[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 764 - Ouroboros and T-Fear

Alex Wesker climbed into the tracked vehicle like she owned it, moving with the easy efficiency of someone returning home. Once Alexia was inside, she reached back and pulled the door shut.

She brushed snow from the shoulders of her trench coat with a casual swipe, peeled off her black leather gloves, and looked the interior over.

"I'll need to turn the heat up. Sorry, I run cold." She dropped into the passenger seat without asking permission.

"Aren't you cold, dressed like that?"

Alexia still hadn't moved from the driver's seat.

She turned her head and looked at the woman who had appeared uninvited beside her.

"Revenge?"

"Why would I want revenge?"

Alex leaned back against the seat, long legs crossed.

"You really don't want it?" Her tone stayed level. "You know better than I do how revolting his methods are."

"And I'll remind you of one thing, even if you show no signs of being controlled right now, his seed is still inside you. Sooner or later, it takes root."

Alexia's brow furrowed slightly.

Alex turned and looked her directly in the eyes.

"I have a brother. His name is Albert Wesker."

Something shifted in Alexia's expression at that name.

One of Umbrella's premier researchers. Spencer's favored man.

She had heard of him.

He had simply vanished after the Mansion Incident.

"After the Mansion Incident, he disappeared for a while." Alex's voice was unhurried. "When I saw him again, he was different."

"He used to be insufferably arrogant, a man who would do anything to get what he wanted. But when I met him again, he acted like a devoted believer."

Alex let out a cold laugh.

"He'd been trying to infiltrate other organizations. He even came to me, trying to persuade me to abandon my research and join the camp of a man named Leon."

"That was completely wrong."

"Albert, how could someone like him ever be willing to answer to another person? Let alone play lapdog to someone who came out of nowhere."

"So I tested him."

"I deliberately cursed this man called Leon with the ugliest language I could reach for, right in front of Albert's face. Called him worthless. Said he was garbage who'd be dead in a Walker's mouth before long."

Alex's eyes sharpened.

"Care to guess what happened?"

"Albert's reaction was staggering. He nearly killed me on the spot."

"The fury in his eyes — the sheer defiance — none of it was an act. He couldn't tolerate a single word against that man."

"That was when I got suspicious."

Alex paused, watching the gravity settle across Alexia's face.

"Later, I found my moment and took his blood."

Her voice dropped, carrying a colder edge now.

"And I saw the truth."

"His genetic sequence had been completely rewritten. Threaded throughout it was a foreign gene, extraordinarily dominant."

"That gene had formed an absolute suppression over him. Physiological and psychological, both at once."

"An irreversible subordination."

Alex pointed at Alexia's chest, just over her heart.

"Exactly like what you're experiencing right now."

"With a single thought from that man, Albert would die without hesitation."

"But you're fortunate. From the start, you had a dominant virus inside you to resist it. Whereas Albert..." She let that hang for a moment. "At the time, he'd only been injected with the most basic T-Virus."

Alexia said nothing.

She knew that feeling intimately.

Just now, in the underground hall, when Leon's command to kill yourself had surfaced in her mind, it had taken everything the T-Veronica Virus had just to barely hold it back.

If Albert Wesker had been subjected to the same thing, then he was now, without question, a complete Puppet.

"So?" Alexia's gaze was cold. "You came all the way to Antarctica to tell me the story of how your brother became someone else's dog?"

"Of course not." Alex gave a light laugh. "Hear me out."

"After I found the truth, I started looking for a way to break it. Using a variant of the Progenitor Virus, I worked with Albert to develop an entirely new virus."

"Ouroboros."

The word left her lips quietly.

"More aggressive than that T-Veronica you're so proud of. It can forcibly strip inferior genes from a host's body and complete the most perfect evolution possible."

"Albert drank the raw solution — Ouroboros that hadn't yet fully matured."

Alexia's eyes narrowed slightly.

As a fellow top-tier biologist, she felt an instinctive pull of interest. Reckless as the experiment was.

"And?" Alexia said.

Alex's face went flat.

"It failed."

"Ouroboros is powerful, but the mutant genes that man left inside Albert had long since reached the deepest layer of every cell. There was too much time. That force had completely remade Albert's body."

"Which means, as long as he still inhabits this flesh, as long as his heart is still beating, that genetic subordination can never be erased."

Alex drew a slow breath.

"Albert is beyond saving."

"If he's beyond saving, what use am I to you? I'm not God." Alexia turned away, her gaze drifting back to the windshield and the wall of wind and snow beyond it. "We don't even know each other."

"If the body is beyond saving, then change it for a new one."

Alexia's head snapped around. She stared at Alex.

"What did you just say?"

"Change it for a new one." Alex repeated it. One word at a time.

She reached into her trench coat pocket, drew out a black sealed metal canister, and set it on the center console between them.

"This is the most critical project I'm currently working on."

"The T-Fear Virus."

A fanatical light moved through Alex's eyes.

"This virus doesn't strengthen muscle. It doesn't create monsters."

"It acts on human consciousness."

"Once a host can overcome the fear of death, this virus strips their consciousness, memories, and personality, completely, entirely, and converts them into something transferable."

"Then moves them into another suitable vessel."

Alex watched the shock travel across Alexia's face. Her voice carried a slow, deliberate pull.

"Do you understand now?"

"Once the transfer is complete, Albert can abandon the body the Gene Lock has claimed. He walks free."

"And at the level of consciousness, this is immortality."

Alexia's heart slammed against her ribs.

Consciousness transfer.

Immortality.

This had stepped entirely beyond the territory of conventional virology. This was reaching into the domain of God.

By comparison, the T-Veronica Virus she'd spent fifteen years submerged in a freezer to fuse with felt like a child's toy.

"That's impossible." The objection was instinctive. "Human consciousness depends on the brain's neural network. Without a physical substrate, it disperses instantly. It cannot be transferred."

"By ordinary means, certainly." Alex smiled. "But the T-Fear Virus can."

"At the moment a host faces death under extreme terror, it converts consciousness into a very particular quantum-state information stream."

"The project is one final step from completion."

Alex leaned forward, closing the distance between them.

"I need someone with an absolute genius for neurology and genetic engineering to help me finish it."

"You, Alexia Ashford."

"I've heard about you. You carry the intellect of your ancestor Veronica. You are the only person in this world who can help me take that last step."

Alexia looked at her, inches away now, and her breathing quickened.

She understood exactly what Alex was offering.

Alex assumed she wanted out from under Leon's control. The invitation followed from that assumption.

And she wasn't wrong, if Alexia could complete the T-Fear Virus, she could do the same thing. Abandon this body, the one already branded with his mental mark. Take a new one. Sever Leon's hold over her entirely.

Alexia turned it over in her mind.

She had no interest in waging war against Leon. She knew better than most how terrifying he would become once the T-Veronica Virus finished fusing with him. But the Fear Virus itself, that was another matter entirely.

"If what you're telling me is true..."

"I can help you."

"This Fear Virus of yours interests me."

The smile on Alex's face spread wider.

She reached out and pulled the black leather glove back onto her hand.

"A wise choice."

"Then start the vehicle." Alex gestured toward the storm waiting beyond the windshield. "My submarine is on the coastline at the edge of the ice field."

"We have a great deal of work to do."

➤ Next: Rebuilding the Signal Network