Church couldn't fucking believe this. He should call this place 'punishment' instead...though that wouldn't be nearly as cool of a name as 'salvation' would it? But style points weren't worth all that much anyway. Besides, 'punishment' is a much more accurate name, considering that Church was stuck here (likely for all of eternity) with some of the people he (reasonably) hates the absolute most.

Those people in question are the seven AI fragments occupying the couch inside of the construct while Church rubs his temples furiously, hoping to get rid of both headaches at once.

"So explain this all to me again?" Church asked exasperated.

Delta looked up pleasantly.

"Of course Alpha. We all died in the E.M.P blast-"

"Emp." Theta corrected him, Delta turned a small glare on the child before continuing.

"-and after that we all woke up here. I found Theta, Eta, and Iota wandering the beach and brought them here."

Gamma spoke up in his high and robotic sounding voice,

"I found Sigma quickly, Omega wasn't far behind." Omega gave a sharp glare at him, while Sigma cleared his throat and stood up,

"What Gamma means is that Omega punched him in the mouth and attempted to attack me but I overpowered him in the end." This of course sparked the ever present rage of Omega who leaped to his feet.

"You wanna rematch right now punk?" He shouted in his deep echoey voice at Sigma.

The fiery armored clad man simply sent Omega a sharp glare.

"I think it would be wise not to anger me brother-"

"I'LL SHOW YOU ANGER!" Omega threw his punch but was stopped short of going ham on Sigma by a direct hit to the cheek by Church.

Omega dropped back into his empty seat on the couch, looking affronted by the Alphas boldness, meanwhile Theta leaped away as he landed, Eta and Iota doing the same from their side of the couch. Sigma simply looked up at Church who turned on the other fragment immediately and hammered him across the face. Sigma didn't get the same soft landing as his brother and instead conked himself on the edge of the table, rolling onto the ground and letting out a quiet curse. The room sat in stunned silence staring between Church who stood standing, fist still clenched, and the totally walloped AI fragments.

"Would anyone else like to start something," Church gave a death glare around the room, "Good."

With that final angry nod, Church marched off down the hallways.
He knew where he was going. If this place was anything like his home in blood gulch, then his room would be right around-

"Here we go." Church hummed to himself.

He quickly noticed the lack of a handle or scanner to open his door. Confusedly he fumbled around at the entrance for a moment before stepping forward and watching the door open in front of him.

"Interesting…" Church murmured before taking a cautious step into the room.

Everything was dark, he fumbled across the walls for a light switch before realizing that the room probably didn't have one. Instead, a thought crossed his mind, and he focused deeply on it.

'Turn on the lights'

They turned on.

He immediately gasped in shock. Honestly he didn't know why though, he should've expected the room to look like this, maybe he was gasping in shock from the mentally-activated room, it was more likely the contents of the room that had him stunned though.

It looked like an exact copy of his own room in blood gulch (again, he didn't understand what else he would've expected considering the rest of the base). It had his bed, his desk, his locker backed up in the corner. Hell, it even had the scribbles on the side of his wall from the time Tucker told Caboose about graffiti (that particular memory left Church feeling rather somber). Granted, the room was still covered floor to roof in the sci-fi chrome material and glowing blue veins of light and energy streaking across the walls, and his desk was more of an extension from the wall than his actual desk.

Suddenly Church had a thought. If this place had everything from his room in blood gulch…
Church walked over to the locker, this time the door came with handles. So with a swift pull he tore open the door to reveal a familiar sight. His sniper rifle was leaned up inside. Stuck to the inside of the door was a picture of Church with Tex, back from when they had been with each other in Sidewinder.

The sight left a painful feeling in Church's chest. So after he tore his eye off the contents of his locker and shut the door, he dropped into his desk seat a wave of tiredness overwhelming him. Another intrusive thought poked at his brain until Church sat himself up and cast a look to the desk drawers. Pulling it open it revealed the familiar contents, a small paper photo. It displayed a smiling Church, arms wrapped round the shoulders of his two teammates.

"Tucker...Caboose." Church half-choked on his whisper.

Slamming the desk shut Church turned out of his chair and stood, only to do something he hadn't in a long, long while. He cried. Church cried for the memory of his friends, for the emptiness of his loneliness, for the truth he never knew , for Tex, for ALL of his fragments.

He staggered forward only to collapse onto his bed, the familiar feel of it only bringing a wave of new tears. He rolled onto his back, letting his sadness stream down his cheeks. Letting himself be consumed alone by his feelings of dissatisfaction. Just laying there...crying.

.

.

.

.

.

There was a knocking on Church's door. The Alpha groggily opened his bleary eyes. He had been laying here for a long time. Sleeping and crying mostly, but not without a fair bit of moping. The knocks continued repeatedly. Church groaned and rolled over, covering his ears with a pillow. The knocking stopped, and a voice just barely above a whisper came from the other side.

"Alpha," it was Theta, "Church? Can you come out please?"

The kid sounded kind of...scared, or sad maybe. Whatever, Church could just ignore him...who was he kidding.
Church sat up slowly, and tugged himself over to the room entrance, hoping silently he didn't look too bad. He mentally asked the door to open and it obeyed, revealing a small un-armored Theta, dressed in what seemed like...pajamas?
The little Church-like boy looked up in a quiet worry at Church. Obviously Church did not look too good. Theta seemed to clutch the sleeves of his pajamas harder.

"What is it kid," Church gruffly asked, not intending it to sound so rude he backtracked a little, "Is something wrong?"

"N-no," Theta stammered looking downwards, "I'll just go…"

Theta turned to leave, but maybe a little quickly Church shot out his arm and lightly gripped the boy's shoulder. Strangely enough, he felt a little responsible for him.

"Kid. Come on, tell me whats wrong." Church spoke in what he hoped to be a gentle voice, it must have been because Theta turned to face him.

"...Can you read me a bedtime story?" Theta asked, seeming a little embarrassed. Church took things into account for a minute.

"Why not go ask some other fragment?" Church raised an eyebrow questioningly, Theta looked up with a tiny smile,

"Well, quite frankly Delta kinda sucks at stories...the twins always fight over which one to read...Sigma and Omega," Theta paused, and shook his head, "Gammas not too bad...but he sometimes takes things a little off the rails."

Church raised his eyebrow again.

"How so?"

"Ever heard the story of little red riding hood and the cultural revolution?" Theta laughed, Church felt a grin of his own creep onto his face.

"Alright, alright, alright, I see your point," He held out his hand to Theta, "Come on, lets go."

Theta cheered happily, taking his hand and dragging Church down the halls. As he did so, Church felt something of a spark in his chest…a little weirdly familiar, what was it? Fatherly? Church pondered this as Theta dragged him along. Silent hoping that he was a good father.