Two hours later

When Eve had been told of the wasteland by Zuka, she thought it would look like some kind of war torn landscape where nothing grows, everything is destroyed from the jungles to destroyed villages and temples and such and where there were many dead. That was the way she had been brought up to think of wastelands, and the last year of the war years ago had also helped out with that.

To her surprise, the wasteland was just a nickname for an area of this huge part of the jungle in which the Elites had lost to the Brutes months ago. Apart from the tiny pockets of the jungle that had been destroyed, one of the rivers that ran through this area being dried up and one or two villages that were dotted around the 'wasteland zone' having been abandoned and/or partly destroyed, the wasteland was really not what she had thought it to be. In fact, it barely looked as if the war had hit it at all. The jungle still dominated the landscape and were it not for the small clearings that were filled with crates, flying ships and Elites walking to and from these cleared areas, it would look like some normal rainforest you would see on Earth.

That was exactly what she was thinking as she looked out from the opening on the side of the green coloured phantom as it descended towards one of these clearings. They had been on the move for the past hour and for the last ten minutes she had leant against the wall of the interior of the craft next to the opening, watching the landscape race by almost like a blue below the now lime green coloured sky. It was coming towards midday and the Arbiter had told her that this is what happened when that time of day reached Sanghelios when it was not raining.

Speaking of the Arbiter, things had, surprisingly, been quite fine between Eve and the Arbiter since they had left the village. After she had explained to him why she and Auto had actually come to his home world, he had questioned her for doing something and why he needed someone like her to help him and his people in their struggle against a common enemy, but after a while though he suddenly decided to go ahead with her and Auto in their mission to find Wally. They had left for the nearest hanger, boarded the next phantom and…well, they were just about to land at the designated landing zone. Privately, though, Eve did feel quite suspicious about this, but she was too focused on Wally for the moment to worry about anything else. She had to find him and bring him home to safety, though that was providing he was here or at least somewhere nearby.

The phantom slowed down as it neared the ground, several Elites moving out of the way to provide space. It stopped about ten feet above the ground and hovered there momentarily until it lowered the last few feet to the ground, stopping only about five feet above it. The side of the craft opened up, revealing the large main room inside, and Eve and several other Elites dressed in blue armour stepped down onto the ground, the warmness of the swampy air embracing her tightly, perspiration quickly forming on her forehead.

"Jeez, It's hot here!" she commented, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. "Makes Earth's jungles feel like a freezer,"

"You'll get used to it, Evelyn," a voice from behind her said.

She looked over her shoulder to see the Arbiter step down from the phantom to the ground, a plasma rifle in his hand. He had been in the bridge for most of the trip here, his excuse being that he was contacting the base to let them know that they were on their way back and they had Eve with them. Now he was going to take her and Auto to the frontline where the fighting usually took place.

As the phantom hovered back up into the air, the side of it closing again, Eve began to notice the attention she was drawing from the Elites and the few Grunts who were scattered about amongst the clearing and on small paths that led into the jungle, no doubt that they were surprised to see her here. She did feel like someone them were muttering about her presence not being wanted for the obvious reasons years ago and, despite everything that happened back then, the Arbiter had warned her that there were to be a few who were not really going to enjoy the prospect of a Human coming here to their home world. To be honest, though, Eve could not really care less about their feelings for her. She and Auto were here for one thing and they were going to go on with it, even if the whole planet, original inhabitants or invaders, were going to be out to try and kill her.

"Is everyone here?" the Arbiter inquired to the surrounding group that had just gotten off the phantom, which, with a loud humming sound, disappeared overhead behind the tree line. They all replied with a "Yes, sir," or a nod. "Very well," he continued, turning his head to look at Eve. "Follow us, Evelyn,"

He ran off towards one of the paths that exited the clearing from the right side, the Elites and Eve following close behind. Very quickly, they were engulfed by the sudden darkness under the undergrowth of the jungle trees above as if they had entered some dark realm where the light barely got through to the ground below. Along this path, scattered in small groups or individually, were several more Elites and Grunts, whose eyes were fixed on Eve the moment they saw her. Whispering filled both her ears either side of her. Auto's avatar appeared on her shoulder and he watched the soldiers along the sides of the path go by.

"You've really drawn a crowd, Eve," he whispered to her, motioning towards them.

"I had a feeling I would," she replied, also whispering, moving her eyes up to look at those on the sides of the path.

She could see that there were many different emotions among the Elites and Grunts they passed. Some of them, predominantly Elites, were quite glad that she had come here, others though were apprehensive, particularly the Grunts, who quickly backed away when they saw her, and one or two were unhappy that she had come here, which she could see by the glares in their eyes despite their helmets covering most of their faces. It looked like the Arbiter was right after all, not everyone was going to be happy she was here.

They went on for about another ten minutes or so, having to wrestle through a gradually thickening layer of undergrowth that seemed to wrap itself around you as if it were trying to swallow you up. Even the path became difficult for Eve to keep track of. It if it was not for the Elites in front of her, she would have surely gotten lost despite being only a few hundred feet from the landing zone. Despite being on an extra-terrestrial world, this was beginning to feel much like any normal jungle trek, just with a battle suit, an avatar and no weapons.

The latter thought quickly stuck in Eve's mind. She had only just realised. I'm going to have to find one at this base of theirs she thought to herself.

On and on they walked, pushing through more leaves, bushes and going around thick trees. Then, as if they had broken through some kind of barrier, they suddenly burst out of the undergrowth and into a clearing, but rather than be a circular one like the landing zone, this one was more of a rectangular shape, was about forty or so feet wide and zigzagged in and out of the trees and undergrowth. What really stuck out about this clearing though was that the ground was filled with a deep trench with small dugout positions, steps leading up to the ground and the sides were covered with wooden boards and branches and such gathered from the surrounding jungle to hold back the earth and prevent it from caving in. Several Elites were dotted along the trench and so were a few Grunts. Some were keeping watch whilst others were talking amongst themselves or patrolling up and down the trench.

As the group emerged from the undergrowth, one of the Grunts keeping watch heard them and turned his head.

"Praise, mighty Arbiter is here!" he squeaked happily, his eyes searching the group. "He will deliver us to vic-" It was then he stopped dead when his eyes fell on Eve. She stared back at him and raised her hand as if to say 'hi'. "AAAAHHHHH! Demon! The demon is here! RUN AWAY!" he screamed, jumping away in fear so quickly that he lost his footing as they made contact with the ground again and fell down into the trench with a thud.

Everyone that was in view up and down the trench turned to see why the Grunt was panicking and saw Eve standing next to the trench. Just like what had happened on the path, she was greeted with whispering and muttering from the Elites and a few cries of terror from the Grunt (the one who had seen her had run off down the trench, to the displeasure of the Elite standing near him.)

"The rest of you head off to your positions," the Arbiter said to the Elites. They nodded and headed off, some of them muttering amongst themselves or to others about Eve being here. "Come, Evelyn," the Elite commander said to her, motioning her to follow him as he stepped into the trench.

Deciding it was best not to hesitate; she quickly rushed over to the Arbiter and followed him closely into the trench. She felt like she would be safer if she was closer to him. As they passed between the Elites, most of them wearing blue armour to signal they were minors, and Grunts either side of them, the whispers from them reached her ears and all eyes followed her. She felt uncomfortable with all the eyes of those in the trench on her, like she was a deer having a nervous feeling it was being watched by a lion or cheetah on the savannah.

"Are you okay?" Auto asked her.

"I'm just a little nervous about being in the middle of this Elite army," she replied, whispering as she followed the Arbiter around a bend in the trench. "It's obvious that some of them don't want us here,"

Auto nodded a little as they approached another two Elites, both of them wearing silver armour, that were lying down on the parapet above the trench. They looked over their shoulders and saw Eve and, like the others, quickly broke into whispering, quickly sitting up to watch her disappear behind a small batch of undergrowth on the ground to the right of the trench. They were both shocked to actually see a Human here on their home world! Eve looked back over her shoulder at them, noticing again, as she had done with the Elites wearing blue armour earlier, that they were using the same weaponry and uniform standards as they had in the war. She also noticed that these two silver armoured Elites were holding Covenant carbine rifles, signifying their rank as snipers, just like they would have been assigned to do in the old Covenant system. Even though some of the Elites would still not be happy to see her, she was amazed to see that they were still following that hierarchy despite it being part of what had nearly destroyed the Elites and those who remained on their side during the schism.

After about five minutes or so of walking and manoeuvring around other soldiers in the trench system, the Arbiter stopped them and pointed ahead, looking over his shoulder at Eve.

"There is our headquarters, Evelyn," Arbiter told her, moving aside to allow her to look.

Eve and Auto took in the large stone building about twenty five feet in front of them. It was a large cube shaped building where the trench stopped next to the wall where an open doorway was. On the top of the building was a small circular shade turret emplacement with the barrels of the guns facing out into the undergrowth to the right and a Grunt in red armour was piloting it. Voices were emanating out from inside the building, obviously meaning there were other Elites inside it.

"Well…looks formidable," she commented.

He nodded. "Made out of some of the hardest forms of stone this side of Sanghelios," he explained to her as they resumed walking on into the structure, revealing a dimly lit space with the only source of light coming from a large rectangular window on the right wall. "It has been our headquarters here for some time now. We were only just able to take it back after the Brutes captured it when they launched an offensive several season months earlier."

He stopped, almost making Eve slam into him, and looked out at the building's exit about twenty feet ahead of them that led out into a continuing section of the trench where more Elites and Grunts were standing guard or mooching about, waiting to see what might happen, or if anything happened at all.

"Many of my kind died trying to hold this building," the Arbiter said in a low and sad tone. "And even more so when we had to retake it from the Brutes,"

Eve and Auto hung on every word and…to be honest they were just shocked. Even though they had heard, from several Elites back at the base or on the phantom and from Vadumee when he came to Earth the other day, that the war against the Brutes was going badly for the Elites, they were just shocked to see just how bad it actually was! Despite being in the same position many times before years ago in the war with the Covenant, it was still hard for them to comprehend the fact that the Elites, who were the virtual backbone and overall might of that coalition were now being worn down and were losing!

After a few moments, the Arbiter snapped out of his trance and turned to face Eve. "Come, follow me," he told her and went left.

At first glance, Eve and Auto thought he had just walked through a wall, but a second look told their eyes that there was a doorway on the wall, the light coming in through the window having not really illuminated very well. They followed him into a dark tunnel that seemed to stretch on forever into pitch blackness for a moment until their eyes adjusted to the darkness. They fell on a faint light at the end of the corridor emanating from a room to the left, some fifteen feet from where Eve and Auto were. For a brief moment, the light was blocked out by the silhouette of a large figure. The Arbiter. He stopped and, from what Eve could suggest, looked down the corridor at them.

"Come, Evelyn," he called. "There are people here who will need to meet you,"

Looking at Auto, she shrugged and walked down the corridor to the room. As she approached, she heard voices coming from the room, all of them sounding deep, meaning they were Elites. She heard them stop talking and another voice, which she quickly recognized as the Arbiter's, greet them. When she reached the doorway, she was greeted with a small dank, dimly lit room with no windows so it was much hotter in here. In the middle of the room was a small wooden table with several Elites gathered around it. The Arbiter stood ahead of Eve and was looking over his shoulder at her. With him were three others: one of them in silver armour, the other two in red, all of them hunched over the table where a map of the area of the planet was placed. All of them were looking at her as if waiting for her to greet herself. She could see the shock in their eyes, but she was not really that surprised by it. Virtually everyone had been goggling at her since she arrived.

"Evelyn," the silver armoured Elite said standing on the right side of the table said, stepping towards her into the light coming from a small hole in the ceiling.

It was Vadumee. He seemed the most surprised of the all the Elites in the room, which Eve did expect after the argument they had when he came to Earth. He even lost the words he wanted to say in his mouth, his eyes not leaving her.

"I-I…did not…expect you to be here," he said.

"To be honest, neither did I," she replied quietly. "Until…well, I had a dream and I had to come here,"

"Well," Vadumee straightened up and cleared his throat. "This dream of yours has made you see the correct path. We are glad to have you here fighting by our side, Evelyn. Come," he walked back over to the table. "We have much planning for you,"

"But we have not even set out an outline of-" one of the red Elites said, but Vadumee shot him a dark glare, which promptly silenced him.

Eve eyed him suspiciously and looked at the Arbiter, who also looked a little concerned about Vadumee's sudden silencing of another Elite, though for a completely different reason. She was getting the feeling like they were not telling her something, something that she ought to know. But before she could even open her mouth to interject they cut her off.

"Evelyn, come and look. We have a planned strategy of attack on the Brutes," Vadumee said.

"B-but Vadumee-" Eve tried to say, but he stopped her and continued explaining his plan.

"We shall launch a two pronged attack and a main central thrust-"

"Vadumee, I need to tell you-"

"It will catch them completely by surprise and we can drive them away from this area-"

By this point, Eve sighed and shouted out "Vadumee!" which silenced him and made him look over his shoulder at her with wide-eyes as if he realised she was still standing there.

"Look, Vadumee, I'm sure your plan will be good, but I'm not here to fight a war," she told him. To her expectancy a shocked look, though not really as bad as she expected, etched across his face; the other two Elites also looking quite surprised as well.

Vadumee's eyes glanced momentarily at the Arbiter and then back to Eve. "W-why not?" he asked her, a demanding tone in his voice, his whole body now turning to face her.

"Because I'm here to find Wally," she answered and it was upon hearing that name that the Elites all gave each other worried looks, which Eve quickly noticed and became alert like a guard dog picking up an intruder. "What! What is it?! Why do you all look scared?"

For a moment, none answered her. They were finding it hard to tell Eve what happened to her friend and the possibility that he was no longer here on the planet. At least, in the living sense.

Finally, after about ten seconds, the Arbiter cleared his throat. "Well…Evelyn," he began, his mind finding it difficult to properly word this without worrying her. "This…this is not going to be easy telling you this, but…" he glanced at Vadumee and the other two Elites, as if looking to them for help, and then back at Eve and heaved a heavy sigh. "He is gone,"

Those words hit Eve like a sledgehammer. Her mouth opened agape slightly, her eyes widened, her mind went blank. What! H-he was gone! W-w-what did they mean by that?

"W-what do you guys mean?" she asked worryingly, her mind reverting to the worst possible conclusion of her friend. "Is…is he…"

"We do not know," Vadumee intervened, which did save the Arbiter of having to admit it himself. "You see, Evelyn, we were attacked some time ago, I cannot remember exactly how long it had been. But a small group of minors under the leadership of a major and all of them under the Oracle's guidance were in the jungle several miles from here when they were attacked. All but two of the minors were killed and the survivors came back here and told us what had happened to them. They both said that the Oracle was missing and presumably dead. It has been some time now and although neither I nor the Arbiter believed them at first, it is likely that the Brutes have taken his life,"

Eve shook her head in disbelief. Her heart had virtually stopped as if unable to cope with the possibility that the one reason she had come here for, the man she loved and cherished, was…was gone.

"No!" she whispered deeply, shaking her head and looking down at the floor. "He can't be! He can't be dead! I mean what about his bodysuit and his anti-gravity boots? Surely he must have some lead on him,"

"Evelyn, we sent word to all of our forces to be on the lookout for the Oracle following the attack and even if he had escaped, he would have come straight back to us, but he did not, and no one reported him coming back. It has been many weeks and we still have nothing, no lead on him whatsoever,"

"Then…then maybe he got lost," Eve suggested, frantically trying to find an alternative to his state.

The Arbiter shook his head. "It is impossible, Evelyn. He knows much of the planet very well. It is unlikely that has happened to him and the area he was last seen in has since been retaken by our forces. They found no body, though,"

Eve's eyes lit up a little when she heard this, a glint of hope twinkling inside them. "Then there's a chance he's still alive!"

"Unless the Brutes moved his body," Vadumee took over the conversation. "But if he is alive, the likelihood is that he had been taken prisoner. Apart from him being dead, it is the only other assumption to his whereabouts,"

Eve's heart sank a little when she heard this, but it still remained strong. If he was alive and being held prisoner, then they had to act!

"Then we have to find him and save him!" she told them firmly. "He might need us!"

"It is possible," Vadumee replied. His tone, however, was also beginning to turn a little firm as well. "But Evelyn, you must see the reality of this predicament! Even if he is alive, we have no way of finding him and even if we do, the Brutes are likely to hamper any rescue attempt we might make to free him!" her face fell when he told her this, but he kept his firm expression on his. "I am sorry, Evelyn, but unless there is an opportunity, which I highly doubt, we will not be saving him,"

She could not believe what she was hearing! It was unfair, it was so unfair! They could not just stand by and leave Wally at the hands of the Brutes. For all they knew, they might be torturing him or slowly killing him at this moment or doing all sorts of horrible things to him. There had to be something they could do to save him! Just standing here made her heart ache.

Then a sense of firmness and anger really struck. She was furious that the Elites were unwilling to help her rescue someone who had helped them survive complete destruction years ago and had been ever since! It was unfair to him, but if they were not going to help him then she would.

"Then I'll go on my own," she announced.

At this, all eyes, even those of Auto, who had remained completely silent through the conversation so far, looked at her with expressions as if she was mad. In a way, though, she was. After all, she had never been to Sanghelios and he was in an area crawling with Brutes, Jackals and others who were still loyal to the Covenant cause. If she was to go out and try and find Wally on her own, she would never come back alive.

"Evelyn, it is suicidal," the Arbiter said to her, trying to sound like he wanted her to see reason.

"Well, I'm willing to risk that," she replied firmly. "I came here for him, and I'm not leaving until I have him, and I'll die trying,"

"Um...Eve, I hope you really are seeing sense here," Auto piped up nervously, only to be met with a dark glare from her.

"Auto, what are you saying?!" she snapped at him angrily.

"Well…don't you think you're going a little crazy here?" he told her. "I mean, I'm all for rescuing him, but we can't just go running off into the jungle. We might get lost there. Plus, if he was captured, we don't even know if he's alive,"

"Auto, I'm willing to risk it, and quite frankly, I thought you were as well!" she said, frustration in her voice. She sighed and looked at him and the Elites. "I thought you all would help! I thought I could rely on you!" she paused as if letting her disgust of their lack of commitment sink into them. "I guess I was wrong,"

She half-turned to leave the room, but the Arbiter stopped her. "Wait!" She paused in the doorway and looked back at him with an annoyed expression. The Elite stepped towards her. "I will go with you," he said.

She looked at him for a moment, studying his face as if to try and see if he was serious about what he had just told her. He looked back at her with a sense of firmness in his eyes, but within them he still held the reality that this mission was suicidal. The other three Elites, meanwhile, were completely taken by surprise by his decision, but, like Eve, it was going to be hard to convince him otherwise.

"Well…thanks, Arbiter," she replied, a little relieved that someone had seen sense. "But…why are you suddenly agreeing to come with me?"

"Evelyn, I know for a fact that it will be extremely difficult to discourage you from your objective," he replied. "Besides, even though I still think this is mad of you, it is dangerous for you to go out there on your own when there is danger lurking about. It is better if I come with you,"

Auto whistled. "Wow, and I thought only she was mad," he commented.

They ignored him and Vadumee stepped forward. "Very well, Arbiter," he said. "But before you two leave, where do you plan to begin your search?" he inquired.

"The old temple ruins to the east of here," the Arbiter answered, glancing at Vadumee and looking back at Eve, who had a confused look on her face about why they were going there. "It is a Brute stronghold and they will likely have prisoners there. The oracle could be among them,"

Eve smiled a little. Perfect! They were finally going to free Wally, and they knew where they were going. Oh, it was all fitting together! She could not wait to see him again! Soon he would free!

"Very well," Vadumee piped up and placed his arm with a fisted hand across diagonally across his chest. "Good luck to you both,"

The Arbiter replied with the same motion of movement. "Thank you," he replied and turned back to Eve. "Let us take some weapons first before we set off. It is likely we will run into Brutes and other Loyalists on the way there,"