Just as he pulled the trigger, Leon shoved me a few feet to the left making me fall and almost slam my head against the hard stone. The agent had immediately pulled out his own TMP and began shooting at Krauser making his accuracy drop dramatically. Finally, the man left again leaving Leon and I alone.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" He was furious. You'd think he'd be grateful for such a great compliment, but noo…
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't—"
"Sorry?! Do you realize what this means?! Now he's gonna be after you too!"
"All I said was that one little thing! Why would he want to kill me for that?!"
"That's all it takes with him." He spoke seriously. "You should have just stayed out of it."
"'Stayed out of it'?! He almost killed me trying to kill you! How do you expect me to just not say anything?!"
"At least he wasn't aiming for you then!"
"Why does it even matter to you?!" I was angry, but I didn't really understand why at the time.
He sighed. I could hear in his voice how carefully he was trying to form his next sentence. "If you think I don't care whether you die or not… You'd be wrong."
My eyes went wide for a split second before I looked at him in confusion. "Well, w-what's that supposed to mean?"
He sighed again. "It means I don't want you killed."
I paused for a second. "And you think I want you killed? Leon, how do you think I feel every time you tell me to run away or something while you stay behind and fight whatever, or whoever is trying to kill you?! It's not a very good feeling considering—" I stopped mid-sentence, catching myself as I was about to reveal my feelings for him. Even if he already suspected it, I didn't want him to know yet.
"Considering…?" He asked inquiringly.
"U-uh… How well you've taken care of me, you know?" I was a terrible liar. "I-I don't like leaving you without help…"
He totally didn't buy it. "Okay… Whatever. Just promise me you won't do anything like that again."
I thought for a moment. "I'll try my best not to."
He nodded, a small smile forming on his lips, but he quickly hid it. "That's good enough for me."
My cheeks burned red and I tried to hide my widening grin as Leon pushed a statue I hadn't even noticed on a pressure plate that raised bars over a lever beside the door. He quickly pulled the lever and we headed back down the stairs. I followed Leon as he rushed back to the empty building we passed earlier and apparently there had been another lever there that opened a door in the wall beside the bridge. After Leon pulled it, the door opened and there was a ten foot drop down to a lower level. I jumped down after him and when we proceeded forward, we were stopped by tiny robots.
"What the hell?" I asked, pulling my gun out. I shot the closest one and it fell over on its side and exploded.
"Alright, come on." Leon said, walking past me and the broken robot parts.
There was another one up in the air, and as soon as it started beeping Leon shot it, making it blow-up just like its friends. We continued walking, shooting two angry robots in a hallway, and stopped when we reached a giant stone tower, with a staircase winding all the way up the inside of it.
"You should stay here." Leon warned, looking at the suspicious stone walls.
"I thought I said I wanted to go with you." I looked sternly into his hard eyes.
"No, you said you didn't like running away." He held my stare, and when I didn't look away he continued. "I don't want you going up there. You've seen how dangerous Krauser can be; I don't want you getting hurt."
"Well I'm not letting you go up there by yourself." I walked up to him and stood still in front of him. He knew I was stubborn, but that didn't stop him from trying to convince me to change my mind. When he didn't say anything, I spoke up first. "Now, do I have to kiss you again to prove my point, or are you going to let me come with you?" I spoke it like a threat, but my eyes probably told him how badly I wanted to.
To my absolute surprise, he scoffed and a grin formed on his face. "You're really stubborn, you know that?"
I smirked. "So I've been told."
He just shook his head. "Just come on."
As soon as we stepped onto the first stair, metal bars shot down in front of the tower entrance. Leon looked at me dolefully before we continued up the steps.
At the top, there was a blocked doorway to the area I ran to earlier, and a ladder. We were forced to go up the ladder, Leon went first and then allowed me to go, his eyes full of regret. When we got to the top, I realized how small the area was. There were a few boards nailed together serving as walkways, and a bridge connecting the tower we were standing on to another one. We carefully walked over to one of the boarded floors and Leon picked up the second of the three insignias.
Just as we began walking back, the agent stopped and looked up: Krauser was standing on top of one of the broken walls. "Two down, one more to go Krauser." He said.
The man grunted. "We'll see about that." He tossed his gun to the side and we looked up at him, wondering what his next move would be.
It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. He held out his left arm and began groaning in pain. His arm began mutating into a giant bladed claw and Leon and I started in horror as he shouted, "Witness the power!" I was strangely reminded of He-Man, a show I used to watch as a kid.
"You've lost it completely, Krauser." Leon said, completely ignoring the fact that the already psychotic man now had a giant blade in his arm.
"Prepare for your death, Leon." He said as he jumped down from the wall, blade ready to slice the blonde man in half.
"No!" I screamed, but it didn't do anything. Leon was now dangling off the side of the tower with Krauser stepping on his fingers. That gave me an idea; he was completely vulnerable.
I ran, picked up Krauser's discarded TMP, and began pumping him full of led. He swung his head around and looked at me with his eyes full of malice. The insanely pissed off man left Leon alone and dashed towards me, leaping in the air, and swinging his lethal arm down straight at me.
I leapt out of the way just in time and stood up quickly to see Leon shooting Krauser's back with his magnum.
Suddenly we heard a loud beeping coming from under us. Had Krauser rigged the place with bombs? He laughed loudly and dashed straight for Leon. I shot at him with the TMP again.
He looked torn between two to try and kill first, and picked me.
"You seem kind of fond of her, Leon." He slowly began walking towards me. "I wonder how nice her blood will look spilled on this stone."
I squeezed my eyes shut and blocked my face with my arms, even though it would do nothing once that blade touched my skin.
But then, I heard the sounds of an explosion and peeked open my eyes to see dying flames and Leon standing over Krauser's body, catching his breath and holding the last insignia. There was an empty Rocket Launcher on the floor beside him.
I stood up and walked over to him, standing on the other side of the dead man. "I-is that thing your answer for everything?" I said it with a smile, but my voice had suddenly become shaky and my eyes started to burn.
He didn't answer me, he just grabbed my hand again and we began sprinting back to the wall with the three holes in it. Leon jumped down the ladder and held his arms out to catch me. I guessed it was because he thought it would be quicker. The door with the bars was open and it led straight to the wall we needed.
There was about a minute left before the bombs went off and Leon and I were very hastily placing the insignia's in their correct places. Much to my relief, the wall slid back and revealed two doors, which we burst through like two children at the grand opening of a toy store.
Sorry guys, no more for tonight! Unless you're from the future where I've already updated again... Anyways! I gotta go get working on my next story. I had some inspiration while driving to the store today. Hooray for random bursts of inspiration! Well that's all I have to say. See you tomorrow, guys!
