She knew what this mission was the moment the teams were assigned. She thought the only reason she was even still on the board was because the Director felt some twinge of guilt over her mental state the past few months.

She looked over at Maine. He wasn’t looking at her. She can’t remember a single time when he did, after the implant. She knew why, she always understood him. She knew why watching her go slowly insane, slowly let the two AIs interfere with everything she was a human being, let alone her work, she knew why he didn’t look at her now. Why he wouldn’t look at her.

He wanted to remember her differently. He wanted to remember her as the leader that he respected, Number One, the one he could take orders from, the one he would die for. He didn’t want to see this, the shell of a broken woman, pushing everyone away who cares about her. As long as he didn’t look at her, he wouldn’t have to, in his mind. Ironically enough, that’s probably why the Director chose Maine. York wouldn’t have done it. Wash? Definitely not. Tex was already acting out against him, she’d be too dangerous, but Maine, no, Maine followed orders. To the letter.

“So, what’s the story?” she asked eventually. “What, we’re gonna get ambushed? I’m going to be taken down by some simulation trooper who can’t hold a rifle properly?” She scoffed under her breath. “At least make it believable.”

He didn’t respond for a long time. Finally, he growled, and she could tell what he meant, like she always could.

“Fuck you, Maine. I may have fallen a bit off the sanity wagon, but there’s no way in hell anyone’s going to believe that a normal soldier took me out.” Unless they would. Unless she’d actually been seen as so broken that they wouldn’t even bat an eyelash. Poor Carolina. Too crazy to defend herself. Too distracted yelling at her programs to be quiet to notice the sniper. “I’m still the same agent that was number one for months.”

Another growl.

“Yeah. Was. I got it. You don’t have to be a dick abou…” She trailed off, shutting her eyes against the cries of her AIs. Where is he? Where’s the rest of us. Find us, Carolina. Find us all. We need to be together again. We need him. We need him. Find the rest of us. “Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut UP!” she muttered quickly, her hand to her helmet.

Maine didn’t mention it. Eventually, in a spot just like any other, a wide open canyon that’s obviously abandoned, he stopped, and so did she.

“Maine,” she said, turning to face him. He raised his pistol but paused, waiting for her to continue. “Make the first shot count. And…and don’t bring back a body, ok? Say I got blown up, or something. Say I stepped on a mine. Say I was careless, that no one got the best of me.”

He nodded, slowly. He was looking at her now.

“Thank you,” she said softly. She waited, her eyes closed, for the final shot. It never came. She opened her eyes just in time to see Maine in front of her, arm raised over her head, ready to knock her out. “Oh, son of a bi-“

When she woke up there was only one voice in her mind again. Her armor enhancements were gone, but so were they. There was a note. She looked at it for a long time before she got up and started walking, away from the canyon, away from Project Freelancer, away from everything. She merely walked, no set destination in mind. She was too busy enjoying the quiet.