Chapter four's now out, hoo-rah! Since I've left all of you in the dark about the OC, this chapter is dedicated to a wider background story to who exactly she is. However, it doesn't explain everything, since you know, that'd sorta, kinda be spoiling the plot.

Shout-out to the favs, the followers and the reviewers!

hannahleep123 - Well, here's for you!

HaloFnatic - Thanks, dude, that's pretty heartwarming to hear, although I'm pretty sure parts of the plot can be edited, and of course there's spelling mistake. My bad for that, but those happen, we're simple human beings after all. No one is perfect.

Guest 1 - Keep on reading, I'm happy you enjoy it so much!

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, but surely if I did, I'd be rich, and I would stop all them haters that are calling the franschise to come to an end. Quit, yo.

P.S. If you like Emile just as much as me from Team Noble, go read my two-shot, I bet you're gonna sit at the edge of your seats.


Chapter Four – Classified Introductions

As soon as the Chief had left, 013 collapsed onto the bed, her head spinning from both pain and disbelief. She was having a hard time coming to an understanding, to believe that that, referring to the recent couple of minutes that had passed, had actually just happened - it was barley comprehensible for her tired mind, it working overtime to both acknowledge the truth and to keep her eyes from being closed shut in her defiance of wanting to stay awake rather than succumb to sleep, which during some days, was her worst enemy and self-proclaimed nemesis.

Somehow, she had just gotten the one and only Master Chief to make a promise to her that he'd look in the suspicious activity that Command was currently conducting under their noses, with the help of his team no less. It was no wonder that her brain was nearly calling it quits. It was an accomplishment of a lifetime, to get the Chief to make a promise. However, there was one thing she couldn't help but doubt in the aftermath after he left, and that was that his team might not be as... lenient, in wanting to extend their help to someone as insignificant as her, not after having embarrassed both herself and their leader by literally crashing right into him. In addition with spectators watching the whole scene play out.

She let out a deep sigh as she shifted her body to lie on her left side, relieving her injured shoulder from some of the pressure. It was true about her being insignificant to them, for she wasn't part of their ranks, although she wasn't part of any rank, really. Which made her hold no value whenever people asked her to state her rank.

It was because she had none.

In other terms, she wasn't important.

'Except to ONI…' She sourly thought, her mind reminding her of her history with them. Ever since they first showed up in her life, it all had gone downhill from there, becoming nothing but a complicated mess. She had little remembrance of how exactly it had happened, the fragmented memories containing several black columns where memory used to be, but she knew well enough from piecing together the bits and pieces of the fragmented information that they hadn't been all too gentle in ripping her away from her soldier peers only to put her in containment for testing purposes.

They kept telling her she was a drafted candidate, fitting their curriculum, whenever she spoke up and asked them why they specifically picked her for candidacy. She never actually got to know the true purpose as to why they chose her for their little experiment, not until she decided to dig through their files on their data base.

Which was a decision she had come to regret, even up to this day.

-Flashback-

Aggravated and irritated to the point of no longer being compliant enough to take their consistent, monotone, and not to mention repetitive, words as a fitting answer to her question, for she knew they were only spouting bullshit, she made the decision to hack into ONI's data base during night when shifts were fewer and the monitoring was easier to fool. All she had to do was use her clearance to the section F corridor, knock the patrolling guard unconscious in the blind spot of the camera, which was in the far off corner, and use his card to access the computer surveillance room. She scrolled through the base's cameras, finding the necessary ones and place a small virus into their systems so that when she walked by, they wouldn't record her presence, since they would be too busy scrubbing the virus from their systems, which, in technical details, only was a recorded loop of their filmed areas, spiced with a code preventing the cameras from eradicating it all too quickly.

She quickly made her way over to the C-section corridors, which were located three floors under, and walked in the direction of the data base room, carrying her laptop in hand along with a connection chord so that she could establish a connection from the server to her computer, simplifying the whole process instead of having to manually find the connection port, fiddle with the cables to reconnect them to others to direct the data system's security away from the files that she was targeting before finally hacking through the rest of the security measurements. With her computer and the cord, she would only have to type a few specific commands in the system's command center, before proceeding to disable the red flags, and then backtrack to them to disable the second set of red flags.

But, as she was about to go through the files containing information about Project: HYBRID, which was the program she had been selected to become part of, her screen lit up, warning her of an A.I. that was onto her tracks. She cursed silently to herself. She didn't know that ONI had incorporated an A.I. into their data system, and now she was going to have a hard time in luring the A.I. off her tracks.

She wasn't sure how long she sat inside the server room, hunched over her computer, backtracking and unlocking files and throwing them at it to get the A.I. to stop following her. She figured it was more than an hour. But finally, in what she thought would be her last attempt before she would have to disconnect from the server in order to not let it catch her, the A.I. stopped, and the red flashing in the upper corner of her screen disappeared. She frowned, her brow furrowing, as she silently wondered why it suddenly just stopped. And she got her answer soon enough, just as she glanced towards her screen to see what type of file she had at random accessed during her escapade.

When reading the headline of the file, a shiver ran down her back, following her spine as her eyes widened in surprise and disbelief. The file she had stumbled upon, was none other but the file containing personal information about the almost mythic Spartan team – the Blue Team. The A.I. probably didn't have clearance to enter, and she herself even hesitated in clicking on it, ironically thinking that she wasn't authorized to read it, even though she was unauthorized to be inside the system at all. But she took a deep breath, steeling herself, before proceeding with clicking it open anyway.

Her eyes scanned over the information that was written, but the more she read, the more she cringed. What she discovered, was that the Blue Team consisted of the infamous Spartan II's, which had apparently been kidnapped at young age, replaced with flash clones that died later on due to medical issues, to become the superhuman soldiers that everyone were referring them as. They had been augmented, just like her, and then fitted with specialized armor to fit their augmented bodies' needs, as well as to sustain huge amount of damage in order to constantly fight at the frontlines. But all in all, the Blue Team were what was left of the Spartan II's, as their kind, which were the first type of successfully modified soldiers, were the ones that saved mankind from termination several years back, and they also fought against the Covenant during the Fall of Reach, resulting in the mark II Spartans dwindling down to just a remaining few when the battle of Reach was over.

She gulped, her heart aching from what she had just read. The soldiers were of course human, but according to the information in the file, they had been stripped off their humanity in order to function like machines, leaving out everything that related to compassion, feelings and emotion, which essentially meant that the part that identified them as human, discerning the biological terms, was no longer present.

She stared emptily at her screen, the blue light illuminating the protruding parts of her face; her nose, her small cheekbones, the ridge of her brow. The light reflected within her dormant eyes, which were currently stuck in a staring contest with the computer screen opposite her.

She didn't know what to do with the information, whether or not she should store it away or just try to forget about it. But, she inwardly knew she never really could terminate the newly acquired information, so she went with the former option, simply storing it away. She quickly glanced towards the clock to see how much time she had left before a new set of patrol would come, and immediately noticed that she didn't have much time left at all. So she hurriedly exited the Blue Team's file, shrugging off the sorrowful mood, and made way to what she was originally supposed to find out about.

She clicked her way to Project: HYBRID, and opened the file. She was feeling almost giddy at finally getting to know the true purpose behind her candidacy, however, that giddiness quickly disappeared as she came to read the minimum amount of paragraphs written within the file.

It felt like a bucket of cold water had just been dumped onto her, and she instinctively twitched backwards, her body following the primal act of fight-or-flight response. It was the only response it knew of, without having its mind backing it up with more complicated thought processes, it having shut down when it retained information that caused it to short-circuit.

Stamped across her picture within the file were the words 'FAILURE' written in bright, bold red. And below, stating the Project's progression, the words 'Terminated' filled the blank space. Her mind was reeling, unable to comprehend the information it was given through her retinas. The file described little, but the thing it always kept referring back to, was how the project was a failed experiment. Despite having put money on her training and having her augmented to strengthen her body in order to complete the harder missions normal soldiers weren't capable of, they apparently thought of her as a failure. She didn't know what exactly it meant, whether or not the true purpose behind the project was a failure or if they meant she herself was the cause. Either way, she felt like her world had been ripped from under her feet, much like how a child would rip a mat from under its sibling to cause them to fall. She had followed every order they had given, and never spoken out of terms, yet they still deemed it, or her, as a damn failure.

Short to say, the day after the discovery she couldn't be found anywhere on the base, nor outside within its premises. The only thing she had left behind, was a simple and short letter to ONI:

Shocking discovery, I'd say, after having digging through your data files. Five years, ONI. Five. Years. I served in perfect service, never disobeying your orders despite the varying difficulty, and never spoken out of line.

But my repayment for it all?

Ironically, the only thing I never made it become, every mission a success, was the one thing I was stamped with.

Failure.

I'll make it simple and easy for you, and personally remove myself from your data files. Project: HYBRID never existed, and resolutely, never did I.

Spartan-ODST-013.

P.S. You never disclosed why the Project was called HYBRID, but I do know now. Part Spartan, part ODST – it makes a powerful soldier, but a lonely one. Presumably, I won't fit in on either side now, which I have you to thank for. Guess I'm living up to my namesake, aren't I?

-Flashback End-

The flashback had 013 staring emptily into space from her spot on the bed. It had been so long ago since she thought of her escape from the ONI base, having covered up all her tracks and deleted the whole Project's existence. However, she had kept a copy of the files with her, as a reminder of her past. It was also the only remaining file that contained her first name, all other records deleted or just scripted without her first name, it being excluded since none other but she knew of it. Everyone simply knew her by her nametag 013, or just called her The Unlucky Thirteen, her nickname in short being TuT:e (Tute).

Few knew her full title of Spartan-ODST-013, and the reason was simple - so they wouldn't come asking questions about why she had both titles. Unfortunately though, most ODSTs did know of her full title, all due to one smartass ODST team leader that specifically despised her with a passion, which caused them to leave her out of their tight little group. And rather than calling her Tute, they reverted to name-calling her Tutu in an attempt to be condescending. At first she had taken it personally, as she didn't quite understand why they hated her so much. She hadn't done anything wrong, and before they managed to find out she was part augmented Spartan, they had treated her as an equal.

But that quickly faded when the truth of her title came out, and it marked the time when the cold shoulders and filthy glares began. Some even thought of her as worse than a Spartan, because she was affiliated with the ODST type of soldier aside from her Spartan-side. Which in other terms didn't make her a hybrid, but rather an abomination, according to their opinions.

She gritted her teeth at the ODST soldiers' shitty behaviors, none of them were really worthy of even being called a soldier, for they were definitely not acting the part. All they were, were trigger-happy fools, thinking battle was some sort of game.

Her anger started up, and she had to divert her thoughts to another topic, lest she would break something else, aside from her bones.

But once again, just like a magnet, she came to think of how the ODSTs hated anything and anyone that was related to the term Spartan, them directing volatile glares full of distain upon the affiliated - unless it was their Commanding officer, or any other that ranked higher. Although, she did rank higher than them, technically she was just under the rank of Spartan, but they completely disregarded that specific fact, because they knew she couldn't do much about it. She couldn't strip them off their soldier status, nor could she go to Command and rat them out, since Command ironically held disdain for her as well.

Most likely it was due to the lack of information in her file, and her odd name, Spartan-ODST-013, but mostly it was the five years which had no recorded data at all. The five year blank was a bright blight that had them wondering just what the hell happened during those five years. And of course, they had questioned her about it; about her name and about the missing information, but she lied through her teeth, telling them that she didn't know why she was named as Spartan-ODST-013, and about the missing five years, she had been sent on a scout recon mission that was located at the borders of one of the Covenant main bases while she worked for ONI.

Technically though, she wasn't exactly lying, she was just manipulating the truth to fit her purpose, because she had been on such a mission, however the duration had only been 6 months, and not five years. It was either that, or spilling the beans about Project: HYBRID, which was an immediate no-go.

But despite her answering the questions, they went snooping, searching the data bases of the whole UNSC and ONI to find anything related to her namesake, to anything that would help explain or confirm her story. Alas, the found nothing, because she had deleted all traces of existence of the experiment she had partaken in, and the personnel connected to the Project had either been terminated or silenced in exchange for money.

The only one that truly accepted her for her, and didn't see her as just some sort of object,was Captain Lasky of the Infinity, the ship she was currently serving explained why she was allowed to serve at all, with such a suspicious service record. Lasky had huge influence over HIGHCOM and Command, and with a little convincing from his side, she was reinstated as SCPO, Senior Chief Petty Officer. However, her reinstatement hadn't come without risk. If she was out of bound, or compromised absolutely anything, the consequences wouldn't only be hers, but also Captain Lasky's. He knew of this, yet he had fully agreed - without any hesitation.

Since she was personally reinstated by Captain Lasky, she was made to be his personal assistant, soldier-wise, and aside from Sarah Palmer, who was the Senior Officer of the Spartan IV-program and second-assistant of Lasky. The two were on agreeable terms, neither friends nor enemies, but she, just as every other soldier, was slightly suspicious of her, all due to her title of Spartan-ODST. At this, she inwardly sighed. People always judged too fast based on what their eyes were seeing, and they never bothered to look underneath the underneath, simply taking facts as they were presented. It made people short-minded, and insufferably judgmental.

Although she was forever grateful to Captain Lasky. He was to her the father figure she never had, having been an orphan at early age. If she ever needed to alleviate anything that was weighting just a bit too heavy on her shoulders, she knew she could turn to Lasky for comfort.

Locker Rooms, Section; Lower levels, UNSC Infinity

Outside one of the many lower levels' locker rooms of the UNSC Infinity, stood Blue Team, the three awaiting for their leader to appear, him having dismissed them from the room to talk in private with soldier 013. They were all mulling over her nametag, since the only thing it contained was numbers. No name, no title. Approaching footsteps brought the three Spartans out of their thoughts, and they stood at attention when Master Chief came into view. He waved at them, dismissing their protocol behavior.

"Not necessary, Spartans." He said in a low voice. They went back to their positions, Frederic-104 leaning against the wall alongside Linda-058, whereas Kelly-087 was the only one to stand straight, excluding Master Chief, who had his arms crossed.

"So what do we make of the soldier- 013 was her name?" Frederic asked, directing the question to the rest of his team.

"Suspicious. She hasn't disclosed her name besides her nametag, and she was carrying modified armor. Very few have exclusively-made armor, those consisting of either Spartans or ODSTs." Kelly said, as she turned her heard towards Chief.

"Did she say anything else to you while you were in there?" The only thing she got in reply was a headshake from him, which in other words translated to no.

"Hm, I'd say we check her up through the data systems. There's no harm in just looking around." Frederic voiced, and everyone besides Chief hummed in agreement. But, then came a very astounding reply from their leader, one which none of them had been prepared for.

"I made her a promise." He said, his form now tense, his back ramrod straight.

"You what? A promise? You don't do promises, Chief?" Frederic countered, having slight surprise lace his words.

"Well, he does now." Came Linda's sudden reply, her voice deadpan as she pushed off from her leaning position.

"Let's go check the system, we'll get our answers there."

The team of Spartans proceeded to march their way to one of the closed-off computer consoles, two going away in order to surveil and keep an eye on the surroundings in case some wayward individual headed towards their location, while the other two remained close at the console. Kelly started up the console, the screen blinking before stabilizing and she started hacking her way through, disarming the alarms, and avoiding triggering the A.I. that she knew was within the system. She didn't want to waste time in convincing the ship A.I. Roland that what she was doing was for good purposes. Chief stood off the side next to her, observing the hacking process on the screen, his visor reflecting the several sections of codes on the display.

Soon enough, they were relatively out of the hazardous zone, having finally broken through the firewalls. Safe to say, they were at free reign to search classified files without further danger. Kelly quickly typed in 013's name as Chief braced himself on the edge of the console's platform to read the file alongside her.

There was only one hit in the system when the search concluded, however as they read its head title, they lifted their eyebrows, having definitely not predicted that.

It read Spartan-ODST-013, classified files.

"A Spartan ODST?" They clicked in onto the file, and were met with information that didn't exactly… contain much.

"There is nothing stating why she is titled as Spartan-ODST, and there is a five year blank in her service records. The rest is just her accomplished missions and previous locations where she has been stationed. Chief, this kind of file… Someone's been messing with it. Five years of service doesn't just disappear unless someone wants it to disappear. I think we have a few more questions to ask your fellow soldier." Kelly remarked, shrugging her shoulders as she directed her helmeted head towards her leader. Chief however, was busy trying to piece things together, and he pointedly ignored Kelly's wording of stating 013 to be 'his' soldier.

The mission she had been sent on, one consisting of a suicidal rating, alongside the apparent order of none-allowed back-up or any sort of assistance, seemed very likely to have a connection with the missing information on her profile. And to him, it seemed Command had a personal vendetta towards the soldier, whom obviously was hiding something. He figured that Command didn't know, or perhaps they did; that whatever it was they may have discovered, had them deeming her as a too big of a potential threat and made them go through with the decision of trying to get rid of her via 'accidental' KIA on-mission. Or perhaps she was too big of a wild-card to keep her around, the risk of her going AWOL or betraying the UNSC by giving classified information to Rebel Covenant or any other threat, too big and thus, it would be easier to just terminate her. The many different scenarios were causing a building headache and Chief let out a silent sigh.

"Call the others to meet up at the locker rooms." He said as he pushed off from the console, heading towards the direction they previous came from. He heard Kelly speak on their Team-COM, relying the orders.

Five minutes later, Blue Team had assembled outside the locker rooms, beforehand scanning the area to make sure there was no other presence but them nearby.

"Alright Chief, what did you discover?" Frederic asked, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"We discovered her title, and a five year blank in her service records. She's called Spartan-ODST-013." Kelly said, knowing that Chief rather had her to answering, even though he had been right alongside her.

"Nothing else? Nothing explaining that she has two soldier titles combined into one, and still no first name?"

"Nothing else. There was nothing that explained her title or the missing information. From what I gather, there is something else at work here. It seems to be connected to why she was a lone soldier on that mission, with no back-up to aid her. Possibly Command wanted to get rid of her."

The Spartans thought the matter over, reflecting on the barely additional info they had on the soldier.

"So… Are we going to question her further, or what's the plan?"

"We are going to be on stand-by, and gather more information from the sidelines. Kelly, see if you can access ONI's data system from here. Frederic, Linda, refrain from questioning the soldier." Master Chief ordered, as he turned to walk to his dorm, ready for a night's rest.

"Hey Chief, what was that promise you made to her?" Frederic questioned before he completely disappeared from view.

"To find out what Command is up to."

"Well then, guess we're off to a start then, now aren't we?" Frederic replied, while Chief just continued on-route to his dorm, seeing no purpose in answering his teammate's rhetorical question.


Aaaand there you go! Tell me what you think!