goddamngrenades | RP Open Post

"Well she clearly knows you better than I do." To make him turn around on doing the right thing? Yeah.

"How much of what you gave me was actually useful?" How much was a red herring? If he knows that-

Maybe he wouldn't get a rescue, but maybe the Feds and New Republic wouldn't be utterly fucked.

"She rescued me. Got me out when I was- I was insane and suicidal. Kind of brings you together. And Control knows... pretty much everything there is to know. About all of us." Stuff that had never been on their public files, or their private files.

He pauses for a moment. Wants to give him this if nothing else. "All of it. I didn't give you bad information. That wasn't a trap."

"Control knows fuck and all about me." Who he'd been during the project? Is not who he is now. He's moved past it. Or at the very least has been trying real fucking hard to do so. "You know, after all this? I'm having a hard time believing you. Must be the cuffs."

That he still can't quite manage but not for lack of trying. He'll get them. Just needs to keep Wash off balance.

"Seriously, David, if you wanted to get kinky you should've said something."

"Then why bother asking?" It isn't as though he's going to take the damn cuffs off. He's not that stupid. Not that York has anywhere he can go really. The base is a fair way away from Armonia or the rebel base.

He flinches at that comment, although his grip doesn't falter. "That's not my name. Don't-" Don't what? Don't joke about it. Don't play it down. Because none of that at least had been an act.

"If you're gonna fuck me over one last time I'm gonna use your name." He's not even getting a reach around here and that's just unkind, man. The flinch lets him know the barb stuck and gives him just enough leeway to play with the cuffs and loosen one. Not by much, but it's better than it was earlier.

"So tell me, Taylor," he says, and there's a hint of a growl to his voice, "why did you leave me behind? Was I just not good enough to bother telling about your little coup? Worried I'd slow you down? You know North was there when I woke up after having my mind torn apart, and as soon as the alarms went off, he left me there. Kind of makes someone wonder if any friendship we had was worth a damn back then."

"I didn't tell Carolina. If I didn't tell her, why would I have told you? We didn't know if you'd wake up a vegetable or not, we didn't know if you'd wake up at ALL, and I didn't exactly get any time to make any FUCKING calls on that op! You worked with Tex, you know how she was, and that was her op. I was her number two and I didn't get any room to say or save a damn thing." Don't get mad. Don't get mad, get snippy, get snide, get vicious- but don't get mad.

he can't work the cuffs if he's angry. But if wash is angry? Wash is distracted enough for him to get another little bit of room. "North's priority was always Theta and his sister."

"Because everyone knew she'd do whatever it took to bring Tex down. She said you still spoke to her though, back then. Tried to persuade her." He was getting mad he knew it. Stupid emotions that he'd never had chance to voice. Not to York at least. He snorts derisively when he mentions North. "Yeah, I was never anyone's first priority. Maybe Maine but we know how that turned out. Oh and the Director's when he wanted to figure out what I knew. I know. Your priorities were always Carolina and Delta."

"In the middle of it, like an idiot. Like when the alert was blaring and I was, to her mind, playing traitor she'd TOTALLY follow me if I asked her." He hadn't trusted her then when he'd found out. Hadn't trusted anyone. He'd tried to talk to her when he had because he'd thought there was something there- and while it might have been? He didn't go about it in the right way. It'd been the wrong place, the wrong time, and the wrong scene.

He thought he was some kind of hero offering to take her away from everything.

Honestly? He'd been a douche. A selfish one. And he's trying so damn hard to not be now and Wash is NOT HELPING. "My priorities were get mine and get out. Idiot that I was, I counted her in that. Shouldn't have. It was stupid and selfish."

Another centimeter on the left cuff, fuck yeah. Who's still got it? York's still got it.

There's a weight against York for a moment, Wash pressing up against his back, warm breath against his neck. "Freelancer was the first real home, the first real family I've ever had. And they abandoned and betrayed me. I wake up sometimes and don't even remember who I am, Wash or Alpha. Thy tortured him too you know? And I remember every moment of what they did. So why shouldn't I be loyal to the only person who'd given a damn about me?"

"Because that's how I ended up in the project, and we both know how well that turned out." Family gone, squad dead, gorgeous woman that he thought he'd follow into hell and- well. After a fashion? He had. He'd been too gone to notice what he'd been giving up or giving into and Wash is right where he was but so much worse.

So much more has happened to him.

There's a moment of hesitation- he needs more space in the cuffs before he makes a move but Wash is right there, his helmet's off, and the hall looks relatively abandoned. He doesn't mutter an apology no matter how much he'd want to when he dips his head forward and slams it back as hard as he can.

"You know I understand why Alpha fragmented himself. Broke off parts of himself because he couldn't deal. Wish I could do the same." Break off his logic so that he wouldn't understand that York was making sense. His anger because it was exhausting and anger just showed you cared too much. Memory...

He should have seen it coming. York is a master of dirty tricks. The blow hits him I the face, blinding pain and blood and sends him reeling back clutching at his face.

Dirty tricks are how he survived without being known for years. What's a few more between old friends? Wash stumbles and he sprints- unfamiliar with the layout, unarmed and without a helmet, sure.

He's managed in worse situations. Maybe. None come to mind, he'll get back to that.

For now he focuses on working the cuffs loose while sprinting the everloving fuck away, trying to find somewhere to hole up till he has the lay of the land. This being a base in full operation? That's unlikely to happen. But hey, he's always been lucky.

Fuck. Fuck! He thinks his nose is broken. There's blood dripping down his face, in his eyes and how could he have been so fucking stupid? He should have shot York back then. Should never have got close. Why did he never learn?

And there's part of him that wants to hang back, let York get away. But he can't. He can't and then he's chasing after him. He'll try to hold up somewhere. Still has the cuffs so he'll be slower though.

Two lefts and a right, ventilation shaft, ventilation shaft where the hell are the ventilation shafts? Or the fucking storage closets? or ANYTHING? This base is bullshit and he starts taking his turns in- well. The Fibonacci sequence. Something he and Delta sorted out as a mental shorthand for getting shit done, even was left, odd was right, every third even or odd was straight.

Convoluted- yes. Seemingly random with a logical progression they and only they understood? Definitely. Wash doesn't have D- Delta's dead.

So it's a safe enough habit to fall back into while he works the cuffs open bit by agonizing bit.

He's got people searching. But York is tricky and the base is large and rambling. It helps in theory. Means York isn't likely to find his way out. Also means it's a bitch to find him even if they've got the secure areas locked down. Stupid. Stupid fucking kid, still making the same mistakes. Trusting.

"What happened Wash?" Carolina. She's go that note of frustration in her voice because can't one goddam thing go simply?

"He surprised me," Wash snaps, wiping the blood off his nose.

"I have an idea. Didn't want to break it out too soon but it'll have to do to flush him out." She holds up an AI storage unit. "Old friend of his."

Wash stares. "They managed to recover him?"

"Yeah. Control sent him over when you found York. You know how the boss's likes collecting Freelancer tech. And Freelancers."

Ha. Locks. It's cute. Sure he doesn't have his hud or a weapon but after three minutes holed up in an alcove he managed to remove the cuffs and clip them onto the maglock on his belt before moving in what he hoped to be the direction of the motorpool. The idiots he was shadowing seemed to be the mechanic type. It was still a really long, winding walk and it's hard for him to remember every fucking turn they take as they meander their way like there isn't an alert going off. Either they're keeping it quite (unlikely) or he's not a threat (Insulting but useful).

Obfuscating ineptitude helped him in the past. No reason he can't roll with it now. If only they'd GET WHERE THE FUCK THEY NEEDED TO GO oh fuck this.

He finds a side room. Finds a terminal. And starts poking. A map would be great. Really, REALLY fucking great.

They have a pretty big card in their hands with this. He'd known that the AI were probably supposed to survive the death of a Freelancer but he's never put it to the test, but here Delta is.

There's been network access, which is t a definite signal, but it's the best they've got now so they head in that direction. "You know York," he says, the speakers across the base crackling to life, "the thing about AIs, even fragments, is that they're really expensive. Valuable enough that do you really believe the Director would let them die alongside a human that could be replaced?"

Head down, keep working. Head down, keep working. Network access, root access, base layout, something. It's a lie. It's as much of a lie as Carolina and he'd felt Delta go. Felt him unwind and unspool in a line of achingly beautiful binary until there was nothing left of either of them.

Or that was the morphine and anticoagulants that saved his life. He'd tried to rouse Delta. Delta would not be roused.

He should've kept the chip but it felt too much like carrying a corpse and-

Work. Do the work, find a way out. Leave a mess of the system as soon as he has an exit strategy.

"If anyone would know, I would," Wash said. "Alpha oversaw those systems. I got the memories. It'd really suck to abandon someone you care about that much, now you know they're alive." It's cruel and manipulative and right now Wash doesn't care.

There's silence and then another voice comes through. "Agent York. It appears they are correct about the AI protocols."

There's a reason Maine went the way he did. Why North was so bound up in protecting Delta, why Omega and Tex had such a codependant, twisted up relationship. Why York bailed to protect Delta first even when he knew he was leaving men behind. Shards of the Director's soul or not- they were theirs. They were warm and real. An edge in battle? Sure. A constant relationship that worked at the speed of thought and never shut off, not really. A little like a drug. Hell. A lot like a drug.

And York thought he'd gotten over his pangs of withdrawl. That he'd been forced clean and sober for years now it'd be enough. Going to them isn't an option, he has a job to do. But-

Delta. It's DELTA. He knows that voice like he knows his own mind and it has him flicking from maps and plans and data to visual feeds. Till he can find them and stare at Wash holding the AI unit.

Stupid. It's stupid but his eyes sting and his jaw clenches, hand jabbing the response on the PA system in the wall before he can stop himself. "You know what they're trying to do, D."

Perhaps that was tied up in the core of it for Wash; he'd had that, had it for one perfect moment before Epsilon had realised who he was, what the Director had done, and killed himself rather than stay in Wash's mind and maybe let him help. In any case, he keeps the AI unit close to his chest, cradling it protectively. How could he do anything else when he remembers Delta's creation?

Maybe it's stupid to let Delta speak, but he does. "Yes, I am aware," Delta replies. "Unfortunately I am unable to access any of their system."

"We recovered him," Wash says and he holds up the unit towards the camera, displays the tiny chip. "Unharmed, undamaged once we got the codes to deactivate him. Control sent it down when I found you."

Of course now he finds the map. NOW he finds a way out and it's hovering on the console right next to the video feed.

Just as much distance between him and them as it is to him and the motorpool. Maybe he'd make it. Maybe he'd even get a mongoose. Maybe he'd even get back in time to help plan some kind of counterattack. Set off the charges Wash set.

And maybe he'd get shot in the fucking head since he didn't have his fucking helmet.

D would understand. Wouldn't he? It's the logical thing to do.

"...east wing, hall six, room 12." It'll give him time to make up his mind- like it's not already made.

Wash gives a little wave to the camera and slides the chip back into the AI unit. Got him. Just can't leave Delta alone with the bad guys can he? Nice to know where he ranks. Wishes he could stop caring. Wishes he hadn't got attached. Wishes he'd never got attached.

He heads over to where York had indicated, plenty of the mercs with him, armed. A bunch of others cloaked and ready, including Carolina. He has Delta call out to York when they arrive. Seems the best way to remind him of what is at stake.

No time, no tools, no leverage. There's no ambush he can make and nothing he can do but show up and hope not to get shot.

He's shut down the terminal by the time they arrive, hands up, facing forward. Not gonna try anything. Not that he thinks they'll damage delta- he is apparently quite expensive. If he plays his cards right? He might get back his friend. Then they'll be able to figure out how to fix this together.

"In here, Bud."

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

Re: York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)

York gets Captured thread split (point of divergance)