Author's Note: This is a fanfiction story I am doing about Season 1 of the Long War 2 playthrough by the youtuber Mal. Any characters inside belong to him, while XCOM belongs to Firaxis.
I wanted to write this story because Mal said when Bear was (Spoilers) Rescued from an Advent facility, Mal said that Bear is normally an assault, but became a Rouge(custom class, focused on stealth), in the current playthrough. I want to look into why Bear might have changed from a frontline shotgunner into a stealth operator. Please enjoy.
Prologue: Rescue
Lance Corporal Tony 'Bear" Barragan sat inside his cell. He abruptly stood up, crossed to the wall opposite his bed, and marked down another line on the datapad in his cell.
Briefly, Bear considered the sadism of ADVENT, creating a datapad specifically so prisoners could mark the days they spent in cells. 'Just the sort of thing our benevolent alien overlords would do for our health and well being.' Bear thought, rolling his eyes.
The datapad in his cell had marked three thousand, six hundred and fifty-eight days since his imprisonment. In reality, Bear knew that it had only been three thousand, six hundred, and fifty-two days. Almost exactly ten years since his capture. The additional six marks were for his squad, the ones who depended on him.
The ones he failed.
Sitting on his bed, Bear silently allowed his demons to overcome him, lost in what-ifs and I-should've's. He was so cut off from the world that he almost didn't hear movement outside his cell.
Bear ignored the noise at first. Sometimes his guards would make noise to torment him, reminding him that freedom would never come. Then, someone whose voice he did not expect to hear ever again floated into his cell.
A rough voice called out "Breaching Security." Bear lifted his head, and against all odds, began to hope. If it was truly Paul, then that meant XCOM had found him. Bear stood up as the door opened, the security firewalls breached.
In the doorway stood Paul "Mistwalker" Golewski, like a messenger from God. "We came as soon as we got word." Paul said. "Ed's covering for us. Wee, Christie, and Wulfric are cleaning up the remainder. You're getting out of here right now."
Bear numbly nodded, unable to comprehend that Bradford had even bothered to send a team for him, let alone one with so much talent. Wulfric alone was worth twice Bear in combat, given Bear's curse.
Bear stumbled to the evac point in a daze, still working to understand that he was being given a second chance. Once he was in the skyranger, Bear turned to Paul.
"You shouldn't have come." Bear stated, dazed.
"Like we could leave you in ADVENT's clutches." Wulfric cut in from across the skyranger, drawing nods from Christie and Ed.
"You're making a mistake." Bear pulled further into himself, trying to cut himself off from the world.
Wee studied Bear, then softly spoke, drawing attention from everyone in the skyranger.
"You cannot change what happened, Tony. You can only plan for the future. Accept that you have been rescued, and make do with what you have,"
The skyranger was silent after that, with Bear in quiet contemplation. If he was to rejoin XCOM, then he needed to take steps to ensure that he was no longer a threat to his friends. There, in the Skyranger, Bear decided that he would no longer take part in operations where he must work with others. To protect them. His curse would kill any who he worked with. It would not kill them if he worked alone.
AN: Please leave comments on whether or not you like this. If you have suggestions on how to improve, they would be appriciated.