Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter Four: Secrets and Lies
"What I don't get is the motion tracker," Wash said. "No one can get by one of those when they're active. You're sure you don't have anything in your logs? South, you with me? South!"
"What?" South just stared at her brother's dead body. The guilt was beginning to creep in on her.
"I need you to concentrate South. Okay? I know he was your brother, but the sooner I can piece together what happened, the sooner we can track this guy."
"Right, uh, sorry."
"Don't sweat it. Now, your logs. Nothing?"
"No. Not even a ping."
"And you didn't hear anything."
"I heard him – I heard him scream," South lied, "I came around the corner and then, nothing." That part was almost true. She had stopped the warthog, almost ready to turn around and go back for her brother, but then she had felt a sharp pain in the back of her head and blacked out. When she woke up she was lying next to North's blood covered armor. His helmet had been mashed so that it couldn't even be gotten off of him, even if she'd had the guts to remove his helmet and look at him one last time.
"You mean you didn't see the attacker."
"No. I mean nothing. I heard him scream, I headed towards him, and suddenly you're standing over me asking if I'm all right and telling my brother is dead," South started to tear up, and was thankful Wash couldn't see it behind her visor.
"Yeah, you were out about 8 hours. North's armor started a Level One Distress and that got me here stat," Wash felt bad for her, he really did. He'd always had a soft spot for South – alright a huge crush on her – and North had been one of his best friends. But that was the job. They were elite soldiers and they had to act like it. Wash felt the familiar rush of anger and resentment welling up inside him, but pushed it back down. Now's not the time, Wash. Not yet.
"Yeah..."
"Level One, South. Something you wanna tell me?"
"I'm sure you already know."
"I need you to confirm it."
"He still had Theta." South sighed.
"Well, I didn't find Theta on him, South. Did you take it?"
"No, I don't have it."
"Do you still have yours?"
"No Wash, I never had one. I was in the implant group behind you, remember. And after what happened to you, nobody got any more."
"Don't sound so bitter," Wash said, barely containing his own anger. That was why any shot at a relationship with the woman before him never got past a pipe dream. She hated anyone who'd had an A.I., including her own brother and including Wash, despite the fact the damn thing self destructed in his brain.
"Of course not. Bitter wouldn't win the war, right?"
"I have to take care of your brother now South. You might not want to watch this part." Wash said, his tone gentle again.
"Can I have a...few minutes alone with him first?" Yeah, the guilt was really hitting her now, god damn it.
"You can have one minute," Wash said, hiding his own pain with coldness.
"I guess I should say thank you."
"I guess you should get busy; you're minute's already started." Wash turned away, blinking back his own tears. Two of his best friends in a single day. That had to be some kind of record. A transmission came over the radio as he walked away from South.
"This is Recovery Command responding secure."
"This is Recovery One."
"Hello Wash, we have you secure, go ahead."
"I'm on the scene."
"What's the status of the twins?"
"North is KIA. South is still functioning."
"What is the status of North's A.I.?"
"You guys knew he had Theta?"
"Recovery One, please respond to the previous inquiry. What is the status of the artificial – "
"It's not here, okay! It's gone. This one's gone too."
"Understood. Please wait for directive." It was silent for a moment. "Find out what you can. Clean up the agents and report back."
"Already on it."
"The whereabouts of Theta are top priority Recovery One. You of all people do not need to be reminded of – "
"No. You're right. I don't need to be reminded of anything." Certainly not that Project Freelancer would rather kill their own agents than leave themselves culpable for their screwed up experiments, Wash thought.
"The mission is now Level Zero."
"What?"
"We need a full recovery of the current incident."
"Are you serious?"
"Recovery One, please confirm the previous directive...Recovery One please confirm – you are now level zero and you are ordered – "
"Yeah. I got it." Wash ended the transmission and walked back toward South kneeling over her brother's body. He had only a few seconds, but he made up his mind.
"Time's up. I'm sorry," Wash said. South sighed.
"I always thought being a twin was...a hard thing. Everyone always finds a way to put you together. It's like you're not considered two people. Even when we were kids our parents dressed us alike, and when we joined up and got sent to the program they stuck us together. People thought we were special somehow I suppose. I used to hate that. All I ever wanted was to have my own life, and here I am now, just wondering how I'm gonna live without him."
"Yeah," South looked up as Wash cocked his pistol. Bang! "I wouldn't go worrying about that if I were you."
South lay on the ground where she had fallen in surprise, breathing heavily as the adrenaline pumped through her. She had contacted command when she had originally regained consciousness before Recovery One had ever arrived, and they had told her the plan they had to draw the enemy out based on Wash's psych profile. She had heard Command's instructions to Wash to "clean up the agents" and known that this was part of the plan – he, having positive feeling toward his team mate, would not want to kill her, and would fake her death. Then they would draw out the Meta together with the lure of their special equipment. Wash would make sure to protect South and their equipment at all costs. In reward for endangering herself yet again, South would then come home and be rated for official A.I. implantation. However, she hadn't thought that Wash would ever actually point a gun at her and pull the trigger. The bullet had actually grazed her helmet, for god sake! She realized now that Command would have realized the possibility of him actually doing as he was told and killing her (he always was one for protocol) and would have planned for either eventuality accordingly. Well, South had some plans of her own, Command would soon find out. She let out a slow breath as Wash lowered his weapon.
"You're dead now. Remember that," Wash said as if this was all perfectly normal.
"I don't understand any of this," South lied, "and my ears are still ringing from that shot you fired."
"It had to sound good for the radio. One second, I need to talk to somebody," Delta popped up beside Wash's head.
"Hello. How may I be of assistance."
"What? Is that your A.I.? I thought he killed him – "
"Pipe down. We don't have time for explanations. Delta, have you been monitoring the situation here?
"I have."
"Is she clean?"
"Can I interpret that to mean, 'Is South now off of Command's active register?'"
"Yes."
"Affirmative."
"Wha – what register?" South cried indignantly.
"Instruction: give me 30 on North's clock. Hold on the log."
"Complying. Completed."
"Now, log to Command and include a similar description of South's termination."
"That would be dishonest."
"Yes. It would."
"Executing," Delta smirked to himself at Wash's deception. York would be proud. "Completed." South's jaw dropped inside her helmet. That was unexpected, "Wait a minute – how did you get him to lie?!"
"There's a lot you don't know. We're moving. Delta, storage. Go."
"Complying," Wash was right, there was a lot South didn't know. But there was a lot that Wash didn't, or shouldn't, know either. Like the fact that Delta could lie. Delta wondered just how much of Epsilon might still be in Wash's head.
"No!" South said stubbornly. There were far too many secrets and plans going around for her liking.
"Excuse me?"
"I am not moving an inch until you tell me what the hell is going on."
"Fine. Stay here with your brother then. Everyone thinks you're dead anyway. And in fifteen seconds that will be true."
"Ten seconds," Delta corrected.
"No sweat off my back. Just one less lie for me to live." And there it is was. Delta knew then that Wash likely remembered everything Epsilon had shown him. He knew why Epsilon had destroyed himself, and he knew what the Director had done to create the A.I.s. He wasn't crazy and he wasn't the enemy. Wash was just biding his time. Delta smiled to himself. This was progress. This was an ally.
"Well, shit," South sighed, and followed after Washington.
York sighed and dropped the binoculars he had been looking through back into the cockpit of the pelican. He had been watching Wash and South's interactions, as well as listening the Wash's radio transmissions. They assumed themselves on a secure channel, but there was more than one kind of lock York could pick.
"Well?" North asked weakly.
"They've faked South's death to Command, and now they're going to try and find Theta."
"I still can't believe they'd just have her killed like that. She isn't the one that went rogue."
"I guess they're gonna kill all of us to clean up the mess they made. We'll need to follow them – maybe we can get Theta and Delta back sooner than we thought. I'm still not sure whether we'll be able to trust Wash or not. He's been hard to get a read on, but I guess not killing South when ordered to is good...except for the fact the bitch left you to die. She's likely to do the same thing to Wash if they get in a scrape."
"Then I guess we'll have to get our sorry asses in gear and make sure that doesn't happen."
"Yeah. Let's lock and load," York jumped back into the cockpit of the pelican and started it up again. He put in the coordinates that Wash had provided to Command for where they were going to make their stand against the Meta and lifted off.