Chapter Text
She managed to get the first hit on him. Her anger of him shooting her seemed to have her violently attempting to attack him, with her speed and strength being of use to her as she did so.
Her small size made her a difficult opponent and combined with her existing speed, made it even harder for him to catch her.
At one point he managed to grab her, only for her to melt into the darkness, as if her whole body were made of shadows. She was slippery and it only made him fight harder to catch her, an observation she quickly noted and used to her advantage.
"You're so bad at this," she taunts with laughter in her voice. "Skilled mercenary Albert Wesker can't catch the little petite woman who is a full foot shorter than him!"
The next half hour could best described as a game of cat and mouse in the surrounding brush. The woman was incredibly agile, and Wesker could only assume that she may have been on the same power level as him. Anytime she would manage to get within his grasp, her body would melt away into the darkness and appear a further distance away. She taunted him by appearing in his face, wild hair draping above her head with her mouth stretched into a huge grin.
If one thing was certain, she wasn't human. She'd made that clear as soon as her concern shifted to the damage of her clothing rather than the fact she'd been shot point blank by him.
Wesker had noticed after managing to hit him that she no longer was taking the fight seriously. He'd get close and she'd start giggling maniacally before phasing to another area.
This pattern would serve to be her downfall, as Wesker quickly picked up her movements and used them to subdue her.
With her breaths seeming to shorten as the panic of being caught set in, she ran.
Quickly.
In her panic he managed to hit her, knocking her down to the ground.
Wesker was faster. She hadn't counted on his super human strength or speed after getting the first swing, and it would serve to be her defeat.
After managing to corner her, he approached her in a slower manner. She regarded him with a smirk, an attempt to hide her desperation. A failed one.
"There's really no point in running," he says with arrogance dripping in his voice. "Nobody ever escapes from the inevitable."
"Running and hiding is my specialty." she says, raising her left fist. "As is making you look stupid!"
A punch from her managed to knock his sunglasses off of his face, which made her pause. His scarlet eyes burnt a hole through her as his head jerked back towards her. With a shove, he knocked her back to the ground. She landed on her rump, her head tilted up to make eye contact with him. Fear coursed through her as he slowly continued to approach her. His boots against the floor were the only other sound besides her breathing.
"You....are bold." he begins, continuing his pursuit toward her. "It'll get you into trouble."
She grins, keeping her spot on the ground as his shadow cast over her. "It already has."
His hand reaches out, gripping her throat and lifting her off of the ground. She was now on eye level with him, her now bright red eyes meeting his before they inevitably disappeared behind those lenses with a swift motion. Now forced to stare at her own tired reflection in his sunglasses, she went quiet.
"Then why keep playing such a foolish game?" he inquires quietly, tightening his grip on her. "Coming into a place where you know nothing of what is truly going on. Damaging valuable assets, taking the lives of scientists, what are you trying to gain?"
"Nothing. I've just got nothing to lose. I don't care about any of this." comes her flat reply, her expression looking bored rather than scared. "I'm curious to see what'll happen next, it's not like you can do anything to hurt me."
The line of his mouth slightly quirks upwards, almost a smirk but not quite. A hint of amusement in an otherwise calm and composed stature.
"How interesting. I'm sure I can find a use for this."
Before she could ask what, everything went black.
Waking up was strange. Nothing about the cold and sterile room felt real to her. The walls and environment had a heaviness to it that made her mind ache.
Her eyes fluttered open to properly take in her new surroundings, glancing down to see she was now in a hospital bed.
Attached to her arms were multiple IVs and something cold and hard around her neck. When she moved her hand up, she heard his voice.
"I wouldn't touch that."
Her eyes narrowed as her head lifted towards him. "What'd you put on me, Wesker?"
"An electromagnetic field device." came his calculated reply. "With you being other-worldy, I felt such a measure was appropriate."
For once, she had no retort. She simply stared down at the tubes connected to her veins. "What's the rest of this? Why am I hooked up to all this shit?"
He says nothing, simply opting to continue his writing for her charts. "You never told me your name."
"I don't remember my real one so I chose to go by Shadow." she mutters. "Felt it fit me best." Again, she was met with silence. which she didn't care for. "You know I let you catch me right? If I'd actually been taking you seriously you never would have been able to lay even a finger on me."
More silence. The room only had sounds of a pen against paper and medical equipment.
"Are you always this insufferably silent?" Shadow asks, her voice dripping with annoyance.
"For people who talk too much, yes."
She scoffs, her eyes dangerously flashing at him.
"I'll left hook you again," she snarls. "Make you spit out a tooth. Make you do things far out of your control that would drive you mad."
"And you'll exist to regret it." came his cold reply, barely looking at her. "You told me point blank that you didn't care about the consequences of your actions. If anything you got your fists on me because I allowed you to."
"I meant it," she hisses. "You can't hurt me. Even this stupid IV in my arm doesn't hurt." She punctuates this by ripping it out of her arm and tossing it aside. Shadow stumbles out of the bed, and catches her reflection in the mirror, seeing him still sitting down and noting his observations. Finally getting a proper look at her own face made her heart race.
"Take this collar off." she whispers. "Now."
"And why should I do that?"
Her hands were shaking as they lifted towards her cheeks, the paled skin of her true self marked by abstract shapes and darker makeup of a jester that could never come off. She hadn't even realized that her clothes had been disregarded in exchange for a hospital gown, finding that her devilish tail was no longer hidden frightened her more.
"I can't be seen like this." Her hands lift towards the collar, attempting to rip it off of herself. Her struggles were punctuated by grunts and snarls.
"What you're doing is completely pointless. All of this struggling won't change anything, you know that right?" Wesker says, finally standing up. "You should stop, it's quite pathetic watching you right now."
She ignores him, continuing to struggle with the collar. Her refusal to give up on getting it off made her completely ignore Wesker standing over her.
"Fascinating." he murmurs. "Did your consistency with being so stubborn contribute to your current state?"
Her scarlet eyes finally stare up at him, her diamond irises seeming to pierce through his steely shaded gaze. She regarded him with silence from her spot on the ground, heavy breathing from her struggles. To her shock, he leaned down. A gloved hand reached towards her, caressing her face with a surprising amount of gentleness. Her silence remained, if only for a short moment.
"You're lucky that you're as attractive as you are." she mutters. "I would wipe the floor with you if you were anyone else. Get into your mind and eat you from the inside out, leaving the scraps to the worms."
He says nothing, only continuing to hold her chin up to face him. A silent, yet very forward establishment of the power difference between them.
"I'll make you a deal." she begins, not moving out of his grasp. "I'll stay here, I won't kill any of your stupid little rats....and you can inject whatever you want into my veins." She raises a hand, a stained, purple hand. Her fingers rest against his with the same gentleness. "But I don't want this collar on me. I hate it. I don't want to be exposed like this." Shadow's eyes met his, attempting to read through the cold and composed demeanor, only to be met with failure.
Her offer lingers in the air, with the only response being his fingers moving from her chin to her cheeks. The touch was still gentle but it held thought. Consideration of her fate with him.
"Do we have a deal?"
She lifts up her other hand, and shakily presents it forward.
"Let me amend your offer."
Wesker stands back up, relinquishing her as he towered over her with his full height.
"I'll remove the collar. But...."
She raises an eyebrow, seating herself cross legged on the floor. "But?"
"I don't want you leaving."
Shadow gets to her feet, staring at herself in the mirror, and at the figure towering over her in the background. "That's all? You don't want me leaving? Nothing else I said to you is of interest?"
His silence confirmed her answer, and she simply nods back in return. Moving her hair up out of the way, she turns with her back to him so that he could properly remove the collar off of her.
The leather of his gloves gently graze her neck as the cold metal finally left her neck. Her fingers immediately took the space of where the cold metal had previously been, enjoying the warmth of her hand.
She lifts her head back up, and watches as the makeup disappeared back into her skin, which had darkened back into its human like appearance.
Her hair, which had been shown to be truly dark red with violent streaks of scarlet, had faded back into a darker brown. She sighs, finally allowing her mind to calm itself as she turned her attention back to him.
A door opened, with him standing in the frame as he prepared to leave, pointing to her vacant hospital bed where her clothes remained. "When you're finished dressing yourself, come with me."
She nods silently, which Wesker responds to by stepping out of the room and into the hallway to allow her some privacy.
What on earth had she just gotten herself into?