Disclaimer; As much as I wish I owned Halo and all of it's affiliates, I don't. So don't sue me.

Author's Note; Yeah, yet another Halo 2 ending story. And I know it is probably absolute crap- don't flame me! Please, review, but, no flames!

CHAPTER I

Capture

"With all due respect, what the hell are you doing aboard that ship?"

"Sir. Finishing this fight"

Spartan 117, otherwise known as the Master Chief, signed off the COM. Standing up and brushing the dust off his body, he looked around him.

The Chief had managed to board a ship designed by a race known as the Forerunners. The head of the Covenant hierarchy, the Prophet of Truth, was currently piloting the ship. The Master Chief had to find him; this Prophet possessed an ancient relic called the Index, from an even older artifact called Halo, a large ring world floating in space.
Halo was a weapon; the Index was it's firing key. Halo, if activated, would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, like it had done before, sometime in the ancient past.

The Chief spotted a small hatch in the wall to his left. Having lost all of his weapons on his desperate rush for the ship, the Chief was unarmed, except for one plasma grenade, which was attached to his belt. Cautiously opening the door, the Chief peered inside.

Nothing. The halls were empty. Checking for the telltale shimmer that would signal the presence of cloaked Covenant Elites, the Chief cautiously walked down the hallway, the grenade in his hand. The handy property of plasma grenades was the fact that they, upon making contact with organic flesh, would stick to it fiercely until the grenade exploded. This was a major advantage over the normal human fragmentation grenades.

A Covenant Jackal came skidding around the corner. The Chief leaped into the air, and landed with both feet on the unsuspecting Jackal's head. The Jackal's eyes widened in horror before it was squished beneath the Chief's huge armored boots.

Picking up the Jackal's weapon, a Covenant Plasma Pistol, the Chief turned around the corner, fully expecting an entire platoon of Covenant infantry to be waiting for him. Nothing.

The Jackal must have been on patrol; there was nothing down here. Nothing visible, anyway. The Chief wondered where everyone was; this ship had supposedly evacuated all remaining troops loyal to the Prophet of Truth; where were they? These thoughts raced through the Chief's confused mind as he wandered the halls of the massive ship. He had to find Truth and take him down, then somehow find a way to help Earth's forces defend against the Covenant fleet attacking Earth.

A rustling noise behind the Chief startled him, and he whirled around, weapon at the ready. Nothing. The hall was empty; devoid of anything, even the telltale shimmer of Covenant warriors in Active Camouflage.

The Chief was confused. So far, having wandered through two decks, he had only run into one jackal. What was wrong here?

The answer came as the Chief stepped into a large, circular room. It had many doors and a very high ceiling. At first, it was dark, but as the Chief entered the center of the room, the lights snapped on. Almost awed at what he saw, the Chief walked up to the center of the room.

There were three caskets in the center of the room. Tall and imposing, they shone with polished metal. They were made of the grey metal of the Forerunner ship, so the Chief couldn't figure out what was inside.

Maybe a bomb? Maybe just an arms cache? What is in there?

"Halt, Demon," called a low voice from across the room. Turning, the Chief almost gasped as every door in the room opened up at once. Covenant Brutes and Jackals poured into the room, weapons poised.

"Surrender, Demon. There is nowhere to go" said a Brute with grey armor. It hefted it's plasma rifle, before the Prophet of Truth himself floated into the room on his hover-chair.

"You…you destroyed the sacred ring, killed my brother, and let the Flood escape onto our sacred city, High Charity. For this, you must die, Demon" the Prophet said, lifting his finger casually. The Chief pointed the Needler at him.

"If I'm going to die, you're going to hell with me, buddy" the Chief said. The Prophet seemed unfazed.

"I know I am going to die; there is no need for that. For when the Great Journey begins, I will die; it has been foreseen. Tartarus, Chieftain of the Brutes, has the Index. He will activate the sacred ring, and the Great Journey shall begin!"

The Chief was horrified. Now it was certain; the Chief knew he would never see Cortana, Johnson, or Keyes again; Cortana would take them all down before letting Delta Halo fire it's weapon. Snarling, the Chief sprung at the Prophet. Before the hordes could fire a shot, the Chief was on top of the Prophet's chair, Needler pressed against the Prophet's forehead. The Prophet glared at the Chief, until his eyes widened in terror. They were looking over the Chief's shoulder. At first believing this was a bluff to draw his attention elsewhere, the Chief pressed the Needler in harder. Until he saw the Prophet's, and the entire Covenant Force's attention, however, was focused behind him, the Chief turned to look.

A low hissing noise was coming from the caskets. Steam began to shoot out from the sides of the casket. It looked like they were beginning to open up. The Chief stared, transfixed by this event. Something wonderful and terrible was about to happen, and the entire regiment in the room could sense it. The Brute's hands tightened on their Plasma Rifles and grenade launchers; the jackals snapped on their energy shields and snarled, preparing for what might be their last battle.

And the casket opened. A brilliant, blinding light emanated from the open caskets. The Prophet and his forces shielded their eyes; the Chief's visor was able to dim, to block out the light of the casket. A dark shape stirred inside.

Snarling in fear, a Jackal fired a barrage of shots into the casket. But the dark shape was impossibly fast; it moved with fluidity and grace that even John could not match. It was almost…demonic, the way this new entity moved.

The Jackal that had fired the shots only had time to scream in terror before it's head was impaled on a set of long, sharp looking wrist blades.

A Brute screamed in rage and fired his grenade launcher. The creature, whatever it was, deflected and dodged the explosive projectiles, bouncing them across the room, exploding on the ceiling, over the heads of the Brutes and Jackals, or even close to the Chief's head. The Chief knocked the Prophet down; he had to bring the Prophet back to Earth. The capture of a member of the Covenant hierarchy would hopefully force a truce, or even surrender of the Covenant forces; Truth had to make it off the ring alive.

Two more shapes like the first emerged from their respective caskets. One had an odd sort of shoulder-mounted cannon, with a laser sight. It also held an odd disc-shaped object. It turned to a group of Jackals and threw the disc. It flew like a boomerang and decapitated the group of Jackals that did not take cover. The shoulder cannon focused its laser sight on a Brute's head, and fired. The Brute disintegrated in a brilliant flash of light.

The other warrior had a long spear-like weapon of sorts. Truly deadly looking, its first victim was an unfortunate Jackal who didn't raise his energy shield in time. The spear punched through the Jackal's abdomen, spraying purple blood in all directions. And as efficiently as it had gone in, the spear was yanked out of the Jackal's body, leaving it to slump, dead, to the ground.

Boiling plasma and grenades filled the air as these demons attacked. The Prophet gasped in horror as a severed hand landed next to his face. The Chief, knowing he might be next on their target list, grabbed the Prophet from its chair, threw it over his shoulder, and ran for an exit.

Fleeing the dying screams and explosions of that slaughter hall, the Chief knew he had to get off the ship, somehow. Find a Banshee, Phantom, whatever; just get himself and the Prophet off the ship.

The Chief heard footsteps behind him. Apparently, the Covenant didn't take too kindly to their leader being abducted. As the Chief turned around and prepared to fight, he recoiled in surprise as one of the demons came around the corner to face him, activating it's laser cannon and aiming it dead-center of the Chief's helmet.

The Chief, thinking quickly, shoved the Prophet behind him, and jumped sideways. The ball of energy flew down the hallways, harmless. The Chief fired the Needler at the demon.

Instead of embedding themselves in the victim's body and exploding, like they were supposed to, the needles harmlessly bounced off of the creature's chest and head. Growling, the Chief pulled out the plasma pistol and fired. The demon dodged the boiling plasma balls and continued to advance.

The shoulder cannon retracted into the demon's armor. Instead, it unsheathed its long, deadly looking wrist blades. They slid into place with a menacing shling!

Knowing those weapons could probably tear him in two, the Chief, once again, picked up the Prophet and ran, pausing only to fire a burst of shots at the demon. It would quickly dodge and keep up the chase.

"Aahhh! Aahh!" the Prophet screamed as the saw the demon round the corner. Two Brutes stepped out to fight the creature; but to no avail. One Brute was impaled on the long wrist blades, the other dispatched with a swift kick to the head. The Demon continued its chase. Desperate, the Chief remembered the plasma grenade at his belt. He threw it, and the blue fizzy grenade arced through the air and landed square in the middle of the Demon's helmet.

The Chief only heard the explosion; assuming the demon, whatever it was, was dead, the Chief boarded a Phantom drop ship. Outside, a Banshee exploded as Brute shot grenades bounced off the Phantom's armor, creating loud, pounding noises that startled the Prophet, and made it's head swivel in terror. The pounding continued as the Chief opened the hangar doors. The wrecked Banshee was sucked out of the airlock doors as the Phantom roared out of the hangar. The Chief, tuning the ship's broadcasting systems to the UNSC band, quickly hailed;

"This is SPARTAN 117. I have the Prophet of Truth and am requesting an escort"

The curt voice of Admiral Hood replied;

"Roger that. I'm redirecting a few Longswords to your position; they will be there shortly"

And sure enough, as soon as the Chief had exited the Covenant region of space, three Longsword fighters flew around the Phantom and escorted it towards a larger ship, a Halycron Class Cruiser. The nameplate on the side read "Column of Solstice".

The Chief remembered the last time he had been aboard a Halycron class cruiser; it had been called the Pillar of Autumn, and he was aboard it to destroy it, to prevent a deadly parasite, the Flood, from spreading, the Master Chief and Cortana, an AI designed for military use, had detonated the Autumn's engines, ending the threat of the Flood once and for all.

Or so it had seemed. The Chief's recent masquerade on Delta Halo had re-awakened the Flood once again, and once again, the Chief and Cortana had managed to destroy them; at a price. The Chief had had to leave Cortana behind; Cortana's sacrifice meant the safety of Earth.

Remembering his last moments on Delta Halo, the Chief stared off into space, and remembered…

The Chief sprinted down the hallway. The weight of his weapon, a Covenant Fuel Rod Cannon, slowed him down somewhat, but it was needed in the battle ahead.

Ahead, Brutes and Flood combat forms duked it out. Cortana's surprised voice called;

"Chief! That Forerunner ship is disconnecting it's power core from High Charity! You have to hurry! I can't stall the launch sequence anymore!"

The Chief took a knee and fired his Fuel Rod Cannon. All five shots landed in the midst of the enemy, scattering bodies everywhere. Sprinting towards a hololift, the Chief hopped onboard, just as the ship began to take off. He was blasted into the ship's open engine core. The Fuel Rod Cannon was out of Fuel Rods, and the Shotgun on the Chief's back snapped in two like a cheap piece of plastic as the Chief skidded to a halt inside the ship.

"Cortana. When I'm done with Truth…" the Chief began, but Cortana cut him off.

"Don't make a girl a promise…if you know you can't keep it, Chief".

Getting up and looking around, the Chief noticed that the Prophet was sitting in a corner silently. As the Chief approached to lower the doors, he said

"There is nothing you can do. Tartarus has the Index. The Great Journey will begin," he mumbled as the hatch hissed open.

The Chief, with the Prophet following him, stepped out into the ship. A marine, with a shotgun in his arms, walked up to the Chief and raised the firearm.

"What-"

The Chief never finished. The Marine fired.