A/N: So sorry about the delay! Life has kinda been kicking our asses these last two weeks. Midnight got sick and Princess lost her muse…but we did our best to shorten the delay as much as possible. We're not going to promise every other Friday anymore, but we will try our best to keep the schedule as close to that as possible. Once again, thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or followed us or Solace and sorry for the wait!

Disclaimer: We do not own Halo or any of its associated characters or plotlines.

The Point of No Return was sitting quietly in the empty reaches of space near Hoag's object. There was never any point in colonizing the young galaxy: there were no habitable planets nearby and the galaxy was a slipspace jump away from any of the UNSC bases. This seclusion made it the ideal place to escape in a stealth cruiser, to plan their next move.

That didn't mean Master Chief had to like it.

The SPARTAN was still in full armor. He hated this waiting. This planning stage. He'd never wanted to leave the UNSC, but neither could he leave Cortana or let her disappear again. He stared at the nucleus of the galaxy, naught but a bright dot in the distance. The reflective yellow of his helmet masked any expression he may have made.

Whether he liked it or not, they were fugitives now. Which meant there would be a lot of running and hiding in their near future. Master Chief hated hiding. Give him and enemy any day of the week, he'd take it, kill it and get on with his life. Hiding meant waiting for the enemy to come to you.

Master Chief didn't do waiting.

-oOOo-

Shelke had purposely lost track of the hours they'd kept her here, because thinking about it was making her insane. She knew that she'd spent that first long while trying fruitlessly to slip into the network and escape, but the terminal they'd plugged her into didn't have the capability. She suspected that they'd cut the hardlines to this terminal, to cage her here. So she sat, legs crossed, staring at the wall in front of her. A recessed door was hidden along one of the wall, and she'd decided it was most likely that one. She didn't intend to let them sneak up on her.

Somewhere deep inside of her, she was keeping track of the time, and she subconsciously knew that it had been more than a day since their act of rebellion. Even though she refused to think about it, that worried her; she'd assumed all the "traitors" would be imprisoned together, or at least near enough to catch a glimpse of when they were brought in, but she hadn't seen anyone since her captors had left her here. She hoped Sophie was alive, then scoffed at herself; she'd seen Sophie come through much worse, during the war. Sometimes, here in the dark, she found herself drawn into those memories, in spite of the greater danger that she found herself in now. Maybe her lack of focus was due to her boredom, nothing more; still, it disturbed her.

She'd also caught herself following two separate and distinct trains of thought, one in her head, the other in the jumbled mess of language and code that spilled from her digital lips. And she realized that the ability to consciously catch herself doing this meant that she was pursuing at least a few more strings of thought, which scared her a little. It was happening to her now; like Cortana had before her, she was quietly going mad, here in the darkness.

She just hoped that she wasn't pulsing orange by the time someone came for her.

-oOOo-

"Chief?" Her voice was uncharacteristically soft, as it had been since she'd woken up. He turned slightly towards her, but otherwise didn't react. "What are we going to do?"

He didn't answer for a long moment. "We have to get to Earth."

"What are we going to do once we get there? How are we even supposed to get there? The UNSC will be looking for this ship. They'll be looking for us!" Her voice had gotten steadily louder as she spoke. "We're only two people John! There's no chance that we'll be able to make it to Earth on ONI's flagship."

"…" He turned away from her, looking out into the emptiness of space around them. "We'll jump to Falaknuma and swap ships there."

"You want to jump straight into a prowler base that is effectively another operating base for ONI and steal a ship?" He could see her reflected in the thick glass that separated the bridge where they stood from space. The incredulous tone of her voice was mirrored in her stance and expression, with her hands on her hips, eyebrows drawn together and low on her forehead as her lip curled. "That's going to be extremely difficult, even for you Chief."

He smiled mirthlessly behind his helmet. "There is no easy option for us anymore Cortana."

-oOOo-

Irene had never been confined to her quarters before, but she was finding that she didn't like it much. If they'd put her in her rooms alone, she would have read or slept or meditated until the time came; but as it stood, they'd stuffed Halsey into her rooms with her. The other woman bore the captivity well, but had become very critical of her surroundings after a few hours.

Halsey disliked the lack of food beyond protein shakes and granola bars, wryly pointing out that a SPARTAN body needed more to survive. Irene had uncharacteristically snapped back with something about her habit of eating lunch and dinner in the cafeteria with Lasky or Palmer and received only an infuriating smirk in return. And Halsey paced through the rooms, thwarting Irene's attempts to meditate.

Irene knew that her habits made her incompatible with many people, but this was too much. The stress of their rebellion was getting to her, just a little bit; she ached to be brought before Parangosky, to be given a chance to put all of her diplomatic skill into making her see their side. She was programmed to bring peace, and being unable to do so set her on edge.

She wasn't even sure what it was that had set Parangosky against them; she assumed that Parangosky was wise enough to put her problems with Halsey aside at an opportunity like this. As far as she could tell, it had to be a security problem, like if Cortana went into a combat zone and her synth body, with all its sensitive data, was compromised. Irene had winced at the thought of that data falling into enemy hands, be they Forerunner or Covenant. At the same time, she recognized that Chief would never allow that to happen while he lived. And in the past, enemies of the UNSC had found it very difficult to kill Chief, a circumstance that was unlikely to change soon.

As such, she acknowledged what she thought Parangosky feared, and dismissed it as invalid with Chief in mind. She understood the opposing argument as well as her own, knew its weaknesses, and was ready to throw it back in Parangosky's face, given a few moments with the woman. That she had no control over when or if she would meet with the Admiral irked her, but she was ready, so she put that behind her.

She spent some time worrying over everyone. Chief and Cortana had gotten away cleanly, by her estimation: Why else were they languishing in confinement, if not to wait until the other "traitors" were captured? Shelke had done a good job with that. Irene only wished there had been time for Cortana to wake up before they'd had to flee; if there was a problem with the body, they would be on their own to fix it. She hoped it wouldn't come to that; the minds behind the body and its OS were too sharp for that.

Shelke had been taken from them, and they hadn't seen her again. She'd surrendered herself calmly enough on the Point of No Return had got away, but she'd had to split herself to combat the onboard AIs. Irene knew what that meant; different personalities arising, wildly angry at everything, dragging Shelke into rampancy. She hoped that they hadn't left the little AI alone somewhere, to think herself to death.

Sophie was a little more complicated; no one had seen her after she led Chief through the horde, and the last news they'd had of her had not been comforting. She was likely injured, though the degree of her injuries was dependent on the weapons she'd faced. And the number of weapons and where she had faced them played into it as well. Irene was almost certain that she was imprisoned somewhere on Infinity, in conditions nowhere near as comfortable as being confined to quarters. Probably the brig, or some similarly unsavory place. But Sophie was tough; a few days in a cell wouldn't harm her much. A few days without news of Shelke, on the other hand, might drive her to desperate measures, and they needed her to be calm when she finally got out.

Something would have to be done. Irene turned her mind to the task.

-oOOo-

"Chief." Cortana was powering up the slipspace drive, eyes glowing eerily as she punched in the coordinates for Falaknuma. "Why did you leave?" A series of beeps issued from the control terminal and the black-haired woman smiled triumphantly before turning to face him. "You know we can never go back now, don't you?"

He stared at her from behind the golden orange visor of his helmet. There was no real reason for him to leave. They were trying to take Cortana away from him, but it would have only been a matter of time until Irene or Halsey convinced Lord Hood to pull rank on Parangonsky to allow them to go ahead with the procedure. But he didn't know that for sure. "I made a promise." He didn't know if Hood would have helped them. And he never broke promises. He wasn't happy that they were running from the only thing he'd ever known. He didn't know how to be anything other than a precision killing machine and he certainly didn't know what he was going to do once he and Cortana had escaped from the UNSC once and for all.

Not that he was quite sure that he wanted to escape in the first place.

"It was going to happen sooner or later. They don't need me anymore." That, at least, was something he knew for certain. The Human-Covenant War was over. Almost all of the SPARTAN-IIs were MIA. The UNSC didn't need him anymore. He was silent as he turned that thought over in his head. He wouldn't have left if they still needed him. But with the war over, he was just as out of place in the UNSC as he was separated from it. That was why he'd been able to leave.

-oOOo-

Cortana knew that John was not a stupid person. Some had made that mistake in the past; mistaking his silence for lack of understanding. But she knew better. The fact that he'd spoken more than a single sentence was indicative of the amount of consideration that was going on in that head of his. Her SPARTAN wasn't as smart as she was, very few AIs could even come close to that title, let alone a title. But he was smart enough for her. And though she had her doubts, if he believed they would be able to steal a ship from the prowler base on Falaknuma, she would follow him. "Thank you. For keeping your promise."

She joined him at the window, electric blue eyes no longer glowing. She'd discovered that her eyes only glowed and swirled with data when she was connected to a terminal. At any other time she could pass for a human. That being said, there were huge differences between the flash clone she'd inhabited just last week and this synth body. The flash clone had been basically human, unable to connect or interact with networks and data: very restrictive for a being as curious and intelligent as Cortana. This body was…different. It was almost like her avatar: the "brain" of this body was her processor and all commands were carried out per her instructions. She'd already programmed some basic reactions to certain stimuli-withdrawal from pain, dilation and contraction of pupils in response to light changes to name a few. But she would never be fully human in this body and she knew it.

She would have to get used to that imperfect solution, to the impossibility of some of her dreams. She leaned against her SPARTAN, not minding the unyielding metal against her soft skin. "As long as we're together, I don't mind running away." He didn't answer, but his stance relaxed slightly, allowing her to lean against him more. The armor was cool under her fingertips and she smiled, remembering that moment on the Didact's ship when she'd been so happy to be able to touch him at least once before she disappeared. Now she could touch him anytime she wanted, even though she knew she wouldn't because it made him uncomfortable. Cortana could work with that though. "We'll be at Falaknuma in a couple hours John. You should try to rest." He didn't answer her, but she wasn't concerned. He did things in his own time.

-oOOo-

Sophie was bored. She was cramped and uncomfortable, and her head ached where someone had cracked her over the head and knocked off her helmet. But above all that, she was bored, stuffed into this dark cell down in the bowels of Infinity. They'd shoved her in here when it was done, eight of them flanking her to guard against an escape attempt, even though she'd calmly surrendered as soon as Chief and Cortana were off. She was glad that she'd been able to hold most of the SPARTANs off long enough to see them off safely. It burned a little that they'd managed to overpower her and go after Chief, but she'd been grossly outnumbered. And they were SPARTANs, even if they were the green SPARTAN-IVs, with all their fancy equipment. So it was a bearable defeat, one that could be recouped later. As long as she was alive, she would keep fighting, and damn anyone who tried to stop her to hell itself.

She needed to live, for now; needed to stay alive until she could get Shelke into a body like Cortana's, until she could save her sister. It would be hard to keep Shelke alive, with the UNSC against them, but she knew how to walk a fine line while remaining true to her purpose. She would get Shelke a body, no matter the cost.

-oOOo-

Cortana was asleep in one of the cabins, seeing as there was at least two hours left before they reached their destination. Chief hadn't stirred from his place on the bridge, despite there being nothing to see since they were still in the slipspace. He was currently planning his attack strategy once they reached the prowler base. So far, his plan was to leave the stealth coating on The Point of No Return until they were almost to the base, planting HORNET mines as they approached. When they were close enough to be detected, they would deactivate the stealth coating and impersonate Admiral Paragosky, claiming that a fleet of rogue Covenant Seraphs were pursuing them and that they needed to land safely for repairs. With any luck, in the commotion that followed, they would be able to land safely and either stow away on one of the prowlers or take one that wasn't going into "battle."

He had a lot of faith in his luck.

-oOOo-

Lasky and Palmer were suspects as well, but there wasn't as much evidence against them, since Palmer had been the one to order the SPARTAN-IVs to bring in Chief and Cortana before they could escape. That they'd failed to do so was no fault of the commanding officer, but she was being watched all the same. Lasky was in a spot of trouble for allowing Chief to reach the frigate launch bay; the investigators thought that he should have been able to guess where they were headed. His obvious ignorance of their plans lightened some of the pressures, but he had ONI dogs following him around as well. The circumstances left them with little time to meet and plan on helping their friends, but Palmer had already started agitating to have her lieutenant commander released, as well as Irene, for missions. Halsey and Shelke were a little out of reach, but Lasky had asked Roland to search the ship for areas where Shelke might be imprisoned, and was watching out for Halsey too. If everything went as planned, they'd have everybody out of confinement soon, though what happened after that was anyone's guess.

-oOOo-

It was Palmer who came for her, her brown eyes unreadable. "Get up, SPARTAN. It's time."

Sophie obeyed, but didn't move towards the door. "Sarah." The other woman glanced at her sharply for using her first name, then nodded for her to go on. "Where is Shelke? Is she…?"

Palmer looked away. "I don't know."

-oOOo-

He woke Cortana as they were leaving slipspace. She blinked up at him blearily, shaking her head to get the short black strands out of her eyes. "Are we there?" He nodded shortly, helping her out of the bunk and standing back as she slipped into the boots Irene had shoved on her unconscious form as they were escaping.

They walked to the bridge in silence, their footsteps the only noise in the empty ship. They could see Falaknuma in the distance as they reached the bridge. Cortana stared at the debris field surrounding the planet, the last remnant of Habitat Exodus. "Start laying out the mines once we enter the debris."

The former AI stared at him incredulously, eyebrows disappearing into her hair. "You want me to pilot this ship through a debris field while simultaneously laying mines? "At Master Chief's silence, she sighed. "Whatever you say Chief. Hopefully the Prowler Corps are in for a surprise."

Chief nodded. "You'll also need to drop the shielding and impersonate Parangosky once we're close enough to the base."

Cortana huffed indignantly. "Why is the distance from the frying pan to the fire always so short whenever I'm around you?" Chief shrugged and Cortana tsked, turning back to the ship's controls. "Hold on to something. We're in for a bumpy ride."