Okay, so what I'm gonna do here is post this, the main story-line ending, and then post an alternate once this one's done. I'll be writing both at the same time, so updates might be a little slow, but when this one's done, the alternate will go up the next day, and its chapters will be either daily or weekly, I haven't decided yet. Thanks to lisa . dewaele . 581, Justagenericusername, and Coffee Monsta for your reviews on the last chapter of Stoic.
Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher
~Spitfire out
"Snipers in position."
The mission turned into a blur. Going through it, it was drawn out and precise, just as planned. Sort of. They hadn't quite expected an ambush. But now, it was all fading away, blurring together into a few senseless hours.
"No!" Ghost shouted.
"Traitor!" Alex screamed as he ran.
He bowled straight into Shepherd as the trigger was pulled and a bullet lodged itself in Alex's chest. He fell to the ground, a harsh grimace of pain plastered on his face.
"Ghost! We're under attack by Shepherd's men in the bone yard!" Price… he sounded panicked, "Do not trust Shepherd! Repeat, do not trust Shepherd!"
If only they'd been a moment earlier in warning them.
Alex's distraction gave Ghost enough time to raise his weapon and begin taking out the Shadow Company threats.
Shepherd was at gunpoint before long. He grinned, looking behind Ghost, at his operatives holding the two snipers, Richards and Williams, against them, forestalling any attempt at escape with pistols to their heads. Fear was written on their faces. More obviously so on Williams' face than Richards', then again, Richards had never been one to show his emotion.
Ghost looked back to see what Shepherd was grinning about and nearly dropped his weapon on the spot.
"You have a choice here, Lieutenant," Shepherd taunted, "I expect you'll make the right one."
Alex began pushing himself up slowly. Shepherd scowled at him and kicked him in the side, effectively throwing him back down and nearly on top of Roach.
Alex pushed himself up halfway again and looked over at Roach. He looked deathly pale, his skin had taken on a greyish hue, blood soaked his shirt underneath the Kevlar, and more blood trickled down his chin.
"You can't win here, Riley, you're outnumbered and outgunned. Surrender now, or none of you live," Shepherd threatened him with a gun to Alex's head.
Ghost's face hardened, he was only slightly disappointed Shepherd couldn't see it, "You recruited us because we're the best. Because no one else in the world can do what we do, because we defy all odds, because we never stop fighting until the job's done."
Alex moved to take Roach into his lap. Archer and Toad both adjusted their grip on the arms on their necks.
The guns held at them were readied and Ghost took a steadying step back, "McKay, get Roach out of here."
Alex looked at him and then down at Roach and up at the gun at his own head. Ghost shoved Shepherd's gun arm up at the same time as Alex bolted, carrying Roach bridal style back towards the safe-house. Archer and Toad slammed their heads back into the noses of the men holding them and flipped them over their shoulders, taking their pistols as they went down and turning them on the Shadow Company operatives.
"You wanna take out the best of the best, you better be packing a bigger gun than that," Ghost commented, looking over Shepherd's shoulder at a couple of sharpshooters taking aim at Alex.
He pulled his own pistol and took two rapid shots to drop them.
The bullets whizzed by Alex, missing by mere centimeters, making Alex stumble in shock before he kept running. He made it to the safe-house, sweating and exhausted, and set Roach down in the bathroom upstairs.
He looked back at the sound of choppers flying overhead and then back at Roach. Alex frowned harshly, Roach was dying, he couldn't leave him. Alex shed them both of their gear, setting it all aside. He took a breath and leaned against the tub, pulling Roach into his lap, and pressing his hands over the wound in his stomach. He kept them pressed there long after he should've stopped, resting his chin heavily on Roach's shoulder. Alex was exhausted and probably close to passing out. He just had to hope that the others could handle Shepherd and his men.
Shepherd had been greatly annoyed by these soldiers' attempts at beating him and was now determined that they'd pay for it. The public would have their enemy and the public would have their justice. He took them all prisoner. The snipers, he knew, could communicate so very well just by looking at each other, it was nearly as disgusting as it was impressive. He had them both blindfolded, lest they were able to study his guards' patterns and form a plan without ever saying anything to tip them off. Riley on the other hand, was much more agreeable. He'd been through this before, he knew how things worked now, he knew that Shepherd was the one in charge of whether he and his 'friends' lived or died now and he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize himself or his teammates. He had taken extra caution with the snipers simply because they were crafty, observant, and most dangerously: had never been held prisoner before. Except for Williams, but that hadn't lasted long enough to be called real experience.
He ordered a team to search and clear the safe house as all three unconscious and restrained Task Force members were loaded onto one of the choppers that immediately headed out towards Site Hotel Bravo, the staging area for the next part of his plan. It was all going so perfectly, he'd manipulated Makarov himself into tricking all of Russia, they were all calling for blood, as planned, the attack on American soil would force them to retaliate to protect their homeland, it had gone to plan as well, and now, all that was left was to erase the evidence left on the DSM and in the minds of the Task Force. Although, who would believe men who were supposed to be dead over him, a General of the United States Army? Shepherd grinned, quite pleased with himself. Tomorrow, there would be no shortage of people enlisting, wanting to fight the good fight and protect their home. Tomorrow he'd be spoken of as a war hero.
Shepherd's grin widened a bit when he saw his men carrying the accident prone Sergeant Sanderson and speed demon sniper Corporal McKay, both unconscious.
"Did they give you any trouble?" Shepherd asked curiously as the two were loaded into another chopper, the one he'd be taking to Hotel Bravo.
"No, sir, they were both out cold when we found them," one of the soldiers responded, sounded rather pleased himself.
Today was a good day, things were finally coming to a boil. All that was left was to add fuel to the fire and watch it boil over.
"Take them to lock up with the others," Shepherd ordered as the cargo door opened to Site Hotel Bravo, "Interrogate them, find out everything they know."
He had told his Shadow Company before the mission that the Task Force operatives were all traitors, war criminals, and conspiring against the United Nations. He was going to frame them for starting World War Three, and no one would ever be the wiser. The only people that would question it would be dead in a matter of days or even hours. Now he just had to wait. His men had their orders, they would throw the fuel on the fire and then Shepherd would reveal it to the public and that would be the final straw, it would be said and done, no turning back. Shepherd would be a hero to those people, the Task Force would be the enemy. What better enemy than one who was so classified even NATO didn't know about them. A Task Force unchecked was a Task Force most likely to conspire and turn on the ones they were supposed to be serving, trying to grasp more power for themselves. It was human nature. And the people would believe him when he told them as much.
These few lives were a small price to pay for all the ones he'd save.
When Alex woke up, he found himself in a cold, dark place he couldn't quite make out. He sat up slowly, still worn out and exhausted from pushing himself past his limits. He looked around at his surroundings. He hadn't quite expected to find himself in a cell. Let alone with Archer and Toad both blindfolded in one across from him. Archer was lying down with his head in Toad's lap, Toad's hand brushing through the older man's hair.
Toad looked up at him, hearing the movement, and sighed, forgetting he was blind. He continued brushing his fingers through Archer's hair. He'd been having a panic attack and the guards got sick of his screaming and knocked him out cold. Ghost was in a cell on his own, Toad wasn't sure where, he'd been taken somewhere separate he thought, but couldn't be sure, on account of being blindfolded. Archer would know, he knew everyone by the sound of their footsteps, he'd had heard Ghost's footsteps getting further if he was right. He was much too panicked and nervous too think though. Toad wasn't sure he could keep Archer clam and keep him from having another panic attack.
Toad sighed and pulled Archer closer.
He heard someone coming and looked up again. He heard a door being opened, but couldn't tell if it was his or the one across from him. He had his answer when he felt someone grab his arm and pull.
"Let me go!" he shouted, fighting back, grabbing onto Archer when he felt him being pulled away as well.
It was no use, he was dragged away and sat down in a metal chair with his hands cuffed behind him. The blindfold was removed and Toad blinked and closed his eyes tightly at the sudden and harsh light. His eyes slowly adjusted and he took in the room. There was a metal table just in front of him with another man sitting across from him, a file sitting on the table. Toad knew what was coming.
"Why?" The man asked simply.
… Or not? "Why what?" Toad asked in confusion.
"You know what," the man scowled at him.
Toad's brow furrowed, had Shepherd told them he was the traitor?
"Shepherd's the one that turned on us!" He exclaimed, pulling against his restraints in frustration.
"He said you'd say something like that…" the man shook his head, frowning and opening the file in front of him to gloss over it.
"Because it's true!"
"Because you're desperate!" The man argued back, dropping the file and standing, planting his hands firmly on the table. He took a breath and straightened up, folding his hands neatly behind his back, "Question is… For what? Power? Money? Fame?" He looked at Toad expectantly.
Toad looked back incredulously, "If I cared about any of that I'd have gone into politics, not the military," he countered.
The man shrugged, "Things change. Maybe you weren't satisfied with the paycheck. Maybe you joined up thinking you'd be a hero."
Toad rolled his eyes and said nothing. They were fair points; anyone could pin any of those things on him if they knew how to manipulate someone, which, clearly, Shepherd did know how to do. Of course, that didn't make any of it true.
"So tell me, why did you do it? Why did you try to frame the General?"
"What?!" Toad questioned, "I was never anywhere near the safe house! How the hell would I have been able to tamper with anything?!"
"Easy to say… Can you prove it?"
"How the hell am I supposed to prove I wasn't somewhere I never went?" Toad questioned.
"By proving you were somewhere else."
Toad sighed, "My god you people are dense…" he muttered, "I was on the ridge, with Archer, spotting for him like I always do when the ground team breached the safe house. A few minutes into the download Archer and I had to move to avoid enemy fire. We moved along the fence around the outskirts and set up near the trees. We stayed there until your buddies came up behind us and attacked us and dragged us down to Shepherd."
"Again, that's easy to say… but can you prove it?"
"How?! This is a 'he said she said' situation, bud, there's no fuckin' way you can prove I was in the house, and no way I can prove I wasn't," Toad argued, "You'll just have to take my word for it."
"And why would I listen to a traitor? You're clearly lying to try to get yourself out of this hole you've dug yourself into. Shepherd's the one that told us you and your friends would try to frame him and that you'd say anything to try to seem innocent."
"Then why are we bothering with this?" Toad asked curiously, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe he's the one that's lying to you? Manipulating you just like he did me and my team? Did it ever occur to you, that when you stop being useful, he'd try to kill you off and call you a traitor? Just like he did us?"
"And why would he do that?"
"Fuck if I know! All I know is that he did, and I have friends out there dying because of it."
The man frowned at him and looked at one of the other men standing guard, "That's enough, take him back to his cell, we're not getting anywhere."
The guard nodded and tied the blindfold back around Toad's eyes.
"Rough them up if you have to," Shepherd ordered, "I want answers. What were they planning to do and who else was in on it?"
"Y-yes, sir," the nervous interrogator saluted and Shepherd walked away.
He sighed and walked back towards the cells, next on the list was the other sniper, the one the first one had called 'Archer'.
Whew. You have no idea how proud I am of this chapter, I really like it. Sorry it took me so damn long to get it up. My computer broke and it took a while to get a new one. Well, that's all for now, see you guys next time!
Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher
~Spitfire out