l1ttle_billy | Arlington National Cemetery, Wednesday Afternoon

There were those who had said that the G.I. Joe memorial was too small. Ever since the team had been declassified and some details of their role in world saving revealed, some folks had been clamoring for a statue or a big thing like the tomb of the unknown soldier.

But looking at the obelisk, Billy felt nothing but approval. It was simple. He was sure that those whose names were listed upon it would have approved as well. Part of him wondered; if he should be killed, would his name be added?

Alison Hart-Burnett Fairborn. Lady Jaye. She was not one of those Joes he'd been intimately aquainted with. But he had liked her.

Tearing his eyes from the obelisk, Billy looked instead at Flint. The sight of this normally cocky, jovial guy sitting with a blank, grim look on his face was one of the most frightening things about all this.

The Red Shadows may have proved to be a flash in the pan, but they had done damage enough. They had broken Flint. Hopefully not beyond repair.

The honor guard, many of them people that Billy recognized folded the flag. Beside him, the only other person close to his age seemed to take comfort in his presence. Firewall, her name was. He didn't know her real name. She'd been recruited when the team had been reinstated.

She wasn't handling this well. And he couldn't blame her. She wasn't a soldier. Just some hacker who'd stumbled upon some classified into. She and her partner Daemon had been drafted onto the team. And he was dead now too. Killed by Serpentor during his re-emergence.

General Hawk gripped Flint's shoulder as the flag was handed to him. That almost broke his composure. To see Hawk confined to a wheelchair. Shot in the back while trying to capture Cobra Commander. And all for nothing.

Later, a wake was held. Scarlett was telling Gung-Ho about the time Lady Jaye had slugged Flint.

"Billy." Duke said softly. "I need to talk to you."

Billy sighed. "God, now what's happened."

Duke didn't beat around the bush, which the young ninja appreciated. "The Red Shadows we've taken into custody claim that they've killed your father."

"The last time we thought he was dead she showed back up and buried me alive." Billy said dryly. "I think I'll just keep going on the way I've been."

This post guest starring:
Robert Patrick as Duke
Victor Garber as General Hawk
and Dennis Quaid as Flint