𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙚 :
what in the seven hells is that?
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LEON RAISED HIS hand to his ear, clearly getting a call. Rae watched and tried to listen as he responded to the person on the line, "Ada?"
Rae walked out of the cage, still listening without shame.
It took a little for Leon to respond. "Hey! Ada? Ada!... Perfect." Leon huffed, having obviously gotten hung up on.
"What'd she say?" Rae inquired as soon as he walked out of the cage after her.
"They're taking Ashley to the throne room." Leon revealed.
"Let's just follow her path, it should reach the throne room, right?" Rae suggested.
Leon nodded, "Theoretically."
Rae looked back and forth between the open door and the man, "Do you want to lead the way or should I?"
"I'll do it." Leon sighed, turning away from her to avoid eye contact.
His mood had obviously dropped after their conversation. It made her feel guilty for even mentioning their relationship, especially now that she was aware of the government's pressuring to keep them separate.
With a deep breath she followed him. Leon brought her into the room Ashley had fled through, revealing a door to the right and a double door to the left. Taking a shot Leon opened the doors to the left and they were met with a hallway, but the left side was broken down. At the end was a doorway, one they quickly passed through.
This revealed a large room with strange architecture although it could be because of its messy state. They were at the top of stairs, in a spot where they were looking down upon the situation below. Stairs spiraled all over the room, and some of the floor was broken.
As they began making their way down the stairs Leon advised, "Watch your step."
"Got it—" Rae was cut off when they made it down one flight, figures suddenly flew into sight, just over the banister. They were strange insect creatures, and they looked hostile.
Immediately the two began firing upon the bug creatures. Once they were gone Leon piped, "Wow Ramón, you are really slacking on your pest control."
Rae couldn't help but laugh, "You're just full of corny one liners, aren't you?" Leon shrugged, quickly looking away from her and continuing down the hill. It made her mood immediately drop.
They made their way to the bottom of the stairs, finding even more of the floor gone. More bug creatures were crawling around the room, coming into view as some lifted into the air via their wings.
As they passed a giant chandelier that had crashed into the floor sometime before their arrival, Rae noticed something strange about the rock in front of them. She reached forward and grabbed Leon's arm, pulling him back.
He stayed quiet even though he was confused. Rae trusted her gut and lifted Matilda, shooting the rock once. It turned out to be a bug creature in camouflage, and it flopped onto its back as it squealed, then its body exploded.
"Huh, nice." Leon was talking about her spotting the creature in the first place.
"Watch your step, wouldn't want to walk on one of those things." Rae said, glaring down at the bug mess on the floor.
It took them traveling to the other side of the room and pulling a lever to open a gate. This was their way out of the room. They walked through the door and found a speaker place in the mouth of an animal, a familiar laugh coming from it.
"Ramón." Rae groaned as the voice started coming from the speaker.
"Oh, you two aren't very knight like, are you?" Ramón mused, "Your princess is a spirited individual. I must say, she gave us a considerable amount of trouble!"
"I wish he would shut up." Rae glared at the speaker meanwhile Leon walked to the other side of it where there was a drawbridge.
"Agreed." Leon said as he aimed his pistol at a spray-painted cage holding rocks. Once he pulled the trigger the drawbridge went down halfway. Rae spotted his actions and moved to the other side of the drawbridge, finding another bag hidden. She quickly shot it and the drawbridge fell completely in front of them, allowing them to continue onwards.
Rae lowered Matilda, "Let's go finish this."
Leon watched as Rae made her way to the building first. It was obvious she was being awkward around him since their conversation. Oh, how he wished things were fine between them. Oh, how he wished he could grab her hand and tell her everything would be fine, because he was there.
But he couldn't. So, he just followed her until they reached the doors.
Leon opened the grand doors and the two were quick to spot the two giant figures chained up to the wall. "Great, there's two of them."
"It's fine," Rae assured as she pulled out a large grenade, "there's two of us."
There were a few normal villagers, but they were quickly taken out of the way. But then the two large guys that were chained up ripped off of the wall. Leon whispered into Rae's ear, "They're blind."
Rae had a sudden thought, "Follow my lead."
One of the big creatures came towards them having heard the gunshots from before. Rae crouched and slowly made her way around the table they were previously behind and circled it. Then the other creature rushed into the room, appearing just as aggressive.
Rae tossed a rock at the first one, making it let out a grunt. This caught the attention of the other creature. Rae backed up, holding her arm in front of Leon as she did so. The creatures began to duke it out, thrashing around crazily as they attacked each other.
Eventually the creatures had defeated each other, and the two didn't even have to lift a finger.
"We need two horns." Leon informed, standing in front of the door where there were two horses with missing slots upon their head, round enough to fit a horn.
Rae looked over to one of the giant guys with claws. She scanned its body before realizing it had a unicorn horn. "These guys have them."
Leon grabbed the other unicorn horn as Rae slid hers on to the horse near the door. The large door raised, and they were able to enter, finding another door in their face. "Nooo! No!" They heard Ashley shouting in refusal.
Leon pushed open the heavy door and revealed Ashley who had blood spread on her face in a pattern of the symbol in the church. She didn't have her jacket on anymore, so she was left in a tank top, her bare arms being grabbed by two lackeys.
"Ashley!" The two agents synchronized as they rushed towards her only to find a giant hole in the floor blocking the way.
"No! Stop! No! Don't come any closer!" Ashley cried out as she was forced to her knees by the lackeys.
"Are you hurt?" Leon urged.
"Watch out!" Ashley shouted, looking behind them.
The two turned around to find Ramón's bodyguards leaping down and landing on the two's bodies. "No!" Ashely cried out, watching their bodies get trapped under the giant figures.
"Please. Do continue." Ramón's cheeky voice came from the throne at the end of the room.
Ashley continued to cry out, "No! No! Please! Let me go!"
"Do not resist, my dear." Another figure approached, holding a large chalice, "It serves only to make your suffering all the worse." The chalice was tipped over and black liquid began to pour over Ashley, but mostly into her mouth which was being held open by one of the lackeys.
"Let her go!" Rae shouted, feeling suffocated due to the large figure trapping her to the floor.
Leon yelled angrily, "You sick—"
Ashley leaned forward, coughing. She looked down at her hands and opened them, allowing Rae to see that there was a bright blood red marks beginning to move.
Then she heard Leon let out a grunt, Rae attempted to look over at him but found her body being raised and held forward. Her captor inching closer to the giant hole in the ground. "This is farewell, Mr. Kennedy." Ramón stated in Spanish.
Leon was tossed forward first, causing Ashley to shout, "Leon!"
"Farewell to you too, Ms. Silivan." Ramón added.
Then Rae felt her body get thrown forward, into the hole. Faintly she heard Ashley shout her name but the sound of wind hitting her ears was louder as she flew down the dark tunnel.
"Grab my hand!" She heard Leon's voice come from down the tunnel.
"Where?!" Rae shouted, her body rapidly approaching.
"Here!" Leon's voice sounded awfully close. Rae lifted her hand out towards his voice. Please catch me, she chanted in her mind.
Then she felt a grip on her wrist, her body swinging as she was caught. Rae looked up, finding Leon holding her with an expression of pure concentration.
"I'm gonna need you to lower yourself and grab onto my foot." Leon explained, struggling to hold him and the girl up with only one hand.
"I hate this job!" Rae cried out as she reached for his leg and holding onto it, feeling her eyes shut as she prepared to fall. Luckily, she didn't. Leon was able to grab onto the chains with his other hand, now having a better and more stable grip.
"I'm gonna swing you out of all the spikes." Leon explained casually.
"Spikes?!" Rae almost turned down when Leon objected,
"Don't look down, just trust me, okay?" His voice was worried, and he almost stumbled over his words with how quick he rushed them out.
"O-Okay," Rae nodded, staring up into his eyes, "I trust you."
"On three!" Leon decided as he begun to swing their bodies, Rae helping. "One, two...three!"
Rae body flew forward and flew out of the spikes, hitting the ground and landing in water. She looked back up and spotted Leon still swinging in the middle of the hole on a chain. Then he swung out and landed next to her, water splashing as he landed.
"Are you okay?" He hurried out, scanning her body. His hands reached forward, grazing her arms lightly with the tip of them, the warm skin being a stark contrast to the cold room.
Rae suddenly slapped his arm making him reel back. "Ow, what?" Leon asked.
"I thought I told you not to fall into any more holes?" Rae scolded. "You scared me, I thought you died!"
"You also fell!" Leon defended with the same energy, his voice having a mix of raw anger and fear to it, "I thought you were going to die!"
Rae blinked at him, not expecting his words to have such a passionate tone to them. But they did, and it made her heart swell, only now getting that he cared about her the way he used to. With that realization, Rae didn't know what to say. He knocked her speechless.
Realizing that Rae wasn't going to say anything after his confession, Leon rolled his eyes, "Let's just get Ashley."
Rae watched as he turned around and began to lead the way through the dark water. The girl stayed there, until he stopped and turned around. His voice was unintentionally sharp as he asked, "Are you coming."
The girl could only manage a slow nod.
They traveled through the tall spikes, ones that were taller than both of them combined, a unique path shaped out that allowed them to get through.
Although near the end of it there was a body, stuck on a spike, that invaded their pathway. "Talk about sticking the landing." Leon said as he neared it, begrudgingly lifting the man's limp head to move it out of his path. He held it up for Rae before he dropped it and continued on.
When they reached a tunnel, something brushed in the water quickly in front of them. Leon jumped back and stuck his arm out in front of Rae to stop her from moving forward as he attempted to spot the moving creature, "The hell—!?"
Rae glared at the tunnel, "You're telling me that we have to go through that tiny thing after seeing whatever in the fuck that thing was? No thanks."
"Come on, don't be a baby." Leon said as he got down—even though he admittedly didn't want to go in the tunnel either—and crawled through.
"Fuck this shit." Rae grumbled as she crawled through the tunnel after him.
As they got further down the path there was ripples in the water showing that something was coming towards them, and quick. The green eyes gave the pair a target however and they were able to shoot it down, finding a creature that looked like one of the bugs from before, just more aquatic.
Rae huffed, watching the creature jostle around in the water for a little before it went limp. Slowly she turned towards Leon with an irritated but exasperated look, finding him looking the same at her.
He shook his head lightly before nudging her arm, "Come on, let's get this over with."
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They had found a ladder at the end of the moist cave and climbed it, and now they were in... guess what...Rae's favorite place. The sewers. And now they were at the end of a tunnel, opening a door with a paper next to it that warned them of emergency liquid nitrogen showers.
Since Rae had been the one reading it instead, she warned, "Hey, be careful, there is apparently liquid nitrogen showers in there."
"Liquid nitrogen showers?" Leon's face contorted as he asked, "What's wrong with this place?"
"I have no clue." Rae was tired of it though.
Leon opened the door, and they found a grate upon the floor, a red box holding two buttons to the side of it. It had green and red, but it was turned onto green. Leon reached forward and went to press it when Rae gripped his hand, having looked up.
"Dude..." Rae called out.
Leon furrowed his eyebrows, not noticing what she was speaking about. Although his eyes did flicker to the hold she had upon his hand, and continued to have, "What?"
"Liquid. Nitrogen. Showers." Rae pointed upwards at the ceiling, showing the mechanism.
"Oh..." Leon's hand moved away from the button, "Nice catch."
"Yeah. I would have been left with a Leon popsicle." Rae piped, "Wow, what would you do without me?"
"I don't ever want to learn." Leon admitted. And it was true. He couldn't imagine living with the knowledge that the girl had been torn from his life, not again. He wouldn't let it happen.
"Leon..." Rae's eyes softened as a small but warm smile grew upon her face, staring up at Leon. He held a sincere expression, but his eyes had the same fierce but passionate gleam she adored. Looking for a desperate solution to her feelings which were blooming once more she asked, "Why do you make it so damn hard to not like you?"
He gave a breathy laugh, "I can't help that you think I'm charming."
Rae narrowed her eyes, "Okay now you're just getting cocky."
"I would never Silivan." Leon earnestly, although Rae was sure it was false.
"Sure." A little more ahead of them there was a door, one that Rae opened for Leon, teasingly saying, "Ladies first."
"How kind." Leon grumbled as he entered and they spotted the elevator that was on the opposite side of the room. However, the doors were shut, and the power was off.
There was a body strapped to a medical table to their right, slanted against the wall. Leon saw it and commented, "These people are not right."
"Obviously." The girl turned around. Rae had been reading a paper that was placed next to the elevator, "The power was turned off for the elevator to conserve energy. But...It can be resorted by the circuit breaker that is in the back of the laboratory. Which totally doesn't seem like a trap."
Leon nodded in agreement, "Do we have a choice?"
"No." Rae grumbled, looking towards the door to the left which led further into the laboratory. She took in a deep breath and let it out before she pushed it open and began to make her way down the quiet hallway.
The hallway turned and revealed...a creepier hallway. More weird circular holes in the wall every ten feet apart, alternating sides. And even another liquid hydrogen shower.
Another turn to the right led to a longer hallway, one that led to the back of the laboratory. Rae was able to find the circuit breaker with ease. Once Leon was beside her, she fixed it and turned the power back on.
Suddenly a loud growl along with the noise of something thumping against the ground was heard. The two slowly looked to the entrance and found a large but lean figure, not human. It was covered in black metal and had a long but razor-sharp tail.
"You! You're Ramón's lapdog!" Leon called out as the two began to shoot at it. But the bullets didn't faze the creature. Rae suddenly had an idea,
"I have an idea!" Rae announced, "Follow me!"
The two turned backwards as Rae made sure Leon was behind her. As the creature followed Rae hit the button on the liquid nitrogen shower, causing cold air to burst from the pipes. Leon yanked her back before she could get hit by the air. The nitrogen stopped coming out to show that the creature was freezing and slowing down, its body covered in white as it stopped. Leon rushed up and kicked the creature in the head.
The creature crumpled to the ground but didn't shatter like they wanted it to. Instead, the creature stood up in an eerily fashion, its body folding as the ice broke off of it. Then the creature broke away, sprinting into the hall. The two waited for a moment but it was silent.
The two moved down the hall and the creature wasn't there. But when they turned to the right it suddenly jumped out at them, coming from the hall. The two took it as a chance to use the second nitrogen shower.
They kicked the monster and fell to the ground but was still coming. So, they moved to the shower by the elevator. The two pressed it and sprinted past it, the creature getting frozen in it. Leon kicked it and the two opened a door, finding themselves back to the elevator, find it almost done.
The two had stopped for only a minute, but the creature jumped forward, slashing its claws towards them. It almost hit Rae, but Leon pulled her out of the way. She didn't get a scratch, but her jacket couldn't say the same, the fabric getting torn.
With the creature still following them, they rushed to the first shower they originally passed and waited for it to get in the way. They pressed the button once it was close, and the creature froze. Leon displayed his roundhouse kick and this time the monster shattered upon impact.
Leon turned to Rae in excitement, finding a relieved smile upon her face. Feeling proud of himself, he watched her raise a high five. It felt like more than a simple gesture. It felt like a peace treaty. And boy was he happy when their hands made contact.
"Finally, some peace and quiet." Leon huffed.
"Nice kick hotshot," Rae congratulated, "let's get out of this place."
As they got near the elevator though Leon let out a grunt of pain. "Leon?" Rae turned to him worriedly, finding him grabbing his side, "What is it?"
Leon didn't answer, instead he stumbled towards her. She held him by his shoulders—with some struggle, he was larger than her by quite a bit—carefully leading him to the corner of the elevator. She left him leaning against the wall while she pressed the button, the grate door sliding shut.
The elevator began to rise as Rae turned back to Leon who was wincing. Leon fell to the floor, onto his knees as he grabbed at his head. Rae kneeled beside him, hesitant to reach out because she didn't know if it would hurt more than it was already.
Then she decided to say screw it, she couldn't take him looking in pain. She reached out and lightly grasped his arm, "Leon!" She called out in concern.
Leon's head jerked up, meeting her eyes. The black veins upon his arms began to lighten and his eyes visibly lightened. Rae didn't say anything, instead giving him a few seconds to catch his breath and calm down.
Once he appeared stable enough, she questioned gently, "Are you okay?"
Leon nodded slowly, "I'm fine." His eyes flickered from her eyes, and to her lips.
It was now that she realized their close proximity, their faces only a few inches away. Warm feelings filled both of their chests the longer they stared at each other, their closeness didn't help the way her heart skipped a beat when it looked at him.
Leon felt the same, getting butterflies in his stomach as he realized that she had been the reason he snapped him out of his weird vision of that figure from his past.
Breaking the tense quiet, Rae said, "Hi there."
The hum of elevator took over as the only noise as Leon's eyes widened, realizing she was referencing Raccoon City where they had exchanged the small greeting. Feeling weak in his knees(even though he was sitting on them), he said, "Hi."
Then Rae stood up and offered her hand to him as he was still upon his knees and staring up at her, a mysterious emotion in his eyes. Leon took her hand and stood up, his lips twitching upwards. The elevator stopped and the doors opened to reveal a familiar figure awaiting them.
Luis smiled once he spotted the two and lifted the box in his hand, waving it around. He winked, "I'll make it cheap for you."
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AUTHORS NOTE !
Who's ready for Luis and Rae
to annoy the crap out of Leon
next chapter?
Posted: April 5, 2023
Words: 3737
Edited: ✘︎