Disclaimer: Halo belongs to Bungie and Bungie alone. Not mine, not yours, not anyone person's.

However, I am at liberty to twist my own verbal putty into all things Halo now and then, so please enjoy my putty crafting (without the runic enchantments we see so much when writing goes backwards in time).

Prologue

1840 Hours, October 20, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Sol System. New Mombasa, Kenya, on Earth.

"So tell me, Chief, who exactly is this Parisa?" Cortana intoned in John's helmet as she mulled over the name. Had she heard this name before? A search of her conversation archives came up blank, but her thought processes told her that it had come up before.

John was silent; he had left the Pelican's constant droning of its engines fill up the lapse in conversation. When he failed to answer, Cortana buzzed into his ears again.

"Let me hazard a guess. A childhood friend?" It was rhetoric. Though she had not said a word about it, she'd listened intently to the Chief's conversations. In fact, there really wasn't much room for guessing, especially when his life had been documented thoroughly since he was conscripted at the age of six. All relations had been marked; the only relations not marked down on a soldier's profile in the UNSC database were friends. Sure, there were records of teammates new and old, commanding officers past and present, even covert ops hit lists. Who else could Cortana not have recognized other than John's 'friends' from his pitifully short childhood?

John finally answered softly, "Affirmative." He said no more. Cortana was stung by his sudden distance. Well, John wasn't exactly the chatty kind, but he had never hidden anything from her. Had three years of working together so intimately on the battlefield not at least equaled to a measly friendship formed decades back? He had saved this Parisa's life once, though. Cortana's logic and emotional processes flared as they worked together to form cohesive thoughts. Then again, the Chief had saved her own artificial life more times than she would care to count, and countless others in the process.

Cortana gave an impudent "hmph." She could guess, from the one single meeting, that this Parisa meant more than just a friend to John. His heart had practically skipped a beat when he recognized her. It was definitely not something that could happen often, not when he thoroughly blew up covenant, flood and forerunner constructs alike without so much as batting an eyelid.

Cortana settled back into the ship's mainframe systems once they had returned to the In Amber Clad. Cortana sorely wished to ask the Master Chief more, but for now, getting the In Amber Clad running at full speed and staying alive was more important. If she had processed the Commander's orders correctly, this ship had a ride to hitch.

For all that Cortana knew about the Chief, she still had not had the opportunity to pry into his distant, short-lived memories of his childhood. It was the one place John still held dear onto, hidden deep inside. It was a form of encouragement to him. They were not stim-packs to be used in the heat of battle, but were more of a remedy to the age old defect of human beings: doubt. Even the Master Chief could not squelch the last dredges of doubt resiliently clinging on to him.

Every time it seemed that he had gotten over it, something would strike him again at the same spot. First was the lost of Sam. Then right after that, he had lost Kurt as well. His squad was lost one by one to him, Fred, Kelly, every last one of the few he truly cared about picked off one by one. It felt as much as an open wound then as it did now. The little scrap of knowledge that someone closer to home was still out there gave him comfort.

But not much. He dearly wanted Parisa to be somewhere safe. Being in the UNSC was bad enough; being in New Mombasa was even worse. He could only hope that she had been evac-ed off the African continent. If not, well... everyone's safety was what he was fighting for, wasn't it. He pictured her faint, quivering smile one last time, before pushing it deep into what was left of his human heart.