Chalice of Revenge (Ghost X Ruby Laswell)

6.

We soon arrive at the tunnels that run below Las Almas. The ride was silent- or for me, at least. Everyone engaged in conversation but I had nothing to say- I was going to do it Ghost's way. Keep it professional. In and out. Robot emotion.

"You ready, Ghost Team?" Alejandro looks back to me, handing me a flashlight.

"Ready to kill a son of a bitch." I say as I grit my teeth.

I grab it, hooking it onto my gun and adjusting my uniform. Everyone files out of the car, guns raised. We were outside of a facility building, which lead straight down into the trenches of Las Almas. Graves thought he would be smart scouting out here, but we had more tricks up our sleeve than he knew of.

Ghost nods to Soap as we put C4 on the door, stepping back and blowing it off.

A table sits in front of us, and Ghost spills out a bag of skull Baklavas on the table. I already had mine on, so I cross my arms as I watch everyone pick up theirs. But then I notice everyone stops in their tracks. I look to Soap, who's face read confusion.

I look to Ghost, who slowly takes off his thick mask, revealing his face to everyone. I could feel my mouth slightly drop, especially at the fact that he was so hard headed about doing such a thing. He was still.. very attractive. But maybe our conversation was able to melt into his stubborn skull somehow.

I swallow as I watch everyone slip on their masks, not saying a word. Just how Ghost probably liked it- not being in the spotlight or swooned over.

"Let's head out," Ghost says as he looks to me.

As soon as we walk in, there's a staircase that leads into the pitch black void. Something I've gotten accustomed to. We all start down the stairs carefully, the flashlight scopes on our guns waving around. As I wave my gun around, I notice a thin green light flickering. Then a humming sound. Shit.

"Halt." I put my hand up alongside Ghost, pointing to the lasers.

"Looks like they may be expecting company," Alejandro says.

"You think?" Rodolfo says.

"We need to watch it," Ghost says. He looks to me, his eyes still reading cold- but a little warmer. "Laswell, we are all above six foot. Any way you're in the shape to crawl under those?"

I look to the lasers, knowing my army crawling would definitely get me through.

"Yeah. I can." I slide down my bag and gun off of my shoulder, examining the area. "There's disarming methods on every other side. Just follow my pace once I clear it,"

I get down onto my stomach, the stitches pulling and the raw bruises slightly aching. I begin to inch forward using my knees and elbows, finally getting through the laser and going to the computer to disarm it.

They follow close behind as I do the next, and the next. Without further ado, we finally manage to make it through. I press in on my abdomen, breathing in for a quick second.

"Need a hand, LT?" Ghost offers his arm down to me, but all I do is stare at his hand.

"LT? Really." I cross my arms as I stand up on my own, making sure to prove the fact that I didn't need his help. Nor did I his pity.

Even though I've seen his face, all I saw was the mask still. The Ghost I knew originally. Everyone knew what his face looked like now, it was nothing special anymore. But I was just as stubborn as he was.

We all hold up our guns, sweeping out guards around each corner. The place was loaded- there were at least five guards stationed in every room.  Making our way up to level surface would be difficult, but if it concluded with Graves in his own grave I was more than happy to withstand the pain.