My Mission to You (Simon "Ghost" Riley x Reader)

obligations in unison

- Ghost's pov -

Her peer was at the concrete wall to her left as she sat silently, the sound of her breathing being impossible to hear. 

I looked down at my hands, shaky and bloody but unscratched. I wanted to convince myself that I had gone too far, but deep down, the bastards knew just as well as I did that they deserved punishment. I took a moment to look around the room for the twentieth time: the metal table we sat at, the empty and chilling concrete walls, the one-way window, and the single blinding light above.

The door to the room opened, and Shephard came in looking outraged. He slammed his hands down on the table and got close to my face, close enough for me to smell his lunch. His wife's potato salad. And a coke.

"Do you have any idea what you've done, Riley?"

She looked up now, meeting my eyes. You could almost see the new wave of knowledge washing over her.

With a loud "tch", Shephard pushed himself off the table and faced away from it, rubbing his chin with a hand on his hip.

"Those two men you attacked were sons of a United States senator who just happened to be one of our biggest military funding supports," Shephard said with an angry whisper. "You could have put everything on the line for our program over a stupid girl." 

My eye twitched. I barely met the woman and to say I would do something like that for her was ridiculous. However, she was a part of my task force. I would've done the same if it had been Soap or one of the other guys to get attacked. Sandoval was not getting any special treatment. 

"One of the brothers is in the hospital and expected to make a quick recovery. The other has 13 broken bones," Shephard spoke.

13? Shame, I had gone easy on them.

Shephard now turned to look at Sandoval, "Luckily, neither of them pressed charges on you too, so the Senator might just overlook this."

To be honest, relief blessed me at the moment, because the defunding of the program on my account would cost me and my buddies a job, and in that case, I would feel nothing but hollow guilt.

"However," Shephard continued, now looking at me, "this little rage-out isn't going unnoticed by me. So, as your punishment, you will be sent to Los Zetas, Mexico to seek out the drug mob, and before any feedback-" Shephard put his hand up as Sandoval opened her mouth to speak, "this is a final decision. Your goal is to be the brawn and battle, no investigations, let the FBI take care of that. Be warned, these men have access to a crazy amount of ammunition and weapons, so the risk of you getting hurt is almost definite. Any questions?" 

Sandoval looked like she was ready to jump out of her seat, "The Mexican mob, much more the one is Los Zetas, has never been fully captured, sir. It's impossible, the number of disposable soldiers and weapons they have-" 

Shephard interrupted, "I made it clear that this choice was already finalized, Ms. Sandoval. Your mission has been made clear, and any other *necessary* information will be provided to your force team, is that clear?"

"Yes sir, but-"

Shephard was already out of the door, leaving it open to let us know we could leave too. Sandoval stared at the table, shocked. She knew things I did not about Los Zetas, I could tell, but the information seemed to scare even herself.

I rose from my seat and walked out the door, feeling Sandoval follow closely behind me. Leaving the main building, we found groups of men gathered. It was just past 0900, so they had just received their force team groups.

"Let's let them know," I said as Sandoval came to stand next to me. We walked over to our force team, where Soap and Alejandro immediately questioned where we were and what we were doing, but I held a hand up to silence them, and moved that hand to Sandoval, allowing her to speak.

"We're fucked."