Ghosts of a Freelancer
(This basically my own little version of Washington's vision sequence from Episode 9 of Season 12, with a few added sequences to the scene)
'What happened…?' that was the first thing that came into Wash's mind.
The last thing he remembered was that he was helping Tucker and others escape with Felix and the New Republic, but Locus and the Federal Army were not making it easy.
He remembered witnessing Donut getting hit (but didn't die, at least) and then Sarge got shot by an unknown weapon Locus used.
The same one that struck him down, too.
Then after getting the others to safety, he got struck on the head by someone. Had to be Locus.
Weary and down, he looked back to where Sarge had fallen, seeing two Feds looking over the leader of Red Team.
"I repeat, we have three survivors in need immediate assistance." One of the Feds called out an order, before turning to other solider as he said, "Make sure the docs are ready. He really did a number on them."
'He…?' He couldn't have meant… that he…
"Sarge…" that was all he could say, weakly, as he felt so much pain in him.
But then a familiar foot showed up, and a familiar voice to boot…
"He's not dead. …Not yet."
"No…" Wash groaned, realising who that was.
Looking up, he saw Locus, looking down on him as if he was King of the World, staring down to his prisoner.
"I warned you, Agent Washington. I gave you a choice. But you chose to fight. I admire that decision." As Locus said it, it seemed like he had a bit of fascination in it, almost like he liked what had happened.
With darkness almost on him, feeling weaker and weaker, an injured, weary and frustrated Freelancer said the only thing he could manage to say before he could faint.
"Fuck… you… monster…"
"No, I'm not a monster. I'm a Solider." Locus said, as he turned to leave.
And before he passed out, Wash heard him added, "Like you."
Until blackness finally consumed him…
When he opened his eyes, he was no longer at the crash site.
He was surprised, for where he was, looked like an abandoned facility, at that time seemed to have taken it's course, the facility appeared to have been possibly a desert, or somewhere totally unknown.
Around him, Wash, who was instantly back in his blue armor for some odd reason, saw parts of the facility broken, with most of it collapsed, and some of the machinery were also broken as well, or were working a little rusty and jammed.
"Why hello, Agent Washington." A voice suddenly echoed, one that sounded familiar to Wash. The Director of…
"Project: Freelancer?" he thought aloud.
"Uh, hello there," came another voice, which instantly startled the Freelancer.
As he turned, it felt like the abandoned facility was snapped to the inside of a military office of sorts.
And in front of him was someone about the same age as him, without any armor but was in regular uniform, and had a haircut of which, while there was a bit of a spiky hair style, part of the side was cut, and showed the other half of hair.
As he took a closer look, he realised he was looking… at himself.
"My name is David Brady." His past self, whom was named David Brady before he became Agent Washington, said.
"A pleasure to meeting you, David," came a voice behind Wash, as he turned, there, sitting at a desk, was Counsellor Aiden Price.
It then came to Wash what was happening, this was when he was brought into Project Freelancer.
"How are you doing today, David?" the Counsellor asked.
"Little nervous," David replied, "but feeling good."
Wash remembered this moment, it was after he was signed into the UNSC during the Great War, and during time, he became a corporal to his platoon, only when attacked by several aliens, despite saving his group…
"You disobeyed order…"
This startled Wash as he heard Locus say that, only he wasn't there.
It was like he was reading his thoughts… and memories…
Creepy.
"Tell me," Price then spoke out, "why do you wish to join this Project?"
Wash saw as his past self hesitated a little, until he replied, "Well, since the fight against the aliens have been getting a lot harder, I just thought it would be time to turn the tables a bit in this little war."
A small little smile grew on the side of Price's mouth as he then asked, "Certain that you have other places to go to?"
That question Washington remembered, as it caught his past self unexpectedly, as back then, he really didn't have anywhere else to go to.
Soon the room door opened, as it did, a bright light came out of it, though it didn't affect Wash for the moment, as it felt that he should go into the light.
As he went through, he found himself in another room, basically the control room where there, he saw his past self, now wearing the armor that he wore then, and based on what he was wearing during…
"…And it is here, that we give each of our agents a special name." the voice of the Director came up, as Wash saw the said man speaking to his past.
Showing on the board in the control room was the continent of America, with each of the states' names shown, some of them had a tick, as a sign that the name has been given to an agent.
"So," Wash's past self spoke up, "do we get to pick a state name for ourselves, cause I was thinking of Texas, 'cause, before joining the army, I used to enjoy my time at the casi-"
"I'm afraid that name is reserved only." Director Church said sternly, giving David a bit of a small, cold look, "and I'm sure you may not know that you weren't the first to ask for that name."
The Director then turned to the board and looked at one of the states, as David followed his gaze.
Washington D.C.
"So it will be decide that your name shall be Agent Washington." The Director announced.
"Thank you very much sir." The newly named Agent Washington said proudly.
"But know this," the Director then said, with a stern serious voice, which made the new guy a bit worried.
"The minute you leave this room, the moment you set of on a mission, you will be named Agent Washington, the name David Brady will no longer exist, a ghost, an old memory. Memorise it well, for you must answer by the name of Washington, do I make myself clear?" The Director stated as the past Washington, no longer David Brady, looked a little concerned but may have no choice but follow.
"Answer me, Agent Washington." The Director ordered sternly.
At this, Past Wash instantly replied, "Yes, sir."
As the present Washington witnessed this, he felt like he wasn't the only one witnessing his past, as Locus appeared beside him.
"I have been hearing a bit about your performance, soldier," he said to the Freelancer, "you weren't quite very well experienced, especially in the training field…"
"Well, I was a bit of a rookie back then." Wash said, felling a little annoyed but serious about the mercenary who was snooping through his past him.
"Though I have to say, you have grown to quite a soldier, following orders without question, showing no mercy to those who can't show mercy back…" as Locus said that, Wash felt like it he was taunting him with his evolvement during Project Freelancer.
"Mind you own business!" Wash turned to Locus, only to find that he wasn't there, in fact he was in another room, in another part of his memory.
As he looked, he realized that he was in the locker room, seeing his past self with an old face he hadn't seen for a long time… C.T.
This was after a failed mission, in which one of the Freelancers, Connie, better known as C.T., begin to question so much about what Project Freelancer and what the Director was really doing, such as dividing the best Freelancers from the worst.
However, his past refused to believe that… something that Wash would regret for the rest of his life.
He then listened in to the conversation, as if he was re-watching what happened all over again.
"I'm trying to make you feel better." His past spoke.
"Yeah? Great." C.T. said, as she spoke sarcastically, "Hey, how about you go make Carolina feel better? Go pet Maine on the head. See how that works for you."
"We all make mistakes…" Past Wash said.
"No! We don't," C.T. said as she stood up and turned to Past Wash, "that's the point! We don't all make mistakes. Some of us very specifically make mistakes, and others don't seem to make any mistakes at all!"
Washington of the Past sighed at this, "Connie, come on…"
"That's why they are doing this!" C.T. explained, as she pointed to the ranking board to him, "These missions! The rankings! They're drawing a line between us Wash. And you're either on one side of that line, or you're on the other. And it's getting pretty goddamn clear which side I'm on."
"No one thinks like that," Past Wash explained, "we're a team."
"I'm not talking about you guys." C.T. said back, "I'm talking about them. Him."
"The Director?" Washington of the Past said, surprised about what his teammate was saying, "He's given us everything. He's helping us!"
Upon hearing this, as the argument continued, Present Wash felt ashamed about what he had done, for standing up for the Director would result in C.T. fighting her former colleges, leading to her death in future.
As the argument ended, he heard C.T. speak to his past, "…don't call me Connie. Makes me sound like a fucking kid." She said, "Call me CT. Oh, and the line that I talked about...you better hurry up and figure out what side you're on, Agent Washington. Before they figure it out for you."
As he saw the argument from his past go through undisrupted, Agent Washington felt sorry for C.T., and even himself for not listening to her, if he did, he would have been able to help, though if he did, he wouldn't even be here, he would have been dead with her, and he would never had learned the truth himself.
Suddenly a bright flash covered the room, causing him to shield his eyes, as he looked again when it cleared, he saw he was in the training room, as sirens were going off.
This jogged his memory as this was during a train fight between Agents York, Wyoming and Maine and Agent Tex, resulting in the later two using real fire arms on the training field that ended with a grenade going off in York's face (as he was trying to help Tex), costing him his left eye.
The Freelancers came down to the field to check up everyone, with the medics not far behind.
As he saw his past self and his team check up the others, he turned to see the Director, with Counselor next to him, walking up to the group, as they positioned themselves in formation.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves!" Director Church said, angrily, "I expected an act as a team!"
"They used live ammunition on the floor sir. That's against regulation." Past Wash said as he tried to explained the situation.
"Do you think our enemies will care about regulations on the battlefield, Agent Washington?!" the Director angrily said to Past Washington, as the present on saw his past self get startled at the Director's question as he approached him.
"So," the starteld Wash spoke, "y-you're not punishing them?"
"Inginuity and adaptability are admirable traits!" Director explained as he spoke him and rest of the Freelancers, "You should all learn something from this. Dismissed."
As everyone began to depart, Washington looked at his past counterpart, feeling sorry for about what had happened, especially what the Director explained about the situation.
He wished that he could have spoke to his past self, and explained what was happening and how he could help, but sadly all he could is watch as the damage was done.
All of a sudden, he heard Delta's voice, "Wash, is your armor adequately compensating for your wounds?"
"You're hit?" the other voice came from Agent South, which Wash began to realize what was happening.
The scene snapped to the moment where South would shoot him in the back, during the Meta's rampage.
"Movement on twos. On my mark: Sync!" Past Wash shouted out.
"No, wait, don't!" cried Washington, but it was too late, as he heard South shout out "Sync!" resulting in Past Wash to rush out, only to get shot by South.
Seeing this, Wash could hear Delta shout out "Alarm! Friendly target, cease fire!"
Then, the Counselor's voice echoed out, "Agent Washington."
"Huh?" this was what Wash could say as everything snapped to another scenario, where he saw himself talking to the Counselor as the latter continued.
"So you would say that you have overwhelming feelings of anger, and a need for revenge?"
"More than you know." Past Washington answered.
As Wash saw this, he began to remember that this was during when he first met the Reds and Blues to help him stop the Meta.
Then another voice called out his name.
"Agent Washington? Agent Washington, are you listening to me?"
This other voice was what Wash also recognized, for this was the voice of the chairman of the USNC.
Wash turned to the direction the voice came from behind, and saw his past self again, this time talking to the Chairman.
"Agent Washington, when you find these blue soldiers that you're talking about, what makes you think that they are just going to give you the Epsilon unit when you ask them for it?" the Chairman asked.
When hearing the question, Washington's heart began to sink as he began to pale a little, as he suddenly remember what was happening as he heard his past repeat what he said himself.
"Heheh, for as long as I can remember, I've been lied to, taken advantage of, shot in the back, and left for dead. And now, I have a way out of all of this." He then spoke in a serious shot-tempered growl, "What in the hell makes you think that I'm going to ask for it?"
"This is…" Wash said, until a gunshot was heard, causing the previous scenario to snap into a new one, as he was now in Valhalla.
He saw his past self just shoot Lopez and then began a new load to fire at Donut.
Wash ran up to stop him shouting, "Wait. Wait!" but to late, the moment goes by as it did before.
The Past Wash shot Donut, resulting in one of his friends to collapse on the floor.
"Why would you do that?!" shouted Simmons, who couldn't believe what had happened, "What's wrong with you?!"
"No…" Wash said, "I was just…"
"I was just following orders." Locus's voice echoed.
"I was just following orders…" Wash then said exactly what Locus had said, though he wasn't sure why he said it.
"I can't believe you did that?!"
This startled Wash as he then heard Tucker's voice.
As he turned to the left, he saw Tucker and Church/Epsilon, though it seemed they were not happy.
"I can't believe that you killed Donut!" Shouted Church/Epsilon, who felt very hurt about it.
"Yeah, dude, I thought you were our friend!" Tucker then said.
I-I am your friend, guys!" Wash said, as he began to fell nervous about what was happening, "really!"
"Well, that's some way of showing it…" came C.T.'s voice, as Wash turned to the right and saw.
"Connie," Wash said, "I really didn't mean to-"
"I told you!" C.T. interrupted him as she spoke, "The name's C.T., and I told you to choose whose side you were on!"
"But…" Wash tried to speak, but another voice spoke up.
"Pleased on your improvement, Agent Washington." Said the Director, as he then appeared next to C.T.
"You may have a spot on the list, yet." He then said proudly, thought it disgusted Wash for some reason, since he remembered what had happened.
"After what you did to everyone else?!" he said angrily, "To York, the Twins, to ME?!"
"Actually," the Director counter said, "it was you who made you pull the trigger…"
"But…"
"You shot him!" came Simmons's voice as it echoed.
"What?" Wash said, as he turned to see Simmons facing him.
"You shot him!" Simmons said in disbelieve, "You shot Donut!"
Wash, slowly begin to feel nervous and threatened, pulled out his gun as he said, "No I just…" he began to hear his heart beat, "I did what I had to do!"
Locus suddenly appeared behind him with his camouflage equip, as he spoke, "Don't we all?"
Hearing him, Wash instantly turned and shot Locus, but as he then looked down to the body, he saw in shock that he shot… himself.
From the crack of his dead body's helmet, he saw a small bit of blood dripping out of the helmet.
"Agent Washington…" Locus spoke, though he wasn't there.
Washington, now back in his steel and yellow armor, looked down to the body in horror, his heart beat slowly beginning to beat faster…
"Agent Washington?"
…And faster…
"Agent Washington?"
…And faster.
"AGENT WASHINGTON!"
In an instant, Washington woke up with a gasp, and breathed heavily about what had happened, his vision was still a little blurry but he could hear the sound of a heart monitor, noting that he was in medical care.
And he then heard the voice, which helped him wake up from the nightmare, as she (he was able to recognize the voice being female) said "Oh. Well… that was close."
It would be until later on, after being fully recovered, Agent Washington was cuffed, and brought to a room by some of the Feds, where Sarge and Donut were waiting, who were being watched by a lone trooper.
Once Wash was in and with the others, as the two escorts were leaving, one of them turned to the trio and said, "The General will be here to speak to you shortly."
As the door was then closed, it was then that Sarge began to let out a good amount of angry rants.
"Dirtbags! Each and every one of 'em!" he shouted "The soldiers: dirtbags! The medics: dirtbags! That good-for-nothin' mercenary, who shoots a man when he ain't even lookin': you best believe he's a numero uno dirtbag!"
As he continued (with Donut later brought into the conversation), Wash began to have a think about what had happened.
After all that had happened to him during Project: Freelancer, he had many good regrets about what had happened, for those of his friends that he lost and the lies that were fed to him.
But he knew that all of that was behind him, and that he had new allies, ones he can trust (even if they didn't get along so well).
Though he couldn't stop having the nagging feeling about Locus and about him, but he would be sure to see about the mercenary soon.
But for now, he had to wait and speak to the guy in charge, for after what had happened in the canyon, he had a good piece of his mind that he was going to give the General when he arrived…
Since we all knew about Washington's real name to be David, but not quite knew his last name, I decided to make his last name Brady, in honour and dedication to my grandfather: Patrick Brady, who sadly left us, God bless him.