Chapter Text
LEON
October 11th 2026 7:42 PM
“Sherry,” Leon closed the door to the DSO med-bay behind him, as she looked up at him from the bed she was sitting on, smiling wide.
“Leon!” Her shirt was rolled up to the elbow, forearm lying palm up on her knees. Leon advanced, boots hitting the floor heavily, glancing about at the stark room. It looked like they were the only ones in there.
“How are you feeling, kid?” He asked, stopping in front of her. She nodded down at her palm, now completely devoid of any black spiralling that had plagued both their bodies.
“I feel great,” she shrugged happily, shaking her head in disbelief before she looked back up at him. “I only have you to thank.” Leon just nodded his head shortly. He’d never been great at accepting gratitude. “How are you feeling?”
“Well, I slept for sixteen hours straight, so..” Leon sat on the edge of the bed beside her. “Feel a lot better after a shower and some food.” He admitted, glancing about at the ward. The only evidence of the antiviral was the empty vial next to Sherry’s bed. Both their legs swung off of the high bed.
“You ever think you might be getting a bit too old for this, grandpa?” Sherry teased with a small smile. Leon let out a ‘psh’ and nudged her with his elbow.
“Rude,” Sherry just laughed softly. “We got in contact with the others yet?” He asked.
“Yep. Jill and Claire are on their way here now from out of state. They should be cured in the next day. We haven’t heard from Carlos but we’re hoping Jill might know where to find him or can go and deliver a dose.” Leon hummed shortly in response, eyes trained on the back wall as he thought. It felt like a weight off of his shoulders to know Jill and Claire would be alright. He didn’t have many people he cared about in this world, but those two were right up there, top of the list. He’d go through that same mission twice more for each of them easily. “How’s Grace? Have you heard from her?” Sherry asked.
“I did, this morning. She’s out of hospital but Emily’s still in. She told me she was going to research how it would work to get guardianship of her until they can figure everything out. Seemed like having something to do was helping.”
They fell into a short silence after Sherry nodded with a small hum of acknowledgement. Then, after a short moment, she wet her lips.
“Leon, I got something for you.” He glanced sidelong at her, frowning in confusion. “Your loose ends aren’t all tied and I didn’t want you risking your job to finish it. Especially after what you just did for us.” Leon frowned in confusion at her. Sherry didn’t look at him, simply setting her hand atop his between them on the bed.
Leon felt a cool, smooth object prodding his thumb as something slipped from Sherry’s rolled down sleeve. With a peripheral glance to the security camera in the corner, he shifted and in a swift movement, took the vial from her sleeve and slipped it up his own. Pressed to the inside of his wrist, he realised what it was that Sherry had risked her own job to steal for him.
The last vial of the anti-viral.
He glanced at her in surprise. Not necessarily that she would do that for him, but just at the fact she knew him well enough to predict his next move. Because in all honesty, Leon had fully intended to, after checking on Sherry, nab the last vial for the only other person he had to save. And he did not care if he lost his job doing it.
It wasn’t like there had been any other options, other than theft. Despite all of his years of civil service and protective detail, stopping terrorists and saving the government's ass, he still did not have enough bargaining leverage to get one of those vials from them. Not if they knew he was going to give it to an enemy of the state, anyway.
Sherry smiled at him, a coy but genuine smile, as if she were proud of herself.
“Sherry..” Leon wasn’t sure what to say. Sherry had just saved him from a world of investigation and trouble.
“Go on.” She nudged him. “Don’t leave Mrs. Kennedy waiting.” As always, Sherry had stunned him with her deduction skills. He had never told her he had gotten married and in fact made a concerted effort to take his ring off whenever he was at work. But Sherry had known him for nearly thirty years and he should’ve known better than to think he could pull one over on her.
“You’re good. You ever considered working for the government?” He joked, getting off the bed as Sherry laughed.
“Get out of here, Leon.” He leant down and pressed a chaste kiss to Sherry’s temple. He hadn’t realised how much of a weight would be lifted once Sherry knew the truth. She’d been in his life for so long, it felt good knowing she accepted the few, large life decisions he had had the balls to choose for himself. Not only that but she was actually helping him in trying to protect the person he cared about the most. “Tell her I said hi. I owed her one anyway.” She smiled warmly at him. Leon smiled back.
“Say hi to Jake.”
“Will do.”
-
October 11th 2026 8:25PM
When Leon had married Ada Wong, he knew it was going to be entirely unconventional. He hadn’t really wanted anything else. Coming home to her in a suburban house with two kids and a picket fence would’ve felt almost eerie. Maybe one day some sort of joint apartment and perhaps a cat would be nice, but he felt they were a little ways away from that yet.
Needless to say, they had their own places. They didn’t see each other often and they communicated randomly and through bizarre channels. Sometimes, Leon would come home to his apartment and just find her there, sitting on his couch with a handgun on the coffee table. Ada too, had a flat that she very irregularly frequented. It was stark and every time she came back she had to throw out all the food in the fridge because it had gone bad.
It was rare they organised to see each other and came down to chance more often than not. Security and routine had never been what the marriage was about anyway. They’d done it mainly as an exercise in trust and loyalty. Devotion, no matter what forces came between them and for however long. That, and Ada let him drive her Porsche when she was out of town.
This was one of those rare occasions where Leon had told Ada to be home. He was a little worried about her, experiencing the latent effects of T-Virus as she too must have been. Still, getting his hands on the antiviral had been a lot easier than he had expected, so in his books he was ahead of schedule.
Putting the Porsche in park, he got out of the car and tugged up the collar to his jacket. It was raining again and the sky had darkened considerably. He locked the car and glanced up toward the apartment building. Ada hadn’t replied to his message, but she never did. He trusted that she’d be there.
Heading inside the building, he wiped his feet on the mat in the swanky lobby. Ada had earned her expensive tastes and the complex was no exception. Even the lobby was sleek and marbled, potted plants without a single brown spot littering every blank wall and plush chairs taking up all the completely unnecessary extra space. Looking up from her desk, the receptionist offered him a large smile.
“Good evening, Mr Kennedy.” Leon smiled back, heading toward the elevators on the left hand side.
“Evening, Laura. How’s the shift?”
“Glad to be in here instead of out there.” She nodded to the miserable weather outside. Leon turned to her as he waited for the elevator. Laura leant on her hand, cocking her head at him and smiling.
“Yeah,” Leon agreed, ignoring the way she was looking at him. “Have you seen Ada tonight?” He asked. Laura nodded,
“She got in earlier.” She pushed her glasses up her nose and Leon glanced at the elevator number. This building had a stupid number of floors. “Where was her trip to this time?”
“East Europe.” The lie slid off of Leon’s tongue easily.
“Ah, I figured so. No tan,” Laura laughed. The elevator dinged and the doors open. Leon stepped inside.
“You have a nice night, Laura.”
“You too, Mr Kennedy. Enjoy your dinner party,” She turned back to her computer as the doors to the elevator began to close. Leon frowned and at the last moment, put his hand in the gap of the door, opening them once again.
“What?”
Laura turned back to him, confused.
“The.. dinner party?” She repeated, suddenly unsure of herself. “I had a..” She glanced at the guest book with a nervous swallow, “Mr Knowles here earlier to see you and Mrs Kennedy.”
Leon’s stomach dropped, and clearly his face betrayed him because Laura paled considerably, standing from her seat.
“Oh my God, Leon- I’m so sorry- I- I buzzed Ada she told me to let him up-” Leon’s mind raced with possibilities. It could be innocent. But it probably wasn’t. How could someone have figured out where Ada lived when she worked so hard to cover her tracks? Who was he? And why would Ada let him in?
Leon stepped back into the elevator, pressing the button for Ada’s floor.
“Shall I call someone?” Laura asked shakily, clearly thinking she’d betrayed Ada’s infidelity to him.
“No.” The door shut and Leon pulled out his handgun from his holster, checking the ammunition as the elevator rose. He stared at the doors, mind flooded with possibilities. He racked his memories for any of a ‘Knowles’ and came up short.
The floors seemed to drag one by one, as his heart pounded. Nowadays, it took a lot to shake his resolve. But Leon could just feel it in his gut. Something here was very wrong.
Finally, the door opened and Leon stepped out into the corridor. The apartments were big, and there was only a couple on each floor. It was quiet in the hall, and the lights were flickering ominously.
Leon steeled himself with a short breath and started slowly making his way towards Ada’s door toward the end of the hall. She’d chosen a corner apartment for the nice views. She enjoyed simple pleasures like that.
Now, the walk seemed endless. Leon forced himself through gritted teeth not to rush or alert anyone, but when he got toward the door and noticed it ajar, he couldn’t help but speed up.
Hugging the door frame and keeping his gun raised, Leon slowly pushed open the front door to the apartment. As soon as he did, his heart dropped.
The place was trashed.
The open plan living area looked as if a brawl had happened inside. The two lamps had been toppled to the floor, Ada’s nicely set up bar cart had been shoved over, glasses and bottles smashed and splashed across the floor. The sofa was littered with what looked like bullet holes, and the TV on the opposite wall had a huge dent in it as if someone had been thrown against it. The fruit bowl was upside down on the counter, fruit spilling out over the surface top and floor. Some looked as if they had been squished underfoot, and Leon couldn’t help but notice that all of her kitchen knives bar one on the floor had been embedded into the opposite wall. Two of the kitchen cabinets were open and there was a frying pan that lay discarded on the stove top.
But, worst of all, the floor was covered in blood. There was a small pool near the couch, a splatter on the wall in the kitchen and a set of bloody footprints leading toward the bedroom.
Leon swallowed tightly.
“Ada!” He called. There was no reply. The place was deathly still.
Stepping inside, he kept his gun raised, checking around the corners of the kitchen island and further into the flat.
“Ada?” He called again. There was no reply.
Leon nudged the bathroom door open a crack with his foot, before slamming his shoulder into it and bursting inside, finger on the trigger of his gun.
The bathroom too, was empty and looked untouched.
He backed out and made his way ever so quietly toward the bedroom. Settling his back against the doorframe, he kneed the door open, stepping inside ready for a fight.
But the fight never came.
The bed itself was untouched, but the bedside table closest to the door had been knocked over, top drawer yanked out. The bloody footprints turned to a matted, dark splodge in the carpet.
And next to the bed, discarded, was Ada’s handgun. The one she kept stashed in the top drawer of her bedside table.
Leon lowered his own, staring at the handgun with a knot in his chest. The stillness of the apartment and the wind outside was all he could hear, apart from the thrumming of his own blood in his ears.
Ada had been taken.
He took a deep, shaky breath, forcing himself not to panic.
She hadn’t been killed. She’d been taken.
Those weren’t the same.
And Ada could handle herself.
But she hadn’t managed to fend this guy off.
Fuck.
Leon moved around the bed toward the phone that sat on the other bedside table, making to call the front desk. His hand stilled as he noticed sitting beside it, a note.
In scrawling writing on some scrunched up scrap paper was the phrase,
‘Elpis or she dies.’
Leon stared at the paper, knot in his chest growing, spreading into his limbs like a fire of rage.
He picked up the phone and called the front desk.
“Laura. Call the Police.”
-
“Leon?” Sherry's voice was confused on the other end of the phone as Leon made his way down the fire escape stairway. Knowles and Ada must have gone this way out the back, or Laura would’ve spotted them. “What’s up?”
“Sherry, I need you to look someone up for me.”
“What? Leon- what’s going on?” She asked.
“It’s Ada. She’s been taken.” He holstered his gun.
“Oh my god,” Sherry’s shock came from the other end of the phone. “What do you need?”
“I need you to research the name Knowles. In relation to Elpis, Gideon, Umbrella- whatever you can find.” He explained, pushing open the fire door. “I’ve sent the police to her apartment. With any luck we’ll get some information from the neighbours.”
“Ok,” he heard Sherry typing on the other end of the phone. He’d never been more grateful for her tendency to work late. Leon got back to his car and sat in the drivers seat, steeling himself for a long moment with one fist balled up on the steering wheel. After a minute of silence, Sherry broke it. “Are you alright, Leon?”
“Just tell me where to look, Sherry.” He replied.
“Give me a minute.” She said, not unkindly.
It made no sense. Why would Knowles deliver the message in such a way, and make himself so tricky to track down? Right now, Leon couldn’t get Elpis to him even if he wanted to.
How did he even know about Elpis?
If he knew where Ada lived, what else did he know? Had this been the result of some elaborate stakeout? Or data breach? How did he know to go after Ada to get to him? How did he know that Ada would be there, when Leon didn’t even know?
He must’ve known about what he and Grace had pulled off, if he knew that Leon was in possession of the antiviral. But how did he know to go after Leon, instead of Grace? She was the obvious target after all. It was a gamble.
Shit.
“Sherry, I’ll call you back.” Leon hung up, turned his car on and stepped on the gas, pulling out of the car park and onto the road. Whizzing in the opposite direction to the police cars, Leon called Grace, sticking her on speaker in the car.
The phone rang and rang as Leon switched lanes.
“Come on Grace, pick up.” He muttered impatiently. Leon swung the car around a tight corner, earning a loud horn from the car he’d cut off.
“Hello?” Came Grace’s tired voice from the other end of the line.
“Grace! Are you at the hospital?”
“Yes?” Grace immediately sounded worried. “Why, what’s wrong?”
“You need to tell them to lock down the hospital.”
“What? Leon- you’re scaring me- wha- what’s happening?”
“Someone’s coming for Emily.” He explained, merging into another lane and overtaking in a way that was most definitely illegal. “You need to lock yourself in her room and hide. I’m on my way.”
“Who- who’s coming??”
“What room is it, Grace?”
“Um- room- it’s room six, on floor two. Children’s ward.” Grace replied, completely frazzled and caught off guard. Suddenly, in the background of the phone call, a loud alarm began to blare and Grace gasped. “Oh shit- shit- Leon?? What do I do?”
“Don’t move. Hide Emily. I’m coming.”
“Ok!” Grace put the phone down and Leon turned again off of the main road, down a slightly winding road toward the hospital. His heart was thrumming in his chest, and he heard blood in his ears.
The hospital came up quickly and he all but drifted into the parking lot, turning the car off and jumping out, grabbing his gun from his holster and heading straight into the hospital. There were terrified people flooding out of the main doors, some carrying children and some in floods of tears, screaming in fright. Leon was bumped and shoved against them as he worked against the tide of terror, before they were all out and he was left alone in the lobby.
Inside, all of the lights were off, except for emergency red ones, thrumming in and out of darkness. Opposite, there was a dark splatter of blood against the back wall, where Leon could see, the poor receptionist had been shot.
The waiting room was empty and people had left all sorts in their desperate attempt to flee. Leon noticed a doctor lying on the floor, the only other person he could see, at the base of the stairs. Striding over, he turned the doctor over to see that a shot had been placed nicely, right between his eyebrows. This marksman was sharp.
Leon stepped over him and headed upstairs, up to the second floor. He imagined, if Knowles had known where Ada lived, he absolutely knew which room Emily was in.
Leon wasted no time in opening the door to the second floor, finding that one too completely empty, aside from a littering of intermittent medical personnel, dead on the floor.
Picking his way through them and keeping his eyes forward, Leon headed quickly toward the sixth room. As he rounded the corner where it sat, he saw the door swinging shut.
Silently, he wet his lips and advanced, hugging the outside wall and opening the door as silently as he could, finger ready on the trigger.
Inside the room, was a man much more familiar than Leon liked. He was the spitting image, at least from the back, of the man he’d faced off against just two days ago. Slick back hair, dark scarring down one side of his face and sleek sunglasses sitting atop his sloped nose. Instead of a suit, this version wore a dark, black, two piece, better for moving. He looked like Zeno, and he looked like Wesker.
He also noticed that the hospital bed was empty, and the medicine cabinet ever so slightly ajar.
Leon raised his gun.
“Knowles.” The man turned at his name, regarding Leon from the safety of his dark shades.
“Mr Kennedy.” His smile was sly and calculated. “I trust you found the message I left you?”
“Where is she?” He scowled, tightening his grip on his gun. Knowles shrugged ever so lightly.
“She’s safe. And she’ll continue to be as long as you intend to give me what I want.”
“And what if I don’t have it?” Leon asked, wondering if it was worth trying to waste any bullets on this guy.
“Well, that’s why I’m here for little Emily, you see? I figured I ought to cover all my bases.”
“Emily’s not going anywhere with you,” he muttered. Knowles glanced lazily toward the medicine cabinet.
“No?” Within a flash, Knowles was at the cabinet, slowly opening it with a gloved finger. “Peekaboo little Emily.” All of a sudden, Grace appeared from under the bed with a scalpel in hand, sticking him right in the neck with it.
“Grace!”
Knowles yelled in pain and brought a hand to his neck, shoving her with the other. Grace skidded backward toward Leon, who grabbed her by the waist and pulled her behind him, gripping his gun with both hands now.
She stood, panting with adrenaline and what sounded like rage behind Leon, as Knowles eyed the two of them stood close together, neck healing as quickly as it had been stabbed.
“Hm. I see how it is.” His coloured eyes trained themselves back to Leon. “It seems I won’t be needing little Emily after all. I have enough leverage on the two of you, don’t I Mr Kennedy?”
“Where is she?” He demanded yet again, advancing with his finger trembling on the trigger of his gun.
“Hand over the antiviral to the Connections in the next twelve hours or she’s dead.” Knowles professed. “We’ll be waiting in DC. At the city hall.” He turned his back to the two of them, opening a window into the pelting rain. Knowles glanced back at them, eyebrows twinging in amusement. “Wouldn’t want to keep her waiting, would you Leon?”
Leon’s finger squeezed the trigger but before the bullet could hit Knowles was gone, like some dumb, piece of shit version of Batman.
“He- he was like Zeno-“ Grace stuttered behind him. “What the fuck- there’s more of them- what the fuck..”
“Grace,” Leon turned to her, holstering his gun. “Where’s Emily?”
“I- I hid her two doors down. I told her to wait until I came back- Leon, what’s going on? Who were you talking about?”
“Come on, let's grab Emily and get out of here. I’m dropping you off somewhere safe,” he grabbed Grace’s hand and attempted to pull her from the room, but she snagged her wrist back.
“No way- don’t start being all secretive with me- not after what we’ve been through. What’s going on Leon?” She demanded. Leon sighed shortly through his nose and looked back at her, lips pursed into a thin line.
“It’s my wife,” he said, shocked by how much his voice wavered when he said it. “He’s kidnapped my wife.”