As I walk into the auto repair shop, the blistering summer heat is replaced by a wave of cool air. I stand there for a minute to let the air cool me down; my fatigue pants and green and yellow t-shirt ripple slightly from the force of the fan. I stomp the dust off of my combat boots and look around, trying to find the person I came here looking for. In the corner two people are talking; a black-haired man wearing a cobalt shirt and jeans, and a blonde woman wearing cargo pants, boots, and a tank top that are all black. They both look at me, and the blonde woman smiles broadly and walks over.

"Hey, Nev," she says as we shake hands, "How've ya been?"

"I've been awesome," I say, "How about you, Tex? When'd you start this place?"

"Just after we all got honorably discharged at the end of the war," she says, and waves the black-haired man over, "Hey, Church, this is Nevada. He's one of my friends from Freelancer."

"Oh, yeah," Church says as he shakes my hand, "Allison told me a bit about you."

"Allison, huh?" I say, "We on a first name basis here?"

"Except for Leonard," Tex says, "He prefers Church."

"Alright, then just call me Gabe. I hope you don't mind if I keep calling you Tex."

"Not at all," she laughs.

"Wait a minute," Church says, "I've seen you before. Aren't you that MMA fighter that won that championship lately?"

"Which one?" I grin, "I've won every one I've been in."

"Nice," Tex says, "So, how are things going with Nira? You ever find her after you sent her away just before the collapse?"

"Yeah, I married her as soon as we found each other," I say, "She actually drove me here and then went to get some food for us. Speaking of which, Leo can take your orders."

The other two both congratulate me, but then Leonidas appears above the watch on my left wrist, and raises his spear in a salute. His green hologram reflects off of a nearby car, distorting and twisting with the contours of the car. "Texas," he says, "It's been a while."

"Yeah," she says, "It has."

"Woah," Church says, "That's your AI? Which fragment is he?"

"He isn't," I say, "I got him from Doctor Halsey."

"Wait," Church says, "Doctor Halsey as in the maker of the Spartan program? The one that abducted all those kids?"

"You never told him I'm a Spartan?" I ask Tex.

At this, Church laughs, "A Spartan Freelancer? That's overkill, don't you think?"

"I'm not the only one," I say, "Oregon, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, and California were too. New Mexico didn't have the augmentations, but she had the training."

"Jeez," Church says, "That's REALLY overkill."

"If you don't mind," Leonidas interrupts, "Nira's at the fast food restaurant, and Maya is pestering me to get your orders."

We quickly order, then sit down at a nearby table to chat.

"So," Tex says, "You have news on any of the others?"

"Well," I say, "Maine, Nira and I started a gym a while back, and Megan has a mental health clinic. We've been keeping tabs on almost everyone, except for Wash. He kinda dropped off the grid, but I guess if anyone deserves an break it's him. Most of the others started some kind of business, and they all have exclusive deals and stuff with each other. Some of the others sponsor me in my fights, and in return my fight outfit is basically a walking advertisement for them."

"Shame about Wash," Tex says, "All this crap with Epsilon and the Meta left him really scarred."

"Yeah," Church says, "Wash was okay. For a Freelancer, at any rate."

"So," Tex says, "You know that Blood Gulch sim outpost?"

"Yeah," I say, "The one you let Omega loose in."

"Well," she says, "That's where I found Church. I've been keeping track of the others from there, and I gotta say, some of their career choices are funny as hell. But first I really, really want to know why you're here."

I hear a car pull up, and I turn to see Nira getting out, and Maya's pink hologram of a female Roman legionary is sitting on the hood waiting. Nira is wearing a pink t-shirt, green fatigues, and black boots nearly identical to mine. She's carrying several bags of food from a local fast food restaurant, and I get up, open the door, and take one.

"Hey, hon," she says and pecks me on the cheek. Tex holds the door, and we step inside and put the food on the table. Church tosses Tex a bottle of hand cleaner, and she quickly washes the grease off of her hands. We all sit down and pull out our food. Nira and I each have a full bag of food, while Church and Tex only have one between the two of them.

"How much can you guys eat?" Church gapes.

"A lot," I say right before I dig in, "The augmentations made us need more nutrients."

"So, Nira," Tex says, "Nev told me you two got married after you left the military."

"Yeah," she says. She wiggles her fingers in the air, displaying the large golden ring on her finger, and I put my arm around her. We kiss for a moment, then return to eating.

"So," Nira says to me, "You three have fun catching up?"

"We were just talking about our old friends," Tex says, "Which reminds me, how did Maine get a civilian life? I thought he was insane."

"Well," Nira says, "After that whole fiasco at the Mother of Invention crash site, Megan scraped together a crew to pull him out of the water, thaw him, and patch him up. Gabe and I were there as a precaution, so he didn't kill everyone the moment he woke up. Megan eventually managed to get through to him, and brought him back to sanity. Turns out Sigma and the others weren't actually destroyed at Freelancer HQ - they were forced to enter some kind of recovery mode. Maine's suit, like all the others, was EMP-hardened, so they survived until we found Maine. We had a hell of a time waking them up, though. We made sure that Sigma and Omega won't be causing any more trouble. Delta and the others went back to their original owners. We have Epsilon, Eta, Iota, and Omega waiting to be given to their owners."

"I thought Maine wouldn't want Sigma again," Tex says, "Especially after what he did to him."

"Well," I say, "Since Sig's original owner was Carolina, she got him. He actually managed to kind of straighten out his life, especially with Carolina helping him. North and York got Theta and Delta back, Wyoming got Gamma back, and Maine's waiting for South to choose between Eta and Iota. We're still waiting for Wash to come back on the grid."

"At least Carolina doesn't have two now," Tex says.

"Yeah," I say, "That was just plain dumb."

"Who are you talking to?" a voice says in Spanish. A well-built Mexican man with a mustache and messy black hair in brown clothes comes around the corner.

"Hey, Lopez," Tex says, "A couple of old friends stopped by, we're having some lunch."

"Are they Freelancers?"

"Yeah," Tex says, "And both are Spartans as well."

"Dear god, that's so overpowered."

"I know, right?" Church says, then turns to us. "Look guys, I really want to know, why did you stop in here?"

"First of all," Nira says, "To give you this." She hands Tex a small box, and Tex opens it to find a watch.

"One of those watches you made?" Tex asks, confused.

"Not just a watch," I say, "Tap the symbol in the top right."

She looks for the symbol, and her eyes widen as she sees the Greek letter omega.

"What?!" she says, "Why are you giving me this?!"

"Because you're one of the few people who can control him," Nira says.
Tex hesitantly pushes the button, and Omega's hologram pops up. Lopez and Church each take a few steps back, and both look like they're about to run away screaming.

"Hey, Allison," Omega says, "I'm sorry about... well, about everything. I'm not just Alpha's rage, you know. I'm all of his trauma, all of his pain. With all of that, I just... I guess I just couldn't handle it. After everything Alpha went through, I just... lost it."

"Well," Tex stutters, surprised, "That's good to know."

Omega perks up visibly, "Great. Can we go kill something now?"

We all laugh, and I say, "Hey, Omega. If you ever decide to take a human body, you'd make an awesome merc or something."

We laugh and settle back down to eat. Lopez pulls a stool over and sits on it, looking at me and Nira curiously.

"Now for the rest of the reason we're here," I say, "I was considering having a kind of reunion for the Freelancers. You know, get everybody together and party."

"That sounds awesome," Tex says, "I'm in. And Church is coming with me."

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute," Church says, "You plan on taking me to a Freelancer reunion?"

"And Church," I say, "If you want, you can invite the guys from Blood Gulch."

"Is Doc going to be there?" Omega asks excitedly, "He was a good host. Although he was annoying."

Church laughs, "That actually sounds like a lot of fun. You've got a deal."

"Great," I say as we finish our food and clean up, "When should we plan for it?"

"How about two weeks from now?" Tex says, "Should give us time for us to find everyone, and for Wash to find us if he wants."

We head outside and to our cars, and I call Tex on her watch.

"I didn't know these things were phones," she says, obviously impressed.

"Yeah," I say, "Direct satellite uplink and built-in military-grade comms system, so we can talk until they lose power. And they're hydrogen-powered like a Warthog, so they just need a bit of water. So, who should we find first?"

"Well," Tex says, "One of the Blood Gulch guys works just down the road, let's start there."

"Okay," I say, "Lead on, we'll be right behind you."