Sammy looked up from her spot on the ground and tried to place the mans face, but she'd never seen him in her life. What did he have to do with the situation? Why had he killed the Major?
She looked down at the lifeless eyes staring off to the side, the whites stained red as the blood dripped down into them. She furrowed her brows. Her mind was trying to catch up to what had happened, but it seemed to be lagging behind. Even Bee had loosened her grip on Sammy slightly, her eyes locked on the Major's limp form in front of them.
"What's wrong Barney? You look like you've seen a ghost," Conrad teased, reaching to his hip to pull out another gun while a crazed smile peeled over his lips. It was a revolver this time. Much more showy than the gun he'd used to shoot the Major.
Barney worked his jaw and tried to swallow back the frown that was stretching across his face. He looked over at Dilly, who was watching the situation like a bystander might, unsure of what to do or say. She locked eyes with him, but the pain of her gaze prevented him from reading her. Memories of the war played in his mind, forced suddenly to the forefront of his thoughts. He wondered if the same was happening to her; if she was remembering Lucie as vividly as he was. Her smile, spreading so slowly and with so much light as the wind danced through the green jungle leaves behind her. The frizzy pieces of hair that blew around her in a broken, backlit halo against the gelled down mass atop her head. Her eyes and how they caught the golden light of a fire or the sunset as it snuck through the canopy above them. He looked away from Dilly and tried to shove the past back where it belonged.
"Barney?" Toll asked, looking between the men as they stood in a standoff, guns held in tight fists and wills locking horns over the two women grappling in the center. "What is this?"
"This, my funny-eared friend, is a reunion!" Conrad said, waving the gun in Barney's direction.
Toll tightened his jaw in response. He bit back his usual response to the ear comments, since it wasn't the time or place to bring it up.
Sammy saw the redhead watching Barney. There was recognition there- sorrow, even. She tried to wriggle away from Bee again, but they were stuck together still. Bee wouldn't let Sammy go, and Sammy wouldn't let Bee get away.
Conrad raised his brows as he waited for Barney to finally respond.
"I shot you," Barney said, his voice thick and gruff. "You died."
Conrad shrugged. "Not quite," he said. "Recovery was a bitch, though."
That's when Sammy noticed the bottom end of the Expendables tattoo on Conrad's forearm, just underneath his rolled up dress shirt. She felt a rush of confusion and pain strike her heart. Who was he?
"What do you want, Stonebanks?" Barney asked, breathing through barred teeth. Yang and Toll kept their eyes trained on the group of men around them, waiting to fight on a moments notice. They knew Caesar and Lee were off to the side somewhere with Luna, so backup wasn't far. Cap, Angel, and Bones were there somewhere too.
"To even the score," he said. "We made the team together. You took that from me."
"You changed," Barney snapped, finger tightening over the trigger. "I shot you once. Don't think I won't do it again."
"People change, Barney, that's how the world works. You either gotta get with it, or get lost. This business is only good for two things: getting you rich, or getting you killed."
"You only cared about the money. You stopped caring about why we did this-"
"Because of her?" Conrad interrupted, his words like venom leaving his tongue with a hiss. Dilly glanced over to him, uncertain, a burst of hurt in her eyes. As quickly as it appeared, it evaporated, replaced by a hard exterior shell.
"Don't," Barney said.
"I get it, I do," Conrad said, meeting Barney's growl with a calm, steady voice. "Loss makes us bitter. It makes us act out. We aren't ourselves. We do things to avoid pain." He emphasized the word pain. "We were brothers, Barney."
"You were never my brother," Barney said, lips twisted into a deadly snarl.
Sammy wondered how they would be getting out of this. It was clearly a lot deeper than she understood. The entire time, she figured, her and Bee were just pawns on the surface pulling the two competing kings together. They were locked in a stand off now, and the remaining pieces were stranded around them. If one of them made a move, the other wouldn't hesitate to pull his trigger.
"We were more than brothers," Conrad said, yanking up his sleeves to expose the rest of the tattoo. "We were Expendable. Did that never mean anything to you?"
Barney felt the skin on his back twitch. His identity was carved into his body, just like it was with everyone that ever fought alongside him and his team. He'd killed Conrad before, and he knew he could do it again; the pain from the first time still stabbed at his chest, a layer of rot that corroded his pitch black heart. But he could do it again. He'd mourned it once. They were like Able and Cain, damned for their brotherhood. No matter the hatred between them, Barney knew they were blood-bound. It was hell.
"Remember, back in Vietnam, when you got that nasty infection on your arm?" Conrad went on. "That's what brought you to her, wasn't it? You wouldn't have ever met her if you hadn't gotten that damn scrape trying to save me."
Barney bit his tongue. He never regretted any of the times he had saved Conrad's ass, but he also didn't regret shooting him.
"This isn't about her," Barney said.
"Doesn't matter," Conrad said with a shrug, holding up his gun again. "I'm not going to be the one dying this time."
The gun wasn't aimed at Barney, though. It was pointed down at Sammy. She was confused.
There wasn't much time to react, though. Just as soon as he solidified his aim between her eyes, a flash-bang fell between them and rolled towards him. His eyes went wide, and for the second he took to react, Sammy mustered up all her strength to roll over on top of Bee and shield her from the blast.
It was bright. It made her ears ring. She wasn't sure if she had cried out when it went off, but the world was suddenly distant from her. She knew there were more noises happening, more chaos, but she couldn't solidify anything in the white-light world she was stuck in. When it all started to fade, however slightly, there was smoke and fog all around her. She coughed and wheezed and kept herself tucked overtop of Bee.
—-
Lee watched as Conrad lifted the gun but stopped halfway to Barney when it landed on Sammy. He felt his heart constrict. What the bloody hell was going on?
Then the flash bang rolled in out of nowhere, and he hesitated for just a second long enough to not cover his eyes. He groaned when his vision went bright white and his ears started to ring. He felt himself stumble around, trying to grab hold of something steady, only to fall to his hands and knees on the ground. He could see Sammy laying under the barrel of that gun as clear as day in his mind, and it was driving him mad that he couldn't see or hear what was happening.
Caesar yanked him up and out of the dirt and wrapped an arm around his waist to give him support.
"We gotta get Gogh and get the hell out of here!" Caesar shouted. Lee heard him as though he were on the other side of the field instead of right next to him. He tried to blink his vision clear, but a sharp headache was leeching into his mind. He was nauseous.
Caesar pulled him towards the mess, less affected since he'd hidden himself faster. Smoke bombs were rolling in all around them, and despite his confusion, he kept moving forward to try and find the rest of their team.
Luna and Bones had dropped themselves to the ground and covered their heads. Luna's dress tore as she hit the dirt, a few rocks and pebbles cutting into her skin. Bones reached over her back to keep them close.
"What the fuck is going on?" Bones yelled, trying to make sense of the chaos around them.
She wondered if Cap and Angel were okay. She needed them to be.
"Luna," she tried, "can you hear me?"
"Barely," Luna yelled back.
"I'm going in! I gotta find Gogh and Bee, and I'll get them out! Go find Cap and Angel!"
"I'm going with you!" Luna said, pulling herself up to her knees.
"I need-" Bones started, but she was cut off by the ear-piercing sound of the shooting starting. She winced downwards out not instinct, and Luna met her with their faces pushed into the dirt.
"This is a shit show, and you're not going in alone," Luna tried.
"The guys are in there," Bones said. "I'm not alone."
"I'm going. Come on," Luna said, squinting through the fog as she started crawling towards the center. She heard a bullet whiz by her ear and tightened her jaw.
Bones chewed on her lower lip but followed along. Cap would protect Angel. Hell, Angel would protect Angel. She mentally chastised herself for being so worried, but she knew she couldn't help it. Love had a lot of side effects.
—-
Angel and Cap hit the ground when the flash bang rolled into the small crowd. Cap threw an arm protectively over Angel as they sunk into the thick dirt. Her ears started to ring, and she huffed out a heavy breath as she tried to stay calm and aware of her surroundings.
"You should've gone without me!" Angel snapped, wriggling around so she was facing Cap under her grasp,
Cap chewed on the inside of her cheek. She wanted to fight Angel and say no, she belonged here, but really- now that they had no idea what was going on, and Angel hadn't been back in the field yet- she was one more thing to worry about. She frowned.
"You know I'm right," Angel grunted, squinting against the fog forming and spreading around them.
"It's too late for that," Cap grunted, pulling her up. "You're just gonna have to make yourself useful, like always."
"I can't be-" Angel tried, shaking her head. She felt tears suddenly welling behind her eyes. She blinked.
Cap took her by the shoulders and found her eyes. The world was blurry and her ears were still ringing, but she found Angel amidst the chaos and focused on her.
"You can," Cap said, giving her a squeeze. "You are capable. Don't doubt yourself. Find a way."
Angel watched her for a moment before she nodded. She felt off balance, especially with the violence around her. She was in a new situation entirely. She just hoped she had the ability to work through it, because there were people that needed her right then- people like Sammy, who she couldn't see through the sudden thick cloud of fog bursting from bombs around them.
—-
Barney dove forward into the dirt to cover his head as the flash bang went off. It didn't do much to help him, but it was better than standing there with a target on his back. He rolled over and made sure his gun was fully loaded. The smoke grenades started going off then, and Barney cursed to himself and pulled out a handkerchief to hold over his mouth and nose. He wanted to get Sammy- she was right there- but his mind was reeling with thoughts of Conrad Stonebanks rising from the dead. His fingers itched to pull the trigger on him again. He never thought he could hate a man so much, especially not a man he used to consider his brother; a man that he had once loved. He let out a breathy growl and turned over again, knees digging into the ground to launch him forward.
With Stonebanks alive, they had a much bigger problem on their hands than just the Major. Barney knew everybody would be going for Sammy, so he clicked the safety off his gun and squared off his jaw. This would end before it started. He wouldn't live through another bloodbath, another war. Those days were gone.
And Dilly- what the hell was Dilly doing there? Why had she been looking at him like that? All of these people, they were supposed to be so far back in Barney's memory that they'd never see the light of day for him again.
Through the fog, he ran towards where Stonebanks had been, his feet pressing into the ground hard and fast, his finger twitching over the trigger.
—-
Sammy had Bee in a death grip, wedged just beneath herself to shield her from the blast of the flash bang. Her ears were ringing loud and her eyes were squeezed shut to block out the bright, intrusive light that was suddenly taking over her vision. She groaned, her head pounding. She could taste dirt in her mouth, moist and earthy and crunching between her barred teeth. When she dared try to open her eyes, there was a thick fog over everything, and so the world seemed to be in black and white. All she could make out were the clouds of smoke drifting together and apart. Her ears were still ringing too loud to hear anything, but she glanced down, and Bee was under her, hands clasped over her ears. Sammy grabbed one of her wrists and pulled it loose from the side of her head, knuckles white and twitching.
"Bee," she tried, but she could barely hear her own voice over the ringing. Bee pealed open her eyes just slightly, but they seemed far-off and out of focus. Sammy gave her another shake and looked around, trying to make out any shapes moving towards them in the clouds. Which way had Barney been? She could barely remember. Directions suddenly didn't mean anything, and if it weren't for her knees digging hard into the dirt, she wouldn't have even realized she was still on solid ground.
Bee looked around and tried to catch her breath. The world was floating by behind Sammy's tensed expression, just grey smokey clouds swirling and melting together. She frowned and wrinkled her brows, her ears still ringing too loudly to make out the words she saw Sammy's mouth forming. She only knew one thing for sure: the Major was dead. She'd seen his brains splatter in the grass. She'd felt his blood hit her face. She wondered if it was still there, and reached up an uncertain hand to feel the skin of her cheek. When she pulled it back to look at it, her fingers were bright red. She shuddered. Sammy still had her other hand in a death grip, and she looked up to see her. She tried to pull away.
Sammy saw Bee's eyes lock on the red of her fingers and tried to pull her attention away from the mess. She remembered the feeling Bee was going through; the shock, the uncertainty, the numbness that was sure to be washing over her. She knew those feelings well and had spent a lot of time pushing them far, far away. She shook Bee's wrist in her hand and tried to get her attention.
"Bee," she said again, coughing as she breathed in the smoke. She winced as a pain split through her chest and made her wheeze. She felt like she was suffocating, and tears were forming in her eyes as she tried to force herself to breathe through the pain. Bee wriggled beneath her again, craning her neck to try and see what was going on. She had smeared the wet, bright blood down her face when she touched it.
She felt a hand grip her shoulder then. She didn't know who it was- friend or enemy- so she turned and tried to grip their wrist and push them back. The force of the movement sent a wave of nausea through her, and Bee use that split second to kick herself away and through the dirt. Her chest heaved as she watched Sammy stutter and try to fight, and an old instinct poked at her for a moment. For just that second, Sammy and Bee were running drills at camp, and Sammy needed her help. Her mouth was dry and her ears were ringing and she blinked to try and steady herself, but nothing was working. Another second passed, and Sammy was kicking and a cloud of dirt was rising around her from her effort. Bee dug her nails into the ground and tried to lift herself; what could she do? Her instincts and her mind were telling her two different things. Fight or flight- which would it be? Another second, and the ringing in her ears began to subdue. There were distant pops going off, like fireworks up in the sky. She frowned, pushing off the ground and balancing on her feet. Another second, and the ringing stopped. She heard the gunshots going off around her, the grunting and yelling of opposing sides shouting orders. She went to take a step towards Sammy, but a hand gripped her arm and yanked her back, and suddenly she was pressed against a hard chest and being pulled violently away. She tried to fight back, but the person holding her was a lot bigger and stronger than she was. They had a death grip on her. She couldn't see anything because of all the smoke and fog.
Sammy knew she was losing the fight. She was never good at hand-to-hand, and she chastised herself mentally for not spending more time in the gym with that punching bag. There were hands yanking her up from the ground, which shot a sharp dizzy spell through her head. She stumbled and they caught her, but she still couldn't hear well. All she knew was that they were gripping her tight and pulling her away, and she had no idea where Bee had gone.
—-
Barney was running headfirst into the gunfire with his finger twitching on the trigger, itching for one good shot at Stonebanks. It hadn't felt good when he killed him- or thought he did- so long ago. Sure, he had suffered for it. Mourned him. Some nights, after a few cups of whiskey and a burnt out cigar, he might have even said he regretted it. That maybe they could've worked it out. It was a lie, and he knew that, but the doubt felt home enough within him to welcome guilt as well.
The smoke was barely beginning to dissipate when he ran into Cap with Angel in tow. He huffed and made to push passed her, but she yelled his name and shoved him back. He clenched his jaw, irritated.
"What the hell are you doing?" Cap asked, glancing down at his finger resting on the trigger. "We gotta go! Get Sammy and let's move!"
Angel was looking around and trying to make sure nobody was sneaking up on them. Barney hardly noticed her.
"I have something I need to do," Barney said, moving to shoulder passed her.
"Then let me help," Cap said, reaching down and wrapping her hand around his wrist. He looked down at her face, angry and twitching.
"I can't," he said, and he felt his resolve starting to weaken.
"If you're not willing to go after it with your team, then it's not worth going after at all," Cap said, gripping his wrist harder. "Especially not right now. We need to get out of here."
Barney glanced up and huffed. After another second, he shook his head and tucked his gun back into its holster. He nodded at Angel.
"I've got the plane not far from here," Barney said over the noise. "Get to the perimeter. I'll meet you there."
"You can't stay here alone," Cap said.
"This is not a debate," Barney snapped back. "And we're not a team."
They stared at each other, the sounds of bullets firing all around them echoing like a haunting symphony. This battle of wills was too evenly matched, and they both knew it.
That was when Luna and Bones stumbled into them, waving at the air in front of their faces and coughing. Bones caught sight of Angel and sighed, her body softening and melting down towards her feet. She fumbled a few more steps forward and took Angel in her arms to hold her against her chest. Angel didn't fight it.
"We don't know where to go. You take them there, and I'll get your guys to take me," Cap said.
"Cap-" Angel tried, jerking her head up.
"No, Angel," Cap hissed.
"Fine," Barney grunted, shaking his head. "Keep up, and don't get shot."
—-
Cap didn't waste any time hurrying into the mess and searching for the men. She found Toll and Yang first.
"Hey!" She said, holding up her hands so they wouldn't mistake her for the enemy.
"Well I'll be damned," Toll grunted, firing off a few more shots as he glanced over at her. "Look who we finally found."
"Barney is meeting us at the perimeter. Where's everyone else?"
Yang glanced sidelong at Toll. He wondered why Barney hadn't come to find them himself.
"Don't know," Yang said, hustling over to her. "But let's go."
Cap nodded and didn't wait for Toll to join them before she started looking for the others. She spotted Lee and Caesar towards the end of the foggy cloud.
"Hale!" Toll called, jogging up to meet him. "We're going to the perimeter. You alright?"
"Good as it gets," Caesar said, muscling along.
"We need to find Sammy," Lee said, an urgent edge in his voice.
"We haven't seen her," Toll said, glancing over at Yang.
"She wasn't with-"
A shot flew between them and came close to making contact with Caesar's arm.
"We need to get organized. We need to go," Cap said, looking at them all. "We won't leave her behind. We won't."
Lee tightened his jaw and was about to fight when more bullets started raining down on them.
They kept their heads down and hurried to avoid the shooting. Cap stayed close to them, gun drawn low, and hoped her team had made it back in one piece. She knew there'd be hell to pay with Barney and the guys for helping Sammy, but she didn't care. As long as everyone was safe, that was all that mattered. She knew Barney felt the same way, but when she'd run into him, there was a blindness in his eyes; an anger. He was dead set on whatever was ahead of him, and that was the type of thing that got people hurt and killed in this line of work. She knew that too well.
—-
Barney didn't say a word as they hurried to the perimeter meeting point. Conrad's face kept flashing in his mind nearly every time he blinked, and all he wanted to do was carve him up and make sure there'd be no more resurrections. He felt his hands shake with the rage.
"Angel, you alright?" Luna asked, glancing over when she noticed Bones and Angel beginning to lag behind. She hadn't been around Angel much since the last job, and obviously a lot had changed.
"I'm fine," Angel grunted, her voice thick with frustration. "Just keep going."
Luna cleared her throat. She couldn't tell if Angel was irritated at her for being on the same team as Barney and the guys, or if she was mad at the world in general. Maybe both. It was definitely possible that it was both. Luna swallowed and focused on moving quickly and not being spotted.
They reached the perimeter and Barney ducked behind an old, peeling building and motioned that they hurry behind him. They did, Bones keeping Angel up as they ducked towards the ground.
"Funny running into you here," Bones tried, wiping away the sweat on her brow and looking over at Barney while they all caught their breath.
He grunted and looked away, checking his watch to see how long had passed since he'd last seen his men. He hoped Cap wouldn't get shot before she could herd them all together. He looked down at his hand- the one that had been holding the gun when she took his wrist- and felt his skin burning where she had touched him. It was the same feeling that reminded him of Lucie during their first mission together. Something about her sparked so much memory and feeling within him, and he hated it. Actually, he hated all of this. Really hated it.
He heard footsteps approaching from around the building and pulled out his gun just in case. He drew in a breath and turned the corner with a sharp burst, gun angled out and finger ready to fire. He expected one of his guys, or maybe one of the workers or guards- what he hadn't expected, above everything, was Trench Mauser.
"Is that any way to greet the man that just save your life?" Trench asked, and Barney noticed the body hefted over one of his shoulders.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Barney asked, lowering his gun and shaking his head. He was getting a headache from all of the surprises.
"Doing a job," Trench said with a loose shrug.
Barney frowned, but his response was brushed away when the body thrown over Trench's shoulder started flailing against him. Trench reached over and adjusted his grip on her to bring her down to the ground, and Barney furrowed his brows.
"I found this," Trench said, holding her arms behind her back as she tried to tug herself free.
Barney blinked, and over Trench's shoulder he saw Cap running up with the guys around her. He swallowed hard and spared a glance back at the women behind him. He reached up a hand and rubbed at his eyes, frustrated and exhausted. Then he sighed. He took note of the blood smears down her face, her light hair and eyes soaking in the bright red color and making her look ghostly, deathly. She was straining against Trench's grip. How many ghosts would he see in one day?
"You must be Bee," he said.