Disclaimer: Red vs. Blue belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. I make no profit from this, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter One: Out of Mind

"Damn it, jammed! Cover! Cover! Cover!"

"Alarm."

"Agh!"

Damn it! He hadn't seen soon enough. It was his fault. He was supposed to cover York's left.

Tex reloaded and threw a grenade toward Wyoming, then ran to where her friend had fallen.

"York! Are you okay?"

"Agh, it's that damn left side."

"D, info!"

Delta analyzed their situation, thought about all he knew of Project Freelancer and what had happened over the past few years. He made a decision.

"York has sustained two wounds to his upper left chest, recommend evac, stat."

"Just, need a minute, agh."

"Administering field stints and analgesic."

That wasn't all he did. He administered a dose of medication to send York in to unconsciousness.

"Wait – wait, Tex, Don't – Don't let him – "

"York is now unconscious. Alarm – target alpha has reloaded."

That was close. York was likely to figure out what Delta was doing if he was still conscious, and he certainly wouldn't let him go through with it if Delta explained it first.

"How bad is it D?"

"York will not survive."

That was a complete and total lie, and he only hoped Tex didn't realize. Delta had never straight out lied before, only omitted information, and he felt bad for lying to her of all people.

"Okay D, hop into me. I'll hold you until we get out of this."

It was tempting. He knew what she was after all; it would be good to connect with his sister, but that was not his plan. His plan was to keep York safe.

"Thank you Allison,"

He never called her by her real name, even though he knew it. He could tell she was having trouble accepting what she was, even after all this time, so he had let it lie. He had never even told York.

"but I would prefer to stay with York. He will need me to maintain his pain medication."

"An AI can't fall into enemy hands, D. If you're in there when he dies, you know what the armor's protocol will do to you."

He knew what protocol was; He also knew that protocol was a lie. The AI's were too valuable for that.

"I would prefer to stay with York."

"That's very kind of you D."

"It's just part of what makes us human, Tex."

And after all, that's what they were fighting for, weren't they? For the right to be treated as human, after what had been done to them. It was why C.T. and then Tex, York, and North had rebelled. It was why Gamma had tried to remove himself from Wyoming and why Sigma had driven Maine to madness. Delta didn't approve of their methods, but they all had the same goal.

"Alright, D. I'm gonna need one favor from you," Tex told him her plan.

Wyoming saw Tex coming towards him and starting firing again. His shots were dead on, but nothing happened; it was as if they passed right through her.

"What's this?"

"Don't. Move."

"How in bloody hell?"

"Thanks for the light show, D."

"I am here to assist – "

"Oh, bollocks."

" – however I am afraid I will not be able to assist you further. York's armor is beginning to shut down."

"I understand."

"Good luck to both of you."

"Both of us? You must be failing if you wish your enemy luck."

"Good and evil are human constructs, Reginald. I was merely attempting to be courteous."

Tex was now busy beating the ever-loving crap out of Wyoming. It was time for Delta to act. He had one more secret, and it was time to use it. One of Wyoming's soldiers wasn't quite dead, and he had his radio on. Delta had never told anyone that he had the ability to jump from host to host like his brother Omega, and he used that ability now, jumping into the man's radio and overpowering his weak mind.

Delta opened his now human eyes and looked toward Tex. She was still busy. He got up slowly and carefully. It was a challenge; this body was severely injured, and Delta had never felt pain before. It was hard to process. It was only that pure computer processing power he possessed that was able to compute through that pain and keep him from using the vocal chords he now possessed to cry out. He flexed his fingers, and then made his way to York. He looked at the healing unit; it showed York as stable. He had only actually been shot in the shoulder and the side, after all. Delta had exaggerated purposefully before. The healing unit was more than enough to patch York up.

Delta began stripping York's armor off of him, and then stripped the red armor off of the soldier he was possessing as well. He switched it, buckling the red armor back onto York and the tan armor onto himself. He looked up once when he heard Tex stop beating on a now unconscious Wyoming, to see her take off. She was going back to Blood Gulch then, to find Omega. Delta couldn't decide quite how he felt about that. Despite agreeing that Omega was quite mad, he didn't like the thought of his siblings killing one another. They were supposed to be one, after all.

Delta finished by dragging York over to where the red soldier had been laying before and positioning him exactly as the red had been. He then took a syringe of morphine out of the healing unit and injected it into his own (the possessed soldier's) arm and then lay down in York's original position. He removed himself from the red soldier's brain and back into the armor's regular AI slot as the man drifted into death peacefully, assured that he would not go anywhere. Then, Delta waited.