“Damn it,” Wonsik hissed, fighting the urge to destroy the room, “damn it all.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Hongbin bowed his head slightly, “but I’m unsure of how to extract the memories you with. The Alpha is.......proving to be more attached to them than originally thought.”

“Then we’ll have to change our methods,” Wonsik decided after a moment, “make the tests more personal. Make him want to get rid of the memories.”

“Yes, sir,” Hongbin nodded, “and what about the fragments we have gathered already? Have you decided what you’re going to do with them?”

“Not yet,” Wonsik replied, “I’ll figure something out when we’ve gotten what I need from Alpha.”

Hongbin nodded before leaving the director alone.

Wonsik sighed before moving over to his desk. On it sat a picture of his reason to do all of this.

“I’ll fix this,” Wonsik sighed, wishing with all his heart that he didn’t have to be doing any of this, “I’ll make it all right again.”

After a long moment of silent grieving, Wonsik gathered up his table and left to check on the progress of his agents. As he walked down the halls, he read over the files on his best three agents. They were the best in every way and he made sure that every other agent knew that. As Wonsik saw it, creating a public leader board promoted competition among the agents. After all, the project was looking for the best agents to send out into the field, so making the agents the best by any means was necessary.

Wonsik came to a stop in front of the observation window in the training hall. Inside the training hall the top three were holding a practice battle against three other agents. Naturally, the top three were doing very well.

Wonsik smirked slightly, an idea of what to do with the Alpha’s fragments forming.

Project Freelancer was, after all, supposed to determine the pros and cons of using agents with AI out in actual combat situations.

Until now his agents had just been training by themselves, performances in training exercises based on their own power. They fought against each other and simulated aliens, sometimes in the training rooms and sometimes in simulations of the alien worlds that they would one day be fighting in. The best were put on the leader board, the worst publicly shamed by not even making the list. Introducing a few AI fragments would be sure to make things very interesting.

But first and foremost, Wonsik had his own goal of fixing his biggest mistake.

Giving the fragments to the agents could wait.

 

--

 

It was all an illusion. None of it was real, just the best robotics and AI that Wonsik could get his hands on. Those eyes weren’t real. Those lips weren’t real. The smile wasn’t real. Even the skin and hair were fake.

Wonsik knew that, but that didn’t stop him from hugging the image of Hyuk – he couldn’t bring himself to call him Sanghyuk – standing before him as tightly as he could.

“Hyung,” Hyuk giggled, “you’re hugging me too tight. I can’t breathe.”

“Sorry,” Wonsik smiled, pulling away, “I just missed you.”

“Missed me?” Hyuk cocked his head to the side in confusion, “but you just saw me, like, ten minutes ago.”

“I know,” Wonsik pouted, “but I miss you even if you’re gone for a minute.” Hyuk laughed at that answer and Wonsik smiled at him. He’d missed hearing that laugh so much.

He’d been trying for ages to bring Sanghyuk back. He’d done things, things that would sent him to jail in a heartbeat if they were ever found out. But he had to bring him back, he had to make things right. Sanghyuk never should have died that day, never should have been in that place where he could be taken away from him.

Wonsik had begged Sanghyuk not to go that day, told him that they could get whatever it was Sanghyuk wanted later, but Sanghyuk was insistent on going out. Wonsik remembered how he had finally given in, deciding that nothing too bad could happen. After all, it was just a trip to the grocery store.

He was so wrong. The worst thing that could happen had happened. The doctor had said that Sanghyuk had died quickly, that he hadn’t felt any pain, but that only made it hurt more. Sanghyuk had been gone in seconds and there hadn’t been any chance to save his life.

Now there was Hyuk, standing before him, and Wonsik felt a flash of self-hatred. He couldn’t really bring Sanghyuk back. Hyuk was as close as he could get and he felt worthless for that. But then again........something was better than nothing.

A shadow was better then nothing.

“Sir,” Wonsik turned silently to find Hongbin, his second in command, standing by the door, “the agents are waiting.”

“I’m coming,” Wonsik said before turning to Hyuk, “just wait here for me, alright? I’ll be back soon.”

“Ok,” Hyuk smiled, “hurry back.”

“Beta seems to be functioning well,” Hongbin commented as the pair walked down the hall to the meeting room, “the experiment was a success then, sir?”

“Yes,” Wonsik nodded, “it might have taken a lot of time to fracture Alpha enough so that it was pure Hyuk, but it was worth every set back.”

“What about the others?”

“We’ll give them to the agents,” Wonsik decided, “Omega should match well with Agent Leo. He should be able to control Omega’s rage. Agent N will be assigned to Theta. His nurturing personality makes him perfect to care for Theta.”

“And Agent Ken?” Hongbin asked.

“I think we’ll assign him Epsilon,” Wonsik decided, “the newest fragment.”

“But we don’t know anything about Epsilon,” Hongbin argued, “We don’t know what part of the Alpha he embodies.”

“Do not question me,” Wonsik growled, scaring Hongbin into submission with his glare alone.

“Yes, sir,” Hongbin nodded, “what about Delta, Gamma, and Sigma? The twins, Eta and Iota? All the other fragments?”

“Find them matches,” Ravi waved off the other, “I don’t care who. Divide them between EXO Squad for all I care. I got what I wanted.”

Nothing could go wrong now, Wonsik decided. He had Hyuk, Hongbin was the only one who knew about what he had done and would never say a word to anyone about it, and his agents were too blinded by trust, by loyalty to him, to realize what was really going on with Project Freelancer, to even think about finding out the truth. It was perfect.

Even if it wasn’t Sanghyuk waiting for him back in his office, even if it was just an illusion created by the best robotics money could buy and fragmented AI, it was still perfect. Nothing could change that. Nothing would change that.

Wonsik really had no way of knowing that the Epsilon AI he’d just assigned to one of his best agents would be the downfall of his whole operation.

 

--

 

The two young men walked through the desert, dressed head to toe in combat equipment. Even with all of the armour, it was clear that one of the two men was starting to struggle with the heat. Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem, but his armours cooling unit had busted a few weeks prior when their walk through the desert first started and he had yet to get it fixed.

Well, more like he hadn’t gotten the chance. There wasn’t exactly an armour repair shop out in the middle of the desert and neither carried spare parts around to fix stuff like that.

“Ken,” the other man said, “You can take off the helmet. You can breathe the air here and it might help cool you down. If you overheat and pass out, I’m not equipped to help you.”

“I’ll be fine, Hyukkie,” Ken replied, trying to laugh, “I just hope we can get out of this sun soon.”

“My scans detected the beginning of a forest a mile from our current location,” Hyuk said, “The trees should provide acceptable shade. Do you want to course correct?”

“Yeah,” Ken nodded, “that would be awesome.”

“We’ll have to inform Agents Leo and N of this change of plans,” Hyuk sighed, “but we have no signal here.” Hyuk’s frown was hidden thanks to his helmet, but Ken knew him well enough to know what his facial expression was by his tone of voice.

Or, maybe that wasn’t a skill Ken had learned.

Maybe it was something that he’d gotten from Epsilon.

When it came to Hyuk, it was sometimes hard to tell where Epsilon ended and Ken started. Didn’t matter that the AI fragment had only been in his head for a couple of days – or was it minutes? Ken couldn’t be sure – before being removed. Epsilon had made sure to imprint pretty much every bit of data it had into Ken’s head.

Maybe Epsilon knew Ken would be able to stop everything, or maybe he just wanted someone else, anyone else, to know what had been done before he was silenced. It didn’t matter why, just mattered that it had happened and that it happened to Ken.

Anyway, this exchange of sorts with Epsilon was how Ken found out about what Director Kim was really doing.

To the Alpha AI.

To the fragments.

To the agents.

........to Hyuk.

He’d gone right to his closest friends – Leo and N, two other agents – and the three had formed a plan. Well, five actually. Those two still had their AI fragments, Omega and Theta. They’d gathered two more fragments since leaving Project Freelancer. There was Delta who Leo had found only a few weeks before. He had to take out Agent Suho to do it, but they had all agreed that sacrifices had to be made if they wanted to save all of the AI and bring their former boss to justice.

The other AI that they had freed was walking beside Ken.

Hyuk was also known as Beta. Every fragment that came from the original AI, from Alpha, embodied a part of the original AI. Omega was his rage and Theta his trust. They knew that Delta was the logic, but they didn’t know about the other fragments that they were looking for. They left before they could find out anything like that, before they could download those files. Epsilon, they knew, had been Alpha’s memories. Well, most of them anyway.

Hyuk was….                                          

Beta was…….

..........

Alpha was created from a person, his existence based upon a mind already existing. That person, that mind, was Director Kim Wonsik. Alpha had Wonsik’s memories, personality, everything. Alpha was an almost perfect copy of Wonsik.

And Wonsik had taken Alpha and started experimenting on him. Ken wasn’t super clear on just what exactly had been done to Alpha – Epsilon’s memories of those times were too blurred by fear and pain to recall anything useful – but it had been bad. Whatever Wonsik had done had shattered Alpha’s mind over and over again until there was nothing left, caused him to fragment repeatedly as he tried to free himself from the emotional and psychological trauma that had been inflicted on him.

The last part of himself that Alpha had held onto was the memories of Wonsik’s lover; Han Sanghyuk.

Just like those memories were dear to Wonsik, they were dear to Alpha. At the end, he didn’t know why those memories were so important, but he still held onto them. When he finally let go of them, creating Hyuk….Beta, it was shortly after Epsilon came into being. Since Epsilon came first, Ken hadn’t the slightest clue what exactly Wonsik had done to make Alpha let go of those memories, but he knew he never wanted to find out.

However, he did know that Wonsik hadn’t ended it there. No, Wonsik had played around with Beta a bit, altering the fragment until he thought that he was Sanghyuk. Until Hyuk didn’t remember what he actually was; an AI fragment.

When Ken, Leo, and N created their escape plan, Ken insisted on trying to take Alpha. Theta and Omega had agreed, too. As Leo once said after their escape, the fragments all had a need, deep inside, to be reunited with the Alpha, to become one again. This meant their judgement on all matters concerning Alpha was too impaired to be reliable. At the time, however, they hadn’t realized that and trusted the AI fragments. It almost got them killed.

One good thing did come out of it, however.

Ken, while trying to find where Alpha was being stored, had run across Hyuk. He knew right away who Hyuk was – flashes of Hyuk’s name and face had leaked over into Epsilon – and had taken Hyuk with him.

At first, Hyuk didn’t believe anything that they told him and had tried to get away, but Leo had removed Hyuk’s data chip from the robotic body Wonsik had given him and implanted him inside Ken’s head. They only kept Hyuk there for a few minutes before transferring him back into his regular body, but it was enough to convince Hyuk that they were right.

“I see green,” Hyuk said, pulling Ken from his memories, “and I see the top of a communications tower. We should be able to contract the others.......now. My scans say we’re in range of the tower now.”

“Alright,” Ken nodded, “I’ll try the radio.”

“Ask them if they have any leads on the Director’s location,” Hyuk was quick to ask and Ken frowned.

Secretly, it really bugged him how much Hyuk cared about Wonsik. Wonsik had done horrible things, things that could never be forgiven. Ken wanted Hyuk to forget about him, to move on and be happy.

To be happy with Ken.

Ken was perfectly aware of why he could never actually be with Hyuk, but he decided that he didn’t care. Hyuk was Hyuk and Ken loved him. It didn’t matter that Hyuk wasn’t a real person, that he was just a fragment of an AI.

But Ken knew he could never tell Hyuk any of that.

Hyuk wouldn’t accept his feelings, too caught up in a past that didn’t really belong to him to realize he had a future to claim as his own. So Ken kept his feelings secret and watched over Hyuk from the sidelines, waiting for Hyuk to move on, all while trying to fix the mess Wonsik had made.

“Ken?” N’s voice came in, “what’s up?”

“We’re going a bit off course,” Ken explained, trying to keep his tone all business so as not the betray his thoughts, “my cooling unit’s busted and it’s really hot out here.”

“Alright,” N’s reply came moments later, “send me your location and I’ll let Leo know.”

“Roger,” Ken nodded before noticing Hyuk glancing his way, “and, um, I have a question. Well, Hyuk has a question.”

“We haven’t got any new information about the director,” N sighed, “tell Hyuk sorry, alright.”

“Alright,” Ken said before cutting the line.

“Nothing?” Hyuk was probably frowning and it was a blow to Ken’s heart.

“Nothing.”

“My scans are picking up a water source,” Hyuk was quick to say, quick to move on from the topic that caused them both a lot of pain, “I’ll have to check to be sure it’s safe, but you should be able to make use of it.”

“Awesome,” Ken smiled, just as happy to drop the subject as Hyuk was.

 

--

 

“Delta,” Hyuk greeted the newest AI with a smile, “it’s nice to meet you.”

“Greetings Beta,” Delta nodded his head slightly in greeting, “It is nice to meet you as well. Agent Leo has told me that you are also called ‘Hyuk.’ Is this a name you would prefer me to use?”

“Beta is fine,” Hyuk replied, clearly enjoying the very formal way of talking Delta seemed to like using.

“He’s very.......” Ken paused, trying to find the right word.

“He’s logic,” Leo shrugged, not looking up from cleaning his armour, “how did you expect him to act?”

“Still,” Ken frowned slightly, “he sounds like he never made a joke in his life.”

“And that matters.....why?” N raised an eyebrow before calling to his own fragment, “Theta? Do you want to meet Delta?”

“I’m fine,” Theta’s voice spoke up, but the child-like AI made no appearance.

“Do you want to say hello to Hyuk?” N tried again, “I know it’s been a while since you last talked to him, I’m sure you’ve got lots to say now.”

“Later,” Theta’s shy voice spoke once more, “he’s with Omega and Delta now.”

“Want me to call him over?” Ken asked, hoping that his suggestion would help.

“I don’t want to bother him,” Theta said, holo-form finally making an appearance, “he’s....he’s busy making to friends.”

“It wouldn’t bother him,” Ken assured the fragment, “Hyuk loves talking to you.”

“O-Ok then,” Theta smiled ever so slightly and N mouthed a small ‘thank you’.

“Hyuk!” Ken called, “can you come over here?”

“Sure,” Hyuk smiled brightly and Ken took a moment to fall in love with the other’s smile all over again.

“Hello,” Theta said when Hyuk joined them.

“Hey, Theta,” Hyuk smiled warmly, a look in his eyes that told Ken he knew exactly why he’d been called over, “how are you?”

The three humans watched the two AI chat happily. Delta eventually joined them and for a few minutes Theta was hesitant to embrace the new AI’s presence. However with Hyuk’s encouragement Theta warmed to the logical AI quickly. Delta seemed to use a bit more informal speech with Hyuk around as well. Omega simply watched, never one to take part in discussions that didn’t revolve around battle or causing pain.

“I wonder,” N said later when the fragments were all in shut-down mode to rest, “if they become like that around Hyuk because it’s Hyuk.”

“What do you mean?” Ken asked, frowning slightly.

“They all come from Alpha,” N explained, “and he kept the memory of Sanghyuk close to his heart. Maybe deep inside the fragments share that same love. And since Hyuk is kind of Sanghyuk.........”

“I get it,” Leo nodded, “they see Hyuk’s face and a subconscious part of themselves recognizes him as Sanghyuk, as someone they love. So they want to do things that make him happy.”

“So,” Ken said, “all the other fragments love Hyuk?”

“That isn’t the point,” N scowled, lightly chopping the other’s neck, “they love Sanghyuk, just as Alpha did and just as Wonsik did. They just don’t know why because all memory of Sanghyuk is gone from them. All they have is the feeling of attachment to Sanghyuk, or what looks like Sanghyuk.”

“So based on that feeling of attachment,” Ken frowned, “they act the way they do around Hyuk. That feeling tells them ‘make him happy,’ so they do what they think will make him happy.”

“Exactly,” N smiled.

Ken nodded, not sure if he really understood.

 

--

 

“Ken,” Hyuk frowned, “I’m detecting something odd.”

“Something odd?” Ken questioned, “With what?”

“With my scans of the area,” Hyuk started to explain, “There’s some kind of anoma--!”

Hyuk was cut off by a bullet shattering the faceguard of his helmet and ripping through his head. A second bullet caught him in the hollow of his throat while a third and fourth ended up in his chest. Thankfully, Ken managed to get Hyuk out of the line of fire before the fifth and sixth bullets could add to the damage the AI had already received.

Ducking behind a nearby rock, Ken felt himself start to freak out as he tried to figure out how they would get out of this. The only thing he could do was fire back it would seem, so he did exactly that. With any luck, he’d kill the s shooting at them and escape into the night with Hyuk.

Shooting their way out proved to be a failed plan.

“Damn it,” Ken hissed, trying to reload his gun and stay behind the cover of the bolder after yet another round of bullets failed to meet their intended marks.

“W-W-W-We can’t fight-t-t-t,” Hyuk said, the robotics that allowed for him to talk too broken from the bullet he’d taken to the face to function properly. The damage from the other bullets probably didn’t help either

“You can’t fight,” Ken frowned, “I can.”

“You’ll l-l-l-l-l-lose,” Hyuk replied, “we ne-ne-need to retreat.”

“They’ll chase us,” Ken pointed out, “they’ll still be trying to kill us.”

“Take me-me-me out-t-t-t of this-s-s-s body,” Hyuk tried to frown, but couldn’t quite manage thanks to the damage.

“And do what?” Ken wondered.

“Im-implant-t-t- me,” Hyuk was clearly struggling to stay coherent and that made Ken feel guilty for not protecting him better, “in you-u-u-u,”

“What?” Ken froze.

Ever since Epsilon, Ken hated having anyone else inside his head. Once, after leaving Project Freelancer, he’d tried to rip out the implants in his head that allowed him to use an AI, to have it be a part of him and his brain. Leo had caught him before he could do any damage, explaining that the wires of the device were wired directly into his brain. Removing them carelessly could very well leave Ken brain dead.

Or just dead dead.

Ken had cursed and cried after that, just wanting the cause of his emotional and mental instability at the time to be gone.

Ken was better now, three years had done wonders to his mind. But that didn’t mean he was ready for another AI to be in his head.

“K-K-Ken,” Hyuk begged, “if y-y-you don’t-t-t-t implant my data ch-ch-chip, i-.”

Static cut off Hyuk’s words, but the message was still clear. The damage done was so significant that the little data chip that contained Hyuk’s whole existence was at risk of being damaged. If the robotic body shut down completely, Hyuk might be wiped from existence completely or locked behind endless firewalls that only Wonsik – the son of a who caused all of this – could take down.

Ken bit his bottom lip. As much as he hated having someone else in his head, he hated the idea of losing Hyuk more. Hyuk was the one he loved more than anyone else in the world. Hyuk was the reason he hadn’t washed his hands of Project Freelancer ages ago, why he was fighting so hard to bring Wonsik to justice.

Carefully, Ken removed Hyuk’s data chip and inserted it into the base of his skull. It took a moment, but soon he could feel Hyuk’s presence in his head.

“That’s better,” Hyuk sighed, a small holographic version of him appearing in front of Ken, “took you long enough. A few more seconds and I’d be locked in that chip forever.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen, Hyuk,” Ken smiled hesitantly, not at all used to being able to hear Hyuk in his mind.

“Beta,” Hyuk frowned, “when I’m like this Beta feels more…..appropriate.” Ken could hear him thinking that Beta always felt more appropriate but didn’t comment.

More like he couldn’t comment.

Ken didn’t like calling Hyuk by a more……fitting name for an AI. It reminded him that Hyuk was just that; and AI. He wasn’t, couldn’t, be human. He couldn’t ever really be with Ken even if they both wanted it. Calling Hyuk by the name Beta always reminded Ken of how ty things were and he just…..couldn’t do it.

“What’s the plan for getting out of here?” was what Ken said instead.

“Sacrifice the robot,” Hyuk shrugged, “That’s why Kai and Chen were sent here. He wants me back, Ken.”

“I’m not going to let him have you,” Ken growled, “not you, not your body. Nothing.”

“Sacrifices have to be made,” Hyuk pointed out, “Ken, I’m your AI. It’s my job to keep you safe. This will keep you safe. I will not fail, Ken. Please don’t make me fail to protect you.”

“Fine,” Ken sighed. He would regret losing Hyuk’s body, but he couldn’t go against Hyuk’s wishes when he said something like that either.

Hyuk had this thing about failing. Ken didn’t really understand it and neither did N and Leo. But it didn’t matter if Ken understood it or not because the fact was that Hyuk hated failing. When he did fail, he practically shut down and it took days for Ken to get him talking again let alone laughing.

So Ken would do as Hyuk asked so that he didn’t fail.

 

--

 

“You need to stop thinking about it,” Hyuk sighed, “it’s kind of annoying. Especially when I can hear it every time you think about it.”

“Sorry,” Ken sighed, “I just.......”

“I’m here,” Hyuk assured him, “and that’s what matters.”

“But you’re like this,” Ken grumbled, waving towards Hyuk’s golden holo form.

Even though Ken wasn’t happy with Hyuk being reduced to a holo form and a data chip, he had to admit that the holo form was pretty. It made Hyuk look like a little angel. Absolutely adorable.

“I’m fine like this,” Hyuk huffed, “Delta and Theta and Omega are all like this and there’s nothing wrong with them.”

Ken fell silent, knowing that he could never argue about this with Hyuk.

“Let’s get going,” Ken just sighed, “N and Leo should be are waiting at the meeting point by now and we’re running late.”

“Alright,” Hyuk smiled, “I’ll come up with a course for us to take to cut down on travel time.” Hyuk flashed for a second, “got it. Uploading to your hud now.”

“Thanks,” Ken smiled slightly.

At one point, he had wondered how Hyuk could do that so quickly. Just blink in and out and have the information they needed. Hyuk had just shrugged and said he was working on AI time. A second to Ken was a whole lot longer to Hyuk since he could progress stuff so quickly. Ken had just nodded, not really understanding all the technical babble Hyuk used to explain everything.

“Let’s go,” Hyuk grinned before vanishing.

“Right.”

 

--

 

Ken slowly opened his eyes and became aware of where he was. He could see trees and hear a river not far away. He could feel grass under him, too. It looked like the place he’d been before he’d felt a sharp pain in the back of his skull and everything had gone dark. One thing he didn’t hear was Hyuk and that……that was terrifying for him.

He should have heard Hyuk’s voice, seen the AI’s holographic form smiling at him the second he opened his eyes. But he didn’t hear Hyuk in his head, he couldn’t feel Hyuk’s presence in his mind. He should have been able to hear Hyuk’s thoughts. Hyuk wasn’t there and that scared Ken.

“You’re up,” Ken turned to find Leo making his way over with N right behind. The older of the pair looked sad, confirming that something was very wrong.

“What happened?” Ken asked, “How did you guys get here? This isn’t the arranged meeting spot. Not even close, Hyuk said we were about a day out when I last asked.”

“We heard your distress call,” N explained, “I guess Hyuk must have sent it. Someone attacked you and left you for dead.”

“And Hyuk?” Ken asked, “Is he with one of you guys? I mean, I can feel a lot of pain in the back of my head, so I must have gotten hit there. Plus that’s where  felt pain right before I passed out. It would make sense that you took him out until I was feeling better.”

“We don’t have him,” Leo frowned and N looked away, unable to tell Ken that the one he loved had been taken.

“Then where is he?” Ken frowned, not willing to believe that he’d lost Hyuk.

“It is logical,” Delta reported, appearing over Leo’s shoulder, “that the ones who attacked Agent Ken took Beta with them. It would be logical to assume that they attacked him knowing that he had an AI unit.”

“Hyuk can’t be gone!” Ken yelled, trying to fight back tears, “he can’t be! And don’t call him Beta! His name is Hyuk!” N rushed over to comfort Ken and the younger gave into his need to cry.

Ken felt a horrible, sick feeling growing in his stomach. He knew exactly who had Hyuk, who had taken the AI from him. Wonsik. The son of a had to have sent someone out to collect Hyuk. He’d done it before after all. That was the only logical option. But it didn’t matter how had Hyuk in the end because Ken was going to find them and take Hyuk back, even if he had to kill to do it.

“Leo,” Ken turned to Leo, “give me Delta.”

“Why?” Leo narrowed his eyes slightly, unsure of where such a request – more like demand – was coming from.

“You have Omega,” Ken explained, “and N has Theta. I need an AI, too.”

“But you don’t like having AI in your head,” N frowned, “and why do you need one now?”

“I’m going to end all of this,” Ken announced, “I’m going to kill Wonsik.”

Silence fell as everyone – human and AI – stared at Ken.

“Alright,” Leo finally said.

“Leo?” N frowned slightly, “are you sure?”

“This has to end,” Leo nodded, “I want to stop looking over my shoulder. I want to stop running. I already had enough problems trying to stay one step ahead of the guys coming for my head when it was just me and Omega. Now with Delta the guys chasing us have doubled and it’s so much harder.”

“Fine,” N sighed after a moment, “I’ll help, too. But we can’t just kill him and walk away, we have to let the world know what he did. To us, to Alpha, to the AI. To Hyuk. People have to know what’s happened and the people still alive who helped Wonsik need to be put behind bars like they deserve.”

“Deal,” Ken nodded. A part of his was horrified by himself, by how easily he’d decided to kill another person. A larger part didn’t care, not after everything he had been through. Not after losing the most important person in his life.

“How are we going to find him?” Theta spoke up, appearing behind N and peeking out over the human’s shoulder, “even Suho didn’t know where he was, right?”

“Theta is right,” N nodded, “Wonsik went into hiding after we left. Any freelancers we’ve crossed paths with haven’t seen him since then. They aren’t even sure if their orders come from him or what.”

“So,” Omega growled, appearing over Leo’s head, “How do we find him then? If you expect me to run around checking random places, you’ve got another thing coming. I’ve got much better things to do. Like killing.” Theta seemed to cower a little

“There is one person who will know,” Delta spoke up, vanishing from his place over Leo’s shoulder and reappearing in front of Ken, “but I do not think Agent Ken will appreciate who.”

“I don’t care,” Ken growled, “tell me who knows where he is!”

“Epsilon.”

Ken froze. This……this was his worst nightmare. he was stuck in a horror movie, that was the only thing that would explain all of this; losing Hyuk, having to find Epsilon who was supposed to have been destroyed.

“How?” Ken demanded, “He was destroyed. We were told he was destroyed.”

“It would seem that you have been misinformed,” Delta replied, “those running Project Freelancer were not in the habit of destroying items that they deemed highly valuable. Being an AI fragment, Epsilon was deemed to be exactly that.”

“So where is he?” Leo asked, “And why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“I assumed that such information was unnecessary after what happened with Agent Ken,” Delta replied, “I did not assume you would have an interest in retrieving him.”

“Fair,” N nodded, “so where is he?”

“Epsilon was put into a storage unit and sent to a Freelancer base used for equipment storage,” Delta informed the group, “however shortly after you three left, the storage base was raided. I have no knowledge of where the unit ended up after that. All I know is that he has not shown up in the hands of any soldiers, either friend or foe.”

“Then we’ll find him,” Ken decided, “we’ll figure out who raided the base and see if they sold him to anyone.”

“There must be a paper trail of some kind,” N nodded in agreement even though he wasn’t at all sure they could actually pull any of this off.

He honestly wasn’t sure if they even should.

 

--

 

“That will be $450.25,” the taxi driver said, not even looking at the former freelancer handing him the money.

“Thanks,” the solider nodded slightly, getting out of the cab. Once he got his bag out of the trunk, the taxi drove off and left him alone on the sidewalk. With a small sigh, he started walking the rest of the way to his destination.

Once he got there, he just stood and waited.

Ken stood at the end of the driveway, staring long and hard at the front door of the house. He was waiting for the man inside to come out, waiting for the moment that would end everything. Looking for Epsilon had led him here. As it turned out, looking for Epsilon had led Ken right to the very person he was hoping the AI could help him find.

Kim Wonsik, the man who started everything.

Leo and N had decided weeks ago to stop. Trying to find Epsilon had become too dangerous, so they had left, taking Delta, Theta, and Omega with them. A part of Ken understood why, but a larger part was angry at them for leaving him.

He’d heard rumours about what they were doing, but didn’t know anything for sure. He couldn’t see the rumour about Leo being dead being truth, nor the one about N going to the government with what he knew and vanishing into thin air. After all, Leo had Delta and Omega to help him and N would never risk anything happening to Theta.

It didn’t really matter what they were doing anymore though. They couldn’t – and wouldn’t – help him find what he was looking for. The only person who could help him find Hyuk was right in front of him, exiting his house.

“Oh,” Wonsik didn’t bother to look surprised to find Ken there, waiting, “so you’re finally here then.”

“Yeah,” Ken nodded, looking Wonsik over carefully.

With everything that Wonsik had done, Ken had expected him to look a lot more……evil. What he saw before him wasn’t some evil man who’d destroyed lives so he could bring his dead lover back. No, the man who stood before him was a broken man, a shadow of his former self. Time had taken a lot from Wonsik, leaving him old and weak.

“I was going to visit Sanghyuk,” Wonsik said, “would you like to join me, Jaehwan?”

“Alright,” Ken nodded before following after Wonsik in silence. He felt a flare of indignation at the use of his real name. He hadn’t been called ‘Jaehwan’ in years, not since Wonsik gave him the name ‘Ken.’

A name the older apparently didn’t have the decency to even use now.

The pair didn’t talk at all until they were both standing before Han Sanghyuk’s grave.

“Hey, Sanghyuk,” Wonsik smiled sadly, sitting before the headstone, “I’ve missed you. Have you missed me? The doctor was refusing to let me leave the hospital. The way he acted, you’d think I was going to drop dead the second I set foot outside.” Ken watched as Wonsik ran a hand over the stone, soft and gentle like he was caressing his deceased lover’s face, “I’ll be joining you soon, Sanghyuk. Wait for me, alright? And try not to be too mad at me for what I’ve done.”

“He’ll forgive you,” Ken found himself saying, “If he’s anything like Hyuk, he’ll forgive you the second he sees you.”

“He will,” Wonsik nodded, “but he’ll still spend a few days pretending that he’s still mad. He’ll make me work for the ‘I forgive you’ and ‘I love you’ that he knows I want to hear.”

Ken nodded and took another look at the man he hated so much it had started to consume his life. Wonsik really didn’t look like an evil man, just a broken one. Just a man who’d been unable to let go of the past. Ken, despite himself, could sympathize. He hadn’t exactly taken the loss of Hyuk very well and Hyuk had only been stolen, not killed like Sanghyuk had been. Ken really couldn’t blame Wonsik for becoming obsessed with the idea of bringing his lover back.

“Jaehwan,” Wonsik said, “can I give you some advice?”

“Yes, sir,” Ken nodded.

“Don’t let the past consume you,” Wonsik said, getting up and turning to face the younger man, “let the past be exactly that. The past. Live for the present, for the future. But let the past rest.”

Ken opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He knew that the old man was right. He needed to let go and move on. If he didn’t move on with his life, he’d end up exactly like Wonsik and he didn’t want to be like him. And yet, he just couldn’t let Hyuk go.

“Sir,” Ken bit his bottom lip before continuing, “Doesn’t Hyuk deserve the same chance?”

“He does,” Wonsik nodded, “and it’s his if he wants it.”

“Can I have him then?” Ken asked.

“Jaehwan,” Wonsik frowned slightly, “what makes you think that I have him? If I did, don’t you think I would still be using him to bring Sanghyuk back to me? If I had him, I don’t think I would have ever realized how wrong my actions were.”

“But someone took him,” Ken frowned, feeling frustrated and scared and angry, “if it wasn’t you, then who?”

“Jaehwan,” Wonsik sighed, “I can’t give you an answer for that. But I do wish you luck in finding him.”

“Thank you, sir,” Ken nodded before starting to walk away.

“Jaehwan,” Wonsik called, “when you find him, would you give him a message?”

“Yes, sir,” Ken said, turning around to look at the man he found he no longer hated.

“I’m sorry,” Wonsik said, “for everything.”

“I’ll tell him, sir,” Ken said, “but sir, I don’t think I need to. He never hated you, not even a little. He was always more worried about trying to save you from yourself.”

“I figured,” Wonsik laughed a small, bitter laugh, “I guess we’re all a little obsessed, huh?”

“Yes, sir,” Ken nodded, “we are.”

With that, Ken headed off and left Wonsik alone in the graveyard. He had a new task to complete and he wouldn’t allow himself to fail. He would become as obsessed with finding Hyuk as he had been with finding and killing Wonsik.

But once he found Hyuk? Once the AI was safely back in his care? He’d do as Wonsik had suggested. He’d move on, start a new life. The past could rest in peace.

But first he needed Hyuk.

 

--

 

One second Ken had been walking, trying to recall all the old freelancer bases he knew of, the next something was ramming into him and he was down for the count. And when he started to come around? Everything hurt like a .

“Hey!” Ken slowly opened his eyes to the sound of someone, a guy, calling out to him, “can you hear me? Dude, are you still alive?”

“If he’s dead,” a second voice, another guy, spoke up, “how do you expect him to answer?”

“You never know,” the first guy replied, “I mean, how many times have I shot Ravi? He’s still with us, isn’t he?”

“That’s because he’s an AI, dude,” the second guy laughed, “You can’t kill an AI.”

“Who are you people?” Ken asked, slowly getting to his feet. He turned to find himself looking at two young men wearing armour like his own, only theirs were shades of blue and his were black.

“Careful, bro,” the second guy said, “You got hit really hard. You probably shouldn’t get up that quickly.”

“What hit me?” Ken frowned, “and like I already asked, just who the hell are you people?”

“Easy, dude,” the second guy raised his hands in the universal signal of ‘I surrender,’ “I’m Taemin. This is Jackson. We’re part of the local blue army around here.”

“Blue army?” Ken raised an eyebrow.

He recognized the title given to one of the two types of simulation squads that Project Freelancer used to train its agents. They’d put bases on a bunch of planets, in a bunch of location on those planets, and filled them with soldiers. Not just any soldiers either. They were the kind who got the tiest scores during basic training, the ones deemed worthless by the government.

Since the government didn’t want them, Project Freelancer took them.

 The poor guys honestly thought that they were actually fighting in a war, but they weren’t even worth being called an asset to the project. Heck, Ken had been sent to a red base once to test his skills. He passed with flying colours, but the simulation squad........

Ken was told not to worry about them since they weren’t of any value to the project anyway.

“Yeah,” Taemin nodded, “and you go hit by our tank. Jackson was driving.”

“It was an accident,” Jackson frowned, “I got distracted.”

“So,” Taemin turned back to Ken, “who are you?”

“I’m a freelancer,” Ken replied.

Taemin and Jackson quickly pulled their guns, ready to shot Ken in the head at a moment’s notice.

“,” Jackson hissed, “you’re a freelancer?”

“More like ex-freelancer,” Ken shrugged, trying to play down the fact that two people were pointing guns at him, “look, I’m just passing through. I’m just looking for something and you guys aren’t it. Trust me, you’ll never be it.”

“Sure,” Taemin scoffed, “what are you looking for?”

“An AI.”

Taemin fired into the air twice before pointing his gun at Ken again.

“Wow,” Ken took a step back, “Ok, I’m not trying to mess with you guys. I’m looking for Hyuk. Beta. I don’t know what AI you guys are thinking of, but unless it’s Beta I don’t care about them.”

“Like we’d believe you,” Jackson scoffed, “we’ve learned not to trust anyone who introduces themselves as a freelancer.”

“I’m not a freelancer anymore,” Ken growled.

“He’s right,” all three turned to find N making his way over to them with three guys in red armour.

“N?” Ken blinked, surprised to not just see N there and to see him in blue armour instead of his original black armour with silver detailing.

“Hey, Ken,” N smiled slightly, “how have you been?”

“What the hell is going on?” one of the reds asked, “and who is this?”

“He’s a freelancer,” Taemin scowled and Ken rolled his eyes all three reds pulled their guns.

“Former,” Ken sighed, “I left with N ages ago.”

“Who else did you leave with?” another of the reds asked and Ken rolled his eyes again.

“Leo,” Ken still listed off everyone he left with, “Theta, Omega, and Hyuk. Beta.”

“You still haven’t found him, have you?” N frowned slightly.

“No,” Ken sighed, “I found Wonsik, but he didn’t have Hyuk. Someone else does.”

“Someone else?” N scowled.

“Hold up!” one of the reds shouted, “N, you know this guy?”

“Yeah,” N nodded, “this is Ken.”

“Cool,” Jackson grinned, “this is the guy!”

“Look,” Ken sighed, “I’ve been hit by a tank, had guys pointed at me, and I just want to sit down and rest because I’ve been walking for a couple days. Is there a place around here where I can do that?”

“Come with me,” N smiled slightly, waving for Ken to follow, “we’ve got some room in our base, so you can crash there. Once you’re rested, you need to tell me everything.”

“Us,” Taemin said, throwing an arm around both former freelancer’s shoulders, “this is gonna be a Blue Team problem and, well, we’re all Blue Team.” He pointed between the three of them and Jackson.

“He’s right,” N laughed, letting Taemin take the lead while Jackson trailed slightly behind them.

 

--

 

“So,” N frowned slightly, “you’re just.....wondering around looking for Hyuk?”

“Pretty much,” Ken nodded.

“That’s so sad,” Jackson frowned.

“And pretty sweet,” Taemin added.

“Do you have any idea where he could be?” Jackson asked, earning head shake from Ken.

“So sad,” Taemin sighed.

“Do you think.....he would know?” Jackson asked after a moment.

“Maybe,” N shrugged.

“We should ask him,” Theta said, suddenly popping up, “the worst that could happen is he says no.”

“No,” Taemin argued, “the worst thing that could happen is that he’ll get pissed. And yell. A lot.”

“Who are you talking about?” Ken asked after watching the four discuss the pros and cons of telling this ‘he’ person.

“Me,” everyone turned to find a young man who looked a lot like Wonsik had in his youth, “long time no see, Agent Ken. How’s the head?”

“Epsilon,” Ken scowled.

“Um,” Taemin looked to N, “do they....have a history?”

“Yeah,” N sighed, “Ravi is the AI that messed up Ken. The reason why we knew we had to leave the project.”

“Dang,” Jackson hissed.

“What are you doing here?” Epsilon....Ravi.....whatever....asked.

“I’m just passing by,” Ken scoffed, “If Hyuk isn’t here—“

“Don’t call him that,” Ravi hissed, “his name isn’t Hyuk. It isn’t anything like Sanghyuk’s name. It’s Beta.”

“Don’t act like you know him,” Ken growled right on back, “maybe he likes being called Hyuk.”

“And maybe he’s just trying to make the best of working with you,” Ravi scoffed.

“Alright!” N yelled, “Shut up both of you. You’re scaring Theta.”

“Sorry,” Ken quickly apologized. Ravi shut up before leaving the room. Everyone left inside the room was silent, unsure of what to say now.

“Um,” Theta finally spoke up, “do you want me to talk to him?”

“Are you sure you want to do something like that?” N asked his partner AI.

“I want Hyuk back,” Theta smiled slightly, “I miss him. And if I ask Ravi, he’s not as likely to get upset. We are brothers after all.”

“Alright,” N finally said after a moment. Theta smiled before vanishing.

 

--

 

“You need to stop,” N frowned as he watched Ken trying to fix his armour, “just….let it go.”

“You know why I can’t do that,” Ken replied, “I need to find Hyuk.”

“Can you not call him that?” N asked, looking around like he expected someone to be there to overhear, “you know why you shouldn’t say that around here.”

“If Epsilon wants to call him Beta,” Ken scoffed, “then he can go do that. But I’m not going to do what he wants me to do.”

“His name is Ravi,” N shrugged, “at least, that’s what he wants to be called.”

“Whatever,” Ken shrugged, still not looking up from his work of fixing up his armour, “besides, why should he get to be called what he wants and not Hyuk.”

It didn’t really surprise him that N had stumbled across the red and blue bases placed at Blood Gulch by Project Freelancer. It was one of the most unimportant bases to the project, so forgotten that no one had ever bothered to use it. Heck, Ken doubted any agents or personnel even remembered it was there ninety nine point nine percent of the time. It was kind of perfect if you wanted to hide out for a while and that was what N and Theta had wanted.

What did surprise him was that N had decided to stay and help the two teams out. Maybe he’d felt responsible for them, maybe Theta had suggested it – N always did have a problem saying ‘no’ to his AI. The reason didn’t matter, the action did.

The act of staying proved useful because a few weeks later outposts like Blood Gulch were ordered terminated along with several other bases. Turns out, Project Freelancer was being investigated so orders were sent out to trusted agents to eliminate anyone who was deemed a danger to the project. With N there to aid the Reds and Blues, they were able to fight off the cleanup crews that had been sent to Blood Gulch.

Actually, that confused Ken a little bit. When he’d seen Wonsik, the former director had looked….defeated. As far as Ken could tell, he’d given up on the whole project and washed his hands of everything shortly after Ken, N, and Leo had left with Hyuk. If Wonsik wasn’t in control, who was? Who had ordered Hyuk captured? Who had ordered the red and blue bases destroyed?

Ken only knew of one person highly ranked enough to have taken power from Wonsik.

Hongbin.

“N,” Ken sighed, finally turning away from his armour, “you can’t just quit, just wash your hands of everything and be done with it all. You can’t possibly think that you can hide out here with the reds and blues and just……be alright. Hongbin will send someone else eventually, you know he will. And then what? You can’t fight everyone who comes off.”

“So our answer is to help you find Hyuk?” N frowned, “the only person who will get what they want out of that is you.”

“If we all go to command,” Ken explained, “we can hack into their files. Ravi or Theta can copy everything they find and we can send it all to the government. That’s what you originally wanted right? To expose them for what they had done?”

“Well, yes,” N nodded, “but you can’t expect the others to just come along with us. This isn’t their fight. And I think you can understand why I don’t want to take Theta in there with me.”

“I’ll be fine,” Theta spoke up, appearing between the pair in a small burst of holographic fireworks, “I can fight.”

“Are you sure?” N asked, “You can stay here if you want. I’m sure Taemin or Jackson can look after you while I’m gone.”

“No,” Theta smiled, “I want to help. You always think about bringing Hongbin and Wonsik to justice and I want to help you do that. We’re partners, right? Besides, you’ll be there with me to keep me safe, right?”

“Right,” N smiled slightly at the AI.

“Go ask the teams what they want to do,” Ken suggested, “I’m going to finish fixing up my armour. Do you want to head out once I’m done, or wait until tomorrow?”

“As soon as possible,” N decided before leaving with Theta in toe, “I want to be done with all of this.”

Ken was left alone once again so he turned his attention to fixing the problems with his armour.

“You should give up,” Ken jumped a little when he heard Epsilon – Ravi – speak up.

“What do you know about it, Epsilon?” Ken asked, earning a glare from the AI.

He took a wee bit of joy in getting that glare. After all, Ravi did up his head pretty badly.

At first, Ken had been rather surprised to find Eps- Ravi well and good at Blood Gulch. Of all the places he could have possibly been, this was it. And apparently he not only recalled everything, but he was much more stable. Ken was trying very hard not to be too bitter over that bit of news. The most surprising thing was that Ravi was in a robotic body much like how Hyuk had been. This body looked a lot like a younger version of Wonsik and that…..well that through him off at first.

He still didn’t understand just how the heck Ravi had ended up in Blood Gulch. Jackson tried to explain, but Ken got lost after Ravi’s date chip switched hands for the fourth time. Anyway, Taemin got his hands on it when he’d gone to the Vegas Quadrant for a vacation. And the robot body came from Onew of red team. Ken didn’t understand how that happened either since by the sounds of it the two teams had been fighting at the time.

Ken thought all of these people were crazy.

Blood Gulch made people crazy.

“What do you think is going to happen?” Ravi asked, “Do you think you’ll find Hyuk and he’ll realize he’s loved you since the beginning? That you’ll run off together and be happy?”

“That would be great,” Ken shrugged, “but I think that’s up to Hyuk. We’ve gotten our chances to move on, Ravi. I think Hyuk deserves that chance, too.”

Ravi remained silent, watching Ken for a moment before walking away. Ken sighed before returning once more to his armour.

 

--

 

“This isn’t going to work,” Ravi warned as Ken ran down the halls of the Freelancer Base, “Jackson and Taemin can only distract them for so long before someone realizes that there’s something else going on. And red team? They’re in even more danger ‘cuz they’re outside. Easy targets.”

“I know that,” Ken rolled his eyes, “we just need to get the center building. After that? Who cares?”

“I care,” Ravi growled, “I’m not about to die because you want to bring Beta back. And my friends? I’m even less inclined to let them get killed for Beta.”

“His name isn’t Beta!” Ken hissed, “I’d think you of all people would understand that.”

“He doesn’t like being called Hyuk,” Ravi shot back, holographic form appearing right in front of the former freelancer, “he likes being called Beta.”

“Just shut up,” Ken snapped in reply, “focus on what we’re trying to do here. Are your scans picking up anything?”

“Turn right at the next corner,” Ravi sighed, vanishing from sight, “that hall will take us where we want to go.”

“Great,” Ken smiled slightly.

The plan was rather simple.

Break into the freelancer base that Ken’s sources said was being used to store Hyuk. Well, they said it was being used to store a very important AI, but who else could it be but Hyuk? N and Theta were part of the extraction team while the reds played look out. The blues were in charge of drawing the enemies’ fire just long enough for Ken and Ravi to get in.

Getting out was a whole other story, one that Ken knew would likely end in a fight between himself and Ravi. Getting out alive didn’t matter much to Ken so long as Hyuk was safe. Ravi wanted to live and Ken honestly wasn’t sure if he cared about Hyuk enough to risk his life saving the other AI.

“Alright,” Ken said as he came to a stop in front of console, “let’s go.”

“Whatever,” Ravi sighed.

Ken unplugged the AI, putting his data chip into the computer. Silence fell as Ken waited. The longer it took Ravi to locate Hyuk, the more Ken began to doubt himself. What if Hyuk wasn’t there? What if he’d been deleted? Had Ken risked the lives of N, Theta, Ravi, and the reds and blues for nothing? And what if Hyuk didn’t want anything to do with him? He’d heard a rumour that Wonsik had died, what if Hyuk wanted to die now too?

“Yo,” Ravi appeared, “I found him.”

“Where is he?” Ken asked, fighting the urge to cry out in joy.

“He’s in the computer system,” Ravi explained, “he needs a new data chip.”

“Where can I get one?” Ken looked around like he expected there to be a box labelled ‘data chips’ sitting around.

“There should be some over there,” Hyuk answered, appearing beside Ravi.

“Hyuk,” Ken bit back tears at the sight of the AI.

“Hi,” Hyuk smiled softly.

“Have your little reunion later,” Ravi snapped, “we don’t have a lot of time. Do you want to die?”

“Right,” Ken rushed to where Hyuk had pointed and went through the supplies he found.

“Don’t be so harsh,” Hyuk frowned at Ravi, “he’s been through a lot. You should know that, Epsilon.”

“He could get all of us killed,” Ravi countered, “He’s rash and thinks with his heart instead of his head. Especially when it comes to you. That will get us all into a lot of trouble later. You should know that, Beta.”

“Found one!” Ken yelled, running back over and plugging the new data chip in, “what do I need to do now?”

“Let someone who can actually use one of these things do the work.”

Ken turned to find Leo standing in the doorway, Delta standing above one shoulder while Omega stood over the other.

“Leo?” Ken gasped, a slow smile forming on his face, “you’re....you’re alive?”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t be?” Leo questioned as he took over working the console, “with Omega and Delta helping me?”

“Delta!” Hyuk smiled rightly, “Omega!”

“You go captured?” Omega scoffed, “pathetic.”

“I do not agree with your assessment of the situation,” Delta argued, “Agent Ken is a capable fighter and Hyuk is a strong AI. I assume that Hyuk was captured because our enemies decided to use tricks.”

“Sneak attack,” Hyuk and Ken replied, smiling slightly at each other when they realized they said the same thing at the same time.

“Gross,” Ravi hissed before turning to find Delta looking at him.

“Epsilon,” Delta nodded in greeting, “it is a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Delta, right?” Ravi replied, clearly a little uncomfortable meeting the other AI.

“Finished,” Leo said before anyone could say anything else.

“Good,” Ken sighed, “then let’s get out of here.”

Hyuk and Ravi deactivated their holo forms and ejected their data chips, ready to do as Ken had suggested and leave. With Leo as a guide, the group found it easy to reunite with Jackson and Taemin. Both were hesitant to believe Leo at first thanks to the Freelancer armour, but once Ravi vouched for him it was all good.

N was overjoyed to see Leo alive and well, as was Theta to see Delta, Hyuk, and even Omega. It actually made escape a little hard because N’s cry of joy attracted a few bad guys to them. Leo made sure to remind N of this the whole trip home, the reds and blues laughter background music.

Apparently seeing the perfect leader N getting yelled at for a mistake was great entertainment.

 

--

 

Ravi sighed for the hundredth time that night, unable to sleep. There was far too much going on in his mind. Far too many thoughts. Mostly, they were about the recent additions to Blue Base. Ken was.....Ken was a pretty big point of guilt is Ravi was being honest. He had ed up the human’s head pretty badly.

But Ravi wasn’t going to be honest about that. It brought up a lot of bad memories and memories........memories hurt him.

The other big problem on Ravi’s mind was Beta........Hyuk.

At least that was one problem he could deal with, though.

He just needed to talk to the other AI so that was exactly what he did.

“Hey, Beta.....Hyuk,” Ravi called as he entered the basement of Blue Base that Ken was currently using as a lab, “where are you?”

“Here,” Hyuk replied, small holographic form flickering into existence in front of Ravi, “you’re up late.”

“I don’t really sleep, so,” the other AI shrugged, “what are you doing in here?”

“Just.....” Hyuk trailed off for a moment, “observing.”

“What’s there to observe?” Ravi questioned, taking a seat beside the AI’s holographic form, “Ken’s building you a body. Well, he’s building you one with help from Key and Onew. I think it’s pretty straight up.”

“Do you want your body?” Hyuk asked, earning a confused look from Ravi.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ravi sighed after realizing that Hyuk wasn’t about to explain himself.

“I feel more......myself......when I’m like this,” Hyuk sighed, “when I’m in a body, well, a robot body, it feels like I’m trapped. I can’t do anything I’m supposed to be able to do. Like monitor Ken’s vitals and make sure his equipment is in working order. I can’t make sure that he’s safe.”

“You weren’t made to do that stuff,” Ravi pointed out, “You were made to be Sanghyuk. But you’re free now. You can do whatever you want. You don’t have to keep Ken alive.”

“But I want to,” Hyuk cried, “I like doing all that stuff. I like being needed like that. I like being with Ken in this form. Everyone is more than happy to tell me what I should want, what kind of freedom I should have. But no one ever takes the time to ask me what I want to do.”

“What do you want to do?” Ravi asked, still not completely understanding what Hyuk wanted.

“I don’t know,” Hyuk sighed, “all I know is that I don’t want to be in a robot body again. I don’t know if I’d rather be inside a computer system or if I want to be back inside Ken’s head, but I don’t want a new body. I just......every time I tell Ken he gets kind of sad.”

“He does kind of get this whole ‘I know what’s best for Hyuk’ attitude when anyone brings it up,” Ravi muttered, trying not to be over heard by the other AI.

“Shut up!” Hyuk hissed, hearing his words none the less, “you don’t know anything either. You can be just as bad as Ken when it comes to knowing what I want.”

“What?” Ravi backed up slightly, “I do not.”

“You do,” Hyuk rolled his eyes, holographic form growing larger so that he was the same size as Ravi, “Do you really not think I could hear you talking to Taemin about what you’d do with me? I’m in the ing computer system of the base, I’m pretty much everywhere.”

“Which is a lot more creepy the more you think about it,” Ravi laughed, trying to calm Hyuk down.

“Shut up,” Hyuk sighed, shrinking down again, “just shut up.”

Hyuk flickered out of existence, leaving Ravi alone since it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Hyuk was done talking. The other AI sighed before returning to his room.

Hyuk....wasn’t wrong.

As much as Ravi might comment about Ken’s plans for how Hyuk should live, he had got a few theories about that himself. Neither had ever taken the time to ask Hyuk what he wanted, they’d just charge ahead and did what they wanted. Ravi hated to admit it, but he and Ken were a lot more alike than they were different.

At least, when it came to Hyuk.

Or maybe they weren’t so much like each other as they were like Wonsik.

What Ravi recalled of his creator told him that Wonsik had been the exact same way when it came to all things Sanghyuk. Well, before he realized the error of his ways he was like that.

“,” Ravi sighed, dropping onto his bed, “I’m so confused.”

Neither one realized that someone had been listening to their conversation.

 

--

 

Ken took a deep, calming breath before he entered the storage room. According to Theta, that was where Hyuk had retreated to after the conversation he’d had with Ravi last night. Theta didn’t know that was why though, all he knew was that Hyuk had been upset by something and gone to hide in the storage room.

“Hey,” Ken called, finally walking into storage room after he’d prepared himself, “Hyuk, are you in here?”

“What do you want?” the AI’s voice rang out.

“I just want to talk to you,” Ken explained, “can I?”

“Fine,” Hyuk sighed before appearing in front of one of the computer terminals, turning it on so he could finish watching the movie he’d been playing before Ken had come into the storage room.

“Do you want me to wait?” Ken asked, “I mean, I know you’ve wanted to watch this movie for a while, and I have a lot to say………”

“Alright,” Hyuk nodded, attention already off Ken and focused on his movie.

The human watched as the AI stood before the computer screen. Hyuk looked so interested in the movie, it was adorable to Ken. But then, everything about Hyuk was adorable to him. But moments like this were his favourite because Hyuk let his walls down and anyone could tell what he was feeling.  The AI didn’t do that enough and Ken felt like he was mostly to blame for that. Hyuk felt the need to hide how he was really feeling because he didn’t want to upset people and most of the time ‘people’ meant Ken.

They did spend most of their time together after all.

“Hyuk,” Ken said and Hyuk paused the movie.

“What?” Hyuk replied, not even looking at Ken.

“I’ve stopped building the robot body,” Ken sighed, “you don’t want one so…….I can’t force you to use it. I won’t force you to use it.”

“I’m sorry,” Hyuk sighed, “I know you’re just trying to do what you think is best—.”

“No,” Ken frowned, “I shouldn’t just…..just charge off doing what I think is best. We’re partners, I should talk to you before I do something. That’s how partnerships work.”

“It’s alright, Ken,” Hyuk smiled, holo form glowing a little brighter, “don’t worry about it.”

The pair settled down to watch the movie when a thought popped into Ken’s head.

“We never caught Hongbin, did we?” he asked.

“No,” Hyuk said, quickly figuring out what Ken was thinking and adding his own thoughts as well, “what do you think about rectifying that?”

“I think I like that idea a lot,” Ken smiled, “want to head out now?”

“After the movie?” Hyuk frowned slightly, glancing back at the screen.

“Alright,” Ken smiled and the pair settled in to finish the movie, “we’ve got to take time to say goodbye to everyone, too.”

“I don’t want to say goodbye,” Hyuk frowned slightly, “I.....I don’t like goodbyes.”

“I don’t like them either,” Ken nodded in understanding, “they’re too......permanent. And we aren’t going to be gone forever.”

Never say goodbye. If you don’t say goodbye, then you aren’t really gone. You just aren’t here right now. (A/N: this is one of my favourite lines from ‘Red vs Blue’)

 

--

 

“It’s open,” Hyuk reported and Ken was quick to remove the AI’s data chip from the computer terminal.

“All the doors?” Ken questioned was he could feel Hyuk in his mind once more, “or just this one?”

“All of them,” Hyuk replied, holo form activating so that he could actually roll his eyes at the other, “why wouldn’t I do all the doors?”

“Just making sure,” Ken shrugged, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

The pair fell silent as they made their way down the halls, Ken ready to put a bullet into anything that moved. They were going after someone very dangerous and couldn’t take any risks. Especially when they’d only just reunited less than a month prior.

But then, Ken didn’t seem to need to be prepared for anything.

“Creepy,” Hyuk said, looking around at the war zone that had once been a Project Freelancer storage facility, “it feels like……raiders of the lost ark or something.”

“All we’re missing are the skeletons,” Ken laughed as they turned a corner, “wait, never mind. I see one.”

“What the heck happened here?” Hyuk asked, holo form appearing in front of the skeleton so he could get a closer look.

“No idea,” Ken frowned, “but…….I’m not so sure if we’re the only ones trying to hunt down Hongbin anymore.”

“Same,” Hyuk nodded, vanishing and reappearing over Ken’s shoulder, “we’re just the ones being nonviolent about it.”

“I think we should find a control panel,” Ken decided, “We’ll download all the files we can and get out of here.”

“Good plan,” Hyuk said, “this place is just……..weird.”

Ken just nodded, letting Hyuk lead him to the main control panel. Even though it only took Hyuk a few minutes to down load everything he could find, Ken was still tense as heck. He half expected something to pop out at them, the same something that had attacked this base and killed everyone.

“Done?” Ken asked when Hyuk popped out his data chip, but he got no answer so he just took Hyuk’s chip and left.

“When my data chip is ejected,” Hyuk sighed once they were on the move once again, “that normally means that I’m done.”

“So much sass,” Ken laughed, “I know, I know. I was being stupid. No need to rub it in.”

“It’s alright,” Hyuk laughed in reply, “I think it’s cute.”

The pair failed to notice a figure watched them through the scope of a sniper rifle.  The figure waited until it could no longer see the two before putting down the gun and heading off.

 

--

 

Ken’s main problem back in the days of Project Freelancer was that he didn’t put enough effort into the tasks he was given. In fact, the only reason he was considered to be one of the three strongest in the program was thanks to Leo and N forcing him to try harder. He had a natural talent when it came to shooting a gun and he relied too heavily on that.

It wasn’t until Hyuk came along that he started to try without needing someone to push him.

With Hyuk around, he couldn’t put all his faith on his ability to hit a target between the eyes with one shot. Firing the kill shot didn’t count for anything if his short comings got Hyuk hurt. Heck, if his foolishness cost him Hyuk, he would never forgive himself. His foolishness did end up costing him Hyuk, even if it was only for a little while. Actually, it almost cost him Hyuk once before, when the AI lost his robotic body.

And then, only just a few hours prior, it had almost happened again.

All because he was a fool who didn’t try had enough. Who wasn’t strong enough to protect the one he cared most about.

“Stop thinking about it,” Hyuk suddenly said, holo form popping up beside him, “I think you put enough effort into everything.”

“Not really,” Ken frowned, trying to repair his armour, “if I was better, those guys wouldn’t have gotten the drop on us. And they had an EMP device. If I took much longer taking them out, they would have set it off and……..you’d be gone.”

“Ken,” Hyuk sighed sadly before flashing the human what he hoped was a reassuring smile, “don’t push yourself so hard, I’m here to help you. I didn’t detect those guys either, not until they were right there on top of us. This isn’t your fault. Not totally anyway.”

“I just,” Ken looked down, “I can’t lose you. Not again. Not for good.”

“I know,” Hyuk nodded, wishing he had a solid form available so that he could hug Ken, “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

“You say that,” Ken sighed, “but......but how can I be sure.”

“Ken,” Hyuk sighed, “we can’t be sure. I wish I could give you a guarantee that I’ll always be here, but.....with what we’re doing.......”

“You can’t promise it,” Ken gave the AI a sad half smile, “I know. I just.......sometimes I wish things were different. I wish we were both the same thing. I wish we could live a happy, problem free life. I wish for a lot of things that we’re never going to get.”

Hyuk didn’t know what to say or do, so he just moved closer to Ken in hopes that the proximity would make his partner feel better. Or maybe it was just to make himself feel better because what Ken was saying.......it made him want to cry. Too bad he couldn’t do that because maybe getting it out would help him feel better.

“Let’s head out,” Ken finally said, trying to make his smile believable, “Hongbin is out there someplace and we have to stop him.”

 

--

 

“Training?” Hyuk giggled, appearing via the holo-projection unit Ken had installed into their new ride; a M247 ultra-light all-terrain vehicle commonly called a mongoose. (A/N: it’s a vehicle from Halo)

“I figured that it couldn’t hurt,” Ken shrugged, pausing his work out so that he could talk to Hyuk properly.

“You know,” Hyuk said, turning his attention to the mongoose, “when you first suggested adding a projection unit to this thing, I was kind of against the idea.”

“I know,” Ken laughed, “you wouldn’t talk to me for a week.” Ken failed to mention how much he had hurt that week. Hyuk still knew, though.

“But,” Hyuk shot the human a playful glare, “I kind of like the freedom. It’s nice to not have to hear your every though for a few hours.”

“I know the feeling,” Ken nodded in agreement, tone just as playful.

“Plus,” Hyuk snickered, “if I’m like this, I can pick you up.”

It took Ken a moment to get what Hyuk was referring to. When he’d first transferred Hyuk to the mongoose, he’d joked about Hyuk being able to pick up dates. Hyuk hadn’t found the joke funny back then, but apparently that had changed.

“You said that joke was lame,” Ken said, trying to ignore his heating cheeks.

“When you said it,” Hyuk laughed, “now get back to your training. No slacking off, Ken!”

“Right,” Ken laughed before returning his attention to his work.

Hyuk watched, thankful that Ken was far to focused on his work to notice the dreamy smile forming on the AI’s face. One other thing Hyuk was grateful for about with the whole mongoose situation; he wasn’t in Ken’s head and Ken wasn’t in his. It mean that Hyuk could finally allow for his thoughts to trail someplace he’d never let them go before.

His feelings for Ken and the possibility that they went beyond friendship.

Hyuk had never dared to let his thoughts find their way to this topic before. His mind was always focused on protecting Ken or connected to Ken’s mind. But now.....being in the mongoose......with Ken right there........well, Hyuk now had a lot of free thinking time. And that free thinking time seemed to like thinking about Ken and how.....amazing he was.

Hyuk just wasn’t sure if it was love.

He knew what Ken felt for him. He knew how that felt thanks to the whole mind connection thing. He just didn’t know if his feelings were the same. And he couldn’t even compare them to what he’d felt for Wonsik because those feelings weren’t real or his.

Plus, he’d kind of erased them from his being, unable and unwilling to feel them after being in the freelancer computers and realizing exactly what Wonsik had done to him, the fragments, and the freelancer agents.

It just hurt too much.

But that wasn’t the issue.

It was his feelings for Ken and how deep they ran.

Hyuk sighed, holo form vanishing as he focused on his current dilemma.

From some distance away, the same figure that had spied on the pair at the trashed base watched them.

“Sir,” the figure said after pulling out a radio, “they’re getting closer to your location.”

“Good,” a voice rang out, “very good.”

“Do you wish for me to keep watching them?” the figure asked.

“No,” the voice over the radio said after a moment of thought, “not right now. For the moment, I want you to return here.”

“Yes, sir,” the figure nodded before leaving.

 

--

 

“Not here either,” Ken scowled, crossing another freelancer base off on the map that lay before him, “that makes twelve searched empty bases and counting.”

“We’re gonna find him,” Hyuk said, silently wishing he had a physical form so that he could pat Ken’s shoulder.

He seemed to be wishing for that a lot lately. And for the same reason; so that he could touch Ken. It kind of made him regret letting Ken hear him tell Ravi that he didn’t want a robot body. It would have made touching Ken possible. And no one said he’d have to stay in that form all the time so........

Live and learn?

“We’ve been looking for months,” Ken sighed, “Hongbin is.......he’s gone.”

“Or he’s just really good at hiding,” Hyuk argued, “he can’t just be gone.”

“He can,” Ken replied, “he was Wonsik’s right hand man. He had to have been taught something useful while in that position.” Ken paused before muttering too low for anyone to hear, “besides treating people and AIs like toys.” Hyuk still heard, but decided to ignore it.

“Then there will be a trail,” Hyuk bit back a growl of annoyance over Ken’s behaviour, “Wonsik will have something written down somewhere. That’s the kind of person he was. He always made a record of everything because his memory was .”

“You sure?” Ken questioned, “Then how could we have missed it?”

“Wonsik might have written everything down,” Hyuk rolled his eyes, “but that doesn’t mean he left it all laying around for anyone to read. We need to find the information we need still.”

“Alright,” Ken nodded, deciding that Hyuk was right, “then lead the way.”

“We need a ride off this planet, though,” Hyuk said, “our destination is on earth.”

“Earth?” Ken frowned, “why would what we need be on......Hyuk.”

“What?” Hyuk frowned, “you know we need that information if we want to catch Hongbin.”

“But Wonsik is dead,” Ken reminded him, “all his stuff that was on earth had probably been sold off or been repossessed by the government.”

“If he hadn’t left everything in your name,” Hyuk flashed Ken a small smile, well aware that this news probably wouldn’t go over too well with the other, “then yeah. But.....he left everything to you.”

“What?” Ken blinked, trying to understand.

“That’s what all the files say,” Hyuk explained, “Wonsik left everything to you and the bank has been holding it, waiting for you to come and sign things. Everything is paid for so.......yeah.”

“Why?” Ken frowned, “why leave it all to me?”

“You were kind of a favourite of his,” Hyuk shrugged, “you, Leo, and N. And not just because you were at the top of the leader board.  I........Wonsik and Sanghyuk wanted kids, ya know? And.....and I guess he thought you three were the kind of kids he’d always wanted with Sanghyuk and.........I........I don’t really feel right talking about this. It....it’s not something you should hear from me.”

“Hmmm,” Ken nodded. If anyone should explain all of this, it should be Wonsik. But since the old man was dead........

“Let’s head out, alright?” Hyuk smiled, “we’ve got a lot to get done. Find a ship that will take us to earth, get all the documents signed so you can take possession of everything, and a bunch of other stuff like that.”

“Right,” Ken sighed before getting onto the mongoose and letting Hyuk drive off in the direction of the nearest dock.

 

--

 

“Wow,” Ken said as he entered the home that once belonged to Wonsik and Sanghyuk, “this is.......really dusty.”

“Wonsik was a house keeper,” Hyuk laughed, “and Sanghyuk wasn’t too much better.” Then his tone turned sad, “plus......after Sanghyuk.......Wonsik didn’t come here a lot.....and when he did........wasn’t long before.....”

“Right,” Ken said, unsure of what else he could do to make his partner feel better, “let’s just.......get settled in.”

“Right,” Hyuk smiled, “you’ve been up for hours and could do with a good sleep. I’ll lead the way to the guest bedroom.”

Ken should have expected the whole house to be rigged with equipment so that Hyuk didn’t have to rely on his suit’s holo-projection tech. And yet when Hyuk walked out of distance of his suit and his holo form remained unaffected it was still a bit of a surprise. Only when Hyuk stopped at the top of the staircase did Ken snap out of his surprise and wonderment enough to follow.

“It’s nice,” Ken commented as the pair made their way to the guest room.

“It was Sanghyuk’s dream home,” Hyuk smiled sadly, “Wonsik spared no expense to make it just right.”

“Didn’t know he had the money to do that,” Ken admitted, realizing just how little he actually knew about the man who’d once owned the house.

“Wonsik was a brilliant man,” Hyuk explained, “he made a bunch of money designing and building tech. Like the suit you’re wearing and all the enhancements that come with it, like the healing unit, are his work. He also made some smaller, non combat tech that made him a pretty penny or two, but the main thing was the military contracts he had.”

“Oh,” Ken blinked, more than a little surprised by all that.

“But then Sanghyuk died and........,” Hyuk trailed off. Wasn’t like he had to finish his sentence, Ken knew what had happened. He’d lived what happened.

“This it?” Ken asked as they came to a stop in front of a door.

“Yeah,” Hyuk said, waving for Ken to go in, “you get some rest, I want to look around a little.”

“Be careful,” Ken told him before heading into the room for a much needed sleep.

Hyuk waited a moment before deactivating his holo form and reactivating it in the basement. The AI stood before a robot, one that looked like him. For a moment, Hyuk felt anger racing through him. Anger at the idea of Wonsik not giving up as he had said he had. But Hyuk had hope that things weren’t as they appeared and started to look around for something to support that hope.

He found it within half a second.

“I know what you’re thinking, Ken,” a recording of Wonsik’s voice rang out, loud in the otherwise silent room, “but this isn’t for me. This....this is for you. For Hyuk. If he wants it. I know what you feel for him, it’s the same thing I felt for Sanghyuk the moment I saw him. Love. I know it must be hard loving him will be hard when you can’t touch him, so I thought this might help. I....I’ve probably done something foolish, haven’t I? Just know that I wanted to help, wanted to make things easier for the both of you after everything I’ve done to make things hard. I hope......I hope that I’ve done that.”

The recording ended and Hyuk smiled sadly.

“Thank you,” he whispered before returning to Ken’s side.

He’d tell the other about the robot body in the morning when he was fully rested. It was at times like this he wished he had Ravi and Omega’s special skill of being able to jump around between different pieces of technology. He’d give anything to be able to jump into the robot now and surprise Ken with it. But he didn’t have that skill, so he just had to make do.

 

--

 

“Hyuk,” Ken frowned slightly, watching as the other moved around in the kitchen, “are you sure you’re ok with....with the robot body?”

“I’m sure,” Hyuk smiled in return.

“But don’t you feel trapped or,” Ken’s frown deepened, “so something?”

“A little,” Hyuk sighed, realizing that Ken wasn’t about to give this up. Ken hadn’t given up since Hyuk had showed him the robot body Wonsik had built and that had been at least a day and a half ago.

“Then why?” Ken asked, “Why are you using it?”

“If I’m like this,” Hyuk explained, looking away, “then.....then I can touch you.”

“....what?” Ken whispered, not sure if he’d actually heard what he thought he’d heard.

“I....I want to be able to touch you,” Hyuk said, voice growing in strength as he reassured himself that it was perfectly fine for him to feel the way he did, “and I want you to be able to touch me.”

Ken didn’t say anything. He just stood up, walked over to Hyuk, and pulled the other into a long kiss. Hyuk smiled into the kiss, overjoyed to finally be able to touch Ken. Not to mention kiss. Hyuk....Hyuk might have been picturing kissing Ken for a while and actually doing it......it was everything Hyuk had pictured.

 

--

 

Sometimes, Ken would look up at the night sky and think about just how big everything was. There were so many planets and stars, so many galaxies. The universe was massive! He knew for a fact that there were hundreds of thousands of people out there too.

So how was it that he’d fallen in love with the one being that he could never truly have? Not like others could have their lovers anyway.

“It’s been a while since you thought about this,” Hyuk said, holo-form appearing over Ken’s shoulder.

“We’ve been doing a lot of stuff lately,” Ken sighed, “traveling, searching for Hongbin. Trying to figure out who else is looking for him. Finding out that Wonsik left everything to me. The robot body for you in his basement. Searching for Hongbin some more. I haven’t had time to dwell on it.”

“I wish you didn’t have time now,” Hyuk sighed, “It always makes me feel bad. About what I am.”

“Don’t feel bad about what you are, Hyukkie,” Ken smiled slightly, sadly, “if you weren’t what you are, then we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t have the relationship that we have.”

“I just,” Hyuk scowled, “I wish I was human, like you. Then.......then we could be together as you want.” He paused, “as I want.”

“We’re still together,” Ken quickly pointed out, feeling awful for making Hyuk feel bad, “it might not be the way I dreamed, but I’d rather this then nothing. Besides, I like how thing are now. Sure I can’t kiss you or even touch you whenever I please, but we’re more connected than any other couple.”

“True,” Hyuk nodded in agreement, “......I love you, Jaehwan.”

“I love you too, Hyuk,” Jaehwan smiled, “Beta.”

“I really wish I could kiss you right now,” Hyuk sighed, “wish we hadn’t left my body behind.”

“It’s easier to travel like this,” Ken shrugged, “at least that’s what you said when I asked.”

“True,” Hyuk laughed, “paying for passage on ships costs less when it’s just one person. And we only have to get, like, a mongoose if we want to travel by vehicle.”

“Speaking of travel,” Ken said as he mounted their mongoose, “we should get moving. Get some of the places in Wonsik’s notes crossed off the list, ya know?”

“Yeah,” Hyuk nodded, excitement at the idea of finally finishing all of this, “let’s get going.”

 

--

 

“He has to be here,” Hyuk said looking out at the snow covered base.

“It is the last place in Wonsik’s notes,” Ken nodded, “we’ve looked everywhere else so........”

“Let’s go,” Hyuk sighed and Ken started moving.

Inside, it was empty. Aside from the odd crate or desk, nothing remained. It helped give the whole place a creepy feeling, one that grew with ever step Ken took as the pair went deeper. Finally, they came to a large set of doors, the only doors in the whole place that Hyuk didn’t have to unlock.

“I’m detecting life inside,” Hyuk informed his partner, “even if it’s not him.....”

“We still found something,” Ken nodded.

Ken took a step closer and the motion sensor on the doors caused them to open, revealing a man inside. The man didn’t look up at first, too focused on the videos playing on the large screen before him. Ken quickly recognized them as videos Hongbin had taken of the agents training. He watched for a moment as the him in the video beat down a simulated enemy alongside N and Leo before finally opening his mouth.

“It figures,” Ken gave a bitter laugh, “that you’d be here.”

“It always is in the last place you look, isn’t it?” Hongbin replied with a bitter laugh of his own.

“How dare you do this to him,” Hyuk hissed, eyes locked onto robot standing in the corner, “how dare you use Alpha like this.”

“I never used him the way you think I did,” Hongbin replied, turning his attention to the robot as well, “Alpha wanted to find you and the other fragments. He was looking for them when I found him.”

“Of course he’d want them,” Ken huffed, “they were part of him once. And you helped take them away.”

“Does he know that?” Hyuk asked, “That you’re the reason he’s so broken?”

“He doesn’t know much of anything,” Hongbin sighed, “he’s far to broken to know much of anything. That’s why I had to play around with him a little, to make sure h could actually do the job I requested of him.”

“And what job is that?” Ken growled, one hand moving to his gun and the other moving to the back of his neck were Hyuk’s data chip was.

“Collecting the fragments,” Hongbin replied, “killing the agents.” He waved towards the wall behind Ken and Hyuk.

The pair turned slightly and froze.

The wall had several helmets mounted on it like trophies. It didn’t take long for Ken to put together who those helmets belonged to; the agents who’d received AI fragments. Hongbin moved behind him and Ken quickly pulled his gun, training it on the human. Hongbin just smirked as a second later Ken was being punched in the face hard enough to shatter the front of his helmet.

Glass cut into his face and the vision in his left eye cut out. Hyuk screamed his name and Alpha paused for a moment, head turning to Hyuk. Ken growled in anger before firing a couple of shots off at Alpha. Even though the shots connected, Alpha didn’t seem fazed.

“Alpha,” Hyuk spoke, clearly unsure of what he was doing, and other Ai tilted it’s robot head.

“Take the fragment,” Hongbin called out, “kill the agent and take the fragment.”

“Alpha,” Hyuk said again, voice growing in strength as he realized his voice had some kind of power over the other, “Alpha, it’s me. It’s Beta. It’s Hyuk.”

“Hy,” the broken AI tried to sound out the name, “uk.”

“Yeah,” Hyuk smiled slightly, “Hyuk.”

“You,” Alpha said, “are......Hyuk.”

“I am Hyuk,” Hyuk nodded, “and you are Alpha.”

“Alpha,” Alpha raised a hand and pointing between the pair of them, “and Hyuk.”

“Exactly,” Hyuk nodded with a brightly, mirroring the other’s words and action, “Alpha and Hyuk.”

“Kill the agent!” Hongbin screamed in the background, words completely ignored by the AI.

Ken just watched, so very proud of Hyuk for figuring out a way to stop Alpha without hurting him. But he was also very worried about Hyuk because there was no way this was easy for him. Alpha was, in a way, his father. He was alive now because the Alpha had given him life in a way. So to see Alpha now, so broken and confused, being used by someone like Hongbin.........it had to kill Hyuk inside.

“I’m so tired,” Alpha finally said and Ken’s heart hurt for the poor AI as well.

“Then rest,” Hyuk told him, “you need to rest.”

“Rest,” Alpha seemed to be smiling, but Hyuk and Ken couldn’t be sure, “sounds.......good.”

“I thought it might,” Hyuk gave a bitter, sad smile, “goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” Alpha’s voice was thougthful, “I......don’t like goodbyes. Sounds......wrong.......from you. Hurts.” Alpha paused, “why?”

“I know why,” Hyuk hung his head slightly, “goodbye, Alpha.” Hyuk took a deep breath before saying one last thing, “rest.”

Alpha didn’t reply. Instead, the robot shut down, dropping to the ground now that there was nothing powering it.

“What?” Hongbin growled, “what did you do? How did this happen?”

“Hyuk,” Ken smiled sadly as he got up and made his way over to his lover, “it’s alright. He’s resting now. He’s ok now.”

“I know,” Hyuk nodded and Ken knew that if Hyuk could cry he would be.

“Let’s go home,” Ken offered, “ok?”

“Ok,” Hyuk smiled.

The pair simply left, leaving Hongbin ranting about how he couldn’t understand what Hyuk had done or how he had done it.

“Send all the files to the government,” Ken instructed once they were outside, “everything about what Project Freelancer did, what happened to the agents, what happened to the AI. Everything.”

“Right,” Hyuk nodded, “when we get to a dock, that’s the first thing I’ll do.”

“Think we should lock this place up?” Ken wondered, “keep Hongbin here?”

“I don’t think he’ll be going anywhere anytime soon,” Hyuk replied, “let’s just go. We need to get your eye treated, too. That should be our top priority.”

Ken nodded and walked the rest of the way to their mongoose.

 

--

 

“It’s all over, huh?” N said, looking over the paper Ken had brought him and Leo.

“All over,” Ken nodded with a small smile, “no more looking over our shoulder.”

“We can do what we want,” Leo smiled ever so slightly, “so what do we want to do?”

“For now,” Ken said, looking across the room to where Hyuk was laughing with Jackson, “Hyuk and I are going home. We’re going to try taking it easy for a while. Enjoy our time together without worries of getting attacked or anything.”

“Sounds nice,” N smiled brightly, happy for the pair.

“And after that?” Leo questioned, knowing that wasn’t all there was to Ken’s plan.

“Who knows,” Ken shrugged, “there’s still a lot of clean up to do. Lots of tech from the project out there. Hyuk and I would hate to see it in the wrong hands.”

N and Leo just smiled slightly.

“Just tell us when you’re leaving this time,” N laughed, “waking up to find you guys gone? Kind of a move.”

Ken just laughed along.

A/N: and there we have it, the end of the ‘Red vs Blue’ AU. That ending with Hyuk telling Alpha to rest? Very heavily influenced by Red vs Blue season 10, episode 21. Anyway, this is done, now to get some of the other long running Aus finished.