War, Peace, and other Galactic Customs

by The Almighty Afroduck

After a long, terrible war, the Federation of Sovereign Empires forms as the product of the alliance created early in the Great War between the Covenant Separatists and the UNSC. Time passes as they progress greatly, eventually discovering the existence of other galactic governments. The events that will follow will change the course of the galaxy in more ways than one. PART- 3

26. Chapter 26

Author's Notes: Twenty. Three. Thousand. Five. Hundred. Words. I think I've oficially overcooked my brain. I can't feel anything anymore. And trust me. This is the chapter where aaaall shit goes down. Next one will be the end of Part 2 of this story officially. Do enjoy this somewhat fast review given how long I usually take (especially for the longest chapter yet BY FAR).

Part 2- THE GREAT WAR

Requiem of a War

April 30th, 2542: The soon-to-be crisis involving the Guardians was narrowly averted by the whole branch of Spartans and the crew of the Long Night of Solace. Having confronted the AI duo in control of the Prometheans aboard Installation 03, where the Composer's Abyss was located, the hiding place where all seven of the tools utilized to turn organics into the Forerunner Combat AI were. Between a smaller team of Imperial Admiral Arbiter Thel 'Vadam, Special Operations Commander Rtas 'Vadum, Supreme Commander Spartan-117 and First Lieutenant-312, they confronted the Warden Eternal and the defected Separatist AI, Kalmiya. There, with 049 Penitent Tangent and Mendicant Bias's aid, they were able to induce Rampancy upon Kalmiya once again, soon after destroying the Warden by 'infecting' him with some of her more destructive fragments. With the two maddened AI wreaking havoc in the Guardians' mainframes, the great weapons were destroyed, along with the Prometheans under their command.

In spite of their swift work and their quick execution of the dangerous Ancillae, great damage was done to Separatist territory. While the homeworlds survived well enough, albeit with the necessity of needing to reconstruct and fortify fallen defenses, most colonies could not stand against the Forerunner invading forces. Seventy-five percent were classified as 'critically debilitated'. While they did not suffer from the Covenant's glassing and they could be rebuilt once again, but in war times, there simply were not the resources, manpower or time to bring them back up to full speed again. Twenty percent were classified as 'in need of immediate repairs', which are a step just above 'critically damaged'. In order to return them to their full potential in short time, the entire populations of the 'critically damaged' colonies were sent to the colonies 'in need of immediate repairs'. Only the five percent were classified as 'in full working conditions', and are well enough to return to their full potential by themselves.

While the terrible news can be considered overwhelming, on Chieftain General Tartarus's initiative, a fleet of three hundred traveled to the newly recovered Sanghelios to aid it against the Prometheans under his and Chieftain Captain Lydus's commands. While the ships themselves were lost, a good ninety percent of the troops survived in fighting conditions, allowing them to garrison outside of the Separatist Sangheili's headquarters. And through the four hours of non-stop fighting, they emerged victorious while if the natives had fought alone, they would have almost certainly lost. While tensions are high this late in the war, racism and xenophobia is now the vast minority of the cause of it.

Under Admiral Terrence Hood, de facto Chairman of the Security Committee and acting Chief of Naval Operations until Fleet Admiral H. T. Ward could be found again, and the rest of the Leadership's directive, 'Operation: One Final Effort' is to commence. With the recapturing of all SA homeworlds and the almost certain fall of most, if not all, Covenant colonies against the Guardians' forces, a final grand fleet of three thousand ships is being amassed around the Unyielding Hierophant, currently in Earth's orbit, in order to launch an assault on High Charity, the last Covenant stronghold remaining. For all intentional purposes, the super city is intended to be captured the way which the previous homeworlds were. However, if necessary, a NOVA Bomb is ready to be sent to the immense space station as a quick solution to obliterate it and its surrounding fleet. All scouts and reconnaissance-purposed ships are being sent to any and every place where the artificial satellite may be.

19:03 – June 17th, 2542 – Genesis Control Center

John marched along with Nara on one side and Mendicant Bias on the other. Exuberant Witness was not currently with them, rather aiding Chieftain General Tartarus and Chieftain Captain Taurus when it came to the planet. Guilty Spark, Penitent Tangent, and now the newly added Monitor, Abject Testament, were aiding the Arbiter and the Specops Commander as well. Each pair of Jiralhanae and Sangheili had their respective ships orbiting the Fortress world, as well as the Pillar of Autumn, courtesy of Captain Jacob Keyes to transport the Spartan pair. The six military 'heads', or so to say, had the objective of analyzing the galaxy the way the Warden and Kalmiya had done. With the searches having been ineffective and the fleet for 'Operation: One Final Effort' having been ready for a pair of weeks now, the six heads of the main groundside military were to try to find them aboard Genesis while formulating a plan on how to do such a thing.

It had been over a month and a half since he had last stepped foot on the place, yet there was still a bitter taste to the atmosphere. Kalmiya was gone again, this time for good, and he held a great part of the fault for it. It had been what was necessary to do for the sake of the galaxy, what was expected of him to do. That in no way diminished his guilt when it came to the fact that he had slain the very woman he had called partner and friend for years. The one thing he had been thankful for was the fact that he had gotten the chance to get closure when it came to her, share final words. A great weight had been lifted from his shoulders when he had made sure that when she died, a smile had adorned her face until she was no more. The experience had been bittersweet in the end, more bitter than sweet, but the latter's existence could not be denied either.

He shook himself from his mental stupor. They had a mission, and if all went right, it would be their last great operation. Then the war would finally be over. He had to stop and remember how he had literally spent more than half of his life fighting it, and if he only counted the years when he was a conscious child, then he had spent little more than twice the time in the war than out of it. Thinking of it like that made him completely focus on the task ahead. Besides that, he and Kurt had decided to make a bet of when in that year would the Great War be finished. According to Kurt, towards the second half of the year while John himself had been adamant that it would be done by the first half. He was two weeks away from losing, and it would take an enormous amount of luck to make it otherwise. Then again, we make our own luck.

Going through the consoles that had recorded the life flourishing or otherwise around the galaxy, they found no sign of the Covenant capital. Even Mendicant Bias shook his body, all three eyes glowing with disapproval. "This is unprecedented. There are no signs of the Covenant's holy city anywhere in the monitored galaxy. The only places which had been exempt from the Forerunners' watchful eyes were their own worlds and installations. Had any one of the Halo Installations been activated, we would have already been notified from both Installations Zero-Four and Zero-Five. Undoubtedly, they are searching for something amongst my creators' worlds or arsenals, but what, I can't say. They may know about the Halos and they may know about the Ark, but otherwise their knowledge on Forerunner locations is limited."

"Then if you can do anything to check-up on any and all Forerunner locations which might serve some use for them, be sure to search." The monitor 'nodded' and floated away, likely looking for other consoles that could serve the purpose. He turned to Nara and the two shared a quick look before marching softly forwards. He had to think about it to remember that Cortana was still in his head, something that almost seemed unnatural for her. "You've been quiet lately."

"I know, I… I just figured you'd enjoy some peace and quiet for once." He sighed a bit at that. To say that it was obvious that Cortana had been affected by the events with Kalmiya would be an understatement. For John, it was emotionally the hardest, but for Cortana, it may as well have been a psychological experiment, and that was putting it mildly. She had essentially caught a glimpse of one of the worst versions of herself along with an obscene amount of power, and how she had nearly wrought enslavement on a galactic scale. And that went without mentioning the considerably 'minor' side-effect of feeling like she was nothing more than a replacement of John's original companion. "I appreciate your presence, too."

"I don't doubt it, I've just felt… out of it, you know?" John gave a nod imperceptible enough so that even the partner beside him didn't notice. Only something as capable as an AI could note a detail as minor as that, and Cortana was far more than the average AI. He mulled over the thoughts in his head, careful that she didn't catch on to them before he was sure about what he wanted to say. His voice resonated inside of the confines of his helmet. "I know. But the war will be over soon, and then we can all get some rest and think over whatever's been bothering us. For now, postpone any worries you may have about who Kalmiya was and what she turned into. When the time comes, we'll talk about it."

"You're right, John. The thing is I just– wait, that's not– hold on! Multiple anomalies detected in the last room to the right!" Seeing how she had gone from the private to the semi-private comms with his and Nara's channels, the two set off at a jog, weapons ready. What was worrying was when she lacked an answer for when he asked her if there were enemy contacts in the area. Along the way, from the corner of his eye, he noticed how multiple holographic forms of the Covenant's main symbol the closer they went to the room. By the time they were just outside, the pair of Spartans stood on both sides of the door at the ready. The second it opened, they found no one inside. What they did find was more chilling. A portal, black at its core with blue rims, just like the ones he and the rest of the IIs had been lured into going through.

"Cortana, scan." While she did, a series of consoles lighted. Whatever controlled the machinery showed a final sign of the mauve Covenant emblem, average sized, with a simple arrow pointing at the portal. In front of the portal, however, another sign none of the trio was familiar with. It had a black background with crimson coloring for the symbol at its center. There was something sinister about it, a second meaning to it that John particularly found unnerving. Beneath the insignia, words formed, almost poetic in nature. [Wrought with despair and on the brink of death, the False Believers seek out the cruelest of their Gods. Shadow-of-Sundered-Star lies dormant within Requiem, but he shall awake upon the touch of a Reclaimer. And his first steps outside of his prison shall bring the galaxy to its knees and its worlds to burn, a fate infinitely worse than a millennium under the eyes of the Guardians. Reclaimers, if you seek to end your conflict and save your home one final time, come through the portal. You shall not be alone upon coming to the other side, I promise you.]

"That's certainly more romanticism than I would ever put in a message, so another version of Kalmiya is not a threat this time. That leaves the question, who opened the portal? Usually, I would think it's a trap for all intents and purposes, but this portal is… natural. Even more so than the ones Witness has created, and she is the Monitor of Genesis!" John was mulling it over, noticing how the portal was spinning more and more slowly as the seconds passed, notably making the connection weaker. He gripped his weapon tightly, remembering the last time he jumped blindly through something like that and the problems it had brought upon them all. It was only when Mendicant Bias near shouted through the comms that he snapped out of it, a rare tone to hear from the usually mild-mannered Ancilla.

"Reclaimers, head through the portal now! If the insinuations are true and the readings on it are not erroneous, then it is imperative that you go through as quickly as possible! I'll notify the Leadership immediately of what's to come!" John and Nara shared a look before nodding, going with their guts' feelings once they had been given the green-light by the Forerunner AI. In a sprint and a flash, the pair was gone again. Behind them, the portal closed.

21:14 – June 17th, 2542 – High Charity Council Chambers

Truth gripped onto his throne the way his royal chair clung on to the artificial gravity High Charity had to offer. It took plenty to get the holy tomb Requiem to open its great gates into its innermost parts, almost divine from the looks of them. It was when they brought the Demon to the surface of the holy city, at the height of the Gods' last Keyship. It had been the source of yet another debate between him and his two ever-zealous yet moronic 'equals', only accepting the idea when thinking of the possibility of the planet opening up to them. Lo and behold, it was taking them all in, from High Charity to its fleet of four and a half thousand. A bitter reminder of the damage the Guardian had done in the short time it had fought them.

A good half an hour had passed, Truth in silent concentration, Regret ranting angrily to hide his fear and Mercy reciting a series of prayers in hasty whispers. Then it stopped, and the three sighed in relief. An unremarkable pair of a Zealot and a Chieftain came before them, bowing as the former spoke, "Hierarchs, we have located the Cryptum of the holy tomb. Prometheans are located near them in great numbers protecting it, but there are no Guardians to supply reinforcements."

"Then what are you waiting for?! Clear a path so we may greet our god and beg his aid at relinquishing the lot of Demons attempting to hinder his legacies!" The two nodded their heads, for once not bickering at the prospect of witnessing the return of a Forerunner. For once, the Covenant was reminded of their original purpose, and how nothing else held importance when comparing it to the transcendence of the greater powers. To another Honor Guard duo, Truth calmly ordered, "Bring the Demon back. He shall ride with us on the ship down to the site of our Lord, where we shall be sure to use his hand to return him from the land beyond."

Almost too quickly, he saw the pair at his sides about to protest his claim. He held up a dismissive hand coupled with a very, very tired and frustrated glare. They spoke nothing of their complaints at the idea of getting on with 'living filth' when it should have boarded with the 'lower soldiers'. Another hour passed before they could board a Phantom down into the inner surface of the planet. The place was heavily fortified to the point where five mauve bases were built around it in order to prevent further intervention. Even then, there were hundreds of the strongest soldiers they had to offer stationed at every corner of the platforms. A series of Honor Guards surrounded the group as they walked. The Human, who had not said a single word to them since his capture, the miserable Demon, walked with dignity, having long since understood that he could not even bait the Jiralhanae into killing him. Energy cuffs kept his hands behind his back as a mild, white beard adorned his face. Even walking as half a corpse, there was unyielding steel in his eyes, a hardness that even Truth could almost respect.

Finally, they came before a great sphere, with at least twenty meter's worth of a radius. Visually, it was a circular reverse volcano, having the more intense parts glowing a vivid orange that slowly turned into a mix of a darker black and grey. At the highest point of the platform, a single, simple console was activated, awaiting the hands of either another God or a Demon. The Honor Guards surrounding the High Prophets surrounded the Human even more fiercely. They did not want the risk of him killing himself before they activated it. Finally, they were at the end. Everyone looked in anticipation as one of the Sangheili took the cuffs off the 'Shipmaster of Shipmasters' and forced his hands upon both of the pillars, the screen in between. The great circular machine whirred with life.

Without warning, the Cryptum sent out a great, orange pulse, knocking everyone down. Truth himself had been knocked from his throne, barely just caught by a pair of strong Jiralhanae hands before his frail body suffered from impacting the ground. The throne, however, had been sent far back, along with its two brethren. For once, however, in spite of being particularly defenseless, in spite of the fact that they were being manhandled, neither Mercy nor Regret uttered a word in complaint. Ironically, and to Truth's nuisance, the only one not sent back by the shockwave was the adamant Human, standing straight and in refusal to kneel. A thought which soon brought him to realize the closed, lotus-type structure that descended from the bottom of the spherical prison. Almost flailing, Truth got the Guards to put them down so he could get on his knees before him. However, he, and almost everyone else within the area, tilted their heads upwards ever so slightly, to look at the godly entity before them.

The prison-like 'lotus' opened when its metallic plates bent downwards, serving now as a surface rather than an advanced jail. A figure within a crimson bodysuit was kneeling within, still regaining his strength. Even from his knees, Truth could tell that the Forerunner was extremely tall, almost twice the height of an average Sangheili. When he stood, his extraordinarily pale skin stood out. A few 'hairs', if they could be called as much, were swept back at the top of his head. He had a pair of reddish, prominent growths at the sides of his head, and a pair of menacingly glowing, orange eyes. A pair of overgrown fangs could not be concealed within the confines of his mouth, giving him a constantly predatorial look. Armor levitated around him, far more advanced than anything the Covenant could create in the next five hundred years. As it hovered around him, the plates found their proper places and immediately clung to him, not quite unlike a three-dimensional, self-solving puzzle. Even after all the 'places' in his body had been taken, a level of plates hovered consistently at the height of his neck that extended all the way to his shoulders, a simplicity that showed the true complexity of his armor.

Truth paled and scrambled a bit when he saw behind him an army of Prometheans showing off blue hues, all running towards the circle. His eyes widened when the Forerunner, with a simple wave of his arm, made them stop in their tracks, turn their colors into a tint of orange, and make them kneel. The titan on his surface looked around him, and Truth felt his guts churn when he saw a mixture of disappointment and contempt displayed plainly in his expression. That was until his eyes were set on them. Truth froze, bowing his head in reverence as to show his full devotion to the greater being. When he spoke, his voice seemed to come from without and within himself, resonating deeply all around. "Human. You have been recently released from chains, if your looks say anything about your condition. Tell me, has your species devolved enough to be imprisoned by a conglomeration of primitives?"

"In great part thanks to your kind, we have. And yet, here I stand while these 'primitives' kneel before you. See, they look for your help because they are losing the war against us, and I can assure you, our victory is assured." Truth had half a mind to order his Honor Guards to make the Demon scream and beg for death from the agony they'd put him through, but he could not even bring himself to raise his voice while witnessing such a presence. "Blind and arrogant as ever. Killing off your kind has certainly not changed you. Are you here to tell me how you will make your miraculous escape as well? How you yourself will bring down the sword on my neck and win the war?"

"'Escape'? 'Swing the sword'? Forerunner, I knew I was destined to die the second I was captured by the zealots who just as blindly revere you. I know you will kill me here and now, of that I have no doubt. And I have no doubt that you alone could cause us more damage than what any of the three Prophets behind me could ever manage in seventeen years of war. Hell, you may even bring us to our knees. But lose? No. For years, we've been fighting, and for years, we've been winning. Especially these past few months, we've come up against terrible odds and have still come out victorious regardless. Every front we fought against the Covenant, we won. Every time the Flood appeared, we held them back. Not even your Guardians were capable of keeping us down. But, I'm an old man, and if you're to be my executioner, then at least let's have the courtesy to at least exchange names. I am Fleet Admiral Howard Theodore Ward, current head of the UNSC, and leader of Humanity through its military branch during times of war."

"So, the Guardians have been activated and destroyed? For all I may loathe your kind, Fleet Admiral, your courage and tenacity are amongst the things I can admire about you. I am Shadow-of-Sundered-Star, the Ur-Didact of the Ecumene. I was the head of the Forerunners through the military in time of war as well. This is the second time I come across one of your title, the last one named Forthencho, who was known as the 'Lord of Admirals', the man who defeated the Flood. As one leader to another, I will give you the privilege of death over becoming one of my own Prometheans so you may keep your mind in your last seconds of life. Stand tall, Fleet Admiral Ward." And Truth couldn't help but tilt his head up again, shocked at the fact that their God would respect the Demon they had brought before them. The Human stood tall and proud, even up against a being more than twice as tall as himself. The Didact before him raised an orange blade of light and stabbed him through the heart, nearly cutting apart his torso in the process from the girth of the blade. The elder disintegrated as a result of the Hardlight sword, though he made. Silence reigned, and Truth saw his chance.

"Holy Lord of ours, Leader of the Forerunners and Founder of our Covenant, we come to you in service of your legacy! I, the High Prophet of Truth, with the High Prophets of Regret and Mercy to my sides, come to you on my knees to witness your holy presence, as do our warriors! Our lives, our ships, our planets and our souls are yours to have, as it is your right! All we ask in return is your aid in hunting down the filthy Demons you know as Humans, to help cut them down as you did the one before you! I am willing to–" His speech was ended midway and replaced by a gurgling noise. He grasped his neck, feeling it tighten immeasurably with Mercy and Regret at his sides, the three rising above all as the Didact levitated them to his height. His orange eyes bore on them, and the hate and respect he had shown for the previous Human was gone. All that remained was a mixture of indifference and disgust, not even worthy of anger.

"San'Shyuum. I remember your kind as well. First you were feeble cowards and traitors, now you are foolish zealots and sycophants. Each iteration of your kind seems as pathetic, if not more, than the last. You wanted a reward for your 'aid of my cause'? Your kind shall have an easy, painless death then. You have no use for me, and you have no place here." Truth's eyes grew as wide as they could and begged mercy through them, as the tension in his neck only became stronger, not even capable of making the crowing sounds anymore. The godly titan looked beyond the three at a specific Sangheili, an Honor Guard who looked in shock at the Forerunner, unknowing at what to do between her Prophets and her own God. "You, Sangheili, I can assume the rudimentary satellite with your fleet is the location of your headquarters? From where you can contact the rest of your ships?"

"High Charity? Yes, my Lord, the comms systems aboard it are more than capable of–" She was interrupted just as Truth had been, said Prophet barely able to register that with the decreasing amount of oxygen in his veins. "Good. Send the word to have the San'Shyuum killed in their entirety. It was a mistake letting them live the first time around. It is not one I intend to repeat once more. Go on then, go to your 'High Charity'. I do not want so much as a trace of them left within my faction."

"But, my Lord, take the elders and the engineers if you will, but the women and the children are innocent of–" Within seconds, the Didact was in front of the Sangheili, who fell back from the shock, almost looking like a frightened Unggoy before an Archdemon. "You would dare deny my order? Would you like me to have the Sangheili exterminated as well? I'll not hesitate to destroy you both myself, that you can be sure of. From the kind of ships that you have, I can tell that your knowledge of plasma is advanced enough to utilize a ray at their centers to render planets inhospitable by turning their surface into glass. And throughout your war, I'm sure your zeal and lackwit has kept you quiet and without asking whether you are killing 'children and innocents' or not, so you'll do well to remain quiet and heed my commands. Go, before you convince me I ought to do the same with you."

The Sangheili gave the three Prophets a final look, Regret flailing the most, Mercy almost limp and Truth still grasping his neck for dear life. Then she bowed her head at the Forerunner with an 'it shall be done' and left, the rest of the Honor Guards following her. The Didact returned to them once more and looked at them again, pure disdain lighting his eyes. At the same height and the three close enough to each other, Truth only got to see the Forerunner Hardlight blade activating before all went dark. His last thoughts went along the lines of how cruel it had been that his last sight had been the light amidst the dark, but for all the wrong reasons. Their three heads fell first upon the metal floor before disintegrating like the rest of their headless bodies.

11:31 – June 17th, 2542 – Requiem Remainder Facility Outskirts

Nara rolled and stabbed her knife right in between the Promethean knight's eyes. While no sign of more Guardians was evident, the fact that the cybernetic army of the sorts still lived brought her no small amount of fatigue. Discarding her used up Boltshot for the Scattershot on the ground, she looked to John to keep on moving, the mountain in the distance only a few more kilometers away. Cortana had helped pinpoint a set of specific coordinates to keep them moving, but they had little more information on the entirety of an unknown planet than that. Then again, it wouldn't be their first mission where they had been against such drastic odds. And if neither the Flood nor the Warden nor Kalmiya had managed to hinder Mendicant Bias's judgement, then they doubted that nothing else would.

And thus, past wave and wave of Prometheans they blew through, though notably, they were not as focused on them as they could have been. And yet, their behavior had never been quite so erratic before. When they had arrived on the unknown location, they had an azure tint to them and were far more scarce, almost as if their focus was on something else. And then they turned into an eerie orange, far too similar to Kalmiya's golden tint for Nara's liking. Then they had come en mass, and since, they had been fighting. Perhaps they had grown very adept at fighting particularly against those machines, or they were simply blowing through them abnormally fast, but their numbers kept thinning at a fast pace while the Spartan duo kept moving. By the time they were near the base of what would have been a dusty orange wall with metal at its heart, gone several hues of grey with the colors of the night, they found several machines floating nearby Nara did not know she had missed. When the Sentinels looked upon them, they practically multiplied, forming a protective barrier between them and the Prometheans.

"Well, guess it's time to meet our new friend then." John winked green at that, or so Nara got from her HUD, no doubt from decades of doing so on reflex. She did the same, too focused on the task ahead to formulate a conversation with the AI. It's a good thing she's gotten more used to the silence now. But inside, they only found more Sentinels, none posing resistance but rather helping them through. Hallway past hallway they went through, and finally they made it before a golden circular hologram with a pedestal just in front. The III turned to watch the Commander take his chip from his helmet and put it inside, allowing Cortana into the systems. "Cortana, what is this facility? What planet are we on right now? What are our coordinates."

"Well, John, for starters, it's– my god, that's not– but wait, there's one in here?! Alive?! This changes everything! No wonder the Covenant were hiding here! Hold on, there's another presence here, in the facility's domain! I–I don't recognize it, I've never seen anything like it. I can't–" Just like that, a mist of cobalt surrounded her form, and gone was Cortana. It didn't take a second for her partner to call for her, trying to find a way to get the chip back but he found that it was gone with her, notably not destroyed. Only when Nara got a new marker on her waypoint did she snap John out of his stupor. Even if it was a trap, it was the only place left they had to go.

Past more plasma bridges and aesthetic metallic gates and machineries they ran through, going at a pace so fast anyone would have thought they had hell at their heels. Without Cortana with them, it was not that much of a far cry. Sprinting down a perfectly smooth ramp and past one final door, they came to a room with a perfect, steady, cobalt beam lighting from the bottom all the way through the roof. There was something instinctual within Nara that simply knew it wasn't plasma nor Hardlight nor any sort of harmful energy. John beside her, if not slightly ahead, seemed to be of the same mind, for he stepped into it before she could. The time difference was little, and the effects it had on both was more or less the same. Nara could only hear a faint whistle until white overcame her vision.

The sky was bright, a perfectly sunny day riddled with small, faint white clouds that served more to adorn it than to ruin it. She looked to her left again and found John holding his hand up, attempting to block the damn near overwhelming star in the sky. Nara could only imagine how bright or powerful it was to bypass their Mjolnir systems' light regulators. Increasing her focus, she found that surrounding the star was a floating Forerunner column, though calling it a column would be calling the Mona Lisa a piece of paper. It was round, its center empty in favor of a circular form through which the light could pool through. The metal around it was circular, until it ended in two termination Nara could only liken to fangs. Floating around that inner piece was a far grander, far thicker pair of columns, ending in a v-like form. It took her a few seconds more of looking intensely at the center to understand that it was not a magnificent star that blurred their vision, but a woman hovering at its center. A very tall woman. Taller than the two of them, at least.

"Who are you?" John's tone was sharper than usual, no doubt prioritizing Cortana's wellbeing over their current scenario. The woman, obviously of another species, came close enough to them so she could be at their height, albeit still levitating. If Nara had to guess, she might have been a full head shorter than the Warden, which would put her at a height that almost rivaled the duo's combined stature. She had almost neon-green eyes, soothing, yet ancient and weary. It was a look that befitted a being several millennia old. "I am what remains of the Forerunner named First-Light-Weaves-Living-Song, the Librarian of our long departed Ecumene. An imprint of my former self, not quite synthetic, yet organic neither. I have been watching you both and Human kind as a whole for longer than you can imagine, guiding it every small step of the way. I've done everything in my power to bring you to your former glory, and now, here you are. A thousand lifetimes of planning culminated in the two standing before me."

"Why did you bring us here? Do you know about the Covenant? Where is Cortana?" Nara cut her partner to the chase, the man stunned even by Spartan standards by the woman's presence, like he was seeing something about her only he could understand. When the Librarian looked at her, directly at her, she felt her stomach drop and something else click in the right place. For whatever reason, in spite of the overwhelming differences between the two and her own visor not permitting the Forerunner to look at her own orbs, looking at the Librarian's eyes felt like looking into a reflection. "The Covenant I've known of since its beginning. It's something I would have gladly intervened on upon its creation had I had the resources necessary to put a stop to such a madness, but my power is only within the details. I made sure they built their headquarters around Mendicant Bias's knowledge, and ensured his activation upon their discovery of your own race.

"It was not easy, and it has been a constant effort, ensuring that you prevail against the overwhelming odds. I can tell you here and now that none of it has been out of luck. While your efforts and perseverance have been the pillar on which your actions have relied on, the smaller, thorough instances have all been planned, such as your jump from your station onto a moving ship while guiding a bomb and your own unexplained strength when you destroyed the orb that had kept your partner's Cryptum in possession of the Ancilla the Warden had corrupted. And here, I bring you to face your greatest opponent yet, perhaps the strongest you will ever face in order to bring an end to your war.

"Your synthetic friend has learned all of this, she will be in the consoles waiting for you once I am done explaining this to you. You see, the Covenant arrived here with a Human in tow, your Fleet Admiral, in order to activate this planet and set free my husband, the bane of Humanity. He, unlike me, is whole, a man named Shadow-of-Sundered-Star, or the Didact, as our people came to know him, the greatest military paragon we once had before paranoia and war corrupted his heart. He was the progenitor of the Prometheans, the only one with the capacity to withstand any Composer's beams, as he evolved and mutated himself past the point of being affected by such. That, in a way, has granted him immortality. As a Forerunner, he is already biologically unable to age, exceptionally strong, able to heal rapidly, and can naturally display psychokinetic abilities. The Promethean enhancements within him exponentiate this to an immeasurable degree, making him possibly the strongest of all the Forerunners that ever were.

"And he, more than any other, held an undying resentment against your kind, even when our war had been over. It left a stain on his soul that none could clean, not even me. I am sorry to say, that when the Covenant set him free with your captured Fleet Admiral, the man was executed by the Didact, though he died nobly and with pride, a privilege my husband granted him. It is why, when the rest of our kind decided to activate the Halos without protecting ourselves in spite of his protest, I imprisoned him here. He had done crimes hard to forgive in times of war, even against an enemy as harsh as the Flood itself. But, I thought that it was punishment enough that he should endure life in spite of the death of our kind, and the Cryptum's connection to the Domain would give him all the knowledge our kind had so he could learn and, in that hundred millennia of silence, learn peace again. None of us knew that the Domain had an organic element, something that brought it alive. It fell, crippled when the Ark was activated until a select few remaining fixed it and brought it back to life once more. But the Didact had lost connection to it, and a hundred millennia alone in his one mind has only given him madness and hatred.

"Thus, began my planning, an attempt to prepare you as best as I could for his inevitable return. Besides all I have told you, besides everything I have done, there is one final detail that prevails in all of this, the detail which encompasses the two of you in your entirety. By Forerunner law after Mendicant Bias's betrayal, any and all machines must have a failsafe system to destroy or disable them entirely. The Didact's internal workings that made him a god of his own kind were no different. To me, he entrusted the power to destroy him, buried within the most primordial parts of my genomes. When he understood I was trapping him, he attempted to gain that back from me through his own synthetic powers. The end result was that the ability to make him mortal once more was split into two.

"This is why I have been watching from the very beginning the growth of Humanity. If I had simply had one of my machines imprint a primitive Human with such a power, it would have been diluted with the millennia of time. If I had tried to take one of my machines to your Earth now, it would have been viewed hostile for all the right reasons. So, I planned Humanity's history to the best of my ability from within my confines here, in my designated facility on Requiem. I saw to it that every one of them contained a trace of the power, so that one day, thousands of years into the future, just before a horrible war befell upon your kind, one half would be culminated and the next a decade later.

"These halves, these masterful creations… they are you. You are Humanity's iterations of myself and the Didact come again. Within you, you have the genes of proper Reclaimers, extraordinarily close to something right between Human and Forerunner. You are the ones that will hold the final power when fighting the Didact to destroy him. Perhaps, sometime later, you will be able to find a facility I left to pass that power onto the other warriors of your generations, but for now, only you can directly stop the Didact. I will see to it that you are not alone." Through it all, Nara could only describe what she had felt as a perfect hallucination that made sense. She had seen history, she had seen a young Librarian and Didact, she had even seen them fight together at one point before she had chosen to become a Lifeworker. The imagery had been disturbingly similar to her own and John's memories. At the same time, a part of her mind was dismayed by the loss of Fleet Admiral Ward, deciding to remain silent for a moment in respect for the man. John was the first to recover from the information, though no doubt just as impacted by it. "So where is the Didact? What is his next course of action?"

"To the last of the Halos you visited, for the same reason the Warden had advised Kalmiya that she go to Installation Zero-Three. With just one of the Composers, he will be capable of returning to his true strength, when he alone is already powerful enough as it is. He will be leaving quite soon on his ship, and you must follow him, for you will not be able to stop his escape. There is a device capable of detonation that could make quick work of a vessel even as large and strong as his, but you must see to it that when you destroy it, you follow him. He can and will flee that explosion quickly, and from there, you must follow him at all costs until you can confront him personally. Go now, he knows of my presence. To ensure your success, and his inability to turn you into Prometheans yourselves, I will advance your evolution rate and equip you properly for your fight to come."

Nara found everything shining bright again, and the sensation was one she both could and couldn't describe. It was as if she was going through every hour of her augmentations procedures again in a matter of seconds, but the sensation wasn't painful, but rather enlightening in a way. She blinked once, twice, three times before she was back in the room where John and her had been transported. Instinctively, she looked at her prosthetic knuckles, now glowing a powerful neon-green, and even her eyes felt different as well. That was without mentioning the great amount of additional physical strength she felt, or how her reaction speed felt naturally enhanced. John looked similar in that sense, though his knuckles were a deep, cobalt blue. She could only wonder what he looked like under the helmet now. Shaking her head of her thoughts when she heard Cortana call them from across the walkway. "Over here!"

By the time they reached the pedestal towards the end with her form hovering above it, Nara had to scrunch her eyes when she looked directly at the AI. If she didn't know any better, she would say it had gotten slightly smaller. When John took her chip out and inserted it in his helmet, Cortana let out a low whistle. "Wow, I knew she was going to change the two of you, but I didn't expect your Bioreadings to be all over the place! It's like I'm recording decades, if not centuries' worth of Humanity's evolutionary path, between the genes, the mutations, doubled strength, tripled reaction time… It's like the two of you are on Spartan Time constantly. And obviously, a couple of inches more of height goes without saying. If the readings are right, the two of you should be something along the lines of a foot taller, John at a damn near staggering eight-foot-two and Nara at a seven-foot-ten. You two are gonna give Sam and Jorge a run for their money at any rate. It was nice that the Librarian could spare the material to adapt your Mjolnir armors to your new sizes, either your new bodies or your 'old' armors were gonna give at any rate."

So that would explain why she felt like she could look at her surroundings a little more from above. Then again, if the Didact was anywhere near as tall as the Warden was, she doubted a foot's worth of height more would make that much of a difference. The other augmentations, however, she could vouch for. She turned to John, who nodded at the AI's readings before rasping out in his usual no-nonsense tone, "Understood. What's our next step?"

"Well, if the Librarian is right about this 'Didact's strength, then we're gonna need the explosive in the compartment next to the exiting portal." Both nodding, they set out on a jog, keeping their speed at near maximum to make the best of the time they had. A familiar black and blue portal awaited at the end, and to its right, a grand, Forerunner pedestal with a perfectly symmetrical sphere hovering above it. Coming closer, they found a small, very bright light at the center, the size of a bullet at most. Instinctively, Nara placed her hand on the mark where she was meant to put it.

The spherical plates hovering complacently around the light immediately whirred to life, spinning fast and closing around the light. The end result was what looked like a grenade with internal white lights powering it the size of her fist at most. Grabbing it, she placed at her lower back, just below where she holstered her weapons. "Careful with that. That may be the size of a tennis ball, but if my scans are right, then it should have three to five times the power of a HAVOK Nuke. Good thing is, it cannot be activated by getting shot at and only with a sort of activation command of its own, which is now hosted by yours truly. The Forerunners were really prepared for almost everything, weren't they?"

"Except for the Flood. It's time to go now, anyways. We need to get to the Didact's ship." At Nara's comment, the two others winked affirmatively, the duo running through the intra-dimensional shortcut. One minute, they were inside the majestic structure, the next, they were out in the desert again, though much farther away from it. They set to running, not yet noted by pretty much anyone. Another hour running, they watched an orange Cryptum levitate near the mountain, the two far enough away to not be detected by it. Still, they hid behind a boulder, and watched how it scanned the building within. Immediately after, Corvettes surrounded the place and bombarded it mercilessly. Blackened ruins were all that remained, and after the smoke had cleared, the Cryptum sped through the skies, far past them in a matter of seconds. It flew to the center of a batch of floating columns enough kilometers tall each that it made the Librarian's seem like a pair of twigs. There, it set up what looked like a forcefield, which Cortana soon clarified that it was a beacon.

Looking to the skies, High Charity loomed above them all, its fleet of thousands remaining ships orbiting it as satellites would planets. It was a fearsome sight, to be entirely surrounded by enemies and to need to destroy an apparently all-powerful being. But, that did not stop them as they marched towards it, at least a couple dozen miles away from them. What did was the Covenant ambush and the screams of 'capture the Archdemons'. More quickly than she could explain, she found herself back to back with John, the two placing optimal shots on each of their enemies, which numbered in the dozens. Jiralhanae or Sangheili, the specialists fell under their precision. Their shots, however, were not as powerful as the wielders of the weapons themselves, and they were certainly not limitless.

They ran out of bullets quickly enough, the two discarding the weapons as the remaining twenty foes aimed their weapons at the two. Nara was nervous, but even more excited to test out her new augmentations. She didn't get the chance, however, as four figures ambushed the twenty that had surrounded them. The sound of the mightiest of all Gravity Hammers brought her attention first, the swifter sounds of the Energy Swords being silenced by its roars. With much ease against the unsuspecting foes, the two looked to their saviors, the 'aid' the Librarian must have called for. The only thing hiding Nara's surprise was her helmet's polarized silver visor, as the Chieftains Tartarus and Taurus as well as the Arbiter and Specops Commander sped towards them. It was the Imperial Admiral that spoke up first.

"Spartans, you are well and uncaptured, thank the gods. For a while, we believed that you had been captured and confined in a Cryptum once more. Though if you are here, I am curious as to whom may have the luxury of such a powerful prison." Nara couldn't help but notice how John was now of a height with the Arbiter, Nara herself not quite so far from that stature. Cortana spoke through the comms, which Nara assumed she interweaved with the other Separatist leaders' own. "It's good to see you too, Arbiter, and the rest of you as well. And if we're being honest, I think the Commander and the Lieutenant being captured on a Cryptum would be a much better scenario than the one we are facing now."

"Then what are we facing that could be so much worse than that? Have the Guardians returned with a lack of mercy for the Spartans to exploit ourselves?" Taurus's concern resonated through the coldness of his voice. Considering the kind of man he had been for so many years, it was a change Nara was still getting used to. "No. Believe it or not, there's Forerunner known as the Didact inside that Cryptum, and unfortunately for us, he is the one who hates Humanity and its allies the most. That, and the fact that he's practically invincible through genetically organic and synthetic means."

"A Forerunner? By the gods, he can unlock any of the Installations without your Fleet Admiral! We must find a way inside of High Charity, before those bastards can learn they no longer need him!" By the time the Specops Commander finished, he could only reel his neck back in shock as the two simply stayed motionless before John shook his head. "We were just in a facility where an imprint of the Forerunner that brought us all here was, she was known as the Librarian. If what she said was true, then the Fleet Admiral was executed by the Didact."

"My condolences, Spartans. If his rank was any indication of his strength, then he must have been one of your best warriors." It was as shocking to hear the sympathy in Tartarus's voice along with the commentary itself as it was to hear how his brother's own personality had grown icy. Still, the two nodded in acknowledgement, the Sangheili duo bowing their heads in respect and Taurus gripping his twin Daggers tightly while staring at the Cryptum. In their silence, Cortana was quick to inform the four of the forged plan, and how they were meant to deal with the godly enemy. When she was done, the four added their own two cents of a Covenant camp nearby which had called for evacuation.

They ran once again, reaching the place the Hegemony's soldiers had established themselves upon. They waited quietly, looking at the troops surrounding an antenna that served for a waypoint for the pick-up. When they saw the Lich come closer, the Sangheili duo grew transparent to the environment around them. Only from the distortions in the air, much more easily discernible now with the enhancements, did they see how they had boarded the massive aerial transport. Several plasma grenades activated within the Covie aircraft and the four jumped from their position. The fight was over nearly as quickly as it had started, the Specops Commander having thankfully gone after the pilot first before he cried for help.

"Go, brother, fly this at its fastest capacity! We'll not lose the chance we've been given! Asides, I do believe it's time we meet this god anyways." And at the Imperial Admirals booming voice, the Lich sped up, not giving away the presence of the intruders within. Having Cortana in the systems to mask their lack of awareness when it came to the current Covenant comms lines helped a lot. They were nearly there, the Cryptum only ten kilometers away from them. 'Vadum had to reel back the Lich when a ship of damn near biblical proportions rose from the ground. It opened up from the top, as if it were no more than a cannon and the Cryptum sped through it. By the time it fully rose, reaching the skies, Nara found it outstanding how it was almost as tall as High Charity itself. Once they were side by side, she could tell High Charity was still taller by several dozen kilometers, not much considering the magnitude of both. Even then, the Forerunner vessel was still close to its Covenant counterpart through sheer mass alone, given its width and its girth.

No words were spoken, the six simply sticking to the cockpit while Cortana did most of the flying, the AI herself not even making any sly remarks about their situation. The Forerunner ship left first, High Charity following after, finally ending with the Covenant ships. On one hand, it shouldn't have surprised her, given the fact that it was a Forerunner world they were currently flying out of. On the other hand, it still got her how the Lich escaped the planet's inner shell, revealing that all inside was a simple yet intricate fabrication, all of it artificial. None dared break the silence, not until Cortana's eyes flashed with what could only be an information influx. "This… this is not normal. I've known about Forerunner Fortresses before, but none have given readings this crazy when departing them. If there was an essential component to the sustained artificial star's gravity without pulling the planet in on itself and forcing implosion, then the Didact certainly took it. I don't know how longer it will–my god…"

The group instinctively turned their heads to look at Requiem again. At first, nothing seemed wrong with it. Then, several of the outer, artificial tectonic plates that made the surface were torn from their hinges, magnetic and physical, and into the center. After enough were sucked into it, the entirety of the outermost layer crumpled on itself and flew towards the ever-brighter center within. Only Taurus, it seemed, had awoken from their collective stupor. "Cortana, the Forerunner ship and High Charity are leaving the system. The Lich will not survive slip-space lest it sticks near enough to either so that it is within their shield ranges. You must get us there, now, else we will be destroyed along with Requiem."

And so, she did. Thankfully, she was nearer to the Forerunner vessel, which she soon identified as the Mantle's Approach, and immediately hid under one of its many skyscraper-sized protrusions, the smallest of the bunch, considering how others were bigger than Supercarriers. Even in the vast, emptiness of space, Nara could feel the staggering vibrations when the planet exploded. One second, everything was as bright as a star. The next, they were shrouded in the inexplicably dark brightness of the slip-space dimension. Cortana looked at the group then, "Well, out of the frying pan and into the flames. I can't be sure of where exactly the core should be, but given the device that the Lieutenant has, placing and activating it within a ten kilometer radius should be enough to destroy the monster that the Didact is piloting. I'm going to try and pilot the Lich right now as close as I can to the inner sections of this ship. We already know Forerunner ships don't spend much time in slip-space, and we need to destroy this before he can get any Composer."

"Understood. Bring us in as close as you can." At John's level voice, the group nodded and braced themselves. The aircraft rumbled, heavy with noise as it tore the holes it could into the leviathan of a spaceship. It didn't get too far before Cortana needed to land it, as it was currently their only way out. Still, they were in, and the fact that the technology could be read and understood by Cortana along with the shared ability of activating it through John and Nara's hands were enough to help them progress. Past immeasurable numbers of hordes of Prometheans they fought, delving closer and closer to the ship's center. They stopped at the sound of a booming voice, resonating from within and without themselves, a voice that made the Warden's seem like an overgrown weakling's.

"So, this is the legacy the Librarian left to defeat me. How pathetic. Two Humans, both product of syringes and enhancements my own wife had to bestow on you. Two Sangheili, leaders of a race blinded by honor and stupidity, with only a slightly better sense of awareness than those under my command. And two Jiralhanae, the pinnacle of their race through their most savage and aggressive fighting methods, as your kind is far too primitive to understand natural leadership. If that is the entirety of your strength, then you have already failed." It was chilling to hear his words, but Nara did not let her anxiety become discouragement. Tartarus was one step ahead of them, speaking through their private comms. "Then we already have an ace we can count on. Cortana, do not under any circumstances allow the Didact to detect you. You might just be the only element of surprise we'll gain on him."

"Of course, General. Stay on your toes, everyone. If there's one thing we can be sure of, it's that the Didact will be coming to us sometime soon. I know this is risky, but John, put me in the systems. I can map an easier waypoint towards the placement of the bomb, and should the Didact confront you, then I may be able to repurpose some of the automated defenses around here." At that, the Supreme Commander nodded, taking the chip and putting it in a nearby pedestal. It glowed between azure and violet for one moment and then disappeared. Through the comms, she stated her wellbeing and ushered them onwards.

They were doing well, only four kilometers away from their objective past swarms of the Forerunner Combat AI when a shockwave knocked them all back. They were in one of the Control Rooms for the Promethean Quarters, or so Cortana had told them, where an intimidating figure awaited them. He was tall, almost as tall as the Warden, but the primary difference was that where the Ancilla had been a series of plates hovering around a core in the shape of a being, the Forerunner before them had extremely advanced and durable plates of armor hovering around a physical form. If Nara had to guess, she would say the almighty being was humoring them when he retracted the plates that made up his glaring helmet, allowing them a look at the face within. He had as much resemblance to the Librarian as one Human would another in terms of being a part of the same species, but even then, Nara could very well note the mutations that plagued him.

"You have come quite far. I must say, I'm somewhat surprised your tenacity and will has endured past my soldiers, but this is where the line is drawn. If you believe I am not aware of your plan as it is now, then you are very much mistaken. The Lightmass Antimatter Explosive will be quite useful in subduing any particularly rebellious fleet any of your kinds may have. I'll be sure to deprive you of it." Immediately, the six fired upon the great wall of a man, the godly being merely conjuring a Hardlight shield large enough to cover his form entirely. Even when it fell, the rest of their shots seemed to bounce off of his form, and those that made it through and into the bodysuit simply left black smudges, the skin underneath immediately regenerating while the bodysuit weaved and repaired itself automatically. Had he a brow, Nara was sure he would have raised it when their weapons failed to harm him. He shook his head dismissively and held out his arm. Nara's body constricted, being levitated and brought before him.

"This is where you fail. After I'm through with the lot of you, I'm going to bring the galaxy to its knees and restore the order it had had before your chaos reigned over it. The Forerunners have returned, and I'll see to it that they are well aware of that." Throughout it all, he had sent Prometheans at the five to keep them stalled while he readied a great Hardlight sword that must have been her size. What the man didn't see were the great wall of Forerunner Turrets forming up behind him, at least half a dozen of them, all aiming at him. When he raised the sword, all six fired, effectively attracting his attention and breaking his concentration. Nara fell on all fours, immediately getting up while the Didact made short work of the Turrets firing at him. On instinct, she clung to his sword arm with her left hand and punched the device responsible for generating the blade with her right hand. The power nodes did their job, thank Halsey, and the device disintegrated as the godly being's soldiers usually did.

The punch he gave her knocked down her shields, just barely recovered, fortunately into the safety of the perimeter the five other members of their makeshift team had made. The Didact, frustrated, turned towards them walking menacingly in spite of the continuous turrets spawning and firing at him. A familiar rumbling brought them to their knees, save for the Forerunner, as they recognized the sound of the ship exiting slip-space. He looked at them a final time and growled, "I'll be back for you. You haven't seen the last of me just yet."

Leaving through a slip-space portal generated by his armor, Cortana appeared in her holographic form, shouting at the Separatists. "You have to activate the explosive now! We're not gonna get another shot at this. The Didact and plenty of his Prometheans are on Halo as we speak, and the Composer Kalmiya excavated is being brought on to the Mantle's Approach as we speak! We have maybe five, scratch that, three minutes tops before he returns, and when he does, I'm not going to be able to stop him!"

"We can't, we're still a couple of kilometers away from the blast radius. Besides, we have no transport out of here, and we can't do this if we aren't sure that the Didact will be dealt with." John's voice left little to no room for argument, yet Cortana exploited what little there was. "The explosion won't be a problem. These are the controls to the bulk of the Promethean forces. The explosion of this place will cause a chain reaction that will affect the entire ship's core itself and destroy it all. I know what I'm asking for here isn't easy, and I know what the Librarian said. Still, there's a mile-long difference between the Alliance having to fight the Didact with an extremely advanced, three and a half hundred kilometers tall Forerunner ship than having to fight him without it. I'm sorry that it has to be this way, I really am. But I don't think the Alliance will survive otherwise."

"It is settled then. If today is the day we are to greet our forefathers in a great beyond for the future of our kinds, then I will gladly lay down my life. Spartans, it has been an honor, Cortana, you have saved us more times than I can count and I am thankful for having had your companionship, and Chieftains, I am sorry that it has only been in these past few years that I have only just started to know you. I could not think of a better group of people with which to lay down my life with. Rtas, I'll be sure to see you on the other side. I can only hope for the same with the rest of you." It was a surprise to hear the Arbiter's calmness when confronted with such a situation, and Nara in no small way admired it above many other things. She had met a great majority of people that constantly said they would die for a greater cause, but when their time came, they had always been scared or reluctant. Not one trace of it was found in Thel's tone, and from the looks Rtas gave the group, he needed to say nothing to convey the same emotions.

"Aye, it's been a journey, for better or for worse. I never thought I would say this, and as opposed to you, our ancestors would piss on us if they found mine brother and I fighting alongside you. But, I can't deny that you are amongst the greatest warriors I have ever met and worked with. Even Cortana, a Human AI, has shown more courage than most of my own kind will ever have. My one regret is that Taurus's and mine own ashes will not be delivered to the River of Eternals, but I suppose I can still die with pride, here and now, with you all." And Taurus nodded along with his elder brother's words, sheathing his weapons and relaxing his body. They all were, in fact. Why would they need to ready their weapons if they had no fights left for them anyways? She did too, silently mourning the fact she would not get to say goodbye to her friends, or that she and John would not delve into any possible future together. The Supreme Commander in question stayed silent at the thought, mulling it all over before he came to slowly nod.

"It's settled then. We activate the explosion and destroy the ship. The rest is up to the Alliance. For whatever it's worth, if you all had been born Human, you would have made excellent Spartans. All of you." And coming from John himself, a man who hardly knew how to compliment others, let alone socialize with them, it was obvious that he was speaking to them in the highest regards he could manage. Nara didn't nod, simply grabbed the explosive with one hand. Taking a final look at the group before her, John quickly grabbing Cortana and reinserting her in his helmet for the last time, she grabbed her partner's hand in a small, final display of affection, which he held on to tightly. In her remaining hand, she scrunched up the device until the bullet-sized light showed once more. It floated now, and with Cortana's instructions, rearranged the plates around it that would trigger its detonation. True to her words, the charge grew brighter and blew an eerie whistle. The light quickly became blinding, and the thunderous noise reached her ears.

She was falling when she opened her eyes again, quickly reaching the ground while her shields took the small impact. She heard five other figures falling around her, registering in her head that her companions had come right beside her. For a second, she wasn't sure if that was their afterlife, still blinded and unaware of what had happened. It took her a full minute for her sight to return to her. She immediately recognized the arid lands of Installation Zero-Three, getting up and immediately looking at the sky. The Mantle's Approach suffered from an explosion where Nara would consider its 'ribs' to be, some more following down to where its center was before it lit up like a star, destroying a fleet's worth of Covenant ships around it as not even debris remained from the explosion. She was stunned, non-understanding of the situation. From the looks of them, the five were just as intrigued, looking around them for any sign of their last-minute salvation. It came to them in an unexpected yet familiar way, when a Monitor of deep mauve hues the group had not met floated down before them.

"Success! I had believed for a while that the Didact had made short work of you, or that the detonation of the Lightmass Antimatter Explosive consumed you before I could teleport you here to the surface. I am Eight-Five-Nine Static Carillion. I am the Monitor of the Forerunner Fortress world, Hearth. I am in charge of maintaining the Composers and producing a new one at Hearth should one of them be destroyed. Due to Abject Testament's lack of response here and the compromise of one of the Composers a month and a half ago, I decided to investigate the matter for myself. It seems to me that I have work to do, for one of them made it to the Mantle's Approach before it could be detained. Alas, my directives dictated that none of the Composers should be in the hands of a mentally unstable user, and sadly, it seems the Didact's sanity has degraded since the last time he fared in the Ecumene. Thus, my duty was in aiding you, Reclaimers, as well as your allies. Unfortunately, the Didact was not aboard his ship when the detonations occurred and is now hosted on the space station that heads his fleet of followers."

Nara reverently praised and thanked her luck… no, the Librarian for having the foresight of such a scenario occurring and ensuring a failsafe to prevent their demise. It was a detail that made all the difference in the world, such as the simplicity of saving seven lives to ensure that they could continue in their plight. But, they had work yet to do, as the Monitor had clearly stated that the Forerunner had survived. This time, she had been the first to recover and interject. "Do you know what he is doing there or where he might be heading? And do you have any form of transportation available for us to follow him?"

"I'm afraid I am not sure about what he is doing, but I do believe I have a fairly good guess. With the biggest amount of his Promethean force destroyed, along with approximately three hundred of his followers' ships, he has ordered for all forces to fall back and surround his 'High Charity'. From the way the engines are working, it would seem that he is preparing to make a transdimensional jump. I'm afraid I was only able to teleport you here from the range in which the Mantle's Approach was, and cannot send you as far away as the space station is. There are, however, some of his followers' transports that were left pilotless from this Halo's defensive Sentinels. Would you like the location of the nearest one?" And just like that, the path seemed simple, no longer a blurry idea of what to do. The Mantle's Approach and the bulk of the Prometheans had been destroyed. All that was left was to take care of the head. The six shared a single look, now recovered from their near-death experience, and shared a single nod. Cortana ordered through John's speakers, "Take us there."

04:49 – June 18th, 2542 – High Charity Council Chambers

The Didact found himself pacing the hall rapidly, frustrated at what had become of his hundred-millennia-old vessel in a matter of a few short hours. He had believed that the group of Separatists wouldn't know enough about either the armament or the ship itself considering they could have stopped their march several kilometers before the Primary Control Room for the Promethean Quarters and activated the device for the same effect. In the short minutes he had taken to get the damned Composer, he had needed to teleport directly to the pathetically primitive 'High Charity' to get away from the blast. Without his Prometheans and without the ship, along with three hundred fewer Covenant vessels to their fleet, they did not have the strength to take out any of the other six Composers within Installation Zero-Three. Not with Humans existing with, apparently, 'better claim' than him. At least the team of Separatists was well dead now. Damn that blasted Static Carillion. I'll deal with him and Abject Testament myself later. The former for his traitorous actions and the latter for his lack of actions. Damn them both.

"My Lord, your ship, it has been destroyed by the filth–" Whipping his head angrily at the Sangheili Honor Guard on her knees was enough to quiet her voice and look to the ground in fear. "Tell me, Sangheili, do you take me for blind or for daft?"

"N-Neither, My Lord, I was only reporting–" He waved his hand, sending countless object flying in the empty hall, with a lack of San'Shyuum to make up its population or Sangheili who had lost their position with his rule being direct and without challenge. "To hell with your reports. I know damn well what occurred to my vessel. Ready the slip-space engines on this space station, the Key Ship should be enough to power them for the ride to come."

Yes, he thought with clarity,it's time this galaxy is reset and rebuilt upon the ashes. I'll see to it that the same mistakes do not occur upon its rebirth. Humans will not be around for a third time. The Sangheili warrior, it seemed, had shaken herself clear of her stupor and somehow amassed the courage to speak once more. "Where, My Lord?"

"The Ark. All Halos are ready for remote activation, and I mean to make use of that. See to it that the correct coordinates are set." The Honor Guard's eyes widened with obvious excitement that, while short-lived, lightened her spirit and straightened her back firmly. It was soon replaced once again with worry, however, an emotion that irritated the Didact to no end, wondering in his mind what she had had to say now. "My Lord, the coordinates we have lead to the Demon's homeworld, and if the information is true, then it is a portal we will need to excavate in order to reach the Ark. My Lord, my faith is as strong as your will is, but I am not sure High Charity will survive–"

"Enough of your droning and complaining. I'll not have weaklings and children amongst my followers, lest they seek a grave with the San'Shyuum. Besides, I already know the coordinates to the Ark myself before the Librarian left me to help activate it. Here. Send these coordinates to your engineers now, before you exhaust my patience." She rose from her knees then, fidgeting with the console on her forearm and running out of the room. The Didact took a few, deep breaths to calm his nerves as he sat upon a self-made throne with the few Forerunner materials that had made it onto High Charity. Yes, he thought, the Ark will suffice.

10:13 – June 19th, 2542 – Silent Sting Pilot Room

John looked before him when the newly acquired Lich, in great part thanks to Static Carillion, exited slip-space under High Charity's shields. It was a surprise that the same trick worked twice, in part because he suspected that either the Didact and the Covenant never found out about how they had slipped in the first place, or they simply didn't believe that they would go for the same thing again. That was, if they still considered that they were alive. It would be a great relief otherwise, as unwanted attention could be far more easily diverted. When Cortana sped out and away from High Charity's pike-like column, they came across the most surprising sight yet. At first, they had feared and believed that the Didact would go to Earth in search of spiteful revenge. Instead, they were well away from the Milky Way, and nearer to a Forerunner Installation which, in John's opinion, had no equal.

It looked somewhat like a lotus flower in shape, only if the lotus was painted with continents and oceans and was bigger than any of the homeworlds they had come across. The opening at its center had something that the Commander could only describe as a middle-ground between a star and a core. The outer rim of the opening looked wide enough to have a Halo as well. The rest was even greater. It was a sight to behold. It was also a sight he would have not preferred to see. "Cortana, are you getting anything from the comms? Any idea as to where we might be?"

"Scanning… my god. If it was just random Covenant rambling, I wouldn't believe it, but with the Didact aboard, it really must be the Ark." John turned his head when he heard the team scuttling, all coming closer to witness the majesty of the last of the Forerunner creations. The pit inside of John's stomach deepened into an abyss. It was one thing to deal with the Covenant wanting to activate a single Halo while needing Human touch. It was an entirely different thing to have a Forerunner wanting to activate every single Halo without needing assistance from one of their own. Taurus came close to the windows and looked directly at Cortana. "Do you know when or where the Didact will come down himself from? We can assume that he'll know where the Control Room of the Ark is, and when he goes, we must follow."

"Way ahead of you, Captain. The Didact is taking a hell of an escort with him, though. Besides his own Corvette, which, from its readings, is incredibly spliced up and filled with Promethean Guards, there are at least a hundred Liches following him, and hundreds of more Phantoms, Spirits, Banshees, you name it. They're heading planet-side, though where exactly, I'm not sure. I'm following them and keeping good distance between us and the mini armada." The group nodded. Rtas came forwards, "We might have a great disadvantage in numbers if we're to fight them all head on, but a good team behind the enemy's lines can have a far greater impact. Besides, we have two 'Reclaimers', for that matter. If the Didact opens a door and lets his personal guard through, we can go in after him and shut the door behind us."

"Then we have a plan. Cortana, do everything that you can do so we don't go detected by any one of the Covenant, much less the Didact." She nodded, and thus the Lich sped on. They passed more of its kind and several other types of troop transports, that was without mentioning the behemoths that carried them, ranging from several hundred meters to thirty kilometers in length. None shot at them, however, as none suspected how one of their own kind had infiltrated their ranks. It was a small fortune, at this point no doubt induced by the Librarian, that they were all thankful for. By the time they grew closer to groundside, they watched the sky go from black, to navy blue, to azure, to cobalt. It was a bright, spotless day that welcomed them, ironically cheery when such a decisive battle determining the fate of the galaxy was about to take place.

It was a green, mountainous area, certain regions covered by snow as cool winds swept the area. As they went on, they were forced to halt when a great barrier came up, three pillars being responsible for the shielding that blocked their path. Within the closed off place, a magnificent ancient building that bore resemblance to the Forerunner Key Ship stood tall and proud, unaffected by the pass of time. Going back a bit, they heard Cortana grumble, "Damn, they blocked us. So long as those generators are up, we won't be getting inside of there. Unfortunately, those things need Human touch, and there's only two Spartans on this time. However, I think if you can put me in the main systems of one of them, I might be able to knock it down."

"Understood. Cortana, you'll be going with the Arbiter. Arbiter, you're going to have to pair up with one of the Chieftains this time. The Lieutenant and I will be paired up to the other Chieftain and the Specops Commander." Shortly after that, they arranged the duos. Tartarus had volunteered to be the to go on the first tower they were heading towards, which put him with the Commander himself. Thel volunteered to go with Taurus at that, the two agreeing to go on the final tower in order to allow Cortana to keep piloting the group swiftly. Nara and Rtas would get off on the second one.

"Come, Commander, it's time these bastards learned we'll not be killed so easily!" At the General's roar, John gave a swift nod at the team and jumped down with the Jiralhanae. The Covies, which had been surprised at the arrival of an untimely 'friendly' Lich, were stunned completely at the presence of the most renowned of the Archdemon and the Chieftain General of the Jiralhanae. Needless to say, their reputation alone won them half the battle, the Covies to fearful of the might of their 'heretic enemies' to properly stand their grounds. They blasted through the groups surrounding the entrance, immediately going inside. Enough time may have passed to activate the defenses, but not enough to fortify them. It was something they would most certainly take advantage of.

And they did. Those opposing them were killed inside, and those coming from the outside were sealed away. The one thing that brought them to stop was a Neurnlekgolo inside of the structure, looking at them in surprise that they had come. Instinctively John threw a grenade at it, finding that it was, in fact, not a biotic from the way it had to physically knock it away. It was a relief. Raiders, he and the General had killed before, whereas the Raider itself had killed neither an Archdemon or a Chieftain General. On the surface, the battle would look bias in the titan's favor, but upon closer inspection, the two were dominating the fight. Perhaps it was their experience, perhaps it was Tartarus's Forerunner Warhammer. Either ways, the Jiralhanae slammed the Fist of Rukt down and created a singularity that forced the Raider back, exposing its back without any way to protect itself. John shot at it deftly with a Scattershot he had gained from one of the select few Prometheans guarding the place and unloaded a full round until the smaller worms vanished into an orange nothingness.

Neither wasted their time basking in their victory. Taking an elevator up, they waited for the duration of the ride, finding a team of Chieftains within. Perhaps if it had just been John or even if he had been paired with Nara, they would have just fought savagely and vigorously. Once again, the gold of Tartarus's armor was a sight that especially instilled fear in Covenant Jiralhanae, a reminder of he who killed the Covenant's single greatest tactician and warrior. John used a Beam Rifle to shoot the last of the Chieftains through his eye and out the back of his head, running and pressing his hand against the console. The two looked up, watching as the light died down and the shield weakening. He pressed two fingers to the side of his helmet. "First generator is down, I repeat, first generator is down."

"Good, then we shall be the second." At that, the middle one fell just as well. Expectantly, the pair looked at the third pillar, waiting for the same results. He could only imagine that Rtas and Nara were doing the same. Cortana's voice finally came through the comms. "Wow, the Forerunners sure knew how to program matrixes. Hang on, with your two generators deactivated and the overall command of the shield to lower pending, it should be easier to… aha! Third generator down!"

And the shields were lowered, just in time to watch several slip-space ruptures appear just above them. Supercarriers came out, twenty of them. They looked mostly destroyed, kept together by luck or something inside pulling them together. They were covered in sickly shrouds, and for a moment, John had understood where the Flood ships that escaped the Installation Zero-Five had gone to. He could only imagine that their knowledge of the Ark's whereabouts came from Maccabeus's ships' databanks, and their delayed arrival the product of the Guardians' watchful eyes. They came both as a surprise and a scare, giant pods immediately latching off the ships as several crashed. Three of the smaller ones crashed through the reinforced Forerunner windows that allowed them to see the structure within.

The pair whipped around, weapons in hands, watching as too many Infection forms crawled out of the pods and made the corpses he and Tartarus had left behind into their new homes. Those that rose up again were immediately shot by the two, though no matter how many times they kept shooting and killing them, they clambered up once more. Larger, far more monstrous and powerful Flood forms took no bodies from any species John knew of, meaning they had evolved to the point to where they were capable of producing what he would consider to be true Flood forms. The Carriers didn't count. Surrounded, the two watched the horde coming towards them rather slowly, none succumbing to their combined firepower. It was only when one of the 'true' forms, one of tank-like physiology John could only liken to a Mgalekgolo's, stepped up in front of them. "Do not shoot further and listen!"

The two then lowered their weapons, surprised the Flood would rather speak before consuming. Once they did, the 'Tank' form lowered its monstrous shield-sword for an arm. Its overgrown whispers became apparent then, and its maw with the typical Infection form tentacles vibrated to signal its speaking. No, not its speaking. The Gravemind's speaking. "You and I share a common foe, now, he awaits in the Citadel. He is eager to end all life in the galaxy, holed up in his little cell. Let me lead you to our enemy, chaotic with his emotions, for only you can stop what he has set in motion."

The two looked at one another, not knowing what to say. The truth of the matter was, they simply did not have a choice. They were completely surrounded by the Flood. It was best to not tempt it into consuming them. John simply nodded, setting to a jog as the undead followed at his heels. Through the elevator they went, and down they found more Combat Forms awaiting them. It was strange, all of it, and not just because it was the Flood helping them. It was the idea that he had usually been the one to herd a large group of soldiers, not the other way around and be escorted to a place. He supposed the situation called for it, however. The one thing he could be sure of was that the Flood's betrayal would occur inevitably the second they warded the Didact away from the 'Citadel'. Their private comms whirred to life with Cortana's voice.

"This is unbelievable. Stopping a Forerunner from firing the Halo Array by getting help from the Flood itself… at this rate, I can't complain. It's our best shot, not that we have much of a choice in the matter anyways. Just be sure to get ready to shoot your way out of the Citadel once we stop the Didact. I could see a starving man deny bread if it gets a pigeon for him to eat nearby, but not once he has the bird in his grasp." John winked green, as did the rest. Outside again, the sky undeniably beautiful, a sharp contrast from the insanity taking place on the ground, they were greeted with even more Flood forms. From afar, they could see Covies trying to unsuccessfully ward off the parasite. Towards him and Tartarus, a pair of infected Sangheili came close to them driving Ghosts. Immediately, the two left to give way for them. The army amassed behind them chorused, "These are the fastest of the vehicles I could acquire. Go now, I will join you shortly once I improve my forces as they require."

Neither John nor Tartarus wasted any more time speaking to the Gravemind through his numerous minions, taking the Ghosts and speeding away to the common waypoint Cortana had sent to them all. A few minutes later, John looked to his right to find more of the speeding vehicles, though thankfully driven by living beings. The six met up in a common walkway buried in snow, following through wherever it went and nearer to the Control Room of the Ark. Getting down to where the low, leveled platform where a ramp led to a deactivated plasma bridge which directly touched the gateway into the Citadel, a pair of Scarabs landed on the plain, shaking and cracking the ground like no other as they did. It went without saying. The six split up and avoided the looming metal beasts' lines of fire.

John was formulating a way to destroy the two or at least get past them long enough to reach the ramp, but fire from above shook his thoughts. Looking above, however, ho noted that the Banshees were shooting the Scarabs, not themselves. Shortly after, the Combat Forms rammed the heads of the Scarabs full speed, destroying them and leaving them without anti-air defenses. 'Blinded', or so to say, more came down to land on the super-units, overpowering their opponents through sheer numbers. That, and a couple of Infection Forms as well. Well within a minute, the Scarabs lit up like stars, and the group made it to the ramp. In that time, the Arbiter handed him Cortana's chip back and he activated the bridge after he put her back in his helmet. Running, the six came up to an elevator which sped them up and through to the upper levels, though the Flood was already crawling in and up faster than them.

Once they reached the upper level, he found a giant bridge of a walkway. Across its length, he counted the seven Halos through their holographs, all lighted save for one that was almost entirely red, which he could only imagine was Installation Zero-Four. At the end, he could barely, just barely make out the form of the Didact, though John attributed that to his last-minute enhancements. In the hall, he found that both fortunately and unfortunately, all the guards were Prometheans, almost entirely made up of Knights. It was the best John could hope for in a situation like that. The Forerunner Combat AI would be the most effective against the Flood but couldn't be converted into one of their own, and the Flood were enough to overpower the Prometheans. It would be a massacre that would dwindle both sides.

They sped past them. Through short orders and suggestions, after all, the group was filled with soldiers of parallel if not superior ranks, they ran past the first hallway quickly without attacking anyone. The bulk of the Flood handled the bulk of the Prometheans and both John and Nara picked up as much ammo as they could for the Hardlight weapons. Past the second one they fought vigorously, having more of the Knights bearing the Incineration Cannons. Still, an overabundance of fighting Flood forms could work wonders against the Combat AI. Through the final hall, John could see and feel the Didact's glare upon them. "You foolish bastards, you've let the Parasite into the halls meant for ridding the galaxy of them! You will doom us all!"

Once more, he tried attacking them through a variety of powerful Hardlight weapons not even the highest ranked Knights wielded. In spite of that, the Flood had much more successfully diverted his attention than the previous Forerunner turrets had managed. He managed to thin their number before realizing that he was being overwhelmed. A Phantom crashed through the great windows at the end, opening its side entrances for the Forerunner to climb onto. Before he could, however, a group of several Infection Forms climbed onto his helmet, crawling their little tentacle feet through the schism. He tore them off, along with his helmet, with his bare hands and sent another psychokinetic wave against them all. Nara, however, took the opportunity and used her Binary Rifle to land a shot to the right side of his head.

He roared in pain, the second shot only getting to his back. A terrible, burnt scar marred the right half of his head, skin peeled off. John noticed how the things he had picked up with his mind had fallen immediately to the ground. It would not kill him, nor a hundred shots more would, but if it disoriented the godly being, he would definitely make note to exploit that. In the end, he had to run and crouch into the Phantom, barely just fitting as it flew away, presumably back into the Covenant capital. John ran to the consoles and placed his hand on the hologram Cortana indicated, though he placed it for long enough to allow his partner to briefly scan the systems. The synthetic halos powered down, and John let out a breath he did not know he had been holding. Booming malevolent laughter cut it short, gigantic tentacles sprouting up through the sides of the building making him put his back against the other five's, the group aiming their weapons at all sides around them.

"Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside. Corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must abide." And when the Gravemind's voice ceased to speak, the tentacles retracted. Just like that, the Flood which had previously been on their side roared in hunger, a testament to what their masterful puppeteer had dictated. Thel gave a guttural growl, soon following with, "We trade one enemy for the other."

"A fate to be expected when dealing with the devil." Taurus's voice was filled with as much venom as the Arbiter's. Their notable 'biggest' threat out of the way, the group began their trot back, fighting through wave and wave of Flood now. With some luck, a select few Prometheans had still survived, though they only served more to divert the Combat and True Forms' attention than to actually damage their ranks. It was only when, by the numbers, a few hundred Sentinels rose from the facility's inner depths that they felt true relief. Their fight was against the Flood and solely the Flood. Any organic being, especially a Reclaimer, was an ally to them. And thus, they fought their way back to the elevator. They nearly activated it when Cortana shouted, "Stop! There's something, down the shaft in the end! I… I'm not completely sure about what it was, but it was consuming a lot of the Ark's power if what I read on the consoles was anything to go by."

"Then down to the Seven Hells we go." Tartarus grunted, choosing to be the first one down and pave the way clear of enemies should there be any left at the other side. John went in third, as the General's brother had gone right after him. Finding no one unwanted below, he trudged on ahead of the rest, the other three coming up behind them. In his mind, he silently questioned Cortana, the AI in turn answering, "Down the right hall and one left, where the sight is at. There should be a panel where you can place your hand on. Press it. It ought to do something important."

John did not stop to question her if by 'important', she meant helpful. At this point, he was too tired to argue, and now they had to deal with both the Didact and the Flood. There was no 'sight' when he found the panel up a ramp where Cortana indicated. When he pressed his hand, however, it did open up, allowing the six to see the landscape before them. They stepped out towards the balcony, noticing that it was it was a way to look directly at the center of the Ark, though the core had been blurred through clouds and mist he had not noticed had been there. Then, something metallic rose from the depths of the clouds above the ocean, miles underneath them. It caused him to actually hitch his breath.

Before the six, a semi-reconstructed Halo rose. Titanic cascades formed along its sides when it escaped its watery confines. Between the known functions of the Ark and the actions that occurred the past two months, it was painfully obvious that it was the reconstruction of the Halo he destroyed. After a few more seconds, Installation Zero-Four emerged back to life, and just like that, the solution became clear. "Cortana, do you still have the Index?"

"Right here, quite a handy souvenir given our recent situation. I doubt it would work on Installation Zero-Three or Zero-Five, but on the one we destroyed? It's bound to work." As she spoke, she held out her hand and the synthetic version of the Index hovered just above it. He nodded and looked behind. Thel, Rtas and Tartarus were still looking up at the looming Ring, but Nara and Taurus were already looking at him, quite familiar with the Halo in its entirety. He waited for the three to turn their attention on him before he started questioning Cortana again. "Halo doesn't look finished, can it still be fired?"

"Checking. It's certainly not finished, that much is obvious. However, its infrastructure is reconstructed in its entirety, which is all that is truly necessary to fire it. The lands above it are mostly stable, but some of it is still missing. What it lacks the most is structural reinforcements. If we activate it here and now, then it's goodbye Installation Zero-Four again. And this time around, their pieces are gonna fall on the Ark." It was music to his ears and he didn't know it until he heard Rtas's assertive tone. "Then we have the perfect solution to our problem. We have the Sacred Icon and can fire it immediately, all the Flood will be destroyed, the blast will repel the Didact and High Charity, and the resulting destruction will damage the Ark enough to render it useless to its function."

"It's settled then. Cortana, find any Covenant aircrafts the Flood haven't taken yet or destroyed." She smiled at that, something he noticed she had not done for a while. "Those things? You aren't gonna make it all that well with them. I'll do you one better."

And they set off again into the deeper confines of the Citadel, now mostly rid of the Flood within, certainly not counting the army outside. Reaching the 'core' of it, they found a room big enough to host three Liches side-by-side and a control monitor at the end. Acting on instinct, he placed her in the monitor, and with a snap of her fingers, machinations in the hall-sized room came to life. Immediately they set to work, blue lasers forging some Forerunner vehicle John viewed as predatory and avian upon construction a good six meters tall. By the time it was done, its inner mechanisms alighted a cobalt blue, almost taking a life of its own. In the tone she used when describing something knew only she knew about, Cortana began, "Forerunner War Sphinxes were quite the war machines back in the day. This will without a doubt punch through Covenant, Promethean and Flood forces. It only allows one for transport though, but it's a small price to pay for something this powerful."

"Does it have a slip-space drive, and can you make something bigger? Something within your own databanks?" John's sharp query did nothing to deter the AI's good mood, crossing her arms in front of her with the same smile on her lips. "The answer to those would be yes, yes and yes. This machine has a hell of a capacity to create things, even ships, but I'd figured you'd want something big enough to be powerful and small enough to go relatively unnoticed by the Flood armies groundside and the massive Covenant fleet above."

He shook his head. "Make a Charon-class Light Frigate, and make sure it has several Warthogs and Pelicans within it. Make sure it is stockpiled with Plasma and Hardlight weapons as well. And make a Pelican here, too."

"Okay then, fair enough." She, and all the others seemed confused at the request, though none questioned it, knowing how he worked when he was formulating a plan. Levitating just outside thanks to the Citadel's antigravity apparatuses, the Frigate was constructed in five minutes, a feat John was sure military companies would kill for. The Pelican, by comparison, took ten seconds. Nodding his head, he turned to her. "Take this War Sphinx and head back to Earth. If there's one thing we can be sure of, is that the Didact will head there when all his options are exhausted, if to at least drag many of us down with him. You need to warn the Alliance before he can catch them unaware. We'll deal with the rest here."

"Wait, no, I'm staying here, I'm fighting with you! Besides, I have the Activation Index–"

"Which you can turn physical again, especially with this machine. We need you to go there. We've already lost Reach, and if the Didact goes on full capacity against us without giving the Alliance time to reorganize and fight back… Earth is a loss we cannot afford to take. Just because of the fact that he will go there, because he will go there, Earth will take severe damage. The Didact already knows we're here and he'll make sure that each and every Covenant vessel and aircraft is checked to make sure we aren't aboard them, so what ride we use to board High Charity makes no difference. I only chose the Charon-class Light Frigate because it is the ship I know of which requires the fewest personnel to pilot it." Cortana looked sad, wounded even when she looked at them but nodded all the same. "I understand."

Hovering the Index in her palm again, it de-synthesized slowly, piece by piece coming off over the course of another five minutes before it was reconstructed physically in ten, a testament to the hidden intricacies of the object. Grabbing it and holstering it the way Nara did the Forerunner explosive the Librarian had provided for them, he was about to grab the chip from its place in the monitor before Cortana shouted one last time. "Wait! If you're going to fly that ship, even if it's for only a few hours, wouldn't you want to give it a name at least?"

And though John didn't find the necessity behind it, his mind trailed back to the countless maddening situations they had gone through in the past few days. He would bet that more had passed in that time than through the occasions with Installations Zero-Four, Zero-Five and Zero-Three put together, and there was still work to be done. It was then that a poem from his childhood he had thought long forgotten resurfaced in his mind. It was fitting, in truth, since he considered this very moment to be the absolute darkest they had and would ever reach. "Its name is the Forward unto Dawn."

She nodded, imprinting the letters on its sides with bright, white paint as opposed to the average dull, grey colors of its metals. Without further protest, John took her chip from the monitor, walked over to the tall, looming and intimidating War Sphinx and inserted her into it. Its lights went from cobalt to azure to violet, the signature color of her form, the machine's 'head' looking towards them one final time before voicing through the speakers, "Good luck, all of you. The Alliance depends on you now more than ever."

"We make our own luck, remember? We won't fail." The first part of his words towards her were the best words he could think of to quell her concerns. It worked apparently, because the giant 'head' nodded before the whole War Sphinx turned around, set to the skies and escaped via a rapidly made slip-space portal. Nara walked before the group then gesturing her head towards the Pelican on the ground and taking the pilot seat, the others moving to the passenger seats, and looking behind the m as the Citadel's bay grew smaller and they were surrounded by the Forward unto Dawn's hangar.

14:28 – June 19th, 2542 – Halo Control Center Main Room

It was strange, to walk back in there after having destroyed it all. It had been like Cortana had said. Plenty of the Halo was still well under construction, particularly the landscapes, especially the structural support. The essential parts, however, were spot on, such as the Main Room. Nara could only be thankful for the other fours' assistance getting there. In truth, they should have been on the Dawn, where they were safer and could immediately start up the ship, but they had chosen to fight alongside with them and help repel the Flood coming against them. It had been a necessary helping hand, even with the Sentinels' support. And now, they back to where the Great War's climax had started, Halo. Only this time, they were activating it.

She, along with the Chieftains and the Commanders, watched in anticipation as John placed the Index on the monitors. She wondered what Spark would say about it, whether he'd be jumping in joy that his Installation was finally being used or whether he'd be appalled that the process would destroy it. She shook her head from the rather pointless thought. She remembered the process that had been protecting the Warthog John had driven to the Crow on the Pillar of Autumn, she could only imagine the ride to come once the process started. When he placed it, a cobalt pillar of energy erupted from the depths, and the six set off to running, leaving the room just in time before the platforms that had sustained them fell.

She wondered if she had an inner, psychological self-defense mechanism that activated when moments of tremendous importance and life-threatening scenarios came to pass. Everything was a blur on her way out, even if she shot at the Flood forms waiting for them outside with perfect precision. No one spoke when they made it to the pair of Warthogs outside, waiting for them. Almost on instinct, the Spartans seated themselves on the driver's seats, the Sangheili rode shotgun, and the Jiralhanae manned the turrets. From there, it was a madness which by far surpassed her and John's lonely 'Warthog run'. Pieces of the ground were either falling of being shot up from explosions occurring underneath them. The only thing protecting the lot from the hell below them were the few remaining flimsy platforms which served as a path back to the Forward unto Dawn, parked at one of the few places so secluded it would neither come under fire nor be hijacked.

Fifty percent. She wondered if the percentage counter within her helmet was a damned curse of a sublime blessing. She also wondered if she would have preferred a timed counter in its stead. Both thoughts were dispelled, and unlike last time where her life had flashed before her eyes, her mind went entirely blank, focusing entirely on her senses and reflexes on the 'roads' ahead. Unconsciously, her mind decided which Flood forms were weak enough to ram over and which would stop them in their tracks, which platforms would fall and which would hold, which way would lead them the fastest and which the slowest. It was a process supplemented by Rtas's decisive shots with his Fuel Rod Gun and Taurus's heavy Gauss fire behind the two.

Ninety percent. She would have been sure that they'd be dead if they weren't coming up on the ramp which led them to their ship. It was still parked, thankfully, and it was still intact. The uneven platforms that had led to it, however, were already gone. There was, however, a ramp-like form at its end. She didn't think twice before she floored it. Last time she and John had just barely made it, they crashed against the debris and ran the rest of the way to the Crow. This time, she felt her gut drop when they went airborne, and return considerably once they landed within the hangar. 'Landed', in this case, being a very loose term. They fell from the Warthog as it rolled to the end, immediately getting up with the adrenaline rushing through their veins. Looking around her, she found the other three had made it aboard safely. They ran into the cockpit, fell into their seats and activated the Dawn, setting its engines on full speed. Noticing how High Charity was, just as John predicted, going into slip-space, they floored it once again. Well away from it now, the Halo activated, and she noticed to her relief that none of the Flood ships made it out into slip-space before being consumed by the wave of light. She had to look in front of her again to silently brace for impact as High Charity's form became impossibly bigger, before it all ended with a great crash.

21:11 – June 20th, 2542 – Unyielding Hierophant Headquarters

Mendicant Bias was looking through the comms and the station's systems, checking that everything was in place. Though the bulk of their grand Fleet, the Monitor was checking all the communications relays, taking in any and every report from the scouts away from the main fleet, repurposed to look for the newly missing leaders. Though Bias had vouched for their judgement when he returned and explained they had gone through portals, the Leadership still purposed the reconnaissance vessels to look for its best warriors and one of its finest AI. The portal, he had explained, came linked with a message directly to him from the Librarian, one that spoke of her husband being awoken. He explained as such for the Leadership, and to be ready at a moment's notice for High Charity coming after them, if not with something far worse. A new, quite small slip-space rupture caught his attention, one of Forerunner workings. He amplified it so that Faith, Hood and the others could hear it.

"…to the Unyielding Hierophant. Cortana to the Unyielding Hierophant. Do not fire, I repeat, do not fire. I'm coming with an urgent message all the way from the Ark, the second Forerunner Installation we have been to in these past couple of days, the first being Requiem. Supreme Commander Spartan One-One-Seven, First Lieutenant Spartan Three-One-Two, Imperial Admiral Arbiter Thel 'Vadam, Special Operations Commander Rtas 'Vadum, Chieftain General Tartarus, Chieftain Captain Taurus and I have been through Hell and highwater so I could get here. If what they're doing is anything to go by, they'll be here within a few short hours, and they're bringing company with them! There is a Forerunner heading their fleet, seated at High Charity, and the team is on its way to deal with him personally, the Spartans having a genetic key capable of stopping him particularly, something no one else has. So long as the Didact lives, High Charity will stand in the name of the Covenant. Until then, we're gonna have to hold out against its fleet!"

The leaders were shocked at her words, though none as much as Bias himself. He immediately ran over several thousand scenarios in his head. They varied in countless different ways, but all shared a select few factors crucial to the outcomes possible, one of which depended on the Monitor specifically. It was time, he realized. The leaders were still making heads and tails out of Cortana's message when Mendicant Bias produced a cylindrical object before him, causing him to shut down immediately. 'Waking up' once again and finding everyone surrounding him, with a weak beam, he gave the object to the Minor Prophet of Faith.

"There is an existing portal on Earth which leads to the most important Forerunner stronghold ever created which I have refrained from mentioning, one called the Ark. It was what the High Prophet of Regret had been looking for when he arrived with his small fleet on Earth rather than go directly to a Halo, given the fact that it can activate all of them. If the Didact is coming this way rather than activating the Ark out of spite against Humanity, then that means that the missing team has successfully hindered the Ark's functions. There is one obstacle I imagine they managed to skip over, however. My other half, aptly named Offensive Bias, is in charge of that Installation. When you reach the Ark once the war is over, make sure to show him this. Do not tell him what it is and do not try and find out what it is. This is of upmost importance. I'll be leaving now. It is safe to assume that Cortana will fill in all the gaps of information you may currently have." And leaving the group even more shocked, Mendicant Bias disappeared and teleported away, even his brethren Monitors surprised at his actions.

23:21 – June 20th, 2542 – High Charity Council Chambers Terrace

Upon the upmost floor of the terrace, the Didact found himself brooding, looking at the shifting dimension that made up slip-space all around him. Thanks to the Flood's interference, the very top of High Charity, near where the Council Chambers were, had been blasted off. Given how practically all of its 'troops' with knowledge added to the Gravemind had been of previously living members of the Covenant, it had known where to strike. Still, he had fought against them more than anyone else in the entire galaxy. He knew how they worked. And thus, he had ensured that High Charity remained barren of the Parasite, albeit a few regions had to be completely purged.

The end result was a view of outer space on the upper levels few knew the San'Shyuum had had, a godly view over the entire super-city with only a ceiling to prevent it from being perfect. With it gone, he would be able to look upon Earth again, and happily watch his minions' ships burn it. That was, if his attention was not diverted. The Flood had not been the only intruders High Charity had suffered from. Exiting slip-space as the barely reconstructed Halo had activated, a report of a distinctly Human ship crashing had bewildered the ensigns responsible for the station's overall wellbeing. It had been an exceedingly cunning move on their part, one which as much as he loathed, he found himself respecting. Firing a premature Halo would kill the Flood as it was and ensure the galaxy would not suffer from its hunger, but it would still be destroyed in the process, which would in turn damage the Ark's functionality until it could repair itself again.

So when he heard that the ragtag team had crashed a ship on High Charity, he knew automatically that no matter how many of his remaining Prometheans or countless Covenant troops he sent after them, they would prevail. He knew that if death came for them, it would be at his hand, and nothing short of that. He figured he would wait for them at the top so they could watch the coming battle between his fleet and whatever Earth had protecting her. Perhaps the sight would demoralize them. Perhaps it would motivate them further. At this point, he no longer cared. He only wanted to kill them. Particularly the female Reclaimer, the pale, Human imitation of his wife. Her shot with the Binary Rifle had essentially given him a concussion, and while his armor's sword and helmet had been repaired, his psychokinetic abilities would not be available for another week at the rate his brain's most intricate workings were being repaired. He wondered which would come first. His arrival at Earth, or the team's arrival at his position.

Is this what you wanted, Song? Have our successors kill me? His dual hearts panged at the grief of his wife's betrayal, still fresh after a hundred thousand years of its occurrence. His thoughts were interrupted at the sounds of the gates behind him opening. He growled at that, having wanted at least one more minute alone with his thoughts. "You have finally come. It took you long enough. If there is yet any advice I have to offer you for our battle to come, it is to not hold back. If you are to die, have the decency of dying with vigor and dignity. Anything else and you will look like weaklings merely swept aside by my power."

"You say that now, but I heard you screaming when I landed the shot on your head." He growled and turned around. The six held their projectile-based weaponry low before discarding them to the ground at their sides. Silently, they all took a physical weapon into their hands, varying in Kukri Knives, Energy Swords, a Warhammer coated in one of the metals his kind had produced, and a pair of Daggers entirely composed of them. He snarled at the lot, turning the cannon on his left arm into another port for a second Hardlight blade, activating both at intimidating lengths. "Come then, you miserable bastards, it is time for our long-awaited fight."

They all remained still for a second. In a flash, they ran at each other. It was quick, the Didact spun several times, swinging his blades several times over masterfully. They in turn, blocked them with equal ability. But, he started kicking one and one out of the way. All that was left was the Sangheili with ornamental armor. He received a powerful elbow of the face, sending him reeling to the ground. He drove a single Hardlight blade where his hearts should have been. His dual Energy Swords blocked it. He raised his other blade to aim for the kill. Instead, he used it to block the strike from the golden-armored Jiralhanae's Warhammer, the strike powered even more from gravitational machineries at the core of its head.

Forced to step back a few feet, he found himself toe to toe with the Jiralhanae clad in mauve along with the Sangheili in white. He noticed the Humans running at him from behind. An all-encompassing roundhouse sent the three ahead of him far back, while swift blows from his fists, swords briefly deactivated, sent the pair rolling back to the rest of their team. If he heard right, then he had punched hard enough to break their shields and crack their visors. They were down, the lot of them and he readied his Hardlight swords once more, coming closer to him. But the Reclaimers stood up, a glow similar to that of an Overshield's surrounding their bodies, the male's a distinct neon cobalt and the female's a distinct neon emerald green. It was then that he noticed behind him that they had arrived, Earth awaiting them with a surprisingly powerful fleet meeting theirs head-on, even prepared for their arrival.

By the time he looked back at them, the six were already at his feet, the first of the pack being the Reclaimers. A fist from the male had surprisingly made him stagger back, and the female's kick did as much damage. Stunned, the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae made much more headway attacking him and draining his shields and damaging his swords again. A white fury overtaking him, he made a series of savage blows to them all, sending them back with dented armors back this time. Some coughed up blood at his strikes, but they remained adamant in their plight. The Reclaimers were glowing again, he realized, even brighter before. They reminded him of charges. Electrical charges. Their sight was so consuming that he failed to realize once again the four others' movements.

The golden Jiralhanae's Warhammer struck not him, but the ground before him, making him stumble. Next came the companion of his same kind, slashing at his knees until he was forced to kneel. The Sangheili pair slashed the same way at his arms until they were sore and limp. The female came up to him first, fist glowing a reverent green before it struck him directly on his chest. He did not remember the last time he had felt as winded, but when he looked above him, the male high above with a fist a cobalt so bright it may have been a condensed blue star, he felt knocked out from the strike. He blinked a few times before recovering from his leg and arm wounds. The blows he delivered to the six were done with deadly precision and savage ferocity, but he felt within himself a true lack of that strength he had gained upon making himself part Promethean. That was still enough to leave them limp and unmoving on the ground.

When he looked at his hands, he felt how his efficiency had decreased, his eyesight had become less accurate, his healing factor had grown weaker. It was a process that made him feel fear as the orange of his eyes dimmed, no longer as bright as they used to be. No, he thought angrily, desperately. My internal failsafe processes will return me my Promethean enhancements. Soon enough, my power will retu– his thoughts were cut short at the sound of something teleporting behind him. He didn't whip around fast enough to see Mendicant Bias's three-pronged energy beam strike him with full power, lasting as long as five seconds at its maximum potential. It had been painful, but not deadly. He rose again, a terrible scowl upon his face as he looked upon the Monitor, floating motionlessly and unafraid at the Forerunner.

"Your reign of terror ends here, Didact. Your imprisonment was meant to teach you wisdom and humility, a capacity to guide the Forerunner's Reclaimers into the proper path towards the Mantle of Responsibility. You have done the exact opposite and attempted petty vengeance instead, unsuccessfully in fact." With a large hand and a great measure of strength yet, he grabbed the Monitor and forcibly dragged him closer to him. With his other arm, he stabbed him at the center, all three eyes flickering as his internal structure was destroyed. "And you, Mendicant Bias, have betrayed your masters once again. Your services are no longer required."

He dropped the fallen Monitor on the ground, flickering a few more times before disintegrating, bright orange remainders swept and erased by a wind within the station. In that moment, his hearts felt a pain unfamiliar to them, unnatural to them. He looked at his hands, not understanding what was happening to his body. He had no mirror nor any way to see himself, but he was sure that his eyes had returned to their original color. He never heard the golden armored brute behind him. When was stricken with the Warhammer, he was sent rolling on the ground, barely making himself get up again. Pained and disoriented, he wasn't fast enough to stop the mauve Jiralhanae from stabbing both of his twin Daggers through the back and out the front of his now shieldless knees.

With a roar of pain, he fell to his knees once more, even more pained by the protrusions rendering him unable to fully support himself on his legs. He blinked and the Sangheili were together at his sides again. Rising up, they stabbed him at his shoulders so that one of their Energy Swords were embedded deep into his arms, making them useless. His cry of agony was even greater this time, making his whole body vibrate. It fell onto deaf ears, however, as the duo used their remaining Energy Swords to cut through the sides of his chest piece's armor until it fell. When it did, they stabbed him at the forearms deeply, ensuring he wouldn't miraculously recover and try to stab them with his own blades.

The pain had almost blinded him at this point, he had certainly stopped screaming now. Blinking a few times, retracting his armor so he could see better, he saw the male wielding his Kukri knife and burying it deep into his left heart, perfectly at the middle of his left pectoral. Pain he no longer felt. It was a sensation of dying. And watching the female charge at him, obviously aiming for his other heart, he felt a pang of regret. He remembered his wife in his arms, both smiling at one another in a happier time. He regretted how it all fell apart, how one endless war after another deprived him of everything he had ever held dear. He closed his eyes, pain of the soul now washing over him. I'm sorry my love. Then the second knife went through his right heart, and all went black.

00:04 – June 21st, 2542 – High Charity Council Chambers Terrace

John looked at the room before him, empty as he currently was. The comms had been disabled throughout the super-city, and without a proper head, the Covenant fleet was getting destroyed, completely dying out. Not even stragglers were managing to escape. Not that there was anything or anywhere left to go to. They had made their damage, though. Half of Africa glassed, Asia heavily bombarded, the biggest amount of invading forces on Australia, and overall all sorts of damage on Europe and America had given them great losses in general. No less than what the rest of the homeworlds had been through, he supposed. But now, it was all over. All that was left was to rid themselves of the remainders, an easy task by this point. The war was over. They had won.

He looked besides him Nara standing, adamantly holding his hand, regardless of what anyone might say. Not that there was anyone left to look at them. The Sangheili and Jiralhanae, after they had all retrieved their weapons from him sans Tartarus, had dragged the body down to the main Council Chambers. There, they were transmitting images and videos of the dead Forerunner supposedly 'commanding them' at an intergalactic level. The immeasurable demoralization was apparent from the attitude of the fleets, even the individual ships. There was no longer a drive to them, some eleventh-hour hope that they would be saved. John was too tired to take any part in it, and so was Nara.

Thus, they had remained up, from where they could look at Earth from. The ODPs had certainly been a blessing to have in abundance protecting her. They counted as a powerful fleet on their own. Even with the fighting going on the surface of High Charity, he was safe. They had locked themselves inside the Chambers, nigh unbreakable even by Covenant standards. Normally, John would be out in the field, fighting until the fight would be completely over, but for once in his entire life, he would let the others handle it and sit this one out. He had taken his part in eliminating the Didact, the last head of the Covenant. Having learned that all of the San'Shyuum, even the young and innocent, had been slaughtered on his orders had certainly made it easier to kill him and those who followed him so closely.

A tight grip from Nara brought him from his mind. He looked at her long enough for her to turn his gaze to him. To anyone else, it might have just been visor reflecting visor. But he knew what she looked like under her helmet, and he knew who she was under her shell. It was in these past few hours, under the single most grueling situations he had ever been in, that he came to a simple realization. He cared deeply for his Spartan IIs and even loved Blue Team whole, Sam and Kelly especially, but it was Nara whom he would not have minded dying with. In the arms of death, a variable which represented both the unknown and a measure of finality, he could accept with her beside him to help brave it out.

He loosened his hands from her when the four others came back up again, saying something about storing the body so the Separatist San'Shyuum may preserve and study it. Something about honoring Mendicant Bias as well. At the moment, however, John couldn't mourn the AI, in spite of the fact that he was amongst those who had made the greatest sacrifice in order to make the Didact fully mortal again. He would recognize it once he gained some rest. Until then, he would only focus on the fact that the war was over. And in line of the thought of his affection for Nara, he looked at the four others wordlessly. He had meant it when he said that they could have very well been Spartans, specifically some belonging to his own generation. He developed a trust for them he did not believe he could feel for a non-Human. And yet, war had made both brothers and fools of them all.

Perhaps that was why he did then what he did, when it was a luxury so few ever got to receive. Without another word, he moved his hands to the sides of his helmet, thumbs searching for the very small buttons at the underside. With a faint hiss, his helmet came off, and his face was bare for the world to see. He looked at the golden visor, noting that besides the additional weariness on his face, the change in his face had come through his eyes. Once a hard, dark brown one might liken to a dark, unmoving mountain, they had turned into a cobalt, almost glowing blue, an unrelenting storm of pure might and will. More hissing brought him to turn to Nara, finding she had done the same. She bore the same changes he had, in place of her muddy hazel-green eyes, a vibrant emerald took their place, a bright they had never been before.

They nodded and they, turned, allowing the four to look upon their faces for the very first time. It was a shock to them, no doubt, something they had neither asked for nor expected. If there had been one thing that they had been unanimously aware of, it was that it was the single greatest sign of trust a Spartan could show. And Taurus, as was his nature, was the first to recover from it. While it held not the same value, given the current situation, when he took off his helmet, it was a sign that he recognized and reciprocated their trust. Thel came soon after, forsaking his ornamental helmet in order to show his true self to the others. Rtas did the same, even taking off the pieces stuck to his mandibles along the same time Tartarus took off his own golden helm. Wordlessly, the six stood side by side before the sight of the ending war before them, brothers in steel, branded in war.

21:00 – June 21st, 2542 – Unyielding Hierophant Spartan III Quarters

Nara remained on her bed, sitting and unmoving. There was an unease in her stomach. It was stupid, in hindsight, that she could not stop thinking of John. The war was officially over, and now they had all the time in the world to explore themselves individually and together. And yet, the single most defining night of the war had reeled them into its epicenter. There was a moment before the celebrations that had not yet fully passed, one which would not come again for a very long time. It was a moment she wanted to spend with him. How, she did not know. She just simply knew she longed for his companionship. That was how Cortana found her on her room's pedestal. Alone, frustrated and confused.

"Why the long face, sport? You've brought an end to the war, you should be happy!" Nara nodded, but when her gaze met the AI's 'eyes', she knew that the synthetic could tell she was not convinced of that. She crossed her arms with a knowing gaze before asking, "Is this about John?"

She nodded, no use hiding something that obvious with one of the people she considered a close friend. She looked away, staring at nothing for a few more seconds before Cortana called her again, far more serious this time. "Nara. Do you love him?"

She scrunched her brows and shook her head, not in denial, but not finding an answer for that herself. Thankfully, Cortana had been working with them quite closely for a while now, and she knew better than to get confused with how she communicated. "Alright, Spartan, there's plenty of things that tell me that you do, even if you don't know it yet, and fortunately for you, I have a plan."

And at the mischief in her tone, Nara was sure that whatever the AI had come up with, it would be terrible for her. And yet, even when she presented it to the last detail with her, even with all the implications and outcomes it proposed, she still followed through with it. Maybe that's just what love was, she figured. Doing otherwise stupid things one would rather not do for a person they cared for.

21:17 – June 21st, 2542 – Unyielding Hierophant Spartan II Quarters

John had his eyes closed. Six minutes and thirty seconds. It was the longest shower he had taken since he had first been trained at CASTLE Base. He had cleaned himself in two, but he had chosen to stay under the warm rain for a few more minutes. He stayed for a total more of thirty seconds before finally switching the faucet off. His room, and by extension, his bathroom was more luxurious than he would have liked. With a simple bed large enough to hold him and strong enough to sustain him, he was fine. And with a bathroom with a simple large and fast shower, he was good to go. But, he was now officially one of the greatest heroes of the war, and thus, he was given an overindulgence of extravagances he had no true intension of using. One such example was the bathtub which could double for a hot tub large enough to hold five Sangheili with a comfortable amount of space in between them. If he wanted a body of large body of water to himself, he would prefer a pool for that matter, with which he could at least exercise.

Wrapping a large white towel around his waist after sufficiently drying his body, he found that his armor was not just besides the door back to his bedroom. Do maintenance drones have access to my room, or does this bathroom have needless machines too? He shook his head, whatever had gotten his armor, it had done a damn good job at being silent. Stepping out of his room with a fancily made, many pillowed bed and a fancy oak desk, he was greeted with a sight that made his words die at his throat. Nara was there, sitting on his bed, the same way she had been when he had barged into her room on Reach. Only this time, she wasn't wet, though no less clean. She looked at him the second he walked out of the bathroom, alarmed, and shot up straight as a rod before him. Looking slightly behind her, he found that both his and her bodysuits were handing from the elegant coat-hanger he had at a corner of the room, next to the bed. The Mjolnir armors were assembled neatly in a still open closet, armors neatly stacked in a specific order that ended with their helmets at the top of their piles.

"Nara, what are you doing?" He was nervous when he said that, not nearly as much when it came to certain matters, such as crucial missions, yet far more than he had ever been on matters he knew not of. She said nothing, taking a steady few steps towards him until a foot from his form. She no longer looked like a deer in the headlights when she took a deep breath. When she let it out, she loosened her towel and let it drop on the floor. What little modesty she had had to herself when he had seen her the last time she was dressed like that was now gone, her whole form shown to him. It was a… surprisingly pleasing sign to look at. Her body was as tan as milked coffee the way her face was, though her nipples were still a rosy pink like her lips. She was hairless everywhere below her neck too, apparently. Naturally as well, as there were no signs of her having shaved, though he suspected that if she had hair in such places, she wouldn't care enough to shave them.

It was ironic, how his mind and body held such conflicting messages. With his right hand, his prosthetic nodes shut down like hers, he closed his grip around his towel, making sure that it would do everything except fall off his form. That did not stop the inexplicably hardening sensation that occurred beneath it. They stayed like that for another minute before Nara made her next daring move. With a careful hand, she waved it closer to his face until she caressed his cheek with it. "John… I care about you. Maybe even love you. I can't tell you for sure because I'm not even sure what this kind of love should feel like… but I don't care. I want you. I want to be with you and I want to feel you. The war's over. I'd say now's a good time for us to explore us."

John wanted to tell her at that moment the realization he had had aboard High Charity, moments after defeating the Didact. What he felt about her, specifically. Which was a damning sensation because he couldn't remember the exact words to it. To him, it was still something close to indescribable. Instead, he used his own left hand to grab the back of her neck. He remembered how when she had first kissed him, he had remained unresponsive and confused. By comparison, she was the complete opposite, taking him in and returning it. They did that, for how long, he couldn't say. Enough time passed for her to eventually bring her hand to his, the one grabbing his towel vehemently, and softly yet firmly forcing its release. In each other's arms, they laid on the bed, finding the sensation born from the otherwise illogical actions to be the sweetest experience either had ever had.

When he was in her, John could immediately tell when he had broken her hymen. She did not stop, however, nor slow down. She didn't even flinch at that. Then again, how could she? She had several scars across her body to prove that she understood pain better than most of the galaxy ever would. What she was going through now must have been no more than a fleabite by comparison. Besides that, the pleasure that had been building up for a grand release had been worth going through all the hell the past year had been. So when she slept in his arms soundly, buried in his embrace, he remembered what he had thought on High Charity and found the best way to explain it. For his Spartans, he would fight against nigh impossible odds for. For Blue Team, he would go through the entirety of the Great War again. But for Nara… for Nara, he would face again his and his mother's perpetrators again, and deep in his mind, he knew that she would do the same for him.

Author's Notes: And the war is now officially over. Next chapter will be the Alliance essentially picking up the pieces and drawing conclusions to every place that needs a measure of closure.

As for this chapter itself, holy hell was it a challenge to find the right way to mix Halo 3 and 4. On one hand, you have the Flood and the activation of the Halo as an amazing end to the trilogy with some of the most memorable moments being its last (which, by the way, I suggest you imagine that collective Warthog run with the Modern Warfare 2 Soundtrack: The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend (it's extremely well done and almost as fitting as One Final Effort)). Then, you have the Didact, quite possibly the single most powerful enemy in the entirety of the Saga, simply warded off on Halo 4 and basically killed offscreen. I felt a necessity to mix these two without having any Alliance armies in between to focus the spotlight not just on John, Cortana and Nara, but on the Chieftains, the Specops Commander and the Arbiter as well. Essentially, the main characters & protagonists of this story. That, and I tried to make a more fitting/difficult fight against the Didact himself befitting his strength, which even then, I had to nerf with that Binary Rifle shot to his unprotected head in order to make it feasible. The Librarian's revelation essentially covers John and Nara's collective luck on all instances and why they were very basically the 'Chosen Ones'.

On a smaller note, Halo Wars 2 WILL be taken into account in this story, even if it's just characters and vehicles that I'm taking into this story and not the plotline. I haven't played it yet, but I'm planning on getting it as soon as I can.

On an even smaller note, while at one point I debated the idea of the Alliance having the High Prophets and San'Shyuum Councilors, I figured the Didact having them killed would be much more fitting. When a fanatic dies for a cause, they believe that they are still doing their god's work. When their own god ORDERS for them to be executed and even swings the sword for a select few, everything that they have and everything they believe in gets taken away from them. It is the single worse thing that could ever happen to the Prophets, and something well within the boundaries of a man like the Didact, given his countless warcrimes.

Now, I've said this before, but this time I really do mean it. Please review. Writting this was not easy. Today, I only had eight thousand words written and worked extremely hard to write fifteen and a half thousand more. You honestly have no idea how much I enjoy getting feedback through reviews. It feels like all that hard work spnet did not go wasted. So please, take a bit of time and leave a review. It really does make a world of difference. I'll see you all on the next chapter.

The Almighty Afroduck,

All Hail