Leon S. Kennedy
Leon couldn't believe his eyes as he looked at the Raccoon Police Department! He was home! He wanted to laugh, cry and jump for joy! It was surreal, Leon crouched to his knees and touched the ground, he listened to the sirens and helicopters in the distance. He wasn't dreaming. Leon only allowed himself a small smile of relief, although he was home he couldn't celebrate yet. He still didn't have his gears or weapons and it made him feel like he was stripped naked.
Leon takes a moment to compose himself, he remembers the undead, the tall man walking around trying to catch him, the lickers in the hallways and he remembers Ada. He needed to get back to her quickly. He doesn't know how long he's been gone, he just hopes she's okay but he has a feeling she can handle herself and he knows she wouldn't waste her time waiting around for him. He looks up and sees the moon shining and bright. It makes him think about Jake, Claudette, Dwight and Meg and he frowns; he wonders if he accidentally inhaled whatever chemical the lab had laying around and had a fever dream about the whole thing. His Intuition starts screaming at him but he ignores it, Right now Raccoon City needs him.
He enters the main hall and walks towards the front desk and everything looks.. the same? Leon couldn't put his thumb on it but the atmosphere and the details feels off. Behind the front desk was a large pallet in an upright position and to his left was a large metal engine with blinking floodlights. That was new.. He wonders if he's been out for a long while now and more people must have been passing through moving stuff around. Someone must have cleared the area, as the last time he was here, it was swarming with so many of the undead and now they were nowhere to be seen.
He went to where he left Marvin behind, only for Leon to see a corpse shriveled up and dry like a mummy. The corpse laid exactly where Leon had left Marvin when he had mustered up the courage to put him down. He remembers when he came back to check on Marvin but only returned to a freshly turned undead. It was too late Marvin had just succumbed to his injuries, he was gray and white eyed,and he ignored its gaping bleeding wound and reached for Leon as he let out a bloody wet groan. Unlike the ease of taking out the other undead, it was the fact it was Marvin, made it harder to pull the trigger. He didn't want to leave Marvin like that, to potentially hurt someone, and he knew Marvin would never forgive him. He remembers the weight of the gun felt much heavier and the trigger harder to pull but his aim steady. BAM. The memory breaks Leon's heart all over again.
"Oh Marvin, I'm so sorry." Leon whispers to Marvin his voice almost cracks, he reaches for the knife Marvin had given him but he is reminded that someone took his gears and weapons when felt the knife holster empty. He sighs frustratedly and crouches next to the body, has he really been gone for this long? The body was dried and mummified. If it weren't for the body in the exact spot he had left Marvin he wouldn't have known it was Marvin's body. It's just something about the body that made Leon's skin crawl it was almost like the corpse was fake, made of plastic, he reached to touch it to confirm his suspicion but a voice interrupted him.
"Hello?"
Leon snaps his head around surprised he wasn't expecting anyone to be here. He sees a woman in a blue tank top, black pants, empty gun holster and a belt with the unmistakable STARS badge. The woman looks at Leon giving him a calculating stare down before her eyes soften. "This place is a mess. How long has it been? " she asked as she rubbed her temples and looked around the huge lobby. "You're STARS..." were the only words that slipped from Leon's mouth as he examined her from head to toes and his eyes stopped at her badge.
"I am…I'm Jill" The new face "Jill" introduces herself and crouches next to leon. He heard of STARS, The Special Tactics and Rescue Service. Highly elite tactical agents that operate in both anti terrorism and increasingly potent urban crime scenarios, as well as dealing with real emergencies. Leon remembers he gotten several recommendations to join once he got a few experiences at R.P.D. Meeting Jill, who was a STARS agent who belongs here, makes Leon feel better. A lot better. He was home and it only made his fever dream theory more believable.
"I'm Leon S. Kennedy ." he finally introduced himself and looked at the corpse sadly. "Its Marvin. He saved me..he told me I had to leave him behind.." Jill puts a hand on Leon's shoulder. "He said to save myself first." Leon looks at her calm face although calm he can see in her eyes the sadness she held for Marvin. "I knew Marvin, He was a good and solid cop. I know he wouldn't change a thing" her words brings a little comfort. The pair sat in mourning at the corpse who was once their partner. "Leon." Jill says in an authoritative voice, the same voice Marvin had used on him. Like how he would with all superiors Leon gave Jill his full attention and Jill stands on her feet.
"Do you know how long it's been? Since the start?" she asked and Leon thinks thoughtfully. The time from R.P.D to the lab was a blur. He remembers the plant monsters he was burning with the flamethrower deep in the lab and he went down a hatch after solving how to open the damn thing and then he went down and then nothing? But he clearly remembers the cold feeling, waking up in the forest and meeting the people at the campfire and then black cold fog consuming everything and then he was here. His Intuition starts screaming at him and Leon just shakes his head "No clue.. I just woke up back here."
Jill looks alarmed. "So did I…I was home and a tall ugly monster chased me all over town." She paused and looks around the lobby, skeptical about the whole situation. "Everything after that was a blur..but I woke up here." She huffed frustratedly. Leon's eyes widened as he recalled the tall monster and not to mention ugly as the agent described. "Tall and ugly sounds familiar." Leon says and looks at Jill as she hums. She opens her mouth to reply but the ground starts shaking.
STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!
Leon jumps to his feet as he and Jill look frantically around for what the hell was making the ground shake. Leon's heart starts pounding in his ears, there were many different monsters and undead that could make the earth shake, but the only thing that comes to mind was the tall gray man that chased him all around R.P.D and showed up again at Umbrella's labs. Jill and Leon see a woman in a beanie and a green tank top hop over the railing on the second floor, and like a cat lands gracefully and dashes past the stunned pair with Incredible speed.
But Leon's eyes are stuck on a HUGE tall ugly thing that was chasing the woman. There it stood big, towering and violent. It had stopped in its tracks at the same railing. Leon can't help cringe at its sight with its head and skin melted to its shoulder, crooked nose and no lips to hide its disgusting rows of teeth. Its body was wrapped tightly with black caution tape and a long tarp from its waist to its heavy combat boots.
The monster stared down at Jill and Leon..No..it didn't stare at Leon, it had its eyes locked on Jill. "Does that look familiar to you?" she asked almost wondering and unlike Leon she wasn't shocked at all by its menacing presence or appearance. "No, he wasn't that ugly" he said. His heart beats wildly and so loud it felt like it was going to burst.
STTARRRSSS! The tyrant roared as it steps over the railing and shakes the building as it lands on its feet. "LEON RUN!''Jill shouted. Leon didn't need to be told twice, as the tank of a monster started stomping their way. He turns around quickly and starts sprinting towards the west office where the beanie woman was last seen. He vaults over a railing covered with a yellow tarp and runs to the end of the desks. His heart pounding in his ear begins to slow down before it comes to a complete stop. The monster footsteps become quiet and he looks over his shoulder to see that Jill and the monster are nowhere in sight.
That monster wasn't anything like Leon had ever seen, he had been chased by the tall gray expressionless tyrant but he wasn't that big, he didn't speak or shake the earth when he ran. Leon couldn't help but worry for the STARS agent. His intuition stronger than ever tells him that Jill is being chased but she's holding her own. Generators, lights, escape, run a familiar cold whisper was sending him a cold reminder but he only shakes his head. He walks towards the safety deposit room from the west office. He was expecting to see the lickers but he only spots an undead woman with a red shirt down the hallway.
A loud noise comes to life in the distance and Leon decides to walk towards it. He avoids the undead woman by going back to the west office. He wanted to head back to the lobby and check out the noise and look for Jill but he stopped in his tracks in front of what was supposed to be his desk. His desk was pristine and untouched. Leon looks at the "Welcome Leon" banner and frowns. He wished he was here sooner to help as much as he could and he remembers the note and in bloody writing "glad you're not here, rookie." He feels his frustration slowly grow and he shakes his head. He shouldn't let his emotions get the best of him, not right now when Raccoon City, Claire, Ada and now Jill needs him.
A red locker catches his attention as the locker door slowly opens and the beanie woman slowly comes out from a row of lockers that were lined up against the wall. Leon was surprised as he had never seen those before. The woman only gives Leon a look before she starts walking towards the door at the end of the desk. "Wait!" Leon shouted and followed the strange woman. "Don't follow me. I don't have time for newbies." the woman said, irritated.
The woman had a flashlight in her hands and she didn't make a sound, she was cautious with her movement, and she stopped at every noise waiting and checking before going on the move again. She seemed like she had experience and Leon remembers how she jumped from the second floor and landed smoothly like a cat and then flew past Jill and him . Leon wonders if she was the person who cleared the undead or moved stuff around but he also noticed how she explored and checked every room as if she was mentally mapping the place. Leon and the woman made it around the undead woman in the hallway and headed up the stairs.
Leon also noticed how the Police station looked the same but wasn't the same. There were walls blown out, furniture completely blocking access to different areas, red lockers sometimes in rows, sometimes just one, and every once in a while they passed pallets in the same upright position as the one in the lobby. Not only that but something was wrong, this place doesn't feel like home, his intuition begins to poke at him but Leon ignores it. He looks at the woman "We should help Jill" he says but the woman ignores him as they both enter the library. Leon frowns and jogs to catch up with the woman and grabs her arm. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" but she jerks her arm away and glares at Leon.
"Listen Newbie" she hissed "I don't know what your camp people have taught you, but this isn't a game. Go make yourself useful and go find a gen and leave me alone." she spat and dismissed Leon with her hand as she exited the library to the lounge. What is it with Leon being scolded by everyone? First Ada, Meg and now this woman. He should've learnt his lesson with Ada the first time, when he grabbed her arm and she scolded him. He frowns and he does what he does best being stubborn and stubbornly follows the beanie woman. What did she mean by his camp people? Leon was sure he dreamt of the forest, the campfire with the crazy cult hippies and the endless moon.
He finds her again at the Identical metal engine like the one in the lobby. She was connecting wires as they spark and the machine pistons start moving slowly. "What are you doing?" he asked curiously. "They didn't teach you anything.." She sighs under her breath but he still heard her "This is a generator, fix it." she spat as she continued connecting the wires..of the generator? "Why?" He asked, feeling her Irritation radiating off her body makes him feel so clueless.
She glares at him "You fix this, turn the lights on, the gates are powered and you escape." She huffed impatiently and continued her work. He remembers the cold whispers of generators, lights, escape, run. Leon shakes his head; he didn't want to believe it, the whispers and what came with it were all just a dream. This was a coincidence, this had to be a coincidence. Leon's head begins to spin and his hands begin to tremble. He sees the woman arch her brow at him with a questioning look and Leon takes a deep breath to compose himself. He crouches next to the so-called generator, focusing and with shaky fingers carefully starts repairing parts. Leon has no clue why but he had the knowledge of how to fix this hunk of metal already. It was like second hand nature as his fingers moved without a pause, he was twisting nuts and bolts, connecting wires and pulling levers.
As they worked the pistons moved faster and louder and Leon became calmer. He was so focused on the generator he didn't notice the look the beanie woman gave him. The look of concern for a split second before she returns to her scowl. Then the same loud noise he heard before comes to life in the distance and Leon looks toward the direction of the noise and wonders what is that noise? He heard it before..But his distraction causes his fingers to slip and the generator to loudly explode and Leon could only shield his face as sparks and bolts came flying. "TSK, and now that big ugly thing will come this way." was all the woman had to say and gave Leon a disapproving look.
Leon frowns and wonders if Jill had gotten away from that thing but his intuition tells him to hide. Hide NOW. A feeling of dread becomes stronger as his heartbeat begins pounding in his ears. The tyrant was coming this way. The woman and Leon can hear the heavy footsteps of the heavy combat boots as it shakes the building and it only gets closer. The woman startled Leon when she grabs his arm, drags him to a locker, opens the locker and shoves him inside. "HEY!" Leon shouts at her and through the gap of the locker he sees her point at him. "YOU better tell Claud, I did this for her." she hissed at him.
Leon was about to step out but his heartbeat pounds harder, his anxiety grows heavy in his chest as he watches through the gap the woman standing next to the statue waiting, behind her was a broken rail and a drop to the bottom lounge. He sees how calm she was and she reminds him of Jill and Ada, the fire in their eyes and he sees the same fire in this woman's eyes. She tightened her grip on her flashlight ready for anything that came through that door. Jill, Ada, and Claire come to mind and now this woman makes Leon feel like a damsel in distress.
The tyrant stops at the doorway, Leon's heart pounding wildly as he watches the tyrant go to the generator and gives it a strong kick, it was a strange sight for a monster that big to do. The generator Immediately had sparks flying out and the pistons began to slow down. The tyrant scans the room and spots the woman by the statue. It had its eyes locked on her and totally unaware of Leon in the row of red lockers. "Come on ugly! Catch me." The beanie woman smirks and shines her flashlight in its eye, the tyrant starts stomping her way shaking everything in the room and the woman steps off the drop and the tyrant follows close behind. The tyrant's footsteps become quieter as the shake comes to a stop.
Leon lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding and he exits the locker slowly and carefully trying to not make any sound. What does the woman mean by claud? Did she mean Claudette? A coincidence? Claudette he knew was from that dream or hallucination? Nothing made sense! Leon felt alien to the R.P.D and yet he knew this place like the back of his hand.
Leon's intuition begins annoyingly poking at him again, it makes Leon begin to tremble, he knew deep down what his intuition was telling him and he couldn't ignore the truth any longer. He takes a deep shaky breath and Leon finally stops ignoring his intuition and lets go. Everything he ignored and denied became a reality hit to Leon. From the cold feeling, to the forest, the campfire, Jake, Dwight, Claudette, Meg and to here and now in this room..his intuition tells him he's not home. This place wasn't home, he looks at the statue, really looks at it. It looked the same but the details like everything else looked off.
Leon takes a shaky breath and touches the statue, it feels very real but it didn't felt real...it only made Leon's head spin in confusion. The unicorn didn't look beautifully crafted, and the medallion was still in the middle of the shield. He went to rotate the picture codes on the base of the statue, but Leon's heart drops when he tries to rotate one of the tiles, but instead it was like a picture was printed and glued there, fake. Everything was fake! He only confirms what his intuition has been trying to tell him. He really really wasn't in Kansas anymore.
Leon's legs felt weak and he dropped to his knees as he felt the overwhelming pressure of reality hit him and he thought about the city, the people and Ada who counted on him. He thinks about the virus, how close he was, so close and yet he was ripped away. Leon hears the whispers and the screams of different people, he covers his ears with both hands trying to shut out everything as he feels hot tears roll down his cheeks. He tries to make sense of everything and he tries to block out the reality of his situation but everything starts spinning, his head, the room and the world, it makes Leon want to scream.
Suddenly Leon feels a gentle hand touch his shoulder, the whispers fades away and the world stops spinning. He slowly opens his eyes, hoping he would open them at his real home, instead he locks eyes with Jake. "Jake" Leon whispers in shock, his throat tight and raw with emotions. Jake gives Leon a gentle smile "Don't-" Jake's coughing fits cuts him off and he removes his hand from Leon's shoulder to cough into them but Leon grabs his hand and holds them tightly like a lifeline..he was afraid if Jake removed his hand he was going to descend to madness.
Leon's hands tremble into Jake's hand and he realizes that Jake's was wet and warm. Jake lets out another wet cough and Leon looks Jake over and realizes that he's injured and soaked in blood and blue substance but Jake was as silent as a stone, even when injured he wasn't making a sound. Blood puddles at Jake's feet and it makes Leon jump into action. "Jake! What happened to you?" Leon frowned deeply and lets go of Jake's hand and placed his hand on Jake's forehead to see if he had a fever. His temperature was normal so no infection, but he was red. "Im-im fine." Jake stutters even as silent as he was while injured he couldn't hide the pain in his voice. Leon, like the generator, had felt the knowledge almost like it was implanted in his brain. He looks at Jake's wound, there were two angry red slashes across Jake's back like he was whipped by the devil himself.
Leon takes a deep shaky breath, his fingers hovering over Jake's back and he focuses to summon that knowledge. The black cold fog forms on his fingertips and like the generator, it comes to him like second hand nature and Leon begins mending the wound. He felt his hand tremble at what he was seeing, the black cold fog so thin like a needle and thread begin mending Jake's wounds, and the bleeding begins to slow down, the wound like reversing time begins to close even Jake's jacket begins to mend. Leon tries to peek at Jake's face to see if he can see what he was seeing but Jake had his eyes closed and his face still red, making Leon worried.
"You're stuck here forever as a plaything to the Entity..When the entity summons you, you're going to be hunted down and sacrificed, and we're doing you the kindness of giving you a heads up. Don't look at us like we're crazy and let Dwight explain the Entity's rules to you and you won't die right away."
Meg's words cut through Leon's thoughts..Is this what she was talking about? The fog that engulfed them? Was that the entity? Is that why this place wasn't his place? Leon felt his frustration grow for the lack of answer and understanding. He thinks about the tyrant, was he hunting them down to sacrifice them to the entity? He looks at the mending slashes across Jake's back, did that ugly thing do this to him? A scream echoing loudly in the far distance breaks Leon's thoughts and he knows the scream belongs to the woman. The lost focus makes his fingers slip and Jake yelps in pain as blood splatters and like the generator Leon shields his face.
"Shit, I'm sorry Ja..Jake." Leon says and his fingers begin to tremble. "It's okay Leon, you're almost done." Jake said softly and Leon can hear the restrained pain in his voice, he realizes Jake was treating him gently to keep him calm and Leon hated it. Leon was angry at himself, he was an R.P.D police officer it was his duty to protect and serve and yet he was shaking like a leaf. So many people have taken care of him and so many people rescued him...much more often than Leon. he takes a deep breath and composes himself. He sees that the wound had a small setback and the guilt of bringing more pain to Jake makes Leon frown deeper. He continues to mend and he watches as the Injury and the jacket becomes completely mended and Jake's shoulder relaxes and he sighs in relief from the pain. Leon noticed how his fingers were shaky and numb from the coldness of the fog at his fingertips but he ignores it.
"That scream, it's from that beanie woman." Leon said worriedly and thought about how she took chase for him and now he was with Jake and he was here and real, not a fever dream at all. "We have to save her. " Leon turns around but Jake grabs his hand. "Wait.." Jake says and his eyes move as if he was processing information in his head. Leon tilts his head in curiosity. "Nea, she's okay, the other woman saved her." Jake tells Leon and he wonders how did Jake know? Everything was confusing and he was mentally exhausted from his lack of understanding anything, he only nods in reply. He was glad Jill was the real deal and she didn't need the STARS badge to prove it. He sees the heart of protect and rescue in her eyes since he met her.
"Hey..uh Leon let's finish this gen okay?" Jake says softly, he looks at Leon as if he was glass cracking under pressure "Alright." Was Leon's only reply.
They work on the generator together in silence. Jake sat where Nea worked on the wires and Leon in the same spot, he flinched at every clack the gen made expecting the explosion. Once Leon settles his nerves he repairs the generator effortlessly, he sees in the corner of his eyes the concerned glance Jake would give him but he ignores it. He didn't want to lose focus.
"you really have to believe us when we say you're not in your own world"
"Your life before you woke up here is gone. You're stuck here forever as a plaything to the Entity."
"The world here, the night never ends and the forest is endless. This world belongs to the Entity."
The words of the group flowed in his head, clogging his thoughts. He gives a heavy sigh to the reality of his situation and how mentally exhausted he was, too exhausted to deny or ignore it. He just wanted to go back to his apartment.. back at home, drink until the alcohol takes over and he can be blissfully in oblivion. He wonders if he rams his head into the wall he'll magically appear back to his hangover self before he decided to go to the city and stops for gas at the gas station, when he meets Claire.. Leon wonders if she found her brother.
"Your life before you woke up here is gone."
Mwgs words cut through his thoughts like a hot knife through butter. "I know you probably have a lot of questions, but when we get out of here. I'll answer all of them." Jake's words bring him back and Leon nods at him, Jake frowns. All of the pistons were moving fast and loud and Jake connects the last wire and the engine roars to life. "We should get moving before the Killer comes back. These gens makes a loud noise and it'll attract the killer." Jake says as he looks over his shoulder as if he was expecting the tyrant to show up. Leon thinks if his mistake with Nea had made the tyrant stomp his and Nea's way and had caused Nea to act and rescue him. Guilt and frustration bubbles in Leon for the trouble he had caused Nea but he only nods in reply to Jake and Jake's replies with a deeper frown.
Jake and Leon have decided to stay together and make their way from the lounge to the library and now down the stairs to the main hall. Leon stayed close to Jake as they walked cautiously. He noticed that his companion was like Nea, Experienced, very cautious, looked and explored every corner and stopped at every noise. He also noticed how sick he was, although he was walking around on his feet like the injuries were never there but he was still covered in the blue substance. He was red, sweating and coughing, and Leon could see his visible blue vein from his neck to his face. Jake's breathing was labored and he let out a small cough.
"How are you feeling?" Leon asked as he fought the urge to place his hands on Jake's forehead. "When the killer hit me the first time, it hurt like a bitch and that's when the coughing started." Jake says as he clears his throat. "Killer? Do they work for the Entity?" Leon tried to understand but he couldn't imagine the tyrant working for the entity, it had its eyes on Jill. "Sort of." Jake scans the huge lobby searching for something "Killers that cause sickness usually have a cure or something to cleanse the sickness away." Jake coughs and Leon notices how Jake grimaces in his thoughts and looks green as he covers his mouth with his hand.
"Hey!" The voice brings Jake and Leon on high alert and they look up at the second floor to see Jill and Nea leading against the railings. "Jill! Nea! You're both okay! It's so nice to see you two" Leon smiles, his shoulder relaxing a bit. The duo looked healthy and a bit too relaxed especially being chased by death in boots. Nea gives him a surprise look and gives a small glare at Jake. Jake gives her a sheepish smile. "Hey guys, you both look like you had a long day." Jill says light heartedly and gives Leon a smile back. He frowns and wonders if Jill knows they're not home anymore, that this place was a cheap copy, and that they were trapped by an entity as it "plaything".
Jake's coughing fit brings all eyes on him. "My friend here is sick, he thinks there's a cure. Have you guys found anything?" Leon says as he pats jake on the back to show his support