Notes: Just a very short one-shot. It's not really even close to my best work, but I still hope you will like it at least a little.

...

Roach walked slowly through a corridor in a residence that Task Force had been given an anonymous tip about. General Shepard assured them that the source was reliable, even though he never mentioned how an anonymous source can be declared trustworthy. Anyway, Roach dismissed those thoughts, because it could all mean that they were just protecting the source's identity.

Soap stood behind Roach and provided him with a cover, while Roach checked some rooms.

"All clear in the basement." Roach said through the radio and nodded at Soap. They both moved to stairs carefully and with their weapons ready, even though they didn't expect any resistance as the residence was supposed to be inhabited just by three civilians with minimum weaponry and no military training.

"It's a trap!" Suddenly Ghost yelled to the transmitter. "Get out! Don't… aah!..." His words were followed by few rustling noises.

"Ghost! Come in! Ghost!" Soap yelled.

"Oh, bloody hell!" They heard the Englishman scream right before a gunshot. Soap and Roach froze.

"Ghost! What happened? Are you there?" Roach tried. Both men heard crackling as someone tapped on the microphone, followed by a vicious laugh.

"Run."

Neither of both soldiers recognized the voice. Then the connection was cut off.

…

Before any of them could even voice their ideas about next move, two flashbang grenades were thrown to them, successfully blinding them. Roach jerked and fell on the floor, with eyes shut tightly and ears full of whistling noise.

He felt someone grabbing his weapon so he struggled for it, but lost. Other attackers grabbed him and forced him to lie down on his stomach while binding his arms behind his back. Roach guessed Soap was receiving the same treatment.

Suddenly Roach was yanked to his feet and dragged upstairs. His vision came gradually back as well as hearing. He raised his head to look around but someone hit him from behind, forcing his head down again.

Enemy soldiers took them to an empty room in the first floor and threw them on their knees. Soap counted four guards, which were spread in the room.

They are waiting for their leader, Soap thought.

Soon, the door opened. Roach and Soap looked up and saw Ghost staggering in the room with his hands tied behind his back, being followed by another guard.

"Ghost! We though they killed you." Roach exclaimed. As reward he was hit by guard standing behind him.

"Shut up!" He warned.

Ghost hissed in pain when thrown on the ground. "Fuck you!"

His guard kicked him ruthlessly in the chest. Ghost gasped and curled up on the floor.

"No one allowed you to speak!" The guard growled at him.

The whole room fell silent. Ghost remained lying for a while, then he slowly got up on his knees beside his teammates. "Bullet-proof vest." He muttered silently.

His friends understood immediately why he took the ruthless treatment so badly – he got shot to his chest and the vest took some of the damage, but still left him with some ribs cracked or even broken.

"Did you say something?" The guard gripped him by the collar and lifted him a bit.

"No, nothing." Ghost bowed his head, pretending submissiveness.

"I thought so." Guard smirked and let him go.

At that moment the door opened again and someone entered. The captives looked him up and down and guessed he was the leader.

The man walked by them, inspecting every one of them with interest. He stopped in front of Ghost and motioned to him. "I want to see his face."

Ghost's guard rushed to him and took off lieutenant's glasses and mask. Ghost looked into the leader's eyes challenging him with a cold expression.

The leader folded his arms and smirked. "Yes, this one." Then he turned around and walked away. Two guards hauled Ghost on his feet and half-dragged him after the leader. Soap quickly glanced around the room and three remaining guards, but couldn't think of a way to escape. It appeared they had to wait for an opportunity.

Soon one of the guards returned to the room. Other one laughed at him. "What? You can't stand a sight of blood?"

"I don't care about the blood, but I don't really need to watch everything he's going to do to him." He grimaced.

"I second that." Other joined. "I would do anything to forget the last time he had a chat with someone."

Soap and Roach exchanged worried looks, but couldn't do anything more.

The next few minutes passed in silence. The most interesting thing that happened in there was that one guard lit a cigarette.

But then a scream pierced the silence. Soap and Roach froze. This was the first time they heard Ghost screaming and they found the high voice full of pain so unlike Ghost's clear and deep usual one.

"That was quick." One guard commented.

Roach looked desperately at Soap. We have to do something!

Soap shook his head apologetically. We can't overpower four guards with our hands tied behind our backs.

Every second felt like a minute and every minute felt like an hour. But unexpectedly the screams ended as suddenly as they appeared.

"Do you think he broke him already?" One guard asked.

"Nah, aren't these guys supposed to be elite?" Other doubted.

"Be patient, it's been just a half an hour." The smoking one shrugged.

"Well, the silence doesn't sound good. Shouldn't we check on them?" The first continued.

"Nervous?" The guard laughed shortly and grounded the cigarette. "Let's check it, then. Maybe I'll have some fun watching you pass out when you see the mess."

"I am not afraid of the blood." The other guard muttered silently and exited the room, following his more experienced colleague.

Soap quickly reviewed the situation. Starting a fight with two remaining guards still appeared as a death wish.

"Don't even think about that." The guard sneered.

Soap glanced at him with the most innocent expression he could pull out and shrugged.

…

A single gunshot surprised them all. Roach went pale and froze with shock. Did the bastard just kill Ghost? Soap didn't even think about such a possibility, he only started looking for any chance to escape. And the guards looked something between confusion and panic. Should they go and investigate? But who would take care of their prisoners?

Anyway, they didn't have to think about it for long because the door opened. The guards probably felt relief as they expected the person who was coming in to explain the situation.

Before the man even walked into the room, he started firing. Soap and Roach immediately crouched on the floor instinctively to make themselves as small as possible.

"Having fun down there?" A familiar voice asked them. Soap and Roach looked up in surprise. Both guards were dead and Ghost was casually leaning against the doorframe with an AK-47 in his hands.

"Ghost, are you ok?" Soap asked.

Ghost laughed somewhat maniacally. "Sure, I just had a nice chat with my new friend. Well, he wasn't much talkative at the beginning, but we worked on that." At that point, Ghost was grinning from ear to ear.

"You were there the whole time torturing that guy?! We thought it was you screaming your lungs out! Why the hell didn't you come here for us first?" Soap yelled at him.

"I figured you would forbid my procedure." Ghost shrugged.

"You crazy bastard!" Roach exclaimed.

"Anyway, I know a name of a man who's behind this." Ghost smirked. "Ever heard of Makarov?"