Penumbra:

Shadows Collide

VII:

Cassiopeia

Late Summer - 2014

Witch Haven Island, off the coast of Massachusetts

They moved in the dark like dancers - perfectly made, perfectly coordinated, perfectly practiced, as if both had been trained to operate in shadows. They had, so it fit, but it wasn't done under the guise of mission parameters - this time, it was done out of regret. The ride back to the island would signal the end of what they'd found here. Neither was ready to say goodbye.

Jill pinned her short hair behind her skull in a sloppy ponytail, the pieces trailing around her ears and nape as the wind kicked up upon her exit from the cabin. She hesitated to put her little knapsack into the saddlebag on the bike. An owl hooted and drew her eyes to the lightening sky above them - pink and blue, mauve and myriad navy mixed with stars. She wouldn't see that sky above a blinding metropolis.

Would she see the same sky as him ever again?

She lingered long enough that the ground crunched to signal his arrival. As the wind whispered, Jill spoke first, surprising them both. "What's this cluster of stars there?"

She angled her finger skyward and felt the air shift as he aligned himself to her back and crouched just enough to follow the line of her pointing. His lips brushed the shell of her ear as Leon answered in a low, rolling tone - even his damn voice sounded like a melody sometimes. "Andromeda," Leon guided her finger around the shape of the stars as he explained, "if you look, you can see she's next to Perseus, the demigod who would come to save her from the Krakken sent by Poseidon to eat her as appeasement for her parent's hubris."

"Hubris over what?"

"They claimed she was more beautiful than all of Poseidon's children. Andromeda's mother, Cassiopeia, chained her to a rock as a sacrifice to save herself and her king."

"Selfish bitch."

Leon chuckled. "Always women that are the ruthless ones in old stories."

"Hmm," Jill felt her mouth twitch, "Is Perseus the other cluster?"

"He is," Leon guided her finger around, "It's said they were cast into the sky upon their death to show endless love and loyalty. Andromeda was pledged to marry another man, but Perseus used the head of Medusa to kill him and claimed her for his own."

Jill pursed her lips. "Seriously? That's romantic?"

He laughed again. "It is...since she loved him, too, they say, and didn't want to wed the other man. Cassiopeia, for her hubris, was cast into the sky beside them, tied to a chair as eternal punishment."

"Good. I hope the chair had a spikes on it."

Leon snorted. "But Andromeda is there, upside down, floating beside him. See?"

"Another story about a man saving a woman."

Her tone was teasing, but his answer - if was why she was afraid she was falling for him. "I think they saved each other."

His softly uttered syllables made her feel somehow sad and moved at once. "She gave him a reason to keep fighting...and he gave her a reason to hold on."

Oh, yeah, she thought desperately; Andromeda wasn't the only one falling.

Jill leaned her face against his gently, almost a ghostlike caress. "...she's falling."

"Maybe you never really stop falling for the right person."

Jill made a soft noise of agreement as Leon added, "I like to think she's eternally floating...suspended forever beside what matters."

Jill turned her head to look at his profile. "You think we really leave anything behind worth remembering?"

His gaze kept following the stars as he answered. "I think it depends on who we've left behind us and what we meant to them."

"What if we leave no one behind?"

Leon glanced down at her face. "There's always time to make sure that doesn't happen."

Jill's mouth trembled. "Right...right." She glanced back at the sky. "Beautiful...sad...but beautiful."

"Not sad," Leon corrected and guided her finger toward the Cassiopeia constellation, "there's more to that one. I'll tell you about it sometime."

Jill leaned her cheek fully against his as he guided her arm down, looped it around her waist, and covered it with his own to hug her from behind. Quietly, she wondered, "And if we never see each other again?"

His chest rumbled against her back. "Then next time you're near a telescope, aim it toward that furthest star in Cassiopeia and zoom in...and you'll remember me for a minute."

He let go of her. Jill lingered as he climbed onto the bike. She hesitated before climbing on behind him. Her arms looped at his waist. She laid her lips against his ear and promised, "I won't ever forget you."

He couldn't hear her; she was sure of that because the bike was roaring as it tore up the road, but she meant it. She'd spent a long time trying to find herself again after her imprisonment. Here, on this island, she'd found some piece of who she'd been and some promise of what she'd become. He'd given that by just treating her like a person. Everyone treated her like a bomb, ticking, ticking, waiting to explode.

He treated her like a woman, not a broken one - just a woman with scars. The healing made sure you couldn't see them anymore, but they were still there, still buried beneath the skin and burned onto the bones. She was branded - marked - marred from torture and survival. He didn't see that; he just saw alive. It was incredible to realize how much they had in common - two people who'd been jerked around, abused, used, and left for dead. Leon was still so hopeful and determined to see it through and see what came next.

She wallowed in that strength next to him and knew she'd mourn it when he was gone.

The bike tucked into a spot at the edge of a forest. Jill reluctantly let go and slid off the bike. She gripped her little knapsack, and there was a clicking of beads that had him turning back to look at her. She offered him the little twist of brown woven hemp and white seashells in her hand.

He glanced at it and back at her face as Jill murmured, "...I made it on the beach one day. I thought maybe..."

When he said nothing, she closed her fist around it and flushed in the pink light of a new day. "Sorry, it's stupid. I shouldn't have bo-"

Leon cupped his hand over hers and tugged her forward. He uncurled her fingers from the bracelet and extracted it from her grip. Pulling the little knotted ties, he slid it over his wrist and offered, "Can you tighten it for me?"

Jill kept her eyes on his arm as she muttered, "You don't have to wear it. It's silly."

"Did you make it for me?"

When she said nothing, his left hand caught her chin and pulled it up so she'd look at him. "Did you make this for me, Jill?"

Voice small, she whispered, "...yes."

"Why?" The gruff question seemed to matter. It echoed on his face. It slid through his eyes like ghosts of what might have been.

Her eyes flickered in the wild red rising sun. "...so you wouldn't forget me."

"...then tighten it for me."

She tightened it. It hugged his skin. It looked small on his muscled arm. He caught the back of her neck and dragged her to him. On her tiptoes, mouth brushing his, he avowed in a husky voice, "...I will never forget you, either."

So, he'd heard her after all.

Jill surged upward to kiss him. It was heavy, needy, and over too quickly. A chopper tossed wind as it landed in the clearing beyond the tree line. She clung to the straps on his vest for a moment before he told her, "That's your ride, Valentine."

Jill darted her eyes desperately. Finally, she let go of him and settled back flat to her feet. "Thank you, Kennedy. For everything."

With a flicker of amusement and command, he answered, "It's Leon, Jill."

Softly, she admitted. "I know what your name is."

Jill let go of him. He caught her wrist as she headed toward the waiting chopper and pressed a small piece of paper into her palm. When she held his eyes, Leon said, "...in case you ever need me."

I can't seem to stop needing you.

But her mouth replied, "See you around."

Their fingers slid apart. Her feet carried her forward as she left him behind. Eight steps, ten, twelve -and she boarded that chopper that lifted toward the dawning day. She didn't look down at him on the ground; she was afraid, like Medusa, she'd turn to stone if she did.

Dallas, Texas

At the little table in the corner, two men sat with their heads bowed and their voices low.

Around them, the small bar lulled happily. It was a honky-tonk, for lack of a better word, and flush with rodeo memorabilia, kitschy cowboy tributes, and a fair amount of animal heads mounted like trophies on all the walls. It was horns and heavy-handed decorations made of fur, spurs, and boots. Peanuts littered the floor in an homage to a good steakhouse, and spittoons took up corners for the spit of the average tobacco-chewing badass.

At the table, the two men there were speaking in tones lost amongst the rolling strain of bluegrass country, and the twang of one looked twice at them; no one bothered, no one that milled and laughed, that danced and kicked up their boots, understood the nature of their conversation. Two men with a hidden agenda. Two men with a purpose. Two men with a devious plan.

And nothing to lose.

In the middle of a honky-tonk, a plan was hatched for espionage, and only the watchful eyes of the taxidermy bore witness.

Sangre de Cristo mountain range - New Mexico - early Fall

Sangre de Christo meant the blood of Christ in Spanish. The southernmost edge of the Rocky Mountains branched down into the outskirts of Sante Fe, New Mexico. It was red because of the alpenglow, the light cast upon the world by the greatest spill of gold on the horizon, offering a beautiful hue to the eager when the world went dark and when it rose again to greet the day. It was crimson now as the sun began to set above it.

It was vermillion.

Leon gained the ledge with his left hand, huffing as he mounted the final craggy set of rocks. Sweat slid down his collarbone and glistened on his muscles as he paused to drink a long mouthful of water. Vermillion. His eyes scanned the horizon. The mountains were the color of Jill Valentine's call sign.

He'd thought about her dozens of times since he'd seen her a few weeks before. He'd pictured her face driving. He'd heard her laugh when sleeping. He'd woken to miss the sound of her snoring beside him. This, he thought, was what it meant to long for someone.

His fingers traced the little bracelet of shells on his wrist. It was rapidly becoming a gesture of habit. He did it without thinking, without realizing, and whenever he was looking to settle himself from an errant tangent of thoughts. He did it when he was thinking of her, too.

His gaze turned from the sprawling glory of the mountains and danced over the barren peak where he found himself. A small glimmer in the distance was the camp he was trying to reach. They'd made it so goddamn hard to get there; he was starting to think it was a test of his fortitude.

His boots crunched as he walked, sweat sliding down his spine like a salty tongue seeking the thirsty ground. As he approached the table in the tent's center, Rebecca Chambers met his eyes over the map and files spread before her. "Leon!"

The dulcet sounds of a sprite with the face of a fairy. It made him smile as he approached, "Rebecca Chambers...you wanna tell me why we're meeting in the middle of nowhere?"

Rebecca glanced behind him, frowned, and then glanced to her left and over the rise. "It's obscure, and no one knows we're here. We're hiding out, remember? There's a trail from the canyon that would have made your life easier."

His mouth twitched with a smile. She was right, of course, but he'd opted for the climb. He wanted to purge the need for alcohol with good old-fashioned physical strain. It had worked. He wanted a gallon of water but didn't want a goddamn fifth of whiskey.

So, it was something.

Leon approached her and glanced at the files and maps on the table. "What are we planning here? I didn't know I was coming in on Oceans 19."

Her deadpan look had a grin flashing on his face and disarming her. She rolled her eyes, chuckled, and smacked his arm. "You won't be laughing when you look at this."

She handed him a file. Leon perched his sweaty ass on the table's edge and opened the manilla folder. His grin dropped away as he went, flipping pages and scanning information. He glanced up at her. "You sure about this?"

Rebecca bobbed her dark head. "Oh, I'm sure. They weren't really trying to hide it, Leon. They were just yanking information like they didn't give a shit who saw."

"And you think the link comes full circle to Arias?"

Rebecca nodded rapidly. "The threads that Quint could tug on the cyber end found it bounced around servers in Ottawa and then beelined to Nova Scotia and Greenland before finding the root in New York. The thing is...the video we pulled from the cyber cafe where the downloading was happening...it wasn't Gomez."

Leon narrowed his eyes. "Who was it?"

Rebecca tapped the file. "Flip the page."

He did and paused, studying the big violet eyes and pouting lips. His tongue circled his teeth. "Goddamn."

Rebecca shook her head. "Jessica Sherawat. I thought she was dead."

He shook his head, scanning her dossier. "She escaped Jill and Chris on the Queen Zenobia. She went underground after she handed over the virus to her respective buyer. No one's been able to locate her since."

Rebecca sighed and picked up another folder. "I contacted Parker Luciani, who used to work with the B.S.A.A. and the F.B.C. while she did. She basically left him for dead on that ship. He washed up offshore in Malta and returned to work for the B.S.A.A." Rebecca opened the file and passed it to Leon. "He worked with Claire in Sonido de Tortuga during that cannibalism disease outbreak. He was wounded and no longer active in the field, so he retired and took a job at the F.B.I."

Leon scanned the folder. "What do you think he can tell us that he hasn't already?"

Rebecca shifted where she stood. "It was rumored he was involved with Jessica...romantically."

Leon glanced at her face. Rebecca shrugged. "I know. I get it. It's like the rumors about you and A-"

She stopped. His head tilted. She cleared her throat. Leon urged, "S'ok. Finish it."

"-and Ada Wong."

Leon sighed. "I'm not involved with Ada Wong. " Anymore. He added that part silently. He'd had one night with her - just one. That didn't equal romance. His mind stuttered over that. Technically, he'd had one night with Jill, too. So what was the difference?

The difference was he'd never stood beneath the stars and held Ada. He still had both hands and his arms, so that was proof enough that he hadn't even tried. Ada was like a succubus - you wanted her, you let her seduce you, but you lost your soul doing it. He still had his. He'd made damn sure he didn't lose it to her.

He might have...if he hadn't met a goddamn brunette in a sewer and seen the difference between wanting and longing. Or felt the difference between fucking and loving. It was hard to stand there in the blazing sun and compare Jill and Ada because it was like fire and ice. Both could kill you, sure, but one blazed so fast there was nothing left of you when it was over, and the other...the other left you chipping away at it until it covered your hands, headed up your arms, and covered your heart.

His gaze shifted to Rebecca's face. "Putting aside rumors and speculation, what can this guy really tell us?"

"He might know who she was working with then."

"Which has what to do with now?"

Rebecca slid another folder to him. "Everything," she affirmed as he opened it, "Jessica Sherawat, before she exited the B.S.A.A. via espionage and betrayal, hacked the server archive at their H.Q. She downloaded files - anything related to Raccoon City stored there...including all its survivors on record."

Leon arched his brows. "We're just now hearing about a breach that big? What was that? Oh-five?"

Rebecca nodded. "At the time, Lansdale covered her tracks. It was uncovered during a protocol sweep a few months later, but by then, Jill was in captivity, and the B.S.A.A. had undergone a purge of potentially dirty employees."

"So, the coincidence is too strong to have it be circumstantial."

"Indubitably."

"What's Redfield say on the issue?"

Rebecca shifted and studied the horizon. "He's defensive, but he should be. It was his job to police the mess, and he dropped the ball back then because of losing Jill."

"Where is he now?"

Rebecca gestured to the furthest tent. "Currently working with Claire over there on the other threads that tie in here."

Leon arched a brow as she explained. "We've got whales that washed up on a beach in Mexico and in southern California that have evidence of T-Virus."

"T-abyss?"

Rebecca shook her head. "No...just T- but not the strain we saw in Raccoon. Not the common one. It's something altered...similar to A."

Leon furrowed his brow. "And that ties in here, how?"

"The scientist of record out of Rosarito was named Lucia," Rebecca waited for him to turn the page on the file he was holding and for his shocked face to turn up to look at her as she added, "Yeah. Lucia...you've met before."

His eyes stayed on the adult face of the girl he'd met aboard the Starlight cruiseliner after Raccoon City. She'd been a test subject for Umbrella and infused with a parasite that allowed her to use mimicry to replicate other people. It gave her hypersensitive hearing and awareness and allowed her to heal like the plagas did. It was suspected that it was Umbrella's first experimentation with inferior plagas. She'd survived the encounter and been put into the care of an intelligence agent with the C.I.A.

Leon shook his head, "I don't understand. What does that have to do with t-"

"Look at the name of her adoptive parent, Leon. Look."

He scanned down, eyes seeking, and froze. Rebecca nodded and looked grim. "Yeah...that girl you rescued on that ship...the one with the B.O.W. affiliations...she was fostered by Glenn Arias...and adopted by Diego Gomez and his wife, Salma."

Leon laughed without humor. "Son of a bitch...she changed her goddamn name."

"She did. She doesn't go by Lucia anymore...she goes by Maria."

In black and white, there it was. She'd fled New York and taken a job in Mexico under her former name. Maria Gomez was the little girl he'd rescued on the Starlight. He'd saved her life so she could turn around and be turned into a monster by Glenn Arias. After the bombing, Arias had taken Maria's former parasitic infection and made her a super soldier with the A-Virus. The extent of his experimentation was unclear, but it was evident that Gomez was beyond human. She'd survived the New York A-Virus attack where he father and Arias had perished.

And now she was playing scientist and infecting ocean life.

Why?

And what did it have to do with Jessica Sherawat downloading their updated information?

Leon glanced at Rebecca. "How are they connected?"

Rebecca shifted where she stood. "I think Jessica was working with Arias, too, before his death. I think they're in it together."

"...what's the end game?"

Rebecca shrugged. "Revenge on us, I'd say, is definitely in there. But the infection in the ocean? I can't figure that part out. What good does it do to infect whales and dolphins? What's the point?"

Leon shook his head. "They're experimenting. Did the whale mutate?"

Claire's voice answered that as she wandered over. "That's the thing - it had evidence of trying, but it didn't survive the change," the redhead stopped beside him and patted his forearm in hello, "but what's the point, Leon? What are they trying to do?"

Leon studied all the files. His brain clicked around in his skull, trying to make sense of it. "Subaquatic B.O.W.S.?"

It was Chris who answered in his gruff voice as he joined them. "That's my thinking." The big man tapped the file folder for Arias. "They want to rule the water where they failed on land. But why?"

Leon studied the pictures of the whale on the beach. "Because the world is seventy percent water," he said quietly, "Imagine the potential of an army of aquatic life in that case. You could overrun almost anywhere with something that could go from land to sea without hesitation...and if for some reason they're attempting the mimicry that Maria suffered as Lucia..."

Claire breathed quietly, "...oh my god...they plan to invade, copy, and claim any place surrounded by water."

Chris grumbled. "Aquatic invasion...but it can't work. It won't work. They'll be shot down or fought back into the water. How can it work?"

Leon shook his head. "Something is missing—some piece we're not seeing. The aquatic invasion only works if they can turn people en masse when they emerge. Something that allows them to spread the virus and bring others under their control."

He glanced around and queried, "Where's Jill?"

Chris sighed heavily and shook his head. Claire returned quietly, "She's chasing down leads."

Leon glanced from her careful face to Rebecca's worried one and inquired, "Alone?"

Chris grunted out a response. "She won't work with anyone else." He shook his head and glanced over the horizon. Rebecca added softly, "She doesn't trust herself...and she's afraid no one else does either."

Leon shook his head. He set the folder down. "Where is she?"

Claire shrugged. Chris laughed mirthlessly. "You think I know?"

Rebecca offered urgently, "I tagged her knapsack when she left us in Los Angeles."

Surprised, they all glanced at her. She flushed pink but defended, "I was worried about her."

Rebecca turned her computer and typed a few keys. "She had the knapsack last in San Francisco."

"Is she still there?"

Rebecca nibbled her lips and admitted. "Maybe. The knapsack hasn't moved recently. It's in a hotel on Clay Street. I can't be sure she's still there."

Leon shook his head. "No one should be alone at the moment." He turned to look at Claire and Chris. "One of you should go after her."

Claire denied that. "It won't work. She's polite, Leon, and always clear - she doesn't want us around. We keep trying, but..."

Chris snapped. "But Jill has guilt so deep and wide that it's all she sees. She won't listen to anyone."

Rebecca narrowed her eyes at the screen. "What's weird about it? Maybe she knows more than we do at the moment...because the last threads I can find on Maria Gomez implies she took the ferry to Alcatraz Island. Why? What's there? Is she hiding out? They do tours all the time there; it's not like it's remote. But Jill's already in San Francisco...so maybe she's already headed to Alcatraz."

"Then we go get her."

Chris grunted. "She won't make it easy, Leon. Nobody's been able to get her to play by the rules since she got back in the field. It's not what she wants."

Leon laughed and turned away. "Good thing I don't give a shit what she wants." He headed toward the far tent and announced, "Get Luciani and head toward the bay area. Set up at Land's End, Rebecca, and see what you can find about any of this. Did Claire get enough to start working on a vaccine for this shit?"

Rebecca nodded rapidly. "I have enough to throw something together."

"Good," Leon gestured to Claire and Chris, "you two figure out what you can about tours to Alcatraz. We'll go in under the cover of tourists. It'll make life easier and won't raise any red flags. I'll tag Hunnigan at F.O.S. and see if I can find anything on Sherawat and Gomez having any other stragglers out there. Maybe we can find a scientist with a big mouth looking for clemency."

Claire called after him. "Where are you going?"

Leon laughed. "Where else? To grab the Master of Unlocking. God knows, we might need her in a prison full of cells."

The world was against them right now. Someone was possibly out to kill, kidnap, or infect them, and Jill was running around like the Long Ranger looking for clues and bad guys to best. Weirdly, the lone wolf routine was entirely Ada, but he suspected Jill wasn't nearly as sly about it. She was likely out there gunning, kicking asses, and drawing attention to herself because she didn't care to play the espionage game and find the answers.

And she didn't give a damn if she died trying.

There were still so many missing pieces to what was happening, but one was glaringly obvious - Jill was out to finish this herself. Why? What did she know? How was she connected to what was happening?

He had a feeling when he found her, he'd have even more questions. It was time for her to start talking about that past she was trying to forget. Because somewhere between Raccoon City, Umbrella, and Glenn Arias - Jill had indeed become the master of unlocking. She had the keys to secrets none of them even knew yet.

And it was time to find her to get them.

His fingers rubbed the little shells on his wrist as he pictured her beneath him, her eyes on his, her hands stroking. He could still taste her. And he'd be damned if he let her die trying to redeem herself.