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geddy-leesbian · 2 days ago

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A Miracle Too Good To Be True (one-shot)

Leon exits the elevator, expecting to be confronted by yet another abomination that mutated itself beyond recognition. Instead he's greeted with a miraculous sight for sore eyes, an old friend that must be in Valdelobos for the same reasons Leon is.

But sometimes you have to be wary of a miracle too good to be true.

(This isn't a first draft but also isn't quite the final version either. Eventually I'll post a more complete version of it to AO3 that's more polished and has more of the Krauser fight on screen, as well as a longer conversation at the end. I'm just too excited to wait to post this 🤭)

Leon would be lying if he said he wasn't annoyed when the elevator doors opened and he saw that Luis wasn't alone this time. Even though she was small and huddled in a corner behind Luis, who was shaking the container with the suppressant and talking, Leon's eyes were drawn to the little girl immediately because she stuck out like a sore thumb. Leon may have been inclined to think she was Luis's daughter if it weren't for the fact she looked nothing like him. She looked nothing like anyone in Valdelobos. She was the first child, dead or alive, that Leon had seen during the mission. Her hair was a bright red, and her skin was pale; not the sickly pallor complexion some infected took on, but simply the healthy pale shade that tends to come packaged with red hair. Leon couldn't get a good look at her face, but he could see that her clothing was also unusual. She wore a bright yellow raincoat that appeared to be too big for her small body and a pair of pink sneakers. Nothing like the dreary old clothes he'd seen on Valdelobos's other residents.

Leon wasn't upset at the girl, nor was he annoyed by her specifically. It was just that an extra person meant another layer added to his already difficult mission. Get Ashley back from Saddler. Protect Luis so he can remove their plagas in his lab. (While Luis wasn't exactly a basket case, he's still not the greatest in fights.) And then, protect a child. A child Luis was tight-lipped about, only saying that her name was Lucia, they had to take her with them, and that she wasn't infected. Leon accepted it, but he still wasn't happy about the new wrench in his plans.

But much to Leon's surprise, Lucia's presence didn't interfere with anything. Half the time he forgot she was even with them. During quieter moments she either walked behind Luis, clinging to him like glue, or rode on his back. When there were fights that couldn't be avoided, she ran away from Luis and found a crevice or nook she could squeeze into, only coming out of hiding when the sounds of gunfire ceased and Luis called out that it was safe.

Luis wasn't entirely useless either. He didn't contribute much when they were just fighting ganados, but once they started running into invisible bugs, Luis was suddenly more useful than Leon. Leon heard buzzing and looked around, scrutinizing and shooting at rocks, shooting into the air repeatedly like a madman, and nothing happened. Luis heard buzzing and after just one or two shots from his Red9 a bug would suddenly become visible and then fall to the ground, dead.

Somehow they made it to the elevator miraculously unscathed. Lucia didn't have a scratch on her, and the only injuries Leon and Luis acquired were superficial and easily treated with herbs.

“Okay, Luis, time for you to finally give me some answers,” Leon demands after he's treated his wounds, reloaded his arsenal, and gotten the elevator moving. “Talk.”

“Lucia was an Umbrella test subject,” Now that Leon really has him against a wall, almost literally, Luis drops his frustrating habit of dodging questions and isn't beating around the bush at all. Lucia is standing in front of Luis, and he covers her ears with his hands as he starts to talk. Leon almost laughs. The kid's been watching them brutally fight their way through the mines, seeing god knows how many ‘people’ die in gory ways, and yet Luis is trying to shield her from a conversation. “She was an orphan Umbrella scooped up from foster care. The parasite implanted in her was a slow growing one, it would take years to fully mature. So it was decided she needed to be treated differently from other test subjects to ensure behavioral issues wouldn't be a long-term hindrance. I was her… handler, for lack of a better word. I pretended to be her adoptive father and built a relationship with her, that way she wouldn't resist procedures or tests if I reassured her. At least, it was supposed to be pretend. I was too soft for the job, I got attached and actually did love her as a daughter. I left Umbrella when her parasite was nearly mature and she would die if I didn't remove it soon. I managed to smuggle her out. I promised her she would never be anyone's experiment again. I promised that, once I removed the parasite implanted in her, there would be no more needles. I promised she would never be a test subject again. That's how I ended up working for Los Illuminados. It was a real deal with the devil type of situation. Saddler said that if I didn't work for him, she would be given to another team to use as a test subject. But as long as I worked hard, he wouldn't let anyone touch a hair on her head. What was I supposed to do? If I left the village with her, Umbrella would eventually find us and I would be murdered and Lucia would be at the mercy of evil scientists again. And if I stuck around here but refused to work for Los Illuminados, same thing. They would take her away from me by force and she'd become the newest test subject to torture. Working for Los Illuminados was the only way I could keep my promise.”

“I still don't get you though. Why are you helping us? You just want to keep your… daughter safe and get out of here, why not just do that now instead of staying longer to help out me and Ashley?”

“Because what I did was selfish. I worked for Los Illuminados just to save my daughter. I contributed to the deaths of hundreds to save a single life…” Luis pauses and looks away from Leon for a moment, trying to wrangle his thoughts. Suddenly he looks like shit– or maybe he's looked like shit this entire time and Leon just hasn't looked closely enough to notice until now– regardless, Luis looks weathered beyond his years. There's far more gray in his hair than a man of his age should have, there's dark circles under his eyes, his face is gaunt and ragged… It's a shocking contrast to the little girl in front of him, with her wavy red hair, pale skin with a healthy pink tint, and full cheeks. Leon is sure that at least some of Luis's worn appearance can be attributed to him regularly skipping meals to make sure his daughter never went to bed with an empty belly. “At the time, I felt justified. I never made any promises to keep the world safe, I made a promise to keep her safe. But still, maybe it was wrong. Maybe saving hundreds of lives would outweigh the wrongness of breaking one promise. But I can't turn back time, I have to live with what I have and haven't done, and helping you is my way of-”

Lucia suddenly slaps Luis's hands away from her ears.

“Monster! Outside the elevator.”

Leon looks at her skeptically, and Luis explains. “The thing about her being an Umbrella test subject? Yeah, she's got a sixth sense that senses BOW's. That's how I was able to shoot all those invisible bugs easy, she told me where to aim because she could see them,” Done addressing Leon, Luis kneels down to talk to Lucia. “What kind of monster?”

“Not the ganados or bugs, someone like… Méndez? Saddler? Not them, like them.”

“Great. I was starting to worry that we'd make it outside without having to fight one more mutating freak,” Leon quips, double checking that all of his weapons and herbs are ready to go. “You stay in here, I'll go check it out.”

“Major Krauser?” Luis hears from within the elevator. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Luis is aware of who Krauser is. He doesn't need to ask Lucia if the man Leon is talking to is the monster she's sensing, he knows that Krauser was host to a dominant plaga. What he doesn't know is how Leon knows this guy. And what Leon doesn't seem to know is that this guy is, in fact, the BOW Lucia warned him about.

“Long time no see, rookie.”

“What? Why are you here?” The dominant tone of Leon's voice is still disbelief, but there's also a hint of relief to it. “Are you on some other top secret operation to stop Los Illuminados that no one bothered to tell me about?”

“Were you really all by yourself in that elevator, pretty boy?” Pretty boy? Luis already had enough questions, he did not need to hear that. He dares to poke his head around to catch a glimpse of what's happening. Krauser slowly circles Leon, eyeing him up and down like he's a piece of meat. “I wanted to see my pretty boy again, but that was just a nice bonus. I came down here to recover some stolen goods, and kill the rat that took them. I thought he was with you.”

“You mean Luis?” Krauser's back is currently turned to the elevator and Leon glances over his shoulder at Luis who is gesturing wildly, making a knife slicing motion against his neck. Leon seems to pick up all of Luis's intended messages. “I killed him. Found out he was Umbrella, and you know what those assholes did to me and my friend, so I killed him.”

Luis feels a wave of relief wash over him. Leon understood Luis's message, and he's playing the situation perfectly.

“Just like that? You really snapped and killed him that easily? That doesn't sound like the rookie I knew,” Leon's hand inches towards his knife. “But maybe you have changed. How about you show me what you're made of now?”

Luis readies his pistol, and then watches helplessly as Leon and Krauser begin to fight. He wants to help Leon. It's the first time a fight has truly been neck and neck. Luis was used to watching in awe as Leon decisively won every fight, watching a fight with no clear winner made his stomach churn. Leon should be sweeping the floor with this guy like usual. He wants to step in to tip the scales in Leon's favor, but both of them are moving far too fast for Luis to get a clear shot. If they're still talking, Luis can't hear it over the clanging sounds of knives clashing.

He whispers to Lucia to turn around or go back into the corner of the elevator, but she doesn't listen and continues watching anxiously. Luis doesn't argue further, he can't risk drawing Krauser's attention to himself and Lucia. Right now Krauser believes that Luis is dead and Leon has no one to back him up, he's not going to throw that advantage away.

Eventually Luis gets an opportunity to act. Krauser has Leon on the ropes. He's dangling over the abyss, and will fall to his death when Krauser takes his knife to his hands that are desperately holding onto the edge of the platform. Luis springs out of his hiding spot, shooting a volley at Krauser's hand and hoping at least one hits its target.

Krauser isn't as surprised by the “surprise” attack as Luis hoped. A bullet does appear to graze his arm, but he doesn't even flinch, let alone drop his weapon.

“I knew I smelled a rat,” Luis at least accomplished his main goal, Krauser's attention is now focused on him, giving Leon time to climb back up onto the platform. “And I knew that rookie wouldn't have had it in him to just cut someone down.”

As the arm around his throat tightens and his vision begins to blur, Luis desperately prays to a god he doesn't believe in that Lucia followed his instructions and stayed in the elevator and wasn't watching all of this. But suddenly Krauser releases him from the chokehold and shoves him to the ground. Not prepared to do anything to break the fall, Luis groans in pain as his body hits the ground, and there's a crunching sound as his glasses are smashed between the ground and his face. But broken glasses are the least of his worries…

“You know what, rookie?” Krauser walks over and puts a foot on Luis's back, lest he start thinking there was even a chance he could get to his feet and flee. “Killing this rat was my job, but I think I'll let you do the honors instead. Come finish him off. Think about what his employer did to you and your friend. Think about what he did to us in the jungle. You remember. All those things Javier sent at us were from Umbrella Europe. Come get your revenge. Then you and I can settle our score on a more fitting battlefield I've been preparing just for you,” Leon takes a step towards Luis, and Krauser takes his foot off of Luis. “That's right. Come finish him, then I'll be waiting for you in our arena.”

Luis hopes that Leon is considering the offer. Neither of them are in great shape, Luis can't imagine a situation in which they both leave alive. The best he can hope for is that Leon comes and kills him, buying himself some time to patch himself up, get Lucia from the elevator, and then fight Krauser with better odds than he has in his current state.

Suddenly Luis hears and feels a heavy object hit the ground a couple feet away from him. Luis opens his eyes in time to see another object, a brick, come hurling towards Krauser, making contact with his shoulder. Leon and Krauser both look confused.

Lucia. It must have been. A normal girl of her age wouldn't have been able to throw a brick that far, but Lucia isn't a normal girl. Luis looks up at the platform where he left her, and up at the various crates, but doesn't see her. She must have hidden herself. Hopefully Krauser can't see her either.

Finally a third brick hits, and it's a bullseye, bonking the top of Krauser's head. Krauser's far too tough to be incapacitated by a single brick, but he is annoyed.

“I don't have time to play with some brick throwing coward who won't show his face!” Krauser yells. “I'll be waiting for you, Leon. Your little friends are welcome to come to the battlefield too, but they'll have to show their faces and play fair.”

The moment Krauser vanishes from sight, the only people who exist in Luis's world are him and Lucia. He ignores both his own injuries and Leon's as he scrambles to his feet and rushes to Lucia, who came out of her hiding spot. He fusses over her for a couple minutes. He knew that Krauser didn't touch her, but it didn't stop the paranoia. Then he heaps the praise on her for her quick thinking and bravery. Once he's satisfied that Lucia is okay, he finally turns his attention to the slumped over Leon, kneeling on the ground next to him.

“You better not be dying on me. I watched you walk off a chainsaw injury, a few stab wounds aren't going to keep you down,” Luis says, looking over Leon and then readying some supplies to tend to his wounds. Leon's eyes flutter open and he, for reasons he will choose to believe are related entirely to some blood loss clouding his mind and the emotional impact of seeing Krauser again, finds himself looking up at Luis and leaning up to kiss him. Luis gently pulls away and tries to focus on the wound on his shoulder, the rejection making Leon pout. “We can do that again when you're not at risk of bleeding out, okay?”

Leon mumbles out a yes and lets Luis focus on tending his wounds, the worst of them being stitched up by surprisingly delicate hands, the rest getting a can of first-aid spray. Then he gets Leon to eat a few herbs. It's only when he's done that he realizes he had an audience, Lucia sat cross legged with a concerned expression a couple feet away.

“Is he okay?”

“He will be, princess,” Luis reassures with a pat on the head. “He just needs a bit of rest.”

“Yeah, I'll be fine,” Leon says, already a bit perked up from the herbs. “Thanks to you and those bricks. Me and your dad would have been toast if you hadn't stepped in.”

Lucia beams at the praise and scoots over, resting her head on Leon's uninjured shoulder. “We can rest here. There's no more monsters.”

Luis is shocked by her behavior, not only talking to someone but trying to cuddle. Due to her having spent the majority of her life in an Umbrella laboratory or Valdelobos, she was scared of people. Méndez had tried talking to her when they first came back to the village, before he was infected, but she wouldn't say a word to him and would try to hide behind Luis. Luis was the only person she wasn't scared of. But even though he wants to encourage this breakthrough, he doesn't want her to pester Leon. Before Luis tells Lucia to give Leon space, Leon gently pushes her head off his shoulder, but only temporarily– he moves his arm to wrap it around the back of the girl's body and then leans his head against hers. She's exhausted and can barely keep her eyes open. Luis makes himself comfortable on the other side of her and idly runs his fingers through her hair.

“Can you promise me something?” Luis asks after Lucia eventually dozes off.

“Depends.”

“If something happens to me, don't leave Lucia behind. I know you already have a lot on your shoulders without a kid to look after, but-”

“That's a promise I can make. It's not like she's deadweight, she saved our lives. We would have walked right into an ambush and Krauser would have killed us if it weren't for her powers. He would have killed both of us if she hadn't started throwing those bricks. She's a good kid.”

“What about me, Leon? Am I a good man? Despite the shitty life I've led?”

“If you're a shitty person, so am I. I'm not a government agent because I want to be. I was in Raccoon City that day,” Leon doesn't need to say the date, Luis is smart enough to know. “I found a little girl there. She was implanted with G. I got her a vaccine, we got out of the city just in time. Then the government came and ‘rescued’ us. We were taken into custody. They told me Sherry was valuable because of her infection. They had scientists itching to experiment on her. But I was valuable too, surviving Raccoon City showed I had a lot of potential. They told me that if I worked for them, they wouldn't experiment on Sherry. So I did, even though I had learned the government aren't the good guys. I've killed people who hadn't done anything wrong because the government told me to. I've been on missions with an unnecessarily high amount of civilian casualty because the government didn't care enough to minimize who was caught in the crossfire. Every time I rescue someone, I wonder if I'm actually rescuing them or if it's like when I was rescued and I'm just taking them from one nightmare to another. But I just keep following my orders, because Sherry will get hurt if I don't. A lot of people are dead or fucked up because their lives meant less to me than Sherry's life.”

“Shit,” Luis's eyes start tearing up. “I haven't even thought about what the hell I'm going to do when we make it out of here. What will happen to her.”

“I won't let the government get their claws into her, I promise. Don't know if you've heard of the BSAA or TerraSave, but they're organizations who deal with bioterrorism and victims, and aren't following the US government's orders. I've got friends in both. I'll write down contact information for you. You'll have to take Lucia and run before the helicopter comes to get me and Ashley to make sure you're not on the government's radar.”

“That's a disappointment-” Luis cuts himself off, wanting to reword his statement. “No, that doesn't sound right. It's a relief there's help and hope for a safe future for Lucia and I. But it's disappointing that you're not in that future. I wanted more opportunities to kiss you when we're not filthy and injured.”

“This isn't something I can promise, but maybe I'll try and take a look at my situation again and see if there's any way I can get out without putting Sherry in danger. If I'm ever at a point where it's safe, I'll find you again.”

#title/italics part of the blurb from the rush song the wreckers. which i also listened to on a loop while writing this #the extended conversation will have leon talking more about krauser #luis serra #leon kennedy #serennedy #serrennedy #resident evil lucia #my writing #💛𝓛𝓾𝓬𝓲𝓪💛

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