#redmc

"Professional?" Leonidas laughed in disbelief. "The last time a government goon wanted me to work for you, you tried to extort the safety of an traumatized orphaned girl."

And that would be the reason for the aforementioned chip on his shoulder. Great. Would have been nice to have that in the briefing docket so she wouldn't say or do things that reminded him of why he didn't like government operatives. "It's the safety of a young girl I need your help with now." Hopefully this would work. "She was abducted and taken overseas. We think we narrowed down the rough location."

"And why not send one of your own?" Leonidas asked, almost flippantly. "If you're involved she must be the daughter of someone important. And the United States Government has more than enough minions and toys to arms them with." He waved a hand dismissively. "You don't need me or Dad for that. So why are you here?"

"We did send our own troops Our absolute best." Hunnigan gritted through her teeth. She wondered if the Son of Sparda himself was this infuriating. "They were all neutralized, most likely by a rogue agent named Krauser-"

Leonidas suddenly sat up straight, his eyes sharpening, and his attention solely on her. Hunnigan didn't know why, but suddenly knew she had him.

"Jack Krauser, former USSOCOM Agent Silverdax. Went AWOL after the botched Operation Javier."

Why was the mercenary better briefed on their prime suspect than she was on him? "And how do you know about that?"

"I was paying attention to Operation Javier because Javier was dealing with Umbrella remnants, which is something that gets my full attention. Likewise I've pulled all there is to know on Jack Krauser because after the events of Operation Javier, he signed up with a new boss, one Albert Wesker."

Hunnigan felt her blood run cold. The possible involvement of Albert Wesker made the situation a hundred times worse. She wasn't ready for this. No one was ready for the President's daughter to be at the dead center of a second Raccoon City incident.

"Well, congratulations, you've got yourself a devil." Leonidas stood up, pulling his jacket off the coat rack. "Let me get my gear and call Patty to watch over the place. And Agent?" He looked her dead in the eye and suddenly she felt as if she was staring up at a giant predator. "If I find out your people made anything remotely resembling a move on Sherry while I'm gone, there will be no hole deep enough for you to hide in."

~~

Well, on one hand this would explain why after the first government team, they'd gone straight to DMC. On the other, if they're known about this, it would make no sense not to tell him and let him walk into the situation unprepared. Leon didn't like this at all.

His hand flew up to his communicator. "Leonidas to Nest. Situation Update. Cult Leader Saddler has an Arm."

There was confused silence. "I'd assumed he had two? Is he missing one? The was no report. Unless you just mean he has a gun, which I feel was something safe to assume you'd take into account."

Leon's eyes widened. "Nest, what was your briefing?"

Hunnigan made a frustrated noise. Leonidas may not have the reputation of his father, but he was supposed to be professional. That went beyond just being extremely good at what he did.

"Your main target is a kidnapped girl-"

"Not my briefing on the mission," Leon interruted. "Your briefing on me."

"Why?" came sullen suspicions on the other end. Right she didn't like or trust him any more than he liked or trusted her.

"Arms are a codename for a specific kind of weapon. One of the main job DMC takes, even before I joined, was dealing with Arms that had gotten into circulation. And some of those jobs came from the government. If you had been even halfway briefed, you would have recognized that term."

There was a pause from the com. Right, given how she'd handled their introduction Hunnigan likely guessed she was missing some intel, but neither of them had realized how much. "Leon Scott Kennedy. Son of the mercenary known as the Son of Sparda and an unknown woman. Adopted and raised by the Kennedy family as an infant. Trained to be a Police Officer at 19, joined the RCPD upon graduation, the only surviving member."

Leon's hand fell subconsciously to his side, to the copper badge he still kept for more than memories sake.

"One of a handful of survivors of the Raccoon City Incident, joined his birth father afterwards, primarily operating the front for his mercenary business, though occasionally working as a mercenary and bounty hunter himself under the code name Leonidas. Distrustful of Government agents and authority figures, but extremely capable in terms of getting a job done."

Leon was silent for a moment, parsing what she'd said, or rather what she hadn't said. "Nest, I'd like you to look in on Sherry for me."

He could practically hear the eyebrow raise. "I thought part of the deal was I stay away from Sherry. You were extremely clear on that point."

"You have been woefully and purposefully under informed. Both on why I distrust government agents, which we covered already, and the main purpose of my family and DMC, of which the people you work for are well aware. The Redgrave Agreement wouldn't exist if they weren't."

"There are two possible reasons for this. One is they didn't have time to read you in, which is bull as they could have given you the basics while I was en route. The other is there is a second half to the operation that would have been a deal breaker for me that you were purposefully not read in on so you couldn't give it away, accidentally or on purpose."

Hunnigan bit her lip. It made way too much sense. She'd thought not being told about the government trying to use Sherry to manipulate Leon was the government not admitting trying to pull something stupid and failing. But an op hidden under an op would track with her being given limited to the point of bad data. "And if the second half is getting you to tell me the location of Sherry once you realized something was off?"

Leon laughed, though not bitterly. There was definitely some relief in it. "Won't you get in trouble for botching it then?"

"How could I? My mission was to be ground control for Leonidas to extract baby Eagle. That would require me building trust with him. Showing support for his interests would be following my mission." Her voice was a false sweetness, doing nothing to conceal her anger at being used like that.

Leon cackled. Okay, he may not trust her, but he officially liked her. "I'm sending you the contact information for my Aunt Trish, she can check on Sherry. Ask your superiors to read you in on the Dark Knight Sparda and the Sons of Sparda. Tell them there's an Arm involved if they hesitate."

"Not going to tell me yourself." She questioned. "You trust them to give me all the intel I need this time?"

"Trust is a strong word. But it's a long story and this job just got a hell of a lot more complicated." The reminder sobered him. A human randomly finding a Devil Arm would be bad enough. But there was always a chance of them being sold as part of an infernal plan and that had to be nipped in the bud. Mix in the possible involvement of Albert Wesker, and this could make Raccoon City look like a walk in the park. "There's a chance I'm in over my head, in which case you'll need Aunt Trish and Dad If I get more information I'll send it your way. Leonidas out"

"We?" Leon asked. "Had a brother, I mentioned him earlier." "Right. Identical twins, identical DNA. Sorry." Leon shook his head. "It's been a bad few days," Dante said gently. "I know I didn't take the revelation that I was part demon well. Much less finding out my father was a demon of legend." "Were those being you killed also demons?" It didn't take a detective to notice Leon was steering the conversation away from their shared heritage. Well, fine for now. Kid had a lot to redefine in his head, let him do it at his own pace.

"Nah, while the comparison could be made, Malefactors are different. They're basically incarnations of violent deaths. They only manifest in places of mass death and suffering and mindlessly act out the deaths they represent. The ones in the town were death by starvation, that's why they were drawn in by the constantly hungry zombies in Raccoon, and why they ate every living thing in that town. Then the bomb dropping created some Death By Radiation Malefactors, which is why they were moving outward to spread their radiation trail as far as the could. There's also ones based on burning, decapitation, hanging, heck I think I even saw a police brutality one the last time I was in Baltimore-" "But, the leader in the village wasn't mindless. He knew I was related to Sparda. He offered to pay me to take the Wasters." Leon's hand ghosted to the blue crystal dagger on his belt. "He was probably a hybrid." Dante sighed. "Like us?" Leon asked in a small voice. "Not like us," Dante insisted. "We're born what we are, and we choose what to do with it. Malefactors can't...procreate. All they can do is spread death. But sometime a human becomes so obsessed with a particular form of death that they can draw unmanifested Malefactors to them. And when they die their soul mergers with them to create a thinking Malefactor, albeit one who's still obsessed with causing a particular kind of death. Malefactor hybrids may have been human once, but you don't become one without killing a whole lot of people."

Leon was quiet, staring off the roof for a while, then -almost too softly for Dante to hear "Do you ever stop feeling like a monster?" Hoo boy. "It comes and it goes." Dante admitted. "There are times I feel like just another guy - listened to music, enjoying my favorite food at my favorite diner. There are time I'm happy and proud of what I am. My Dad, despite being a fully fledged demon, was a hero. And I can use this strength and power to protect others too. But yeah, there are bad times too. Times when I remember that no matter how much I identify with humans, I'm not one. That I'm a monster."

Leon shrunk in on himself.

"Crap." Dante ran his hand down his face. "I'm screwing this up, aren't I? I'm sorry, Leon. If I could-"

The door to the roof slammed open revealing a slender woman with long blonde hair wearing skintight black leather. "Where is my nibling, Dante‽"

"Christ, Trish. People are sleeping!"

"Don't care. Nibling now." Trish strode over to Leon and without hesitation picked him up under his arms like he was a small child. "Oh yeah, he's yours."

Dante facepalmed. "Leon, meet your Aunt Trish."

"Dante, why did I learn about my nibling from Patty and not you?" Trish demanded, still looking Leon over.

"Godammit Patty," Dante grumbled. "Because I knew you'd burst in here and people are trying to sleep." Dante reiterated. "They just survived Raccoon City and ran straight into a nest of Gorgers. They need some rest."

"The mercenary in your bedroom isn't sleeping," Trish pointed out.

"She doesn't feel safe enough to yet. She will." Dante sighed.

"Will he be staying here?" Trish asked.

"If he wants. He's old enough to decide for himself." Dante pointed out.

"For now yes. I need to understand more about what I am and what I can do." Leon allowed. "I don't know if I'll be staying permanently."

"That's fine. I don't stay here permanently either. But Lady and I will be staying in town for a bit to help with your training. It will be bonding time."

"He's mostly human." Dante reminded her. "You can't go as hard on him as you do one me."

"You're staying here?" A small voice came from the building.

"For now." Leon reiterated.

"Then I'm staying too!" Sherry insisted. "Me and Claire!"

"Claire can't stay." Leon explained gently. "She still needs to find her brother. And I'm staying because I'm not sure how safe it is for me to be around normal humans."

"It should be safe as long as your not fighting them." Trish stated.

"Not sure if that's true." Dante admitted. "Vergil and I caused a lot of damage to the house growing up till we learned some restraint."

"You know restraint?" Trish asked, causing Dante to roll his eyes.

"No!" Sherry insisted. "I just lost my parents! I don't want my new family to be torn apart."

"It's not tearing apart." Dante lowered himself next to her. "You know the room you're staying in? It belongs to a girl a little older than you named Patty Lowell. She was thought to be an orphan when I met her. Her father had died and her Mom was presumed dead. She stayed with me a bit, but eventually I found and rescued her Mom. Thought that would be the end of it. But her Mom? Well, she'd been through a lot as a prisoner and there were times when she knew she couldn't take the best care of her daughter. So she asked if Patty could stay here sometimes."

"So sometimes she lives here, and sometimes she lives with her Mom. But even when she's here, she and her Mom are still family and love each other very much. And if Claire has to find her brother, she's probably going somewhere dangerous. But I can see if Patty wouldn't mind a roommate sometimes, at least until Claire comes back." Dante winked.

"I can stay here with Leon?" Sherry asked excitedly. "And if you're Leon's Dad, does that make you my Grandpa?"

Dante sputtered and Trish cackled.

"I am not becoming a father and grandfather in the same day." Dante declared. He glanced and saw the frozen look on Leon's face. His son seemed a little panicky at the thought too. "Maybe Leon's more of a big brother?"

Sherry looked deep in thought. "I've never had a brother before."