Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I did not know fanfiction existed. So when I wrote this story, I did so feeling terribly guilty for plagiarizing, and changed names, added characters, and at the end of the story realized it was still absolutely plagiarizing G.I. Joes (disclaimer: theirs, not mine). Fans will still recognize several of the characters. Unmistakably. There's nothing original about them. Much later I discovered fanfiction, and debated posting this or not…but there might be some people who might enjoy it, so I did.
Also, I love Snake Eyes and Scarlett together, but I didn't currently have the skill as a writer to write Scarlett, so that's why he's with an OC. Sorry. In all honesty, if I came across this story as a reader, I'm not sure I'd read it, because of the OC. So I don't blame you if you don't.

"You think that's actually a threat?"

The girl in the video, bound, not yet bleeding, long brown hair falling in a knotted mass to her waist, was looking wearily at the person across from her.

The black-uniformed man with a red serpent on his shoulder frowned in question.

"You don't think he loves you enough to comply?"

"Of course he loves me." Her voice sounded spent. "I know it. But you don't understand the way our marriage works."

The man's cold brown eyes narrowed. "You have an existing agreement for these situations?"

The girl shook her head, her matted hair making small rustling noises across her muddied T-shirt. "Not verbally. But…" she trailed off, frowning in thought. The man stepped forward, impatient, hissing, and slapped her across the face. Her whole body jerked, the chair rocking before it settled back on the ground.

She winced as the blood trickled from her split lip, unused to abuse. "We're lucky. We love and are loved by heroes, by those who are strong, brave, noble, trustworthy, true. We have their hearts, their hands, and their promises. We have what most women dream of." She was silent for a moment. "But we give up something in exchange. We are never loved first."

"First?" If she'd been paying attention, perhaps she would have heard the growing anger in his voice, the warning of the fury to come. But her exhaustion clouded her awareness.

"We're never first. The Unit is. That's why missions come before anniversaires, fellow soldiers before friends, and," her voice grew weaker, "loyalty to the Unit before my life." She looked back at her interrogator, focusing back on him. "I gave up the dream of being loved before everything else in order to gain the life of being loved by him. But I have always known it came at a cost - if the cost becomes my life...then it was worth it. But your threat will never work. He will never further your cause in an effort to save my life. He may not even come for me if he is truly needed elsewhere."

Her stream of words losed a tsunami, the black gloved hands pounding her body over and over. The video was knocked off its stand halfway through. Only after the legs of the chair tilted over and the crying stopped, the girl's tennis shoes laying limp at the edge of the screen, did the video come to an end. The black uniformed shoes walked in front of the screen moments later, and they heard the rustle of the uniform as he leaned down and shut it off.

The silence in the conference room was deafening. Eagle, the second-in-command, was the first to break it.

"Do you think she convinced him?"

"The attached note was addressed to the Unit generally and said to free three Serpent prisoners rather than demanding any covert betrayals, so yes, I think he was convinced." Cougar was leading the briefing, having handled most of the intelligence gathering on this particular threat.

He didn't look at the ninja at the back left corner.

"How long does the demand give us?" War's famed eyes were glittering as they looked at the note by Cougar's chair.

"Twenty more hours," Cougar said, swallowing. "Then they start going after other soldiers' families."

War nodded. "I've set protection details around all the men's homes; there won't be more civilians taken. But I refuse to allow one casualty. Gentlemen, find her." He stood up. "You have twenty hours. If you find information, share it. No one is to move in alone." When he looked to the to the back end of the table, the ninja was gone.

We are never loved first.

He heard her statement echoing in his ears as he slipped through the shadows in the hall, flipping near ceiling and pausing on the top of a file cabinet when his fellow soldiers walked by. He didn't want company.

We are never loved first.

Even if he hadn't known she'd always tell the truth, the look in her eyes would have let him know she believed what she was saying. Her eyes held a little bit of pain, but so much more of that giving, forgiving spirit he'd fallen in love with.

I was never loved first. He paused.

I am never loved first.

Not "was."

He swore it would never be was.

He dropped from the file cabinet and landed soundlessly. He had a specific destination in mind.

Once he'd sworn to forsake all others for her, too, and implied in that promise was that she would be first in his life on earth, with only right and wrong and God having a higher allegiance. But her words wouldn't leave him alone.

I am never loved first.

I never meant to make you question this, he said silently. I thought you knew, you're the reason I need to keep our hometown safe, the reason I need to make it home, that every anniversary I skipped was to make sure we would have another one, each friend of yours I never met was another person I was working to keep safe, and if it came to your life or my involvement with The Unit-

As he slipped into the upper hanger and kicked the four-wheel, modified snow jeep into gear, he silently asked,

Why didn't you know you were always first?

He hacked easily into Cougar's network as he drove, bringing up the tech screens on the built-in jeep computer. His eyes narrowed as he read the information, or lack of it; they still had nothing. He backed the jeep into his favorite cave.

He moved to the passenger seat and opened his own laptop, one his wife had once teasingly called his child. He had spreadsheets on spreadsheets of random information, things he'd observed in all the Serpent's bases he'd infiltrated. It was a disjointed puzzle covering three continents. She'd helped to set it up when he first started, trying to harness his powers of observation to pick up more, helping him with the basics till it grew too classified for her to see. Glancing back at the jeep computer and still seeing no results, he started praying what she'd helped to create would help him find her.

Two hours later, he was still buried in the streams of information when the jeep's defense system started beeping. He closed his computer and vaulted over the edge of the jeep, swinging from the dead vines at the top of the cave till he reached his favorite perch. Radar showed two dots approaching. They'd reach the cave at the same time.

His hand unclasped the handle of his katana as he recognized the sound of the near-silent engine approaching, as well as the heartbeats of its passengers. He smiled grimly; it would be good to have family on his side. He landed among the other five outcasts of his ninja clan as they poured out from the two snow-ski vehicles.

Nina passed him without a word, short black hair swinging as she moved, her eyes already fixed on the computer in the jeep. She'd quarreled with the master over how much technology should be included in their home in Japan, and with reason - for all her ninja skills, she was even deadlier with computers than a sword. She'd hacked The Unit's computer system just to verify his enlistment when she decided he'd been lost long enough.

Kuroguro melted into the black shadows at the sides of the cave, folding his arms in preparation for a patient wait. Aka beside him, clad in red and slim and small next to Kuroguro's towering height, sat down and unsheathed his sword, laying it across his knees. The cave's occupant turned to greet the remaining two members.

Jane, the apprentice he'd started on this life, whom he'd sent to Japan to finish it, bowed respectfully in greeting. But the soldier-ninja's eyes were focused on his enemy, his sword-brother, the one he'd refused to kill over and over again, and who had spared his own life on too many occasions.

Ethen's black eyes were glinting at him, his Asian appearance at odds with his name. After a moment, the soldier ninja bowed, eyes warily fixed on the ninja warrior before him.

"Shuriken," came Ethen's low, smooth voice. He paused when the ninja warrior didn't respond. "James." He used his name. "I'm here to help."

The black-clad hand clenched back around the katana's hilt. Why?

"I never agreed to kidnapping civilians," Ethen told him, eyes unblinking. "Even if she wasn't yours, I would have returned her home." He paused; Shuriken's silence asked, Then why haven't you?

"She is yours," Ethen said, his black eyes flitting from Shuriken's weapons back to his face. "You do not think they would not take that into account? She is heavily guarded." He paused. "But I will tell you where she is, and I will help you. You, not The Unit. Only family."

Shuriken blinked. He knew Jane would follow his lead wherever he chose to go; her safety would be his responsibility. His gaze swept over to the two leaning against cave wall; Kuroguro nodded his head, once, and Aka grinned, his fierce, fiery smile looking forward eagerly to the conflict to come. Last, Shuriken turned around to view Nina.

She didn't look up from his laptop, which she'd connected to the jeep's computer with a cord. "She's my sister." Shuriken didn't move. Nina looked up, scowling fiercely. "I saw the video," she said, her voice ringing with the steel of a blade. "I swear to you, Shuriken, they will pay for hurting her." He nodded, but she wasn't finished. "She and Jane are the only sisters I have left," she said more quietly. "I won't lose them. I won't." Her eyes fell back to the screen as the laptop made a sound. "And, I've found her." She looked back up, directly at Shuriken. "Do you want me to send her location to the Unit?"

Behind him, Shuriken could feel Ethen waiting. For all the disagreements they'd had, his brother had never broken his word. Shuriken shook his head.

"Right. Then I'm sending it to the GPS in the jeep." Shuriken was moving before she snapped the computer shut, landing lightly on the jeep's hood to flip into the driver's seat. A tiny rustling noise was the only indication of movement, but when he looked up, the road out of the cave was clear, and he knew five more ninjas were in the jeep behind him. He put the jeep in gear.

17 hours, 18 minutes left.

Two hours later, they were crouched in a snowbank, waiting for darkness.

They left the jeep where Ethen suggested, Ethen slipping medical supplies into a leather bag on his back. They never knew who'd need them. Shuriken fell back to let his sword-brother have the lead. Once darkness fell, the six warriors ghosted inside the tiny compound 20 miles from the Unit's headquarters, Aka going last to wipe their footprints from the snow. Kuroguro was their springboard, throwing them silently to the fourth story; they landed cat-like on the window ledges, lowering a rope for tall fighter. From the fourth story they wound their way down to the second without incident, the dark, dirty hallways perfect cover. Ethen stopped outside a tarnished metal door and nodded to Shuriken.

The ninja unsheathed his katana in one soft breath, and cut through the door with a swift strike. Forcing the pieces in, he stepped through.

There was only an empty room.

It hadn't been empty long. Jane stepped to the middle of the room, crouching to touch the floor; though video camera and chair were gone, there were blood splashes mixing with the dirt.

It was Shuriken who saw the glint of metal in the flickering light; Shuriken who went and picked up his wife's earring from the corner. Ethen stood behind him, his presence bringing back the past with a rush. He'd once thought he'd always have the smaller, shorter ninja at his back; he once thought they could do anything. Ethen placed a hand on his shoulder. "She was here, Shuriken. She cannot be far. I swear we will find her." Shuriken didn't respond. Ethen turned to the others, all but Jane standing in the shadows by the walls.

"Find her. The guards are all normal soldiers." Shuriken shook off his brother's hand and turned to go. Ethen followed him silently.

The upper levels had all been dark when they arrived; they would go down. Without needing a spoken agreement, he and Ethen split up, covering the remainder of the second floor, checking every room. He didn't care if the doors were left useless, showing they'd been there; he had to find her.

Even his family was putting her first.

Even his sword-brother, joined to the serpents, was betraying them in order to save his sister-in-law. And if - when he got her back - if he was no longer welcome in The Unit, they would find somewhere else to go. Somewhere she would be safe.

I will always put you first.

He met his sword-brother at the head of the stairs; the slight shake of Ethen's head let him know they'd found nothing. Together they whispered down the stairs.

I will always love you first.

Outside the first floor landing, Kuroguro was invisible. Only his heartbeat gave him away. Aka, his dark red uniform now stained with mud, was zip tying the last of the unconscious guards in the middle of the room. Nina was sitting cross-legged on the room's table, typing away on a computer; Jane was coming in the door. Shuriken avoided her glance, knowing she was worried for him.

"Shuriken." Nina's call brought them all silently to stand behind her, with Shuriken in front. She didn't look up from her computer screen. A fuzzy video feed of a hallway - the hallway upstairs - was paused. "I doubt they knew these were still running - this used to be an army base, and when they kicked on the power they kicked on the old surveillance as well." She clicked play.

The same black-uniformed serpent opened the still-working door. He went back in the room and dragged out his prisoner, pulling her down the hall and to the door to the stairs. When they passed out of the view frame Nina typed a few keys and switched cameras, glaring as the captain continued dragging her sister down the stairs regardless of bruising. The pair circled down to the first landing and disappeared from view; Nina switched the cameras again.

On the first landing, the captain dropped his unconscious burden. Straightening, he adjusted his uniform shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles, then walked to the opposite side of the landing, away from the door. He turned sideways, standing there for a moment with his shoulder and side near the wall. The wall slide aside, and he reached back down and dragged his prisoner through. The door slid shut behind him.

Shuriken was across the room and in the hall before Nina set the computer down, the others just behind him. His fingers traced carefully across the bricks on the wall, finding no pressure points. But there, about shoulder level, he paused. He moved back to let Nina have a closer look.

"A scanner," she announced shortly. "And there's no access point for me to hack." Ethen flipped over Aka and Jane to land behind them, turned, and went back into the first floor room. Moments later he was back, a guard slung over his shoulders. Together he and Shuriken stood him upright so the camera could scan the serpent on the guard's shoulder.

Nothing happened.

"It's a lower-level guard; the serpent's brown. We need a captain or higher." Ethen's quick conclusion had Kuroguro and Aka moving towards the door. "Try the guard shack by the front gate; there's usually a captain present." Both ninjas nodded. Jane caught the useless guard as the two let him go, and moved him back to the guard room. Within ten minutes, the ambush party returned, a captain over Kuroguro's shoulders.

4 hours left.

The door slid away, leaving a dark staircase. Ethen and Shuriken went first, Shuriken switching on the night vision in his mask. The stairs ended after 26 steps at a large, metal door. He sliced it in half with throwing stars before they were halfway down. There was no reaction from inside.

A dark hallway with two doors at the far end was behind the torn metal. One door had light and warmth behind it; the four younger ninjas went to it, Ethen staying in the hall, out of sight. The other door led to a cell.

The electronic lock sparked and died as Shuriken hit it with a throwing star. He'd turned his head aside to avoid being blinded, but he heard the lock click. He slid it open.

Inside was empty of furniture and light, but lying on her back in a corner was his wife. He knew she hadn't regained consciousness, since she always slept on her side. Ethen, coming behind him, started wrapping her injuries while Shuriken checked her neck for a pulse. It was there, strong, if fast. He gently cleared her hair from her face and touched her forehead with his own.

I have always loved you first.

He heard two blows from the room across the hall and looked over - a ninja's fights were silent. Ethen rose to check on the other four while Shuriken slipped a neck brace from Ethen's bag in place and wrapped his wife in a blanket. The other ninjas were in the hallway; he picked up her still body and carried her out, noting the slight tear on Aka's uniform as he passed. They all seemed intact, however. He didn't surrender his wife to any of them; his family could handle clearing a path for him until they reached the jeep.

He hadn't left the Unit's hospital since they first brought her in, so he'd received his dressing down and month suspension at his wife's bedside, as well as War's congratulations on her safe return. The Unit's doctor had placed her in a medical coma until they could run tests to make sure Serpent hadn't put anything in her system. His family had vanished after they reached the cave, but Jane and Nina had both stopped by afterwards - not that the Unit knew of those visits. He was waiting for her to wake up.

The nights, doctors and nurses absent, he spent his time signing into her hands.

Wake up.

Nina and Jane say hello.

You impressed the Unit in that video. Eagle says he wants to hire you as a go-between with Washington. I told him we'll have to see how busy it makes you. You still have the neighborhood barbecue to host.

Ethen helped me rescue you. He was the first to tend your wounds. His hands paused. I know if you were awake that would make you happy. You'd say it was one step closer to us reconciling, maybe to bringing him back. Another pause. I want him to come home.

I want you back more.

I can never bring him back without you. I couldn't keep Jane and Nina from locking themselves away; you bring us all out of the walls we're trained to hide behind.

I need you to come back.

I love you.

He'd always run out of words so quickly, and sometimes she'd chattered, sharing with him all the details of a normal life he'd never have, but sometimes she'd been quiet. Both times were happy. And he wanted them back. But all he could do was wait for her, like she'd so often been waiting for him. And he would. Because he loved her.

It was around dawn when she woke. He didn't need the heart monitor to let him know her heartbeat was speeding up; he was instantly at her bedside, noting her eyes blinking as she tried to focus on her surroundings. He picked up her hand to sign into it.

Hope?

"James?"

He nodded.

Yes.

She blinked again, and her green eyes grew wide as she remembered. They turned to his, nearly begging.

"Please tell me you didn't do anything I would consider crazy."

I went after you without orders.

Her eyes closed. "Without orders?"

Yes.

Her eyes opened and stared at the ceiling. "Did they discharge you from the Unit?"

No.

Her shoulders relaxed.

It wouldn't have mattered if they did.

Her eyes snapped back to his.

You are more important than them, Hope. You always were.

Her eyes grew a little sad, but she had a small smile on her face. "How did you get me back?"

He hesitated; she hadn't believed him. But he wanted to give her this news too.

My family.

"From Japan?! How long was I there?"

He shook his head.

The Outsiders. His hand traced the symbol they'd agreed on for the other outcasts.

Her smile fell off her face as she shook her head. "Poor Jane. She must have been terrified. We're the only people she considers family right now. She's ok? They're all ok?" Her eyes searched his despite his mask.

Aka has a bruise; he was enjoying the fight too much. She laughed at the disapproval that made him sign with more force than necessary. Everyone else is fine.

"Sensei," she teased him. She was quiet for a moment, catching something. "Everyone?"

Everyone.

Her hand wrapped around the hand he'd been using to talk to her. "Ethen came?" she breathed. Shuriken nodded. "Did he say why?" He removed his hand, and she opened hers again so he could talk without her watching; she was too weak to lift her head for long.

He said he doesn't approve of kidnapping civilians.

She rolled her eyes.

I think he knew I wouldn't survive without you.

She looked back at him at this, half-raising herself.

"What?"

I have always loved you first.

Her eyes flickered down, looking at the medical blanket on her lap. He gave her a moment to process, silently asking her to realise his actions proved his words; she was first.

Without you, I would stay distant from my family. I need them, and the Unit. But Hope, I need you more. I have always loved you first. I will always put you first.

Her eyes flicked back up. "Truly?"

He nodded. After God, you're first. I swear.

She looked back down. "I'm willing to share you, you know," she said softly. "I know that other people need your time, that you'll probably have less and less of it as Serpent grows. But…" her voice trailed off.

What?

A shy smile tucked itself in the corners of her mouth. "You know War would have ordered a rescue mission, right? I wouldn't have been left there. But you still came for me first."

I did. He swallowed. Nina found you, and Ethen found a way through the door. But they found me at my cave; I was searching for you.

I will always love you first.