Fluorescent lights blazed overhead, casting a pale, sterile glow across the steel floor and cold laboratory walls.
At the center of the room stood a patient's bed, surrounded by medical equipment—an operating lamp, loose dangling cables, flickering monitors, and several oxygen tanks.
Ashley lay on the bed, her body convulsing violently as the machine roared to life.
Her eyes were shut tight, her face slick with sweat, teeth clenched against the searing pain ripping through her body.
"Ugh… aah… aaagh…" Her strained moans filled the sterile air, as if something inside her was being torn apart.
Her hands gripped the edges of the bed so tightly her knuckles turned white. The tremors wracking her frame only grew worse as the Plaga was being forced out with brutal precision.
Beside her, Luis monitored the display with a tense expression, his brow deeply furrowed as his fingers flew over the half-broken control panel.
Cables and electrodes linked the machine to Ashley, channeling searing UV radiation and bursts of energy into her body—an improvised form of radiation therapy.
Every passing second felt like a gamble between life and death.
"Hold on, princesa…" Luis muttered under his breath. "It'll be over soon… just a little longer. Radiation therapy is safer than surgery."
Ashley's scream tore through the room, raw and unrestrained, making Luis's heart pound faster.
The machine droned with a heavy hum; a small alarm blared for a moment before falling silent again.
Luis never once took his eyes off the screen. His body was tense, every muscle tight, but his gaze remained locked on the monitor, tracking the steady destruction of the Plaga within Ashley's body.
On the other side of the room, hidden behind half-broken medical equipment and a dust-coated steel table, Rian stood in silence.
Both his hands were busy wrapping a long, oval-shaped object with layer after layer of protection—cloth, waterproof fabric, tied down with cord and sealed tightly with duct tape.
It was the Amber. The source of all this disaster.
A primordial biological relic, containing the DNA and spores of the Plaga. And now, Rian was reinforcing its containment.
Fan speculation suggested that the Plaga originated from spores emitted by the Amber itself.
This theory only gained weight after Saddler uncovered the sealed ruins of an ancient Plaga nest, unearthed with the help of excavation teams—manipulated into service through his influence over Salazar.
At first, Saddler expected nothing more than fossilized remains or decayed carcasses.
But what they found instead shocked them: years later, the very excavators exposed to the site began showing strange, unmistakable symptoms of infection.
In the end, it became clear that the spores had regenerated inside the excavators' bodies, maturing into fully grown Plaga.
From that incident, the first conclusions regarding the origin of the Plaga began to take shape.
The Amber Rian now carried was one of the largest samples—taken from a storage facility that turned out to be a repository for every Amber extracted from the mines. Even Luis hadn't expected such a find.
Not long after Rian secured the massive sample, Saddler and Krauser appeared, flanked by several Ganado, to intercept them.
Rian, Luis, Leon, and Ashley managed to escape after a fierce firefight, even managing to wound Saddler.
Rian had driven him into the wall with sheer force—not enough to kill, but more than enough to buy them precious time to flee.
But Krauser gave chase.
Krauser was not an opponent easily shaken, not because Rian lacked the ability to fight him, but because the mission's priority was crystal clear: Ashley's safety. On that point, both Luis and Leon agreed with Rian's decision.
So Leon made the call. He would face Krauser alone, man-to-man.
Krauser, with a twisted grin, accepted the duel, granting Rian and Luis a path forward to carry Ashley toward the laboratory.
Now, in addition to performing the procedure on Ashley using the radiation therapy machine that exposed her to UV light, they were also waiting for Leon to arrive at Luis's research lab.
Rian's gaze remained calm, yet the Six Eyes behind his dark sunglasses glimmered faintly. Without moving his head, Rian's Six Eyes monitored Ashley's Plaga, studying it silently.
Suddenly, the machine's hum intensified. Luis tensed. "¡Vamos! Don't die now…" he whispered.
Ashley twitched again, her body tensing one more time… then slowly relaxed. In the next moment, the graph on the monitor dropped sharply, and the Plaga was completely destroyed.
Luis exhaled deeply and approached, placing his hand gently on Ashley's forehead to check her temperature.
"The Plaga… it's dead."
"Haaah… haaah…" Ashley's labored breaths echoed clearly through the room.
Gradually, she fell silent. Her breathing began to steady. Her body was still weak, but the strain of pain on her face had finally eased.
Slowly, her eyes fluttered open, staring blankly at the ceiling, before finally lost consciousness.
In the corner of the room, Rian moved deliberately, sliding the Amber into one of his waist pouches.
In a flat yet clear voice, without turning, he said, "One life saved, catastrophe averted. Not a bad day."
Luis glanced over, a weary smile etched across his face. "Still not over, Amigo… but at least we can breathe a little easier."
Yet the smile faded moments later. Luis's brows furrowed with concern.
"Leon… he hasn't made it here yet," Luis said gravely. "I hope he wins against Krauser… and that the Plaga in his body can still be destroyed."
Rian didn't respond immediately. He turned slightly toward the dark corridor on the eastern side of the room, then gave a faint, wry smile.
The eyes behind his sunglasses flickered. His Six Eyes detected a silhouette approaching from the distance.
Still, Rian held back the words he had intended, speaking instead with calm yet weighty tone:
"Right… I just hope that man with the eternally troubled face makes it here in one piece."
Rian closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them with a sharp glare. "But Luis, don't underestimate that special agent. He's a Raccoon City survivor, not an ordinary man."
Luis exhaled slowly, raising an eyebrow with a faint, wry smile. But Rian wasn't finished.
"This handsome man knows… Leon hasn't faced B.O.W.s just once or twice. He's survived longer than most in fields like this."
Luis let out a short, bitter chuckle—honest this time. "I agree, Amigo. I shouldn't have underestimated Leon."
He drew a deep breath, glancing briefly at the monitor before murmuring,
"His skills… even with his body like that…"
Luis fell silent for a moment.
His gaze drifted toward the wall as if searching for a faint memory. "…He's extraordinary, especially for someone who's never undergone biological modifications."
And as if answering their unspoken hope, the laboratory door creaked open.
Heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed through the room. Leon appeared in the doorway, staggering slightly. One hand pressed against his side, his breathing ragged but determined.
His skin was pale. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, like congealed blood trapped behind his eyeballs.
Dark purple veins snaked from his neck down to the tips of his arms—a clear sign that the Plaga had almost completely taken over.
Yet Leon's gaze remained the same: cold, defiant.
He had not given up. Not yet.
Luis's eyes widened, and he rushed toward Leon.
Reaching him, Luis quickly moved and caught Leon's staggering body.
"Leon…" he hissed, supporting the man on his shoulder. "This is bad… Come on, I've got you."
Leon only nodded weakly, his steps heavy, breaths ragged.
Meanwhile, Rian walked calmly toward the bed where Ashley had been lying.
He bent down and gently lifted her in a princess carry. Ashley's breathing was steady, though her body remained weak and unconscious.
The patient bed was now empty, ready to be used again.
"…Ashley," Leon murmured, his voice barely audible. "Did… the therapy… work?"
His blurred eyes searched for the girl and finally landed on Rian, standing calmly and holding Ashley.
Rian looked at Leon with a faint, confident smile.
"Successfully done," Rian said lightly. "As long as this handsome man is here, everything will be fine."
Luis chuckled as he guided Leon toward the patient bed.
"Exactly," he said, then added teasingly, "despite all of Sir Tristan's absurd dialogue over there, the Plaga inside the Princess is gone."
Leon heard that. For the first time, his expression relaxed slightly. His gaze returned to Ashley—calm, peaceful, her breathing still heavy… but relieved.
Leon's body wavered; the tension he had carried finally began to collapse. Luis quickly helped him lie down on the patient bed, preparing for the next procedure.
Luis then hurried to the monitor beside the bed. On the screen, an X-ray image revealed a horrifying figure: the Plaga inside Leon's body had matured.
Luis narrowed his eyes, scanning the heartbeat graph, then offered a faint smile.
"Even though it's attacked the nerves, we can still destroy it…" he murmured.
__
Notes: Add me favorite/Collection and Comment, then give me some power stone and Rate my fanfic. Don't forget that!