Chapter Text
The piano is being played downstairs.
On instinct, Leon assumes it's Luna.
“Lu?” Leon calls, heading down the steps before he remembers that it can't possibly be Luna because that daughter is traveling in Russia right now.
It takes Leon another moment to realize that he's supposed to be in the house by himself right now. That so rarely happens. Most of the kids have moved out but more often than not, usually a few are still here. Eight and Morgan, officially, are still residents, and the other kids come in and out like it's a revolving door, stopping on their way in between trips and missions or when they're missing home and each other.
The hair raises on the back of Leon's neck, and he still steps down onto the main level and into the living room.
He feels like he should be more surprised than he is. Wesker sits at the piano, still idly playing, as if no time has passed. As it's routine for him to wander in here. As if he isn't supposed to be dead, killed by Leon and Chris six years ago.
“Jill said there was something off about your autopsy,” Leon says. His voice sounds calm in a way he's not sure he entirely feels. He's pretty sure that his horror is so profound that he simply can't feel it any longer. Some part of his mind is stubbornly refusing to believe this is real in order to protect him.
Wesker finally stops playing and looks up at Leon. He might not be as dead as he should, but he's hardly the being that he once was. He's not wearing his ever-familiar glasses, and the glow of those eyes is distinctly unsettling. Even from here, Leon can see the pockmarks of scars from where Chris had shot him in the head. Wesker has always been a dangerous asshole, but there's something … unhinged about his look now that warns Leon that he might be in a different sort of danger than he's used to with Wesker.
Wesker stands, and Leon catches sight of something black and pulsing underneath the skin of Wesker's neck.
Leon takes a wary step back. He's horribly aware that, unless Wesker's fighting skills have taken a serious hit in the last six years, he doesn't stand a great chance in this. He doesn't even have a gun on him at the moment, and he doubts he'll make it to one before Wesker grabs him.
But Wesker doesn't move toward him immediately. He drags his fingers – no gloves – over the multitude of framed pictures of the kids. Not that Leon is thrilled to be here alone with Wesker, but he's suddenly glad none of the kids are here.
As if reading his thoughts, Wesker meets his gaze.
“It's quite challenging to get you alone now, isn't it, Kennedy?” he says. He sounds like he's trying to mimic himself, almost. He's aiming for his normal polish, but there's a quiver of rage underneath the words.
“What can I say?” Leon snarks. “I'm a popular guy.”
“You're a fucking thief,” Wesker snaps, that rage exploding beyond his control for a slip of a second. Leon sees that darkness shift under Wesker's skin again like a living thing. Wesker breathes unsteadily, and Leon can practically see him trying to keep the pieces of himself together.
He starts flipping the pictures of the kids down one by one, looking at each of them with obvious disdain before he does.
“I've watched your little band of bastards,” Wesker says. “I know how they've wasted themselves. And I know where each of them are now.”
Something cold jolts through Leon's stomach. His instinct is to snarl and tell Wesker to stay away from his kids, but he knows that will only amuse and encourage Wesker. So Leon stays quiet and tries to swallow down his fuming anger. The entire 10 months they had been together had been like – one endlessly irritating the other. Leon hasn't missed it one bit.
“Shall I tell you what I know of them?” Wesker says, clearly pleased with himself for having the upper hand. “You can fill in any blanks.”
Wesker moves his hand to hover above a picture of Ben and Chris, arms thrown over each other, grinning and on their way to a baseball game.
“B01W,” Wesker says, tone almost thoughtful. “Your Ben. Our little shrieker.” He snaps the frame down and looks at Leon and then pretends to look at the watch on his wrist. “Currently on his way with Chris to the airfield to be deployed on a BSAA mission in Alaska. Their flight leaves in, oh, two hours. He's very resolute in following in the Redfield footsteps.”
“B02W,” Wesker continues. “Nikki. Currently in India working alongside Claire Redfield in TerraSave. She prefers to go out and actually help people in person, but she's not able to do that as often as she wants because she has a good mind for business so they like to keep her on the administrative side of things.
Numb horror continues to grow through Leon's body. He's struggling to think of any plan. He's never had so much to lose before.
“B03W – Luna. Lu,” Wesker mocks. “Moderate shapeshifting abilities that she has fecklessly applied to a career as a ballerina. She's currently touring in Russia and should just be finishing her show for the night and heading to her hotel in Moscow.”
Wesker's lip curls.
“B04W, your aforementioned Rain,” Wesker says, tutting. “The greatest disappointment, I think. A profound memory that draws on the hive mind of her siblings – capable of learning the entirety of human knowledge – and she's wasting away in a lab playing as if she's a standard chemist.”
“She made a vaccine for the C virus before it was even released,” Leon says, low. “The research she's done with the genetic makeup of the siblings has prevented millions from being infected.” There's a beauty to that Leon won't ever get over, and he hopes it sticks in Wesker's craw. But in this instance, Wesker doesn't rise to the bait.
“B05W, Morgan,” Wesker continues. “Mild telepathic and empath powers. The potential for mind and emotional control there – and, instead, they've only ever focused their powers on calming others in moments of chaos. Your key to calming down one of the children when they come to and realize how much you're controlling them.”
“You know that's not true,” Leon snaps and actually moves toward Wesker. “They take care of each other. You just don't like that they didn't naturally grow up to be power-hungry, narcissistic dicks like you.”
Wesker grabs Leon by the throat and, with a blur of motion, Leon finds himself pinned against the piano lid. His head rings from where it hit, and Wesker doesn't give up his hold on Leon.
“B06W and B07W – Hana and Jamie,” Wesker continues, snarling and forcing the pictures into Leon's line of sight. “Utterly mundane and unremarkable lives in every single way.”
“They're fucking normal,” Leon spits, arching up underneath Wesker and trying to break the hold. “They're fucking happy.” Hana's a teacher in Minnesota, and Jamie is finishing a graduate degree in California.
“You wasted them!” Wesker roars in Leon's face. He draws back and breathes, visibly trying to calm himself again.
“But this one, I think,” Wesker says, returning to his normally silky voice, “Eight – I think Eight would maybe join me, don't you think?”
“No,” Leon growls.
It's true that Eight has had more trouble than the other kids – he's the only one who had chosen to keep his number instead of a real name. He'd chafed under the constant observation of the DSO and the BSAA, feeling as if they were constantly set up for failure. There'd been an incident only a year ago where he'd destroyed a restaurant – no one had died, but still, it had been a near thing, and Leon had been afraid that the BSAA would make the decision to put Eight down.
But Eight doesn't have a bad heart. He's hurting, and he just needs more time than the other kids to find his place.
“No?” Wesker drawls, lingering on the picture of Eight and Jake Muller together. “He's the only one I don't plan on killing immediately, so I suppose we'll see which one of us is right.”
Leon breathes shallowly through his nose. He knows this is what Wesker has been alluding to as he threatens the kids the entire time.
And Leon realizes that he isn't going to leave this house alive. He can't possibly beat Wesker on his own, but he just needs to make sure that Wesker doesn't leave the house either. And Leon can manage that, he thinks. The house doesn't exactly have a stocked arsenal, but Leon has a penchant for making things explode.
“B09W,” Wesker murmurs, “Jude. Always with Rain. You really let him maim himself, didn't you? Allowed him to have his wings surgically removed. All because you tried to shoehorn them into this dismal human society.” Wesker actually spits in his eyes, and Leon blinks beneath him, biting his tongue to keep himself from arguing pointlessly; Jude made the decision himself.
“B10W,” Wesker says, and his voice is starting to become distinctly more unraveled. “Kit. Capable of walking on ceilings and walls and is wasting that talent by climbing mountains that have already been traversed. Currently in Panama, I believe, yes? But supposed to come in a week to spend a month with you and the family. She brings you postcards. I have the one she picked up for you when she was in Washington two months ago.” He draws the slip of paper from a pocket and holds it up for Leon to see. Leon stares at it.
Wesker smiles thinly.
“B11W,” Wesker murmurs. “Eli. Your charmer. A goddamn lawyer working against biopharmaceuticals companies. He lives fairly loudly for someone who's supposed to be a part of a mostly top-secret family.
“B12W,” Wesker says, and he's smiling again, deranged, as if he's amusing himself. “Midnight. She's the other one I would perhaps try to take with me, but I believe she's already a lost cause. Capable of spitting venom and the only one of your precious children to be arrested but for a paltry political protest. She tries to stay out of what she considers to be the dirty BOW world, but she can never pass up an opportunity for a good TerraSave protest.”
Unexpectedly, Wesker releases Leon's throat, and he gasps in a ragged breath.
“And then B13W,” Wesker says, taking a step away. “Nova. The one I need your help with.” Leon is still half splayed against the piano, and Wesker stalks him in a semicircle. “She controls electrical charges, and I know that she's deep undercover with Jake Muller and Sherry Birkin, and that they're traveling to find other people who are infected at a massive, unique level.”
Wesker spins the globe that sits on the desk on the other side of the room.
“I believe they're in Japan right now, but I haven't been able to narrow it down past that.” He pulls Leon's cell phone up and holds it in front of his face. Leon wonders when the hell Wesker managed to get that from him.
“Why don't we give them a call?” Wesker says.
“Why the fuck do you think I would help you find them?” Leon asks, voice hoarse.
“Because,” Wesker murmurs, “I think you know that the best chance of your children defeating me is if they're banded together. And if we call, and you say, alert Nova that you're in danger rather than helping me, she'll notify her siblings with that wonderful hive mind they have,” Wesker continues. “And the nearest sibling in proximity is Benjamin. He'll come back to the house, and I'll kill him in front of you. I'll take you and stick you in a goddamn cell for another 10 months while I hunt down your children one by one. I'll go to London and kill Rain and Jude first, because I think without Rain, that hive mind will fall apart, and it will be very difficult for them to organize against me. I'll kill Claire Redfield while I go to get Nikki, and I'll kill Sherry Birkin and Jake Muller when I come for Nova. I will make you watch each one of their deaths and let you know that they died screaming and utterly alone. You'll be ready for me to kill you then, I think, Kennedy. And I will. I'll cut you to pieces, put your head in a box, and leave it for Chris here. And maybe five months after that, I'll send him your arm – the one with the gunshot wound – to the headquarters in the BSAA. And for the rest of his goddamn life, every time that he thinks he's found someplace safe, I will send a bit of you to him until he is utterly ruined, broken, and begging for me to kill him.
“But,” Wesker pauses, “if you call Nova, I will kill you here and now, quickly. I will allow your children to find your body and I will give them a month to try and assemble themselves before I come to unmake them.”
Wesker holds the phone out.
“What do you say, Leon?”
“Go fuck yourself,” Leon spits.
Wesker raises an eyebrow and presses a button on the phone – and it dials out. Not to Nova, but to Nikki. Leon lunges for Wesker, trying to get the phone out of his hand. It's the middle of the night in India and, still, Nikki picks up on the first ring.
“Dad?” she asks sleepily. “Is everything all right?”
Leon freezes and Wesker raises an eyebrow at him.
“Yes,” Leon says. He's trying to sound normal, but he knows his voice shakes. There's a long pause while Nikki analyzes this and continues to wake up.
“Is it Eight?” she asks finally.
“No,” he says, a touch too quickly. “No I just – I forgot the time difference, Nikki. I'm sorry.”
Another long pause, and Wesker bares his teeth at Leon. Leon shuts his eyes, because he's not entirely sure what he's supposed to do, but there's no way that Nikki is buying that everything is okay. She will be quick to realize that she needs to let Ben and Chris know.
“I meant to call Nova,” Leon amends, looking pointedly at Wesker. “But we'll see you in when you're in next month, right?”
“Yes,” Nikki answers. “Of course. Are you sure you're all right? When is Morgan supposed to get back?”
“I'm all right,” Leon answers, staring steadfastly. “I love you, Nikki. I'll talk to you later.”
“Dad--” Nikki tries to say, but Wesker hangs up the phone.
“I'm not sure you had her entirely convinced, Agent Kennedy,” Wesker tsks. “Let's try again.” He dials Nova for real this time.
It rings and rings, and Leon prays that she won't pick up. That she'll be running late and just won't see her phone go off. That she'll be on mission already. Anything.
But, of course, his luck doesn't run that way, and Nova picks up with a chipper and excited, “Dad! Jake, Sherry, Dad's on the phone. Dad, we're just sitting down to breakfast, did you know?” Because she is in Japan, where it's early morning. He hears the deep burr of Jake's voice in the background and can't make out exactly what he's saying.
He's never going to see any of them again, he realizes. He doesn't want to die, although he's not particularly scared of it. It feels like he's lived quite a few lifetimes already, and he hadn't expected to make it this long at all. But he's going to miss them – he's going to miss the family that he built. He's going to miss Chris. His throat tightens at the mention of the man who has become all but his husband. They'll all take care of each other. He knows just how strong they are. They'll kill Wesker for real this time, but Leon is mourning and missing all the moments with them he's never going to get to see.
“Dad?” Nova asks. Her voice goes a little distant, obviously talking to Jake and Sherry, “Maybe he dialed me on accident? I'm going to turn the camera on.”
“Nova, no!” Leon says sharply before he can think better of it. But his electricity-clever daughter has already turned on the camera to Leon's phone. Nova's bright face lights up the screen for a half a second. Her eyes take him in first, obviously about to tease him for whatever it he's doing. But with the way that Wesker is holding the phone in between them, she can see him too, and she pauses without saying anything.
“My,” Wesker says, taking in the skyline behind Nova, “that looks like Kyoto to me, don't you think, Agent Kennedy?”
“Dad!” Nova screams. Leon is already moving. He barrels into Wesker, taking him down to the ground, and the phone goes flying, Nova's hysterical voice still in the background. He yanks the gun he'd known Wesker was carrying out of his stupidly long coat, and moves to fire off a shot in between his eyes – the same as Chris all those years ago. He doesn't need to win. He just needs to stop Wesker.
Wesker slaps his hand out of the way at the last second, and the bullet embeds itself in the wooden floor beside Wesker's head. Leon can feel something in his wrist give at the superhuman blow. Wesker gets his legs around Leon's middle and flips them, so that he's straddling Leon and Leon is the one on his back on the ground. Wesker hits his injured arm again, and, grunting, Leon feels his grip loosen from around the gun. Wesker grabs him by the throat and jerks his head up – once, twice, three times to clang back down against the floor. Leon sprawls underneath him, dazed by the blows.
Wesker climbs back to his feet and reaches for the gun that had gotten away from them in the fight. He stands above Leon and shoots a bullet into Leon's left knee. Leon screams, unable to help himself.
“You should see the box I have for you this time, Kennedy,” Wesker snarls. “I can't wait to show you what our legacy is actually going to be.”
Wesker kicks him in the face, and time goes blurry and disjointed. When he comes to again, they can both hear a Jeep's engine approaching, gravel being sprayed by tires. Ben is screaming for Leon, his boots pounding up the front steps even as Chris shouts at him to stop.
Leon uses all of his strength to try and get on his feet, but his knee is a shattered mess – obviously, it was Wesker's intention to immobilize him. At seeing him move, Wesker plants a boot on Leon's chest, slamming him back to the ground, the gun still trained on the front door.
“Ben, don't,” Leon begs, even though he knows it's pointless. Even if Ben manages to process the request, there's no way it will stop him from coming inside to try and save Leon.
And it doesn't. He bursts through the front door, breathless and wild-eyed, still in his BSAA camo. He freezes at the sight of Wesker above Leon. Leon can see Ben's brain struggling to process the scene, his eyes widening incrementally when he recognizes Wesker.
“You...” he breathes. The kids share a shadowed collective memory of Wesker. He's the boogeyman from their time in the lab – they so rarely interacted with him directly, but he was in the background of everything, the ever-present set of glowing eyes.
Leon can only imagine what's going through Wesker's mind at seeing Ben, fully grown, but it isn't that hard to guess: Ben has only continued to be the spitting image of Chris, perhaps a touch leaner and with Leon's eyes. He has to look almost identical to Chris when Wesker met him a lifetime ago.
“Let's finish this, shall we?” Wesker says, looking down at Leon for a fraction of a second before firing a shot at Ben.
Ben lets the bullet slide by him and within a blink, he's across the room. He punches Wesker, hard, right in the face. Leon would like to appreciate that Ben is even faster than Wesker had ever imagined – probably faster than Wesker himself when he was at his best – but Leon is too terrified that Ben is about take Albert fucking Wesker on all by himself.
“Get him out of here, would you?” Ben shouts, and it's only belatedly that Leon realizes that Chris is here too.
Chris kneels beside Leon and takes one look at his leg.
“I'm so fucking sorry,” he says and he picks Leon up.
Leon must black out again. Suddenly, he's in the back of Chris' Jeep. In front of him, Chris is a blurry mess. He's aware that Chris is asking him something, but Leon can't process it. He looks around, his head aching.
“Where's Ben?” Leon asks, the words a little slurred.
“Leon, look at me,” Chris says. “Do you think you have a concussion?”
Leon looks back over at the house and it takes him only a moment more to understand what's happened.
“You left him in there by himself,” Leon says, horrified. “Chris! You fucking left our son alone with Wesker!” He's trying to push himself upright and also shove Chris out of the car at the same time.
“Leon!” Chris says, and he grabs both sides of Leon's face so Leon has no choice but to look at him. “I would only be in the way.” Leon stares up at him. “I can't keep up with him, all right? I'd be a liability to him. He knows what he's doing. We need to let him do it.”
Leon stares mutely up at Chris. Logically, he understands what Chris is saying, but he can't reconcile it all in his head. He knows that Ben isn't doing paperwork at the BSAA, but this seems such a far cry from fighting Wesker on his own.
“I swear to you,” Chris persists, “that he will be okay. He was kicking Wesker around the living room when I left and he talked to Rain about how to keep Wesker down on the way here. Ben is going to be fine.” He leans down to fiercely kiss Leon. The touch shatters something in Leon, because he is again forced to accept that there is nothing for him to do, and that is simply never an option for them.
Behind them, one of the walls of the living room suddenly explodes outward in a cloud of debris and bricks. The air is absolutely vibrating with Ben's screaming. With a ringing clarity, Leon realizes that Ben couldn't have done that if he and Chris were near – the sound would have certainly killed them both.
Wesker stumbles through the hole, bleeding and beaten, hands clapped over both sides of his head as he tries to escape Ben's zone of influence. In the Jeep, Chris straightens, gun at the ready for if Wesker comes too near to them.
But Chris is right. The Wesker that came back to haunt them is not the Wesker that once was, and Ben is simply more powerful and more focused. Something inside of Wesker's head gives, and he collapses to his knees, blood streaming from his nose, eyes, and ears. Ben walks up behind him and shoots him pointblank in the back of the head and only then does he stop screaming and inhales.
“Rain said we need to burn him!” Ben shouts to Chris. “We need something that's going to burn hot!”
“I'll be back,” Chris promises Leon. He kisses him again.
And Leon passes out.
…
When Leon wakes again, his body feels heavy and not his own. It doesn't take much for him to recognize the feeling of being beaten to hell and drugged. When he opens his eyes in the hospital bed, the first thing he sees is Chris.
Chris is asleep, squeezed into a tiny hospital chair, cheek leaned up against the knuckles of one hand. He looks exhausted. He looks beautiful.
As if drawn by Leon's gaze alone, Chris opens his eyes. The expression of sheer relief that crosses his face is honestly humbling.
“Hey,” Leon says.
“Hey,” Chris answers back with obvious emotion.
“Is Ben okay?” Leon asks immediately.
Chris reaches out to take Leon's hand.
“More than fine,” Chris promises. “There's not a single scratch left on him. He's just worried about you. All of us are worried about you.”
Leon looks down at himself.
“How worried are we?” he asks.
“Your knee's fucked, Leon,” Chris says, voice breaking a little. Leon takes it in stride and nods. He's probably not going back into the field ever then.
“Will I be able to walk?” Leon asks, the only thing he's having a hard time imagining doing without.
“Yeah,” Chris says. “Yeah, you should be able to after the surgeries and therapy.”
“All right,” Leon says, accepting that as a low price to pay after hearing the outline of Wesker's intended plans. “Just no more blowjobs outside of the bed, I suppose?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Chris laughs, but the sound is wet. He squeezes Leon's hand. “I'm going to get Ben. He's a mess and needs to see you. About half of the kids are here, and the others are all on their way.” He pauses and adds, “Nova's really upset, Leon. Nikki hasn't said anything but Claire said that she is – that you didn't say anything to let her know you were in danger.”
“He was trying to lure them,” Leon says, tired. “He came there to kill them, Chris.”
“I know,” Chris says quietly. “But they're not babies anymore, Leon. They want to protect you as much as you want to protect them now.” Chris sighs. “I guess we're lucky something like this didn't happen earlier.”
Chris smiles faintly.
“But you're definitely going to piss Ben off if you try to fuss over him right now,” Chris says.
“That great Redfield temper,” Leon answers dryly.
Chris shrugs, unfazed, and gets to his feet. He leans in to kiss Leon lightly.
“He's gone now, right?” Leon breathes when Chris is still near.
“I fucking hope so,” Chris says, and he sounds tired. He looks every single one of his years just then, so many of them spent fighting against Albert Wesker and the monsters he'd helped usher into the world.
“I do wish I could have seen his face when he realized that Ben was going to defeat him singlehandedly,” Leon says wistfully.
“Yeah,” Chris says with a grin. “That scheme definitely came back around to bite him in the ass, didn't it?”
“I'm going to add it to our list of parental successes,” Leon agrees.