I was a little sad when I was writing this chapter, because I just realized I'm halfway finished with this story. No worries, though. I still enjoyed writing it all the same! :) Enjoy! Don't forget to read and review!
DISCLAIMER: Only Audrey is mine.
Italics- Back to Krauser's POV
I sighed blissfully as the water ran down my body; on the way out of Salazar's throne room, I had managed to find an empty bathing room during our walk out of the tower itself. Krauser waited while I just cleaned the dirt and blood off myself, and changed into my new clothes. I hope I won't have to run around anymore, I thought, I just cleaned myself. The first thing I'm going to do when I get out of here is take a proper shower.
Stuffing my old clothes in my bag, I left the room and met up with Krauser again until we walked outside, and he wrapped his arm around me. Salazar was a little ways ahead of us, and he turned around to stare at us every now and then. "Come on, you two!" he snapped, "We're on a schedule here! Let's go!"
"Someone's in a cheerful mood tonight," I whispered sarcastically under my breath. Krauser laughed and then scoffed right after that.
"Leon killed his right hand," he replied, "I'd be pissed off, too."
"Good," I said, which elicited a surprised look from Krauser.
"Well, you've changed," he commented, "Since when do you care about Leon Kennedy?"
I looked up at him. "Since I realized he wasn't evil like you said he was," I responded, "He's really nice, Krauser. At least, a lot nicer than you said he was."
"He's going against everything Umbrella stands for. You know that."
Now's the time to ask about Umbrella, I told myself. "Look," I started, "I've got to be honest with you: I'm having doubts about our motives, especially Wesker's."
Krauser raised his eyebrows in questioning. "Why would you say that?" he asked, and I forced myself to continue.
"Well…Leon told me some things about Umbrella that don't match up to what you and Wesker said." I didn't add that Leon and I had had an argument over this matter.
"Like what?"
I went ahead and told him everything Leon had told me while we were waiting for Ashley. "You knew all about how shady Umbrella appeared to be, didn't you?" I asked.
At first, Krauser didn't say anything, which made me realize that Leon was indeed telling the truth. "I didn't bargain for this, you know," I added, "To put my life on the line and murder people to help a company that doesn't even deserve it." Then, the older man opened his mouth and finally spoke.
"Wesker said you would understand someday," he said, "Besides, you can't go anywhere now."
"Why not?" I demanded.
"Once you start working for Albert Wesker, you're stuck with him for life. Take it from me, kid; I pretty much indebted myself to him after he helped heal my arm."
"And what else has he done for you besides that?"
"Nothing yet. Once he seals the deal with Tricell, he'll be rewarding me handsomely. And you, too."
Ahh, Tricell. That company's name rang bells; that was why Wesker sent us on this mission in the first place: to get the master sample of Las Plagas to hand over in order to unite with that corporation, which was going under the alias of 'S' at the moment. Krauser had told me all about Wesker wanting to form the new Umbrella with Tricell's leader. But still. Wesker tricked me into working for him! What was I supposed to say to that?
"You're thinking of leaving, aren't you?" Krauser asked, stealing the words right out of my mouth. I just looked up at him.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, "But I don't agree with this new Umbrella anymore. Wesker's out of his mind to think that deadly viruses will change everything. I'm going to find a way out of this hell, and then I'm going home." More tears filled my eyes (why did I always have to cry when I made some life-altering decision?) as I began traveling solo through another passageway that Salazar had gone down before. But to my surprise, Krauser rested his hand on my arm, pinching my new blue jacket a little bit.
"Audrey," he started. I turned to face him.
"Yes?" I asked softly.
"You forgot something." I smiled weakly, noticing the way he was staring at my neck and his close proximity to me. My stomach dropped out from underneath me.
"What?"
"Wesker healed you, too. What would he think if you just bailed on him at the last minute?"
I tilted my neck to the side, exposing the scars that were still there from two months ago. "Wouldn't that be a loss?" I mumbled, "Trust me, Wesker has enough people helping him out with Umbrella and Tricell. He doesn't need me."
But Krauser then moved his hand from my arm down to my waist, and I gasped in surprise. "Jack," I whispered, reaching up to trace my finger across the scar that ran down his face. I wondered for a fleeting moment how he got it, but I knew he wouldn't tell me right away.
Closer. And even closer he approached me until our foreheads were practically touching each other. My heart began to race, and I was powerless to stop it. No! I thought, I'm leaving this place. Leaving Umbrella once and for all!
The mood became tense, and I found my gaze fixated on Krauser's lips. I moved my finger from his scar to where it crossed over his mouth. I was leaning in closer and closer until a shrill voice interrupted.
"Mister Krauser!" Salazar snapped, stomping over to us, "Miss Fagan! The ritual will go on without you if you don't hurry up! Don't you have to take Ashley back to the island?"
A while later…
When we all arrived at another tower after passing through a room containing a huge statue of Salazar himself (talk about narcissistic), Salazar turned to Krauser and me. "I can feel the American agent arriving. Take Ashley to the ritual room upstairs. I want a few words with Mr. Kennedy."
Without looking at me, Krauser marched over to Ashley and began to lead her away. As soon as she saw me stand next to him, her eyes widened in comprehension. "You traitor!" she hissed under her breath. I looked away, feeling my guilt increase tenfold.
"I knew I recognized you from somewhere!" she shouted, "And all this time, I thought you were our friend!"
"Just move," Krauser snapped at the President's daughter, "We don't have all day."
"I don't care!" she yelled, staring wild-eyed at me, "Audrey! How could you do this to me? To Leon? I trusted you! He trusted you!"
I lifted my face to meet her angry expression. "I'm sorry it's come to this," I whispered to her.
"Damn right you're sorry!" Ashley replied, "I'll never forgive you for this! You've been working for Saddler this whole time, haven't you?" I looked away again as the President's daughter continued to fume.
As we were moving away from Salazar and his bodyguard, we suddenly heard the Spaniard clap his hands and say, "So nice you could join us, Mister Scott Kennedy."
"You again!" Leon growled.
"The sacred rite that is about to begin at this tower will bestow the girl with magnificent power. She will join us, become one of us."
"This is no ritual! This is terrorism!"
"Isn't that a popular word these days? Not to worry. We've prepared a special ritual just for you." I wasn't sure what happened next, because the further we walked away, the more distant Salazar's whimpers of pain sounded. The sound of an elevator echoed around us as Leon cried, "Stop!" from down below. The door opened and Salazar, holding his bleeding hand in agony, glared at us.
"Get in!" he ordered, and Krauser let me go first before he dragged Ashley in after us. As we rode the lift to the top of the tower, Ashley continued to glare at me.
"Why, Audrey?" she asked, but she didn't yell; she sounded more disappointed than anything.
"I don't know," I answered.
"You don't know?"
"No."
"Hush, you two!" Salazar snapped, and the remaining bodyguard ushered us all out of the elevator and into another large room, where an altar was situated in the middle and some kind of Plagas plant pods hung on the walls behind it. A few monks waited for us and they began talking excitedly in Spanish.
"So, Fagan," Krauser whispered to me, "Do you still want to leave Umbrella after this?" Ashley glowered at me from the corner of her eye. I ignored her and stared up at Krauser.
"Yes," I said, "As soon as this mission is over." We turned our attention back to the altar and watched Salazar situate Ashley onto the altar. I seriously hoped there wouldn't be any blood. What I really wanted to do was stop the ritual altogether, actually. This was all wrong, and I realized I should have never agreed to do Saddler or Wesker's dirty work, now that I was beginning to see the consequences of my actions.
"Morir es vivir. Morir es vivir. Morir es vivir," the monks and Salazar chanted, all forming a circle around Ashley and the altar while Krauser and I watched from outside. While Salazar performed some kind of Plagas magic on the President's daughter, I found myself nodding off again, like I had in the maze. Next to me, Krauser wrapped his arm around me again and chuckled a little bit.
"Try to keep your head up, kid," he teased, "We can't have you falling asleep on us now." If he was angry with my decision to leave Umbrella, he did a pretty damn good job of hiding it.
Except I wasn't falling asleep; my mind was wandering off again, and the same frightening sensation I had experienced in the maze returned. It was not Las Plagas this time. I was sure it wasn't, because if it was, Leon and Ashley would be feeling the same way I did. Wesker's virus, I thought just before I felt my mind become twisted. I could feel a huge smile forming across my face at the scene in front of me. Just like in the car ride on the day I helped to kidnap Ashley, I felt a thrill of excitement run through my veins. There was no more guilt, and no more pain; it was just me and the virus acting as one.
More chanting from Salazar brought my attention back to the ritual. The eighth castellan stuck another needle into Ashley's neck, which I could only guess was more of Las Plagas. Her eyes turned red, like they had in the castle after the water room incident. "Morir es vivir," the zealots continued with renewed fervor, "Morir es vivir…"
"Isn't this great, kid?" Krauser asked from my left. I stared up at him, thinking of an appropriate answer, as more of the virus flowed to my brain. I found myself nodding vigorously.
"Mister Krauser!" Salazar slurred, facing us, "You and Miss Fagan can escort Ashley to the island. Lord Saddler will be waiting for you."
"Yes," Krauser replied, bowing slightly, and I bowed as well. We lifted Ashley off of the altar, climbed down to the floors below us, and made our way through the double doors on the other side, out of the tower. The whole time, my head pounded from the increasing influence of the virus.
Whew! I made it, Leon thought to himself after getting off the lift at the end of the tower. He had watched in anger as Salazar ran off after he had thrown his knife into the smaller man's hand. At least his adventures through the mines and the room with the large statue of Salazar hadn't been as strenuous.
"Have you found those girls you were traveling with yet, strangah?" the Merchant outside the exit to the tower asked as Leon tuned up his mine thrower and Broken Butterfly.
"Not yet," Leon sighed. Why am I even confiding in the Merchant? He thought. Although he had to admit that his discussion of Umbrella with Audrey left him feeling cold in the stomach. Why didn't she believe his story, especially after he had mentioned he was in the middle of it all? He also needed to find Ashley so that he could complete his mission and get her home safely. Why didn't any of these guys just give up? They were clearly taking beatings from Leon, yet they still continued to fight.
Leon entered the tower to immediately only find Salazar and his left hand standing in front of an altar. "Salazar!" he snapped, "Where are they?" I know he knows who I'm talking about.
Salazar turned to face him, apparently having fixed his hand in the time he had been making his way through the tower. "Ahh," he sighed triumphantly, "You just missed her. The ritual is over. She left with my men to an island. And Miss Fagan has joined them as well."
"What?" Leon cried. Damn it, he thought.
Salazar walked up a small flight of stairs onto the altar, threw his hands up into the air, and began calling to the large plant behind him. "I think it's time I pay my due respects towards your impressive and…stubborn will!" he announced, "Mister Kennedy…welcome!" Both he and his left hand stood still as the plant behind them wrapped its tentacles around them and lifted them into the air. With his trademark laugh, Salazar disappeared inside one of the pods while the left hand entered another one and emerged as a one-eyed monster with a ferocious mouth. Leon backed up a little bit, but a gate suddenly came slamming down to the ground, forcing him to fight this new creature in front of him.
"Monsters," Leon muttered under his breath, "I guess after this, there'll be one less to worry about." He took out his mine thrower and began trying to aim it at the eye of the head in front of him.
"I want you to suffer just like Ashley!" Salazar snapped, even though he made no move to attack at the moment. The mine Leon had launched onto the eye exploded, causing the left hand to bend its head down to the ground in order to recover. This left Salazar vulnerable to attacks, so Leon used the Broken Butterfly to shoot at the short man himself, who showed that he had fused with the plant. Quite a few times, Leon found that he had to dodge the head whenever it decided to crash onto the ledge he was standing on, so he just decided to stand all the way to the right by a ladder for the rest of the battle. When he ran out of magnum ammo, he switched to his rifle and used that instead, and with patience, he managed to defeat Ramon Salazar, the eighth castellan of the Salazar mansion and one of Saddler's expendable pawns, once and for all.
The plant disintegrated, clearing the double doors up ahead and destroying the spider Plagas that crawled around the bottom level. During the battle, Leon had not had time to collect all the items lying around and in the barrels, so he broke open everything and collected ammo, grenades, spinels, and first aid sprays. Through the double doors he went, and then he climbed down the wall and took an elevator to another lower floor. This is the end of the castle, he thought to himself, I've got to get to that island now.
Luckily for him, someone was waiting for him at the dock: a certain, mysterious woman in red who he had bonded with in Raccoon City six years ago. "Need a ride, handsome?" Ada Wong asked, smiling at Leon.
Leon's heart pounded in his chest; unless he was mistaken, there was something about Ada that made his stomach turn…in the best possibly way. "Uh huh," he stammered, gaping at her, "Okay." Ada smiled again and gunned the boat's engine to life.
My second boat ride back to the island wasn't nearly as harrowing as the first one; at least the rain had stopped. The temperatures dropped, but that didn't matter to me. Ashley, Audrey, and I were on our way to Saddler's island after Salazar's ritual, and I wondered what would happen when we got back. Audrey was sleeping, though how the hell she managed to get any sleep on this jostling boat was beyond me. Ashley was sitting up and rubbing her shoulders as she glared at me.
"Don't give me that look," I said to the President's daughter, "This will all be over before you know it." She scoffed and continued to gaze at the island ahead of us, which was growing larger the closer we got to it. I glanced down at Audrey again while she moved around in her sleep a little bit. Just like in the church, she was resting her head on my lap again, but this time, I wrapped one of my hands around her stomach and held her close so she wouldn't move around too much. Ashley stared at us in disgust, but I didn't give a damn.
Leaving Umbrella? I suddenly thought to myself, How can anyone even think about leaving Umbrella? Once you're there, you're there. Wesker doesn't let anyone leave. Where does Audrey get the idea that Wesker will just let her go? The idea just surprised me. Maybe, like Ada Wong, Audrey Fagan couldn't be trusted either, like Saddler said. Leon obviously had a huge influence on her, and I mean huge. He was always like that, though, even in South America.
I had to admit I was a little angry with her decision to leave Umbrella, regardless of the fact that it was unheard of. Why would anyone want to throw away a life that was always finding new ways to make the human race better? It was a pretty damn good lifestyle to me, so why shouldn't it be to anyone else?
"I don't know how I didn't see it before," Ashley mumbled to herself, breaking me out of my thoughts.
That was it. I glared at her and snapped, "All right, we get it! You know Audrey is a traitor! Now, get over it!"
"You…" she started, but instead she just rolled her eyes; she seemed to think I wasn't worth even yelling at, so we just dropped it.
Once again, Saddler was waiting for us when we arrived at the island. "Wake up," I said to Audrey, shaking her slightly. As I did that, she grabbed my wrist and squeezed it tightly, opening her eyes to reveal that they were bloodshot.
"My men will escort you to the prison," Saddler said to Ashley, and she glared at him silently as well as Audrey, a few of Saddler's soldiers, and I grabbed her and led her to said prison cell. We would figure out what to do with her after that. Out of habit, I glanced over my shoulder and spotted another boat arriving at this same island at the same time, and I felt doubt creep in my veins, which disappeared in the following seconds. There was nowhere else to go after this; someone would die here, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be any of us.