Warnings: no beta, OOCness, English is not my first language, inconsistent tenses, i am very bad at prepositions, some curse words, some alcohol-drinking, so many plot holes, suggestive themes/scenes
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended.
A/N: is this fic similar to another aeon fic i wrote? yeah. i guess. but i decided that 2021 was gonna be the year that i stopped giving a shit about the quality of the fics i post. i hope you enjoy this hot mess!
February 7, 2021: Minor edits were made
Ada thought that the best way to protect Leon was to completely sever ties with him. To do that, she needed to take the blame for all of Carla Radames's crimes. She hoped that Leon would believe that it was she who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and that he would be so disgusted with her that he would try to scrub her existence out of his mind.
Her actual employers wouldn't be happy if she got implicated in a terrorist's crimes, but they would get her out of the mess she would get herself into. She was doing this for them anyway.
But she also wanted to tell Leon everything about her—who and what she was, who she worked for, what was her true purpose. If she was going to say goodbye permanently, she wanted to leave Leon with a morsel of the truth.
So she did just that—told him who she really was without telling him herself. Entangling herself with Carla's infractions was enough; her employers would have her head on a stick if she deliberately blew her cover.
And Leon learned everything about her, which resulted in the exact opposite of what Ada intended to happen—he refused to let her go.
Leon had been back to active duty for three weeks when he got a message from the freaking president himself to come see him in his office. Usually, it was someone from the FOS who told him that the president intended to meet with him, but having the president contact him personally? If it was Adam, Leon would be curious, not apprehensive and uncomfortable, as he was feeling right now. Leon used to feel nonchalant about the Oval Office, but now, the prospect of seeing his friend Adam Benford's successor just filled him with guilt and self-loathing.
The United States of America was still reeling from Glenn Arias's attacks, and Leon predicted that it was only a matter of time before he got called to further discuss some things, like the A-virus and the missing corpse of Maria Gomez and The Family possibly infiltrating the BSAA, but no, it was none of those things. Instead, it was the one topic Leon hoped he would never hear from someone this high up in the government—Ada Wong.
She wasn't even involved in the New York attacks. Oh, Leon did his investigation, all right. It was strange not encountering her in a major bioterror attack, and he didn't know if it was a good or bad thing. Maybe she really was involved, and that was the reason why the president contacted him, although what the president knew about Leon and Ada was something Leon dreaded to know.
And Ada was involved, one way or another. It was one of the many, many things he learned that day about the woman who called herself Ada Wong.
The New York attacks happened around the Upper East Side of Manhattan, so Ada's Tribeca flat was relatively unscathed. It had been two and a half weeks since Glenn Arias unleashed the A-virus in the Big Apple, and the morning news still talked about it.
She exited her flat and saw something that she had been, quite frankly, anticipating for last sixteen years—red rhododendrons in a clay pot innocuously placed before her doorstep.
Collect all necessary data and documents, the flowers signified, and proceed to the embassy immediately for extraction.
So her plan worked. Great. The sooner she can abandon this persona she had been keeping since the 1990s, the sooner she can stop her employers from getting their hands on Leon.
Goodbye, Ada Wong.
There were four people in the Oval Office—Leon, the president, a man Leon recognised as the CIA's director, and his old friend Ark Thompson, who became an FBI agent after the Sheena Island incident.
"Sir," Leon said, nodding to the president. He quickly glanced away, not daring to meet his commander's eyes for more than one second.
The president returned the nod. Leon gave his friend Ark a curious glance, and though Ark looked happy to see him, his face didn't reveal anything about this meeting.
"Have a seat, Agent Kennedy," the CIA director said. Leon sat on the opposite end of the couch where the president was sitting. Across him, Ark's face was still unreadable. Leon would rather look at Ark than his employer; he still felt ill at ease looking at the new president.
The CIA and the FBI working together wasn't new. The agency surveilled non-US persons for potential threats to the United States, while the bureau investigated domestic affairs. The FBI would investigate persons of interest residing in US territories, but they would share their findings to the CIA. Unlike the CIA who could only collect and analyse data, the FBI had the authority to apprehend suspects.
The CIA director turned the projector on, and an image of Ada Wong wearing sunglasses and a red coat came before them. Leon's throat instantly felt dry. They now had her on file. It didn't bother him yet about what this could mean for him; he was more concerned about what this could mean for her. What do they know about her and her past activities? Are they going to capture her? Incarcerate her? Execute her?
Leon thought it was weird. Ada would never be careless enough to let hidden surveillance capture a photo of her. She had been evading authorities for the past, what, sixteen years? More than that?
Unless she let herself be photographed. But why would she do that?
"This woman has many aliases," the director said, "but she's most known as Ada Wong in the B.O.W. world. The only record the CIA—and the BSAA—has of her was when she posed as a BSAA agent to get herself involved in the 2011 Eastern Slav civil war, which I'm sure you're more than familiar with, Agent Kennedy. All the agency knows about Wong is that she was involved in that civil war, although we know nothing of her motives or the extent of her involvement.
"Following the Eastern Slav civil war, the United States would remain unaware of her activities until Tall Oaks and Lanshiang, which, again, you're intimately familiar with, Agent Kennedy. She appears to be the one who had orchestrated those attacks. Captain Chris Redfield of the BSAA's Alpha Team had reported that you tried to stop the BSAA from, ah, eliminating her, because she was a key witness to Derek C. Simmons's crimes—crimes which he tried to pin on you and Agent Harper. Wong was shot to death by a group that we, thanks to the DSO's and BSAA's joint efforts, have determined to be from The Family, and then Simmons died, and you and Agent Harper have been proven innocent. Attempts to know more about Wong have been futile. That is, until two weeks ago. Agent Thompson, if you could please take the floor."
Ark cleared his throat before beginning his presentation. "I have been investigating a man called Liang Wenxiao, who is believed to be a spy working for the People's Republic of China. I have been tailing him for a while, and one night, followed him to an abandoned warehouse." Ark flashed a picture of a man meeting with Ada in an abandoned warehouse. "I took photos and determined the woman to be Ada Wong, who had been believed to have died in China. Days later after this meeting, I apprehened the man. In exchange for immunity, Liang Wenxiao defected and gave up information to the United States. Among the information he had divulged was a list of all the spies he knew who was working for the PRC and had been assigned to the United States, Wong one of them. He had revealed that Wong was a sleeper agent, and had been planted in the US in the early 1990s to gather information about B.O.W.s."
A sleeper agent.
Leon felt as if a drum of ice-cold water had been dumped on him.
Ada's employers believed that her cover had been blown. And it had been. She knew that the FBI was on Liang Wenxiao's tail. She also knew that Liang Wenxiao wanted to defect to the United States because he had fallen in love with a waiter at the cafe he frequented to surveil his target, and China wasn't the most tolerant country when it came to same-sex relationships. Liang Wenxiao knew that he was being watched and used that chance to defect, so when Ada contacted him with a proposition, he all but readily agreed.
Liang Wenxiao's plan was simple: let the FBI agent follow him and Ada, allow the agent to take some photos of them, part ways with her, get captured, and then give them a list of made-up aliases. Sure, Liang Wenxiao was about to betray his motherland, but he wouldn't give up his fellow spies that easily. It was easy to say that he didn't know for sure if the aliases he had given were actually being used or not, or whether they had already been discarded.
He didn't question why Ada wanted to be included in that list and why she purposefully placed herself in the government's radar. She was legally dead, and there was no greater freedom and prison than that.
Liang Wenxiao did it for love. Ada did it for, well, whatever she felt for Leon. He was a survivor, and she was going to make sure he stayed that way, her employers be damned.
A sleeper agent. Ada was a sleeper agent, and had been working for China this whole entire time. Procuring those samples from Raccoon and Spain…She joined an organisation under China's direct orders. They created a woman called Ada Wong, placed her in the US, and infiltrated the B.O.W. world because her real employer, the People's Republic of China, ordered her to.
There was a chance that the spy Ark had caught had been lying, but what reason did he have to lie when he was going to be granted immunity for all the crimes he had committed against the United States?
It still didn't explain why Ada unleashed the virus on Edonia and Tall Oaks and Lanshiang. Leon refused to believe that she was the one responsible for all those attacks. Sure, she indirectly caused some bioterror attacks, but she was never the mastermind for any of those. Until, apparently, the C-virus outbreaks. The whole world knew that Neo-Umbrella was responsible for those attacks, but they knew nothing about Ada; it was classified information, and the United States believed that it was in everyone's best interests to keep the identity of Neo-Umbrella's leader a secret until a full investigation had been done. And with the severed remnants of The Family still operating in the shadows, the truth about Tall Oaks and Lanshiang couldn't be made public yet.
"That was all we uncovered for now," Ark said. "Wong, a sleeper agent working for the People's Republic of China, the person responsible for the C-Virus outbreaks, is still alive." Leon breathed a little easier; it looked like they didn't know that Ada was in Raccoon and Spain.
Ark continued. "It was still unknown whether China sanctioned those attacks, but before she could get back to her home country, we need to get her. We couldn't let her go back to China."
Leon couldn't let them—the United States or China—have her. If she went back to China, there was a good chance that he would never see her again, and he still had so many things to ask and tell her. If the US got to her first…who knew what the commander-in-chief had in mind.
"Leon," the president said, "I called you here because you're the best agent the DSO has. Since Wong's activities have been largely tied to B.O.W.s, I'm transferring the investigation on her from the FBI to the DSO, with the occasional help from our friends at the CIA. This meeting and the proceeding investigation is extremely classified. The only people who know about this are us four.
"Agent Kennedy, your mission this time is to apprehend Ada Wong."
Ada's plans worked spectacularly. She indirectly revealed to Leon that she was a sleeper agent planted by the PRC, and now, they sent him after her. Like she had planned. She wanted to see him anyway.
All that was left was to make him believe that she was responsible for Carla's crimes, and then cut ties with him. She would go back to her motherland—for good, maybe—and China would disavow employing her. China would prove to the world that Ada Wong's repugnant actions had nothing to do with them. They would get themselves out of the mess Ada created, slap her on the wrists, and then plant her in another country. Russia, maybe. Or Japan. Last she heard, the Japanese government was actively looking for Svetlana Belikova, and China wanted her.
It was easy to tell the truth to her employers. Oh, Simmons? Yes, I guess he was…obsessed with me so he created a clone of me using Dr Radameses's body. Proof? I don't have one. I destroyed all the evidence. The CIA and the BSAA already have me on file, and possibly the Interpol. I don't want any more records of me getting out there. Those are already three too much. Besides, you don't want my records out there, do you?
However, telling this truth to Leon was much harder than she had expected, because she realised that even though she lied to him back when they first met, she didn't really lie to him afterwards. Lying by omission, yes, and maybe a tiny bit of manipulation and deception, but an outright lie? Nothing, not since she told him she was looking for John Clemens.
It wasn't her vanity talking whenever Ada thought how good of a spy she was. That was a fact. However, no one was that good, not even her. She slipped up and implied to her employers that she more or less knew Leon.
They ordered her to go to that submarine, find what Simmons was up to. They ordered her to go to Simmons's hidden laboratory in Tall Oaks. They told her to follow him to China. But they didn't order her to help kill him, or lend a hand to Agent Kennedy and Agent Harper and prove their innocence. In fact, they wanted to, ah, question Leon—and Agent Harper too, but it was really Leon who they wanted more because he knew more—and find out what Uncle Sam was up to, or why the hell did Uncle Sam saw it fit to make China a testing ground for the C-virus. They heard that Leon was the best the USA had to offer, and they ordered her to take him in.
And she didn't. They questioned her why she disobeyed a direct order, and she said nothing. Her silence convinced her employers that she and Leon were friends at least, and that was why they wanted to use her to get to him. She said they weren't friends; they were passing acquaintances at best.
Abducting an American agent was too foolhardy and they didn't press the matter. At least, not yet. But the seed had already been planted—if they wanted Kennedy, all they needed was Wong. If Ada could prove that Leon didn't give two shits about her, then it would be harder to get to America's favourite agent, and then maybe, maybe, they would drop the matter.
She was relieved that China thought that she and Leon were just acquaintances. If they knew that they were sometimes more than that, they would get into trouble, and Leon's career could be in jeopardy.
It was only a matter of time before Leon formally started looking for her. She thought she would save him the trouble, and then slipped into his flat through his window.
Leon came home from the meeting, exhausted in both body and spirit. His employers now knew of Ada, and there was a chance that they could know about them. Leon would be tried for treason, among other things.
Somehow, that was the least of his worries.
At least he managed to convince the president to offer Ada an immunity deal. She was too good of a spy to be wasted behind steel bars or six feet under the ground.
He needed to take Ada into custody. How the hell was he supposed to arrest the woman that he had been pining over for the last twenty-odd years?
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Leon almost dropped the can of beer he was holding.
He was too caught up in his rumination that he failed to notice Ada slipping through his window. Again. What was it with spies and their aversion to using doors?
He was in his flat—his supposed safe place. He could be forgiven for not being on alert.
Leon realised that the fridge was still open. He must have been staring into it while he was lost in his thoughts.
He turned to Ada and saw her holding a bottle of red wine. He placed his unopened can of beer back in the fridge and retrieved two wineglasses from the cupboard.
She placed a bag of food on the table as he sat down. "Hope in you're in the mood for Thai." She took the food out of the bag began serving it. "I assume you have questions?"
He leaned back in his seat, affecting an air of indifference. "And I assume you're a sleeper agent for China?" His tone wasn't accusatory; it was casual, like he had been asking about her weekend plans.
Ada chuckled as she sat opposite him. "Always have been."
Leon got started on the pad Thai. She would never poison him or drug him to sleep. She never needed any kind of drug or substance to get information out of him. She could do that by manipulating the conversation artfully, and while Leon could notice what she was doing, he still couldn't figure out how the hell has Ada managed to piece together information from his purposefully vague answers. "And why are you telling me now after all these years? What happened? What changed?"
Her eyes bore into his. "I owe you some of the truth."
"Some of the truth," he replied in a deadpan tone.
"Just some of it." She sipped her wine. "China's got their eyes on you, and they think that they can use me to get to you."
Leon's eyes narrowed. "Why would they think that? What do they know?" What do they know about us?
Ada seemed to have sensed his thoughts. She laid a hand on top of Leon's, as if in reassurance. "Don't worry; all they think is we're acquaintances in the least and friends at best."
Leon snorted. He and Ada were far from acquaintances, but they weren't exactly friends, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. They weren't even lovers, and "fuck buddies" was too crass of a term; they were just two people who semi-regularly met up in foreign cities and went on not-dates and then slept with each other afterwards. It was almost a game for them, pretending to be normal people in a foreign place. They were also the only times Leon felt a modicum of genuine happiness.
He went out with other women, but he never saw Ada while he was dating someone else. The longest relationship he had since breaking up with his ex-girlfriend from 1998 was nine months, and the longest relationship he had since encountering Ada again in 2004 was six months—six agonising months of not seeing her after knowing that she was alive. The part of him that he couldn't let go was somewhere out there in the world. He realised that he would rather be single for months and months on end if it meant seeing Ada at least once a month, rather than have a serious relationship with someone else and not see her.
He knew that that was pathetic and scummy of him, but if he could control his heart, he would stop feeling like everything fell into the right place every time he saw Ada. He never felt that way while dating those other women.
Ada withdrew her hand and ate her food. She wasn't looking at him. "It's best if we never see each other again. I can't risk meeting with you, knowing that China is interested in what you know. And I know that you're being sent after me." This time, she looked at him, her eyes pinning him on his seat. "Will you arrest me, Leon, if it comes down to it?"
It horrified Leon that the word no was immediately at the tip of his tongue.
Ada smiled fondly and brushed his cheek. "See? I knew you were going to say no. You can't keep compromising your job because of me. I'm not going to be the reason why you'll lose your job."
Leon couldn't keep on blatantly lying and omitting her out of his reports. If word got out that he knew that Ada was in Raccoon, Spain, and Eastern Slav, who knew what kind of prison awaited a traitor like him? Who knew what would they do to Leon—to Ada? She was indirectly involved in some of the world's largest bioterror attacks, and by covering up her involvement, Leon was complicit in her crimes. He wasn't exactly innocent.
They weren't getting any younger. They could keep seeing each other and play their little game, but how long could they do it before one of them—one, an elite government agent, and the other, a legendary spy—slipped up, no matter how careful they were? Would he risk it all for her?
Was Ada worth it?
It horrified Leon that the word yes was immediately at the tip of his tongue.
Leon held Ada's hands in his, their food lying forgotten. "Why did you tell me who you really are?"
"If we're never going to see each other again, you should know the truth—at least part of it. You of all people deserve to know."
"And Lanshiang?"
Ada shook her head. "You would eventually uncover the truth of that situation if you continue to run after me."
"That wasn't you, was it? You weren't the one who released the virus."
"I—"
"Don't lie to me, Ada. I know you. World destruction isn't your thing. And if it's your plan to take the fall for those crimes so the world will paint you as a villain and then I'll start to hate you and then stop seeing you, thereby protecting ourselves from the governments we serve, then let me tell you—you're failing. You're good, but so am I."
She looked away from him.
"Who released the C-virus?"
She snorted. "You're not getting paid the big bucks to unofficially question a suspect at your dinner table. You have to work for it, Agent Kennedy."
Leon nodded. He wouldn't be getting any more out of Ada tonight. "All right."
Ada chuckled. "This isn't how I imagined our last night together."
"How did you imagine it?
She shrugged. "A visit to the museum. Fancy dinner. Marathon sex."
He laughed lightly. "We could still do all of those."
"Instead we're eating takeaway Thai and drinking a vintage I reserve for special occasions."
"So this is a special occasion, huh?" He chuckled, and then kissed Ada's knuckles. "You know, I managed to convince the president to offer you an immunity deal."
"That was very thoughtful of you."
He kissed the back of her hands. "Why don't you just defect?"
"Why don't you defect?"
Leon stilled.
"See? Even someone like me is loyal to someone—to something—other than myself."
"I don't want to let you go," he said, gripping her hands tighter.
Ada sighed. "I can't keep endangering you. Just forget about me, Leon."
"You don't think I've tried?" He scoffed, thinking about the ridiculousness of his past actions. Dating several women in order to forget a woman he knew in his heart he wouldn't be able to let go was an exercise in futility. Four of them broke up with him because he mumbled Ada's name in his sleep. He was having an emotional affair with someone else, and it wasn't fair to anyone involved.
Ada tried to take her hands back, but he held on tighter. "Your life would be so much easier if you just find yourself a nice, normal woman and settled down with her."
"I don't want easy, I want you." He had never really given much thought about settling down with "the one" or something similar, but for all this time, after all the women he had been with, one thing was for certain—it never felt right unless he was with Ada. "I don't want to be with someone just because it's easier for me. What's the point in settling for less just because it's easy? I want you."
"Leon.…" she said, anguished. "You deserve someone whose hand you can hold in broad daylight, someone who could give you a much-needed sense of normalcy."
"If my version of normalcy is meeting you in secret, then I'd take that over any hand-holding in public."
"I just want you to be safe and happy. You wouldn't find long-lasting happiness with me."
"You're just looking out for me, I know, but stop deciding for me what makes me happy. You make me happy, and that is enough. And that is why I won't let you go. No matter what you did, my feelings for you won't change."
"You're being foolish, Leon." She was getting angry. "Stop letting your emotions get the better of you. You're not invincible."
He gave a low laugh. "You're right. I'm not. Not everyone can be a super-spy like you. I'm just human. I keep fighting these monsters with a human body, and the human body could only do so much. It could always fail. I'm just human. I have emotions. Try as I might, but I don't always go into the battlefield like an emotionless robot. Especially when you're involved." He shook his head. He knew that this was going to be a losing battle. By the end of the night, she would be gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. Still, he said, "Every time I see you, I'm reminded that I'm just a frail human being—weak, susceptible to failure, and overwhelmed with all the feelings I have for you. Bowing under the might of a mutated monster or what I feel for you—the latter is much harder to resist."
She was stunned for a moment, but then she looked like she pitied him. "Do you know how much danger you would be in if we continue this? There is too much at stake now. What would your president say if he found out that his best agent has been sleeping with the enemy for the past decade?"
"That's my problem, not yours."
Fury overtook her face. "If you want to place yourself in the path of danger by chasing me, then fine. That's on you. But I won't stay around and watch you commit career suicide because of me."
She tried to tug her hands back, but Leon's hold on her was firm. She tried one more time, but Leon didn't budge.
"Let me go, Leon."
He looked her in the eyes and said solemnly, "Tell me you don't love me and I'll let you go."
She froze, face seemingly caught somewhere in between the grief and ecstasy of realising a life-altering truth. She looked away from him, and when she looked back, there was a bitter smile on her face. She whispered, "I can tell you a million other lies, but that is the one lie that I can never tell you."
Leon's breath hitched, his heart skipping a beat.
"Still, you have to let me go."
Ada Wong lived in the shadows. Half the people she knew wanted her dead, and the other half wanted to use her for whatever purposes they wanted. Granted, not many people knew of her existence—she didn't exist, as far as most governments went—but still, the select few who had the privilege and burden of knowing her, or of her, wouldn't do very nice things to her if they found her. All of them wanted to destroy her or want her to destroy something or someone. All of them, except her true employers, who would get her out of hot water if needed be. All of them, except for maybe one man, who deliberately let her destroy whatever order his life had.
She had been called many, many names, "selfish" among the tamest. Because that was the truth. Ada was a selfish woman—selfish enough to want to keep seeing Leon, but not selfish enough to jeopardise his career and safety. That night, the less selfish side of her won. Leon's hands were warm and safe and begged to be held forever, but she would have no hand to hold if she continued to skirt around her employer's orders. They both understood that, and Leon was stubborn enough to repeatedly ask her to stay, but not foolish enough to detain her against her will. Their employers hung a very grave and real threat over their heads.
She was always calm when dealing when monsters and clients and whatnot. She was used to it. Fighting B.O.W.s rarely made her nervous these days; it was just the way she was moulded, and developing sangfroid was one of the very first things spies were taught. She was, however, not used to the way her heart beat faster whenever she saw Leon, or the riot of emotions she felt about him, which took a considerable amount of willpower to tamp down. She always thought about how she disrupted his life, but she had never really thought about how much he disrupted hers.
Maybe she should be the one to let go.
And she did just that.
She took her phone out of her pocket and sent one final message to him—Take care of yourself, Leon—destroyed the phone, disposed of it, and hopped on a cab on the way to the embassy.
Hours later, she was on a plane back to China, discarding Ada Wong and everything that came with her.
It had been a little over a year since the Tall Oaks and Lanshiang attacks, and a few months after the New York attack, when Leon learned the truth about China.
A former Neo-Umbrella researcher came to the United States seeking protection and asylum. In exchange, he would surrender all the data and information he had gathered during his stint as a researcher for a terrorist group, including the names of all The Family members hiding in the US government. It was a good deal, and the United States accepted it.
The DSO was tasked with investigating and apprehending the implicated government officials, which amounted to twenty-five of the employees in the White House alone. If the president's stronghold already had that many traitors, how many more traitors composed the entire United States government?
But then again, Leon was no stranger to treachery.
Leon hasn't seen or heard from Ada in two months—if that was still the name she was using, which was very unlikely. That night, against his wishes, he let her go. They didn't kiss each other goodbye; Leon knew with absolute certainty that if he had Ada in his arms that night, he would never let her go again. But it wasn't just about them anymore—it was about where their loyalties lay, and in this case, they owed a greater loyalty to the governments they served.
He looked over the files the former Neo-Umbrella researcher had presented. Everything was in there—C-virus data that the US didn't have, Simmons's dodgy activities, and the existence and subsequent non-existence of Dr Carla Radames.
Ada wanted Leon to believe that Carla's actions were her own so he would be inclined to leave her. That may be the reason why she eliminated all traces of the theft of her identity, but that didn't explain why she was so insistent on taking the blame. It couldn't be just because of Leon. It couldn't be.
She did say that he would eventually learn the truth about China, and he did, but as with all things about Ada, it was never the full picture.
"So I guess we have been barking up the wrong tree," the president said during a meeting, "considering that the tree we want had already been dead. China was never involved in the C-virus outbreaks and had been the victim, just like the United States. The person we want to answer for Tall Oaks and Lanshiang, Dr Radames, is gone. I say we concentrate our efforts in rooting out all the remaining Family members for now."
And maybe this was why Ada wanted him to know the truth—she would take the blame for Carla's crimes, not just because of Leon, but because she wanted to get China out of trouble, just like it always did when she was in trouble.
As was always the case with Ada Wong, there was always another secret.
Days later, the president held another meeting, this time with the BSAA's Chris Redfield. Setting aside the bad blood between the BSAA and the United States, the US president thought that it was only proper to let Chris know the truth about Edonia, about who got his men killed. Chris was livid—both at Ada and not having the authority to chase her while she was on US soil. But that anger, though misdirected, was not misplaced. He still had every right to be angry at her for associating with his old nemesis Albert Wesker, but he had no right to be angry at her for what happened in Edonia.
After the meeting, Leon and Chris went to a pub. They chose a secluded booth where no one could overhear them, while at the same time offered them a view of the whole place. Taking note of the entry and exit points while sweeping their booth for bugs were practices two worn-out veterans like them were always wont to do.
Chris looked, for a lack of a better word, dead. Like he had lost his purpose.
"My hatred for her wasn't the only thing that kept me going," Chris said in between sips of his beer, "but it sure kept me going. I needed to live for the memories of my fallen comrades, but I also wanted to avenge their deaths. It all seems so senseless now." He groaned, scrubbing his face.
"We've both been here before," Leon replied, staring into the condensation forming on his beer mug, "wondering why we're still here, why we're still fighting. But it was as you said—we owe it to all the people who had lost their lives to keep on fighting."
Chris, looking pensive, nodded. It would take time before his anger for Ada subsided.
"To fighting," Chris said, raising his glass.
Leon clinked his glass against Chris's. "To fighting."
After a while, Chris said, "You wanted to apprehend Wong so you could put her on the witness stand against Simmons."
"I did."
"And the manhunt for her had been put on hold."
"It was. With irrefutable evidence that she wasn't responsible for the C-virus outbreaks, the US has no known reason to go after her."
"'No known reason'? Leon, what do you know about her?"
He was met with silence.
"You know, I noticed this back in China.…You were a tad overprotective of her."
Leon took a gulp of his beer. "My partner and I were being framed, and she held the key to our innocence."
"No, it was more than that." He could feel Chris's gaze on him. "Are you and Wong…involved?"
This was Chris Redfrield—one of his good friends, and the older brother of one of his oldest and truest friends. He, just like Leon, sought the end of this interminable war against bio-organic weapons, and wished to see the people responsible for prolonging this war suffer. Ada was, in one way or another, one of those people. His and Ada's relationship was one built on secrets and omitted truths, but if there was one undeniable fact about them, it was that they would continue protecting each other.
Chris was also a man that Leon trusted with his life, so he looked his friend in the eyes and said, "Let's just say that if anyone hurts her, I will tear this whole world apart to catch that person, and by the time I'm done with them, they'll be begging me to kill them."
He wouldn't tell Chris about the real deal between him and Ada, but he would make it obvious to him that he cared a great deal about her, and if ever tried unleashing his anger on her, one relationship was going to end, and it wasn't going to be his and Ada's.
When the dust had settled, Ada came to see Leon again. She wasn't Ada Wong anymore, but Leon would always know her by that name.
She was constantly exposed to ruthlessness and cruelty in this dog-eats-dog world, that when a callow, idealistic, and naive rookie cop showed her kindness, she couldn't help but get attached. The kindness that rookie cop had shown her was a bite of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, because now that she knew what it tasted like—what it felt like—going back to that world without that forbidden fruit suddenly wasn't as tempting anymore. Eve got thrown out of Eden for tasting what she was explicitly warned not to taste. Ada, who didn't even want to taste the forbidden fruit in the first place, felt the treacherous desire to leave the safety of Eden if it meant having even just a nibble of that forbidden fruit.
They weren't entirely free—China still wanted him, and the US still wanted her—but for now, they had room to breathe. For now, they could see each other again.
They met in a suite at the Hotel Borg in Reykjavik. It had been seven months since they last saw each other. By this time, Leon should know the full truth about Lanshiang. He should already know that Ada destroyed all evidence of her identity theft because she didn't want foreign governments getting her data, among all other things. He should know that she was willing to take the fall for China, because one, she knew China would get her out of that mess, and two, because she trusted to Leon to uncover the truth. He should know by now that while they still couldn't be seen together, their paths would always cross, even if they tried their hardest to avoid each other.
"I've got twenty-two hours before my employers question my absence," Ada said as she opened the hotel room, her overnight bag slung over her shoulder.
"Well, I'm here on a holiday," he said, walking towards her, "so I have all the time in the world."
"Lucky you." She reached up to touch his face, her thumb brushing across his stubble. That skin-on-skin contact lit a dormant fire inside her.
"So you missed me, huh?" he said jokingly as he leaned into her touch, smirk firmly in place.
She withdrew her hand and stepped closer to him, dropping her overnight bag on the floor. In this room where there was only the two of them, she smiled softly and let what she truly felt show on her face. "I guess I did."
His smirk fell.
"Now that you know everything, did your feelings for me change?"
"Yes."
It was only through rigorous training that she was able to mask the hurt she felt. She simpered and said, "Smart man."
He placed his hands on her waist and pressed their foreheads together. "I love you even more."
Ada took great pride in being a master at controlling her emotions, but as always, Leon managed to make a chink in her armour and let a piece of her true self show. She bit her trembling lip, then said, "Foolish man." She brushed Leon's lips with her thumb. "Foolish, foolish man."
He pulled her by the waist, and their lips met halfway.
Leon woke up to the sight of Ada getting dressed.
He sat up, the sheets pooling around his bare waist. The scratches on his back stung a little, but they were good reminders of what happened last night. "Leaving so soon?" His voice was scratchy from sleep. "I thought we had," he said, looking at the clock, "four more hours."
Ada handed him a warm mug of coffee. He enclosed his hands around the mug, feeling the warmth seep into his bones.
"They're getting crabby." She sat beside him and took the coffee she just handed him out of his hands, took a sip, then gave it back to him. "I don't want to risk it. I'm already risking too much just being here."
He didn't want to sigh so he drank the coffee instead. "And here I thought we could have some ponnukokur and skyr for breakfast."
"You still could. I'll most probably eat airport food." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'm already working on getting a two-week holiday."
He perked up. "Yeah? When?"
"After this mission is over. Which would take at least six weeks."
"At least six weeks?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes, and my two-week holiday would be well deserved. They're going to plant me in Japan next. Who knows how long will I be lying dormant there before they call on me."
"Why Japan?"
"Japan is on the prowl for Svetlana Belikova. US and Russian companies active in Japan have invested a lot of money rebuilding the Eastern Slav Republic. The money that should be going to Japan is going to the Eastern Slav instead."
"And China wants her?"
"China, just like every government in the world, including yours, wants to get ahead of other nations. To get ahead, they need information."
He placed the coffee mug on the bedside table and snaked an arm around her waist. "You sure that's the only reason you accepted that job? Not because you don't have an unfinished business with her?"
Ada chuckled. "A rematch would be nice."
He brushed the hair away from her face, trying to touch whatever parts of her he could before she left again. His voice was softer when he said, "The next time we meet, I hope it wouldn't be in a B.O.W. hot zone."
She buried her face in his neck. "I can't promise you that. What I can promise you, though, is the next time we see each other, the leash around my neck would be looser."
She was practically sitting on his lap now. He gathered her in his arms, feeling her melt against him. "The president's offer for an immunity deal is still on the table." As long as the two of them served different masters, there was no way that they could be together in the way they wanted.
He felt her smile. "You know that's not gonna happen."
He leaned back so he could look at her face, and then grinned. "Yeah, not gonna happen. Anytime soon. We don't know what's gonna happen next, so I'll wait."
She wove her hands in his hair. "You're gonna wait for a long time."
"I've already waited for you for aeons. What's a few more years." He squeezed her arm. "Now go before you get into trouble."
She stood up from the bed and shrugged on her coat, then bent down to kiss him.
"Ada?" he said as he watched her pack her bag.
"What?"
"The next time we meet, I promise I won't let you go."
She zipped her bag close and hung it over her shoulder. She gave him another kiss, this time a more lingering and desperate one. "Let's see what happens then. See you later, Leon."
He watched her walk out of their hotel room. It would be too risky to accompany her downstairs, let alone the airport, but instead of wallowing in his newfound loneliness, he got dressed and ordered room service, then started investigating the whereabouts of Svetlana Belikova.
He would seize in his hands whatever chance he could get to see Ada.
At the airport lounge where she waited for her flight, Ada rooted out an old paperback inside her carry-on. It was when she noticed two items that weren't previously there—the compact case she had given to Leon back in China, and then a key accompanied by a note.
So you would stop slipping into my window, it said.
She decided something right then and there.
She smiled and placed the items back into her carry-on, and Ada promised herself that that next time she saw Leon, the leash around her neck would have already completely disappeared.
"There's always another secret."
-Kelsier, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
A/N: oh wow okay so when this fic was just an idea in my head, i started writing bullet points of what i wanted to see happen. those bullet points blossomed into an outline (which is about 80% done as of this writing) for what i predict would be an aeon fic at least 80k long... but who has the energy and willpower to right 80k, right? certainly not me. so i took the parts that i wanted to see the most and this fic was the result. will i ever write that other fic? no one knows.
anyway if you're still reading this, please listen to "BULLET TO THE HEART" by Jackson Wang. it's my ultimate aeon song. come cry with me.
thanks for reading!