Scott-567 Had lost both his squadmates. Jane-139 was lost in a slip-space accident - no-one knew where she or her pod were now - and Max-094 had vanished in a second, unrelated slip-space accident. Of Alpha-Omega, the First and the Last, Scott was the last. Captain Lasky had noticed his depression, and suggested he practice in the War Games arenas. He smiled beneath his silver visor - not that anyone could see that. He had always been the least expressive SPARTAN on the Infinity. He returned to Alpha-Omega's room, sighing. Normally, Max would be in that corner, using his hardlight swords to slash some poor, innocent training dummy to pieces. Normally, Jane would be lying on her bunk, reading something on her datapad. Now they were both gone, dead for all he knew, and he was the last. He was... alone.
"Now, don't think like that, Viper. You'll never be alone." Jenna spoke up. "We always have each other. That's part of my purpose in being assigned to you. A SPARTAN and his A.I. are supposed to be a more effective team than any squadron."
Scott-567 - Viper - hung his head. He reached back to the port at the back of his helmet, pulling the A.I chip out. Jenna's avatar manifested on it. Her general body shape was much like Kate's - Jane's A.I. - except for the fact that Kate had been dressed in casual dress, where Jenna was wearing SPARTAN armor - well, that was a bit of an overstatement. She wore the boots, the gloves, the chest plate and the crotch cover.
"I'm not used to being alone, you know? They were my best friends - other than you, of course - and now they're gone. Sure, they weren't the most social of people - Max never said anything to me unless it was some kind of taunt or challenge, and Jane was reading all the time - but they were my squad mates! We saved each others' asses countless times, and that brought us closer and closer together. And now, they're both gone. In a matter of hours." Jenna looked at him sadly.
"I miss them too. Kate and Firestar were the two greatest friends an A.I. could have, and they vanished with Jane and Max. Seriously, though, Viper, we need to get over it! Lasky was right, you need to do some training. Get your mind off of Jane and Max for awhile." Viper thought about it for a moment.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
Merrill sat on the rock in the clearing, thinking. Had she been right to keep the shard? Or had she been wrong this whole time. Alienated from her tribe, she was more alone than ever before. They hated her, and even those she considered friends had drifted away. Then there was Lasen Mahariel. He and Tamlen had been the ones who had discovered the Eluvian, and Tamlen had been completely obliterated by it. Lasen, however, had managed to crawl his way back to camp and warn them after shattering the Eluvian. Unfortunately, he had succumbed to the Darkspawn taint not long after. Merrill had gone into the cave and collected a single shard, using blood magic learned from a Fade spirit to cleanse it. Now, everyone hated her, and the one person who might have stayed with her was dead.
Viper felt a mental tug. It was weak, but insistent. Jenna, her chip sitting on the table in front of him, noticed it. She watched as he grabbed his weapons - MA12C HLWS (or HardLight Assault Rifle, or HLA rifle) and SRS99-S5 HL (or HardLight Sniper), as well as his HardLight knife - like a small hardlight sword - and stood in the middle of the room.
"Viper?" He looked at her for a moment, and took a single step toward her, intending to pick up her chip and insert it into his helmet, when he vanished in a flash of white light. "Viper!" Jenna screamed. He was gone. She was alone.
And so was Viper.
Viper appeared in a forest. He had no clue how he had got there, but Jenna was gone. He was alone.
He heard footsteps, and quickly turned on his Camo module - he didn't want anyone to know he was here just yet.
"Well, well, well, lookie what we have here!" a man whispered to his friends. "A young elf, just sitting on a rock with her eyes closed! She's not even armed!" His friends chuckled.
"She'll be an excellent specimen - once we've had our fun, of course." Viper clenched his fists and ground his teeth. These men were slavers! And from the sounds of it, they were planning on doing even worse than enslaving the poor girl they were talking about. He thought for a moment. The girl would probably be scared if he simply attacked the men and threw them into the clearing. He decided to wait and see just what they were planning. That way he could punish them just as much as he needed to, rather than too much or not enough. He followed them, not making a single sound despite his two-ton weight.
The girl opened her eyes. Her face was covered in strange tattoos, a personal preference, he supposed. The slavers took up three positions on different sides of the clearing, forming a triangle. As if on cue, all three stepped out of cover and walked toward the girl.
"Oh! Hello there!" the girl chirped, clearly unaware of the men's intentions. The men continued walking, silently. "I'm sorry, am I not meant to be here?" she asked, hoping for a response. As the men got closer, one of them gave an almost imperceptible nod. Immediately, the other two grabbed the girl's arms as the first man drew a knife.
"What are you doing!" the girl screeched. Viper tensed - the men were making their move. He decided to wait for ten more seconds unless the men actually used the knife.
The first man pushed the knife down the front of the girl's clothing, pulling it toward him with a ripping sound the girl was beginning to sob as her clothing was ripped apart.
Viper moved. His HardLight knife plunged into the first man's back, and the other two men dropped the now-naked girl in shock. The girl grabbed the tatters of clothing that were all that remained and hurriedly covered herself with them - very badly, but she really didn't have much to work with. The men tried to hit him, flailing around blindly with their swords - swords! Not even Plasma or HardLight, just swords of metal! - but his Camo module was just too effective for them to see him. He sliced the second man's head off, and finished the other man off with a burst from his HLA rifle. The girl was still sobbing as he switched off his Camo module. She gasped, scrambling back and forgetting her ruined clothing.
"Are you... a demon?" she asked. Viper chuckled.
"Only to my enemies. To you? no. To you, I'm the one who just saved you from three slavers who were also about to rape you." The girl didn't seem reassured.
"I'm Viper. What's your name?"
"Merrill," she replied.
"Do you have any family nearby, Merrill?" She thought for a moment. Her clan was her family, but they had all but cast her out. Did she really want to go back to them?
No. No she didn't.
She shook her head.
"Anyone who can take care of you?"
She shook her head again. Viper sighed. Jenna was gone, but here was someone who needed him even more than Jenna.
"Stay with me. I'll protect you." Merrill stared at his blank, silver visor - that had to be metal, didn't it, was this thing some kind of golem? - and nodded fearfully.
"First order of business," the golem said, "is to find you some new clothes."