Chapter Text
Ethan didn’t know what to do with his hands. He was standing outside of the factory, in the fallow field of withered grass and rusted scrap, waiting for the freight elevator to slowly chug upwards to him. Heisenberg said this would take him down to where Chris was sneaking around.
Ethan reflected on Heisenberg’s intense hatred for Chris, not really understanding it. Ethan had screwed with his plans more than Chris but Heisenberg seemed to have...not a soft spot but definitely an interested glint in his eye when he spoke to Ethan. There was only seething hate and frustration when he mentioned Chris. Though just behind that hatred, Ethan had almost glimpsed fear.
“Now that I’ve helped you, I need a small favor.” Ethan had no goddamn clue what help Heisenberg was referencing. He settled on assuming he meant not throwing him down the trap door. Asshole.
“Think of it as a show of our mutual trust in each other.” The machinist’s smile was carnivorous as he paced in front of Ethan. A caged lion, starving, and he was about to free it. “Redfield’s crawling around in the sublevels like a shitty, roided rat planting explosives in my factory. Talk to him, scare him, kill him, I don’t care as long as he gets the fuck out. He isn’t part of-” Heisenberg gestures at the space between the two men “-This.”
“Why the fuck should I?” Ethan deliberately ignored any deeper implication at the gesture.
“Cause if we aren’t going to use sweet little Rose, we’re going to need my metal army intact.” His teeth glinted ferally. “And I’ll kill him myself if you don’t put a leash on that hound.” Ethan was regretting this alliance with every smug word the lord said.
“Think of it this way- I’m protecting my assets, you’re protecting yours. Now hurry before I think about how easy it would be to crush that rock-kicking shithead.”
"When did I start taking orders from you?" Ethan said, feeling disgusted at himself.
Heisenberg's eyes glinted like two drops of honey held up to the light and his body had a new excitement to his movements, like a little kid just barely holding back a secret they've been dying to tell.
"You've got a thick head, don't you Ethan?" The lilt to the man's voice was less playful now, more threatening. "Isn't it real convenient that all the doors, crates, ladders, and signs were marked in screaming yellow?" He stalked closer to Ethan, who stood behind the chair and trap door. He definitely didn't want to let that hole in the floor out of his sight. Ethan held his ground as Heisenberg stopped just inches from his face, leering. "You've only gotten this far because I wanted you to."
"Bullshit." Ethan reached out to shove Heisenberg's chest but he was faster and angled his body to the side just before Ethan's hand made contact.
"How's my help any different than the Duke's? Well, besides that I'm a shitty cook," he quipped then laughed at his own joke. The tension seemed to leave as soon as he wanted it to. Heisenberg backed off but it didn't feel like a victory to Ethan. He was being toyed with.
"You passed the elevator to the sublevels on your way into the factory. Tick tock, Ethan." The mutant waved his hand and the wall peeled back like a sardine tin and he left, the wall zipping back up behind him.
Ethan didn't trust Heisenberg. He had the fullest intention to turn on the man the moment he showed any ill intent, as he knew the other would do the same .
He also wasn’t going to kill Chris, but explaining his new partnership felt just as daunting.
The door of the freight elevator yawned open. It was empty, and probably not a trap, but Ethan decided he felt safer with the weight of his pistol in his hand. He reminded himself that Heisenberg could have killed him a dozen times over if he wanted to. He needed him alive, for now. He swallowed and stepped into the elevator.
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Chris inspected a handful of fuses. He rolled them around on the palm of his gloved hand and the clinking of the glass harmonized with the trickle of water in the background. He hadn’t seen or heard a soldat in over an hour, which left him ample time to finish planting the C4 but also meant Heisenberg had called them off for another purpose. Chris grimaced. There were pieces of the puzzle that weren’t making sense, like the metal-polymer composite tank that he was currently putting the finishing touches on. Why would Heisenberg make this? It felt like a painfully convenient deus ex machina to Chris, but so had many other things in his past. He growled softly and twisted a bolt a little harder than it needed to be while pushing his pensiveness away.
“It’s always mind games with these freaks,” he muttered. As if on cue, the elevator to his left buzzed to life and began ascending. A fresh drip of adrenaline in Chris’ blood had him dropping the wrench he’d been wielding and he quickly killed the lights in the workshop.
His phone pinged but he ignored it. His team was on radio silence to avoid Heisenberg interfering, so any contact between him and his team would be through the phone. Chris didn’t want to take the chance of looking at his phone while something was definitely coming down the elevator to meet him. The light from the phone would blind him and he needed his eyes to adjust to the darkness if he had any chance against whatever it was. Chris pressed up against the wall, facing the elevator, and waited.
The door opened and Ethan fucking Winters walked out.
Then to his astonishment, Ethan called out his name.
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“Chris?” Ethan called out hoarsely. His throat hurt, everything fucking ached, but he stepped forward into the dark room. There was only ever one direction for Ethan and it was forward.
The sound of a boot scuffed to his left and by the time he started to raise the gun it was ripped from his hand. Pain spiked his arm and he dumbly realized he must have been struck. The imposing figure in front of him ejected the mag and racked the slide with cold efficiency before tossing his now useless pistol aside.
“Ethan, I told you to stay out of it.” Chris stormed past Ethan while he was half-crumpled into himself clutching his left arm. The pain awoke the wound in his hand which began a throbbing call and response between it and where Chris had struck him. He was miserable.
"Yeah, you told me that but didn't tell me my wife had been replaced by that crazy bitch." Ethan's voice cracked but he didnt care. He was too pissed. “That metal freak was the one who had to break the news to me that Mia wasn’t dead.”
Chris planted a heavy hand on his shoulder, whether to support him or subdue him, he wasn't sure. Chris spoke again but the anger was gone. In its place was exhaustion and the ragged edges of grief.
"There wasn't enough goddamn time. Even if there was, what good would it do? You'd just run off and get yourself-"
"Look who's killed three fucking lords!" Ethan had shrugged out from under Chris' hand and staggered upright. His right hand found the grip of the magnum in his back pocket. Chris had stepped back and was using the dark as cover for whatever he was planning. Ethan tried to quiet his gasping breathing to listen for footfalls.
The verbal punches continued, "I don't want to give a shit about your baggage but every time you fuck up you say it's because you're trying to protect us." Something plinked into the water to his right and Ethan drew the magnum.
"You're just trying to protect yourself-" Again, Ethan was cut off by Chris masterfully disarming him, having snuck behind Ethan and twisted his arm behind his back. The magnum thudded to the ground, joining the pistol.
Chris' hot breath puffed in his ear. "Stop." He then shoved Ethan away from him and walked over to the lights. As Ethan stumbled in the dark, Chris turned the lights back on. The fight had drained out of him and left a bitter tired residue. He watched Ethan blink painfully a few times before the man's light blue eyes settled.
"Got anything else you wanna say, Ethan?" Chris shrugged exasperatedly.
"Fuck you," Ethan spat while crouching to recover his guns. "I came down here to tell you that Heisenberg knows what you're doing and you gotta stop. We made a deal, he gets to kill Miranda and I get my daughter back."
Chris balked. "Did you get hit in the head?"
"I don't know, probably?" Ethan huffed, offended. "I'm not having brunch with the asshole, I just don't want to waste time putting him in the ground when I should be saving Rose." Ethan crossed his arms defensively.
Chris sighed. "Heisenberg is a dangerous BOW."
"So is Rose," Ethan countered. "Are you going to blow her up too?" His voice was rising in pitch again.
Chris raised his hand placatingly. "I never said that. Look, you have a point. We have limited resources and need to direct them at Miranda. If he survives, I'll handle what happens to him after that."
Ethan still looked troubled, his ashy blonde eyebrows furrowed together. He finally asks, "What's going to happen to Rose after this?"
It was a question Chris had been losing sleep over himself. If he were being honest, he didn't know. None of them knew the extent of Rose's powers, not even Miranda. Her safety was the first priority, though. Hound Wolf squad didn’t have the resources to study and treat Rose. He couldn’t take her directly to Blue Umbrella, it would metastasize the tension between Chris and the BSAA directors into an uproar that would be out of his control. He would be seen as a turncoat kidnapping a rogue BOW. There were still people within the BSAA that he trusted, and that would have to do.
"She’ll be safe.” Chris said sternly to imply there wouldn’t be any further discussion about it right then.
Ethan clenched his jaw but uncrossed his arms and relaxed his posture somewhat. "Don't give me another reason to doubt you," he warned Chris.
Chris didn't say anything, instead choosing to hand Ethan a few bullets that had rolled out of the mag when he'd disarmed the father earlier. A peace offering, though the irony of it being bullets twinged at Chris' guilty conscience. Ethan took the bullets from him, their hands lingering together for a moment as Ethan contemplated the gesture. The moment passed and Ethan resumed loading the mag into his pistol and gave it a once-over.
"So, what's the plan?" Ethan said, eyeing the tank.
Chris rubbed the back of his neck, massaging the tight muscles while he thought, a tic he developed during STARS. "My squad is regrouping in the forest not far from the ritual site, which according to our intel will be where Miranda will attempt to use Rose to resurrect her daughter." Ethan inhaled sharply as if he was about to speak but Chris kept on. "We aren't going to let that happen. Hound Wolf squad can cut a path through the village for you to secure Rose and escape back to the transit. I assume Heisenberg is providing a distraction." Chris frowned, not liking that he didn't have a direct line of contact to Heisenberg.
Or do I?
Chris turned his headset on but didn't select a channel. Instead he asked if Heisenberg could hear him. It felt sort of stupid talking to the empty air, and Ethan was looking at him like he'd finally lost it, when static prickled his ear. A honeyed voice answered and immediately he hated it.
"So you've got a brain under that muscle, huh! You knew I could tap into your radio. I'm almost impressed, Redfield." The lord then dropped the teasing tone, sounding serious and impatient. "I've been waiting decades for this, so stay out of my way. And tell your pawns not to put a fucking scratch on my soldats."
Chris held back a growl of annoyance knowing men like Heisenberg get off on causing a reaction. Instead, he filled him in on the plan.