Welcome Back [May or May not be Discontinued]

The Deal

Tom Pov:

We've been driving for two hours already, we've reached a desert like area with no humans in sight, I have no idea where Tord is taking me.

I look to Tord and say, "Tord-"

"Shhh, let's just be quiet," Tord cuts me off in a whisper. "The less he knows, the better." I slowly nod and look toward the window again, where the hell are we going?

Suddenly a large building starts to come into view, why the hell is there a building in the middle of the desert? I hear Tord mutter a, "Bingo." I look at him with confusion before looking back to the building.

After a few more minutes we arrive at a gate, there are two guards- holy shit they have Tord's old army logo on their sleeves! I look at Tord in surprise. Didn't he want nothing to do with his old army? What are we doing here?

A guard comes up to the car and motions for Tord to lower his window, the guard says, "What are you doing here? This is private territory-"

"Do you not recognize me? I am your old leader, you must remember," Tord says and the guard's eyes widen.

"R-red!-"

Tord slaps a hand on the guards mouth, "Shut up and let me in."

Tord let's go of the guard's mouth and the guard says, "Right away Sir!" The guard motions for the other guard to open the door. I can see such a serious look on Tord's face, it's that same look... the look of power.

Once the gate opens, Tord then drives into the front of the army base, there's many tanks and jeeps sitting outside, but they all look like they haven't seen the light of day in ages.

Tord parks next to a jeep and says, "I hope you don't like this car too much, because they're probably going to destroy it." Tord opens his door and goes to step out, but I grab his wrist. Tord looks at me and asks, "What?"

I look at him with a soft look and say, "Don't change into something you've been trying to avoid becoming Tord."

Tord loses his serious look and takes a deep breath, he leans over to me and presses a kiss to my lips before looking into my eyes and whispering, "I promise." I know he can't promise that, I have a feeling General Linton will want something in return for helping us, and it's going to be something he's been wanting for a while... "Let's get this over with." The thing is... I have a feeling Tord knows what Linton will want in return too.

I follow Tord to the two front doors, he puts in a code into a small keypad on the side of the door, then the double doors open. He takes my hand and leads me down the hall, this place is like a wasteland, there's hardly anyone here besides a few guards.

It's a long walk before we finally reach these two large double doors, there's a large template with the words "Red Leader" carved into it, I get shivers.

Tord deeply sighs before knocking on the door and saying, "I need help General Linton."

"Red Leader is that you?" We hear General Linton say from inside the room.

Tord grinds his teeth before replying, "Yes it is."

"Well come on in!" General Linton says with enthusiasm.

We take a good look at each other, before Tord lets go of my hand and opens the door wide open. General Linton doesn't seem surprised to see me with Tord as he says, "Ah, I see you brought your friend with you. Great! Take a seat my guests." Tord closes the door behind us and we take a seat in the two chairs in front of his desk. "Now Red Leader, have you-"

"General Linton, we desperately need help with something other than that," Tord says and General Linton raises a eyebrow. "But we first need you to cleanse us of any spies before we get into it." I look at Tord in confusion, what does he mean by cleanse?

"Say no more Red Leader, stand up you two," General Linton says, which we follow. General Linton then presses a button that seems to be under the desk, suddenly a smoke of some kind fills the room from what seems to be out of no where. When I get enveloped by it completely I can feel a odd tingling on my skin, kind of like tiny bombs have exploded all over my body and clothes. "It seems you two have been covered in microscopic microphones, millions of them in fact. I wouldn't be surprised if your car was full of them too, so I will do you the favor and destroy your car, then you should be spy free."

"Besides our house, it's probably covered in microphones and cameras there," I mutter, but General Linton seems to hear me since he directly looks at me. "He's always wa-"

"What my friend is trying to say is that if you could fully cleanse us and our house that would be very appreciated," Tord says then gains a dark face. "We're... we're being watched from all angles General Linton, and that's another reason why we need your help."

"Let me guess, your friends kidnapper has been observing you and your friends in hopes that Tom accomplishes a goal of some kind that he has stuck in his head after five years?" General Linton says and we both gain surprised looks.

"How did you..."

"I'm guilty of spying on your family as well Red Leader, just not to such a extent," General Linton cuts Tord off. "But I assume something has happened recently, causing the kidnapper to stop observing and take some evil action," We both go quiet. "Maybe the classic "You or your friends die?" type of thing?"

"You've been spying on us that much?" I ask with some annoyance showing on my face.

"Oh no no, I just guessed most of what I said. I took down your cameras two weeks ago since I thought nothing really juicy was happening," General Linton says. "But since you say that, then that must be the case, correct?"

"Yes, yes it is," Tord responds with a hopeless look. "But I'm guessing you're going to want something in return for your help, don't you?" I had a big feeling Tord knew...

General Linton smirks, "There's my dearest Red Leader, the man that knows all," I can see Tord tightening his fists as General Linton chuckles for a bit before looking at Tord with a smirk. "And I know that you know what I want."

Tord looks down with his eyes covered by a shadow of pure sorrow, "Yes, I do."

"Tord you don't-"

"Tom I'm not going to let you or Edd and Matt die, so don't even try to convince me to back out of this," Tord cuts me off and I step back a bit from him then look to the floor. "This is my only choice."

"So it's a deal then?" General Linton asks Tord and holds a hand out. Tord lifts his head, he has a serious look on, but it's different from his power look, I can sense more regret than anger. Tord goes to shake his hand but before Tord can do it, General Linton says, "There's no going back after a handshake Red Leader, you must know that." I can feel my breathing become shallow from the intensity of the room.

After a few silent moments, Tord responds, "I know." He then takes General Linton's hand and shakes it, I can feel my heart stop... I knew this was going to happen.. but yet I feel so guilty....