Disclaimer: I don't own G.I. Joe, I wish I did, but I don't.
"The Hardest Thing"
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"
The fifth hardest thing I've had to do was something I chose to do, leave home, homes, both of them, all of them. My mother cried, my father smiled, my brothers came with me...
And the girl I loved...
THOUGHT I loved...
She wasn't even there to say goodbye.
Given the choice, I'd do it again every time. Even knowing what I know now, I'd still say yes when General Colton asks if I'd be willing to join the military even though I all but wouldn't exist if I did. I had grown up around the military, I wanted... I needed to... if nothing else, to see if I could do it. My answer would always be yes, even though I know it's the fifth hardest thing I'll ever do...
The fourth hardest thing was to say goodbye to Hank when he left for New York City and Empire State University. As much as I wanted G. I. Joe, he wanted that. He had only joined because I asked him to, so it was right to let my brother go on to do what he would have done a year sooner if I hadn't.
I understand that he's doing well. He's become a costumed crimefighter, like something out of Marvel or DC comics, and teamed up with some others, including Iron Man. That one, I'm not surprised. After I... 'borrowed' the F-22 Raptor that Stark Industries had on loan from the military as a test-bed vehicle when I pulled my 'Captain America' stunt and later the whole thing with Loki and the Hulk, Tony and I became friends, so I pulled a couple strings in the background. Hank would hate me if he knew...
My family's a close-knit one, even when we're thousands of miles apart or second- or third- relations, so saying goodbye to one of my own brothers when he left - it was the fourth hardest thing I'll ever do...
I'll never forget the night I went to surprise Erin and it turned out the surprise was on me... I can't, it was probably the third hardest thing I'll ever do, to see the girl I loved, the girl I thought I might one day marry... to see her with someone else.
Hope can keep a person alive in the worst circumstances, unfortunately, hope hurts when it's cut down. I was in G.I. Joe dress uniform, just off a transport at the airport, and before I knew it, I had been ten hours on the road and I was in Washington because I wanted to talk to... Uncle Will, Uncle Rob, General Hawk, General Colton, anyone who would understand... and because there was nothing in Dalton for me anymore. The next three months were training, training, training...
It was dangerous, it was tough, it was nothing.
Giving Erin the ring I kept with me as a reminder of her was much harder, the third hardest thing I'll ever do.
Ask anyone who's been in combat, there's only one thing harder than seeing your friends die and being unable to do anything to stop it.
Honda was on guard duty the night we made Devastator, the night we learned that Sabre wasn't the person we thought he was. When Zandar and I ordered Sabre to be detained by any means necessary, it was Honda who was between the traitor and the personnel lifts that would let him escape.
If Devastator had been a minute slower, or the rest of us a minute faster, Honda would probably still be making comments about my tastes in music alongside his brother Rev. As it was, we got there just in time for one of my best friends, one of my brother Frontliners, to die with Rev, Zandar, and myself kneeling there helpless to stop it from happening.
That's the second hardest thing I'll ever do...
Standing here now is the hardest thing I'll ever have to do. God willing, I'll never have to do it again. I don't want to have to do it again. Instead of our G.I. Joe dress uniforms, we're wearing the uniforms of our different branches, Air Force, my newly-earned Marine, Army, Shuta's JSDF, even the non-regular military members of Frontline are wearing Army dress uniforms since G.I. Joe and Frontline don't officially exist.
Sea, Shuta, Coop, Kay, Steve, Zandar and Wayne are standing with rifles by their sides, ready to perform one duty no soldier likes to do.
The thought that I'd rather not be having to do this either crosses my mind as I take the folded cloth from Fred and Jonas and hand it to Reg and his mother...
"On behalf of the President of the United States and a grateful nation..."
The official statement I then follow with a personal one after they take the flag...
"I'm sorry..."