South Dakota

"I always thought, being a twin was, a hard thing. Everyone always finds a way to put you together. It's like you're not considered two people. Even when we were kids, our parents dressed us alike, and when we joined up and got sent to the program, they stuck us together. People thought we were special somehow I suppose. I used to hate that. All I ever wanted was to have my own life. And here I am now, just wondering how I'm gonna live without him."

- South commenting on her brother's death.

Freelancer Agent South Dakota, often referred to as simply South, was an agent in the Special Operation's program Project Freelancer, as well as the Special Operations Recovery Unit, with her call sign being Recovery Two. South and her twin brother North, were part of an experiment to see how one agent who did not receive an A.I. would react to being partnered to another soldier who did have an A.I. Unfortunately, because she was in the implantation group behind Washington, she did not receive an AI. The result was South's obvious jealousy and treachery towards her brother and stealing the Delta A.I. towards the end of Recovery One.

Infiltration of Bjørndal Cyrogenics
During their early time at Project Freelancer, South and North Dakota are sent to the Bjørndal Cryogenics Research Facility to recover a data file from the Insurrecionists. South goes in to recover the file while North provides reconnaissance. South skillfully inflitrates the command center and recovers the needed file. Things go awry, however, when the body of a dead guard accidentally hits an alarm, alerting the entire facility of North and South's presence. Souths runs out of the room and makes her way to the helipad for extraction. She runs into North and the two kill anything and anybody that gets in their way. However, once they reach the helipad, they find they are surrounded by guards.

Surrounded, Freelancer Carolina, who was sent to their aid, revealed herself and aided South and North in dispatching all the guards. While fighting, one of the guards, seemingly the one in charge, grabs a turret attempts to shoot South. North, however, noticed this and pushed his sister out of the way, only for him to get shot and injured instead. South carried her brother on the edge of the platform and requested for extraction. At that moment, they are pulled down, off the edge by Carolina, who reveals that there was a pelican waiting for them. With the data file successfully captured, the three Freelancers escaped the facility. However, as they flee, several enemy Longswords pursue them in an attempt to prevent their escape. Engaging the pilot in a brief argument, she is left in the cargo hold. As the ship dodges incoming attacks, South is constantly knocked against the floor and walls of the ship, knocking her unconscious.

As North was temporarily recovered, he strapped her into a seat, before leaving to fend off the Longswords. The pelican managed to destroy the two Longswords with help from a Project Freelancer frigate, (The Mother of Invention) which opens up its landing bay for the pelican to land. Later, all three soldiers are briefed on what the data chip contained. Afterwards, the Director orders the Counselor to update the board, putting South in 5th place and North in 4th. Enraged by this change, South demanded to know why the change was necessary, to which the Director claimed that one of the mission objectives involved stealth, something that South failed to execute, making it harder for the Freelancers to accomplish their next mission. South then walks off enraged, punching and breaking the door controls as she leaves.

Aftermath
South was seen watching a battle between Wyoming, York, and Maine, against Tex. South corrects Wash on Tex's gender after the latter assumes Tex to be a male, saying "Why do you assume it's a guy? She's a girl." Wash, upon the realization hitting him, stutters over his embarassing mistake, making South laugh as he did so. She then made a comment about Tex rivaling Carolina for top Freelancer, causing Carolina to insult her, telling her to watch the fight as she may learn something. Later, she is yelled at by the Director, along with everyone else who was watching. South, due to the results of her previous mission, was not allowed to accompany her brother on "the most important mission the Freelancers will ever undertake." She is later seen in the board room while North watches her.

Mission in Space
South returns in Season 10, on a mission alongside North, Carolina, Washington, and C.T.. Their duty was to access "the leader's" hangar inside an Insurrectionist spacecraft. Due to York's failure, South and the other Freelancers change their plans and attempt to enter the ship's main hangar in order to accomplish their goal. While in preparation, South talks to C.T., noticing her silence, and tells her that if they fail the worst that will happen will be their names being taken off the leaderboard, also stating that "At least us ladies will be sticking together, right?".

The Freelancers then fly through space and enter the main hangar of the spacecraft, eliminating every soldier they see. South works alongside her brother North to fight off the Insurrectionists. After the battle, South is ordered to access the "leader's" location. She does so and informs Carolina that the leader is hiding out in Bone Valley. She leaves with the rest of the team, minus C.T., to go to their extraction so they can go to Bone Valley. While they are flying back, the Staff of Charon, attacks the Mother of Intervention and as it is leaving, leaves behind a nuclear device. South and the rest of the team make it aboard the Pelican safely before it detonates.

A.I. Interaction
After the mission, she is seen along North, Washington and York meeting Theta, North's AI, though she makes no effort to appear friendly to Theta. Later, she and the other Freelancers are seen learning AI theory, though she is visibly uninterested and questions why she needs to take part, as she has not been given an AI. She is openly hostile throughout the class, making sarcastic remarks towards Carolina and Maine, and offending Theta and Delta by comparing them to household appliances.

Battle at the Longshore Shipyards
Sometime later, South, along with Carolina, North Dakota, Washington, and York, was sent on a mission to the Longshore Shipyards to find C.T. When the Freelancers arrive, they immediately attack, with South taking cover from behind a Warthog with her brother North. With the help of Theta, the twins managed to eliminate a group of Insurretionist snipers. South is later seen with North and Maine watching the Insurrectionist Leader's ship escape the Longshore Base.

Back aboard the Mother of Invention
After the mission, South was scheduled to receive either units Eta or Iota for A.I. implantation. However, because agent Carolina demanded for both A.I. units, South's scheduling, along with Washington's, was pushed back in order to implant the two A.I. into Carolina. This led to South having a temper tantrum in the locker room, where she punched Tex's locker in a bit of rage, breaking the name tag as well. South angrily leaves the locker room after a brief confrontation with Tex. Several days later, after Carolina's incident, Tex informs North that South has petitioned for one of Carolina's A.I., and then tells him to keep an eye on her.

Freelancer Break-In
When Wash recovers from his breakdown of Epsilon, South snaps at him for halting the A.I procedures and informs him that Tex went rogue and attacked Wyoming. When North expresses his doubt over Tex actually doing this, South retorts that he's not sure. When Tex begins her assault against the Director's forces South appears with a Missle Pod and attempts to kill Tex, but North intervenes. He eliminates her rockets with a pair of sniper rifles. Outraged, South retorts that Tex is a traitor and asks him what side he is on. North has Tex leave the room while he and his sister have a "little chat". The two siblings then begin to fire on each other.

Partnership with Washington
She joined the special ops after her brother enlisted, despite her relative distaste for being paired together just because they were twins. Her status as a Recovery agent was unknown to both Recovery One and the Delta AI she was charged with recovering. She seemingly harbors a grudge against Washington over the Epsilon incident, as he indirectly caused her to miss out on the construct implantation part of the program. Recovery Command, for whatever reason, fails to detect her jealousy, and commissions her as a Recovery Agent (for which they later accept blame).

While operating for the Recovery team, South and her brother ran into The Meta (the former Agent Maine), who was hunting down other Freelancer agents to steal their AI's and armor enhancments. The twins engage in a shootout against the Meta, but he is able to outmatch them, which leads South to betraying her brother. She turns her brother to the Meta in exchange for her own life and is knocked out and left behind by the Meta after he kills her brother.

Agent Washington later finds her and her deceased brother and, after disposing of North's body, takes her with him in order to set up a trap for the Meta. The Delta AI is implanted into South in order to attract the Meta, who takes the bait and attacks them. Washington attempts to fight off the Meta and asks for South's assistance; however, since she'd already gotten what she wanted (an AI), South betrays Washington and shoots him in the back. She then lies to the Meta and tells him she put explosive charges on Washington in order to convince him to search through Wash's body while she flees.

After her escape, South contacts Freelancer command and informs them that she has accomplished her mission by recovering Delta. However, when asked to return the AI to base, South refuses, claiming that since she has her own AI she no longer needs Project Freelancer. An arrest warrant is issued for South and she has officially gone rogue.

Return
South’s first appearance during the Recollections was at the end of Reconstruction Chapter 4, when Agent Washington is leaving the base that Church was stationed. The Meta uses his transmission to send a false transmission to the Red Base in Blood Gulch. After doing so, South comes out of some rubble watching Washington leave. Soon a familiar AI hologram (Delta) appeared beside South mentioning that if he and South were tracking Washington, someone else likely was as well. The final picture is of the Meta coming up behind South and Delta. The end of Chapter 5 implies that South has been badly injured by the Meta, but not actually killed.

In Reconstruction Chapter 6, Washington, Church, and Caboose come to South's aid. She originally intended to abandon Delta in order to save herself from the Meta, similar to how she had shot Washington in the back to do the same at the end of Recovery One. As she is about to leave, two Mongooses carrying the three other soldiers come flying out of nowhere and cause the Meta to escape. Church uses Caboose's habit of shooting his allies to stop South from escaping herself by telling Caboose to "help" her. This results in Caboose shooting South, causing her to collapse on the ground.

Death
After the fight, Wash and the Blues discover South Dakota was crippled by Caboose's friendly fire. Following this, Washington transferred Delta into Caboose as Delta informed Washington of South's plan to abandon him to the Meta to save herself. Delta also revealed South had also sacrificed her brother North in a similar fashion just before her appearence in "Recovery One". This information, combined with her injuries and the likelihood of her betraying them, prompt Delta to suggest that they should not let her "hamper our progress." Washington, replying with a causal "okay," immediately points his pistol at South. South mockingly expresses doubt that Wash would kill a person in cold blood, only for Wash to shoot her in the head mid-sentence.

Following her death, Agent Washington destroys her corpse by first blowing it up, then by using a flamethrower to incinerate whatever is left, then blowing her up again.

Personality
South Dakota's personality is an exact opposite of her brother's calm and compassionate nature. Unlike him, she tends to be very overconfident, and rushes things during the mission at the Bjordnal Cyrogenics Research Facility. She also has a highly competitive nature. During Realignment, she seems to have reacted to the fact that her brother was placed 4th, and the now angry South Dakota in 5th. In Whole Lot of Shaking, South angrily storms out of the ranking room when she learns her name is no longer on the list.

South is very rude, unfriendly, and very similar to a brattish child. She constantly complains about her lack of an A.I, is openly hostile to everyone around her and doesn't seem to take other people's feelings into consideration. However, she does seem to care for her brother, being visibly horrified when he is critically wounded, is shocked when York is badly injured, being somewhat playful around her colleagues, specifically Wash who she teased after he assumed Tex was a man and she attempts to calm C.T. when she claims she's worried about the mission.

South also seems to have a very sadistic style of fighting, as she tends to prolong her adversary's pain before eliminating them, as shown in The Twins. She shoots one Insurrectionist in the leg, when she could have easily hit his head, hyperextends another's knee, and crushes the head of a third into a nearby locker.

Skills and Abilities
South is a capable Freelancer, though this is most noticeable during Season 9, particularly during The Twins. During this episode, South displayed great stealth capabilities, enough to enter the facility and obtain a data file without being seen. She was then able to take down and knock out three Insurrectionists while she was at it. However, her stealth feat ends when she is caught off guard by an Insurrectionist on break due to not activating her motion tracker as North suggested. As South began to escape the facility with the retrieved data, she displayed great skill as a fighter, killing three soldiers with her pistol while falling down a platform in a spiral, as well as accurately hitting two snipers on top of a building. South also seems to have great hand-to-hand combat capabilities, where, during her mission, she fought off three Insurrectionists bare handedly. She also displayed enough strength to crack one soldier's kneecap in, bending it backwards and immediately after jamming the head of another soldier into a locker, denting it greatly.

South was ranked 4th on the leader board during her time at Project Freelancer, being one rank above her brother North. However, following her previously stated mission, her rank moved down to 5th, due to her lack of stealth. After Tex's fight against York, Wyoming and Maine, she was knocked off of the leaderboard completely, being one of only two Freelancers who were taken off of the leaderboard at one point or another; the other being Wyoming. However, in Season 10, her name was later placed back on the leaderboard, after its extension to 8 Freelancers rather than 6.

Trivia

 * Throughout the series, South Dakota and her brother North have shared a number of similarities:
 * Both of their Freelancer names are derived from one of the Dakota states.
 * Both of their armor colors were primarily a shade of purple with a shade of green trim.
 * Both used Domed Energy Shield Enhancements at some point in their lives.
 * Both were killed by a Freelancer (North by Maine/The Meta, South by Washington), and in both cases their bodies were destroyed by Washington to erase evidence of the events.
 * Both would have the AIs that they were using prior to their deaths stolen by The Meta.
 * Both have taken off their helmets in Season 9.
 * Both have blonde hair and gray eyes.
 * Both suffered injuries to their left cheeks, as South was seen with a scar on her cheek while North was shown with a bleeding wound on his.
 * South and North, being brother and sister, are depicted showing some level of kindness to each other (North pushing South out of a firing turret's way and South shouting out his name after he is shot). However, South's jealousy of North owning an AI ultimately led her to placing her brother in a position to be killed by the Meta.
 * South is the third character, and also the first female character, in Red vs. Blue to reveal her face.
 * Revealed in the Season 9 DVD, South's CGI face was modeled after Geoff Ramsey's wife, Griffon Ramsey.
 * There is a slight inconsistency in South's armor color. Throughout Recovery One, South's armor color is a dark purple while her brother, North, had an armor color closer to a light purple/orchid. However, in Reconstruction, Season 9, and Season 10, their armor colors have switched; North is now the one with the dark purple armor while South has the light purple/orchid armor.
 * When South was a child she seemed to have trouble sleeping, so her father had to drive her around until she went to sleep.
 * By her own admission as she was escaping Bjørndal Cyrogenics, South hates flying, as seen when she was very disoriented on the evac ship, in Evacuation Plan.
 * Revealed in a deleted scene on the Season 10 DVD, North is seen carrying South on his back after their battle. As the two exit the Mother of Invention, North tells South that he will always have her back, in which South responds that she is watching his as well.