Summary: During York's last days and moments, Tex learns of everything once laid silent beneath his armor. Unrequited YorkxLucky.
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There's a faint sound of sirens ringing, farther away, but the sound reassures York he's right where he belongs.
Humming a tuneless song to himself, he worked at the lock of a small shop, prying away the small mechanics of the lock. His hands, slightly oily and sweaty from a day's hard work, slipped slightly over his tools. He wasn't aware of any presence but his own until he heard the sounds of a loaded gun locking into place-
"Okay freeze,"
"Oh," he said with surprise, keeping his voice as suave and smooth as possible, "Sorry officer, I lost my keys to my shop here..." he clicked a round of bullets into his pistol quietly, "and was trying to...umm, you know-"
"You never were a very good liar York." the person chuckled slightly. York smiled and turned around, greeted with the familiar sight of his old Freelancer buddy.
"York? I haven't been called that in a long time." he smirked behind his helmet, "Hello Allison,"
"I haven't been called Allison in a long time," Tex laughed back, "You're down to petty theft now York? Lucky'll be disappointed. She always thought it was a waste of your talents."
"Whatever pays the rent," he shrugged, but still excited to hear that Lucky was still keeping contact with at least Tex, "Just tell her that there's little else for a former 'Infiltration Specialist' to do around here." It wasn't really a satisfactory excuse, but as Tex just said, he wasn't a very good liar.
"I think that's about to change. There's a place I wanna get into, and they don't want me to get into it."
"You know, they never do." He prodded Delta out of sleep mode, "Whadda ya think D, should we trust her?" Delta flashed into view, lighting up the area with his green glow.
"Hmm, that depends, is he still with her?" Tex jumped and snapped her gun back up, pointing at York and Delta.
"What?! You still have yours?!" she panicked. York kept his cool. It had been normal for Tex to be trigger-ready every time something jumped out at her. Things didn't change much.
"Alarm, threat leveled raised," warned Delta flashing violently, "71% percent chance of violent outcome-"
"Okay, take it easy," soothed York, even as Tex swerved her gun at him and Delta, still panicked.
"Chance of defeating Agent Omega-Texas in combat is extremely unlikely," Delta continued bluntly, making York frown. He could at least pretend to acknowledge his skills.
"What's going on here?!" Tex said, still tense as she gripped her gun.
"Thank you D," York said, a little irritable, to Delta before turning back to Tex, "Look, put the weapon down Tex. Delta's not a threat to anyone, never was," Now it was York's turn to look suspiciously at Tex, "You know, if anyone should be concerned about onboard passengers around here, it should be me," He didn't want a reunion with Omega, especially after what he did-
Tex, satisfied by the answer, lowered her gun, "Well don't be. Omega's gone." she reassured.
"Chance of defeating Agent Texas, still, very unlikely," said Delta without restraint.
"Okay, I get it." York cut him off, "Thank you, retire now."
"Executing."
York looked away towards his familiar arbitrary building . "Let's go inside."
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Inside, Tex spilled the beans. Omega was gone, and she sought his death. Delta internally reminded him that as an AI, he couldn't be really "killed" as he wasn't human, but York ignored him. Wyoming, dirty bastard that he was, was involved, hence Tex's need for York's "infiltration talents". Wyoming alone was a good reason to join up, he had always held a grudge against him for past abuse against Lucky, but he still was unswayed. Last time he attempted to go up against Omega, it ended on a very sour note, leading up to his life of crime now.
"Okay," he finally intruded, "Let's say I do this. What's in it for me?"
"Payback," Tex replied simply, reclining against one of his chairs. York felt a slight chill creep up his back. Tex paused for a moment. "How's the vision in your eye?"
York gritted his teeth, drenched in that icy, cold feeling that could only be described as utter loathing.
"Still blurry, hurts when I read," he replied bitterly. Tex smiled back confidently. They had taken off their helmets, feeling safe enough in the confines of the building. York's eye had been covered up with a long, black eyepatch that curved over his dusty brown, thin rings of hair, a faint, pink scar just barely visible beneath the eyepatch.
"Well then. How about a little revenge?" York frowned back at Tex.
"You know, technically, you're the reason I have one bad eye."
"No, technically I'm the reason you have one good eye." York sighed and turned onto Delta, who flashed immediately into view at York's notification.
"Whadda ya think D? Should we trust her?"
"Agent Texas poses a serious risk to any mission. The spontaneous ejection of A.I. can be catastrophic to the psyche of an agent." He spoke. York looked back and forth between them, Tex impassively looking back at her evaluation by the AI.
"She seems okay to me."
"May I remind you," Delta said, with a hint of a person scolding someone, "what happened when Program Gamma removed itself from Agent Wyoming."
York shuddered at the memory. "That won't be necessary, D. Look, what's your recommendation? We in or we out?" Delta paused, collecting his speedy evaluation.
"Tactical Matrix is incalculable. Outcome is uncertain. Chance of success is unknown." but he paused again, considering, "But, a little payback would be nice."
York nodded. "We're in." Tex merely smiled back, satisfied to have won over an old friend. York fiddled slightly with the loose threads in his chair.
"How's Lucky?" he finally asked. Despite Tex's mentioning of her earlier, it could have meant nothing. Lucky could be dead, imprisoned-
"Alright. She's settling in the same place I'm doing some work with."
Or that.
"So she's alright? Healthy and everything?"
"Actually she's recovering. We had a little skirmish with Omega, with Wyoming coming in and sending it all to hell. But nothing serious," she said hastily, seeing York's panic meter rising from the worrisome look on his face, "A few scrapes and bruises and one small gunshot wound to the arm. Nothing that won't kill her."
"Good, thats...that's good..." York sighed, slumping back in his chair. Lucky...
How long had it been since they said goodbye anyways? A year or more? She had been pretty puny the last time he saw her, the goodbye hugs between them was akin to a bear hugging a kitten. It wasn't even a goodbye...she was sure they'd meet again...maybe on Earth with chances of a late night beer or seeing each other outside of the battlefield-
"Do you...miss her much?" Tex pried hesitantly. "She naturally misses you and Wash of course...she's always been one to pine, but you-"
"I won't see her again you know." he said firmly, coldly. Tex flinched slightly, "Even if we made it back to Earth alive I'd still be in trouble. I'd be shipped right to the nearest jail before we'd be able to meet again." Tex looked back, almost pityingly.
"She never thought of it that way."
"Yeah? Well she wasn't overly furnished with brains either." he snapped back harshly. Tex fell silent. She'd seen him this way before, and Wash once had told her about what he did, just after the three of them had met.
"You don't think she ought to miss you?" she finally replied.
"If she does she's an idiot." he said, looking out the window, "No smart person misses someone like me."
Thief, Tex thought to herself. It's because you're a thief and you know it. You don't think you've earned someone like that.
York continued looking out the window, away from Tex's piercing gaze. There was something perched on the edge of the window...a small white moth. It fluttered and skittered around the window, attempting to get past the clear glass. Finally it opted to sit itself on the edge, wings moving up and down, up and down like small breaths.
"It's fucked up," he muttered. Tex raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"It's so fucked up," he continued, not raising his voice above a whisper, "Some one I've only held once or twice actually misses me. That's just fucked up."
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"No vis?"
"No vis."
They were in. The rocky base had scattered machines left over from Elites wiped out from the area, reused as Wyoming's base. The lock glowed with florescent light, locking away the metal door.
"There it is. Bust the lock and the door will open up to a teleporter-"
"Whoa, whoa wait a minute," York interrupted, "You said it was an encrypted lock. This is a holographic lock."
"Is there a difference?!" she hissed impatiently.
"Yeah, hence the two names."
"So can you do it or not?!"
"Course I can! It's just much harder." he smirked behind the helmet as he knelt down, "I just wanted you to realize how kickass I am." Tex rolled her eyes, tapping her feet impatiently.
"I'm convinced, get to work."
As he worked on the lock Delta lit up beside him, disapproval quite obvious in his voice.
"York, why are we doing this? Killing Omega wil damage he didl not repair the to your optic nerve."
"I'm not doing this to fix my eye D," York growled. Indeed the damage was too severe to do anything about it anyways. "I'm doing this because my eye is broken." Delta was obviously displeased with this answer.
"I apologize, but that does not make sense to me."
"Omega and Allison were always the best." he gritted his teeth, even as Tex stood out of hearing, "No one could compete with them. Not me, not Wyoming not anybody. Trying to beat them when I should have given up is how I got hurt in the first place." It was harsh. Hadn't he deserved it more than her anyways? He worked hard, trained harder, and yet he was denied the main spotlight while she recieved the Director's special treatment. It wasn't something he expected Tex, Wash, or even Lucky, the most understanding person he knew to know what he was going through. All that hard work, only for it to turn him back to petty theft as he had begun, long ago...
"Oh, so it is pride. I was registering an emotion, but I incorrectly categorized it as 'stupidity.'" Delta sniffed derisively. York very nearly laughed at this.
"Yeah, they're closely related."
Soon the lock submitted to York's deft handiwork. The doors slid open, the light from the teleporter shining in their faces. Tex nodded to York.
"Alright. I'll go in first, you follow in 15 seconds. Synched?"
"Synched."
Fingering the trigger of his gun tensely, he watched Tex dash in before him. Delta, ever ready to serve, flashed by his side in an instant.
"Stay tight D," York spoke firmly, "Watch my bad side."
"Of course, watching left. Execute in three, two, one, execute. Good luck."
"Thanks,"
He sprinted into the teleporter, met instantly with gunfire. Moving away from Wyoming's henchman, he spied the man in white not so far away. Growling slightly, he felt his stomach twist in anger at the older freelancer.
"Tex! Sitrep!"
"Five of them at three six and three O!" They continued to fire back at the soldiers. Delta continued Tex's statement, cool and calm as ever.
"Three Alpha mark. I do believe I've received the next part of the sentence." Tex knocked one down, his harsh choke stopped in his throat as bullet whizzed rapidly through his throat. The others increased their pace at their fallen comrade.
"Dead one at three, one down, cover my thirteen!," Tex shouted over the blasts and gunfire. Between avoiding a cluster of henchman and the mastermind Wyoming himself, York felt his brow beneath his helmet begin to dampen with sweat. They kept zigzaging around the heavy blocks of concrete, steadily decreasing the enemy's numbers as they screeched directions at each other. Tex dove for Wyoming, only to be terrifyingly vexed by the sounds of blocked bullets.
"Dammit! Jam, cover, cover, cover!" she screamed, diving away as York dove foward. There was a quick blur of bullets to the left.
"Aggghh!"
He shrieked as the bullets ripped through his torso, sending harsh, merciless shocks of pain throughout his body. Blinding flashes of white blinked angrily in front of his eyes as his helmet knocked away, bouncing off the ground before slowing to a small roll. He could hear Tex curse, the sound of a grenade exploding, and Delta's quick and somehow panicked voice instructing him to stay still. Yeah, like he had the choice...
"York! Are you okay?! York!" Tex hissed into his ear. York bit his lower lip angrily as the blood surged through his wounds.
"It's that damn left side..." his rasped. Panting, he tried to cling to consciousness. He was told the dangers of the mission before. But he didn't think he'd actually die, not like this, not to someone like Wyoming when Lucky was closer in his reach than she'd ever been...
"D, info!" Tex said panicked. Delta, although merely logic, sounding very grave.
"York has sustained two wounds to his upper-left chest. Recommend evac stat."
"J-just, gimmie a minute....Guhh..." York groaned as he felt the metallic taste of blood dampening the inside of his suit.
"Administering field stint, and analgesic,"
As York felt the medication dim away the pain, he grasped at Tex's hand, feeling faint as he drifted very slowly into unconsciousness.
"Tex....Please....Lucky was the only....ever...."
"What?" she said in worried confusion, "York, what're you saying?"
"God," he laughed bitterly, "What kind of crazy fuck am I? Never even.....kissed her....or held her hand...." Tex's eyes grew wider with realization. Could he really mean...?
"Tex, Tex," he chanted in a low, weak voice, "Don-don't let him get away.....he beat Lucky....he...can't..."
And then.... he felt himself float into a dark space, the voices of Delta and Tex, both pleading and begging fading away until he only heard the soft pants of his breath. But no...there was something else...like a soft faint hum...
He pried his one good eye open, or at least he thought he did, and saw the blurred figure of Lucky, gently humming an old tune and reaching out to hold his hand. His mouth twisted into a smile. Figures, he thought. While everyone's else life passes before their eyes....this one small treasure was all in his sights. He relaxed and let himself float into her lap. Bending over his head, and stroking his head in soft comfort...she whispered a small song in his ear.
In the jungle, the mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight
In the jungle the quiet jungle
The lion creeps tonight...
He closes his eyes to the soft, phantom hands and the sweet low voice...and let go...praying for her patience, and praying that one day she'd sing to him again...
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Tex looked down on York's motionless body. She had planted his hands on top of each other, and now he looked almost peaceful in sleep. A smile was even tilting on the edge of his cheek...and she wondered if he was having a sweet dream before sinking away forever.
She crept along the side of a rock, watching her hologram doppelganger walk slowly towards Wyoming. She could almost imagine the bastard's trimuphant smirk behind that helmet. He leapt out and fired repeatedly at the hologram, stopping in shock as they did nothing. Slowly, to his astonishment, the Tex hologram faded green.
"What the devil-"
"Don't. Move."
He swiveled around to see the real Tex's gun, cocked and more than willing to pick him off like a stray fly.
"How in bloody hell?!" he sputtered unbelievably. It was Tex's turn to smirk in triumph at his dumbfounded look.
"Thanks for the light show D," The AI simply bowed to the compliment.
"I am here to assist."
"Oh bullocks," muttered Wyoming, forced to drop his guns. As he did, Delta's image began to flicker like a gutted candle.
"However I am afraid I will not be able to assist you further. York's armour is beginning to shut down." his voice began failing too, squeaking to a low groan. Tex nodded, not taking her eyes off Wyoming.
"I understand." Delta looked to both of the freelancers in his usual state of calm.
"Good luck to both of you."
"Both of us?" snorted Wyoming, "You must be failing if you wish your enemy good luck!"
"Good and evil are human concepts Reginald," Delta replied smoothly as he began to dissapate, "I was merely attempting to be courteous..." And he was out like a light, sunk back to his fallen master's side. Tex jabbed Wyoming roughly in the chest. He smirked cruelly back at Tex.
"Well one more freelancer gone. I'm afraid the reunion comittee will be none to happy to hear about that." Tex gnashed her teeth.
"I doubt they'll be much happier if you didn't show," she snarled, "After what you've done to Lucky they'd look foward to it." He just smiled his worst yet.
"Finally caught on about the little twit have you?"
She retalitated by smashing her gun against his head, satisfied to hear the crunch his his nose breaking and the blood from his bitten lip.
"Can it," she snapped, "Now tell me where Omega is and don't play dumb with me."
"Hardly," he spat, spitting out blood, "I do believe our dear friend Omega is currently killing all your friends in that miserable canyon, Miss Luckless included."
"What? Why?" Tex asked in shock. Hadn't he told her where she was to begin with?
" I might have mentioned you were there," he grinned in satisfaction, "He's quite keen to make your acquaintance again."
"But you saw me at the snow fortress!" Wyoming tutted slightly.
"Tex may I remind you I still have a contract on some of those people at Blood Gulch. I figured why not kill eight birds with one stone, eh?"
"Well Wyoming, you just signed his death warrant," she hissed angrily. How could she have been tricked so easily?
"Afraid not my dear. You see he's already jumped into someone else, and you'll have no way of guessing who." Tex was now shaking with rage that her voice trembled testily as Wyoming tempted her into just going loose and just killing him already.
"Who did he jump into?!" Wyoming laughed in her raging face.
"That my dear Tex is between me and Omega. Oh but you'll find out soon enough."
Tex was beyond pissed at this point. He'd beaten Lucky, killed York, connived with her evil AI, was threatening her boyfriend, and now he presumed he had all the options in the bag. Well Tex was more than prepared to break the smirk of his face...even if it entitled ripping his mouth off altogether.
"You know what? You don't have to tell me. All I have to do is pummel you senseless, rip off your helmet, and access your communication logs. I'll know exactly where he is." Wyoming's grin dropped instantly on his face as he began to pale and sweat nervously.
"Oh um...hmmm...I see. Maybe I will tell you."
But with a vicious grin, Tex shrugged her shoulders.
"Nah I like my way better."
The next few hours would be penetrated by the many sounds of a screaming man...but if anything it would widen the smile on York's face.