Hello Dear readers,

I wish you a happy New Year! Even if it's a little late already.

I am... something that I'm not allowed to type here if I don't want to chance the rating of the story. Work and birthdays and sickness flushed me away and I totally ran into the problem not being able to finish the chapters. I am incredible sorry!

But I finish the story, don't worry.

No, I won't go slash, but not because I have a problem with gays, but simply, because Julien is not gay. Yet, I love teasing characters in stories. :D

You'll encounter a rather unknown, but very useful sign in this chapter:‽ Also known (or rather not) as 'interrobang'. I came across the interrobang and the sacastrophe lately and I think they are very useful and I plan to use them from now on. Spread the word! Make them famous!

And as usual enjoy the chapter! ^.^

Your Oxymora

.

.

Part 2: A stormy night

After Julien's question, nearly everyone in the group gave Skipper an inquiring look. However, he shirked from them by staring at the ground and crumpled the letter with his wing. The leader was famous – or infamous, depending on the viewer – of keeping his business classified, but now circumstances forced him to change this attitude, at least that was what they thought. Yet, Freija-Solveig knew that this was the only mystery in Skipper's life which was even more secret than her brother's felony. It was one of the most profound secrets inside the ADM, and only her parents, she herself, and Skipper's supervisor at the ADM were ever told about Skipper's family. All to keep him save; but now the secret was lifted. She had not had the chance to tell him, but she carried most of the burden for this disaster.

To compensate for her mistake, she wanted to help Skipper keeping the others out of the business and away from the danger. But, as no penguin is allowed to swim alone, she had come to the US with a team. However, her intensions had never been to include the others into the mission.

"Skipper. Let us talk," Freija-Solveig said then.

"Wait... what is with us?" Marlene asked.

"You can't exclude us from this!" Private added.

Freija-Solveig sighed. They were as stubborn as their leader. "You need not to know. I am very sorry, but this is tip top secret."

"Not anymore, as it seems," Kowalski remarked. "The sable and his colleague are for sure not the only ones who came here. You cannot go against all of them alone!"

Rico nodded to show that he agreed with his friends.

"Men, I know you want to help me. But I simply cannot tell you. Not only does this bring you in grave danger, but also... you... your whole opinion of me will be changed," Skipper explained finally. They all looked at him without saying a word, while he continuously avoided any eye-contact. Yet, he could feel their worried and not-understanding glances.

Johnson was the first to answer: "I don't know what you are talking about. We all got to know a caring leader, colleague and friend, who never let his men or friends down. I think I can speak here in the name of all of us: You are Skipper. We will always help you," Johnson answered without realising yet how perfect he had chosen his words.

Freija-Solveig shook her head: "You don't understand, Johnson. Neither do the others."

"I don't know why you think that you know more about Skipper or why you have the only right to help him. You don't understand. We are friends of Skipper, just as you are," said Marlene. The female penguin had an answer on her peak already, but no time to speak it out loud.

"Maurice?" King Julien posed and waited for his subject to equip him with a base-ball cap, a whistle, and a handbag with a carriage emblem and COACH written on it. Then he addressed his kingly words to the group: "I'm the coach now, crazy-feet lady. So move aside." Mort aped 'crazy-feet lady', while the self-declared king shooed Freija-Solveig, leaving her behind with an unbelieving expression on her face.

"Did he just call me crazy-feet lady?" Freija-Solveig asked. "Why? What is wrong with my feet?"

Manfredi smirked. Due to the early death of her parents and her duties as the head of a whole academy, she had a rather manly attitude. But when the feedback on her looks was not positive, she answered to stereotypical women behaviour.

"Nothing is wrong with them, my dear," he lowered his voice and whispered into her ear. "He is still jealous of your dancing skills."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course," he gave her the warm smile she loved so much.

Kowalski looked at the happy couple with a sad glance and rubbed unnoticed the feathers where he had the Doris-tattoo.

All three were pulled back to the goings-on, when King Julien placed himself into the middle of the group. "Let me tell you, frowny penguin, you have to give your best at this. And you can only do this with your team and friends supporting you!"

Skipper looked at him somewhat puzzled. He had expected anything, but a couple of wise words.

"This is what my mother told me, when I became the king," he explained, but fell suddenly in a deeply sad mood and hugged the lady handbag. "Mommy..." As swiftly as he had entered the emotional pit he snapped out of it and said melodramatically: "And most importantly: I thought I was your BFF!"

"BFF‽ Skipper?"Manfredi could not suppress a smile.

"That's a long story..." was the leader's response as he did not want to tell the whole story about how Julien helped them to defeat Dr. Blowhole.

"It is decided then, right?" asked Kowalski. "Rico..."

The penguin nodded and regurgitated a smoke bomb. Skipper noticed a short pain in his neck and while he lost control of his senses, he thought: "They learned finally how to overcome me."

.

Skipper woke up. At first he had no idea what had happened, why his head ached and most importantly, why he was bound to a chair. Then his memories came back and he eyed the headquarters he was back in. Next to him was Freija-Solveig – also bound to a chair and still unconsciousness.

"This is not right!" Skipper could hear Private's protest from behind his back.

It was Kowalski who answered: "I know. I still don't like that Rico and I had to sedate them and get the letter, but there was no other way! For sure there is some hint about Skipper's family in this letter. And as we were afraid they would act the moment they gain conscious, we also had to tie them up. I really don't like this."

The penguin leader closed his wing to feel whether the letter was still there. Of course it was not. He turned his head towards Freija-Solveig, but she was still asleep.

Then he asked aloud: "You really want to stick your noses into my business?" His friends jumped surprised behind him.

"Sk... Skipper. You are awake... already?" Kowalski wondered.

"Perfect!" It was Marlene and she also appeared in front of Skipper. "Now you listen and we won't untie you until your pighead understood it! We won't let you go off on your own. Both Johnson and Julien gave you quite the talk, and Kowalski and the guys decided to unravel the secret without your compliance. But Private and I don't like the idea. I don't know what happened in your past, but it is your past. This is now and here. And we won't let you run away once again! Do you understand that?"

"Are you finished?" was Skipper's respond.

"Don't be such a... what?" Marlene was taken by surprise. "Well, yes."

"Good. Untie me so that we can talk."

"You mean to talk about this duel?"

"Hurry up! We are losing a lot of time right now!"

She looked at Kowalski, who was already behind his former leader and unfixed the bonds. A last time Skipper checked on Freija-Solveig, before he turned towards his friends. She appeared unconscious and he thanked for it. She reminded him too much of how he should acted, but he had planned to go against every rational decision and let his friends in on this secret. Additionally, the two objects he had found inside the letter meant that she had not followed his wish. Otherwise the whole story would have never resurfaced.

"Attached to the letter you can find a mini disc. Listen to them," Skipper explained and pointed at the envelope, that they had taken from him.

Kowalski took the envelope away from Rico and removed the letter with the mini disc. "Before we listen to this, I have a question. Since our way back from Denmark, I wanted to ask you this and now I think my suspicion is confirmed. Are you...?" He paused.

Skipper looked with a very sad and tired expression at his former first man. He nodded. "You want to ask me whether I am Einar."

The penguins jumped with fright.

"Don't tell me..." Manfredi grabbed his former leader by his shoulders.

"Tell ME! What does that mean?" Marlene looked quizzically from Skipper to Kowalski. The lemurs were just as clueless as she was.

Johnson delayed the answer and asked instead: "But I thought your family name was Grant!" Manfredi moved backwards and agreed.

"That's my mother's maiden name. I adopted the surname when I arrived in Denmark, but later on I never used it except for my personal file."

A few meters behind Skipper a not as-unconscious-as-thought Freija-Solveig thought by herself: "So you gonna tell them..."

Skipper took a deep breath, before he continued: "My full name is Einar 'Skipper' Grant Erlendursson."

It hit the penguins like an icy wind in winter. The penguin leader himself wondered how unfamiliar the name sounded to him. It had been years since he last heard it; enough time to forget it.

"I still don't understand," remarked Marlene.

Kowalski was the first to find words and explained: "You remember when we were in the sewer under Copenhagen and met the great auk called G.A.? He told us about the penguins-traitor-Nr-One, who caused the almost-defeat of the ADM and the death of Igor Sokolow, a leading politician of the Svoboda Medvedy Armiya, in English Freedom Bear Army. "

"Yes, now that you mention it. And... this person is your father?" She turned to Skipper and saw him nodding.

"Wow, that is something," remarked Maurice.

"No surprise you are always so grumpy. I know how we deal with traitors... but are you really trustworthy then?" asked Julien coming close to Skipper and looked deep into his eyes, as if it was written on his pupil. "Do you know that your eyes' rainbow looks like the sea?"

"Ring-tail..." Skipper pushed the lemur away. "On this disc is a message of Erlendur's colleague to my mother. We had to leave everything behind when we escaped from our family house on Iceland. You can play the disc; it is everything that is left from the first year of my life and I thought it had been destroyed."

He looked back at Freija-Solveig, who flinched. He was not surprised that she was awake, but let her pretend to be unconscious. It had been her task to destroy the letter and the disc in order to avoid the very situation. Due to sentimental reasons she had not fulfilled it.

"Don't you understand now why I wanted the only memento of my mother to be destroyed?" Skipper asked Freija-Solveig in his thoughts.

Meanwhile Kowalski had entered the mini-disc into their player and started it.

After two seconds an unfamiliar voice with a rather harsh accent started to talk:

"Dear Caitlin,

We had some difficult times in the past, but I need you to believe every single word I tell you in this letter. It is vital to your survival, and if you do not want to act for your own sake, at least take action for your son. It won't be easy for you and you might take it for one of my tricks, but I swear on the Bible and to God's name. My heart bleeds for you. What has happened between you, Erlendur and me is pointless; all I want is to see you being saved.

G.A. and I went deeper into the investigation and my fear proved reasonable. It is Erlendur. We try to stop him, but I think he also plans to harm the Svoboda Medvedy Armiya. If we do not succeed and they find out about him, they will come for you. You are not save on Iceland.

There is a boat on the beach, at the place where we met for the first time. I asked a friend to pick you up from there and take you to Denmark. The head of the Royal Danish Army Officer Academy is willing to help you. He is an old friend of mine. You can trust him. He can offer you a protection programme there. Don't try to get home to US. There is no time. The letter is a charter to enter Denmark.

I hope the letter arrives in time. Live a long life.

Your Guthmundur"

"I still remember how my mother rushed to the beach and we escaped. Guthmundur risked the whole mission by sending this letter to my mother. They were too late to stop the assassination of Igor, and Guthmundur died during the mission, but G.A. captured Erlendur red handed. This was only a day before the letter arrived, as we lived at a quiet place in the north, called Siglufjörður. I still remember the horror of that night. We could hear the polar bears running wild in front of our house when we were already on the sea. Luckily they noticed too late that we had left and they couldn't follow us," Skipper ended the story.