Thel 'Vadam stared out of the back of the Pelican dropship. So far, the flight had been uneventful, but the Elite knew it couldn't last. Especially when there were Marines, a Spartan soldier and an Elite, all crammed into a Pelican. Well, it was 'Vadam who was doing most of the cramming. His height forced him to hunker down into the seat, and his legs stretched into the alley between seats.

"Watch it, squid-head," a Marine snarled at 'Vadam, deliberately kicking one of the Elite's hooves. The Arbiter obligingly squished himself farther into the seat, trying not to think of how much he'd like to strangle the human. Too late- Thel's fingers tightened around his carbine, imagining that it was the Marine's neck. It wasn't his fault that he was so tall- blame the Pelican for being so small!

"Shit, that thing's tall." One Marine whispered to the other Marine sitting beside him.

"And ugly!" The other Marine muttered back.

'Vadam ignored them. Even after saving their asses from the Jiralhanae, they still didn't trust the seven foot tall Elite. Truthfully -'Vadam mentally kicked himself for allowing his mind to bring up Truth- the Elite didn't trust them either. There were too many possibilities for friendly fire casualties in this war...

"Don't worry- they're all just scared." Spartan-117, sitting beside 'Vadam, said quietly.

"Do all humans hate the Sangheili as much as these Marines?"

"Eh... I don't actually know. I'm not the one of the people getting glassed, now, am I?"

"I have already apologized to your leaders multiple times."

"Most people aren't that forgiving. Actually, no one's that forgiving. But they'll get over it in a thousand years." The Spartan dug into his pockets and pulled out two ration bars. "Bar..." John tried to read the wrapper, couldn't, decided he'd rather not know and held one out to the Arbiter sitting next to him. "..Thing?"

The Arbiter glared down at the bar as if it were a Flood infection form. "Do you hate me too?"

"I don't really think you want me to answer that." John took a huge bite out of his (unwrapped) bar. Yup, he'd rather not know what it was supposed to be. He could almost feel his teeth grinding down. Never again, he swore, never again would he eat a ration bar. Even enhanced, his teeth couldn't stand the chewy cardboard ration bar.

Thel considered the Spartan's words. True, they had glassed multiple planets, but... He couldn't think of any justification other than they were following the Prophet's lies. He supposed that it was a bad excuse.

He sighed. If- When he returned to Earth or another allied planet, his conscience would demand he make another apology, more thorough than any previous.

For the time being, however, he stored the problem in the back of his mind, for after he was finished dealing with more pressing problems. Like the Covenant trying to kill them all.


A/N: Well, my first fanfic up on this site! After... I dunno HOW long. But very, very long.

Creative criticism is very much appreciated.

I don't own Halo or any of these characters- they belong to Bungie.

EDIT: Thank you to ParanoidSchizo91 who pointed out that I screwed up. This is now fixed. If anyone else sees places that are also messed, point them out and they will also be fixed ASAP.