"Agent California, I'm so glad you could join us."
"Yeah, well, the feeling's not mutual."
"I see. Now, bef- Agent California, have you been...crying?"
"No...maybe."
"Well, I- they call me Counsellor for a reason. What's wrong? You can talk to me."
"I'd rather not."
"Cali, please-"
"Leave me alone, Counsellor."
"Now, now, I'm sure we can-"
"I said 'leave me alone,' Aiden."
"...I see. You seem to be emitting high levels of anger toward me, probably caused by whatever it is that made you to cry in the first place. Most likely an-"
"Oh don't you psychoanalyze me, I'm fine! Let's just get this stupid thing over with."
"Very well. This may hurt a bit."
"Yes, I know. You tell me this every time we-"
Waking up alone in recovery was something Agent California was used to. Waking up with the slightly angry, yet extremely worried, eyes of Agent Texas staring right at her was not something she was used to.
So it was only natural that she screeched like a pterodactyl and punched her in the face.
Tex jumped back, both hands covering her nose and shouted something, which was too muffled and nasally for Agent California.
"What the fuck," Cali panted, looking around the room in great confusion before her brown eyes settled on Tex, who was now standing considerably farther from her bed.
"Wh-Tex? Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I hit you wh- what-" California was unable to finish her sentence, rubbing her eyes in attempt to get rid of her confusion.
"God, it feels like I've been dead for a thousand years. How long was I out?"
Tex slowly made her way closer to the bed, running a hand through her already messed up hair. "You might as well have been."
"What?" Cali asked, mentally trying to speak with Alpha. If what Tex said was true, and the agent would have been better off dead, it was her number one priority to make sure her A.I. was okay.
"Yeah you...you were out for about a month."
Cali sat up so fast, her head spun and she saw black dots. "What?!" she screeched, her voice cracking. "What do you mean a month."
"I mean exactly one month," Tex said, shrugging, and looking at Cali with sympathy. "When the Director told us you were in comatose, I visited you as often as I could."
California tried to hide the fact that her heart soared when she heard this. She figured her once closest friend had completely forgotten about her, but apparently not.
"Everyone's been worried; me, York, Carolina-" she said her name with such detest, "-North, Wash, all of 'em. Hell, even Maine visited once or twice. Wash though, he's been the worst. Like, nonstop, I swear he never even left until I came in here and kicked him out. He hasn't showered in two weeks. Two-"
"Oh my gosh!" Cali screamed again, jumping out of her bed. Her feet landed on the tiled floor with a small smack, and she attempted to make her way out of the room, but Tex stopped her.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" she asked, frowning when she noticed the tears that had welled up in her oldest friend's eyes.
"I-I have to tell David he-he has know I'm o-okay!" she mumbled, trying to get past Tex, who was holding her wrists.
"Hey, calm down, Road Runner. We have to tell the Director first-"
"No-"
"But, but, before I do that, I need to talk to you. Please, just sit down," Tex coaxed, sitting California back down on the bed. The dark haired girl wiped her eyes and nodded, looking up at Tex.
The blonde didn't say anything for a while, just simply stared at her. Her eyes were glossy and seemed distant, as if she was exhausted and had been her whole life. There were bags under her eyes, mixed with dark circles, giving her an almost sickly complexion. All the rumors Tex had heard seemed to be making more sense now, all of Omega's and the other A.I.'s whispers about the Alpha suddenly made so much sense as she stared into the broken and tired eyes of Lillian Yang.
"Lily, be honest with me, are you okay?"
Cali sighed and closed her eyes, resting her head in her hands, "Yeah I'm...I'm just tired. Like, really, really tired."
Tex sighed also, and nodded her head, "I know the feeling."
It was silent for a moment longer before Tex finally worked up the courage to speak.
"Lily, while you were...out, there have been several A.I. implantations."
Her head snapped up so fast, Tex was afraid it would fall off. "W-what? What do you mean? How many?"
"Um, well, Carolina gave hers to Maine, York and North got one, and Wyoming got one. Also uh...C.T. is gone."
"What?" Cali asked, voice barely above a whisper. This was just so much to take in, three new A.I. while she was out? No wonder she was so goddamn tired. "What do you mean 'gone'?"
Tex shook her head, "Not like, gone gone, but she...left. She was a traitor all along, and now she's somewhere with the Insurrectionists." Tex winced, realizing her mistake. "Well, actually, yeah, she's gone. We wee sent on a mission to get her armor that held valuable information. C.T. was killed and we never got the damn armor."
Cali let out a shaky breath, not even finding it in herself to feel grief. Wash was right, when he felt suspicious of the girl, and Cali had regretted not taking it into a bigger account. Connie was her friends, she didn't want to believe she would ever betray them.
"Is...that all you wished to talk about?" California asked, surprisingly calm, which scared Tex a little.
"Um well, no. I actually wanted to talk to you about the A.I. You might not have met any of them, save Omega and Sigma, but all five of them, Theta, Delta, and Gamma included, talk about...another one.
Cali sat up straight and looked forward, knowing exactly where this was going.
"Usually, the A.I. call each other 'brother.' But, this other A.I., they call it 'Father.' Like, like it created them. Omega told me that it's real name is the Alpha, but everyone else says the Alpha is just a myth. Like a creation of the A.I., just a name for where they came from."
"And by 'everyone else,' I'm assuming you mean the Director and the Counsellor," Cali sighed for what seemed to be the hundredth time.
Tex nodded, not saying anything.
Letting out a quiet groan and running her hands down her face, Cali took a deep breath before looking Tex in the eye. "I'm going to tell you something that I've been keeping a secret for years now. As you know, I was the first freelancer here. However, I wasn't alone. I was given the Alpha A.I., which is still inside, and the Director has been using my A.I. to create all the other A.I."
Tex was silent, and Cali was almost afraid that she didn't believe her.
"So," Tex finally spoke, "The Alpha is your A.I.?"
Cali nodded. "He's offline right now, I think, I haven't been able to get a hold of him since I woke up. This usually happens after surgeries, so we probably won't be communicating for a while. It's like after each A.I. is created, he gets more and more worn out. I can't blame him, the Director tortures Alpha until he's able to literally rip a piece off of him." Tex was horrified with what she was hearing. No wonder Lily looked like she was in constant pain! She's living with this A.I. that's literally being torn to shreds.
Cali was rambling now, seeming to have lost her train of thought, "...it's like a small, more annoying, Director inside my head. Except we actually get along, and he's kind of funny..."
Tex couldn't help but think about her mental health. Was she okay? Having two minds must be difficult enough, but the freelancers can handle it, they're only fragments. Lily had one whole A.I. in her mind, and on top of that, it was slowly being ripped apart, wouldn't her mind go with it?
"...don't even get me started on the way he wakes me up. If Alpha screams the word 'alarm' in my head one more time..."
"Hey," Tex said softly, cutting her friend off and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you head back to your room? Try to avoid everyone, they might attack you when they see you're awake," she joked halfheartedly. This poor woman was going through so much, Tex felt nothing but the undying need to make sure she got all the rest she needed.
"O-okay," she nodded, standing up with Tex, "but don't you think we need to inform the Director that I'm awake?"
Tex shook her head, leading her friend towards the door. "Nah, he can wait. You just, you go rest."
"Tex, I've been resting for a month," Cali smiled.
The blonde let out a forced laugh, not finding the joke funny at all, "Then take a shower, a bath even; take a walk. But try and avoid as many people as you can."
California nodded and hugged Tex, squeezing her tightly, reminding her of the same hugs they would share after long talks about the past. Tex took a deep breath and held on tighter, afraid that if she let go, Lily would just float away. Her friend was in pain, and she wanted nothing more than to destroy the very things that caused her this pain.
"Thank you, Allison," Cali whispered, hardly loud enough for Tex to hear, but she did.
"No problem. Hey," she called, as Lily walked out. "See you later, alligator."
Cali grinned, remember the farewells they'd use in place of 'goodbye.' Tex hated that word.
"In a while, crocodile."
A/N: I'm not sure what this is, a mix between sad and...mostly sad, but I hope you liked it.
Unfortunately this story is nearing it's end, I know the ending seems really rushed and stuff, but the things that are happening is how I intended it to end all along, so hopefully it makes sense.
As mentioned before, there will be a sequel to this, with Lily n our favorite blood gulch nerds. I've actually been thinking about adding a female oc to the red team (c'mon, blue gets all the girls) so please let me know what you think about that.
Alsooo, if enough people like the idea of another OFC, I'll probably do like a 'submit your own oc' or something and place her on red team. I might even pick more than one and add 'em on later, like during chorus or something (if u want).
Anyway lemme know what you think about the oc idea, plllssss review!
~Saammmm :-D