Chapter Text
Leon had a very clear vision of his future, ever since he was just a boy. It was a legacy from his childhood speaking, perhaps.
What a police officer had given him, Leon wanted to give back, by becoming an officer himself, ready to give his life to save and protect the innocent.
But things hadn't gone as he hoped... not at all. Life could be strange, there was no doubt about that. The day before, his breakup with his now ex-girlfriend seemed like the biggest and most unsolvable problem ever, and now... now there was a damn apocalypse.
Raccoon City was anything but the place to start over, to be himself, that Leon had hoped for. There was something evil there, you could feel it in the air... and the zombies populating the city were only part of it.
Umbrella... it was a wolf in sheep's clothing, a pharmaceutical giant on the surface, but hiding unscrupulous men, ready to do anything for profit. How many lives had been lost in the last few hours just because of Umbrella's greed.
Leon didn't know everything, not yet at least, but from the little he had managed to gather from the documents found around, from the notes and the videotape he had found on a corpse... William Birkin had liters and liters of blood on his hands. And his wife with him.
Umbrella represented an insurmountable obstacle for Leon. A giant capable of creating a virus that made people (and even reptiles, as he had discovered at his own expense in the sewers) invincible. How could he defeat something so powerful? Leon was just one man, after all.
Luckily for him, during that completely insane night, Leon had met her. Ada Wong was... well, Leon didn't know if there was a single term that could define her.
Even in that short time they had spent together, Leon had been electrified by what he thought was an FBI agent, who had saved his life on more than one occasion.
And added to that was another feeling... shame. Yes, because Leon was an idiot, who had fallen for it completely. Ada was the fisherwoman and Leon the fish that had bitten the hook of love, swallowing the bait as if it were nothing.
Ada wasn't from the FBI, and it was really fucking obvious. Many things suddenly made sense when Annette Birkin told him the truth, seeming on the verge of death after her husband had thrown her against a wall.
"Tell me you have it," Ada's words were like a dagger in Leon's chest. How had he been so stupid?
"Oh, I have it," Leon commented, barely managing to hold back the grimace that threatened to appear on his face. He had been blind, desperately searching for a friendly face after Claire had disappeared at the beginning of their adventure and after Marvin's death.
"Let me verify the G sample and we'll get the hell out of here," Ada said, extending her hand toward him while looking around, scanning the structure now on the verge of collapse with concern.
"Before we do that... I ran into Annette," Leon revealed, his voice low. "She claims you're not FBI," Leon couldn't hold back the pain in his voice, the pain of betrayal.
"Oh Leon...", she whispered, almost sweetly, her face taking on an almost angelic expression that made Leon's hairs stand on end. She was the epitome of a beautiful woman... and a dangerous woman at the same time. No wonder Leon had fallen for it completely.
"Why couldn't you just hand over the sample?" she asked, with what seemed like genuine regret as she pulled out her gun. For once, Leon wasn't surprised by the woman in front of him... there was a first time for everything.
"Because I realized that, as much as I wanted to trust you... I didn't," Leon replied, pulling out his own gun and pointing it at Ada. It was a lie, of course, but the real problem wasn't that he was lying to Ada... but to himself.
The truth was that his cop instinct, as he liked to call it, had failed. Ada Wong had slipped under his radar, something that made him feel even more like a rookie than he already was.
"I really hoped it wouldn't end up like this," Ada said, her gun still firmly pointed at him. It was a standoff, and they both knew it. It would take just a simple movement, pull the trigger and make a clean kill, it certainly wouldn't be the first of the evening for either of them. But neither really wanted to do it.
"So that's all this was... I was just some pawn to you?" That was the real question Leon wanted to ask the woman in front of him. He would have even been okay with her lying to him, with her being a mercenary and not an FBI agent... what really tormented him was the idea that Ada had used him.
"Look... I am just doing my job," she replied in a low voice. Leon recognized the expression on her face, because it was the same one he often saw on his own when he looked in the mirror. The expression of someone who can't even convince themselves that their words are true.
"And I'm doing mine, so drop that damn gun," he ordered her, aware of what he should do. He should arrest her and then... God, then what?
Handcuff her with imaginary handcuffs? Take her to a prison that was prey to a damn apocalypse? It was a losing game from the start.
Ada didn't obey his order, he wasn't surprised by that. What really surprised him, instead, was the bang that rang out from her gun as a bullet fired from it.
Leon didn't even have time to close his eyes as the bullet approached him at full speed... before passing by the side of his ear, reaching its target. Only then did Leon realize that Ada hadn't shot at him, but at someone else.
He realized it when he heard a gasp behind him, and saw Annette Birkin slump to the ground, the bullet having opened a gash in her neck, making blood drip onto the crumbling structure.
If that was surprising, though, it was nothing compared to Ada's next words, directed once again at him:
"Join me."
Ada Wong was an analytical woman. As such, she was capable of analyzing anyone, and no one better than herself.
If you asked her how she would define herself, Ada would tell you that she is a skilled woman, meticulous, cold in the face of danger, and capable of completing any mission assigned to her.
But sometimes, Ada underestimated herself. Emotions... emotions are a real pain. Ada couldn't say she was in love with Leon Kennedy, obviously not.
What idiot falls in love after just a few hours together? Sure, Leon was a good guy, a good guy who had been ready to take a bullet to save her. The classic knight in shining armor ready to save the damsel in distress... as if Ada could be defined that way.
Yet, she couldn't help but feel interest in that young cop. And also a spark of attraction. After all, Leon was a handsome man.
But more than anything, as mentioned, there was the interest. If there was one thing Ada noticed in people, it was their potential, after all.
She divided them into two categories: the useless ones and those with potential. The potential to bring benefit to her life, obviously. And Leon... Leon had it in spades.
A rookie who manages to do what dozens of his colleagues couldn't, surviving not only the zombies and the infection but also the Tyrant and the monster that William Birkin had become deserved consideration, after all.
And Ada could see that potential in him. He could become anything, if he wanted. An agent with balls, the type that seems more like a James Bond with the hairdo than a normal agent, or... an unstoppable mercenary.
"Join you?" he asked her, for the first time with real shock. The idea that she wanted him to join her must have been even crazier than the idea that she was a mercenary.
"Join me," Ada confirmed, lowering her gun and stepping back, so as to move away from the crumbling structure. Leon followed her, taking the same number of steps, maintaining the same distance from her.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" he asked, looking at her with suspicion. Ada felt a bit bad about that inquisitive gaze, but she couldn't blame him. She would have done the same in his place.
"There are two ways this can go, Leon," she informed him gently, holding her injured leg that had suddenly started to sting. "You can leave Raccoon City, put this hell behind you, and try to live your life... at least until they find you."
"Who's supposed to find me?" he asked, almost anxiously, looking at her as if she were some kind of fortune teller reading his future. In a way, she was... some things were all too predictable.
"The government, obviously... do you think they weren't aware of all this? That they won't try to silence those who, like you, can tell things as they are? They'll make you one of them... or take you out at the first opportunity," she told him seriously, looking him straight in the eyes. They were nice eyes, she had to admit.
"No... why-why would they, why would they have allowed this... to happen?" he asked, stammering. He was cute in a way, and Ada felt a bit guilty. She was shaking all his moral certainties, even more than that night of hell already had.
"You already know the answer to that question... you read it in Birkin's office, on his computer," she said, well aware of what he had found there. She had come prepared for that mission; she knew all about William Birkin's exploits.
"And the second option?" he asked, going back to her statement. Two options: government or...
"The second option is that you join me," she repeated once more. "I know how to disappear off the radar, how to prevent the government from finding you, how to kill off Leon Kennedy once and for all, making you reborn as someone else."
"And what do you get out of all this?" he asked her, making her smile. Good, he was learning that no one does anything out of the goodness of their heart. It would serve him well if he accepted her offer.
"I get a capable partner, with the potential to make my mercenary life even simpler, more effective, and... lucrative, let's put it that way," she informed him with a smile, allowing herself a step forward, approaching him like a wounded beast. She was, at least emotionally.
"I have morals, Ada, I can't... I can't just abandon everything to become a mercenary," he said, almost desperate. Ada truly pitied him in that moment.
"I'm not asking you to abandon them, Leon," she said with a smile that turned into a grimace from the pain in her leg. "They're part of who you are; you can make them your weapon, you can make them something that makes you stronger, not weaker... I'm offering you a way out, one that won't force you to become what you hate most. Trust me, being a government agent is much worse than what I'm offering you."
Ada could see the exact moment she had him. She saw it in his expression, how the light in his eyes became even more desperate, how his already downcast face became even more so.
Ada felt like a devil who had just convinced a mortal to sell his soul. But in this case, she would make sure Leon became the best of them all. Both for her and for him, as strange as it might seem.
"You in?" she asked, offering her dirty hand after the night's ordeals, and waiting for him to take the next step.
"I'm in," he replied with a sigh, shaking her hand without even looking at it. It was clear he wasn't thrilled, but that was better. If he had been, it would mean Ada had misjudged him.
Time would tell.
"So... are you ready for your new life?" Ada asked him, while Leon kept his gaze fixed anywhere but on her. Even so, he could feel the weight of Ada's eyes on him, as if she could see right through him.
"I want something in return," Leon stated, dodging the question, as he leaned against the wall of the ascending elevator, with a slightly metallic noise.
"Already making demands? It's only been two minutes since you accepted, Leon," Ada teased him, her brow furrowed as she looked around, her mind racing to evade possible dangers. Leon couldn't blame her, after all... they were in Raccoon City.
"I came here with a girl," Leon began, feeling his heart pounding as he thought about how that night had started. It seemed like a lifetime had passed since meeting Claire at the gas station. If only he had known then what awaited him that night...
"Hasn't anyone ever told you that you shouldn't mention other women on a first date?" Ada asked, making him shake his head. Hiding danger behind irony—Ada was good at that.
"Her name is Claire, she's only 19 years old and has had to face God knows what... I want to make sure she's okay before leaving this place," Leon asserted, trying to sound more confident than he actually felt.
"A noble intention, Leon, but... you're a trained cop from the academy and, even so, without me saving your ass in the parking lot, your pretty little head would have been prey to the Tyrant. What makes you think this girl made it?" she asked, her expression softening as she looked at him. Reality or fiction? Leon wasn't sure.
"I just know," Leon whispered, right at the moment the elevator reached its destination with a low click.
"I hope for your sake you're right..." Ada said as she stepped out of the elevator. "See you outside of here, then... each on our own path, until we meet again, Leon Kennedy," she bid him farewell with a tilt of her head like a salute, before dismissing herself from him, disappearing into the shadows.
Only after being left alone did Leon realize he had a million questions and things to say that he hadn't had time to tell Ada, but hey, that was typical of him. Always late, whether he wanted to or not.
The following minutes... well, they were completely insane. The Tyrant, the fire, the creatures, the freight elevator, and the headlong escape. The fact that Leon emerged unscathed further proved just how crazy that night had been.
He had seen so many insane things that now he felt almost numb to it all. Was that what awaited him? Becoming so accustomed to madness that things like this wouldn't even make him bat an eye?
It was a decidedly depressing prospect, for various reasons. It certainly wasn't the kind of life he had hoped to live.
"I'm offering you a way out, one that won't force you to become what you hate most," Ada had told him shortly before... Leon couldn't help but hope it was true, that he could continue to be who he wanted to be. A part of him doubted it, though.
Yet... in a certain way, Ada had told the truth, at least about one thing: there was no escape from the government. As much as he would have liked to pretend otherwise, Leon saw the wisdom in her words.
And if they were willing to turn a blind eye to what Umbrella had done in Raccoon City, God only knows how far they would go to silence those who knew too much. "You're either with us or against us" was a sadly realistic prospect, unfortunately.
22 years old and he had already become cynical and jaded toward the reality around him... his life was truly a joke, what can you say.
When he finally managed to rest his head against the edge of the speeding train, the reality of everything that had happened that night truly hit Leon. Maybe it was the adrenaline wearing off, but his body soon started trembling as unshed tears appeared in his eyes.
"Pull yourself together, Kennedy," he could almost imagine Marvin's voice telling him, just as he had urged him not to think about him and not to try to save him just a few hours earlier.
He was one of many who deserved a better end than the one he had suffered. If only Leon had been stronger, better... well, maybe they would have had a different fate.
It was a mere illusion, obviously, but Leon clung to it. Maybe Ada's offer could be something more than a desperate choice... maybe it could make him the best version of himself.
Becoming like Ada, strong, skilled, and determined... and adding his keen sense of duty, his desire to help people. It sounded good, it sounded really good, even if Leon didn't delude himself that it would be easy to achieve.
Every good thing required sacrifices, and who knows how much Leon would have to sacrifice on the path to becoming strong enough to prevent disasters like the one that had struck Raccoon City.
Leon shook his head, chasing away the negative thoughts, at least for a moment, as he reflected on what to do. It was hard to do, obviously, but Leon had to try, challenging the dark aura that hung over that city, and that was transmitted to those who inhabited it.
That's how Leon headed inside the train car, trying to figure out what to do from that moment on. He had simply jumped on that train without a plan, without knowing what direction it would take, who was driving it, or if there was anyone else on board.
Before looking to the future, he had to look to the present, something Leon wasn't used to doing. But it had to be done, step by step.
And then Leon Kennedy could die... and like a phoenix, rise from the ashes.
"Leon," Claire exclaimed with a smile, when she saw the mysterious agent with blond hair whom she had met just a few hours earlier at a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
God, she had rarely been so happy to see someone as she was in that moment, while Leon looked at her with a smile. They had made it, they really had.
"It's so good to see you," Claire said sincerely, approaching Leon, ignoring the pain in her muscles and the terrible feeling from the dirt on her body. Sweat, blood, sewer slime... she must have smelled really bad.
"I told you we'd make it, didn't I?" Leon replied, with a smile that didn't fully reach his eyes. What had happened to him... besides the obvious need to survive in a city full of zombies, chased by immortal (or almost) monsters?
"You did," Claire confirmed, looking at him critically, making him shiver slightly. He didn't like being scrutinized, apparently... maybe it bruised his self-sufficient male ego? Okay, that was a bit sexist.
"Who's this?" Leon asked, conveniently changing the subject as he looked toward Sherry, who had positioned herself behind her, using her as a protective barrier. Claire couldn't blame her, not after what had happened that evening.
"This... this is Sherry," Claire introduced her, gently pushing her forward and placing a hand on her shoulder. It was right that they met, after all... the three of them would forever be linked by the horrors they had seen that night.
"Okay," Leon said, smiling warmly at the girl. Even just in his smile, you could tell what kind of person Leon was... the kind of person who deserved more than what life would give him. He was one of the good ones.
Before Claire could continue the conversation, find a joke to lighten the mood and lift spirits, the car shook, as if hit by an earthquake. But Claire had seen enough that night to know it wasn't an earthquake, but something else...
"You stay here with Sherry," Claire said to Leon, shouldering her rifle. "I'm gonna go check it out," she added, before crossing the door of the car, venturing into the belly of the train, toward the point from which the noise had come.
Once again, Claire couldn't help but wonder what madness and what greed could drive a pharmaceutical giant like the Umbrella Corporation to create things like what awaited her at the end of the train, eager to get rid of them once and for all.
It was the fourth time she found herself facing Sherry's father, who over the hours had become more and more monstrous. She had thrown everything she had at him.
She had emptied the magazines of her pistol, her shotguns, both smoothbore and machine guns, she had burned him, thrown grenades and rockets at him, yet... there he was again, as if nothing had happened. It was fucking terrifying to think of an army of things like that.
"I'm sorry, Sherry," Claire whispered, aware that she was officially making the sweet child she had saved more than once that night an orphan. The only thing that comforted her was that Sherry's father was probably dead the moment he injected himself with the virus.
Gathering strength in her arms, Claire stabbed William for the last time, exploding that monstrous eye once and for all, sending the train hurtling at full speed along the tracks.
Only when she took Leon's hand, who supported her and pulled her back into the car, did Claire manage to breathe a sigh of relief, as she watched the monster that had pursued her in the last few hours burn until it became crispy in the distance.
They had really made it.
"You've found your lost princess, I see," Ada whispered to herself, as she observed through her binoculars her target... hmm, perhaps target was the wrong term.
It was usually a term she used for her enemies, for those she was tasked with killing.
Ada worked freelance, and that meant she rarely killed people she wasn't willing to kill. Before accepting a job, she examined it carefully, and as the independent woman she was, she had no qualms about refusing and telling the clients to go to hell if they asked for something she didn't like.
As absurd as it might seem, even the unscrupulous mercenary had ethical limits. She didn't kill children, for example, nor did she steal from the destitute.
It was the bare minimum, obviously, and Ada didn't delude herself into thinking she was a good person just because she refused to strike those who couldn't fight back, but it was still part of her "code."
But back to Leon, apparently the blond-haired agent had found the girl, Claire, and with them was also a child, whom Ada easily recognized from the file she had read before heading to Raccoon City.
It seemed like the start of a joke: three people leave a city populated by monsters; a police officer, a university student, and the daughter of two scientists with delusions of grandeur.
Ada pitied that child, to be honest. It wouldn't be an easy life for her, as a parentless orphan, with the stain of their crimes always hovering over her shoulders.
"If she makes it to adulthood, obviously," Ada thought, shaking her head. She knew how those kinds of things went, and she imagined that the government men wouldn't have any problem putting a bullet in her head if necessary.
"I hope you don't get it in your head to play daddy for William and Annette Birkin's daughter, Leon," Ada whispered, as she approached a vehicle, using her skills to hot-wire it.
That was why Ada was against attachments. If she had people like Sherry Birkin waiting for her at home, it was unlikely she would have turned to the mercenary life.
It was a hard life she led, one of sacrifices and constant risks... which was part of the reason why she had decided to take that path, asking Leon to join her.
Having some help wouldn't be bad, and besides... Leon still had the G-Virus. Yes, Ada hadn't forgotten. She remembered the moment she had seen him set it aside, in his large agent holster, hidden among a pistol, a pack of healing herbs, and a mini-container of gunpowder.
Why hadn't she asked him for it before they separated, you might ask? Well, it was a question that even Ada didn't know how to answer... or rather, a question she didn't want to answer.
"Enough with the sentimentality, Ada," she scolded herself, as she finally managed to start the car, shifting into first gear and releasing the handbrake.
Ada cast one last glance into the void, toward the direction where three of the four survivors of the Raccoon City night must have gone. Had Leon really managed to breach her heart? Tsk, what a stupid idea. It wasn't that easy to breach Ada's wall... right?
Ada shook her head one last time, adjusting the rearview mirror, before pressing her foot on the accelerator.
"See you soon, Leon," Ada whispered, her mind already turning to the circumstances of their next meeting, which would be really soon. Let the fun begin.