Chapter 4: Training

"Nothing ever comes to one that is worth having, except as a result of hard work." ~ Booker T. Washington

Note: Hey guys! Hope you enjoy this chapter, sorry that I did not upload this right away, I have been watching it on Archive and forgot to actually post it on here, I will HOPEFULLY have Chapter 5 up and going tomorrow (no promises!) because with the new Resident Evil Revelations on Wednesday I will probably be absorbed into it for at least a day or two, and obviously no promises because I have other stuff i need to get writing tomorrow (damn college!)

"Not much with Leon, he was kind of helping me win Jill over." That is when Chris looked to Piers, "Looks like you can take the tests to join the B.S.A.A. Nivans, and you have none other than V and Mars to help train you."

Piers sat there in silence while he was looking at the man who had just delivered the news he was hoping to hear. He can join the B.S.A.A.! So then, why did Piers feel so anxious? He wanted to join the B.S.A.A., he truly did, but for some reason he had a foreboding sense of dread in the back of his head and couldn't quite place it on what. V, Mars, and Nat all put their hands on his shoulder congratulating him and the only response he could give them was a weak smile, still just sitting there with his eyes wide open.

Mars was the first one to say something, "Hey, Nivans, are you ok?"

"Y-yeah, um… thanks, Captain Redfield…"

"Nivans? You sure you're okay?"

"Y-yeah, I just… wasn't really expecting it to be that easy to be able to join."

Chris smirked at him, "You haven't joined yet, you've just been given a chance to take the recruitment tests is all, and you have Mars and V here to help train you for them."

"T-thank you Captain Redfield, um… when do I start my training?"

"Well, that would be up to Mars and V here when that starts, but I will leave you guys to it. I will see you all tomorrow."

"Good night, Captain."

Chris finished that conversation off by walking away giving Piers a warm smile with which Piers returned in kind. Chris held Piers' gaze for a second, and he couldn't help but wonder what is was about that smile that made him so happy. Then, after Chris left, the discussion turned to be between Mars, V, and Piers, about the training that they would soon be starting.

"So, Nivans, when do you want to start, and what do you want to start with?"

"Uh, I guess whenever you guys feel like starting yourselves, as to what to start with, I'm not really sure to be honest."

Mars raised an eyebrow to V, "Well, what would you say to starting tomorrow with some tactical and rescue training, Nivans?"

"Sounds good I guess."

"Alright then, Nivans! Here, let's get you and Nat a place to sleep for the night me and V should have some extra room at our place you can use."

"Thank you, Mars, V."

"Heh, heh, no problem kid, you better just make sure you pass the recruitment tests, we can't be watching over your sister for the rest of our lives now can we?" Piers understood the playful banter V was trying to throw at him, but for the first couple of seconds he took that the wrong way and thought V was trying to call him weak.

Mars and V led Piers and Nat to their place. They opted to let Piers and Nat stay in the bedroom and guest room while they slept on the couch in the front of their so called *home* while they were on base. Mars cooked up a meal for both Piers and Nat while V got them situated in their rooms. After a short while of talking and eating and just generally relaxing from the day, everyone slipped off to sleep. Piers and Nat seemed to have finally caught a break from the chaotic four days they have just experience, but Piers would hope too soon however, as his night would be filled with very vivid and horrible nightmares that he might never be able to make sense of.

Piers, Mars, and V, were trapped in some god forsaken city in the middle of nowhere. Alpha Team had been sent in on an extermination mission to rid the city of B.O.W. and J'avo forces. Alpha Team in its entirety was slipping quietly into the city, not a single person however, realized the mistake of sending any amount of people into the city. Alpha Team was quietly slipping in between the alleys, doorways, and buildings on the outskirts of the city, working their way to the center to see if they found any hostiles. Behind enemy lines however, nobody had yet realized the danger they were in, that the enemy was waiting for them, watching them as they went on a fool's errand and a suicide mission.

A firefight broke out suddenly between Alpha Team and ever increasing J'avo forces, Mars and V were separated from the rest of the team along with Piers, and the only one Piers recognized from the other group as they were forced to split ways was Chris. Piers did not miss the look that Chris shot toward their group, fear and regret being masked in his face but present in his eyes at the thought of this mission causing anyone's death.

Piers, Mars, and V slowly made their way around the city, hoping to hook back up and get into contact with Alpha Team. They could hear the sounds of rescue helicopters off in the distance, but they would still have to fight their way to the emergency rendezvous in order to escape.

"Alpha Leader to Eagle, we are currently holed up at escape point Delta, what is your position?"

"Captain, we are currently working our way towards point Ch- LOOK OUT!"

V had to cut off his response to the rest of Alpha Team as a storm squad of J'avo jumped from a nearby rooftop aiming to send their cruel blades into the humans trying to fight their way to the rest of their team. Two of the J'avo leaped a little too far and ended several yards in front of the three person team. The lead J'avo came down almost on top of V but was too slow to react to the soldiers enhanced reflexes. As the J'avo came down on top of him to thrust the blade into his shoulder, V quickly stepped back grabbing the hand the J'avo was using to wield the blade, V twisted it out of his grasp letting it clatter to the ground and knocked the J'avo's legs out from under it. V lunged for the blade, picking it up before the J'avo could recover and plunging it deep into its skull so fiercely that the blade was shattered into the concrete and remained stuck. Piers and Mars quickly took out pistols and took aim, firing at the two remaining J'avo in front of them.

The three of them took off as quickly as they could. Before they knew it they had dozens more J'avo rushing down the street after them, shooting from all directions, forcing them to constantly duck behind objects to avoid being hit. They were nearing point Delta and saw the firefight taking place between J'avo hostiles and the rest of Alpha Team. Mars quickly grabbed out an incendiary grenade and threw it into the mass of J'avo that had yet to see them coming from behind, and were promptly set on fire, burning alive.

Things took a turn for the worst. They were still about three hundred yards from the rest of Alpha Team when a large armored creature came out of nowhere and swiped at them, catching only Mars and sending her flying back down the street some fifty feet. Thankfully, she didn't die or fall unconscious but she still stood back up, pain obvious in her face and she was gripping her side while limping like she had a fractured leg.

"Mars! C'mon hurry! I'll distract it!"

"No! Get out of here, you guys still have something to look forward to, I'll keep it busy long enough for you to run, just get out of here!"

Piers saw the distressed look in V's eyes, he looked defeated. He wanted to help her more than anything in the world but knew it was no use; the creature was too heavily armored for any of their weapons to do anything. Piers thought it would be a wild card, but he took aim with his rifle, he found a chink in its armor and let a shot ring out through the street. It barely seemed to phase the monster, and it just simply turned its head and glared at Piers with a venomous look that froze him in place. That however, did not last long; Mars soon had the creature's attention again, pulling out her shotgun to send spray after spray of bullets into the creature while throwing a frag grenade under it to grab its attention. Sadly, none of these things seemed to do more than annoy the creature and make it that much harder to deal with it.

"Nivans! Get V out of here now! Hurry up before this thing turns around again!"

Piers grabbed V and slowly started dragging him up to point Delta to get to the evacuation chopper. It was made all the more difficult by V's constant fighting, trying to get away from Piers to go and help Mars. Once Piers reached the rest of Alpha team Chris came out to help him drag V with them as well. They all got into the chopper, and it was soon taking three people to keep V in the chopper and not bolt down the street to help with the ensuing fight.

"No, damn it! Let me out of this fucking chopper!"

"Soldier, you are staying in this chopper and that is an ORDER! Pilot get us out of here now!"

"Captain?! Captain what the fuck! We can't just leave her here! What the fuck are you thinking?!"

The helicopter started rising into the air. V was still fighting like hell to get off of the helicopter, Piers, Chris, and some men whose faces he couldn't see were still helping them hold him before he jumped out. The next thing Piers knew, from somewhere in the city they could hear a maniacal laugh followed by a blood curdling scream that sent shivers down Piers' spine. Piers saw a flare rise up above the city, and then an explosion rocked his vision.

Piers jolted awake from his nightmare in a cold sweat. It was running down his face and his hands were clammy, and suddenly, the room felt very cold and foreboding. Piers decided to try and get some air, so he quietly went out of the room to go outside. Luckily, Mars was still asleep, although he did not see V anywhere; he still crept by as silently as he could. Once he got outside he was able to breathe a sigh of relief, relishing in the cool feeling of the early dawn air. It was a nice change of scenery from the hell he had been living in before he met Alpha Team. The sun was coming up but he could still see the barest glint of stars in the sky, colors spreading out over the horizon for as far as Piers could see, the sky was turning multiple shades of red orange and yellow, making it appear to be like a fiery sea floating above his head. Then, Piers heard two people talking, and he heard his name fluttering by once in a while in the conversation. Now, eavesdropping may not have been something Piers usually did, but he decided to do it this one time, just to see what was going on, but what he found was V talking with Chris about him and his training.

~V (Before Piers woke up eavesdropping)

Mars and V had gone to bed on the couches, leaving the guest room and their personal room for Nat and Piers to sleep in. They had been asleep for a few hours before V's phone started to buzz. They both woke up and Mars walked over to it, Chris' number was displayed on the screen, she tossed it to V.

"Boss is calling you, what do you think he wants?"

"Not sure, but it can't hurt to find out I suppose… but it is kind of strange to be calling at what… three thirty in the morning? God, he must really be stressing out over something or other."

V answered the phone, "This is V, did you need something Captain?"

"Yeah, I was wondering if I could talk to you about the Nivans kids."

"Um, sure Captain, where to?"

"Just come on down to my office, its nothing formal, I just wanted to get some of your insight into this whole thing."

"Alright Captain, I'll be there in a couple minutes," V sighed hanging up the phone, "Boss wants to have a little chat. I'll catch you later Mars? Make sure if the Nivans kids need anything that they get it, hopefully I can get back before they wake up though, see you later hun."

Mars smiled and kissed V on the cheek, "See you later, don't stay gone too long now, this living room is lonely enough with just the two of us sleeping on the couch, but hey at least I can get some extra sleep unlike you." She finished that smirking at V who just rolled his eyes walking on out the door.

V headed on out the door taking a left as he did to head down to Chris' office. He opened up the door to find Chris pacing around his office, reading a file and drinking black coffee, again, as if he didn't drink enough of that stuff already, it wasn't good for him to be drinking it this early in the morning, and by the looks of it, he was pulling an all-nighter again. When V got into the room Chris noticed him and motioned for him to come over and look at the file he was holding. It was a file on Piers, apparently he had tried joining the military before everything in his city went to shit.

*Name: Piers Nivans

*Height: 6' 3"

*Weight: 164 lbs.

*Hair color: Brown

*Eye color: Hazel

*Skills: Exceptional in the field of marksmanship. Attention to detail is unsurpassed among his peers. Prefers to keep to himself when around others that he finds to be *untrustworthy* or unlike what his definition of a good soldier is, specifically being well trained and disciplined, rarely messing around, also very protective of family and those that he considers to be friends.

Tests:

Mile run: Finished over two minutes before anyone else.

Aim: Missed zero targets out of one hundred and fifty. No other applicants had nearly the same accuracy, second highest being that of seventy-two out of one hundred and fifty targets.

Scoping: Pays very close attention to even the most minute of details when watching through a scope. Slightest movement made when taking the scoping challenge landed a target shot right in front of the *target* before a full step is even taken.

Advantages/Strengths:

Applicant is extremely disciplined and obedient to commanding officers, does not shake off responsibility as much as other applicants and finishes tasks in a timely and efficient matter. Applicant is also very quick to judge changes in appearances and situations, being able to diffuse problems between other applicants with ease.

Disadvantages/Weaknesses:

Applicant does not take well to conversing with other applicants. Applicant prefers to take on the responsibilities of an entire team without relying on the help of others on the field. Applicant is able to diffuse situations between others easily but finds himself at a loss for contact with other applicants, favoring to stay alone and out of sight of the rest.

V looked at Chris with his eyebrow raised in a questioning gesture, "So, why exactly do you want me to read his file? What am I supposed to be getting out of this exactly?"

"I'm not sure to be honest; I just thought that might help a little bit. I just wanted to see how your first impression of him was, and if you think he might be cut out for this line of work."

"Well, from what I can tell from his file, he looks as if he would make a good sniper. Although it may be somewhat solitary for him, what is listed as a *Weakness* on his file can prove to be a strength if it is needed for him to take out a target using a long range rifle. The file also suggests that he was trying to join the military before the B.S.A.A. ever showed up, so that might be why he expressed interest in joining us, seeing as how we saved him from that hell hole he was in. As for not being friendly or only conversing with people he considers to be friends, I would say me and Mars probably fall into that category pretty well. It didn't take much more than bringing his sister back to him to earn his trust, and rightly so as this file states he is very protective of his family."

"That's good, but what would you think of him as a member of Alpha Team?"

"Well, Sir on that subject I am not entirely sure. I mean, when you first got me I didn't work too well with the team but now look at us. So my only guess would be that he might do poorly at first until he starts to learn to work with the team as part of a well-oiled machine."

"That's good, so I guess I just have another Eagle sitting in a nest for me eh?"

"Hah, I guess you could say something like that, but Captain, let's go out for a bit, it can't be good for you to be drinking all that coffee."

"I guess… but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop drinking this if that is what you are trying to get me to do."

"Not at all Captain, just away from the pot so you can't make any more of that garbage." V smirked at him while leading the way out of his office and back down the street.

"Coffee isn't garbage…" Chris trailed off following behind V.

"No, it's not, but the stuff you drink is, honestly how many cups have you had in the last day, a dozen or so?"

"No… more like three or four…"

"Sure Captain, whatever you say."

"Anyway, what are you guys starting that Nivans kid on for practice?"

"Mars figured we would start him off with some tactical and rescue training, see how well he does with strategy and rescue detail."

"Sounds good, V, don't push him too hard, don't want him to leave the squad now that it seems we have another promising sniper in our midst."

"Sure thing Captain," V's voice dropped to a barely audible whisper, "Wait here for a second, heard someone moving up ahead, and might be eavesdropping on us."

V rounded the corner quickly and silently. He found Piers on the other side of the wall with his back to it, hands covering his face and he looked like he was trying to forget something. V walked up and put his hand on Piers' shoulder and he almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden contact.

"U-um, hi, V…"

"Hey Nivans, what are you doing out here this early in the morning? You should be resting up for the day."

"I… um…" Piers decided to give V a half truth, although he wasn't really accustomed to lying he found it embarrassing to outright say that he was eavesdropping on them, "I… couldn't sleep… had a nightmare…"

"Oh really?" V asked while motioning around the corner for someone to come up to them, "Don't worry about it too much Nivans, everyone has demons that they would rather forget. It's nothing to be scared of."

"Well, I mean… it was a nightmare but, it wasn't something I've ever had before..." Piers trailed off as he saw who V was motioning to, it was the captain of Alpha Team, Chris Redfield.

"It's alright Nivans, tell V what it was. Nightmares or not a lot of things hold meaning even as we sleep."

"Alright, well… it started off with Alpha Team being deployed into some city, and then on the way in it was completely quiet. After a few minutes the team got split into two, Mars, V, and me, and the rest of the team was off at what they said was point Delta. We were working our way over from point Charlie to Delta and got ambushed by a J'avo storm squad, which they didn't really take too long to deal with. After that an extremely armored creature came out of nowhere and tried to swipe at us when we were making our way down the street to point Delta. It missed me and V but it sent Mars flying down the street, she looked like she had a broken leg. After that… um…"

V raised his eyebrow at him, "Don't stop now Nivans, don't tell me it was that horrible that your memory just suddenly evaporated."

"Well… she told us to keep going, and she kept it busy… I had to literally drag you to the helicopter and get several other people to keep you in there, including the Captain, and… not even two minutes later um… there was a blood curdling scream that shook my spine and it sounded like it was from over half a mile away… the last thing that happened was hearing a maniacal laugh and then a flare went up into the sky and like five seconds later an explosion rocked the world and I woke up…"

"A flare huh…"

"Yeah… why?"

"Nothing, just go and try to get some rest for later ok Nivans? Need you up in three hours to start your training."

"Alright, um, thanks guys. See you later."

"See you, Nivans." Chris was the one to respond to Piers, giving him a warm and affectionate smile as he trudged away back to Mars' and V's quarters.

~3 hours later

"Nivans, Nat, wake up! Breakfast is ready!"

Piers and Nat both came into the room, Nat bounding around happy as can be and Piers looking groggy from his interrupted sleep earlier that morning, "So, you guys hungry enough yet to finally have a good meal again?"

"You bet Aunt Mars!"

Mars chuckled at Nat and ruffled her hair, "Aunt Mars huh? I think that sounds pretty good, what about you Nivans?"

Nivans smiled warmly at Mars despite the bad night that she could see in his eyes, "Yeah, think that sounds pretty good, how you doing Nat?"

"I'm doing good Piers! What's for breakfast Aunt Mars?"

Mars chuckled while looking down at Nat, "Bacon, eggs, pancakes, and some orange juice, how does that sound to you two?"

Piers smiled at the comforting Mars was giving to Nat, "Sounds great, go ahead and dig in Nat, I need to talk with Mars and V for a second."

Mars raised her eyebrow at Piers with V watching, but allowed herself to be lead away so that the three of them could talk, "I just have one curious question, we're starting with tactical training right? So, what am I doing in that?"

Mars and V both smirked at Piers, "Why, trying to outsmart us, of course. Now eat up so we can go get started Nivans."