Chapter 20

A mere hour later, we're walking into the building, heading for the lab.

We create quite the panic. The place is full of people, most of them in lab coats, and every last one of them screams at the sight of us before running in the opposite direction. Zartan chuckles, like the oversized playground bully he is.

But then, we round a corner and instead of more scientists, we come face to face with a large group of Joes, among which Snake Eyes and the red head I saw with him before. Zartan stops laughing, turns on his cloak and takes off towards them. They take out their guns and I take out my bow, grinning from ear to ear.

I lose my smile when the Commander grabs my arm with a shaky hand. I glance at him but before he can say anything, I throw him on the floor to dodge a volley of bullets and drag him behind the troops, who are already firing at the Joes.

"What?" I ask impatiently. "What do you want?"

A trooper gasps and falls. His heart stops before he touches the floor. Another one screams and starts choking on his own blood. The Joes are screaming too and I find out why there are so many of them: one of the older ones just gave the order to get the recruits out of here – the Joes were using this babysitting mission as a training exercise.

Zartan's cloak works just as well as he expected. He's pursuing the Joes that are trying to retreat and taking them out easily. The only problem is that he's ignoring the ones that are actually shooting at our troopers.

"I was expecting a handful of Joes, not this!" the Commander hisses shakily.

I clench my jaw; he's panicking. He needs to get out of here; he's useless to us like this. And I need to go help Zartan before all our troopers are down.

"So run."

As I say it, I push him back the way we came. Another trooper has fallen in the time it took us to exchange these few words. I turn to the Joes, my bow still in hand, and shoot between two of our troopers. My arrow goes through the throat of one soldier and that of another one right behind him. I reload before they're done crumbling and shoot again, this time taking out an older soldier equipped with some kind of goggles – heat vision would be my guess - who was sneaking up on Zartan.

The Commander grips my arm before I can reload again. I notice that we're down to four troopers, and one of them gets shot in the head just as I turn towards the Commander.

"Help me," he begs. "Get me out of here. I can't do it by myself!"

I curse. Three Joes! I only got three! At this rate, it will take me the rest of my life to see them all dead! At the same time, without the Commander and Cobra, my chances for revenge are just about nil.

"Fine," I growl, grabbing the Commander and running off, leaving our three remaining troopers to prove they're better than their comrades or to get themselves killed. I hear them die before we're out of my hearing range, and the Joes start running towards us. I peel my ears as I run for the sound of Zartan or Snake Eyes, and find them almost next to each other, with nobody else left around: Snake Eyes is taking him on.

I smirk as I run. I can't say I'll miss Zartan.

The Joes never catch me. I thought Snake Eyes would, but Zartan must have been able to slow him down more than I expected. I practically throw the Commander in the bus's driver's seat.

"I've been with you for over a month and so far, you've made me run each time I've met the Joes," I growl. "I'm not happy, Commander."

He turns the key in the ignition, ignoring me.

"Go get Zartan back. I don't want the Joes to capture him and figure out that cloak of his."

I snarl under my mask, but I don't have time to reply – a door opens behind us and guns start firing. The Commander drives off while I dodge the bullets and turn to face the Joes. It seems they've split up at some point – a good fifteen were pursuing us at first, but there are only five of them now. It's not much, but it still almost triples my score for today – better than nothing.

They're just staring at me as I take out two shurikens, seemingly shocked that I'm not falling over with a few smoking holes in me. This, coupled with the fact they're all wearing the same non-descript uniform, identifies them as some of the rookies.

"You were supposed to be retreating, weren't you? But you saw us and thought you'd be heroes."

My voice breaks them out of their trance and they start shooting at me again. I run between the bullets and towards them, throwing my shurikens at the eyes of the two best shooters.

The silvery stars burst their eyeballs and slice through their ocular orbits, burying themselves in their brains. They collapse without a sound. The other three, finally showing some professionalism, continue to shoot at me.

I throw more shurikens, this time aiming for their hands. I frown, puzzled at myself: I have no idea why I didn't aim to kill. I put it on account of reflex and brush it off.

The Joes scream and one of them passes out when their guns fall off along with their trigger fingers. I stop a step in front of the other two and glare at them.

"Only the fact you are too green and too hopeless to have possibly been involved with the murder of my family saves you from the slowest, most painful death I could give you today," I growl.

They try to back away, but only get to take two steps before they hit the wall of the building they just came out of. They try the door - which doesn't open - and freeze, out of option, out of hope. They whimper and one of them wets his pants. The other one extends his hands towards me, one of them dripping from where his pointer finger used to be, palms facing me in a supplication to stop.

I unsheathe my katana and decapitate both of them with one swipe. I plunge the blade in the heart of the one that passed out and let out a sigh.

I feel no satisfaction whatsoever. Eight, five of which I'm certain did not participate in the slaughter… it's not enough, it's nothing. I feel like I'm going nowhere. I clench my jaw and force my mind back to what I'm supposed to be doing – the Joes can't get their hands on Zartan's cloak and ideally, they shouldn't be able to study him, either. Therefore, I need to go recover his body.

With a bit of luck, I'll be able to isolate Snake Eyes and try again to talk some sense back into him – his presence here and the fact he attacked Zartan doesn't leave me much hope that he remembers anything yet.

I try the door the soldiers couldn't open, and as I suspected, it opens with no difficulty – the rookies were just too shaky to manage the handle properly.

I run down the hallways, concerned against my better judgment. I can hear a battle still going on, which means Zartan is still fighting. Snake Eyes should have been able to kill him or take him prisoner by now, and I should be running to ambush him and bail the Amazing Chameleon Coward out.

Instead, they're still fighting. I pick up on Snake Eyes' movements and life signs as I get closer, and I hear Zartan chuckle and trash talk a few times. Just I as I round the last corner and find them, Zartan boasts about finally defeating the great Snake Eyes and the safety of his gun clicks.

I'm too far to shove my brainwashed brother out of the way, so I throw one of my knives at Zartan's gun, knocking it out of his grip before he actually shoots. I then take aim at him with my bow; his heart accelerates and he steps sideways. I follow him with my arrow.

"You can't actually be helping him," he growls. "This is treason, Storm Shadow!"

I ignore him.

"Snake Eyes, I hope you at least have the sense to be embarrassed. I can understand that you can't hear his heartbeat, his breathing, or the hum of his cloak. I can even admit that maybe you can't quite hear his footsteps enough to know his exact position. But for crying out loud, he hasn't even had the sense not to talk or laugh! Can't you locate a voice?"

Zartan snorts. I continue to ignore him.

"You can't be that clueless if we grew up and trained together: you MUST know the same things I know. Maybe your hearing was damaged at some point? How about your eyesight?"

I don't actually remember growing up with him, but given that he's the only person I remember at all, it seems like a logical conclusion that I've known him all my life, and seeing how good we both are, it's easy to guess that we've both been training our whole lives. Besides, I don't remember growing up without him, either.

"What are you talking about, ninja?" Zartan growls. "My cloak is perfect!"

I roll my eyes at him.

"Alright, Snake Eyes. This is your last chance to redeem yourself a teeny bit. Tell me why I can see where he is and why you should as well. I WILL tell you if you don't clue in, but if it gets to that, I promise you that you'll smack your own forehead so hard you'll knock yourself out."

"YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY SEE ME!" Zartan screams.

I expected him to remark I was teaching and to call me a mother hen again, but I guess I should have known he wouldn't be able to think of anything else than the present moment while he had an arrow pointed at him.

I pointedly continue to ignore him and glare at Snake Eyes.

He starts looking towards where I'm aiming and for a few seconds, I think I actually am going to have to tell him, but finally, his head tilts down and he sees the tiny drop of blood floating about an inch from the floor.

Zartan got a bit of someone else's blood on his boot at some point and his cloak only hides him, so the drop of blood is visible, revealing the position of his foot. Considering there are quite a few bodies around, I have to give him points for not getting more blood on himself that this small drop, but just the same, it's there.

Snake Eyes stares at it for a second before slapping his hand on his forehead. I snort, as much at his reaction as because I'm just happy about what I've just found out: he's not better than me at everything.

Zartan must have looked down too because his heart rate goes up again and he takes off. Snake Eyes starts to follow but I jump in front of him, my arrow pointing straight at his heart.

"No, brother. If you must fight, you're fighting me. At least now I know that I CAN get through that thick skull of yours."

Saying that, I put my bow away in an attempt at a truce. Because I don't expect it to work, I position my hand on the handle of my katana but to my delighted surprise, Snake Eyes goes along with the truce and rather than attacking me, he hands me a piece of paper.

"Were you losing to Zartan on purpose, just so you'd have an excuse to wait for me to come back?" I guess, ripping the envelope open. "Not that I'm complaining." I stop talking while reading, ears peeled for any sign that he's about to attack me while I'm distracted.

You're the one who is being used. Nobody slaughtered our entire clan and there is no such thing as the 'Order'.

You know me because we used to be best friends. We fought in the war together, and you even saved my life. You invited me to join your clan and I accepted your invitation.

A little more than 8 years ago, your uncle (the Hard Master) was murdered. Your other uncle (the Soft Master) is certain that you were the murderer and ordered the rest of the clan to hunt you down and either kill you or bring you to him.

I don't know how, but you ended up with Cobra. As near as I can tell, you were yourself until recently, when you were briefly held at Alcatraz. The next time I saw you, you weren't making any sense.

Cobra is bent on World Domination. They are evil enough to have brainwashed you, but I can't figure out why if you were already working for them willingly. You mentioned when you were in Alkatraz that you needed the Commander around for about two more years.

The Soft Master says I'm jumping to the conclusions I want to reach, but…

I stop reading then, too angry to continue, and rip the note to shreds. GI Joe has fed him whatever lies they needed to explain my behaviour towards him. They're making him believe I'm the one who was brainwashed so that he'll try to 'rescue' me by bringing me to them.

How am I supposed to trigger his memories of me when he's convinced he remembers everything?

"More lies, brother," I snarl. "I remember the attack on our clan. I remember hearing dozens of people dying! GI Joe is trying to use you to capture me again. I'm warning you now, I won't let you. I'll try my best not to kill you or permanently disable you, but I will not let you turn me into another puppet at the service of the Order."

He shakes his head, looking completely defeated. I can sympathize with the feeling since I'm in the exact plight he only thinks he's in.

"I need to bring you to Mindbender," I say with a sigh. "I'm sorry, I know you won't come willingly, but this is for your own good."

I take my sword out and get into a dueling stance. Considering the results of our previous encounters, I would normally not even bother trying a straight one-on-one fight with him but right now, he's tired out by his fight with Zartan. I just might have a chance at defeating him and bringing him in.

He takes his sword out too, but also taps something on his hip, causing a low beep to sound from it. I recognize the sound – he's just sent an empty text message, a ping, basically. In other words, he's just called for help.

"They won't be here in time, Brother."

I charge. He blocks me but limps back a step. I glance down at his leading leg and clench my teeth: his thigh is coated in blood originating from a deep cut, no doubt inflicted by Zartan; I didn't notice before because the blood is not showing much on the black of his uniform. His putting weight on it causes the wound to open wider and a new flow of blood pours out. He shifts his weight and if not for his pulse becoming a bit frantic, I would have no idea how badly he's hurt.

"You can't fight like this; yield. I swear to you, I only want to give you your freedom back."

He answers by taking out his gun. I dive under it and kick it out of his hand.

I hear Snake Eyes right behind me again and his sword swishes through the air, aimed at my legs. I skip over it, barely clearing it, and roll right back to the ground, guessing he wanted me to go up. It turns out to be a good guess – he had his gun aimed up. It takes him about a quarter of a second to adjust, just enough for me to kick the gun out of his hands.

The thought crosses my head that I should have killed him – I'm not likely to get an opening like this again and in all likeliness, I've just made my last mistake. I clench my jaw – I won't hurt him. I'm not the traitor they all think I am.

The thoughts stop me for a moment. It feels exactly like a recollection, but it makes no sense. Snake Eyes, trying to kill me because 'they' believe I'm a traitor… that never happened, I'm sure of it. I don't even know who the 'me' from this little scene means by 'they', but my guess is the rest of our clan – even though that makes even less sense than the rest of the scene.

This moment of distraction is all Snake Eyes needs. He stabs me in both my arms, near my shoulders – I see the move coming, but too late to successfully block or evade it. As much as the wounds hurt, I take comfort in the fact he could just as easily have killed me and he chose not to.

I kick him in the chest to push him back, intent on running away. I've lost my chance to beat him, I can barely move my arms anymore. If I don't run, he'll probably capture ME; I can't risk it.

He blocks the kick and kicks me in return, aiming at my knee. I sidestep and try to chop at the wound on his extended leg, but my hit is so weak he doesn't even react. He punches me in the gut, hard enough to knock the air out of me. I back up a step, bent in two, glaring at him. He kicks again, this time aiming for my face. I evade it and his radio breaks in – the voice is the red head's.

"Snake Eyes, we're on our way! We found the missing trainees… they… they ran into Storm Shadow." She pauses and coughs, in an obvious attempt at steadying her voice. "Orders stand on Zartan: capture."

The message distracts him long enough for me to get a few paces away from him, which, thanks to his injured legs, is enough: he tries to come after me but he can't run properly and he eventually tumbles, obviously weakened by the loss of blood.

I'm not doing that great on that either: my arms are bleeding like mad where he stabbed them. I need to bandage myself up, and not only because I'm leaving a trail: I can already feel myself getting weaker.

I stop as soon as I round a corner, getting out of view of Snake Eyes strictly so he won't realize what I'm doing, and use the bands on my lower arms and the bottom of my legs to wrap the wounds and stop the blood from dripping. The bandages are pathetic, thanks to the fact the blades went through muscles, nerves, ligaments and bones and that ninja or not, I can't just will my arm to move if the muscle I need is damaged, the bone broken and the ligament torn, and my fingers can't do much of a delicate job when all I feel from them is pins and needles. Nevertheless, the bandages stop the blood from dripping, at least for now, and slow the loss.

I listen out for the Joes, and pick them up trampling towards Snake Eyes. I start running again, skip two opportunities to turn in the hope they'll assume I took them, and turn at the third chance I get, before they actually have me in sight. I come upon a set of stairs, take it, and run to the other end of the building before opening a window and jumping for it.

From there, I run a few blocks before I hail a cab and head back to Springfield, altogether in an extremely bad mood. The cab driver comments on my costume being really cool and asks me if I'm going to a birthday party. I tell him that I am because I have no reason not to use a cover so graciously offered, and proceed to ignore him the rest of the way.

Author's notes:

This scene is here for therapeutic reasons. I just had to do something about the fight between a cloaked but chatty and grass trampling Zartan and a completely helpless Snake Eyes that occurs in Sigma Six. In the series, Spirit has to save Snake Eyes' bacon, but I had to restore Snake Eyes' honour by making Zartan much less visible (no footprints in the grass) and a bit quieter. I still couldn't resist making Storm Shadow lecture him – he doesn't get to have the upper hand on his brother very often. In Snake Eyes' defense, that drop of blood was a lot easier to spot if you already knew where Zartan was, and nothing says he didn't get ANY hit on Zartan.

Next time: more memories surface, but I think people are going to be angry with me.

The bonus for this chapter is a bit of light-heartedness: a casual little chat between Tommy and Chatterbox, back before the Hard Master's death. The conversation kind of diverges into adult subjects (what can I say, they're guys…), but I think it still qualifies for a T rating because it's about as non explicit as it gets.