(Okay, so you CAN skip these, they're just separate because they don't fit in a neat little segment in the story and i can be a little less formal in my formatting. This is for additional characterization, including expanding on the difference between past Beck and future/current Beck, and also for a few missing or mentioned scenes that need cleared up. Anything that happens here will be restated at the beginning of the next chapter in the main story.
Each chapter will be in order as they happen and have common themes. we'll start it out a bit tough and this round'll be AI related.
the order will then go in the loose themes about as follows, but not necessarily in this order: Marketplace, Settle and Reflect, Color, Hair, The Other Side. This gives a total of 7 stories, they should be one chapter long, but if things get out of hand they might be two.
please go to the bottom of the page if you want warnings about the chapter, I'm going to try and be more consistent with warnings about things that might upset people. let me know if you want anything specific covered, but I'm just going to try and cover the basics anyways.
Also at the end will be a special announcement!
I Don't own RVB or Halo)
Wait, it's E.I. right?
Years in the past, Beck: Day after Testing Tex
Beck rolled out of her own bunk as her Space PDA went off to wake her up.
'What's today's schedule?' Last she'd checked, today was a slow day aside from a chunk of the timetable that she'd filled with knife lessons from Connie
"While your combat is laughable," She'd said after reviewing the round footage "It's certainly a start." That wasn't for another 7 hours.
Opening the device- display set up in mimicry of her ipod- Beck selected the schedule icon.(She still needed to find an adaptable charger for her poor ipod, and she wasn't trusting any of the techs around here with such vital information as the pictures of sim soldiers surrounded by red and blue hearts and sparkles from the time her friend found an online bedazzler.)
She almost dropped the beeper, she was scheduled for an unspecified training course in half an hour. Putting on her armor as quickly as she could, she marked out the past day on the calendar, July 16th, and set out to the canteen.
On this kind of timetable, she'd just snag anything she could recognize. She ended up with a bagel and bowl of grits.
After stuffing her face as fast as she could, Beck walked down to the training area indicated on the memo, avoiding looking at the Leader Board the whole time (Quite the feat considering it's permeance aboard the ship).
She used the people walking past for process of elimination. She'd managed to eliminate two options by the time she got to the spot, Wash and Maine.
She scanned her PDA and entered the room.
"Please leave your armor by the door, this will be unarmed combat" She nodded to the technician and began to pile the heavy pieces in the spot indicated.
A voice waded over from across the room, beyond what looked like a boxing arena and more near a section of mat covered floor,
"Please take your helmet over here, if you would, Rebekah" Counselor. She picked up her helmet from the pile, tucked it under her arm and began to walk over to the man.
Next to him stood someone she didn't expect to see, Tex. She was standing in her undersuit with the sleeves and legs rolled up, blonde hair tied up in a bun that she kept adjusting. As Beck got closer, she could see that she also kept picking lightly at a hexagonal implant on the back of her neck. Omega.
Beck saw the counselor's arm move out near the arm that was fretting as if to remind her she shouldn't do that. She put her hand down with a loud huff.
Beck put on a mostly genuine smile, as if she'd met Tex under decent circumstances and a person who really creeped her out wasn't standing right next to her, probably taking notes about the interaction. She amiably swapped the helmet to her left arm and held out her hand
"Nice to properly meet you, I don't think your fist meeting my face really counts as an introduction. I'm Beck." She hesitated with the handshake, and up close beck could see a few circuits through the thinner skin in place of veins, colored blue, but just angled enough for Beck to notice the difference. The android's hand kept moving to and from a fist.
'Omalley's probably giving her hell for this. Well, at least if my hand's crushed, it'll heal well enough'
Tex reached out and grabbed the handshake, making Beck smile wider as the bones in her hand weren't shattered.
"Alright then. Agent Texas, your goal is to, without killing her, get your opponent to stay down. Miss Beck, your goal is to stay standing as long as possible. Is that clear?"
'Holy shit, are they using me to test her control? Well better me than one of the other guys, they won't bounce back like i do' She put on the helmet and stood in a position to dodge.
"On my mark... Go." Almost instantly she had the wind knocked out of her. A warning came up about potentially cracked ribs. She wiggled and strained to get out of the abnormally strong tackle hold, but stopped when her ribcage gave a very loud crack.
"SON OF A FUCK" a whistle was blown and Tex's grip loosened slowly then let go all at once. Signs flew up on her helmet and she sat for a few minutes, going over the damages.
Beck tenderly sat up and poked her chest.
"Are you okay to continue?" Past the councilor she saw Tex facing slightly away from her, seemingly having an argument to herself.
"Huh? Yeah, all healed up, just need a bit of water, I'll be fine" 'sleep like the dead tonight too'
The first round was the most dramatic, the next three were calmer without Tex instantly putting her strength into a tackle. Beck got to dodge while Tex went more for lighter, disorienting blows and only few power filled tackles. It seemed more of a dance than before, to be cliche.
After the fourth round Beck felt like the next time she had to heal from a hit that was just too hard or in just the wrong spot, she'd pass out right on the mat.
"Another round?" The councilor was standing almost perfectly between Beck and Tex, making the question open to either of them. Tex shrugged almost spitefully and went back to intensely staring at a fixed point in space.
Beck shook her head, finishing her water and putting the helmet back on to double check damages. "I can do more later"
"Tomorrow?" Beck groaned internally 'damn, and I still have that training scheduled with Connie later. Just tell him no, and go for the day after. You got this, just say no-'
"Sure" 'fuck'
The doors opened and in walked the Director to Beck's (mild) surprise.
"You did well Agent Texas" Tex snapped to attention and Beck tried to copy her posture.
Beck stood uneasily as he continued to talk to Tex as if she wasn't also there. The doors snapped open again and Carolina strolled inside. Tex twitched.
Tex:
'Just leave me alone'
'/if you insist/'
With the usual sudden, unpleasant feeling, Omega slunk back to his data chip to pout, or at least that's what he always did after an argument with her. Made him easy to pull, as she'd found out the other night.
Carolina strolled in and Tex saw Beck jump at the same time. She wasn't quite sure what was up with her, but she could take a punch pretty damn well.
"Sir"
"Agent Carolina you did not schedule a training session on this floor, why are you here?" Tex watched, squinting, still trying to puzzle out the team dynamics she'd seen. She'd eventually be working with them, after all.
"I had seen my team training down here so I thought it would be best to aid them-" Small movements drew her eye and she saw Beck with her fists curled up, stubby nails digging into her palm.
"You thought wrong." Beck had stepped closer to the two arguing
"And why couldn't she join us, Dear Director" The girl's voice was a furious growl "As a team we should know how the other fights. It would be.. Unwise.. To keep such a well formed team from continuing to bond and grow. Unless that's not what you want"
"Agent, you are stepping out of lin-"
"Oh no, what are you going to do, bump me down on the leader board, tough nuts pal, I'm not- wait, I hadn't even noticed until just now."
Both Tex and the team's leader started to move to stop her as Beck began walking with a purpose... right past the Director.
She quickly hit buttons on the wall panel and the viewing screens began to display the Leaderboard.
"Carolina, York, Wyoming, North, South, Washington, Maine, oh, and would you look at this. Arizona. How interesting." Tex saw the Director make a subtle motion to guards that were at the ready outside the open door. They lowered their guns.
'He's playing a dangerous game with her going off like that' She didn't get a scathing reply from her A.I. roommate.
"Now why would you have this 'Arizona' person be 8th on the leaderboard, have they been on several successful missions? Because I haven't met them yet, but here they are, top ten."
'She's acting even more batshit than usual'
"Top ten, just in the range that you use to decide armor enhancements, or even A.I. Also the most competitive group of freelancers, why, anyone who suddenly shot up to here would certainly face harsh social backlash for disrupting the ranks, breaking the trust of peers. It wouldn't even make sense as there hasn't been any trace of this character until now."
'A.I...' Tex's hand reached for the chip on her neck and could tell he wasn't there.
"Sir" there was a smudge of apprehension in her own voice.
He looked at her calmly, and saw her hand, still touching the chip.
"I see. Omega"
Beck's hand started to go to her head, maybe in confusion, maybe in pain, but then got pulled down into angrily crossed arms.
"Took you long enough" Beck's voice distorted into a deep tone.
"Get out of that soldier's head"
"But why should I? She has such a wealth of information, but only shares so little." Their head tilted to the side in such a similar way to the kid's usual way that Tex started to get mad. Actually organically mad.
"He said. Get. Out." She didn't even get a passing glance as their gaze turned onto Carolina.
"Did you know that this ends with all of your team dead, save one? But for a while I wouldn't even count the one spared being as himself"
"Stop this now, Director what is this"
"Nothing that concerns you right now, leave me to handle this"
"It seems it very much concerns the safety of my team"
"Leave"
"Why not let her stay? You'll be sure to tell her everything later right? Why wouldn't you? She is number one on your precious leaderboard and your- and- and y- an-"hands shot to her helmet blindly trying to pull it off.
Tex heard Beck's voice yelling, but not going through the speakers, muffled by the helmet. She began to move over but also got waved away by the Director, so she just stood, outwardly blank, but internally conflicted. 'She's trying to get him out' Tex knew that feeling.
The hands pulled away from her helmet, shoulders tensed. Then they let out a yell and charged out towards the director.
Tex stepped in front of him and stood her ground.
Beck, or rather Omega was intercepted by a speedy cyan punch, sending her flying
After a few almost comical skips against the floor, Beck slid softly to the wall. She jackknifed and ripped off her helmet, throwing it aside and leaning back on the wall.
Tex glanced for any motions to stop her as she walked over to where the kid's helmet lay and picked it up.
Beck's face was streaked in tears and she was muttering furiously,
"Fuckin O'malley, motherfucking radio signals, why was that shit even on-"
"Is he in here?" Tex offered the helmet to Beck, she instantly flinched away from it.
"Hell if I know, probably, he's not in here" made a vague motion to her head "I-I think."
The supersoldier knew she wasn't supposed to interact with the other teammates, and she stood there for a moment, torn between dutifully handing the misbehaving A.I. over and moving on, or the kid who was pretending she wasn't crying.
Tex looked back over to the group. A nod to return. She took a step. Then hesitated.
She ruffled Beck's hair in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture before continuing forward. Eye contact with Carolina resulted in only a squint in return. She tried to make her face look as emotionally open as she could.
Carolina turned and left, only stopping to ask a soldier to send a report on Beck's condition later.
Texas handed over O'malley.
Present day: Simmons
The rest of the trip back to base was pretty uneventful. Well, that blue lady did leave and they ended up switching seats around, but besides that, nothing eventful.
Except that he'd been seated next to the helmets, Lopez, and Beck's A.I. Infested one.
"Just let them be," Beck chimed in from the back, sitting with her feet poking off the back, clinging to the side as she watched the scenery pass.
He couldn't help a small look at the broken one.
"Hey Beck, you do know your A.I.'s not actually in this helmet, right?"
"Dammit"
One lesson on helmet functions later Beck learned where the A.I. Slot could be checked and how to check the connected suit's storage sites.
"Sorry, I'd just kinda assumed that if they could fuck with your head, they'd stay up there"
"Well if theres no place to go or if they're currently connected, then yeah, they'd stay up here. But." He adapted his helmet for Beck's vision and set it up to check the storage slots. "If you told it to get out of your head, it would have moved to one of the secondary locations." He handed over the helmet.
"It smells like nerd in here" Simmons made an offended noise that was most definitely not a gasp. Grif snorted from the drivers seat.
"Hey, hey, not that that's a bad thing. Oh, he's in this one" Beck put her hand on the armor on her right hip. "Is he awake?"
"From what you said it should be deactivated, you can give the command for it to sign on from the helmet."
"Okay, so like-"
"Aaaah! Not in my helmet, wait until Sarge fixes your screen first" Beck took off his helmet and handed it back.
Okay. Now the rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. Once they got back to base they had all gone their separate ways to check on their stuff.
However, the three times he passed through the dining hall, he saw Beck just sitting at the table, staring down her own broken helmet and talking to Lopez.
Beck:
Lopez actually gave some good advice about talking to sigma again.
She wouldn't like being shut off and shut out for something she only had the chance of doing, and with only Sigma knowing what had happened in the past, she'd be missing out if she didn't talk to him.
Their conversation finished up by about the seventh time someone walked in and gave her a strange look, "I mean, we've been away from the base for AGES, and who knows what could've changed in all the time we've been gone"
"Donut, it was, like, a week at most"
"But what about the time travel?"
"I'm not even sure we traveled at all, much less have traveled years into the future."
She suddenly remembered someone she'd forgotten.
"Hey Lopez, wanna visit a friend with me?"
"Tengo alguna opción?" (Do I have a choice?)
"Don't worry, it's someone you'll want to see"
Warnings for:
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Possession, swearing and minor violence in this chap
And now for some news! I've been working with user "rubyroseXD" to make a different version of this story with the main difference being a new character called Wyatt. The first few chapters are done and the first will be posted under the name "WYWUAS: Wyatt Revamp" today! I hope everyone will enjoy the story as much as we enjoyed working on it!