"John, come on, we're going to be late," the girl called as she raced out the door, a white satchel thrown over her shoulder. Her light blonde hair was thrown behind her in a loose ponytail. Her eyes were the same color as the cold steel that stood behind her - grey, and more metallic then seemed possible. She put one hand on her hip glaring at the door.

"John, if you make me late again, I swear I'll kill you," she warned.

Her brother was standing in the doorway. John was holding his backpack loosely in one hand, where it dangled dangerously close to the ground. His hair was down and dangled just above his eye line in the wind, bringing his sisters attention to his glowing, metallic gray eyes. The jeans he was wearing were so worn in the knees that the frayed splits spread all the way from one seam to the other. The T-shirt he was wearing was in a bit better condition. It was only a bit frayed at the edges of the sleeves.

Jenny smiled, "It's about time you got up, I was about to leave you."

John walked calmly past Jenny, giving a shrug of his shoulders. "You wouldn't have left me," he said, his torn up boots crunching in the gravel below him.

Jenny quickly walked past her brother, grabbing at his wrist, trying to make him speed up. Jenny shivered in the brisk wind.

"I should have brought a jacket." Her cheeks were turning red, stung by the cold wind. A few leaves blew past the two producing a small crinkling sound as they dragged across the ground.

John rolled his eyes, "It's the middle of November, Jenny, it's not like you didn't know it would be cold. I mean, look around you!"

He stretched his arms out to encompass the bare trees, and dead leaves and grass all around them. Frost still clinging to the windows of the surrounding building preventing any preying eyes from seeing into them.

Jenny was still attempting to pull John along, in an attempt to get to their destination faster. "You know, I've been thinking a lot and I decided what I want to do when I graduate."

John rolled his eyes, "Yeah I'm sure, this will make what the fifth time you have said that this week?" John glared at his sister with a completely neutral look on his face. "At what point will you simply admit that you don't know what you want to do?"

Jenny glared at him, "That's not funny! Just because you know exactly what to want to do doesn't mean you can sit there and act like your all superior!" Jenny yelled as she stamped her foot.

John stopped, sighing, "Okay, Jenny, I'm sorry," he said. "What is it that you want to be?" Silence answered his inquire.

The crunch of gravel turned into the crinkling of dried leaves as they walked through the park between their apartment building and the old school building. "Are you going to tell me or not?" John finally asked, as she brushed her hair out of her face, it was pointless, the wind just whipped it right back into her eyes. Haircuts were expensive and she didn't want to burden her family anymore then she already did, so when asked she simply told them she liked it grown out.

"Are you going to take me seriously this time?," Jenny asked with a tone that wasn't lacking in arrogance.

John rolled his eyes but didn't say anything else, not wanting to offender her anymore then he already had.

"I want to be a Reaper." Jenny said, looking up at the cloudless sky with yearning, dreaming of living amongst the stars.

John didn't say anything for a moment. They were walking across the school parking lot now, but they still had a good five minutes before they got to the building. "Can I ask why?" John asked staring at the ground.

Jenny tore her gaze away from the sky, "I don't think you could get along without me, John, and what kind of sister would I be if I let you do that alone."

John smiled softly at her, "Well if you're going to be a Reaper then you're going to have to get your ocular implants upgraded."

Jenny's eyes widened and she stared at John in horror, "John, you know I can't stand all that medical stuff, getting my level C implants was bad enough and the B level actually replaces the ocular nerves! You of all people should know that!"

John slowed his pace, focusing on the last words Jenny had said. "If you can't stand invasive surgery then how are you planning to get into the Reapers? They require you to be willing to get at least S level augmentations across the board."

Jenny shook his wrist slightly, "It's not that I'm not willing to go for the surgery, I would just like to avoid it as much as possible, maybe jump right to the SS level." She said looking up at the sky again. "And besides, no matter how much I may not like it I would go through it to stay with you."

John followed her gaze, wondering if he could finally see whatever beauty Jenny saw up there, but all he saw was an expanse of empty blue. He looked back down, not responding to the statement and wishing that Jenny would be too absorbed in her own imaginings to notice her sibling's silence.

"We're here," John muttered as they arrived outside the school, "Odd, Mrs. Donaldson isn't here," he said as he looked into the building

"I really wish you would stop doing that. Just because you have high level implants doesn't mean you need to use them all the time."

John quickly sent a mental command to his ocular implants to go to standby, blinking a few times well he adjusted to seeing the world in the same light spectrum as everyone else.

"But the glowing is cool," he muttered, smiling, reminiscing of the time he would spend in the bathroom staring at the soft green glow that emanated from his implants when active, "Just because yours don't allow you to see Ultraviolet and Infrared doesn't mean I should be stuck in this limited spectrum."

"You only have those implants because your an enlisted soldier. If I wanted to sell my soul to the UNSC I would get better implants too."

"You were just talking about selling your soul to the UNSC, talking about becoming a Reaper remember?"

"Ya, well," she started glancing at the ground, "It just seems so distance, you know? Finish school, spend a year or two traveling in some inner colony before enlisting. I would get to live a life first!" Raising her head slowly she looked him in the eyes, "But you don't even want that. You want to finish your schooling and just go to the front lines."

"The front line is getting closer and closer everyday Jenny," he said softly, "And if my enlistment gives you even a few more days to live the life you want to live then it's worth it to me, and then, if you still want to join me, I'll be waiting for you with story's of my life in the war, and you can tell me your stories of life in the inner colonies."

"John..." she stopped, leaving her sentence hanging, "You're a good person John," she finished quietly before silence fell over them as they approached the class room.

When they walked into their classroom, everyone else was already seated and the whole room went quiet, all eyes on them. Jenny's cheeks turned fiery red and she stared at her shoes, embarrassed. John didn't blush or look away from the shamelessly staring face, he just ignored them, looking over the room.

Their classroom was small and the old tile on the floor was cracked and chipped, it was so stained to the point that no one knew what color it was originally supposed to be. There were chunks of the tile missing, revealing the concrete beneath it. The walls were metal sheeting and covered in faded posters that were hanging off the walls from rusted bolts.

The desks were in similar shape: the rust was beginning to collect around the joints, and all of the fake wood had peeled off of the tops. The teacher's desk was full of dents and rusted holes; the only thing in any good condition was the computer sitting on his desk. It was unmarked by the age and ruin of the room. Sitting at the desk was an elderly man.

He turned and looked at them; a little girl coughed, breaking the silence. "It looks like the infallible Shepard's have finally decided to join us," he said with a small smile.

John smirked, saluting his commanding officer, "I'm so sorry sir we –"

"It's fine John, just try to be on time tomorrow." With a wave of his hand he motioned for them to sit down.

Jenny took her seat in the midst of the classroom, people immediately turning to greet her and whisper secrets, giggling and smiling.

John walked to the back corner of the classroom, sitting down under one of the many broken lights. No one in the corner greeted him; no one even looked up as he went to sit down. He didn't care; he was used to it, and he enjoyed his privacy.

"Now you all might be wondering why I'm here and not your normal teacher. Well today we are going to be talking about the war and the rebellion."

Glancing around the room he saw just what he expected. Barley contained hostility from half the students and indifference from the rest, with the exception of John who was suddenly up in his chair listening intently.

"Now I know some of you may have been told something about the situation from your parents but I'm hear to dispel the rumors and hopefully clear up a few issues surrounding this whole topic. Any questions so far?"

One student rose his hand and spoke before the man had time to say anything.

"You're also going to try and recruit us into your war right? Just like last time?"

A few murmurs of agreement rippled through the room.

"No," he sighed, "I just want to try to clear up some of this amnesty towards the UNSC."

"And stop any rebel recruitment that may or not be going on, right?"

"And what would you know about any rebel recruitment that may or may not be going on," he asked staring down the student.

"Oh, nothing at all," he answered smirking.

"Look, I know things out here on the boarder aren't the best, but everyone is making sacrifices because of the war.."

"And that's why interplanetary shipping has increased four hundred present to the inner colonies well the reverse has dropped sixty present."

"And military patrols and garrisons have increased massively across the board on every boarder world this side of the galactic plane. Don't listen to all the half truths you hear from your peers. The truth is things are bad out here. As much as we would like to justify the massive spending required to increase the standards of living out here we can't ignore the fact that this area is nearing the front of a war. Military increases are all that can be justified as of now."

"The reinforcements haven't stopped the Covenant yet," another student began, "Vegas 6, Rigil 4, Juno 2... the list goes on. Every planet that has received UNSC support has been utterly eliminated by them."

"And the civilian casualties on those planets have dropped ninety present because of the military garrison. Yes, planets are lost, but people are not! If you want to talk about loss of life then let's talk about rebel attacks on the core worlds. Since the insurgency began more civilians have died to them then the Covenant."

In the middle of his lecture, the phone on the teacher's desk let out a shrill ring, causing the room to go quiet. The man picked it up with a click, whispering into the receiver so as not to be heard by the whole class. He put the phone back on the desk with a loud clack. Frowning, he walked over to the window on the far side of the room.

It was frosty he had to press his face to it to see outside. After a minute he pulled away, sighing, and turned back to the class, "Students, there is a severe storm warning and school is going to have to end early today. We want you to get home before the storm hits, so please be on your way quickly and orderly."

As could be expected, they all stood up at once to rush for the door, a mob of sound eager to get out of the school. John trailed behind, and the UNSC Officer glanced up at him. "John be careful on your way home, there have been missing persons reports of UNSC personnel in the area," he said. His voice had minimal concern, mostly just stating a fact.

John gave a slight shrug. "I'm not afraid of some rebels," he said, keeping his face emotionless.

The Officer didn't look like this surprised him.

He shut down the computer with a small shake of his head, "I expected as much." He paused, looking up at him, "Tell me this, if you were to encounter a Rebel, would you run away john?"

He glanced over at him as he walked to the door pausing with the handle in his hand. "No, I don't think I would."

The officer shook his head again, gathering the papers on the desk. "I think you could do with a little of your sister's fear," he said.

As he said this, John opened the door, nearly smacking Jenny in the face. "Hey Jenny, what are you waiting for? Let's go." John smiled at her sister and followed her out into the crowded hallway.

Jenny ran over to a group of her friends and John reluctantly followed her. "Hey John, do you want to walk home with us?" One of them asked, smiling.

John looked over them before frowning, he didn't know a single one of these people's names, even though they had been friends with his sister for years. He recognized their faces but couldn't tell their first or last name to save his life.

Jenny brightened, "Sure that would be fun, don't you think John?" At the mention of his name the whole group went silent, looking around and exchanging nervous glances.

John took in their reaction, "No, I don't think your friends want me to come." His ambiguity from a moment before instantly disappeared.

They all smiled awkwardly and muttered reluctantly "Sure" and "Why not?" But John saw right through them. Just because Jenny ignored their obvious prejudice towards him didn't mean he was as blind as his sister.

"That's okay, I would rather walk by myself. I could use some quiet." He said, sending a wave of relief through Jenny's friends.

Jenny's face fell, "Are you sure?" this time her friends didn't care, as long as they knew John wasn't planning on saying yes, they had nothing to worry about.

Seeing their relieved expressions John wanted to say yes, to go with them just to force these pitiful people to try and make awkward conversation and feel uncomfortable. He thought about saying she couldn't go with them because he had a few rebels to kill but the problem was, despite Jenny, they would actually believe him, and it wouldn't be worth the trouble to see the looks on their faces. He sighed, "Nope, I'm fine on my own. I'll see you at home Jenny."

Jenny smiled and held out her hand, Jenny smiled back, interlocking their fingers, "I'll see you at home then John?"

John grinned, "Yeah." With that he turned away pushing out of the hallway full of loud pressing bodies. he struggled his way to the door and walked outside. People started pouring out of the door as soon as he opened it, causing him to take a few steps away and wait for the crowd to clear out.

He looked up at the sky before frowning, it didn't look like a storm was coming to him. The sky was as clear and blue as it had been on their way to school. John was distracted by a flash of black he saw disappearing around the corner. The old school was full of stray animals that begged for food from the school children so he wasn't surprised that there was something moving.

Seeing that he was alone he sent a quick mental signal to his ocular implants reviving them from their standby state, wincing at the small electrical shock, before glancing back at the world around him.

'It really looks different,' he thought, 'seeing everything as it is.'

Feeling a building headache he closed his eyes and rested the palm of his hand on his head, 'I really need to get a new synaptic relay, level B maybe.'

John looked up, all of the other kids were long gone and the sky had darkened, thunder rumbling grimly and rain falling down in torrents. John stood up, "When did it get so dark?" He asked himself.

Turning down the street he began the long trek back to the apartment they called home. By simply glancing at the world around him he could tell that the temperature was dropping as the colors produced by infrared radiation dimmed and blackened.

'Maybe see about getting a neural lance,' he began thinking, 'Direct connection to computer's would make implant management easier...' he paused before turning his head briefly.

'Hmm, thought I heard something. Maybe a new auditory system would be a good choice...'

Creek

He froze, turning slowly. The sound had come from the second floor of the abandoned office building to his left, 'who in the world would be up there?' He wondered. With a growing feeling of curiosity he began to move towards the office building, 'Rebels?' he thought idly, 'I don't have any intramuscular enhancements so if they are armed I'm done.'

Since the storm had started he could barely see anything out of the visible light spectrum, relying instead upon infrared to warn him of any oncoming danger. Vaguely he could see a small distortion in the air in the building.

'It's not even showing up in the visible spectrum,' he thought, 'It's like the light is being bent around it. But not the Ultraviolet or the infrared, its like its only bending specific portions of the spectrum...'

'FUCK'

In one fluid motion the distortion jumped out the windows and landed on the ground in a crash before standing up, revealing that the distortion was almost nine feet tall. He took a hesitant step backwards.

Lightning flashed illuminating the scene for a split second. The short flash of light showed dark puddles of rain and a short picture of the scene in front of him. The flash of light temporarily overloaded the camouflage modal on the being in front of him for a split second, too fast for the human eye to see but not too fast for his implants. The image was clear. There standing not six feet from him was a Covenant Elite, staring him down.

He took another hesitant step back, his boots scraping against the pavement, the small noise seemed magnified as it echoed off the walls but still silent when compared to the sound produced by the storm around him. His eyes were wide and terror gripped his chest like icy claws.

CRACK

He jumped back as soon as he heard the sound, 'A gunshot,' he realized as cloaked figure in front of him jerked as the round impacted his upper torso spinning him around and distorting the cloak around him long enough for John to get a good look at him.

'Red war paint and a pointed helmet with small eye slits,' he thought back to his training, however limited it was, 'That's Special Operations Armour.'

CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK

John watched as the multiple rounds impacted the shields on the Elite before they broke and the final two passed through the armour and into the flesh of the alien. Without the light bending effect of the active camouflage field distorting his sight he saw the world around the alien fill with color as the hot blood spattered across the ground. He paused, mesmerized by the sight in front of him.

"MOVE YOUR ASS JOHN!" yelled the man, whom he recognized as his commanding officer, Michal, as he threw his now empty side arm towards him along with a new magazine.

With both his ocular implants and his synaptic relay enhancements John had no problem snatching both items out of the air in front of him glancing down at them for only a brief second before he ejected the spent magazine and slammed the new one home.

Looking back towards the alien he saw a sight that he would carry with him for the rest of his life. His CO's eyes flashed red before dimming to only a small glow as he charged at the Elite in front of him. Not wasting anytime itself the alien quickly grabbed a small object off of its waist before raising it in front of him.

'He's got a sword!" John yelled as he raised his weapon towards the wounded alien, only to see his CO get there first.

Everything seem to slow as John watched the scene in front of him play out. His breath stopped when he saw the energy sword burst into existence, he could hear the rain evaporate as it contacted the pure energy that was the blade as it passed through the air between the alien and his CO. He quickly brought his weapon back up in preparation to avenge his death when he saw the blade stop. With a mental command he began to filter out the infrared light that was distorting his vision, the blade itself was blinding him, only to see his CO holding the wrist of the alien like a vice, preventing it from moving any further before he jerked it back rolled it and brought his other elbow down on the joint, breaking it in a sickening crack.

'What the hell?' thought John, 'That kind of thing shouldn't be possible without high level intramuscular augmentation, and even then that's pushing it.'

Without even so much as a flinch to show pain at the now broken arm the alien pushed its weight forward toppling both it and Michal to the ground well its simultaneously reached towards its leg with its good hand.

John watched the scene with growing distress. It was nearly impossible for him to get a clear shot with the poor visibility and the close contact between the two. So instead he watched, and waited, hoping to whatever god was out there that they would get out of this alright. A sudden flash of light caught his attention before disappearing again. For a brief second stillness reigned before his CO broke into a scream of pain.

'That flash, it was an energy blade!' he realized as he took aim, 'I doesn't matter if I hit him now, if I don't try he's going to die!'

CRACK

The round took the Elite off guard as it slammed into him with the force of a small car, throwing him off the man below him and onto the pavement next to him.

'That's a clear shot now,' he thought, 'Time to die!'

CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK

All five rounds hit the mark as the alien struggled to reach its weapons. Purple blood and bits of flesh flew around the area as its internal organs were destroyed. Finally the alien moved no more.

John paused for a moment before taking in the sights around him. The rain pelted the area in a torrential downpour that had not let up since the beginning of the fight pelting off the armour of the now dead alien mixing with its blood as it ran down the street in rivers of purple and red.

'Wait red?'

Without giving it a second though he ran over to his fallen friend crouching next to him.

"Don't die one me!" he yelled as he fumbled around in the rain looking for the zipper on the BDU his commander wore.

"John..." he rasped, coughing.

"It's going to be okay sir! Help will be here soon and well get you patched up!"

"John!" he yelled before coughing once again, blood beginning to pour out of his mouth, "They don't travel alone..."

He stopped as he came to understand the implication of the words his CO had spoken and his fear returned to his heart in force when he heard a now all too familiar hiss of an energy sword being activated.

With a jolt John jerked up, nearly falling out of his bunk. He was covered in sweat and his head was throbbing, 'you aren't green anymore get a hold of yourself' he scolded himself.

They don't travel alone...' A voice in his head whispered in a cold tone. He shook his head, not allowing himself to think about it. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind and ran his hands through his hair forcing his breathing into a less erratic pattern.

Sighing he got up and moved to the bathroom connected to his living quarters and turned on the sink before running his hand across his face, pausing as he came across a large scar that trailed from the top of his right eye down across his cheek to his jaw. Slowly he ran his fingers down it pausing at the end.

'Never forget,' he thought to himself, 'and never forgive.'

The image in the mirror flashed red for a brief second before it faded to a small glow.

'I'll kill them all,' he thought with a smile, 'Fucking xenos.'

Codex-Ocular Implants

Developed late into the twenty-first century these devices were created to enhance or replace the functions of the human eye. Originally for use with patients who had lost their eyes it was quickly adapted for military and civilian use. Like all augmentations it is divided into five levels from level C to level SS. People with Ocular Implants are easy to distinguish as their eyes become a metallic grey.

Level C
Non-invasive implant. Used to superimpose images into a users sight granting a 'Heads up Display'.

Level B
Invasive Implant. Replaces a large portion of the users eye for the purpose of expanding the viable light spectrum to include Ultraviolet and Infrared light.

Level A
Invasive Implant. Enables real time video transmission and recording from the implants as well as introducing an optical zoom feature.

Level S
Complete Replacement. Completely replaces the Ocular Structure to enable a viable spectrum ranging from microwave to X-Ray.

Level SS
Classified