Like before, this chapter is late. It is also, however, pretty awesome, so you should enjoy it anyway. (I'm too tired to be writing author's notes.)

Oh, also, important announcement. Lilfoxkit has joined me as a co-writer on this story as well now. Hopefully he'll be able to keep me on track, since I have so utterly failed in that regard. Keep your fingers crossed.


"You're scared of AIs?" I ask as I carefully pick up the unit. It's damaged, with scratches in the plating and a light plasma burn on one side, but the light on it is still glowing. Unless it's a malfunction, there's an AI in here.

"I've seen what those things can do, lady. So, yeah, I'm scared of them," Grif answers. His voice is nervous, and he's still backing away from the device. "That's why I dropped it the moment I realized what it was. I was hoping it'd break," he states as he once again raises his rifle.

I try not to glare at Grif as he explains. I know he and the other sim-troopers had a lot of trouble with the Omega AI before. It's natural for him to be wary of an unknown AI, especially in a place like this, where he's already fought multiple battles. Still, I can't take too kindly to his mistreatment of the unit. It's already damaged, and if it fails, the AI inside could be trapped forever. Essentially, it'd be dead, stuck in a blank holding cell with no way out. I can't help but remember Rho when I think this. After all the time I've spent with her, both helping fix her and growing to accept her as family, it's natural for me to think of AIs as people.

I take a moment to check over the storage unit, ensuring that it won't fail unexpectedly. Despite the outward damage, the internal structure looks nearly unharmed. Though it wouldn't be safe to open now, I'm confident it could be stabilized and the AI inside retrieved with some work.

During the inspection, I notice a small Greek symbol scratched roughly into the plating. It's the letter Zeta. While it isn't exactly a confirmation, I would be willing to bet this is an Alpha fragment I'm holding.

"Don't worry," I whisper as I stick the unit to the magnetic storage strip on my lower back. "I'll get you fixed up as soon as I can, Zeta."

I then stand and face Grif again. "Come on," I say, ignoring his obvious discomfort at my choice to keep the AI. "I got one of the computers working. Let's go see if it has any clues."

Grif nods, attention successfully diverted back to the mission. "Do you think there'll be anything useful?" he asks.

"Well, this place looks like it was primarily used for distributing resources to the simulation bases," I begin as we walk back to the computer still attached to my helmet. "But it seems its secondary purpose was data storage and video observation of Freelancer's other bases. It we're lucky, this will include Blood Gulch. We could find mission reports and personnel assignments."

"Which would either tell us where Sister went, or what those Freelancers found in Blood Gulch after we left," Grif guesses.

"Exactly," I agree with a nod. I don't wait for a response as I begin searching through the computer. I know I'm not the most qualified for this; Yttri or Nick or even Iodine would be better suited for the job. Still, mom made sure all of us had at least some basic knowledge of computer science and repair. Between that and some of what Rho's shown me over the years, it doesn't take too long to get past whatever security would normally be in the way.

I open the files labeled personnel assignment first, hoping to see if a Kaikaina Grif had been sent anywhere during the time she went missing. Unfortunately, all I find under her file is a report stating she'd gone missing en-route to Blood Gulch years ago. A quick scan shows that she attempted to steal a ship and run away when she'd been assigned, stating she wanted to find her brother. Oddly enough, she had already been assigned to Blood Gulch, which is where she found Grif anyway.

"That's... odd," is all I can manage, unsure of what to make of the circumstance for her being listed AWOL.

"Yeah, she's kind of dumb," Grif explains.

After more searching I notice a single amendment to her file, though the data' been corrupted. It does, however, hold several links. Clicking one open, I find something rather surprising; a recovery team had been sent to Blood Gulch. I try checking for more details on this team and their mission, only to be met with even more corrupted data.

"What's that mean?" Grif asks, leaning over my shoulder and getting in the way as I try to find any useful information.

"Someone doesn't want us to know what that mission was about," I say, pushing him back. "Though from what we saw that's left of Blood Gulch, it's not too hard to guess."

"Does it say if they found my sister?"

"It doesn't say anything," I sigh. "The data's corrupted; it's gone. My guess would be that it's intentional, too. Better to get rid of the information than try to put it behind security that could potentially be breached."

"Why would they bother hiding this?" Grif asks.

"The Director destroyed every document that had even the slightest bit to do with the Alpha," I shrug. "I guess whatever happened in Blood Gulch counts, too."

"Well, is there anything useful here?" Grif sounds annoyed, and I sympathize. It's been frustrating to find so many dead ends.

I nod, going back to the previous files. "It doesn't say what the mission was about, or what they found, but it does say who was sent," I say slowly as I read over the information presented. "Agents Michigan and Alabama," I eventually say aloud.

"Well, let's go talk to those guys, then," Grif suggests, eager to follow the first real lead we've had in over a month.

"That might be difficult," I explain. "All the Freelancers are either in jail or doing a very good job of hiding themselves."

"So?! Washington got out of jail!" he yells, somewhat trying my patience. I know it's not his fault, but I do sometimes wish he would just let me make the plans. Despite all the stumbling around in the dark we've been doing lately, I really do know what I'm doing here. "And-"

I feel some confusion at his sudden pause, though I quickly look back at the screen when I finally notice him staring at it.

"What's wrong?" I ask, noticing his eyes filtering over the list of all personnel assigned to Blood Gulch in the past.

"That guy," Grif says, pointing to a blanked out section where I would expect Blue Team's members to be listed. "He shouldn't be there."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well, to start, we deleted all the blues," Grif explains. "It was some dumbass plan from Sarge or something. Anyway, there shouldn't be any records about that. Plus, I know everyone who was stationed to Blue Team during my time there, and I don't recognize that name. That's a Freelancer name."

I take a closer look. "Agent Florida," I start. "His body wasn't recovered; neither was his armor or its enhancement. Says here his real name is Butch Flowers."

"You mean Captain Flowers?" Grif asks. "He was leading Blue team for a while, until he died. I think Tucker took his armor, actually."

"Then Tucker is in possession of real Freelancer armor, not the simpler version the rest of you were given," I say, eyes scanning Florida's profile. "He probably still has the x-ray unit, too."

"X-Ray unit?" Grif asks.

I nod. "It says here it was assigned to him to..." I pause, trying to fill in the blanks of what's been blocked out. "I guess it's saying to check on Alpha. He needed to keep Church from realizing he was an AI, but he had to check that nothing had fallen out of place inside his robot body, so they gave him an armor enhancement to allow him to see through things."

I squint at the computer as I read the rest of the file. "It's odd," I finally say. "Freelancer didn't care much about finding bodies, but they did care about armor. I'm surprised they let it disappear like that."

"Do you think Tucker knew he had that ability?" Grif asks as I click on an attached file. I quickly realize that it's a record of every time the x-ray unit was activated. My answer to Grif's questions fades into quiet anger as I read.

The log starts with a large cluster of activations, presumably to test that the unit was working. Then there are numerous bi-weekly uses which I assume were from Florida checking Alpha for any damage. Around the time I remember Tucker saying their team captain died, the activations stop.

A few weeks later there's another small spike in usage. I can't help but imagine this is when Tucker first discovered the ability. This quickly falls back down to zero, I assume as Tucker realized the ability did him little good with only his teammates around. There was another small spike hen Donut was assigned to the canyon, followed by a report that someone had attempted to damage the unit.

I sigh and shake my head, thinking of how Caboose still sometimes thinks the pink armored man is a girl. I'm sure Tucker still regrets that mistake to this day.

There's another rise in usage when Sister arrives in the canyon, and again when they meet Carolina. Afterward, there doesn't seem to be much activity. That is, until around the time I first ran into the sim-troopers.

"Hey, isn't that around the time you met us?" Grif asks, pointing to the screen, clearly amused by the act. "I guess he was really glad for the armor upgrade then."

"We need to make a quick turn around." I say somewhat calmly.

"What? Why?"

"So I can stop by Pantheon and strangle him."

"Ah, come on, it's not that bad," Grif argues. "Besides, look. He stops using it eventually," he adds, pointing back to the screen.

I look where he's indicating before grinning a bit. "That's the day Tinu punched him in the head."

"See? I think he paid for it," Grif says. "Although, if you want to beat up a blue once we're done finding Sister, I certainly won't stop you," he then adds.

"So you've still got a thing against the blues," I muse as I begin searching for where the two Freelancers are now. "You know, you're starting to sound a bit like Sarge."

Grif groans at the observation, sounding disgusted. "Don't even joke about that. I'm nothing like Sarge. I just tend to hold it against someone when they've shot at me for the past few years of my life."

"And yet, you all seem to be friends now."

"That's 'cause Carolina said she'd shoot us if we didn't work together to find the Director," Grif argues. "Without that, we'd still be in our separate bases getting our asses kicked by Wash."

"I guess you owe her a lot then," I say.

"Yeah, maybe," Grif shrugs. "She at least took Church away, so there's one less asshole from that canyon to deal with."

I glance back at him for a moment. While I've noticed it's normal for most of the sim-troopers to hold onto the mentality of being enemies, it's not something I normally associate with Grif. Holding a grudge seems like too much work for him. It takes me a moment to realize that he's just trying to keep something familiar in his life. In the canyon, nothing ever seemed permanent. People died and came back as ghosts, and giant explosions only ever threw you through time. No one really got hurt. Now his sister is gone, and last he heard she's been killed. It makes sense that he'd hold onto those old rules in the hope that she'll somehow be alive and fine somewhere, despite the very real chance that she's gone for good.

I choose not to say anything, instead fixing my eyes back on the screen. I know what it's like to cling to whatever hope's available. I know how it feels to lose family. However I can, with whatever power I have, I'll do my best to stop him from experiencing that. It's the least a friend can do.


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