I'm loving this latest writing bug, hopefully you guys are too. X'D Time for part 2 of Emma VS the BSAA. What could possibly go wrong. lolol

Song Suggestion: Go Tell Aunt Rhody [RE7 OST version]

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Resident Evil and its characters belong to Capcom. I am but the tiny bard that follows behind them, singing their praises. Fair warning to the stress sensitive this chapter probably won't be fun for you, if you prefer to skip, there will be a synopsis version in the ending notes.


The chirping of birds and warm sunlight announced the beginning of a new day and month. Peaceful slumber was interrupted though as a 6:30 alarm went off, reminding the tired couple who had a long night that it was, unfortunately, a Thursday and not the weekend. Emma grumbled to herself as she reached for her phone and turned off the alarm before taking a deep breath to start waking up. A content smile crossed her face as she felt warmth near her with strong arms holding her close as inaudible mumbling could be heard, likely cursing the alarm for waking him up.

Once more, Emma reached over for her phone and started to poke at the screen to send a message.

[Emma] Sorry, I need to take today off

[Boss] what happened?

[Emma] I had a rough night, I'm having trouble getting out of bed.

[Boss] Ah, sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Rest up. See you tomorrow.

Emma smiled at this as she put the phone back, and moved to snuggle a bit closer to the man next to her.

"Mornin'," Chris says quietly as he adjusted his hold on her since she moved.

"Morning," Emma replies in a similar content whisper.

Neither was sure what else to say, instead a low chuckle crossed Chris's lips which was infectious, causing Emma to quietly laugh as well. Chris shifted so one hand could gently caress the side of her face as he kissed her. There were still holes in his memory, but, his latest epiphany was finally starting to set in as 'normal'. They were happy.

"Hey Em," Chris asks after some time had passed to see if she was listening or if she'd fallen back asleep.

"Hm?" She replies, though there was a sleepy note to her tone.

He wasn't really sure how to ask this. "... Tell me everything?" He hesitantly requests. He wanted to remember, or at the least he wanted to check what she knew against what he did to make sure he wasn't missing anything.

"Everything is going to take a while," Emma points out with a hint of amusement. Maybe if they visited the apartment building... Would that help him?

"I'm listening," He says in return.

Hearing that causes a slight smile to spread across her face. "I took the day off," Emma quietly explains. "We have all day to work on that and I have some pictures. I can give you those after breakfast," She offers as well. "You know now, so I don't mind more actively helping, but the doctor made a good point about how it was important for you to remember on your own."

That was not really the answer he was hoping for... "Alright," Chris says all the same. Maybe it was a bit much for him to ask for a spark notes version of their story but, part of him wanted to know as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

As much as she wanted to stay here with him for the rest of the day, she did still have to take care of the home, and had kids to tend to, which was a process in and of itself. A process she was now about 20 minutes behind schedule on. "I should start getting ready before the kids get cranky," she reluctantly says.

Chris gave her a gentle squeeze of a hug and a peck before a thought came to mind that caused a quiet chuckle to escape him.

"What's up?" Emma asks curiously upon hearing that.

"I think he called me dad," Chris says with a smile that held a hint of pride.

That probably was an accident since Piers was still a bit too young, and honestly hadn't heard the word associated with Chris, but Emma didn't have the heart to say as much to Chris. Instead, she gives him a peck on the nose. "Alright then, 'Dad', try and get a bit more sleep, and I'll let you know when the shower's free."

With that said, she finally moved to get out of bed and love drunkenly walk to the master bath to start her day.

By the time she finished her shower and got dressed, it was already 7:10 AM. "Oh gosh," Emma says as she quickly hurried to towel dry her hair. She was late, she needed to get the kids up and make breakfast and take care of Duke. She stopped to take a breath. Relax, you took the day off. Today will happen as it happens. She took a few more seconds for herself to take a few more breaths before making her way out to the bedroom once more.

"Your turn," Emma says, hearing a sharp inhale in return as Chris wakes up again. Emma smiles a bit to herself as the return of their old routine, while mundane and trivial, gave her so much happiness. She made her way down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Duke was starting to pace around, which causes her to wince. "Sorry buddy, just a bit longer. I'm kind of behind schedule right now." She says quietly before getting out a pan and bowl to start up breakfast. Today was a pancake day if there ever was one.

Duke gave a quiet disapproving huff before making his way over to dramatically flop on the floor by the front door to protest.

A sympathetic and guilty attempt at a smile crossed her face upon seeing that. "It'll just be until I get breakfast done," She says as she starts gathering ingredients and getting a pot of Coffee started. If Piers was sleeping, then she was going to let him sleep.

By the time the batter was made and a few golden fluffy disks were created and stacked on a plate, Emma heard slow tired footsteps making their way down the stairs.

Chris made his way over to the Coffee pot and opened a nearby cabinet to get a mug so he could pour himself a cup.

Duke was not amused by Chris walking by without acknowledging his pouting. The pooch lazily lifted his head to howl and get the attention of his humans, causing both of them to look over.

"He is being a diva today," Chris says with a slight chuckle.

Emma smiles while bobbing her head. "He has a routine, and he likes to keep it," She says in return.

"True... Has he been out yet?" Chris asks with a raised eyebrow. Normally, Emma did that first.

Emma shook her head no. "Unfortunately not yet. I was going to do that after I woke up Rose."

"I'll take him," Chris offers before taking a quick sip of his coffee. A quick walk in the morning was healthy. Probably?

Emma smiled at this and gave Chris a quick peck on the cheek. She'd missed being able to do that. "Thanks, I'd appreciate that. And I'm sure he'd appreciate it, too."

A short laugh crosses the agent's lips, "Yeah probably," He agrees before looking over to the door where the dog was trying to lay as flat as possible to make himself look more pathetic and sad. He looked like a shag carpet. "Alright, are you going to be a rug or are we heading out?"

Upon hearing the magic word 'Out', Duke quickly sprung to life once more and excitedly waited for his leash to be attached.

Emma watched this with content amusement and waited for the door to close behind them before she moved to take the plate of pancakes over to the table. Once the table was set with plates, silverware and glasses, the motherly figure made her way up the stair to Rose's room gently opened the door before making her way over to the child's bed to sit on the edge of it.

"Rosie, time to wake up," Emma says while moving some hair out of the child face, which causes the young girl to slowly start to stir. "There are pancakes for breakfast," Emma adds in an attempt to cox the child out of bed a bit quicker.

"Pancakes?" Rose asks with a groggy yet hopeful tone.

"Mhm," Emma confirms as she moves to get up. "The sooner you're downstairs, the less likely they'll be cold," She points out before heading over to the door. "It's going to a bit cool for the morning but warmer later in the day, make sure you dress appropriately." Emma adds before heading out and closing the door behind her.

She could hear the soft sounds of movement as she walked down the hall. Good, Rose actually woke up, Emma thought with a quiet chuckle. She very quietly creaked open the door for the nursery to peek inside. She heard no notable baby sounds. With that, Emma very gingerly tiptoed over to the crib and found that sure enough Piers was still sleeping and likely dreaming due to small twitches of his hands, nose and toes.

Even though Emma knew she'd probably regret letting the baby sleep in later, she decided to slowly and quietly as possible make her way out of the nursery and closed the door behind her before making her way downstairs again. Maybe she could make some scrambled eggs, that would go well with pancakes.

While Emma was working on the addition to the meal, Chris was rather slowly making his way down duke's usual walking path. He was a bigger dog and that meant longer walks, but Chris didn't mind. The cool morning was just right so that a t shirt and jacket was comfortable. The scent of fresh morning dew still hung in the air and the world seemed at peace, making the walk a much appreciated chance to spend time with his own thoughts.

Or at the least it would have been. As he made his way down an otherwise empty sidewalk, he noticed a black car drive by. Then another. And another after that. Close together and all the same model of vehicle... Chris turns to watch with morbid curiosity. Keep going straight, don't turn. If they take a right, that would be going towards the.

House.

Chris's heart sank as he watched all three cars, in succession, take the right-hand turn. "Shit," He says under his breath before tugging on the leash. "Come on," He says to the dog and attempts to run. Something he has yet to try since he got his leg out of the cast. It was going to take some effort to catch up to the cars, but fear was a powerful motivator.

Emma had just finished making the extra breakfast morsel and placed a bowl of scrambled eggs on the table along with a plate of toast. While it was probably more than necessary, she always did end up being a bit extra when she was excited. He finally remembers. Kind of. It counts, he knew who she was at the least.

Rose still wasn't downstairs yet. Emma started making her way over to the stairs again and called up. "Rose, breakfast is getting cold!" She says, before almost immediately regretting it as she winced, remembering that Piers was still sleeping. She was so used to him being awake by now that she forgot. Emma heard some sort of response, but it was muffled by the child's door. She was just about to head upstairs when heard a loud pounding at the door.

The unexpected sound caused Emma to jolt slightly before looking over at the front door. That was weird... They didn't usually have guests in the morning. Maybe Chris accidentally locked himself out?

Before she could choose to do anything about the unsettling sound, the door flew open and fully equipped soldiers started to fill the space. Emma instinctively moved to stand in the way of the stairs while holding her hands up to show she was unarmed. If she could avoid a fight that she knew she'd lose, she would.

Rose had cautiously opened her door and was peaking through the banister with a terrified expression. "Mom?" She hesitantly called causing Emma to look up to where she heard the voice.

"Rose sweetie stay up there, okay? Don't come down sta-"

"Knock Knock," Says an irritatingly smug voice, which caused Emma's words to fall short as she looked over to the director with a glaring scowl as he entered the home. "Now then. Let's try this again," The veteran says with all the confidence of a man with the support of a small army. "I need Chris to come with me. Now."

"He's not here," Emma says while staying put.

"Pity," The director says before casually looking back to the armored up agents behind him. "Restrain her for now. Secure the bioweapon."

"What?!" The order caused Emma's eyes to widen in fear.

As Chris makes his way back home, just as he feared, the 3 large vehicles were parked outside of his small home on the cul-de-sac. The front lawn was littered with men in uniforms and combat gear that were labeled with patches that read BSAA. To his horror, he saw Emma struggling to pull free of the grasp of two agents, who were each holding on to one of her arms as Rose was being carried away towards the vehicles.

"Let go of me," Emma says while pulling and shifting. Chris taught her well enough how to get out of holds like these, but she wasn't used to fighting off the grasps of multiple people and the second one arm got free it was quickly grabbed again and held tighter. "Rose!" Emma says while trying to get to her child.

"Mom!" Rose shouts while Kicking, screaming and crying while trying to reach for her motherly guardian.

"Get her in the car," the director says annoyed by how much of a process this was turning out to be.

This was scary. She wanted her mom. She didn't want to go! "NOOOO!" Rose screeched loudly as large dark roots sprouted from the ground, causing the agents in charge of securing the area to panic. Screaming and shouting filled the air as soldiers were throws by the roots. While Rose was controlling them, this was only done semi consciously, as her focus remained on struggling to get away from the soldier holding her. the roots instead targeted anything close to them, grabbing agents and throwing them to get them away rather than piercing or stabbing, which they were more than capable of doing. Their actions reflected the child's will to just get them away from her home and family.

Despite the chaos occurring around him, the director calmly stands in place with a stoic expression while waiting for the operatives to get this back under control.

Chris was in mid-sprint over to the house when the roots sprang forward and started attacking the unknown guards around the house. Seeing this caused him to slow to a halt and stare in horror. What fresh hell was this? images came to mind of his view from a helicopter where a much larger collection of similar branches climbed and twisted their way out of an isolated home on a swamp. It took him a second, but he let go of Duke's leash and rushes forward to try and get closer on his own. Somehow, he knew this was Rose's doing. If he could just get her back, maybe she'd calm down.

While he managed to get a bit closer, he quickly found himself surrounded by 4 of the agents, who were not trying to distract the few root like protrusions from the ground. Upon seeing that each of them had the iron sights of their gun trained on his vitals he stopped moving.

"There you are," The director says as if Chris had simply been late for another meeting and there wasn't a small battle going on around them.

"What the hell is going on here?" Chris asks with a beyond enraged tone. While he couldn't move without risking eating a bullet, he had to fight back the urge to briskly walk over and deck the man. Everyone kept saying that punching things wouldn't solve his problems, but right now, it certainly felt like it would.

"Simple. You're no longer fit to be Rose's guardian, you said so yourself," The director replies in his usual calm disinterested tone. "I let you take in Rose because you were deemed fit to safeguard a bioweapon. If you're unfit to work, you're unfit to supervise a Bioweapon. So, We'll be taking her back now and assigning her to someone better suited for the job."

"Like hell you are," Chris says as the worker carrying Rose was assisted by others to try and get her to the armored car.

"What's it going to be Redfield," The director asks with a smug smirk knowing he held a stacked deck in this situation. "Either you put in your resignation, I take back Rose, and you live a happy little life with your cutesy ass wife, or you stop fucking around, GET IN THE GOD DAMN CAR and do your job."

"... I'll go, just leave them alone," Chris begrudgingly answers.

The director gives a shrill whistle to get everyone's attention. "At ease gentlemen, Let'm go," he says and sure enough the agent holding Rose quickly put her down, allowing her to hurry over and cling to Emma who was released as well. "There, now was that so hard?" The director asks, as the root like vines stopped their attack as well.

Chris remained silent as he stared down the director with an intense scowl.

"Did you change your mind?" The director asks while making a vague gesture to the line of vehicles parked in front of the house.

Again, not a word came from the infuriated man, but he turned and made his way over to one of the cars and got in.

That was much better, the director thought contently. "Alright men, pack it up, we have work to do." He instructs, receiving the usual chorus of confirmation. While the squads were preparing to leave, the Director turned to look at Emma who was now kneeling on the ground and sobbing as she held on to her frightened child.

"Remind me again. What I am and am not in charge of? It was absolutely enlightening to hear last time," the director says with a scoff before walking away to join the others in the cars.

Chris sat in the back of the middle car, he could hear his heart beating in his ears from the sheer anger that situation caused to well up inside him. Even then, the sound of the vehicle coming to life came to ear, along with the quiet nervous chatter of the other soldiers in the car.

"Seriously? We're just leaving that thing here?"

"Those Roots. They look like the ones I saw down in Louisiana,"

"When they said she was a bioweapon, I didn't think we'd be dealing with another Eveline,"

"She even looks like her,"

"I've talked to her before, she didn't seem dangerous, but I guess I was wrong,"

"I wonder if she's mind controlling them too. Making a new 'family',"

"It's a good thing we got here when we did."

While Chris wanted to tell them to shut up, or he'd make them, he knew any further lashing out would just be dismissed and blamed on Rose. Instead, he looked up at the rearview mirror of the car as they started to drive away, only to see Emma holding Rose while both were in tears.

... Did he make the right choice?

The question haunted him the whole drive, that felt like it took an eternity. Tired, defeated eyes watched a despised building come into view and the cars drove past into a large garage for official BSAA equipment.

"Everyone out," The head of the convoy says after parking the black SUV. The others in the car moved like mechanical gears and filed out of the car in an organized fashion, with Chris not far behind. the large Group of 18 agents walked through the garage in two single file lines, with Chris in the middle on his own and Director Romanov leading the way into the headquarters.

Before long, the group made their way to a door labeled 'locker room' and stopped in front of it on the director's signal.

"Good work today everyone," The director says and Chris could hear an unspoken 'except you' in his tone. "Artic Fox, Silver Colt, and Canary Lynx, you're free to return to your regular daily tasks." The director continues to instruct. "Redfield," he adds after while walking forward to approach Chris, causing the two lines to part and get out of the director's way. "Get geared up. You're expected in mission briefing room 4b," the director says before taking Chris's hand and forcefully putting a set of small keys in it. "keys to your locker. we don't have all day."

Chris remained silent as he pushed past the director to head into the lockers, only to hear a distant 'I didn't say at ease,' from the director. Chris slammed the door shut behind him in response. The rebellious agent stiffened by agitation walked past the rows of lockers. Somehow in his frustrated state he managed to Auto pilot his way to his own locker... he wasn't sure how he remembered where it was but, this was it.

Chris moved to sit down on the bench in the middle of the row of lockers he entered and held his face, causing the keys he'd been handed to clatter to the ground with the gentle clink of plastic against tile. Just when he thought everything was going to be okay... the image of the rearview mirror came to mind once more. there was something nauseatingly familiar about this feeling. Homesickness. He'd managed to go without that feeling for so long, but now it was painfully clear to him that it was a feeling that he grew to experience the closer he got to Emma.

The man gave himself a few more moments to process the emotion before moving his hands out of the way, so he could look at the floor and star at the unusual looking 'keys' if you could call the as much. there were 3 items on the key ring. two looked like USBs with a long plastic protrusion at the end that was designed to mimic a key with the other was similar to the first 2, yet the plastic protrusion was missing.

Did it break when he dropped it?

Chris leaned down to scoop it up as he heard the chattering of other soldiers entering the locker room, even though they didn't make it to his row. he looked the keys over before getting up and walking to his locker. he placed one of the two identical looking keys on the pad for his locker and with a digital 'beep' and a flash of green light it opened up. Chris curiously closed the locker and used the unusual key, and it had the same result.

Chris closed the locker again before his gaze wandered to the locker next to his. He tried the unusual key first, and the other locker followed the usual process, opening with a beep and a flash of green. Chris closed it and continued his experiment. he tried the regular key again on the other locker. This time there was a warning tone with a flash of red and the locker stayed closed.

A master key?

Chris stayed quiet and opened his locker before pocketing the key ring. Why, in the name of all that was holy, did the director give him that?

While he was confused, he remained quiet about the potential mistake and got dressed into his full gear like he was told to do. and made sure to take the master key off the ring and pocket it in case the director asked for the key ring back.

With that taken care of, Chris made his way out of the locker room. it took looking at a few wall placards that displayed maps of the building, but he eventually made it to the briefing room that the director mentioned. Upon entering the room, Chris saw 5 others waiting inside that he doesn't recognize.

"No way, Alpha?" one of them says, surprised.

"Hey, I didn't think you'd be coming for this one," says the female of the group, before Chris noticed one of them looking at him.

"You're looking good man, glad you're okay," says the one with a sad and guilty expression.

"Are you sure you're okay to do this?" asks the oldest of the group with a concerned frown.

"... I'm sorry but. Who are you?" Chris says confused, which causes the room to go painfully silent.

The one that hadn't spoken yet broke the silence. "Man, that thing really did do a number on you..." they say, though their voice holds some sorrow to it.

"We can catch up on the way out..." says the oldest one with a similar torn expression. "For now, we have a problem on our hands... Debriefing should be starting soon."

As if on cue, the director walked into the room and made his way to the front. "everyone to your seats." he says in a tired, monotone voice. While Chris initially hesitated, he did what he was told and took a seat along with the 5 others. "Nice of all of you to join us," the director says before picking up a small remote like device and pressing a button that caused the lights in the room to turn off and the projector to turn on.

"During your last mission as hound wolf squad, there was a miscommunication regarding your initial raid point. during the raid that did occur, your team came in contact with a hostile bioweapon, which has been classified as a mutated T type of some kind." The director says before showing slides of the facility at different angles.

a dull static sound started to ring in Chris's ears.

"So far so good, seems our plan is working. This lab is still active."

"Take a look for yourself. There are some exhaust pipes to the far left of the building, they're producing steam still, so at the least, something is still running in there."

Chris winced at the memory and tried to focus on the meeting that was going on in the present once more.

"This creature was left alive during your retreat and as a result, we lost track of it in the mountains until recently," the director explains before a few crude pictures of the beast were shown.

The ringing grew worse as Chris saw the pictures of the monster. Any further explanation was left unheard as flashing clips of the memory came to mind. The people in the room... he remembered them. they were his team. They've worked together for years. he lost communication with half of them... Umber eye, Tundra and Canine... He and the others went in further instead of leaving. Night Howl wanted to try and gather data... It was about to attack Lobo when-

"Chris," the director says with an annoyed expression. "you look like you've seen a ghost."

Chris snappily looks at the director with a panicked stare.

A tired sigh crossed his lips but all the same, the director continued. "We managed to get an idea of where it is, but for the worst reasons... It was able to hid in the mountains for some time, but it finally got hungry," The director says with an almost upset tone as he clicks the button to change slides again and images of mangled ripped up bodies with chunks missing were shown."guess what it eats." The director says with dry sarcasm. "There are civilians out there getting ripped to shreds by this thing. Each day we leave it free to roam, there is another civilian casualty."

That almost happened to him... Chris realized as he stared at the images on the screen. To say that going back to fight this thing was unsettling was an understatement but, at the same time, there was part of him that understood the director's anger. this thing was killing people that they swore to protect... "What do we have to work with?" Chris asks as he tries to push down his own fear. This time, he wasn't going to lose.

"You'll have your usual equipment. A commuter helicopter to carry it all for the 6 of you,"

"The usual equipment didn't work last time," Chris points out as he feels his irritation return.

"6 people should be more than enough, as I recall from the mission report, you got split up and there were only 3, don't get split up, and you'll double your firepower," the director points out "it's a standard enough T type mutated or not, 6 is more than enough."

"It's clearly not just a T-type, I saw the thing with my own eyes," Lobo objects as well. "It already gave us a run for our money and almost killed him last time." Lobo adamantly points out. "That thing was made of the lords from the village. that's gotta be like 5 T-types in one beast. we haven't had to fight anything like that before." Hearing that causes images of the lords and Miranda to flash through Chris's mind. Upon seeing one of them. A man with silver hair. other memories returned too. the trial... that one was still alive.

"Fine. FINE. what do you want, a rocket launcher?" The director asks while trying to figure out what would appease the group. he didn't have time for this.

"It's missing one..." Chris say quietly as he continued to remember Heisenberg... they worked together once before. "Fight fire with fire... Get us the remaining lord. Have him assist us. He'd know their weaknesses better than anyone."

"That's going to take more time," The director points out, as he was ready to reject the idea.

Honestly, that's also kind of what he was hoping for. He wanted to go home. He wanted to make sure Emma and Rose and the baby were okay. "It would be a chance to check up on him and make sure he hasn't left. if the others are a threat, he might be involved."

The room remained silent as the director's annoyance was palpable. "... Fine," he says, finally breaking the silence. "We'll have a different team collect the remaining lord for you to take with. You leave in 24 hours." The commanding officer offers. "Agreed?"

While he was hesitant to do so Lobo was the first to speak, "... if Alpha is okay with it, I'll follow."

"same here," Umber eye agrees.

"Same," Tundra confirms as well.

"yeah," Canine and Night Howl also agree as the 5 looked to their leader.

"... I'll agree to it," Chris finally says, content that he at least bought himself a bit more time. "If we have 24 hours, then I'd like to be taken home." He didn't really drive here on his own, so he needed a ride back. This way he'd be able to take his own car here at the least, even if it was sort of illegal without a clean bill of hea-

"Request denied," the director says shortly as he presses a button on the remote, causing the projector to turn off and the lights in the room to turn on. "You and Hound wolf will stay in the barracks until your scheduled leave time in 24 hours." The director says with a tone that suggested arguing with him would benefit no one.

He really was trapped here... He wanted to go home! Chris was ready to argue but continued to bite his tongue.

"Are we going to have a problem?" He asks Chris with a raise eyebrow as he recognizes Chris's anger returning.

Chris remained silent. While his instinct was to fight back, memories of the BSAA dragging Rose away from the house stuck with him. If he didn't want that to happen. if he wants to keep his promise to Ethan and protect Rose, he has to follow orders with the BSAA. If he doesn't, they'll just threaten to take her away again, or worse, it won't just be a threat... He was trapped.

"... No sir," Chris replies with spite evident in his tone.

'*'*'*'*'

a solid 12-hour passed since then. during that time Chris was lead to a small windowless room that was barely big enough for a cot that's bedding was neatly tucked in to the point it looked fake, a small writing desk and a chair. Spending such a long time isolated after 5 months of being pretty constantly surrounded by family was maddening, and the 12 hours felt more like 12 days.

Nonetheless at the dawn of the 13 hour, around 9:40 PM, there was a knock at his door.

"Captain Redfield, Sir, your presence is being requested in meeting room 7," says a voice from the other side of the door. "The asset you requested wants a word with you."

That, kind of made sense, he probably should have expected as much. Chris pushed himself to get up off the cot and head over to the door to open it. "Take me to him." Chris says and the soldier waiting for him nods before turning to do so.

The two silently walk as their steps echo through the empty hallways. It took a few minutes, but before long, Chris found himself standing in front of another labeled door.

"Fair warning Captain, he's not in a great mood," the soldier quietly says in a tone that suggests he wasn't really supposed to say as much.

"sounds about normal," Chris replies before signalling that his escort could leave. He takes a deep breath before opening the door and immediately leaning to the right to dodge a pen that was thrown at him with the force of a steel bolt. Chris walked in and closed the door behind him hearing a solid thud from the pen trying to come back into the room at the same speed for a second pass.

"The hell am I here for?" Heisenberg asks with an annoyed scowl as he moved to stand up and started walking towards Chris. Metal cuffs were open and torn apart on the table that should have been bolted to the ground but was now free and loose along with the chairs.

"The other lords are back," Chris says which almost instantly causes Heisenberg to stop in his track.

"You dragged me all the way out here for a joke?" Heisenberg scoffed as his scowl remained, though, there was a hint of fear in his eyes.

"We need your help," Chris admits in response. He was too tired to deal with this.

"Well this is a shitty way to ask for it," the metal lord says with a huff. "and why the hell should I help you?" He further remarks while gesturing towards Chris. "you blew up my factory you shit."

"Because if we don't they're just going to keep killing people and-"

"There is no 'we' in this," Heisenberg says in return as the metal scraps of the room started to float in protest. "This is not my fucking circus, not my monkeys. This is, however, your problem. You figure it out."

"That's what I'm trying to do," Chris says openly irritated as he finally started to show his shortened temper despite his best efforts. "That thing nearly tore me and my team to shreds."

"I get Bioweapons aren't people to you but calling them a thing is pretty low even for you. The hell is that supposed to mean?" Heisenberg points out as the piece of metal continue to float around the room in warning that at any second he could lash out if he wanted.

"That thing is not a person anymore," Chris says as one of the pieces moved to point directly at him as a final warning. "It's like someone threw the scraps of them in a blender and bolted some weird VR Headset to its face, there is no consciousness left, it's not a person," Chris says in return.

There was an uncomfortably long pause after this as the metal lord seemed to think over Chris' words. "... You want my help? Fine. But it has a price," Heisenberg says as the warning piece returned to it's at rest position and Heisenberg brought his chair back over so he could sit down.

Chris watched as Heisenberg sat down. "Name your price."

"... Complete amnesty, for me and Charlotte from the village incident," Heisenberg says initially as he moves to lean forward to rest his elbows on his knees and clasp his hands together. "Drop everything about the lawsuit you threw at us too. I don't want to hear another fucking word about how you think you know who did what." the lord says with a seemingly permanent frown. "and... you said it killed people?"

"a dozen or so at this point, yes," Chris confirmed with a skeptical glance.

"I want their hearts... and a way to store them," The lord says, which causes a disgusted expression to immediately form on Chris's face.

"You're sickening," Chris says as he was ready to leave.

"Do you want my help or not?" Heisenberg asks with similar annoyance in his tone. "The families won't know any different, they're just going to put them in the ground and sob over a rotten corpse they don't even want to look at." He offers, as if that was supposed to make it any better. "If you want my help. Those three things are my price."

Chris remained silent. If he wanted to protect his team, he knew he'd need help, but the request was beyond deplorable. "I can't promise anything, but I'll run the requests by the director."

"and I can't promise my help unless I get all three of those things," Karl snarkily retorts.

Chris Rolls his eyes in response. "I already know the courts won't agree to turn away lawsuits, it would have to be an under-the-table agreement as far as the first two requests go."

"That'll do," Karl says with a somewhat victorious smile.

'*'*'*'*'

"How long are we going to walk around this godforsaken mountain? I thought you said you knew where it was," Karl says while bundled up and trudging through the snow with an obnoxiously heavy backpack.

"We knew the general area, it picked small camping grounds in the mountains," Night howl says in return. "once the food is gone, it moved on to find other hunting grounds."

"7 people combing a mountain for a moving target," Karl muttered with disdain. "worse odds than finding a needle in a haystack," he says under his breath.

"If you have energy to run your mouth, you have energy to keep walking," Umber eye says as the usually patient man was already at his last straw with the metal lord.

"... It has been a while since we took a breath though," Canine says with a defeated expression, he preferred not to complain but, they'd been walking around since sun up every day for the last 11 days. "The dogs could use a break for water at this point. they're starting to eat snow..." he adds as a reason to stop for now.

Chris nods at that, it was a more reasonable request than Heisenberg's whining. "Let's look for a river or a stream... we can set up there for a bit to catch our breaths and eat." Chris says giving new orders for now. "try not to sit down though, if you get your clothes and gear wet because of the snow it's going to make the next 5 hours all the more painful." he adds in warning for the group.

The group kept looking for any sort of river or pond and after another hour of looking the managed to find a shallow moving stream. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing.

"Let's set up here for now," Chris says as he moves to take off his backpack. "Tundra, can you make a note of our coordinates so we can come back here later to camp for the night?"

"On it," Tundra replies as she gets to work marking down their location on a map.

Heisenberg shook his head and kept to himself before making his way over to the stream to get some water by taking off a glove and cupping his hand in the icy stream. The weather and cold didn't bother him as much as the fact that he was on a fool's errand for almost 2 weeks.

the second the water went into his mouth, he instantly spat it back out and made a face of disgust. The man looked upstream before noticing a slight reddish tint, which his eyes followed up the stream to a bear carcass that had been ripped open. it was fresh... and way too close for comfort. Heisenberg stayed low as he moved to take off his book bag and slowly opened it, allowing some decent size sharp metal roads to click and clank together. The sound caused him to wince as the metal pieces began to float in the air.

Karl slowly backed towards the others who looked at him confused but quickly got their own weapons ready.

"What the hell are you doing?" Chris says with a confused expression while looking around for anything that might be off.

"Keep your voices down... There's a bear over there, just ripped open, barely started bleeding out but it's abandoned," Karl whispers while looking around.

"Shit," Lobo says as he starts looking as well.

It had been desperate enough to hunt animals, but with 7 fresh prey walking right into its territory. The hunt was on.

"It's an 8-foot tall abomination, how hard could it be to fi-"

the ground parted ways as if hell itself spat the creature out and it sprang forward in at attempt to try and catch a taste human morsel.

Instead, it was met with a shower of bullets from Lobo and Tundra causing it to howl in pain from the sting of the small metal pellets as the others moved to get out of the way of friendly fire.

"Dear god," Heisenberg says while staring at what used to be 4 separate beings.

Grunts and snarling lip-smacking could be heard before an ear-shattering screech of four voices forced to cry out as one.

"Open fire!" Chris orders, and the group did just that and as Chris predicted, just like last time it did little to nothing to slow the creature down. Instead, it rushed at the gathering, causing them to scatter.

"Take cover, try and stay out of each other's way but keep it pinned," Chris shouts the command as he and 5 of the 6 others instantly do so.

"This isn't fucking working, you're the explosives maniac, did you try that yet?" Heisenberg asks before quickly ducking behind a tree to avoid the creature's slashing claws.

"hhhHHHeIIISeennBbEEeerrgg," The creature managed to say before it began to convulse and retch.

Chris uses this chance to try and throw a grenade at the creature. With a fiery explosion, the otherwise small device forces the amalgamation of souls to stumble back. a bit burn, and charred, but otherwise fine and now. Much, much angrier.

another roar of pain was heard echoing through the trees before the beast used it's long clawed fingers to dig into the ground and seemingly absorb into the dirt.

"Shit shit shit," night howl repeatedly says as he recognized the danger and tried to look for any signs of where it might have gone and anything that could protect him.

instead, sharp vine like roots began to spring forward and grab at anything and anyone they could. Umber eye, had managed to climb a fair distance in an attempt to find a sniping nest and was safe from there, but the others were not as lucky. Canine took a hit to the ribs as Lobo was grabbed at the waist and thrown against a tree like a rag doll. Tundra and night howl were both lassoed and dragged to the ground, keeping them from moving. the same nearly happened to Chris, instead it caught his ankle and started dragging him into the clearing by the stream.

Heisenberg had thought he'd been spared when to his horror the ground split open once more as the creature attempted to attack him directly.

The creature's claws clipped his arm and upper leg, but he ultimately managed to dodge being torn apart. "No you don't you goddamn super size freak," Heisenberg venomously hissed as the collective mass continued to pull its way out of the ground.

"CCcchiiiLLDdd"

Hearing that one word made him even more pissed off than before, if that was even possible. "And here I thought you couldn't be any bigger of a bitch," He says while directing the metal spikes at the creature. while it was able to make a few decent size cuts, its thick hide and protective covering of feathers prevented any further damage.

As Heisenberg tried to put some distance between himself and the creature, it instead reached out to grab him and throw him as well in protest for the assault. The metal lord pushed himself to get up after the hard landing that would likely create a few bruises at the least. He stumbled back a few more steps that the creature took forward, ready to continue its fight.

Chris watched this while struggling to break free of the vine that was slowly curling up his leg, as he had a flashback to his most recent nightmare. He abandoned his attempts to pull the vine off of him on his own and quickly grabbed a knife from his tactical gear so he could start hacking away at it. the vine tightened its grasp more and more with each cut he made, but despite the pain it caused him, he was eventually able to cut himself free.

He quickly got up after this and looked around to survey the damage and figure out what was going on, only to find the more of his team was out for the count and that the creature had mostly been focusing on Heisenberg who was slowly backing away from it, leading it away from the others who could not defend themselves.

With each step back, Heisenberg looks over the creature. There had to be some kind of opening. he knew he cut into it, the blood on his spikes was enough to confirm that. The loud, sharp ping of gun fire caught his attention as the creature shifted to try and brace itself from the biting bullets. In doing so Heisenberg was able to see over its shoulder just enough. A cut, as small as it was, became visible.

Upon noticing this, Heisenberg readied a spike in the air. Just as he was about to plunge it into the creature's back, it charged forward at him, knocking him onto the ground and forcing the metal lord to act on faith and hope that the spike would pierce through. with a grip of his hand, the pointed metal rod dug into the creature's back, causing it to reel back enough for Heisenberg to prop himself up but to his horror, it was still alive, and the spike was stuck.

At least, it was. Chris had seen what was going on and while it was happening, quickly hurried over. with a forceful leap, he managed to grab onto the spike and throw himself onto the creature's back. was it graceful? no, but it worked and once there he was able to try and force the spike in deeper and get it free of whatever it was stuck on.

Heisenberg continued to have his powers pull on the metal spike as the creature cried out and as soon as it managed to break free, it ripped the rest of the way through its chest, with its hybrid cadou heart stuck on the spike.

Chris was no longer able to hold on and fell to the ground once the spike left the creature, and shortly after it slowly stumbled forward, calcifying and crumbling to crystallized pieces. The agent tried to catch his breath from the stressful and painful exercise and cautiously watched as Heisenberg stared at the pierced heart.

Heisenberg spat on the ground in front of the remains. "Stay fucking dead this time."

'*'*'*'*'

The trip home was a much desired relief. The whole flight home, the group was silent as they were all tired from the 2-week trip in the mountains. They didn't usually have to do combing missions like that, so the constant movement left them all drained the second they were able to sit on anything more comfortable than a cot.

That wasn't the end of it, though, much to Chris's chagrin. A 1-week quarantine period was mandated as the doctors from the headquarter's medical wing patched up their injuries. The motions of debriefing and waiting anxiously for permission to leave feel all to common to him. He did this often... He thought he was joking when he called himself the 'dead beat husband' but. that was starting to feel more accurate, even if he knew now that he didn't have a choice.

He'd thought the quarantine and day long meetings would be enough, but he was proven wrong once more. while the others were given permission to leave and go home, Chris was told to stay and was kept under close watch of the doctor's, who were frankly tired of him over exerting himself and extending how long his healing time was taking. It had been long enough since his first fight with the beast that, thanks to the new injuries, he received. He was approved for further chemical treatment to speed things up. Even then, it still took some time for the doctors to give him a full bill of health.

By the time he was allowed to leave, it was 7:45 PM on the 30th of June. A Friday. At least he'd be able to enjoy the weekend. Hopefully. Maybe. Depends if the BSAA decides they want to kick down the front door again. Chris thought over the events from the beginning of the month with the same level of irritation as the day it happened.

The agent shuffled his way to the garage where the BSAA vehicles were stored and found that there was a soldier waiting for him like he'd been promised.

"Captain Redfield, sir," they say in greeting with a slight nod.

Chris nods in return and is otherwise silent, and gets into the passenger seat of the car and waits for the soldier to take the driver's seat. Before long they were on familiar roads and a sense of nostalgia washed over him. He remembered doing this drive often. Usually around this time too. Late at night with the same heavy, sunken feeling where he just wanted to go home and collapse in bed. He remembered driving to the apartment and how he honestly preferred staying at HQ to driving back home, since the commute was a pain in the ass. He remembered his opinion slowly changing as a new ritual of sorts was formed, where he'd stop one door early and visit Emma for dinner because he was too tired to buy groceries on his way home.

He remembered being gone longer and longer and how his time away only bothered him when he got back, and he'd be able to tell how much he missed. He remembered that growing to a sense of guilt as they got closer and moved in together.

"Don't 'Ugh lawn mowing' me. You're gone for weeks on end. I'll probably be the one handling that,"

She was doing everything on her own... Chris lazily glanced over to the soldier in the seat next to him. "... Do you have any cigarettes?" He asks as he remembered his ritual driving home that helped ease his stress.

the soldier gave a cautions glance to Chris as they were unsure whether this was a test or not. "No sir." they say with an even tone.

Of course not... Chris remained silent for the rest of the drive home.

The soldier parked alongside the sidewalk in front of his house, where sections of missing grass and exposed dirt showed where holes used to be. Chris got out and patted down his jacket and pants. The only key he could find were the 3 keys given to him by director Romanov. A tired sigh crossed his lips as he could hear the car driving away behind him.

While this was where he wanted to be the weight in his chest made moving forward feel difficult. An eon in a minute later he found himself waiting hesitantly in front of the front door of the house. He fought back hesitation and held up a gently closed hand to knock on the door, and a half attempt at a smile crossed his face as he heard familiar howls and barking, alerting everyone inside that someone was waiting at the entryway.

eventually the barking stopped, and the door cautiously creaked open ever so slightly. Once Emma could see who it was, the door was quickly opened the rest of the way as she moved to cling to him, and he heard muffled words as she spoke into his shirt.

"Oh thank god you're alright," Emma says, having feared the worst since she heard nothing from him after he was dragged away almost a month ago.

He gently holds her in return while hunching forward enough to rest his face on the top of her head. Honestly, he felt like he should be saying that to her and Rose. He didn't know what happened after he left... a relieved chuckle escaped him as he moved to place a kiss on the top of her head. "I'm fine... What about you and the kids?"

"We're all okay," She says in return. "Rose got pretty scared, but... she's doing better," Emma explained quietly.

"She's a strong kid," Chris replies as he felt relieved to hear that everyone was safe and sound. the two of them stayed there for some time and continued to just be as they held each other in the doorway of their home.

"Hey Em..." Chris whispers to get her attention while gently running a hand along her back. While normally the motion was meant to sooth others, in it's own way it brought him comfort too.

"Hm?" Emma replies to show she was listening.

"I remember," Chris meekly admits. "All of it... At least... I think I do." He adds as further clarification. While he had found out the truth before and accepted it. the memories he gained from this solidified it in his mind and slowly, but surly he knew he remembered.

"I'm glad," Emma says with a laugh that sounded relieved as well. The last six months had been a living hell, but hearing that was comforting. "Welcome home?" she says, though it sounded more like a question, to see if he was sure.

"I'm home," he replies, confirming the answer to the unspoken question. "... I missed you,"

Hearing that caused her to smile and nuzzle closer to him. "I missed you too," she didn't care if they were still sort of outside. She missed him, and she didn't want to let go.

Chris waited and continued to stay there as well. Once he could feel Emma's grip looses enough, he shifted his hold on her, so one hand was holding the side of her face and kiss her.

As the two held each other and felt comfort in the warmth of the embrace, else were, in a dark room, others were not so thrilled. the Main source of light in the room was a single computer monitor. "These agents have become even more of a nuisance to my work than I'd initially expected..." they say in a tone that sounded mildly perturbed at best. "Well, I suppose I'll just have to build a better version. Something more, resilient this time... I do have a few pieces left to work with," They idly monolog to their screen while drumming their ring laden sausage like fingers on their desk. "I can't have that happening again... I suppose if there is a consistent problem, the only option is to remove it." The figure says before going back to reading. The monitor's display showed a portrait picture of Chris along with a full and detailed write-up about him. "and if you can't get rid of the flaw, get rid of the one that can exploit it. after all, the work must move forward."

the large figure cloaked in shadows scrolled down the page. a portrait of Emma with a similar write-up was shown with significantly less information. another write-up of similar length with no picture showed after that, and finally a portrait of rose showed with a similarly detailed write-up that was even longer than Chris's. the figure smiled. "Interesting... Ethan's little Rose, I may have use for you now."


Well that was a ride ovq hopefully the more action pack chapter is a nice break in it's own way since we've had a rather decent spell of home bound chapters lol. and hey Chris remembers officially now! all it took was getting up again but not dying lol.