[Discontinued] Red vs Blue: Agent Delaware: Reconstruction

Chapter XVI- Overdue Explanation

Dear Chairman, I too hold the protocol in the highest regard. The Doctrine kept us all safe during the Great War. If you are insinuating sir, that we violated it in any way, or that we were derelict in our duty to the military, well, then I suggest you be direct and tell me exactly how we did so.
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Wash and South stared at Church in utter bewilderment.

"What is going on?" Wash demanded.

"Guys, stay calm." Church said. "I can explain."

"We don't want explanations!" South scoffed. "We want the truth. NOW!"

"When were you going to tell us about this?" Wash asked.

Church sighed and looked to the Freelancers.

"Okay," Church said, "maybe I should start from the beginning. You see, Caboose here killed me by accident once. Actually, more than once."

"Not my fault." Caboose interjected. "Tucker did it."

"Shut up." Church replied.

South and Wash looked to each other in blatant confusion.

"He killed you?" South asked.

"As in... dead?" Wash added.

"And then, we reached an agreement." Sarge chimed in. "I build Blue over here a new body..."

"Agreement?" Church laughed. "More like we kicked your ass and you didn't have much of a choice of what you wanted to do!"

"Who kicked what now?" Sarge replied in a vain attempt to save face.

"What are you, an idiot?" Simmons said, joining in on the lie.

"You guys totally gave up!" Church scoffed.

"That's bullshit." Grif said.

The Reds and Blues continued to bicker back and forth, which annoyed South.

"Shut up!!!" South yelled.

The entire group fell dead silent.

"Focus." Wash said. "How did you build him a body?"

"With a Robot Kit, of course." Sarge answered. "I had already used ours to build our helper, Lopez."

"And a mighty fine job you did too, sir!" Simmons said automatically.

"Yeah..." Grif said sarcastically, "it's always great to have a helper only one person can understand."

"Blue Team hasn't used theirs for some reason." Sarge continued. "They even had a extra. We used that for your buddy... uh... what's her name."

"And that didn't strike any of you as odd?" South asked. "That you would just have a lot to build a robot that looks like a soldier just laying around?"

"That's just standard issue equipment... right?" Simmons wondered.

"What?! No!" Wash cried. "Have you ever run into anyone else who has one?!"

"We don't really get out that often." Simmons shrugged.

"Okay, smart guy." Sarge said, folding his arms. "If they're so rare, then why did Command send us upgraded ones when we were told to ship out to Rat's Nest?"

"You guys went to Rat's Nest too?" Church asked.

"I used some of the spare parts to spruce up Lopez." Sarge replied.

"Spare parts?" Simmons echoed. "Did you fix his voice thing?"

"Y'know," Sarge said, looking to his second in command, "I didn't even think about that until just a this very second. Kinda obvious in hindsight. Probably best not to mention it to him if you see him."

"Meh," Simmons shrugged, "he wouldn't understand anyway."

Just then, Del woke from his coma.

"Huh? What happened?" Del muttered before standing and turning to see the Reds. "What are you assholes doing here?"

"Good to see you too." Grif mumbled.

"Stop it!" Wash cried. "I can't stand this! No. More. Bickering. You have to be the most immature soldiers I ever met!"

"Your face is immature." Grif countered.

"Child." South sighed, visor palming.

"From now on," Wash ordered, "everyone just keep quiet and don't talk unless either me, South or Del ask you a question. That's an order! I need to figure this out."

The Reds looked to each other and then back to Wash.

"Hold on!" Sarge said. "You can't order us around!"

"The hell we can't." South laughed.

"What's your rank?" Sarge asked disbelievingly.

"My rank?" Wash laughed incredulously. "You still don't get it, do you? You think you're real soldiers? You're not. You guys are nothing."

"Whatever! You're face is... nothing." Grif said, ending his counter halfheartedly.

"You guys are Simulation Troopers." Del explained. "Your bases are used for training purposes, practice, in other terms. Ergo, you guys aren't real soldiers. You guys seriously ever noticed that something happened only when Freelancers were involved? Or when we made a call to Command?"

The Reds and Blues stared at Del in disbelief.

"You're making that up." Sarge countered.

"Is he?" Wash replied. "Think about it. Name one thing that ever happens to you that wasn't directly proceeded by Command calling you, or sending someone to your base. One thing.

No answer.

"Anything?" South said. "No? That's what we thought."

"Reds, go asses the vehicles." Del ordered. "Let's see if we can't find a trail of The Meta while we're at it."

"Ooooh. Finally, a take charge leader!" Simmons said. "I like it!"

"Shut up!" Sarge and Grif said in unison.

The Reds made their way to the vehicles while The Blues awaited their orders.

"Church," Del said, "get back in your body. We don't need you to draw any more attention to yourself."

"Wait!" Church said. "Wash! I have a message from Delta."

"Delta?!" Wash, South and Del all echoed in unison. 

"How did you get in contact with him?" Wash hissed.

"He left a message for me in Del's head." Church said.

"What did he say?" South asked.

"He said 'memory is the key'." Church answered.

South and Wash shared a disbelieving glance.

"Memory is the key?" Wash echoed.

"That's not possible." South breathed.

"What does it mean?" Del asked.

"Get ready to move. We're leaving." Wash said, completely dodging Del's question.

"I think you made him mad." Caboose said.

"Yeah." Church sighed.

The Blues and Del went to gather any extra ammunition they could find.
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A/N: Memory is the key. How wonderfully vague. Til the next one, everybody!