Chapter 2
After giving the Scroll back Wash quickly excused himself to take a walk, after everything that had happened today he needed to try and clear his head and taking a walk was the only way he could think to do that and that was only one of millions of thoughts that was rushing through his head, arriving back on Remnant was one thing, but arriving back on Remnant in the past was something else entirely, from what Wash had seen on the Scroll he and his friend had come back to a time before the Fall of Beacon by a year and a half and if that was true, he could fix everything.
He could prevent the Fall of Beacon, he could save Pyrrha, he could stop Ruby from sending that message and in doing so save his sisters, but if he did would that mean he'd never meet the Reds and Blues? Wash wanted to save his old friends and his family more than anything, but he didn't want to lose his new friends either, after all they were the ones who helped him during one of the darkest times of his life, they were the ones who picked him back up and put him on the right path, he always missed his old fiends and wished he could be with them again, but he cared about his new friends just as much and now, he just didn't know what to do.
''Hey Wash'' came a voice from behind him, Wash turned to see Donut ''the others sent me to find you, we were just talking about finding a building and hunkering down there with the refugees for the night''
''Right, I'll be there Donut'' said Wash with a slightly distant tone.
''Hey are you alright Wash?'' Donut asked.
''Hmm? Oh yeah, everything alright I've just got a lot on my mind right now'' said Wash.
''Does it have anything to do with this planet?'' Donut asked.
''Yeah, yeah it does'' Wash said.
''You want to talk about it Wash?'' Donut asked walking up to him Donut put a comforting hand on Wash's shoulder ''you know if you need to talk about something you can talk about it with us right? I mean we are friends''
''You consider me a friend after I shot you?'' Wash asked.
''Well, its not the first near death experience I've had because of a friend and besides I know things were different back then and we didn't really know each other at the time, so I don't really blame you all that much'' said Donut with a shrug.
''Thank you Donut and for the record shooting you is one of my biggest regrets'' said Wash.
''Ah, don't worry about it, so do you want to talk about it? We don't have to if you don't want to'' said Donut.
Wash was quiet for a moment as if he was deciding what to say until finally he spoke ''bear with me this might be a bit of an odd question, Donut if you had found out one day that you had somehow gone back in time what would you do, would you change the past and make things better even if it could take away something you loved in the future or would you leave the past as is?''
''Hmm, that's a tough one'' Donut mused ''I think I would try and make things better, I mean doing nothing just to make sure I get what I want is pretty selfish and besides if I lost something from the future because of it, I'd just get it back somehow''
''Hmm, that's a good way to look at it Donut, thank you'' said Wash.
''No problem, come on let's get back to the others'' said Donut.
''First I need to check the radio, see if we can contact Carolina'' said Wash ''you go ahead, I'll catch up'' Donut nodded and ran off in the direction they came from, Wash then turned on the radio only to be met with static, Wash started to adjust the frequency only to be met with the same static, Wash let out a tired sigh 'of course the radios don't work here what was I expecting, they're probably not even compatible with the CCTS, looks like I'm going to be working on another radio transmitter of some kind, eh I'll worry about it tomorrow'
The next day Wash gathered the Reds and Blues in a building away from the refugees in a building so Wash could explain what was going on to them, he told them everything, he told them where they were and what kind of place it was, he told them that they were in the past, he told them about the Maidens, he told them about the Relics and he told them about Salem, answering questions as they came.
''You know I gotta say, you guys are taking this better than I thought you would'' said Wash.
''Eh, we've a part of weirder things'' said Tucker, only for Wash to give him a look ''ok, yes it is probably the weirdest thing we've probably been a part of, so what are we going to do''
''Wait, is this why you asked me what I'd do if I time travelled last night?'' Donut asked.
''Yes Donut it is and if I'm being honest I still feel conflicted'' said Wash.
''What do you mean?'' Donut asked.
''I don't know if changing the past is the right thing to do'' said Wash ''yes changing the past may stop millions of people from suffering or it might cause even more suffering''
''Wash it would be selfish not to do it, are you saying you wouldn't go back and stop yourself for hurting people'' said Tucker.
''Mistakes are the dirt we grow from Tucker, its only by learning form them that we do grow'' said Wash ''but I will admit you are right about something it would be selfish of me to just let others suffer if I could stop it and I'll also admit that most of the reason I don't want to change the past is because I don't want to lose you, any of you, but also because I don't know what will happen if we change things, what if we make it worst''
''Hmm, I'm not sure if you have to worry about losing us'' said Simmons drawing the gazes of everyone else ''I mean we don't even know how time travel works, for all we know we may be unaffected by any changes to the timeline and that's even if this is our timeline, as you've said you have no idea how the temple works exactly so for all we know we might be in a different timeline''
''And even if it does stop us being friends we'll be friends again'' said Caboose, now he was the centre of attention ''even if we break the time circle and stop being friends, I know we'll- we'll somehow find each other again and after that we'll all become friends again''
''Yeah, its like I told you Wash, even if you lose something you can get it back'' said Donut walking up and putting a hand on Wash's shoulder ''even if we all disappear because of the time travel, I know we'll somehow meet each other again and we'll become friends just like before, right guys''
''Yeah'' said Tucker.
''Yay'' said Caboose.
''Of course'' said Simmons.
''Absolutely'' said Sarge.
''Definatly'' said Doc.
''Yeah, your not losing us that easily, no ones that lucky'' said Grif.
Wash was quiet for a moment before saying ''you know whenever I start going down the wrong path you guys always seem to pull me back onto the right one, thank you''
''Hey its ok, we all need a push in the right direction every now and again'' said Donut.
''Alright then, we'll try and save the planet'' said Wash.
''Hey its nothing we haven't done before'' said Tucker with a shrug ''and if things go really bad we can find that temple you used to get out of here''
''Wait, before we do anything to try and help save the planet we've got to get those refugees out of here'' said Doc.
''Don't worry Doc I already know how to deal with that'' said Wash.
So following Wash's instructions the Reds and Blues gathered made a large fire out of anything they could find to send a smoke signal for any Mistral airships on patrol, they gathered the refugees to wait around it and waited with them until they saw an airship approaching ''alright this is where we leave you'' Wash said the the refugee leader.
''Your not coming with us?'' The leader asked.
''No, unfortunately we're headed in the opposite direction'' stated Wash.
''They're going to ask us questions and when they will ask us how we survived out in the wilderness, what should we tell them?'' Asked the leader.
''Tell them you were saved and protected by the Reds and Blues'' said Wash as he along with the other Reds and Blues started walking away ''alright then, lets start scavenging that ship''
They started to do just that looking through the ship that had crashed so close to Kuroyuri's wall, naturally the ship was pretty dark so they had to put their weapons lights on to see, except Lopez who had night vision, they found out that the ship was indeed used to transport vehicles as they found several Warthogs along with a few tanks and a couple of tanks and Falcons.
''Alright, me and Lopez will stay here and take a look at these vehicles'' said Sarge.
''Alright, while you do that the rest of us will search the ship'' stated Wash.
''Actually I'd like to see if I could find the bridge'' said Simmons ''this ship might not fly again, but at the very least the power might still work, if I can get it on I can turn the lights back on which might make things go faster''
''Alright, the rest of us will pair off and see what we can find'' said Wash.
''Hey before we do, what exactly are we looking for?'' Grif asked.
''Your looking for guns, ammo, medical supplies, grenades, power cells, essentially anything that we can use'' explained Simmons.
''Ok, but why meet up?'' Grif asked.
''Because the Radios don't work dumbass!'' Simmons snapped.
''Alright then, pick a buddy and go we'll meet up here in lets say an hour'' said Wash.
''Oh, Wash, Wash, Wash'' Caboose chanted.
''Yes Caboose I'll be your buddy'' said Wash.
With that they gathered into groups and started to search the ship while Simmons looked for the ships bridge, Tucker paired up with Grif and Doc paired up with Donut, fortunately Simmons was able to find the bridge pretty quickly and after half an hour of working on it he managed to power the ship up, once the hour had passed the Reds and Blues met up.
''Alright, lets go over what we found, Sarge why don't you start us off'' said Wash.
''Some of its salvageable but most of its busted, we can fix I'd say two Warthogs, three at most, a tank and a Falcon by taking parts from the other vehicles'' stated Sarge.
''Alright, how about the rest of you?'' Wash asked.
''Me and Donut managed to find some medical supplies'' said Doc ''the standard fair you know, bandages, disinfectant, antibiotics, you know stuff like that''
''We found the armoury'' said Grif.
''What do you mean we, I found the armoury while you fell asleep in one of the hallways'' said Tucker.
''Hey I was on break'' said Grif.
''Heh, heh, welcome to our world Tucker'' said Sarge, to him this was karma for the time Tucker ditched him and Caboose to carry Dr. Grey's equipment.
''Thanks you its nice to be here'' Tucker groaned.
''Me and Caboose found the engine room, but I'm not sure how that's gonna help us'' said Wash.
''I think I might know how that could help us'' said Simmons drawing eyes to him ''when I was on the bridge I decided to look on the scanners and it detected a large mass up ahead about five or six clicks away, I think it would be best to investigate it''
Wash nodded before turning to Sarge ''how long will it take to get a jeep up and running?'' Wash asked.
''On our own a couple of hours if anyone can help that might take less'' explained Sarge.
Wash ended up helping along with Simmons and Caboose this caused repairs to a warthog to only take an hour, when that was done Wash along with Simmons and Tucker went to investigate what that mass was and they found an Atlesian Airship.
''Huh, you know when you said airships I thought they were like the one that picked up the refugees not like big spaceship like cruisers'' said Tucker.
''Yeah, I thought something similar when I saw cruiser ships'' said Wash.
''Doesn't look too badly damaged, maybe we can fix it up, use it'' Simmons suggested.
Wash looked at the ship for a moment before turning to Tucker ''Tucker take the Warthog and go back to the others, get Lopez and Donut and bring them back here, I want Lopez's opinion and I want to know if he thinks we can fix it''
''Alright you got it'' said Tucker.
''Wait you want Lopez's opinion?'' Simmons asked ''alright I won't doubt he's the best of us mechanically speaking, but I doubt you'd understand his opinion''
''Which is why I told Tucker to bring Donut too'' said Wash.
''Yeah I don't know if you've noticed but Donut's Spanish skills are not the best'' said Simmons.
''I know, but he's the only one of us who can speak a bit of Spanish so that's better than nothing'' said Wash.
''Hmm, fair enough I guess'' Simmons shrugged ''so what are we going to do while we wait?''
''We're going to try and get in that ship, so Lopez can actually take a look at it'' said Wash.
When Tucker returned Wash and Simmons had managed to get the ship opened and had lowered a ramp to enter the ship ''how did you guys manage to get it open?'' Donut asked.
''It was a bit of a process, we had to climb to the top and open a door up there before coming down here and opening the one'' said Wash ''anyways Lopez I'm sure Tucker told you why I wanted you here''
''[He did though I really doubt this is gonna help since you can't understand me]'' said Lopez ''[and if you think pinky's gonna help, well I don't know what to tell ya]''
''Alright can you take a look?'' Wash asked.
''[Yeah I suppose, I mean I came here so I might as well do something]'' groaned Lopez, pushing past them to enter the ship, the other's waited in an area that appear to be the mess hall until Lopez came back an hour later ''[alright lets get this over with pinky your up]''
''Alright, lets here it'' said Wash.
''[I don't know alright, the ship seems to be in good condition, but I'm not sure if I can fix it]'' said Lopez.
''Lopez says he might be able to fix it if we take parts from the other ship, you know the one we're scavenging and use them for this one'' said Donut.
''[For the love of do you have to… wait, that might actually work, ok maybe I can fix it if we do that, but no promises]'' said Lopez ''[hell we don't even know if all the parts on that ship are working, but I'll do what I can]''
''I agree Lopez this ship does need a makeover'' said Donut.
''[Ok you did your job you can shut up now]'' said Lopez.
''Alright, how's Sarge coming along with the other vehicles?'' Wash asked.
''By the time Tucker got back he and Lopez had finished another Jeep, he and Caboose are now working on one of the tanks'' answered Donut.
''If I know Sarge, he'll probably want to move other parts that work here too so he can use them later'' said Simmons.
''Sounds good to me, you three go back to the other ship help Sarge and Caboose fix the other vehicles up faster, me and Tucker will just stay here'' said Wash.
After that work on the airship began, once Sarge, Lopez, Simmons and Caboose finished fixing up what vehicles they could they along with Grif, Doc and Donut drove them to the airship, Lopez had stayed behind to start striping the ship of the parts they needed, the first thing Wash had them do before driving back was take one of the Warthogs guns off so that it could be used to transport supplies from the crashed ship to the Airship, Wash, Tucker, Grif, Simmons and Sarge each took turns driving back and forth to pick up the supplies.
Once they had finished with that the work really began, Lopez worked quickly getting weeks of work finished in days, while he worked on that the others worked on different things, Wash started to work a transmitter so their radios could work with the CCTS, Simmons was working on a project in the armoury, Doc started to set up the medical bay for when they'd need it, the other Reds and Blues helped Lopez where they could and three weeks later, the airship took off and started to soar through the sky again under the command of the Reds and Blues.
So there's the chapter I hope you enjoyed it, it was a bit difficult to start, but I eventually got it hope I didn't go too far with them fixing up a Atlesean Airship, I just needed a way for them to travel between kingdoms with veichles and that was the solution I came up with, but then again maybe its not too absrud considering some of the things Sarge and Lopez have been able to make and I hope you didn't mind Wash's conflict over changing the past or leaving it be, next chapter their going to start changing the past.
Oh just so I can move on with the story, the Ship has a command deck, a set of barracks, a vehicle bay, a training room which Lopez has outfitted with holograms very similar to Red Base in Valhalla and a mess hall.