The Jenova Virus

Prologue

In a dingy apartment, a small group of fugitives huddled with the lights out. The place was threadbare. Besides a mangy mattress lying on a grimy floor there was a floral couch with cushions flat as pancakes. From the single window the flickering of dying lights managed to penetrate the several layers of dirt and grease that age baked onto the glass.

"Anyone have a clue where we are?" Jill Valentine muttered under her breath. "Besides being in a effing heap of trouble?"

Rebecca Chambers, a young biologist, shrugged. "The last thing I saw was a stream of green energy, and then bam!" She slapped her hands together. The sound reverberated off the walls, and she cringed. "Here we are," she said voice dropping several notches.

Leon S. Kennedy, the only male present, sighed. He was stationed near the window, situated at an angle that allowed him to see outside without being seen. "The police aren't like anything I've seen before. They're carrying the weirdest assortment of weapons . . ."

"Yeah," Jill said. "Swords, staffs, and guns. Can anyone say 'World of Warcroft?'"

"Ha ha," Leon muttered. His brow furrowed. "They're looking for us. I think we need sometime more concrete than a video game explanation."

Rebecca shivered. "All the same, does anyone know anything about Warcroft or whatever?"

Leon didn't answer. He closed his blue eyes, taking a deep breath. Outside, with the strange "police" was one of the Umbrella scientists that had caused gotten them into this mess in the first place.

The man was gibbering in a nasally stream of jabber, hands flapping in the perfect angry-scientist impersonation of a penguin. In spite of the distance between them, Leon could have swore the ponytailed man shouted Claire's name in particular.

Knowing that an Umbrella scientist was looking for Claire did weird things to Leon. He knew how the young woman felt about him – it was kind of hard not to. But for his part, he just couldn't decide how he felt about her. At first he'd thought he just needed more time to be sure of his feelings, but the longer he had to stew about it, the less certain he was. And what about Ada?

He glanced at Claire, who was lying on the floor, her eyes closed. She was breathing shallowly, chest rising and falling with obvious pain. Rebecca had assured him that she would wake up and be fine, but he still worried.

His gaze traveled back outside to the angry scientist. They were fairly incompetent, and had completely missed the fact that their quarry was within sight. Instead of making a careful search grid, they were giving up now. The scientist was hopping mad, but slowly they dragged him off as well.

Very slowly. The whole bad-guy-leaving process took well over two hours.

Hours later a quiet moan caught everyone's attention. Moving away from the window, Leon knelt down beside a redhaired girl wearing cut-off shorts and a tank top. "Claire?"

The girl in question moaned again, blinking her eyes open. "L-leon?"

"Yeah, it's me." He brushed her hair away from her face. "How are you feeling?"

"Like a tyrant sat on me." She reached one hand down, feeling her ribs. Pain was pulsing in a dull throb from where she'd hit the wall. Well, actually she'd been thrown into the wall by a Bandersnatch, but that was beside the point. "I thought I was dead."

She saw a flash of dark blue as Jill moved to the window. "You would have been if Becca hadn't patched you up." Without looking, the brunette added, "And if Kennedy and I hadn't shot to kill."

Claire nodded. "Thanks, Jill. I owe you one." She looked up into Leon's eyes, wanting to express gratitude to him, but his expression was distant. "Ada?" she asked. She tried to keep the hint of bitterness out of her voice, but wasn't sure how successful she was.

Ada Wong and Leon had a relationship. It wasn't love or hate or anything in between. It just was. Leon couldn't help being attracted to the mercenary, and for her part, Ada couldn't help but get mushy around Leon. On more than one occasion, they had abandoned their principals in order to be with the other. Even now, just thinking about her, Leon appeared to have forgotten about Claire completely.

Not one to appreciate getting ignored by a man she had a crush on, Claire struggled to a sitting position in spite of the pain. "So . . . are we surrounded?"

Rebecca shrugged. "More or less." Even though Rebecca was a year younger than Claire, she seemed to be pretty good at reading moods. "Leon had to abandon Ada to rescue you."

Claire rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Great."

"Just because you don't like her doesn't mean she's a bad person," Jill said from the window. "And before you start, I don't want to hear you and Kennedy argue over her merits." She turned merciless brown eyes onto Claire. "Ada Wong has great legs, perky breasts, an exotic face, superior fighting skills, and a hint of a conscience. The first are things that all men value. The last is something that Kennedy can't resist. He's the type of guy that wants to change the bad girl into a good one."

"Hey," Leon objected. He stood up, walking over to Jill with a mock scowl on his face. "Don't make me out to be so superficial." He grinned, the smile melting Claire's insides. He was so damn sexy and casual. She squeezed her eyes shut, listening to him banter with Jill about exactly what Ada meant to him.

Rebecca joined in after a few moments. "So . . . ah, considering that I have chicken legs and a flat chest, what do I have going for me?"

Claire didn't wait to hear what Leon's response was. She was feeling depressed and sore, and felt like a little fresh air would clear her mood out. Then she'd be able to join in with the teasing, letting all the little wounds of love scab over.

So without a word to the others, she slipped out.