Chapter 2: Mad Science
"What breaks in a moment may take years to mend."
Swedish Proverb quote
He was just average in his opinion.
An ex-rookie cop and 'new school' federal agent…well maybe not exactly.
After Spain, and rescuing Ashley, he formally discharged from the service. He signed all the necessary papers, accepted all the wishes from his companions in the White House gracefully and attended the 'going away' party his comrades threw for him. The amount of older people, higher up in ranks, which showed him appreciation was flattering. His age was half of theirs and some change, it didn't make any sense.
He was many things they did and did not know. But to sum it all up in one word, he was a hero.
Leon couldn't take the closeness, especially not so fast. It was his first mission, and the only reason he was chosen was because of the critique on his prior experience in Raccoon City as a new cop. Obviously, he had a specialty in annihilating the type of creature Ashley Graham was in tango with. He discharged quickly after completing his first task. He had a trust issue and the odds of him seeing his life play out were slim. Who didn't want to live a long life? Especially after the horror of that day with Claire Redfield, Leon wasn't too keen of having to deal with that sort of thing again.
It wasn't fear, it was distrust and low tolerance.
He was a bit cocky, and his attitude was unlike one that society came in contact with. People say the only thing positive about him was that he was badass at doing intense, solo missions. One man shows. That wasn't all the way negative, however, people just didn't know Leon. He locked the real him inside, after Raccoon City. A noble, protagonist ate him alive and he became this image of perfection. Friends became enemies, his personal life disintegrated into nothing, he was young and didn't really get to have fun. Being the obnoxious, stubborn man he grew into, that was not acceptable.
He lost his ability to trust in Raccoon City, and almost lost his life.
Leon could never keep a stable partner. It began with Ada, and Claire. Continued on after rescuing Ashley to Helena Harper and now after her recent betrayal, he was alone again. It all rounded back to Ada.
Ada Wong was all he could ever want in a woman at the moment he met her. His view would change as he continue to mature, but at the moment, she was air. Given the circumstances of blood sucking zombies surrounding them, creatures of every mutation hunting them down, it wasn't the time to fall in love. Love seemed non-existent in the world they were trapped in for that moment.
There was no getting out, there was only moving forward. Or die.
He remember the younger, and determined Claire Redfield saying that to him behind gritted teeth and glaring at him. It was passionate, and out of the blue. Leon remembered cocking his head to the side at her, his brunette tresses falling into his eyes slightly. When he asked for an explanation, she shook her head furiously and she motioned for him to make a move after seriously making a decision. He muttered 'bi-polar' and sauntered past him, and she stuck her tongue out. They didn't speak on it again after that night, but Leon Kennedy will never get the sound of her agitated, militant heels hitting the concrete, out of his head. He thought about it when he needed an honest laugh, or when he wanted to get turned on by a stripper that just wasn't 'doing it' for him.
But Ada, she ruined him. She was completely, utterly, seriously a liar. The list of things she did that was not even acceptable for a whimsical, naïve young man to get hit with, was a million pages long.
This was his opinion after his night with Claire fighting to survive, he thought about his life one night and laid everything on the table.
Ada lied.
He fell in love with her.
Ada deceived and played with his heart. She tried to kill him…on multiple occasions. She swindled him. Think about it, she wasn't who she said she was from the beginning, that was obvious when Leon found out she was alive after Raccoon City. She died in his arms, physically! She was a wonderful actress, and he learned later that it was her job, along with slaving for evil. The two went hand in hand.
Ada Wong was doing her job in Raccoon City, when she fed him that bullshit story about what she was doing in a run-down crime scene with scary, blood shedding monsters crawling around.
He fell in love with her, and did what he could to avenge her. But upon finding the bitch in the red dress, alive and well, shooting at him with a newly polished 4.5, he was heartbroken. It was a year and a half the next time he saw her. She popped up while he was training overnight in an academy gym. There was no way to get in the entire facility without a scan proof I.D. The only way to get one of those was by taking one from an officer. Leon was positive she had murdered someone to even gain access to the front door. There encounter was short, but plentiful. They had sex, as Ada clarified with him, he regarded the session as making love. She immediately dressed herself afterward, she didn't let him hold her, or fall asleep like time didn't matter. Her garments were on her like they never had a wrinkle, there was no blush or exhaustion in her face. No daze, or glow.
He wasted preserving himself because he was positive he that Ada was the only one for him. All that time, spent grieving over her. After that night, he realized he was in love with a stranger that wanted nothing of him. From this fact, he turned into a monster underneath his handsome face. Daytimes called for a hero and night time called for whatever he felt like doing, typically something that pleased him. Which was one of two things, the two worst possible things: women and killing.
Nights occupying his dirtiest secret and sin, he couldn't get enough of. After his reputation grew unbelievably strong for his episode with Los Illuminados, he was approached by an underground agency for skilled assassins. The offer was captivating, the thrill was like a drug to him. He moved in the shadows and racked up bodies. It wasn't an addiction, it was a calling to him. The feeling of being in control of someone's life was better than living with the fact that he didn't have control of a simple fling.
That was his little secret. Being in love made you do crazy things, being heartbroken made you do insane things.
No one was perfect.
He smelled like cigarettes and very masculine soap. Just the way he liked it after a job. His most recent victim was a 64 year old C.E.O. involved in drug trafficking. The hit on his head was six million heavy, the note was to kill him nice and slow. It had Leon smirking in the shower and fueled him to set up a dinner date for next Tuesday for a gorgeous flight attendant he met on the way to Japan. She was calling him for weeks and he was finally in a good enough mood to pursue her. He was a man now, and took pleasure in courting a woman for his own motives. The woman had great tits, for the lack of better words, and he was interested in experiencing what she could do with them.
He parked his silver Acura in a vacant lot at the warehouse and got out, lighting up a cigarette and leaning against his ride. His body was sore, but still gorgeous, in a simple V-neck and stonewashed jeans with some black boots. The leather of his holster was strapped prominently. His phone beeped and he pulled it out immediately and flipped open his Blackberry.
Revelle: Two seconds away.
He replied.
Kennedy: Gotcha.
Chris and Jill signed on to the operation to bring down the remaining Umbrella plants. Chris' other partner, Sheva Alomar was also in communication, back in South Africa. Claire was still on her own mission, from which she promised she would be back from within the year. They were to hit Rebecca's place of residence in Washington in approximately 6 hours. Everything was going according to plan.
There was one other comrade that was essential if they were going to succeed. Chris became good friends with a young man while he was in the Navy that he met in London. His name was Victor Revelle. He and Chris wound up on the same side of a bar brawl one night and the rest was history. They ended up in the same vicinity during a minor outbreak when Victor lost his life, and one of his few, last request was to watch over his younger sister, Olivia. She was a young army brat at the time and later became a General after graduating from medical school at the age of 16. Her activity in the Special Forces was a little bit more beloved than her occupation as a neurosurgeon however and she rapidly grew to be reserved as one of the 10 best snipers in the world enlisted. Due to Chris' bond with her brother before he passed away, he remained in good spirits with Olivia. She ended up founding the subsector BSAA base in London a while ago and had a disc of information that was confiscated from a TRICELL lab while she was on a rescue team.
Leon always protested against having a partner ever since the 'failure' that was Helena Harper but Dr. Revelle was a different matter. Her skill in disabling decoding bio-terrorism scripts and secret data was unmatched; Chris thought it was necessary do dig her out because there were many documents still not deciphered by him that could assist them in tracking Umbrella's upcoming moves.
Leon agreed to Chris' condition, but made it clear that he worked alone.
Olivia Revelle. Her name rang bells in his ears. Many of the reports concerning the location of many of the missing women within the last 6 months were discovered by her. There was a new finding every week, detailing the translation of TRICELL systems she hacked into, requests to retrieve the victims, signed by her name. Then reports would come back verifying the victim in custody and rehabilitation. So Leon knew of her, but he didn't know who she was.
From looking over the black market Leon had access to as a skilled assassin for hire, he saw her name many times. She was consistently included in the top ten most expensive kills, and when Chris alerted him to the fact that the reason she was so important was owed to her knowledge and threat towards Bioterrorists, Leon took a special interest in who this woman was.
Just then, a black range rover whipped into the parking lot, its high beams blinding Leon slightly. The engine simmered down and withered. And when he heard the confident rhythm of heels, he thanked the heavens. He loved that about a woman.
His jaw dropped when he laid eyes on her and he immediately reprimanded himself. He pulled on his Newport hard and watched her approach him through the smoke.
The first thing he noticed was the contrast of her thick jet black hair that fell to her waist and against her glowing dark olive skin. Her big brown eyes came next, they were honey colored and her eyelashes were rimmed in charcoal. She was shorter than him, but her confidence and five inch heels made up for a lot. Her lips were a matted tinted wine color and he thought he saw glimpse of freckles on her face. She had a full sleeve on her right arm, which was not common for a soldier, let alone a tiny woman like her. She wore a simple but tight royal blue tank which accentuated her breasts, and fitted skinny jeans. She had a two belts with pouches draped over her gracious, full hips and her holster hooked under her chest and held two chrome pistols proudly. It was evident she was mixed with something, her look was more exotic if anything.
Leon mentally chastised himself as dark thoughts penetrated his mind. Who was she?
"Mr. Kennedy." She greeted with her hand out. Her nails were painted a cautious pink, and she wore fingerless gloves. There was a hint of the dialect embedded in the way she said his name that left him breathless. His eyes softened and relished in the calm, serene feeling she had attached to her. She seemed to be more of a helper than a hurter. The vibe she carried was very honest and sincere.
"Please, Leon." he recovered, taking her hand in his. She grinned, he couldn't help but crack a smile.
"My name is Olivia Revelle, it's nice to meet you. Your reputation exceeds you."
He shook his head and grabbed the duffel bag out of his back seat along with the car cover that she helped him conceal his ride with "It's all a rumor, I swear."
They hopped into her range rover and she had them on the highway in an instant. Inconspicuous was the key with their upcoming operations, and Olivia told Chris she didn't mind the drive.
"I've been holding a lot of files a secret because not even cyberspace can be trusted, no matter how secured my contact are, Umbrella's hackers have been inching towards ruining my whole database," Olivia explained as she pushed 95mph and counting, Leon buckled his seatbelt. He never let a woman drive, and it would be a while before he could trust that she preserve his precious life regardless of what Chris Redfield claimed about her "So we thought it would be best if I deliver the goods myself."
"I understand, so you're like a computer geek?" he mused. Leon imagined as a neurosurgeon she would be extremely intelligent but that would also mean she had to know of the enormous bounty on her head. For her to appear so calm and confident was beyond him, her spirit warmed him as if she was so focused she had no care in the world.
Chris described her as 'whimsical' and Leon understood why.
"A computer geek I am not. I guess I've just had a lot of time to learn whatever I could to help use my skills in the most productive way. I have people that want my head because of my findings. And with that comes the need to be that much smarter." she replied simply, as if she read his mind. It grew quiet until an old rock instrumental sounded on her phone and she decreased her speed, clicking her overhead compartment to grab her own cell phone. A peek at the name and she denied it. Leon glanced at her with a mesmerized expression.
Was that Guns n' Roses?
That one little detail was way sexier than Claire on a motorcycle, or Ada's redundant red dress…it was different. He was most taken aback more than anything. He wasn't sure to allow himself to be turned on or completely ignore her. So he zoned out.
And as always, his father's most recent advice sounded in his mind.
Every person is different, and no one deserved the sins of a stranger on their head. Each person is a new experience.
He rolled his eyes, his father was where he got his idiotic thoughts from.
"Leon?" she called, snapping him out of his daze. He had logged into his account that listed the new jobs available and up for grabs. With permission, a member of the agency could choose which job they wanted and go get the head, money directly deposited in one's account once they delivered whatever form of evidence was requested. He ran a search on the young woman next to him.
Revelle was indeed number three out of twenty five on the most wanted list…there was one reason listed: B.S.A.A.
Before answering, he texted Chris.
Kennedy: Thank you for telling me how beautiful woman she was. How fucked up are you?
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I zoned out."
She shrugged "3.6 billion dollars is a bit overdramatic, right? I agree."
He froze. How did she know?
Olivia continued driving, wordlessly.
How did she know…?
20 minutes later, Leon broke the silence "Who are you?"
The soldier sighed and pulled over in the dark isolated shadow of the dirt path. She turned to him and folded her hands and placed them in her lap politely.
"I am an American citizen that was raised in the United Kingdom's Army headquarters since the age of 6. I am a solider and general in the armed forces. I am a skilled sniper but a lethal hacker. I went to medical school and I am a licensed neurosurgeon. I know all about you too, Leon Scott Kennedy. American hero. You didn't think that I was going to work with someone I wasn't familiar with? I ran a background check with my computer, and everything popped up."
"That wasn't very nice." He muttered. The tricky thing about Leon was that he was safe either way. The cops loved him, and no matter what she ranked if she was undercover, she could never push him in front of a bus that wouldn't stop in its tracks for him. So he remained cocky and the lids that held his icy blue eyes lowered. He relaxed against the cold, leather seat. The one thing that bugged him was a woman who went searching for dirt, to find a fault in him. But she got a pass, he felt that as a dual citizen, she would be a national treasure by whoever scooped her up first.
Her eyes narrowed at him; Leon stunk in her nostrils with conceit. Something she didn't like. It was one thing to be secretive, but it was another to be full of shit.
"I check everyone, it helps me trust," she replied "I had to make sure you weren't signed on to collect my life regardless of the comradery you share with Chris Redfield….I won't say anything, I promise. You aren't of any present harm to me, and Chris gave me his word you would be a reinforcement if anything. This disc needs to be delivered, so it isn't about any of us. It's about ruining plans before they are carried out. But, if you still feel like you don't want to continue, we don't have to do this. I don't like working with a partner any more than you do."
There was fatigue in her voice, and when he peered into her orbs, he saw how overworked she was. Her sleep deprivation was embedded around her eyes when he stared at her long enough. It make him believe her. Digging for dirt was the way she was forced to life due to the life she chose, just as the rest of them. In some way, they all had demons chasing them in the midst of trying to achieve peace. Personal demons that restricted them from normalcy. And a part of him felt bad for her. With such a large bounty on her head, he could imagine now how lonely she must be, being forced to live in hiding due to her hunger for justice. When was the last time she had been around someone who didn't want to kill her?
"I need you to show me." He told her gently, and then corrected his statement now laced with compassion "Can you…please show me, Doctor?"
"It would be my pleasure." She replied. They drove as far as they could before nightfall and checked into an upscale hotel about eight hours later. She chose one that was low key and on the outskirts of the sector, overlooking the wall that separated the uninhabitable parts of town from the sanctum. Their ride together was quiet, minimal talking, but there was an unexplainable peace that accompanied Olivia he could not explain. He frequently stole glances at her and noticed the serenity on her face, her eyes focused on something in the distance, perhaps in the back of her own mind. Leon wanted to inquiry about her thoughts after a while, he was itching to know.
He demanded their most expensive room, she demanded the top floor and explained to him that it was to not alarm their neighbors with her experiment. They traveled to the adjoined suites and settled in. Olivia told him to meet her at the rooftop in an hour and he abided by her request.
Leon took a shower and changed into a fresh v neck and navy sweatpants and black sneakers before strapping his gun holster on and combing his damp hair. He looked at himself in the mirror for about ten minutes, trying to decide if he would shave or not. Ten minutes later he gave up and made his way up to the rooftop access staircase. When he reached the top, he found the woman standing by the edge, her back to him. Her hair was down, as opposed to when her first met her earlier, and it swayed beautifully in the wind, past her hips. She did not have heels on anymore and it made him raise an eyebrow at how significantly short she really was, especially in comparison to him.
"Olivia." He called, it was the first thing that escaped his lips, before he could even think of the proper thing to speak. It was almost like she was spooling him in her web by just the peacefulness of her spirit and that destined look in her eyes.
She turned and he saw that she was wearing an all-black jumpsuit that hugged all her right curves in all the right way, making Leon groan involuntarily. A large rifle, which he identified as the almighty AMR Rifle, was cradled in her arms like a baby. It had chrome details and a Hello Kitty decal on the butt. Olivia smiled gently and held out some binoculars for him, then she held up a rifle bullet with a liquid capsule inside.
"This rifle is very important to me. It was a gift from my brother upon my graduation into the Spec Ops and I have racked over 200 kills for my country with this gun. Normally I do not brag but since we will be spending a lot of time together, I think you should know I never travel or sleep without it, especially since I am good with close range on a long range weapon. What's more important, however, is this bullet." She tossed him the bullet and he caught it, turning it upside down to see the green liquid shift.
"Never seen a bullet like this before." He replied, clenching it in his fists.
"That's because it is a new creation. Now, let me show you what you really want to see."
She turned and set the rifle on the stand that was set on the ground and then got on her stomach in the common sniper position. Leon followed suit as she adjusted her scope, peering through the binoculars at what she was focusing in on, although he couldn't help but look at her instead. Her face was so sure, so calm. It made him feel the same way.
"Follow my scope using you're black light, I've locked in on my targets." She said gently but he noticed that the tone of her voice had changed. It was no longer whimsical but sharp and a bit deeper, there was something incredibly dangerous with her voice as well, and Leon felt a shiver creep up his spine. Following her orders, he looked through his binoculars into the darkness over the sanctums wall to a family of flying J'Avo gnawing at one another.
"Okay, Doctor. Show me a good time." he replied, anxious. If this worked, she was his new best friend because that meant she had the key to him ending the war he was working so hard to finish.
"Roger that."
No less than ten seconds later she fired three resounding shots simultaneously taking down three of them. The creatures slammed into the ground and their wings shuddered weakly, seemingly paralyzed. Some zombies and lickers scattered beneath them from the impact of the fall and she struck them as well and they behaved the same way, no more movement than a twitch. A smirk crossed her face and she then went crazy, emptying her magazine on whatever moved, her last two shots, a double tap, on a huge Ustanak like creature that lurked. Leon's jaw dropped.
Two things struck him like a heart attack: One, the accuracy of her gunshots were so precise and effortless. Each one a determined head shot. Two, the effectiveness of the liquid bullet was immaculate. A full ten minutes had gone by and they still laid unable to resume activity.
"Impossible." He muttered, unable to take his eyes off them. Olivia continued to smirk as she switched to sitting on her butt and laid back, sighing.
"Nope. Just mad science."
He looked away and to her "How long will they stay they frozen for?"
"It does depend on the strength of the mutated gene but generally you got a good 20 minutes. Which for us should mean they are as good as dead. The stronger ones, like that big ugly thing, will need a lot more in strategic spots as they would need to be evenly disbursed throughout the body."
Leon looked at her, as she dazed up at the night's sky with the same look in her eye as earlier. "So this is poison?"
She shook her head "No. Poison would not paralyze like that, especially since these mutations are built to be able to bypass any conditions besides fire that would normally kill any organism. I found a solution that freezes the fruition of their genetics, anything linked to the T, C or B virus."
He smiled at her "I don't really understand what you're talking about but , you're a genius, and you're … a goddess."
Olivia did not answer him but instead shrugged and dismantled her gun set up and walked away. Leon got up quickly and followed her to their hotel room where she carefully laid her gun in its case with all its parts. The Doctor took a document out of her purse and laid it on the coffee table in front of him.
"That document is everything on the serum I created, as well as my ideal procedure on how I would like to one day soon, make the next step of evolving my serum to remove the virus from one's body. If you know anything about science: gene freezing and reversal are well along the same guidelines. I am close but after much research and evidence I did steal, this evolution requires a reverse catalyst. Those samples I believe can be found in prodigies like Sherry Birkin and Jake Muller for example as I've stated in my reports requesting the cooperation of those two again. I don't know where they've gone but they truly have gifts, those two. Their parents let the science drive them mad, but they did give their children the one delicacy that might change the world as we know it now."
Leon touched the document and smiled the most genuine smile he ever gave her, the first of many "I read you're reports but I couldn't put all the pieces together until now. One thing puzzles me, though?"
"Yeah?"
"I thought Sherry Birkin delivered samples of both her and Jake's DNA to the BSAA."
"They never made it into a real representative's hand. If they did, I would probably be farther along than we are now," Olivia responded, folding her arms "I've made numerous requests to headquarters pleading for a team to locate those two and bring them back together but no one listens a crazy scientist like me. They all think I'm nuts but I do think something is wrong. Sherry was usually one of the first people to read and comment on my research theses. "
Leon shook his head and beamed at her "I don't. And I appreciate you showing me your creation. I think you're the best thing I've ever laid my eyes on. I understand why Chris talked up your value. You are…priceless." He was right about the national treasure. This woman became more and more incomparable with every shot she fired for him. Besides her looks, the vicious curves of her body or the tantalizing lavender scent she carried relentlessly, her intelligence is what became the sexiest to him, more so than he could ignore. This type of attraction was a first for Leon, who always discovered himself to be unreliably shallow.
Reading her theses were one thing, and being able to put the name at the bottom to a face was another story, but seeing those theses put into practice with perfect grace was a phenomena he had never experienced. It made him feel devoted to her, it made him feel like he had a partner worth tying himself to, it made him feel like he wasn't alone in the fight.
Olivia blushed, her cheeks growing red, she had forgotten what it felt like to feel that expression. She closed her rifle case and locked it gently, putting a hand to her own cheek, blossoming with color.
"Thank you, Leon." No other words found her way out so she turned and headed towards her bedroom.
"I won't leave your side until we see your serum get to its final stage," he called to her, making her stop "I will do whatever I can to get you whatever you need, including Jake and Sherry. I promise you."
She turned slightly and smiled at him "Good night Leon. I hope you sleep well." And with that she disappeared behind the door.
He frowned, wondering why that reaction occurred. Perhaps she wasn't used to having many loyal supporters. Perhaps she had trust issues that prevented her from believing he could keep his promises. Either way, he would prove it to her. Now that he met the notorious Doctor, there was no way he was letting her out of his sight. She was a secret weapon, and seemed to be humble about her ability. If that wasn't a turn on, he didn't know what was.
Leon quickly learned to like being around someone who required nothing of him. Not his money, his body, his security or his insecurities. It was just…as it was. The only threat against him was that she had found out using her computer geek powers, that he was an assassin. It was a secret life he used to satisfy his desires, and something not even Hunnigan knew about. Perhaps this new thing, was a good thing. And so he heard Claire Redfield's voice in his head, once again.
There was no getting out, there was only moving forward. Or die.
She knew his deepest secret before even meeting him. He had no choice. Chris asking him to accompany her on her mission to try and stop the outbreak was one thing. He would remain the perfect but rue gentlemen and or the sake of beautiful, earnest computer geeks around the world, and Chris' friendship, he would make sure they got to their given destination in one peace. By any means...
Incoming text. Chris Redfield
Chris Redfield:Stop being such a pussy. And stop complaining.
Leon Kennedy:Roger that.
He entered his room, stripped and fell back into his king sized bed, and involuntarily fantasized about his new best friend.
