Chapter Text
“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for a while, Agent Kennedy, Dr. Kennedy is in her experiments now and she still has another academic meeting ahead of you. Do you mind if I put you in one of the waiting rooms?” The receptionist said.
Leon sighed and nodded, he said, “I understand, I show up unannounced. Just put me anywhere that I can sit, I’ll be grateful.”
He was heavily medicated with painkillers to ease the excruciating pain from his multiple contusions when he fought Jason, and he stayed awake for more than 2 days after the incident to finish the report for President Graham, and had a peaceful confrontation with Claire. When he presented himself to Graham, the president stared at him as if he'd seen a ghost and forced him to take leave, Leon himself was not ready to be alone in his apartment yet, not with Jason's voice still whispering terror at the back of his mind.
As the receptionist led him down a corridor lined with glass-walled meeting rooms, Leon noticed one of them had blurred glass, which made him guess the glass's transparency was something controllable. Further down the corridor, two people in lab coats stood by a glass panel that showed the laboratory beyond. As the receptionist walked him into one of the meeting rooms, the glass shifted to a darker shade. He looked out to the corridor and saw the two figures walk past, he noticed one of them had short black hair, glowing skin like porcelain, and an enigmatic smile with lips painted red.
“You’ve got to be shitting me.” Leon whispered under his breath.
“Pardon me? Sir?” The receptionist did not catch Leon’s words.
“Sorry, who is the black hair woman? I must’ve met her in some conference, I just wanna put a name to her.” Leon explained.
“Oh, she’s a research associate, she said her professor has a vaccine that is in clinical studies and wants to meet Dr. Kennedy to set up the production line.” The receptionist said.
“She’s the academic meeting before me?” Leon asked.
The receptionist nodded.
“Mind if I say a hi to her?” Leon requested.
The receptionist paused and considered for a moment, gave a glance to the two and said, “I can’t see why not.”
They followed the disappeared pair into the office area just to find they totally vanished seconds later.
The receptionist was surprised as he asked his colleagues. “They went to the laboratory through the office?”
Someone pointed them to the washroom.
“I think we may better wait then," The receptionist suggested.
Leon knew something must go wrong, he asked, “Don’t you think it’s weird for your male colleague to go to the washroom with a female visitor?”
“Maybe that’s more of the reason why we should stay here.” The male receptionist showed a look with half awkwardness and half eagerness to share the gossip.
Leon was very sure that what was happening in the washroom was nothing like what the receptionist had imaged.
Leon shook his head, walked towards the washroom and said, “I’m already here, why not have a go.”
The receptionist was hesitant about stopping Leon or not, so he trailed behind Leon and found the door to the server room, opposite to the washroom, was left slightly ajar.
When Leon cautiously pushed open the door to the male bathroom, he saw an unconscious man on the floor with no apparent injuries. He swiftly drew his gun as he heard the receptionist’s voice from behind him, saying, “Who left the server room door open?”
Leon tried to stop him from opening it, but before he could react a pale arm extended through the doorway, pressing a cloth against the man’s mouth and nose. The receptionist showed signs of panic for a second before slipping into unconsciousness in moments without making a sound, and then vanished through the doorway.
Leon rushed into the server room, his gun pointing to the woman in white lab coat with her back facing him.
“Stop what you’re doing, Ada.” Leon said.
Ada hit the enter key, and turned to Leon, said, “Déjà vu, Leon.” This scene reminded her several times of their encounters, except their roles were reversed.
Leon saw the terminal running fast on the monitor, he took a glance and looked back to Ada, asked. “What are you doing?”
Ada narrowed her eyes as she inspected Leon. According to her information, he had just single handedly survived a submarine explosion and stopped the third world war by foiling Wilson's schemes of making the USA hold the wrong country accountable for the attack on the White House.
Irving asked for her advice on how to deal with the infected USA defense secretary. He could not wait to make Wilson suffer for how Wilson treated him. By then she knew about the rogue soldier. Leon probably had a fight with him, and he should probably be sent back home judging by the dark circles around his eyes.
Why was he here? This was just a normal GMP vaccine facility, it was so insignificant that even Spencer failed to find the employee on his purge list after the incident.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a good habit to do some backup. I don’t expect to find anything interesting here.“
Leon was lost, if this was not Ada’s primary objective, what could it be? He too did not expect anything he knew about this facility could attract Ada. He asked. “Then why are you here?”
Leon was wearing a similar turtleneck he had worn in Spain, but something seemed off with his posture. Ada moved closer to him, paying no regard to the gun pointing to her. She reached out and pulled the fabric away from his neck, Leon recoiling instinctively. A large patch of greenish-black bruising was revealed.
“What brings a vacation people like you to give up your sick leave and come all the way here to this small GMP vaccine facility?” Ada asked as she gently released his collar. Then she thought of the red-haired journalist Irving had mentioned before and answered her own question. “Claire Redfield, of course. How romantic, Leon.”
Feeling where the conversation was heading, Leon lowered his gun and said. “It’s not what you think.”
Ada shrugged, further said. “I was just about to encourage you.”
Leon was too exhausted to keep playing this game. He could see that Ada was trying to distance herself from him once again. He knew he had no right to feel disappointed when Ada remained unmoved for learning his one night stands or his relationship with other women, and yet it kept hitting him every time he realized the fact and he did not have the nerve for it anymore.
He wanted to get the information from the doctor and be gone as soon as possible.
“Not really in the mood to talk.” Leon simply replied.
“Really weary, I see.” Ada said.
Suddenly, a power outage left the room shrouded in complete darkness. The flicker of light that returned only lasted a few seconds before it went out again, leaving only the server lights blinking in the dimly lit space.
“Shit.” Leon could hear Ada quietly say to herself. From the surprise in her voice, he heard her mind racing miles. Leon knew the main power and backup power were probably cut by a task force, and they were here for Ada’s target.
Ada wasted no time in finding her micro memory card and bolting out of the room. She didn’t even stop to let her eyes adjust to the dim lighting, but instead her fingers swiftly found their way to the servers where she withdrew her micro memory card. As she pulled out her gun, Leon sighed and followed close behind.
As they rushed back to the open office area, they could see the employees trying to figure out why the backup power was not working. With the escape signs as the only light source, the area was illuminated with a calming green. When the people saw Leon and Ada hurrying out with their guns, they started to panic.
“Why are you still here? Go check the backup power.” A middle aged black hair woman entered the office from another side, asked.
Before anyone could have any kind of response. Ada calmly said as she quickly walked to the woman. “If you want to send them to hell.”
“Who are you?" the woman asked.
“A bad guy saving you from worse guys. Those worse guys have captured Carlos M. already.” Ada replied. She grabbed the woman by her coat and started walking her back to the laboratory. The woman quickly grasped what Ada meant and tried to escape from her by removing her lab coat.
As they walked through the doorway, Ada said. “Your colleagues can only live if you leave with me. They are going to find you, Jenny Klein. And if they see my face, I may have to die too.”
Jenny stopped and asked as Leon entered the corridor by walking through the door, “How can I know if you are lying or not? I just got an email from him recently.”
At least they did not follow her here, Ada thought. “Great.” Ada shrugged, the green lights from the exit signs made her even more pale, and she challenged Jenny calmly. “You can stay here and find out.”
Jenny looked at Leon and asked. “Who is he?”
Leon shrugged, did not want to introduce himself before knowing who the woman actually was.
Ada gave him a glance, and replied. “Your living ticket expired in hours.”
Jenny nodded and concluded. “So a naïve nobody from the government.”
Ada raised an eyebrow and responded. “I am not sure about the nobody part, but if you have no interest to follow, I'm leaving, with or without you.” She began to walk away down the corridor, pulling open one of the glass doors. Jenny and Leon exchanged a look; Jenny was taken aback that Ada came all the way here to convince her, only to leave her behind so easily. Leon nodded his head in sympathy; as if he welcomed her into his own club of confusion working with Ada.
“Hey, you are walking to the unloading dock! That’s against the personnel flow!" Jenny shouted as she saw Leon follow Ada further into the laboratory.
“Your facility lost its accreditation the second the mercenaries cut your backup power. This is the only exit the furthest from other entrances, this would be the exit with the least resistance.”
Faint screams and cries penetrating the doors pushed Jenny to follow Ada. “How did you know that?”
“The facility layout was leaked to the dark web.”
Leon raised his gun once again. “Then they expect us. They must have the layout too.”
Ada pushed another door. “They expect her, not us. There’s a difference.”
They entered the quarantine room with carton boxes aligning on two sides of the long walls, Ada hid behind one of the boxes as she spotted three mercenaries walking in from another door. Leon was shocked Ada left Jenny in the open and he grabbed Jenny's lab coat and hid her with him in a hurry. Ada shot Leon a glance who frowned and gave her a warning look.
Ada suppressed her urge to roll her eyes, silently climbed up the boxes after testing if they could support her weight. She saw all of them had masks, so using chemical methods would not be effective, as a result, she fished out the taser she used on Leon. Taking advantage of a higher vantage point, she waited on one of the boxes and leapt down to silence the last mercenary by putting the taser on his neck.
The noise alerted the other two mercenaries as they turned in time to see their friend laying on the ground unconscious. Not wasting any time, Ada swiped the second mercenary to the ground by her leg and quickly tasered his neck too.
The first mercenary lifted his gun to fire, but Leon charged over from the shadows and wrapped his arms around his neck. He applied pressure to his throat until the mercenary passed out and slumped to the ground.
As Leon stood up, he saw Ada had already got her taser pocketed and walked to the other door with her trusty gun out.
“You used me as bait.” Jenny protested as she ran behind Ada.
Ada stopped and replied, “So? They want you alive by killing anything that stops them. And I’m the bad guy, not Mr. Chivalry here.”
Jenny obviously wanted to argue more but decided otherwise as Ada opened the door, Jenny stayed a step back with Leon.
They did not find anyone in the unloading bay.
As they were about to reach the garage door, the door to security opened. They only saw a flash of blinding light as they looked at the sound somewhere up in a staircase, and Ada’s first instinct was to push Leon away.
Her push gave him the momentum to run and a loud gunshot echoed in the hollow room. The blinding lights followed Leon instead of Ada and Jenny. The first shot did not hit Leon, who was now running for his life to find some solid cover from a pillar.
Ada ordered, “You hold the door open.”
The mercenary fired several shots in Leon's direction, forcing him to stay behind the pillar. When he spun his flashlight back to the two employees in white coats, he was panic to find one of them had vanished. As he searched for the missing employee out of desperation and confusion, Leon shot him straight in the leg.
He quickly recovered by steadying himself on the staircase, and with one hand swinging aimlessly, attempted to fire back at Leon. Suddenly, the missing employee appeared from nowhere and kicked his injured leg swiftly, causing him to crash to the ground.
Ada shot him in the head and jumped down to the staircase at once elegantly, running to the exit where Leon held the door for her.
Ada ran to her car while Leon ran to his motorcycle. Jenny paused a second but finally chose to follow Ada and stopped at the co-pilot door of her car. They shared a glance for a second, Ada stayed as passive as who she was, suddenly walked towards Jenny and pushed the car key in her hands.
“Wait until they all leave the scene, hide under the car. And go here.” She took the pen showing in Jenny’s lab coat and wrote on her forearm.
“I may not go there.” Jenny said. Leon had already started his motorcycle, the bright headlight shone like a lighthouse in the dark parking lot.
“Your life, you make the call.” Ada simply replied.
As Ada raced towards Leon, who waited on the exit and obviously baffled about what was taking them so long, Jenny caught sight of a dark red stain on Ada's white lab coat on her forearm. At that moment, Jenny ducked away, crouching beneath the car parked near them.
Ada hopped onto the motorcycle as several mercenaries barreled out of the building, shining their torchlight at them both. Ada heard a grasp from Leon as she wrapped one of her arms around his waist. The moment she clung onto his back, they sped away. Ada pulled herself closer to ask near his ear. "Pretty roughed up by that soldier, weren't you?"
Leon couldn't be astonished by the information gap between them anymore and accepted to let it be at this point. His focus stayed fixed on the road ahead while he answered with a slight tilt of his head. “At least I walked out alive.” The second Ada had leaped onto the bike with him, Leon knew she had offered herself as bait for Jenny. He asked further: "This isn't like you—what changed?"
“They couldn’t tell who was the target between Jenny and I. I’m your armor now, handsome.”
Leon chuckled and took a look at the mirror and found those mercenaries still on the tail, he sped up and threaded themselves through the cars like a needle going through fabric on a sewing machine. “You worry about me. They will shoot me the second they see my motorcycle leaving with your car.”
“In your dreams, Kennedy.” They managed to put some space between them and the pursuing Jeeps, but there weren't enough cars on the road to slow down their pursuers. Ada looked at Leon’s gun, which was a revolver, heavy but switching off safety and shooting could be done by one hand. Ada tapped Leon lightly on the waist, drawing his attention before pointing at the split in the road ahead. He nodded in acknowledgement.
Leon pulled the break, sending both of them lurching forward and felt Ada's body press against his back seamlessly. He felt a momentary twinge of guilt as he realized his brain had gone blank for a brief second because of how nice it felt. As soon as he reached his holster, he felt her right hand, which was already fishing out his resolver.
“Aren’t you the harmless scientist?” Leon asked.
Ada rolled her eyes and retrieved her hand. “Fine.”
Leon could not help but feel his lip bent into a smile. He counted the time and shot the front tire of the first jeep, which lost control due to the high speed and crashed into the middle of the road fork.
Ada caught the slow down moment and cocked her own gun with her left arm still around Leon’s waist.
Leon put his gun back to the holster and sped up one again just to find out Ada pressed herself onto him and turned her whole upper body around to shoot at the second Jeep, which appeared behind the first Jeep’s wreckage, she got her first shot to the tire. Leon felt Ada’s weakened grip around his waist, he instinctively held her forearm and felt it was wet.
Ada missed her second shot to another tire due to the sudden pressure on her wounded forearm. The Jeep managed to recover from the first flat tire and she could see they plan to return fire as one of the mercenaries stood up through the top window. She pressed herself harder against Leon’s back to steady herself and got her third shot right. The delicate balance broke with her third shot, the second Jeep crashed to another side of the road.
Leon looked down to see the white fabric was now as red as the color she always wore. He asked as Ada switched her gun’s safety back on, “You were shot at the bay?”
“Just a ricochet.” Ada replied.
“It looks like a shot to me.” Leon said dryly.
“I’ve had worse. Now drive back and see if that was all of them.” Ada said.
Leon sighed. He knew he was throwing stones in a glass house, he just could not help to ask.
“She must be pretty important. Someone sent nearly a dozen guys just to retrieve a single scientist.” Leon stated as they circled back.
“You normally would end the sentence with a question mark.” Ada said.
“Yeah, normally.” Leon confirmed Ada’s observation. He saw she narrowed her eyes from the mirror, but she did not press any further. He normally would worry about what her mind was up to, but he found himself too tired to care anymore. He knew she enjoyed pushing him buttons, but she never aimed to hurt him.
It did not take long for them to get back. They still found Jenny hiding under Ada’s car when they got back, who gave a relieved sigh as Leon offered her a helping hand as she climbed out under the car.
Ada unrolled the lab coat and saw that it was a ricochet—there was no bullet hole, just some fragments embedded in her skin. Jenny looked at Ada but didn’t speak.
Leon walked away to give them some privacy, yet his gaze always returned to check on Ada's wound.
“He had it bad for you.” Jenny said.
Ada quickly glanced at Leon as his eyes widened, then averted when their eyes met. “He isn’t," she replied.
“He knows he shouldn’t, but can’t help himself. If what you say is true—that you are really the bad guy and he is from the government, he shouldn’t have helped in the first place.” Jenny studied the situation logically.
“It’s written in his bones. He just can’t give up on people.” Ada evaded the point by describing Leon's character.
Jenny raised an eyebrow as she noticed Ada's expression harden even further under the dim street lights. "You were kind of aware of it all along, too. You're just trying not to admit it to yourself."
“Why are you suddenly so interested in our relationship ?” Ada asked. Jenny did not seem like a nosy person to her, why would she care so much about them after a bare ten minute wait under her car.
“A mere payback for you risking your life to be my bait.” Jenny said.
“It was the most logical solution. ” Ada said, pulling her lab coat down to cover the wound on her arm. Leon had been watching her again and she avoided his gaze. “I am here simply to offer you a choice, it’s even better with him around. You can choose to confess to him, to the government in exchange for your protection. You can also go here,” Ada gestured to Jenny’s hand, where the address was written, “They will ask you to do experiments. Just like the ones you did for Umbrella but some might be in developing a weapon and others in finding a way to neutralize it. They will keep you alive as long as you work for them. Or else you can go wherever you believe it is safe.”
“Why are you risking your life just to offer me choices? You should be here to capture me to work for those people, right?” Jenny asked.
“They did not know about you. I just don’t want those worse guys to get the upper hand, that’s all.” Ada crossed her arms and replied. “Now do me a favor, don’t put any weird ideas into his head. I will take your car as your grateful gift.”
Jenny chuckled, “You are basically doing charity at this point. It’s in my office, a bag near the door.”
Ada waved her goodbye as she turned and walked towards the facility, as she walked past Leon, she said. “Finish what you came here for, I'm going to tie up some loose ends now.” She referred to those mercenaries they left unconscious in the quarantine room and probably several camera feeds.
Jenny walked to Leon as he was still fixating his gaze on Ada.
“She’s not coming back, isn’t she?” Leon asked.
“Yes. You know her so well. What were you here for in the first place?” Jenny asked.
“For Dr. Kennedy, to ask about TerraSave’s vaccine and Secretary Wilson.” Leon replied, he turned his attention back to Jenny.
“This is she. What do you want to know?” Jenny inquired.
Leon frowned. He narrowed his eyes and asked. “Jenny Klein is your real name?”
“I assume you are working for some secret government agency, and collecting info related to bioweapons. I'm actually surprised my old name hasn't shown up on their most wanted list yet.” Jenny glanced at Ada's car key before continuing. “I was one of the high-ranking members in Umbrella. Spencer got rid of us after Raccoon City by hunting us down and killing us one by one so that no one would ever use any of us as a map to piece together his plans."
“So why are you telling me this? You know I can take you in and you will never walk under the sun again.” Leon asked suspiciously.
“Because you saved my life without any question asked.” Jenny stated.
“If you are telling the truth, it is a miracle that you stayed hidden until tonight.” Leon commented.
“Unlike the mysterious young lady, I survived the purge not because I’m good at manipulating people, but choosing the right people to trust.” Jenny replied.
Leon nodded, still suspected but he could only ask at this point, since Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Jenny Klein were the same person. “Why would you offer the vaccines with such a low price for TerraSave? Secretary Wilson visited here for military projects and gave your facility several big orders. Did he ask you to produce an inhibitor of some kind for him?”
“He asked about it, but when it reached the technical stage, I knew it was an antidote for a virus. I rejected it and said our facility was not equipped to produce such inhibitors. I was surprised he still gave us the orders for other normal vaccines anyway. I persuaded the board members to offer the vaccine to TerraSave with basically no profit margin just to make myself feel better, you know for whom I worked for. So, are you gonna arrest me, officer?”
“Ada gave you her car. She gave you a choice.” Leon stated.
“Yes, she gave me the option of either walking away or working for the government or some shady folks in return for protection. The only difference is those mercenaries could get me easily if I choose the government, or I would be stuck working until my dying days for the shady people.”
“Are you certain there's a choice?” Leon inquired, considering what Ada had said about the powerful forces behind her. He did not conceive of any other possibilities.
“I am sure. I can tell she was compensating. She said they did not know about my presence.” Jenny said.
Leon suddenly realized Ada offered Jenny the choice of walking away because she wanted one herself. The choice they never discussed in that intimate moment back in the hotel when her fingers threaded through his locks.
“The police will be here soon. Whatever choice you make, you need to make it soon. You can find me in the building.” Leon said, as he walked to the unloading bay.
Leon heard Jenny get into Ada’s car before he entered the building, he never turned his head to check if she was leaving or just sitting in the car for a while.
Jenny had her doubts about Ada, despite how confident she acted in front of Leon. She did consider if she had been sent by Spencer or someone related to Umbrella to test her loyalty. She hopped into the car to calm herself down and she found a burner phone sitting on top of a file on the passenger seat. When she opened it, there were ID documents for a middle-aged woman along with a stack of cash. All Jenny needed to do was dye her hair.
Ada had expressed her thoughts to Jenny loudly and clearly, and now she was convinced.
The body of the mercenary who shot at Leon was still laying on the staircase next to the security room, with the door ajar. Leon was quite sure anything that recorded Ada’s face would be all deleted by now. He walked to the quarantine room to see all those mercenaries were unconscious, and their weapons were all gone missing.
He did not have any handcuffs on him, so he took the duct tape he found in the room and wrapped their wrists behind their backs. He could not help but chuckle when he saw the missing weapons were behind the same boxes that he and Jenny hid.
Leon was relieved to know none of the employees were seriously injured during the raid. He realized they did not see Ada heading back to the facility, judging from the conversation they had asking him about what was going on.
Stepping to one of the windows that overlooked the parking lot, he saw Ada’s car next to his motorcycle was gone. At the same time, he noticed a dark-haired woman in a white lab coat making her way to a car across the lot.
As the workers turned on the power supply for the facility, lights illuminated the entire area including the lot. The sound of air conditioners humming and computers booting up gave the impression that the facility had come back to life.
Spencer was killed by Wesker now, and to retrieve that information, Jill Valentine went missing during the mission. Claire was off to check on her big brother, Chris, who blamed himself for his partner’s MIA. Given Ada’s past relationship with Wesker, it was not hard for him to picture that it was Ada who tipped BSAA about Spencer and Wesker’s meeting.
He let Jenny go. He did not know if he did the right thing or not. He knew that his conscience might never be clear from her death if he bought her in. He did not know if he would hear the whisper in the wind one day about her death and he would blame himself for not pushing her to seek protection from the shady people. He also didn't know whether she would end up working for Ada's superior and be responsible for another million-casualty outbreak. He felt extremely restless for the situation even though it was the best choice he could make for now. It was even the best choice Ada could ever be offered or offer.
Ada was right, the rookie she knew in Raccoon City would shatter eventually, so she chose it for him. She let him walk away.
He saw the woman stopped and turned around to give a good look at the building before she left. Her eyes briefly met his and moved on quickly, there was no sign of recognition in those amber eyes, he knew that the windows were probably tinted so she could not know he was standing right here, looking at her.
Last time they met, she slipped. She said he could not sense her presence when she looked at him from a distance before. He could not help but wonder if she was feeling this same empty feeling he had now.