Dani Rojas, Jonron and Clara

Dani rode her horse down to the harbour, recalling Clara's instructions.

Your Mission is simple Rojas. Infiltrate the ship and destroy the Viviro shipment on board.

I will be watching you through the binoculars and will be ready to pick you up in a dinghy after you parachute off.

Galloping over the military checkpoint tossing a grenade back into it as she leapt over the tollbooth arm. It exploded behind her as she pushed on.

Riding through the empty harbour aiming for the docked Cargo ship looming over the tarmac piled high with red barrels of Viviro marked for export.

Clara saw Dani flying down the gangplank looking like a dashing conquistador. As Dani hurtled onto the ship, startled crewmen scattered. No one was expecting this!

Dani, still clinging to the horse, turned it hard left as she flung herself down against its flank. Riding down the ship's deck. She blasted Castillo's soldados left and right with her assault rifle as she thundered towards them. Clara was impressed

There is no stopping her.

By the time they aimed at her she had already trampled them.

At the front of the ship, she could ride no further thanks to the barrels and cargo crane. She planted her first pack of plastic explosives there.

Dani dove for cover and slapped the horse's side telling her to ride back, it didn't need telling twice. It sped away with ease following Dani's trail of bloodied corpses back over the gangplank.

The ship began to pull away from the dock and the horse jumped the gap.

"Shit! I gotta get to the captain before he gets away!" He would sail her away from Clara's escape boat or pull into Esperanza harbour. Which would be the lion's mouth; she could not fight her way out of that port! Dani had no choice but to fight her way across the other half of the ship.

No horse now but the stacks of barrels left only a small corridor against the ship's hull funnelling the soldiers into a simple trap. Dani cut through them one by one.

Still watching through the binoculars Clara admired Dani's stylish handiwork.

"Mmm Dani is so capable she has quickly become my best guerrilla. She has accomplished more than anyone else in such a short time."

Dani emptied her AK47, the gun rattling in her hand, dropping armoured goons one by one. They couldn't hit her behind her cover and had to keep stepping over their own fallen colleagues.

Like shooting fish in a barrel, Dani thought.

Dani eventually ran out of bullets so she tossed in a grenade.

By the time it detonated sending soldiers diving back in terror, she had vaulted the bollard and picked up one of their MP5's.

I have you now, pendejos.

They were feeling outnumbered and terrified, all stunned and bleeding from grenade shrapnel.

Dani began working her way through the last soldiers, no room for them to get a clear shot at her as she knifed one under the jaw, thick arterial blood fleeing through his mouth.

She pushed him into the next soldier. while he stumbled, she put the dagger through his chest, yanking him into it.

She hacked at the last soldier's neck and as she stumbled she helped him over the railings. looting his MG42, before tossing another package of C4 into the midst of the barrels of poison.

Dani ran up to the now unguarded cabin and cleared it out in one burst.

She climbed up the ladder to the gantry above the cabin.

She detonated the C-4.

Peeling apart the front of the ship and causing the Viviro to be rapidly devoured by encroaching infernos. Exploding in turn as the flames reached them.

Soldiers began to surface from hatches and on the decks hearing the explosions.

Dani began to shred the men surging up from the lower decks with belt fed death.

Dropping them as fast as they appeared.

Clara could not tear her eyes away; I have never seen one guerilla handle so many soldiers!

Dani had her own sniper's perch on top of the cabin, popping heads making sure no soldiers escaped the burning, sinking ship. Castillo's troops couldn't be allowed to wash up and cause more trouble. Dani would soon parachute to safety "just one more soldado!" She thought.

Dani had some breathing room now, though she could see helicopters buzzing in.

Like irritating mosquitos they wouldn't leave her alone. She pulled out her grenade launcher and pumped grenades down into the shipment of Castillo's poison. Planning to leap away as soon as the mission was complete. Every gallon they destroyed was money snatched from Castillo's grip.

The fires were still blazing as more barrels blew, the now familiar sound pleasing to Dani's ears..

The sound of progress! of freedom! She stayed making sure she destroyed every last one.

So many flames roaring up now she couldn't see the deck melting or barrels tumbling into the blazes below. The ship was veiled in smoke, but Dani was still visible in her bright yellow t-shirt rising above the chaos.

The captain's cabin is an island in a sea of flame. The flames finally reached the engine room. Causing the ships fuel tanks to blow in concordance with several volcanic fireballs.

Rippling along the ship and finishing it off.One final explosion sent Dani flying into oblivion.

"DANI!" Clara screamed.

The fireball engulfed the ship. The captain's cabin ripping apart like a frail toy.

Clara lingered waiting to see Dani wingsuit out of danger like always or show up on a boat of her own. Dani always found a way to escape danger by the skin of her teeth.

She couldn't really be in trouble?

Her fear began to build up. She was used to watching Dani scramble and find a way through but a heavy ball began to build in her stomach and her knees felt cold and weak.

She is really taking her time.

One final blast ripped through the air.

The ship was now a blazing skeleton sinking beneath the waves surrounded by an archipelago of smoking debris.

Nobody could have survived that she could feel the heat of the blaze from here.

Clara stared in horror. It couldn't be? Not Dani?"

The ship sank beneath the waves leaving only thousands of dark pieces of debris and fires and a pall of smoke. And a terrible realisation for Clara.

Dani was gone! Dead!

Clara was stunned by the strength of her grief.

She should be used to this. Guerrillas had given their lives for the cause so many times by now she had seen it over and over. watched people die far cheaper deaths.

But Dani had been a constant presence since she arrived reigniting their cause with as much fire as Clara. Now she is gone. It hit her harder than ever before. Harder even than the first guerrilla who had died on her watch.

She should be able to shrug it off, but she couldn't. She felt awful. mission accomplished and she still felt failure.

Clara realised how much Dani meant to her not just as her best guerrilla but as a friend, a fierce revolutionary spirit who was just like her.

With barely a moment's pause to think about what she was doing and risking. She drove her dinghy straight into the fiery storm of debris searching for Dani's corpse breaking her own rules. Not sure if she was looking for Dani or her body.

Becoming angrier and more forlorn as each drifting shape revealed itself to be a dead soldado or a lump of twisted railing.

Just when Clara had given up hope of even finding Dani's corpse

She found her floating face down.

It was a desperate struggle to pull Dani in. Clara was strong but Dani was a muscular woman too and all her clothes were soaked through while the sea kept slamming into the side of the dinghy. She heaved her over and began pumping her chest. Experience told her not to waste precious time checking for a pulse, Dani needed her now!

"Cmon Dani wake up!" she yelled thinking "I don't know what I'm going to do without you! You're everything to me and Libertad! "

Clara was the fiery spirit of the revolution, but she couldn't do any of this without her anymore.

She had to lean in and give her the kiss of life.

Putting her lips to hers. And filling her lungs with her own breath.

"Dani!" She tried one last time. At last Dani awoke and sat up sputtering, coughing out a mouthful of water and collapsed panting but very much awake and alive. Dani fell into a sitting position spread against the prow.

Clara stared flooded with relief, also now noticing how Dani's soaked t-shirt clung to her breasts and body. She can see all of Dani in perfect detail.

She had mere glimpses of Dani's rear and midriff and cleavage before, but she had simply put them to the back of her mind. but now the waterlogged shirt was exposing the lines of her breasts and her toned waist. She could almost see all of her tattoos.

Dani, still panting real breaths back into her lungs, looked up grinning with excitement and endorphins from her near-death experience. Giddy to be alive.

Her eyes focused on Clara's; I can't believe she saved me! To stick her own neck out like that! She knows the risks, if she got caught her fate would have been worse than death! She would have expected her to leave her.

While still in awe of this, heart pounding fast enough for the both of them, Clara running on adrenaline leaned in and kissed her.

Hard!

There was no mistaking this for the kiss of life, arms firing out and grabbing her.

Clara's fingers reaching up cradling Dani's hair and head.Dani's mouth was still full of brine, but Clara didn't care.

Dani's hand's reflexively drawn to Clara's body, holding her not caressing, not hugging but not pushing her off either.

It was hard to read Dani's feelings till Dani's muscle memory kicked in and she vigorously stroked Clara's back feeling the shape of her. All too briefly they kissed like lovers. like they had rehearsed this moment, and it was, just a moment. As soon as Clara and Dani both came to they pulled back as one, their eyes wide.

What did I just do? Thought Clara.

Dani was staring too, gawping, her eyes bulging. Thinking the exact same thing.

"What the fuck just happened?" Thought Dani.

They sat frozen, mouths wide gaping open for a long moment and neither spoke.

Dani wanted to say thank you to Clara for saving her life but now instead they rode back to HQ in silence. Processing the event, it was hard for her to believe it had even happened.

Clara wanted to praise Dani's mission and do a debrief but she was too angry with herself. Boiling up with pressure and ashamed of what she had done to speak. As soon as the boat pulled into the dock Dani was gone.

Striding off quickly she went to the camp medic and then to grab a beer and some food she sat by the warm fire drying herself out and taking a well-earned rest. No one else knew about that kiss so she tried to put it out of her mind Dani retired to patch herself up, speak to her sisters and brothers in arms like nothing had happened.

She chatted with Juan Cortez, El Tigre, Yelena and the others and they all celebrated her victory. Taking the opportunity to drink a toast to her mission. Dani accepted the praise but her mind was elsewhere back in that moment on the dinghy.

Dani was still unsure why she kept thinking about it, the kiss kept on bobbing up in her mind. She thought of Clara swooping in and saving her like some Valkyrie.

Sure, Clara is attractive, but I work for her. It wouldn't be right to kiss her again.

Dani still struggling with coming to terms the fact that Clara even had a sex drive let alone that she was also into women too. How could she forget the brief erotic thrill of Clara's tongue slipping against hers?

I should not even think about her this way, and I didn't until she kissed me. I would not have even thought of making a move. She is my superior officer." Her old forgotten military training kicked in no matter how much she tried to spit on it, she had been ingrained with true Yaran military discipline.

The rules on fraternisation had been clear there. But for guerrillas' things were a lot more in flux.

this chance could slip away. She could die tomorrow, she had no idea what the next day would hold, the life of guerrilla could burn out at any moment so, she might as well make some sparks while she could.

I could not live with myself if I do not see what she wants from me. This is all her fault anyway.

Does she really feel something for me too? I would never have guessed. till that kiss answered that one pretty damn clearly. Our chemistry was indisputable, and it was her idea, all her fucking fault."

Dani was ready, she couldn't just sit around that wasn't her way. She got things done and she did not like to retreat either. There had been many men in her life but only a few women, far too few. Castillo's regime was very strict about such things and there was always a risk and a danger to it. There was a danger tonight though of a very different kind.

I could be shot dead tomorrow! I am 25! and I should start living like it!

Clara's words echoed through her head "Castillo has kept you an orphan Dani". Clara knew all her struggles; well, she was just like her after all. I do like her, thought Dani. She is certainly attractive as well as tough, brave and capable. Whatever she wants to do with me, I am up for it like always. Dani wouldn't let Castillo keep her alone any longer. She decided. Come on Rojas go and ask her what the hell am I doing still sitting here?

Clara brooded alone in her tent, set back from the camp. Thinking back to that impromptu kiss, drinking rum every time it flared up. Reminiscing, she rubbed her lips. feeling as giddy and foolish as a schoolgirl.

First came fury.

I nearly threw away everything I built in a single moment of weakness! Stupid! Imagine if someone had seen us!

Then came the much more powerful feeling of something unfinished, of wanting to do it again.

But you don't know how Dani feels. but she did. She had heard Dani's soft moans and could still hear them now echoing in her head. She had felt Dani's hands running over her fine form. The facts were indisputable they had made out and both liked it. Clara was well out of practice when it came to relationships. But for a few precious seconds, she and Dani had been lovers not soldiers

Clara was feared. She needed to be. Her very motto was "Wars are won by the feared."

She wanted Castillo to live in fear of her like she had lived in fear of him. Over time she had become a legend. In part she realised thanks to Dani's arrival and her unstoppable one woman campaign, she had breathed new life into Libertdad.

Clara still wanted to be feared, but she realised she also still needed to be touched, kissed and fucked.

So much hard violence these days for once she needed something soft. She couldn't ignore it.

She realised she had been craving her more and more after every mission. Confusing her lust for pride in her best guerrilla. She tried to put Dani out of her head once more and study her maps. She hadn't really had this fixation for a long time. She had almost forgotten what it felt like.

All her previous girlfriends were dead or in prison for so called degeneracy. The last time she had been a girlfriend she had been a mere journalist. that had been a lifetime ago.

She couldn't stop thinking about Dani though

Clara was a woman with needs, and she could no longer deny them.

Confronting her feelings and Dani potentially rejecting her, scared her more than Castillo right now. She could fight his military, his regime and everything he threw at her, but she couldn't fight Dani.

Clara felt powerless for the first time in a long time. She didn't like it one bit. there were reasons she was a revolutionary and not a civilian or a "true Yaran". She took action when she wanted something. The next Guevara or Castro would not mope like this!" She poured another drink. "As soon as the bottle is empty, I will ask Dani. She vowed.

Just that moment Dani shocked her by walking in! Pushing the tent flap out of her way.

She looked even better than usual. Her short dark hair wild and still shining with the damp.

Clara suddenly adored that cute little blue hair tie she always wore. Feeling softened inside by the cute top knot in her rich black hair. She yearned to reach out and gently touch her face. She longed to kiss her all over and let her know how much she cared about her.

Her yellow t-shirt tight around her breasts and still damp from the sea, still singed at the edges reminding her of what she almost lost today and how easily she could have been killed. Clara's resolve hardened. Clara thought of how she could proposition her without admitting to the depths of her lust of how important this was to her.

"Hey Clara," said Dani.

"Come Have a drink with me Dani." She invited

She drained a glass of rum and poured out for Dani and another for her.

"You did well today, you've earned Hermana." She said casually as if nothing insane had happened.

Dani barely heard it, staring at her mouth like she was deaf "She has such full pink lips!" Dani had never once thought of them before, but now all she could think of was what it would be like to kiss them again.

Hungrily looking at Clara Garcia in a whole new light. Dani awed by her elaborate hair, two dark braids with a stark white streak in them. Tumbling down her shoulders and back like velvet rope. Her only concessions to fashion and her youth.

Her eyes caught on the soft blue gems in her nose ring. Her serious cat-like eyes are green and proud just like Dani's own. And again those thick lips set proudly in a perfectly browned face. A few smears of dirt on her face from her rough living that only brought Dani closer with the urge to wipe them away with her fingers.

Clara is beautiful Dani realised she just tried to hide it under a cold military demeanour and baggy clothes. In a different country she could have been a model. She noticed studying her sharp cheekbones. For the first time Dani noticed how cute her pierced ears and earrings were too. They had never stood this close before.

"So, what the fuck was that kiss earlier all about?" demanded Dani impatiently getting right to the point. She had no time for bullshit. Especially now.

Clara kept her face hard like stone. She had no idea how to broach the overwhelming typhoon of emotions inside her.

"The one which saved your life?" retorted Clara she got to her feet and stared Dani down. As if the kiss had been nothing. Silently daring her, pleading for her to make the first move, the one she couldn't.

"No, the one after that!" Dani thought of how easily she nearly died, and she knew what would make her feel good. what she knew would make Clara feel good too. Dani hoped to kiss away that ever present scowl.

Clara was ever so slightly taller than Dani but had the confidence to be hundred feet tall. She was like a sculpture of some beautiful huntress from history.

She was more than ready to kiss Clara again, kind of excited to in fact.

Dani looked at Clara, really looked at her.

Clara's nose ring seemed to wink at her or was that just a trick of the light? Dani was ready to begin the tentative steps towards getting to know her if only Clara would just open up.

"You needed it. It's simple, think of it as nothing, unless of course you can't?"

Putting all the blame on Dani deflecting and making it her responsibility to make the next move.

"Fine!" Snapped Dani turning on her heel and storming out of the tent. Marching off down to the camp. Dani wasn't going to beg, if Clara didn't want her after all then that was that. Saddened and maddened thinking That was a fucking waste of time! Her face burned as she left her fists clenching, she wanted her far more than she let on.

Clara watched her go feeling spiteful pride at rejecting Dani. Which slowly collapsed leaving her truly alone in her tent.

Dammit Garcia why can't you just say how you feel? After bottling up her emotions for so long they were jamming in her head. She couldn't look Dani in the eye and just expose her vulnerabilities or take off her mental armour. Like that.