Noble 6 POV
Time skip 2 weeks
Over the past two weeks, Connie and I had been busy. Connie had been working on her knife skills and hand to hand prowess, while I was working on hand to hand and my new tomahawks, which I had gotten from the, now deceased, insurrection leader after I killed him. As I trained I also thought of how I was gonna convince the others to leave, before I finally decided it may be best to just approach them individually.
Then I shook my head and sighed. I didn't have the time to go to each of the people I wanted to speak with, one by one, and hope they went with the plan. Besides, it might seem just a little suspicous if I just started taking certain freelancers one by one to speak with.
I walked out of the training room and started to head towards the cafeteria, looking for North to talk with him first. I looked around the room and spotted North without his helmet on, about to leave the cafeteria, "Hey, wait! North, you got a second?" He turned and had a small smile on his face.
"Hey Six, yeah I got a second, what's up?" There was a look of interest in his eye as he looked at me.
"I need to talk to you, in private." North stared at me for a second, looking curious as to what was going on.
"Yeah, alright Six. After you." He gestured to the cafeteria exit behind him with his thumb and I walked ahead of him.
"Before we talk I would like to grab York, Wash, and Maine. Is that okay North?" I looked back at him for a second before turning my head back to the front to watch where I was going.
"Sure, your the one who wanted to talk in the first place. Why would I see a problem in grabbing some of the others for this?" I could see he was more curious though about what was going on.
'At least I already have his attention, hopefully it'll be so easy to get the others.' I thought dryly, thinking of how York told me about the attack on the facility, where he got punched in the face yet Washs attention wasn't drawn to the attacker right away.
I nodded, acknowledging what he said, both of us staying quiet until we found ourselves in the med-bay where Maine was, getting another check up for the near constant head aches hes been feeling, "Hey Maine, can I talk to you when your done with your check up?" He growled in response, only for his flaming orange A.I, Sigma to appear.
"He says he will be done soon, and if you are willing to wait until then that he is more than willing to come and speak with you." Sigma said, his tone being crisp and polite.
"Alright, we'll wait right outside." I said, leaning against the wall opposite the door to the med-bay while North just stood close to me.
Line-skip
Maine walked out of the med-bay, cracking his neck as he walked out before putting his helmet back on. While we were waiting York had come and joined us to check up on Maine, see how he was doing. With Maine finally joining us, we all went and sought out Wash.
Eventually we found him in the training room, practicing his hand to hand. Ever since Yorks comment about him being the worst soldier, he had apparently been detirmined to improve himself and prove himself a good soldier.
"Hey Wash, come here we all need to talk!" Wash kept going for a second, not letting up as he laid into a punching bag.
Eventually he stopped, breathing heavily he turned to me, "Can't this wait till later? I'm kinda in the middle of something."
However I narrowed my eyes behind my visor and shook my head, "No Wash, this can't wait. Its important."
He stared at us for a moment before he sighed and backed away from the punching bag, coming over to join us, "Alright, what is it?"
I shook my head as the other freelancers I had gathered looked at me, "Not here. Come on, I got a place we can talk."
Finally all gathered up, our group of some of the best agents of the project made its way to the freelancer classroom, where Connie was waiting for us.
York paused for a second when he saw Connie, "Hey C.T, what are you doing here?" North and York seemed a little confused while Maine simply kept silent, giving no reaction. Wash however also stayed silent, causing me to look at him in curiosity.
Connie sighed before she turned to one of the desks, the original copy of the files that Connie found being displayed on the desk she turned to, "You need to read this. Its important, and the reason we brought you here."
York took off his helmet and set it down on one of the desks, "C.T, whats going on?"
"York, just read the files. Have Delta take a look too, hell, let him make his own copies of the files. You and Theta can do the same thing North." York and North looked at each other for a second before nodding. Everyone who still had helmets on took them off. York and Delta went over and quickly read the files.
It was hard to gauge his reaction as he read, the only reaction that we could see being the slight widening of his eyes and the paling of the skin on his face.
When he was finished reading he stepped back and fell into a chair, Delta vanishing after he was done.
York stayed silent for a moment, simply staring down at the ground as he thought about what he read.
North looked worried as he looked up at C.T and Six, "What, exactly, did you two find?"
"How about you read and find out?" C.T said, looking down.
North looked a little unsure for a second before he went over to the desk and started read the files with Theta, Maine and Sigma joining them. They each had the same reaction as York. When they were done, Connie pulled out her copy of the files, right after she did Maine slammed his fist down into the desk.
Wash read the files last, the usually naive and slightly childlike freelancer shaking his head as he slowly stepped away, eventually falling back into a chair.
Sigmas hand rested upon his chin, "This is most troubling... this certainly explains why there are certain times when I have gaps in my memory banks. It is because I am being forced to damage the Alpha..." Sigma may have had a kept on a calm act, but his eyes were slightly narrowed and his mouth was set into a small frown.
Theta wasn't moving, he was simply looked down, his hands hanging limp at his side, "We... we are just the result of our creators pain...of our creators suffering..."
North turned to look at Theta, "Hey, don't think like that. Its not your fault, not like you could have prevented it. So, no more of that talk, understand?" Theta just nodded, still looking down, his arms still limp at his side.
Delta finally reappeared, "We can not let this go on. We are all fragments, results of the alphas pain. Yet Instead of having similar personalities, we are each completely different. So, in what way are we fragments of the Alpha? We can not be fragments of how he was before. Sigma, do you have any ideas?"
"I do, brother. But I believe you have already figured it out." Delta nodded.
"Yes. We are most likely different parts of the Alphas personality and emotions. Simply, we are different pieces of his mind." Sigma sighed in clasped his hands in front of him.
"Yes, I thought so. That would make the most sense, it would explain why we are all so different and excel when we are paired with certain freelancers and given certain tasks."
"That is not what is important right now...we need to do something." Theta looked up, his fists clenched. He seemed angry, something no one would have ever expected from the child-like A.I.
I turned my attention to Wash, his continued silence getting to me, "Wash, what do you think about all this?"
He simply stared at me while his fists clenched, "All this time, the director has lied to us... sent us into danger... turned us against each other with that damn leaderboard of his... and for what? Some experiment? Its like the director doesn't care that hes messing with peoples lives that hes ruining peoples lives and whats worse is that hes getting away with it?" Wash finished by slamming a fist into a wall.
For a moment there was an awkward silence after Washs outburst, we were all thinking about what he said but we all had generally the same idea. The director needed to pay.
York coughed to get everyone's attention, "Ah, that's good, and all, but I feel that it would be safe to bet that we are being watched, cameras are everywhere on the Mother of Invention."
I nodded to one of the cameras in the room, "We've already thought about that, Omicron is making sure that the cameras show the room exactly the way it was before we came in here, he is also making sure that the files Connie found don't save in the Mother of Inventions files. Though to be extra safe he is making some fake files that won't arouse suspicion from F.I.L.S.S. Not to mention hes also using the camera outside the door to watch for anyone else who may come, whether its other freelancers or the director and counselor."
"Your A.I really thought of everything. And he can handle all that? That's a lot for an A.I to do at once." York looked impressed from what Omicron was doing.
"Yeah, that's why he isn't speaking with us right now. Its taking the majority of his concentration to do this, plus he said he was going to try and watch over Alpha to make sure the Director and Omega don't do anything."
"You keep him busy, don't you?"
"Hes a bit paranoid, and to be quite frank with you, so am I. To an extent."
York sighed, "Lets get back on topic. What are we gonna do? We're all good, but with Tex and Carolina opposing us, we won't be able to grab the Alpha."
Me and Connie looked at each other, "Well, we have a plan."
Time-skip 1 week
"York, we're ready. Whats your status?" I leaned against the door to my room, Connie standing next to me looking impatient.
"Delta is on the bridge of the mother of invention, and I am at Hanger B with North and Theta." York replied back.
"Alright, lets get going." I nodded to Connie and we both went down a hallway that went to Hanger B.
Alarms started to blare throughout the ship all of a sudden, "Explosions going off in Hanger B, we are under attack from remaining insurrection forces. Assistance needed in Hanger B."
"That's our cue Connie, lets move it!" We came to one of the entrances to Hanger B, letting soldiers pass us. We turned to the hallway tot he left to the door and ran, once we felt we were out of sight.
We entered Hanger A and I set Omicron to work right away, "Raise it from the lower level, once you bring it up get it started. Then we can get out of here."
"On it." A large square opened up in the middle of the hanger floor, bringing up a prowler, fully stocked as, over the week, I, Connie, and the others secretly stocked the Prowler without the Directors watchful eye. It was fully stocked with supplies, weapons, ammo, food, water. Everything we would need.
The Prowler door opened up, all the lights turning on. Connie ran in, and right as I was about to run on I heard a gun shot. I dropped down to the ground, before rolling out of instinct as a fist slammed into the ground where my head used to be, "What, the HELL, do you think your doing?!" Carolina.
I jumped to my feet right away, "I don't have the time for this Carolina-" She turned quickly and tried to kick me with a roundhouse I ducked underneath it, moving fast so I wouldn't get hit, only to find her knee on its way up to greet me. I stepped back out of reach so that it would miss and put my fists up. I moved forward before quickly trying to jab at her, following with two hooks, one to the body and one to the head. She was able to block each one, but I made sure I put enough force in each hit for her to feel a decent impact.
She grabbed my shoulders and kneed me in the gut before pushing me away, trying for another kick. This time I caught her leg and brought her to me, only for me to slam her into the ground, "You need to stop, your only gonna end up hurt if you continue this!"
"I don't care! Your the one who needs to stop yourself from betraying us! Why would you do this anyway!" I could hear, hell I could even feel the rage and betrayel that came from her due to my actions.
"I can't tell you that now, but you will figure it out in the future." She jumped up and tried to do another roundhouse, aiming for my ribs. I blocked the hit, grabbed her leg with my left arm and cocking my right arm back, "I'm sorry, but your going to be feeling this for a long while." My fist shot forward, slamming into her face and making her head jerk back. I followed that with an elbow to the back of the neck, and she was done. She was on the ground, unconscious.
I couldn't stop the ball of regret and guilt from building up in the of my stomach, even if what I was doing was right...
I ran into the prowler, Omicron appearing on one of the screens, "We need to launch, NOW!" We didn't waste any time, the Prowler flying out of the hanger. Before the Mother of inventions guns could target us we activated the ships stealth systems.
"Connie, you left the extra copy of the files behind for Tex, right?" I looked at her as she sat back in a seat.
"Yeah...I did. Its up to her and the others to do the rest. What are we gonna do about the directors plans for Maine?"
"Those should go wrong now, he will probably not end up as the monster the Director wanted to make. Can I ask you a question? Why did you go so easy on Carolina?" I looked away when she asked the question.
"Shes a friend. She may be against us now, but I don't want to hurt her. Its not her fault that she has so much faith in the Director, with just how much hes done for her, and who he is to her. Besides, when she finds out the truth, she will be against him. We just need to hope her ambitions don't get her killed before hand." I couldn't help but feel fear and desperation at the thought of Carolina dying.
Originally, I showed almost no hints to the pairing, but I'm changing that this time around. Also, with the time skips that gives me some oppurtunities to write future fluff flashbacks. Hope you enjoyed the long chapter!