Command Decision.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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Though the mission wasn't exactly considered routine, only two Tomahawk choppers waited for the Joes to escape the small Cobra base. Three teams of two infiltrated the location to set bombs, while Lady Jaye and Mainframe were ordered to locate the command center and download any information held in Cobra's computers. It wasn't the main Cobra headquarters, but an active enough base to warrant the Joes' attention.

The command center was the deepest in the structure, and though radio communication was held throughout, the resistance from Cobra was much, much more than anticipated.

On paper, it was a foolproof mission. Their intel had been right on the money, and all they had to do was get in, get the information, set the bombs and get out. None of them had expected Lady Jaye and Mainframe to encounter such resistance, but they did.

She was running. It was a straight line between the doomed base and the camouflaged Tomahawk, and she was running for her life. Trouble Bubbles flew all around her, firing and missing.

"Lucky me. Damn snakes couldn't hit the side of the mountain if they had to," Jaye muttered as she ran.

She could hear shouts from her teammates, and knew that everyone else was already safely inside the helicopter. Most importantly, Mainframe, who had the highly coveted downloaded information off the computers, had made it to the rendezvous point.

"Come on Jaye." That was Flint, and she could tell from his voice it was more of a wish borne of concern than a command to hurry up.

Out of nowhere, on the other side of the Tomahawk, two Cobra helicopters swooped in and began firing on the Joes.

"We got trouble!" Wild Bill called from the cockpit as he lifted the Tomahawk for evasive maneuvers.

Flint spun around to see the trouble Wild Bill had spotted, and quickly turned back around to see Jaye still sprinting towards them. He squinted his eyes in worry, willing her to run faster.

"We gotta get outta here!" Wild Bill hollered through the intercom.

"No!" Flint growled. "Just a little more time," he finished softer, knowing it was his heart issuing the order, and not his head.

A Trouble Bubble fired on the makeshift bridge that covered the canyon, destroying it and separating Jaye from the newly discovered Tomahawk. She kept running, pulling a javelin from her pack. Jumping as she reached the end of the canyon, she threw the javelin, hoping it would catch somewhere in the underbrush.

As if in slow motion, she flew over the ravine, and the rope tied to the end of the javelin flew out of her pack. She knew she wouldn't make it across. She would fall, and if she was lucky, she would be able to grab onto the rope. But even then, she knew her teammates wouldn't last long against all the Cobra Flight Pods and the two Cobra choppers.

They watched as she disappeared over the edge of the ravine. Through the intercom, they heard her grunt as she slammed hard into the rock wall, holding onto the rope for dear life. She heard them yelling to get out of there. Everything was silent in Flint's mind, however, as he continued to watch and wait.

"Flint! Flint! We gotta go!"

Flint remained silent.

Lady Jaye examined her surroundings. Even without the vipers firing at her, it would take her time to climb up the rope, time the other Joes didn't have. As she watched the Trouble Bubbles flying overhead she felt the rock of the ravine wall splattering around her as the Cobra soldiers continued to miss their mark. Twisting the rope around her hands, she tried to break through the mass of sound coming through the radio.

"Get out of here!" she yelled, hoping to break Flint into action.

Flint released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding since Lady Jaye disappeared over the ravine wall.

"No," he said calmly. "I won't leave you."

Lady Jaye grimaced as a shot came closer than she would have liked. She knew her time was limited, and the one fear Flint always held was coming true. They rarely talked about it, but she had always made it clear to him that the safety of the crew was worth more than her own. Though he agreed, they both hoped it would never come to that. But now it had.

"Flint," she said through the radio, trying to muster up as much calm as she could. "Get the team out of here."

The Tomahawk was rapidly losing firepower. Inside, the Joes watched as Flint tensed. They heard the entire exchange through the radio, and despite their concerns over their own safety, they waited patiently for Flint's command.

Finally, the Warrant Officer turned away from the open Tomahawk door and stone-faced, issued the order to leave. A collective sigh of relief went through the other Joes, and they all silently turned to situate themselves inside the chopper for the long ride home. They all knew that Flint's command decision saved their lives but may have cost the life of the one person he held most dear.

"Hang on back there!" Wild Bill called through the intercom, "We'll be outta here in a jiffy!"

Lady Jaye finally decided that with the Tomahawk making its escape, it would be better for her to try and rappel down the ravine than to climb up. As she surveyed her surroundings, hoping the rope went down far enough to the ground, she heard Flint through the radio.

"Allie."

"Flint," she said, opting to stay away from their real names, their other connection. She didn't blame him, and she hoped the use of their code names let him know as much. Above her, she could hear the soldiers congregating at the edge of the ravine, and knew the others could hear them through the radio as well. "Get the team home." She started the rappel, but the Cobras hadn't stopped firing.

"It might be nice," she said, grunting as she made the rappel, "if you hit those detonators now." She hoped that their exploding base would draw some attention away from her.

Bazooka heard her and, with a glance at Flint and a nod from his commanding officer, he pushed the button. In seconds, the Cobra base exploded.

Cobra soldiers started hollering, running around amidst the new chaos. One soldier, however, took another shot at Lady Jaye.

"Shit!" she yelled, as a bullet finally hit its mark in her shoulder. Nearly losing her grasp on the rope, she held on as tightly as she could until she got her bearings back. Another shot hit her in the leg, and she was quickly draining. "Son of a…" she muttered, gasping in pain as she continued to try and make her way down the cliff.

"Lady Jaye!" Flint called through the intercom. All of them could hear her struggling, but if it was crazy to stick around any longer than they did, it would be certain suicide to go back for her now.

Profanities came through the intercom as Lady Jaye struggled to reach the ground. Her leg slipped on the rocks, damp with the spray of water from the stream below. Knowing that meant she was probably close to the bottom, she finally allowed herself to let go. Pushing herself away from the rocks as far as she could, she released the rope and prayed she'd hit water.

In the Tomahawk, they all heard her struggling, tiring, and the last thing they heard before the radio fizzled out was a very weak Lady Jaye. "Command decision."

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Author Note: I'd been saving this to insert into a larger story, and may do so in the future. But, I think it stands well enough on its own. No beta.