I do not own Red vs. Blue. Red vs. Blue is property of Rooster Teeth™ and is based on the Halo series by Bungie™ and 343 Industries™.

If you have already seen that final four episodes of Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction, but don't feel like reading all of that, I would recommend you either jump to the end of this prologue or go straight on to Chapter 1. This is essentially Reconstruction Ep. 15-19, but with a few changes to introduce my OC.

Prologue

"All right, we got in. But that's only part of our mission, so no celebrating yet," Agent Washington announced as he led his squad of red and blue soldiers into command.

"Aw, shit. And I was gonna be in charge of confetti." That was Grif, a member of the red team clad in orange armour. He was possibly the laziest man in existence. However, he did love a good bit of sarcasm. Washington ignored his comment and continued talking.

"We still need to reach the AI storage facility. Security's tight since the freelancers tried to break in here."

"You mean when they tried to steal the Alpha before?" Church said.

"Exactly."

Church was a member of the blue team, one of the only two blue soldiers Washington had brought along. He likes to swear a lot, so strap in for a rough ride. The other was Caboose, potentially the most idiotic person in existence. Caboose wore blue armour while Church wore a slightly lighter shade or blue. Church was only a private, but was the self-appointed leader of the blue team. He had been ever since his commander, Captain Flowers, died of a heart attack.

Alpha was an artificial intelligence program, or AI, that had been tortured and mentally ripped apart until it's personality split into many different AI fragments, named after the characters of the Greek alphabet. These fragments were given to soldiers with advanced combat training and highly technical armour to help them be more efficient fighters. These soldiers were known as freelancers, each one given a designated name after one of the American states.

Washington was a freelancer, and was entrusted with the AI known as Epsilon, the fragment that embodied Alpha's memories. It began to remember the horrific things Alpha had been put through and went insane. Washington saw these things too, and went just as insane as Epsilon. He was stripped of his AI and made unfit for duty.

Washington had told his fellow squad members that they had infiltrated this facility to find Alpha. In truth, he had actually come to find Epsilon.

"The freelancers tried to break into their own command facility?" Grif asked. "That's dumb!"

Simmons, another member of the red team, replied, "That's what we're doing right now, you jackass!" Simmons was considered to be the nerdy, ass-kissing right-hand man of their commander known only as Sarge. Sarge's armour was standard issue red. Simmons's was maroon.

"So? Just because we do something doesn't make it smart."

Simmons sighed. "Tell me about it..."

Washington brought them back to the mission. "I have the necessary clearance to get close to the storage hall. The plan is: I'll take Church as a prisoner. If I take more than one of you it won't be believable."

Caboose, not quite understanding the plan, said "Agent Washington? I want you to take me instead."

"What are you talking about? Church asked.

"I will be your prisoner. Let Church go! He doesn't have anything to do with this!" There's one other thing about Caboose you might want to know. He has an obsession with Church and is convinced they are best friends. Church, however, hates him. Only a few days ago he had attempted to shoot Caboose with his sniper rifle. He missed. Church loves the sniper rifle, but rarely hits anything with it.

"Caboose, I'm not actually going to be a prisoner, I'm just gonna pose as one so we can get past-"

"Have a good life, Church. Don't worry. I won't tell them anything. They won't get any information out of me, no matter how nicely they ask!"

"Oh my God, just shut up."

"Sacrificing himself for a CO! What a good soldier." Sarge commented, "Why can't you two be more like him?"

"What, brain-dead?" said Grif.

"I'd sacrifice Grif for you, sir." Simmons offered.

"I know you would, Simmons, but it's just not the same thing."

"No, but seriously, I would. Just gimme the word. I'll do it right fucking now, let's go! Bring it!" Grif wasn't a very popular guy. Sarge hated his guts and made multiple death threats to him every day, though it didn't look like he ever was going to kill him. He'd had plenty of opportunities.

Grif had ignored this exchange and directed a question to Washington. "Why are you taking Church? What about the rest of us?"

"We're sneaking past seven levels of armed checkpoints. Are you volunteering?"

"Uhh, it was a hypothetical question!"

"The rest of you will hole up and wait for us to finish. And don't touch anything."

Sarge jumped in. "How will we know when you're done?"

"When you see every guard in the base running in one direction, that means we're probably in trouble."

"All the guards? What, are, wait, whu, why are we taking Church again?" Church asked, clearly getting nervous.

"Just keep the guards off of us and we'll radio when we're in position. This will be our extraction point."

"Keep them off you?" Grif asked.

"Yeah, distract them, dipshit." As Church said this, he and Washington began to leave the room down a corridor.

"How?"

Washington replied this time. "Well, this is the centre that came up with all the ridiculous scenarios you guys have suffered through over the years. So have fun. Break some shit."

They followed several hallways and corridors underground, all the while Washington was jabbing a rifle into Church's back. They soon came across one of the armed checkpoints Wash had mentioned earlier. It was two guards in front of a heavy iron door.

"Hold on! Don't come any closer," said one of the guards. "I need you to stay right there, sir."

"Understood. I need access to the next level. The counsellor wants to interrogate another survivor from outpost 17-B."

"What? I thought all the blues in Valhalla were dead. Where'd this one come from?"

"I don't have to explain anything to you, soldier. Stand down."

"Sorry, sir. I didn't mean anything by-

"That's fine. I'll let it go. As you were."

"Something doesn't seem right to me. I'm gonna have to call this in."

"Absolutely. Call it in. Let me just- NOW!"

As Wash said "NOW," Church dropped to his knee and whipped out a pistol. Washington shot the guard on the left through the head while Church fired at the one on the right. All of Church's shots missed, despite being only a metre from the guard, and he found himself with an empty clip.

They all stayed silent for a moment, quietly in awe, wondering how he could miss from such a distance. After a few seconds, Church asked Wash for some assistance.

"Uhh, hey, can I get a little help? I'm out of bullets."

Washington fired once and the guard dropped to the floor.

"Thanks."

He opened the door and they continued down to the next level masquerading again as prisoner and captor.

"Nice shooting there, Church."

"Hey shut up, Wash!"

The pair went through several more checkpoints with Wash taking out both guards and Church staying quiet. Eventually they got to the AI storage hall they'd been searching for.

The hall was enormous. It had two floors, the second being more of a terrace to look out over the lower floor. There were very few physical objects in this hall, but there were hundreds of holograms. Some were control panels and consoles whereas others seemed to be purely for decoration, resembling large runic symbols of brilliant yellows and magnificent blues.

"Here," said Wash. "This is it."

"Whoa! What is this place?" Church stood, dumbstruck by the awe-inspiring view of the hall.

"It's the storage facility for all the AIs. The rejects, the bad variants. Everything is here. Everything.

They began to look around and Washington started to analyse some more holograms. These ones had been set into the wall.

"Dear lord! What are all these lights in the walls?" Church asked.

"It's holographic storage."

"And one of these things is Alpha?"

"You work on closing that door. I'll find what we're looking for, and when I do every soldier on base is sure to come running. So be ready."

Church wondered off, looking for the control to close the door. Washington skirted the walls, searching for the one that contained Epsilon.

He began to hear whispering voices calling his name. They were quiet at first, but grew slowly louder. These were all of the AIs he had mentioned calling out to him. He was getting closer to Epsilon when he recognised one of the voices. As he approached where it was emanating from his suspicions were confirmed. It was an AI that belonged to one of his friends, Agent Vermont, who died during training. It was the AI known as Iota.

Iota was the part of the original Alpha that made it want to protect others. It relied on Alpha's logic, represented in the AI fragment called Delta, to determine whether or not protecting someone was the right course of action.

Washington decided that Iota could be very useful, but he knew that the mission was going to have enough of a twist for his squad-mates already, so he put him into a portable storage unit. Then ensured that Church was out of earshot and had a quiet talk with the AI.

"Iota, are you alright?"

"Whatever damage had been done to me has been repaired over the years. You are Agent Washington, are you not?"

"That's right. You have to listen to me. A lot of things are going to happen soon. Things that could risk the lives of me, other people and every AI in this facility. I need you to do me a favour and promise me you will stay quiet. Everything will turn out fine and everyone will live, but only if you do not try to protect them. If you interfere at all, you could cause many people to die."

"That seems somewhat ironic. How is that so?"

"I don't have time to explain. All you need to know is if you want as many people to live as possible, you need to keep from interfering. Is that clear?"

"Clear. Thank you for finding me, Washington."

"Don't take offence, but I didn't come here searching for you. I am looking for Epsilon."

"I do not think you would benefit from being paired with Epsilon again."

"I know. Do you know where he is?"

"I do. He is being stored in holographic storage disk 128."

"Thank you. Now stay quiet until I call on you."

"Acknowledged."

Iota disappeared into the storage unit as if he was never there. Washington proceeded to holographic storage disk 128 and confirmed Epsilon's presence.

"Church! I got it! Get over here!"

Church arrived as the door slid shut. Washington gestured to Epsilon's storage area.

"Here, this is it! There."

"Oh, great, you found it alre- Ah!"

Church stumbled back in pain, almost dropping his sniper rifle. He took a second to catch his breath.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just had like a weird flash... Urgh! Ah!"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I think it's this thing. It's like, sending out images. Is this the Alpha?"

"No. This is not the Alpha." Washington brought out a physical storage unit and put Epsilon into it.

"No? Well, what is it?"

"This is Epsilon. This is my AI."

"You mean to tell me we've come all this way for this? You're fucking crazy AI, Epsilon?"

"Yes. I thought it was gone. But Delta told you memory was the key. At first I thought he meant to remember our first encounter. And when I met Delta the first time what I told him was, "It's cheaper to recover you than it is to delete you." When they removed Epsilon from me he was unravelling. Casting off all his thoughts. I was sure they deleted him, but it's-"

"It's cheaper to store it than it is to delete it, right?"

"Right."

This was a long conversation between Wash and Church. Wash was explaining why they came for Epsilon. I won't go through it as it really just recaps a lot of what I have already told you. Eventually it came to Washington revealing that Church was really the Alpha AI. I'm not trying to make this a big plot twist. If I was I'd have started the story further back and talked about it very differently.

Church didn't believe Washington at all, and summed him up by saying, "You're a fucking idiot."

"That's not the reaction I expected."

"You think I'm a computer program?"

"Why is that hard to believe?"

"Uhh, how about 'cuz I'm a person? That I have been my whole life? That I have memories from when I was a kid? And I don't remember being a calculator, dude!"

"AIs are programs based on an actual human mind. You're bound to have some residual memories. They just aren't yours."

"Oh, you're so full o' shit!"

"And after what you've been through it's not hard to imagine you wouldn't-"

"Gimme a break, dude!"

"Okay, fine. I suppose you being a spirit makes more sense."

That's another thing I didn't mention. Church was killed by Caboose several years ago. He came back as a ghost, or so he thought. Washington was trying to convince him that he isn't a ghost, he's a computer program.

"Fuck, yeah, it does! It's way less geeky, asshole!"

"A spirit?"

"Yeah! That's right!"

"A ghost?"

"Boo, mother fucker!"

They continued arguing about this for another few minutes. Suddenly, an alarm sounded.

"Oh, great!" Wash yelled!

"What is that?"

"We've been found out. Quick, grab Epsilon! I'll lead us out. Keep your head down."

"Okay, but if this fucking thing sends out any more images, I'ma throw it in the nearest trash can."

They fled the room. Church stayed low, the Epsilon unit in his arms. Washington killed as many guards as he could. It took a while, but they reached their extraction point. The reds and Caboose were still there, and Simmons shut the door after Church and Wash to keep the guards out.

"What's the status up here?"

Grif answered, "Fucked up, about to die, Simmons is a nerd. The usual."

"Looks like we got at least half a dozen squads out there," Sarge reported. "They know our position. We're out-gunned."

"So, what's the plan?" Wash asked them.

"Well, we were gonna retreat down that hall until you brought more guards up that way, so now the plan's pretty much to go down swinging. You first."

Grif started talking again. "Hey, Simmons. Can you get back on that computer and change my affiliation from red to freelancer?"

"Traitor!"

"Hey, gotta go with the winner."

Caboose was suddenly interested. "Hey, can you change my job title to something more important like astronaut? Oh, I know, space marine!

"What are you idiots doing?" Church asked them.

"This computer has all of commands records." Simmons said.

"It does? Records on everybody?"

"Yeah. You know, theoretically." Simmons began humming a tune while typing away on the keyboard.

"Oh, great! Now I'll show you that you're wrong!"

"What an excellent idea," said Washington.

"Wrong about what?"

"Wash has been trying to convince me that I'm an AI."

Grif was confused. "Huh? Why would he do that?"

"Because he's transparent?" Wash began to justify himself. "He can take over other people, y'know that kinda stuff!

"That's because he's a ghost, dude."

"Thank you. That's what I said."

"If he's a ghost, why aren't all the other soldiers turning into ghosts?"

"Okay, fine, why don't we just settle this? Simmons, look me up in the database."

"Yeah, I'd like to help, but we may have just kinda, y'know, deleted all that stuff for the blues."

"All of what stuff for the blues?" Wash asked.

"The everything stuff."

"Didn't I tell you not to touch anything?"

"Yes, but you also told us to break stuff. This seemed like an excellent compromise."

Church was quite upset. "Alright, great, that's fantastic. Now I can't prove him wrong and I don't get a paycheque. Fucking great. Thanks guys."

Sarge however seemed very triumphant. "And your side never existed, which means red wins! Suck it, you non-existent losers!"

"Oh, nobody gives a fuck about that."

"Sour grapes."

Grif stepped in at this point. "No way, he's not a computer."

"How can we be sure?" That was Sarge again.

"Maybe we should ask him something only a computer would know." That was one of Caboose's brilliant plans.

"Like what?" Simmons asked.

"What's nine times eight?"

Everyone in the room, apart from Caboose, then said "Seventy two."

"Oh my God, it's spreading!

"How about this?" Grif said. "Show me some porn."

Again, everyone spoke together. "What?"

"That's what all my computers do. Oh, oh, uh, steal some music for me. Or, uh, talk about politics and bore the shit out of me."

"Do you have any pictures of cats in serious situations?" Caboose asked.

"Because of the trauma he's been through he's not going to be able to access all of his functions. He may not even realise his full potential."

"Not living up to his potential?" Sarge confirmed. "That means Grif's a computer, too."

"It doesn't matter. We don't need him to believe. Until the next time we encounter the Meta."

Immediately following that was a loud bang on the roof.

"What the hell was that?"

Sarge answered. "Come on. Do you even need to ask?"

The Meta was a freelancer known as Agent Maine. He had been killing other freelancers over recent years and stealing both the equipment integrated into their armour and the AIs that they had. He had become obsessed with finding them all. As this facility had so many of them, the Meta couldn't resist.

"Perfect!" Washington said triumphantly.

"Perfect?" Church asked.

"He's been following us ever since I found Caboose. I knew he couldn't resist getting his hands on all the stored command AIs. Especially Epsilon."

"You knew about this?"

"Knew about it? I planned on it! Still have Epsilon?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Good. Let's get it to safety. Then we can finish this. Once and for all."

"You know, I'm starting not to trust you."

"What do you mean starting to?" Sarge asked.

They all left the room. Washington led them through a series of different corridors. There was much less security around now. They were all outside. After a few minutes of walking they reached a large garage area.

"What is this, the motor pool?" Grif asked.

"Yes." Wash replied. "Looks like everyone is outside fighting the Meta. Still, be careful. Red, you grab a vehicle. Caboose, somehow I hate to ask this but can you drive?"

"Yes. But not an automatic. Only stick."

"Why can't you drive-"

"We're in a rush!" Grif interrupted as he ran past. "Come back to it later."

"Right. Caboose, grab that car. Church, put Epsilon in Caboose's jeep. You guys are gonna make a break for it. Take Epsilon and turn him over to the authorities. They'll know what to do with him."

"You're not coming?" Sarge asked.

"No. Church and I are staying. Project Freelancer had one last resort failsafe. A high powered E.M.P that can wipe out all the AI in this facility. Now that the Meta is here we have a chance to take them all out at once and put this entire project out of commission."

"What's an E.M.P?" Grif inquired.

"It's an electro-magnetic pulse. It wipes out all circuitry and computers it touches. It will destroy the AI-"

"Oh!" said Simmons, "You mean an emp!"

"Yeah, I was just about to say. Sounds like he's talking about an emp." Sarge agreed.

"Emp? That's not how you say it!"

"That's how most people say it. Emp."

"No, they don't."

"I say it that way," Church said.

"It's initials for electro-magnetic pulse. That's E.M.P."

"Right," said Grif, "which spells emp. Duhr!"

"We don't have time for this. You're wrong."

"Why don't we take a vote?" Simmons suggested.

"A vote? No. No vote. You're just wrong. There's no vote. It's E.M.P."

"Not very democratic." Caboose said.

"Being wrong isn't a democracy. Church and I will work our way down to the director's lab while the rest of you will escape."

"What if the Meta follows us?" Sarge asked.

"No chance. There's no way he can pass up all the AI in here. Put Epsilon in the car and let's get moving."

"I'm leaving," Church said. "I'm going with them."

"What?"

"Wash, I don't give a shit about any of this. I hate you, I hate the freelancers, I hate everything about you guys. This isn't my fight. It's yours"

"It's your fight more than anyone else's!"

"I don't care what you say. No, it isn't."

"Church, you'll never get another shot at fixing all of this. I know you don't believe what I've told you, but you need to ask yourself, what if I'm right? If I am or if you had any doubts, not finding out will haunt you for the rest of your life. Not just finding out about you, but finding out about everyone close to you as well. It's your choice. What's it going to be?"

Church thought for a while. Wash was right; he wasn't going to get another chance at this. The reds began to have a discussion amongst them. Something about the car.

After a minute or so, Church agreed. He left his body behind and was about to enter Wash's head. Before he did, Wash put Iota into Church's armour. He'd been told he could reveal himself after escaping the E.M.P.

"Alright, stick to the plan," Wash said, getting the attention of the reds back. "Just run. Get Epsilon out of here. Turn him over to the authorities the first chance you get."

"Sarge, shouldn't we help him?" Simmons asked. "He won't stand a chance against that thing!"

"We have our orders, Simmons. We have to think about the mission."

"Finally, an order I want to follow," Grif interjected, "run away and live."

"If Agent Wash wants to face him alone, that's his business."

"Yeah, but he doesn't want to face him alone." Simmons said, turning to Church's body in the passenger seat of Caboose's car. "It's just that some people won't help him."

"That's not our business either."

Wash was going to correct them, say that Church was going to help. But then he thought otherwise. If they hadn't been listening, that's their problem. They'd find out soon anyway.

"Just drive," Wash instructed. "When the E.M.P goes off-"

"You mean the emp?" Caboose corrected.

"Stop it. It will destroy Epsilon if you're not far enough away."

"You got it, Mr. Washington!"

"Take care of yourself, guys. I know that's one thing you're good at."

Wash turned and pushed a button to open the door. An beeping sound began as the door slid into the ceiling.

"He's gonna be on you as soon as you clear the gate. Be ready to move. Protect the blues' vehicle at any cost." He directed this last instruction to the reds.

"Protect the blues, right, yeah." Sarge said reluctantly as he slipped into the passenger seat of the red team's car. He always hated the blues. "We'll get right on that. Shit."

Both cars left the garage and drove into the open. Wash made a radio call to the red and blue soldiers in the cars. Knowing that the Meta would be listening, he said, "That's it. Lead the Meta as far away from the base as possible."

Simmons, on the turret of the red vehicle, watched as the Meta followed Washington back into the base.

"He's fallen for it!" He exclaimed. "Gun it, Grif!"

"Hold on, everyone!" Grif announced. Both cars drove through the complex. There was a long way to go before they would get to the exit.

Just a few minutes through the drive, and Caboose slammed his car into a large boulder. The car was okay, but Church's body began to slip out.

Caboose reached to grab it and pull it back in, but he only managed to brush it with his hand before it fell onto the dirt road. Luckily, without alerting anyone, Iota had managed to slip into Caboose's armour on contact. He hid himself as well as he could from Caboose, trying to heed Washington's words.

Caboose thought Church would need his body again, and toyed with the idea of going back to get it. The reds threatened to leave him behind if we didn't move, so they all left the body behind.

It turned out that Church wouldn't need his body again because Washington was right. He was an AI, so he was wiped out with the E.M.P, which was getting ever closer to the reds and Caboose. The reds fell behind slightly and were hit. Their car engine was disrupted and they stalled. Caboose was just slightly ahead. The reds yelled after him, urging him to keep going. That's when he made a wrong turn.

Caboose was too close to the pulse to turn around, so he kept going. He ploughed through several warning barriers and then screamed as his car tumbled down a tall cliff-side.

Iota couldn't contain himself anymore and burst out, revealing himself in holographic form.

"Caboose! You must listen to me!"

"WHO ARE YOU?" Caboose screamed.

"Never mind that. Listen to me! Unfasten your seatbelt."

Caboose complied.

"Good. Now push yourself out of the car."

Again, Caboose complied.

"Okay, now tuck!"

"WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO TUCK?"

"Curl into a ball!"

Caboose did as he was told. Iota was about to lock Caboose's armour, but it seemed that his particular helmet didn't support armour lock. Instead, he quickly fabricated a locking mechanism using other systems in his helmet and locked Caboose into his ball shape to minimise the damage of the impact.

Caboose continued to scream until the 500 foot fall came to a sudden stop.