Wash was running, screaming, Crying. Not only from the wound in his torso but also from the events of the last 20 minutes. Yes, his torso had been ripped open and he was sure that the only thing keeping his organs in place was his power armour, and his helmets visor had been obliterated by a buck shot, but he knew that his wounds would heal and after all he had had worse but the psychological scars that were now sure to haunt his dreams they would not heal for much, much longer.

Chapter 1

6 months earlier:

I had been a member of project freelancer for nearly 2 years now and the Mother Of Invention had become his home. I would walk the halls at night and even the cold steel bulkheads that make up most of the interior of the UNSCs ships, gave me a sense of peace and safety. I often thought about how difficult it would be to go back to civilian life after the project. Little did I know that I didn't need to worry because I was never going back to civilian life.

Today was just a normal day, Id woken up at 06:00 crawled out of my rack and headed to the cafeteria where I had met up with Agents York and North before heading to the locker room to change into my armour for today's training. The three of us were all over 6 feet tall but I was the shortest at 6' 2", York was the tallest at nearly 7 feet. By comparison I was the kid brother of the group York and North teased me mercilessly about anything and everything including my freckles which were numerous and my poorly dyed blond hair.

I had a sparring session with Carolina at 08:00 and didn't want to be late, Carolina was a typical soldier not to mention my boss but she was also my friend, so he was sure to be there on time, I knew what was coming however, a training session with Carolina always ended with me having the ever loving shit knocked out of me for an hour and then 2 hours in my rack trying to get the swelling to go down so I could face my friends again without them laughing at me. If cold water didn't work, then I would be forced to keep my helmet on for the rest of the day. As you can imagine I rarely had my helmet off.

Today however was different, Carolina was waiting for me in the training room, but quickly informed me that we would not be training today, a new agent had been delivered to the MOI to replace Agent Georgia. We walked from the training room towards the hanger. The atmosphere was light hearted and Carolina had taken her helmet off revealing her long, red hair. I was always mesmerised by her hair and the exquisite beauty of her face, not to mention her ass, but I was always sure to not stare for too long, Carolina was York's and I didn't fancy having the two highest ranking freelancers baying for his blood even if one was half blind.

The mood however changed almost immediately when we entered the hanger, the director was stood there in his uniform as the new soldier in mint green and purple, the opposite of South Dakotas. The director introduced the new agent as Agent California and everyone clapped as was tradition. York started planning a party, North was desperate to show the new agent around, but Carolina just stood there rooted to the spot. I never asked her what was wrong but through gritted teeth she replied, I know that armour.

The new agent moved over towards our group and introduced herself as California, the other agents were not allowed to know our birthnames. She took off her helmet and every one of my fellow agents recoiled from her, and quickly excused themselves rather rudely dragging me with them.

When we reached the corridor, I broke free of York's firm grasp and asked why they were so rude to the new agent. York hauled me aside and sat down obviously flustered and explained that they knew the agent before project freelancer and recounted tails of the destruction death that she left in her wake. When he had finished his lecture, I brushed his arm off my shoulder rather more harshly than I had meant to and responded flatly with, "don't you think it might do you some good to get her side of the story before you judge her so harshly." And with that I left maybe I was naive or maybe I was the only one of the agents with even a shred of human decency left. That's not to say the project hasn't affected me, I don't think I had had a decent night's sleep in weeks and when I did get to sleep my dreams were haunted by the faces and eyes of people I had killed lights I had extinguished forever. Hence the reason that I had taken to walking the halls at 3am. Something about the other agent's reactions bothered me, I knew what it was like to shunned by my peers when I was a kid I had very few friends and was bullied and I remembered that feeling and thought about how that must be how agent California was feeling right now.

The rest of the day passed and I didn't see California but I was determined that when I did, I would take the time to understand her, and offer her the friendship that no one else on the MOI seemed willing to give.

That night I awoke as usual drenched in sweat and screaming at 03:12 and got up as had been my ritual, but for some reason I was drawn towards the gym and as I had spent most the day in the classroom, I decided now was as good a time as any to go through my workout. I threw on an old pair of tracksuit bottoms and an old T-shirt it wasn't like anyone was going to see me now at this time of night.

As I walked into the gym I noticed a dark figure in the corner by on one of the cross trainers, I didn't recognise the figure but curiosity got the better of me and I wandered over to see who the mysterious figure was, presuming it was one of the pilots one a nightshift who found themselves at a loose end and decided to hit the gym. Anyway someone to talk to might take my mind of the horrors that are my dreams. As I approached the figure I placed a smile on my face and introduced myself as Agent Washington, this however was not one of the pilots that I recognised but this woman was all of my dreams and fantasies in one women. She had freckles like mine, glasses, red hair (not like Carolina's this was more orange than red but just the shade that Wash liked) and yes even braces. This was my dream women, being the dork that I was I of course had a stammer and what was supposed to be a smooth pick up line came out more as "HeYo iz Agent Washingtub".

The women laughed and said, "Hello agent Washingtub, my name is California but call me Cali" I froze rooted to the spot after the way that the rest of the agents had reacted to Cali I had expected some sort of monster. The kind of person who would beat you to death with your own skull just for looking at her in the wrong way, sort of like Carolina and Tex now that I thought about it.

"what brings you to the gym at this time of night I didn't expect to see anyone in her?" I enquired

"Same thing as you" replied Cali, "I don't sleep well anymore, after, after…" she trailed off.

I knew better than to push the issue and continued with polite conversation taking up the cross trainer next to Cali. I never used the cross trainer but something about this woman intrigued me, I had to know more. After about 30 minutes I asked why all the other freelancers seemed to dislike her so intently after seeing her face. At this Cali froze mid step and gave me a look of what could only be described as fear as if the question could somehow throw her back into the horrors of a past she had long since tried to forget.

"you really don't know do you?" she said firmly.

"No, and don't feel like you have to talk about it I know how hard it can be, I judge people based on how they act in the present not how the have acted in their past."

She thought about these words for a while and simply replied "Thank you, it's nice to know someone does," the counsellor had me recount the entire thing from beginning to end when I arrived."

"Anyway, I think I'm done for tonight, I'll see you tomorrow Agent Washington, it was nice to meet you, you are the only one who has spoken to me all day."

I felt sadness at this, thinking back to my first day everyone had wanted to speak to me, York had even thrown a party.