Fanfic / Recovery None

Recovery None is a completed Red vs. Blue Divergence Fic written by RenaRoo.

When the Mother of Invention crashed, Project Freelancer was in shambles, its surviving agents scattered, its equipment stolen, and an impending investigation into the crash from the UNSC was on the horizon. To regain control of the deeply corrupted program, the Director established a new unit from his remaining supplies — the Recovery Unit.

Three former Freelancers were chosen for particular tasks: Zero is to hunt down and destroy the Meta, One is to investigate and recover stolen or missing equipment, and Two is to take down AWOL former agents.

Of course, no one's motivations are truly what they seem...

The story can also be found on Fanfiction.net.

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Recovery None provides examples of:

• 24-Hour Armor: Averted. There are several scenes where the characters remove their helmets or are outside of their armor.
• Accidental Misnaming: Caboose mistakenly refers to Wash as "Agent Washingtub" in many of their interactions.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Epsilon is far more childish and naive than in the original series. Justified, since he's still developing as an individual.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Sharkface shows up way earlier than in canon, as he is freed from prison by Hargrove and sent to help the Insurrectionist leader and the Dakota twins track down the remaining Freelancers.
• Adaptational Heroism: This version of Niner ultimately regrets her part in Project Freelancer and helps Wash escape. She later defects and joins Carolina and York.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed with South, who's still a jerk, but nowhere near the sociopath that she was in canon. She is genuinely broken up over North's death and doesn't even care that she now has her own AI unit like she always wanted.
• Affectionate Nickname: York calls Carolina "Lina" out of affection.
• Always a Bigger Fish: When York and Wash go up against Wyoming in chapter 58, the latter easily puts them on the defensive with his marksmanship skills and Gamma's time distorter. Their fight is then interrupted by the Meta, who easily kills Wyoming and takes his AI fragment.
• Analogy Backfire: When Tucker refers to the Sangheili as the Gollum of his hero's journey, Wash immediately points out that Gollum bites off Frollo's finger at the end.
• Ascended Extra: Four Seven Niner is given a far more prominent role here as she eventually defects from Project Freelancer and helps Carolina in her mission to track down the Director.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Wash's exasperation with Tucker's antics, when Not-CT points a gun at him in chapter 53, Wash immediately jumps to Tucker's defense and threatens to kill Not-CT if he harms Tucker.
• Awesome, but Impractical: While being pinned down by sniper fire in chapter 58, Sarge unveils a shotgun which he modified to shoot with ten times the force of a standard shotgun. The only downside? Said shotgun has a maximum range of three feet.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Epsilon is this for the AI fragments.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: While inside Blue Base, Grif remarks how good men have died trying to capture the flag. When South offers her condolences, he corrects her by explaining that "good people" have died, meaning no one in the canyon.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason why South forms an Odd Friendship with Kaikaina and willingly signs on as her bodyguard is because while Kaikaina may be The Ditz, she's one of the only people to treat her with genuine kindness without expecting anything in return.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Overall the fic has three main antagonists: the Director, Malcolm Hargrove, and the Meta. The Director is trying to cover-up Project Freelancer's crimes through the Recovery Program. Hargrove wants to shut down Project Freelancer and secretly wants to claim their technology for Charon Industries. Meanwhile, the Meta is hunting down the remaining Freelancers in order to take their AI fragments.
• Bittersweet Ending: Carolina, Tex, York, South, and Niner all survive their ordeal with the Meta and join the Reds and Blues at Blood Gulch. Additionally, both the Director and the Meta are arrested by UNSC and will face justice for their crimes. However, North is dead and Hargrove is still out there.
• Book Ends: The story starts and ends with an AI giving Carolina the nickname "Sunshine".
• Boom, Headshot!: Washington kills Not-CT this way after he tries to murder Tucker.
• Broken Ace: Tex is both a total badass and a complete mess of insecurities and self-loathing.
• Cassandra Truth: Up until Tucker actually gives birth, Wash refuses to believe Doc's claims that Tucker is pregnant.
• Character Development:
  • At first, Washington is dismissive of the Reds and Blues, seeing them as a bunch of incompetent idiots. Over the course of the story, he warms up to them. By the time Carolina finds Wash, he's stopped referring to the Reds and Blues as simulation troopers and even holds York and South at gunpoint over the fear that they've come to harm his friends.
  • Tex gradually accepts her nature as an AI and makes use of her AI abilities, deciding that she's a real person rather than an artificial construct.
  • North learns to stop being overprotective towards South and stop locking her out of the loop and start trusting her and following her orders.
  • Theta becomes more independent and starts questioning his and North's morality.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Tucker breaks out into one when he sees Crunchbite for the first time.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Washington's experiences in Project Freelancer have left him with an extremely cynical view of the world. When Caboose hugs him, he reacts with genuine confusion and has no idea what Caboose is doing.
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: When Wyoming is about to shoot Wash in chapter 58, he gets tackled by the Meta.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Tex easily defeats Washington during their fight. Tucker even mocks Wash for trying to negotiate after getting his ass handed to him.
• Day in the Limelight: The intermission chapters are all shown from the point-of-view of a minor character.
  • "Foreseen Circumstances" is told from the POV of Aiden Price.
  • The first half of "First Loyalties" is told from Niner's POV as she's questioned by the Counselor. The second half focuses on Wyoming as he explores an ex-Freelancer power plant.
  • "Black and White" is told from the perspectives of Chairman Hargrove and the Director.
  • The first half of "What Once Was Old" shows Niner's POV as she escapes Project Freelancer and sets off to rescue Carolina and York. The second half of the intermission shows Doc's perspective as O'Malley and Wyoming plot against Tex.
  • The first half of "Chess Pieces" focuses on CT and Sharkface as they discuss their next moves. The second half is told from the Director's POV as he accesses FILSS in order to track down the Alpha.
• Delirious Misidentification: While confronting Wyoming, Carolina falls unconscious after Epsilon has a mental breakdown. Before she loses consciousness, she hears Tex's voice and mistakes it for her mother's.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: This version of Four-Seven-Niner is bound to a wheelchair following the Mother of Invention's crash-landing.
• Doorstopper: The fic is an impressive 334,356 words long in total.
• Double-Meaning Title: The chapters that focus on South start out with the title "Recovery Two". This not only references South's official designation in the Recovery program but it also refers to the fact that there are two protagonists being featured: South and her brother North. Fittingly, the chapter where North dies is called "The End" referring to the end of the North's role as a co-protagonist to South's storyline.
• invokedDude, Not Funny!: After Omega invades Caboose's mind, the process leaves Caboose mentally impaired and he mentions that his head aches. When Tucker snarks that he didn't think there was anything left in Caboose's head to give him a headache, Wash snaps at him for making fun of someone who just went through a mentally traumatic experience.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Donut is normally The Ditz, but he makes a very good point about revenge to Wash in chapter 43:
  Donut: Killing to protect people and stuff. That’s just war. But if your war’s not with Red and it’s not with Blue, then I guess I can’t continue to have a problem with you.
  Wash: That’s touching.
  Donut: But just so you know, if you have a war against one person, it's kinda just a vendetta. And I’ve got an issue with that. Because I think people are a lot more likely to turn on ya and shoot you in the back if they’re fighting against someone and not just trying to fight for something, y’know?
• Dysfunction Junction: It wouldn't be Red vs. Blue without it. Everyone in this fic has some deep-seated issue or problem.
• Embarrassing First Name: Sharkface's real name is Terry, something that South makes fun of.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When Tex first sees Wash at Blood Gulch, she assumes that he was sent by the Director to help Wyoming.
• Fantastic Racism: Washington understandably is distrusting of Crunchbite and immediately tries to kill him during their first meeting.
• For Want Of A Nail: The whole story kicks off because Carolina returned to Project Freelancer instead of going into hiding following the Mother of Invention's crash landing.
  • Wash and South are given separate Recovery missions rather than being put on the same team.
  • Carolina is assigned to hunt down the Meta instead of Wash. Because of this, she is able to catch up to York before the Meta does.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: The fic is split between the storylines of Washington, Carolina, South Dakota, and Tex.
  • Carolina is trying to find the Director with the help of York.
  • Wash’s storyline is about the time he spends in Blood Gulch and his growing friendship with the Reds and Blues.
  • South’s storyline is about her and North defecting from Project Freelancer and being hired by Malcolm Hargrove.
  • Tex’s storyline focuses on her locating Church and later hunting down Wyoming.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Caboose; While walking back to Blood Gulch after their run in with not-CT, Tucker starts Thinking Out Loud, much to Wash's irritation. When Wash snaps and rhetorically asks Tucker is he has to narrate all of his thoughts out loud, Caboose responds by saying, "So you hear narrators, too..."
• Frame-Up: Upon returning to Freelancer Command, Wash is shocked to learn from Niner that Project Freelancer has framed him for stealing their equipment as part of a Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit to cover-up their crimes from the UNSC.
• Gag Penis: While discussing what to do about Crunchbite, Tucker brings up the size of Crunchbite's penis, much to the confusion of Wash and Church.
  Tucker: Also can we talk about that thing's dong?
  Wash: What?
  Church: Yeah, I echo that sentiment. What the actual fuck, Tucker?
  Tucker: Well, it was on top of me and it kept like smacking against my armor—it's fucking huge! I mean, look at it!
  Wash: [briefly glances before shaking his head] Absolutely not! This conversation is ending now.
  Church: [staring] Fuck, glad Tex isn't here to see this.
• Going Native: By the time the other Freelancers catch up to Wash at Blood Gulch, he's gone native with the Blues. He speaks using the Red and Blues' terminologies and even warns Carolina not to go into Red territory since her armor is blue.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: The Meta slices North in half with the Brute Shot.
• Heel Realization: After running into Wash and seeing how betrayed he is, York, in spite of not really realizing what he did wrong, just decides to try and do right by him from this point on.
• Heroic BSoD: Church goes into one after he regains his memories as the Alpha.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Eta and Iota eject themselves from Carolina's armor and allow the Meta to assimilate them so the Meta will spare her.
  • Delta ejects himself from York's armor and allows the Meta to assimilate him so the Meta won't kill York to do so.
  Delta: Please remember that I am, and always will be, your friend. And that you, York, are worth the sacrifice.
  • Niner chooses to remain in Freelancer Command to draw attention away from Wash while he escapes, though she's able to escape.
  • North transfers Theta to South's armor so he can undo the armor lock and attacks the Meta head-on so South can escape. This costs him his life.
  • Crunchbite attacks Not-CT head-on to stop him from killing Tucker, being fatally wounded in the process.
• Hidden Depths: While talking to North in Chapter 14, South expresses her frustration at the fact that he constantly kept her Locked Out of the Loop. She also admits that part of her Jerkass behavior was caused by North abandoning her for York.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: While being held at gunpoint by a paranoia-driven Wash, York tells South that he always hated her and his only regret is having to die alongside her. South replies that the feeling is mutual and admits that she's needling Wash to shoot them because she thinks York's death would be Worth It.
• Improperly Paranoid: Wash slowly becomes this trope as he gets repeatedly stabbed in the back by people he thought he could trust. By the time York arrives at Blood Gulch, Wash is convinced that everyone and everything is out to get him and the Sim Troopers.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Theta is reduced to bawling his eyes out after North's death.
• Innocently Insensitive: After putting aside their differences for the time being, Tex mentions that York was looking for Carolina and tells her that she's happy they were able to find each other. This nearly makes Carolina snap because York had decided to Opt Out on her just prior to her meeting with Tex.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Four-Seven-Niner is called Niner by all her colleagues.
  • Wash continually refers to Carolina as "Boss".
  • Eta, Iota, and later Epsilon all give Carolina the nickname Sunshine.
  • The Insurrectionist leader who took up CT's identity is referred to by the Freelancers as "not-CT".
• In Spite of a Nail: York still loses Delta to the Meta and North ultimately gets killed by the Meta.
• Insistent Terminology: Church insists he is not a prick, just a bastard and an asshole.
• It's a Long Story: By the time Tex returns to Blood Gulch with Carolina, Wash and the Blood Gulch crew have experienced their version of the "Blood Gulch Chronicles" in which a bunch of crazy things have happened. This includes finding an alien sword, meeting a Sangheili, Tucker getting pregnant, and Church regaining his memories of being Alpha. When Tex demands to know what happened while she was gone, all Wash can say is "it's a long story".
• Karma Houdini: By the end of the fic, Hargrove is the only member of the Big Bad Ensemble to have gotten off scot-free with no comeuppance.
• Killed Off for Real: Word of God confirms that Wyoming and the Red Zealot, whose deaths were somewhat ambiguous, are dead for real.
• Knee-capping: After finding the Director hiding in Sidewinder, South shoots him in his kneecap and offers to let Wash shoot his other one.
• Lesser of Two Evils: When faced with the Meta, Wash orders Simmons to find South despite York's protests that she can't be trusted. Wash replies by pointing out that they need every able-bodied soldier they can find in order to take on the Meta.
• Let's You and Him Fight: The first time that Carolina and Tex encounter each other, they quickly start fighting each other. Carolina thinks that Tex is trying to stop her from finding the Director, while Tex is trying to hunt down Wyoming and Carolina keeps getting in her way. The fight gets broken up with a "Shut Up!" Gunshot by Niner, who forces the two to talk it out "like goddamn adults".
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Chapter 10 reveals that the Human-Covenant War was nearly over, something that the Freelancers were unaware of. South is shocked when she learns it from the Insurrectionist leader.
  • Washington had no idea that Niner was Recovery Command and was shocked to find it out.
  • Wash was completely in the dark about Maine's transformation into the Meta and only finds out about it in the last three chapters.
• Manchild: Justified by Epsilon. He has Church's general personality, but without having Caboose to fill him in on the events that the Alpha went through, he's still developing and is pretty childish and naive.
• Mathematician's Answer: In chapter 56, Wash interrogates York and South on why they came to Blood Gulch. York honestly replies that he's on Red Team while South simply states that she's a bodyguard.
• Mêlée à Trois: Chapter 38 has a battle between three different factions. One one side, there's Carolina and York, who’re trying to hunt down the Meta. On the other side, there’s not-CT, Sharkface, and the Dakota twins, who are trying to arrest the remaining Freelancers on behalf of Charon Industries. Finally, there’s the Meta, who's trying to acquire more AI fragments from North and York.
• Mistaken for Romance: Tucker mistakes Wash and Tex's hostility towards each other as a form of Belligerent Sexual Tension.
• Moral Myopia: Not-CT and Sharkface have a bad case of this when it comes to Project Freelancer. As far as they're concerned, Project Freelancer is full of vile monsters, mercenaries, and thieves, in spite of the fact almost everyone except for the higher-ups were tricked into believing Charon Industries was a bunch of rebels and that they were serving humanity, while they and the other employees were perfectly happy serving as hired goons for the highly amoral company rather than fight in the Great War. The two also constantly rail on how the Freelancers killed all of their friends and treat it like the Freelancers did it out of peer sadism, when it happened in combat situations and the Charon goons were perfectly happy to kill Freelancers and attempted to do so on multiple occasions. As North bluntly tells them, they have no real right to claim the moral high ground over the project, which they happily ignore.
• Mysterious Employer: Hargrove, under the moniker "Control", acts as this for South and North, hiring them to help him recover Freelancer equipment.
• Mythology Gag: While searching for Church in the Mother of Invention's wreckage, Tex and Carolina overhear Caboose singing the lyrics to "Your Best Friend" from the show's Season 8 soundtrack.
• Noodle Incident: Tucker somehow knows what elephant semen smells like as he compares its scent to Crunchbite's. When Wash asks how he could possibly know that, Tucker simply replies by telling him that he needs to get out more.
• Not Helping Your Case: Shortly after joining Red Team, York and South are held at gunpoint by a paranoid Wash, who's convinced that they've come to Blood Gulch to harm the Reds and Blues. While York tries to talk Wash down, South instead abrasively snarks at him and at one point even dares him to shoot her.
• Not So Above It All: While arguing with Tucker over whether he is some kind of Chosen One, Wash briefly does some Yoda Speak in response to Tucker comparing himself to a Jedi.
• Odd Friendship: Niner forms one with Sheila shortly after arriving at Blood Gulch.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Washington has this reaction when he learns that a Sangheili is in Blood Gulch.
  • He also reacts this way in chapter 59 when Tex arrives to interrupt his and York's battle with the Meta.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Subverted when Wash is shot while escaping Freelancer. He seems fine at first, but by the time he returns to Blood Gulch a few chapters later, he nearly dies from bleeding out.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Wash is this to the Reds and Blues, as he finds himself in constant disbelief at all the insanity that happens in Blood Gulch.
  • On a lesser note, Niner acts this way towards Carolina and York's Second-Act Breakup. She's the only person who sees just how irrational the two are acting and points out that neither is thinking clearly at the moment.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Played with as Church and Tex aren't Carolina's parents but are AI based off them. While fusing back together, they sound like they're having sex. Because Church was still connected to the comms system, that meant poor Carolina heard every detail. When Tex confirms that she and Church had sex (or the closest thing to it for an AI), Carolina is visibly queasy and nearly throws up.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Four-Seven-Niner's security clearance is 0-4-7-9. The first time that Wash learns this, his reaction can be described as You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Washington delivers one to York in Chapter 56.
  York: Wash, I know you have to hurt right now but—
  Washington: York, you don’t know a goddamn thing about me right now. In fact, you never did. I was just the stupid, lucky rookie who got into the top tier as a fluke, remember?
  York: No—
  Washington: Your words. Yours and North’s. While I spent the past year and a half, alone, trying to figure out how everyone else had abandoned the project and me, I got to think about words a lot.
• Revenge Before Reason: When South's team catches up to Carolina, York, and the Meta, her plan was to let all three tire each other out before swooping in and arresting them all. This plan is immediately botched by not-CT and Sharkface, who charge in wanting revenge on Carolina for everything she did to them and the Resistance.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Tex sets off on one against Wyoming and Omega after they kidnap and torture Church.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: The quality of the fic's grammar is, simply put, not that good. Spelling and grammatical errors are fairly common, sometimes the author forgets to put a space between words, and it's very obvious that the author didn't properly revise their drafts before posting them.
• Sanity Slippage: Wash backslides into paranoia completely after being shot in the back by the Red Zealot.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • The first time that Wash and Tucker encounter a Sangheili, Wash orders Tucker help him attack...only for Tucker to run away screaming instead.
  • A less humorous example is when York decides to leave Carolina after losing Delta to the Meta and realizing that Carolina cares more about revenge than him.
• Short-Range Shotgun: Parodied. Sarge's modified shotgun from Chapter 58 is designed to shoot with ten times the force of a normal shotgun, but only has a maximum effective range of three feet.
• Shout-Out: When Tucker lists the ways that a person becomes The Chosen One he mentions pulling a sword out of a rock, having a stupid scar, and "bitching about power converters" on a desert planet.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Both York and South are spared from their canonical deaths. Alpha and Theta are also spared.
• Suicide Dare: South to Wash.
  Wash (to Sarge): I swear to god, if you make me explain that this isn't an alternate future one more time I'll take myself out.
  South: Prove it.
• Take That!: The fic includes a few obvious jabs at the Republican Party.
  • During Tex's standoff with O'Malley at the start of Chapter 33, the two engage in banter that briefly veers off-topic into a discussion about the issue of healthcare.
    O'Malley: Actually, I’ve been trying to explain how filling out only O'Malley on a tax form might be a little difficult. Not that I’m fully in support of the current medical healthcare structure or anything, but there are still old rules to be followed!
    Tex: You think healthcare should be provided regardless of how much money is attached to someone’s name?
    O'Malley: No, you fool! Doctors should be free to charge ridiculous amounts regardless hahaha!
    Doc: Aw, that’s not completely true. There’s bound to be a middle ground that rewards the decade of schooling a medical professional has to go through and making sure that the general public doesn’t have to sell their souls for basic care! And personally, I always vote for the guys who say they have a creative solution! Man. I really hope they bother to share it with us someday. That’d be swell!
  • There's also a moment in Chapter 36 where Wash is trying to convince Red Team that they haven't time traveled to the future.
    Wash: We are not in the future!
    Grif: Oh, yeah? Prove it.
    Wash: I don’t have to prove it! There’s no need for proof for something that is obvious!
    Simmons: Then how do you explain the fact that, by the time we arrived in the future, the snowcaps had all melted? That would have taken thousands of years!
    Wash: First off, no, it wouldn’t take that long. Have you never heard of global warming?
    Caboose: They probably don’t believe it. They are Red. I think it’s against their platform.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • After Niner forces them to stop fighting, Carolina and Tex at first struggle to even have a civil conversation without it nearly turning ugly.
  • When Hargrove assigns the Dakota twins to work with not-CT and Sharkface, it's clear that neither party likes the other for obvious reasons.
• That Came Out Wrong: When Wash discusses Blue Team's next moves after rescuing Church from O'Malley and Wyoming:
  Wash: Tex went after Wyoming. We’re currently checking out this facility that he and Doc were operating for O’Malley. And Tucker’s going to show me everything he’s learned about his sword.
  [Tucker and Church freeze before staring at Wash in surprise]
  Wash: What? What’d I… Oh, goddammit.
  Tucker: Bow chicka bow–
  Wash: TUCKER!
  Tucker: Dude, I’m not the one that had the amazing lead for that! That’s all you, good buddy.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Much like in canon, Caboose starts out as only somewhat dim. His descent into a full blown Cloud Cuckoo Lander is explicitly depicted as the result of Omega messing around in his head. Both Washington and Tucker even lampshade that Caboose was nowhere near as childish or dumb prior to his possession by Omega.
• Undignified Death: Tex feels this way about Florida's death upon learning that he died from an allergic reaction to aspirin.
• Wham Episode: "Recovery Two XV: The End" has North Killed Off for Real by the Meta, though not before transferring Theta to South.
• Wham Line:
  • York to Carolina in Chapter 45:
    York: No. I'm not with you.
  • Caboose says one to Tex and Carolina when they are looking for Alpha-Church in chapter 56.
    Carolina: What else did Church say, Caboose? We need to find him.
    Caboose: Why? He’s not lost, he said he remembered everything and knew his way.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In chapter 23, it's revealed that Church's messing around with Caboose's head not only mentally impaired him, but traumatized him so badly that his brain subconsciously erased any memory of Church in order to heal. Naturally, Wash is furious with Church after finding this out:
  Church: How am I supposed to lead a guy who can't remember me?
  Wash: How about asking how you’re supposed to lead someone who you have, at least in some form, mentally incapacitated? How about you take some responsibility for causing that stress and that harm on someone who trusted you to lead them? How about you worry about that and then about how you could still call yourself a leader?
• World of Snark: Pretty much everyone makes a snarking remark at some point or another.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: After finding the alien sword, Tucker becomes convinced that he's The Chosen One and believes that Crunchbite is the guide to his Hero's Journey. He couldn't be more wrong as he never completes his quest due to his pregnancy and not-CT even explains that any random Joe could have activated the sword.

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