Several Months Prior...
Church never thought he could be unhappy in heaven. Or at least what he perceived as what must have been heaven (he still didn't entirely understand how an AI ended up in heaven). Yet here he was, lying in the grass on his back, looking up into the ever-changing sky, consumed endlessly by a feeling of loneliness.
He sat up and for the second time in the last hour he'd spent in this part of the forest, looked at his surroundings.
Fertile trees and plants bearing some exotic and delicious looking fruit were all around, there was his makeshift campsite he'd scraped together from sticks logs and leaves he'd found (conveniently they all seemed to perfectly fit together when assembled how he had wanted). He was surrounded by nothing less than what someone would perceive as the Garden of Eden (or island, whatever).
Yet here he was. Alone in 'salvation', which is what he had nicknamed the aforementioned pretty garden.
"Tucker would've wanted to name it something cool," He thought aloud, speaking to no one in particular, "I think he'd be happy with what I chose."
Church heaved a somber sigh. God. He never in a million years thought he'd wish for the day to be fighting the Reds, or listening to Caboose, or even just arguing with Tucker. A small part of his mind wandered to Tex but he quickly squashed that out. His mind once more then returned to thoughts of his friends. He even found a small part of himself thinking about Agent Washington. Wondering what he would be doing after all of this. Probably something a hell of a lot more interesting than-
BANG!
Was the sound that erupted in the sky, like a firework had gone off. Said sound had Church scrambling onto his feet and gazing upwards as he saw a beam of pure power shoot into the atmosphere (did this place even have an atmosphere?). The beam erupted into the air before dissipating entirely. Leaving Church stunned.
Was that some sort of 'heavenly sign' that he just received? Probably not considering whatever entity put him here could clearly communicate with him. But it was still worth checking out the area that the mysterious light laser had come from.
.
.
.
Church coincidentally found out on his little trek to nowhere, that just because he's in heaven, it doesn't mean jack shit about not getting tired.
Which is precisely how Church would find himself heaving and huffing to the point he felt like coughing up his own blood, laying face down on the ground of the rainforest. Still an untold length away from wherever he was going.
"This is going to take forever," Church complained between huge huffs of breath as he hauled himself to his feet, "It could be another mile away! I don't even know what I'm looking f-"
Out of nowhere Church collided with a hard surface directly in front of him. He stepped back to take stock of the situation. Coming quickly to the realisation that whatever he was searching for, he found it.
'IT' was a tower construct, similar to the ones that Church had seen when waking up on the beaches of 'salvation'. But this tower was more rooted to the ground, less float-y. It seemed to be illuminated by a supernatural glowy blue aura. Church momentarily thought about how Caboose would be amazed by the aura, the memory of his goofy, stupid, compatriot leaving a small empty ache in Churchs chest.
Shaking off the bad feelings, Church began to circle the structure. Looking for a way in, which he located when he triggered some kind of automatic staircase, which unfolded and floated in front of him. Which, yes, made Church scream like an opera singer on helium. The startled sim-trooper/AI slowly made his way cautiously up the steps of the construct and into the internal part of the building.
The inside was as cryptically filled with blue lines of energy illuminating the chrome-tinted walls as the rest of the structure. The whole damn place gave Church the heebie-jeebies...and made him think stupid shit apparently. Church rolled his eyes and continued down the seemingly eerie hallway.
Finally he entered what seemed to be a...living room? The decorum was a little strange and had that same chromish flare, but there were PILLOWS, there was a fridge! Everything in here looked like a house. But maybe what unsettled Church so much about it was WHOSE house it looked so much like.
"It looks just like...Blood Gulch." He gazed around the room, almost imagining his friends there.
Tucker laid out across the couch, Caboose snacking in the corner, Tex-...Kaikana throwing her own little party, that kid in the-wait a second.
Church suddenly had his full attention captured by the small child standing there. He was dressed in armor similar to Church's, but purple. But maybe what was stranger was the fact of how much he looked like a younger Church. No sign of Church's familiar dirty stubble, even less sign of his black unkempt spiky hair. How much had Church's puberty fucked with him?
"Um...hello?" The boy spoke, and it was suddenly unmistakable who it was Church was talking to.
"You're Theta." Church croaked, the boy showed a sign of surprise that Church recognized him.
"Indeed Alpha," Both Church and Theta looked up to see a new figure enter the room, "Welcome to the afterlife I suppose. My name's Delta."
Church was definitely going to have a stroke now.