The Goliath Protocol

Chapter Fifty-One:

Revenge

"It's really working great," Rebecca told Leon one morning as they shared coffee on the porch. "The blocker is nearly perfect. If I can just find the latent missing trigger, I can perfect it. I can make it, so she never has to worry about it again."

Leon flicked ashes off the end of his cigarette and watched Jill disappear into the woods at the edge of the field. "You tell her that?"

"I did," Rebecca sighed, "She said - as long as she wears that device, she's always a risk. She's convinced she's tainted or something."

Leon told Rebecca, "I'll fix it."

He tossed the cigarette. She gave him arched brows, and he told her, "Science only gets you so far, Chambers. Sometimes, you gotta finish it."

Leon tracked Jill through the trees.

When he found her at the mountain's edge, he waited in the trees to see what she'd do. She walked to the furthest spot and stopped, glancing down at the drop below her. Her toe eased forward and dangled off the plummet of it.

He waited, wondering if she would do more than contemplate the jump.

When he moved toward her, the rocks announced his arrival, and she turned, eyes wide, looking at him.

Softly, she lifted her hands, "I...was just thinking."

His head cocked as he watched her. She licked her lips and rubbed her palms on her jeans. "I'm terrified of it."

He said nothing.

And she clarified, "I'm terrified of falling again."

She laughed now, and her eyes shimmered in the sunlight. "I wasn't before, ya know. I wasn't afraid. I jumped out that window, and I was ready. It was done. It was over...now..."

She stopped. She covered her face with her hands and confessed, "Now I can't. I can't do it. I should do it...I should jump. It would save you. All of you. I should just jump and finish it."

Finish it, he thought; that was what he'd come here to do. Finish it.

The cool fall breeze tickled his face as he approached her. She kept her face in her hands and breathed, "I'm a coward. Because I can't do it, I can't just jump. What does that say about me?"

When he was in front of her, she finished, "...it says I'm selfish, right? I'm selfish because I should jump...and that would hurt you and Logan...and the rest of them. It would hurt you. But it would save you. And I can't...because I don't want to go. I don't want to die."

She whimpered softly and gasped, "I don't want to die, Leon. I'm a coward."

So, he simply said, "No." He took her wrists and tugged her hands.

Jill resisted, and she warned, "Don't. Don't."

"Don't what?"

Jill returned brokenly, "Don't touch me. When you touch me...I forget."

"...forget what?" He kept his hands curled around her wrists as he gruffed the question.

"Forget that I'm broken. I'm broken. Stop looking at me like I'm not. I'm broken. And there's no fixing me. And I can't...I can't jump. Because even broken...I want to be here."

He tugged her hands free of her face. She met his eyes desperately and gushed, "I want to be here with you...and him...and them. I want to be here, Leon. And that's all your fault."

Now he laughed. He just laughed. She accused, "Look what you did to me. You made me...want it. You made me want to be here...to be me...to be me with you. And I can't be. I can't be anymore. And I don't know what to do."

Lost, she trembled, searching his face for answers. For anything. For something...to ground her. Something...to save her.

So, he gave it to her. "Yes, you do. You said to me once. You told me...when life cuts too deep and leaves you hurting...and the future you had hoped for is burning...and you don't know if you'll ever find the healing...what did you tell me, Jill? What did you say?"

She felt the tears spill onto her cheeks as she whispered, "...you're gonna make it."

"Yeah...you're gonna make it. This is it. This is the fight. Right here. Right now. So forget the rest of it. Forget the thing on your chest and the world outside of this moment...and do it. Get up."

Get up, Chris had said; get up, Jill. Everybody wanted her to get up. Didn't they understand? She didn't know how.

But he gave her that too. He told her, "Take your goddamn hands off that thing on your chest and put them on me."

She denied, shaking her head, "I can't. I can't. What if I hurt you? What if-"

Leon took her hand and slapped his face with it. Surprised, Jill recoiled with a gasp, "What are you doing?"

"Did that work? Did that fire you up? Did it get your motor revving?"

She stared at him, and he demanded, "Do it again."

She whispered, "...why?"

"Do it. And trust me."

She lifted her hand and half-heartedly slapped him. He laughed, "That it? Harder. Mean it."

When she just stared, he demanded, "Go on. Do it. I did it, right? It was me. I made you love me. I dragged you into this. I couldn't stop what happened to you. You're a prisoner again, and it's my fault. So, fight back. Do it."

Jill shivered, "...it's not your fault, you fool...I don't want to hurt you."

"Yes, you do." He laughed, and it echoed angrily down the mountain, "I want you to. Hurt me. I deserve it. Hit me. Yell. Throw things. Kick my ass. Scream. Rage. Any of that...any of it...has got to be better than this."

She trembled, and he snapped, "No more guilt. No more regret. No more grief. Hit me. Again, again, again...until you're all used up. Until you're done."

Jill let her jaw clench as he spurred her on, "Come on. I failed you. I let you down. It was Ada who did it. Ada. And she's alive because of me."

Jesus. The truth of that lay between them as he confessed, "Yep. I did that. I left her alive. It's my fault. All of it. Make me feel it."

She slapped his face so hard it echoed. His skin pinked, and he gruffed, "Yep, like that. I didn't feel anything before I met you, Jill. Nothing. I was dead inside. And so were you—two dead assholes with nothing but battle between them. You had no choice. But I did."

She slapped him again, and he shivered, "Yep. I had a choice. I made the wrong one. I left her alive. And then I found you, and I just...inserted myself into your life. I stuck in there like a thorn. I gave you no choice there, either. I made you chase me and want me and need me. I did that. So fight back...fight!"

She didn't want to fight him. She loved him. It echoed in her body like something trying to heal her. And she was afraid of the healing. Because if she let herself heal, she'd start to forget - that she'd never deserved the life he kept trying to offer her.

Not when so many others lay dead at her hands.

And he just wouldn't let her die to join them.

With a shout of pain and regret, she slapped him so hard he staggered. Immediately contrite, she reached for him, and he rose up, face rosy with it. He shook his head, "Don't. Don't regret it. Don't apologize. Get mad. Get even. Get revenge."

When she stared at him, he told her, "I won't let you give up. I keep forcing you back onto your feet. I left her alive, and now you're lost again. It's me. All me. Make me feel it."

She shoved his chest. She shouted and came at him. He let her. He backed up from the mountain edge, and he ducked. He moved. He let her shove and slap at him. She kicked him in the stomach and slapped his face, and screamed.

Like a Valkyrie. Like a warrior.

She pinned him to a tree and slammed him there, once, twice, three times. She shouted, "I hate you! I hate you!"

He took it. He absorbed it. But it wasn't him she hated. They both knew that. It was her. He demanded, "Why?! Tell me why!"

And she yelled, "Because I can't hate you! I chased you! Remember? That was me! You bastard! Why didn't you just leave me where you'd found me!? Why didn't you kill me the second I started turning!? Why couldn't you just...see her!? You blind, son of a bitch! You stupid..."

She trailed off. Her hands shook as she lowered them and finished, "...wonderful...trusting...fool."

Leon nodded. Face red and stinging; he grumbled, "Yeah. Trusting. I trusted a spy. I trusted a lie. I trusted a woman with a broken goddamn soul. And one of those things? One of them...is the reason I'm still standing here. One of them is the only thing in the world that never gave up on me."

Her face collapsed. Jill grabbed his face and spit, "What do you want, Leon? What do you want from me!?"

He grabbed one of her hands and shoved it, flat palm against his chest, "Feel that?"

She trembled, "...I feel it."

His heart raced as he confessed, "Only for you, Jill. Never...ever...for anyone else. Nobody else in the world gets it to beat like that. I was almost gone when you found me. You think I found you? You found me."

She shook her head, and he told her, "You found me. I'm here. I'm entirely here...maybe for the first real-time in my life. I'm not running. I'm staying. I'm not gonna let go. If you jump...I jump. So what's it gonna be?"

Jill held his eyes, and he told her, "You think you're lost, Jill. But you're not lost...not on your own, not anymore. I will stand by you. I will help you through. When you're done...when you're finished...I will fight your fight."

Her heart trembled, and he finished, "And I won't let you fall...not again. Not ever again."

She breathed, "You can't stop it. Don't you get it? You can't stop it."

"Maybe not. But I can catch you. And if you go...I will follow you into the dark."

Without missing a beat, she snapped, "I want her dead. You hear me? I want her dead for what she's done. I want her gone. And I will not stop until she is."

Leon held her eyes and agreed, "Me either. Together, Jill. In this? Together. I can't take it back...but I can finish it. And even if you don't want me beside you, I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere."

They stared at each other in the sunlight until a bald eagle called somewhere in the distance. The symbol of freedom to so many, it echoed through the mountains and let them know they were still free. Even if the cage felt like fire made flesh.

She was still free.

She just had to believe it.

And he just had to keep standing beside her until she did.

Tracking Ada was more complicated than it should have been.

She bounced around and had him tapping his pen on the desk as he tried to pin her down. She was, and would always be, good at running. She never stayed in one place too long.

He tugged lines; he made deals; he traded favors - trying like hell to figure out where she was running to.

Chris tracked her like a bloodhound. He cleaned clocks. He punched faces. He dug holes around the world like trying to find a mole.

Leon worked like hell to train Kevin in his image. He pushed him and pulled him along, and groomed him. Kevin was as determined as anyone Leon had ever met to prove himself.

He wasn't quite as fast, but he was determined.

While Logan and Eva watched, Leon showed him how to utilize his environment to his advantage. He taught him to wall run, resulting in Kevin face planting and falling and flipping to land on his ass and make the kids laugh.

Eva did cartwheels, and Logan finally executed a perfect backflip.

Claire showed up with lemonade. Rebecca gained a wall and shouted math like it would help...anyone. She offered gravity and velocity and any number of physics excuses for why someone failed.

Logan used a laser pointer and had them dodging, ducking, and rolling.

Jill sat beside Rebecca on the wall and said nothing. She tilted her head; she watched, she learned.

On the range, Kevin showed them where his strong point was. He emptied a magazine into a target and blew a hole so wide that Logan mused, "Did you use a cannon!?"

Impressed, Leon remarked, "Nope. Just the same hole over and over."

Kevin shrugged, "I was a natural there. Just couldn't temper the mouth to put it to use."

Leon studied him and remarked, "Some of us are made to go it alone."

Kevin laughed lightly. "A nice way of letting me know I'm a pariah."

"Nope. A lone wolf, and like speaks to like." Leon held his look and told him, "The lone wolf...usually he finds his place in the world."

"Alone?"

Leon shrugged, "Sometimes...or sometimes at the head of the pack."

With that, Leon headed off toward the lake. Kevin stood as Claire joined him at his side and muttered, "You ever get the feeling someone is trying to tell you something without just spitting it out?"

Claire smirked a little, "Have you met my brother?"

Kevin snorted. "I have...sadly. How you came from the same parents is a mystery."

She arched a brow, "Meaning?"

"Look at you...and look at him. And ask that again."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Because he's so big and tough?"

"Because he looks like a hairy bag of dicks...and you-" He stopped. She twitched her mouth and waited.

When he said nothing, she laughed, "I look like Howdy Doody had a sister?"

Kevin chuckled. "You look like a flame-haired battle goddess or something...shit...I don't know. I look like a guy who spouts off poetry? I look like Kennedy?"

When he winced at the thought, Claire laughed, "No. Thank god. The world only needs one of those."

"I won't win any beauty contests, Redfield, but at least I look good naked."

Claire gave him a considering look and decided, "We'll see."

With that, she started toward the lake after Leon.

Kevin watched her go and wondered, "...what did I get myself into here?"

Rebecca, bopping past, returned, "Friendship."

She kept on walking. Logan and Eva whooped and raced for the water. When Jill stepped beside him, Kevin mused, "If we run...right now...how far could we get before they noticed?"

Jill smiled softly. "You don't run, big liar. And you don't want to. Like redheads, do ya?"

He snickered. She bumped his shoulder with her arm. "Take your own advice, my friend, and don't wait. Just go get her."

At the water's edge, Jill watched everybody splash - fully clothed- in the water. She sat by the water and let the fall air tickle her hair.

She couldn't get back what was lost. It was gone.

But she could see it in the distance, and there she sat, holding on, like a tin can on a string to the tail end of a car after a wedding, just dangling behind, chasing the happy couple, looking for a life that wasn't hers.

Could she have this life? Here? With this man and this boy and this family?

Could she have it?

If Rebecca found a way to give it to her, could she let go of the guilt and the anger and the regret and just...love?

When Eva shouted, "Save me, Jill! Oh, heeeelp me!"

Jill rose from the sand and let it echo through her bones as the sun dipped over the mountains and painted the water red like blood. At that moment, there were no ripples, no tremors, no ghosts - just an echo of something clear and beautiful...and real.

Everywhere she looked, another wave of doubt wanted to pull her under. Her mind kept warning her: What if you're overtaken? What if you never make it? What if no one's there? What if you fall into the unknown?

And her heart...her heart...it answered - You know he won't let you go. So...what are you waiting for? You know you're made for more. So, don't be afraid to move...and walk on water, Jill. Walk. And then...you run.

Even when her mind warned her to give up. Even when it told her it was over. It was hopeless.

She knew...she just had to step out, step out into that water. Step out...and keep going. One foot at a time. One day at a time. One breath at a time.

And save herself one moment at a time.

And forgive herself, redeem herself...release herself...one life at a time.

She raced into the water.

Surprised, Eva squealed, "Oh, it's ober for you!"

Leon just...laughed.

When Leon tossed the little girl in her arms to halt her, Jill tossed her to Claire like she weighed nothing. Eva whooped, Claire oofed and caught her, and Jill just...tackled him. He laughed. He tried to brace. He tried to hold on.

But she took the moves he'd taught Kevin and turned them back on him.

He spun, she countered, and she came up under his arms, tucked her shoulder into him, and threw him over her body while Logan roared with laughter.

Eva squealed, "OOOOF! Kilt by a girl!"

There was a jerk on her legs; Jill shouted and kicked uselessly, and down she went onto her back. She hit the water, she rolled, and they battled in the red water like slippery eels.

Sometimes faith was all it took to find your way back.

She went under; she went down; she let him drag her with him until the cold closed around them. Washed clean, she thought as they plummeted, baptized in the red water of renewal.

Her last chance.

Her last escape.

Born again for the greatest battle she'd ever fought - the one against herself.

As they sank, they stopped struggling. She watched his face in the swirling red water and leaned forward. A soft kiss. A sweet kiss. A bubble of lips and laughter.

He nodded. She shook her head.

No words.

But an entire conversation.

And two people just...floating...while the world swirled around them.

Leon found Rebecca and Jill in the lab one morning while Rebecca tested Jill's reactions to stimuli. She was doing well, Rebecca mused, no latent effects from the virus. She was holding her own. Her recovery was, as always, remarkable. Her body just snapped back without complaint.

She'd seen similar reactions in Sherry Birkin, who'd bonded to the G-Virus. Jill had bonded to what was in her. Beautifully. The T-Virus antibodies she carried allowed her to resist the mutation element brilliantly. She was still Jill - just better, faster, stronger, and more.

In a way, Wesker had done what he'd set out to do - he'd made the perfect human.

It just...hadn't been him.

When Rebecca glanced at him, Leon tossed a file between them on the table. In a pair of jeans and an old gray and faded Rolling Stones t-shirt, he didn't look like his fashionable self - he looked a little wild-eyed, and his hair was sticking up in places. The little glasses on his nose somehow added cute to his impossibly sexy face.

He gestured at the file. "Miracella."

Rebecca tilted her head. "...ok."

He shook his in response. "In that lab...she said something that stuck with me. Alesio said it again in that clock tower. They both said Jill would never be free of them because they were in her."

Rebecca widened her eyes, and Leon added, "Yeah. At first, I thought it was just bad guy speak - Wesker was in all of them, right? His influence. His control. But then the goddamn dragons, the fucking reactions Jill has when faced with them. A hesitance to finish it. Like her body wants her to avoid-"

"-destroying the fount." Rebecca's voice was so quiet as it struck. She slapped a hand to her mouth and ran to her computer. "Oh my god, you're brilliant. You're a gosh darn genius. I just- I didn't see it."

Jill narrowed her eyes, "What am I missing here?"

Rebecca muttered, "...evil freaking genius...I swear to god."

Leon knelt in front of Jill and put his hands over hers. "Wesker made you the melting pot. He used you to strengthen Uroboros and made you the perfect host."

She shook her head, "Explain it to me like I'm five."

With a slight smirk, he instructed, "Each of his lieutenants carried something, something vital - something he needed to perfect it. But you? You offered the perfect test bed for the finished product. When he was done with you, I have no doubt he meant to do what Ada did and trigger the result."

Rebecca squeaked, "You carry a piece of each of them. Just like they said. Wesker's blood? His contribution? That's the last piece—the final trigger. Whatever Wong synthesized using what she found in Paraguay is the trigger. If we get all the pieces, I can make a counter protocol."

Jill felt a roll of something like hope. It scared her. It made her hands shake as she gripped Leon's. "But we can't locate Hunk. We can't find Miracella. And Ada..."

He shook his head. "We had samples from Miracella when she was in captivity. During the fight with him, I stuck a goddamn needle in Hunk while you held us at gunpoint, and I was giving you time to recover. I took some from Alesio before I turned him into pink mist."

Her eyes held his as she breathed, "...she's right...you are fucking brilliant."

He laughed softly and replied, "Nope. Just good at my job."

Rebecca called excitedly, "We need to find Ada. If I can figure out what she's using to ramp up Wesker's blood, I can finish this."

Leon tapped his chin with a finger and promised, "I'm close. Trust me."

They both looked at him until Rebecca simply wondered, "Does anyone ever not trust you?"

The answer to that was simple - he didn't. He didn't trust himself. And he'd let this turn personal.

One way or another - he was going to close the book on this part of his life. Maybe he couldn't trust himself sometimes...but he could trust that. And it was the thing that got him up in the morning and pushed him forward.

He might be a man who couldn't make heads or tails out of his life, but by god, he was a man who finished what he started.

And it was the simplest reason why. Now? It was the most simple of reasons.

Revenge. The murkiest motivation in history, but there it was. Revenge.

And redemption.

His computer beeped and the turned back to it to leave the two women looking after him like he was a hero.

He wasn't. He was just a man willing to risk everything for revenge.

And make his peace with whatever it cost him.