Okay, why bother reading the note when you are dying to know what is happening!

Ghost screamed loudly as the glasses were first ripped from his face, then a rush of air as the balaclava was torn from it as well. He felt the cold air kiss his skin in a way it rarely did, caressing the skin and rushing over his scars. He roared at the man, throwing curses and profanities in a way that had never been heard before. The man only chuckled as he threw the mask to the ground by the glasses, and ground them with his foot. Ghost heard the dark tinted lenses being crushed under the booted foot on the man, and he screamed out yet another insult. The man murmured. "Go ahead, Ghost. I see your face now. Just keep screaming. It doesn't change anything." Ghost screamed a few more profanities before letting his chin drop on his chest. He allowed himself to screw his eyes tightly shut. His breathing was heavy, and he was shaking. He didn't know why. This felt like nothing he had ever been through before. He brought his head up, looking past the man. Worm was looking at him with wide eyes. Ghost felt shame as the man continued to gaze at him with shock filled eyes. Ghost had no reason to be ashamed, but he didn't know that. He had a handsome face, dark skinned like the rest of him, with a sturdy jaw and nose that appeared to have been broken many times. It was quite a handsome face in itself, but it was marred with long straight scars, one over his cheek, the other over his eye to his jawbone. There were other scars, but none as prominent as those. He hung his head again as the man laughed. Ghost thought he had suffered before, but this was humiliation.

Roach looked at Archer and Toad and they neared the location of the warehouse. Archer yelled to him over the sound of the blades on the chopper. "ETA one minute!" Roach looked down at his gun, loaded and ready to fire, and then at the approaching smoke. The bombs had been dropped only a few hours earlier, and some of the craters were still smoking. The chopper lowered towards the ground, and a few feet from the ground, the three men jumped out. Roach had his eyes locked on the warehouse, hoping to find his friend inside. He hadn't let himself admit it until today, but no matter how harsh Ghost was on him, they were pretty good friends. They had each other's backs, every day of the week. Ghost had saved his ass more times than he cared to count, and now it was time for him to repay the favor. Roach, Archer, and Toad picked their way around the craters and smoking masses of rubble, heading silent as cats towards the warehouse. Suddenly, a deep scream came from the warehouse. Roach jumped. It was Ghost! He looked at Archer and Toad, their faces confirming his thoughts. They continued to walk forward, getting closer and closer towards the warehouse, until Roach was the first to arrive at the open door.

Roach peeked his head through, and to his horror, he saw about ten men with guns in the warehouse. He was aware of a man tied to a chair in the middle of a room, but did a quick scan of the room. He saw three men with guns standing over a man, quite close to them, bleeding. Roach paled when he saw the man's face. It was Rook. Roach forced his eyes to move another direction, just to the left of Rook, bound and slightly bloody was Worm. Roach was confused. He saw Rook and Worm, and the man being tortured, but he could not see Ghost. He heard Ghost swear. He turned his head to the man in the metal chair again, and was surprised to find Ghost's voice coming out of his mouth. Roach was shocked. That was Ghost! The man with the scarred but square face, was his partner whom he had never seen for real before. Roach had no time to waste though. The man Ghost was swearing at was holding a knife, and it had already torn a ribbon red line through Ghost's cheek.

Roach turned around, looking at Archer and Toad. He whispered his findings. "There are ten men, nine of them armed, the other is in the middle of the room with Ghost. Five are to the right and four are to the left. I will go left, you two go right. Take them all out, but be careful about the man in the middle. Only shoot if you have a clear shot! Ghost is the one in the chair." They nodded, and snuck in. They got close to the men, very close, before all hell broke loose. Roach started to spray bullets from his gun, hitting each of the four men he was close to in the back and watching them fall to the ground without ever having a chance to fire back. Once he saw the last hit the ground he turned around to find that the other five had indeed been taken care of by Archer and Toad. The man in the center of the room swore, and stepped behind Ghost. The shiny knife blade was pressed to his partner's neck, and Roach yelled at him. "Hey! Back away from him!" The Russian laughed. "Not a chance." Roach cast a look at Ghost. His friend's brown and green eyes looked at him in shame and humiliation. Had Ghost actually thought that they would think of him differently because of the scars on his face? Roach felt his face twitch. He didn't think that Ghost was like that. He thought his friend had confidence, but no, he was a coward hiding his face…

Roach snapped his attention back to the situation. He yelled to the man once again. "Back away from him!" The Russian much have known the didn't have a clear shot, because he didn't move. "You miss by half an inch, your friend here dies. Ghost dies instead of me. Well, I am sure you will kill me then, but, he will be gone too. You will have failed. How would that feel?" Roach hissed, and looked at Archer. The man was trying to move around to get a clear shot, but the man turned to face him. "Don't think I don't see you. I will kill him, you know." Roach cursed. This was harder than he thought it would be. The man in the middle must have realized something, and he seemed to muse out loud. "Well, you know what? I'm screwed any way you put it. You try and shoot me but kill him, you still shoot me. I kill him, you shoot me. Or, by some miracle, you just shoot me. But the knife is precarious. You shoot me, I am sure he dies. So, either way, he is dead too. Well, boys, in that case, let's get Ghost's death over with first. I cried out "NO!" As the Russian raised the knife slightly away from Ghost's neck and prepared to plunge it down.

Roach heard the gunshot and saw the man fall to the ground with that sick grin on his face, blood pooling beneath his head. I turned. Worm, with bound hands, had taken a dead man's gun and shot. I rushed forward, letting my gun fall to my side. I skidded up to Ghost, not even bothering to talk as I pulled my knife out of its sheath and cut through the ropes on his ankles. I went to his hands, and cut through the bindings. Ghost was the first to speak. "Thanks." Roach smiled. "No problem" but he felt it turn to a frown very abruptly. His eyes saw a lump of cloth and shattered glass on the ground next to the chair. Roach saw that Ghost had seen it as well, and Ghost even made a lunge for it, but Roach was there first. He held up the mask, brushing away the dark red tinted glass and letting it fall to the ground. Roach felt anger bubble up in him. Ghost stood there, staring him straight on, a thin trail of blood on his face. Roach began to yell. "What the hell is the matter with you? I looked up to you, for God's sake, and I never questioned the mask thing! I never did because you were brave, and scary sometimes, but you were strong! You had confidence, and acted like nothing could ever take you down! What did I think that was wrong? I put up with your beating on me, your yelling, but that was because I wanted to be like you! Brave believing in myself! I thought that the girl Alison was a step towards that, because for the first time, I had someone trust me. Now, I don't know what I am. I wanted to be like you, but the last thing I want to be is a coward who hides my face because he is afraid of what others would think!" and with that, Roach ripped the mask of his friend and superior, dropping his gun to the ground, he bolted away at a sprint through the door, not wanting to see anyone anymore.

Ghost called out after Roach as his young friend bolted away through the open door. He tried to go after him, but Archer held him back. "Hey, let him go. You really fucked up, my friend" Ghost looked at Archer, his face and emotions crumpling. Archer looked at him with a combination of annoyance, and possibly anger. "I have never seen your face before. I thought the same thing as Roach there. You were brave and confident. You are a coward who hides his face. I am disgusted, and I am sorry to say that to a superior, but it is true." Ghost felt devastation in himself. His rough voice came out softer and more confused that it normally was. "I don't see why that makes so much difference, I hid my scars. I had no idea the little bugger looked up to me so much, and that this would affect him so much.." Ghost trailed off there, in true puzzlement. He had no idea the younger man had looked up to him. Archer looked at him like he was crazy. "How could you not see that? He followed you like a lost puppy and copied your every move! Man, I can't believe I didn't see through your shit act. Now, why don't you get the chopper and get Rook and Worm? I'm going to find the kid you just crushed." With that, Archer jogged out of the room.

Ghost was crestfallen. He kept staring at the door, and the thoughts were like fire in his mind. He didn't know that he was looked up to like that. He didn't know that so many people thought of him like that, looked up to him, and thought he was brave. He couldn't believe that was all falling apart because he wanted to keep his face hidden. He kneeled down, picked up the two torn halves of the skull, and placed them in his pocket. He closed his eyes for a moment, then turned to Toad. The man met his eyes for a second before simply shaking his head, and turning away to help Rook and Worm. Ghost felt like he was alone then, encased in ice. He had seen wars beyond anything, but here, because of his scars, he was falling apart. He raised a hand to his face. The cut the man had torn into his cheek stung, but he hardly felt it. Instead, he felt the pain of Roach. He saw that kid like an overly eager kind of puppy, always wanting to please. He didn't believe he had let so many people down already, without even making it back to base. MacTavish was the only one who had ever seen him without his mask. Now, it was destroyed, and everyone would see him for who he truly was. A man, traumatized by war, his face torn by scars, and a coward. Ghost knew his face had a look of pain on it. Usually it would be covered by his mask and he could let his face be overcome with the emotions he wanted, because he knew they wouldn't be seen. Now, he was alone and visible.

So, here we go! Was that good! I think that it was one of my better chapters. Maybe. I don't know. I have this thing where I write to much about thoughts and emotions rather than action, which is what CoD is supposed to be about. Sigh. I need to work on my writing.