"Remember, Ryuka-chan, combat does not mean using only your body and your guns to take down another opponent," her father's voice rang in her head. "It means using whatever you have as an advantage against your enemies. Our style recognizes not only power, accuracy and efficiency, we kill with a single stroke, but if you unable to act quicker, think faster and attack in a manner that would not surprise the enemy, your skills will be useless."

Her father's words ran through Ryuka's head as she leapt from tree to tree, right towards the makeshift base beside an old cemetery dating from at least the Meiji era. It was where their closest ancestors, and the founders of the American-Japanese Algren line had been laid to rest… Her near-acrobatic skills, they were not developed by her training in the military. Those skills, had been shaped by her family, her mother and father, using methods as traditional as possible, and it was those skills that she knew that she would have to utilize to get her teammates out.

There were high fences, filled with barbed electric wire, but from the trees, they were not an obstacle to her. From the branch of an ancient pine tree, she leaped down to a rather empty part of the enemy base without a single sound, and unsheathed her katana as silently as she could. Without any suppressed weapons, her katana would have to do, no matter how much Soap would disapprove. Besides, she herself had admitted that she was more proficient with her katana than any single sniper rifle she had, despite being one of the Task Force 141's best snipers besides Archer.

Like a shadow, she crept from tent to tent, searching for where Soap, Ghost, Roach and Meat would be held. With two of them down, there would be a high probability that they would have the others as well… Two of the guards had already spotted her, a dark figure in the night, apart from her head of blazing red hair. "Halt… who goes there?" one of them asked, but was met with a stroke of her katana across his neck, the fate of his counterpart similar to his, their blood splattered against the surfaces of the tent within seconds.

"Where are you?" she asked them under her breath as she flitted from tent to tent, evading as many moving shadows as possible. If she had time, she would have waited to sense their Ki, but due to the sheer amount of enemy soldiers, she could not take that risk, she had to keep moving.

"General, we have bad news," the soldier said to the General. "We have reports that the bunker has been destroyed… Squad A has also been annihilated."

As much as he tried to control his own anger, the General could not help but to smash the glass of wine off his table. "What?" he asked, "How can that be? I sent 200 soldiers there; can they not just kill off 40 women?"

The Ultranationalist, however, did not believe things were so simple. "They must have their own allies, think, my friend, the Daughters of the Dragon are linked not only to the Algrens in the US," he said calmly, looking at the report that the soldier had handed to the General, reading the Chinese words carefully. "It seems to me that they already know that we are there…"

"But how?" the General asked. "No one knows about this operation other than you and me."

"I would not bet my money on those words," the Ultranationalist answered. "Four years ago, in the Middle East, the American army was actually informed that we had a nuclear bomb, dramatically cutting their losses, even though they lost thirty thousand Marines…"

He remembered that day well. Although the operation had been a success, the Americans managed to escape before the greatest damage had been done… As the post-mortem report had been done, his forces had told him that two soldiers, women at that, had killed the man responsible to operate the nuclear weapon just seconds after he had programmed its launch… And he knew, at least one of them had been hot on his trail ever since then.

Looking back, as he watched his jailors changing their shifts, he remembered that hot day in the desert when he heard those voices speaking in Japanese to one another through the recording played by a hidden surveillance camera, the same voice which he had heard again in Pyongyang…

He had traced the young women who had managed to foil their operations in the Middle East to the Daughters of the Dragon, and in that winter's night in Pyongyang, he had finally met her, the youngest daughter of that austere line, their crown jewel. His hunger for her, would never end, until the day they met again…

Try as she might, the two of them, they were bound by fate… If only she had known that earlier…

"You mean to tell me, that the ones that had helped the Americans then, are helping the Daughters of the Dragon now?" the General asked his friend again. And this time, the Russian nodded his head.

"Not only that," the Ultranationalist added. "They have the backing of the American armies. Look at your report, from the four combatants that they had captured, most of their weapons are American-made."

There was nothing more to be said. From there, the General knew what to do. "You there, tell our men to make sure that the hostages do not escape, or they will pay with their lives…"

"Oh, and make sure that your men leave them alive," the Ultranationalist said. "We would need them for some… questioning."

Ryuka could not count how many soldiers that she had killed since she entered that base, but she knew that the sun would be rising soon, and not only that, she was running out of time. Every second wasted, would be every second less that her teammates had.

Once again, her way forwards was blocked by a sudden chorus of voices, in Chinese, of course. "The General wants them alive and unspoiled…"

Bingo!

She waited there in the shadows, until the group of soldiers had dispersed, leaving only one to guard the entrance of the tent. There, she sensed them, Meat, Ghost, Soap and Roach, their Ki, more clearer to her than ever before. Using her throw-dagger, she lodged the weapon right into the man's chest, and quickly entered the tent.

"Reddie!"

She did not know who shouted her name, but boy-was she glad to hear it. "Do not worry boys, Reddie is here for the rescue," she told them, cutting the ropes that bound them together, quickly kissing Soap while she cut Meat and him free. Once all of them were able to move, she threw them some weapons that she had picked up along the way, and wiped her katana against the tent's surface to clean it as best she could.

"Where to now?" Soap asked her, hardly surprised when she told him that she was not sure herself. "Don't tell me you just bolted right here when Roach commed you!"

"Hey, it was the only thing that I could come out with, Captain," she replied, already anticipating his reaction. "Alright, I had a plan. I get you out, and we burn this whole thing down…" From the very moment that she had joined the mission with her grandmother's green light, she had been briefed by the squad that they would have air support from the Japanese Special Forces Group. She did not know how those "upstairs" would want to make this fiasco look like, but she was sure that it would be an international spectacle indeed.

Soap knew that he had no way around Ryuka's special train of logic. "Alright, you heard Reddie. Open fire and get the hell out of here!"

"Bravo Six," said the Japanese Special Forces fighter in thickly accented English. "We are ready for our attack run; please evacuate all personnel to waterfall." The similar instruction was also repeated to Grandmother Ryu, who was standing with her family upon the cliff right beside the waterfall.

"Copy that," Soap replied. "Bring the rain, boys!"

Grandmother Ryu watched as the Japanese fighter pilots neutralized the Chinese base, located right in the heart of the lands of her ancestors. Countless Daughters of Dragons had been born and trained in those sacred plains, in that sacred mountain, and now, she had to suffer the partial destruction of all that laid before her own eyes…

"What have we done to deserve such a fate?" she asked her daughter. "How have we wronged the world?"

Mrs. Algren put a hand to her mother's shoulders and said, "Oka-sama, this fate is not ours to begin with. Do not blame yourself…"

And while this entire incident brought pain to Grandmother Ryu's heart, it only increased the resolve of a certain young Dragon, whose shoulders were encircled by the strong arm of her Captain as they watched the flames, far enough for them to be hidden amongst the trees, yet as close to her family and teammates as possible.

This place, this whole mountain, it carried not only the memory of the women that made their linage so honored and so revered in Japan, but also every single hardship that they had suffered. The daughters of Japan, carrying the names "Ryu" or "Tatsu", both meaning "Dragon", were still women, even if they were free to roam in the world of men. These women were given the chance to take charge of their own destinies, and because of this, they themselves, would have to pay the price of their freedom.

Fallen lovers, estranged brothers in arms, discarded loyalties, and betrayed hearts, these were all commonplace for the Daughters of the Dragon, but they took it in without complaint, knowing that with whatever challenge they face, the lands of their mothers would protect them, they would bring them comfort. For a thousand years this mountain stood in relative peace, now, it was all alight with the red light of fire…

"They will pay for this," Ryuka told Soap, but herself, for the most part. "I will make sure that the Ultranationalists will pay for all of this…" The Task Force 141 was formed to take down the Ultranationalist regime, and Ryuka promised herself, and her ancestors, that she would use every single opportunity she had to ensure that they carried out their primary function, as one of its lieutenants. She will make sure that she will hunt down the Shadow of Zakhaev, whom she was so sure was now the head of the Ultranationalists beneath the surface, and she will make sure that she brought him to light.

"Reddie…" Soap coaxed, knowing full-well that nothing he said would ever change her mind. Those dark eyes of onyx, they held only determination, only the will to carry out what she had decided to do. He knew how hard it must be for her, to personally witness the destruction of a place so sacred to her.

He only held her closer to him, taking her hand in his, reassuring her, that with every step that she would take, he would take it with her. Only time would tell, whether or not the world would still be the same, whether or not she would be able to take her vengeance then, and until then, he would be with her, as he was now. He loved her, he loved her so much that he would be willing to stake his life for her, and he knew that she would do just the same.

"Hey, MacTavish," she murmured softly, her voice slightly shaken, but a smile, was evident upon her beautiful face.

"What is it?" Soap asked, bringing his finger beneath her chin, gently lifting her dark gaze to meet his cold, blue eyes that beheld only her beauty against the flames that burned the forest at the time when it was only darkest before the dawn.

"Thanks for being here with me," Ryuka answered, embracing him. "Besides whatever that's happened tonight… It's turning out to be a rather… interesting family reunion." Soap broke into a smile, and pressed his lips against hers, bringing her into a kiss that he was sure that she would remember, for many, many more family reunions of hers to come.

And the world would watch, it would watch for the very moment when one young woman's hatred would turn into duty, and that duty, would be changed into something that no one could ever expect...

In that very moment, the Red Dragon would find what she had tried so hard to find, only to receive the greatest gift and the heaviest curse, a double edged sword, that she would carry with the love and the duty that she would her own katana.