DISCLAIMER: "GI Joe: A Real American Hero" and its characters belong to Sunbow Productions, Marvel, Hasbro & Devil's Due Publishing. I'm using the characters and situations without permission. No money is being made, so no infringement of the copyright law is intended.

Dear reader: This is an attempt to combine elements from both cartoon and comics: The romance between Zarana and Mainframe from the cartoon episodes and Mainframe's death from comic issue #25.

Dreadnok Forever

Chapter one: Family reunion

"Enjoy your family reunion" Firefly said and fled. The truth is I didn't pay attention to what he said, since I was pissed off and struggling with the damn explosive that he stuck on my chest.

As soon as I took the bomb off me, it blasted and a few seconds later I hear someone asking me to turn around.

Although the blast blinded me for a moment, I turned around quickly and faced him. The guy jumped on me and then I noticed he was wearing a mask.

He had two blades, one in each hand. He wounded my left arm with one of the blades and I managed to squeeze his right hand so strongly that he had no choice but to let the blade fall to the floor. We wrestled some more, until I fell to the floor. The blade was just in front of me, so I took it.

"Pushed me away! Last time you do that!" I heard him say.

"Dunno who you are, mate," I told him and turned. He was already jumping over me again, but I stabbed him fast and straight to his stomach, saying, "And you couldn't say anything to make me care!"

(Sighs and shakes his head.)

How wrong I was!

He coughed and took his mask off...

It was Zandar.

His last words were for you, sister, he said: "Tell Zarana... tell her I'm sorry."

You know the rest.

(Sighs again, gulps down his beer and stares to the fire.)

I swear Firefly will pay for this! Damn bastard! I swear it!

Silence followed the story Zartan had just told to his sister and daughter, who were with him, Zanya to his left, Zarana to his right, gathered around the fire. Zanya, drinking her soda, was staring at the beautiful dark sky and the full moon that illuminated the serene night at the swamp. Zarana and Zartan, beer in hand, had their eyes fixed on the flames.

"Pushed me away! Last time you do that!"

Zarana couldn't help thinking of those words. Now she finally knows the answer.

Why Zandar tried to kill Zartan? How he dared to betray Zartan, the Dreadnoks, even herself to join "The Coil" and Serpentor?

The questions had been torturing her since she saw him, wounded, almost dead.

"Zandar?" She saw Zartan carrying her twin brother in his arms.

"What the hell happened?" She asked with dismay at the sight of his clothing, soaked with blood. She saw his wounds and tears began to fill her eyes, thinking there was nothing left to do.

"I think I killed him!" She remembered Zartan's voice, sad and with a great amount of guilt.

"YOU? You wounded him? Why?" The picture of her brothers fighting to death almost drives her to insanity.

"He's alive!" Zanya called out, "Dad, see, he's coughing!"

Zarana sighs with relief at the memories of the day before.

Zandar will live and then her brothers will have the opportunity to solve their differences.

Zandar is back. They will be a family again.

"Pushed me away! Last time you do that!"

She was sorry because she never noticed what was wrong with Zandar and now realizes that sometimes she feels the same since...

"Dad, what will happen with uncle Zandar? I mean, he betrayed you! What will you do to him?"

...Since the unfortunate day Zanya invaded their lives.

For Zarana, the question was so annoying as the person that just asked it. She glared at her niece and, since Zartan was still staring at the fire, quiet and thinking, she answered, "Zandar will join us again. He will lead the Dreadnoks just as he used to before you, darling niece, claimed to be part of the royal family. Am I right, Zartan?"

Zarana's answer seemed more like a warning to both niece and brother. Zandar will never be ignored. Not anymore. She neither. No brat will take her place. If Zartan is the king, she is the queen of the Dreadnoks.

Zartan got the message and didn't like the authority she just dared to show him. The way she addressed his daughter wasn't kind either. He would let her know who really is in charge, who's the head of the family in a drastic way.

"Zandar is our brother and of course he will lead the Dreadnoks, along with my daughter Zanya, you and me," Zartan stressed. Not looking at the fire anymore, he fixed his green eyes on his sister and stated seriously, "We will get over this, we always do, isn't it, dear sister?"

Zartan kept staring at her, waiting for her reaction.

"I don't know what are you talking about," Zarana lied, but her pale face was turning red due to a mix of anger and embarrassment. Zartan was pretty sure that she knew exactly what he meant then.

"Zarana, please, let's be honest. We are family and there are no secrets between us. Now that Zanya is part of it, she should know that we have been through difficult times in the past. Zandar is not the only one who has betrayed me."

"Auntie? Is that true?" Zanya smirked, kind of surprised and getting a sense of superiority. Her aunt had flaws, which she could use later for her benefit, "Can't believe it!" Then she looked at her father, "I would never do such a thing to you, Dad. I would never betray the gang!"

"Yeah, right! Daddy's girl is sooo innocent!" Besides envy, Zarana felt a great repulsion toward Zanya. Her niece is simply an exact copy of what she was when she had her age, when her only purpose in life was to find her older brother to get his attention and to become his protégé.

"Yes, Zanya, you are the only one who has not tried to betray me yet," Zartan confessed and with sarcasm, gave her this warning, "If you ever have a boyfriend, just make sure he is on our side. Do not fall in love with our enemy. Do not fall in love with a..."

"That's enough, Zartan!" Zarana got up and, standing in front of him, tossed the beer bottle, hitting Zartan's left arm, right on his bandaged wounds.

Quickly, Zanya stood on her feet and dropped the soda can on the ground. "You hit Dad!" she snarled and tensed up.

"Arrgghh!" Zartan groaned, feeling a sharp pain while his sister kept saying... "How dare you! I won't let you talk about my private life in front of this brat!"

"You hag...!" Zanya was about to reach out her hand and slap her aunt on her face, but her father stopped her.

"Zanya, this is between your aunt and me! STAY AWAY! Grrr!" Zartan reached out his right arm and grabbed his sister by her jeans, tumbling her down to her knees. Struggling to get up, she could not escape the strong arms that pulled her to him. Their faces were so close that both could smell beer with each breath.

"I don't care how you feel," Zartan's green, deep gaze was starting to intimidate her. She knows her brother's rage is implacable, "Do you think I have forgotten what you tried to do to me once? Do you think you can just beg for forgiveness, return to me and live your life without paying eternally for what you did?"

Zarana now seemed vulnerable to his words. Haven't he noticed that she has been paying the price of betraying him? The price of leaving the only man she truly loved once every day of her life?

"That was years ago, brother! It is the past. I came back to you. Look at me! Here I am, by your side. I will never leave you again!" Fear has turned her submissive, hoping that it would be the end of this confrontation.

"Now, more than ever, I'm completely sure that you will never leave me again, sis."

Zarana looked puzzled.

"What? You have no idea of what I'm talking about, right?" Zartan chuckled and, grabbing her sister's chin, turned her head and whispered to her ear, "Your beloved Joe has died."

"Bullshit!" She pushed him and, free from the muscular arms that were holding her, stood up, "I don't believe you! You just say that because you want to piss me off!"

"It's true! I got a report this morning on yesterday's battle in Cobra Island." Zartan stood up, reached out his hand in one of his pants' pockets and started to unfold a sheet of paper. "There's also a list of the fallen Joes. Here, check it out!"

Zarana snatched it. The light of the full moon let her read clearly. The name "Blaine Parker" was the first on the list.

"Leave me alone!" She sighed and tore up the sheet of paper, tossing the pieces to the fire. She silently watched how the flames consumed every piece.

Seeing that the news got the result he expected, Zartan decides to leave, "Zanya, I think it's time for us to go. Your aunt wishes to be alone."

Zanya walked by her father's side. Suddently, after walking just a few steps, Zartan turned and cried out to his sister, "Cry sis, cry for your lost boyfriend, ahaaaa!"

Zanya looked back. Her aunt did nothing; she just kept staring at the fire.

"Dad, please, tell me the scoop," A curious Zanya pleaded while both of them were heading toward the cabin.

He stopped and warned her, not laughing, not angry, now very serious, "There's no "scoop". Don't even tell the Dreadnoks about what happened tonight. Concerning you... you will learn what it is all about, but not now, not today. That's something between my sister and me. What I want you to do is to leave her alone, is that clear?"

"Ah... ok, Dad," Zanya was confused. First, his father humiliates her aunt and now he is defending her!

Zartan got into the cabin, but she stayed at the porch. From there, she could see her aunt, seated by the fire again, staring at the full moon.

Zanya has seen her so many times like that, when there's full moon. Her aunt stays awake until late, alone, just like that.

So far, her curiosity has not been satisfied. After a few seconds of indecision, she decides to go back to her aunt. For Zanya, the family reunion is not over yet.