[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 491 - The Leech Queen Became One of Our “Own”

"Don't jump to conclusions yet. Take a good look. I need this to be absolutely foolproof."

Candice leaned over the microscope, focusing on Marcus's crystal-clear core leech.

"Its cellular strength far exceeds the known limits of ordinary leeches."

She murmured the words almost to herself.

"This truly is the most perfect carrier for the Progenitor Virus."

Leon stood to one side, arms folded, gaze fixed on the microscopic universe filling the screen.

This little thing was Marcus's vital weakness. But something still nagged at him, a low persistent unease he couldn't shake.

Old fox Marcus. Would he really hand over his weak point this easily?

"Can you test the relationship between it and the individual leeches?" Leon asked.

Candice's hand trembled slightly.

"That would require a destructive experiment."

"That's a risk Marcus has to bear." Leon's gaze flicked toward the ICU where Ashley lay. "We can't afford to bet on whether he'll turn on us."

"This thing has to be handled with extreme care. One slip and we all become dinner for the Leeches."

"And there won't be anywhere left for me to cry about it."

Candice understood.

Back at the CDC, Leon had victory in his hands and then she'd blindsided him with anesthetic gas. He'd been paranoid ever since, bone-deep terrified of getting blindsided again.

She took a deep breath, fingertips flying across the touchscreen as she adjusted the experiment parameters.

Then she cut with a scalpel.

The ordinary infected Leeches surrounding the Leech Queen core reacted instantly, displaying raw aggression on pure instinct.

Definitely the mother body.

Leon exhaled.

Good. The thing checked out.

Not long after, Marcus, composed of countless Leeches, was "escorted" into the lab by a fully armed Shawn Greene and the others.

"Should I admire your courage or your stupidity?"

Marcus smiled.

"You really think that strange ability of yours can control me?"

"Don't misunderstand."

"It's not that I'm unwilling to be controlled by you. I simply want to ask — where exactly does your confidence come from?"

He looked at Leon, those leech-formed eyes probing, patient, almost amused.

Leon felt every word land wrong. Maybe Marcus didn't mean it that way. But the delivery was grating, each sentence carrying a faint edge of provocation no matter how you parsed it.

No wonder Spencer couldn't stand him.

Candice opened her mouth, ready to explain the unique nature of the virus in Leon's body, its shared origin with Murphy's, but a single look from Leon stopped her cold.

She swallowed everything back down.

"You don't need to know why."

Leon walked up to Marcus. Two steps between them. No more.

"Right now, all you need to know is that your life is about to be in my hands."

"Everything you want to know — we'll talk after I've fully controlled you. By then, you'll get your answers."

The corners of Marcus's leech-formed mouth pulled upward into a mocking arc.

"You really are playing with fire, young man."

"I hope you can actually control me. Otherwise there's no trust between us."

Marcus didn't say anything more after that. He understood Leon's intent. He was fully aware of his own disadvantage.

When you're under someone else's roof, you bow your head.

He had already given up resisting.

Leon right now was a humanoid Tyrant. Marcus knew the T-01's power better than most and Leon could match it completely.

"Candice. Begin."

Candice took a deep breath. She produced a sterile syringe and drew blood from the vein in Leon's arm.

The blood inside the syringe was a deep, saturated dark red. Subtly wrong compared to a normal person's.

"Now that your blood has been modified by the T-Virus, it will forge a deeper and more permanent control, working through your other bodily fluids as well."

"That sounds even crazier than gene editing." Marcus's voice carried a strange undercurrent of excitement.

As if this were an unprecedented experiment for him too.

What a fanatical research lunatic.

Candice processed Leon's blood with precision instruments, preserving its activity and purity. She observed the molecular structure through the scope. The T-Virus-altered cells were moving with unbelievable intensity.

This vial was for analyzing Leon's current state.

Then she drew a second vial. This one she carefully injected directly into the body of Marcus's Leech Queen.

The moment the blood entered, the Leech Queen's body shuddered.

Not pain. Something more like instinctive resistance meeting something it couldn't refuse.

Outside, countless tiny Leeches churned and reorganized throughout Marcus's body, as if newly awakened, adapting in real time to the sudden intrusion.

Marcus went quiet. The whole lab fell silent except for the soft hum of instruments and the faint rustling from somewhere deep inside his leech body.

He closed his leech-formed eyes. The mass across his body stopped wriggling. His form grew rigid.

Time stretched.

Several minutes passed.

Marcus's eyes opened again.

The leech-formed pupils were no longer murky. They carried a peculiar dark golden tinge now.

The same gold as Leon's.

"How do you feel?"

Marcus swayed slightly.

"What an ingenious link."

His voice was different. The respect in it hadn't been there before.

"You succeeded."

Leon extended one hand and pointed to an empty incubation chamber across the lab.

"First command."

"Transfer the Leech Queen core into that chamber."

Marcus didn't hesitate for even a fraction of a second. His leech body writhed, and the crystalline core moved into the incubation chamber with smooth, unhurried precision.

The whole thing was so fluid it was unsettling.

If Wesker had seen this, his jaw would have hit the floor.

The proud, insufferable Marcus, completely owned by one person.

Outside the glass, Rick, Shawn Greene, and Merle watched in silence. All of them looked like they'd just seen something their brains refused to process.

"Holy shit." Merle's mouth hung open. "The boss actually tamed this fucking thing?"

"Then what about Ashley?"

Leon asked Marcus, and for the first time his voice carried something he'd been suppressing for a long time. Urgency. Real urgency.

This was the only thing that actually mattered.

Marcus's leech body swayed slightly. Those dark golden eyes turned toward Leon.

"Her condition isn't just unpromising. It's dire."

The mockery was gone from his voice. What replaced it was something closer to plain fact.

"The power of the Stairway of the Sun has deeply corroded her genetic chains. A full restructuring is already underway."

"The neutralizer can only suppress this rampage temporarily," Candice cut in. "What's your solution?"

"We guide the restructuring," Marcus said. "Fuse the Stairway of the Sun's genes with her own, and purge the superantigen toxins harmful to the human body in the process."

"This will require extremely precise calculations. Extensive experimentation. And..." He looked at Leon again. That characteristic cunning flickered in his leech eyes. "Sufficient resources."

"I'm your subordinate now."

A beat.

"You can provide those for me. Can't you?"

"A top-tier laboratory built specifically for my work. Resources enough to sustain my research."

Leon's eyes narrowed.

An astronomical figure. No question.

But for Ashley, he didn't have another option.

"I'll prepare everything you need," Leon said.

➤ Next: The Use of Tentacles