Author: Hey guys, sorry for the big delay but, I promise to try my best to publish quicker. Somethings have just kept me busy from writing but, their out of the way now and I can get back onto track with writing this series!

Tex: If you take another long as break of writing, *Knuckles Crack* you won't have fingers to write with anymore.

Author: (Gulp) I'll... be sure to keep that in mind... hehe.
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A.I Storage Room
To Church, Leo and Wash standing beside the A.I Epsilon storage.

Director (Voiceover): Dear Chairman. I imagine this investigation of our program is providing you with the kind of attention that politicians crave so much. How very predictable. What has surprised me most about mankind during the great war, is not our ability to adapt to the new arenas of conflict, but instead, our willingness in victory to so quickly return to the old.

Church: You mean to tell me we've come all this way for this? Your fucking crazy A.I. Epsilon?

Leo: But, isn't it supposed to be gone?

Wash: I thought that to. But, Delta told Church that memory was the key. At first I thought he meant to remember our first encounter. And when I met Delta the first time what I told him was-

Church holds his head in pain and sees a flashback of Wash talking with Delta.

Wash: You were encrypted until you could be recovered.

Delta: Recovery carries risk. Destruction ensures that an A.I.-

Wash: You cost a lot of money, okay? It's cheaper to recover you than it is to delete you.

Back to present day.

Wash: When they removed Epsilon from me, he was unravelling, casting off all his thoughts. I was sure they deleted him but it's-

Church: It's cheaper to store it than it is to delete it. Right?

Wash: Right.

Church: But why are we looking for this thing? What's the point?

Wash: The message specifically said that memory is the key. Delta was telling me that Epsilon was still alive.

Leo: And Epsilon is the key?

Wash: In a way. At the end of the war, things didn't look good for humans. And there were dozens of projects all trying to come up with the magic bullet to win.

Church: Right.

Wash: Project Freelancer was one of them. They had their research with agressive A.I. But they could only get the one, and they needed more to conduct their experiments. So, they got desperate.

Church: Right. They tried to... they tried to copy it but they couldn't, so they-

Wash: All A.I. are based on a human mind. And the Director had a theory. He thought, if we can't copy it, we'll just have to do the next best thing.

A memory flashes for Church.

Church: Ah! They, they split it?

Wash: Just like a human mind when it's broken; it fragments. It fractures itself to protect itself.

Leo remembers what Tex told him back in the Gulch.

Leo: They tortured it... didn't they.

Wash: Yes, it's like reverse engineering a multiple personality disorder. They presented Alpha with scenario after scenario of stress and danger. When it started to fragment, they harvested those fragments.

Church: The Freelancer A.I.s.

Wash: Exhorted little fragments of purified compartmentalized emotion. None of them were a full personality. Some were good-

Leo: Like Delta?

Wash: Delta was Alpha's logic. It needed to protect itself from analyzing what was happening to it. So it segregated that part of its mind. The part that would be able to understand the horror of what they were doing to it. And when the anger came and threatened to take over, it split that off too. That was Omega; its rage. Gamma was its deceit. Sigma was its creativity. And Epsilon...

Church: Epsilon was its memories.

Wash: And memory is the key.

Command Shelter
To the Reds and the blues, standing around in the Command building.

Wade: Uuh, can this get anymore boring!

Grif: Simmons, promise to do me a favor. If the madness sets in, just shoot me.

Sarge: Do everyone a favor and shoot him now.

Simmons: Is that an order?

Sarge: Nah, save your bullets for somethin' worthwhile.

Wade: I can't stay in here any longer or I'm just going to die of boredom. You guys can stay here but, I'm going to do some exploring!

Simmons: But, Washington said to stay here!

Wade: (Waves him off) Well... what he doesn't know, won't hurt him.

Grif: Your funeral, if he finds out.

Wade: He won't find out... besides what's the worst that can happen?

Wade walks away, through one of the hallways. Leaving the reds and Caboose on the own. While everyone's attention was on Wade, nobody notice a transparent figure running past the windows of the HQ.

Caboose: ...Mr.Washingtub isn't going to be happy.

Sarge: Just means one less blue to deal with. Now, Simmons, get over here! Hustle up!

Simmons walks up to Sarge, whose looking at the a computer.

Simmons: What's up, sir?

Sarge: You're good with uh, computers, right?

Simmons: Well I'd like to think so, I mean there's really all different kinds of skill sets. Like you have your binary computation, you have uh, bus transport-

Sarge: Yes or no?

Simmons: Yes.

Sarge: Okay here's what I'm thinin'. If this is Command, and these computers have some of those internets installed on 'em-

Simmons: There's just one internet, sir, and I don't think it's located inside this building.

Sarge: They probably have all the information about everything, right? Like in a, spreadabase or, one of them ROM things? Datasheet?

Simmons: I'm sorry, was that something I was supposed to understand? Was that even English?

Sarge: Come on, man, you know, like all the mainframes, on the Reds and the Blues. Series of Tubes and whatnot.

Simmons: Ookayy, you're using a lot of terms that don't really make sense. I think you're asking me if these computers store all the data on Red and Blue Armies?

Sarge: Control-Alt-Bingo.

Simmons: Probably.

Sarge: Could you get in to it?

Simmons: Yeah, if I had some time. What're you thinking, sir?

Sarge: Simmons, I want you to erase the Blues.

Simmons: What, you mean like the Blues from our canyon?

Sarge: No, Simmons, all of them. Gone. Erased. As in wiped off the map. Kablooie. Terminate process.

Simmons: Sir, you just blew my mind.

To Wade walking through the hallway of the facility.

Wade: How big is this place? Feels like I've walked a kilometre now. Be nice if they had the decency to add some signs around the place.

As he continued to walk through the hallway, he came across to dead soldiers who looked to be guarding this open door.

Wade: Huh... guessing, Wash, Church and Leo came this way. Wonder, what there doing in this area? Well, if they are in their still... just have to make sure they don't see me. Or else Wash is going to give me some hassle, if he sees me.

Wade walks into the room and sees all the storage's in the walls.

Wade: What are these things? Looks like a bunch of codings for data? Maybe, they've got some interesting things on them.

Wade walks towards one of the storage's and reaches his hand out to touch it but, the second his finger made contact. A pink electricity made its way up from his arm and into his helmet.

Wade: ...oh crap.

Immediately a wave of pain rolls through Wades head, causing him to clutch it in pain.

Wade: (Groaning) What the hell was that!? And why.. do I suddenly... feel like... passing out?

The second Wade finished his sentence, he fell to the floor, falling unconscious. A pink glow shines on his visor.

???: Oooh... my bad.

Back to Wash, Leo and Church.

Wash: As they continued to torture it, Alpha couldn't keep its sanity and its memories at the same time. So it had to purge them. That fragment became Epsilon. And I was just unlucky enough to have it assigned to me.

Church: So, you knew. You knew from the beginning of what was going on.

Wash: Mostly. They never told anyone what they did here. I got flashes when they put Epsilon in my head. Memories of what the Director did to it. Just like you're getting now, Church. That's why Epsilon went insane; it was meant to. It was all the horrible experiences the Alpha needed to shed to survive. And that's why it had to be removed from me.

Leo: Did they know that you had the memories?

Wash: I never said a word. But they had their suspicions. I would never let them put another A.I. in my head. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hide what I knew from another program. Which, ironically, is what led them to think I could be trusted.

Church: Well what do we do with it?

Wash: We take it, and we get it in the hands of someone who can use all its information. Then they can bring down the person responsible for what was done to Alpha. And to me. And to my friends. They can take down the Director.

Church: But what about the Meta? How do we stop him? Isn't that the point? I thought only the Alpha could do that. Are we gonna find it or not?

Wash: No.

Leo/Church: No?/What?

Wash: After the first attack on Command, they moved it. They knew the A.I. would just convince their Freelancers to come looking for it again. So they put it in a place where they didn't think anyone could find it.

Church: But... where? Shouldn't we be there, instead of here?

Wash: Church, I need you to listen to me. Delta was the logic. He was able to figure out things before anyone else. It's why he left a message for you in a way that he knew only you could find, and in a way that let me see you getting it.

Church: What are you saying?

Wash: I'm saying I know what you are. Even if you don't. Why you can seemingly live without a body.

Church: What?

Wash: It's why they stuck you in some useless backwater canyon where no one ever goes. Then why they transferred every person in your outpost to a different base than you.

Flash back to Church meeting Wash, Leo, Wade and Caboose.

Church: I've been here fourteen months.

Wade: You've been here for over a year!? ...By yourself, Church?

Back to present.

Wash: It's why you always agreed with everything Delta said.

Flash back to Church talking with Delta.

Delta: I think we should simply be happy it is gone.

Church: That makes sense to me.

Back to present.

Wash: Why you didn't feel anything when Omega got inside your head.

Flashback to Omega invading Church head.

Church: Feels pretty much the same. That's... that's kinda weird.

Present.

Wash: Why you can jump from person to person the way it can.

Flashback.

Wash: It all adds up, then. Omega was the one who inherited that trait.

Present.

Leo: (Realises) Then that would mean...

Wash: Church, there's no such thing as ghosts. You're one of them. You're an A.I. You... are the Alpha.

The End
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Author: Let's hope the next chapter doesn't take a month.