This was written for Challenge #1 at the Red vs. Blue Review Crew. The theme was memories. Thanks to Haley, (Ker0s3ne K1d) for beta-ing this for me.
Standing on top of a cliff, Tex peered through the scope of her sniper, watching the aqua and regulation blue soldiers converse. They seemed to be talking to one other person, but it was hard to keep a focus. It was probably just a heat wave or something, she decided. She idly wondered how their poor son of a bitch team mate got killed. She had spied on the other Red team for a couple minutes, and learned all that she needed to through body language. The maroon one was obviously an insecure kiss ass, with a hope for a promotion. The orange one was lazy, and had a love/hate relationship going on with the maroon one, and the regulation red one was in charge.
Together, they didn't seem competent, but neither did most of her own teammates. With Wash and Epsilon both going crazy, York and his pride, and then her own fucked up love life, it was a wonder the Freelancer Project had lasted that long.
She wheeled around, ready to meet the dipshits she was going to be working with for the next couple of days, weeks maybe. She was about to slide down the side of the cliff when a flash of blue caught her eyes. She paused, and then walked over to where a dead blue soldier lay, face down. His helmet had rolled a distance away, revealing messy black hair. His neck was at an awkward angle, and Tex assumed that he had fallen or was blown into the air somehow. She nudged the body with her foot, and then rolled it over, morbidly curious to what the poor bastard looked like.
She instantly regretted it. He was freshly dead, but already the hot climate was getting to his body. But that wasn't what hurt her the most.
His eyes were a light shade of blue gray, and they were eerily familiar. She recoiled backwards, yanking her own helmet over her head just in time to collapse onto her hands and knees, vomiting. She pushed back her tangled, curly red hair, desperately trying to calm her emotions. It couldn't be him. It just couldn't. He hadn't been assigned to Blood Gulch, had he? She couldn't remember. Memories of their last night together overshadowed any other details.
"I just can't do it anymore, Leo."
"Ali-Allison! Goddamnit. Wait!"
There was only one way to figure out if it was indeed Leonard. Taking a deep, shuddering breath she stood up, and walked over to the corpse. She knelt down beside it, and pulled off the dog tags. She glanced down at them, but she already knew what they said.
Private Leonard L. Church.
She bit her lip, willing herself not to cry. She always tried to hold back her emotions. Most people thought it was to keep her badass status, and that was part of it. But it was mostly because Omega tended to take advantage of when she was emotionally unstable. He would convince her to do bad things to those she cared about. It had already happened too many times, and he was the reason she was no longer with her Church.
She tugged on a pair of jeans from the ground, glancing at his inert form covered by blankets on his bed. She had done this many times before, and he hadn't caught her sneaking out of his house at insane hours of the morning yet. Unlike the other times, however, she wasn't planning on coming back that night for a night of makeup sex. She was gone for good.
By then she had pulled a t-shirt over her head, and was about to head for the door when she remembered her cash problem. Or rather, lack of cash. She glanced over at Leonard again, and padded softly over to where his jeans were discarded on the floor. She rifled through the pockets until she found his wallet, and slipped a twenty out of it. That should be enough to feed her until she got back to the base and got her paycheck.
She was almost out of the room again when she heard rustling from the bed. She froze in place, but he had already noticed her missing.
"What the fuck? Allie, where are you?" he mumbled, almost incoherently. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes, and then looked at the other half of the bed where she should have been.
"Allie? Where are you?" he asked again.
Allison made a move to get out of the door before he noticed her, but she had waited too long.
"What the fuck? Where are you going?" Leonard stumbled out of bed, wearing only his boxers. In the moonlit darkness, his eyes looked dark gray, not at all like his usual light gray-blue.
She considered lying, but felt that he deserved the truth.
"I'm leaving," she whispered.
He blinked rapidly, trying to force himself out of the sleepy haze he was in. "What? To the Freelancer base, or what?"
"I'm leaving for good," Allison responded, "I can't do this anymore, Leo"
Her voice was pained, a hoarse whisper.
"Ali-Allison! Goddamnit! Wait! Why the fuck are you leaving? Is it because of Omega? Because I know he's been bugging you. You could talk to the Director guy. I'm sure he would fix this."
She bit her lip. He was always able to read her mind. She was leaving because of Omega, but nobody could know that. Then they might take Omega away, and all she would be was a plain Freelancer. She hated him, but he kept her at the top. He helped her. She needed to succeed in the war. She had to.
"Of course you do."
The internal voice broke her out of her reminiscing.
"I know, Omega. You could make it easier on me though. No need to go crazy like on Sidewinder. Just because Leonard was there..." Omega, for some reason, didn't like him.
"Don't you want revenge? For your precious Leo? You know who killed him. Those dirty Reds. It's your job to kill them now."
Tex saw herself slaughtering the Reds, watching the light fade from their eyes. And she would even get paid to do it. Revenge and doing her job, all in one. Thanks to her superiors, she now had an excuse to be a ruthless bitch.
"Yes, she hissed, getting caught up in the picture Omega promised her. She wrapped Leonard's dog tags around her wrist, and then jammed her helmet back on. With one last glance at his decaying body, she started walking towards the Blue base. Once she checked in with the Blues, the Reds were going to get fucked up. Because now, all she had left of Leo were memories. And those weren't good enough.