A/N: I've been writing a lot of Wash-centric drabbles/oneshots lately, and this one features my OC, Agent Delaware (Del).
This is for the love of my life- you know who you are.
Logically, he knew he shouldn't be jealous. He was the one who let her go, who told her she had the freedom to do wherever she wished, that he didn't care- it was better for them to be apart, it was the only way he could protect her.
But that was a lie.
He was the one who looked away when he saw the two of them, turned his back, too thick headed to listen to any pleas- or maybe he cultivated that thickness to stop himself from turning back around, from feeling the stab in his heart at the sound of her tears.
---
"Recovery One. Come in, Recovery One."
"I have you, Command."
"It's a Recovery Beacon, Wash. Agent Delaware. Getting coordinates now. Please stand by."
---
She was running, her breath coming in short, desperate pants, heating up her visor, leaving a fog that she could barely see through.
"Zeta! Status report!"
A pink glowing figure appeared at Agent Delaware's side.
"Beta has gone rampant, invading Agent Maine's mind. His energy and power is far stronger than yours-Beta is absorbing Maine's thoughts and emotions, to manipulate them for his own use."
Del was barely able to digest that information before ducking and rolling to the right as a grenade missed her by mere millimeters. Suddenly she felt pain pierce her side- blinking slowly, the significance of the blood between her fingers lost to her.
Dizzy, stumbling, she fell, a haze of white passing through her line of vision and Zeta flickered before disappearing completely.
---
Wash heard the transmission echoing in his helmet; felt his legs move, pitching, slipping.
Those little moments where everything seems to go wrong, and time slows down, turning into forever- the scrape of a key in the ignition, engine stalling.
Cursing, he ran, not afraid to kill anyone who dared step in his way.
---
"Zeta…"
The scratchy voice beckoned the AI; forcing moving faster than she could control until she could feel nothing at all, becoming one with the Meta.
---
She was lifeless.
The armor an empty shell, bloods spilled and smeared in an unreal drama.
It had to be fake.
A dream.
Or rather, a nightmare.
He would wake up and she would be by his side, they way they used to be.
The Recovery Beacon stopped beeping, and Wash allowed himself to speak the name he had not said in years, grief breaking him into the pieces that had not been destroyed.
"Hannah."
---
"So you have overwhelming feelings of anger and a need for revenge?"
Wash swallowed the images he had tried so hard to forget reminding him that he never could.
He spoke softly, "More than you know."