It's Leon. At least, it looks like him. Exactly like him. The same smooth hair, military shirt and cargo pants, slight stubble on his chin and upper lip. It's him but that makes no sense, because why would he be here, locked away from the rest of the mansion, while he's supposed to be trying to destroy Umbrella?
Claire swallows, her hands suddenly unsteady as she keeps her gun aimed at him, but it hurts that she has to do that at all. "L...Leon?" She calls to him and her voice sounds deafening in the quiet room.
He doesn't respond and she doesn't move closer.
"Leon?" She tries again, slightly louder this time. She startles when his head swings to the side and raises until his eyes are meeting hers. They're blue, just like they're supposed to be, but she can't trust it yet. He groans and his arms jerk in their restraints but he doesn't fight it. She gives him a moment to blink a few times, a few coughs coming out as well, before he finally looks like he's able to think a little clearer.
"Claire?" His voice is soft and slightly rough and it breaks her heart, but she doesn't move closer to him. "What...what are you doing here? I thought..." He closes his eyes tight for a moment before blinking again. "I thought you were on the island."
So he remembers that. He remembers betraying them, locking her and Ashley away in the middle of the sea. He remembers all of that, but something feels different. She isn't afraid of him or what he'll do. She isn't scared anymore.
"Ashley?" He looks at the other visitor this time, his face looking genuinely confused. "How did you two...get here?"
"We escaped." Claire states it with a frustrated edge. "No thanks to you." She wants to call him an asshole or something, but it doesn't come out. "How about you answer some of my questions? Why the hell are you tied up?"
"I..." He trails off again, responding irritatingly slow. She has half a mind to force it out of him but he looks so lost that she can't bring herself to do it. His eyes clear a little more and he looks afraid. "Oh on. Oh, Claire. I'm so sorry. I didn't-" He lowers his head again, hiding his eyes from them. "I didn't mean to do any of this."
She fights the urge to feel sympathy for him. He could be manipulating them again, pretending to be in trouble, and then backstab them the moment they get close. So, she hardens her glare. "What do you mean?"
He looks up again and his eyes are pleading. "I...I didn't want to hurt you. I would never hurt you guys! But the Plaga..." He shakes his head. "It wasn't me."
Claire can't fight it anymore. Her heart wants to reach out to him too badly. She stops herself from going right up to him, from pulling him into a hug, but she does lower her weapon. "It wasn't you? You mean you weren't conscious during all of that?" Her words hold no resentment, no bitterness. She just wants to understand.
"No. No, It was me. Mentally, it was. But..." He groans again, his arms jerking a second time before they relax. "It's like I'm thinking through a filter. Through the Plaga's mind. I feel the same, like I'm myself, but I don't want the same things. I want to hurt people and destroy and...I'm so sorry."
"Then how are you thinking clearly now? You're obviously not trying to hurt us." And as she says it, she realizes that he couldn't even if he tried. He's chained up and can't even reach down to scratch his own nose, let alone throw an attack their way. "How did you gain control back?" She can't help but feel hopeful.
He hesitates for a moment before looking at the window. "The Plaga gets weaker when it's hit with UV rays. That's why Saddlar never really went outside and when he did, it was at night. The same happens with me. When the sun comes up, I get more control." He coughs. "But it can't hide behind doors anymore. It's grown weak after I killed Saddlar, so even in a darkly hidden room, I gain a small amount of control back."
Ashley steps forward. "Then why are you here?"
"Because it knows I'll mess with its plans. Well, my plans. The version of me I become when I lose it."
Claire nods slowly. After a year, the infected Leon caught on that he could only progress at night, so he locks himself up before then. Which means that he's stuck here until the night falls again. Unless they get him out and Claire plans to do just that.
Ashley suddenly steps forward and Claire can't reach out to her before the girl is sitting right in front of him. He looks up, surprised that she's so close, but she doesn't back away. "Leon, we'll save you from this. We'll get the Plaga out of you and return you home."
But he starts shaking his head, a sad frown on his lips. "You can't. It's too late for me." When Ashley opens her mouth to protest again, he interrupts. "We both know that once the Plaga has fully matured, there's no saving someone. I'm lucky to have a few lucid moments like this but there's no way to take it out without killing me too."
"What?!" Claire steps forward as well, her heart dropping with his words. "What do you mean?! Luis said-"
"Luis knows better than anyone that I'm right." And suddenly, Leon sounds just like he did after Raccoon City. When he promised that they'd take out Umbrella, no matter what it cost. She always admired his determination and still does. It's so uniquely him that she aches to see it. She's really missed him.
But that also means that there's no way to get him back. That they'll have to kill him eventually and Claire doesn't think she has the strength to do that. Even if he's infected and half-insane, she can't...
"I'm sorry." Leon repeats. "I never would've wished this on you. Either of you. It's just cruel that things have to end this way, but there are no other options. If you don't stop me, a lot of people are going to die, both good and bad. I don't want to do that."
Claire kneels in front of him as well, right next to Ashley. She lays a hand on his shoulder and hopes it's reassuring. "I know, Leon. We won't let you hurt anyone else." But a question still remains and she catches his eyes before asking, "What if we got you out, though? You could end this with us, could stop your own work. You still have half the day before the Plaga takes over again." Please. They need his help.
He shakes his head. "If I start wandering around, my control will fluctuate too much. I could slip for a second or two and hurt you." And she sees the pain in his eyes as he says it. Claire can't imagine how he feels, knowing that he's already hurt them. No wonder he's so overwhelmed with guilt.
"Okay." Is all she can bring herself to say. They'll leave him here and destroy his work before he can stop them himself. They have to. She feels sick from the gun in her hand and knowing that she might've used it on him. But she will have to eventually.
He won't make it back home.
Just as she begins to think about leaving the room, not wanting to waste more of their precious time -she'd much rather spend these few moments with him, though- Leon speaks again. "Go to the research lab. That's where I keep all of my main projects. Krauser carries the key to it, but if you can get it off of him somehow, then you'll get a clear shot of succeeding."
"Thank you." Ashley smiles, her hands wrapping around him as best they can. She holds him tight and Claire bets that if he could, he would return it even tighter. "Thank you for everything, Leon." Her voice wavers slightly.
A smile crosses his face and he leans his head against hers. "I'm lucky I got to meet you, Ashley. You're a brave girl."
Claire can't stop herself from joining in. She lets out a broken sob as she holds him as well. This close, she can hear Ashley's sniffled cries, but they're faint. She can't judge because Claire is seconds away from becoming a mess as well. "I'm sorry we couldn't save you, Leon. I'm sorry."
He shushes her softly and she feels like a kid again. The phantom feeling of strong arms covering her makes her shiver. She so badly wishes she could unchain him, just to feel his embrace again, but it's too risky. He said so himself. "It's okay. Just promise that you'll kick my ass for me, alright?"
They both let out a wet laugh and it's the only thing keeping Claire from sobbing again. He's never been very funny, but he always made her laugh regardless. She'll miss that too, she knows. She isn't prepared to live without him because the past year has been horrible for her. There were many nights she couldn't sleep because she'd see him in her dreams. It would be something so simple, like their movie nights or a full get-together. Something so normal at the time, but she'd wake up sobbing so hard, she'd lose her voice. Claire doesn't want that again. She doesn't want to grieve.
"I love you two so much." His voice is a whisper, barely audible at all, but it makes Claire break apart. She holds him tighter and cries into his shoulder. She's suddenly so scared of the future and wants nothing more than to freeze time and live here forever.
But she made a promise to protect the people he's about to kill, so she reluctantly lets go. She doesn't bother wiping her eyes and just smiles at him instead, hoping it can show him just how much she loves him as well. She's never had a closer friend and she likely never will. He returns the smile and she knows he understands it. He always was good at understanding her.
Eventually, Ashley pulls away too and Claire stands them both up. They're sniffling and swallowing back more emotion, but they have to move on. They have to get that key and save Luis as well, wherever he is. Shouldering her gun, Claire gives him another look before she leaves. He's still smiling and she feels the urge to go right back and hug him for longer, but she can't. She guides Ashley toward the door and only stops when Leon calls after them one more time.
"Tell Luis and the others that I'm sorry."
Claire isn't sure who all else he's speaking about, but she nods and files it away for later. At least she knows Luis is definitely a live. It's reassuring.
They leave the room and close it with a soft click. She makes it back into the throne room just fine with Ashley right beside her. They now have a clear goal and it shouldn't be too difficult to find someone who's already looking out for them. It'll be like searching for a tyrant. Actually, that's scarily accurate, but she's seen a tyrant die before. Krauser will die too.
Ada fell asleep again, which is fine by Luis. She needs her strength, even if she doesn't do much besides just laying there. At least the cushion under her hips is helping to ease some of her pain. With no other assignments from Leon or Krauser, Luis finds himself searching for more things to put under her. Really, he should find bandages to wrap around the sores themselves so they don't get infected and have at least a little chance to heal over, but he doubts he can do that without someone else noticing. And that could spell trouble for both of them.
"Que desastre." Luis sighs in exasperation. This situation really does suck, but there's nothing more he can do.
Carrying an armful of extra sheets and a few smaller bandages, Luis returns to Ada's side and lifts parts of her carefully to slide something underneath. He doesn't worry so much about her elbows and wrists, since they aren't quite as bad, but he does cushion her head, shoulders, and the back of her heels. He then disinfects each stop and places some moleskin patches around as much of the area as he can. The sores look disgusting but it's not the worst he's seen. Still gross, though.
With that finished, Luis goes back to sitting against the wall. For how eager Leon sounded about getting Las Plaga out to Umbrella, he sure is taking his time to give Luis assignments. Reanimating Diego's body wasn't even very difficult, as sad as that is. The longest part was just waiting for the damned parasite to hatch and then fully grow. But now that that's done, he's left to just think and waste his time. It bothers him to no end, especially when he could be helping Ashley and Claire in whatever they're doing. Probably escaping. Hopefully.
"Maybe we should have played along with Leon's game." Luis mutters to himself. "He would show us his plans and wherever he finds Las Plaga to infect his little puppets with, and then we could've taken him by now." He sighs again. "But no. You had to go running your estúpido mouth. You made a dangerous enemy and now, you're trapped here with Ada Wong of all people. Good thinking."
A second later, the door to the room bursts open and Luis jumps to his feet. All of his calm from before is lost as he watches Krauser get closer. He's holding several bodies on his shoulder and now, Luis regrets complaining about his boredom. He'd much rather lay around all day than help to spread this parasite. Especially to so many new bodies.
The bodies are dropped in a pile to the side and Luis makes an attempt to get more out of the undead Americano. "Are you just making me build your army? That seems like a waste of my expertise." He regrets the last part immediately. You idiota! He's going to report back to Leon and then Luis will really be doing things he doesn't want to!
But Krauser doesn't move, his eyes staying on the smaller man. For a moment, Luis thinks he'll just turn and walk away, but then a large arm pulls one of the bodies out of the little pile and slams them down on the same table Diego had been. The blonde points to them and glares. "Take out las plaga and harvest the eggs. Then store the parent for later. We'll need it." And then Krauser leaves, shutting the door.
Luis doesn't move for a moment, his heart still erratic from the Americano's surprise visit. And the fact that he will, indeed, be doing more things he really doesn't want to doesn't help either.
It's possible for him and he knows how to carefully extract almost every single egg without rupturing even one, but they will all go to Leon. They'll be used again on someone else. And if the number of eggs from five different Plaga are added up...well, Leon will have his outbreak soon enough. That's for sure.
"Mierda!" Luis runs a hand down his face, suddenly feeling very tired. He should've kept to what he was doing. Repairing mutilated bodies and then reanimating them. It's so much easier than this. There's less guilt when the person he's infecting is already dead.
He wishes Ada were awake now, just so he could talk to her about something else. He needs the distraction from what he's doing, but she isn't so he just picks himself up and walks to the table. The face isn't familiar at least, but it's a small victory. This person also looks significantly less modern than Diego did, which means this was probably one of the Ganado from before. Just perfect.
With nothing but muscle memory, Luis starts the procedure. He gathers twenty test tubes, as well as a few other tools needed for this kind of thing. Thankfully, the eggs aren't nearly as small as human ones and he can extract them with the naked eye. And as he cuts open the chest cavity and restrains Las Plaga with metal hooks, he begins to carefully open its carrying sack.
The process of pulling each egg out and then putting them into individual test tubes is tedious and achingly slow, but he's an expert. He knows just how much pressure is needed before the outside breaks and the egg is lost. He knows how to keep them from slipping away or how to work around Las Plaga's occasional spasms. It kind of reminds him a bit of that weird bubble tea that got popular in Madrid.
Actually, that's a horrible thing to compare this to and he will erase that from his mind. And also never drink bubble tea.
With the first plaga emptied of its eggs, Luis grabs a pair of medical forceps and holds the slit closed. It takes only seconds for Las Plaga to heal itself from the injury and once it's done, he unhooks its limbs. The parasite begins moving fully again and it nearly crawls out of the open hole in the chest, but Luis grabs it -with his thicker gloves, because he still has scars from only using the latex ones- and puts it into a side cooler with UV lights inside. It'll keep the little cabrona weakened until he can figure out what exactly Leon wants him to do with it. It's not like he can just inject this into someone else and even if he tried introducing it to an open chest, the parasite would reject it and try to leave again. Perhaps Leon doesn't know that? Most likely.
As he prepares the first body to be taken away, if Krauser plans to come back at any time to dispose of it -if he doesn't, this lab will get very crowded- Luis begins to awkwardly gather the next one into his arms and pulls it onto the table as best he can. It flops about and its legs bend in odd angles that make it difficult to get up. It doesn't help that this one is heavier than the last or that Luis never had to do this part before. Someone else usually changed out his "patients".
He finally gets it on and ignores how its arms are basically pinned underneath its body and the legs are open wide. He just needs the chest clear. That's it.
Luis goes to clean his utensils -not because he needs to, but because he'd rather not muddy his tools with layers of blood- and he suddenly hopes that Ada's Plaga isn't so far along that he'll end up doing this to her as well. Leon will most likely have her join his ranks, just as he did with Krauser, but she's also useless to him besides the information she holds. He could easily just throw her away once she's fully turned.
It leaves a really bad taste in his mouth. A horrible one, in fact. There's nothing Luis can really do for her, especially without his UV equipment. He'll watch her slowly lose herself and then fall victim to whatever Leon uses her for.
He realizes that maybe that's worse than the torture he'll receive if he leaves the room. That maybe, trying to escape with her is worth it.
Couldn't find a good place to fit this, so it's down here.
Spanish translation:
Que desastre = What a mess
estúpido = stupid
cabrona = fucker
