#slight fluff?

Everything happened so quickly all those years ago when the Chimera outbreak first occurred; an old Soviet spacecraft crashed back down in the earth’s atmosphere, specifically in Truth and Consequences, New Mexico. All of you luckily managed to have survived the first wave it seems, however none of you seem to be lucky now, years later. The year was now 2022, and the Chimera came back way worse than before. They were still able to infect and take over humans despite having newer, more evolved forms, and their method of symbiosis with their earthly hosts was still pretty much the same.

Around the time the parasite had come back, you had been all alone in your apartment. Seeing as how you were off-duty, you were almost certain nothing bad would happen. And then suddenly, a giant, oozing yet sharp pike crashed through your floor and ceiling. You jolt back, falling off your couch as the strange pike continues to force itself through your apartment complex. To your left, you can hear another one coming through and you move out of the way the moment it smashes through. A small, black ooze rides up it and all you could do is stare at it, scrambling away.

Panting heavily, your eyes go wide once you see the black ooze begin to turn into a tall, slim, and alien-like creature. “I thought we destroyed you…” you say softly, standing to your feet slowly. The new form of Chimera then suddenly shifts its gaze to you and howls loudly. More rumbling happens in the complex and it makes you nearly fall over. “Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit!” You exclaim repeatedly, trying to run out of your apartment. The moment you’re out the door, the unidentifiable new creature launches projectiles at you, one of them lodging into your calf and the other grazing your face.

With a loud yell of pain, you fall to the floor and nearly onto another pike. Reaching for your service pistol, you’re quickly stopped as another projectile lodged into your arm. Another scream of pain rips through you as you struggle to crawl away now. You couldn’t die just yet, not to the Chimera that stood before you as it traveled through whatever it was on the ground. It didn’t look like a Roach, so you put two and two together and figured the parasite had evolved all these years. Quickly, you press a button while continuing to drag yourself using your now injured arm and uninjured leg to do so. It stings like hell, but it’s all you’ve got.

You’ve sent out a distress signal to the rest of Team Rainbow, hoping that it will actually be received. The first to see it is Gustave, and after seeing the breaking news footage from within the Hereford base, he knows you’re shit out of luck. Gustave’s warm eyes exchange a look between Olivier and Lera, looking at the distraught and disheartened looks in their expressions. The duo had bonded with you the most during your career with Team Rainbow due to you being within the CBRN Threat Unit. “I’m so sorry, you two…” He apologizes, feeling hopeless about this whole thing.

And if anything, Gustave feels even worse knowing he has no way of helping you just yet. You were someone just as passionate about him when it came to saving the lives of the innocent. He’d worked with you for so long, and was there when the initial outbreak occurred. Gustave’s heart was just as broken in this moment but one day, some way, you’d be back with him and the rest of the team. Within hours up to a few days, Team Rainbow has swiftly become REACT, led by Eliza and Elena respectively. In this time, far worse things were happening to you. You’d lost far too much blood to remain conscious, but eventually came to a few minutes later.

Vision blurry, you saw that you were in the lobby of the complex you lived in. Everything was covered in black ooze, and there was what appeared to be a nest in the far right corner across from you. Dozens of voices in a language you didn’t understand whispered and clicked in your ear, soft screeching and the squelch of something also coming into earshot. You’d tried to move, but something firmly gripped you and held you back. Tilting your head up slightly, you saw what appeared to be yellow, almost human in appearance, arms and hands gripping you tightly and keeping you in place. “Oh yeah, the parasite’s definitely evolved…but how? Did it…breed underground?”

You think to yourself, only to stop your thoughts to wince loudly as a piercing pain engulfs your injured arm and leg. Whatever it was that was holding you in, seemed to be healing you. But not for the reasons you would think if you hadn’t dealt with the Chimera Parasite before, no. This was…so much different and so much worse than before. With the added voices and clicking in your head, you weren’t being healed for the sole purpose of living—you were being healed to assimilate and become one with the damned thing. The more and more you’d resist, the more the strange arms would grip you tighter, pulling you into the spongey, soft walls of the new Chimera. Steady breathing eventually became ragged and enraged, as your mind began to resist the screeching voices within.

“No…I…won’t become you…! Let…let go of me!” You resist, only to be pulled in further. It’s harder to breathe now as you’re forced into the alien mass, eyesight eventually becoming thermal. It was already too late—in fusing itself with you via your opened wounds, the parasite was managing to get you to assimilate much faster. Your mind relented however, and as you reach out one last bit, you watch several more arms come to restrain you. The same black ooze you’d hated for years finally had its hold on you, and you would never be the same again. Their hands wrap around your face, and one of them even links its fingers to yours. It’s almost…comforting, but you don’t fall for it at all. You were in a living nightmare, and soon enough, about to become the very thing.

Eventually, you’re completely enveloped…but not taken over.

Once your “assimilation” is finished, you’re then taken out of the giant black mass. The voices have stopped, but when you try to speak, a low growl quakes in your chest. Everything looks so…different for some reason, and you realize you could manipulate thermal and “normal” vision; everything was much less saturated. In an attempt to look down at your new body, a whine comes out instead. Your hands are not human anymore. Trembling, weak knees buckle and cause you to fall over. You have no mouth, and yet you still scream loudly in your own throat. It seems your assimilation truly wasn’t complete as you had thought.

While down on the floor, what should be tears begin to fall from your eyes as you tremble. This shouldn’t be happening at all; you’d fought so hard and nearly lost your life entirely. What the fuck was going to happen now? You couldn’t just waltz back in and engage with your previous comrades like nothing happened to you. Thousands of thoughts flood your mind, overwhelming each and every sense that you possess. After a few moments, you just get up and start to walk around, straying pretty far. For a few days, you’d just wander through the abandoned streets aimlessly. There was no motive to do anything anymore.

What could you even do?

In the air, you could hear the sounds of what appear to be helicopter propellers. Looking to the sky, you cover your eyes with your arms to shield from the sun. Recognizing it as Rainbow, just rebranded, you raise your arms in the air before beginning to sprint off for shelter the moment bullets start to rain on you. A much different adrenaline rush goes through you, giving you time to run and hide from whomever it was that was attacking you. Gustave, Olivier, and Julien rappel from the helicopter safely with weapons raised and ready to open fire. Through your hiding spot, you simply stare at the trio as they slowly scan the area for you.

They stick together instead of splitting off, almost as if acutely aware of how much different things are since the first outbreak. You move a little to remain out of their sights once they get too close. At the same time as your movements, Olivier had activated an updated version of his EE-ONE-D and their sights zeroed in on you. With your arms still in the air, Olivier and his fellow Frenchmen then look down at his screen. “No way…C'est impossible…” Gustave says, lowering his MP4 slightly. Julien then looks up at you, “Are you…conscious?” The younger GIGN operator is absolutely stunned to see the state you’re in. Lowering your arms slightly, you step out into the light.

A loud purr seems to rumble in your chest this time around, and it’s accompanied by the nod of your head. “Mon Dieu,” Olivier says as he makes the sign of the cross on himself, “you…what did it do to you?” Feeling ashamed for reasons far beyond your ability to prevent, you just gesture to yourself. The way you are now is what the Chimera Parasite did—there was no going back. Gustave then pulls the others to the side and he begins to whisper, “Did you bring the prototype netting with you?” he asks Julien. “Oui, should we use it on them? Are you sure we should be taking them back?” Julien asks, concerned about the hazards capturing you brings.

“We have to—it’s our only chance to get more samples of the Archæans and test our weaponry,” Olivier says, firm about what they should do with you. “What? But…but that’s your own teammate, Lion,” Gustave also protests, flicking his eyes to look at you before looking at Olivier again. “Don’t you realize what we could learn, Doc? We can catch up with this resurgence and fight them off before they spread further to the world,” Olivier argues. “That’s dangerous though—what the hell happens if we kill them, eh? We lose everything,” Julien also argues. Something in Gustave’s mind suddenly clicks, and for once, he seems to agree with something that Olivier’s suggested when it came to situations like these.

“You know what? You’re right…the scientific and medicinal aspect that could come from this is rather tempting,” Gustave says, nodding his head. Julien just sighs and grabs the small capsule that has an electric sort of netting inside that’s triggered via motion sensor. Handing it to Gustave carefully so as to not accidentally trigger it on each other, Julien just looks a little distraught. Your eyes are focused on Gustave, and you hear him whisper “I’m sorry” before throwing the capsule at you. Due to the motion, it activates and you’re forcibly captured then simultaneously electrocuted. A loud screech escapes you as you’re practically forced to be conscious while this happens.

Almost immediately, your body succumbs to shock due to the voltage and once he’s sure you’re passed out, Julien presses a button on his uniform to stop the current. Growling, clicking, and screeching begins to resound in the area, signaling for the trio to get out soon now that I’ve unintentionally alerted nearby Archæans. You’re then lifted up and carried towards the helicopter, swiftly extracted then transported to the REACT Headquarters, now located in the United States instead of the United Kingdom. The moment you woke up, you were tied up and had several DNA samples taken from you. You make a gentle purr, alerting the scientists with you and making them jump.

Refusing to appear as a threat, you don’t struggle against the restraints they put you in. “Gustave? What should we do now?” One of the scientists asks. Looking forward you can see a rather stern look in Gustave’s eyes at this moment; knowing that if he shows any weakness to what he’s doing to you, he won’t be able to continue his work as the head of Archæan Testing. “Take the samples you have so far and get out of the room—we’re going to test their new limits,” Gustave orders rather coldly. The scientists nod and step out of the room, taking the samples they have and distributing them to other researchers. The restraints on you are then released, and you have free roam to move.

This would only prove to be a mistake, as you’d take a sudden marksman round to the shoulder. Clearly in pain and taken aback, you screech so loudly in your throat that more of your “blood” spurts out of your open wound. You’re able to remain standing, only stumbling slightly. Timur’s the one to have made the shot on you, and through the scope of his OTs-14, you can see him glaring hard at you. He didn’t even consider you a comrade anymore—just a target dummy he had to shoot at. This seemed to be a durability test, testing your new body out. Looking down at your shoulder, you watch yourself regenerate slowly.

“Hit a more lethal area this time, Timur,” Gustave orders. Giving a nod, Timur steadies his aim towards your abdomen and fires another round into you. You’d wished he’d at least have the decency to let you hear his beloved Marksman rifle as it fired at you, but Timur had a suppressor on it to keep you from that satisfaction. You didn’t deserve that, and yet you couldn’t understand what’s caused him to turn on you so harshly. You fall over this time from the force, putting your hands on your abdomen to stop the bleeding. This shouldn’t be happening at all—this is so much worse than you thought you’d have it.

Days would then eventually turn to months, and you were forced to feed on other Archæans to replenish your energy due to no longer being near the Archæan source and having to take their nutrients for yourself. Everything felt so wrong. Your life turned upside down in an instant, and you’d become a little labrat and training dummy for the “greater good of the team” due to your regenerative capabilities. Greater good your fucking ass this was. As you remain there in a corner, slowly regenerating yourself in the darkened room, the sound of the door opening and someone walking in rings out.

You’ve stopped raising your head to look up at this point, already expecting a researcher, or someone else you’d once known. It was Gustave, and he knelt down next to you. “How are you feeling? Do you need anything?” He asks you softly, giving you a gentle smile behind his quarantine mask. You keep yourself away from looking at him, feeling tears prick at your eyes. Gustave would do this every single night after tests for the day would be over, showing you affection and giving you whatever you could’ve needed. And at first, you’d actually respond by pressing on a little button whenever he’d present it to you.

Nowadays, you just ignored Gustave’s presence. You thought you’d be able to trust your team with anyone that had the misfortune of becoming a Roach years back, but now that they have someone they can use? Many turned a blind eye, meanwhile others protested against what was happening to you. You’d been stabbed, shot, blown up, trapped, electrocuted—anything that was able to be used against an Archæan was first used against you. “Please stop ignoring me…” Gustave suddenly mumbled, breaking you from your thoughts. You simply growl at him, the vibrations so deep that he could feel them in the linoleum flooring.

“Please…you know I don’t like doing this to you. I didn’t think they’d end up putting me in charge of this unit,” Gustave says, gently reaching out and putting a hand on your shoulder. You just flinch away, looking up down at him with angry eyes filled with just as furious tears. He stays there on the floor, looking up at you with an apologetic gaze. It’s as if Gustave can understand what you’re trying to say—you never deserved any of this and if he was really sorry, he’d stop. But he’s too far in to stop, and the Archæans just keep coming and coming the more people they take to their trees. “Mon ami, I can’t just stop…you and I have the same ideals!” Gustave exclaims.

He looks exhausted now, almost like he’s had his own break despite the calm demeanor he usually masks himself with. You just growl even lower at him, keeping your distance desperately the more Gustave inches closer. He comes to his senses at some point, ”I…I’m so sorry…I should have never even agreed to do any of this months ago,” He begins, running a hand through his graying hair, “I don’t know what’s come over me…but I fear I’ve lost myself and hurt the one person I’d cared for the most.” The look in his eyes remains exhausted and apologetic. And yet…you can’t find yourself to sympathize with him at this moment.

If he didn’t want this…then why did he glare at you all the time? Not reacting this time, you simply turn away. Gustave’s talking to a brick wall at this point, and he sighs. “I’ll be back tomorrow with more nutrients for you…bonne nuit,” he says. You then watch him watch out, and the tears that have been teetering on whether or not to call finally spill down your face. If only you’d managed to get out of your apartment in time…if only you’d done something differently, then maybe things would have been better for you. Maybe you’d be out there, fighting Archæans instead of being one yourself.