Thanks to CaptainHall, RedDawnShadow, WheresDaBeef, and MasterDerp5885, you guys rock and help me keep it going! Okay everyone! It's finally here! Chapter Ten, A.K.A Loose Ends! Don't worry, I will be continuing the story after this chapter, it does not end here! But I do have something rather 'evil' in mind… You'll have to read on to find out just how evil I can get… Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, good or bad, I've made sure to recognize and consider every review I see and each and every one of them helps me to become a better writer! Also, if the POV switches are a little too much, I'm sorry, I needed to get the right parts said and that was the way to do it… Be warned, this chapter may contain excessive amounts of gore… (I had a little bit of fun with a surprise guest's POV…)

Also, this chapter is hereby dedicated to friend and fellow writer, RedDawnShadow, since I've been making you so eager for this chapter…

With that being said…

Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher

~Spitfire out

*Dash's POV*

Ghost's been acting more 'normal', at least for him, after we went to that Russian base. Archer and Toad were okay, they woke up a couple hours after we got back. Now, we were gearing up for our small team assault on Makarov's estate safe house. It was me, Ghost, Roach, Scarecrow, and Ozone, covered by Archer and Toad.

"Let's go, let's go," Ghost said readily as we started moving after Nikoli dropped us off.

I made sure Archer and Toad were in position and followed Ghost.

We had only been walking for about a minute and I was standing next to a tree when a mine called a 'bouncing betty' popped up. I instantly dropped to the ground out of reflex, as did everyone around me.

The mine exploded and the tree I was next to was ripped in half, huge splinters flying everywhere.

"Ambush!" Ghost called, as he jumped up, "Left side! Left side!" he called again as the enemy started shooting and we shot back.

The enemies popped smoke and we rushed them, pushing into the smoke, easily flanking them and dispatching the ambush. We ran up to a road where we saw two armored trucks moving. We called it in and Archer and Toad fired two javelins to take them out. No sign of Makarov, they were a decoy.

We went inside the house and cleared the first floor easily. Then we cleared the lower level and second floor. Still no sign of Makarov, we set up claymores and C4 around the perimeter of the house and waited, having been informed by Archer that there was a massive force heading right for us. We were downloading files off the computer onto the DSM.

When Archer gave the signal we blew the C4. Soon afterwards I heard a claymore blow and gunshots from the front of the house. I was at the back with Scarecrow. Ghost and Roach were up front and Ozone was watching the basement. Then I heard gunfire from where Ozone was and a shout of pain.

Scarecrow nodded to me, letting me know he could handle it himself so I could go check on Ozone.

When I got down there he was on the ground, shooting with his sidearm. I helped him take the rest of the Russians out and took a look at his injury. A through and through shot on his leg, a quick patch job and a shot of painkillers and he was on his feet again. We kept fighting the Russians off until the download was finally finished.

Roach grabbed the DSM and we ran for the LZ. Scarecrow was hit on the way out. I pulled him up, he was out but still alive, and got him around my shoulders. Ozone hung back and covered my six so I could carry Scarecrow.

We were coming out of the forest when I saw Roach get thrown by a mortar. Ghost grabbed him by the back of the vest and started dragging him towards the LZ while he shot at the enemies coming out of the tree line. I stayed back and thinned the Russians out, staying hidden in the tree line.

They made it to Sheppard and I saw him move for his pistol.

"Go," Ozone said from beside me, basically saying that he had everything under control.

I took off at a sprint towards the three. I was too late to stop him from shooting Roach, my breath hitched at that and I pushed further. I felt my arms wrap around Ghost and I spun the two of us around to where my back was to Sheppard.

The bang and the searing pain came almost at the same time.

*Ghost's POV*

I couldn't believe Dash had just done that. I didn't move when we both went to the ground; I made Sheppard and Shadow Company think that the bullet had gone all the way through.

These guys were muppets; they didn't even check vitals before tossing, Roach, Dash, and me, into a ditch.

*Archer's POV* (Yes, again, because he's just that awesome… and yes he's the 'surprise guest' I mentioned…)

I was shocked to say the least. Toad shook me out of my shock and I jumped back into action.

I looked through my scope and lined up the shot, probably the most important shot of my life. Sheppard was lined up in my crosshairs, finger on the trigger. I slowly to took a large breath and calmly exhaled, the shot was completely steady and time seemed to slow as I squeezed the trigger ever so slowly and carefully.

Then I felt a hand grip my shoulder as my weapon discharged the round, forcing a miss. I was rolled onto my back and one of the Shadow Company guys sat on my gut, pinning me. I tried to get him off but he stabbed me in the neck with a syringe.

Not again… I thought as my consciousness ebbed.

When I woke up, it was cold, it was damp, and it smelled like blood and death.

I was hoping that this was one of my sedative induced dreams, those are always creepy as hell but at least I don't end up getting hurt… I sat up and instantly knew this was no dream, it was going to be a fucking nightmare.

The door to the cell slowly creaked open and a Russian soldier grabbed me, lifting me to my feet after hand cuffing me. He guided me a little ways and we stopped at a door, he opened it and took me inside, closing and locking the door behind us. The room was circular, white tile, one metal chair bolted to the ground in the middle. There was a tray beside it; it was full of torture tools, weapons, and knives. A car battery sat on the ground near the chair with jumper cables ready.

Yeah, I'm definitely awake now, I thought to myself as the guard forced me to sit down, binding my hands to the arms of the chair with metal restraints. I struggled against the bindings to test them. Not getting out of here without someone taking the restraints off.

The man just chuckled and threw a punch at my jaw, "You know, we don't really care about who you are, where you came from, or who you work for," he said with a thickly accented voice, "We just want to see you suffer," he added, punching me hard in the chest.

I gave a small smile, "Well, that saves me the trouble of saying that I'm not gonna tell you shit," I quipped.

This earned me a punch to the face, and several after that. When he stopped I could feel blood dripping from my nose and I was a little dizzy. I shook it off and eyed the man standing in front of me; he was now holding a knife.

It was several minutes of white hot pain as the Russian pushed the blade into the skin on my left shoulder and making an upward curve across my chest as he brought the knife to my other shoulder. I had managed to hold back my screams so far, and I could only guess that wouldn't last long.

The man, who I officially decided to call Scourge, took a bottle by the neck, cork still in the mouth of the glass bottle and held it in the stereotypic weapon form. I recognized it as a bottle of vodka.

'Oh shit…' I thought to myself as I saw the bottle swing at my right shoulder. Then I felt the glass connect and break on my shoulder-neck joint, basically on the collar bone. The shards pierced into my collar bone, several other shards from the broken bottle dug deeper into my skin because of the force of the bottle hitting me, causing red, hot, excruciating, nauseating pain, more blood spilled from the wounds as I screamed in pure agony of both the knife and the glass shard wounds with the alcohol making the pain unbearable and antagonizing.

Alcohol spilled over the insidiously long cut across my chest and soaking into my shirt so the effect was lasting. I couldn't stop a scream of pain from escaping me.

Scourge laughed at the agony in my scream. Of course he would. The next thing he picked up from the tray was a whip. Overkill, seriously. I could understand the glass bottle of vodka, the car battery, the several knives he had lined up, the taser (which I saw no point in given the battery…), and his fist, but a whip? Isn't that a little 'mid-evil'? The whip had sharpened metal tips to make the sting worse and it would probably draw blood.

He smirked and cracked the whip. The cold metal caught me on the cheek. The sting was bad and I could feel a little blood dripping down from the cut it had left. Scourge cracked it again, catching me on the neck this time, same effect except worse because of all the nerves that were centered in the neck.

Scourge eyed the whip thoughtfully and coiled it, setting it back on the tray. The restraints on my wrists disengaged and I punched him in the jaw, or tried to, he just caught my fist, stood me up, and then brought my arms behind my back, tying them with rope instead of cuffing them. That's when I noticed a hook in the tile wall.

The Russian led me over to it and brought my hands up over my head, hooking the rope that bound my hands to the wall. I was still standing like this but Scourge kicked in the back of my knees, forcing me down. I heard the whip crack then felt the stinging pain on my back. My back arched inwardly as my subconscious took over my body; I was now only half awake. Unfortunately I could still feel everything. Every lash hurt worse than the last. Eventually it got to the point where he had just worn my back to practically nothing, the pain was a numbing one; I couldn't feel the whip actually hit me anymore but I knew that it still was.

Scourge finally stopped when I was mostly unconscious and gave up on torturing me anymore, ordering some guards to 'drag me back to my cell'.

*Ghost's POV*

After being thrown in a cell I wrapped my arms around Dash and I didn't intend on letting her go again. The bullet had gone through her left shoulder. There was a lot of blood but it had stopped bleeding, the Russians on the chopper hand made sure of it. Whoever these guys were, they wanted us alive for one reason or another.

Archer and Toad were in the cell across from me and Dash. They took Archer though and a while after they disappeared I could hear screams of pain.

Dash moaned softly in my arms and I looked down, seeing her blue eyes looking back at me. I was glad I was wearing my balaclava, let's leave it at that. She was so beautiful, her auburn hair still loosely tied back with a few strands hanging over her forehead, one over her eye. She gave me a small smile but didn't move, neither did I. I wasn't going to let her go again. I could've stopped it from happening, if only I had been more ready. I should always be ready, but why wasn't I. Then I remembered, Roach, I didn't know what happened to him but I knew he was hurt pretty bad.

I sighed at our current predicament. Then the guards brought Archer back. His shirt was gone, he had a massive cut going from one shoulder to the other, glass sticking in his neck and right shoulder, and whip lashes covered his back. Either he taunted the interrogation officer, or they just straight out tortured the poor bastard.

Toad looked Archer over worriedly, eyeing the still bleeding cut across his chest and his back that was just completely red with blood and torn skin. Toad slid his own shirt off and pressed it against the bleeding cut. Archer taught him well I supposed.

Then someone stepped in front of the cell I was in and faced me and Dash. The shadows hid his face. Then he stepped into the small shaft of light coming from a solitary window and I was scared for a whole other reason than the brutal beating Archer had received.

Ha-ha! Cliffhanger! Just for you, Red! Finally an update huh? And a nice long one, just for WheresDaBeef, how's this for making my chapters longer? Heh, I'm having a little too much fun with this one to be honest… I'll stop tormenting you awesome reviewers and close out!

Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher

~Spitfire out