Lester Crest
GTA V's canonical Ending C. Franklin teams Michael and Trevor against every enemy at once — Stretch, Wei Cheng, Steve Haines, Devin Weston — and the trio survives together.
The Third Way is the final storyline mission and canonical ending of . The mission is triggered if the player has Franklin choose option C (Deathwish).
FIB agents Steve Haines and Dave Norton have previously tasked Franklin with killing Trevor for being a liability, despite having saved both of them. Later, Devin Weston shows up at Franklin's house and tells Franklin to kill Michael in retaliation to his involvement in Molly Schultz's death during the Legal Trouble, his unwillingness to allow Meltdown to be canceled, and his intervention when Weston tried to kill Michael's family. Weston offers Franklin three options: A, listen to the FIB agents; B, do as Weston himself says; or C, try to save both Michael and Trevor. After Weston leaves, Franklin is given a set of three options on his cellphone: Kill Trevor (A), Kill Michael (B), or Deathwish (C).
Choosing option C commences this mission and has Franklin meet Lester at his place after calling him. Franklin tells Lester how Haines wants Trevor dead and Weston wants Michael dead, with him caught in the middle, as he can't feasibly kill both of them without the other finding out about it. They at first seem to have no hope of thinking of a way where both Trevor and Michael survive. But after some brainstorming, Lester comes up with a plan to avoid having to kill either of them. The plan is to use their knowledge of Haines and Weston's personalities and motivations (Haines' FIB unit seeks redemption for their involvement during the shootout at the Kortz Center, so they participate in the raid; Merryweather being sent to recover the stolen gold simply out of pure greed on Weston's part) in order to lure the FIB and Merryweather into a trap at a nearby foundry under the pretense of melting down the gold there from the final heist.
Franklin picks up Lamar Davis at his home and they go to the foundry, with Lamar having newfound respect for Franklin for doing this for both Trevor and Michael rather than himself (to which Franklin once again reminds him that, even though he's trying to establish himself in the criminal world, he's still smart enough to watch out for his friends). Lamar waits outside and keeps a lookout, while Franklin goes inside to find Michael and Trevor arguing and about to kill each other (Michael with a Heavy Sniper and Trevor with a Combat MG), but Franklin threatens to kill them both if they don't set their differences aside in order to deal with the problem at hand. Lamar then warns Franklin about the approaching FIB agents and Michael, Trevor, and Franklin work together to kill all of the FIB agents and Merryweather mercenaries sent against them in one swift ambush. Various stages of the ensuing battle require that the player provide backup to certain characters. First, Lamar will radio that he is being overrun and needs help. Franklin must get out to the foundry entrance where he dropped off Lamar and kill the FIB agents attacking Lamar before he is wasted. Then Michael, after not receiving a response from Trevor, must go over to where Trevor was positioned to check on him before being wasted, causing the mission to fail. Because Franklin says that he has to stay with Lamar, Michael leaves his sniping position and fights his way to reach Trevor who gets back up (supposedly being knocked out and having not been shot, possibly because the agents assumed they killed him, according to Trevor himself). Then, Michael and Trevor must fight their way out of the foundry and help Franklin kill off any remaining FIB and Merryweather forces in the area.
Finally, after all of the agents and mercenaries are killed, the trio take a moment to catch their breaths. Franklin then brings up the fact that they still have work to do, namely picking off "friends" who either betrayed or tried to kill the trio in the past. He then calls Lester for their whereabouts.
Michael lists Haines, who had previously made the three, Lester, and others commit various crimes in order to advance his own career before getting the FIB to arrest Michael over the raid in the Humane Labs that led to Haines' arrest, ruining his career record. He also wants Trevor killed, rationalizing that Trevor's involvement in the Merryweather attacks and the Triads' shootout in North Yankton would serve as justification for the FIB to get Trevor killed, believing he was a liability and not a sensible person.
Trevor initially suggests killing Norton as well, most likely for killing Brad in North Yankton nine years prior and for being Haines' lackey; however, Michael tells him that they need Norton alive as he can clear their names so no one comes after them later. In addition, as Norton was betrayed by both Haines and Sanchez, and Norton shifted the blame on Sanchez for the IAA incident after the latter's death, Haines' death will clear them all of the whole incident completely as Norton told Michael "History is written by the living."
Michael then nominates Weston, who had similarly employed all three and Lamar to steal various expensive cars on his behalf only to cheat them out of their pay, then tried to shut down production of Meltdown, the film Michael and Solomon had been working on. Indirectly, he was also responsible for exacerbating Lamar's plight with Stretch, as Lamar sought an alternate source of income and Stretch used it to ambush them when he refused to pay them.
