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54. Helena

In all of the years that Helena had known Leon, she'd never seen the man be late for anything. Today, however, seemed to be the exception. Leon was late, and naturally, so was Claire., which was even weirder.

Helena had not known Claire for long, but the month she'd known her was enough for her to know that Claire took her work so seriously that being late seemed sacrilegious. Claire was always reminding Leon that they were running late, so it was odd that they had come in late.

Claire greeted everyone in the lab and quickly jumped into work, leaving Leon in the office area.

"You are late," Helena said, giving Leon a frown.

The man watched Claire and Hiwamura walk to the lab area, and once the two women were gone, he turned back to Helena.

"I know," Leon shrugged, "Claire was sleeping so soundly that I felt bad about waking her."

"Oh, so it was her fault?" Helena teased, "Okay, I guess I can forgive that. Did you stop by the office?"

"Yeah, we already talked to Hopkins. It was a brief meeting, so we didn't talk too much about what Claire said yesterday. He didn't have much time."

"DSO is a mess right now. I don't think anyone ever expected to get attacked. Hopkins and the rest of the suits are probably busy."

"Yeah," Leon sighed. "First, it was TerraSave, then BSAA. I suppose we should have foreseen that it would eventually come to us."

Helena tilted her head and sighed. Mobius had chosen the worst possible moment to deal a blow on the DSO. Two days before Christmas was just the perfect way to land a hit on everyone's morale, especially on Claire.

"How is she?" Helena asked. She didn't need to say a name, of course.

"Woke with nightmares a few times," Leon sighed. "She doesn't want to talk about them, though."

"Well, that's understandable," Helena said, crossing her arms. "Remembering all that shit would get nightmares to anyone. Honestly, I am surprised she looks so collected."

"Claire is a strong woman," Leon sighed. "I mean, I think she was much calmer than I was when we met back in Raccoon, and she was supposed to be a civilian."

"Is that a confession?"

Leon shrugged.

"Either way. She must have gotten a blast with all those things coming back. I don't know. Is it alright to let her be here now?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Leon sighed, "I think Claire's coping mechanism is work. If she keeps her mind busy, she feels better..."

"Sounds familiar. You two have much in common," Helena replied, giving him a look that Leon ignored.

The automatic door that connected the entrance corridor to the office area opened. Wallace walked in, holding a package under his arm and followed by three familiar faces.

"Hey, Leon," Jill greeted him, "how are your injuries?"

"Nothing serious," Leon replied.

"That looks serious," Barry said, pointing at his bandages. "You probably need to change those regularly."

"Yeah, Claire keeps reminding me that," Leon replied.

"I bet she does," Barry snorted. "She has experience with difficult patients, right, Chris?"

"I am not a difficult patient," Chris protested.

"Says the guy who ran out of the hospital with three broken ribs and a concussion once," Jill snorted. "But it's a good thing you have Claire nearby. She has lots of experience in treating wounds."

"Yeah, she helped me yesterday," Leon said, rubbing his shoulder, "she should have considered becoming a medic."

"It's not her thing," Chris shrugged, "or so she says. Is she around?"

"She's downstairs with Hiwamura," Helena answered, "checking the corpses."

"Ah, we arrived at a good time, then..."Jill said, looking at her companions. "We came to see what they had found from those..."

"Well, you'll have to wait since they just went down. Leon and Claire were late today," Helena snorted.

"Late?" Chris asked, looking at Leon.

Leon sighed, and Helena smirked -amused-when the blonde glared at her.

"Yesterday's incident made Claire remember some things from her missing eight months," Leon answered, ignoring Helena's snickers. "She woke up many times due to nightmares, and it took her some time to fall asleep properly. I was reluctant to wake her up this morning."

Helena could tell from Chris's expression that many things were going through the man's thoughts. Chris, however, acted civilly and didn't voice any of his irrational ideas.

"You say she remembers?" Chris said.

"Yeah, according to her, it isn't 100%, but she remembers most of it. Yesterday, she gave us a full explanation of the monster that attacked us," Leon answered.

"She did? How would she know that?" Barry asked, "I don't suppose these bastards would give info to one of their prisoners, would they?"

"Claire is resourceful," Jill reasoned, "Maybe she managed to find stuff when she was trying to escape."

"She didn't give me details," Leon shrugged, "but she knows quite a bit."

"And you say she recognized these monsters?"

"Yeah, actually..." Helena began, but her words got interrupted by the sound of a door.

Claire and Hiwamura stepped into the office area, talking in whispers. Helena noticed the frown in the Asian and the look of resignation on Claire. Both women were surprised to see the new arrivals, and naturally, Claire's immediate reaction was to hug her brother.

Helena watched quietly. Being a sister once, she could relate to the Redfield siblings. In a way, Chris and Claire had a lot in common with Helena and Deborah. Both had lost their parents very young, leaving the eldest to raise the youngest.

Helena and Deborah were close in age, so their relationship was much like best friends. For the Redfields, whose age gap was wider apart, their bond was beyond the sibling connection. Helena didn't know much of Chris and Claire's relationship, but she knew the essentials. Watching the two made Helena remember her sister, and she sighed sadly.

After explaining the situation just as she'd done with Leon and Helena the day before, Claire dropped a bomb that left everyone speechless.

"I am not like a B.O.W," Claire said, shaking her head. "I am a B.O.W."

Those words hit everyone in the room like a bucket of icy water. Helena looked at Leon. The agent had turned pale, and he was frowning darkly. Helena knew that, deep down, Leon already knew. Perhaps, all of them already knew that Claire was, in a way, a B.O.W., but none of them had wanted to admit it. Maybe everyone, Helena included, thought that ignoring it would cancel its existence.

Seeing as nobody planned to speak, Claire decided to continue. Her voice was firm, almost as if she were delivering a speech.

"The girl was an Alpha. The name comes from a particular mutation introduced by the T-Lyssa. The gene sequence is named α- TLV1 (1). It gets inserted by the virus inside the host's genome, and is responsible for the variations in the different subjects," Claire proceeded.

"T-Lyssa?" Jill asked.

"T-Morpheus and T-Lyssa," Claire answered. "Two independent viruses that work in co-op. One sets the layout; the second introduces the gene. It's a complicated mechanism, but it is just as I explained before. as you might remember."

"So the girl was one of those experiments?" Chris asked.

"TVR-2001XP05..." Claire nodded. "T-Veronica variant, phase 5..."

"What does that mean?" Jill asked.

"Honestly, I can't remember the details..." Claire sighed, "but the people who caught me..."

"Mobius..." Chris said.

"Mobius wanted to develop what they called the Perfect alpha..." Claire said. "so they did a lot of experiments, some with one single viral strain, some with multiple infections. They did all of it following stages, or phases, as they called it. P5, if I am not wrong, means she was currently on that stage."

There was a pause. Chris and Jill exchanged silent words while Barry rubbed his head in frustration. Helena turned to Leon. The man's lips were tense, and Helena admitted that she'd never seen him as mad as he looked at the moment.

"There are several types of B.O.W.s," Claire said, pacing around the room. She stopped on the desk where she'd left her laptop and typed into it.

Suddenly the screen in front of them showed some familiar images. Helena recognized them. One was of the monsters that they'd fought in the shopping mall incident; the remaining ones were of the lizard-like monsters and the girl; the fourth and fifth ones were not photos but drawn sketches from equally demonic-looking beings.

"The nasty-crew from the ship in Wales and the Snatchers from the shopping mall are failed-alphas," Claire said, pointing at them. "The ones that look human, like she and I, are perfect alphas. Then, we have these guys, pawns, or bettas, created by some types of alphas. There are many, so I might not be able to enlist all. Perfect alphas are the most dangerous, though, since they look normal, but there is no telling the level of affectation of their minds."

"Their minds?" Chris asked.

"We might not have visible mutations, but that doesn't mean that there might be something off. Maybe things that are not physically visible..."

"Like your blood disorders," Hiwamura reasoned. "You reckon some of them might have mental disorders..."

"I am almost sure that they might..." Claire sighed, "Either way, there will be more attacks. If Mobius is releasing their Alphas, there will be no place in the world where I can hide, and a lot of innocent people will die."

Claire pinched the bridge of her nose. The thought of more innocent people getting killed for her fault seemed to torture her, and Helena felt a mix of anger and pity. Claire was a good woman with a generous heart. It was simply unfair that she had to go through all that hell.

"Shit," Chris cursed, punching the wall. "Then we need to find those bastards and finish them as soon as possible."

"Well, I agree to that," Barry said, "but how the fuck are we supposed to find them? We have been looking for two months now, and we have no clue..."

"Well, we might have a lead now," Jill said, "right?"

Everyone turned to Claire. The woman sighed and rubbed her temple.

"Yeah, unfortunately, that part is one of the things I still don't remember," she sighed, "but don't worry. I've got it covered."

"What? How?" Chris asked.

"Regression therapy," Hiwamura answered. "Claire has suggested that we should try that to pull those memories out."

"Regression therapy?" Chris asked, "Isn't that ...hypnosis thing?"

"Yeah," Claire nodded. "Saya happens to be trained in hypnosis. She has done hypnosis therapy with some of the Terra Save refugees. She can help me remember everything and, then, I can probably give you leads to a location."

"Risks?" Leon asked. The man had been silent the whole time, but Helena had been watching him. "Hypnosis is safe as long as people are in their best mental and physical conditions. Is Claire in shape for that? If she is going through the whole experience she lived during those eight months, how are we sure that she will be able to stand it?"

"Well, someone knows something about hypnosis," Hiwamura said. "Leon is right. There's a risk that the stress of reliving it might cause problems, but..."

"I can handle that," Claire sighed. "I've lived through worse, and right now, there are other priorities to consider."

"Claire, I don't know..." Jill began, "You might be right, and finding Mobius is important, but..."

"That doesn't mean we are willing to sacrifice your safety," Chris growled.

"You are not," Claire sighed, "90% of my memories are back. I will be fine."

Helena wasn't so sure, and judging by the tense atmosphere in the room, all the other present shared her thoughts. Even Dhriti and Wallace had stopped their activities to listen.

They were facing a difficult decision, but Helena couldn't think of anything to say. Despite Leon and Chris's reluctance, the two men knew that Claire had a point. The more time they lost trying to find Mobius meant that more people would die, and eventually, those deaths would weigh on Claire's shoulders.

After some minutes, the group had reluctantly agreed to Claire's plan. The date for the regression was set.

"Is it really alright?" Helena asked Leon.

Claire and Hiwamura had left to check on their analysis some minutes ago, leaving her friends and family to deal with the recent information. BSAA alpha team was sitting at the table, talking in mutters, Dhriti had returned to the flower shop, and Wallace was doing what he always did, playing video games. Helena took the chance to approach Leon, who stood in a corner, stirring his- now cold- cup of coffee.

"I don't know," Leon sighed. "Part of me thinks this is a bad idea, but I also know that Claire is right. She is our best chance to find Mobius and perhaps put an end to all this shit."

Helena sighed. That was true, but what if it ended up causing harm to Claire? Catching the terrorist group was important. But was it more important than Claire's wellness? She was sure that Leon had the same argument in his mind.

"Let's not think about it," Helena sighed.

Leon nodded. The agent pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Sorry, I guess the whole relationship thing has made me a little more on edge when it comes to her."

Helena smirked. His relationship with Claire was going smoothly. Helena could see their bond grow strong, and she had to admit that it made her happy. Claire was good for Leon. Choosing her was a great decision, and she was happy for Leon.

Helena knew that Leon had a history with Ada Wong. He appreciated her. But in Helena's opinion, Ada wouldn't be a good match for Leon if he wanted something more stable.

"All we can do is try to keep her safe," Helena said, patting Leon's shoulder. "That's our job, right?"

Leon nodded. Unfortunately, it was all they could do.