SAVEGUARD ⟼ leon s. kennedy

xxxv. up in flames

𝕔𝕝𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕖
𝟙:𝟝𝟠𝕡𝕞

I don't know how I let things get this bad.

I don't know at what point I lost consciousness, but the dull pain thumping at the back of my head is enough to understand how badly I fucked up. How stupid I was to follow that man's request.

What was I thinking?

When I open my eyes I see Leon sitting a little ways in front of me, his hands tied with a metal chain, his bulletproof vest torn from his torso, his weapons neatly piled up on the other side of the room, their magazines emptied, the ammo nowhere to be seen. His hip pouch is empty, his tactical belt is undone, his hair is ruffled, and he has a cut on his cheek.

His eyes are piercing through me as if he had been awake for much longer than I had, and that time was enough to drain the familiarity in his eyes. Where once I saw respect and trust when I looked at him, I now see damage, disdain, distrust.

My heart instantly sinks at how badly I've let him down. Could I really have been that naive?

The cabin we're in is one I don't recognise. We didn't find one like this on the Zenobia. There are cogs and levers all around us, with some dim orange lights on the wall flickering away. I manage to stand up, but both my hands are tied.

"Leon...?"

He doesn't reply; his stare intensifies, his brow slightly furrowed as his eyes tell me exactly what I need to remember: that he thinks I must have betrayed him; lured him to this danger.

"The princess is awake!" The masked man says as he claps.

He's behind me, and I stand up and glare at him, my pulse racing in my throat. "What was the point of all this? I did what you asked— can you stop fucking around now?"

The guy tilts his head to look at Leon, who's looking back at him like he's more mildly pissed off than worried about him. "Hear that? She did what I asked."

"Congratulations," Leon replies sarcastically. "That make you feel like a man?"

The guy hangs in head and I hear him chuckle. "I had a feeling you'd be a funny one."

Leon pulls at the chains around his hand. "Can you just cut the bullshit and let me know who's pulling your strings? Veltro?"

"And take your mask off too, while you're at it," I add back, considering strangling him with my own chains.

"Impatient," he tuts. "You guys ever read Dante's Inferno?"

I look at Leon with a confused look on my face, expecting him to return it.

But he won't look at me.

"Ouch," the guy says. "Know where you two would be in the layers of hell according to him?"

I feel my voice escape my lips before I can catch it. "You're a pathetic loser—"

"Lust," the man says, interjecting me. "Second layer of hell. Though I'm thinking pretty boy here will probably fall right down into the seventh layer. Violence."

"And you're going straight to the pearly gates, is that right?" Leon taunts him.

"How many people have you killed in your life, Leon?" The guy asks him.

"Not enough, apparently," Leon replies, and if looks could kill, the guy would be eviscerated right on the spot where he stands.

"Treachery is the last and worst layer, according to Dante," the man keeps on yapping as if he thinks we're interested. "But I bet you two already know who belongs there."