A/N:
Hey guys! Firstly I'd like to apologize dearly for the huge wait between chapters. I've been really busy in real-life recently. But thank you all for being patient and for the great reviews. :) I read all of them and they always bring a smile to my face.
Oh, this level, Keyes…This level always used to scare me as a child. O.o
Hopefully I will be updating more often more now on!

Also, if any of you would like to add me on Xbox LIVE to play Halo and whatnot, my Gamertag is OctavalSundew. I finally got Gold, yay!

AWAKENED DESTINY CHAPTER 9 - Keyes

"The Covenant network is in absolute chaos! From what I've been able to piece together, their leadership ordered all ships to abandon Halo when they found the Flood, but they were too late," Cortana explained, "The Flood overwhelmed this cruiser and disabled it. The Covenant are terrified the Flood will repair the ship and use it to escape from Halo. They've sent in a strike team to neutralize the Flood and repair the ship for immediate departure. I've got a good lock on Captain Keyes' CNI transponder signal! He's alive! And the implants are intact! There's some interference from the cruiser's damaged reactor. I'll bring us in as close as I can."
John and most of Noble Team, excluding Carter, teleported into the Truth and Reconciliation - Upside down, at the end of the corridor. Everybody groaned and got to their feet.
"Man, I feel dizzy," Scarlett commented, whilst Jorge nodded in agreement.
"Ohh... I see, the coordinate data needs to be―" Cortana mused, interrupted as John whacked the side of his helmet.
"Right. Sorry." Cortana replied sheepishly.
Suddenly, Carter teleported into the corridor they were in, also landing upside down.
"Carter!" Kat cried out of surprise, helping Carter up, before realising that he too, had a fake arm.
"Carter..." She whispered, searching Carter's eyes for some sort of clue to how he was feeling. He looked away often, and fiddled with his now fake arm a lot, too. This was not Carter's usual behavior. Kat knew that this new arm had caused his confidence to suffer, much like it had to hers.
Before she could ask if he was alright, John stepped beside her and gently tapped Carter on the shoulder.
"You going to be okay?" He asked in his trademark deep voice.
Carter nodded slowly, suddenly regaining his confidence, "Why wouldn't I be?" He asked John, before turning the rest of Noble. "Let's move, Noble Team!" Carter ordered, already walking down the remainder of the corridor.
Kat and John exchanged looks, before Kat explained, "Carter isn't the type of man to admit he isn't feeling comfortable with something, especially when it's degrading his confidence and making him feel weaker."
John nodded silently.
They were almost at the end of the corridor when suddenly they heard a weak voice crackling over the COMMS.
"SPARTANs... Don't be fools...Leave me..." Keyes weakly told them.
"Captain? Captain?!" Cortana asked, worried. No response came. "I've lost him..." Cortana informed them.
"Was that Keyes?" Carter asked, suddenly stopping.
John nodded, "Yes."
"What happened to him?" Carter asked.
"...That we don't know." Scarlett replied, worried for Keyes, too.
"Commander, how are you feeling?" Jorge asked.
"...I...I'm fine, Jorge." Carter replied reluctantly.
"Are you sure? 'Cause you sure don't act-" Jun began, but was suddenly interrupted by Kat, "Let's just continue with our mission."
Carter narrowed his eyes at Jun, but reluctantly agreed.
The group moved forward, almost reluctantly, looking out for any Flood, which they were bound to come across sooner or later; the ship was flood-infested.

They headed through the door in front of them and came across a grunt screeching, running away from an unarmed Elite Combat form. The Team immediately opened fire, and as quickly as they had came running down the corridor, both the combat form and the grunt were dead.
They continued onwards, coming across a pack of grunts. John threw a frag grenade into the pack, and easily enough, they were taken care of, thrown into the air from the force of the explosion.
"Yea, that's my kind of kill!" Emile exclaimed, receiving a glare shot from Carter.
Up ahead, there were two more combat forms and a carrier form. Emile charged ahead, shooting whatever he could see with his shotgun, and quickly backing up as the carrier form released its flood spores. However, the infection forms were easily taken care of by the remainder of the Team.
The Team soon came across a large hole in the ground.
"Great, what do we do now?" Jun asked, irritated.
"Cortana?" Carter asked, reminding himself of how much he had asked Dot, their previous A.I. when he was suck or confused on a mission. He wondered what had happened to Dot and Colonel Holland.
"Analyzing damage," Cortana replied, her voice buzzing into their ears, "This hole was caused by some kind of explosive. Very powerful if it tore through a ship's hull. All I can detect down there are pools of coolant. We should continue our search somewhere else."
"Well, were else are we supposed to go?" Emile asked sarcastically. John grunted and shrugged, "Just listen to Cortana." He advised. Emile rolled his eyes.
"Uh, guys…" Scarlett suddenly spoke, looking up at the ceiling. "I think there's Flood coming through!"
Just as she spoke, Flood poured from the ceiling. The Team quickly acted, Emile shooting more Flood with his shotgun, and Jun sniping some Flood close-quarters, which was not a good idea. The shot bounced off a wall and almost hit Jorge in the head; "Maybe you shouldn't use that in CQC, Jun." Jorge advised him.
"Oh, uhh, sorry…" Jun replied awkwardly, quickly switching to a DMR.
"Warning! Threat level increasing!" Cortana yelled out, just as more Flood dropped from the ceiling.
"Cortana…Do something!" Carter barked.
"That jump into the coolant is looking better all the time, SPARTANs!" Cortana advised them.
John shook his head; "I'm not sure," He replied, "We don't know what's down there."
"Trust me! It's deep enough to cushion our fall!" Cortana advised them.
John hesitated for a second. He did trust her; and more Flood were coming through the ceiling. It was either jumping into the coolant or facing the possibility of dying. John knew it was up to him to keep the Team alive, so he took the call, "Jump!" He yelled.
They all jumped into the coolant. The Flood that had been attacking thankfully did not follow, but there appeared to be a large battle brewing between Covenant and Flood below them.
"Let's get out of here, and find another way back aboard the ship." Cortana advised them. The Team stepped out of the coolant and stepped into a narrow corridor.
A group of Elites stood in their path, but it was easily taken out; they continued down the corridor, following where the Elites had come from. It was completely silent, until Kat gently asked Carter, "How is your arm?"
Kat couldn't deny it; she cared very deeply for Carter and worried a lot about him, particularly with the situation he was currently in, with loosing his arm.
Carter was silent for a few moments before finally replying. "It's hard to adapt…I'm sorry if I took you for granted, Kat. I understand how hard it is for you now. It's weird. It doesn't feel right. I feel as if I can't have control of my arm now, which is odd, because I can…but I just feel like I'm a robot. This arm; it doesn't look natural. It looks like some sort of rushed add-on, making me look like a robot," He sighed gently. "You won't believe the way people look at me sometimes. Makes me feel as if I am a robot."
Kat nodded, "I understand how you feel." She said gently, finally coming to terms herself how hard it had been after loosing her arm, as well as the previous Noble Six, Thom.

They continued onwards and found a group of Flood and Covenant battling it out. Emile was about to charge in and kill everything in sight, but Jun halted him, "Stop. Let's just lay low. Stay undercover; chances are, they'll wipe most of each other out, and we can just pick off whoever survived.
John nodded in response, "Listen to Jun. It's a good plan.
"We don't have long…" Cortana suddenly spoke, "I'm worrying for the Captain."
"We understand, Cortana, but it's important we all make it out alive, too." Carter replied.
Soon enough, the majority of Covenant and Flood fighting had died, leaving a few combat forms alive, that were quickly taken care of.
"Good, let's move." Jun told them, receiving glares from both John and Carter, who considered themselves as the Leaders.
"We should head this way, towards the ship's gravity lift." Cortana advised the Team, marking a point on their HUDs.
After fighting their way through yet more Flood and the occasional Grunt or Elite, they came across Hunters.
"Ugh, again? More Hunters?" Scarlett questioned, shaking her head. She'd already had enough of them.
Luckily for them, the Hunters were too busy fighting Flood carrier forms to notice the SPARTANs, and so, Jun took the advantage and simply sniped the Hunters, whilst the remainder of the Team took out the remaining combat forms.
"The crash did more damage than I suspected," Cortana mused, "Analyzing. Coolant leakage rate is significant. The ship's reactor should already have gone critical."
They continued onwards and found a group of grunts, as well as an Elite in a shade turret. Scarlett successfully took care of the grunts by assassinating them, whilst the rest of the Team killed the Elite in the shade turret.
More combat forms charged towards them, as well as an carrier form; Emile once again, charged ahead aggressively, and was suddenly pulled back by Jorge.
"You're going to get yourself killed acting like this," Jorge yelled at Emile, "You remember what almost happened you back on Reach?"
"Yea, and I'm more careful now, Big Man!" Emile hissed in response.
Carter gritted his teeth, "Both of you, stop arguing, now! This isn't the time or the place."
Emile shrugged at Carter and shoved past Jorge, almost knocking him over. Jorge shot him a death-glare, seemingly forgetting that he was wearing a helmet, and that Emile wouldn't even be able to see the glare, much less actually care.

The Team continued onwards, successfully killing whatever enemies they came across, until they reached the gravity lift that would take them back up to the Truth and Reconciliation.
"Power source detected…" Cortana mused, "There's the gravity lift." She informed them, just as they saw it. "It's still operational! That's our way back in!" Cortana told them.
Wasting no time, they all quickly got into the gravity lift and teleported themselves back up to the Truth and Reconciliation.
"We should be able to get into the ship's control room from here." Cortana informed them.
John immediately saw an open door and gestured for the Team to follow him as he took point.
"The Covenant Battle-net is a mess. I can't access the ship's schematics. My records indicate that a shuttle bay should be... here." Cortana informed them, marking a new NAV point on their HUDs.
The Team continued down the corridor, immediately coming across a carrier form, which fell over, allowing itself to explode and to release the infection spores. However, they were easily taken care of by the rest of the Team.
They came across yet more carrier forms, which were again, taken care of.
Around the corner lay the bodies of a few grunts and Elites.
"…It looks like the Covenant have finally found a match in the Flood." Scarlett mused, as they came across another door that opened before them, leading into a cargo bay.
"Look, in the corners. The Flood are gathering bodies here." Cortana told the Team. They looked, and sure enough, lay the bodies of various Covenant species in the corners of the room.
"What…what are they doing?" Scarlett asked, clearly disgusted.
"Who knows," Jorge replied gently, patting Scarlett's arm. "Let's just find Keyes."
Scarlett nodded, and they continued onwards, heading down more corridors and coming across yet more Flood carrier and combat forms.
They entered a large room were infection spores attacked, followed by a single combat form. However, there were easily killed, allowing the Team to continue onwards.
Finally, after encountering seemingly never-ending waves of Flood and Covenant through the ships corridors, they came across another shuttle bay.
"Looks like another shuttle bay. We should be able to reach the control room from the 3rd level." Cortana informed the Team.
"I... gave you an order, soldiers!" Keyes weak voice buzzed over COMMS, "Now pull out!"
"He's delirious! In pain! We have to find him!" Cortana ordered them, anxious for Keyes' safety.
The Team then began to hurry, each of them nervous and anxious for Keyes safety. They tried to ignore all the enemies that engaged them, more focused on getting to the NAV point that Cortana had set and getting Keyes out alive, then hanging around to kill Covenant and Flood.
"The control room should be... this way." Cortana informed them, setting a new NAV point just as they came across the previous one she had assigned.
They continued down yet more corridors, suddenly hearing Keyes crying out in pain, "Waahhhh... Ahhhh... Ohhhh gaahhhhh..."
"The Captain! His vitals are fading! Please, SPARTANs, hurry!" Cortana urged them onwards.

After fighting through more Flood, Noble Team and Master Chief finally found Captain Keyes…But it was too late.
A large ball of Flood mass; the Proto-Gravemind, sat in the middle of the Bridge. The whole Team were horrified to see Keyes had been essentially absorbed into it; his face stuck out, whilst the rest of his body hung limply out, lifeless.
"No human life-signs detected. The Captain! He's one of... them." Cortana informed them, horrified, before quietly adding, "We can't let the Flood get off this ring! You know what he'd expect... What he'd want us to do."
John nodded, knowing exactly what Cortana meant; taking a deep breath, and punched straight into Keyes' head and pulled out the neural implants, the implants that contained so much important data that was vital for the Flood to not get into. John sighed, shaking the Flood biomass from his hand, and inserted the implants into his helmet, sad to see that Keyes had been taken so soon. He was a great and strong Captain and Leader John knew, and it was a shame to see him become a victim of the Flood.
"It's done, I have the code." Cortana informed John quietly. To the rest of them she added, "We should go."
"We need to get back to the Pillar of Autumn. Let's go back to the shuttle bay and find a ride." Cortana advised them, just as the doors opened a more hordes of Flood arrived.

After fighting through more Flood and Covenant, the Team finally arrived back at the Shuttle Bay where a Dropship and two Banshees landed.
"Perfect. Grab one of the escort Banshees, and we'll use it to return to the Pillar of Autumn." Cortana told them.
Luckily for the Team, there happened to be more Banshees alongside the escort Banshees that had just landed, and so, they were all able to grab a Banshee.
Despite being fired upon, all of the Team were able to fly out of the Truth and Reconciliation safely, and towards the Pillar of Autumn.