For two more years, I had been pulling Zeta. I depended on myself and shut out anyone else. I created a wall where I was on one side, and everyone else I knew was on the other. I didn't fit in for the time I joined their side of the wall. My training consisted mostly of weapons, but at least half an hour a day would I work on a little hand to hand combat. I was getting better. I used a hologram deck, or something of the like, to help me get used to actually killing people. I couldn't rely solely on illusions, anyway. The training sooner became to little. Eventually, I needed better stimuli.
"Hey, Jessy?" Alaska confronted me as I was eating a sandwich I had prepared for myself.
"I'll ask you again to call me Tennessee. That's the only name I have that wasn't given to me by my parents." I sighed, taking another bite of the food.
"My apologies." He sat next to me, "You should stop pulling Zeta."
"Why should I?" I set my meal down on a plate and reached for a cup of water, "He keeps me awake at night, he doesn't stop talking about how we should manage to be a team, and he's probably going to fuck me over."
"Now, I didn't teach you to use language like that. Where did you hear it from?"
"I'm thirteen. It's not like you can prevent me from learning them." I downed the glass of water, letting the cold sensation crawl down my throat, "And you aren't my father. You can't prevent me from saying them."
"Legally I am your father."
"Yeah, but not biologically."
"It's sounds like you're trying to create your own barrier."
"I don't want to feel for people anymore. If I get too attached, then they'll end up abandoning me."
"That's funny to think about when you were just allowed to join us on a mission," he stood up, "but if you don't want human contact, then maybe you shouldn't join us."
"What's the mission?"
"Ah? So you are interested."
"I haven't had a mission for the three or so years I've been here. Of course I'm interested."
"Infiltration. We're after an artifact. We're allowed to kill as many as necessary."
"Sounds like my kind of game." I giggled, "When do we start?"
"Tomorrow morning." He started to walk away, "four a.m. is when we leave, meet us at three thirty."
"You know I'll be up at two, right?" I laughed, "I'll get ready in the morning."
Morning had come. I jogged down the corridors to get my blood pumping through me veins. I stopped at the locker rooms where I had left my armor and weapons.
"Ah, good morning, Ms. Tennessee." Michigan greeted me as he pulled his armor out of his locker.
"Morning, Agent Michigan." I bluntly responded as I fumbled around the pad lock.
"Are you going to be joining us on the mission this morning? Or are you here for regular routine?"
"You're going on the mission too?" A laughed a little, "I guess it's a bit of a small world. And here I thought you were just getting ready for regular training."
"Well, I thought you were just here to try to grow a few inches."
"Just because I stopped growing doesn't mean I can't whoop your ass. Remember that I'm still five and a half feet of hell." Silence grew in the room. Silence is such a silly thing that I thought I only had when I was sleeping. Silence had become my new bliss.
"Do you mind if I ask you something?" Michigan spoke up, breaking my bliss.
"No, I do not mind." I sighed as I slid into my brown armor with pink highlights.
"Why did you stay in Project Freelancer, if you could just walk away anytime?"
I had to actually think about this. It was actually a good question, "Because I sold my life long ago."
"Then why'd you have to give your life to someone else? You just want them to run it for you?"
"I gave my life up for my mother, and for some reason I am unable to force myself off that path."
"Is that it?"
Is that it? Is there more? "Well, maybe I've made up lies to fight the truth."
"Perhaps." He sat there staring at me for a moment, "You may want to have Zeta active while we're on this mission."
"I don't need Zeta." I put on my helmet.
"Oh, you may, but it's not my place to judge." He sighed, "I was after getting Zeta long before you came. If I had ahold of him, I wouldn't have been pulling him for years straight."
"You'd do the same. He doesn't stop talking... and he would keep you awake."
"I just know that Zeta probably would've been better off with someone else, but they chose you. They wouldn't have just handed it off to someone random without knowing that it would help you."
"Listen, if I ever need him on the mission, then I'll use him. Otherwise, I'll keep ignoring him."
"Wait. So you aren't pulling him?"
"I don't know how. I just yell at him whenever he came online and he just eventually stopped."
"That's probably worse than pulling him. You probably put him in a depression. That would explain why none of us had seen him in a while."
"I'll do as I please."
"You're so stubborn." He made his way toward the doorway out, "But suite yourself. If you're life gets in danger, then it's all on you."
The mission has started. There were probably just half a dozen of us. We were split into groups of two so that it would be easier to find this artifact we're looking for. God knows where it is by now, but it's supposed to look like some kind of sphere thingy. I was the unlucky one. I was paired with Michigan. Yes, Michigan. The very same guy who probably would throw me in front of a gunfire. Me jumped out of the pelican, jet packs handy. Almost immediately, Michigan and I were attacked. We were the unlucky group that started at the base of the building. The rest were at the top. We had to kill them all without alarming anything, meaning no gunfire, no illusions, no nothing except for aiming for quick deaths. I managed to get a few guys unconscious and then come back for them with my blade to finish the job.
"You seem to have no hesitation with this." Mich laughed at me.
"Be quiet. You may alarm someone." I stared him down.
"Fine. Just go up the stairs."
"I know what to do."
"Just admit that's you'd be dead if I weren't here."
"Never." We ran up the stairs. After probably half an hour of avoiding alarms, we had finally found a room of stockpiled stuff. It seemed like a vault.
"Doesn't this seem familiar?"
"This is the same place that the agents came to get something they called a 'sarcophagus.' No wonder it seems familiar." I just walked around, not letting my guard down until I found a beautiful piece. It was an old Freelancer's armor.
"Isn't that the Meta's?"
"Seems like it." I examined every detail, "If it does have pretty much all the previous Freelancers' armor abilities, do you think we could harvest them?"
"If that's possible, then you can have them." He snorted.
"And why me?"
"Because, without your AI you're practically nothing, but you refuse to use him. The extra armor abilities may allow you to go up a level on the leader board."
"You'd do the same."
"No I wouldn't." Right then, I heard something like a click. I turned around to see something exactly like what happened with Agents Carolina and Washington (season 9 episode 15) with the flame thrower guy, "Well, this must be your day of karma. Maybe you should use Zeta." He pulled out a gun and started shooting, but the opponent just seemed to brush it off and fired (Pun not intended) his weapon.
Run, jump, dodge, shoot, lather, rinse, repeat. It was just endless. We couldn't hit him and we tried to save our own lives as well.
"We have to try to get closer in order for out attacks to do anything successful!" Michigan yelled at me.
"No shit, really?!" I yelled back.
"You know, if you want friends, you could stop being so much of a bitch!"
"Can we talk about this later?!"
"Use Zeta!"
"I can do this without him."
"Give the damn AI a chance before you go out yelling that you don't need him!" About five minutes went by and no progress had been made. The only thing that had changed within the entire fight was the amount of energy we were able to hold on to. We needed to finish this soon, or we'd end up dying a scorching death.
"We found the artifact." Someone said on the intercom.
"We're kinda busy!" I yelled into my headset.
"There's no reason to yell in your mic, Agent Tennessee. State you're coordinates."
"We're in some sort of vault." Michigan responded.
"Which one?" Whomever asked again.
"You know what?" I responded, "We're almost done here. I'm going to turn off my mic for a minute. I'll get right back to you." I took in a deep inhale and a slow exhale, knowing that I'll probably regret this decision, "Zeta? Can you please help?"
"I thought you were too good for me." Zeta came out, "Or is it because you're life is actually endangered that you need my help. I swear, you humans are all the same in my book. I just hoped you'd be different."
"Listen, Zeta. I'll explain my reasons for not really wanting to get close to you later, but now I really need your help."
"You want to use 'Banshee,' don't you?" He turned to face the opponent, "I'll help."
"Thank you." I sighed, gasping for air as I tried to avoid yet another stream of fire.
"Amplified just enough to knock them out. Good luck."
"Thank you." I took in a deep inhale and let out a loud screech. I even hear it at the amplified pitch, but it was my own scream. It can't knock me out, can it? What about Michigan? I stood up to see the opponent on the ground, but Mich was still standing.
"Thank God." Michigan laughed, "I thought you'd still be stubborn about that.
"I'll ask later." I pulled out my knife, "We have to get rid of him. Get the Meta's armor while I deal with this." I walked over to the collapsed body and kneeled down. I took off the helmet to see such a horrific sight.
Karma's just screwing around with me right? For what I saw was something I didn't want to believe, but my own mother had been sitting there. Her eyes opened as she took the knife out of my hand and thrust it into the left side of my stomach I felt the warm blood crawl up my throat, trying to choke me. The smile on her face resembled insanity itself as she pulled my helmet off my head.
"Well, I never would've guessed our paths would cross again like this." She laughed. I heard a click behind me, "Now, if you get any closer yourself, then I'll personally pull this out of her. She'll be covered in her favorite color during her death. Now, wouldn't that be lovely?"
I sputtered with tears streaming down my cheeks and crimson red flooding out the corners of my mouth. My body reacted on its own, quickly pulling out a gun and firing three times in her head. After she was already dead, I began to wail like a baby. The woman I had always wanted to see again, was dead inside my arms.
"Get up." Michigan ordered me, "We have to get you back to the base so that we can get your side treated."
"Get the Meta's armor. I can walk to the roof. It's only a few flights of stairs." I wobbled into a nearly upright position, trying to prevent the blade from simply sliding out."
"There's a window washer to this place right?" Michigan spoke into his headset. I had forgotten that I had turned mine off, but I didn't bother fixing my mistake, "Alright. Can you lower it about five floors so that we can get a lift?... We're not taking the easy way out, Alaska... Tennessee is injured pretty badly... yes, I realize that we're set on time, but it would probably take us an hour to get to the top floor... I can't carry her. She insisted that I take the Meta's armor with us... Thank you, Sir." I watched out the window for our ride, and when it did come, I sat down onto it so that I could examine the wound better, "Don't worry. A doctor may be able to patch that up in almost no time."
I gave off a weak smile as we reached the top. The pelican had been waiting for us and I tried to get on the ship as fast as I could. I remember quietly crying the rest of the ride.
