'Rising Sun'

Three Months later, Month 4

Erin Tanili

Rogue

13 miles from Moscow

Price's eyes widen as he looks from us to the radio in his hand in alarm. "What?" he screams, voicing the rest of our opinions on this situation.

Mactavish swears under his breath, loading a fresh mag into his gun. Quietly I drift over to Ghost with a petrified look plastered on my face. "How long till they reach this room?" Price demands into the radio, assessing the situation.

"Less than five minutes, my friends! I suggest you get the hell out of there!" Nikolai reports in.

Price replaces the radio on his persons and slaps a new mag into his gun. "Alright, gear up. We're moving out." Mactavish orders, checking the hall for any incoming shadow company soldiers.

Ghost looks at the pistol in his hands, "OK, but I'm down to only 4 clips." He states pessimistically. I scratch the back of my head, too embarrassed to tell them I have either managed to loose my guns or use up the ammo.

Mactavish shares a look with Price before looking at me. He picks up a gun from a dead Russian and tosses it at me. I catch it with both of my hands and swear sharply under my breath as the gun hits my injured hand. "Use that for now. If lucks on our side, you won't need to shoot." Mactavish states, rushing through his explanation, "Now let's move."

I quietly nod and we start off. Price leads the group out and down the hall to the right at a light jog. Mactavish covers our backs and I try my best to keep up with Ghost. Shots are fired from behind us, ricocheting off the walls and ceilings. I crouch and run to avoid getting hit as Mactavish and Ghost shoot at our attackers while continuing to run. Mactavish suddenly trips, falling onto the ground. Ghost doubles-back to provide cover fire for his down friend. I stop and look from them to Price who's still running. "Price! Mactavish is down!" I yell to the older man, ducking as a bullet whizzes past my head.

Price skids to a stop and glances back quickly. "Ghost knows what he's doing. That's all the help he needs. We need to keep going!" he orders, urgency in his British accented voice as he continues to run now but at a faster pace.

I gulp and follow his order, running after him to try and catch up. Something tells me we're gonna get an earful about leaving them behind soon. A couple minutes later, Mactavish and Ghost have caught up with Price and me when we stopped to wait for them. "Thanks guys, we totally didn't need ANY help back there!" Mactavish growls sarcastically.

What did I tell you. I roll my eyes, ducking to avoid a stray bullet. "Don't thank me, Mr. Leprechaun, thank Price over there for suggesting that you guys were perfectly fine." I answer back snootily.

Eventually, after winding hallway after hallway and up countless stairs, we enter the roof. Nikolai's helicopter sits a short distance away, the Russian already starting up the helicopter's blades. Halfway into our dash to the helicopter, bullets hit the ground near our fear. Mactavish swears colorfully and swings back around to lay down cover fire. Ghost stops abruptly, adding to the cover fire. He grits his teeth, "Mac, we don't have the time or the resources to hold them all off!" Ghost yells starkly, changing clips in his gun, "Last mag!"

Price has made it to the helicopter but turns to face the on coming army and Mactavish who's gearing to kill every last one of them for destroying his team. "Soap! Get you ass in gear and stop trying to be a hero!" The old Brit calls out. Mactavish growls before he nods and picks up the pace as the rest of us climb in the helicopter.

The Scotsman lets out a final burst of shots before scrambling into the slowly ascending helicopter. With the confirmation of Mactavish's presence on the helicopter, Nikolai takes the helicopter up and flies it out, narrowly avoiding RPG fire.

Once we're out of Russia's boarder, we all breathe a little easier. I sit next to Ghost and Mactavish, silence evoking us. Price has taken up the shot gun seat and sits in reflection as eh stares out over the clouds. Sometime between take-off to our current position somewhere over the Ukraine, Mactavish bandaged my hand. I look over it, glad to have it be my left and that was injured and not my dominant right. My eyes slips up away from my hand and widen as they catch the gorgeous sight of the rising sun. The darken clouds have turned from their usual dark grey dye to a lovely red-ish purple that would soon flower out into the white ocean of clouds and blue sky. I sigh and lean my head back against the wall, rubbing a hand across my face. It's over…Jesus Christ, it's over! I almost don't believe my own thought, but the proof was self evident. Shepard was dead, Russia was loosing the war-signaling the obvious fact that the end of the war is fast approaching, and Makarov is finally dead.

But at what cost? I thought negatively. Killing people, hurting those closest to you and inevitably loosing your self…In the end, was it truly worth it? I pause and glance up at Ghost and smile softly. Yes, in a sort of twisted way, yes. Because I know now what I didn't before, I know a lot but mostly I know who I can trust.

He notices me looking and turns his head to me, returning my smile. "What's got you smiling?" he asks bemused.

I let a smirk overtake my soft smile. "Nothing. Just thoughts and memories." I said quietly, moving close to him to rest my head on his shoulder. I gaze out of the window at the rising sun. I remember, back three months ago, how I had taken in the new moon and applied the meaning of it being the start of a new, dark beginning in regards to my time with Makarov's team.

Now, as I look out on the newly risen sun, I feel a new sense of hope set in. A hope that things will return to normal, a hope that all the chaos is done and a hope for tomorrow.

For now, I can walk away from the game and cash in my chips. After such a long, stressful round, I come out as the winner in this chance driven game known as life.

A word of advice. Life is much like a game of Russian roulette. You can either dodge the bullet or get hit head on. There is no leeway; there are no do-overs, what you get it what you get.

So good luck, you're going to need it.

Epilogue

Months have passed since Makarov's death. A lot has happened. I almost don't know where to begin. But I guess it's best to start with the beginning. Once Nikolai landed us in the United States, we were apprehended for treason in regards to defiling Shepard and ultimately killing him. (Though, as I'd like to point out, I had nothing to do with the latter. I may have brought the files to Makarov and weeded the truth of Shepard's location, but that was all simply circumstantial evidence.)

And so, the trial of the century started. It was quite a fiasco; both sides pleaded their cases very hotly. But in the end the flash drive, given to me by Makarov, proved to be the solid piece of evidence needed to acquit us of all our charges.

I had my hand checked out once we hit state side, revealing the grim facts that my hand had suffered severed nerves. The doctors did their best to repair the nerves to a point. From there, I had been recovering and going to rehab to slowly regain the workings of my hand. It was a painfully slow process, but I eventually got back some of the use of my hand. I never gained back 100% of it, which pissed me off the most. Because of that fact, I wasn't able to return to my junior ROTC training. So it looks like the only job in the military I'd be eligible for would be a desk job. Wonderful…

After my recovery, I returned home to a hero's welcome which I honestly believe I didn't exist. It was good, though, to see my friends again-to see that they were OK. That's all I need to know. I don't need a hero's welcome when I look at them and know they understand what I've been through.

Soon after the trail, Mactavish and Price were put in charge of the newly formed international task force, named task force 324. Price jumped up to Lieutenant General of the forces, Mactavish ascended into colonel and Ghost was promoted to Major.

I've never seen anyone as happy as them in my whole life.

A couple months later and I find myself sitting on a park bench, over looking the soft waves of Lake Michigan as they roll up on the rocky coast. I've found myself coming to this spot more often, simply to sit and reflect. Most days, I sit there alone. Today is no different.

The light breeze coming off the lake rustles the leaves on the trees and blows through my hair lightly, causing me to shiver.

Cold winters…

I brush the hair out of my eyes and gaze up at the grey sky. Its strange, almost impossible, to think that war had ravaged America just a few months ago. I sigh, looking away from the dismal sky and instead choose to watch a leaf flutter across the ground. It's best I forget that, otherwise it'll be harder to move on with my life. A young couple passes by in front of me; the man hugs the girl close. They gaze into each other's eyes lovingly and are still able to walk along the path with ease.

I sigh, a pang of heart ache hitting me. Seeing couples like that makes me aware of my own relationship status. I turn away and look at the other side of the empty bench sadly. Ghost…oh how I miss him. I hope he's OK-wherever in the world he is. Someone approaches me, just out of my sight line. "This seat taken?" asks the man, hiding something in his voice.

I raise an eyebrow and sigh. "No, I'm afraid it's not." I start, glancing up at the new arrival but stop dead in my tracks when I see the familiar sharp green eyes and brown crew cut of Ghost. A wide smile crosses my face as I feel my heart nearly leap out of my chest. "Ghost! You son of a gun, do you always have to be so mysterious?" I laugh heartily.

Ghost smirks, taking up the empty part of the bench. "Yeah, I do. But that's why you love me." He said softly, placing an arm around my shoulder.

I sigh happily, moving in closer to him and laying my head on him. "Of course." I respond softly.

We sit together like this for a bit, staring out at the lake in silence. "How do I breathe when you're not by me?" I question quietly, sad undertones in my words.

Ghost shifts and draws my chin up to look at him. "Simple. Just breathe for me. That's the greatest gift you could possibly give me." He answers firmly.

I nod, smiling as I gaze up at him. "If that's my greatest gift to you, then do the same for me." I remark cunningly.

Ghost smirks, "As if anyone could stop me. Deal." He states, kissing me on the lips softly.

I sigh and lean against him, staring out across the lake. The sun has broken though the clouds, brightening up our surroundings. I smile, realizing that no matter how long the dark clouds casted over us, the sun would always break through.

Always.

For we believe in tomorrow, we believe in the hope of a better future. Future where evil men don't exist. That we all live happily ever after.

But that's not what life is. Life is divine chaos. Good exists because evil exists to show us what good isn't. So, we're stuck in perpetual war between good and evil. We walk a fine line between the two and must be careful not to be led into temptations. You have to seek the truth first then dare yourself to believe and avoid the death the dark holds.

Life has a crazy plan for us all and we have to try and keep sane while we're in it.

In the end, all we can really do is live in the moment and hope for tomorrow.

The End.

Author's note: *cue 'sweet victory' song from spongebob* Oh hell yeah. Finally, after more than a year of writing this, after countless ups and downs, Russian Roulette is finally over. There were many pit falls, story line misconceptions and brain farts, but that's all in past.

All that matters now is that it's finally over. Honestly, I can't believe it's over. I had some good times with writing this story and some times where I literally wanted to shoot myself. But in the end, it's good to see this story finally come to a close. Because, this was my last story involved in the Call of Duty franchise (Not including the stories I'm doing with Jacob, i.e. COD cribs, tale of roach). When you put most of your time and energy into writing a story like this, it really tires you out-mentally and physically. Plus doing another story like that previously, its pure mind suicide.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this story. I really appreciated every single review I got, especially the anonymous reviewers. Thank you all for taking the time to read and review my story. Even those who read but didn't leave a comment, thank you. :)

So, I guess this is it. It was great run. But everything must come to an end.

*salutes* Erin Peepsta, out.

(Virtual cookie for anyone who gets the multiple references at the end of this chapter.) :)