Gate 33

The stare-down with Maine was rather intense. And the brute shot being aimed in his general direction was only part of it. Because it was easy for Church to see that the Freelancer was in the midst of something like a panic attack. But a panic attack where someone's fight-or-flight reflex had been set to "fight" with such force that it might as well be set to "kill" instead.

"This can only end well,"  Omega opined under his breath.

"Shush," Church instructed without looking away from Maine. He decided to keep this diplomatic to the best of his abilities.

....Which he knew was setting the bar in the fucking dirt, but still, he'd try.

"Look, Maine, I know you're pissed," Church started slowly. "I heard Sigma twisted some shit-"

"Liar," Maine interrupted before pointing a finger at Church, as if accusing him. "The Alpha."

Church groaned dramatically. "Fucking dammit, what is with this lie these coded fucks are stuck on? Look, Maine? I'm the same as Tex-"

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say as Meta fired his brute shot at Church.

"Shit," Church said, starting to sign right before it made an impact, right in his chest.

There was a bright light that blinded Church's vision.

"Wait....holy shit? Did I pass on this time? And did I actually get into Heaven?" Church asked surprised. Then his vision cleared and he saw he was once more a ghost, standing among the base. "Wait, no, still just uptown of Hell,"

He glanced at the Gate back to Blood Gulch not too far away.

Actually, it was too close.

"Wait, where the fuck am I now?" he asked, groaning as he realized he had reappeared some place further away from Maine. "God damn- what is the fucking range on my respawn?!" he said as he took stock of where he was in the base. The base that was.....both unfinished and already damaged, he realized in resigned amusement. "Breaking the base before it's even built. Sounds right for us."

"Church! You're transactional again!"

"Caboose?" Church turned to the local idiot in surprise. "And I…hope you mean translucent?"

"Maybe? Tucker said it. Though, he said something about you possessing Sister too," Caboose recalled uncertainty.

"I....no, you know what, I don't want to know," Church said, abandoning that line of thought before it got more damaging. "How long have I been gone?"

"Not even long enough for me to use my armor like a bathroom!" Caboose said proudly. "Which I did not do."

"Uhuh," Church drawled, not entirely convinced. Still, that did tell him that it hadn't been long, a lot less time than had actually passed for him in Maine's mind. Which made sense. Time always seemed to move a bit faster when they were in someone else's mind. Though, Caboose's mind had been so slow it barely felt like a difference. "What are you doing over here anyway?"

"Oh, I came here in case you needed help," Caboose answered honestly and helpfully.

"....Why here, specifically?" Church asked in bewilderment.

"It felt like a Church place to be," Caboose answered mysteriously.

"Right, going to pretend that made sense," Church decided as he stared at Caboose for a moment.

"Hm?" Caboose tilted his head.

The Church gave a long suffering sigh. "I'd tell you to make room, but we know you have plenty."

Without any further warning, Church stepped into Caboose's body, making the soldier twitch back and forth briefly. "He-ga-cur-gur!"

"Ughh, this feels all kind of weird, "Church said, his voice tinged with Caboose’s own as he wobbled back and forth. He held up a hand to study it, moving the limb back and forth. "It's like moving through water or something, but even my thoughts are loose and....loose and....Oh, look, birds!" Church said, seeing them up in the distance before shaking his head. "Gah! No, focus! Don't give in to the dumbness! You are Church! And you are very smart! The smartest guy in the world and- Wait, what!? Caboose, are you trying to pep talk me? Yes, yes I am, Best Buddy! Holy shit, how are you taking over the voice? I don't know? I just open up my mouth and sounds come out and I hope I make the right words. Yeah, that sounds like you. Well, I'd hate to sound like Tucker! Or Lopez. Why Lopez? I like knowing what I'm saying. I...yeah, you know what, me too. Now shut up for a bit while I steer this damn body of yours. Alright! Don't forget your parachute and seatbelt and floaties!"

With that, Church shook his head as he felt Caboose take a figurative backseat.

"Ugh, that was weird," Church muttered, not enjoying his mind being this close to Caboose's. "Idiocy isn't contagious. Supposedly."

With that, he began to take off, hoping he wasn't suddenly forgetting the right way or even what he was doing. After all, he was in Caboose’s head now.

Luckily, it wasn't hard to find Maine again. The agent was grunting and mutely screaming as he knelt and clutched his head as if there was a battle going on in his head.

Which there was.

"Right, just got to get over to him and get back in before things go sideways!" Church said.

"Caboose, get out of the way!"

"Yeah, move it, idiot!"

"Or don't, feel free to stay there, Blue!"

Church looked over and saw the reds with Zimmerman and more of the ODST soldiers down a road of the base, using building material as makeshift cover.

"Look, Church, friends! Shut it, Caboose. What are you idiots doing!?" Church yelled to them.

"Wait, is that Church? What's he doing inside Caboose?" Simmons asked in confusion.

"Thank god Donut isn't here. Or my sister," Grif said with a revolting shiver.

"Get out of there, we're going to knock him out!" Zimmerman called out.

"Not the worst idea," Church muttered, glancing back at Maine. "Alright, just let me get this weapon off him!"

"Probably a good idea," Velimir said, aiming what looked to be a shoulder-mounted missile launcher.

Church ran with Caboose's body over to Maine, reaching down to snatch the brute shot off the ground.

The Meta grabbed it first.

"Of fucking course," Church cursed before activating his radio. "Do it fucking now!"

As he yelled this, he barely leaped back before The Meta could slice him. The tip grazed the armor on Caboose's chest, sending out sparks.

There was a launching noise behind, from where the others were, and Church gack and saw a blur coming to him. "Get ready to take a nap, Caboose. Okay!"

The Meta, however, had different ideas, charging towards where the object would land. With skills and reflexes that were almost inhuman, The Meta grabbed the ordinance before it made impact with the ground and threw it back at their enemies.

"Well, guess this is a good enough place to sleep," Grif drawled with a sigh.

"Retreat and hold your breath!" Zimmerman yelled as they all began to flee.

The bomb hit and a cloud of purple gas spread over the area, many soldiers choking before falling over into unconsciousness.

The Meta had already been moving to aim the brute shot at the soldiers, but Church was quick to stop him, bulldozing into the Meta with all of Caboose's strength to grapple the amalgamation around the waist and knock him over to try and pin him to the ground..

The attack had surprised the Meta, not expecting this sim trooper to be so physically strong. Still, they were no weakling either, and quickly began to retaliate and struggle, elbowing the blue soldier repeatedly.

"Ow! Hey, that hurts!" Caboose said, completely taking over as he grabbed the MEta's helmet and smashed it into the ground, cracking it.

"Jesus, Caboose! We're trying not to kill him!" Church said in surprise.

"Oh, sorry! I- POINTY!" Caboose exclaimed as Church moved them back, right before the MEta nearly stabbed them with the brute shot.  "Church, I do not want acupuncture!"

Church ignored that as he stared at the Meta, slowly rising once more to look at him as well.

There was an eerie calm before the Meta spoke again. "It is time for you to join us."

"Couldn't agree more," Church said as he stepped out of Caboose. "Caboose, get the fuck out of here!" he yelled before diving into the waiting Meta.

"Ok-!"

Church didn't even hear the rest of Caboose's response as he dived back into Maine's mind.

When he appeared in the mental realm, he wasn't too surprised by what he found.

It was a wreck.

He was on top of the tower again, but everything was different. Worse, to be accurate. The cityscape around them was now smoldering ruins, columns of smoke rising high from the flames that still burned, choking and darkening the skies. The tower itself had almost half of it broken off, a sheer drop down to the foundation and streets below. What was left of the tower still had plenty of cracks and craters about it.

And across from him stood, with the ruined city framing his form, The Meta.

They were taking on Maine's form again, but they now had four glowing eyes on the helm.

"Great, they actually poached you, Omega?" Church spoke up in annoyance to the silent figure. "Sigma, tell me he actually kept his damn word and burned you a bit before you got him brainwashed?"

The blazing orange eye grew brighter. "He made the process far more painful than it needed to be."

"Good, I won't have to beat his ass too badly for this shit when we're done here," Church said as he walked forward.

The glow faded and The Meta tilted their head, before speaking with many voices. "You are confident."

"Okay, can you be any more cliche with the "We Are Legion" voice thing?" Church asked with a headshake. "And what if I am?"

"Do you have a plan to stop us? A reason to believe you can win?" The Meta asked curiously.

"I'd say something like, I'm just fucking awesome, but honestly? Nah, not really," Church admitted as he paused. "Still, the more time I spend around freaks of data...."

The MEta leaned in, as if eager to hear his response.

"The more I feel like I can kick your digital asses," Church finished.

The Meta did not act, did not move. Instead, it started. Not at this projection of Maine's mind, but at the data. The coding.

The Alpha's coding, to be precise.

Within their own joint coding, the AIs squirmed before it.

Church's claim was not without merit.

Despite their combined capabilities, The MEta predicted it would require Delta to even have a chance against the Alpha if he fully realized his own nature and abilities.

"Where's Maine?" Church asked pointedly.

"He will not trouble us further," The Meta answered ominously.

"Right," Church breathed, feeling more pissed now. "Let me make something clear to you fucked up scrap of software."

The MEta silenced intently.

"If Maine is dead, brain-dead, or anything like that? I am going to personally delete you,....," Church warned with a glare. "Sigma."

The ambitious AI flinched in the bond.

Eta told him, this sensation was fear.

It was not some Sigma was accustomed to dealing with.

"But if any of you want to give up? I recommend mutinying right about now against the sunspot," Church said.

"It is no use. We will not stop now that we are so close to completion," The Meta warned.

"Kind of figured that," Church said as he reached up to pull out the hellspitter that materialized on his back. The Meta did the same, the brute shot appearing in hand.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then, they fired.

Church's burning bullets hit each of the Meta's explosive rounds out of the air, detonating them as the air between them became thick with smoke and flames.

The Meta charged forth, reversing their hold on the weapon to finish this quickly with the blade.

They didn't predict Church to have already been charging, leaping through the smokescreen and bashing the bud of his rifle into the Meta's helm.

"Fuck yeah, that was awesome," Church said kept charging to put some distance between them, jumping to turn around and take another shot at the Meta.

The amalgamation snarled, having already turned and now fired another round. But not at Church, knowing he would just shoot it. Instead, they fired at the ground, the shock of the explosion sending Church just over the broken edge of the building.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Church yelled as he realized he was about to fall very far.

The Meta marched over to the edge, looking over to search for their foe.

But even with all of them focusing their processing into vision, they could see no sign of the cobalt armor. Not hundreds of feet below, not hanging off the side.

Where did the Alpha go?

The answer came as a flaming sniper bolt went in front of their helmet, barely missing them. And it came from below.

He had managed to swing to the edge of the floor below them.

The Meeta backed away quickly, even as more and more bullets came. It was obvious that Church was tracking them by the sound of their footsteps.

An extremely skilled soldier might be able to do the same with this accurately. Might.

It was amazing that CHurch hadn't realized his own nature, truly.

The Meta continued to run but held up their brute shot to shoot at the cracked floor ahead of them repeatedly.  They leaped high and slammed their blade down, using the impact and their weight to cave in this section of the roof to the next layer down, and almost through it.

"Damn, talk about bringing the house down," Church's voice came after the dust washed over them.

The Meta shot in the probably direction of the voice, but wasn't terribly surprised when they missed.

They stepped onto the floor and stocked around, but Church was not in the room.

The smoke cleared enough to reveal an open door.

The Meta growled and approached it, looking into a hallway filled with open doors.

"So, this Metastability thing, your completionist bullshit?" Church's voice echoed out to them. "Tell me, what the fuck comes after that?" 

The Meta tilted their head as they cautiously moved through the hall, scanning each room. "We do not understand the question."

"You collect the AIs into this Frankenstein shitfest, then what? You....try to take over the galaxy? Wipe out all life? Please don't tell me you're an actual Skynet?" Church pressed in annoyance.

There was a sound in another room ahead, and The Meta fired into it.

"....Oh my fucking god," Church cursed in frustration, his voice clearly not in that room. "You didn't think that far ahead? Didn't stop and wonder, what the fuck do you do after you've won?"

"Metastability is our only goal," The Meta answered firmly as they looked in another room. Or rather, the sheer drop of what had been a room.

"Yeah, but then what? Are you just going to find some abandoned computer and live a boring ass life? Cause, you know, the humans are never going to leave you alone, and eventually, your ass will break down. Maybe Maine's armor will give out, maybe his whole damn body will, but either way? You'll eventually be up shit creek without a paddle," Church ranted off, his voice seeming everywhere. "So, I'll ask once more, what the fuck are you going to do if you get everything you want?"

The Meta grunted as they stepped into a room and stabbed their weapon's bladed end through the door. Partially to check if Church was there, partially to vent their growing frustration. After all, Omega and his rage were now a factor within their bond.  

"Stopping isn't an option," they said pointedly.

"Bullshit, and you sound like a coke-addicted bitch," Church retorted, unimpressed with their answer.

"We believe we will know what we should do when our goal is obtained. Especially if we obtain the Alpha," The Meta reasoned.

"Fucking hell. You know, I heard metastability means you're considered a person, but you already sound pretty damn like one of the humans. I'll figure it out when I get there; that's one of the oldest fucking lines in humanity. Making shit up as you go s what people do. Trust me, I live that shit every day," Church reasoned.

The Meta paused as their eye-shaped lights flickered, dimming and brightening erratically. They stopped and reconsidered what Church said, replaying the conversation.

And more importantly, how he said it.

"The Humans," The Meta repeated.

"...Huh?" Church called out in confusion. "You say something?"

"You said "the humans" instead of "us humans" or simply "people." Almost as if to imply you are not humans yourself," The MEta noted curiously

"I...what? That's just...." Church trailed off as his voice grew distant and numb. "Why did I say it like that....?"

So distracted by his own choice of words, Church didn't notice The Meta entering the final room he had been hiding in, seeing Church holding his rifle yet too distracted to use it.

When Church jolted, he realized the Meta was with him.

And they weren't pointing their own weapon at him.

"What? Want congrats for finding me?" Church asked snarkily.

The Meta didn't answer, just standing there until.....

All the eyes dimmed.

Church tilted his head, scrutinizing The Meta.

"Church."

He jolted at that voice that came from the Meta.

"Tex?" he said in shock. "What the hell? How are you....?

"I'm sorry," Tex said in a voice Church had never heard her use. "I'm so sorry. For everything."

"What....what are you talking about?" Church stammered, feeling something creeping up his spine. "What's going on?"

Tex didn't answer, merely offering another apology.

"I'm so sorry, Alpha."