Fanfic / lines i can't erase.

Leon: Scott Walker, FBI.
Ada: Ada Wong, RPD. But that's obvious enough.

lines i can't erase is an Alternate Universe Resident Evil fanfic written by QueenWithABeeThrone that asks the question: What if Leon S. Kennedy was the spy masquerading as an FBI agent, and Ada Wong a journalist pretending to be an RPD officer?

Has two stories so far:

• i can hear the sirens but i cannot walk away: The story of Resident Evil 2 (Remake), with Leon and Ada swapping roles.
• when i wake i will have to slip away: The aftermath of the first story in the series, and the fallout of Raccoon City's destruction.

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This series contains examples of the following tropes:

• Action Girl: Ada and Claire. Notably, Ada deals the killing blow to both Mr. X without his Power Limiter and G's final form, obtaining an anti-tank gun on her way to the train instead of having it tossed down to her.
• Action Survivor: Claire and Ada.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In canon, Ada never seems too torn up about her Mysterious Past. In this fanfic, Leon, who takes up her role instead, is much more obviously conflicted about what he has to do.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Ada in this universe is adopted. Meanwhile, what Leon reveals of his own past paints a very dark picture of his backstory before Raccoon City.
• Adaptational Heroism: Ada. In canon, she's a Femme Fatale spy who pretends to be an FBI agent to procure the G-Virus sample. In this fanfic, while she's still pretending to be a cop, she has a far more solid moral code than her canon counterpart. She still has shades of Pragmatic Hero especially at the start of the story, but overall she's a much more obviously heroic figure.
• Adaptational Job Change: Leon is a mercenary instead of a rookie cop, although he's only somewhat more experienced than Ada. Ada, however, isn't a cop like Leon in canon—instead, she's a reporter Going for the Big Scoop, although she starts out pretending to be a rookie cop.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: By virtue of being a Role Swap AU, Ada and Claire meet much earlier than Leon and Claire do and form a strong friendship. By the third chapter, they even team up against G.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Leon, to some extent. In canon, he's the rookie cop on his first day and a Knight in Shining Armor through and through. In this fanfic, he's the mercenary trying to steal the G-Virus. Subverted when he starts his Heel–Face Turn, as he ultimately cares more for his growing family with Ada, Claire and Sherry more than his employers.
  • Krauser in canon was at first genuinely Leon's partner in fighting bioterrorism, and his Face–Heel Turn occurred years after they first met. Here, Krauser is The Mole in the US military and is an amoral merc from the start. About the only detail that's stayed intact in his backstory is that he's formerly Leon's partner.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed, but Ada, to some extent, as she's lacking the spy training of her canon counterpart. Subverted as Character Development kicks in.
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • Ada and Rebecca Chambers never actually met in canon. Here, Ada interviewed Rebecca for an article that never was published, and they're on friendly enough terms that Ada gets the group to go to Rebecca for medical help.
  • Ada and Marvin never met in canon. Here they're friendly with each other, and Ada carries his badge around after killing his zombified self.
• Arc Words:
  • In the first story: "Nothing dies down here." This is played with when Ada gets the killing blow to William while he's attacking the train: "You're going to die down here."
  • For both stories: "No more [X]."
    No more Emmas, no more Marvins, no more Raccoon Cities. No fucking more.
• Becoming the Mask: Ada starts out wanting to break the story of Raccoon City mostly for the shot in the arm it'll give her career. Then she puts on an RPD uniform initially for better protection. By the time the night ends, she's given up on breaking the story herself and wants to bring justice for Raccoon City's dead.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Claire and Leon do this to Annette on Sherry's behalf.
• The Cameo: Wesker appears for one scene in the first story, as a voice over Leon's phone. Later, Jack Krauser also cameos as a voice over Leon's phone.
• Character Development:
  • Ada, in sharp contrast to both herself and Leon in canon, starts out an Intrepid Reporter trying to break the story of the Raccoon City outbreak who finds herself in way over her head when she walks into an ongoing Zombie Apocalypse. She grows more pragmatic, outwardly heroic and less concerned about writing the story herself. She gets the killing blow on both Implacable Man antagonists, killing Mr. X with an anti-tank gun and G with a length of pipe directly to the eyeball. Her pragmatism stretches to her decision to deal with the government stalking her and Sherry on her own, recognizing she'll have access to far more resources with the government than as an Intrepid Reporter, and entrusting Sherry to Leon because he knows best how to disappear.
  • Conversely, Leon starts out in Ada's original role, a mercenary pretending to be an FBI agent, and fully plans to use Ada to take the G-Virus sample from Annette. Between his growing feelings towards Ada and his already existing self-hatred, though, his Hidden Heart of Gold starts coming through more and more as the first story goes on. Meeting Sherry and Claire brings it to the surface, and his loyalties eventually shift from his organization to his new friends. By the time they save him from a Disney Villain Death, he's fully and effectively a trusted part of their team, and in the second story his characterization is closer in line to canon.
• Clothing Damage: Ada's borrowed police uniform gets grimier and dirtier over the course of the first story, something she brings up in her narration via noting how pissed off the original owner would be to see its state.
• Combat Pragmatist: Ada, to some extent. She develops the habit of shooting off the limbs or blowing off the heads of dead bodies she comes across.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: By the third chapter in the first story, Claire and Ada view the monsters with annoyance rather than fear, and treat the boss fights with, at most, resignation at having to fight an Implacable Man antagonist again.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Leon, as part of his Adaptational Backstory Change.
• Death Seeker: Leon by the end of the first story admits that, by the time the bridge collapsed under him and Ada post-Internal Reveal, he was favoring simply letting himself fall. Word of God in the comments states that Leon throughout the story was growing more and more aware of what his job was turning him into, and that dying was starting to look more and more attractive to him.
  Leon: I have a grappling hook pistol on me. But…I didn’t know if I was going to use it. Fifty-fifty I was just going to fall, and whatever happened, happened. Beat Sixty-forty in favor of just falling.
• Declaration of Protection: Ada and Leon for each other. All three adults would do anything for Sherry and her continued well-being.
• Dented Iron: Almost everything that Leon went through in canon, with the exception of the first couple of Birkin fights and the sewer gator, Ada goes through in this story. She's stalked by Mr. X, shot by Annette, goes through the sewers with a gunshot wound in her shoulder, and finally lands on her bad shoulder when she's confronted by the Tyrant on her way out of NEST.
• Despair Event Horizon: Leon's narration in the second story confirms that he hit this on the bridge, and that he likely would have let himself fall the whole way down had it not been for Claire managing to grab his hand before he slipped from Ada's grasp.
• Determinator: Nothing can keep Ada down for long when she has a goal. Not even landing on a shoulder with a bullet wound.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Jack Krauser briefly appears in the second story as a voice over Leon's phone.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Claire and Ada, from the get-go. Later, Leon and Sherry also develop this dynamic.
• First Day from Hell: Averted. Both Ada and Leon are pretending to be rookie law enforcement officers to explain gaps in their knowledge, although Ada's initial intent when she acquired a police uniform was to protect herself better from zombie bites.
• Going for the Big Scoop: Ada's entire reason for coming to Raccoon City. She abandons this after meeting the Kendos at the gun shop.
• Happily Adopted: Ada's backstory change implies she's this.
• Heel–Face Turn: Leon's character arc in the first story.
• Impersonating an Officer: Ada, unintentionally. Marvin Branagh's suggestion that she put on a dead cop's uniform for better protection against the hordes of zombies that want to chomp down on her leads to Leon, and other characters, mistaking her for an actual cop. Although she makes no move to correct anyone until NEST.
• In Spite of a Nail: Leon still takes Sherry with him when it comes time for the trio to split up.
• Intrepid Reporter: Ada begins the first story as this.
• Lady in Red: Claire's red jacket is recognizable enough to Ada that when Leon describes her, Ada identifies her immediately. In the second story, Ada ditches the RPD uniform for her usual red tops.
• Made of Iron: Both Ada and Leon go through the final half of the first story and the entirety of the second story with two gunshot wounds in the shoulder and a thigh wound from a piece of rebar between them. Somewhat downplayed as their wounds affect them both to some extent.
• Morality Pet: Sherry, Ada and Claire become the three people that Leon is willing to perform a Heel–Face Turn for.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Ada's reasoning for dressing up like a police officer? It offers better protection than her blouse and high heels, something her counterpart has absolutely no problem with.
  • Leon turns out to be carrying the Handcannon from Resident Evil 4, giving it to Ada so she can stun the Tyrant and give herself a fighting chance.
  • Ada finds the anti-tank gun in an item box.
  • Leon ruefully notes that Ada should've been the spy instead of him based off her unreadable expression during a talk in the second story.
• Odd Friendship: Leon and Sherry. Claire, Ada, and Leon later, although Ada and Leon end up in a relationship together.
• Pet the Dog: Like Ada in canon, Leon patches up Ada after she gets shot protecting him and leaves her his coat. Unlike Ada in canon, he meets Sherry while they're waiting for their respective partners to retrieve them, and quickly grows to care for her to the point of calling Annette out for refusing to prioritize her daughter's safety.
• Posthumous Character: Marvin Branagh only appears in one flashback scene explaining why Ada's wearing an RPD uniform when she isn't a cop, but his presence still lingers in her narration. She even has a Tragic Keepsake from his corpse for the first two stories.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Combines the Leon A/Claire B scenarios from the remake and leaves out fights Ada could've had with Birkin or Claire could've had with the Tyrant to maintain some continuity.
• Pragmatic Hero: Downplayed, but the narrative, when it delves into Ada's POV, notes that her initial motive for coming into Raccoon City was to break the story on its communications blackout and gain recognition as a reporter. It's also why she doesn't initially correct anyone mistaking her for a cop, as she doesn't want to be arrested and believes that if "Scott" knew the truth, she'd very quickly lose him as a source of info.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner
  Ada, after stabbing G in the eye with a length of pipe: Rest in peace.
• Role Swap AU: Featuring Ada and Leon.
• Take My Hand!: When the bridge collapses, Ada manages to catch an injured Leon before he falls off. However, her grip slips, seemingly setting Leon up for a Disney Villain Death like Ada's canon counterpart. Then Claire grabs hold of Leon's hand, and she and Ada, with Sherry's help, pull him back up.
• Took a Level in Badass: The first fanfic is Ada developing from an overwhelmed but capable Action Survivor journalist pretending to be an RPD cop into a Dented Iron Combat Pragmatist who manages to take on William Birkin's final form with a length of pipe and win.
• Tragic Keepsake: Marvin's lieutenant badge. Ada takes it off his body and keeps it on her person for the first two stories.
• Trauma Conga Line: The events of the first story for the cast, especially Sherry, carrying over into the second story, when Raccoon City is destroyed. Leon's narration in the second story is especially concerned about Sherry, having lost both her parents in the first.
• True Companions: By the end of the second story, Claire, Ada, Leon and Sherry have developed into this, with Ada going to distract the US government away from the others while Leon takes Sherry in to keep her safe.
• Undying Loyalty: Leon develops this to Ada, then to Claire and Sherry. In the second story, he solidifies his Heel–Face Turn by lying to his old friend Jack Krauser for them, and takes in Sherry once it's clear he's the best option they have.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Robert Kendo calls Ada out on not knowing what's going on and not being able to help, believing her to be a cop. This, along with poor Emma's fate, galvanizes her into becoming more overtly heroic.
• What You Are in the Dark: A heartbroken Leon, fully bent on taking the G-Virus sample, happens to come across a distracted Annette working on a cure for Sherry. He briefly considers bursting in and threatening Sherry's life to ensure she hands over the sample, before deciding against it and moving on to the central hub to confront Ada. Annette never realizes he was even there.
• Worth Living For: Leon views his burgeoning relationship with Ada as this, then later his growing friendships with Claire and Sherry as well. It's telling that he quickly grows more loyal to a group of survivors he met in one night than to the shady organization he's worked for his whole life.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Leon's willing to threaten Annette, but he makes a point of not coming after Sherry. While heartbroken after learning of Ada's real profession, he almost crosses the line when he sees Sherry vulnerable and Annette distracted on his way to obtain the G-Virus in the NEST, but decides not to go through with it.