So this is late because I had to keep taking breaks and punching myself in the feels. I'm not really supposed to have those anymore as a writer so it was important to get those things in line! In all seriousness, I've not looked forward to any chapter more than this one so… Hopefully it lives up to expectations.
Special thanks to analiarvb, freshzombiewriter, washingtonstub, CABRALFAN27, Yin, secretlystephaniebrown, ephemeraltea, and prettyarbitrary for the feedback!
Recovery None
Recovery Zero XII: What Makes Us Human
While I'm pretty sure I would never have to tell you how much it pains me to ever side with that guy – and, really, Cee, this is absolutely excruciating. We'll have a serious talk about you causing me this much distress later – York had a point.
I have no idea what the fuck we're doing here.
Carolina felt her boots hit the pavement and she glanced around her HUD casually to double check that the direction of the Meta's signal had not changed.
When it was clear that it hadn't, she let Epsilon know to activate the speedboost and modulate it for a short distance.
He complied, she zipped into position and slid behind the nearest divider on the road. Readying herself for a point of vigilance, cover, and for springing into attack all in one position.
Epsilon, for his part, waited quietly and cautiously before letting out something of a cough.
By the way, you're fucking terrifying when you're not verbally communicating. Were you always this aggressive in your head or is this something special you put together just for me? the AI asked, his biting tone doing nothing to hide the vibrations of apprehension and panic he was sending through her implants and mind.
"Epsilon, calm down or I'm going to show you terrifying," she warned in aggravation.
It did nothing to quell his panic and Carolina let out a long sigh.
"Epsilon," she tried again, calmer by her own standards. "We do not have time for you to be doubting me."
Okay, first off you and I operate on very different time tables. So in between every one of our riveting conversations, I have what feels like ages to go over all the ways things will fuck up and panic over them. I have plenty of time to be our Debbie Downer, he argued. Second off, I never doubt you. You fucking kidding? You're the guaranteed part of this really, really stupid plan. It's me I'm struggling to not doubt here.
Deep down, she knew that. She didn't have to ask these things, she knew it.
Just like she was pretty sure Epsilon knew that she wasn't all that wild about their plan either. Which, upon reflection, probably fed into this spiral of anxiety they were currently going through the motions of.
But she didn't have time to sort through these emotional tangents of theirs. She needed them to be in sync, she needed–
She needed Epsilon to be the Delta to her York, and even she knew they weren't there yet.
"We can do this," she told him instead, watching in wait as the Meta's blip became blindingly apparent on her radar. He would be within view in seconds. "We can and we will do this, Epsilon. Stick to my instincts. Know when I need you."
Right. Okay. Yes, Epsilon muttered through her brain.
"We have the element of surprise," she continued to whisper.
Her heart raced as Maine's white armor glinted in the distance. He was coming in on them and he was coming in fast, but his direction wasn't them exactly. She reminded herself of that again and again until he was close enough that the dome of his helmet – the slight tilt that showed his attention was elsewhere – confirmed it.
Relief and assuredness began to melt over her nerves.
Epsilon was calming.
I'll tell you when is the most opportune moment to attack. I'd recommend your magnum for the initial attack, Epsilon droned in a surprisingly soothing tone.
With his attention fully on the task at hand, it was as if all his other operating systems fell in line. Carolina made a note of it for future use when his anxiety began to get squirrelly on her.
Sync, they thought together.
Epsilon counted down the very nanoseconds they needed to go before leaping into action, and Carolina could feel the buzz in her head. The counting, the adrenaline – the settling of unfinished business, the missing, empty feeling of not having Niner in her ear as she faced down the Meta one last time.
And in an instant it was gone.
"Carolina! Behind you!" Epsilon screeched over her helmet radio.
She barely had time to roll into action but she managed it with the added boost Epsilon gave from their augmentation.
Fire poured from the sky onto the very spot where she had been sitting in wait and the heat was intense – melting even.
Her heart raced as she rolled across the pavement and landed with only some of her usual grace. Epsilon alerted her again and she glanced just in time to catch the fist thrown her way with a well placed block to her left.
She wasn't ready for this assault, but she was nothing if not a good fighter in a pinch.
At least, Carolina was until she noticed the make of her attacker's armor. Her eyes widened in shock. "Connie?" she asked just before she was hit from behind with a punch.
Rookie mistake. Carolina cursed and Epsilon raged. Still in sync.
She took the necessary steps back to plant her feet firmly again before taking on another wave of punches and kicks. Carolina took each one as they came, waiting for an opening between the two attackers as she sized them up.
The one attacker was hauntingly familiar, but she couldn't exactly place him. The other was too tall and broad to be Connecticut but was wearing her armor somehow. Or at least one very similarly adjusted for him.
And that was when it struck her.
These assholes blew the break in for us! Epsilon seethed.
"Yeah?" Carolina grunted, taking a feint before nailing the black armored goon in the jawline of his helmet and sending him back a few stumbling steps. "They're about to blow a hell of a lot more for us!"
Before Epsilon could manage a retort, they heard a distinctive snarl behind them.
Whirling around, both Carolina and the man in CT's armor faced the approaching Meta. He stalked forward, reaching back and slowly dragging the bruteshot Maine had taken for himself across his armored shoulder and taking aim for them.
At once, Carolina and Epsilon both thought of fleeing using the speedboost when, without warning, a dozen or so shots fired from the same direction Carolina's attackers had come from.
Looking up, Carolina watched as a black and purple armored character joined the fray, firing enough times on the Meta that he took cover behind the very road divider Carolina had before.
The black armored attacker slid over to join the group just as the Meta began returning fire. They looked them up and down before taking an intimidating step toward the man beside Carolina.
"Just what the fuck do you think you're doing, you stupid son of a bitch!?" she screamed in a voice Carolina had thought she was not about to hear again anytime soon. But it all came together when she remembered her and York's last encounter.
"South!?" Carolina asked all the same.
South held up a finger and continued to get in the other soldier's face. "Don't interrupt me," she snarled. "Seriously, asshole, I was giving you orders and you disobeyed me? And now we're running the risk of fucking losing everything we were sent after? Oh, let me guess. Sharkface started this, right? He always has to be the annoying-as-fuck thorn in my side."
"This doesn't concern you," the man gritted out, not backing down from South even slightly.
"The hell it doesn't! You just made this a lot fucking harder! For fuck's sake, we could have at least let them tire each other out, you bastard!" South continued somewhat hysterically.
"South! Tell me what you're doing here!" Carolina spat out viciously just as Epsilon had her duck under more of the Meta's shots.
Visibly annoyed, South turned just enough to point at Carolina. "Shut up, princess! As soon as I've got my ducks in a row, I'm going to arrest you."
"Arrest me?" Carolina scoffed. "You can't arrest me – what the fuck are you on about?"
"If I don't have the power to, I'll get it retroactively," South hand waved. "I'm working for the UNSC, more or less. Your ass is grass as far as I'm concerned. You, Maine, and these fucking assholes that don't now how to take orders."
"We're here for Maine and Carolina, doesn't matter the order," the man in CT's armor said viciously.
Carolina watched in the distance as the other unknown soldier got up, reaching for a flamethrower that answered at least one of Carolina's questions about what was happening.
Run, Epsilon advised.
Without a second's thought, Carolina took off down the road, earning a yell from South.
But Carolina didn't stop, especially when in her periphery she saw just what Epsilon had been warning about. There was incoming traffic from the city, a proverbial rush hour breaching, and among the first vehicles was a military truck that the Meta aptly grabbed and threw in their direction.
Okay, so we've gotten the Meta's attention, Epsilon pointed out. Now what the fuck are we going to do with it?
York was perched on the hood of the mongoose, leaning forward a bit too much for his balance to account for. But he couldn't help it – naturally pushing himself toward the binoculars in his hands and watching.
His stomach might as well have been the Gordian Knot with just how much it was twisting at the scene.
"The particular position you are using helps with weight leveraging," Delta mused from his shoulder. "Your muscles, taut from the position, are more likely to spring into action given an impulsive decision."
York gritted his teeth as he watched yet another unknown drop into the scene with Carolina. He leaned forward more.
"Overall I would say that you are well aware of this and have planned from the moment that Agent Carolina and Epsilon left to have done something impulsive and ill advised," Delta continued to sigh. "That is so very much like you, York."
"She's getting ganged up on, and she still hasn't gotten on her goddamn radio to signal me," York announced, starting a completely separate conversation with the AI.
"I actually believe your recklessness diminishes when around Carolina, which is a surprising outcome considering her penchant for leaping into problems," Delta continued. "But I suppose the current situation will be testing your record thus far."
"Do you think she believes she can't go to me? Can't trust me? Why? Because I dared to question her judgment. And look at that, I was right to," he pointed out, waving to the scene before them.
He didn't even pay attention as his volatile position led to sliding quite a bit down the hood of the mongoose.
Delta paused and considered. "We could continue on our path, trust that Agent Carolina will want to meet us at our destination. But I do know that, by your desires, that is not an option for us."
When the Meta threw a literal truck at them, York threw the binoculars aside and instantly leapt to the driver's seat of the mongoose.
"We've got to help her!" he told Delta.
"As I expected," Delta responded just before flickering out his sprite.
The moment the Meta began throwing things, the plan devolved into a chaotic mess of movement and breathing.
The plan was chaos from the start, the thought crossed her mind, though in the bleariness of traveling at an accelerated speed made it difficult to tell if it washer thinking it or Epsilon at that point.
It didn't really matter. At that rate they were both looking like they were going to be toast.
Not to, uh, distract you from the very serious shit going on right now, Epsilon's more clearly defined voice hummed across her brain.
"And yet here we are," Carolina gritted out, barely managing to jump from one level of the roads to the next without getting burned by a spew of flames from the mystery soldier working with South.
But you seem really worried about me. And I'm seeing some memories here of what this Meta thing did last time you had AI and… uh, I think Delta was right earlier. Maybe we should've worked more on our communication skills. This seems pretty firmly in the Shit I Should've Been Told category of information right now, Epsilon scolded.
"No, Epsilon!" Carolina snapped, skidding to a halt just long enough to turn directions and sent herself, full momentum, into punching the goon on South's left that was wearing CT's armor. "The only information that has any pertinence right now? Is how to keep us the fuck alive. Accept that, and then get back to me with a plan."
While it felt unreasonably good to have laid out the fucker who dared to wear her dead friend's armor, Carolina found that it left an opening in the two-man firing brigade South had gotten going on the Meta. Which left both of them open to shots from the Meta and South ended up taking a hit to the shoulder.
"You fucking bitch!" South screeched, dropping below their cover with Carolina. She leered at Carolina angrily. "Are you trying to get us all fucking killed!?"
"Frankly, I don't give a damn if your friends don't make it out of this, South," Carolina told her candidly.
"Well, fuck, neither do I. But I still know that you and I at our best aren't going to be enough to take on Maine with all these AI and enhancements he's got on him now," South snapped angrily.
"That isn't Maine!" Carolina roared back just in time to feel a bullet whiz by her helmet from a direction completely opposite of Maine's shooting. Her head whipped toward the source's direction and she found herself deadlocked with the flamethrower asshole again. She snapped back at South. "By the way, tellyour guys that little factoid about needing more than just the two of us to take down the Meta."
"Oh, shut up, I've got this covered," South hissed before reaching up to her helmet. "Have you got the shot? Take it. What're you even waiting for?"
Carolina began to open her mouth and ask just who South was talking to when a clear shot rang through the air. The Meta let out a snarl loud enough they could hear it over the chaos and momentarily stopped shooting.
For a moment, Carolina felt some weight lift off of her.
What the fuck was that? Epsilon demanded.
A friend, Carolina replied without a second's hesitation. And it almost struck her how true and good those words felt in light of everything.
Which was just before she heard, not so much before felt, an uppercut that sent her off her feet and over the construction pile that had been acting as their cover. It didn't even register until her shoulder was hitting the pavement that it must have been the guy in CT's armor, that it was a stupid, ridiculous rookie move to have been taken by surprise.
And it took Epsilon's screaming and raging to will her to her feet before Carolina realized that the Meta was standing before her, bruteshot at the ready.
"Fuck," she muttered senselessly.
Then, as if things could not have gotten anymore chaotic than they were, there was a definite revving of engines before Carolina watched a mongoose – wheels first, pile into the Meta's armor and sent her old friend flying toward the nearest pillar.
York jumped off the back of the ATV almost simultaneously with the wrecking, flipping his shotgun over his shoulder to be at the ready the moment his feet hit the ground. He stood over her, gun aimed in the direction of her attackers where he took two warning shots.
The flamethrower guy hesitated more before backing off, but the other ducked for cover with South without another moment's notice.
Epsilon projected eagerly over Carolina's shoulder for the first time since the whole mess had begun. "York! Never thought I'd be happy to see your ugly helmet out here. Holy shit."
"You didn't introduce me to your friends," York said lightly, his voice still tight and bothered from the excitement all the same.
"They haven't proven to be the sort you bring home to the family," she announced, pushing up to her feet to stand beside him. "And worse yet they have terrible tastes in leadership."
"Yeah?" York asked, obviously more concerned at the fact that the Meta had just shoved the mongoose off and walked out of a literal crevice he made in the pillar.
"Yeah, the chick in the black and purple armor?" Carolina said, nodding toward her so York would follow. "South."
"No fucking shit," York marveled. "Small world."
"Too small," Carolina agreed.
"Carolina!" flamethrower guy roared from the distance. "I don't give a fuck about how many of you fancy Freelancer fuckers are around! I want to settle this. You. Me. Right now! I'm going to make you burn for all the pain you've caused. I'm going to make you bleed your apologies."
"Huh," York said. "What the fuck is with this guy?"
"Does it matter?" Carolina demanded.
"Normally, I'd say not really. Today? I'm going with the fact that I like to know some basic facts about the people trying to kill us," York replied dryly. "You know. Just to change things up for once."
Epsilon shifted uncomfortably to Carolina's other shoulder. "Look, not to interrupt the loving banter and all that, but we've got some serious shit to be worried about right now!"
Delta appeared over York's in response. "Epsilon is correct. Given what we've seen of how these two unknown soldiers are concentrated on Carolina for the moment, and given the aggressiveness and power behind the Meta currently, I do not predict that a scuffle between all parties would end in our favor. Particularly since both parties seem to have issue with us."
York sighed. "Look, just to restate my point: everyone in the galaxy seems to have issue with us, so we'll need more than that."
Carolina didn't, though. "They want us to divide and conquer, York," she told him. "And I'm inclined to agree."
He tilted his head toward her. "And I guess these are bedroom rules and whether or not I'm inclined to something isn't factoring in at all?"
"And here I thought you'd never learn," Carolina rolled her eyes.
"Okay, stop with the flirting. I got it a few days ago, stop rubbing it in my face!" Epsilon snarled.
Enjoying Epsilon's suffering entirely too much, York nodded to Carolina. "Okay, so how do you want us to do this, Boss?"
"Stay here and distract the Meta–"
"Wow, and I already hate everything about this. How did you manage to do that so fast?" York scoffed.
"I'm going to very quickly and efficiently take out our two new friends here by leading them away first. Sound good?"
"No," York and Delta said in unison.
"You'll be fine," Carolina assured him. "Besides, it's an order. Now, fulfill it."
Before he could muster up another protest, Carolina took off. Epsilon was silent but humming with anxiety as they took off, but it was a slower pace than her usual show.
She needed the unknowns to follow her, and to do that they needed to see her first.
There was almost too much satisfaction in her when she looked back and saw them both trailing behind.
We've got this, Epsilon piped up. I mean. We do got this, right, Cee?
A few steps more and Carolina could hear the gunfight beginning between York and the Meta. Her heart squeezed. "We'd better," she responded ominously.
He was so stunned by the brush off at first he didn't even fully react. His hands did not slip from the shotgun but he still dropped it slightly, watching the blur that the took the place of where Carolina had once been.
"Wait! No! Carolina!" he yelled after her.
There was a gleam of green in the periphery of his vision that York didn't so much as have to glance toward to know who it was.
"This was an unfortunate turn of events," Delta droned, not even bothering to sound surprised by their recent abandonment.
"Dammit!" York hissed.
It had seemed like such a good and heroic idea when he was riding the mongoose through the air and crashing into their former teammate. He wasn't entirely sure where it all went so wrong.
The spray of gunfire from the Meta was quick to get his attention, however, and York ducked to avoid the ensuing bullets behind cover.
There were a string of incoherent curses on his breath as he reloaded, tucked around the side of the pillar he managed to get behind, and sent shots back. Delta was streaming real-time projections and suggestions on maneuvers straight to his HUD but York hardly paid attention to them.
They were in sync, and the plans Delta had the most faith in, the information that was held to be most pertinent, York felt in his gut like a second instinct. He hadn't needed things spelled out to him from Delta in a long time.
Mostly, Delta gave verbal cues to York out of courtesy anymore.
"Soldier of unknown allegiance and trustworthiness approaching on our nine," he informed York.
"Should I shoot them?" York mused out loud before standing and delivering a round of shots that met their mark at the Meta's shoulder.
"The chances of that working in our current favor are forty three percent," Delta offered statistically.
"Interesting odds," York grunted, dropping back behind cover to switch out weapons. His back pressed against the concrete and he glanced just in time to see the soldier in black and purple armor slide into position beside him, shoulder hitting the concrete hard but securely. "Too late, anyway."
The other soldier messed with their helmet but paid York and Delta no mind, looking around their cover and keeping track of the Meta's movements under their breath.
"So from what I gather you're South," York chatted, inserting a new clip to his sidearm.
"From what I gather you're still a fucking lousy infiltration expert who couldn't get out of a warehouse undetected," South snapped back.
York glared at her. "New armor?" he asked. "Hate it. Looks awful on you."
South's head snapped in his direction. "You're such a little whiny bastard deep down, you know that?" she hissed.
"Aw, you missed me," York scoffed. He leaned out from behind the pillar and looked to Delta. "Alright, Dee, what's the best way to deal with this situation?"
Delta obediently projected around the corner as well and observed the Meta's position.
"It would appear to me that the only course of action is to maintain distance between ourselves and the Meta," Delta announced. "Given Maine's statistical advantage at hand-to-hand, our own tactical advantage with multiple firearms, and the general issue of the Meta's known fixation with acquiring armor enhancements and AI, distance is key."
York narrowed his eye. "Is there anything that's not a key with you?"
There was a tremendous roar and both York and South looked on as the Meta charged at them.
"Holy shit!" York yelled, getting in position and firing once directly for the Meta and making his mark right at the former Freelancer's chest.
He didn't stop charging and before York could take aim again, South interrupted.
"Don't fucking kill him!" she snarled before tackling them both out of the way of the white armored tank. "My orders are to bring this fucker in alive! You mess that up for me, York, I'll rip you apart myself!"
With a grunt, York hit the pavement with South and they rolled. He shook his head and glared at her. "Newsflash, South, I don't give a single damn about whatever your orders are or who they're from. The Meta was about to rip us in half right then."
"I believe that is my fault," Delta announced, projecting closer to York's shoulder. "It would seem my presence is causing us to be singled out as a target."
York glared at him. "Well how about we keep from doing that?"
"Executing," Delta replied before flickering out.
Reaching for another clip, York pushed to his feet and took aim.
"I'm warning you, York! I'm taking Maine in alive!" South growled.
"And I'm telling you right now, that is not Maine," York said as he watched the slightly dazed Meta turn on its heels and charge for them again. He aimed for the domed helmet and readied his trigger finger. "Sorry, buddy, it's you or me."
"Fucking hell, forcing my hand," South muttered, zipping out of the way and reaching for her helmet. "Take the fucking shot, North. I don't care if he's in the way! Take it or we're going to have Control up our asses!"
Ignoring South, York squeezed the trigger. It was then that Delta's insistent buzzing went from a harmonized hum to a rapid pounding in his head.
Warning faster than words, but not quite fast enough.
York heard the shot and watched the blood spray from Maine's thigh right before their collision.
He didn't even think about how much his arm hurt until they had both fallen from the overpass and onto the traffic below.
It's all too fast! I can't keep up with this! Carolina, please slow down!
She ignored Epsilon, pushing the speed boost for another leg and watching as her two combatants moved in an eerie harmony predicting her every twist and turn. They had studied on her. They had been expecting her.
And that tickle of familiarity she had felt before continued to grow.
I can't do this, Epsilon sounded like he was gasping for air.
"You said yourself, you are the one who functions on a different time table, Epsilon," Carolina snapped, ducking beneath one of the black armored soldier's bursts of flame just in time to be hit with the brown soldier's kick to her chest. "Use it!" she coughed out, hitting the pavement and sending them into another burst of speed.
I do function faster but I just – I don't know how – you have to let me process all this. It's too much information and–
"And you're a computer, Epsilon! Think like one!" Carolina nearly begged.
There was a spurt of fretting anxiety growing in the back of her brain, and Carolina knew that her AI partner was going to be useless until he calmed down. All that coaching, all those endless lessons from Freelancer about learning to trust AI as a second instinct and Carolina had to throw it all away.
Until he got his act together, Epsilon was going to be more of a hinderance to her getting out of this fight alive. And that really pissed her off.
"You like to fight close and personal, Carolina!" the flamethrower soldier snarled, charging forward and blocking just in time for one of Carolina's kicks, and then sweeping up his knee to block the kick it led into. "And so do I!"
He swung back and Carolina blocked it.
Coming up on your left! Epsilon shouted loud enough it sent a shiver down Carolina's spine.
She glanced over and saw the one in CT's armor sending a flying kick her way just in time to dodge it. It wasn't much, but it at least got both of the attackers on the same side of her so she could watch them simultaneously.
She stepped back and quietly thanked Epsilon. This is more like it.
Well, just so we're clear, you're a slave driver. And possibly have a death wish. Why are we sharing the same brain, again? This seems like a bad idea in hindsight, Epsilon huffed in aggravation.
"We have the advantage, Carolina," the black armored one snarled. He stalked forward, heat and gas obscuring the air around his flamethrower, just waiting for ignition. "I've studied you. I know who you are. I'm prepared. I'm strong. And you don't even know what hell you've brought upon yourself."
Carolina narrowed her eyes. "Maybe not, but I've always been pretty good at guessing."
You've actually got a plan? Epsilon asked skeptically.
It's not like you were making one, she thought back.
There was a subtle hum and Epsilon began vibrating. Apparently witty banter worked just as well to get his focus, Carolina made another note for the future. If they had one, that was.
The guy wearing your friend's armor? Epsilon pointed out.
The one I really want to punch? Carolina asked flatly.
Yeah, he's moving a lot more coordinated. Look at him, he's already starting to sidestep to try and get on your other side, Epsilon continued. They both watched as the brown armored one began to slyly do just that. He's definitely trying to move them like a team. Which makes this hard as balls.
"Wow, thanks, Epsilon," Carolina snapped out loud. "Very helpful."
Dude, hold your fucking horses! This is where my superior computer brain comes in handy, Epsilon yelled back. This CTish guy is basically overstepping right now to make up for the fact that his so-called partner isn't doing the same. Flamethrower-guy isn't even watching the other guy's back. Which means that he's the one you could get control over.
Carolina watched steadily as the CT armored man stepped edged closer to her other side.
"I like it," she said, eyes darting back toward the main threat.
You're welcome, Epsilon replied smugly. Now stop throwing more shit at me than I can handle, okay? Still figuring this whole being a computer stuff out, Cee. Not sure we're battle ready.
"I'm battle ready enough for the both of us," she assured him before planting her feet and rising up out of her more prepared stance. "Hey, flamethrower–"
"I am Sharkface!" he snarled back.
For a moment, Carolina was genuinely caught off guard and glanced toward her shoulder. Epsilon projected there and looked back to her before giving a confused shrug of his own.
"Right, whoever the fuck you are," Carolina replied dryly. "You seem to have awhole lot of information about me that I don't really have on you. There a reason for that other than creepy stalker syndrome?"
He stepped forward, practically foaming at the mouth. "Have you ruined so many lives that you can't even place them anymore?"
"That's what it's starting to sound like," Carolina snarked in return.
Visibly irritated by the attitude Carolina had on display, Sharkface let out another snarl and then ran forward. "Allow me to refresh your memory then!"
Smirking beneath her helmet, Carolina waited a few steps before dropping into a squatted position. Epsilon flared up the speedboost, making her reflexes that much more responsive as Sharkface dove for her.
She grabbed his available wrist with her left hand. Her right caught onto the belt of his armor.
Then, with all her strength, Carolina jettisoned Sharkface over her head and toward his also diving partner.
The moment her hands were free, Carolina kicked back against the ground, letting the added momentum of her armor enhancement push herself far away from the crash of the two soldiers. She then pulled out her sidearm, watched Epsilon's guided trajectory, and shot for the head of the Sharkface's flamethrower.
There was a spark and Carolina had just enough time to think success! before everything blew up in their faces.
As the soldiers were sent flying through the flames one way, Carolina stumbled in the other.
She crashed hard against the pavement and rolled with the blast for a ways until she came to a stop. Her cough choked her a bit and she had to roll over to her hands and knees in order to catch her breath again.
You alright, Cee? Epsilon asked, voice heavy with real concern.
"I'll live," she said. "And we got out of that mess, so there's–"
Her HUD suddenly became flooded with information – bioscans, radio patterns, a beacon, and a string of directions being droned out in a monotoned but loud voice.
"Epsilon, what the hell!" she snapped, trying to look through all the information at once.
It's not me! he defended. It's Delta, he's swamping my frequency with this– Oh, no. It's York.
Success and that feeling of satisfaction drained from Carolina's bones instantly. She leaped to her feet and ran.
Everything hurt but York could hear Delta's anxious voice droning on even over the alarms and lights going off in his HUD. He had to get up.
York, I have already initiated the Healing Unit, biofoam should be packing your arm. We are currently also–
"I'm Humpty Dumpty, Dee, I get it!" he groaned, pushing up to his knees. "Tell me something I don't–"
Before the words could even finish leaving his mouth, York looked up and saw the oncoming traffic. His eye widened and he barely managed to roll out of the way of an oncoming jeep flying past them.
Whatever these Freelancer soldiers and personnel were attempting to get away from, it wasn't leaving York with too many friends. And he had a good idea of just what would inspire that sort of stampeded like response.
The Meta landed on a jeep which seemed to have carried him off some distance, Delta informed York, tone rushed and curt. I believe our best course of action is to find cover and escape further detection until backup has arrived.
"Yeah?" York asked just before there was a screech of cars. He glared into the distance, watching as a car flipped through the air. He reached for his remaining gun as he achingly backed away from the scene. "So sure about that?"
Reevaluating, Delta replied.
"Yeah, I bet you are," York grunted, watching as the cars swerved out of the way of the oncoming threat.
The Meta stood, snarling and growling, signature weapon at hand.
Having no interest in letting the Meta have it easy, York began firing as much as possible, watching as the bullets peppered his former friend. "Fucking– you never knew when to stand down, did you, Maine!?" he yelled, knowing the uselessness of it.
When the Meta fired back, York's gun took the brunt of it, flying out of his hand and leaving him to yelp at the searing but comparatively temporary pain of it.
Two minutes until Agent Carolina can intercept, Delta informed him.
"Oh, good, I thought this was going to be easy," York hissed.
His shot arm hung limply and uselessly at his side as the Meta ran for him, but York had no intentions of letting the mammoth of a man rip off what was left of his appendage to beat him to death with.
That doesn't seem physically possible, York, Delta bantered.
He turned his good side toward the Meta, pulling up his left fist and blocking the first blow from the Meta's kick. It sent him sliding back on the balls of his feet but didn't knock York over, which was a relief. It was hard enough to fight favoring his blindside rather than his right for once.
As if he didn't have enough disadvantages in the fight.
When the Meta snarled incoherently, it swung with the blade of the bruteshot and York narrowly avoided it. The fighting continued with a few more steps backward for York.
Delta was making it very clear in his ongoing monologue between York's ears that he favored them putting as much distance between them as possible, let Carolina handle the rough stuff.
"You wound me," York grunted, ducking under the Meta's last swing well enough that he could reposition in a squat. His good hand grabbed the combat knife secreted in his boot and then York sprung forward.
The Meta's waist had been left open in his wilder swings, giving York room to knock the air right out of the white armored tank and send him to the ground.
One minute until interception, Delta chimed.
York was disappointed by how quickly the Meta rose back up, but he was also prepared for it and he sliced forward with the knife. It sliced into the Meta's knuckles, releasing a snarl and yelp from the man that encouraged him to drop his favored weapon.
"How about encouraging Lina to move the time table up a bit?" York asked, rotating the knife for better grip as the hilt became slick with blood. He then brandished his knuckles before pushing forward into a solid punch toward the Meta's head.
That will not be helpful, Delta informed him, like it was news.
Unable to jab with his other arm, York instead rotated to bring up his knee against the Meta's bleeding thigh. Then he led with his available fist again.
"Then give me something that will be, Dee!" York breathed just before his fist was caught.
He barely had time to think before the Meta snarled and held him in place for a solid punch that was hard enough it sent York's helmet flying. He let out a broken noise as the Meta punched again, that time for his damaged arm, then kicked York's chest hard enough he was sent flying backward.
York could feel the moving traffic behind him, his back armor sparking as it was brushed by a speeding vehicle. He let out a cry and stumbled with the additional momentum before he collapsed to the ground.
HIs head was throbbing and red began to seep over his vision. York only blearily realized that his head injury must have opened back up.
The alarms of his suit were screeching and he knew it was bad – maybe worsethan bad. But the Meta was stalking toward him again.
"Dee," York coughed, dragging himself by his elbow. "Dee, I can't…"
"As I said before, York," Delta said out loud, suddenly projecting over his shoulder. "I believe I am causing you to be a greater target by my presence. The Meta has proven to be interested in armor enhancements and AI fragments. I provide both currently."
"What?" York croaked out just before he felt a thick hand grab his ankle and drag him back, his chin hitting the pavement as it happened.
"I have a theory," Delta said, turning toward the Meta. "It will require breaking from safety protocols. But it is inspired by the field tested methods of Eta and Iota."
York could barely see past his blood, but he knew Delta was right on his shoulder, as always. The AI's words were not making any sense, and York couldn't expend the energy to think about them when he felt the Meta grab his chest plate.
"Dee!" York shouted, kicking as much as he could while the Meta hoisted him into the air. "Carolina! Get her!"
"I apologize for any pain this may cause, York," Delta droned on. "Forceful ejection–"
Suddenly, York found himself only listening to the AI's words. His eyes widened with realization. "No. No, Delta! Don't you dare, you can't–"
"Please remember that I am, and always will be, your friend. And that you,York… You are worth the sacrifice."
The words felt completely hollow in York's chest as he watched the Meta's other hand reach for his neck. He couldn't accept, couldn't believe that Delta would ever–
It was one of the most painful things York had ever felt. Like lightning had struck his spine. His vision, his hearing, smell, taste, breathing – everything halted as it was struck with a pulse.
The faithful hum at the back of his head ceased, and York felt his whole world crash, the gears of his mind instantly rust and grind to a broken halt.
He gasped, choked, and then everything shut down.
There had been little room for doubt that things were going bad the moment Delta reached out for them. But somehow, naively, stupidly, Carolina had not been expecting them to be worse.
Ninety feet away, Epsilon provided unhelpfully.
York was on the ground, the Meta was behind him.
"York!" she shrieked, voice lost in the wind as the speedboost accelerated them.
Sixty feet–
The scream that York let out sent a chill through her, stopped her heart, nearly made her stumble. A dual scream not unlike the echoes still scarring her own brain. The sound of a human – two – being ripped in half.
It hurt her throat just to be reminded of it.
There was no attempt to brace himself as York hit the ground with a nasty thud.Twenty feet away. His arm was twisted behind his back and head covered in red from the front and the back.
Carolina couldn't see anything anymore, couldn't hear anything outside of the feral scream she unleashed as she flung a kick at the Meta's chest.
He stumbled back, off balanced with his bloodied fist closed around Delta's chip. The Meta seemed to debate fighting when there was a spray of gunfire from the overpass above.
The domed head snarled at Carolina before taking off.
She almost stepped forward when, in the back of her head, Epsilon let out a weak voice. Cee, we've gotta do something for him.
And just when she didn't believe her world could go crashing down any further, everything hit her at once.
"Oh, god," she gasped before turning on her heels and facing the bloodied mess of a man left on the road. She dropped beside him, ignoring the sounds of vehicles starting up, of distant shouting – all white noise as she looked over York.
She dropped to her knees beside him, hesitating before at last pulling York off his bleeding arm and partially into her lap.
"York? Come on," she grunted, pulling him close as she quickly brushed the blood from his eyes. His good eye rolled aimlessly in its socket, pupil blown. "York! Can you hear me?"
"Dee," he muttered weakly.
"Look at me. Hey!" she growled, more aggressive than she meant as she framed his face with her hands and forced him to look at her. "Look at me. Stay with me, alright? Try to answer me. I'm going to…"
She didn't know what to do.
Epsilon projected over her shoulder, clearly panicked. "I-I can put together a list of field procedures to perform based on his bioscan. And it looks like his healing unit is already activated!"
Carolina nodded, gulping down breath as she focused on York's eyes again.
York wasn't seeing her, but the moment he locked onto Epsilon he froze. "Dee," he rasped.
"It's not him, York, it's Epsilon, come on," Carolina attempted to communicate, smoothing his blood slicked hair just before York's eye rolled back into his head. "York!?"
Without other warning, York's body began trembling, starting small in his shoulders before almost instantly becoming head to toe. A grand mal seizure, but fast and hard, his whole body convulsing.
"York!" Carolina cried out, feeling the full force of his skull slamming back into her lap.
"Hold his head! Make sure it doesn't hit the pavement!" Epsilon ordered.
Carolina's eyes snapped toward him, burning with tears. "What the hell do you think I'm doing!?" she erupted.
All the same, she held his shoulders, keeping him in her lap as best she could, adjusting so that the ramming was more often than not against the softer mesh of her armor rather than the plating.
A few seconds more lapsed before finally, York slumped down against Carolina, body limp and formless against the pavement.
Still shocked, Carolina waited a few moments before bending over his head, hands roughly running down his cheeks. "York?" she asked, rubbing his face again. "York, come on. York?"
Epsilon stood over her shoulder silently before whispering, "He's unconscious, Cee. But his healing unit won't be enough for long." He paused. "We need help."
Carolina stared, eyes brimming. She couldn't breathe.
"York is my help," she choked out. "I don't… I don't trust anyone else. I don'thave anyone else. He can't… Epsilon, he can't…"
"You have to have someone, Carolina!" Epsilon cried back. "You have to tryanyone! If you don't he's going to die and those fuckers with you ex-teammate are going to be back and… You. Have. To. Try!"
Her mind raced for a solution, but it ground to a halt so easily. So filled with the current events, with the pool of blood she could feel growing over her thigh.
Swallowing, Carolina gathered herself and reached for the supplies in her belt. First thing first was York's head.
"Epsilon, get on my radio," she said lowly. "If there's any chance that this frequency works, we have a chance."
Epsilon nodded before disappearing, and Carolina began putting pressure on York's fried implant.
"You-you listen to me," Carolina ordered over a couple of sobs. "You are not allowed to die. You're not allowed to… to let me drag your ass all over this planet for-for some stupid revenge thing that doesn't… None of this will matter if I'm what got you killed, York. So fucking suck it up and stay with me or… Or I'll make you regret got it?"
York didn't respond, but her helmet frequency did.