Chapter 17, Hello

Wash

With my eyes shut as tightly as I could, my heart thumping in my ears and a gun pointed at my forehead, Maine chuckled, enjoying himself too much in my opinion. But I couldn't think straight after what they'd just done, what they were planning to do was…unexpected. But it was incredibly bad, probably enough so that they could takedown all of command and maybe even all of the government, possibly worse. And all because they were ten steps ahead of me, how stupid could I be? "You ready for me to kill him now?" Maine sounded like he was containing a laugh. Yeah, ha ha, funny. Jackass.

"Not yet, I want to see his reaction when I'm finished the Director said from his desk not too far from me. My breathing got ragged and I felt tears trailing down my cheeks as I trembled. I'd never had a reason to live until Megan, but now that I had her, they were going to take me away from it all. How could they be so cruel? How could anyone be this cruel?

I was afraid. Now that I was here, at the edge of death with no one to pull me back up, I didn't want to fall. I'd egged for death for months after Epsilon, but I didn't want to die, really, I was too afraid. It was a strange emotion to feel since it had been years since I'd actually felt it, but it was certainly there. No denying that.

Click.

Maine was checking the clip just to be safe. I whimpered quietly in response. So close.

"Aww, poor guy's scared ta' death." He started laughing at me, but I ignored him. This was so bad. I hope that they don't kill Mass, but I could see them doing that to cover their tracks.

"Please d-don't hurt Mass…"

"You are one funny man. We gotta kill her; you know that as much as we do." My eyes shot open and I gave him the worst death glare I had ever given anyone. Even he recoiled a little. "Whoa, calm down."

"No, you can't hurt her. Not over my dead body. I'll haunt you so badly that you'll never want to continue your fucking plan."

"Can I just-" His pistol was out of his hand and pushed onto the ground before he could finish, now the only thing I can describe as…no, I can't describe it so easily, not how it felt to stare it. To see what I've been for so many years and I never even noticed.

My breathing caught as I stared into its gray eyes.

"Hello, Agent Washington." It was like looking through a mirror.

So there plan all along was to create a smart AI like the Alpha based off of my mind to do whatever the hell they wanted. Though I wasn't sure why they picked me or their motives, I knew neither probably had a good explanation.

"I'm impressed," I told Leonard, smiling only slightly.

"Shut the hell up, there's not much time for small-talk. That little bastard Private Tucker has probably found his way into your base." The Director began to gather his stuff, nodding in agreement with his new monstrous creation. What was I supposed to do? I was pretty much about to commit suicide and they would be just about free to use me as a mass murder weapon.

"You know he's just using you, right?"

"Shut up."

"Man I am really a big jackass."

"I told you to shut up. Now don't speak unless spoken to, got it?" I gave him a blank look. If I lived through this, I was going to seriously make an effort to be friendlier. This was just embarrassing.

"I'm ready. Kill him and let's go." The Director exited through the back entrance and silence ensued. I looked up to the AI---or abomination of nature, which works too----and it stared back at me with bitter gray eyes. Is this really how I am? Is this what I will die as? How could I ever let myself turn into such a monster?

"I won't let them hurt Megan, I promise." I closed my eyes tightly, hearing slowly as the trigger was pulled. Then there was a loud bang, but what followed wasn't silence, it sounded as if a missile had been launched. "Holy fuck!" I opened my eyes to see a bottle rocket hit my clone's feet and him stumble back.

"What the hell?" Tucker strolled in, all grandiose with his pistol aimed at the clone's head. "Badass! Tucker, untie me!"

"Hey dude!" He grinned at me and fired a shot between the AI's eyes. Obviously that thing had awful prediction skills or fighting unlike me. He moved over and pulled me to my feet, going over to the desk and holding out a key. It looked perfect for unlocking this. Retarded Director, him and his stupid Meta had run off thinking I'd be killed, when I actually got saved by a bottle rocket. Tucker used the key to unlock my cuffs on both my ankles and my wrists.

"Is Megan okay?"

"Yeah, Tex took her and went to get help." I snatched the key and stuffed it into my pocket. Ah, I can move my hands and legs.

"Damn, you guys really pulled through. Kickass, let's get moving. I'll thank you later." I got the computer chip and pistol off my AI self and then we started out the emergency exit to chase the Director. My breathing was quick and shallow as I spoke orders to Tucker. He might have come this far on his own, but there was no way he would be able to kill Maine. Not even both of us combined. "Tucker, you go and explain the situation to our backup and I'll destroy their transportation. Tell them they need to get their asses over here fast and not to bring Megan." He parted down a different turn. Mine had no turns.

"Got it! Good luck, Sir!"

"You too, Sir!" I turned a corner just then, Tucker's voice and footsteps out of range for two blue and red shoulders to charge me. I'd seen them before, they'd served me some dinner a few times, they were always fighting over which team was better, red or blue. I knew the answer.

I punched the blue one in the helmet and felt the pain in my knuckle---probably broken, but I was trained to ignore pain. The red one I killed with a shot in the head. "Oh, you got punished," the live one said as I ran by them, trying to keep up with my momentum. There was light shining through an exit with stairs, strong wind and…

Whip whip.

Fuck! A helicopter.

I ran up the stairs, almost losing my footing twice to make it up and see the Director ducking in. Damn it, I couldn't stop them now. If I'd had a rifle, then yeah, but all I had was a handgun. So now I was hope here with the Meta and no defensive against the situation. Not even a bottle rocket.

"What the…? How did you?" Maine began to march over to me just as a sniper shot rang through the air and I heard a scream. Wait, what? Had someone just been shot? A sniper? Was it our reinforcements? It couldn't be Church, because there's no way he could ever make a shot in this type of situation.

The Director hit the ground, all his things falling onto the ground. Maine stared after his injured boss, but I turned to follow the smoke trail. "My specialties are snipers," Megan said sweetly, blushing and smiling cutely as she sat on a tree branch. How damn, she was just too cute, seriously. I was such a loser. Now I'd lost my attention and waved.

"Oh, hey, Cutie."

"Duck!" she screeched and I did just as told, hearing a whoosh as something was swung. I'de die if Maine could just hit me once and it wouldn't be hard for him to do that. "David, catch!" I leaned onto my toes and jumped forward as she tossed a weapon to me, which I caught. We actually made a pretty good team, and I didn't usually work well with people. I landed in a summersault and then stopped on my knees, aiming through the scope at Maine. It was red with maroon crosshairs that were searching through my targets as I aimed then aimed. Had to be an E.M.P. launcher or a Spartan laser. The laser wouldn't do much except make him bleed a bit, but an E.M.P. would shut off his suit completely, shutting down the oxygen and crushing him if not suffocating. Though there were ways to avoid death after that, because after the incident at command about three years ago, I lived. They'd recovered me before either of those scenarios could be reality.

I fired an a flamboyant white blast of electric about the length of my hand, flew into Maine's chest. Well…I'd been expecting it to do something.

He just stood there, looking his armor over as the helicopter flew off without them. Ha traitors. "Retards, that didn't even do anything." He then grunted. "Huh? What the hell? Why can't I move?"

"Turned off the armor on your legs," Megan said smugly as she stopped at my side.

"WHAT?! You little bitch!" I looked down at the weapon.

"Oh wow, this is really useful." She then wrapped her arms tightly around my waist, my arms included. Well, there wasn't anybody to try and kill us now that Maine was stuck and he had no weapons, the Director was cussing on the ground. I shrugged before pulling free and picking her up in an embrace.

"You didn't let me respond."

"To what?" I stared into her eyes and she stared right back.

"You said you loved me." I suddenly remembered, feeling sheepish about it now.

"He he, yeah I guess I did."

"I love you too." She smiled. "Can you let me down?"

"Oh, yeah…" I released her and she landed lightly on her feet, only to jump up, wrap her arms around my neck and kiss me as I caught her.

"Ew, gross! Stop kissing her right in front of me!" Maine hissed.

"Why don't you shut up?" Tex asked from behind him, her battle rifle in hand.

"Ooooh shit."

Well, I'd like to apologize for the late update. I was just busy with my depressed brother and boyfriend and plus I was very unmotivated due to lack of reviews on the last chapter(review this time pleeeease?). I'd also like to say I'm sorry about this chapter and how this story has been showing more Wash/oc than Tex/Church. I never intended for this to happen, I just love how they interact together and it made me want to write them really bad. Don't worry, the last two chapters(the next two) are focused mainly around Tex/Church with them as a side pairing.

Preview: Chapter 18, Finishing Things Up

Cobalt began to lap at Tucker's leg as the man crouched in front of him on the exterior of the jail. Church didn't appreciate Tucker breathing all over his dog, but maybe it just tastes him to eat him later. You know, after it gets reinforcements. Maybe they'd kidnap him, except for Tucker, it wouldn't be called kidnapping, it'd be called retard-napping.

"Don't come back too soon, he needs to get his minions and boil the water." Tucker stared up at Church in confusion, retard didn't even catch on. "He's gonna eat you fucking retard."

"But he likes me, he's licking me."

"No, he's not licking you, Tucker, he's tasting you. Once he's decided you're the best option out there, you'll be done for." Tucker looked down at the dog licking him and suddenly looked terrified of it. Retard could infiltrate a base that had men with guns, but he didn't even have enough brainpower to realize a dog couldn't possibly boil water.

It sounded like a sputtering and snarling engine was getting closer just then until Sister pulled up on Tucker's motorcycle wearing a miniskirt, high heels and leather shirt with so much cleavage it looked like she was about to be exposed. "Hey, Lavi! I'm here." He stood and walked over, taking her seat and her getting on the back, hanging onto his waist.

"Since when does she call you Lavi, Tucker?" Church asked.

"Since she wanted to! Catch you later bitches!" He sped off, the engine only snarling now and was out of sight within seconds.

"We should get going too," Tex said once the snarling had vanished, getting to her feet and slinging her purse over her shoulder. Church nodded and started to the car, her catching up quickly, him taking her hand in his.

"Looks like everything's finally coming together, huh?" She nodded, looking up at the twinkling stars.

"Yeah, it does."

"About time. Whatda think'll happen now?"