Pairing: Texlina (Agent Texas/Agent Carolina), Agent Carolina & AI Programs Eta and Iota
Summary: Carolina keeps dreaming about the new recruit. She will stop at nothing to eliminate the threat. Tex is so tired. Why won't the Church family just let her die?
Notes: Texlina is always complicated because of Tex being based off of Allison and all that. I really wanted to explore their relationship, especially the idea of if they got to interact after Freelancer.
Word Count: 1355
It came as no surprise to Agent Carolina that she dreamed of the new recruit, considering how much energy and attention she devoted to the woman during her waking hours, but it was still embarrassing. Even more embarrassing was the content of the dreams. It would start with a sparring match between the two of them. F.I.L.L.S. voice switching with the Counselor's or the Director's. "Point Texas," they said, "Advantage Texas," over and over and over again. The room would spin and it was all she could do to keep up with the flurry of inhuman attacks. Her rival had too many limbs, fists and feet and elbows coming at her from all angles, speed that no human could possess, and strength that was ever increasing. Despite how fast everything was moving around her, she felt like she was wading through syrup. Yet, she managed to block every blow. Never could she land one, not once, but she had enough strength the push through the thick air to defend herself.
And they fought and fought in the spinning room, the constant revolutions made her dizzy, the three voices combining disharmoniously making her ears ring. They were fighting and fighting and then they were fucking. They were still wearing armor and it didn't look like fucking, but she knew that's what it was. And yet, it was still fighting. They competed for dominance and still, Carolina could only barely hold her off. But now, she wondered if she wanted to. One night she allowed herself to be pinned to the floor, staring up into the visor of her opponent, but that was as far as she got before waking up. She always made time to take a cold shower before her morning training, even though she was going to shower afterwards. She always felt…sticky, and not in a purely physical sense. It reminded her of the syrup of her dream, like it was part of her body.
The dreams only progressed in intensity, in the fighting and the fucking. Sometimes her teammates were there. Sometimes they fought with her, sometimes against her, sometimes it was a free for all, and sometimes they just watched. North always watched, South fought by her side, CT fought with Tex, Maine attacked them both, Florida was a watcher as well. They all seemed to vanish when the dream transitioned or they would fade in and out as they fluctuated from fighting and fucking. Except for York. She only dreamed about York once. He started on her side, then switched, but instead of fighting her it was him Tex was fucking. She had to watch as the other woman stripped him, as York stretched out, baring himself, gazing fondly into that black visor. She woke up in a cold sweat and ran to the toilet to throw up bile.
She stayed up late training, tried to get as little sleep as possible so she wouldn't have to deal with the dreams anymore. She was being consumed by Tex, her hatred for her, her anger at her, and some other feelings she couldn't and didn't care to identify.
Miraculously, the dreams stopped after her implantation. Instead, she floated through Eta and Iota, through their very being. She could feel their intense love for her in ways they knew not how to communicate, their desire to be part of a whole, to be close to her. She wrapped herself up in them and she slept the whole night through. She was well rested and ready for her match the next morning.
She wasn't ready for Eta and Iota to scream her mother's name inside her head. She tried to cover her ears, but it did nothing to stop the noise inside her head. She didn't even spare a thought to why her opponent was unaffected. How could two entities that had felt so much love for her hurt her so much? She didn't even have time to process Tex pulling back her arm before she lost consciousness.
"Allison," they screamed and whispered at the same time through her subconscious. "Allison, Allison…" She screamed back at them to stop. Couldn't they tell they were hurting her? Their repetitions wore her down like a stone is worn to sand by the sea. She realized that it wasn't her own pain that she felt, it was theirs. She did not think of her mother as she comforted them, but the old lullabies came naturally. The screams died down into whimpers as she tried to spread her consciousness as far as them, to cradle them, to soothe them. She imagined herself as a big blanket wrapping them up and she was filled with the love and happiness she felt before.
The three of them melted together into one perfect being, a being of only happiness and love. She lost herself in them. She forgot herself, forgot everything. Nothing else was important.
But a black hand pulled her back out, separating her, splitting her off from them and she remembered that she had things to do.
No one could stop her now, not the Director, not the Counselor, not York, and not Tex. Tex was everything that she hated, that she feared. Tex was the only real threat to her. If she got rid of Tex, no one stood a chance against her.
She was enraged that they thought they could steal Eta and Iota from her. She would never let them. She needed them, they were a part of her and anyone who thought they could take them was going to meet the business end of a mother grizzly bear. F.I.L.L.S. announced her opponent's return. It was her chance. If she could take out the one person strong enough to beat her no one would be able to tell her what to do.
Nothing mattered, gravity, soldiers, York. York would never understand. How could he? How could a naïve man paired with the embodiment of logic ever hope to fathom the raw emotions that she housed. Maybe it would have been different had things happened another way, but there was no possibility she could let any mere human into her world now.
If she was fire Tex was ice. She felt herself being swallowed up by the anger and despair as she failed to beat her opponent once again. Even her love and happiness could not keep the dark cold at bay. Her descent was stopped when they crashed, her body bent in ways it could not manage. She cried out to her love and happiness, but they could not mend her body. They could power her healing unit and let her regain her senses enough to realize she had another opponent, someone she had never considered a threat before.
When Sigma, using Maine's body like a puppet, tore Eta and Iota out of her head, it was like he had ripped all of her organs out of her body. The pain from her injuries was nothing compared to how her heart and mind had been scraped raw by their loss. She did not even have the breath to scream as she fell towards the earth.
It was the loss that pushed her to action. She had to get them back. She let her body run on the same anger and hatred that had powered her for months and managed to save herself. She would stop at nothing to get them back.
Or so she thought. As she was making her way up the mountain, she was struck with the most excruciating pain she had ever felt. She could still feel them, her love and happiness, but they weren't hurting. No, it was much worse than that. They were assimilating with Sigma, sharing their love and happiness with him, becoming something different. They were love and happiness and ambition.
She managed to drag herself to shelter in an alcove in the rock face. Now that her suit wasn't doing anything else it used all its energy reserves to heal her. She drifted into unconsciousness. She did not dream.
