Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of the show's characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.

Chapter Three: Dystopia

"I'll tell you what, Simmons, we'd long since given you up for dead along with those other poor bastards of Servants followin' the Great Disaster!" Sarge declared, and Dexter Grif almost, almost felt bad for Simmons as the older man in red dragged the cyborg through Armonia's dirty, bustling streets.

"T—that's what I'd heard, sir." Simmons replied as he proceeded to shoot a bewildered look Grif's way for help. The other man merely shrugged and grinned back, enjoying Simmons' current helplessness. Hey, it beat having Sarge insulting him for what would be the umpteenth time!

The orange-armored man's grin turned into a full-fledged smirk when Sarge patted the still dazed Simmons on the back, exclaiming, "We're just glad to have you back with us."

"Thank you, sir, but," Simmons looked torn between being grateful for the attention and uncomfortable with it all at once, "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened to the other Servants?" His voice was both curious and pained at the thought of so many of his peers no long being around.

While Grif was mostly just relieved that the same fate that had befallen most of the other Servants hadn't happened to Simmons, he felt a twinge of sympathy all the same. After all, it had to suck to wake up to life being so radically altered. It had certainly sucked living through it. Behind Grif, Bitters let out a sharp outtake of breath. The chubby man momentarily felt a bit of concern for his normally apathetic subordinate considering that Bitters' mother had been a Servant of Chrovos and she…

"That's the curious part!" Grey exclaimed in place of Sarge, putting a hand on the older man in red's arm as if to say that she'd take it from there, "Those who weren't killed immediately in the Great Disaster became sick rather suddenly. Try as we might, we couldn't figure out a cure!" She furrowed her brows, "It was most perplexing, especially since everyone here knows how much I love to solve a good mystery!"

Matthews was now holding Bitters' arm in a consoling gesture. Bitters quickly shook his head as if to reassure his friend that he was fine, pulling away to walk in front of the group. Matthews watched the dark-skinned man go, obviously still very much concerned.

"We think it might have had something to do with losing their innate connection to Chrovos, but we can only speculate." Grey concluded, "The few who survived the sickness had no ill effects afterwards to further study."

"I see." Simmons looked as if he might become sick himself at the prospect.

"It's probably a good thing you ended up missing that illness, Simmons." Sarge told him in what was probably meant to be a consoling manner, patting the redhead's arm in the process.

"I…" Simmons began, but his voice trailed off as if he wasn't quite sure what to say. Grif took a step closer to him, about to open his own mouth to say something when…

"Hey, asshole!" Kaikaina Grif's loud voice being thrown his way cut off whatever he might have been about to say to the nerd, "Why didn't you guys contact us when you first got here?"

"Kai!" Huggins gleefully yelled, racing over to the other young woman to give her a hug, "Always great to see you."

"Of course!" Kai winked at her, "It's great to see you too, babe."

Of course they were going to do their play-flirting out in the middle of the street like this. Grif sighed exasperatedly with affection for both girls.

"Kaikaina, ma'am!" Matthews exclaimed, rushing over to salute his technical supervisor, "It's wonderful to see you again."

"Suck up." Bitters muttered fondly under his breath, causing the auburn-haired lieutenant to blush.

"Welcome back." Kai left her arm draped over Huggins' shoulders, the brunette in tan armor with purple trim not seeming to mind the continued contact, "Was my jerkoff of an older brother actually decent to you for once?"

Grif wanted to say he wouldn't have to watch out for Matthews if Kai was at all interested in her leadership duties, but held his tongue since Matthews was quick to come to his defense, "Always, ma'am!" He was very quick to assure her, "Whenever I go with Captain Grif, I learn a lot."

"Through no effort on his part, miraculously." Bitters sarcastically remarked like the true maverick that he was.

"Cuéntame sobre eso." {"Tell me about it."} Lopez muttered in agreement with the orange-trimmed lieutenant.

"When did you get here?" Grif couldn't help asking the Spanish-speaking robot at his sudden appearance.

"He estado aquí todo el tiempo. No es mi culpa que estuvieras demasiado ocupado haciendo que los ojos de la habitación en el cyborg se dieran cuenta." {"I've been here the whole time. Not my fault you were too busy making bedroom eyes at the cyborg to notice."} Lopez stared at him evenly.

Grif decided to ignore what Lopez had said yet again, grateful that no one else but Lopez and Locus even knew he could understand what the brown-armored robot was saying as he willed his face to not heat up as much as he felt it might.

"We even got a present this time!" Huggins exclaimed with a mischievous wink in Grif and Simmons' direction before she gestured over at the redhead, "Look!"

"No fucking way." Kai walked over to Simmons to get a closer look, "That's really you, gray guy?"

"Hey, Kai." Simmons rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Long time, no see."

"Come here, nerd." Kai lunged and pulled him into a hug, which promptly turned into a head rub that the redhead tried in vain to escape from. Simmons cast a pleading look Grif's way while Kai shot her brother a knowing look that he pleaded inwardly she wouldn't comment on. When she finally released Simmons, Kai grinned and smacked him on the back, "Just glad to have you back. I'm sure I'm not the only one."

The damn brat was looking smugly right at him. Grif quickly turned his head away to hide his face further heating up. "The rest of the guys are gonna love this!" Kai exclaimed happily, which is when Grif heard footsteps coming up behind them.

"Love what?" Tucker asked, pausing when he saw Simmons as Washington and Carolina nearly bumped into his back in the process, "No fucking way!"

No doubt Blue Team had just finished up a mission of their own as Caboose trailed behind the three newcomers with Lieutenants Palomo and Andersmith, "Hey! Simon is back!" He stated happily into the shocked silence that followed, waving exuberantly, "Hey, Simon!"

Simmons, looking more and more flustered by the moment, waved weakly back.


Richard "Dick" Simmons had to take a break for a moment, sitting down by himself to gather his thoughts in what was a rubble-strewn, rather crude attempt at a park near where the military headquarters for Armonia was located.

Carolina, who had apparently been on her way to visit with the leader of all of Chorus now, a woman named Vanessa Kimball, offered to take Simmons with her to visit for official reasons though once they were out of earshot of their rather boisterous friends, she shot him a conspiratorial grin and said, "It looked like you needed just a few minutes to breathe."

Simmons nodded his head gratefully to her even though he was reluctant to leave Grif and the others behind. There was just so much to get caught up on! He almost felt as if he were drowning on air, though he couldn't help but pause when he noticed that a certain someone was conspicuously absent from their sister's side, "Where's Church?"

Carolina stiffed slightly at the question, "He…he didn't survive the Great Disaster." She told him in a low murmur, "He and another man we knew named Doyle passed away then. They…they saved a lot of lives though."

"O—oh. I'm sorry." Simmons was unsure of what else to say, although he knew the odds of many of the people he'd worked with or known before not surviving were rather high given the scope of the devastation. It was a miracle that Grif and the others had. He was immensely grateful, even as the news about Church hit him with a wave of sadness. The guy could be asshole at times, but he'd been a good friend in his own way nonetheless.

Things had definitely changed while he'd been asleep.

"Thank you." Carolina nodded curtly and quickly changed the subject, "At least this way you can avoid a proper medical examination from Doctor Grey for a bit longer." She told him, "Tucker was going to force her to look at Wash first."

"Is he sick or…?" Simmons asked, suddenly concerned about the former Freelancer in steel armor with yellow trim.

"It's an old injury that flares up from time to time." Carolina informed the cyborg, though the cyan-wearing woman's expression clearly stated that she didn't feel it was her place to say more.

"Okay." Simmons replied, figuring he would have to get used to those kinds of cryptic remarks on account of everything that has happened on Chorus since he was last awake, no matter how much his natural curiosity rebelled at the thought.

The visit with Kimball had been interesting. Apparently she and Carolina were on quite friendly terms because the dark-skinned woman's tired expression became more relaxed after seeing the redhead's face. She'd been courteous to Simmons, after all he was a friend of the Reds and Blues as their disparate group originally from Blood Gulch was now called. However, that didn't stop her from running his recollection of past events through the fascinating lie detector of Santa, an ancient alien A.I. who had apparently helped her to stabilize Armonia enough to be a place where refugees from all over Chorus could come and rebuild. Simmons had been most curious by the appearance of Santa given that he clearly predated even the creation of the Servants of Chrovos. Apparently his over-eager questions about the A.I., as well as Carolina's fond nostalgic smile at her friend's antics, had been enough to endear him to the leader of Chorus.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately really as he had no idea what he should do now that he'd woken up, that newfound endearment meant Kimball was ready to put him to work right away, assigning him to the Reds ("That name was at Sarge's request given his strong attachment to that color." Kimball told him wryly.), and even introducing him to a lieutenant that he'd be in charge of training.

"It's an honor to work with you, sir!" The wide-eyed Katie Jensen said, seemingly as excited about the prospect as Simmons was nervous.

While Jensen had gone off to prepare herself for the start of her training, Kimball excused Simmons as "Carolina and I have matters to discuss regarding Armonia's security."

Kimball's bodyguard, a rather silent and altogether intimidating man simply called Locus, saw Simmons out following an encouraging wave from Carolina with the quiet advice that the maroon-wearing man "take some time to process things" before he rejoined the others.

That was just what Simmons intended to do. He sat on the park bench and tried to unsuccessfully not wish that Grif was there with him. He desperately wanted a distraction from his overwhelming thoughts. So much had happened in so little time, and he was no longer connected to Chrovos and…

Before the panic could build up anymore than it was threatening to do, a familiar voice called out, "Simmons? It's really you?"

The redhead blinked, looking up in surprise at both Doc and Donut standing there, smiling cheerfully at him as if everything was perfectly all right. "I thought…!" Simmons began dumbly before trailing off, the unspoken line of his thinking leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

Doc and Donut both glanced at one another, something unreadable to Simmons in their expressions. It was a little unnerving, to say the least, "Yeah, about that," Donut began, rubbing the back of his dirty blond head of hair, "We were both out of the way of the killing wave when it happened."

The what now? Simmons waited for an elaboration on that "killing wave" comment, but Donut kept moving the conversation along as if he hadn't been horribly cryptic, "Now we're part of the Reds and Blues!" He said, puffing out his chest proudly, "I'm with Red Team."

"I'm on both. Technically." Doc said in way of further explanation, pointing to his purple-colored armor.

But Simmons was still hung up on that one particular nasty phrase, "Killing wave?" He repeated incredulously, his voice reaching a higher pitch, "What are you talking about?"

Doc and Donut glanced at one another yet again, an entire silent conversation playing out between them before they turned to the thoroughly bewildered cyborg once more, "We have a lot to catch you up on, Simmons." Doc told him quietly.

"Bear with us, okay?" Donut had an apologetic look in his brown eyes, "It'll probably be a tough loud to swallow, but we swear it's all true!"

As Simmons listened to the pair's story, he felt the mechanism that now served as his heart drop down into the pit of his stomach.


Author's Notes: Another set-up chapter, but I thought it was important to try to introduce a few more characters early on in the story. Next update will actually move the plot along as Simmons learns the truth behind the Great Disaster from Doc and Donut, him and Grif bond more and become roomies, and Genkins makes his long-awaited appearance in the story to thicken the plot! :D

As always, thank you so much for reading! :D