Disclaimer: Characters in this work (GI Joe/ Cobra) are the property of Marvel Comics, Hasbro and Devil's Due Publishing, Inc., and are being used without permission. No profit is gained from the use of these characters.

Haven

By Nickelina

The Flip Side of the Coin

During a few hours away from Headquarters, Dash was repacking the items he had put in storage. He refolded the clothes that had been torn through, and carefully put them back into the boxes. He wished he had made an itemized list of all the things he had stored; it would have made identifying what was gone much easier. Alison's battle dress uniform, her dog tags, and a sweater were gone from one box. Some of her books were tossed aside, her laptop computer was gone. It made sense, he thought. The laptop was a high ticket item. Perhaps some kids thought the uniform and the dog tags would be cool to have.

The one and only light in the unit hung low from the ceiling and as Dash swept up the broken trinkets and glass he hit his head on it. The light swung back and forth and something on the floor caught his eye as the light passed. He walked to the corner and in an open box by itself, picked up a glass vase. The wedding gift he broke. Why would it be sitting there, in the corner where it could not be broken? It was as if someone had intentionally set it aside. He put it back on the floor and moved to pick up the pictures and photo albums that were thrown to one side of the unit.

He scooped up a handful of pictures and tossed them into a box. He reached down again and picked up two framed pictures. The glass inside the frames slid out and caught his hand. He winced in pain and dropped them. He looked down at his now bleeding hand and grabbed a shirt from one of the other boxes to wrap it in. He swore under his breath and reached down to pick the frames up again when he noticed the back of the picture was written on. He picked up the picture and held it up to the light. There was a line of numbers and letters, written from right to left across the top. Dash shook his head in disbelief. He reached down to pick up the other picture, again the same thing. It was no way of labeling the pictures, it was a code.

"You know me better than this." The last thing Conrad said to him.

Dash closed his eyes. The line kept repeating itself over and over again. Alison's laptop, her uniform, her dog tags…he went back to the boxes and looked through them again. Something was amiss. He went back to the pictures and picked up the entire box. There was a message, a sign from Alison attached to those pictures and Dash was going to find out what it was. He turned off the light and closed the door to the unit behind him. He put the box on the passenger seat of his truck and on the drive back to headquarters he had a feeling he had not felt in a long time, hope.

A black van pulled up across the street from a well to do home outside of Washington D.C. There were a few lights on, signaling that the owners were home. The occupants of the van quietly got out and placed themselves around the perimeter of the house. The electric fence was disabled, and the guards taken out by a sniper tucked away on a neighboring house. Once the outside was secure, the front and back doors to the home were kicked in. The group of men dressed all in black went from room to room killing anyone who stood in the way of their target. Upstairs the sound of a woman and children were silenced by the soft pop of weapons with silencers. Downstairs, in the study, a man cowered in the corner against a bookshelf, pleading for his life.

"Please I beg you. I'll give you what ever you want, don't hurt my family." He cried.

A masked gunman laughed. "I'm sorry to tell you, but your term is up." He fired a single shot, ending the man's life.

As quietly as they entered, the group left.

For the next two hours Alison, Conrad and Zach mapped out the new layout of the command structure of the government. There were still a few true Americans in office, but the number of those linked with the Red Shadows was impressive. The table in the war room was covered in stacks of files, and newspaper clippings. In the corner were a pitcher of water and half drunken cups of coffee. Callum sat away from the table, watching Alison work. He was highly impressed with her level of intelligence and skill. It was no wonder the Laird held her in high regard. Callum was listening intently and doing his best to keep track of the who's and where's so he could relay the information back to Destro. He was sure that they didn't mind, if they had, he would not have been allowed to stay. He walked to the table and picked up a random file. He skimmed through it then put it back on the table. He looked across the table at Alison who had a weary look in her eyes.

"Are you alright?" Callum asked.

"Yeah." Alison responded. She closed her eyes and rolled her head from side to side to loosen the kinks in her neck. She opened her eyes and smiled at him. "I'm fine."

"Good. Alison, I need to tell you something." He said to her in a low voice. He motioned for her to join him on the other side of the room away from Zach and Conrad.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

"I have contacted the Laird and told him of our location. He has sent troops to the area they should be here shortly."
"Are you insane?" She told him, raising her voice.

"No, I'm not. If I'm not mistaken, you told me to contact him."

Alison cut him off. "Yes, I told you to contact him, not to send troops!"

"What is going on over there?" Conrad asked from across the room.

Alison looked his direction. "Nothing." She turned back to Callum and spoke in a quiet voice. "How are going to explain this?"

A loud alarm sounded from the main terminal and Conrad ran over to it.

"What is it?" Alison asked.

"A news alert," Conrad paused. "Sweet Mary mother of God….Jaye, get over here! Zach, get the Rock online, now!"

Back at headquarters Dash was sitting at his desk going through a stack of pictures. The door to his office opened and General Rey stepped in. He looked through the room and stopped in front of Dash's desk. He reached over and picked up a small pile of pictures that Dash had put aside. Without saying anything Rey flipped through them and put the pictures back where Dash had them. He reached down again and picked up the framed picture of Alison Dash had kept.

"She was a real looker, wasn't she?" Rey asked Dash.

Dash knew Rey was trying to get under his skin again, and after finding the box of pictures he did not want his mood spoiled. "Yes, you could say that."

"Smart too." Rey put the frame back on the desk and positioned it so it was closer to Dash. "Maybe too smart, maybe not."

Dash looked up from the note he was writing. "What do you mean by that?"

"The night of the accident," Rey paused and picked up another picture. "It all could have been avoided. She set you up, you know. To take the fall for her, but it didn't work."

Dash could feel the anger inside of him growing. General Rey always took this road with him; tonight he was going to put his foot down. "Just a minute…"

Rey put his hand out as a sign for Dash to stand down. "You need to know. We had been following her trail for quite some time, Flint. She was always suspicious of me, and it was because I was on to her and she knew it. No one saw that she was plotting everything from inside until it was too late. When they began murdering members of the team…it all boiled down to who would know the location of all the members, and her name kept coming up. The night we decided to take on the Red Shadows, she was in the other room telling them our every move. I still don't understand why they would take out one of their own." He chuckled. "I guess that is what two-bit terror organizations do."

Dash remained seated at his desk. He tried to process everything Rey had told him and it didn't make sense. He knew Alison, loved her, there was just no way. Rey threw a handful of pictures in the garbage can.

"I had heard that there were confirmed reports of sightings."

"What?" Dash said dryly.

"I found this file in Duke's office." Rey threw a manila envelope on Dash's desk. Dash opened it to a picture of Alison dated months ago, the Eiffel Tower was in the background. He skimmed through a written report and slammed it shut.

"Duke would know more, but I fear he's involved."

Dash leaned back in his chair. "The break-in here. He won't give me an honest answer."

"I think it was Lady Jaye, and I think Duke knows it. He's protecting her and we need to figure out why." Rey sighed, and then stood straight. "We have an assignment."
"What is that?" Dash went back to writing notes.

"We need to follow the President to a secure location." Rey said.

"When?"

"We need to be in the air in an hour."

"Why us? Isn't that what the secret service is for?" Dash asked, not quite understanding where Rey was going.

"Security breach. The Vice President and his family were assassinated ten minutes ago." General Rey said casually and walked to the doorway. "I'll see you outside."

Dash waited until Rey closed the door and he swore aloud. He wasn't about to believe what Rey told him. He stood up from the desk and retrieved the pictures Rey threw in the garbage can. He looked through them again and put them on the desk. He walked to the small closet where he kept a spare battle dress uniform, and pulled the hanger down. He reached down to pick up his boots and he saw an envelope under them. He pulled the envelope out and the only thing on it was his name in Conrad's handwriting. Dash opened it and pulled out a floppy disk.

"What the fuck is this?" He said turning it over and over in his hand. There was no time to look at the contents of the disk. He opened the file that Rey had given him and skimmed through it as he dressed. The more he read the angrier he got. He closed the file and put it with the disk. He locked them in his desk drawer and finished dressing for his leave. He left his office unsure of which story to believe, his commanding officer's or his heart's. The only thing he knew for sure was that Alison was alive and he was going to find her.

With two soldiers posted outside for security, the four at Sunflower stood in front of the large video monitor and watched the breaking news unfold. Zach had a phone to his ear trying to get information from Washington on the location of the President. Alison had her arms folded in front of her and every so often would wipe a tear out of her eye. Callum stood next to her, his arm over her shoulders for support. She was almost at her breaking point.

"What's the matter Jaye?" Conrad asked.

"Oh not much," she said sarcastically. "I just knew this was going to happen and I could have stopped it a long time a go, but I didn't."

Conrad marched over to her. He stood directly in front of her, as if he was about to scream in her face. Instead he spoke to her in calm, low voice. "I don't ever want to hear that tone again. You did everything you could. Do you think that any of this wouldn't have happened if you were dead? Although the chances are slim, we may be one step ahead of them right now. I broke a lot of policies smuggling you around for the last year, waiting for this very day. You can't break down on us now."

He cupped her face in his hands. "Take 30 seconds, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and center yourself. Find anything you can inside, fear, anger, anything that will pull the fight out of you. I know this last year has been hard on you, but goddamn it, you will not do this to us, not now. Do you understand me?"

Alison looked at him and shook her head, still slightly unsure. Conrad turned back to Zach.

"Get Flint on the phone now! I want to know where he is and what is going on in Washington."

Alison's jaw dropped. She turned to Conrad, a look of confusion on her face. He in turn looked at her winked and smiled. "Did that do it for you?"

She didn't answer him.

"Don't tell me you didn't know." Conrad walked back over to her.

"General Rey told me…" She stuttered, not believing the news. "I had my suspicions…"

"You should know by now not to believe him."

Zach put the landline phone down, not getting a response from Joe Headquarters. He picked up his cell phone that was again ringing. He took the message, flipped his phone shut and walked to Conrad.

"Their on the way… here. NORAD is a no go. An elite military unit is accompanying them. ETA is three hours."

Alison shook her head. She walked back to the table and began to go through the files again. "Why here? This base is not equipped to handle anything like this." She turned and looked at Conrad. "It's too easy."

"What do you mean to easy?" Callum asked.

"An elite unit is accompanying the president to a satellite base no one knows about in the middle of nowhere? Does that sound right to you?"

"The Red Shadows are going to them meet here. I'm calling the Laird." Callum went to a terminal to make the emergency call for backup.

Sunflower was dark and quiet when the first platoon of troops entered it. They secured the rooms and were followed by two more platoons. The computers were turned on, all systems go for the president's arrival. A team of secret service agents arrived and looked over the base and cleared it for the president to enter.

In a room marked "storage" the four watched via closed circuit camera what was going on in the other rooms. It seemed that with every passing minute, more and more troops were arriving, but they had yet to see the president or anyone they recognized. There was a lot of commotion outside, a lot of vehicles coming and going. It was a few more minutes before they saw the president. He was shown to an office and placed inside with most of his secret service agents.

Alison looked at Callum and poked him in the ribs to get his attention. "Any confirmation on your guys getting here?"

"Not yet."

Conrad laughed. "I never would have thought that Destro would be helping guard the president."

"He's not." Callum dead panned. "He's coming to take out the Red Shadows."

Zach pointed at the small monitor. "There's Rey.

Alison watched as General Rey walked through the door of the base followed by his core group of troops. They group walked into the main room and were talking with the troops who were already there and the secret service.

Duke moved to the back of the small room and began to hand out a supply of weapons they had secured from the supply room. When everyone had theirs, he laid out the game plan. "Since there are only four of us and about 50 of them and more on the way, we wait until Destro's troops get here. Hopefully they will cause enough commotion that we can get the president out of here and to the Rock."

"Do you plan on walking there?" Callum asked.

Duke turned to him and gave him a look. "No I plan on stealing any vehicle I can."

The four grew quiet and watched the activity outside the room. The troops that came with Rey all had an arm patch that they had never seen before. A mark of a troop of the Red Shadows.