Chapter Text
Betrayer
I am the result, what's better left unspoken
Violence begins to mend, what was broken
You've been talking, I've been all ears
Words meant to dwell in darkness shall never see the light of day
Words can be broken so can bones, execute the mandate
Mouth full of dirt your name is removed from the registry
St. Peter greets with empty eyes then turns and locks the gate - Omerta by Lamb of God
The telephone screeched into the early hours of October 25th, 2004. An auburn-haired woman jerked awake with a squint into her mostly dark room. The spinning ceiling fan above was distorting the light on the ceiling from the suddenly lit phone at 3:24 a.m.
"Hello?" she croaked into the phone as she rubbed her face.
"Ms. Redfield, this is Ingrid Hunnigan. I apologize for the late call. I recognize it is very early where you are. I need to speak to you regarding Leon Kennedy." The voice was steady and calm but also held a note to the urgency underneath.
The airport was just starting to fill up as Claire Redfield yanked her baggage from the claim area. She had quickly thrown her belongings together in a panic and now that she had time to really settle into her thoughts, she was realizing how much she had forgotten in her haste.
In the cab driving over to the meeting location, Claire felt her chest tighten for what felt like the hundredth time since she last spoke to Hunnigan. The Field Operations Support Agent had been mentioned to Claire briefly by Leon before he departed two months ago for his most recent mission. After the events of Raccoon City and Rockfort Island, Claire had made it a point to stay in close contact with Leon and thus Sherry.
After Rockfort, Claire had traveled to visit Leon in his city almost every other weekend if not every weekend. As the years would pass, and the agency recognized his skill, Claire came to see him less and less.
Leon and Sherry had truly taken the proverbial bullet out of the trio; Claire was in no position to deny that by keeping her information from the U.S. Government after Raccoon, Leon had saved her from having her own leash to the U.S. Government Agency, US-SRATCOM. For that, Claire owed him her debt. For everything else, she owed him her loyalty.
As Hunnigan's words echoed in her mind, Claire began to examine her feelings as she looked down at her shaking hands in the back of the cab. Unbeknownst to her, Leon had made her his emergency contact. In the event of serious injury or death, she was to be contacted by private means. What Claire could not figure out is why Hunnigan chose to meet her outside of the government building. Instead, she was to meet Hunnigan at a private location.
Leon couldn't be dead. Claire's mind refused to wrap around the concept. Maybe it was a false sense of their abilities, but after Raccoon, Claire felt like there should have been much more planning when it came to the bio-weapons division. Leon had been trained for the last six years. What could have happened while he was out?
Claire shook her head and sighed as she gazed out the cab's window. She didn't even know where Leon had been sent off to. There was no telling what kinds of conditions he faced.
As the cab pulled off to a secluded winding road that led up a small crest, Claire realized they were now outside of the Richmond area.
"Little hard to find. Sorry for the traffic. I had to take the main road turn off before we could reach this area. You goin' on vacation?" the cab driver threw over his shoulder as he noticed Claire's attention in the rear-view mirror.
"Something like that, I suppose," Claire responded with a tight smile.
Upon arrival, Claire looked up at the house surrounded by an iron wrought fence. She saw the front door open and a man in a suit stepped out. Claire quickly tipped the cab driver and thanked him before pulling her luggage after her.
"Ms. Claire Redfield?" the man in the suit inquired as she neared the walking path.
"That's me," Claire said, taking in his stocky figure, military haircut, and hard brown eyes.
"Follow me," The man instructed before he led her into the house.
Claire stepped inside, briefly took in the home, and noticed there wasn't a speck of dust to be seen, but something did seem off in the rooms.
The feeling was hard to place at first, but she recognized the home for what it was—a show. Much like when someone was looking to sell a home, unused furniture was placed strategically around the room, decorations were carefully placed on the walls that displayed a clinical-like atmosphere, and plastic fruit and flowers led the eye to an unblemished kitchen; this was not a home that was lived in.
Dread filled Claire's stomach as she pushed her bangs out of her eyes. The grip on her suitcase handle tightened and she worried for a moment that she had been set up.
The hallway led her to a large sitting room with a woman sipping from a cup at a large table. The woman was well-dressed in a pressed business suit and had a very stern way about how she carried herself. She was young, maybe a couple of years older than Claire.
"Thank you, Agent Orski," The woman called, looking toward the man who led Claire in. "I will call you once we are done."
The man, Agent Orski, gave one last look to Claire before turning to close the double doors. Leaving Claire to stare into the eyes of the woman who was going to tell her what happened to Leon.
"Ms. Redfield, as you may have guessed, I am Ingrid Hunnigan. I was the Field Operations Support Agent that assisted Leon Kennedy in his last mission."
Claire allowed her mind to wrap around the past tense of Ingrid's introduction.
"What am I doing here, Hunnigan?" Claire asked after a brief pause. She didn't bother with the formalities.
Why was the previous operations support agent contacting her? Surely there was someone in an H.R. Division that would handle the bad news for the U.S. Agents' family and friends. This seemed personal.
Hunnigan nodded, as if Claire had answered a question rather than posing one.
"This is unusual, I know. Given Leon's unique history with his employment, there were certain factors he had built into his agreement for an emergency contact. Please feel free to sit by the way," Hunnigan said carefully.
"Is he dead?" Claire asked bluntly.
"No," Hunnigan responded with a frown. "It's much worse than that."
Abruptly, Hunnigan stood and grabbed a briefcase that had been resting near her feet. Snapping open the clips, she pulled out a large file titled SPAIN on the top. With a flick of her wrist, she flipped the file open and started to spread pictures and documents on the table.
Claire finally took a seat and found herself leaning toward the table as she spotted a picture of Leon. He looked tired, dirty, and angry. Next, her eyes were drawn to the darkened colored veins running up the side of his neck. When the picture was taken, he was in the middle of saying something. She could only see a sliver of the background behind him. He was standing outside somewhere in what looked like a rural setting with construction equipment.
Hunnigan, noticing Claire's eyes on the picture, pushed the image toward Claire.
"I took this picture using our G.R.V.T. System. It was the last communication before he was cut off," Hunnigan explained before she pulled a stapled section up and handed it to Claire.
Claire flipped open the packet to see the picture of the First Daughter, Ashley Graham. Her eyes scanned the photo before looking down at the last intelligence gained about the missing girl.
Without much preamble, Hunnigan began to explain Leon's mission. She noted his arrival to Spain, his findings in the first 24 hours and detailed the parasite ridden population that Leon encountered.
"Near the 23rd hour mark, Leon had reported he was on his way to an island to secure the subject—Ashley after she had been taken from his care. He also updated that there was a device that could assist him in removing the parasite from their bodies." Hunnigan paused, a flicker of emotion passing across her features before she straightened up and looked back over at Claire again.
"20 minutes later, he contacted me again," Hunnigan continued, gesturing to the picture Claire had inspected earlier. "He was running and asking for an ETA on an extraction team; Ashley was with him. At the time, we could not afford to enter the airspace and were looking into an alternate means of escape. In short, we had nothing to offer him at that moment."
Claire could feel her blood pressure beginning to rise. The U.S. Government had sent Leon in alone, without an alternate means of contact after his initial device had been hacked and had not fully set up secondary or tertiary means of escape.
At this moment, it felt like their government had learned nothing from Raccoon, or any of the outbreaks after.
"I was the one on comms with him when that picture was taken. I saw when the parasite fully took over. I saw when Leon failed," Hunnigan finished, looking down at the table.
"You saw what happened when your agency failed," Claire declared as she stood and felt her posture go rigid.
She knew this wasn't Hunnigan's fault; she was just the communications expert. Hunnigan didn't call the shots, however, none of this mattered in the wake of Claire's fury and disappointment.
"What's happening now? This was two months ago. If he's not dead, then where is he and what am I doing here?" Claire demanded.
Still collected, Hunnigan looked up at Claire and said, "Our agency has sent in six different teams to extract them. So far, none of them have come out alive."
Claire huffed and walked over to the window on the far-right side of the room. Her mind was spinning as she took in the back yard that overlooked a thicket of trees.
"You said he wasn't dead. How do you even know that?" Claire asked as she placed her hands on the windowsill.
"Because Leon is the one that's been killing our extraction teams."
Claire whipped around and stared at Hunnigan in horror.
"What?" She breathed.
Hunnigan adjusted her glasses and avoided looking at Claire for the moment.
"From what we can gather, Leon is completely subjected to the will of his parasite. Unfortunately, without a sample, we can't really know the intricacies of what it can do. What we do know is that the parasite has three different types of species: The Recessive, the Dominant, and what has been mentioned as the Queen. We believe Leon has been injected with the Recessive if the reports are to be believed," Hunnigan explained.
"What we also know is that Leon is now well-versed in the terrain." Hunnigan pulled out maps of the area for Claire to see.
"Our contacts in Spain have informed us that the surrounding areas of Gijon, Aviles, Oviedo, and Lugo have gone dark. There seems to be a lot of activity, but the authorities in these areas have stopped responding." Hunnigan looked back up at Claire with a trace of fear in her eyes.
"It's spreading," Claire stated. She let go of the windowsill and slowly walked back over to her chair.
"Yes," Hunnigan confirmed.
"Again, Hunnigan, what am I doing here?" Claire asked the tiring question.
Hunnigan blew out a breath before looking around at the room. "To start, in the event of Leon's death, or has been considered dead, you have been named as his benefactor for his belongings and assets. This house is yours."
Claire scoffed and followed Hunnigan's gaze. "This isn't Leon's house. No one lives here."
Hunnigan nodded and sadly smiled. "You're right, Leon traveled a lot for his missions, and he stayed in various safe houses around the world. He was required to have a residence set up to act as his physical address. He purchased this for Sherry one day."
Claire could feel her throat constrict. That had always been the plan. Once upon a time, Claire had also been included in those plans.
When Leon and Sherry were finished with quarantine in 1998, Sherry was to be released into Leon's care. That was before they made their discovery of the virus that remained in her small developing body. It was also before a man named Dereck Simmons had gotten involved and before the U.S. Government had revealed their hand for Leon. They had no intention of ever letting Sherry out of their sight.
Claire didn't blame Leon for never staying in this house; it was a representation of their deceit.
"That isn't the only reason you're here. We need your help getting Leon out," Hunnigan finally revealed.
"My help? I don't know how you think I can help you in this. I have not had the training that any of the agents have, and I don't have a lot of history of dealing with these situations," Claire said quickly.
Hunnigan smiled and looked full on at Claire then. The look had Claire's stomach tightening as she waited for the other shoe to drop.
"Ms. Redfield, I have worked with Leon for the entire duration of his employment. I think I may be the closest thing to a friend he has besides you in his working life. He was very private and even more, incredibly careful about how he recalled the events of Raccoon City to our agency," Hunnigan said evenly.
"So, you know," Claire whispered.
"I know of your involvement in Raccoon City. I know that you departed shortly after to track your brother, Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S. member Chris Redfield, to Paris. I also know that you got caught in the Europe division of Umbrella and were imprisoned." Hunnigan paused and thought for a moment.
"You survived one of the deadliest acts of bioterrorism in 1998 all while protecting the daughter of one of the researchers who created the mess. You then survived and escaped another similar scenario with the aid of Leon and Chris Redfield at Rockfort Island. Are we going to be honest with one another now?" Hunnigan asked as she leaned slightly toward Claire.
Claire's body felt so tense she felt like she might vomit. Did Leon tell the government after all? Did they force him?
"No," Hunnigan said, watching her face. "The agency doesn't know all of it. Leon was the one who shared that with me. As I said, he and I are close. Well, as close as you can be to Leon in friendship, but I was the one who he trusted when he was falling apart in the first three years of his training at the agency."
Claire's heart clenched at the words. She knew full well how much Leon had struggled. If Hunnigan had been his support in the line of work, Claire had picked up the pieces at home.
It was hard enough on her end, but Leon's situation was much different. There was things Claire knew that he wouldn't dare to tell her about his work. He would look at her with such heavy eyes, but Claire always suspected he held back a lot in his new life.
"I'm not exactly sure how Leon feels about you. Whether you're like a sister to him, the person he can be himself around, or if he genuinely cares about you in another sense, but Leon only ever spoke highly of you. He put many protections in place with his agreement to assure you would be left alone to live your life." Hunnigan looked back down at her briefcase and pulled a much older looking file out.
"Maybe you know, maybe you don't, but Leon's history is quite touchy when it comes to his personal life," Hunnigan said as she pulled out newspaper clippings and an older looking court order with the words WARD OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK at the top.
"His entire family was killed in front of him at age 9. The only reason he survived was because of the actions of one police officer that protected him in the middle of the firefight. After that, Leon was placed into the system. When he aged out at 18, he began the process of becoming a police officer. You met him on his first day." Hunnigan paused and looked up from the paperwork at Claire.
"Not a lot is known about Leon's personal relationships. Our chief psychologist suspects that there aren't many people he has in his life that could affect him emotionally. After conversing with the psychologist, I believe you are the only one capable of doing that," She further elaborated.
Claire blinked and shook her head. "What are you talking about?" she asked in frustration.
Hunnigan set the older files back down into her briefcase and gave an apologetic look as she riffled through a few more papers. The Operations Support Agent then placed another file in front of Claire. It was a hazy picture of a document titled Our Plan. A few areas had been underlined on the page, and Claire's zeroed in on it.
"Because of that agent, we lost Chief Mendez and Ramon. Nevertheless, everything will proceed according to plan.
I must admit however, the loss of my loyal men is a bit disheartening. But I will deal with it.
Replacing that loss will not come easy. I must choose wisely; for the Plaga reflects the conscience of their hosts. If chosen poorly, they could betray me. I need men who will swear their allegiance to me. I've learned my lesson when Sera betrayed me. I will not make the same mistake again. In this important hour, I cannot and will not have anyone stand in my way."
Claire's brow furrowed as she reread the document for the second time. "The parasite reflects the conscience of the host…" she reread the line out loud.
"Precisely," Hunnigan said. "We have reason to believe that under the right circumstances, we could—" Hunnigan winced and continued, "—remind Leon who he is."
Claire set the sheet down and slowly looked up at Hunnigan. "That's why I'm here. You want me to what, go in there and call Leon his pet-name to get his attention? Do you even have anything to support this?"
"Somewhat. The researcher, Luis Sera, is mentioned briefly here, but we have reason to believe that Luis was one of the first to rebel and act on his own will with the parasite in his body. This document speaks to loyal men who either believe or were manipulated to believe in the Los Illuminados' agenda. However, what is not clear is if this applies only to one species of the Plaga vs. the other," Hunnigan stated defensively.
Claire paused and covered her face with a hand. This was the last resort of their government? A familiar face?
"What—" Claire's voice caught in her emotion and she dropped her hand from her face. "What is the point of all this? What is the overall goal here?"
"Osmund Saddler is the one with the strings. Our intelligence tells us that he is the one that needs to be stopped. However, to get to him, we need to get past Leon."
Claire found herself chuckling and shaking her head. Leon was a force to be reckoned with. This she knew, but to suggest that Leon could keep back the U.S. forces as one man, well, she wasn't buying it.
"Getting past Leon isn't just the goal here. If this was truly a threat, I have no doubts that our government would pull a Raccoon City 2.0 and completely wipe the problem off the map," Claire stated.
"We—" Hunnigan started, her hands fluttering to other documents.
"Cut the shit. I thought we were going to be honest," Claire snarked as she crossed one leg over the other.
Hunnigan paused and nodded. "The president's daughter is still alive."
Claire blew out a breath. Part of her was relieved. She knew it had to be something else, or they would have found a way to completely bypass Leon in blood. Claire's mind began to race as she tried to take in everything Hunnigan had just thrown at her.
Could she do this?
There was no guarantee that Leon wouldn't just attack her like he had everyone else. No security whatsoever in that regard and if Chris—
Claire's eyes widened as she snapped her head up. "My brother and some of the other remaining S.T.A.R.S. members have a lot of experience with this. If I'm to go, I need a team that I can trust who I know can get me in and out."
Hunnigan nodded and said, "The agency has thought of that. Unfortunately, Mr. Redfield, Ms. Valentine and a few of the others are off on their own projects right now. Mr. Burton was the only one we could contact at the time. He relayed that he would get in contact with Chris immediately. In short, we don't have any of those individuals to offer you in a short amount of time."
Claire's posture slumped as she remembered that Chris had taken a mission somewhere out in Finland. She hadn't heard from him in a few weeks, but this was usually not an issue as she knew he had back up from Jill or Barry.
"The truth is, we're running out of qualified agents for this mission…" Hunnigan trailed off looking down at her lap. "If I'm going to be honest, this is a foolish plan. One that I think even if it were successful, Leon would be furious. He's very protective of you."
Claire felt like her head was going to cave in on her. She needed time to think and process all of this.
"We're going to need to send you in alone with one other," Hunnigan continued.
"Get out," Claire suddenly announced as she stood to her feet.
Hunnigan stopped shuffling the papers in her hands and stared.
"I need time to think about all of this. Apparently, this is my house now, so get out of my house and come back tomorrow with your plans. I'll either take a trip to Spain, or I'll board a plane back to my home. I haven't decided yet." Claire was moving across the room as she spoke. The papers lay forgotten on the table and without another word, Claire went to find the bathroom.
Claire stepped out of the shower with her stomach growling loudly in the quiet bathroom when she realized she hadn't eaten all day. Even now, with her body's audible protest, she wasn't quite sure she could stomach much after the day's events.
As irritated as she was with Hunnigan, she was at least thankful to find the downstairs refrigerator fully stocked earlier and the house in decent order. There was even a car in the garage with the keys hanging on the wall. When Claire pulled open the glovebox, she almost wasn't surprised to find her name on the registration information.
Claire stepped over to the mirror after toweling off and looked up slowly at her face. The last six years hadn't changed much; her face was more mature and slightly more angular. Her dark auburn hair was slightly past her shoulders and her grey colored eyes reflected an inner turmoil that didn't seem to dissipate after the past six years. Various scars aligned her shoulders from her time traversing both Raccoon and Rockfort; the angry lines and dips were like a map to a history she kept wrapped away.
After Raccoon and Rockfort, Claire had continued to train in several types of defense training and actively sought to keep herself in shape. Still, she wasn't convinced this was enough to keep her alive in a hostile part of a different country. It was barely enough to make her feel safe in her own home at night.
Claire glanced down at the counter and found that aside from a toothbrush holder, hand soap, and Q-Tips, there was nothing personal to suggest Leon was ever here. Swearing softly, Claire felt the details of the situation fully settle on her shoulders before she closed her eyes and let the tears run quietly down her sharp cheekbones.
"What should I do?" she asked softly to yet another empty home.
The late evening found Claire sitting at the kitchen table thumbing through the papers Hunnigan had carefully left behind for her to see.
The more Claire read about the things Leon had to encounter, the more her mind wandered toward her own capabilities. Going in without a fully competent team was about the dumbest thing she could agree to. Hunnigan mentioned sending her in with another agent, but she was doubtful that just two people could accomplish this.
Claire's hand strayed back to the picture of Leon's angry face in the last photo. Her mind wandered the last few times she had seen him. With a lift of her fingers, she traced the darkened veins along the side of his neck in the photo.
To say their relationship was complicated was an understatement. While he was going off to various places around the nation and worldwide, she was looking to work with different NGOs after she completed her degree. The most recent application she was looking to put in was at an NGO called TerraSave. She wanted to be involved in the fight against bioweapons, but more from the side of assisting the populations affected.
After Raccoon, it became Claire's favorite game to ask Leon to solve dirty riddles when they saw one another. As a tomboy raised by an older military brother, Claire never did master the art of proper flirting. At the expense of thinking way too hard to produce such silly things, Claire decided dirty riddles were the best way to engage. Whether it was the proper way or not, she loved to watch Leon grin in response, flashing her with that twinkle in his eye.
In the last few years, he had failed to guess her riddle and so it became almost a greeting for them as the time went on. Claire had suspected he had decided to never solve it just so he could hear her ask it each time.
"Hey Leon, I am beautiful up in the sky, I am magical, yet I do not try. To some I bring luck, to the others it's riches, but the man at my end does whatever he wishes. What am I?"
Claire's mind went to their complicated history. Her eyes were welling up once more and she shook the details away with a physical shake of her head. She focused instead on the time she had kissed him.
Leon was just far too appropriate for her liking. In that incident, he had seemed unsure, interested but there was always something holding him back. They had been interrupted by a phone call shortly after the kiss and he ended up having to leave, but she had seen the yearning in his eyes. Leon's schedule became erratic after that, and Claire no longer pushed as she saw the stress start to weigh in. Things had only gotten more complicated as the years would go on.
Claire had tried several times to date, but there was always something flat in the interactions. Like a second layer over her life that caused her to want something more. She did manage to make it to a fifth date with a nice man named Brian, but Leon had shown up for an unexpected visit, and very suspiciously, Brian broke it off not too long after.
Under Claire's scrutiny, Leon swore, with an odd smile, that he hadn't said anything.
"You're the hottest cockblock I've ever met and you don't even put out, Leon!" She had yelled at him then. In response, he laughed harder than she had ever heard prior.
Claire shook herself out of her reverie as she caught sight of a large black box sitting up on the shelf of the closet when she walked into the bedroom. The locking mechanism had a keypad at the center. With an eyebrow raised, Claire pulled the box down to find it weighed a good thirty pounds.
It was the first sign that Leon may have actually taken a step in this house.
Bringing the box down, she tilted her head trying to examine the keypad to look for any wear and tear on specific buttons. Finding none, Claire began typing in numbers she thought may be special for Leon. After several attempts, Claire froze thinking of the newspaper in the old folder that Hunnigan had left.
Claire trotted into the kitchen and scooped up the folder. Her eyes landed on the newspaper clipping that read:
December 2nd, 1988
"Leon Scott Kennedy Sr. was murdered just before 5:30 on a December evening in 1988. Kennedy and his family stepped out of a limo in front of Sparks Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan and was shot to death. The Kennedy's are survived by their only son, Leon Scott Kennedy Jr—"
Claire set the newspaper down and looked toward the hall. She felt as if she was truly invading privacy now, but given the fact that Leon may not come home without her help she decided to say piss off to privacy at the moment.
Repeating the date, Claire walked back into where the security box sat and punched in 1221988.
The lock released and Claire's shoulders slumped. She had known Leon for years and yet he never spoke of his family. What was even worse, Claire didn't even think to push harder when he only mentioned once that he doesn't really see his family much and left it at that.
Pulling the lid open, Claire's eyes were drawn to the familiar red leather vest that lay folded up neatly in the corner of the box. She felt her face crumble when she grabbed the leather and pulled it out to hug to her chest. She had last given the vest to Sherry and told her that the vest would bring her luck.
Claire felt like she was eating those words now.
Under the vest had been an equally familiar gun. The Desert Eagle .50AE Magnum with a custom ten-inch barrel, Israeli import.
The gun Leon had survived Raccoon with.
Claire felt her resolve click into place, took a deep breath through her nose, and pulled out the gun.
She was going to need it starting tomorrow.