He furrowed his brow. Her name. For some reason he couldn't remember. He'd
remembered it a few days ago. It wasn't like the name of your first time
was easy to forget, but for some reason his recall was drawing a blank.
Come to think of it...
He stood up out of the hot-tub, and pulled a towel on over the swim shorts they had provided for him.
"Leon?" Rebecca asked, slightly confused at his surprise exit from the tub "What's wrong?"
Leon stalked into the sitting room, and sat down heavily in the thick couch. He stared down at the priceless patterned Persian carpet and tried to think. Leon massaged his tired temples with his hand, in an attempt to inspire his synapses into life. He remembered...he remembered her face. That he could remember. But where he had formerly been able to attach a name, there was now nothing but a blank void. It was the day before he'd graduated, it couldn't be that difficult to remember. Come to think of it, what had he done post graduation? He thought. Nothing. Again, a blank void. Now Leon was really starting to sweat; first the name of his first time, and now there was an alarming four year gap he appeared to have forgotten. The next thing he could remember was starting his police training. But he hadn't started training until he was twenty-two. That was at least four years that he was drawing little more than a blank at. He was dimly aware Rebecca was standing beside him and talking to him.
"Leon? Leon?" Leon turned to Rebecca.
"Rebecca, what's the name of the first man you slept with?" Rebecca went deep red. To any person it may well have seemed like a pick- up line, seeing as both of them were dressed in little more than towels. Leon's eyes were serious however, and she replied. "I...didn't have a first time. I'm still a...virgin." She seemed very embarrassed by this point, something Leon understood. She was still only nineteen, not everybody was still a virgin by then. Then, more sympathetically he asked her
"Okay. Um...how about your first kiss then?"
Oh, that was easy, Rebecca thought. She searched her memories for the memory of that first sweet kiss at age fourteen, of the young man she'd been swept off her feet by. How could she forget him? She'd repeated his name every day for nearly a year after, it was an institution in her brain. His name. His name.
Leon noticed the muscles in her face tensing.
"Leon...I don't know." She replied, hopelessly as fear started to creep into her voice "I can't remember the name of my school either! I can't even remember what college I went to!"
The panic rose in her voice as she exclaimed this, and Leon's was rising too. As he thought about it, his school name was also a mystery. Neither could he remember his first kiss. He knew it had happened, and had images...but not names. Come to think of it, even her face was becoming a bit of a mystery now. He strained and strained to picture her; sweat beaded on his forehead with the effort, but still to no avail.
"I can't even remember what she looks like now." Leon whispered, clutching his agonised and severely messed up head in his hands. Rebecca sat down beside him, shaking her head in bewilderment; tears crept down from her eyes, and slid off her cheeks to stain the carpet dark with moisture.
"What's happening to us?" she said, "What the hell is going on?"
"Do you think I'd be sitting here if I knew?!" Leon snapped. He regretted it instantly, because Rebecca just seemed to get more upset. She was crying proper tears now; of what? Regret? Despair? He wasn't sure exactly. Leon was certain enough to put his arm around her and give her a half-hug.
"Sorry about that..." he said, gently "...I just...lost it."
She relaxed slightly, but didn't let go. If anything, she redoubled her grip on Leon's arm. For some reason he was a rock; a boon for her to cling to in the storm. Despite the fact he was just as scared as her, Leon made her...feel at home. More comfortable. What puzzled her was how deep-seated the emotion felt; it wasn't just camaraderie or the notion of trusting your partner with your life. It was a deep, spiritual bond that she was pretty sure Leon felt but which couldn't be made clear. "Why is my head going blank?" Leon said, deep in confusion "I don't get it."
"Well then," Rebecca said, standing up. She decided maybe it was her turn to be the strong one; she pulled the last strands of her courage together "We'd better ask them."
"When?"
"Tomorrow. I doubt they'd let us out before the day was through." Leon nodded.
"Good idea. So what do we do now?"
There was silence as they considered this.
"I don't know about you..." Rebecca said, rubbing her snarling stomach "...but I'm absolutely goddamn starving."
Leon nodded vehemently; he hadn't eaten since sometime the previous afternoon and his stomach was getting angry. As he considered this, he actually felt his mood mildly improving despite his mental state.
"No kidding. There a fridge around here?"
"Um..." She scanned the room, and then walked into the next room. Leon explored the other room linking from the other direction. After a search through their fairly luxurious apartment Leon turned up three different games consoles and a ping-pong table but nothing that could be said to contain food.
"Ah, maybe they want us to starve to death" Leon said.
"Hmm..." Rebecca spied a phone on the wall "I wonder?" The food arrived maybe fifteen minutes after the phone call. Leon stared down at the plate of the best cooked southern-fried chicken he'd ever seen, accompanied by an immaculate salad, baked beans and a bottle of ice cold beer he'd raided from the minibar. Rebecca was already tucking into her meal, a chilli con-carne that steamed on top of fluffy white rice.
"We may be their prisoners..." Leon said, taking a bite of the chicken "...but man, they know how to look after them."
The sleeping arrangements proved to be interesting. There was only the one bed. It was large, yes, and it was luxuriously comfortable. It was silky white and red and seemed to take up at least half the room. "Wow" Rebecca exclaimed, bouncing experimentally on the bed "It's really comfortable."
"Yeah..." Leon said, uncomfortably "...but it's only the one bed."
"Don't be a baby" Rebecca said, "Don't worry, I won't bite."
Leon felt Rebecca was missing the point.
"Rebecca. It's one bed. We have to share it" he persisted.
For a moment Rebecca didn't get it; then all of a sudden she did. Her face flushed red with embarrassment; the third time in nearly an hour. What's wrong with me? She thought, she was more like a little girl than a biochemist and medic. She did those jobs well, she thought, but Rebecca hadn't seen an incident that required medical care just yet. "Well, it's simple." She said, matter of factly after her momentary lapse "I take one side, and you take another. Makes sense." Leon looked at the bed for another few moments, and then nodded, his fears of inappropriate goings-on allayed for the time being. Leon yawned. He'd been on the god for hours, and he didn't count his unconscious ride in the belly of the cargo plane as much of a rest. But boy was he tired. "Dunno about you" he said, suppressing a second yawn "But I think I'm going to bed right now." He walked into the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom, and closed the door. Rebecca stared after him. Well, that awkward situation had been dealt with. As if, she thought scoffing at herself, I'd sleep with Leon! It'd be a cold day in hell before that happens!
For ten minutes, Rebecca found herself wondering when the next cold day in Satan's domain would occur.
Leon's dream was not a dream. It was a memory; the most vivid of all he'd seen so far. It was longer, clearer and more comprehensible but no less mysterious. Yes, it was still in a kind of fizzing, crackling style but it was less fragmentary than before. He appeared to be in a small room, an office of some description. Seated at what seemed to be a mahogany desk sat a fairly porky man who was eyeing him with a look of distrust, or maybe even unease. The carpet was thick and expensive, but the room was utilitarian; stationery perfectly arranged on the desk, a calendar, a company logo that Leon....couldn't...quite...see...
"Are you sure this is the right approach?" the man said, in the kind of a voice a man who only ever worked in an office environment would use.
"Of course" he heard his own voice say. Leon was shocked. It was his voice all right, but it was being used in a snide, cold way he'd never use in normal conversation.
His voice then continued in that same way, the same smugly self- satisfied tone that gave him the shivers.
"It's quite simple. I will contact Birkin and we will meet. I will then look around to familiarise myself with the facility. Then I decamp to Raccoon City with Rebecca, is that too much to ask?"
The man's face creased with anger.
"Don't get arrogant with me Leon, or I'll charge you with rank insubordination." Leon felt himself stand up. "Whatever. Just do it, please." Leon was shocked. He would never speak to anybody like that; surely this couldn't be him? As he left the room into an empty metal corridor, he saw somebody approach. It was Rebecca. Slightly younger, but not by much.
"Heya baby" she purred seductively, kissing him.
"Hey" he replied, with equal passion.
Rebecca looked at him. She too didn't look as he knew her. Her eyes had no sparkle as they did normally, but they did have an uncomfortable glow matched with a smug smile that gave Leon the creeps.
"So you're definitely going to the city lab?"
He nodded.
"Yeah. Fatman just authorised it."
For a moment, Rebecca looked coy. "It's a pity you're not coming to Arklay with me; we could have so much fun..." A hand on his cheek. Not Rebecca behaviour at all; Rebecca was fairly tomboyish, and when she wasn't she was certainly more restrained than this.
"No can do sweet-lips, got a job to do." Rebecca laughed, a sound that was a perversion of what Rebecca's laughs really sounded like, and began to walk with him down the corridor.
"You meeting with Dr. Bell?" Leon asked.
"Yep. He was worried progress might not be made by the time I got there. Let's just say I gave them motivation."
A shared laugh, neither the warm sound either made.
Arklay...? Birkin...? Sweetlips...? Then Leon was awake all of a sudden, bolt upright and panting like a dog. There was a long drawn-out silence as Leon began to breathe normally again. He was back in the 'cell', the room flooding with morning light. Leon groaned and stretched, turning to the wall clock to read the time. Eleven- fifty-two. He flopped back into the sheets, his mind flowing like a stream; these weird lapses were getting more and more regular as time went on, not to mention more vivid. It was now past strange. It had been way past strange after the last time, but now it was frightening. Leon did not consciously remember any of what he was remembering. The little girl. The lab walk. And now this. Rebecca was definitely in this one now; what strange, secretive past or bizarre episode in his past or somebody else's they had been involved they had been involved in it together.
"How was the trip?" Leon asked, as Rebecca sat down beside him in the waiting lounge; the white-Umbrella logo was emblazoned in vast reds and whites and the piercing sword on the wall opposite them.
"Fine." She replied, "All set."
"Think it'll work?" he asked her.
"I see no reason why" she said, with a shrug "They don't know. Give it six months and I think we'll actually be able to put the plan into action."
"Six months? I thought you said all set?"
"For phase one, yeah." Leon looked Rebecca in the eyes, all of the sounds of the workplace drowned around her. "By the way, they want us back home. Say its an emergency or something." "Dean probably got his pants in a twist again" Rebecca replied bitterly "Hell, when do we go?"
"Tomorrow. First plane out to Sydney." Rebecca felt Leon leaning closer on the couch; every sensation felt real and every sound hit a nerve.
"Don't I get a kiss for a good weeks work done?" he asked, smirking lustily.
Rebecca heard her own voice.
"Oh, you'll get more than that baby..." With a gasp of surprise, Rebecca woke up. Her eyes flew open wide, eyes darted around the room for signs of that logo. No, it wasn't here; Rebecca felt herself relax slightly as reality registered itself around her. That had been an uncomfortable dream...oh who was she kidding, it felt too real to be a self-induced hallucination. It could be a very convincing fantasy, but it didn't' feel like any fantasy she would ever have. The Umbrella logo and the way her and Leon and her had conversed had unsettled her, badly. The surviving STARS and those associated with them had resolved to bring them down, and Rebecca had no intention of flinching from that. "Bad dream, huh?" Leon said, sitting down beside her. His expression was expectant yet sympathetic. Rebecca exhaled, and nodded. She pulled herself up into an upright position, and rested her neck against the vast headboard. "Yep. More vivid this time." Leon turned away. "Mine too." "What was yours about?" Rebecca asked. "Me and you. We were about to go on a 'mission'" Rebecca would have reacted with surprise, but somehow it seemed pointless reacting like that anymore. She knew there was a connection although she wasn't sure what it was; a conversation with their resident scientist would probably put paid to that. It was time, she thought, her heart pounding in her chest, to finally discover the truth.
"In mine, we'd just come back from the mission" she replied eventually.
"Anything creep you out about the way we acted in it? Like...really cold?"
"Uh-huh" she nodded in the positive, "It's becoming too real now."
"Why do I get the impression it always has been...?" Leon mused half to himself. Rebecca picked up on it, however.
"You're not the only one who thinks that; I'm not comfortable with anything I do remember from when I was a kid now." Leon shook his head, sick and tired of his memory.
"I'm sick of this. I'm starting to doubt who I am, I've never done that before. There's a hole there and I don't know what to do about it. I need answers before I go crazy, god knows anybody in this mental state would. How can I be sure I am who I think I am?"
"Well..." Rebecca wasn't sure how to answer. Leon turned to her, eyes tightly determined.
"We're going to see that guy now."
The soldiers dressed in black walked behind them, although these ones felt confident enough to go without helmets. They were lean, cold and lacking in social graces. Their limited vocabulary towards guests/prisoners was limited to 'Get up' 'Now' and 'Move', all of which they had grunted from beneath cruel eyes and had backed up with black rifles. Tranquilliser or otherwise, Leon couldn't guess. The corridor was wide, grey and lit with pale strip lights despite the fact it was supposedly almost midday. No windows, Leon noted, as his and Rebecca's boots squeaked on the squeaky clean linoleum which reflected the only light up from the immaculate floor. They both had questions to ask, and a lot of them. Some of these included why their memories were as patchy as they were, what these new memories meant, why they were being kept in the lap of luxury and who their hosts were in the first place. If they wanted to stand a chance of actually finding out at all, they'd have to be good. Which was why they walked ahead of the guards with no fuss at all. They even left them behind at certain points, then waited for their escort to catch up. The guards directed them down yet another corridor and then ordered them to take a sharp left through a pair of glass doors. The room they stepped into was alive with the thrum of machines and computers, the already bright room lit further by bank after bank of glowing monitors and consoles. Several vast machines, each a bizarre science-fiction orgasm from somebody whose favourite films were Blade Runner and The Matrix stood at the end of the room next to vast viewing windows. Two doors led off from either side of the room, which was only about half full. Leon felt his eyes widen; about fifteen or so scientists were standing around making notes, and nearly forty odd technicians were seated at their computers, headphones blotting out the normal world around them. It was not quiet however, several staff members stood around talking about work, some others a little more relaxed and were sharing jokes or bizarre stories. At the front of the room were three figures, each one expectant. The first was the man who had brought them to their quarters the night before. The second was an attractive forty-something lady of Chinese origin who appeared somewhat more kindly than the man, a gentle glow settling across her mature but beautiful Asian face as Leon and Rebecca walked through the door. The third figure was the youngest by quite some distance. She was uniformed as a technician, and much like the older figure seemed to have Chinese origin, although she seemed to have western blood judging by the difference between the two. This one was about eighteen or so, Leon reckoned, and every pretty too. While the older woman had a gentle glow, the young woman was like a sun at the zenith of its strength.
"Ah" the man smiled as the two approached him "Welcome. I trust you both slept well?"
The women were looking at Leon and Rebecca very intently, something Leon seemed aware of as he replied.
"Yeah. Like a top."
"Judging by the frantic phone-call Rebecca made this morning, I'm under the impression that you want answers?"
Rebecca's phone-call had maybe been more enthusiastic and passionate than it had needed to be, but that didn't matter. It had had the desired effect.
"It is only natural you would want answers" the man said "And I shall give you the answers that you desire. It is time you knew anyway. Please follow us into my office."
The women smiled and nodded at Leon and Rebecca, who followed the three of them into one of the side doors. The office was large and much like their apartment, very luxurious. There were potted palms across what seemed to be a marble floor and fully stocked shelves, full of books, trophies and photographs of a long gone age. The man took a seat in his enormous desk chair; clearly no expense was spared here despite the bombings and the mayhem beyond the fences.
Rebecca finally spoke up, refusing to stay mute for much longer.
"Look" she said impatiently "We're having real memory problems right now, and we know that you all know what it is we actually need to know. So come on!"
The man raised his hands.
"We will be getting to that promptly. First I want to introduce us. I am Dr. Peterson, head of operations and lead scientist here in the Proteus Labs. To my left..." he indicated to his left "...is Dr. Mei Wong. She has been working under me for nearly twenty years and is very trustworthy. You will not find a better person than her on my staff."
He smiled at her, and then pointed to the youngest of the three. "This is her daughter; Mia Wong. She is a technician here, and specifically requested to speak to you." He rolled his eyes as Mia blushed "She sort of idolizes you."
Leon and Rebecca exchanged blank looks.
"Okay, Dr. Peterson." Leon said, patience beginning to fray "Can you tell us what's going on? Why are our memories all messed around, why can't I remember my first girlfriend, why can everybody else here remember us and why are you intent on keeping us happy?"
"One question at a time" Peterson replied, "But I will give you the most difficult news first."
There was a pregnant pause as Peterson stood up slowly. He was preparing to say something, judging by his exhalations and bunching of his knuckles. Then he looked directly at them, eyes darkly serious. What he said changed their lives irrevocably.
"The truth is that you are not who you think you are. You are not the real Leon S. Kennedy, Leon, and neither are you the real Rebecca Chambers, Rebecca. The original Leon Kennedy and Rebecca Chambers died twenty-five years ago in a car crash."
He stood up out of the hot-tub, and pulled a towel on over the swim shorts they had provided for him.
"Leon?" Rebecca asked, slightly confused at his surprise exit from the tub "What's wrong?"
Leon stalked into the sitting room, and sat down heavily in the thick couch. He stared down at the priceless patterned Persian carpet and tried to think. Leon massaged his tired temples with his hand, in an attempt to inspire his synapses into life. He remembered...he remembered her face. That he could remember. But where he had formerly been able to attach a name, there was now nothing but a blank void. It was the day before he'd graduated, it couldn't be that difficult to remember. Come to think of it, what had he done post graduation? He thought. Nothing. Again, a blank void. Now Leon was really starting to sweat; first the name of his first time, and now there was an alarming four year gap he appeared to have forgotten. The next thing he could remember was starting his police training. But he hadn't started training until he was twenty-two. That was at least four years that he was drawing little more than a blank at. He was dimly aware Rebecca was standing beside him and talking to him.
"Leon? Leon?" Leon turned to Rebecca.
"Rebecca, what's the name of the first man you slept with?" Rebecca went deep red. To any person it may well have seemed like a pick- up line, seeing as both of them were dressed in little more than towels. Leon's eyes were serious however, and she replied. "I...didn't have a first time. I'm still a...virgin." She seemed very embarrassed by this point, something Leon understood. She was still only nineteen, not everybody was still a virgin by then. Then, more sympathetically he asked her
"Okay. Um...how about your first kiss then?"
Oh, that was easy, Rebecca thought. She searched her memories for the memory of that first sweet kiss at age fourteen, of the young man she'd been swept off her feet by. How could she forget him? She'd repeated his name every day for nearly a year after, it was an institution in her brain. His name. His name.
Leon noticed the muscles in her face tensing.
"Leon...I don't know." She replied, hopelessly as fear started to creep into her voice "I can't remember the name of my school either! I can't even remember what college I went to!"
The panic rose in her voice as she exclaimed this, and Leon's was rising too. As he thought about it, his school name was also a mystery. Neither could he remember his first kiss. He knew it had happened, and had images...but not names. Come to think of it, even her face was becoming a bit of a mystery now. He strained and strained to picture her; sweat beaded on his forehead with the effort, but still to no avail.
"I can't even remember what she looks like now." Leon whispered, clutching his agonised and severely messed up head in his hands. Rebecca sat down beside him, shaking her head in bewilderment; tears crept down from her eyes, and slid off her cheeks to stain the carpet dark with moisture.
"What's happening to us?" she said, "What the hell is going on?"
"Do you think I'd be sitting here if I knew?!" Leon snapped. He regretted it instantly, because Rebecca just seemed to get more upset. She was crying proper tears now; of what? Regret? Despair? He wasn't sure exactly. Leon was certain enough to put his arm around her and give her a half-hug.
"Sorry about that..." he said, gently "...I just...lost it."
She relaxed slightly, but didn't let go. If anything, she redoubled her grip on Leon's arm. For some reason he was a rock; a boon for her to cling to in the storm. Despite the fact he was just as scared as her, Leon made her...feel at home. More comfortable. What puzzled her was how deep-seated the emotion felt; it wasn't just camaraderie or the notion of trusting your partner with your life. It was a deep, spiritual bond that she was pretty sure Leon felt but which couldn't be made clear. "Why is my head going blank?" Leon said, deep in confusion "I don't get it."
"Well then," Rebecca said, standing up. She decided maybe it was her turn to be the strong one; she pulled the last strands of her courage together "We'd better ask them."
"When?"
"Tomorrow. I doubt they'd let us out before the day was through." Leon nodded.
"Good idea. So what do we do now?"
There was silence as they considered this.
"I don't know about you..." Rebecca said, rubbing her snarling stomach "...but I'm absolutely goddamn starving."
Leon nodded vehemently; he hadn't eaten since sometime the previous afternoon and his stomach was getting angry. As he considered this, he actually felt his mood mildly improving despite his mental state.
"No kidding. There a fridge around here?"
"Um..." She scanned the room, and then walked into the next room. Leon explored the other room linking from the other direction. After a search through their fairly luxurious apartment Leon turned up three different games consoles and a ping-pong table but nothing that could be said to contain food.
"Ah, maybe they want us to starve to death" Leon said.
"Hmm..." Rebecca spied a phone on the wall "I wonder?" The food arrived maybe fifteen minutes after the phone call. Leon stared down at the plate of the best cooked southern-fried chicken he'd ever seen, accompanied by an immaculate salad, baked beans and a bottle of ice cold beer he'd raided from the minibar. Rebecca was already tucking into her meal, a chilli con-carne that steamed on top of fluffy white rice.
"We may be their prisoners..." Leon said, taking a bite of the chicken "...but man, they know how to look after them."
The sleeping arrangements proved to be interesting. There was only the one bed. It was large, yes, and it was luxuriously comfortable. It was silky white and red and seemed to take up at least half the room. "Wow" Rebecca exclaimed, bouncing experimentally on the bed "It's really comfortable."
"Yeah..." Leon said, uncomfortably "...but it's only the one bed."
"Don't be a baby" Rebecca said, "Don't worry, I won't bite."
Leon felt Rebecca was missing the point.
"Rebecca. It's one bed. We have to share it" he persisted.
For a moment Rebecca didn't get it; then all of a sudden she did. Her face flushed red with embarrassment; the third time in nearly an hour. What's wrong with me? She thought, she was more like a little girl than a biochemist and medic. She did those jobs well, she thought, but Rebecca hadn't seen an incident that required medical care just yet. "Well, it's simple." She said, matter of factly after her momentary lapse "I take one side, and you take another. Makes sense." Leon looked at the bed for another few moments, and then nodded, his fears of inappropriate goings-on allayed for the time being. Leon yawned. He'd been on the god for hours, and he didn't count his unconscious ride in the belly of the cargo plane as much of a rest. But boy was he tired. "Dunno about you" he said, suppressing a second yawn "But I think I'm going to bed right now." He walked into the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom, and closed the door. Rebecca stared after him. Well, that awkward situation had been dealt with. As if, she thought scoffing at herself, I'd sleep with Leon! It'd be a cold day in hell before that happens!
For ten minutes, Rebecca found herself wondering when the next cold day in Satan's domain would occur.
Leon's dream was not a dream. It was a memory; the most vivid of all he'd seen so far. It was longer, clearer and more comprehensible but no less mysterious. Yes, it was still in a kind of fizzing, crackling style but it was less fragmentary than before. He appeared to be in a small room, an office of some description. Seated at what seemed to be a mahogany desk sat a fairly porky man who was eyeing him with a look of distrust, or maybe even unease. The carpet was thick and expensive, but the room was utilitarian; stationery perfectly arranged on the desk, a calendar, a company logo that Leon....couldn't...quite...see...
"Are you sure this is the right approach?" the man said, in the kind of a voice a man who only ever worked in an office environment would use.
"Of course" he heard his own voice say. Leon was shocked. It was his voice all right, but it was being used in a snide, cold way he'd never use in normal conversation.
His voice then continued in that same way, the same smugly self- satisfied tone that gave him the shivers.
"It's quite simple. I will contact Birkin and we will meet. I will then look around to familiarise myself with the facility. Then I decamp to Raccoon City with Rebecca, is that too much to ask?"
The man's face creased with anger.
"Don't get arrogant with me Leon, or I'll charge you with rank insubordination." Leon felt himself stand up. "Whatever. Just do it, please." Leon was shocked. He would never speak to anybody like that; surely this couldn't be him? As he left the room into an empty metal corridor, he saw somebody approach. It was Rebecca. Slightly younger, but not by much.
"Heya baby" she purred seductively, kissing him.
"Hey" he replied, with equal passion.
Rebecca looked at him. She too didn't look as he knew her. Her eyes had no sparkle as they did normally, but they did have an uncomfortable glow matched with a smug smile that gave Leon the creeps.
"So you're definitely going to the city lab?"
He nodded.
"Yeah. Fatman just authorised it."
For a moment, Rebecca looked coy. "It's a pity you're not coming to Arklay with me; we could have so much fun..." A hand on his cheek. Not Rebecca behaviour at all; Rebecca was fairly tomboyish, and when she wasn't she was certainly more restrained than this.
"No can do sweet-lips, got a job to do." Rebecca laughed, a sound that was a perversion of what Rebecca's laughs really sounded like, and began to walk with him down the corridor.
"You meeting with Dr. Bell?" Leon asked.
"Yep. He was worried progress might not be made by the time I got there. Let's just say I gave them motivation."
A shared laugh, neither the warm sound either made.
Arklay...? Birkin...? Sweetlips...? Then Leon was awake all of a sudden, bolt upright and panting like a dog. There was a long drawn-out silence as Leon began to breathe normally again. He was back in the 'cell', the room flooding with morning light. Leon groaned and stretched, turning to the wall clock to read the time. Eleven- fifty-two. He flopped back into the sheets, his mind flowing like a stream; these weird lapses were getting more and more regular as time went on, not to mention more vivid. It was now past strange. It had been way past strange after the last time, but now it was frightening. Leon did not consciously remember any of what he was remembering. The little girl. The lab walk. And now this. Rebecca was definitely in this one now; what strange, secretive past or bizarre episode in his past or somebody else's they had been involved they had been involved in it together.
"How was the trip?" Leon asked, as Rebecca sat down beside him in the waiting lounge; the white-Umbrella logo was emblazoned in vast reds and whites and the piercing sword on the wall opposite them.
"Fine." She replied, "All set."
"Think it'll work?" he asked her.
"I see no reason why" she said, with a shrug "They don't know. Give it six months and I think we'll actually be able to put the plan into action."
"Six months? I thought you said all set?"
"For phase one, yeah." Leon looked Rebecca in the eyes, all of the sounds of the workplace drowned around her. "By the way, they want us back home. Say its an emergency or something." "Dean probably got his pants in a twist again" Rebecca replied bitterly "Hell, when do we go?"
"Tomorrow. First plane out to Sydney." Rebecca felt Leon leaning closer on the couch; every sensation felt real and every sound hit a nerve.
"Don't I get a kiss for a good weeks work done?" he asked, smirking lustily.
Rebecca heard her own voice.
"Oh, you'll get more than that baby..." With a gasp of surprise, Rebecca woke up. Her eyes flew open wide, eyes darted around the room for signs of that logo. No, it wasn't here; Rebecca felt herself relax slightly as reality registered itself around her. That had been an uncomfortable dream...oh who was she kidding, it felt too real to be a self-induced hallucination. It could be a very convincing fantasy, but it didn't' feel like any fantasy she would ever have. The Umbrella logo and the way her and Leon and her had conversed had unsettled her, badly. The surviving STARS and those associated with them had resolved to bring them down, and Rebecca had no intention of flinching from that. "Bad dream, huh?" Leon said, sitting down beside her. His expression was expectant yet sympathetic. Rebecca exhaled, and nodded. She pulled herself up into an upright position, and rested her neck against the vast headboard. "Yep. More vivid this time." Leon turned away. "Mine too." "What was yours about?" Rebecca asked. "Me and you. We were about to go on a 'mission'" Rebecca would have reacted with surprise, but somehow it seemed pointless reacting like that anymore. She knew there was a connection although she wasn't sure what it was; a conversation with their resident scientist would probably put paid to that. It was time, she thought, her heart pounding in her chest, to finally discover the truth.
"In mine, we'd just come back from the mission" she replied eventually.
"Anything creep you out about the way we acted in it? Like...really cold?"
"Uh-huh" she nodded in the positive, "It's becoming too real now."
"Why do I get the impression it always has been...?" Leon mused half to himself. Rebecca picked up on it, however.
"You're not the only one who thinks that; I'm not comfortable with anything I do remember from when I was a kid now." Leon shook his head, sick and tired of his memory.
"I'm sick of this. I'm starting to doubt who I am, I've never done that before. There's a hole there and I don't know what to do about it. I need answers before I go crazy, god knows anybody in this mental state would. How can I be sure I am who I think I am?"
"Well..." Rebecca wasn't sure how to answer. Leon turned to her, eyes tightly determined.
"We're going to see that guy now."
The soldiers dressed in black walked behind them, although these ones felt confident enough to go without helmets. They were lean, cold and lacking in social graces. Their limited vocabulary towards guests/prisoners was limited to 'Get up' 'Now' and 'Move', all of which they had grunted from beneath cruel eyes and had backed up with black rifles. Tranquilliser or otherwise, Leon couldn't guess. The corridor was wide, grey and lit with pale strip lights despite the fact it was supposedly almost midday. No windows, Leon noted, as his and Rebecca's boots squeaked on the squeaky clean linoleum which reflected the only light up from the immaculate floor. They both had questions to ask, and a lot of them. Some of these included why their memories were as patchy as they were, what these new memories meant, why they were being kept in the lap of luxury and who their hosts were in the first place. If they wanted to stand a chance of actually finding out at all, they'd have to be good. Which was why they walked ahead of the guards with no fuss at all. They even left them behind at certain points, then waited for their escort to catch up. The guards directed them down yet another corridor and then ordered them to take a sharp left through a pair of glass doors. The room they stepped into was alive with the thrum of machines and computers, the already bright room lit further by bank after bank of glowing monitors and consoles. Several vast machines, each a bizarre science-fiction orgasm from somebody whose favourite films were Blade Runner and The Matrix stood at the end of the room next to vast viewing windows. Two doors led off from either side of the room, which was only about half full. Leon felt his eyes widen; about fifteen or so scientists were standing around making notes, and nearly forty odd technicians were seated at their computers, headphones blotting out the normal world around them. It was not quiet however, several staff members stood around talking about work, some others a little more relaxed and were sharing jokes or bizarre stories. At the front of the room were three figures, each one expectant. The first was the man who had brought them to their quarters the night before. The second was an attractive forty-something lady of Chinese origin who appeared somewhat more kindly than the man, a gentle glow settling across her mature but beautiful Asian face as Leon and Rebecca walked through the door. The third figure was the youngest by quite some distance. She was uniformed as a technician, and much like the older figure seemed to have Chinese origin, although she seemed to have western blood judging by the difference between the two. This one was about eighteen or so, Leon reckoned, and every pretty too. While the older woman had a gentle glow, the young woman was like a sun at the zenith of its strength.
"Ah" the man smiled as the two approached him "Welcome. I trust you both slept well?"
The women were looking at Leon and Rebecca very intently, something Leon seemed aware of as he replied.
"Yeah. Like a top."
"Judging by the frantic phone-call Rebecca made this morning, I'm under the impression that you want answers?"
Rebecca's phone-call had maybe been more enthusiastic and passionate than it had needed to be, but that didn't matter. It had had the desired effect.
"It is only natural you would want answers" the man said "And I shall give you the answers that you desire. It is time you knew anyway. Please follow us into my office."
The women smiled and nodded at Leon and Rebecca, who followed the three of them into one of the side doors. The office was large and much like their apartment, very luxurious. There were potted palms across what seemed to be a marble floor and fully stocked shelves, full of books, trophies and photographs of a long gone age. The man took a seat in his enormous desk chair; clearly no expense was spared here despite the bombings and the mayhem beyond the fences.
Rebecca finally spoke up, refusing to stay mute for much longer.
"Look" she said impatiently "We're having real memory problems right now, and we know that you all know what it is we actually need to know. So come on!"
The man raised his hands.
"We will be getting to that promptly. First I want to introduce us. I am Dr. Peterson, head of operations and lead scientist here in the Proteus Labs. To my left..." he indicated to his left "...is Dr. Mei Wong. She has been working under me for nearly twenty years and is very trustworthy. You will not find a better person than her on my staff."
He smiled at her, and then pointed to the youngest of the three. "This is her daughter; Mia Wong. She is a technician here, and specifically requested to speak to you." He rolled his eyes as Mia blushed "She sort of idolizes you."
Leon and Rebecca exchanged blank looks.
"Okay, Dr. Peterson." Leon said, patience beginning to fray "Can you tell us what's going on? Why are our memories all messed around, why can't I remember my first girlfriend, why can everybody else here remember us and why are you intent on keeping us happy?"
"One question at a time" Peterson replied, "But I will give you the most difficult news first."
There was a pregnant pause as Peterson stood up slowly. He was preparing to say something, judging by his exhalations and bunching of his knuckles. Then he looked directly at them, eyes darkly serious. What he said changed their lives irrevocably.
"The truth is that you are not who you think you are. You are not the real Leon S. Kennedy, Leon, and neither are you the real Rebecca Chambers, Rebecca. The original Leon Kennedy and Rebecca Chambers died twenty-five years ago in a car crash."