Out cold while her body recovered from the major stress running in her head, Shepard's men that checked for anyone alive in the area assumed she was dead. There was a faint scent of burning the the distance. It lasted for a good while before it died. All the bodies that were laying on the floor were left alone for someone else to clean up the mess, and it wouldn't be for at least another hour before Shiva finally recovered from a melt down only to wake up to what looked like a nightmare. All her comrades and the enemy were scattered across the area. It was a brutal battle and she couldn't see Ghost or Roach in sight. Standing up to get a better view of the place, that distinct burning smell was still lingering around and she followed it. Going past the manor down a small hill, there was a small patch up ahead that was scarred by the flames that were lit up. Yet it wasn't the burnt ground that her nose picked up, she smelled burnt flesh. Slowly making her way up to the burnt area, nothing caught her attention until two lumps on the ground were spotted. The closer she came to it, the more it took form of bodies. Once she stood over it, she could identify that they were two bodies. One had been burnt severely to the point that their flesh was completely black. It was until she took note of the clothing they were wearing that it shocked her, it was Roach and Ghost. Falling to her knees and bursting out in tears, she crawled over to them and placed a hand on their chest. Mourning over the loss, she looked over to Ghost and rested her head on his chest.
"I'm...so...sorry" cried Shiva.
Laying there for a few moments, she heard something that stopped her from crying and further. It was a heart beat, Ghost's heart beat. Leaning her ear closer to his chest, the sound was faint but it was still there. Ghost is alive. His balaclava was burnt off and since it was made from cotton it helped reduce the burnt injuries from his face. Parts of his face were burnt, but they weren't severe. Rushing back over to Roach she felt for a heart beat, but didn't hear one. Perhaps she was hoping he would have lived through it but it wasn't until she noticed there were bullet marks on them. Roach had one directly on is abdomen and Ghost had one on his side. A bullet and then left to be burnt alive. The only question was, why did Ghost live and Roach die? Unlike Roach who had been soaked in gas, Ghost had luckily been spared aside a few burnt areas on him. Reaching for Roach's dog tags, she placed them in her pocket and sat up to dig up a quick grave for him.
"I'm sorry I can't do a proper burial for you...but I need to save Ghost at least. Thank you Roach, I will never forget you. May you rest in peace" said Shiva.
Carefully rolling him into the small pit, she piled up the dirt on him to finish up his grave and go pick up Ghost to carry him back to the manor. He was heavy compared to her, so it was a long drag before placing him on the floor and looking around anywhere she could for bandages and the sort. Luckily the basement was full of food, weapons and medical supplies.
"This should last us for a good while" said Shiva.
Coming back up to to Ghost who was still unconscious, she removed his clothing to patch up his wounds and help him recover from the burnt marks on his skin. There was an IUV she could use to restore his health while he was out, but she only hoped it lasted enough until he did wake up. Helping herself to medical supplies, it was a long day but they had it all to themselves with no interruptions. It was quiet, too quiet for her own comfort. Both of them stayed put in a room as Shiva waited for Ghost to wake up...if he even woke up. Days went by and food was still plentiful, but Ghost still hadn't woke up and she didn't know how long she would have to wait here until Ghost got up. Those days turned into a full 3 weeks before she heard an engine come up outside and two footsteps coming into the manor. Alerted by this, Shiva decided to see who it was and could hear the footsteps pacing back and forth as if looking for something or someone. Maybe it was Shepard's men coming to clean up the mess, but then she heard a familiar voice.
"Everything looks clear" said a voice.
"Looks like Shepard and Makarov are really going at it if they haven't cleaned this up" said the other voice.
Cautiously coming out of her room, she came up to the balcony to stare down at the first floor and to her surprise see Price, Soap and Ramirez.
"Price, Soap, Ramirez!" yelled out Shiva as she came running down the stairs.
The first to greet her with open arms was Ramirez who quickly came to embrace her.
"Flasher! you're still alive? What of Shepard!" said Price rather astonished that she was alive.
"What do you mean?" asked the puzzled Shiva.
"Shepard betrayed us. Him and Makarov are clashing against each other for power" said Price.
That's right. It was the last thing she saw before passing out. Shepard shot Ghost and Roach and took off with the intel, but it was until now that she remembered and then cried again.
"What's wrong Flasher?" asked Ramirez.
"It was my fault! I could've saved Roach if only I focused more!" cried Shiva.
"What do you mean, where's Roach?" yelled Soap.
"He's...dead..." cried Shiva.
There was silence for a small second before it was cut off by Price.
"What of Ghost!" said Price.
"He's upstairs...he's been out cold for the last 3 weeks. I don't even know if he'll wake up" said Shiva.
"Roach..." muttered Soap under his breath.
"Where's his body?" asked Price.
"Out in the field. I buried him and took his tags" said Shiva handing them to Price.
Price took a hold of them and shoved them into his pocket.
"Indeed it is a great loss, but we can't stay here for long. I'm surprised they haven't checked here. Shepard tried to take us out, that's why he seperated us, but little did he count on Makarov's men joining in the fight. But Shepard has been taken care of...but now we are wanted fugitives on high alert. We need to hide from the military since they will be looking for us" explained Price.
"I'll go get Ghost" said Shiva.
"I'll help. I'm sure he's quite heavy for you" said Ramirez going upstairs with Shiva to pick up Ghost and carry him over to the truck they came in.
All of them had left the manor and did their best to flee the country to a place no one would have intentions of looking for them, Canada. Nikolai was their only means of transportation but even then it was risky to move from place to place. So from then on they had to camp out and adjust to the low profile life in Canada. Using the money they had saved up from the military, they used it to purchase a small house in a small town near Alberta. It was enough to last for a while before they would have to confront the military over their situation, which wouldn't be easy per say. A week after they settled in Canada, Ghost finally woke up from his slumber in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep. This whole time Shiva had been watching him and taking care of his needs and feeling the bed shift next to her woke her right up. Ghost groaned and was bearly able to sit up from the bed. Rubbing his head with a slight headache, the first person to greet him was Shiva.
"Where the hell am I..." said Ghost.
Shiva held herself from crying for she didn't want to wake anyone up during this time and simply went to give Ghost one big great hug.
"I am so glad you woke up!" said Shiva.
"I've only been out for a couple of hours haven't I?" said Ghost.
"No, you've been out for a month! After what happened with Shepard-" Shiva was cut off.
"Shepard! He's dangerous! He tried to kill us!" bursted Ghost out all at once.
"It's fine, he's dead" said Shiva.
"What? Who killed him?" asked Ghost.
"Price and Soap did" said Shiva.
"Where's Roach?" asked Ghost.
"...he too is dead. I'm sorry...by the time I got to both of you...he was already...but you actually survived! So I ended up treating your wounds and-" once again she was cut off.
"Roach is dead? No..." muttered Ghost.
"I'm sorry Ghost...it's my fault" said Shiva.
"No, it's not your fault. Shepard was probably planning this from the start...it couldn't have been prevented" said Ghost.
Shiva tightened her hug on Ghost before knocking him back down on the bed.
"I...really am glad you're awake. I was starting to worry that I'd lose you too" said Shiva.
Ghost chuckled.
"Honestly I thought I would lose myself as well" said Ghost.
"Don't say that! I...I wouldn't want to lose you. Remember I promised to help you. Now that we have just a bit more free time...maybe we could work on it" said Shiva.
He let out another chuckle.
"What's so important about me anyway, especially now that we're in hidding" said Ghost.
Leaning in quick after he finished his sentence, Shiva kissed him. Not knowing how to respond to this, all he could do is hold the pose they had until she broke it off.
"I really like you Ghost" said Shiva.
"That's rather obvious" said Ghost.
Blushing from this, she sat back down on her chair and twiddled her fingers.
"Ya could've been a little more...you know..." said Shiva.
"More what. I can't really respond to your emotions the way you think I will...I've never been in these types of situations before"said Ghost.
"It's fine, I mean..." yet again she was interrupted by the footsteps of the others who had woken up to their noise.
"Looks like sleeping beauty finally woke up" said Soap.
"Very funny, mate" said Ghost.
Price, Ramirez and Soap engaged a light conversation to celebrate Ghost's awakening and in the midst Shiva left over to her room to get some much needed sleep. With all the fuss about Ghost being awake, the others didn't sleep until morning came around and Shiva was still asleep through the whole morning. Even with all the loud noises the men were making, it wasn't enough to wake up the tired Shiva until the clock struck 2pm. Suddenly waking up from the long sleep, she rushed out to the living room to find the men sitting around drinking beer and talking about their situation to Ghost. Wearing her PJs, she sat in a chair next to Soap and tried to catch up on their convo.
"As I was saying...the only way to clear our name is if we have an elite talk to them for us..." said Price.
"Even so, how will we even get in contact with one that would believe our story?" said Soap.
"They're hard to find to begin with, seeing as there are probably only 3 elites around...it will be a challenge" said Ghost.
"What's an elite here?" asked Shiva.
"You've been here how long and you don't know what elite is? It's the highest rank you can ever achieve in the military. You can order anyone around basically. Hence why there is only 3 of them and even then they're limited to actions. But due to situations like Makarov, if it's involving him then they get full authority to do whatever the heck they want. We don't know anyone and tracking them down is nearly impossible so we will have to spend our days looking for one" said Price.
"When we do it's still not guaranteed we will be brought to justice. Their mentality isn't exactly to forgive everyone. Killing Shepard doesn't exactly help us, especially when he had Makarov's intel and we couldn't get a hold of it" said Soap.
"Its that hard? Damn..." said Shiva.
"Yeah, we've got our jobs set for a long time" said Ramirez.
"Shiva!" she said.
Everyone turned to face her, confused.
"My name...Shiva Armetige. I figured since we're not in the military anymore I figured we could tell each other our names" she said.
They bursted out laughing, leaving Shiva to wonder if it was right for her to reveal her name to begin with.
"Shiva? That's your name? How...unique" said Soap.
"Oh yeah! What's yours then!" said Shiva.
"John 'Soap' McTavish" said Soap.
"...that's...common..." said Shiva.
"Ha ha yes it is" said Soap.
"Oh yeah! Well what's Ghost's name!" said Shiva.
"Simon 'Ghost' Riley" said Price.
"Really?" wondered Shiva.
"Hey, since when did we agree in sharing each others name...Captain John Price" said Ghost.
"James Ramirez" he said.
"James Ramirez? Sounds common too...WHY DO YOU ALL HAVE COMMON NAMES!" said Shiva.
"You're the one with the odd name...besides it was better when you were Flasher" said Ramirez.
"I NEVER LIKED IT! YOU GUYS ARE MEAN!" said Shiva.
Once again laughter filled the room.
"Not our fault you decided to show your black panties in front of everyone" said Soap.
"YOU EVEN REMEMBER THE COLOR?" said Shiva flailing while blushing intensely.
"Ah...how could we ever forget. It's not like we see girls dropping their pants for us often. Except for the magazines we have here and there" said Soap.
"Speak for yourself" said Ghost.
"R-Ramirez had some too!" said Soap quick to accuse.
"Y-YOU PROMISED TO NEVER TELL!" exclaimed Ramirez.
With everyone accusing each other over such a small thing, laughter was inevitable and that's how their evening went into night time.
"Would you look at the time. Heh, I guess we better go to sleep. You know what, Halloween is coming up in a couple of days, we should go out" said Price.
Shiva was the first to react.
"Do we get to dress up?" asked Shiva.
"Sure, but remember...we're trying to not get so much attention on ourselves. We're highly wanted now so we have to keep a low profile" said Price.
"AWESOME! Nighty!" said Shiva running off to her room.
Chuckles could be heard from the living room as they were amazed at how easily she was amuzed.
"At least someone in this group is carefree right about now" said Price sitting up from the couch to head into his own room.
"Some of that should probably rub off on us" said Ramirez heading off as well.
"She could rub off on me anytime she wants" said Soap leaving.
Waiting for the living room to be empty, Ghost sat up from the couch to dress himself warmly before heading out of the house to wander out in the nearly empty streets. Pumped up from all the comotion that had just happened, it was getting rather difficult for Shiva to even think of sleep. Dressing herself warmly as well, she made her way out of the house to wander the streets and off into a small forest-like area to think for herself. Though she wasn't alone once she had stopped to take a rest and view the city from the small hill she was in. Snow covered the ground below her along with the town she lived in. It was all beautiful and so peaceful, at least for now but like Price said, they had to look for an elite to clear their name from this situation they were in.
"Just how...do we find one..." muttered Shiva under her breath.
A distant scream could be heard coming up a little higher in the hill from where she was and worried if it was someone in danger, she rushed up the hill to find out where it came from. Running as fast as she could, the echo had passed and she now had no clue as to where it came from. Come to think of it, she was straying quite far from the town and maybe it would be dangerous to go alone. If she went back to get help the person in trouble could be hurt or even worse, killed. Forgetting about getting help, Shiva continued to run up until she could see a figure up ahead. Once she got closer, the figure turned out to be Ghost who was resting his head on a tree while his hands were curled up in a first and he was grunting.
"Why...why did they have to die. We could've all been saved..." he muttered.
Yelling out once again, Ghost slammed his fist up against the tree in pure anger before falling onto the floor and once again slamming his fist down.
"I'm sorry..." he finally said.
This was a side of Ghost she never saw before. Usually he was so calm and collected, but to see him angry like this didn't make any sense to her. Who was he talking about and why was he all the way out here? Taking a step forward, she stepped on a small twig that ended up cracking under the pressure of her boots and alerted Ghost who was to greet her with a pistol to her face.
"WHO'S THERE!" he demanded.
"It's me Ghost...I mean Simon..."said Shiva.
Putting away his gun, Ghost walked over to her and began to push her back the path she came from.
"What are you doing all the way out here, it could be dangerous" he said.
"I could say the same for you! What's wrong? I heard a scream and came to check it out only to find you. Are you ok?" asked Shiva.
"I'm fine, you should get back home" said Ghost.
No, he wasn't fine. It was quite obvious that he wasn't, especially with that frown on his face and a tense grip he had. Something was bothering him and she wanted to find out what it was. Stopping him from pushing her any further, she took a stance and firmly placed her hands on his shoulders.
"Remember when I said I would help you no matter what? I know you might not admit it but it's very obvious that something is wrong. Tell me what it is" said Shiva.
Ghost stopped in his tracks and looked at her. He had never told this to anyone and without realizing it it had been eating away at him for a long time and poisoning his mind. Yet without thinking he told her.
"My mother...my brother...his wife and their child...were killed because of me..." he said.
"What? Why?" asked Shiva.
"It's just...while I was captured, they brainwashed us with techniques we didn't even know would affect us, and in the end...I fought back and killed some of the enemy's men...they warned me if I didn't obey them, they would hurt my family. I disobeyed and because of it..." he stopped there.
"You only did what you thought would be best, you shouldn't go around punishing yourself because of it. I know I would've done the same" said Shiva.
"Even so...if I would've stayed put they would've been better off" said Ghost.
"No. I'm sure they missed you and I bet they're happy you did your best to come to them" said Shiva with a smile.
Ghost looked over to Shiva. Odd how just one sentence was enough to bring his mood back up. He placed his hand on her head and have her a pat.
"Thank you" said Ghost.
Smiling brightly at him, she looked up ahead in the road to see the town quite ways away. Running up here in a rush she forgot how far she had actually traveled to get here. Sigh.
"Looks like we're gonna have fun going back home..." said Shiva.
"Not if we run it" said Ghost taking off.
"H-Hey!" yelled Shiva running right after him.
Running their way down the hill, Ghost was the first one to get to the house with a huffing Shiva dragging herself behind.
"Have you already lost your touch with your stamina?" asked Ghost.
"You got a head start!" said Shiva.
"Not a valid excuse. Let's go to sleep...we've got work to do until we find an elite" said Ghost.
"Right..." said Shiva panting while coming in.
Both of them had gone to sleep. The following days involved discussions as to how to find the elites and with no luck at all, Halloween had come up and decided to take a break from their worries. Apparently Shiva had been the only one to dress up in a maid costume while the others had thier casual outfits to go out.
"Why am I the only one in a costume! Why don't any of ya get one! At least wear a white sheet, Ghost! Be a REAL Ghost" said Shiva.
"I don't think so..." said Ghost.
"Party poopers" said Shiva while they all headed out to a local bar.
Even if it was Halloween, there weren't as many people in the area as she thought. Most of the town traveled over to Alberta since of course it had a much higher population and much more events than their small town. Dressed up in warm clothes to keep themselves from getting cold while walking over to the bar, they shared a short bonding moment before entering the semi-full bar. Half the people were in costumes and there was plenty of activity and noise inside. A group had just left the bar and left a table available for them to sit down and order some food.
"So what are we gonna do after this? OH! Maybe we should go get some candy!" said Shiva.
"Aren't you a little old to be thinking about candy..." said Soap.
"But that's what Halloween is all about!" said Shiva.
"Yeah yeah" said Soap in a sigh.
"I still think you guys should've dressed up as something" said Shiva.
Carrying on a conversation, little did they know that three men in military uniforms had entered the bar. To be exact, it was the elites. Assuming it was just costumes to go with the event, they paid no attention to it. During this time, elites traveled together and over to small towns where they would be least recognized. Elites were also constantly in hidding, seeing as how popular they were and people would constantly seek them out for either one thing or another. Coming to this peaceful town, it was hard to believe that during their time in the bar they never engaged in any contact. The others had a few drinks and ate a bit but were quick to leave.
"Why do we have to leave so early! We've only been here for an hour! At least lets go Trick or Treating" said Shiva.
"You go trick or treating, you're the only one dressed up for it" said Price.
"Come on Johnny~" said Shiva.
This name caught the attention of one of the elites who over heard their conversation and was quick to get up from his seat and follow them outside.
"I don't wanna go by myself though...Ghost come with me" said Shiva.
"We have things to do. Why don't you go and do what you want" said Ghost.
Come to think of it, now it was Shiva who was slacking off on the job. She was well aware of the situation they were in and even then she decided to dress up and try to convince them to go trick or treating. Standing still for a moment, the others continued to walk without noticing she had stopped walking.
"Shiva!" yelled a voice.
Shiva turned around to face a man who had followed them outside from the bar. It was one of the men in the military outfit. This also caught the other's attention as they turned to face the man standing a few feet away from them. The man looked very familiar to Shiva as tears began to flow from her eyes. Running quickly over to him, she was quick to jump into his arms and was welcomed with open arms.
"Johnny!" said Shiva in tears.
The group could only stand to watch in confusion as to who this man was.
"I really...missed you" she muttered.
"I know, I came looking for you so we could go home..." said the man known as 'Johnny'.
( n.n; I'm sorry if it turned out to be a long chapter. I was really motivated and was working on this for hours. x.x; Hope you guys enjoy it! )