2004: Las Plagas Aftermath

Albert Wesker leaned back against his chair, gazing up at the multiple holoscreens on display, half the feeds of Pueblo, the other half of an abandoned military base in Russia. Tapping on the control panel built into the arm of his chair, he closed all the feeds and brought up one of the many video records he had kept of Saddler's island base. Of them, he selected one, showing Helena Harper strapped to Luis Sera's plaga removing machine. On another screen was a word for word copy of the agent's data, extracted right from the machine.

He merely glanced at the flood of information, having already seen it before. His interest was in the video, which now showed Ada Wong leaning over the now unconscious Helena Harper. He paused it in that frame, then pushed a button that patched through a call.

Four rings later, it was answered.

"I have something that might interested you," was all he said, nonchalantly eyeing a vial in his hand, one that contained the subordinate-strain plaga Ada Wong had sent him.

He smirked as he stared at it, having just acquired a dominant-strain sample on his own, a generous donation from a dead Jack Krauser he found in Russia, courtesy of Leon S. Kennedy.

"I'm listening," came the response.

On the screen flashed the recipient's name: Derek C. Simmons.

2004: Division of Security Operations, Proposed

From behind a glass wall, President Graham watched his daughter sleep at the bedside of the comatose Agent Harper.

Released from quarantine and given a clean bill of health, Ashley barely left the side of the agent who had saved her life. President Graham frowned in concern, as he had never seen his daughter sleep as peacefully at home as she did now near the agent.

Though both Ashley and that scientist Luis Sera recounted to them the events in Pueblo, President Graham couldn't imagine experiencing the horrors of Las Plagas, much less living through it as his daughter had.

"Hunnigan," he called to the woman who stood at his side, "this matter you brought to my attention, the anti-bioterrorism branch?"

"Yes, sir?" she said, her tone neutral but respectful.

He looked away from the glass wall and faced Hunnigan, his face that of a man haggard but not defeated.

"I want an official proposal on my desk first thing in the morning."

2005: Division of Security Operations, Established

"Chief Field Agent?" Leon S. Kennedy repeated what he had just heard from Hunnigan, his tone incredulous. "That's some promotion," he quipped, easily falling back to his relaxed, playful manner.

"You single handedly hunted down Jack Krauser and prevented Las Plagas from spreading in Russia. That and, of the personnel, you have the the most experience with BOWs," Hunnigan countered flatly, not even looking up from computer screen, her fingers deftly motioning over the keys as she typed up a report. "I need you to make a training program we can use to evaluate possible recruits. I should have responses from their superiors by the end of the week."

Leon nodded, seeing how serious Hunnigan was.

"I can do that, maybe give Chris a call and ask how they do it in the BSAA," he paused then, glancing to see if the door to Hunnigan's office was closed. "Unless asking for a little advice already counts as consorting with 'non-American' organizations," he added, scoffing.

"If the government had been comfortable with the BSAA, it wouldn't have given the DSO the green light," Hunnigan pointed out.

"Yeah," Leon agreed, no stranger to the less pleasant side of the government, one that had dictated his and Sherry's future after Raccoon City. "How's Helena doing?" he asked of his soon to be fellow DSO agent, who was still out of commission after her own bout against Las Plagas.

At the mention of the young agent she had so obviously taken under her wing, Hunnigan's hands paused over the keyboard, her eyes softening as she looked away from the screen for the first time to look at Leon.

"She's making good progress," she said, the hopeful news quickly dampened by a deep sigh, "but it's still unclear whether her right hand will completely heal, considering the serious nerve damage. The medical staff is confident it will, but I don't think she has the patience for it."

"Explains why I saw her at the range shooting with her left hand," Leon commented by way of agreeing.

"She can't wait to get back out in the field," Hunnigan remarked, not the least bit surprised to hear it. "When she's cleared to go, she wants to go through your training program, just like any other agent we're looking to evaluate," she told him, resuming her work.

"Okay," Leon obliged, though he knew it was merely a formality at this point. "Did you ever find anything on that woman she told you about? Ada Wong?"

"No, it was an alias," Hunnigan said, an answer Leon seemed to be expecting. "Why did you ask?" she prompted, seeing the troubled look on his face.

"When we found Sherry after her father infected her," he started, taking a seat, "she kept mumbling about some woman. She gave a pretty vague description, but..."

"You think the woman who helped Sherry is the same one who helped Helena?" Hunnigan finished quietly, her hands once again pausing and her eyes turning back to him.

"Maybe," he responded honestly, "I just know there's a third party out there and we don't know which side they're on. Is Luis Sera still in our custody?" he asked, not one to dwell needlessly.

This time, Hunnigan raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yes, he's still doing work in the lab," she said, speaking of Luis and his ongoing attempts to save the infected survivors of Pueblo. "Why?"

Leon shrugged lightly, though the small grin on his face was telling.

"Let's have him work in our labs when he's done there. What do you think?"

Hunnigan's eyebrow hiked a bit higher.

"You think we can trust him?"

"He was a cop."

"He also admitted he wasn't a very good one."

"Hey, I was a cop for a day and look how well I turned out."

Hunnigan rolled her eyes, refusing to look at Leon and the undoubtedly huge grin on his face. He knew he was right. Luis Sera, with his intimate knowledge of Las Plagas, would be an invaluable asset to the DSO, especially with the growing number of bioterror cases.

"I'll see what I can do," she said.

2005: After Harvardville

Leon S. Kennedy tiredly trudged to his office, exhausted from the briefing the board had insisted on holding after his immediate return from Harvardville.

With the bioterror attacks leaving both Harvardville Airport and WilPharma Headquarters in ruins and the DSO still putting together its own laboratory and team of scientists, Tricell, Inc. was allowed to handle the biohazard zones. It wasn't an arrangement neither Leon or the board was comfortable with, but if the government insisted on rejecting the BSAA's support, it would have to do.

Here was hoping, he thought, that they wouldn't turn all this wasted energy into other anti-bioterrorism NGOs, like Terra Save. The last thing Leon wanted was for them to discover Claire Redfield and link her to the Raccoon City Incident through her brother Chris.

They had taken Sherry from him, he wasn't going to let them find Claire.

With renewed energy, he stepped into his office, and then he froze, all the vigor in his body lost when he saw the very person he had never wanted to see here.

"C-Claire," he blurted out, stumbling the rest of the way into the room. "What are you doing here?" he asked, quickly getting past the shock.

Claire, who appeared to have been going through the few pictures he had on his desk, picked up the photograph of Sherry and looked at him with a sad smile.

"What, did you think it'd be another seven years before we see each other again?" she quipped, but she had spoken in a low, humorless tone.

"No," Leon responded calmly, closing his door and approaching her. "I thought you were going to help the survivors in Harvardville. How did you even get here so fast?"

Claire smiled again, a happy but subdued smile.

"Jill gave me a ride. She was there with a team but they wouldn't let us help, not Terra Save or the BSAA."

"That sounds about right," Leon said, though it was the least of his concerns at the moment. "So, what are you doing here?"

At the question, Claire looked back down at the picture frame in her hands, which showed a sixteen-year-old Sherry smiling shyly.

"What's going on with Sherry that you're not telling me?" she asked, always direct and to the point. "When I asked Jill, she said it wasn't her place to say. Why is Sherry still with the government, Leon? What happened after I left Raccoon City?"

Backed into a corner, Leon could only sigh. There was no point in lying to Claire, the only thing to do now was speak.

"After you left, the army eventually showed up and found us," he started, looking her in the eye. "I was taken in for questioning, and Sherry… they knew who her father was, what he had done. They just eradicated an entire city, they were desperate for a scapegoat. I did what I could so they'd leave her out of it."

Claire's hardened, angry expression fell, clearly understanding what he meant.

"You took this job to protect her."

"I wouldn't say it that way," he was quick to dismiss, "it's not like I haven't done some good in this job." He sighed again, then went on. "It turns out, the G-Virus is still in Sherry's body. It… adapted somehow, but she's fine," he assured her before she could ask. "It's not hurting her, and tests revealed it hasn't changed her in any way. It's just there."

"Don't tell me they've turned her into some kind of- guinea pig," Claire nearly snarled, the very idea putting her on edge.

"No," Leon responded with similar conviction. "I won't let them do that."

Claire stared at him for a moment, then visibly relaxed with a quiet, "Okay. Good."

"But she is under government protection," Leon said, bringing back the worry in Claire's face. "We got word that Albert Wesker was after her, so she had to stay with her legal guardian. His name's Derek Simmons, he's the director of the DSO and he takes good care of her."

"What?" Claire nearly snapped, the real question being, 'And you're okay with this?'

She sat down, gripping the picture frame with both hands.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, sounding so betrayed.

"We didn't want you to worry," he said, but they both knew he meant, 'We didn't want to drag you into this, too.'

Claire looked up to meet his eyes, her anger and confusion gone, and all Leon could see now was the determined woman he had always known.

"I want to see her," she said, and he knew it was not a request.

"She'd love that," he told her, his own happiness obvious. "But not tonight," he added, his smile now teasing, "it's late, we'll have to wait until tomorrow. You got a place to stay?"

She gave him a peeved look, one eyebrow lifting slightly.

"What do you think?"

He chuckled, motioning at her to stand.

"Come on, you can crash at my place."

2006: Claire Redfield, BSAA

"You what?" Chris Redfield sputtered, drawing several eyes to the table he shared with his sister and partner.

"I left Terra Save and I want to join the BSAA," Claire Redfield calmly repeated, certainly not the kind of news her brother was expecting to hear during one of their impromptu get-togethers.

Jill Valentine, sitting between the Redfield siblings, glanced Claire's way in concern.

"What brought this on, Claire? I thought you were content in Terra Save."

There was a barely noticeable pause before Jill said 'content', which Claire found very fitting.

"It's not enough anymore," she said, holding her brother's questioning gaze, "not when Sherry's suffering in a lab all day, every day, for God knows how long."

"What you do isn't nothing, Claire," Chris told her, reaching out and placing his hand over his, which she hadn't noticed had clenched into a fist and trembled.

If she closed her eyes, she could still see the stubborn look on Sherry's face when she told them she agreed to be turned into a test subject in the government's labs, a fate she and Leon sought to protect the girl from. She didn't listen to them, made them feel selfish for wishing to save her years of pain and experiments and deny the world the help she believed she could offer.

"The G-Virus changed my body, gave me this incredible ability," Sherry had said, not a hint of pride or malice in those sweet blue eyes, "if there's some way I can share it, help heal people and make what happened to me, what my father did, into something good, then I'll do it."

"I want to do something more, Chris," she told her brother, then turned to Jill. "I want to fight."

2009: After Kijuju

"Luis."

Luis Sera, sitting in the passenger seat, looked at Helena Harper when she called his name. Her eyes were fixed on the road ahead as she drove, her brows furrowed and her jaw clenched.

They were among the DSO agents working late when word from the BSAA's West African branch came through. In Kijuju, Africa, Operatives Chris Redfield, Claire Redfield and Sheva Alomar had discovered and subsequently put an end to Albert Wesker and his plans to unleash a global bioterror attack. Along with a new virus Wesker had dubbed Uroboros, a plaga infestation was confirmed.

It was the first time any sign of plaga had turned up since Spain, proof that it had not died with Saddler five years ago. It was a reminder of one loose end, a reminder of a certain woman.

"Do you think Ada gave Wesker the sample?" Helena asked, though she already seemed convinced of it.

"From what I'm seeing, that Wesker is quite the sneaky bastard," Luis said, speaking lightly. "He was behind Tricell all along, and we set them loose in Harvardville four years ago. And it wasn't just Pueblo that had plaga. Krauser brought it to Russia, remember? Wesker may have acquired his sample from other sources."

"He would have needed a dominant-strain to control the plaga," she shot back, sounding aggravated.

"We won't know exactly what kind of plaga it is they found until it's brought to the lab," he told her, then paused, momentarily hesitating before speaking again. "As for your lady friend's involvement in this, I honestly have no idea. When I arranged that deal with her, my reasons were selfish. I didn't care much what she did with the sample, only that it was a price I was happy to pay for my freedom. But..." he trailed off, looking at her, "she didn't seem to be in the business of furthering a madman's plans for world domination."

Helena didn't respond, not looking any less troubled.

"She saved our lives," Luis murmured, saying what she had been thinking since getting the news from the BSAA. "Maybe this is coming from a foolish, grateful man, but how bad can she be?"

"It doesn't mean anything," she growled, then more quietly muttered, "I don't know what it means."

"Doubt you ever will," Luis chimed in, shaking his head. "The woman speaks in riddles, a lifetime isn't enough to figure her out. So let's not trouble ourselves, hm?" When she stubbornly remained silent, he sighed and said, "Helena, this isn't your fault. You made a choice, and it's a choice that saved Ashley's life. Don't punish yourself for it, especially when we're not even sure how Wesker obtained the plaga."

Hearing Ashley's name, Helena seemed to have been disarmed.

"Hey," Luis said, encouraged. "Let's stop by 'Brue's."

"I'm not drinking," she barked, no real heat in her words.

"They don't just serve alcohol there!" he exclaimed with a laugh. "But, you know, a little bit of it may do you a world of good. You really need to learn how to unwind, Helena."

Helena scoffed, but she did change direction and took the road to the bar.

2009: DSO Agent Birkin

Hearing the door, Luis Sera looked up from his work and was surprised to see 23-year-old Sherry Birkin enter his station. She had been a common sight around the DSO lab the past four years, as it seemed the affinity and passion for science ran deep in the Birkin blood, but with Wesker dead and the threat on Sherry's life gone with him, Luis thought she would be out and enjoying her newfound freedom.

"Hey, Luis," the girl greeted amiably, her upbeat nature boggling even the man known for literally smiling in the face of death and danger. "Can you talk, or are you too busy?" she asked, knowing as well as anyone in the DSO how busy it had been since the bioterror incident in Kijuju months ago.

"Well, a little break wouldn't hurt," he said, always happy to make time for her, as was their routine back when she needed respite from the tests and experiments she had willingly subjected herself to.

His teeth gritted just thinking about it. Four years, he thought, it was how long it had taken Simmons and his personal team of supposed experts to come to the conclusion that there was no viable way to apply to modern medicine Sherry's unique regenerative ability, a side effect of the G-virus in her body adapting to the vaccine. In wanting to make up for what her parents had done, the girl had suffered for nothing, and Luis always thought Simmons had allowed it to go longer than necessary.

While everyone else, even Leon, saw a genuine, compassionate man, all Luis could see was a snake, but he knew better than to say anything about the man who was now the National Security Advisor.

"So," he prompted, discreetly hiding a folder marked clearly as the confidential medical files and records of one Agent Helena Harper, "what brings you here? Curious about the plaga we found in Kijuju?" he asked, catching sight of the bodyguards standing outside.

Sherry's eyes lit up, having always loved going through his notes and papers, but she shook her head.

"Actually, I wanted to tell you something," she said, taking a seat across him. "I've been thinking about what I want to do now that I'm not under government protection anymore."

"Oh!" he exclaimed, surprised. "You want to work here in the lab?"

"I thought about it," she admitted, "I want to join the DSO. I want to be a field agent."

Luis blinked, wondering if he had heard right. When Sherry looked at him expectantly, her expression that of someone who has clearly made up her mind, he only had one thing to say.

"The chief isn't going to like this," he practically blurted, already imagining the horrified look on Leon's face.

No one, not even Claire Redfield, had been able to talk a stubborn 19-year-old Sherry out of being tested and experimented on, and Luis, nowhere near as close to the girl, certainly had no chance of convincing her otherwise.

"Why a field agent?" he asked instead. "I thought you'd like working in the lab. And you'll be working with me, and what's better than my company, hm?"

"I know," she responded quietly, giving him a small smile, "but I want to learn how to look after myself."

"You don't have to be fighting BOWs to do that," he gently pointed out, unable to keep from frowning.

"But that's just it, Luis," she told him, meeting his eyes, "that's what I want."

So the next time someone like Wesker went after her again, she'd be able to fight back.

When the realization struck him, Luis lost what little fight he had in him.

"Aiyiyi," he groaned in defeat, shaking his head. "I hope you're ready for long lectures when you bring this up," he told her, dearly afraid of how badly Claire would take the news.

"They'll understand, like you do," Sherry assured him, her smile growing. "Do you think Helena would mind helping me with firearms training?"

"Soon as she gets back, I'm sure she'd love to," he said, waving off her concerns.

"I thought she got back already," Sherry murmured, confused.

"She did," Luis confirmed, sighing again, "left for another mission just this morning. When you get a hold of her, talk her into taking a break, eh?"

Sherry nodded, understanding.

"I'll give it a try, Luis."

2011: The Head of the Family

Alone in his office, National Security Advisor Derek C. Simmons wore an expression not often seen on his face. Usually he appeared the collected, charming man many knew him to be, but in the privacy of his office, there was a dark sort of hatred in his eyes, a menacing look more suited to the head of the Family were he feeling scorned and vindictive.

When there came a knock on his door, he closed the video he had been obsessively watching, not just now but for the past seven years.

"Come in," he said, the look on his face matching the pleasant, inviting tone of his voice, a switch that was effortless for him. "Ah, Leon," he greeted warmly when the DSO chief field agent stepped inside.

"Hey, Derek," Leon greeted back, just getting off the phone and pocketing the device. "Sherry said she'll meet us at the restaurant. Ready to go?"

"Of course," he coolly replied, shutting off his computer and making to leave to have dinner with a man who thought him a friend and a young woman who, to everyone else, was like a daughter to him.

Notable Changes:

Leon and Ada didn't meet in RE2.

The DSO was established in 2004 instead of 2011, approved by President Graham. (Thank you to DefaultJane for pointing out that I've been mistaking FOS for DSO!)

Claire leaves Terra Save and joins the BSAA. She was present in RE5.

Leon and Sherry consider Simmons to be a good friend/guardian.