Disclaimer: I do not own G.I. Joe. However, I do own Diana Lewis, Kathy and David Tate, and Ruth Benson.
AN: I want to begin by thanking all those who read the story or added the it to their favorites or alerts. That truly means a lot to an writer. I wanted to let everyone know that there's a link on my profile to an image of Emily Browning. Anyone who wants to see what Diana looks like should simply proceed to my profile and click the link.
Before you read, I want to apologize for the fact that most of this chapter is taken directly from the movie. However, I did add to it, making it a bit more personal when it comes to Rex and also bringing Professor Mindbender's nefarious plans into light.
(Edit: This chapter has been edited by my beta reader Hoodoo. When you finish reading this, I recommend reading anything she has written!)
Without further ado, I bring you chapter two of Till Death Do Us Part.
The Army squad ran through the streets of an Eastern African town, firing their weapons in an attempt to provide cover for the soldiers who would be gathering information. The leader of the squad was Duke, attempting to take out as many of the enemy as he could reach. Slightly ahead and to his right was his best friend, Ripcord, getting anyone Duke missed. The two were on the defense as they raced to the closest cover they could find, what appeared to be an old Mitsubishi Montero.
Their current protectee was Rex. The normally over confident male was nervous, more nervous than he could remember. He gripped Duke's uniform tightly, keeping up as best he could with his backpack of supplies slamming against his back. Explosions were going off behind them, echoing in his ears along with the screams of both ally and enemy alike. As used to this as Rex was, having made it through the Iraq war, he could never get used to the pangs of guilt he felt when he realized he could have somehow stopped those screams from happening.
Finally reaching the car, Rex, Duke, and Ripcord dropped for cover. "GO, GO, GO!" shouted Duke, directing the men he commanded. Some continued on, trying to secure the building Rex would enter as quick as possible. Two kicked down the door, their automatic weapons taking out anyone who was in the room.
With the two trying to clear the building, Rex took the chance to catch his breath. It had been two days since they'd reached the Eastern African front lines, four days since they'd landed in Johannesburg, and five days since Rex had had to leave his beautiful wife behind. Diana... how was she doing? he wondered.
Glancing at his watch, a present from his sister, he mentally calculated the time back in Washington. It was 2:14pm in the town, meaning it was 8:14am in Washington. He smiled briefly. Diana started work in the St. Elizabeth Hospital at nine. So, knowing his wife like he did, she was already there. Diana was a dedicated neurophysiologist and thrived on interaction with her patients.
"Double Bubble?" offered Duke as he lowered himself back down to reload his gun. Rex glanced over, looking at the piece of gum curiously. Duke chuckled, "It always helped me." Rex took the Double Bubble.
"Hey, you good?" questioned Duke, popping his own piece of gum into his mouth. "Yeah?"
"Yeah," replied Rex, unwrapping the gum in his hand before he followed Duke's example, popping it into his mouth. The sweet bubble gum flavor was near over powering when taking in the fact his mouth was dry as the dirt beneath him. However, it did taste a lot better than their military rations.
He worked his jaw on the gum, wondering silently if this piece came from the bowl of candy he and Diana had set out for the kids in their apartment building during Halloween. That had to have been four months ago. If it was true, it explained why the gum was so hard. Rex managed to nod for extra assurance. Whether it was for himself or for Duke, he couldn't say.
Duke leaned around the end of the car, looking through the dust at the two men in charge of clearing the building. One came out, right hand on his gun the left in the air giving Duke a thumbs up. Duke leaned back to the car, turning to Rex.
"All right Mr. Science Officer, you're up, okay?" Duke continued to glance between Rex and the entrance to the building, making sure he wasn't about to send his future brother-in-law into a death trap. He'd made a promise to Ana, and he wasn't about to break it. "You don't find it in four minutes, you get out of there. That house will not be there in five. All right?"
Rex nodded multiple times in response, now crouching to the side of Duke, ready to run to the building. "All right."
Four minutes. He could do this in four minutes. He could defiantly get the information onto his flash drive in four minutes. Four minutes. His breathing was shallow and he was really thankful that Duke had given him that Double Bubble. Without that gumming up his mouth, he was sure he would have vomited by now.
"I already called in an air strike."
Duke looked over the younger man. For a split second, Duke was ready to scrap the mission. Four minutes wasn't going to be enough time. He could stop Rex from entering the building, he could deem the mission too dangerous and just allow the building and all the information in it to explode. The only thing that changed his mind was the determined light that had taken over Rex's eyes. Duke wanted to kick himself. How could he doubt the man before him? Rex was a genius and could probably get in and out in less than three minutes. Slapping his hand on Rex's back, he gave him the affirmative to move in.
"Go! Hurry up!" Duke pulled himself up, beginning to lay down cover fire with Ripcord. "GO! GO GO GO GO!"
Rex moved as fast as he could, keeping his head down, hand over it. A missile went off feet from where he was. "Oh CRAP!" he shouted, staring at the hole as he passed. That could have been him.
The military officer in the doorway nodded to him as he went into the building, he and his partner exiting to move back to the front lines. Rex took in a deep breath of musty air, pulling out his gun. He was panting, feeling a bit strained from all the running, but he needed to move quick or face the risk of blowing up.
Gripping his pistol tightly, Rex began to move through the rooms towards a noise. The closer he got, the less muffled the noise was. Finally, Rex reached a vault like door and opened it up. Artificial light momentarily blinded him as he felt a rush of cool, air conditioned air. It took a moment, but his eye sight finally adjusted to the light and he could make out everything before him.
Computer screen after computer screen lined the room that made up the bunker. Some were suspended higher on the wall near the ceiling, some rested on the metal table in the middle of the room.
Each played something he couldn't make out from the distance. Beyond that, Rex could make out test tubes, beakers, microscopes, and thermometers. Keeping his gun level with his shoulders in front of him, Rex entered the room, making sure to check every direction. He doubted the soldiers had come in this far since they were pressed for time, so he needed to make sure he was by himself. When he felt a bit more confident that he was alone, Rex lowered his gun and advanced to the table, surveying the screens.
The far left monitor showed pictures of men, each one more disfigured than the last. Some had different sections of their heads caved in, others had skin and facial features missing. All looked alive.
More than a bit disturbed, Rex turned his attention to the next screen. There was a man with his eyes clenched shut, his breath coming out in scared puffs. He was military by the looks of it, and was strapped to a metal chair. To his left side sat a man in a white lab coat: a doctor. He wore glasses and had curly hair that seemed to be receding. The hair on his face made up for what his head lacked. In the doctor's hand was a syringe of yellow-green colored liquid, the needle pressed to the military man's neck. In the top right hand corner of the screen was one word, M.A.R.S.. Why did that sound familiar?
"This will only hurt a little," the doctor's voice began, sounding tired, almost lazy. It was as though he repeated this saying on a daily basis. Slowly, as though enjoying it, the doctor pressed the needle into the carotid artery. A pained expression over took the military man's, his mouth opened in shock. "What comes next, more so," continued the doctor.
Another voice had begun to speak on the screen next to the one Rex had just been focusing on. Turning his attention, Rex was more than a little surprised to find he recognized the Scottish accent and the man it came from. That was James McCullen. He was CEO of the company that provided weapons to NATO and the U.S.. This explained why Rex recognized the words that now appeared on this screen and the last. M.A.R.S. was his company. "Professor Mindbender. Do whatever it takes. So will I. Remember, science requires sacrifice."
To the left hand side of the screen was the same video from the last, this time just of the shoulders up of the military man. As the needle was pulled out, the strangest thing began to happen to his face. The skin located there looked as though it was burning like paper, bones crunching loudly. Areas of the skin budged and bubbled. The military man began making strangled sounds of pain, mouth wide open. If he looked close enough, Rex could witness his teeth beginning to push down, almost as if the man's upper jaw was reshaping.
Rex leaned closer to the screen. He was shocked, but intrigued. What was that man experimenting with? he wondered. What was in that syringe and how did this connect to James McCullen?
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" The eerily familiar voice made Rex jump and turn, his gun pointing at the source. Having been so focused on the video, Rex hadn't noticed the man beside the furnace. The doctor from the video, to be exact.
Professor Mindbender.
"Stay where you are," Rex commanded, cocking his gun as he stared down Professor Mindbender. He glared, silently wondering how much time he had left. How much time had he wasted watching that... beautiful video. Rex felt minor disgust with himself for agreeing with the psychopath before him.
The professor straightened, cocking his head as though challenging the man before him. "Are you going to shoot me?"
Rex lowered his gun. No, as frightening as this Professor Mindbender was, Rex was a doctor. He'd studied all the methods in which one could help a person live for years, he wasn't about to put that all to waste. But Rex was also a man of science.
His attention turned back to the screams coming from the computer. The military man on the monitor looked as though he were in extreme pain. Despite all of this, Rex wanted—no!—needed to know what was going on with these human tests.
"These aren't chemical, or nuclear, are they?" Rex began backing away from Mindbender, moving closer to the computer.
"No," said Professor Mindbender in his tired but proud voice manner. The man was unhinged in Rex's opinion. "They're something much, much better." Professor Mindbender began to advance along the counter on the wall behind Rex.
Rex's full attention was back on screen, his head turning as though observing the site before him.
"It is beautiful," he admitted aloud, listening to the man screaming. Unlike the screams on the run to the bunker he was currently in, he was able to block these out and concentrate on the science of the situation
His watch began to beep, snapping him out of his thoughts as he checked it. He had two minutes and fifty seconds. He needed to complete his mission. Download the data and get back to Duke. Then he could go home and see his sweet Diana.
Unbuckling his backpack, Rex continued to praise the work, unable to stop his amazement. "Nanomites . . . it's beyond . . . it's light years ahead of what anyone else is doing in the future!"
Rex stumbled over his speech, completely enraptured by the scene on the screen. This was something he and Diana had only hypothesized over. Nanomites had the potential to heal wounds, remove blood clots, cure cancer, help reconnect the brain synapses of someone blind, deaf, or mute. But the nanomites being used in the video seemed flawed. Unperfected. In fact, all the subjects from the first monitor seemed to have reacted poorly to the nanomites. If only he could test them himself he could figure out other uses, like mind cont—no, he needed to stop thinking like this and keep working!
As Rex struggled to get his bag off and opened, Professor Mindbender watched him closely. This man... he seemed to be exactly what he and McCullen were looking for. He was obviously brilliant, having just deduced exactly what was being used in Mindbender's own… home videos. Maybe he and McCullen could use this military scientist, broaden his spectrum of morality. But how could he convince him to stay?
Both Rex and Professor Mindbender stopped as a loud beeping filled bunker. Rex looked up and back, hand frozen in his bag, grasping his flash drive. "Proximity alert. Aerial attack eminent. All to the bunker," came a female recording over the intercom.
Rex silently cursed. The air strike was early! Quickly he pulled out his flash drive, attaching it to the USB port before typing on the keyboard. A Norton anti-virus scan popped up, data began appearing, and finally, the download bar appeared to the side. The data, however, was downloading at a snail's pace.
Behind him, Mindbender adjusted his glasses silently, mouth opening as he realized what opportunity this brought him. This military scientist would be unable to exit he bunker in time, unless, of course, the download sped up, something that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon. A sinister look crossed his eyes, a smirk accompanying it. Mindbender simply needed to shut the bunker in order to preserve himself and his research, and, possibly, an apprentice.
Unnoticed, he began moving quickly towards the door.
"Come on," Rex urged, bouncing a bit as he stared at the download bar. The green bar was moving up at such a slow rate! The alarm was beginning to get to him, causing Rex's anxiety to spike. He was almost out of time! He needed to get out of there now or he never would!
"Come on!" Rex was practically shouting now, close to having a panic attack.
The sound of the heavy bunker door swinging caused Rex to stiffen and turn.
Professor Mindbender was at the door, pulling it shut, locking them both in.
"Hey! HEY! What are you doing?" Frantically he looked back to the screen of the computer, begging to any higher power to allow him out of here so he could go home to his wife. He needed to get out."Don't close that! Don't…" Rex trailed off, any feeling of hope dwindling out of him. Why hadn't he begun downloading this information earlier? Why hadn't he gotten the information and left the crazy professor to his demise?
Rex turned away from the screen once more, locking eyes with the mad Professor Mindbender. "If we live," came the professor's insanely calm voice. "I'll show you everything."
Mindbender grinned, watching as the sudden desire for all the knowledge he possessed on the nanomite technology began over powering Rex's face.
The beeping of the finished download brought Rex back to the screen. He ripped the flash drive out and ran towards the door. As interested as he was in the nanomite technology, his desire to get to safety had won.
The bunker shook. The explosion outside of the room caused everything to rock violently, the walls bursting inward. Rex didn't even have time to scream as metal and fire tossed him back against the desk behind him. Shards of glass cut at his face, particularly his noes and ears, nearly slicing the left one clean off. His hair was on fire, his scalp burning. Pain flamed through his chest.
Using what little energy Rex possessed still, he turned his head downward. Protruding from his sternum was a large piece of metal.
After a moment a strangled scream of shock and pain ripped from Rex and soon, he knew nothing.
Diana sat on the counter of the nurses' station, chatting with Kathy Tate, the older head nurse and a woman with whom she and Rex were good friends. Diana and Rex had made a habit of having dinner with Kathy every Sunday since her husband, David, had died in combat two years prior. Currently Diana was on break and she and Kathy were discussing Rex's arrival home.
"So how many days until you and Rexy are finally reunited?" asked Kathy, her lips turned up in a smile causing the wrinkles there to become more prominent. "I'm hoping it's soon 'cause you get so mopey without him."
Diana gasped in mock hurt. "I do no such thing." Her right hand toyed with Rex's wedding ring which hung on top of her scrubs. "I've never once gotten mopey, thank you very much."
Kathy shook her head. "You deal with it in a subtle way, honey. You go about doing your work as if nothing is wrong, but we all know when something buggin' ya."
"Oh, and how do you know that?" asked Diana, tapping her left hand on the desk in an impatient manner, eyes locked to the clock. Two hours, twenty-one minutes, thirty-three—no—thirty seconds until it was 9:00am and Diana's shift was over. It was Thursday and she'd requested Friday off because tomorrow Rex would be home.
"That's how we can tell Dr. D," said Ruth Benson, a young red haired intern who was currently working in the hospital. "I dunno if you notice, but you're counting down the time until you leave."
A faint blush took over Diana's cheeks as she stuck her tongue out childishly at the two women. "No, I did not know, and Rex is arriving home tomorrow, so excuse me if I'm a little anxious."
"A little! I'm sure you could tell me the exact amount of time until he steps out of the terminal to the second, couldn't she Mrs. Tate?" laughed Ruth, elbowing Kathy in the shoulder.
Kathy, however, made no response. Her eyes had widened, locked on a man who had just entered through the swinging doors. Both Ruth and Diana followed her line of sight, taking in the tall, dark skinned man who'd entered.
Ripcord stood solemnly at the doorway. His entry had cause a hush to fall over the nursing station, all the women present had stopped whatever they were doing to stare at him. Had Ripcord not had such a heart wrenching reason for being at the Hospital that Thursday night, there would have been nothing holding him back from flirting with the cute red head who stood next to Diana and the older woman. Rip had a thing for red heads.
Diana furrowed her brows, wondering why Ripcord was there. Shaking her head, she decided the boys were messing with her. Obviously they'd gotten finished with their mission early and Rex was waiting outside the doors behind Rip to come in and surprise her. Right? Diana carefully slid off the counter, blond pigtails bouncing on her shoulders.
"Diana . . . it's Rex," said Ripcord gently, having taken off the black beret that he'd been wearing.
Silently he cursed Duke for being such a coward. Duke was the originally one who was supposed to come tell not only Diana, but Ana that Rex Lewis had been killed in action. But Duke had disappeared after their plane landed an hour ago, leaving two options. Either Ripcord could go to both girls or another officer from the Casualty Notification office would do it for him. Rip decided that Ana and Diana could use a familiar face to pass on the news.
Diana's brows furrowed before she forced a smile. Something was off, she could tell, but she didn't want to acknowledge the possibility that Rex had—
"Don't tell me Rip, he's behind that door, isn't he? Knowing Rex he's got a bouquet of flowers out there ready to surprise me with, right?"
Diana began walking forward, brushing past Ripcord, who looked down at the floor, hands gripping his beret tightly. Diana shakily pushed open the door, revealing no one in the hall that lay beyond. Beginning to panic, she turned back to Ripcord, her face contorted into one of sick realization. "Rip." Her voice seemed broken.
"There . . . there was an explosion, Diana, in the building Rex went in. He . . . Rex didn't make it out in time." Ripcord looked over at the young blond. " Rex died, Diana."
Ripcord barely had time to catch Diana as her knees gave out, a shell shocked expression cemented on her face.
"He's dead. Rex's dead?" whispered Diana, speaking slowly as she practically hung against Ripcord's arm. "He's dead."
Repeating it must have helped comprehend her husband's death completely because Diana broke down crying. Her sobs filled room, but Diana didn't even notice.
Rex was gone, never to return. Diana would never see his goofy grin that he'd give her while he grilled on the Fourth of July. Or his half lidded seductive glance that would lead to them playing hooky. No more laughing at movies, no more conversations about ground breaking scientific discoveries, no more. There would be nothing involving Rex in her life anymore except memories and the smell of him in their apartment, and eventually both would fade.
Diana Lewis cried out for her lost love to return, for nothing would ever be the same without him.
AN: I'm kinda on a role in the inspiration department right now, so hopefully the next chapter will be out soon! Anyway, please don't forget to review and let me know what you think of the story so far!