A/N: Last update on this guy for a little while for the holidays. A happy christmas to everyone! Thank you for reading!
Orphan
Part Two:
-Legacy-
Chapter 15: Dissolution of Assets
2005 - Present Day
How did she get here?
The world was a rain of bullets and blood. The walls were sprayed in red and dripping. The small row of pews were destroyed. A church - they'd fled to a church to try, like hell, to make a stand...their last stand.
She was swathed in sticky red, it was tacky on her face and neck, it was stuck obscenely in her cleavage like ketchup or something. It was surreal. It was all surreal.
She'd woken with him above her, inside her, clutching his back and opening. The whomp of helicopter blades had driven them apart. They weren't making it sneaky, nope, they didn't even try. They just ambushed the safe house and made sure they knew it was over.
The voice on the radio instructed - "Incapacitate, don't kill." The men with the guns didn't care about the order. They were out for blood.
They were pinned down in the hovel that had supposedly been safe. They were pinned down and losing. They were pinned down and cut off from Leon's supply of back up weapons.
They had no hope. And then?
Well, Sherry just made them an escape hatch. She kicked out the side of the wall of their hovel so they could run. It came down in a shower of shattered stone and mortar. Leon, impressed, kept forgetting she was more than just a girl with a little extra oomph behind her. She was a bad ass.
She was hit twice while they ran. She knew he took a round in his back as they hunched and hurried. She heard him gasp and watched his face flash with pain. Shot. He'd been shot. Shot again. Shot...shot fleeing for their lives.
All they did was run. She was tired of running. She wanted to go back and murder every last one of them for it.
Under his breath, Leon snarled, "...fucking Ada...she sold us out."
Had she?
It did seem like something she would do.
The church was the closest and first place they found. They hunkered down. She treated his side. He looked at her sadly and informed her. "They cut us off from most of my stash, Sherry. I have eight rounds left in my fucking Magnum."
They were screwed.
Sherry knew it. He knew it. His face said he was angry about it. For all the good anger would do.
And then?
The last two people on Earth she'd expected had arrived in the church via the second floor balcony. Jill and Chris - the BSAA's go to team. They were just...there. They held guns on them and Jill warned, "...stay down. I mean it, Kennedy, leave that fucking gun right there."
Leon lifted the gun anyway. Horrified at the stupidity of it, Sherry stepped between them all, shouting, "Don't! Don't! Please!"
Leon laughed, harshly, "We're dead anyway, aren't we, Valentine?" He turned his gaze to Chris, "You think we should play nice now? You sent your fucking men to kill me."
Chris, looking angry, responded, "That wasn't my order. Somebody is pulling strings above me too, Kennedy. Just come quietly. I don't want you to kill you."
Leon tilted his head, "No? You think I screwed you over. You think I used Claire. You want me dead. Just kill me, and be done with it."
Jill snapped, "Shut up! Both of you! Sherry, right?" She implored, "We're not here to hurt you. We want to help you. Let us have him, and we'll get you to safety."
Sherry laughed now, high and full of rage, "You kidding!? You think he's forcing me!? Do you know anything about me!?"
She grabbed Jill's gun from her hand and just squeezed. The damn thing groaned as the metal warped and twisted. Sherry turned it into a pretzel and tossed it on the ground with a clang of finality. "...he can't force me, you fucking idiots. I'm with him because he's innocent! Call off your men and let us go!"
Jill shook her head as she tried to keep Chris from aiming at the girl with his gun. "We can't. We have to bring him in. We have to. We can help, if you just let us...just tell us why we should believe in him. Why?"
Sherry opened her mouth to speak, recognizing that Jill wanted to believe her. And Chris shouted, "He's Wesker's goddamn SON!" It roared, "You think it matters what he says!? He's a liar! He's a bastard of a bastard who used my baby sister like a fucking puppet! I'm going to make sure he rots in a cage like the animal that caused all of this."
Leon sneered, "...you son of a bitch..you think I can help who fathered me!? I didn't know!" He shouted it too. Sherry thought, good LORD they both had some pipes on them. They shook the rafters with that shouting. "Help me find out whose framing me, Redfield! Goddamnit...you know me!"
Chris shook his head, seething, "No...no. I don't know you at all. Wesker's son?! You're a born Judas. You'll say anything to get what you want here."
Jill soothed, "...maybe we just-"
"No." Chris shook off her hand, "First I'm gonna kick his ass, then I'm gonna enjoy dragging him in in chains..or maybe I just kill him now and save the world the cost of a trial. What do you think your Daddy would do, Kennedy?. Oh, well I think we both know the answer."
Chris turned the gun on him and Sherry tackled him. Jill shouted in horror, Chris was thrown back into the pews and scattered the heavy wood as he rolled, and Jill hit Sherry broadside to bring her down. They two women tumbled over the cobblestone floor, rolling, and fighting. Leon grabbed for Chris' gun and the big man kicked it away. It skittered, smacking into the far wall as the two men grappled.
Leon was thrown into the wall, pushed off, and tackled Chris at the hips. He tossed the big man up, they hooked arms, and he barely blocked the heavy blow of a massive fist in his guts. Chris elbowed him in the face for it, Leon kicked him in the knee to send him sprawling, and spun a kick to his back to put him on his face. Chris rolled to avoid getting his back stomped, caught Leon's boot, and threw him out and away.
They started fighting like any decent man with some level of training would do. Kicks, punches, grappling, and throws. One went up, one went over, and one met a fist in the ribs, face, or lower stomach. They oof and umph and grunting was punctuated by Jill being unceremoniously tossed into the middle of them.
She went down on her back, still, and out for the count.
Leon started to remark about it, and Chris took his last cheap shot. He drove the knife in his hand into Leon's left side. It hit, Sherry shouted in horror and rage, and Chris grunted, "...fuck bringing you in...I'm gonna enjoy watching you die."
His animosity for Albert Wesker had turned Redfield from a do-gooder to roid raging revenge monger. He ripped the knife free, Leon grabbed for his throat, and kick him square in the balls when Redfield came back for another jab, and there was no more fighting. The fight? It was over.
Sherry made sure of that.
She grabbed Chris by the throat, lifted him off his feet, and knocked the knife away that he shoved at her throat. As he dangled, choking, Leon instructed, "...don't kill him, Sherry. Don't."
Damnit.
She snarled, "...you think he's a bad guy? He's the reason you're walking out of here." And she tossed Chris like he was nothing. He flew, smashing hard into the altar and sliding to his face on the floor.
She turned to put her hand over Leon's against his ribs as she queried, "...how bad?"
He grunted, lips pale, "...not good. He twisted that shit before he jerked it out. He knew what he was doing."
She nodded, "Let's get you out of here. Where's the escape car?"
They moved toward the back of the church as he told her, "...old hardware store. We can cut through the alley behind the church to reach it."
He stopped, crouching down to pick up Redfield's discarded gun and knife. As they passed the altar, he knelt to check to be sure Redfield was just unconscious. Sherry was already shifting Jill into a pew for her own comfort. She bound her hands and feet. He did the same with Chris and was just starting to rise, stating, "He hits like a brick shit-"
The doors of the church opening had his gun swinging toward them.
Later, Sherry would think she'd never forget the horror of it. Him, standing over the body of Chris Redfield with a bloody knife looking like a murderer, and the BSAA bursting through those doors to avenge their fallen captain. She was too far. She was too far from him. She was...too far to save him.
Their radios crackled a single set of words - KILL ON SIGHT.
She screamed, "NO!"
And they opened fire.
Good as he was, he'd never be anything but mortal. The three men in the v-pattern turned him into a bullet sponge. His body danced, jerking, throwing blood in sprays behind him as he hit the wall and slid down. Sherry didn't even bother to get to him. She went for the men shooting him.
They turned their guns, for all the good it did them. Sherry jerked the gun from the first one, shot the second one in the face, and whipped the first one to death with his own gun. The third tried to pop off a shot and she simply twisted his barrel like it was putty, swung with her left fist, and caved his face in with a crunch and splat of brain and bone.
When her body took a bullet, she turned to find another man advancing on her. So she picked up the dead one still wearing her fist as his face and threw him. He hit the one advancing, sent them to the ground with a grunt, and had Sherry appearing above them. As he shouted in fear, she reached down and liberated his head from his body. She didn't break his neck, nope, she just pulled it right off like a kid popping off the head of a doll.
Pop.
His body twitched wildly as a chicken does when it's beheaded. She tossed the head like a bowling bowl into the next man over the rise and sent him tumbling back into his comrades with a shattered clavicle.
Apparently, they were done playing though, because they decided it was time to take her out. They tossed some smoke grenades at her, hit her with an acid round in the chest from a grenade launcher and just started trying to...what? Not kill her. They wanted her pinned down apparently.
A tranquilizer hit her in the back as she turned toward where she'd left Leon. She gasped, stumbling, body shaking with pain from the sizzling skin of her chest. She went to her knees trying to get back to Leon. She was crawling before she got to him. He was still alive, because he was crying.
No.
No he wasn't.
She was crying.
He was staring at the ceiling trying to breathe with lungs filled with blood. She covered his body with hers, trying to drag them both toward the escape door in the back of the rectory. Her legs stopped working and she dropped him on the floor with a cry of terror.
He was bleeding from everywhere. She couldn't stop it. She tried to cover all the wounds. She begged, "-don't...please don't..."
He gasped, blood bubbled out of his mouth, his hand laid against the side of her face. He looked so...something. Sad? Relieved? And his eyes fixed on the ceiling above her.
She just...started sobbing. Her hands came down to do compressions on his ruined chest as a voice shouted, "...Ms. Birkin...step away from the deceased! Don't make us kill you!"
Her voice shook the dust from the ceiling in the smoky air, "FUCK YOU!"
Her left hand stopped working. They hit her again with a tranquilizer. This one in the shoulder. Sherry jerked and collapsed atop him. She tried to use her one good hand to...what? Shield him from more damage?
A man appeared above her. She rolled, gasping, and was faced to face with Piers Nivans - the boy who'd once asked her on a date. He hesitated and she begged, "...not him...ok? Help him...please?"
Her vision wavered. Piers started to lower his gun and another face appeared in the smoke behind him. Glasses. You never forgot the glasses.
Sherry shouted, "-don't!"
And he didn't.
He didn't kill Piers.
He just...threw him away. The boy was gone into the dark. Albert Wesker appeared above her. She lifted her one hand at him to protect Leon, pleading, "...no! NO!"
Wesker grabbed her wrist and threw her aside on her face on the floor. Sherry hit, gasping, and tried to roll back toward Leon's body. She watched in horror as his father knelt, studied him, and finally stuck an enormous needle into his chest. The body jerked. The man in the glasses tilted his head. A smile crept over his mouth as he informed Sherry, "...I'll handle this. Your body needs time to reject the tranquilizer. Wait here."
She shouted, "Wait! WAIT! Redfield and V-"
"-save your breath, Ms. Birkin. They're nothing to me - chaff. I see no reason to keep them alive."
"...I-I can't. They-" She had to spare them. She knew in her guts, they were good at the core. They needed them alive to prove Leon's innocence. She needed them to help. He'd asked her specifically to leave Redfield alive. "-I-I'll go with you, ok? No fighting. You can just-you can take me instead."
Wesker tilted his head. He almost looked amused, "Just you?"
Her eyes flicked down to the man who lay between them. Her heart jerked as she whispered, "...can you save him?"
Wesker's lips flashed a wolfish smile, "...say yes, strike a deal, and find out."
What choice was there? She needed to buy time here. She needed to buy safety. She needed Leon alive. She needed Redfield and Valentine alive to find the truth. She needed answers. She had none.
No time.
No hope.
And no other option but to strike a deal with the devil. "...yes."
Wesker rose into the smoke and was gone.
She prayed sparing Chris and Jill would mean Claire would help them. Claire would come to their aid. She'd find a way. She'd find a way to make it right. She owed them. She'd protect them. She'd run, yes, but she'd made damn sure Sherry was safe first.
Surely now...now she'd come through. She'd spared Claire's brother and her best friend...now she'd come through for them. Sherry whimpered in fear. Would she lose everything? Would she lose Leon and her freedom and her life?
What if the risk wasn't worth the reward?
It was too late for regret.
The battle was on.
She listened to the sounds of screaming. She heard the splatter of blood and the crunch of bone. She heard gunfire and grunting. She heard the sounds of wet disembowelment.
Wesker appeared again in the smoke with a gruff, "...I've left a handful of them alive as requested. Perhaps you'll see now I'm not the villain you'd like me to be."
He lifted Leon easily enough and tossed him over his shoulder. Sherry whimpered and pushed shakily to her feet. Her body jerked spastically as it healed.
Wesker informed her, "...no time for weakness, Birkin. Whose the hero now? Will you stay here...or are you wiling to risk everything for him?"
Jesus. It was like he was in her head. She whispered, "...what have you done?"
And the horror was thick in her voice as he nonchalantly returned, "What you bargained for...saved him...or simply saved you. He was dead anyway, Birkin. What choice did he have?"
She hated the truth of it. She heard more men coming. She rose to her full height and told him, "...ok. Ok...goddammit...lead the way...I-I will cover you."
She was about to play partner to Albert Wesker to save Leon Kennedy. She wasn't sure where the world had fallen off the axis and become something she couldn't understand, but they were there. Ada Wong had betrayed them, Albert Wesker had saved them...they were indebted to a monster.
The world was officially on fire around them.
Sushestovovanie Island, Present Day -2005
She had time to dwell in the past while she waited to see what kind of future they'd have.
The beep of the machines keeping him alive would always remind her of the ones in the infirmary the day she'd visited him after he'd come back from Spain. He was getting a physical. He was flirting with a pretty nurse.
Just before Harvardville - 2005(*1)
Sherry had watched the whole thing like a fascinated bird. He simply didn't know how to do anything but charm woman. The nurse giggled and swooned. He winked. He turned and saw Sherry and scooped her against him.
That damn hug of his always centered her.
They walked together through the compound into the garden while he held her hand and told her all about the things she was missing in the world beyond her walls. She asked, as she often did, if he'd seen Claire. It was the only time she could remember that he didn't look angry for her question.
"...I have."
Surprised, she asked, "...d-did she want to come see me?"
Again, his answer was different. Usually, he rejected the question. Today? He answered, "...yes, she does. W-would you want to? If...If I backed off...would you like to see her?"
Without preamble, a simple answer, "...yes."
She wondered what had changed to make him allow it. She didn't ask. She was afraid he'd rescind the offer.
So, Claire came to see her. They visited. It was good. It was awkward, but it was good. They chatted. They shared coffee. They asked questions as girls will do. When the redhead rose to leave, she kissed Sherry's forehead and promised to see her again.
Sherry watched her head over the grounds with her head tilted. She paused beside Leon and smiled softly. It was gentle in a way Sherry didn't expect. Did she think they were all animosity?
Curious about it, she stalked them a little as they walked. He led Claire toward the gates to say goodbye. They embraced and the redhead leaned up, up, up...and pressed a kiss to the former rookie. Sherry froze, eyes wide, as she went right passed his forehead and hit his mouth. A soft, full on lips pressing, engaging joining of mouth.
He smiled. She smiled. They said goodbye.
Sherry stood in frozen disbelief. A kiss. It was just a kiss. That's all it was.
The next week, Claire came again. They visited. They laughed. They walked. They had coffee. And Sherry simply threw the question at the redhead like a bullet with image of their lips locked in her head, "...you fuck Leon?"
Claire choked on her coffee.
They stared at each other in the warm sunlight until the redhead returned, face calm, "...is that your business?"
Sherry simply waited, face bland. Finally, Claire sighed, "...we did. We...had some feelings once in the beginning ,ya know? Young, scared, stuck together - we got close in Raccoon. We fell apart with life...and this...and you. He kept me from you because he was so fucking angry. I asked to see you and we just...we had a fight. A big one. I hit him."
She sounded a little ashamed of that as Claire went on, "I hit him and he threw me against the wall. It wasn't...it wasn't gentle, Sherry. I'm not proud of it, but I'm glad it happened. It helped us deal with all the anger we've had all these years. It got the demons out, ya know? It was one time, and it's over now, but it was good because it brought him to the right conclusion about you and I. He knows we needed to see each other."
Sherry, voice soft and cold, answered, "...you had to fuck him to make him let you see me?"
Claire's face had closed down, eyes flashing angrily, "...I didn't say that. I said it made him realize he was blocking me for personal reasons. I didn't fuck him to make him do anything."
Sherry rose from the table. She shook her head, eyes snapping, "...no. You just fucked him to hurt me."
Surprised, Claire tried to get up but Sherry shoved her roughly back in her chair, "...don't bother. I'm going."
Claire urged, "Wait a minute...wait...I don't know what's happening here. To hurt you? How-why-I don't even know how to an-"
And then the two women looked at each other with the truth between them. Claire gripped the cup on the table and gave her a pitying glance, "...oh...oh honey. Sherry...he's not for you. He's not right for you. He's-I'm not his first, honey. I won't be his last. Leon..." She struggled with trying to phrase it right, "Leon's not a man who stays with one woman. He's got-there's this woman he's hung up on...you don't want to tip your cap for him, sweetheart. He'll just break your heart."
Sherry shook her head again. She laughed with ire and backed up, "...he can't...you just did that."
Claire looked stricken as the blonde told her, "Don't come back. I don't want to see you again. Do you hear me?"
She turned and left the garden. Leon was moving across the grass when Sherry passed him, unable to look at him, and warned, "...block her. She's not welcome here anymore."
When he looked surprised, Sherry added, "...I don't want you to ever see her again."
His brows had knitted as he gruffed, "...alright. Do you w-"
Sherry shook her head, unable to face him, "...I don't ever want to talk about her...not now...not ever."
She knew he understood. He tried to touch her and Sherry stepped away, shaking her head, "...not now. Just-send her away. Please...just send her away."
As she moved away, he prompted, "...you sure, kid?"
She didn't look at him. She was afraid she'd turn to stone. She just answered, roughly, "...yeah. I'm sure...and maybe...maybe you could go away too...j-just for a little bit."
She saw the flash of pain on his face in the reflection of the windows of the compound. Why was she punishing them? They didn't do anything wrong. He wasn't hers. She knew that. She shouldn't hurt him for moving on with his life and touching other women.
He wasn't hers.
But her heart.
Her heart.
Her heart.
She didn't think she'd ever forgive him. Then, she'd wanted to kill them both. She'd had dreams of them dying in a firey explosion. She'd hated them both for simply being something she'd never have with him.
She'd hated Claire because she was beautiful and perfect and with him. Jealousy was an ugly bitch. It chased around the regret that made Sherry's heart hurt.
Present Day
None of it mattered anymore. Maybe sparing Chris redeemed all the anger that she'd thrown at Claire for leaving them and then taking the last thing in the world that mattered to her - Leon. Maybe the redhead would find a way to return the favor. Maybe.
Maybe.
There were no more things in her world that were definite.
Only death...and she was trying like hell to make sure that didn't happen to it. Her world, after all, was in the bed behind her.
Sherry sat in the silence of the cold lab where Wesker had brought them. It was an island of some kind, cold and dark, dreary and misty. It was obscure, obsolete, and on no map that she could find. Of course it was. It didn't exist. She didn't exist here.
Leon...he was breathing with the help of ventilators and machines. He was there, sort of, but his body was resting and burning up. The fever might kill him if the damage to his flesh didn't.
She couldn't think of a single reason she'd punished them both for their night together. She'd understood when they'd taken Claire why they'd referred to her as his woman. She kind of had been once. Someone had seen them together.
Her eyes closed and saw it like a movie on her closed lids. Rough - he'd taken her standing, she was sure of it, while the redhead screamed and creamed and came apart around him.
I don't want to get you pregnant, Sherry.
Had he given the same regard to Claire? Had they fucked bare and beautifully? Had he laid atop her afterward and held her while they slept?
The small sound of pain wasn't just hers. Leon moaned in the bed. She rose, hurrying toward him. He was pale and had dark circles around his eyes and nearly translucent skin.
It didn't matter if he'd fucked the entire staff of TerraSave. It couldn't. She didn't care anymore about Claire or Ada Wong or the rest of his women. The only one that mattered now was beside him. He was hers now. Finally.
She wasn't going to let him go. She'd give up anything she had to save him. Softly, she begged, "...don't leave me, Leon. Don't leave me. Come back to me. Come back. Please...please come back."
She put her ear on his chest, easy, soft, gentle. She listened to his heart.
Hers beat in time with his.
If she had to, she'd give it to him to save his life.
The door opened and Wesker stood in the doorway. The doctor was beside him - a beautiful blonde woman with icy violet eyes. He simply called the doctor "Alex". Alex treated Leon and glanced at Wesker, smiling slyly. "...he's responding well."
Wesker, eyes on Sherry, returned, "Yes. Ms. Birkin? A word?"
Sherry rose to follow him into the hallway. In the soft lighting, those eyes of his were startling. He didn't wear the sunglasses here. The photophobia was negated by the soft, nearly medieval torch lighting around the old slaughterhouse where the lab was located. His eyes flickered red in the yellow shadows.
"...you should prepare yourself that he may not wake up the man you knew."
Concerned, she said nothing.
Wesker continued, "...Progenitor will spare him. He'd be dead now if he was going to lose to his wounds or infection, but it may not leave him who he was prior. I awoke...ascended."
Sherry looked at the floor in fear as he added, "Leon may awake...aware."
He said it like it should be in all caps. Sherry lifted her gaze, "...aware?"
"...yes. Progenitor...it's...feral. It operates on the basest of instincts. It's powerful, yes, but most who'd been injected couldn't survive the change. Leon...he's survived it...the question of what he'll become from it remains...a mystery."
Sherry shook her head, eyes misty, "...you saying he'll be a monster?"
She'd killed him. She'd killed Leon Kennedy by handing him over to a monster, to become one himself. She might as well have blown his brains out the side of his head and left his body on the ground.
She'd killed him trying to save him.
She was the worst hero in the world.
Wesker started to answer and Alex called from the room, "...Albert? He's waking."
They both turned into the room. Leon was tugging angrily at the tube in his throat. The beautiful blonde woman in the white coat helped him remove it as Leon gasped and gagged loudly. He slapped at her hands, coughing around a hoarse and raging voice, "...where am I!?"
Sherry soothed, "...you're safe!"
He turned his gaze, saw her first and then? Then he saw his father.
He roared. He lunged from the bed like he'd save her from the other man. Wesker caught him around the chest to prevent him from plummeting to the floor and threw him back onto the mattress of the bed, admonishing, "Be still, you fool! You'll kill yourself playing the hero!"
Sherry gushed, "He saved your life, Leon! He saved us both! Don't fight him!"
They were struggling against each other. Wesker merely trying to hold the other man down. Leon went still when she spoke, his chest heaving with pants and pain, "...what?"
Wesker nodded as Sherry reiterated, "He saved us. Ada...she betrayed you. She almost got you killed...Wesker...he saved you."
Leon shoved his father away. Wesker relented, stepping back, and the former rookie flopped back on his pillows gasping with pain. He trembled, grabbing for his face to rub his throbbing temples.
"...this is fucking surreal, Sherry. What are you saying? That the most hated man in bioterror is the reason I'm alive?"
Wesker smirked, "...I think you're the most hated man in bioterror now...son."
Jesus.
Albert Wesker was his fucking father. He was beholden to a demigod with no soul. He was in the care of a madman. He was the most wanted man in the business - a villain, an outlaw, a rebel, a disgrace.
He was screwed.
He was in a nightmare.
But he was alive.
Sherry urged, sweetly, "...rest. Ok? Please...just rest. We'll figure it all out when you're better."
Rest.
Could he?
He opened his eyes and looked up at her. "...I don't know if I can."
She was still, eyes wide, watching him with horror on her face. He blinked. He looked at Wesker and back at her. What was the saying? Like father, like son. This time...it was more than the virus that was in them both...it was the eyes.
He was lying in that bed looking up at her with eyes as red and orange as the flames on the torches behind him.
He'd had his mother's eyes as a boy.
He had his father's now.
Post Note: (*1) Italics are memories.