Alpha hated to admit it to himself, but he actually liked the thefts.

He liked it because it gave him something to do. Because it usually led to long lines of banter with Arizona, and he got sort of lonely sometimes so he liked it when she talked to him directly. He liked the feeling of working together as a team, breaking the rules just because they could. It reminded him of being with Beta.

But mostly, he liked it because it kept Arizona's mind focused on something besides her friends.

Not that he didn't like Arizona's friends. He did. Though he could not interact with them directly, the secondary positive impulses he received when Arizona talked to them were nice. And while he had been able to watch them when he was running the MoI, it was different observing them through an actual human brain. It was a lot more personal. And he could even influence the interactions by asking Arizona to say something specific, or by subtly bringing a topic to the forefront of her mind.

They were almost his friends. Almost.

But the problem was that those interactions caused a lot of strain on Arizona's mind. She didn't necessarily realize it, because Alpha was awesome and fucking good at his job, but the personality he had pieced together for her was, at times, a little…tenuous. Her aspects were still alive and well. And although he was able to bridge the gaps and allow them to communicate with one another, it wasn't always easy. There were a lot of impulses to keep up with, and in the instances where heavy communication was necessary, it got to be a little draining.

Not that he couldn't keep up with it. He could. Obviously.

But it really helped to have a clear objective. Something Logic and Discontent could hone in on, or even Aggression, rather than Happiness (who wasn't that difficult to control, just really fucking annoying) or Fear (even more annoying, and a hell of a lot louder), or, if things got really bad, Passion. Fuck Passion. Seriously.

Which is why when Arizona gave him a very annoyed mental eye roll at their current predicament, an eye roll that came mostly from Discontent, he couldn't have been happier.

'Hey, you're the one who decided the whole goddamn team needs a daily jello fix,' he reminded her.

Would you stop being an asshole and start watching the fucking trackers?

'Bitch,' he told her fondly as he complied. Oh. Yeah. Okay, maybe he should have been focusing more energy on their situation and a little less on angsty introspection. 'Uh, you're pretty well blocked in.'

There was silence for a moment as Arizona brought the information up in her HUD herself. She sighed. Fucking great.

'Hey, look up.'

What?

'Did I fucking stutter? Look up at the ceiling!' The other difficult part about being in Arizona's brain? She wasn't the brightest.

I heard that. What are you looking for, anyway, it's just a plate of…metal…oh. Ahhhhh, she finally joined the party. Maybe he was fixing this wreck of a brain after all. Oh, shut up and turn on the grav boots.

And so it was that he and Arizona escaped the store room for the mess hall by walking across the ceiling.

York was waiting for them in the hallway outside, having taken it upon himself to be her lookout. Alpha thought he just wanted to show her that he could do infiltration tasks, too, which Arizona had laughed at and suggested that maybe York actually wanted to help. Whatever. Arizona was better at it anyway.

Oh, my. Alpha, I think you just leaked a compliment.

'Really? Pretty sure I didn't.'

Kinda sounded like you did.

'No, you didn't let me finish my thought! It was going to be 'Arizona is better BECAUSE I'm here. If York had an AI he would kick your ass.'

No.

'Look, I can show you the numbers. You only have a lower detection rating if there aren't locked doors anywhere along the way, and even then, that's only in alien structures.'

Wait. So you're saying I remain undetected in alien structures, just not human ones?

'Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.'

Um. Okay. I don't know if anyone told you this, Alpha, but we're actually fighting aliens. Not humans.

Alpha gave a long, frustrated 'aauuuuugh' and threw his mental head back in exasperation. 'You are determined to make it seem like you're better, aren't you? Look, it's the truth. If York had an AI, all the statistics say he would be a much better infiltration specialist than you are.'

No, she insisted, he wouldn't.

'Seriously!? What the hell makes you think–'

The AI wouldn't be you.

She said it so simply, with such honesty, that Alpha was actually rendered speechless.

It was two full weeks after the battle of New Harmony ended that South and C.T., along with the last few PFL soldiers, were finally extracted from the remains of the temple and returned to the Mother of Invention.

Three hours later, they were jumping into slipspace.

"New Harmony was one of our largest crop-producing planets." Arizona focused intently on the targets in front of her, trying very hard not to look like she was listening to Carolina trying to calm down Georgia. "We have to go to Harvest. We can't afford to lose another farm planet."

"We didn't even try to bury them!" Georgia screeched. Pop-pop-pop.

"We don't have–" Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop. Whatever Carolina said was drowned out by Arizona's rifle. She didn't normally lay so heavily on the trigger. But she also didn't normally have to try so hard not to be part of intensely private conversations happening in the middle of the training room.

Georgia let out a dry sob. "You know that's not true," he said. He sounded like he wanted to shout and cry and whisper all at the same time.

"It is tr – Georgia! Georgia, get back here!" But Carolina may as well have been shouting at the wall. "Dammit!" she hissed, punching the wall instead.

Arizona exchanged a silent glance with Florida. The training room had been getting more and more crowded as soldiers and agents alike were cleared for duty. Lately, unless a specific exercise was scheduled, the room was set up as an open shooting range. It was large enough that the soldiers mostly stayed on one side of the room and the Freelancers on the other, but the argument between Carolina and Georgia had been loud enough to attract the attention of both.

It was about Delaware. Everyone knew it, even if neither Georgia nor Carolina brought her up directly. It was about the fact that Delaware's body couldn't be retrieved, that she had been so thoroughly incinerated when the Pelican blew up that her recovery beacon never even went off. It was about the fact that they were leaving New Harmony before giving her or Wisconsin a funeral, or even a quiet goodbye.

It wasn't easy for any of them, but that was war. Not everyone came back. You didn't always get to say goodbye.

Arizona straightened and lowered her gun as York cautiously approached Carolina. She normally would just shrug him off, but this time she let him hold her hand, in view of the entire training room. North and South were sitting next to each other, waiting for one of the courses to open up. They were talking quietly, leaning toward one another, without even a hint of bickering. Hell, even Wyoming had put a hold on his terrible jokes, choosing instead to have a normal conversation with C.T.

"I think I'm done for the day," she told no one in particular.

Florida gave her a sidelong look. "My door is always open if you need to talk," he told her.

She nodded, but didn't say anything in return, opting instead to deposit her gun on the rack and quietly leave the training room. Florida was a nice enough guy, despite being kind of creepy and very murder-y. But he wasn't who Arizona needed right now.

'You sure you want to do this?' Alpha asked quietly as she reached the barracks. He had been notably silent from the moment Georgia entered the training room and demanded to know why they were leaving.

Yes. She could hear voices on the other side of the door. Well, one voice and one heavy set of footsteps. They were both awake. She keyed in the passcode.

"I didn't do it for you."

Maine and Wash froze as she stepped into their room. Wash was still not cleared for duty, although he was able to move around within his room. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, watching Maine pace. "Zo?"

"I didn't do it for you," she repeated, looking directly at Maine. It was the first time they had spoken since she returned from New Harmony. He had been spending most of his time with Wash, and she hadn't figured out how she wanted to approach him. But seeing the Freelancers in the training room falling so far from their normal routines…she couldn't put it off any longer. "And I'm not going to say I'm sorry."

'Um, what are you doing?'

She ignored Alpha and continued. "You were injured. I don't care what you say, or what you ended up doing once we left. You were nearly torn in half by a turret just a few weeks prior, and you weren't moving well."

Maine growled and finally interrupted. "It was fine."

"It wasn't," she said simply, crossing her arms. Wash was looking between them like a kid watching his parents fight. "We can't move you, Maine. We aren't physically strong enough to lift you, not if you're completely out. You're too heavy. But do you think for one second that Wash or I wouldn't try?" She paused, letting the message sink in. "No one walked out of that temple unscathed. No one. I know you've been beating yourself up over these stupid what-if's, because that's what you do. What would have happened if you had been there? I can fucking tell you what would have happened."

"Zo," Washington said weakly, but she shot him a look, and he fell silent.

"You would have been hit. Don't try to deny it, you are too big of a target and you were moving too slowly, because you were still recovering. You would have been hit, and then Wash would have been killed trying to do something stupidly heroic to save you. And then Wyoming and Florida and I would have followed. You know why? Because we are fucking sick of watching kids die."

"I'm not–"

"You found Wisconsin." Arizona pushed forward, ignoring Wash's protest, not caring that Maine's face was growing paler and paler with every word. "You brought back his body, so you must have seen him. Shrapnel wound. I know, because I saw him get hit. He could have lived. You know why he didn't?"

Washington looked like he wanted to throw himself between Arizona and Maine. He was looking at her like she was firing actual bullets into the room, instead of harsh truths. Maine swallowed. "He bled out," he whispered.

"That's how he died. Not why."

'Zo, please, stop.'

No.

'Come on, Zo, what's the point?'

They need to hear this. "Wisconsin died because he went after North. He left his team, left the people who could have saved him, because North fell through a hole in the ground and Wisconsin decided that he didn't want to watch a kid die. And yes," she said, turning her attention to Wash, "I know North's not exactly a kid. He's, what, twenty-three? Wisconsin was almost forty. You try to tell me he didn't think of North like a son." It was true. Wisconsin had been in charge of training the newest sniper, and at some point, North had helped fill the void left by the death of Wisconsin's actual son.

"And now Wisconsin is dead. Delaware is dead. And this team is reeling so hard, I don't know if we'll ever really get back on our feet. Now, where do you think we would be if we had lost one of you? If we had lost both of you?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. It wasn't really supposed to be dramatic; she just had a lump in her throat that made volume difficult. "So I'm not going to say I'm sorry. I stand by what I did. I'm just…"

She had been staring both of them down the entire time, refusing to break eye contact, but now she felt suddenly exposed. She averted her eyes. "The war was supposed to be over by now. You…your generation…they weren't supposed to fight. That was our job. So just…let's split the difference, okay? Stop it with the stupid heroics. Stop trying to save the day. Be smart about how you fight and leave the self-sacrificial bullshit to the people who are ready to die anyway. Okay?"

Wash shook his head. "That's not how it works. Maine and I joined–"

Arizona cut him off with a hug. Well, hug wasn't really the right word. It was a protective embrace, one that she quickly pulled Maine into as well. She understood why Wisconsin had gone after North, despite knowing that North could look after himself. She understood, because she would do the exact same thing for these two dorks. "I'm just glad you're okay," she muttered into Maine's shoulder. "So stop arguing with me and pretend that you listened for just a few minutes."

"Now who's the mother hen?" Wash chuckled, but he returned the hug, and they stayed that way for more than a few minutes.

Alpha was exhausted.

Arizona's little stunt earlier had relied so heavily on Passion, Alpha had been momentarily in danger of being overridden. He had been trying to fight the aspect while still relaying communication. It was always a little more difficult with Passion, but this was an entirely new level. It was also very much Arizona. Alpha's influence on her personality hadn't shown in even the slightest.

But he had figured something out. Zo saw Wash and Maine as her family. Perhaps even a few of the other Freelancers, but those two in particular. Her protectiveness, her honesty, was almost maternal. Almost. More like a mixture of 'mom' and 'sister.' Like she knew she couldn't be either, shouldn't be either, but couldn't help but feel protective and caring all the same.

And that was a feeling Alpha was very familiar with.

All he needed to do was think about Carolina. It was the same feeling for him. Carolina wasn't his daughter, and he knew that, but he couldn't help but feel some sort of strange mix of fraternal and paternal love for her. It made sense. He was a copy of her father, after all. But more importantly, the emotions, that portion of his personality, matched Arizona's.

And matching, it seemed, was the missing puzzle piece he had been struggling to find. Because the moment he was able to compartmentalize, to dig into his own coding and find the portions that were mimicking those emotions, he was able to pull them into a unit and lay them over Passion. Rather than trying to understand and relay communication from Passion directly, he let Arizona's aspect talk to his own fragment, and his own fragment talked to him.

He tried a similar technique later, when Arizona was confronted by South in the mess hall over something Alpha didn't bother paying attention to. What he did pay attention to was the way Aggression pushed forward, eager to throw South through a table. Again, he examined Arizona's emotions, and found the matching coding within himself. He pulled it forward, molded it into a second, mini-Alpha, and laid it over Aggression. When South finally left, he pulled the fragmented coding back into himself.

Discontent was a little more difficult because she was as multifaceted as Passion, but unlike Passion, she was able to show much more of herself at any given time. Alpha created two separate miniature entities, one based on ambition and one based on deceit, and gently layered them over Discontent. He thought about adding a third level of creativity, but decided against it. He didn't want to pull too much coding out of his core personality at once.

By the end of the day, Alpha had successfully rearranged his coding into dozens of emotional 'packets,' any one of which he could fragment off himself and use to talk to one of Arizona's aspects. The experimentation and rearranging were exhausting. Maybe even a little reckless, he knew, considering what had happened to Leo. But Alpha was stronger. Alpha could take it.

Alpha wouldn't fragment irreparably.