goneawaycomms | Agent South Dakota

What, the deflection of blame stuff? That's probably because it was a bunch of horseshit that didn't make sense. It made even less sense to everyone else, I'm sure.

No, the rest of it. About Texas, y'know, all that stuff.

[ She's been considering asking Delta since he's stuck with her but she's pretty sure he'd find a way to tell her to fuck off, or he'd lie to her just because. ]

Oh.

[ North sighs, scrubbing a hand over his face. ]

I didn't explain all that stuff to you because it frankly didn't seem like any of your business. Tex seems to me like a pretty private person and she was obviously leaving out anything that wasn't completely salient to getting us to help her when she explained it to me and York, so...

[ He can't see her, so she lets herself roll her eyes. Not because he's wrong, but because even if he's right she hates when people keep shit from her anyway. ]

Of course you know. [ And she leaves it at that, for once not chasing down a fight. ] Explains some stuff, I guess... fuck, it feels like I don't actually know shit about what happened. Not like I fucking thought I did.

[ Not something she admits often. ]

I can explain it all again from the beginning, if you want, without leaving anything out. Since he went and told it all, there's no point in keeping it a secret now.

In fact, it might be best if we're all on the same page.

...yeah, you're probably right. Don't like feeling like the only person out of the fuckin' loop.

[ South takes a moment to continue, dragging her hands back through her hair and levelling her breathing. ]

Think we should do that in person, or you not wanna take the risk? Sounds like a long fuckin' talk is all.

In-person's best. You in our room?

[ He's still calling it that, apparently, despite staying with York more than half the time these days. ]

Yeah. Yeah I'm there.

[ She bites her tongue. No fighting today, not over something so petty as the urge to snark 'oh, it's ours when it suits you, huh?'. ]

I'll be there in a minute.

[ Which he is, ambling in after the short walk from York's room and taking his place on his bed. ]

So, where do you need me to start? I guess maybe with where Alpha came from, huh?

[ South pushes herself up from laying down and sits with her back against the wall. ]

Yeah, the asshole said something about it being based on the other asshole?

Yeah...I don't know the timing or anything, as far as that goes, but the Director created the Alpha AI off of an imprint of his own brain. Thing is, he had someone he had loved in his past that he was so obsessed with, or her memory, at least, that when they created Alpha, the memory got thrown off as another AI. That was Beta, or as we eventually came to know her...Tex.

I... what the fuck.

[ Eloquent as ever. South's brow scrunches and she rubs her face again. ]

That's... nuts. That's— we were fucking working with an AI based off not even some guy's dead... whatever-the-fuck-she-was's brain, but his fucking memory of her? What the fuck. What the fuck.

She was a really good teammate, you know. Once she started pulling Omega, anyway.

That's the other thing—

Wait, well, one thing at a time. [ He sighs. ] Her splitting off gave them the idea to torture the Alpha. They split off Omega first and assigned him to partner up with Tex as soon as they could. She had Omega when they introduced her to us via the three-on-one fight, and that's why she was so strong in fighting—it wasn't just her but she had another AI assisting her. After that, they knew what they were doing and they started splitting more AIs off faster and faster and... Well, somehow CT caught on to what they were doing, so she left with evidence. But she also left a disk drive for Tex to find that included that evidence. That's why I know a lot of the stuff I know about the Project, because when Tex recruited me and York to help her, she showed us some of it to help us believe her.

[ North will know well the way South tenses at the mention of CT’s name. The aftermath of CT’s defection was... rough, for everyone, for many reasons, but South had taken it more personally than most. She never did handle such things well. ]

She had that thing the whole time? What the fuck, no wonder...

[ She drags her hands down her face again and groans. It’s a lot of information to process, information that forces a shift in her perspective on multiple events in the Project. ]

Fucking... fuck. I thought CT went fucking Innie?

[ North shakes his head. ]

I have no idea who those people we were fighting were but they were definitely UNSC-aligned. Tex knew that much.

Anyway, after CT defected was when Maine's AI got the idea for them to recombine and achieve metastability. Maine was the one chasing down the people with AIs, not Tex. Which, I've told you that much before, just not with this much detail. I wasn't sure what she'd want you to know about her, so I kept the details about her origins and the reasons to myself.

Yeah. Right. Because no one ever tells me shit...

[ The comment doesn’t even sound angry, instead it almost sounds... tired. ]

We both know I knew it was Maine, Drew. Eventually, anyway. Thought he’d just lost it and gone mad for fucking power, became whatever the fuck having all those AI made him. Not all that other shit. Fuck.

[ Command only told her what she needed to know when she became Recovery Two. She’d drawn her own conclusions for the rest. ]

Right, right, I know. I'm just talking about how everyone thought it was Tex at first.

[ He sighs. ]

I'm sorry it ended up with you being left out of things. I certainly didn't mean for that to be the case. I just didn't feel like it was my place to be spreading the rest of it.

I... get that, I do [ and she does, because it’d bother her if North told someone things like that about her, hell it always has bothered her when he shares even boring stuff like the barf bag story ] I just...

[ She sighs, too, fists clenched against the bed. No yelling, though. ]

I thought CT and I were fucking friends but she— and— and you shot me before you ever said a word of anything important. Did you think I was actually loyal to those fuckers? Did you think I was that much of a lost fucking cause even then?

Nat, you fired a missle pod at me. I didn't know what you were thinking at that point and I didn't want to get exploded before I had a chance to get you out of there.

You came in wielding two sniper rifles and you had your shield, when I couldn't even activate mine! I didn't know what you were gonna fucking do, either! All I knew was that you were suddenly siding with someone who, last I knew, was a traitor.

[ She picks up her pillow and buries her face in it to groan loudly. ]

[ North's quiet. It's a moment before he responds. ]

Why didn't we ever talk about this?

[ South sighs and lifts her head. ]

Because we're us, Drew. We don't talk. I yell at you and you just fuckin' sit there and pretend nothing's wrong.

[ She sits back with her arms around the pillow and thunks her head back against the wall. ]

Fuck.

That's not what I do. I calm you down.

[ Except for recently. ]

Usually.

[ South snorts. ]

When was the last time you actually 'calmed me down'?

[ Her head thunks against the wall again. ]

We haven't been right for a long time, Drew. We've barely talked since I got here. You checked on me and I was genuinely fucking surprised and thought it had to be because of Price's mind games, for fuck's sake.

[ She sounds... tired. Tired of all of this. Price spilling everything's just brought that to the forefront, almost past the anger. ]

Listen...

[ He shifts a little in place. ]

You're my sister. The people at Project Freelancer put us through the wringer and tried their best to make us hate each other. But I don't hate you. I am so sorry I had to leave you out of the loop. It wasn't my intention and I wish I could have done it another way, now.

[ He pauses with a frown. ]

I just...want to know things can get better.

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