Chapter 3

Snake Eyes observed the abandoned training ground with intrest- he had seen it before, almost like the Arashikage, and he could see it in Kim's eyes as well. She had grown up over a year, everybody did when Halle left. Snake Eyes froze when he reached a room that with the painted symbol's on the torn, faded curtains read Ryu no shita. Dragon Tongue.

Snake Eyes pushed aside the curtains to see a neat bed, with dust gathered on everything, and light glimmering through the broken windows. There was a sutcher kit, and drops of blood on the ground from past injuries. There were slash marks on the wall, and a painting of her mother on it. Snake Eyes looked at Halle's mother, she was wearing an honorary- royal gown, a gown passed down from ancestor to ancestor- Black Dragon no doubt killed for her hand.

There was also something else, Snake Eyes ran his hands over the frame, and saw it turned over. There was a planned line of worthy people for Halle's hand. Snake Eyes eyes locked on a name, and he froze.

Storm Shadow was eligible. Anger blinded Snake Eyes, and he blinked in suprise when he saw the painting had fallen to the floor. Snake Eyes steadied his breathing, and Kim and Kamakura came running in.

"Sensei what's wrong?" Kim cried and Snake Eyes looked for other hints, clues. True, Storm Shadow had almost thirty dinasties of a proud family, but Halle shouldn't marry him. She couldn't. She wouldn't. She would revolt, she had to snap.

She just couldn't.

Snake Eyes closed his eyes and controled his temper, and briskly walked out. Halle wasn't marrying him. There was no way in Hell or Heaven or any where that she would marry him. No freaking way.

...

"So am I not suposed to breath in this dress?" Dragon Tongue gasped as the hand maidens pulled the cords tighter, not speaking and using actions to answer her questions. So much like Snake Eyes. She found herself reminesing, she felt like she was entitled to think of him- what would he think of her today? She killed, and now she married.

No doubt he'd try to save her- but nothing could save her, not Snake Eyes, the Joes, and it seemed the only man who could was the man she was marrying tomorrow.

"I thought this was going to be nothing fancy. Cobra's a terrorist group not a wedding host."

"Though Cobra Comander objected, our master insisted, and so how could he refuse. He would have lost the Shadow Dragons. And so, the marrige ceremony is traditional, but there will be no party. You will wear the Arashikage gown as well, for it is the custom of their clan."

"I'd rather marry a sponge," Dragon Tongue complained again, and the hand maiden tightened the uncomfortable clip in her hair to painful.

"Watch it!" Dragon Tongue snapped.

"To be a wife, you must with hold your tongue. Master Storm Shadow is a proud son from a proud family, you should be honored and obey him. His sons will grow to be strong soldiers, his daughters shall be nothing of your sort and be respectful, curtous, meek, and beautiful as all honorable daughters should be."

"I won't sleep with him, and I won't have any children. I'm more valuable to Cobra in the front line than pregnant and raising brats."

"Today you are Cobra, tomorrow you are Storm Shadow's. You will be his property, and he can deal with you however he pleases."

"Shut up and get this humiliating process over with. I want to be able to have at least five knives reachable."

"That will not happen Mistress," The hand maiden said as she and the other went back to retrieve the gown and came back with it.

The black and red gown with white cranes on the fabric. It shimmered and the gold fring made it seem liquidy, and Dragon Tongue gasped slightly when she saw the beautiful gown, the pattern of the gold design against the red made the silk seem to be more than pretty in Dragon Tongue's eyes. It was beautiful, and everything she wanted without knowing it.

Dragon Tonge let herself be dressed, and when she looked into the mirror it seemed to make her glow, the long pockets in the arms, the way it was cut, it was made for her. She felt like she belonged in the dress, and the hand maidens didn't make a coment, but they seemed satisfied.

"We know it fits, now we dye your hair. Off with it!"

"What?" Dragon Tongue asked, snapping out of her trance, and the hand maids removed the gown before setting her down and forcing her to dunk her head under water and then roughly pouring the dye over her hair and the letting her come up for air. Dragon Tongue gasped for air and wiped the water from her eyes. Then they were blow drying her hair, and Dragon Tongue could hardly react until a mirror was forced in her face.

Her hair was black, and her skin was still tan, and her hair still shoulder length.

"We will have to add extensions if your hair is to be up with the clips of your mother." The hand maids wrinkled their noses- though her father was Japanese, Dragon Tongue looked nothing like him, or her mother,who had European blood in her, so if anything, she looked like her grandmother or what not. Every 'proud' family was pure blood, and so Dragon Tongue was looked down upon for not being 'pure', at least in the clans.

"If that is for the Tsuno Kakushi, then no. I don't have little 'horns of jealousy' and if you paint me in white- I'm going to go over there and die. This is happening for about ten minutes- and that will be the worst ten minutes of my life! No way, I draw the line here."

"You are not allowed outside this dojo until tomorrow. It is the custom-,"
"Than leave!" Dragon Tongue shouted and the maids shuffled out quietly, and Dragon Tongue sighed, slumping back in her chair.

She hadn't cried ever in her life- not emotionally at least, and now she felt helpless, that world was coming too fast, and it wasn't going slow down. Her world always seemed to spin, and she felt like breaking down, until she realized, she was crying.

Crying silently, but with tears streaming down her cheeks. Dragon Tongue hiccuped slightly and then curled into a ball.

The world wouldn't wait for her any longer, and Dragon Tongue wasn't sure she would be able to catch up again.

...

Dragon Tongue got ahold of herself when somebody knocked on the door.

"Come in," she called shakily and her father walked in slowly.

"Musume, I'm sorry."

Dragon Tongue looked up sharply before staring at the ground again. Tomorrow, she would be Storm Shadow's, not her father's, or Cobra.

Or Snake Eyes. That felt like a punch in the stomach for her.

"I regret raising you this way- I regret making you hate me- but I don't regret you. Not once, and no matter what- you will be my daughter."
"Yeah well you seem to be lying for the past twenty four years of my life."

"I did what I thought was best, but I never wanted you misserable."

"I won't be your concern tomorrow," Dragon Tongue looked out at the sunlight, and Black Dragon sat down next to Dragon Tongue.

"I know what it is like to be in a relationship you didn't want. I know that look on your face as well musume, it is the look that you love someone else. Your mother and I were in love with different people, but we were forced together. She and I fought for years, and it wasn't till she was injured that I finally stopped thinking for myself. I fell in love with her, and I never regretted being forced to her marrige. This was her's- she would want you to have it, wedding or not."
He passed her a necklace with a large gold encrusted black symbol carved into the pearl read one word, 'Courage'.

Dragone Tongue felt tears spring to her eyes, her father was truthful, and she found herself whispering, "Am I that easy to read?"

"No- but Storm Shadow can, and will be a good husband. I have talked to him, and though it seems different- he cares for you. You remind him of a sister, not a wife. I just want you happy. Please- Hikari, please agree."

Dragon Tongue glanced down, her true name, Hikari. She had forgotten it, and her father, she beleived him. She didn't believe him about Storm Shadow, but she found herself talking to her father for the first time in what seemed like a life time.

"I just- I just don't think I can do this and hold onto what I had become at GI Joe. They were my foster family, and if I become what I once was-,"

"It is not Storm Shadow you fear- but you fear yourself. You don't run from the clan- you run from yourself. Nobody can ever live like that- and with Storm Shadow, there would be no secrets, and no lies. You have hidden who you are for too long, if you embrace your other side, peace will finally come. It is time to forget the Joes."

"It's hard Father..."

"Life for us- is hard. That is why I raised you to be able to handle it. Would Storm Shadow truely be a horrible husband for you Hikari? Part of marrige is to keep one another in line, and you haven't learned anything about him."

"He killed his sensei because Snake Eyes became the prize student," Dragon Tongue argued and Black Dragon frowned.

"Did you know that he was best friends with Snake Eyes before the Hard Master turned them against each other? He set them against one another, fights to the death- and Storm Shadow was punished serverly for never delievering the final blow. Only after Snake Eyes beat him and was fully prepared to deliever the death blow did Storm Shadow draw the line. He valued their friendship more than the Hard Master, and so killed him- but Snake Eyes blamed him, and since then- the rivalry has continued because Storm Shadow stood up for what he thought was right. Is Cobra truely bad- or are the Joes bad? Perhaps Cobra is mad- perhaps just an artist and the Joes don't listen, so Cobra rebels because they believe that they can make the world a better place. Nobody thinks of themselves as what people call 'bad guys' and nobody was born evil. Think of that next time you speak to Storm Shadow, and try to see the goodness inside of him. Is marrying him that bad when he could care for you and vice versa? Think on this Hikari, and I will be back in an hour for your descion."

Black Dragon got up, and walked out of Dragon Tongue's room. Dragon Tongue sighed, she never looked upon life this way. If what her father said was true- all that she loved of Snake Eyes was a lie, and Storm Shadow did what he thought was right. She made her descion- she wasn't going to wait for a lair- she would marry Storm Shadow.


So Black Dragon spoke somewhat the truth and then stretched a bunch as well. damn those conniving ninjas! well, anyway, Dragon Tongue's name has been revealed, and it means 'light' in Japanese. So yeah, her hair is dyed, and tomorrow she marries Storm Shadow! Cliff hanger! anyway- R&R! and Vale!