Chapter Text
Piers gripped his hands together. His left hand - flesh and blood, with fingernails in need of clipping - intertwined with his metallic right hand. Although it had been close to a year since that day, and about half a year since he acquired a new arm and eye, they still felt foreign to him.
Dr. Jones gestured toward his linked hands.
“I see you frowning. What’s on your mind?”
Piers sighed. He should’ve known his therapist would pick up on that.
“Nothing. Just… thinking.”
“About your hands?”
“Yeah. It’s just… they’re different.”
Dr. Jones cocked her head. “They are. And similar, too.”
This wasn’t the first time – and most likely not the last time – they had talked about his prosthetics and his grief over losing his original body. Piers knew, in his head, that he should be grateful. Not everyone got to have fully functioning prosthetics like he did. In fact, he was pretty sure that he was the only one. The electric affinity he gained from his infection allowed him to use these robotic prosthetics without having to rely on outside power sources. He could still remember the thrilled faces of the medical engineers when they found out his potential. He was likely their wet dream come true. He would have been subjected to a series of experiments in the name of scientific development, if not for Chris.
Chris was livid when he found out about the arrangements that BSAA was making with the medical engineering company that would have given them almost unrestricted access to Piers’ body. Chris firmly put his foot down and personally went over the fine print of every piece of paperwork to make sure that Piers was not subjected to anything more than was strictly necessary to ensure his gear was tailored to his needs.
For the most part, his new eye and arm did what he expected them to do. The new eye had several sensors and telescoping functions that he could turn on and off, which negated the need for the usual scopes. He was also dexterous enough with his robotic hand to have no trouble with mundane tasks like cleaning around the house or even writing and typing.
But.
“It still feels like it’s not really a part of me. I feel like I’m not really me anymore.”
Dr. Jones hummed. “What part of your past self feels like it’s missing?”
“Besides the obvious?” Piers raised an eyebrow. “Well. I used to be useful.”
He used to be somebody.
“Useful?”
“You read my file. I was a sharpshooter. I watched my team’s back.” I watched my Captain’s back. “I helped complete missions, save people, kill monsters, I was damn good at what I did.”
“You were proud of yourself.”
Piers nodded. He prided himself in how quickly he rose up the ranks, despite his young age. On how the Captain, the Chris Redfield himself, handpicked and raised him to be his right-hand man. Even when others fell, he survived and stayed at the Captain’s side. He knew how much that meant to the Captain. He was one of the few the Captain trusted enough to lead the team if he ever became incapacitated.
But that was all in the past.
Although Piers had good enough motor control for nearly everything, he could not shoot. Whenever he had his finger on a trigger, it felt like his arm suddenly forgot that it was supposed to be a part of him. He would be lucky even to hit anywhere on the target, let alone the dead center as he used to.
The medical engineers tried tweaking the arm a million times over, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
Dr. Jones thought it was the yips.
Whatever it might be, the fact was that Piers had lost his use. A sharpshooter who could not shoot. What a joke.
An honorable discharge started to get thrown around in his conversations with administrators. Piers agreed with them. He had lived past his use. What good was it to linger where he was not wanted?
However, Chris put his foot down here as well.
Chris pulled him aside and asked him if this was what he really wanted. He was ready to support his transition to civilian life if that was the case. But he wanted Piers to make a decision without thinking about others or BSAA.
Piers broke down into sobs and said that he wanted to stay. He wanted to stay with the people he came to see more than just work colleagues. He wanted to stay fighting for the cause he believed in. He wanted to stay by his Captain’s side.
Chris pulled him into a hug and told him that he could stay as long as he wanted. It didn’t matter how long it took him to fully recover. As long as Chris was his Captain, he was safe.
True to his word, Chris pulled some strings and ensured that Piers was given an indefinite medical leave, paid even. Piers promised him that he would return to his post as soon as possible. However, with close to a year having passed and him still being unable to shoot a damn target, he felt that promise, which once felt like a beacon of hope, weighing down on him like sacks of sand.
It did not help that Chris and Alpha Team were constantly deployed while Piers stayed behind. A new Alpha Team was formed shortly after Chris and Piers returned from China. Chris consulted Piers in choosing the members and involved him as much as possible in building the team. He wanted Piers to feel like he was still a part of the team. But it just made Piers all the more resentful that he couldn’t go with them. He resented how useless he had become.
“Piers.”
Dr. Jones’ voice drew Piers out of his reverie.
Piers sighed and checked the clock.
“It’s about time, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes. But I’ve homework for you,” Dr. Jones said as she regarded Piers with a small encouraging smile. “Until the next time we see each other, I want you to do something that is meaningful to you. It doesn’t have to be anything grand like saving a person. Just a simple act, like helping out a friend, that makes you feel like you did something that matters. How does that sound?”
“I can try,” Piers said, ever the people pleaser, even though he knew there wasn’t going to be anything that would really make him feel like his life had a purpose again.
Piers left the therapist’s office and was about to go home before he decided to take a detour. Alpha Team was supposed to be back a week ago, but there had been no news of their arrival. It wasn’t uncommon for a mission to get extended, especially in their line of work, so Piers would usually not worry too much (scratch that, he worried incessantly whenever the team missed their scheduled return). But this time, he was even more on edge.
Alpha Team had been deployed to Edonia.
There were some concerning reports from the site of the previous operation, and given Chris’ familiarity with the region, Alpha Team was sent to do recon and, if possible, eliminate the issue.
Ever since Piers heard about the destination of their deployment, something heavy had settled into his stomach. Chris reassured him that everything would be fine, as they were better prepared and better equipped than before, but it did little to diminish his dread.
Piers had reached out to Jill – someone he came to know better ever since his injury, as Jill was one of the few who understood what it was like to be out of commission and fighting hard to return to their original post – but she refused to share any details, citing security concerns about talking over the phone. Piers got that, but he also needed to know what was happening to his team, his captain.
With this determination, Piers drove to BSAA Headquarters instead of his apartment.
Although on medical leave, Piers still had clearance to enter the building. He pulled down his hat to cover his robotic eye as much as possible, and checked that his arm was covered by the jacket he was wearing. He didn’t think he could deal with people’s prying eyes today.
Jill’s office door was slightly left ajar, so Piers entered without bothering to knock. Jill looked up from her computer and gave him a tight smile.
“I was wondering when you would drop by.”
“You can’t give me that security bullshit if we’re talking in your office. I need answers, Jill. Please. When is the team coming back?”
Jill sighed and gestured at the chair in front of her desk. “You might want to sit down for this.”
Dread filled Piers’ chest, grasping his heart in a death grip.
“What happened?” Piers slowly sat himself down into the chair.
Jill took a moment to form her response. “We lost contact with them a week ago. We sent a team to check in on them three days ago, and I just got the report that they… were all killed in action. Alpha Team is presumed dead as well.”
“No,” Piers whispered, then more loudly, “no, that can’t be true. It’s not confirmed, right? They might have just lost their comms or–”
“Before the retrieval team was killed, they were able to find and identify the bodies of three of the six Alpha Team members.”
Piers felt like the room was closing in on him. He couldn’t breathe. He felt like he was drowning. But he had to ask.
“Was, was….”
“No, Chris wasn’t one of the bodies found,” Jill answered, her voice tinged with poorly hidden pain, “and I also believe that Chris couldn’t have died like that. I know he’s out there, alive.”
“Then what are you waiting for?! Why hasn’t another team been sent out?”
“We can’t send more men to their deaths! We need to gather more intel, be better prepared–”
“We don’t have time for that! Captain is still there, in the middle of BOW-infested land, with no provisions–”
“Do you think I don’t know that?” Jill shot back. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. “I’m really doing my best here, Piers. I even volunteered to be on the retrieval team. But the higher-ups are not budging.”
Piers caught the strange gleam in Jill’s eyes. Something was going on here. Something more than just making sure that they had sufficient intel before sending another team.
“What’s going on, Jill?”
Jill hesitated. She dragged a hand down her face, looking ages older than her usual youthful appearance suggested.
“Jill, tell me!”
“I’m not sure why, but I’ve been getting this feeling that… BSAA doesn’t want to retrieve Chris.”
“...What?”
“It has been strange from the beginning. The Edonian case should have been closed, this resurgence of bioterrorism in that region feels almost… orchestrated. And when Chris’ team went MIA, BSAA was too quick to dismiss them as lost. I fought hard to deploy even the first retrieval team, when it should’ve been standard protocol. Now they’re fighting me every step of the way when I try to send another team. Like I said, I even volunteered myself and was told no.”
“What are you implying, Jill? Is BSAA intentionally trying to get rid of Captain?”
“I don’t know! I need to dig more, but even now the time is ticking–”
“Send me.”
“What?” Jill’s head snapped up. “No, absolutely not. Chris will have my head if he finds out I sent you when you’re still not cleared for duty.”
“You just said that your hands are tied and we’re running out of time as we speak,” Piers growled. “I’m going, whether with your blessing or not.”
“No, I’m not sending you to your death. You’re to stand down, and that’s an order,” Jill shot back. She rubbed a hand over her face and added in a softer voice, “I promise you, I’ll do my best to send in another team as quickly as possible. You’ve got to trust me, Piers.”
“I trust you,” Piers said. He meant it too. He trusted that Jill would do her absolute best to fight the system and ensure help was on the way for Chris and Alpha Team. However, he did not trust BSAA, given what he just heard, and he did not trust whoever they sent to do a better job than the previous retrieval team did.
Piers needed to go to Edonia himself. Without BSAA’s backup and without any of the usual support. However, he knew a person he could ask for help.