A/N: Happy Holidays to all my followers! Sorry its been so long since an update, the last couple of months have been very busy for me, but I've finally banged this one out for you all to read over the holiday break! We're nearing the end of the run for this fic, and I'd be lying if I wasn't getting a little emotional with each chapter. With all the positive reviews and PMs I've been getting, it
A HUGE s/o to smartgrid, who's been so beneficial to this story as my beta reader making sure I put my very best into this. Like, he asks me questions why certain things are the way they are and what should be improved. I'm not sure if that's normal for a beta reader to do, but its awesome and I'm very thankful he's involved with this and Noble's Eye.
DISCLAIMER: Except for original characters, I take no credit for the characters or settings created by Bungie Studios or Irrational Studios.
Breathe in, breathe out…
Time slowed down as Buck saw the Vox Populi soldiers turn their attentions to them, bringing their weapons with them. Fitzroy, who's uprising was now fully armed and had taken over Fink's factories, had given the three of them a very cryptic threat when she heard Booker was still alive and heading for her position.
Breathe in, breathe out…
With this reality's version of Booker DeWitt already dead, Fitzroy had every right to be doubtful that it was the real DeWitt who'd returned. But that didn't mean they had to sit by and let the Vox captured them and do who knows what to them.
That's why Buck was going to do everything he could to prevent that. He hadn't been captured by Insurrectionists, he hadn't been captured by the Covenant, and he sure as hell wasn't going to be captured by the Vox.
Breathe in, breathe out…
Buck raised his MA5C assault rifle and squeezed off three rounds at the lead Vox trooper. While the man's armor was well-suited to stop bullets from this time period, it stood no chance against the caliber rounds from a weapon developed hundreds of years in the future. The 7.62x51mm projectiles tore through the inadequate armor like nothing was there and exited out the other side just as quickly as it entered.
Buck turned his sights on the next Vox soldier and opened fire on him, dropping that one just as quickly with another three round burst from his rifle. Booker soon joined in on the action, opening fire with the Covenant Carbine he acquired from New Mombasa, lighting up the dimly-lit lobby a sickly green from the radioactive rounds.
Not wanting to wait for any more Vox or Founder soldiers, the three quickly moved through the lobby and stepped into a very open room. It was a strange room; there were no walls or other doors, and there was a gigantic clock sitting in the very end of the space. Electric diodes surrounded them on every side, and the towering smoke stacks of the factory could be seen in the distance. To their right was The First Lady, docked next to a walkway and ready for flight.
Booker made sure to melt the lock to prevent any unwanted reinforcements from making their way inside.
"No, please, no," Buck heard a muffled whimper from up ahead. They raced to the top of the steps where they saw Fink behind the glass wall of the clock on his knees, pleading to an unknown figure in the darkness, while a terrified child stood next to him.
Before they could make it to Fink, a gunshot rang out from inside the clock. Blood and brains splattered against the glass, cracked by the bullet, as Fink slumped to the ground. Fitzroy stepped out from the shadows, barrel of her pistol smoking as she glared down at Fink's corpse. The child sprinted past Fitzroy into the darkness, and Fitzroy looked up from her handywork to see the three staring back at her.
The familiar hum of engines signaled the arrival of two Vox airships, and scores of soldiers leapt off the flattops of the hovercraft.
"Kill the imposters," Daisy ordered over the loudspeaker. "Burn the bodies when you're done!"
They were soon under fire again from the Vox Populi onslaught, running and ducking from the incoming fire of bullets and shotgun pellets. Booker and Buck responded with weapons fire of their own, while Elizabeth provided them with cover produced from tears. It wasn't long until the last Vox soldier was ripped apart by a murder of ravenous crows, allowing the group to head back to the window. They skidded to a halt when a light flickered inside the clock and revealed the frightened boy from before in the clutches of Fitzroy, who was holding her pistol against his head.
"We have to get in there," Elizabeth pleaded, looking around for a way inside. "We have to do something!"
They looked around until Booker saw a loose ventilation cover next to the window. He went over and ripped the metal cover off the ventilation shaft. "Buck, help Elizabeth into here."
Buck complied and gave Elizabeth a boost into the air vent. "And what are we supposed to do?"
"Distract Daisy." Booker went over to the window and pounded on it. Fitzroy turned and saw DeWitt and Buck looking right back at her. Surprised, she took a small step back before regaining her composure and forced the child in front of her as if he were a shield.
"Is this it," Booker asked with a critical smile. "Is there this your big movement, Daisy?"
"It's what needs to be done," Fitzroy argued. "The Founders ain't nothin' but weeds... cut 'em down and they just grow back! But if you want to get rid of a weed, you gotta pull it up from the root!"
"So murdering an innocent child is the way to do this, to make some grand statement against the powers that be," Buck shouted back.
"People like Comstock and Fink have killed hundreds of children no younger than this one in their factories and slums. Where's the justice in that?" Fitzroy pressed the barrel of the pistol tighter against the young boy's head. "I'm just giving them a taste of what they've been dishing out."
"Hey, people like them are the scum of the Earth," Booker said. "That's something you and me we see eye to eye on. But–"
"So then join us," Fitzroy stated, keeping her eyes on the both of them while she kept her tight grip on the child. "The both of you can join our cause in fighting for the people that everyone steps over without batting an eye."
Booker shook his head. "But killing for revenge won't solve anything. You'll just go back and forth, killing each other until there's nothing left. And no one benefits from that."
"Well that's something we disagree on." Fitzroy pulled back on the hammer, ready to put a bullet through the young child's head/
Buck pounded on the glass to get her attention. "If you pull that trigger, then you're no better than Fink or Comstock!"
Fitzroy hesitated for a moment, debating with herself whether to follow through with her plan, before jabbing the pistol into the side of the young boy's head. "I've come too far to–"
Daisy suddenly jerked forward before she could finish her sentence, letting go of the boy and dropping the pistol. She fell against a set of pipes for a moment, revealing a stab wound to the direct center of her back.
The lights in the room flickered on, and it was Elizabeth standing behind her in shock and horror, trembling as she held a bloody pair of scissors. As she coughed up blood, Daisy used whatever strength of hers was left and turned around to face her killer. She fell onto Elizabeth, coughing up more blood and clawing at Elizabeth's face before collapsing to the ground.
With the electricity running back through the room, the glass wall split apart, allowing the young boy to run for dear life away from the scene and the two men inside the room.
Elizabeth just stood there, staring at the blood stained scissors still in her hands. The front of her dress, as well has her hands and parts of her face were covered in Fitzroy's blood. "I guess it runs in the family…"
"Hey, Elizabeth," Booker started, reaching outward to snap Elizabeth out of her daze. "Its OK, we're here."
She turned to them, startled and instinctively holding the scissors up so that the blades were pointed at DeWitt and Buck. They backed away and held their hands up, frightening Elizabeth even more from her actions.
She dropped the bloody scissors and slowly backed away before sprinting through the back doors towards The First Lady. Buck and Booker followed after her, checking behind them every few seconds to make sure no Vox or Founder reinforcements followed them.
They'd safely made it to the airship and locked the entrance hatch. Booker made a beeline to the controls while Booker took a second to look around at the surroundings. There were still white sheets placed all around the interior of the airship, undoubtedly when Fitzroy used this as her mobile command-and-control center and field hospital. Buck saw at the end of the ship was a large, elegant door. He went over to it and tried opening it, but it was locked.
"Hey, Elizabeth," Buck said as he knocked on the heavy door. He thought he could hear faint sobbing coming from the other side. "I think we should talk about this."
Silence. Buck knocked on the door again. "Listen, I know how you feel right now. Believe me, I've been exactly in your position, to have to make a tough decision with no good outcome. But you can't beat yourself up over this."
Buck remained by the door as he waited for something - anything - from Elizabeth. But she never uttered so much as a sound from the other side of the door. He tried one last time to get her to say something.
"You had no choice. She would've killed that kid without feeling anything if you didn't act and you know it." Another moment off silence. Buck knocked on the door one last time. "Elizabeth, please talk to me about this. You can't bottle this up, or else it'll eat at you until you end it all. Trust me, I know."
He thought that would get her to talk, but nope... nothing. With a heavy sigh, he walked over to the control panel next to DeWitt, who'd punched in the commands to get the airship's engines up and running.
"She'll be alright," Booker said as he got the airship moving. It slowly pulled away from the loading ramp as Booker got The First Lady in the air. "She's strong. Just give her some time."
"I hope so," Buck sighed and leaned against the wall. "So, we've got the girl, and we've got the airship… what's next?"
Before Booker could give an answer, the door on the far end of the airship opened and out stepped Elizabeth. She had her hair her ponytail completely off, and changed out of her blood-stained dress into a blue jacket and dress, with a white corset underneath the jacket. Booker recognized it from one of the paintings from the Hall of Heroes as the jacket of Lady Comstock, Elizabeth's mother.
"It was all they had," Elizabeth mumbled, letting the ponytail she held in her hand fall to the ground.
Booker nodded, letting out an uncomfortable cough. "Listen–"
"How do you do it," Elizabeth asked.
"Do what?"
"Forget. How do you just… wash away all that you've done?"
"You don't," Buck softly replied. "You've just got to learn to live with it, one day at a time."
Aside from the hum of the exterior propellers, the cabin of the airship remained silent. They passed over several sites of armed conflict between the Columbia military and the Vox Populi. Buildings burned, airships of both factions hovered over the battlefield, and flashes of gunfire and explosives dotted the ground below.
"So, the moment of truth," Elizabeth said, walking over to the airship's controls. "New York, or Paris. Which will it be?"
Before anyone could voice their decision, a sharp, whistling tune came from the gold Comstock statue behind them. The tune reminded Buck of when they first met Elizabeth in her tower, and how they were attacked by the gigantic mechanical bird.
Uh-oh.
Just then, a brown blur whooshed across the side of the ship, and the Songbird banked to the left.
"No," Elizabeth fearfully said. "No, no, no, not now!"
Booker's eyes darted around the controls of the ship, looking for anything that could increase their speed and escape from the bird. "We need to make this thing go faster!"
The Songbird dipped underneath the clouds as Booker flipped several dials to try and make the ship go faster, and Elizabeth joined in the search, while Buck looked all around for something that could take out the bird. Other than the weapons they currently had with them, there were no other weapons strong enough to knock it out of the sky. What Buck would give to have a rocket launcher or a Spartan Laser right now.
"There has to be a throttle or an accelerator or something," Elizabeth exclaimed.
The Songbird flew across the front of the ship and latched on bow with its talons.
"Everybody hang on," Booker shouted as Songbird flipped the ship like a toy. It spiraled out of control, lifting the three off the floor as it did so. Coming back down to earth, Buck's head collided with the control panel and he blacked out just as the airship crashed into the ground.
Buck floated through the inky blackness of the unconscious, unsure of where he was and how he got here. He couldn't move any of his limbs, nor could he even move his mouth. He had zero control of his body.
Off in the distance was a bright light were images rapidly flashing in a repeated fashion. Like a moth drawn to a fire, Buck felt his body involuntarily move towards the ghostly aura as the projections became slightly clearer.
Of the images Buck could make out, he saw a burning forest, a congested urban slum, a woman on a bed whose face was blurred out, a massive forest on fire, a trio of spaceships moving through space, an eerie alien landscape, and a solider standing next to a UNSC flag overseeing a battlefield. The images repeated over and over again, with the one of the woman in the bed repeating the most.
As Buck moved closer to the repeating images, the bright light of the vision grew brighter and brighter as a strong gust of wind met Buck several feet from the projections. His eyelids growing heavier and heavier as he approached, Buck couldn't make out the significance of the images before everything faded to white.
A throbbing pain in his head brought Buck back to reality as he tried to pick himself up off the deck. Buck took a brief look around and quickly discovered that he was actually on the ceiling of the airship. He picked himself up, his head still throbbing and eyesight occasionally blurring from the concussion he sustained, and heard a faint sound of a… piano? And there were voices that belonged to… the Lutece's?
"I'm certain that's it," Rosalind said after playing a small tune of the piano.
"And I'm certain that you're wrong," Robert replied. "It's more like this…"
The two went back and forth between playing the same four-note tune from the piano and arguing about something to do with the tune.
He looked over and saw Booker stirring and sitting up by where the command chairs were once bolted down. There were scratches and bruises covering his face, and a stream of blood was slowly flowing from a cut on his forehead.
Buck turned towards the hatch and saw Elizabeth pulling against the metal door with little luck in opening it.
"Booker, Edward," Elizabeth said, straining to open the door. "We have to stop them, or they're going to bring him back!"
Booker and Buck hustled over to the jammed door, and together forced the door open just wide enough for Elizabeth's slender frame to slip through.
Elizabeth shouted at them as she sprinted. "No, stop! What are you doing!?"
Rosalind played a string of four notes, the ones that sounded similar to the one from the statue. "Ah, there it is," Rosalind said proudly. "I told you it was that one."
Elizabeth started to cower and look frantically at the skies. "No, you've done it now! Why would you do that?!"
Booker and Buck aimed their weapons at the sky in a futile attempt to fight off the unbeatable Songbird, but it never came.
"See, the notes were correct," Robert said. "But the instrument was not."
"One needs both to get his attention," Rosalind continued. "But if you know how to sing to him…"
"Then he will take you where you need to go."
Robert reached into his jacket, withdrew a small index card and handed it to Booker. Buck accepted the card as Booker and Elizabeth stared at the two in absolute confusion. "Who the hell are you?"
"We are where we are needed," Rosalind cryptically replied.
"And needed where we are," Robert finished, sounding equally cryptic.
The card featured a black-and-white diagram of the head of a Comstock statue with an inscription that read Songbird Defense System. It took a moment, but Booker finally understood what they were implying.
"So Comstock uses these songs to control the bird." Booker took the card from Buck to get a look at the diagram. "Are there any songs to keep it off our backs?"
"Perhaps you should ask the maestro himself," Rosalind said.
"And where are we supposed to…"His voice trailed off as he looked up to find the two no longer with them. Booker sighed and shook his head. "Of course…"
"And they left the piano. How thoughtful of them," Buck sarcastically commented. He moved over to one side while Booker grabbed the other end, and the two of them moved the heavy-looking piano out of the way with little difficulty.
"So, where exactly are we," Buck asked after moving the piano out of the way.
"Emporia," Elizabeth answered. "I've heard people call this the heart of Columbia's elite and most wealthy citizens."
Booker was stunned. "I can't believe the Vox made it this deep into the city. They must be putting up one hell of a fight."
Elizabeth led the way through the path, and stopped in the open when she saw a large section of elegant buildings off in the distance. But there was one mansion that towered over the others. It looked like it was comprised of three separate towers, with what looked to be search lights placed atop the two outside towers and a giant sculpture of some sort at the top of the middle tower.
"That's Comstock House," Elizabeth said, pointing to the imposing building as black storm clouds continued to move forward from behind the mansion. "If we're going to find him, we should start there."
"Sounds like a solid plan to me" Buck stated. "But how exactly do we get there?"
"We'll have to cut through the gondola station," Booker said, pointing to the Port Prosperity Station ahead of them. "Easier and safer than trying to hijack an airship."
He was right, it would be too risky to try and commandeer an airship, especially with none of the three having an extensive experience flying one of the things and how much aerial fighting there was around the city. But there were just as much ground fighting between the two factions, with the strong possibility of them wandering into a firefight. "We're more likely to run into the Vox if we're on the ground than in the air."
"I'd also prefer to fight them on the ground than in the air. We're doing this, and that's final."
They continued through the plaza when they saw an airship hovering near a dock. The deck of the ship was packed to the gills with luggage and people, all looking to evacuate from the area. There was a man from inside the control room shouting into the PA speaker, hurrying people to take only what they could carry and get on board before the Vox arrived.
Buck got a much better view of the area from the courtyard. There were blown out buildings fires dotting the surrounding areas and far off building clusters, while crimson-red banners and flags were draped over several tall statues and buildings.
"Where do you think they're all going," Elizabeth asked.
"Wherever the Vox aren't," Booker coldly replied. "Without Daisy holding them back, they're like a bunch of rabid dogs off the leash. Attacking anything and anyone that isn't apart of the movement."
"Were they really so different when Fitzroy was running the show," Buck countered. "She was the one who led the call to revolt and to take down the establishment. They're just following her lead to the letter."
A grunt from Booker was the only sound of approval he got as they continued up a set of stairs leading to a cobblestone path. Littering the pathway were overturned trash bins and stacks of unopened and opened suitcases, along with several scattered bodies of Vox and Founder soldiers, and even some citizens.
Buck's blood began to boil at the horrifying sight of a family of four lying face down in pools of their own blood. Even though he and Booker were wanted men, for the most part the people he'd encountered that weren't aiming a gun at his head were kind and decent folk. The Vox was supposed to be fighting for these people, not gunning them down because they lived a little better than they did. They weren't fighting for justice or equality anymore; instead they were just out for blood.
In Buck's eyes, the Vox were no better than the extremists who wanted separation from the UNSC by bombing public areas or nuking entire cities off the map.
They continued on until they were spotted by a squad of Vox soldiers as they approached the station. Armed with an explosive grenade launcher and an automated flying drone, the well-positioned soldiers opened fire on the trio and forced them scurrying into cover.
But no matter how well armed or what kind of high ground they had, the Vox were no match for two well-trained and equipped men like Booker and Buck. One by one, Buck and Booker took down the contingent of Vox gunmen until there was nothing left to stand in their way.
Before any more Vox showed up, the three sprinted up the steps to the locked door leading to the lobby. Elizabeth pulled out a lock-pick and began working on getting insde.
"So what is it about that song that brings in the bird," Booker asked.
"I'm not sure, but it always has," Elizabeth answered. "When I was little, I used to be… excited when I would hear it."
"Excited?" Buck was surprised at Elizabeth's choice of words.
She defended herself. "He was all I had. He fed me… brought me books. He was my friend."
"Some friend," Booker remarked.
Elizabeth continued to pick the difficult lock to the gondola station. "But then I grew up… and I hated him." Sadness now filled her voice, and Buck swore he saw a tear form in her eye. "Because he stopped being my friend, and became my warden. And noiw he's nothing more than Comstock's pet… just like me."
Buck felt really bad for Elizabeth. To have your own father lock you away and have these grand plans for you to take over his plans of 'punishing the Sodom below', that was just insane. His family wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he loved them and they loved him. From what he'd gathered and understood of their relationship, he was a very absent father and wasn't all that loving, either.
The lock clicked and fell off the door, and Elizabeth pushed it open. "There, its open."
Before he walked inside, he went over the Elizabeth and nudged her to get her attention.
"You are no one's pet."
She smiled and blushed at Buck's incredibly kind words, but as they entered the port station, her smile and the color in her cheeks both vanished at the sight in front of her.
The lobby was empty of any enemies, although they could've been hiding amidst the large amount of debris from the previous battle. Stone columns and pieces of the roof were massed in a pile in the center of the room… along with a board with several scalps crudely nailed to it. A dozen scalped bodies surrounded the wood board, and 'Tell us Prophet, do you see us coming?' was hastily written at the top of the post in the blood of one of their victims.
The sight of so many scalped bodies caused an unfamiliar chill to run up Buck's spine, and only made his hatred of the Vox rise. They had to get out of here before the civil war consumed them and the whole city. But as long as Comstock had the Songbird at the ready, they weren't going anywhere, with or without Elizabeth.
Their luck wasn't any better inside the station. At nearly every turn, there were a handful of armed Vox soldiers waiting to fill them full of lead. Wave after wave of the enemy were after the three of them, but Booker and Buck handled them with ease while Elizabeth did her best to provide them with ammo and cover. They'd just plowed through another squad of Vox enforcers along with a Motorized Patriot of Abraham Lincoln when they reached the gondola receiving station. Buck swore the Patriots were used exclusively by the Founders, but he guessed the Vox must've gotten their hand on more than a few and reprogrammed them.
"To the victor goes the spoils of war," Booker said as they fought the machine.
Buck threw a lever to call for the available gondola, and now they waited for their ride to return. The wind picked up some as dark storm clouds continued to slowly move forward as a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.
"This whole prophecy business," Elizabeth said as the gondola slowly made its way to their position. "You don't think anyone can actually see the future, do you?"
"I saw something once when I got here, a dream," Booker explained. "I saw New York, but it was larger than any New York I'd ever seen. And it was on fire."
"While we're on the subject," Buck said. "I saw... something when I was knocked out after the airship crashed. It was just a flashing of random images over and over again of a city, a burning forest, and a man in the shadows."
Elizabeth thought about their dreams and visions for a moment. "Hmm, I hope none of the Prophet's 'magic' has rubbed off on you two."
The gondola finally arrived and they all climbed aboard. Booker threw a switch inside the cockpit and the lift slowly moved away from the station. As it slid up the cable towards Comstock House and the other buildings in the more upscale section of the city, Elizabeth paced.
"I think I just figured out who they were."
Buck turned to the young woman. "They?"
"The red haired man and woman. They, or at least she, invented the technology that allows this city to float."
Booker was the only one to make a guess. "Giant balloons?"
Elizabeth shook her head." Quantum particles, suspended in space-time at a fixed height."
"Quantum particles," Buck said in an amazed tone. "I though that kind of science was nothing but theory."
"Apparently they figured a way to make it a reality." Elizabeth looked and saw that the two were now together on a platform connected to a billboard. Robert was painting a portrait of Rosalind.
"I told you they would come," Robert said as he sat behind the easel and painted his sister
"No you didn't," Rosalind replied, remaining as still as she could while holding an apple outstretched in one hand.
"Oh, right, I was going to tell you that they'd come."
"No, you didn't."
"But I don't."
"Are you sure that's right?"
"I was going to have told you?"
"Stop being ridiculous."
They passed by the billboard and when they came across another one, the Lutece's were standing on that one.
"But the thing is," Elizabeth said, craning her neck to see what the two were doing. "My book said they disappeared several years ago."
The twins continued to debate about things that Buck had no understanding of.
"So what are they," Buck ased. "Ghosts or something?"
"I'm not sure, but they seem to want to help," Elizabeth suggested.
Booker brushed this off. "They seem to be out of their minds."
Buck didn't know what to think. On the one hand they didn't do anything to actively help them along the way, and convinced them to start dimension hopping. But on the other hand, they didn't seem to actively cause them any harm, either. Plus they provided Buck with his SkyHook and Booker his personal shield that saved his ass countless times before.
"How do you suppose they manage that," Elizabeth asked, after seeing the two on yet another floating billboard. The two shrugged.
"I'll get back to you once I figure out the whole floating city bit," Booker replied as the gondola came to a gentle stop.
Booker was the first to disembark from the lift. "Come on, Comstock House is just up ahead."
They headed into the Grand Central Depot, and after climbing up a hunch of stairs came across another piece of propaganda artwork.
"'The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne… and drown in flames the Mountains of Man…'," Elizabeth said, obviously horrified from reading the poster. "He really was grooming me, wasn't he?"
"Comstock? Yeah, looks that way," Buck answered, glancing at the poster before moving on.
Elizabeth frowned for a moment before joining the two. "But why would he lock me up?"
With only a pair of unsure shrugs from Booker and Buck, the group pressed onward. Walking through the seemingly barren and empty terminal station, their footsteps crackled loudly against the marble floors and echoed in the large, cavernous station. The marine felt uneasy as they continued onward, like they were walking into an ambush.
Sure enough, the group was attacked by a patrol of Vox soldiers armed with a variety of weapons. After dealing with the Covenant only a day ago (or at least what felt like a day ago), every other firefight he'd gotten into in Columbia felt like a walk in the park for the two gunmen. With precise accuracy and deadly mastery of the Vigors, along with Elizabeth's help with Tears, they'd taken out the light Vox resistance without breaking a sweat.
With the Vox "threat" out of the way, the group continued their march towards Comstock House. They passed through a turnstile into an elevator waiting room, but the door into the elevator was locked and the keypad required a code.
"In my books," Elizabeth said, rummaging through parts of the room. "It says that most fools keep the combination for these kinds of locks nearby."
"Let's hope we can find those fools," Booker replied.
The three soon split up in the cramped room to find the code. Buck tore through a closet across from the locked door, but had little luck as he didn't even know what he was looking for. Booker, meanwhile, looked on the desk and was rewarded when he found the four-digit code written down on a clipboard underneath a stack of books.
"So I've been wondering," Buck asked, looking through the pockets of a fancy-looking jacket. "For someone who's been locked up in a tower their whole life, you really have a interest in code breaking and lock picking. Is there a reason for that?"
"If you put someone in a cage long enough, they eventually develop a strong interest in such things." She saw Booker had found the clipboard with the code and smiled and sighed that what was probably the easiest search of the day was over.
Before Booker could go over and enter in the code, a curtain rose next to them, revealing another golden Comstock statue and it began to play the tune that summoned the Songbird. They stood still for several seconds as the sounds of leather flapping against the wind grew louder and louder. The creature eventually landed on or beside the building, and Elizabeth and Booker dropped behind the desk.
A piece of the ceiling fell just a foot away from Buck, and he heard the high-pitched wail of the Songbird. It was calling for Elizabeth to come back with him to her tower, something she had zero intentions of doing. Booker waved Buck over to their hiding spot as another few pieces of the ceiling fell, and he dove behind the desk just before the bird positioned itself right outside the window.
With a loud, high-pitched chirp, the window shattered and rained glass all around the room as it stuck its head inside the office room. A yellow light swept from left to right across the room as the Songbird loudly inhaled and exhaled in its search for Elizabeth. A tense, almost panicked silence fell upon them, everyone trying to keep as still and quiet as possible to prevent detection.
Finally, the Songbird let out one final earsplitting wail and flew away to continue its search elsewhere. The trio picked themselves off the ground, and Elizabeth rushed over to the elevator, breathing heavily and quickly to enter in the code.
"Elizabeth, wait," Booker said before she held up her hand.
"Just promise me–"
"We will stop them."
She looked over at Buck and then shook her head slowly. "No. That is an oath you cannot keep. Promise me that if it comes to it... you will not let him take me back!"
Buck saw that Elizabeth's eyes wandered down to Buck's sidearm, and a lump in his throat formed as he kept quiet. The fact that Elizabeth would rather die than return to her tower under the Songbird's and Comstock's watch wasn't exactly surprising, but it was still shocking to hear her say this directly.
"It's never going to come to that," Booker assured her, putting his hand to her cheek.
The elevator finally arrived at their floor and the three quietly entered the lift. As the three descended, Buck took a look out the glass window and saw a courtyard embroiled in war.
He saw elegantly designed buildings that were conceived and built by the finest architects and construction workers in Columbia for the most privileged and wealthiest of the city. Unfortunately, those buildings were now engulfed in flames as Vox and Founder militaries traded gunfire in the air and on the ground. Over the horizon Buck could see almost the entire section of the city burning with a thick cloud of smoke rising higher and higher into the atmosphere.
"My God," Elizabeth said in hushed horror. "They're tearing this city apart."
The elevator slammed to a sudden halt. There was a loud snapping of a cable and the elevator tilted. Booker kicked the glass open and led the three on the nearby Sky-Rail to an open space where they could land. They landed and immediately broke out into a dead sprint out of the warzone. Bullets and rockets flew all around them, and they had to avoid a bombardment by a Vox airship to a nearby encampment of Founder soldiers.
Buck searched for a way out of the firefight and found one to the right of the large building that dominated the area. The marine pointed it out to everyone and had to shout over the explosions and the occasional crash of thunder and lightning from the approaching storm.
They sprinted over to a blown-out shop and waited out the firefight before making their escape. Unfortunately, they heard a mechanical roar that threw that idea out the window.
Elizabeth looked up at the black-and-fiery sky and confirmed what they all thought. "Handyman!"
The two looked up and saw a flaming Vox airship spinning out of control into the building. It exploded upon impact, causing great collateral damage to the surrounding area as debris was showered upon what poor bastards were standing beneath it.
However, the hulking spawn of science emerged out of the wreckage without a scratch. It looked over to their position and bellowed a challenge to them.
Shit.
The two opened fire on the charging Handyman, but it was on them in an instead and backhanded Booker across the courtyard, sending him flying all the way to the steps of the building.
Whatever Vox troops that remained focused their fire on Booker while the Handyman dealt with Buck an Elizabeth. Buck was confident DeWitt could hold his own against the handful of troops that remained, so he was more than content to focus all his efforts on taking down the behemoth instead of fighting against the Handyman plus the soldiers.
Buck positioned himself between Elizabeth and the Handyman, protecting her from facing the mechanical behemoth. Without needing any instruction, she slowly made her way over to a safer part of the alleyway to keep herself out of harms way.
Booker opened up with a stream of 7.62mm bullets right to the Handyman's heart, but this one was smart and used its massive hands to form a barrier. The rounds lacked the ability to pierce through armor and metal, so all Buck did was give the Handyman some cosmetic damage.
The Handyman roared and swept his arm out, but Buck rolled out of the way. The Handyman used quick swipes and attacks, forcing Buck to back away and dodge out of the way of every strike, keeping him from attacking.
A downward strike from the Handyman knocked Buck off balance and sent him to the cobblestone pathway on his back. The ODST crawled on his back, but the Handyman followed him step-for-step until he was cornered next to an overturned cart.
Just as the Handyman was about to deliver the big blow, a crate loader materialized out of thin air above the Handyman and a trio of heavy crates fell on top of it, shattering into pieces and distracting it from finishing off Buck.
Sensing his opportunity to end this fight, Buck leapt onto the Handyman and held on for dear life as the mechanical man did everything it could to shake Buck off. He climbed up the mechanical body until he grabbed a hold of the rim around the neck. Buck pulled out his combat knife and sunk it deep in the first piece of flesh he could find. The automaton bellowed out a cry of pain as a mix of blood and oil gushed from the wound, but the Handyman kept moving and trying to shake off its enemy. Buck continued to stab away at the exposed flesh, he and his armor being drenched in the oily blood until the metal behemoth's began to slow down. It fell to its knees after a short while and, after one more plunge with the knife into its neck, collapsed face first on the cobblestone street.
Not giving a moment of rest, Buck jumped from the Handyman's corpse and sprinted towards the battle across the courtyard where Booker had taken out all but a few more heavily-armored Vox soldiers and was pinned down inside a blown-out shop. Buck switched to his armor-piercing M6C and dropped the well-protected adversaries with ease. The battle was finally over, and Buck was now able to exhale as the adrenaline began to subside.
Elizabeth went over to the locked gate that was keeping them from advancing to the next section of Emporia, and the keen eyes of the two fighters kept watch over the skies and the building for any ambushes. Thankfully, nothing ever came and the two were finally able to relax a bit and take a breather.
"Thanks for the assist back there," Buck said, cleaning off the goop from his knife and slipping it back in his sheath. "Not sure I'd be standing here right now if you didn't distract him."
"For everything you and Booker have done for me thus far, it's the least I could have done." Elizabeth continued to make progress with the lock fell apart and they went through the gate, up a flight of stairs past a row of abandoned shops and stores.
"So how you doing on ammo," Buck asked Booker, pointing to his Covenant Carbine.
"I've only got two more of these cylinders, plus whatever's left in the rifle."
Buck went into his ammo pouch and found only one more full clip of ammunition, plus about 20 rounds left in the current mag and two extra clips for the M6C. They'd need to ration the ammunition for their futuristic weapons, no matter how devastating they were, and stick with the Columbian weapons unless they were up against heavier troops.
They came across a bridge that lead into the downtown portion of the district, with elegant buildings on both sides of the entrance. Military training drilled into Buck's head made him keep a trained eye on the rooftops for snipers. The glint of a scope, the exposed rifle, a slow movement of the sniper… anything that could give their position away and make it easier to take them out. But if there were snipers on the rooftops, they were good and kept themselves as hidden as possible.
They slowly crossed the wooden bridge, still recovering from their drawn-out battles with the Vox, when Buck caught a quick reflection of the sun against glass.
Buck was a blur of motion before anyone else knew what was happening.
"Get down," Buck shouted, sprinting in front of DeWitt.
The sniper got his shot off and the bullet stuck Buck's chest right above the heart. He collapsed to the deck with his hand over the wound, blood running from the bullet hole in the body armor.
DeWitt sent a green alien projectile right through the marksman's head, ending the threat, but not before the damage had been done. Elizabeth and Booker gently and quickly brought Buck into one of the abandoned shops back in the long, empty walkway as they heard more soldiers approaching.
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