A/N: As promised, I've gotten another chapter up. Yay! Hopefully this will continue...of course, I have no big exams coming in the near future. Which means more writing. :)

I love hearing from people, so whatever you'd like to tell me is appreciated. I made this story with the idea that it would be slightly AU (obviously some of the characters are computer programs, not actual people, and so people like Church have a body, the soldiers wear regular clothes sometimes while in their base, etc.) in hopes that I'd be able to get away with some stuff and that readers would understand that the story wasn't EXACTLY following RvB because it's all about the imagination! So bear with me :) I hope you guys like this chapter!

Chapter 10: Zeta?

"What's going on?" Church followed Alex out of Blue Base warily. That was definitely a change of character on her part. Something's not right. She wouldn't just walk out of here. It wasn't the first time this had happened. The open channel radio issues at Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha were an indicator of that.

Slowly, Alex turned around, rifle in hand. She almost looked like a legitimate soldier, Church mused. He wasn't prepared for that. She looked so tall and thin and fragile normally, but now…it was like she had a completely new stature. Her shoulders were squared, facing him. She held herself up proudly, as if she had skills to boast about. Her stern voice knocked him out of his thoughts.

"I'm going to Red Base. I need to train. I am a competent learner, I just need the skills."

"You just need what skills? Why—Rookie! Get back here!"

"No."

"You can't do that! I'm your Commanding Officer!"

"Incorrect. You are a private. Freelancer Butch Flowers was the Captain and Commanding Officer of this Blue Base." And with that, she turned, heading towards the other side of the canyon.

"…The fuck?" Church stood, baffled. How did she suddenly know about his dead captain? She couldn't have known that.As he turned back towards his own base, he saw Tucker heading his way.

"Tuck, we have a problem."

"No shit. The computer is different now."

"What do you mean, different?"

"Remember it announced itself originally as Z-something-whatever-it-was? After Alex left all weird and quiet, you followed her and Caboose went to go re-wire it. We turned it back on after that, and it said it's name was Sam. Not Z. And instead of a male voice, it was female. Not that I'm complaining about having another female for blue base, but… something's off."

"First of all, you can't pick up a chick if the chick is a computer. There's only one chick in this canyon and she's heading over to the Red's base. To train." He paused. "So yeah. Something's off with her."

"Sheila never did stuff like this… except when—you know. At Blood Gulch."

"Fuck." Church remembered Wyoming and his use of the AI fragment Gamma to take over Sheila and the use of the tank. "Tucker, what did that Z guy say his full name was?"

"I don't fucking remember! He said it so fast!"

Caboose spoke up suddenly, next to them. "He said 'Hello. I am the Z-12 Electronic Transferring Apparatus.'" Church and Tucker both jumped.

"Jesus! Caboose, stop doing that!" Tucker wailed. "You're freaking me out with your weirdly perfect timing. How the fuck did you remember that?"

"Church was being mean to the computer guy man, and no one believed he could transfer things." After a moment, he continued. "I believed he could transfer things."

"Wait… that's right!" Church said in disbelief. "That's right, he got offended when I said his job sounded vague, or made up or whatever I said." Church froze. "Wait a minute. He was really smart… he already knew everything. He knew I was the standing Commanding Officer for Blue Team after Captain Flowers' death. And then…" he trailed off.

"Then what, Church? I cannot handle the suspenders."

Church sighed. "You mean suspense, Caboose?"

"Yes. The suspenders. I want to know what happened then!"

"You know what, Caboose... sometimes I think someone switched parts of your brain so you'd think one thing and say another. Really. Your logic just…" Church stopped.

"Anyway…" Tucker coaxed him back into their previous topic.

"GRIF!"

Grif jolted awake at the sound of Simmons' yelping beside him. Their orders had been to spy on the Blue Base until they had a plan to get Ring, the rookie, back for Sarge, but Grif had fallen asleep before that had happened. Before he could stand up and stretch from his sleep, Simmons came pummeling into him.

"Ow!" Grif moaned, pulling himself back up again. "What the fuck, Simmons? Watch it!"

"You watch it," Simmons mumbled, picking himself up off of the ground as well. "I was thrown, asshole."

"Who the fuck threw you, Simmons?"

"Ring threw me!"

"I didn't mean to throw you!" Alex ran over, inspecting Simmons. "Are you okay? Something glitched in my armor! I could never throw you that far on my own."

"What the hell?" Grif looked to Simmons. "I don't think armor is supposed to do that."

Alex ignored Grif. "Simmons, do you think Sarge would let me use Lopez's hidden underground facility? I would like to train in combat so I'm more prepared as a soldier."

Simmons and Grif took a long look at each other, then back at Alex.

"Okay, first of all, who the fuck told you about Lopez's underground facility? We don't have one of those!" Simmons denied it, sounded upset, then mumbled to himself, "No one's supposed to know about that but me. And Sarge. And Lopez."

"Obviously," Grif muttered. Simmons jabbed him with his gun.

"And secondly, why would we let a Blue use our training facility? If we had one, I mean." Simmons tried to cover up. Grif just sighed.

For a moment, Alex's armor sparked. "My records inform me that there is an underground training facility underneath Red Base on Valhalla Outpost 17-B. Am I incorrect?"

"What the hell was that? She sounded like a computer." Simmons chuckled. "She really needs to stop it with those video games."

"Anyway. I think…I think Z-12 Electronic Transferring Apparatus was a lie to get us to comply with continuing to use the Operating System. Don't you think it's weird that Z didn't ask us if we wanted to run a tutorial?" Church asked.

"Sheila always ran tutorials." Caboose sniffed. "I miss Sheila."

"It's F.I.L.S.S., remember? Like Phyllis." Tucker interrupted.

"Wait," Church paused. "F.I.L.S.S. was an acronym, right? Freelancer Integrated Logistics and Security System. What if…what if Z's name was an acronym too?"

"What's an acronym?" Tucker asked. "Sounds kinky."

"Oh! I love acrobats!" Caboose turned to Church. "When are they getting here?"

"Not acrobats, Caboose!" Church sighed "Never mind." Church turned to Tucker. "An acronym is a word made from the first letters of other words. Like F.I.L.S.S." After a beat, he added, "I can't believe you didn't know what an acronym was."

"But Sheila wasn't an acronym," Tucker reminded him. "It could've just been a coincidence. And shut the fuck up, dude. I was terrible in English."

"But if it was an acronym," Church pressed. "It'd be Z-E-T-A. Zeta."

Tucker nodded. "Oh. Right. What's Zeta? Oh. OH. Fuck! You don't think it was an AI do you? I thought all of the AI were destroyed with the EMP."

"Me too. I guess not." Church turned to face both Caboose and Tucker. "What should we do?"

"You're the Alpha, Church. I wouldn't know."

"How many times do I have to explain this? I'm not the Alpha. I'm Epsilon. I'm just a fragment of the Alpha…I'm not him. But I have all of his memories, so that's why I have a body and everything. I'm a physical representation of how the Alpha remembers himself. The Alpha was destroyed along with the other AI the Meta had taken when we used the EMP. But remember? The other AI's names were Gamma, Delta, Sigma…you know. All Greek letters."

"Church, don't you have to be a Freelancer to operate an AI?" Tucker asked.

"Not necessarily. Remember Caboose and Doc? They both had Omega for a time. It didn't matter. Of course, not all of the AI could switch suits as easily as Omega, but I'm pretty sure if Gamma could implant itself into Sheila then another AI could accomplish it, too." Church stopped for a moment to let it all sink in. "Does that make sense, Caboose?"

"I'm still waiting for the acrobats."

"God DAMMIT, Caboose, I'm gonna kill you."

Thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated :)