Gwen felt her muscles tense up as the adversary walked into the office, his heavy footsteps the only thing she could hear besides her racing heart. The man beside her, Leon, was just as tense as he could hear his own heart threatening to burst through his ribcage and out of his chest. The bulky man stomped around the office and checked the armory before walking to the other side of the office. His back was turned to them and Leon grabbed Gwen's hand. The woman was confused as to why the officer grabbed her hand, but she remained quiet.

Leon quietly and slowly emerged from behind the desk while tugging Gwen along. They crept out of the corner office and failed to notice the man had turned around. Gwen was the first to hear his scurrying footsteps and glanced in his direction. "Shit, he's spotted us!"

"Then we're running!" Leon gripped Gwen's hand tighter and pulled her out of the S.T.A.R.S. office. They knew the man was hot on their heels by the sound and the floorboards shaking under them.

When they reached the spade door in the library, Gwen's hand was yanked from Leon's as her body was lifted off the ground. Screaming in fear and pain, she kicked her legs back and forth as the hand around her neck tightened.

Leon turned to see the titan strangling the life out of Gwen and drew his shotgun. Before he could fire, the towering man used his other arm and smacked him across the room. His back slammed against a bookshelf, a handful of books falling off the shelf and pelting his body. Pain coursed through his entire body as he tried to move and help Gwen. All he could hear was her strangled cries. "Dammit...!"

Fighting through the pain, Leon used the bookshelf to get back to his feet just as the brute wrapped his other hand around Gwen's throat. Gasping for air, the archivist tried to pry the man's hands from her throat while trying to kick him in the chest. Leon grabbed his shotgun and fired at his arms, forcing him to drop Gwen. Her body fell to the floor, gasping for air and coughing as she tried to crawl away from the assailant.

The large man stomped over to Leon and punched him in the face, sending him back to the floor. Gwen weakly drew her pistol and shot the adversary, his attention now back on her. She stumbled to her feet and out the spade door. As she tried to run to the stairs, the brute back handed her and her body fell over the railing. She screamed out as she fell and her body collided with floor below. Her cries went silent as her body slammed against the marble.

Hearing Gwen's screaming, Leon crawled to his feet and rushed out of the library. Peering over the railing, he saw the woman's body and the brute lumbering down the stairs. The officer grabbed his newly acquired magnum and fired a bullet at his head. The single projectile was enough to cause the man to stumble and fall to a single knee before he could reach Gwen. Leon knew the brute wouldn't be down for long and rushed to the archivist's side. He saw a small amount of blood by her head. "Oh, god, Gwen..."

Leon knew he shouldn't move her body, but he had no choice. Scooping Gwen's body up in his arms, he didn't hear a single noise from her, which worried him. He used his back to open the door to the west office and carried Gwen through to reach a safe place. He decided to take her to the dark room, knowing the man wouldn't be able to find due to being incapacitated.

In the dark room, Leon cleared the desk and placed Gwen's unmoving body on top. His heart was racing due to worry as he examined her. He found a gash on the back of her head, blood dripping from the injury. "Shit..." He patted his pockets and searched for anything he could use to help her. When he found nothing, he gritted his teeth with frustration. "Dammit!"

Leon rushed into the dark room and found a towel, wetting it in the sink before returning to Gwen. He used the white fabric to dab at the cut gently. He wiped the blood from her hair and checked her breathing. Luckily, her chest was rising and falling slowly in her unconscious state. Leon knew Gwen wasn't killed by the fall from how the brute continued to pursue her after knocking her from the second floor.

Knowing he needed more than just water, Leon searches Gwen's pocket for the herbs she carries around. He found what he was looking for, but he realized she would have to swallow it. In her unconscious state, there was no way for her to swallow it.

After a few minutes of pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair, Leon came up with a solution to get the herbs into Gwen. He rubbed the back of his neck in disbelief. "It's the only way..."

Leon grabbed the crushed herbs and stood beside Gwen. Unrolling it, he went to place it in his mouth but stopped when he heard the young woman whimper. The officer placed the herbs down and peered down at her face, concern apparent in his sapphire eyes. He placed a hand on top of her head, stroking her inky tresses. "Gwen?"

The archivist's eyes fluttered open, another groan slipping from her lips. She tried to push her body off the desk, but a cry of pain emitted from her throat the moment she moved a muscle. Leon continued to comb his fingers through her hair, trying to keep her calm. "Hey, don't move around too much."

"W-Where are we?" She whimpered, eyes bouncing around the room in confusion.

"The dark room. You fell from the second floor and split the back of your head. Are you hurt anywhere else?" Leon questioned eagerly.

"N-No, but my head and back are killing me..."

"You split your head from the fall. Your back most likely hurts from the impact. Here, take this." Leon revealed the crushed herbs he pulled out of her pocket. "Too bad you don't have anymore of that miracle elixir."

"Actually... I do, but it wouldn't work on me," Gwen muttered, turning her head to avoid Leon's gaze.

Leon blinked with suspicion. "What do you mean?"

Gwen sighed, lifting her arm up slightly but quickly regretting it when another wave of pain flowed through her body. She grimaced before deciding to tell Leon the truth about the medicine she gifted him after his fall in the library. "That remedy was a combination of herbs and blood-mine, to be more exact."

"That's not possible. How does your blood heal wounds faster than a normal person's?" Leon sat down in the chair beside the desk, waiting for Gwen's explanation.

The archivist closed her eyes for a few seconds before reopening them. "Four years ago, I escaped an underground lab. By the time I reached the surface, I was delirious and couldn't even see straight."

Leon's eyes widened in realization. "That's the day I found you on the streets."

"Yes. I had been in that underground lab for eleven years and had no knowledge of where I was at the time."

The officer leaned forward in the chair, clasping his hands together. "You never mentioned your parents once. I tried to ask about them, but you'd always change the subject. Where are they, Gwen?"

Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes as she remembered her loving, caring parents. "Dead."

The moment the word slipped from her lips, Leon regretted asking the question. "Gwen, I'm sorry. I shouldn't've-"

"No," she shook her head slightly. "Don't apologize, Leon. You had no clue about their deaths. I may as well as tell you what happened. It might... It might lift some weight off my chest."

Leon scooted the chair closer to Gwen and wrapped his hand around her smaller one, squeezing it gently. "If you need to talk to someone, I'm right here and always will be. If it's too painful to speak about, don't force yourself."

"No, I want to tell you," Gwen said. She paused for a brief second, sighing deeply, before telling the story of how her parents died. "I was only five when they were killed. We had just gotten home from swimming in the lake by our house. I was in my room, waiting for my mom to finish cooking dinner when a group of men wearing masks broke through the front door. They shot my parents in cold blood and dragged me to that damned underground lab."

"Do you remember seeing anything?"

Gwen shook her head. "No, they always blindfolded me whenever they moved me across the facility. The one man, Damon Griffyn, was the only person I ever saw. He'd... He'd inject me with these strange chemicals and I would be sick for weeks, but he didn't care. Due to all the chemicals, my blood... changed."

Leon was more intrigued by her story, but his heart ached from hearing all she had been through in the eleven years she'd been a guinea pig for a twisted man. He was completely silent, replaying her story in his head.

"It would be easier to show you what happened than explaining," Gwen said, pushing her body up. She fought through the pain as she pushed her body up and swung her feet over the edge of the desk. Leon hurried to her side, wrapping an arm around her waist when he saw her knees give out the moment she took a single step forward. The archivist thanked him before being able to walk on her own. She gripped the empty medical vial from her pocket and placed it on the desk. "May I borrow your knife?"

Leon grasped the handle of the blade but released it when he wondered why Gwen needed it. "Why do you need a knife?"

"To make a small cut. Don't worry, Leon, I won't make it deep," she reassured him.

Reluctantly, the blonde handed over the weapon. Gwen gripped the handle tightly as she used the tip of the blade to slice her fingertip. She used the glass bottle to capture the blood dripping from the cut and watched as the crimson liquid filled the bottle.

Once there was enough blood in the vial, Gwen handed the knife back to Leon and capped the glass bottle. She lifted it, swirling the blood around in the glass container. Gradually, the liquid transforms from a deep red to a glistening silver. Leon's eyes widened in revelation at seeing Gwen's blood turn a beautiful silver, almost like mercury. "Now," she grabs some red herbs from her pocket. "To add the finishing touch." The pale red herbs collided with the silver blood. Gwen shook the vial, watching as the silver blood turned into a deep magenta.

Leon took the vial from Gwen and stared in awe. "That explains why it tasted somewhat like iron."

"Yeah. I was trying to hide the taste with the herbs. Guess it doesn't work as well as I thought," the woman sighed. She suddenly felt something dripping down her neck and placed a hand on the back of her head. Her hand connected with the small gash and winced. "Leon, could you..."

The man knew what she was referring to and grabbed the towel. He dabbed the cut gently and wiped the blood trickling down Gwen's neck. After tending to her head, he offered the herbs he retrieved from her pocket earlier. "Take this. The herbs still help, right?"

Gwen nodded with a smile. "Yeah." She took the herbs and poured them into her mouth, swallowing them. The bitterness caused her to grimace. "Ugh, I hate things that taste bitter..."

"How's your back?" Leon wondered.

"Hurts like hell, but I can walk. We need to move. We're not safe anywhere. At least we're on the first floor and can unlock the club door."

"You should rest, Gwen. You fell from the second floor," Leon stated as if she'd forgotten.

"I'll rest once all this is over," the archivist said.

Leon fell silent for a few seconds before inhaling deeply, then sighing. "Okay. Let's go."

<---------<<<<<<<<<<

The couple left the dark room and shuffled down the hallway to the operations room. They snuck through the large room and out the double doors. Leon and Gwen could hear the thunderous footsteps closing in as they reached the club door. The archivist quickly unlocked the door and the duo dove into the room, closing the door behind them.

"What's this?" Leon questioned, picking up an object off one of the tables.

Gwen walked over and glanced at the object in the officer's hand. "It's the handle to the jack!"

"What could we do with it?" Leon pondered.

Gwen bit down on the tip of her thumbnail, her other arm wrapped around her waist. She walked up and down the aisle of records, thinking of how the jack handle could benefit them. After a few minutes, her eyes widened when an idea struck her. "That's-!"

Leon clamped a hand over Gwen's mouth to prevent her from shouting when the booming footsteps were heard from the other side of the door. When they knew the titan passed by the records room, the blonde removed his hand.

The archivist waits for the footsteps to become muffled before continuing. "The jack's in the library. It's jammed under one of the bookshelves. If we use the handle to unjam the jack, we could create a walkway to the clock tower! The bookshelves are on a track and can be moved."

"You sound really excited, Gwen," Leon said with a small smirk.

"I'm excited because I figured out how we're gonna get to the clock tower!" Gwen grinned exuberantly.

Leon's smirk turned into a genuine smile. "Guess we're going back to the library."

The couple didn't hesitate and left the records room. They ran all the way down the hall, through the main hall, and up the stairs to the library. Leon placed the handle back into the jack and unjammed it from under the bookshelf. Gwen went to align the bookshelves under the broken walkway, but Leon stopped her, knowing she wasn't in pristine shape. "I'll get it."

As Leon was lining up the bookshelves, Gwen heard the colossal footsteps coming from the lounge. She tugged on the officer's sleeve and whispered. "Leon, he's coming."

"Go up the ladder. I'll be right behind you," he said, tugging the last bookshelf in place. Gwen nodded and climbed up the ladder just as the door to the lounge bursted open.

"Leon!" Gwen shouted as she climbed the ladder. The blonde turned around and saw the brute rushing towards him. Leon released the bookshelf and darted over and up the ladder before the titan could attack him. The two saw the man climbing the ladder and didn't hesitate to cross over the makeshift bridge of bookshelves. They ran through the door and down the dark corridor. "Right here!" Gwen pointed to the first door they came upon. A few zombies heard their running footsteps and turned their heads in the couple's direction. The monsters' bodies collided when they turned and ran into one another, toppling onto the floor.

Leon and Gwen entered the clock tower and closed the door. The archivist leaned her back against the entryway. "We've got friends coming. Better make this quick."