So… what am I gonna do now? Oh, okay. UknownHero here and welcome to the first chapter of Redemption: A Story of Freelancers! I need this one out of my head and after listening to Vic's speech at the end of Season 14, I finally had the inspiration to actually start this. Now, which Freelancer that lives goes and have their own arcs, ranging from the Twins to possibly Tex. And let me make this clear, no. The Meta will not be among those who survive. Maine died when Sigma took over and his death is kinda necessary for the canon. Anyway, let's do this.

New Game… Start!

Connecticut 1: Rebel Leader

Whats up yoyo's! My name is Vic. Vickidy Vic Vic. Promised I'd call ya.

Kinda weird that I'm talking in a written format now is it? Probably imagining my voice in your head. Maybe even my face. Kinda sounding like a higher pitch version of Church. Not the Director, the A.I. Church. Alpha or Epsilon. The Director Church was kind of a dick. Plus, all the Church's are dead, so that's kinda sad, but I'm getting off track here.

Anyway, now, you all remember what I said about multiple universes and stories right? How we explored a few of them in Season 14, some about other Red and Blue Teams getting killed at the end or never to be talked about again? Like those Triplets? Or how about that rap battle? Man, that was off the chain!

So, dude and dudettes? Where do we go from there?

I could tell a story about someone joining the Blood Gulch Reds and Blues, maybe even a Freelancer, but that's just cliché and old. It's been told thousands of times already and it's become boring. Or, we could tell a story where our idiots weren't soldiers, just normal people in society leaving a path of stupidity in their wake? Maybe even make 'em watch a TV show or something. I heard this RWBY show is really good.

But, I think I have something better. Or worse. Or boring if you may be so inclined.

You see, there have been many deaths in the Red vs Blue universe. Innocent people to the not-so-innocent. The smart to the idiotic. The jerk to the… well, actually everyone's kind of a jerk. But then… you get the Freelancers. Those who were manipulated and tricked by the Director to things they thoughts was for the greater good until they tore themselves apart. Of course, Carolina had a major part in it but it was primarily the Director. They were both innocent and guilty at the same time. Many of them died before they could make up for what they've done or even realize what they were doing is wrong.

But that's the magic of alternate universes. There are an infinite number of outcomes that can come out of a simple change.

So, what if they survived? Maybe one or two, all or none, it doesn't matter. What if they survived just that little bit longer when they should've been shot or blown up or drowned or stabbed in the face and put into an A.I. unit where they die because someone forgot about them only for their friends to free them and making their death a complete and utter waste?

Well, let's go explore a few of these possibilities.

So, what do you think what will happen? Will these survivors change the outcome? Will they die a hero or live long enough to see themselves become a villain? Or, will they just die without changing anything? Who knows? They could make things worse for our heroes or make it better, there are so many ways they could fix or completely screw up a situation.

Or maybe… just maybe… they'll have a little Redemption.

See what I did there? That's the title of the story. Maybe imagine some epic music as the title bursts into the middle of space. Maybe in bright white letters as it glimmers.

-Redemption-
A Story of Freelancers

There we go.

So, where do we start? Which Freelancer do we want to survive for our first part of the story? Well… we could always start with the first major Freelancer to die. Not Tex. No, the first major Freelancer to die chronologically in the main universe.

I'm talking about Agent Connecticut. Connie but more commonly known as C.T. Or the other way around.

A woman killed before she could see the fruits of her efforts. Her identity taken by her lover to keep her alive just that little bit longer. And probably the most depressing death in the entire series apart from… no, I'm right, her death was really depressing.

So… let's see what will happen when the Rebel lives just that little bit longer.

(Connecticut)

Well, she had expected this day for a long time, always thought it would go does this way.

It was her and Michael, the leader of the Insurrection, against Carolina and Tex. It was only a few days ago when she left Project Freelancer. She knew she would be hunted down for her armor, but this quickly...

And now, she was fighting for her, life against two of the best in Freelancer.

She knew it was more than likely she was going to die, especially after Tex brushed off an attack that would've killed a normal person, but it wasn't like she was going to die lying down.

She would not let the Director get away with his crimes.

Connecticut snapped out of her thoughts as she disarmed Carolina of her Magnum before being hit the head by her stun baton and getting kicked in the stomach. She quickly recovered and started fighting with her former leader as Tex and Michel battled. She was fending off Carolina as best as she could, but their difference was clear. If she lived, by some miracle, she would wake up with many new bruises.. As the electricity dispersed through her armor, she quickly created a hologram to fake Carolina out before lunging at her. With a silent, action-less agreement, she and Michael switched between Carolina and Tex repeatedly. Connie smiled under her helm, they practiced. She ignored the flash of worry for Michael, hearing every bone-crunching punch he suffered from Tex as she continued dueling Carolina.

C.T. was definitely struggling to keep up and fend off Carolina and Tex, even with Michael's help. She needed to end it now before they would both die.

She tried to do another fake out with Carolina using a hologram, but it failed. It was enough of a distraction for the real one C.T. and the Insurrectionist Leader and charged her. Carolina kicked Michael over to Tex who punched him in the face, knocking him across the floor.

'Michael!' C.T thought as she swung her knife at Carolina, her grip loosening on the blade. Almost in slow motion, she saw the knife slip out of hand.

And that… was the beginning of her redemption.

The knife struck a pipe in the ceiling, causing hot, thick steam to go everywhere. Before C.T. could react, a quick sweep of her legs delivered by Carolina took her to the ground. Michael, standing up after recovering somewhat from Tex's punch, activated the thermal vision he had in his helmet, but the steam was too hot, he shut it off and dived to see if C.T. was okay.

Just in time to take tomahawk to the shoulder.

Thinking she got C.T., Tex remembered there was another tomahawk stuck to a barrel. She quickly grabbed, focused on her target and shoved it into Michael's stomach.

And C.T. was close enough to see everything.

"AH!" C.T. yelled out a pained scream, seeing Michael take the lethal blows for her.

"What the Hell are you doing!?" Carolina shouted out, hearing C.T.'s screams and axe carving flesh. Both she and Tex were completely blind to C.T. clutching on Michael as she desperately dragged him to the escape pod. "What did you do!?"

"Completing our objective." Tex said coldly.

"By killing a teammate!?" Carolina called out.

"She's not a teammate. She's a traitor." Tex said, just as the steam cleared after having run out. Then, they heard something opening. They turned their heads just in time to see the escape pod doors closing, the left over steam disguising who was dragging who into the escape pod.

Carolina assumed the worst as Tex ranted to her about letting the enemy get away with Freelancer equipment.

C.T. was dead.

Meanwhile, the very much alive C.T. placed Michael into a safe position and started taking out the tomahawks out of his body and took off his helmet. "Michael. Hang on, we can get you help!" C.T. said as she got up to start activating the escape pod.

"Are you… hurt too bad?" Michael groaned out, clutching onto his wounds, coughing. He was bleeding really heavily. C.T. noted the blood flying from his mouth.

He must have a punctured lung, she noted morbidly.

"Please, save your strength." C.T. said frantically, her own breath fogging up her helmet. She was hyperventilating. "Just please hold on." She sobbed. She took off her helmet as well to wipe the tears off her cheek.

"You're so… beautiful… you know that… Connie?" Michael said, wiping C.T.'s cheek. She barely noticed the warm feeling it left behind.

"Please… just rest…" C.T. whispered to him.

'I will… for a while…' Michael thought, smiling at his lover. He coughed, blood splatting her armor. He struggled, raising a hand for her to grasp, before falling limp.

"Please… don't leave…" C.T. begged, gripping his hand like a lifeline, but she knew it was too late.

He was gone forever.

"NO!" C.T. shouted out, sitting up from her cot. She was sweating, and her throat felt tight.

She had that nightmare again.

"Fuck…" C.T. muttered as she looked at her hands. She could still feel Michael's blood there. How long had it been since he died? It still felt like yesterday when he did, and it only felt like hours since she secretly became the leader of what few Innies (well, Charon Industries Private Security Force) were left after that day.

"Hey, leader! We… might have a problem." One of the Insurrection called out from outside. "Some idiots managed to get into the mine fields." C.T. just sighed and put on a now red and black helmet and activated her voice modifier.

"Ugh… let me take care it." C.T. groaned, putting on her armor. It was days like these that made her regret her decision to take her lover's identity and faking her own death. For one thing, she discovered that Michael knew some really serious shit. Like, genocide levels of serious shit. Were they to discover that he was dead, well, it wouldn't end well for her. She added to her mental list to take down Charon Industries after she was finished with the Director. To her surprise it was actually much easier than she expected, to take her lover's place, since her armor hid her figure, voice modifiers were pretty easy to come by and she had learned various leadership skills she never learned back in Freelancer. During the aftermath of her escape, she had become too busy to keep tabs on Project Freelancer or work towards taking down the Director. Hell, the most recent bit of information she had about the Project was the fact that the helmet prototype that allowed Freelancers to eat with their helmet was being added to all Freelancer armor as standard issue.

A day after she "died".

Sighing, she put on the rest of her repainted Freelancer armor and armed herself with a Battle Rifle, a Pistol and her combat knives and walked out into the desert. She and her team had been tasked with obtaining an alien artifact from some desert temple in an area codenamed Sandtrap by any means necessary by Malcolm Hargrove.

She… never really liked him.

But she needed that pay to track down any remaining Freelancers and have them help bring the Director to justice. The datapad containing all the information that proved the Director's guilt actually kinda… broke over the years. She accidentally destroyed it one day and snapped it in two when she threw herself into bed while wearing her armor after a grueling mission.

She slept naked for weeks after that.

Suppressing yet another sigh, she squinted at the sun. "Still in the same damn spot." She sighed to herself before hopping onto a Mongoose and drove her way to the Elephant. All she had to do was get rid of those people in the minefield safely, kill Tucker and retrieve the artifact, kill the aliens, get paid and then run to find all the Freelancers she could.

She really hoped nothing would go wrong today.

(Several hours later)

"Motherfucker!"

Literally everything went wrong today.

Not only did those idiots in the mine field know Tucker, they fucking sealed themselves into the temple and now every human and alien on her side were desperately trying to break into the temple with everything they had. Bullets. Grenades. The Elephant. They did everything and yet there wasn't even a chip in the stone.

"I really hate that teal asshole." She muttered to herself as she overlooked the demolition process.

"I think he's more of an aqua color, sir." The soldier next to her spoke up.

"[That human with the Great Key is an annoyance to our cause.]" The Elite in blue armor commented. "[Though, I still wonder how he obtained such an artifact.]"

"Joanes, shut up. We've already talked about this." C.T. said. "And Smith? You can have his sword once we kill him."

'Though, I wonder if Hargrove pays extra if I give that to him…' C.T. thought. 'That guy has a fetish for alien artifacts and technology…'

"Um… it's pronounced…" Joanes spoke up but was interrupted by an explosion. C.T. smirked at the sight of the temple entrance exploding into a million pieces.

"Smith. Joanes. On me. Let's pay our dear friend a little visit." C.T. said, an evil smirk on her face underneath her helmet. Both Joanes and Smith nodded as they jumped down from their observation spot and ran into the temple. Suddenly, they heard bullets being fired. C.T. quickly looked around zoning in on where the shots were coming from. "The shots came from down here!"

"Yikes!" She heard from the direction she was pointing at.

'Yep, definitely in there.' She thought.

"Form up, men!" She commanded as everyone made their way to the enemy's location. "Finally, I have you, fucker…" She growled. Who the fuck knew the guy she frequently saw looking at porn and at the female archeologists, before they all died, was just as good as Carolina or Tex all those years ago?

…If Carolina was still around, she would not mention that to her.

"Freeze! Lower your weapons!" She shouted out as she aimed her weapon at Tucker and his allies. "You…" She growled as she walked up to the group."Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me? I should kill you right here."

"Somebody's gettin' killed? I wanna watch." A new, but very familiar voice said as he appeared from a hallway.

"What… the fuck?" C.T. muttered quietly to herself. She couldn't for the life of her remember what was on the datapad, but she did remember one thing.

It was the artifact that Hargrove wanted, and it was floating right in front of her.

Before she faked her death, she racked her brain wondering why the Director had information about this thing, but right now she wanted to get paid and not die because she had no idea what the artifact would do.

"You idiots activated it…!?" She exclaimed.

"Activated what?" The Artifact asked.

"Secure the relic! Don't let it get away!" She commanded. Joanes nodded and quickly pulled out his Plasma Pistol.

"Oh, cool pistol! Green's my favorite color." The Artifact said happily before Joanes fired, swiftly disabling it and falling onto the ground.

"Yes!" C.T. cheered.

"[WHAT!?]" Smith exclaimed. C.T. just ignored him.

"Church!" The blue idiot in armour exclaimed. C.T.'s eyes widened but shook her head. She didn't understand why the blue idiot called it "Church", and that feeling that these idiots were part of the Simulation Trooper Program that she planned to dismantle welled up again, but right now the artifact was her top priority.

"Great shot, Joanes!" C.T. said.

"Thanks! But it's actually pronounced Jo-annis, sir." Joanes replied… before getting slugged in the head by Smith before he continued to beat him to the ground. "What the-!?"

"Smith!? What are you doing!?" C.T. exclaimed in surprise. She was supposed to betray them, not the other way around! Then, the aliens exchanged a glance, before they opened fire on her team, turning against them in an instant.

"What's happening!?" The red idiot exclaimed.

"Dude, the aliens don't like their human buddies beating up on their religious artifacts." Tucker explained. There was an explosion nearby that killed a few of her soldiers. Thinking on her feet, she grabbed the artifact and started making for the exit, dodging Needler rounds and plasma bolts as she ran.

"Get out of the way!" She shouted out, pushing past her soldiers. She needed to get out of here, now. She quickly tossed the artifact into a jeep and climbed in. As she heard the crunching of sand coming her way, she turned on the jeep and started driving. Seeing some of her people jump on Mongooses and drove with her made her feel a little safer.

That is, until a rocker flew past her car, causing her to swerve.

"Hey! Friendly! Check your fire!" C.T. shouted out. "Don't shoot at me! Shoot them!" They quickly got the message and started firing at the idiots, but were missing horribly.

'My God, Stormtroopers can shoot better than these guys…' C.T. thought as she continued to drive as fast as her jeep could. There was a friend-or-foe system added to the mines so if they detect that she was driving over them, she wouldn't blow up unlike everyone else.

At least, she hoped. It… wasn't exactly tested.

"Shit!" C.T. exclaimed as she high velocity slug fired past her car. Who the Hell gave these idiots a fucking cannon on their car!? But looking back, she saw for some reason their car stalled. She didn't give it that much thought as she proceeded to keep driving. She turned on her long-ranged radio and started talking. "Control, this is Rebel Leader. The package is secure and now awaiting extraction coordinates. I repeat, the package is secure and ready for extraction. Over."

"Good job Rebel Leader." Control said. "Uploading extraction coordinates to your helmet. Be at the extraction location by the deadline or we're leaving you. Over."

"Copy that. Turning off communications." C.T. said before clicking off her radio and her voice modifier. She sighed sadly. "…What the Hell am I doing…" She muttered to herself. She realized she changed over the years but… some days she didn't recognize herself. After taking down the Director, she was going to visit a therapist.

But first, she was going to run over the turquoise annoyance that was in her way.

She shifted gears, dodged a shot by that slug-firing jeep and started speeding up as Tucker climbed out of his chopper and pulled out his sword. "Car beats sword, motherfucker." She muttered to herself before flipping on her voice modifier. Finally, after all this time she would finally wipe this man off the face of the planet.

That went down the drain really quickly.

"Now!" Tucker shouted out, jumping over her jeep as he slashed the engine. With the engine ruined and the energy of his sword igniting something in it, C.T.'s car coasted to a stop.

"Oh fuck…" She swore before jumping out of the jeep just as it exploded. Scrambling to her feet and seeing that she somehow made her way back to the temple entrance and started running. Seeing Tucker chasing after her, she quickly created a hologram to get Tucker off her trail while she hid in the shadows. Her holograms weren't exactly in the best condition but it was good enough to trick Tucker. "I'm ending this right now." She told herself, her voice switching from male to her own voice. She banged her helmet to get it back to working order.

'Fuck! Voice modifier must've taken damage in the explosion.' She thought to herself as she equipped her Battle Rifle and went up the ramp. Seeing Tucker alone and standing near the edge, she smirked. She only hoped her voice modifier would hold out. She would not give this man the satisfaction of knowing her identity.

"Freeze!" She shouted out, aiming her rifle at the aquamarine… turquoise… the idiot with the sword.

"Damn it!" Tucker swore as he turned around and saw C.T. aiming at him.

"Tucker, I should've killed you the second I laid eyes on you. I would've been long gone if you hadn't interfered." C.T. growled as she walked towards him. Tucker kept walking backwards towards the edge until he finally ran out of places to run. He was trapped, right where she wanted.

A quick look down told Tucker he had her where he wanted. It was just a matter of who will shoot first.

"Okay dude, I guess you got me." Tucker said, throwing his hands up in surrender. "I've got nowhere to go. Just tell me one thing though, who are you really? And who sent you here?"

"Sorry sweetheart. You'll never know." C.T. said, her voice modifier shorting out just as she said that.

"Well assh-wait, what the fuck!?" Tucker exclaimed. Realizing that her voice modifier had just given out, she started to pull the trigger on her gun.

"Hey, what's up?" The artifact said as he floated up behind Tucker.

"What in the Hell is that thing!?" She exclaimed in surprise. She thought it was deactivated.

Suddenly, its eye started to glow red as the sounds of something charging up filled the air.

"Oh, son of a-" She swore before closing her eyes, her life flashing before her.

'Michael… I'll see you soon…' C.T. thought, ready to see her lover again.

It didn't happen.

Instead what happened was Tucker, in the most smoothest thing he would ever do in his life, ran in front of C.T., swept her legs and causing her to start falling onto her back only for Tucker to catch her with one hand, have his sword in the other as Church fired. His sword absorbed the energy of the laser, turning it red and Tucker redirected the energy of the laser into the sky harmlessly as C.T.'s helmet slipped off.

Suddenly, Tucker's sword reactivated.

"…Holy shit, how the fuck did I do that?" Tucker muttered to himself before looking at C.T. "So… come here often?" C.T. just growled and tried to punch him, only for him to just drop her. A little dazed, C.T. was about to get up.

Just as a metal boot met her face and knocked her out cold.

"Oh my God!" Caboose called out. "He was a real girl all along!"

"Caboose, shut up. Tucker, what the fuck!?" Grif shouted out as he, Caboose and Sarge went up to Tucker, Church and the knocked out C.T. "Why didn't you let him kill her with his laser face!?"

"You fucking stole my thunder!" Church complained.

"I have no fucking idea." Tucker answered before looking down at C.T. "Still, that was kinda awesome."

"Well… yeah, it was pretty fucking smooth. But, you obviously just saved her because she's a girl." Grif admitted. "So… what should we do with her?"

"I say keep her a Prisoner of War." Sarge suggested. "All of her men are dead and the aliens aren't gonna help. No point in killin' her anyway."

"Probably because she's wearing red too." Grif said sarcastically.

"That too." Sarge said causing Grif to sigh.

"Anyway, how did you do that?" Tucker asked.

"I don't really know. I just got really mad and it just kind of, y'know, happened." Church admitted.

"Can you do that again, like to the yellow guy or something?" Tucker said.

"As long you don't save 'em at the last second." Church mumbled childishly.

"I got a bad feeling about this." Sarge muttered.

"For once Sarge, you and I agree." Grif replied.

"Alright guys, let's leave what we do with this bitch for now and keep our head in the game." Tucker said. "Let's get back into that temple and close it down for good."

"Um guys... I think we might have a problem." Caboose said, looking over the edge. The guys looked at each other before looking as well…

Only to see the aliens jumping up and down, shouting out prayers and other religious junk as they stared at their holy idol: Epsilon A.K.A. Leonard Church.

And as C.T. laid down face first on the scorching hot super rock as the Reds and Blues tried calm the aliens down, something told her in the back of her mind that something was gonna happen.

And it was going to suck.

Save Game… Quit!

Whew! Done! I don't know when I'm gonna update but hey, it's a thing I got out of my head finally.

UknownHero signing off, my friends!