Chapter Text
"So my mission is... Babysitting?" Leon was confused and dismissive of this new proposed mission by the DSO. The higher agent's office was neat and professional, where Leon had received many other missions throughout his career, where he had never refused any assignment. However, this new mission stood in contrast to his previous experiences. He looks at the higher agent with his brows furrowed on top of his blues as the agent just nodded seriously.
"Call it however you want, as long as you take care and monitor the kid."
"And who is this kid? I don't follow any of this"
"It is in DSO's best interests to ensure the safety of this kid. She lost her family in a bio terrorist attack and was rescued by BSAA. She has been under BSAA's care for a while but we believe it is better if we let her have a real home, especially with someone who can handle any kind of risk"
"So why not ask Terra Save to take her in? Who was her previous family exactly and why is it that you think I'm the only person good for this job?" the more Leon thought of this whole mission, the less sense it made. Leon knew there was a lot his organisation was hiding from him, but he hated that he was being thrown into not any danger, but to be a caretaker as a mission. Leon presses the agent for more information.
"The kid, she is a bio weapon, isn't she?"
"She is just a normal kid, from what I'm told." the agent replies like a matter of fact. "what about her family.. No relatives? No friends?" Leon pressed once again. "none that we are aware of " Leon was not satisfied with the lack of answers and direction to wherever this was going. The agent clarified again, "Look, I know this is all too new, and I had never received a case like this either, the kid is well... a good asset to national security...in what way? I am lost on that too" he murmured, basically all the way, perhaps he was too afraid to admit the real nature of whatever it was all.
Leon asked again, "So she is a BOW? or just some child groomed to be a soldier... whatever it is I still do not see why I have to be the one handling this" the wrinkles around Leon's eyes remained constant along with his skepticism and doubts.
The agent tried to convince Leon again, "Your job is to make sure she does not exhibit anything out of the ordinary. I am only telling you what I know of."
"This is sounding more like a contain and neutralise mission than looking after a child" Leon shook his head slightly in disapproval at the string of questionable replies he received.
"It is only until she turns eighteen, she is sixteen as of now, so you have to deal with this and report to us for the next 3 years," the agent tried to reassure Leon.
The agent continued, "I'm told she's smart. Very smart. She wouldn't be a lot of trouble to you, maybe that's what the whole thing is about. It seems the kid had taken some sort of military training or was groomed into fighting by the BSAA... that would only explain why the DSO considers her an asset."
Silence fills the office as the air con whirrs. It let out everything, unlike the individuals in the vicinity. "Look, I have questions too, but I am only doing what I am asked to do, so you better do what you are asked to. They told me to get the agent who can withstand anything to do this task...maybe the girl needs some strict discipline and professional guidance, that's all"
Leon winced at the thought that he is being used as nothing but another disposable agent in this scenario, and he does not even know what and why he is being tested like this. At the same time, he did feel some sympathy for whoever this child was because he was well familiar with being thrown into the battlefields at a young age without ever getting a choice. He does not know what is really going on, but at that moment he decides to help the kid, to see why the DSO consider her an asset and if he can possibly save her from what awaits her ahead. But again, Leon was uneasy as to why they would need someone like him on the case... just how much aggression does the child have and why is he being left in the dark? Besides, no matter what he says, he doesn't have a choice in this, it's a lost battle. The least he can do is go on with this and see if this is truly the only way. He knows the first person he would reach out to will be Claire, he cannot think of anyone else who can deal with traumatised kids, and maybe, just maybe, he can really get this kid out of all this dirty politics going on between the big organisations.
What exactly can a child like her know which is resulting in such heavy-supervision-parenting?
Leon agrees to see the child, the organisation offers him a new home to relocate to with the child and asks him to be the child's legal guardian. Leon signs all required documents as if he had the right to choose any of this. As much as he wanted to help the child and understand her problem, he was unsure how he could do that, and he was not really keen on sharing a house with her. Leon was orphaned as a child himself and spent his childhood in the orphanage, after graduating from the police academy and getting trained by the DSO, he has spent the last decade living all alone.
Furthermore, he receives another directive that this entire mission is to be confidential, he can just call himself the legal guardian in public but no one can know this is all just a mission. Great. Definitely a normal child he has to deal with. At this rate, he can expect her to come from a family of the mafia or organised crime, which only explains this weird arrangement. He finally meets the kid in the cold, empty corridors of the DSO office with fluorescent lights. She was accompanied by a soldier from the BSAA.
She looked just like a normal teenager would, a bit shorter than Leon, a baby face and dark bob hair. She stood up straight, and it appeared like she was trying her best to appear intimidating, probably something she took after the soldiers who accompanied her and trained her. Or maybe it was a front adopted for whatever kind of horrors she has to deal with. Either way, Leon's worries now had a face. Something felt so familiar about her that Leon could not place his finger on... maybe the fact that Leon knew very well what it was like to be surrounded by older people who always somehow knew better about his life than himself, maybe it was the serious demeanour and the posture of someone far younger because she never got to see something other than the discipline of a soldier or something she conditioned herself into. Or maybe was it... that for whatever reason it reminded her of certain someone, someone shrouded in mystery and always with a dark, serious demeanour... Someone whom he felt most familiar to without knowing anything about her... No, it couldn't be that...
"I am Leon Kennedy, I will be your legal guardian starting today." he could feel the weight of the words that came out of his mouth, as if it did not dawn upon him just what he had walked into.
"I am Lucy", said the smallest one in the corridor
"Just Lucy?"
"Just Lucy" confirmed she
"Well, from today, it would be better if you take on the name 'Kennedy' because that would make a lot of other legal work easier", suggested the higher agent who accompanied Leon
Leon was all not so sure what to feel about all of this. It was all going fast, faster than he could process anything. She didn't even have a family name. That only makes her situation even more suspicious...and sad.
Leon could not really get used to the fact that he was being pushed into being a literal father figure against his will.