Red vs. Blue - What If?

Temple Won (S15E21) - [Prologue]

"The machine. Where did it come from? It's aliens, isn't it? It has to be! I was wrong, and now we're dead! We're all dead! The damn thing is fully fucking functional!" ~Scientist

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Île Amsterdam (Indian Ocean, RvBluniverse-816)

As Loco's time machine whirred louder and louder, the ground began trembling beneath the Reds and Blues. And while Tucker wanted to kill Temple for even coming up with such a stupid idea, he knew killing the lunatic would be too good for him; the man deserves to rot in a cell. With a swift kick to the head, Tucker knocked out the soldier.

Meanwhile, Caboose and Dylan knelt beside a dying Loco on the other side of the room. Recognizing Loco as a tech prodigy whose innocence was stolen by a manipulator, she tried to reason with him, asking, "Loco, please. Your machine is going to destroy the entire world. Good people are going to die because of Temple's ploy. How do we turn it off?"

Loco gasped for air desperately as blood filled with his lungs. Frowning, Loco understood the futility of his situation: Either he would die from the blood or his creation. Solemnly, he explained, "You can't. But Caboose, I did make the door. Because friends—best friends—should be able to say 'Goodbye.'"

The words echoed in Caboose's mind, still not fully understanding what the other blue was telling him. A light glowed from the machine as a large piston extruding from the top pushed in, and a flash blinded everyone. In front of the drilling machine, a portal appeared. A familiar voice began talking while everyone's visions slowly returned, "Caboose? Rookie, what the hell are you doing up here? You're supposed to be guarding the flag!"

Caboose's heart sank. Standing in disbelief, he turned to face his friend. Sure enough, there he was: Church stood on the other side of the portal, in a lower-resolution Blood Gulch. When nobody responded, Church continued, "What the fuck, guys? I came up here for some peace and quiet!"

"What on Earth is happening?" asked Dylan.

Jax scoffed, "Loco's machine opened a portal to the past, just like the scientists said would happen. Jeez, Dylan, try to keep up!" Dylan glared at her partner through her visor.

"Caboose! Pull him through!" Tucker called. Caboose, however, didn't hear him. He began trembling as he slowly approached the portal. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

At first, he wanted to say "Goodbye." Loco's last request echoed in his mind. He understood what his counterpart had asked of him. But then the voices of the other simulation troopers echoed in his head. Most times, when you die, you die. It doesn't matter how much someone likes you, or how little, or how not at all, Simmons' voice repeated. He is dead! Fo-re-ver! Maybe he would understand something as simple as death, as dying and being gone forever! This time, Temple's words.

Caboose shook himself out of the trance, knowing the others had to be wrong. He cared about Church. He loved Church and still wasn't ready to leave. He never would be. When he got within an inch of the portal, Caboose's mind was full of ideas. But the one at the forefront of his mind was the only thing he could do.

Without hesitation, Caboose reached through the portal, grabbed Church's chest plate, and yanked him through the portal, hugging his best friend.

"What the fuck are you doing? Let go of me!" Church tried to pull away but failed to; Caboose's strength was unparalleled. The machine became louder and louder, enough for Caboose to let go and try to cover his ears. The others had to do the same, and Church fell to the floor, spasming; the high frequencies were messing with his artificial ears.

The machine began sending out bursts of lightning into the room, many of which were drawn to the portal. Within moments, the portal imploded, knocking the group on their backs. Donut was the first to stand up, but that only gave the machine another target to shock. At that moment, Donut's body tingled as he got launched into a nearby wall.

"Donut!" Doc called, standing up and rushing to his dazed friend. Dylan looked back at Donut, then at the machine.

"Vic! Wish three! Can you stop the portal?" pleaded Dylan, running up to it and inserting the AI implant in a modified USB slot. Vic appeared on the television screen and began glitching.

"This system is way too complex! Pulling Church through the portal overloaded the machine, and I can't do anything to stop it!" Vic explained. A spark appeared in the USB slot, and Vic vanished—the first hero to die. The simulation troopers looked out in astonishment. They lost, and they were the only ones to blame for it.

In their final moments, the team began saying their goodbyes. Caboose cried, knowing nobody would be left to remember him or Church. They would be lost forever. As Doc's heart became heavy, he tried placing a hand on Donut's shoulder, but it phased through. "What the...? Donut?"

Donut couldn't reply. He looked up at his friend and felt his entire body becoming weightless. Donut's life began literally flashing in front of his eyes: taking down the Meta, planting a daylily patch, throwing the grenade at Tex's tank, running track in high school. He watched himself relive every year of his life, then watched as an outsider as time continued before his birth.

Suddenly, he was in a cloud of red and white. A set of golden gears spun in front of him. "You and your friends have done the unthinkable," a powerful voice explained. "I am Chrovos, imprisoned by my own creations. Any paradox should have freed me. However, your paradox did more damage than I expected. Because of your idiot friend's actions, time is collapsing in on itself. Soon, we will all cease to exist."

"Is there anything we can do to fix it?" Donut asked, quickly understanding this wasn't a joke.

"No. Soon, every being to ever exist will die, and everything to ever exist will vanish. The universe will collapse in on itself, and all will be lost. Unless..."

"Unless?"

The being sighed, "I am technically an AI. However, I am also technically a God. I see your suit has an AI implantation unit. In the instant before this place is destroyed I will be free. I will manifest a body your suit may handle as some AI chip, and I will protect the two of us. You will exist outside of time and the universe, whatever may lie outside. I don't even know where we'll go, but at least we'll be alive. Will you accept this request?"

Donut sat for a moment. He didn't want to die, but he didn't know what would be waiting outside the universe. Wasn't everything the universe? The light-red-clad soldier pondered for a moment. "Hurry, we don't have much time!"

"Alright, alright! Let's do it!" he insisted.

"Perfect," Chrovos replied. As the clouds became redder, many began to vanish, leaving a white void in their wakes. And when Chrovos's imprisonment gears vanished the being entered machine-time. The empty void was still approaching rapidly, and Chrovos quickly transmuted into a bug. It flew into Donut's armor before transmuting again into an AI chip. Taking all the energy it could, Chrovos surrounded the simulation trooper in a bright aura. When the void finally hit them, they were fine, left floating in an empty expanse.

"It worked!" Donut cheered, though the emptiness had an eerie silence. "Where to now?"

"Do you... see that over there?" asked Chrovos, a navigation point appearing on Donut's armor. Donut swam through the emptiness, eventually reaching a large, translucent ball. He peered inside of it, seeing a familiar friend on a familiar icy mountain top, being chased by a man in red and black.

"Is that... another universe?"