Red Vs Blue, & there's Magenta: Season Five

Interlude - Jason

A few weeks had passed since Omega's defeat at the hands of the Freelancers, Agent Texas and Agent Hawaii. The ladder was currently within her room, her old, Air Assault class armor on a table while her current armor rested on its stand. She scavenged through the heavily damaged armor for anything that was usable. The armor ability was beyond repair, but it was intact enough for the Beta A.I. to scan what it was.

Allison: Shock Punch. I don't think I ever saw you use it back in Freelancer.

Ruby: Sounds pretty useful. Do you think we could rebuilt it from scratch?

Allison: I'll start working on the blueprints.

Ruby: Thanks.

The ravennette continued to dismantle the damaged suit. Most of it was too damaged to be salvageable, but there was enough for her to keep at least a little bit of the material for her secret project. She began to pry off a few plates off armor when something slipped onto the table. . . .

Ruby: Dog tags?

She lifted them up.

Ruby: How the heck did these survive the crash landing?

Her A.I. appeared and looked at them. . . .

Allison: I don't remember her wearing dog tags. . .

Ruby wiped off the dust that had gathered on it. . . . Their eyes widened. . . . The tags belonged to Agent South Carolina. . . .

Ruby: Wh-Why would I have these. . .?

She suppressed the urge her hand had to just drop them. Allison proceeded to scan the tags, thinking they were just hallucinating. . . instead, she discovered that not only was it real, but that there was more than met the eye. . . . Ruby's hand slipped over a small button on the side of it, ejecting a very small storage drive. . . .

Allison: It's a video.

Ruby: Let's see what's on it then. . . .

Allison: What? Ruby, remember what happened when Wyoming said his name? What would happen if you actually saw him?

Ruby: I don't know, but I can't just let this sit! It's. . . I just need to!

Allison: It's dangerous Ruby.

Ruby: I-I know the risk! I just. . . I just need to see what's on it. . . .

Allison: Rub-

Ruby: I don't need you to protect me from my past Allison. . . I need you to help me face it. . . .

The A.I. took a deep breath before nodding.

Allison: I'll encrypt it and then project from your helmet.

Ruby nodded as Beta disappeared into the small unit. The girl grabbed her helmet took a seat on her bed, placing the helmet on her lap. The process didn't take too long, but every second was agonizing for the magenta girl. . . .

Allison: Encrypted. Are you sure about this. . .?

Ruby hesitated to answer, but inevitably nodded. . . .

Allison: Starting recording.

The light of her helmet projected a screen. The screen showed a boy who couldn't be older than nineteen. He had pitch black hair and emerald green eyes, alongside smooth white skin. . . . The girl couldn't stop her hand from reaching forward, wanting nothing more to the feel him. . . . She took a deep breath and forced her hand down. . . .

?: This is Agent South Carolina of Project Freelancer.

His voice wasn't deep at all, he was clearly young in every form.

?: Well, I guess you'd call me Jason.

For the first time, Ruby didn't panic. . . but her eyes couldn't move away from the screen. . . .

Jason: Hey Ruby. Well. . . If you're hearing this, I'm probably. . . gone. I-I wanted to make something just in case something happened. The stuff we do is pretty dangerous, huh? *laughs nervously* S-Sorry, just a little hard. . . to think this might end up as a. . . A-Anyways! I wanted to say a few things. First I wanted to to tell you about my suspicions of the project. I wish Rachel wasn't so brainwashed by this all. . . I guess the first thing that ticked something off was how random Agent Texas showed up, and then the A.I.'s. I did some snooping around and found out that Freelancer was only given one A.I. That begs the question, where the heck are all these other ones coming from? Then there was just how risky the raid on the sarcophagus was. . . I don't know what, but that whole mission just felt. . . wrong. Then all the A.I.s were mentioning something about the Alpha. . .

The boy took a deep breath. . . .

Jason: Okay, I'll stop beating around the bush. . . . I'm scared. I feel like something is going to happen, and I don't know if I'll be there to help you, so I made this. . . .

Tears stung his eyes. . . .

Jason: Ruby. . . I. . . I know you've been through a lot already. . . I didn't want to leave you with nothing in the event that I did. . . pass. I guess I should probably make one of these for Rachel and David. . . S-Sorry, getting off track. I hope. . . I hope I never have to give this to you. . . I hope you never have to see this. . . but if you do. . . Please. . . Please live on. . . That's my dying wish.

He was already crying. . . .

Jason: This is Jason Church, signing out. . . I. . . I Love You, Ruby. . . Goodbye.

The recording ended and the projection disappeared. . . . Ruby didn't even realize her own tears were falling. . . .

Allison: Ruby. . .?

Ruby: I-I'm. . . okay. . . just give me a second.

She realized that she may never move on from her past. . . A knock hit her door.

Simmons: Hey Ruby, Grif ordered too much damn ice cream, want some?

Ruby: O-Oh! G-Give me a second.

Simmons: Right.

The girl stood up before freezing. . . . In that brief second, she completely forgot about everything. . . A smile formed on her lips. She may not be able to let go of her past. . . but she could still venture into the future. . . .