Author's Note:
Normally don't do these beforehand, but just a heads-up - there's some heavy stuff in this chapter. Sexual content and whatnot. I'm sure you're all fine with it, but I just wanted to be courteous to those who are uncomfortable with it. If you'd like, you can skip ahead to the third subchapter, just past the two-thirds mark. Crtl F ' Leon had been trained ' for reference. Enjoy ^_^
OoO
Aurelleah's legs were burning. Her arms were burning. Her lungs were burning. Everything was burning. Oh, but that was alright. After all, it was raining again.
"Yaaaay," she wheezed woozily as she was partially soaked by yet another chilly downpour. Not completely, though. Leon was keeping some of the rain off, at least. She stood in the drizzle, trying to remember if Ada had told her to go left or right here.
Right. Maybe. She went right, under the assumption that the first guess was usually the correct one. She'd read that somewhere.
She went right. Then left. Then up the stairs, which sounded familiar. This all looked familiar. She was pretty sure she was going the right way.
Leon's weight was nearly unbearable, but she had no choice but to keep going. Krauser wasn't dead. She knew he wasn't. She could feel him coming for her, pain and fury and lust fueling his every step. If he caught her, he'd kill Leon, and then…
She closed her eyes as some of the images Salazar had forced into her head the previous night tried to resurface. She didn't want to think about that. She just wanted to get to the gate. Ada had told her to get to the gate. If she could, she'd be safe. Right?
Her greatest pain was knowing that she would be locking Luis out here with Krauser, but there was nothing she could do about that. If she stayed out here, they all died. If she went, she and Leon would survive, and maybe Leon would wake up in time to help Luis. Maybe.
Please, God, please don't let him die. Please.
She could feel water running down her face, and she knew it wasn't just the rain. She was so scared.
She reached the gate. She leaned against the scratchy stone wall to take some of Leon's weight off of her legs as her free hand came up to rifle through his pockets. Thankfully she'd positioned herself such that she could reach the pocket that held his insignias, which she pulled out and slid into the corresponding gaps in the stone mural. It was a beautiful old thing. She wished she had more time to appreciate it.
She shifted her stance and felt a twinge of pain shoot through her back as it was further compressed by Leon's weight. Holding him up felt like it was killing her, but she also knew she could do it longer if she needed to. Much longer. That herb that Luis had given her had done wonders.
Oh, but it hurt to think about Luis.
She got the last piece out of her own pocket, slid it in, and the gateway slid open. As it did, she heard heavy footsteps approaching from behind, and her heart stuttered painfully in her chest. He was here.
She didn't look back. Behind the gate was a heavy pair of modern metal doors, which she leaned into to push open. She stepped through, and the moment they closed behind her she checked for a lock.
Thank goodness, there was one, and it was a big, heavy one. She slid it home, and two seconds later, a shallow dent in the shape of a boot appeared in the door, which jolted in its frame.
"Te cogi!"
Aurelleah turned to see a lone Ganado coming at her. Without thinking, she reached up, grabbed one of Leon's guns, tugged it out of its holster, aimed it shakily at the oncoming enemy, and fired.
This was his handgun, and thankfully he'd kept the safety off. She shot the guy in the face, and when she didn't stop, she kept pulling the trigger. The Ganado reeled back as he was riddled with bullets. She just kept pulling the trigger again and again and hoped that her attacker ran out of fuel before the gun ran out of bullets. She didn't know how to reload.
Thankfully, the gun had had plenty of ammo in it. It took her eight bullets to get the guy, but he finally fell down and stopped trying to get back up. With the Ganado dead, she took a moment to look around the room. She was indoors, in an old, crummy storage room or something. It looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. The Ganado had fallen into a pile of old laundry, which was stinking up a storm.
She gasped in fear as Krauser slammed against the door, roaring in anger, and she knew that she wasn't safe yet…and neither was Leon.
She didn't know how long he'd need to recover, but it was longer than he'd have if Krauser broke through. If she just went ahead and kept carrying him through the halls, she probably wouldn't be able to put enough space between them to make a difference. Not to mention the fact that she'd get them both killed if she ran into more than one Ganado along the way.
Her mind was racing. She needed a way to keep Leon out of Krauser's grasp until he could recover. But if she hid him anywhere, Krauser would see that she wasn't carrying him and he'd search for Leon, and when he found him…when he found him…
Her eyes had landed on the dead Ganado lying in the laundry. It was wearing dark grey cargo pants, like Leon, as well as a heavy camo jacket, not like Leon. Its had a black beanie flattened to its skull that was slightly torn and blood-soaked, but still useable.
Aurelleah shook at the idea forming in her head, but the door behind her dented further with the force of Krauser's assault. He'd be through in minutes. She needed to act, and fast.
She laid Leon face down next to the Ganado, took its beanie off, and shoved it on Leon's head, then set to work on the rest. If this worked, she'd maybe be able to buy Leon the time he'd need to recover. If it didn't, she'd be leaving him for Krauser on a silver platter. All she could do was hope that Krauser would be blinded to his environment in his desire to catch up to her. If he came straight for her…
Krauser's intents were seeping through the doorway like poisonous gas, courtesy of his dominant Plaga. She could feel it, and by extent, him. All the things he would do to her.
Tears pricked her eyes again, and she wiped them away as she squatted to shoulder her burden. If Krauser came straight for her, then Leon might live. Luis might live. Ashley might live. Whatever else happened didn't matter. They did.
She believed that. She truly did.
But she was still afraid.
Krauser flung himself into the door over and over and over. It was the only thing keeping him from Leon. It was the only thing keeping him from her.
He'd woken up from the explosion just in time to avoid the bigger one, rolling off the tower under the assumption that falling fifty feet would be less damaging to him than an explosion strong enough to reduce stone to powder. It had still hurt, but it hadn't been lethal.
His Plaga was being pushed to its limit. He could feel it frantically, yet sluggishly mending the damage done to his body by Leon's little ploy. He could also feel it slumping against his mind, its will melding madly with his own. And just then, his will was to get revenge…and satisfaction. On her. Aurelleah.
He could feel her behind this door. Weak. Afraid. But still lively. Still defiant.
He bashed into the door again, frustration pouring through his mouth in a vocal stream as he sensed her departure. She was running again.
That was fine. Let her run. He'd catch her. He kept up his assault on the door, sending his battered Plaga against it with all of his remaining strength. And finally, some scant yet agonizing minutes later, the lock gave way and he forced himself into the room.
He barely spared a glance for the dead Ganado lying face down on the ground, beelining for the door his prey had taken. He knew she wouldn't have gone far, not carrying Leon the way she was. The girl was intent on saving her protector. He could respect that. He admired that strength. He supposed he could spare her some small mercy – he'd knock her out. After he'd had his way with her, but before killing Leon. Making her watch would be unnecessary.
All of this is unnecessary. Leon isn't your enemy. Stop.
He was gaining on her. He could feel it, and his excitement grew, amplified by his Plaga. His emotions were in a positive feedback loop, his impulses being fed to his Plaga, which fed them back to him before he bounced them back to his Plaga again. His own fervor was washing over him again and again in gentle waves, and it was steadily becoming too great to bear. If he didn't find an outlet for this, he felt quite certain that his heart would burst in his chest.
It's out of control. It's killing you. Stop.
He couldn't stop. Not when he was so close. He staggered down the hall, and as he rounded the next corner, he saw her. She was in an elevator, hunched and quavering beneath the weight of the grown man draped over her shoulders.
She spotted her hunter coming and hit the button. The doors began closing, and he leaned forward into a sprint in an attempt to catch them before they shut. He missed, but no matter; he didn't need them.
He thrust a fist through the outer doors and pried them open. The elevator sank below some twenty feet before stopping, and he jumped down, slowing his descent with the cables before landing.
His boots crashed down on the roof, and he felt a harsh little sliver of fear shoot through his chest. He pondered this for a moment, then realized with sick elation that it was her fear. She was afraid of him. That was good. She should be.
Stop.
He wrenched the hatch off the roof, dropped down into the lift, and saw that she'd hit the emergency button on the elevator, locking it down in an attempt to stop him. More fool her. He stepped off the lift and looked around. They were in a small warehouse, it seemed, and a stairwell on the opposite side led back up to the surface. But that wasn't important just then. What was important was Aurelleah, who was shuffling away under Leon's weight just halfway across the room.
Half a dozen cries of anger rang out as the Ganados on guard duty down here took note of her, and furious disgust swept over him. He didn't want an audience. All he wanted was to be alone with her. That was all. What that too much to ask?
Yes.
No, he decided, it wasn't. The Ganados swarmed towards her, and Krauser shook off the last of his pain and propelled himself towards them.
They sensed the anger from his Plaga and halted, looking at him fretfully, but it didn't matter. He took them all apart in a matter of moments. His Plaga had retracted its blade, returning his arm more or less to normal, but he still had his knife. He thrust it smoothly through the Plagas at their cores, slicing them up inside their hosts. As each one died, he flung them away into the shadowy corners of the room. Alone with her. That was all he wanted. And he would have it.
She'd reached the base of the stairs, but as she did, she turned around and looked at him. He could feel her terror and exhaustion. She'd reached the end of her rope. She dropped Leon and began crawling up the stairs, too tired to even stay upright.
Krauser didn't want to wait anymore. He didn't walk over to her. He shot across the room as silently and swiftly as a falcon on the wing. She didn't even gain the fifth step before he wrapped a hand around her ankle to halt her progress.
She spasmed with fear and her arms gave out. She fell over onto her side, and he reached up and grabbed the back of her shirt to pull her in. He wrapped an arm around her waist from behind, pulling her back against him and sighing in sheer bliss.
Finally, her body in his control. Finally, her warm little form pressed up against his. He'd waited too long for this…but maybe that was for the best. Delayed gratification was always so much more satisfying, after all.
He stepped back from the stairs and spotted a few crates he could make use of. A bed would be better, but who the hell knew where he could find one at this late hour? No, any surface of adequate height would have to do. The crates were fine.
He spared a glance downward to make sure Leon was still thoroughly unconscious, and what he saw shocked him. Lying in a heap at the base of the stairs was not Leon, but a dead Ganado. What…?
Then he realized – the corpse he'd walked past just inside the gateway door. It had been wearing a black beanie and a jacket, effectively hiding its clothing and features. Aurelleah must have hidden Leon's weapons in the laundry pile, put the Ganado's outer apparel on him, and picked her kill up to throw her hunter for a loop. And, once again, he'd fallen for it.
This time he felt no frustration. His delight at finally having her was too great for that. Instead he rumbled with laughter, and he felt her quivering deepen into real shaking. He could feel her fear burning inside her like a nice, toasty fire. It warmed him. He liked it. "You cunning little…Leon's back up there, just inside the gateway, isn't he?"
"Please…"
His lips quirked up into a smile, and he leaned down to brush them over her ear. "Please, what?"
She cringed away from him and began struggling fitfully – the worst possible thing she could have done. Because he knew exactly what she was asking for, exactly what she didn't want him to do, and the way she was now writhing against his crotch was not helping her at all.
He held her tightly against him as he made his way over to the crates, enjoying the friction. He'd been at half-mast for a while now, pumped up on the thrill of combat and impending consummation, but this was enough to really rouse him. He let go of her, turned her around before she could run, and pulled her hips flush against his.
He tipped his head back and groaned as he felt his stiff, sensitive member press into her warmth through their clothing, and the small, whimpering sob she let out when she felt it did nothing to dissuade him. Oh, this was going to be good.
Stop.
He was finally going to satisfy himself. Get revenge for all the times she'd played him for a fool.
She was only trying to survive. She did nothing wrong. She doesn't deserve this.
He slid a hand up the back of her shirt, smoothing a palm up the warm expanse of her back - her skin was so damn soft - and her arms came up to try and push herself away from him, or perhaps him off of her. She was so weak. He barely felt it. He liked that she was trying, though. He ground against her, and she whimpered again. "Please…please don't…please…"
He growled low in his chest, lifted her up and set her on the crate, bent down, and captured her mouth in a kiss.
Oh, this was excellent. Her lips were slightly dry, but they were softer than his, and relativity was all that mattered. Her size, relative to him, for instance. She was so small.
He kissed her, wrapping his left hand around her neck for control, savoring the use of the limb. The power in it. The absolute, perfect power he had over her. Because that was what this was about – power. She was strong, yes. Very strong. She'd survived so much, fought so hard, escaped over and over again. But relative to him, she was as weak as a kitten. Relative to her…he was a god.
He groaned into her mouth and slipped his right hand down to his waistband, quickly undoing his fly and reaching inside to grab his throbbing shaft. He stroked it, squeezed it gently, getting it ready for her. Really, that was unnecessary, though. He was more than ready. The real question was – was she?
He let go of her neck and reached down to the band of her pants, intent on finding out. But as he grasped it, that voice cut cleanly and calmly through the soft waves of lust rolling through his body and mind, and it said,
If you do this, there's no coming back from it. The man you were, the man you've always been, will be gone. And it won't be the Plaga's fault, or Wesker's, or Leon's. It will be yours, and only yours.
He slid his hand back up to her waist, gripping it firmly, and slid his face into the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply. This…didn't matter. It didn't matter that much. It wouldn't change him.
Yes it will, because it will change her. She'll never recover from this. You're wounding her in a way that will leave her scarred for the rest of her life. Even if the worst of the pain fades away, she'll still be crippled. And you know how that feels.
He growled, tightening his grip until her hands came down in an attempt to loosen it. A sound of pain escaped her, but he didn't relax his hold. She deserved it. She deserved this. All the ways she'd humiliated him, all the damages she'd done to him; didn't she deserve this?
How could she, when you were the one that dragged her into this? She was defending herself. She always has been. You are in the wrong here, not her.
But he wanted her.
She doesn't want you.
He latched onto her neck, pressing rough kisses to the column of her throat and eliciting a gasp from her. His fingers loosened and began firmly massaging her hips, and after a minute of this, her breathing deepened from hitching sobs to quick, deep gasps. He nipped softly at her neck, and the hint of a moan escaped her mouth. He could feel the vibration of it through his lips. She would want him. He could make her want him. He knew he could.
That will only make the damage worse.
He reached down and grabbed her legs, pulling her forward and nestling between her soft, warm thighs. He wanted to feel them bare, wrapped around his hips as he rutted into her heat. He wanted to feel her thrusting her own tiny hips against him, helplessly trapped in the throes of her lust. He wanted to feel her tighten around him in pleasure as he shot his seed deep into her perfect little body.
You want to rape her.
Yes. He did. Very much so.
You can. No one's stopping you.
But you'll die inside the moment you do.
He groaned, pulling back and struggling to clear his head. He'd never felt like this, not once in his life. This doubt, this inability to act on what he knew was right...was this what it was like, being a slave to one's impulses?
Yes, that's exactly what this was. Somehow, his discipline – his iron will – had deserted him, leaving him in the grip of raw desire.
This is hell, he realized in biologically drugged horror. This weakness. This utter weakness of the self. This is hell.
His Plaga squealed confusedly in his head as he forced himself to turn away from the girl, and he heard the sound for what it was. It was the sound of an animal, a living mass of impulse, and it was wrapped so tightly around him that he couldn't tell where his own desires began and the parasite's ended.
He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists and tried to keep himself together, even as he felt himself tearing apart at the seams. The Plaga reflected the conscience of it's host. He knew that. God damn it all, when had his conscience become so fucked up?
He took another full step away from her, and he heard her step off the crate towards him. He felt her hands clutched feebly at the back of his pants in an effort to keep him from moving away, and he froze on the spot.
"Please…" she begged, voice high and scared. "Please, don't kill them. Please, I'll do anything. I…"
He tensed. She thought he was leaving her behind to go back and kill Leon and Luis. And in an effort to stop him…
Oh, fuck all.
He turned around, and as he did so she wrapped her arms around him. She was shaking violently, her fear and despair quite palpable in the air; but in spite of this, she began running her trembling fingers up and down his bare back. Her face came forward, and she gently nuzzled his chest with the tip of her nose.
"I'll be good," she said quietly, despairingly. She placed a soft kiss on his skin. "I'll…do anything. Please."
His hips bucked against hers, desperately seeking friction and warmth, and he groaned in combined pain and pleasure. How long had it been since a girl had touched him like this? A normal girl, young and pretty and full of life?
He wanted to let her continue. He wanted to let her drop to her knees and take his cock in her mouth, let her pleasure him, lift her up, bury himself in her, fuck her until she came, screaming his name. And he could. He could even pretend she wanted it. He was willing to bet she was already slick. Couldn't he feel it, that gentle river of unwanted lust pooling in her belly, broadcast by her own Plaga?
Yes, he was certain he could.
But he knew better. He couldn't let this happen.
He wrapped his hands around her wrists – so thin, he could snap them effortlessly – and pushed them away. He stepped forward, pressing her back onto the crate, and braced his hands on either side of her, hunching over her as he caged her in.
He heard the high whistling of her breath in her constricted throat, and just faintly sensed the frantic pattering of her strong, fragile heart. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensation for a moment longer – the sensation of being close to her.
He wouldn't be able to allow it again.
He stepped back, opening his eyes, and he felt tired. Very, very tired. He really had lost a lot of blood in that fight.
She was staring at him, wide-eyed and flushed, and he held her gaze long enough to say, "I'm sorry. I…I'll leave you alone now. Bye."
He turned away and found himself staring down the black eye of a short-barreled shotgun. Fluttering crimson fabric swayed in the blurred background of his near sight. Ada, it seemed, had managed to track him down.
His Plaga's fury at seeing her reared up in him, but Krauser knew that if he let it take him over again, he'd have to deal with that terrible helplessness again. The strength of the Plaga came at the cost of weakness of the soul, and he wasn't willing to make that trade, whatever the circumstance. He refocused his eyes on her own, black as the barrel he'd been staring down, and glared at her, daring her to pull the trigger as the parasite within him butted against his own resolve. It did not break through. For the moment - however brief it was - he was in charge once more.
Behind him, Aurelleah stood from her seat again, stepped around, saw Ada, and gasped.
He expected her to slink away and hide behind her rescuer. Maybe to run back to the elevator, try to get back up to Leon. Hell, he wouldn't have been surprised if she straight up encouraged Ada to shoot him. So when she stepped forward, hand reaching out tentatively as she said, "Wait Ada, please, don't shoot," it didn't register with him at all.
He had to work those words over in his mind several times, brows creasing as their meaning finally hit home. She was asking Ada not to shoot him. She wanted the woman to spare him. But…why?
Ada just clicked her tongue and said, "Miss Graham, while I can appreciate the self-restraint he just showed, I can't bring myself to believe that it will extend beyond you. If I were to let him go, he would inevitably go after your guardians again. He has his orders, you know."
He felt Aurelleah looking at him, and he slid his gaze sideways without turning his head, catching her eye. He hadn't actually looked her in the face during their brief interaction, and he was discomforted to see the tears there, the lingering pain.
But she seemed intent on shoving her distress aside. "Please," she asked meekly. "If we let you go, will you leave us alone? You used to be Leon's friend, right? He doesn't want to kill you. I know he doesn't. Please, just let us go?"
He shuddered, and he remembered once again that moment, earlier, when Leon had caught him off guard in that building. Then, as now, he'd been faced with the black barrel of a shotgun, and that one could have done a fair fucking bit of damage to him. But Leon's finger had stalled on the trigger, and he'd seen unmistakable hesitation in his old comrade's eyes. Krauser had led enough men in battle to know that look – it was the look of a man who didn't want to kill his enemy.
But fuck all, he had his orders. Wesker had told him to kill Leon. He'd told him to bring Aurelleah back to him, too, for that matter. And Wesker was his commander, now.
His inner reptile replied as coldly as he'd ever heard it, and Krauser shuddered. Wesker can rot in hell. The Plaga may have taken advantage of your weakness to control you, but that weakness was seeded by him. He mishandled you, would have made you a slave to your own desires, whatever they may have been. Did he not encourage your pursuit of the girl?
Albert Wesker is an unfit commander. Find a new one, or rule yourself.
He closed his eyes. He couldn't keep doing this.
Silence hung in the air for at least a minute, no one sure of what to do. Finally, Krauser sensed movement, and he opened his eyes to see the shotgun being lowered as Aurelleah pressed down on the barrel.
He looked at her tiredly. "Why?" He asked.
"I just don't want to watch anyone else die," she said.
Ah. He could hear the exhaustion underlying those words. She was tired, too, if only of death.
Though, for that matter, she was probably pretty damn exhausted physically, too. Poor thing had been through hell and back in the last few days.
He looked to Ada, who was staring at him with all the emotional gusto of the snake he'd taken her for, and she said, "I'm reporting you dead to Wesker. I'd recommend you take advantage of this. If I see you again, under any circumstances, I will kill you."
He didn't believe her. She was undoubtedly planning to kill him anyways. She just didn't want to scar the girl by doing it in front of her.
He threw his head back in a wide yawn and went over to a shadowy corner of the room, kicking a dead Ganado out of the way as he did so. "Fine. Bitch."
"That's rude," Aurelleah said.
He winced. "Sorry. Force of habit. Now get lost. I need a nap."
"Hmph." Ada put her shotgun away and looked down at Aurelleah. Then she jerked her head in the direction of the elevator and said, "I'm going to go wake Leon up. He'll be along shortly."
And she turned to leave.
Krauser stared at Aurelleah, who was now standing under a dim, yellow light looking lost. She didn't seem to know what to do, so she just sat down in the middle of the floor, staring after Ada. Looked like she was waiting for Leon.
Krauser sat against the wall, eyes stinging, and he began to really feel his injuries. Yeah, he was in bad shape. He'd need time to recover. Still, he honestly couldn't say that he regretted any of these wounds. That battle with Leon had been the finest of his life. That was one of those memories he'd pull out when he was feeling cold, just to warm himself back up.
His eyes were drifting closed, but he forced them open. He'd probably never be seeing this girl again. She was pretty, even war-torn as she was. He'd enjoy the sight until it was gone.
Drifting on the edge of sleep, body a mass of pain and injury, Krauser watched her from the darkness. Eventually Leon and Luis showed up again, sans Ada, and took the girl away. They didn't see him from where he was, and she did not tell them he was there. She just looked back in his direction one final time before walking away.
She looked back. She'll remember you. And she'll remember what you didn't do.
He supposed that was enough. He closed his eyes and let his rest take him.
Leon had been trained for a lot, first in the police academy, then later under STRATCOM. He knew more combat styles than the average civilian could name, for instance. He knew how to evade and disable the finest security systems money could buy. His first aid skills were top notch, and he had learned in conditions both lethal and controlled how to function through pain, injury, and in the total absence of perceivable ability to win.
But he'd never been revived from a knockout with smelling salts before, and it was hands-down one of the rudest experiences of his life.
He gagged and reeled away from the smell under his nose, blinking open his already-watering eyes to see Ada standing up and moving away.
He groaned, trying to string some words together – Wait, where am I? Perhaps, or maybe, Hold on, what happened? But sadly, he failed to manage so much as a syllable in English before she slipped through the remains of a heavy iron door that looked to have been bashed in by some incredible force.
He forced himself into a sitting position, wincing as his head started to throb. He raised a hand to it and felt an uncomfortable warmth smothering his cranium. Bandages, maybe?
No. It was a beanie. He pulled it off, brow furrowing in confusion, and noticed that he was also wearing a camo jacket that definitely didn't belong to him. He wasn't in any kind of a care facility. He looked to have been lying down on a pile of dirty laundry beside an open door. What the hell was going on here?
He fumbled his canteen off his hip and took a quick swig in an attempt to clear his mind. Damn, this sucked. Finally he felt about ready to talk, and said, "Augh…Elleah…Luis? What happened…?"
He received no reply, none at all, and his head began twisting as he took in the full room to find that he was alone.
For a moment, panic threatened to envelope him, and he had to really concentrate to shove it away. There was no need to panic. He just needed to remember what had happened before he'd lost consciousness.
He reached back for the first thing he could remember – fighting that giant monster in the caves. U-3. Was he still in the caves?
No. They'd beaten that one and gotten out. Then they'd fought a bunch of Ganados. Then…that plant Luis had found. They'd eaten it. Gotten a lot of energy from it. Then they'd entered the ruins.
Krauser. He'd knocked out Luis, and they'd fought.
Leon racked his brain furiously, trying to remember the end of the fight. How had it happened? He'd won, surely? If he hadn't, he'd be dead. He'd gotten past all the ambushes, the drones, made it to the top of the tower, and Krauser had transformed. Then the door had locked down. And then—
Then nothing. Leon couldn't remember. That last part of the fight had moved too quickly for him, and however he'd been knocked out, it had rendered the entire episode a blur to him. He didn't know how he'd come to be here.
That was more alarming to him than anything. If he didn't know where he was or how he'd gotten here, he had no way to find Aurelleah or Luis. And how long had he been out, anyway? Minutes? Hours? The girls didn't have much time left. Please, God, let it have been minutes.
He felt a spike of relief as Ada reappeared in the doorway, and he asked, "Where's Aurelleah?"
"Downstairs," Ada replied shortly. "She can't get back up here. She jammed up the elevator to try to prevent her pursuer backtracking and killing you while you were unconscious. Bless her heart."
"Pursuer?" Then he realized who she was talking about. "Wait - Krauser? Shit. Shit. Where—"
Ada held up a calming hand, and he paused to listen, even as his nerves started jumping. He seemed to remember something about Krauser and Elleah, and a reason why he couldn't let him near her. Had he threatened to rape her? No, that had been Salazar, hadn't it?
"Krauser isn't an immediate threat to the girl, or anyone else for that matter. At least, I hope that's true. Hard to say. But she'll be alright for a minute or two, I'm sure. Now then, I suppose you'll want to know what happened?"
Leon calmed somewhat. If Ada said Aurelleah was safe for the moment, she was probably safe. He nodded. "But first off, where's Luis? Did anything happen to him?"
Ada pulled out the bottle of smelling salts and tossed them to him. It was his own vial. "He'll be along shortly. Now then, I have places to be, so I'll keep this short and simple. I hacked one of Krauser's drones and was using it to observe the fight. You pulled the pins on Krauser's grenades, and the ensuing explosion knocked both of you out. This was problematic, as he'd placed timed charges all around the side of the tower to ensure your death, even in the event of his defeat."
Leon remembered one of the drones he'd been dealing with suddenly going on the fritz and flying off. That must have been her. Good deal he hadn't shot it.
He could guess the rest of the story, and tried not to feel embarrassed. "Let me guess, you showed up at the last second and dragged my ass out of there?" He rubbed his temples.
She huffed. "No, actually. I was not near enough to be of assistance at the time. I recruited Aurelleah, helped her hack the security door on the tower, and she picked you up and carried you to safety. Quite the thrill to watch – she cleared the tower with only eight seconds to spare. Honestly, if it had been me, I would have dropped you and ran."
Leon's jaw dropped. "What? She…no way. I'm twice her weight."
"Fireman's carry. And perfectly executed, too. She'll definitely need some chiropractic work after this little adventure, though."
Leon processed this. Aurelleah had picked him up and carried him out of a tower that had been set to detonate. That had to have taken guts, especially given who he'd been fighting.
"And Krauser?" He asked, trying to piece the rest of the story together.
Ada looked down at her watch, giving Leon the sense that she was eager to be gone. He wouldn't get much more out of her. "Was only knocked out for a minute or so. After that, he went after you two. Aurelleah had taken the last insignia for the door from him before he woke up, and managed to open it before he reached her. Then, if I'm not mistaken, she killed the Ganado standing guard in here, put its beanie and jacket on you, left you facedown in the laundry pile, and picked the corpse up before Krauser could break down the door. She knew that if she left you behind, Krauser would kill you. She made him think she still had you, and prompted him to chase her in order to give you time to recover. As for the rest…you'll have to ask her. Oh, good, the doctor is here. I'll leave you two to it, then. I think your weapons are in the laundry pile, by the way."
As Luis crawled in the door, looking about as good as Leon felt, Ada stepped out past him. He looked like he wanted to stop her, but didn't quite dare. She pulled out her hookshot, and without further ado, departed.
Leon turned and started rifling through the laundry, which he could smell even through the remnant odor of the salts. It was bad. Sure enough, his attaché case, Striker, Butterfly, and Red had all been hidden under a couple layers of clothing.
He put these all back on and stood up. "We need to go," he said.
"Where is Aurelleah?" Luis asked, and Leon thought there was a hint of accusation in his tone.
Normally he might react somewhat defensively to this, but he didn't really have a leg to stand on here. He'd let himself be overcome by Krauser, and Elleah had had to intervene to keep him from dying…again. "This way," he said, and started off down the hall.
"So what the hell happened?" Luis asked, frustrated. "I remember our snack break, but everything after that is pretty much a blank."
Leon started explaining it to him. As Ada had mentioned, the elevator was locked up, but the doors had been wrenched open. A hatch at the bottom was open, so they grabbed onto the cables slid down as Leon described what Ada had told him, up to the part about her dressing him up and leading Krauser on a chase. He'd prefer to get that part straight from the horse's mouth.
They got to the bottom and stepped out of the elevator, spotting Aurelleah almost at once. She was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, and as she saw them, she got to her feet.
They ran over to her, and both ended up looming over her, asking if she was alright.
"Aurelleah, are you okay?"
"Where is Krauser? Did he hurt you?"
"Were you injured in the explosion?"
"Is your arm okay? Your back? Is anything hurt?"
She looked back and forth between them dazedly, then replied. "I'm fine. Are you two okay?"
Luis ran a hand over her hair. If he'd run it through, his fingers would have gotten tangled at once. "Mi cadenza, you need to stop worrying about us so much. We are fine. What happened to you?"
She shrugged, then turned in the direction of the stairs. "Walk and talk? We need to get going."
Leon shook his head and smiled a bit, partly amused, partly rueful. She was really getting used to this. "Yeah, alright. Elleah, Ada told me about you carrying me out of the tower and getting through the gate. What happened after that?"
Just before they took off, she turned and looked back towards a shadowy corner of the room. The expression on her face was very strange. It was only for a moment, though, then she turned and started towards a stairwell leading up to the surface.
A dead Ganado lay at the bottom of it, and she nudged this with her toe. "This guy was just inside the door. I used your gun to kill him. But Krauser was banging on the door, and I knew it wouldn't take him long to get through, and I knew he'd kill you the second he caught you."
They started up the stairs after Leon spent a moment examining the dead Ganado. It had half a dozen bullet wounds on its face. Not bad, even if it had been point-blank range.
Elleah continued. "If he'd seen me running away without you, he'd have known out that I'd left you behind. But I knew I couldn't get you away. So I put some of the Ganado's clothes on you to hide you, left you lying in the laundry, and picked up the corpse instead. Krauser saw me carrying it and thought it was you. He came after me."
So Ada's guess had been right. Elleah had put her life on the line to try to save him from Krauser.
Halfway up the stairs, Leon stopped, and Elleah turned back to look at him questioningly. He wasn't really much one for close contact, but he didn't really know how to say what he was thinking, so he figured an action would have to do. He stepped forward and wrapped an arm around her, drawing her in for a quick hug.
She was clearly surprised, but she hugged him back. "You're one hell of a girl, Elleah. Thank you for doing that."
He let go of her, and she shrugged awkwardly. "No problem. But, uh, for the record, you weight a lot."
He chuckled. "About one-sixty last time I checked. Fair bit more with all my equipment. Where'd you learn to do a fireman's carry?"
"YouTube. Ashley and I practiced on each other one day for fun."
"Yeah," Leon said bemusedly. "Because that's what girls do for fun, right? Practice fireman's carries on each other?"
"Evidently," Luis said. "Aurelleah, are you sure you're alright? Krauser surely caught up to you, yes? What happened?"
She got quiet, and her eyes darted away. She started back up the stairs. "Um…nothing."
Leon's mind was dragged back to the fight. Something was trying to surface. Something about—
I want her alive. Pretty little thing, isn't she? And so fucking small. I can only imagine how tight she'll be—
Leon's gorge clenched. Oh, God. How long had she been alone with him? Long enough for him to…?
"Elleah," he asked softly. They were nearing the top of the stairs. They'd be back in the fight soon, and wouldn't have any time to talk about this. "Are you alright? Did he do anything to you?"
Luis tensed beside him as he realized what Leon was asking.
Elleah just sighed. "No, he didn't. He wanted to, but he didn't. But…"
She stopped, and Leon could see that she was trying to piece together whatever it was she wanted to say. He waited. Whatever it was, it was probably important.
Finally, she figured it out. "Leon, I hate these things. These Plagas. They change people, even the Dominant ones do. They're monsters, and they turn people in monsters, too."
She sounded near tears, and Leon tried to figure out what she meant by this, exactly. Was she talking about Krauser? Did she believe his Plaga had influenced his behavior?
Luis said quietly, "The Dominant Plagas reflect the consciences of their hosts. They don't change them—"
"They do," Aurelleah insisted, cutting him off. "They might not do the same thing the recessive ones do, but they change people. Even if it's only in the power they give them, they change them. But I think it's more than that. I think they…I don't know. Amplify the bad stuff?"
Luis frowned thoughtfully at this. "You know, I suppose it is possible that the Plagas, being a variety of animal themselves, could have an effect on animalistic traits in their hosts. I never got the chance to study it, since there were so few Dominant Plaga wielders, but it doesn't sound so far-fetched."
Elleah looked relieved to have that vote of confidence. Leon thought about that. Krauser had been an extremely disciplined man when Leon had met him. Discipline was something animals totally lacked. Was it possible that a stark degradation of his self-control had somehow destabilized him?
Well, it didn't matter now. "Is he dead?" Leon asked.
Aurelleah just shrugged. Maybe Ada had taken care of him. If she had, he was probably dead, or at least too injured to be dangerous. Leon would keep an eye out, but he got the feeling that threat, at least, was over.
His radio beeped on his hip, and he sighed. Still plenty of threats abounding.
He picked it up. Naturally, Saddler's voice came out of the speaker. "So, it seems you killed Krauser, too. How should I return my appreciation?"
Leon wasn't going to correct him about the circumstances surrounding Krauser's removal from the field. It did seem odd that Saddler seemed to be overtly happy about Krauser's death, though. Had he found out that the man was working with Umbrella?
"Tch, what are you talking about?" Leon asked, crossing his fingers for some valuable intel. "I thought he was with you."
"Hmph. What are you talking about? Did you really think I'd trust an American?"
He laughed as though this was the most preposterous thing he'd ever heard, and Luis said quietly, "Yeah, Saddler's a bit racist. Honestly, most of these guys are. Were."
Saddler did not hear him. "To tell you the truth, I was contemplating how to get rid of him. But thanks to you, that's no longer necessary."
Hm. Maybe it would be better if Krauser had survived. The more enemies Saddler had, the better.
Strangely, Leon felt himself getting angry at Saddler, and wondered why that was. He quickly tracked the emotion down and uncovered its roots. If there was one thing he remembered about Krauser, it was his sense of loyalty and patriotism. He served with honor and dignity, whatever the job at hand. Leon realized that the idea of any commander of his looking down on him like that, outwardly planning to throw him to the dogs, pissed him off…even if the partnership had been bunk from the start.
That was what had driven Krauser to the dark side in the first place, after all.
Leon hadn't liked thinking about it, how the U.S. Military had tossed the man out like a broken toy. The total lack of sympathy or respect they'd shown him after all his years of service was frightening. Yes, he'd received some commendations, a medal or two, but mostly they'd just run him through the processing branch and dismissed him from their ranks and minds as soon as possible, eager to move on to the next big thing.
And he, Leon, had been that thing. That was probably why Krauser had hated him so much.
"I must hand it to you," Saddler went on. "You have demonstrated quite a bit of promise by killing Krauser. When your assimilation with la Plaga is complete, I'll have you serve as my guard."
This comment didn't particularly rile Leon. It was just more banter. "I'm afraid I'll have to decline your generous offer. I have prior engagements."
"Hm. Enjoy your smart-mouthing while you can."
Beep!
Leon put the radio away as they stepped out into grey daylight. Happily, it had stopped raining again. They were in a stony mountain pass, old crates and wooden planks carelessly lining the walls. "Alright, where to next, Luis?"
"Straight through the encampment up ahead," he said. "Thankfully there isn't much out here, so there shouldn't be many Ganados. We ought to be able to make it through pretty quickly."
They made their way down the pass, came around a wide corner – and Leon shot forward, rolling straight behind some cover and gesturing for Elleah and Luis to do the same.
They saw him just in time and ducked low to sprint across the gap. They heard no cries of alarm, so it looked like they hadn't been spotted. If they had, this fight might have been over before it even started.
Leon had caught only a glimpse, and he now pulled out a small signaling mirror to check around the corner and confirm. Sure enough, what he saw did not do anything to raise his hopes.
The area was swarming with Ganados, absolutely swarming. It was heavily reinforced, and he saw at least one stationary minigun positioned atop a metal riser along the way with little-to-no cover between them and it. And unless he was mistaken, this was only the heavily-reinforced entrance of a sprawling, heavily-reinforced fortress.
"Shit," Leon swore quietly. "This is going to be hell to get through, and there's no way we'll be able to manage it if they're all going after Elleah. She'll be mincemeat."
Elleah gulped. Leon hated to lay that on her, but it was true. He could stave off small groups, especially when they weren't focusing on him, but there were at least thirty guys in Leon's immediate line of sight, several of which were armed with crossbows. Some of them could have dynamite, or even grenades or rocket launchers. They would not be able to hold off a swarm that big, not without adequate cover.
He sat down to think this over, and Luis joined him. They needed to get through. Staying here or turning back wasn't an option. They'd need one hell of an attack plan, though.
"Alright," Leon said after a few minutes. "I have an idea. Elleah, you'll stay here while Luis and I move ahead. Luis will snipe whoever's manning the minigun, then we'll make a break for it. When we reach it, I'll commandeer it while Luis keeps the enemies off of me, or vice-versa. We'll try to draw the forces in and use the ammo wisely, and once it's clear, you'll join us."
"But what if they keep coming in from up the pass?" Luis asked. "That thing won't have infinite ammo, it'll run out eventually. And when it does, we'll have to fight on our own."
"Then we'll fight on our own," Leon said gravely. "Not much else we can do, is there? Hey, what the hell is that noise?"
A heavy, airy thwacking sound had permeated the area, and it took them all a moment to place it. When they did, Luis scowled. "That sounds like a helicopter, and I'm willing it bet it isn't one of yours," he said to Leon.
Leon racked his brain, trying to figure out how to deal with this new threat. If they were spotted by a copter, and if that copter had a minigun on it, they were royally fucked. There was no way they could get out of that unscathed.
The copter was hovering out of sight, giving Leon time to think their position over. As he was thinking, though, his radio beeped.
He picked it up and waited for Saddler's voice to come taunting him through the speakers. Maybe he already had a bead on them. He was shocked when a new voice, male and American, came through instead.
"Somebody call for reinforcements?"
Leon's face split into a grin as he remembered his earlier call on the radio tower. Apparently he'd gotten through after all. He pressed the button and replied, "What took you so long?"
"Sorry, bad traffic," the man replied, sounding like an average Joe strolling in late for a day at the office. "I'll cover ya."
Leon's morale skyrocketed. He was used to working more or less alone, but it always felt good to have an ally…especially one with firepower. He leaned back against the wall and waited for the show to begin.
There was a tall, rickety metal water-tower overlooking the area, and beneath that, a whole load of Ganados. He relayed this information to their new ally so he'd have a reference point for their exact location, and the man replied, "I think I can use that. You ready to go?"
"Yeah," Leon said. "But just to let you know, I have one of the girls with me, and a male civilian, too. So heads up."
"No problem-o. I'll keep an eye out for them, make sure I don't make too much of a mess. Let's get you guys through this compound, eh?"
The sound of the chopper blades grew louder, and Leon slid the mirror up to see the reaction from the enemy forces. A few Ganados began looking around, confused, but they didn't seem to understand what the noise was, and they failed to look up.
Well, one of them did, but by the time he did, the game was on. Leon watched as the copter came into view and carefully butted up against the leaning water-tower. The guy maneuvered himself perfectly up against it, and the pressure he applied brought the whole thing toppling over with a scream of warping metal.
The Ganados howled loudly as their ranks were decimated by the ensuring crash. Time to go.
"Focus the crossbowmen. Elleah, stay behind us and be ready to fight. Keep an eye out for machineguns. Let's go."
They broke from cover and ran into the swirling dust. Water from the tower rippled past their toes, and they splashed through it as they made their way past the first wave of enemies, most of whom had been laid low by the tower. Luis, just before entering the cloud himself, drew his rifle and quickly shot the two guys on the minigun tower.
More enemies were up ahead, as well as another tower with a minigun, but before Leon could even start to formulate a plan, the roar of more miniguns started up…aimed at the fort.
Looked like this wasn't just an evac chopper. This baby was geared for combat. As the bullets tore through the lines of Ganados, something flammable got caught up in the spray and the whole tower went up in flames. When things settled down, only a handful of stragglers remained.
Leon linked his radio up to his earpiece, hit the transmitter, and said, "Now that's what I call backup."
"The name's Mike," came the reply. His voice was still coming through the radio, not the earpiece, so everyone heard him. "You lookin' for firepower, you come to the right place."
The man had the cockiest of all American accents – he was straight New York. Just the kind of guy Leon wanted in a circumstance like this.
Elleah leaned into Leon's mic and said, "Thanks, Mike!"
It wasn't transmitting. He hit the button and nodded at her to go again. She repeated herself.
"Ah-ha!" Mike said. "That'll be one of the girls. No problem, sweetheart. Leave it to me. I'll get ya through this just fine."
She looked cheered by this. That was good – she'd need the morale. This was gonna be rough, even with the support. This wasn't some tricked out castle or a hastily thrown-together fort. This was a real warzone.
They started up through the pass, which was lined with tents and supplies. It looked very military, and Leon once again wondered where Saddler had gotten these troops. They didn't look anything like the Ganados from the village or castle. Was it possible he'd recruited a bunch of mercenaries and injected them all with Plagas to retain their allegiance?
Nevermind. More important things to worry about. Mike could get a lot of these guys, but he couldn't get all of them. Leon pulled out his Red and started firing at everything that moved in front of him. He was able to take out the crossbowmen before they could get any shots off, and Luis took care of anyone who tried to close with them.
Leon heard a wail of pain come from nearly straight above them, and looked up to see a crossbowman he'd missed clutching their eye. Aurelleah stood beside him, arms up, slingshot empty. Looked like she was covering their blind spots.
He felt yet another surge of appreciation for her as she fired again, putting a slug between the guy's eyes and causing him to pitch out his window, where Luis finished him off. Firepower was firepower, even if it didn't technically include any kind of gunpowder.
They made their way up the pass to the next tower, and heard Mike say, "Incoming, take cover!"
Leon grabbed Elleah and tugged her behind a wall of sandbags. A moment later he heard the telltale whine of a rocket being fired, and the tower went up in a massive explosion, burning rubble skittering by at high speeds. "Haha! Got those scumbags!"
Mike was having a good time with this. Not surprising, since the most his enemies could do was fire crossbow bolts at him. Indeed, Leon saw a few fiery bolts fly up and tink against the copter's metal sides.
He pressed the transmitter. "Watch out, Mike, these guys have crossbows, and they're scratching your paint job all to hell."
"Aw, fuck no!" Mike yelled. "I just got that done!"
Luis laughed and they broke from cover. "We're heading into the trench below the tower, making our way through down low," Leon informed Mike.
"Gotcha. I can't get a bead down there, so I'll clear the way up ahead for ya. Woohoo! Git some of that! Ya-ha!"
He heard the roar of gunfire way up ahead as they headed into the trench. There were a fair few enemies down here, but it was far more sheltered. They wouldn't have to worry about snipers down here. He drew his shotgun and started forward.
He wasn't taking any chances with these guys. He blasted everything that came within five feet of him and let Luis finish them off when they were on the ground. Elleah had taken up a very useful role, staggering the fastest opponents so the slower ones could catch up. This meant they were more grouped up when they reached him, making each of Leon's shotgun blasts more effective.
He noticed that these Ganados weren't reacting to her the way he'd expected. They weren't going ape at the sight of her. Was it possible that Saddler's orders regarding her had faded, or been overwritten?
Well, he appreciated it, whatever the reason. They made their way up the trench to the next area to see that Mike had absolutely torn it apart.
Well, mostly. Leon saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Before he could turn in that direction, Luis barked, "Minigun!" And grabbed him and Elleah both by the scruffs, shoving them behind cover just as the hail of bullets started up.
They were pinned, and Mike had moved ahead to the next area. Leon could hear him chiming in every now and then – "Ha-ha, swiped 'em clean!" – and thought he might need to call him back. He'd rather not if it wasn't necessary, though. A crossbow bolt wouldn't touch a helicopter. A minigun could, though.
The gunfire continued for several seconds. Luis popped his head up, spotted the guy, and ducked back down as the gunfire started up again. The delay had been about two and a half seconds.
He narrowed his eyes, pulled out his rifle, and got ready. He waited for another break in the fire, and when it came, he slipped around the side, lined up the shot, and fired in one smooth movement.
The gunfire did not start back up again. Luis had made the shot. "Quick aim," Leon commented as Luis fired four more times.
He finished the guy off, stood up, and smirked. "Hawk-hunting. Got to aim fast to get a bird in flight."
Leon spotted their next route and started off on it. Elleah hung back a moment, and he heard her say to Luis, "You're amazing, you know that?"
"I could say the same of you, my little Valkyrie. Now then, let us continue dismantling Saddler's army, shall we?"
A large gate barred their way. Mike was going to town behind it. He hadn't blasted it down, perhaps using it as cover to ensure they didn't catch any stray bullets from his rampage.
Another explosion inside. Sounded like he'd cleared most of the bad guys out. Leon hit the transmitter. "We're coming over. I see a switch for the gate, so we'll be coming through the front door."
"Alright, I'm rollin' out the red carpet for ya."
Leon hit the transmitter to reply. Before he could, Elleah commented, "I like Mike. He's cool."
"Hahahahahaha!" Mike laughed, and Leon heard another explosion on the other side of the wall.
He rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs to the switch. Well, the switch was on the other side, but there was a zipline that would take them across to it. They reached the top and he said, "I'll grab it. One sec."
He grabbed on and zoomed across. This was the minigun man's perch, and he checked the weapon to see if it would be feasible to use it. It wouldn't. It was way too heavy.
The zipline handle was one of those automatic ones, and had reeled back up to the top when he'd landed. A moment later he heard Elleah come zipping across the gap, yelling, "Wheeeee!"
So this is what happens when you drop a teenage girl in a warzone, he thought as he dropped down to the next level to hit the switch. Elleah followed him down as Luis spanned the gap, and a minute later, they were all stepping through the gate.
Fuck all, when Mike had said he'd roll out the red carpet, he'd meant it. The place had been packed with Ganados milling about the courtyard. Mike had wheeled around to take them down behind every structure they'd set up. Leon knew how hard that was in a chopper, changing line of sight fast like that. They had a damn good guy on their team. But bottom line, the ground was pretty well strewn with red.
That said, he hadn't gotten all of them. "Watch out!" Mike roared in his earpiece. "Couple of miniguns I couldn't get! Take cover!"
They all ran behind a pile of sandbags and metal siding, and a moment later a gun started up. Luis popped up when it stopped, but ducked back down instantly as the other one picked up where its buddy had left off. They were pinned.
Mike's voice came growling through the radio again. "Hey, you guys, don't you know that's no way to treat a lady?"
Mike fired another rocket, and one of the miniguns went up. Luis popped up at once, rifle ready, and the other one went down a moment later.
"Thanks Mike," Leon said.
"Eh, forget about it. Like I said, I know how to treat a lady – and I can treat Miss Graham pretty good, too!"
Elleah busted up laughing, and Leon shook his head. Big guns, banter, and snide remarks? Oh yeah, he and Mike were gonna get along just fine.
Leon spotted two switches that opened the door to the next area. They'd been heading west all this time, and that was the way they wanted to go now. There were ramps and catwalks leading to the switches, and Leon pointed these out. "I'll go right, you go left?"
Luis nodded. "Who gets Elleah?"
"Me. I have more guns."
Luis scowled at him. "Only because I gave you that Striker. Oh, fine then. See you in a minute, mi cadenza."
They split up, Elleah coming along with him while he took off up a ladder leading to the catwalk he needed. "Watch out," Mike warned over the radio. "There are some guys hunkered down here and there that I couldn't reach."
Leon ran into a few of them pretty quickly. He pulled out his Red, Elleah her Zinger, and together they started mowing them down.
Mike had brought the chopper around to get a bead on the guys, but saw that his help would be unnecessary as they all went down pretty fast. "Ey, what's that the girl's got there? It ain't a gun, is it?"
"Slingshot," Leon replied. "And she's lethal with it."
Mike whistled. "Slingshot? Not too shabby! Lethal, though?"
"She can punch a hole in a guy's skull from twenty feet."
"Shit!"
Elleah looked pretty pleased with herself. They made their way across the catwalks to the switch to see that Luis had already reached his and thrown it.
When Leon threw the second one, the gate honked loudly at them and slid up. Ganados started streaming through, but Mike was paying attention. Before they could spread out, he'd brought the chopper around and opened fire.
The result was honestly kind of gruesome. The bullets ripped into the throng of human bodies, mowing them down like grass. Elleah watched this, wide-eyed, for about two seconds before turning away and stepping behind Leon.
He sobered considerably. Ziplines and explosions were one thing, and she'd even grown accustomed to perpetuating a certain level of violence herself. Witnessing that kind of mass death was a whole different animal, though; one that she hadn't been ready for.
Leon knew how important it was to get Ashley back ASAP, but he couldn't help but feel grateful she was missing all this shit. He honestly didn't think she'd have been able to handle it like Elleah was.
Mike, obviously, was more than used to this kind of thing. It was his specialty. "That's right, how do ya like them apples? Take that, ya filthy animals!"
He felt Elleah lean her forehead against his back as the gunfire went on and on. No doubt she was covering her ears to block out the chorus of howls and screams rising up around them like heatwaves off asphalt. Only once the group had gone down did she lean back and open her eyes. He couldn't help but notice a trace of tears in them. Leon could commiserate. He still remembered how painful it was, adjusting to this sort of lifestyle. And that was after he'd already trained for it.
Leon and Luis jumped to ground level from their respective sides, Elleah following along. She couldn't quite bring herself to look at the new sprung field of corpses. She just edged past them as best she could, only looking at them directly when she was forced to step over them.
They got to the doorway. It led them into a narrow pass, and Leon knew anything might be waiting for them in or beyond it.
"Alright, we're heading through," he told Mike. "See you on the other side."
"See you there. I'll make sure you don't have anyone but me to greet'cha."
They headed through as the copter sailed over the pass, and they took a moment to shut and lock the door behind them. They didn't need reinforcements coming in from behind.
When they neared the exit, they slowed down. Gunfire was going off like mad, and Leon poked his head around the corner to see their buddy cleaning the clocks of about forty Ganados out on a stone terrace. The ruins of more yet more ancient architecture were being reduced to dust and rubble, and in under a minute, the coast was clear.
Leon waved to them to come out, and they did so, stepping out to see the chopper hovering just before them. The machine guns spinning on the front slowed to a halt, still smoking slightly. Elleah waved, and he heard Mike chuckle.
"Thanks," Leon said as he realized that the battle, at least for the moment, was over. There were no more enemies in sight, and it looked like the fortress area had come to an end. "When we get out of here, drinks are on me."
"Yeah, hey, I know a good bar," Mike replied genially.
Leon pressed the transmitter again and said, "We'll meet up in D.C. after—"
"MIKE, MOVE!"
Elleah had gone into a panic, screaming suddenly, and Leon didn't see the threat until he heard the launch.
Mike didn't ask questions. He didn't spend time looking around. If he had, the rocket would have hit the driver's side of the cockpit head on. As it was, he jammed forward on the controls to send the copter diving forward, and the rocket slammed into the tail.
Leon watched in horror, unable to do a thing to help as the helicopter spun around, out of control, just barely catching the side of the cliff. It rolled over onto its left side on the stone terrace, which was very bad for Mike…assuming he'd survived the initial impact, that was.
Leon looked at Luis and they nodded to each other, both sprinting for the downed chopper. If the man was still alive, he needed help. "Elleah, stay back!" He yelled, making sure she wouldn't get close. If the fuel tank and munitions exploded, they'd be killed, but Leon wasn't about to let a good man burn to death.
He climbed up to the door, which had been partially destroyed. The glass was mostly shattered, so he kicked the rest of this in – it took a lot of force, this was bulletproof glass – and said to Luis, "Give me your rope!"
Luis did so, and Leon quickly rigged himself up so Luis would be able to help him climb out. Then he dropped into the cockpit.
It was hot in here. Very hot, and very smoky. Leon reached down, felt Mike in his harness, and pulled out his knife to cut the man loose. A quick check told Leon that he was unconscious. Or dead.
He cut carefully to keep the guy from toppling, and heard a heavy, metallic ticking sound start up from somewhere in the vehicle. He didn't know what it was, but with visions of that fuel tank dancing around in his head, a rhythmic ticking sound was not the most soothing thing in the world for his nerves.
He finished sawing Mike loose, got his arm looped over his shoulder, and called up to Luis to start pulling. Leon could only use one hand and his feet to climb, but Luis made this work, and in another moment he was out of the cockpit. Luis dropped down to the other side, Leon lowered Mike down, and they both booked it away from the chopper.
If this had been a cheesy action movie, it would have exploded dramatically just after they got out of the blast range, probably knocking them all to the ground as shrapnel came down like rain, miraculously hitting everything but them. Thankfully it wasn't, and they made it all the way to the nearest cover before it exploded dramatically.
Leon laid Mike flat on the ground as the shrapnel flew by, and Luis put a couple fingers on the man's wrist. He closed his eyes, feeling for signs of life…and sighed in relief. "He's alive. But in bad condition. He needs help."
A totally unnecessary clarification. Shards of broken glass were jutting out of the guy's face, which had been blackened with soot. Not burned black, just filthy, but that was still bad. Infected wounds were nothing to mess around with. Fire had torn all across his lower body, and Leon could see several burns around his waist where the heat had eaten through his thick combat gear. Broken bones were a possibility, given the force of the impacts of both the rocket and the ensuing crash. Altogether, things weren't looking good for Mike.
He and Luis pulled out all of their medical supplies and did what they could to save the man's life. As they worked, Leon's radio beeped.
He picked it up but handed it to Elleah to deal with. He needed his hands free.
Saddler's voice came sighing through the radio. "There you are, with that little trick of yours again. Tell me, girl, what is it and your unnatural obsession with saving the life of every bug and beast you stumble across?"
Saddler wasn't talking to him. He was talking to Elleah, who seemed to have once again used her Plaga to predict that Saddler was going to kill someone…and managed to prevent it. Barely.
She looked to Leon, not sure how to operate the radio, and he said, "Press the button in the center to transmit."
She did, and said, "I find your lack of regard for life a lot more unnatural than my inclination to save it."
He tsk'd. "So naïve! I suppose you'll see the truth of things soon enough. When you have this power, you too will understand."
She pressed the button, and Leon replied as he pressed down on a wound, and as Luis prepared the gauze and disinfectants for it. "Just another reason to get these parasites out of our bodies," he said brusquely.
Elleah nodded agreement, but said nothing else to Saddler, who concluded, "I wish you luck, my friends. You'll need it if you plan to carry around all that…dead weight."
Beep!
Leon let go of the wound so Luis could deal with it. He did. With that last injury dealt with, Mike was stable.
For now, at least. But not forever. He was badly damaged, totally unconscious, and all of them were running on empty. And now one of them would need to spend the time and energy carrying him around until he woke up or they could get off this island.
This situation was nearly overwhelming, and for just a moment, Leon's strength wavered. His head drooped, and he rested it against his palm.
Damnit all – I'm not going to be able to save everyone. There's no way…
He felt a strong hand on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Luis with that roguish smile on his face. "Eh, come on, man. We're nearly to the end of it. One more area, and we're at the machine. Don't give up on us now, ey?"
Elleah, too, reached an arm around to hug him, and pressed her forehead against his arm. She didn't say anything, but she didn't need to. He got it.
He closed his eyes again. There was a nugget of despair in him somewhere. Maybe it was borne of fear, maybe of realism, maybe of exhaustion. Hell, maybe it was Saddler playing with his head via the parasite in his chest. Whatever the case, it was nothing but a burden. He homed in on it, focused on it, isolated it – and dismissed it.
It was time to go.
He stood up, and Luis groaned. "Alright, well, I guess since you have more guns and more combat experience, that means I'm doing the heavy lifting."
"You up for it?" Leon asked.
Luis rolled his head along his shoulders as thought thinking it over, then nodded. He laid Mike out face-up and tugged him up into a fireman's carry.
"Useful, that technique," Leon remarked.
Luis just grunted, "Move it."
"Yeah, sure thing. Uh…where to now?"
OoO
Hey Evolution! I'm glad you liked my take on Salazar :D I just thought he could use a bit more dimension than being a generic bad guy. Sometimes characters do. Like Krauser, for instance. Man, did I not expect him to develop as much as he did. Anywho, hope you're all still enjoying. See you in a few days :)