Work Text:
Major Cain stood in the dark quiet, staring at the monitor. It played and replayed the same visuals--lifestats, equipment, response. Even with the cocktail of drugs they had running through his system, the Nemesis was alive with activity, skin reacting, synapses firing, cells growing... His mutation had moved more rapidly than even their previous experiments ever hinted. So horrific, it was a thing of beauty.
Cain ran a finger down the center of the creature's twisted face, feeling the deep rut between the facial skin and the salvaged flesh they grafted over the rotting hole that had been the other side of his face. They'd worked quickly enough, but it would never heal together. And yet, the flesh moved, reacted, as if it were whole.
The skin twitched beneath his hand, though the monitors showed that Nemesis was still in deep sleep. Even if he did awake, the amount of muscle relaxants they had pumping through his system would give Cain just enough time to get out of his way, should he decide to go against his programming.
The programming... a thing of genius. A lifetime's worth of memories erased, replaced with the knowledge of war and the will to use his immense power. A will intimately controlled by Cain himself. He could command the creature to do anything at all, and he would obey. The perfect soldier. And now, with the mutation stabilized, he was perfectly under his control. Every part of him.
Cain leaned close, staring into the twisted and swollen face. Nemesis barely held any resemblance to the man they'd first brought in. Maybe a curve of bone, a slight flicker in his remaining eye, but nothing else remained. There was a light, sweet smell to the creature's skin, beneath the medicinal wash that clung to everything in the hospital. He leaned even closer, trying to make out the familiar scent, close enough he could feel the deep warm breaths, the soft rumbling in his throat like a sleeping great cat.
If this were some low-rate horror movie, Nemesis would have awoken, reached out and closed his large hand around Cain's most vulnerable neck. But, it wasn't a movie, and his creature slept, even as Cain pressed his cheek against his own, turned his head and licked the smooth flesh pulled taut over bulging muscle. He tasted sour and salty, and yet, somehow sweet.
The monitors beeped and glowed in low-level hums of electricity as he slipped his hand down under the thin hospital sheet, feeling out the weirdly proportioned body, the inhuman growths and torn skin and sleep-trembling muscle. Cain watched as he stroked down the fleshy tube drawing out of Nemesis' neck, feeling a smile as the line shuddered, the mind flared and grew silent from the touch.
"You like this?" he muttered. He slipped his finger into a torn hole, feeling out the place where the tube melted into more human flesh before it ripped through the skin in looping waves. They hadn't yet figured out what its function was, but each movement of human flesh against it brought new bursts of life to the monitors. Whether it was pain, pleasure, or some other sensation entirely, Cain neither knew nor truly cared. His Nemesis was beyond pain, beyond human boundaries. And Cain owned him. Umbrella could take whatever credit they wanted, but this creature was his, first. HIS.
Cain straightened, pulling away from the creature reluctantly. He stared down at him, and smiled. In his own way, Nemesis smiled back.
There was a knock at the door, soft and polite. Cain lifted the sheet back up to the creature's chest, covering much of his body, then straightened his own suit. When he opened the door, he found two young men waiting for him. "What is it?"
"Sir, the contamination is moderate. Evacuation is already in place."
"Excellent." Cain spared a final glance back at his creature, before he led the way to his car. It wouldn't do to stay around the hospital now that the T-virus has made its way to the surface. The hospital is usually the first place to go. Behind him, the door gave a solid beep as it locked, preventing anyone from entering until he activated the project.
He couldn't wait to see his Nemesis in action.