“What’s that for?” Ashley asks behind him, and he turns to look at her, bloodied sword in hand.

Leon shrugs. “It’s just a replica. Only a couple uses for it.” Like to finish a wall mural with three other swords. Once the last sword is in place and the door clicks open, Leon glances around the little treasury, eyeing the various gems and trinkets. He considers for only a moment, then gives a mental shrug and starts stuffing some smaller items in his extra pockets. 

“…What are you doing?” Ashley asks as he loots the place. 

Leon nods his head toward the opulence around them, golden framed paintings and countless other signs of wealth. “I think he’s got enough, don’t you?” Ashley blinks but then nods hesitantly, and Leon chuckles. “Don’t worry, it’s not for me. The Merchant that’s been around pays well for this stuff.” 

The blue jade pendant he snags is nothing special. It’s just another shiny necklace Leon shoves in his pocket to barter with the Merchant later.

Once Leon’s filled his pockets, he and Ashley make their way back to the atrium where Salazar first showed his ugly face. The bodies of the zealots are conspicuously absent. Once back on the main floor, Leon looks around, assessing their route. Luis said to meet in the courtyard so if they keep heading straight through, they should— 

“Uh, Leon?”

The mildly alarmed tone in Ashley’s voice has Leon snapping his head around, grip tightening on his handgun. But there’s no hostiles he can see, and instead Ashley’s gaze is fixed on… him? Leon frowns at her, opening his mouth to ask what’s wrong, but Ashley beats him to it.

“Leon, your bag, it’s glowing?!”

Leon blinks, confused and a little alarmed as he drops his gaze to his belt, half expecting to see a grenade or flashbang about to detonate. Instead, he sees a pale glow spilling from one of his bags. Frowning, Leon holsters his gun and digs a hand into the pouch in question, withdrawing it. One of the baubles he picked up earlier from the treasury, a small blue jade pendant, is flickering softly. 

“What…?” Leon mutters quietly. Some kind of chemical reaction? (He hopes, anyway. Otherwise, a blue glow probably means radiation, in which case Leon is fucked.) But before Leon can figure out what’s wrong with the odd pendant, he realizes he has much bigger problems. That being, his hand.  

Before his eyes, Leon’s fingernails blacken and harden, lengthening into something resembling talons. And from his now-clawed fingertips, something dark ripples over Leon’s skin, climbing his hands.

“Fuck–!” Leon chokes out. He’s lost control of the muscles of his hand already, joints locked around the pendant. Shit, shit, shit! Fucking hell, Luis’ plaga is taking him over already?! Leon snaps his eyes up to Ashley, unable to contain the panic he knows is creeping into his voice. “Ashley, RUN!”

The young woman stumbles back as Leon turns and races as far from her as he can while he can still control his limbs. He doesn’t get very far, his legs buckling under him as something in his back snaps. Leon hisses, curling on his side as his blood burns. There’s a writhing along his spine, what can only be the plaga twisting along his vertebrae. Fuck, he can’t let himself attack Ashley, he can’t—

Leon tries to claw himself forward a little further, but instead of moving, his body slides out of place. Suddenly Leon is aware that there is more of him than there was a few moments ago. Something is worming its way from his lower back. Something is taking both sides of his spine and pulling, stretching him like taffy. Leon writhes, pain and alien sensation filling his brain, but distantly aware there is so much more of him.

There is something thrashing past his feet, his stomach is too far from his shoulders, his neck is twisted like a corkscrew. 

When he slams his head against the stone floor, he feels the impact rattle through a face that is too long to be human. When his jaw splits open, unable to hold back an agonized cry, a thick tongue runs past razor sharp fangs.

Finally, it stops, leaving Leon panting on the floor, fear clogging his throat. He’s all too aware of his alien body, far far too much of him sprawled over stone. Ashley’s still here. He’s a danger to her. He has to either take care of himself or get away or something—

“Leon?”

Leon flinches at the sound of Ashley’s voice, squeezing his eyes shut as he tries to shuffle away. “Nnnno, ssssstay away, Assshhley—” His warning is mixed with hisses and growls, his movements jerking and uncoordinated. Leon tries to shove himself backward, but there is too much between his limbs. He can’t do much more than wriggle in place. Shit, shit, shit—

Beneath his labored breathing, Leon’s aware that Ashley hasn’t said anything more, and he can’t hear her footsteps approaching. Good. But, he still needs to put more space between himself and her before he loses all lucidity.

Leon risks cracking an eye open. He’s not sure what he expects to see—perhaps grotesque twisted flesh, insectoid carapace, or even something millipede-esque considering how much spine he seems to have. What he’s definitely not expecting however, is scales. Blue scales, specifically, and thick blond fur.

And past that, Ashley’s mildly frightened but mostly awed—not horrified, awed—expression. 

Leon blinks and tries to leverage himself onto his hands and knees. (Because if Ashley’s not going to run, Leon’s just going to have to do it himself.) And while Leon can successfully control his limbs, he’s not sure what’s going on… between them. Leon blinks as he watches the blue mass shift and cranes his neck up to try and see and oh shit—

His head lurches upward, neck far far far too long. Suddenly, Leon’s… well, he’s not standing, that’s for sure, but his head is at standing height. Leon swallows back a sudden wave of nausea and vertigo, blinking as he traces the serpentine blue and gold shape sprawled over the stone floor. It resembles a snake, with smooth blue dorsal scales, but the illusion is swiftly broken by the blonde fur that lines the spine all the way to the tail tip. Tracing it back up… Leon’s pants and belts are caught around one set of legs, his shirt around the other set, and then he traces the blue all the way back up until he can’t look down any further.

He’s… a giant snake. If a snake was nearly forty feet long, had a body the diameter of a human torso, a mane of hair running along its body, and legs. 

“What the fuck—” Leon mutters quietly, and distantly notes: Oh hey! He can still talk. Small victories. With his head up like this, Leon can watch as he tries to move, only for his very very very long body to respond with all the grace of a wet, limp noodle.

“Leon, you okay?”

Leon’s head snaps over to look at Ashley, who is slowly approaching. Leon snarls, only to feel his lips feel back from too-long teeth and promptly flinch. Leon shakes his head, nausea climbing his throat as his neck sways side-to-side. “Ashley, you need to get out of here, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll stay sane.”

Instead of running, Ashley squints at him. There’s something sparkling in her eyes. “Leon… you’re a dragon.”

Leon blinks. “I’m a what.”

“Dragon.”

Leon looks down at himself. “…I thought dragons were supposed to have wings?”

“Eh, only some of them,” Ashley says, and Leon jumps slightly. Somehow she’s managed to sneak right up to him. He cranes his head back to look down at her, and she grins. “Need help?”

“You should run,” Leon repeats.

Ashley shakes her head, eyes gleaming with excitement. “Heck no, I am not missing my one chance to experience a dragon.” Internally, Leon despairs, now becoming increasingly convinced his charge has the self preservation instincts of a lemming. Or at least, she does when faced with something ‘cool’. 

“Now, let’s get you up.” Before Leon can protest otherwise, Ashley has latched her arms behind his head and starts pulling him forward. Leon can do little more than bear it, his neck stretching out as he follows her. Then, it gets to its limit and he has to push himself onto his hands, then his elongated back, then his feet…

Finally, Leon stands on four shaky limbs, stretched out impossibly long across the atrium. Carefully, he curls in on himself, spine folding and curving over until he’s sat back on his new tail—fuck, he has a tail—and haunches. His back curves like an S, and then his neck completes its own curve.

Leon stares at his taloned hands and then beyond them to Ashley who, for a girl who has been kidnapped, is looking like Christmas came early. Leon groans, attempting to rub his face only to be reminded he now has a snout instead. Goddamnit. “Ashley, I’m literally a giant noodle, can you please stop looking so excited?”