There had been plenty that had gone on during the time when he was a human. The Great War had started against Earth, although it had started on planets further away because their enemies didn't exactly know where their own planet was and they had wanted to keep it that way. With the fall of Reach though, it just meant that they were bound to get invaders sooner or later that wanted to drive them to extinction. He remembered hearing the aliens talking about whatever great journey they were on. Washington would never know what that officially meant as he wouldn't spend enough time in the regular military long enough to figure that out. His military career had been something almost standard for someone around his age. Right out of high school he joined the military, and it was there that he would serve for several years before he was court-martialed for his actions. Something that no one else knew unless they were the Counselor or the Director. They were the only one that was allowed access to those kinds of files on who he really was.

He was probably accepted into the program because he seemed determined to help the human race and was gullible enough to believe everything that they told him. Believing it for every second of every day, but he was the gullible one. What about the rest of them? What about the rest of those that fell for the same trick? They weren't like him and some of them had their suspicions while he had tried desperately to try and defend the one that was actually doing them wrong. The military was the only thing that he knew, and probably one of the many reasons why he didn't fit in a place like this. Not only did he not fit in, he didn't want to fit in with the likes of a bunch of animals. He was a human. He wasn't some beast that was doomed to have the fate of running around trying to catch something like a deer for his next meal. No. He was supposed to be fighting a war, a War that could change the course of history if they didn't go back into action soon. Was the time difference between here and where he was from the same? Was it faster? Slower?

There was no way for him to actually tell though considering that there was no technology that could tell him what was actually going on. It made his life more difficult than it already was. The explosion of the ship that he had called his home was enough. Everything that he had cared about in that ship gone and lost forever. He wasn't even sure what had caused the explosion of the Mother of Invention, but it could have been a number of actors when a massive ship like that suddenly crashes into the mountains of a planet. It was bound to explode somewhere. He theorized that there was some alien technology that they had recently gotten from a raid that had done this to them. It was hard to say exactly as he wasn't an expert on alien technology. Carolina had used a couple of the alien weapons here and there during the raids that they did go on for more supplies, but that didn't mean she knew exactly how they worked. If she did she wasn't telling anyone at least.

Washington had no clue what had happened during the final moments of Project Freelancer. He was in a completely separate room dealing with memories were not his own. Memories that didn't belong to him and memories that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Epsilon, the memory of the original AI that was created for the said project had been implanted into his head. Only for everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Washington remembered feeling like his brain was about to explode on the operating table, pain that made his muscles spasm to the point where he couldn't control what he was doing anymore. With that though, Washington knew the truth of those that he used to serve. Everyone probably knew at this point, but he had more information on anyone than what they liked to believe. He had lied about his condition when they asked him when he woke up, putting on an act that he didn't know anything. He knew that if they thought that he knew something they would just kill him right where he was laying and make up some story on how he didn't make it through surgery. Something that everyone would believe.

Washington didn't know the death of York that had happened on the ship. He didn't know of the fight between Carolina and Texas. He didn't know about the fight between North and his own sister South. He also had no idea who's side anyone ended up taking, which meant that he couldn't trust anyone that he came across that was with the Project. Washington didn't have any trust for anyone anymore, because just hours after surgery the ship had crashed and exploded. Leaving him no time to recover from whatever the thing did inside of his mind. He was able to get it under control recently, but it had been before then that he started having episodes. Flashes of memories that weren't his own, but it felt like they were and felt nothing but pain and betrayal. Including anger at the one that had done this to him and that none of those that he had once considered his family deserved. They all deserved better. And now here they were, probably going to end up killing each other if they were teleported just like he was. Washington had already experienced what it was like to fight another Freelancer.

That Freelancer being Agent Maine, one of the more recent ones that had come to the Ascendants. He had attacked him, Wash having heard from Carolina that the other had taken her AI's from her. Then threw her off the cliff, but that didn't sound like something Maine would do. So, he hadn't immediately attacked the other Freelancer when he saw him. Which had been his first mistake as it ended up with him severely wounded and with a broken arm. Not as bad as Carolina who suffered several broken ribs, including a broken jaw. She was in worse condition and she was still moving around despite all of the injuries that she had gone. Washington could deal with it, even if walking on four legs had been difficult before, he was now only walking on three legs. Washington hadn't exactly been sure what to think of Texas when she first joined the group though. He considered her to be a comrade, but the other had appeared and everything started to become a fucking mess.

So now, he partly blamed her for what had happened and knew if that she appeared there would be no way he could win a fight even if he had his gun. At least not alone. Washington now knew who she was though and that she had been the very reason that the Project had been created. She was an AI. A memory of Director's wife. The Director spending his entire life just trying to get his wife back after she died in the Great War. He knew the pain the Director felt when he lost her, and he wondered if Texas was looking for any sort of closure realizing that she herself was the Beta AI, having fragmented from the Alpha himself. Washington didn't like dealing with them, but if he had to he would be given no choice, just like the choice that he would be given here. The Freelancer had been inside of the observatory, getting more rations for him and Carolina for the rest of the week. He thought that it was going to be a regular day of patrolling and resting so that they could go after the one that was kidnapped.

Why would Maine do that? What had happened to him? Those thoughts filled his mind most of the time when he was patrolling. He finished putting a bag into a storage compartment of his armor. Washington then noticed that there was a flash of light outside. He didn't really think anything of it as it could really be anything, but when a thunderous sound sounded, that it nearly made Washington jump out of his armor. What the fuck was that?! He finished putting his food into storage when he adjusted the splint on his left arm. He trotted as fast as his smilodon body could take him. For something to make that sound, it was probably an explosion. There was nothing else that he could think of, so he looked for a trail of smoke in the sky to lead him in that direction. His heart pounded in his chest, as only a couple of things could even make the likes of an explosion. It was in the distance that he could see what seemed like the charred ground. Great.

He hoped that it was something that the Ascendants can deal with before dealing with it himself. It took Agent Washington around five minutes to make it where the creature was, and as soon as he came within ten feet of the animal, it was impossible not to see the armor that the lion war. It was a lion, meaning that he was slightly bigger and weighed heavier than said lion. Washington's mind seemed to lag behind from what his eyes were seeing before he realized who it was. Agent Texas. Panic immediately began to grow through his veins. Church had mentioned Texas was there during the explosion. Part of him hoped that he would never see her again. Make his life easier. Now didn't seem to be the case. Agent Texas. His breathing started to increase, and images began to flow into his mind in front of his face. Washington's head twitched to the side was the pain in his head and the back of his neck began to increase. "Alliso-TexaS" He began to say the Agent's actual name before the name that she was given by the Director. As soon as he said those words though, the pain began to overcome his body, and a pain scream escaped his jaws.

His mind broke.

Everything was caused simply fro the death of someone that they loved. Washington collapsed onto the ground his eyes wide open as he looked through his visor. His unbroken arm was clamped onto his helmet covered and his own claws scraped the metal that made up the helmet, creating a grating sound. The pain seemed to almost come in waves for the Freelancer as his body struggled to keep from convulsing. His unbroken arm would move from his head to the ground, his claws digging up the soil that was underneath him. Searing hot pain coursed through his head as images of the moments right before Allison's death flashed in front of his eyes. "S-Stop!" Washington would plead, something that had only happened twice in his life. Expressing pain was never something that he ever did. He hid it. He was a good soldier. He always had been. Washington's grip on reality though slowly started to slip away as he began to hallucinate. His entire body shaking while it was indeed on the ground. Images of Allison's face. The feeling of grief and dread that was SUFFOCATING as he looked at the obituary in the paper of her death. The anger that he felt toward Carolina. Then he was being ripped apart. He was being split in half. Everyone was dying. Everyone was dying because of the MISTAKES he was making.

These were not the mistakes he was making of course, but instead simulations that someone had gone through. "I hate goodbyes. I have to go." Washington choked out, openly speaking talking to what was actually going through his mind. Constantly muttering something as the pain began to intensify. Where was he? He didn't know anymore. It was obvious by the hyperventilating that he was going to pass out from lack of oxygen if someone didn't do something. Would he even let anyone get close though? Even during the hallucination and the severe episode, Washington refused to take off his helmet. Despite the pain that was in his chest and the feeling of being crushed. He wanted to move, but he couldn't. He needed to go away. He wanted her to be okay, he had wanted her to be alive. Different voices began to play in his head. The different simulations. Delta. Omega. Sigma. Theta. All of them were speaking at once, it was deafening. Groans and other pained noises escaped his jaws, but he was no longer screaming anymore. He was repeating words that few would know what they meant. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't talk. He was ALONE. Washington had been doing so well with his mental state. And in a matter of seconds, it was torn down to the basic moments of insanity. He was a broken man again. The same kind of broken man that had ruined his life. "speech"

© MADI