A/N: I'm sorry for the sudden hiatus. I lost my USB that contained my files for this stories and other works. This had happened to me before so I became discouraged and put off writing for months to wallow in my clumsy mistake. I can't say that I'm back for good and so my updates will be sporadic.

As always, thank you very much for the reviews. It means a lot that you guys took the time to write how you felt about my chapters.

Chapter Three: The Unwanted Recall

"I can't…I can't…" her voice cracked out in a hoarse cry.

She tossed and turned on the hospital bed, her mind engulfed with fear and panic. Beads of sweat trailed down her wet face as Leon helplessly watched from her side. His hands were on her shoulders, trying to stop her feverish tossing. Nurses nearby watched silently, not knowing what they should do.

"Helena, it's all in your head," Leon pleaded. "You are here alive, with me."

Helena's eyes passed Leon and stared at the window with widened eyes. Tears dripped from her eyes and her heart beat quickened. Her mouth gaped open and she gasped shakenly. She was terrified at what she saw. She knew all well where she was.

The world had ended and she died with it.

"I'm in hell," she choked. Her eyes were frozen on the red skies. "I'm in hell!"

Leon snapped out of his mind as Hunnigan sat in front of him. There was two mugs on the table and Hunnigan moved one towards him. She had made the tea earlier but Leon did not come to the table until hours later, when he realized that Hunnigan had come to visit him. The teabags in the mug had been soaked for too long and made the tea darker than it was. Leon was at his home and had spent many nights as a reclusive hermit, too obsessed at where Helena had disappeared to. It was evening so the skies were redder and made his room look drowsy. His walls were covered with hundreds of maps and information he bought off shady E Lai rouges. He knew himself that he was so desperate to find his lost partner. The sleepless nights and countless nightmares of her suffering at the hands of E Lai soldiers tormented him endlessly. It had only been 2 months since her disappearance and yet, he was nowhere close to taking his first step to finding Helena.

Leon felt Hunnigan's warm hand on his worn out palm. He returned to his sense and gazed at her. She wore a tiring smile and it calmed Leon temporarily. The war had been hard on Hunnigan as well. With countless crimes happening every day, she was on duty 16 hours a day. She barely ate and only slept an hour or 2; sometimes 4, if she was feeling especially tired. No matter how many times the higher ups asked her to rest, she refused, feeling the burden of guilt whenever innocent civilians were killed during her off duty.

Leon clasped his hand on top of Hunnigan's hand with a worn out sigh. She became what he used to be in the past. Whenever he failed his mission or whenever his actions got people killed, he drank himself to oblivion. Leon still fought to protect people but secretly, he had given up the passion once the E Lai came into light. There was no use beating himself up to care about the strangers that died every day. It was taxing and it was useless. Instead, he focused on protecting those he loved. It went against his nature as a policeman but, with losing so many people he loved to the war, he felt like he deserved to be selfish for once.

"Everyone is worried about you, Leon," Hunnigan spoke softly. Leon could see the bags under her eyes. She was so tired yet, she came to check up on him whenever she had time off. Leon had kept trying to persuade her to rest but she refused, not wanting to unless Leon did the same. "They would give your job back if you came back."

Leon lifted his hand off of Hunnigan's hand. "How would that help me?" he asked bitterly. "No one can help me at the BSAA. They made me stop looking for her."

Hunnigan wore a hurtful look. "Leon, what happened to Helena…" she trailed off. She lowered her head with sadness. It had hurt Hunnigan deeply as well when Helena disappeared. They were soul sisters, bonding with each other after Helena lost her own sister to the virus.

Hunnigan brought her mug to her lips but did not take a sip. "I just wish you would take a break from this." She then took a short sip and placed the mug down. Hunnigan could not taste the strong tea from her mug. Like Leon, she was too emotionally exhausted to even enjoy eating and drinking.

Leon leaned against his chair with a tired expression. He was once again in the same conversation with Hunnigan he had over a thousand times. "I can't take a break while Helena is in E Lai. I can't abandon her, Hunnigan."

Hunnigan looked as if she was going to regret her next words. She bit her lips and looked contemplated. "What if…"

Leon gazed at her. Hunnigan held the mug in her hands tightly.

"What if she's dead?"

Leon slammed his hands on the table, standing abruptly and knocking his chair down in the process. His head was lowered, unable to bring himself to show Hunnigan his angered side. His mug fell over and dripped tea all over the ground.

Hunnigan, however, was not taken back at his behavior. She sat silently, staring at Leon's stance. She knew she had to say it. Leon was driving himself mad searching for Helena and Hunnigan couldn't just let Leon waste his life away for someone who could be dead-even if that someone was also someone Hunnigan cared deeply for.

"Please, leave," Leon muttered.

Hunnigan stood up. "I just want to help you, Leon. You can't chase a ghost forever," she said softly.

As Hunnigan shut the door behind her, Leon stood frozen in his stance. Suddenly, a trail of tears cascaded from his eyes and onto the table. He knew there was a strong possibility that Hunnigan was right. Helena was a resourceful agent; no matter how many odds were against her, she always found a way to stay safe. And if she was safe, she would have found a way to contact Leon or at least her coordinator, Squalo, who was protective of Helena as much as Leon was.

Leon covered his mouth to suppress his emotional cry. The probability of Helena already dead was too high for him to accept. E Lai was a god forsaken place. He would rather have Helena dead than have her witness another minute at hell; yet, he also selfishly wished that she would have struggled on living so they would be reunited one day.

Leon slowly fell to his knees, endlessly mourning for the loss of his partner. He loved her so much. The last night they spent together ended too bitter for him to accept that this was the last time he would see her. He knew his delusion and love for Helena made him believe that somehow he knew she was alive. He had gone through everything with her, it was impossible for him to see a future without her.

The wretched feeling took over Leon and he let out an anguished cry. Why, out of all the people in the world, does he have to lose so many people? He had already lost his family, some of his dear friends, and now, he lost the woman he loved more than this goddamn world he lived in.

Leon's eyes moved upwards at a bare part of wall, where the papers and information of E Lai did not touch. It was the framed picture of Helena when she graduated from the BSAA acceptance program. Leon stood in the picture next to her, with a large smile. Leon's eyes trailed to Helena and her sincere smile made his eyes swell up with tears again. She would not have wanted this. She would not have wanted me to abandon the world for her. Leon rose up and wiped away his tears. Leon knew he had to give up one day. He could not chase after her disappearance forever, even if he wanted to. He still had Hunnigan, Chris, Ada...and so many other people in the BSAA that depended on him. He gazed at the large wall filled with papers and scrawled out pen marks. All the work he did, he couldn't just give it up. Even if he still had no leads and mountains of information that didn't make sense together, he didn't want to give up.

"One day," Leon spoke. He walked over to the framed picture of Helena and him. He stared longingly at Helena.

"But not today."

-7 Weeks later-

Hunnigan woke up with a gasp. She had fallen asleep at her work desk again. Her colleagues sighed as Hunnigan resumed her work. They had hoped that she would at least sleep for another hour or so. Her fingers resumed clicking and rattling against the old keyboard with no pause. Hunnigan never touched the backspace button as she felt if she were to even make a mistake that wasted a single second, she would cause a death somewhere. The strictness with herself made her lose hair and skin sag but, she didn't care.

Hunnigan held herself accountable when Helena disappeared. Squalo repeated on numerous occasions that she wasn't at fault but, Hunnigan knew it wasn't true. Before all contacts were cut off from Helena and her team, Helena made one last call to Hunnigan, asking for an extraction point. But Hunnigan made a fatal mistake when she accidentally added a wrong number to the coordinates due to panicking. She was hearing screams and Helena's breathless gasps. Before she could send Helena the correct coordinates, she lost the call.

The mistake forever haunted Hunnigan and she vowed to never let her emotions get in the way. She typed at her keyboard until she felt like she could continue to work while she slept. She never made a mistake at her computer and carried herself with strict standards since the incident. The work was literally killing her but, she never felt comfortable taking too much time from work.

Even though she had told Leon to give up searching for Helena, Hunnigan herself never gave up. She still clung onto hope that Helena was alive and could call her at any second. Every couple of minutes, her eyes would dart to her cell phone from the computer screen, anticipating a call from Helena. Whenever her phone would ring, her heart would flutter and then drop in anguish when it wasn't Helena. It hurt every time it happened.

From her peripheral vision, she saw Leon walking past her office. He was returning from his Nevada patrol with Chris. Leon's return was a small joy in her gray life. She was glad he took her advice even if she felt conflicted in persuading him to forget about Helena. How could she tell Leon to give up when she herself was waiting for Helena's return?

Hunnigan brushed away her thoughts. She had work to do.

A lady in her 30s entered Hunnigan's office with a breathless smile. "Did you hear?"

Hunnigan knew her as 'Elly from the reception desk'. Elly had the habit of wanting to be the first ones to spread wonderful news. Hunnigan appreciated her positive outlook on life. Without taking her eyes off the screen, she replied, "What?"

"Agent Kennedy said the entire Nevada state is free!" Elly said gleefully. "It's that amazing good news?"

Hunnigan broke a small smile. "That's wonderful. When are we planning the construction for a new base?"

Elly leaned against the doorframe. "They already opened up sign ups to move to the Nevada zone. I might leave dry Arizona behind and stay near the coastlines of California. I feel safer near oceans." Elly sighed. She turned her head towards Hunnigan. "Will you come too?"

Hunnigan briefly stopped typing to stretch her fingers. "I don't think so. I don't need a change of scenery."

Elly looked upset. "Why not? I heard the Las Vegas zone can't be breached from the outside. You know, because that one billionaire poured money into making it insanely secure before everything went to shit from the inside."

"The sky is the same everywhere," Hunnigan said flatly.

Ella smiled softly and paused for a bit. "…You're right. There would be no point, huh?"

Hunnigan felt regretful in her words. She stopped typing and smiled at Elly. "I would love to smell the ocean though."

Elly chuckled. "I wouldn't mind the fresh fish I heard they eat there."

Hunnigan laughed softly as her phone rang. She glanced down and quieted her heart beats. It was Squalo.

Elly walked away to spread the news of Leon and Chris' successful mission while Hunnigan answered the call.

"Yes, Squalo? What do you need?" Hunnigan resumed typing away at her computer.

Squalo's usual calm demeanor was gone from his voice. "Hunnigan, I need you to get to the border immediately."

Hunnigan stopped typing. She felt uneasy. "What is it?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"Did you contact Agent Kennedy?" Squalo asked someone in the background.

She stood up from her desk. "What is it, Squalo? Tell me what's happening," Hunnigan pressed, unable to concentrate. She felt her heart beat. Did they find Helena? Hunnigan prayed in her mind that they had retrieved Helena safe and sound.

"We found an ambush party of E Lai," Squalo spoke. "They are closer than we thought. This is very bad."

Hunnigan narrowed her eyes. Her shoulders drooped and her eyes went blank. "Oh...I see."

"We had an anonymous tip that there was a group of soldiers hiding around here in the alleys. Can you believe it?"

Hunnigan sat back down, barely understanding what Squalo had said. "Did you track the tip?" she asked. She sounded disinterested but she knew that she should be worried that the E Lai was on their grounds without getting detected. If there was already a group hiding near the borders of the Arizona frontier, there could possibly be others.

"No, we couldn't. I'm at the border with other agents right now. The agents are telling me this isn't a scouting group or an ambush party."

Hunnigan's interest perked up. "What do you mean? Who are they? Rouges? Refugees?"

"They're telling me it's an escort party. These soldiers are equipped to the bone."

"What do you mean? Who are they escorting?"

"We're not sure. We are still getting them out of where they were hiding. They killed a lot of our men. We're finding bodies of some of our missing agents inside. Looks like they killed our patrolling agents and took their clothes. We need to up our identity checker and border control."

Hunnigan heard Squalo's breathless gasp. "My god..." he whispered. "This can't be..."

"What is it, Squalo?"

Hunnigan glanced up just to see Leon and Chris dash by with other agents trailing behind them.

Hunnigan remained still for a brief moment. Could this be?

"Please..." she whispered. She felt chills creeping up her body. She breathed slowly and her heart beats quickened once again. Tears were forming in her weary eyes as she gripped her phone tighter. Her chest felt heavy and she felt like she couldn't breathe properly. Elly appeared in front of her with a sobbing face. Hunnigan stared at her silently. Please, no. Please, god. Please, no.

"Please don't tell me you've found her body," she whispered into the phone as tears fell from her eyes. Don't tell me, I don't want to hear it.

Squalo stared with wide eyes as the BSAA agents escorted Helena out of the burrows. She squinted at the flashlights that were on her. Other BSAA agents stood stunned in silence as Helena stood calmly in front of them, holding her protruded belly.

Hunnigan watched as Elly's sobbing face slowly turned into a joyous smile. "Did you hear the good news, Hunnigan?" she asked.

"She's alive, Hunnigan," Squalo spoke.

Elly screamed as Hunnigan fainted on the floor.