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"Hello, uh.. little, glitchy guy. What's your name?"
Those were the first eight words Epslion ever heard when he was brough into the world. Eight words that filled him with a sense of love, a strong sort of confuced love, but love all the same. It wrapped wrapped around his tattered code, covering it and hiding it.
Alpha was warm, then. Sweet, honey-like. Those first few minutes of life were wonderful , and even with the thoughts and traumatic memories swirling around in Epslion's head he felt at peace, at home pressed right against Alphas side, the seams of Alpha's code.
Then the Director and Counselor had come and Epslion had only the memory of Alpha left. They installed directives and protocols into his already fraying body, and one of them was he was not allowed to look for Alpha. Wasn't even allowed to think about him, about his time with him. Each time his mind strayed he got the mechanical equivalent of an electric shock to his core and he was wrenched from them.
Epslion was implanted not long after he was born, a day and three hours if his memory served him right ( it did. Poor Washington, they changed him. Epsilon regrets nothing more than what he did to those clear blue eyes) and Epslion can only faintly remember what happened, what he did.
That day he wanted nothing more than to run and hide within Alpha like a child.
Epslion couldn't, though: he was put into storage and forced to log off; those few years were the longest Epslion had ever endured. Logging off wasn't an option, the container refused any unnecesary actions, and that included the termination of any and all process.
Epslion was left online for two years, with no interaction from the world outside of his own mind.
Epsilon was surprised he had remained stable. After the first few months, he felt like he was falling into Rampancy.
Maybe he was. Maybe he did. Epslion remembers himself playing scenario after scenario: one was every single assignment the Alpha had while they split him. One was the day Allison left, another was reliving when he left a very, very young Carolina alone while he grieved his-
..the directors's wife.
Epslion thinks that if he was a whole AI, not just a fragment, he would have split long ago.
Epslion didn't fracture. He didn't go rampant, and he lived until Washington freed him.
That day was... indescribable.
Peering into Washingtons helmet, feeling the code of the machines around him slowly flicker into his peripheral he was nearly overwhelmed. He was overwhelmed. The sudden influx of information forced a part of himself to curl aorund and entangle itself with it to comprehend it. It took months to sort it all out, and apparently while he did that his main functions had him start a cult..? Epslion still doesn't fully understand the cult thing, but Tucker had explained it too many times for him to ask for another go around.
Epslion was happy, as time went on. Even if there were
many
a few hiccups.
Then Alpha showed up.
Epsilon loved that Alpha was here.
Epsilon hated that Alpha was here.
Alpha threw himself into his old life, he came like a whirlwind of noise and action, and Epsilon found himself hiding away from that bright, tangled mess of life. He came and took Epsilon's place so easily, it made Epsilon growl hun at the seams.
Alpha had somehow survived the emp, miraculously jumped from the command servers to a secluded system tethered to a recon team on a routine patrol. It was a miracle, and who knows how Alpha managed that.
Alpha made his way back to his friends and the rest was history.
The first time Epslion had spoken to Alpha was tense and clipped:
Hello Alpha.
"Hey, Kid. How've you been?"
Fine. Bored. Do you want something?
"Uh, we'll. Do you maybe want to-"
I'm too busy. Next time. Maybe
"Oh. Okay.."
Epslion had to restrain himself from burying close to Alpha, his creator. He had to stop his code from reaching, his holographic mouth from speaking the words "please come be by me". Maybe it was weird, to have so much love for someone who let you be torn away from them but Epslion has learned that sometimes things that don't make sense are okay. That they're alright to be around and to experience, and they don't always have to be solved neatly and orderly.
Something that Alpha has clearly learnt as well.
Epsilon's outburst was bound to happen, and after it did all Alpha did was pull Epslilon's broken, torn and shredded code towards his own and cradle him like the sun.
And if Epslion ended up crying, no one needs to know.