Chapter Text
Leon watched as the sun began to set behind the mountains, feeling the warmth on his skin fade as the wind harshley blew his hair from his eyes.
Sunsets usually had the ability to make the world seem completely at peace, just for a moment, and make him forget the horrors that were out there.
But this time was different.
The events of Spain weighed heavily on his mind, despite being over six months ago now. Leon had succeeded in his mission to rescue the president's daughter, Ashley home safe and sound with her family.
Leon returned back home himself after being praised and congratulated by The President, but all his words meant nothing to him as he just wanted to be left to himself for as long as possible. Before the next crisis called for his attention.
His mind drifted to a file that Ashley had found inside of Luis' lab that hadn't been there before. She had grabbed it, giving it to him along with something else afterwards when they had made it to a hospital.
Inside the file were research notes labeled "La Plaga Durmiente", as well as notes from Castro himself.
The notes spoke of a parasite that had been engineered under Saddlers approval and Castro's direction.
The parasite would remain dormant inside the host after being injected, undetectable and giving the host no symptoms as its hold grew stronger with each moment it was there.
However, engineering the plaga this way had it and Saddlers hold on it weakened, meaning it would take much longer for the parasite to gain enough control over the host to take over their mind and body, and Saddler's power over it was unpredictable and unreliable if the parasite wasn't fully connected. This made Saddler doubt its validity and halt its experimentation.
Researchers worked tirelessly to figure out a way to strengthen the plaga without its normal symptoms becoming present within the host, and after a while, they had.
Taking a tiny piece of the section of the Amber the plaga had been inside, they determined the strong connection between the two to be the perfect way to give the parasite the strength it had lost, plus more, allowing it to take over the host's mind and body with Saddler's influence in seconds, provided the parasite had enough time to completely bond with the host.
The piece of Amber was then placed inside a red casing, which gave it an ethereal glow. To further hide the piece of the Amber for its protection, it was inlayed into a necklace, giving it the appearance of a gem and hiding its true nature.
This engineered parasite was then put to the side, waiting for the perfect test subject to use it on.
Castro found that test subject in a female hiker, who was on a trip with her three friends to get away from the stress of the real world.
He was intrigued by her strength of will when villagers kidnapped the group of four to sacrifice for the ritual, and it was then, as he watched her fight against her attackers and do everything she could to save her friends, that he knew she would be perfect.
Being overwhelmed by the numbers and the surprise of sudden attack, the girl was knocked unconscious after reaching for the others, and it was then that the plaga was injected into her body.
Keeping up the guise of the ritual, the woman was taken with her three friends to the Altar, where Castro allowed her to escape after sacrificing the others, watching her run and disappear into the forest.
He watched over her for four days, and when news of an outsider who came to rescue the President's daughter reached his ears, he knew he had the ideal test to show Saddler that his idea- his creation- would be useful to them in ways they had not originally foreseen.
Castro had been prepared to artificially set up a way for the outsider to stumble upon the girl, and take her with him on the journey, but he didn't have to.
The woman found the outsider all on her own, and without influence, offered her aid to him, refusing to sit idly by as a young girl was taken.
It had been perfect, in Castro's mind. The outsider would get attached to the woman, and little would he know, she would be the very thing that would destroy him and prove the Parasites usefulness to Lord Saddler.
The two initial meetings after that were Castro checking in to make sure the woman was not showing symptoms of having the plaga within her body, as well as a way to test what would happen if the plaga was within close proximity of the Amber inside the red casing, wondering if he could use it to speed up the plaga's progress within its host, though he had no way to know if it worked.
However, the plaga did remain hidden, neither the woman nor the outsider aware of what resided inside her.
Unfortunately, the girl became a nuisance to Lord Saddler, who didn't hold confidence in the engineered plaga and feared the risks of letting her roam free when his control was not guaranteed, and Castro was ordered to kill her.
Deciding to do the ritual out of symbolism and respect for his creation, he took the woman to the altar, where he regretfully prepared to sacrifice the host, and in turn, the parasite.
Castro's faith was restored when the outsider came for the woman, abandoning his mission and leaving the President's daughter vulnerable in order to save her.
With that proof, he was able to convince Lord Saddler to keep her alive, to be insurance in the event they are unable to take care of the outsider themselves.
After his success, and despite the doubts of those around him, he followed after the woman closely, keeping an eye on her and making sure that she continued to remain undetected.
A wolf in sheep's clothing.
Castro became arrogant, however, believing that enough time had to have passed and he could use the necklace himself to make the parasite show itself, giving him control over the woman and taking care of the outsider to impress his Lord.
That was where Castro's notes ended, but Leon could fill in the rest.
Ella defeated Castro, killing him and temporarily weakening the connection between the Amber and the Parasite, slowing its progress within her.
She continued to fight hard against horrors she had never faced before with a smile on her face and a quip ready at the tip of her tongue to bring light to an impossible situation, not once letting fear stop her as she worked towards her goal to save both Ashley and Leon. To make up for her belief that she had failed her closest friend.
Even once the parasite made itself known, Ella defied all odds as she fought it and Saddler's strong hold on her, giving Leon the opening to inject her with the medicine given to him by The Merchant, temporarily weakening the parasite long enough for Leon to defeat Saddler once and for all.
Ella had done what she had set out to do, saving both Leon and Ashley and making sure they could return home, despite only being an unassuming civilian- a baker- who had been thrust into the middle of something she could have never expected, or truly understood.
She was a rarity in the world; A bright light that didn't go out even when faced with horrors that could bring even the strongest to their knees, and Leon hadn't been able to help himself as he grew closer to her in ways he hadn't known was possible for him anymore.
Not that it mattered.
Elanore Monroe had died that day.
The Parasite had grown too attached to her after being there the entirety of the five days, and her body had been unable to handle the strain, weakened from the initial assault it had endured.
Leon had tried everything he could to save her, giving her CPR even as the explosion Ada had mentioned had gone off nearby, and Ashley had to pull him away, forcing Leon to leave her body in that lab.
The ride home had been completely silent save for Ashley's sobs that she tried to keep quiet behind him as he drove the jet ski across the ocean. He didn't offer any kind of comfort, not knowing how to as he forced his mind to focus on finishing his mission.
The events after getting to land would never be erased from his memories.
xXx
Leon helped Ashley off the jetski and on to the dock, a stoic expression on his face despite all the emotions swirling within him.
Ashley was the opposite, her eyes still wet with tears and her expression full of her grief and heartache.
"How can you be so emotionless?" She had asked him in disbelief once he turned away, Leon stopping but not turning to look at the young blond. "I know you cared about her! I could see it! Especially after-" She stopped, not able to talk about the heartbreaking scene that happened after the procedure without breaking down into sobs once more. The way Leon had kept trying to get her heart to start back up, the desperation in his face and movements- not even the ever stoic Leon could hide the absolute devastation he was feeling in the moment, and it had been enough to shake Ashley to her very core, worsening the flurry of emotions running through her like a tidal wave.
She knew he wasn't as emotionless as he was pretending to be, and watching him refuse to show that felt like an insult to Ella.
But Ashley knew this was his way of dealing with it, and that she wasn't being fair to call him out on it and imply he didn't care.
She just couldn't believe it had happened.
"I-It's not fair. . .We were so close. . .She had been right there." Ashley was sobbing again, hiding her face behind her hands. "She was supposed to be here with us! She risked everything for me, but I couldn't save her. . .I couldn't save her in the end!" It was then Ashley remembered that she had been the one to turn on the machine. She hadn't hesitated, not believing that Ella could possibly die after everything she had survived.
And Ella's screams and cries of pain. . .they would haunt Ashley forever.
"Did...Did I kill her Leon?! Was it my fault?!" The horror in her voice was palpable, chilling the very air around them. Ashley just couldn't help but think that maybe they should have risked letting the parasite die on its own. Maybe then Ella would be here with them, smiling and laughing and making them feel better. But Ashley hadn't even questioned it. She just followed along, pressing the button without giving it a second thought, despite knowing how much the procedure hurt after experiencing it herself. Of course Ella's already weakened body couldn't handle the strain! What was she thinking? How could she just allow it to happen without any consideration for Ella? How could she be so heartless?
Ashley's train of thought was halted when she felt arms wrap around her, surprise filling her as she realized Leon was hugging her. She had only been shocked for a moment before she wrapped her arms tightly around him, crying into his shoulder and letting all of her emotions out at once.
Leon offered the only form of comfort he could in that moment, holding Ashley up and keeping her from going down a very dangerous line of thinking. Of course it wasn't her fault. He didn't know how she could think that.
It was his, and there would be no comfort for Leon. Not now, not ever. He had told himself this time would be different, and it wasn't. It never would be.
Ella paid the price for his naïve and arrogant thinking, and it was a weight he would carry with him for the rest of his life- one that could only be temporarily alleviated at the bottom of a bottle.
Whatever Ada had seen in him that made her think he was the same man from Raccoon City had died along with Ella, and there was nothing that could bring it back.
xXx
When he finally got home, he had stayed in his apartment for weeks, processing everything that had happened.
The only thing that got him outside was the memory of Ella's last wishes.
He found Alice's parents, leaving a note at their door detailing that their daughter had been in an accident on a hiking trail in Spain.
Then, he found Ella's father, and that one...he had to do in person.
The man who had answered the door was disheveled, the smell of alcohol assaulting Leon's nose when the man spoke, but Leon still did what he had gone there to do, telling him as much of the truth as he could.
The man hadn't believed him, slamming the door in his face after cursing at him to get off his property, and Leon had almost broken his door down and forced him to listen and believe what he had been told, if only to ensure Leon had honored Ella's last wishes, but he didn't, restraining himself and returning back to his apartment where he could deal with what had happened alone, his brand of coping not that much different than her fathers, apparently.
His phone ringing snapped him out of his thoughts, and he looked at the caller ID, seeing it was Hunnigan.
"Yeah?" He answered, Hunnigan launching into the explanation of a mission on the other end. He didn't listen, not really caring what the job was right then. "Just send me the details." He cut her off, abruptly ending the call before putting his phone away.
It was then he reached towards his waist, pulling out the combat knife The Merchant had given Ella, the memory of her excitement when she received it flashing through his mind. The way her eyes lit up in excitement, her lips stretched into a wide smile as she proudly showed the weapon off to him as if he hadn't watched the Merchant give it to her...The memory had a lump forming in his throat that he swallowed down, wishing he could chase it with the comforting burn of alcohol like he had been doing for the past few weeks.
Focusing back on the object in his hand, the sight of the weapon brought fresh anger and self loathing, the emotions far easier to feel than his crushing grief. He knew Ashley meant well when she grabbed it, thinking Ella would want to have the weapon. When that proved fruitless, she gave it to him, not realizing it was only a cruel reminder of what he had lost.
Despite that, he had it fixed up recently, and he didn't know why until this moment.
With a flick of his wrist, the blade was buried into the dirt on the cliff. It was the only version of a memorial he could give her, Ella's body left behind on that godforsaken island, engulfed in flames along with whatever piece of him that had allowed him to feel so deeply for another person again.
The knife would not only serve as a reminder of Ella, but also of how things would never be different, no matter how much he wanted them to be. This unforgiving world and its selfish, greedy inhabitants would never allow it.
With that, Leon turned away from the sunset, its usual ability to make him forget the horrors of the world gone, the man only feeling the weight in his chest that had cemented itself within him that day.
End