A/N: A oneshot that may develop into a potential story after a while. I wanted to write something Leon-centric, especially with all the chances the ending of "Operation Javier" offers. At the same time, after watching the cutscene when Manuela controls the virus and knows she's still human, I just had to write this. I'm kinda obsessed with T-Veronica now, and you will find out why in this oneshot xD. Enjoy!^^

Disclaimer: Apply the usual here. Copyright goes to Capcom.
Note: Michael Nash is my OC, so I own him.

Leon's mind had never wandered off like this.

The Amazonian landscape made him recall the recent events at Amparo. There was no denying that the Veronica virus was something that had to be eradicated, but what had happened with Manuela was beyond description. Like Alexia Ashford before her, Manuela Hidalgo had been treated with Veronica; but unlike her counterpart, Manuela had controlled it. She was still alive, ready to return to society, whilst Alexia had perished at its hands. Veronica was flowing through the girl's veins, granting her the life that she would've been denied.

Comparing the two situations, it was as if the virus had a will of its own.

Alexia spent fifteen years in cryogenic sleep, which does nothing more than to preserve the organism in the state prior to entering it. And like all living things do, it needed circumstances to survive through adaptation. That didn't happen with Alexia, according to what Chris told me. But Manuela, on the other hand…

Leon looked at the sleeping girl beside him and a smile slowly appeared on his face.

Manuela spent those fifteen years living, growing, changing: creating a habitat for the virus. It survived through the changes because of all the transplants, and Manuela lived with it. I guess that's why she survived. It seems like it doesn't only depend on the host, but on the virus as well.

Leon suddenly realized what that meant.

I may work with the government but as long as I'm able to, I won't let them take her. It's been three years and I haven't seen Sherry since the day they took her away from me. Dammit, they always want to use people as if they were nothing!

"What's that scowl for?"

Leon looked up at Krauser, who was staring at him intently. "I was just thinking… about what they'll do with Manuela once we get back to base."

"She's controlled the virus: another reason for the government to take her."

"Well, I won't let that happen," Leon stated, clenching his fist. "I won't fall for the same trick twice; like hell I will!" Anger seized hold for just a second: Leon knew better than to lose his cool.

"You mean like the girl in Raccoon?" asked Krauser. Leon nodded.

"It's ironic: I was forced to work for them to ensure her safety and I think I got her into more trouble. Dammit, it's been two years and I haven't heard a single thing about her," Leon said, bitter. "I don't even know where she is or… if she's still alive. G would've killed her if it wasn't for the vaccine, but I'm not too sure Nash and the others know what they're dealing with."

"And you do?" Leon perked his head up, glaring at Krauser, who smirked. "I know, I know: you did fight the thing first-hand."

"Like I said before… Manuela deserves to live." Leon looked down at the landscape again. "She's not meant to be held back: she's no… freak of nature. If she's still alive, it's because she's still human."

"You sure know how to get sentimental," Krauser scoffed.

"I'm not getting sentimental, Krauser!" Leon exclaimed in his defence. "I'm fully aware that the Veronica virus is a potential threat. William Birkin, Alexia, now Javier: it doesn't matter! They succumbed to what they couldn't control! But Manuela fought! She lived and grew, all the while with the virus in her body!" He sighed, raking a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, I… I think I got carried away."

"Tch, you idiot. You still don't catch a joke." Krauser shifted his injured arm, Leon staring at him with one cocked eyebrow. "There was this once that I, along with a three-man team, had to deal with this nutjob, an ex-SOCOM, who wanted to blow up an entire missile factory in Mexico. I'm not much of a diplomat," At this, both Leon and Krauser chuckled, "so I watched as my team negotiated with him. In the end, he lost it and killed himself. I hope I'm making my point clear enough."

Leon nodded again. "The trauma: he couldn't get over it."

"That's it. Quoting you, he 'succumbed to what he couldn't control'." Krauser's next look came hard, pointed. "So don't act like you know it better than me." He looked away. "You cocky bastard."

"I apologized, didn't I?" Leon claimed, smiling with a shake of his head. "And you still don't catch an apology, so we're even."

Krauser smirked one last time and then they fell into a comfortable silence.

Ten minutes later, they were back at the military base near the Colombian border, upstream of Rio Negro. As he woke Manuela up, Leon surveyed the whole team that was waiting for them. He clenched his jaw when he recognized Michael Nash, his superior and boss, among them. They were going to take Manuela into custody… but who had given them wind of Manuela's infection?

"¿Qué pasa?" Manuela asked as she rubbed her eyes.

"Hemos llegado. No te alejes de mí," Leon replied as he kept the girl behind him. When the helicopter touched down, with one last look, Krauser got down first as the medical crew approached him. Leon followed suit, very slowly, sliding an arm around Manuela's shoulders to keep her close. He could feel her tense, tremble as Michael Nash stepped forward.

"So this is the girl. She's infected with Veronica, so I see," he said with his typical soft, cold voice.

"Yes, sir." Leon stood firm, holding Nash's indifferent stare with a strong one of his own. "She needs to be tended to."

The corners of Nash's mouth twitched, then the smile came. "We've already made the preparations: she'll receive the fullest of attentions."

Leon took his chance to bite, no matter if it was his superior he was talking to. "Like you did with Sherry Birkin, Nash?"

That memory came up again: the day Nash himself had made him the offer to work with the government, the day he'd last seen Sherry. That was a personal grudge Leon would settle… but not yet.

Nash narrowed his eyes. "I think we settled that matter, Kennedy. Sherry Birkin is not to be brought up again. Like I told you, she's valuable: she can save lives."

"But I request-"

"You're in no position to do that-"

"-that Manuela Hidalgo is placed under vigilance and that she is granted the chance to lead her own life." Leon was not deterred by the furious, wide-eyed glare that Nash shot his way. "Sir."

Nash turned on his heel and went over to Captain Rogers, engaging in a private conversation with him. Manuela was shaking, gripping Leon's vest tightly in fear. Gesturing at the medical crew to wait, Krauser neared them, a frown on his face.

"Leon, what the hell are you doing?"

"What I know to do best: saving a life," Leon said, closing both arms around Manuela.

"Leon?" she called, her voice thin and frightened, as she rested her head against his chest. "What's going to happen to me?"

"It's going to be fine," he assured her, squeezing her slightly. "Duerme, amor, mientras los árboles te protegen de la oscuridad. That was your mother's lullaby, right?"

Manuela relaxed a bit in his arms, her voice acquiring a more tranquil tinge. "Thank you, Leon. But I'm still scared. It's selfish of me, but… I want to live what life I have left."

"And you will."

Nash finally came up to him, the frown having deepened into a scowl. "We're taking her with us, Kennedy, and there's nothing you can say about it."

Leon remained firm, but Manuela literally clung to him. "NO! Please, I don't want to go with you! Please don't! I want to live!"

"And you will, Manuela," replied Nash, his tone soft once more, as he grabbed hold of her wrist. "Now please, that arm of yours has to be treated."

"What are you going to do to her, Nash?" Leon caught a glimpse of Krauser's expression: surprise was drawn all over it.

"Stand down."

"What are you going to do to this girl?"

"I said STAND DOWN, Kennedy, and that's an order!"

Silence reigned, during which a pair of soldiers neared Leon and seized him by either arm, holding him in place. Manuela wouldn't let go of him, her bright eyes full of raw panic.

"Leon!"

"Please, Manuela!" he exclaimed, taking a small step towards her. "I can't do anything else for you… I'm sorry." Leon lowered his head, feeling with a knot in his stomach how Manuela let go of his vest and walked away with Nash. She seemed to have understood, because he did not hear her protests anymore. As he looked up, he and Manuela shared one last glance-

-and then he was the one paralyzed in fear.

Images, flashing through his mind; feelings and sensations, assailing his senses; somebody's mind, replacing his own. It was as if someone had hit the fast-forward button on a tape: images wouldn't stop appearing, images of once specific girl and what her life had been. Leon could hear voices and screams, all mingling together in one tremendously powerful cacophony; then, the voice of a girl suddenly reigned above them all.

Manuela.

There was one last pang of pain, and then the world went black.

[*]

When Leon opened his eyes once more, he was in a completely different place.

He soon realized he was in a hospital room, or sort of. There was just the equipment that kept track of his vitals to his right and a few other beds separated by curtains. He took a deep breath and heaved it out, glad to know he was somewhere he could consider safe. But then it hit him: what had just happened?

"About time you woke up."

Leon recognized that voice as Krauser's, and he actually found the man sitting on a chair to the left side of his bed. I must've been so alarmed I didn't even notice him. He had a quick look at Krauser, one full of anxiety.

"How… long was I out?"

"One week."

"Say what again?" Leon exclaimed, bolting up straight, but then a horrible headache settled in and he was forced to lie back down again. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "Crap, that hurts…"

"Yeah, one whole week," Krauser repeated. "I don't know what the hell got into ya, but you just collapsed: you'd gone into shock. We tried to snap you out of it, but you wouldn't respond. You scared the shit out of us. And you haven't really been out, as we'd say."

Leon frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked, puzzled.

"You've just woken up from coma."

Leon couldn't digest the information immediately. He felt a huge knot settle in his stomach, and he had to swallow hard when his tongue felt dry. He remained in disbelief for a couple of long seconds, trying to calm down. Shock? Coma?

It had just been like a comforting sleep, except without silence. The images he'd seen a week ago had haunted his dreams like a plague, all the feelings and all the voices.

"What happened, Leon?" asked Krauser, giving him the most serious look he'd ever received. Leon breathed in and out a few more times before replying. He had to grip his hand to keep it from shaking.

"I don't know. Images of Manuela's life started flashing before my eyes: the diagnosis of her sickness, the transplants, the sessions, the-the rehab… the pain. I could feel the needles pricking my skin, the scalpels cutting through! Even the virus: it was flowing, steady, giving me life!" Leon gripped his head with one hand. "Fifteen years of pain and inner conflict… I lived them myself in just seconds."

"Inner conflict?"

"Because she knew what her father was doing to her to keep her alive," said Leon. "Because she was one and many, and all the lives that had been taken in her place were her torment. Until she finally accepted it when… when she helped us fight Javier." A pause. "I don't know why, but I think that out of this connection, Manuela might've gotten a glimpse of my mind. And it's scary."

"Tell me about it: this is just too sci-fi," remarked Krauser with a chuckle. "But how could that happen? I mean, it looked as if Manuela could feel Javier's pain in his mutated state. You think there's a connection?"

Leon nodded. "It's possible. "Chris told me Alexia was able to control Veronica-infected organisms, but there were also normal ants. Alexia had the role of a queen, the ants and creatures merely under her command. Maybe the concept of 'hive-mind' does apply in this case."

"In the remote case you were infected, which isn't right now," interjected Krauser. Leon suddenly cursed himself for not asking any sooner.

"By the way, what happened to her? Where's Manuela?"

"Nash almost took her by force. She insisted on seeing you again and again, but there came a time when she just… She was acting real weird, Leon, and I have to say that even I didn't want her to come in. Not after what happened."

"I understand."

"At the same time, and speaking frankly, I'm a bit too glad they took her away. I don't think what happened was a coincidence."

"And what happened, exactly?"

"Well," Krauser began, "seconds after she calmed down, one of the guys from the med unit burst in, saying you had woken up, but that you'd gone batshit crazy. That was five days ago. Leon, we could hear you scream from the end of the hall."

"God…"

"I respected your decision of letting her go, but that made me change my mind. Sorry, Leon."

But he wasn't listening anymore. Instead, he was staring at his hands, recalling every image that had assailed his mind over and over again. They had been replaying like a broken record, and that explained the different screams he'd heard whilst witnessing their succession. What he didn't expect to hear, though, was that those screams were his.

Snapping out of his reverie, Leon rubbed his forearm, calming an itch, but he didn't feel his skin. His heart speeding up, he glanced down at it, then just had to stare. A dark green crust had begun to emerge, replacing his skin bit by bit, and it had already reached up to his elbow. It was horribly familiar, and he felt as the centre of a morbid bad joke.

Veronica had gotten him.

A/N: Explanation for all this mess? Here goes xD

Since we didn't really get to see a lot of injury-sustaining from both of our heroes back in SA, I decided to tweak things a little bit. Remember the part when Manuela's arm starts bleeding, right before the final fight with V-Complex? Well, the tweaking is this: since she's been dealing with the virus for fifteen years, it's fully developed, and a bit of blood from her wounded arm fell on one of Leon's wounds, thus granting the virus a passage inside Leon's body. I'm fully aware Veronica is only transfered through direct injection, but why not this way? That's why Manuela was able to stablish a mental link with him and literally pour her mind into his. At the same time, since the fifteen years haven't gone by so that Veronica could adapt to Leon's body, he would've mutated and died during his coma, but thanks to that mental link, Manuela can control the growth of the organism: that is, Veronica.

This is mere speculation for this story, but I do think it works. One more thing: this is NOT a Leon/Manuela story. Beware.

Translations:

-¿Qué pasa? What's going on?
-Tranquila. No te alejes de mí. Don't worry. Stay close to me.
-Duerme, amor, mientras los árboles te protegen de la oscuridad. Sleep, my love, as the trees above protect you from the dark. (From Hilda's (Manuela's) lullaby.

Reviews are appreciated!^^