-Revised completely. If you have already read through it the first time, please read through it again-
Leon stopped when a large part of the village came into view. He looked around slightly. The village seemed much larger than he first anticipated, and that it seemed to be at first. "This must be the main part of the village..." his voice trailed when something caught his eye. He pulled his binoculars out of his jacket pocket and looked through them. He used them to look around a bit, seeing that the villagers were acting casually... almost normally. They were walking around and farming. He blinked a few times, then caught what he had caught a glimpse of before. As soon as he focused in on it, the sight almost made him sick.
Claire glanced to him slightly, seeing him go pale. She got worried, "Leon...? You ok...? What's wrong...?" she placed a hand on his shoulder, looking at him fully. She tried to see what he was looking at, but couldn't. It had to have been something bad, if it made him pale.
He swallowed hard. He saw a large bonfire in the middle of the town square. In the middle of the fire, there was a long pole with a huge curved spike on it. But that wasn't what made him weak to the stomach. It was what was stuck through the spike. He looked away, closing his eyes. One of the officers who had taken him there, was on there. He had been burned. "It..." He looked at her, shaking his head and frowning lightly, regaining the color in his cheeks. "One of the officers..." was all he could really say. The look on Claire's face shown that she understood what he ment.
"Ugh..." she shuttered, looking towards it. "Poor guy..." she saw him doing something from the corner of her eye. When she looked towards him, he saw him take out a small machine gun, a TMP. It had an attatchment stock on it, as well as a laser guide. She watched him slam a clip into it. "What are you going to do?" she asked, almost shocked.
"We have to stop them..." he responded, glancing towards her only slightly, but he was focused on the villagers.
"They're not like the zombies. Th-"
"I know that..." he interrupted. He wasn't thinking straight. He couldn't let them get away with what they were doing, and he was ready to kill them all.
"You didn't let me finish..." She frowned. "They're not just going to stand around while they're getting shot... these guys have their intelligence still in tact... meaning they'll come right for us... in groups that we can't handle... we'll be slaughtered..." she placed a hand on his shoulder.
He looked at her a little, silent for a few moments. She was right. The villagers would be on them before they could do anything to get ready to fight back... and there would be an entire village against two. "Y...you're right... S...sorry... I wasn't thinking." he put the larger gun back up, pulling out his handgun. He started down the path, silent.
She watched him. She sighed, looking down. She knew she had to tell him... but how was she going to. She looked back up, seeing him a few yards ahead. She ran to catch up, slowing down when she got beside him. Looking down again, she thought it over, before looking back to him. "Leon..."
"...?" He stopped walking, looking at her. The tone of her voice... she sounded like she needed to tell him something, but wasn't sure how. "...what...?"
"After... we find the girl... and get out of here..." she stopped walking, a foot in front of him, turning towards him.
"... what is it...?" he looked at her, a little worried that something was wrong. Something had to have been, considering the tone of her voice.
She took a deep breath. It was the hardest thing she would ever have to say to him. He was more than a friend to her... and she had hoped... "... you have to forget about me..."
The words hit him harshly. Did she just say what he thought she did. Why did she want him to forget about her...? "What...? What do you mean...?" He couldn't hide his shock.
"It's just... my job..." she looked away, turning away from him.
"Claire...? I don't understand..." he went up to her.
She looked back to him, taking a deep breath and sighing heavily. "Leon..." she turned towards him. "To put it lightly... I'm an Assassin for the government..."
"...? What...?" He just stared at her blankly. He didn't know what to think... or say... An assassin? Claire? He couldn't believe it. She spent her time searching for her brother... he guessed that since Chris died... Claire changed...
"I work behind the scenes, taking out guys the government tells me to..." she looked away, having seen something in his eyes. Was it disappointment?
"..." he was silent. What was he supposed to think? "...so... did you come here for me...? Or business...?"
She sighed, walking up to him and looking up at him slightly. "I came here to make sure you were ok... and to say goodbye. Technically, I don't exist anymore... there are no records of me at all... I never existed." It was hard for her to say.
"... I see... so... technically, you're noone..." he looked back to her. How could she have wanted this for herself? Why would she want to be non-existant? And how the hell did she expect him to forget her? After all that she had done for him and what they've been through together? It was impossible!
"I'm sorry, Leon..." she replied almost quietly. She didn't want to hurt him.
"..." He was silent, thenHe looked away from her. "I understand..." He paused, then added quietly, "just another pawn that the goverment can throw away..."
She looked at him, hearing, but not understanding what he ment. "Leon...?"
"It's alright, Claire... if you have to leave... then go ahead... I can handle myself..." He finally looked back at her, trying not to let her see the tears coming to his eyes. He had just found her... after all of these years... (well, she found him, technically), and now she was telling him to forget her and he would never see her again.
"But..." She looked at him, confused. Why was he acting like this? Didn't he want to spend this time with her before she had to leave him forever?
He kissed her deeply, then looked at her. "I know you have to do your job... don't let me get in the way..."
She could tell he was sad, she could see it in his eyes. "But I..." she looked at him. She felt like he was pushing her away.
He didn't want to have to feel the pain of not being with her again, he looked down slightly.
She didn't finish. She didn't want to make it harder than it already was. She kissed him. "I love you, Leon... and I'll always be thinking about you..." she took off the choker she always wore, putting it in his hand before jumping up onto a roof and running across it and disappearing on the other side.
He looked down at it. "...I love you too..." He muttered, closing his eyes as he clutched the choker tightly. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he sunk to his knees. It wasn't fair! He needed her. He needed her more than she thought he did. But he couldn't bear the thought of losing her again... but this time... he would lose her forever. He knew that she wasn't doing this on purpose, but he couldn't help but feel that all this could have happened another way.
Claire closed her eyes, her back resting against the wall on the backside of the house. She knew she couldn't leave Leon here alone. If she hadn't have shown up, he would have been killed. If she were to leave, it would only be a short amount of time before he ran out of ammo. She found that the village was even worse than Raccoon City. Even though the zombies added a risk of infection, these villagers still had their minds intact. They could think, rationalize, and know when they could win.
The sound of gunfire broke her out of her thought, or sleep (she wasn't sure if she had actually dozed off or not), and then a chainsaw started up. She looked around frantically, seeing about 15 villagers running towards the house, one had a sack over his head, a yellow chainsaw in his hand. She took a knife from her side and threw it, stabbing straight through the one with the chainsaw's head. He just backed up, looking at her, running at her, the other villagers following him. She turned and started running, trying to leading them away from Leon. As soon as she was a distance away, she took her guns from her side and turned, opening fire on them. A few of them had gone after her, while the others went after Leon. After she killed them, she ran back towards the house, grabbing one of the bladed weapons one of them had, and put her guns back up.