Hey, guys, Medic here. So, before the story begins, I sincerely apologize to every single one of you guys for my lack of inactivity on the story, but I had a lot of work on my school recently and I still do, but you already know I try my best to upload as many chapters as I can. So, just a friendly reminder, that neither me nore the story are not dead yet, plus I will make a big comeback soon enough!. In the meantime, stick around, as I prepare more adventures and MISadventures for out little upcoming hero over here. Medic over and out.

Chapter 4: Silence in The Snow (Pt. 2)

(Third Person's PoV)

With those thoughts inside his head, George left a sigh, got back on his feet and went back to the hallway. In front of the door, a guard was standing with his arms crossed and his left foot hitting the floor continuously. He was about half a head taller than George and very muscular-looking, whose appearance was kind of frightening at first sight.

"Finally, you're done. Follow me. Sir needs to have a word with you." He said with a slight mixture of disgust and frustration, once he saw our protagonist leaving Ashley's bedroom. Then, he shook his head to the left and started walking, with George following suit. When they went upstairs, the guard pointed a room in front of the staircase and slowly left.

'This is not looking good, but it's Ashley's father we're talking about! I guess I have no other choice, but to meet him…' George thought and went in front of the double door. He was about to knock, but he cowered out for a moment. Eventually, he got a deep breath and knocked three times, hoping for the best.

"Come in!" a voice was heard from the other side of the doors, giving George the opportunity to slowly open the doors, just wide enough to see a man in a red robe, standing in front of a burning fireplace.

"Don't worry. I don't bite." the man said, encouraging our hero to get inside. Once the doors were closed, the man began talking:

"So, you're the person Ashley was telling me about. She also told me, that you are referred to as "The Chosen One". Is that correct?" His voice was deep and sounding familiar to George, but he couldn't remember whose voice was that.

"Y-yes, sir. Although, I don't know a lot about it but, as far as I've heard, I meet the requirements to be that guy." George said a bit nervously, while coming closer to the old man.

"Hey, why the nervousness? Come on, don't be shy. Take as seat and make yourself at home!" the old man noticed and replied warmly. "Besides, I would like to learn more about you. So we're going to be here for a while."

"Thank you for your kindness, sir, but I must escort Ashley to her missing soldier as soon as possible! Who knows what those bastards could have done him so far?" George declined the offer, gaining more confident with each word. "And excuse me for my language, but I can not allow someone out there getting hurt, even if that person was my worst enemy… With all the respect, sir, we should better delay that for some other time."

"Hmm… A fighter of justice, I see. Just like I remember you, George. But there's a little problem here…"the man spoke back and slowly turned around. "An old friend would like to say hi before you leave…" Once the man was facing George, he left a small grin and continued:

"Hello again, George. We meet again."

The moustache, the wound on the left eye, the wrinkles on his face and the dead look of his eyes… No, it couldn't be!

"Shepherd!" George yelled and quickly reached for his pistol, but he forgot it wasn't on its place. "I thought you were dead! Soap knifed you in the eye, for fuck's sake!"

"That's true, first and foremost. But you forgot a small detail here; just like you, great or upcoming names in history [1], when they die, they come in this world, as never-aging bodies. Although, they can still feel pain and die. And once you're dead here, you're dead for good… The good part of this story is that it applies to people, who were very famous or had the requirements to become popular. But there was a prophecy, back before I arrive here, which was talking about a man capable and powerful enough to change everything. And when I heard about you, I had a feeling that you would be the one." Shepherd said, with the grin still on his lips.

"Cut the bullshit, Shepherd. You are no worth of coming here after what you did to the world, OUR world. Now, Soap's about to die, a whole country is about to fall and Makarov is still out there! And it's YOUR goddamn fault for this!" George snarled with all his might. "Me and Allen trusted you back then…"

"Oh, Joseph. He was a good man. A soldier, willing to do anything to serve his country. Even become one of the enemies under everyone's noses. Too bad he died so ingloriously. He would be a good member of my elite troops. But then you arrived. After Joseph's death, a better soldier appeared out of nowhere, ready to repla-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" George shouted even harder. "I don't want to hear any more of your bullshit, OK?! You killed Allen, because you KNEW he would ruin your plans! And what was the best way to execute him without getting even the smallest amount of blood in your hands? That's right, you worked with Makarov and, from an example of patriarchy, you became your own country's traitor. And all of that, because you wanted power. If Soap managed to kill you with a throwing knife, then it will be easy for me to blow your brains out."

"Well, it did take you some time to realize all this. But it would be a shame, if you were the only one knowing about my secrets, right?" Shepherd applauded and reached his hand to the fireplace, trying to grab a knife left there, without George noticing. Unfortunately for him, he did notice the movement, so he had to find something and defend himself or disarm Shepherd. Suddenly, George remembered about his knife and he took a fast look at his vest. Luckily for him, the knife wasn't removed from its pocket.

'Nice!' he thought with joy, while he was drawing it to show itself. In the meantime, Shepherd realized what was going on and he tried to grab his knife quickly as well, but he accidentally slipped and threw the knife away. While he was attempting to hold on the corner of the fireplace, George left a war cry and stabbed Shepherd on the right hand. His enemy shouted in pain, as he was trying to punch the man holding the knife with his other hand. But, as it turned out, the exact opposite occurred, with George hitting his old superior with all the strength of his fists. After about a minute of unforgiving punching, George stopped from exhaustion and drew his knife out of Shepherd's hand, leaving him paralyzed from the pain he had received. In the meantime, he took a look at the hand he just stabbed and he noticed a small, silver ring with a red cross on its center. He got shocked for a moment, but he swiped his thoughts away and said:

"So, not only you exist, but also you're a member of the Templar Order. How low could you ever go, you miserable and corrupted man?" Immediately, George grabbed the old man from his robe and dragged him close to his face. "I don't know what will happen after this event, but I will tell you this. No matter how hard you and your little Templar friends try to kill me, I'll always be haunting you down, until I get your last breath out of your lungs with my own, bare hands. And if you ever, EVER say anything to Ashley, I swear to God, I will cut your head off and take it as my personal souvenir. Are we clear?" All that he got as an answer was a spit of blood on his face, forcing him to let Shepherd go and clean himself up. With an evil grin of victory, George left the room, with a seriously injured father behind him and a small stain of blood on his knife's pocket, while guards rushed in to take care of their master.

(George's PoV)

'That bastard… How dare he call himself a human after doing such evil things to his own kind? Not only he betrays his own men, but also joins the Templar Order? Now come to think of it, this gives me another reason to kill him. Still, I don't want to let Ashley know anything about it yet. In the meantime, I shall better focus on the mission and nothing else.' I thought to myself, as I was exiting the room and heading towards the main hall. I saw Ashley, Andr and Riley sitting on the couches and probably chatting about something I tried to learn, but couldn't understand. It seemed that none of them heard the mess going on in Shepherd's room, so I had that out of their way. When I was close enough to them to realize my presence, Ashley got up and told me with a frustrated tone:

"You're late. I should have expected you to arrive about half an hour ago, but no. You decided to take your time instead and come whenever you feel like it. Is that correct?"

"Nope! Your father called me to chat with him. Seems like an interesting man." I told her half the truth of the story. But once he heard me mentioning her father, she became serious and asked:

"D-Dad called you personally? But why?"

"I just told you, he wanted to have a word with me. Also, he told me to protect you no matter what happens." I kept on lying. I thought she would get suspicious on my words, but instead, she blushed a bit and whispered:

"H-he did…? Wow… I-I didn't expect him to become this protective." Suddenly, she took her original, dominating look and continued: "Anyway, we shall better get prepared as fast as we can. We have lost way too much time already. Now, I want you to follow me to the Armory, OK? On the way there, don't try to do anything weird, or else I will cut your arms off!" With that being said, she turned her back on me and started walking back on the hallway. It took me for a bit to understand what she meant by 'weird' and, once I did (eventually), I started running behind her.

*4 minutes later*

"Wow, your house is huge. Did I tell that to you, ever since I was brought here?" I said to Ashley, trying to break the silence.

"No." was all I received from her lips.

"Damn, you sure are laconic, aren't you?" I asked with a bit of frustration.

"Yes." she said quickly once again. "Anyway, here's the Armory. Take whatever you want and do it quickly. I want you to be ready in about 5 minutes. After that, I will just leave you behind and do the mission by myself. I will be waiting outside." she added and showed me the Armory with a movement of her arm.

"Got it, Boss." I teased her a bit and chuckled, but all I got was an 'I'm going to kill you, if you ever joke like that' look with her eyes. I sighed and slowly opened the door in front of me. By the time I stepped my foot on the room, I was surrounded by tons of weapons and armor on different places of the four walls around me. From 9mm pistols to even the smallest gadgets, that only the military could order.

'Damn you, Shepherd. Who knows how much blood you spilled, in order to get all of this?' I thought to myself and walked closer to the AR (Assault Rifle) section. There were a lot of nice guns lying around, but the one that caught my eye was a 7.62x51mm M14 EBR with a Laser Sight on the left side of the barrel, Hybrid Sight on the top, Forward Grip on the bottom and a custom 30-round magazine.

"Heh, nice!" I said and grabbed it to test it out. For an M14, it was light and felt really good on the grip, even though I'm not really used to M14 variants. After the quick examination, I nodded a bit and placed the gun's belt around my arm and wrist and grabbed some more ammunition as well.

"Primary, done. Let's move on to the Secondary Weapons." I muttered to myself and took a look around the Shotgun section. I did like pump-action shotguns, but what I really liked the most were the lever-action ones (Too much Terminator, I guess?), so I began searching from there. Unfortunately, the only shotguns I had found were a pair of modernized Winchester Model 1892s, but they would be cool to hold like dual weapons. Still, I didn't like the idea of holding too many guns on me, so I moved on to the automatic shotguns. And guess what I picked! That's right, a fully-automatic Atchisson Assault Shotgun (AKA AA-12), with 32 rounds on the drum! Hey, since I'm using a slow-firing AR, I shall also be using an automatic shotgun as well! And to sum up the loadout, I picked up an M9 Beretta, just in case one of my guns jams during battle. I also grabbed some Flashbangs and Throwing Knifes for the stealth part of the mission, but I added a silencer to the M14 too, again, just in case. Now, for armor, I picked up and wore a heavy Kevlar and a Helmet, which both of them were a perfect fit on me.

"Alright, I'm done!" I shouted to Ashley and got out of the room. She was standing against the wall, with her arms crossed below her breasts, while looking at me.

"It's about freaking time. You know, if you keep on like this, the only one who will be dead is me from too much boredom." She replied and took her turn to get in the room. "Don't even think of taking a peek inside or I'll stab your eyes out."

"Fine, geez! Like I had the intention and courage to do so in the first place." I calmed her down and dropped my equipment on the left of the door.

'Not that I wouldn't mind to take a small peek, though...' I thought and changed my old Kevlar with the new one, while I was simultaneously placing the mags on the pockets and the grenades around the belt of my pants. Once this was over, I headed to a guard and asked him, if there were two winter jackets available for me and Ashley to use. He nodded and told me to stay put, while he's searching for a spare in the dressing room. In the meantime, I was inspecting the guns I had gathered, until Ashley's head popped up from the Armory and looked around for me. When she saw me, her cheeks turned to a deep red and she asked nervously:

"H-hey. C-could you pl-please help me h-hook my bra? I-I can't reach it and I n-need help…" I immediately turned red from embarrassment and asked back:

"W-why do you need my help? Can't the girls help you with that?"

"I… I don't want to bother them, so… Plus…" she started whispering at the moment. "I d-don't mind if it's you, who does it…"

'OK, I'm at the deep waters now! What shall I answer now?! Think, think!' I screamed in my head, but I tried not to show my fright as best as I could. In the end, I left a small sigh of defeat and answered:

"Okay, fine. I will help you hook your bra." By the time I said that, Ashley's face turned even redder and she hid herself even more behind the door, but eventually walked back inside. She was standing still, with her bra unhooked behind her back. Fortunately, she was holding it from the front, so there was no chance of it falling from her chest, plus this was making things easier and less awkward for me to witness. I took a deep breath and got the two connective sides of the leather and made my first attempt. For my surprise, Ashley squeaked a bit before turning her head to me and saying:

"George, your hands are cold."

"And what do you want me to do? Set them on fire or something?" I asked chuckling, but then realized what kind of bullshit just came out of my mouth. I continued to try hooking up the bra, but I never had the chance to do such thing with a girl, so I didn't quite know how. Eventually, after many embarrassing tries, I managed to hook Ashley's bra and smile from pride. (Hey, it might seem and sound kind of pervy, but it was an accomplishment for me! Don't judge.)

"Okay, I think I'm done." I said and gently patted Ashley on the shoulder. She turned around, looked me in the eyes, but didn't say a word. We would stay like this for way longer, if the guard I was speaking about a minute ago hadn't knocked on the door.

"Miss Ashley, I got the clothes your male friend requested. Where should I leave them?" he asked. She was taking quick looks once at the door and once at me.

"Uuuuuhhhhh, p-p-put them on th-the couches! I'll t-take them in a minute!" she shouted, trying to quickly put her armor on. But as it turned out, I didn't hook well enough the bra, causing it to fall off with the first shake, thus revealing Ashley's breasts. Now, if she wasn't red enough before, she totally was now. She left a very loud squeak and fell on her knees, trying to cover her bare chest with her arms as well as she could. As for me, I was fighting my inner instincts on keep looking at the half-naked girl or not. While thinking all this, I was standing still like a total dumbass, who was born with a brain tumor (OK, that was kind of a dark narration… Sorry.).

"What the hell?! I thought you hooked it!" she screamed silently enough to not be heard from outside.

"How the hell am I supposed to know how women's underwear work?! I'm not a machine, you know!" I replied with the same tone as her.

"Whatever! Just get out of the room already, perv!" she continued her 'lecture' and attempted to push me to the door, but instead she stepped on her bra, slipped and got on top of me (Cliché…). We both fell with a big thud on the floor, with me hitting head first and back next. It was pretty painful, but it wasn't powerful enough to leave me unconscious. And I had to learn that the hard way around. As I had my eyes closed from the pain, I could feel my hand touching something soft on top of me. Being a little dizzy from the fall and the pain, I slowly opened my eyes to see my right hand groping on Ashley's left boob… Yeah, I did think of things being better, if I was unconscious at the moment, but what can I say? Anyway, while I was trying to process the whole thing, I looked towards her eyes, which were filled with embarrassment and anger. Also, her lips were shaking a bit, like she wanted to desperately leave a loud scream, but she was thinking further about it. In the meantime, footsteps began hearing from the other side of the door –probably one of her guards, I don't know-, which made me more nervous with the situation. I had to do something, before things could get many times worse than they already were. Having no time to think clearly for a getaway, I grabbed Ashley from the back of her head with my left hand, leaned towards her and kissed her. Just like that, out of the blue, no romance or anything. Besides, as I've already mentioned, I was way too nervous to think like a normal person AND the time was "All-In or Nothing". While I was doing my part, I noticed Ashley's eyes widening from surprise and shock, while she was intensely squirming in my mouth. Fortunately for me, she seemed to calm down a bit and went with the flow. Now if that was a normal, human date, I would have actually kept that kiss last longer, but I had no intention to do so. After I was certain, that the guard wasn't hearing us, I broke the kiss, made eye contact with Ashley and whispered:

"Look, I'm sorry for what I just did to you, but I had no other choice. Who knows what would happen, if I hadn't stopped you from screaming at the very last moment! That's why I have to say, that I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart. Now, be a good girl and let me get out of the room slowly, before somebody gets the wrong idea, while you get properly prepared, OK?" She didn't say anything in advance, but nodded slowly instead, while standing back on her feet. Once she was I up, I got back up as well, cleaned myself some dust off and went towards the door with slow and big steps.

During that time, I didn't have the courage to look that girl back in the eyes after what just happened. I had to explain myself soon enough to prevent any misunderstandings, though, but that wasn't the right time to do so. While being dragged to my inner thoughts, I leaned my back against the door and looked at my right hand.

'I bet my ass nobody will believe this…' I thought and took a look at my other hand as well. For my surprise, a head of a skeleton formed beside the Enderman symbol, while tribal stripes were forming around both of them too. This time, though, the whole tattoo started taking a slightly greener look than it was before. I still had no idea why that was happening, but I would soon find out.

*8 minutes later*

Both Ashley and I were in front of the main gate outside (She was still embarrassed from that…), ready to finally begin our original mission, until Andr signaled us to not leave yet. Once she reached us, she came close to me and said:

"Give me your hand for a second."

"Wh-what are you going to do now?" I asked nervously, as I was reaching my right arm out.

"Nothing. I just wanted to give you this." She answered and placed a green-looking sphere on my palm. "It's an Ender Pearl. It can help you teleport to wherever you throw it, but it's only for one use. For us, Endermen, this means many things, because this is an Enderman's heart. That's why we have the ability to teleport everywhere."

"But why would I have it and not Ashley?" I questioned her once again.

"Because… That's what my mother told me to do. 'If you ever find someone, who need my Pearl, don't hesitate to give it to them. They will need it more than you will ever do.' Those were her last words, before he kills her…" At that moment, her eyes began watering. "Of course, that's the only thing I have left from her ever since. I still have my father, but I haven't seen him after the day I was born. Still…" She looked me deep in the eyes, with tears slowly flowing down her cheeks. "You need it more than I do. So keep it and use it, when you really need it, OK?" Then, she began silently crying. I won't lie, I was about to cry too, but I had to comfort Andr first. So, I slowly grabbed both hands of hers, made eye contact with her and replied:

"I'm sure this move would make your mother proud." Suddenly, her eyes widened a bit from surprise and stopped watering, while she kept the contact with me. "I might not know personally how it feels to lose a member of your own family, especially if that one is your parent, but I do know, that both parents want their children to be kind people. And you achieved that. So don't worry much about it. Your mother already accomplished her goal." With that being said, Andr opened her mouth from joy and dragged me to a hug. I had no idea what to do at first, but I eventually took part on it as well.

"Thank you, George." I could hear her whispering, while she was wiping away her remaining tears from her eyes and forming a small smile on her face. "I mean it. Now go. You must not delay any further." And she turned her back on us and went back to Riley's company. Meanwhile, Ashley poked me on the shoulder and signaled me to start walking. I took a second look at the Ender Pearl, before I put it on my pocket. It was pretty. Although, I felt a bit odd while holding it. I didn't know what it was, but, again, I would find out soon enough. In fact, I would find out way sooner than I expected…

[1] This word references the video-game/fantasy history, not the real-life history (Capt. Obvious strikes once again!) (see later chapters)