~ three

Culty Evil Leader Guy with Antlers - "First tell us all then.  Why do you betray your own for ours.  Make us a believer."

Ghost - Looks around without emotion, then back to the buck.  "Do you know what it means to be disavowed ?"

Buck - "Among our kind it means I think to be 'blacklisted'."

Ghost - "Yeah.  Well among mine it means being so good at what you do, you get the kinds of jobs you always wanted."  Looks at the clear elder, then back to the buck, "Which means secret ops.  Black ops."  He examines the jawline under the antlers, "Which means ... "

Buck - "Disavowed."

Ghost - "It means forgotten.  No paper trail.  No pension.  No glory.  Nothing you did ever mattered, no one ever even knows and those who do will never speak of it.  I have done things."

Buck - "Circles walking, "And you will do these things for us ?"

Ghost - Looks up at the moon, marking where the tree meets it.  "You know it's like with the CIA.  So many go rogue because they have all these assets in play.  Undercover connections in every operation even you could dream of.  And then they're just supposed to ... retire.  With no money.  Disavowed.

"So they go homeless.  Beggars.  You will never know the things that broken man you pass on the street, has done.  Nor how honorably he did it."

Buck - "And none of it mattered at all.  You know.  My father was a once lord of this council.  But he betrayed us.

"And even though he died in this very circle by my very own hands, even after I faced down the furies for my own blood crimes, my family name still lay in his disgrace.  Blacklisted.  Disavowed.  I had to earn my way back. 

"Piece by piece and piece by piece I did.  And now, I am the prime inheritor.  Smiles over his shoulder, "From a man who despises me."  Notes that elder's discomfort and returns to Ghost, "So I understand, starting over.  You would be my hand."

"But first, trust.  We've verified everyone's currently on mission, your base near empty.  And like you said, only your commander remains and we will take it now.  We've already sent our best.  All of them.

"But empty, means not knowing.  Where did they go ?"

Ghost - Looks up at the moon having passed just that bit ... "Pretty sure it was to go fuck your mother's daughter's sister's cousin-wife twice removed from a two bit fucking man-whore traitor son of a bitch you called 'daddy', you inbred fucking freak. 

"Fat bitch has one serious fucking appetite."

One of the sacrifices snickers from the tree ties, the nearby elder gives a glare over the shoulder.
____________

Ghost - Sitting in the infirmary with the doctor and the chief, "Exactly how far up my ass would a tracker have to go to be undetectable ?"

The chief and doctor give each other a look.

The buck hits him across the face hard one punch after the other with an animal fury but honestly kind of a gimp arm ... as the AC-130 flies low over the city's clock tower with a storm front spinning in its immediate wake to hide from radar and report.

Another punch across the face, Ghost seen laughing a response which makes the buck more mad, another sacrifice breaks out laughing cold while an elder hides the snicker from the judgement of others.

Inside all forty wait with parachutes on, two jeeps with mounted guns on their pallets, drivers inside checking systems.  The elders note the distant lightning.

The rain drops on them all suddenly, all torches go out and passes just as face.  On board the plane the NV goes on, everyone readying for the hunt as MK44's  from the AC-130 start to fire.

Back hatch dropping down at the hard turn angle, the parachutes start dropping to surround the grounds, cannons working the castle, drenched security now in a panic response.

As the city floods under the twirling winds ~

Blind and pointless shots at dropping chutes, soldiers firing back to cover their landing.  And when the last touch down and the gunship departs with the storm, the buck puts an ego sized gun to Ghost's head.

Buck - "Well at least one thing stands true about you.  Your name."

Ghost - Looks back to the buck from the sight of a collapsing castle, and with a laugh to the gun's oversized barrel.  "Do you actually fuck you mother with that complex ?"

A wince of rage about to pull before the gun's shot out of his hand, then an antler shot off, taking the mask with it, an enraged boy of a man underneath, he turns in a glaring rage to run for the trees with the rest.

It's a lot like a fox hunt.

Among the most horrific of what humankind has to offer, creatures who have done things so despairingly unreal, no one could believe human beings could even exist under the mask.

Animals in the woods, twisted effigies of nature but only the one unmasked in Lord of the Flies.  He watches an elder fall as a squad floods them, another in another.

 

But the she-bird creature of a thing still hiding her identity makes do with a blade held for the ceremony, etched with the symbols of a Solomonian sacrifice. 

This one a survivor, she knows the difference between practitioners, these tools are hard to make.  To be forged by its own user, she watches as another falls by the gun, whose blade was far too manufactured.

Their lack of concern for a nearby elder's fall, the flash in their eyes and a wicked smile displays their shared belief that this is evolution.  And if they can survive it, they will rule in these fallen stead all around them who they already know to fail.

They lay low using them for cover to escape with a push of the last into a hail of bullets before the bush.  Fast and agile.
________________

A red light flashes on the chief's desk, in the window behind a parachute problem of his own.  A grin as the compound grates over the windows slam shut, all doors plated over but the front double doors which swing wide open.

~ In the woods the hunt continues, runners are chased down by jeeps until forced into tighter packs of thicker trees before the grenade, the tank finishes the castle.

The chief checks his goggles and flexes the control glove, a map displays on the floor in front of him with footage from cameras popping to relevant screens.

Small enough to be worn as any glove with wires up the sleeve to the headset, he checks the pistol in the other hand before the doors in front of him fly open to the intruders' surprise, a small squad of four.

If noticed they all have a similar appearance to his own team, as well as the same overall count.

~ Accentuated by their likenesses in the woods doing what they came to do.

While in the hall they fall with lights going out, the slamming shut of the front door and plated over. 

NV clicks on and he hunts them one by one and teams of four until a final shot from their commander, another old man, stops him.  Looming over for the final shot ~

Bad Guy - "You were good ... but"

Chief - "Oh fuck off."  Clicks a bad red button on a detonator switch, and the exploding begins ... he looks back and the chief is gone.

Outside the compound a series of explosions through seen by a guy who looks kinda like Ghost before he covers from the debris.  Stands again and calls it in.
____________

Monroe stands with the new governor on the edge of a cliff and in a tuxedo, red rose in his lapel, herself in funerary holding another dozen under a lace trimmed hat dangling low.

Gov - "This my final act, will finally prove my love to you, you ask for anything and prove it to you with you my life.  My love.  For you.  My wife."

Monroe - Smiles the very red lipstick, "I do."

She kisses her finger and puts it to his lips as he closes his eyes in ecstasy, slowly letting himself fall backward to the rocks below.  A pause to smell the roses, she tosses them over the cliff then followed by the hat. 

The wig and the dress leaving another short dress beneath a bob, peels off the old face and drops it the duffel with the rest, leaving the real one unseen as she walks away.

(mid credits)

Elsewhere in the world, Emilio and Libra stumble home laughing with bottles of champagne past a low key compound with two guards at the door.

Emilio - Laughing hard, "I'm saying ... I just don't, fucking believe, that you, can do that !"  Drinks.  "No fucking way.  Proof and pudding, baby."

Libra - Laughing with, "Fine."  Drinks.  "Hold this."  Slams the bottle to his chest and turns to the guards as she tears her skirt slit high.  "Boys, will you settle something for me ?" 

Leaping forward to a hand stand doing the splits, she cocks her arms bobbing her (while making a gun-cocking sound) and pops both their heads with her shot gun heels.

(after credits)

Slamming the rest, they flip the bottles to club with, while peeping through the door's window at the noisy but tired response.

Emilio - "Just remember it takes no less than six hits across average skulls, before it breaks."

Libra - "Bullshit.  Try three."

Gives her a look like's she's insane, they enter and heard from outside some beating sounds (Libra heard "Break damn you !") before the breaking pop of bottle sounds ... a couple of screams, a little bit of begging ... and then silence.

Libra - Still heard from outside, "Oh.  My.  God."

Emilio - "This ... practically proves the entire operation."

Two car doors slam, an engine roars before a cheese-ball red Lamborghini from the 80's breaks through the garage doors before screeching away laughing.

Static to the news, a neighbor stands outside the wrecked mansion while the bodies are dug out.

Neighbor - "The crazy Americans ?  Oh yeah they ded."  Static out.