-1Disclaimer: I don't own Leon (sigh) or any of the other characters in the work below.

Synopsis: This is another Leon fic. I've added characters from Survivor and Dead Aim, because they're rarely used, and Bruce interests me (even if his nemesis was an anime-villain reject). S.T.A.R.S. will make an appearance, because it's not Resident Evil without them. Any characters from any other games are there because I liked the characters, but this is NOT a crossover.

RESIDENT EVIL: BROKEN

Chapter One

Raccoon City, Sept. 29, 2006

The two figures stood motionless, the suns at their backs casting long shadows on the pavement before them. Behind them lay the Arkham Mountains, and remnants of the Arklay and Spenser Mansions. Ahead lay was an eight foot steel-mesh fence, marked by the an all-too-familiar biohazard sign. Beyond that, the wasteland that had once been home to Leon S. Kennedy stretched out in all its devastated glory. The broken structures, the hollowed-out cars, the blast-blackenedd debris, all a twisted testament to the government's final solution; the cleansing of Raccoon City and it's virus-infected citizens.

Leon shifted and lifted a set of binoculars to his eyes, gazing at the remains of his hometown. He knew that if he zoomed in close enough, he'd be able to see Claire's motorcycle, its flattened rear wheel sticking out of the window of the building she'd parked beside that fateful night. Somewhere on the other side of town lay the remains of his jeep, still lying on its side, windows broken, frame twisted. He hadn't been allowed in that section of town afterwards, but he'd seen the pictures the government had taken after the bombing. That had been enough.

Even as he wondered why he did this to himself, he hit the button and zoomed in on the police station. Even from here, on the outskirts of the city, he could see the R.P.D. sign, suspended by one rusted chain, swaying gently in the wind. The façade of the building was mostly intact, though the explosions that had rocked Raccoon had destroyed the rest of the building.

More than once, Leon had considered sneaking past the fence and retrieving the sign. God knew, he had the training to get in undetected. He was the only survivor of the Raccoon Police Department, and he hated to see the sign just hanging there, rusting in the Midwestern wind. The white letters were black with smoke damage, and he had no problem imagining them splattered with blood beneath it. Damn it, he wanted that sign!

But he knew better, Leon thought with a frustrated sigh. Every year, the President gave him permission to enter the restricted area, provided that he didn't breach the protective barrier fence. Were he to follow his inclinations and cross that barrier, President Graham would put a stop to his annual trek immediately. He didn't want that. As much as it hurt to be reminded of all he had lost, he liked being able to come here and commune with those he'd left behind.

Leon tapped the button to full zoom and found the ruins of Raccoon University. After eight years, he no longer saw the bodies of those that had died in the bombing. He knew that Umbrella Inc. had sent in their mercenary cleaner crews--the human ones--to gather all remaining evidence of the G-virus outbreak. They'd had to work against the government's military to do it, so it had taken nearly a year for all of the bodies to be removed amidst the fighting that had followed.

Eight months after his miraculous escape from Raccoon, he had received permission to return with a government unit, and had seen the bodies for himself. The one he'd been searching for hadn't been among those retrieved, though her name had been added to the lists of the dead. He often wondered if, like him, she had managed to escape the nightmare their hometown had become. If so, she had managed to hide herself so well that even he, with all of his covert government contacts, hadn't been able to find her.

Elza Walker had been his high school sweetheart, and a student at RU. She hadn't lived on campus, but she had been there. She'd broken up with him that day, which was the reason he'd arrived in Raccoon City so late that fateful night. She'd planned on going back to the RU library to study for her midterms that night, and as far as Leon knew, she had.

His gaze swept the city for a few more minutes before he forced himself to lower the binoculars. He attached them to his belt and continued to watch the still life that was his hometown. Life went on for those who had survived, no matter how much it hurt. There was no other alternative.

"I wish you hadn't come here," the man at his side said suddenly. "This particular horse has been dead for a long time."

"'This horse' was my hometown." Leon sighed heavily. "I know it bothers you to come back here, but--"

"I didn't say I don't understand it, Leon. I just don't know why you do this to yourself," Former Marine Force Recon Lieutenant Billy Coen clarified quietly. "Life's hard enough without," he made a sweeping gesture with one hand, "this."

"You didn't have to come with me," Leon reminded him.

"Sure, I did." Billy readjusted the ever-present duffel bag on his shoulder as he spoke, drawing attention to the black tribal tattoo running down the entire length of his right arm. "After all you've done for me, this is a small thing. How could I not come with you?"

"Billy. . ." Leon shook his head, hating that the other man felt so indebted to him. "I did the right thing. That's all."

He felt a presence behind him and half turned towards it. Tom Hansen's bright blue eyes were somber as they met his. "Are you alright, Lee?"

Leon drew a deep breath and smiled crookedly. "Yeah, I'm fine, Tom."

The former Coast Guard sailor merely nodded his blond head and backed away. Leon turned back to Raccoon City, and once again said goodbye to all the family and friend's he had left behind. He forced himself to turn his back on his hometown and walked slowly to the front of the jeep, where the rest of his friend's waited in silence.

"Thank you, for making this journey with me," he said solemnly.

Bruce McGivern, a high-ranking member of US STRATCOM's Anit-Umbrella Pursuit Investigation team, merely shrugged at his words. "We're done here, then?"

Leon smiled faintly. "I think so." He turned to the man who had stood silently at his side during all of this. "You're sure?"

The man in question grunted, his indigo eyes narrowed as they met his own, and Leon took that as a yes. "We're ready to go, Bruce."

"Good," he stated with obvious relief, adding, "Ark looked like he was getting bored."

Quiet, soft-spoken Ark Thompson, also member of STRATCOM, frowned from his perch atop the jeep's hood. "I'm fine, Bruce. You just need to learn some patience."

Billy laughed at that, startling them all. "Good luck with that," he said in his driest voice, stuffing his hands in his jean pockets as he ambled forward. He was the newest member of their tight-knit group of friends, though Leon had knew him for a long time, the others weren't quite sure what to make of him.

Bruce snorted. "Stow it, Coen. Like you're one to talk."

Billy grinned, but like all of his smiles, it never reached his dark blue eyes. "I never claimed to be a patient man, McGivern."

He'd had some trouble with the law in the past, both military and civilian, and it had taken Leon more than seven years to get the false charges against him dropped. Billy had come out of the ordeal a changed man. He rarely laughed, and he never truly smiled. He was cautious to the point of paranoia, but Leon really couldn't say anything there. He himself didn't go anywhere unarmed, but he only carried two handguns and his survival knife when not on a mission. Billy had a duffel bag stuffed full of guns and ammunition, and he never let it out of his sight. He even took it to the bathroom, which was something that Bruce teased him about unmercifully.

Eight years on the run, and three years imprisoned in a military mental institution before that, had taken its toll. Billy still had flashbacks from the operation in Africa, during which his team commander had ordered the slaughter of twenty-two innocent villagers. He'd managed to kill the team leader before he was brought down, but none of the villagers had survived. He'd been court-martialed and incarcerated in the cover-up, a death sentence hanging over his head, when he'd been offered a deal by Umbrella Inc. Umbrella had been using disenfranchised military men for their Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service squad for years. After all, who better to recruit for such a dangerous job than men who's only other alternative was death?

"Billy Coen, badass." Bruce was laughing as he added, "Leon S. Kennedy, a.k.a. Capt. Cub Scout."

"Screw you, McGivern," Leon snapped, smiling to take the sting out of it.

"No, thanks, Leon." The other man grinned hugely. "You're pretty, but nowhere near my type."

"How is Fong Ling, by the way?" Ark asked mildly.

It was Bruce's turn to frown at the other man's low-key teasing. "She's fine," he said shortly, still touchy about his on/off relationship with the beautiful Chinese spy. "At least, I'm getting some."

Ark smiled at that. "I've got two teenagers at home, man. I don't have time to. . .date."

"Or get laid, either."

"Sex is overrated," Billy said in a low rumble, his habitual scowl firmly in place as he headed for the jeep.

Bruce stared after him and shrugged. "Well, Ark, I guess you're not the only one doing without."

Ark winced as the slamming of a door sent him jumping off the hood. "Give it a rest, Bruce. We don't know Billy well enough to tease him like that."

"Yet," Bruce said with a grin.

"Let's just hope he doesn't take your teasing too personally," Tom inserted quietly. "If he does, you're on your own, Bruce. I'm sure as hell not getting between you and him."

"I could take him," Bruce said confidently. "He might be tough, but he's no Morpheus."

Ark snorted at that. "Morpheus was a anime-reject," he said scornfully. "I don't know how you took him seriously long enough to kill him."

"At least, my sidekick was a gorgeous, kick-ass female spy," he jibed, "not two young children with no firearms experience whatsoever."

Ark flipped him off. "Yep, and they did a damn fine job, too. At least, I didn't need a woman to save my ass."

"Uh-oh." Tom was smiling as he backed away from them. "This is going to get ugly. I think I'll wait in the car until it's over."

Leon shook his tawny head as he fought not to laugh. Bruce wasn't the only one who'd had his ass saved numerous times by a woman. "Come on, guys. Let's just get out of here."

Bruce chuckled at the very worried expression on his friend's face. "Don't worry, Leon. I'll take it out of his ass after we get home."

"A sparring session?" Ark's normally somber blue eyes lit up at that. He loved testing himself against Bruce, who continually managed beat him in hand-to-hand exercises. "You're on, McGivern."

"You want in on this?" Bruce asked as he climbed into the jeep.

"I don't think so," Leon returned as he opened the door. "I wouldn't want to damage anything Fong Li might need later. I'll watch, if that's okay with you."

"Just wait," the other man returned. "Someday, I'll be able to take you, Kennedy."

A sound came from the back that sounded suspiciously like a smothered laugh. Everyone turned towards the sound, and Billy shrugged. "Yeah," he drawled, "that'll happen."

"What about you?" Bruce laid his arms over the back of the seat, pinning Billy beneath a surprisingly piercing glance. "Do you want to join us? You can watch me beat Thompson's ass."

Billy's dark brows shot up at that. "I've got the training, but I'm no martial artist," he reminded him. "I fight a little differently than all of you."

"Hey, street fighters welcome," Bruce said magnanimously. "Maybe, we can both pick up a few tricks."

"Alright," Billy said at length, knowing that he had to make the effort, if for no other reason than these men were Kennedy's closest friends. "Let me know where and when, and I'll be there."

"Count me in," Tom said suddenly. "I do not want to miss this."

Leon was smiling as he turned for one last look at the ruins of Raccoon City. Suddenly, he knew that he and his friends weren't the only people in the Arkham Mountains. His too-blue eyes narrowed as he scanned the forest to the east, where he was certain his watcher was ensconced.

"Is that you, Ada?" he murmured in a low voice.

He caught a glimpse of red satin trailing through the trees and laughed softly to himself. As he climbed into the car and started the engine, he told himself that he shouldn't be surprised. Ever since she had resurfaced two years ago during the Las Plagas incident, she had been popping in and out of his life. She'd broken into his home a number of times, leaving files and notes on whatever case he happened to be working on. Her way of apologizing for stealing the Las Plagas sample from him, maybe.

Leon wasn't sure, but it didn't really matter. He had a feeling that she'd been looking out for him a lot longer than he'd have ever believed possible. During their few conversations, she'd hinted that she'd been watching over him since his escape from Raccoon, but she always demurred when he pressed her for more. Ada Wong was a woman of mystery, and that would probably never change.

"Was she out there?" Bruce asked suddenly, causing Leon to flush uncomfortably.

"I think so," he answered as casually as he could.

"She was," Billy stated flatly. "She was in a tree about two hundred yards away from us."

Leon started at that. "You knew she was there?" he asked with surprise. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Billy raised one dark brow. "When is she not there, Leon?"

He could feel himself blushing as he concentrated on the pitted concrete before him. He wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, so he kept his mouth shut. More and more often lately, he'd felt the weight of an unseen gaze on him. It had made him feel uncomfortable in the beginning, but lately it had made him feel almost. . .safe.

Which was weird all on its own, because he didn't feel safe anywhere. Not at the White House, when he was protecting Ashley Graham, the President's daughter. Not at home, even though it had enough security measures to qualify as a modern fortress. He didn't even feel safe at STRATCOM headquarters, which was crawling with highly trained federal agents. Only when he felt Ada's eyes on him did he feel the least bit secure.

Yeah, he had a few problems, he thought with a sigh.

"So. . ." Tom said slowly, "when are we going to meet your 'woman in red'?"

Leon shrugged. "Probably never, Tom. We don't exactly have a normal relationship, you know."

"Isn't that the truth," Ark mumbled. "You and Bruce have the worst track record with women that I've ever seen."

Bruce rolled his cerulean eyes and flipped him off. "Yeah, and this is coming from Mr. Die-Hard-Bachelor."

"Hey, I've nothing against women," Ark protested. "I just have two kids to think about. They've been traumatized enough, as it is. I'm not bringing some strange woman who couldn't possibly understand them into their home."

"What about on the side?" Bruce suggested, utterly serious now. "The kids would never have to know about her, and you'd be a hellava lot happier than you are now."

Ark ran a hand through his rich brown hair. "Dammitt, Bruce, I'm not unhappy," he said with exasperation.

"No," Bruce shot back, "you're just really, really tense."

"Don't listen to him, Ark. You're not missing a damned thing." Billy's midnight eyes were narrowed on the passing countryside as he spoke. "You can't trust most women, anyway."

Leon winced at his words, wishing the other man weren't quite so bitter. "Well," he said in an attempt to steer the conversation away from Billy's cynical words, "if I ever manage to pin Ada down for longer than five minutes, I'll make sure she knows that you want to meet her, Tom. How's that?"

Tom smiled faintly. "That'll work, Lee."

Leon slanted a glance to his right to find Bruce eyeing Billy speculatively. "Bruce," he said warningly, "change the subject."

"Yeah, sure, Leon." The other man turned back around and settled into his seat. "Fong does say, 'Hi', by the way. She's going to be in town next week. She says she's got some intel you might want to take a look at."

"Wesker?" he asked sharply.

"Maybe," Bruce shrugged. "She didn't go into detail. She just said it might have something to do with your, ah, daughter."

Sherry. Leon's hands tightened on the wheel as he drove, the only outward sign of his sudden distress. "Bring her by, then," he said in his calmest voice. "You know she's always welcome."

"Cool." Bruce grinned at an obviously private joke. "I'll bring her over after we've had a chance to. . .catch up."

Leon managed a tight smile but didn't respond. Images flashed through his mind, but not of Raccoon City. He saw Sherry Birking as she'd looked the last time he saw her, being hurried into a government vehicle, her blue eyes looking to him for reassurance. He'd nodded and sent her a smile, covering his own nervousness at being forced into the government's employ. Sherry's car had followed his own as they'd been 'escorted' to a private airstrip. Less than two miles away, his car had been forced off the road, and he'd been forced to watch as men in gas masks had stuffed her into a helicopter and taken her away.

To this day, he still didn't know what had happened to her. The government investigation had uncovered rumors of Albert Wesker's involvement, but nothing had ever been proven. Ada had even looked into it, but hadn't been able to find anything definitive. A part of Leon was leery of trusting her, as she'd been working with Wesker in Spain, but Ada had promised him that she would never do anything to jeopardize his child.

God, Leon thought heavily, I wish I knew that I could believe her! In his mind, that was the biggest obstacle between the two of them. It didn't matter that she had died in Raccoon City and somehow come back, or that she had hidden her resurrection for six years. He didn't even care that, while she had gone out of her way to help him in Spain, she had still double-crossed him in the end.

No, what mattered the most was that he didn't know if he believed her about his daughter. Ada Wong was more than capable of looking in the eye while she lied through her pretty white teeth. And while she'd saved his ass numerous times, she had still worked with Wesker two years ago. That alone made her untrustworthy in his eyes.

"Damn it," he muttered under his breath. He was not going to do this to himself, again. He had never stopped looking for Sherry, and he never would, but he knew better than to torture himself like this. He'd drive himself crazy if he didn't keep his mind focused on what he could do.

Which was find a way to draw Ada to him, and keep her with him long enough to have a real conversation with her. He needed answers, and she had them. It was that simple.

Leon forced himself to pay attention to his friends as they continued to bicker and argue and laugh. This was why he invited them to this depressing place every year. They let him do his mourning, and then made it damned hard to dwell on it. His friends were all very different people, yet they managed to get along, and work as a team. It was this kind of loyalty that was essential to STRATCOM's anti-Umbrella unit, and so important to the man they'd chosen to serve under.

Bruce came off as a reckless, sometimes even irresponsible, person. He had a great sense of humor, but he was also a very honorable man. He took his job very seriously and was willing to die for his ideals. He was impulsive, but you didn't reach his rank if you weren't a responsible agent. Bruce was Leon's best friend, as well as his second-in-command, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

Ark Thompson was a genuinely good person. He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it, and offer it even if you didn't. He reminded Leon of himself in his younger days, before the horror of Raccoon City and the loss of Sherry Birkin had marked him. Leon had sent the young, competent agent to Sheena Island undercover, to investigate the rumors of an Umbrella facility there. Ark had gone in under an assumed name, and confirmed their suspicions. He'd escaped the T-virus outbreak with Lily and Lott, two children who had been lucky enough to survive Umbrella's Tyrant experiments. Ark had adopted them, and spent the last eight years tearing his hair out over them.

He'd met Tom Hansen in 2002, shortly after Jack Krauser had been reported dead in a helicopter crash. His handlers hadn't yet given up on partnering him with another agent, and Tom had been their answer. He'd been with the CIA once, his past so classified that even now, Leon couldn't access it. He'd ended up an anonymous sailor on the USS Ravennscroft, a Coast Guard vessel, where he'd been more than happy to blend into the background. The scandal that had surrounded his discharge from the CIA had been big news in the world of counter-intelligence, and he'd hated all the attention he'd received because of it. Like Billy, he'd been held accountable for a situation he couldn't have controlled, and people had died as a result. Tom was nearly as deadly as Leon was himself, though he did his best to hide it, and he was absolutely essential to the team. He was also a damn good friend.

Billy Coen was different. He was a survivor, not only of Raccoon City, but of the original incident in the Umbrella training facility. His MP escort had been attacked by the mutated Cerberus' in the Arkham Mountains, and he had managed to escape. He'd made his way onto an abandoned train, where he'd met Rebecca Chambers of S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team, and together they'd survived the initial outbreak. They'd gone their separate ways after their escape; Rebecca had gone on to join S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team in the Spencer Mansion, and Billy had continued to run from the law.

Leon had met him in January of '98, just after Claire had left him to search for her brother in Europe. Leon had been lost and angry because the woman he'd fallen so hard for had left he and their adopted daughter so abruptly. Sherry, who had been so shy that she wouldn't even look a stranger in the eye, had seen Billy in the park and walked right over to him. Stunned, Leon had followed, introduced himself, and they had traded tales. They'd been friends ever since.

Then, the government had come looking for Leon. They had used Sherry to blackmail him into their service, and Billy had simply disappeared. It had taken nearly seven years for Leon to find evidence of a military cover-up, and another six months before he'd been cleared. Leon had flown immediately to Seattle, where Billy had been hiding under an assumed name, and brought him back to D.C. a free man.

Billy had been in therapy ever since, but it was a slow process. He had no family to speak of, and no friends. He didn't trust anyone, except maybe Leon, and he was actively hostile to almost everyone he met. He'd been making an effort to be friendly to the other members of STRATCOM, but you could tell that his heart just wasn't it. He'd left it in the Arkham Mountains with Rebecca Chambers eight years ago.

Leon was the only one who knew just why the other man avoided women so thoroughly, and it was no one's business but Billy's. He wished his taciturn friend would let go of Rebecca and move on, but Leon didn't think it would ever happen. Whether it was what they had gone through together, or what Billy had gone through on his own, Leon didn't know. Rebecca was a part of him he didn't believe he'd ever escape.

God, what a mess, Leon thought as he negotiated the rough asphalt road. He'd insisted that Billy move in with him, and the other man made a great roommate, but he often wondered if he'd made the right decision. He worried that Billy might never learn to trust people outside of STRATCOM, and that was something he desperately needed to do. Otherwise, he was still a fugitive, just of a different sort.

As for women, Leon wasn't in a position to criticize anyone. His strange, not-quite relationship with Ada was something he'd never known how to classify. He'd met her in the bowels of the R.P.D., where she'd claimed to be looking for her boyfriend, who was an Umbrella researcher.

In reality, she'd been an undercover agent of Umbrella's main competitor, who's identity was still uncertain. She had been sent in by none other than Albert Wesker to steal a sample of the G-virus. Instead, she had died after refusing to shoot him for the sample.

Of course, there had been that mysterious silhouette with the husky voice that had thrown him a rocket launcher when he'd been fighting a mutated William Birkin. He'd called her name and gotten no response. Afterwards, he'd convinced himself that it had been someone else. He had held her in his arms as she'd died, after all. But a part of him had always wondered.

Leon had mourned her death as deeply as possible while falling in love with Claire Redfield, younger sister of S.T.A.R.S. member Chris Redfield. Three months after their harrowing ordeal in Raccoon, she had gotten word of Chris' whereabouts and left for Europe. Hurt by what he saw as her betrayal of he and Sherry, Leon had told her to go and not come back.

And she hadn't, Leon thought with a self-deprecating smile. She'd met a boy on Rockfort Island, a kid by the name of Steve Burnside, and she'd fallen hard for him. His death had devastated her, and Leon had forced himself to ignore his feelings and settle for being her friend. Even after the government had moved him to Washington D.C., he'd kept in touch with her and the other S.T.A.R.S. members, who had worked so hard to bring Umbrella down.

Then, Ada had come back into his life in the most dramatic of ways, and his memories of Claire had been eclipsed by the rush of emotion he'd always felt for the older woman. Caring for Ada Wong wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done--not by a long shot--but he wouldn't change it even if he could. His response to her had showed him that he wasn't dead inside, as he had feared. He was alive in all the ways that mattered, and for that alone, he would always be grateful to Ada Wong.

He still remembered the rumors he'd heard of a woman in red during the course of STRATCOM's many investigations into possible Umbrella-related cases. But Ada had hidden herself too well, and he hadn't let himself hope that she might still be alive. It wasn't until she'd shown up in the Salazar castle in Spain, during the Los Illuminados incident, that he'd finally let himself believe it. He'd discovered that she was working with Albert Wesker, though he would never understand why, especially since the former Umbrella researcher was trying to resurrect the dead pharmaceutical giant.

Ada had never answered any of his questions about Wesker, or the organization that they both worked for. She'd only said that the Las Plagas sample she'd stolen from him at gunpoint hadn't gone to Wesker. He still didn't know if he believed her, but the research he'd done seemed to support her claims. He only hoped his intel was correct, or he'd be guilty of more than simply trusting the wrong woman.