The doors led to an even more run down place, with stone and dirt everywhere and a building that looked like it would crumble at any second. As soon as we stepped through the doorway, Leon hunched over in pain and began coughing, much like I did before I got caught in that trap, but worse.

"Leon… are you okay?" I walked up to him hesitantly, placing my hand on his back, but that just made him flinch and take a few steps away from me.

"I'm fine…" He spat through coughs.

"N-no you're not… Leon… come on… you can't do this to me now…" My eyes were flooding with water and I tried my best to hold the salty tears back.

But suddenly, Leon got over his coughing fit and stood up slowly. When he turned back around, something about him didn't seem… right. He was walking towards me, his eyes full of determination, and when he brought his hands up, I was half expecting him to kiss me, but that's not what happened at all. He wrapped both his hands around my neck and squeezed hard. I couldn't breathe, beg him to stop, or ask him why he was doing this, just hope and pray that he would come to his senses and snap out of it.

Just when I thought I was about to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen, he suddenly let go and collapsed to the floor, but not before I did. I was on my knees, gasping for breath and coughing up blood. I was confused; why did he act like that so suddenly, and what made him stop?

After I had caught my breath, I looked up to see Leon standing there, wide eyed and panicked looking.

"E-Emily… I'm so sorry, I didn't—" He reached down to touch me, but I backed away immediately, trying to get away from him. That hurt like hell, and I didn't want him anywhere near me. I honestly didn't care if it was the parasite that had controlled him, I was scared.

Once I was safely on the other side of the room, the woman in the red dress stepped forward. The blonde man looked like he had just kicked an innocent puppy, but I didn't care.

"Just give her time, Leon." She said, crossing her arms and looking back at me for a second before turning to him again. "We have to get that parasite out of your body."

He didn't say anything, and Ada left. I was still on the floor five minutes later, my hands gently touching the skin on my neck; it was sore and tender to the touch. Leon was observing me almost the entire time. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he looked remorseful. I stood up, wiping away at my damp cheeks and walked straight past him, and headed for a door to his left.

"Emily, wait." He called out, sounding desperate and demanding at the same time.

"Leon, no… I can't." My voice was shaky and tears threatened to spill from my eyes again.

Without another word, I pushed my way through the door. He knew I needed space, and that's exactly what he gave me. Well, as much as he could without putting either of us in danger, which happened to be about five feet.

We arrived at a very rusted door and Leon held up his hand as a signal to wait and let him enter first, but I instinctively flinched. I knew he wouldn't purposely do anything to hurt me, and the look on his face confirmed that, but like I said, I needed time.

After entering the door, we took a look around the area and noticed how old everything looked. Not like the crumbly and dusty kind like the buildings outside, everything was just so rusty. We took a few steps forward and Leon suddenly stopped and signaled me to wait. We listened very closely and my eyes widened at the sound we heard: heavy, shaky breathing coming from just around the corner. I immediately recognized it as a Regenerator.

"L-Leon…?" I looked up at the man and he scarcely nodded before pulling out his TMP.

He put up a tough fight, regenerating his limbs every time Leon shot one off, but that's just what they did. Finally, it took enough damage to where the entire upper half of its body burst, leaving the legs to limply fall to the floor.

"Okay, let's go." He said and we began walking forward. There was a door up a few steps on its own little section, but the stairs were broken. We walked over to the side of the stairs and Leon pulled himself up in front of the door. He held out his hand for me and after I hesitantly took it, he pulled me up with him.

We entered the door and rounded a corner, facing about ten people with lightning rods and crossbows. Three of them were hidden behind forts, including a crossbow guy. It seemed like the whole area had two levels, again. The floor, and up a ladder there were multiple rooms that we couldn't see. As soon as we stepped forward two feet, a Gatling gun freak emerged from one of the rooms and began trying to shoot at Leon and I. We ran back around the corner and a few minutes later, so did he. Leon threw a few grenades in his direction and he died after a few shotgun rounds

. We headed back into the main area and began walking to two big doors at the end of a hallway, but as soon as we reached it the locks suddenly turned red and a loud buzzing sound was heard. Apparently those guys were smart enough to lock us out from wherever we needed to go.

"Well what do we do now?" I asked the man beside me.

He began walking back up the hallway. "Come on. I think I saw a guy carrying a card key earlier."

Turned out, he was right. As soon as we rounded the corner again, about fifteen people were there and once Leon had obliterated all of them, a silver card key was left. After we cleared everyone else out, we climbed up a ladder, and into a room. On the back wall there was a slot where the card key needed to be inserted. Once Leon put it in, there was another buzzing sound. We continued walking around for a few more minutes until we found more ladders, each leading to a button that, when both pressed, would unlock the door.

I kept glancing up at Leon, still not being able to read his emotions. I felt horrible. I mean, I knew he would never do anything like that willingly, and it was probably the parasite controlling him, but that hurt… physically and emotionally.

He opened the doors and they led to another hallway. There were two guys with shields in it, and after three shotgun shells, they were gone. There were more doors at the end, but I stopped before he opened them.

He turned around and looked at me questioningly. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm sorry…" I said quietly, looking down at the ground. "I know that wasn't your fault, and I probably overreacted… I was just scared."

"I know." His deep voice came in reply. "But I promise I will never hurt you again. Not 'try my best not to,' no, I promise. Okay? So are we good?"

I smiled up at him and nodded, glad things were back to normal, and he pushed the heavy doors open.

My eyes widened at what was in front of us. It was Ashley, but she was sealed in a sort of cryogenic chamber, barely conscious. Leon and I rushed forward but stopped immediately when we heard that thick, creepy voice we both dreaded.

"You'll both soon harbor and awesome power… Yet it seems you would rather choose death." Saddler said, emerging from what seemed like out of thin air.

"I'm taking these girls back whether you like it or not." Leon snapped back.

Saddler sighed dreamily. "Oh, the audacity of youth…" Suddenly he ran up at a nearly impossible speed, and before I knew it, we were in the air. Saddler had shoved us back, putting an extremely painful amount of force on our chests. We were both rammed into Ashley's container and fell to the floor, groaning and coughing in pain. Luckily, I had Leon to break my fall—not so lucky for him though.

We were still just managing to move when Saddler began walking forward with his hand outstretched, and I had just enough time for fear to flood through me, remembering the overwhelming pain that had consumed my body, when suddenly he stopped and I could hear rapid gunshots. Leon and I quickly jumped up and looked to our left to see Ada holding a TMP.

"Leon, now!" She shouted and Leon nodded and pressed a button on the door of what Ashley was being held in. The light turned green and she was lowered and the door was opened, releasing a lot of air pressure. Leon and I quickly grabbed a hold of the blonde and began hastily making our way out of there.