A/N: Finally got this out of my head! This one's to Martienne, since I never would've thought of it without her! R&R, bitte!
You are a good soldier before. Before, you take orders, follow them, and get the job done. (But you can't move backwards, only forwards.) Because you see the shinybright future, and you can almost reach out and touch it. But it's never that easy.
*BANG*. You think it's over. Sure, you've been hurt before, but the bullet burns through your throat, and (ohGod) you can feel the blood start to pool around your neck. Planets and worlds fade away; suns and stars die out, but that (little) flame of life keeps flickering on.
So you eventually wake up (it smells like hospital) and there are needles. Piercing your skin, sliding into the epidermis to infect your bloodstrea-no. The (timeless) fear has no place here, and you try to push it away with a joke, a glib comment (as always), but all that happens is a growl.
And it's all swept away. You are Maine, ladies' man, joker, all-around clown. But you need your voice. ('cause mimes aren't funny) But you push through; you survive, if nothing else. And it works. For a while.
The A.I.'s are a change. For the better. Because this program, Sigma, can talk to you. And you talk back. Rather, you think back. But it's been sosolong since you've actually had a conversation, that this is damn near magic.
Sure, you may have been a good soldier before. Maybe even great. But with Sigma? You shine. And you're noticed (even without your voice). This Sigma, this A.I., gives you power. And you like it. A lot.
It's only natural that you want more. Sigma croons to you that you will be the greatest. Better than anyone. Better than Tex. You know (deep down) what you have to do to get what you crave. Sigma tells you, late at night, what you must do. You always did listen to others before yourself, no reason to stop that now.
"Everyone dies," the program, no, the friend, whispers, "You may as well deserve it." So you kill her, the first sacrifice for the cause, the Iphigenia. It was so easy.
Arizona (so naïve) suspects nothing until you snap her neck, steal Xi, along with her enhancement, super strength. It works. The entire plan has paid off. You are so strong. (invincible, they whisper to you, but you can be stronger still)
`And so you kill them. You must kill them all, given the chance. And you get stronger, loftier. (Like a god, no mere mortal) You can intercept their transmissions (weak humans), the hushed reports that Agent Maine is unraveling. They have it all wrong. You are assembling. You will create the Alpha, and you'll be better than all of those fools.
Besides, you are no longer Agent Maine. They are no longer simply A.I.
We are combined, conjoined, coalesced.
We are the Meta.