Carolina

"She wasn't around a lot when I was a kid, and when she was she could only stay a short time. Seems like she always had somewhere else to be; something important to do. And when she left, she...wouldn't say goodbye to me. Instead, she always told me, "Never say goodbye." If you don’t say 'goodbye,' then you aren't really gone. You...just aren't here right now."

- Carolina describing her mother to Epsilon in Don't Say It

Freelancer Agent Carolina is a rogue agent in the Special Operations program, Project Freelancer. She was part of an experimental program as a result of the Director of the project speeding along experiments to discover traits with aggressive A.I. Carolina in particular was implanted with two A.I. in her head. According to Delta "she only functioned for a short time, and not very well while she did."

Agent York believed that Carolina had been dead since before the events of Out of Mind. However, it is revealed in the episode Hate to Say Goodbye that Carolina has actually been alive since then, and has been searching for the Alpha A.I. in order to use it in her plan to kill the Director.

Overview
Prior to becoming an agent of Project Freelancer, Carolina had lost her mother during the Great War, which sent her father into a deep depression. As she got older, she developed a romantic relationship with York, who would eventually be with her as a fellow agent in Project Freelancer. Since then, she has become one of the most combatively skilled characters in the series, being only arguably surpassed by Tex. Carolina has now developed a relationship with the Blood Gulch soldiers, having moved on with her life after the events of Season 10.

Carolina and Tex both show similar personalities and have an immense amount of skill. Along with the Director, her actions had affected a large sum of characters which had caused several events to occur. Rooster Teeth had intended to explain Carolina in greater detail after being mentioned in both Season 5 and Reconstruction in later seasons, which came true in the Project Freelancer Saga.

Project Freelancer
Carolina first appeared in Number One, where she aided North and South at the Bjørndal Cryogenics Research Facility. After battling several Insurrectionists, Carolina extracts North and South from the area and onto a Pelican. The team escape the base as it explodes behind them but are pursued by two Longswords. The team, fortunately, make it to the rendezvous and the Mother of Invention destroys the Longswords as the Pelican docks. Back on the frigate, Carolina is briefed on information the data file held: coordinates for a major target for Project Freelancer.

Afterwards, Carolina is seen with Washington, North, South, and C.T. overlooking a battle consisting of York, Wyoming, and Maine, vs. new Agent Texas. Carolina shows a dislike for Tex due to her skill; which put Carolina's position as Number 1 on the leaderboard at risk. When the battle gets out of control, Carolina calls F.I.L.S.S. to send a medical crew to aid York, after the latter is blasted by a frag grenade. The Freelancers race to York's aid, until the Director enters the area and scolds them. After the Director leaves, Carolina spots a team of black-uniformed medics assisting Tex, and notices the latter's arm sparking from an "injury". Carolina makes note of this and marks it as interesting.

Later on, the Freelancers attend a mission briefing, in which Carolina takes lead and explains the situation. She informs the others that they must infiltrate a 110 story building and obtain an item codenamed the Sarcophagus from the Insurrection. To do so, Carolina divides the group into two teams: Team A, consisting of herself, Washington, and Maine; and Team B, consisting of North Dakota, Wyoming, and C.T. York soon recovers and joins Team A on the mission, pleasing Carolina. After the briefing concludes, Teams A and B are sent on their objectives.

Mission for the Sarcophagus
Team A successfully enter the building and Carolina has York pick a holographic lock, but the latter accidentally sets off an alarm. Nevertheless, Team A enter the vault and investigate, while York provides recon. When the Sarcophagus is found, Carolina kicks Maine out of a window to balance the Sarcophagus up to the roof for evac. Soon after, Carolina fights and kills a heavily armored Flame trooper with Wash and the two regroup with York on the roof, where they then discover Agent Texas. Carolina realizes that Tex was behind the explosion at the Research Facility and questions her, until, suddenly, Insurrectionists surround the four.

Carolina uses her Camouflage to attack the soldiers while the building is being targeted. After the building is hit by a MAC round from the Mother of Invention, the Freelancers escape the collapsing center of it. After Tex and Wash successfully escape with the Sarcophagus, Carolina and York are rescued by Maine in a Warthog, and the three drive away down a highway. Carolina contacts Team B for a status report and North reveals that they are pinned down but sends Team A after the briefcase. After Team A successfully obtain the briefcase from Rhee Sebiel, they drive off in their Warthog, but are pursued by Hornets. Carolina and Maine battle two Insurrectionists, but Maine is injured. Maine tries to kill the enemies with his brute shot, but hits the rear tire of the truck the four are on and causes it to swerve.

As the Sleeveless Insurrection Soldier regains the briefcase, Carolina and York chase after him. Tex arrives and speeds ahead in pursuit, much to Carolina's annoyance. Carolina has York abort and uses her Speed Unit to catch up to Tex. After Tex fails to kill the soldier, Carolina pursues him on the rooftops. She manages to knock him off the highway, but misses the briefcase, allowing Tex to obtain it herself. Following the mission, Carolina has been moved down to No. 2, with Tex replacing her on the No. 1 spot. The Director approaches her and informs her that next mission will cause her to do questionable things, but Carolina agrees to do it nonetheless.

A.I. Interaction
Carolina is seen again in Season 10, on board a Pelican dropship. She and her team, consisting of Washington, North, South, and C.T., begin their mission on accessing an Insurrectionist spacecraft and finding its leader. They exit the Pelican using jetpacks and enter the enemy ship, fighting off a high number of soldiers in the process. Carolina uses a Gravity Hammer and two plasma rifles during the fight in order to overcome her enemies. After the fight, Carolina gives her team orders on finding the leader and securing the area, in which she notices that C.T. is nowhere in sight.

South then informs her of the leader's location in Bone Valley, and Carolina preps the team to return to the Mother of Invention so they can go to Bone Valley. As they fly to their extraction, the Staff of Charon reveals itself and attacks the Mother of Invention. Before escaping, the Staff of Charon leaves behind a nuclear device, forcing the Freelancer team to retreat. Carolina's team makes it to the Pelican and escape before the nuclear device goes off. When the Director asks if everyone is accounted for, Carolina tells him of C.T.'s defection.

Later, during a class about A.I. theory, Carolina explains to South why the latter is attending the class although she has no A.I. York states that Carolina gave her A.I., Sigma to Maine, but Carolina tells him that the reason was so Maine would be able to communicate after his throat injury. After class, Carolina reports to the Director and informs him about C.T.'s affiliation with the Insurrection. The Director sends her on a mission to retrieve C.T.'s armor at the Longshore Shipyards, in which Carolina asks if there would be any personnel joining her. This angers the Director, who in which tells her that he will take care of personnel. Carolina stands down and looks at the leaderboard to see Tex still at the No. 1 spot, worried that she will arrive during the mission.

Rivalry with Texas
Carolina, Washington, York, North Dakota, and South Dakota arrive at the Mother of Invention hangar bay to prepare for their mission. They board the Pelican, piloted by Four Seven Niner, and fly to their destination at the Longshore Shipyards. At their arrival at the Insurrection base, the Freelancers attack. After failing to eliminate a sniper group, Carolina contacts North for assistance. After North eliminates the snipers, Carolina battles Girlie and the Demo Man with Maine.

After the two defeat the Insurrectionist pair, Carolina regroups with York, Washington, and Wyoming, who are pinned down by Twin Insurrectionist Chain Gunners. Tex suddenly arrives and dashes past the Twins, initiating Carolina to hastily chase after her. When Carolina catches up with Tex, the two confront C.T. and the Leader. C.T. tries to tell them about the Director's crimes and true intentions, but the two refuse to listen. Carolina then engages C.T.while Tex battles the Leader. As the battle escalates, Tex throws one of the Leader's tomahawks at C.T., fatally wounding her. As the Leader drags C.T. into an escape pod, Carolina berates Tex for killing a teammate, but the latter tells her that C.T. is now traitor, before calling for extraction.

With the mission a failure, Carolina begins to extensively train, in order to bring herself back up to the No. 1 spot on the leaderboard. Feeling envious of Agent Texas, Carolina retreats to a locker room where Sigma and Gamma inform her about Tex's pairing with Omega, who is said to be the most powerful of all the fragments. Carolina then realizes that Tex is only superior because of Omega and, as a result, speaks with the Director and Counselor about an A.I. implantation. When the Director tells her that the next two A.I. are set up to be paired with Washington and South Dakota, he gives Carolina a choice of who to delay. Carolina makes a bold decision to take both A.I., delaying both Wash and South.

Carolina then enters surgery for implantation, receiving Eta and Iota, and soon afterwards, demands a match with Tex. As the match begins, the Director questions why there is an unscheduled fight, and upon seeing Tex, cries out her name (Allison). His actions send everyone into extreme pain, as A.I. voices begin screaming the word "Allison" around the room. Carolina pleads to make the voices stop, but the Director does nothing. Tex decides to ease her suffering by knocking her out, causing her to fall into a coma.

Freelancer Break-In
After awaking from her coma, Carolina stormed to the Director and Counselor, demanding she keep her A.I. and wasn't going to give them up because of a miscalculation. When Texas, now gone rogue, infiltrates an unauthorized sector of the Mother of Invention, the Director instructs Carolina do what she must to stop her. Along the way, Carolina meets York and realizes he is supporting Tex. York tries to convince her to help them, but Carolina refuses and fights him. After defeating York, Carolina confronts Tex and the two battle on the bridge of the ship.

While fighting, the two weaken the observation window of the ship's bridge, causing the force of the blows to send it into the atmosphere. The ship then crash lands on a frozen planet, where Carolina is ejected out of the ship through the weakened window, landing near a cliff. Agent Maine, now the Meta, soon approaches her and forcibly removes her two A.I., Eta and Iota, before tossing her off the cliff. However, Carolina manages to use her grappling gun to presumably save herself, leading everyone to believe that she died in the fall.

Hunt for the Director
After her supposed death and the Meta's defeat, Carolina, with the help of the Reds and Blues, rescues Epsilon from the memory unit and tells him that he's going to help her kill the Director. Epsilon questions how she is alive, but Washington interrupts, stating that the others need help. At the front of the UNSC Archives, Carolina attacks UNSC soldiers while waiting for their extraction. After Grif eliminates the soldiers, Carolina begins barking orders at the Reds and Blues. The group don't understand her orders however, so Washington explains it for them.

After leaving, the group make an unexpected stop at a Wind Power facility. This angers Carolina and she walks away, prompting Wash to follow her inside the facility itself. While performing further investigation, Carolina shows regret over Maine's rampage due to Sigma's control and feels that the Director was somehow behind Sigma and Meta's rampage. Suddenly, Carolina and Wash spot Tucker and Epsilon spying on them, in which Carolina threatens them to get out. Soon after, with Wash unable to find anything new inside the facility, Carolina decides to leave Zanzibar and locate a new target: C.T.

The Reds, Blues, and Carolina soon arrive at the desert, where Carolina and Washington head for C.T.'s location. There, Carolina tells Wash that the body they are looking is actually the Insurrection Leader's, who took C.T.'s identity along with a datapad containing information about the Director. After investigating the information on the datapad, Carolina leaves to a nearby island to check on some "unfinished business,", inadvertently taking Epsilon with her, who is stored inside her Mongoose.

At an Abandoned Island Fortress, Carolina investigates the site where York was killed many years ago. Soon after, Epsilon makes his presence known, takes the form of Epsilon-Delta, and initiates a memory sequence that he had uncovered while browsing through the Director's files. In the logs, a holographic representation of York states that he had recieved a transmission from Project Freelancer, saying that someone was causing them some trouble, leading him to believe that Carolina was still alive. However, in the final recording, York sadly reveals that it was Texas, not Carolina who was still active. After the log ends, Epsilon informs Carolina on more intel, in which the latter thanks him. The pair then return to the desert and tell the Reds and Blues that they are all going back to Outpost 17-B.

Conflict With the Reds and Blues
When the Reds and Blues arrive at Valhalla, Carolina asks Wash to show her the remains of the ship. When Carolina inspects the ship, she has Epsilon and Wash scavenge for evidence, vowing that Texas can't keep her secrets from her. However, the search turns out to be fruitless, frustrating Carolina. When Carolina decides to leave Valhalla, Washington, annoyed with her attitude, sternly reminds her that their chances of finding anything was slim and explains that the Reds and Blues won't be ready to leave. Carolina glares at Wash and states that the mission will be completed regardless.

Carolina gathers the Reds and Blues to prepare to leave Valhalla, until Epsilon asks to speak with her alone. Epsilon tells Carolina to let go of her rivalry with Tex because she wouldn't find the Director if she didn't stay focused. Carolina then pulls out the dog tag Washington scavenged from the ship and discovers that it belonged to C.T. Realizing that there is data stored on it, Epsilon enters the dog tag and returns to inform Carolina that he knows the Director's location.

Carolina and Epsilon soon gather the Reds and Blues inside the Red Team's Hologram Chamber and inform them of their plan to kill the Director. However, the group refuses to help them. As the squad crumbles, Carolina threatens to shoot Tucker when he refuses to follow her orders, but Washington, stops her in retaliation. Carolina is shocked at Wash's actions and becomes remorseful as Wash angrily tells her he won't let her condemn his "friends." After Epsilon furiously blames the Reds and Blues for all of his problems, the group walk out on them, leaving Carolina and Epsilon alone in the chamber.

Confronting the Director
Upon arriving with Epsilon at the Freelancer Offsite Storage Facility, the pair meet with F.I.L.S.S., who informs them that the Director was still inside. After gaining access, the two enter a teleporter and come face to face with an army of robotic Tex drones. Undaunted, Carolina attacks, using everything in the room to her full advantage. After charging at the army with her Speed Unit, Carolina is ultimately knocked down and admits that she could never beat Tex. As the drones surround her, the Reds and Blues come to her, and Epsilon's, rescue. Her morale restored, Carolina and the Reds and Blues manage to defeat the rest of the copies once Epsilon enters them and shuts them down.

Carolina and Epsilon soon find the Director watching a video file of Allison repeatedly. The Director pleads for more time so he can bring back Allison right, but Epsilon demands that they kill him and make him pay for what he has done. Carolina attempts to rekindle her hatred towards the Director, but simply gives him a disappointed frown, her anger having ebbed away from her experiences and seeing how broken the Director has become. Before leaving, she kisses the Director on the forehead and, upon his request, leaves him her pistol. Epsilon is enraged at the loss, but Carolina reminds him that he himself taught that people needed to let go.

After leaving, Epsilon and Carolina help relocate the Reds and Blues to a new home, where they continue their usual antics. Overlooking both teams on a cliff, Epsilon decides to stay with them, but Carolina mentions that she intercepted a transmission detailing thugs that have stolen Freelancer equipment, and offers Epsilon to accompany her. She then quotes her mother on a saying on goodbyes, and Epsilon remarks that Carolina's mother was a smart lady, though Carolina counters this by mentioning her horrible taste in men. The two then both disappear from the area, as Caboose looks on from below.

Communication With Locus
In Season 11, Locus is seen communicating with a superior whose voice is distorted. This is soon revealed to be Carolina, who expresses interest in a sealed UNSC crate that Locus had secured earlier on. When he suggests that he wants to execute a captured Sarge, Donut, and Washington, she challenges him, asking if he feels threatened by them. When he responds negatively, she reaffirms for him to obey orders before stating that she would see him soon. It is unknown what her intentions are, or if Locus is aware of her identity.

Personality
Carolina has a very similar personality to Tex, as both are ambitious, strong willed, and rarely break into humor. This is possibly because Tex is based on her mother, who may have left a large impact on Carolina. However, Carolina tries to hide her emotions more so, as she focuses more on her goals. As a result, she avoids becoming attached to others, as she has experienced losing those dear to her multiple times, such as her mother, York, and Maine.

She seemingly has developed an inferiority complex, as she often tries to prove herself multiple times and admits that she could never beat Tex, who the Director shows more care for. However, as Season 10 progressed, Carolina began to show more confidence in herself and expressed more of her emotions. She became more willing to tell jokes and developed a strong attachment to the Blood Gulch soldiers, most notably Epsilon.

Relationships
Although she's been recently introduced, Carolina has developed many relationships with numerous characters.

Ambition
Carolina has shown great ambition to be the best, which at some points prevents her to act logically. This is best shown when she was originally ranked number one on the Freelancer leader board and became jealous of Tex when she took her place. She later became so driven to take her revenge on the Director that she was willing to threaten the Reds and Blues to obtain her revenge. However, after True Colors and Don't Say It, she obtained a revelation about her actions and goals, finally putting aside her ambition and past.

Trust
During her time at Project Freelancer, Carolina seemed to trust her teammates to a high degree, stating to Epsilon that they had the best training and the best equipment. However, after Tex's arrival, Carolina's jealousy of her conflicted with her relationships with her friends. Specifically during the break-in, after realizing that York was working with Tex, she tells him that he can no longer trust her and the two engage in battle, ending their close relationship. Ever since then, Carolina gains a difficulty in trusting others and blames Tex and the Director for this.

After meeting the Reds and Blues, Carolina showed great annoyance of them and their lack of military knowledge. Every time they did something that did not benefit the mission to find the Director, she became furious several times. Yet, as time passed, Carolina became more attached and trusting to them, after they rescue her.

Combat
Carolina is a very powerful and capable Freelancer, perhaps one of the most proficient in the series. During Season 9, she was shown to have been the highest ranking freelancer for most of the season, which is a testament to her skill. She has displayed the ability to take out multiple foes at once with martial arts alone, as shown during the episodes Number One and The Sarcophagus, in which she does so with the help of her Camouflage Armor Enhancement in the latter and despite being heavily outnumbered and outgunned in the former. She further displays these skills in Spiral, where she is not only able to hold her own against but is also able to overwhelm two Insurrectionist soldiers, both of which were notable for being able to completely overwhelm Maine not so long before.

Weaponry
Carolina has been shown to be skilled with multiple weapons but uses the magnum and grappling hook. The Magnum seems to be her primary weapon, as she uses it in every battle-related appearance of hers. The grappling hook, which looks like a black pistol, she often uses with great skill in three instances; the first, in Number One, she uses it to divert the direction of a turret at the ground after Red Demo Man attempted to kill her, South and North with it. The second time was when she chased down the Sleeveless Insurrectionist atop buildings, using the grappling hook to swing from one building to the next.

The third instance was when she grappled Washington, in order to save him from a nuke. In Season 10, however, Carolina seems to have expanded her arsenal. During Revenants, she is seen wielding a Battle Rifle and uses it to fight off attackers. During Episode 2, Carolina is seen dual wielding Plasma Rifles, while also making good use of a Gravity Hammer. She later uses two Plasma Rifles during the battle at the Longshore Shipyards, as well as using for the first time a Humbler stun device upon contact with the Insurrection members she was fighting.

Agility
Carolina has also displayed great reflexes, as shown in Spiral, as she is seen dodging a round from a sniper rifle from an insurrectionist and evading many rounds from an Assault Rifle during battle with another Insurrectionist despite the close distance. She was even capable of dodging five point-blank shots from a pistol with a helix jump, which immediately followed into a counterattack with a slash and stab from Maine's newly acquired Brute Shot. Her reflexes were hinted at during Introductions, where she makes note of having never been hit by lockdown paint during a training session, a feat that none of the other Freelancers so far, other than perhaps Tex has displayed. As a testament to Carolina's agility, she has never been hit by gunfire in Season 9, and only once in Season 10.

Resourcefulness
Carolina is also resourceful, being capable of using her immediate environment to her advantage, as displayed where she makes use of a hanging banshee by launching it at the Insurrectionist Flame soldier with a frag grenade and immediately after throwing a gravity hammer at his head to deal a finishing blow, ending that confrontation. This feat is further exemplified when Wash comments on it as "just showing off." Carolina is also a good leader, being able to keep her team organized and is capable of improvising.

Kills
Using various weapons, Carolina defeated many Insurrection soldiers when she was still with Project Freelancer and destroyed several Tex drones in True Colors. Also, in The Sarcophagus, she killed the Flame Soldier using a Gravity Hammer.

Trivia

 * Carolina's face and body movements are modeled after the RT user lakeyes.
 * Carolina is the fifth character, and third female character, in Red vs. Blue to have her face revealed.
 * Carolina, along with the Meta, Tex and North Dakota, is one of the few Freelancers to have more than one armor enhancement in their possesion at once (Carolina: Camouflage & Speed Unit, Tex: Super Strength & Cloaking, Meta: Various abilities stolen from dead agents, North: Domed Energy Shield & Enhanced Motion Tracker).
 * Carolina could be considered the main protagonist of the Project Freelancer saga, due to the fact that most of the story from seasons 9 & 10 revolves around her memories and goals.
 * It is revealed in the episode Hate to Say Goodbye that Carolina is alive and, along with Wash, is one of the few Freelancers that is still active.
 * The episode also marks the first time Carolina is seen wielding a weapon other than her usual Magnum.
 * Carolina's armor can be recreated in Halo 3. The required armor is as follows: Rogue helmet, and Recon right shoulder, left shoulder and chest piece. It is not a perfect replica as the coloring system for her armor is based on Halo 2's own system and slight changes have been made to her armor, such as her shoulders, which have had the pieces that stick out removed. In the finale of Season 11, her shoulders have been changed to the Mark VI variant.
 * In Halo 4, Carolina's armor consists of a Recon helmet, Stalker torso, Mark VI forearms and legs, and Stalker visor color. Her shoulders change between Recruit and Mark VI variants.
 * It is highly possible that Carolina may be ambidexterous. For instance, in The Sarcophagus and Spiral, she is constantly seen fighting with her right hand, using her custom grappling hook and her Magnum pistol. However, throughout Season 10, Carolina is often seen using her left hand, holding her Magnum with it and in the episodes Fighting Fire and C.T. fights with it using an electric baton. She also appears to have no problems with dual wielding her two Plasma Rifles.
 * Due to the fact that Sigma was originally her A.I and the Eta and Iota A.I.s were intended to be implanted with Agents Washington and South Dakota, Carolina can be considered to be indirectly responsible, not only for Maine's rampage as the Meta, but also for Washington's implantation with Epsilon and subsequent mental breakdown, along with South's lost chance to have an A.I. and in turn, North's eventual death.
 * It was revealed in Party Crasher that Carolina was the very first victim of the Meta's rampage.
 * While indirectly doing so, Carolina technically managed to kill the Director by giving him her pistol, which he most likely used to commit suicide.
 * It is confirmed in Don't Say It that Carolina is the daughter of Allison and the Director.
 * In Reconstruction: Chapter 17, when Wash revealed that Tex got special treatment from the Director compared to the other Freelancer agents, Church responded with "You sound jealous. What's the matter, daddy didn't love you enough?". As it turned out, this was literally the case for Carolina.
 * Carolina is one of only four Freelancers whose name has been on the Freelancer Ranking board in every scene in which it is featured, the other three being York, North, and Wash.
 * Carolina is the third soldier to be seen without her armor as seen on a deleted scene for the Season 10 DVD, the first two being York and North.
 * In a deleted scene on the Season 10 DVD, Carolina is seen walking into Club Errera, the night club where she met York, sporting a blue miniskirt and a white tank top.
 * Although she was first mentioned in Biting the Hand, Carolina did not appear until 3 seasons later.
 * Carolina has many similarities to Luke McKay's drawing of Tex, as both have red hair, green eyes, and pale faces.
 * Carolina is one of the few characters in the series with her own distinct theme (others, most notably, being Tex and the Meta). The theme makes its first appearance, along with Carolina's, in Number One, and appears to be symbolic of her status as a tragic hero, using a major-minor half scale motif to create a melancholic and fairly sad theme. It also appears to have some similarities to Tex's theme, and the two are frequently played counterpoint whenever Carolina and Tex interact on-screen.