goddamngrenades | RP Open Post

"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."

Wash snorts. Right, like he's going into the room alone with York. Or even with a few people and York. He won't be taken in again. "Take off the armour, York, leave it in the corner of the room and then come outside."

"Or what? You'll shoot me?" D's valuable. They wouldn't hurt him. They wouldn't risk shooting York either, would they?

"Possibly," Wash replies. He checks, and yeah, there's a camera there. Gonna assume York is watching when he slides Delta's chip out, twists it between his fingers. York is valuable too. He'd prefer not to but that isn't as important. Instead, he turns around, brushes his hair aside to that the camera can see the port at the back of his neck, the scarring around it. And then he presses Delta's chip against it. Not inserting it, not yet, and he turns back to the camera, keeping it there.

He's terrified. Tries to hide it. Another AI in his head is not something he's sure he could deal with. But he will, he will if he has to.

Different kind of hurt. Wash's mind is a fucking mess- not that his is much better at the moment and- on the one hand, D could learn a lot if he let it happen.

On the other there's the kneejerk feeling of it being WRONG, of it being a violation for Wash to take HIS AI, his friend, for whatever reason.

The next sound of the room is the thud of the chestplate falling free. Logical? No. Foolish? Yep. He does it anyway. Armor off, in the corner, leaving him in the undersuit that's just as good as being naked.

"You come in. Just you."

The silence drags on and he keeps the chip pressed against the back of his neck. His fingers are shaking. He's killed people, been tortured, and remained calmer than he is now. His hands do not shake. But he can remember Epsilon unspooling in his mind, screaming and tearing him apart with it. Delta is more stable, but who knows how he will react to being in Wash's mind with all of the memories of what happened? But he'll do it. He has orders.

He hears the armour and slowly lowers the chip, putting it back into the AI unit which he passes to one of his subordinates. "Give it to Carolina if anything happens." She could deal better with an AI.

"Alright, York. I'm coming in."

He draws his sidearm and enters slowly.

"Guess I should've been more specific." He's not anywhere near cover, the armor's in the far corner of the room and he's sitting with his back to the terminal, fingers drumming on his thighs. "I was hoping you'd bring D with you."

Hope gets people shot but- he's got no gun, he's going to cooperate, hell, he IS cooperating.

"How? I felt him-" he stops. Grinds his teeth, thinking back to that. "Unwind."

"I'm not stupid, York," he says. "Why would I bring him in here with you?" He isn't giving York the chance to get hold of Delta.

Wash doesn't look away, meets York's eyes squarely. "In the event of a Freelancer dying, we were told the AIs would be destroyed along with us. They lied. The AIs are encrypted instead, locked down into dormancy. Failsafe. If the Freelancers died, they have other agents who can be sent out to recover the armour and AIs. Return them to the project."

"Because it's the easiest way to get me to comply? Seriously, David." Put an AI in a Freelancer and sure- they're more capable. They're also more vulnerable. Anything that happened to him, happened to Delta. Of course Wash never had that kind of relationship with Epsilon, he wouldn't know.

"It's Wash," he says bluntly. He doesn't want to hear that name from York. Not now. He can't, so he just wants to avoid it altogether.

"He's safe. You getting him back is... well, depends how things go."

"He's isolated. He's alone. They weren't ever meant to be alone!" And that rubbed off on him, just a little. Explained how easy it was for him to fall in with Wash, with David. "You can't have him aware and on his own, it's cruel."

"I know that," Wash snapped. "I know more than I ever should have." He remembers being splintered to make them, the kind of thing a human was never built to know. "If I had my way I- would have left him dormant." And that's the truth. It makes him uncomfortable dealing with the fragments.

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)

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