I own none of the franchises I use.
Why was Simmons posted in the canyon with Alpha? Could it be more than coincidence? One-shot.
Set end of S10. They all went back to Blood Gulch instead of crashing. They are also not fugitives in any way. Oh, and Simmons isn't a cyborg and I edited his backstory quite a bit.
Follows events from a third person view of Washington.
RvB: Origins.
Washington looked around. This was it. This was where they'd sent Alpha!? It was so... so... dry and dusty and desolate and...
"Home." Caboose seemed to be happy.
"Hell." Grif didn't seem to be quite as happy.
Alpha/Epsilon/Church popped up, "Cool, we're here. Now we can show you where I was killed and where we buried Flowers and all the other fun memories we have."
Lot's of sarcasm there, wait...
"Who's Flowers?"
Tucker replied, "He was our CO before his heart attack."
Carolina interrupted, "Butch Flowers."
Church nodded, "Yeah, why? Oh wait, he was Florida. Wasn't he?"
"He was probably posted to watch over Alpha," Washington mused.
Sarge sighed dramatically, "Whelp, I'm going back to Red Base. See ya bluetards."
Simmons agreed, "I'm going to bed."
Grif groaned, "You took my line, dick."
The reds left. The blues then went back to their base as well. Carolina looked at him, "Bet their fighting by tomorrow."
He nodded sighing and went with her to Blue Base. The reds probably wouldn't want an intrusion.
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Three days later and both teams were seemingly still allies. Wash wandered over to Red Base to see how the reds were getting on and if they (Sarge) were scheming. They had been very quiet over the last few days. He slipped inside and found Grif asleep in his bunk. Sarge was outside working on the Warthog. He then found someone attacking a punchbag. It had to be Simmons, no-one else was in the base because Lopez, Donut and Doc weren't coming in a few days.
He moved round the bag and ended up facing a wall by Washington. Wash realised this was the first time he'd seen Simmons without his helmet, it was currently on the side with his data-padd, and he was a little shocked. Simmons had ginger hair like Carolina and deep forest green eyes. He also had a large scar marring the left side of his face and many smaller ones across the middle and right. It wasn't what Wash had expected. Simmons hadn't noticed Washington because he was focused on the punchbag. Sweat dripped down his face signaling he'd been at it for a while.
Wash watched as he kicked the bag of it's chain and sat down, accessing the data-padd. Wash could see the internal conflict in Simmons' eyes as he looked at the email he was close to sending. All it said was 'You were wrong!'. He looked at who the email was addressed to and saw the name Richard Simmons. Why was he sending it to himself?
A figure popped up by his shoulder. It was an AI! A female AI. She was purple and green like and looked like Theta. Why the hell did Simmons have an AI.
She spoke, "Maybe we should not send a message to your father."
Father. Richard could be the name of Simmons father as well.
"Yeah, you're probably right Kiana."
Kiana the AI.
Simmons continued, "I just want him to know I'm not the failure he thinks I am."
Kiana replied, "You are not a failure. For a start you created me, father. An AI is not a simple thing to create."
Father, explains where he got an AI. He created her.
"Kiana, I'm not your father. I'm just..."
"My creator. A father is a creator so you are my father."
Simmons sighed and smiled, "Of course Kia. But you know that to my father I'm a failure. I failed the tests. It doesn't matter how smart you are if you can't pass the tests."
She nodded, "I will not pretend I understand. If you know you are smart why care about tests?"
"My inspiration for you came from worrying about my test results. The tests I failed that led to my father disowning me."
Simmons yawned and she sighed," You should sleep father. You are tired. Goodnight."
He nodded, said "goodnight" and watched as she disappeared before leaving.
Washington watched Simmons go with a new sense of respect for the man. Not many people could construct an AI. Wait, what if that's why he was posted in Blood Gulch. He would've been close to Alpha. No, they would have confiscated Kiana if they knew about her. He needed to talk to Simmons.
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The suns light filled the canyon and Washington made his way over to Red Base with a clueless Carolina and a disgruntled, clueless Church following. They wanted to know why he wanted them. He reached Red Base and called up to Simmons and Grif.
"Simmons, can we talk?"
"Uhh, yeah, what do you want?"
"I mean alone, away from Red Base."
"Okay."
Simmons muttered something to Grif and disappeared only to reapperar at the ramp. They moved over to a quieter, more sheltered area.
Church appeared, "So what, are we killing him or talking to him or what? Seriously Wash."
Washington looked at Simmons, "I saw you talking to Kiana last night and I want an explanation."
Church and Carolina both stared at Wash, "Who's Kiana."
Simmons sighed, "Well, Kia, they found out about you. Do you want to say hello?"
She appeared by his shoulder, "Hello."
"Holy Shit!" Thanks Church.
"Holy Crap!" Thanks Carolina.
Simmons nodded, "So, what do you want to know?"
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Once the others were over their shock Wash looked to Simmons, "Why? When?"
"When I was finishing military school I was top of my class but I couldn't pass tests. I can't work under test conditions. My father would – pressure me – to make sure I was perfect like him because he was a strong military leader. I did my final tests and I knew I'd failed them but I was scared of everyone's reactions. Everyone would hate me or think I was cheating in class. I wanted to be prepared so the night before we got our results I hacked into the UNSC database."
There were three yells of, "You what?"
"I hacked in. I then got distracted with the only file there I hadn't unlocked. I hacked through that firewall and read up on Project Freelancer. It was still only in it's primary stages so there wasn't too much info. I then met Alpha."
Church grinned, "Oh, I remember that. That was you. I was so bored before you turned up. It was actually nice to have someone to talk to. Still weird that you were a student though."
"Of course I had to finish our conversation eventually. I failed the tests and my father disowned me. I was lonely so I created Kiana. Alpha and I still talked a lot though, before I was sent to Conoa Outpost 3."
Carolina seemed shocked, "Conoa Outpost 3. That was on the front lines. They found out I'd been hacking them. My skills were deemed useful so I was sent there. Kiana's been with me through thick and thin."
Kiana finally spoke up, "Of course I have father. I could not let anyone kill you if I could help it."
Simmons looked directly at us, "You can't tell anyone. I can't let them take her away. Especially after what they did to Alpha in Project Freelancer."
They all agreed and Church and Carolina left. Washington stopped Simmons from going, "Why were you stationed here if you were on Conoa? Oh, and I'm pretty sure your dad did more than 'pressure you' from the way you said it. Spill."
"My dad wasn't abusive. It was just punishment for being bad and not doing well enough. I wasn't fit enough or strong enough so my dad gave me incentives and punishments to help. He had high standards and I didn't meet them. I deserved it. As for Conoa, the outpost was attacked and I was the only survivor. They thought this place was safe."
Simmons left Wash to think about what he'd said.
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Washington did his research. He discovered Simmons had Stockholm Syndrome (A.N. google it!) and a lot of info about the tragedy at Conoa. Simmons told the truth when he said he was the only survivor but he'd neglected to mention the six months of imprisonment and torture. (A.N.2. I may write a story on this.)
Wash sat back, realising he hadn't slept much while investigating. There was a lot of information. His last thoughts before he fell asleep were, 'I wonder whether anyone would find me out if I put a bullet into Richard Simmons sr's head.'