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Leon couldn't pinpoint the exact moment he should've known something was wrong.
Maybe when she didn't counter one of his bad jokes with a snarky comment of her own.
Maybe when she grew uncharacteristically quiet beside him.
The adrenaline rushing through his veins must've clouded his judgement. A fatal flaw.
~
It was pure coincidence they'd met here out of all places. A vacant underground facility, abandoned for years, hidden out of the public's sight. He was sent there to investigate suspicious activity the DSO had been tracking for the last few months and only the gods above knew what Ada was after and who sent her. He hadn't seen her in almost a year, her profile completely off the grid after the events of Lanshiang. Still, he'd recognize those clicking heels everywhere. She, of course, had spotted him before the idea of her presence could've even crossed his mind.
“Pleasure seeing you here, Leon.”
“How come we always meet in places like this, Ada?”
She grinned.
“I have no idea. Just our luck apparently.”
Their reunion didn't last long. They weren't alone in there, the building being pretty crowded for someplace considered desolate. A superior number of foreign agents was swarming the grounds, ready to reap blood and death. It hadn't been the first time they'd encountered something like this together, defeating the unwanted intruders shouldn't have been a problem.
Leon remained on the ground. The masked agents were coming at him fast but he was faster, striking them left and right as they tried to attack him and sweeping them off their feet, slamming his axe into their bodies to finish the job. Ada was soaring above him, using her grapple gun to dance through the air while simultaneously disarming and taking out the men around her. She never stayed in his line of sight for long, working her way through the attackers like a fleeting shadow. Still, he fell into a steady rhythm with her again, their movements automatically aligning, perfectly coordinated. In a matter of minutes every person in the room except for them was eliminated, the path before them cleared with clinical efficiency.
Adrenaline was still pulsating through Leon's body, his tunnel vision scanning for further danger around him. Ada landed with a soft thud on the ground behind him, the hook of her gun retracting as she stepped towards him. He turned around, the tension in his body lessening again, shooting her a sly grin.
“Just like old times, huh?”
She answered with a smirk, her eyebrows raised in the sarcastic way he knew all too well. He grinned even wider. This woman.
“I guess then you also won't tell me why exactly I have the pleasure of your company here of all places?”
He was just teasing her at this point.
“You know me so well, Leon, you can even answer your own questions by now.”
He laughed.
“A man's got to adapt at some point if he wants to keep up with you.”
She shot him a smug grin, playfully shaking her head.
“Well then, lead the way, handsome.”
“Why do I have a feeling that whatever it is you're after is gonna guide you coincidentally in the same direction as me in here?”
A quiet chuckle was coming from her. Oh, how he had missed this.
After securing the hallways laying out in front of them, he continued his way through, her following close behind, covering his blind spots. They didn't talk, both focused on the task at hand, a comfortable silence between them. The quiet clicking of her heels ensured her position behind him, he could tell she was walking slower than usual. Apparently she was cautious about whatever could still be hiding here, too.
They reached his destination room after a few minutes of walking, some sort of control center documenting and monitoring the whole facility. He hoped to find some answers here. Leaving Ada to search for whatever she was after in here, he got to work at the control panels, scanning the video tapes and monitors for some sort of useful information or clues as to where to head next. The recordings didn't show anything unusual and he sighed. It was never that easy, was it?
The sound of something dropping to the floor pulled him out of his focus at the task at hand. Alarmed by the noise, he turned around. Ada was leaning against a filing cabinet, her face pale as a ghost, clutching her stomach, the documents she just held in her hands scattered on the ground around her.
“Ada?”
Her eyes were closed, her expression unreadable, but he could tell something was seriously wrong. He stepped towards her, his brows furrowing in worry.
“Ada, what's wrong?”
She collapsed to the ground just seconds before he could reach her. He tried to catch her, his arms preventing her body from colliding with the cabinet behind her. What the hell was going on with her?
He lowered himself to the floor with her, but before he could take another look at her again, he noticed something wet leaking out of her clothes, a thick liquid drenching his fingers. Slowly lifting his hand up, he was met with the sight of dark red blood staining his palm.
Oh god. No.
Something, someone must've gotten a hold of her earlier while they were fighting, hurting her in the process. He rapidly unbuttoned her blouse, only to be confronted with multiple deep and heavily bleeding gashes across her lower chest and abdomen. Fuck. Frantically, he rummaged through the pockets of his jacket, trying to find something he could use as a pressure dressing. After quickly searching every bag, he found some gauze and bandages, that had to be good enough for now. In addition, he ripped off stripes of his shirt for more stabilization of the bandage, the tearing sound and his panicked breathing replacing the eerie silence in the room, and turned towards Ada again. He could tell she was still conscious, her breathing shallow, her eyes fluttering.
“Ada, I'm so sorry, this is going to hurt, but I need you to stay as still as possible. Can you do that for me?”
Her nod was barely noticeable, but he saw it. I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do, but you're not going to bleed out on me. He took some of the gauze, laid one hand on her stomach to stabilize it and began to pack the wounds, stuffing the compress directly into the lacerations. A choking scream escaped her throat, her body writhing underneath him.
“I know, sweetheart, I know. I'm so sorry. I'm almost done, I promise.”
He finished the external pressure dressing, wrapping the bandages and the cloth stripes as tight as possible around her waist, praying it would temporarily stop or at least slow the bleeding. He needed to get her to a hospital. Now. How long had it been since they encountered those agents? How long could she possibly have been losing blood already?
“Leon.”
She interrupted his panicked train of thought. There was a hint of fear in her eyes, her lips trembling.
“It's okay, I'm here, I got you. You're gonna be okay. We just need to get you out of here.”
“Leon, I'm going to go into shock.”
Her voice was quiet and collected, but she couldn't hide the genuine terror in her tone.
“Listen to me, you're gonna be fine, alright? I promise.”
How didn't he notice she was hurt this badly? Why didn't she say something? He knew she had a very high pain tolerance and the adrenaline probably subdued even more of it, but she had to feel it somehow, didn't she? He needed to get her out of here.
“Don't make promises you can't keep, hun.”
She was smiling, but the pain was still shining through, twisting her expression. Pearls of sweat were forming on her forehead, her pupils were dilating and she was starting to shiver uncontrollably. Shit, she was right. She was going into shock. He checked her bandages again, only to be met with fabric soaked in dark red again. Fuck. She had bled through them already. This was bad. Realistically speaking he knew what her chances of survival were. But he couldn't, wouldn't let her die. He was going to get her out of here and she was going to survive.
“Shut up. We're gonna get you out of here and to a hospital and then everything will be fine.”
He was putting his arms under her frame, trying to pick her up as gently as possible. She winced in agony.
“Leon, stop.”
The dread in her voice and her agitated breathing made him pause.
“Just… Stay with me, please.”
“Always. But we need to get you to medical attention first, alright? It's gonna be okay.”
A coughing fit cut off her answer. Droplets of red landed on his shirt, her lips stained in blood. She wiped it off with the back of her hand, staring at it in disbelief.
“Shit.”
The sight made her start to panic. Her breaths were getting even more erratic and she was gasping for air, as if she was choking on something. Her own blood. Oh, god.
“Breathe for me, Ada, in and out. You got this, come on.”
He pulled her closer to him again, trying to hide his own fear. She was going to survive this. He tried to soothe her by gently stroking over her back, trying to give her some kind of comfort. It wasn't enough. Her face was contorted in raw fear, tears forming in her eyes. He had never seen her so scared before. Deep inside him, his heart shattered into a million pieces. This couldn't be happening. Please. Not her. He was trying to think of a way to get her out quickly enough so she would pull through this, frantically going through the layout of the facility in his mind. No matter how fast he would run, they wouldn't make it in time.
“I'm sorry–” A gurgling sound cut her sentence off, blood flowing out of her mouth and her wheezing for air between coughs. She was suffocating. He tried to get her into a better position to breathe, but it was no use. There was bleeding in her lungs with no way to stop it. She tried to talk again, desperation in her eyes, tears running down and staining her cheeks.
“I'm sorry, I love y–” Another coughing fit cut her off, but it was enough for him to understand. She had never said it out loud before today. Something inside him broke. He knew, of course, but hearing her say it under those circumstances… Please, don't take her from me. Please. He silently begged the universe for a miracle before answering her.
“I know, sweetheart, I know. I love you, too. So much.”
Sobs were wrecking through her body. “I–” Cough. “Don't–” Cough. “Want to–” Cough. “Go.” He was trying his hardest not to cry, but he could feel the silent tears running down his face.
“I know, Ada. I'm so sorry.” Don't leave me, please.
She was hyperventilating now while gasping for air, the death rattle audible in her breathing. The rapid bleeding of her wounds had stained his own clothes, too, leaving him soaked in dark red blood. Her eyes were filled with mortal fear, silently begging for him to do something. There was nothing he could do. There was nothing that could've saved her in time. He had never felt so helpless and powerless before.
“I got you. I'm here and I'm not leaving. I got you, I promise.”
He was whispering to her, trying to comfort her in some way, but it was no use. Her lips and fingertips were starting to turn blue and he could feel her getting weaker and weaker underneath him, her body giving up.
“Ada?”
She wasn't reacting anymore, instead going completely limp, her eyes getting glassy. With trembling fingers he checked her pulse. Barely there, rapidly slowing down. Please, don't take her from me. Please. He wasn't a religious man, but in that moment he prayed, pleaded, begged. I will do anything, but let her stay.
It was no use. The last fleeting beat of her pulse was gone, her body completely still, frozen in place. She was gone.
A wailing cry escaped his lips.
I'm so sorry. I failed you. I couldn't save you. I should've saved you.
He buried his face in the curve of her neck, gut-wrenching sobs shaking his body. He was being ripped apart from the inside out, every cell succumbing to agony. He had failed her. The feeling of that moment on the bridge in Raccoon City returned, the air sucked out of his lungs, the dread in his stomach rummaging through every inch of his body. He had lost her again, but forever. This was it. The love of his life. Gone in only a moment, never coming back.
She was still warm in his arms. He didn't want to let her go. He couldn't let go. The room was so quiet without her voice, a bone-crushing silence smothering him. If only it could kill him, too.
He kissed her one last time, but all he could taste was the metallic sensation of blood on her lips. Why her? Why couldn't he save her, again? It didn't matter how many people he could and had saved, it was pointless if she wasn't one of them. His tears were falling onto her lifeless face, making it look as if she would still cry with him.
I'm so sorry, Ada.
~
He knew he had no choice but to leave her there. No matter what he'd do, there was no way to get her body out of that facility without alerting unwanted attention. He hated it. She deserved so much better than this. But she wouldn't want the government or anyone else to have the last word over what happened to her, even in death, he knew that. At least that dignity he could give to her.
He sat beside her for hours and hours, not being able to leave her behind. He hated himself for having to do it. It shouldn't have to end like this. She deserved to live. After all she had endured, this was it? This was how it ended? This wasn't fair. The thought of her laying here alone made him sick. Her last moments were ingrained into his brain, the raw fear and agony on her face replaying over and over in his mind. He took her hand into his again, caressing it. Her body had grown cold now, the warmth she had once radiated gone. One of his tears dropped onto her palm. He carefully put it down again, then slowly stood up, taking in the sight of her one last time.
“I love you. I'm so sorry it had to end like this.” I'll see you again, I promise.
~
Flames were spreading through the underground complex as he exited. This was the closest to a burial he could give her. No one would find her body now, he'd make sure of that.
Her blood was still staining his clothes, clinging to him like an unmerciful embrace. The only thing he had left of her now. He spared one last glimpse behind, looking at the sterile rooms engulfed in fire that would now lay her to rest forever.
Goodbye, Ada.