Fanfiction Disclaimer (Distant Tide):
The following story is a fan-based novel created by the user: Distant Tide. The Halo property and franchise belongs to 343 Industries and Microsoft Studios. The franchise was first developed by Bungie, Inc. Distant Tide created Corporeal Delta for entertainment purposes and does not claim permissibility or ownership of the franchise and its assets in any form.
Acknowledgments:
"For my friends and family, for my friends at Halo Fanon and across the Halo Community. I would not be able to write this story without the experiences and interest that they have bestowed upon my life and provided me the drive to take this hobby to this extreme! Let's see if I can actually finish a full novel for once! And much gratitude to Bungie, 343i, and Microsoft for cultivating such a vast fictional universe."
Welcome to the third revision of Distant Tide's Corporeal Delta. Hopefully, I will not have to go through another major reset with the narrative like the last two times. I'm already under the impression that anyone interested in this story is somewhat frustrated by the constant backtracking. I'll do my utmost to minimize that going forward.
I also will try to minimize the author's notes as I feel like they can clutter up the story at times. That said, I will continue to use them to update people on what is going on with this story. For now, I just ask that people read this chapter and be constructive in their reviews. I really am looking to draw in new readers and new voices so I can continue to improve my writing. Thank you, everyone, for your continued help.
Read and review, please! Thanks, everyone, I'll try to get the next chapter out real soon.
["Graduation Night"]
[DUSK / / 21 OCTOBER 2557]
[Location: SHRAPNEL COVE, Arcadian Territory, Argus V]
"Oh come on, it's Graduation Night. Live a little..."
— Andra-D054 to Merlin-D032 over his stained shirt.
Like a partially submerged alligator on the prowl, the crashed remains of a military starship jutted from the inky-black ocean water below a star-filled night sky. The final rays of illuminating sunlight passed hours ago over a mountainous horizon and left only the burning twinkles of tiki torches and floodlights to provide visibility around the grounded wreck and its surrounding cove.
Above the lapping seawater crashing against the metal and earth of the rocky bluffs and the waterlogged ship, small clusters of chattering teenagers and a handful of adults socialized in their swimsuits or drenched workout clothes. The faded insignia of the United Nations Space Command, the outstretched eagle atop a globe, still stood proudly next to the emblazoned name of the former warship, now half-submerged at high tide and worn with time. Once known as the UNSC To Greener Pastures, this vessel now served merely as a swimming hole for adventurous youngsters that called the nearby military facility home.
They were finally Spartans. After four years of transformative training, they proved their dedication and the youngsters would soon leave the wild world of Argus V behind. There was apprehension, and worry, but mostly excitement as exemplified by the positive mood that permeated through the small crowd atop the sunken spaceship.
From the ash-laden beach across the water, one boy watched his friends and compatriots enjoy themselves aboard the wreckage. A pair of wrap-around sunglasses equipped with a darkness-illuminating VISR module covered his eyes. A burning tiki torch was his only company as he patiently waited for a close friend to make an appearance. He scanned the fallen warship and noted the two UNSC Pelican gunships parked haphazardly on its spine. The stationary aircraft were a means to move heavy gear and, in this case, party equipment and the entourage atop the spaceship when the celebration would reach its eventual end. The VISR module outlined the crowd in a holographic-green outline, identifying them as individuals friendly to the boy's cause. Where some partied the night away and others did not make an appearance, the boy was content to stand guard in quiet. It was not a necessary action; there was no need for the precaution on this relatively peaceful and hidden planet among the stars. The population of Argus V was barely more than five hundred military personnel, including the teenage trainees. It was a means for the boy, Merlin-D032, to clear his head and get some peace before the world would predictably fall back into a state of warfare and training. At least, it was expected.
He was to become a Spartan; no, that was not right. He was a Spartan now. He would have to go to war at some point; just tonight, he wanted to find some quiet for himself and the girl he considered his best friend.
"Take those off. I brought dinner." The commanding voice of one returning Andra-D054 brought her friend out of his thousand-yard stare and left a slight fluttering of excitement in his chest.
Complying with her order, Merlin took the VISR glasses off his eyes and turned to face his best friend warped in the shadow of the nearby tiki torch. Andra was dressed in a drab-green military tee shirt that loosely hugged her shoulders and gray cargo shorts that reached just above her kneecaps. Merlin was dressed similarly as was the basic workout wear for SPARTAN-III Delta Company, their training unit. She was holding two Meals-Ready-to-Eat, MREs, sizzling in their discreet brown bags. In the torchlight, Andra's blue eyes glowed like pale-purple orbs awash in obscurity. It was hard to read her emotional state from her pupils, however, an outstretched hand and a steaming dinner that smelled like beef spoke clearly her intentions.
"Thanks," Merlin replied softly and nodded his gratitude upon taking the bag from her. The sand shuffled below Andra's bare feet before she took a seat on the black sand. He followed her lead and took a seat facing the ocean as well. The only reflections on the water were the lights placed by the party-goers even as the stars twinkled above; in a new moon phase, Argus V's two moons were absent for the festivities.
Merlin's MRE snapped opened with a satisfying zip followed a second later by Andra's own meal. For a full minute, only the sounds of quiet munching and echoes of distant partying hovered above the crashing waves. Inspecting the meal, Merlin caught the sight of a half-hearted meat stew with some unknown vegetables thrown into the mix. The meat probably came from an off-world, flash-cloned source; however, he paid it no mind. He spent the last four years eating MREs and cheap cafeteria food; to Merlin, it was just another meal. He had long moved past making fun of how bad the food tasted compared to his childhood. On the other hand, maybe, he just forgot.
Andra broke the silence first, "I talked to Daniele in the mess hall before coming down here; he and Marcellus are leading another ten-kilo run through Devil's Throat before morning. He asked if I wanted to join them and I said no, obviously."
Merlin twirled a plastic spoon through the air, gesturing for Andra to continue. She was getting somewhere but at the keyword mentions of Daniele-D003, Marcellus-D070, a ten-kilometer run, and the Devil's Throat PT course, he shivered. Memories of that running course, especially when either of the mentioned Spartan graduates was in charge of tempo, still left him terrified.
"I know, I think he's crazy – ending Graduation with a PT run, even with our augmentations," Andra responded at the sight of Merlin's slight shiver; she lifted her wrist to the torchlight, displaying black puncture marks from a recent medical surgery. Even with skin grafts, the injection points – scars – were bone-deep. The healing scar tissue around the black dots was red and a little puffy, seemingly swollen even though it had been a few days since the medical operations; every Spartan from their company received these dermal surgery tokens. Taking a few moments to take in the scarring, Andra continued with her main point. "That said, I asked him where we would be deployed. Apparently, not even he knows."
Merlin swallowed a chunky piece of carrot with mild difficulty before responding, "Nothing at all? That seems unusual. You think they're just going to drop us to our new deployments blind?"
"I haven't heard anything new that you haven't. You still outrank me in our fireteam so you're supposed to know more, or, have you forgotten?" Andra asked; the gravy patches collecting at the corners of her mouth ruined her toothy grin.
"You got something on your face," Merlin replied, dismissing Andra's attempt at a joke.
Andra's face scrunched up at her friend's diversion, "You're kidding, right?"
Merlin shook his head, insisting on his honesty. Narrowing her eyes further, Merlin could only describe her smudged-brown lips and her squinting eyes as something akin to a cartoon character. He may have found it endearing, but her expression was instead comical. He stifled a laugh as she bobbed her head closer to his, looking for signs of dishonesty.
"Alright. Looks like you're telling the truth." Andra finally decided after getting a good look at Merlin's face. Glancing at his shoulder, she took a moment to make some unspoken decision then smashed her lips into his shirtsleeve. She lifted an arm to grasp the shirt and rubbed the gravy into the cloth effectively.
"What the hell?" Merlin exclaimed snapping his shirtsleeve from the girl's lips.
"Victory." Andra smiled, wiping the rest of the gravy on her wrist and spreading her index and middle finger in a V-symbol.
"Andra...you know this doesn't wash out easily, right?" Merlin groaned; he inspected the shirt and found that his drab-green tee shirt sleeve had a new smudge of mud-brown. Rubbing it out did nothing.
"Oh come on, it's Graduation Night. Live a little; no one's going to give a shit if your shirt is a little soiled." Andra reasoned before sliding back over toward Merlin so they were the same distance apart as before. Out on the water, some of the other Spartan graduates glanced back, looking to see what had caused the commotion. Spotting Merlin and Andra, they soon turned back to their own festivities.
"Oh, that's hilarious! That's even ironic, coming from you. You're more afraid of the instructors than I am!" Merlin exclaimed, thinking back to years of practicing his facial composure while facing down screaming drill sergeants.
"I am not! You get flustered when they shout at you," Andra pointed out. She looked out at the dark ocean, looking for something that was not there. "Sure, I used to shut down around them but that was a long time ago."
"You still freeze whenever someone tries to talk to you," Merlin added. "And it's like all the air leaves your lungs when you try to say something."
"You're overreacting, I know I can be bad at times but it's not like there's any new people to meet," Andra replied with a slight smile and twirling a finger around to refer to their surroundings. "I'm getting better – baby steps."
"Baby steps." Merlin agreed with a whisper. He knew all too well about her speech inhibition, she seemed talkative now, however, in the company of others it was a completely different narrative. She was still carrying her baggage – four years since she came to Camp Ambrose. The only ones with an exception to her "others rule" were her friends, and recently, the drill instructors.
"Well, at least all this is over now. We did graduate." Andra explained. She looked at Merlin for a second then looked back at the sea.
"…I hope so. I don't want to go through that training ever again," Merlin mumbled; he just wanted to be the Spartan he now was and leave this place behind. Argus V was a terrible place. He looked out to the sea and thought of his family. "Hey. Andra? Did I ever tell you my family name?"
Andra remained silent as she stared out at the water. She answered after a few moments of quiet drifting; there was a degree of distance in her voice. "No. We didn't exchange that information."
"Well, since we're Spartans now. And you said to live a little," Merlin said before jabbing Andra in the rib playfully. She jolted at the tap but quickly shoved him back in the same manner. Merlin grunted. "Ow. Uh, maybe it wouldn't hurt to share them?"
Andra glanced at Merlin with that same faraway look; however, her blue eyes were clear in the torchlight. There was a sudden drive that had not been there previously.
"Andra Kearsarge Bradford. Nice to meet you." Andra stated in a mock greeting but with a particularly serious tone. She brought up an outstretched hand for Merlin to shake.
Grasping her hand, Merlin shook it softly. "Merlin Ljang Boyd. The pleasure is mine."
Andra lightly pulled her hand from Merlin's grasp at the end of the pleasantries and tilted her head in an inquisitive manner. "So what percentage is Chinese?"
"My dad was like a fourth or eighth, I think? Mom was Russian and from the United Republic of North America." Merlin explained.
"Ah, okay. I can barely see any Asian resemblance. You look like any pasty-colored Spartan in these parts." Andra said, laughing about how pale all Spartans seemed to be, no matter their ethnicity.
"What about your parents?" Merlin asked on impulse. He tripped over his own tongue to ask, realizing that was a bad question to ask in retrospect. Merlin glanced at Andra.
Andra was staring at Merlin as if he grew a second pair of ears but the wide-eyed stare was only present for a moment or two. She quickly composed herself and looked back out to the ocean. "Umm. My dad was in Signals Intelligence. My mom served in the Army as a combat medic. I think our family went back several generations on 'Octanus-Four' but I don't know much beyond that."
Merlin sighed in response; he knew Andra's past was a touchy one, at least from what she had told him through the four years that they knew each other. The children did not typically talk about their pasts on Argus V – part of the traditions and rules of being a Spartan, however, sometimes it slipped out. In private. In some cases, the younger Spartans had no memory of their past to speak of. Andra's short spout about her family was not new to Merlin but it gave him a little more of a clue to her undisclosed past. She was likely from a family that went back several more generations on that distant colony world.
"Let's just leave it at that," Andra added as an afterthought, looking back at Merlin. There was a slight quiver coming from her body as if she was remembering something terrible. Merlin considered comforting her but quickly squashed the thought. He knew her well enough – when it came to discussing her past before becoming a Spartan, it was best to not say or do anything at all and leave it be. When Andra decided she would want to open up more, she'd let Merlin know.
"Right…" was his only response before looking down at his cooling brown meal bag.
The two went back to silently munching on their beef stew. Merlin chewed through the meat like he always did but he stopped when the taste of a sour-flavored vegetable hit his mouth. The bitter flavor came unappreciated but it also came with a hint of cardboard. Frowning deeply, he took two big chews and quickly swallowed the leafy plant part. Looking down into his bag, he noted that there was substantial stew residue lining the sides of the cardboard bag but Merlin definitely reached the bottom of the meal. He dropped his bio-plastic spoon into the bag and glanced around, expecting to spot a disposal bin somewhere in the wilderness.
"You see a disposal around here?"
A small burp erupted from Andra's lips as she placed a hand over her mouth. Behind her half-obscured face, Merlin could make out a small grin. "No, I wouldn't see why you would. I think I'm done too however...we can go back upstairs and throw it out or we could just do something down here."
Merlin gazed out at the dark water and the downed frigate that occupied the Cove. Looking back at Andra, he asked. "Do you want to go swim around the frigate?"
Andra followed his gaze. "Sure. Why not? We can just leave the bags here by the torch till we get back."
Merlin rolled up his hard, cardboard bag into a tight little ball. Due to his augmented form, however, the cardboard folded like wet paper and quickly fit the intended size and shape. Merlin took aim with his off-hand like a baseball pitcher and tossed it at the base of the tiki torch with the precision he did not have days ago. It smacked against the wooden pole and caused the pole to vibrate inaudibly for a split second before going still once again.
Andra tossed her bag, now rolled-up as well, to Merlin allowing him to throw the second cardboard ball at the pole and received the same result. Looking back to Andra for further instructions or some kind of indication that she was ready to swim, he met the sight of the girl yanking off her tee shirt and throwing it past Merlin's head. It landed next to the torch and cardboard wads of paper. Without a second thought or a glance at Merlin, she marched off the black sand beach and into the surf. In the near-darkness, his augmented eyes could see that she was only dressed in a black sports bra and her short bottoms. Her shoulder-length hair waved in the sea breeze but what stood out to Merlin were the uncountable, polka dot scars all over her back and arms.
Merlin pulled off his own shirt and threw it to where Andra had left hers. Looking down, he saw the same onyx-colored puncture points that displayed prominently on his abdomen, along with his blood vessels, and across his arms. Looking at Andra's back, he could easily identify the same scars on her form; they were so similar to Merlin's, all the way down to the exact injection points. It was clear a machine had performed the procedure – no human had that level of consistent precision. The thought of hundreds of needles stabbing into his body at fast intervals sent creepy-crawlies running up and down his spine. It terrified him and, in some way, it made Merlin feel more like the cloned meat in his MRE than a human being. He was still trying to put together what it meant to be a Spartan; maybe being a lab rat was part of the deal.
"Hey! You coming in or what?" Andra yelled from the water, yanking the boy from his stupor.
Merlin waved back to Andra and sprinted into the surf. In two bounds and a leap, he slipped through the rolling waters and bypassed the knee-high undercurrent. His augmented form moved through the water in a manner completely different from the last time he went for a swim, training or otherwise. Before his movements had been sluggish, pushing through the water like it was mud or pudding. Now, , with stronger muscles and tougher bones, the water resistance was far less noticeable. Following a few extra strides, he covered half the distance to Andra. He now stood waist-height in the surf.
"So? Who's the better swimmer?" Andra called to Merlin and pointed toward the crashed frigate in the cove. Its dual-pronged prow, a staple in UNSC frigate design, remained just above the waterline shredded in a crash long ago. The small crowd atop the wreck continued to mingle into the night – eating joyous party food and drinking carbonated soda pop. Older, "flip music" with heavy metal cords echoed into the night.
"You want to race?" Merlin hollered back to his best friend. He performed a quick, rudimentary breaststroke and covered the last twenty meters between the two.
"Yep," she chirped when the two were once again together. Andra pointed her right finger toward a grotesque scene of twisted metal jutting out the side of the sunken spaceship. "We're going to race to the stern of the Greener Pastures, next to the starboard-side thruster."
Merlin could feel his tippy-toes touching the surface of a sandbar below him. At his six-foot-three-inch height, he was taller than most people were but small for a Spartan; the water was relatively deep for him as the surf tickled his bare chin. Andra was bouncing slightly to keep her head above water.
"How far is that? It's a Paris-class heavy frigate, so, about 535 meters away. Half a kilometer." Merlin stated, calling back to his naval science knowledge from academic training. "Sounds right to me. It should be nothing for us with our augmentations. We'll race out there on my count." Andra explained.
"It's going to be pretty deep. Not quite past the continental shelf but there won't be anything to stand on." Merlin responded, considering how long the warship actually was. Even if it was half-buried in the shallow cove, its stern side definitely sat at a deeper point in the ocean. "Afraid of drowning?" Andra asked teasingly. Her blue pupils twinkled in the natural and artificial lights atop the UNSC To Greener Pastures.
"Not out here," Merlin rebuked. He was not fazed by the deep ocean and he wasn't aware of any nasty predators that frequented these waters. Delta Company became aware during their training what creatures came to call the planet home during terraforming. Giant sharks and sea monsters were not on the predatory short-list, at least in this area. "I'm just being careful."
"I know. I feel the same way but it should be fine. Worst we could run into is some stray shrapnel, right?"
"I guess," Merlin mumbled. He was not keen to try his luck but he never shied away from a friendly competition.
"Are you ready?" Andra asked when the two of them were paused side by side in the open surf.
"Yeah."
"On my count of three…" Andra said, beginning her countdown. Merlin tensed his thigh muscles and braced his shins for a kicking session. He was going to blast straight through the water and leave Andra in his whitewash if he got lucky.
"One...two...three!"
Merlin's legs jetted out of the water, propelling him forward as he rotated his arms into a freestyle stroke. He felt his VISR glasses bouncing in the sealed shorts pocket on his right. He pedaled his arms and grasped at the surrounding salt water.
Within Merlin's ear, all he could discern was the sound of water splashing around and against his body. Without goggles, it was hard to see; both due to the darkness and his breathing pattern, snapping up for air every fifth stroke. For a moment every time he took a gasp of air, he could see a shadow cover up the night sky full of stars. Part of the unlit frigate super-structure; the overhang of titanium was a marker telling Merlin he was staying on course. Merlin was probably more than halfway from the starting line when the waves became violent and uneven, throwing off his momentum as he tried to pull water at a rate that balanced out the sudden assault.
He took a breath and caught a silhouette speeding by, deeper into the darkness. The shadow called out in Andra's breathless shout, "–better luck, Merl–!"
She took another gasp, going under, her shadowy form raced forward and away. A sense of mild panic seized Merlin's mind, screaming for him to swim faster. He was falling behind! His arms slapped against the water as he renewed his sprint forward. His surgery marks were burning with every exaggerated stroke he took, however, he ignored it as he attempted to regain his lead. Andra was exceedingly talented when it came to sports. She came to Argus V with knowledge for swimming and something called "cheerleading," Merlin, in comparison, knew very little about sports. Like many Spartan recruits, he had to learn quickly and from scratch. It was a good thing he had an excellent athletic tutor or he might have stayed clueless and apprehensive toward deeper waters.
Just as Merlin passed into the shadow of the Greener Pastures' starboard thruster, he felt a firm hand clasp around his shoulder and pull him hard. Surfacing a little breathless, Merlin found himself staring into Andra's dim lit eyes. In the pitch-black night, Merlin failed to see anything but the grimace shaped on her lips.
"What is it? Did you win?" Merlin asked. He felt slippery strands gliding in the waters beneath his kicking feet but paid it no mind. Probably kelp or something.
It took the girl a moment to respond; however, when she composed her thoughts, her response came out cynical and mildly pained. "Yeah...I won I guess. I stopped before we reached the finish...I think I got stung."
"What?" Merlin asked, now on edge. He looked at Andra but even with his augmented eyes, she just appeared like a submerged phantasm at sea. On closer inspection, Merlin could see her shadowy outline vibrating subtly as if she were shivering.
"Look down…" Andra mumbled cryptically. She seemed in the mood for few words as she brought her arms up and tested her haphazard ability to swim back toward shore. For someone seemingly in distress, she was being unusually calm. Merlin glanced down and saw a wave of luminescent-blue, glowing like hot plasma discharge below him. It was not particularly visible but it was there. His eyes adjusted quickly and the detailed view nearly gave Merlin a heart attack, well, the sight might actually give him a heart attack if he was not careful. Transparent, glowing flesh-bags were lazily floating by and dancing in the dark. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of jellyfish packed into the same swimming hole. Each adult specimen seemed to be ten inches in width or bigger. Two jellyfish latched onto Merlin's ankles and Merlin could see one still attached to Andra's leg.
"Giant Moon Jellies," Andra stated pointedly, paddling away from Merlin. She seemed dreadfully calm about the situation; Merlin was already getting an incredible, eternal need to scratch at his knees.
"You still got one–" Merlin started but Andra cut him off, gritting out her response as she swam away, not daring to look back.
"I know!"
Ignoring the jellyfish straddling his legs, Merlin kicked as hard as he could to escape the field of lunar-named jellies. One attached to his left leg went splat as it hit the surface of the water. Traveling at the speed Merlin was churning, the ocean's surface might as well be concrete.
The other jellyfish slipped off with another kick, gliding off in the presence of slick, white-water. The stinging sensation still refused to dim, however, Merlin's augmentations were combat-oriented; a few jellyfish stings could be handled, especially with the numbing smacks of white-water and the adrenaline seeping into the Spartan's bloodstream. Merlin could only assume that Andra was feeling the same sensations as she doggy-paddled ahead of Merlin back to the beach. Everything was burning but it could have been worse. He had been through much worse, like Spartan training.
Merlin and Andra previously sprinted out to sea covering a half-kilometer distance in a few minutes at most; however, their slow paddle back took a good ten minutes or more. The stings seemed far from life-threatening for the young Spartans; however, it was clearly painful and concerning. They were far from invincible, this little incident certainly proved it.
Alternatively, maybe they were. Maybe that sting would have killed him if he was unaugmented still, or hurt even worse? Merlin had no way of knowing since this was the first time he had ever been stung by a jellyfish. At least he could say he had a new, healthy respect for jellyfish; enough to steer clear of them for sure.
When the young Spartans reached the shoreline, laying down in the sand to catch their breaths. Merlin asked, "How's your leg?"
For a couple moments, low gasps interrupted Andra's ability to speak. In the dim lighting of the tiki torch, Merlin could see her chest heaving up and down. She finally responded once she caught her breath. "What about you?"
Merlin responded, equally breathless and stinging all over. "Burning."
"Same."
Merlin looked down at his legs; already, swollen-red hives were beginning to spread along faint brown-pale lines left where the jellyfish tentacles had slid against Merlin's skin. That urge to scratch the severe rash marks was getting hard to ignore.
"We need to get back to Camp," Merlin told Andra as he flipped over and clambered to his feet. His legs were shivering continuously, a severe reaction to the toxin now permeating across his flesh. Pushing through the pain, Merlin reached out a helping hand to Andra who quickly seized it. Merlin could see her knuckles were turning white with how she was squeezing his wrist as he yanked her up.
Throwing her outstretched arm over his shoulder, Merlin planted his soles in the sand and led his teammate over the tiki torch to grab their tee shirts and the crumpled MRE bags lying at the torch's base. Andra swooped down silently and picked them up; she nodded to Merlin with a puff of loose breath and they began their cliff-ascent back to Camp.
Maybe Merlin or Andra could have called for their compatriots on the frigate to assist them; however, Merlin was more than comfortable to go without their assistance. He already had someone in mind, his fireteam's medic. On Argus V, family dynamics took form around the members of fireteams. It was a phenomenon practiced throughout Delta Company, trust between units saw moderate promotion but it was always in short supply. Better to rely on "family" than someone outside your fold.
Unzipping his sealed shorts pocket, Merlin yanked his VISR glasses from the pouch and slapped them onto his eyes with his left hand. Detecting his eyes, the visor lit up the surrounding area and gave Merlin access to a basic heads-up display. Andra, similar to other Spartans, outlined in a green aura.
Tapping the side of the glasses, Merlin activated the VISR's built-in radio headset and linked into his fireteam's chatroom.
"Testing…" Merlin mumbled to himself, checking for audio.
Everyone seemed to be offline now as shown by the five grayed-out circles on his VISR that identified his teammates' statuses. Pinging one of the Spartans, he met the chirping voice of a Roxanne-D107. "Rox here."
"Hey, Roxanne..." Merlin greeted, numbed.
"What's up?"
"Andra and I had a run-in with some jellyfish."
Rox's voice sucked in a pound of air before responding, "That sucks...I'm back in the room, can you make it back?"
Merlin glanced over to Andra. "Can you climb the hill or is it bad?"
"I can make it; pretty sure," Andra replied through a slight wince.
Merlin returned to his blunt conversation with Roxanne. "Yeah. I think so."
"Alright. I will meet you at the western entrance of the Camp. See you in a bit."
"See you." Merlin cut the call off from his end.
Merlin felt Andra's weight shift from leaning on him to supporting him somewhat. The girl was trying to find a good balance between the two as they began marching up the sidewalls of Shrapnel Cove. It was probably equivocal to between five and seven flights of steep stairs, a sizeable challenge but not impossible. The two would be fine climbing the narrow path that wormed its way up the coastal bluffs.
It was a good couple of minutes before the Spartans finally crested over the final stone step. Still ignoring his burning and exhausted legs, Merlin continued forward. Somewhere along the route, Andra had picked up more momentum and started to haul Merlin up the steps they walked together.
"Hey, Andra?"
"Yeah."
"Thank you for helping me out," Merlin spoke to her as he started to make out the open fields that surrounded what the Spartans considered home. Camp Ambrose. The metallic fortress with large titanium walls stood out sharply with the nightly thick pine forest that surrounded the facility at a distance. The base's watchtowers and floodlights twinkled in the humid air.
"With what?" Andra asked as her blue pupils glanced at Merlin in curiosity.
"Teaching me how to swim. Staying beside me through everything. And help me up this cliff…" Merlin stated, glancing back toward the Cove behind them.
Andra went silent.
Merlin felt butterflies fluttering in his stomach again, never mind his burning legs. "Something wrong?"
Andra let go of Merlin and shook her head. "It's nothing. You just sounded like me for a second…"
"Why is that?" Merlin asked, now curious himself.
"I've said the same thing to you before," Andra replied to Merlin.
"We're friends. I'll always have your back."
"Right," Andra replied; she looked back out toward Camp Ambrose. "We need to get back...someone's coming."
Merlin glanced out toward where Andra was looking, assisted by her outstretched hand pointing toward the individual running toward them.
"Hey!" The voice of Roxanne called out to Merlin and Andra from the fast-moving silhouette. "You guys okay?"
"Burning!" Andra called back in a holler she usually reserved for combat.
"Come on, let's get inside then! It won't kill you but let it continue and putting on anything is going to really feel like crap."
Merlin blinked twice at Roxanne, processing what she said before yelping in surprise as Andra jostled him forward so that he was closer to the medic. Roxanne swooped down and threw Merlin's other arm over her shoulder.
"Wait…what?" Merlin asked, performing a double take.
"You're the worse off between the two of us, dumbass!" Andra bluntly stated and started guiding the trio back to Camp Ambrose. Roxanne nodded firmly in confirmation after reviewing Merlin's legs. Even in the darkness, she seemed convinced they were severe.
Rox looked over Andra, her bright-blue pupils filled with motherly concern, "You feeling okay with carrying half of him?"
"Yeah. It is partially my fault we were stung so badly. I'll be fine though."
Rox nodded silently as Merlin let his legs glide lightly over and occasionally tap the ground. It took a couple more minutes to get back to base and to their dormitory inside the barracks. The world started to blur as a follow up to the jelly stings – by the time they reached the gates, Merlin's ability to process details and his surroundings went the way of his adrenaline, it became lost in a blur of noise and senses. It got hot and Merlin could tell he was sweating profusely.
"He's going to be out of it for quite a while, let him get some rest. He's not poisoned or anything but the jellyfish toxin overworked his nervous system and marching up the bluffs took out the rest of his fuel tank. Sleep should help clear his head by morning, I already put some tonic on the sting area, should help with the burning sensation. I won't bother telling anyone about it, you two just need some rest." Roxanne's voice explained to Andra in the distance.
A half-hearted hum of affirmation escaped Andra's lips in the same manner from afar. Merlin felt a familiar weight press down on Merlin's mattress next to his half-asleep form. It was probably Andra given the mop of black hair dangling over Merlin's head.
Roxanne added, "You need to get some sleep too Andra, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up like him any minute now. I already gave you the tonic. Try to get some sleep."
"Alright, alright. I will." Andra responded in doubt but defeat.
Rox continued, "I'm going to go see if the mess hall is still open, I didn't realize I'd be so hungry after sleeping most of the day..."
A light above Merlin went out suggesting someone flicked off the dorm's overhead lights. Andra's voice entered Merlin's ears distantly once more, as a door clicked shut. "Hey, idiot. I am just going to sleep here if you do not mind. I know you're too weak to respond so, get some sleep."
Andra pushed against Merlin so that her back was rubbing against Merlin's side. Unable to respond in a meaningful way, Merlin gave her a neutral groan; he was not even sure how he was supposed to respond to her comment.
"Uh huh. Night Merlin." Andra responded, once again afar but comedic, without really considering what her best friend actually intended. Her last chuckles guided Merlin into a solid, dark slumber finally losing his battle with exhaustion.
Merlin's dreams filled with the tales and memories of how he came to this point, to have become a Spartan supersoldier.