Going Home

To say Lena was frustrated was an understatement. She was held up by the captured Red Spades, unbelievable. All because they had learned about her relation to Emil.

"Are you guys serious, do you really think I work for him?" She angrily asked.

"Obviously, how else do you managed to get out here on your own? Do you seriously think we will believe your bullshit explanation?" One of the spades countered. She swore internally. They weren't wrong.

"C'mon guys.....if you can't trust her, trust me. And I say she can be trusted." She heard Daniel weakly trying to convince her captors.

"Yeah right, as if we are following some suggestions from a freshie."

Lena frantically tried to think of something to get her and Daniel out of this situation, when she heard a muffled explosion, and the ground shaking after that, causing her to almost tripped but she rebalanced herself quickly. "Look, why don't we all work together to get out of here first, then we can settle this later?" She quickly suggested.

She didn't hear any response, hoping it's because the Spades are looking at each other, considering her suggestion for a temporal truce.

One of the Spades finally answered, "Fine, but you two will be walking on the front"

'So we can get shot first, how nice' She thought, not liking that but she reluctantly nodded. "Deal"

She slowly turned around, just to see that the Spades were still pointing their guns at her. She stood her ground and stared at them. And not before long, they lowered their guns. She carefully walked over the dead guards and then passed the Spades before approaching Daniel. "Are you ok?" She softly asked as she put herself under him as support to stand up.

"Head's spinning, and my ribs are probably broken. Yep, definitely ok." Daniel sarcastically said as he gave her a grin. She sighed quietly, giving a soft smile, knowing that he's trying his best to lighten the situation.

"Can you walk?" She asked as both of them stood up together.

She sees him trying to hold his pain, "I think" She shook her head, and put his arm over her, supporting him with her weight, to which Daniel didn't protest.

"If you guys are done, can we start going?" One of the Spades suddenly speak, to which Lena turn to said Spade and gave a quick glare.

Both of them started walking out from the cell but was then suddenly stopped by the Spades, Lena started to be anxious. Did they change their mind?

One of the Spades hands out a gun, a revolver. She figured the pistol was owned by one the dead guards she helped killed earlier.

"Use it to defend yourself"

'Sure, take my rifle and leave us with a tiny pistol. Real helpful.' She thought to herself. Still pissed that the rifle she stole was now under the Spades hands. She reluctantly took it and handed it to her husband. Wasn't a good shot, no point using it herself.

"So what's our plan here?" She asked the Spades, she had to as she didn't plan ahead once she had found Daniel, which she felt embarrassed about that since she was the one in the gang to plan ahead.

"I don't know, I thought you knew this place." A Spade retorted.

"I had to interrogate one of the mercs to get here." She fired back. She then looked around, maybe some clues. Nope. No signs regarding an exit. Probably to ensure the prisoners will get lost if one ever tried to escape. She then eyed the dead bodies of the mercs she helped killed earlier. "Check their bodies. Maybe they have something."

One of the Spades approached the bodies, and started searching. She watched him pat the bodies, searching for each pockets and pouches. And then ah "Aha" from the man.

"Looks like these guys have a small interactable map. Interior map for this place." The Spades then grouped together, and she wasn't able to join in to see the map. One because she was supporting Daniel, and two, the Spades purposely ensure she wasn't able to join in to see the map.

They then split, "Looks like we will have to go that way," one of them pointed the direction as he looked at her.

"And then?"

"And then, well, you two just follow our instructions."

"Fine", she wasn't about to argue with them.

They started walking to the direction that was pointed, as they did so, she heard Daniel cleared his throat quietly. "Yeah?" She whispered.

"Everything alright?"

"I suppose to be the one asking the question." She looked at him as she said that, and he responded with a stare. She sighed quietly, "I'm fine...just worried about you, and if the Spades will betray us."

"I won't count on that," She raised an eyebrow, "Now they know that you are related to your father, I'm sure they will try to keep you safe to hand you over to WPTO"

That's one fucked up way to see it, but he's probably right. "That's reassuring"

"Worst case we might just die here. I've always wanted to haunt a prison."

"Please don't joke like that." She appreciated that he tried to lighten up the situation, but she felt that it's a horrible time to do that.

"Sorry"

The walk to the freedom from then on were silent, with the occasional order telling them where to move and muffled gun fire that they can hear but not able to locate. Which was weird that they haven't encounter anyone alive so far, only dead prisoners or mercs. This plus the cold feeling along with the cold lighting only made her creeped out even more.

"Scared that there will be ghost appearing? Cause that will be ironic" Daniel jokingly said to her, confusing her.

"What?" She asked before she realized what he meant. "Oh har har"

It was when she and Daniel were about to close in onto a corner, she heard people talking. An argument to be exact. She and Daniel quickly slow down their walk and stick to the walk, quietly approaching, with the Spades following suit.

She peaked and saw a bunch of mercs, a few of them look injured but were obviously fighting capable. She then looked at the two mercs that were screaming at each other's throat, she can't tell what were they screaming about, as they were using German to talk, well scream in this moment.

As she watched, the ground shook again, causing her to tripped and fell, and let out an oomph. For everyone to hear, including the mercs.

"Contact behind us!" One of the mercs that were watching at her direction screamed out.

Fuck.

She quickly closed her eyes as the mercs started firing. And in that split second, she felt two hands grabbing her by her legs before being forcefully pulled in. It was painful but it's better than bullets that she was almost given freely.

She opened her eyes and quickly got up, with Daniel helping her. "Holy shit!" She screamed in her native language. She can't believed she survived, all thanks to her partner, who was giving a weak smile at her.

Before she can thank him however, one of the Spades quicky run towards her and fired back at the mercs, while the other Spades quickly pushed her and Daniel behind. She immediately got up and took the revolver off of her partner and joined in the fight.

"What's our plan here?!" She shouted to the Spade in front of her.

"Suppress, flank, conquer!" The Spade she shouted at responded and gave her sign to follow, using the standard military sign language. 'Wait for suppress, follow me to other cover, shoot back' It's what she got. Understanding the plan, she nodded. The Spades then tapped the Spade in front of him, who then did the same, who immediately screamed.

"Suppressing!"

Taking the cue, she and the other Spade rushed towards the other cover in front of them. Before they can reach it however, the Spade was shot in the head, immediately killing him and causing his body to stumble onto the floor. Lena who was behind him jumped over his body and picked up his rifle while doing so and immediately rushed to cover, letting out a huge breath of relief.

She looked back at the dead Spade, nothing she can do except hoped that he didn't felt the pain. She then switched her attention to the remaining Spades, who were also looking at her. They nodded together and started firing back at the mercs.

Unfortunately, it didn't do a whole lot. She can barely aimed at the bad guy because of the constant suppressive fire the mercs were giving, so she opted to fire blindly. None of the bullets hit, and her rifle made a clicking sound. Empty.

'Fuck' She swore to herself. She slinged the rifle and got into a fighting stance, preparing herself for a hand to hand combat when she saw that the Spades also ran out. She won't be going down without a fight.

But that plan was thwarted when an explosion suddenly went off behind the mercs, killing the nearest ones and injuring the rest while causing her and the Spades to almost lose their balance as the ground shakes from the blast. Smokes and dust immediately engulfed the room, blinding everyone.

She stood still, trying to maintain a steady calm of breathing, waiting for whatever happen next.

Then, a hail of bullets rang out, sounds of flesh being punched through and screams of pain and panic filled the room. And then silence.

"Clear! Good job people!" A voice announced proudly, the voice that she recognized.

"James?" She called out as she slowly peeked out.

The dust settled, and the people that stood in front of her, were now the contractors of GCR, both Makarov and James were among them. She let out sigh of relief.

"Lena? Is that you?" James asked, with a tone of surprise behind it.

"Yeah," She answered as she got out from her cover and approached her friend, before giving a hug, which James accepted. She looked over to Makarov and gave a nod, who in return nodded back.

"Glad to see you are alive," she heard him said as she was let go, "And I see we have Spade survivors." She looked back to said Spades, who were now out of their cover. Then over to the dead Spade.

"I'm sorry about your friend." She said.

"....Thanks" One of them responded, "Is our Company outside?"

"Yeah," James answered, "We will escort you people out. Lena, where's Daniel?"

"Just around the corner. I will go get him" She said as she immediately rushed to Daniel, unable to contain her excitement of getting out of this hell hole.

As she turned around the corner, she struck with shock with what she had witnessed. Daniel slumping over on the floor, blood around his stomach.

Panic immediately settled in, "Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck." She whispered to herself as she rushed over him and frantically put both of her hands on the wound, immediately feeling the stickiness of the blood.

"Guys! He's bleeding!" She screamed.

Immediately she heard footsteps running towards her way. "Shit, he's not doing to well." She heard James said before feeling a pat from him on her shoulder, a sign for her to remove her hands, to which she did, and pull Daniel's shirt up, revealing a large wound. "Fuckin christ his wound was not shut properly."

"Wraith." She simply answered, she knew that monster had purposely done this. She still don't understand why Wraith had an obsession with Daniel ever since the two fought.

"Sick bitch" She heard James muttered as he bandaged Daniel, temporarily stopping the bleeding. He then picked up Daniel carefully, "Let's go, our ride is outside."

Outside, there were a few chopper, and tons of contractors. Mainly from GCR but she also noticed a few from the Red Spades. She saw some contractors from both companies that by the looks of it, were arguing. She figured it's about handling the mercs that they had captured.

As they approached a chopper, that she noticed had two rotors, first time she saw one in front of her, must be a hands me down from one of the armed force. Makarov who was in the front of the group, opened the loading bay door. The GCR contractors that were with them waited outside while she and James went inside the chopper, the latter putting Daniel onto a stretcher, already being prepared in the chopper in case of wounded.

"You guys wait here, we still have to secure the building and process the prisoners and the mercs."

'More waiting?' She sighed, and nodded reluctantly. Once James left them to continue with his job, she sat near with Daniel as one of the medics on board properly treated his wound.

As she watched the treatment, the chopper were slowly filled with more passengers, most of them were wounded. And soon, it was full, filled with mostly wounded prisoners. Daniel's treatment were also done, which made her relaxed a little bit more. She also noticed James and Makarov along with the other GCR contractors getting in the chopper, and sat beside them.

James gave the good news, "It's time to go home."

'Finally'

She felt the chopper's rotors starting up. And like before whenever they used a chopper for extraction, it felt extra calming. To which she decide a nap, a proper one this time. As she closed her eyes and lay against her seat, she felt a tapped on a shoulder.

"Hey Lena." It was Makarov

"Yeah?"

"I hope you and Daniel are prepared for a lot of crying. Your little girl thought both of you were gone forever."

At first, she didn't react. But after processing that bombshell, she immediately opened her eyes. Oh crap. She had totally forgotten about Chloe. That poor girl must've cried her eyes out. She felt bad, more than usual this time. She can only hope that the little girl would forgive them for the pain they brought upon her.