A/N: I'd like to thank Sensula, minstorai, and chibi-no-baka for giving me their opinion on whether or not I should kill off Roque. I'd also like to give a big thanks to Sensula, minstorai, chibi-no-baka, Midoriori, Leseratte14, Mopargirl1, NinjaChipmunk, and a fan, who have all reviewed my story over the past few weeks. I can't thank you guys enough for leaving such awesome reviews and comments. I love hearing what you guys think and what you liked about the story and what I should change. I appreciate it and it helps me grow as a writer! So, I have made my decision regarding Roque's fate! But, I'll let you guys figure that out yourselves! I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Expendables or the Losers, just my OC, Sky.
Life of a Mercenary
Los Angeles, California
October 6th, 2013
The handcuffs were cutting into his wrists and his body was starting to get numb from being seated against the cold cement wall for so long, but Cougar didn't focus on any of that. There was still no sign of Clay and Roque. And Sky… The sniper clenched his jaw tightly and exhaled loudly through his nose. The Kryon killed Sky. He had heard the gunshots—they all did—but still he didn't think that they had caught her. And Jensen had been positive that they hadn't got her. But when the Kryon came back, boasting and laughing saying they had killed her and tossed her body into the water… Cougar felt his heart plummet to the pit of his stomach. Pooch had looked horrified and Jensen completely lost it. He had screamed and tried to attack the soldiers, despite the fact that they were outnumbered and handcuffed. He attempt had gotten him hit in the back of the head and knocked out.
Cougar and Pooch had immediately started shouting and screaming at the soldiers before they walked away laughing, leaving only a couple guards to watch them. That had been probably over an hour ago. Jensen was now completely conscious but horribly quiet, an unreadable expression on his face. Pooch was watching over both Cougar and Jensen, his parental instincts starting to kick in with the two younger men, while Cougar was scanning the warehouse they were in, looking for any way to get out of their situation. He still hadn't come up with any plan, but based on the fact that there was light outside, he was sure that it was early in the morning. But that didn't help him.
Suddenly a large group of Kryon walked into the building with M-16's in their hands. "Time to meet your maker boys," one of them called out as the three were roughly pulled up to their feet. Jensen didn't struggle against the soldiers, but Cougar and Pooch did. The sniper scanned the group and tried to come up with a plan. One of the soldiers holding Pooch had a wrapping around his wrist which might have signified an injury and one of the soldiers holding onto Jensen was short which might make it easy for them to take him out and steal his weapon. But no plan he came up with ended with all of them surviving.
They were pulled out of the warehouse and into the cool morning air. The Kryon allowed them to walk freely but walked closely next to and behind them. They were just passing another building and a SUV when they saw Clay handcuffed and being escorted by two other Kryon. The three men slowed down seeing their CO and looked around in confusion, wondering where their demo expert was. "Roque," was the only thing that Clay said before he was pushed towards the black SUV. That was all it took for Cougar to realize what had happened. Roque betrayed them. He stopped short, frozen by the revelation before a hand shoved him in the back and the Kryon soldier ordered him to move.
Reluctantly the sniper moved forward to catch up with Jensen and Pooch as they were led into an area that was full of shipping containers. They were lined up in front of the containers with four of the Kryon men behind them and six of the men in front of the three Losers. Jensen was lined up on Cougar's left and Pooch on his right before the man with the wrapping on his wrist—who he noticed was the man who pushed him in the back—stood in front of them and smirked. "On your knees."
The Losers didn't listen. The men behind them hit Jensen and Cougar in the back of the leg to force them to their knees. The man behind Cougar backed up while the shorter man behind Jensen got a firmer grasp on the back of his shirt with the muzzle of the weapon pressed against his back. Pooch, however, was still standing up, staring down the men in front of him defiantly. When the man seemingly in charge walked over and ordered him onto his knees again, Pooch spat in his face. Without hesitation the Kryon pulled out his gun and shot Pooch in each of his legs above the knee, causing him to shout in pain and collapse onto the ground.
"Son of a bitch!" Pooch called out in pain.
"Pooch!" Cougar shouted in anger and fear, trying to move over to the downed man, while the Kryon behind him held him back. He struggled against him, trying to get to his friend, despite being pulled back. "Pooch!"
"You know I like that hat," the man who shot Pooch smirked, looking towards Cougar who was just let go by the other man once he stopped struggling. "That's a great hat." The Kryon soldier reached for it only for Cougar to duck away from his hand. "Hey." The soldier reached for it again only for the sniper to do the same. Getting fed up he pulled out his gun again and pressed it against Cougar's head on top of his hat. "I really don't care if there's a hole in it." Cougar glared out in the distance, knowing that he was probably about to die before his eyes landed on something on a shipping container a few yards away. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust and realize that it was Aisha with a bazooka. He smirked slightly and started laughing. "What are you smiling at?" The man demanded. He gestured forward and the man turned around, spotting what the sniper had.
Jensen followed his line of sight before he saw the woman on the container. "Now that's a badass chick," he muttered. The grip on his shoulder lessened and the muzzle was taken away from his neck. The hand that had been on his shoulder was now tickling the back of his neck slightly and it took only a split second for him to realize who was behind him. His eyes popped open significantly even as he heard the sound of a knife opening. He looked down and saw that the boot right next to his leg had a knife sticking out of the front and the heel.
The bazooka was shot at a car port just near the Losers and the Kryon, creating an explosion and distracting the soldiers. The second the missile hit, the guard right behind Jensen shot out from in between him and the sniper and charged towards four of the men who were standing around Pooch. With one well-placed kick to the first man's knee, thigh, and rib cage, he screamed in pain before crashing to the ground, blood spurting out of each area he was kicked in.
Almost immediately Jensen and Cougar shot to their feet. Jensen kicked the man behind him in the stomach before hitting the man in front of him in the face and following up with a knee to the nose, breaking it and knocking him out. Cougar kicked out the leg of the man behind him and elbowed him in the face before kicking the gun out of the hands of the soldier in front of him, sending the gun scattering onto the ground by where Pooch was, the heavy weapons specialist immediately trying to reach for the weapon. Jensen used his arms as a sort of mace to knock out the soldier behind him while Cougar took out the last of the men he was dealing with. Pooch managed to grab the gun on the ground and shot the man who shot him in the leg, in roughly the same spot. "Payback's a bitch!" He shouted as the man crashed onto the ground.
The black SUV that Clay had been in crashed just around fifty yards away from them, going into one of the containers, but Cougar tried not to focus on that. He walked over to the man that Pooch just shot and stood above him, glaring down at him. "Never touch the hat, hm," he said before he lifted his leg and kicked the man in the face, knocking him out.
Cries of pain caught the attention of the three Losers and they turned to see the shorter guard singlehandedly kicking the asses of the three guards around him. He ducked underneath a wild swing before rolling on the concrete to get behind the man, using the heel blade in his boots to kick the man's back, causing him to cry out in pain and crash onto the ground as blood started pooling out of the wound. Just as the two other men pulled out guns the shorter guard ducked and pulled out knives from his boots, before tossing it into their arms. The other two guards dropped their guns and immediate grabbed onto the area the knives were imbedded before the shorter man ran up to the first on in front of him and kicked him in the ribs three times with the bladed tips of his boots before whirling around with a heel kick, hitting the other man in the shoulder before lowering the kick to hit his ribs and following up with a final kick to the knee. The two men hit the ground, screaming in pain, as the shorter guard looked around to make sure that the others were all taken out before retracting the blades back into his boots.
"What the hell?" Pooch muttered, looking at the guard in confusion, wondering why a Kryon soldier saved their asses. Cougar looked just as perplexed as the heavy weapons specialist while Jensen was beaming. He ran forward and hugged the guard, knocking the hat off, only for the two men to see that the guard wasn't a man at all. It was Sky. Her hair tumbled out of the hat and she smiled and hugged her brother back before pulling away and handing him a set of handcuff keys.
"Okay, one, Yin and your dad would be so proud. Two, I totally knew they couldn't have taken you out. And three, when the hell did you get those badass blade boots?" He asked with childlike excitement as he started undoing his handcuffs.
"Tool made 'em for me a couple months back," Sky grinned as she shook out her hair and pulled off the oversized Kevlar—that was much too big to be of any use to her—and tossed it to the ground before taking the keys from Jensen after he finished and started moving to the shell-shocked sniper. She undid his cuffs quickly before he tossed the cuffs to the ground and pulled the woman into a hug, catching her by surprise. "It's good to see you too, Cougs," she smiled slightly, tossing the keys over to Jensen so he could help Pooch before hugging the sniper.
"You're alive," he muttered, still holding onto her.
"Yeah, the Kryon grossly exaggerated when they said they killed me," she said before pulling away to look up at him. "You guys okay?" Cougar nodded quickly. "Good, cause we're not out of the woods yet," she muttered, pulling away to start grabbing at the M-16 she had dropped when she started attacking the Kryon and getting whatever smaller weapons she could find. Cougar followed her lead and quickly grabbed his sniper rifle from where one of the Kryon had it slung over his shoulder before he grabbed for a shotgun and jogged over to Pooch and Jensen.
"Can you stand?" Jensen asked as he finished undoing the last lock on Pooch's cuff.
"I've been shot in both of my legs. What kind of dumbass question is that? Really?" Pooch retorted in aggravation while Jensen shook his head.
"So now we're Mr. Grumpy-Pants," he commented before grabbing one of Pooch's arm while Cougar grabbed the other, the two men hauling him up to his feet as he groaned in pain. "You know you're not the only one who's been shot today."
"This way," Sky called out, running in front of the three men, keeping her M-16 up and aiming at the area in front of her as she ran through the port, making sure that no one was going to find them and start firing. The group quickly moved to a small space between large piles of shipping containers where there was a black duffel bag waiting. "Right here," Sky called out before lowering her weapon and moving towards the duffel. Cougar and Jensen quickly lowered Pooch down so he was leaning up against one of the containers before they looked towards the brunette woman who was pulling out a small black box and a tablet. "Jensen, these are for you. I found your extra comms and your tablet. Set it up."
"You really prepared for everything, huh?" Jensen grinned, grabbing the two items from his sister and crouching down to get to work.
"Well if it was up to you boys, you'd probably just wing it," she smirked, before zipping up the bag and slinging it across her chest. "I've got a med-kit and spare magazines in here for whenever we need it. Pooch, we're gonna have to get you somewhere a bit more secure before we take care of your gunshot wounds. But for now we can just try and put pressure on it," she rationalized, pulling out a knife before cutting off the sleeves of the uniform she stole, crouching down to wrap the torn sleeves around each of Pooch's legs.
The man called out in pain as she tightened the two sleeves before he sucked in a deep breath trying to compose himself. He looked at the woman in front of him with a raised eyebrow, giving a small smile. "Okay, you've got to be military or something."
"Or something," she and Jensen chorused as the same time.
Pooch was curious as to what the hell Sky was before he realized it wasn't the time to start questioning. He just needed to be thankful that she helped pull their asses out of the fire. "Cougs," he called out, motioning to the shotgun on the sniper's shoulder. Cougar immediately handed it to the heavy-weapons specialist before turning back to make sure no one entered from his left.
"Comms are set!" Jensen called out, running over to hand Cougar, Pooch, and Sky their comms before placing one in his own ear. Clay just turned down the corner with weapons strapped to his chest. The blonde hacker prepared to rush over and give his CO his comm before Aisha appeared just behind Clay, aiming a gun his way.
"Clay!" The Losers all turned in her direction and Sky just looked up, narrowing her eyes slightly, grabbing for her own gun, prepared to complete her promise to kill Aisha if she killed Clay. "Did you kill him?" Aisha demanded. "My father found out about Max's real plans. He was gonna stop him. Did you kill him?"
It was silent for a few moments before Clay spoke up. "Yes." Immediately the woman looked heartbroken. "Aisha, he was a bad man."
"It doesn't matter!" She screamed back.
"I know," Clay replied, causing Aisha to look like she was about to cry. "You can kill me right now or you can let me help you do what you need to do. Either way… I get it."
Aisha was trying desperately not to cry as she stared down Clay, her finger itching over the trigger. Instead of firing at the colonel she aimed towards the three Kryon that appeared at the other end of the containers, firing at them and killing them before they had a chance to kill the Losers. The Losers all looked back to the Bolivian and saw that she lowered her weapon looking seriously at them. "Let's get Max."
Clay nodded towards her before turning back around towards his men, accepting the comm Jensen offered him and placing it in his ear before he looked around at them. "Wade mentioned something about a boat. That means they're at the docks. Pooch can you stand?"
Pooch looked up at his CO like he was an idiot. "Oh this is stupid question day. This is stupid question day and no one decided to tell me. No that's cool, it's awesome."
"C'mon Legless Pooch," Jensen piped up, moving over to grab one of his arms while Cougar grabbed the other, helping the man up so that Jensen could heave him over his shoulder. "I gotcha, here we go."
"You've been lifting more?" Sky asked with a grin, looking back towards her brother while she and Cougar moved forward.
"A bit," Jensen smirked.
"Caesar's gonna be so proud," she replied before she and Cougar surged forward with the others following behind them. They all ran towards the exterminator van that Pooch had found hours earlier and quickly piled in. Cougar hopped into the driver's seat with Jensen in the passenger seat after he placed Pooch in the back. Clay, Aisha, and Sky all piled in the back so that Clay could do a quick patch-up job of Pooch's legs and Aisha and Sky were loading their weapons with the spare magazines. Cougar drove the van quickly, taking sharp turns as they headed towards the docks before they barreled into a fence, snapping it off the hinges and tearing into the docks. Almost immediately gunshots filled the air and hit the side of their van. Cougar swerved slightly before the left front tire blew out. He stomped on the breaks and swerved to the side as the gunshots stopped ringing out.
"Everyone ready?" Clay asked as he got a grip on his weapons. When they all nodded he kicked the back doors open and jumped out, immediately firing at the first two men he spotted, trying to take cover next to the containers. Cougar hopped out the front and started using his rifle to pick off some of the other men on the ground while Sky hopped out and swung around to cover him. Pooch was firing from his spot in the van while Jensen shot out and ran towards him with Aisha providing cover for him.
Clay spotted a private plane around a hundred yards away and saw Roque standing by it, shouting at the men to finish loading the money onto the truck while looking around. "I've got Roque, the rest of you get Wade! Cougar run point cover!" He shouted before rushing off towards the private plane.
"Legless Pooch, let's go buddy," Jensen called out in as he grabbed Pooch and helped him stand. Pooch quickly shot at a Kryon soldier heading their way as Jensen brought them to cover behind a shipping container while Cougar set up over the hood of the van, getting ready to provide cover for Aisha and Sky to run.
"Call me Legless Pooch again and you're gonna be Headless Jensen," Pooch retorted as he loaded his shotgun.
"I think it's a cool name! It makes you sound like a pirate!" Jensen shouted before checking to make sure that the others weren't getting pinned down.
Pooch shouted. "Your momma's a pirate!"
Cougar picked off as many Kryon as he could from his spot by the van, giving Aisha and Sky enough time to run to cover, Aisha in the one just next to him, while Sky was taking cover near the shipping container behind him. "Go!" Aisha shouted when she was prepared. Cougar nodded and grabbed his rifle just as Aisha stepped out of her cover to start firing at the Kryon, allowing him the amount of time necessary to run toward the cover Sky was at. The brunette girl was in the middle of checking her magazine as he made it over just before bullets started pinging off their cover.
Sky looked up and nodded towards him before she reached up with her comms. "Pooch, Jensen you boys doing alright?" She asked before sliding past Cougar so she was closer to the edge.
"We're good," Jensen assured.
Sky nodded and stepped out to start firing at the Kryon before she was vaguely aware that Cougar stepped out next to her, making clean and precise shots, taking out at least five men while she managed to hit four. They both stepped back into cover just as they heard Pooch shout for Jensen to run. The brunette girl tensed slightly before she raised her hands up to the comms again. "Jensen?"
"Just running the Gauntlet. I'm good."
Sky exhaled in relief before spotting a crane holding up a large shipping container just a way yards away. She looked to the crane before looking up towards Cougar who was trying to catch his breath. "You take off. We need you up in the air to give us cover."
Cougar followed her gaze before looking at her in concern. "Be careful."
"I'll be fine," she assured. "Now go, I'll give you cover."
The sniper nodded once before taking off as she stepped out from cover to start shooting at the Kryon in order to give Cougar enough time to get into cover near the crane. Once she was sure he was okay she stepped back and took off, running back towards the car that Cougar had been using for cover and darted past it, jumping through the spaces between the shipping containers. She immediately saw Pooch slumped down in the same area she was running through, a shotgun in his hand and looking around nervously. "Pooch!" Sky spoke up as she stopped by the man. "Where's Jensen?"
"He went to get Max," he managed to say in between labored breaths. "Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna go back up Clay."
"I swear you're not a normal person," Pooch muttered pushing more bullets into his shotgun and pumping the slide back to load the chamber. "Go, I'll cover you."
Sky smiled gratefully at him before taking off towards the area Clay had gone in. She held her M-16 tightly against her shoulder as she moved from in between the containers. She moved out from behind another one, scanning the area for any Kryon. She was close now to the area that Clay was in and she ran over to the nearest shipping container near where she saw the plane before. She sucked in a deep breath, pressing her back against the edge before she peered out around the corner… only to have the muzzle of a gun directly in front of her face. Her instinct to duck was the only thing that saved her from getting shot in the face.
Sky reacted immediately, using her left hand to grab the barrel of the weapon and pin it against the metal container while she pulled out her Beretta with her right hand to aim at the two other Kryon who'd been behind the soldier in front of her. Her first shot hit the closest man right in between the eyes, but her second one was aimed at the second man's wrist, seeing as he had started to lift his weapon to aim at her. The bullet hit his wrist, breaking—and possibly shattering—bone and forcing him to drop his gun as he screamed in pain. She felt a kick to her leg and the barrel being ripped out of her hands before she turned her attention back to the first man. She ducked underneath the rifle being aimed her way again and stepped into his space, pushing the gun up so it was aiming at the sky before she twisted it and pried it from the man's hands, tossing it away.
He reeled back to try and punch her, but with her standing so close it was hard for him to get any power behind a punch he'd throw. Sky was very much aware of this and used her positioning to deliver a quick right upper cut that rocked him backwards, giving her enough room to maneuver more of her moves. She reeled back for a punch before the man recovered and grabbed her right wrist to start twisting it behind her back. Arguably she could try and fight it. She could try and pry herself out of the grip and mount some sort of offense, but she remembered what Pooch said about the Kryon. They were like Cougar without the warm and cuddly side; and Cougar was pretty good. And while she took out the Kryon members earlier, that was because they were disoriented, confused, and surprised. She didn't have the same advantages here. So she decided to follow the piece of advice Yin had drilled into her mind.
Take the hits you could take, the non-lethal ones, and retaliate.
So when her arm was twisted—quite painfully—behind her back and she was slammed fast first into the shipping container—also not something pleasant to experience—she stepped on the button by her heel to let the blade extend. She kicked her leg up and hit the man with her bladed boot. If she didn't have a massive headache from her face hitting the metal she might have felt a little guilty at the fact that she had managed to kick him in the balls with the blade. But she didn't care at that point in time. She pried her arm free from his grip and pushed back as the man screamed in pain behind her. She retracted the back knife and shot the toe blade out before whirling around and delivering a roundhouse kick to the man's temple, driving the blade in and killing him. She retracted the blade again before lowering her leg and turning her attention to the Kryon who she had shot in the wrist. He was now passed out on the ground, clutching his mangled looking bleeding hand on his chest. Instead of shooting him, she let him be. He was already out of commission, and if the cops showed up—which she was sure they would—they might even be able to save him.
Shaking her head slightly, trying to clear the fog from hitting the container, she decided to ditch her M-16. She just picked her Beretta up from the ground and ran out past the container, scanning the area carefully. Just as she made it past the containers, her eyes immediately landed on the plane starting to move slowly down the strip of area. However, just behind the plane was Roque with a gun in his hand, standing over Clay who was flat out on the concrete. Sky froze in her tracks. For the briefest of seconds the image had morphed in front of her and instead of Roque and Clay she saw Gunnar and Yin.
Roque was going to kill Clay. He was going to kill him. Sky wouldn't get there in time. She took off at a dead sprint about to scream at Roque and lift her own gun in his direction when suddenly his arm lowered and the gun dropped from his hand, clattering on the pavement next to the colonel. He was rubbing his hand down his face, stopping to keep his hand over his mouth as he stared down at Clay. Sky almost stopped running right there. Almost.
She continued at her sprint before plowing into Roque, tackling him to the ground before quickly rolling up and jumping to her feet, tilting her Beretta down and aiming it at him. Almost immediately the knife fanatic looked up at her and tensed, spotting the gun in her hand. For a split second he looked like he was going to try to reach for the gun he'd just dropped before the tension left his body and he let his shoulders slump. His face changed into one of resignation and he held his hands out to his side. "How'd you get them out?" He asked, as if she wasn't standing above him and pointing a gun at his head.
"Aisha helped."
"You teamed up with Aisha after she shot Jensen?" Roque questioned with a slightly raised eyebrow, out of sheer curiosity. "I wouldn't have trusted her."
"It's not like I had many options," Sky retorted before gesturing with her head towards Clay. "Is he alright?"
Roque looked over to his former CO, staring at him for a few seconds in what looked like remorse before nodding. "Yeah, he's good. So are you gonna shoot me now?"
"I was thinking about it."
"You might as well do it," he replied in an emotionless tone, staring up at her with an empty sort of look in his eyes. "It's not like I have much to live for anymore. Those guys…" he trailed off looking over to Clay who was still unconscious. "They were my family… it just took me too damn long to see that. I stabbed my brothers in the fucking back."
"Yeah, you did," she said in an even tone, wrapping her hands tighter around the gun and placing her finger so it was hovering just above the trigger.
"I didn't want the Kryon to kill them," the demolitions expert put in as an afterthought. "I thought maybe if I handed over the drive and offered to work with them that they'd let the others go. And I knew it was a stretch which was why I didn't want anyone else coming. I wanted Pooch to go home. I wanted you all to go home. I just wanted our lives back."
"Nice to know," she retorted, aiming directly at his forehead and preparing to squeeze the trigger. Just before she could do it the image morphed again and suddenly it wasn't Roque on the ground. It was Gunnar. It was Gunnar sprawled out on the ground with a gunshot wound three inches above his heart, bleeding from his chest and his bright blue eyes—the same eyes Jensen had—staring up at her. It was Gunnar lying out on the ground because he betrayed his family; because he had become unbalanced and lost. Her heart stopped and she tried to shake the thoughts from her head. It didn't help because the image morphed again and instead of the blonde Viking it was Billy. It was Billy with a large knife wound in his chest, staring up at her with a bloodied and bruised face and his hands tied. It was Billy lying out on the rocky ground of Albania on his last mission because he wanted a better life for himself and for her.
Sky clenched her jaw and sucked in a deep breath, trying to fight back the wave of emotions that had formed in her. She blinked a few times and saw Roque, staring up at her expectantly, just waiting for her to shoot him. Her hand shook slightly and she narrowed her eyes, trying to strengthen her resolve. It wasn't the same! It was a completely different situation! What Gunnar and Roque did were totally different. And Billy wanting a safer life for the two of them was different than Roque wanting his life back. Just as she was about to pull the trigger she was hit with the realization that it really wasn't all that different. And she had a choice in front of her. She could choose to be like Barney and spare Gunnar; forgive him and help him get better. Or she could be like Vilain and kill Roque without hesitation or remorse because he had betrayed them. It took just a few seconds of thought before she made her decision.
Sky pulled the trigger three times.