gunsforhire | Log: Seeing Double

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Log: Seeing Double

Who: Wash (OU) and Wash (Native), and Open!
What: Wash visits the Pet Centre from some kitten time and meets a familiar face.
Where: The Pet Centre
When: November 11th, afternoon
Warnings: Kittens and cuteness

He had taken York's suggestion that he visit the pet centre. He still had work to do to get certified and right now, he needed a distraction. And honestly, kittens were a good distraction. The place needed people to play with them, help socialise them, Wash could do that, and it didn't require him to interact with people much either.

He's been let in to one of the pens to play with some of them, sitting cross legged on the floor while the kittens climb and play around him and over him sometimes. One of them, a tiny little calico has curled up in his lap and gone to sleep.

It's soothing. They make him feel better, even if it's just a temporary fix.

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"You weren't and idiot," Wash retorts. Because if his twin's past self was an idiot for believing those things, what does that make him? He isn't even fighting within the legal limits -- he's a mercenary, for chrissakes.

That's an interesting gesture, and one that Wash knows he doesn't make. "What, shot you in the back and gave you some kind of spinal injury? Man, I'm sorry, but that still doesn't have to change who you are. As a person."

He swears it still itches sometimes, like he can feel Epsilon's chip implanted and all he can do is claw at it and try to get it out. "Nothing permanent. I recovered eventually. And then I killed her when I found her." Because she would have got in the way. She couldn't be trusted.

"Maybe. If she'd been the first to stab me in the back. She just did it in a more literal way."

The injury might not be permanent, but it's obvious that the effects are. But they don't have to be, right? The fact that he killed her, that he took revenge that far, is unsettling. Wash wants to think that he'd never do something like that, but the truth is, he's not so sure.

Revenge can be a tempting thing.

"The first?" Maybe if he understands his double's circumstances better, he might be able to help his other self. Or run far, far away, depending on how bad the story is.

He's silent for a long moment, just looking at his double. He hadn't told York the full details. Maybe he should have. Made sure there was no chance for anyone to get attached.

"They abandoned me," he says finally. "My team. Everyone who I'd trusted my life to betrayed me or left me for dead."

Oh.

What do you say to that? Wash feels bad for his double, terribly so, but also a little worried. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the team that abandoned the other Wash consisted of the other York, the other Maine, and the other North. But his friends here wouldn't leave him, right? They're not fighting a war.

Except, of course, now that Control is here, they are.

"I'm sorry," he manages at last. "And there was...no way around it?"

He gives a noise of derision at the apology and turns away, back towards the cats. Maybe it's stupid turning his back on someone who's armed, or maybe it's more of an insult to the other Wash that he's not afraid to do it.

"They broke back in to rescue that stupid goddam AI. North left me in the med wing. And none of them... not one of them came back for me."

If it is an insult, then Wash doesn't take it as such. He still tries to believe in the best in people, even the older, disillusioned version of himself.

That Ai? "The Ais aren't its, though. They're people. And we've had successful rescue missions with them so far." Rescuing Sigma might have been emotionally compromising, but everyone made it out alive.

"Not 'Ai'. AI. Artificial Intelligence. But yes them too." They'd run to protect their AIs but left him locked away having his head fucked with.

So, in the other Wash's world, the Ais are...basically robots? This gets stranger and stranger.

"Well, our Ais aren't artificial, so that's gotta be comforting, right? Less likely they'll cause the same damage."

"Maybe. Don't know. With their weird eyes. That's not normal." Not where he's from anyway. And who the hell names their kids Alpha et al?

"We thought Tex was a person too for a long time."

"It's probably an effect of the atmosphere," Wash counters. "We get a lot of mutations here."

He shakes his head. Nope, the Ais are definitely people. Maine and York have more than verified that. "No way, man, York has not been, you know, doing it with a robot."

He snorts at that, gives his double a derisive look. But there's a kitten crawling out towards him and that's a better thing to focus on. He crouches down and picks it up, pretending that he's completely fine.

"Sigma." There's a note of deep distaste when he says it. "He said."

"Yeah," Wash says, defensive. "Sigma. And he's a good guy. Would do anything for his family, for York." Has done, but Wash isn't going to get into that. That's personal, and he doesn't think this Wash would be too receptive to it.

God, Wash hopes he never winds up being this much of a jerk.

"It's the 'doing anything' part that should be a worry," Wash says sharply.

He turns his head, pressing a kiss against the kitten's fur when it crawls up and onto his shoulder. That at least gets a smile from him.

"What, and you've never gone to an extreme because you wanted to help the people you love? Because you cared?"

Wash scoffs. Really, is the only thing they have in common their love for cats? And basic facial features?

"Sure. It got me shot in the spine last time I tried to help someone." He keeps scritching the kitten, looking everywhere but at his other self. "Sigma destroyed Maine," he says more quietly. "Burned him up until he wasn't Maine anymore. Then made him kill Carolina."

Wash can't take his eyes off his other self, can't back down. Won't appear any lesser, even if he feels like the other man's weaker twin.

"Sigma would never," Wash says, quietly. "And Maine wouldn't do that, and shit, have you seen how good Carolina is? She'd never let that happen."

"I know what happened," he snapped, casting a glare at his double. "I know what Sigma did. Whatever that creature was, sure as hell wasn't Maine anymore. Even she can't survive having her head ripped open and being thrown off a cliff. Hunted down North and took Theta. Tried to kill me. A few times."

That can't be, Sigma would never, not ever...

Wash can't even process that, so instead he snaps back. "Be gentler with the cat. You don't get to mess with her, too."

"The cat is fine," he says. It's nuzzled against his shoulder. Warm.

"I don't need your approval," he adds. "Jesus Christ, I can't believe I was ever like this. No wonder they left." It's angry, hurt. He knows he shouldn't say it, but for a moment it's like looking at his younger self, the rookie who'd been left behind. A warning that he shouldn't ever make that mistake again.

And there it is. His other self has tapped into the thing Wash is afraid of the most. It's only a matter of time before York and Maine and everyone else realizes he'll never be as strong or tough or capable as them. Of course they'd abandon him. Of course. Wash's hands curl into fists, and if not for the cat, he'd punch his other self in the face.

"Takes one to know one," Wash says, cooly, and turns to leave. His other self can be abandoned one more time. See if Wash cares.

Wash just shrugs. "I know what I am." A killer. A monster. "I grew up. I survived. Heh. Not like any of the others can say that."

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Log: Seeing Double

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