A/N: Okay, so I guess my last chapter was a little lackluster so I sat myself down at the computer and wrote the next chapter. This was incredibly difficult to write, but I love it a lot. Since this is Booth's mission chapter their will be violence and character deaths so be warned. And for those who love the angst I'm happy to tell you the angst has reared its ugly head and is in a total I'm-going-to-die-doing-the-right-thing mode! Enjoy!

Show me what it's like to dream in black and white,

so I can leave this world tonight.

Full of fear, everclear. Curious, venomous,

You'll find me climbing to heaven.

Nevermind, turn back time.

You'll be fine, I will get left behind.

"Unknown Soldier"- Breaking Benjamin

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Dreams kept him going, kept him from completely losing all sanity. She was always there to save him from the animal that subsided within him. Her touch, her smile; they were the things that kept him fighting….

Booth awoke with a sudden start, his bruised hands gripping the burning handle of his gun. Benjamin had kicked the bottom of his boot roughly, smirking at Booth's displeased face.

"You dream'n about that woman again?" Booth shut his eyes, hoping to catch one last glimpse of her. Nothing.

"Always." He sighed.

"Well," Benjamin took his helmet off his dark, sweat-drenched hair and pulled out a small picture, handing it gingerly over to Booth. "These are the women of my dreams." Three faces radiating with love gleamed happily at Booth, making his stomach churn.

"Wow, Benny they're beautiful."

"Yep, that's my wife and twin four-year old daughters. Ha…imagine having twins at twenty-two, you grow up real fast after that." Booth handled the crinkled photo back. Benjamin wiped the sticky dirt from his tan face, solemn tears reflecting in his green eyes. "It was so hard…to not say goodbye…to just leave…I miss them so much."

"Hey man, you'll see them again. Were gonna get out of this mess and then you'll see your family again." The young father soaked in the comforting words, but doubt continued to gnaw at the back of Booth's thoughts.

Three left standing; a Sniper, a Spotter and a Ranger. They were all that was left. Gaveia was still alive and the three men were at the end of their ropes. The only thing that awaited them was the open arms of death's angels. Time was running out and Booth had to make a decision: die doing nothing or die saving the country. It was the easiest decision of his life.

A cloud of dust billowed upwards as Lieutenant Ruckers jumped into the trench. Lighting a cigarette to quench his restless nerves, the eccentric Ranger whisked his blonde hair out of his eyes and relayed the report.

"The damage form last nights raid was heavy. The guards have left a gap in their defense to take care of the dead, which gives us an opportunity to sneak through and take up station in one of the empty towers. From that position I'll be able to cut down the surrounding guards while you two put a bullet in the bastard's heart."

Benjamin picked himself up off the ground, shouldering his equipment. "Sounds easy enough!"

"Yeah, which can only mean one thing." The soldiers laughed with a vacant interest at the ominous remark, a single red-tinged thought running across their desolate minds.

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Protruding from the dense jungle, the men stalked silently up a small rotund hill, scooping out their entrance point.

"Right there, next to that crumbling wall, is a tear in the wire fence. If you continue straight 200 meters their will be a small unoccupied tower. I'll keep guard at the entrance."

Booth looked at the two men beside him, proud to have met the bravest soldiers enlisted in the American army. "Alright men, lets move out." Taking his position in front, Jeremy raced down the hill and through the opening, followed closely by Booth and Benjamin.

Rounding the corner, a lone guard raised his gun in a fit of surprise and butted Jeremy in the temple knocking him brutally to floor. Before a yell could escape past the sentry lips, Booth had a hand clasped over his mouth and a small knife twisted into the guard's jugular. A gurgle of blood trailed down the man's cheek while Booth shoved him into the shadows.

"You all right Jeremy?" A violet bruise was flowering across the Ranger's face.

"Yeah, let's go." Reaching the tower without any more intrusions, Booth and his Spotter flew up the stairwell, leaving Jeremy to fend for himself.

A large square opening became Booth's set up point. Lying on his stomach, flush with the concrete floor, Booth peered through his scope, training his eye on a group of men marching across a rooftop about 1100meters away. A burgeoning explosion in the distance caught his eye and he swiveled towards the commotion. Seven guards were running straight towards them armed to the teeth in an array of weapons.

"Shit!" Benjamin take your M60 and get down there with Jeremy! I'll try to pick them off before they get to close!" Booth heard the splutter of rounds being fired and the angry shouting of Jeremy as three guards fell to the ground in a heap. Placing his crosshairs over the leading officer, Booth squeezed the trigger, killing three guards in a rapid succession before the officer could fall limply to the ground.

Returning his attention the rooftop, Booth focused on the berets peaking over the short wall. Gaveia was somewhere on that rooftop and he was going to smoke him out. Benjamin returned, placing his scope next to Booth's gun.

"Where are you trained?"

"The rooftop. Tell me how far away those stacked barrels are." Fixing his calculations, Benjamin measured the distance.

"1156meters."

"I'm taking the shot." Positioning his crosshairs over the center gas can, Booth sucked in a breath, releasing it as the bullet fired from the steaming barrel. The sky rained with roaring fire as the men scattered across the roof, looking for a way out of the sudden trap. A heavy man pushed the squawking men violently off the roof, allowing them to fall to their deaths. Through the dust clouds, Booth sighted the gruesome sight. Reloading his gun, he nudged his spotter, "I see him. He's about ten feet from where the gas cans were."

"I see him. 1156meters. Wind speed 7mph. Alignment is accurate. Kill the son of a bitch."

This was it. He was a shot away from finishing a suicide mission; one he thought he would never return from. Yet, here he was, alive, and his dream of returning to Bones a shot away from being fulfilled. Just a shot away. Settling his eye into the viewfinder, Booth locked onto the man who ruined his life—ruined twenty men's lives—breathed in the sweet taste of freedom, and squeezed the trigger with unharnessed vengeance. Watching the vapor trail sear through the crimson sky, Booth released his breath as a spray of blood spewed unevenly from Gaveia's chest.

"Mission complete. Now let's get the hell out of here!" Booth's eyes flicked over to a stampede of vicious, snarling men racing out of the smoking buildings. Shoving their equipment into their knapsacks, the two Rangers raced down the stairwell, the sound of thundering footsteps gaining stride reverberated outside. Grabbing a hold of an elated Jeremy, the men hurried towards the fence.

"It's over guys! I can't believe we did it, it's over…"

Whistling ripped through the downpour of ash, as sharp metal blazing orange heat exploded into a roaring inferno of death. The three men were blown back into the bloody dirt 1000 yards away, pounding a crater into the side of a steep trench. Screams of anguish from the mangled bodies echoed across the valley.

Booth felt all control slipping through his grasp. The racing memories of his loved ones petrified into a single moment of happiness as empty shadows consumed his hallucinations, extinguishing the last flickering spark of life.

Death.

The Reaper, eyes scathing with grim judgment, glided up from the land of the damned, demise reeking from his rotten flesh, and with a definitive swing of his sickle severed the ordained fates of the men.

"Tem…perance."

Tearful eyes flew open with intense vitality. A blistering headache screaming through his body, Booth sucked in the revitalizing air only to choke on the blood bubbling from his gaping mouth. Spluttering, Booth rolled over onto his hands and knees, yelping in pain at the grinding bones pressing in to his skin. The burns across his back and ribcage festered fiercely as the surrounding dirt seeped into them. Booth crawled delicately over to the two other bodies in the crater, grunting as the glinting metal tore at his cargo pants.

Jeremy lay face down, blood seeping through his clothes. Booth rolled him over and checked for a pulse, heartbeat, breathing, but he found no sign of life. Jeremy's wish had been granted, to die an honorable man who served his country proudly.

"Oh, Jeremy…." Booth saluted his fallen comrade with every ounce of dignity and honor that Second Lieutenant Jeremy Ruckers of the Rangers elite had come to deserve.

The faint coughing behind him sent Booth flying to the other man's side. "Benny, you're alive! Holy shit man, you're alive!" Booth's relieved laughter hung in the air. Benjamin sat up, grimacing as the sting of a sliver of metal jolted up his left side.

"Yeah, but who knows for how long."

"What!?" Booth said alarmed. Benjamin lifted his shirt, a jagged piece of metal sticking about three inches out from under his left armpit.

"I think…it nicked my lung." Benjamin's breathing was irregular, strangled with fright. "I'm not going home…my family…" Booth was reeling with grief and total disbelief. Was God trying to play some kind of sick joke on him? What the hell was going on? This wasn't how the mission was supposed to play out. Their fates had been altered by an outsider and he was furious. Jeremy and Benny were meant to get out alive—go home to their families—he was the one meant to be left behind.

"NO! I'm not going to let that happen, you're going home alive! I'll get you out of this mess even if it kills me!" Booth decided he was going to try his hand at playing God, bet his life in an attempt to call the outsiders bluff. The whistling rockets returned, shaking the ground with earth-shattering blasts, blanketing them in sheets of rubble. They were here.

"I'm sorry Buddy!"

"What…"

Booth bent down and picked up Benjamin, throwing him over his shoulders and with a burst of speed dug up the side of the trench. The crying protests from his victim didn't faze him; all he focused on was reaching the enormous jungle. Safety. Bullets zipped by him, grazing his cheek and legs, while the puckering dirt camouflaged his retreat. Booth skidded to a halt once he reached the hidden trench. Laying Benjamin on the rough bed, Booth took out his radio and switched it on.

"Lieutenant Booth. Operation Fate complete. One man dead. One in critical. Dispatch medical team to evacuate. 500yards inland." Booth set down the receiver, and began wrapping a bandage around the gash. "Alright their coming. When they call, tell them where you're located and then to send a second helicopter after you've taken off."

Benjamin eyes were flittering closed, his face a ghastly pale. "I'm not going to make it…"

"YES, yes you are! You're going to live because you need to watch your daughters grow up into amazing young women. They need their father."

"Where…you…"

"I'm going back in to get Jeremy. I've known him since we enlisted together and to leave him out there with those savages…well, no man gets left behind."

"Booth…you'll..."

Booth nodded his head, and grabbed a M60 with two extra magazines. "I'll die. I know, but at least I'll be dying doing the right thing." With those last words, Booth sprinted out of the trench and into the enemy's territory.

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Crouching behind a craggy rock, Booth watched as five men surrounded the crater where Jeremy lay. They were yelling in accented curses, pushing each other towards the body to make sure it was dead. One curious soldier straightened out his hand to feel the pulse, but Booth cocked his rifle and shot off the offending hand with a splay of bullets. Violet blood showered the surrounding men, bathing them in hot liquid. Guns leveled at the rock, the guards attempted to shoot the ranger, but instead a wall of bullets hit them as they fell backwards into the trench. Booth dashed over to Jeremy, picked him up carefully and attempted to jump out of the trench as a group of guards crested the hill menacingly behind him.

Booth was running for his life. Pushing as hard as he could to retain the vigor from his younger days, but the loss of blood was draining all his energy. A bitter bullet spliced through his throbbing thigh, sending him tumbling to the ground. His breathing was rugged, involuntary spasms controlling his movements, as he pushed himself over to Jeremy.

"C'mon Booth, Get yourself up!" Booth gritted, but there was nothing left to shed except his tears. It was over.

Her golden fingers reached out, touching his beat up face with warm strength, every spoken word from her delicate voice rejuvenating his broken spirit with a passionate vivacity.

A burst of adrenaline soared through Booth, giving him the feeling of invincibility. He scooped up Jeremy, and rushed into the dense undergrowth. She was right next to him urging him on with every smile until he collapsed listlessly into the soft grass. Sheltering themselves from the enemy's eyes, Booth yanked the nearby brush over him and Jeremy. Booth clasped his heavy lids shut, allowing himself to fall prey to the dangers of unconsciousness. Taking her outstretched hand, Booth followed the angel towards the distant light as the expanding darkness swallowed him whole.