What if the Elite set to execute Lili and Spritey had gone differently? Based on Unknown's story Red Vs Blue Authors Edition:
Spritey and Lili sat there in their holding cell, sighing. Lili shivered a bit. It was cold; really cold. Spritey put a hand on Lili's shoulder.
"It's going to be alright." She said. "I'm sure we'll get rescued, eventually." Lili looked at Spritey and nodded a bit.
"I hope we do," she replied. "It's really cold in here." Spritey smiled a bit at her.
"Me too." The door to their cell opened and three elites stepped in with one wielding an energy sword.
"One of you is set for execution," he said, pointing to Lil. "You're first. Grab her." Two elites grabbed Lili and began to lift her up until Spritey kicked him away.
"You stay away from her!" she shouted; second elite then grabbed Spritey from behind and pinned her against a wall while wrenching her arm.
"Do not interfere, demon!" the elite growled while she grunted in pain. The third elite then grabbed Lili and forced her to her knees. The first elite took out his energy sword and activated it. Lili struggled to free herself but the elite only tightened his grip. The elite raised the blade.
"Any last words?" he asked.
"Yeah," Lili said, her voice shaking a bit. "Go die in a hole!" The elite shook his head and prepared to bring the blade down. Lili closed her eyes tightly as Spritey tried to wrench herself free.
Spritey struggled with all her might, being a user of the energy sword herself she was very aware how deadly they could be and it certainly didn't take a genius to take someone's head off with one.
Or for them to be purposely cruel and stab the enemy letting bleed to death slowly whilst the alien plasma poisoned their blood.
Their was no way Lili was going to die that way or at all, Spritey couldn't let that happen.
Spritey braced her foot on the wall to gain leverage and kicked back with all her strength knocking the back of head in the Elite's jaw that was holding her, in the moment he stumbled back stunned she turned and punched him firmly in the lower abdomen.
He fell onto his back from the punch force and Spritey used that opportunity to jump onto his head and off into the Elite about to make Lili into an alien shish kebab, he roared in anger as they tumbled to the floor, the alien holding Lili didn't slacken his hold in case she overwhelmed him.
Lili renewed her efforts to get free "Spritey!"
Spritey ducked just as the energy sword went sailing at her neck, she grabbed the elites wrist and forced a foot into his mouth to prevent those mandibles getting sunk in her arm and used her other hand to punch him in the side of the head.
He growled as his hold weakened and she rolled back with the energy sword in hand, it came to life in an instant.
He kicked a leg out towards her feet but she jumped and swung her arm in a neat arc taking off his head.
"Swish." She said lowly as the body fell twitching slightly as the nerves continued to function for a few more seconds until the oxygen ran out of the body.
"Spritey look out!" Lili shouted in alarm.
Spritey turned just in time to see the elite that had been holding her charge towards her with his own sword in hand, Spritey went to move back but her foot slipped slightly in the dead elite's blood.
It was a small mistake.
As the elites sword came straight at her head she realized it was big enough as she tried to deflect the blades path, she managed to a little, but not enough.
Lili couldn't speak as she took in the sight before her, the elite laughed as the twin points of his energy sword were driven in Spritey's torso and sticking about two inches out of her back.
Spritey didn't think for that moment just reacted and used her own sword to slice through the middle of the elite.
He cried out as his blood splayed over the the blue and yellow armor.
His body fell with a sickening squelch as the top and bottom half of his body weren't hanging on by much more than a thread.
The energy sword powered down as there was nothing holding it to activate it, so the points piercing Spritey vanished as if they weren't there in the first place, the hot plasma had sealed some of it's entry and exit wounds but blood still bubbled around the edges.
The adrenaline that Spritey had been running on caught up with her and twin white hot bards of pain burned her from the inside out, she bit her tongue so hard it bled to stop the scream leaving her throat.
Her mouth tasted of a metallic tang from her still bleeding tongue, she started shaking against her will, whether from pain, fear or shock she couldn't tell.
Her vision swam as every nerve in her body felt like it was on fire, the plasma had done it's job and poisoned her bloodstream, with every thump of her heart a new part of her body burned.
Lili was making a sound, the harmony of the voice sounded like Lili, but the words weren't registering.
She shakily held her sword towards the elite holding Lili, her foot stumbled and her ears started to ring getting louder every second.
The elite was saying something, at least she thought it was by the guttural noise, she tried taking another step barely holding her balance to just stay upright.
The ringing and fading vision wasn't helping either, "Ringing like a bell, ring around the roses, a pocket full of posies,"
She held her sword as steady as she could hoping to at least look threatening, sound was coming back a little, the elite said "You're nearly dead on your feet demon."
He pulled out a needler from his hip, "It never hurts to make sure you stay down though."
Spritey swayed trying to tell herself to move, "Atishoo atishoo we all fall down."
"Die demon!"
"No don't!" Lili shouted.
The elite was then stabbed from behind. Lili opened one her eyes and saw the blade of a brute shot through the elite's chest. The blade was withdrawn and the elite fell to the ground. Two ODSTs then entered the room and shot down the elite holding Lili down. Tucker entered the room and then stabbed the elite pinning Spritey against the wall. The elite, who held the energy sword, breathed slowly and tried to reach his weapon but the battered Spartan stabbed him in the head, killing him instantly. The battered Spartan yanked out the blade and then looked at Spritey and Lili with a slight smile, which turned into one of concern. Lili then saw his familiar armor and then gasped.
"Sup." Said Bluetongue holstering the brute shot onto his back.
Spritey collapsed backwards "Ring around the roses, roses are red, violets are blue."
Dimly she was aware of Bluetongue and Lili at her side talking to her, someone was holding her hand, "Lili?"
Her mind was so hazy, her body still hurt but it was now a numb kind of ache, her sight was getting so fuzzy.
She coughed as her lungs felt heavy, like drowning, "I'm no where near water why am I drowning?..."
Someone picked her up slinger her arm over their shoulder, she made out the colors vaguely "Bluetongue?..."
She knew it was all over as a wet cough chocked her for two minutes solid, red was speckling her visor, she was holding them back.
Something solid was at her back, "A wall?"
Lights and sounds flew by and overhead, "A firefight?"
Another cough took over her frame, she barely made out Lili's form at her side, fumbling around she pressed her energy sword which she didn't know how she still had into Lili's palm.
Lili sounded distressed but Spritey smiled a bit though they couldn't see and forced out "Hey...make sure to nail... onna those overgrown super sushi... inta a wall...for me..."
Bluetongue was in her sight now, he took Lili's shoulder, Lili bowed her head in grim acceptance and they vanished from view.
Spritey's vision darkened around the edges, her eyes no longer able to fight what was coming, "Roses are red, Violets are blue, it's I against I and me again against you..."
The group of assembled Reds and Blues waited anxiously for the return of their team mates, they didn't know what to expect after seeing the burning alien ship crash into the mountain side but when the warthogs came over the hill with familiar forms in the seats the group all breathed a sigh of relief.
When the warthogs pulled up Cogg said jokingly "Hey what kept ya?"
Petch took clasped a hand on Zoey's shoulder "I'm glad you're all alright."
Awriter shook his head a small grin on his face "Please don't tell me the ship crashing was your doing Bluetongue."
It was then they noticed how quiet the rescued were, Bluetongue said quiet and dangerously "Yeah I blew that ship to kingdom come but that wasn't enough."
Lightning noticed something "Hey where's Spritey?"
Grif actually looked up "Spritey? As in a girl with auburn hair and blue eyes?"
Awriter nodded with a sinking feeling in his gut, "Yeah, where is she?"
Lili had an energy clutched in her hand turning it over and over like it held the secrets to the universe, she said lowly "She didn't make it."
Smiles sunk in an instant, Cogg asked "What do you mean didn't make it? You mean she'll catch up later right?..."
Colezilla looked away "Vital signs have been flat for about twenty minutes...I thought perhaps I was malfunctioning."
There was a silence amongst the soldiers. Bluetongue spoke up "By the time I got to them Lili was being held captive and Spritey was heavily wounded so much so... she was almost gone when we left."
Unknown looked grim "You left her to die?"
Lili spoke like she was in a trance "She told us to go... Bluetongue checked her wounds and found out both her lungs had been stabbed...she essentially drowned in her own blood... in three and half minutes it was almost over...she got hurt trying to save me."
Nobody said anything to that, what could the say?
It was bad enough when they thought Bluetongue was gone but to get him back only to have another snatched away...
Lightning said "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go make sure she isn't still awaiting rescue."
By that they knew he really meant say goodbye because even if she was still alive the crash would have destroyed her.
The drive up there was quiet, the passengers consisted of the Reds and Blues and another Red guy they'd barely met called Grif who insisted on going, the warthog he drove though played some weird cheerful music on the way up.
The wreckage was was awful, the whole front end of the ship had buried itself in the mountain whilst the middle had crumpled in on itself like a cheap drink can whilst the back end was smoking and in places still burning.
Not to mention there was debris scattered all over the area and still falling off in places, there was a great gaping hole in the ships rear, that had only a flicker of light appear in the darkness every so often from a spark of a torn wire.
They stared at the hole with trepidation.
Colezilla said "My scanners indicate life signs at zero, there is no life left in that vessel."
Lili held the energy sword towards Colezilla "Can you make it so this stays on all the time?"
Colezilla examined the weapon "Give me a few moments and it'll charge by solar energy and never turn off unless someone tries to use it."
Whilst he tinkered with the device they reflected on the moments they'd had with Spritey, some regretting it was so little.
Grif thought back to that day he met the girl on the beach sitting in his spot, She grinned "Well that that means we're doing nothing together which is the best doing nothing of all."
Petch was also lost remembering the help from the spartan that at the time hadn't known any of them yet had been protective all the same from Lili "You were going to hurt her just like her friend over there?!"
Cogg felt the bitter taste that came with failure he owed Spritey his life and he couldn't even return the favor, XSpriteyX then activated an energy sword. "Let's dance!"
Zoey thought on the help they had from her battling the first freelancer that turned up in the canyon,"Now that's what I call I real backstabber!" joked Spritey as she pulled the blade out of Tex's back and she collapsed to her knees,
Unknown hadn't known her very well at all but all the same he felt down for the loss, "Just helping my friends!" she said,
Ace and that Guy had known her even less then everyone gathered and even they felt it was a shame such a thing had happened "Hey guys what's better? Oreo's or Jaffa cakes?"
Colezilla remembered her joining the Blue team and over hearing "Sure why not? I'm bored and I'm stuck here anyway."
Awriter thought back on her getting settled into the team,
"Oh, please tell me she's not going to sing!" he groaned as Spritey began to sing but a dart hit her in the neck and she collapsed to the ground unconscious.
"No one wants to hear you sing!" Awriter said reloading his tranquilizer gun as he approached Lightning and Bluetongue.
Lightning reflected on the conversation they had when they thought Bluetongue was dead, "Don't beat yourself up over it" she said. "He saved our lives last night."
Bluetongue and Lili though had the same image stuck in their minds, the sight of Spritey slumped against a wall the horrid circular burns in her chest bubbling red and blue ooze with alien gore drying on her armor like some grotesque paint job, with red splodges decorating the inside of her visor as the very watery voice croaked out "Hey...make sure to nail... onna those overgrown super sushi... inta a wall...for me..."
They'd both known that was a hidden goodbye but it hadn't lessened the pain.
Colezilla said "It's done be sure to place it in the ground before a minute is up or the DNA scanner will activate and it won't work."
As team leader of the Blues Lightning took the energy sword and walked into towards the hole in the ship, just before the entrance he stabber the sword into the ground. "This ship will act as a memorial and a tomb for her, let us hope it remains untouched for the trapped souls within Covenant or otherwise."
They fell into a minute silence before Petch said "We better move out."
They silently followed her back to the warthogs, Cogg lingered a little longer feeling something amiss he stared at the glowing sword and swore out of the corner of his eye he saw a blue and yellow figure posed in a wave, when he tried to catch it though it was gone.
Something was shining where the figure he thought he seen had been, and there just in the dirt was a pair of dog tags that said 'Private X. Spritey .X'
He smiled sadly placing them on the hilt of the sword then after one last look rejoined the others as a small breeze drifted over the mountain moving the tags ever so slightly.