Chapter 62 – Ladies and Gentlemen, We Got 'Em

[Main POV]

"YES!"

An overwhelming surge of joy and relief as her answer echoed in my mind. The weight of anticipation that had been pressing on my shoulders suddenly lifted.

I felt as if the Earth fell away from me, ascending me to the heavens.

The diamond on Artemis's finger sparkled in the sunlight. We embraced tightly, lost in our happiness, acting as if we were in Apollonia, not Afghanistan.

"Uh, honey?" I interrupted Artemis. She was already talking about the wedding, the honeymoon, our future kids, and everything else she anticipated for us. "That's great and all, but I still have a mission to complete."

Artemis awkwardly chuckled and brushed her hair back. "I remembered," she said, clearly lying. "And I'm ready to go when you are!"

"What?" I questioned. "What do you mean? You're going back to Apollonia."

Artemis's eyes flashed. "You promised Apollo! You promised that we'd always be together!"

"I said I'll bring you next time!" I countered.

We were at an impasse.

"Listen Artemis," I said after a pause. "On that day, a mortal challenged me. My city. My tower. My orphanage. My girlfriend. I need to be the one that wrings the life from his neck."

"He attacked me too Apollo," Artemis remarked solemnly. "And we're only in this situation, because I spared him the first time I was here."

There was another pause as I contemplated what she had just said.

"And besides," Artemis added, "we're married now, your problems are my problems."

I appreciated her statement. While I wanted to point out that we were engaged, not married, I understood the sentiment.

"Alright, let's do this."

.

After sharing a hug, Artemis made me a ring (at her insistence).

A silver band lined with golden text. On the inside of the ring was the inscription: November 11th, 1986. The date of our anniversary.

Now I had no excuse for forgetting. Great.

Afterwards, we had a blast. So did the Taliban. Although the blast they had wasn't the good type.

We got into a routine:

Step 1: Storm a base

Step 2: Kill all the low ranking fodder

Step 3: Interrogate or Professor X the high ranking officers for information

Step 4: Use the information from step 3 to repeat the process

Taliban strongholds fell one after another. After destroying all the bases around Kabul, we continued east to Jalalabad.

Finally, we found ourselves at the final base in the Nuristan Forest National Reserve, north of Jalalabad. Since there were no trees for cover, Artemis and I spied on the entrance from a particularly large crater.

"If our intel is correct, bin Laden will be here," Artemis noted.

"The last one," I reminisced. "So, how're we going to take this one down?"

"Oh! Let's do 'get help!'" Artemis eagerly suggested.

I raised an eyebrow. All I got was puppy dog eyes. Gods damn it.

"Fine," I consented, "but only because this is the last one. Never again, got it?"

Artemis nodded enthusiastically before putting on a hijab. I too started covering my blonde hair with black cloth.

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[3rd POV]

Zahir was on edge. Everyone was. From their mountain base, they could see smoke coming from a nearby outpost.

Something had happened, and nobody thought it was good.

"Help! Help me please!"

Zahir and his squad heard a woman's voice, something they had not heard in a long time. From around the corner of the cliff, a woman in traditional Islamic clothing emerged. She was dragging a man, hunched over and unconscious.

Looking closely, Zahir recognized the man. His clothing resembled that of the scout they had sent to check out the smoke.

Where the woman had come from, he didn't know. All women were assumed to have died during the countrywide missile bombardment. Maybe the outpost had been secretly housing woman?

Despite not seeing a woman for a long time, none of the men went towards her. But at the same time, nobody shot at the unknown party. They all simply waited.

When the woman was within rifle distance, she took a couple of steps forwards while dragging the man behind her.

In the intense heat, Zahir blinked. When he opened his eyes, he saw a flaming meteor headed straight for his squad.

"Fu–"

.

One short time skip later

[Main POV]

"Why do I always have to be thrown?" I asked Artemis while dusting myself.

"You're the one who can become a fireball," Artemis pointed out, "and you don't want to throw your wife at the enemy, do you?"

I sighed. Not even married yet and I was whipped.

Although she did have a point. Fireballs always did more damage than the lunar energy that Artemis used. The explosions and corpses around me were a testament to that.

Grabbing the metal door, Artemis ripped it off its hinges. I blasted fire into the opening, stopping when I realized something.

There was nothing. Not a single rifle or a bullet casing. And not a single human being in sight.

Well, fuck.

"Hold on," Artemis interrupted my thoughts. "I remember this place."

Looking around, she waved her hands across the horizon. "I can't believe I didn't recognize this place," Artemis muttered, "There used to be trees here…"

"Well, not anymore," I muttered. "The bombardment took care of that."

Artemis continued to inspect our surroundings. Maybe she was sad that I killed all the trees?

"We need to hurry!" she exclaimed before running down one of the many tunnels. She appeared to know where to go.

Following her, we rushed down many paths. Taking in my surroundings, I noticed the place was as clean as a whistle. No weapons lying around or papers on any tables. Everything but the furniture was gone.

After taking a right, two lefts, then another right, I heard a deep thumping noise. It was soft at first but got louder as we continued running.

"Shit!" recognizing the sound of the helicopter, I raced ahead, letting the sound guide my path.

The two of us reached a long hallway with sunlight beaming from an opening on the right. As Artemis ran for the exit, I halted, receiving a vision. I saw Artemis reach the open doorway, only to be impacted by an antitank missile.

"Stop!" I shouted, rushing for Artemis. Turning back towards me, she found herself pausing at the exact wrong moment. The sunlight beamed on her, emphasizing her beauty and curiosity. As I continued to run I saw Artemis's eye turn to the side, widening as she realized what was about to happen.

Knowing what was coming, I increased my speed, as fast as I could move. Football tackling her, we continued down the long hallway, just barely escaping the blast of the missile.

Raising my body off of her, I looked down. "You okay?" I asked.

Artemis nodded and gave me a kiss of thanks. "They have missiles aimed at the entrance."

"Not a problem," I dismissed. Communicating through pointing and hand signals, she understood my plan.

Powering up my fist, I punched through the wall, exposing us to the outside. The missiles that the Taliban had were of high quality and required large launchers to operate. They took minutes to set up and aim.

So, by busting though a wall, we weren't in the line of sight.

Taking advantage of our surprising entrance, Artemis and I started the slaughter.

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[3rd POV]

"Hurry! It's her! Baba Yaga and the Great Shaytan! We need to get out of here before they kill us all."

Osama bin Laden was yelling at his aide, who was currently dragging a trunk. Inside was a wide assortment of important things. Everything from outdated papers documenting strategic locations, artifacts that dated back to the Greco-Bactrian Empire, and a cool pistol he nicked off a dead Soviet officer.

As the man dragging the trunk was about to respond, he felt an arrow fly past him. Looking at its destination, he saw the pilot of the chopper with an arrow through his neck.

"Allahu Akbar," the pilot muttered before collapsing.

Osama bin Laden panicked. He didn't know how to fly a helicopter. But he didn't have much time to panic.

The Great Shaytan bodychecked bin Laden's aide, spilling the trunk's contents across the floor. Grabbing the trunk, he then proceeded to stuff bin Laden in it before locking it shut.

The aide's hand fell to his pocket. The key to the trunk was gone.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," the blonde devil said.

The redheaded one had finished killing the last Taliban soldier. Her eyes were on bin Laden's aide.

As she raised a gun at him, the aide dropped to the ground, begging her, him, his god, anyone to come and save him.

Artemis looked at him with pity, but one could notice a hard look in her eyes.

"Never again," she whispered.

Bang!

The aide was dead.