Eventually they settled into Springfield, but he was still busy with Cobra's needs and demands. CC was doing it for Billy's sake, as much as his own, so it's not as if he wasn't thinking of his son, too. Then happened the usual tragedy of children with overworked and busy parents. Billy fell in with the wrong crowd and was more or less brainwashed against his father. He was very young and impressionable and in with a bad crowd, the so called resistance element in Springfield. His mind was messed up so badly he became an easy target for Major Bludd and Baroness later on, too. Cobra'd made Springfield a safer place to live, as well as brought prosperity back. The people had a purpose in life again, yet some people wanted it to end.
First of all, let me emphasize the significance of
this time in CC's life. Cobra was a growing organization
and CC carried the burden of leadership on his shoulders.
He was closer to his ideals, but there must have been
certain sacrifices he'd made along the road. He clearly
didn't know where his own son was, and the Joes were
now nagging at his heels whatever he did.
Then Major Bludd and Baroness attempted to assassinate
him in Switzerland, and he got caught by the Joes, only
to get daringly rescued by Storm-Shadow. Now as if that
wasn't enugh to shake up most people's lives, he soon
faced another assassination attempt, this time by his
own son! If I have any criticism against the Commander,
it's on his decision to leave Baroness free after
Switzerland. I guess it just proves that men are never
immune to "womanly wiles", not even on his level. It
might have been one of his biggest misjudgements in
life, leading to misery.
What we know is this. After Billy tried to kill him, CC locked himself in his quarters. No one got in. Second thing we know is what he said when he "returned from the dead", ready to seal the traitors in the old ship. Billy said he'd kill his humanity if he did it, which made the Commander laugh and spit out that it was killed a long time ago, when his own son tried to kill him.
Now I may not be an expert, but that to me does not sound like taking the assassination attempt lightly. A certain conclusion you could make from it is that the attempt must have shook him more than apparent. We don't know what he thought about or how he felt when he was locked inside his quarters. We can only guess (and plan to write fanfics about it...) . My take on it is that he felt utterly betrayed. From then on it truly was every man for himself, if what he'd tried to do also for Billy's sake only lead to his son trying to kill him.
Billy had betrayed him and had been used by adults conspiring against him, so to secure his position and put an end to things CC had to know who was behind everything. So Billy ended up in the brainwave scanner. If he'd had sense enough to reveal the culprits things might've been righted still, but alas no. If you ask me, Baroness had outlived her usefulness by far at this stage, and only proved her flaky nature more in the future. The scanner really worked wonders on her...
Next we focus on Serpentor's influence and what
CC did while he was thought to be dead.
Part 3 of the Pers. profile - The "Death"