1840 HOURS, 29 JANUARY 2544

26 DRACONIS

Her opponent left its blade on her left shoulder, as a reminder of its victorious dominance. The blade was burning her flesh slowly at first, but she became accustomed as her mind momentarily detached itself from reality.

She shifted the dead bodies away from her, and forced herself to stand. To no avail, she fell hard to the ground, face first. She felt excruciating pain from her celiac plexus. She tried to stood up and assess herself but collapsed to the ground shortly after. She forced herself once more; only manage to take a glimpse. She was bleeding out, slowly. This is it, I guess, she thought with despair.

Her eyes became watery all of a sudden and she now has this uncontrollable need to shed tear. She stared at the sky, observing trails left behind by aircraft. She tried to enjoy the scenery but could not. All that was on her mind was her inevitable fate.

From a distance, she caught sight of figure passing by. The figure stopped, and slowly advanced towards her.

"Maria?" surprised as she tried to get a clear view of the advancing humanoid figure. Her helmet was horribly damaged by the last engagement. Her shattered faceplate failed to depolarise, no longer responded to her commands. Her left arm would not move due to the impalement made by the blade. Drenched in a purple pool, the SPARTAN was relieved of the sight of her friend sitting by her side.

It appeared her efforts were not for naught after all; she managed to stall her opponent to allow the UNSC to deliver a telemetry probe before its ship departed, and she would have not be alone in the midst of the battle, having her friend accompanying her till the very end.

"I got you now," said Maria as she hold onto the SPARTAN closely, brushing the dust and ashes from her sage MJOLNIR armour. The armour was pummelled to the extent that it no longer resembled the original designs. The cuirass was undoubtedly the only thing keeping the SPARTAN from haemorrhaging; it managed to bind everything together even in the worst condition and treat the wound at the same time. However, her injuries were beyond any possible healing methods, and the bio-foam failed to function properly due to the severe damage to the armour's systems. The gauntlets and greaves took severe beatings from the plasma burns, not enough to prevent second degree burns to her skin.

Maria was amazed how she was able to survive under such pressured condition. "You're gonna' be alright," she said, as she lifted the SPARTAN from the piles of dead Elites and Jackals. "Stay with me, and we'll get you patched up."

The SPARTAN knew Maria was lying, doing so only to comfort her. Regardless, she gave a thumb up. She knew that she would not live another day to fight. Her time was almost near.

"Maria, how's Andrié doing?" she asked, trying to get a baseline of Maria. "A joke, as always. Still holding up in Aksayqin," she replied.

Maria was distraught, she thought. Her mind drifted for a moment. "I won't make it, am I?" she asked slowly, followed by harder coughing. Maria slowed down for a while, trying to construct the best comforting reply, "No, you'll make it." Maria lied once more. Adrenaline took over as she leaped over a large pit.

As she landed, Maria's shields flickered. A volley of green plasma bolts passed over her pauldron. Her reflex kicked in, and she dashed towards a large boulder for cover. Not now, she thought. She laid down her injured friend against the boulder and fired several bursts from her MA5B. Her shields popped, forcing her to withdraw from the firefight.

The fallen SPARTAN observed her friend fighting under intense pressure. She closed her eyes, cleared her mind and took a deep breath. "Go on without me," said the grievously injured SPARTAN. "I'm a dead man anyway." Straight-forward. Without any sign of fear. Cold.

Maria simply stared at her friend, starting to imagining things. Her friend was dying and she could not save her in time. She reinforced her thoughts, believing that both could survive this battle and the war. "No, we're going to make it!" she stressed on the last word as she threw the grenade over the boulder. The grenade exploded, followed by screams and screeching and all went silent. For now.

The SPARTAN coughed harder and spat out blood on her shattered faceplate, prompting the worried Maria to remove the helmet. "Even you don't believe in that, do you?" asked the SPARTAN as she did so.

Though the SPARTAN could not tell the expression under the golden polarised faceplate, she knew that Maria was distraught by her comment. The SPARTAN smiled, weak but sincere.

"Do you think the stars can hear us?" she asked Maria. "Do you think they see how hard we're fighting for them?" She tried to conceal the pain behind her smile, but her soft and tender face was unable to perform her bidding.

"Well," said Maria as she wiped the dirt and blood off the SPARTAN's face. She replied slowly, "I don't know." The smile vanished, "Of course..." said the SPARTAN with a faint voice. The SPARTAN's green eyes became affixed to the sky. Slowly, she held out her hand, seemingly to reach out for the stars.

Maria could only watch as the SPARTAN relentlessly held the pain in doing so. She threw aside her helmet and embraced her friend. She knew that the SPARTAN would not survive for several minutes but it was worth her time staying with the SPARTAN. She was aware of the invading forces. But she stayed behind. Screw COMMAND, screw the CHIEF, screw the battle, screw the war. Comforting her fallen friend by lying no longer worked, but being by her side till the end would.

"But... whether they are or not, we still have to do what we can. And believe in ourselves..." Maria replied. The reply she gave changed her view. It was not constructed; it was a subconscious truth. Her friend was right and she hated herself for that.

She held on to her fallen friend closely. Maria continued, "Someday, we'll find the answer."

The SPARTAN placed her hand on Maria's face, savouring every moment she had with her. Her eyes became watery again and she could not stop the tears.

"That's what I learned from you," Maria held the SPARTAN's head closer to hers. "... when we were on Reach."

"Yeah..." the SPARTAN smiled, for the last time. "That's right..."

Then, radio chatters went dead. The roaring thunder was silenced. The sky became hazy and mist filled the SPARTAN's vision. The SPARTAN shivered all of the sudden; her body felt really cold. She felt her chest pounding excessively hard. The sight of Maria slowly became ghostly. Then, she realised. This is it, she thought.

"I..." She mouthed a syllable before she stopped. Her pupils stopped dilating and her hand swung downwards.

Maria gave a weak smile and said, "Me too." A kiss on the fallen's forehead and she left.

I've come my ways,

Through many to say,
This war today,
is over.