I don't own Halo or any of its characters! Bungie Studios does. I only own Nala 'Aidasee character and other OC that might appear in this story.

Quick A/N: There will one more "filler" chapter after this chapter! At least I hope so...

Halo: Crossed Fates

Chapter 21

Planet 171 And Discussions

Delta Halo. Control Center

The Forerunner structure crumpled as it was charging for to unleash its deadly fire on the Galaxy. But that still didn't make difference for Nala. Not right now anyway, all that was focused on her mind was her father. After the Chieftain of the jiralhanae was slain and Nala made sure that Arbiter was alright, she started walking around the platform trying to find her father.

But as she was still looking for her father, the Control Center crumpled suddenly even more fiercely which even made Nala almost fall over, but she was able to regain her balance quickly. But she quickly noticed, what looked like the helmet of an Councilor. And soon found the bloodied body of Councilor 'Aidasee who had badly looking injury on his head. Possible from the helmet, when he was hit by the Fist of Rukt. "Oh no!" Nala was quickly by her fathers side.

"Father, don't die on me!" she almost screamed, holding his head on her hands. "Your stronger than this!" she even shocked her fathers head. But there came no response. Nala placed her forehead on her fathers as the tears flowed down to her fathers face. "You should… know, that this kind of injury wouldn't… be able to… kill me that easily." he suddenly laughed. Before Nala could say anything, the whole Control Center went dark.

For a moment, everybody thought this was the end and that they've failed to stop the activation of the Ring, but soon the lights returned. "Wha… what happened?" Councilor 'Aidasee asked. Soon, in the center of the platform appeared a strange looking sphere.

They then saw the dark skinned human coming down while riding on the Monitor, which looked really ridiculous. Nala could see that some of the sangheili had something to say about it, but remained quiet.

"We should see what they are talking about." Nala's father said. "Could you help me up? I don't think I can use my legs properly." he said.

"Of course." Nala said with a smile. She then placed her fathers hand on her shoulders and tried to get up. For a moment she fell back on the floor because of her fathers weight. But she quickly regained her strength and this time her father helped her out bit more. "I didn't know you have gotten this heavy father." Nala laughed.

"That usually happens when you simply sit around and doing politics." her father laughed back. "You get badly out of shape and you don't much time for practicing." they both limped the center of the platform, hearing the humans the Monitor discussing something.

"Communicating with what?" the human female asked.

"The… other Installations." the Monitor answered, sounding confused. As if the humans should've known what it meant.

"Show us." she said, noticing the small company with her. Then the strange sphere changed into seven different Rings. That seemed to got the sangheili's attention too well. "Fail-safe protocol: In the event of unexpected shutdown, the entire system will move to standby status." the Monitor explained. As the Rings were fully apart from themselves.

"All remaining platforms are now ready for remote activation." nobody didn't like the sound of that. "Remote Activation? From here?" the human asked.

If the Monitor had a face it would be trying to hold its laughter. "Don't be ridiculous." it said. That didn't seem to sit well with the dark skinned human. "Listen tinkerbell, don't make me…!" before he could finish his threat, the female interrupted him. "Then where? Where would someone go to activate the other Rings." she asked. Sounding little patient.

Once again the ancient machine showed how it was surprised (maybe even shocked) by the way the human talked to it. Which also confused the sangheili, as they wondered what sort of connection there was between Forerunners and humans. "Why the Ark, of course." it said.

"And where Oracle." Arbiter all of sudden stepped out of the small crowd of sangheili, holding his sore side. "Is that?" the Monitor looked at the Arbiter, then at the humans, as if asking permission to talk to the sangheili. They simply nodded and Monitor turned back at Arbiter.

"The Ark is located on the Planet 171, in Solarium System. Which is also serving as the Reclaimers homeworld." it explained, looking at the humans, who started to look like they were little uncomfortable about everybody was looking at them. And everybody being their worst enemy in that case. "Last time a contact had been made with them had been about 99 999 years ago. Any further data on this matter had been denied from my memory banks."

"The Ark is on Earth…?" the female said in disbelief.

Nala's father turned his gaze from the Monitor to the humans. "You mean the planet the Prophet of Regret found?" he asked. The humans simply remained quiet about it, still being only two of them in the same room with the sangheili. But then they noticed that the upper platform was starting to decent. "The Control Center is restarting itself." the Monitor suddenly said. "May I suggest leaving this platform, unless you wish to become… squished." it said, slightly considering its words.

Everybody quickly moved as the platform returned to its original form and took its original place. "Listen human…"Nala's father started as they left the Control Room, but was interrupted. "My name is Miranda Keyes!" she said with slightly raised voice. "The former Commander of In Amber Clad UNCS Navy!" she knew, telling them these kinds of things didn't make the situation any better, but she getting little tired of being simply called human. Especially if they have to work even further.

"Very well then… Miranda." Councilor 'Aidasee noticed how strange it sounded when the name came from his 'mouth'. "Now listen, we need to know exactly where is your homeworld. So we can end the threat Truth and his jiralhanae are posing." he explained, in a diplomatic manner.

"Don't you guys know where Earth is since you tried to attack it? Twice!" the dark skinned human opened his mouth. This seemed to confuse the sangheili. "What you mean?" Councilor 'Aidasee asked sounding suspecting. The dark skinned human didn't seem to buy the way the Councilor talked. "Don't try to play stupid with me Squid Face!" he said with raised voice.

"After we took your precious flagship from the First Halo Ring." mentioning that something started working inside Arbiters mind, as his face held an expression that told that he was realizing something. "We learned that you had a big bad ass fleet waiting somewhere with your great and mighty station. Something called 'Uneven Elephant'…" the human didn't have any chance to continue when the sangheili all together yelled. "The Unyielding Hierophant!"

"Johnson…" Miranda said. As if trying to make the other human keep himself shut. But it was little too late as what seemed like a secret, was out. "What you know about The Unyielding Hierophant?" one of the Zealots asked, sounding really upset.

"Well…" the human rubbed his neck little nervously. "Oh hell! We blew the whole thing up and your big ass fleet with it! So how do you like that?"

"You humans are even more trouble than you are worth!" the same Zealot yelled taking out his sword, while the human raised his Beam Rifle. But before anything could've happen, Arbiter grabbed the Zealots sword wrist. "I believe we need to discuss about these matters when we are out of here." he said.

"I agree with the Arbiter." Nala said suddenly. Everybody's looking at her. "We need to move fast and we need to know what exactly Truth had been doing all this time." this was alarming news. There never was anything kinds of news about the destruction of the station or this fleet the human mentioned.

"Yes." her father agreed, as did the Arbiter. "We need to contact the Righteous Fire."

"The Righteous Fire?" both Nala and Arbiter asked. "That would be my ship before the jiralhanae tried to take it over." the Zealot, now revealed to be a Ship Master answered. "But thankfully, the Special Operation Commander Rtas 'Vadumee came and helped us to slaughter every single jiralhanae and all of those who dared to side with them!" he said with some in his voice pride.

Nala and Arbiter gave simple nods. The Ship Master then activated his communications for his ship. "This is Ship Master Xaling 'Mankatee. Come in Righteous Fire." he ordered.

For a while there was only static, but soon the Ship Masters com received a call from the ship. "This Righteous Fire. We hear you Ship Master." a voice answered. "What is the status of the ship?" he asked. "All systems are operational and we've also cleaned the remaining jiralhanae who were hiding around the ship." this disturbed the Ship Master.

"What you mean?"

"There were couple jiralhanae disturbingly equip with Active Camouflage. And they were almost successful taking the bridge."

"Yes, that sounds disturbing." he said, his voice lowered little. But enough for everyone to hear. "But right now, we need a pick up from the Control Center." Ship Master Xaling said. "Of course Ship Master. We shall sent a Phantom immediately." but before the connection was cut. "Officer, there is something you need to know."

"Who is this?"

"This is Councilor 'Aidasee." Councilor said. The Officer sounded quite surprised when the Councilor contacted him. "What you need Councilor?"

"We are bringing couple humans with us and they would appreciate if you would tell the warriors in ship not to fire at them." he ordered, which only puzzled the Officer. "Humans? Are you sure Councilor?" he asked, but not wanting to questions Councilors authority. "Yes, I'm quite sure Officer."

"Very well then Councilor 'Aidasee." the connection was cut.

The Councilor then looked at the humans. "Thank you Councilor." Miranda said. Sounding still unsure about the whole situation. "I hope we can discuss in slightly more friendlier manner once we are on the ship." Councilor said.

It surprised Nala much, how her father acted towards the humans now. Maybe what the 'Oracle' had said had something to do with it. But was it true that the Journey they've believed so long was a lie and that the humans seemed to have some kind of connection with the Forerunners? She quickly glanced at Arbiter, as looking for answers from him. But he only shacked his head. Hopefully they would receive some kinds of answers once they've reached the ship.

"Nala…" she turned her head towards her father. "I believe I can now move on my own, so you can let me go." he said, a small smile on his mandibles and Nala smiled back. "I don't think so father." she said, with small teasing in her voice. But her voice then changed into slightly more serious. "Your aren't that strong yet." she said, now looking at her fathers legs, which were now making small movement, but still looked limp.

"I guess you are right." he sighted. As the group moved outside for the pick up.

Inside Righteous Fire. Medical bay.

"You were quite lucky Councilor." the sangheili doctor said, who was also little nervous because the Councilor was eyeing him. Possibly making sure he wouldn't try to draw any blood from him. "If your helmet would've got hit little harder it would've cracked your skull and probably killing you." he explained, while showing him the pictures of his skull which showed the small damage.

"Yes, but how long I'm unable to walk?" he said, sounding really annoyed with the fact that he wouldn't be able to walk. "Ah, yes. I'm not really sure. Probably in couple hours."

While the Councilor was annoyed about this, he was also wondering what was happening at the Command Center of the ship, since when they took him straight to the Medical bay, Arbiter, Nala, Ship Master Xaling, humans, Monitor and Rtas who turned out be quite alive moved to Control Center to talk and he was here. Listening the doctor babbling.

Command Center of Righteous Fire.

"What!" all four sangheili roared when the humans had told them about Unyielding Hierophant. "Yeah, that's the story." the dark skinned human, Johnson told them. "And we had lot contacts with you monkey friends, so our Spartans had lot of trouble in their hands." the Zealot cringed slightly at the mentioning of the Demons.

"So, it seems like the Truth had plans for the jiralhanae for a while now." Rtas growled. This was completely humiliating for him and for his people. That Truth had planned to replace them for a while now. But it also made sense, since the idiotic brutes would do anything for the "Journey" which made them easily manipulative.

"And now he is giving them even better equipments." Nala said, with a scowl on her face. "Like the ones we encountered on the Control Center, or the ones you encountered here." she looked at Rtas who nodded.

Xaling then interrupted their conservation from jiralhanae. "But what should we do about the humans?" he asked. Now getting everybody's attention to himself. "Since it looks like all the things Prophets had said about them have been… possibly, false." he said. Not still sure about the situation.

"Now wait just a minute!" Miranda put in. "How can you say 'possibly'?" she asked with raised voice. "We've never done anything that would've caused this war! It was all your fault! She yelled. Forgetting for a while that the room was filled with creatures that could easily break her neck. And they all were armed.

"How dare you human!" Ship Master snarled, while some of the crew joined with him.

"Xaling! That's enough!" Rtas cut the Ship Masters rage before it could go any further. "But Commander Rtas! You can't just let this puny human disgrace us!" Xaling tried to defend himself.

"I'm afraid she is quite right." Arbiter said this time. His head lowered. "It was us who started the war, as we blindly believed everything the Prophets had said to us." but he then raised his head and everyone could see fire burning in his eyes. "But not anymore! Now, all we can do is to repay ourselves from these sins which might be impossible from damage we've caused for the human race." he then looked at the humans.

"Commander Miranda Keyes. I humbly ask you to accept our help and…"

"You don't speak for all of us Arbiter!" Xaling pointed at the Arbiter. "You have no right! You were stripped from your name and rank and honor when you failed to keep the Halo Ring sav…" he wasn't able to continue his rant, as he felt a strong punch on his mandibles which made him fall on the floor. "What!" he looked up trying to see his attacker. "You! You dare…!" he growled at Nala who was staring at him angrily.

"You have not right to judge him! He did his best and yet the Prophets tossed him aside." she growled. "But now things have changed! The Prophets are trying to cast us aside, they let jiralhanae slaughter us! And we've learned the real truth about the Rings! In my opinion Thel 'Vadam has the right to regain his honor!" she hissed.

Everybody was quite shocked and surprised when the Warrior Priestess had left the "-ee's" from the former Supreme Commanders name, which always marked them to be in the service of the Covenant.

"That's enough Nala!" Arbiter put in. Trying to stop her before she might drive herself into some kind of fight. "But Thel, you can't just…!" she tried say something but the Arbiter didn't let her. "Please, not right now." he almost sounded pleading.

Nala's shoulders dropped from the disappointment, but she decided to do as Thel asked her. "Alright." she sighted, taking her place now on his side as if protecting him further from the Ship Master and everybody who dared to threat him.

"But she is preaching Heresy! She has seemed to forgot that we are the warriors of the Holy Covenant!" Xaling got up, while pointing at the Warrior Priestess.

"No!" Special Operation Commander Rta's 'Vadum said. "What she and Arbiter told us is true. Things have changed. Especially when the Prophets, Truth, jiralhanae are trying to overthrow us." the Ship Master stared Special Operation Commander in shock. "The Covenant we once knew, is gone. The Covenant, that seemed be nothing more than full of lies and dishonor. The Covenant that believed false religion" Rtas continued. "The Covenant, that we are no longer part of." he said his last words with lowered voice which even hinted small amount of sadness.

He then looked at Miranda. "And now we try to atone ourselves from our sins and regain the honor we lost long ago. Don't you agree with me?" asked, now looking around the Command Center, looking for everybody's opinion in the room.

There quite many agreeing murmurs. The Ship Master seemed to be in quite shock, since he didn't acknowledge what was happening around him. In his long line of service of the Covenant, he never would've imagined or even dared to dream anything like this would be happening.

"This… this has to be something kind of, trick. A human trick! Yes, the humans are fault of this." his eyes then slowly started stare at the two humans. Especially the female. "But what about those things the Oracle said?" his other side argued. "This is completely their doing! They did something to the Oracle and now they are affecting our minds! The Prophets were right, they are Demons!"

"But how sure are you? What if they really did willingly let the jiralhanae attack our kind? What if they gave them these equipment? What if…?"

"NO!" Ship Master suddenly yelled, drawing his blade. "I will not be clouded by your lies humans!" but before he could reach them, another blade came through his chest. He looked behind him and saw Special Operation Commander standing behind him. "I'm sorry to do this, brother." Rtas said sadly.

"Wh… why? Why Let them live? Why… help them?" Xaling asked.

"Because right now, they are the ones that are helping us and vice versa." he explained.

"But once… the jiralhanae would've been de… defeated. We could've got our place… back into… into the Covenant." Xaling coughed now more badly. And blood flew out of his mouth onto the floor.

"I'm afraid, that won't happen." Rtas said sadly.

"Don't say that! *cough* don't… say, that." the Ship Master struggled, but in vain. He could feel his live force leave him. He would soon leave this world and step into the next. But what would be waiting him there? Darkness? Nothingness? The Journey? Never again had he felt so conflicted. In someway, he had believed what the humans and the Oracle had said. But didn't want to believe. That would mean everything he worked for was for nothing! "Damn… those humans!" were his last thoughts before fading into darkness.

"I'm sorry about this brother." Rtas whispered. He then looked around the Center. "Would someone remove this corpse and give him proper and honorable 'burial'?" couple unggoy's and a sangheili appeared before the Commander. "We would be honored Commander. If you let us." the sangheili said.

Rtas eyed them for a while, but then agreed. "Very well, but remember treat his body with respect." he added. As the unggoy's and sangheili picked up the body. "Don't worry your Excellency, we will." and then they left.

"Now." he turned to Miranda. "I also ask you Commander Miranda. Will you let us help you defeat Truth and his jiralhanae and stop their plot before they destroy us all?" both Miranda and Johnson changed gazes. There was escape from this. It was now or never and this might've been their only chance, all though it could be a trap. But right now they had not much to loose.

With a defeated sight Miranda looked at the three sangheili. "All right. I'll accept your help. But you have to promise to leave us alone after this is done." she said strictly. But she knew that they might not be able to keep their promise, since these Elites weren't exactly in charge. But it was too late go back now.

And now some sort of an alliance between the sangheili forces and UNSC was formed. Now they had to make sure they would win this war. No matter the cost!

Here! Hope ya like it. And once again, while writing this I came across couple writers block while trying to figure out how the characters should react etc. hope you can understand. Anyway, don't forget to comment/review this chapter or story. And no flames. Unless they are part of your constructive criticism. And I REALLY hope you guys check out my "Mass Effect: Jumped In" story and comment/review it.

Till next time, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!