Continued from here.
Epilogue
"Point Zero"
The Story As It Comes to a Close
After a skirmish, William Birkin eventually was defeated by the combined efforts of the Survivors, who had also managed to cure themselves of the T-Virus. Moving forward from there, they eventually found themselves reunited with those previously thought to have been murdered by the hands of the Traitors, the victims revealed to have been "resurrected" by use of cloning, or rather, Replica Technology. However, they had all learned the hard way that those who were not murdered by the Traitors but died through other means would not return, the deaths of those such as Miku Hatsune and Jaffar being mourned briefly.
Eventually, the group moved on again, guided by instructions procured by Cullen Bloodstone and others, before eventually managing to reach the fabled vault, where the Tesseract lie in wait. However, before they were able to procure it, a strange being, its existence hinted at throughout the course of the event, made itself known to the group, killing off Milton and Philip, before identifying himself as Diablo, implied to have masterminded the ordeal from the very beginning. With the group having made it further than he had ever intended, Diablo decided to wrap up loose ends and put an end to the group, sparking a grueling battle between himself and the group. A battle that no one realized would come to shape the entire multiverse forever.
However, his power was too much even for the combined efforts of what remained of the Survivors, and he eventually overcame them in the battle that was eventually revealed to be more than it initially appeared.
Reveling in his victory, Diablo stood among the desecrated field, littered with the bodies of the group who had interfered with his plans from the very beginning. Their malevolence energy would sustain him for eons to come, and they would make ideal hosts to overtake. Using his power to influence the minds of others he had bested, his presence began to seep itself into the minds of everyone around.
... Only to be impeded by a meddling loose end.
Albert Wesker, dressed in his black coat, strolled casually into the vault, paying little mind to those passing out in pain around him. Of course, he had known of this inevitable conclusion, having worked alongside Diablo all this time.
Though the survivors had not noticed it, there had always been
two Albert Weskers since they arrived. This one, insultingly named
beta Wesker by Umbrella, had been pulled in from another dimension. Oswell E. Spencer had taken a liking to this Wesker, and he was given quite the number of privileges. Unfortunately for Umbrella,
this Wesker had come from a dimension ravaged by Diablo, who had mistakenly arrived in search of the fabled Tesseract. Considering this blunder, the evil entity had seen a benefit to a partnership between them, at least until he got what he wanted.
Which is why Wesker couldn't possibly allow Diablo to win this day.
It had been Diablo's idea to infect the minds of the survivors, forcing a few to act on his behalf as traitors. According to him, a cycle of death gave way to a flurry of negative emotions, which generated an energy that he uniquely could consume. This power allowed him to eventually take over the minds of all the survivors, something he was just about to succeed with. It was just too bad that Diablo's universe hopping left him weak, for it would have been in his best interest to keep Wesker controlled as well.
The device in Wesker's hand did two things. One, it would render the device he gave Ada useless, allowing him to control the devices in the group's heads. Two, it allowed him to handily mess with the devices whenever he wanted. If only SHIELD had the time to remove the devices completely instead of just turning them off, then maybe this wouldn't have been possible.
With Diablo in the minds of the hosts, all it would take is the press of a button.
"Thank you for all the help," Wesker said, before pressing that sole button and shutting the survivors' brains off from reality. The great beast Diablo shuddered and contorted before Wesker's eyes, before vanishing completely. It had been little more than a mirage, but Wesker could only imagine that his physical body, wherever it may be, was going through a similar problem. To shut off all those minds at once with him inside each one...
"Wesker!" someone suddenly screamed, and the man felt a strong force smashing the device he had used out of his hand. He turned quickly, finding Claire Redfield on one knee, staring at him with utter hatred as she aimed her gun at him. Beside her was a member of SHIELD, Wanda, huddled over one of the survivors in pain. These two had never been implanted or controlled, but Wesker had expected Diablo to kill them handily.
This presented a unique opportunity.
"Chris' little sister... how good to see you." Wesker moved faster than the eye could see, appearing before Claire in a flash and knocking the gun out of her hands with a kick. He then grabbed her by the neck and lifted her above the ground. She had yet to lay witness to how strong his powers had grown, leaving her utterly surprised. It only made Wesker smirk devilishly.
"I've considered it, you know. How best to get to Chris. I tried once with Jill Valentine, but why not his sister? I wasn't so successful the first time, but with the Tesseract... tell me, Claire, do you wish to be a part of an experiment?"
Claire, obviously, could not respond, but Wesker didn't care to let her anyway. He dropped her to the ground and delivered a blow to her head to knock her out. She fell limply into his arms and Wesker felt a rush of adrenaline. How tragic this would be. He looked down upon Wanda, saw her still desperately huddled over one of the survivors. It took Wesker a moment to gather she was using her powers to shield him, but it was obvious she was dying as a result. So very pathetic.
"Goodbye," said Wesker. He then disappeared from the vault, both Claire and the Tesseract gone with him.
...
It was not an ideal situation for Wanda Maximoff. Quite far from the truth, to be honest. But if
he was the only one that could be saved, then she would save that one life at all costs. That was the primary thought going through the scarlet witch's mind as she used the last of her power to preserve the consciousness of the survivor she huddled over.
As the entire group lay comatose, courtesy of Wesker and the devices that had been implanted inside them in the very beginning, there was one exception. Wanda made sure of that with her last breath.
His name was Adam Eberhart, the one uncut link that managed to escape the same fate as everyone else.
"A-Aghh..."
Shortly after Wesker had temporarily left the area with Claire, Leon Scott Kennedy could only groan as he slowly came to, having been knocked out shortly before the "fight" with Diablo. His sight was hazy and his breathing was ragged, but it wasn't anything he hadn't encountered before. It was just as well; his own safety was the last thing he was concerned over. The man's thoughts quickly drifted over to the group, and a sense of dread overloaded his emotions as he looked upon them all. Standing among all these bodies... It was unnerving, even for a man who prided himself on having nerves of steel, considering all that he had gone through before.
He frantically looked around, hoping that one of them was at least still conscious, or hell, alive, assuming they were all dead. His heart dropped when it seemed like it was all hopeless, mourning those around, and even those who were not. Ada, who had elusively managed to avoid his line of sight the entire time, hiding in plain sight, was out of commission, and Claire was nowhere to be seen, likely taken away by Wesker. There was nothing he could do for any of these people. Nothing except--
"A-Aughh... Fuck. Help... I can't move."
"!"
Scrambling over to the sound, Leon practically jerked his head to the weak voice of Adam, trapped under the corpse of Wanda Maximoff, who had given her life to shield Adam from the device that sent everyone else into a coma. Delicately moving Wanda's body off Adam, Leon helped the man onto his feet, wrapping Adam's arm around his own shoulder, before wasting no time in moving out.
"C'mon... We... We need to get out of here," Leon breathed, not realizing how badly he was limping as he spoke,
"The people that sent the group here... S.H.I.E.L.D., right? They... They might be able to help..."
"What... What about... everyone else?" Adam practically slurred, as though in a daze, likely a result of Wanda's influence protecting him.
"There's nothing we can do for them! We... We need to move, before Wesker comes back," Leon replied grimly. He didn't like the situation at all, but what could he do?! He could barely save himself and Adam, let alone the entire group, so he did what he had to.
He left everyone behind.
***
"Excellent. Load the pods in, and take us to the next world over. I have... a stop to make, before we come right back," Wesker ordered, and as directed, his Umbrella subordinates obediently did his bidding, loading the pods containing the comatose form of everyone into a large cargo plane, ready for take-off.
Once everyone was loaded up, Wesker boarded the plane and signaled the pilot to go. With that, the cargo plane flew into the air, and with the Tesseract in hand, taken from the Umbrella facility once Wesker had returned to the room to collect all the bodies, he conjured a portal leading into the next world over, plotting out his next move now that he finally had the edge over S.H.I.E.L.D. for once. In other words, the scales were tipped in his favor, and he would not let this opportunity escape from his grasp.
Wesker smiled in a sinister manner, self-satisfied as he crossed his arms.
"The right to be God... That right is now mi--"
BOOM!
"What?!"
An explosion rocked the entire cargo plane, catching the Umbrella chairman by surprise. Smoke arose from the back, and as Wesker rushed to the cockpit, an alarmed look on his face, he gritted his teeth.
"What the hell is going on?!"
"We're under fire, sir! Confirmed hit. Missile hit the rear, but the hull miraculously managed to hold," the Umbrella pilot responded, attempting to keep the plane level and maintain its altitude,
"It looks like... an extremely large aircraft?!"
Wesker growled like a provoked beast, knowing instantly who it was.
"So... S.H.I.E.L.D. is still trying to bite at my heels, eh? No matter. They cannot undo our victory. Full speed ahead."
FWOOSH!
From behind Wesker's cargo plane, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, commanded by Director Nick Fury himself, prepared another missile, hoping to get a better lock-on this time. As the cargo plane drew nearer and nearer towards the portal generated by Wesker's Tesseract, it was impeded once again as the helicarrier fired yet another missile at it, yielding another direct hit on the rear.
And as a result, two things happened.
One, the explosion caused the plane to shake once again, causing Wesker to lose his balance and stumble into the wall, inadvertently hitting the sensitive Tesseract against it as well, causing it to open up yet another portal through space-time, though rather than being right in front of them like the first one, it was pointed vertically, generated below the cargo plane.
Two, the missile managed to undo the rear hatch of the plane, causing it to slam open, exposing the pods loaded up. And as the plane, still flying forward despite its second injury, continued its movement, the pod closest to the edge was unfastened and loosened from its place, before sliding right out the hatch and falling into the second portal down below, where it disappeared from there. The pod of Riesbyfe Stridberg, which would not be recovered until a great time later by a party that had yet to be formed.
But the one crucial event that Fury had hoped would happen did not come through. And that event in question, of course, being stopping the plane, as it was far too late for him, and he could only watch while the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents frantically attempted to ready another missile as the cargo plane disappeared into the portal connected to the next parallel world.
"... And that is how the pods ended up here. Where they have resided ever since the beginning of the Murder Games, with their bodies milked for their Malevolence energy continuously... but alas, it was all for naught. Albert Wesker, both of him, died off with Diablo... or should I say, the Arch Demon, and the Malevolence was never able to put to disuse anyway."
And with that, the old man known as Oswell E. Spencer finished the recollection of what he claimed to be the very first Murder Game.
The scene is different now.
A few weeks following the Coalition Civil War, agents Alvin, Kenji Miyazawa, and the organization AI known as Alter Ego, with an amnesiac woman known as Riesbyfe Stridberg in tow, previously found and taken care of by the M.E.U. all this time, had followed a tip provided by one Mom Lalonde that pointed them towards a remote world, a seemingly abandoned Umbrella outpost.
And never would they have suspected that this is what they would find.
Before any of them were able to question him further, the old man broke into a coughing fit for a brief moment, a testament of his sickly appearance. Once he eased up, letting out a weak breath, it was then that Riesbyfe spoke, gingerly walking over to one of the pods.
"Yes... It's all coming back to me now," the Holy Knight murmured, the memories returning to her mind, as though she were finally refreshed of it all after so long. Placing a hand on the pod she stood next to, she faced the old man, a resolute look on her face.
"How do we free them? You said it yourself; you have no more use for them, so let them go."
"..." Spencer remained silent for a moment, the only sound made by him being his ragged breathing, but eventually, he let out a low chuckle, before nodding.
"If you insist," he spoke, before pressing a button on the wall he sat in front of, and with that, all the pods simultaneously opened up, letting out a loud hissing sound as, for the first time in a long time, the individuals inside the pods were exposed to fresh air.
"They'll come to on their own soon enough. Just give them a moment..."
"Amazing..." The accompanying Coalition agent, Kenji Miyazawa, could only murmur underneath his breath,
"So, did we just stumble upon the... the Progenitors to the Progenitors?" He inquired incredulously.
"That's one way to look at it," Alvin mumbled, still a little flabbergasted.
"Alvin, I don't sense any malevolence from these people," said Alter Ego, sounding a bit too chipper considering the story they had just listened to.
"I may not be able to sense such energy as well as one of our exorcists, but it's all... so clean. I think in extracting malevolence from them, they have been purified. I doubt there is any worry they could be used like the survivors of the first-- sorry, first official Murder Game."
"Huh, couldn't we use this method to purify others as well then?"
"Hm, no..." Alter Ego looked pensive.
"This took a couple years in a comatose state. Sapient beings naturally feel negative emotions as a part of life, so some kind of malevolence is normal. Basically, this method would not be ideal, unless of course, one was willing to go to sleep for a few years."
"Right..." The man sighed, walking over toward the pods.
"This is gonna make for one long report. I guess our people in the Coalition could probably connect the dots in history better than I could."
"...!"
A strange guttural sound could be heard, prompting the group to turn to Spencer in alarm. He was clutching his chest and huddled over his wheelchair in pain. Alvin ran to him first, only to find the old man dropping an empty syringe to the ground.
"It's over... over... for years I have waited, only to be disappointed. D-Damn you... Damn you all. I am the last... and Umbrella dies with m-me..."
There was nothing that could be done.
In the few short moments following, the people in the pods began to awaken. They would be dazed, lost, and confused, with no recollection of their time spent in the pods. The devices in their heads would have been long removed, thankfully.
"Let's... let's start identifying these people," said Alvin with a sigh.
Cast List
@Minerva as
Ada Wong (Resident Evil)
@Yun Lee as
Alice Twilight (No More Heroes)
@Sen as
Alucard (Castlevania)
@Jeremi as
Android 18 (Dragon Ball)
@Takumi as
Azura of Nohr (Fire Emblem)
@Gummi Bunnies as
Blake Dormi (OC)
@Crow as
Cagliostro (Granblue Fantasy)
@Josh M as
Clark Kent (Smallville)
@Atomyk as
Cullen Bloodstone (Marvel Comics)
@penguin055 as
Domon Kasshu (Gundam)
@Bomb as
Doremi the Meoletta and Jabber the Riolu (Pokemon)
@Hana as
Hakuei Ren (Magi)
@thatguyinthestore as
Jason Todd (Arkhamverse)
@C.T. as
Jinx (League of Legends AU)
@The Myrmidon as
Joshua (Fire Emblem)
@LuckycoolHawk9 as
Lucifer Morningstar and
Linda Martin (Lucifer)
@CrunchyCHEEZIT as
Lucio (Overwatch)
@MetalNova as
Mikoto Kujou (Last Game)
@Mason Moretti as
Naomi Kimishima and Inspector Navel (Trauma Center)
@Verite as
Riesbyfe Stridberg (Type-Moon)
@Azuremoon as
Road Kamelot (D.Gray-man)
@york as
Schala Zeal (Chrono Trigger)
@Klutzy Ninja Kitty as
Senna (Bleach)
@Midnight Maiden as
Setsuna (Shattered Angels)
@Kaykay as
Shirou Yusa (Dies Irae)
@Otto as
Twisted Fate (League of Legends)
@Gands as
Warpath (Marvel Comics)
@Darkseide as
William "Penny" Adiyoi (The Magicians)
@The Unknown as
Zerberus (Kingdom Hearts OC)
