"No we can't do that!" Caboose said, a mixture of anger and sadness in his voice. He looked over to Washington for help.
"Church, do you realize how important you are? You're the main AI, you're Alpha. We can't just let them desetroy you." The freelancer said.
"Anyways if they killed you we wouldn't have a chance at defeating them." Tucker piped in. Church was the strongest AI, with him it was possible to fight the Meta with all the AI's.
"I think it's a good idea, one less blue means an advantage for the glorious red team!" Sarge said. Tucker, Caboose, and Washington gave the red leader an aggrivated look.
"Look, guys, there's no point in running anyways. This is going to end in either two ways, us fighting Tex and the Meta or them killing me. I don't know about you but I'd rather go the way where the least amount of people get hurt." Church said to the others. Before anyone else could speak up a shot was fired and hit Church on the shoulder.
"Fuck!" The cobalt spartan yelled, everyone turned to see Tex standing up on a snowy hill behind the old red base.
"Shit, she found us!" Washington yelled.
"Maine, I found him! Come on!" She yelled before starting to run towards the group.
"Leave now." Church said to the group, but everyone stayed put.
"We're not leaving. They want a fight, they're going to get one." Washington said, he then turned to Caboose.
"Get Church out of here." The freelancer told the blue spartan who nodded in responce. Caboose grabbed Church's wrist and started to drag the cobalt spartan away.
"No, I need to stay here." Church said, snatching his wrist away from the blue spartan. Caboose glared at the cobalt spartan for a moment before picking him up and carrying him over his shoulder. Church struggled, trying to get free from the blue spartan's hold but gave up as it became apparent that he couldn't. Caboose ran into the former blue base and put Church down, now figuring he was out of harms way.
"I need to help them." The cobalt spartan said, Caboose blocked the exit to the base.
"It's too risky Church." The blue spartan said, Church sighed in defeat and walked over to Caboose's side, looking to see what was going on back outside.
"We need to get the Meta down first, he's the most powerful." Washington told the group as Tex and the Meta ran towards them.
"I'll take care of Tex." Tucker said, sword in hand as he prepared to fight the former freelancer.
"You sure?" Washington asked, the turquoise spartan looked over him and nodded.
"Positive." Tucker said before going off to face Tex.
"Hey bitch!" He said as he lunged forward trying to stab Tex. She quickly dodged out of the way and kicked him in the gut making the turquoise spartan stumble back a bit.
"Just let us get Church and we'll leave! No one else will get hurt." Tex said. Tucker laughed a little through gritted teeth and tried to punch Tex, but the freelancer grabbed his fist without a responce.
"You need to learn the difference between your enemies and your friends, Tex!" Tucker said as he snatched his hand away and tried to punch her with the other but yet again she dodged it.
"Church is our friend. We're not turning our back on him! Sure he may be an ass hole but he's been here for us since Blood Gulch, which is more than I can say about some people." The turquoise spartan said, bracing himself for a punch. Underneath her helmet Tex's eyes filled up with anger. She kicked the back of Tucker's leg and punched the spartan in the stomache causing him to trip and fall to the ground with a loud thud. Tex stepped on of her feet on Tucker's stomache, pinning him down, she then aimed her gun at the turquoise spartan's helmet, the tip of the gun was only inches away from his face.
"Tex?" He asked, hurt in his voice. Church, who was watching this happened from the base, turned to Caboose.
"I need to help." He said, the blue spartan sighed.
"Church-" Caboose started but was cut off.
"I can do this Caboose, I just need to talk to Tex, go in her mind or something. I can't just sit here watching everyone get hurt." Church said, Caboose looked at the ground for a moment before taking off his helmet.
"I don't want you to hurt, I can't loose you Church." He said, his voice filled with worry.
"I won't get hurt, I promise." Church said, Caboose let out another sigh before putting his arms around Church's waist and catching him into a kiss.
"Go." The blue spartan said after seperating from the kiss, Church smiled at him.
"I love you." He whispered.
"I love you too." Caboose said, and with that Church left his body, now in AI form. He ran out of the blue base and headed towards Tex. Just as she was about to shoot Tucker, Church went into her mind, freezing her and allowing the turqouise spartan to get away from the former freelancer. Inside Tex's mind it looked like it was the training room of one of the former freelancer bases. It was empty except for a few boxes, Church looked around before noticing Tex walking towards him, she looked angry.
"What the hell are you doing?!" She asked, Church backed away a little, trying to keep a safe distance from her just in case.
"I could ask you the same thing." He said. Tex lifted up her gun and pointed it at Church, the cobalt spartan froze for a moment before grabbing his own gun, pointing it directly back at the former freelancer.
"Put the down the gun." He said. Tex stood still, not moving the gun from where it was pointed.
"Tex don't make me shoot you." Church said, Tex scoffed.
"You shoot me?! That's funny." She said with a laugh.
"I've been practicing." Church responded flatly.
"That's a lie." Tex said, still not budging.
"Would you really want to find that out?" Church asked, after a couple of moments Tex lowered her gun.
"Put it on the ground." The cobalt spartan told her. Tex groaned in annoyance before putting her gun on the floor, Church then kicked it away.
"What are you going to do now, kill me?" Tex asked Church, who still had his gun pointed at her in case she tried anything. The cobalt spartan searched her face before dropping his own gun.
"No, I just want to talk." He said. Tex turned away from him.
"It's about me helping the Meta, isn't it?" She asked, Church looked down at the floor.
"I just want to know why you're doing this, why you're betraying all of us." He said walking toward Tex.
"Do you know how much you put me through, how much you put the freelancers through?" She asked, Church crossed his arms.
"I wasn't the one who put you through everything, the Director was." He said with annoyance.
"But you were the one who brought me back Alpha!" Tex yelled as she turned around, getting Church even angrier.
"What do you want me to say?! Sorry, Tex, if I knew you'd be this miserable I wouldn't have brought you back! But you know what Tex, you're here now, so you need to stop moping around and get over it!" He yelled back not caring when tears started to form in Tex's eyes.
"I can't get over it. Not when there's no place I belong. You have your stupid blue team but my team's gone, there's no one for me!" She said. Church put his hand on her shoulder.
"You belong with us, you always have been. We've been here for you this whole time, we're your team. And there has been someone who's been looking out for you for a while now." He said giving her a small smile.
"Tucker?" She asked, Church nodded.
"He likes you... a lot..." He told her scratching the back of his head, Tex smiled a little.
"Listen Tex, you can stop all of this now, be a good guy again." Church told her.
"That would be nice." Tex said with a small laugh. Church himself laughed a little glad things were starting to get better.
"Ok, I'm gunna go now. I'll see you after this is all done with." The cobalt spartan said before slowly fading away, leaving the former freelancer's mind. When he was back at Sidewinder Tucker looked at himin shock.
"What the fuck just happened?" The turquoise spartan asked. Before Church could respond Tex fell to the ground. Tucker quickly ran to her side.
"What did you do?" HE asked as he held the passed out freelancer in his arms.
"I got talked to her... It's over now, she's back on our side." Church said before turning to where Washington and the reds were fighting the meta. Sarge went to shoot the white and orange spartan but the shotgun was taken out of his hands and thrown to the side, the Meta then kicked Sarge in the gut making the red leader fly backwards. The Meta then punched Grif, who was behind him, causing the orange spartan to fall to the ground. Washington shot the former freelancer in the chest, provoking him so he'd come fight, but the Meta turned around when he heard a gun reload. Simmons had his gun aimed at the Meta but the former freelancer quickly grabbed his throat and threw him backwards. Now he finally started towards Washington.
"Tucker, get Tex in the blue base. I'm gunna go help Washington." Church said, Tucker nodded as he picked up Tex and started towards the old blue base. Church ran over to Washington and did something he thought he'd never do, became his AI. The Meta stopped in his tracks and his AI's appeared.
"Alpha, where's the Alpha?" The AI's asked, the Meta grabbed his head as all the AIs spoke up.
"He's far away from here, sorry you're never going to get the chance to meet him." Washington said aiming his gun at the Meta, he didn't know that Church never left like he was supposed to.
"You know what Wash, why don't they meet me right now?" Church appeared next to the freelancer. Just like Delta he was about the same size as Washington's helmet in AI form. He was a light cobalt spartan AI and glowed brightly. Washington stared in shock at Church.
"What are you doing here?! You were supposed to leave!" The freelancer yelled, Church turned to him.
"What can I say? Danger calls to me. Besides you looked like you needed help." The AI said. Washington was about to respond but was cut off by Church.
"Watch out!" He yelled when the Meta jumped forward with his knife trying to stab Washington.
"Dammit!" The freelancer said as he dodged the blow, Church, still at Washington's side, turned to the reds.
"You guys go to the blue base, everyone else is there." He ordered. The reds left without a responce, none of them wanting to fight the Meta anyways.
"Church." Washington said angrily, not wanting to risk the Alpha AI.
"Just trust me on this." The AI said, Washington nodded.
"Shit, watch your left." Church said just in time as the Meta tried to punch Washington. The freelancer quickly got out of the way and glared at Church.
"Can you be faster next time?" Washington asked.
"Sorry, I'm not used to this whole AI thing yet." Church said, the two then prepared to make their own moves in the fight.
"Well this will be fun." Washington said sarcastically.
Meanwhile
Caboose watched the fight outside, wanting to make sure Washington and Church were ok. The reds sat on the floor of the former blue base, leaning against the wall as they caught their breath. Tucker meanwhile was at Tex's side waiting for her to wake up.
"Why do you guys care so much about them?" Grif asked the blues, referring to Tex and Church.
"Well they're our friends." Caboose said turning to the orange spartan.
"But they're assholes!" Grif responded, before Caboose could even open his mouth Tucker spoke up.
"Don't call them that." The turquoise spartan said.
"Then what should I call them? I doubt either of them would stick their back out for you." Grif said. Caboose ignored this, knowing it wasn't true, but Tucker on the other hand was too headstrong to let this go.
"That isn't true." He said angrily.
"What ever you say." Grif said with a small laugh.
"Guys it's not looking good out there, I think we should help." Caboose said, Sarge shook his head.
"Your friend was the one who told all of us to come here and stop fighting. He obviously didn't want us to help." The red leader said.
"But the Meta's winning." Caboose replied.
"If Washington and Church need our help they'll tell us." Tucker told the blue spartan. Caboose looked back to the two freelancer's fighting unconvinced.
Washington was thrown backwards and landed on the ground with a thud. It took some effort to get up but he slowly staggered back to his feet. His helmet fell off his head and a trickle of blood ran down his face. Church appeared next to him, the AI had been trying his best to help out but it just wasn't working, the Meta was too powerful.
"Wash?" Church asked worried.
"I'm fine." The freelancer snapped.
"W-We don't have to do this, you can just give me to him and-" Washington cut Church off.
"That wouldn't do anything, he'd still cause trouble and suffering, this needs to end. All this shit with the Freelancer Program just needs to stop. I've already been responsible for enough problems, and I'll be damned if I'm responsible for any more." He said, Church appeared in front of Washington.
"It's not going to work Wash." The AI said flatly. He looked over to the blue base then back at the freelancer.
"If I became his AI I could hold him for at least a few minutes." Church said.
"Church-" Washington started but the AI cut him off.
"You could kill him, you can get this over with... You could get all of it over with..." He said referring to everything involving the Freelancer Program.
"It would kill you too, Church!" Washington yelled, the AI looked away from him.
"I know..." Church said.
"Yes, I want to get this over with but not that badly. I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself, I've lost enough friends." The freelancer told him.
"It's the only way Wash, we can't fight him! There's no other way we can win, we have to do it." Church said. Washington didn't respond, though he didn't want to admit it the AI was right.
"Take care of Caboose for me." Church said before running off to go to the Meta, who was charging towards Washington. The AI disappeared and the white and orange spartan stopped in his tracks, shaking violently.
"Church?" Washington asked, the AI appeared next to him.
"What the fuck? That wasn't me." Church said, the two looked towards the Meta as a gray spartan AI appeared.
"I can't stall him for long, quick do it, kill him." The AI said, Church walked closer to her.
"Tex?" He asked, Tex just said nothing.
"We can't do that to you." Washington told her.
"I was always just a shadow, just destined to fail, but now I can finally help, I can finally do something right. You're better than me Church, you're your own person, despite being based off of the Director you're different. You deserve to live a lot more than me." She said, Chuch turned to Washington.
"Do it now." He said, the freelancer stared at Church in shock.
"What?" Washington asked in a whisper.
"Do it now. She doesn't have much time left, we can't save her and even if we could... She'd be corrupted by him... This is all we can do..." The AI told him. Washington aimed his gun at the Meta but paused.
"I-I can't do this... I can't kill her...I can't kill the Meta... I can't kill Delta..." He said looking at the ground. Church disappeared, knowing what he had to do, he took control of the freelancer's body and loaded the gun.
"Goodbye Tex." Church said, his voice cracked a little.
"Tell Tucker I'm sorry." Tex said before disappearing.
A loud bang was heard through out the clearing as a shot was fired. Caboose, who was being reassured by the group that everything was fine, jumped when he heard this. His eyes widened and he ran over to the door of the base, tears formed in his eyes when the only thing he saw was Washington holding a gun up as the Meta fell to the ground. The group all came over to Caboose's side to see what was happening.
Church stood there, still in control of Washington's body. He wasn't sure what it was that finally made him pull the trigger, his desire to keep everyone safe, his hatred for all Tex had put him through, his wish to end all the freelancer problems, or the fact that Tex was already long gone. It scared him that he could do that, that he could pull the trigger that easily on a person he'd known for years, Church knew he had to do it but he wished there could've been another way. The AI let go control of Washington's body and appeared at his side.
"I'm sorry it had to come down to that..." Church said, Washington cleared his throat.
"It's fine... It's over now anyways..." He said before turning around and heading back to the group.
"Washington-" Church started but the freelancer cut him off.
"Go back to your body, Church." Washington said. Church obeyed the freelancer's order without a word. When Washington entered the blue base Caboose ran up to him.
"Where's Church, is he ok?!" The blue spartan asked, before Washington could respond Church started to stir, the AI had returned back to his body.
"Ugh..." Church said rubbing the back of his neck, Caboose turned around and went over to him, quickly grabbing the cobalt spartan in a hug.
"Church, Tex isn't waking up." Tucker said, he had returned to the former freelancer's side. Church and Washington shared an uneasy glance.
"Is something wrong?" Caboose asked Church after he seperated from the hug, Tucker looked over to Church and searched his face.
"Where is she?" He asked, the cobalt spartan looked down at the floor, tears formed in his eyes.
"I'm sorry Tucker..." Church said. Tucker's eyes widened.
"No, don't tell me she's-" Church cut Tucker off.
"She's gone." He said.
"H-how?" The turquoise spartan asked quietly. Church sighed and looked around the group uneasily before speaking up.
"We couldn't face the Meta... I was going to stall him by becoming his AI so Washington could kill him but..." The cobalt spartan trailed off.
"But what?" Tucker asked.
"She beat me to the chase." Church said, tears started to fall down his face. Tucker sprang up from where he was sitting.
"And you two killed her?!" He asked angrily.
"I killed her, Washington couldn't do it so I took control of his body. It was the only way, she was going to become corrupted anyways, there was no way we could save Tex and have her still be herself." Church told him.
"I can't believe this! You of all people... You murdered her!" Tucker spat, Church backed up a little and Washington got in between the two.
"Stop. Don't you think we've had enough fighting for one day?" He asked, Tucker just glared at Church. Washington sighed and rubbed his temples.
"Come on, let's just go home." The freelancer said. Church took a breath and wiped his eyes, Caboose patted him on the back, hoping to help calm the cobalt spartan down. Washington walked over to the two.
"Are you coming back with us?" Caboose asked.
"Yeah, I guess, I just have to find a place to stay." Washington said, the blue spartan smiled and shared a glance with Church.
"Do you want to live with us?" Caboose asked.
"Us?" Washington asked. Caboose put his arm around Church.
"Yeah, Caboose and I are getting an apartment together back in Massachusetts." The cobalt spartan said with a small laugh.
"You know what, that actually sounds nice." Washington said a small smile as he started to walk off with the group. It may take a bit, but he knew that things would get better for the group, and though it will never be exactly the same, things would get back to normal. Sooner or later everyone would settle down, the anger would evaporate. Washington had a lot of faith in the group, they were his friends now after all. Though they may not have had a lot of training they were capable of doing great things, that's one of the many things he had learned.