Chapter Text
One found that things could never go right with the Ghosts. Whether it was some malfunction with their weaponry or tech, or someone getting caught, or someone tripping, blowing their cover, forgetting that they needed to do an accent… Well, it seemed like at least one of those things would happen. Things had a tendency to get chaotic. However, most of the time, they were able to quickly recover and resolve the issue, either by keeping their cool or simply by disposing of the witnesses. Work with the Ghosts was particularly bloody.
At the moment, One was seated at a computer in the main room of the facility of a rather unsavory arms dealer. The others were dealing with the guards, with Seven sniping from the outside, Four and Five inside near the east exit, Three on the inside dealing with clearing out others, and Two? Two was assisting with that as well, though she wanted the task of finishing off the arms dealer herself. One knew that she had some kind of run-in with the guy previously, but he didn't press for information, and Two didn't comment on much else. It was one of the things that he appreciated about Two: He didn't question her, and she didn't question him. Trust went a long way for them both.
Through the comm, he could hear as the others dealt with guards elsewhere. Seven requested Three’s presence outside, and One absentmindedly gave his approval. He could hardly pay them much mind as he scanned through countless files, desperate to find what he needed. Soon, One came upon a very nice file folder that felt like the exact thing that he needed, so he shoved his flash drive into the main computer and began the downloading process. Leaning back and spinning slightly in his seat, he raised a hand to his comm.
"How's it going for you all?" One asked. He expected a response back but simply heard someone press onto their comm. The sound of guards screaming filled his ear for a few moments, causing him to nod his head slightly. "Glad to hear it's going well, you savages."
“How about you? Find the damn computer yet?” Two barked out. He could hear distant gunfire and knew that it was her doing.
“I did, I’m currently downloading a file, so far, so good-” Red numbers appeared on screen- A timer. “SHIT!”
His eyes widened and he yanked the flash drive out, dashing away from the computer. It exploded with enough force to throw One off of his feet, and he landed on the ground with a muffled shout, covering his head and the back of his neck with his arms. He could feel flames and shrapnel rain down upon him.
Everything seemed to fall still, and it was then when he allowed himself to pull his arms away from his head. He took in a ragged breath and looked to where the computer had been. Whatever explosives they had rigged the computer with had certainly left very little for One to salvage.
“A self-destruct sequence, huh? Clever motherfuckers,” One coughed, clutching his flash drive close to his chest. He was sure that there wasn’t anything useful that he was able to get from the computer, but he hoped that maybe a document or two had slipped through. Anything would be better than nothing.
“The fuck was that explosion?! Was that you, One?!” Four shouted over the ringing in his ears.
“That was the main computer, so yeah, that was me,” he sighed. “They had it rigged to blow if someone tried to download something from it, I might’ve been able to save a few documents.”
“So… Was this all for nothing, then?” Five asked.
"Well, I wouldn't say that," One pushed himself up to his feet, stumbling slightly before he regained his balance. He secured his flash drive in his backpack's pocket and zipped it shut. "I might've been able to save a few documents, and we at least got one of their warehouses down-"
“SHIT!” Two’s voice interrupted him, causing One to frown. “Motherfucker got me in the leg! I’m down!”
That sparked concern among the other Ghosts in the channel. One stayed silent as he headed to the door, peeking out to look down the hallway for any other guards.
“How bad is it?! Two?!”
“Stop shouting so loudly- Fucker got me through the thigh. I got him back, between the eyes.” One didn’t expect anything less of her. She paused for a moment before continuing. “I can’t stand on it- I’m bleeding a lot.”
“Hang on, we can head to you-” Four started to speak when once more, Two interrupted.
“They’re torching this place to the fucking ground!”
At the same time, he could hear what sounded like glass shattering. The building shook with several smaller explosions, which nearly took One off of his feet. He leaned against the wall for support and looked around, growing slightly unsure of everything as the lights flickered off. What the hell was going on? Did they rig the entire building with explosives, just like the computer? How the hell did he not know about that?
“I’m going in for her!” Three shouted. Immediately, One reached for his ear and touched the comm, being sure to keep his voice as quiet yet as stern as possible.
“No, no you’re fucking not,” he growled. “I’m still inside the building, I’ll grab her. I’m not far away from her. Three, you and Seven provide cover and make sure to help Four and Five get out safely, got that? They’re coming out from the east side of the building, there might be cars parked out there. Help them get out, I’ll get Two, and then you guys make sure we don’t die once we step foot out of there. Got it?”
There were various responses to his statement, but Three stayed silent. One could just picture the other man’s expression: Eyebrows furrowed, bottom lip being bitten, and brown eyes filled with concern and doubt. He was probably on the verge of sprinting into the building.
“Got it, Three?” One asked, his tone sounding strained like a tired parent’s.
“You get her out of there, One,” Three spoke through gritted teeth.
“That’s what I intend to do, dumbass. Do your job and make sure you help the others. Two, change your comm to channel two, we’ll talk there. Everyone, we’ll get back on the main channel once I get her. I’ll be back on in five minutes.” One switched the channel and opened up his backpack, digging around in it. He pulled out a small water bottle that he always kept with him, as well as a small cloth. There was a charger in his bag, which he also grabbed. All of the items were stuffed into the pocket of his jacket, and his backpack was swung back onto his shoulders. His hand went back to the com in his ear. “Two, are you on this channel?”
“Of fucking course I am,” Ah, the beautiful sound of her voice. It was almost comforting in this deadly situation, mostly because he knew that she was capable of killing just about anyone even with a damaged leg. “Where the hell are you?!”
“Heading on towards your location. At least, to the last place you said you had been at- Where are you now?”
“I’m not in there anymore, I moved. I’m laying on the floor right now.”
“If you take a look around, Two, there’s a lot of ‘floor’ everywhere. Could you be more specific?” One rolled his eyes, stealthily continuing his walk down the hallway. Voices could be heard shouting down the hall where there was a split off, but he couldn’t spot anyone. His voice stayed low. “Tile? Sheet vinyl? Polished cedar? Surprise me. I hope they have cedar somewhere around here, I’ve always appreciated polished wooden floors. Better yet, instead of telling me what kind of flooring there is, how about you tell me just what room you’re in?”
“I’m in the room that’s on fire, genius.” Two responded with an edge to her voice. “Don’t get snappy with me, One.”
Making it to the end of the hallway, he caught sight of several of the guards running down the further end of the right side of the hallway. In their hands, they held more molotovs, throwing them in different directions. It seemed that they had given up in trying to salvage the building, destroying any information left inside, as well as anyone else.
“Come on Two, I know better than to do that. If I got snappy, you’d snap me in half,” One mumbled. Through the comm, he could hear her let out a laugh before it was interrupted by a series of harsh, painful coughs from her. The smoke inhalation seemed to be doing a number on her, from what he could tell. “Two, stay as low as you can to the ground, smoke rises. As long as you stay down-”
“I already told you that I’m laying on the ground. If I went any lower, I’d be under it at this point.”
He nodded his head slightly. Well, she had a point.
Getting to the divide in the hallway, he looked down into the left hall and caught sight of several guards… Who caught sight of him almost immediately.
“Ah- Shit,” One cursed to himself, flinching heavily as shots were fired back in his direction, barely hitting the wall that he was using for shelter. He covered his head with his arm to shield himself from chunks of the wall that came down. "Damn it- Back to flooring though, if our base wasn't a jet, I would've gotten us a hydronic in-floor heating system, that shit is fucking amazing. It's not that hard to implement, actually. I've been thinking lately-"
One rolled for shelter behind a wooden crate in the hall but found that a molotov had been thrown at it, causing the bottle to burst and spread its flames all over the crate. He quickly rolled away from it and laid on his side. Aiming his gun, he shot several shots from the ground. A bullet managed to catch one of them in the throat. Shoving himself up to his feet, he sprinted over and vaulted himself over their crate that they were using for cover.
He drove his knee into the chest of one of the guards, where he quickly brought him to the ground. Grabbing the barrel of his gun, he slammed the handle of it into the man’s face repeatedly. It took only just a few hits for the man to fall unconscious. Another guard entered through a nearby doorway, pointing his gun to fire at him. One didn’t spare the man a look as he shot a single bullet, nailing him right in the head. As he refilled his gun’s ammunition, One stood and continued his way through the hallway.
“Where was I? Ah, yes, in-floor heating system, that’s where I had been at.”
“I’m going to die here,” Two mumbled through the comm. “You’re taking your sweet ass time and talking about floors. Instead of planning that, why not plan my second funeral?”
“Aw, come on, Two, you’re not going to let a little fire be the reason that you kick the bucket, are you?” He expected a response back, but he didn’t get anything. He picked up his pace and could see smoke flowing from every room at this point, but there was one at the end of the hall that was absolutely spewing with thick plumes of it.
‘God damn it,’ One squinted into the room. Of course, Two was in this one. There was hardly anything in the room that wasn’t on fire. Glancing up, even the ceiling and its visible girders were aflame. He'd give it a few minutes before they'd come crumbling down.
“Two, where are you?!” One called out, covering his nose and mouth with the collar of his hoodie. The smoke was thick and hard to see through, and even worse to try and breathe through. He damned his height. “Two!”
For a moment, he heard nothing but the roaring of the flames and the creaking of wood as it gave out. One crouched and made his way through the room, his eyes watering from the smoke and the intensity of the heat. He found himself wishing that he had taken off his jacket before entering the room, but it was too late to have regrets.
He needed to find Two.
Coughing, he continued his way through the room, cursing the way the flames felt as they burned through his jacket. God damn, he liked that jacket- Maybe he should know better than to go on missions while wearing his favorite outfits. That would be the smartest thing for him to do.
As he continued to make his way through the room, he could faintly hear what sounded like someone rushing towards him. There was a brief second where he thought that it was Two rushing to deck his ass for being late. However, he turned and was greeted with the sight of a guard lunging at him from the thickness of the smoke. He got tackled backward, and they both were sent crashing right through a burning wooden crate. He wheezed in pain as a piece of burning wood stabbed at his back, but he disregarded it.
The man worked to climb on top of him with a knife in hand, but One quickly used his legs to push him back. The man was thrown off balance. One inhaled sharply as he grabbed onto the other’s arm and pulled it close to his body, his right arm near his shoulder. He twisted the man’s arm to the point where he heard a sickening ‘crack.’ The man let out a scream as he dropped the knife, but One didn’t stop there. He brought up his legs over the man’s head.
A leg bent around the man's head and shoulders, where One kept his other arm pinned under his left leg. His legs wrapped around the man's head, and he began to tighten his triangle chokehold on the man, beginning his strangulation.
The guard continued to struggle against One's hold and even managed to grab onto the knife with his other hand. One wasn't having any of that, and he freed one of his own hands to grab the knife himself, wrestling it from his grip.
In just ten seconds, the man was unconscious.
One uncurled his legs from the man’s neck and he immediately slashed the knife across the man’s neck, getting a spray of blood over his own clothes. The guard was going to unconsciously burn in the fire, or maybe even wake up before he burned to death. He figured he’d do the man a favor and end it before he ever had the chance to suffer like that.
‘That used to be easier a few years ago.’ He thought, pushing himself back up to his feet. His lower back was absolutely killing him.
With a cough, One kicked the body towards some of the bigger flames and continued his trek through the room. His gaze eventually landed on a trail of blood, which felt like the right clue for him to follow to find Two. As he stuck to the trail, he came upon the sight of her army crawling forward, her injured leg dragging behind her.
“Two!” He shouted over the flames, causing her to stop. She turned her head around, blue eyes popping even more with soot from the flames covering her face. He swore that he saw relief spread over her features before a look of agitation replaced it.
Ah, if she could be agitated in a situation like this, then she was fine. Typical Two.
“Hi there. You look like shit.” He commented as he quickly made his way over to her and knelt beside her leg to get a better look at the wound.
It seemed that the bullet had exited through the side of her thigh, and by the looks of it, it had avoided damaging any of her arteries. Her femur had been spared as well. Overall, Two had gotten lucky. He felt relieved as he took out the phone cord and began to prep the makeshift tourniquet a few inches above the injury.
“You don’t look any better than I do. It took you long enough to get here. What kept you from getting here any faster?” Two grimaced as he tightened it.
“I had a look for that cedar flooring, didn’t have any luck with that,” One held back a cough, his eyes watering at how hard it was to contain it. The roll of bandages was produced from his pocket, and he applied it over Two’s wound. With the tourniquet added, it would help prevent further blood loss until Five could take proper care of it. “I see you’ve been enjoying the heat.”
“Just the other day I was complaining about the cold, look at me now, dying in the heat,” Two rolled her eyes. “Get us out of here.”
“Trust me, that’s the plan,” One reassured her as he reached into his pocket. The water bottle and the cloth came out next. Some of the water was squeezed out from the scuffle, but there was still a decent amount left in it. That was all that he needed. One unscrewed the bottle and dampened the cloth completely before he looked at her. “I’m going to cover your nose and mouth with this, and I’m going to tie it in a knot at the back of your head. Don’t break my arm or anything, that’s all I’m doing.”
Two raised an eyebrow but stayed silent as One did exactly what he said he would. Some of her hair got caught in the knot, but she didn't complain about it. Her hand reached up and touched the wet cloth once he pulled away.
“Is this a way for you to get me to shut up? Because it’s not tight enough to keep me from talking.”
One didn’t need to be able to see her mouth to tell that she was grinning. He rolled his eyes and stood back up slightly, already reaching to grab onto her. When Two didn’t move or voice any disapproval, he pulled her into a bridal hold, being sure to support her legs comfortably as to not cause any further discomfort. He fell into a crouch to avoid the thick smoke, and he navigated his way through the room, avoiding flames and having to duck when pieces of the ceiling began to fall down.
They were in danger, but it was fine enough. It was a nice change of pace from the cold winter, he had missed the heat.
“Trust me,” One mumbled. “The intention for the cloth isn’t to shut you up, it’s to lessen the smoke inhalation, but you can look at it that way. I always appreciate any s-silence I could get.”
Two raised an eyebrow at the stutter in One’s voice, but chose not to comment on it.
“Asshole.”
“You don’t have the right to call me an asshole when I’m carrying your ass out of a burning building, Two.” One rolled his eyes. Her hand reached up and tapped his cheek. “What? Do I have something on my face?”
“Lots of soot on your face, blood too. You’re covered in it, actually- The hell happened to you-” They just so happened to pass by the body, so One simply motioned to it with his head, causing Two to follow his gaze. She looked mildly impressed. “Ah, I see- That’s beside the point- Why didn’t you bring another cloth for yourself? Or why not tear something off and use some water for yourself?”
“There wasn’t enough water in the bottle, I figured you needed it more than I did.”
Two looked away from him, choosing once more not to comment on that. They made it out of the room and began their trek down the hallway, which seemed to be crumbling down around them as well. Out of nowhere, Two suddenly raised her arm and drove her elbow into the center of his chest, getting a pained wheeze out of him. He began to cough, crouching even lower so he could inhale what oxygen remained.
Once he regained his bearings, he shot her a glare. Oddly enough, he wasn’t all that mad. He was quite used to her roughness. He figured that if she was at the right angle, she would’ve punched his shoulder instead like she usually did.
“Ow! The fuck, Two?” One winced, wishing that one of his hands were free so he could rub the ache away. “I’ll have you know, that fucking hurt in more ways than one.”
“You’ve really changed, One,” she mumbled. “You’ve really changed for the better-”
“Really? You’re choosing now to be aggressively sentimental? Is now really the time for that, Two?!” One growled, pushing himself more to continue his rush down the hallway. “I wish I had tightened that face mask to the point where you couldn’t talk.”
“It feels like a pretty good time to talk, just shut up and listen to me,” Two cleared her throat, her eyes darting to the sides. It seemed like she felt almost awkward to continue. One thing that he appreciated about her was that they were both quite horrible with words when it came to certain topics. It seemed that this conversation would include one of those topics.
“Like don’t get me wrong, you’re still a fucking asshole, the same asshole that I knew when I first met you. But you’ve changed for the better-” One inhaled to interrupt, but she drove her elbow back into his chest to shut him up. Thankfully, it was with less force, and he stayed silent. “You’re literally carrying me through the hallway of a burning building. If this was the third week of it being the two of us, you wouldn’t have done this shit. I was the first one you picked to join the Ghosts, I’ve been with you the longest, so shit like this? Differences in your attitude? Yeah, I notice shit like that. Turgistan helped me notice it, but today solidified it. You’ve changed. Look at you now. Still an asshole, but not an asshole. ”
“I appreciate the sentiment.” He mumbled. When she raised her elbow again, he made the point of shutting his mouth with a rather loud ‘snap!’ He was shutting up.
"One thing I think about is how Four and Seven are always talking about us being a family. I tend to just let them talk and I just silently agree, but at this point… Shit, I guess we really are, huh? I don't think either of us wanted or expected this. I sure as hell didn't come into this to make friends or even get a partner, or getting a damn family out of it. I was content with just being your ‘first mate’ of this dumbass little crew and being the ruthless one of us. It’s kinda nice though, when you think about it. Family. I know you feel the same way, even if you don’t want to.”
One tightened his hold on her, wishing that she'd follow suit and just shut up. His back was burning from being slammed through the crate, his eyes were watering from the smoke, his lungs were aching, and his chest was still hurting from her assault. He certainly wasn’t in the mood to deal with her.
He’d admit that the others had gotten closer together, but he didn’t reciprocate the same emotions that they did. The others had their little family, not him. He wouldn’t be involved in their silly little antics. If it helped them feel better about things, then he wouldn’t argue against their views towards each other, but he wouldn’t let himself be involved.
The only reason he had gone for Two was that she was a valuable member to the Ghosts. She was by far the most capable of holding her own in almost every range of combat. Two was a killing machine, he had almost wished that she would’ve considered that as a title. ‘Killing Machine.’ It would’ve been neat. Though, he could see why she didn’t want that. The other titles were ones that at least made someone out to be human: There was far more to Two than just a ‘machine,’ so maybe C.I.A. Spook was fitting enough.
Shaking his head slightly, he brushed off his thoughts and Two’s words. The main entrance came into view. Carefully adjusting Two, his left hand touched his comm.
“One for Seven, Two and I are e-exiting the building. How clear is it looking out there?!” One questioned with a slight wheeze. He could hear a roar of chatter spark up at him suddenly entering the first channel. Relief, concern, shock- An array of emotions that he didn’t quite expect.
“That sure as hell wasn’t five minutes,” Four piped up through the comm. One was about to scold him for speaking when Seven responded.
“Well, it’s just about all clear. Three’s in the driver’s seat ready to go, we helped Four and Five get out through the side, we’re all just waiting for you two now.”
“How’s our girl looking?” Three asked. “Can you be any slower in getting back to us? What, are you crawling here?”
“‘Our girl?’” Two repeated, her eyes narrowing.
“Like shit, but she’s alive. I can’t say the same for you once she gets within five feet of you,” One rolled his eyes. “And as for that last part, fuck you, Three.”
One muted himself from the channel to give himself a moment to cough out what felt like his entire lung before he got back on. With a sharp inhale, One kicked the door open, stumbling out with Two still in his arms.
Well, even though Two hadn’t been involved in the slaughter outside of the building, it certainly looked as if she had been. The other Ghosts definitely had a field day with taking out the guards as they tried to flee. Typically, things wouldn’t be like this, but it appeared that Two was influencing them all. Maybe he’d need to have a talk with the others about keeping things more on the down-low.
“You look like shit, One,” Three commented the moment his gaze rested on him.
"Thanks, thank you, I feel like it, but you know what? I don't always look like shit, jackass. You, on the other hand, always look like- Like a camping outhouse shithole that's been sitting out under a 110-degree summer sun. Constantly looking like shit, smelling like shit, rancid-ass god damn motherfucker," One fumed, stomping towards the car. He could hear the others let begin to laugh, only for them to grow quieter once they were able to get a better look at them.
Yeah, they probably looked like shit.
One squeezed Two in the back seat beside Five, it being rather crowded with most of the Ghosts already back there, and quickly made his way back to the passenger's seat. As soon as he was seated, he rushed to pull off his backpack and his jacket, exposing the burns along his arms and his chest. He was sure that he could feel some on his back as well after his run-in with the guard. As bad as his burns were hurting him, and with his lungs aching from the smoke, he wasn't all that worried. After all, those were things he could take care of himself. Just being able to get the now scratchy jacket off of his sensitive burns was comforting enough. For now, he'd just ignore the pain like it didn't exist. Suppression rocked.
Things were mostly silent in the car, except for Two speaking to Five and doing her best to refuse an oxygen mask from Seven. They certainly had her hands full with her.
One caught sight of Three giving him glances, which caused the older man to let out a deep sigh that diminished into a wheeze. He coughed and cleared his throat before giving Three a pointed look.
“What is it, Three?” He asked in a low voice. “Mad I compared you to an outhouse? Because it’s the most accurate thing I could think of, I’m sure I could’ve come up with something better if I had a bit more time.”
“No, it’s not that,” Three huffed. “Just…”
“Just fucking say it, I’m too tired for this shit right now-”
“Thanks for getting her, One,” Three spoke softly, glancing at him before he looked back at the road.
One took a look at himself in the side view mirror, taking note of the soot on his face and just how sweaty he actually was. His hair was lightened from the ash he stepped through. He looked like he had walked through hell and back, and in a way, it seemed like it. The building had been coming down around him, flames were consuming bodies, smoke filled the air, and ashes were flung around.
Taking a look at Two through the mirror as well, he could see that she was in the same condition as him, only worse off now that he could see in proper lighting. Hair singed at the tips, burns over her body, soot covering where the damp face mask couldn’t cover, and her leg still bleeding sluggishly… They really did have a nice little walk through hell together. Of all people to make that march with, he found that Two was the only one he wanted by his side.
‘You’ve changed, One,’ He let his eyes fall closed. That was a lie, he hadn’t changed. ‘You’re literally carrying me through a burning building. If this was the third week of it being the two of us, you wouldn’t have done this shit.’
He just happened to be in the same building, he happened to be nearby, that was it. Two was still Two, Three was still Three, Four was still Four- They all were their original numbers to him, and that’s all they would be.
They were a team, not family. That was that.
‘Four and Seven are always talking about us being a family... At this point… Shit, I guess we really are, huh? I don’t think either of us wanted or expected this.
He didn’t.
‘I know you feel the same way, even if you don’t want to.’
He didn’t.
‘It’s kinda nice... Family.’
“Don’t thank me for anything,” One shrugged, shaking his head slightly. “I did what I said I would: I got her, and I got us both out of there. I just did my job, simple as that.”
However, the atmosphere in the car and the way his heart ached in his chest let One know that it wasn’t as simple as that.
The car ride continued in utter silence.