careful now. "When you made Marcus hand this over, you made him hand over his life."

She looked down at the petri dish. Then back up.

"This thing is clean."

➤ Next: The Leech Queen Became One of Our “Own”