It's the second time Scarlet walks into the stadium of the annual martial art championship competition. She is the returning champion this year. Duke enters the competition this year, too. He kisses Scarlet lightly on the cheek. "This is for luck. May the best person win." Scarlet smiles. Scarlet ends up facing Terri again. She finishes him off in less than 3 minutes.
Duke smiles at how much Scarlet improved. He wants to punch Terri off the ring but seeing Scarlet beats up Terri is rewarding nevertheless. It's the final stage now: Scarlet vs. Duke. Scarlet is hit by the insecurity again. Seeing Terri made her very depressed. It's not that she is still hanging onto Terri. She is over him the day she saw Snake Eyes doing kickboxing. She is just afraid of losing Duke.
They start attacking each other. They are both so good the audiences are in silence. Scarlet is reserved in fighting Duke. Duke can sense it, too. He attacks her a little harder, just so she will fight back. Then Scarlet sees her father in the audiences, and her brothers, and the kids form her dojo. They are all cheering for her.
Scarlet takes a deep breath. She knows what to do. She fights Duke will all she got. At one moment, Scarlet sees Duke looking at her. She punches and kicks Duke right in front of him. Duke gets too caught up at the punch and kick in front. He didn't see the leg sweep coming from under and falls down. Scarlet had tricked Duke with the trick he did to her the first time they fought.
"The returning champion, Scarlet O'Hara, had defended her title." The announcer says, holding Scarlet's hand up. Scarlet looks around and sees that Duke is missing. Her father comes up and says, "are you alright?" Scarlet nods, "Guess I lose another one, but I deserve the best, right? Let's just go." They leave. Her brothers ask, "you want us to go and beat up Duke?" Scarlet chuckles.
They go home and Scarlet is having dinner. She misses Duke but she knows she can't let him win unless he is a better fighter. After dinner, Scarlet goes to the dojo to practices with the wooden man. Terri comes in, "hi, the door is open, so I let myself in…where is your boyfriend? He left you, too?" Scarlet holds down the urges to beat Terri to a pulp. She can't do this right now.
"Princess, are you in there? You absent vexed me. Why didn't you inform me of your departure?" Duke comes in and kisses Scarlet, giving her a bunch of red roses and a Teddy bear with a shirt that says, "Kick it!" Scarlet smiles, "Where were you?" Duke kisses Scarlet, "For 5 minutes I was conversing with my commander. Then I was in search of you for 3 hours."
"Your commander?" Terri says. General Hawk comes in from the door and goes, "Ahem." Duke and Scarlet break off the kiss. Hawk says, "So, you are Scarlet. Now I see why Duke fallen head over heels for you. Enchanted." Hawk gives Scarlet a fatherly hug. Terri says, "you are General Hawk!" Hawk is a legend in the military. Duke nods, "Hawk is like a father to me." Hawk laughs, "Yeah, I smack him in the head if he misbehave."
Terri smirks annoying and says, "oh, Duke. I am going to be the new commanding officer at the Special Ops. They just let me in." Duke says, "yes, I am aware of that. Pentagon had informed me about your shameless pleading to get into the Ops. Frankly, they are annoyed by your immature behavior. I told them to take you in. I am leaving the Special Ops," Scarlet asks, "You are?" Duke says, "yeah, that's what I was talking to Hawk about. I asked him to take you, too. He was amazed by your abilities."
Hawk says, "I am starting G.I. Joes. A new special units. The Special Ops has too much restriction from Pentagon. I need more freedom to move my troops around." Duke says, "Basically, we can do whatever we want and Pentagon cannot interfere." Scarlet sees Terri dying form jealousy now. He is so mad he can kill someone. Too bad he is not half a good fighter as anyone in the room.
"Seriously. It is going to be a lot more dangerous and a lot more responsibilities. You don't have to come with us if you don't want." Hawk says. Scarlet says, "I won't be afraid to go hell, as long as I'm with Duke." Duke smiles and Hawk nods, "Welcome to G.I. Joes. Scarlet. We are proud that you are one of us." Terri leaves. He must be banging his head at some wall somewhere out there.
"Well, don't let me get in your way. Continue what you are doing." Hawk says closing the door. Duke pulls Scarlet close for a deep, passionate kiss and then says, "I still have one week vacation. I know this beautiful, romantic beach in Thailand. In the middle of the night, under the exotic moonlight, people will eat, and sing, and then they will start a kick-boxing game that made ours look like kindergarten game…."
Owari