Present Day

Wash stepped into the sunlight to the sight of the building completely surrounded by UNSC forces. They didn't seem openly hostile to the Reds and Blues, but they weren't acting too friendly either. What Wash figured would happen was they were either sent to prison, or maybe Carolina would come help them escape. His guess was that Epsilon had discovered the forces coming their way, alerted Carolina, and she had made a break for it. What confused him, however, was why she didn't tell the rest of them so they would also have a chance to get away.

But she was Carolina. She was going to do what she was going to do.

They were being led somewhere and Tucker was attempting to flirt with one of the female soldiers, who was coldly ignoring him. Grif was complaining about the speed of their pace, wishing they could go slower, while Donut commented on the armor of the Marines and what colors would make it look better. Alabama was walking stoically and refused to answer any of Wash's questions, who suspected that Alabama knew something about all of this.

The group finally stopped by a Hornet, where a neatly-dressed man was receiving a report from one of the soldiers. Upon seeing them, he stepped out of the shadow of the vehicle to face them.

Wash sighed. "Son of a b****," he muttered.

The man stood tall, facing them. "I have waited for quite awhile to meet you all," he said with a definite English accent.

"Hargrove," Alabama acknowledged.

The Chairman faced the green Freelancer. "Agent Alabama. Or perhaps I shouldn't call you an agent, seeing as how your organization hasn't been active in quite some time. Or, seeing as how the codename 'Alabama' is quite irrelevant, perhaps I should just call you Paul. However," he continued talking, a stern note in his voice, "I think the name best suiting you would be Prisoner 917-B. Though no one will be calling you be anything for much longer. I hope you haven't forgotten our agreement?"

"Son, what in the name of everything Red is he talking about?" Sarge questioned.

Alabama ignored him, still facing the Chairman. "No Sir," he replied calmly.

Hargrove nodded. "Good. Then I hope you will come with us without any trouble."

So Wash had been right in thinking Alabama had something to do with this all. And Carolina had been right for suspecting something from him. "I thought you said you had evaded capture," he said coldly.

Alabama glanced at him. "I lied," he said simply. "Would you have helped me if I had said I made a deal with him?"

The Chairman cleared his throat. "Honestly, I didn't think you would uphold your part of the agreement, especially considering what's in store for you since you failed."

"What kind of deal did you make?" Simmons asked, more curious than upset.

Grif had lost all sense of what was going on. "Yeah, what the f*** is he talking about?"

Hargrove allowed Alabama to explain, and he gestured to one of the Marines, who stepped forward and cuffed Alabama's hands, who allowed it.

Alabama swallowed. "I evaded capture from both the UNSC and Project Freelancer for a time, and after the Project was shut down, it was just the Chairman trying to clean up after the Director, doing things like collecting equipment and - more importantly - the Freelancers themselves. After they finally did manage to corner me, I tried to talk to the Chairman, but he wouldn't listen to anything I had to say," he shot a glance at the man in question, though no one could see the expression under his ODST style helmet. "So I managed to get out of there.

"That caught his attention. I underestimated him, however, and was recaptured. But this time he listened. If I could get him more fugitives from Freelancer, I could go free. I told him that Nebraska was alive and I could find him - and Zeta with him - and he believed me. I struck a deal with him despite the risks, and have been in contact with him ever since."

"There were risks for both of us," Hargrove cut in.

"Yeah, the risk for you being I might have taken the chance to escape. And I would have, had I not been so confident I could succeed. Somehow I doubt that compares," Alabama said bitterly.

"And now Nebraska has escaped and his A.I. is gone. You knew what you were getting into," the Chairman was stern.

Alabama nodded. "Of course."

Tucker noticed they were still being vague. "What was the other part of the deal?"

Alabama looked over at him, but Hargrove answered for him.

"He gets taken to the electric chair."

Donut put his weight on one leg. "A chair? That doesn't sound scary at all."

"I wanna sit in a chair! Is it comfy?" Of course Caboose didn't understand.

"He means a death sentence," Wash explained.

Simmons shook his head in regret. "Don't you think humanity would have come up with a better way for executions than using electricity in the past hundred years?"

Sarge agreed. "There are much more effective ways to put soldiers down. Like a shotgun. To the face. It's more fun, too."

Tucker shifted. "Isn't a death sentence a little extreme?"

Hargrove turned to him. "He's the one that instigated the deal we made, including all aspects of it. He has committed his own crimes against the UNSC, and I will hold no regret for his fate."

Alabama turned as a few Marines began to lead him away, halting them for a moment. "I did find him, so I was right about that," he mentioned to the Chairman.

"Yes, but he once again proved himself to be more cunning than yourself. But now that we have confirmed that he is alive, we can start our own searches for him," Hargrove said.

"Did delivering other fugitives change anything?" Alabama wanted to know.

Hargrove raised an eyebrow. "The only fugitive I see in front of me is you."

Wash's head snapped up at that. "What?"

"You heard me right, Agent Washington," the Chairman put emphasis on his name. "Since we have found evidence that you were the ones to locate and ultimately end the Director, doing a service to the UNSC, all charges have been dropped." He turned, and it was unclear what his thoughts were on that matter. "Take him away," he ordered, and the Marines led Alabama away. He followed without hesitation, and without a backward glance to the team.

Now the Reds and Blues were left standing there as the Chairman walked away, with soldiers milling around them, inspecting the building and the area around them. The factory workers were finally waking up and being taken to the medics.

"So…" Tucker was confused by the suddenness. "What now?"

"Can we go home?" Grif asked hopefully.

Simmons looked up. "After all this time? Finally," he breathed.

"I want to go back to Valhalla!" Donut said excitedly. "Check in on the garden, maybe find Doc again, Lopez is probably still there too…"

"So they finally decided to stop chasin' us?" Sarge grunted. "Those dirty cowards. Don't they know to never give up? To never abandon the mission? Unless of course they accept a new mission of different risk," he added.

A man walked up to them and caught their attention. "Hey, I think I'm supposed to take you to a ship that's going to take you wherever you want," he said, distracted.

"A spaceship?" Caboose breathed. "I want to go for a ride! Is it a big one? Maybe this ship won't crash...like the last one did. I can't wait to touch all of the buttons."

At first, Wash was hesitant. Their mission wasn't done. But then again, Zeta was gone, and while Nebraska had escaped, without him he was less of a threat. The UNSC would take it from here. They weren't needed anymore; it wasn't their problem. He nodded. "Let's go."

Maybe they would finally get a break from all of this.

Many Years Ago

The Counselor stood in front of the glass, watching the two figures on the other side. His data-pad was in his hand like usual and he put in notes as he observed the figures. The audio was carried through to his side, so he was able to hear what they were saying as well. The patient had been found unconscious almost three weeks ago, and had been in a coma for two of those. Since he had awoken, they had been unable to get any information as to the events that led to his coma.

The door hissed open and he glanced to the side, expecting one of the nurses, but he turned fully when he saw that it was Director that approached. "Director," he acknowledged.

The Director nodded toward the window. "How is he?"

The Counselor hesitated. "It's...hard to say, Sir," he said. "He doesn't appear to have any memory of the past few weeks, and doesn't seem to even know where he is. It is difficult to tell how far back the memory loss goes. As for his intelligence…" he left the sentence hanging.

"Do we know yet what could have caused this sudden memory loss?" the Director asked.

The Counselor shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Sir," he said. He hesitated before asking a question. "Are you sure we can trust him? After all, he was not given the proper clearance to be in Sidewinder, and we still aren't sure as to his reasons for being there; and it would seem, due to his amnesia, neither does he."

The Director looked over at him. "Has his memory shown any signs of returning?"

"No Sir."

"You are the one that has been observing him, Counselor; do you or do you not doubt your reports to me?"

The Director was fixing him with a stern gaze, which would have made anyone else in the base step back or gulp in nervousness, but the Counselor had conducted too many illegal experiments with him to do that.

"I do not, Sir," he replied.

The Director turned back to the observation window. "You know as well as I that the number of agents we know we can trust in dwindling. Given the recent death of Agent Florida, the Alpha cannot go unprotected. Agent Delaware, I believe, is the least likely to turn against us. Plus it would seem that his intelligence and skills are more that of a simulation soldier rather than that of a Freelancer. 'Private Caboose' will think he is nothing more than just that. He will be deployed within the week."

The Counselor nodded and turned back to his datapad. He still had his doubts - who wouldn't, when Delaware would immediately trust anyone who offered him cookies or orange juice? - but everything the Director had said was true, including the part where they didn't have many options in the matter. "I will have a set of armor modified-"

"Don't," the Director interrupted. "Even modified Freelancer equipment can be tracked. Just give him a standard set of simulation armor. We don't want him to stand out for any reason."

"Yes Sir," the Counselor replied dutifully.

"And send the order for the technicians to proceed with Plan M808V," he added. "I believe F.I.L.S.S. will be able to provide extra security."

The Counselor nodded, and with that, the Director walked away.

Present Day

Carolina stood on a hill, overlooking the building and the surrounding troops. On her HUD, she was able to make out the team. When Epsilon had alerted her to their arrival, she had gotten away just before they landed, only having enough time for herself to get away. Since then, they'd been monitoring the situation, but it would appear the team was in any danger. Listening to radio chatter, it seemed they were actually getting a ride.

"So what do you think?" she asked Church. "Should we go with them? Or leave now?"

Church's hologram shrugged. The part of him that was the leader of Blue team didn't want to leave, but the part of him that had been part of Project Freelancer knew he could never go back to the unending confusion, craziness, and simpleness of living in a box canyon.

"Even if we do go back with them, we both know that neither of us would stay for long. But there's no harm in staying a little longer," he said.

"So you want to get back to it? Righting the wrongs, I mean?" Carolina didn't want to drag him along unless she was sure he wanted to stay. After all, he deserved a break. They all did. And maybe one day she would be able to lay down her pistols, take off her armor, and sleep without a worry. For now though, she had go keep going. It was the only thing she knew.

Church scoffed. "Of course. You don't think I'm going to leave, do you? Just face it. I'm the best."

She smiled. No, some things never changed.

"Come onnn, say it," he prodded.

"Being the best doesn't matter anymore," Carolina said. "We're trying to be our best, remember?"

Church coughed. "Yeah, well...I mean, come on, you can't deny that I'm awesome!"

She smirked. "Of course not."

Well...it's done! I am both relieved and sad that this is the end of this story. Personally, I had a great time going on this adventure with the guys (and girl) and hope you guys did too! I would just like to take a moment to thank everyone one last time for all of your support. You guys were great motivation to keep going! As of now, there's almost 6,400 views, which for me is pretty cool. You guys are awesome! Thanks.

There might be some questions as to a sequel or prequel, so I'll just go ahead and tell you my thoughts on that. I have been considering, toying with an idea or two, but I'm not making any promises. I don't have any definite plans right now, and maybe not for a while, but if I do decide to go for it, I'm sure you'll see it!

Keep an eye out for the Epilogue next week!