-ch.5-


On impulse, Amanda screamed, alerting Leon, but it was not Krauser who was on his tail; an infected Ganado – his head adorned with fleshy neuritis tentacles and blades whipped around dangerously had hit him. A filaceous sharp object stabbed right into his back, causing Leon to stumble forward on his knees. Krauser had within seconds after that, jumped and whipped his knife around, slashed the offending weapon into pieces.

It was all over as the last parasite-ridden attacker screamed something akin to a sound which belonged to a creature and no longer a human. Leon shakily reached for an herb and Krauser pushed him down with his combat boots. "Hah! What's the matter, Leon? Can't take a little battle wound?"

Amanda climbed down, reprimanding Krauser. "Leave him alone, Jack."

Krauser looked up, and gulped. He tried to avert his eyes but looking up Amanda's skirt was just too precious for him not to. He couldn't help it, despite his lack of emotion for anything else but killing…..still, he was surprised at something else.

"I didn't know we were on first name basis here."

"We are now." She said simply, as if that was law.

Ignoring his usual acidic looks, Amanda decided that Krauser wouldn't do anything just yet.

His eyes narrowed, and a noisy grunt came from deep within his throat. She daintily jumped down from the last three steps and reached into her sweater to pull out a white bottle of healing spray for Leon. "Here, you really need this. That's a nasty cut."

She sprayed the canister towards Leon, who was still struggling to get up; his hand over his abdomen, as if he were trying to balance his body and the healing spray vaporized into his system – healing him miraculously.

Then, out of spite, she sprayed the last contents right into Krauser's face. He squinted from the blast, yelling in anger. "Hey! What the hell was that for? I'm not injured like your pretty boy here."

"That's for just being you – you neanderthal."

"Look. Listen here, you little whiny, annoying…." He had gone up to her now, face to face, as she was just as rigid and fierce in the face of imminent danger. Her countenance screwed up at him, his face looked down at her and they were staring at each other, trying to create a face- off.

Leon shook his head at the whole affair. "Why don't you two get a room?"

"What!" Amanda squealed. "I so would NOT want to be closed-in four corners with this hulk-mania-fixated-killing-machine."

Krauser laughed. "Yeah that's right, bitch. I'm your killing-machine."

She stomped on his toes really hard with her booted heel. "I'm not a bitch!"

Lifting up his knee slightly, Krauser held on to it and grunted in surprise pain. "What the – what you just did was again, not a nice thing! You're a first class A- number one bitch!"

"And you're a freak of nature!" Amanda cried out, her sharp fingernail jabbing into the naked scarred torso of the bigger man.

"Alright, that's it!" He lifted his hand up to show a fist, and while she slightly flinched, she just watched as Krauser started counting off by lifting a finger for each list: "You call me all kinds of names, kick me in the nabs where NO ONE and I mean no one dares! And to top it off you offer me a stupid breath mint! I happen to floss!" He shouted at her, his face now flushed with rage.

"WHAT?" She cried back, her arms akimbo now. Her booted toes tapped furiously on the ground. Leon just watched them in amazement and cleared his throat to say something, at least try to interrupt their heated argument.

"Seriously, you two, do I feel a little sexual tension going on?"

Both simultaneously screamed. "NO!" Leaving Leon bereft of anything else to say. Then remembered what were his goals and objectives and hers.

He cleared his throat again, hoping to break the obvious tension between the girl and Krauser. Just seeing his former colleague like this was a bit unsettling. Who would have thought? That a guy like him would even bow down to someone like her?

"Amanda. Remember the serum you're supposed to retrieve off this place? The important piece of puzzle? The serum to reverse the effects of the biohazard that have been infecting the villagers? Hello?" He was waving his hand in front of her face now.

She blinked. "Oh yeah. That." Releasing her hands from her hips, her body began to relax, she took one more nasty shot at Krauser. "You need to stay away from me! And here I thought you were my hero!"

That raised eyebrows from both men. Krauser chuckled darkly. "Someone's been slipping you bad stuff in your tea, little woman, as I'm no one's hero."

With that, Amanda turned around, her face set and serious. "Yes, I'm quite aware of that now. Very much. You're just a pile of doo-doo dung. Even kicking you in the groin wasn't good enough! Maybe I should do it again so you can have lots of low sperm count!"

She ran as he saw Krauser's face scrunch up in a severely menacing way. And he growled like an animal, his sneer turned into a curled lip, showing his straight teeth. "You better run, because when I'm through with you…!"

"EEEEEEE!" Amanda squealed, her legs pumping faster than ever. Leon was left behind shaking his head, now bowed and slapped his hand over his forehead at the ridiculousness.

He could hear Krauser growling at her. "Bitch! Talking about a man's jewels like that! You're gonna pay!"

As Leon watched with puzzlement, he turned around and saw Amanda's little purse that she had wrapped around her waist skirt. That's where she placed her ammo and gun. Retrieving it off the ground, he noticed that the zipper was opened and because Leon isn't the type to snoop around in the other woman's belongings, the contents had slipped out instead.

A photo.

Picking it up, Leon drew his brows together and narrowed his eyes. Two people sat in the photo: Krauser and a woman. The woman had her hand on Krauser's chest; a gentle hand placed there and the serenity of her face reminded Leon of someone...below, the words in handwriting said Jack Krauser and the wife's name. Although, the wife's name had been blotched out, it clearly said Mrs. on there. She's young and quite pretty. So this is Krauser's former wife on the photograph. Leon remembered that Krauser was married when he met him, but never met the wife. He couldn't believe it as he stared. The American soldier's former wife looked like a somewhat mature, yet older version of Amanda.

Scratching his head, the Agent chuckled. "Is that why Krauser is acting so strange around her?"

When the couple returned, Krauser had Amanda over his shoulder and he tried to shut her up by spanking her on the rear end. It didn't do any good. It only made her scream out blasphemies to the American soldier.

"Abuser of women! JERK! Big dumb scarred brute!" She pumped her fists at his back, but she was also smiling.

When the bigger man approached Leon, he dumped her on the ground. "Here, Leon, I think it's your duty to teach this bothersome flea a lesson. I've had it."

As she was dumped heartlessly on the ground, a pain on her backside, she started rubbing her butt. "Ow…you're so rough. Don't you have a gentle bone in that mutated big body of yours?"

She pulled out her tongue at him. "You'll be sorry that you dumped me here, Krauser!" She watched his retrieving back. And a sudden sense of loss overcame her.

Leon offered a hand to help her up her feet, but she ignored it. Amanda waited there a few moments more to see if Krauser was going to turn around. She waited a few more then realized: he wasn't coming back.

"Come on, let's go, Amanda. We gotta go find that serum, remember?"

Looking up at the handsome face of her savior, she nodded. "Okay." Then saw that Leon had her photo. "Oh…now you know..."

He smirked. "I guess. I put two and two together….but I don't know how he knows you?"

"Krauser was given information on me from his superiors. I'm sort of the side quest of the bargain, that's how he knows me. I mean, we don't know each other personally; however, I do know Krauser through the extensive files on him. The same way he knows about me. We're sort of opposites on this mission, but we are both after the same serum."

"Ah okay. Well, unfortunately we can't waste time chatting, so how about we work a little together to get to our objectives?"

Amanda nodded; a pristine smile on her face. Walking alongside with Leon, she blushed at the fact that at least she was going to be accompanied with a really handsome guy and a hero to boot. But that Krauser….her face scrunched up again.

In the silence of their stroll, Leon spoke, "You know, I hadn't had a chance to thank you for helping me out back there."

"You kidding? You're the one who helped me. Krauser was going to pulverize me!"

He snorted. "I doubt it."

"Oh, just because I look like his deceased wife? The older version of me? Besides, I'm prettier."

Leon gave her a sidelong glance. "Alright…." He said with a kind of hesitancy, not sure of her bold conceit or if she was joking.

"What? I have almond shaped eyes and I'm skinnier!"

Later that day, working together had proved beneficial, as Amanda crawled her way through small cracks and over gates to open up doors for Leon. This provided them access to the cabins and hidden underground facilities that housed many items for their adventure. They had a few run-ins with a few mutated creatures on the way, but Leon took care of that, while Amanda backed him up.

Then after all this time, Amanda let out a howl.

"AHHHH! That mother f-!"

"What is it?" Leon inquired curiously, stunned by the noisy shriek.

"Krauser took the special serum from under my sweater! The one I was taunting him with!"

"No wonder he eagerly dropped you off. He got what he wanted." Leon shook his head. "Where did you get that? And how long is the maximum health last up to while taking damage?" He was thinking of how Krauser could possibly get through Saddler's cult, even through Saddler's gross mutation without harm, thereby eliminating the cult leader easily.

"Not long. Unfortunately." She looked right at Leon, and they both thought of the same thing.

"His funeral." Leon shrugged. As much as Leon was all for helping out people, he's not a fool. Krauser can go jump off a pier for all he cared. The man has lost his humanity when he lost his wife, and took on the viral infection in his body. At first, he thought it might have been a Las Plagas infection, but realized the differences. He doesn't act like the others.

-X-


A/N: I'm using the RE files on Krauser, where it says he had a wife before he 'died',

and in the game, Leon wonders how he changed, from being one of the good guys to how he is now. Just a small use of plot from the game.