Rainbow Six: Undercover

Act II

Chapter 22

All Things Must Come to an End

"Six, what do you mean Ela and Dominic disappeared?" Mike asked.

"They're gone. Deserted us when we stopped. I had a feeling we shouldn't have told Ela about Vanguard."

"It's typical Ela behavior Six. I'm actually surprised Dominic joined her. My squad is about to land in Poland, so we should be able to catch up with her."

"We'll try and drive to Poland as fast as we can but there's no way we'll make it in time."

"Do not go to Poland. Take orange team and get to Paris as fast as you can. Meeting Chavez is the priority. Leave Vanguard to us. We have a score to settle with him."

"Copy that Mike. Good hunting."

"Safe travels to you. We'll be in contact."

…

Ela and Bandit trudged through the foot of snow-covered landscape of rural Poland. Ela wrapped Meghan's shemagh around her head and neck to protect her from the cold wind and snow whipping past their faces.

"Zo's house should be at the top of this hill." Ela said crouching behind some trees.

"Sneakers were definitely not the best of choice of foot wear for the snow." Dominic muffled between breaths through his balaclava.

"Spare me Dominic. You think you got it bad? These tight pants have no thermal barrier. I can't feel the lower half of my body and these fingerless gloves aren't helping either." Ela joked as she rubbed her hands together trying to warm them.

Dominic chuckled.

Ela smile faded suddenly.

"Hey, do you hear that?" She said raising her Scorpion.

Dominic crouched next to Ela raising his MP7.

"What do you hear?"

"Someone's behind us."

The two operators waited patiently in the forest for a target to appear.

"Blue on blue, don't shoot." A voice called out to them.

Dominic and Ela looked at each other confused and lowered their weapons.

The person came out from behind the tree. Ela's eyes turned wide.

"No… it can't be…." Ela said dropping her Scorpion in the snow and ran toward the figure with arms wide open.

Meghan caught Ela in her arms and held her tight.

Dominic approached Meghan and Ela absolutely stunned.

"Meghan? Is that you? I'm so confused right now. What's going on?"

Ela and Meghan separated and turned their attention to Dominic who looked absolutely dumbfounded.

"Hey Dom." Meghan said with a glowing smiling.

Dominic dropped his MP7 in the snow. He walked over to Meghan with arms wide open and they embrace holding each other tight.

"I'm so sorry for what happened…" Dominic muttered in her shoulder.

"You don't have to apologize. It was never your fault." Meghan said cutting him off.

The operators separated. They all stood happy to see each other. The operators collected their weapons and crouched behind a fallen tree.

Meghan peaked over the tree toward the house at the top of the hill.

"So, is that where he's hiding?" Meghan asked.

"Yes, and he has my niece too." Ela said to her.

"We'll get her back Ela. Don't worry." Dominic said reassuring her.

The operators moved through the forest toward the house for another 5 minutes. Snow fell softly through the forest canopy turning the trees a mixed color of white and brown. The wind howled between the trees whipping up the dusty snow. The air smelt of fresh pine. A woodpecker could be heard pecking at a tree in the distance. A lone crow called to its companions from above. The snow crunched beneath their shoes as they silently navigated through the woods.

Breaking the horizon in front of them stood a modest looking colonial home. It looked dark inside the house. There were no cars in the drive way. Everything appeared normal.

Ela stared at her sister's house from her position behind the tree line. All she could hear were the sounds of mother nature around her and her chattering teeth. The house appeared to be vacant. Ela rubbed her hands together trying to keep them warm.

"I don't like this." Ela whispered.

"Yeah same here." Bandit whispered back.

"I still think we should check it out. Maybe they're hiding."

"Okay but do it quietly."

Ela, Meghan, and Dominic lifted their weapons as they approached the side of the house. They met no contact as they walked around the front yard.

They walked up the front porch of the house. Dominic stacked up on the door. Ela and Meghan stood in front of it hesitant to go inside.

"You good?" Dominic whispered.

"Yeah." Ela said staring at the front door.

There was a moment of silence between the operators.

"Dominic."

"What's up?"

"Go back down the hill. Find us transportation for extraction. Meghan and I need to do this part alone."

"Wait what?! No. I'm going with you." Dominic protested.

"This is our fight Dominic." Ela said trying to reason with him.

"This is every bit of my fight as it yours."

"Vanguard made this fight personal between the two of us. Let me have this moment. Please."

Dominic sat in silence.

Meghan gently put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not losing you again." Bandit said to Meghan.

Meghan smiled.

"You worry too much Dominic."

Dominic took a step back from the door. Those words sounded familiar to him. It reminded him of Taina.

"Okay." He said and walked off the porch. He walked down middle of the road back the way they had come.

Once Dominic was out of sight Ela unclipped her magazine from her Scorpion ensuring it was full. She checked her mags on her two side arms and primed her grenades in case she needed to let them fly.

Ela looked at her friend.

"You ready?"

"Let's do this."

Ela put her hand on the cold brass door knob and twisted it.

It was unlocked.

She pushed the door open. It creaked as she opened it. Ela casually stepped inside of the house with Meghan following behind her. Cold wind rushed through the open the door. She closed the door behind her and stood still listening to her surroundings. Ela still remembered the layout of the house from the few times she's visited.

It was cold and dark inside of the house. The foyer she stood in was wide open. There was a den area to her right. Stairs leading to the second floor on her left with the hallway to the second floor overlooking the foyer she stood in. There was a hallway in front of her leading to the kitchen. The walls were covered in family photos of Zo, Zo's husband, Zo's daughter and Ela which surprised her.

"I'll check the kitchen. You check upstairs." Meghan said as she walked down the hallway.

Ela walked toward the stairs. The old wooden floorboards creaked and groaned beneath her. She made her way up the stairs slowly. At the end of the stairs if she went left she'd go to Zofia's room. If she went right she'd go to her niece's room.

She went right.

She put her hand on the door knob to her niece's room and opened the door.

She stepped inside to see Vanguard sitting in the chair Zo used to tell her daughter bed time stories holding Ela's niece by her short brown hair and pointing his pistol to side of her head. Her niece's face was cherry red and her eyes full of tears. Zofia's husband laid on the floor before him bloodied and bruced with duct tape over his face tied up.

"Ela. You found me." Vanguard said with a smile.

Ela looked at her niece. She looked okay. Just really scared.

"Not just me. I have an old friend who wants to talk to you." Ela said motioning to the door.

Meghan stepped in the room staring angrily at Vanguard.

Vanguard's face turned as white as the snow outside.

"Valkyrie? This is impossible…" He stuttered.

"Hello Vanguard." Meghan said with an evil grin.

Vanguard was speechless.

"What's the matter? You look like somebody just walked over your grave."

"I killed you. This doesn't make any sense. Are you here to haunt me?" He said nervously glancing at the two girls before him.

"I suggest you put the girl down. This is just between the three of us." Meghan demanded.

"You're gonna be okay sweetie. Starsza siostra is here." Ela said to her niece trying to comfort her.

Vanguard laughed to himself. Meghan and Ela exchanged confused looks with each other.

"We'll see about that. Get em' boys." Vanguard commanded.

Meghan noticed movement from one of the bedroom windows.

"ELA!" Meghan yelled and yanked her out of the room. A White Mask fired through window at the two fleeing operators tearing up Ela's niece's walls. Ela's niece screamed as the sound of machineguns firing began to escalate turning the entire house into a warzone.

The operators heard glass shattering as White Masks entered the house through the windows. Meghan and Ela ran down the hallway dodging stray bullets and dove into the Zofia's bedroom. They closed the door behind them. Ela and Meghan took cover behind a dresser.

"They must've been on the roof waiting for us!" Ela said.

"You got a plan?"

Ela unclipped a Grzmot mine from her thigh holster and threw it toward a big window behind them in the master bedroom. It exploded, and they watched a White Mask fall off the roof to his death.

"We shoot our way out." Ela said.

Ela leaned out the master bed room door frame to the hallway and unloaded her Scorpion at the advancing terrorist knocking two down.

"SWAPPING MAGS!" She yelled as she reloaded.

They heard glass break from the bathroom off to their left. Ela peaked into the bathroom and fired a burst with her Scorpion into through the window hitting a White Mask center mass. His body hung limp from the ropes.

An explosion from below sent Ela and Meghan flying backward.

Ela looked around disoriented. The room was beginning to get hazy from the gun fire and explosions obstructing their vision.

"On your feet Ela! They're blowing out the floorboards from below!" Meghan yelled helping her up.

There was another explosion nearby that sent pieces of the floor boards flying upward showering the operators in splinters.

Ela looked between the floorboard of one of holes and saw three white masks getting ready to throw another set of explosives. She fired through the floorboards killing one. The White Masks watched their teammate crumple to the ground and ran to a new position.

"Ela, pushing the hallway."

Ela reposition back to the doorway of the bedroom and emptied her magazine on three terrorists pushing their position.
"Changing mags!" She said as she reloaded. The barrel on her Scorpion was starting glow red from the shooting.

After what seemed like hours of gunning down one White Mask after another which tore Zofia's house to ribbons, the fighting finally seized as bodies of dead White Masks littered the yard and the inside of the house. Only one Op For was left standing.

"Give it up Vanguard! I know you're still hiding in there!" Valkyrie called from across the house.

They heard footsteps followed by a little girl's scream.

"HE'S GETTING AWAY!" Ela yelled running from the safety of the master bedroom.

Vanguard ran frantically down the stairs with Ela's niece. Ela chased him down the stairs into the living room and out the front door to the snowy landscape.

In a last ditch he turned around to fire his pistol at Ela, but Ela had already caught up to him and swung her SMG for his head. The butt of her gun hit Vanguard in the side of the temple sending him to the frozen Earth below him. His pistol fell out of his hand and the fall pushed Ela's niece away from him.
Vanguard tried to crawl away but felt Ela's boot on his boot.

Ela stood over him pointing her side arm at his head.

Vanguard felt blood trickle down the side of his head. Ela stood over him staring at him silently. All he could hear was the sounds of their breathing and the wind blowing through the forest. The light snow fall peppered his face.

He heard footsteps crunching through the snow toward him.

Meghan came into his view. The two operators he had worked with in Iraq, only to betray them in the end. He knew this day would come. The day when his demons would finally catch up to him.

Meghan stood next to Ela and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You did it Ela. You got him." She said smiling.

Ela closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

All of the running. All of the killing and the violence. The hardships their team had faced. It was finally about to end.

Ela opened her eyes staring at her wounded arch enemy before her ripe for the taking.

"I've waited months for this moment." Ela said.

"Just do it already. But understand that killing me won't change anything." Vanguard sneered.

To Vanguard's surprise, Ela holstered her pistol.

He stupidly thought she was going to let him live when he watched her pull out Meghan's Desert Eagle.

She released the magazine and made sure there was still ammo even though she hadn't used it. She was saving it for this moment.

Ela looked at Meghan.

Meghan's blonde hair wavered in the wind as she stared down at the man who betrayed her with eyes full of anger. She was ready to watch Vanguard die.

Ela turned to her niece who stood watching her aunt about to take someone's life.

"Please look away sweetheart." Ela said to her.

Her niece slowly turned around and covered her ears.

Ela turned back to Vanguard and met his eyes one last time. He looked full of absolute fear and surprise. As if he truly thought he could get away with what he did to them.

Vanguard watched Ela raise the Desert Eagle aiming for his forehead. Meghan's image began to merge with Ela's body as Meghan mimicked Ela's movement, despite nothing being in her hand.

Ela pulled back the hammer on the pistol and squeezed the trigger.

The pistol recoiled evenly in Ela's hand. The 50 caliber round impacted Vanguard's forehead spraying blood onto Ela. Vanguard eyes rolled to the back of his head as he laid with a crater in his forehead. Ela fired again.

And again.

And again.

Meghan's image separated from Ela's body.

"Ela…" Meghan put a hand on her arm.

Ela stopped firing into Vanguard's corpse.

A tear trickled down Ela's face. She turned to Meghan embarrassed that she was crying again.

Meghan looked different. The outline of her figure now sparkled gold. Her appearance looked renewed. She was no longer looked tired and hurt. She looked young, beautiful, and rejuvenated.

Meghan placed her hands on Ela's shoulders. She wiped a tear from Ela's cheek.

"Hey, look at me."

Ela lifted her head and looked at her friend's face. Her image was beginning to blow away with the wind and snow.

"Before I go, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for everything you've sacrificed for me now and when I was still alive. I know your life has been rough but I'm so proud of you Ela. You've achieved so much despite everything you've been through. And just because I'm not physically with you doesn't mean I don't have your back. You carry me with you now. I may be dead, but my memory lives within you. Do me a favor and keep it alive. It's one of the few things I still have left in this world."

Ela sniffled and wiped more tears from her eyes.

"I promise. You'll never be forgotten. Goodbye Meghan."

And with those final words Meghan's figure blew away with the snow and wind. Ela stood alone in the front yard of Zofia's house with her niece who was staring at her confused.

Ela sank to her knees still in tears. Her niece approached her wrapping her arms around her.

"Siostra? Who were you talking to? There was no one here but you and I?"

Ela smiled at her niece blinking back her tears.

"Just a friend." Ela said embracing her niece.

They heard a car rumble up the dirt road.

Ela watched Dominic pull up in an SUV. He parked in front of the house and jogged over to Ela.

"Ela! You did it! You got him!" He said standing over Vanguard's dead body.

"Yeah… we got him."

Dominic squatted down to Ela's niece and gently shook her hand.

"I'm Dominic. I'm your aunt's coworker."

"And pain in the ass." Ela added.

Dominic gave her a dirty look.

"Dominic, help me get her father. He's upstairs. He looked hurt."

"Okay. Let's get her in the car first so she doesn't freeze to death."

Ela picked up her niece and loaded her in the car.

"I'll be right back kiddo." She said ruffling her hair.

Dominic and Ela walked upstairs and retrieved Zofia's husband. He wasn't hurt bad. Just a few bumps and bruises. They carried him to the car and loaded him in.

"Blue team is 2 minutes out and apparently they brought new reinforcements with them." Dominic said getting ready jump in the driver seat.

Ela felt light on her feet. Like heavy weight had finally been lifted off of her shoulders. Things were finally starting to look up for them. She was eager to regroup with her teammates and plan their next move.

Ela's niece pointed out the window of the car with a big grin.

"Mommy's here! Mommy's here!" She yelled excitedly.

"Wait what?" Ela and Dominic exchanged confused looks and turned around quickly to see two figures behind them.

There was a gunshot that followed.

Ela felt a sharp burning pain in her chest. All of the air left her body as she crumpled to the ground. A pool of blood began to envelop her against the white snow beneath her. She couldn't breathe. She could feel herself choking on her own bodily fluids.

"NOOOOO!" She heard Dominic scream and pull out his MP7. A round landed in his forehead before he could fire off any rounds. He fell into the snow and laid motionless.

Ela turned her head and stared at the grey sky above her. She could hear her niece screaming from the inside of the car.

Ela's older sister came into view. She stood over Ela blocking her view of the sky. She had a crazed look on her face as if she was a different person. A man in a military uniform came into view.

He squatted next to her.

"You fool. I needed Vanguard alive for information and you killed him. Now this investigation is fucked thanks to you."

He looked up at the SUV containing her screaming niece.

"Zo, take care of the girl would you please."

Zofia turned her attention to the SUV and walked over to it leaving Ela's field of vision.

Ela stared at the man. She could feel blood dripping out her mouth and nose. She smelt pennies.

"I guess this is the end of your sister rivalry. From the looks of it, Zo was truly the better sister in the end." The man said standing up and leaving Ela's field of view.

Another car engine roared to the front of house. There was shouting followed by more screaming.

Ela couldn't see anything, but the commotion sounded bad.

A black woman with a large full body shield came into view chasing a back pedaling Zofia. The shield reminded Ela of Gille's shield. An electrical arch came from the shield shocking Zo sending her to her knees screaming in pain. The woman approached Zo and pistol whipped her in the head knocking her out.

A man, who appeared to be wearing Afghan like clothing, was handcuffing the man who had mocked her earlier. The man being handcuffed screamed obscenities at them. When Zo and the uniformed man were subdued, the woman with the shield rushed over to Ela squatting over her. She pressed her hands on Ela's wound which made her scream in pain. The woman with the shield began waving frantically for help. The man in the afghan clothing crouched across from the shield woman staring at her.

Ela's vision began to fade away to whiteness. She felt a sensation as if she were falling.

Before she descended into total whiteness she watched Mike Baker shove the afghan dressed man out of the way screaming her name.

Mike's voice began to morph into a female's voice.

It sounded like Meghan's voice calling her name.

And she sounded extremely scared.

Author's note:

Sorry this chapter took so long to publish. School has been a nightmare so far so its been hard for me to find time to write. Next chapter should be the last chapter for this act or the entire story. I'm not sure yet what I want to do. See you in the next chapter! A lot of people have sent me questions about where I get my ideas from for the story. I'm going to answer all of them in the final chapter.