Who: Leon Kennedy and Adam What: A talk about who people are and if they can change Where: Training gym at Defense headquarters When: Late August Warnings: A bit angsty on Leon’s part, but nothing serious Status: Complete!
Leon had been grossly unprepared when he arrived at Racoon City. His days at the Police Academy, while training him to become a good cop, had done nothing to prepare him for that night.
He’d spent the next six years in grueling non-stop training to make sure that never happened again. He’d completed the Spain mission, his first mission solo, and brought Ashley home safe and sound, but he still didn’t feel as though he was good enough. If he had been, he never would have been infected and Ashley wouldn’t have almost died.
Vallo was full of fighters and Leon took advantage of that every chance he got: Fight Club, the training facilities at the Defense Department. Whenever he wasn’t on patrol, he was putting in hours at either of those places, building up his strength and honing his skills. He had to stay sharp he had to be better.
Krauser’s words echoed loudly in his ears as he went round after round with the training dummy: smug, taunting. Telling him over and over he was weak, soft, a fucking rookie. He couldn’t protect anyone. He couldn’t save anyone!
One final blow to the bag sent it swinging wildly, threatening to come loose from its anchor in the ceiling. Leon stopped to catch both the bag and his breath. He then used his shirt to wipe some of the sweat off his face, though it didn’t help much considering it, along with the rest of him, was practically soaked.
He hadn’t even noticed Adam come onto the floor until he looked up. “Hey…boss,” he said between pants. “Sorry I didn’t…I didn’t see you come in.”
Adam had, for a long time at home, worked on building an image of Adam, the lazy, cowardly prince. He hadn’t wanted to. Sometimes – often times – having Teela and his family think of him that way had chafed.
It wasn’t something he’d initially set out to do, either. But when Prince Adam disappeared every time trouble was near – so He-Man could appear – and when Prince Adam had to nap all day, or pretend to have wandered off somewhere to nap all day so He-Man could make an appearance, people had made their own assumptions.
He-Man wasn’t a secretary anymore. Everyone knew that Adam was He-Man, that He-Man was Adam. And Adam had begun to work on becoming stronger as himself, not relying on the magic to win his battles for him. Ever since his time in Preternia, when he’d hunted along the other heroes in his usual form, he’d wanted to be able to, maybe, move past being He-Man.
Not that he didn’t like being He-Man. He loved being He-Man. He just loved being Just Adam more. It was… complicated.
“Hey Leon,” Adam greeted him. “That bag must have really done something to offend you, huh?” He mimed a couple of quick punches and shot Leon a broad smile. “Was it being insulting?”
Leon chuckled faintly and shook his head. “No,” he said. “I was just blowing off some steam, that’s all.” He left the bag to grab his water bottle and a hand towel. He took a healthy swig of water and then used the towel to do a better job wiping the sweat from his face and move his shaggy hair out of his face. He was in desperate need of a haircut…and he could probably stand to dye it again too.
“How’re doing?” He asked Adam. “How’s your sister and Finn?”
Adam beamed at the question. “Adora’s great. They’re both great, really. You should meet Finn sometime. They’re just the biggest bundle of energy. They’re going to be a real handful once they learn to walk around.”
This he actually knew, having met his nibbling from the future before. “You know, they’ve visited a couple of times from the future, and the last time they turned themself invisible and hid themself in my room to try to scare me. I can’t wait to watch them grow into the Finn I already know.”
Leon had heard a lot of weird stories from the other Defense members and had read a few weird things in the forum, but he was still getting used to bombshells like people’s kids visiting them from the future. He tried not to stare at Adam like an idiot. “I,uh, no, I don’t think I knew that.” He looked at Adam a little perplexed. “How do you….I mean, do you know for certain that they’ll be the same person? How old were they when they showed up here from the future?”
“When I saw them, they were about seven,” Adam said. “Catra and Adora say that they’d come once before that too, when they were a little younger. I don’t know if we can know that they’ll be exactly the same as when we met them. The future’s changing all the time, you know?” Which was probably a good thing. There’d been that dark future, the one where he and Teela had had a son, but where Adam had died. “But I think people are who they are at their core, no matter what happens. And I know my sisters. I know that they’ll give Finn the best life they can, and so I think that no matter what Finn’s going to end up being that cheerful, mischievous child I met last Halloween.”
Leon frowned slightly at Adam’s words. Over the months, Leon had come to see Adam as more than He-Man, his childhood hero. Adam was a real person and Leon had a lot of respect for him. But he wasn’t sure he agreed with Adam’s belief that people were who they were at their core. To be fair, he had no idea what he thought about that. It was something he thought about a lot. “Do you really think that?” He asked. “About people being who they are at their core? Do you think it’s possible that who someone is at their core can change?”
Adam thought about it, cupping his chin with his fingers, brow furrowed. He thought about Skeletor and Evil Lyn. He’d always hoped Skeletor would have a change of heart, would switch sides, so to speak. But then, Adam didn’t believe that Skeletor was evil, or really even bad at his core. But then again, Adam didn’t really believe anyone was bad at the core. After all, Evil Lyn, who had been convinced enough of her ‘evilness’ that she’d put it right in her name, had eventually come around. Had fought alongside Teela and everyone. Had even seemed to become friends with Orko, which was a pair of odd fellows if he’d ever seen them. He thought about Catra, and what his sister and his sister-in-law had told them of their lives before Vallo.
“I think sometimes people can lose sight of what their core is,” he said after a long time. “Or can try to convince themself that they’re something other than what they are. If someone is hurt enough, they can build up walls and defenses, maybe even weapons, around their core and can try to hide it from themselves and the world around them. But I think deep down, really deep down for some people, who they are is always there. Sometimes it just takes someone else to go looking for it; someone who they can trust to be gentle with it. But even when all their softest bits are hidden, I think parts of their personality will always shine through.” He laughed, a little sheepishly. “I don’t know if that makes sense at all. You can ignore me if that all just sounded like a bunch of nonsense.”
Some of what Adam said made sense, but at the same time it confused Leon. He wondered if that was what Ada had been doing, if spending a life protecting the deepest part of her was what made her so determined to be on her own, serve her own purpose and agenda, regardless of the cost. Then he thought about Krauser and how he had changed from an honorable soldier and someone Leon respected and admired, to a man who was so ready to betray his country and sacrifice the life of a young woman. Had that been the way Krauser had always been deep down? Both Krauser and Ada had told Leon to his face that he was the same kid he’d been in Racoon City. If what Adam said was true, and deep down people truly didn’t change, why didn’t he feel like that same kid?
It was a lot that went through his mind all at once. He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “It makes sense…” he said slowly, trying to get his thoughts into some kind of order that made sense. “But, what if something happens to someone, something that changes their entire life. Do you think that could change them?”
For a long moment, Adam was silent, turning the question over in his head. “I think…” he said slowly. “I think those things make a person more them. Maybe not exactly in that moment.” When Adam had died, and Teela had discovered in that moment the moment of his death that he’d spent years lying to her, that everyone had spent years lying to her… well, Teela had always been independent. But she’d never been alone.
But then, she hadn’t been alone then, either. She’d found Andra. She’d been hurt and had felt betrayed, but she hadn’t let herself be completely cut off. “But when… if, they come out the other side. Maybe. When I became He-Man, my entire life changed. I changed. But I don’t think I changed into anything that I hadn’t been all along. Maybe if I’d never become He-Man, I would have stayed a little lazy. Maybe a little irresponsible, or thoughtless. But I don’t think that I would have become cruel or malicious.” He thought of Catra, and grimaced. “But I guess I don’t really know. Maybe if that’s what I thought I needed to do to survive, I would.” He laughed, self-consciously. “What do I know, really? I’ve never really gone through anything really terrible, so I could just be full of hot air.”
Leon raised a skeptical brow at Adam. What exactly did the other man consider to be “truly terrible”? Leon had been in Vallo long enough to have heard some stories from his fellow Defense members, not to mention rumor and scuttlebutt around Vallo as a whole. Nevermind the fact that as He-Man, Adam had faced his fair share of battles. He shook his head. “Don’t sell yourself short,” he said. “You at least have some kind of philosophy that you’ve been able to put together from your experiences. Something you can believe in. That’s more than what I’ve got.”
Adam shot him a smile and clapped him on the shoulder. “You have something you believe in too,” he said. “You just might not realize it yet. But when push comes to shove, you will.”