Hey, Thatguy here. And first off I just want to apologize sooo much for the ridiculous wait on this chapter. I have one more in the works and I promise it wont take more than a week or so to put out this time. Long sotry short. I have had so much life going on that I kinda forgot about this story for the longest time. As usual, any critizism is good critisizm. So feel free to PM me on questions, comments, concerns or if you fixed all the spelling mistakes I probably made. Again, so sorry. Don't hate me.

Revy started shaking when she saw the shrapnel jutting from Rock. tears rolled down her face as she started shaking his shoulders, screaming at him to wake up. two firm hands grasped her shoulder and quick as lightning one of her cutlasses was pointing at the Russian medic pulling her away.

"He's trying to help, two-hands. step back." the cold, yet soothing voice of Balalaika washed over her, making her arms go limp and she was pulled off the wounded rock. The medic went to work on the mortally wounded business man, and soon had him in a stable condition and loaded onto a stretcher. Revy stood by the stretcher, scanning the Russians as they secured the alleyway, her eyes finally locking onto balalaikas as she spoke to her second-in-command. Finally her voice echoed out again, not a shout, but loud enough for everyone in the group to hear.

"we're moving out. we have too many wounded to support our brothers at the tower, so we'll be moving to one of our supply depots. a warehouse about 1 kilometer from our position. on your feet." the command was followed by some affirmative grunts as the group started moving down the alley, Balalaikas Sergeant giving orders. alley by alley, road by road, Revy moved through the almost never-ending maze of the city, never leaving Rocks side. Gunfire became more and more distant as the rain came down harder.

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Left-Tenant Blair watched the rain pelting the street in front of his field HQ, the smoke from his cigar slowly wafting up. His mind wandered from the buslting mercenaries around him, and he absentmindedly flicked some ash on the sentry watching the road kneeling next to him.

"status update Rolli" he said in a low, yet commanding tone. The radio operator, turned sweat pouring down his face from the stress of the situation and the heat of the radios.

"squads have been taking heavy casualties. The front is beginning to waver. Bravo and Charlie have been wiped, and Delta is reporting heavy casualties." Rolli took a deep breath before continuing. "it's looking our intel was off on man and firepower, sir." Blair took a deep breath, flicking the cigar out the broken window and onto the soaking street below him.

"seems our benefactor was using us a simple pawn, not an ultimatum." He wiped his face with a sweaty hand grabbing his rifle before starting towards the radio operator. " we won't go down easy, tell all squads to regroup and push the objectives... Fuck it, I'll do it myself." He grabbed the headset and started barking orders, his eyes showing a thousand-yard stare his men hadn't seen before.

Revy watched the Russians clearing alleyways and roads as they moved, feeling numb to everything, her hand still grabbing Rocks.

He's still breathing. He's still breathing. He's still here.

Her eyes were almost glazed as she watched the broken and boarded windows above the dirty streets.

This is your fault, he tried to protect you and he'll die for it.

She blinked the thought from her mind, shivering as the downpour soaked her to the bone. Rock's bandages turning the rain a light red as the blood mixed with the drops.

You did this. You killed him. The queen of the damned strikes again.

Revy couldn't tell if it was rain or tears blurring her vision. She didn't care. The group turned onto a large empty road with a warehouse at the end of it, similarly boarded as all the other buildings. Revy stared at the second story, feeling a prickling on the back of her neck.

He's still breathing. He's Still he-

Gunfire erupted from the warehouse at the end of the street, shredding two of the lead russians as the rest poured into adjacent buildings returning fire as soon as they grabbed some cover.

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Blair turned sharply as his sentries opened fire into the street, quickly being met with return fire. Mercs scrambled for rifles as blair stormed over to the windows. Gunfire pelted the window around him as he watched the Russians Scatter for cover. Then he saw it, clear as day. The blonde hair, the facial scars, the officers coat.

"its her..." He growled under his breath, eyes widening as they bugged out of his head. "OPEN FIRE, ITS THAT IVAN BITCH!"

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Revy took shelter with the medics in the empty storefront they had dove into. Stretchers were quickly consolidated to a corner and the men ran back to the windows, trying to suppress the apparent ambush. It took her a minute to even reach for her pistols, but goddamnit.

Haven't these ASSHOLES done enough already?

She pulled her Cutlass pistols and juped through the broken front window, landing behind an dilapidated sedan, taking quick aim and popping rounds off as accurately as she could. Screams of pain could be heard from both sides as more russians and the unseen enemy took casualties. The whole street was filled with noise pollution, from the gunfire, death-throws, and the never-ending rain streaking from the sky, the only light coming from the flash of gunfire and spiderwebs of lighting in the clouds.

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The Left-Tenant was practically frothing at the mouth, eyes wide and mind lost. He fired indiscriminately at every movement in the street as more of his men fell to the onslaught of Kalashnikovs. Suddenly he turned to his radioman, who was cowering under his desk.

"call the mortar team, we need a danger close hit. She's not getting away." Bolli looked at his commanding officer, stuck between scared and confused. "S-sir, the mortars aren't accurate enough to guarantee our safety!"

The left-tenant said nothing, calmly walking over to the radio and calling off coordinates. Then he shot the radio. "now theres no turning back. The Ivan isn't getting away again" he walked over to an empty window, kicking off the few boards covering it before leaning out, firing randomly as he did. "TAKE THIS YOU RUSSIAN FUCKS! ILL HAVE ALL YOUR H-" his voice was drowned out by soft thumps and harsh whistling coming from the distance.

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Revy saw the boards falling to the ground and quickly took aim at the merc leaning out and screaming. Easy kill. Hir finger began squeezing the trigger when the whistling started.

Get. To. Rock.

Her mind screamed at her, and she sprinted into the storefront, running to the wounded and jumping on top of Rock as the first mortar hit. Everything went black.