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"Leon! Leon, please wake up, please..."
Leon forced his eyes open with a groan and caught sight of pale hair and a worried face leaning over him.
"Leon! Are you okay?"
"Grace..." Leon finally remembered who she was. "How long was I out? And where...?" He pushed himself up to a sitting position for a better look, and found that they were surrounded by large machines billowing smoke, their placement creating a twisting maze of narrow corridors. He didn't remember seeing anything like this before they'd jumped down into the dump, but somehow, it was familiar to him.
"I-I don't know. Not that long. A-And also don't know. B-But it looks different to the rest of the facility."
Leon couldn't shake the sense of familiarity nor pinpoint its origin, but he had more important things to do right now than dwell on it.
"I have to go back. I need to destroy Elpis." Leon began to rise, but didn't get far off the ground before he was wracked by a bout of intense coughs that knocked him back onto his ass.
"Leon!" Grace exclaimed, putting an arm out to steady him. "W-Why don't you rest a little longer while I try to find a way out?"
Leon would have objected if not for the tightness in his chest that was currently making it hard to breathe. As it was, it sounded like a pretty good idea since he wasn't relishing the thought of running around trying to figure out which way to go.
"You armed?" he asked.
"Mhm."
"Alright then. Don't get lost."
Leon dragged himself over to a nearby railing to lean on it for support, then closed his eyes and focused on taking deep breaths even as his lungs burned and his bruised ribs protested. Just a moment's rest, then he'd be good to go...
His eyes snapped open when he heard footsteps; footsteps far too heavy to be Grace's. His hand went to the grip of his Requiem. A figure appeared from around the corner, and the beam of a flashlight landed squarely on Leon.
"Hey...mister?" The voice was younger than what Leon had been expecting. There was something...innocently curious about the tone. "Are you okay?"
Leon raised his other hand to shield his eyes from the light, and the first thing he saw was the letters R.P.D. printed in a bold white font on the front of a bulletproof vest. The figure lowered the flashlight, revealing one fresh faced, slightly beat up Leon S. Kennedy, rookie cop. What the hell...
"Sir?" Kennedy asked, a little more cautiously this time, perhaps now noticing that Leon was heavily armed. "Do you need help? You uh...didn't get bitten, did you?"
"Nah, kid." Leon made a show of releasing his grip on the Requiem, and raised both hands in the air. "You got nothing to worry about from me."
Kennedy relaxed a little, lowering his own gun so it was no longer pointed at Leon. "What are you doing here?"
"First, you're going to need to tell me exactly where 'here' is."
"Leon!" Grace reappeared from the direction she'd left in.
Kennedy whipped around to face her. "Who're you? And how'd you know my name?"
The kid raised his gun again upon seeing Grace's in her hand, though he stopped short of properly aiming at her.
Grace didn't answer, preoccupied as she was by looking between them with an open-mouth stare.
"You see him too, huh?" Leon asked. "Guess that means I'm not hallucinating, then."
"What's going on?" Kennedy demanded, though he sounded far too confused to be authoritative.
"What's the date?" Leon asked instead.
"September 29," Kennedy readily provided despite looking completely bewildered by the sudden change of subject.
"1998?" Leon confirmed.
"Yeah."
"H-Hold on, September?" Grace interjected. "1998?!"
"What date do you think it is?" Kennedy asked her with a confused scrunch of his forehead.
"It's October! 2026!"
"Not right now it's not." Leon used the railing behind him to heave himself to his feet. "Grace, welcome to the Raccoon City Incident, September 1998. This is Officer Leon S. Kennedy with the Raccoon City Police Department. Rookie, Grace Ashcroft, FBI agent."
"FBI?"
"The real deal, not like any other women you might meet around here claiming to be FBI," Leon said, trying to gauge how far Kennedy was into the events of that fateful night. He hadn't been shot in the shoulder yet, but he and his uniform were dirtied and bloodied, and there were numerous scrapes all over his vest and knee pads. Maybe halfway through, if even that.
"You kn—nevermind." Kennedy shook his head, but it didn't seem to help any with his confusion. "And who are you?"
Leon gave him a humorless smile. "Agent Leon S. Kennedy, with the DSO. You wouldn't know it; it hasn't been founded yet."
It was Kennedy's turn now to stare. Leon tried not to be too self-conscious about the scrutiny, but he did make sure the side of his neck where the infection was visible was turned away from Kennedy; no need to spook him while he still had a firm grip on his gun and a healthy dose of suspicion.
"H-how is this possible?" Grace asked. "W-We've...traveled back in time?"
"Or to another dimension or something," Leon said as he looked around. Their surroundings were starting to look a little more familiar now. "That would explain how we got from the tunnels under ARK to the police station."
"But how?"
Leon shrugged. "Beats me."
"This can't be real," Kennedy said, having regained his faculties. Somewhat. "First zombies, and now...this? Whatever this is."
"Yeah, I know exactly how you feel," Leon said sympathetically. "Look, Grace and I are obviously not supposed to be here, and we've got our own problems to deal with back where we came from, so the sooner we get back, the better for everyone."
"B-But we don't even know how we got here!" Grace exclaimed. "H-How are we supposed to get back?"
"We'll take a look around, figure something out." Maybe he shouldn't offer, shouldn't leave any kind of mark on this night, but…it'd been a hell of a night. Had he really looked this young back then? He sure didn't remember being so. "You need a hand with anything while we're here?"
Kennedy hadn't even returned to the station proper yet after he'd left through the secret tunnel, having been chased down the manhole by dogs upon ducking into the parking garage to try out a car key he'd found. He'd then heard voices coming from the machinery room, and had come down to investigate.
"The entrance to the secret tunnel can't be opened from this side, so the only way back is through the parking garage," Kennedy said with trepidation.
Taking pity on the kid's frayed nerves, Leon volunteered to go up the ladder first, and made short work of the dogs using a flashbang and his shotgun. Three shots, three kills. No wasted ammo.
"Whoa," Kennedy said, halfway out of the manhole with his pistol in hand. "That was quick."
"Practice makes perfect."
Kennedy looked like he was going to say something else, but his awed expression suddenly turned to alarm. "Your neck! Is that—"
Those damned headlights from the car pointed squarely in their direction were probably on Leon like a spotlight.
"Nothing you need to be worried about," he said evenly. "It's a different strain to what's floating around here. It'll be a while still before my time's up."
"How are you being so calm about this?"
"It's been a weird twenty-eight years, kid." It wasn't like it was Leon's first time getting infected, either. Or even the second. Third time had to be the charm, right? "Besides, got some real smart people working on a cure." And not getting anywhere, but that wasn't something the kid needed to concern himself with. "I'll let them worry about it while I keep doing my job."
Kennedy seemed to consider that a satisfactory answer. He climbed out of the manhole without further comment and turned back to offer his hand to Grace.
From there, they had a clear run up to the break room, and the nostalgia hit in full force as they ran down the hallway past the infected rattling at the windows. It'd been different back in the present day with the station mostly still and quiet, a frozen monument to the events that had taken place here. It was different now too: with three of them, Grace could cover their six while Kennedy, the layout of the station fresher in his mind, took point, and Leon provided backup where necessary. He'd almost call it too easy if he wasn't worried about tempting fate.
They made it upstairs to the east storage room without encountering much resistance, picking up various bits and pieces that would come in handy later, then out onto the balcony where the only way down to the rooftop terrace was a ladder. Kennedy went first, being at the front of their little group. He was almost halfway down when there was an ominous creak, and Leon remembered how he'd gotten down from the balcony the first time.
"Watch out, the ladder—"
It was too late; the metal gave way, and Kennedy wobbled in midair for a second before gravity caught up with him and sent him crashing to the ground.
"Thanks for the warning," Kennedy said with a groan from below.
Leon and Grace used the metal supports that remained attached to the wall to slide down at a more measured pace.
"Are you okay?" Grace ran over to help Kennedy to his feet.
"I'll be fine," Kennedy said in a strained voice, one hand to his back. "Just need to catch my breath."
"Not here," Leon said. "It'll be safer down in the boiler room. Stay behind us."
He and Grace cleared the way to the boiler room, which had a nice stash of ammo, first aid supplies, and a key waiting for them.
"You're gonna need this." Leon put the key and a couple of painkillers into Kennedy's hand.
"Thanks." Kennedy downed the painkillers and slipped the key into his pocket. "We can get into the records room now. Hope the handle for the jack is in there so we can move the shelves in the library to get up to the third floor to get the second electrical part from the clock tower so we can fix the power panel in the jail to get a keycard for the parking garage off a corpse and finally get out of this damned station."
"Yeah," Leon commiserated. It did sound more than a little ridiculous when you put it all together like that.
"Does this happen to you a lot?" Grace asked Leon.
"More than I'd like."
They couldn't sit around waiting for the painkillers to kick in, but Kennedy could take it easy for a bit while Leon handled this next part. He knew exactly what would be waiting for them once they doused the helicopter fire, and he had a plan to turn things around this time. Good thing he'd already gotten in a practice round earlier today.
"Hold on," Leon said when they neared the door that would take them back into the station. "You two wait here, off to the side. Get ready to move, but not until I say."
"What are you going to do?" Kennedy asked.
"Going to do you a favor and sort things out with an old friend."
He could still picture it clearly in his mind: the burnt-out wreck of the helicopter, the screech and groan as a hand gripped the metal frame and tossed it aside with inhuman strength, revealing a towering figure that advanced with thunderous steps, each one meant to strike terror into the heart of its prey.
But this time, he wasn't afraid.
"Come get it," Leon said, then turned and ran back down the hall.
He led the Tyrant back out onto the roof where Grace and Kennedy had thankfully followed his instructions and were still waiting off to the side instead of obstructing the door by curiously peering in.
"Stay back, don't let it see you!" he ordered as he lured the Tyrant further out into the open. As he'd hoped, it pursued him with single-minded relentlessness, sparing not a glance for its surroundings. "Inside, now!" he yelled when the doorway was clear.
Leon ducked and rolled to avoid the swing of the Tyrant's arm, then came up on its other side and emptied all five bullets from his Requiem into the Tyrant's head. On any other enemy that might have already been overkill, but Leon knew better than to think it wasn't getting back up again.
A cursory check behind him confirmed that Grace and Kennedy had gone inside. He threw a grenade at the Tyrant's feet then made a run for the door, sheltering behind it from the force of the blast. He briefly opened the door just long enough to confirm that the Tyrant was lying on the ground, unmoving—for now, at least—before rigging the door with another two grenades.
"No need for us to come back this way. No guarantee it'll knock that thing out for long, but it should buy us extra time. Time we're wasting by standing here." Leon motioned for Grace and Kennedy to get a move on when they just stood there staring at him.
"What was that thing?" Kennedy exclaimed over his shoulder as they made their way towards the main hall.
"A Tyrant. A human-form bio organic w—" Leon's words were cut off by a wet cough. He shone his flashlight down at his gloved hand to see specks of blood, which was a common enough sight nowadays that he was simply going to wipe his hand and be done with it. But before he could do so, he felt another cough building in his throat. And then another. And another.
He couldn't stop coughing. He had to slow his pace to a crawl and brace his other hand on the wall as his chest heaved with the effort of drawing breath. He could feel blood spilling over his chin, any attempts at wiping it away futile. His head spun, and his vision darkened and his knees buckled.
No…not now…
"Leon?!"
"Agent Kennedy!"
Hands grabbed at him, fingers pressing against his wrist and neck trying to find a pulse.
"'m fine," Leon mumbled, swatting at the probing fingers.
"It's not far to the main hall," Kennedy said over Leon's head. "Help me with him."
Each of Leon's arms was slung over a shoulder, and he wanted to tell the kids that they should leave one of them unburdened so the other could respond quickly to any threats, but the words came out as a pained groan instead, which prompted them to waste their breath reassuring him that everything was going to be okay. Leon didn't try to talk again, instead focusing on keeping his feet under him so he wouldn't slow them down further. He tried to keep an eye out for approaching danger, but his eyelids kept closing of their own accord, and every time they did, it got harder to pry them open again.
"The hell you doin' back here?"
The loud voice that echoed off the tiles was one Leon hadn't heard in twenty-eight years, but he recognized it immediately.
"Lieutenant!" Kennedy said, relief audible in his voice. "I found a way to the parking garage, but I can't open the gate without a keycard. On my way back in, I ran into these two. They're uh…Agents Kennedy and Ashcroft."
Leon felt himself being lowered onto a couch.
"Kennedy? Relative of yours?"
"Kind…of? It's complicated. Agent Kennedy, this is—"
"I remember." With great effort, Leon opened his eyes. Sitting there on the other couch, looking about as terrible as Leon felt, was Lieutenant Marvin Branagh. "I'll explain everything to him. You kids had better get moving before that Tyrant comes back to its senses."
"We will. Here." Kennedy put a bottle of water into Leon's hand, the top already twisted off.
"Thanks." It took more effort than Leon would admit to raise the bottle to his lips, but he'd be damned if he let the kid help.
"Y-You'll be okay here?" Grace asked, looking anxiously between the two men at death's door. Clearly, she didn't have much faith in them to still be alive when she and Kennedy returned.
"So long as I've got bullets for this bad boy, nothing's getting past me." Leon patted his Requiem. "I've got plenty of bullets," he added when Grace's expression didn't change. "Do you want my shotgun?"
"N-No, you'd better hold on to it."
"They'll be safe here," Kennedy reassured Grace. "And we won't be too far away. Come on."
The two of them started off for the records room. Leon took another swig of water to buy him some time to come up with an explanation without giving too much away, then thought, to hell with it. Who was Marvin going to tell?
"Grace and I are from the future. 2026, to be precise. Fell into the machinery room under the station. No idea how we got here, and no idea how we're getting back."
Marvin stared at him incredulously.
"You don't have to believe me." Leon settled against the back of the couch and closed his eyes. "Just telling you what I know." Which was a whole lotta nothing.
Marvin didn't speak for a long time, and steady gunshots from the west wing of the station filled the silence between them, assuring Leon that the kids were still making progress and would be fine without him. Then again, he'd done this himself the first time, hadn't he?
"Twenty-eight fucking years, huh?" Marvin eventually said. "And you're still fighting these damned things?"
Leon let out a long exhale and looked over at Marvin. "Yeah. If you think this is bad…" He trailed off, not wanting to tell a dying man that he hadn't even seen the worst of it.
"I'm guessing you're not actually a relative of the rookie's, are you?"
"Not quite." Leon gave Marvin a wry smile. "Agent Leon S. Kennedy, Division of Security Operations, at your service."
"Well, I'll be damned…" Marvin gave him a critical once-over. "You don't look like you've gotten a full night's rest since, what, yesterday night?"
Leon huffed a laugh. "Sure feels like it some days."
"I take it you're not a cop anymore. The people you work for now—division of whatever—what do they do?"
"We fight bioterrorism. There's whole organizations dedicated to it now, that's how widespread the problem is. Everything that happened here—will happen here tonight—won't matter." Leon closed his eyes again. "None of it matters." He was so damned tired.
"Then why are you still here?" Marvin's question startled Leon into opening his eyes. "If it's all so pointless, why are you, twenty-eight years later, still in this fight?"
Leon asked himself that same question every day.
"Because I'm a fool," he said bitterly. "A fool who can't walk away."
"No," Marvin said. "You're someone who sees what needs to be done, and does it instead of waiting for someone else to come along. The world is held up on the backs of people like you. People who never give up even when it seems like the fight is lost."
"Like a lieutenant who comes to the aid of a rookie while being on the verge of death himself?"
Marvin gave Leon a smile turned grimace as he clutched at his wound.
"You want something to take the edge off?" Leon asked; he was still holding on to the rest of the painkillers he'd found in the boiler room.
"Nah, don't waste it on me. Just…just talk to me. Tell me…there has to be something good, right? Something in your life worth fighting for?"
Leon's thoughts immediately went to Sherry. To Claire. Chris. Jill. Rebecca. Through the long years, the countless losses, the endless struggle, they'd had each other's backs. They couldn't fall to the so-called 'Umbrella's curse' now, not after all this time. Leon had to get back, interrogate Gideon for what he knew, then destroy Elpis to prevent another bioweapon from being unleashed on the world.
Yeah…there was still some fight left in him after all.
The grenades Leon had rigged the rooftop door with went off while he was telling Marvin stories about the few bright spots in his life, but there were no ensuing thuds of heavy footsteps. Time successfully bought, though he couldn't say how much.
Fortunately, not long after, there was a distant clang; the kids had made it to the clock tower.
"Hey…rookie…do me one last favor. You tellin' the truth when you said you had bullets for that gun of yours?" Marvin nodded at the Requiem.
Leon could immediately see where this was going, and he didn't like it one bit. "Lieutenant…"
"Rookie, look me in the eye and tell me how much time you think I have left."
Marvin was right; his condition had deteriorated rapidly, and he had minutes at most. In fact, Leon was both surprised and impressed that he'd been able to hold the symptoms at bay for this long.
"Not this one." At this range, the Requiem's bullets would make mincemeat out of Marvin, and he deserved a far more dignified death than that. Leon drew the Alligator Snapper from his hip holster and approached Marvin. "Any messages you want to leave behind? Letters to write?" Writing might be a bit beyond Marvin's physical capability now, but Leon could take down his words, make sure they got to anyone still left to receive them.
"Did all that already when this shit first started. Just want you to remember…to keep sight…of what's important…" Marvin hunched over and let out a long moan as another spasm seized him. "Get back…!" He swiped at Leon with a hand pulled into a claw by contracted muscles.
Leon backed up, gun in hand. On the couch, Marvin's body spasmed again, and his face contorted into a snarl.
"Do…it!"
Leon swallowed. Steadied his hands. Took aim.
The shot rang loud in the cavernous hall. Habit had Leon pulling the trigger again, and the second bullet found its mark right next to the first in Marvin's skull. When the ringing subsided, there was an almost-tranquil silence for a few seconds, then a door slammed open and footsteps thundered into the hall.
Kennedy came running in, Grace hot on his heels, and Leon instinctively brought his gun up to aim at whatever might be pursuing them, but nothing followed through the doorway.
"Lieutenant!" Kennedy cried. Then he skidded to a stop, taking in the scene of Marvin sprawled out on the couch, head hanging over the back, and Leon standing in front of him, gun in hand. "What did you do?!"
"What he asked me to." Leon holstered his pistol. "What he knew you wouldn't be able to do."
"We could have gotten him help!" Kennedy stormed towards Leon and grabbed the front of his shirt. "We'd found the last piece! We were going to get out! We could have…we could have…"
"Taken him where?" Leon asked. "Gotten help from who? You saw the city on your way in; nowhere left to go but out. And he wasn't going to last that long." He pried Kennedy's hands free from his shirt. "Don't you think he deserved to be shown mercy?"
The kid staggered over to a chair and collapsed in it, burying his head in his hands. Leon let him be for now.
"You two get everything you needed okay?" he asked Grace.
She nodded numbly, her gaze fixed on the floor next to Marvin's feet. Maybe she was remembering the last time Leon had shot someone she'd known as a human.
"W-W-We—" Grace took several deep breaths. "We found another g-gun. N-Need more ammo for it." She held up the Lightning Hawk from the STARS armory.
"There'll be some in the storage box behind the front desk." Leon put a hand on Grace's back to steer her away from Marvin's body. "Come on."
They emptied the storage box of its useful items since they wouldn't be coming back this way again, reloading all of Kennedy's weapons and helping themselves to a few of his leftover bullets; a fair enough trade for their help. When there was nothing left to do to further stall for time, Leon shoved the Lightning Hawk into Kennedy's hand and hauled him up by his arm.
"Pull yourself together, kid. Night's not over yet." Not by a long shot.
To his credit, Kennedy did exactly that, drawing in a deep, shuddering breath before squaring his shoulders and readying his gun.
"Let's blow this joint."
He didn't look at Marvin—no one did—as they descended into the secret tunnel under the statue and made their way back to the parking garage. They were crossing the walkway above the machinery room when Grace grabbed Leon's arm.
"Look!"
Suspended in the air a few feet away from them was a horizontal disc of what could be mistaken for a mirror if the image it was reflecting was the ceiling instead of a familiar-looking garbage dump. Grace picked up a piece of debris from the walkway and lobbed it into the shimmering disk. It hit the ground of the dump and rolled out of sight, but nothing landed on the floor of the machinery room.
"I think that's our way back," she said.
"We'll have to jump from the railing." It was fitting, Leon supposed, given that they'd arrived here by falling into the machinery room.
"Do you…have to go now?" Kennedy asked.
It seemed a little cruel, perhaps, to leave him alone after what had just happened with Marvin, but Ada would be along shortly, and Leon didn't think it would be a good idea for her to see him and Grace. This was as good a time to part ways as any.
"It might not still be here when we come back," Grace answered for Leon. "There wasn't anything like this when we arrived, so the…portal might not stay open for long."
"I understand," Kennedy said, resigned to their departure. "You guys have things to take care of too. I guess it's not really goodbye since we'll meet again someday, huh?" He and Grace exchanged a smile.
Leon put a foot on the railing and gauged the distance. An easy enough jump; one just had to have a little faith.
"Wait!" Kennedy called out. "I know it probably breaks every rule of time travel or whatever, but…is there anything else you can tell me? Anything at all?"
Leon gave it a moment's consideration, but they'd learned fuck all about what had put them in this situation in the first place, and he didn't want to risk fucking up the future even worse by telling Kennedy anything that might change his behavior, even if it meant he'd have to go through the same shit that Leon had.
"I won't lie, it's not gonna be easy. But at the end of the day, you're gonna pull through." On second thought, maybe he could make one thing a little easier. "Oh, and when you head to the cells, bring some grenades. You'll be glad you did."
"Right." Kennedy stepped back to give them some room. "Thanks. For everything. And good luck."
"Take care," Grace said.
"Together?" Leon asked her.
She nodded.
They jumped.
The trip back was as unpleasant as the trip there. There was the lurching sensation of falling, then a hard impact, though this time Leon landed on something marginally softer than concrete, and rolled down a slope before coming to a stop on flatter ground.
"Leon? You alright?" Grace called from somewhere Leon couldn't see.
He grunted and tried to catalogue which of his hurts were new. Nothing broken, at least. "Will be in a minute."
Grace was by his side before he'd even managed to move, and though it hurt his pride, he accepted her help to sit up.
"Th-The infection's spreading," she said, staring at the side of his face.
"Looks worse than it feels," Leon lied, doing his best not to think about how his skin was itching fiercely now that she'd pointed it out. "We make it back?"
"I-I think so. Looks like the spot we should have originally landed in."
Smelled like it too; Leon wrinkled his nose as the stench from the decaying piles of waste around them hit his nose. As if he needed more motivation to get out of here.
"Right, I'm going to look for a way back up," he said, pushing himself to his feet. He swayed for a moment, but remained upright. Good enough. "As for you—"
"I-I'm coming with you!" Grace exclaimed. "I want to help too."
Leon raised an eyebrow. "Had a change of heart?"
"You—the other you—told me how you became a cop to protect people. To stand up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves. A-And I might not be able to do the same, but if Zeno and Gideon think I'm important, then there must be something I can do."
"You shouldn't listen to the kid, he didn't know what he was talking about. He was so naïve." A sound that could have been a laugh forced its way out of Leon's throat. "He really thought he could make a difference."
"Y-You're not as different as you think," Grace said softly. "You and him."
Leon gave her a skeptical look. "I really doubt that."
"I-I mean you've changed, yes, but y-you still want to help people. You have a kind heart. I've seen it in both of you."
"I shot the only other person he had for company in that police station in the head. Twice."
"He wouldn't have been able to do it. Not until it'd been too late."
She was right; Leon the rookie cop had never been able to bring himself to shoot Marvin, not even when he hadn't a shred of himself left inside. When Leon had returned to the ruins of Raccoon City, he'd dreaded the possibility of turning a corner and seeing Marvin again, but someone else must have finally done what Leon couldn't, and had put him to rest.
"K-Killing Lieutenant Branagh was an act of kindness."
"Right, just like with Emily." The snarky reply was just instinctive by now, and Leon immediately regretted it even before he saw Grace's eyes well with tears. He tentatively reached out a hand towards her. "Hey, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"
"See?" She gave him a watery smile. "You really do have a soft heart."
Leon scowled at her and dropped his hand. "Pull yourself together, kid. Night's not over yet."
Grace made a sound that was half sniff and half chuckle, and wiped her eyes. "I-I don't blame you for Emily. I wish you hadn't done it, but I understand why you did."
"You shouldn't have to." What a wretched world they lived in.
"A-Anyway, I don't want to live with any more regrets. Whatever happens, I want to know that I did all that I could to help."
Ah, it was too late. The kid had gotten to her.
"Fine. Come on, then. Let's go save the world."