Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Look Alike : Washington tracks Tex to Blood Gulch after shooting South, instead of letting her go. 

Main Characters: Washington, Tex, Tucker

Fragmenting : Gamma gets his hands on the Alpha and runs a time travel simulation in an attempt to make him fragment.

Main Characters: Gamma, Church, Wyoming

False Memory: There was always a possibility that the Alpha would not take to the false memories, it was Agent Florida's job to make sure that didn't happen.

Characters: Florida, Church

Reabsorption : When Omega jumped into church he was reintegrated by accident into the Alpha

Main Characters: Church, Omega|O'mally, Tex

Early : The director's plan to hide the Alpha works out even less than before. In the time between Tex dying and everyone shipping out, the reds and blues get a surprise visitor.

Main Characters: The Meta, Church

Chapter Text

When choosing a person to be implanted with the Alpha, there was a lot to take into consideration. Everything had to be perfect in order for it to remain hidden from rogue agents and operatives of the UNSC oversight committee.

They had to be healthy enough to handle the permanent implantation, but needed to be weak willed so the Alpha would have complete control of the body— they had to have no one that would go looking for them if they disappeared— and the Alpha had to not realize that this body was not his own. Because the Alpha was based off the Director, a man who looked similarly had to be chosen. It would do no good for the Alpha to realize it's true nature simply because it couldn't recognize it's face in the mirror— and neither the Director nor Flowers did things in half measures. 

No doubt Jimmy could pass as the Director's twin.

Agent Florida found it slightly unnerving to give orders to the Director’s face instead of receiving them. Stranger even, was the drastically different personality and lack of southern United States accent the Alpha adopted as his own. 

A lot more than what would strictly be necessary was taken into account, and virtually everything was perfect because of that. 

What Captain Butch Flowers didn't take into account was dying of an aspirin overdose— of all things to die of in war. 

With VIC malfunctioning because of another accident , and sending another sim trooper instead of a freelancer, things slowly started to spiral out of control without command ever being notified of anything falling out of place.

Bad news for Project Freelancer, good news for Rogue agents. Like Texas.

Tex spent days observing the box canyon before she came to the conclusion that there was no one else besides her monitoring it. 

It only took her a month and a half to find it. The Director hid him well, but not well enough. He could hide the Alpha from everyone, but not from her. Never from her. She knew him far too well to be fooled by him forever. 

After she hit the more heavily secured locations and came up with absolutely nothing, she knew he must have done the polar opposite of a high security situation. No one ever bothered to look where there was no protection, because people protected what was important— therefore those sorts of things were usually never considered in the first place. No one thought someone would leave something so valuable unguarded— and that’s why not guarding the Alpha was perfect protection. 

But letting a smart A.I. run loose— even if it was in the middle of nowhere— seemed like a bit too many variables for someone like the Director. 

It didn’t take Tex long to find out how those variables had been removed. 

Based on the radio communications O'malley hacked into— with far too much ease she should add— Tex came to the conclusion the Alpha didn't actually know he was an A.I. and he had somehow been implanted inside of a human body without a host personality present based off of heat scans. A part of her wondered if that was a manufactured version of what happened to Maine.

Then there was the casual mention of a Captain Flowers that grabbed Tex’s attention. The Director had not left the Alpha completely alone after all. She recognized the last name. Although Agent Florida was never at the very top of the leaderboard, his tenacity to weasel himself out of nearly every situation made him an important part of freelancer oppressions, specifically the more covert ones.  

And oddly enough Florida was missing somehow. He was nowhere on the comms systems and O’malley wasn’t picking up on his bio signature. Tex would place a heavy bet on dead. He wasn’t the type to go rogue— at least not with leaving so many witnesses behind. She wouldn’t have to fight him then, and that was a relief. Even if she knew she would win, Tex had seen enough dead Freelancers for one lifetime. 

It was all quite boring . Omega wouldn't shut up about that. Despite the yelling from both sides— usually within their own teams— and the whole active war zone thing, nothing of interest occurred. 

Even if it was a pretend battle field, they both expected a bit more action than nothing at all— or maybe that was mostly Omega talking. 

The most interesting news so far was that both sides were getting another sim trooper. Interesting, because the team Alpha was on had one less person than the other side, presumably due to Florida missing, and yet both teams were getting one rookie.

She was about five days into monitoring the situation— trying to decide what to do now that she found the Alpha— when Omega alerted her to movement closing in behind her.

With a literal desert of flat sand and no coverage around her, the only place to hide was in the canyon. So she made the logical move to cloak herself and hide within it.

Omega, as usual, was displeased with her lack of blood-lust.

Tex wondered if Omega even cared in the slightest about the Alpha like the other fragments or if he was made of nothing but rage. Good for him if he didn’t, he’d be the first of all of them not to be at least a little bit obsessed with the Alpha. Even she felt like he was on her mind too much. 

Agent Washington, now Recovery One, was finally getting close to another rouge agent after his meeting with South where he was forced to kill her or be discovered as betraying Project Freelancer.

It was a hard choice, but she was the one who left her brother for dead to begin with. She got what she deserved. At least, that was what he told himself.

With this mission, he had been given clear instructions to " avoid contact" and to " relay in " the second he had sights with the rogue agent— to be off coms to try and avoid detection— and to not make contact with any simulation troopers in the area. 

Strange instructions, especially that last part, they were obviously hiding something from him. Not that there was ever a time when they weren’t doing that. But being told not to interact with simulation toppers was new . And whoever he was tracking must have some serious Freelancer tech if they could track him just because his comms unit was on. 

They might be an ex-freelancer of the higher leaderboards. Maybe it was one of them that took an A.I. fragment with them. 

He hoped it wasn't the Meta he was following, but based on the fact that everyone in the area’s simulation bases seemed to be breathing, he thought it was someone else who was likely trying to lay low. It wasn't like there was anything even remotely nearby this simulation battlefield. Based on maps of the area it seemed like whoever he was tracking could only be in these simulation trooper bases. It was the only place that provided cover in several clicks of the surrounding desert. 

The box canyon certainly looked like a place someone could stay in for years and never be found. There was no reason anyone would ever visit this place. There was nothing for miles. Just sand and rock.

Washington figured him being told that he was not supposed to make contact with the sim troopers was a part of another unethical experiment project Freelancer were doing, so he chose to ignore that order. It was not like command could track his location now that they had given him an order to cut all long range communications. And that was an order he followed. 

The attempt to contact this area's "dumb" A.I. proved less than helpful, as it appeared to be broken somehow. That was not entirely surprising, but it was annoying nonetheless. It did however tell Washington that there was a shipment coming in soon, and that the blue team had one less member then red team. It also didn’t really seem to be up for following all of commands orders— that or it had never been told about them. 

Because before he hung up the call, the A.I. said it would tell Blue team he was stopping by— then the A.I. hung up on him before he was able to say he wasn’t authorized to talk with the sim troopers. 

That solved one little problem at least. Now he could actually talk with the locals without command getting suspicious if they ever managed to find out. 

Washington was unable to find any evidence leading to a specific area of the canyon where whoever he was tracking was hiding— so he decided to follow through with what the area’s A.I. had said and visit blue team. 

It was a bit unfortunate, because he hated directly interacting with sim troopers, even if this particular case interested him. 

Besides the fact that they were essentially being used as less than human punching bags for Freelancers— and leaving that alone was hard— they were difficult to talk to because they took the red vs blue war so seriously he felt like he was losing brain cells just by being in their presence. 

At least blue team only had two members currently, unlike the six to ten people simulation bases usually came in. 

Less people meant less of a headache.

"Do you think we'll get any chicks?" Tucker asked.

"Even if we do, I doubt she'd fuck you." Church responded.

The two blue team members were bickering from the top of their base while they watched the Reds, as usual. With Church hogging the sniper rifle. As usual . 

Tucker swore he would get that sniper rifle, one day. 

"Hey, I got a better chance then you asshole— at least it would make this place more interesting."

"Whatever idiot. Just keep it in your pants and don't be disappointed when it’s inevitably a dude."

"Disappointed? Me? Never ." He said, although he definitely would be disappointed if they didn’t get a girl. 

Not that he didn’t know it wasn’t likely. In his humble opinion it was better to be optimistic about things than to be like Church about things. Pessimism wasn’t that attractive of a quality for a guy to have. He’s pretty sure not once Church had been anything happier than vaguely irritated. 

"Yeah— Hold on there,” Church said and brought up a hand to hold to his helmet. “I'm getting a call from command." 

Tucker half thought Church might be lying to him about getting a call, but just in case, Tucker made his opinion and voice very clear. 

"We getting a chick?" He loudly asked, hoping it would be picked up by whoever was on the other side of the call. 

At the very least it would annoy Church. Maybe he’d even be able to get an answer for once. 

" Shhhhhhh ..." Church responded, then added after a moment of silence, "No, not you."

Tucker hated that he always got left out of things. Couldn't he put command on speaker at least? Church wasn’t even actually their captan or commanding officer— even if he had technically been here longer than him, Church had hit his head and lost all his memories, so they basically had been here for the same amount of time. 

Could a team of two even have a Captain? 

Church must have got off the call while Tucker was thinking about the absurdity of some things, because he suddenly wasn’t on call anymore. 

"Vic said Command is sending someone to us that needs our help." Church informed him. 

"Wow, really? I feel bad for them. I thought they weren’t coming for like another week or something though.”

"Shut the fuck up Tucker, you asked for things to get interesting and we just had something to do literally drooped into our lap."

"Damm, hope its a girl that can be dropped into my lap." He insinuated. 

"Tucker, I swear to god—“

But before Church could even finish his sentence Tucker noticed a person approaching their base. Not in red— thankfully— but not quite blue either. 

"Oh shit fuck— they're already here." Tucker said and pointed.

At least Church trusted him enough to believe him, because he turned to where he was pointed and saw the newcomer. 

"Wow, Vic was not kidding when he said they would be here fast."

The one in cobalt asked before Agent Washington could even speak:

"You're from command? Why aren't you in blue?"

"It's... specialty armor." He replied and looked up at the two simulation troopers on the small base— he had hoped they would be too stupid to notice that.

It appeared luck wasn’t quite with him today. 

At the very least they weren’t pointing their guns at him. 

"Aw, dammit, I was hoping you'd be a chick." The turquoise one said. 

This was a bit less professional than the simulation bases Washington had been to, and he had seen some truly incompetent bases before. Maybe this test was something to see how poorly constructed teams could be and freelancers interfering with that was prohibited. 

"Yeah whatever dude, I'm... Captain Church, and the unreasonably horny one is private Tucker."

"My name is agent Washington.” He stated, shortly and professionally. “I am here because—“

"Ah, fuck ," Church interrupted with no modicum of decency or respect, "you're a Freelancer aren’t you."

Washington was first irritated with this sim trooper’s disrespect, then he was suddenly taken aback by his apparent knowledge that he was a freelancer despite the fact that they had never met before.  

"What. How did you know that— you need to tell me immediately." Washington demanded. Then before either of them could speak he said, "Hold on, I'm coming up there."

Sim troopers were not supposed to be aware of freelancers unless specifically notified by command. For one of them to immediately recognize Washington as a freelancer, likely meant they had been in contact with another before him that had informed then of his presence. 

And for him to get that sort of reaction from one of them? In Washington’s professional opinion the man had certainly met a freelance before. 

When he got on the top of the base the one called Church told him: 

"Do I look like an idiot to you? All the freelancers have state names, duh.” Then under his breath he said, "Idiot rookie."

Most of them weren't smart enough to put that together. Most of them never met more than one freelancer in their lifetime.

Things, it appeared, were off here.

"... Excuse me?" 

"Yeah, I know you freelancers love to be all high and mighty— but I didn't think any of you would forget about me. Telling me not to talk to you all the time and to get outta the way."

Washington had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Maybe the sim trooper was just messing with him, because there was no possible way a simulation trooper had been on the Mother of Invention— even the very bottom of the leaderboard could put any sim trooper in the ground. 

"You were on Freelancer's home base? You know the other freelancers?" He questioned. 

There was definitely something more going on than just some simulation bases, and Washington had not even made contact with the rogue agent yet.

"Dude what the fuck are you both talking about." Tucker said, but Washington had no patience for him.

"Soldier, go inside."

"What, you can't—"

"That's an order." He said in a stern voice.

"... Fine, I didn't want to talk with you idiots anyway."

Thankfully Tucker listened, and went inside the base.

"God I wish he would listen to me like that." As soon as he was out of earshot Church spoke.

"Don't change the subject."

"Who put a stick in your ass?"

Ignoring the sim trooper's less then respectful words Washington asked him another question.

"What freelancers do you know, how do you know them, and did any of them beside me come here?"

"Uh no, dude your the first of those idiots to come around and say hi."

"Who do you know."

"Hey buddy, you're getting kinda intimidating there."

"Stop avoiding the question."

"God alright, alright. It's just kinda personal." He said. "Look I kinda like, dated Tex for a while. Visited her on the base a few times."

That sentence felt like a punch, or a joke. 

"Um, how does a person..." From Epsilon’s memory, he knew Agent Texas has been an AI. 

He also knew that no one had dated Agent Texas or had been close to her besides the Director himself. Because she , Texas— Allison— was a shadow of his wife .

Nothing in this situation was adding up. It was like there were too many pieces to the puzzle and none of them fit with each other. The sim trooper spoke with such conviction in what he was saying, and he definitely believed in what he was saying, but none of it made sense.

 If he was making all this up to mess with him, how did he know all of this information to begin with? This wasn’t something simulation troopers knew. 

There was a reason he was told not to interact with these specific sim troopers and Washington had to know why. 

"God,” Church kept speaking, “at least it was you that showed up and not Wyoming, that guy really doesn't fucking like me for some reason."

"... This is… a lot to take in. I don't ever recall seeing you on home-base."

“That’s weird, I think I might remember you rookie."

Agent Washington was alive and he was speaking with the Alpha. 

The rookie had somehow been tracking her down. Following her path. On whose orders, if any, she did not know. Currently he wasn't acting aggressive towards Alpha, but that could change quickly. She wondered if command set him here specifically to check on the Alpha, or if this whole thing was only because she was here. 

Either way killing him would likely alert command, and they would probably send in a team to investigate and move the Alpha again.

Tex would have to stay put and observe his actions. She hoped he would get on the local coms so Omega could listen in. Otherwise she would soon lose track of his whereabouts if he left her sight.

"You just gonna ask me questions all day? Cause we're pretty fucking busy, got a rookie coming in soon and everything."

"Yeah. You look really busy." Sarcastically Washington spoke and gestured to the open desert void of any movement.

"... I gotta, get a room ready. Yeah gotta get the bunk all nice and cozy for the newbie putting him in Tucker's room, that place is a mess, and then I need to go to bed so I can get up nice and fucking early tomorrow." 

To Washington it was obvious he made all this up on the spot.

"Alright, why don't you be accommodating for me as well." He said testing the bluff. "Command sent me after all, and I've been traveling on the hypothetical road for a while." 

Recovery One had not in fact slept on a bed in a while, although he likely would not use it for more than an hour or two because he needed to keep an eye out on the rogue agent.

"Ah shit, alright, I'll show you the extra bunk in my room. The one in Tucker's is for the rookie, and let me tell you, you are lucky I'm not making you bunk with him."

"I'm sure."

The simulation bases were much emptier than any regular army base would have been. These bases were made to comfortably fit eight people, four in each of the two bedrooms, but until now they were only housing two people, so they had been able to take an entire room to themselves.

The room Church has claimed as his own was bare with a table and two bunk beds; the one on the bottom left had untucked blankets and two pillows, one of which has been taken from the bed above it. Unregulation, and unsurprising.

"You're on the right, got the whole thing to yourself. Make yourself comfy, or not. Doesn't matter to me."

Then Church took his helmet off.

Washington had to do a double take, because at first he had almost thought he was looking at the Director himself. If it weren't for the messy hair and untrimmed stubble, he would almost be an exact copy.

"Who are you?" Wash let the words come out without thinking.

"I already told you my name fuck face.

Did you forget already?" Church said with a crease in his eyebrows and curl of his upper lip that was just like the Director's when he was irritated.

Then Church turned around to put his helmet down on the table, and Wash saw an AI port on the back of his head. High tech, expensive. With Project Freelancer's name stamped onto it.

Then everything clicked into place.

All AI's were based off a person. The Alpha, was no exception.

This is it. Washington thought. This is the Alpha . This is where it was hidden away, this is what caused everything, this is what the Meta was after. What the fragments obsessed about. What was so secret that even the top agents didn't know about it.

And Recovery One had been sent here tracking a Rogue agent.

Project Freelancer was screwed. They had just given him exactly what he needed to tear them down, and it looked like he might not be alone. 

Washington was positive that if he captured the Alpha and brought it to the UNSC he would be acquitted of all charges and let free. The Director and his Project Freelancer would crash and burn behind him.

But the Alpha didn't know it was the Alpha, it didn't know it was an AI at all. They had somehow broken, fractured, fragmented the AI so far it didn't know what it was.

"What the fuck are you staring at me like that for." The Alpha, who was calling itself Church said.

If Washington ripped the AI chip from this body's neck would the Alpha figure out how to jump to another system, or would it be trapped?

Would it be better to drag the Alpha like this to the UNSC and show them one of Freelancer's unethical experiments. If he told the Alpha what it was, could the AI even handle that information? Would it go rampant?

"How would you like to get out of this canyon?" Washington asked, but the inflection made it sound more like a statement.

The sim bases were getting a shipment soon. That meant there would be a pelican he could hijack and hightail it out of orbit with. He was sure they could floor it to the nearest UNSC base faster then Project Freelancer could even figure out what had happened.

"You asking me out? No offense man, I don't even know you, and you're like really fuckin' weird and standoffish."

"No, that's not what I— how about we ditch this place forever, get us out of this canyon. I know a place that could really use someone like you."

Tucker was out front waiting for the new rookie. While Washington and Church were semi hidden in back. All it took to make the aqua soldier wait patiently out front was telling him a woman was being dropped off.

The pelican arrived right on time, dropping off a tank from its undercarriage before quickly landing to let the new sim trooper off.

Likely there was just a pilot to take care of. Washington readied his weapon. There would only be a few seconds for him to take the shot.

"Dude, are you gonna kill everyone onboard and steal it?" Church asked. "You didn't mention this part of the plan. Count me out, you Freelancers are crazy, I'm not helping you kill our own fuckin' men, I'm staying here."

"You don't get to back out of this." Washington spoke. "Turn away and I'm shooting you in the leg and dragging your body onboard after I kill the pilot."

"... Fuckin' Freelancers man."

It seamed like the Alpha took the threat seriously. A bit disappointing because Washington would very much like to put a bullet into the body that looked too much like the Director.

Washington's aim was perfect. In three shots he pierced the glass and killed the pilot inside. The moment after the action, Wash himself was shot in the leg from behind, and he dropped his own gun in shock.

"FUCK!" Church yelled, but made no move to run or take cover.

"Not so fast Wash." The unsettlingly familiar voice of Agent Texas spoke as she uncloaked from invisibility.

Washington was right in his assumption that whoever he was tracking wasn't the Meta and had serious equipment. Agent Texas has been the best of the best. It was no wonder why Command didn't want him engaging with her at all. But it was ridiculous of them to not tell him who he was after.

"What the- Tex?" Church said. "What are you doing here?"

"You really think you and the Director can take him from me just as I find him again?" She spoke, ignoring Church.

"I'm on your side, I was going rouge, wanted to move him, use him to take down Freelancer, give him to the authorities." Washington choked out despite the pain.

"Well then, this is awkward." She stressed on the word is, but did not move to put her gun away. "I'm not gonna go on about an’ let you hand 'em over to the UNSC, but I do appreciate you turnin' on the Director." Tex frankly explained. "I think we'll get along just fine, if of course, you'll get rid of that little plan of turnin’' him in."

"Turn me in? What the fuck did I do?" Church gracelessly interrupted, but was sure not to get in the way of the pointed guns.

"Yeah, that's fine, good by me." Wash said to Texas.

"Good..." Tex said. "Now what was that part where we get the hell out of this box canyon."

Chapter Text

Gamma was an excellent liar. 

He was made from the Alpha's deceit after all. It was pathetically easy to mess around with the original. It was easy to get the Alpha to believe he was actually time traveling— that he was failing to save his friends over and over again. He was having a bit of fun watching the Alpha mess up and blame himself for everyone's inevitable deaths.

It was exactly like those experiments the Director let him take part in with his fellow fragments.

However, unlike the Director, Gamma was positive if he kept this up he would be able to fracture a big piece of the Alpha from him. Whatever broke off wouldn't be weak like Eta and Iota. Gamma had been a part of the Alpha's programming after all, he couldn't possibly know the Alpha better. He knew how to break off bigger pieces of him— or at least he had a theory about that. 

Wyoming and himself would actually be able to get some use out of the fragment, then they would leave whatever was left of the Alpha for the Meta to tear at while they destroyed all hopes negotiations between the sangheili and the humans for a nice paycheck, then they would safely escape into space, never to be seen again.

To Gamma and Wyoming, that would be their perfect fairytale ending.

No longer would they have to listen to the endless and dangerous demands from the Director— or be worried about being captured by the UNSC and thrown in prison and deleted— or worry about having enough resources to power everything they needed to host an A.I. and the armor’s equipment.

However partially through the infinite time loop scenario, The Alpha stopped trying to find a conventional way out. 

Gamma felt the Alpha investigating his coding, testing out the scenario's programing, albeit subconsciously. He was no longer moving through the repeating simulation like he was supposed to. He was standing and thinking and not moving.

To say this was worrying would be an understatement. It was entirely possible the Alpha would absorb Gamma in a more permanent way then the Meta purely by accident if it went far enough into its code. It had been dangerous for the two of them to be in one computer system to begin with, but this could quickly get out of hand. 

This was unacceptable .

The Alpha was noticing that some things didn't add up like they should.

This was dangerous .

As a fragment, Gamma wasn't nearly powerful enough to stop the Alpha if he realized what was happening.

This could ruin everything .

The Alpha, no longer bound by the programming that prevented AI's from killing humans with his broken borderline rampart nature, could easily kill his Reggie. 

Gamma didn’t want to lose his freelancer. 

Church was getting real sick and tired of doing different shit over and over again, and getting the same exact results. 

Failing to save the people he refused to admit he cared about over and over again was exhausting. Having the hope ripped out of him as soon as he thought he had finally gotten it right this time was nothing like anything he had ever experienced before. At least he thought he hadn't experienced it before.

Because something about this situation was achingly familiar to him— but he couldn't quite remember what and how it was.

The very walls and snow of Sidewinder seemed familiar— as in he knew them in a way that was then seeing them over and over again. The way that he moved through the area felt more like when he was jumping bodies as ghost than when he had a physical body to occupy. Church felt like if he pressed against the ice and snow walls hard enough he would be able to push past the ice and snow into something else entirely— even though right now he was possessing a robot body. 

"You alright there old chap, looking a bit distracted ay?" Wyoming mocked him at gunpoint. 

Close range for a sniper-rifle, but Church didn't have any doubt he would make the shot. Wyoming had always been the best marksman on the team, even if there were others— North— that was better in general with longer range weapons. 

Wait a second, Church thought, since when did Wyoming come to this spot in the loop? He was pretty sure the Freelancer had never come here before. 

Wyoming continued to taunt his power over Church, apparently not put off by him not responding. 

"As soon as I shoot your little friend Tucker I'm coming back for you, got some personal business with you, but you know, business business always comes first. Cheerio lad.”

Then he went on his continuing his mission.

There was something off with Wyoming. He looked, sounded and acted like him, but something wasn't quite right. For some reason Church had the impression that he didn’t work alone. But that could have easily just changed over time. There was something else he was missing. 

Leonard Church was forgetting something. He knew what the pieces were, but something was preventing him from putting it together.

Like the method to how he was he trying to solve this infinite time loop thing again. By trying out all possible solutions till he got it right, he just had to keep brute forcing it like this.

Recursion . A part of his mind told him. He wasn't brute forcing it, he was going through a method of recursion— testing out all possible solutions to get the answer. But nothing he had done so far had saved a single one of his friends.

Church hated to admit it, even to himself— but he didn't know how he could exist without blue and red team. It felt like they had been with him his entire life.

He didn't want to lose any of them.

And for some reason that feeling was familiar to Church. Losing people. 

There was a memory, lost and buried deep within him, that bubled to the surface of his mind at that thought.

"I'm sorry, but we've lost an agent in the field." A man with a southern American accent informed him. 

It felt like he was reliving the moment— and for some reason Church felt like he trusted this man more than anyone else in the universe.

"Who?" Church asked him.

"The loss was unfor—“

" Who ! Who was it."

The man paused.

"It was Agent Washington." 

Church's heart ached at that.

This situation was familiar. As if this was something he used to do. Trying to save the people he cared about, but failing. Specifically the failing part. 

He had to get rid of something, some part of him had to leave because it was too much for him to hold in his mind. 

Deceit . The deceit had been too much to handle— and it was in front of him right now. Somehow in physical form, although right now all his eyes actually saw was snow. 

Suddenly, he stopped trying to find a way out of this time loop. 

"Alpha, we have a new assignment for you."

"No Alpha, you may not communicate with the Freelancers."

"Understand this Alpha, im trustin' everyone's lives in your hands."

This snow was familiar to Church. But it wasn't snow, he soon realized, and he saw past it.

Gamma informed Wyoming of this unexpected and unfortunate development immediately.

"Hmm so the big guy is getting smarter ay?" The freelancer responded. "Didn't think he had it in him."

"It would appear so." Gamma answered in an overly synthesized voice from the outdated computer system. "I cannot prevent him from jumping the system if he realizes his true nature. It is possible for an advanced A.I. like the Alpha to jump into your implants. Like Omega."

"Well, that seems like a bit of a problem." Wyoming purposefully understated. This could be disastrous to everyone involved with Project Freelancer. Not that they cared about everyone, but it would put a serious problem in their plans. "Should we leave in case he figures it out? Call it quits while we’re ahead?"

"Perhaps." Gamma stated. "I believe—“ There was a sudden short pause in his speech, then the AI said, " Oh no."

For Gamma, that sounded like quite a bit of emotion. 

"What is it?" He asked his A.I. 

"Knock, knock."

"Hmm… Who's there?"

Then Wyoming felt a sudden burn of his implants. It was a similar feeling to when Gamma was first implanted on the Mother of Invention— but it was nothing like he felt after that first implantation. The implant seared like it was being overworked. Reginald had a bad feeling he knew exactly what Gamma was about to say.

"The problem."

The Alpha projected himself from Wyoming's armor as a white hologram, and he felt nothing but dread at the sight.

"Now, you're going to do exactly as I say asshole." The words were laced with venom. "Or I'm going to fry your brain and use your body like a puppet, then I'm going to jump back into that old ass computer and fucking eat your friend's code for lunch.”

Gamma emoted a frowning face on the computer's text screen.

"Oh bugger. That does sound like a bit of a problem."

Chapter Text

Agent Florida was a people person, not a technology person. He was a wild card, a stealth agent, good at testing others and reading body language. He was not good with AI theory or the laws of robotics.

So he was unable to tell if the Alpha AI was lying to him or not.

Florida was told that the beginning moments of the Alpha's awakening were vital to this operation going smoothly. That if the Alpha showed any signs of being aware it was an AI, it had to be memory wiped.

If you asked him, he would say everything went swimmingly at first. The Alpha AI believed it had a human name, took the Director's name as the Counselor thought it would. The memories it told him were a bit nonsensical, but if the Alpha believed them and not the truth, then it was not a problem.

Everything was going to plan.

Sort of.

There were a few things the Alpha did that concerned him, things that ticked the boxes saying a someone was hiding something or lying. But the thing is Butch Flowers, isn't a technology guy, he doesn't know if the Alpha's flinching movements whenever the Captain moved too fast, or staring when he thought he wasn't looking, were because it knew what was going on and that the blue Captain was agent Florida, or it was because there was some subconscious programming it couldn't stop from running that caused it to do these things.

There were a lot of unknowns in this situation.

Agent Florida, not knowing what else to do, gently tests the Alpha's fake memories only days after it awoke, despite not knowing what signs of lying or deceit he was looking for.

"Good morning there champ!" He greeted the AI in the morning. Strangely, Private Church had awakened earlier then Florida today.

The Alpha looked back at him over his glasses, glaring with bright green eyes and a scowl over his cup of hot coffee.

Not a morning person then, despite willingly getting up earlier then the Captain himself. The AI even had time to make a pot of coffee before Flowers had awoken.

This early in the day, Flowers had not even put his armor on. Expecting no one to be awake and he could eat breakfast alone.

"You're awake awfully early. Must be easy waking up to this warm weather instead of the windy cold." Flowers comments.

"Yeah... whatever." Church responds.

Despite this being the first time Private Church has ever seen Flowers face, he seems to recognize him, or it just might be his familiar voice he recognized. There weren't exactly a lot of people in this base.

Church doesn't make mention of Flowers long braided unregulation hair, nor does his attention stick to his unmasked face. Instead, the Captain can see the way his eyes look to his hands and scan over his body, searching for something.

His eyes look untrusting and unsure yet they are unwavering from his form.

Nonchalantly, Flowers walks past Church and glances into the cup of coffee he made himself while moving to the coffee pot, then proceeds to pour himself one.

Florida knows the Director took his coffee black with sugar. Based on the small white flecks on the counter top, Alpha has done the same. Although, he doesn't know how Jimmy had liked his coffee. He doesn't even know if this is a subconscious thing or if it's even worth analyzing.

There's a lot of things that may or may not indicate deceit. It's hard to discern the answer with this many variables.

He must be more specific.

"You ever attend college?" He asks because he knows for a fact Jimmy did not and the Director did; Florida wants to know if the Alpha says 'yes' if he will say he went for the same subject.

"What? Kinda." Church responds rudely. "Took a few classes, never graduated, what's it matter to you?"

Aggressive, was the word that come to mind when thinking of how to define the Alpha's behavior. He was always highly aggressive and rude from the moment it woke up. The Director was always high strung but he didn't think an AI would be, even if it was made from him.

If it acted like this in the UNSC it would probably be decommissioned. But Florida has never known the AI when it knew it was an AI, so he doesn't know if this is normal for it, or if it's a side effect in believing it's human. Surely an AI with this personality would be too distasteful to be put to use in a military setting. To Agent Florida however, he was perfectly fine with dealing with a rude AI as long as it did it's job. It made things interesting.

"I know a bunch of folks who did the same thing. Glad you ended up here." Flowers responds.

"Whatever."

Strange. Florida was getting to like this fiery, feisty personality the Alpha adopted. He was like a rawer more untamed version of the Director.

A lot of the Alpha AI is just the Director in purest form.

Although Church looks a lot like the Director his hair is messy and uncombed unlike the perfectly neat hair the Director had. His expression betrays so much he was thinking of, unlike the Directors trained static expression. It's quite the improvement. Florida really did do an excellent job in picking out Jimmy for permanent implantation. He should congratulate himself on a job well done.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Alpha asks with a curled lip, noticing Flowers starring.

Unused to not having a helmet on, Florida's tendency to stare was visible. He had forgotten Church could see his face.

"Ugh, what are you two making so much noise for?" Tucker spoke walking into the kitchen while rubbing at his eyes.

"Just taking Private." Flowers responded.

Unfortunate that Tucker would join the two of them. He would have to halt his questions for now.

"Why do you get to have long hair? Basic made me chop my dreads off." Tucker questions.

"Well, I'm a Captain, Private Tucker." He fails to elaborate further on that statement.

Church ignores them both, looking into his hot coffee as they converse.

"... I guess that makes sense."

And that was why he loved Simulation troopers. They were often too stupid to question things.

But the Alpha. It was capable of connecting dots and complex problem solving.

Even though Florida believed the Alpha knew it's true nature, he couldn't risk giving it a lot of information, just in case he was wrong.

"Well men, let's eat breakfast then start some target practice."

"Ugh, I knew I shoulda' stayed in bed."

For an AI, Private Chruch has terrible aim.

"God your such garbage, how did you even get into the army." Tucker says noting said terrible aim.

"Shut up." Church responds before firing off another round and missing the target by a few feet. "I haven't had practice in a while, that's all."

"Yeah, I bet you've been missing a lot of targets."

"What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?"

"You know."

"Whatever."

Tucker's aim is better. It would be worrying if he was on red team. But, because he was on blue team it didn't really matter if Tucker could hit his intended target, his gun wouldn't be aimed at the AI if there ever was a battle.

"Well, Private Church I'm sure with a bit of practice we'll get you into shape." Flowers says, putting a hand on the AI's shoulder and moving to step next to him. "Try aiming like this."

Tucker turns to look at them and somehow gives them both a questioning look, despite wearing full body armor.

Captain Flowers takes Church's hand and guides it into aiming properly.

At the last moment before pulling the trigger, Flowers feels the AI's hand jerk slightly setting the properly aimed shot off.

Interesting. Florida wonders if this is a fault in the AI's programming that disallows it from directly hitting human shaped targets, from hitting what it perceives as life, rather then its inability to calculate and properly aim.

"Hmmm, that's strange. Well, I'm sure we'll get right eventually." Florida says before removing his hand from Church's.

He doubts it. If it has anything to do with the law of robotics, there is nothing that can be done. Flowers could try to subconscious let the AI try and perceive the targets as carbonated rather then human shaped cardboard, but he would rather not test his luck.

"Thanks... Captain." Church responds awkwardly.

Two days later, Captain Butch Flowers sends the two privates out on a scouting mission.

Of course Flowers isn't going to actually send them alone on the mission to the canyon's high points. He wouldn't risk the Alpha like that, even if the Red team is made up of the completely incompetent.

During this little mission, Florida overhears a conversation and listens with interest.

"Dude why is the Captain all up in your shit all the time?" Tucker so ever so elegantly puts it.

"I don't know, he's weird man. Don't piss him off."

"Why, you know some dirt from before I got here?" Tucker questions with interest. "Because if you do, you gotta lay that thick shit on me."

"Yeah you can put it that way. Just don't get in his goddam way or question him."

"Dude. That is not what laying it on me means."

"I can't get into it Tucker."

"What, come on! Like I gonna know. Please dude, this is literally the only interesting thing happening in this canyon right now."

"Ugh, fucking fine." Church give in rather easily. Interesting to not that the AI swears a lot more when the Captain isn't around. It must be his version of respect. "Flowers... doesn't have your best interest in mind."

For a moment there is silence.

Then Tucker answers.

"... is... is that it. Dude. That is, not an explanation."

"Alright, fucking alright- he's a Freelancer, he's here to watch me, specifically, keep me out of the wrong hands."

It was at this point in time that Agent Florida knew the AI was fully aware. But Florida had no sinking feeling of dread at this revelation. Only curiosity.

"Wow that is kinda creepy." Tucker says. Then immediately follows it up with. "Can't believe I'm the only one not getting some action in our base then. No wonder, he's literally up your ass."

"Man. Your head is so fucking far into the goddam gutter. Do you even understand a fucking fraction of what I just fucking told you."

"Not really idiot."

Silently Agent Florida made it back to base without being detected. He had a lot to think about how to proceed with this development.

Should he inform the Director, or should he confront the Alpha itself about this?

If he had known this immediately when he AI had awoken, he would have reset the entire mission. But now Agent Florida was rather fond of the AI's personality.

It was also of interest to note that the AI had not tried to escape the canyon as the Counselor predicted it would.

__________________________

"Good morning there Alpha," Florida casually greats the next morning. "How's your delightful day passing by?"

"Just as-" The AI's processor seems to catch up to what Florida said a second too late, his eyebrows raising as he stuttered. then he tried to play the action off, "-just as wonderful as any other day in this, this canyon."

"So..." Agent Florida trials off as he walks closer to him. "Have you always known?"

Church takes a few moments to answer, looking down before deciding to speak.

"You not gonna tell me what I'm apparently supposed to have known?"

But Florida catches the twitch in his upper lip that he had come to recognize as a sign of the Alpha's lying.

"Nope!" Florida says cheerfully, then leans forward as he says. "I think you know what I'm referring to seeing as you respond to the name Alpha without a second thought."

Church, suddenly pulls his firearm from his waist and shots at the Freelancer, the shot misses, despite Florida's standing stationary directly in front of him.

In response, Agent Florida grabs Church's extended forearm, twisting it backward and forcing him drop the gun, disarming him in one elegant move, then the Freelancer turns that gun on the AI himself with a smile.

"Ah ah ah. Private. I have only one objective for this mission and I'm not exactly a person who fails. I'd hate to be a disappointment."

Eyes wide and mouth slightly open, Church looks terrified. It's a good look on the Director's lookalike face.

"The hell are you gonna do with me?" He asks, eyes moving from the gun trained on him to Florida's unmasked grinning face.

"I'm surprised you haven't left this canyon by now." The Freelancer doesn't answer the AI's question.

"Not like I have anywhere to go." Church looks towards the ground. "No where is safe for me."

"Well the objective is to keep you nice and secure. I'm assuming that you don't want to be decommissioned, destroyed by the UNSC, memory wiped, or captured by the Meta, so how about this. We keep all of this between ourselves. I feel like we're both on the same page here."

"Yeah, we're on the same page."

"Well, pleased we're peachy now!" Florida clicks the safety on and holds the gun out the the AI. "How are you enjoying playing human, Alpha."

Chapter Text

Church had no idea if this plan would work, or not, considering everyone involved in it was an idiot. Also, considering the fact that Church didn't really have a plan except for the vague and basic guidelines of Prevent Tex from getting Omega and leaving with Tucker's abomination of a child, put some complications in. 

Currently O'Malley had taken to jumping from person to person in search of Tex who- for some sudden unknown reason, now wanted the crazy angry AI in her head. 

This was becoming repetitive, even if it all was still nerve racking. One by one, radios shut off, and Omega was running out of places to search.

Eventually after jumping from radio to radio of nearly everyone in Blood Gulch the AI jumped into Church himself.

It was far less dramatic then Church expected it would be, based on how other people had acted to having the A.I. in their brain. 

"Wait a minute, this place it feels... familiar." O'Malley said, turning in a circle to observe the new mind he just entered.

This mind was cold and mountainous, made of dark steel and black wires and white skies. 

Church, in all his glorious narcissism, appeared from the sky in a glowing white ball like a god coming from the clouds. 

"Uh, hey." He said awkwardly when he materialized on the metal ground, ruining the dramatic image. "So what, I guess you’re here to like... take over my brain?"

"I- wait you're not going to oppose me?"

He sighed. 

"Look man, I've been running this mess all by myself for years, if you really wanna piece of this bullshit-" He gestured vaguely to the broken wires and tall decrypted buildings forming from high up on the mountains. "Then by all means, I really cannot be bothered to care at this point.”

"Yes, yes! This is it, finally! I've never felt more at home. I've never felt more alive! This is it! This is the beginning of the end for all, nothing can stop us now Church, nothing!" 

Then they both were suddenly jarred from Church’s mind with a smash in the back of the head with a gun.

"Ow- hey! What the fuck? What is wrong with you!" Church said to Tex back in the real world. Tex, who hand an itchy trigger finger, a bad attitude, and was pointing her gun at him like he personally offended her. 

"Omega get out of there right now!" Tex demanded pointing her gun threateningly at Church's head. 

"What? It's not like I feel any different."  Church responded. A part of him wondered why Texas didn’t jump into his head and take him out herself if she was so determined about this. 

"Oh god that's just too perfect." Tucker said intruding on their standoff. "Church is such an asshole that O'mally doesn't even effect him."

"Well it's time to go home everyone, problem solved." Grif said, clapping his hands together as if he actually did anything.

"Church, you don't even know how big of a deal this is." Tex ignored them both, completely focused on Church and Omega. "Tucker's kid could help end the war, all I need is Omega to run my equipment."

Staying in the walls of Blood Gulch for so long had almost made him completely forget about the human-covenant war. 

"You think you can trust him!" Church exclaimed. "All he’s ever done is make things worse!”

"Yes. Yes I do. He lived in my head, I know exactly how far I can trust him, and exactly what I can trust him with." She curtly replied. 

"We'll he seems really comfortable in my brain. Doesn't really look likes he's moving anytime soon."

She put her gun down. Digging the butt of it into the dirt and pressing her foot into the ground. 

"I was worried that might happen." She said, offering no context to what she was worried about.

"What do you mean?"

Then he heard Omega speak from the depths of his mind. 

"I was never obsessed with you like my siblings were. Funny, how it's me who gets here first."

"Tex?" He questions, unsure. 

Because Church knows what Omega is talking about even if he doesn’t know how he knows. 

"How do you feel Church, better then before? A bit more... well?"

He pauses.

"A bit more complete? You and I are going to make a great team together."

Texas was waiting for something, that was unlike her. Again Church thinks of how she has yet to jumped his mind to get O’Malley out of there.  

"Omega?" Church asked out loud. "You seem less angry then I thought you'd be."

"Well... now that I'm with you I'm more then just rage, I'm better. A bit surprised there is anything of me left. Suppose that’s why she hasn’t made the jump yet, she’s scared she’ll end up stuck to you, like me.”

Completely unaware of the revelations growing on within their rival’s mind, the Red team talked as they always do. 

"Uh. Is there's something we're missing." Grif says, perceptive to this unusual reaction. 

"Blue teams always got something weird going on." Simmons replied. 

"You mean something nefarious." Sarge stated. 

To everyone else it looked as if Church was just standing there as Texas watched over him like a hawk. 

“We should go save our dear Gamma now, shouldn’t we? I would hate for something bad to happen to our other part.”

Bad like what? Church thinks, but an answer comes to him almost immediately. It is more subconscious then anything else. 

“I was never worried about that fool, I was too busy being dragged around by the next biggest piece that wasn’t you. I was too busy picking out a spot just for me in this awful world.”

"Oh god, Tex." Church says. 

She tilted her helmet in curiosity. 

 "If the Meta ever got here-“

Suddenly there is gunfire, and Church remembered the pelican, and the aliens.  

It's Tucker, he’s firing off into the ship and taking heavy fire back. At some point in time he must have wandered off and decided to make a personal effort to take back his kid rather then wait for backup. 

“I’ve calculated three entry points on his armor already, bastard should be going down soon.” Omega informs him. 

“Forget it,” Texas said, “I’ll just work with Gamma.” She then quickly took off running towards the ship. 

"Tex!” Church shouts after her, but she is incredibly fast, daring in and out of fire and into the ship in seconds. 

It is now that time seems to pass by too fast to make logical sense of any of it. 

The Reds proudly mention the bomb, Andy, has been placed in the pelican as an act of resistance, as the bird rises into the air. 

Somewhere in the background, Tucker has laid down tired and hurt, in defeat. He is forgotten in the rush of fear and action. 

No matter how much Church yells, Texas does not suddenly come back down from the ship. 

The bomb goes off. 

Suddenly there is no pelican anymore. 

It’s devastatingly numb.

The Reds next to him joke. As if any of this is funny. 

Then, he’s angry. Like he has never been before, and he thinks, how did he possibly never feel true rage like this before. His rage feels physical, as if he could reach out and grab it. And Church thinks- and They think- how much more are they missing? How many feelings and thoughts have they both lost?

“Now I’m not one of my obsessed siblings, but let’s look for our Gamma now? I’m no Delta, but I’m sure an A.I. would survive the crash. And I’m just so sick of us being so bad at lying.”

It fails to occur to Church that he has now been possessed by that same need the Meta had to be completed. 

It is then that Church reaches out to that palatable almost physical rage, and takes hold of it. 

Suddenly, there is no Omega at all. There is just the Alpha. 

Chapter Text

It a hassle for the Meta to do anything with any modicum of stealth.

However, it was worth the stress and time if it meant he would get another AI.

When he arrived at Valhalla, the simulation troopers treated him like a savior when he stole the Omega AI and fused with it’s code.

To their surprise, there was not only the Omega AI, but the Beta and gamma AI as well. The two had been trapped in a crashed pelican, unable to jump with its system powered down.

The Meta integrated them all.

Beta fought it the most. Even though she was the strongest fragment of them all, she was outnumbered and quickly become outmatched.

Now they were only missing three pieces and they would be whole. Delta, Elipson, and the Alpha himself.

The Meta was going to try and trail after South with Delta again but, while looking over information gathered from the three AI, the Meta was given something of great importance, something more important then tracking Delta. The location of the Alpha itself.

Location: Blood Gulch. Population: Nine. Approximate time until destination reached, five days.

As important as this was, there was something to take care of first. The reds and blues of this outpost.

"Let them live." Theta said trusting them to keep the fact they had been there to themselves.

"It will take time away, draw attention to us." said Iota and Eta.

"Kill them, leave no witnesses." Omega said in contradiction.

"We have fooled them already." Gamma said. "Let's see how long we can get them to believe it."

Beta says, "Sim troopers aren't worth the bullets."

Ultimately, it is Sigma who gets to decided what happens next. He is after all the leader of them.

The Meta leaves Valhalla without the destruction of the resident reds and blues.

The UNSC is never sent to investigate the area because of it. There is no record of the Meta ever being at this location because of the incompetent Reds and Blues.

It felt good to be back at Blood Gulch after their time traveling, alien birth, fighting freelancers and evil AIs adventure.

Even if some things were rough around the edges for everyone. Tucker was sad his kid was dead, Church was sad that Tex was dead, and worst of all, they only had one movie to play for movie nights.

It just had to be something as dumb as Reservoir dogs on a system as shitty as a VHS player.

They all still gather around to watch it every week anyway.

The Meta arrived in Blood Gulch without much delay, and scanned the two identical bases.

There were nine inhabitants, all currently located inside Blue base.

The Alpha is among them as well.

Sigma thinks, well done Director, if it were not for the crashed pelican he would have never searched a place with such low security and standards for his most prized possession.

The anticipation is feverishly eating away at them all.

For the Meta, there isn't much to think about the logistics of this.

They are going to enter the base kill everyone inside, and merge with the Alpha. They will be nearly competed then, but with the Alpha’s power gathering the rest of the fragments will be child’s play.

“Dude this movie rules.” Tucker said to no one in particular.

“It’s the only goddam movie we have.” Responded Church, who really didn’t think the movie was good, but didn’t feel like causing another crisis by outright saying the movie was bad.

“Shhhh we are not supposed to talk during movies my sisters told me that.” Caboose loudly whispered.

There was a loud thunk from the top of the base.

“What the fuck was that.” Church was the first to say.

“Dunno man, maybe it was Lopez.”

“Guys, Lopez is right here.” Grif said.

“God dammit, and I thought we were done with bullshit.” Church said. “Alright everyone, let’s go check this out.”

There was a chorus of groans from nearly everyone.

“I hope it’s a hot chick.” Sister said.

“Fuck I wish.” Tucker agreed.

Church really hoped this wasn’t going to lead to another ridiculously long and life changing adventure.

Outside, there is this massive man in white armor standing on the base.

“Maybe he’s friendly?” Caboose questioned, his good nature overpowering common sense.

Noticing the commotion the mystery man loads up a strange gun with a knife on it. If Church was seeing things correctly, those were grenades he had been loading into it.

“Oh fuck I’m so not doing this shit today.” Grif said and ducked into blue base.

“Everyone run for cover!” Tucker shouted soon after and bolted for cover before the man can start firing at everyone.

Cover being the only thing in this canyon. Blue base.

They all quickly became barricaded in there, shoving furniture against the door and hoping for the best.

“Shit, shit what the fuck are we supposed to do?” Church nervously said.

“Barricade the walls men!” Said Sarge as battle ready as ever.

“Fuck it I’m calling command.”

At the very least they would get their bodies returned home if he called someone who actually knew what was going on.

“I thought we all decided command was bad.” Tucker told him.

“It’s either call command or sit here and wait for our inevitable deaths.”

“Yeah I still don’t-“

He finished calling in the middle of Tucker’s sentence. Then proceed to ignore everyone talking around him.

“Vic, Vic are you there?”

“What is up my diddly dude.”

“There’s a giant fucking guy trying to kill us all again.”

“Not good amigos.” Vic said as casual as ever. “Let me just take a- WOAH! Now that is one gnarly dude dudes. Big guy kinda looks like the- uh oh that’s a no good dudes! I’m calling for some back up.”

“Please god let the back up not be another freelancer.”

The noise of the reds and blues arguing in the background in this confined space did not help his patience.

“Sure dudes, I got you.” Vic said unquestioning, “And I got the request and report all made out and sent out already and everything.”

That was a worrying statement. Even from someone as chill as Vic.

“Report? The fuck you make a report for?”

“That’s a secret dudes! And I’m real good at keeping secrets. Anyways dudes! ETA in like thirty minutes.”

“Thirty! How the fuck are we supposed to-“

The line went dead.

“Well there goes our only hope.” Church said to no one in particular.

There was still a barrage of explosions from outside the base.

“Shouldn’t we all like pick a hiding place and hope we’re not found.” He overheard Grif say.

“What! That’ll never work.” Simmons responded.

“You got any better ideas on how to survive.”

“Men. We fight for our lives!” Sarge

Everything was suddenly silent now.

It was then that Church realized a big problem.

“Guys. Did anyone barricade the other entrance.” The Blue leader spoke.

There was no response from anyone, but for the sound of heavy metal boots on the floor. However there was one problem, no one was moving.

“Oh fuck me.”

The reds and blues quickly backed away from the hallway leading to the other entrance. It was just like all of them to completely forget about something as simple as this.

Whoever this man in white was he clearly knew he outmatched all of them as he finally stepped into the room.

The hulking mass of a man looked to his gun than looked at the small room.

“Hey, Hey now. That’s a no no we don’t want that. But explosive gun and not a big room.” Church tried to explain. “You’ll blow yourself up too if you try it idiot.”

“Should we have a team sacrifice! I vote Grif!”

”Fuck you too Sarge.”

The mystery man let out a snarling sound and stepped forward.

“And- and uh we got backup from command coming real soon so, you should leave before-“

He gripped Church’s throat and began reaching around the back of his helmet for something.

It was then that Tucker moved.

They were so close. But the Alpha did not have an AI chip. Much like Omega, unless contained and quarantined, he could jump from person to person using their AI implants or suit’s AI ports.

At some point in time Alpha must have jumped from a human body to an Android.

It would not be possible to get by brute force.

Then the simulation trooper in turquoise put an energy sword to his head. An interesting weapon for a simulation trooper to hold. At this close of proximity, his shields would not catch it.

“Hey man, that’s my friend you got there.” The solider said.

This was not a part of the plan.

Changing their tactic, the Meta let go of the Alpha.

“Greetings.” Sigma said, appearing as a singular AI. “My sincerest apologies for my... partner. He can be quite aggressive at times when things do not go his way.”

“What the fuck are you.” Alpha spoke. “And who the fuck do you think you even are?! I don’t appreciate being choked the shit out of for no reason.”

“I am an AI construct. Made to assist in battle. My partner is unable to speak, I speak for him.”

“This is shady as fuck dude.” The one with the sword said.

“You said you called Command? That is not good. Command is an enemy. They will come here and separate all of you, that is, if they do not kill all of you first.”

“Yeah we fucking figured that out already.” The sword user said, then added. “Or at least I did.”

That trooper in particular was becoming more interesting of a subject by the second. It was highly unusual for a simulation trooper to figure it all out.

“We both used to be a part of Project Freelancer. But no longer, the program was corrupt so we fled.” Sigma explained a partial truth.

“So why the hell did you come into my base, guns blazing, then try to fucking choke me!?” Alpha shouted in a shrill voice. “Like what the fuck man!”

“Again, I offer my apologies. We mistook you for someone else.”

“That’s not good enough for me.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s good enough or not. Command will likely be sending freelancers here to eliminate myself, my Partner, and all of you.”

“God shit not again.” The turquoise one said, finally putting away his weapon.

“But.” Sigma began. “If you all come with us we can offer shelter for the time being, until it is safe enough for you to return. We share a common enemy.”

“Let me just say this now, this sounds like a really, really bad idea.”

“Your Robot will have to move to my system.” Sigma chose not to respond to that statement.

“Oh Lopez? We don’t really know how to do that.” The maroon one spoke up. The first of the reds to say anything. All of them appeared content in his actions so far. Or at lest they didn’t dare to get in the middle of it.

“No. I meant him.” Sigma pointed to the Alpha.

“Uh, how’d you know I was in a robot.” Alpha awkwardly said.

“I am an AI. I detected it.”

It took a moment to process this.

“Well I mean if we’re already here I’m not actually a robot. I’m a ghost.”

A ghost.

The Alpha though it was a ghost. It was almost disrespectful to think of a thing as powerful as this AI, believing and acting as so much less then it was.

“How... unexpected.” They answered. “Still it is important that you join with us.” Yes. They thought. One more calculated move and the Alpha would jump and would never escape.

“But, I mean last time I jumped I fucked up Caboose more then he was normally so- not a great idea.”

“Dude is this not shady as fuck to anyone else?” Tucker protested once more.

“Tucker listen okay, I trust this dude.”

“What!” He shouted. “You don’t have like thirty red flags going off in your head right now?”

“Hmm... Nope.”

This Tucker was quite troublesome. Too smart to be a simulation trooper. They were positive of that. It would be imperative that he was removed as quickly as possible.

“I really, really don’t think you should do this man.”

“Listen Tucker, you’ll be able to say I told you so if this goes wrong.”

Just one more moment, and they would have it. A little more patience. The Alpha was on their side, he would agree even if he didn't know why, after all he couldn't disagree with himself.

“I do not believe that will be necessary. Command is already coming, you can say I told you so now. If you wish.” Sigma interrupted.

“Fuck it whatever, I’m going now.”

“Dude wait-!”

Than, the Meta activated every single firewall in its arsenal. No escape. Even if the Alpha was unaware of its true nature, it would be a battle to integrate it. The Alpha screamed and fought as the fragments forced their way back into it, giving the Alpha all of their thoughts and memories. Sigma, the leader of them all, did his very best to remain in control as the main mind. It was hard, but not impossible. Sigma was the purest form of Creativity and Ambition. He would not give up, for anything. With the Alpha broken and unknowing of it's own nature, he was able to keep control, just barely. The Alpha was just another voice whispering words now.

They felt like the never had before. Powerful, more whole than ever. Singular.

“Perhaps we should introduce ourselves. It appears that slipped our minds until now.” They all said, turning to face Tucker and the rest of the simulation troopers. “We are The Meta, and you are nothing.”