Washington

Freelancer Washington, also known as Recovery One, David, and Prisoner 619-B is the main protagonist in his eponymous mini-series and a main character in Red vs Blue. Washington is a Freelancer assigned to the Special Operations Recovery Unit, charged with recovering the artificial constructs of dying freelancers. Washington's character has changed drastically throughout the series. Starting off as the main protagonist in Reconstruction, he has become a major antagonist alongside the Meta in Revelation.

Recovery One
In his first appearance, he is charged to recover the AI Delta, after Freelancer York is KIA. While recovering Delta, Washington is attacked by Wyoming. Washington plants an explosive on York's armor and takes Delta, escaping alive from the unknown soldier. He is then contacted by Recovery Command and is sent to answer a Priority One Distress Call.

Wash responds, and finds two Freelancer twins, North and South. North is KIA, but South was left alive, upon questioning South, Wash discovers that North still had his artificial construct, the Theta AI. Wash is then contacted by Command, and he is ordered to kill South.

Wash only pretends to kill her, later saying that he needs her help. He orders Delta to lie about South's death. Wash and South go to a city, where Wash explains the situation to South, that something is hunting the freelancers. He describes the hunter's reason for hunting freelancers is to steal their armor enhancements. Wash plans to implant Delta into South for safe keeping. South protests, saying that she isn't rated for Implantation, but has to go through with it, as Wash will not allow Delta in his head after what happened to Wash's own AI Epsilon, which went insane and terminated itself inside Wash's head.

Wash and South are attacked by the Meta that is hunting the freelancers. Delta is quickly implanted into South. This turns out to be a huge mistake, because shortly after South acquires Delta, she betrays Wash and shoots him in the back. South then confronts the Meta and tricks him into stealing Wash's armor enhancement while she makes her escape with Delta, leaving Wash to die. Washington is last seen lying on the ground motionless with the Meta looming over him.

Reconstruction
It is revealed during the first episode of Reconstruction that Washington was inexplicably spared by the Meta. Washington also reveals that he was able to survive South's betrayal because he had taken York's healing unit. Whether or not he still has York's armor enhancement (or his own) is not stated. Upon offering counsel to Recovery Command on the incident at Outpost 17-B: Valhalla, Washington is ordered to investigate the last known location of the Omega AI: Blood Gulch.

When he arrives, he learns that most of the soldiers have been transferred due to the bases being "obsolete". Sarge and Sister are the only soldiers left, the latter because she can host parties in Blue base, and the former because of his desire to completely wipe out the Blues. (It should be noted, though, that he doesn't actually do anything to Sister because he doesn't hit girls.) Afterward, Washington learns where Caboose has been transferred to with the help of Lopez (who has had his body rebuilt by Sarge). When he arrives at Caboose's new base at Outpost 28: Rat's Nest, he learns about Caboose's incredible stupidity the hard way. When he leaves, he narrowly misses the Meta, who was assuming the appearance of a Blue soldier for reasons unknown. Soon afterward, he manages to find Church and persuades him to join him in hunting the Meta.

After finding and reactivating Sheila, Washington's suspicions about the Meta are confirmed, but he is interrupted by a distress call from Delta, implying that South is under attack by the Meta. After a series of events leading up to South's death, Wash manages to track the Meta back to Zanzibar, only to have Sarge and the newly reformed Red Team show up and ruin their hopes of saving Caboose and Delta from the Meta. After the Meta attacks the Reds, Wash manages to convince the Reds to work with him to stop the Meta.

After some non-stop arguing between red and blue team, Wash finally becomes annoyed enough to take charge of both teams. After he assigns the reds to check on the jeep, Church gives him a message that he received from Delta: "Memory is the key." Wash reveals that the message meant that the Alpha AI is the only thing that can stop the Meta, and that there is only one place where they can find it: Command.

After commandeering some vehicles, Wash, the Blues, and the Reds finally manage to sneak into command. Wash takes Church with him down into the AI storage level where he begins his search for the Alpha. During his search, several stored AIs communicate with Wash and try to convince him to take them with him. After a little searching, Washington finally comes across the panel he was looking for, but instead of extracting the Alpha AI from it, he extracts Epsilon.

Church is furious that Wash lied to him, but Washington explains everything. He explains that all the other AIs were never copied from the Alpha, but they were instead fragments of it's mind. Epsilon represented the Alpha's memories, while Delta represented it's logic. Finally, Washington reveals something shocking to Church. After he explains why Church always agreed with everything Delta said, why he was sent to Blood Gulch (a place no one ever goes), why he can seemingly live without a body, and why he was unaffected when the Omega AI jumped into his systems: Church himself is the Alpha AI.

Church and Washington head to the EMP terminal, where Wash briefly talks to the Director and Counselor before Maine attacks him and shoots him in the chest. Wash still activates the EMP after Church goes inside Maine. The words "Emp (pronounced "ehmp" instead of EE-EM-PEE) activated" are stated, to which Washington responds, "Emp? You have got to be fucking joking-" before the terminal releases an electromagnetic pulse that shorts out all electrical equipment and destroys all AIs at the base, which Caboose, with the AI Epsilon, barely escape from.

Imprisonment
Reasons for imprisonment:

Washington's fate was left unknown until Chapter 4 of Recreation, Catching Up, when it is revealed that he survived the gunshot wound in, but has been stripped of his Agent status and imprisoned in a UNSC Maximum Security Detention Facility for unknown reasons. Caboose contacts him requesting help for himself and Donut, which Wash states will be unlikely, but when approached by the Prison Guard, he claims he needs to see "the Commander," stating ambiguously that he has found "the missing piece to his puzzle." The commander is revealed to be the Chairman in Recreation Chapter 9, and in Chapter 13 Washington meets with the Chairman to make a deal: As the Reds deleted the Blues from the Freelancer database, Caboose was able to escape with the Epsilon unit with out being interrogated or tracked down. "I give you that missing module, you get me out of here, I get a clean slate, and we forget we ever knew each other" to which the Chairman agrees.
 * 3 counts of dereliction of duty
 * 8 counts of conspiracy to commit treason
 * 7 counts of destruction of protected classified military property

Pursuit of Epsilon
Chairman: Now Agent Washington I just have one more question....Agent Washington....Agent Washington are you listening?

''Wash: Hmmm....Oh yes. I'm listening.''

Chairman: Agent Washington, when you find these blue soldiers that you're talking about, what makes you think that they will just give you the Epsilon unit when you ask them for it?

''Wash: (laughs) For as long as I remember I've been lied to, taken advantage of, shot in the back, and left for dead. And now I have a way out of all this. What in the hell makes you think I am gonna ask for it?''

-- Final conversation between Agent Washington and the Chairman in Recreation.

In Chapter 19 of Recreation, the Chairman agreed to let former-agent Washington pursue the Epsilon module in exchange for his freedom. Along with the Meta, Washington arrived at Valhalla to find Epsilon as Donut, Lopez, and Simmons try escaping in the Meta's warthog. The Meta stops them and Wash soon appears. Simmons, the only one who had known Agent Washington from a previous experience, was relieved to see him, convinced that he was there to help. Though instead of fighting, Agent Washington simply told the Meta to stand down before demanding the three red soldiers to give him the Epsilon unit. Lopez expresses his confusion over the situation, before being shot in the head by Washington, who then shoots Donut. Simmons, hysterical over what had happened, kneels down to Donut's collapsed body. Agent Washington then fades back into his conversation with the Chairman, who asks him how he will get the Blues to give him the AI unit. Washington implies that it will be by force. Now in Red vs Blue Revelation it becomes clear that Wash is working with The Meta and he is currently holding Simmons and Doc hostage in Vahalla.

In Chapter 2 of Revelation he explains he needs Doc to fix the Meta. Washington sees Sarge in Vahalla and tells The Meta to kill Doc and Simmons and come and help him if Sarge gives him any trouble. Wash orders Sarge to drop his weapons but Sarge after stalling Wash signals Grif, Washington confused hears a strange sound. Grif, driving a warthog, smashes out of the wall Wash was standing by and runs him over however Wash climbs to the top of the jeep and begins firing, Grif brakes and launches Wash in the air and Sarge takes his shotgun back. Washington lands next to explosive containers and Sarge shoots them with his shotgun and they violently explode. However Washington lives and attempts to stop Epsilon, Sarge, Simmons and Grif from escaping. Epsilon enraged by the sight of Washington seals off the exit. He then tells The Meta that he has another way of finding them as they hear Doc crying for help.

He is next seen attempting to question Doc on the location of Epsilon but first attempts to get him out of the wall that he's stuck in. The Meta tries using a Warthog however that fails as well. Finally The Meta breaks the wall around the wall Doc is stuck in and Washington questions him on the location of Epsilon. Doc tells them that Simmons mentioned something about sand. They then track down a Recovery Beacon to the dig-site, where Washington forces the Meta to dig untill he finds the source of the beacon. Eventualy, the Meta extracts C.T.'s helmet, and Wash remarks suprisedly that; "'She' shouldn't be out here, but it doesn't matter, because 'she' never got an A.I. anyway." Washington encounters the Aliens at the desert and gets them to draw a map to Epsilon for him. But the map turns out to be an insult to humans then The Meta and Wash begin opening fire on the Aliens. Even though Doc who is now freed from the wall tells them not to because it's "bad karma"

Kills

 * South Dakota
 * Various miscellaneous Freelancer agents
 * Donut
 * a copy of Lopez, Lopez stated that he backed himself up before he was destroyed.

Skill
Despite lacking the advantage of an AI, Agent Washington demonstrates formidable combat ability in Recovery One, Reconstruction and Revelations. He held his own, at least for a short time, against Agent Wyoming and the Meta, and managed to take down a Hornet single-handedly. Washington seems to have an incredible level of skill with firearms, being able to fire his Battle Rifle accurately in one hand while being run over by the Warthog, and cock Sarge's shotgun one-handed in midair. When the sitiuation calls for it, Washington is also quite skilled at inflitration tactics.

Washington has an almost extraordinary ability to survive fatal situations and displays an indomitable will to achieve whatever he wants, whether it be revenge or freedom. He also has shown great patience, having haboured rebellious thoughts against Project Freelancer and the Director for many years before turning on them and is never shown to be frustrated during his hunt for Epsilon, despite the many set backs.

Trivia

 * Washington was the first major Red vs. Blue character to appear in Reconstruction and the Halo 3 engine.
 * It is possible that Washington has acquired South's shield, as it is the mandate of the Recovery program to gather both the A.I. and armor enhancements of the Freelancers.
 * Washington still has the healing unit, which is represented by a Regenerator in Chapter 11 when he uses it to stabilize Caboose. (No proof of this yet, as Wash said he was using 'a healing unit', it may be a piece of standard medical field gear.)
 * Washington seems to be very begrudging, especially when it comes to Agent South after her betrayal, evidenced by, comically, the lengths he goes to when disposing of her corpse. In order, he utilizes; a burst of the Battle Rifle (presumably in the head), a plasma grenade, a sustained burst from a flamethrower, and at least a dozen fusion coils and propane tanks. Amusingly, Washington makes several attempts to add the final core to the stack, pushing it back onto the pile when it keeps rolling off.
 * Washington seems to be on friendly terms with the woman who gives orders from Command. This is shown in the way that the two talk to one another. Although in Recovery One the two speak rather coldly to one another, when Reconstruction starts they speak much nicer to one another. How this occurred is at the time is unknown. Also, the woman from Command occasionally calls Washington by his nickname Wash.
 * There are a number of things that suggest Washington has a history with agent Maine, even though Maine is now known as the Meta, the first is the fact that he reacted very loudly and shocked to find out the Meta was Agent Maine (it could be due to the fact Maine may of been believed dead, or maybe he couldn't believe that it was Maine that had betrayed the Freelancers, or, like Church, he was shocked at the Meta turning out to be a Freelancer) the second is that the Meta has spared Wash's life several times, first at the end of Recovery One, and later during the fight in O'Malley's old fortress, although currently this is only speculation.
 * There are, however, explanations and contradictions to Washington and Maine having a history. Maine believed Wash was dead due to the works of South, and likely only took the time to steal his equipment, due to the belief of a timed charge being placed on the body, and thus, leaving him alive is to be expected. Maine is also quick to pull a gun on the time-frozen Washington in Chapter 6 (though it ultimately didn't take the shot), and in Chapter 8, an explanation for leaving Wash alive was that Maine was weak and low on power, intending to survive above all else. Wash never calls the Meta "Maine" when speaking of it, even in the final episode, always referring to it as "Meta."
 * Wash's possible relationship to the Meta/Maine may be plausible though; given the amount of times he's survived being almost killed by him/it. This reflects an interesting parallel to the Church/Tex relationship, in that she chose not to kill him as well in the past. It wouldn't be much of a stretch, considering the possibly loaded question Wash tosses out offhandedly to the Meta while brandishing a chain-gun in Last Resort; "Hi, remember me?" (This might also be referring to their encounter at the end of Recovery One).
 * Another point for Washington have a past experience with Maine/Meta is Chapter 19 of Recreation and Chapter 2 of Revelation. The two work peacefully enough together, with the Meta even taking orders from Wash. This may only be because the two are working for the Chairman to recover the Epsilon AI, but the Meta's recent change behavior, and the numerous times he has spared Washington's life are indications of a possible back story yet to be explored.
 * Wash's armor enhancement appears to be a 'BioComm', it allows him to check on his teammate's Vital signs during battle, as he used it in Chapter 10 (Although, it's possible this is just standard issue to all commanding officers or Recovery Agents, or even perhaps it is on all armors, and much like the megaphone/speech amplification, it is just not known by the Blood Gulch "soldiers").
 * It is also possible that his armor enhancement is the voice modulator that the Meta has at the end of Chapter 4. It has the symbol for Epsilon it the corner of it, which was Wash's AI. It is possible that the Meta took this enhancement at the end of Recovery One.
 * When Wash pulls up the Biocom in Chapter 10 of Reconstruction you can see a part of it that says "Replay Last Film!".
 * Washington's prisoner number (619-B) is a reference to the address of Rooster Teeth's office building which is 619 B Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701.