A horrible pause. A horrible, horrible, horrible pause. The words of Dr.
Peterson echoed in Leon's mind as if somebody had just pelted a grenade
deep into his conscience.
The real Leon Kennedy isn't me...?
He looked at Rebecca, who was also assimilating the information. Like him,
her face was trying to show several emotions at once; anger, frustration,
disappointment, shock, despair and betrayal. He could feel the blood
pounding through his body at an incredible rate as his heart tried not to
overload to the shock that resonated through his very soul. No, it couldn't
be. It had to be a trick, a trick played by Umbrella to confuse them and
lead them up the garden path. But something deep inside Leon spoke cold
words of truth. He knew that the Doctor was right. The itch he had been
trying to scratch had been scratched, and Leon's head was trying to make
excuses.
Rebecca too was finding it impossible to understand. Some inner part of her soul told her the scientist was correct, and the realization of that was sending further shockwaves through Rebecca. Her stomach churned at his words, determined not to believe the truth; but somehow she knew it was true.
"Then..." Rebecca saw Leon croak, "...Who are we...?"
Peterson sighed.
"You are advanced Tenth generation clones of the original templates; you are one of ten clones created using Leon Kennedy and Rebecca Chamber's DNA. The reason for you fragmented memory is because the memory suppressant, a combination of gene and hypnotherapy started to dysfunction when you came within proximity of your original home. This place seems familiar to you does it not?"
No answer, just a pair of hopeless, defeated nods.
"That is because you lived here before; it's also where you were born, some twenty-three years ago. The Rebecca's were always cloned after the Leon's, because the Rebecca's were created to compliment the Leon's and learn from them. The boys were talented and learned skills very well, but the Rebecca's were quicker learners."
"Clones...?" Rebecca asked quietly "...Us?"
"I'm afraid so." Peterson replied as gently as he could seemingly manage "But don't be too downhearted. You came home. Soon we can remove the hormone inhibitor and you can retain your former abilities; of course we had to restrict them when we sent you out into the big old wide world, doesn't take long for genetics companies to recognise super soldiers when they see them."
Super soldiers?
"You created us?" Leon said, voice dry as a bone "From scratch? You mean..." there was a pause, as Leon struggled to get the words out of a dry, suffocated throat "...I don't have...any...parents?"
"Of course you do" Peterson said "All of us. The Proteus team who cultivated and nurtured you from the moment we conceived you. You were trained with absolute precision from the moment of your birth to fulfil that role."
"That kind of cloning technology wasn't around that amount of time ago" Rebecca spat, trying to fight back.
"Oh, yes it was." Peterson replied, "Well, we could do it at least. Some of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century conspired to develop the technology. It was expensive of course, but the sales of pharmaceuticals that Umbrella, who were our employers at the time more than made up the losses we made. Viral research isn't cheap, neither was ours. Which was why they cut off our funding ten years ago. It was a highly complex process, but we were able to do it. Took a good number of false starts, and we were unable to make you older more quickly as we wanted; we had to settle for allowing you to age naturally."
Leon was staring off into space, still gutted by the doctor's revelation. He wasn't Leon S. Kennedy. He was somebody else; a cheap imitation of another person who had borne the name he thought he had had since birth. They were still calling him Leon, but..."
"What's my real name then?" Leon asked, only just listening to Peterson's spiel about how the viral research had led to them being able to create a spermatazoan or an egg out of the same genetic material the individual consisted of, thus replicating their genetic predispositions without the seed being 'diluted', or some such rot. Leon didn't understand it or the science of it, and wouldn't even pretend to understand.
Peterson turned to him.
"Your name is Leon. Leon Ten."
"Which means that..." Rebecca began "...that you are Rebecca Ten, yes." Leon's name echoed through his head. Leon Ten. Leon Ten. Leon TEN. LEON TEN?!
"You mean..." Leon said, his anger rising quickly with every word "...You didn't even give me a proper name?! A fucking number?!!!"
He almost screamed the last three words he was so angry, his face was red with fury and hatred. Rebecca grabbed onto Leon, and looked at Dr. Peterson with abject loathing and disgust. Her face was red too, tears were flowing freely from her eyes as she fixed her gaze on Peterson.
"That's all we were to you, wasn't it?" she shouted, voice soaked in venom "A pair of fucking numbers! Soldiers?! Assassins?! You fucking..."
"Please," Dr. Peterson raised his hands again "I understand you're both upset..."
Neither Rebecca nor Leon felt that even warranted a reply. Upset barely hit the heights to which the pair had been sent; it barely covered the anguish and despair that flowed through them both like a river.
"How do we know we can believe you?" Rebecca said, through her tears "How do we know you're not just lying to us?"
"Ah, you want proof." He smiled "I think I know just the man. Mei, would you please call them in?"
Mei Wong nodded, and looking apologetically at Leon and Rebecca she called out
"Leon, Rebecca...please come in!" The door behind them opened. "Well, well" a male voice said "This is what I call a blast from the past" Leon froze at the sound of a voice that was word for word like his. He hadn't had many moments like this; one of them was probably when Annette Birkin had first told him that Ada was a spy back in Raccoon some months ago. It was that unusual feeling of dread, a knowledge that the inevitable was about to happen.
Leon didn't dare turn around, but then again he didn't need to. The two figures walked around them and took a bemused pose two feet from them. Rebecca, despite her tears and terror of knowing that Dr. Peterson was right, felt her jaw drop open. The girl opposite her was about her age and dressed in the black combat suits all of the soldiers possessed. This girl was wearing the smile of somebody who'd just seen the most bizarre creature in the zoo and was enjoying watching it throw its faeces at her against the window. The girl was in fact identical in every single respect to Rebecca Chambers. The nose, the hair, the eyes, structure of the cheeks, the petite frame...it was her.
"It's me," the other Rebecca said in the same voice, albeit with a breezier confidence in it, and cocked her head on one side "Only cuter."
Leon found himself staring into a pair of eyes whose genetic code was exactly the same as his. The same intense blue, the same brown bangs of his hair. It was him alright. The other Leon took a step back so Leon could get a full look at the man. This Leon was, as with the other Rebecca, identical to him.
"It's been a while since we saw you guys around" the other Leon said, "We've missed you, you know."
"Who...are you?" Leon managed through a bone-dry throat.
"I'm your older clone, or brother as I prefer to say. I am only two years older than you; that's because I'm number eight."
"Number eight?" Rebecca asked.
"Yep" Rebecca Eight said cheerily "We're generation eight clones. We are the only four remaining clones out of twenty."
"They...dead or something?" Leon said.
At this point, Mei Wong and her daughter stepped up.
"I think the time for knowing those facts is yet to come. Leon and Rebecca Ten have to adjust; their memories still haven't fully returned yet." The older woman said matter of factly.
Mia Wong turned to her mother, bursting with energy.
"Can I escort them to the lab mother?"
Mei turned to her daughter.
"All in good time Mia, you'll get to talk to Leon later, okay?" Mia was blushing the colour of cherries, but Leon barely noticed her. He was still emaciated, baffled, shocked and betrayed. All he could think about was truth about who he was. A truth that shouldn't have been.
He felt somebody touch his hand. It was Mei, looking at him with concern in her eyes.
"Are you okay Leon?"
Leon looked at her as if she'd just asked him if he was male.
"No..." he said, slowly as emotion boiled up in his voice "...I'm far from 'okay'. My parents don't exist, my past is a lie, I'm a copy of somebody else, I've probably killed more people than Charles Manson for all I know; that kind of information puts a real fucking downer on your life!!!"
He turned away from Leon Eight and stormed out of the office, not looking back as the tears started to flow freely. The door opened behind him, and he spun around to see who was following him. It was Rebecca. She looked like a puppet with the strings cut, her face red and stained with countless tears from her weeping. She walked slowly towards him...before falling into his arms, her crying beginning again as she pressed her face against his chest and screamed in misery into the fabric. The muffled noise made Leon want to scream too, but as he put his arms around her, he realised he couldn't. The spiritual bond, whether it be love or just plain friendship, did exist. It ran so deep, that in a way she was the only thing that meant anything to him right now. Rebecca made sense to Leon; she was the only thing to him that did.
As Rebecca wept her rage away, she felt Leon's arms tighten around her. As his grip tightened, she felt an odd calmness overtake her. Her and Leon had lived together their entire lives without knowing it, and right now he was the person she wanted to be with. If not romantically, then just to hold her and tell her everything was okay. Leon couldn't tell her everything was okay because everything was not okay.
He felt a hand tentatively touch his arm. Through his mask of tears, Leon saw Mei Wong looking at him sympathetically; her cool brown eyes calmed him, loosening for the time being the tightened sensation he felt around his throat.
"Come with us to the examination room." She said, gently "We can sort a few things out. Dr. Peterson isn't really the best person to ask moral questions."
"I'll bet" Leon muttered, looking over her shoulder back into Peterson's office. The man stood there, a thing smile spread over his lips. Leon didn't care what the consequences would be, but he swore that he would kill Dr. Peterson.
Mia withdrew the needle and daubed Leon's jab with cotton wool to absorb the minute amount of blood the tiny wound was producing. She smiled and indicated the cotton wool, which Leon held down compliantly. As she turned to dispose of the needle in a medical waste pedal-bin and then proceed to wash her hands, she asked softly
"How are you feeling?" Her English was crisp, her accent American
"I've..." Leon's throat was still dry out of shock of the revelations he'd heard today "...felt better."
"That's only natural." Mia replied, still softly "It's not every day somebody finds out what you found out."
"No kidding." Leon said, looking around the examination room. It was clinically white and sterile, and he and Mia were alone in the room. Mei had escorted Rebecca to the ward just off this area of the medical wing so that she could get some rest from the shock. That had left jus the pair of them. Mia had given Leon two injections, one that she said would restore his memories quickly and easily, the other that she had just given was one that she described simply as the 'un-inhibitor'. He felt himself tingle as the injection kicked in.
"You're only human." She said, turning to him with a sunbeam bright smile "To be human is to learn about oneself."
Leon stared at the tiled floor, watching his toes swing back and forth.
"What will I find," Leon said, "if I look inside? Will I be scared by what I see?"
She shrugged.
"You might be. You can't really prepare yourself for finding out things like that."
Leon nodded, and continued to look down.
"I remember" Leon said, quietly "My seventh birthday. Nobody seemed to know. I was so excited too; Rebecca was really young, and she said happy birthday. I ran around the lab, telling everybody it was my birthday. They ignored me. All too busy, they said. I ended up crying under somebody's desk I was so upset; then a woman came along...can't picture her face yet...but she gave me a cake with a candle in it and said 'happy birthday'. I hugged her like she was my mom. I probably thought she was my mom. She promised that she'd make me a special dinner that night as a treat; I remember crying for joy. She was..." he looked up, tears settling in his eyes "...the only one who ever really gave a damn about me as a kid. Everybody else wanted to get me 'educated', and train me in all those martial arts. I remember that much."
Mei smiled, and gently placed a hand on Leon's.
"It's good that you've started remembering."
Leon looked into her bright eyes.
"I'm not sure it is. When I start remembering more about my adult life – will I be able to cope with the knowledge?"
"Of what?"
"The people. All the men and women I've killed."
"My mother said you were very honourable; you never killed any women or children because you didn't believe it was right."
"I still killed people, Mia" Leon sighed, "I may not remember that, but I do. In what I thought was my real life, I joined the police to protect people. To protect and to serve. Now it turns out, well, that I was a professional killer."
The words sounded awful in his mind; the very concept of killing people as part of a profession nauseated Leon to his very soul. They fascinated him in genre fiction, and John Woo almost turned them into artistes. But to have blood on your hands and not being able to see the blood...Leon couldn't bear the thought of that. Yet here he was with that blood on his hands.
Very honourable? Leon couldn't understand people applying the idea of honour to contract killing.
"You weren't just sent out to kill people you know" Mia added, brightly "You were sent out on information retrieval missions too!"
Leon looked at Mia aghast. Was this girl for real? She was treating a very serious subject with something approaching chirpiness, as if she was talking to a celebrity about their work.
"Mia, you haven't ever killed anyone, have you?"
Mia looked sheepish for a moment, then replied
"No...I guess not."
"Exactly. So don't make it sound as if it's the greatest thing ever, because it ain't. The only reason I still sleep at night about all those zombies I gunned down in Raccoon City is because they weren't human anymore, neither human nor animal. Just walking carcasses. Killing them was a mercy; they'd have wanted it that way. I've been told of people in Raccoon who were turning into zombies and they were pleading and begging their friends to kill them before they turned into the walking dead."
Mia watched him, listening intently. Her expression was not unlike admiration.
"So deep. You always were very deep Leon. You were always so...thoughtful."
The image being painted was a bizarre one. Leon decided not to think about it for a short while. At this point, Mei chose to walk in from the ward, the shutter doors swinging closed behind her with a rubbery swish.
"She's napping" Mei said, "I think it's best we let her be for a while."
"Sounds like a good idea." Leon said. Mei put her head on one side.
"I know it's difficult coming to terms with this kind of thing." She said, gently "At the moment you're probably deciding how much of your life is real and how much isn't; that answer will come to you in time. For now, I'd try to take it easy."
Leon shook his head, his soul agonising in the acid bath of his memory.
"I can't just take it easy...it's an impossibility. I've learned something about myself, and I don't like it."
Mei knelt down, and looked up at Leon, catching his eye with a cool oriental stare.
"Leon, we all have to confront the truth at some point in our lives. For some people those truths just happen to be bigger than others."
Leon gave her an acidic look, and then he stood up.
"Where are you going?" Mia asked, concerned.
"I'm going to see Rebecca if that's okay." Leon said flatly "I need to see someone who understands me."
He left the room without giving either Mei or Mia a look, and proceeded through the double doors. The room was vast and white, and beds lined either side of the room in enormous quantities. Only one was occupied. Rebecca was propped up against a pillow, her eyes red-rimmed and her face drained. Leon approached, although at first she didn't appear to notice him. He sat down beside her, the bed creaking under the extra weight. Rebecca then turned to face him.
"Who are we, Leon?" she whispered, "Who are we?"
Leon hung his head.
"I don't know..." he said hopelessly. He felt her hand rest on his own clasped hands, and reflexively he curled one hand around hers. It was warm and soft, and he clung on tightly.
"Maybe we...can help each other on that point..." she whispered. He looked up, to see Rebecca smiling softly at him. She was surprisingly beautiful, he found himself thinking, and almost blushed. He pulled her into a deep hug, Rebecca clinging onto him tightly.
"Promise you won't leave" she said, quietly.
"I promise." he whispered in her ear, and on impulse lightly kissed her cheek. Rebecca felt herself flushing at this; calm down, she thought, he's not yours to have. No, she told herself firmly, he isn't. Then, a little voice in her head said something that increased the pace of her heartbeat.
Isn't he? Now Rebecca thought about it, since when did Claire have Leon? She didn't, Rebecca realised. Her hands tightened around Leon's waist. Before it hadn't been so complicated; her and Leon had been good friends, nothing more. But in the space of a day things had changed so irrevocably, that Rebecca was finding it difficult to work out what was true and what was not. What was true, she realised, was that Leon was becoming an increasing point of attraction for her. She had tried to resist what was naturally coming to her; but why shouldn't she give in? Her and Leon had a bond. More memories, those of her and Leon playing as children, Leon looking after her when she was sad or distressed had come to her. Rebecca felt that she owed him far more than she'd initially thought she had. They had spent much of their lives together. In a way, she had had first dibs on Leon.
She was broken out of her thought by the sound of footsteps behind her. Leon released his grip on her, somewhat to her reluctance, and they turned to look at Leon and Rebecca Eight standing over them.
"What are you doing here?" Leon asked, a little irritably.
"We just came to see how you were doing." Leon Eight said smoothly, leaning on one foot.
"As well as can be expected." Rebecca replied flatly.
Rebecca Eight contrived to look a little offended.
"That's not nice." She said "We were only concerned for our little brother and sister."
Leon and Rebecca exchanged a brief glance.
"Are we the only ones left?" Leon asked. Leon Eight raised an eyebrow.
"Technically, yes."
"What do you mean 'technically'?"
"The others are around, if not exactly talkative."
"Where are they?" Rebecca asked.
Rebecca Eight turned to look at Leon Eight, then turned back.
"Want to see them?"
The air was developing a chill, the usually blue sky diffused with grey clouds that threatened a spitting rainstorm at any moment. They were out the back of the massive fortress, amongst the grasslands that lay there as if they were the grounds of some enormous mansion house. It was alarmingly like the Spencer estate, Rebecca thought with a shudder. Leon and Rebecca followed their older clones down the path, past clumps of thick grass and over muddy ground, passing trees that were thick with greenery, waving in the wind. They walked virtually in silence, the sounds of the wind creating a gentle moan that gave both Leon and Rebecca the shivers. Leon and Rebecca Eight didn't seem bothered by it. Soon they came to a stop. Leon Eight turned around. "Welcome to the Kennedy-Chambers cemetery. Every individual who shared our genetic codes lies here in their own individual plot. It might seem a bit creepy, but you do get used to it."
"This is going to be really strange" Leon whispered in Rebecca's ear.
Rebecca nodded in agreement.
"I know." They walked up to a pair of wrought iron gates, with a similarly produced fence spreading off from left and right of them. Rebecca Eight raised the bolt, and pushed the left gate open with a squeak of un-oiled metal. She held the gate open, and Leon Eight walked through first. She beckoned for Leon and Rebecca, who stood doubtfully for a few moments before walking through the open gate.
Rebecca gasped. Leon felt himself taking a breath as he gazed around. The lawn was well tended, if a little sporadically bushy in parts, but the green grass was quite occupied. Sixteen graves, each with an elaborate and baroque looking headstone lined the central path through the cemetery; they were made out of greyish, black and white marble, each slightly different and all with a fresh bunch of flowers on their plots.
"My god..." Rebecca said, "I can't believe this...!"
"All of them? Those are our clones?" Leon asked, facing Leon Eight. Leon Eight turned back to him, face stern.
"I prefer 'brothers and sisters', if it's all the same to you." Leon felt embarrassed. Rebecca jogged over to some of the graves on the right hand side. She knelt by the gold-leaf inscription on one of them. It read: Rebecca Chambers No.3, born 1970, died 1990. Rest in peace, may god keep you. It gave her a shiver; beneath her knees was a girl who had been exactly like her, and she'd died eight years ago.
"Rebecca Number three..." she ambled over to the next "Rebecca number four died in 1992! Jesus..."
"They died young." Rebecca Eight said, a little sadly "A somewhat unfortunate combination of genetic issues or death in the line of duty, mostly the latter."
"Genetic issues?" Rebecca asked, looking at her older 'sister' with a visible frown.
"Some of the earlier clones were a little crude...they suffered disorders, that kind of thing." Rebecca Eight said conversationally. Leon shook his head, and found himself staring down at one that had a small marble cherub perched on top. Leon Kennedy No. Five, born 1972 in the love of Christ and died 1994, may god rest his soul. It was odd, he thought, to see so many relatives in one place.
"They all died?" Leon asked, turning around to see his older-self looking at the grave.
"Our line of work was hardly safe." Leon Eight explained, brushing away the dark brown bangs that Leon felt defined his hair "It was dangerous. It's lucky we found you in time, really." Leon found himself drawn to a very small grave to the left of the one he had been looking at. In fact, as Leon looked, it was only just visible. The gravestone appeared poorly tended to, and instead of a list of commiserations like 'lies in the care of god the father almighty', had only a name and his birth and death date. Leon Number Six. It was slightly overgrown, and Leon had to pull aside the fronds to allow him to see the name.
"Why's this one so small?" Leon asked.
"Well..." Leon Eight appeared uncomfortable "Leon Six, let us say, was the kind of guy you wanted to forget."
Leon looked at the grave. Something about it unsettled him. Not because of what his older clone had just said particularly, though it was intriguing. It was the way it seemed so uncommemorative, so ignored. Almost as if...it was deliberately like that. As if somebody didn't want anybody to pay attention to it. Not in the sense that the man had maybe committed heinous crimes, but in that-
"What's that?" he heard Rebecca ask. Leon stood up, his thoughts scattering like leaves. He noticed and only for the first time that a mausoleum stood like a miniature Greek temple at the end of the pathway. It was elaborate, and looked extremely expensive. It was made out of polished white marble, and managed to look like a Classic Greek version of the Lincoln Memorial. He and Rebecca stood side-by- side and gazed up at the Mausoleum's main inscription.
HERE LIES LEON S. KENNEDY, 1951-1973, REBECCA CHAMBERS, 1953-1973
"Are they...?" Leon began. "Yep." Leon Eight said, stepping forwards "The originals. They died half way through the first generation of clones. They were incredibly precocious, as you may have gathered by their ages. Child geniuses. Employed by the age of thirteen they were so scholastically advanced. Incredible individuals."
Leon looked at Leon Eight, whose expression was admiration bordering on hero –worship. The originals had been Umbrella scientists, a company Leon treated with more than a little disdain.
"Come on, let's meet them." Leon Eight said, gesturing with his right hand for the youngest generation to follow him and Rebecca Eight, who gave them a meaningful look. They followed, struck dumb. Leon and Rebecca stepped up the terrace of steps and to the main doors of the mausoleum. Rebecca Eight handed Leon Eight a key, which he slotted into a small hole by the doors, and twisted it. With a shudder, the stone doors creaked open. Inside, it was surprisingly bright. The room was large, white and airy and in the middle were laid two vast sarcophagi, both lined with a greyish metal and each possessing a huge amount of ornamentation. Inscriptions on the walls proclaimed their achievements and virtues; Rebecca recalled similar kinds of promotion on the tombs of the Romans, which she recalled her dry and dusty history teacher whom she had largely ignored had called euergesia. To promote the virtues of an individual. Well, that was what this tomb was all about. Leon Eight and Rebecca Eight's boots clicked across the marble as they wandered over to the two enormous stone caskets. Leon couldn't help but notice an enormous pile of flowers that lay beside both of them – it was like a hero shrine.
"This is where they stay, preserved in chemicals and kept in glass coffins that were built into these damned great stone things." Rebecca Eight said, with a smile "These are your parents. In a manner of speaking."
Leon and Rebecca approached the first. It was Rebeccas. Leon ran a hand over the smooth marble of the lid, and Rebecca stared down at the vast casket. The woman from whom she had originated; if she had not been born by her, it was damn close.
"Mom." She found herself saying. Leon grasped her hand.
"It's okay" Leon said, gently.
Rebecca turned to him. "Your dad. My mom. They died together..." She held onto Leon's arm. "And here they are." Leon walked over to the other sarcophagus. He stared long at the lid, Rebecca squeezing his hand. "My father." He eventually said "My real one. Who is the man I spoke to all those months ago. Who was he?"
Leon felt very vulnerable. "We're in this together" Rebecca said, leaning against his shoulder "I can't imagine it being any other way." Leon agreed, and found himself touching the lid of the casket, feeling its cool stone. Leon Eight said something that gave Leon a slightly shiver; if not exactly sinister, but true. "My name is Legion" Leon Eight said, calmly "For we are many."
Hope you enjoyed! By the way, I have not written off Claire, okay? She will appear at some point...it will make things...interesting ( But please do bear with me, I have not forgotten the Claire angle. You also may have noticed that I re-uploaded this chapter, mainly because I felt that I was slightly rude in the last chapter to my fans. I'm sorry if I annoyed anybody, but I have been busy lately. The story is evolving; I have also noticed that some people think I am 'reusing my ideas' from one of my previous stories in the form of the cloning theme. It is coincidence I assure you, but I didn't feel like I truly enjoyed my 'clone' sub-story in Apocalypse Rising. It felt a bit tacked on and underdeveloped. This story explores this in a whole new way – Leon and Rebecca are clones, not the originals. It's the other side of the equation; also, the theme of family and evolution will be explored properly; as well as a pretty good twist. This is the first time I have been truly happy with a genetic replication story, and if I'm happy enough with it it will be the last too. I am thinking of doing a quick, fluffy Leon/Claire thing too just so my Leon/Claire fans don't despair, lol :D If you have questions or requests, then PLEASE email me, okay? I always respond : ) -Mark
Rebecca too was finding it impossible to understand. Some inner part of her soul told her the scientist was correct, and the realization of that was sending further shockwaves through Rebecca. Her stomach churned at his words, determined not to believe the truth; but somehow she knew it was true.
"Then..." Rebecca saw Leon croak, "...Who are we...?"
Peterson sighed.
"You are advanced Tenth generation clones of the original templates; you are one of ten clones created using Leon Kennedy and Rebecca Chamber's DNA. The reason for you fragmented memory is because the memory suppressant, a combination of gene and hypnotherapy started to dysfunction when you came within proximity of your original home. This place seems familiar to you does it not?"
No answer, just a pair of hopeless, defeated nods.
"That is because you lived here before; it's also where you were born, some twenty-three years ago. The Rebecca's were always cloned after the Leon's, because the Rebecca's were created to compliment the Leon's and learn from them. The boys were talented and learned skills very well, but the Rebecca's were quicker learners."
"Clones...?" Rebecca asked quietly "...Us?"
"I'm afraid so." Peterson replied as gently as he could seemingly manage "But don't be too downhearted. You came home. Soon we can remove the hormone inhibitor and you can retain your former abilities; of course we had to restrict them when we sent you out into the big old wide world, doesn't take long for genetics companies to recognise super soldiers when they see them."
Super soldiers?
"You created us?" Leon said, voice dry as a bone "From scratch? You mean..." there was a pause, as Leon struggled to get the words out of a dry, suffocated throat "...I don't have...any...parents?"
"Of course you do" Peterson said "All of us. The Proteus team who cultivated and nurtured you from the moment we conceived you. You were trained with absolute precision from the moment of your birth to fulfil that role."
"That kind of cloning technology wasn't around that amount of time ago" Rebecca spat, trying to fight back.
"Oh, yes it was." Peterson replied, "Well, we could do it at least. Some of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century conspired to develop the technology. It was expensive of course, but the sales of pharmaceuticals that Umbrella, who were our employers at the time more than made up the losses we made. Viral research isn't cheap, neither was ours. Which was why they cut off our funding ten years ago. It was a highly complex process, but we were able to do it. Took a good number of false starts, and we were unable to make you older more quickly as we wanted; we had to settle for allowing you to age naturally."
Leon was staring off into space, still gutted by the doctor's revelation. He wasn't Leon S. Kennedy. He was somebody else; a cheap imitation of another person who had borne the name he thought he had had since birth. They were still calling him Leon, but..."
"What's my real name then?" Leon asked, only just listening to Peterson's spiel about how the viral research had led to them being able to create a spermatazoan or an egg out of the same genetic material the individual consisted of, thus replicating their genetic predispositions without the seed being 'diluted', or some such rot. Leon didn't understand it or the science of it, and wouldn't even pretend to understand.
Peterson turned to him.
"Your name is Leon. Leon Ten."
"Which means that..." Rebecca began "...that you are Rebecca Ten, yes." Leon's name echoed through his head. Leon Ten. Leon Ten. Leon TEN. LEON TEN?!
"You mean..." Leon said, his anger rising quickly with every word "...You didn't even give me a proper name?! A fucking number?!!!"
He almost screamed the last three words he was so angry, his face was red with fury and hatred. Rebecca grabbed onto Leon, and looked at Dr. Peterson with abject loathing and disgust. Her face was red too, tears were flowing freely from her eyes as she fixed her gaze on Peterson.
"That's all we were to you, wasn't it?" she shouted, voice soaked in venom "A pair of fucking numbers! Soldiers?! Assassins?! You fucking..."
"Please," Dr. Peterson raised his hands again "I understand you're both upset..."
Neither Rebecca nor Leon felt that even warranted a reply. Upset barely hit the heights to which the pair had been sent; it barely covered the anguish and despair that flowed through them both like a river.
"How do we know we can believe you?" Rebecca said, through her tears "How do we know you're not just lying to us?"
"Ah, you want proof." He smiled "I think I know just the man. Mei, would you please call them in?"
Mei Wong nodded, and looking apologetically at Leon and Rebecca she called out
"Leon, Rebecca...please come in!" The door behind them opened. "Well, well" a male voice said "This is what I call a blast from the past" Leon froze at the sound of a voice that was word for word like his. He hadn't had many moments like this; one of them was probably when Annette Birkin had first told him that Ada was a spy back in Raccoon some months ago. It was that unusual feeling of dread, a knowledge that the inevitable was about to happen.
Leon didn't dare turn around, but then again he didn't need to. The two figures walked around them and took a bemused pose two feet from them. Rebecca, despite her tears and terror of knowing that Dr. Peterson was right, felt her jaw drop open. The girl opposite her was about her age and dressed in the black combat suits all of the soldiers possessed. This girl was wearing the smile of somebody who'd just seen the most bizarre creature in the zoo and was enjoying watching it throw its faeces at her against the window. The girl was in fact identical in every single respect to Rebecca Chambers. The nose, the hair, the eyes, structure of the cheeks, the petite frame...it was her.
"It's me," the other Rebecca said in the same voice, albeit with a breezier confidence in it, and cocked her head on one side "Only cuter."
Leon found himself staring into a pair of eyes whose genetic code was exactly the same as his. The same intense blue, the same brown bangs of his hair. It was him alright. The other Leon took a step back so Leon could get a full look at the man. This Leon was, as with the other Rebecca, identical to him.
"It's been a while since we saw you guys around" the other Leon said, "We've missed you, you know."
"Who...are you?" Leon managed through a bone-dry throat.
"I'm your older clone, or brother as I prefer to say. I am only two years older than you; that's because I'm number eight."
"Number eight?" Rebecca asked.
"Yep" Rebecca Eight said cheerily "We're generation eight clones. We are the only four remaining clones out of twenty."
"They...dead or something?" Leon said.
At this point, Mei Wong and her daughter stepped up.
"I think the time for knowing those facts is yet to come. Leon and Rebecca Ten have to adjust; their memories still haven't fully returned yet." The older woman said matter of factly.
Mia Wong turned to her mother, bursting with energy.
"Can I escort them to the lab mother?"
Mei turned to her daughter.
"All in good time Mia, you'll get to talk to Leon later, okay?" Mia was blushing the colour of cherries, but Leon barely noticed her. He was still emaciated, baffled, shocked and betrayed. All he could think about was truth about who he was. A truth that shouldn't have been.
He felt somebody touch his hand. It was Mei, looking at him with concern in her eyes.
"Are you okay Leon?"
Leon looked at her as if she'd just asked him if he was male.
"No..." he said, slowly as emotion boiled up in his voice "...I'm far from 'okay'. My parents don't exist, my past is a lie, I'm a copy of somebody else, I've probably killed more people than Charles Manson for all I know; that kind of information puts a real fucking downer on your life!!!"
He turned away from Leon Eight and stormed out of the office, not looking back as the tears started to flow freely. The door opened behind him, and he spun around to see who was following him. It was Rebecca. She looked like a puppet with the strings cut, her face red and stained with countless tears from her weeping. She walked slowly towards him...before falling into his arms, her crying beginning again as she pressed her face against his chest and screamed in misery into the fabric. The muffled noise made Leon want to scream too, but as he put his arms around her, he realised he couldn't. The spiritual bond, whether it be love or just plain friendship, did exist. It ran so deep, that in a way she was the only thing that meant anything to him right now. Rebecca made sense to Leon; she was the only thing to him that did.
As Rebecca wept her rage away, she felt Leon's arms tighten around her. As his grip tightened, she felt an odd calmness overtake her. Her and Leon had lived together their entire lives without knowing it, and right now he was the person she wanted to be with. If not romantically, then just to hold her and tell her everything was okay. Leon couldn't tell her everything was okay because everything was not okay.
He felt a hand tentatively touch his arm. Through his mask of tears, Leon saw Mei Wong looking at him sympathetically; her cool brown eyes calmed him, loosening for the time being the tightened sensation he felt around his throat.
"Come with us to the examination room." She said, gently "We can sort a few things out. Dr. Peterson isn't really the best person to ask moral questions."
"I'll bet" Leon muttered, looking over her shoulder back into Peterson's office. The man stood there, a thing smile spread over his lips. Leon didn't care what the consequences would be, but he swore that he would kill Dr. Peterson.
Mia withdrew the needle and daubed Leon's jab with cotton wool to absorb the minute amount of blood the tiny wound was producing. She smiled and indicated the cotton wool, which Leon held down compliantly. As she turned to dispose of the needle in a medical waste pedal-bin and then proceed to wash her hands, she asked softly
"How are you feeling?" Her English was crisp, her accent American
"I've..." Leon's throat was still dry out of shock of the revelations he'd heard today "...felt better."
"That's only natural." Mia replied, still softly "It's not every day somebody finds out what you found out."
"No kidding." Leon said, looking around the examination room. It was clinically white and sterile, and he and Mia were alone in the room. Mei had escorted Rebecca to the ward just off this area of the medical wing so that she could get some rest from the shock. That had left jus the pair of them. Mia had given Leon two injections, one that she said would restore his memories quickly and easily, the other that she had just given was one that she described simply as the 'un-inhibitor'. He felt himself tingle as the injection kicked in.
"You're only human." She said, turning to him with a sunbeam bright smile "To be human is to learn about oneself."
Leon stared at the tiled floor, watching his toes swing back and forth.
"What will I find," Leon said, "if I look inside? Will I be scared by what I see?"
She shrugged.
"You might be. You can't really prepare yourself for finding out things like that."
Leon nodded, and continued to look down.
"I remember" Leon said, quietly "My seventh birthday. Nobody seemed to know. I was so excited too; Rebecca was really young, and she said happy birthday. I ran around the lab, telling everybody it was my birthday. They ignored me. All too busy, they said. I ended up crying under somebody's desk I was so upset; then a woman came along...can't picture her face yet...but she gave me a cake with a candle in it and said 'happy birthday'. I hugged her like she was my mom. I probably thought she was my mom. She promised that she'd make me a special dinner that night as a treat; I remember crying for joy. She was..." he looked up, tears settling in his eyes "...the only one who ever really gave a damn about me as a kid. Everybody else wanted to get me 'educated', and train me in all those martial arts. I remember that much."
Mei smiled, and gently placed a hand on Leon's.
"It's good that you've started remembering."
Leon looked into her bright eyes.
"I'm not sure it is. When I start remembering more about my adult life – will I be able to cope with the knowledge?"
"Of what?"
"The people. All the men and women I've killed."
"My mother said you were very honourable; you never killed any women or children because you didn't believe it was right."
"I still killed people, Mia" Leon sighed, "I may not remember that, but I do. In what I thought was my real life, I joined the police to protect people. To protect and to serve. Now it turns out, well, that I was a professional killer."
The words sounded awful in his mind; the very concept of killing people as part of a profession nauseated Leon to his very soul. They fascinated him in genre fiction, and John Woo almost turned them into artistes. But to have blood on your hands and not being able to see the blood...Leon couldn't bear the thought of that. Yet here he was with that blood on his hands.
Very honourable? Leon couldn't understand people applying the idea of honour to contract killing.
"You weren't just sent out to kill people you know" Mia added, brightly "You were sent out on information retrieval missions too!"
Leon looked at Mia aghast. Was this girl for real? She was treating a very serious subject with something approaching chirpiness, as if she was talking to a celebrity about their work.
"Mia, you haven't ever killed anyone, have you?"
Mia looked sheepish for a moment, then replied
"No...I guess not."
"Exactly. So don't make it sound as if it's the greatest thing ever, because it ain't. The only reason I still sleep at night about all those zombies I gunned down in Raccoon City is because they weren't human anymore, neither human nor animal. Just walking carcasses. Killing them was a mercy; they'd have wanted it that way. I've been told of people in Raccoon who were turning into zombies and they were pleading and begging their friends to kill them before they turned into the walking dead."
Mia watched him, listening intently. Her expression was not unlike admiration.
"So deep. You always were very deep Leon. You were always so...thoughtful."
The image being painted was a bizarre one. Leon decided not to think about it for a short while. At this point, Mei chose to walk in from the ward, the shutter doors swinging closed behind her with a rubbery swish.
"She's napping" Mei said, "I think it's best we let her be for a while."
"Sounds like a good idea." Leon said. Mei put her head on one side.
"I know it's difficult coming to terms with this kind of thing." She said, gently "At the moment you're probably deciding how much of your life is real and how much isn't; that answer will come to you in time. For now, I'd try to take it easy."
Leon shook his head, his soul agonising in the acid bath of his memory.
"I can't just take it easy...it's an impossibility. I've learned something about myself, and I don't like it."
Mei knelt down, and looked up at Leon, catching his eye with a cool oriental stare.
"Leon, we all have to confront the truth at some point in our lives. For some people those truths just happen to be bigger than others."
Leon gave her an acidic look, and then he stood up.
"Where are you going?" Mia asked, concerned.
"I'm going to see Rebecca if that's okay." Leon said flatly "I need to see someone who understands me."
He left the room without giving either Mei or Mia a look, and proceeded through the double doors. The room was vast and white, and beds lined either side of the room in enormous quantities. Only one was occupied. Rebecca was propped up against a pillow, her eyes red-rimmed and her face drained. Leon approached, although at first she didn't appear to notice him. He sat down beside her, the bed creaking under the extra weight. Rebecca then turned to face him.
"Who are we, Leon?" she whispered, "Who are we?"
Leon hung his head.
"I don't know..." he said hopelessly. He felt her hand rest on his own clasped hands, and reflexively he curled one hand around hers. It was warm and soft, and he clung on tightly.
"Maybe we...can help each other on that point..." she whispered. He looked up, to see Rebecca smiling softly at him. She was surprisingly beautiful, he found himself thinking, and almost blushed. He pulled her into a deep hug, Rebecca clinging onto him tightly.
"Promise you won't leave" she said, quietly.
"I promise." he whispered in her ear, and on impulse lightly kissed her cheek. Rebecca felt herself flushing at this; calm down, she thought, he's not yours to have. No, she told herself firmly, he isn't. Then, a little voice in her head said something that increased the pace of her heartbeat.
Isn't he? Now Rebecca thought about it, since when did Claire have Leon? She didn't, Rebecca realised. Her hands tightened around Leon's waist. Before it hadn't been so complicated; her and Leon had been good friends, nothing more. But in the space of a day things had changed so irrevocably, that Rebecca was finding it difficult to work out what was true and what was not. What was true, she realised, was that Leon was becoming an increasing point of attraction for her. She had tried to resist what was naturally coming to her; but why shouldn't she give in? Her and Leon had a bond. More memories, those of her and Leon playing as children, Leon looking after her when she was sad or distressed had come to her. Rebecca felt that she owed him far more than she'd initially thought she had. They had spent much of their lives together. In a way, she had had first dibs on Leon.
She was broken out of her thought by the sound of footsteps behind her. Leon released his grip on her, somewhat to her reluctance, and they turned to look at Leon and Rebecca Eight standing over them.
"What are you doing here?" Leon asked, a little irritably.
"We just came to see how you were doing." Leon Eight said smoothly, leaning on one foot.
"As well as can be expected." Rebecca replied flatly.
Rebecca Eight contrived to look a little offended.
"That's not nice." She said "We were only concerned for our little brother and sister."
Leon and Rebecca exchanged a brief glance.
"Are we the only ones left?" Leon asked. Leon Eight raised an eyebrow.
"Technically, yes."
"What do you mean 'technically'?"
"The others are around, if not exactly talkative."
"Where are they?" Rebecca asked.
Rebecca Eight turned to look at Leon Eight, then turned back.
"Want to see them?"
The air was developing a chill, the usually blue sky diffused with grey clouds that threatened a spitting rainstorm at any moment. They were out the back of the massive fortress, amongst the grasslands that lay there as if they were the grounds of some enormous mansion house. It was alarmingly like the Spencer estate, Rebecca thought with a shudder. Leon and Rebecca followed their older clones down the path, past clumps of thick grass and over muddy ground, passing trees that were thick with greenery, waving in the wind. They walked virtually in silence, the sounds of the wind creating a gentle moan that gave both Leon and Rebecca the shivers. Leon and Rebecca Eight didn't seem bothered by it. Soon they came to a stop. Leon Eight turned around. "Welcome to the Kennedy-Chambers cemetery. Every individual who shared our genetic codes lies here in their own individual plot. It might seem a bit creepy, but you do get used to it."
"This is going to be really strange" Leon whispered in Rebecca's ear.
Rebecca nodded in agreement.
"I know." They walked up to a pair of wrought iron gates, with a similarly produced fence spreading off from left and right of them. Rebecca Eight raised the bolt, and pushed the left gate open with a squeak of un-oiled metal. She held the gate open, and Leon Eight walked through first. She beckoned for Leon and Rebecca, who stood doubtfully for a few moments before walking through the open gate.
Rebecca gasped. Leon felt himself taking a breath as he gazed around. The lawn was well tended, if a little sporadically bushy in parts, but the green grass was quite occupied. Sixteen graves, each with an elaborate and baroque looking headstone lined the central path through the cemetery; they were made out of greyish, black and white marble, each slightly different and all with a fresh bunch of flowers on their plots.
"My god..." Rebecca said, "I can't believe this...!"
"All of them? Those are our clones?" Leon asked, facing Leon Eight. Leon Eight turned back to him, face stern.
"I prefer 'brothers and sisters', if it's all the same to you." Leon felt embarrassed. Rebecca jogged over to some of the graves on the right hand side. She knelt by the gold-leaf inscription on one of them. It read: Rebecca Chambers No.3, born 1970, died 1990. Rest in peace, may god keep you. It gave her a shiver; beneath her knees was a girl who had been exactly like her, and she'd died eight years ago.
"Rebecca Number three..." she ambled over to the next "Rebecca number four died in 1992! Jesus..."
"They died young." Rebecca Eight said, a little sadly "A somewhat unfortunate combination of genetic issues or death in the line of duty, mostly the latter."
"Genetic issues?" Rebecca asked, looking at her older 'sister' with a visible frown.
"Some of the earlier clones were a little crude...they suffered disorders, that kind of thing." Rebecca Eight said conversationally. Leon shook his head, and found himself staring down at one that had a small marble cherub perched on top. Leon Kennedy No. Five, born 1972 in the love of Christ and died 1994, may god rest his soul. It was odd, he thought, to see so many relatives in one place.
"They all died?" Leon asked, turning around to see his older-self looking at the grave.
"Our line of work was hardly safe." Leon Eight explained, brushing away the dark brown bangs that Leon felt defined his hair "It was dangerous. It's lucky we found you in time, really." Leon found himself drawn to a very small grave to the left of the one he had been looking at. In fact, as Leon looked, it was only just visible. The gravestone appeared poorly tended to, and instead of a list of commiserations like 'lies in the care of god the father almighty', had only a name and his birth and death date. Leon Number Six. It was slightly overgrown, and Leon had to pull aside the fronds to allow him to see the name.
"Why's this one so small?" Leon asked.
"Well..." Leon Eight appeared uncomfortable "Leon Six, let us say, was the kind of guy you wanted to forget."
Leon looked at the grave. Something about it unsettled him. Not because of what his older clone had just said particularly, though it was intriguing. It was the way it seemed so uncommemorative, so ignored. Almost as if...it was deliberately like that. As if somebody didn't want anybody to pay attention to it. Not in the sense that the man had maybe committed heinous crimes, but in that-
"What's that?" he heard Rebecca ask. Leon stood up, his thoughts scattering like leaves. He noticed and only for the first time that a mausoleum stood like a miniature Greek temple at the end of the pathway. It was elaborate, and looked extremely expensive. It was made out of polished white marble, and managed to look like a Classic Greek version of the Lincoln Memorial. He and Rebecca stood side-by- side and gazed up at the Mausoleum's main inscription.
HERE LIES LEON S. KENNEDY, 1951-1973, REBECCA CHAMBERS, 1953-1973
"Are they...?" Leon began. "Yep." Leon Eight said, stepping forwards "The originals. They died half way through the first generation of clones. They were incredibly precocious, as you may have gathered by their ages. Child geniuses. Employed by the age of thirteen they were so scholastically advanced. Incredible individuals."
Leon looked at Leon Eight, whose expression was admiration bordering on hero –worship. The originals had been Umbrella scientists, a company Leon treated with more than a little disdain.
"Come on, let's meet them." Leon Eight said, gesturing with his right hand for the youngest generation to follow him and Rebecca Eight, who gave them a meaningful look. They followed, struck dumb. Leon and Rebecca stepped up the terrace of steps and to the main doors of the mausoleum. Rebecca Eight handed Leon Eight a key, which he slotted into a small hole by the doors, and twisted it. With a shudder, the stone doors creaked open. Inside, it was surprisingly bright. The room was large, white and airy and in the middle were laid two vast sarcophagi, both lined with a greyish metal and each possessing a huge amount of ornamentation. Inscriptions on the walls proclaimed their achievements and virtues; Rebecca recalled similar kinds of promotion on the tombs of the Romans, which she recalled her dry and dusty history teacher whom she had largely ignored had called euergesia. To promote the virtues of an individual. Well, that was what this tomb was all about. Leon Eight and Rebecca Eight's boots clicked across the marble as they wandered over to the two enormous stone caskets. Leon couldn't help but notice an enormous pile of flowers that lay beside both of them – it was like a hero shrine.
"This is where they stay, preserved in chemicals and kept in glass coffins that were built into these damned great stone things." Rebecca Eight said, with a smile "These are your parents. In a manner of speaking."
Leon and Rebecca approached the first. It was Rebeccas. Leon ran a hand over the smooth marble of the lid, and Rebecca stared down at the vast casket. The woman from whom she had originated; if she had not been born by her, it was damn close.
"Mom." She found herself saying. Leon grasped her hand.
"It's okay" Leon said, gently.
Rebecca turned to him. "Your dad. My mom. They died together..." She held onto Leon's arm. "And here they are." Leon walked over to the other sarcophagus. He stared long at the lid, Rebecca squeezing his hand. "My father." He eventually said "My real one. Who is the man I spoke to all those months ago. Who was he?"
Leon felt very vulnerable. "We're in this together" Rebecca said, leaning against his shoulder "I can't imagine it being any other way." Leon agreed, and found himself touching the lid of the casket, feeling its cool stone. Leon Eight said something that gave Leon a slightly shiver; if not exactly sinister, but true. "My name is Legion" Leon Eight said, calmly "For we are many."
Hope you enjoyed! By the way, I have not written off Claire, okay? She will appear at some point...it will make things...interesting ( But please do bear with me, I have not forgotten the Claire angle. You also may have noticed that I re-uploaded this chapter, mainly because I felt that I was slightly rude in the last chapter to my fans. I'm sorry if I annoyed anybody, but I have been busy lately. The story is evolving; I have also noticed that some people think I am 'reusing my ideas' from one of my previous stories in the form of the cloning theme. It is coincidence I assure you, but I didn't feel like I truly enjoyed my 'clone' sub-story in Apocalypse Rising. It felt a bit tacked on and underdeveloped. This story explores this in a whole new way – Leon and Rebecca are clones, not the originals. It's the other side of the equation; also, the theme of family and evolution will be explored properly; as well as a pretty good twist. This is the first time I have been truly happy with a genetic replication story, and if I'm happy enough with it it will be the last too. I am thinking of doing a quick, fluffy Leon/Claire thing too just so my Leon/Claire fans don't despair, lol :D If you have questions or requests, then PLEASE email me, okay? I always respond : ) -Mark