Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of the show's characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.
Chapter Seven:
"Wash?! Are you okay? Wash!"
A rather familiar voice called out to him as David Washington struggled to open his eyes only to find Iota's cyan form swimming in his blurry vision. He grinned good-naturedly as he always did upon waking in the morning to the sight of his A.I. partner, "Hey, buddy."
"Greeting me isn't important right now!" For some reason, the normally always cheerful Fragment seemed rather frazzled, "How are you feeling?"
Well that was a rather odd thing to be asked. Washington blinked. He was feeling fine, maybe even better than he had been in a long while, all things considered. The unanswered question didn't make much sense until…
Until the blond realized that he was sitting on the floor of the ruin they'd come along to tour with the UNSC delegation, and that Iota was hovering anxiously in front of his face with both Matthews and Bitters behind him, equally concerned expressions on their faces as well. Near where he had suddenly collapsed like a pile of bricks was…
"Tucker?!" The former Freelancer called out in momentary panic as he pulled himself towards the other man.
There was a grumbling from the teal figure as he began to stir, Tucker blearily opening his eyes, "What's going on?" Then he took in Washington's worried countenance and the newcomers' presence in the hallway. Panic surged through Tucker's body as he shot upright with Washington's help, "What the fuck happened?" He demanded, glancing worriedly at the two lieutenants in particular who were supposed to be on babysitting duty back in the city, "Where's Oz?"
"Right here, sir." Matthews assured him as he turned his back to showcase a strapped on baby carrier were Ozpin was gurgling happily without a care in the world.
"You brought him with you?" Washington breathed out incredulously.
Matthews rather sheepishly shrank in on himself, "Well, Private Donut assured us there were no enemies in sight and I wasn't sure what Lopez said exactly when I asked him to babysit, so…"
"He just couldn't bring himself to leave the kid." Bitters explained as the auburn-haired young man's face turned beet red.
Despite the lingering question of whether or not that had been a sound idea with a ruin that had apparently just activated and knocked them out, Tucker looked more relieved than anything at seeing that Ozpin was okay, "Thanks." He was quick to say as he pulled the baby into his arms and softly cooed down at him.
Washington watched for a moment before turning his serious attention back to the more troubling matter at hand, "What happened?" He asked, "And you mentioned that Donut alerted you to all of this?"
Had Donut been unaffected by the light and somehow shot a message back to the city? How much time exactly had passed since then?
"That's the funny thing." Bitters muttered as he exchanged a long look with both Iota and Matthews in response to Washington's questions, "Private Donut just showed up at the police station somehow, saying that he felt like something bad happened here."
"No one knows how. Doctor Grey has him at the hospital now getting all sorts of tests." Matthews further elaborated.
Washington frowned at this new piece of information, his mind running a mile a minute, "How is that even possible?"
Bitters' "Fuck if I know, sir." was all the answer he received.
Carolina woke up to the feel of grass blades tickling her cheek and a warm hand pressed gently to her forehead. All in all, it wasn't the worst way to be greeted back to consciousness.
"Take it easy now." Kimball advised her softly, and the redhead ignored the sudden warmth in her face at the realization of who was looking after her.
"Greetings, Agent Carolina." Delta said as he materialized right next to Kimball's worried face as Carolina managed to get herself standing upright with minimal help, feeling rather pathetic at having been caught in such a state as she recalled recent events.
Still, she managed to give Kimball a slight nod of thanks even if she wasn't quite ready to meet her eyes yet. Nearby, South was busy trying to agitatedly shoo away a rather concerned and hovering Doctor Grey from her person.
"Oh, we'll be having none of that!" The doctor in white and purple staunchly declared, ignoring South's efforts to push past her scanner.
"What the hell happened?" South growled out as she finally relented and let Grey examine her, Carolina preparing herself to do the same.
"That is what we'd all like to know!" Doctor Grey exclaimed cheerily as Kimball squeezed Carolina's shoulder, testing to make sure that the redhead would stay on her feet, "One minute I'm helping patients, and then in the next the lieutenants and a flustered Private Donut are telling me something happened at the ruins. When we get here, we find people collapsed!"
Carolina frowned, recalling a bright flash of light and then nothing. She glanced over at Kimball for confirmation, feeling South tense up as well. "The others?" Carolina asked, not bothering to hide her concern.
"Lieutenant Andersmith, Dylan, and Jax said that they found Caboose, Sarge, and Doc in similar states but that they appeared all right otherwise. As are the others." Kimball informed the two confused women reassuringly, "It looks like, for whatever reason, the ruins activating momentarily had an effect on only some of the people within its vicinity."
"Lucky us." South muttered under her breath.
"But did anything happen besides that?" Carolina pressed on, knowing firsthand just what some of these temples and ruins were capable of.
"Well, there were no plantwide orgies and everyone seems to be alive and fit still, so I'd count that as a win." Grey stated, an eager glint in her brown eyes as she added, "Though I'm most certainly taking a closer look at those hieroglyphics later."
"And I'm going to question Santa further on just what these ruins might have been used for." Kimball assured them.
"Good." Carolina nodded, more at ease now that a response plan was beginning to take shape, "Let's find out what the delegation is up to and—"
"Not so fast!" Doctor Grey's cheery voice interrupted her as Eta flickered to golden life nervously right in front of South, "This little guy here just made an excellent point that none of this should stand in the way of each and every one of you getting a thorough examination just like Private Donut when we get back."
"Goddamn it, Eta." South growled out under her breath as the A.I. flinched.
"He's simply being prudent." Delta was quick to chime in with his own agreement before Carolina sighed.
Kimball seemed to relax slightly as she nodded her head in response, but she still seemed nervous and agitated all the same. Not that Carolina could blame her.
"Aw, they look so cute sleeping together like that!"
A familiar voice spoke as Dexter Grif groaned, wincing through shut eyes as his grip on whatever he was holding tightened a fraction.
"Shouldn't we try waking them up though?" Another familiar, albeit much more nervous voice asked.
"Well, according to the doc they're all just sleeping, so…"
Grif finally let out a groan, "It's impossible to get any shuteye with the two of you going on like that." He blearily looked up at Kai and Theta with a mock annoyed glare before speaking to the person lying next to him, "Right, Simmons?"
But his blissful dream of the two of them having snuck off into a private room somewhere to enjoy some much-needed nap-snuggling was apparently just that, as he took in the way both of them were slumped over together in what pretty much amounted to an ancient alien storage closet with both his little sister and Theta looking on more nervously than their earlier remarks would have indicated. His hand was holding Simmons' in front of people, though yet right then and there he didn't give a fuck.
"Simmons?" Grif nervously called out again.
"You have to let the credits play out to see the hidden ending, Grif. You know that." Simmons muttered tiredly as he started to open his eyes, only taking a few moments to realize that he too wasn't where he thought he was before jerking upright with a start, "Wh—what happened?" He asked shakily, looking down at his and Grif's still clasped together hands.
They both squeezed reassuringly at the same time as Kai spoke up, "That's what we all want to know!" She told them, "Donut just showed up in the city out of nowhere and then we come here to find everyone asleep like in the aftermath of a really fun party." The younger Grif gave them both rather scrutinizing looks, "You guys do know what closets are actually for, right?"
Neither man could look at the other then, both suddenly red-faced.
Simmons frowned as he tried to figure out some way to explain what had happened, "The ruin maybe activated due to the UNSC scans," he surmised, "But that doesn't explain—"
"Nerd talk later." Kai told him emphatically, "We're getting you guys to the crazy hot doctor lady and I'm not taking no for an answer." Her stubborn broached no room for an argument.
Simmons' frown deepened, and Grif knew that the nerd was probably worried about his father. He reached over and tentatively touched the redhead's hand again, "I'm sure everyone is fine and probably already waiting for us."
Simmons paused and smiled slightly, "Y—yeah, you're probably right. We need to get outside sooner rather than later."
"You said it." Grif agreed wholeheartedly, because right now something about the ruin was giving him the creeps.
The UNSC delegation had apparently finished wrapping up their scans without much incident on their end, even apologizing profusely for the unexpected result. Simmons' father looked over the group of Simulation Troopers and former Freelancers as Doctor Grey tended to them with the A.I.s safely out of sight, "Are you positive that you wouldn't want our own medical team looking them over as well?"
"Oh, that's not necessary!" Doctor Grey chirped up despite him and Kimball being removed from the rest of the group, "Everyone seems to be fine despite their naps," she smiled as she added, "And Chorus is more than capable of looking after our own."
"Of course." Simmons Senior once again looked apologetic as he regarded Kimball, "If we'd known our tests would have had that effect…"
"No need to apologize." Kimball told him, though she would be lying if she wasn't somewhat grateful to have the upper hand in diplomatic maneuvering for once even as she felt immensely guilty for thinking that given what had happened to Carolina, South, and the others, "The ruins here are always rather unpredictable. At least we now know to investigate this one more ourselves."
She watched as the older man briefly glanced over towards Simmons, knowing that despite their strained relationship he probably wouldn't have done anything to intentionally jeopardize his own son, choosing to remark, "It's a good thing that no one was seriously hurt and that the delegation was all right."
Simmons' father nodded curtly, "Yes, well—"
"So there you have it!" A jovial voice interrupted the man as someone began clapping behind him, "All's well that ends well and all that, hmm?"
Kimball did a double-take at a man who was suddenly standing there in green armor, though Simmons Senior seemed more exasperated by his presence than anything else.
"Personally, I find what happened here further proof of just how interesting all of this ruin business here on Chorus is, don't you agree?" The newcomer carried on pleasantly.
"We can discuss that later." Simmons' father was quick to reply, clearly exasperated.
"I'm sorry," Kimball regarded how the two seemed to know each other and blinked, "I don't believe we've met?"
Which was odd, considering how she had supposedly been given a full debriefing on just who the UNSC would be sending to this little expedition of theirs.
"Ah, my apologies, President Kimball." The stranger stated with an oddly knowing look in his eyes as if he were reading her mind, "I'm afraid I'm a bit of a last-minute addition, you see. The UNSC wanted an extra researcher on hand and all that." He held out his hand for her to shake, "My name is Genkins, and I'm sure our visit to Chorus will continue to be lovely."
Author's Notes: I apologize for the delay in updating as I caught a rather nasty throat and ear infection that took me out of commission for awhile there. This was a shorter update to help me get back into the swing of writing, but one very majorly important thing happened in it that will definitely have an impact on the direction this story goes from here on out. :D
Also, I'm convinced that no one on Chorus is probably ever going to win the award for "best babysitter" at this rate. XD But at least Matthews wasn't bringing Ozpin into a gunfight or anything like that! XD
Thank you so much for sticking with me and for reading! :D
