[HIATUS] The Tide Rises

Chapter 5

"Just another day in The Fortilla," Maya sang to herself, straddling an ammo box under each arm. "I don't mind helping out at all, but aren't henchmen usually assigned to do this?"

Ocean huffed, trying to hide her slight limp as she juggled three boxes to the vault room. It had been roughly a week since the marauder fight, and she was eager to get her stitches out. "Yeah, but I wanted to do it myself," she nodded, before sighing. "You didn't have to help. I was fine on my own."

Maya frowned. "Yeah, that's something I heard a lot before the flood," she muttered before glancing down at the bandages wrapped around Ocean's right leg. "You're also not supposed to put strain on your leg while the stitches are in."

Ocean glanced at her, trying to read her expression. She felt guilty upon hearing her disappointed tone—Maya only wanted to help out, but Ocean was too stubborn to let her.

She thought about what she said before, trying to understand. Ocean had heard about Midas's insistence on not letting others help him, but was never around to experience it herself. As a general field agent, she had only formally talked to him thrice, really: once in an interview, once on her very first day of training, and once on her very last. From then on, her orders were taken from Brutus.

She wanted to ask about GHOST's former leader, but decided not to, deeming it inappropriate for the time being. Instead, she focused back on her stitches. "I can't wait to get these out. I thought swimming here over and over again was getting boring... turns out not being able to swim at all is even worse."

"When are you getting them out?"

"Tomorrow or the day after that," Ocean replied as the girls found themselves in the vault room. "If Remedy thinks tomorrow's too soon, then it'll be the day after for sure."

Ocean set down her load of ammo boxes carefully. "Thanks," she smiled, letting Maya know she was appreciated despite being stubborn before. "There's a lot of these anyway. It'll probably take too long if I bring these all in myself."

Maya beamed. "Yeah, no prob-"

She cut off as shouts in the distance alerted the two agents. They turned abruptly, both glancing at each other before dropping the rest of their boxes and drawing their weapons. They rushed outside to find a group of henchmen circling two figures near the power plant.

"Go see if Brutus is back from his weapons meeting or whatever it was," Ocean ordered. "I'll go see what's going on."

Maya nodded and headed off—Ocean could hear her talking into her earpiece.

With her burst AR in hand, she made her way down and across to the commotion. There were two figures apparently causing the distress: a male and a female, both with their arms surrendered. They were complying, and she couldn't see what the big deal was.

"Hey, ease up, boys," Ocean called to the henchmen, catching the fear on the girl's face. Her request became futile, however, as none of the henchmen were willing to lower their weapons. "What's the prob-"

As soon as she could get a closer look, she noticed the girl's shirt and understood. Ocean aimed her gun at the intruders immediately. "Alright, trespassers, state your business! What do you want here?" She demanded.

The two people glanced at each other, and the girl took a small step forward, fiddling with her gloves. "I... I need to speak to someone."

Ocean narrowed her eyes suspiciously. A henchman gestured for her to move closer and whispered into her ear, "this is Jules, ma'am."

Ocean's eyes widened; everyone at GHOST, old and new recruits the same, were familiar with her name by now. Midas's sister who he held in high regard, who was now nothing more than a traitor to all.