Nivanfield

Nivanfield is the slash ship between Chris Redfield and Piers Nivans from the Resident Evil fandom.

Canon
After Chris’ time during Resident Evil 5 (2009), he decided to go back to working in a team, wanting to pass on his knowledge and skills to a new generation for when someone like Albert Wesker—his nemesis—shows up again. After the defeat of Wesker, Chris began the training of new Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (B.S.A.A) operatives. Among these was sniper Piers Nivans, whose skills particularly stood out to Chris.

Edonia, 2012
In December 2012, the B.S.A.A takes part in crushing the Edonian Liberation Army after they begin using the C-Virus during their war. Chris and Piers serve in the North American Alpha Team, Chris being the team captain and Piers being the first lieutenant, along with their other teammates.

One of their fellow soldiers decided to do recon alone, which lead to them being killed. As Piers and team are looking over their fallen comrade being picked up, Chris comes walking up behind them. He goes off on a powerful speech about team work and how they need to stick together. Piers quips in the speech to mention how “nobody's expendable,” which Chris agrees with. Once the speech is over, Piers calls on for Finn Macauley, a newly recruited solider, to give the team an update on the B.O.Ws, the “J'avo”. With the team up to date, Chris leaves. Finn and Piers are left standing there; Finn finally whispers to Piers, “Is he always this awesome?” Piers does what he can to act annoyed that this is what the rookie asks him, but just before Piers can turn away, he smirks for a moment, almost confirming that yes, Chris is that awesome.

Soon, the team is driving along the roads when they begin to take enemy fire. Chris and Piers run up ahead to take out enemies. Not long after a massive B.O.W shows up, Chris calls to Finn, the team’s explosions expert, to create a path for them. Finn soon reports back that he can’t— as there’s a busted tank-line. Piers finds a fence for him to blow and he and team wait for Finn it place the bombs. With the fence blown, the team finds another obstacle–a train carriage in the way. With the carriage blown the team continues forward.

They reach a bridge with one of their own wounded. Noticing a tank on the bridge, Chris assists Piers in jumping over a gap to the other side. From Piers’ new position, he’s able to shoot the tank allowing Chris to go forward. With the tank successfully down, Chris praises him, saying, “Nice shooting, Piers!” Chris and Piers are on their way to reunite. Upon reuniting, they head back up the way Chris came to push a large crate out of the way to make a path. With Finn and the wounded solider still below them, Chris and Piers hold off more enemies for their “no man left behind” policy. When Finn makes it to them with the wounded, Chris orders him to blow the bridge. With the bridge blown and the enemies for that time down, Alpha Teams heads for City Hall.

Back in the city, Alpha Team comes to see a woman flashing a badge—National Security—with a man at her side. Chris recognizes the woman as Sherry Birkin. Piers takes notice of the man Sherry’s with, as he’s a “wanted insurgent”. Sherry tries to defuse the rising tension by saying the man she’s with, Jake Muller, is under the protection of the U.S. government and that he’s not a threat to the B.S.A.A, to which Jake replies, “Not unless someone pays me to be.” Piers responses with a stern, “What did you just say?” Moments later, everyone is attacked by a giant B.O.W. After the defeat of the B.O.W., Chris asks if he and Jake have met before. Jake quips back with, “You jarheads all look the same to me pal, sorry.” Hearing Jake insult Chris, Piers lunges forward as if to confront Jake personally. Chris manages to hold him back by throwing his arm across Piers’ midsection. Piers throws Chris’ arm down in frustration, but does not engage. Jake and Sherry board a waiting helicopter.

Continuing the mission, Alpha Team heads for City Hall, where they’re met by cocooned people. Chris, Piers and Finn break from the rest of the team to investigate where they reach an open area with multiple of the cocoons hatch, becoming a Napad. With the Napads dead, they enter a room where they find syringes laying on the floor, moments later a woman comes out of the shadows. Chris, Piers and Finn are immediately on guard. The woman explains who she is—“Ada Wong”—and what the B.S.A.A are up against. Chris tells Finn to “keep her safe,” while Chris tells Piers discreetly to “keep an eye on her”.

With the woman in tow, they head back to their comrades who are currently engaged in a heated fight with the hatched Napads. Following the guidance of the woman, believing her to be City Hall staff, she leads the team into a cell with built-in lock gates, separating Chris and Piers from the rest of the team. From the other side, the woman tosses a needle bomb into the area with Finn and the others. Chris and Piers are left helpless as they watch their teammates turn into Napads. Chris is devastated and too distracted when he sees Finn turn. The mutated Finn beats Chris, throwing him hard against the wall and ground. When Chris hits the ground with a cracking thud, Piers screams, “CHRIS!” Piers does everything in his power to protect Chris, immediately opening fire on Finn. Miraculously, Piers is able to grip Chris by the collar of his uniform with one hand and pull Chris back, all while firing his rifle in the other.

After the operation, Chris disappears.

Lanshiang, 2013
"What happened to the legendary Chris Redfield, huh?! What happened to you?!"

- Piers, confronting Chris about his change in personality.

Six months after the tragedy, Piers finally finds Chris - habitually smoking and drinking - in a bar in Edonia. At first Chris does not remember anything of bio terrorism, the BSAA, or Piers and his dead comrades. However, Piers brings the memories to surface by having him to look at pictures of his deceased team members. Piers and other BSAA operatives return him to the BSAA to help with a mission in Lanshiang, China.

During their mission, Chris and Piers headed to the rendezvous point at a tenement house, dubbed the "Ace of Spades". There, they were to rescue United Nations diplomats who had been held hostage by J'avo. After the diplomats were rescued, the building was bombed by the UN to take out any remaining J'avo. After seeing the chrysalis bodies, Chris finally remembered everything. Almost immediately after regrouping with Alpha Team outside, one of the men was attacked and dragged away by the Iluzija. Following the giant snake's trail, Alpha Team was led unawares into its lair. Searching for the beast in the hopes of finding the missing man alive, the snake attacked and killed soldier after soldier until only Piers, Chris, Marco and Jeff were left. On their way down to the presumed location of the Iluzija, the snake grabbed Jeff from behind and killed him. The remaining three succeeded in defeating the snake after much effort. Realizing that Chris would stop at nothing to kill Carla, Piers confronted his Captain with regards to the deviation from the mission. Unfortunately, Carla had chosen that time to attack, infecting Marco with the C-Virus before escaping.

As the only survivors of Alpha Team, Piers and Chris received intel from headquarters that Carla was headed for the dockyards. Pursuing her in a high-speed chase across the city, headquarters quickly deduced that Carla was going to escape using an aircraft carrier just off the river.

Searching through the J'avo-held carrier, the two finally found Carla and crossed paths with agents Leon Kennedy and Helena Harper. After Leon convinced the two to bring her into custody over killing her, they cornered Carla outside the carrier. She was later shot by an unidentified man fired on a passing helicopter and fell to her death. Examining Carla's briefcase, Piers discovered a modified strain of the C-Virus which was kept for the purposes of vaccine research.

Chris and Piers commandeered a VTOL aircraft awaiting deployment at the other end of the ship. In the air, Chris and Piers attacked a second J'avo-controlled carrier that housed the missile. After the two took out the anti-aircraft batteries, Piers was dropped off onto the deck, and he started toward the missile in the hope to de-activate it manually. Unfortunately, the sudden emergence of an Ogroman from its Chrysalid prevented Piers from reaching the target. The defeat of the Ogroman restarted the launch process; Chris fired a missile at the silo, trying to destroy it and the carrier. The plan failed, and the missile was launched on the Tatchi district. After a communication between Chris and Leon, the Alpha Team was sent over to a far-off oil rig in search of the abducted Sherry Birkin and Jake Muller.

"I'm sorry... Captain... I did it for the BSAA... for the future!"

- Piers, apologizing to Chris for injecting himself with the C-Virus.

The two landed on the rig and made their way down the elevator which descended deeper into the ocean.

Arriving at an underwater research complex, Chris and Piers began their search for the missing persons. Once they found Jake and Sherry, the four discovered that Carla had been developing a powerful, deadly B.O.W. named Haos, a giant aquatic beast resembling a squid and a human. Separated from Jake and Sherry, Chris and Piers made their way to the top of the complex while evading Haos' attacks, where they intended to use the escape pods. The creature's surprise attack in a later chamber left Piers in such a state that his right arm was practically destroyed, crushed by debris. With Chris in the grasp of Haos and no way for him to get out himself, thinking fast, Piers moved over to the C-Virus vial he picked off Carla earlier - almost dismembering his arm in the process - Piers infected himself with the virus. After injecting the virus into the wound, Piers develops a trident-like appendage, and the capability of releasing massive quantities of bio-electricity through the prongs.

After the duo defeated Haos, the two rushed to the escape pods. However, Piers refused to follow Chris into the sphere; throwing him inside, Piers sealed the door and launched the pod. Piers chose to end his life while he was still capable of thinking for himself, despite Chris' protest. As the facility's water pressure built up further, the structure began to come apart in more and more places. The escape pod finally ejects Chris out of the facility, leaving Piers behind.

Before Piers died, Haos attacked Chris' escape pod. Immediately afterward, the creature was hit by an electrical discharge identical to one Piers created, suggesting that he saved Chris' life. In the end, Chris honored Piers' memory by remaining in the BSAA as Piers wanted instead of retiring.

Resident Evil 6
Edonia, 2012
 * Finn asks Piers if Chris is “always this awesome,” before Piers can turn away and ignore Finn’s question, he smirks for a moment, almost confirming that yes, Chris is that awesome.
 * Jake insults Chris– “You jarheads all look the same to me pal, sorry.” –hearing this, Piers lunges forward as if to confront Jake personally.
 * Piers grips Chris by the collar of his uniform with one hand and pulls Chris back, all while firing his rifle in the other at their attackers.

Fanon
Nivanfield is arguably the most popular ship from Resident Evil. Years later, after the release of Resident Evil 6 in 2012 and one of its halves deceased, Nivanfield continues to gain fan art and fan fiction from new and older members of the fandom. On AO3, Nivanfield is the most written ship within the Resident Evil - All Media Types tag; Chris’ most written, as well as Piers’ most written.

Many fans believe Piers was in love with Chris. Not only for the fact that he sacrificed himself for Chris, but for how he searched endlessly for him for six months, protected him from Jake Muller’s insults/aggression, and all around protected him from the war they were in.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Chris/Piers tag on FanFiction.net
 * Chris/Piers tag on FanFiction.net

TUMBLR

DEVIANT ART

FORUMS

Trivia

 * Capcom sent out an email about Chris in Resident Evil 6 — one of the choices being about Piers.
 * July 1st is “Nivanfield Day,” as it’s the date of Piers’ death, the day he sacrificed himself for Chris. Fans of Nivanfield often create fan works for this day.
 * Piers is the first (and only) male partner Chris has had. (Jill Valentine, Jessica Sherawat, Sheva Alomar, then Piers Nivans)
 * Piers once sent an email to Chris’ sister, Claire Redfield, asking if she had any photos of a younger Chris Redfield, saying, “Just between you and me, if you have any pictures of the Captain when he was younger, I’d sure love to see them! I hear he was very different back then, but he won’t show us anything...”

Gallery

 * Nivanfield/Gallery

Variations

 * Nivalenfield refers to the ship between Jill Valentine, Chris and Piers