[Remember the pitched whine of engaging circuits before the E.M.P. rinses everything dry, remember counting the seconds to unconsciousness while you hemorrhaged into your armor from the bullet lodged in your chest cavity. Remember C.T. and the way her face twisted when she put together the pieces: he was my friend.]
[Remember the slow-burning realization burning in your guts when Carolina asked where Epsilon was.]
[Which one is it? Which one are you? Which one are - fuck, get it the fuck together, Washington, you're not scattering pixels over a digital soulscape, you're not someone else's fucking memories, you're years past it so stop acting like you're concussed stop acting like this is shaking you to your core stop acting stop thinking stop thinking goddamnit - ]
[Because that's given one of the automatons a window to try and disarm him.]
Fuck - [That's all he has time for before: stop. Wrench the ka-bar from the mag-strip at thigh-level, slam it into the thing's neck, in and out again, sever the cables and corroded metal, watch it spark and thrash and die.]
[Leave the ka-bar buried in the skeleton of the robot's chassis. Draw the M6D and toss the pistol Church's way.]
[(Which one?)]
[Leave it. Doesn't matter. Leave it. Focus. Later. Later, goddamnit, later.]
no subject
[Remember the pitched whine of engaging circuits before the E.M.P. rinses everything dry, remember counting the seconds to unconsciousness while you hemorrhaged into your armor from the bullet lodged in your chest cavity. Remember C.T. and the way her face twisted when she put together the pieces: he was my friend.]
[Remember the slow-burning realization burning in your guts when Carolina asked where Epsilon was.]
[Which one is it? Which one are you? Which one are - fuck, get it the fuck together, Washington, you're not scattering pixels over a digital soulscape, you're not someone else's fucking memories, you're years past it so stop acting like you're concussed stop acting like this is shaking you to your core stop acting stop thinking stop thinking goddamnit - ]
[Because that's given one of the automatons a window to try and disarm him.]
Fuck - [That's all he has time for before: stop. Wrench the ka-bar from the mag-strip at thigh-level, slam it into the thing's neck, in and out again, sever the cables and corroded metal, watch it spark and thrash and die.]
[Leave the ka-bar buried in the skeleton of the robot's chassis. Draw the M6D and toss the pistol Church's way.]
[(Which one?)]
[Leave it. Doesn't matter. Leave it. Focus. Later. Later, goddamnit, later.]
Then - here!