The mission was a success.
Task Force 141 only had two missiles left to disarm — the one in Austria, and one other.
The rain was pouring hard outside as the vehicles travelled back to Alejandro's base. You rested your head against the window, watching the rain splatter against murky asphalt and the clouds travel slowly against the skyline. You felt achieved, like you were one step closer to getting to Kilgore.
You thought of him for a moment, listening to the soft rumbling of the cars engine as your eyes grew heavy. You remember living in France until you became a tween, and then your parents moved you to Austria for your father's new business job — he was a salesman, and the economy was booming in Austria at the time.
You were so so angry with them. You had a life in France. You were the top of your class in your dance studio, which you had been in since you were able to walk. You lived to perform, exceeding expectations every time you would get on a stage. Your favorite performance was when you were eleven years old. Your ballet instructor put together a winter show of Swan Lake, and you got to perform as Odile.
It was the best night of your life. You truly connected with the character — hence your current code name — and even got scouted to a highly respected studio in Northern France. You were on your way to become the next Prima Ballerina — better than Anna Pavlova or even Vaslav Nijinsky if you continued at the rate you were going.
But you didn't get to live your dream. You begged and begged your parents to let you go to that dance studio, but they wanted to go to fucking Austria instead. It broke your heart as a child and made you despise your parents in adolescence.
When you moved to Austria, you were not put back in ballet. Your parents had been very supportive of your passion until then, when they suddenly concluded that it was a waste of money and time.
You sobbed so many nights because of what they had done to you, countless walls had been punched through, doors slammed off their hinges — you were very expressive with how you felt. You hated your new school. You hated having to learn German. You hated all of it and you hated your parents.
It got to the point where they sent you off to military school.
Military school was an escape. It changed you. When you came back, you weren't the same. You learned how to control your anger, but it never quite went away. You still loved your parents, but you would never forgive them.
When you turned fourteen, you became extremely depressed. You turned to self-harm to drown out the voices in your head telling you that you were nothing — without ballet, you felt like nothing.
And then you met Kilgore.
He was the best friend you never had. He taught you patience and serenity, how to have fun in dark times. He was like the sun to your moon. He made everything colorful and bright and so much better. He drowned out the voices.
You met him in school — it was rather cliché, actually. You bumped into him in the hallway and dropped all of your books, and he helped you pick them up. It was the first time a person had ever been kind to you since you came to Austria.
You started talking to him through online messages and sneaking out to meet up with him in dark, dingy places. You both lived in the city in Vienna, so there were plenty places to hide. During those times, the two of you would smoke weed and play cards. He would meet up with you to get out of his abusive household. His father was a drunk and his mother was a deadbeat, but none of that mattered when he was with you. He was your best friend.
It wasn't long before the first time came when the two of you ran away together. You planned it all out in text messages — Kilgore would steal his dad's car, pick you up, and the both of you get the hell out of Vienna. You had learned to love the city. You loved the culture and you loved the people, because Kilgore made it seem so much better than it felt like it was, but the weight of your past and your depression was too much, and you needed to escape.
It didn't work out the first time. You both ran out of money to live on, so you had to come back home. You recall crying so much during those times. You remember seeing Kilgore at school the next day with bruises and welts all over his body. He lied to you and told you he fell out of a fucking tree. He was always a terrible liar.
You need to find him again. You miss him endlessly.
You snapped out of your trance when you felt the vehicle come to a stop. You observed Alejandro's base from the outside. It was funny, because only a few days ago you were here trying to kill Alejandro Vargas, and now you are on the same team.
Out the window, Graves and his men piled out of the car and surrounded the front of Alejandro's base. You jerked your body up, now alert.
I knew I couldn't trust him. Something's going on.
You kept your hand near the SMG in your belt in case your intuition was right. You and Ghost stepped cautiously out of the car.
"C'est quoi ce bordel?" you murmured, glaring at the American ahead of you.
Alejandro stepped out of the vehicle quickly. "What's this?"
Graves, with his assault rifle in his hand and his gaze dead set on Alejandro, replied, "This is the immediate future. Step away from the gate."
"What?" Soap said in shock.
"You heard me," said Graves.
"You're crazy," Alejandro said in disbelief, gesturing his arms to formulate his next words. "This is my base."
"It's not a base," Graves looked to the side and then back at Alejandro, "this is a sizable convert facility, and I admire it—" his gaze grew dark and slightly guilty, "—so I'm taking it." He nodded at Ghost, Soap, and Alejandro. "You boys and—" he looked to you a little awkwardly "you... have been relieved. Thank you for your service."
You kept your eyes dead set on the man before you, slowly pulling out your SMG. Your hand was hidden behind Ghost's wide body so you were able to do this undetected. Your heart slammed against your ribcage as you felt adrenaline course fervently through your veins.
"No, no, no. I don't take orders from you," Alejandro said in a low voice.
Graves' gaze became more deadly, more serious. "Didn't Valeria say that?" He tilted his head and pointed his finger accusingly at Alejandro. "Now that makes me wonder what else I don't know about your affiliation with a drug lord."
Alejandro laughed humorlessly, his eyes narrowing and his body language growing more hostile with each passing second. "What the fuck did you just say to me, pendejo?"
Soap walked up to put his hand on Alejandro's shoulder, trying to ensure the situation didn't grow violent. "You're out of line, Graves."
Graves backed up, his eyes and pointed finger flicking slowly back and forth between Soap and Alejandro. "Don't do that. Don't... do that. No one needs to get hurt here."
"The only one about to be hurt is you," you spat with venom, French accent strong and piercing.
Ghost looked behind him to you and gave you an unreadable glance. He then set his eyes ahead. "Are you threatening us?"
"Soldier," Graves said, his eyes weary and attached to you for a long minute. He's scared, you mused internally. "I don't made threats. I make guarantees. So let's not do this."
There was a small, heavy silence, the only sound for a moment the pounding of the heavy rain against the road and vehicles parked around you. Alejandro's shoulders were tense, and you couldn't see his expression since you were behind him, but you knew he was furious. Soap was lingering beside Alejandro, on the verge of saying something else.
Just then, Soap turned his back and walked away, saying, "I'm calling Shepherd."
"General Shepherd send his regards. He told me y'all wouldn't take this well."
"He knows about this?" Ghost said.
"He's put me in command of this operation from here on out. So y'all need to stand down—" Ghost and Soap exchanged a look you could not decipher, "—It's time to let the pros finish this. And why the hell are we talking like this is some kind of negotiation. It's not." He points at himself and then Alejandro. "I've got my orders. And now you have yours."
Alejandro was finally releasing his anger. "And who the fuck do you think you are, cabrõn?—" he gestured to the base, "—My men are inside!"
"I'm afraid not," Graves responded. "Your men... have been..." his mouth expressed his thinking for the right word, and when he found it, he clicked his tongue "detained."
You knew things were about to get ugly. You brought out your SMG when all of a sudden, the tension exploded before your eyes as Alejandro drew back his arm to punch Graves. Graves grabbed him and pushed him against the nearest vehicle's surface, the sound of his body hitting the exterior loud and fierce.
"Graves, what the fuck?!" Soap shouted as Graves quickly zip-tied Alejandro's hands together. He then raised his weapon alongside his men behind him, and took the first shot, the gunfire headed straight for Soap. To counter him, Soap grabbed one of Graves' men behind him and used him as a shield.
Ghost elbowed one of Graves' men behind you, knocking him out immediately.
You aimed your SMG, putting your scope right over Graves' head and didn't hesitate to take the shot. Unluckily, he moved out of the way and it only struck his shoulder. He cried out in pain. Merde.
As this was happening, Ghost took out his knife and shoved the guy he elbowed up against the vehicle behind him, stabbing him in the throat and killing him. Just as another one of Graves' men was about to shoot him, he skillfully threw the knife in his direction and got him right in the jugular.
You were mesmerized watching him. You were shameful to admit that it was kinda hot.
You scoffed, raising your weapon again and killing two more of your enemies with no remorse.
Alejandro, a few feet ahead of you, uselessly attempted to strangle one of the enemies from behind, but got knocked out by the end of someone's rifle.
Soap aimed his gun and killed one of Graves' men, still using the other one's body as a shield. Despite this, though, he still managed to get shot and cried out as he fell over on his back.
You and Ghost meanwhile had managed to take cover behind a car. Ghost peaked his head from behind it and hollered to Soap, "Go Johnny! Get out of there!"
You were still behind the vehicle and about to make a run for it. Ghost yelled again, "Soap! Go!"
You could hear nothing but gunfire, unknowing if Soap had got out of there or not. Ghost then turned to you after confirming Soap had ran away, his breath heavy against his mask as he spoke to you in a rush.
"Follow me. We have to get out of here."
Wordlessly, after he instructed you to stay low to the ground and run as fast as possible and as quiet as possible, you both snuck away and ran towards the woods on your way to Las Almas.