Part Two

Three years later

China

"Alright men, We're going in. Red Team on Sunshine with the snipers. Gray team on me, search and destory."

Seth hated that name. He had been given it at West Point because of his bright-side of everything demeanor. Something was off with Rory. She had a bad feeling about this mission. It wasn't her first. Far from it, but something seemed wrong...very wrong.

"Seth, be careful!"

"Aw, you know me Rory!"

He was the only one that got away with calling her that. It was either Widow or Norris to everyone eles. She hated the Ma'am bullshit...she would rather be called sir than ma'am. They were in China for the Russian/Chinese war. It was a border despuit. A few years ago a massive shift under the whole North Eastern hemisphere. Both sides were saying they didn't get as much land as they had before. The United States was brought in as back up for the Russian as it was China tha broke the UN laws of invasion.

"Ok men, we know that there are Chinese insurrectionist hidden in caves underneath the empty farm huts. Our job is to go in and clear them out and than set up base here. Red Team is our recon and sniper unit so they got our asses..."

Gunshots interupted Widow.

"Sunshine, come in! Mercer call in!"

"Rory...Abort, Abort. I repeat get the hell out of there! It's an ambush! I repeat..."

Gunshot were drowning out the sound of Seth voice, followed by screams and than static.

"Seth, come in! Seth! Damn...Ricci get the squad out of here now. Head to the back up LZ! Phone someone iwth a line get the hell over here!"

An older man with a red beard ran up.

"Widow!"

"This is 1st Lt. Rory Norris. Requesting immediate evac from back up LZ!"

"Tha't a go Widow, evac at LZ Gama in less than fifteen minutes."

"Understood!"

"Get all the men you can and get to that LZ."

"What about you?"

"You heard me soilder. Get the fuck on!"

"Yes, Ma'am."

As she turned to run up the hill were Seth had been she felt the butt of a pistol hit the back of her head.

"I'm sorry Rory, but I promise Seth I'd keep an eye out for you."

Ricci threw her over his sholder and took off for the LZ. She was not going to be happy when she woke up.

---

Widow woke up, but didn't dare open her eyes. Her head was pounding and she wsn't sure where she would be when she work up.

"She's in here, Sir."

That was Ricci's voice. What the hell happened the last thing she remembered was getting ready to storm up that hill to see herself what had become of her bestfriend.

"What the hell did you do Ricci?"

"Well sir...I hit her."

"You did what!"

"She couldn't have taken on that whole hill on her own. I promised Mercer along time ago that I'd keep an eye on her if anything happened to him. And from what the recovery team told us the same thing would have happend to her if I wouldn't have take the action in which I did."

"You are a lucky son of a bitch..."

"Why do you say that Sir?"

"I've got a new mission for her. She won't have time to kick your ass."

" Or will I?"

Widow sat up in the bed.

"Widow let me..."

"It's ok soilder. You did the right thing. I was acting irrasionally. You saw the need to stop me and did in the only way you knew how. Thank you."

"You're...welcome..."

"What did the recovory team find?"

"Sargent Mercer and his squad were ambushed. He saved all your lives by telling you to abort. If he wold have laid low he would have survived, but he died doing his duty."

"Yes...Yes he did."

"Listen, I have a new mission for you, far more important than any of this, if your up to it."

"I'm ready when you are."

She slid of the cot grabbed her gear and was out the door walking with the Lt. General.

"We're sending you to Antarctica. Are you aware of the Mars UAC incident?"

"Of course Sir, Whole RRTS unit wipped out."

"Yes all save one...and his sister."

"The famous Grimms. I tried to look them up, but it's all classified."

" Well, it seems that Samatha Grimm and a team of archaeologist have found another Arc. Dr. Grimm was killed two months ago. A Revenat deamon killed her and than disappred in to the Arc. This one cannot be controled by humans like the last two could. John Grimm is already in place there helping as a civilian presence, but we need someone to run the ops."

"John "Reaper" Grimm? What would you need me for than?"

"We don't want anything like Mars to happen again. We need the best of the best to lead against what ever may come. As of right now it's only a few demons using the Arc from time to time, but we think that won't last long."

"Of course sir. Am I taking my team with me?"

"No, you will need a special team for this."

"You mean ones that have been tested?"

"Exactly."

"So I'm going to be taking on hell with rookies?"

"It's the only chance we have. The new soliders are the only ones that have been tranied well enough to handle this. Ever since Mars and Belém we have added Arc travel and a demon 101 to basic tranining."

"Understood."

----

Flying to Antarctica Widow was nervous. She was about to meet the greatest Marine that ever served in the corp. She hadn't been nervous when she met the president three years ago, but this was different. He was everything she wanted to be.

----

"John, I'd like you to meet your new boss."

John looked at the girl standing before him. She could onley be 21 maybe 22. She had stunning blue eyes, with dark auburn hair. It was short and tigtly pulled back. She was about 6 foot he would say. He could tell this girl wasn't just the normal army brat trying to play soilder for daddy. She carried herself like a man would. She had a gun shouldered,two pistols hanging from the chest holster, and one on her belt which was loaded with S-10's, a knife,and many other thing that could be used to kill.

"You got a name kid?"

"Rory Norris,Sir"

"I'm John Grimm, or Reaper if you like, Norris"

"I'd prefer Widow, Sir."

"As in Black?"

"Yes sir, had the nickname since 2nd year in USMA."

"No shit, a West Point girl?"

" Yes Sir."

"How old are you?"

"24, Sir."

The girls' voice was so even,calm, maybe even icey.

"Well, Widow, let's see if we can clear out hell."