Leon woke up screaming from a terrible nightmare in which he saw himself turning into a zombie.
"Easy now, cowboy." Said Youji who was standing near the window, smoking. "Just don't go ballistic all over me." Leon looked all around. They were in the cabin he barely managed to see from outside before passing out. Outside, the night had covered the land and no sound could be heard at all. "Nice nap you got. You slept for nearly six hours"
"Was it that long"
"Sure it was. Abyssinian was considering the option of leaving you behind... Better call your people. That damn device of yours has been bipping every now and then. It took from me not to squash it against a wall."
Speaking of the devil, Hunnigan called again.
"Leon. It's been 6 hours since out last transmission. I was starting to get worried"
"Don't you mean lonely?" said the agent on a teasing tone. "Anyway, I started to feel dizzy. And then I guess I must have lost consciousness"
"Lost consciousness? Maybe it has some connection to what the village chief was talking about"
Youji had been paying attention. This particular thing he found it very interesting.
"Can't say. But I'm all right now. I'm gonna continue my mission."
"What did the village chief tell you?" asked Youji once the conversation ended.
Right then Aya entered the room and looked at Leon, then at Youji.
"/He had just woke up and contacted his people./" the blonde reported. Then Aya looked back at Leon.
"Well..." Leon hesitated a bit. The redhead's presence made him uneasy.
"when I 'met' the chief, he was about to break my neck but he let me go saying that apparently I carried the same blood as them. I don't know what that means"
The information didn't draw any reaction at all from the Weiss leader, and Leon took that lack of emotion as 'pondering the situation'. Maybe he knew something Leon didn't?
"Any other interesting information"
"What do you know about this?" said Leon weary.
Aya looked intensely at Leon, but after a brief moment, he took a bunch of papers from the pocket of his coat and gave them to the agent.
"El Gigante..." mumbled Leon. 'What kind of enemy would that be? Its waiting for us'
"I know there's some kind of religious cult involved. They are called 'Los Iluminados' and I bet this guy Lord Saddler - whoever he is - is the one behind everything; I've heard many villagers call his name, especially when the bells from the church tolled. Chief Mendez must be only another of his followers here. That's all"
"'The enlighten'? Claver name, pretty original." said Youji with sarcasm.
"Think you can follow?" said Aya.
Leon nodded and stood up. Aya just turned around and both Youji and Leon followed him.
"Where is Siberian"
"He went to the cave at the other corner of the lake. He is on his way back"
"What did you do all the time I was out?" asked Leon as a boat approached.
"The same as you. We all needed it too." answered Youji.
Then Ken arrived, He was carrying a brand new rifle.
"Wow, you found another merchant.", Ken didn't quite got the message but didn't asked for translation. They headed north from the cabin, where there was another locked gate. Again Youji worked his magic to open it.
At the other side of it two villagers were waiting. Youji still had the handgun and his first reaction was to shoot them down, but he didn't got the time. He was petrified by horror when their heads got swollen and exploded like a soap bubble. They all expected the bodies to drop down and melt, but instead they grew tentacles where their heads once stood. Even Aya got scared, but unlike the others, he sprang into action.
"Shoot them down!" he said taking the handgun from Youji and pulling the trigger savagely. The sound of the loads made the other's react. Just as said, Leon shoot those things down using the shotgun.
"/What the bloody hell were those things?/" said Youji before Aya gave him again the handgun.
"/Enemies./" said Aya coldly, So kill them as soon as you see them next time was the complete message and Youji got it perfectly. He was a professional and they were all in danger. A mistake like being frozen solid out of panic would get them killed and the hostages too.
No more mistakes allowed. Normally it would be Ken the one to get stunned like that but not him... Which made him wonder if such thing had happened. He turned around looking for his partner... Yeah, he was really disturbed. First Del Lago and now people whose heads explode and grow tentacles. Ken was having a really hard time and being a fan of horror movies didn't helped him one bit.
"/Let's go, Siberian./" called Youji to his still startled comrade. The familiar voice finally sank in and Ken shook his head to get rid of any bad impressions.
"/Let's do this./" he said a bit more cheerful. "/No more fooling around./"
By then Aya was climbing up a ladder with Leon behind him. "So, who are you loking for in here?" asked Leon to no one in particular.
"Two girls who were abducted back in Japan..." answered Youji "and also a comrade, Bombay. We lost him in the woods near the village; your friend, the chief, got him"
"And who are the girls"
"Not of your business" Aya ended the conversation
The four of them arrived at a gated river with a walkway a little above the water lever to cross current to the other side. It didn't seem secure enough to Aya, at least not in the darkness.
"/Siberian./" called the leader. "/Examine this"
Ken walked to the front of the group and lowered his goggles to his eye level. He pushed a little hidden button on one side and crouched down to look at the walkway. "/Looks good enough for me." said the brunette standing up a little puzzled, pushing the same button again and pulling away his goggles.
"/This destruction over here, maybe it was done by some power tearing the walkway down, a huge weight placed right on the spot... But the remainings look solid enough./"
That was all Aya needed to know. The stepped forward and tested the walkway endurance. It didn't even made a single creak under Aya's weight. It was as a secure as any nearly tore off water gate walkway could be. They kept walking until they reached a sudden end of the road, a kind of cliff. From a pole on the stonewall to the left hung a rope going down all the way to the bottom. Pressed against the wall and with the others right behind him and imitating him, Aya peeked downwards. The fall was large from his point of view.
A few things concerned Aya. The first one was their actual position. Though they were high enough to have certain advantage over an attack from bellow, the tables will turn around when they were descending. Once on the wall they would be totally vulnerable. "/Siberian, take a look around. Use the rifle scope too"
Ken again lowered his goggles and laid flat on the floor. He pressed the same button on the goggles and looked around, first without the scope, then with it. After finishing, he pressed a different button and proceeded like before. "/Clear"
"/Cover us./" ordered Abyssinian He then proceeded to test the pole pushing it down. It didn't move. But will the rope resist their way down? "Balinese, use your cable and go ahead. Leon, please follow Youji using the rope"
"Wanna test it?" said Leon not waiting for an answer, hanging the shotgun on his back and following Youji, who was already tying the wire to the pole.
The descend was quick. Youji was supposed to help Leon in case something happened to the rope, but they came down to the bottom without any trouble. Aya had been looking at them, at the pole and at the rope, for any signals of problems but nothing happened. So he took the rope and went down; he was damn fast about it. As soon as he was down, Siberian followed them.
They soon arrived to another part of town. Whether this place belonged to the previous village or not was unknown but they found out that quickly enough as a flying axe missed Ken's head by mere millimeters thanks to his sharp reflexes. In the blink of an eye, Youji turned to the direction the axe came from and shot. Apparently he didn't aim, but a corpse fell from the nearby tower to Leon's amazement. The assassin shot the man two more times until his remains dissolved.
Aya made Ken a signal, so the shorter man climbed up to the place where his attacker had been. There, he inspected the surroundings as far as he could see. "/Clear./"
He went down and joined the others further into that place. There was no one around.
"/Where are we, anyway?/" said Ken when they found nothing of interest there.
There was this lone construction in the middle of nowhere. It had electrical service but also used pretty primitive machinery. Dividing the place was a river which came from a cascade at the other side from where they were and behind them was another water gate which let the water flow but not marking the limit of the construction and that was it.
"/Judging by the water gate we crossed previously, and the location of this weird station, I think this might be some kind of dam system or something to control the running waters direction./ Leon, please show me you map". As he was asked, Leon took out the map and showed it to the Weiss team. "Look, here's the water gate, and here we are now; both water branches come from the same river. And check this out, there's some kind of passage on the cascade direction." The three English speakers looked at the waterfall but there was no sign of any road next to it, nor a way to go up. "Where should the road be"
Aya studied the surroundings before attempting to ask. "Behind the waterfall."
Both Youji and Leon looked at him waiting for a more detailed explanation. "This area is higher than the place where we passed the water gate. We must find a way to open that gate so the water takes that detour and stops coming here."
"So water stops falling and we can see what's behind it, good." though Youji aloud.
"We have already registered all this part of the place. We are only missing what's on the other side of the stream. How do we get there?" asked Leon.
"/Shoot those down./" Aya pointed at some crates hanging from ropes just above the current. Both Youji and Ken looked at them.
"/The crates?/" asked Ken confused. He was starting to hate not understanding much English.
"/The ropes./" said Youji getting the message and aiming for his target. "/Don't break the crates. Let's hope they float./" Both Youji and Ken shot with the handgun and the rifle respectively and the crates fell neatly to the water. The current dragged them to the water gate where they stuck. The force of the river was pushing the crates holding them firmly against the gate, creating this way a fine bridge.
Youji crossed followed by Ken. They both registered the zone until they climbed up a platform. "/Here's a lever./" said Youji to Aya with the intercom "/I'll pull it"
He did so, and just as Aya expected, the cascade became thin until no more water fell at all. But right then, they were greeted by more villagers screams and threats.
"Mierda", "Forasteros", "AgŠrrenlos". Something like twenty of them came from a cave behind the waterfall. Youji hurried back as Ken started shooting them from the platform. Leon also shoot and little did Aya do but walk towards the entrance once all the enemies were down.
Far inside, it looked like they had reached a dead end, but Aya found a Round Insignia. According to what they all could remember about the church entrance, this thing would fit perfectly. The amatheist eyes sparkled in the dark like those of the cat breed he got his codename from. Absentmindedly, Leon called Ingrid.
"I've obtained an object that resembles the cult group's insignia." he said.
"Wonderful, Leon. Head back to the church. Ashley's safety is our immediate priority"
"Do you really have to report everything you do? It's not like she says anything you don't already know..." said Youji mockingly "Well, that's out of habit" answered Leon
They proceeded trough the door on the wall of the tunnel and came to.
"/The cave of the lake/" whispered Ken This time, Aya worked his way to the merchant's bargains and got some really good upgrades for all their weapons. He was also thinking of getting one himself but there was nothing that could fully convince him. They took the boat on the dock and rode all the way to the swampy area were the redhead blew up all the enemies with the dynamite floor traps.
"Siberian" called Aya "/guide us"
Ken nodded and for the third time he pulled his goggles down. Looking at how it was Siberian who led them through the night, Leon couldn't help but ask
"Are those some kind of night vision goggles or something?" He asked Youji "he actually has both heat and nighttime vision on those"
"Oh, I thought he just had a weird sense of fashion"
"we all thought that once"
Quickly enough they reached the little mining fortress were they found the basement merchant. But as soon as they stepped on the open field, the wooden doors fell on their places and locked up. then a huge iron gate on the stone wall creaked open.
"/Sweet, now what?/" mumbled Youji with disdain as a group of townspeople appeared They didn't attack them, because they were pulling some ropes. The team worried a lot when they heard a horrible roar coming from inside the cave.
"/what the hell...?/" Youji didn't even finished the sentence
"El Gigante" said Aya frowning "/The Giant"
There was no need to ask from explanations since a huge monstrosity came out of the cave, growling, roaring and crushing all the villagers as if they were mere insects. "/Was this some kind of trap?/" asked Ken "/One that blew up in their ugly faces.../" answered Youji It turned towards the team after having killed all the townsfolk and when his terrible hand didn't squash anything as it hit the hard floor - everyone dodged in time -, he got even more angry.
"Shoot him down!" ordered Aya as he made a run to call the monster attention. He had on him most of the grenades they had found along the road, so he used them wisely. Leon with the shogun had to be very close to the monster to really make him any damage. Ken was far away aiming the riffle. Youji helped Aya distract the thing.
With all the shoots he took - a considerable amount of - the monster was brought to his knees with an evil tentacle thing sprouting from his back as a sinister blossom of death. Aya saw his opportunity. He dashed towards the beast and climbed to his back grabbing one of the revolting appendixes. Silver flashes slashed through the putrid and stinking flesh on a deadly dance, sticky fluids splashing all around.
The giant roared in pain once more and stood up. In order to avoid a nasty fall, Aya drove his blade into the swollen flesh. But the creature tried to shake him off. Bullets from his friends' guns spat all over the beast, but it didn't keep it from finally grabbing Aya . The man had managed to take out one last grenade just before the living abomination tried to crush him to a bloody pulp; so when Aya was face to face with it, he threw the grenade to that blue deformed visage. It was a flash grenade, Aya didn't saw what kind it was when he took it, but it startled the beast enough to let go of the Weiss leader almost unharmed. Aya fell and rolled away while his partners still shoot the monster. It was brought to his knees a second time and Aya swore this was it.
Again the redhead climbed to where his sword and the tentacles were. Furiously enough, he dragged out his sword from the main body and chopped down every single bit of the disgusting thing. A last roar was heard from the giant and it moved no more.
Aya's legs gave away under his own weight, so he had no more alternative than to sit on the wide-as-a-log neck. From Leon's point of view, it was as if someone had unplugged the redhead from his energy supply. The hell if he was exhausted... And damn dirty.
"Abyssinian, daiyobu desu ka?" called Youji concerned "Shimpai nai" the redhead answered
Curious as he was, Youji climbed up to were his friend was only to look at the remainings of the huge thing "/nice chopping/" he said looking around. Aya glared to him dangerously but the full impact of it was lost since the blonde was pecking at the flesh with his boot. "/What's this?/" he said crouching near the damn wound. He inserted his gloved hand a little inside the wound on a way it made Aya's stomach unsettle. Aya stood up like lightning and turned to go when the blonde laughed.
"/what's your damage, Balinese?/" growled Aya annoyed "/lend me your sword/" said Youji still looking at whatever he had found "/no way"
Smiling weirdly Youji turned to Leon "Hey, cowboy, lend me you knife"
Not knowing what was going on, Leon gave his knife to Youji. The Japanese blond stabbed the corpse and pushed the knife to the side, making the wound bigger. Then he used the knife to bring something to the surface. A golden sparkle captured everyone's attention.
"/What kind of sick people hide gold ingot inside a monster like this?/" said Ken "/there's more in there... Want me to take it out?/" Youji grinned at Aya. The redhead only turned around disgusted. Youji interpreted that as an 'As you please'. So he continued. Somehow he was amused as how Aya had reacted, so he couldn't stop grinning. Gold was still gold, and he didn't though the merchant would reject it. Maybe they could buy something bigger this time.
When Youji finished and they turned around they found no trace of Aya. Both Ken and Youji were slashed with a sudden fear, but Youji thought about it twice. He took the gold and went towards the merchant basement with the others following him.
The sudden contraction of his stomach was a mere reflex. Aya hadn't eaten anything in the whole day so it was completely empty. He went towards the basement where he had seen a water barrel the first time they went in. He asked about it to the merchant and the man said he could use it at will. Aya found a piece of cloth laying around and used the water to soak it and clean himself up - obviously enough, he didn't introduced the cloth on the barrel, but rather inclined it. That way he washed his face, his hands, his sword and his coat too. He didn't mind his boots enough to care about sticky stains and of course he dried up his sword right away.
Then Aya felt an almost an irrational urgency to take a bath - which would be more likely impossible given the circumstances. Then he was reminded of a time when he was told by Ken about having some kind of cleaning obsession... 'If Ken had got this all over, he would be the one with OCD' Aya though a bit angry. Then he heard the others coming.
"/Would you care to tell us when you wander off?/" said Youji angry Aya saw three golden bars on his hands. The only thing he could do was turn to the exit with a scowl in his face.
Youji didn't bought anything. He rather cleaned himself and the golden bars, and followed Aya, the same as the rest.
Once outside Ken lead them back to the church but he stopped his rush at the bridge.
"/There is something up ahead.../" he whispered "/I couldn't see exactly what it was.
"/with which vision do you saw it?/" asked Aya.
"/both, but barely. Better with the nighttime vision.
Aya nodded telling them to continue. Leon asked Youji in a low voice what had happened, but the other answered he didn't know either, but they better be ready for a welcome committee
The three Weiss members moved quickly and quietly, almost as if they were Leon's shadows. Suddenly Ken readied the riffle and shoot. "Leon!" he called taking cover along with Youji and Aya, while a pained howl was heard piercing the night
Leon moved forward preparing the shotgun "/what is it?/" asked Youji "Mutant wolves?!" answered Leon when he saw them running for them Both Ken and Leon shoot the animals. Youji and Aya protected their backs. One of the gross wolves grew tentacles on his back and one of those slashed Ken on a leg. That didn't kept him from shooting. No more enemies appeared and soon enough the beast were a bubbling muddy spot on the road.
"/Are you ok, Siberian?/" asked Aya "Yeah, its just a scratch"
Without further incidents they reached the church.
"/I don't quite like the idea of entering by the main door/" said Ken when Aya placed the round insignia on the hole in the door and opened it.
Aya peeked inside. Despite there were no windows - and what did it matter anyway since it was nighttime - the place had very good illumination thanks to the many candelabra with lighten up candles. Thanks to their light, Aya could see that the building was rather crammed with long seats at both sides of a old ruined red carpet leading to a stone altar on a dais at the back. Though the place looked like it could use some maintenance there were some golden objects scattered around the pulpit. The most important thing was: there was no one around. Aya even stood quietly listening to be sure, but there were no sounds of any kind.
Not liking it one bit, the redhead dragged his sword out and entered the place without fully opening the door. It could be a trap, so he decided to investigate before letting his partners enter. Sword in hand he slowly walked towards the podium... Still, he couldn't spot any threat.
"/Come in/" he said through the intercom and others came in closing the door behind them.
The team registered the place fully. Aya discovered a hidden ladder going up to the second floor. It was a walkway all around the church but a section of it was blocked by some iron bars, diving the second floor in two, and behind them, there was wooden door. The hostages, if any, had to be there.
All of them looked for something to open a way through the bars - a button, a lever, any weird hidden mechanism -, but they found nothing. Unwilling to give up, Aya realized they hadn't searched the section of the second floor right across from where he stood. But there was no way to reach that place, the iron bars blocked the walkway and there was no ladder on the other site. Unless...
Aya jumped out of the second floor's ledge, for everybody complete astonishment, and landed on the huge chandelier.
"/You think you are the phantom of the opera?/" said Youji from below, and quickly went towards a wall to take cover in case the huge thing fell down.
Aya jump gave the chandelier the right momentum for him to jump again and land perfectly on the former inaccessible side of the walkway.
"/Found something?/" asked Ken.
"The lightning control panel." there was nothing more, but when he said that the others noticed the RGB projections on the wall above the altar.
"/Why do they waste candles when they have electricity?/" mumbled Youji "/Those are cheaper?/" guessed Ken from the second floor.
Apart from the classical on/off button, the control panel had another four labeled 'Red', 'Green', 'Blue' and 'Combine'. There was also a rotating switch labeled 'Rotate'
"Is something the matter?" asked Leon.
Aya didn't answered. He was studying closely the prismatic projections. He had a theory of how the stuff worked, but he wasn't quite sure, so he pressed the combine button. Then the 3 lights merged on a single distorted picture, but after a brief moment they went back to their original positions.
'/Bingo/' he though.
"What was that?" asked Leon but again he had no response.
Aya selected a color pushing the button he wanted, and rotated the projection with the switch. He kept doing that until, he was satisfied and again pressed the combine button.
This time the lights merged perfectly on a white beam, projecting the cult insignia over the altar "/Crazy bastard/" mumbled Youji when the iron bars were removed.
Aya didn't move, both Ken and Leon approached the door while Youji climbed the ladder.
"Now!" a voice screamed when Ken opened the door.
"/Hey, watch it/". A small wooden crate could have hit his head if he hadn't reacted quickly enough to destroy it with the blades of his bugnuks.
"Don't come!" another piece of good flew towards Leon, but he catch it in midair "Take it easy!" he said to the pair of girls in there and.
"KENKEN!" A boy said wide-eyed in disbelief "/You came for us.
"Omitchi..." Answered the other man.
"Ken-san" said one of the girls, the brunette, teary-eyed already.
"who are you?" asked the blond girl.
"Calm down. Everything's going to be just fine. My name's Leon, I'm under the President's order to rescue you"
"What? My father"
"That's right, and have to get you out of here. Come with me."
"Sakura-chan..." said the older brunette. There was not real happiness on either of them "/Aya-san and Youji-san too?/" she said when the other two appeared in the door "/Why are all of you here? Why are all of you dressing like that?/". Let's say there was a bit of apprehension on her voice.
Yeah, Omi had been held capture with the two girls all along, but it seemed they didn't talked a lot. Omi just couldn't confess everything to Sakura all by himself.
"/Uhm, Sakura-chan... We are Aya's colleagues.../" the boy managed to say.
"/The flower shop its only our cover/" added Ken.
"/Then.../" whatever she was going to say, Aya interrupted.
"/why?/" the man was emotionless as ever. Was he angry or something? He even had his eyes shut. "/Why did you switched places with my sister? Your life could've been in danger.
The girl didn't looked at him, she rather looked down all blushed up. "/Because I wanted to do something for you. Because... I love you"
Aya opened his eyes, at last something showed up on them: hurt and sorrow. He couldn't look back at her either, so he looked away. "/I'm a killer, Sakura-chan.../".
"/No!/" she said turning to him. He was surprised for the passion on her voice "/I understand now... You fight for the good of all of us.
"/There's no good or bad when it comes to killing/" said Youji.
"/But I believe in all of you... In Aya-san.../" she hid her face with her hands, tears raining down as sobs shook her frame a little. The four guys looked as if they were in a funeral, so solemn, so sad.
"/Arigatou/" said Aya breaking the uneasy silence and placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. No one had ever heard him use such soft and comforting tone of voice. "I was able to see my sister because of you." Aya got closer to Sakura with both hands on her shoulders. "/Once I save my sister, I will tell you my story/". His eyes were sincere and warm.
"Aya-san..." even Sakura was speechless, because she had never seen him like that "/It's Ran. My real name its Ran/". The three other men looked at each other. Not even them knew his leader real name until now despite they were well aware Aya was his sister's name.
The little girl's smile was brighter than the summer sun on a clear day. "/let's go/" He said and she nodded Ken offered his jacket to Sakura - thanks to Youji's discrete suggestion -, since the night was cold and she was wearing only a white sleeveless dress.
Leon and Ashley were confused, they didn't get what was going on. But the agent took the intercom and contacted Hunnigan.
"It's Leon. I've succeeded in extricating my subject"
"Good work, Leon. I'll send a chopper over right away"
"What's the extraction point"
"There's another trail that you can take to get out of the village. The chopper will pick you up beyond there"
"Got it. I'm on my way."
They all went out of the room totally skipping presentations. Leon noticed the other girl's smile lifted everyone's mood a bit... Except for the boy. A weird shadow was cast over him. He looked away to the void; his huge blue eyes betraying a little sorrow. No one could imagine - and Leon couldn't have known - that Aya's... Or rather Ran's little promise to Sakura, reminded him of the one he had cared the most but he had failed to protect. Sakura's smile reminded him of that from his own little sister Ouka-chan. And the memory hurt deep inside.
Well, at first Leon though no one noticed, but.
"Ikimasu, Bombay..." called Aya almost in the same soft voice he had talked to the girl 'He is Bombay???' Leon though. 'He is just a boy.
Such boy just looked up at his teammate. Maybe Aya understood.
"/This time we'll finish business for sure/" he said.
That was a promise too. Omi dared to hope for an end to all this misery. The dark cloud disappeared as he joined the others outside.