Bonus chapter 34: Snake Eyes and Hawk

Last bonus! This one takes place shortly before the end of chapter 33 in Arashikage. At that time, Storm Shadow is finally free from the effects of the brainwave scanner and is a willing prisoner of GI Joe.

It is in Snake Eyes' point of view because as much as he protested the idea, I needed to convey his thoughts and if I was going to do that anyway, this format worked well.

Despite what Tommy may think, I am not in fact deaf. I may not hear a heartbeat approaching, but I do hear the steps that are coming up the stairs behind me. Similarly, I may not be able to tell who exactly is approaching, but I can guess from the heaviness of the steps that it's a man and that he's making no effort to be quiet – in other words, the person coming to join me on the roof is extremely unlikely to be an enemy.

The man clears his throat as he opens the door, allowing me to identify him as General Hawk. I get up and snap to attention.

"At ease," he says quietly.

I tilt my head questioningly - he's obviously looking for a private conversation.

He sits down next to me, facing the edge of the roof and the grounds, and gestures me to do the same. I sit back down next to him and wait for him to talk. Judging by his expression, my guess would be that he's either going to tell me Tommy was wrong about Antarctica after all, or reprimand me for destroying the recordings Mindbender had hidden in his lab, the ones that I really wish we hadn't found. It's not like they had anything useful on them, judging by the thirty seconds we saw of them before I destroyed the player, the disk in it and every other disk in the stack.

The recording started about twenty seconds before Mindbender actually entered the room, and as Tommy had heard him approach, his expression had automatically changed from desperately concentrating on something to a mix of resignation and sheer terror... I shudder again at the thought, mostly because in all the time I've known him, I had never seen him show more fear than mild apprehension in the face of nearly certain death. I'm pretty sure he's been afraid plenty of time, but he's always been able to hide it. The fact he was terrified enough to actually look it did not bode well at all.

Mindbender had walked straight to his controls, looking bored, and started the machine. As soon as he did, it was as though someone had cranked the volume – even Scarlett had turned green, squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her hands to her ears when Tommy had started screaming.

"The X-rays worked;" Hawk starts, bringing my attention back to him. "we found the base."

I relax a bit. At least Tommy won't have to spend more time trying to remember every detail of the last several months.

"Scarlett gave me a full report." Hawk continues.

I nod. I suppose I should sign that I'm sorry for destroying potential evidence or intel, but I'd rather avoid a fake apology if I can help it - I will only offer it if he demands it.

"I honestly thought she was going to be sick on the spot when she described these recordings. I figured I'd find you on the roof at that point… unlike her, you're his friend."

I shake my head and sign the word for 'brother'.

"His brother," he corrects himself. "Do you think he will expect to come along to fight Cobra over there? I know he'll want to, but would he expect us to actually let him?"

Unseen by Hawk, my eyes widen under my visor. I've been refusing to think about it because logically, we can't muddy an attack on Antarctica, of all places, by allowing someone who is technically a dangerous criminal to tag along and participate, with weapons provided to him, in an attack against the people he was working for two weeks earlier.

I would bet anything, however, that Tommy will only see the fact he could help and be completely shocked that this help could be refused. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near when Hawk tells him: Tommy desperately wants revenge and redemption, he's going to go ballistic when he finds out he is being denied this opportunity.

I nod in answer to the question and sign that Tommy will be extremely upset to be left behind.

Hawk's expression hardens. "I know, he wants revenge. I assume you feel he has a right to it? I can't let him come. You understand that, don't you?"

I nod and don't reply. I really wish Hawk had not informed me of this: I can't let him do this to Tommy. I would have hated the idea three days ago, before finding the recordings, but now? I can't even consider it a possibility. I can't NOT let Tommy fight Cobra and the Commander. It's not that I think he should seek vengeance - between the Soft Master's misguided quest to see him dead and what became of Tommy himself while he tried to avenge the Hard Master, my brother is the most perfect example anyone could wish for that vengeance for its own sake never leads to anything good. Just the same, I will not deny him that vengeance if I can't talk him out of it; he has every right to it.

In short, I'm going to have to break him out. I know he won't be able to escape without help; I've tested that cell myself. I scowl at the thought: I will of course have to make it look like Tommy did in fact defeat the security measures I personally guaranteed, which is going to be downright embarrassing even with the knowledge he really didn't.

I hold back a sigh. The humiliation is actually the least of my concerns right now. Doing this means I'm going against my commanding officer's wishes; it's betrayal. Even though Tommy fighting with us will mean less casualties on our side, even though he really would be a huge asset in this battle, I know for a fact that Hawk wants him to stay behind, and I'm going to help him come along anyway. I'm confident I won't get caught, and I know Tommy will more than gladly play along in pretending he escaped all by himself, but I'll have to live with the lie and the fact I did this against Hawk's wishes. Well, either that or turn myself in and face the consequences.

I'm tempted to rationalize that I'm a soldier first and that Tommy will get a chance to go up against Cobra some other time, but as soon as the thought forms, I'm reminded of several conversations with the Hard Master where my response was exactly along these lines. I refused to earn wages, even on bodyguard missions, because a soldier should not be a mercenary for hire and I was only on extended leave from the army. I refused to enter a tournament I would likely have won because again, as a soldier, I felt I should not be used for monetary gain by an illegal ninja clan.

They were easy decisions back then: duty first, be a good soldier. The result was that Tommy's schedule did not relax, I was eventually able to defeat him in a duel, and the Hard Master, in a last attempt to try and make me fully join the clan and leave the army, tried to talk me into being some kind of advisor to Tommy. This in turn led to the whole clan finding the idea that Tommy became jealous enough of me and angry enough with the Hard Master to try and kill one of us not only believable but a certainty. Because of that, he had to flee and ended up joining Cobra, certain that it was the only way to clear his name and avenge his uncle, and...

I clench my teeth and stop the train of thoughts. The point is, I can't just take the easy decision and turn my back on my brother yet again.

I sign to Hawk that I understand his decision, purposely not literally committing myself to abiding by it. He shakes his head.

"No, you don't." He sighs. "I hope you realize how much trust I am putting in you right now, son. I absolutely cannot ALLOW Storm Shadow to help us win this fight and lose as few men as possible, but I refuse to let him sit in a cell while good men and women fall in battle, soldiers that may have survived with one more ninja on our side. I need you to put everyone else's safety above his: I need you to break him out and smuggle him to Antarctica, with whatever weapons he'll need. I don't need to tell you not to get caught and that this conversation never took place."

He gets up then and walks away, leaving me to sigh in relief. This certainly makes things easier on my conscience: I'm still not fond of deceiving the rest of the team, but doing it under orders makes it a lot easier, not to mention that at least, I'm not betraying Hawk's trust. As for Tommy's safety, I know he can look after himself, I intend to watch his back, and I know it'd be the least of his concerns, so I can't even make myself give it a second thought.

Just a note if you're wondering about a possible continuity error… despite Snake Eyes certainly that he would not be able to, Storm Shadow did in fact escape by himself. Snake Eyes WAS quite shocked. : )