Resident Evil- Saudade

Part 2 - April 15, 2007

Six months. Had it already been that long since...that night?
She was letting her own mind wander to him, her ears practically feeling hot with concentration.
It was the only way she could keep herself from thinking any more about the renegade assassinations she had committed, but Ada Wong kept reminding herself it was for the best.
She had to do it, because she could live with the deed. If Leon had done it...
The thought was too much. Ada turned her own head away from the view of the New York skyline, a shudder leaving her lips.
She knew the murders she had willingly committed and covered up wouldn't solve anything. And it certainly wouldn't bring Leon's parents back.
But Ada knew, deep down, that Leon would have realized that by now. And she also knew that, with the people who'd caused his parents' deaths gone, it would prevent him from going after them and into a place he wouldn't come back from.
She could live with the burden. Leon didn't need to.
It wasn't the most pleasant thought to live with, but it was honest. And comforting in that regard.
Turning to head back inside the apartment, Ada found herself stopping in front of the glass doors. She'd caught her reflection - her slender yet shapely figure enclosed in a deep purple cheongsam dress, her ebony hair brushed away from her pretty face, wrought with complicated thought.
The sight of her reflection brought to life memories of another time. Back when she was another woman entirely.
That woman had died that night, after Raccoon City. After Leon...

She examines herself in the mirror of her hotel room, her black bra and blue jeans doing nothing to hide the wide purple scar across her midsection. That scar she'd picked up from getting clawed by the giant G-virus monster that used to be the virus' creator, William Birkin, as she and Leon had descended to the secret underground lab Birkin had been in charge of.
"This is Ada's scar", she whispers to herself through the blossoming tears. "Not mine."
"I'm not even Ada Wong anymore."
And she'd never be that woman anymore. Not the same woman she'd been before Raccoon. This she knew beyond any and all doubt.
All because of...him.
The thought terrified her, yet soothed her at the same time.
Crippled her, yet strengthened her.
She spares a moment to hope that Leon, wherever he is, is alright. Then she takes great pains to put all thoughts of him away.
She couldn't let him distract her from her next mission...

All these years later, she still wasn't the same version of herself from back then. She'd grown older, matured as a person, made room for the missions she'd pulled off over the years.
And, of course, the people she'd met. And killed.
And yet she was still in the same place she'd been in since Raccoon City - always on the move, on a mission, in danger, never paying mind to what happened outside of that routine.
Ada noticed she was unconsciously settling her hand over her dress at the region where that old scar still lay. She'd considered getting skin grafts to cover it up, but never followed through with it. Maybe she needed it to remind her who she was, or used to be.
Or would be.
Whatever the case, Ada knew one thing for sure - she would find out for herself eventually. And when she did, she would be better for having done so. Not just for Leon's sake, but for hers.
At the moment, she certainly didn't feel like her best self.
Instead, she realized that she was becoming angry with herself, for everything that had happened since that time: still working with Wesker, despite him using her accomplishments for his own ends; letting the experiences she'd had turn her colder and shut her off from everything; feeling like she was failing herself and ruining Leon's life, despite their feelings for each other.
And Ada knew that, more than anything, she wanted to make up for everything.
As if the universe was listening, she heard her cell phone ring from inside. Ada threw the doors open and headed for the counter where her phone lay, looking at the number.
It was an unknown one.
For Ada, that usually meant only one of two things: a random spam caller - how they even got her phone number, she could never tell - or Wesker calling to give her a new mission or an update.
Ada wasn't a fan of the former, and dreaded the latter.
Yet those feelings didn't beat the surprise she felt when she opened the voicemail left by her mysterious caller.