Chapter Text
You had one mission. Track down Hassan Zyani and his men and take them down at all costs. You were deployed in Al Mazrah, following the assassination of General Ghorbrani during an arms deal. Intel received noted there was reason to believe Hassan had fled the area and your job was to find him before he got too far. You were dressed as unassumingly as possible, the mission required you to slip in without being noticed. But as you and your team came upon a district where he was believed to be hiding, you were compromised and fell into heavy enemy resistance. Just as you thought your team would have to retreat, another Task Force showed up as back up. But what should have been a victory turned quickly into a nightmare for you.
"Get out, get out, get out!" Your Lieutenant shouted into your earpiece.
Bullets rained around you as you tried desperately to escape. He shouted the direction towards your team but just as found the building you needed to get to, you felt a blinding pain hit your back. You fell forward and dust filled your mouth, making you cough. You rolled over on your back. Your vision blurry, a man eclipsed the sun as he stood over you. He wore a familiar uniform and as you opened your mouth to tell him you were an ally, he grabbed the front of your uniform and lifted you up.
"Tell me which way he went!" The man shouted in a thick accent you didn't recognize.
"I don't know. I-" You coughed. He dropped you again, not waiting for you answer, and rolled you over on your stomach. You realized in a panic he had you pinned to the ground.
“I can make you talk.” He growled in your ear.
You could feel the deep vibrations from his voice in his chest on your back as he used his weight to pin you. You couldn't breathe. Something cool and sharp touched your neck. You tried in vain to wiggle out from under him but you were losing precious oxygen. His shifted his weight as he laid on you and you could feel the edges of your vision going black.
“Tell me, where are they?” He demanded again, pressing the blade harder against your throat.
You opened your mouth but nothing would come out. Then you felt a sharp sting as the blade broke skin and everything went dark.
. . .
Ow, my head.
Your eyes fluttered open lazily. You were on your side on a cot in an unfamiliar room. You sat upright like a bolt of lightning.
Too fast.
A wave of nausea came over you and your head started pounding. You felt pressure on your wrists and looked down. They were bruised, seemingly from being tied. You don’t remember being tied up. The last thing you remember was the huge dude trying to cut your neck open. You placed your fingertips to your throat and felt a long scab. Great. As the fuzziness in your head started to subside as you got your bearings, you took stock of your situation. You recognized the layout of this room and realized it wasn’t enemy. Wait, were you being held prisoner? The room seemed to be lived in. Not much, of course. But there was a desk and a few pieces of tac gear placed neatly on the floor. The bed you were on was an actual bed, with a standard military issued hardwood mattress of course but a bed nonetheless.
You got up and wandered around the room. Checking doors and the desk, anything for any indication of where you were. You checked a small closet and saw one jacket hanging in it, dirty and covered in old blood. The patch on the sleeve was European, Austria maybe? You weren’t sure but it seemed to be issued by KorTac. So, one of two things happened. Either you were being held hostage or you somehow got away from that crazy man and someone found you. You swallowed and felt a sting on your throat, a reminder you were in fact not just having a nightmare. Heavy footsteps sounded outside the door and every nerve in your body went into defense. You stepped backwards, feeling your back press into the wall and the doorknob slowly twisted. Your eyes scanned the floor in front of you as quickly as possible. No gun. Shit.
The door opened and a mountain of a man stepped in, head completely covered with a sniper hood. He first looked at the bed then his eyes scanned the room where they finally rested on you. You were frozen. Completely out of options if he was going to attack you. You blinked back tears threatening to spill from panic.
“You’re awake.” He spoke softly.
“Who… who are you?” You stammered out, unblinking as the two of you stared at each other.
“I am König.” He answered, raising his hands to show he meant no harm.
You let out a breath you didn’t know you had been holding but every muscle fiber was still tense, ready for any sudden movement he might make. He had an accent but you really couldn’t tell what it was. He kept his hands up, unmoving, as you moved slightly to get a glimpse of the patch on his sleeve. Austrian. So this room belonged to him.
“Where am I?”
“You are safe here.” His voice surprisingly quiet, given his stature.
“Where am I?” You repeated.
“I cannot tell you where specifically but I promise you are safe.”
Just as he spoke another man came up behind him. This man was not as big as König but was still huge compared to you. He wore all black with a white skeleton mask covering most of his face, a black mask covering the lower half.
“Oh she’s awake?” He spoke in an English accent. “You alright?”
Were you okay? Were you okay? The question sounded preposterous. Of course you weren’t okay. Your eyes darted between the two men as the second one came closer, hands held up like the first man’s.
“Call me Ghost, alright? You’re safe now.”
“There… there was a man. I thought he was going to kill me.” You finally choked out.
The second man, Ghost, let out a long sigh and glanced back at König. König’s hands remained up but he dropped his gaze to the floor. Ghost shook his head, turning back around to face you.
“There was a problem.”
“A problem?”
“We thought you were somebody else.” He answered and your jaw nearly dropped open in shock.
“You what? What kind of-”
“It was me.” König answered before you could finish your question. He could not meet your gaze as he continued to stare at the floor.
“You…?” You shook your head in disbelief. “I don’t even know you. I don’t know either of you. I was just carrying out my orders!”
“I know, I know. This isn’t your fault, it’s his.” Ghost nodded his head back towards König who finally dropped his head.
And oh, you were pissed. You were so pissed that this man had not only attacked you and tried to kill you but you were on the same side?! You had no idea who either of these men were. Ghost placed a hand on your shoulder, gripping it lightly and you finally felt yourself relaxing just a little. You were on the same side and that's all you needed to know to trust him. You glared a hole through König before shifting your focus back to Ghost.
“Can I at least know what's going on?”
“Of course, c’mon. We need to let you see the doc anyway.”
Ghost turned and you followed closely behind, eyes never leaving the huge man who stood beside the doorway.
“You need to explain yourself.” Ghost ordered the taller man as he passed him. König nodded quietly.
You stared at him too as you passed him but he only continued looking away, avoiding eye contact. You were led through a rather large building as you followed Ghost. You figured this must be a bunker of sorts where they stay. You wondered how many people were on this team and how long they had been here. Why had you never heard of them or seen them before? Were you even still in Al Mazrah? A million thoughts swirled your head until you finally reached a small room where who you presumed to be the medic was sitting, reading a book. Ghost explained that you had been unconscious for some and the old medic’s eyebrows lifted. He felt your head for bumps, made you close one eye and say how many fingers he was holding up, shone a bright light in your eyes and asked generic questions. He poked at the cut on your neck and you held back a curse as he rubbed stinging ointment on it. An infection on your neck could be very dangerous, he explained. After asking about a million different questions about your lingering headache he cleared you and you got the hell out of there before he had a chance to fuss over anything else.
Ghost led you out to what appeared to be an intel reconnaissance area. Monitors lined the wall and there were shelves full to bursting with books and folders. Should you really be here? Ghost pulled out a seat at a round table and motioned for you to sit. You obliged and he took the seat across from you, placing his folded hands on the table.
“So… what do you want to know?”
“Where am I first of all.” You blurted out.
“A classified base. Our classified base to be exact. No I can’t give you the exact location but we’re still in Al Mazrah.”
You blinked a couple times. Well at least you hadn’t been hauled off to some remote location.
“You want to tell me why your boy tried to kill me?” You asked, raising a brow. Ghost scoffed, sitting back in his chair.
“I really should let him tell you. That’s his mess to clean up. But it very much was a mistake and I am deeply sorry.”
The only thing you could see was his eyes. You wavered as you considered the validity of this. He leaned forward again, eyes completely locked onto yours.
“I mean it. This should have never happened but we’ll make it right.” He stood up. “Please wait here.”
A few moments later Ghost returned, with König in tow. You immediately began to squirm, sitting upright as you eyed the man suspiciously. Every alarm in your head was pinging at you to get up and leave but Ghost gave you a reassuring look as König sat down in front of you. Even sitting he dwarfed you.
“I’ll let him explain everything to you. Come find me if you need me.” Ghost nodded at you before turning to leave.
You watched his back until it was no longer visible before shifting your focus back to König. Like before, he looked down at the table to avoid your gaze. The silence was deafening as neither of you spoke. You were sure he could hear your heart pounding from across the table.
“I’m sorry.”.
“What?” You did not hear his quiet voice and leaned a little closer.
“I am sorry for what I did to you.” He answered a little more loudly and finally looked up at you.
Like Ghost, only his eyes were visible. His eyes were pale blue and round, surprisingly soft even. They appeared to be begging you to believe he was sincere. You sat stunned into silence for a moment. This was all so much to take in at once. It was starting to make your head hurt again. You winced slightly and he shifted a little in his seat.
“Can I get you anything? Water or..?”
“Uh, no. I think I’m okay.” You answered, eyeing him warily.
And you felt some sort of weird disconnect happening here. You absolutely believe that this man was the one who had grabbed you, threatened you and pressed a blade to your neck. But it was also kind of hard to imagine given his demeanor in front of you. If anything he seemed mortified by what he had done. You were struggling between wanting to stay pissed at him because every cell in your body was telling you that this stranger was still a threat and wanting to believe he had just royally fucked up and really felt bad about it. Either way, you were on the same side probably after the same thing so it wouldn’t make sense to believe he would still hurt you if he wanted to.
“Who… are you guys exactly?” You asked finally.
“We are Task Force 141. We are on the same side.” He confirmed, almost as if he could read your mind.
“And what, am I being held prisoner now or something.”
“No, not at all.” He answered quietly, looking away again.
“Then why did you attack me?”
He fully looked away now, shamed glossing over his eyes.
“We… were on a mission. I cannot tell you what specifically, but I was told to clear the area of hostiles at all costs. I had gotten word that one of our own was kidnapped. I did not recognize your uniform so I thought…” He trailed off again, looking down at his gloves as he pulled on a loose string.
And yeah, that kind of made sense you guess. You would go berserk too if you thought one of your teammates had been taken. And you really had been undercover. Perhaps this man was more muscle than brains. You figured your team would have stepped in and... oh man, your team.
“Does my team know where I am?”
“Yes. Ghost found your radiocom and told them you would be with us.”
You nodded, processing all of this information as best you could. This was just… a lot to take in.
“So will they come get me?”
König sat still for a moment before giving the tiniest shake of his head.
“I am afraid we were compromised and retreated once I realized,” his eyes traveled down to your neck then away again quickly, “what I had done.”
So you were stuck here. Panic began to bubble up in your chest. König seemed to notice this rather quickly and got up, coming around the table to kneel beside you. Even kneeling he only barely looked up at you as he searched your face desperately.
“I am so sorry. This should have never happened and it is nobody's fault but my own. I take full responsibility.” He placed a hand gently on your shoulder. It felt like it was shaking a little. “You are safe here, I promise. I will never do anything to hurt you ever again.”
He almost sounded as if he were pleading. You weren’t really sure why you did it, maybe your brain was finally breaking under stress, but you felt yourself turning towards him and circling your arms around him. You let your face sink into his chest. Without hesitation his arms circled around you and he lowered his head to rest on yours. Something about being engulfed in this man’s arms comforted you and you felt the tears that had been threatening to fall finally spill onto your cheeks.
“I’ve got you.” He whispered, running a hand up and down your back. "You are safe with me. I will not let anything happen to you."