Chapter 10

14 July, 2554, 1516 Hours, Settlement 3B, Harvest System, Planet Harvest

John stared in shock. 1,000,000 frantic thoughts rushed through his mind... How long had it been... One, two, almost three years since he had seen her last. But she'd changed; the face that stared out at the crowd was an angry, defiant face. One who cared only to kill or destroy her enemies.

"Oh, Kelly..." John whispered, and clenched his fists. Spirited away in 2552 by Dr. Halsey, she disappeared, like his friends, like Fhajad, Kirk, Rene, Arthur, Solomon, Maria, Sam, James, and all 75 of his Spartan brothers and sisters.

And now she was back. Where was the UNSC? The other SPARTANS?

John stared back at her. There was a slight chance she would see him... No, she'd dismiss it as a lookalike. And she was staring at her captor cockily.

John clenched his fists again and squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. Nothing had changed.

"So," said the man quietly, he voice projected throughout the entire settlement with speakers. "Kelly, SPARTAN-087 of ONI Section 3 NavSpecWar. Are you enjoying your stay in Harvest?"

Kelly growled, "Yeah, great. Bring on the party."

John's eyes widened. This was Kelly... But yet not Kelly. She wasn't the friendly young woman John had known. This was the SPARTAN that Ackerson had tried to create. A emotionless, sardonic killing machine.

The man frowned. "Getting cocky here? I have a solution for talkative people... Rip their vocal chords out."

Kelly smiled back at him. "Next please," she commented.

The man smiled a wolf's smile at her. "You want it? You'll get it..."

He slid a plasma pistol out from one pocket. "So... We make a deal. You shut up, and I won't burn 3rd degree plasma all over you."

Kelly shut her mouth.

The man smiled a thin-lipped smile. Although a trivial request, John realized it really was just to get a foothold on her.

"Deal two," he continued. "Reveal to us the Insurrectionist countermeasures that are being undertaken by the UNSC."

Kelly smiled back at him. "That one and the other one."

"You're making this hard," growled the man at her. Slowly, he squeezed the trigger of the pistol. A green orb of plasma slowly formed around its head. There was a sigh of anticipation from the crowd.

No matter how desperate the situation... Both John and Mendez's words entered Kelly's brain. She gave a final, defiant grin.

"Bite me."

John cringed as the arc of plasma slashed across Kelly's chest, not piercing, but searing across, and splashing into a sizzling ball of heat along the wall.

"Tell!" chanted the man.

Kelly stared at him, bit her tongue, and lashed out with her head. It caught the man in the groin and he hit the ground.

The crowd roared.

Up again, and mad with rage, the torturer raised the pistol and fired three shots, all criss-crossing Kelly's body. The plasma splashed into the wall and the crowed roared again.

Kelly felt herself loosing conciousness - forced herself into the Zen no-mind that she and Linda practiced - gave a desperate wrench against the cuffs - felt herself loosing - - -

And locked eyes with John.

Kelly knows she was dreaming, she must have been dreaming, the world is slowly burning up in plasma, and then John - or is it Fred? talking to her subconcious mind.

"Focus, Kelly, be a SPARTAN."

Kelly shook herself back up before she managed one more defiant smile at the crowd and the burning plasma and-

Lost conciousness.

"You seemed pretty shaken up," Asher commented to John.

John didn't say anything.

"The presentation, right?" Asher enquired.

John made a positive motion and kept walking.

Asher shrugged. "It's not a big deal. They are UNSC after all." He spat out the word like it was a dirty word or something.

John turned. "I am UNSC, you know."

"You're not in service." Asher always had an answer.

"You know who they were torturing?" John asked.

Asher nodded. "They read out her name. She's my... Wait... Was that your friend?"

John looked away.

"Oh..." said Asher. But it wasn't a sympathetic Oh. It was something else.

"What?"

Asher stared down. "No. I just figured out who I am."

(A:N. Torturing you guys with intangible spoilers for the myster that shrouds Asher is fun. Let's keep doing it.)

John looked strangely at Asher. The boy was... Different. And really different.

Hey, Kelly.

Weird how things work out, huh?

You survived the war,

Lost your friends

Lost your humanity

Now humans are going to kill you

Why do you fight the covenant?

You know who really is the problem.

It was John's voice, and Kelly fought with her consciousness. She wanted to stay in the dream - stay with John - even if it were only his voice.

There was a hand - running all over her body - searing pain into all her burns - fire and ice stabbed her body - there was someone pulling her up and straddling her, throwing her onto the ground -

Then the world backflipped to its correct dimension and Kelly felt the familiar military grade burn bio-cream easing into her wounds. A slight prick, and a cold flame ran into her arm. Artificial Adrenaline.

Kelly coughed, felt herself lifted up, and a voice saying something to her.

It was the dream again, she felt, and let herself limp in the protecting arms.

"Fred?" she whispered.

She began to loose consciousness again, and heard a voice gently tell her to go back to sleep.

Sorry about that. I know the feeling - a cliffhanger deserves action. But this part of the fic begins the action. The rest was practically an intro. I'm not going so much as SPARTAN running around killing things violence, I'm bad at that. (By that I mean I'm not overly skilled at it). I prefer exploring morals, emotions, friendships, and angst/reconcilliation. But don't worry, you'll get action.

Kimjel, out