AuthorsNote:Thanks to Gex-1539 for proofing this.
Disclaimer: Halo, Sangheili, Rtas, Thel/Arbiter and other canon characters belong to Bungie Studios/343 Industries. However, Original Characters, like Zeno, belong to me.
Chapter 8: No Going Back
Next morning, State of Hilvum
Sani sighed as he looked out the window, the morning colors of the sky just starting to fade into full daylight. Never before had he felt so lonely and empty, so sick with worry. He was finding hard to eat, sleep…anything really. Absently, he rubbed his right forearm, where this 'marriage' tattoo lay. The design is supposed to mean infinity, forever basically. A silly notion since no one lives forever, but now it seemed especially so, as Zeno was not likely to ever return. Was this whole 'marriage' thing a waste of their time: a symbolic gesture that lost its meaning far too soon?
"Sani," Lila's voice said. "Are you alright?"
"Of course not," he replied, rather bitterly. "Who would be when the love of their life ran off on a fool's errand?"
There was a sigh and out of the corner of his eye he saw Lila join him at the window. "You know him, Sani, likely better than even I. You know he could not leave this to pass without trying to do something about it."
"It is not that, Lila, it is the stakes against him." Sani sighed himself and turned toward her. "My hearts aches terribly with the knowledge that I am likely to never see him again. We have been together for so short a time…."
"I know things look dire, Sani, but we must have faith. Zeno has been through much in his life, been in situations that were just as dangerous and he pulled through."
"I know…I just wish…I could help him somehow…to improve his chances."
"This is something he has to do on his own, Sani," Lila reminded him. "Not to mention, word of your relationship with him is wide spread. If you had gone with him, someone recognizing you would have blown his cover."
She was right of course, though Sani hated to admit it. With another sigh he looked back out the window, noting that there was a rare faint 'mist' of ice crystals over the fields. As the triple suns rose, these would quickly melt, but for the time being they produced a beautiful 'ice rainbow' at certain angles. He wished Zeno could see this.
Overwhelmed by both the beauty of the scene before him and despair for the one he loved, he started weeping, lowering his head to the sill as he did so. He felt Lila embrace him, hoping to comfort him. Her hands were warm, but not as warm as Zeno's. He doubted anyone's would be as warm as his and this likelihood just made him weep harder.
After a moment he lifted his head to look out onto the fields again. The ice crystals were already starting to melt away, but something else caught his eye. Something was disturbing the mist of ice crystals, no, it was multiple things. He squinted and tried to focus on them only to widen them again when he realized what it was: active camo.
The Ribal blockade had turned into an invasion….
State of Ribal
Despite their situation and limited resources, the Gi'vea were very generous to him.
Usually the Gi'vea would flat out refuse any male who requested to sleep in the House overnight. However, these were unusual and even dangerous times, so they allowed Zeno to sleep in one of the counseling rooms. They even let him sleep in a bit before rousing him a few hours before the challenge was to start.
He ate lightly, both for his own sake and to not take up more of the limited resources than the Gi'vea had. One of them gave him a massage, which helped to loosen up muscles that had been tense since he arrived here. After that, while he did a final check of his equipment, they spoke to him, giving him an means to voice any last worries and concerns, though they all knew there was little they could do to alleviate those things beyond words of encouragement.
A part of Zeno wanted to stay here and soak up the Gi'vea's generosity for even longer, but he knew that was out of fear of what was to come. Fear he could not afford now. With a bit of effort, he put all his worries and concerns out of his mind and focused on the task ahead. He thanked the Gi'vea for their help and once again descended into the tunnel network.
Fear was like a specter hovering just outside his field of vision: disappearing when he tried try to focus on it, but always there, lurking in the shadows of his mind. It seemed to dance around him, tempting and taunting him, never allowing itself to be banished completely. All Zeno could do was ignore it and focus on the battle ahead and reminding himself why he was doing this. Still the fear grew and it was at its strongest when he reached the exit that would lead directly into the Arena.
He stood there for several minutes, staring at the door, his body unwilling to move to open it. With time running short, he finally mastered his fear and accepted whatever fate that was to come to him. He breathed a long sigh of resignation as he activated the door, the stone moving aside almost soundlessly. Zeno activated his camo and slipped out from behind the expected tapestry that concealed the door and this time, he activated the means to close the door.
Zeno had been in the Arena a few times in his life and it still looked impressive to him, even now. Massive stone walls surrounded a large circular 'pit' fifty feet in diameter where the combatants fought. The pit itself was sunken into the ground about one meter, with two short stairways on either side. The bottom covered with sand: to soak up the blood, they say. Along the main walls were observation seats, where spectators that had a vested interest in the battle, in this case it would be the elders, could watch. Besides the secret door Zeno just used, there was only one entrance into the Arena: supposedly to keep cowards backing out on their challenges from easily escaping.
It looked like he was the first one here, as he saw no one else. That quickly changed though with the arrival of the elders, whom quickly went and sat in one row of observation seats. They were muttering to themselves, but Zeno was not close enough to hear their conversation: likely speculation on who the challenger was. They will know, soon enough, Zeno thought grimly.
Moments later the kaidon, Ley, arrived, dressed in traditional Sangheili armor. He had a perplexed look on his face that did not match the intimidating armor he wore. "Noble elders," Ley said. "I was about to summon you here myself, only to discover that another has done so for me. Tell me, who was it that did this?"
Zeno knew then that it was time to reveal himself. "That would be me," he said, stepping forward, deactivating his camo as he did so. The look on Ley's face, and the elders for that matter, was of shock.
"Who is he!" one of the elders demanded. "Is he even a Ribal!"
"Of course he is you fool!" Ley snapped once he recovered. "I know that voice…that armor. Zeno…Why have you returned?"
"Why do you think, Ley?" Zeno growled. Whatever fear he had was now gone, replaced by anger. Anger at what Ley did and denied him as a child, what he did and tried to do to Kou and other things. He was careful to temper this anger though, for he knew that letting his emotions control this battle would only quicken his death. "You and your pet Uslo are leading this keep to destruction. Kou would be spinning his grave at what you are doing!"
Ley visibly flinched at the mention of Kou's name. "You know nothing about what is going on here," he said.
"I know enough, you hypocrite!" Zeno countered. "Lila told me everything!"
"So I see…but even she does not know all that is going on," Ley said as he stepped into the pit. "Not that it matters now. Do you really think you have the skill to take me out, Zeno?"
"As I told one of your cronies that tried to kill me a few days ago," Zeno said as he jumped into the pit himself. "I did not get into the SpecOps due to my good looks. I am not the untrained youth you berated and scorned all those years ago."
"I will be the judge of that," Ley growled as he ignited his pair of kisans. "Come at me, Zeno. Let us see how much you have really learned!"
With a roar, Zeno ignited his own kisans and charged….
His head hurt.
That was the first thing that came to mind as consciousness returned to him. The next thing he became aware of was the soft humming vibration of a cool metal floor underneath him. It was familiar, so were other sounds that he heard. He also realized his hands were bound. After a moment it all clicked into place. Sani opened his eyes and confirmed where he was: the passenger bay of a phantom.
"Humph, this one finally woke up," a gruff voice growled. Sani looked up to see the face of Ribal warrior looking down at him. "Why did we have to bother bringing this weakling too?"
"To ensure the Gi'vea behaved herself," another Ribal said. "It would have been a shame to bruise such a pretty face…"
"Bah…sure a pretty face, but she fights like a demon!" a third grumbled. "My groin still tingles from that kick she gave me…."
He remembered now. The Ribals had sent a squad of cloaked warriors to capture Lila and himself. He had managed to kill two of them at range with plasma pistol before they got too close. To his shame, he was quickly overwhelmed and rendered unconscious. Looking around, he counted only four warriors guarding them: he recalled seeing eight before he lost consciousness, which meant they lost more to the responding Tal before they escaped.
"Sani…." He turned to see Lila sitting on the floor across from him. "Are you alright?"
"I have a minor headache…." He moved his limbs and found them to be intact. "But other than that, I think I am fine."
"If you do not be quiet, you will have more to worry about," one of the warriors sneered.
"You would risk losing honor by harming someone that is unarmed and helpless?" Sani retorted. "That is…if your keep has any honor left…."
"Why you little!" The warrior moved to kick him, but another held him back.
"Enough! He has a point," the other warrior said. "There is no honor in attacking someone that cannot fight back."
"This whole operation is dishonorable," Lila hissed softly.
"Mind your mouth, Gi'vea. What does a female know of honor?"
"More than you do, apparently," Sani retorted.
"Shut up weakling!"
"Weak, am I?" Sani growled. "I killed two of your fellows before you reached us and that was before you decloaked. That you had to use camo to get close to us in the first place…." He left the statement hanging.
"Why you!"
"Enough!" the forth warrior, apparently the leader of the squad, barked. "We are about to land. Let Uslo decide what to do with him."
Of course, they were being taken to the Ribal keep. While Sani's hearts soared at the chance of seeing Zeno again, he also dreaded how he would see him. For all he knew, Zeno could have already made his attempt and be laying dead in some unmarked grave. Worse, Zeno could still be gathering information and allies and hear of this: he would most likely drop everything to free them and ruin his chances. He dare not voice any question that may reveal Zeno's location, however.
The phantom landed a moment later and the warriors forced them down the grav lift. At the bottom, a Sangheili warrior in captains armor was waiting for them: it had to be Uslo.
"Who is this?" Uslo said, pointing at Sani. "He is not who I asked you to get. And where are the rest of you? I sent eight to do this mission."
"The Gi'vea seemed fond of this one," the squad leader said. "So we brought him along to ensure her compliance. As for my squad, we unfortunately suffered causalities during the main phase."
"To be expected, what with his suspected skill," Uslo mused. "I take it you won in the end?"
"Actually, sir…." The squad leader looked nervous. "We determined that Zeno was not even in the Hilvum state at the time of our attack."
"What?" Uslo snapped. He then looked pointedly at Sani and Lila. "Where is he? Tell me!"
"On a mission," Lila said vaguely.
"To where and what is this mission?"
"He is SpecOps," Sani replied, playing along. "Do you honestly think we would be prudent to know that kind of information?"
Uslo grinded his mandibles together in evident frustration, but then his mood brightened. "No matter. Soon enough he will hear that we have his sister again and he will come running…to his death."
At least now Sani knew for certain Zeno wasn't dead yet. It was only a small comfort though. Things suddenly changed though when a keep guard ran up to them, an urgent look on his face. "Captain! The kaidon has been challenged!" the man said.
At this Uslo became furious. "What! When!" he demanded. "By who!"
"I do know when the challenge was officially made, but it is going on right now!"
"Who damn you!" Uslo grabbed the man and shook him.
"I do not know! Some SpecOps guy!"
Uslo froze and Sani glanced at Lila, whom looked at him. Around them it got very quiet as it dawned on everyone around who it was that challenged the kaidon. Uslo finally turned back toward them, his face at first unreadable, but then slowly transformed into a malicious grin that sent a chill down Sani's spine.
"So…this is his mission then," Uslo said with a chuckle. "Hmm…A bit sooner than I wanted, but this will be perfect regardless." He looked at the squad leader. "Take them and follow me. The rest of you return to the blockade. Soon the Hilvums will pay for their resistance. In the meantime, let us see how your dear Zeno is faring against the kaidon…."
As the squad leader pushed them forward, Sani fell into despair. The last thing he wanted was to actually witness Zeno's death….
Meanwhile…
Zeno panted heavily a couple of times, catching his breath and as he glared at Ley on the other side of the dueling pit. So far, neither had broken through the other's defenses, but unlike him, Ley didn't seem to be even winded. He realized that if he was to have a chance, he would have to pace himself, else he would end up too exhausted to fight and be easily slain. That he was not allowed to use his shield systems during this battle did not help any.
"You have an interesting style, Zeno," Ley commented. "Acrobatic, fast and, unfortunately, high-energy. You will not last much longer like this, pity you never learned the proper way to use kisans."
"Gee, I wonder why that is?" Zeno snapped. "You denied it to me, so I had to improvise."
"Yes…and that improvision may cost you in the end."
"Shut up, Ley: this is a duel to the death, not a training session."
"Yes…you are right about that." At that Ley rushed forward. Zeno went on the defensive, fending off a flurry of blows. A couple got through, resulting in minor cuts on his arms and legs. "Your defense needs work," Ley said with a smirk, backing off a couple of paces. "But at least you held your ground. I remember that one time; you were backing away like a little coward…."
"I remember that day all too well," Zeno growled. "That scar you gave me still aches from time to time." Ley seemed to be toying with him: it was like he was not taking this fight seriously and it was starting to annoy Zeno. He decided to try something similar to what he did with Koni. When Ley started to come at him again, he backed away until he was almost at the low wall of the pit. Then, he jumped against that wall and propelled himself off it, sending him sailing over Ley.
He twisted as he flew, his blades slicing downward. Ley was not completely prepared for such a move, but was able to twist mostly out of the way, resulting in Zeno's blades only scoring his back armor. What came next though, Zeno nearly lost his head from.
Ley was still twisting around when Zeno landed and as Zeno turned to face him, he saw a blade coming right for his head. Instinctively, Zeno stepped back and turned his head to the side, but not quite far enough. Ley's blade sliced through his helmet and cut into his right brow ridge. The cut followed his brow ridge almost all the way down to his ear hole.
"Argh!" Zeno danced back, away from Ley. He had to resist dropping a sword to pull off his helmet to inspect the wound.
"Reckless!" Ley chided. "You do not use a tactic like that unless you are willing to give your life away! One of us needs to walk away from this!"
"Why the fuck do you care?" Zeno snapped. "I already know you can kill me easily, so stop holding back already!"
'If you are so certain you will die, why did you challenge me?"
"Again, why do you care? You have wanted me dead for years and now that you have your chance, and with Kou no longer here to interfere in fact, you are holding back."
"So you desire to just throw your life away?"
"Of course not!"
"Then what do you fight for?"
All this talk was getting on his nerves. "None of your business, Ley!" he roared as he charged. "All you need to know is that I want you dead!"
Zeno gave it all he had over the next several minutes. He succeeded in opening a couple of minor wounds on Ley, but it was not enough. When their swords became locked at one point, Ley suddenly threw his arms open, forcing Zeno's blades wide. No! Zeno knew what was coming and he tried to bring a blade back quick enough to blow the coming blow, but he was not quick enough. Ley slashed him across the chest with an upward slash, the blade cutting through his armor and into his flesh. Zeno gasped at the pain, but didn't have time to do much besides that due to the round house kick to the face he got next.
He fell to the arena floor, tumbling a couple of times before falling still. His swords, he hadn't a clue where they went flying. He just knew they were no longer in his hands. Above, he heard the elders moan in disappointment and despair, for they knew it was over. Ley, however, didn't seem to agree with that.
"Get up, Zeno," Ley barked. "Get up!"
Whatisthepoint? Zeno thought as he struggled to rise. I have no weapon. No, wait, he did have a weapon. He just had to wait for the right moment.
Zeno got it a moment later, when Ley approached him. "Get up you fool!" he hissed, leaning over him. "Do not tell me you have given up already!"
"Of course not," Zeno snarled as he made his move. He flipped over, using that momentum to add more power to his swing. At the last moment he activated the energy dagger on that hand: Ley, caught by surprise could not evade the blow. However due to the bad position and angle, Zeno missed a killing blow, the blade instead stabbing Ley in the right shoulder.
"Ugh!" Ley cried, staggering back. He stared at the wound for a moment before giving Zeno a small smile. "Good," he said. "Very good. There is still a fire in your heart, a will to live."
"I am not…going to lay down and die for you," Zeno said as he struggled to his feet. "I may be a dead man…but I am not going to die easily!" Gods his chest burned like fire and it was a bit hard to breathe.
"I would not want it any other way…."
Before he could react, Ley was on him again. Strangely enough, he did not use his swords this time, said blades were deactivated and on his hips once more. Not that it mattered, for the elder Sangheili easily slipped behind him and got him in a choke hold.
"What do you fight for?" Ley growled in his ear, ripping off Zeno's helmet with his free hand. Without his helmet, he could not access his armor systems, including the energy daggers: he was helpless.
"Why do you care?" Zeno gasped, trying to pry Ley's arm from around his neck. "End it already!"
"I will not until you answer me!" Ley insisted. "What are you fighting for!"
Zeno knew that not answering would likely result in his death anyway, so he relented. "I fight for Sanghelios," he replied.
"For Sanghelios?" Ley echoed mockingly. "Are you a fool? You fight for those that largely despise you for what you are?"
"So long as there are Sangheili out there that respect me for what and who I am," Zeno said softly. "It is worth fighting for. I give my life for those that I love and respect, to try to protect them from the follies of this keep."
He fight Ley's grip tighten. "Name them," Ley demanded.
"Rtas, the Arbiter, the Gi'vum, Henun, Sefo, Lila, Herdmaster Koro, the Hilvums…." He was running out of air and he was only just barely gasped out the last name. "Sani…." I am sorry, Sani…, he thought, tears in his eyes as his vision started to go dark. I failed you…I failed everyone….
A/N:Only two more chaps and a commentary to go!
