Red vs. Blue - What If?

Carolina Died (S13E11) - Chapter 1

"... It ended with Carolina getting plunged into the lake and sinking to the bottom." ~Miles Luna

Temple of the Key (RvBluniverse-57)

Carolina had watched as her adversary, Sharkface, had thrown two grenades into the air before throwing his arms back. Activating his forearm-flamethrower attachments as the grenades exploded, Sharkface propelled himself towards the freelancer. Carolina, with the help of her Speed Boost enhancement, fled.

Hearing the blaring flamethrowers getting louder, Carolina only turned her head to face the man. As he was significantly faster than her, Carolina yelled to her artificial intelligence, "I gotta go faster!"

Anticipating her worry, Church had already analyzed their surroundings for possible plans. Unable to boost her speed without overworking himself, Church helped her understand the situation by saying, "We're running out of mountain!"

"What?" Carolina's vision was unfocused; the stress of handling a brute like Sharkface had started getting to her. She looked around, trying to figure out an alternative.

"There's nothing else out here. But there's a lake at the bottom. You can make it if you jump," Church explained. Carolina didn't appreciate the answer. Though a battle had previously injured her, she wasn't prepared to back down. Church's continued skepticism of her abilities and giving her a way to flee made her blood boil; Carolina had to prove her strength to her AI and Sharkface. Rejecting his strategy, she said, "No. We can do this! We hit him again, and we end this!"

While approaching the cliff's edge, Carolina hopped and spun, quickly landing and facing her opponent. Church immediately analyzed the situation, feeling the seconds turn into minutes; he began examining the numbers. The snow particles from Carolina's landing seemingly paused in the air, and Sharkface went from a high speed to almost frozen in time. Church took a deep breath and started analyzing their situation. Though time was at a crawl, Church felt a quick jolt of pain; he was low on energy. Even at his fastest, he didn't have enough time to come up with a perfect strategy. Church would have to operate almost on instinct.

Calling on his memories of other fragments, Church hoped to multitask. By completing small tasks while planning, he hoped to increase her odds. First, he saw the memory of Theta. He ordered, "Theta, send all power to her legs and stabilizers," hoping to stop her from collapsing down or backward. He recognized her poor footwork would cause her to tumble down the mountain.

"I'm trying!" replied the innocent AI.

Once Delta appeared, Church immediately knew something was off. The green fragment began glitching, unable to maintain its form for long. He hoped it could hold on for long enough. The words, "Delta, prioritize the—" barely came out before Delta fragmented in front of him. At that moment, he knew what to do.

Church was spread too thin. The massive drain on his power supply was a direct response to the usage of so many enhancements at once. Knowing the alternative would result in Carolina's death and—by proxy—his own, Church restrategized. He could safely disable the speed boost and camouflage, but he debated whether or not he could remove the healing unit. Deciding that would be in his best interest, he shut it off. However, in this slowed moment, he could not feel its effects. The other enhancements would be useless.

Though he'd deactivated the unnecessary enhancements, Church tried to bring back Delta but failed; they had crossed the threshold. Church was too low on power. Beginning to panic, he felt his power drain even faster. He turned to face Theta, who seemed to be having a massive headache. The innocent AI had his hands on both sides of his head, shaking and yelling, "It's too much! What do we do?" Church watched in horror as Theta shattered in front of him.

He was next.

As he tried running the numbers one final time, he found no solution. Asking for every enhancement had put too big a strain on his system. He knew he didn't necessarily have to listen to her—why would she need the adaptive camouflage anyway?—he was too caught up in the fight to consider what may have been a better approach. Knowing he was only a fragment of an AI, Church believed the Alpha might have been able to save her. He only knew he wasn't enough. Twelve thousand, eight hundred, forty-three scenarios. That was how many he analyzed at the moment. Not a single one would lead to her success. He could forecast it with perfect precision. As he felt the last bit of energy drain, the AI disabled every enhancement and sent a boost to the healing unit. Knowing he did what he could, Church smiled as he shattered.

To Carolina, no time had passed. Not knowing that her AI companion had failed, Carolina twisted her ankle before falling. Tumbling down the slope, the freelancer tried digging her hands into the snow to slow her fall, but to no avail. Carolina felt the air rush out of her lungs as the cliff ended.

Carolina found herself in a similar situation to the end of the Mother of Invention. Having just fought a brute and losing, she was sent off a cliff. Carolina reached for her grappling hook and tried to find a good place to latch on. When she pulled the trigger, the grappling hook skidded along the wall and failed to latch onto anything. Accepting her unfortunate situation, Carolina closed her eyes, waiting to hit the ground.

She'd hoped for a soft landing. Maybe some trees would break her fall, and she'd fall into some snow. Since she couldn't jump, she knew she'd miss the lake about which Church had told her. "I should have listened. I'm sorry, Church," she muttered. But there was no response, not even a hum in her head. "Church?" She realized he was gone, leaving her final thoughts to be ones of remorse and pain as she hit the rocks at the bottom of the foot of the mountain.

From the cliff above, Sharkface had come to a screeching halt. He'd watched as Carolina suffered in her final moments, from her failed attempt to rescue herself to the impact. He smiled beneath his helmet; the insurrectionist finally avenged his fallen friends and family. Knowing the mission had partially been to retrieve the freelancer equipment, Sharkface scanned the surroundings to find a simple way down the mountain. Seeing the lake not too far away, he activated his flamethrowers and jumped.

Perfectly breaking through the ice and landing in the water, Sharkface smirked. Had Carolina fallen into the water, she may have drowned or frozen to death. While believing he was stronger, he swam to the surface, pulling himself out of the lake. As he walked closer to the cliff, he eventually found her lifeless body in the same pose he'd last seen her alongside a quiet beeping sound.

Reaching down, he grabbed the Epsilon unit attached to her back. Looking at it, he noticed the machine also had slots for each of the enhancements she held. Carefully, he laid it on the floor and took out a knife. It was barely thin enough at the tip for him to place the knife in. Twisting it, he unlocked the unit and opened it. "Huh, looks like it's just out of power," he concluded, looking around.

Quickly closing it again, he stood up and walked back to Carolina. "Just in case you somehow survived the fall," he said, activating his flamethrowers and burning her. When she didn't react, he thought her to be appropriately dead. The beeping stopped too. "Locus, Felix, come in," he said over the radio.

"I hear you loud and clear. What's your status? Where are you?" Felix questioned.

"I've got some more news you'll be delighted to hear. I killed the freelancer and have the Epsilon unit in my hand," he looked down and smiled. "I'll be taking one of the pelicans back to our base."

"Holy shit! How'd you do it?"

"Sent her flying off a cliff and burned the body after," he chuckled. "Serves her right. She drops a building on me, and I drop her off a cliff. Only difference is: I survived."

"Ouch, that sounds like overkill. Wish I could have seen it! Why don't you go ahead and report back to Control when you get back? I'm sure he'll be very pleased to hear about your success."

"I'm at the bottom of a cliff. Think you can send one of your men to collect me?" Sharkface asked. "It'll take forever to get back up." When Felix didn't respond, he figured the orange-clad mercenary had turned off his comms. "God damn it, Felix," he slouched. Looking around, Sharkface tried to find a way back up to the top. He wished Epsilon still had power and would be helpful to him; he figured the AI would be able to find a solution. Instead, it was up to himself. "Time to head back, I guess."