Author's Note: Please keep on reviewing! I love the feedback! J

Disclaimer: I'm broke, don't sue!

Actual disclaimer: Hasbro, Sunbow, Marvel, and everyone else owns G.I. Joe. I own nothing but the children I created.

June 21, 1986

3:00AM

"Okay, why are we in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night?" Kaelin asked sleepily.

After seeing the picture, Mainframe made a highly unauthorized phone call to the woman he'd seen in the picture. He sincerely hoped that she wasn't involved in this whole mess, but he had a nagging feeling that she was in this somehow. She needed to know about Kaelin and Cole though. And Kaelin and Cole needed to see their mother- who she was, what she had been. They needed to understand.

So, after letting them get a short nap, he loaded them into a car and snuck them off the base, taking them to an abandoned warehouse 30 miles from headquarters. It had taken quite a bit to convince the woman to meet him there and he still wasn't completely sure if she was going to show up, but it was certainly worth a try.

Now he and the children were standing inside a large storage garage inside the warehouse, waiting. "What exactly are we waiting for?" Cole asked impatiently.

"You'll see," Mainframe told him.

They didn't have to wait long. Mainframe heard footsteps from behind him and he drew his blaster, motioning the children to duck down behind a group of crates behind them. Cole and Kaelin peeked from behind the crates to catch a glimpse of the approaching figure. It was definitely a woman, approximately five foot eight, with very short hair, tight blue jeans, black boots, and a cutoff pink shirt. She strode confidently into the area and stopped right in front of their father. "Mainframe," she greeted him in what sounded like a thick British accent. She had a grin plastered across her face.

"Zarana," he said. His face registered no emotion.

"I'm guessing that you didn't call me just to say hi," she said, taken aback by his his emotionless greeting.

"No. I want to know if Cobra is involved with this whole plan to snatch the future children of my teammates," he told her.

"What?" she said defensively. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Does Serpentor have some sort of time travel device? Or Mindbender?" Mainframe pressed on.

"What makes you think I'd tell you if I did know that?" she said angrily. She turned and started to walk away.

Kaelin and Cole watched the whole scene before them in shock. "That's mom," Kaelin whispered to her brother.

"I know," he said seriously.

"Mom worked for Cobra?" Kaelin asked.

"That what it sounds like," he said.

"But I thought-"

"She worked for the Joes," Cole finished for her. "Yeah. I know."

"We have to say something," Kaelin insisted.

"Wait," Cole told her.

"Do you know that your kids got snatched in this whole arrangement too?" Mainframe said to Zarana.

Zarana snapped her head around to face him. "What?" she asked in disbelief. "What are you talking about? I don't have any children."

"Not yet. But you will. A boy and a girl."

"And how do you know that they're mine?" she asked skeptically.

He pulled out the picture he'd borrowed from Hallie and handed it to her. "These are the kids," he told her. "It was taken at a birthday party they went to about a month ago. A month ago in their time, twenty years from now."

Zarana studied the picture for a moment. It took her a minute for the weight of the picture's meaning to hit her. "You're their father," she said simply.

Mainframe nodded. "Shocked me too."

"And how do I know that this isn't some sort of GI Joe trick?" she asked him. Before he could answer that question, Kaelin stepped out from her hiding place to face her mother.

"Mom?" she asked quietly. Mainframe could see she had tiny tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Kay, wait!" Cole exclaimed.

"It's okay, Cole," Mainframe said. "Let her speak."

"You've been working for the enemy all along?" Kaelin said, the hurt evident in her voice. "All these years you've spent helping me with my homework or braiding my hair or taking me shopping or just giving me advice and I thought you had worked with Daddy and instead you were working against him. You lied to me!" The tears were now freely flowing down her cheeks. Cole went over to his younger sister and pulled her into a tight hug in order to calm her down.

Cole's face registered all the disappointment that Kaelin felt, but he didn't want to end up crying. He needed to stay strong for his little sister. "My entire life was a lie," he said to Zarana, over his sister's shoulder. "How am I supposed to even trust you when you lied to us our entire lives. You said you worked with Dad, you don't. As a matter of fact, you work for the enemy." Cole turned his face to look at his father. "And you're not completely innocent either. It takes two to tango. You knew and you never said anything either."

Kaelin looked up at her brother in shock. She was so upset over learning about her mother's involvement in Cobra that she didn't even realize that her father had to have known as well. She turned and looked at her father, who was only nodding his head.

"Smart boy," Zarana said.

"Thanks," Cole said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "That's high praise coming from a traitor."

Zarana looked hurt for a brief second, but quickly wiped the look of her face. "I suppose I deserved that," she said dryly.

She sat down on one of the crates and began to shake her head. "I wasn't too happy with the whole plan once I found out my kids were involved," she said sadly. "At least I know they're safe though."

"So you did know?" Mainframe asked.

Zarana nodded sadly. "I didn't care at first. I didn't think that I would care since the children weren't mine, but once I found out that two of them were going to be mine… I mean, imagine me as a mother… but I don't want anything to happen to them now…" She had tears in her eyes, and they were threatening to fall down her face.

Mainframe went over to sit beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. "So you'll help us?" he asked softly.

She looked up at Cole and Kaelin and nodded her head. "I have to protect my son and daughter," she said. "I have to help."

!!!!!!!!

To be continued…

Author's Note: Hmm… Zarana is going to help the Joes? Should they trust what she says or be cautious? Keep reviewing! I love the feedback!