It was Master Chief's voice that woke her up, "Relax. I'd rather not piss this thing off."

Kat's eyes opened on a disgusting sight of a brownish green mound that looked like a giant plant. It had a mouth like a Venus fly trap and vines like an octopus' tentacles. It was using the tentacle arms to hold Master Chief, an elite in gray armor, and Kat. To gross Kat out even more, the tentacles never stopped moving or tightening around her.

She was frozen in sickness. Her stomach really wasn't handling this well. Yes, Kat knew she was a battle-hardened Spartan, trained to overcome fears, but this fear was new. It had been a Covenant with tentacles, called Engineers, that had captured her and started her whole Shadow fiasco. So needless to say, Kat had a bad experience with these things. As if sensing her disgust, the tentacle coiled around her whole body tighter. The end of the tentacle wrapped around her neck and stroked her head like it was petting a cat. Her stomach heaved. It took her whole will not to hurl.

Kat struggled to loosen the monster's hold but it was no use. Her muscles were still weak. She looked over at Master Chief and saw he was struggling as well. He noticed her looking at him and gave a reassuring nod. Kat immediately relaxed. She didn't know why a simple nod was so comforting but maybe because Chief was the one who had her back. You couldn't get a better back up.

Then she noticed that the monster wasn't addressing her at all. In the huge cavern, she was hanging from the tentacles near one of the walls and off to the side of the creature as he held Master Chief and the elite in front of his gaping mouth. The giant monster was trying to prove to the elite that the Great Journey was universal death.

The monstrosity pulled out a flood infected Regret and an oracle. At least, that was how Shadow knew of them through the Prophets but he introduced himself as 2401 Penitent Tangent, a Monitor of Installation 05. Regret and the monitor, quarreled a bit before the giant mutant flood interrupted.

"This one's containment..." The monster huffed and shuddered, "and this one's 'Great Journey'..." the tentacles holding Regret and the monitor lowered, "Are the same. Your Prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence, but you will find no salvation on this ring. Those who built this place knew what they wrought. Do not mistake their intent, or all will perish as they did before..."

Kat briefly wondered what the benefit was for this flood-like creature. Why did he want to stop the Great Journey? Self-preservation seemed to drive everyone except the Covenant. Yet, it wasn't a bad thing to be driven by a selfless thing. A lot of the times, Kat found herself fighting to protect others rather than herself. For this monster however, the core of his motives seemed like self-preservation and selfishness.

"You will search one likely spot," The monster muttered at Master Chief then the elite, "And you another. Fate had us meet as foes but this ring will make us brothers." Then in a flash of yellow light, the two were gone - leaving Kat with the gross monster.

Kat cleared her throat, "Excuse me?" The monster's sickening head turned towards her and he moved her in front of his giant mouth, the tentacles curled even more around her. Kat swallowed and made a mental note to thank the one who had installed a air filtration system in her suit. "Uh, yes, hi there. I don't know if you know this, but I kinda need to 'stop the key from turning' as well. So, uh...do you have another spot I can look or-"

"This one is both assembled and harnessed," His voice drowned out hers as he wrapped the end of the tentacle around her head, "but even more secluded."

"Yeah, and why do you care about my personal life?" Kat asked, pulling the tentacle off her face.

"I know isolation well, and you are not completely alone." The mouth spewed out clouds of brown fumes and again Kat muttered thanks to air filters. "You will search for your brethren, and unite those who quarrel."

Kat opened her mouth to ask who her brethren were but the world suddenly spun and a yellow glow engulfed her.

Short chapter but I only had the Gravemind cut scene to work with and I didn't want to use too much of the dialogue because we all know what was said. Anyway, the 'assembled and harnessed' line is meant to refer to Kat being built by humans and controlled by Covenant and thus a part of both races though neither claim her and so she is secluded and merely being used as a weapon. I hope this wasn't too confusing. It was hard trying to stick to Gravemind's rhyming/riddles as well as trying to get my own idea across. If anyone has a better way I could have said that, send me a review and I might change it if I like it!