Chapter 23

"Three years, Brother."

He stops for a second. I'm sure he knows what I'm talking about; even though he doesn't remember everyone from our clan being killed or even believes it's happened, he knows when I joined Cobra and when I first started trying to make him remember the truth.

I can't even look him in the eyes when I start talking again. I stare at my sword instead.

"I can't stand to see you like this anymore."

His grip on his sword tightens but he still doesn't move.

"You're the only person in the whole world that I recognize at all. Don't you understand how close we must have been? Can't you see this isn't right? We can't be natural enemies!"

Around us, the battle is still raging. He just stands there, waiting to see what I'm going to do.

"The Order is using that fact in their efforts to confuse me: each time they implant a false memory, it's while I'm fighting you or shortly after, typically when I'm thinking about our fights. They're able to use you as a facilitator."

His heart accelerates slightly and he sheaths his sword to sign to me that the memories are not false and that he's been trying to trigger them, although he didn't know until now that it was working.

"STOP IT," I snarl. "Stop. Whatever you think you're doing, it's not working! It can't. What you think are memories are LIES! This can't go on… as long as you're in my way, I'll never be able to bring GI Joe to justice, and after three years, it's time I admit I won't be able to bring you back by talking to you."

His hands twitch as he resists the urge to grip his sword again. He signs to ask what happens now.

I sigh. I've been trying to work up the courage to do this for days, and I can barely even bring myself to saying it out loud.

"I've tried everything to bring you back; nothing is working. I thought I was making progress at first, but I can see now that what I thought were glimmers of hope for your true self to surface again were simply arranged by the Order to fool me."

He's heard enough. He takes his sword back out and attacks. I block and keep talking.

"It's time for me to face facts. My brother is dead; he doesn't need saving anymore, he needs avenging. You… you're just a shell; a living puppet beyond redemption."

My voice breaks even as I say it. He's still attacking me, and his attacks are getting more ferocious. I clench my teeth and for the first time - as far as I know, anyway - I respond to his attacks in kind. This is such a novelty for him that although his technique is better than mine, I draw blood almost right away, even though it's only a flesh wound. This is when the reality of what I'm doing fully hits me. I suddenly visualize cutting his head, in full details, and all the resolve I've built up evaporates.

The fact that this is the only sensible thing to do ceases to matter. Telling myself he's not my brother anymore stops making any kind of sense. After spending several days and nights arguing with myself and then training my mind to accept what has to be done, a drop of blood drawn from his side by my sword and I'm back to square one.

I can't kill him. I can't even hurt him; he's my brother, the last family I have! By all evidence, he's the most important person in my life; I can't give up on him.

I sink to my knees and his blade skims my shoulder. I barely notice. My own sword drops from my fingers and I sag to a full crouch.

"I can't do it," I hear myself say.

I don't really know who I'm talking to; it hardly seems useful to talk to Snake Eyes anymore. I really can't do anything for him, and because of that, I can't do anything for the rest of our family. I've failed.

He kneels in front of me and signs something. I can't focus my eyes enough to have any idea what he signed: I shake my head. This little truce feels completely unreal; people around us are still fighting and his radio is screaming at him to take me prisoner.

He sighs and squeezes my shoulders briefly. My eyes widen and I look up at him, but he's already up and he has his sword back out.

He came back. For a few seconds, he was back. He's gone again, but he came back!

I block his sword with mine and our fight starts again. As usual, we keep each other busy while Cobra tries to defeat GI Joe.

Back to square one, but at least I know we're moving. The last three years mean nothing anymore, and the despair I felt minutes ago seems ridiculous in hindsight.

"I'm sorry," I say. "I gave up on you. I won't do that again, I swear it."

The fight plays out and ends like most others – we sustain losses and accomplish little – but for once, I couldn't care less. I don't remember ever being so happy. Even the thought that of course I wouldn't makes me chuckle.

My good mood lasts for several days, despite the fact the Commander is not even planning our next move, concentrating instead on a little swear-in ceremony for our youth troops.

My patience does start to wear thin as the 'big day' approaches. I could understand the Commander being a bit giddy – pure hearted future generations fighting the good fight and all that – but the Baroness is practically dancing in anticipation and the Commander is gleefully ignoring my concerns over that fact, solely because Destro and he have been getting along well as of late. All I've been able to talk the Commander into is to let me be by his side at the ceremony.

All in all, I'm glad when we finally find ourselves looking at the dozens of young teens swearing loyalty to Cobra, simply for the sake of getting it done with and because I'm expecting to finally find out what the Baroness is up to.

The ceremony proceeds with nothing of interest happening for a while – three or four kids at a time are introduced to the Commander and swear loyalty, the Commander thanks them and dismisses them, and the next group comes over. If not for a sense of impending danger that is not helped at all by the Baroness's conspicuous absence, I'd be bored to tears.

And then, a trigger gets pulled and a bullet shoots out from inside the bouquet of flowers held by one of the kids. I dive to get the Commander out of the way while the kid shouts something about avenging his parents.

I throw a knife towards the gun before he fires again, and knock both the weapon and the flowers out of his hand. Guards grab him, and next thing I know, the Commander has scrambled up and is pointing his own gun at the kid. I look around for the Baroness, but she's still nowhere to be seen. I listen out for her, but there's too much chatter and noise, I can't hear anyone's vital signs except for the small group around the Commander and myself.

"Speak, boy," the Commander demands. "Who sent you? You didn't get here by yourself. Who's your accomplice? The Baroness?"

Next to him, Destro winces.

"I'll never betray my allies!" the boy shouts defiantly. "You can kill me if you like, you're not getting anything out of me!"

It's a shame he's bent on killing the Commander: such character and loyalty, he would have made an excellent recruit for us.

The Commander rolls his eyes.

"Fine with me," he says.

Before he can fire, Destro forces his gun up. "I can't let you do that Commander."

I glance at arms dealer, curious; he sounds horrified. He's not being threatening at all, so I don't feel the need to interfere.

The Commander glares at him. The kid struggles and to make sure he doesn't actually escape, I take out my sword and position the point of it on his throat with a meaningful look. He snarls at me but stops moving.

"Look at him, Commander. The resemblance is obvious, and he's the right age. Besides," Destro adds after a quick glance at me, "it'd be just like the Order to do this, for the sheer cruelty of it: have the estranged son murder his own father without knowing it."

My eyes widen and I glance at the Commander, who's staring at the kid with wide eyes.

"Billy?" he asks.

The kid's eyes widen too.

"Dad?"

The Commander's pulse speeds up for the space of a few beats before going back to normal.

"Put him in the dungeon," he hisses. "If he doesn't talk, he'll be executed tomorrow. Being my son only makes his treason worse."

I show no reaction when I sheathe my sword and the guards take the boy away. The Commander needs to maintain perfect discipline, so it's no good disputing his orders in front of everyone else - he'd have to blow me off no matter what I said.

His need to maintain that discipline and to keep his authority undisputed is the same reason he had to do what he did: he can't forgive a would-be murderer, no matter who he is. Given how much it hurt to decide to kill my brother – however short-lived that resolution was - I can imagine how difficult it must have been for the Commander to give the order to execute his own son.

I can't let the execution happen. The kid doesn't deserve it, for one thing: he was manipulated, and yet he still refused to betray his supposed allies. This is not the mark of a traitor, quite the opposite: this child is already a better man than most of our troops. Secondly, I know the Commander can't actually want to go through with this. If I don't do something, he'll have to and he will, but it'll be like tearing his own heart out of his chest.

I need to break Billy out, and I need to figure out a way to give the Commander an excuse to pardon him. I'll probably need to hide the kid away for a while, which means I'll have to disappear with him and there's a good chance some will think I've finally been flipped by the Order. Hopefully, the Commander will know better and guess what it is I'm really up to, but since I can't bank on it, I may as well make sure that both Billy and I do something that earns us forgiveness and the Commander's trust back. It shouldn't be too hard: we'll just have to play heroes at the first occasion.

I make my move right after dinner, as the sun starts nearing the horizon – the long shadows will help both the kid and I to hide but the troops won't be wearing their night vision goggles yet.

I crawl along the ceiling through the cell block, right over the head of a few guards who remain oblivious to my presence. Most of the cells are empty, and therefore, security is pretty lax: what few guards are around are not paying much attention.

Billy, on the other hand, is guarded by five men. I drop in the middle of them and knock them out before they can so much as cry out. Billy looks at me dispassionately.

"You're here to kill me, aren't you? I could tell you weren't happy the Commander wouldn't let you do it right away. What are you supposed to be, anyway? Some kind of ninja?"

I suppose I can excuse the faulty logic: he did just get sentenced to death after being tricked into trying to murder his own father and subsequently being abandoned by his accomplices.

"If I was so desperate to kill you before tomorrow as to get myself in trouble for it, I would have done it at the ceremony. And yes, I'm a ninja."

I take out my sword and slice the chains holding him to the wall. He blinks at me and doesn't move.

I beckon him to follow.

"I'm breaking you out. Come on, we need to get moving."

"Hold it."

I turn to Destro, smirking. I was wondering when he'd come out of the shadows and 'reveal' himself. I'm pretty sure he won't object to Billy not being executed since he's already saved his life.

My smirk vanishes when I notice his gun, pointed straight at me: he thinks I'm betraying them.

"Storm Shadow. Leave the boy and get yourself to Mindbender. You're just confused."

He's remarkably calm, either because he's billing me as not too far gone yet from the fact I didn't kill the guards or because he thinks his gun makes him safe.

"I'm not confused," I say. "The boy is the Commander's son, I…"

Destro frowns.

"Wonderful: you're making trouble even without the memories. The Commander has made his decision with the full knowledge of the boy's identity, ninja. You ought to respect it."

I really don't have time for a philosophical argument with Destro, but as long as he's talking, he's not fully concentrated on shooting us, something I'd be foolish not to exploit.

"What are YOU doing here, anyway?" I ask.

"I was hoping Billy's accomplices would show… oh no you don't! Even you can't dodge bullets from this close!"

I've grabbed Billy's arms and I'm running straight at Destro. He stops talking and shoots, but I've already pushed his gun up and I shove him in the cell before taking off with Billy and the gun. I dump the gun before jumping for the ceiling with the boy, who is thankfully light and finally mentally alert enough to help himself a bit.

"ALERT! STORM SHADOW HAS BETRAYED US AND FREED BILLY!" Destro screams behind us.

I scowl: he's going to have the whole base, and possibly even the Commander, believing the Order got to me.

I steer Billy between ceilings and floors until we get to one of the emergency exits and end up in the sewers. He wrinkles his nose and claps the hand I'm not holding to his mouth, but to his credit, he doesn't say a word and just keeps running. I hear a small group somewhere behind us and accelerate. He floats behind me more than he runs, but he manages to keep his balance and to not slow me down too much. I exit the sewers at the first opportunity and we lose our pursuers in the streets of Springfield before heading out of town.

Author's Notes

Hmm… a confused teenager and a delusional ninja on the run… You know, this could totally be the premise for a sitcom. I can't think of a title, though, and even though it's for a sitcom that will never exist (even here), it's driving me crazy that I don't know what to call it. Any ideas? The winner gets to pick between a few options for the next bonus. :)

The bonus for reviewers this week is the first part of a mini spin-off kind of thing: a clan war that got rather nasty back when Tommy Arashikage was 14. It is set in the same universe as this story.

Next time: Tommy finally gets a student and he's pretty gleeful for a short while.