Halo Fan Fiction

Daybreak's Bell

By Kraven Ergeist

So this last chapter didn't technically break 26 reviews, but I did get a couple of PM's in regard to the story this past week that I have decided to let stand in lieu of reviews, which puts the last chapter over the mark as of today! Let's see what you guys have to say about this chapter!

Chapter 6

Unfortunately for Cortana, the way the Domain worked, she could not simply manifest her body anywhere in space she chose. The way that Halo was built, its terminals and power stations could act as relays for constructs within the Domain to siphon data in and out of, which allowed her to manifest in their general area. Its central hub had been taken offline with the focal terminus, but she could still access individual auxiliary ports. However, the Librarian's terminal had been cut off from the Domain entirely to protect itself from the Didacts, preventing Cortana from accessing it or materializing anywhere near it. The Librarian must not have guessed that the Didacts would be able to destroy the terminus, otherwise Cortana imagined she would have heard from her by now. Hopefully, that meant that all she had to do when she got there was to effectively knock on the door. However, in order to make it there, she would have to travel the rest of the journey on foot, because the closest she could get was the outpost the Chief and his squad had found before she had been reborn.

What was even more unfortunate was the fact that the long, winding passageway leading form the outpost to the dais was still crawling with every manner of Flood either of had ever seen and even some they hadn't. With her dominance of this section of the Domain, she still had access to a hefty supply of weapons that she could materialize at will, so the Flood did not pose too much of a threat. However, she was still one person in a veritable feasting ground. One misstep was all it took to end her journey.

But she was not entirely alone. It was an extremely odd feeling for the Chief to be watching this through Cortana's eyes. A part of her had remained with him in the Domain, and from his point of view, she was still sitting there with him in the terminus in a meditative trance. But through their connection, he could see the physical world through her eyes and hear the world through her ears. It was like watching the action through a helmet cam, but this camera also allowed him to feel everything she felt, experience things as she was experiencing them.

It was disquieting.

"Is this what it's like for you all the time?" the Chief asked. She could hear his voice in her head as she paced down the two kilometer hike to the Librarian's dais.

"Sort of…" Cortana admitted, before turning to transform a Flood marauder into so much liquid flesh. "Most of the time, I was just in your head. But ever since the Librarian remade me, I've been connected to the Domain."

She cleared out the remaining Flood spores in the area, before proceeding. Unfortunately, her gun echoes carried. She would be seeing more Flood before long.

"You're only seeing a fraction of what I've been able to see through what remains of the terminus," she explained. "Oh, if only you could see it as I did, Chief… a world made of data, light, sound, information…it was as if the universe itself were a physical, tangible thing you could touch and feel and understand…"

The Chief thought about how he had felt when he'd woken up to this place. A part of him still couldn't believe it was real. It felt weird, yes, but he still felt like himself.

"I could see everything you were doing, I think," John said, trying to make conversation. "From communicating with the Captain to scanning my body for injuries."

By unspoken agreement, Cortana and the Chief had not suggested that the Chief try to report back to the Captain himself until they knew for certain if the situation could be salvaged.

"Oh…" Cortana said, hesitantly. She took care of a few more Flood in the pause between breaths. "You saw that, did you?"

Chief would not have been able to tell if Cortana's trance-like form before him was blushing or not. But it certainly sounded like she was.

"I'll have you know…" Cortana said, changing the subject. "That I managed to fight off both Didacts by myself while I was retaking Halo."

"By yourself?" John said in disbelief.

"Yes," Cortana reported. "And no, before you ask, there's no way you could have helped me. It all took place within the Domain, you would have had to have been composed to help me."

"Almost makes me wish you had composed me sooner," he said in response. "At least then, I could have been there with you."

Cortana took down two charging Flood shamblers as they approached her. She stood still for a moment, her scattershot smoking. She paused for a long moment, and the Chief could tell she was brooding on their predicament again. This is why he tended to avoid conversation. In the end, it was just a distraction.

"Cortana…" he breathed steadily, interrupting her reverie. "We're going to make it."

Cortana's lips were pursed as she reloaded her gun. "Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it, Chief…"

Cortana cleared the dais, blasting Flood at a mind-numbing rate. For every Flood she took down, four more rose to take its place. She could scarcely summon weapons fast enough. She kept upgrading to bigger and bigger weapons, until finally she was forced to materialize a jet pack to her back and fly up out of the Flood's reach, and unloading a barrage from the air with a Covenant fuel rod cannon.

After she had cleared the terminal of Flood for the time being - time being, in this case, meaning this exact second, as more were clearing the stairs – she erected a hard light shield around the terminal.

"How do you manage to do this all the time?" she demanded as she caught her breath. She may have all the moves preprogrammed, but there was only so much one individual could output before collapsing.

"Practice," the Chief explained simply.

Cortana answered with a brusque harrumph before placing her hands on the dais and tapping in.

"Come on…" she pleaded inside her helm. "Come on, work…"

As the Chief watched, he wanted to reach out and give her inert hand a squeeze, but he was worried that might distract her, and Cortana needed to concentrate.

Seconds went by. Then minutes.

"She's…" Cortana stammered in disbelief. She checked a second time. And a third. There was no mistake. "She's not here…"

Cortana let out a stream of curse words.

"Of course she's not here! The Prometheans would have zeroed in on this location as soon as we left it! She probably moved to another platform where she would be safer! If she's even still on Halo at all! At this rate…"

John watched, helplessly, as Cortana fell to her knees.

"At this rate, we'll never get you out of the Domain…"

Almost without warning, the hard light shield around her ran out of power and fell, and the Flood began to rush her.

"Cortana!" the Chief blared.

Cortana's only reaction was to flee back into the Domain, her purpose in holding the location no longer present. There was just no point. No point anymore. The meditating figure John saw in front of him opened her eyes, fresh sadness and hopelessness on her face.

"Chief…" she sighed.

Before the Chief could find the words to comfort her however, a figure beyond the terminus caught his attention.

He drew his gun. "Cortana…we've got company."

Instantly Cortana was on her feet, turning to face the figure approaching their borders. The figure looked Promethean! In fact, the closer she looked, the more it looked like it was wearing Didact armor. However, her internal IFF indicator was reading it as…friendly?

"Child of my child…" the figure spoke, still standing beyond the slowly turning ring that was their protected area of the Domain, arms spread wide in a gesture of peace. His voice carried weight, as the Didacts' did, but it was failing, creaky and…somehow familiar. "May I enter?"

Cortana peered out at him, but as long as she kept the terminus protected, what she could see beyond it was fairly limited.

"Come where I can see you…" Cortana allowed, both her and the Chief readying their weapons. In reality, they were erecting firewalls and antivirus programs around themselves, but to the Chief, it felt no different than the comfortable weight of his gun in his arms.

The figure passed through the holographic barrier, and was seemingly illuminated as more and more of his data was shared. He was old, ancient even. He was wearing Didact armor, but he looked no more powerful than the Librarian had been. Weaker, even. He may have been a Didact once, but he was clearly no threat now.

As Cortana lowered her bolt shot, at the same time, stretching out with her sensors as she suddenly recognized where she had heard his voice before.

"You're the one who saved me!" Cortana blurted. "When the Didacts captured me."

John peered closer at the old man. This was the first Didact he'd seen up close since Revenge, and he wasn't quite as trusting as Cortana was just yet.

The ancient Forerunner nodded. "Time has not dulled you as it has I. Though time, it seems, is no longer our ally."

"Were you a Didact too?" the Chief asked.

The old man nodded. "A Didact never ceases to be a Didact, least of all in death. I came before the fugitives, Revolution and Ruin. And I cannot abide what they have done. I cannot abandon the mantle of responsibility I bear for my race. The galaxy does not need another war as before, in which the future of a thousand worlds were sacrificed. No…the Forerunners have had their day. It is time then that we passed the mantle onto a race far worthier."

The Didact met each of their gazes in turn.

"It is time that the Reclaimers took their place…as the bearers of the mantle of responsibility for the galaxy."

Cortana blinked in disbelief. "A Didact who would see his race step down and let humanity take charge?"

"For the good of the galaxy…yes," the Didact smiled sadly, his ancient face crinkling as he did. "Only one as humble as I could have seen this as a possibility. For this reason it was that I was styled the Didact of Resignation."

Cortana's eyes widened. "Resignation! That's what the Didact of Ruin meant!"

The Didact spread his arms wide, bowing his head.

"I come to you now to offer you what aid I can."

The Chief stepped forward. "Can you help us?"

The old man took a great sigh. "Suppressing the other Didacts has exhausted much and more of my strength…but there may be a way to get you back into the fight, Reclaimer."

The Chief smiled. Now the Didact was speaking his language.

"And how do we do that?" the Chief asked, his calm demeanor nearly betraying his eagerness.

The old man seemed to hesitate, as if either he was weighing his options, or he couldn't believe the answer wasn't self-evident.

"The same way the Didacts did."

"Which is?" Cortana demanded.

The old man seemed to suppress a chuckle. "Why…by becoming a Didact."

There was a long, poignant pause as both the Chief and Cortana tried to digest what the Didact of Resignation had just said.

Become a Didact?

Cortana's super-powered brain won the race, and she was the first utter a reaction.

"How exactly would the Chief become a Didact?" Cortana demanded. "And how does that result in a body that will allow the Chief to fight again?"

The Didact of Resignation could no longer suppress his chuckling, and Cortana was resisting the urge to seize him by the shoulders and shake him.

"The answer to the second question answers the first," the Didact went on. "Child of my child, did you think the Librarian was the only Forerunner to think to compose living beings into the Domain?"

A sinking feeling pervaded Cortana's body, but she could not explain why.

"How many?" she asked, quietly. "How many Didacts have been composed?"

The Didact smiled at her.

"All of them. To become a Didact is to submit your body to composition. It is the best-kept secret of the Forerunners. A Didact spends their tenure in a body built to withstand the trials of life, their mind occupying both the body and the Domain, where it can access the knowledge of Didacts long past. Upon the death of the Didact's body, the mind and soul seep into the Domain, where their knowledge pools together with their predecessors to advise and assist the next Didact. It was due to this Collective that our reach as a species had grown so great. For millennia, this has gone on in secret from the general population of the Forerunners."

"Why?" Cortana stammered. Beside her, the Chief was still attempting to keep up. "Why would you keep something like that a secret? Why wouldn't you uplift your entire species into a race of near gods?"

"The lure of power is strong," the Didact explained. "Only the worthy are chosen. Had all been composed before we as a species were ready, then chaos would have ensued. However, there were times when others came close to discovering the secret for themselves. We were forced to thwart their attempts for the good of all. Many had come close, and our efforts to sabotage their work grew more and more frequent as Forerunner scientists became bolder and more determined. Until one day, one clever, desperate scholar sought to compose her own child in order to save its life."

Cortana suddenly realized where that sinking feeling was coming from. As if she hadn't had enough surprises for one day.

"'Child of your child…'" she muttered to herself, repeating the moniker he had given her. "The Librarian was your daughter!"

The Didact's face fell, and Cortana knew she was right.

"Wait a minute…" the Chief blurted, not sure if he was understanding the situation. "You mean to tell me that you're Cortana's grandfather?"

"It humbled me," the Didact confessed, "To learn that when torn between the duty to my progeny and the duty to preserve my people's legacy, my heart chose family. I suppose that was the beginning of our end, as it were. From that discovery came you, child of my child, first Monitor of Halo. The Didacts who fell by your hand were the first Didacts in our history to die before their time. There was confusion, fear…and with the war with the Hamanune and the Flood approaching, my people acted rashly, and made…terrible mistakes. Unforgiveable mistakes. Mistakes that would cost the galaxy countless lives."

The Chief was holding Cortana by the shoulders, but she was handling the news much better than the Librarian's revelation had. She supposed, after learning what she had in the last twenty-four hours, nothing more would surprise her.

"Why didn't you come to me with this sooner?" was all she could think to ask. "We could have saved so many if only we had known of this beforehand!"

"Child of my child…I am old. Weak. Most Didacts do not venture forth as the fugitives have. Most simply remain in the Domain, their minds slowly disseminating into the Collective unconscious of the network. The fugitives were taken at their prime, their vitality still strong. Most of the others are no longer able to distinguish themselves from the many in which they have become a part of. It is not long before I too will lose hold of my identity and truly join the Collective. But as I am the only Didact within the Collective left with any potency at all, I have been called upon to collect the fugitive Didacts who have ventured from the void without leave of the Collective."

He turned to address the Chief, who was slowly realizing just how far back this whole mess went.

"And to that end, I would enlist your aid by making you into the next Didact, Reclaimer. The Collective would provide you with all that you require to fight the fugitives on equal footing. My grandchild has already taken you through the most trying task of entering the Domain. Now all that remains is to leave it while still retaining your sanity. To expand one's mind into the Domain is a painful endeavor. But to recompress it once again, after it has experienced the vastness of the Domain, is a feat that few are capable of."

The Chief remembered the Promethean Knights, how twisted and unrecognizable they were. If the Librarian was to be believed, they had once been human. Now, they were autonomous monsters, bound to the Didacts' will. He wondered, in the past, how many Didacts had failed this test, leaving an opening for a newer, worthier bearer of the mantle.

He looked at Cortana, who met his gaze. Even now, he could see, hear, and feel her in a way that he never could before. In those eyes, he knew there was trust. There was fear. But there was courage. There was pain. But also strength. She had weathered a hundred battles, and she would weather a hundred more. And from her strength, he too drew strength.

They were not out of this yet. And as long as Cortana was with him, John could focus. He could stand and face any foe knowing that she had his back. Because she always did. And if he had anything to say on the subject, she always would.

As if she had read his mind, she gave him a single, assuring nod.

"Do it, Chief," she said simply. "If anyone can do it, it's you."

The Spartan nodded and stepped forward. "You heard her."

The Didact nodded and spread his arms wide. "So it shall be. My people do not stand on ceremony, human. You have already surpassed your first trial by coming here. All that remains now to awaken. Go now…Didact of Reclamation."

He laid a hand on the visor of the Chief's helmet, and John felt a brief, cool sensation, similar to the wash of electrons he felt when Cortana connected to his suit, and then…blackness.

The UNSC Infinity was in it for the long haul. The enemy had the advantage of numbers with three Covenant carrier, and with two Didact class vessels flanking them on either side, they had the Infinity matched for size. Still, the Infinity was nothing if not a resilient craft. It was the size of a city, designed for overwhelming shock and awe campaigns as well as prolonged battles of attrition such as this one.

But even the Infinity had its limits.

"Engine failure in grid D," Roland reported to the captain on the bridge. "Maneuverability has decreased by 15%."

The bridge was controlled chaos. All across the aisles and causeways, orderlies and ensigns scurried to accommodate those tasks which their superiors did not have time for. On the command platform, Captain Lasky stood, bracing himself on the guardrails, looking tired but still determined to win.

"Boost the output from the other grids and compensate!" Lasky ordered.

"Already on it!" the yellow hologram replied.

"Sir!" the first officer called out, strands of her platinum blond hair hanging loose from her bun. "The Forged by Fire and the Fall of Ignorance are back! Whatever Sigma squad did, it didn't last long!"

Among the data unlocked by Cortana's digging within the Promethean Network were the names of the Didact battle cruisers, including the one piloted by the Didact of Revenge – The Mantle's Approach.

Lasky gritted his teeth. Cortana's last report had been almost an hour ago, and the picture it had painted had not been a rosy one. It had, however, revealed the names of their targets. Lasky wasn't sure if that could be called an improvement or not. Whatever she and the Chief were up to, it was out of his hands now. But the Chief had never let him down before, he didn't think today would be the beginning.

Then Roland popped back up on his holographic console.

"Sir, we've got another ship emerging from slip space, it looks Promethean in origin."

Lasky turned his eyes to the view screen, the battlefield in full display as the slip-space rupture appeared in the center of the screen.

"How big?" Lasky's voice sounded haunted, as though he knew the answer already.

"Didact class, Sir."

The Captain let out a great sigh as he massaged his forehead.

"Captain, the Infinity is exhausted," Roland said grimly. "We don't have the steam take on another one of those ships. Permission to sound the retreat?"

"And leave behind two of our top assets?" Lasky asked.

"It's either that, or we lose the Infinity, Sir," Roland replied.

Lasky lowered his eyes. It was judgment calls like this that made the stripes the heaviest of all.

"Send out a broadcast on an open channel," the Captain ordered.

His communications officer to the right dialed in the command, before giving the Captain a nod.

"Sierra-117, this is the Captain," Lasky said calmly. "Please respond."

Nothing. The Didact battleship loomed closer.

"Noble Six, this is the Captain," he repeated the message to Cortana. "If either of you can read this, please respond!"

"Sir," Roland said. "The Didact battleship is readying weapons…"

Lasky lowered his head. "Alright Roland…send the alert. We're getting -"

"Captain!" his first officer cried. "Look!"

Lasky had just enough time to look to look up and see the Didact vessel open fire…on the Covenant! The Didact battleship poured cannon fire into the heart of the Covenant fleet. Within moments, all three Covenant carriers were in flames, drifting off course as their engines leaked plasma. Within a minute, one after the other, all three ships capsized, exploding in a mass of blue fire.

The Forged by Fire and the Fall of Ignorance pulled away from the firefight to avoid the exploding Covenant warships, the few remaining Covenant snub fighters all fleeing into sub space. As they did, the newcomer formed up alongside the Infinity, facing the remaining two command ships.

The Captain barely had the opportunity to register what had just happened when he heard Cortana's voice over the intercom.

"Sorry for the radio silence, Captain," she said, smugly. "Wanted to get the jump on the Covenant while we still had the element of surprise."

"Cortana?" Lasky blurted. "Is that you on that ship?"

"Captain," the Chief's voice sounded instead. "This is Spartan-117. We've commandeered a Didact battleship and Cortana and I are prepared to assist with the firefight."

A Collective whoop of joy pervaded the entire bridge. Lasky found himself wishing for a chair that he could collapse into. If he had known the Chief and Cortana were going to be acquiring this level of support, he would have sent them off without so much as a second thought. Now they were evenly matched, and the Infinity was not the only ship to have taken damage – Revolution and Ruin's command ships showed just as much wear and tear as the Infinity. And this new vessel that the Chief and Cortana were in looked fresh off the factory line.

"Chief…Cortana…" Lasky sighed. "Damned if you two aren't a sight for sore eyes. We'll take any help you can offer."

"The Fall of Ignorance's hull integrity has sustained the most damage," Cortana reported.

"Where are you getting these readings from?" Roland interjected. "I haven't been able to get a bead on either ship."

"Just trust me," Cortana insisted. "Take on Ruin's ship, we'll handle the Forged by Fire."

"You heard the lady," the Captain ordered. "Concentrate fire on the Didact of Ruin! Take down that battleship!"

The bridge of John and Cortana's newest acquisition was wide and spacious. Stylistically, it looked identical to the interior of the Didact's ship they had taken down in orbit above Earth. It was clear that the bridge was designed for a full crew, but whoever designed it had not had A.I. constructs in mind, least of all one that was as capable as Cortana was now. Not only did she have full control over every aspect of the ship, but she was still in control of the Domain surrounding the node. She could use the Domain to read all the data it received from normal space, which included energy signatures from both of their targets. The fugitive Didacts, on the other hand, could not access the Domain at all, which gave Cortana the advantage.

"So what should we call it?" she asked, standing at the helm. She was still wearing her Promethean armor, with her helmet resting on the console. No need to take any chances.

The Master Chief was standing at her side, though 'standing' was a poor choice of words to describe a soldier with nothing to do. He was built for combat, not standing around on a ship in the middle of space battle. His body was still fully human, but a lifetime of scars, tissue damage, and other wear and tear had been lifted. Apparently his data included his genetic code, as well as everything that had occurred to him occur the passage of time, and those effects had been picked over, leaving only those marks and bits of muscle memory that would provide an advantage. He felt ten times as fit as before, ten times as capable. It felt like he was fresh out of Spartan training, but with a head full of experience and time tested know-how – the best of both worlds.

His armor had been upgraded as well – it was still the same Mark VI MJOLNIR armor, but it had been altered. Improved upon, with better shields and tougher durability and greater mobility. It was unmistakably Promethean in makeup, as if a Promethean designer had been asked to replicate his old armor (which was more or less precisely how it had been fabricated within the Collective). But John didn't much care what his armor or his body looked like, however. He just wanted to test them both out.

"Call what?" he asked, as he paced the deck.

"Our new ship," she smiled, patting the control panel affectionately. While the ship had technically belonged to the Didact of Resignation, Cortana had upgraded it as she had her own MJOLNIR armor using most of the Promethean's digital resources. Now, it was just as up to date as the other two Didact vessels, and different enough from its previous incarnation that it warranted a new name to christen its maiden voyage.

"Well…" the Chief thought. "Humanity was chosen to surpass the Prometheans. The ship's name should reflect that somehow."

Cortana nodded. "Alright…how about the Epimethean? The first of its kind to come after the Prometheans."

"Epimethean…" the Chief said, pulling a Greek history lesson from way back in his early days at the academy. "'The Afterthought?'"

"Kinda fitting, the way we go about things these days," Cortana offered.

The Chief smirked. "Alright then. Epimethean it is."

Cortana nodded and focused her concentration on pursuing the Didact of Revolution. Even though the Didact of Resignation had technically given the ship to the Chief, by unspoken agreement, Cortana had taken the helm. They both knew she was the best one for the job, and John was more suited for ground combat anyway.

"Chief, this is more than just a theater of combat," Cortana supplied. "I have full control of the Domain, and by extension, so do you."

"What are you getting at?"

"The Infinity can handle the Fall of Ignorance for now, but the Forged by Fire is still in it for the long haul," Cortana explained. "That ship is a mammoth – even with all our firepower, it will still take its toll on us before we can take it down."

"What are you suggesting?"

"A tactical insertion," Cortana smiled. "We can use the Domain to get you to and from any computer I can hack into on Revolution's ship. I can run the Epimethean from the Domain, so don't worry about me. If I can get you onto the Didact's vessel where you can do the most damage, and if you can manage to bring its shields down, or overload the engines…"

She let the question hang, as the Chief felt his adrenaline begin to pump.

Time to do what he did best.

"Well then…" he beamed. "What are we waiting for?"

It wasn't even a fight. It was a slaughter.

The Chief was as powerful as a Didact now. He was slightly stronger than he'd been at his absolute prime, he had far more advanced armor than anything else in existence, and he had full access to the Domain, meaning that he could materialize weapons more or less at will. Promethean Knights bounced off of his armor like they were made of rubber. Crawlers ran out of ammunition trying to deter his approach. Watchers fled from him like frightened crows. Nothing could stop the Chief as he marched down the corridors of the Forged by Fire towards the engine room.

"Just up ahead, Chief," Cortana said in his helm, putting a waypoint for him to follow. Even now, she was still connected to him, still watching over him.

The engines, when he found them, were enormous! Four massive pylons running down into a bottomless pit that was the ship's main engine shaft, meager causeways and walkways meandering between them, offering little in the way of safety from the deadly fall below.

"They're shut down pretty tight, Chief…" Cortana mused, trying to figure out the best course of action. "Let's see if I can't open them for you…"

Her holographic image seemed to spontaneously appear on the consoles by the engine room's main control area.

"I'll just be borrowing this…" she said tauntingly, and in moments, warning bells were going off all throughout the engine room as all four engine blocks suddenly unsealed, splitting crossways from the top, the engine rods exposed, running down the center of each tower.

At once, the Prometheans Knights flooded the engine room, for as much as it was a room. They strode nimbly across the causeways, heedless of the impending fall on either side as they crossed to reach the Chief where he stood in the center of the room.

Armed with a Promethean incineration cannonhe had drawn from the Domain.

It was over in moments. After a few well-placed shots, he had sent half a dozen knights tumbling down the bottomless pit in a shower of red flames. Though none would say the Chief didn't know how to be flashy when he was so inclined.

He started for the engines without missing a step. With a single shot, he sent a burning hot ember into the chamber of the engine block, setting it ablaze, its super-heated fuel rod overreacting and exploding, converting into a deadly mixture of molten slag and liquid fire that ate its way through the engine housing as it descended down the long, immense shaft, drenching liquid metal in a cataclysmic chain reaction of destruction. Another shot, and the second engine suffered a similar fate. And the third.

By the time he got to the fourth, however, there was a Didact in his way. Standing in his path, in his dark red-trimmed armor, the Didact of Revolution stood on the causeway, helmet pulled back to reveal his black, spiky mohawk.

"You!" the Didact decreed, extending a claw towards him, as the invisible shimmer of a constraint field extended towards him, trying to render him paralyzed in the air as the first Didact had done.

The Chief could not deny that he was savoring the look of utter stupefaction on the Didact's face when he began to step towards him along the causeway towards the final engine block, completely ignoring the flicker in the air as the stasis field bounced harmlessly off of his armor.

"You…you're different!" the Didact exclaimed. "You were not this powerful when you fought the Didact of Revenge! Explain!"

The Chief said nothing. Cortana, her hologram still on display in the computer's display terminal, simply smirked.

"Sorry…there's a new Didact in town."

As if to punctuate the remark, the Chief fired off a bolt from his incineration cannon at the Didact.

The Didact reacted by vaulting over the railing of causeway, grabbing hold of the rim, before swinging himself underneath the ramp, clinging to the bottom. The incinerator bolt exploded in a shower of fire and sparks above the causeway, leaving scorch marks across the alien metal. When the fire subsided, the Didact swung himself back up and over the railing stand once again on the causeway, his helmet unfurling and clamping over his head, poised and ready to attack.

The Chief felt a thrill of excitement. It seemed that the Didact would not go down as easily as the Prometheans Knights had.

Perfect.

The Didact lunged. With no time to recharge another bolt, the Chief dropped the incinerator and withdrew his trusty MA5D assault rifle and opened fire. The Didact stepped this way and that, dodging bullet fire as he charged forward. The Chief leapt back as the Didact's gauntleted fist struck the platform, leaving a sizeable dent in the floor. He lunged again, forcing the Chief back and back again until there was no more room left on the platform.

The Chief responded by drawing his knife, still the same design as a Spartan combat knife, but denser, made of a Promethean material three times as sturdy and two thirds the weight. He lunged forward, nearly taking off the Didact's arm before he pulled it away, and suddenly the Chief was on the offensive again, closing quarters to make the maximum use of his weapon.

The Didact leapt back, nimbly avoiding the Chief's knife, before flipping forward over the Chief's head, landing with his feet perched nimbly on the guard rails. The Chief slashed again, the Didact flipping back again, sailing over the stomach-clenching gap down the engine shaft, and landing squarely on top of the engine block.

The Didact reached back and drew an ornate looking Promethean energy blade, reminiscent of a scimitar with an oversized point.

"Come!" he called out by way of challenge.

"Chief," Cortana warned through his helmet. "He's biding time! This place is already going critical! He can't escape through the Domain, but we can! You don't have to fight him!"

The Chief shook his head. "No. He might find some way to escape. This ends here."

Stepping onto the guardrail, he propelled himself through the air, simultaneously materializing a Covenant energy blade in his hands with a snap-hiss, swinging at the Didact with a ferocity born of primal rage, driving the Didact back even further.

This is what he was born to do! This is what he was made for! In the heat of battle, he was at his finest. The other Spartans in his program, had they not been handpicked at birth, might have grown up to be winners in different fields – businessmen, doctors, lawyers, even artists. Successful at whatever they did, regardless. But the Chief was born to fight!

They dueled atop the massive engine block, on all edges a veritable cliff. It was like dueling at the top of a skyscraper, only this sky scraper had been split four ways down the middle, spewing radiated heat from its cracks. Normally, the entire surface would have been sealed, but now, it was split into a cross, leaving four platforms evenly spaced apart, blazing heat emanating from the openings, the engine's massive irradiated core burning along the center where the four splits intersected. And all around them, three other engine blocks were already going critical, as red lights and warning bells sounded throughout the chamber, the entire ship shaking with explosions.

The Spartan's sword ran out of power, and in response, he balled his hand into a fist and sent the Didact staggering back. The Didact stood at the precipice of the heart of the engine block, sword arm drooping weakly. He was gasping for breath, his armor nicked in a dozen places, as he faced down the Chief in defiance. The Didact made one last desperate lunge to escape, but the Chief lept to grab him, bringing him to the ground, the Didact's sword flying out of his hand and into the precipice to disintegrate into the molten slag below.

The Didact tried to bash the Chief off of him, but the Spartan's grip held fast, his gauntlet clenching around the Didact's armored neck. His grip tightened, and the armor began to give way under the Chief's iron grip. The Didact let out a gasp of pain before grabbing the Chief by the shoulders.

"If I am to die…" he choked through his voice modulator. "Then you shall die with me!"

The Didact drove his knee up into the Chief's hip, driving him up just enough for the Didact to send the two of them rolling off the edge of the precipice and down towards the engine's molten core.

"Chief!" Cortana cried out, her voice drowned by an ocean of explosions.

The two of them fell, tumbling amidst a mass of heat and plumes of fire and smoke, the Chief locked in the Didact's vice-like grip. Below them, the bright white hot mass of core fluid swelled and pulsed, choking everything around them. Their Didact armor was protecting them from the worst of the inferno, but even so, the heat was overwhelming! The Chief's shield failure alarm was pinging, and soon his armor would fail.

I have full control of the Domain, Cortana had said. And by extension, so do you.

He needed to break free of the Didact's grip before he could tap into the Domain!

He punched and kicked with all the leverage he could muster in free fall, but the Didact had committed the last of his strength to dragging the Chief down to the depths of hell.

The Didact uttered a triumphant laugh from within his helmet. "Hahahahahaha! You will die!"

Finally, the Chief grabbed a pulse grenade off his belt and primed it, before wedging it between them.

BOOM!

It went off with a bang, driving the two of them apart, flailing about like ragdolls. The Chief's body convulsed in pain, but he was alive. Barely. He could hardly think with the ringing in his ears, and his mind was going blank from the intense heat. But if he intended to make it out of this, then he had to focus. Cortana and the Knights made it look so easy, but he was still so unfamiliar with the Domain. And the heat was just so draining, and the disorientation of the grenade and the fall…

"Chief…"

His eyes snapped open when he could have sworn he'd heard Cortana's voice calling for him on the other side. Something inside him let go, and he felt his physical body dissipate into a million tiny particles, all whisking away into the Domain, leaving the Didact of Revolution to fall to his fiery death.

"Nooooooooooooooooo…"

To be continued...

Next chapter to be posted on March 23rd

OR

On the day this chapter receives its 26th review