Hello again! Nothing really to say now… But if you're new to my fanfictions, I would recommend checking out my account for more fanfics you would enjoy

I don't own Gears of War.

Sergeant Colin Greeves took off his helmet, allowing the scorched wind to flow through his buzzcut, brown hair. His green eyes stared at his helmet's side, a piece of shrapnel embedded into its communication gear. He swore, shaking the helmet, then pulled hard on the piece of metal, almost feeling its heat through his armored glove. He swore again, throwing the helmet to the ground in frustration as the shrapnel remained lodged in it.

Sweat dripped from his sharply-angled face, dropping on to his Mk. II Lancer, sitting on the ground. The single drop of sweat flowed through the weapon's accumulated grime and gore, then touched the blood-soaked ground. What were once the pristine streets of Halvo bay were now gore-covered streets of war.

Two months. That was how long Greeves had fought the Locust. That was how long it had been since those damned grubs had come up from the ground. But it felt like a lifetime. He hadn't even had the chance to fight in the Pendulum Wars, finishing Basic just a day before the War ended, but now he was getting the fight he asked for. The fight he had trained for. The fight he was ready for.

But he knew this was a fight he wouldn't win.

Sergeant Greeves ran a hand over his head, then picked up his Lancer. The heavy weapon felt small in his massive hands, and he wished the COG made something bigger. They would need it if they were going to stop the Locust. Greeves glanced around the battlefield; at his fallen teammates and fellow Gears, the innocent civilians that had fought desperately but futilely, and then there was the Locust. The gray-skinned, butt-ugly monsters that had come up from holes in the ground like an army of savage ants now lying on the ground, dozens of bullet-holes riddling their bodies. Greeves searched them for ammo, but came up empty.

But none of this mattered. Greeves didn't care about the dead Locust. He didn't care about the dead Gears. He didn't care about this war. He had stopped caring a long time ago. He had to. He could still see her face, smoldering as that damned grub burned her alive. His still remembered pulling the trigger, putting a round right between its eyes, throwing it back into its own hole straight up from hell. He remembered wanting to jump down that hole, to make sure it was dead. He remembered holding her, watching the life bleed out of her eyes.

He had to stop caring, or he would go insane.

Greeves moved. Yeah, that was all he had to do: move.Run away like he always had. Run away from her face. Run away from his torment. But this time he wasn't moving away. This time he was going to fight his tormentors, he was going to fight his fears. He was going to bring the fight right to the Locust's front door if he had to. Greeves raised his rifle as he ran, watching for any movement. Then, as he stopped before turning the corner of one of the many destroyed, burning buildings of Halvo Bay, he felt it. The gut-wrenching, terrifying feeling that all Gears had learned within a few weeks of their arrival: the tremors. Bricks fell from the broken building he was hiding behind, shattering on the streets. A lamppost next to him flickered and died, then disappeared altogether, a hole forming on the ground where it had been. Without thinking, Greeves instantly threw a grenade into the hole, plugging it before any grubs could come out.

But then a second hole formed, and a third hole formed, then a fourth hole. All alone, Sergeant Greeves was ready to face Hell. Three drones exited from the nearest hole, meeting only his Lancer's chainsaw. He swung the gun like a bat, shredding every grub that came out of the hole. When the Locust from the third hole started shooting, he grabbed the nearest object: the upper half of a drone's body. Using the meat-shield, he quickly moved back into cover behind the ruined building to his right.

Greeves dropped the body, sprinting to the other side of the building and popping out from there. He fired three long bursts, emptying his clip and killing three drones. By the time the others realized where he was, he had already moved to the other side and started shooting again, killing two more. The COG soldier was running back to the other side again when something bigsmashed its way through the sagging brick structure of the building, flying glass and brick fragments heralding its arrival.

The butcher roared as it saw Greeves, running forward with its massive meat cleaver, shining with blood from fresh kills. Greeves dodged aside as the giant blade came down, now embedded in the rubble, then slashed with his chainbayonet. The spinning blade had almost no effect, and the butcher roared in the Gear's face before extracting the cleaver. The giant Locust swung again, determined to split Greeves in two. But Greeves ducked below the swinging blade, thrusting his chainsaw into the lower part of the butcher's jaw. The overgrown grub roared, blood splashing from the new hole under its mouth.

For good measure, Greeves fired half of his magazine into the butcher's face. At point-blank range, the Locust didn't stand a chance. When the butcher fell, Greeves dropped his Lancer and picked up its giant cleaver, spinning to slam it into a drone that was rushing in behind him. The blade crunched right through the grub's thick shoulder blade, then through half of its torso. The Locust fell back as it was nearly cut in half, taking the cleaver with it. Greeves attempted to extract the giant blade, but it was firmly imbedded in the drone's chest. Another drone ran at Greeves, hoping for its claws to taste flesh.

But the Gear's armored hand shot forward, socking the Locust soldier in the jaw. The drone shrieked as its jaw broke, then saw stars as Greeves continued to punch it again and again. The drone hit the ground, blood flowing from its mangled mouth, but the COG soldier curb-stomped the Locust's head twice for good measure. Greeves went to retrieve his Lancer when another Locust soldier pushed through the building, running and firing its Hammerburst rifle at the same time. Greeves dropped, executing a perfect roll over his Lancer, and came back up with the weapon in hand. The drone charged, intent on smashing the Gear's head in, but Greeves ducked under the blow, his chainbayonet roaring to life as he brought it up to- andthrough- the grub's crotch. Blood and gore splattered over him as he brought the spinning blade up, and he emptied the other half of his magazine into the grub's body.

Then the streets went quiet. Too quiet. Greeves reloaded quickly, wary for any sound in the silence. Then he dropped the Lancer again, snapped out his Snub pistol, and put a single round through the head of the drone that had been sneaking up behind him. The lone shot echoed through the empty streets, devoid of any life; only the angels of death now patrolled those grounds.

But Greeves was on a mission. He exchanged his Snub's clip for a full one, then continued down the streets. He felt eyes on him, but by now the grubs had learned their lesson.

Or maybe they hadn't. Greeves heard a sharp crackand felt the Longshot round pass by his face, carving a large furrow in the ground to his right. The Gear turned quickly, finding the Locust sniper, stupidly exposing itself as it stood up to pull back the large rifle's bolt. Greeves removed his Snub pistol from its holster, activated its small scope, and quickly put three bullets into the drone's thick skull.

Without even pausing to reload, Greeves continued his jog. He cleared all thoughts from his mind. The only thing that mattered was to get there. He had to say goodbye, one last time. Step, breath, look, repeat. Step, breath, look, repeat.Another group of Locust, toss grenade, another dead group of Locust. Boomer in front of me. Dodge the grenade. Come up firing. Boomer without a head. Doesn't matter. Step, breath, look, repeat.

But Greeves was pulled from this thoughts by a scream. It had sounded just like her. He brought up his Lancer, scanning the streets. Then he heard the scream again, coming from the North, approximately a hundred yards away, past a group of buildings. The Gear ran, mantled over a concrete roadblock, jumped over the rotting bodies of two people, unidentifiable, then continued running. When he reached the lip of a staircase leading down to the street level below him, Greeves just vaulted the rails, rolling to lessen the impact.

But he was there. He saw a woman, maybe late-twenties to early-thirties, rags of what was once fine-blond hair covering her clenched eyes as a hulking butcher backed her into an alley. She screamed again, but the butcher just laughed. The giant Locust lifted its cleaver… which fell with a loud scrape to the ground behind it. The butcher was confused, bringing its hands- or where its hands used to be- before its eyes, now only bleeding stubs. Then Greeves chainbayonet exploded through its chest. It screamed as the chainsaw whined, grinding through its tough flesh.

The woman, surprised to still be alive, slowly opened one eye. She saw the Gear, gave a cry of shock and relief, and huggedhim. Greeves didn't know what to do, but he knew he must protect this woman at all costs. Ironic, then, as she protected him from the massive slug traveling towards his head. Greeves felt her go slack in his arm, saw her now-dead form, and- assisted by the blood now covering his face- he saw red.

Greeves roared, dropping the dead woman. He couldn't think straight; a wall of fury surrounded his mind. He ran towards the sniper drone hiding behind a low railing, reloading its Longshot, but the Gear didn't make it in time before the drone fired again, hitting the enraged Gear high on the left shoulder. His arm dislocated and his shoulder pulped, Greeves didn't feel anything. He had lost control. Only a ghost remained, a phantom of pain and anger, whose only job was to kill. He didn't even bother activating the chainbayonet, instead opting to swing the Lancer like a bat, shearing the Locust's head straight off.

Another grub made the mistake of popping up to take a shot at the furious COG soldier, but took a bolo grenade to the head. The fragmentation grenade blew up, shredding the first drone and taking most of another drone with it. Greeves threw himself through the clearing smoke of the explosion, ramming into a boomer on the other side. The giant Locust laughed deeply as it saw the small COG soldier in front of it, but that laugh turned to a wheeze as the soldier efficiently pistol-whipped the grub, followed by three shots under the chin. Greeves barely ducked aside before the falling boomer crushed him. Finally, the street was silent again. Only the boom of mortars and the occasional Hammer strike invaded the silence.

Greeves was about to continue when he finally took a moment to scan the buildings. Wait…He knew this place. He looked across the street to make sure. He saw a broken sign with scorch marks and riddled with bullet holes, but he could still read it clearly: Dan's Pharmacy.Then he looked across the other side of the street, where a lone, crushed food truck stood, painted bright purple and long ago stripped for parts. That would mean…This was his side of the town; his old house was only a few blocks from here. Shewas only a few blocks from here.

Greeves ran. Not a jog like before, but a full-out sprint. But his mind wasn't on his moving feet, his broken shoulder, or his tired body. All he could think about was her. He remembered their first date at a fancy restaurant uptown. He remembered giving her the engagement ring; gold with three small diamonds on the top. He remembered their wedding day and spending time with her family. And he remembered when that Godforsaken grub tore its way into his house and torched her.

Now, for the first time since her death, he was finally going back. After running his whole life from the truth, he was finally going to pay his respects.

He was there. Greaves looked at the broken shell that was once his house. He saw the crumbling structure of wood and brick, and wondered what had happened to his old house, once so vibrant and full of life. All because shewas there. She still was, buried underneath a few stones, underneath the rotting rubble. Without another thought, Greeves walked in.

He quickly found her grave. Some crude writing, written with a piece of burned charcoal, was the only thing marking the sorry sight. The Gear rubbed his hand over the charcoal writing:

Here lies Angela Marie Greeves

A great friend and a loving Wife

I will always remember you

Greeves sighed. He was here. That was all that mattered. He only wished that he could have saved her. He looked away from the grave, remembering that dark day yet again. He could still see that grub's face, with that deep, red scar between its eyes where he had shot it-

Then Greeves realized that he wasn't just imagining it. The drone was therestanding right in front of him, the scar still evident on its face. The grub roared, Boltok pistol in hand, then charged the COG soldier. But looking back at his wife's grave, Greeves lost all will to fight. What was the point? He barely heard the revolver go off, barely noticed the hard punch to his chest, barely noticed that he fell over, twisting to hit the ground stomach first, next to her grave. He felt another punch, this one to his back. Then another one. He barely felt the small puddle of blood, seeping up to meet his face.

Then he took one more look at her grave. He could see her face, crying as the grub set her house aflame, set heraflame. All Greeves could do was think that he had failed her. Failed to avenge her.

But he wouldn't this time.

Then the world came back into sharp focus. But he still didn't feel any pain. Now, he had a purpose. He could feel the drone, slowly walking towards him. Any second now, it would roll him over, to make sure he was dead. Then he would strike.

Just as he imagined, the grub stopped right next to him. He could see its thick boots, right next to his face, the smell of leather mixing with the drone's own putrid stench. He felt its claws clutch his side, pulling upward, rolling him over. The grub stared in confusion at the grenade clutched in Greeves' fist. "Fuck. You." Was all the Gear said. Then the world exploded.