[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 566 - Meeting Wesker

"Nothing. You just seem full of energy today." Leon shrugged and looked away.

He didn't want Jill noticing anything off.

"Where did you say you were going to explore?" He changed the subject.

"A few towns nearby. Chris wants to take a team through to clear them out, maybe find some building materials while they're at it. Barry won't stop nagging about putting up a proper house."

"Go ahead. Have Rick set you up with vehicles and ammo. Stay safe — if you run into a mutant you can't handle, fall back. Don't fight a losing battle." Leon waved a hand.

Jill nodded, turned, and walked away.

He watched her go. That clean, capable stride.

Leon tugged the corner of his mouth.

That woman. What you saw and what you got were two entirely different things.

Who'd have guessed the sharp, formidable Jill Valentine had that kind of contrast hidden underneath...

But that wasn't what needed his attention right now.

There was still a very important person waiting for him down in the underground Solitary Confinement Cell.

Leon turned and headed for the underground passage.

The two guards outside the door snapped straight the moment they saw him.

"Open it."

The electronic lock beeped. The heavy pressure-sealed door slid slowly apart.

Cold white light flooded the narrow space.

Albert Wesker sat in a purpose-built metal chair, both wrists locked behind the backrest in high-tensile alloy cuffs.

His color was far better than it had been at the Spencer Mansion. The T-Virus's regenerative capability had sealed the fatal wound on his chest. Even the scrapes on his face had vanished without a trace.

But his condition wasn't good.

Not physically. Mentally.

The moment Leon walked in, Wesker's pupils snapped tight.

Instinct screamed at him to stand. To strain against the cuffs and break free.

He couldn't.

Not just because his body was restrained, but because somewhere deep in his subconscious, something was frantically crushing every thought that turned against Leon before it could fully form.

The Branding of absolute obedience had been carved straight into his marrow.

The unease coiling in Wesker's chest grew heavier by the second.

Leon dragged an iron chair over and sat down across from him. He crossed his legs, laced his fingers over his knee, and looked at Wesker with complete, unhurried ease.

"Looks like you've recovered pretty well." He looked him up and down. "Sharp."

"This improved T-Virus of yours really does run laps around my defective leech variant."

Wesker's jaw locked. The muscles in his cheeks stood out.

"What exactly did you do to me?" His voice carried a humiliation he couldn't fully bury.

The irony wasn't lost on him. The Mutants' high degree of autonomy had made him a beneficiary too.

Not that it mattered much. Whatever Leon told him to do, he still had to do it.

"Relax, pal." Leon tapped the side of his head. "I just added a little specialty product of mine into your neural center. Simply put — you've been converted."

"You're one of my Mutants now. A lackey who follows my orders and no one else's."

Wesker stared at him coldly.

He was a high-intelligence genius. The top figure at Umbrella Corporation's Arklay Research Institute. The idea that someone could simply take him like this,

Wesker gave a cold snort.

"My willpower is more than sufficient. No virus strips away my ability to judge for myself."

"Is that so?" Leon raised an eyebrow. "Then let's find out. I'll help you get a clear picture of reality."

He felt a flicker of genuine amusement.

This old bastard really wouldn't learn until he hit the wall face-first.

Leon focused and pushed a direct command through the neural network.

"Come on. Make a funny face for me." His tone was perfectly casual.

Wesker went still.

He'd been about to sneer. This was Leon's test? Something this childish?

Then the next second, his face stopped belonging to him.

The corners of his mouth were wrenched apart against his will. His eyes stretched wide. His tongue pushed out halfway.

A completely ridiculous, utterly brainless expression, planted on the face he had spent years maintaining as a mask of cold, absolute authority.

Inside, Wesker was screaming.

Stop.

Stop it.

His body didn't care. It held that humiliating expression with mechanical rigidity, and there was nothing he could do.

Leon sat across from him and laughed. Open, unrestrained, not bothering to hide a thing.

"Not bad. Real comedic talent. Maybe you should have been a clown — you'd definitely go viral." He clapped his hands.

Command released.

Wesker's face went slack all at once.

He pulled in air in heavy, ragged gulps. His eyes were wide with something that had no name yet.

He'd told himself he was prepared.

But it was only now, in this moment, that he truly understood.

Leon hadn't lied.

He really had been completely controlled. Stripped of the freedom to manage his own expression.

For a man of absolute arrogance who had spent his entire life treating other people as pieces on a board, this was worse than being killed.

"Alright." Wesker closed his eyes. "Enough."

"I concede."

He kept his eyes shut, hiding whatever was burning behind them.

"I will obey your commands."

Leon let the mockery drop from his face.

Wesker's pride had been completely shattered.

Now it was time to rebuild his worldview from scratch.

"You think that's it?" Leon leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "You think being controlled by me is the most humiliating thing that's ever happened to you?"

Wesker opened his eyes. Looked at him. Not understanding.

"Isn't it?"

Leon shook his head slowly. Something like pity in his eyes.

"You think you're clever. You had Chris fooled, Umbrella Corporation's entire upper echelon fooled, even H.C.F. dancing to your tune."

"You faked your death to escape Umbrella. Walked into a new master's house with your combat data under your arm and traded it for a seat at the top. A perfect game, start to finish, every move your own design."

Wesker's brow drew together.

A cold, quiet dread surfaced from somewhere deep inside him.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

➤ Next: Wesker Breaks