Leon had been restless for most of the night, but he couldn't blame it on his dreams or any such activity this time. He knew what it was, he wasn't completely comfortable with Chris being in the house with him. For his own sake - not his sanity - he knew that the man was the best option to be with him if the Black Scorpions came back, he just didn't like it. The man had agreed to sleep on the couch in the parlor so that he wasn't completely uncomfortable. It did help, it was just the thought of the man being so close after so long that made him emotionally nervous, he supposed. Nevertheless, the house did feel more relaxed energy wise when the man was here, as if some vortex that had been spiraling out of control was now being sealed between their two energies and calming down. It allowed for the blonde to actually get a good night's sleep with his greyhound companion lying awkwardly around him.
He really needed to buy beds for the upstairs rooms today...
He woke with a grunt, he was suddenly very uncomfortable, as if he was lying on the ground somewhere. As he opened his eyes, he realized why and his heart began to race in panic: He was on the parlor couch. He sat up quickly and looked around, but Chris wasn't near him which oddly made the panic worse. He looked over his shoulder to see the man coming back in the room from what apparently had been letting Ricard outside since the dog was walking beside him.

"You're awake," Chris said with a smile but it vanished when he saw the look on his face. "Leon-"

"I knew this was a bad idea!" the blonde exclaimed, somewhere between panic and rage as he got to his feet. "You took advantage of the situation, like you always do!"

"You came in here on your own last night!" Chris argued, not sounding particularly angry, but defending himself. "I got off the couch and went into the other room because I didn't want this very thing to happen."

"This is why I didn't want us to get too close!" Leon screamed at the man, shoving him out of the way and walking towards the front door.

"Leon, just wait a minute," the brunette argued, trying to get the blonde to calm down. He had no idea what the hell had happened that sent Leon over the edge like this just from waking up where he'd been sleeping the previous night. "I don't get why you're so mad at me! What caused you to become like this?!"

The blonde opened the door with a hard pull and looked at Chris, anger and hurt in his eyes. Chris could see fright behind the grey color in his irises and tears started to touch his lashes but he didn't answer him at first. Finally, Leon spoke as he grabbed the front of the man's shirt.

"That's none of your business, Chris," Leon said flatly, his tone was too calm for the expression on his face. "You're the one who hid everything from me. You lied to me about being there when I needed you, you hid the fact you were chasing after Jill from me and left me standing on the step of the apartment we were supposed to share. That's why I don't want to be close to you anymore!" Leon let go of his shirt now that he was in front of the door.

"Leon, I-" Chris went to argue. How could Leon say things like this when they had just been so close to each other at Claire's house the previous night.

"Get out," Leon said, his expression quickly becoming dangerous.

"Wait just a second-"

Chris was shocked when Leon's appearance flashed to something he didn't recognize for a split second and he grabbed the front of his shirt again. The smaller male growled, his canine teeth pointed to fangs. "I said GET OUT!"

The B.S.A.A captain yelled as he was suddenly thrown back with a force that he only knew to come from the infected that he fought. He coughed as he landed on the ground passed the stairs of the porch and got one arm under himself, looking at Leon in shock as he threw his coat out on the porch and slammed the door behind him. The brunette grunted and stood up, holding his side as he looked at the door, slowing down what he had just seen in his mind. Leon's hair had turned white, his eyes a pale blue and skin an ash grey. What was going on with the man he had once loved? He went over and grabbed his coat, putting his hand on the screen door and listened. What he heard broke his heart: Leon was crying on the other side of the door. He wanted to try and get back in, wanted to convince the man that they could be good for each other now that things had changed.
But he had to do some investigating first and turned, heading for his truck instead.
Chris rested his arms on the steering wheel as he looked at the house ahead of him. So much had changed since 2005, but he still held onto the memory of when Leon came to him after the incident in Spain and asked for the comfort of someone else's arms. He had been scared that he was going to die there, scared that a friend he had made there would also die. He had been happy to keep the smaller man close; he was still fragile back then, just like he was now. When he saw Leon in China, the agent seemed so hardened that he thought it was from what had happened between them, but now, Chris wasn't sure. Something had happened to the blonde between the times they saw each other, that he was sure of and he had to find out what. There was one person Leon would have told everything to, he just had to get a flight to go see the man which wouldn't be hard since he was working with one of the organizations the man looked over.
Leon heard the truck leave the yard finally as he sat at the bottom of the door, wiping his eyes with the heel of his hand. He looked at Ricard who crawled over to him, whimpering sadly and rested his chin on his owner's lap once he was close enough. Leon situated himself so he could lay down with the dog and let out all of the tears and sobs that he had been holding back since he and Chris parted ways. All of the tears he held back when Jack knocked him around before a mission, the tears he held back when he heard Sasha's story in the Republic... This had been his trigger and it almost effected another part of him that he wasn't ready for Chris to see. He lay there for he didn't know how long with one arm over Ricard's barrel chest, the dog didn't move either and eventually his tears dried and he fell back to sleep. He would have moved but he felt weak, his chest hurt and each time he had to stop himself from revealing his other side it left his energy level at almost zero.
He woke up what felt like a while later to something petting his hair and he opened his eyes; he thought he recognized the way the fingers moved his bangs away from his cheek. He opened his eyes slowly and noticed Ricard had moved but was still just across the room, looking towards the door with his ears back and his eyes widen. This kicked Leon's mind into high gear and he jumped up to look as well, grunting as he coughed from the motion but he was able to see what looked like a figure moving through the parlor towards the dining room. He got up and went to see if it was the spirit Dante had mentioned but upon looking around the corner, it was gone. If he really did know who the spirit was, that would explain why he felt no curiosity or animosity coming from it. The spirit clearly remembered him and was trying to make him feel better, but it wasn't working because he was frustrated with himself for not having a clue who it was.
The blonde sighed and rubbed at his neck before doing the same to his eyes, lowering his arm to look at his watch which read it was a little passed ten in the morning. He figured this was as good of a time as any to get busy working. He changed into his work clothes and went outside, setting up his table saw that had been in his tool trailer. When he was done, he grabbed his prybar and went to the porch to proceed and pull all of the boards off, tossing them just over the railing into the yard so he could worry about them later. He looked up now and then to check on Ricard who seemed to be content lying by the truck for the time being, as if keeping an eye on him after his episode earlier. He turned on the light on his ear piece and checked the supports for the porch, measuring one because there were two that had rotted to the point of needing replacing. He climbed out of frame to go cut the boards and hook up his nail gun.
After installing the new beams and making sure everything was level, he ran out into the city to pick up some furniture for the house and one of the workers for the store helped him set it all up. Once he had left, Leon sat down to have lunch with Ricard which made him notice that he felt extremely weak again. He took the last bite of his vegan wrap when his cellphone rang, so he took it out. It was Hunnigan, so he wiped his face with a napkin then answered it, putting it to his ear.

"I was expecting this call a little sooner with the way you were worrying when we last spoke," he told the woman before taking a drink of water.

"I had hoped you'd get concerned enough to leave if I didn't," she told him before she went silent for a moment. "I just spoke with Claire Redfield and she said you're still in the house. Leon you should know that someone-"

"You're either about to tell me someone died here or someone lived here that was being targeted by the Spanish mob, aren't you? I got you beat on both of those, Hunnigan."

"Of course you do. Wait, how did you know about the Cult?"

"Wait..Cult?" That was like someone slapped him in the face with a book. "I got shot at while I was over at Claire's house yesterday. Luckily, I was in good company so we drove them off. Probably sent a couple of them to the hospital while we were at it."

"Damn it, Leon. Knowing what you do, why won't you leave?"

"Where would you like me to go, Hunnigan?"

The two of them fell silent and Ricard looked at his owner from his food bowl with lowered ears. It wasn't like Leon had any other options when it came to where he could go; he could have gone back to D.C, but after leaving the D.S.O after all the years of service, the city made him depressed and given his situation, that was the last thing he needed. He was known to get in trouble with a bottle when he got too upset with nothing to distract him. Hunnigan apparently knew she touched a nerve because she changed the subject.

"Sherry was asking for your address yesterday when she was in the office," she told him and he could hear her typing. "Do you want me to give it to her? I didn't know if you'd be concerned for her or not, but she really wants to see you."

"She's a grown woman, like I can tell her not to come here," Leon mused, a slight smile on his face at the thought of his adopted daughter's fiery personality. "Go ahead and give her the address, it may do me some good to have her around."

"Alright, I'll do that next time I'm in contact with her. I'll do some digging into the Cult to see if I can get anything to you. Stay safe, please, Leon."

"I will, thanks Hunnigan." He hung up and rubbed his eyes with a sigh.

Leon pet Ricard's head as he stood up, having finished his food just before the call and gave the rest of his water to the greyhound. He pocketed his cell and went back to work on the porch, measuring and cutting all of the boards and nailed them in place. By the time he was done, the sun was just about to set so he put away his tools and cleaned up, carrying the boards from where he had put them to the fire pile. He dropped the second load of boards with a grunt, scratching at his temple as he thought about how long this had taken him. He would've worked circles around any other house, but this one really had him feeling like he was working at a much slower pace. He went to grab the last of the old boards when the sound of a car pulling up caught his attention. It wasn't one he recognized and he put his hand on his pistol inside his tool belt just in case whoever was in the car was in affiliation with the Spaniards who had shot at him last night.
Both the driver's side door and the passenger side door open and Leon sent some of his energy to the bracelet, getting ready to heal in case he got shot before he could move. But who stepped out, made him drop the defensive and move his hand in shock. A tall man with brown hair that was starting to grey stepped out of the driver's side, wearing a pale blue suit over a white button down with silver glasses. Out of the passenger side stepped a shorter male with close cut strawberry blonde hair wearing a black denim jack over a graphic t-shirt and tattered blue jeans.

"Oh my god," he said as he walked over to the two men who finally saw him from looking at the house. "Sasha?! JD?!"

"Leon!" JD exclaimed, happily.

The blonde grabbed the man's hand with one and they hugged with their free arms. Leon smiled at the man's grin before looking at the elegant brunette as he walked around the car and stood in front of Leon. The spectacled man immediately started crying and the two hugged each other tightly for a moment, Leon was thankful he took his gloves off so he could grab the man's suit top as he closed his eyes tightly and let a tear of his own run down his cheek. After a moment they parted and Sasha took his glasses so he could wipe his eyes, sniffling. Leon wiped his eyes as well.

"You two look great," he said to them with a smile. "Come on in out of this heat."

"Thank you," Sasha said as they followed him inside.

He showed them to the living room, thankful he actually bought another couch and a chair earlier today. The two sat down and Leon brought them something to drink, sitting on the couch across from them.

"You're walking again," Leon said softly to Sasha who took a drink of the tea Leon gave him. "After where I shot you, I thought that you wouldn't."

"The doctors did some experimental surgeries on his spine a couple of years ago," JD told the man, looking at his best friend. "He just finished his physical therapy last month."

"I thought coming to see you would be a nice way to celebrate being able to walk again after three years in a wheel chair," Sasha told him, setting his cup down. "We've been looking for you ever since you left without saying goodbye."

"After all the fun we went through, I wasn't sure you'd want to see me any longer," Leon said with a slightly amused tone. JD laughed and Sasha chuckled. "I can't believe it's been six years since everything and you still remembered me."

Sasha looked at JD who reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and took out something Leon was surprised to see. He reached over the table and took the silver flask when the red head offered it to him. He looked at it, tilting it so that the light caught all of the different marks on it but it was still in the same condition it had been when he left it on the bedside table for Sasha in the hospital.

"We would never forget you after all you did for us, Leon," Sasha said with a smile. "You're too special for that. You could have killed me, but you chose to make me live. You gave me my life back. You saved JD from being bitten, even though you barely knew him. You didn't have to do any of that, but because you did, we never forgot you."

"How did you even find me?" the blonde finally asked, setting the flask on the table. "If you've been searching for six years and just now found me, something must have changed."

"Someone reached out to us late last week and told us you were moving here," JD told the blonde. This made Leon raise a brow and tilt his head slightly. "He didn't say who he was, just that you were moving here and needed someone to lift your spirit."

"He sent us our passports, green cards and the money to get our vaccines," Sasha continued. He reached into his pocket and withdrew an envelope, handing it to Leon. "He also sent this for us to give it to you. We haven't opened it out of respect for you and the man."

Leon looked at his name on the front of the envelope then turned it over but there was no address or anything. He was just about to open it when Ricard's barking suddenly surprised him and the other two men, making all of them jump. The greyhound was standing in the doorway, barking at the two Russian men who were now laughing.

"Ricard! Mohl-chyats!" Leon hissed at his companion who shut his mouth but groaned when he did. The word surprised the two men.

"You speak Russian?" JD asked in surprise.

"That's why I was in the Slav Republic," the blonde noted, going back to the envelope. "I went there because I could understand the locals."

"Full of surprises, even to this day," Sasha said with a smile, making Leon smile.

The blonde took out the note as Ricard came over and sniffed JD's hand, wagging his tail a little bit once he realized they weren't intruders. He did the same for Sasha and the two men pet the dog gently as Leon groaned and grabbed his glasses, putting them on so he could see without the letters running together.

Leon,

You should know that you're living in a very dangerous situation by staying in Glory's Shadow. The house itself is dangerous, the walls are alive with a curse of dark energy put on it to keep any happiness from being alive inside of it. You don't remember this, but you've been there once, when it was a much happier place. The Black Scorpions won't stop hunting you as long as you live there, because you look like its owner. The spirit that is hiding in the room upstairs is just who you've probably guessed it is now, Dr. Luis Sera.
If you truly intend to stay there, you need to find a way to get rid of the dark entity that lives on the property, stop the Occult from hunting you and make sure whatever you do, make sure you follow your cousin's advice. DON'T be alone while you're there.

Leon was shocked, confused, a bit angry and amazed all rolled into one as he read the note, flipping it over to look at the back. There was a series of numbers written on the bottom of the paper. 10-4-8-2. The Black Scoprions must have been the cult that Hunnigan mentioned earlier. Sasha and JD had been watching him, worried about whatever was on the note as the greyhound now lay at the feet, watching his owner too.

"What does it say?" JD asked, a bit worried about the American's expression.

"Basically that someone's spying on me," Leon told them, folding up the note to look closer at the numbers. They looked like some kind of code. "And that the people that shot at me last night are known as the Black Scorpion Cult."

"You have a cult chasing you?" JD asked, raising a brow, but not sounding too surprised.

"You were shot at?" Sasha asked, not sounding all that surprised either. "Even on your home land, you're always in trouble it seems."

"Call it a gift," the blonde replied as he put the note back into the envelope, setting it aside.

"I think you need to need a refund for that one, Leon," JD replied, making Sasha smile.

"Are you in some kind of danger?" Sasha asked him as Leon took a drink of his water. "If you are, then perhaps you should leave. I don't want to hear of anything happening to you after you've survived all of this time. I heard about the breakout in China and I knew somehow that you were there."

"Yeah, I was there," he told the man as he put the bottle down. "I suffered a pretty bad wound to my neck and head while I was there. The doctors had to do three surgeries on me and I was in a coma for three months. Woke up with minor amnesia, but the memories are starting to come back."

"Wow," JD said in shock, Sasha took his glasses off in surprise. "How did you manage to live?"

"Another gift I don't want," he told them and noticed Sasha looking towards his neck. He felt comfortable with the men so he reached up, grabbing the edge of the spandex collar and pulled it down enough to show the two of them the large scar he had gotten from the surgeries. The two were surprised to see the severity of it. "But I guess I'm supposed to be here to help the spirit stuck in this house."

"This house is haunted?" JD asked him, confused and looked at Sasha. "You can't sense the spirit, Buddy?"

"I did when we first pulled up, but he ducked away from me before I could get a good picture of him," the brunette told him as he put his glasses in his shirt pocket.

"You can see spirits, Sasha?" Leon asked in surprise, smiling when the man nodded. "And you say I'm full of surprises. But enough of the creeping shadows. How long are the two of you here?"

"Our visas are good for a week," Sasha replied, smiling. "We need to get home after that or the students will be swarming the principle with questions about me. I don't want them to go into a panic." Leon smiled at the fact the man had returned to doing the job that him and his fiancé had loved so much.

"Well if they're your students, I'm sure they got some strong personalities. That principle might be in trouble. I'm glad you're doing so well after all this time," the home owner told them. He sat up straight with a grunt which the two Russian men noticed. "Do you guys have a place to stay while you're in the states?"

"We've been staying in hotels," Sasha told him. "Some of them are very nice for their price. The people here are always fascinated by our accents, it would seem."

"Would you guys like to stay here?" he asked, making them look at him in surprise. He thought about the letter, about Dante's words but he also worried about them leaving in case the Black Scorpions were watching the house. "I just replaced the bed and sleeper sofa up in the art room. You're more than welcome to stay for a while."

"We don't wish to intrude," JD said with a slight frown. "You're obviously very busy here, judging by the construction equipment everywhere."

"It's not a problem, really. I can take a few days off if you'd like to stay. We can explore the city together; I've not been around much since I moved in. I did promise you I'd show you America." Leon winked at JD who grinned at him.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Leon," Sasha said as the four of them stood up.

"My pleasure, and don't worry about the spirit. He hides in the room down the hall most of the time. I don't see him much."

He led the two men upstairs with Ricard walking ahead of them and showed them to the art room, but something surprised all three of them and made Ricard stand at alert when he opened the door. There was a black mist standing near the back of the room that was in a humanoid shape. It stood there for a few seconds before disappearing and the three men as well as the canine all jumped out of the way when a energy of cold air rushed passed them. They could physically hear it running down the stairs, making all of their eyes widen as Ricard whimpered, hiding behind Leon's legs with his tail tucked in.

"What were you saying about it hiding?" JD noted, looking at Leon still in shock.

That wasn't the spirit he knew about, he was sure of it. He didn't like the way that one felt when it went by and Luis's spirit didn't have animosity around it whenever it was near. He looked at JD and shook his head, remembering that the man who wrote the letter warned him about the dark entity.

"That..wasn't Luis," Leon told him as the warmth came back into the air. "That was something I've never seen before now."

"It seems to have left the house for the time being," Sasha told both of them, turning his attention from the stairs. He looked at J.D. "Staying here seems to be a good idea after all. If that thing is malicious, Leon will need help keeping it at bay."

"The boss has spoken," J.D replied to which Leon smirked.

It was evident to Leon that all of them were tired so the two went out and grabbed their luggage, turning in for the night after their drive. Leon thought it may be a good idea to turn in early as well, especially since it was taking everything he had to do the dishes that he had used to make dinner for the three of them. He put them in the dish drainer and dried his hand on a towel which he hung on one of the cabinet door knobs. He noticed Ricard staring at the bottom of the basement door with his head tilted so he went over to him and put a hand on his side, looking down too. There was a light coming from under the door which he thought was odd, so he opened it slowly but there was no light to be seen.

"Alright, I gotta start working on the wiring tomorrow, this is getting ridiculous," he told his companion who he pat the side of, making the dog wag his tail. "Come on boy, it's bed time."

The two of them went upstairs to the master bedroom, Ricard got on the king sized bed that Leon had bought as the blond went into the bathroom and started getting ready for bed. As he was brushing his teeth, it occurred to him that he was becoming very cold very quickly. He pulled his shoulders up in natural instinct to try and warm himself by rubbing his arm with his free hand for a moment. When he was done, he rinsed his toothbrush off but he paused when he realized a drop of blood had fallen in the sink. He reached up and touched under his nose but when he moved his hand, there was nothing. He stared at the drop of blood for a second and thought about what could have caused it. It made him wonder if Luis had some kind of heart disease since he knew hypertensive crisis could cause nose bleeding.
He had it himself a few times during his relationship and it caused him to end up in the hospital for a couple of days.
He rinsed the blood out of the sink and proceeded to lay in bed as he shivered again, the coldness was getting worse. He pulled the covers up to his shoulders and held them tight around his body as he tried to relax after such a long day but the longer he lay like that, the more he realized he was feeling suffocated. Then it occurred to him that he had a fever; great, he really was catching a cold. Unfortunate for him, there was nothing that he could do except try and sweat it out for the night since he had no medicine to treat it with. At some point it must have broke because he found himself in the darkness of sleep with Ricard asleep next to him with his head on his lower back, all four of them were unaware of the knob for the door at the end of the hall moving.