Oh boy, so Part XII is actually something that I have been REALLY antsy about getting to for a long time, and so I mean it when I say that while we're well over halfway done with this story, this chapter will be the last of the status quo as you guys are used to. And I sincerely hope that you all are ready for some of the changes that are yet to come. R2 chapters have been referred to as the wildcards for good reason, but I thin if you're paying attention you can see just how they'll be bleeding into all the stories to come ; )
Special thanks to freshzombiewriter, secretlystephaniebrown, washingtonstub, analiarvb, ephemeraltea, Yin, Sir_Wobblefish, andMeteorAtDusk for the feedback!
Recovery None
Recovery Two XI: A Deal with the Devil
"Huh."
There were many expressions that North could have used to denote the conflicting lack of interest he had in the dig with his genuine need to investigate just what Charon and not-CT were up to. But huh seemed to be the most adequate.
South was off doing what she did best, annoying the hell out of their current team leader and generally causing more grief for an already precarious situation. But for North, the real interest came in what could be investigated with the eyes of Charon off of him.
Namely, that he and Theta could walk around the ruins and find unguarded entrances like the one before them now.
Theta flickered online just over his shoulder and gave a nervous tilt to his head.
"Are we really going to do this?" the little AI asked.
North hummed to himself some, looking up and down the ruins' wall and skimming over the alien glyphs scarring the constructed surfaces. He then looked to his AI.
"Depends on you, buddy," he said simply. "Can you translate what any of this says? Is it a warning? Prophecy? Directions to the nearest Covenant Costco?"
With a huff, Theta looked to the walls. He projected closer, his sprite moving up and down as if reading the glyphs with his own eyes farther than scanning them from North's or the helmet.
After a few moments, Theta returned to North's shoulder and shrugged.
"No clue," he told North.
"Oh, that was helpful," North laughed, walking on in.
"Hey, you download an alien language pack that doesn't exist, and I'll help you translate!" Theta argued. The AI then went rigid and looked around wildly, a nervous wave pulsing from the North's implants. "You're going in anyway!?"
"Well, we don't know what the glyphs were saying and I have a stubborn streak that our mutual non-friend was igniting, so yes," North said simply as they carried on through.
Theta, visibly troubled by the action, kept in pace, but his fingers were nervously tapping against each other.
"Can I say anything to make you reconsider?" Theta asked.
"Probably not," North confirmed as they went through.
Giving a heavy sigh, Theta drew back, his sprite flickering out.
There was a tinge of guilt North felt, but he quickly smothered it. He knew he wasn't making sharing a headspace completely easy for the two of them, he knew that his reaction to Theta's newfound independence and questioning of authority left something to be desired.
But North truly didn't like it. He didn't like that Theta was no longer on the exact same page of him, something that AI weren't supposed to do.
It had never occurred to him that nurturing Theta's trust would lead to a personality that North didn't expect.
In that way it just felt like something was wrong. Like he didn't know Theta anymore. And Theta didn't fully know him anymore.
Is this what raising a teenager is like? North thought idly before taking in more of the sights the ruins had to offer.
The desert had destroyed most of the internal structure through sand and erosion. it looked more like an Earth ruin than any Covenant structure that North had seen for himself before. Given, his time in the military hadn't exactly given him a tour of local landmarks any of the times they were on foreign battlegrounds.
But the occasional artifact or structure proved itself to be utterly alien in design, and totally nonfunctional given the conditions.
North came to a stop by a particular structure that, unlike the others, looked in decent enough condition. He squinted at it and lowered onto his haunches by it, poking at it with his sniper rifle.
Almost immediately, Theta appeared over his shoulder. "North," the AI warned.
"I'm not disturbing anything," North said with a shrug. "Just… checking things out."
"You're poking it," Theta said flatly.
"Got a better way of checking things out?" North asked, tilting his head at the AI.
"Uh, yeah! I'm pretty sure," Theta said, a low hum beginning as the AI started to work. "You know. Anything mechanical and incorporated in a readout, anyway."
"Well, it's better than nothing," North admitted, sitting back in wait as Theta finished up.
"Huh," Theta said.
With a curious turn of his head, North waved for Theta to continue.
"It looks like it's… I don't know. Just some sort of robot," Theta explained. "Alien, though. I'm not entirely sure what all its capabilities are. But there is an empty AI slot in it."
"Really?" North asked, surprised. "Alien AI?"
"I'm assuming, but I think it could be easily retrofitted if you know what you're doing," Theta hummed. "I wouldn't want anyone with access to human AI and dubious intent to be get a hold of it, anyway."
Catching on immediately, North nodded slowly and got to his feet. "Yeah," he said, grabbing the device from the ground. "Me neither, Theta."
Theta nodded in approval as North walked with the device toward the rubble and holes they had passed before on the way into the structure. They were right at the edge of one particular spot when there was a communication bing on their channel.
The two glanced at each other.
North gave a nod and Theta activated the channel.
"North!" South's voice growled, immediately sending relief between North and Theta. "Where the hell are you?"
"Adventuring," North answered smoothly. "Why?"
"Don't waste time asking redundant shit," South spat. "I need you over here. As in yesterday. We've got a new development and it looks like Hargrove needs our particular expertise after all."
"I'll be right there," North promised, dropping the alien device into the hole and kicking over one of the rocks to collapse onto it.
By the time South finished her transmission to her brother, not-CT was all butfuming over her initiative. And it was a good thing that South was wearing her helmet because the satisfaction his frustration brought her gave a clear smile to her face.
"I am in charge here and I should be making contact with all operatives," he reminded her, a not so subtle nod to the screen from Control.
Ah, so she was showing him up, it seemed. It was a rookie mistake to have let her know that it was going to bother him that much.
Especially since South would have loved to get a bit more on Charon's good side regardless of who it meant showing up at that point.
"Hey, you want to be put in charge of my brother, you can spend a lifetime-plus being basically sewn to his hip, Sir," she said with a shrug. "Besides, with myspecialty back on the table, I think we both know just how much longer you'll be able to say you're in charge."
The man leered at her through his visor, yellow lenses gleaming. But he didn't rise to the bait.
He didn't seem to be nearly as simple to deal with as Sharkface, and South didn't like that too much. This one was a lot more unpredictable, cards held close to his chest.
In a sickening way it reminded her a bit of the real CT.
Except, South told herself, CT was actually good at her job.
By the time North came up, Control had apparently had his fill of the taught silence between operatives and immediately spoke up.
"Good, with Agent North here we may begin," the screen said in its usual, droll filter. "As of three hours ago, our hacked connections to the Freelancer database gave us access to what little circulating feed there is with the Freelancer Integrated Logistics and Security System down. And from that with our codebreaking and the confirmation of our newest Freelancer asset have determined a precise and moving location of the target known as Agent Maine."
Impressed, South raised her brows. "Well, then," she said out loud.
"Maine's not a simple threat," North spoke up, stepping alongside South as he glared at the screen. "Theta and I've had a run in with him that almost ended poorly for us. He's… He's not the same as he was in the program. He's different. More dangerous."
Not-CT scoffed, arms folded against his chest.
South narrowed her eyes and tilted her head at the Insurrectionist. "Have something to add, smart ass?"
"Just that I saw your team in action before all this, before you splintered off into all these petty groups," he reminded her snidely. His gaze locked back on North. "And I fail to see how Maine could be more dangerous than the monster who could rip off a soldier's limb in the middle of combat and beat them with it."
North's head rolled with what South knew had to be an eye roll beneath his visor and he put his hands on his hips. "Okay, that's an easy one," North said haughtily. "More dangerous as in now he's aimed at us, and from what I know about it all, he doesn't exactly look at us with warm and fuzzies anymore."
"He never looked at me with warm and fuzzies so I've been preparing for this for a lot longer than you, brother," South responded readily, moving closer to Control's screen. She tried not to puff up too much when Not-CT realized he had just lost seeming control of the situation. "But North is right, Control. Maine is dangerous. And unpredictable now that he's not tied to Freelancer anymore. You're going to need people handling this who know what they're doing."
"You've got to be kidding me," Not-CT growled to himself, shaking his head.
"You are correct on at least one account, Agent South," Control replied crisply. "Fortunately, our newest asset – the Counselor – seems confident in his ability to know how to handle his former agents."
South blinked at first, not believing what she had just heard, but then she growled and slammed her hands onto the console. "His agents!? Since fucking when–"
When a hand fell on her shoulder, South immediately jerked it away only to see after that it was her brother's. He gave her a gentle glance before looking to the screen.
"All due respect, Control," North said in a tone that gave nothing of the sort, "the Counselor of Project Freelancer didn't do much toward keeping the project together. Including not being able to assist my sister capture the Meta during her time as a Recovery agent. I'd place my bets on her over him."
"I am not a betting man, Agent North," Control said thinly. "And the stakes are too thin as it stands. Because of this, and because I find the Counselor's assessment more than agreeable, I am ordering a team of the four of you, my agents, to go on this assignment for subdue and capture of the former Agent Maine."
The three paused, astonished, before all hell broke loose.
"We shouldn't be going after him at all," North bit out.
Not-CT, perhaps even more stunned than the twins, pushed between them to get right up on the screen. "You have to be kidding! Sir! My work here has already gone unsupervised for far too long! If we don't complete this dig before the treaties are signed, anything we find here is going to be useless to the UNSC!"
"And if by four you meant Sharkface, then you can just forget about subdue and capture!" South scoffed. "That angry fucker isn't going to have any interest in another live Freelancer no matter what you bastards have on him and Connecticut Jones here."
"As acting leader of this mission, Agent South," Control said smoothly, "I will be trusting you to see to it that our more… explosive personalities are kept in check. How does that seem to you?"
South blinked in surprise once more, head tilting back as she regarded the news.
Being in charge again meant her importance to the mission was not going unnoticed. It also meant good things for her standing with Charon, given the precarious situation she and North were in due in large part to her need to jump in headfirst to everything.
It also stood to truly piss off Not-CT.
"What can I say?" she asked. "You're the boss."
Theta buzzed with anxiety the entire trip.
North leaned back into his seat and closed his eyes. He still needed to do another weapons check for his own peace of mind, but North had learned long ago to not push himself when Theta's panic was rising.
Instead he focused on breathing, on the thrum of the ship engine beneath them.
Then he focused on the relief Theta felt, and the relief he felt that at least one of their old tricks still worked. That they hadn't changed that about them, too.
"We're docking to pick up Sharkface," South told him from his left side, leaning in from the steering column. "So if you wanted to finish your catnap, I'd recommend doing if sometime when the guy who isn't sworn to murder you is in the passenger seat."
"Noted," North hummed to himself, but otherwise didn't move.
South's smartass comment had, unfortunately, sent another wave of terror through the little AI.
Letting out a huff, North concentrated again and rested in the seat.
It earned an annoyed noise from South as she got on her feet and began to move toward the back. But as she moved past him, she smacked the back of his helmet – too harsh to have been fond if it had been from anyone else in the galaxy.
He took a breath all the same and waited.
I don't like this, Theta finally said when they were alone. He appeared, just briefly, over North's shoulder, before disappearing again.
"I don't like it either, buddy," North sighed. "I really don't. But it's what we have to do."
Why?
North huffed and rubbed at his visor. "When did you start questioningeverything, Theta?"
Sorry, Theta said in a voice that really didn't sound at all like an apology.
Then, a little stronger, the AI hummed in the back of his mind like a plan in action. He promised he was going to kill us. They both want to kill us. And we're about to go against something that scares me, North. And I don't mean in the way that everything else always scares me.
North huffed and steepled his fingers before his face, staring through them. Staring at nothing, really.
"That'd be the time to do it, you know," North pointed out bluntly. Being direct – something he really rarely was with Theta. "If they're going to kill us right under Charon's nose…"
They wouldn't have to, Theta whispered. They would just have to wait for Charon to make the order.
Taking a moment, North nodded. "Yeah," he sighed. "Yeah."
Sharkface was far from comforting as far as an addition to her ship, but South didn't have much say in the matter. And she knew that, as tough and flawless as her practiced bravado might have been, she knew that she was at a complete disadvantage that merely grew with each moment she was with Hargrove and his Charon lackeys.
With each moment she was stuck as a guinea pig in that armor.
North seemed to be lagging in his methodical routines, and the moment South had greeted Sharkface on board, he and not-CT began scheming together in the back.
Things were not looking in her favor, especially for a capture rather than a kill of one of the hardest and most bonecrushing teammates she had had throughout Freelancer.
By the time South flew them into the area of Maine's signal, she was beginning to question how she ever thought she was going to get out of this arrangement alive.
Not that it kept North from looking to her rather seriously, rifle already loaded. "What's the plan, Boss?" he asked.
For a moment, South concentrated on her breathing. It almost felt like all shecould do was breathe. She let her brother's words hang over her as the other two members of their awful team came up to the cockpit and waited for an answer as well.
The answer didn't seem to come at first, but as South looked forward through the window she was given a wondrous distraction.
Eyes narrowing, South edged to the end of her seat and watched as – right where Maine's beacon was projecting from – there was a distant sound of gunfire and a flare of explosions and fighting.
"Find out just what the hell is going on first of," she answered, beginning to flip through all of the controls in order to get an enhanced visual of the scene.
The men shifted around her to get a better view of the screen as well, earning a sneering look from South before she huddled closer to the controls.
"Theta, fix this up, will ya?" she ordered, not even bothering to look toward her brother as she ordered around his AI.
"Uh, sure," Theta mumbled over their radio before doing just that.
In an instant, the screen cleared up and amplified the size of the long range picture. Sure enough, standing before them, Maine was clawing and tearing at the scenery like some sort of animal. Destroying everything in his path as he launched an attack after a moving target.
And that moving target was more than a little familiar.
"Carolina," South gritted out. "Why the fuck do we keep running into her? York's gotta be close then, too, right, North?"
After a beat of silence, South finally bothered to turn and glare her brother's way only to see his attention elsewhere. He looked back to her with a shake of his head.
"South," he said with a sigh. "We've got some other problems to deal with apparently. Namely… being understaffed."
"What?" she demanded before looking and seeing for herself that their unpleasant company was already gone. "Son of a bitch! How the fuck did they get past me?"
"You didn't set your trackers," Theta offered.
"Shut the fuck up, nobody likes a smart ass," South barked before looking to the screen and seeing that Sharkface and not-CT were showing up with unexpected speed and finesse to the scene of the Meta and Carolina fighting.
Cool and unexpected relief hit South in a wave and she leaned back into her chair for a moment to take the scene in.
It could all still work.
North leaned in closer to her, his helmet tilting to the side a bit. "I know what that face means," he declared.
"You don't know what anything means, brother. I'm wearing a helmet," South reminded him crisply and without dignifying him with a direct look.
"I'm your twin, I know that face. You're thinking up something," he pressed. "South, come on now. You've gotta keep me updated. If you and I aren't on the same page, we're going to both end up losing from it–"
"Those two idiots may have signed their own death warrant by jumping into this fray," South explained. "My orders were going to be that we should stay back and let this sort itself out. Charon wants me to step back into the Recovery role and bring back former Freelancers and equipment to them? Fine. I can do that, but I can do that first by making sure those Freelancers wear themselves the fuck out and half the number of people we had to fight."
"But with those two jumping in early?" North continued.
"Then they get twice the work done with half the risk to the team I actually care about here," South shrugged. "All the same, I'm officially landing this sucker," she said as she switched into the landing gear for the ship. "And I want you to get on the roof and situate yourself. You're going to be my eyes and my cover once they're worn down enough that I'm ready to swoop in. Sound good."
"Great, actually," North admitted, readying his equipment as he got to his feet.
"Don't sound so surprised, North," South smirked, loading her own guns as she spun her seat around to face him. "I'm full of fantastic surprises."
"Um," Theta spoke up, projecting over North's shoulder and getting both siblings' attention. "You might not be the only one with surprises, South…"
Slightly alarmed, South turned to face the screen just in time to see Sharkface deliver a decisive hit to Carolina's jawline. It was only by shear fortitude and possibly luck that the Freelancer leader wasn't sent to the floor.
Which was fortunate since Not-CT went for her next.
The twins and Theta watched in aw for a moment as the fight continued with this three on one onslaught.
"They're not going after the Meta at all," North said lowly.
"That doesn't seem fair," Theta added.
Holding her jaw, South tried to consider everything she was watching, tried to consider the exact people involved.
In an odd way, Maine was the only one she had the least amount of beef with. But at the same time, she had an objective from Control. One that she couldn't fail to fulfill because bad attitude and exceeding promise had only gotten her so far as it were.
"What are we doing, Boss?" North asked again.
South's eyes snapped forward with purpose before she turned and leered at her brother. "What the hell are you still doing here? Who's my eyes and cover if you're here? Get the fuck on the roof, North! Fuck's sake!"
North saluted somewhat sarcastically before taking off toward the exit.
With a growl, South pulled out her preferred firearms and shook her head.
"You sure as hell better thank me for this, Carolina."
But she knew better. Especially with what she had planned.