Summary: It should have just been a regular morning for Chris Redfield. He should have been just heading out for his usual every day job. So why did he wake up to find a certain puppy eared male in his bed?
Pairing: Nivanfield
Author's note: Sorry for the wait. DX Dun kill me! And not gonna lie, it might be a minute before I post the next chapter since I need to update another one of my stories that has been neglected for far too long. DX
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My Pet Peeve 19
The gentle sway of his body was what made Chris wake up. He was still strapped down to the bed but instead of being in the room with the large screen, he was being wheeled down the hall with rhythmic bouts of illumination in his partly opened eyes from the ceiling lights passing overhead. He pretended not to be awake, orbs shifting slowly under his barely opened lids to try and see what was going on without being caught.
He thought he would see a Semi pushing him down the hall but instead saw one of the Illium looming over him at his feet. The creepy glowing eyes stared straight ahead giving no regards to the BSAA captain lying on the stretcher in front of him.
They turned the corner going into a barely lit room before the Illium abandoned him inside leaving Chris alone in the room. He might have stood guard outside the room. Or he might have left all together since Chris's legs felt too much like jelly for him to move properly.
In the quiet of the room Chris looked around moving his head as much as the drugs in his system would let him. Last he remembered he was in the custody of Spencer's trained Semi. Now suddenly the Illium were looking over him. What happened to the Semi? Why was he not in that room anymore? What about Leon and Wesker?
Thinking back on it now, how had Spencer gotten past Leon and Wesker? Was there another path to that room Piers had been confined in? Did Leon and Wesker know he was gone? Were they still alive? Laying here in the dark wasn't good for his head. It was giving him too much time to think, too much time to remember how Piers didn't recognize him anymore.
He grunted as he tested his strength pulling at the constraints keeping him confined to the table. The metal cuffs didn't even budge as he panted relaxing again as he looked around. Where was he right now? What exactly was Umbrella planning on doing to him?
"Ah it looks like the muscle head gorilla's awake now," the little cheesy voice said making him grunt in frustration as Irving came into the room from another door off to the side. The low light managed to illuminate his short form enough for Chris to recognize him. "Are ya enjoyin' our perfect hospitality?"
"The bed sucks," Chris said glaring off to the side in his direction. "Not to mention your staff could use a little work."
"Ya being such a sourpuss, Redfield." As Irving got closer, Chris's eyes shifted from the crooked teeth of his sadist smile to the needle held up in his hand, clear liquid sliding down the side of it. "Why not relax a lil bit."
"I'd rather not, thanks." Chris struggled again, his eyes focusing on the needle in the other's hand. What exactly was that? Just what was Irving getting ready to do to him?
"Sorry, it's the doc's orders," Irving responded not looking the least bit sorry about the fact. "Or more like Mrs. Gionne's orders since yas her property now. She says Spencer's gonna have ta learn it the hard way on what's his and what ain't." He pressed the tip of the needle against Chris's arm preparing to inject him. "Now just stay still. This won't hurt a bit." He smirked down at him in obvious delight. "It's gonna hurt a lot! Ahahahaha-" A shot rang out from nearby, the sound leaving a bullet in the middle of a shocked Irving's head before his eyes rolled and he fell back landing hard with a thud.
"God, that laugh was getting on my nerves." The voice drew Chris's already surprised mind for a loop as he swallowed turning his head in the direction of the voice trying to see. It was a vague outline of the body but he'd recognized those curves from anywhere.
"Jill?"
"Glad to see you're in one piece still," the blond said smirking as she stopped beside him and aimed her gun at the confining cuffs shooting them off one at a time. He didn't flinch at all. He trusted her with a gun as much as she trusted Leon. It helped that she used to be his partner back when they were both under Wesker's leadership.
"What are you doing here?" He struggled to get up but the drugs they had injected into him earlier still had his muscles pretty loosened up. Jill ended up having to help him to sit up, his eyes closing temporarily at a wave of dizziness. Just what in the hell did they give him?
"BSAA, remember?" She smiled at him as she wrapped an arm around him to help him stand. "We came here to rescue you. I'm only glad that I found you in time."
"You guys made it?"
"We did, thank god," she said frowning. "But it's thanks to your sister that we even came up here at all. We've already sent some pictures back to HQ. The evidence of the experiments these scumbags are performing would be enough to indict them for life." She helped him to walk as they made a sluggish move towards the exit. Moving around seemed to help his body fight against the drug. It was either that or the drug was wearing off. "We found Leon." She looked at him carefully. "And Wesker. To think he's been alive all this time."
"I'll explain it all when we get out of here," Chris said doing his best to walk on his own as he pulled away from her as feeling started returning to his tingling legs. "Right now, we need to-"
"Leavin so soon?" The both of them froze before moving as one as they turned around staring in shock as Irving got to his feet, groaning slightly. He reached up, fingers digging around in the hole in his head before he pulled the bullet out holding it between his bloody fingers with a grin, liquid red running down his face getting into uncaring eyes. "The fun's only just gettin started!"
Jill didn't even hesitate to hold up her gun and fire off another round, face set into determination as the bullet shot into Irving's chest. He stumbled backwards slightly but otherwise didn't fall down as he started laughing again looking up at them. "That almost tickled!"
"Shit," Jill cursed under her breath loading more bullets into him. "What the hell is he made out of?"
"Ya gonna have ta try harder than that ta take me down, girl," Ricardo said slowly starting to walk their way. Damn, what the hell were they going to do? Chris glanced around, his eyes landing on the fire extinguisher on the wall that Ricardo was getting ready to walk right by. Moving mostly on instinct, Chris grabbed the gun away from Jill quickly ignoring the sound of protest as he aimed at the extinguisher shooting it and sending a funnel of steamy smoke into Ricardo's face hearing a yell from the man in surprise.
"Go!" Chris yelled out. Jill didn't have to think twice as she ran with Chris hobbling behind her over to one of the exits taking advantage of the distraction. Before they even made it to the door, Irving was in front of them again. His body bubbled with the transformation taking place as he laughed becoming more and more deformed growing in size and volume. It didn't make sense why it was happening but then this was Umbrella. Irving must have been injected with something that made him mutate.
His body towered over them, squid like appendixes shooting from his body stretching from him in all direction as his body turned less solid and more into a slimy blob. One of the large, slimy arms started to come down in their direction. Chris roughly pushed Jill out of the way before he dived in the opposite direction nearly avoiding the crash of the large arm landing on the floor making the whole ground shake as if an earthquake had been set off. He stumbled to his feet running as quickly as his legs would carry him away from the arms pent on hurting him.
"Where ya goin, Redfield?" Irving said smugly, voice just as annoying as before even though it was deeper. "Come play a lil." He cackled bringing his arms down, Chris gritting his teeth as he dove out of reach. He needed a real weapon. The gun he'd dropped while dodging Irving didn't work. Especially considering the fact that Jill had literally shot Irving in the head and that hadn't stopped him. He needed something powerful, something to put him out for good.
He looked back towards Jill, eyes widening when he saw one of the tentacle arms slap her across the room where she landed against the wall sliding down it with a pained groan.
"Jill!" He turned to run to her but an arm slammed into his stomach knocking the wind out of him as he flew off his feet sliding across the floor on his back. He shook his head staring up at the appendix hovering over him.
"Sum nice, flat Redcakes sound good right now!" Irving yelled out cackling as he started to bring the tentacle down. Chris rolled out of the way just before the arm connected to the ground making the whole floor shudder once more. "Hey! Stay still! Let me flatten ya!" The appendixes were lined up in the air over him coming down one by one as Chris kept rolling out of the way. "Ya makin' me mad! Just die already!" He started to swing them down again but a shot rang out from the other side of the room. Irving flinched with a growl as the shot hit him.
Jill was standing against the wall, one hand holding her side as she panted shooting again. Chris knew what she was doing, that she was trying to distract the once human man by using herself as decoy. And just as he feared, it worked.
Chris tried to get Irving's attention yelling out at Irving but the other was already on the move, slithering towards Jill who was starting to limp away. That initial impact had done a lot of damage to her. He had to do something. In her condition there was no way she was going to be able to defend herself for long.
Looking around, he found the discarded syringe on the ground. He started to get an idea as he rushed towards it. The adrenaline was making his blood flow giving him the strength to fight the drug in his system and make his legs move more effectively. His hand closed around the syringe before he turned holding it over his head in a threatening manner.
"Hey! Limp legs!" Irving looked back at him, his tentacle arm hovering over Jill before she took advantage of the distraction to move to a safer place. "Come over here, big and ugly!" Irving didn't even seem to notice Jill's escape as he stared at Chris, or more at what he was holding in his hand. Chris narrowed his eyes at him. Good. So this thing was pretty important then.
"I'll rip ya stupid head off!" Irving didn't give him the chance to respond, his body gliding so unnaturally fast Chris barely even took a breath before a tentacle wrapped around his legs pulling him down causing his head to knock against the ground before he was dragged across the floor. He could barely keep a grip on the syringe, his mind spinning incoherently from the pain radiating in his head.
Irving held him upside down by his feet dangling him in front of the many eyes that Chris hadn't noticed before. They must have developed over the course of their short fight. His face kept reforming then melting away as if a block of ice trying to keep its shape.
"I should crush ya like a grape!" Irving yelled into his face, the crooked teeth being visibly seen through the blob of mess.
"Have you resorted to such cliché lines now, Irving?" Chris gritted his teeth against Irving angrily slinging him around at the retort.
"Ya gonna learn ta stop messing with the big dogs, Redfield!"
"You look more like dog poop to me."
"Ya playin with the wrong guy!" More tentacles wrapped around his body squeezing as Irving forget himself trying to smother him. Chris gasped struggling against the tightness on his tense muscles. He maneuvered the syringe sticking it into the soft molding of Irving's body before he suddenly grunted in pain as Irving started squeezing tighter.
"I know I ain't supposed ta kill ya, but I'll just tell Excella it was an accident." Feeling like his arms were turning to mush, he couldn't move them to push the injector down. At this rate he wasn't going to be able to do anything.
"I doubt she'll believe a slug like you!" Chris struggled out with a groan. Great, he was already stuck and instead of trying to escape, he was provoking Irving more. But as he felt the injector pressing against him more he was started to purposely aggravate the man. "Then again maybe not. Your ugly mug might have a better chance of getting a date now than before." Chris smirked up at the angry eyes. "You might even get some compliments about that limp dick of yours. Sure has to be better than that thing you called a penis."
He felt pain explode in his head as he was slammed down into the ground hitting his head hard enough to almost make him black out. "Arugh!"
"Enough! I'm tired of ya lookin down on me!" He slammed the tentacle down, Chris just barely managing to roll out of the way before gripping his head. The syringe fell out dropping on the ground and shattering, Chris cursing before he rolled again as the tentacle swiped at him.
"Damn it, Redfield!" Irving was going into a blind rage, arms swinging wildly everywhere. Even Jill could do nothing but dodge as she tried to get to Chris. Irving was losing himself, his body seeming to get bigger as the skin turned red. "Do ya have ANY idea how long it took ta make that?" Tentacles slapped down on either side of Chris preventing his rolling escape as a grin stared down at him menacingly from the mass hovering over him. "Well, time ta say good riddens and ta hell with ya!"
"Chris!" Jill was yelling for him. But it was too late for him as he just stared with no escape in sight.
As two large tentacles started to come down on him, Chris closed his eyes tensing up. He waited with no choice for pain to grip his body. Seconds seemed to pass by agonizingly slow as Chris's chest rose and fell with anxious, rapid breaths.
"What…the hell…did ya…do ta me?" The sound of Irving's voice was of shock compared to the recent rage that had been there not that long ago. Chris cracked open an eye before both opened wide staring up at the tentacle mere inches from his face. It twitched as if struggling to move. Chris laid there staring at it almost afraid to move for the fear that it would break whatever spell was working right at that moment.
But it was an opportunity he might not get again as he carefully slid up from underneath the hovering arm. He kept his eyes on the giant mass in front of him as he slowly stood to his feet. Though the blob seemed as frozen as a statue, Irving's many hateful eyes continued to follow him as he made his way over to the shattered syringe.
Jill met him there, her eyes as watchful of the big behemoth as his were. "Chris…what the hell just happened?"
He frowned staring down at the shattered glass. A large quantity of what used to be inside was now missing. He looked up at the angry eyes shuddering internally at their fixed stare. The only logical thing he could think of was that when Irving tried to hit him that first time, he had unintentionally pushed the injector down causing the contents inside to be injected into him. As for what the stuff did to Irving, he didn't know. But he sure as hell didn't plan on staying around to find out how long it lasted.
"Let's go," he said to her draping her arm over his shoulder to help her walk. "I don't really get it myself but let's worry about it once we're out of here." Her shoulder shifted as she nodded her head in agreement.
Those eyes followed him all the way to the door. Hell, it felt like they were still watching him through the wall. As they made their way down the hall, Chris was surprised at how quiet the building was. He wondered how Jill had made it all the way to him without being detected. Something didn't seem right. Aside from Irving, it all seemed too easy.
"Let's head towards the front," Jill said slipping from him to walk beside him using the wall as her crutch instead. "We'll meet the rest of the team there." Chris nodded. He honestly didn't know exactly where the front was considering he didn't even know where he was. But Jill seemed to know managing to lead the way as she continued holding her side.
"You ok?" Chris asked. She glanced over her shoulder at him giving him a soft smile before returning her focus ahead. "I'll live. Probably just a few bruised ribs but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before." She kept walking keeping her focus straight ahead. "It's a little quiet around here. I was expecting to run into more problems but it was easier getting here than I thought."
Chris frowned slowing down slightly. "What do you mean? You didn't run into any Semi or those hooded guys?" Jill shook her head starting to frown as well.
"It's almost as if they left," she said. "Like they knew we were coming and they've just moved to another place." Something wasn't right about this whole thing. Did Spencer really leave behind his whole line of work, the place he probably called a home? If so, then where was Piers? Was Piers still with him?
As if answering their concerns, alarms started buzzing all around them making them freeze in place as they looked around distressed. The once dormant lights on the walls started flashing red as a voice came out over the intercom. "The self-destruct sequence has been activated. All personnel please evacuate to the nearest exit. I repeat. The self-destruct sequence has been activated. All personnel please evacuate to the nearest exit. Self-Destruction to begin in T-minus 10 minutes."
Jill glanced over at him. It was all he needed to know that they had to move fast. Picking her up bridal carrying her and was thankful to the drugs for being less potent in his system as he started running down the hallway as quick as possible. Though he didn't have a clue where he was going, she guided him as she pointed down the different hallways following the same route she'd obviously used to find him. Considering how many different twist and turns there were, he was surprised she'd gotten to him just in time before Irving could inject him. He imagined it would have been a completely different story had the Semi and Illium been in the way. The eerie thought came to him that Irving had been left alone in the building. Why?
"Agh!" Jill went flying from his arms as he fell forward, half turning to find a tentacle wrapped around his ankle. Irving was at the other end of the hall barely able to even fit as he started to drag Chris towards him.
"Chris!"
"Ya ain't goin nowhere, Redfield! Ya gonna stay right here with me! AHAHAHA!"
"Argh!" Chris swung his arms trying to grab at anything to keep him from being pulled closer to the monster behind him. His hands gripped hold of a door frame as he passed it, a grunt escaping his lips as he held on tight. It was hard to keep his grip when he had the arm wrapped around his foot keeping an even firmer grip than his human hands could.
"Whatsa matta? Ya dun wanna get close ta me?" Despite the words, the complete lack of care was heavy in Irving's voice as he laughed again tugging harder. "I just want ta be friends!" Chris used his free foot kicking at the tentacle to the sound of Irving's cackling ringing in his ears. This wasn't getting him anywhere! He could hear Jill trying to make her way to him as the intercom announced that they had five more minutes. Damn it, it had been right to think that whatever happened to Irving wasn't going to last.
Another tentacle came up wrapping around his legs and tugging hard, his already sweaty fingers making it easy for him to lose his grip as he yelled out scrambling for the doorframe as Irving started pulling him down the hall faster. Chris was once more held upside down, his eyes staring into the angry yet sadist orbs of Irving as he laughed right in his face.
"Fancy seein ya again, Redfield. Ya see we figured it would have been easier this way. Take ya over and make ole Wesker face mad. But then ya just had to ruin it all didn't ya?" His eyes narrowed as he stared at him. "Ya friend there had to show up and mess everything up. An' on top of that, ya had to break all my hard work when ya dropped my special medicine!" Irving slung him up against the wall forcing him to groan in pain. "Ya have any idea how long it took me ta make that? I swear ya BSAA guys sure are a pain in the ass!" Irving held him up high in the air. "But it dun mean nothin' now. I'm gonna make sure I take ya out of ya misery."
The ground rumbled beneath them like an earthquake. For a moment he wondered if the detonation had went off prematurely. It sure felt like an explosion was quaking the whole building. Irving paused, silent for the first time since Chris had the honor of dealing with him.
"…What the hell was that?" Irving yelled out before he glared up at Chris. "What the hell did ya just do?"
"Don't exactly know what I can do when you have me dangling upside down like a piece of fish," Chris said returning the glare. The shaking happened again, a lot rougher this time as Chris turned his eyes to the wall beside them. It wasn't an explosion. Something was breaking through. He picked up on the strong stench of decay, his ears gathering hints of a sound like crickets chirping. He recognized the sounds, remembered it from when he'd travelled the tunnels with Piers earlier and saw that weird slug like creature with all the dead bodies attached to its back.
The wall beside them shattered like egg shells as the slug came inside, surprisingly sharp teeth biting into the side of Irving as a dead carcass fell from his collection onto the ground. Though the slug was smaller than Irving by a bit, he seemed to have no problems knocking Irving into the wall as he tore at his side.
"What the…ah…stop! What the hell is this?" Chris fell as Irving dropped him distracted by the bigger threat attacking him. He grunted as he stood up again panting hard and feeling sore all over. It didn't stop him from looking up at the battle taking place right in front of him. Irving was attacking the slug with everything he had, his tentacle arms whipping and beating at the beast.
"Self-Destruction to begin in T-minus 1 minute." Crap.
"Chris!" He didn't even hesitate as he turned taking off down the hallway running as fast as he could.
"Redfield!" He heard the call, looked back to see the tentacle coming for him. "Dun even THINK about tryin' ta escape!" It came mere seconds to grabbing him before the slug leaned in and bit the sucker right off of Irving making Chris feel bad when he heard Irving's high pitched yell. But he just kept running mentally thanking the slug for the opportunity even though he was sure the creature would have attacked him too if such a big opponent weren't around. He made it to Jill with thirty seconds to spare and didn't pause as he picked her up and ran moving much faster than she would have with her injured side.
"T-Minus 10…9…8…" He ran as fast as he could with the load in his arms, his legs burning with the strain as he pushed himself to go faster. "7…6…" The door was right up ahead, bright light signaling that it was day time. "5…4…" He ran out through the opening seeing the others of their team standing outside waiting on them. Wesker and Leon were with them and for some reason even Ada Wong was there. Marco gestured impatiently for him to hurry up as he ran not letting up hearing the last of the countdown over the loud speaker. "3…2…1…"
He felt heat explode behind him as he took a chance and looked back seeing the building blowing up like a chain reaction as flames lit up the air, dark smoke billowing up into the sky. He stared shocked as he swallowed at how close they came to not making it out of there. If Irving was still alive after fighting that slug monster, there was no way he survived that.
"Chris, you can put me down now." Chris looked down still holding Jill in his arms before he nodded lowering her feet down to the ground carefully before looking at the rescue crew team. Marco Rose and the other members of Alpha Team saluted him on his safe return. He saw Leon standing by with Wesker and Bravo Team. His partner and best friend gave a nod of his head as he smiled at him, his arms folded over his chest as the look of relief shined in his eyes. He leaned on Wesker in camaraderie. The other didn't budge, his shades covering his eyes to hide what he really might have felt about everything. The most surprising thing Chris ran across actually was Ada Wong standing on the other side of Leon looking as if she belonged. He lifted a brow surprised to see her there.
It was when his eyes landed on her cat ears that the revelation of what just happened finally hit him hard. He turned around quickly, eyes wide as they stared at the burning building that he'd just barely escaped from before he took an unsteady step towards it. His mind was playing scenarios in his head of Piers been trapped inside unable to escape as the building burned around him. "Piers…Piers!" He started to walk towards the building thinking in his mind that he could hear Piers calling out to him for help but he didn't make it far as Leon grabbed his arm holding him back. "Damn it, let go! I need to get him out of there!" He felt desperate to get inside and he didn't know why. He couldn't explain why there was this sudden urge to return to what would surely be a burning death trap. "Piers! Hang on! I'm coming, just hang on!"
Leon turned him around, his teeth bared as he balled his fist up before Chris found himself on the ground, body knocked off balance from the powerful punch to his cheek. Eyes still wide, he looked up at Leon, his cheek throbbing as it started to swell. He could taste the coppery blood in his mouth as his mind was able to focus again not that the focus was on Leon once more.
"Have you calmed down yet?" Chris blinked frowning before he nodded slowly trying to understand what just happened. "Good." Leon stood up straight shaking his hand as if still feeling the throb. He stared right at Chris when he said, "Spencer already left. Piers was with him. He took a bunch of Semi and Illium with him along with the wicked witch Excella." He sighed rubbing at his bangs. "We tried to stop him but he had some of his semi lapdogs there to stop us." He frowned. "Must have been like his special ops or something. They were pretty highly trained."
Leon kneeled down resting his hands on Chris's shoulders squeezing them reassuringly as he looked into his eyes. "He's alive. With that knowledge we'll definitely find him." That determined look set inside that usually carefree face made Chris relax as he nodded slowly. It didn't fully removed that weird feeling that Piers was trying to contact him, but at least it helped ease away some of his present concerns.
"Thanks," he said returning a grateful smile. He missed the look Wesker passed to him as he stood starting to the combat vehicle waiting for him. He did have a lot of questions for his former team leader Wesker. He was going to grill him for every bit of information he could get until he found Piers. Maybe in the process he could find out why he sent Piers to him. Maybe he could even learn what exactly the two meant to each other. And maybe he'd be able to learn just a little bit of what Piers might have thought of him.
TBC…