outsiders | audio;

Just-- look.

[ Wash turns back, meeting her gaze and holding it this time. ]

A lot happened, okay? Things not even you knew about.

[ She pauses, studying him. Thought he wasn't going to tell her anything, but that's not it. More like he doesn't know how to tell her. ]

What do you mean--things I didn't know about?

[ Wash blows out a breath. He's not even sure where to start. But he's done this so many times, with so many different versions of the people he'd known, his friends, that it all ever comes down to one thing. ]

Like the Alpha.

[ Carolina cocks her head to the side.

It sounds vaguely familiar, like something she's heard muttered in the back of her head. The two... well, it was hard to keep them straight. They'd talk over each other. Argue, even. But that sounds familiar. Alpha. Something from them.

For the first time since it happened, she has time to wonder whether she misses them.

She's not sure. ]

The what?

[ So she doesn't know.

This means he'll have to start from the beginning. He settles in his seat, makes himself comfortable. He'd told her he was going to tell her everything, and if she can stay calm, he will. ]

The Alpha. It's where all of our A.I.s came from. He told us they were fragments, remember? And they were. Just not in the way we thought.

[ Wash's lips twist. Even now, he can't entirely hold back the disgust. ]

They gave him an A.I. for his experiments, Carolina. Just one. Not enough for all of us, not for the Project. So he had an idea. If he couldn't copy it, he'd do the next best thing. He'd split it.

[ Carolina sits back a little, crossing her arms.

They never really knew what the Director meant by "fragments," and it's not as though he kept her any less in the dark. Even before Freelancer, Dad never was one to talk about his work. Wasn't as though she needed the details. She knew what her job was, and equipment was equipment.

She's not clear what Wash means, but it's clear he thinks it's pretty damn important. ]

Okay... what do you mean, split it?

Exactly what it sounds like. A.I. are based on a human mind. You can't just break one up into pieces and hand it out. It doesn't work that way. So he had to get creative.

[ Wash gives her a level look. He doesn't know how well she's going to take this, so he keeps his tone steady, even as he continues. ]

He tortured it. Like reverse-engineering a split personality disorder. He ran scenario after scenario until it started fragmenting. And then he implanted them in us.

[ Carolina tilts her head slightly and stares at him blankly for a long moment, almost as if she didn't really hear him. ]

No, there's no way that happened...

[ Wash supposes denial isn't all that surprising. He looks at her, flatly. ]

And why not?

[ Carolina squints a little and shakes her head slowly.

This certainly isn't the time she wants to bring up her connection to the Director. She never told any of them about that. Would've just complicated things.

AIs were her dad's... everything, really, his life, his work, his obsession. They were his thing. Spent his whole life trying to improve the science of it, perfect it, and... well, she doesn't know much about it herself, it's not like he talked to her about it, but what Wash is saying, that can't have been his goal. It can't. She's not even sure if what he's describing is possible, frankly. ]

It just doesn't make sense... look, you said we're from different timelines, universes, whatever you want to call it. How could you possibly know what happened in mine?

Because I know a lot more about it than you think I do, Carolina.

[ He knows this is harder for her than for anyone else, but that's why he has to get it through to her now. Before she does something she'll end up regretting. Back in his universe, Carolina had had years to plan her revenge. He doesn't want to see her end up the same way. ]

Before you got here-- what's the last thing that happened? You said I was already in recovery.

Yeah, for a few days. You'd just had Epsilon removed. Tex stole Wyoming's AI, hijacked the ship, crashed it.

[ No need to mention York. She really, really isn't in the mood to talk about York.

Her eyes drop as she continues. Her hand goes automatically to the back of her neck. She's barely had time to even process everything that happened, let alone sort through it and make sense of it. ]

Something... happened to Maine.

[ She shivers. Her voice takes on a bitter edge. ]

I don't know what happened after the crash. By the time I woke up, everyone was gone.

God, that's right. I forgot that's what they told you.

[ Wash can't help but snort -- the idea of Tex taking Gamma is just laughable, let alone that anyone had ever believed it. Like Tex had cared about anything but Alpha.

Maine, though. That answers the more important question. Wash schools his expression and leans forward, resting his elbows on the side of her bed. ]

He wasn't Maine anymore. He took Eta and Iota, didn't he? And your equipment. But only your camouflage unit.

Edited 2013-06-23 04:52 (UTC)

[ Carolina's eyes narrow. God, she's getting really tired of everyone talking to her like she's stupid. ]

What do you mean, that's what they told me?

And Maine--

[ Her hands scramble over her armor for the spot where the unit's housed. And it's gone. Speed unit's still there, but Wash is right--the camo unit's been removed. She doesn't even remember that. Just remembers those huge hands grabbing her by the neck, tearing the chips out, and two shrill screams that ended abruptly in a shock of pain and dizziness. Just remembering it makes her feel like throwing up. ]

How did you know about that?

[ How would he know about that? Does that mean they came back for her, in his timeline? Didn't leave her for dead in the snow after all? ]

Because they're one and the same.

[ This is going to be hard for her to swallow, he knows. But if he can get her to listen to him, maybe -- just maybe -- she'll believe him, too. ]

Tex never went after Wyoming, Maine did -- but Gamma ejected first. And he didn't stop at you. After the ship went down, most agents ran for it and went rogue. Maine hunted them down one by one and stole their equipment and A.I.

[ Wash sighs. It's been a long time since he's dredged up these particular memories, but he can see the bodies as clear as day. ]

I was sent out to recover them. And, after that, to track down Maine.

[ Carolina stares at him, shaking her head slowly. ]

That doesn't even make sense. You're telling me Maine--we are talking about the same Maine, right?--hijacked the entire ship so he could steal all our AI?

So then why did the Director send me after Tex? She practically admitted what she was doing! She even tried to get me to help her! I don't know what happened in your timeline, Wash, but I know what happened in mine. And it was Tex.

I said Maine went after the A.I., not the ship. Tex and York still hijacked the ship, trust me. She was trying to save the Alpha.

[ This is dicey territory, all right, and the kind he knows he has to be careful with, but it's hard to not immediately correct her. ]

It was never Maine who wanted the A.I., anyway. It was Sigma. He believed that if he could reunite all the fragments, he could recreate the Alpha. Achieve metastability. That's what they called themselves, once they took over Maine's mind. The Meta.

[ His tone lowers, here, and though he knows she's probably going to try and deny that, too, there's a heavy weight to his words. ]

[ She eyes him incredulously. ]

And those two things just happened to happen at exactly the same time.

[ But it's not... impossible, what he's saying about Sigma. She remembers that day in AI Theory. Remembers the headaches that had Maine in and out of the Infirmary. Never enough to keep him off missions, he wouldn't let that happen, but enough so people noticed. That much, at least, is possible. Most of all because the Maine she knew would never do what he did to her. He wasn't himself, that much she could tell. ]

Tex was trying to save the Alpha. Right. So you just said Tex wasn't after AIs, and then you tell me she was going after the AI. The one they all came from, according to what you said.

What is it with her? Why does everybody defend her? It's not exactly like she ever needed anyone's help.

[ Except York's, apparently. But she's not talking about York. ]

[ Wash raises an eyebrow in return. ]

When was he going to get a better chance than when the entire Project was falling apart?

And Tex...

[ He lets out a breath. ]

She was different. We all knew that. But it was more than that.

She wasn't human, Carolina. She was just a memory.

A what?

[ It's way too much to take it, too much to believe, everything he's saying, but the worst of it is how it links up in little clicks with things, strange things she heard or saw and never had time to think about.

"I won't take orders from a shadow."

Of course she's known Tex wasn't right, probably not even a real person. The way she never used the locker room or took off her helmet or ate with them or showed any signs of being a goddamn human being--Carolina wasn't stupid. She may not have known the details of her father's work but she could put two and two together.

Of course there was still plenty that didn't add up. ]

What do you mean, a memory?

She was an A.I. Not like the fragments. Tex was... different.

[ There's a murmur at the back of his mind. A whisper. He doesn't let himself listen to it. He's better at blocking it out, these days. It's been a long time since he's had a nightmare. ]

She was someone from Alpha's life. Someone he loved. And when they made him, she came back.

[ He holds her gaze, watching her carefully. ]

[ She doesn't yet understand the quiet, stifled sense of horror building in her chest. What's coming is something she desperately doesn't want to know. Something she couldn't let herself know. ]

Alpha's life... you mean the person he was based on.

[ It's not possible. "He's broken major laws." It's not. ]

Yeah.

[ Wash pauses. For a moment, he's not sure if he should tell her now, or give her a reprieve. She's been through so much already -- should he even be telling her all this now? Shouldn't he let her rest, recover from her wounds?

But-- no, he tells himself. With someone else, it might seem like the right answer. But with Carolina? Hell no. More than anyone else, she deserves to know. And if he denied her, she'd just come after him for the answers anyway. ]

The Director based the Alpha on himself.

Edited 2013-06-26 18:56 (UTC)

[ Wash is waiting. He's watching her to see how she reacts and she can't. She can't do this in front of him. She can't process this in front of him, let him see it on her face. She's not even sure she can think about whether to believe this until she can be alone. Preferably somewhere she can scream.

She hardens her jaw and forces a laugh. ]

That's completely illegal--how would he even have--

[ "He's broken major laws." She can still hear that. God, she'll never stop seeing that mission play over and over in her head. ]

How could you possibly know that?

Epsilon.

[ Wash's gaze finally drops. His fingers go to the slot on the back of his neck before he can stop himself, trace over the scars from where he tried to pry it out with his bare hands. ]

He was Alpha's memory. All of the fragments, the pieces that broke off -- they were different parts of his personality. Delta was Alpha's logic. Omega was his rage. Sigma was his creativity, Omega was his rage. And Epsilon-- Epsilon remembered everything.

[ He looks back up, his voice soft. ]

Why do you think I snapped the second they tried to put him in me?

Edited 2013-06-28 01:34 (UTC)

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