Chapter 14 Remake

They were still outside of the Coney Island Aquarium, or, what was left of it. The commando penguins were standing, still speechless from Hazel's story, as Hazel sat, weeping. Marlene was trying to keep her tears under control as she tended to Hazel's little brother Tommy, but he was still unconscious.

"I think this little guy needs some real help. I can't do much else." Said Marlene to the others. This brought them all back to reality, and Hazel stood up and wiped away her tears.

Skipper thought about that for a moment, closely watched by the others. "Marlene would never forgive me if we didn't help him. Let's take him back to the zoo. If Kowalski can't help him, or won't... The vet will be able to."

With that, they loaded Tommy into the car, and then they were all seated. All of them, that is, except Hazel. She stood beside the car, waiting. Rico put the key in the engine and moved to start driving, but Skipper stopped him.

"Hazel? What are you doing?" He asked. "You know the credo, Never swim alone!"

She smiled gratefully and got into the car, and they started off towards home.

At the zoo, the commandos parked the car and rushed into the lair with Tommy. Hazel stayed outside with Marlene, trying not to cause Kowalski any further aggravations.

In the lab, Kowalski was working, "improving" one of his recent inventions, when the other three penguins barged in, carrying the smaller penguin.

"Kowalski! Medical attention, burns and smoke inhalation, now!" Kowalski nodded and pulled out his first aide kit. As he began working, Skipper began filling him in on what had happened.

As soon as Kowalski realized that his patient was Hazel's brother, he stopped working and turned around.

"I... I can't."

"Kowalski..." Warned Skipper with a glare.

"Please take him to the vet. I don't think I can do this. I have to get out of here..." Pleaded the scientist.

"That's an order, soldier! This kid didn't hurt you, but I might, if you don't help him!" Shouted Skipper.

Kowalski grudgingly turned back to his patient, and continued his work with difficulty. Skipper finished telling the story of what had happened, and soon after they could see a little movement from Tommy. He finally opened his eyes and looked around.

"Where am I?" He asked.

"The Central Park Zoo, kid." Answered Skipper with a smile. "Glad to see you're awake. Good work, Kowalski." He then turned to Private. "Go get Hazel."

Private nodded and left, but Kowalski turned to Skipper. "You brought her here? Didn't we banish her yesterday?"

"She's unbanished, and I won't hear another word about it."

Kowalski looked away, but didn't say anything else. When Hazel walked in, he limped out of the room as fast as his injured body would take him.

Once he was alone, he leaned against the wall, sliding down until he was sitting in a ball on the floor. He put his head in his flippers, and remained like this for some time, wrestling with his emotions.

Ever since he had witnessed Hans's murder, Kowalski had been carefully reconstructing his box. Building walls around his emotions, using his anger to fortify them. His gratefulness at being alive was swallowed up in the abyss, and he had forgotten it rather quickly.

But now, this turn of events. Those carefully built walls were shaking, threatening to collapse. The box was caving in, his angry reinforcements dissolving like dust in the wind. And soon, it was all gone, blown away by the winds of sorrow. The box, the walls, everything. Nothing was left but the raw, powerful emotion.

He was overwhelmed. Hazel was a murderer, yes, she had taken one life to save his. But he, oh, he was so much worse. He had returned the favor by sentencing three innocent lives to death. And of course it wasn't just any death, no, he had sentenced them to an angry, fiery death, filled with pain which he could only begin to imagine. Yes, in this moment, Kowalksi realized that he was the true murderer.

Meanwhile, Hazel was talking to her brother.

"We live here now. It'll be okay, these guys are nice, and we'll be safe."

"But... Meg and Jessie... They're gone?"

Hazel chocked out a soft "Yes..."

Tommy then asked, "But... Where is Mommy?"

"Oh, sweetie, Mommy's gone too."

He burst into tears, and Hazel hugged him, but didn't cry. She didn't have any tears left.

Private, of course, did, and he started sobbing. Skipper rolled his eyes, but let it go.

"Kowalski, Rico, Private, let's go topside. We've probably missed lunch." Said Skipper. They left, and went through cute and cuddly routine for the anxious zoo goers, who had been waiting for their appearance. Unfortunately, they weren't that cude or cuddly, considering all their injuries and woes.

Later, after the zoo had closed, Marlene returned to the penguin habitat. Hazel and Tommy were in the supply closet, which was once again Hazel's room. Kowalski was hiding in his lab.

Marlene asked the penguins, "So, you've let her come back?"

"Well, it's the least we can do..." Answered Private.

Skipper rolled his eyes and corrected him. "This is not a decision of sympathy. We are a military unit, not a group of yuppy school girls. We simply removed her banishment from the book, because it has been ruled unfair. On the record, that never happened, and the official ruling from the trial was "not guilty.""

"Alright, Skipper." Said Marlene with a laugh. "It's good to know you don't have a sympathetic bone in your body."

"They don't need sympathy." He replied.

"Skippah!" Said Private, shocked.

"Let me finish. Sympathy isn't going to get them through this. It would just make them weak. Starting tomorrow, they will be treated normally, like any other member of the zoo."

Marlene consented that Skipper was probably right, but she knew she would still feel sympathetic towards them for a long time.

At that point, Private changed the subject, and the conversation moved to lighter subjects. After a short while, Marlene left, and the penguins returned to their typical evening activities, trying to get their minds off of what had happened. Rico and Skipper played a game of cards, and Private put in a DVD of the Lunacorns.

After he has been working for a while in the lab, running through the motions of the scientific method, Kowalski heard the door open, and he turned to see who had entered his lab. As his luck would have it, it was Hazel.

"Please don't come in here." He asked, pleading. When she didn't move, he moved away, turning his back on her.

"Give me 20 seconds!" She answered angrily.

He didn't respond, so she continued.

"I just wanted to let you know that I don't care what you do to me. But if you Ever do Anything to hurt my little brother, you will pay. Comprende?"

He turned around, confused. "I... I don't..."

"Kowalski?"

"I can't do it, please Hazel, leave!"

Hazel turned with an angry huff and left. (If this was a humanized story, I would've added a nice little one fingered salute here, but it isn't, so I cant.)

Private was waiting for her outside of the lab. He moved to say something, but he brushed right past him and went down the hall. But he persisted, and stopped her halfway to her room.

"Hazel, stop! What happened?"

She turned to him, still seething. "He makes me so mad." She said, barely containing the anger in her voice.

"Oh... Hazel, I don't know what to tell you."

"I know. Sorry, it's not your fault, I shouldn't be so rude. It's just that... He's still mad! It's like he has no idea what happened."

"Are you sure he's mad?" Asked Private, concerned.

"He wouldn't even look at me."

"Oh, well maybe he'll get over himself soon. I mean, he has no right to be mad, really..."

"This is hard enough without him acting like this. How am I supposed to move on and live my life after losing them AND Kowalski..."

"Hazel, give him time. If he's angry, he'll come out of it. If he's not, you'll know soon enough."

"Alright. Thanks for the talk, Private..."

"Sure. I can talk anytime. Except, um, now, because it's getting late. I'd better get to my bunk, lights out was supposed to be fifteen minutes ago. Talk to you in the morning!"

"Yeah, goodnight." She answered with a smile.

Private receded down the hall, singing, "The sun will come out! Tomorrow!"

As soon as Hazel had left the lab, Kowalski had ran to the door and slammed in shut in a panic. He leaned against the door, listening to Hazel's receding footsteps. Then he turned away and walked back to the lab table.

"She hates me now." He thought to himself. "And for good reason. But I can't... I just can't face her. Not after all I've done, I can't do it." A few tears slid down his beak: he knew what he had lost. His best friend, the only creature who he had ever wanted to open up to. The one who had truly and finally changed him for the better. But all that was gone now, replaced with anger, sorrow, and death.

Later that day, long after lights out, Kowalski was still working in his lab. He hasn't made anything particularly useful, he was just avoiding going back into the real world with the others. The lab was his fortress, and he cherished his time alone there. Away from the accusing and hateful glares of the others, he could finally find a small amount of peace.

This peace was never long lasting, a he was often overtaken by the waves of emotion. Without any way to contain it, it simply flowed as it wished.

As he cleared off his table for the evening, he moved a few jars and saw something on the table. He looked closer, and saw it was a small doodle of a few penguins, dancing in the rain. His mind flashed back to when Hazel had drawn that. Just as it had the last time, this memory brought a wave of sorrow down upon his head, and he floundered in it for a moment. Then, when he had recovered, Kowalski found some clear varnish and painted over the picture, preserving it forever.

"This is all I have left." He thought. "And this is all I deserve."

The doodle memory was the same flashback as in chapter 9. You may or may not remember it, it's not that important.

Thanks for reading!