//------------------------------// // The Alpha Respawn. // Story: Living Darkness // by vildtiger //------------------------------// Note: This happens right after the last chapter. It is not made after any episodes or comics. “Hey, Garry, a moment of your time?” Tristan calls for the Second-in-command the second he made this discovery about one of the females Team Fortress brought with them. “What is it?” Garry asks, walking over to the medic. Tristan nods to the somewhat big woman, by the looks of it, she died from Amadi’s rebound attack. “Something special about this woman?” “Yes, she is not connected to respawn.” Tristan points out and does wonder out loud since the team yet hasn’t discussed what they should do with Team Fortress. “Since she died only five minutes ago, she should still be capable for the respawn.” The archer eyes the body of this woman, a slight frown on his face from whatever thoughts going through his head. Then after a moment, Garry voices his decision. “Connect her, in case the team does decide to let these nutjobs respawn.” Tristan nods and through a spy watch, calls for Marcos to fetch him the equipment for his giving task. The black dressed spy appear from seemly nowhere not long after, handing the doctor the gear and turns to Garry. “Jack has called for a team meeting.” Garry nods. “We will be there in three minutes.” Marcus nods and leaves to relay the message. Garry eyes Tristan injecting the woman with the respawn fluid into her spinal cord. “Is she connected?” Tristan does a few checks, straightens up and nod. Good, now it’s time to decide if Team Fortress lockdown from the respawn should be removed or they will stay dead. The two leaves the sewers and head up to the room made for team meetings. The others are already there and the moment they take a seat, Jack starts the meeting. “Alright, some of you might not like it, but I think we have to talk about what we should do with Team Fortress.” “What is there to discuss?” Francis asks with a hint of anger of where this discussion might be going. “Surely you are not planning on letting them respawn, after everything they did to us?” “Well, they were under the War Women’s control like us.” Rune softly points out from his spot, Francis turns to him, asking: “We didn’t go all homicide when they took control of us. Clearly, these people have an evil inside of them.” Francis got a point but… “Then with that logic, several of us should be axed down as well.” Marcos voices from his spot in the darkest corner of the room. “We might not have gone all evil when the women took control of us, but that’s because we worked out our issues. Back then, those men still dealt with a split soul.” “And we all know how fun that was.” Jack remarks in a dry sarcasm of the huge headache of becoming whole brought. He sees their point, but Francis does not want the man who destroyed him to come back from life “I say they stay dead, they are no better than Team Mirage.” He speaks stubbornly on his idea that this team is not worth their time. “Maybe we should hear their side of the story before we decide.” Garry suggests, he has a feeling they didn’t attack because of the Administrator. “I have a gut feeling there is more to this than we are aware of— well except for Tristan, he probably does know what's going on.” Said doctor smirks at that last remark. “I’m flattered but even I do not know the core reason to why they attacked us, other than they wanted the control of the alpha respawn.” “I say we should hear the two survivors out before we decide to execute them.” Chio votes, she does not mind killing someone out in battle, but holding a person’s life like this is rather uncomfortable, especially when she does not know on what moral ground they did this. Sophia snorts lightly and says. “Doubt they would have giving us the same chance.” And Chio replies the second woman of the team. “Maybe not, but that does not mean we should do the same.” Jack eyes Francis and Sophia, the two most against the idea. He can fully understand why and if this has been in the War Games or under any circumstances then he would’ve let them stay dead but, “We will talk with the engineer and spy, then we decide what we should do.” Jack tells everyone and although the two do not fancy the idea, the whole team do respect his role as the team leader and thus his final say in things. “Rune, get the engineer.” He commands the pyro and gets up from his chair, and adds as he does not know who will be best for the spy. “Which one of you will be best talking to the spy?” “Sophia should do it.” Tristan speaks up, he does notice the surprised look in their female spy’s eyes but she is smart enough to keep her mouth shut about this secret between the two of them. The only one also aware of the blood relation between their own spy and Team Fortress is Marcos and he nods in agreement, saying. “Her ability to read people and uncanny acting skills is the best choice for interrogating.” What is Tristan planning? Sophia ponders quietly. Does he really think her being the younger sister of that man will change anything? So much has changed after the slaughter of their family. What she saw in those red eyes from their last encounter was not the same charming chatter-head of a boy she remembers, instead, she saw a man filled with so much self-loath that she doubts he is even capable of love. She does however not argue Tristan’s decision of letting her do the interrogating, brother or not, she will try and get the information of why his team attacked. “You can count on me.” She speaks to their team leader. Jack nods and with that, dismisses the meeting for now. **At the prisons** Sitting on the only chair in this cell, Engineer eyes Spy who looks like he got run over by a truck. “What did they do to you Spy?” Spy caresses his forehead from a migraine that drug Ace’s son injected into him. “The medic drugged me.” He muses, just loud enough for the Texan to hear him and is no longer really humiliated by this doctor got the better of him. He is the son of Ace after all. “They have magical powers. The medic was able to pacify me by controlling the water in my very body.” “A man dressed as a cowboy was able to summon flames made out of anger.” Engineer explains Spy, must admit he is still quite shaken up by that experience. If Medic ever survive this then they are going to have a serious talk about the doctor’s habit of experimenting on people. Engineer and the team have gotten somewhat indifferent towards Medic’s urges to open them up and put weird crap into them, but Medic can’t do that to people like that man. “Medic experimented on him.” Well, that explains everything. “Not all are as understanding as we.” Spy muses and must add as there was a time where the team did not appreciate Medic’s hobby either. “But that was only after he made the Übercharge implant. Before that, I wouldn't hesitate to plunge my knives into him as much I did to the RED team.” Engineer chuckles weakly, yeah he remember that time as well. Medic only became tolerable when Heavy joined the team, speaking of the team. “Do you think the others are gone for good?” After all, they never succeed in removing the Administrator's block and there is a limit how long a body can stay fresh. “I don’t see any reason why they would allow them to respawn” Spy remarks coldly and is a bit weirded out at the thought the others might be gone for good. He realizes it’s because he has begun to care for them and this realization makes him groan, fortunately, Engineer did not catch up on it. The sound of the door makes both him and Engineer turn to the spot and watches Team Vanguard’s pyro walk inside, this time not with the heavy. Engineer is sort of surprised when this other team’s pyro unlocks his cell door and tells him: “Follow me.” He does, but not before he casts Spy a glance. Spy returns it with a stoic stare, not at all helping to figure out what the man is thinking. The pyro brings him into a middle sized and mostly emthy room. In here sits the scout and after the pyro has made him sit on the second chair, the guy leaves. Engineer watches the scout, wondering what is going to happen now. This feels like an interrogation room, minus the toture devices. After a minute of silence, Engineer asks. “What now?” The scout eyes him, saying. “Depends on you. We know why you attacked: you want the respawn. What we do not understand.” The scout before relaxed posture shifts into one reminding Engineer of a cop interrogating a robber. “Why the hell would Helen command an attack on us when she has a bigger fish to fry?” Engineer hesitates for a moment, he is not sure if revealing this will be good or bad but… well, he is sort of desperate here, so he ends up telling the scout about the kidnapping and why they originally attacked this place: to regain the ability to respawn as they needed it in order to stand a chance against Grey’s new group of mercs plus his robot army. Jack listens intensely to the whole thing, quickly convinced this man speaks the truth as he hears nothing but sincere worry from this worried father. “Why didn’t you try and ask us for help first?” He asks the engineer somewhat confused. Engineer gives the man a look, answering by asking a question. “Would you have heard us out?” after all, they are both merc groups and there is an untol law that mercenary teams should fight when spotting one another. Man got a point and back when he worked for Mann Co, then yes, Jack wouldn’t waste a moment to figure out why another team approached them with a white flag up. But this team is not mainly made out of mercs. “In the War Games, no, but now I would.” Scout tells the man, and explains to why: “Half of my team are not mercenaries. They only fight to help those who can’t. if you came under the banner of peace, then the team would’ve demanded I heard you out.” “Is that’s why you listen to me now Jack?” Engineer asks, for Jack wouldn’t have heard him or anyone on the enemy team out if this has been back in the War Games. Prisoners were only to get the info where the inteligents is located. Jack quirks a smirk. “You will be surprised how persuasive a black woman can be.” Engineer can’t help but laugh at that remark. He admits that woman sure could put up a fight, then again; he long learned that women can be just as effective on the battlefield as men. “You don’t have to tell me twice. A woman has saved my butt more than I can count.” Good to hear this once fellow team member has learned that small lesson as well. “So true. So here’s the deal:” **Down in the prison** Kreel stands before the man- who happens to be her older brother. The reunion wasn’t as heartwarming as both thought it would be. The years of separation, hardship and both trained to keep their emotions in constant control is making the meeting feel more like a weird convisation between two buinsessmen. However, Kreel is not really here to reunite with her brother and instead asks him on why Team Fortress attacked. Antoine is at first hesitant but after bit of nudging from Kreel, he does end up telling her about his son and the threat Grey made if they did not claim the alpha respawn. Kreel’s special power made her able to sense emotions and knew that what he told was the honest truth. Did come quite as a surprise, but a good one. She is relieved that her first observation on Antoine not able to love was false, for if he does not love his son from how worried he is, then she does not know what causes those emotions. Satisfied with the answer, Kreel tells the other spy on what Jack is willing to do if this team proves to be up for a permanent ceasefire. “Our scout is willing to make a deal with your team.” Antoine lifts his head slightly, sign she has his full attention. “If you agree on a permanent ceasefire. We will remove Helen’s block on your ability to respawn.” Spy simply nods that he agrees on these terms, he is, however, a bit curious on how they are planning on bringing those they killed back as some time has passed and he's not sure if respawn can pick people up after ten minutes. That is after all how they knew if the person went through respawn failure. “Have you found a way returning those you have killed back?” His sister, Sophia nods and explains. “Right after we won your assault, we brought all your slain team members to the machine. One of your women didn’t have the liquid in her, so we had to inject it into her. They are still dead but are able to return if we wish.” She smiles at him. “You’re lucky the respawn likes you.” Spy raises a brow of that last remark but Sophia does not elaborate and he does not ask further questions. What she has told him is very useful, it’s no wonder why this team chose to camp out this close to the alpha respawn. “When will you bring them back?” He asks. “The moment we are certain you and the engineer won’t double-cross us and can make sure the rest of your team won’t pick a fight with us again.” Kreel replies and refuses to admit that her brother's team has been incredibly hard to defeat. The only thing that gave them the winning ticket was their powers and ability to respawn. **later** The rest of the team, including Miss Pauling and Zhanna return from respawn, unlike the mercs who were used to the phantom sense of being put back together, it took Zhanna a half hour, while Miss Pauling needed a full hour to recover from it that pretty traumatic experience. “How can you deal with this?” Miss Pauling asks the mercs and Demo shrugs, saying. “You get used to it.” Which she highly doubts she ever will and is starting to understand why some mercs lost their sanity in the first weeks of their contract during the gravel war. After they have recovered, Jack tells the other team members about the deal they made with Engineer and Spy. “We decided to give you one chance.” He crosses his arms. “We do have some conditions before we even will consider helping you out on this rescue mission of yours. First: your medic will help ours in any way of returning engineer’s leg and eyes.” “And whatever else he took.” Cowboy grumbles under his breath. Scout’s blue eyes lands on Medic who shift uncomfortably, leaving the doctor he continues. “Second: as long you are here, my team will have full control over your weapons. Go against this rule and we will exterminate you from the respawn. And third: you will tell us your names.” As expected, the Fortress team found that last condition weird and a bit worrying. “May we ask why you demand knowing our names?” Spy asks, he really does not want to say his name to a bunch of strangers, hell he is uncomfortable revealing it to his team! His sister is the one explaining. “The administrator made that rule for a reason, so it will be harder to see the person behind the class. We call each other by name to strengthen our comradely.” With the medic adding in his somewhat grumpy tone. “It will be a pain in the ass separate us without a name. we have three of the same class for crying out loud!” Got a point but Spy is still not up for it, not like he is giving a choice. He does wonder if only they will have to reveal their names. “Will you do the same?” “We thought it would only be fair.” The female engineer replies and think she might as well start. “My name is Chio.” And her younger brother quickly follow suit. “Amadi.” and now two of their names has been revealed. Chio suggests the other merc team. ”Would fit best if two of you now will say your names.” The team eye one another, none of them have really expected to reveal their name like this. They had sort of expected just to know each other by title, only a few of them know each other names. But this team got a point, they have been fighting side by side for years and as things are going now, many more in the future. Letting out a sigh. “Dell” Engineer speaks, few of his team give him a surprised look. Heavy is the first to recover and reveals his name as well. “I am Mikhail.” So far so good. “Rune.” The pyro speaks and points at their heavy who looks like he’s taking a nap. “That’s Wei— he does not speak English.” Wei opens his eyes when his name got mentioned but soon is back to his nap as he already has been told this was going to happen. Seems like they really are doing this, Sniper thinks, lets out a sigh. “Lawrence” He turns to Demo when he reveals his name as well. “Tavish.” “I am Tristan.” The medic speaks and to a certain spy’s surprise, the black dressed spy speaks up next. “Marcos.” Soldier grumbles, he does not like revealing this and would rather fight them but the others made it clear they need these people’s corporation. “Alright fine! My name is Jane Doe and that is all you get out from me, maggot!” The scout raises a brow. “That’s the name of an unidentified female.” He points out. Does that man insult his good name?! “Got anything against my name pinetree?! My name comes from great America and will carry it with honor until I get shot dead and respawn won’t throw me back into the fight!” “Just go with it.” Tavish tells the very confused other team. He and the other knows this is not the name Soldier was born with but it’s what he calls himself and thus will only react on it besides from his class name. The scout turns to his team’s medic and Tristan says without meeting his eyes. “Yes, and no this idiot won’t react on it.” Wait, does that man knows Solly’s true name?? How did he manage that? The scout facepalm but does fortunately not ask further questions. Instead, he waits for someone else to speak up their name. Proves to be Medic. “Argh fine! If it makes you feel better. My name is Josef.” “Much better.” The scout says deadpan and points at himself. “I’m Jack.” and the sniper who sits rather chill on his chair. “Garry Lockstin.” Spy really does not like this but it has to be done unless they want this very uneasy alliance to go down the drain. “This does not leave this building.” He warns pretty much everyone. His sister ensures him. “Would never dream of it.” The black spy nods that he too won’t blackmail him for revealing his name. “My name is Antoine.” Spy finally speaks, not sure how to feel about all of this. The Vanguard team eye their masked pyro, she does not seems aware of them, probably taking a trip through her dream world of rainbows and candy. Engineer elbow her and Pyro notice that everyone is staring at her but makes no move in removing the mask or talking for that matter. So Engineer- or Dell has to ask the other team. “Is it alright is our Pyro does not say anything? I mean they have only recently trusted us to see their face.” Team Vanguard shows who they think as their leader when everyone turns to the scout, quite a surprise seeing a scout as the boss of anything. Probably because he is used to scouts- including his own son being impatient and immature in anything other than doing a kill. This scout, however, has the attitude of a man who has been in the military. Perhaps had his own squad before he became a Mann Co scout. The scout crosses his arms and after a moment of silence. “Fine, but that means you won’t know the true name of one of us.” “That would be me.” His sister says cheerily. “You can call me Kreel.” Antoine frowns lightly, not because she refused to reveal her name but of this nickname she chose. He does not recall she has ever called herself Kreel back when they were kids, must’ve been a name she picked up in their time of separation. “I am Francis. Wish I could say it is nice meeting you,” Francis turns to Josef, small flames appear on his hands. “but it’s really not.” “Cut it out Francis, we don’t have time for another cleanup!” Jack snaps at him and slowly the flames around Francis' hands dissapears. He really looks forward not have to deal with that crap. Jack turns to the two women, however only one needs to speak her name. “We already know Miss Pauling. any merc of Mann Co knows the obedient bird of the cold hearted bitch.” Miss Pauling shoots him a glare which he completely ignores. Instead turns to the bigger woman. “I am Zhanna.” “Alright, now we can get down to business. Josef, Tristan will show you our infirmary.” Jack tells the man his team like the least of this group of people. Tristan gets up from his seat and is going to say this straight out to this new doctor. “You better not mess up my stuff, and if I find some organ in a jar I haven’t labeled myself- I swear to god I won’t stop Francis turning you into a crisp.” What a buzzkill. “Oh, so you are one of those doctors.” Josef remarks deadpan, already knowing he and this medic won’t get any educational chats. This other medic going by the name of Tristan shoots him a glare. “Yes I am one of those taking the oath seriously. Deal with it.” Well at least he is honest about it, Josef thinks and follows the man to the infirmary. “What are those?” Spy asks, making the whole team follow his finger to the now very strange crystal looking object that somehow knocked Ignis out and the alicorn has yet not woken from that. To be honest. “We are not really sure.” Amadi admits. “They are part of the respawn machine and for some reason only react positively on us.” He gestures at the team. “Everyone else gets knocked out like your flaming comrade.” So imagen his surprise when the other team’s pyro cheerfully touches the root and instead of getting knocked out like any other besides them would, their pyro gain a power which is the ability to summon flames. Everyone jaw fall at the sight, Amadi does recover fairly quickly and remarks to his team. “Oh how lovely, another guy able to control fire.” Rune sends a bemused look to Francis but his bad eyesight kept him from noticing. “What the bloody hell is going on?!” Sniper demands for he can’t for the life of him figure out why Pyro suddenly can create flames after have touched some object that knocked Ignis out! Seeing this, Jack realizes they might indeed not be as alone in this as they thought. “Come.” He says and bring them to the respawn machine. Miss Pauling gasp of what she is seeing. Instead of a large machine inside a metallic room, she remembers back when the doctors connected her to it all those years ago. The alpha respawn now looks like someone has planted a tree out of crystal and let it grow underneath the machine. This tree is so entangled with the machine that it looks to be part of it, in its trunk is the computer keeping track on those connected to the machine, further up is the liquid the doctors injected into the mercs and up at the branches are each of the core data of the people connected to it. The roots of the tree has been what they have spotted through the building, made sure that removing it, one has to destroy the whole building. “How did this tree get here?!” She exclaims in disbelief seeing it, fear it might destroy part of the machine which can be what has caused respawn failure. The cowboy dressed engineer- Francis limps past her as he explains. “Over the years this tree began forming around the respawn machine, according to the logs in the system, the technicians tried to remove it but all ended up knocked out like the fire technician of yours. They were forced to leave it alone and as time passed this tree came to be.” He titles his head towards her. “I have studied this strange phenomenon and for some reason, it seems respawn and this tree is the very same thing. If we kill the tree, then everyone connected to respawn might drop dead as well.” “Any idea why mercs from the past would fail to respawn?” Dell asks. This is the alpha respawn after all. He blinks when the other engineer replies with a strange smirk on his face. “Try and ask it, who knows, maybe the respawn is in a chatty mood.” Dell turns to the rest of the team, they too have no idea what Francis spoke about. He hesitates but does walk over to the computer embedded in the middle of this crystal tree trunk and again after some hesitating, he writes ‘report’ but instead of a report about the mercs connected to it. ‘stop fighting?’ Dell stares dumbfounded at the question the machine wrote. He eyes the Vanguard team, the female engineer walks over and read the message, she lets out a small laugh and writes ‘yes’. The machine replies ‘that is good, no need fight fellow bearers’. Those words make it run cold down Dell’s back and he asks it. ‘who are you?’ ‘we are alpha respawn’ That’s quite the surprise that he is talking to the alpha respawn but not really mindblowing as Grey also has created mildly sentient robots, some he and the others fight daily. Does make him wonder if this machine is aware enough about why most cornected to it would die. ‘what caused the past respawn failure? Why did the past people cornected die?’ the machine did not reply for some time and for a moment Dell thinks the machine has no idea what he asked, but then. ‘their heart so dark, cold. Tried to help, make them see we cannot do program with so much dark in heart. They did not hear, so they die.’ Dell’s jaw falls in shock of what the machine has just told him, slowly he turns to the others, just as Jack voices his thoughts on the subject on why some people die and others live. “If you want to hear my opinion on it, I say the respawn is choosing.” “No.” Everyone turns to Dell and he, quite shaken up tells them what the respawn told him. “It’s… it’s the other way around. We choose its help.” “Wait what?” Amadi eyes wide in surprise and voices what the rest of his team think. “It has never been that smart. Usually, we can only make it tell us about our condition.” Curious about this spike of awareness and also wondering why this tree’s branches have the exact numbers as the Element. Dell pulls out the goggles he and Time-Turner made and puts them on. He gasps of what he is seeing. This tree is brimming with magic! And checking the Vanguard members he sees that they are surrounded by the colors of the elements, Jack is surrounded in yellow like Soldier were in Equestria. As the Element of courage. “Well now I be.” He muses as he looks at himself, he and the others glow a faintly white while Pyro glows her Element color. It seems that by touching the tree they gain this magic, which must be the source to their strange powers. He notices the female engineer has the same glow as Pyro, that must mean she has that element as well. “I think I know why the respawn got more aware with us around.” He says and takes off the goggles. Turning to the confused Vanguard team. “It’s gonna sound strange and you might even think I am crazy, but I promise you what I am about to tell is the honest truth.” “That’s my Element, keep your own.” Tavish calls out laughing. Dell sends him a smile before he tells the Vanguard team about Equestria and what Ignis told them about a being called Harmony who supposedly is the creator of the Elements, the very Elements who reside inside all of them. When he is done, the Vanguard team exchanges looks with one another, Garry being the one admitting. “That… is a lot to take in.” “Yeah, more so when you are the one ending up in it.” Tavish points out, but he is quite happy they did come to that world, sure opened their eyes for certain viewpoints. The black spy- Marcos stares at the tree for a moment before he speaks. “If what you say is true, then why would the respawn accept to keep people like us alive?” Tavish would like to know that as well, good thing the tree can tell them. ‘You have lot of discord, but want to walk in path of harmony. ‘ The respawn replies after Francis has asked it. Both teams eye one another, humbled by the words that they all have done terrible things but their determinating to do better has been what saved them from dying like the rest. Did confuse one of them though why they have been the only ones. “I’m surprised not more people survived.” Lawrence voices and asks some of the people who have been connected to respawn way longer than he has. “Didn’t the former mercs share any form of comradery?” “Why should they?” Miss Pauling asks quietly and feels really bad she made sure that rule of Helen, the one that the people hired shouldn’t become friends- it has been the death of so many. “You were forbidden in becoming friends.” “So I noticed.” Tavish muses dryly from his spot on one of the large roots of the tree. Jane eyes him, quietly agreeing that he didn’t like them got pitted against one another by the Administrator because of their friendship. Jack shares that same thought. “That is why Team Vanguard went AWOL, we couldn’t stand the thought of fighting alongside people who could turn on us if the pay got good enough.” Francis, Tristan and Marcos nod in agreement, latter adding. “I don’t like to be around people I cannot trust, my job is dangerous enough as it is.” The others quietly agree with him on that, they do have sort of mix feelings in the fact that the only thing that keeps them alive is because they ignored their contract and instead listened to their emotions and need for comradely. That new knowledge is for some very humbling as they know how hard it has been to get on good terms with the others and that made them so much more thankful for the friendships they gained. **Later** When Ignis finally regained consciously, he was quite startled to see the tree and told the mercs. “I never thought I would see Harmony’s tree. Only the king and queens of the alicorns were allowed to see it.” and that made him fully believe that the reason the respawn knocked him out was because he was unworthy. Turns out the real reason is that the respawn mistook him for a threat as one of those past technicians who tried to cut the tree down and simple defended itself. None of the mercs told Ignis that small fact. Watching this powerful alicorn tiptoe around the roots of the respawn was too hilarious to watch.