Her heart pounded as she ran hard against the gravel and dirt, sweat shimmering against her skin in the first rays of sunlight. It was her memories that forced her to push herself. An image of a sobbing and helpless little girl was fresh in her mind, and that reminder of her moment of weakness tugged at her. She never wanted to be that again. She wanted to- no, needed to be better than everyone else. It was the only way she could redeem herself.
Never be weak, never be weak, never be weak again!
It was her own mantra that she chanted in her head as she continued on running into the later hours of the morning...
Chapter 1
Mundy had been up in one of his roosts, watching the girl nearly run herself to her death. He sighed before taking a swing from his "#1 Sniper" mug-it had been a gift from her- before focusing his attention back to her.
"She's in one of those moods again" he thought to himself. She had been this way since day one, stubborn as a mule but also eager to prove herself. Mundy partially blamed himself for her stubbornness though, she had been in his care for nearly fourteen years now, his personality was bound to rub off on her. The Australian smiled to himself. Fourteen years had gone by so fast. As he watched her complete yet another lap around the Badlands, he replayed their first meeting in his head...
December, 1952. Mundy had only been hired for the position of "The Sniper" by RED a mere seven months before hand. Back then he was a cold and bitter bastard, the only satisfaction he found in his day came from endlessly blowing the brains from his opponents' skulls. On this particular night he was twice as bitter. No matter where he had positioned himself on the battlefield at Teufort, the BLU Spy had managed to find him and ultimately take him out. His team had suffered from their lack of a support class, and had ultimately lost the fight. All Mundy wanted to do was go to his camper and catch some sleep.
In the later hours of the night, he woke, sounds of shouting and screaming stirring him from his sleep. Annoyed, he peered through one of the windows of his camper. He saw that the lights were all on at the BLU's side of Teufort, and could make out someone shouting "Stop them!" from that side. He somehow managed to pull his clothes on, holster is SMG and grab his kukri and open the camper door. The RED Spy was waiting for him.
"So it appears you heard the commotion as well?" said the Spy, lighting a cigarette.
Mundy nodded. "S'pose you don't know what's going on then?" he asked. The french man shook his head.
"No," he said, taking a drag off of his cigarette, "but I think it is in out best interest to investigate." Mundy silently agreed, and the two of them ran across the wooden bridge and into the BLU's concrete fortress.
Silently, both men crept along the halls of their opponent's building, the shouts and sounds of struggle leading them. The source seemed to be coming from the respawn room. They stopped and peered around the corner to get a look at the doors to the respawn room, only to quickly duck back around the corner when the BLU Spy, Medic and Engineer to step out of the room. The BLU Spy addressed his comrades "Find their daughter, she must have the documents on her. They weren't in the briefcase." BLU Medic and Engineer nodded, and the three of them split off in different directions.
Mundy turned to his teammate. "What documents are they talking about?"
Spy shook his head. "In all honesty, I have no clue. We must search that respawn room." and with one more scan of the area for anymore BLU's, they both quickly entered the respawn room, knife and kukri in hand.
Inside was a total bloodbath. Two bodies lay face down on the ground motionless, one man, one woman. Wounds ranging from stabs to gunshots covered their bodies.
"They didn't go down easy." Mundy stated, "But if they're BLU, why aren't they respawning?"
"Someone wanted them to stay dead." Spy said matter-of-factly. He was bent down by the corpse of the woman, turning her over and pulling her blood soaked ginger curls off her face.
"Any idea who they are, then?" Mundy asked, walking over to Spy.
"The woman is Kathleen Belvedere. She's from Dublin, Ireland and was hired as the assistant to the Administrator." Pointing to the corpse of the man, Spy continued. "The man is her husband, Edward Belvedere. He's from Manchester, England, and is-well...was- the newest class of BLU, The Commando."
Mundy vaguely remembered the Administrator mentioning something about a new class earlier in the week, but his thoughts quickly diminished when the sound of soft sobbing filled the room. The men exchanged glances and quickly looked around the room. They noticed that the medical cabinet's doors were open just slightly, and as the pair of them tiptoed to the cabinet, the sobs only got louder. Mundy gripped his kukri tight, and with Spy right behind him pulling out his blade, he opened the cabinet.
Neither of them were prepared for what they saw.
A little girl, no more than four, cowarded in the corner of the medical cabinet. Her blue shirt and overalls were covered in dried blood, which was presumed to belong to the corpses in the room. Her bobbed red hair was everywhere, the white bow that had been keeping it neat was now clutched in her hand, along with a brown envelope. She gazed up at the two men staring down at her, their mouths agape in disbelief. She hiccuped for a few seconds before finally speaking.
"Mommy?"
"Oh no..."Mundy gasped, darting his eyes from the girl to the woman's lifeless body. "She's their-"
"Daughter," Spy said for him. "Samantha Belvedere. Known as Sam by her parents Four years old. Born in Badlands, New Mexico."
The Australian felt a slight panic rise in him as he kept staring at the girl.
"Mommy?" Sam asked again, daring to move from the medicine cabinet.
"She's dead, along with your father." Spy said bluntly. Mundy turned his gaze to the Spy in disbelief only to quickly return it to Sam, as she then began to sob her hardest. Spy then made a move to grab the brown envelope from her hands, but was stopped by his comrade.
"What do you think you are doing?" Spy demanded.
"Tearing that thing out of her hands is only going to make her cry harder," said Mundy, "do you really want us to get-"
"THE RED SPY AND SNIPER ARE IN THE BASE" echoed the room as the loudspeaker came to life.
"...caught."
"I believe that's our cue." said Spy, again attempting to grab the envelope from Sam. Instead Mundy scooped the little girl up in his arms, covering her eyes with his hand to prevent her from seeing her parent's bodies, and ran out of the room. The Spy chased after him.
"You can't bring her with us! She's BLU's responsibility!" he hissed.
"You and I both saw what they did to her mum and dad, you think they wouldn't do the same to her?" Mundy snarled back, clutching on to the child.
"How sweet, The Sniper has a soft spot for children." Spy said, rolling his eyes.
Mundy was about to retaliate, but a stray of bullets from the BLU mercs reminded them of their situation, and they both shut their mouths.
By some miracle, the three of them managed to get back to RED's side of Teufort unharmed. After bringing Sam to Medic's office for a quick check up, and the envelope in her possession being handed over to Spy, Mundy managed to bring her down to one of the rec rooms and prepared a sort of bed for her on one of the old couches that sat in front of the equally old. T.V. The child fell asleep almost instantly, her body exhausted from her crying. The Sniper sat in one of the arm chairs next to her, trying to wrap his head around the night's events, but eventually he fell asleep too.
Over the course of the next few days, the Administrator had personally questioned both Spy and Sniper about what they had witnessed. Mundy's thoughts had kept going back to little Sam, however. He had become rather fond of the girl, she was a spunky one for her age, and watching her react to the other RED's had been priceless. She sassed Demoman like a pro and turned Heavy into a harmless teddy bear whenever he was in her company. She even managed to get Solider to crack a smile when she ran up to him with a pot on her head, imitating a salute and copying his call of "MAGGOT!" And she followed Mundy everywhere, constantly keeping a hold of his hand or begging to wear his hat, which he would always give-up to her.
He was worried what would become of her. The Administrator had stated that she had no other known living relatives that could take her. She said she would most likely be put in an orphanage of some sort. He didn't want that for her. But what could he do?
"You could take her in, if you're that worried about it..." the Administrator said during their latest interview.
The Sniper stared at her. "Raise a little girl on a battlefield?"
The Administrator nodded. "Precisely. It's the only thing she's know so far, take her away and who knows what could happen if she's put in a civilian environment, even at this age." she said, "We could also use this to our advantage. To show that a bloodthirsty assassin like yourself can raise a child would boost our image immensely."
And so, Sam stayed with Mundy, officially taking over responsibility of being her father. Over the fourteen years of her childhood and teenage years, he taught her everything he knew, as did the other RED's. Until eventually she decided she wanted to join them in their fights.
Sam finally collapsed on the ground after her 73rd lap. Her legs felt like they were on fire, and she gasped for air. Mundy, seeing her in her current condition, climbed down from his roost and jogged over to her.
"Are you trying to kill yourself?" he asked lifting her up to her feet.
"Meeting. Administrator. Class Assesment. Today. Can't be weak." Sam said between catching her breath. He rolled his eyes.
"You're going to be seeing her in a stretcher if you keep this up." He scolded. She just stood there, hunched over, still gasping.
"Dad, can you carry me inside? I can't feel my legs and I gotta get ready ..." Sam said after a few minutes.
The Sniper laughed, and his daughter joined him. He picked the girl up and slung her across his shoulders, and they headed inside.
**oh no i wrote a tf2 fic with a girl OC i'm so sorry. i just have a lot of sniper feels. uh. I hope to update this soon. like a week or so. your reviews would be lovely, gee whiz.**