Capture the Flag: August 16th 2534

Location: Surface of Onyx, Training area

"Ok, that's the plan. Steven you move out to your location, Maria, Emile do the same. Kai you're with me." Carter ordered. Beta Team split up into their parts ready to begin the capture the flag training mission.

Steven had been stuck in the Halo universe for over a year now and had become accustomed to the Spartan lifestyle, in fact he relished the challenges. Thanks to his father's daily running he was the fastest of the III's, he sometimes thought about his father, about what he was doing, what he thought about his son's disappearance, but more and more now that felt like a different life. Not long after the teams had been selected the LC had appointed team leaders for each team, unsurprisingly Carter was theirs.

He slowly crawled through the wet mud that coated the ground around the flag pole, the ground was ruined by the sheer numbers of feet that had passed over it on similar exercises. As he neared the edge of the forest he could make out the small bunker with the flag set on top, acting as guards around it were five trainers all armed with stun guns.

Steven just lay there and waited for several minutes until finally the pip came in over the radio, his signal to begin. He suddenly sprinted forwards, running out into the open and ran at the trainers, yelling at them as he did so. They whirled around, bringing their stun guns to bear. Steven went to ground, using the mud as a lubricant and slid right under the path of the stun rounds. He got back up again without breaking step and continued to run back and forth between cover, continually disorientating the trainers as he fired stun rounds from his JA5C at them.

Then, from either side of them, stun rounds soared in, hitting several of the trainers and eliciting loud curses as they nursed their wounds while still trying to fire back as Emile and Kai came in from either side. The trainers fired blindly at the source of the stun rounds, smacking Maria across the chest with three stun rounds, she fell to the ground, unconscious.

Emile yelled and charged at the trainers firing madly at the trainers, dozens of stun rounds impacting on them. Even as they fell he continued to fire, launching more and more rounds at them, even as they yelled and begged for mercy.

Out of the jungle Carter emerged out of the jungle and yelled at Emile to cease fire. Jun and Maria also appeared and began checking over the now unconscious trainers for injuries. Just as he emerged from cover Steven saw Carter round on Emile, "What was that Emile?" he yelled, poking his finger into Emile's chest.

Emile looked away sheepishly, "Sorry boss, I don't know what happened, I just saw her go down", he gestured to Maria, "and I zoned out." He started to walk away but Carter grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "Look, Emile, is there anything I need to know?" He shook his head and pushed Carter's hand away, then walked off.

Steven walked over to join Carter, "What was all that about?" he asked, looking down at Maria's unconscious form. "I don't know, Carter", replied, "but what Emile just did, he abandoned the plan and if that had been real combat we could all be dead. I need to think about this, if he's unstable then he isn't fit to be a Spartan." Carter walked off, heading in the direction of barracks.

From the ground Maria gasped as she regained consciousness, "What happened?", she gasped, "Where are Carter and Emile? Did we win?" Steven looked away guiltily. From the the side of the clearing Kai walked over, "After you got hit Emile went mad, fired enough stun rounds into the trainers to kill them if he hit the right places. Carter's off talking to him, sounds like Emile might get booted out." he explained, then he too walked off, heading for the barracks.

Once everyone had returned to the barracks and got changed out of their combats Emile disappeared off and the others lay on their beds, recuperating. Maria went to have a shower not long later. It always amazed Steven, had he shared a room with a girl in his previous life he would been the envy of all his friends, but here, no one thought anything of it. Such was the Spartan way.

Later that night Steven found himself unable to sleep and rather than lying there unable to sleep he decided he may as well have a shower. He grabbed his towel and left the room, bringing his wash bag with him. He made his way down the corridor to the showers, whistling as he walked. He turned the corner at the end of the hall and made for the door leading into the showers.

As he entered he heard a slight groaning sound from the furthest shower, he made his way carefully down the rows of shower, concerned that someone could have taken a stun round in a bad place. Whatever he had imagined it wasn't what he got. As he looked into the stall he saw Maria, pressed up against the rear wall, her arms wrapped around a boy's neck kissing him passionately. "What?" said Steven, his voice disbelieving and a little louder than intended. It was only when the boy turned around that the events of that day made sense. Emile looked shocked and choked out a half answer before turning bright red.

Had the circumstances been different Steven may have laughed, but not here. "What are you guys doing? If anyone finds out about this you could get in serious trouble, they could break up the team!" he was surprised at how angry he was with his two friends and took a moment to calm down. "How long has this been going on for?" he asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

"About a month." Maria replied, her face even redder than Emile's, if that was possible. "Please don't tell anyone." she begged, grabbing Steven's arm as he tried to walk away.

"Maria, you have to tell the others, if what happened today is any indication bottling it up could put us all at risk." he replied, his voice steadily rising again.

"Okay Steve", Emile said, "we'll tell them, just… let it come from us." he had a pleading look in his eyes as he said it. Steven sighed, "Fine, but tell them in the morning, don't try putting it off."

He turned and left the showers, he suddenly felt very tired. As he reentered their bunk room he crawled into his bed and lay there, his mind racing. He couldn't believe that Emile and Maria would do that, jeopardize everything for their own sake. If they'd just been open form the beginning there would have been much less of a problem.

The Morning After: August 16th 2534

Location: Surface of Onyx, Camp Curahee

There was an icy silence at the table as Maria and Emile explained everything to the rest of the group, no one looked at all happy about it. Carter looked as though he may burst a blood vessel, Kai for once just looked stunned and Jun seemed to think it was all a joke until Steven shot him a look.

"It has to stop." Carter said finally, his face stood and walked off in the direction of the exit, leaving his breakfast half eaten. "I can't believe you kept it from us." whispered Kai, his face slightly pale, "This could get us disbanded." then he too stood and walked off in the direction of their room. Steven suddenly realised, Carter had gone a different way, the direction if the Officer's Mess.

He leapt up from his chair and sprinted off in the direction Carter had gone. Just as he rounded the corner to the Officer's Mess he saw Carter just getting ready to knock on the door. "Stop!" he yelled down the corridor. Carter turned, a look of shock on his face. "Carter if Mendez or the LC find out about this they'll break us all up and you know it, we need to deal with this as a team, not just go and talk to Mendez."

"Steven, do you know how my parents died?" Carter asked, Steven shook his head nervously, "My dad was a Marine, he was home on Biko for leave but when the Covenant showed up he got called up to fight, it wasn't long until we knew we were beaten, you should know you were there. Anyway, he went back to try and find my mum, he found her alright, but they both got killed trying to get away, I had to watch as my they were burnt by plasma while I hid in alley. This thing with Emile and Maria, it's the same thing, they'll risk anything to save each other." he explained, for a moment Steven was shocked, he had had no idea how Carter's parents had died and he suddenly found himself full of respect for Carter.

"Carter, this different, we're Spartans, they're both Spartans. That's one of the things that makes us such a good team, our commitment to each other. Do you honestly think any of us could form the same bonds in another team?" Steven replied, trying to appeal to Carter's emotions.

Finally, after several minutes Carter sighed, "Fine", he said, his voice resigned, "I guess you're right." he turned and trudged off, back in the direction of the bunk room.

Suddenly, the door to the Mess swung open and Ackerson walked out, he was surprised to find Steven stood outside but he swiftly regained his composure, "Ah, 294, I was just about to come and look for you, I need to see you in my office, immediately."

Ackerson turned on his heel and strode down the corridor towards his office, Steven half jogging to keep up with his long strides.

As they entered the room Ackerson motioned for Steven to take a seat and he did the same as he went round to the far side of the desk. "We've been slowly working our way through the paperwork for all the recruits we've picked up, it takes a while to make three hundred children disappear of the bureaucratic radar. When we finally made it down to number 294 we ran your name through the system and for some reason, you don't exist. Care to explain?"

Author's Note: Which was do you guys want this to go, should Ackerson find out about where Steven is from or should Steven think up an excuse? Let me know in your reviews.