Chapter Text
August 2024
Heavy steps from Leon's combat boots echoed in the eerily quiet halls of the facility he infiltrated. The DSO caught wind of some experiments happening in an abandoned warehouse near a small town. The place was falling apart and clearly should've been demolished ages ago. According to local teenagers, they noticed people coming in and out of that building ever since someone purchased it the previous year. People assumed someone was planning to rebuild it and open it back up, but it never happened.
Leon was sent out to investigate and report back anything he found. At first glance inside, the place looked like any other run down building. That was until he came across an out of place bookshelf in what looked to be a former breakroom. He was just glad there wasn't some convoluted puzzle he had to solve to move it. Still, have no secured lock or passcode to get into the underground facility screamed amateur.
The fact that it was quiet unnerved Leon more than if he had heard the usual monsters and zombies lurking around. Had the facility been abandoned too? Still, he had his gun out at the ready. He took note of the cameras that still seemed to be active, though he had no way of knowing if someone was watching him or not. He treated it as if they were. Then he found the bodies.
A room full of dead doctors and scientists, all with gunshot wounds. For once, it doesn't look like they were killed by their own creations. Though if not that, then who? The BSAA could've already raided the place, but according to Sherry, they were the first ones. Some looked like they were killed mid-work while others looked like they were running. He would've expected more damage to the room for the massacre he saw. Not even bullet holes in the walls. It was a calm, yet calculated attack.
"Sherry, you read me?" he talked into his comm. "Everyone here's dead."
"An escaped BOW?" she questioned.
"More like GSW. Everyone's been shot. Doesn't look like they saw it coming," he answered heading over to a nearby computer. "Let's see if we can find out what they were working on."
"You know what to do." It didn't take long for Sherry to hack into their files to find out what they were experimenting with. Whoever they were, they were sloppy. Probably an up and comer in the BOW world. It seemed they were trying to develop some kind of body augmentation and aging serum. From the documentation, they were trying to make their own super soldiers while trying to control their aging process, making them nearly immortal.
"So they were trying to make immortal Captain Americas?" Leon quipped, though thoroughly displeased with how they went about it after finding the list of their test subjects: children. Children taken from orphanages or left in the streets. Children no one would miss or ask questions about once they were gone. He hated when kids got caught in the crossfire of other people's selfishness and greed. No one deserved that, least of all them. A sudden, loud clang grabbed Leon's attention, followed by low rumbles that disappeared as quickly as they appeared. "Sounds like someone's still kicking. I'm going to check it out."
"I'll update you if I find anything else. Be careful," Sherry warned.
"I'm always careful." Leon drew his gun once more as he headed out of the room and down the hall. He cautiously trekked down the halls, finding more dead bodies and blood. All of them had gunshots as well. Either some other non-government entity raided the place or someone was trying to cover their tracks. Another bang made him snap quickly around a corner, his gun cocked and ready. His flashlight shined down the hall, landing on a shivering frame of something, or rather someone. A small child curled up in a ball, her white hospital gown covered in bloodstains, though he couldn't tell if any of it was hers. Her hands covered her head of blood-stained blonde hair as she was clearly afraid to look up. Leon lowered his gun hearing the sniffles coming from her. "Holy shit..."
He kept his guard up as he slowly approached the child. She looked normal on the surface, but he had seen what someone "normal" could turn into if they were experimented on. "Hey, you okay?"
The child seemed to curl up tighter, shaking even harder. She couldn't have been more than three or four years old. He noticed a green wrist band she was wearing and he remembered seeing in the files that the children were separated into different colored groups. "Sherry, what were the green-coded experiments for?"
"Green? They were the new arrivals and starting group. They were testing them for any special features before experimentation. Why?" So she hadn't been tested on yet. That was at least good. He let out a relieved sigh as he put his gun away.
"I just found one of them. She's alive." Leon approached closer and got down on a knee to her level, but keeping his distance as she was clearly still afraid of him. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help."
The child just barely lifted her head to peek at him. He caught a glimpse of her bloodshot green eyes. "I'm with the police. My name's Leon."
The child stay silent, but lifted her head more. Her face was covered in dried blood, tears running down her swollen cheeks. Her chest heaved quickly as she was crying so hard, she could barely catch her breath. He couldn't imagine what she had seen to make her so frightened. He wasn't even sure how she survived. He wondered if any others had as well. From what he could see of her, she had some bruising on her, but no cuts or gashes on her. Where had all that blood come from?
"Hey, I can get you out of here, get you somewhere safe." He held out his hand to her, a slow gesture that still made her flinch. She stared at his hand, still breathing heavily, her eyes flickering between it and his face. He didn't rush her, though he was wary about them not being the only ones in the building. If she was still alive, who knows what else could be? Her breathing slowed as tears silently continued down her face. She slowly reached towards him, her dainty, trembling hand hesitantly landing in his. He immediately noticed how cold she was. "Didn't realize I'd be rescuing Elsa today."
He gently squeezed her hand and helped her stand up with him. He towered over the child who was barely three feet tall. He released her hand and started to remove his coat, making her jump and shut her eyes. She was suddenly surrounded by warmth as he wrapped his coat around her tiny frame. She opened her eyes as she noticed the coat, looking up at him. She saw him give her a little smile. "Better?"
She didn't respond and he could see in her eyes that she was processing something. She looked back down at the coat and wrapped it tighter around herself, sliding her arms through the sleeves that were clearly too long for her. Leon couldn't help but chuckle. "I'm sure you'll grow into it."
He leaned down to pick her up, pausing to make sure she would allow him to do so. She hesitated, but soon lifted her arms up to him. He hooked his hands under her arms and lifted her up into his own. Her tears had finally stopped, though the fear and apprehension never left her eyes. They probably wouldn't for a while. She stared at him for a while, looking for something, though he wasn't sure what.
"Leon! Something's moving your way!" Sherry's voice came through in his ear.
"What is it?" he asked as he started moving.
"I don't know. The cameras are still locked up, but the motion detectors were triggered." Leon then heard loud, thumping footsteps approaching. The girl buried her face in Leon's neck, her violent shivering returning once more.
"Just my luck." Whatever that was, he would need to take care of it or risk it getting out. That would be easier said than done with his new addition currently trying to use him as a hiding spot. He found a room that was free of any bodies, a temporary place to put her until he dealt with that thing. He went to try and set her down, only to be met with wailing and her trying to cling to him, but her arms stuck in the sleeves of his coat prevented her from doing so. He put her down, but she started bouncing and reached up to him, begging to be let back up. Leon crouched down to her level.
"Hey, hey, you gotta keep quiet. We don't want that thing to find us, do we?" She started hyperventilating again while shaking her head. "Exactly. I'm going to go take care of it and then we'll get out of here. I need you to stay in this room and stay quiet until I come back. Think you can do that for me?"
She couldn't stop her crying, but nodded her head anyway. "Good girl. I'll be back. I promise."
Promises were something very easily broken. Some people learn that the hard way while others know it by heart. For a little girl sudden taken from her mommy and thrown into an experiment facility, she had already taken that lesson to heart. Even so, part of her still tried to hold onto hope. For children, it's all they have to hold onto. Her mommy made lots of promises to her that she never kept. She promised they would go to the park. She promised they would celebrate her birthday. She promised the screaming and hitting would stop. She promised she would always love her. All promises that were broken.
When the man, Leon, promised he would come back for her, she held onto a shred of blind hope. What else could she do? She had to trust the adults around her. They were supposed to take care of little children... right?
She jumped at the loud bangs in the distance, the same bangs she heard before everything turned upside down. The same bangs that had silenced all the others. They were just playing hide and seek in the playroom. She should've come out of the pillow fort when they were called, but she didn't want to lose the game. Then the bangs started, one after another. Each one met with the sickening sound of another child dropping to the ground, some landing on the pillow fort she hid in. Then, they left.
She was too afraid to leave the fort, their blood seeping through the pillows and into her clothes and hair. She could still remember the metallic smell and how it made her sick. She still wore their blood on her clothes, on her face, in her hair, stained with the reminder of her dead companions. She had no idea how much time had passed before she finally built up the strength the leave that room.
More time passed as she waited in the room Leon left her in. She curled in on herself as she sat on the floor in wait. She had pulled her arms from the sleeves of the jacket to wrapped them around herself, rocking back and forth as she tried to keep quiet. She never like being alone. Her mother left her alone a lot in their scary house. She hated it. Despite not wanting to leave her mommy, she was actually a bit happy to be with the other kids in the facility. It meant she always had someone around. Even that was taken away from her.
Loud, blaring sirens suddenly rang out as flashing red lights filled the room. Something was said over a loudspeaker that she could barely understand. The ground started shaking violently, knocking her out of her rocking position. She could hear the sounds of glass shattering and parts of the building crumbling. She couldn't bring herself to move. Leon told her to wait there. He said he would come back for her. He promised.
"Time to go!" She hadn't noticed that the door had been kicked open until she was suddenly grabbed and picked up. Leon had come back for her. She grabbed and clung to him as he ran with her. The entire building was dark with blaring red lights, parts of the ceiling failing around them as some of the floor gave way. What was happening? She clung tighter to him as she shut her eyes tightly, not wanting to see anything else.
She could feel Leon's heart racing as he ran to get them out, feeling the jumps and stumbles on the way. Building debris crashed down around them as the floor itself started to give way. The was a hard jolt as Leon crashed into something, holding the back of her head to make sure she didn't get hurt. When she went to lift her head, he lowered it back down to his chest, warning her not to look and to just hold on tight. She took his word and kept her eyes shut. She kept her grip tight on him as he released her head and she could hear him grunt as he pulled them up on what felt like a ladder.
There was a jolt of a drop followed by a loud, metal creak. Leon moved faster, though it felt like they were falling. The girl was pushed up higher, her tiny hands forced to let go of his shirt as she landed hard on solid ground, the thick coat somewhat cushioning her landing. Her eyes finally opened as she was met with the view of the sky as well as the last of the crumbling building. She was finally out. She rolled over onto her side to see Leon hanging over the edge of a large hole. He was panting as he tried to pull himself up. The girl let out a cry as she ran over to him and grabbed the strap of his holster, desperately trying to help him up with what little strength she had.
Leon finally managed to pull himself up, his little helper pulling with all her might to make sure he was fully out. Leon landed on his side and rolled over onto his back, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. She landed next to him, her wild, panicked eyes looking over him. He gave her a tired smirk. "Thanks for the save."
Reinforcements soon arrived to investigate the town's newest sinkhole. The self destruct sequence took down the lab and the entire run down building with it. Luckily, Sherry was able to access all their files before it was all destroyed. With any luck, they would be able to track down whoever was in charge of the operation in a matter of days. Though, Leon had a different issue to deal with first.
The little girl he rescued had become attached to him. She refused to be checked out by the paramedics unless he was there with her. Even then, she refused to be put down without some coaxing. Getting her cleaned up was a challenge as well. She was brought back to the DSO for testing to make sure she hadn't been exposed to anything. Trying to hand her off to the decontamination team was a struggle. Sherry found it amusing that another blonde girl had attached herself to him. Leon found it endearing, if not a little inconvenient.
Once she was finally pried away from him, he took that time to get himself cleaned up in the dormitory showers. After showering and changing, he headed back to Sherry for a breakdown of the files. It looked like that had made some progress in their experiments, though lots were failures and disposed of. The fact that this was all done on children made it worse. Someone was clearly following in Umbrella's footsteps.
"Oh, I was able to find that girl in the database," Sherry mentioned pulling up the girl's file. "Ella Johnson. Three years old."
"What's her story?"
"Mother is Mary Johnson, no father listed, no other family members either. She lived with her mother in New York." Sherry paused. Leon didn't need to ask as they both saw the same thing on the screen. "Ella was bought from her two months ago."
"She just sold her own kid?" Leon's jaw clenched in anger. Who the hell could just sell their own kid like that? If her tests came back clean, they certainly couldn't send her back there. If she was willing to sell her kid once, who's to say she wouldn't do it again. And she didn't have any other family they could send her to. The bastards really knew how to pick their guinea pigs. "What else?"
"Well... according to the testing, she did well enough. 'Pros: Fast learner, Pattern Recognition, Quick Reflexes, Sharp Vision; Attention to Detail. Cons: Slow to Follow Orders, Easily Frightened, No Verbal Communication Skills.' Doesn't look like she's spoken a word since being there. It's noted that even her mother said she never talked."
"So we got a silent genius on our hands. Better us than them." There were videos of their testing, both alone and with the other children. She seemed to be able to work with them just fine, though she didn't utter a word to anyone. Other than that, she was just a normal kid. "And we're sure nothing was tested on her?"
"They're trying to do her labs now. That poor girl. Apparently, she's been a crying mess since they took her to decon." She was probably still scared out of her mind. A lot had happened for her in such a short time. She couldn't adjust to anything before something worse happened.
"Hey! Come back!" Leon and Sherry snapped their heads to the sound of the urgent voice, the sound of patters on the tile floors getting closer. A small body slammed into his leg, wrapping tiny arms around it and hugging it tight. He looked down at the familiar blonde hair, that was now thankfully clean of blood, as one of the medics jogged over to them. "Sorry, Agent Kennedy. She's a slippery one."
"I can tell." She looked up at him, those same scared, bloodshot green eyes meeting his. Her face was still puffy and red from her crying fits and her skin was still cold to the touch. She lifted her arms to him again, bouncing and whining at him. Sherry bit back a giggle at the sight of a child begging Leon to pick her up. Her eyes squinted as if trying to produce tears, but it seemed she had none left to cry. He relented, leaning down to lift her into his arms, her arms immediately wrapping around his neck. "Didn't think my effect on the ladies was that strong."
Sherry rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the woman Ella escaped from. "Are her labs done?"
"I haven't been able to take them yet. She's severely dehydrated and we haven't been able to get her to eat or drink anything, let alone stay still long enough to check her vitals." Leon could feel her stomach rumbling against his chest. When was the last time she ate anything? Sherry turned to him.
"I'm sure you can help with that, Leon." He raised an eyebrow at her. "You seem to be the only one she'll calm down around. She clearly trusts you."
"A questionable decision, to be sure." He softly sighed, gently rubbing the girl's back. "Alright, what do I need to do?"
"Well," the medic started. "If you can keep her calm enough, I can put her on an IV drip. She'll also need something in her stomach, so we'll have to get a meal prepared for her. Once she has enough in her system, I can start to run tests."
"Sounds like a plan. Lead the way." He followed her back to the med wing, questioning how a simple impromptu rescue turned into this. Suddenly being the comfort person of a timid toddler wasn't on his bingo card for today. Her hold around his neck loosened a bit, but her hands were still grabbed onto the back of his shirt while her head rested on his shoulder. If not for the soft humming coming from her, he would've thought she had fallen asleep.
They soon made it back to the med wing and he was led into the examination room. He sat down and maneuvered her to sit in his lap, though it took some coaxing to get her to release her death grip on him. She was still trembling, whether from the cold, hunger or fear, he wasn't sure. Possibly from all three. The medic prepared the IV needle, causing Ella to shrink her hands back, her head turning to bury her face in his chest.
"Trust me, I'm not a fan of needles either, but this will help you feel better." She lifted her head to look at him, her brow creased as she didn't fully trust his words. "Here. Grab my hand," he said holding his hand palm up to her. She looked down, pausing a moment before taking hold of two of his fingers as it was all her tiny hand could grasp. "We'll do a countdown. When we get to three, she'll put it in and you'll take a deep breath and squeeze as hard as you need to. It'll be over before you know it. Think you can do that for me?"
She whined, but she gave a quick nod, giving her other hand back to the medic. She gently wiped the back of her hand with a disinfectant wipe and readied the needle. "Are we ready?"
"Ready when you are, doc." Ella nodded again and shut her eyes, her hand already squeezing his fingers.
"Okay. One, two, three." The medic carefully stuck in the needle, Ella taking the breath and squeezing Leon's fingers even tighter, letting out little whimpers.
"That's a good girl. You're doing great," he coaxed, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. The needle was in and the medic taped it down to the back of her hand.
"Alright. We're done. You may start to feel something cold in your hand and up your arm, but that's supposed to happen. You did perfect, sweetheart." The medic reached into her coat pocket and pulled some lollipops, holding them out to Ella to pick the one she wanted.
"Do the other agents get candy after seeing you too?" Leon joked as Ella picked the green one. She lightly laughed her eyes putting the rest back in her pocket.
"If they're good. Besides, I'm a mom. I keep random treats on me. You never know when you might need to bribe someone with candy." Ella went to open it, but was too scared to move her hand that was stuck with a needle. She lifted it up to Leon to open it for her. He chuckled as he took it from her.
"So, how long should this take?" he asked unraveling the candy wrapper.
"Depending on how quickly her body absorbs it all, I would say no longer than an hour. Once it runs out, I'll need to check if she needs a second one before I draw any blood, but one should be more than enough." Leon nodded as he handed her back the lollipop. She wasted no time taking it and put it in her mouth.
"Hey, careful. Don't need you choking." The medic smiled to herself as she took down some notes.
"You don't have children yourself, right, Agent Kennedy?"
"Not unless you count Sherry, I don't. Why?" She shrugged as she looked back to him.
"You're a natural with her. Kids can be great judges of character. No wonder she's attached herself to you." He looked down at the child on his lap leaning into his chest and contently enjoying her lollipop. Some of her trembling had subsided and she was as calm. Well, as calm as she could be in her situation.
"I seem to have that effect on blondes." He could feel soft vibrations from her as she started humming to herself again. He could only hope to understand what was going through her mind at that moment.
"Well, candy can't be her only sustenance, so I'm going to head to the cafeteria to get her something to eat. She must be starving. Just make sure she keeps that hand still and doesn't bend it." Leon nodded in acknowledgement as the medic left, leaving him alone with Ella. He let out a sigh as he looked down at her, her big green eyes meeting his.
"Well, we had quite a day, haven't we?" She blinked at him, her face giving away nothing about how she was feeling or what she was thinking. "Right, strong silent type."
Leon had no idea what to do with her. Trying to talk to someone who couldn't or wouldn't talk back was a bit awkward. Then again, he tended to pull the silent treatment whenever he was kidnapped or interrogated. Now he knew what it felt like to be on the other side of it, though in a far less tense situation. "We're going to be here for a while. We should probably get to know each other, Ms. Ella."
Recognition flashed in her eyes as he said her name. She never told him what it was, but he already knew it. "Yeah, I know your name. You remember mine?"
She nodded and grabbed his hand, facing it palm up to her. He held his hand still to see what she was doing. She took her finger and slid it across his palm in the shape of an L, then E, E, O, N. She was trying to spell his name. "Huh, aren't you resourceful? Though, 'Leon' only has one E, but you were very close. Here."
He took her hand and traced the letters into her palm. He held his hand out to let her try again. She spelled out his name correctly. "There you go. Good job."
She smiled and bounced a bit in his lap, making him chuckle at her excitement. She started spelling out other words that she knew in his palm, some with misspellings and others spelled correctly. She seem very proud of her spelling skills and way of communication. The medic soon came back with her meal, starting her off with just soup that she could eat with a straw while she couldn't move her hand. She whined when Leon made her put down her lollipop.
"You can have it back when you finish your food." She pouted but reluctantly started sipping her soup.