Subject: [OTL]: [Broken Roads] South 75 4/? Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 17:38:07 -0800 From: "Shaianne K. PeriHawk" Disclaimer: GI Joe is property of DIC cartoons and whatever company turned it into a comic. Ana, Kim, and Stone are mine. If for some *bizarre* reason, you want to use them, please ask me. Thank you. Dedicated to WhiteWolf, because she was kind enough to beta when I really needed help. Feedback: I'm starting to think you people aren't interested. I know I've been remiss and it took a long time to get the last two chapters out, but feedback makes me write faster! It was a feedback from Jenn Morrighan that made me write this one! So, perihawk@subreality.com, if you please. South 75 4/? Shai PeriHawk Clone. The word chased me through the trees and over the tentacle-like roots that stuck up, forcing me to jump them. Clone. It couldn't be, I had the tattoo. I looked down to my slime coated ankle, it was still there. The triple strand patter curled around my ankle in a ring. I had those memories. Clone. I had those memories that seemed like viewing a movie. A blackened branch reached out to grab me, I angrily batted it out of the way like so much trash. Clone. I screamed in wordless denial. Every part of my mind rejected the possibility. Clone. But that little word explained so much. It explained why I was winning in the fights. It explained Stone's desperation to get me back. It explained why he thought he owned me. Almost nothing registered as I ran. Only my feet, which seemed to have a separate mind, warm and wet with swamp slime, kept me from disaster. Stupid luck couldn't last, and it didn't. The soft mossy turf gave way beneath my weight and I plunged into the lukewarm bog. My brain was still numb and I didn't make a sound as the water closed over my head. I felt a strange vibration in the water, like something *big* was moving near me. Then I saw teeth. LOTS of teeth. And I was above water again, gasping air into my lungs, with an alligator snapping at my heels. I looked wildly up into the face of my "rescuer." He was dressed all in white, in the same manner as Snake Eyes, only, the top of his face was visible. And his black eyes. There was something in his eyes that I couldn't identify, something that touched me. I didn't have long to think about it, because that black pit reached up and swallowed me whole in the next instant. ~*~ *No no no no no!* *"Ana, don't do this to yourself. Quit thinking about it and *act* girl!* Air gasped into my lungs as my eyes popped open. A scream curled its way up my chest. A roughened hand covered my mouth before the scream could get passed my throat. Too numb to be afraid, I got angry instead, reaching up both hands to claw at the hand. Another hand captured mine. "Do you want Zartan to find us, kill me and make you a slave?" A soft-pitched voice asked from behind a white cloth mask. I stilled. I closed my eyes and let my hands fall back to my sides. Unidentified emotion choked me, but tears would not fall. I felt . . . I felt less than human. "Listen very carefully." The white ninja's voice whispered across my ear. "Snake Eyes told me about you. He went back to your room to wait for you. You need to go back in there and make sure he gets out of there alive." He carefully removed his hand from my mouth, but kept my hands pinned. "I'm not going anywhere." I turned my head away from him. Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing mattered. Nothing. "What about that girl that was with you, will you let Zartan take her as well? Do you know that Zartan likes young girls?" His voice had a sharp edge that cut me, deeply. "Kim." Her name barely whispered across my lips. "Kim is as good as his unless you get back into the compound soon." I had to hand it to the man, he knew which buttons to push. He could probably feel the defeat in my body, because he stood and held out a hand to help me to my feet. I looked at him for a long time before I took it. To my relief, but not really to my surprise, he kept the contact brief and business-like. This was a rare man who didn't stare slack-jawed at a naked woman when she was right in front of him. "Which way do I go?" I asked, pulling together the only thing I had left, my friendship with Kim. Her friendship was the only thing I had that I *knew* was fully mine. His black eyes crinkled about the mask. He was smiling. "Would you perhaps like some clothes to wear back?" He knelt down and pulled a bundle from a bag. He held the blue bundle out to me. I took it without a word and shook out a pair of draw-string trousers and a cross-breast tie-closure shirt. Once dressed, I asked again. "Which way?" He crinkled at me again. Probably laughing at my impatience. "I can show you most of the way. Zartan is a bit arrogant, he has no external guards." I gathered up what was left of my courage and followed the white ninja into the swamp. *Kim had better be all right. She's all *I* have . . . .* ~ End ~