Anya looked at the dark skies before her... "It would always be darkest before dawn," Makarov told her, giving her the M4A1 that she always favored. For the most individualistic soldier that he had met, she carried the most common of weapons... Another irony that he found in her, adding to her mystique that brought him wanting more and more. She would be transported to the Monastery, the Gulag where Prisoner 627 was held captive. It was one day after she had returned from Rio de Janeiro, one day since her nightmares begun to settle in, but it mattered little now. She knew very well that this mission would bring her a step closer to what they both had worked for.

Her sapphire eyes gleamed when she took the weapon from his hands, smiling ever so slightly. "Thanks," she said, and looked out towards the dark, starry sky. It was a sight that many would kill to behold, rolling green forests, white mountains capped with snow... An elegant estate in the center of it all... Makarov was a man who knew how to live, when the time was right, that was. "For everything..." This man was the man that she was sent to kill, but yet, he was the one who gave her a new life, and a new purpose...

Makarov smiled, and kissed her forehead. "You will not disappointment yourself and I," he told her. "I have faith in you, my dear." Her sapphire eyes looked into his heterochromic eyes, finding only encouragement... "I will wait for you in Afghanistan after this. Your pilot will know where to go." Afghanistan? Why Afghanistan? "Shepherd will certainly send the Task Force 141 to gather information on my operations, which contains evidence of his dealings with me," Makarov explained, taking her hand in his, and kissing her knuckles.

"He told you to go to Afghanistan before all this happened, didn't he?" Anya asked him in return. "To accept your payment for the attack on the airport?" Solemnly, he nodded, confirming her suspicions. "He'll bring about a full-scale attack on you... Who knows what Shepherd has in store?"

"Shepherd has an entire base in Afghanistan, known as Site Hotel Bravo," Makarov replied, "He wishes to get rid of me, but you will do the same to him. Free Prisoner 627 with the Task Force 141, and follow them to whatever mission that they will take. When Shepherd splits them into two, follow whoever who goes to the air-based vehicle boneyard in Kandahar." After having said those words, he took her into his arms and embraced her. "Be careful, Anya. I did not spare your life just to have you killed by either your own countrymen or mine." He was about to add a few more words, words that would tell her so much more that he meant to, but he decided to stifle his tongue. There would be a time and place for that, perhaps.

Anya nodded her head. "You too," she told him. She knew that she needed to pull away from him. If she had not, she would not be able to... Gently placing her hands on his strong chest, she gently took a step back, propelling herself from him. "I should go now..."


Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson

Task Force 141

The Monastery, 40 Miles off Petropavlovsk, Russia


All right, this was not a good situation to be it at all. 18 men, Navy SEALS, Task Force 141 members, and one Little Bird armed with guns, was not enough to take down even the front defenses of the Gulag Prisoner 627 was kept in. If only they had larger firepower... Oh yes, the Russian and American Navies were fighting one another in the sea not far from them... "We'll be sitting ducks if we don't push in faster!" Roach heard someone comment. Way to go, Captain Obvious.

Suddenly, he heard MacTavish shout something. He did not hear it, but he certainly saw it. It was an RPG, and immediately, Roach scrambled for cover. However, there was one big question in his head: Where the hell did that RPG come from? And there was not only one, but about three or four shots, all aimed towards the guards, finished off with a shot from a Stinger.

"Looks like someone likes us," MacTavish announced, looking towards the balcony not far from them, and fired his M203 towards its direction. When the smoke and the dust subsided, a woman, wearing Kevlar, armed with an M4A1, and a sniper rifle that he could not yet recognize came into sight. A woman, fully armed, with gold hair and sapphire eyes... Now, where did he see her before?

"You look like you need some help," she told them when she leapt from the balcony (which wasn't that high up anyways) and ran towards them, shooting down the tangoes one by one. Her sapphire eyes, they were glowing with a wild fire that MacTavish could not describe. However, no matter who they were, it was no time to check the hot chick out.

Ghost, on the other hand, was not ready to trust her at all. She came from enemy territory, and she would most likely be an enemy. "Who the hell are you?" he asked her, shooting another guard in the head.

"I'm Anya," she answered, looking into his tinted sunglasses. Secretly, she gave all of them a familiar looking badge. It was a badge that carried the emblem of the Task Force 141- A winged skull with a sword thrust into it, with her real name etched below it. Maria Allen... She really was Maria Allen... "I heard that you would need help, so I bade the Loyalists to bring me here,"

Although it sounded strange to the others, MacTavish knew that what she said absolutely made sense. Kamarov had contacted him personally, telling him that she was alive... But he never thought that she would recover from her wounds so fast. She looked exactly like how she did in her profiles, and seemed to be just as skilled. Like him and Roach, she was the designated sniper.

At that split second, she shook her head, and told them not to say anything else. She knew that Shepherd would have already heard her voice, and there was no way around it already. What was important, was that they knew who she was. "Captain, I am under your command," she told MacTavish, who nodded accordingly.


They had come to the entrace of the Gulag, several minutes just after Anya had arrived. "This is it," MacTavish shouted. "We go in, grab Prisoner 627 and get out! Check your corners, go, go!"

All of them were running as though they were chased by a pack of wolves... It had been a long time since she had been working in a team, and she felt as though she had returned to her old days as a Ranger, the only difference being that all of the others were highly specialized spec-ops personnel, the best among the world had ever seen. "That's the control room up ahead," Ghost said, "I can use it to find the prisoner!" That was a good idea, Anya mused, and stopped to take out a few tangos at the stairways leading to the cells below them. "I'll tap into the systems to look for the prisoner, it will take some time!"

"Copy that," MacTavish agreed. "Roach, Anya, we're on cell duty, follow me!"

Without saying a word, Roach and Anya followed him and dashed down the stairs. One by one, they checked the cells for any signs of life, but to no avail... That place was completely deserted save for the approaching guards, which they took down one by one. "Hey, you're not a bad shot, Anya," Roach praised appreciatively. She smiled, and told him that he was not so bad himself. When speaking of rank, he would be slightly higher than she would be, but they were alike in age... And to think that she almost considered to kill him.

"All right, I'm patced in," Ghost announced. However, when MacTavish asked if he had the location of Prisoner 627, he said, "Negative, but I've got a searchlight tracking hostiles on your floor, this should make your job easier."

"Roger that," MacTavish added. "Stay sharp, the prisoner might be anywhere in these cells..." And they hit a security door. "Ghost, we've hit a security door, get it open!"

"Working on it... This hardware is ancient!"

Truth be told, Anya was glad that the doors were not open, at least they would have more time to take out the guards before they came towards them by the hordes. She knew just how many men Makarov had under his own banner, and these men were only just scratching the surface. Before long, Ghost was able to get the door open, but still, there was no sign of a prisoner anywhere.

"Talk to me Ghost, these cells are deserted," MacTavish shouted.

"Got it, Prisoner 627's been transferred to the east wing... Head to the that armory down there, move!"

Her sapphire eyes gleamed when she saw that many weapons, but Anya knew that now was not the time for a shopping spree... She took the time to reload her M4A1, and when about three or four squads of the enemy began to converge at their location, they quickly took riot shields, and waited until Ghost could open the armory's back doors. Their riot shields were used to draw the fire of the guards, and before long, they were able to rappel down a window to the lower levels.

Somehow, Anya knew, that their mission would not be an easy one...


They had breached a wall, coming into a shower system. That was when Anya had her chance to shine. Her sapphire eyes, they were as sharp as ever. Quickly switched to her sniper rifle, and brought all the tangos on the second story. "Impressive," MacTavish praised, just as Roach had done. No wonder she had been a designated sniper... Wait... Royce and Meat, they were killed by a sniper as well... But no, she could not be that sniper. They were in Rio de Janeiro, while she would most probably be still recovering from her wounds...

Within mere seconds, they were met by heavy assault troops, causing her to roll her eyes. She had taken out the Russian FSB forces with just a flashbang, and a machine gun... Which reminded her... She saw one right nearby her. Quickly, she took the MG4 on the floor, and repeated the tactics that she had used with the FSB. Thus, the heavy assault troops were dead within seconds.

"Where the hell did you learn to do that?" Roach asked, who had used the "normal" way of flanking them, or using grenades, which could be easily evaded.

"Well, let's say that I'm rather unlucky to meet them more than once," she replied as they advanced through the showers, leaping down a large gaping hole in the floor. They were now in the old tunnel system of the Gulag, heading somewhere between the south and the southwest. Luckily, Ghost told them that 627 was near them...

Together, they slid down a slope, before reaching a dead end, and a rather wide wall. "I'm detecting two heat signatures," Ghost proclaimed. "One of them should be 627!"

Once again, they breached the wall, and saw a man, strangling one of the guards with a chain. Anya shot the guard dead, but Roach, rather unluckily, had been punched right in the face by Prisoner 627. Their natural reaction had been to take aim at the man, who had done the same to Roach with an AK-47 which he had quickly reached for. No doubt, it had been the guard's. "Drop it!" MacTavish barked, not expecting what 627 would say in reply.

"Soap?"

Wait a minute, they knew each other?

"Price?"

Alright, she knew that Makarov was going to get it. She had heard of Captain Price before, that was the man who led the team that took down Imran Zakhaev! No wonder he hated the man more than the Americans... However, there was no time to threaten bosses/allies/sort-of lovers that were not there. They had to make their escape. In any moment, the vast building would fall upon them...

"Want to test how lucky you are, kiddo?" Anya teased Roach as they saw the chopper right before them. Within a day, she had seen this man take the brunt of bad luck, while she remembered that in Rio de Janeiro, he had barely missed the jump to the helicopter that would have extracted them... However, their exit was blocked by the debris that fell when the Navy began their bombardment... They had to find another way.

"Heh, you don't know how unlucky I am," Roach replied as they started to look for an alternate route, coming onto an unused canteen. "It's a dead end," Anya heard someone shout, but she could not make out who it was... And, just as Roach predicted, he had been almost flattened by a rather large piece of rock. He was duly helped by Price and Anya. "Thanks," he muttered sheepishly.

Price however, was not so lighthearted, even if Anya smiled slightly at his words. "Whatever you're gonna do, Soap, do it fast!" he shouted at MacTavish, who shot a grenade high into the sky, so that the chopper's pilot could see them. Within seconds, a rope was lowered down to them. A SPIE rig...

"Hook up, let's go!" MacTavish shouted once again. Anya looked up at him, and he said, "You too, Anya."

Anya... It was a Russian name, and Price jumped at the mention of the name. "It's a call sign," she told Price, who nodded in understanding immediately...They were quickly hauled up into the Pave Low, and headed towards the submarine that acted as the Task Force 141 marine base.


Now that Prisoner 627, no, Captain Price was free, she knew that she was one step closer to the freedom of her own.