Got Smoke?

Captured Again

Taking a detour out of the castle, Luis and I stepped out onto the dock. The chilly night air swept the waves. There was a speedboat left there. I approached it, noticing a small note on the windshield. There was nothing written except for a heart shape drawn with red lipstick. I crushed the note and tossed it away. Ada sure had thought about me and was gracious enough to leave one extra speedboat for us. Both of us hopped in, and Luis drove the speedboat towards the island.

"There's another lab there?" I asked over the wind.

"Yes, my other lab where I helped researched on this disastrous Plagas. There's a piece of machinery I created where I can remove the Plagas completely."

"...Does it work?"

He turned to face me briefly with a reassuring smile. "I've done it once on myself. I'm sure Leon and Ashley will be fine."

We finally reached the island. Luis brought me to the other entrance of the fortress. Luis told me that this property belonged to Saddler, and he was much dangerous than anyone else. He kept repeating that it was his mistake to have trusted Saddler in the first place, but he promised to make everything right. He warned me to be careful because there were even more traps than inside of Salazar's castle. We entered through a back door, making our way into the fortress. We were immediately spotted by the combatant Ganados. There were too many of them, so Luis and I ran. We ducked into another walkway, the combatants running past us. We continued to walk further south, eventually meeting with Leon who had just rescued Ashley.

"Finally I get to see you," I said, nodding at Ashley. "I'm glad you're okay."

She gasped upon seeing me. "Amara?! What happened to you?"

"Injured, otherwise fine," I answered short. "We should get to that lab." 

The same combatants that chased us were coming our way. Luis hurriedly pointed us to the nearest exit, which happened to be a garbage chute. Ashley wrinkled her nose. "This is disgusting," she complained as all of us looked down the chute.

"This is the only way to escape," Luis said, turning around to make sure the combatants weren't closing in on us yet.

Ashley turned to face Leon, but Leon had that look on his face. Even Ashley had recognised it by now, and she immediately shook her head. "No way, Leon!"

"Way."

With that, Leon grabbed Ashley's hand and both of them jumped off. Ashley immediately yelled. That was for sure going to attract the combatants' attention so Luis and I jumped off quickly. Luis landed first and caught me in his arms. Ashley, on the other hand, had landed flat on her butt and started groaning.

"You..!" she grumbled as Leon chuckled. He helped her up while Luis set me down gently. "Wha-what's this?!" 

Seeing Ashley freak out made Luis step in front of me protectively. Leon pulled Ashley away just as quickly. There was a dead organism on top of all the other garbage and Ashley had just landed on it. Lucky for her, she didn't land on the spikes on its arms. Ashley hurriedly wiped off the slime on her skirt.

"That's we call a Regenerador," Luis said.

"Come on, we should get going," Leon urged, and the four of us walked away from it. We hadn't even gone five steps ahead when said Regenerador came to life. "Go!" Leon yelled next, and we rushed further in.

There was a switch on the wall which brought down a gate, buying us time to get away from the Regenerador. It clawed on the other side of the gate, letting out a grunting noise.

"Leon, this thing has its weakness but only under infrared vision!" Luis explained.

Leon nodded, taking out his powered scope rifle and switching to infrared. He shot at various points of the body, and the Regenerador exploded.  

"Trade?" I joked, holding out my own rifle.

"Finders keepers," Leon replied, a playful smile on his lips.

Another Regenerador popped up from behind, and Leon didn't waste any time to shoot it. We continued further in, following Luis' directions. Eventually, we found ourselves in front of a large tractor. Ashley offered to drive the tractor, and the three of us simply stared at one another. Leave it to me, she said. We only hopped onto the back in response. While Ashley drove, we kept the enemies off of us. A truck came zooming towards us so Leon quickly threw a grenade. That, however, caused Ashley to drive off course. The tractor hit the wall and we fell out of it. Luis had broken my fall yet again and quickly checked if I was okay. I could feel Ashley watching us before she glared at Leon slightly as she got up herself. We then made our way into the boiler room where Saddler was waiting for us. 

"Luis Sera... is betraying me not enough?" Saddler questioned, staring right at Luis. 

"Well, screw you!" Luis yelled.

Saddler laughed at that. He looked at me next and scowled. However, it turned it a sinister grin right after. "I was indeed wrong about you, Amara Rollins. You've proved yourself worthy after all."

Before I could retort, he raised up his right hand. He continued, "I can feel them. Growing ever so strongly in the two of you."

He snapped his fingers and immediately Leon dropped to his knees in pain. He clutched his chest, groaning at the pain. He snapped his fingers again and Ashley went towards him. Luis tried to grab Ashley, but Saddler knocked Luis out with his tendrils. I quickly pointed my gun at Saddler, but he pushed Ashley in front of him so I couldn't take the shot. In the midst of Leon's pain, he managed to throw a homing beacon at Ashley. Thankfully, Saddler didn't notice that because he had used his tendrils again to attack me. I successfully dodged his attack, but he did a follow-up attack too quickly. His tendrils smacked me into the back of the boiler room and my shoulder hit one of the crates. I yelled in pain as I watched Saddler leave with Ashley. Damn it!

Leon was out of pain the moment Saddler left the room. Leon came rushing to me, his mouth going wide when he saw that my jacket and shirt were covered in blood again. Luis had regained consciousness at this point and came towards me.

"Go, Leon. You need to get to Ashley fast," I said, pressing on my wound. "I'll be okay with Luis."

"That's right," Luis chimed in. "Leon, take your pills again. We need to get to the lab quickly."

"Roger. Take care of Amara," Leon said, turning to leave.

"Leon," I called out. "I'm sorry I can't be more of a help."

"You're doing a lot, Amara. Let's hope the next time we meet each other is in the lab. And then we'll all go home."

"Yes, please," I said, grinning through my pain.