Disclaimer: I own nothing of Halo: series, characters or even Guilty Spark's socks.


As It Should Be

He had hoped for this.

After millennia watching over his facility, its destruction had left 343 Guilty Spark with a profound sense of loss. He hardly knew how to describe it. Although his programming allowed for some experience and expression of emotion (within acceptable bounds, naturally), it was not a function he devoted much attention to. In the language of protocol, he was eloquent; in that of emotion, he was dumb.

He drifted down an access tunnel, humming blithely. Yes, the destruction of Installation 04 had left him with a void in his existence – not an absence of something in the environment so much as absence of environment. He had been left drifting an all but purposeless: why, if he hadn't been found, he might never have served any function again!

But now he found himself restored. The sole possibility that had kept him online through the void had come to fruition.

He was home.

Guilty Spark emerged into a hallway, flying to the right. He knew the route well, naturally. He was approaching the monitor AI's maintenance unit: his own niche within the ring. There was time to synchronise his systems with those of the facility and to perform a little of the maintenance he'd been missing-

He stopped.

The maintenance unit was closed over, but the module had a clear panel in the lid. Inside, beneath the precise attentions of the repair systems, lay a round, silver form, lightless but nearing completion by his estimation…

Guilty Spark hovered in silence, all sensors on the other monitor.

Natural, of course, that provision would also be made for his replacement. A facility must have a monitor unit. They would not, he realised, have expected him to survive the destruction of the original…

Absolutely logical. Except that he still functioned.

"My apologies," he said. "Your services will not be required after all."

His weapons systems fired at full power. The crackle and explosion almost overloaded his audial sensors. When the smoke cleared, the nearest half of the module was all but gone, the unit's framework blackened and twisted outward. Of the monitor-in-waiting, only a charred external shell remained.

Guilty Spark scanned it, then turned and moved in the direction he'd come, humming once more. Perhaps he didn't need that maintenance urgently. He'd just have to find an auxiliary unit later and complete his tasks then.

Yes, he was restored to his proper position once more. The Forerunners, in their wisdom, had provided protocol to reconstruct that which was lost, and now he would fulfil their instructions faithfully.

This time, he would not make the errors he had previously. This time, he and the Reclaimer were in agreement. The situation would be handled according to correct protocol. He was the Monitor of Installation 04, past and present, and he would see to it. All would be in order.

As it should be.