The Lazarus Plot

Disclaimer: Same as before... RogueFanKC Avalanche and Colossus ran the obstacle course in ten minutes, the mountain was another matter. I just goofed while typing it last night.

~ ~ ~ ~

Maleficent's portal opened into Cobra Commander's office, "Report."

"We're working infiltrating the Misfits and GI Joe...." Cobra Commander replied.

"What do you mean working on it? Thanks to not one but two Gamma missions, our takeover of this dimension is being delayed." Maleficent replied, "Now I want progress, unless you want to be singing Material Girl in front of hundreds of troops."

Cobra Commander shuddered and broke into a clammy sweat under his mask. He didn't want a repeat of the pink tutu incident. He activated a monitor behind his desk and the COBRA insignia behind it winked out and showed an image of a bald mustachioed man with a monocle and a cape. "Yes Cobra Commander." Mindbender replied.

"Update Maleficent on the progress of the Lazarus Project." Cobra Commander replied.

"The Lazarus Project?" Maleficent asked.

"We've been working on a surefire way to infiltrate the combined GI Joe/Misfits team through their Gamma unit advisors." Mindbender replied.

He stepped back to reveal a cell, "May I present to you our experiment."

In the prison cell a young woman curled into a ball, fresh from her last interrogation. She was dark haired, slender, and fairly attractive. Not to mention feisty as hell, she had tried to escape several times, but the interrogators said they were fairly close to breaking her of that spirit.

"A rebel leader that my troops thought killed?" Maleficent replied, "Why did you keep her alive if she indeed was not dead?"

"She doesn't know that I implanted a few post hypnotic commands into her mind...." Mindbender replied.

"Very well, but if she even appears to show any sign of rebellion, eliminate her." Maleficent replied, and looking at another monitor she noticed two helicopters and a force moving towards Mindbender's location.

"They're under attack. Is this your idea of security?" Maleficent snarled.

"That was our intention for our prisoner to fall into GI Joe's hands. So for this rescue operation we are one step ahead of them at all times." Cobra Commander replied.

~ ~ ~ ~

Mindbender felt the pain again. It had been getting steadily worse as time wore on and it started when these strange Heartless creatures were appearing in their dimension. It was as if his heart was constricting. He doubled over from the agony and noticed in horror that his right hand had turned into a black claw.

He could hear sounds of fighting just outside the door. The same transformation was happening to his lab technicians, many of them were sporting glowing eyes and antennae or clawed hands like the Heartless. He could feel yet another spasm of pain as his heart tried to resist the fact that it was collapsing inward. It also felt like a hard bony cast was growing around the space his heart used to occupy.

He could hear doors being kicked in and saw a sphere of a hand grenade thrown inside the building. The sphere exploded, killing two half mutated lab technicians. He could see a pair of soldiers, both carrying telescopic rifles.

~ ~ ~ ~

Sergeant Hedaya had gone in first, throwing a fragmentation grenade into the room. He raised his suppressed, telescopic CAR-15 and kicked the door in. Bilby ran in behind him with his SLR up and ready.

"Clear!" Hedaya shouted.

Bilby was still checking the prison cells. Most of them were either empty or contained several prisoners who were cowering in their cells, covered with cuts and bruises from multiple beatings. One contained a young man covered with third and second degree burns. The Heartless had thrown him inside here like a bag full of garbage after whatever had caused those burns occurred.

A body of a COBRA soldier, half mutated, twitched and Bilby shot it through the head. "Clear!" Bilby shouted, "Lifeline, get over here!"

Lifeline came running in with Roadblock, Duke, Toad and Xi covering him. Of the six prisoners, two were beyond help, the burned young man and an older woman who was suffering from severe head trauma. Three of the less seriously injured prisoners were led away as the team continued searching the room.

Bilby kicked down another door and entered the room, sweeping it with his rifle. He could see the monocle wearing man, half mutated into a Heartless lying on the floor. He shouldered his rifle when Lifeline knocked it away. "He's becoming a Heartless, there's no way to save him. Not that I'd want to." Bilby replied. "AAAGGGHHH!" Mindbender screamed in agony as two antennae poked through his head, "There are my notes on the transformation in that computer....I may have devised a way to save myself...."

"I'll stabilize him, go check on that prisoner." Lifeline said.

Bilby dutifully ran to the prisoner, a slim figured young woman with dark hair. Her eyes were obscured by a blindfold and her hands were secured behind her by a pair of handcuffs. He used the bolt cutters on his belt kit to remove her manacles and pulled off the blindfold. When he did so Martin Bilby looked as if he had see a ghost. He was seeing the face of a woman that he had not seen in over a year. It was the face of a woman whom by all accounts and for all intents and purposes was dead.

"Akima?" Bilby said, stunned but still moving. He draped one of her arms over his shoulder and wrapped an arm around her waist in order to help her limp along.

Bilby walked up to Mindbender and kicked him in the face, "You lousy bastard. I should kill you for what you've done to her, but the pain you're enduring is far better than anything I could even begin to do."

Mindbender was about to reply something when he felt his foot turning black and his heart spasmodically collapsing again. "AARRAAGGGHHH!!!!"

Lifeline began to use a tranquilizer to sedate Mindbender and slow his metabolism enough so that the transformation into a Heartless would be delayed somewhat. He carried Mindbender across his shoulders toward the waiting helicopter.

~ ~ ~ ~

As the helicopter flew off over the horizon Bilby took Akima's hand in his own, "How did you get here?" Bilby asked.

"I've been imprisoned aboard a Prison Satellite after being moved from Stinson Prison." Akima said, referring to a mission where her fighter had been shot down and she was captured by the Heartless and incarcerated in Stinson Prison, named for a collaborator whom the Gamma unit later killed.

"That's impossible. I rescued you and all the other prisoners there in Operation Breakout." Bilby replied.

"No you didn't." Akima said, "One night they took me out of my cell and shoved an exact clone of me into the cell. Don't ask me how they did it, I only know that she looked like me, talked like me, and walked like me."

Akima was starting to get emotional about this, "Shh. Calm down, it's alright. I believe you." Bilby replied. Akima gave his hand a strong squeeze before she passed out.

Bilby desperately wanted to believe that the woman he had just rescued was Akima. He knew he would take exile or even execution just to hold her in his arms once again. The helicopter was teleported back to the Pit and the patients rushed into the Infirmary.

"She'll be fine Bilby." Lifeline said, "She just needs some rest."

Bilby sat in the Infirmary waiting room and after ten minutes realized he couldn't just sit around doing nothing. He headed off to Shipwreck's house, but the entire time he couldn't stop thinking about Akima. He should have been deliriously happy but he didn't want to be, because if this wasn't Akima he didn't want the hurtful letdown that would result.

"Something on your mind?" his fellow sniper asked.

Bilby figured he wouldn't get by with saying nothing so he came clean, "Ever have one of those moments where you thought that you'd lost something forever only to have it resurface at the darndest time."

"Yeah, my car keys." Hedaya replied.

"Ha ha." Bilby replied.

"Cheer up pal. You're not the first guy to have fallen in love with some gal on an op." Hedaya replied.

"Does a man have any secrets in this Squadron?" Bilby asked.

"I'm afraid not." Hedaya replied, "It's a known fact that you fell for someone on the Titan Mission, you saw her die and it really tore you apart."

"Wanker." Bilby replied.

"What does your heart say?" Hedaya replied as he reassembled his rifle. For all his lethal ability Hedaya was a staunchly romantic individual.

"My heart really and truly wants to believe I've found her again." Bilby replied, "But my mind knows I saw her die."

"Maybe she told the truth, maybe she didn't. What I'm saying is trust her like you did before. That's the whole foundation of love, trust." Hedaya replied, then sighed, "What makes you think she's a mole?"

"She's exactly like the Akima I remember, only missing the two weeks before she was supposedly killed in her memory." Bilby replied, "I want to believe it's her, but I don't want to be let down by finding out that it isn't."

"Trust your heart my friend. The difference between us and the Heartless is our ability to love and trust, stemming from the very hearts they've lost. Now if you'll excuse me, my old girl needs a little time." Hedaya said, walking off to the modified satellite phone to call his wife, leaving Bilby alone with his thoughts.

~ ~ ~ ~

So is this mysterious survivor really who she claims to be? Will Lifeline be able to save Mindbender? And if so, what secrets will his notes and journal reveal to GI Joe? The answer in the next chapter of Kilo Two Zero.