Here we are~ I am not one for Cliffhangers even if I use them to break up chapters so here we are with another update. Sorry if you had to wait particularly long to get this one. This one is a bit short but my chapter senses are tingling and I have a decent idea that the next one is going to be fairly long and I fear for my own sanity so I cut this one short. Please forgive me?
Song Suggestion: The Point of No Return from Phantom of the opera [I personally like the Reprise better but either works]
Disclaimer: I own nothing Capcom owns Resident Evil. I could not buy it even if I wanted it please accept this fanfiction instead. Please don't sue. Also blood warning.
Heisenberg stared down at the little glass box before noticing the sliver of white underneath the box. he gently scoots the box and finds the business card from before which he picks up and looks over.
no matter how hard we try we're not going to be able to keep up.
Ripe.
"Well, I must say this is a surprise," says a voice from behind Heisenberg. The metal lord turns around to find Duke sitting on the couch. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Lord Heisenberg?"
"I want my powers back," Heisenberg says shortly.
"Ah, you're interested in the remaining shard?" Duke says with a nod. "Well, I'm sure we could come to an arrangement. I'd need a proper trade after all."
"You want the stupid pearl right?" Heisenberg says and reaches back to pick up the glass box. "It's yours then, take it." he says as he offers it to Duke.
"Ah ah ah, I'm pretty sure that's not yours," Duke says amused.
"You buy stolen good all the time," Heisenberg says with a sneer.
"Well only if the person they're taken from is dead or as good as dead. At that point it's just, newly acquired," Duke says with a short chuckle. "Besides, it would be of no benefit to me to take that from you as collateral and upset my source of funding."
Heisenberg frowns and puts the glass box back none too gently though luckily for him it didn't break. "Fuck that."
"Such a temper," The merchant says calmly, almost like a disappointed parent. "Besides, have you considered if this is really what you want?"
"Of course it is," He replies with further irritation.
"Well forgive my assumption but, if your cadou is whole again, you'll go back to being a true immortal," Duke says which causes Heisenberg to glare at him. "If you go back to being an immortal, you won't age. You'll have to watch her die. Slowly. Over the course of many decades. Knowing that no matter what you do, you can't stop it."
Hearing this does cause him to pause.
"See, now you're thinking," Duke replies as he idly inspects one of the rings on his hand.
It took a good few minutes but eventually, he does speak. "... What do you want for it that I can give you?" Karl asks and Duke smiles.
'*'*'*'*'
Morning arrives and Charlotte walks down the stairs from her loft with a smile on her face and folded paper in hand. that smile fades quickly as she stops at the bottom, quickly noticing dozens of metallic objects floating and swirling around Heisenberg who was sitting on the couch and lazily waving his hand in the air to cause the metal to continue spinning.
"Got my powers back," He says, not looking over and simply guessing that she was there having heard the footsteps on the stairs.
Charlotte's shock passes and she dodges through the slowly floating metal to hurry over to the TV stand to check on the business card and pearl only to find the card is gone but to her relief, the pearl is still there. How?
"What did you do?" She asks concerned as she looked back at him.
"Does it matter? With my strength back that's one less hurdle to jump." Heisenberg says quietly as he motions for the metallic scraps to gather closer to him.
"Yes it matters," she says stunned while holding the side of her forehead, how was she suppose to plan if he was running around and doing stuff like this behind her back. "What did you give him?"
"Nothin' that involves you," He says as he moves to make a pile out of the scraps. "You should be happy. Now we can move forward with that plan of yours to get your old man locked up."
"Well, yeah but," Charlotte starts to rebuttal but gets cut off.
"But nothing. You kept the pearl, I got my powers, end of story," He says as he moves to get up.
He was being stubborn again. Charlotte watched as he started digging through the drawers for food and put some toast down. "Well if you're being so grumpy I suppose you don't want good news."
"They finally got the Green card approved?" Heisenberg asks with a raised eyebrow.
"I said good news, not a miracle," Charlotte replies shaking her head.
"I finally got a sale on the store page you set up," He says and charlotte bobs her head.
"Okay, not that either," She admits with a quiet sigh while moving to take a seat at the kitchen island.
"You're not going to tell me we don't need that stupid shard now that I finally got it are you?" He asks as he moves to lean back against the counter by the toaster.
"No, oh my gosh just," She pauses as a frustrated laugh escapes her. "Now I feel like it's underwhelming. I got broadway tickets." She says with a huff. "We've both been really stressed and I thought maybe it would be a nice surprise since you're English has gotten much better," Charlotte explains with a frown that was boarding a pout.
The answer surprised him slightly. She still remembered that? That was something he mentioned in passing as a way to just, talk to her. Didn't think she'd actually commit it to memory enough to actually go through with that so many years later.
a small smile pulled at the corner of his lips. "Are you asking me on a date?"
"Not anymore I'm not," Charlotte replies still frowning. "I'll just put the tickets back up for sale."
"Now hold on sweetheart let's not be too hasty," He says as he moves to get up from leaning against the counter and walk around the Island to stand next to her. "Okay you wanna sell them. I'll buy them."
"They were 400 dollars," She replies with a frown.
"American?" he asks to confirm she wasn't converting the price to Lei.
"Each," She says with a nod. "Had to get them off scalpers because the good seats were sold out otherwise."
"I don't have that kind of money," He admits with a frown.
Charlotte thinks it over and holds up the folded paper. "Tell me what you sold Duke for the shard and I'll hand them over." She offers. At that point, she wouldn't be as cranky with him. Hopefully. Actually, that was still up for debate if he sold his immortal soul to Duke.
"You're still worried about that? I said it wasn't important," Heisenberg replies with a slight frown.
"Then it's a cheap price to pay for an $800 show," She counters.
"Fine," He grumbles. "I'm not happy about it but... I sold the factory... and a copy of the Soldat blueprints."
"You did what," She asks stunned.
"Fuck off I'm not saying it again," he says as he takes the folded paper from her. giving up the factory stung. "Figured it's useless anyway since it got blown to pieces and it's not looking like I'll be able to go back anyways... not any time soon at least," Heisenberg admits while scratching at the back of his neck. "and it's not like i have dead body's laying around anymore so, can't really use the Soldat blueprints either."
He gave up the factory? the thought was still baffling to her. The Soldat blueprints made more sense but. why both.
"Anyways, I have my powers back, and that seems reason enough to celebrate. Luckily, I just happened to get my hands on two tickets for a show so," He says as he's clearly trying to change the subject. "Would you like to go on a date?" He offers with an attempt at a smile.
Charlotte's stunned stare finally eased as a soft smile replaced it. "Yeah, I think I'd like that." She replied in return.
"Alright, let's see when this is for," He says and unfolds the paper "October 16th at 8 pm," He reads off. "Suppose there's enough time for dinner before."
"Oh? will you be paying for that too?" Charlotte asks with a playful smile as Heisenberg winces.
"I'll figure something out," He says shaking his head with a chuckle.
'*'*'*'*'
It didn't take long for the day of the play to arrive. In the end, Heisenberg didn't get a single sale which meant digging through the fridge and trying to make something was his only dinner option aside from directly saying 'Hey charlotte pay for this'. She was still technically indirectly paying for the meal since she bought the groceries but hey. It's what he had to work with.
Honestly, it wasn't much it was simple and food he could leave to just do its own thing while he washed up and changed. Charlotte mentioned that people don't usually dress up much for plays anymore. which was unfortunate but all the same he dawned a suit just without the vest since it seemed more appropriate to him. He left the jacket on the back of one of the dining room chairs as he worked on moving the food over to the table.
"So what are we eating?" Charlotte asks as she walked over to join him.
"Pork and potato stew with mamaliga," He replies with a shrug. "nothing too fancy."
"It smells great," Charlotte says with a gentle appreciative smile.
"Yeah it's the benefit of fresh food," he says with a slight smirk.
"Hey, I'm trying," She replies as she gives him a gentle nudge before taking a seat. Trying was a word, most of her cooking was pretty close to inedible at this point but she was putting in the effort. It was usually burnt, raw, or burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.
"Didn't say you weren't," Karl replies as he moves to take a seat as well and serves up a bowl of the stew and trades with Charlotte for her Empty bowl so he could serve himself after.
"Excited to put those English lessons to the test?" Charlotte asks curiously.
"A bit," he replies with a shrug and puts down his own bowl before picking up a piece of mamaliga. Honestly, he was more nervous that he wouldn't be able to keep up. Speaking English was one thing but keeping up with multiple people singing and likely talking over each other would be difficult.
"Now I'm wishing I sold the tickets to you for chores, having you cook for a few weeks would have been nice," Charlotte says with a chuckle.
"Not happening sweetheart," He says shaking his head. "But on rare occasions. sure."
"You are stubborn as always," Charlotte says before taking another bite of food.
"That's an odd way of saying 'I love you'," Heisenberg points out jokingly.
"Aw you love me?" Charlotte says with a playful smile before trying some of the bright yellow bread.
Hearing her response causes his shoulders to drop slightly. "That's not-" He shakes his head. "Little shit," he says instead and goes back to his meal.
Charlotte laughs a bit at his reaction before leaning over to give him a peck on the cheek. "I love you too."
Heisenberg grumbles to himself and continues to focus on his food. The two continued to talk as they ate and before they knew it, it was 6:30.
"We should get going," Charlotte says as she moves to get up. "They usually don't let you take your seat if you're late."
"For 400 dollars a ticket they better," Heisenberg replies stunned by that revelation as he quickly gets up and helps her clear the table.
It took a good 10 minutes but they eventually had everything packed away and put on their fall jackets before making it to the car. Another hour later and they managed to find parking. They had to cut through an Alleyway to make it in time but they managed to get in line and barely made it to their seats.
The play promptly started at 8 pm. a large cast of colorfully dressed dancers and singers filled the stage. There were definitely parts that were much harder for him to understand but overall he was able to keep up. There was a man in a mask that stalked a girl that he thought would be useful and trained her. She had a childhood friend who she hoped to marry that keeps getting in the way of the creep. lord, this phantom guy must be at least 30 years older than her. he was at least the same age as that geezer of a woman that was always around the other dancers since she was a kid when she found the sewer creep.
... wait a second. He cautiously spared a glance over at Charlotte who was happily enjoying the performance. Was he the sewer creep in this scenario?
He watched as the phantom strung up the childhood friend by the neck and pushed for the woman to choose.
look I'm not the one running around with one man only to go kissing another. So that's what I am to you... a joke? You think I'm just like Moreau... Don't you? Some. Sick. Mutated freak of nature that you pity for breathing?
Oh lord, he was the sewer creep. He watched as the play continued. The girl ran off with the childhood friend only for the play to show the woman's grave, that she died young and that the phantom would visit her grave still.
you won't age. You'll have to watch her die. Slowly. Over the course of many decades. Knowing that no matter what you do, you can't stop it.
once more he spared a glance at Charlotte before looking back at the grave on the stage... Did he make the right choice? It was rare for him to question his decisions but in this one moment, he was. The thought quickly left him as he was jolted away from them when the crowd around him began to applauded and the curtains closed.
Charlotte smiled and stood up to clap along with the other patrons who enjoyed the show. she motioned for Heisenberg to do the same. "Come on, it shows you enjoyed the performance," she explained thinking he just didn't understand, rather than assuming he was in the middle of an internal crisis.
He blinked a few times behind his tinted glasses before moving to stand and clapping as well. It didn't matter now. The price was paid. Eventually, the roaring applause died down and the crowds moved to leave. the only problem with sitting towards the front and center of the theater like this, was that you were the last to leave.
As they slowly trudge forward a glitch caught his eye. metal? with a subtle pull of a finger the piece flew over to his hand for him to look it over.
"Hm? what did you find?" Charlotte asks curiously while making a note to scold him for using his power in public later.
"Guess it's just a coin," he says while looking it over.
"Huh a quarter, Nice find. 3 more of those and you'll have a dollar," She says with a slight smile.
"So it's basically worthless," he says in return.
"Not quite, building blocks are still building blocks. In the end, something is better than nothing," She replies with a shrug.
"How wise," He replies rolling his eyes as he moves to lazily flip the coin as they walk, using his powers to give it a bit of help in the spinning department and to make sure it always landed in his hand.
"Show off too much and people will notice," Charlotte says quietly.
"Can you blame me, it's been a while," he replies just as quietly.
By the time they made it out of the theater the area around them was quiet and empty while the theater began closing up for the night.
"Where did we park again?" he asks with a raised eyebrow while he continued messing with the coin to distract himself from the pesky thoughts from before.
"We came from this direction," Charlotte replies as she adjusts her jacket. The two retraced their steps back towards the parking garage, through the alleyway.
"Don't move." Says a man in a mask who steps out from behind a dumpster while brandishing a knife. A second steps out from their hiding place behind them.
"Oh no," Charlotte says under her breath... this wasn't going to end well.
"Oh no is right, hand over the purse and keys," says the one in front of them. while making a gesture for charlotte to toss the requested items over. "Jewlery too."
"Dumb choice," Heisenberg says in English with a smirk.
"You wanna go old man?" the one behind them says annoyed.
"Karl let me try and talk to them, we don't need to do this," Charlotte requests in Romanian.
He rolled his eye but gestured for her to go ahead.
"Hey hey, keep it to English," the one in front of them says.
"Look, gentlemen, you're making a mistake. We can all just walk away from this and no one has to get hurt," Charlotte says hoping to reason with them without completely outing Heisenberg. If they did live they couldn't know what he was.
"I'm not asking again, hand it over or you're minced," the one in front of them says and motions again for Charlotte to hand over her bag.
She shakes her head... "Leave no trace," she says in Romanian. While the other two were none the wiser she recognized the pulse as Heisenberg knocking out electronics in the area instead of as a gust of wind. "I'm going to pull the car around," she says in English and starts walking forward.
"Like hell you are," the one in front moved to lunge forward only for the knife to be yanked out of their hand and floats in the air where it was before and Charlotte calmly walked past.
"What the he-" His words cut short as the knife was driven into the side of his head.
"Holy shit!" the one behind them says as they drop their knife. "Yo man I don't want any problems."
"This is what you were after right?" Heisenberg asks as he turns to face the other and flips the quarter again. This time it crushes in on itself before rocketing forward and through the remaining body. he laughed. It had been a while, he thought with a smile as he riddling the last body with holes with the sharpened coin. The body collapsed to the ground before he had the coin flick itself clean, far enough away from him to be out of range of any splatter it caused. he smiled and pushed up his glasses and fixed his coat jacket before turning to walk away and had the coin float alongside him.
A low laugh echoed through the empty alleyway as he walked out to join charlotte in the car.
'*'*'*'*'
Heisenberg turned the stray coin into thin wire which he fused into the chainlink fence by his shed as soon as they made it home from their date. Shortly after their trip to the theater news spread of a mysterious case of potential gang violence in an alleyway off broadway with little lead to go off and that authorities were looking for any tips that would help close the case.
A week passed and the two peacefully enjoyed a morning cup of coffee on a bright Saturday morning.
"I've got them in my sight captain. waiting on your order," Says a low voice into their radio as they remained perched in a tree, staring down a scope into the home through the large glass wall.
"... Stand down, I'll head in with the others to take them in... if they resist. take the shot." says another. "Tundra stay with Umber eye as back-up. Lobo, Canine, Night howl, you're with me."
"I was thinking I might head into town later, there's a sale going on and I could use some new office ware," Charlotte says, unaware of the group of 4 soldiers making their way around the side of the house.
"I'll be in the mini-factory," Heisenberg replies causing charlotte to chuckle.
"As usual," she replies amused, she would have continued the conversation but she was cut off.
"BSAA OPEN UP!"
Charlotte gives a tired sigh. This was inevitable. "You remember what we talked about right?"
"Might remember some of it," Heisenberg replies with a short chuckle as he sipped at his coffee.
The door was kicked open and 4 people hurried in armed and ready.
"Gracious you could have given me 5 seconds to open the door you know," Charlotte says rolling her eyes. "You're a bit overdressed for a cup of morning coffee. What can I help you with gentlemen."
"You're coming with us," Chris says as he steps forward and the other 3 keep their weapons aimed.
"bold assumption," She replies while staying seated but holds out her hand. "Warrant?"
The agent more than happily slaps the papers down.
"Hm. Says here we're to go with you for questioning, very well." Charlotte says and holds out her hands. "Cuff me up."
"Don't push her around too much, she's into it," Heisenberg jokes as he moves to get up which causes the others to quickly switch to target him.
"Well damn don't give him all my secrets, let him ask first, they have questions remember," Charlotte says with a laugh.
"This isn't a joke," he says annoyed as he walks over and does cuff Charlotte's hands behind her back.
"Isn't it?" Charlotte asks in return with a laughing smirk before shrugging. "Very well I'll play your game and pretend to be serious. Though I'm not sure how serious you can expect me to be when you're barking up the wrong tree."
"Laugh all you want, I have more than enough to lock you up," Chris says with a frown as he picks up the warrant once more and walks over to his team again.
"Oh, well I'll look forward to seeing it when you have your questions," She says still calm as ever. "So do I get to stand up or do I have to wait for your permission big guy."
"Should I be jealous?" Heisenberg asks with mock offense.
"Oh only a little," She replies while rolling her eyes.
"Shut UP," Chris says annoyed with their antics. Did they not get that they were going to get locked away for a long time if he had anything to say about it?
"Yes sir," she replies with a smirk knowing he couldn't argue while she still managed to directly disobey.
Even then Charlotte knew the advantage of being openly told to be silent in this situation, annoying the daylights out of the guy was easier than she thought. They were lead out of the house and over to a large black SUV for transportation. resisting the urge to point out that it was cliche was difficult but they managed.
Charlotte watched out of the window as they were driven to the nearest airfield. This might be a bit more of a problem than she initially thought. all the same, she and Heisenberg complied with being loaded onto a helicopter and flow off to god knows where. it took a few hours before the helicopter landed again and they were escorted into a large building where they were put into separate rooms.
it took a while but Chris walked into the room and sat across from Charlotte.
"What were you doing in Louisianna," Chris asks once more while staring her down
"I'd like a lawyer," Charlotte replies with a simple smile while staring right back. Like hell he was going to intimidate her.
"It's a simple question," he asks with a frown.
"I'd like a lawyer," Charlotte repeats as she moves to rest her elbows on the table so she could prop up her chin.
"We know it was you, your car matches the one on the scene," Chris says as he puts down a picture of Security footage from the dock and a picture of her car in her home garage. No plates, just the cars. Circumstantial evidence at best, He didn't have jack he was trying to shake her.
A bored sigh crossed her lips. he really wasn't getting it was he. "I'd like. A. lawyer," she says once more while annunciating a bit more.
"What did you do to bring back the lords?" He continued asking questions hoping to get anything.
Oh my gosh like she'd answer that when she didn't answer any of his other questions. "I'd. Like. A. Lawyer," she annunciates once more.
"Is that all you're going to say?" he asks as he glares at her.
A smirking smile pulls at the corner of her lips "Yes," she replies knowing full well that it was a bit oxymoron to do so, that by saying yes she said something different. It was so easy to mess with this guy.
"What the hell sorta game are you trying to pull here?" he asks as he puts his hands on the desk and stands up to lean forward.
Charlotte leans back feigning a fearful expression but ultimately she isn't able to hold that for very long before cracking up. This guy really thinks he can scare her after she had to watch her friend get dragged away to be eaten alive. hahaha oh boy, you try harder than a loud voice and a cranky scowl. She'd been on trial in front of the judge an executioner multiple times. He can't kill her while trying to go through the normal legal process. Hell if he set a finger on her he'd pretty much throw out the case.
Frustrated with this Chris storms out of the room.
She wasn't sure how long they'd be here but something says this was going to take a while.
I'm sure this is a surprise to no one at this point but I really liked the fairytale Rumpelstiltskin as a kid. Duke gives me total Rumpelstiltskin vibes in the sense that he'd cater a deal to make the price reflect what the buy holds dear. And it took long enough but they finally got to see that play. I'm definitely not ignoring the elephants in the room nope ovo' it was a totally 100% normal date. nothing bad happened at all. Duke definitely didn't get his hands on something much much worse than the pearl. Anyways next chapter ahoooy.
Review Responses:
nadillaandlaprasthefireandice - lmao X'D yeah you know you cant cook if someone like Heisenberg ends up having to teach you. Duke is Definitely still interested but he knows not to bite the hand that feeds him so for now she's probably safe. I say avoiding any sort of committing answer in case I change my mind, lmao.
Charadrius - Yey~ glad you thought it was a cute chapter u things are certainly picking back up now that Heisenberg is back on the board at full power.