A/N: The starting of The past is in our hands and The future is in our hands are the same. It is a crossroads of sorts, where multiple things could happen.
This story begins right before Master Chief Petty Officer John Spartan 117 and Thel Vadum, The Arbiter, makes the jump towards the open bay door on The Dawn.
Prologue
Explosions surrounded them as Spartan 117 John and the holy Sangheili warrior, Thel Vadum who was also known as the Arbiter, raced towards the open bay door on The Dawn, A United Space Command Frigate in a Warthog.
The battered warthog accelerated to its maximum speed as the Master Chief floored the pedal and the warthog flew across the gap in between the platforms and the Dawn.
The warthog crashed and flipped. It flung both its occupants out of their seats before coming to a halt in jumble of smoking metal.
The arbiter was the first to get up and looked at the Master Chief, who nodded at him.
The Master Chief ran towards a Holographic Projector and linked Cortana, his Artificial Intelligence, to The Dawn.
Cortana told the Master Chief to hang on and sent commands to the frigate's fusion core to send power to all of The Dawn's primary and secondary thrusters.
The entire ship tilted as Cortana angled the ship towards space.
John ran towards the door at the back of the hanger, only to find that it was getting too steep to run. He fell to his stomach before crawling.
"I'm not going to make it at this rate" The Augmented Soldier thought to himself when a four fingered hand caught his arm and hauled him through the door before sealing it.
"Arbiter, go! You won't make it in time."
"Human, if there is one thing that you know about me is that I never leave battle brothers behind." The Arbiter stated as the lifted The Chief to his feet.
"If we don't make it, John, I just want to tell you that it has been an honour, working with you." Cortana told the sprinting Spartan.
Together, they ran down a corridor to the bridge when a bright light flashed through their vision and all was dark.
"Chief. Chief. John. Can you hear me? "
Spartan 117 found himself lying on a polished marble floor.
He got up and found that The Arbiter was not in a different position as him.
The Master Chief bent over, reaching for the Sangheili warrior.
But before he could, Thel Vadum groaned and picked himself up from the floor.
"Thank goodness you all are ok, I've been shouting at the both of you to get up for ages."
Cortana commented.
" Cortana, where are-"
"We?" Cortana interrupted. "I don't think I should be that you should be asking, John."
"If not you, then who? " John replied with a sarcastic tone in his voice.
"Me." A voice sounded behind them.
Both warriors of different races spun around and squeezed the triggers of their weapons.
Adrenaline from the recent escape made had made both of them twitchy and liable to react violently with anything shocking or sudden. Hypersensitivity was not helping at the moment.
Bullets and bolts of superheated plasma flew at a humanoid figure as it stood there, not moving an inch.
Instead of blood and gore spraying all over the floor, which the trio expected, the deadly projectiles and bolts of light hit a invisible shield which flared into visibility on impact.
"Twitchy, are we?" A humorous voice sounded.
The said figure stepped into the light and the figure was revealed as a
"Human?" Thel Vadum uttered in surprise.
"Yes, that was my race's original name. Although, I seem to remember that your race, the Sangheili, and the San 'Shyuum called us....what was that word.... ah yes. Forerunners."
The Arbiter's mandibles gaped as he switched his vision from his battle brother to the new arrival.
His knees gave as he fell before the Master Chief.
"Arbiter what are you....."
"Forgive me, holy one for what I have done to your rac-"
"Stand up, Arbiter." The Chief cut him off.
"No, holy one I-"
"Thel Vadum. Stand up now. This is a fucking order."
The Arbiter stood up reluctantly, avoiding the figure's eyes and the Master Chief's visor.
"Thel, look at me."
Ignoring him, the Sangheili shifted his gaze onto a corner of the room.
"Look. At. Me" The Chief said in the coldest voice he could muster.
The arbiter's startled eyes shot up and met the Spartan's visor.
"No matter what race we are labeled. That does not change what we are. You've seen personally that Forerunners are not invincible. Hell, most of us can't even match the strength of an average Sangheili civilian. Do we still look like gods to you?"
Thel Vadum's eyes lit with understanding.
"I apologize for my behavior. It was most unbecoming." The Arbiter said.
"And there's the Arbiter I know."The chief nodded and looked at the figure now known as a human.
"Continuing from where we were distracted."
The arbiter winced.
"Who are you and where are we? "
"First of, my name is Joshua Carrow. Where are we? We are in one of the many forerunner research and development factories at universe 24057."
"Send us back. Now."
"You're not in the position to make demands, Spartan."
Noticing the look of tenseness in John's body posture, he said
"Yes, I know all about that bloody Spartan program. Crude, but I'll admit that it was effective."
"As I was saying, I just saved your sorry ass from the Frigate you were in. Do you know what would have happened if I didn't intervene? Sangheili, you would arrive to Earth safely."
"And you," Joshua pointed at the Master Chief," would be drifting in space with half of a frigate and would currently be.... I don't know, stuck in a Cryo tube till god knows when."
"So, since we are here, what do you want us for? If it were for information, we wouldn't be in this room."
"Interesting deduction, John. Yes, you are absolutely correct. You see, I've been watching all of you. I mean every single one of you. Humans, Sangheili, San 'Shyuum, everybody. And I don't like what I'm seeing. So here's the deal. You two back in time. This event, never happen. You tally ?
Silence filled the room as both soldiers and an artificial intelligence were equally dumbfounded.
"So, you're saying that you're sending us back in time as an event changer of sorts." Cortana said out loud.
"Yes! The lady gets the prize!" Joshua replied in a dramatic voice
"Fine, it's not like we have any second thoughts or anything. When can we go?"
"Right now." Joshua Carrow said and pressed some holographic controls on a nearby wall.
An innocently looking piece of metal shaped like an arc standing in the corner of the room burst into action, a blue portal opening in the middle of it.
"Remember, this only works once. No second chances. The portal would take you to where you, John and you, Thel first had events that directly affected you. I have no idea where that would be."
With that Joshua stepped back and said "Well, just walk through the portal and you would arrive at your destination shortly.
"This is still an experimental technology and strange things may occur. Keep a clear head and always glue your eyes to your sights and you'll be ok. Good luck. You can enter the portal now."
Hearing that, Master Chief Petty Officer John Spartan 117, Thel Vadum, Sangheili Arbiter and Artificial Intelligence, CTN 0452-9, Cortana, entered the portal.
Date: September 19 2552
Location: UNSC Cruiser C709 Halycon Class Cruiser Pillar Of Autumn, Bridge
"All I need to know is did we lose them?" A grey haired man said.
"I think we both know the answ-"
"Alert, I'm detecting massive EM spikes in the bridge. Everybody move back! Marines, Bridge now! Captain I'm waking him." Cortana interrupted herself, changing the topic of conversation at the same time.
"Understood, Cortana." Captain Keyes said and backed away as electricity sparked all over a spot over a single point on the bridge of the Pillar Of Autumn.
A full squad of marines rushed in the bridge and formed a semicircle, aiming their MA5B Assault rifles at the sparks, which was now forming a blue portal.
Suddenly, a green armored foot stepped through the portal, followed by another.
All of a sudden, a huge man in scratched and battered brownish green armour appeared.
"Spartan.." Captain Keyes whispered in shock.
But it was what came after the Spartan that made everybody jump into action. An Elite stepped out, clad in a form of unknown ornate armour.
"Squid lip! Fire, Fire, Fire!" The marine Sergeant shouted and was about of squeeze the trigger when the Spartan held up his hand, blocking The Arbiter and stopped the marines with two words.
"Don't shoot." All of them recognized the voice as their residential Spartan that, by right, should still be on his way here even though the voice sounded years older.
"Master Chief, mind telling me what-"
Everybody's attention was diverted as another Master Chief Petty Officer John Spartan 117 appeared from the bridge door.
"What the.." The newly arrived Spartan said.
He walked into the room and stood in front of the other John 117 in Mark IV armor. The humans in the bridge were confused as both their neural interfaces read them as the Master Chief.
As soon as they touched, a bright light formed and when it faded, only one Master Chief was left. The one wearing the Mark Six armour. But it was different. The armour looked like it had just came out of the factory, in shining olive green with barely a defect on it.
John noticed that his HUD was different. It was showing two shield bars instead of one.
"Interesting. It seems that only the future bodies remain as to prevent a paradox where we kill our past selves and whatever they were wearing merges with what we are wearing to form a new singular object." Cortana said in John's internal speakers
"If that's the case" The Master Chief said as he walked to the Holographic Pedestal and put his hand over it.
Cortana appeared.
"Cortana, you look.." Captain Keyes stated
"Different. It seemed that I merged with this time's Cortana as well. I feel so fast. My processor is cleared of all errors and has improved by a total of 413 percent."
"What are you talking about?"
"No time to explain." The Arbiter strode forward. All the guns carried by the Pillar Of Autumn's Bridge personnel and marines aimed at him.
"The Elite is an ally. Do not, under all circumstances, shoot at him. Or you'll be answering to me."
The single squad of marines complied. No one wanted to incur the wrath of a Spartan, especially their leader.
"Cortana, we must destroy the sace- halo with haste!" The Arbiter commanded
"Affirmative" Cortana acknowledged and the Pillar Of Autumn turned to face the Installation.
"Mac Rounds Charged. Firing." Cortana said as Numbers and matrixes scrolled across her entire body faster than The Chief had ever seen.
Three separate MAC rounds shot out from the Cruiser at a fraction the speed of light and impacted on the ring. Explosions surrounded the ring as the structure began to disintegrate.
It wasn't even four seconds later when Cortana said again. "Firing"
"It's impossible for the MAC gun to fire that fa-" Captain Keyes was interrupted as the Pillar Of Autumn sent yet another round of MAC rounds into the crippled ring. Greenish grey splotches could be seen floating in the wreckage. The slowed down before stopping altogether.
"Scanning. No parasitic organisms are detected as alive. Entering Slip Space."
"We just had a slip space jump a few minu-"
Captain Keyes was proved wrong yet again as a hole was torn from the fabric of the universe as the Pillar of Autumn initiated its Shaw-Fujikawa space drives.
Once the Cruiser was safely in slip space, Captain Keyes lifted his hands and all the marines trained their guns at the Spartan and the Sangheili yet again.
"Time for some answers." He said simply.
Boy, were they in for a shock.
16/8/09-I have just added more details to the story. Hope you like it. Feel free to give me ideas or alert me to any mistakes that i may not have noticed.
