Chapter 6

The journey begins: Part 1

Route 201, Lake Verity

22:29 (10:29pm)

Troy sat down on a log by officer Jenny and Emily. He was carefully thinking of how to explain Serina's tantrum. Pichu was fast asleep in his arms so he would have to talk softly so he doesn't wake him up. Serina calmed down a lot more. A fire was lit in the middle of the make-shift campsite with Emily's tent pitched. It was a purple mountain tent, designed to handle strong winds and cold.

He managed to convince them to hold of on his explanation till after Pichu and Grace fell asleep, they needed it after what happened today and they will need the rest for tomorrow. Jenny and Emily both were roasting berries. They offered him one but he declined he didn't need it now, his omelet egg hatch so food would be a problem for later.

"I can't explain what happened without going into term you won't understand or classified information, but I did promise an explanation." He said. He took a deep breath, gently laid pichu on a pile of soft grass, reached behind his head and took Serina's chip out. He held her chip out for them to see. "Here is someone who can help shed some light. "

She appeared on the chip with her hands behind her back. Their first reaction was slightly jumping from their seats. Serina waved at them a bit. Jenny was slightly more surprised than Emily was. Then again, she claimed to see Serina just after he crashed.

" Hello. I'm Serina, AI for Spirit of Fire. A colony star-ship." She said. "I am sorry for what I've done. It was unacceptable behavior, but I couldn't control myself." She explained. Jenny and Emily looked at her with faces of complete shock. They both just dropped their berries in the fire along with the stick. So far, so good. Expected reaction.

"She suffers from a very dangerous condition known as rampancy. She may randomly have similar fits but they might not be as severe as long as she can keep herself under control." He explained. They both just blinked at him. He must've sounded too alien to them.

"I know you have many questions to ask, I will answer them in as simple of terms as I can. But with the day we all had, you'll each get two questions." Serina added to Troy's explanation. All was quiet till one of the two decided to break the awkward silence.

"What exactly are you?" Jenny asked. Serina smiled a bit before responding to her question.

"I am an artificial intelligence construct known as a 'smart' AI, I specialize as a military adviser and Star ship pilot. I was able preform multiple tasks at once but now it's dangerous for me to do so. If I stop focusing on one thing for too long, I risk having a rampancy fit like the one you saw a bit ago." She explained. "As a 'smart' AI, my lifespan is suppose to be seven years average. I am over 22 years old, I am beyond lucky that I was able to hold it off this long. Most of the other 'smart' AI's I've known should be long past gone by now, several of which owe me lots of money. Guess I should've never been looking forward to seeing them pay up." She joked

The two girls looked at Serina rather curious now. Troy kept a close eye to be sure they won't take Serina. Jenny was the one who he had most suspicion on. If anyone would try to take Serina from him for study, it would be the cop nine out of ten times. They would be doing their job to figure out what she is or if she is dangerous, fine by him if they are just following orders. Just don't lay a finger on Serina's data chip or he'll break their finger.

"What is rampancy?" Emily asked.

"A very good question. It is rather difficult to explain but I'll skip the long, boring science lesson and go straight to the point. It pretty much means that an AI quiet literally think themself to death. Like if your brain starts thinking about so many things at once that it makes you forget how to breath. Our programming starts to deteriorate and get corrupt, there are many stages to rampancy. Won't even bother because you wouldn't understand. Bottom line is that I am nearing the end. I don't know how much longer I can delay the inevitable." She explained sadly.

"Don't worry. I promised that no matter what it takes, we'll get back, and we'll find a way to fix you." Troy comforted

"You each got one more question, Then I'll need to power down for the night. My equivalent to sleeping." Serina reminded.

"Where exactly are you two from?" Jenny asked. That is the question of the day. He looked at Serina for her answer.

"It's alright, we can tell them that. They need to know where we came from. Maybe they will know where we are and how we can get back." She said turning to Jenny. "We are from a collection of planets united under one government known as the united earth government. It originated from a planet called earth as the name suggests. Very long and boring history lesson. I was created in a lab on a colony planet in 2530. The big man here is a Spartan, no clue where he was born but he was trained on a planet called Reach along with like what, 33 others like you or something. Can't say much about him because I don't even know that much about Spartans. Most thing about them are classified." Serina explained in as simple of terms as she could, granted she might of confused them more by skipping the history lesson but he knew she didn't feel like giving a long lecture.

"What is a Spartan? You keep telling us to call you it but why?" Emily asked. And she asked the question of a lifetime. Boy, was she going to be surprised on the answer.

"Some of the biggest bad-asses you'll ever meet in your entire life." Serina said proudly. Well she wasn't very far off. Look at John-117 for example. he is pretty much the face of the spartans. He's been on the Harvest campaign, few raids on insurrection camps, handful of fights with the covenant with john by his side. He is a damn good soldier and a lucky spartan.

"We were trained in the art of warfare at a very young age."Troy added "Highly skilled marksmen and in hand-to-hand combat. The flare you saw around me earlier was my shields, they protect me from everything and anything. Spartans were created to be the ultimate soldiers. Our job is to protect humanity and keep the peace, whatever the cost. I want you to call me Spartan because it is who I am. Nothing more and nothing less." Troy explained as he returned Serina to his helmet. "It's getting late. You two should head to bed."

"I need to head back to the station anyway. Let them know this isn't anything to worry about." Jenny said getting up and to her bike. Emily stretched for a bit. Jenny looked right at Troy and pointed to the newborn pichu next to him.

"Someone needs to take care of him. He has no mother and I am way too busy to train newborns. If you agree to take care of him and keep him safe. I'll pretend that everything here never happened, you start off with a blank slate." She said looking at him. "Do we have a deal?"

He really didn't want to take care of an animal he knew nothing about. It would only slow him down. But if he was going to be stuck here a while, a blank record would be a good idea. He wouldn't have to worry about law enforcement trying to arrest him, and he could teach the little guy to fight, extra defensive and offensive options later down the road if needed. The pros outweigh the cons in his head.

"I won't be around long, but I will take care of him till I need to leave. I can promise you that." He promised gently picking up the little newborn pichu. Serina had a big smile on her digital face. He was going to regret this decision later, he just knows it.

"Welcome to Chikyū, enjoy the stay." She said before throwing him a pokeball. he caught it as she was riding off to who knows where. Emily picked Grace up from her lap and carried her to her tent. Serina looked at her confused a bit.

"You know Chikyū means Earth in Japanese right? You know what that could mean for us?" She asked.

"Could be a coincidence. You should get some sleep. We'll head out in the morning." He said before turning toward Emily's direction. Serina powered down with a timer on her tab that said (8:00:00:00) and counting down. (Hour:minute:second:millisecond) He assumed that was how long she would stay asleep. Hope she will come back up in the morning.

"What do I do with this?" He asked holding up the pokeball. She unzipped her tent, put Grace down in a miniature sleeping bag, and walked to him. He handed her the pokeball.

"You simply toss it at the pokemon you want to catch. Normally you would want to weaken it first but since pichu is a baby, you shouldn't need to. I assume officer Jenny gave it to you to catch him." She said handing the pokeball back at him. "Just lightly tap it on his head." She backed up a bit.

Just a light tap. Shouldn't be too hard to do. He knelled down next to pichu who opened his eyes, yawned a bit, and looked right at him with a glimmer of innocence in his eyes.

"Chu?" he asked looking at him a bit confused. He couldn't just capture him, not like this. A small part of his mind kept told him to give the poor lad a choice. He promised the officer he would look after him till he has to leave but the little guy deserved a choice. He put one hand on the pokemon's shoulder.

"It's just not right to capture you when you have no idea what's on the road ahead of you. So I'll give you a choice, one that I never had when I was little. You can go with me till I find my ship or you can be free, live life the way you want to without my influence. If you go with me, I'll train you like I was. Teach you to be a effective and an equally dangerous fighter. I can promise you it won't be easy in the least. It will be very difficult and you'll want to quit, some days you would want to run away and never look back. I know, I've been down that road. Made me into something I wish died with who I hurt, I never became that again after a talk with... a good friend." He explained. He lowered his head a bit and sighed before looking at pichu again. He hadn't thought about what he done in years. He thought he banished all those thoughts years ago."I know your too young to understand me. But the choice is yours, go with me and become a soldier or stay wild and free. Take your time thinking long and hard about this." He held the pokeball up for the little mouse to see. Pichu was way too young to understand the choice he was given, hell he would've been too young as well if ONI gave him the choice before he was kidnapped and shipped out for basic.

Maybe giving this being the choice he never had would be some sort of redemption. He knew he can never truly make the pain he caused go away, it was seared into his memory permanently. At least this would be a start to help make up for it. Saving a few planets from annihilation didn't help ease his pain, he was just doing his duty to save humanity from extinction. This was from his own free-will.

Pichu looked at the pokeball curiously now then back at him. Did the little guy understand a word he said? If it was a human at that age then of course he couldn't understand him. But he knew nothing about these animals or their young. What pichu did next did surprise him a bit.

"Pichu." He said smiling as he put his hand on the button to the pokeball. It opened up, he was converted into the red energy and went into the ball. It shook in his hand once, twice, three times, then stopped with a soft ping. Looks like he made his decision. Emily put her hand on his shoulder pad. Naturally if someone did that he would twist around and snap their arm off but he fought the urge to do that.

"What happened when you were little?" She asked. He shook his head as he stared at the pokeball. He pushed the button and it shrunk. He could easily fit it on his magnetic belt. He'll figure it out in the morning.

"You should get some sleep. I'm heading out in the morning. If you want to come, I suggest you get all the rest you can get. I'll take first watch." He said putting out the fire. He held onto pichu's ball as he got up and went toward the down pelican.

"You know you don't need to keep an eye out. I got my pack in my tent so no wild pokemon can steal it without me knowing. You should try to get some sleep yourself." She said going back to her tent and zipping it up from the inside.

He was all alone now. Serina was powered down, Emily and Grace were both going to sleep, and Pichu was in his ball. He was use to being alone, nothing new to him.

Maybe he should go sleep in the cockpit. He'll need the sleep and energy. Seat could withstand his weight, plus he has slept in more uncomfortable places before. He would need all the energy he can to train pichu. He sighed a bit as he walked into the cockpit. He sat down and reclined the chair.

He slowly closed his eyed and tried to drift off to sleep, the sound of the water hitting the shore helped calm his mind. Reminded him of the beaches on Reach that he use to visit frequently after sneaking out in the middle of the night. He wondered if Reach was still under attack or if it was glassed. Pichu popped out of his pokeball to snuggle up to him and fell asleep on him almost instantly. He was going to move him but thought, Oh what the hell, he ain't hurting nothing. He finally went to sleep after all systems in his armor all powered down to conserve power.

~Dream flashback~

(That's right. He is dreaming of a memory. Note I only own one person who is in this flashback and how it goes down. So grab a bag of popcorn, sit back, and enjoy.)

2525, South of Spartan training facility on Reach.

25:35 (13:37, Reach's days are 3 hours longer then earths, bit hard to figure out what military time to understandable time is on that world would be considering I haven't played Halo Reach that much. I played a bit before I had to give it back to a friend. At least I'm trying so just go with it.)

It's been less then a week since the biological augmentation procedures. Troy-172 was sitting down on a lush tropical beach staring at the waves hitting the shoreline. The sand was white as bone, water was as green as a lime. Air was wet and salty. He loved the feeling of being at a beach. Calmed his mind to just stare out at the horizon with Reach's two moons high in the sky, one was a half moon while the other was a full. Stars filled the night sky all over, creating a truly beautiful sight. Most of them weren't stars, most were orbital defense platforms or warships but it was still a beautiful sight in his mind.

A small settlement was visible along the far end of the beach. He smiled as he watched the simple workmen pull in the hard earned days catch. Families returning to each other after a hard day at work, he always wondered what it would feel like to come home to someone he cared about after a day of hard work. Secretly, he wonders what it would be like to live a simpler life. One with no intense training programs, no random drills or simulations, no one monitoring your every move or judging you or making you train your ass off 24/7 with few breaks. Even just for one day, it would bring peace to his mind.

He was at least a foot taller than normal people his age, buzz cut hair, barely any freckles on his face, deep blue eyes, more muscle mass than most humans, tan skin compared to the other spartans. Blue combat outfit. He held his dog-tags in his hand by the chain. Resisting the urge to throw them to the bottom of the sea and run.

Still was getting use to the changes in his body. All the others who survived have already accepted and got use to their changes. So why hasn't he? He knows it's necessary but part of him still hasn't accepted that fact. He is taller than he was a month ago, more muscular, faster, dare he admit it, better in every possible way. Every man's dream body but it was unnatural and felt just plain wrong to him. Before the augmentation, he was a tall scrawny kid, Well fed but was still just skin and bones. He could eat an entire planet and he would still be skinny and hungry.

The absolute worst part about the augmentation was the immediate pain you feel waking up the day after. The feeling of all your nerves being ripped and stretched out one at a time then lit on fire, bones being made of shattered glass and nails, muscles feeling like they were ripped out with a semi-truck, had rabid animals used them as chew toys, then stitched back. Most people would crumble under the intensity of the pain. Some of the Spartans who survived did.

He just needed to get out of there to clear his mind. Twenty-seven died during or after the same procedures he has undergone, and twelve more crippled. He felt like a complete tool, he just had to clear his mind and his bed chamber wouldn't cut it. The others where trusted with their own bunk, he was special and got a whole chamber to himself, apparently he wasn't trusted enough to get a bunk, their afraid he would sneak out and cause havoc. His chamber was pretty much a big bullet-proof glass container with vents and a door. They were smart for not trusting him.

He just wanted time to himself in the wild. This was his 16th time sneaking out of the facility to watch the beach this month. Almost getting caught by patrols and guards more than once, but he manages to sneak by them almost undetected every time. He observes their routes and patterns. Coming by his chamber every two-three hours or so to check on him. Easy to sneak by them, the ventilation shafts provided more than enough cover for him to sneak out of his chamber. Of course, if he did ever get caught he would bribe the marine with a extra desert ration bar he saved during chow time, if that failed he would resort to talking him out of it or if the marine felt like a nice guy and say 'he sees nothing'. He got caught a few times in the early days of trying. The punishments and beatings didn't teach not to do it again, but to not get caught again and that he had to learn to be stealthier.

Seemed like he was sneaking out more and more frequently as the years went by. Use to be once or twice a month. Now it seemed almost like every other day. Each time it got easier then the last yet more difficult as they added more security systems and monitoring cameras to his chamber alone. They were not very easy to trick, yet not impossible either. With a few dozen tries, time nearly getting caught, and fails later, he figured out how. As far as he knew, no one suspected he was even out of his chamber let alone out of the facility.

He would have to return at some point, to avoid suspicion. He knew he can't leave the planet no matter how badly he wanted to, they would be looking for him the second he jumped on a ship. After the augmentation he can't just hide in the villages here either, he'll stick out like a sore thumb.

You name it, he's tried it at some point. Even in broad daylight toward a hornet when some idiot forgot the keys in the ignition, he didn't get really far because it was out of fuel before he took off. He felt like a lab rat trapped in a huge hamster ball, may seem like he is going some where when he walk but it's all just an illusion. No matter how many times he sneaks out, no matter how many times he yearns for a simpler life, he can't truly feel free because he is trapped in a huge illusion and can't escape the reality of it.

Hearing a rustle in the fauna behind him, he quickly turned to see another spartan looking at him, one who's bunk was right next to his chamber. The spartan was female. Slightly shorter than he was by a few inches. Short blond hair that came to her ears, blue eye, little more muscles than you would expect on someone her age, slightly bigger breasts as well. Pale skin compared to his own. Red combat shirt with white stripes on the sleeves and down the middle, similar pants and shoes, Dog-tags hung around her neck. She looked surprised that he caught her yet curious about something else. She pushed aside more branches trying to get to him.

"Daisy, what are you doing here?" He asked. His voice deepened drastically after the augmentation. You could almost mistaken him for a full grown adult. She moved the leaves back and walked to him.

"I noticed your escape." Crap "Actually a few times in the past month" Oh shit "sometimes when I wake up after a horrible nightmare and see your missing, so this time I followed your moments to escape as well and followed you to find out for myself." She replied. Her voice was lower than he expected. He and her have barely ever talked or even on the same team during simulations. He knew that if they noticed they were missing, they would raise the alarm and send the others to find them. Who better to find a spartan then another spartan.

"Were you followed by anyone?" He asked. She shook her head. He turned back to the beach. Taking a deep breath but remained quiet. Daisy sat down next to him. They sat there in silence just watching the ocean waves hitting the shores. Though now with Daisy by his side, he can't help but feel happy. He doesn't know why but he just does.

"I don't get why?" She said breaking the silence. He looked at her confused. "You seem so happy when you were with your instructors or other spartans. Why do you leave in the first place, why do you sneak out almost every day?" She asked.

"That was all for show. I can fake it pretty damn good, to keep the guards from knowing what I am really up to. And to answer your other question," He said as he opened his arms and used both to point at the view.

"This is why I sneak out. I just feel at peace when staring at the ocean." He explained before crossing his arms again. "Out here, away from everyone. I can feel like i'm free, I don't have to worry about being compared to others. I can just be myself." He looked back at her with a small tear forming in his left eye. "Out here, I feel like I am much more than just a spartan, more then just a soldier, like I'm an actual human being."

He lowered his head. A single tear flow down his cheek and splash in the grass. He rarely cries. Last time was after witnessing his best friend, Dillon-073, death during the augmentation. They use to get in all sorts of trouble. Seeing who can piss off the drill instructor the most, who can kick who's ass in anything. Now he just felt alone on this universe after his death. No one understands him anymore, no one even listens to him anymore, like he's just a whisper in the wind. "I just want to feel normal. To fit in with anyone." He said quietly to himself

"But we are human, we're just physically superior to normal people." She replied. "And we are not lab rats. We're training to be humanity's finest, protector of Earth and her colonies. We train because it is needed, we accepted the augmentation because it was needed."

"Yea but it just feels unnatural." He replied after he forced the tears back."We already changed our natural bodies, we train our asses off." He was sounding a little mad. "I don't even remember my own last name, I use to etch it into the walls of my chamber every night with a pen but now, I can't even remember how many letters are in my name. How much more are we going to change and give because it's needed. What good is all of this going to do if we can't be our own person."

He never has told anyone how he truly feels. Like the others, he was trained to suppress their emotions in combat to avoid making terrible decisions. But he never truly suppressed them, he hid them till he got to the wilderness and unleashed all his frustrations out on what ever was around him. Mostly trees and rocks. But yesterday he just completely lost control, knocked out and injured several marine squads, five instructors, and a few of the other spartans during a training exercise, all because he couldn't control his new found strength or his emotions. All started when one of the jackass marines called him a lab monkey half way though hand-to-hand combat training. His punishment was three weeks of latrine duty, cleaning all the rifles for the next 2 months, and a couple hours in solitary confinement. He was lucky that Halsey talked them out of giving him a much, much worse punishment. He didn't know what she saw in him.

"If you hate it here so much then why don't you just leave?" She asked.

"Because you damn well know just as much as I do that I can't. I would be hunted down and dragged back to this hellhole by my heels as my fingers dig into the dirt." He replied with a lot of anger in his voice "If I do somehow manage to get off world, I would be on the run of rest of my life. Be trading one hell for another." He said with a defeated sigh.

"I can't say I agree with your views, but I also can't say I don't disagree with them either. Your views are what makes you your own person. No one can ever take that away from you." She said standing up now.

"I now get why you escape a lot. I get that you didn't want to change, but sometimes change is necessary to do what's right. We still have our humanity, we still are our own people. We can make our own decisions and follow other people's if we want..."

"Then prove it." He cut her off mid sentence. "Prove to me that we can make our own decisions, that we are not mindless machines being trained to kill. Do that and I'll go back quietly. Otherwise I'm staying here till the sun rises." He was now standing up and looking her straight in the eyes. He really wasn't going to stay out till sunrise, just before the marines change shifts in an hour. "Following me and sneaking out doesn't count. I mean right here, right now."

Daisy squinted her eyes at him like he was lying. He knew she couldn't think of any way to prove it without breaking any rules or regulations. He could think of a few but all of them would be expected from her. So she'll have to get really creative or do something really stupid.

"I thought so. We're all just blindly following what others tell us to do. We're all just machines waiting for orders." He said turning back to the beach. He quickly noticed she clenched her left hand into a fist. He could avoid a punch but he wanted to see what would she do. He wanted to know what she would do next. Punching him would just prove to him that they are just mindless machines blindly following orders.

She grabbed on to his shoulder with her other hand, twisted him around, and planted her lips on his. To say he was surprised would have been the understatement of the year. He felt her lips pressing against his, the warmth of their first and probably will be their only kiss, he honestly felt like the luckiest man who ever lived. She kissed him for a few seconds then pulled back.

"We are not all mindless machines, we make our own decisions and that proves it." She said looking right at him with a fiery determination in her eyes.

He blinked for a bit trying to make sense of what happened, that was his very first kiss. He expected her to do something like hit him or push him into the water or even kicking him in the family jewels, kissing him never even crossed his mind. Alas, it was a way she proved to him that she can made her own decisions, and he does follow his word. Admittedly he enjoyed the kiss.

"Alright, you proved me wrong. We'll head back now." He said as they walked back to the facility.

"Just to be clear. What happened between us, stays between us. You must swear not to tell anyone." She said quietly as they walked though the forest. He raised his right hand.

"You have my word that I won't tell another living soul." He promised with a slight smile as he put his hand down. "But i'm sure our instructors have no souls so..." He joked before she lightly punched him in the arm. He pushed one of the branches out of the way and avoided stepping on the dried leaf clusters but instead stepped on the wetter ones, less noise made but left light tracks if the ground was too wet. You never know if they sent out the others to find them. She followed his footsteps quiet carefully.

"You know, Me and my team are going to have a little chat with Halsey tomorrow. I'm wondering if you'll want in?" She asked in a low voice. He smiled at her and gave a little laugh ducking underneath a thicker branch. they would have to respond quietly as well to avoid capture.

"Depends. What kind of chat?" He responded. She smiled at him and jumped over the next branch.

"We're getting some answers, one way or another. If we're lucky we'll be able to go back home. Our real homes, before all this started. We could use your knowledge of the area and obvious stealth. Seeing how you manage to sneaked out and explored the area far more then anyone else has even tried." she said. "So, are you in or are you out?" He thought about it for a bit.

On one hand, he can go back to Sargasso, to be with his parents again. He hoped his parents would recognize him, or if he'll even recognize them, or that they're still alive. On the other hand, risk of extreme punishment, possibly locked up in 'the hole' or beaten. He sighed. In his mind, there was only one option.

"You can count me in. But if it fails, we get in huge trouble and possibly locked up. I'm high-tailing it as quickly as I can to the next ship off this rock. I don't care where, just out of here." He agreed. He didn't care about how much trouble he would get in, if it meant he could go home, he'll take it while he has some back-up. Screw being on the run, he'll take them all on. he can think of a backwater planet or two that would be perfect at hiding him.

"I couldn't agree more." She responded almost whispering. A though occurred to him, if Daisy managed to follow him, who's knows if he wasn't followed by someone else like Kurt-051, or Ralph-303, or Douglas-042, or John-117, assuming the still-as-a-brick-sleeper even woke up in the middle of the night. If they followed her out then there was a huge chance that the marines were already looking for him. Daisy would need to know how to get back. Wasn't as easy as sneaking out. If someone was looking for them, he would take all the blame. Daisy had more potential than him, wouldn't be the first time...hell, it wouldn't even be the thousandth time that they sent people to find him, he always made up some excuse every time he did get caught a while back. Most common one was he had to go to the bathroom, now it was what ever the hell he could think of on the spot. They even had a few armed marines sitting outside his chamber should he try to sneak out. Oh the desperate measures they take to keep him inside, and how futile they are compared to his imaginative mind.

"The wall is easily a 10 feet high and a two feet thick at it's weakest of solid concrete sloping up, towers posted along each corner and middles of each wall. Barb wire over lapped the top of the wall so no use climbing it. Sewer and water mains were barred up very good, no use trying that way. Only way to sneak in or out is through a ventilation shaft, south east wall by a blind-spot between two towers. That leads to the reactor's janitor closet. From there you sneak past loads of patrols and worthogs, if you can get to the building where we train and sleep, you go through the bathroom window. You'll be in a stall, third from the left in the men's restroom, make sure no one is using it first.

"Then you'll want to try and retrace your steps back to your bunk. Cameras and sensors are a different problem, each one is different. You'll have to figure that on your own. You get caught, I can't bail you out but don't rat me out if you do. I'll have a hard enough time solving the new security measures they'll put in place later. If a marine catches you, bribe him with a food, they go for it every time after midnight. Unless they happen to be the one ex-ODST around here, then you'll want to run like hell. No use bargaining with him without anything to satisfy his sweet tooth. Other than that, you can figure out pretty easily. Am I in anyway not clear?" He instructed her. He couldn't have been more proud of himself for finding a way in and out almost undetected for the past 3 years.

"Crystal." She whispered back.

They approached the walls to the facility. The marines guarding it had increased since he left, so sneaking back would be a huge pain in the ass. Then again, what moron would want to sneak back into a military facility after sneaking out of it, other than himself and Daisy.

"Alright,. I'll watch your back you watch mine. Let's move." He said sneaking through the shadows of the jungle.

~End of dream~

~0~

What would our mom's and dad's think of us if they saw us? I wonder if they'd recognize us- not because we've grown up, but because what's been done to us? All those years of training... all those horrible surgeries and augmentations.

~Daisy-023, 2525 in the woods on Reach. Few weeks after the augmentations.

~0~

Alright, hope you enjoyed. I don't know if I made Daisy out of character, hope I didn't. Oh well, I like it this way and I'm keeping it that that. I have not seen halo legends yet, will later maybe. Hope you liked the slight fluff between Daisy and Troy. Figured it was a flash back to help shed some light on his past, why not add another spartan into the mix, was either her with the fluff or John with no fluff but a nice fight scene. Figured you all would like the fluff a little bit more then some Spartans fighting each other. Maybe later in a different flashback. *troll face*

Maybe I'll try to build up a relationship between Troy-172 and Daisy-023. (Spoiler alert ahead for those who have not seen the episode 'homecoming'. I read it on the wiki.) She did die on Harvest, maybe she'll come back by god knows what. This is all just theories and ideas in my head, I want to hear your honest opinion. Go on my profile page and vote for whether or not I should keep her. I can keep going with or without Daisy so it won't effect me in the least.

Before any of you say I know nothing about halo, I beat Halo 3 and Halo wars on legendary with 3 skulls (grunt party is always on that list. It's just too fun to not put on.), still working on 4 at the moment. Though this chapter does raises a few new questions.

What changed Troy's attitude?

What is in store for Pichu later?

What will happen with Jewel and Candice?

Find out in the next chapter on one of these. This is Dgreen20, signing out.