Past and Future.
Far inside the Forerunner fortress, the Master Chief, obliterated the last of the Promethean Knights, as he ran through the cavernous corridors. The Spartan had been on the move since the defeat of the Didact, and the loss of his best friend and companion Cortana, over two years ago.
The Master Chief, for a long while had been searching for answers to the questions that plagued his mind.
Since his time on Requiem, the Chief, had come to know very few truths, but the biggest truth was for him to understand his past. Further then before he became a Spartan and further past his own creation.
His ancestry.
The Spartans' search brought him here, the planet unknown by name, but the Forerunner technology heavily covered the earth as plants, rock and metal fussed together over time.
The Librarian, from Requiem, had done something to the Master Chief, she had unlocked a part of his genome, but to what had she had done to the Spartan was verily unknown to the super soldier.
And as the Spartan raced through the halls of the Forerunner fortress, the Chief could feel, in the pit of his stomach, that the truth he had been searching for...
Was close.
His sprint quickly slowed to that of a walk as he came upon the last room at the end of the Forerunner Citadel. The alcove was vast in size but in all was empty.
All that inhabited the room was that of a lone pedestal that stood slightly off center with a simple monitor next to it.
Scanning the room, the Master Chief searched for any hidden hostiles. High and low he searched, his motion sensor read clear but even still it was possible for enemies to bypass. With nothing in his peripheral vision the Spartan stepped through the opening and strode towards the center.
As the Master Chief reached the lone monitor in the center of the room, he looked over the screen and found what he always did when it came to forerunner monitors.
With a steady armored covered hand, the Chief placed his palm on the of the screen.
And in doing so had set an event into motion that has been transpiring for the last five hundred years.
When the Chief's hand touched the screen, the monitor, lit up bright as codes filled the screen before rapidly falling down the page.
As this happened, the Chief did his best to read every piece of information he could possibly catch with his trained eyes. But what he didn't notice was what was happening behind him just a few feet away.
Behind the super soldier, a blue vortex formed on the floor. It slowly turned round and again till eventually...
"Take what was once mine, my child." A deep baritone voiced echoed inside the chamber.
Immediately the Master Chief went on alert, snapping his weapon up searching for where ever the voice had come from. But as the Spartan searched all around, he found nothing.
Nothing but the blue vortex that slowly swirled just a few feet in front of him.
With caution and tact, the Chief aimed his assault rifle at the vortex ready for everything if anything hostile would climb out.
The Master Chief didn't wait for long for something to do just that. The blue vortex slowed before coming to a complete halt, next the vortex began to shift and change color, the deep ocean blue color began to burn to a fiery red.
It was then did the vortex began to spin again.
Faster and faster it swirled, till in a fiery flash, everything stopped.
The Chief's visor polarized as best as it could but even still the Spartan held his hand out to himself from being blinded.
When the seconds had passed did the Master Chief let his hand down to find a most peculiar sight.
Before the Spartan was something so insignificant to today's times. Such an item he thought he would only find in a museum or in an documentary. Not on a forerunner world.
"It's, a sword?" He said as his eyes locked onto the weapon that sat at the center of the red vortex.
"This, my child." The voice again spoke over the room. "Was once my Zanpakuto. With it I unlocked my power as a death god, a power only we humans may possess, and only those chosen to be the true inheritors of the mantle may call upon to wield."
The Chief slowly walked closer to the 'Zanpakuto' inspecting the weapon as he circled round.
"Do not under estimate this blade, I too once thought nothing of the sword once upon a time. But my view changed as quickly as I held the Zanpakuto in my hands; and felt the power in it's small unassuming form."
He made a move, placing his ma6d on his back, the Master Chief slowly moved forward, reaching out for the Zanpakuto.
And as John wrapped his hand around the hilt, his consciousness faded as blackness crept into the corners of his eyes.
XxxxxxX
John stood at the center of a clearing, a clearing he remembered all too well from his past.
Birds moved from overhead, the jungle trees swayed in the breeze and the subtle sound of a waterfall from non to far caught the eyes and ears of the Spartan II super soldier.
"Reach," The Chief said with confusion. " I'm... Home. How?"
"This is your inner world, John."
The Chiefs armored body stiffened as a demonic voice echoed from behind. With speed he whirled around, his fists raised high and ready for any confrontation to meet him here, in a place he called home for years.
"Be still John, we are not here to harm you." An angelic voice spoke from the sky above.
The Chief looked up but stopped when a blip appeared on his motion tracker. And whatever the red dot was, it was moving fast.
With instinct the Spartan rolled to the side avoiding whatever was coming for him.
"Say's you Quincy girl. We all know what this Spartan is capable of. I just want to test him against an enemy he's never faced before." This voice unlike the others was layered with it's own infectious and crazed laughter.
John leapt away from the three, to find cover and to see what surrounded him. And to see whom those three voices belong too.
The Demonic
The Angelic
And the crazed.
"Stop this Venom, let John meet the ones that have been with him since the beginning." The Angelic voice said from above once more.
"Alright I'll stop sweet cheeks, for now. Come on big man, you ready to meet what that librarian lady unlocked? Or are you just going to hide behind that boulder all day?" The crazed voice finished with a laugh.
"Heh, do not mind him John, out of the three of us, Venom is the most excited to meet you."
"Fuck off, Samael!" Venom voice roared back.
As the three spoke out to John, he himself had went ahead and began silently moving through the brush.
Sneaking through the trees towards the two known as Samael and Venom and the angelic woman whom the Chief had yet to hear her name.
But as he moved, the Chief didn't know that the three had always known where he was and where he had moved the entire time.
"Don't even think about it big man!" Venom yelled out. "You can't surprise the ones that know you best."
To this the Spartan had to quickly think, to change tactics. But that too wasn't acceptable. "It's fine John, we are not here to harm you" Samael, spoke. "We are here to speak to you, to tell you of the heritage you and the librarian unlocked while on Requiem."
To this the Spartan froze.
"Yes John, we know of your time on Requiem, of your time on Halo with your companion Cortana. And of course your training on Reach to become what you are now... A Spartan."
The Master Chief heard it all, what both Samael and Venom had said. Moving, he past the brush line and moved into the clearing.
And it was now as the Chief past the trees, was the Spartan able to see the two known as Samael and Venom.
Samael's tall form was demonic pure and simple. Legs and hooves of a goat but a torso of a human. The arms he had were scaled like those in the folklore of dragons. His face though was simple with no distinguished features. As if he would be just a random civilian in a city.
Though there was one feature he did have. Two sharp pointed horns that jutted from his forehead.
In human lore, Samael would be considered a demon. Just as the Master Chief was to the Covenant.
Next to Samael, Venom stood.
And if Samael was considered a demon, Venom was a monster.
Venom was hulking mass of muscle that stood on par with both Samael and the Master Chief. His form was covered in all black except for the design of a white spider on his torso and the white eyes on his head.
"What more do you know?" The Super Soldier questioned as he eyed the two. "About me? About what the Librarian did, to me?"
Samael gave the Spartan a smile while Venom gave him a Cheshire grin that showed his razor sharp teeth.
"Everything John." The Angelic voice spoke from on high.
The Master Chief looked up searching for the voice of the last being he had yet to meet.
But as his eyes laid on her form, the Master Chief froze.
He watched as she slowly floated down, her white crystallized wings slowly beating against the air. When her feet finally touched the ground, John finally felt like he could breath again.
She walked forward, towards the Spartan, her short wavy auburn hair flowing from the non existent wind. She stood a foot and half shorter than the Chief, and as she stood no more than a foot away from the Super Soldier, the Chief looked straight into her chocolate brown eyes.
And he felt them pierce deep into his own, despite the helmet that covered him.
"Who are you?" John whispered to her.
With only a tilt of the head, she smiled at the Spartan that loomed over her.
And without a hesitation she spoke.
"Don't you remember me John?"