Chris Redfield

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Adrian had to admit he had underestimated T-Lilith's combat ability.

The kick that sent Naraza flying had already been ridiculous. Watching her lift a car made him realize his whole tactical plan had been wrong from the start. He should have let her charge straight in. She might have rolled over the security team and the gangsters alike.

Unfortunately, that created another problem.

He had been so absorbed in T-Lilith's performance that he relaxed his guard. He failed to protect his own back, and someone got close enough to put a gun on him.

"Don't move. Hands up."

The voice was strong and steady. A cold muzzle pressed against the back of Adrian's head.

In that instant, Adrian reacted. He turned hard, grabbed the weapon, and shoved it aside. The gun went off. The shot rang painfully in his ears, but he had no time to flinch. He drove a kick into the man's abdomen.

The man staggered back two steps.

That was not what Adrian expected. A kick like that should have dropped him. There was no time to think about it. Adrian raised his rifle at the man, and the man raised his own weapon back. Both froze in a standoff.

Then Adrian went blank.

He knew that face. The hard features, the impossible build, the BSAA uniform.

"Chris?"

Chris Redfield froze as well. His brows drew together. "You know me?"

'Of course I know you.'

For one ridiculous second, Adrian wondered whether calling himself a fan would give him any advantage if the fight turned physical.

Joke aside, Adrian knew exactly how absurd the man in front of him was. Chris Redfield was one of the central survivors of the Resident Evil nightmare, fighting from the Mansion Incident in 1998 all the way to the Not a Hero incident years later. He stood beside a certain U.S. agent who had once turned a Spanish village into a battlefield. He had even helped bring down Albert Wesker, a man who could dodge bullets like he was auditioning for The Matrix. Adrian might be a violent mercenary now instead of an ordinary civilian, but if Chris took the gloves off, Adrian doubted he'd last ten seconds.

"You shouldn't have gotten involved, Chris." Adrian smiled. "O'Brian has already stepped down. Nobody's going to cover for you if this goes wrong."

Chris looked even more suspicious. This mercenary knew far too much.

Seeing that suspicion, Adrian relaxed slightly. Honestly, he was afraid Chris might skip straight to hand-to-hand combat. So he needed to build an air of mystery and buy time. T-Lilith seemed fine on her side, while somehow Adrian had become the one in trouble. Right now, he just wanted her to come save his life.

"I know more than you imagine." Adrian lowered his muzzle. "We are not enemies."

Maybe it was his old trust in the heroes of Resident Evil, but he decided to gamble. If he lowered his weapon and looked willing to talk, Chris probably would not smash his face in immediately.

Chris did not buy it. To him, Adrian's confidence looked less like trust and more like someone who believed he had leverage.

"Who are you?" Chris demanded. "Who do you work for?"

This was rough.

To stall, and hopefully reduce Chris's hostility, Adrian had to think carefully about what he could say and what he could not. He also could not reveal too much. Anyone who knew the canon knew that altering the timeline could turn into a nightmare.

"I'm myself. A man who makes a living with guns and bullets. I don't work for anyone long-term. I just know a little more than most because of the jobs I've taken." Adrian looked at him. "Don't stare at me like that. I lowered my gun. If you want me to talk, show some good faith. Believe me, we can resolve this peacefully."

Chris hesitated, then lowered his weapon a fraction. "Is that enough?"

Adrian smiled. Good. It was Chris. Chris was principled and refreshingly direct. If Jill Valentine had been the one on that roof, Adrian suspected he would have been face-down on the roof the moment he lowered his gun.

"Relax, Chris. Ask whatever you want. I'll tell you everything."

'Like hell. I just need to stall until T-Lilith saves my life.'

"You're Adrian Voss, correct?" Chris asked.

"That's me."

"A few days ago, during a BSAA operation, you took our mission target."

"If we're being honest, yes."

"Why?" Chris's frown deepened. "Were you protecting your employer's property? Planning to sell a B.O.W. on the black market? Following someone else's orders?"

"Would you believe I did it for love?"

"Answer me."

Chris's voice hardened. The gun in his hands seemed ready to rise again.

"I'm not lying. If I'd known the cargo was B.O.W.s, I never would have taken the job." Once he started, Adrian could not help unloading some of his grievances. "That night was already bad enough when the BSAA ambushed the convoy, and then two Tyrants came out of the truck. I was stunned. Then a silver-haired young woman fell out of the container in the middle of the fight. I felt sorry for her and got her off the battlefield. What was I supposed to do, leave her there?"

"Compassion?" Chris gave a humorless laugh. "A mercenary who kills for money is lecturing me about compassion?"

"Fair. If you put it that way, I can't really argue. I thought the same at first. I was planning to return her to the client for money." Adrian's expression softened into a different kind of smile. "But she changed me. She said she liked me, and honestly, I like her too. So I changed my mind. I'm not handing her over."

He looked at Chris and smiled. "I've been alone for a long time. Turns out having someone beside you isn't bad."

Chris looked as if he had seen something from a nightmare. Logic told him Adrian was spouting nonsense, but the man's unguarded happiness and embarrassingly sincere smile made it clear he meant every word.

He genuinely wanted a relationship with a B.O.W.

Chris vaguely remembered the last time he had seen devotion this warped. It had been years ago on Rockfort Island, involving the Ashford twins and their own poisoned idea of devotion. Even that had at least come from a shared history. This mercenary was worse. He had fallen in love with a B.O.W. at first sight.

Insane.

"Forget it." Adrian waved a hand. "Trying to explain this to someone this painfully straightforward is pointless. Relax. You're not taking her today. In a minute, she and I are going to finish off the security team. So how about showing mercy and letting us live, Mr. Hero of the BSAA?"

Chris pushed the stray thoughts aside and shook his head. "Impossible. I cannot allow an extremely dangerous B.O.W. to remain in civilian hands. She needs to be turned over to the BSAA."

"And how will the BSAA handle her? Dissection? Disposal?"

"No. I guarantee it."

"Come on." Adrian scoffed. "Chris, I trust you. I don't trust what the BSAA has become. From where I'm standing, that organization has become a violent institution with no humanity left."

Chris wanted to refute him. No words came.

In the end, he only shook his head. "I'm sorry. The answer is still no. She must be placed under BSAA custody. I can do everything I can to secure humane treatment for her. If you join the BSAA, I can even try to arrange visitation."

Adrian sighed. That left only one move.

"Let this end here, and I'll tell you something you cannot find on your own. Something about Wesker."

Chris froze.

Albert Wesker was, in every way that mattered, Chris's greatest enemy. By Adrian's count, the events of Lost in Nightmares had not happened yet. If he leaked information now, the timeline would change drastically. He no longer cared. He needed to persuade this walking disaster to leave.

He could see the conflict on Chris's face.

"Relax, Chris. I'm just a mercenary in Loplers. T-Lilith and I will stay in this garbage pit. We won't affect the outside world." Adrian held his gaze. "Turn a blind eye, and I'll give you intel on Wesker. I'll tell you where he is and what he's planning. Besides, you don't want to kill someone who only just opened her eyes to the world, do you? You don't actually know what the BSAA will do to her either."

At last, Chris shook his head.

"I'm sorry. I have to take her. As for Wesker, we can talk later."

"Then there's no way around it." Adrian shook his head and smiled like a fox. "But honestly, this is no longer up to you. Didn't you notice? The gunfire below is much quieter than before."

Chris blinked. "What?"

The next second, a figure launched into the air and slammed down beside Adrian, dust bursting around her. In the haze, the silver-haired young woman rose from one knee, rifle on her back, red eyes fixed on Chris as if fire burned inside them.

'Damn.'

On the road into Loplers, local soldiers stopped a heavy truck. A huge metal tank sat on the trailer behind it, similar to an oil tanker.

"What a pain. If I'd known it would go like this, I should have come from the start. Security Department trash can't do anything. Compared with the Umbrella Security Service, the U.S.S., they're pathetic."

The complaint came from a man in a white coat and black-rimmed glasses as he stepped out of the truck with a tablet in hand.

"Who are you?" a soldier demanded, rifle raised. "What are you hauling this late at night?"

"Sorry about that." The man in the white coat gave them an apologetic smile. "Emergency transport. I forgot to notify you in advance. No need to get worked up. Let me contact my boss."

He tapped the tablet several times. The rear tank on the truck began to open, white vapor hissing out.

"See? The boss is here."

The man smiled brightly at the soldiers. Then a minigun roared.

He spread his arms as if conducting an orchestra. Bullets from behind him avoided his body with perfect precision and tore the unprepared soldiers in front of him into chunks of meat.

Heavy footsteps followed. A figure more than two meters tall stopped beside him. It looked almost human, and not human at all. It had a Tyrant-like bald head, brown skin, heavy black exoskeleton armor, a minigun mounted on its right forearm, a rocket launcher gripped in its left hand, and a huge ammunition pack on its back. Savage tentacles writhed from gaps in the armor.

"Now," the man in the white coat said, smiling at the monster, "happy hunting."

"T-Lilith!"

With that terrible roar, the monster stepped over the soldiers' corpses and walked into Loplers.

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