R.V.B Olympus Squad {Blood Gulch Chronicles}

Chapter 40: Ghosts Of My Past Pt. III

The two soldiers reunited were now in the mess hall, the two of them talking amongst themselves more so than eating the meal in front of them, even though this was the first major meal Morrow has ever had in a long time as he barely touched the steak and mashed potatoes in front of him.

"And then after the whole faking my death thing, I found myself traveling here, and been working for supply runs and supplements for the last two years." Ares explained as his raspy voice creaked against Morrow's ears

"And what about the vocal cords? You sound like you have your heart stuck in your throat." Morrow asked with genuine concern

"Ah...my voice box kinda got shot escaping the fire..." Ares said as he pulled the under suit of his armor a bit showing a large scar against the left side of his neck.

"Oh..." Morrow shuddered seeing the visual reference

"Yeah...running into a wire when escaping a burning building isn't exactly ideal..." Ares admitted sheepishly

"Well...at least you're okay...but I have to ask." Morrow muttered "why didn't you come back to Krimm Co.?" Morrow asked, Ares face fell as the mention of his former employer was mentioned

"Herc...it's...a bit complicated." Ares said quietly

"Is it really? You've been pretty much dead for almost 2 years, your family didn't even bother sending condolences, and the worst of it all, Krimm Co fell after the team's death...so don't you think I deserve SOME explanation?" Morrow listed off

"Didn't you transfer to a new squad?" Ares asked, shoving Morrow's first few questions off.

"That's not the point Ares, the point here is that why didn't you try to find me?!" Morrow asked pounding his fist into the table out of sheer frustration, Ares taken aback by this, never seeing this sight of his former "kid of the group" so emotionally invested "and more to the point where's Dio??" Morrow added

"Okay, Hercules...fine...you're owed some form of closure if everyone's death was that effective to you." Ares relented with a soft nod as he slowly rose to his feet leaving the food tray on the table as he gestured for Morrow to follow him, the younger Spartan rising to his feet as he left his steak to grow cold on the table as he quickly followed after his comrade.

The two of them walked through the hallways as they made their way up the floors of the tower

"So after the accident, me and Dio agreed we should go into hiding, if we were swarmed by the media we would've been discharged or relieved of duty due to the gravity of the situation, so once we made it to shore we decided to go our separate ways, Dio went off to do his own thing, and I haven't seen him since that day...but not a day goes by when I didn't think about how this affected Krimm Co after the fact...especially after what you told me." Ares explained as the two of them walked through gray concrete walls.

"Okay so that makes sense..." Morrow mused as they walked through walking into the main control room once more

"The truth is, some things are hard to face again after everything that has happened after so long..." Ares explained. "We may have survived Hercules, but sometimes living with one's own mortality is difficult as it is." These words rang true to Morrow as he quietly thought to himself about everything that has happened since he left Krimm Co., meeting the blues, getting tangled up with O'Malley and Wyoming, facing the reds...all these things happened in such a short time he never thought about how his old project thought about the death of their best team...let alone what his closest friends thought either...he then remembered what his oldest friends Corey said to him.
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"I...I understand, as much as I don't want to see you do this anymore...I can see why you still wanna fight."
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"I can understand that." Morrow said "I never thought about everyone else...I was too focused on myself." Morrow admitted

"Well I'm glad you see it from more than just your perspective." Ares said with a smile as he walked with him up to the main control computer, kneeling down to pick up the gun and grenade he dropped earlier when he thought Morrow was some random intruder he then sighed with a soft smile. "heh..all these memories I tell ya...that reminds me actually, you remember what Hades always said about memories?" Ares asked looking over his gun as he holstered his grenade

"Uhh...yeah, that memories work in strange ways, they aren't just the past, what happens in the now is a memory too." Morrow recalled

"Well, that's the thing about memories though, even though they keep going up...sometimes they come back...sometimes they're good...other times they're bad...and sometimes...they bite you in the ass cause you forget about one little thing..." Ares stated as his tone of voice changed as he stated that last line before quickly rising to his feet, jerking his body around as he shot his gun right into Morrow's right shoulder, Morrow's body jerking as he felt the bullet graze his shoulder right where his armor wasn't protecting anything...he then looked to the man holding the smoking gun

"A-Ares...?" Morrow muttered as his body wobbled in three different directions before he quickly fell to his knees and then onto the shoulder that was currently bleeding

"It's amazing how much bullcrap he spewed about legacy and keeping memories alive...which is why it was all the more sweeter to shoot him through the head when he caught onto what we were doing." Ares said as his tone of voice changed from sympathetic to unapologetic

"Y-You...You..." Morrow gasped as he tried to push himself up before Ares kicked him down to the floor pressing his foot onto his bleeding shoulder as Morrow cried out in pain and discomfort

"Yes yes, I know, it was so unexpected to find out the two bodies that were never recovered were what caused the whole squad to fall...but here's the thing Morrow...you have a serious problem of reading the goddamn room..." he revealed coldly "you think I'm happy to know your alive?!! You should've died in the damn fire! And the fact that you're still alive just proves we still have to deal with your bullshit about truth and honor! When you don't even know the truth to begin with!" Ares roared as he dug his heel into Morrow's wound. The young Spartan groaned as he tried to push him off. "I'm going to enjoy watching you die..." he smirked evilly under his helmet as he kept grinding his foot down "It's what Dio would've wanted too...and to think...the young hotshot was the one to survive..." Ares said as he pointed his gun at Morrow's head, right between the eyes of his helmet.

Was this truly the end of the young Spartan? His whole world just got rocked because someone who he thought he could confide in, turned out to be an accomplice to the great tragedy of all of his anguish and sorrow...

A million different thoughts ran through Morrow's mind...would he ever get the chance to patch things up with Church? Would he ever get to say goodbye to people like Cass and Tex? But the major question of all these rapid fire thoughts was...why...why does this have to happen to him...and why did it have to be from someone he thought was his family...he then closed his eyes as he hoped for the worst of all of this to be over...he heard a click, and readied himself to fall right then and there...

that was until he heard the impact of a punch and the grumble of his so called "Killer" as the weight of his shoulder fell off Morrow the slowly opened his eyes seeing Ares knocked out above his head as he turned his gaze to a different figure, once his vision was clear he saw a tan and blue colored armored soldier lean down and helped Morrow to his feet, leaning him against a wall, still dazed and confused he tried to get up, only to fall unconscious from the wound and the adrenaline wearing off as everything started to blur once more.