He's tempted to argue once again that Dan shouldn't care about him, but gives him a sad smile instead.
He still cares about his agents. In fact, that might be exactly the problem. Texas and Connecticut in particular, who are here right now, played a role too big to be ignored, a betrayal too big. Connecticut betrayed Project Freelancer and was the first actively taking steps to bring it down.
As for Texas...How do you even explain Agent Texas? She's what made Project Freelancer the best thing that ever happened to him, with the AI fragments discovery, with the occasion to channel his most destructive energies into something so great that if the Director didn't lose focus would be justified...On the other hand, she is exactly why the Director lost focus. He was too busy pursuing her, fixing her to get her right.
All the fragments were nothing but an attempt to find a solution for it, with a side of self harm, and the more those attempts failed the more the cycle would be fueled to go on and on. It stopped being about the war a long time before the project collapsed. Price could just obey orders, not minding them but secretely hoping that the reason behind it would revert to this grand goal that they had, that they were in some form worthy of.
Helping the Director self harm meant finally convincing him to let him in, Price is still completely sure of it. He just needed more time, more time to do everything perfectly as usual and have the Director finally listen to him and just do what he was meant to do. Winning the war and avenging Allison would have made him so happy, too. Price likes to think that if that happened, they would have been friends, even if the man somehow found a way to heal...Not that he was ever going to heal either way, it was something that could absolutely be relied on. Just like it can be relied on now, when it comes to Dan.
CW: self harm mention (not literal, but y'know, Church RvB stuff)
He still cares about his agents. In fact, that might be exactly the problem. Texas and Connecticut in particular, who are here right now, played a role too big to be ignored, a betrayal too big. Connecticut betrayed Project Freelancer and was the first actively taking steps to bring it down.
As for Texas...How do you even explain Agent Texas? She's what made Project Freelancer the best thing that ever happened to him, with the AI fragments discovery, with the occasion to channel his most destructive energies into something so great that if the Director didn't lose focus would be justified...On the other hand, she is exactly why the Director lost focus. He was too busy pursuing her, fixing her to get her right.
All the fragments were nothing but an attempt to find a solution for it, with a side of self harm, and the more those attempts failed the more the cycle would be fueled to go on and on. It stopped being about the war a long time before the project collapsed. Price could just obey orders, not minding them but secretely hoping that the reason behind it would revert to this grand goal that they had, that they were in some form worthy of.
Helping the Director self harm meant finally convincing him to let him in, Price is still completely sure of it. He just needed more time, more time to do everything perfectly as usual and have the Director finally listen to him and just do what he was meant to do. Winning the war and avenging Allison would have made him so happy, too. Price likes to think that if that happened, they would have been friends, even if the man somehow found a way to heal...Not that he was ever going to heal either way, it was something that could absolutely be relied on. Just like it can be relied on now, when it comes to Dan.