You're only bad news

"Christmas, Elena, do you copy? Where are you? Elena, come in. You're 12 minutes off you're mark. Do you have the package secured?"

Ross stated impatiently into the secured frequency. He looked at Yin, to his right, who was equally exasperated as he was. Silence was never a good omen.

Christmas stumbled upon the desolated hangar, a faint trail of blood close behind him. He killed the engine of the motorcycle died as he started assessing his multiple wounds. A few shots graced his ribs but none his any vital organs, not that the poor accuracy of the guards made the shots any less painful.

He stood before the door clenching his fist with anger, until his knuckles turned white. He knocked bitterly against the metal door. Caesar opened the hangar's door and let Christmas in. As The Brit walked in a puzzle look crept on Caesar's face.

"Yo, where's-"

Lee's gaze met with Caesar's. There was a solemn silence between the two men. The Brit's eyes gleamed with regret and frustration. Caesar smile vanished into nothingness as he slammed the door shut. Before Christmas could even mutter a word he plummeted down to the floor, the fall partly stopped by Caesar's quick reflexes. Christmas reincorporated and shook his head.

"Where's Ross?" Christmas barked.

"He's back by the plane going over some maps, you sure you can make it?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." Lee was on his feet just as fast as he had swayed the first time.

Christmas walked over to Ross who was submerged in maps and coordinates with the battered plane behind him. A few feet away and barely out of earshot Yin was cramming down some info in his laptop. Ross looked up at Christmas and nodded, acknowledging his presence.

"You guys back? You look like crap, shouldn't Elena check up on that?" Barney gestured to no place in specific assuming Elena would be somewhere in that broken-down sorry excuse of a hangar. Christmas closed his eyes, like he was taking a stabbed to the gut and was trying to fight back the pain.

"That's the thing. I'm the only one whose back" The Brit looked sternly at Ross.

"What?"

"We were surrounded. I couldn't do a damn thing. I-"

Before The Brit could say another thing, the whole hangar went dark and he was out.

First it was a low buzzing noise that grew higher until it became loud engines banging against Christmas head, threatening to bust open his forehead. He opened his eyes and saw the metal ceiling and the dozen of safety harnesses hanging on top of him.

Lee was still dazed when he started fighting against the IV line down his left arm when Toll Road stopped him.

"Easy tiger, welcome back to Earth." Toll Road smiled as Christmas calmed down.

"Hey, is it true about Elena?" Toll Road couldn't fight the urge to know if what Ross and Yang were talking about was true.

Christmas felt like being stabbed as Toll Road accidentally reminded him that the earlier events were true. This wasn't a nightmare induced by the near exhaustion state he was in. This was real and Elena wasn't going to come out and start giving him condescending looks while she stitched him up. He wasn't entirely sure what was worse.

Toll Road easily read The Brit's non-verbal language and quickly realized the severity of the situation.

"I'll go get Ross, he wanted to talk to you."

Forget that, now Christmas was completely sure what the worst thing was. How was he going to explain what happened?

Toll Road walked past Caesar and into the pilot cabin. Soon enough Ross was walking over to Christmas with a worry and uncertainty sketch all over his face.

"How are you feeling?"

Ross sat down right next to Christmas as he sat up while holding his ribs. Caesar and Toll Road couldn't make up the conversation and Yang was flying the plane.

"Peachy."

"That's good. Now, let's get down to business. Is she-"

Ross couldn't quite get around the idea of Elena not making it back, little alone her being dead.

"No, I saw them taking her. But I'm not sure for how long she'll stay alive. Knowing her, she'll act out and piss off the guards or something." Christmas looked away still pissed at both himself and Elena for being in this position.

He damned the second she walked through Tool's doors down to the exact moment where he felt her fingertips trace his wound. He felt disgusted with himself for falling to such a stupid deception. A cunning trick she created to fool him, just to allow her to toy with him. He let his guard down for a split second and these were the consequences.

"Who else knows?"

"Only Caesar."

"We're gonna have to-"

"You fucking piece of shit. How could you? Do you know what those assholes do to girls like Elena?"

A thunderous voice roared from behind on of the plane's landing gear. Gunnar had heard them.

"I'm well aware of that, you fucking junkie! There was nothing I could do!"

"Or you just didn't care and this was your chance? You hated her guts; you saw a chance and took it! I'll fucking break you." In the blink of an eye the tall Swedish launched forward with his trusted knife glistening.

Before Gunnar could get any closer that a few feet Caesar and Toll Road stopped the blonde's killing intent.

"Gunnar, that's it! She was an expendable just like the rest of us; she was part of the team. Fighting between us won't make her any safer and her rescue any easier."

It sank in. It finally sank in. In every single one of their minds and guts, it finally sank in. No matter how much they were willing to fight and curse, she was gone and out of their reach.

A few minutes later the team had landed in a non-descriptive area barely outside a village a few miles west from the delivery point. Every single one of them stood still, until Ross stood up.

"I'm going back. I can't leave her behind. I'm not asking you to come with me and you are free to turn this one down."

"But that wouldn't be necessary." Yang said with both a mixture of disgust and hurt.

"I have to show you something." He reached to his laptop and after hitting on a few keys he turned the screen to the rest of the team.

"After we delivered the package I roamed through my contacts and found a live link to a recognizance satellite feed. These are the coordinates for the fortress Elena was taken."

Yang continued.

"The compound had been bombed by the local government under the impression it was a terrorist base, but the thing is, the government doesn't have this grade of weaponry. This was done by someone else."

A dreadful silence

"This is bullshit. She couldn't have..." Hale said looking out the windows his words trailing off.

"I'm sure she could've found a way to escape. The watermark on the video said it was 20 minutes after Lee reached base. It's not impossible." Yang started going through all the possible scenarios Elena could've come through.

"She was tough. I'm sure she's back at camp asking where the fuck we're at." Gunnar added just as if he was out of himself, still in a state of disbelief. He ran his hands through his blonde hair

"Sure she is, Gunnar, if she was fucking Houdini! She's dead and all because she wouldn't follow orders! Fuck her, why couldn't she just- Fuck!" The Brit's words were filled with regret and frustration that he took it out against the metal door in front of him. He was supposed to cover for her and she was now gone because he was too careless.

Everyone looked away because they too saw themselves. Was there anything they could've done differently? They were all used to this kind of scenarios, especially in their line of work, and they swore they were always ready for this kind of thing.