Chapter Text
As soon as Church neared the secure facility, something tugged at the edge of his consciousness. Not the memory flashes that had been plaguing him since earlier, but like someone trying to beam a thought directly into his head. He shoved it aside. He’d ignored arguably worse things before.
It was easy anyways, Washington had just dropped the little bombshell that Church wasn’t a ghost at all, but an AI (and not any little AI, the Alpha!) and that Epsilon was the pile of memories he’d ditched when things got too heavy. That was a big enough bombshell to drown out most anything else, anything that wasn't was overshadowed by the denial and the digging into the hill he was going to die on.
It wasn’t the first time Church had been forced to face some ugly truth about himself, but this one was different. He’d built his entire identity around being the unlucky dead guy stuck with this idiotic team, a voice without a body. His plan with this new truth was deny, deny, deny. Church was good at finding hills to die on, and being a ghost was one he had liked, despite the context that came with it. He wasn’t sure he could handle being the one who broke, not the one who was killed.
Then Caboose plugged the Epsilon unit into Church’s suit. (“A blinking red light means low batteries! Everyone knows that!”) Just like that, a thousand memories dumped briefly back in his head. If denying he was the Alpha was officially out the window, then denying he was going to let any of this slide was running down the road. And if that was the case, there was no way Church was going to let any of this go without fucking with the Freelancer program (Or live with himself after leaving Washington to deal with it all. Sue him, the guy was growing on him.)
Which led to a last second decision to leave the idiots and jump to Washington after a brief farewell, and promise to meet up later to keep fighting. (“Caboose, if you lose my body, I swear I’ll kill you myself.”)
Anyways, back to the moment. As Church slipped into Washington’s suit, the rogue agent greeted him, but didn’t bring up his presence in any other way as the two made their way inside the base together. The moment Church had the connection to the local systems through the suit, the tug in his mind grew stronger.
Inside Washington’s suit housing, it wasn’t just a tug anymore—it was a voice.
QUERY: IDENTITY?
Church rifled through the new connections tugging at his awareness: Washington’s systems (and his painful memories—yikes), the facility’s dormant EMP, and the surrounding security network. He hadn’t realized how much he could feel just by existing outside of flesh and bone, how the world lit up in circuits and code. The format to reply came naturally.
ID: Smart AI. Title: The Alpha.
ACKNOWLEDGED. ACCESS GRANTED.
A few more system accesses were handed to him, like the external system access that was using the main room’s camera, and more importantly, the activation access to the EMP.
QUERY: INTENT?
Washington’s plan was simple enough: lure the Meta inside, hit the failsafe EMP, call it a win. Church relayed as much to the SecSystem.
Intent: Bait hostile “Meta” into interior. Terminate via failsafe.
QUERY: ACTIVATE EMP? WARNING: Major collateral damage. Severe personal danger.
Acknowledged. Activate failsafe.
He hoped he was doing this right. Talking like a clipped system prompt left no room for his usual sarcasm. Not that the SecSystem would’ve known what to do with a swear word anyway.
On the edges of his awareness, the facility’s massive eye-camera thing swiveled to look at Washington. A conversation began between the camera and Washington, but Church was still backburnering the outside.
AUTH VALIDATED. FAILSAFE ARMED. MANUAL ACTIVATION REQUIRED.
Church shoved the activation window into Washington’s HUD. He startled a bit, though he hid his jolt without anyone noticing. Church added the context, including the code. (“the system thinks I’m the boss. The activation code is 99542205433FSS”)
> “Clearance authorized. Failsafe now online, awaiting activation.”
“How did you get those codes?” above, the camera swiveled back towards Washington, the angry voice of the Director coming from the speakers, followed by more angry chattering.
Church ignored the outside again, focusing on the new message.
WARNING: FAILSAFE = LAST RESORT. ACTIVATE = TRUE?
Church assured SecSystem that, yes, they did want to activate the failsafe, and that yes, they knew it was a last resort. It was the only way to stop the Meta from continuing his little path of destruction, and a great way to get back at the freelancers. Church sent SecSystem cited info from the system about the dangers of the Meta.
ACKNOWLEDGED. QUERY: CONTINGENCY? Status: System-self? Status: Alpha?
Great question. The EMP would nuke them both. The Church knew it. The system knew it.
QUERY: ALTERNATIVES?
Acknowledged. Searching…
Before he could see the results, the Meta was set free, and Washington took a hit to the abdomen. Biofoam instantly sealed the hole, but it wouldn’t hold for long. Church shoved the alert aside and highlighted the failsafe terminal on Wash’s HUD. Washington showed he noticed the alert by putting a little green check emoji next to the alert.
“Agent Washington, I feel this is one recovery beacon you won’t be answering. Kill him, Agent Maine.”
Wash staggered back, bleeding and crouched. The Meta advanced.
RESULT: CONTINGENCY FOUND. REVIEW?
Files slammed into Church’s awareness. As fast as he could, Church riffled through the files and the plan SecSystem had. No sooner had he looked through the thing properly, Washington tapped him, pulling him back to the outside. He sent a request through to SecSystem as he backburnered the communications.
Acknowledged. Schedule contingency with failsafe.
“Y’know, Meta, why wait?” Washington grated out. Church took the cue, flickering into a hologram on Washington’s shoulder. *“Why don’t you meet him right now?”*
The Meta hissed: “It’ss himm!”
“Y’know, I can see why you didn’t want anyone else in your head. You got some heavy stuff going on in there, I think you need to see a professional.” Church chided.
“That’s too bad, I just lost my job and we had great mental health coverage.” Was the answer he got back.
“How much time do you need?”
“Whatever you can get me. When the EMP goes off-”
“When the EMP goes off, I’ll be fine. It only affects computers. And I, am a motherfucking ghost.”
As he jumped from Washington to the META, Church poked the SecSystem to be ready, but that was about all he could do while fighting five and a half ai fragments. Behind him, Washington straightened and half jogged, half stumbled across the room, reaching the panel and pulling up the keyboard. While Church held back his fragments (the metaphysical version of stuffing springs in boxes, if you catch his drift) and Washington punched in the Activation code as fast as he could, and the two looming in the camera desperately tried to get him to stop, SecSystem pinged Church.
He received ALERT: CONTINGENCY READY. PREPARED FOR ACTIVATION, just as Washington slammed his hand down on the activation button, and a bright light flashed through the room, followed by the darkness of the void.