The sounds of gunfire drifted across Linda's mind. The unmistakeable noise slowly blended into one of the SPARTAN's training missions on Reach, so many years ago. A Tango Company Marine opened fire on John as he and three others invaded the Marines' command center in a live-fire game of Capture the Flag. Linda pulled the trigger of her sniper rifle, and a tranquilizer round hit the soldier in the neck. As he fell to the ground, however, her vision blured.
The memory faded away into blackness. A blackness that felt…wrong, somehow.
At first Linda couldn't figure out what was wrong. She was asleep, and dreaming, so the blackness should have just reinforced that, right? But she was thinking, and that meant she had to be awake. Pain then entered her consciousness, a sharp terrible pain. She tried to cry out, to scream. There was no sound, not even the sensation of screaming, just a terrible silence.
Then she remembered her last mission. The overcharged plasma bolts burning her down to the bone. She then knew she couldn't be asleep. It was more like she was dead and remembering. But she still felt pain. All she could feel was pain.
For a minute, the pain faded as Jericho VII took over her mind – or was it her soul's mind? – and the heat from Banshee's plasma cannons washed over her. She could feel the armor boiling away on her back. But it held, and this time, it just kept burning.
God, please wake me up. Wake me from this empty nightmare.
Linda then remembered her last words with John. He wouldn't be One to just let her die. If there was a chance, he would have found a cryotube for her on the Pillar of Autumn. She could almost feel the bronchial surficant coating her lungs, keeping her alive in the cold, painful blackness. Somehow. If he had known that this fate awaited her, he wouldhave let her die. Now, this machine keeping her alive was like a womb, forcing life into her, but ironically keeping her from feeling real life again, even if it was just to die.
All she could do was wait. SPARTANs weren't known for being religious, but that didn't mean they didn't believe in a higher power. Most soldiers did. God, wake me up or let me die, she thought. Help me, please.
Memories, less painful now, filled her mind. Blinking in morse code with the other seventy-four SPARTANs during classes. Days of physical training, strategy training, and-
The pain returned. Oh God help me, she thought, tried to scream, tried to hold her breath. All that happened was the thought. She was alone with herself. Alone inside herself. The only One in her world now. Please, wake me up. End this nightmare. End my life.
Memories of the war followed. Sigma Octanus IV. The scorched earth of glassed worlds. Her own bones being burned black.
Nothing but darkness, imprisoning her. It was all she could see. And it was terrible. Absolute horror, especially for someone who relied on her eyes like she did.
She was trapped in herself, unable to live, and unable to die. The time ticked by imperceptably, and she began to curse everyone who had left her in this prison, her own body her holding cell. The Covenant, Halsey, John, Keyes, even God.
Why have you all abandoned me!? Linda menatlly screamed in anguish. Even for a lone wolf such as herself, the solitude was unbearable.
Starting with the plasma burns, and now the ice of the cryotube, everything but thought and pain were taken away from her.
Taken her sight.
Taken her speech.
Taken her hearing.
Taken her arms, her legs, and all her other voluntary motions.
It felt like it had taken her soul as well.
Why, God, why have you left me with life in this hell!?
The agony would continue for quite some time.
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Well, there's my interpretation of Metallica's song "One" as regards Linda in her cryotube. Before anyone rags me on it, I know you can't think in cryo, and I know Linda would be in a catatonic state. But that's what everyone thought about the soldier in "Johnny Got his Gun," the original inspiration for the song, and he was still capable of thought. It may be a million-to-one shot, but it can still happen because a million-to-one still leaves ONE.