Queasiness churned in Kat's stomach as the yellow light burned around her. The illumination filtered and the next instant, Kat was standing in the middle of a steep valley with a river in front of her. A weakness swept over her and her foot slid on gravel. A soft groan slipped through her lips as she lay on hard rocks and took deep breaths to calm her quick pulse.

Kat's skin crawled as if the giant monster still held her in his tentacle grip. She couldn't help the fearful shudder that went down her spine at the thought of tentacle's still surrounding her. The memory seemed unbearably real with her eyes closed so she snapped her eyes open and looked around for life. A tinge of relief and distress mixed her emotions as she saw there was no living thing near her. She was relieved for no threat around her but a string of hope had wished she had teleported near Master Chief. That meant she was alone in her quest to seek out her "brothers." Whoever they were. Why was it important for her to find them? No, a better question would be why was it important to the monster?

Well, Kat wasn't going to find the answers lying around. She sat up and looked at the river in front of her. The water rushed over rapids with large boulders changing the whole course of the river. The mountains on either side were so steep that tons of eroded rocks had been strewn throughout the entire valley. Even the walls of the mountains were so jagged it looked like they were built by stacked rocks. The entire sky was a light shade of gray, looking like a rock ceiling for the two rock walls. A light mist in the air, made it difficult to see past the forest on either ends of the valley. Some trees also grew in the valley though they were shorter and their stubby branches had very little foliage. There were remnants of these trees crushed by fallen boulders giving account to how easily life was crushed by the giant mountains in this valley. There was one shrubbery that seemed to thrive in every rock crevice though. It only added to the harsh look of the valley since it was a tangle of tough, thorny vines.

Immediately, Kat felt uneasy. Anyone could easily hide in this valley. There were plenty of rocks to conceal watching eyes and she needed to get under cover before someone did notice her. Kat made a move to stand and gasped as a shot of pain came from her leg. She looked down and cursed. In the middle of her left thigh was a long gash in her black armor with dried blood coating it. Of course, when she was escaping the crumbling temple a wall had fallen on her leg. That was going to leave more that a mere scratch.

Kat's eyes surveyed the area quickly and she crawled towards a boulder that had been heavily eroded by the river so it over hung the river. She moved underneath the cover and saw that the river probably eroded the rock during flooding. Luckily, it wasn't flooding season so there was a dry area where she could sit beside the river.

Kat removed the armor around her thigh so the black under-suite showed. She put her whole left leg in the river and rubbed the dried blood off till fresh blood oozed and she could inspect the damage. Slowly, Kat peeled the under-suite away from the wound and saw that most of her thigh was bruised with a black and blue color. A long, red gash dominated the outer-side of her leg. The injury had gone almost to the bone.

As Kat debated whether to stitch up the wound herself or to fill it with biofoam, the decision was made for her. An assault rifle shot echoed through the valley which was replied by Covenant and human sounding weapons. Kat pulled out a needle, jabbed it in the wound, and uttered silent curses as the foam filled the wound and stung like a nest of bees.

The weapon fire drew closer as Kat fit her armor back into place. She made sure she punched the bent armor back into place and that the jagged edges of the sliced armor would not dig into the wound again. She reached for her weapon on her back and found nothing. Another curse slipped through her lips. At least she was built and trained to be a weapon. So all she had to do was fight till she got a gun.

Shadow moved cautiously toward the fighting, taking time to study the area for any movement as well as not leaning heavily on her leg. She kept glancing at the mountain faces. A sixth sense had her wary of the cliffs and the nagging feeling wasn't going away. It was thanks to her careful surveying that she discovered the jackal sniper atop a tall boulder with his back towards her. She crawled up to him mostly with her arms, snapped his neck, and claimed his weapon and his spot.

Kat knelt behind a rock with the beam rifle in position. A quick overview of the battlefield showed Covenant forces, all elites, grunts, and jackals, pushing a group of human marines back to their base at the end of the valley. Shadow went to work, clearing most of the elites that had been in cover from the marines but not from her. Since she had been one of the better snipers in the Spartan II group, every trigger pull was a head shot and she made sure to wait a second between shots. The rest of the elites got smart once they realized they were flanked and sought cover from both sides as well as returning fire on Shadow.

Kat jumped off of the boulder and immediately regretted it when pain shot up her leg and forced her down on to one knee. A nearby elite saw the falter and charged, but Shadow rolled to the side and lifted the particle beam rifle as he skidded past her, and shot him in the back of the head at point-blank range. A few upset grunts and jackals then started pelting her with needles and plasma. Shadow flipped backwards, balancing perfectly on her good leg, and shot them all down within a few seconds (she had to wait for the weapon to cool between shots). The Covenant weapon blinked in warning as it grew low on battery and Shadow leaned over to take the elite's plasma rifle that had dropped when she had killed him.

A marine yelled in agony as he fell and Shadow turned her attention on the feeble defensive line the marines had behind boulders. "Shape up marines!" Kat said over a COM channel, "Group together and keep them back. I'll do the rest."

"Yes, ma'am!" A few marines replied as Shadow returned to work.

She walked steadily through the boulders, mowing down Covenant with plasma. It was easy since mostly grunts and jackals remained. She was getting worried till four elites in red armor jumped from their hiding places all around her.

Shadow heaved a sigh of relief, "Oh good, you guys showed up just when I was getting bored."

Elite 1 and Elite 2 yelled and started firing their duel plasma rifles while Elite 3 charged and Elite 4 waved an energy sword at her. Shadow flipped backwards (landing on her good leg again) and put Elite 3 in a choke hold while he took the plasma fire for her. Elite 4 lunged with his sword and she swung the limp number 3 at him. He staggered to the side, giving her enough time to knock him down with a kick and pull out the Covenant rifle to shoot number 2 in the head. Since she was in semi-close range, the beam pierced his shields as well as his skull. Shadow jumped as number 4 swung his sword along the ground. She twisted in the air and brought her elbow down on his neck. He coughed out air and blue blood for the last time. Shadow wrenched the sword from his stiffening hand and whirled around.

Elite 1 stood frozen above her with his fists raised to strike her – and a plasma sword in his gut. Shadow drove the plasma sword further up and stood as the elite body crumbled to the ground.

Adrenaline had her senses on high alert. That's why she quickly detected the elite crawling up to a marine tending to an injured comrade. Shadow sprinted, the adrenaline numbing any pain in her leg, and lunged with the sword. The blade easily sliced through the elite's shield and impaled through the back. The marine let out a startled cry and Shadow tossed the body to the side. She looked over the area and saw that her work was done. She carefully inspected the mountain side again. The uncomfortable feeling about the cliffs had her on edge (figuratively).

"Shadow?" A familiar voice said in front of her.

Kat turned her head from looking at the mountain and a grin spread across her lips. "I see I'm still having to save your hide, Rookie."

"Good to see you too Shadow." He smirked back, "If you hadn't come along, we would've been toast."

"Well I couldn't have my favorite marine toast. Who would babysit me?"

"I'm sure you would manage. Oh, and they call me D'Artagnan now."

Kat snorted, "As in The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan? That's even harder to say..."

"They call me Dart for short." He said with a pleading look. She knew he had not enjoyed the name she had given him.

"Fine, you will always be Rookie to me but I guess I can call you D'Artagnan if you want."

D'Artagnan grinned and leaned over his unconscious comrade and pick him up. "I have to take my friend to base. He hit his head on a rock. He got scared during the fight and slipped on the gravel." Dart chuckled and looked sideways at Shadow as they started walking down to the base. "He reminded me of how scared I was when the Covenant boarded the Cario station."

"Everyone gets scared sometimes." Kat could almost feel tentacles tightening around her body. "Even I do." Her voice had shuddered at the end and Dart cast a surprised look in her direction but remained silent.

The quiet gave Kat time to observe the base the marines had set up at the mouth of the valley. It was a good concept to put it here because it was raised on a huge platform boulder between the mountains. They had just not considered the enumerable places Covenant could spy on them. Or maybe they did. Maybe they wanted the Covenant to know they were here so they would think twice before moving through the valley. Kat didn't like it though. She looked again up at the cliff where the shifting evening shadows and the descending cloud cover made it appear that the whole mountain was full of enemies. She shivered at the thought. There was something wrong with the mountains.

A group of marines started to move from the base towards them at a jog. Kat knew something was wrong immediately. They had their weapons ready and their gazes never left Dart and Kat as they advanced. Kat slowed to a stop and Dart stopped a few feet later and looked back with a confused expression.

"What's wrong, Shadow?" He asked, shifting his burden a little bit so it wasn't awkward as he turned to look at her still form.

"It seems I have my own escort."

Dart looked back to the marines closing in and then to Kat. "They can't...they wouldn't...you're a soldier like one of us. You just saved us..." He was silenced as dozens of feet crunched and scattered rocks loudly in their jog. The next moment, Shadow stood in the middle of a circle formed by guns and humans.

"Shadow, you will come with us quietly." One of the marines stated and all Kat could do was nod in compliance. She was not thought as a comrade to these men. Their hard eyes showed that they saw her as a murderer of their friends. One marine gripped his weapon in such anger that it shook. This was a recent killing. Something she didn't do. Something that had been terribly wrong.


I've been out of town so this is a late chapter but this is one of the longer ones. I would like to do a vote of how many people like Kat being a cat (with ears on her helmet and tail) or is this viewed as being uncool?