How could this happen?
That is what was on her mind right now in the midst of the chaotic battlefield. The feeling was supposed to be same when she's here, where she should be excited when it started. To show everyone that she can be better by how good she can be.
But she can barely feel the same feeling she used to have before, not ever since the incident that happened days ago. She can still freshly remember from that moment when it started; how it turned everything to her upside down.
But she regained focus again when her comrade pulled her away from an incoming rocket aiming at her direction. Death would have come swiftly to her but she was saved from a hair's length.
"Girl Scout! Get your head off the clouds and help us defend!" The BLU Soldier barked at her as he tries to shoot at the enemy in front.
"I'm trying my best, ya big dope!" She managed to regain a little more focus as she uses her pistol to shoot at the incoming RED Team members.
"C'mon, fellas!" The BLU Engineer alarmed the other team members to fight back as he is in the midst of trying to repair his high-leveled sentry gun.
Things are getting a little rowdy during the Granary ever since the BLU Team is capturing most of the points of the arena, but trying to get the last control points of the RED Team is not easy manner. Just like every match that deals with control points, one way or another they would always fight back with a heavy defense.
"I'll head straight ahead! You guys just wait until Doc and Lard-fat can beat them up!" said the original BLU Scout when he reloaded the bullets in his scattergun.
"No, I'll go straight ahead! Just take the other route." BLU Girl Scout insisted. "Once they're distracted enough, we'll bag 'em before they would notice!"
"Wha? Oh, fine!" He picked up his bat and starts bolting off. He knows that he mustn't pick a fight with her, like he did one other time where it didn't end well for him.
"Gud luck, lass! Yer gunna need it!" BLU Demoman said while refilling in a nearby dispenser.
She then forced her legs to move to the other direction.
She regained most of her concentration so she can help her comrades to win this small war, even though the troublesome thought is still lingering in the back of her mind. She managed to dodge most bullets and smack each enemy with her bat as she still runs.
That is when she finally managed to reach where the final point may be, but skids toward a pillar of boxes to hide for a while. She observes her surroundings right behind her barricade. It appears that there are only a few people in the place but they are just heading towards to the other point to defend and take it.
Suddenly something caught her eye that made her lose a little focus.
It was a red dot, a small one looming around the walls and ground of the place. Seeing this small dot has her legs shook and her heart become heavy, for she knows that there is only one man who can bring death with just one quick shot to the head.
It took a small while for her to calm down, but she still can't shake away the memory of that incident that happened days ago.
"I have to do this…" she muttered to herself.
She swiftly runs to the base without getting caught, managed to reach to the small stairs and the lower pipe that leads inside one of the wooden house that overlooks the final control point.
She made sure that her presence isn't known as she crept slowly inside. Her breath became slower and heavier as her forehead and palms got sweaty with anxiety. She peeked inside through the door and she was completely correct.
He was just making sure that there is no one coming to grab their final point. If there are any BLU who laid his hands on the point, he will shoot them without mercy.
"Alert! Our control point has been captured!" The voice in the intercom system boomed.
"Ah, piss. 'Ere they come…" He muttered to himself quietly.
With one shot, she can hear a scream outside as the man near the boarded window cocks his rifle and reloads a new bullet in its place.
She can feel her heart pounding against her chest by looking at him from afar. Her mind is still racing from the thoughts of them and the incident.
She still remembered that she once tried to disguise herself as a RED version of herself thanks to her comrade's Disguise kit which she stole before. She once got inside the RED Team base, although by accident, but the first person from her rival team that she met was him. And because of that meeting and strangely every other meeting that followed, she couldn't stop thinking of him or visit him if given the chance.
The longer the two have always been together, the more they began to reveal little by little of themselves to each other; especially when it comes to their real names, which was considered a strict confidential rule that should never be broken.
It wasn't even long that she was starting to fall for the man who was supposed to be the enemy of their Team, even though it hurts her from the thought of it and the process of lying to him that she's never from the RED Team in the first place.
Sadly, he knew about the truth about her in one match during Double Cross. He finally learned she was from the enemy ever since the disguise kit that she used each time is starting to malfunction up to the point where it truly reveals herself.
That moment of truth made both parties of the relationship in shock, but also distraught. She never forgot about his shocked, betrayed (and, it might be her imagination, disgusted) expression. She ran away as quick as she can to avoid him, and when she was alone somewhere, she tried to stop herself from crying. She had lied to him and pretended to be someone different, she thought that she's almost as dirty as the Spy. Since the jig is up, she could no longer face him.
She gave herself a mental shake. She has to remain focused now for the BLU Team to win. However, the only way to help make her move is to kill off the man she used to love.
Ignoring her heavy heart, she crept behind him slowly as she draws her bat to attack him…
Hearing the small shuffle from behind him, he thought it could be that no good son of a bitch BLU Spy coming back to attack him like always before. He was annoyed at the thought that he turned around, but shock replaced it quickly when he saw her face.
The bat swung down but he quickly moved to avoid having his head cracked opened. He couldn't believe that of all people, it has to be her that he's fighting right now. Not the other BLU Scout, or the Spy, just her.
One side of his mind says that he has to defend himself in order to stay alive during the match where they are, but the other one says that he couldn't for he still feels heavy in the inside from both looking at her and remembering that incident.
Both fighters in the room are using their main weaponry to attack each other, but his large kukri knife managed to block the bat within an inch. Despite that these two are edging each other to fight; inside they feel awkward and ashamed of each other.
"Why are ya here?" He tried to ask her through the fight.
"Shut up!" She couldn't bear to listen.
She used all of her strength to break the short clash of weapons to draw out her pistol gun from her bag, and used the butt of the gun to knock him down on the wooden floor.
The impact from the weapon stunned him for a moment, but he looked up only to meet a gun aiming straight to his face. She had him pinned down to the floor using her own body on top of him, so that he won't escape.
She managed to subdue him, now all she has to do is to take him down so that the BLU Team could have the advantage.
"Gotcha, Sniper."
He narrowed his eyes at her behind his shades. "Since when did ya start calling me by that name?"
His words took her by surprise. "What…?"
He continued on, his words seemed icy and bitter, "Ashamed about what ya did to me? Want to go back using codenames and pretend nothing happened between us? Ya're no better than those bloody Spois."
The last statement struck a nerve, and she pushed the gun harder until it grazed his forehead. "Watch what you're saying to the one ready to blow your brains out," she gritted her teeth.
"Scout, don't even think about doing it," he warned her.
"About what? Pulling the trigger and send you through the respawn system? That's exactly what I'm doing!" she said.
He was quiet for a moment until he said, "Is this how ya wanted it to end between us?"
It gave her an impact but she shook away the thought that was on her mind for a moment.
"That doesn't matter anymore," She stated. "We're both different! We're are from different sides that will never get along not matter what it takes, and we can only kill each other to get what we want!"
Sniper simply glared at her. "How does it feel tricking and kissing the enemy?" he asked her harshly.
She began to sweat again, but she gripped the pistol hard. "I don't want you anymore."
His expression was solid but she could have sworn she saw the tiniest flinch when he heard her words.
"Then do it if ya mean it," He stated in a low voice. "Pull it."
She placed the pistol closer to the head for a point blank range.
Just pull the trigger and then he's dead, it's the only way to do it.
At least that's what she thought it will be, even though she's on top of him with a gun to his head. It could be the quickest kill that she can do for this match, for the Team, for her.
However, she still didn't pull the trigger. In fact, she didn't do anything at all. She sat there looking down on him. Eyes are staring at his.
If a couple of her teammates are here, they would goad her to do it or they'd grab the gun and do it themselves… but if there is anyone who could do that job, it will be only her.
She still didn't pull the trigger, as the man laying here is ready to accept his death from the woman whose lips he used to kiss…
Her hands shook and her mouth begins to quiver.
He felt a single drop fell on his cheek. He opened his eyes to see the young woman beginning to cry above him.
"I…I…" She slowly draws back the gun. "I…I can't…"
"Blood hell, girl," Sniper sighed, "Ye're supposed to shoot enemies, not weep for them."
She covered half of her face with just one hand to prevent him seeing her face.
"I…I can't do it… I can't kill you…" She sobbed a little.
"… Scout?"
"…You meant so much to me. I never meant to trick and hurt you…" The BLU Female Scout confessed. "…I loved you, Stephen."
His real name took him by surprise. They had once called each other by their real names when they were used to be close.
She raised her pistol up high until she places it aiming close to her head.
"...That's why…I have to go for our sake…"She smiled as she is ready to squeeze the trigger of her gun. "I'm sorry…"
Sniper was shocked at her actions. She had never been killed before and she's NOT going to have her first death and respawn such as this. She got him and pinned him; in this kind of situation, she's supposed to win. Thinking quickly, he grabbed his kukri knife which he dropped and swung it at her.
She jumped back just in time to miss the sharp blade and, in defensive reflex, she pulled the trigger… but not towards herself.
A single gunshot echoed inside, but nobody heard it from the outside where the chaos is still lingering throughout the battlefield.
The residue of the gunpowder escaped from the pistol's chamber after that one shot.
Eyes grow wide from the sight of blood starting to seep from his shirt, a trickle of it escaped from his lips.
Tears are starting to form in her eyes.
"..I-i—it's" he gasps as he slowly gets up "-It's alright, my planned worked… Crazy girl. Ya wanna have your first respawn with a suicide? T-that's… cowardly. Not like ya…"
She opened her mouth but couldn't utter a word.; she couldn't believe what he had done.
She tried to hold onto him, but he staggered a little from the pain and loss of blood. He lets go of the knife and held onto her face. With all his remaining strength he came closer to her just to plant a light kiss on her quivering lips.
"…I'm sorry for scaring ya, Alice—tch-" He gasped one last time.
He then stumbles back until he is on the ground with more blood starting to spill on the floor.
His vision grew dimmer. He could barely see her face from the darkness that is enshrouding him…
He is starting to remember the days on how they first met, until the incident. He used to think of her as a new member of the Team, so he tried to be nice to her so that she would be comfortable with working with them. Another reason why he had to reach out to her was because of his colleagues' berating that he should be more open to other people rather than keeping to himself and his work.
She was just like their Scout but still different from the original one. Little by little, meeting after meeting, he was starting to like this girl for not only her nature or her style; but that she understands him and she was always there to listen to him when he was troubled.
He then fell for her after the time where she was there in the clinic when he suffered from his wounds, and that she was sitting next to him until she was forced by a busy Medic to leave so he can get better.
I'm always here, aren't I? I'll never leave you alone. That is what he recalled from her.
The Australian then knew that all this time, outside from his family, he had been alone and that no one was ever there beside him.
He never admitted out loud at this cheesy romantic stuff, but he knew that he wanted to be with her, even if it means giving his life to her if she is in the worst of trouble.
But when the truth came out and she is actually BLU, it tore his heart that all this time she was actually from the enemy and never a RED in the first place. When she ran away from him, he tried to follow after her but it was still a hectic battle out there. He lost her by the time he got through some fire and enemies. When it was over, he wanted to be alone and wallow in bitter truth.
He felt hurt and betrayed, yes… but he still missed her.
He then closes his eyes after looking at her one last time.
"Stephen!" She finally found her voice and tried to hold up his lifeless body.
His body started to glow dim red, as it becomes more transparent to the point where he disappeared from her arms.
"NO!" She cried "Stephen! STEPHEN!"
She cried for the man that she loved; even though the respawn system provides for his return, it still hurts her so much to see him die for her sake.
It was then she stopped when she heard something from behind. The shuffling sounds of shoes are coming closer to her.
"Oh please," a French accent voice spoke up. "Quit wasting your tears for someone who's going to come back in just a few minutes..."
She slowly looked back to see the man with a red suit and balaclava mask.
"How long…" She trailed off in fear.
"I was passing by until I saw you trying to kill off our dear Sniper." The RED Spy replied "A shame that he still had to die by taking your bullet away."
Terror replaced the sadness inside of her; new sweat is beading from her forehead. She wanted to get up and run but she is paralyzed by looking at him.
He pulls out his Ambassador from his coat, and aims it straight at the girl.
"My apologies… Next time if you want to play Spy, think of a better disguise." He pulled away the safety of his gun. "You didn't fool me since the first day."
She tried to force her legs to get up, but it was too late.
The gun fired and she fell on the floor with her head bleeding out blood and brain matter. Her body had plopped to the same spot where her beloved Sniper once laid.
The assassin flicked his cigarette that he was smoking earlier as he watches the body start to go through its respawn phase.
"I've made quite a mess." He scoffed.
No one other than the Spy was there to witness how these two former lovers met a tragic end.
Outside in the battlefield; The RED Team tries to guard more of their final point, while the BLU Team were so caught up on attacking, that their men is running low in ammunition.
The final minute has passed in the small war of Granary.
"You failed! STALEMATE!" the intercom system made its final announcement.