[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 531 - Ada Confesses Everything

Top floor.

Ada's damp hair clung to the hollow of her neck. She crossed the room in a few strides and sat directly in Leon's lap.

Their lips met. Breaths tangled.

"CREAK—"

The door wasn't locked.

The knob turned. The hinges let out a dry, grating squeal.

Rebekah pushed her way in, clipboard still tucked against her chest.

Her eyes landed on the sofa.

The air stopped.

The flush that hit Rebekah's cheeks was visible from across the room. It spread all the way to the tips of her ears.

She froze in the doorway, caught between going forward and backing out, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else on earth.

"Sorry. I'm interrupting."

She got the words out in pieces, eyes darting to every corner of the room except the sofa.

Ada moved quickly. She swung off Leon's lap, tugged her shirt collar up in one smooth motion, and drifted to the window. She kept her back turned, pretending to study the view outside, fingers working through her tangled hair.

Leon slouched back against the sofa cushion. His expression wasn't great.

Getting interrupted at the wrong moment — no one takes that well.

"Knock next time." His tone didn't move an inch.

Rebekah nodded fast, like a grade-schooler standing in the corner for misbehaving. "I was in a hurry and forgot. I'm really sorry."

She took a step back and reached for the door, ready to disappear.

"Stop." Leon's voice caught her before she could.

"You came running. What is it?"

Rebekah went still. Her fingers worked at the plastic edge of the clipboard, picking at it, caught in some internal debate she couldn't quite resolve.

"Dr. Marcus... he wants me to become his student."

She looked uncertain, like she didn't know what to do with the offer.

Then she added: "He and the new one, Dr. William, they were both there. The way they were looking at me was strange."

"They kept insisting on teaching me about viruses. Genetic recombination. I don't want to be down in that basement with them. Those bugs... those experiments."

Leon read her easily enough. The girl was rattled.

The Spencer Mansion had already left its mark on her. Now she had two biological lunatics staring her down in an underground lab. Her wanting nothing to do with it made complete sense.

His fingers tapped the armrest.

What the old man Marcus was after didn't need much thought to figure out.

After enough time in the dark, people always reach for something to hold onto.

Marcus had once poured his whole soul into those Mutant Leeches, calling them the work of his life. Then Wesker and William had driven a knife in his back, and whatever he'd been before, he wasn't anymore.

Now he was alive again. And he needed someone to pass it all to.

Rebekah was young. Talented. Uncorrupted.

To Marcus, she was a blank page — the best kind. Leon suspected the old man had already started seeing her as something more. A student, maybe. Or the closest thing to a daughter he'd ever have.

That wasn't a bad thing.

The prison needed people at that level.

Candice worked herself to the bone, but she had a ceiling, and she'd already hit it. Her talent only went so far.

If Rebekah absorbed everything Marcus and William knew, this place would have a real pillar in the sciences. Not a substitute. The actual thing.

"Fine." Leon said.

Rebekah stared at him. Her eyes had gone round.

"Don't be scared." Leon said.

"Marcus is trustworthy now."

"He's not the same madman who spent his life playing with leeches."

"He wants to teach you, so go learn. Put everything into it."

"But..." She was still chewing on it.

"The more you know, the better your odds of surviving. Go. Stay close to him and learn whatever he's willing to give you. Nobody is going to touch you."

That was the end of it.

The moment Leon said it, the tension went out of Rebekah's shoulders. She deflated, the knot in her finally coming loose.

When the man in charge put his word down, it was as good as a pardon. Those two old men could be as unhinged as they wanted. They wouldn't move against Leon's will.

"Understood. I'll go give him my answer."

She hugged the clipboard to her chest, turned, and walked out, pulling the door firmly shut behind her.

The room went quiet.

Ada turned from the window. She padded back across the carpet in bare feet, unhurried, no particular urgency in her step.

She didn't sit. Instead she came around to Leon's side and draped her arms over his neck, her cheek settling against his ear.

The clean scent from her shower mixed with something warmer underneath, something that was just her, and it drifted into him, light and persistent.

"You're throwing that poor girl straight into the fire." Ada's voice was soft, gently amused.

"That's called making use of what's available." Leon reached up and closed a hand around her wrist where it rested against his chest. "Talent shouldn't be wasted."

Ada buried her face in the hollow of his neck. Her breath hit his skin and left a slow, trailing warmth in its wake.

"Leon." Her voice was different now. The usual teasing had drained out of it, replaced by something quieter. Something tired in a way he didn't often hear from her.

"I really don't want to do this anymore."

Leon went still. He turned his head to look at her.

This woman had made espionage her whole life. She moved through factions, played every side, and thrived on the particular high of walking a wire with nothing underneath. That was who she was.

Hearing this from her, today of all days, was genuinely rare.

"Scared?" Leon asked.

"Not scared." A beat. "I just... suddenly feel like none of it matters anymore."

Ada pulled herself upright and moved around to the front of the sofa, settling in beside him.

She crossed her legs. The hem of her shirt slid down, baring a stretch of pale skin.

"More than anything else," she said, "I'm tired."

She leaned back against the cushion and looked up at the chandelier. "All these years. I've lost count of the identities. The fake passports. I couldn't even tell you how many."

"Working for one financial empire today, lifting intelligence for some other organization tomorrow. I slept with one eye open every night of it."

She turned her head and looked directly at him.

"After I met you, a lot of things changed."

"I found out what it felt like to not be watching for threats every second. To not be running escape routes in my head." She paused. "It's not bad, actually."

"Want to stay and be a full-time housewife?" Leon pulled her in by the waist, drawing her into his side.

Ada leaned against his chest without resistance.

He pinched her cheek, just once.

"Actually." Ada suddenly sat up straight, the easy softness dropping off her. "There's something I have to tell you."

Leon settled into a comfortable position and waited.

"You really think I'm just a senior Umbrella agent?" Ada let out a quiet laugh.

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