Chapter 24 - Delusions and Grandeur

"Just try it, at least."

It had been a week since the Chiefs return to the Institute of War, and a couple of days back for the person he was currently sitting with. True to the High Councillors word, her Summoners had been too busy to attempt any serious effort into locating the Chief's home, so he was stuck here for the foreseeable future. He'd been trying to make the best of it, learning champions names and being lees cold than usual. Not that he liked it.

He had ended up going into town to purchase a replacement for his knife. While he did not really need it, he wanted to an excuse to get out of the Institute for a bit. And there was no such thing as having too many weapons, after all.

Naturally, as soon as the Chief left the shop, he was ambushed by a familiar mass of pink hair, because for some reason no one wanted to leave him alone. After much insistence by Vi, he was led to a shady bar so they could 'talk'.

And now she was trying to get him to drink alcohol. While he could, because he was technically of duty, he thought it was a bad habit to get into.

"No," the Chief said once again. Vi sighed exaggeratedly and brought his mug closer towards her.

"More for me," she declared, draining her own beverage. She set it down with a bang and wiped her mouth with her hand.

The Chief glanced around the bar, taking in the other patrons. It as evening time, so the more scummy ones were begging to come out. How they avoided the city guards, he would never know.

Although, maybe the guards didn't care about that kind of thing. This was not the UNSC, after all.

"So." Chief turned his attention back to Vi. She gave a smirk. "When're you gunna ask Riven out?"

For once, the Chief could not maintain his neutral face. His eyes widened slightly and he leaned forward a bit, incredulous. The question had caught him completely off guard.

"What?" he sputtered out, barely managed the words.

"Oh, c'mon. we all know you have a thing for her."

The Chief found his trained, military posture rapidly deteriorate. "No."

"No one spends that time together and aren't a thing."

"We. Are. NOT. A. Thing."

Vi chuckled. "Well, you had me fooled. In fact, you had most of the institute fooled."

The Chief sat back and gritted his teeth slightly. "I need allies," he said. "Nothing more."

He couldn't understand why Vi was getting on his nerves. It wasn't like him to get angry. Then again, it wasn't like him to travel to different dimensions, either.

"And it sure is nice when those 'allies' have benefits, am I right?"

The Chief blinked. "I don't understand," he said, truthfully. Many civilian terms were unknown to him, and those he did know he could not grasp the meaning of. It would be so much simpler if everyone used military talk and hand signs.

It was Vi's turn to blink. "I… you… forget it."

They sat in an awkward silence. Well, awkward for Vi. Chief didn't really care one way or another if they talked or not.

"Chief," she said hesitantly. "Ya know it's okay to get attached, right? You're not in the military anymore."

"Attachment is a tactical weakness," he stated. Those were words that had been imprinted in his mind from a young age.

Vi snorted. "Yeah, right." She reached forward and gripped the Chiefs hand in an arm lock pose. "Attachment makes you strong. Soldiers fight harder when there's something to fight for. If they have good enough reason, they'll dive into the infested pits of the void itself."

It was her choice of words that triggered the memory. Him, fighting thorough a horde of flood creatures in the infested hulk of High Charity to rescue Cortana. Despite overwhelming evidence that she had been infected, Hood had allowed him to go. Why had he gone? There was a good chance she would have been no help whatsoever. It went beyond the promise that he had made her. And why had Hood allowed him to go? He didn't even think it was worth it. And why had the Arbiter come to save him? Half-Jaw had stated that the Arbiter was too precious to risk boarding the hulk of High Charity.

He was shaken out of his memory when Vi let go of his hand to sip her – his – drink. "You know," she said, "you're hands 'r softer than I expected."

The Chief blinked again. He still didn't understand why or how civilians changed topics constantly.

Military talk would be so much easier.

He thought about it for a moment. "Gauntlets," he stated. Looking at his hand and flexing it. "I have not held a weapon in my real hands for over twenty-five years of war." Truthfully, it was probably the cause of the armours gel-layer, but he didn't mention the whole gel layer stuff to Vi – it would probably just have confused her. Or maybe not; she was pretty tech-savvy.

Vi shook her head. She still hadn't grasped the concept of such a war. While she thought fighting was fun, she couldn't image fighting for that long. Anyone would be exhausted half way through that.

Chief glanced around the shady room, which was slowly filling up with more patrons. He reached a hand to his face, only to find that he was sweating, which was odd. His enhanced body made sweating – except in the most extreme of circumstances – impossible.

Maybe the memory had more of an impact him than he had realized.

"I'm going to use the restroom," he declared, and rose up, not waiting for a response back.

The restroom was, naturally, a shithole. The no longer white tiles were cracked and ripped from the walls. The glass above the sink was shattered, as if someone's head had gone through it, and the floor was broken as if by heavy footsteps.

All in all, it was still better than all the places the Covenant had visited.

He went to wash his face, uncaring of the cracked and dirty porcelain sink. His enhanced immune system would block out small diseases.

As the water ran between his hands, he looked at his reflection in the cracked mirror. His face was pale, his hair still uncut. The crack ran down the middle of his face, making the two halves appear unaligned with each other. He knew that if Vi were here to see it, she would have made a connection between it and something regarding his current state of mind.

He chuckled in his mind, but the sound never made it to his throat. He wondered about Vi, for a minute. She was the least likely person out of the limited group of people that he knew to give him life advice, but here she was, doing that. It was odd, in a way; yet in another way it made more sense than anything else.

This time his chuckle left his throat.

After several more long minutes, he turned away and left the room, feeling slightly more refreshed. Of course, that feeling didn't last very long.

Vi was sitting at the table, cradling her drink, her face a bright, angry red colour. There was a man sitting beside her in the booth, and two more standing beside the tabl. Chief had been gone for less than five minutes and already people were harassing her.

"Get away if you like your face," she said through clenched teeth. Or maybe it was a smile. The Chief couldn't tell one way or another.

He moved towards the table, knowing that Vi would do something rash and hoping to avoid it.

"C'mon, sweetie. Don't be like that. Me 'n the boys just wan' keep you company," said the man beside her, leaning in far too much.

Vi punched the man in the face.

He feel back, clutching his now broken nose. "You BITCH!" he cried, blood dripping between his fingers. The other two men moved to their downed leader, glaring menacingly at Vi.

"You're gunna pay," said the taller of the two.

"No one's going to be paying anyone," the Chief said, suddenly right behind the two men.

They had to crane their necks up to look at him, for he was a head and a half taller than the both of them. They were both pretty short men, after all.

"And just who the hell do you think you are?" said the shorter of the two, moving his coat back to show a gun strapped to his waist.

Less than a second later, the Master Chief had his knife out and pointed at the man's throat. His eyes crossed as he tried to stare at the blade so dangerously close to him.

"A Demon," said Chief with a small, wry grin. All three of the men paled, thinking that it was quite possibly true.

The room went silent, everyone staring at the development in their midst. This was probably the nights entertainment for them.

"We were just leaving, you know," said the leader, who was still on the floor. His two compatriots nodded their heads vigorously. Well the shorter one tried to, at least. It was hard with a knife at his throat.

The Chief let a tense few seconds go by before sheathing he knife. "Go," he commanded, and all three men scrambled away, shooting dirty looks back at them.

"Demon," chuckled Vi. "Nice touch."

The Chief shrugged his shoulders. "That's what my enemies used to call me."

Vi chuckled even more at that, and the Chief allowed himself to smile too.

"Why didn't you just tell them you're a league champ?" he asked. "They would have left you alone."

Vi drank the rest of the alcohol. "I like to fight my own battles," she said. "Plus, if they didn't recognize me right off the bat, what makes you think they would have believed me anyways?"

The Chief shrugged again.

"You know I could have handled myself, right?"

The Chief nodded. "I'm sure. I just lessened the causalities." He looked towards the door.

Vi followed his gaze. "Wanna go?" she asked.

The Chief nodded. "Bars don't seem to agree with me," he said.

VI chuckled again, but didn't protest. A few minutes later they were walking down the road, headed back to the institute.

"What was the point of the conversation?" asked Chief. He hated spending his time doing nothing of value.

"Do friends need a reason to hang out with each other?" Vi shot back, seeming quite serious. She didn't look at the Chief, so she was unable to see his reaction of complete shock.

He actually had to stop for a moment. He didn't recall, at any point, even acting remotely friend-like to her. In fact, he had punched her. And she still considered him a friend? Without any commitment on his part?

Was that how this worked?

Vi turned back. "What are you doing? Tired yourself out already?" she snorted. Chief assumed from her tone that she was amused. At what, he didn't know.

He moved up to join her, and they resumed walking in silence.

"For a guy that isn't looking for a relationship, you sure do hang out with a lot of females," Vi said, out of the blue.

The Chief just shook his head and sighed. "Coincidence,' he replied.

"Maybe your subconsciously looking for – "

"No," he said. "And please stop trying to psycho-analyze me."

"Oh yeah, Tin Man? Make me."

Chief glanced at her sidelong. "Ok. I'll call the Sheriff over here and she can see how tough and un-caring you really are."

Vi opened and closed her mouth a few times like a fish, then turned a bright red. She mumbled under her breath a bit.

They walked on for a few more steps in silence before Vi said, "Just because I'm trying to help you doesn't mean I'm soft. And my gir- my partner doesn't have to know about this."

"Agreed."

They reached the main plaza, recently rebuilt after the devastation from a couple of weeks before. Against the objection of the Chief, the automatons had been carried away and destroyed. The human bodies had gotten funerals. It would have made a lot more sense to keep the automatons for future study, but apparently League officials cared more about feelings than tactical advantages.

"Alright, I still have some shit to do. I trust you can make it back to the League without causing a war?"

The Chief smiled a small smile, nodding.

"C ya," she said, walking away backwards. "And ask her out, you big metal can."

The Master Chief shook his head and scowled, but he watched her leave anyways, making sure she was okay.

Elsewhere

"I want to make sure you are ready and committed to what is to come."

Marin nodded, annoyed that his employer even had to ask. He had signed the contract, had he not?

"Good," the Scientist said. "We shall be like a storm, descending upon Runterra, as unstoppable as the elements themselves."

Marin tilted his head slightly, enough to make his next statement seem like a question. "I except that you will adhere to the terms of my contract?"

The Scientist smiled coolly. "Of course," he said smoothly. "Innocents that do not get in our way will not be harmed. Your honour will not be stained."

Marin nodded content. While the question he had asked may have been a little bit redundant, he liked to be sure – one of the few things he had in common with his employer.

He stood in the room, waiting for dismissal. The Scientist had other plans, though. He stood up. "Come with me."

Marin followed his employer through a door at the back of the office. It took them to another metal walkway, similar to the entrance to the lab, but this one was above a far, far larger room. It was cavernous; it stretched out farther than he could see in either direction. There were lines upon lines of the new-model mechs and more besides. Massive four legged walker mechs, ground vehicles, air vehicles, and augmented humans that Marin himself had supervised the creation of. Everything was assembled into blocks, companies of troops, each a piece of the larger battle force.

It was an army large enough to threaten any of the city-states of Valoran. He turned to stare at his employer.

"This is just the vanguard army," the Scientist said. "My factories can now produce this many troops per week, thanks to this." He patted the odd device that had helped him propel his research forward. "And I already have another army nearing completion. And as soon as we complete our major objectives, I can create this many troops per day."

Marin was impressed. He even whistled appreciatively.

"No longer will humanity loose hundreds of troops in each war. Automatons are the next step in warfare. We can what my former employers never had the balls to do – rule this world."

The Scientists voice practically dripped with venom. Marin only knew little of his employer's former work – something about sentient mechs and necromancy. All he really knew was that his former employers had had him rebuild one of their favoured soldiers with his technology, but they were unwilling to take the next step they needed to rule the world, like the Scientist had told them to do. They did not trust untested and relatively new Techmaturgy, despite its obvious effectiveness.

Dangerous, they called it.

He wanted to prove them wrong. He would prove them wrong.

Marin was distracted from his thoughts by a blue, holographic light coming from the machine. It depicted all the forces he would have at his command – a fraction of the army assembled below him.

"Are you sure that is enough?" he inquired.

The Scientist nodded. "Yes. The rest of the troops are needed elsewhere."

Marin nodded. He already knew the battle plan. After all, he had helped devise it. It would keep the enemy on their toes and jumping at every shadow in the dark, spreading their forces thin.

Below was the noise of squealing, tortured metal. The far, massive bar doors were slowly opening, revealing the monstrosity within. With pounding jabs it moved forwards, each one of its steps marking the floor and propelling its massive metal bulk towards the center of the battle lines. Despite the machine being so massive, it nimbly avoided the automatons beneath its feet.

As it growled to a stop, its main weapons began to glow a sickly green colour.

"Now," the Scientist said. "Now."

Finally I get to the point where I can get the ball rolling. Maybe I was too eager for it and rushed this chapter out, but Meh. I guess i should just say: Dun worry there is still a lot to to go before this story is finished, because i've gotten some messages or pm's (W/e their called) about when the story is ending and if I can make it longer. Or something.

So, uh, review if you feel like it. Everything allows me to write too a higher quality. If not, then enjoy the.. week?