This chapter kinda turned into more of a Church-centric chapter than a Wash thing, but my beta/brother said that it was fine. So I posted it anyway. Hooray! I own nothing, please review. And thanks to all who do review. You are truly awesome people.

'What the hell happened to him?'

Church stared after the formerly grey freelancer who now wore his old suit of armor. All the while wondering, What happened?

He sort of remembered meeting Agent Washington.

The first time was when he was implanted into the soldier's head. However, that didn't go over very well. Church, or Epsilon as he had been back then, hadn't had much of a chance to get to know him. He was fuzzy on the details, but from the way that he greeted Wash after seeing him for the first time in years, he was guessing that it didn't end well.

He had apparently met him back when he was the Alpha as well. The grey soldier had shown up at his base, with Caboose of all people, because he wanted the AI's help.

Apparently he was now on a mission because he knew about Omega. Church would not have gone with him, but he mentioned Tex. And Tex was the one person that he wanted to see most. He needed to find her, and Agent Washington was going to help lead him to her.

It would be a small price to pay to go on some stupid mission with the guy. 'I mean how hard could it possibly be?' he had thought.

The answer was very. Very hard. Apparently all freelancer problems had to be as difficult as possible.

Wash had seemed crazy and ruthless at first. He shot that purple chick in the head when they had been sent to help her. He already had enough of that from Caboose. He didn't need two of them.

As it turns out the grey freelancer had been committed for a while, but had been let out because he was apparently better now. Church seriously doubted that seeing as he had shot the purple freelancer and gleefully destroyed her body.

Truly Agent Washington was a tough son-of-a-bitch, but that was what Church had expected. All freelancers were like that. Why would he be any different?

Whatever the situation, Agent Washington was the one in charge. He made the Reds come along on their suicide mission even though Church was certain that they would probably be better off without them.

But Agent Washington didn't listen to him. He did what he wanted to do. What he thought was best. He wasn't going to let them have any say in the matter whatsoever.

Church just assumed that that was what all freelancers were like too. After all, he had dealt with Tex all these years, and he had heard a lot about the freelancers and their project from her.

Then Wash had to go all vague and mysterious on him. Memory is the key? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Wash didn't tell him. Freelancers kept their secrets well.

Church had however trusted him enough to go with him. Obviously as the best soldier from Bloodgulch, he was the only one truly qualified.

If only that were the reason. As it turns out. Wash had wanted him to come so that he could drop what had to be the biggest bombshell of the cobalt Spartan's life.

He, Leonard Church, was the Alpha. He was an AI. Wash didn't beat around the bush, or try to soften the blow in any way. He just said it. Then he started to talk crazy. He wanted them to go take on the Meta and set off and EMP.

He wasn't going to go. This wasn't his fight. He wasn't an AI. He wasn't the Alpha. He was a ghost! The only reason he came was to find Tex, and that had turned out to be a bitter disappointment. No way was he going to risk his neck for a freelancer.

Wash had practically begged him to come. He said that if he didn't, if he continued to deny who he was without ever even trying to find out if it was true or not, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

The words stuck with Church. They made him think. And for the first time since Tex, he trusted a freelancer.

He faced the Meta with Agent Washington, and the Alpha part of him had left the world with the sweetest one liner ever. "I'm a mother-fucking ghost."

He didn't remember much after that. Hell, the only reason he even remembered that was he dug into his memory files a bit, and the guys had told him everything that was important.

After he had laser-faced Washington, he had kinda passed out. He had a small panic attack and used a lot of energy. Laser-facing wasn't easy. He deserved some rest, or so he told himself.

He woke up, and had a vision. He had been having those a lot so he and Caboose went off on their own. It was an interesting trip. They found Tex, got the crap beat out of them, learned their entire military life was a lie, he had found some interesting facts about the project and gone off on some weird mission with Tex.

He didn't understand it, but she was his girlfriend, he had to follow her.

She ended up shooting him, that stupid bitch, and laid out a trap for Wash and the Meta.

They fell for it, and the fight was horrible. There were guns, shit blew up, a cliff collapsed. Church saw it all from the ground where he lay shot.

The Meta stabbed Tex, it caught her in that stupid storage unit thing. Wash, still the badass that he was when Church had known him as the Alpha, demanded that he come with him.

He didn't want to go with Wash. He didn't care how tough and scary he and the Meta were. He would not go willingly.

That's when things fell apart. The Meta betrayed Wash and tried to kill him and take Church as his own. He really wanted AI. Wash fought him off the best he could, but he couldn't win.

The Meta was about to finish Wash off when lo and behold, his idiot "friends" showed up and apparently crushed the Meta.

He should have known it wouldn't be that easy. The Meta was hard to kill. Too bad it killed very easily. It had wounded Church and started to face off against Washington once again. This time though, it had to deal with a bunch of idiots from a boxed canyon.

By some miracle they managed to win. Church barely noticed. He had gone inside the unit to save Tex.

By the time he got out, he discovered that, not only had Wash survived the Meta again, his friends had helped hide him from the law and used him to take Church's place on Blue team.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Carolina a girl who might just be crazier than Tex shows up and demands that he help her find the Director.

Wash was on her side from the beginning. He agreed with her every time and tried to get everyone else to follow her order.

And Church though freelancers didn't listen to anybody.

Wash listened to Carolina. Called her boss too.

It was weird to see the man who wouldn't listen to anyone once, following every word of another person.

Carolina went off on some secret mission and Church, at everyone else's suggestion, followed her.

Turns out, she isn't the crazy bitch everyone thinks. She has layers. Kinda like Tex.

He and Carolina were friends after that, he helped her out the best that he could. However, there wasn't much to find after all that time had passed, and Carolina was getting kinda pissed.

After getting nowhere, she ordered Wash to get the rest of the guys ready to leave. Wash didn't really want to. He thought that they wouldn't like to leave their "home" so soon. Like he ever cared about that before.

Church could tell that he didn't want to do it, and for a second he thought that he might see a bit of the jerky, don't tell me what to do Wash, that he had known.

Nope. He seemed upset about it, but he still did it. And he still called her boss.

Church voiced it out loud, hoping to maybe get an answer. "Man, what the hell happened to that guy? Didn't he use to be a badass like you and Tex?" He didn't get an answer. Carolina just yanked him violently out of Shelia at the mention of Tex.

Without an answer, Church watched Agent Washington go find his friends. Wondering if they would ever see the take charge Wash again.