goneawaycomms | Agent South Dakota

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.

[ South falls unusually silent. She doesn't look at him, her eyes on the ceiling as she considers her words, for once. ]

I... fuck.

[ Does she hate him? It feels like she hates him, sometimes. He drives her nuts. She wants to be free of him, of his shadow, of being just 'North's sister'. But he's still her brother, despite it all.

Things would be simpler if he hated her. He should hate her. ]

How are things gonna ever get better when you won't even face what happened? You can't pretend it never happened. I can't fucking deal with... with...

[ She covers her face with the pillow again and muffles a frustrated noise. ]

[ North gestures toward her with an open hand. ]

All right, so, let's talk about it, then. Let's talk about all the stuff that's standing between us.

[ Him actually agreeing almost makes her adrenaline spike, kicks her into fight or flight mode for just a second before she pushes it down. She peeps out. ]

And you're not gonna walk out or tell me to stop when I tell you what happened at the end?

[ He sighs. ]

You really expect me to do that?

[ She gives him a look. ]

When I arrived, you told me not to tell you because you wanted us to go back to 'how things were'. So yeah, kinda.

[ He looks past her, at the wall behind her. ]

You being here was still new. I don't...

[ He pauses and shakes his head. ]

When Wash told me everything he told me, it was academic. You know? You being here makes it more solid.

...yeah, no kidding. [ It took days for seeing his face to not feel like a physical punch in the gut. ] Look, I just didn't wanna get into this and then have you just cut me off, if you can say you won't...

[ She sighs, putting the pillow aside and sitting forward. Perches herself on the edge of the bed and kicks him in the shin to make him look at her. ]

Then we can fuckin' talk.

[ His eyes go to her face. ]

Yes. And I promise to listen.

[ This is going to be rough, but he knows it needs to happen. ]

[ South breathes in deeply. Fuck. Okay. This is actually happening. She never thought he’d actually...

She starts talking before she can change her mind. ]

I was Recovery Two, for almost the entire time we were on the run. Command wanted me to track you down and turn you in. Said they’d give me an AI. All that bullshit. [ She rolls her eyes. ] I let them think what they wanted to think. Got info. Kept following you. Played both sides.

[ Puts even more damning context behind her attempts to get him to just give Theta up, and yet she also never actually turned him in. ]

So yeah. I knew the Meta was becoming a Freelancer-killing problem long before that thing was even a blip on our radar. And then...

[ She falters a little. It’s not like her. For a moment, she looks... ashamed, but the expression is masked quickly by a furrowed brow and familiar frustration. ]

[ He's watching her, watching her facial expressions, carefully, and when she stops he nods slightly. ]

Then?

...I knew it would catch up with us eventually. But I didn't know when. Whenever it got someone else Command told me, but the attacks were all over the map. Last I heard before it found us, it was miles away.

[ She swallows. ]

I always thought that, when it came, maybe if we— I let it get what it wanted, then...

[ He wants to speak, wants to say, 'Premeditated, huh?', but he's no longer calm and his throat is closed. His adam's apple bobs up and down a couple of times and he trains his eyes on her hands.

The sound that comes out, eventually, is a questioning sort of grunt, encouraging her to continue. ]

Agent South Dakota

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