Hey, everybody! Sorry for late update on this one! I got distracted with summer events and to be completely honest, I had a little hesitation how to play out this chapter. However this is what I decided on, so tell me what you think! Hope you enjoy!


John slumbered soundly in his dark prison. As a Spartan, he didn't need as much sleep as the average human and after "sleeping" for two years, it could be said he was pretty well rested. However, he was still a soldier, so he had the ability to sleep on demand. And since his bland prison offered no entertainment, he saw nothing better to do. As long he didn't wake up to an eight foot Elite…

Suddenly the Spartan's world rumbled. Even though it was subtle, it still stirred him into slowly opening his eyes. His eyelids were heavy and his mind was fogged with sleep, but it quickly disappeared, especially when he felt the vibration again. This time John swore it was accompanied by a distant clap, like one of thunder or a thick wood breaking.

"You hear that?" Cortana asked.

"Yeah," John replied, climbing to his feet.

"Now can I hack the Covenant?"

"Do it."

Cortana went silent, leaving the Chief waiting patiently. In the event that the Covenant didn't fully realize her existence, they decided to have her hidden as long as possible. That included that the advanced AI wouldn't enter the alien's network until the right opportunity. Right now didn't seem like a bad time.

After several moments of Cortana fishing through the systems, she rung in Chief's ear, "Yeah, you might want to work on getting out now."

Naturally the seasoned warrior felt concerned. "What's going on?"

"You'll see. Get a move on, soldier."

John was confused to hear no panic in the AI's voice, in fact almost the complete opposite. Almost like she was overjoyed and relieved.

However, he knew he had to focus on at the task at hand. He looked around the room for the millionth time, his sharp eyesight scanning carefully for anything. The only problem was that if there was a way out, he most likely would've found it by now, and wouldn't had hesitate to use it.

The blue shield from before had gone, and when John observed the space where the door had been, he couldn't find any way to access it. The one thing he observed during his entire time that the room was designed to let those in, but not out. It was the perfect prison cell. And John had no doubt the Covenant built it just for him. But giving up was not in the Spartan's DNA, and if there was one thing he was good at was making the impossible possible.

With that thought in mind, John's eyes fell on the still-damaged wall. His captors showed no interest in repairing it, keeping it the exactly how it was since the Spartan destroyed it. The crumpled purple sheet of metal barely clung on now, with the wiring of the ship's interior underneath it was exposed. Immediately an idea lit up in John's head, and he mentally slapped himself for not thinking of it earlier.

He crossed to the disfiguration and with no difficultly at all, grasped the edges of the plating and easily peeled it off the wall. The metal was replaced by a wall of wires in all shapes and sizes: from tiny and thin strings to jagged large tubes. Most of them were in dark shades of color, ranging from blue to black to purple.

Observing them made John realized something. He was terrible at telemetry, never mind alien hardware. And with the sheer amount of wires before him, it would be impossible to determine which one would be the most useful to him. The Chief just stared at the wires in silence while Cortana analyzed them in her own way.

"Hmm, now let's see," she hummed. "If we—"

She was interrupted as suddenly the Master Chief grasped a large handful of wiring. With no hesitation, he ripped them out, causing sparks and torn pieces to go everywhere. Before Cortana could stop him, the Spartan repeated the process, yanking a handful out one hand at a time in rapid succession. It almost looked like he was literally trying to dig through the wall.

"CHIEF!" Cortana gasped. "What are you doing?"

Her companion completely ignored her as he continued, ignoring the changes in environment as well. The already dim lighting was flickering madly and slots within the walls were letting out showers of sparks. John finally stopped when suddenly a high-pitched, ghost-like sound filled the air, red lights flashing in a pattern. He looked over his shoulder to the door from before finally slide open, though it was slow and shaking, its power source most likely damaged.

"I think you tripped an emergency alarm," his partner commented, but there was still a trace of shock and annoyance.

"Good, it worked," he praised himself, getting up from his position and making his way out. He swore Cortana scoffed and imaged her rolling her eyes.

He stepped out of the black doorway to find himself in a spacious hallway. All the metal was still in the alien's favorite color of purple and white fluorescent lights illuminated the dimness. John was at one end of the hallway, staring all the way down the corridor until seeing the opposite end. But to his surprise, there wasn't a single Covie, not even a wandering Grunt.

There's supposed to be guards here, John thought. Where are they?

He suspected Cortana knew what was going on, but the AI remained silent. But she didn't seem as tense as he was, so there was something that relaxed her to the point of keeping things from him. But the soldier decided not to question her as he jogged down the hallway, eager to leave his captors' clutches.

I need to get a weapon, he observed.

Thankfully his prayer was answered. It was only a couple hallways away, he ran into a pair of Elites. The already fanatical aliens looked nervous as they darted their heads back and forth and desperately gripping their storm rifles. However they were not expecting to be running into the escaped Spartan and were not prepared to face him. They barely had to time to lift their weapons before the Chief dispatched them, breaking the neck of one and dealing a fatal blow to the other. John relieved them of their weapons and grenades before continuing on.

He continued down the maze-like corridors, seeing no more signs of the Covenant. But before he could question it again, the alien world rumbled, like it did on the Forward Unto Dawn. This time the soldier was able to stay on his feet, but he paused for a moment. It only took seconds to connect the dots. The ship was being boarded. Something was attacking the ship. And judging on Cortana's eagerness, it could very well be an ally.

John continued with more vigor, and he only had to walk a few meters before he sounds of battle through the walls. He skin prickled as his heightened hearing was able to distinguish battle cries, death moans, explosions of grenades, and heated plasma flying through the air. But he owned confusion once again as he only heard plasma. And recognizing it now, the voices only belonged to the roars of aliens. The Chief wasn't holding out his luck that it was actually humans, what else could be attacking them?

It was the next corner that the Master Chief got his answer. He turned onto the next passageway only to come face-to-face to a giant golden tower, even taller than him. But what was more distinguishable was the piercing, yellow amber eyes of the beast before him. Only one creature in the universe had eyes like that.

"It has been a long time, Spartan," the Arbiter rumbled, his English as fluent as his own language.

"I guess so," John agreed.

The legendary Elite was wearing different armor from when the human last saw him. Instead of a dull silver, the Arbiter's armor was now a gleaming gold, the Sangheili's color of power. The plating was arranged the same way it was before, the only differences was that a long pale cloak wrapped around his shoulders, almost hiding his bare left arm.

John's Spartan instincts identified the beast as the enemy that needed to be killed, but his experiences overruled them. The Chief and the Arbiter had fought side-by-side as allies, and never once the Elite showed any signs of betrayal. The exact opposite, in fact. John still remembered how the alien had fought for the defense of his human comrades, how he had endangered his life to save the Spartan from the Flood alone, and how he never left his flank on Halo. This was the one who killed the Prophet of Truth, the bastard who called for humanity's extermination, and ended the Covenant. The Chief couldn't show hostility to him anymore. But still…

John had woken up to being attacked by Elites. And it was an Elite who reconstructed the Covenant only to capture him. And when the Spartan finally escaped only to immediately run into the alien warrior… it seemed too good to be true.

Like the Arbiter could read his mind, the Elite defended himself, "These men are not mine. I have come in search of the traitor that leads them."

"Jul 'Mdama," John filled in.

The Arbiter only nodded, but the Master Chief continued to question him.

"Where is he?"

"Gone." He went on before John could speak up. "He fled on his flagship. Now we rid of the stragglers."

Without another word, the commander turned and stalked the way he came. The Chief followed him, reluctantly realizing the Arbiter was his only ally in this chaos. The alien took no hesitation as he strutted ahead in his long stride, making John come to conclusion that this part of the ship was clear. He could even hear the sounds on battle fading. But still he clutched to his storm rifle.

However the Spartan was able to observe his old ally. Even though the commander was in a middle of a raid, he walked with authority and made a good show that he knew what he was doing. So he really is the leader of the Elites now.

The Master Chief was pulled from his thoughts as suddenly the Arbiter halted and even brought a hand up. John copied his movements and went still. He listened intently to hear the quiet garble of Elites. The human readied his rifle as Thel 'Vadam reached for a skinny handle on his belt and flicked his energy sword on.

Moving as one, the duo rounded the corner, coming face-to-face with their targets. They came to a halt in confrontation, but still startled the pair of Elites as they started before scrambling for their weapons. They backed away in several feet before aiming their weapons back at the two, while the warriors pointed their weapons back at them. For a moment John felt like he was in one of those old-western cowboy stand-offs. Then he was surprised when the Arbiter spoke up.

Instead of English like the Chief was used to, the alien started roaring in his native tongue. He spoke non-stop to the Covenant soldiers, the volume of his voice fluctuating. The other Elites only glanced between each other and their supposed leader. John quickly caught on that the Arbiter was trying to negotiate with them. The soldier supposed he couldn't blame him. After years of fighting aliens, he couldn't imagine killing his own kind, either. However, he noticed the enemy pair was becoming more agitated than convinced.

Finally one roared out a volley of insults, his partner following with a battle cry. The smaller one pulled out a needler and aimed for the Arbiter's head. He could only fire a couple crystals before the Chief shot his new weapon, killing the beast with a couple of shots. The other larger one ripped out an energy sword and charged. John couldn't tell who he was aiming for, but it didn't matter as Thel lunged forward to meet his opponent.

In a move born from years of experience, the Arbiter latched his arm around his opponent's, forcing the Elite's sword away. Before the victim could retaliate, 'Vadam drove his sword into the creature's abdomen, two white spikes projecting from his back. The lesser Elite only gagged before giving a single twitch. Then the Sangheili was completely still.

John lowered his weapon and was silent as Thel 'Vadam deactivated his sword, having the corpse collapse to the floor. The Arbiter simply stared at the bodies, oddly silent and unmoving, and appeared to be more solemn than usual. The Master Chief almost wondered if the alien was mourning, but the Arbiter spoke up in a deeper tone, "Come, let us rid of the rest."


The Arbiter's armor is based his new outfit in Halo: Escalation. I liked it and thought it was fitting for his new role, so I decided to include it. I didn't add it before because Escalation wasn't out when I wrote the chapter before.