Part Three: The Legend of Leon Kennedy
A conquest.
A request.
A final fight for what matters most.
Eastern Slav Republic - 2012
They faced each other over the rubble, boy and girl, man and woman, pieces of a game they'd been playing since the moment they'd stood on that bridge all those years ago. Ada smiled sweetly, circling him in the dense fog of a freezing night. The whole of the city was burning around them. There wasn't enough left to scoop up with a spoon in the city ravaged by civil war.
"...what the hell are you doing here, Ada?"
She laughed, swirling with good humor. Goddamn she'd missed his face. He haunted her wet dreams for months after she'd left him with blue balls and black memories of her. She wanted him, as she always did, in a visceral way that was endearingly physical.
She'd come to the ESR to get control of the dominant plaga. It was the only way to buy her way off the damn Most Wanted list. Somehow, someone had burned her and put her face on the wall of every bioterror defense agency out there. She was going to find out who'd sold her down the river, and enjoy killing them. In the mean time, she had to do what she did best here - find out why that bitch Svetlana was dealing in tyrants like trade agreements between China and the United States, and protect Leon Kennedy from his own selfless bravery.
"What else? I'm on holiday. The weather is so nice here this time of year...and you can't beat that view."
The view was broken down and burned out buildings. The war was claiming everything it touched. Lickers and B.O.W.S. ran the streets like the undead had in Raccoon City. There was nothing left worth saving here. They both knew it, but Leon...Leon wouldn't let it die. He'd keep trying to save one damn life after another.
Leon kicked the empty plagas injector case at his feet. "You steal this?"
Ada laughed again, "Please. I look like I'm hiding it?" The skinny little suit she wore was little more than pinstripes and a red blouse. Her long, long, long legs irritated him for some reason.
He snapped, "Goddamn it, Ada, stop fucking with me."
She tilted her head, "...oh, I have...maybe that's why you're so angry. You're still mad at me, huh?...suits you."
Annoyed, he turned away and Ada confessed, "...I like the anger on you, Leon...it's better than all that false humor you wear."
He grunted and made her smile. She listened to the sounds of battle and sighed, "...we ever gonna...carry on from that night?"
He laughed now, unable to stop himself, and smirked, "...any time but now."
"Right." She hesitated, enjoyed the moment anyway, and leaned in enough to brush noses as she cooed, "...this town will be purged soon...a word of advice...stop trying to be a hero and get the hell out of here."
He leaned closer. Their lips brushed and he flashed his teeth as he returned, "...just who I am, sweetheart, but I'll let you know if anything changes."
She hit the trigger of her slingshot, grabbed his face and kissed him hard, and it jerked her up and into the air as she let go. He cursed, she laughed musically, and she flipped onto the derelict roof to call down to him, "Stop being stupid...stop trying to be so fucking brave...get out...I'd hate to see you splattered on the side of a building."
He sighed as she disappeared and returned, "...ditto, kiddo..."
When she was gone, he sighed regretfully, "...women."
Whatever she was there for, it couldn't be good.
Ada hurried into the Hive to gather the samples she needed. She nearly leaped out of her skin as the voice taunted, "...well well well...miss me?"
On a laugh of derision, she answered, "You wish." She hurried toward the console, ignoring the gun Leon had on her. She started clicking and made him chuckle.
"I could shoot you, ya know."
"You won't." She sounded so certain he kinda wanted to, just to spite her as he wondered, "...what is that?"
She gestured with her head, "...that's what this bitch is protecting...you ever seen anything like it?"
Leon crouched to stare at the massive plaga in the tube that opened to reveal itself on the far wall. He whistled low and remarked, "...fucking plagas."
"Yes...but worse." Ada crouched beside him, "Hive mentality. That bitch is using the concept of Veronica and the ants to make bee based plagas. The idea, of course, is for a hive mentality. All we need...plagas with a fucking queen to follow."
Leon shook his head, laughing with irony, "...look at you, judging someone for following a queen. You been playing me like a queen to a bee all these years, princess. You gonna pretend you don't like it?"
He was cute when he was angry. She turned her head and grinned, "...don't be bitter, Leon...it makes you sound like a bitch."
And then?
They were surrounded by Svetlana and her men. With amusement, Ada warned him, "Careful of this one, Leon...she's more than just tits in a bad top."
"...say what?" He couldn't stop the laugh.
The world exploded, gun fire and madness. Ada rolled through the smoke and shot three men before they could take him out. She found cover and picked off four more, creating mass chaos so they started slaughtering each other instead. Someone shouted a cease fire and she left Leon to survive or die as she ran for it with her newly acquired sample.
Impressed with his survival, she tracked him as he made his way to the surface from the lab and took on a tyrant released from its bonds. Not just one, he took on two. All she had to do was rig the elevator to let him escape. As she watched him go, Ada sighed, "...my last gift to you...be careful, you fool."
It was time for her to gain her freedom and bargain with the thing that had once been inside of Leon...the way he'd once been inside of her.
The United States knew. They'd known all along what Svetlana was doing in the ESR. She'd been dealing bioweapons with their full knowledge. The horror of it left him breathless. His own people weren't even his people. They'd used him like...what? Bait? He had no clue.
He only knew the ESR was a bust. He'd saved no one. He'd done nothing. He'd made no difference, save to discover the duplicity of the people he served was never ending. He was, as he'd always been, just a gun in an army of them. He wasn't important.
He was innocuous the way the sun was in the dreary winter sky.
He shot back three more shots of vodka and ditched the call from Hunnigan. Who cared anymore what it meant to be a hero? He wasn't. He was as dirty as the next guy. He'd walked in there hoping to save lives and saved no one. Buddy was crippled, but alive...so maybe that was his win?
The United States knew about the bioweapons backdoor dealings. They knew, and did nothing. When the truth hit, they scrambled with Russia to clean up the mess, but it was too late. He knew they were all involved.
He knew.
Eventually, he'd die with the truth on his tongue like a confession.
He wasn't serving the good guys. He'd been serving the bad ones for so long he couldn't remember what it meant to be good. He was dirty, covered in defeat, and drunk. With a laugh of regret, he rose and stumbled painfully toward the door of his hotel room as a knock sounded.
He'd had the shit beat out of him by tyrants trying to save lives.
Instead, he was just sore and defeated.
The moment the door opened, he grunted, "...fuck off...I'm too tired to care."
Ada tilted her head, "Are you? You look like shit."
"...jesus..." He laughed and turned away, leaving the door open, "Come on in then...jump right into my misery...the waters warm. You want to fuck? I'm too sore, kiddo. You're gonna have to do all the work."
Amused, Ada closed the door behind her as she entered. She studied him as she staggered, limping painfully, toward the kitchen to pour more vodka. She decided this was how she helped him now.
She let him drink. She kept him liquored up. She got him in a warm bath and gave him pain meds. He slept, fitfully, and she climbed into the bed beside him to soothe him back to sleep.
She'd come to get intel...she stayed to take care of him.
She wasn't sure what it meant that he mattered to her.
It meant maybe it was time to reevaluate her plans for her future. What came after, she'd always known the plan...maybe it was time for the plan to include the possibility of another person. He was almost done, broken by the people he'd once thought were saviors. Could she lure him away with the promise of something greater than himself?
He awoke, blinking in the dark. They faced each other with their heads on the pillows in that bed.
Softly, Ada queried, "...feel better?"
He laughed, softly and sadly, "...sober and still fucked...not sure which is worse."
Ada lifted her hand. To his surprise, she laid it on his cheek and cupped it there, soothing,"...stop trying so hard to be a hero...just...be you."
His eyes flicked over her face. He wanted, desperately, to believe in something...in anything. She was offering him the chance to believe in himself. The problem? He wasn't sure what was left of him anymore.
So, he confessed, "...I don't like me very much...I'm lonely, Ada...I'm a little lost. I used to know what I was doing. I used to get up, get dressed, and know I was making a difference...I'm spending my life in a fight Ill never win...I don't know how to stop. Tell me how to stop."
She simply said, "...walk away. You've always had the power, Leon...so walk away. Find a sweet girl, have some babies, and say goodbye to what you think you should do. Maybe you can't destroy bioterror...but you can still have a good life. Stop fighting, and just...live."
With an almost gentle desperation, he queried, "...can you? Can you just walk away?"
Ada shook her head, "It's too late for me. I'm in it. I have to see it through...the only was for me to be free is to fight until it's over...even if it kills me first."
His brow knitted. "Freedom from what?"
And she simply scooted into him. He lifted his arm, she slid against his chest, and their mouths brushed sweetly. Her arms curled around his waist, he put his nose in her hair, and he just held on. Ada stroked his back gently and held him.
It was something she'd never done, not once, not for any one else in the world.
He mattered.
She had to decide what that meant for her end game.
She had to decide how to use him without seeing him hurt for it. She had to play her game now with the idea that, just maybe, it meant both of them made it out alive. She hated that she cared enough to want to protect him but she was also practical enough to know that she could use her feelings to an advantage too.
She didn't have to fake it as she held him. It was the first time she dropped her shields to just enjoy another person. She held him, listening to his heavy breathing as he slept, and she knew it changed everything to stay here beside him.
The end of the line was now going to cost her everything.
Somewhere out there, a woman with her face was fucking with her world. She'd discovered who was playing against her - herself. Someone was out there slandering her face all over their business. It was someone who, it seemed, was convinced she was the real Ada Wong. What did that mean? Who? Why? Where?
The questions were endless.
They started in Tall Oaks - that much she'd discovered play deep sea diver aboard that submarine shortly before she'd found Leon in the ESR. Someone was breeding something in Tall Oaks. Who? The President's Alma Mater was Ivy University. He was scheduled to have a speech there in a few months.
Someone was playing fast and loose with his life by playing god beneath the streets where the most powerful man in the Western World would be walking.
Who would risk that?
Her phone buzzed on the nightstand. A simple text. A simple command. A simple answer.
Who?
Derek Simmons.
The text read - Does he fuck better than me?
And just like that, she knew who was behind her trouble.
It was her mistake - she'd let Simmons into her bed once in order to manipulate him for her free pass into the compound where he was keeping Sherry Birkin to get samples from her and the Hidalgo girl being kept there. She'd assumed he understood it was just once, just one time, and fair trade for business. She'd been dealing in power for sex all her life.
She wasn't interested in a relationship with a sniveling little weasel like Simmons, but him? He was obsessed with her. He wouldn't leave her alone. When she spurned his advances, he simply erupted with rage and obsession.
She knew it ended badly now.
She knew he'd target Leon if he hadn't already.
Had he sent Leon to the ESR on a bum mission simply to get him killed?
The truth hurt. She blinked. She felt Leon's warm breath on her neck as he shifted. He was awake. She knew that because his hands slid up under the shirt she wore to stroke her naked back.
Simmons would see him dead just for fucking her.
She'd endangered him without even trying. It was the one time she hadn't prepared for the consequences of sex. She'd assumed it would be easy. She thought men were simple.
Her face turned as Leon nuzzled his way to her mouth. They kissed, soft and sweet somehow.
It was never simple.
As the kiss broke, she lamented, "...men."
His eyes twinkled somehow in the shadows, "...women."
With a soft sound of surrender, she warned, "...I tried to stop this. I wanted it over. I needed it done. Do you understand why? Stop being so fucking blind, Leon. The people you're playing against, they'll see you dead."
He shrugged. He slid his hands up to find the latch on her bra. He freed it and cupped her breasts while her eyes flared and her breath hitched with excitement, "...yeah. I'm done caring."
He rolled her beneath him on a grunt of pain. Apparently, sex could motivate even the sorest of bodies. Somehow, he'd healed since she'd taken him to bed to soothe him. Something in him was simply incredible. The plagas, the natural T-immunity, the truth of who he was...he wasn't just a typical man. He'd never been. He was never meant to be a face in the crowd.
Now?
He was the only face she could see.
She was terrified of failing him.
She hated him for weaseling his way into her heart.
She had to stop Simmons. She knew, somehow, he'd cloned her to make his own Ada. It was horrifying. She needed to know the why, she needed to stop the how, she needed him dead to ensure he paid.
She'd have to use Leon...just one more time to end her game for her.
She was sorry for it, but it was just what she needed.
She opened her legs, opened her arms, and opened herself to the guilt of betraying him, just once more. Just this last time. Just to protect him. It was the only way she knew how to ensure the end she'd spent her whole life racing toward finally, finally, finally set them both free.