WARNING: this chapter contains graphic images of innocents being killed. These innocents are american, and as such, If you are offended by it, skip the flashbacks or just the entire chapter.
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Reaper continued staring at the dead, dark depths flowing before him. He turned around, and said,
"You're here to help me, huh? What for?"
Death said, his voice expressionless,
"We are here to help you with the trials forced upon you by the strict tenants of death. One must first find inner peace and equality before they can move on."
Reaper said, voice full of tiredness and apathy,
"Then what do I need to do? I am so tired..."
War said apologetically,
"The path to equality is paved to the cause of death. I guess that you know what this entails."
Reaper put his face in his hands. He moaned out,
"I already killed her seven times. Seven FUCKING times. Now you want me to end her an eighth?"
War walked up to reaper, and put a hand on his shoulder.
"I know what it's like. You have personally gotten yourself through multiple wars, and you finally gave up your life to save a world that you didn't even live on for a year. You're tired, but you need to get through this to finally rest."
Reaper just looked up from his hands. An unhealthy pallor seemed to drain any sign of health or stamina from both him and his surroundings. As the last of his color dropped away from his face, a black miasma rolled into a small basin just a few feet away from the shore. As the mist faded away into the air, it revealed a large, pitch-black mare laughing manically into the featureless sky. As she recovered, she said,
"I will make death too good for you, Reaper! Come, pay for what you have done to me!"
"...Fuck."
As Reaper sunk down into a fighting position, he looked down at his body. the only things he had on were a pair of combat boots and army pants tucked into them. He called out to War, saying,
"War! Where is my armor!"
War said with a flat tone,
"It's gone. Left with your body of flesh."
Reaper just groaned and launched himself at the large figure of Nightmare Moon. They both hit the ground a few feet away, with Reaper having a firm headlock on the Alicorn. One arm was wrapped around the throat just under the jaw, and the other hand was wrapped around her horn. He was getting smashed behind the head from Nightmare's wings and her horn began to glow. Reaper growled out,
"I'll be having NONE of that..."
And his grip on Nightmare's horn tightened, knocking her focus out of whack as he stood up and threw her away from him. She recovered quickly, and shot off a darkened eldritch blast straight at his heart. Reaper began to move his hands up towards his chest to deflect it, but it had already pierced his chest before his hand could even get up to it. Reaper stared at the gaping wound as he fell over, just saying,
"What..."
As he thudded against the ground of the underworld dreamscape, his mind was transported to a memory.
--- --- ---
He was standing in a helicopter with three other Juggernauts. Over the radiocom, Reaper shouted in Russian,
"So does everyone know why we are here!?"
The three all grunted in affirmation. He said,
"Good! Now, we know that Makarov IS here. Be careful of ambushes and the mercs. They probably have explosives and high-caliber weapons. We may be almost untouchable for most weapons, but explosives and high-caliber gunfire will take you down eventually. Alright, let's make sure that this terrorist won't be able to hurt Russia!"
The Helicopter landed, and the four all filed out of it. they were in a clearing in a forest, a path though the trees leading to their mark. Reaper closed the door and pounded on the side, telling the chopper to take off. He called out again, saying,
"There are four other squads, all with four Juggernauts. We are the spearhead. We get to take the bastard out. Move out."
The four moved out, Reaper taking point as they advanced through the forest path. When they got to the treeline, there was a large house standing alone inside of the dense forest. Reaper checked all of the directions of a possible ambush, and told the group to advance. He contacted the other groups when they got to a car.
"This is spearhead, reporting in. Squads, callback."
He waited a moment as one after another, the squads reported back.
"This is demolitions, reporting. Sweep squad, reporting. Lab Rats, reporting. This is assault squad, reporting in."
Reaper motioned for the group around him to stop. He said to the other groups,
"Alright we're all here. Demo, Assault, get in and clear. We will go in once demo gets the flattener charges in. Sweep and lab rat goes in once we get the groceries. Go."
A Juggernaut turned to Reaper, and said,
"Crimson! We need to get in as soon as Assault gets in! They're starting to evac!"
Reaper swore under his breath as he stood up. Jeeps were beginning to ride out into the forest. He said,
"Crossmarks, good job. New plans, men. Rush the base, leave no man alive."
Reaper let out a war cry and rushed the front door, putting his LMG to his shoulder and releasing a controlled burst as a merc stepped into the doorway toting a Barret sniper rifle. He ran into the living room, spraying in a wide arc to catch a few mercs unaware to the sudden attack. Ten more were in the room as he took cover behind a counter top near the edge of the sparse room. The rest of the squad filed into the room as he blind-fired at where he guessed where the gunshots were fired from. He heard a few gratifying yells and meaty thumps as three fell to the bullets. He called out to his teammates, saying,
"I'll lay down some suppressing fire, throw flashbangs!"
He got up on his knees, and fired a wall of bullets at where the mercs were taking cover. the little cylindrical objects tinked into the next room where they were standing, and Reaper ducked under cover as he waited for the flashbangs to go off. He popped back up after the grenades did their work. The mercenaries fell from their cover. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. He called out to the squad,
"Condition check!"
They replied with an all clear. Sweeping and securing the house were the remaining two squads's job. Reaper flicked his two hands towards the stairs. Makarov and his inner circle should be there in the upper floor. Reaper took point again as they made their way up the staircase and to the only locked door. Putting a breach charge on the door, Reaper put up his three fingers and counted down to one, activating the charge. Quickly whipping around the corner, Reaper checked down his sights into the room to find stacks of C4 lining the room with nothing but a picture of Makarov sitting on the pile. Reaper turned around and pushed his squadmates down the stairs, screaming,
"GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE BUILDING! GO! GO! GO!"
They all went tumbling down to the bottom floor as Reaper grabbed them all and began to carry them out of the building. He felt the house shake from a different explosion, and a voice screamed out,
"DEMO SQUAD AMBUSHED I'M THE LAST ONE LEFT, I DON'T KNOW-"
He was silenced and soon thereafter another explosion rocked the other side and Reaper heard another voice scream out,
"OH GOD! ASSAULT SQUAD AMBUSHED! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"
His voice was joined in by two at once,
"SWEEP AND LAB SQUADS AMBUSHED! HOW DID THEY GET THOSE C4 THERE?! WE ARE NOT GETTING ROUTED!"
Reaper doggedly kept on dragging his near-unconscious group out of the house as an explosion rocked the second floor, propelling them out of the door. When he landed, bullets began whizzing through the smoke, landing precariously near his position. He got his LMG from it's sling wrapped around his body and began squeezing rounds downrange. Two of the three Juggernauts got up from where they were lying down. He called out to the two,
"Blackwing, White Phosphorus, we're surrounded, and we are the last ones left of the attacking forces! We NEED to stay alive, get to cover and get damn Crossmarks off his ass!"
Blackwing grabbed Crossmarks by the back of the collar and drug him to the car where they were originally waiting by. Reaper shot wildly around in the slowly settling smoke to try and cover his teammates's movements. Reaper slid over the hood and landed next to WP. He shouted at him,
"Get some of those homebrew firebombs you were boasting about earlier and get them around the perimeter! I want to see those bastards burn."
Taking out a grenade, he pulled the pin and haphazardly threw it into the dust. He tried the radiocom again.
"THIS IS SPEARHEAD! WE ARE ONE INJURED! STATUS REPORT!"
There was static.
"I REPEAT, STATUS. REPORT!"
Even more static.
Reaper cursed and sent a message to HQ with his nanobots.
HEAD QUARTERS INQUIRY: IS MISSION SUCCESSFUL?
FIELD REPORT: NEGATIVE. TEAMS 2-5 TERMINATED. TAKING HEAVY FIRE. UNIT 22364 INJURED.
He called out to Blackwing as he shot at the now-visible mercs that were slowly closing in on their position.
"How is Crossmarks!?"
Blackwing popped up beside him and shot at his own targets.
"Bastard took a splinter to the spine! If we can't get him to HQ soon, they'll have to deactivate the poor bastard."
Reaper shot another round, catching an enemy between the eyes. Suddenly, a blazing wall of flames sprung up from the ground, catching the rest of the advancing enemies in a conflagration. Reaper smirked under his helmet, and said,
"Burn, you bastards."
The three Juggernauts sunk down behind the car as assessed their wounds. Blackwing had gotten winged and WP had a small hole to the side. Both very small injuries. They all put their attentions to their fallen comrade. Blackwing took off Crossmarks's helmet to reveal piercing blue eyes and dirty blond short cropped hair. His face was contorted into a grimace as a small pool of blood gathered around him. He looked down, and Crossmarks's face drained of all color. He said,
"Oh... That can't be good."
Reaper just ruffled Crossmarks's hair. He shook his head, and stood up as Blackwing took out his medical kit to work his medical magic. He noticed movement in the bushes behind them. He lifted his LMG at the ruffles and called out the callsign. After all, it could be lab rat or sweep company.
"MISSION CODE!"
The rustling stopped for a second, then renewed moving at a faster pace. Reaper figured that they heard him but couldn't discern what he said, or couldn't respond.
"MISSION CODE!"
A kevlar-clad figure emerged from the fringe of the forest. He kept the iron sights trained on it's forehead. White Phosphorus got up and looked over at the figure. He said with a bit of confusion,
"I don't remember anyone with those markings..."
Reaper knew that it was a bad sign. He called out again,
"MISSION. CODE!"
He muttered under his breath,
"Say brown bear, damn it. Brown bear..."
The figure reached behind it and brought out a desert eagle.WP shouldered his LMG and shouted,
"NOT FRIENDLY, NOT FRIENDLY!"
A shot rang out.
WP was laying on the ground, a hole in his helmet. Reaper didn't even flinch as he pumped his entire clip into the enemy juggernaut's helmet. It stumbled and shot another round, narrowly missing Reaper. He heard a thunk and a thud, looking behind him to see Blackwing slumped on the ground, the round catching him in the heart. Reaper cracked, and walked towards the now prostrate form of the other Juggernaut. He picked it up and ripped off it's helmet. It was a man, staring defiantly into Reaper's gloomy visage of a faceplate. Reaper took the juggernaut and broke his back by smashing him on his knee. Reaper lay the enemy's head next to the still raging fire, allowing the heat and eventual spread to take care of his enemy.
Reaper walked back to Cross, who was lying dejectedly and gazing at his two dead friends. Reaper sat heavily next to the stricken Juggernaut, and helped Cross up to a sitting position and using himself as a crutch for him. Cross said,
"They're dead, Crimson. I can't believe it. I feel like I'm going to join them soon."
Reaper brought Cross into a hug, and said,
"No, Cross. If you think that, you'll actually die. Evac is on the way, last another half an hour."
Cross just sobbed a bit and said,
"No Crimson, I'm going to die. I can't feel my legs anymore, and I'm loosing too much blood."
Reaper just stared off into the leafy horizon, not wanting to accept the fact that Makarov had robbed him of an entire company of Juggernauts. After a minuet of silence, Cross spoke up again.
"Crimson, you don't take off your suit when we get to HQ. Ever. Could you take off your helmet so I could see your face?"
Reaper huffed and sent an inquiry to HQ.
FIELD DEMAND TO HQ: ALLOW THE REMOVAL OF UNIT 00001's HELMET.
HQ INQUIRY: STATE REASON
FIELD: DYING WISHES OF A COMRADE
HQ APPROVAL
Reaper reached up and placed his hands on his helmet. He removed it with extreme care and sureness. When he removed it fully, he looked down at Cross's astonished face. He said,
"So what they said was true..."
Reaper nodded and closed his eyes. Placing a hand on Cross's forehead, he hummed a familiar tune. As he got to the last verse, he felt Cross's lungs fill up one long shuddering breath, and then fall silent. He got out a detonator that was in his pocket and flipped open the top. When he got to the last note of the song, he pressed down on the button. The demo squad did their job with placing the explosives before they died, and the house practically vaporized from the force of the blast. Reaper got up and placed Cross's body on the ground, hands resting on his chest. He placed the bodies of WP and Blackwing in the same position flanking Cross's body. He sent a field report to HQ.
REPORT: TOTAL DEVASTATION. 100% CASUALTY RATE FOR BOTH SIDES EXCLUDING UNIT 00001. SEND BOMBING RUN AND TELL THE HELICOPTER TO LAND AT UNIT 00001'S CO-ORDINATES
Another shot rung out, missing Reaper completely. He turned to see one of Makarov's inner circle limping towards him with a Desert Eagle in hand. A wicked smile carved it's way on Reaper's perverted features as he reached behind him to grab his blade. Throwing his combat knife, he struck the mercenary on the elbow, making the arm limp and immobile. As he ran towards the helpless man, an image flashed up in the corner of his sight.
HQ INQUIRY: PLAN OF ACTION?
FIELD RESPONSE: INTERROGATION.
--- --- ---
Reaper got up from the ground, clutching at where a rather large hole was progressively getting smaller. He looked down at the now smoking scar and mentally pondered,
"Well, that was faster than the time when I..."
He remembered doing something with someone... But who? He couldn't remember places, names, or faces. Just being somewhere after the incident in Washington D.C. It wasn't good for Reaper to not remember. He turned to War and shouted,
"I can't remember! Why can't I remember?"
Nightmare stood glowering at Reaper as War said, apologetically,
"In the afterlife, you cannot actually die. So if you suffer a mortal wound, your memories are slowly removed from you."
Reaper growled under his breath and turned back to Nightmare. He would need to fight much more carefully, he didn't have... whatever he had when he could remember. He got in close to the large pony standing before him and swung out with his fist, connecting to Nightmare's jaw. She brought her head back and reared upon her back legs, flailing her hooves out powerfully. One blow struck Reaper under his jaw and sent his head snapping back. He kicked Nightmare away from him and spat out a few teeth, tasting the all-too familiar tang of blood. The difference was that it was his own this time. Spitting away more crimson fluid, Reaper launched himself at Nightmare, and latching onto the side of her neck, he allowed his teeth to sink into the supple flesh and release Nightmare's own supply of blood. With a roar of rage, Nightmare flung Reaper away from her neck and pierced him through the chest with a bolt of black energy.
Reaper lay there, pain spreading through his body. He slowly got back up on his feet, arms and leg muscles clenching and spasming under his skin, and dark energy bolts traveling their way down Reaper's appendages. Reaper forced his legs to keep on moving, to kill the large pony he saw that threatened him. A particularly large shock echoed across Reaper's body, causing him to cry out and slump to the floor. Nightmare turned around with a look of puzzlement as she saw the dilapidated body of Reaper still moving. She shouted out,
"Why aren't you dead yet? WHY WON'T YOU DIE?"
Reaper's head shot up, and his bloodshot eyes bore into Nightmare's. He slowly got up as Nightmare increased the voltage coursing through his body, and took one step towards her... And then another... and another. Nightmare increased the voltage so much it looked like Reaper was wearing a coat of lightning. He flinched and took a stumbling step towards Nightmare. Reaper fell to his knees as Nightmare stalked towards him. She placed her horn on his breast, and pierced his heart in a swift stab. Again, Reaper was thrown into the abyss of his mind.
--- --- ---
This time, they were on a bomber plane. Reaper looked at his squadmates, and called out to them.
"Beaker! Carnax! O'Brian!"
Reaper never really understood the last name. They were all Russian and O'Brian hadn't even been to Ireland before. They all walked over to the door that Reaper was standing by and saluted. Reaper said,
"Now we all know why we are here: to invade America. We found an American soldier in Makarov's inner circle on an attack on an airport. The only ones we can hold responsible is america, and the rest of the world agrees. We had a copy of their defence systems, and disabled them, so now we can invade without the danger of being shot out of the sky. Now HQ has given us the orders to eliminate every single American that we can find. This includes civilians, army, older people, you name it, we are to kill. Alright boys, let's go club us some helpless Americans."
The red light over the door flashed yellow, warning the passengers to get ready for the drop. Reaper got on a specially made parachute and continued explaining,
"We are going to be on the front until we win this war. We breached their defenses, so we have the jump on America. Don't be expecting any army until about a week."
The light turned green, and the door shot open. Reaper motioned the three other squadmembers out and jumped after them. Wind whistled around him as they descended towards the American soil. Beaker called out,
"Chutes out!"
And Reaper slowed down conciderably, staring down at where they were going to land. Right in the middle of a cul-de-sac. They all landed, and Reaper snapped back the loading bar on the side of his LMG. Everyone was inside of their houses. Reaper went barreling into the first door he saw, ripping it off of it's hinges and causing a man in his twenties to investigate. The sound of a thud was the only thing that followed. Reaper went further inside of the house and did a quick sweep to find it clear. He shouted over the radiocom,
"Breach and clear the houses separately. I will have no excessive violence." Reaper paused and smirked under his helmet, "To the civilians."
The squad branched out, breaching and clearing the entire neighborhood. At the edge of a large housing complex, the squad met up. Reaper took out a map of the United States and laid it on the floor. He pointed at a little square of land in the middle of a few larger plots.
"We landed here, Washington D.C. You know what that means, boys. We get to go say hello to the American President" Reaper took out another map of Washington D.C. and put his finger on a street not too far away from the white house. "We are the closest of forces to the white house, so we go there first. If we run there fast enough, we can hit that, hold it for the main army forces, and continue on a swath through the east coast."
Reaper gathered up all of his map supplies and shoved them in a compartment on his suit. Pointing north, he shouted,
"Double time!"
And the group took off at a breakneck speed. Two hours later, they arrived at the white house, FBI, police, and secret service trying in vain to hold the front door. Reaper called out to the rest of the team,
"All they've got are M9's! Don't even bother finding cover."
Reaper leveled his LMG and fired a few spurts of bullets, catching a few of the crowd entrenched at the front door. Reaper continued walking forward, trying to get into hand-to-hand combat range. They were all concentrating their fire on Reaper as his squadmates all cut them down with rapid bursts of ammo. They were all cut down by the time that Reaper was at the front door.
"Good morning, Mr. President!"
Reaper called out in English when he burst through the doors and into a lobby filled with more secret service. Reaper choke slammed the one straight in front of him over the counter where twelve more were waiting. Reaper vaulted over with his knife out, and a few flashes of light from the steel later, there was a heap of bodies lying on the ground. Reaper signaled for his group to spread out, filing into the various hallways and side rooms. Reaper headed to the oval office, where hopefully the president was still in. Reaper didn't even fire a shot as he went down the congested hallways filled with enemies, the light gunfire barely even effecting him through the suit. He burst inside of the oval office, and found the President sitting calmly at his desk, signing document laid down in on his desk. When the President looked up, he fell out of his chair and backed up to the wall behind him. Reaper called out in English, again,
"Come're, cupcake..."
And grabbed the President by the collar. The President looked at Reaper with terror in his eyes as he dangled there helplessly. He stuttered out,
"Wh-ho are you? Why is the Russian army invading?"
Reaper just swung his arm back to cave-in the President's skull, but was interrupted by an explosion rocking the white house, powerful enough to knock Reaper off of his balance. He dropped the President and the President scuttled off to an evacuation zone. Reaper called out on the com,
"Status report, why was there an explosion?"
O'Brian responded, saying in a slightly shaky voice,
" They tried to kill me by blowing an entire floor. How is the situation with the President?"
Reaper swung his head side to side to try and see if the President was actually there. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't. Swearing, Reaper responded,
"Negative. The explosion gave him time to escape."
Another explosion.
"Damn! They really are trying to bring this down around our heads! Crimson, could you get up here and help me?"
Reaper shook his head at O'Brian's predicament and turned towards the door. The paper contained a few steps for the army to take, homeland security, and contacting Makarov. Reaper slammed his fist down on the paper when he read the last line explaining what else the packet contained, and he flung it from the desk. Kicking the door open into the hallway that leads into the lobby, Reaper stomped out into a large ascending staircase to the top floor. He Kicked the door open to a firefight between a few MP and O'Brian in a largely empty room with scorch marks licking the walls behind O'Brian. Reaper rushed the closest trooper and smashed him into a wall, killing him with his own pistol by shooting him in the head. Turning around, Reaper popped the remaining four MP with the same pistol and killing them. O Brian just jogged up to Reaper as he field stripped the pistol in his hands. Thumping him on the back, O'Brian said,
"Good to see that you continuously come to save my ass from trouble."
Reaper laughed and said,
"Don't count on it happening all the time, I gotta go save Beaker's ass from time to time, too."
O'Brian just got out a green flare and walked towards the door that the MP's were protecting. Striding out onto the balcony there, O' Brian set the flare on the ground when he ignited it. Reaper looked up into the sky and saw hundreds of Russian planes flying overhead. Reaper leaned on the guardrail of the balcony and said,
"Looks like we will be heading out soon enough. We will hold this point until those paratroopers land and take control of the white house, and then we'll spread out and do more of our objective."
O'Brian just stood there and watched the skies. He spoke up after a while as flares erupted beneath them. He said,
"Is what we are doing right?"
Reaper just watched the skies.
"It's what they deserve."
Parachutes erupted above tiny black specks descending from the sky.
--- --- ---
The army had moved in, and the Juggernaut HQ sent out a detachment named Eastern Base. Reaper and his team cut a bloody swath towards the american mainland to get control of the Midwest. As the days turned into weeks, Reaper's close quarters style of fighting had earned him a coat of blood from the army forces he and his squad had hurtled through. The army had begun to regard him as 'Reaper' or 'The Reaper' instead of his own codename, Crimson. It seemed to stick, and his squadmates started calling him reaper as a joke. They were breaking through a military blockade to touch base and refuel.
"AMMO LOW! GET UNDER COVER!"
There was a bridge between Reaper and his squad to get to no-man's-land and eventually Washington. The army had blockaded it with two APC's and a Humvee. All three of their guns were operational. Reaper screamed out,
"YOU DON'T WANT TO GET HIT FOR LONG BY ONE OF THOSE THINGS, TRY AND FIND A WAY TO TAKE OUT THAT GUNNER!"
The squad took cover behind a large concrete block put on the roadside. Reaper checked his last few bullets in his box mag. He had twenty-seven bullets, and he liked to conserve. Yelling at his comrades, Reaper ordered out,
"GET EXPLOSIVES AND SMOKEBOMBS! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THEIR SIGHTS!"
Pulling out his own canister of portable smoke, Reaper waited for his comrades to procure their own. Reaper put up his fingers, counting down from three to zero, pulling his pin and throwing the grenade at the bridge blockade. Three more followed the first and carpeted the bridge with grey smoke. Gathering the Semtex procured by his team, Reaper rushed at the now blind mechanized defense. Shooting the gunner of the Humvee, Reaper pulled the armyman's body out of the car and slapped a pound of Semtex each on the APC's. Turning the key and revving the engine, Reaper rode out of the range of the blast, swerved the car, and activated the explosives. His teammates climbed into the car, and Reaper drove off over the blackened and battered bridge. Sending forward a message to HQ about a friendly Humvee approaching, Reaper gunned it towards Washington.
Reaper had gotten to base, and was getting a check-up. He was suspended in a vat of water, tubes connected to the ports riddling his body, and he had a re-breather on. A thin man in a medical lab coat walked up to the tube, noting that Reaper was taking to the cocktail of drugs injected into him well. Reaper's eyes flashed open and bored into the doctor standing before him. The doctor cleared his throat and asked,
"How do you feel about your duties?"
Reaper stretched his neck as a monitor connected by neural receptors to his forehead beeped and typed out a sentence.
"The wonderful sound and display of flesh ripping, music to my ears... music I hate yet can't get enough of. Bullets flying through the air, whistling in the wind and hitting their target perfectly. A symphony of death and despair."
--- --- ---
Reaper sat up and shook his head against the prevailing feeling of nausea. Looking in front of him, Reaper saw a very annoyed and confused looking American Armywoman covered in black clothes.
TO BE CONTINUED.