they wanted to play god
rain fell hard against the streets of raccoon city. neon signs flickered, their light reflecting across puddles scattered over cracked pavement. leon kennedy walked alone, his leather jacket soaked through, his boots splashing through what was left of a city that had long since fallen apart. the city seemed to speak to him in a way no one else could understand, every sound reminding him how easily everything had gone wrong.
he remembered the first time he'd seen it. the spotless laboratories. the men in white coats who believed they could change life itself. they called it progress. he saw it for what it really was.
tonight, he stood in front of the remains of a lab he'd once sworn to protect. now it was nothing more than rubble, another reminder of how badly everything had fallen apart. the air smelled of rain, ozone, and blood. in the middle of the wreckage, a figure moved, someone who felt like a ghost from the past, shaped by grief and anger.
ada. or someone like her, changed by the people who thought they had the right to play god. her eyes, once familiar, now held a coldness he didn't recognize.
"you always come back," she whispered. her voice was quiet beneath the rain, but he heard every word. "why? to watch the world die again?"
leon didn't answer. he wasn't sure words meant much anymore. every promise he'd made felt buried beneath years of failure. he remembered every scream, every empty room, every shadow that moved too fast, and every person he couldn't save.
ada, or whatever she had become, tilted her head. there was something almost sad about her.
"they wanted to play god," she said. "and we were their mistakes. do you forgive them, leon? or do you forgive yourself?"
leon clenched his fists as the rain ran over his hands. forgiveness wasn't something the dead ever got. he'd tried to be the hero. tried to be the one who made a difference. but some places swallowed hope whole. this city was one of them.
even so... he stepped forward. because even when the world had fallen apart, someone had to keep going. someone had to remember what happened. maybe surviving was the only way to make sure none of it was forgotten.
the night swallowed him, along with the sound of her voice. the city stood beneath the weight of promises that had never been kept. and somewhere in the darkness, the gods stayed silent.
leon kennedy kept walking.
because even broken gods needed witnesses.
— written in quiet homage to those who walk through darkness and keep moving forward.