900: A Halo Fan Fiction
Prologue: Reach
The last thing Trevor had expected was to end the day in absolute pain. Yet, here he was with his brother holding him up and the marines at the last transport off Reach looking at him like he was already dead.
"What are you staring at?!" His brother Zach asked. "Help me!" Even without his ODST helmet he was intimidating.
The marines instantly moved to help. One of them carefully got under Trevor's damaged right arm. The other attempted to remove the object from Trevor's damaged hand and arm. Instead of letting him take it, Trevor tightened his grip on the object, not letting him take it. "Leave it." Zach said. "I've tried already."
They began to take him into the transport as the marine gave up. Trevor barely retained conciousness as they walked through the ship past tons of civilians both wounded and unwounded. Finally, they reached a doctor and picked him up and put him on a table. As the doctor went to examine him, Zach stepped forward and said, "Where's Doctor Michele?"
"Why?" The doctor replied.
"She's a... was a friend of our parents." Zach said. "She promised to wait til the last transport so she could check him. I spoke to her over the comm."
"I'm here. You said over the comm that it was an encounter with an elite?" Dr. Michele said.
"Yeah. It shot him with a needler." Zach said. "He killed it after that."
Dr. Michele looked at Trevor. "Really?" She said in a voice that showed she didn't believe him.
"Well I helped." Zach said. "But in the end he stabbed it with it's own energy sword."
"I see." Michele said. "That explains the energy sword." She said pointing out the object in Trevor's hand.
"Yeah. He won't let go of it." Zach said.
"Well let me try." Michele said. She leaned forward and looked Trevor in the eyes. "Trevor, if you want me to save you, you're gonna have to let go of the sword."
Did he want to be saved? That had been Trevor's thought for a while now. And laying on this table thinking about everything that had transpired, he decided that his parents would have wanted him to go on if he could. So he closed his eyes and loosened his fingers.
"There." Michele said.
"I'll hold this for him." Zach said, taking the sword from his hand. "He'll want it back."
"It's good he seems to be losing consciousness. This will probably hurt a lot and we're out of anesthetic." Michele said.
Trevor did indeed lose consciousness. But he was plagued by a different pain. Nightmares.
It was the same elite, of that he was sure. Everything from the scar on it's upper right jaw to the red energy sword in it's hand. It's golden armor glinted as it stepped forward. To solidify his surety it was the same elite... it spoke. "You really think you killed me? YOU a puny human. Ha!" It said. "You couldn't kill a grunt that ran at you with two plasma grenades drawn!"
As he watched, the elite's chest began to have two holes with blood coming out of them appear. Two holes with burn marks around them. Two holes formed by an energy sword. As he realized this, the sword appeared. And so did the one who wielded it. As he looked at the killer, he saw a familiar face. One he had only seen in the mirror. The only thing that was different was the eyes. Filled with nothing but bloodlust. Suddenly, the evil version of him jerked the sword out of the elite's back. The elite fell to the left and lay there almost completely still. Then Trevor realized something he hadn't realized the first time. The elite was still breathing... barely. Looking back at the evil him, he discovered he was advancing upon him. He went to say the elite was still alive but instead he told him, "I'll kill you."
The evil him paused. "How do think you'll do that?" He said. "You seem to lack the ability to do so."
"Wha—" he started to say but he then realized what he hadn't before. His right arm was missing. Looking back at the evil version of him, he saw that he was advancing again. The blade in his hand glowed red. Just like the blood that ran down his arm. As he reached Trevor and drew his arm back, Trevor let out a blood curdling scream. And as the blade lunged forward...
...So did Trevor as he sat up in the bed he had been laying in breathing heavily and sweating. A moment later he realized he was gripping the bed he sat on. He loosened his left hand but something was up with his right. As he turned to look, his dream returned to him. At first he was relieved to see he had an arm, but then he saw that it wasn't the usual arm he saw but a robotic one instead. He then didn't know what to feel. So he decided to wait to think of that later. Instead, he concentrated on figuring out the issue with his hand. Looking at his hand he discovered that it had bent and crushed the metal frame. Looking further, he discovered that something had become disconnected and immobilized his hand. Reconnecting it, he released the bed frame. He then went to stand up and found that not only was he bruised and beaten still, but also that he was only in underwear. Looking around quickly, he found a pair of sweatpants sitting on a chair. Taking a quick look, he found they were the right size. Left for him then. He put them on and began to further explore the room. The first thing he noticed was that all the walls were metal. He then noticed that there was a bathroom. He headed into there to use the mirror. When he looked into the mirror, he wasn't surprised to find scars ravaging the right side of his chest all the way up to his neck. As he continued to look in the mirror, he observed his face and was relieved to discover it was completely intact. From his brown eyes to his brown hair, his entire head was unscathed. Finally feeling he had observed the damage well enough, he observed the repair. The arm was pretty basic in design and, from what he could see, there was nothing special about it. It's strength was greater than his but that wasn't unusual. He'd just have to be careful and get used to the strength. Yet he couldn't get the nagging feeling he'd miss his old arm out of his head. He'd always been adaptable. You had to be when your family moved around a lot. It had been his decision to stay with Zach and fight on Reach. He had come to think of it as home and wanted to help defend it. Because of that decision, he was alive. But his parents were dead. He didn't know whether to think of that as a good or bad decision. Maybe both. Either way, his future would definitely be affected by it.
Deciding that staring at the mirror would get him nowhere, he turned away and headed back to the bed. From there, he turned to the door and discovered he was being watched. Outside the door was a marine that was standing guard. Now he was staring at Trevor. Suddenly, he grabbed a walkie talkie and said something into it, though Trevor couldn't hear him through the door. After he was done speaking into his walkie talkie, the soldier turned to Trevor and said something. Trevor put his hand to his ear showing that he couldn't hear the soldier. In response, the soldier pointed next to the door. Trevor looked down and saw an intercom.
Pressing the button he spoke into it, "What'd you say?"
"I said Dr. Michele should be here in a minute. She'll run a few tests and you'll be free." The soldier replied.
"So, what? I'm a prisoner?" Trevor said with a smile.
"Don't let anyone know I told you." The soldier said returning the smile.
Trevor walked away from the door and continued to observe the room. As plain as it was, he found that it had a comforting feel to it. Not surprising since he had always liked ships. And technology. And pretty much anything that there was always more to learn about, like space. He may have no clue where they were but that was fine by him. He was comfortable.
Suddenly, the door opened and Dr. Michele entered. "I see you're up and about."
"You know me, I hate sitting around." Trevor replied.
"That I do. Still, you should be resting."
"There ain't no rest for the wicked."
"Very funny." Michele said only to have the smile on her lips when she looked at Trevor whose eyes had filled with pain. "What happened wasn't your fault."
"We put them on that ship. We sent them to there deaths."
"You didn't pull the trigger."
"We might as well have." He said, his fists unclenching as he walked back to the bed.
"What did you do to the bed?" Michele said changing the subject.
"Nightmare." Trevor said. "Your toy broke."
"Not my toy now and it shouldn't have been able to excerpt that much pressure. If it broke, it was your fault."
"Whatever you say doc. So what happened to my arm? Why'd you remove it?"
"You gripped that energy sword too hard for too long."
"And the sword?"
"Your brother has it." Michele said, listening to his heartbeat.
"Right."
"It's not his fault. He thought you'd want it safe."
"Even so, now I have to see him."
"He saved your life."
"But not theirs."
"That's not his fault."
"Doesn't matter."
"It does."
As she began taking his blood pressure, Zach entered the room. Trevor noticed and instantly tensed.
"You're messing with my tests Zach." Michele said, hoping he'd take the hint.
"I don't care." Zach said, not taking the hint. "I want to see my brother." He said reaching the bed. "How are you doing?"
Without warning, Trevor shot out of the bed grabbing Zach by the throat and lifting him off the floor. "How could you do it? How could you let them die?"
"There was nothing I could do." Zach said between strangled breaths. "You know that."
"You could have tryed harder." Trevor said. "You could avenged them! Anything! Anything would have been better than what you did!"
"That's enough Trevor!" Michele said.
Trevor released Zach and he collapsed to the floor choking. Trevor went to the wall and, without thinking, he punched the wall. As Zach looked up from choking, he saw Trevor pry his robotic fist from the dent in the wall. "I guess you need time. I didn't think about the fact that to you practically no time has passed." Standing, Zach went to leave the room but stopped. "I almost forgot. I brought you this." He said as he set the energy sword on the bed. He then left the room leaving Trevor to think.
"What the hell was that?!" Trevor said.
"Your slightly delusional. Instead of thinking, you reacted." Michele replied.
"I could have killed him."
"You wouldn't have."
"I could've."
She paused, realizing they'd just go back and forth, and decided to finish her tests. "You'll be fine. You can talk to him when I'm done running tests."
"Is that wise?"
"You tell me."
"You know him. He was never the emotional type. But... to be so cold. Not a single emotion. While it happened." He shook his head. "It's just not right."
"Maybe he thought it better to wait til later to mourn."
"It didn't look like that."
"Well he did. He has been. And is. So don't you tell me he doesn't care." Michele said finishing her tests. "Now. I'm done. Go try and patch things with your brother."
Trevor got up and grabbed the energy sword. He began to head out the door and paused to look back at Michele. She immediately waved at him to go. Shooing him from the room. He left and she looked at her results from her tests. "Those boys are feats of medical genius. If only they knew just how off the charts their scores were in everything. They'd know why they're drawn to the UNSC. But I promised their parents." She reached for a drawer and opened it. "I won't tell them unless I have to." Taking the stamp she had pulled from the drawer, she pressed it against the file and pulled it back to reveal three words. APPROVED FOR DUTY.
Trevor caught up with Zach at a window, looking out at space. "When are gonna stop looking at stars?"
"When the universe ceases to amaze me."Zach replied, looking at Trevor.
"So... Same as me."
"Pretty much... I never thought you'd try to kill me."
"Neither did I."
There was an awkward silence. Suddenly, Trevor decided to break it. "I'm sorry." He said. "I just. Haven't had time to process things and... get over things."
"Yeah. I keep forgetting you've been unconscious for two weeks."
"Two weeks?"
"One week, six days, five hours, thirty minutes, and..." Zach paused to look at the clock nearby. "Forty-five seconds. Happy birthday by the way."
"What?"
"It's September 10th."
"Oh yeah." Trevor said. "Sorry you spent your birthday rescuing me."
"Don't be. Wouldn't be my birthday without that. Unfortunately, I couldn't blow out the candles. Kinda hard when the candle is a whole planet."
"Yeah."
The awkward silence returned. "Look, I'll need some time to figure things out. If you can give me time, maybe I can look at you as my brother again. Maybe even a friend. But right now, your just another soldier. Another face, there's a gap between us right now, and until it's closed or filled, it's too awkward."
"I understand." Zach said. "Just one problem."
"And what's that?"
"I got assigned an ODST squad today."
"And?"
"And you're at the top of the list."
Author's Note:
I've been writing this for a while now. Unfortunately there have been a few times I've been busy or haven't been in the mood to write. These reasons have put off this story's prologue from being finished... but no more. This story will actually be followed by a machinima me and my brother will be making with some friends. When the first episode's up I'll put up that fact at the end of the author's note. Though that may be a while from now, it's good to know that some people will know about it beforehand. Keep an eye out for more chapters of 900. I'll try to update all my stories more often then I have been. No promises though since I also have schoolwork and other things to make sure I get done. So keep watching for more chapters and check out my other stories.
