York and Tex Friendship Ficlet
The ship goes down. Carolina dies. The Alpha won’t leave. They find each other again.
There’s no one else left, the others are scattered or left behind or dead. So they leave. Leave Sidewinder, leave the Mother of Invention. They leave, and don’t look back.
They’re on the run, they have no supplies.
They start to do the mercenary circuit, but they can’t use their Freelancer names. It’s too obvious. They need new names, for this new life.
Tex chooses “Allison”; it’s not right, it’s not her, but it’s the best she’s got. York uses his real name, the that one that no one else knows. York keeps calling her that afterwards, even though she’s gone back to Tex. It’s how he pokes her, it’s his own little way of reminding her that she’s more than just an AI. She’s a person as well. She lets him, even after she’s left that name behind. She doesn’t call him by his real name. It doesn’t mean anything to York anymore.
They work well together. Very well. They’re good at what they do. Tex learns to be mercenary, to be greedy, in a way she never got to be at Freelancer.
But one day, Omega gets bored.
He jumps. He jumps over the radio in the middle of a mission, taking over York. Delta’s panicking, he’s out of control, Omega’s forced him out.
York wakes up in the middle of a warehouse filled with the dead.
They try to handle it. But it keeps happening. They try not to use the radio, but it’s hard when they’re on missions. Omega’s itchy. He always comes back to Tex, but he also loves to make fun of Tex with the voice of her friend, likes to make Delta scream, likes to see how York reacts when he wakes up with his armor covered in blood.
It takes it’s toll. Tex can’t trust herself, can’t trust York, can’t trust anyone. Being near him is hurting him. Hurting her.
She leaves.
She doesn’t say goodbye, not really. He sees her go. Maybe he was expecting it. He does say goodbye.
Tex goes to Blood Gulch, finds Alpha, builds a family, finds something.
York commits petty crime and lets his armor wear down. He’s got nothing left. Nothing but Delta. He’s flagging, defeated.
Years later, she finds him again, and she offers him revenge. Neither of them mention that Maine was the one who held the grenade.
Tex asks: “How’s the eye?”
What she doesn’t say is: “You’re the only one I can trust.”
York agrees to come along.
He doesn’t say: “You only had to ask.”