⚠ None ⚠

Alec woke up in a dazed state. His eyelids half open due to the massive fatigue he felt. His blurred vision soon became clear and was able to see. He was seated in front of Leon, right next to the wall he faced. His arms tied behind the chair, legs strapped to the legs chairs. While a collar was wrapped around his neck and a chain connected to it; leading to a wall behind him.

Coming more conscious of his senses, he felt numbing pain near his left temple and felt something warm yet loosing it's heat on the whole side of his left cheek. He concluded it was his dried out blood, since the last thing he saw was the massive man marching towards him. Looking down, he became also aware of missing gear that was recently placed on his left leg. Gun and holster. Damn, where's my stuff...

He intensely looked ahead and observes what was in front of him. Leon out cold while dangling from cuffs, holding him from the ceiling. The only sound the buzzing lights and Leon's slight snores.

An unknown figure suddenly caught Alec's interest, the figure stood behind Leon, seemingly in the same situation as him. But the figure was nearly out of his eyesight, the figure nearly being completely obscured by Leon's physique. The only thing deeming his presence was the shadow casting on the floor.

"Hey! You there," Alec spoke with a tired voice, exhaling the pain he felt in his chest. He sees the man's head pick up as he spoke. "Yeah you, care to to tell me where the hell we are?"

The man turns around and slightly walks to the right from Alec's perspective to see Alec. His movements slightly make Leon move. "Why hello my hero. Seems we got ourselves in a pickle eh? Names Luis."

The man in the bag...Alec remembers who the man was now. He grunts as he tried to shuffle in his restrained seat, dismissing the man's humor, he spoke in an irritated voice, "Alec...do you know where we are or not?"

The man raise his hands that where in a cuff much like Leon, in a defensive way. "Not much for small talk, got it," the man then just started to stare at Alec for a strangely amount of time.

"What?" Alec said with his hoarsed voice.

The man walks back to his spot his was previously at, facing the wall. "You know, you remind me of a certain señorita, maybe you're-"

Leon's loud gasps and frantic eyesight moving about, caught Alec off guard. His eyebrows scrunched as he look around.

He looked around very quickly, completely disregarding Alec who sat a few feet from him. Leon looks up and sees his hands hanging by chains. "Oh, what the fuck?" Leon spoke to himself.

Leon then looks in front of him and sees Alec, in a chair bounded, with dry blood on the side of his head. "Are you alright?" Leon spoke with concern.

Looking at Leon, Alec sees dread writing in his face. He's recently been seeing this whenever he, Alec got himself in danger. Alec responds, "yeah, I just- I'm just restrained a lot right now. Kinda need help."

"I'll get you out." Leon pulls against the chains which resulted in the man, now named Luis grunting in pain.

"Hey, stop it!" Luis yelled at Leon. Leon's concern dipped to the man behind him. His face went stoic as he looked at him. Leon then started to take in his situation.

Alec watches as they both started to move about. "Oye, Yanquí, got a name?" Luis stated.

"Leon," He replied. Alec questions on what Leon was doing. He was moving left and right, while pulling on the chains.

"Quiet type, eh? I'm Luis Serra. And guess we all picked the wrong spot for vacation eh?" Luis jokes as Leon started to pull on the chains.

The pull makes pain course through luis wrists, making him complain. "Hey, stop it! You move, I move...and I'm beat up enough as it is!"

Leon then started to pull at the chains towards Alec's way, to try to pull it down and rip it off. "I can see your thinking."

While Leon ignored Luis small talk, he looks at Alec with a smirk, pulling on the chains. His muscles showing a more definite shape as he did. Alec lightly scoffs and smiles, looking off to the side.

"One more guess. Maybe...some missing señorita?" At Luis statement, Alec eyes peak up and he moves his head in his direction, which gave him a slight pain on his neck from the collar.

Leon whips his around and pulls the chains so Luis is right in front of him. "Talk. Now." Leon demands.

Since Luis was pulled against the chains, his arms were held above his head out of his will. "All right. See, heard chatter about moving a señorita."

Alec dozed off into a daydream as they both talked to eachother. Thinking of anything other than his current state. Leon's grunt and quick pull of the chains made Alec more alert of his surroundings. He saw one of the villagers coming up behind Luis.

"Watch out!" Alec yells out.

Leon pushes Luis by the chain to him, causing Luis to fly to him. The man swung an axe that barely misses Luis. Leon then wraps the chain around the neck and pull back to chock the man out. It took longer than usual so he slammed the chain on the ground with his knee. Hearing a snap the man plummeted on the ground, dead.

Ales sighs. He eyebrows rose up when seeing Luis unlocking his chains and backing up away from the scene while Leon got up. "Where you going!?"

Leon hears Alec yell and turns around. He runs at Luis but stops because of the lack of movement from the chains. "Hey, we're not done here!"

"Later, amigos!" Luis runs off, while throwing the key to the flow.

Leon unlocks his chains and find outs all his stuff is gone. "Shit, they took my gear."

"Hey uh, gonna stand there or you gonna help me now?" Alec beckons to Leon. Leon turns around and walks to Alec. He get closer and inspects the chain around his neck. He brings up his hand and grazes over the chain, his finger tips lightly touching the base of his neck. It send chills down Alex spine.

Giving a quick smile to Alec, leon spoke. "Good thing it's rusted, I could probably force it open."

"'Kay, let's get going." Nodding, Leon gently grabs Alec by the jaw and turns it to the side so he can get a better angle. He lets his fingers stay on the Alec's jaw after moving it, staring with a questionable gaze. He starts to take in Alec face and jaw, admiring it.

From his peripheral Alec sees Leon. "You alright?"

"Yeah- yeah, I'm gonna break it off now." Leon center's his attention and grabs ahold of the collar with both hands and started to pull it apart. Hearing the collar making sounds as it straining to break. Alec hears Leon's grunts as it breaks off.

He crains his neck, and moans. Feeling the freedom to move it around again. "Okay, now my hands. If you please."

"Alright." Leon walks behind him and undo the strings, letting Alec's hand free. Alec brings his hand in front of him, soothing his wrist. They had red rings around them.

Too occupied with his hands, he didn't see Leon walk in front of him and place a hand on his left check. Alec gasp, upon the touch Leon gave him. He watches as Leon's blue eyes skim over his blood and finds where it came from. He lightly touches Alec's temple. "I don't see the wound..." He rubs some of the blood off since it dried.

"What?..." Alec touches his temple and finds nothing there, the pain is also gone. "Huh, maybe it's not my blood?"

Leon focuses on his temple and sooths his cheek. "Maybe..."

Alec looks directly at Leon, wondering why he didn't let go. Leon then caught Alec's eyes and watched his expressions, forming from interest to confusion. His averted his gaze to Alec's lips when he bite them out of nervousness. Smiling, Leon lightly pats his cheek. "You know, you're not so-"

The ring of his earpiece caught him off gaurd, he closes his eyes. Leon mumbles to himself, "Dammit, always calling at the wrong time..."

"What?" Alec couldn't hear what he said. Leon started to walk away to speak to the person on the other end. What the hell was that...Alec has been questioning what's been going on lately between him and Leon. There was no doubt some of the things they've said to eachother we subtle hints of flirting. Unless it's just what they need to get through this hellhole, and it'd be nothing serious. My heads hurting thinking about all this...

He gets his legs out, untying the rope. Standing up, he stretches and heads to Leon. Who stood right by the door way.

"I'm probably due for a confession anyway. Condor one out." Hearing footsteps behind him, he find Alec standing behind him, quietly.

"Let's go." Alec follows Leon. Walking more he finds an herb and a knife sticking out of a dead man's shoulder. They then walk up stairs and enter a room, a village having their back towards them.

Both crouched, Leon smirks and plays with the knife in his hand. He whispers to Alec, "Why don't you take this one, you've seen me do it right?"

Alec gives him a stink eye. "Easier said than done."

"I'll be right behind you, if anything goes wrong." Leon places a hand on his back and places the knife in front of him.

"...fine." Grabbing the knife in irritation, he slowly creeps up, remembering what Leon did. Once making it directly behind him, he grabs the man by his head with his right hand and stabs him in the neck with his left hand. Suprisingly the man goes down.

The kill giving Alec a sudden boost of confidence, he starts to play with the knife in his hand as Leon stands up. "You see that, no struggle. Learned from the best."

Leon roll his eyes and snatches the knife from his hand. "You're gonna hurt yourself."

"Okay so you let me kill the dude, 50 on 50 if I either get hurt or not. But you won't let me play with the knife?"

Leon opens a door and waits for Alec. "Don't matter, anything can happen."

"Right," Alec walks up.

"After you," Leon playfully says.

Shaking his head he walks through. "Wow, manners. Who knew."

They enter another area, full of grime and dirt. The smell of trash, with a few rats running around. One man walking around. "Stay behind me, I got the weapon. So don't do anything rash with that confidence you suddenly have."

Alec wipes off invisible dust on his shirt. "I got it from somebody."

"Well I'm not exactly a person to look up to." He dismisses his words and follows up behind leon as he kills the man. They then go over a window and walk through a small hallway. Leon killed another that was in their way.

Entering a small room, somewhat of a makeshift boiler room, he sees his and Leon's stuff on the other side of a door to the right. "Hey, our stuff."

Leon walks with Alec right by the door and inspects it. He tries to open the door but it rattles and doesn't open. Finding a wheel he turns it and it's opens a door on the other end. Turning it all the way, he lets go, seeing the door slowly closing. "Okay, can you keep this open for me? I'll make my way around."

"Sure." Once Leon walks back the way they came Alec turns the wheel, keeping the door open. He whistles to keep his bordem in check. Until his phones goes off, the ringtone playing loudly. I totally forgot I still had my phone.

It stops after a few seconds then rings again. Leon enters in from the other side. He starts to rummages through the stuff. Both their things piled together. "Hey Leon, who's calling?"

Leon picks up his phone and reads the name. "Uh...someone named Ethan Winters." Oh shit. Alec totally forgot about his friend. With his sister missing and the training, he forgot about the trip he was supposed to take with Ethan and his other friends for Ethan's 21st birthday.

"Pass me it." Leon shrugs and gives Alec the phone through the bars. He stares at the name. How am I even getting bars...flipping his phone open, he places it on his ear.

"Alec, we're waiting for you at your house. Where are you?"

Alec sighs and watches as Leon continues to fix his things. "Hey Ethan, I uh can't make it."

He hears chatter on the phone then Ethan speaks up. "Why not?"

He slides his hand down his face. "...it's a family matter. You know how it is."

Ethan sighs. "I know. Being the president's son and all...Don't worry about it, whenever you're done just give me a call alright?"

"Okay, bye Ethan. Happy birthday."

"...thanks, bye." He closes his phone and puts it in his back pocket.

Leon comes put of the small room with Alec stuff in his hand. Alec reaches out and takes it from Leon."Thanks."

Nodding, Leon waits for Alec to finish getting ready. "Friend of yours?"

Clipping his gun strap, he stands back up and brushes his hair out of his face. "Yeah, met him during highschool when he was a freshman and I was a senior. Couldn't ask for a better friend."

Leon felt something tugging at his heart strings as Alec spoke. "Cool...well- let's get a move on."

Did I just share something personal with him?...Alec didn't even know, he just came too accustomed to Leon that he felt comfortable enough to just share a snippet of his personal life. Leon makes his way to a gate in front of them, leaving Alec behind. Alec speed up, tripping on his feet doing so but he caught himself from falling. Leon laughs at his clumsiness.

"Hey, I just shared something very valuable to me. Can't you tell me something about yourself now?" Alec ask.

...it couldn't hurt to let him know something right? Leon ponders to himself. Sighing he places his hands in his pockets. "What do you want to know?"

Alec looks Leon up and down while thinking. "Were you always an agent?"

Leon has sudden flashes of raccoon city and what happen there. His face turns into a frown, noticeable to Alec. "I mean, if it's too much. You don't have to tell me-"

"I was a rookie cop. It was my first day at the precinct," he laughs as he remembers. "I was late to my first day because I broke up with my ex the day before, got a little drunk and overslept. Then when I got there-"

They hear something unlock and look at the gate to find someone in a hooded up clothing looking at them. "Over here, strangers."

"Who is that?" Leon ponders.

"Dont know..." Alec was going to ask Leon if he could continue what he was saying but Leon beat him to it.

"I'll finish later, let's see who this guy is." Alec sighs and follows Leon with his head down.

They were getting somewhere, why is everything and everyone interrupting at the wrong time?

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Author Note:
I don't know if anyone caught what I wrote, I tend to write it and play it off but you know how Las plagas works in this game? Well I'm putting a twist to it in my own way and using it for something cool. Well I like to think so. It'll be explored more in the next chapter.

And yes Ethan Winters from re7 and 8 is your friend. He's 21 when re4 takes place, well see him more after I finish re4.