Isolated (Red vs Blue)

19: Sweet Nightmares

19: Sweet Nightmares

Present Day: Somewhere on the Edge of Colonized Space

"C, c'mon. You've watched all the logs at least eight times. You can't keep going like this — we have a job to do, remember? You need your rest."

"I'm fine. I've run missions on only a few hours of sleep plenty of times before. It won't bother me."

"That was different. You were up against enemies you knew well back then. These guys aren't the Insurrection; they're more dangerous. Unpredictable. Which means you need to be at the top of your game. It's time to stop reliving the past and focus on the present."

"You have no room to talk when it comes to reliving the past. And I'm still at the top of my game. I can fight just as good as ever. So you can go ahead and stop fucking lecturing me about it."

Carolina had been having the same argument with Epsilon for almost a week. Since recovering the old freelancer journal entries, she'd listened to the voices of her former teammates every night. It had become almost ritualistic at this point; get back to "base", settle in and eat something, watch the logs, attempt to sleep. Carolina only ever managed to sleep for about three hours before forcing herself to wake up. If she was lucky, she was able to fall back to sleep fairly quickly and get in another three hours or so before it happened again. She made Epsilon log off at night, but the former freelancer knew the A.I. still kept an eye on her. He knew she woke up frequently, but she would never tell him why.

However, Epsilon was getting more and more persistent with trying to figure things out. Every time he got into his nightly lecture, the A.I. attempted to press the former freelancer for information regarding her sleeping troubles. But every time, Carolina chose to give him the same answer.

"You can't honestly expect me to believe that your skills and reflexes aren't suffering due to your lack of sleep," Epsilon was currently saying. "Why won't you just tell me what keeps waking you up?"

"I haven't said anything to you because it'd be pointless. There's nothing to tell; no hidden stories that need sharing," Carolina lied easily. "We're on our own in the middle of the woods on an unknown planet. Not to mention we've most likely made enemies with some of our friends in black. I'm waking up because I'm paranoid. That's it."

The A.I. sighed. "Look, I get that you still don't fully trust me with everything. But if us going around and trying to right Project Freelancer's wrongs is gonna work. You need to learn to trust me at least a little bit — or at least a bit more than you currently do. C, you can talk to me about things; you don't have to keep it all buried. You know that, right?"

Carolina looked at the hologram. "I know. I do trust you, Epsilon. But after everything I've been through, it's not that easy to just let everything be out in the open. I guess you'll just have to learn to trust me, too."

Epsilon went silent for a long moment. He had to have been contemplating continuing the conversation; though he ultimately seemed to decide against that option. After what seemed like forever, he just looked at the cyan armored woman and said, "Did you need anything else before I log off?"

"No. I'll bring you back online if I need you," Carolina told him.

The hologram nodded, then vanished in a flash. The woman took a deep breath as she laid down on her bed roll. While she wasn't in a hurry to sleep, being able to relax a bit did feel nice. Though it would be better if she didn't have to keep at least half of her armor on. The cave where the former freelancer was hiding out had proved to be a safe place, but her continued safety wasn't a guarantee. At the first sign of the enemy getting too close, she'd have to pull stakes and move. Start over completely. And with word getting around about her little raids, Carolina was hoping it wouldn't come to that — stealing supplies would be much harder now.