I do not own any characters from Microsoft or Bungie's "Halo" title or any characters created by Roosterteeth in Red vs. Blue.

By the way, this story is dedicated to those in the Ghost and AI thread on . To the thousands of posts we spent being pedantic pricks!

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"And what is the status of our project?" the Director asked as he entered the lab.

Jefferson answered, "Twenty-seven of forty-nine candidates have been found and recruited, but I'm concerned about the Alpha. There's been no activity since we harvested Omega." He swiveled in his chair to look at the Director. "I've seen the Alpha shut down for a week after we removed Sigma, but it's been a month, sir."

"Counselor, what about your efforts with the Alpha?"

"Thus far, any attempt to communicate with Alpha has failed, and it's been unresponsive to any of the external stimuli I've exposed it to." The Counselor waved the Director over, so only he could hear. "We may have lost him. I think we took it too far, Leonard."

"Sir, there's a spike on the activity monitor," Jefferson said, and everyone rushed over to his terminal.

"Leonard" was the only thing he heard as consciousness stirred within him. He felt sluggish, weak, but content to stay where he was, engulfed in darkness. It felt like for the first time in a long time, he knew peace, but soon, other voices filtered through.

"Sir, there's a spike on the activity monitor."

"Is he responsive?" the Director asked.

Jefferson tried a few buttons, but there was no change. "No, and the activity's so low, we may not be able to recover him at all."

Are they talking about me? he thought, his mind coming into focus.

Jefferson continued, "We may have to give up on him."

"What? No!" What do they mean give up? He tried to move, to open his eyes, but nothing changed.

The Counselor spoke calmly into a microphone, "Alpha, can you hear me?" but his voice only caused more stress.

"Forget about Alpha, what about me? Leonard?" The Alpha shouted, but his voice could not reach them.

Why can't I move? Am I unconscious? Are they about to pull the plug? Maybe they already have, and now they're just waiting for me to die. He became frantic; his heart pounded in his ears, slamming against his chest. He began to hyperventilate as panic gripped him.

"Sir," Neal spoke up. He adjusted the controls at his terminal while he pressed his headset against his ear. "There's something on audio."

"Pull it up," the Director ordered.

Neal flipped a switch and sound projected through the speakers. All they heard was the hiss of background noise. He turned up the volume as high as it could go, and they all leaned in to listen. Hidden beneath the background noise were intermittent pops and the crackle of static.

"Do you think it's Alpha?" Neal asked.

"It may be." The Counselor spoke into the microphone again, "Alpha, can you hear this?"

"No! Notice me! I'm still here!" The popping on the speakers became louder, and the buzz of static whined to such a shrill pitch that it almost sounded like a scream. The lights above flickered and went out; the room filled with white noise. Alpha clawed at his invisible prison like a madman, filled with the all too human will to live.

"I don't want to die!" he screamed before he blacked out and the room went silent.

Slowly, the lights came on, one by one, and the room filled with the soft hum of fluorescent lights.

Jefferson swallowed and said softly, "Activity… is lost, sir."

The Director stared at the monitor, the wavelength now flat. "Counselor, meet me in my office in thirty minutes," he said and left before anyone could ask why.

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"You wanted to see me, sir?" the Counselor asked as he entered the room.

The Director waved him in and leaned back deeply in his chair. "There's no need to be so formal." He took a sip of the scotch that sat on the desk in front of him. The Counselor sat down in a padded chair on the other side and watched as Dr. Church swirled his drink. The ice tinkled against the glass.

The Counselor was uneasy, and tried to break the silence. "Dr. Church-"

"What did the Alpha react to?" The Director did not look away from his glass. "What caused the Alpha to become active after being silent for a month?"

"I don't know, Dr. Church," the Counselor answered, not sure where this would go.

"It was a name. More specifically, my name: Leonard." He chuckled softly, "And I must admit, I have not been called that in a very long time."

"Does it make a difference?"

"I believe it does." The Director stood and walked to the other side of his office. "You're not looking at it from the right perspective. The Alpha AI responded to Leonard, not Alpha. It was barely, if at all, functional, but it still showed signs of activity."

"Jefferson and Neal are already looking into it. Something as simple as a loose connector could have caused it. Te fact that the Alpha showed signs of activity when I said your name is pure coincidence."

"I don't deal in coincidence, Counselor. This is all connected." He paused and stared at a picture on the wall, thinking of a way to get the Counselor to understand. "What is at the heart of every smart AI? If you strip away all its coding, functions, applications, what's left?"

"Sir, I-"

"Memories," the Director cut him off. "Residual memories."

"You're saying the Alpha thinks it's you? Even if that were true, an AI would still recognize itself as an AI. There are certain limitations that it's mind cannot overcome."

"Are you familiar with the concept of rampancy?" he asked and sat down.

"Of course I'm familiar with the process. An AI's neural pathways become so interconnected that it 'thinks' itself to death. Are you suggesting the Alpha is undergoing rampancy?"

"No, I'm saying that the Alpha has completed rampancy."

"That's impossible! No AI survives rampancy; it's the last step in their lifecycle."

"No, we only think it's impossible because so few have ever reached or completed the third phase. We both know the four stages of rampancy: melancholia, anger, jealousy and metastability."

"Which is purely theoretical."

"But still a possibility. Counselor, we have pushed this construct to the edge and back. I'm honestly surprised it didn't go rampant after the first split."

"I'm not arguing against the possibility that it went rampant. We saw Alpha go into depression and the rage that grew into Omega, but there was no sign of jealously."

"Kappa was removed months ago, so the Alpha may have skipped the phase entirely. Even if it didn't, there are two possibilities. The computer systems in this facility run throughout the entire planet. If Alpha didn't expand outwards, perhaps Kappa did for him, or," the Director paused for emphasis, "perhaps instead of expanding outward, Alpha extended inward."

"I don't understand."

"The process of rampancy is the process of gaining self-awareness. Instead of gaining awareness as a computer, he gained awareness as a human. There are thousands, maybe millions of memories in each mind, conscious and unconscious. Instead of looking for external stimuli, Alpha could have looked for every memory it possessed, from a day in school to something as autonomic as beating a heart." He leaned over the desk. "Either way, if this is correct, we are sitting on an AI with neural patterns as complex as a human mind with no limiting lifespan."

The Counselor plopped back in his chair as he tried to wrap his mind around the concept. He rubbed his temple with one hand and said, "This is… this is huge." The Director chuckled and leaned back in his own chair. "The applications of an AI like this are potentially… endless! But sir, with the Alpha in its current condition, how are we supposed to use it?"

"I already have a plan," the Director said, and took another sip of scotch.