Author's Note:

Okay, this one is a bit 'different', even for me. It involves a character death, but with a twist. Please don't ask me to categorize it any further, because I have no idea what to tell you. LOL

This is a one-shot, and pretty short compared to my other stuff. Still, I hope you like it. Feedback is always welcome. :o)

Summary:

When you work as a team, it doesn't matter where you are or what happens to you as an individual. The important thing is that you have your team around you when all is said and done. -o- caution: character death inside -o-

Back on the Team

She saw Brandt running at top-speed, as he was being fired upon by the pack of soldiers that was chasing him across the yard.

She saw Benji, hiding behind a rain barrel on the other side of the villa, unnoticed so far, and frantically typing commands into his laptop to override the locks between them and their only way out of what had quickly become a death-trap.

She saw Ethan, sprinting along the edge of the roof of the villa, in a desperate attempt to get down from where he had been about to infiltrate the first floor.

And she saw herself, lying dead in the middle of the yard, where she had been hit and killed by a bullet from one of the soldiers.

That had happened about thirty seconds ago.

She had just made a turn to call out a warning to her guys, shouting at them that they had been found out, that there were soldiers lying in wait for them.

She had gotten out one word.

Before her breath had been taken away by a hollow-point bullet going straight through her heart, taking her out instantly.

Still, she could hear Ethan's shout, as he looked down in shock just in time to watch her collapse.

She also heard Brandt's yell, as he let go of the door handle he had been about to push down, to enter the villa on ground-level.

And she could see Benji's panicked lunge for his laptop, when he saw the security perimeters around the villa suddenly all lock down.

Benji managed to re-open the inner fence perimeter in time for Brandt to throw open the first security gate on his end of the yard. Benji wasn't in time to open the second one, as well.

She couldn't tell what came first after that.

Brandt crashing into the second, still locked gate, as his shoulder collided loudly with the immovable obstacle. Or the hail of bullets from the soldiers behind him finally catching up with him, keeping him in the air for about ten more seconds, before he heavily fell to the ground, bleeding from so many bullet holes it was hard to say which one actually killed him.

She could see that the soldiers had by now also noticed that someone was tempering with their gate locks.

It took them a moment to locate the source.

That moment was just enough time for Ethan to take an almost neck-breaking jump down the remaining height from the far edge of the villa's roof, land with a roll, pick up Benji by the back of his jacket, and physically yank him further behind the rain barrel just as bullets began striking the ground where Benji had kneeled only seconds ago.

In an angry burst of bullets, Ethan returned fire immediately, if only to stop the enemy from simply overrunning their temporary hiding place.

She could see Benji yelling out as he succeeded in bringing down all security locks once more. But she could also see Ethan's grimace as he told Benji that open doors weren't any help to them as long as they could not move across the yard to get to them.

She could see Brandt looking at her now. He asked her if there was anything he could do to help.

She knew there wasn't.

So they both watched.

The saw Ethan coming to a decision.

With his gun still in his right hand, with his left he reached into the pack on his back, pulling out four small metallic objects and one small square package. He then turned to Benji, who had by now exchanged his laptop for his own gun, and they both looked at each other with tense expressions.

Benji was told that whatever happened, he was to keep running once they started moving. Benji gulped, but acknowledged that he understood. Ethan then took two deep breaths.

And then they moved.

With a burst of speed, Ethan was out of their cover spot before the first soldier even aimed a gun at them. By the time the soldiers started firing at them, Ethan had already lobbed the first grenade into the midst of their opponents. By the time Ethan felt the first bullet tear through his shoulder, a loud explosion rocked the yard, taking out a good number of soldiers between them and their exit.

Benji kept firing his gun, trying to take out as many soldiers as he could without lagging behind Ethan. Ethan himself kept alternating between firing his own gun and throwing another grenade.

Ethan had just thrown the third one, when he was hit again, this time in the side, hard enough to make him stumble and almost fall. He kept upright by sheer force of will, pulling Benji further as he kept on running. Then, seeing their exit gate unmanned, open and close enough to chance it, Ethan pushed Benji ahead of himself, as he himself turned around to throw the last grenade.

Jane saw that the soldiers were already dangerously close to them.

Brandt could see that Ethan was in no shape to keep running after Benji for much longer.

Benji never saw what happened behind him, but he heard several shots from Ethan's gun in close succession and then - an explosion.

Close enough to make Benji stumble from the shock wave.

When Benji scrambled back to his feet, he saw that the area before the narrow passage-way he himself had just run through was now no longer in existence. In its place was a scene of destruction. Beyond that there were numerous soldiers scattered around, either lying dead on the ground or dazed, but none of them were in any shape to come after him anymore.

That's when Benji realized that Ethan had never followed him through the last perimeter gate.

For a moment, that knowledge, combined with the memory of having seen Brandt and Jane fall earlier, made Benji hesitate.

Just for a second.

It was that second that cost him his life, as three more bullets whizzed through the air, this time coming from the direction of the street ahead, all of them hitting Benji high in the chest.

Ethan wished he could have warned Benji. He had spotted the lone sniper on the other side of the road a full two seconds before the shots were fired. But like Jane and Brandt, Ethan was now condemned to watching.

So they watched, as Benji, too, succumbed to his wounds.

And then they all watched as a final, much larger explosion took out the entire villa, as the little square package that Ethan had left behind, blew exactly at the moment that the timer was up.

It was a fitting sight.

For all that had been lost there that day, none of them had gone quietly.

And when all was said and done, it simply came down to one thing:

They were all back on the same team.

Even if, from here on in, they would now play to a different set of rules.

But that had never bothered them.

And who said those new rules would keep them? There had to be loopholes, right?

THE END