Absolution

VIII: The Ties That Bind

+Author's note:

We will pick up the threads here on a different note. The tale will start months after the battle. It will fill in the blanks via flashbacks (as we've seen plenty up until this point) and show us what has brought us to, what may be, the hardest fight Leon Kennedy has ever known.

In the beginning, we found our hero in the darkest place of his life. There seemed to be no hope, no escape, and no end to it all. He had nothing to fight for anymore. The body was able and the spirit was broken.

Now he does. The soul drives him as it never has done before and now the flesh holds him back.

I barely do anything with my life these days but work, sleep, eat, pantomime at normal life, and write at 2 a.m. So the muses remain in my favor. Instead of doubting them, I'm working with them these days.

Fight Song was a go to regular anthem for this Roar by Katy Perry. And Catch My Breath. Pop music has taken over my Echo lately. But it does inspire one to work out and work harder.

Slainte.

....

VIII. The Ties That Bind

E PLURIBUS UNUM

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

― Mahatma Gandhi

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Hoffnung, Germany 2017

9 months later

They told him she was dead.

The official word from the powers that be used the phrased M.I.A. but the idea was the same. They weren't looking, weren't trying, and had closed the door on ever finding Chris Redfield and Rebecca Chambers. The search was done.

He'd awoken nearly three weeks after it was over. He'd been sedated and on drips and full of holes and pins and clips. He was a broken thing, a shattered egg, a mess. He heard them referring to him repeatedly as the Humpty Dumpty Miracle.

He'd arrived on the doorstop of that hospital a disaster. It had been touch and go for awhile. He'd coded twice on the table and needed repeat transfusions. He'd nearly bled out in the helicopter while they tried to triage him.

Jill had survived the attack in good shape. Gomez had been so busy beating him to death, she hadn't wasted time on Jill. Jill came out with little more than a scratch.

He was pretty sure he'd had none of his own blood actually pumping through his veins in those first few days. He remembered none of it of course. He had no cognitive recognition of that time. He'd been told things later when he was awake and could remember.

They'd searched, searched, looked, poked around and rattled trees in the beginning to see what shook loose. No one was talking. No one was helping. The locals all but shut down and developed amnesia regarding any relevant information.

And they'd finally given up.

Officially, according to the B.S.A.A. and the U.S. government, they were both no longer a priority and no longer worth the expenditure of resources. The usage of those resources were better allocated attempting to stem the outbreak of viral attacks that had started to spread around Europe. Clearly someone was raising a red herring, drawing attention away. He had no doubt, none, that it was Ada Wong.

The next few months were hit or miss for him on memory. He would have a surgery, he would fall asleep, he would wake up and time had elapsed. The cycle perpetuated until he was finally done and declared ready for the real battle...physical therapy.