𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 :
that's not good
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WATCHING SHEN MAY observe the ruin of her home made Rae want to cry alongside her, but she managed to keep her emotions in check by stabbing her nails into her palm.
After only a minute of watching Shen May look around in grief, Rae retreated to her safe space and found herself standing next to Leon. Leon turned to the woman beside him and scanned over her body, one more time.
With a stressed breath he reached forward, his hand gently resting upon her shoulder for his thumb to comfortingly rub the skin. Once she sent him a grateful smile, he took his hand back to moved along. Leon pulled out the chip that they had grabbed from Shen May, observing it.
"Jason...The other day, he told me something." Leon started, looking at Rae, "He had said 'It starts with fear. You cultivate it, and you watch it spread, and then...then you've got terror.' And now, it all makes so much sense."
"You think he's doing this to keep us preoccupied, or to tell us to stand down because nothing we do will stop it?" Rae felt her lip twitching at her joke, "Because we haven't heard that before."
Leon gave a short laugh, "Guess he doesn't know us that well, huh?"
Rae huffed, "Definitely not."
"Give me the chip." Shen May's voice came from behind them but neither of them turned around. "If we go public with it, everything that Wilson had been doing will he out in the open."
"If we do that, you'll have every agent in the US hunting you." Leon turned around, his grip on the chip tightening. Rae turned around, knowing there was no chance they were giving Shen May the chip.
"I have to do it, so that everything that happened to Jun See will never happen again." A quiet filled the area of destruction, and Shen May took this as a sign to continue, "I know you both understand. Raccoon City was the beginning. We can't let what happened in Penamstan stay buried. Jason wants justice."
"No. Jason doesn't give a damn about justice." Leon cut off, "He wants the world to know what real terror's like. The kind him and his men knew. He wants that to be the new reality for everyone, and then...he wants to burn it all down."
"He wouldn't do that." Shen May defended, having hope in her partner's morals.
"You don't doubt him?" Rae motioned to the rubble, feeling guilty at the flicker of pain in Shen May's eyes, "Even after this?"
Shen May took a few steps back, the sight of the destructive obviously overwhelming her along with the information of her partner's different end goal.
"Shen May..." Leon sounded more serious, "where is he?"
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Shen May had mentioned a lab that Wilson had underground. Rae was upset that she had to go to yet another underground lab, but at least this time she had some experience.
Leon had left to call and give Patrick a heads up in the other room, leaving Rae and Shen May together as Shen May planned their trip. Rae continued to act like a wallflower, refilling their weapons and packing extra ammo just in case, but not speaking much compared to the other two agents.
"How long do you think Leon will take?" Shen May asked as she looked up from the map. Shen May seemed barely distracted for someone who had just lost so much, it made Rae respect the woman.
"A few more minutes." Rae decided, crossing her arms as she stood against the wall. She looked into the room Leon was in, finding him pacing back and forth while on the phone.
Shen May had noticed something over the duration of their partnership, and inquired, "Do you ever speak to anyone other than him?"
Rae thought about it for a few moments before she gave a small sheepish laugh, "Not really. Lately I've been the less social one but...I guess we kind of switch. First he was chattier to strangers, then me, and now its him again."
Shen May blinked at the woman, "You two are stranger than anyone I've worked with."
"Thank you." Rae sent her a grin, "It's a part of our charm."
Leon walked into the room, having finished his call, "I'm ready." He looked between the woman, noticing that the air was more casual than it was before, "Let's go."
Shen May started to walk towards the door when Leon stopped Rae, "Hey, I found something for you."
Rae looked towards him and found him holding a sniper rifle behind his back. Rae whistled, taking the gun from him. She shook her head and grinned wider than she had in the entire job, "Have I ever told you that I love you?"
Rae leaned forward, giving him a kiss. Even though it was just a short peck, Leon's lovesick face when they departed would have told differently. He watched the way that she admired the gun, knowing the insides and outsides of her main weapons more than anything.
Leon smiled admirably watching her in her own world, "Not often enough."
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"Jason said Wilson has a fully equipped lab down here." Shen May informed as they left the shaky elevator, she had brought them too. It revealed a long tunnel, one that appeared as though it didn't have an ending. The trio all began to sprint down the tunnel, "It's where he develops his bioweapons."
"Right under everyone's noses. Typical." Leon piped, his words sounding like a scoff.
The trio ran down the tunnel as fast as they could while still conserving their energy. Eventually, an ending was revealed to them. A large metallic door that was the size of the entire tunnel. Once they approached, they heard a short alarm, and then a voice calling out,
"Rogue bioweapon detected. Sterilization sequence activated." A feminine robotic voice called out over a PA system, "Partition wall closing. All crews evacuate the facility."
The wall in front of them slid open seeing as it was motion sensor. The trio all rushed in, Leon and Rae having their pistols ready while Shen May had nothing out.
In front of them was what had to have been hundreds of test tubes, all filled with green liquid and shadowy bodies. More experiments, bioweapons no doubt.
The three rushed forward, soon walking upon a grated pathway and peering downwards. That was where the action was, a large, mutated body holding an older and familiar one.
"That's not good." Leon piped.
An alarm broke out as the wall around them began to move around. Half cylinders appeared, and once they stopped moving green liquid began to spew out of them. They covered the wall, so the floor began to fill up quick. With its bright green appearance, it only looked like one thing.
"Acid?" Rae guessed as the test tubes in the center of the room began to be ejected and thrown to the bottom of the room. They landed on the liquid and began to melt.
"Come on, we've got to stop this!" Shen May ordered, breaking into a sprint and running towards the middle.
"Guardian Angel moment?" Leon asked Rae as he lagged in running behind Shen May, catching Rae's eyes stuck on the large creature threatening the old man that could now be recognized as Wilson.
Guardian Angel moment was something Leon had asked her every mission they were on together after their reunion in Spain, since that was when they were officially paired together. It meant that Rae would lag behind him, or the group, and watch from afar.
But Rae didn't want that this time. So, it didn't take Rae long to decide, "No, I want to be by your side."
"Then catch up," Leon started to run in the same direction as Shen May, calling back to Rae, "slowpoke!"
Rae didn't hesitate to do just that, following Leon down grated stairs as they carefully but swiftly made their way down the center of the room. The three were able to make it down in less than 15 seconds, ending up exactly where they had been observing just moments before.
The creature was now watching Wilson try his hardest to get away, a pitiful attempt really, but when it heard the three approaching it turned around. The new sight caused them to all have different reactions.
Rae's mouth dropped in shock. The creature was a mutated Jason, one that seemed eerily in control of his actions as he stared down at them with enraged, red eyes. Hard spikes that appeared almost wood like stemmed from the top if his head and covered his entire body, except where his large heart was settled in the center of his chest.
"I'm gonna end this." Jason's voice sounded different, almost as though it were being out through a filter. "I'm gonna go up there and show myself to them. To the world. And then, this, this torture chamber...Everything, it's all gonna burn."
"No." Shen May cried out in objection to Jason's decision, "I have my brother's chip. All the evidence we need is right here. All we have to do is go public with it, like we planned. You don't have to do this."
"That won't help anything." Jason denied, "It won't change what this country's done, or what it's doing right now. You know that."
Jason panted as he looked between the three. Rae's eyes almost softened in pity for the man, he had been through so much, but that was no excuse to act rashly like this. Trying to ruin every innocent person's life just like his had been? It was wrong.
Jason sounded like he couldn't be argued with, a final decision as he announced, "I will show you fear."
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AUTHORS NOTE !
It's almost time for
my finals.
But I'm getting the urge to write
more of them...I don't know if that
entails rewriting Serendipity for
what would be like the third time,
or trying to find another spin off 😭
Posted: May 31, 2023
Words: 1694
Edited: ✘︎