ꜰᴇᴀʀꜱ (ᴸᵉᵒⁿ ᴷᵉⁿⁿᵉᵈʸ ˣ ᴿᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ)

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 15

The elevator moved downwards, pretty far downwards. Leon and Nikola said nothing to eachother. Nikola had still this angry look on her face and her arms were crossed infront of her chest. 

Then it made a ringing noise and the gate slowly opened.

"Ladies first",  said Nikola and gestured with one hand for Leon to leave the elevator first.
 "Very courteous of you," Leon replied, bowing his head respectfully and walking through the door. Nikola had to smile, shook her head in disbelief and whispered an inaudible 'idiot'.

"Okay supercop, do you know where were at?", Nikola asked and walked down some stairs. "How was I supposed to know?" he asked and followed NIkola down the stairs after he had cast a searching look over the steel railings. "I don't know, aren't you a police officer here?" Nikola asked casually, letting her fingers roam over the cold concrete of the secret cellar.

 Oh shit, that's right. He was a police officer here... And not an agent.

"Oh, sure, but I don't know this place well, I should have started here on monday..." he replied and thus saved himself from the matter. "Ah" came from Nikola. Leon watched her as her slim figure climbed the stairs in the darkness. Her fingers ran over the old walls and his gaze briefly moved to the ceiling and then back to Nikola. "What are you thinking about?" he asked cautiously. "About the fact that you're not actually a police officer and you're supposed to kill me," she said thoughtfully. "Yeah, my order sounds something like that," he replied, catching up to her. She laughed briefly.

Even the truth could be irony or sarcasm with a person like her.

"Dont you have a flashlight?", Nikola asked and stopped as they reached the floor. "Ah right", Leon replied, searched for it in his hippouches and flicked it on. It was very bright for a very short time. "Ahh fuck", Nikola said and held her hand protecting in front of her eyes. "You'll be fine in no time", he said and shone to the ground with his flashlight. 

"Where are you from actually", Leon started a conversation while they were searching the room.
Nikola didnt even look his way and just answererd dryly: "Germany"
"Germany!? That's it! Ive been thinking why youre sucha mean bastard! That's it!! Youre german", he exclaimed happily. 
"Oh right, I forgot you were Racist", she said and rubbed her eyes intensely.
"Not anymore, I speak Spanish now", Leon said proudly and looked her way from afar.
Nikola didn't even acknowledge his statement. "Okay forget what I said, I mean im totally 100 % American, I love guns and my favourite animal is a eagle.", she said and continued to search for something, maybe a gun?

"YOU are racist!" Leon said and particularly emphasized that 'you'.
"Oh alright, and what makes you think that?", Nikola asked and stopped for  a second to look at Leon. "This biased opinion of America speaks for itself!", he said cleverly, putting his arms on his hips condemningly.

"Nope, I'm also not racist, I speak French", she said, using the same argument as Leon.
He looked at her for a brief second and then let the tight posture sink in again. "Okay, touché..."

Nikola galnced at him in disbelieve but smiled. "Heyyy.. you really know your way around. You are one of the clever racists, although the sentence contradicts itself...", she said and picked something up from the ground.
"Okay, enough 'smart talk', can we focus on the mission now?!", Leon asked and walked back to the stairs.
"Ohh okay, right when youre loosing, we have to focus on the mission"
"I'm not loosing; first of all-", Leon started again and stopped on the stairs.
"Leon im gonna shoot you if you don't keep quiet"
"Okay... Sorry Mrs Buzzkill"
"I'm going to rip your head off right now"
"Im quiet"
"Thanks..."

Leon shook his head and smiled to himself. What a woman. German, he could've guessed that with that... Attitude? 

Didn't matter. 

He walked up the stairs and noticed another way they could go. There was a door down there but it was closed down and looked like a dead end anyways. Above and below him was grating. "Nikola? I think I found a way on", Leon screamed over his back in the room where nicola was still searching for stuff. 

Suddenly there was a terrible clanging noise in the room behind Leon and he jumped up. "What the hell are you doing??" he shoots stressed out back into the darkness. Not. No more noises. "Nikola?" he asked in a confused tone and now turned completely towards the exit that led back into the room. Then footsteps were heard.

But before Leon could pull out his weapon, Nikola stepped into the light of the lamps here in this 'grid room' with something in her hand. She approached him shyly. "Here, because you gave me the Desert Eagle," she said, handing him some metal parts. He looked at it briefly, but it didn't take him long to realize that it was a muzzle brake for his Mathilda. "That I can experience this before I die??? You being nice? Wow...", he said and noticed her annoyed look in her eyes. "Just take it and shut up, before I change my mind", Nikola said and walked next to him.

Right, she gave him this atleast. She was trying to be nice and he? He should stop teasing her all the time.

"Where-" he began. "There was a box there, you probably would have needed a badge, atleast  it looked a lot like you would need one," Nikola interrupted him. "And you actually had that badge with you?" he asked, disbelieving but happy about it. "Nope, I broke the glass," she replied, put the pieces in his hand and scratched the back of her head. "Of course..." he said slowly.

Of course, Nikola didn't do it the conventional way. Always destroying everything and using violence and stuff like that.

He shook his head with a sigh. "What the heck, be happy about it," she replied irritated, brushing past him. "I am, thank you Nikola", he said irretated too abut her way of saying that.

Leon installed the muzzle brake on his Mathilda and examined his work. Suddenly a shadow flew over him. "Leon!"; Nikola shouted alerted and pointed upwards. Leon followed her finger and his eyes sat on some shadow. Someone ran over the bars above them and he could hear him mumble stuff.

"Sir! I am an agent of the BRI (Biological Research Institute)! We are here to help you!", Nikola immediately started, put away her weapon and ran after the shadow. "Nikola! Just wait a minute!" Leon shouted. He didn't have a good feeling about it. But Nikola was already far gone. "Hey! Stop Nikola! We don't know-", 

He was interuppted from an incredibly deafening iron-like bang. Then it crashed again and again. For a short second it was quiet and then there was one last, terribly loud crash and something that sounded like iron and human beings slammed into something hard.

 "Nikola," Leon shouted, twitching his weapon and running down the path. Then he saw it. The path led to a huge area that looked a bit like an underground work site. Only the path was missing. There was a huge hole where a path led to some kind of control center. "Nikola!" he called again and got as close to the hole as possible. As he looked down he felt hot and cold at the same time.

"Oh god... "He whispered slowly and looked around frantically as to the best way to get down there without breaking both shins out of his body.

Because there was none other than Nikola down there. She didn't move, her face was starry and pale. (paler than usual) Her pants were torn and a cut flashed across her skin, revealing a worrying pool of blood.

Oh that stupid bitch. "If you're dead, you bastard, I'll beat you up," he shouted, hoping it would make Nikola laugh or something. Her supposed death... funnier? He didn't know what he wanted to achieve with it.

Their relationship was always so funny and frivolous , he couldn't make up his mind that Nikola was laying down there and bleeding out. Oh fucking god. 

"Dont worry Nikola, im coming!", he said and started climbing down. 

Everything they did seemed so... Unserious. He couldn't grasp that this was happening. That things would be able to become so... serious.
 He always thought Nikola, the nikola who always had something funny (and sometimes offending) to say, the Nikola who always acted this strong.. That this girl was laying down there... dying? Was maybe even dead already? 

 No this couldnt be. It cant be over now, not for her, not for them! Fear took ahold of him and he tried to get down faster.